Life on the Farm, some first hand experience

[graveday]

In lieu of Capella.

[BrotherBerry]

Yes Capella, an update please!

I'm Nova Scotian and I'm curious how you made out. You're right about the
climate, damp and cold, except for those beautiful summer days which make it
all worthwhile. You sound like you're in central Nova Scotia; that's a good place to
be, actually: an hour to Halifax or Moncton, a daytrip to the Southshore, PEI, or Cape
Breton.

I've noticed a lot of German and British immigrants lately.

[BlueOwl]

Unfortunately, Capella - Last Active: January 18, 2009, 06:11:50 PM.   

[Capella]

Sorry to keep you all waiting so long.

I returned home from Nova Scotia to Germany in October 2008, lived on unemployment over the winter and went on a five month sailing trip through the Mediterranean from April 2009. I just returned home again two days ago.

Why did I go sailing? Well, I guess it was one of those "last chance to see" things. I think a trip like this will be virtually impossible a few years from now. Don't be kidded by the "sailing" aspect of it ... the winds in the Mediterranean are (with a few exceptions in the Aegaean Sea) very unreliable ... we used the engine a lot. I also wanted to check out some Greek Islands for their doomstead potential (most are lacking in water, but some could work). I am not really cut out to be a sailor, though. I get seasick pretty easily.

At the moment I am very glad to be back home, though. I am currently looking for a part time job to support myself and hope to spend the rest of the time writing and growing some of my own food. (One of my housemates has coverted a part of our backyard into a herb and vegetable garden while I was gone ... I am so pleased with that)
 

[graveday]

Wow, you have been having fun in a working sort of way.  Hope you find that job in these interesting times.  And thanks for the update.

[BlueOwl]

Hey! 

Sailing...for 5 months?  Man alive, how cool is that?  I've been sort of having this "need to be by the sea" thing lately.  I live in Minnesota...a long ways from the ocean.  I've only been to the coast (Florida, CA, WA, and AK) a few times and have never been on the open water/high-seas before.  Something I've always wanted to see and ideally from a small enough boat I could feel the waves (for better or worse).

Great to see you're back.  Keep living the adventures.  Someone has to!

[graveday]

But you have all those lakes.

[Capella]

@ BlueOwl:

If you want to learn sailing on a low budget, you don't neccessarily need a boat of your own. You can muster as deckshand on many private yachts, normally without payment, "hand for berth". Just look into the classified section of any yacht or sailing magazine. Normally you just pay for your food and in some cases part of the diesel or of the mooring fees. Even without experience you should be able to find a place, most skippers rather take a newcomer they can teach than a know-it-all who gets on their nerves. And sailing is not rocket science ... the concepts are easy to grasp, it just needs some practice.

Oh, and the waves ... don't worry, you will feel them ... even on a bigger boat ... actually, on anthing that is smaller than a cruise ship or oil tanker

[IndianGirl]

Hi Capella,

You have some life! I really admire the way yo'ur living your beliefs and doing what u feel is right..keep it up girl!

I actually have a 1 1/2 acre plot in a small village outside my city ..place called WADA.. but my Dad's not too comfortable with the idea of me even visiting over the weekend - without an escort. The escort is typically an army of aunts and cousins. Thats so disagreeable - I simply don't go!

[Capella]

Hi IndianGirl,

maybe having aunts and cousins with you is not all that bad. Have you tried explaining to them why you want to work your own land? Maybe you can find willing co-workers and even garden enthusiasts among them. I know family can get on your nerves big time, especially when you are growing up and eager to make your own way in the world, but when times get rough, family is a really important asset.

What is your father afraid of, though? Are there potential dangers for a young girl on her own where you live, or is he worried you will use the land as a getaway place to meet up with a boyfriend or something like that? If that is the case, try to get your father interested in what you are really doing there and show him what you have accomplished so far. Maybe he will cut you some more slack then.

Parents never stop worrying though. When I announced to my parents that I was going on this sailing trip, they were devastated, even though I am 38 years old and have been living on my own for 18 years or so. They have never been able to understand my desire to go abroad and explore things. But I know I can always count on them.

[the Black Hunter]

Capella - We are phasing into the homesteading thing, with horsepower - we generate some money now off our horsepowered farm.  We had no previous experience working horses.  We now have a working system with them.

I am fit and above average muscular - my doctor at my last physical described me as "ideal."  I got sick (bedridden) twice in the first year learning this stuff.  Since, i have learned to pace myself.  I have also learned that despite the physical nature of the work, you need a separate regimen of calisthenics or some such regime to counterbalance the wearing-down.  Seems strange, but the labour of the farm mostly stiffens and wears you out, and the side-regimen restores you.  Very important, i've found.

The primary lesson i've learned, however, is this: farming the right way is not a single family enterprise, unless you have a damn big family.  The Hutterites understand this thing about community, which is why they are the most successful farmers on the plains up here, for instance, right now (although their methods are an unsustainable nightmare.)  The Amish have the entire picture figured out, at least as far as farming being a community venture goes and doing it sustainably and with a resiliency against the whims of the industrial economy.

If you want to live this life, and you are really, truly, serious about thriving and not becoming your own ground-down slave - and it is wonderful, and you do get used to it - don't do it alone or with just your mate.  Join some others.  This is a real hurdle that flies in the face of our whole individualistic myth.  Think Hutterites, think Amish.  This will be the working model of the future.  The people who can live like this will be the ones who have decent quality of life. 

We have been trying to interest people in this idea, offered resources, opportunities, for a couple of years now.  No success.  The answer is always the same.  Everyone wants their own thing, thinks they can do it alone.  We don't get it yet and we all suffer because we don't.

