What Have the Romans (Towns) Ever Done for Us?

Countryside Living or Town Living?

Hi people in Internet Land (T’web and Tinternet for our northern surfers). Good old (not old) Frugaldom, very kindly asked me to write a guest blog. I am incredibly honoured:

“Ta, Very much”.

Any road, I am the author of a book about baling string: Archie Sparrows Book of Useful Tips to Beat the Recession ....with Baling String. It’s supposed to make you laugh and forget your troubles for a while. The book is also a parody about living on a smallholding with very little money and lots of baling string.

Eh? Me telling you that it’s a parody? I am defeating the whole idea that it’s a parody! Aren’t I? You will have to get the book instead of me insulting your intelligence! It’s true though, all fiction is based on fact.

Frugaldom asked me to write about my experiences and thoughts of moving from a town to rural life. Hoping that you all might share your thoughts?

There’s a scene in one of my favourite films: The Life of Brian. It goes something like this:

“All right, but apart from the sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the freshwater system and public health. What have the Romans ever done for us?”

I would replace the word ‘Romans’ with ‘Towns’. Ten years ago I moved from the edge of a city to live in a beautiful rural place next to the sea in Southern Ireland. We live on a smallholding and it’s incredibly peaceful and it’s like living in an oil painting.

“Can somebody move that Hay-Wain from out of the water please?”

I had never heard of Rural Isolation before I came here. We have no pub, no jobs, no public transport, shops or even milk - although we live near lots of dairy farms.

I know I am incredibly lucky to live in the countryside. I can grow my own vegetables and ‘try’ to farm our 16 acres of a few cattle, sheep, pigs, hens, ducks, Jack Russell and a few rats and mice (can I claim for the rodents on my Single Payment form?) and spiders..!

Saying that, Frugaldom readers, it would be great to see a band or have a community centre, kebab house, allotments, bar, car boot sale or even watch a football match...?

I have heard (Googled) that eighty percent of people in the UK live in urban areas. Also forty percent of the people who move to the countryside return to the towns. Is the countryside really worth living in? Do you have to be a commuter or ‘weekender’, or just be rich to have any quality of life, living in the countryside? Will the small farm have to encourage tourism instead of farming?

Why is there no infrastructure in rural areas? Do you think there should be street lights, ‘model' green villages or ‘affordable’ and social housing....?

I look forward to your comments.

Thanks Frugaldom!
 
Guest blog by Dave Dealy
 
NYK Media
www.scottishmultimedia.co.uk

Archie Sparrow's Book of Useful Tips to Beat the Recession...

With Baling Twine!
'The Tight B*st*rd's Guide to Running a Smallholding.'

I have just received my copy of Dave Dealy's book, compliments of the great author, himself, complete with his own, personal autograph! (Cheers, Dave!) It dropped through my letterbox about half an hour ago, despite the postman having got here one hour ago. My 'Amazon' link, in the hope someone clicks on it to buy their own copy, is HERE.

It takes 'Paul the post' all his time to negotiate the swirling mass of hens and ducks that patrol our garden gate. Phoebe, our white duck, now gets so excited that she has taken to laying her egg under the front hedge, just in case she misses his visit! Our feathered army struts, quacks, clucks and cock-a-doodle-doos in anticipation of his arrival every morning, in the hope that he'll have brought them a biscuit - he always does. (Thanks, Paul.) I do feel a bit sorry for the relief postmen when they need to venture into our garden and up to our front door. They could pay dearly for that. You can clearly tell that the other postie (the one who always wears shorts) is a shade wary by the way he legs it along the path, throws the mail with dart like precision, then dashes off before Inky grabs anything that looks edible!

I also feel sorry for our feathered battalion on Sundays; they haven't quite grasped the concept of a 6-day-week.

Anyhow, on this warm and sunny March morning, this little book arrived. I SHOULD be working. I SHOULD be out in the garden, dismantling the old poultry houses that we converted from the delapidated kennels but, instead, I found myself flicking through the pages of this amusing (and perfectly sane, in my opinion) book. It's illustrated, so that doesn't help - I needed to look at all the pictures! In fact, it made me laugh just looking at the cover! Part of my afternoon spent in the garden yesterday entailed winding up all the string from my pea and bean canes. It's perfectly good string, I can reuse it!

Duty calls, so I need to get myself back into work mode, but rest assured, this evening will be early to bed with Dave Dealy and his useful tips to beat the recession... with baling string!

All will be revealed as soon as I've finished reading the book.

On completion, I shall be more than ready to plunge headlong into microholding which, as you should all know, will use much less baling string than smallholding. For a start, we don't need a tractor, so nothing to tie onto that.

Must dash - the bread's almost ready for rescuing. See you all in the Frugaldom Forums, later than expected. Oops! :)

Edited in: I have now read the tales of Archie Sparrow and his baler twine.

This is a really amusing little book with some  great ideas, some not so great ideas and some downright silly ideas - but baling twine's the name of the game, no matter what. I know it's only April and we haven't, yet, reached Easter but my suggestion is to get yourself a copy of this book, knit yourself some wrappings and trappings from baler twine and put it all away until Christmas, when you're bound to know someone who deserves a copy. Before wrapping it, make sire that you have collected enough baling twine from your nearest farmer or horsey friends to enable the lucky recipient the pleasure of trying out all the great things you can do with the string. better still, knit them a string bag and pack the whole lot in there.

I think I might try that one myself... knitting baler twine shopping bags!

This isn't just for the farming fraternity, this is for anyone who pursues a frugal lifestyle, aspires to the good life or, even, just knows someone else from whom they can cadge some baling string!

Order your copy here.