Down on the Farm - July 31st 2008

31st July2008 - First Words

After a long absence, I'm finally getting my thoughts back into gear and have been persuaded that it's really time to write something again. An update on the past few months is in order.

"We decided to get out for a while. Out of full time computering and out of mainstream culture..."

So there we were, living in a village in Lincolnshire, selling our gardening goods online, all quite comfortable and pretty much the same for a while. Our other work was done on computers too, my websites and the IT projects that me and Karl worked on together. So much time spent in front of the screen. During it all we'd say, from time to time, 'If there wasn't any electricity, we'd have nothing to show for any of the work we've done'. Well, we started to say it more often and the thought of all our activity being in this virtual world began to grate more deeply. What to do?

Call it a midlife crisis, restless anxiety at the state our world is in, or the realisation of a long-held dream, but we decided to get out for a while. Out of full time computering and out of mainstream culture, to spend time involved in activity that matters, doing something that can make a difference in the real world, that world of sunshine and rain, animals, trees and dirt. I'm not sure what it was that brought it all home, but it may be that running a shop just emphasises how pointless a lot of modern life has become. So many people making junk that no one really wants or needs, but they go out and buy it anyway, paying for it with money earned from making other junk that no one really wants or needs. Cynical, and perhaps not entirely right, but once the thought has settled in your mind it's hard to get rid of and the crowded ugliness of nearly every town and city you see starts to rub you raw inside. Got to do something, at that point, haven't you. Can't just ignore it.

So, in January we joined WWOOF (Willing Workers on Organic Farms) and started looking for something different. We hooked up with an Oxfordshire smallholder (let's call her S) who was looking for a couple of like-minded people to join her in working her organic, low-carbon, 37 acre holding. After several meetings and some time spent working together, we realised it might be what we wanted and decided to give it a go, and that's what we've been doing ever since and we'll do it for as long as it takes.

Living on the land is something that has held a fascination for me since about the age of six. Once I realised that I'd never be Queen of England (just as well, it doesn't seem like much of a job), I decided that the role of farmer's wife was an acceptable alternative. The right farmer never came along, though, and although that dream was shelved too, the background to it lingered in the woods and gardens I came to know over the years. It was never clear, just a tenuous vision of outside life, of digging and sowing and tending animals, of being fit and healthy. But the years went by and, until this year, it remained a dream.

This new life is strange and not strange both at the same time, and it needs some thinking about. Sometimes that can be easier done by writing it down, so what I want to do is to record our adventures here, the work we do, the projects we get involved with, the ups and downs. Some of it is in the past already but I can copy things from the paper journal I keep and build it up that way. In time, a picture will emerge and it will be interesting to see what it looks like.

© Copyright Miranda Hodgson 2008