A few days ago @wwf posted about one of the biggest mistakes you can make when building an off grid home. You can see his piece here…https://steemit.com/ungrip/@wwf/some-ideas-for-off-grid-thermal-mass-tiny-homes
Although I don’t want to spoil it for you, I can agree with his surmise…bigger is not better when moving off grid. I want to expand on this concept as I feel it applies to other areas within homesteading and off grid living. I am starting a tag “smallisbeautiful” for us all to share why staying small has benefited us, why it enriches us, and why when living a homesteading lifestyle small is survival.
Small is beautiful
Yup…it’s a cliché…and that’s okay because it’s totally true. Keeping life to a manageable size is important for a few reasons. In the coming weeks I will be sharing some of my top reasons for keeping life small. Today’s? It keeps us honest and full of integrity.
Maybe you’ve heard of a theory called the “Tragedy of the Commons” it was supported and made popular by Garrett Hardin, an ecologist, in the late 60’s. The theory goes like this…
Where ever there is a common resource (pasture that many families use, the atmosphere, lakes…) and people gain a benefit from using it, there is incentive to use it more and more. Each person or group using that common resource shares this incentive and by the collective drive to gain more benefit, the resource becomes depleted or polluted.
However, this theory only holds true in certain conditions. Eleanor Ostrom investigated this theory through her work in small communities around the world. What did she find? That “the tragedy” of over use and taking advantage of something only happens when people are removed from traditionally scaled communities. A traditionally scaled community is much like the size we would see in a small rural town. A place where everyone knows you. It’s a community where there are checks and balances that keep the behaviour (including the potentially selfish ones) in check.
Humans desire community. It’s hardwired into us. If we behave selfishly within our communities, our actions can harm the community (as in the example of one family over grazing a pasture and leaving poor quality forage for others…or worse, a damaged ecosystem where the pasture value simply can’t rebound without rehabilitation.) Having the disapproval of a community cast on you is painful experience. In our modern day we are so mobile that if it became uncomfortable after we behaved poorly, we could simply leave and take up residence in a new community. However, in times past this would have been much more difficult. So, you managed yourself to make it easier to be in the community.
We see this phenomenon with businesses around the world. A resource becomes depleted or polluted (including the people) and the company simply pulls out and finds a new community to create profit off of.
We see it in cities too. If someone preys upon one community in a cash grab scam, they aren’t going to stick around to feel the negative consequences of their actions. They are going to move on and have little incentive to change their ways.
When we commit to one place, we become responsible for it, including how we manage ourselves within that space. It forces us to heal the damage we may have contributed in creating. What does this have to do with living on a homestead or off grid? When you rely on one place for your survival (by choice or necessity) you need to act every day in such a way that shows integrity. You can’t cut all your trees down and sell them…or you will not be able to feed the fire. You can’t mine your soil of nutrients without replenishing every season, or it will not produce the veggies you need to survive. You cannot slaughter and sell all of your breeding stock for some quick money, or you will have no milk, eggs, and meat in future years. You cannot take advantage of your neighbour’s generosity repeatedly without balancing it out by offering support in turn.
And, what if by accident, negligence, or design I do deplete a resources that I steward by going too big (we’ve all done it)? Then we will make the efforts to heal the damage. We will adjust our grazing practices, we will add manure to the garden. We will plant trees. And, we will mend broken relationships.
I’ve made this mistake. I’ve gone too big. And, I’ve paid the price, swallowed my pride, and scaled back down. I will share some of those stories with you in my #smallisbeautiful posts in the coming weeks. But for now, why do you keep it small? I invite you to share your reasons for keeping things small and manageable on the homestead in a post and add the tag “smallisbeautiful” so I can find it and resteem it. I invite some dolphins to resteem also! Perhaps in sharing all of our examples, others will also see that there is beauty in ending the chase for bigger and better and becoming happy with what is.
I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
From my home fire to yours, hai hai.