Living the good life

I keep plopping down to the computer and then another day has passed and I haven't written a thing.  It's not for lack of ideas or inspiration.  I finished a fantastic book this past week, Living the Good Life.  I can't remember where I first heard of it (blog? local bookstore?) but I have a sneaking suspicion Amazon thought I might like it after I looked up Animal, Vegetable..., The 100-Mile Diet and Plenty.  Not a big stretch, but it still bugs me when Amazon is right (the anti-big-biz-taking-over-commerce-knowing-all bit of me shining through).  The library shared this book (of the four) with me first.  Anyhow, I keep wanting to just talk to people about this book and my thoughts come out all jumbled and gobbledegookish.  People leave (my husband included) going: OK so it's about an experiment in domestic sustainability?... You're ready to buy a solar hot water heater and a self-composting toilet?... You want to make your own... everything?  I go: Well, no... It's just that I'm so inspired and slightly overwhelmed by the ideas of it all.  People shrug and head off thinking: There she goes again. 

Jumping in now (no going back) I was a little in awe of the idea.  Rather than state a big paragraph or two every time they wanted to explain their "experiment" it was easier for them to say they were going to try to go six months without spending a dollar.  They went from two parents working long hours (with fast food wrappers junking up the car) and their son in daycare, to one full-time income, a goat, chickens, a fantastic garden, lots of solar power and green solutions (i.e. an electric bike).  The journey is fantastic but what I really loved was the author's voice.  You feel like you're on the do-not-spend adventure with them.  When it won't rain, rains to much, when Possum (the goat) is a pill, when they buy goodies and their son quits and they clean the self-composting toilet and whip up a bakery's worth of goods to best utilize the oven's heat... Well, you just feel like you're doing it with them.  And when it was over I wanted to move to temperate Tasmania and build a sustainable, low embodied energy, chemical free strawbale home with them (Adventure #2).  Sprinkled throughout the "journal-type" sections of the book are the hard environmental facts (much of it geared specifically towards Australia and New Zealand but all broad enough to be informative and interesting to me in the US).  The author gives great recipes (everything from ginger beer to laundry gel) and the whole book is full of humor.  They are honest about what was easy, hard and impossible throughout their adventure. 

The family was able to reduce almost all of their consumption (water, energy, transport, etc.) to roughly 5% of their national average.  It's fascinating to see how they react to the end of their experiment and what happens after that.  For a sneak peek while you wait for your turn in the queue at the library, visit their website here.  They do this all on a regular city block (2180 square meters).

No food shots around here, so you get a leaf.  But somewhere wrapped up in the curled edges of this leaf are all sorts of my thoughts on living the good life.  If we hadn't started our own adventure in domestic sustainability when I was pregnant (albeit a very different version) I wouldn't be wandering around while my boy naps, snapping pictures of fall settling in.  As I read the book I thought a lot about how much our life has changed since we became utterly terrified about the financial implications of me staying home.  I'm thinking about how we use energy and resources and how we can be smarter and, to be quite honest, I've been thinking a lot about food (which is a lot of what this book was about too): how we eat, what I make, how gosh-darn expensive groceries are right now (Molly and others are thinking about it too-- check out the comments), organic vs. cost, needs vs. wants...  Last week I also joined our coop.  It all strikes me as exactly the state of mind the family would want me to be in right now.  So more jumble and gobbledegook (might as well copy and paste that sucker) to come but it's been a really good reflection for me, probably tied up with the changing season and settling into the realization that my little guy is turning two (which seems like some big "he's not a baby, you should be into some new distinct phase in your life"-type step, but probably really just means he's getting older). 

I suppose the bigger picture is about how you make meaningful changes (so they stick) and reflecting on changes we've already made that have altered our view of things.  Very interesting to think about as you wander around taking photos.  What do you think?  Are you living the good life?  And what does that mean?

Comments

[Cindy]

I feel like I am living the good life, I am totally blessed, thankful for what I have...but I too feel I could do more. Now that we have 5 acres I actually have 7 hens and find myself totally into them. I love just sitting with them while they roam around the yard, they should give some eggs soon. But, what I'm trying to say is, I know how you feel. I wrote down all the books you mentioned and will get them from library. I love to read other peoples real life adventures of making what is really the life my Grandmother lived "fit" in todays life. That is what I am aiming for. Thank you for this post!

[Era]

What a wonderful post! I find myself totally inspired by your inspiration, and even by your frustration. Sometimes, all we need is to know that someone else has done what we are trying to do, and to know that it will be worth it in the end. I'm bumping this book up to the top of my To-Read list.

[Chara Michele]

What a great post! I had read that post by Molly and it totally was what we had been discussing in our house. How difficult and expensive grocery shopping can get and how to do it differently. So many great thoughts in your post too about living life. I really want to do a bit better at some of these things, although I have to admit sometimes books like that make me feel a bit intimidated (I haven't read the book though, so maybe I should). I guess you just have to take it one step at a time, because even the little changes help a bit.