4 Rules of thumb for the county life.

I'm a senior citizen these days.... on Social Security and not thinking that is an oxymoron. I grew up on a beef ranch where the first inhabitants' thousands of years of activities were easy to see. Where they fished, gathered nuts and made tools was apparent to anyone in the spring, as you could pick up buckets of artifacts, all left the moment they became "imperfect." Later, the "back to the land" folks came to the area, followed quickly by hippies. No more drinking straight out of the creek! I went on to become over-educated and even have taught in a couple colleges. Now, I'm retired on a couple hundred acres where farming and forestry are practiced.

The movement to the country is not a new idea. One of my favorite writers, Peter Kropotkin, wrote about the ills of losing family farms near cities long before any English book on small holdings plans, the beauty of the small or such ideas hit The Whole Earth Catalog. (Kropotkin stated no school or prison should exist that didn't grow half of its own food. A lovely "why to" starting point I'm fond of quoting over Rudolf Steiner or other "how to" folks of 19th Century. The image is of community of both work and local food. Kropotkin, long before his time, is often pigeonholed as an anarchist, but he is really a decentralist over our currently ever more centralized corporate approach to necessities of life. What is "back to the land" but a decentralist view of how life should be lived? Idealistic? Well, Jefferson thought it the ideal model, but Kropotkin thought of it through "everyman's" eye.)

Even ancient Latin texts talk about Roman folk who felt more connected when back on farms. So this has been done before by many. Thus my first point is that knowing more always helps. The best help is from folks who have done it. Just make sure you don't miss that folks have been doing it for thousands of years, so don't discount history. The number one rule in looking to a rural life is "Don't reinvent the wheel." Its first sub rule is don't have more than one "new" thing in your plan and that should be that you are the "new" item trying an old, worn, proven path.

Times always seem to get to a crisis here or there. I remember the billboard in Seattle when Boeing cut employment in the 1970s that stated, "Will the last person to leave Seattle please turn off the lights." Seattle is still there and recently voted to allow goats to be considered under the same rules as cats and dogs for family animals. So we have chickens gaining in urban settings and now goats. The current bad times will eventually pass. Since this happens regularly, one is charged with being knowledgeable about cycles so to not have these waves swamp our boats. That leads to education. Not just job skills, but real investing, the things you do with your hands and mind all your life. I can't emphasize too much that city folks can practice their dreams of country living right in their city homestead. Even if that is an apartment. (Worm bins for organic garbage are great and you can swap worms for eggs and compost for veggies.) The key to education is application, as then you learn what that book learning really means. Rule 2: learn and apply right now. Your education should be towards getting a balance to your life in which you can feel comfortable providing much of what you need. (I know, tricky word, need ... a moving target at best.)

When I was growing up in very rural country, it was horrible to watch folks run from knowledge. County Extension agents had to run folks down to get their attention about good practices. What I learned from being in the country practically from day one is that no one can do it alone. (Rule number 3.) Cities seem to keep the myth of a self-made person alive. But the country takes that away quickly. Unless you are a city person moving to the country without much thought, lots of money and a lot of dreams ... hey, don't despair, you can provide humor to locals when they chat about all the brick walls that you will hit. (In my neighborhood, it is the nice people who think they bought a place with an acre or so that their dogs can run free like in some utopic doggie park. Given all the local sheep, that leads to deaths within months and lots of yelling back and forth, then whole new grudges, plus some interesting legal actions.)

Using a view of "I can't do it alone," when you look for an area to live, look to what co-op you can join. In my family's case in Southern Oregon, it was another farmer who had a mower and a rake, so we got a mower and a baler and did the hundreds of tons of needed winter hay in a two family co-op style where neither of us had to make the huge investment m equipment to go it alone. Then my dad baled hay for another farmer for a portion of that hay. Our cow herd expanded. We actually made money ranching then.

There are more formal co-ops available, starting with some rather large ones on commercial crops, like the organic dairy ones, to even a 4-H club is a co-op of sorts, down to family units nearby. They can be in equipment sharing, help in selling products or social settings to swap tales, say of what worked to get rid of the voles that ate our seedling's bark (hunting bird perches help, as does mowing to allow a clear shot for Mother Nature's hunters of small rodents). Just look to see beyond what you need as an individual or family to thrive. It is like antique stores--they each do better with three or four together, over one every 20 miles. It is not just the perfect land, it is also the social setting of the people who are your neighbors. From reading letters, I'd say a lot of folks moved and then found out this social part was really necessary, so I'm stressing it.

How to start to find out what the social order is in your ideal area of land? Stopping by feed stores and reading bulletin boards is a good informal start, then you can ask the feed store folks about a particular flyer and you are off to gaining knowledge. Is there a local farmers market? If county extension agents still exist in the area you are looking, stop by. Ask about 4-H clubs, as their extension based literature is great. (You want to learn how to raise pigs? Help lead a 4-H club. You'll be the local expert in two years. You can start small by getting the leaders material for you and the 4-Her material for your children.) Or look on Craig's List (with caution), which has become filled with ag ads in my area, as a great source to find local folks. Librarians are great, as you can see what titles they have to assess just who wants what information about a crop or animal you might want to raise. (My questions to a local librarian got her to order some books on ducks and geese just because I asked.)

Community is also important to the best country way, barter. Folks always love to trade their surplus for what they don't have. My potatoes and eggs can go to a friend who makes award-winning wine. A fisherman gets tired of just fish, and a deer share goes a long way to making friends. Rule 4 follows as you should find a path to learn locally. Sources like COUNTRYSIDE are good for a wide arc or sparks for ideas, but county agents, fair leaders, soil and water folks and even old Grange members can tell you tales about what folks once did right here where you stand. It took me a couple years to realize just why locals talked about the potatoes that once grew near here over their tomatoes. It's the microclimate. Too cold for consistent tomatoes, but great soil temperature for potatoes by early July, so guess what, I can swap for fresh tomatoes with folks in the warmer valley five miles away!

As a last local point, every country area seems these days to have more poor folks. So learn how to take sur pluses in quantities and forms that are useful to local food banks. You will feel like you really belong in early years by acting in a way to solve larger problems around you. Plus, locals will talk differently about you. Take what you do best, do it a little more, then spread it around. It feels better than being a social hermit that is "self sufficient" and overly proud of it. For example, the local folks like my eggs more than my apples. Everyone has extra apples at the same time and they require lots of long-term storage, so they cost the food bank money for energy and storage. If you want to spread your apples, you have to work harder, like getting a church with a state-approved commercial kitchen rating to bake apples into forms that the food bank or soup kitchen can handle. But I just have to show up on the first day they are open each week with our extra eggs to get smiles.

Have fun learning. That is what "country" is all about. You can't have a better retirement, as there is always something to do that is important or just pure pleasurable. It is a wonderful way to grow up as long as knowledge is available for the growing mind.

BY J. MICHAEL REID

ROGUE MARY FARM

SHERIDAN, OREGON