THE GOOD LIFE

I was home sick yesterday and decided to watch The Andy Griffith Show since there was nothing good on daytime television. The Andy Griffith Show has to be one of my favorite old shows and I watch it regularly. My parents have collected most of the seasons on DVD and we love to put in a disk and watch several episodes as a family!

As I was watching a disk from season 4, an episode titled “Back to Nature” came on and was a story about getting, well, back to nature! The thing that struck me about this episode was just how far we have progressed with technology. For example, Floyd , Andy and Barney were sitting in front of the barber shop talking when Opie walked by with a transistor radio next to his ear listening to the baseball game. When Andy calls for Opie to come to where they are sitting, Opie does not hear his dad calling and continues walking. Towards the end of the scene, a discussion ensues about how technology is increasing and becoming more popular and ingrained in our every day lives, and the simplicity of life is waning away, being taken over by things such as an automatic shave cream lather maker, which Floyd adamantly opposes (he likes the clinking sound of the shave brush against the shave glass)!

Life today, in comparison to the time of Mayberry, is totally and completely different.  Today,  instead of transistor radios, we have cell phones that can provide you with the  full  baseball game in color, streaming over a cellular network and sometimes it is even  a live broadcast! We have computers in  almost every room of our houses, iTunes is now  the number one music store, beating out stores like Wal-Mart and Target for music  purchases. I have often wondered what it  would have been like to live in Mayberry,  how would life be different and what if we could live life like that in today’s  world?

I have been lucky enough to experience some sort of simplistic life, and the joys of all  that it brings. To start with, my grandparents and parents have never really had much.  When I was growing up, we bought clothes from thrift and discount stores, we clipped  coupons, and we didn’t have cable or satellite television because it was too much money.  When I went into the 6th grade we moved from Chandler AZ to Queen Creek AZ.  Queen Creek was a little farming community, and the nearest grocery store was about  15 miles away from our house. We lived on an acre and a quarter of irrigated property  and we raised goats, calves, chickens, geese, ducks, sheep and even 2 pot belly pigs! We  tried to grow a garden several times with mediocre success in the crops, but we did it  non the less. We butchered chickens, had a wonderful compost heap, and enjoyed the  wonderful miracle of birth both in kidding goats and hatching chicks. At one point we  were collecting about 5 dozen eggs a day from our hens. We had so many eggs by the end of the week that we took several dozen to church every Sunday to hand out to friends, and we had quite the collection of egg cartons in our closets!

This was such a great experience for me, and I actually really miss it. Even still, we live a very simple life at home here in Parker. The majority of our home decorations and even some of our furniture has come from second hand stores such as Goodwill or a great scratch and dent place in AZ called Tanaka’s. We actually shop at these stores so much that many of our friends joke that the only reason thrift stores are in business today is because of the Downey’s! I have so many good memories in thrifts shops.

Anyhow, I dream of a life where I can work with the land, be a part of nature and work the land and livestock like we were meant to. Just this last weekend I watched a great movie, “Legends of the Fall”, one of my top 10 favorite movies ever, and thought how great it would be to be sulf-sustained and sufficient like in that time in history. They had acreage, built their own house, grew their own food and hunted for the meat, rode horses as their mode of transportation and lived a great life (although in the movie there are a lot of sorrows) but in general, they lived a great life! I want to have that someday. I know that I can’t be as self-sufficient on a daily basis as they were back then (because money is an essential part of any household economy anymore), but there are simple, fun and rewarding aspects of that life that I want to have and will have as I continue to acquire things and grow in age and in life.

Here is my dream life. The more I think about it, this is how I picture life to be someday:

Wake up early on my many acres of land in Colorado, in the home that I have built. I didn’t build it with my bare hands per se, but I did assist in it’s construction. It is a warm, small hay bail construction perhaps, or more modern log home. It is simple, not over done, but homey. All of the furnishings are perfect for a county setting. I get a quick shower, pull on my jeans and a flannel shirt, some work boots and a hat, and head out to the kitchen. I have a hearty breakfast with my wife and kids of fresh eggs, milk, fresh squeezed orange juice, bacon and hash-browns, all from the farm, and of course coffee.

Once done with breakfast, I head out to the livestock and tend to the animals. Feed them, ensure that they have clean and fresh water and that they are ready for the days work. I might milk the cows and goats as well so that we can make homemade butter and have fresh milk for drinking and cooking. Once the animals are fed and watered, I take the pick-up truck to the salvage yard and get some materials for a green house. This being the beginning of spring, I want to make sure that we take full advantage of the good weather to prepare a green house before the cold winter returns so that we can grow food year round.

I return to the farm by lunch time where a great meal of a fresh garden chicken salad, fresh fruit and cheese and crackers is prepared with a fresh, tall glass of iced tea to wash it all down. After lunch I return to the unloading of the items for the green house where I begin the assembly with help from my wife. After putting all of the materials in a safe place, and ending the work on the greenhouse for the day, I tend to the garden. The garden is in raised beds and cover quite a lot of square footage. We grow green beans, broccoli, carrots, watermelon, onions, garlic, celery, tomatoes, squash and other farm fresh veggies and fruits.

