We are under a mist of freezing rain. While our goats are in the barn and eating hay, and the chickens snuggly in their pens, out of the weather, it is a difficult condition for wild things to face. Once the layer of rain freezes over the veil of snow, deer and other animals that paw to find grass, lichen and barks will not be able to get to that source. Small wild birds become saturated and freeze if they can’t find shelter. There isn’t much snow cover, so burrowing animals will feel the freezing cold. Weather like this is a killer for wildlife.
A warm spell in winter also may force the swelling of tree buds, which then freeze in the next cold snap. New growth for setting flower and seed is lost.
Uist croft
Some of this cycle may be the vagaries of nature, culling the weakest in the harsh winters, but some of it is most definitely the result of the unnatural patterns of modern life, warming the atmosphere, dumping high levels of carbon and other elements into the air and the water. Tree cover is gone in parts of the world that for millenia have been the lungs of the earth. Polar ice is melting, old glaciers that predated the last ice ages and the appearance of humanity on the earth are gone. The reindeer may leave the tundra, which will dramatically alter its life cycle. The great bears and marine mammals of the north are disappearing or shifting their territory. The bio-mass of great shoals of fish in the oceans are dwindling. The loss of movement and interaction of these creatures will, in a short time – less than centuries – adversely affect the weather and the flora of the north. If the equatorial rainforests are the lungs of the planet, the polar regions are the brains. Once their delicate functioning starts to shut down, the whole bio-system will fail.
In our small way, we are finding it easier to live the life of boreal herdsmen. Consciously and unconsciously we are reducing our need for the worldly system in which we have swam as little fishes for a long time. It has meant giving up some of the trappings of civilized life such as fashionable clothes, social expectations, luxuries of food. We are tied to the small house because we heat with wood and cannot be gone for 24 hours without risking a complete freezing of our water supply. We have animals under shelter, so we need to make sure they have adequate supplies of food and water.
It is winter. We are sheltering, rarely journeying far. I have to go out about once a week now, but in the next month we plan to be snugged in for most of the rest of the season. We can’t afford to keep the truck in legal registration with the province. Repairs, taxes and fees are beyond our income right now. I will need the money we put into truck expenses for more vital expenditures such as medical care and my immigration fees. So I have to make sure we have food, firewood, medicines, grain and hay to last three months or more. I do hope we will be able to get some alternative transportation this summer, or we will gain enough extra income to license a vehicle again.
This is how poverty affects many here. Gradually, they lose the accoutrements of civilization – vehicle, appliances, even electrical and phone service. Some cope well. I think we do. Some fail to find a way to make up the difference. They run cars illegally, often dangerously decrepit vehicles with bad brakes and no headlights. If they get caught, they ignore the fine and even the court dates until they are picked up by the law for another violation, and then they spend a little time in jail. Some turn to petty crime to get by – a spot of shoplifting, stealing items from barns and garages to resell, cutting their firewood on a neighbour’s woodlot. I would rather starve than steal.
So this coming year we will have another go at small scale crops, get more chickens, perhaps get a few sheep. We are getting farther away from the demands of civilized life that drive people to keep an eye on the clock and calendar. I hope to do more reading in how to manage a small isolated croft. Oddly, we have neighbours – near neighbours, too – who live a life no different from what we lived in the suburbs of a large city. The commute to scheduled jobs, have two cars, go away on vacation, decorate seasonally. They could in Richmond Hill, outside Toronto, or Silver Spring, Maryland. We are not isolated in being cut off from all human contact, but it is still rare, as they live the artificial day of electric lights and shift work. This is not to say that they are wrong, but to say that I expect that the nearly neolithic life of herders and shepherds will have to find a co-existence with the dominant American culture of supermarkets and malls. There will have to be a heightened and mutual accommodation and tolerance.
It could all fall apart quickly. Or it could all improve quite a bit. If we can discover the root of my health problems (possibly thyroid) then I will be able to put more time and energy into the croft work. If I can increase our income a bit we will be able to make other improvements. We are exploring, via internet, the 21st century’s equivalent of a monastic library, how to live closer to the old ways.
5 comments
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2012, 01, 01 at 7:31 pm
stealthjew
“Oddly, we have neighbours – near neighbours, too – who live a life no different from what we lived in the suburbs of a large city. The commute to scheduled jobs, have two cars, go away on vacation, decorate seasonally. They could in Richmond Hill, outside Toronto, or Silver Spring, Maryland. We are not isolated in being cut off from all human contact, but it is still rare, as they live the artificial day of electric lights and shift work. This is not to say that they are wrong, but to say that I expect that the nearly neolithic life of herders and shepherds will have to find a co-existence with the dominant American culture of supermarkets and malls.”
I don’t see why this is odd. One can forgo jobs, decorating for holidays, and electric lights as easily in Manhattan as one can in rural NB.
Since you moved to the farm, it has sounded as if things have been falling apart slowly.
2012, 01, 01 at 7:51 pm
magdalenaperks
If you forgo vital utilities in a city, you will fall into ill health and possibly die. I lived a near-hippie student life in DC, in a “bad” neighbourhood. I don’t see things as falling apart – but as coming together. I want to live a life closer to the neolithic. I would indeed live as a basque shepherd in the mountains or as a Sami reindeer herder. For us, this is a more authentic life. Even the illness is, I think, a physical response to a metaphysical disorder, of living out of synch with the natural world. My neighbours, I can see, are suffering from the ills of modern life – addicted to nicotine, overweight, endlessly restless and needing the artificial stimulation of television, resort vacations, shopping. We lived “better” in a first world way when we were sharing housing and resources with another priest, but she has since had a bout with debilitiating illness because of that first world life. We would not choose to go back to it.
2012, 01, 01 at 8:43 pm
joanie
your reply to Stealthjew reminds me – I wanted to ask you if you struggled ever with lonliness or being kind of restless. If your health had not been giving you challenges I would see you as never having an opportunity to stop going for a minute.
Joanie
2012, 01, 01 at 9:22 pm
magdalenaperks
I am quite satisfied with my husband’s company, and the internet helps some. I am very introverted, so I don’t need a lot of interaction. I see a friend or two occasionally, or we go to church and have a short chat after service. For someone else, it might be way too isolated, and they would prefer a more central location. Around here, there are little “clusters” of houses and that has long been the ordinary social interaction for farm families, visiting on foot within a mile of home. I grew up in that environment, so it still suits me.
2012, 01, 16 at 4:15 pm
sophie pie
Thank you so much for another beautiful, affirming piece of writing.