I think we're not talking enough about how to to the basic things in life well.....
By this I mean issues surrounding how we grow our food, meet our basic energy needs, build our houses, get from A to B, manage our waste, I mean really BASIC STUFF.
I think this is because we are born into a society, for those of us born into the UK, where all of this is done for us - or rather where the 'normal' means whereby we meet our basic needs are through market systems - which largely means letting large Corporates deal with meeting our needs and we just pay them for a convenient way of accessing the end product.
We buy food in a supermarket, for example, and don't talk about the food chains which supply that food, rather our conversations are about which supermarket to shop in, when in reality the processes behind them are largely the same.
We buy a house on the market with a mortgage, and our conversations are about what the best mortgage rates are not about how to live off-grid much more cheaply.
And when it comes to waste, we don't really think about it - we never really ask where recycling goes, whether it's energy efficient, and human waste, well that's straight down the toilet, flushed.
I think the main reason these things are not discussed simply because they are not on people's radars.... all of the inconveniences of the hidden problems behind market systems are out of site, out of mind.
But if you do 'snap out of it' and make the transition to 'off-grid utopia' land you find that such things are discussed....
Nothing Special
Here in East central Portugal where is a lot of off-grid (ish) living going on it's amazing how mundane some of the conversations can be.....
About which veg to grow and how, chickens, basic building techniques, firewood, maintaining tools and so on..... it's just part of life, nothing special.
But more over there is much less talking and much more doing (well, unless you're a slacker like me), so much to do, so much work, 'working' is a form of 'talking' - kind of manifesting rather than discussing.
The next conversation I need to have with people is why my chainsaw isn't cutting wood as efficiently as I'd like. Not sure if it's the blade or if it's just too puny?!? See, QUITE mundane!
It's as if being out here is what happens after talking - the discussion is over, 'society' isn't doing things according to my/ our ethics, now it's up to me/ us just to rebuild according to our own remit....
Or something like that!
You have made some really good points. This sort of reminds me of "Walden" by Thoreau. That book was life changing for me. While I never transitioned to being off grid (although I did consider it), I did start to give serious consideration to basic economics of everyday life. For example, I have never bought a house because I don't have the money to buy it outright, and I don't want to be a slave to it for as long as I hold a mortgage. I mean, I know it's a far cry from literal slavery, but it keeps you confined to a location and a payment schedule, which usually locks you into a job, etc. Thoreau talks about how much of your life you are willing to trade to get something. That is economics. I did not understand that until I read the book. It's why I left a job that paid well in high tech. I like programming, but corporate life was soul-sucking. Was that worth it for the money? Was it worth trading my life (or 50+ hours per week of it) for a paycheck? I chose a different path, and I am so glad I did although I think some might find me insane for it.
How is Portugal? I have considered moving there for part of the year. Winters here are bitter. If I move anywhere permanently, I lose my health benefits, but I can leave the country for seven months out of 12 and keep them.
As you can tell, I found your posr very intriguing. Thank you.
I like the Transcentalists - I actually bought a copy of Walden with me, I like the dynamic between him and Emerson.
He got it bang on about that trading your life - I'm quite a homely character TBH so buying a house made sense for me, I like to be settled, I ground away about the last 4 years of my teaching career just holding on for the money to stack (the first 12 were OK so it wasn't an issue).
I think it was worth it - 4 years to stack then I was able to escape with a decent buffer which has come in handy.
I think I got the balance about right for me.
East Central portugal is just awesome. You can pick up properties for 20K EU still, very friendly too.
The climate for me is so much easier than the uk - the only problem is the heat in summer, August especially, but you can always go away to escape the worst.
Honestly, there are so many foreigners around here, Brits especially, there must be well over 1000 all doing the off-grid thing in one way or another. just in this region.
Gotta keep that blade sharp. i have an Einhell battery chainsaw which works very well https://www.einhell.co.uk/shop/en-uk/ge-lc-36-35-li-solo.html but i can tell if the chain needs sharpening. Fortunately it only costs me 2.5 Leva (1.25 Euros) to get it sharpened.
Looks pretty good, I especially like the one batter for all tools thing.
I've got a Stihl electric, sharpen the blade myself which isn't too much hassle, TBH I probably just need a new one, I've got a feeling it's done its time!
To me, there are lots of unanswered questions in the world today. What if the wrong things we know are actually right and vice versa?
You just have to keep an open mind I guess.!
Yeah... Most times tho, it ain't always right
You are right. We are not talking about these smaller things. We have become so use to the easy way out, paying for convenience.
Hère where I live We have to think and do many things ourself, not much help. Bé happy you are helped , because we get tired quickly when we have to think and do lot of things