Things Have Improved since the 1940's ! |
Date: Fri, 5 Jun 1998 02:31:58 -0600 From: R C Herman <rherman@fone.net> Message-ID: <008701bd905c$6b294660$5af8a8ce@tosh> Subject: Re: Simplicity and time To: David MacClement <davd@oocities.com>, Positive FuturesDavid demonstrates that it is possible to sustain life with a small fraction of the consumption that we in the modern west have come to equate with "the poverty level.", Diane Fitzsimmons <dcfitzsimmons@ou.edu>
- Bob
-----Original Message----- From: David MacClement <davd@oocities.com> To: Positive Futures; Diane Fitzsimmons <dcfitzsimmons@ou.edu> Date: Thursday, June 04, 1998 8:05 PM Subject: Re: Simplicity and time >At 10:00 26/05/98 -0700, Diane wrote: >> ... >>My husband and I both descend from hard-scrabble farmers, and we can >>easily remember houses with no electricity or indoor plumbing. We grew >>up on tales about washdays over a boiling kettle in the yard >> ... >>I feel blessed that I can have a refrigerator, stove, washer and plumbing. >> >> ... Diane >> > At 10:43 5/06/98 +1200, David wrote: > >Diane: In Canada (eastern Ontario) in the early '40s we had a two-hole >long-drop into a deep crack in the Laurentian Shield, and in the winter put >on a heavy coat & hood, & took the kerosene storm lantern, to make tracks >through the snow to go the ~150 ft. to the toilet. > > At 10, I came to New Zealand and remember getting up early on Saturday >morning (wash-day) to go to the wash-house to start the fire under the old >copper (able to hold ~3 washing-machine loads), after running rainwater >into it from the tank. (We are still living on rainwater, in Greenhithe.) > After it had reached close to boiling-point, I'd munge it with a smooth >stick, then lift out the steaming items to put through the wringer. > > Bera and I will be retiring soon to a farm (a tiny Intentional Community), >and she's planning our house, which involves deciding what is the minimum >she needs, to be satisfied living there for a few decades. > Our choice includes the modern electrically-efficient washing machine we >bought a few months ago (we'll be living off the electricity grid, >generating all our own power, using solar panels), a chest freezer set to >work as a frig, LP gas hob and wood stove for cooking (also heating when >necessary - seldom, I'm guessing), and an indoor composting toilet, the >twice-a-year clearings-out to go in the main compost heap and then on the >garden and around the fruit and nut trees. > > So, yes, things have improved since the second world war. > So they should, with all the unsustainable exploitation of resources >that results from the current economic system. > See Keith Rankin's: http://www.oocities.org/Athens/Academy/1223/rf_shorts_1998_06juna.html#y1998_024 > I think this professional economist is learning from observing my life. > >"Living lightly on the Earth" > >David. >** http://www.oocities.org/RainForest/6783/ >David MacClement <davd@oocities.com> > http://www.oocities.org/Athens/Delphi/3142/
A short statement of how our family is currently living.
A more complete (38 kB) account of my views and life. Someone else (Elton Pasea, in Texas), living on little and loving it!
(New York Times, 4 Oct.'98)This is: http://www.oocities.org/RainForest/6783/hard-scrabble.html#top