The Happy Stranger
Adventures in Sustainable Living Podcast
Episode 139
The Happy Stranger
Just the other day I was up on the hillside above the cabin working on the greenhouse. I would take intermittent breaks, sit at a home made table, enjoy the view of the peaks and soak in the peace and tranquility. The only interruption to my silence was the sound of the distant creek that is at the height of Spring run off.
I distinctly remember when I first moved onto the property how all my friends and family thought I was crazy. Twenty seven years later I am often curious why so many people are a stranger to what I do. And at the same time I feel as if I am a stranger to what they do. But at least I am a happy stranger.
Welcome back everyone to the Adventures in Sustainable Living podcast. This is your host Patrick and this is E 139 which is called The Happy Stranger.
During the time that I have owned the homestead property the whole front range area in Colorado, from Fort Collins in the north to Colorado Springs in the south has grown by more than 2 million people. What used to be a narrow two lane highway going to the property is now two lanes in each direction. Our closest community, about 20 miles away, has quadrupled in size and now has two big shopping centers. My monthly trips to a big grocery warehouse in Denver are no longer necessary. Everything I need is now on the mountain. If I worked from home full time I would never have to drive to Denver.
Yet this small bit of convenience comes at a price. Traffic on the county road and the highway into town has more than doubled. Road rage, drunk drivers, speeding, roll-over accidents and fatalities occur on a regular basis. It is fairly common for the highway to be closed due to such accidents. If I drive into town after a long holiday weekend, I count the car parts on the side of the road as well as new places in the guard rail where someone hit it at a high rate of speed.
All such things happen only because people drive way too fast, they drive distracted, drunk, high, or all of the above. Some of it is the result of road rage. People become unreasonable angry because another driver pulled in front of them. This meant they actually had to slow down to something less than 20 mph over the speed limit which angers them as if a 5 second delay in their trip that day was a life changer.
I now consistently go to the supermarket at 6 am. Any errands are commonly taken care of on my way to work in the mornings. I avoid running any errands, and especially going to the supermarket, in late afternoon and on any holiday weekend. Businesses are packed with people, everyone is in a hurry, and most people have grumpy looks on their faces.
At the height of the summer season when everyone heads to the mountains for the weekend, it often takes me three hours to get home because there is so much traffic. Furthermore, I never get out onto the highway on the weekends any more because I may as well be driving in rush hour traffic in Denver.
I often wonder why people want everything right now if not yesterday. Everyone is always in a hurry and pressed for time. Patience is no longer a virtue and I am not sure it even exists any more. People often have an entitled air about their personalities which is something I deal with on a regular basis. Even in the face of unprecedented and devastating forest fires in Canada this year, instead of feeling sympathy and offering assistance, some are complaining about all the smoke and how the Canadian government should be paying reparations due to all the health problems related to that smoke.
And all of this is the result of so called “progress.”
I catch myself thinking that it is nothing less than remarkable that despite all the growth in Colorado the homestead property, as well as all the surrounding properties, have remained relatively unchanged. Perhaps this is because everything is behind a locked gate. Access is limited to property owners, friends and family. This small area is a 160 acre island in the middle of the national forest that is seemingly cut off from civilization. If you came here and never left you would get the distinct feeling that time does in fact stand still.
But just as there is a reason for all the so-called “progress” there is also a reason for why time stands still and few things here have changed after living here for over 2 1/2 decades.
To say the least, there are very specific challenges for us to live where we do. Access is sometimes limited and is always a challenge 6 months out of the year due to heavy snow. About three months of the year there are windy conditions and below zero temperatures. Winter clothing, shovels, tire chains, head lamps, and survival gear stay in my truck most of the year. I never know if I am going to have to hike the last mile to the cabin in the dark.
But this is the very reason that none of the other property owners spend time at their cabins in the winter and only a scant few come up in the summer. When they do it is only for a night or two. But despite the tough conditions, there are now 4 properties there are occupied full time.
That being the case, and the fact that there is only one road in and out, you would think we would see each other on a regular basis but we don’t. It may be weeks before we lay eyes on each other and often that is the result of a text message that says “Hey let’s get together over a beer or two on Sunday afternoon and catch up.”
