Sunday 12 April 2020

Radicalising the home economy for greater adaptation and well-being

Hello Dear Reader,

We've been incredibly busy with harvest season this year. It's the first time in 12 years without volunteers helping to prepare and store food, fuel and medicine for the winter, exchanging their labour for learning, and helping us process the various abundances of this giving season.

We're happily ensconced in the thrum of this seasonal moment with a quieter, more beautiful world, engaging with a plethora of wonderful neighbours, song birds, goats and other sentients while ramping up the next chapter of our radical homemaking.

We've also been making more neopeasant how-to videos and putting out other offerings on our Youtube page as our way of contributing to strengthening peoples' home economies, adaptation and general well-being.


Last week we participated in the first Happen Films podcast, which is a weekly, hour-long conversation with people navigating this new era, embracing the not-knowing of it while at the same time knowing pretty much what to get on with.



While we've spent the past 12 years slowly weaning ourselves off the monetary economy, and up until COVID-19 we had managed to achieve a 70% reduction of dependancy on the global monetary economy, like many people we have lost money income. We are now a 85% non-monetary household, and while we're pretty excited about this as we've been working towards such an achievement for a while, we weren't entirely prepared for it. The first 50% of reliance on money was fairly quick to achieve. Going car-free, giving up air travel and a few other expenditure-curbing things did this for us within the first twelve months of our transition all those years ago. However, the remaining 50% has been a slow step-by-step process, the last 30% being for our rates and some some utility bills, though mostly for our access to a modest parcel of land.

Let's talk about housing being recognised as a basic human need again in Australia, and let's all work together to phase out multiple property ownership. Let's sing up the seeds and the rain for universal access to land for everyone so we can grow the local-ecological economies we really need to invest in now.

***

We have been overwhelmed by people's generosity in response to our return to social media, and specifically for our neopeasant how-to films. Your kind and encouraging words (both publicly and privately) are spurring us to share more about our life and daily processes. We have had many people ask us to put a Donate button on our blog. We have ummed and aahed about this but today have decided to. Many thanks for your support, everyone. We are feeling most humbled and most grateful.



In our recent fermenting garlic film we offered a free copy of Patrick's 2017 book re:)Fermenting culture. Here again is the link to the PDF of the book and the link to the audio version.

Thanks Dear Reader for joining us on this strange, unknowable, threatening and exciting journey.

May your homeplaces be strong, productive, restful, and places of deep belonging.

Meg, Patrick, Woody and Zero x

18 comments:

  1. You are wonderful and a source of inspiration for many.
    Thank you and hugs from a Spanish in Finland xx

    ReplyDelete
  2. I ALWAYS look forward to watching every single video I can. I really want you guys to write a book about your day to day. (I'm reading Retrosuburbia now and loving it, I'm sure that's basically how your life looks. But I'm also sure it would be a very interesting book!) I'm only sorry that I don't have more to donate to you. Keep being you, Meg and Patrick!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. <3 Danielle from the United States (Flint, Michigan)

      Delete
    2. Thanks for saying Danielle, yes our lifeways are all throughout RetroSuburbia and one day we'll get to our next book. At this stage we're busy enough living life and making YouTube videos when we can, as our contribution to the global movement from the Separation world and back to the belonging worlds of the world.

      Delete
  3. Hello!

    I am interested in chatting with you about composting toilets in the Dayelsford region. I read an article about your family online which lead me here. I am looking to move to the area and interested in composting toilets as an option.

    Would love to discuss,

    Lenin

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hello Lenin, there are all sorts of EPA approved systems which we know nothing about, mainly because they are cost prohibitive for us. Our own hand made toilets cost around $100 to make each and provide us with the best compost matter we've ever made. You can see our simple set up in our 'Water' song video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykQ4F-z0U1I&lc=Ugzm_-iN1Kr71gH1pCx4AaABAg and we advise you read The Humanure Handbook for the science of 'Dealing with our shit', which is another resource that speaks to the social and environmental imperatives of making humanure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivKQV6Z_gZ8) Hope this is helpful.

      Delete
  4. I declined to participate in social media, excepting one platform that I also moved away from 2 years ago. How strange that I am now seeking solidarity in technology now - once considered a "time vortex" to now a way to connect and offer some soul food. The global crisis has been such a consciousness slap to me and I certainly have had to re-evaluate how far I have drifted from my core values. Watching you guys is igniting the fire that was lost to the monotony of being on that ridiculous wheel of "life" - just thank-you for helping me return to my truth. What beautiful souls you are.x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for your comment and your generous praise. Yes, isolation is probably one of the worst things you could wish for someone. While our main communities that we connect with are in living/local world, it has been great to connect with people across the planet. Hope you'e getting the connections you need right now. We're mainly sharing through our YouTube page currently.

      Delete
  5. I’ve only just discovered you so I have a lot of catching up to do. What a pure joy it is to see you all living this beautiful life! I’m in the UK and unfortunately No hope of going as far as you guys have because of health reasons and lack of funds, but I’m am very much inspired by what you have achieved. I think it was my dream to have led this life, I’m 57 and an artist, and I’m making my move to do what I can, even if it’s only with the small garden. You lovely people keep me give me hope!
    Sheelagh

    ReplyDelete
  6. PermaGrannie in Northeast USA26 June 2020 at 09:28

    Dear Meg, Patrick, Woody, and Zero. I am so happy to have found your blog and have been voraciously reading your posts. Please let us know how you are. I hope you are all well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks PermaGrannie, we're all well and have mostly been video blogging over here during the virus hiatus: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC90Jv6gBc7mf4dyfTyWj4tQ/videos?view_as=subscriber

      Delete
  7. Dear Meg and Patrick, I'm overjoyed to find your work and your journey to living integrally through vision, original thought and translation into action. Are you planning on doing any tours soon? I'm doing a free intro to urban gardening (with permaculture emphasis) with Oregon state uni soon with Andrew Millison. Just starting out on this path spiritually and don't know where it might lead! Lots of love! Marie, Victoria

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hello to you all, and hope you are well. I am doing the garlic/honey ferment and have a question. After the first two weeks of turning and burping, do I have to continue to burp the jar during the six months of fermentation? Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi PermaGrannie, the answer is you might have to, depending on how active the ferment still is. I usually check on mine every month or so and give it a quick burp - sometimes I can hear the build up of carbon dioxide when I open the lid and sometimes I can't. All the best with it! And please let us know how you go. Meg x

      Delete
  9. Thank you for your quick response, Meg. We love garlic - and honey... so this ferment smells awesome to us. Be well. Sending cyber hugs to you and your family.

    ReplyDelete
  10. สล็อต เครดิต ฟรี เป็นเครดิตเงินในเกมสล็อตออนไลน์ได้เสริมเติมเครดิตเงินสำหรับ เพื่อการเล่นสล็อตฟรีให้ผู้เล่นโดยที่ผู้เล่นนั้นไม่ต้องเสียเงินจ่ายซึ่งสามารถเล่นเครดิตฟรีเกมพีจีสล็อตได้

    ReplyDelete
  11. land slot auto เล่นเกมสล็อตได้ทุกค่าย ครบทุกเกมไปกับ ทุกค่ายเกมสุดสนุก แบบแปลกใหม่ ไม่มีซ้ำใครกันแน่ เล่นได้ไม่น่าเบื่อ PG ไม่เหมือนกันด้วยการเป็นบริการเกมสล็อตออนไลน์

    ReplyDelete