Simple living

rrlund · Nov 26, 2016

The post about living without a bank brings up a theory that I pretty much live by. As the Amish put it,"We don't want to be unhandy people,we just don't want to be slaves to technology".

To me,I don't need to have every gadget and modern convenience,but there's a point where it's harder to be without modern things and living a "simple" life is actually to have those things. It's easier for me to write a check to the power company every month for example,than it is to live without electricity. As long as I can afford it,it's easier to write a check for heating oil than it is to cut wood. The "simple life" these days means having a computer to find the things I need,things like parts,maps to where I'm going,phone numbers of businesses that aren't in the local phone book etc.

Simplicity is making things easy,not necessarily going without.

coonie minnie · Nov 26, 2016

Amen, brother.

GENE DERRINGER · Nov 26, 2016

I agree with your thinking. The world would be better off if they tried it.

FBH44 · Nov 26, 2016

I agree. I can find parts and advice and help and photos AND VIDEOS on-line that was simply impossible without computer. Allows me to keep the old stuff running, repaired, still operating just fine, like it was meant to be. In a few years the design of my old Farmall H will be 100 years old. Imagine when you were a kid if somebody could say that old 100-year old machine runs just fine still.

Traditional Farmer · Nov 26, 2016

I think the term 'simple' these days is a misnomer,rather it should be 'dependent' as in trying to be less dependent on outside forces and suppliers.Power failure? I have wood heat and gravity flow water from a Spring if I need it.I have a checking account just for SS deposits and paying bills but have usually have very little money in it on purpose.I own equipment and tractors I can repair myself with lots of spare parts and parts machines.We grow a big garden and put up a lot of it for Winter.I'm a pretty decent hunter and can keep myself in meat.Now I'm not kidding myself I am dependent on the outside World of course but if the power goes off for a week or so I'm fine and if there is a coming snow storm I don't have to go and fight at the grocery store for a loaf of bread.If my baler breaks down in the middle of baling 30 acres of hay I just go get on the backup tractor/baler and finish out the day and even have a 3rd backup rig.Plus I can work on the broken down machine when I want with cheaper parts than having to immediately run to the dealer to buy their high dollar stuff and pay $100 hr for them to work on it.Actually being fully dependent on the outside world is as simple as it gets these days but its usually expensive and you have no control over anything that happens to yourself.And if you trust banks check with the folks in Cyprus.

Duane WI · Nov 26, 2016

The internet is one of the greatest tools for simple living ever invented. The information I can find on it allows me to do so many things by myself that I would otherwise need to pay someone to do for me. Maybe the term isn't simple living but independent living.

Dan Richardson · Nov 26, 2016

(quoted from post at 13:46:47 11/26/16) I agree with your thinking. The world would be better off if they tried it.

Who the heck are you to tell the Amish how to live? Crawl back in your microwave.

J.Wondergem · Nov 26, 2016

I agree. I remember my Dad driving all over looking for a part.

Adirondack case guy · Nov 26, 2016

??????? You haveing a bad day?????
Loren

Fatjay · Nov 26, 2016

If people can't live without modern conveniences, they have their priorities wrong. I enjoy some of the modern conveniences of life, electricity, running water, my jaguar, but take them away (and nature does, periodically, for brief periods) and I can still live. None of these are crippling, but I know quite a few people who simply would not know what to do or how to live.

Goose · Nov 26, 2016

Look at the 1911 .45 pistol. The design is 105 years old, and it's still the handgun of choice of the Marine Corps.

rrlund · Nov 26, 2016

No. Heck no. A good enough day to be feeling a little philosophical I guess. The post about living without a bank got me thinking about a guy and his wife out east of town who gave up electricity decades ago and about a neighbor who had electricity and an old car,but farmed with horses and milked cows by hand up until he died in the mid 70s. He didn't even have a phone. He'd come up here and have us call the vet,or one of his kids if he needed something.
For me,it's just easier to keep a few more cows and work a few more acres to feed them as long as I'm doing it anyway,so I have the income to pay for things,than it is to do without them. I don't have a smart phone,a GPS or things of that nature,just because I don't see the advantage for the money,but I don't begrudge the technology for existing. It's just not for me.