The best part is that we are all committed to living off the grid, managing most of our own resources, and being as independent as possible. The other best part is that we all have a much different skill set which is at times invaluable to the others. We help each other out on various projects and even respond to emergency needs in the middle of the night if needed.
As isolated as we are if you really truly need something, all it takes is a text or phone call to get immediate help. If that doesn’t work, you can knock on a door at one o’clock in the morning. You might get greeted with a firearm but once the recognition sets in as to who it is, that quickly turns into a smile, a hand shake, and a “What’s going on and do you need help?”
When we visit we never talk about the condition of the world, the latest political issues, the price of gasoline or even the price of tea in China. We talk about our latest homestead projects. We discuss the best ways to get around the challenges of living off the grid. We talked about small successes and failures in the things we’ve tried. We talk about potential road improvements, the latest wildlife encounter, expanding our solar array, energy efficiency, or even going to the closest farmer’s market.
In other words, we discuss the pros and cons of living a basic lifestyle and always agree that we would never want to live any other way. Even though our lifestyles are certainly more basic than most people, we have all that we need and have managed to establish a measure of comfort in the middle of the forest. All of this is simply the result of a marriage between old country skills and modern technology.
Just recently my younger sister and brother in law were at the cabin for a visit. They were on a vacation and drove out from Tennessee. I was discussing all of the above with my sister and she was quite amazed at the sense of community in such a small place. Her last comment on the matter was “You just don’t find that anymore.”
As a general rule when I am out in a public place or when I am working, I tend to think and listen more than I talk. I spend far more time listening to other people than I spend actually engaging in the various conversations that I am privy too. In doing so, I am sometimes fascinated and sometimes put off by the things that people value. To some degree, at least in the hospitals where I work, I can chalk this up to a generational difference. Any more I tend to work with a lot of hospital staff that are at least 20 years younger than I. But mostly I think the values that I see are a refection of our cultural.
After all when we are young we are taught certain core values that are instilled in us in the form of morality and signs of good character. Later on we are even socialized to believe in those values through media presentations, political speeches, in our work place, and even as a result of peer pressure from our friends and family. But I also think we are taught certain values as a result of our culture or simply by example of specific things in our society, things that we see everyday.
As a result we have certain expectations and even certain entitlements. For example:
Achievement and Success: Our culture places a high value on achievement and success especially out doing others, attaining wealth, power, and prestige.
Activity and work: we place a lot of emphasis on always staying busy even when not at work.
Efficiency and practicality: we place high emphasis on getting things done quickly.
Science and technology: we have a passion for applied science. We want to use science to control nature to our advantage and even solve environmental issues
Rapid progress: We expect and want rapid technological changes to helps up in our everyday lives.
Material comfort: We place a strong emphasis on material comfort and success.
Entertainment: And we also place a very high value on entertainment. Television, video streaming, books, newspapers, concerts, theatre, sport events and video games. The entertainment industry in the US amounts to $717 billion annually.
Despite the fact that I live in the middle of the forest, I do have to work for a living which means leaving the homestead and dealing with the world. Consequently I am exposed to and have to deal with various cultural and societal values everyday. Some days it’s fascinating. Some days it repulsive. Most days I treat it with benign neglect and disinterest. My attitude is such because I have witnessed how societal values change over time and swing on a pendulum.
A perfect example is how most Vietnam veterans were treated after returning from the war. Due to constant bad media coverage of the war, most veterans were regarded as being murders, rapists, and baby killers. Then suddenly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks anyone in a uniform was automatically regarded as a national hero. Most recently, again due to bad media coverage, people are now clamoring for the defunding of police departments because they are largely regarded as villains.
But it’s not just that. As I stated earlier I tend to listen more than I talk. I listen to all the different things people talk about, complain about, what they find valuable and what they could care less about. As a result I have mostly come to the conclusion that 90% of what people talk about everyday is meaningless, holds absolutely no value, and is mostly negative. The things that most people talk about or are concerned about hold no value to me. Consequently, I often feel as if I am a stranger in my own culture.
People complain about the neighbors. Meanwhile I’m thinking about the most recent near face-to-face mountain lion encounter I had that could have gone poorly.
