The good life tv comedy programme could this be done today

lostinrates

Pretendng for a moment it was factual a couple of things worth remembering are that paperwork for animal keeping was lesser then..its not an issue now....but my guess is in the future we'll all be expected to be online for it...so a phone/internet line is a cost...because land near a town with a library for internet access gets more and more expensive.

Its also worth noting, Tom and Barbara did not have children.And tom did have o go back to work to make money. Neighbours were better and closer than is average.

Even keeping poultry for meat in a more self sufficient way would be hard.....did Tom and Barbara have a cockerel...of course you can buy in day olds or whatever, but its not very self sufficient and requires money, whereas you can minimise that with a good fertile cockeral of appropriate breed....unless like tom and Barbara you live in a suburb and have neighbours!

And...even they in the end ditched the suburb for moving out of town, didn't they?


I love the programme too, but I'm under no illusions that we wouldn't be making an attempt at increasing our self sufficiency without DH's income.

ginnyknit

I adore The Good Life and used to watch it with my Dd, we still quote the show at home and it never grows old with us! Of course it was pure escapism but the basic premise by which a lot of us get by on here was there. Stuff the rat race as much as you can, and try to do it the O/S way. I have always longed to live a simpler life and fate by a twist has now allowed it to some extent but it isn't easy and yes we do need money for those dratted bills!

Davesnave

I'm afraid I never liked the programme much & suspect it was only Felicity Kendall who kept me watching.

Having grown up in the country, watching people often struggle to survive financially, I found it hard to empathise with these town people who wanted to play at being farmers.

I suppose it was obvious, even in 1975, that if Tom and Barbara had been serious, they'd have sold up in the stockbroker belt, made a fat profit and gone to live in a very rural location.

Now that might have been funny.

Lotus-eater

Davesnave wrote: »

I suppose it was obvious, even in 1975, that if Tom and Barbara had been serious, they'd have sold up in the stockbroker belt, made a fat profit and gone to live in a very rural location.

But if they'd hung on until 2007, they would have been able to sell and buy a couple of nice smallholdings in the country.
Goodness knows how much that house would have been worth today, a small fortune I should think.

LIR, I think they did have a cockerel, it had a name IIRC.

I don't think you ever see an overview of their garden, which tbh is what I always wanted to see. Because I always thought even as a young lad, that it wasn't enough space.

In the last episode I saw, he was gunning one of those huge rotavators up (can't remember the name now), to dig up this tiny little bed, ridiculous

Like them I also grow veg in the front garden and I hope I don't have theft like they did.

Davesnave

Lotus-eater wrote: »

But if they'd hung on until 2007, they would have been able to sell and buy a couple of nice smallholdings in the country.

IIRC there was a price boom in the mid-70s too.

I distinctly remember an EA acquaintance telling me, 'Don't worry, there's no rush, prices aren't going to rise rapidly again' when I told him I was thinking of buying.

He was very, very wrong.

ceridwen

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

I think you are right Lotus - eater...

I have got john seymour's books the self sufficiency one, and how he story how they found their farm, and started living the self sufficent life..

as far as i can remember it just shows you how to get the max out of your land and animals etc..

The good life first episdoe was in 1975, so i think there must have been a strong thing about going back to the land, maybe aging hippies from the 60's etc....wanting to get out of the rat race...as i think this is when teepi sp? valley started, and is still there today ( near carmarthen)

Yep...I'm old enough to remember watching "The Good Life" tv programmes/reading the first John Seymour book and the "back to the land" movement did have a renaissance in the 1970s. I'm trying to remember the original pioneers of it - that pair of American former academics who had to "go back to the land" in McCarthyist America because they'd been hounded out of their jobs as part of it. They wrote several books about it....oooh....what is their names?....can anyone remember?

EDIT: Remembered - Helen and Scott Nearing - they were THE pioneers of this some time back now. Wonder if she is still alive? (I know he isnt).

It certainly is frustrating to think that the idea of "going back to the land" is getting steadily more and more difficult - as the price of land keeps rising due to the population still carrying on rising....

COOLTRIKERCHICK

with the comments i the thread has had... i think i am right in saying.... its proved the thread theory.... men only watched it for FK and hte women fantastised about the simpler' down to earth good life..

the flaws i noticed was geraldine the goat, would no way have stayed in her pen..... we had a goat for a few months to clear the waste ground by the side of our house ( where our chickens are now) and they if the could would be over a fence in no time...

and the main one was the piglet in the homemade incubator.... now come on anyone could see that wasnt a real pig... in fact it wasnt even a good made one.... but maybe that was part of the programme being funny..


same as the range they put in.... one minute it was being cleaned, and the next Tom had 'plummed' it in and lite the fire and was boiling the kettle....