Besides,you know this kind of thing always gets a good discussion going Loren. LOL

rrlund · Nov 26, 2016

Oh,that was directed at Dan wasn't it? Danged Classic View anyway. LOL

rrlund · Nov 26, 2016

Don't take what I said the wrong way. It wasn't a condemnation of the Amish. It was an admiration of their philosophy. It's just that if you live in the community of the modern world instead of a closed community of others who live like the Amish do,it's easier to go along with the basics of what has become universally accepted as "essential".

notjustair · Nov 26, 2016

We are living even simpler this month - we finally got internet here!! Kwicom finally has a tower close enough. Yesterday when I was working on the truck I was able to come in and use the tablet to read what Jim said the other day about testing a generator cutout. Before that I would have had two sets of cheaters on trying to read it off my phone.

I'm all about living simply and am known to do things like dig a pond with the loader tractor because that's the machine I have. My mom always said she and I were too stupid to know when things are impossible. I like to think of it as stingy. I think something like the internet has allowed many of us to have old machines running everyday because parts and advice are easy to obtain. I can't imagine how I would have my '35 Chevy grain truck, my '55 Chevy grain truck, or my '58 GMC grain truck running without online parts from Jim Carter or you folks to ask. All of those are able to be used and saving me from some newer piece of equipment when I really only have limited use for a straight truck with two semis here.

DPittman · Nov 26, 2016

Technology is a wonderful thing when it works and as rrlund so aptly stated, we are not slaves to it. Don't know how many people I can't visit with cause they won't put that stupid phone down long enough to raise their heads and actually carry on a conversation with a real person. I need to stop right there, cause I don't want to get started on phones. Best song ever: Simple Man by Lynyrd Skynyrd.

JD Seller · Nov 26, 2016

The Amish also look at how technology effects their community. Just look at the other side of the internet. We can communicate with people across the globe on it but may do that instead of communicating with the people right in the same house/community.

Look at how modern large equipment has effected farmers dealing with each other. They do not need their neighbors to help harvest or much of anything. So the social climate is much different today than it was 75 years ago. They will show up at some event if someone is dying or are very sick but will not think twice about buy/renting ground right out from under someone.

I have lived without electric, running water or central heat. It is not fun and a lot more work just to get by. The women really have it harder with out these things. The everyday work around the home/family is much harder without modern conveniences.

So I am for living simply but with in reason too. An example is we do not have a TV in the house. The last one quit working and I just did not replace it. I have not watched an entire TV show in over 10 years. I do not miss it at all. Instead I waste my time on the internet. LOL

fixerupper · Nov 26, 2016

Last evening we were sitting around the table eating our Thanksgiving meal with three of our oldest granddaughters. Two are out of high school and the third is a junior in high school. We got to talking about turkey dressing or stuffing. Is it called dressing or stuffing and why? I pulled out my smart phone and looked it up right there on the spot. After I looked it up the girls started talking about smart phones. They thought we lived in the dark ages back when we didn't have smart phones. LOL Marilyn told them we looked it up in the encyclopedia back in the 'dark ages'. I did mention I would be lost without mine. I'm constantly looking something up on it. During the conversation I was ready to point to the place on the wall where the crank phone was when I was a kid but I didn't want them to think I was THAT old. Which I am NOT.

Geo-TH,In · Nov 26, 2016

Simplicity is making things easy, not necessarily going without.

I'm in favor of using what ever it takes to make my job easier and that includes using computers and smart phones.

I resisted getting a PC until 1994. Bought a compact multimedia computer, $2800. It didn't even have windows 95, but we were promised 95 when it came out.

That was the best investment I ever made, according to my boy who is head of IT security for a large hospital group and university, over $3B annually. His job is make sure no one hacks into patients and students records. He gets paid way more than I ever did. Just bought a very nice home.

I'm proud of my son's accomplishments because of Computer technology. He told me at Thanksgiving that it wouldn't have happened if I hadn't bought the first computer in 94. While in HS he would go to classrooms and show the teachers how to get the computers working again. The school didn't pay him for that either, but it was good experience for him.

I told my boy I still have the compact in my basement if he wants it. It still works, No thank you was his response.

geo

Ultradog MN · Nov 26, 2016

Well said RR.
I can do without a few things but am not about to live like the Amish.
No tv here and the only radio is in my pickup.
I don't get bombarded by ads for stuff you gotta have but don't need.
Some things I wouldn't give up though.
One of them, like your heating oil is natural gas.
Lots of threads here about getting your wood up for winter. I did that as a kid and am so glad I'm on natural gas here.

rrlund · Nov 26, 2016

Smart phones are like boats or cabins. You don't need to own a boat,you just need to know somebody who owns a boat. LOL

davpal · Nov 26, 2016

Internet helps those of us that live in the sticks. I order quite a bit of stuff online. Amazing how convienent it is. I ordered some new kitchen curtains last night before I went to bed. Didn't have to drive anywhere on black friday to do it. I do embrace the simple life though. I can't stand the living from paycheck to paycheck lifestyle most people live and I would rather live in a cardboard box before I would have a big house payment or car payment. Bahh, Humbug.

jimg.allentown · Nov 26, 2016

The Amish are not always as simple as you think. While they themselves do not have electricity in their homes for the most part, they certainly do use it in their businesses.

