I often here people saying how wonderful it is to have natural resources and live off the land. Well let me just give you the heads up on natural resources.
It isn't as cost effective as you might think. So we have a well. a great resource but it needs a pump that runs on electric and an experienced man who knows what he is doing to attach it all up so it works. Then you need to pay to have the water tested to see if the filter (that you bought) work and the water is ok to drink. If not then you will get a report saying you can use it for everything else but drinking so please buy bottled water for consumption!!
We then have a wood burner. Brilliant you think living off the natural woodland. All very well but you either have to buy the wood which costs a fortune or if you are lucky enough to have wood on your land you have to cut it yourself. This means you buying a heavy duty chainsaw which costs several hundreds of Euros, the fuel and oil to put in it and then pay for the regular sharpening of the chain.
Growing your own produce is wonderful but if you, like us, have poor soil you have to add good compost. Now you can either buy it or make it yourself either way it will cost you. Then when you have the produce all grown and picked you either have to cook, blanch or bag it up to freeze. This consists of buying the bags, boxes or trays, using gas or electric to cook and in some cases people go and buy another freezer to hold all the produce costing more electric to run and the cost of the freezer. Then you have to think of pest control which costs even if you do the natural or chemical method, then there is the mesh covers to stop birds and pests eating the produce, the canes to hold things up and the feed to encourage them to grow.
Speaking from someone who has experiences both ways of living the on tap touch of a button type and the hard graft living the natural basic life I can say nothing in life is free and whatever way round you do it it's going to cost you.
No so Free on the Funny Farm!
Heather, you speak from hard experience…and so do I. None of it is for free - nix, nada, nothing! But home grown stuff just tastes better and as for the wood burner, it's messy AND expensive to run, but I do love it! The good life is only good if you don't have to do anything else.Otherwise, it's just an alternative.
ReplyDeleteThis is all true - tho I only relate to the fruit and veg growing, which I seem to do for the benefit of the local wildlife! But there is so much satisfaction in having the choice to do it!!
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