When I graduated college in 1971, much to my parents surprise I announced that I did not want to go to law school. I had found a farm of 140 acres on the Nova Scotia coast for only $6,000 US. I ended up buying the farm. With the help of some college roommates, the pink house with hand hewn beams became a livable home.
One college friend and I decided to try to farm. Instead of money for law school I got money for a John Deere tractor and some farm equipment. We bought a few head of cattle and a little more land. It was the beginning of an amazing journey.
The first summer we put in a huge garden. My Mother and my Aunt Molly came up that summer and helped us figure out canning and freezing. We also butchered a steer and killed a hog that we had raised with some neighbors. It was a crash course in learning how to do everything from grinding hamburger to drying onions.
There were some things we ended up deciding that were best done by professionals. Butchering a steer was one of them. However, gardening was definitely something which was worthwhile. Even in Canada we managed a great tomato crop and sweet corn. They did not arrive until late August, but that made them even more welcome.
While going back to the land is not an option for most of our urban society, I expect we might see a mini-boom in people revisiting the idea. There is nothing wrong with living on the land if you can manage it. It is not an easy life style, and it is not a commitment anyone should make lightly.
After we left Nova Scotia, my wife and I ran a large scale cattle farm in New Brunswick. Aside from chickens, turkey, and pork we grew most of our own food. We had one dairy cow, a dozen chickens for eggs and almost 200 purebred Angus cattle. We had a huge garden and two freezers. For years my wife baked much of our bread and made our own butter. We ate plenty of grass fattened beef, lots of canned green beans, as many potatoes as we could use. We did not spend a lot of money on food.
After eleven years on the farm, we decided to trade that life in for a job with steady wages where there was no operating loan at 20% interest. Today all I grow is a few tomatoes which are a major part of our food in the summer. Almost all of our food comes from the grocery store.
That off the farm job enabled us to send our three children to college. While I would like to be back growing most of our food, I am not sure it would save us a lot of money.
Even as the cost of living has gone up, food remains a great bargain. One night recently we had grilled salmon for dinner. The next night we split a steak. The per person cost on each of those meals was less than $5. I could be back on the land, and my cost for steak might be less but I would not have the variety of salmon. Prepared food of course is a different story.
Food is not where our expenses are. Cable television and the Internet now cost $150 per month or more. That is the equivalent of one of those $5 meals each night of the month. Our healthcare insurance even with a huge deductible is $550 per month and headed higher in January. Adding property taxes, car and property insurance, and utilities creates a sum that makes food look like a true bargain.
Perhaps we could find a low tax spot where we could built a stone home with a steel roof, give up television and the Internet, stop driving, and forget about healthcare insurance.
That is not a very workable solution.
The reality is that we have to get back to the future whatever it is. Going back to the land while it provides great food and plenty of exercise is not necessarily the solution for reducing costs in the modern world.
We have to figure out some new paradigms. The Internet is perhaps not the problem. It may even be part of the solution. As we take the opportunity to work more at home because of the Internet, perhaps we also reduce our driving. It is also likely that the Internet gives us a larger reach for our ideas and businesses.
While we have talked for years about an Internet driven economy, this latest economic downturn might well be the spark for homegrown Internet businesses. Perhaps removing the commuting time from daily life also makes room for that large garden once again.
The next year should definitely be an interesting one.
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