This is the age of drowning in debt. People are stressed way beyond their means trying to keep up with bills and coming up with cash for all the toys and unnecessary "things". The hydro bill is astronomical and the cell phone bill is never as it should be. We are frantic to find a way to get ahead. It seems impossible; so we settle for robbing Peter to pay Paul. We think that we aren't quite good enough if we aren't as financially stable as others. We think the only way to rectify this situation is to work harder and longer, which in turn takes us away from LIFE. Life= family, friends, fishing, travelling, writing, whatever your joy is. We soon let go of our joy in the name of money. What does Money have to do with living? Up until a century ago money wasn't the only way to survive. Money is an illusion.
What happened to the barter system? What happened to self sufficiency? What happened to Homesteading? Was it Capitalism? Old men in suits trying to hold control over the population; by creating classes; Rich, Middle class, Poor? The solution to getting free from the system that grips us and defines us so thoroughly, is to step out of the system. Take the red pill. Get off the grid. You don't have to live like the Uni-Bomber to be self sufficient. There are many couples and families that have done it very comfortably and initiated it rather cheaply. You don't NEED to have an enormous million dollar eco-mansion. But a wonderfully efficient straw bale house (which looks like a nice smooth stucco house when completed) with solar panels and a wind mill. Build it as you have the cash,no need to go deep in debt. I've noticed in my travels that people from other countries don't frown upon building a home as you have the money. Stage by stage. Running to banks and lenders isn't their only option. So they have less worry about going so far in the hole, that a job loss or sickness would send them in a downward spiral of financial despair. Yet this seems to be our standard practice. Yes of course it costs money to build your eco-home! Start by buying a nice plot of land, put a trailer on it. Get a food growing system in order. Get some chickens, maybe a goat or two. Now you're ready to start building. Buy the building materials as the money comes in. Buy Lumber one month, straw the next. Buy solar panels as you see them on sale. It all depends on how much work you want to do and how frugal you can be. Resourcefulness will be your best friend.
Imagine not being connected to Hydro at their astronomical rates? Imagine not being indebted to the bank for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Imagine not having to pay crazy prices for fuel? If you learn how to be sustainable Money becomes less relevant. Less useful. We can start to live our lives a little more. Enjoy our family and friends. Enjoy our hobbies. Have a life that you can be proud of on your deathbed. It is a cliché but no one ever said they were so happy they worked themselves to death and had no time for what was important like family. Those on their deathbeds usually regret their choice to have overworked themselves as they didn't know any other way to live! It has been engrained in us that this is what life is: we are born,we work a substandard job to sustain a lacklustre life and then we die. What?! No way, I refuse to believe it and I refuse to participate in it.
There are many homesteaders out there that are enjoying life free from the grid, free from the ludicrous expectations we have put on ourselves as a society. Living full, rich lives. Enjoying their families, growing their own foods, raising animals, bartering with neighbours, driving biodiesel cars running off the biodiesel which can be easily refined and it works out to approx. 5 cents a litre. The key is to get enough people who are sick of being trapped in this way of life. So we can build communities with this model in mind. Neighbourhoods built off the grid. It can work, we just have to be the ones to step up and make it happen. No one is going to do it for us. The government isn't going to do it. They are too busy with their hand in destroying our planet for profit. They aren't going to help us save it. It is OUR duty.
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