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It’s true I love my simple bow because it’s simple, for the most part. It’s what attracted me away from the pulley crowd. That said, everything in my life I don’t want or need anymore I’m trying to get rid of these days. The one bugabooo is machinery. I generally hate machinery. I stood on my head in the 70’s and fixed all kinds of “made to order” breakdowns in the junk cars of the day. I’m curious if others of this crowd feel the same way about simplifying their lives, in trad tradition, to the best anyone can these days. My end game, if I get one, is a big garden, small house, next to no yard, and maybe a little game meat from time to time:D I’ve never had an extravagent life, but why did it take so long to realize I don’t need half the stuff I have?? I’m really advising my “kids”, in their 20’s now, NOT to get suckered into all the stuff the market thinks you need and to “live small”.
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I’ll take a run at this as it’s somewhat forefront for me these days…:
Here goes:
While in theory, I truly do relate to what you say, I love tools…mostly hand tools… to use to do things well. “Right tool for the right job” mindset, but it can be a slippery slope.
In support of your advice to your adult kids, when I had to go thru my folks possessions after both passed, it was a daunting task! Took me two years! We never had money for pictures while I was growing up, but there were TONS of photos of their friends from the retirement village and old family pictures of elders in our clan, whom I knew not… finally, with all my dad’s siblings and Mom’s as well—GONE, I just had to throw them out! Sad…
Lots of memorabilia of theirs with notes to me…some things I kept, just “cause” and others, I discarded.
they’d sold off tons of stuff at auction, but kept things they thought were of value, but the antique market tanked in 08′ and hasn’t come back. So much of it sits as idle decor of days of yore.
So, yeah, simplify while and where one can! It’s a favor to your family coming along behind—if you have one!
On the downside of simplifying is that I find the older I get, the abilities, energy and stamina to do what I did manually, seems to have gone on vacation somewhere and doesn’t come home! 🙁
now with planting the garden, I was quite delighted to rent a gas engine sod cutter, and then to have my 80 yr old neighbor’s help with his tractor, front loader and trailer to put several tons of sod onto and haul away. Then they used their chisel plow & tractor to dig up the hard pan, i relished the torture of his rear-tine tiller to break up the clobbers of dirt. Pounding in stakes and putting up chicken wire by hand, has had me stiff and sore constantly, as did running the mechanized machinery…:shock:
So it seems that while younger, it is very alluring to “simplify” but as one ages and physical resilience starts to wane, mechanized things are a god-send! And still brutally punishing… depending.
I remain in limbo, between what my body demands and my heart wants.
I wish you and others luck in coming full circle while young enough and to hopefully be able to maintain the tried and true ways.
In my older neighbor’s garage, he keeps his father’s and his wife’s father’s scythes… I look at those, having tried them in younger days, and marvel at the fortitude of our forefathers!
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I hear ya.
When I got divorced, I moved into an 800 square foot apartment, with what at the time felt like very little. I slowly began to realize a bunch of the crap I’d acquired over the years didn’t really make me happy, and I had in fact acquired it as a sort of bandaid to keep from dealing with unhappiness. Our Mother Culture certainly encourages retail therapy…
Now I’m on six acres, and my wife and I are very much embracing a DIY/Homesteader type lifestyle. In some ways, that is pretty complex. We’ve accumulated a bunch of tools and equipment that we really do need to make this life possible.
I think now I’m acutely aware of whether something adds value to my life. Quite a bit of what is for sale out there, most sources of entertainment, the crappy stuff they sell at big box stores, either adds no value, or even takes a way value from life.
Even outdoors stuff is a slippery slope. You can spend more time worrying about the gear to do your thing, than you spend doing your thing.
One of the big attractions of a trad bow was simplicity. The gear is simple, the skills to use it, not so much. That’s exactly where I want to be in life.
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Hay Doc – Have you considered raised garden beds?
We used to do our gardening in the ground. It was torturous all the way around. Backaches from planting / weeding / harvesting. Bugs and rodents above ground and below eating more than their share… By the end of the year the place was more weed than anything.
We put in raised beds about 5 years ago. Since then I’ve sold the tiller. No moles, no rabbits, easier work, no back pain.
We added a bench so we could watch the garden grow 😀
For example… It used to take half a day to get potato’s planted with the kids help. Now my wife and I can do the same amount of planting in 15 minutes.
Raised beds are less work, more productive, and make for a happier life.
We raised our two rats in a 900 sf house on 50 acres. We spend a lot more time outside than in…
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Wose,
you reminded me of some changes I hadn’t thought about: When TV went digital, it went bye-bye in my world. Oh, I still have a tv, but it’s used to watch DVD movies I WANT and Hunting Tapes… giving up “the box” really wasn’t that hard, but it sure is nice…
Steve,
I like the look of a traditional garden…have wanted one again since, oh…late 80’s/early 90’s when I had to give up my place and started apartment living…
The cost of wood to build raised beds seemed daunting… but as time progresses, it may become more of consideration.
If you’d care to, since it’s not Trad Hunting related, perhaps you could send me a snapshot of yours to my email? Love to see how you did it!
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Getting impatient my tomato and chiles aren’t sprouting yet. Methinks has been too cool in the house. And yes, I shot my bow today and it was frighteningly on the mark. I stopped and put it away before I blew the moment. Got a steak to throw on the grill now. Signing off….
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Doc Nock wrote:
Steve,
…If you’d care to, since it’s not Trad Hunting related, perhaps you could send me a snapshot of yours to my email? Love to see how you did it!
Doc and Mike too,
Here’s a link to an older post I did showing some garden pictures:
https://www.tradbow.com/members/cfmbb/messages.cfm?threadid=EBB63042-1422-1DE9-EDE946C0FDFC2E0C
Be happy to send you some email info on specifications and what I did if you like.
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