Stuff

How much stuff can one family accumulate? I think that we live fairly frugally compared to many of our peers, yet even with an attitude of limited accumulation, we still have so much stuff. What drives us to gather, collect, store (and this alone is a crazy, illogical rationale... it's the "I'll keep because I just never know when I might need it" voice in your head!) and protect our stuff, much of which we never use, and rarely take time to appreciate.

We are downsizing. On the surface it looks like a pretty straightforward shift... 3 bedroom house on the Coast for a 4 bedroom cottage in the southern tablelands. Then you look at the rooms. This "cottage" is actually half of a converted shearers quarters. The main bedroom looks like it has been created by dividing the lounge/dining room. Another looks like it was a veranda until it needed to be a bedroom. The third is barely big enough for a queen size bed, and the last, well I'm sure it was a closet in a past life. I'm not becrying our choice of residence; we wanted to downsize; but it is quite a bit smaller than where we are now. I'm quite pleased we decided to go this way however as we are now in the throws of being a little ruthless in getting rid of some of our useless "stuff."

This brings me to my second jaw dropper... who wants my old stuff? Surely the various charities would want it. There's the old TV which we are getting rid of because I couldn't bare to let me father throw out his flat screen CRT digital TV when he upgraded to a slim LCD model (which has just broken down mind you after 18 months!); there's perfectly good books which we have read and are quite useful but which no one seemed to look twice at during our garage sale; there's fabric remnants from my wife's sewing kitty which could make some great crafty goods or clothes or bags; and then there's odd bits of furniture... NO ONE WANTS THEM! Are we that wealthy as a community that even our poorest members of society can afford an LCD TV? Does no one read books any more? Is hand made just plain old fashioned? I KNOW people sit on stools still!

I have a new year's resolution: until now, when my wife would stop on the side of the road and ask me to get out and collect some old chair/suit case/stool/cabinet/ladder/etc... I would do so with the usual grumblings and self consciousness associated with a dust man rummaging through the garbage on Pitt St. No More! From now on, I will do so with joy, secure in the knowledge that at least I can be the difference I want to see in the world.

Until then, it's back to packing up our stuff.

earthkeeper

ps if you want to hear more about "Stuff" check out www.storyofstuff.com

The role of Money and our Tree Change

"Money is the root or all evil" is the often misquoted verse from the Bible, which actually says the "love" of money is the root of all evil. It does however play a significant role in our lives at this time of preparing for our tree change. I have oscilated between radical adoption of this phrase as a mantra for my life, and a sceptical disbelief in its central idea; but in retrospect, it has been a very real part of our journey.

Several years ago we were broke, or very nearly. Our business of 8 years was sinking fast; my wife who was the intellectual property behind the business was very ill and things were grim. For the best part of a year we struggled like you wouldn't wish on anyone, and often during this time vowed and declared that we would never again be in the position. I had wanted to build a large business out of our humble photography studio, franchising my wife's good name and artistic abilities to the end of living a jet setting lifestyle, all run out of our Hunter Valley vineyard. Even as we went through the worst of our PFC (personal financial crisis) i thought the answer would lie in earning our way out of it, then we could just step straight back into those dreams once more.

I should digress at this point and mention that 10 years earlier I was radically opposed to the whole capitalist system. I was anti big business, an active environmentalist and considering pursuing such ideals in a political sense. I had studied to be a Geography teacher to help educate the future generations in the ways of harmony with the earth and the power of community, and really only chose to to minor in the field of Economics because I disliked it least from a list of subjects I would need to get a job in NSW schools. Ironically my first teaching position was to teach Business Studies, and the path was set for the next 10 years in my gradual transition to idealise and aim for the very thing I had derided as a student.

Our PFC did not go away quickly. we struggled on, stressed and discouraged. We wanted another child (in fact we had talked early in our relationship about 4 or 6 kids) but couldn't fall pregnant. We couldn't afford IVF and weren't really sure that we wanted to go down that path, when finally we decided to just surrender to our situation and enjoy what we had. My wife left her job managing an event decoration business and went back to Uni; I worked in a school I enjoyed working in again; and you can probably guess what happened next...

