Living the Good Life
I wish we’d had a fiver every time someone had called us Tom and Barbara over the years! But believe me, we’re really no Tom and Barbara and those that know me, will know I’m often fighting off my inner Margo! Nonetheless, the idea of a sustainable life was always a good one and when we moved to The Lint Mill we nostalgically watched all the old TV episodes just for fun!
Remarkably, 47 years after its first broadcast in 1975, the words of the title of this very British sitcom are still able to conjour up Tom and Barbara living a self-sufficient life against the odds, under the patronising gaze of their neighbours Margo and Gerry. In its day, it gently railed against capitalism, asked of those who were stuck in the ‘rat race’ if they felt like giving up, getting out and finding a way to live a better life?
The phrase Living the Good Life has been synonymous with self-sufficiency since the publication of Living the Good Life: How to Live Sanely and Simply in a Troubled World in 1954 by Scott and Helen Nearing. And the title of this book could hardly feel more relevant today. The agricultural industry in the US in the 50s saw major changes: the complete mechanisation of agriculture with tractors and other equipment, the use of higher yielding crop varieties, herbicides and fertiliser to make each acre more productive. However, the unintended consequences of these changes led to a crisis of soil health, soil so degraded that many scientists have warned that we cannot sustain food production for many more harvests unless we change the way we farm.
So here we are, in 2022, troubled times indeed and trying to find ways to live more sanely and simply and it seems we’re not alone.
We have been running our ‘A Beginner’s Guide to Organic Smallholding’ since 2018 and they have been popular from the start but post-Covid, we have noticed a big uplift in their popularity. It seems that the pandemic has been the catalyst for many people to re-evaluate their lives and to try to find ways to live that are more aligned to their values. With the current cost of living crisis, soaring energy bills and talk of food shortages, no wonder people are finding the idea of self-sufficiency more compelling than ever.
Recently, in response to growing requests from course participants who wanted ‘more’, we launched our Living the Good Life – A Working Weekend at The Lint Mill and the lovely Neil and Claire from Cumbria were our ‘guinea pigs’ or as we like to say, our pioneers. We had an absolutely wonderful weekend with them both as their excitement about beginning their smallholding journey was palpable and sharing what we’d learned over the years was a complete pleasure.
When we advertised this new course we decided not to shy away from calling it ‘Living the Good Life‘ because it turns out that as well as having a sound theoretical basis, the phrase says exactly what it is – it’s a very good life indeed.
For more information on our ‘Living the Good Life-A Working Weekend at The Lint Mill’ course, click here.