I personally think this programmed hasnt dated...... well excpet the clothes and the cars etc.. the concept of the programme if they re-wrote a programme like this, i think it would still be popular, but in saying that it would depend on the actors they used.... as there was a bit of chemistry going on between F and R


edit .......we have neighbours, and we have 6 cockerels......but we are classed as semi-rural

ALIBOBSY

Been watching this myself on gold as have always enjoyed the programme. I think the idea appeals to alot of us, but like has been said there would be difficulties.

In some ways it would be harder now with more red tape around keeping livestock in particular, but other stuff such as council tax benefit might make things easier.

I reckon if we could afford to buy a house with more land outright, because of the children we could just about do it. We would become self sufficent in food, eggs/meat/veggies, would not pay council tax because of zero income, if we had say wood burning stoves/ranges (which most of those type of houses around here seem to have -we are in a semi rural area) the fuel bills would be relatively low so the child benefit and tax credits should then be able to cover the extras such as fuel water flour milk and emergencies.

Probably something along the lines of that other programme (the green life?) where they sold up in london and bought a rundown house with land in the south west and buildt there own water wheel etc etc. They were aiming for self sufficiency but still doing bits of work to keep some money coming in. So for us as OH works in IT he could pick up either part time work or short term contracts to keep some money come in as well. Plus I would look to set up a farm shop with our produce and my cakes, my mum makes fab fruit cake as well and my sugarcraft isn't too bad so with a bit more training I reckon we could even do celebration cakes to order as well.

I suppose I have thought about this too much lol. I think you would need some sort of local business run out of your small holding as well as selling your surplus, but I certainly think if you can wipe the mortgage out of the equation the day to day living can be done whilst moving well away from the "rat race".

ali x

mismax

I've been reading this thread with interest. Theoretically, OH and I have pretty much everything needed but we certainly can't make it work. Either we are totally useless (which is a distinct possibility), really greedy (possible too!) or it is just not workable unless you cut yourself off from all around you so you can live like they did a hundred years ago without having to worry about whatever anyone else thinks of you!:rotfl:

We live in Ireland so we have no council tax to pay and no water rates. We have over an acre of our own land round our mortgage free house plus the use of as much adjoining family land as we want within reason. I work full time and OH part time. We grow all our own veg outside and in a tunnel and run a few cattle. We are a young couple with no family and so I suppose we feel we can't manage on a very low income as we don't know what the future will bring and we have to save for the family that we will hopefully have one day!

I spent the winter reading John Seymours book that I was given as a Christmas present. His smallholding was in the south of Ireland I understand. I think we have the fruit and veg part pretty much sorted. Family living close by have chickens so we get eggs there. Any other form of livestock here at the moment is false economy including the cattle we have at the moment. Even with the free use of land to keep them on and bring sileage in from they have to be fed, housed and given vetinary treatment as and when. We have kept careful accounts and they will have cost us money to keep by the time we sell this batch. I have looked into pigs, chickens and other breeds of cattle and can only come up with the same answer. I am hoping we can get a large freezer and that at least one of our stock will end up in it, that way at least we have the advantages of knowing the history of our meat even if it is no cheaper.

But we find we need money at every turn and even with the huge advantages we have outlined above, we couldn't come close to living off the land without withdrawing from society. A couple of examples off the top of my head from this week - I need to buy that new freezer mentioned above, get some new "made to last" underwear from M & S:p, put fuel in the car and tax it (no public transport), pay the guy who cut the hay for us this year etc etc.

Having said all the above, we have fun trying and in a lot of ways it is "the good life". Yesterday we had a lovely if exhausting day out in the fields in the sunshine with extended family bringing in a crop and I am heading out now to wander round my veg patch and see what is for dinner. But I know that come Monday morning when I get in the car for my hour long commute to work, even though the drive is through gorgeous coastal scenery I will be racking my brains for ways to make more of what we have at home so I can quit work and live off the land!

Any ideas gratefully received!

zarazara

You could start with growing your own herbs and lettuce. I did this, now I have an allotment,not all cultivated but have great plans for next year. This morning I spent 2 hours planting out seedlings and watering them in ,under netting tunnels. Then came home and delt with the mound of rhubarb and gooseberries I picked yesterday. Last nights supper was delicious,freshly picked lettuce mix and rocket,drizzled with olive oil[ the only shop bought ingredient!].