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It was David Holmgren’s book Permaculture , Principles and Pathways beyond Sustainability that really got me started on the road of self-reliance and meeting the needs to sustain my (and my family’s) existence and it was Nicole and Raul’s work that kicked me in the arse by hitting the panic button. After nearly 4 years of reading TAE my debts are now below $50k, I live in an strawbale house (built by yours truly-with no prior experience mind you) with all water in dams or tanks and lots of other self-reliant measures in place.
Nicole has said that by paying rent you are paying the landowner a fee for taking on the risk of debt – and I believe that to be true but I am now in the process of trying to mitigate against our debt by building a seperate dwelling to rent out should servicing our debt become difficult. In any case I am feeling a little nervous (like most) but so much more prepared and motivated because of the great work by TAE. I hope you both enjoyed the Chocolate Euro coin I gave you while in Daylesford Australia. Thank you Thank you. You guys have to be my favourite Brain-Nerds in the world!Gurusid
Great information, i must read more on this. It is something i have deeply suspected for a while, though within that system there are always agents or mutations at work, that allow for critical system change or adaptation to a newly imposed reality or limits to the reality threshold. Gee i just realised you can sound like a wanker when you talk like i just did. I don’t care though.
Thanks again for Mr. Gall’s conceptsI like it. I think it is fundamentally important to have a metaphysical framework from which you can at least arrive at peace within yourself, and comment/analyze from there. Sounds like he is doing that.
I remember this guy Kenneth Wapnick saying in a podcast many years ago that Jesus was sort of saying (with regards to the world) “you don’t try and irrigate the desert, you just leave”. Buddha was sort of saying the same thing with his ‘ the world is a funky mind-hole hologrammy thing and don’t get attatched’ andgle. It seems that it’s sort of the same with the whole capitalism/centralized/globalized thingy. It’s is great to talk about and to a lesser or greater degree we can’t escape it as individuals but you gotta turn away from it a bit in terms of waiting for it to get better. That means to me putting energy/money into local and home economies, paying down debt and all that permaculture TAE stuff we crap on about here. Having said that, watching it all unfold and trying to predict the permutations of the whole thing is kinda rivetting (is that my attachment talking?)
I think he was giving a bit of a “rant of compassion” in a way.
I’m suggesting we act and behave as ethically as we can without taking any of it too seriously – Row row row your boat, gently down the stream, merrily merrily merrily merrily, life is but a dream.Yeah, I feel a bit too busy busy busy myself, workin’ on the doomstead thing with the hot breath of the dragon of potential bank runs and all the rest breathing heavy on my back. Today I burnt half an internal wall down in my strawbale house while trying to smoke out some rats that got in there to stay warm (we are in a forest), then I had to rebuild it, and look after my 2 year old and try and earn a few bucks etc etc.
It’s not like people never used to work but I seem to remember all the adults having 4 weeks camping holidays in the 70’s and 35 hour weeks and barbecues and beer. Not a lot of that happening for my crew nowadays.
My wife and I recently decided we are just gonna break the law to try and get ahead. Not like Bonnie and Clyde, but live in our house without power or water or anything connected as if we are camping (gas bottles and tank water etc) so we don’t have to pay rent on another house. Getting our certificate of occupancy means getting more into debt so we’ll keep ours low and rough it till we make it our can’t take it.
What else are you gunna do but dig in the heels and try and make it.The other ‘thing’ to invest in – as Stoneleigh has mentioned is to invest in building your trust horizon. Work hard, do what you say, be honest in your dealings etc. This has to go on within the parameters of a community of people who know each other. In a big old city it can be a waste of time. I lived in the same street in Melbourne Australia (pop 4 million) for 14 years and no one really knew each other and trust was okay at best. I then moved to a small town about 125 kilometres north and it is vastly different. In a big city if someone smashed a public asset like a toilet block it just gets deferred to the ‘authorities’ but in a small town it is everyone’s business. People actively want to do something about issues and people sort of keep each other honest – or you can go out of business.
I agree big time with the skills thing too. In an attempt to mitigate the disaster of financial shit going down, it is well worth the investment in reducing exposure to need money in what ever form. My current example is with a friend in a close town. I have worked for him for a few days and we are logging the hours so I have those days in the bank. The thing is if he never paid me back his name would be a bit crap and would be shamed a bit so it works as long as either party is not over extended. This can be done with so many things like baby-sitting etc. I still like the idea of a coupla grand in paper notes buried in the forest too. Oh and about 50 kg of rice and the rest as a buffer against a really nasty dive.
My two cents.
Great article El G!The analysis is very convincing. It would suggest a tumultuous 5 or 10 years. In line with TAE’s articles about centralized control putting more pressure on the periphery one would hope this ‘tops out’ at some point too.
Personally, I am LOVING ash’s writing and would be worse without it. I spoke with Stoneleigh while she was on tour and she is personally blown away by Ash’s work and insight so if it’s good enough for her – it’s good enough for me.
Aiming for a self reliant life on a small acreage while servicing the small mortgage and raising a child – (add to that, owner building ) , is getting close to self-induced slavery (to an ideal of freedom). Freeing The Mind is looking like a good option coz this body is sinewy enough from hard labour for me to want an i.t. Job!
Can the Upanishads help me El G?Back to digging dirt
In our area ( central victoria-australia) there is no need to boil water collected from our roof. The author posts a wonderful article but some aditional info on the risks from roof collected water would need to be provided and may relate to more polluted areas. Cities may collect heavy metal and other toxic particulate matter but more remote or forested areas would be less at risk.
Hey, I’m over here in Castlemaine. I am gonna see nicole in Daylesford – i seem to remember a lift possibility or car share thing.
My diverter charges out and drains into a receiving landscape (in future a deciduous orchard with smallish swales to spread the discharge sideways)
Owner building an off-grid Strawbale. Paying down $105 k debt.
