Old Ways/ New World

    

    What Falls from the Sky is a book about a woman, Esther Emery, putting her broken life back together and living for one year without electronic communication of any kind - no cell phone, no internet.

    One early and significant point revolved around how much what we do is relegated to the internet so we can feel that we have "connected" with other people. Maybe someone will see it and if IT is seen, then we are not alone and WE are seen.

    Ironically, her mother, Carla Emery, was a back-to-the-land movement heavy hitter with her massive Encyclopedia of Country Living having been a classic of its time. But the daughter grew up not knowing how to live a life not "modern" and so this book is her way of finding authenticity in herself and her family and her faith.

    “So emerged my position statement...I do not believe that advanced communications technology is required to have a full and vibrant connection to the world.

    This was my position, but if I were to now want to prove that position right, I would have to get out of my house. I would have to greet people in person, get to know my neighbors, have fascinating experiences. But I don’t feel motivated to do any of those things … because no one is watching.

    I wonder if this was true in times before our time. Was it impossible to imagine putting effort into something if there were no eyes to look at it? Was this true that a life seemed meaningless if it was lived in a place where it could not be seen?”

    Why blog now? At 63, when all I want to do is shut off the internet just as Esther did? Well, there are just so many people in the world looking for answers, methods, old ways and new ways. The grandmothers of our latest generations had already completely traded the self-reliance of their own parents for a life of modernity. They produced very little and purchased very much.

    And now we are feeling the pinch in our wallets as nations play gods with economics and politics. We are awash in chronic illness and a medical system that practices pharmacology rather than healing arts. And we are tired of getting sick because of the food itself, food that should be nourishing our cells, not robbing them of their integrity.

    I am blogging to share stories and methods for living in and managing one's own sovereign home. There will be stories told by other homesteaders, plant medicine lore and healing, old advices and time-tested methods such as pollarding and making silage to feed animals, home ways such as food preservation and mending. And family - we'll hear from elders and learn from children (and learn how to teach them).

    Following in Carla Emery's footsteps, I hope this will be a kind of "back-to" back-to-the-land compendium. I hope using the methods outlined make life simpler yet relevant to the 21st century reader, who is eschewing dependence on a broken system of living and livelihood.

   My homestead is a happy place, maybe a bit old fashioned, but it is designed to withstand even the next Great Depression. It is not dependent on corporations or governments. It's a simple home and life of both work and relaxing refreshment. Even if no one is looking, it has meaning. Because there's no place like homestead.