To just say let's go - fuck it !

[stillvicarinatutu]

My fantasy - and I can't actually see why we couldn't do this .....

Group of us me be somewhere remote . Farm our own veg , keep hens and cows - eat our own eggs and milk , live a good life without killing anything, build yurts , teach our kids the really important things in life - nature , kindness, spelling and basic maths and science , share with our friends and neighbours and embrace our kids with differences as well as our nt kids - basically start a bloody hippy commune where we do t have to worry about our kids being bullied or our gas bills .

Anyone with me ? I'd go tomorrow. Had enough of politics and idiots . I just want to live a good life , love my animals , nurture my friends and cook and share.
Fancy the highlands of Scotland or somewhere equally off grid . We could club together. Fuck off . Forget liz fucking truss and that whole shit show and just live . Love our dogs and our cats and our cows and our hens , look after each other , raise kids as a village , live a bloody amazing life.

Sign up . I'd seriously do this if we had enough interest, people , and yurts !

I mean people do it. Its not impossible. Sometimes I see the draw. But you need startup costs, basic equipment, legal knowledge and understanding, skills, a lot of skills and knowledge most people don't have. Plus there's the health issue. I'm guessing you're a fit, healthy and active 50 to be contemplating this, which is great, but what if you or someone in the commune contracts an illness? Do you come back to society or just say fuck it, I've had my lot, goes with the territory?

Oh and the other thing is - you can't escape society. It might be a different society, but it would still be a society with all the complexity that entails. It's kinda part of the primate thing.

I suspect you don't grow veg. I do and it's a lot of work and nature is against you - I can't imagine how hard it would be to grow enough to feed you for a year. I grow beans, potatoes, kale - the kale will last for ages but the more filling stuff like potatoes you'd need fields of them.

Christ no, my nightmare. I have grown up helping my parents grow fruit and veg, keep chickens, helping neighbours with the cows and pigs. Farming is awfully hard and true self sufficiency is a complete pipedream.

We have some land with shed/barn structures. DD and her pals love it and it nurtures my soul.
We grow our own food and it is BLOODY HARD WORK! Chickens are great but unhinged 😂.
Some Summers we spend loads of time camping out there (DD's DF lives there permanantly but we have a house).
It is a gorgeous life and I'm aware we are very lucky indeed.

Ooh, I've just found my people!

Yes, I'd come, Scottish Highlands would be perfect. I've lived in Scandinavia, above the arctic circle, snow 10 ft deep in places which starts September and doesn't melt until May, darkness (and I mean no sun at all darkness) from November to late January, temperatures between -7 to -25. Perfectly happy, loved every minute of it, I revelled in being remote and didn't find any problem with the cold. I only came back because COVID put a stop to it all.

I still dream of being so remote again; I live rurally but it isn't the same. I also dream of finding like-minded people who would pull together, go off-grid and leave the excesses of society behind. I have useful skills...I'm good at gardening, I'm handy with an electric saw and drill, excellent at cleaning (thinking someone's got to empty the eco loo without moaning about it!), can bulk cook for large numbers.....

I'll carry on dreaming then......!

A lady in Derbyshire is trying similar, in Cressbrook. Have a Google. She's being met with resistance from locals, interesting piece.
Could you start small OP by turning over your garden to growing food?

The reality when your spring water stops being pumped up to your house will maybe cause you to rethink.
No ringing United Utilities. Waders on, grab every possible tool you might need, to save you trudging back up to fetch something you need. Oh yeah and this always happens when the weather is wild.
If you're not lucky enough to get your water going again, you are then at the mercy of the local farmer and his water bowser to come and fill your holding tank.

Aye, living the dream 😂

My Partner was brought up on a commune, I think it was 5 families so 8 kids 10 adults , they bought a massive house in the middle of nowhere with land. The Women done all the home stuff and homeschooling. My partners Dad looked after the land/veg/maintenance of the house etc and some of the other guys worked away from the house. I love hearing the stories of everyone just getting stuck in, including the kids.

Sounds nice. Idyllic. To get away from all this shit.

But you'd have to like all the people you were with. And that's unlikely because you'd need different personalities in order to make it work.

But even on a kibbutz wouldn't you end up having a leader. Or someone gets a bit too controlling eventually?

@stillvicarinatutu I'm a bit concerned by your idea of keeping cows for milk and 'not really killing anything' on your smallholding. What will you do with the male calves that are born? You can't milk cows that haven't given birth. You're going to run out of space pretty quickly and the cost of feeding them will be extortionate.

We enjoy keeping sheep though. They're fairly low maintenance.

I think your idea lost the magic when you suggested it be in reach of a Tesco delivery. 😐

Chickens are in look down at the moment......

It will be freezing in winter.

Me and my DP always talk about this.

I live in the Highlands (Argyll&Bute) and grow as much vegetables as I can for the family and even with access to a lot of space in a decent polytunnel, we aren't anywhere near self-suffiency for vegetables.
I recommend doing it somewhere warmer and less rainy and peaty/rocky.

Serious lack of understanding of how dairy farming works, too.

You probably just need a holiday OP. Book yourself into a hut in the Himalayas for 10 days. Now.

Wait till May. Then go. Weather is better.

Yep I'm in.
But it's very cold in Scotland.
Can we go somewhere a bit warmer please op?

It already exists (nearly, not completly self sufficient) and looks great.
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m00118sc/growing-up-green

I especially love the idea of the angora rabbits. I'd like to be Head of Rabbits and would make sure the process was cruelty free.

I think you'd need yurts in a giant greenhouse maybe to maximize growing potential - have you seen those houses that are inside a massive greenhouse. You can connect the waste water to do the plants and make it sustainable.

Don't know of anyone has mentioned - you need baby cows to get mummy cows to have milk, then you have to do something with the baby cows (might involve killing something). I think oat milk might be the most sustainable in the UK? Also, cows need milking a lot!

What about eating sustainable meat like pigeons and rabbit? Or is it the killing that you have issue with?

That’s what I was going to say. Cows don’t lactate unless they have a baby. Also if you want more chickens then there will be male chicks and multiple cockerels will fight. The egg and dairy industries involve the males being killed.

Well I moved rurally. Step 1 done.

I do keep thinking I should stock up on seeds etc in case we have to go full Good Life. I have my chickens for eggs. Would need to steal a cockerel though...

Can we do it in Bali?

Now that's a plan.

Or steal the plan Lister had in Red Dwarf and go to Fiji?