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How simple is simple living?

Little Bit Farm

-- Little Bit Farm (littlebitfarm@itlnet.net), March 23, 2004

Answers

Just a short comment on this. I say, what's wrong with a little manual labor? To me the point of simplifying is not to quit working. It is to work for the right things. We waste so much time in our society working for things that don't make sense. We work for food from the grocery store that isn't healthy for us. We work for people whom we don't even share the same values with. We work for boats, and cruises, etc. In my opinion, the phrase "Simple Living" is a misnomer. None of life is simple. We are not on this earth to live a life of ease. We are on this earth to work for the right things. One of my favorite songs to sing when I work around the farm, is "We'll rok till Jesus comes". I like the word "Homesteading" much better. Homesteading implies the commitment to life, and general attitudes of our forbears. It celebrates the hard work that our ancestors performed to get us all here. Hard work, mind you, that we owe to future generations.

Little Bit Farm

-- Little Bit Farm (littlebit@brightok.net), March 23, 2004.

Unfortunately Gayle, Although I love to hunt and gather, hunting and gathering cannot feed an entire population of people. Although I would agree with you that it is ridiculous to grow blackberries when they are free for the taking somewhere down the road. However, I am doing just that cause mine don't have thorns,LOL.

Little Bit Farm

-- Little Bit Farm (littlebit@brightok.net), March 24, 2004.

Smart work makes for smart living is what my grandfather taught me as the simple answer to good living. :>)

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), March 23, 2004.

I feel most of us work too hard at homesteading. The longer I do it, the more I think we should simplify our lives even more- to distill it to the basics. Instead of raising all our own food, we could hunt and gather. God has given us a wide variety of foods, simply for the taking. If we took advantage of that bounty, it would be a simple matter to grow enough to supplement it. Rather than have a house filled with things we might need and things we don't like, but keep anyway, for sentimental reasons, we could just have the things that are necessary to live and work, and, maybe, a few things simply because we love them. That would certainly speed the housekeeping, decrease the need for bigger houses, and hold down the cost of upkeep. Instead of many outfits, we could keep a few basics for warm weather and a few more for cold. We needn't wash everyday, unless the clothing was dirty. It would be easy to keep a few items of clothing clean and in good repair. If the articles you chose were simple and basic enough, they would be easy to replace, by making new ones. Think for awhile how you could apply this idea to every aspect of your life. Now that's simple living!

-- Gayle in KY (gayleannesmith@yahoo.com), March 24, 2004.

"Simplify, simplify, simplify." Henry David Thoreau

-- Zen Clown (martys@iland.net), March 24, 2004.

You're right, LittleBit, but homesteaders don't usually feed more than their immediate family. The general population wouldn't bother to get out and hunt or gather anything, anyway- too much trouble when there's a McDonald's down the street). It's amazing how much wild food goes to waste. I have wild apple trees on my place. Although the wild animals eat some of it, there is ample food to feed my family for the year, leftover. The squirrels eat some of the black walnuts and hickories, but they leave a lot of them, if only we would pick them up. I have thousands of wild lilies. As far as I know, none of the wildlife even bothers with the roots of those (and they are edible). Same thing with poke salat, ferns, and morel mushrooms, just to mention a few. It might be a good thing to know about (the wild edibles in your area) in case you have a bad year in the garden or there is some sort of disaster. It could keep you and your family from starvation.

-- Gayle in KY (gayleannesmith@yahoo.com), March 28, 2004.