Day 172 – coming up for 6 months of self-sustaining farm-life

I am going to have to change that title, it is rather boring. But then again, I have not yet made up my mind on the direction, nor the speed of today’s flow of thoughts.

A rapid-white-river-rafting tale of dealing with sheep herding and training two rescue puppies, or a languid retelling of my latest all-consuming sourdough fixation.

Ah, can you tell? While I have sat down before to blog, with no idea what the topic of discussion will be, usually once I start, the thoughts just flow. But today, it is the first time this has happened to me. What a shock, there is a vacuum where the words usually come from.

Here are some random pictures while I stir the grey matter a bit.

And here it comes, the inspiration for today is kind of linked to the minimal words.

Making do, vs minimalism.

I don’t know where I was when I jotted this lighting bolt realisation down, but a quick search of document history shows it was on the day of some Independent Directors training, where we undoubtedly were discussing trends and changes, and how the world has become so bespoke, while at the same time trying to regulate uniformity.

So this close to my 6-month anniversary, I would like to share some thoughts about my self sustainable lifestyle, to give friends, family, and readers an inkling into why one would choose to give up things, shopping, the theatre, international travel, an ambitious career; and settle on a rural farm with a small old house, with very little storage space.

If you have some mind reading skills, you may have picked up that it is not all moonshine and roses. Sure, I miss having all the kitchen gadgets, a fully Le Creuset equipped kitchen, a convertible coupe, and a fully stamped passport. But really, I have perfectly functional roasting dishes, a gorgeous SMEG oven, and have visited at least 50 countries thus far. (Thus far…. Can you hear it, I have not excluded international travelling from future adventuring….).

Having more of the same, i.e., that perfectly colour coded pie dish to match the traditional orange roasting dish, means I then have 4 pie dishes to store, in the unlikely event that I will be baking 4 pies in one go, which will need me to build a second pantry, which will need me to work for someone else, to afford the things I would like. As opposed to loving what I have.

And that is a practical explanation of making do, as opposed to minimalism.

Minimalism: At its core, being a minimalist means intentionally promoting the things we most value and removing everything that distracts us from it.

https://www.becomingminimalist.com/what-is-minimalism/comment-page-9/#comment-2573606

I cannot say it any better, I can only share some more of those valuable joys that living off the land brings. With Intention.

My wish for you, is Deliberate Intention. In whatever you choose to do today.