People complain about how they were late for work because of rush hour traffic. Meanwhile I think about how I was almost late because of the big bull moose standing in the middle of the road munching on willows and not wanting to move.
People complain about traffic accidents. Meanwhile I think about the last big boulder that rolled onto the road that required a piece of equipment to move.
People complain when they have lost water pressure at home or when they have no hot water, or the maintenance people in their apartment complex are taking too long to fix a problem. Just the other day I was going to take a shower and discovered there was no water pressure. Since I had just recently installed the water pump, and checked it prior to installation, I assumed it was an electrical problem. After trouble shooting the system I discovered it was in fact a pump failure. It was three years old anyway. By the time I made that discovery, ordered a new pump and got it installed, we had gone 10 days without any running water. This did no matter because we have back up systems any way for showers and such because that’s what you do when you live off the grid.
People constantly talk about their favorite television show, their favorite mini series most of which I am completely oblivious too. They get so excited about the next season being published. Meanwhile we get so excited every time we new a new baby moose. We are over joyed every time we see the first hummingbird of the year. We have a marmot that has been living in the same den on the side of our road for years now. We place bets on who will see him for the first time in the Spring.
Just the other day I was on my way home from work after a long hard day. I was driving down Sheridan Blvd in Denver which is a very busy road. Suddenly traffic came to a complete stop. Some people were laying on the horn and yelling, waving their hands out the windows. I thought it was just another traffic accident.
As traffic eased forward I was finally able to see what had stopped traffic. There was a family of geese slowly walking across the road with 6 babies. Of course they were completely oblivious that we had a schedule to keep and they certainly were not in a hurry. At first I sat there admiring the cute fuzzy babies. Then I started wondering if the impatience people were displaying because they were delayed due to the baby geese was a reflection of the values of the 83% of our culture that lives in urban areas.
Once again I find that so many people are a stranger to what I do and I am a stranger to the things they value. Yet when I return to my close community of friends it is like coming home. The stress of modern culture fades away.
No one raises an eyebrow when I talk about butchering chickens or how much work it was to process an entire elk myself. Every one agrees about how disheartening it can be when you spend months raising a new flock of chickens and just when they start producing eggs some predator manages to break into the barn and destroy all your hard work in less than an hour. Everyone can relate to equipment break downs at a time when you really needed it and how it always seems to happen when it is below zero.
When I spend time with such friends I no longer feel like a stranger. I suddenly feel normal again. We all share the simple life of living off the grid and recognize the challenges as well. Yes it is unorthodox and it is simple but it is not always easy. That said, if you ask “Who wants to live down in town?”, no one raises their hand.
I often wonder where would I be today if I had always lived within my comfort zone. That was never going to happen anyway. I often observe the tension and stress so prevalent in our face-paced modern culture and know very well it was my desire to live a different way that pushed me to do what I did over 20 years ago.
But it always seems when I get busy with work and spend a little too much time down in town, that familiar feeling of being a stranger in my own culture starts to creep in because what most people value means very little to me. But I am also reminded that simple living just does not figure into a society that is devoted to success, convenience, material possessions, comfort and consumption.
But just the other day I was sitting in my sunroom mixing together my mother’s old fashion country recipe for ice cream. I poured it into my electric Cuisinart ice cream maker, turned it, and added a few wild raspberries and strawberries that we had picked last season. While I was doing this it occurred to me that this is another example of a nice marriage between an old country skill and modern technology all powered by the sun.
I went back into the main part of the cabin, set a timer for 25 minutes and sat comfortably by the wood stove. I smiled and thought how happy I was to be the stranger.
At the end of the day it is so important for each of us to develop a lifestyle that nurtures what we value. Being responsible for everything you choose to do and everything you choose not to do may make some people uncomfortable. After all it is so much easier to live life and just not pay attention to such things. Yet this is the very attitude that has gotten us where we are today.
Life should be simple. Life should be sustainable. I am always amazed when I think that a simple pool of pond scum is 100% sustainable, produces its own food and energy yet humanity cannot manage to do the same.
But we should. And if living you life in such a way makes you a stranger in your own culture, then live it with courage, be sustainable, and be happy.
Until next week, this is your host Patrick signing off. Always remember to live sustainably because this is how we build a better future.
Patrick
