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Radical homemaker - part 1
This is a term currently being bandied about the net, blogs, etc, so I thought I'd ahve a look into it and do some reading to find out what it's all about. seems to have sprung up around the book of the same name:
http://radicalhomemakers.com/
I must admit I didn't go further on that website, as I saw the "lectures/workshop" at the top - immediate turn off for me. I shan't be buying the book either - more radical to do your own thing I should think!
Anyhoo, it got me thinking, which is a good thing.
To me, radical means basic, back to the roots, the essential elements of. So, radical homemaking is going back to the essentials of homemaking, the basics, the nub,what it's all about, according to your own ethics and principles, circumstances, beliefs and ideas, wishes and how you want to live your life.
My life revolves around the home, that's how it's been for a long while now. I have worked in the past, whilst running my own home, and I continued to do so full and part-time for a while with two small children. So I know how it is.......... However, I'm where I am right now, so I'm looking at this from my current perspective.
I've always been seen as radical in the "not the norm", "anti", "alternative" sense of the word, and have been told so on many occasions. I have no beef with that, I"m who I am and I do what I do.
Self reliance, the principle around which I try to live is often seen as radical in that sense, but I'm at a loss to see why really. To me, it's perfectly natural to want to do things for yourself, be reliant on as few others as possible, do your own thing your own way, plough your own furrow. So I do.
This was brought into sharp focus the other night when MrL brought home a copy of something he'd done for one of his work colleagues. This colleague is considering getting a solid fuel stove, so he wrote out a diatribe on the pros and cons.
When I actually saw the following in writing, it clicked as to how we could be seen as radical in the stove department:
Stove does all hot water (immersion for emergencies only); heating - no central heating; all the cooking - no microwave,electric/gas oven or hob; all the clothes drying on pulley above - no electric tumble dryer; all the hot water for drinks - no electric kettle; all the toast, on a rack or fork over the flames in the firebox - no electric toaster.
Very different to most modern kitchens I should think, but it's how I want it to be. We are gradually wearing down our electricity consumption by quite a bit - good for resources, good for the planet, good for our pockets; we are able to run the stove on wood if we wish (going to change over completely in the near future I hope), so no reliance on others for fuel, we'll get our own (will need lots of forethought and organisation) - so, self reliance, monetary and planetary considerations all taken into account there, pretty fundamental, basic building blocks in the way I wish to live, therefore radical.
I am a radical homemaker!
More to follow......
Been a while, and some fairly major shifts have taken place in my life - personally, emotionally and physically. The upshot of it all is that I'm just about to embark upon refitting/converting my summerhouse/cabin in the garden for staying in for a while - maybe not all the time, I'm not sure yet, but I'm going to have a go. First thoughts are clearing it out, then insulation, then fitting it and moving in. Everything is to be as earth friendly as possible - recycled, reused, off-grid, things with soul, handmade by me or others as much as possible. The cabin sits to one side of the middle of the garden and is more or less very peaceful.
It's going to be a very interesting and exciting time, not to mention fairly high up on the scale of radical homemaking! Plenty of research will be necessary before I even start, and I've just found this article on the Backwoods Home site, very inspiring and gave me confidence to know that I was able to nod my head at several of the things mentioned as I'd already thought of them......... lol
More later, stick with me :)
http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/wolfe92.html
Introducing my off-grid dishwasher lol
Time for major changes here now, starting with a big decluttering exercise and paring down of 'stuff'; after that, I can get on with the decoratingredecorating, which I would really like to have completed by the end of spring, so can spend the whole of summer in the garden. That's the plan, anyway. I'm starting today, in the kitchen, but will do it in tandem with the sitting room where there are still boxes to be unpacked and sorted, some of it kitchen stuff too. First job is the dresser, which looks like this at the moment:
