I love our property in the summer.
This is the second summer we have been on this property, and
there is something magical about it. The flora grows up so much
around the border, that our entire property disappears from outside
view. My parents came out to visit, and couldnt find us at first,
because all that is visible is a small unassuming driveway, and
a wall of green.
We set up chairs by the garden and talked about everything. Then
I took them for a walk through the recently cleared field.
Because we wanted to live as simply as possible when we moved
here, I cleared the entire field with a Austrian scythe. I purchased
it from a small company in the northeastern U.S. before we moved,
had it fitted to my body, and learned how to keep the hand made
blade peened and razor sharp. I've been cutting with the bush blade
about 30 minutes a day, which is enough to keep our non forested
area clear.
The garden, which is enclosed by alder posts cut from the property,
fencing, and bird netting on one end, looks like a cross between
a primitive solar punk shelter, and an experiment in no till
gardening. I tied together a grid of cords which is slowly becoming
a wall of peas as the vines seek more and more space to grow.
My wife and I sat and ate at the picnic table by the wall of peas
the other day, and felt a whole lot of peace and gratitude.
I built a makeshift wood fired tub next to the upper stream.
I placed a large metal animal watering tub on a slight incline,
dug a fire pit in the front, and a smoke channel all the way up
the middle, exiting at the other end. I am fairly astoninished
how well it works. I was concerned the fire might damage the metal,
but when it is filled with water, it diffuses the heat enough so that
the metal never reached damaging heat levels. I have filled it with
stream water, and had a hot bath outside 3 times so far. Its one
of my favorite things ever. The first time, the owls were calling to
each other in the dark, as I sat in the steaming water.
There are of course the continual struggles with the county in the
background, as they are quite frustrated that we live so simply, and
entirely off grid. My cynisism toward modern government has grown
significantly in the last two years as I have learned more about how
they operate. It is my current belief that 20% of what they do is
neccesary, and the other 80% is all activity designed to perpetuate
and grow their bureacracy through extortionary policy making.
But Pareto could have told us this long ago. Currently, unless we
show regular "progress" toward a conventional house with all of the
environmental damage which comes with that, they threaten to chase
us off our own land. Strange that they think this is right. Forcing
people off of their own rural land for not living in a structure with
a concrete foundation.
But the stream is flowing, and the sound of the waterfall is a
reliable source of peace. We still havent seen the small river
which borders the bottom of the property line, as the flora is
so thick we have been unable to get to it. Its something I want
to do before the summer ends.