After getting cleaned up a little bit, I take the horses for a long ride with the misses to get them some exercise. Riding is fun and exhilarating, and provides a connection to nature that is hard to grasp until you ride.

We get back to the house where we get bathed, put on an old record in the record player, set the salvaged table with thrift store dishes, and enjoy a wonderful dinner of fresh ground, farm raised hamburger, baked beans, potato salad and fresh baked bread for a bun. Apple pie and home made ice cream for dessert. After dinner, we retire to the front porch rocking chairs where we listen to some more old records, perhaps play the guitar, and read a magazine or book and just enjoy each others company, the cool summer air, and the smell of the wilderness. There are no traffic lights or sounds, no smog to contend with, only the sound of the breeze in the trees, the sound of crickets and other insects moving about, and the peace of the country quiet. This day of fulfilling work, good, home grown food, and pleasures of simplicity, away from all of the hustle and bustle of life and technology helps to regroup after a hard weeks work in the office.

Of course, my wife and kids would be busy helping me in these things, or even busy making soap, fresh bread for lunches during the week, churning butter, weeding and tending to the garden, or other such items. We would work as a family, and together in all things. The farm is a family place where we connect to one another in a way that is near impossible in the days of technology. I am a huge technology buff, and enjoy my facebook, Twitter, BlackBerry and Apple computer, but I see and understand the importance of together time with your spouse and with your family. That is partially what is so attractive about farm life!

I cannot wait until I can make some part of this my life. I know that it will  take time, money and hard work to get there, and perhaps I will not be able to  have all of it, but there is something so therapeutic about living in the country,  growing and canning your own food, being outside soaking up the sun,  enjoying what mother nature has provided, and spending time with the  people you love in this fashion. From my experience in Queen Creek, it is  more rewarding then you could know, and is a crucial part of growing up that  many kids no longer experience, and that is a real shame. A number of life skills and lessons are learned here that are no longer provided in the city based, technologically savvy world we live in.

I also feel that there is something in the modern homestead and the simplistic  life that I, as a  man, need. Society has desensitized men in general to be  wimpy, untalented, unmanly men. I  read the book “Wild at Heart:  Discovering the Secret of a Man’s Soul” by John Eldredge last year  and it  really made me realize how important it is that men learn to be men again.  We need to be  outside in the wilderness, we need to be hunting, camping, and  just reflecting in nature. We  need to be dangerous, take risks and not be afraid  to get dirty or injured in the process because  that is what men are intended to  do! If you have not read this book, I highly recommend that you  read it (this  includes ladies)!

Recently I have started reading a blog called “The Art of Manliness”  (www.artofmanliness.com) and it has been a great resource for me to take little snippets of advise on how to become a better man. This isn’t a Christian website, but has practical, useful and excellent advise for men to use in their everyday lives. I subscribe to the daily email updates, and have read a lot of great posts with titles such as “Choosing Man’s Best Friend: A guide to Canine Companions”, “Going Over the Top: How to Dominate in Arm Wrestling”, “How to Break Down a Door” and “Rediscovering the Barbershop” among other posts and lists. This is a great website that provides some great information about the skills and tools necessary to be a manly man!

Modern day homesteading is alive and well in every state in this country, in  both city and country life. I encourage each and every one of you who are  reading this to find some way that you can have this rewarding experience no  matter where you live. If you live in the city, consider growing some of your  own veggies. Pot gardens on your back deck filled with wonderful veggies will  produce more than you will need for several summer dishes, and having those  plants rely on you to thrive, and then reaping the reward of the harvest is so wonderfully rewarding. If you can’t do this or you want to  do more, think about purchasing a few hens. Home grown, free range  chickens produce great meat and eggs, better than you will find in any grocery  store, I promise (I have had both)! If neither of these options sounds like it is  right for you, consider going to your local farmers market this spring and  summer and support those local growers who do live this life to bring you excellent produce and hand-made crafts. Get some stuff to make a wonderful local salad, some fresh cheese, and make yourself a homemade loaf of bread, and you will reconnect in a way that will meet those homesteading needs!

Think too about furnishing your home with second hand items. Not only does this bring back great memories for most of us (grandparents camper dishes for example didn’t match and all came from a thrift store), but it is more of a simple life. There is no stress if the glass breaks other than if you really liked the way it felt in your hand. You can simplify by washing dishes by hand and making it a family event. We have started doing this in our house again not only because it is time together, but you are also saving electricity by not having the dishwasher working, and you are saving time by not having to unload the dishwasher later (always a waste of time in my opinion). There are more ways that you can simplify your life, and I encourage everyone to determine where they can cut back and just relax, and get back into the simple life. It is possible, even in today’s world!

I will continue reading up on gardening, modern homesteading and how to become more self-sufficient over the next few years and I hope to make this dream a reality someday, at least in some aspect. If you are interested in reading some more about modern day homesteading, living green or other similar topics, I encourage you to check out Mother Earth News. They are a monthly magazine publication with a lot of great ideas and information. You can find them on line at www.motherearthnews.com!

ALL OF THE WEBPAGES THAT I MENTIONED ARE ALSO IN THE BLOGROLL TO THE RIGHT OF THE PAGE!

Happy Homesteading to you all, and relax! Your body and mind will thank you!