- “The beautiful thing about learning is that nobody can take it away from you.”.– B.B. King. This quote emphasizes the lasting value of knowledge and skills, once acquired.
Knowledge is power, and making others powerful is a gift unto itself. In this modern day of technological advances and Artificial Intelligence (AI), society has become increasingly comfortable with automation and convenience. This level of comfort has made providing sustenance to our families fast and so much easier than our grandparents could. The first canning factory could be found in London in the year 1813 (*1). Today, food and medications can be bought from stores in close proximity to our homes. Pharmacies and physicians are frequently a few miles from where we live or work. Transportation has become something of a miracle with so many advancements. Starting with a simple bicycle, you can find scooters, cars, trucks, buses, trains, boats and airplanes. Flying cars and autonomous vehicles are right on the horizon for public use. This makes traveling anywhere incredibly fast and convenient.
However, as with everything good, there is usually a downside. There exists a cost for convenience, which may for some be obvious and for others hidden. A car requires capitol in the form of cash or a loan from an outside source, usually a bank. Then there is a license, registration, insurance and don’t forget all the gas and maintenance costs. Before the invention of cars most people would walk to wherever they need to go. The only expenses here was their own energy and time. Sometimes people had animals large enough to carry or pull things and they could utilize their power to help transport them someplace much faster and easier. Owning or using animals for work and transportation has costs directly associated with it such as their feed and care. Not everyone could afford these expenses.
Transportation is only a small part of the many advances humans have made in the last 200+ years. Our society continually advances to make living more comfortable and convenient for us all. Our skills as individuals have become more specialized and geared towards things of a technological nature. AI and robotics are rapidly taking the place of many tedious tasks that people prefer not to do. Very soon more and more of these robots and AI powered machines will be created to make things even easier and faster for individuals in this country and worldwide. At this point I must beg the question, Who and how many people will this technology help, really? For the average person in America this is more of a dream than reality. The costs for such things would be too far outside of their financial ability, especially if the economy continues on the current trajectory.
Another thing we must consider is whether or not this technology would be trusted or welcomed into every household. For every individual that would be interested in these things, there is apt to be a few who would rather not take part in it. Of course there is a wide range of reasons for these decisions of whether to use robotic and AI integrated assistance, however this is a discussion I prefer to stay out of for the time being. The important thing here is to understand that for these particular advancements, there are many costs which are associated with them. Living in this modern age is getting to be quite expensive. We can see with our own eyes every single day how much prices are going up. So many people are struggling just to survive and pay the most basic bills. Food costs for an individual are very high, but once you start a family, each child multiplies your costs exponentially. Caring for animals isn’t cheap either, and since the pandemic ended and people returned to more normal work situations, the shelters have begun to get over inundated with surrenders. Most people cannot support themselves and so caring for their pets has become too much of a financial burden for so many people now.
There is a quiet movement happening outside of suburbia. People are beginning to move away from convenience and comforts of city life. They are slowly beginning to opt out of the “rat race”. From individuals to entire multi-generational families, they are buying up patches of land and starting over. This movement is growing rapidly and it is fueled by a deep human desire to unplug from the societal matrix and return to a simpler way of living. Some folks cannot completely leave everything behind for this, yet they feel strongly about growing their own food. Some just wish to have a small garden of sorts, whether it be on a balcony or windowsill to a backyard food forest. Others who bought land are trying to develop their skills and learn how to live in synergy with nature. They all seem to have some things in common; they wish to grow and consume healthy, organic foods while chipping away at the ever rising costs for their sustenance.
For the folks moving out into the countryside, some of them are simply learning to garden and raise a few chickens, while others are going all in with a hand built homestead, learning everything about living off their land in balance and harmony with their surroundings and mother nature. There are now tens of thousands of people turning their attentions and their actions to creating a more sustainable future. Some of these folks have even figured out how to turn their hard work into hard earned cash. Old skills of our forefathers which used to be passed down through the generations are being resurrected from journals, old books and oral traditions. These treasures from the past were nearly lost to time and forgotten forever. These are the very skills which got them through hard lean times, wars and many disasters. There is a sense of urgency in our current age to relearn these skills and once again pass the knowledge along to the children so we can all not only survive, but thrive like we once knew how.
I have, since my earliest memories, been drawn to self-sufficiency and the art of survival. I wanted to learn how to be independent from the “system” and live off the land and nature as it were. My family owned a house in a small town, yet we had a family farm a short drive from where I grew up. It was my grandmothers farm consisting of 60 lush acres in the northeast. Most of the property was under an environmental protection act making any future development impossible. We had spaces for livestock, however, we did not use this for our own purposes, rather we rented out the barn and pasture to people for their horses and feed storage. We had many old outbuildings from before the building prohibitions. These were originally for livestock but we mostly used these for storing things like farm equipment or building supplies and antiques.
I never knew my grandfather, as he passed away when I was a baby. His passing left a void of knowledge, ability and skills in our family. My father was a wealth of knowledge, yet the “rat race” had him in its grip, as it does with most of us modern humans. He was dedicated to providing for his wife and 2 daughters financially. I was very blessed to have an incredibly intelligent father who was skilled and adept at doing so many things. His trade was auto mechanic, however he could fix and repair just about anything. In addition to automotive repairs, he knew all forms of welding, minor electrical and plumbing, carpentry painting, wallpapering, hanging and finishing sheetrock and also plaster, just to name a few things. One of the skills he taught me was the ins and outs of small scale farming, including using a tractor, landscaping equipment and so much more. He was a wealth of knowledge in the farming area. Much of the things he knew and tried to teach me I ended up forgetting, and only now am I relearning again. Soil amendment and building was one of these things I have had to relearn as it is one of the most basic and important skills for agricultural practices. My father did this all without effort. Crop rotation was second nature to him which I am also learning about as I live in a subtropical climate now far from where I grew up.
Through this process I have learned something about us humans; we seem to take much of this life, and the people we know, for granted, until these people or things are no more. I have realized how incredibly important passing on knowledge is to one another. My own children often hear me saying to them to pay close attention to what I am trying to teach them because one day I will be gone and with me so will the knowledge I have gained. Experiences are incredibly valuable, and that is what makes our elders so precious. They have a value which is impossible to quantify and difficult to comprehend.
My ultimate goal for this blog is to pass along anything and everything I have of informative value stored in my brain. Little tidbits of stored information which comes bubbling to the surface, and given to the world freely. My hope is that my children and family can come back to this site and virtually visit with me long after I have left this world. We all consider our legacy at some point in our lives. I would love for mine to be myself as a teacher of things even after I’m gone by having this blog for everyone to find.
My focus will be on living sustainable and as independently as possible. I look to our ancestors, as well as current, micro-societies such as the Amish community for much of my inspiration. Preppers and modern homesteaders have a well earned place in my heart and mind as they also have a wealth of information to share with us all. As I learn, I grow, as do we all. I pray we can all grow together toward peaceful living and practical application of skills we can all benefit from; even in this age of ultra-modern technology and artificial intelligence. Peace be with you all!