...back to one income. Now, however we had to make some serious decisions about what was best for our own family, health, finances and future. At this point we were both journalling many thoughts and finally sat down to compare notes, only to discover a deep yearning to live a better quality of life, rather than a have a better standard of living. We also decided to make sure that in so doing we were not inadvertently compromising that of others in our own country or around the world. Our kitchen blackboard, which often carried inspiring sayings (as well as our weekly menu), suddenly carried some rather poignient messages including:

"Live Consciously" (which now appears on a range of tote's my wife creates)
"Be yourself, everybody else is taken" (from the song by Melinda Schneider)
"There is no pleasure in the finest cloth if it causes hunger and unhappiness" (Gandhi), and
"TAKE MONEY OUT OF THE EQUATION"

It's funny how once you verbalise something enough, it becomes a part of you. I started to struggle teaching Business Studies when so many of the case studies I had used were only about money, and how much you could make; we started to be more focussed on providing for ourselves again by growing more and more of our own food; we began spending more on products that had been made locally, or by friends, or in ethical and environmentally sustainable ways; my wife started sewing again and worked on producing art or craft items for art sake, selling some to help make ends meet; and things started changing in our lives. Of course it took a casual conversation with our landlord one afternoon as he fixed some drawers in the kitchen for us to realise just how far we'd come. As he listened to our stories and chatted about life, he remarked that it seemed to him that we had already taken money out of the equation in how we lived our lives.

The final step was to voluntarily take a step back in my career, along with a pay cut, in order to really focus on family, learning, creating and working on our now renewed dream of country living. The irony: merely 2 months after giving notice of stepping down from my management position, all the things that I had been searching for in order to make our dream a reality started occurring in rapid succession: not one but three job vacancies in country schools which were in the vicinity of where we wanted to be; travel plans which involved visiting one of the towns I was to interview for en route to my sister-in-law's 40th birthday party celebrations; a great interview and supportive principals in both schools; a cottage on a farm in our price range, with a landlord willing to wait longer than we could have hoped for in a market where properties were scarce. Money was not the enabler, if anything it limited our imagination, stifled our creativity and served to lower our quality of life.

Now, I'm not suggesting that we can live without money altogether. On the contrary. It is a necessary evil. But when we allow ourselves to live free of money's stress, we open doors and ideas and relationships which are worth far more than the money could ever have provided.

Forget the "Show me the money!" or "Greed... is good; greed works" promises of a happiness that lasts. I say take money out of the equation.

earthkeeper

Why would you leave The Coast?

My love for country living began as a child, growing up in the Blue Mountains. We had chooks (far too many for our own needs) a couple of jersey cows, goats at one time, a couple of sheep we inherited from Uncle Kevin in Glenn Innes, plenty of fruit trees and a vege patch. Sunday was work day on the small acreage my father decided to call Tallowood Farm, and barely a weekend went by when we didn't spend much of our time walking the paddocks to pull out fireweed or pattersons curse, sitting by the creek when it ran, chasing then catching and riding the sheep (easy to do when their fleece is long and you're a 10 year old boy), digging manure, or the garden or chasing a wayward sheep out of the living room where their favourite dish was mum's ornamental indoor plants. There was lots of hard work, but so much joy when looking back.

These memories are not all rose tinted as anyone growing up outside of suburbia would know, but they are ones that I would wish for my children. There were bushfires, droughts, floods (actually, I liked the floods as a kid - no school!), fetching wayward goats who seem to be able to escape through the smallest hole in a fence... But on balance, it is amazing how easy it is to remember the good times, and forget the tough times. This week our books are packed away ready for our move, so we have resorted to recounting stories from our childhood for our two boys at bed time. They sit transfixed by the tales of coming off horses or motorbikes, getting hit by cars or cows, chasing sheep out of the house, etc... and I cannot help but wonder what stories they will tell to their kids.

Fortunately I found in my wife a kindred spirit and we have been working, sometimes harder than others, at achieving the goal of a tree change for our own family. However it has not been the same dream all the time. We initially thought the Hunter Valley would be our ideal home; a brief thought for the Yarra Valley and Tasmania; the Southern Highlands when we felt rich enough, or a scrubby block waiting to be discovered in the Wollombi valley when we weren't. Sometimes we envisaged a grand residence, complete with artist studio and gallery space, while others we saw a fully self sufficient, environmentally sustainable cottage made out of mud brick, rammed earth or straw bales. The binding factors were the ones mentioned in my last post, and the memories that can only be created in rural settings.

