Dwelling place amusement
Feb. 16th, 2006 04:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
altivoWell, enough people have done that "Where should you live?" meme now that I can poke fun without naming names and none of you should take it personally.
The truth is, I'm greatly amused by the number of folks, especially young urban/suburban types, who either come up with the rural or hermit in the wilderness results or claim to want them. Especially in cases where I know the individuals involved well enough to know that they could not easily live without: cell phones, internet, computers, computer or console games, television, movies, electricity, or fast food/take out food/frozen convenience food.
I live on the edge between the small towns and open farmlands. It's true. You can't get cable TV or broadband internet here. The voice lines don't even work reliably, especially in stormy, wet, or extreme cold weather. Electricity is usually on but frequently goes off for anywhere from a few seconds to a few hours. The nearest fast food place (a McDeath's) is only four miles away, but that's a lot of gas or a lot of bicycle-pedaling to go very often. For anything else, you have to travel ten to twenty miles. Net connectivity depends on the voice lines and dialup, so there's no downloading music or video junk. There is no natural gas for heating or cooking. Everything is either electric and subject to unpredictable periods of non-functionality, or relies on bottled propane gas (costly) or a woodstove (labor intensive) in order to make heat to cook or keep you warm.
Now, when you talk about becoming a hermit in the middle of Montana or up in the mountains, you go a couple of orders of magnitude more remote. Medical and emergency care is out of reach. You may need a wind generator to have electricity. It may be a hundred miles to the fast food restaurant or at least the equivalent in effort because of the ups and downs. Weather is more severe too. You will probably have to cut, split, and cure your own firewood, and learn to use it frugally. Or be dependent on trading other services to your neighbors in return for firewood that they've prepared. The same goes for food. Successful gardening is hard work. I've done enough of it to know. Preserving garden vegetables so you have food in January and February is more work, if you even know how. You can't rely on freezers alone if your electricity is unreliable. Or what if the freezer mechanism fails? So you have to learn canning, preserving, and drying food, which is also very labor intensive. Curing and preserving meat is even more tricky, and fraught with dangers that can kill you. Botulism, for instance, comes from the Latin word for sausage: botulinum. That's because the Romans first recognized it in people who had eaten improperly cured sausages. I've been doing food preservation and preparation for almost half a century, and I won't risk meat other than by freezing.
Can you sew well enough to at least repair your own clothing adequately? Can you cook? Including making bread or biscuits from scratch? Can you operate a radio well enough to obtain help in an emergency? Can you live without all those amenities you take for granted? Can you repair your own vehicle well enough to at least get it to take you to the nearest real mechanic, who may be 20 or 50 miles away?
Sure, the life of a mountain man may seem romantic and full of beautiful scenery, but the truth is mostly you don't have time to look up and enjoy it. In the summer you brave mosquitoes and black flies and work sixteen hours a day in order to put by enough food and fuel to survive the winter on. In the winter you spend all your energy trying to keep from freezing, starving, or getting scurvy. And in truth, a lot of those I see professing to want rural or wilderness existence complain about being bored out of their skulls now when they live in suburbs or small towns. Nuh-uh. It won't work folks. Time for a reconsideration.
The truth is, I'm greatly amused by the number of folks, especially young urban/suburban types, who either come up with the rural or hermit in the wilderness results or claim to want them. Especially in cases where I know the individuals involved well enough to know that they could not easily live without: cell phones, internet, computers, computer or console games, television, movies, electricity, or fast food/take out food/frozen convenience food.
I live on the edge between the small towns and open farmlands. It's true. You can't get cable TV or broadband internet here. The voice lines don't even work reliably, especially in stormy, wet, or extreme cold weather. Electricity is usually on but frequently goes off for anywhere from a few seconds to a few hours. The nearest fast food place (a McDeath's) is only four miles away, but that's a lot of gas or a lot of bicycle-pedaling to go very often. For anything else, you have to travel ten to twenty miles. Net connectivity depends on the voice lines and dialup, so there's no downloading music or video junk. There is no natural gas for heating or cooking. Everything is either electric and subject to unpredictable periods of non-functionality, or relies on bottled propane gas (costly) or a woodstove (labor intensive) in order to make heat to cook or keep you warm.
Now, when you talk about becoming a hermit in the middle of Montana or up in the mountains, you go a couple of orders of magnitude more remote. Medical and emergency care is out of reach. You may need a wind generator to have electricity. It may be a hundred miles to the fast food restaurant or at least the equivalent in effort because of the ups and downs. Weather is more severe too. You will probably have to cut, split, and cure your own firewood, and learn to use it frugally. Or be dependent on trading other services to your neighbors in return for firewood that they've prepared. The same goes for food. Successful gardening is hard work. I've done enough of it to know. Preserving garden vegetables so you have food in January and February is more work, if you even know how. You can't rely on freezers alone if your electricity is unreliable. Or what if the freezer mechanism fails? So you have to learn canning, preserving, and drying food, which is also very labor intensive. Curing and preserving meat is even more tricky, and fraught with dangers that can kill you. Botulism, for instance, comes from the Latin word for sausage: botulinum. That's because the Romans first recognized it in people who had eaten improperly cured sausages. I've been doing food preservation and preparation for almost half a century, and I won't risk meat other than by freezing.
Can you sew well enough to at least repair your own clothing adequately? Can you cook? Including making bread or biscuits from scratch? Can you operate a radio well enough to obtain help in an emergency? Can you live without all those amenities you take for granted? Can you repair your own vehicle well enough to at least get it to take you to the nearest real mechanic, who may be 20 or 50 miles away?
Sure, the life of a mountain man may seem romantic and full of beautiful scenery, but the truth is mostly you don't have time to look up and enjoy it. In the summer you brave mosquitoes and black flies and work sixteen hours a day in order to put by enough food and fuel to survive the winter on. In the winter you spend all your energy trying to keep from freezing, starving, or getting scurvy. And in truth, a lot of those I see professing to want rural or wilderness existence complain about being bored out of their skulls now when they live in suburbs or small towns. Nuh-uh. It won't work folks. Time for a reconsideration.
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no subject
Date: 2006-02-17 12:17 pm (UTC)I envy you for all the things you know how to do. As one of those worthless whippersnappers, I must say that I hate the fact that I am not that self-efficient. I can't even take care of myself in the world I live in now, much less out in the sticks. Very pathetic.
no subject
Date: 2006-02-17 12:34 pm (UTC)Actually, suburban is quite far enough for a horse or two. You only need to be really rural if you are going to run a brood farm or boarding stable. Many semi-rural areas permit horses, within restrictions such as a limit on the number of horses per land unit. (Typically around here, they might let you have two horses on three acres. That's called an "estate" subdivision, and is not considered a farm or agricultural land.)
Of course, suburban or small town life is usually within easy reach of boarding stables too, so you can have a horse without actually owning a lot of land.
Getting by without fast food restaurants and all night groceries is a good starting goal. Those can be scarce even on the edges of suburbia. Small towns more often have Aunt Minnie's Diner type one-off restaurants, and those close down at night and on Sunday.