Some of my experiences and encounters with the Amish:

Picking up at a supply house for construction materials, I see Amish boys DRIVING forklift trucks all over the place. I inquired about that. While they are not allowed normally to drive, they ARE allowed to drive for the purpose of working at a job. At the discretion of their bishop.

Picking up at an Amish furniture factory, I heard a lot of machine sounds. I took a walk around. I found a stationary diesel engine chugging away in a shed out behind the factory. Inside, radios were playing, lathes, mills, shapers, planers, routers, and every other kind of wood working equipment was running. All running on compressed air. They even had ceiling fans running on compressed air. I inquired about the radios, since they are indeed electric. The answer I got was that because they ran on batteries, they were OK. When loading time came, a neighbor showed up with a forklift and loaded my truck. While not directly using "modern" technology, they sure did take advantage of it indirectly.

While the Amish do not ordinarily drive, they are not above riding in a car. Just let somebody else drive. I am also acquainted with an Amish bishop. His wife has a car and drives. So, he gets a ride to wherever he needs to go.

Simple? Maybe to some extent, but they are not ashamed to take advantage of technology indirectly.

Traditional Farmer · Nov 26, 2016

I think a lot of the time with the Amish I know is its not simple living as much as practical living.

Traditional Farmer · Nov 26, 2016

Thats me I'm fine using modern conviences but I do not want to be in a position where I have to have them to live,I'll never know when I need to live like I did years ago but want
be ready if I need to.Like a gun I hope I'll never need one to stay alive but if I do need one I sure want to be ready.

JBDyer · Nov 26, 2016

I too, do not have a television, haven't for 20 years. I am 48 years old, we been married 26 yrs. I do have internet and a cell phone though. Me and wife just never cared for TV much. Also my wife has rarely worked outside our home. We raised one son and he is about out of the house. We live very simply, 2 vacations in 26 years of marriage, house, farm, car, truck and equipment pretty much paid for. Heat with wood and no central air cond, never spent a dime on cable TV. I work with my hands six days a week and have made a decent living, have been content. I am in East Texas, not Amish or Mennonite, we just have chosen to live life the way we want to and not the way society thinks we oughta.

RamblinMan · Nov 26, 2016

My grandpa was very happy to quit burning wood and have coal hauled in. He made the change by having the chimney checked out and repaired as needed. He burned coal for a long time. He was a dairy farmer and grew corn and hay. I heard him tell of buying his first tractor and how that simplified his life. When he sold the farm he cautioned the new owners not to burn wood due to burning coal for many years. The new owners burnt the house down the first winter burning wood. Grandpa said they were foolish burning wood while coal was cheaply bought and he had just paid for a load of coal to be delivered just before they moved out.

Steamboat · Nov 27, 2016

Totally agree, rrlund. We do not buy every trendy gadget coming out on the market. We don't have a boat, 4 wheeler, I-phone,new car or truck every few years as others seem are necessary. But We do have a whole-house emergency generator when neighbors with all those toys are in the dark with no heat or water. Guess I'm just too pragmatic!
BTW I once told a lady that I was a pragmatist, and she thought it was a strange Protestant denomination!

Pair-a-dice farm · Nov 27, 2016

I guess simple life is different for different folks. My wife and I were talking the other night about all the things that we think we have to have now that we didn't need when we got married 35 years ago. We didn't have TV or internet of course. No air conditioning or city water. We could do without most of that but I really like the A?C and I use the internet to order a lot of my parts so I believe it saves more than it costs.
What we spend the most on is insurance. Car insurance is necessary and it's became necessary to keep liability insurance on the farm because of the lawyers. Our health insurance is eating us alive. I had to take on a part time job just to buy health insurance. My wife and I don't go to a doctor and even if we did the ones around here are useless for anything more than a sprain. It was much simpler when we didn't have to have insurance and we just paid when we went. In my neck of the woods I see older people that insurance has lowered their quality of life.

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