Philosophically speaking, our world view sees the western culture as far too materialistic and consumer driven, and with all the symptoms of Oliver James' Affluenza surrounding us, we have a great yearning to leave the ease of that lifestyle for the closer connections with the earth, regardless of how difficult that may be at times. There seems to be a greater emphasis on community and simpler, slower living; sharing our excess in the good times, and supporting each other in the bad; the muse of poets, musicians and artists is often adversity where it inspires creativity, ingenuity and simpler pleasures; and finally there's the food... well, need we justify being closer to our food sources?

In short, and to answer the question, if the coast could provided all this, maybe we wouldn't leave... but what an exciting journey it will be stepping outside our comfort zone.

earthkeeper

2011 is the year...

...for turning dreams into reality.

The Dream:
To have a farm, in the traditional sense, with a variety of outputs from eggs, pork, beef, olives, and of course wine, in a rural community where my family and I could practice the principles we have always strived to live by. To slow life down and live rather than exist. Find a place to be... to be me; to be free; to be free from the overdeveloped consumer-driven society which is slowly killing us and our culture... but i digress.

Our requirements:
We want to be within 4 hours of the central coast (family and friends from the past 10 years are there), within 2 hours of a major city, within 3 hours of Sydney (for our Sydney fix) in a region capable to producing good wine and olive oil, and with land we can afford without selling our souls to the machine which is modern economic rationalism.

There were other ideals... green rolling hills (okay so that's Tasmania and the NSW south coast... not gonna happen!), a stony creek, a vibrant arts community, a degree of multiculturalism, and some foodies nearby...

Fast forward to November 2010, and after years of waiting, researching, looking, visiting different areas and almost applying for several jobs, the ideal opportunity arises. Just 11 months after deciding that we'll stay put in our suburban life until our 3 year old starts school, a spanner gets well and truly thrown into the works and the resultant roller coaster of the past 2 months has been a giddy thing (Mumford and sons gave me that last line as I write).

My next few posts will be dealing with the past 2 months as we pack up our suburban lives and prepare to move to the country for a new life, with new possibilities and new challenges, but with an expectation of a reality quite different from our present reality. Also, for anyone who has ever read one of my previous posts will attest, I also plan to reinvent my blog as a journal of discovery which is quite a different direction from the old righteous indignation at the state of the world.

I do hope that you will join me on my journey...

earthkeeper.

On Washing Machines and Free TVs

My last post made me dredge up an old, unpublished post from four months ago... still relevant!

Our 4 year old washing machine is dead! Aside from the considerable annoyance it has caused it has also made me quite angry about the state of our modern lifestyle and the impact it is having on our planet. Before I dug out the warranty papers (thank God for extended warranty options!), I looked around to see what a new one was worth, what features they had before I had to make an informed decision about whether to "buy new" or "repair". The thing that really got to me was that LG had a special promotion where you could get a free LCD TV with every purchase of a new front loader... imagine that; a free TV. Now I could get rid of that heavy CRT thing that I inherited from my parents when they upgraded their TV to the latest Sony LCD.

The math was easy to interpret: repair it for $500 (actually $0 because of the warranty) or get a new washer PLUS a TV for $400 (the price of the new unit LESS the warranty payment), complete with a new warranty, latest bells and whistles, and a sense of satisfaction that we FINALLY had a slim TV that would sit on the wall and not a reinforced TV unit. Say nothing of the fact that not one but two old units would have to be thrown out; I guess we could keep the TV for our bedroom, and give the old, old TV that was replaced by the last TV to our kids so that they too can watch countless hours of TV or play DVDs or computer games in their room instead of physically exerting themselves or (heaven forbid) interacting with other people in a social context where they would have to use their creativity and ingenuity to come up with a new game together, or communicate effectively... sorry, I digress.

Seriously, what has our culture come to when it becomes easier to just discard so we can get the latest and greatest, or chain ourselves to our houses, or add to the wasteful consumption that is western society. Something has got to give!

earthkeeper

Creating Food Security

In my last post I mentioned the importance of taking back control of our world, and mentioned that I would be more practical in my approach to doing so. Part of my family's approach to reclaiming our world has to do with improving our food security, and in the process eat better, fresher, more wholesome food.

How do we do that? It really is easier than I thought, and for starters try some of these tips:

1. Space is no obstacle: regardless of how much space you have in and around your home, there is always spare space for growing food, even if you rent. We rent a modest home on a modest sized block and have gradually increased our food production by using pots, underplanting existing garden plants with herbs or salad greens (see the Lettuce under the Azaleas), or using temporary no-dig gardens such as old tyre stacks, planter boxes, etc. Our entire supply of fresh herbs come from underplanting.

2. Grow what you use: I cannot justify buying parsley from a supermarket! It grows like a weed around our home and when it looks a little worse for wear, grab some more seeds and just sprinkle them on any bare patches... even in the cracks in the pavement. It will green your world and is so easy to use. The same can be said for mints, basil, thyme and many of the most common herbs. These common food plants are easy and can save a bunch of money over time.

3. Eat seasonally: when you grow your own food you eventually recognise what is in season and can relearn what our ancestors in herintly knew. Even if you are not growing all your own produce (and lets face it, if you have a job outside your garden you will probably not have enough time to devote to a garden and be completely self sufficient) you will at least get fresh, local foods from your local green grocer that supplement your own efforts.

4. Start small and grow: I started my food garden journey with a 1.5m by 1.5m plot and now have potatoes, garlic, peas, cabbage, broccoli, fennel, lettuce, rocket, onions, a huge range of herbs and plans for a similar range of summer vegetables... and although it has taken over 5 years to get to where I am now (don't be turned off; the soil around our house looked more like bricklayers sand and I decided to regenerate it organically which takes longer, but made me feel better inside), I have learnt a lot along the way, had many failures, some successes, but have continued to grow my plot and satisfaction.

5. Share: get to know your neighbours, talk about growing food, find out what they grow or would like to grow and grow something different, then share the produce. You will not only get greater exposure to different ways of growing food and a range of produce, you'll get to know your neighbours a whole lot better and grow more than food; you'll be growing a community.

6. Community gardens: the Carriage Works Kitchen Garden Project in Sydney has been an inspiration to me, but the more I think of it, the more I realise that my reality in the outer suburbs is quite different to that of inner city dwellers. If your community can start a community garden anywhere, GO FOR IT! If you are stuck in suburbia with your 900 Sqm block, then maybe using more of your own space is the way to go. Either way is a step in the right direction.

That's plenty to start with. I don't claim to have a lot of answers, just a lot of ideas and a willingness to learn.

EarthKeeper

Reclaim Your World

Food security is soemthing almost as foreign to us Australians as rabid dogs, yet at the CarriageWorks Kitchen Garden Project launch last September I was confronted with a very plausable reality: we are only three days away from hunger! Pesimistic it may be, but the fact remains that we are SO reliant on our economic systems that we are literally enslaved to them to the point of having our very survival compromised should the external shock be significant enough.

Dont' believe me, check out the doco "The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil" at www.powerofcommunity.org and see how easy it was for Cuba to have their physical survival compromised by forces very much beyond their control.

Now I'm not a conspiracy theorist, nor am I a pesimist by nature, but I am concerned about my ability to withstand the externalities associated with decisions made by faceless men in foreign lands upon my quality of life. The powerlessness that invokes is enough to make me question the wisdom of the global village in which we live. Surely our local village would not be so quick to condemn us to servitude, poverty and ruin as they would have to face us each an every day, yet our global village has the advantage of distance. We are only as close to our global villagers as our telecommunications allow us to be, yet we can also be a world away at the flick of the proverbial switch.

I cannot accept a world where my livelihood, my quality of life, even my very survival can be determined in a board room on the other side of the world and then ignore my oposition by disconnecting their internet link or cable network. The countries of the North have been doing it to the majority world for centuries, but in this era of rapid communication and global webs the speed at which this can just as easily be applied to any one of us at any given point in time. Human evolution may just have gone too far!

What do we do? Reclaim what is ours! It is our life, our world and our future, why can't we claim it. I think it is time for us to take back our sovereignty and take charge of what is rightly ours. Sure, globalisation has led to massive improvements in life expectancy, biomedical science, unprecedented wealth for some of us, but maybe we have won this glorious prize of human ingenuity which is a high standard of living at the expense of our quality of life... and in the process forgotten the difference!

As an EarthKeeper I would like to be practical in my attempts to wind back the perils of progress and suggest some ways we can all take control of our lives, not leaving decisions to multinational corporations and their puppet governments (lets face it, many of them are! Just look at how much power BHP and Rio Tinto can have over a "successful" government such as Australia's). My pledge is to give share some ideas I have on achieving these ends, and hopefully to hear some of your ideas to the same end.

Reclaiming the earth for all keepers and not simply those who would mine its very soul,
EarthKeeper