Our ideal model having done this - one sufficient chunk of land with wood, fresh water, etc., several families living on it in separate, sustainable dwellings, farming it togther.  One shared set of equipment, chunk of land, motor vehicle, set of bills, workload.  Then it won't be nearly so hard.

Our best times have been when we've had a farm full of helpers - sometimes six adults living under our roof - working together.  Not only is the work much easier to handle, the communal living is superior to the solitude.  Like most of our asocial culture, we had firm reservations about living with a bunch of other adults.  To our surprise, we actually prefer it, on all levels.  Are there conflicts, frictions?  Of course - but we're adults, not children - we expect this and deal with it as such.  Everyone is pretty happy because everyone has a manageable workload and lots gets done. 

Farm work is absolutely wonderful when it's shared, it's a fantastic, full life.  And yes, the same work can be enslavement when it's done alone.

For what it's worth.  Gotta go hitch the team now!

       

[Grower]

Accolades to you, BH. Man. I wish those of us who would and could commit to such a life could live CLOSER to each other! How is it that we are so far flung?

Keep writing about it, though. I learn a lot, and it's good to share experiences. I am a noob when it comes to animals. Just chickens. I think we've mastered that.   Some day I'd like to have a few dwarf Nubians, but it's hard to commit to it when working full time off farm.

What interests me most is the lifestyle issues. Those are the things you don't often read about. You can get books on livestock, but not how to survive the lifestyle. Please do continue to tell your story.

[teotwawkian]

We've got a little 20 acre farm in the middle of Scandinavia and I agree it is hard work but it is a fantastic lifestyle. My tractor is a 1961 Ford 'Fordson' SuperMajor that still runs like a top. We bought an old plow and rototiller that runs from the power take off. We tilled a 2 1/2 acre field that had sat fallow since the 1960's back to use. This year we planted mostly potatoes and garlic. I can't tell you how good they taste direct from the ground to the stove. There is nothing like it. We also harested wild blueberries, lingon berries, and four different species of wild mushroom. Next year we'll expand to a broad swath of vegetables to see what works in our soil.

I wouldn't say that it is the path to riches but after a hard day's work the whole family sits after dinner and relates the day's accomplishments. It is quite a triumph for us.

I think one of the most bizarre extras was an old sawmill we got with the property. I've always been a bit of an amateur mechanic but had never worked on diesel engines. It took us about three months to get the 1950's era four cylinder diesel engine running but now it works like a charm. We took down about 20 trees from our forest this year, sawed them to boards, built a carport, deck, and greenhouse and couldn't have been happier with the result.

I heartily recommend it to anyone who wants to start to gain a bit of independence from regimented city life!

[Grower]

I know a woman who bought a portable sawmill. She makes a living from her woods. She does mushroom log innoculations, raises herbs, grows ginseng and goldenseal, and is now doing lumber and hopes to get set up to sell it. She's amazing.

[the Black Hunter]

I would caution that if you want to build resiliency into your rural life, you better learn to work animals.  Apparently this is just one step two much for most people.  Working animals is a skill and an art, and can be tough to learn.  It is so much easier to just turn on a machine and go, but ultimately you are fooling yourself if you think you can be independent with tractors and other diesel machinery as your power source.  I'm not saying you should never incorporate machines.  I'm just saying they better not be your only "skill".  If all you can do is run a tractor, you have not covered your ass and are not operating sustainably.

We are a machine culture, granted, and most of us have zero comfort around big animals now.  Well, this is Peak Oil central, and maybe you better get some comfort with 'em.  Unless you intend to one day use your own muscles alone as your power source.  It can and is done.  I wouldn't choose it.  For a little garden, okay.  For a farm - no way. 

As for another excerpt of some of the difficulties encountered as someone green learning to work animals in a machine culture, take today.  Gotta plow about 4 acres of garden in, turn in the "trash" from the growing season to break down.  Back when we started, we were eagerly sold a big, beautiful new Amish built sulky plow with the state-of the art  bottom and told by the local rep (not Amish) "your team (two horses) can pull this through sod no problem."  Great!  I dropped $3100 on the thing.  Guess what - it has never really worked for us.  Turns out it's at least a four horse unit under our conditions, better five or six.  I gave it another shot today, as our ground is getting more mellow, with our three big heavies.  Still no go.  I'm putting the thing on the market, unloading it at a loss (if anyone will buy it, which is doubtful.)  I never expect to have the horsepower to pull it properly.  The moral?  If you want to know what equipment to use, find someone who has used it under your local conditions.  Even the Amish, when they were out this way this spring, couldn't believe how hard it was to pull their plow through our sod/soil.  But i did later come across some local old timers who saw the plow and said right away, "No way a team could pull that!!!"  Wish they'd been the ones selling the equipment!

How to survive the lifestyle?  Again, try your damndest to forge community.  And I don't mean a bunch of people within a half-hour's drive, I mean a bunch of folks right there within walking distance at most, and possibly even under the same roof.  This model, after all, is why we are still here at all today (and oil has allowed us to forget this.)  Look at pictures of Amish at work, building, plowing, whatever.  In most of those pictures, there is a group of folks working together.  And that picture, in a thousand visual words, tells you the most important thing you need to know about surviving the lifestyle.  A community of folks there with you on a congruent path.  When the helpers are gone and I am here doing it on my own, well... let me just say it is far less than ideal.     

Want an excellent insight into the communal style of doing rural life without modern technology to rely on?  Read Brende's, "Better Off." The story of a young couple going to live alongside the Amish, by Amish means, (and with great trepidation that they were going to be worked to death!)  Highly illuminating work, coming from a guy who's tasted both the individualistic and the communal ways right here on our patch.

Not that i am trying to idealize the Amish.  They are not ideal.  They are about the only folks on the planet living reasonably anymore, however.  There is no other example to cite.  Not a good situation!