The Great Assumption seems to be that we are all on mains supplies of water and electricity.
All too often, technologies that seem to offer opportunities to use water and electricity sparsely, and from local sources, are flawed.
It used to be that the facilities of 'advanced life' emanated from the city, regarded as the hub of 'civilisation '.
With mobile phones and the Internet, the pendulum has swung.
Urban life, with its cafe culture, and live events, can be stimulating: For a price.
On one level, cities are elaborate one-arm bandits.
Now we can live in the corner of some foreign field, and yet still feel connected to a network of friends and information sources.
The conflict and choice of lifestyle is now up to you.
Many people who move into the country try to live as simply as they can. One quandary is that we are in a sense, pioneers, and have a responsibility, or maybe it's a messianic urge, to help others, even if it's just by showing that it can work.
When Tony Wrench engaged in the prolonged battle with the National Park to save his Roundhouse, he thus became a figurehead of a movement, expressed through the Internet, so his need for solar power was mainly for his laptop.
I am squatting on my deck writing this on my phone.
I observe that some, not all, those that turn the use of hand tools into a sacred choice, tend to scorn power tools and those that use them.
Now, Righteous Scorn is not a feeling to hold in your heart. To me it smacks of Calvinistic sour grapes!
I enjoy our culture, and all the possibilities it's technologies offer us. I see the lifestyles we are trying to shape as the Future, not an awkward reverence for the Past.
led light bulbs>
are a great advance in offering a warm, effective light source that uses as little as 2 watts. It was only when I bought some that I found that they flickered. This it seems is because I have a quasi-sine wave rather than a pure-sine wave inverter. Pure sine-wave inverters cost loads more.
garden sprinklers>
are mostly made only to operate effectively on mains pressure, whereas many water supplies don't have that kind of head or volume. Again, that is not often apparent in the description.
cordless tools>
have seemingly improved remarkably with new Li-lon batteries. I have a very useful set with a drill, angle-grinder, and jigsaw, but have found the charger uses more power than my inverter can provide.
The manufacturers have focused on making a fast charger, so have built in cooling fans etc. Again, this was not obvious when I bought it.
Occasionally you come across something that is spot on.
I love listening to music as I garden, and have a ROBERTS solar DAB radio. If I face it towards the sun, is runs on that, but otherwise contains rechargeable AA batteries, which get charged up when I plug it in.
For cooking I have a powerful gas-ring for quickly getting pans up to heat, but as my main heat source, a magical wood-burner, that is efficient and also good to look at.
Then there are improved versions of old technologies that suit this lifestyle well.
AUSTRIAN SCYTHES are lightweight and easily adjusted both to suit your size, and for different types of task.
I cut a lot of bracken and bramble, so use a shorter, chunkier blade than a hay reaper would. The shortest is the 'ditch blade' which I find I use mostly to weed between saplings.
Scythes are Amazing. They make the whole rigmarole of cladding visors and other safety armour, and carrying a petrol can, for the noisy, isolate pleasure of spraying yourself with grass-juices seem an insane alternative to the graceful silent sweep of the scythe.
My favourite garden tool is a mattock. I have the queen of them all, a bronze TUZA mattock, supplied by IMPLEMENTATIONS.
Their tools aren't cheap but I can't describe how using them except to say that they honour the earth and the art of gardening.
You can get good garden tools from antique shops and even car boot sales. I use a muck fork a lot to carry cut bracken to the compost bins. One of the best weeders I have is an ice-pick! Also keep your eyes open for a trivet, cast iron pans and a billhook. Billhooks are great for cleaving kindling.
You'll find things that are useful in bizarre places. I am a great fan of the central aisle of Aldi, which has been the source of most of my watering attachments. I found round gauze pizza racks there, that are ideal to put under pans on my wood-burner as simmer control. So be prepared to think laterally...
What a list of STUFF this seems.
My life is quite spartan, honestly.
Living in our spacious block boxes, it is all too easy to get buried under extraneous gadgets, whilst the cardboard boxes they came in are kept in the loft, for when they fail.
Which they do.
I don't want elaborate things that "save" labour. Just tools that make it enjoyable: that respect the task in hand.
Whether it's digging, cooking,
or communicating.
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