The good life tv comedy programme could this be done today

Primrose

cootambear - yes I am a woman ! And I do have a washing machine. But in good drying weather I often wash much of my laundry (except big items like bath towels and sheets) by hand, and let them drip dry out in the garden. I like having modern labour saving appliances but I'm not a slave to them, and often it's just quicker to dunk out a couple of shirts or the odd pieces underwear in a bowl in the sink, rather than having the washing machine running and using electricity which isn't necessary.

olly300

lostinrates wrote: »

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.

The London suburb they were in was based on Surbiton. Their house at current price levels would cost over a million pounds and they would have a council tax bill of around £2,000.

So even though they wouldn't have a problem due to London's transport links in not having a car and going to the local library to use the internet, they would find it very difficult to pay their council tax bill with no other income.

lostinrates wrote: »

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!

London from around zone 3 is plagued with urban foxes and has been for years with the numbers rising every year. Everyone I know and have met who keeps chickens has lost a few to them.

In addition they also along with grey squirrels damage and destroy vegetable crops. While this is annoying if you aren't trying to be completely self sufficient and have money to go to the supermarket, if you were you would starve.

So yes I agree with you lostinrates a nice idea but is totally unrealistic for a city suburb.

Lotus-eater

I was reading John Seymours, guide to self sufficiency last night and I thought I'd treat you to some quotes, it seems apt.

"Self-sufficiency does not mean "going back" to the acceptance of a lower standard of living. On the contrary, it is the striving for a higher standard of living, for food which is fresh and organically grown and good, for the good life in pleasant surroundings, for the health of body and peace of mind which come with hard work in the open air and for the satisfaction that comes from doing difficult and intricate jobs well and successfully"

"If it ever comes to pass that we have used up all, or most of the oil on this planet, we will have to reconsider our attitude to our only real and abiding asset - the land itself. We will one day have to derive our sustenance from what the land, unaided by oil derived chemicals can produce."

"Self sufficiency is not only for those who have five acres of their own country. The man in a city apartment who learns how to mend his own shoes is becoming, to some extent, self sufficient. Not only does he save money, he increases his own satisfaction and self respect too. Man was not meant to be a one job animal."

Written by John Seymour in 1975

cootambear

Lotus-eater wrote: »

I was reading John Seymours, guide to self sufficiency last night and I thought I'd treat you to some quotes, it seems apt.

"Self-sufficiency does not mean "going back" to the acceptance of a lower standard of living. On the contrary, it is the striving for a higher standard of living, for food which is fresh and organically grown and good, for the good life in pleasant surroundings, for the health of body and peace of mind which come with hard work in the open air and for the satisfaction that comes from doing difficult and intricate jobs well and successfully"

"If it ever comes to pass that we have used up all, or most of the oil on this planet, we will have to reconsider our attitude to our only real and abiding asset - the land itself. We will one day have to derive our sustenance from what the land, unaided by oil derived chemicals can produce."

"Self sufficiency is not only for those who have five acres of their own country. The man in a city apartment who learns how to mend his own shoes is becoming, to some extent, self sufficient. Not only does he save money, he increases his own satisfaction and self respect too. Man was not meant to be a one job animal."

Written by John Seymour in 1975

I agree it is worthwhile growing your own food for flavour and satisfaction/relaxation etc. It is not however going to feed us. The UK imports around half its food, if it all went organic, crops would halve and we would have to import more (food miles anyone)?

One of the benefits of modern society is that we have, through the use of machinery, fertilisers and better crop strains, liberated people from hard work in the fields. GM crops, utilising splicing genes for disease resistance, will massively reduce pesticide use.

Though the return of a peasantry fits nicely with the myth of the rural idyll, the reality will plunge more in to grinding toil, we will be running just to stand still. Back breaking toil is not liberating, and people in the countries of Africa desire to be liberated from it and enjoy modern the luxuries that we have.

Malthuserism is a theory that has consistently failed time after time (in fact so wrong it has to be the worst theory ever lol).
Every projected increase in population has met with apocolyptic visions, and every one has failed to provide one.

Limits on energy, food, population are always predicted and the prediction always fails because they deny that limitless resource, human creativity and ingenouity (sp).

PS, although ironically I am in the process of gluing my trainers to mend them, theres no way I`m going to spend my precious free time cobbling ala Steptoe.

cootambear

Primrose wrote: »

cootambear - yes I am a woman ! And I do have a washing machine. But in good drying weather I often wash much of my laundry (except big items like bath towels and sheets) by hand, and let them drip dry out in the garden. I like having modern labour saving appliances but I'm not a slave to them, and often it's just quicker to dunk out a couple of shirts or the odd pieces underwear in a bowl in the sink, rather than having the washing machine running and using electricity which isn't necessary.

Yes but we live in the UK so a minority of days are good drying weather. Then you have your machine to fall back on. Appliances free people from drudgery, not enslave them.

lostinrates

I don't have a drier either, and can't envisage needing one. I had one when I first moved in with dh...it was there, and fell in love with it...briefly. We manage to dry with a combination of outside drying, airing in ventilated rooms and a Sheila maid. I'd hate to live with out a washng machine though....ours is well used...I hand wash a couple of times a week...but use the washing machine a LOT.

zarazara

I dont have a drier. or a dish washer. I have a washing machine and dry clothes on a ShielaMaidand infront of the fire on clothes horses.

olly300

Lots of people don't have driers or dishwashers.

I also know people who have dishwashers but no drier. Talking to people in this group as far as they are concerned having a drier is a waste of space and electricity as they were brought up using clothes horses and washing lines to dry clothes, there as their dishwasher is seen as labour saving.

Interestedly there are a lot of good drying days in the UK though they are not necessarily sunny - you just need a good breeze and no rain.

mardatha

First, the Good Life wasn't a documentary, it was a light sitcom intended to make us laugh. (But if it makes some of us aspire to a slower more old-fashioned way of life then that's good too). If they had made it all 100% true to life then it wouldn't have been funny & we wouldn't all remember it so fondly
Balance is the way to go here - we can go as far and as fast as we want on our own road to a more simple life. Nobody is forced to slave in hot fields all summer and thick freezing muck in winter any more. (Except farm workers LOL)!

olly300

mardatha wrote: »

First, the Good Life wasn't a documentary, it was a light sitcom intended to make us laugh. (But if it makes some of us aspire to a slower more old-fashioned way of life then that's good too). If they had made it all 100% true to life then it wouldn't have been funny & we wouldn't all remember it so fondly

Don't know I have no problems remembering Castaway due to some of the difficult individuals in the cast.

mardatha wrote: »

Balance is the way to go here - we can go as far and as fast as we want on our own road to a more simple life. Nobody is forced to slave in hot fields all summer and thick freezing muck in winter any more. (Except farm workers LOL)!

I agree with you there.