Author Archives: Sara

What is simplicity?

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After my post yesterday about simplicity, I had the nagging feeling that accompanies an incomplete thought. I didn’t feel like I made my point. I wasn’t sure what my point was.

Several years ago I wrote a post called Technology or Simplicity? and mused over the different steps I could make toward a simpler life, and what the end goal would be. I didn’t answer my question about which was better. Instead, I was just beginning to explore the subject.

Today I think that consciousness/mindfulness is more meaningful than simplicity. Some people can manage large projects well. From the outside, we might look at their work in awe, but the word ‘simple’ would never come to mind. Some people manage to live with contentment and grace, despite very modest circumstances. We may call them simple and admire them for it, but if we did it ourselves, would it feel so simple to us?

The Shakers, the Quakers, the Amish and the Mennonites are all held up as virtuous examples of the simple life. As an observer, the things about these communities that inspire me are those things that I can’t see: my perception of their mindfulness and intention. The simplicity of beautiful, or even austere, woodwork isn’t what draws me in. Instead, I am fascinated by handicrafts because of the the evidence of time spent consciously, with focus.

While perhaps we cannot all live as simply as we would like, with few things to keep charge of, everyone can practice living more thoughtfully. Mothers (and fathers), especially, should practice this and teach their children how to develop thoughtfulness. That’s why I was taken aback at the suggestion that it’s not so easy for parents to live simply because society requires them to buy certain things for their children that they otherwise wouldn’t have to buy. That seems more like an excuse than a meaningful comment. And it also puts more focus on the simplicity of things rather than the simplicity of spirit.

What good is simplicity without mindfulness? It is awareness and intention that matters most.

Gardener’s dermatitis, be careful with figs

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I woke up this morning with big, red blistering welts on my arms and shoulders. I’ve done a bit of weeding and pruning over the past two days. There are a lot of weeds and garden plants that can cause contact dermatitis. I think the source of my problem is probably the fig trees. Yesterday I spent nearly an hour pruning out dead branches and removing leaves that are already showing signs of rust.

My son has also been getting itchy spots on his hands. Since he spends so much time in the figs, and I know that there isn’t any poison ivy growing in the gardens, he must be sensitive to the figs also.

This type of dermatitis is called phytophotodermatitis, which means it requires a combination of plant chemicals and sunlight to create the bad blistering effect. It’s ugly and painful to touch, but otherwise I’m not too worried about it. I’ll just let it subside on its own.

Wearing long sleeves while working in the garden is a simple preventive step. Poison ivy and similar chemicals can be washed off with soap and water within 10 minutes of exposure.

Voluntary Simplicity with Kids

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This post is based on my comment in the discussion Quakers on simple living.

Some people were commenting that simplicity is easier to achieve depending on your circumstances in life. For example, people with young kids or demanding lives have a harder time finding simplicity. I reject that idea. I do not think that simplicity depends on your material circumstances as much as it depends on your character.

Simplicity is a state of mind. Having kids can challenge your ideas about simplicity, but I don’t think they necessarily push someone away from simplicity or make it more difficult to achieve. Just like having an illness that requires constant medical therapy (Type I diabetes, for instance) doesn’t mean you can’t live simply, or that you aren’t living simply because you have to incorporate complicated things into your life.

Simplicity for me is flexibility. It’s about being prepared to accept life as it is, and of course knowing how to prioritize what’s in your life at the moment. A clear, decisive state of mind is what it takes. I disagree that simplicity is any more difficult for people today than in the past. The most complicated things in life, in my experience, are social demands. Those are always present. If it were so easy in the past to achieve simplicity, then all of the philosophies and religions that have preached it throughout history would be unremarkable. We certainly wouldn’t be discussing them today.

For me, I have to be careful of mistaking stinginess for frugality. Sometimes I think I am being frugal (and thus enjoying simplicity), but instead I am merely being stubborn and stingy. It hinders me. Because of that, I’ve learned that material measurements aren’t a good way to examine simplicity. I imagine life in prison is materially simple, but character determines whether or not a person in prison can achieve what many of us hope to gain from voluntary simplicity.

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My son hasn’t interfered with my ability to live a simple life. How could he? He is a part of my journey. He is a creative being who not only seeks beautiful, uncomplicated things for himself, but he encourages me to do the same. He enhances my vision instead of detracting from it. When his health or self-esteem depends on me changing my priorities, then I just have to do it. I never think about our relationship in terms of whether or not it helps me achieve my goal of voluntary simplicity. It just is what it is. We work together.

This is not to say that we don’t have conflict. Of course we do. There are things that I want to do that I can’t do, or can’t do well, because he creates challenges. He digs in my seedbeds and beats up my trees. He’s imitating the work that he sees adults doing (he just doesn’t know the correct timing, or the right plants to cut back.) Little things like this are always frustrating. Keeping your eyes on a little person all day will slow down your work. Teaching a child is a project that takes years, with lots of frustrations along the way. It’s very much like living life. It is life.

It is wrong to think that simplicity is about perfection. If your circumstances must be just perfect in order for you to find the joy and contentment of a simple life, then you will never find it. The contentment that you find in life is buried within the challenges that you face.

If I could have the perfect garden: a garden without weather and pests and weeds and dogs and kids and distractions, then I wouldn’t want it.There would be no place for me in that garden.

Fig Tree Follow-up

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My largest fig trees, both Celeste Figs, had a rough year last year. They were getting off to a good start and each grew several feet by Mid-Summer, but by the end of the summer the excessively wet season started to take its toll. The figs were showing signs of Fig Tree Rust (my amateur diagnosis), visible as orange blotches and browning of the leaves, then the eventual defoliation as the leaves began to die. Through August, the symptoms weren’t unmanageable and I just tried to remove any infected leaves that I saw. Then Hurricane Isaac came through and we had heavy rain for 3 days. One of the trees split 3-ways at the soil level, where the 3 largest stems met. I propped each limb up with cinderblocks (which I should have covered with a protective plastic) to help the tree maintain its shape as new roots anchored in. After the hurricane, the rust became uncontrollable. The leaves began falling off rapidly and I did the best I could to rake them up and burn them to reduce the spread of fungal spores.

Over the winter, I planted red clover and oilseed radish under the fig trees in an attempt to reduce compaction around the roots (radishes aerate the soil as they decompose) and fix nitrogen (red clover is a legume, and they pull nitrogen out of the air.) I knew that there was some potential that these winter groundcovers would interfere with the figs negatively, by competing for nutrients, but I decided to give it a try anyway since I thought that the bare soil needed some cover over the winter and all of the fig leaves had to be removed.

Now as summer approaches, the clover and the radishes have died back and I’ve stomped them down around the figs to make a mulch. The soil structure has improved. It has a crumbly appearance on the surface, rather than the tamped down, rain-beaten look it had before. The fig trees aren’t doing very well this year, however. There has only been about 3-5 inches of growth on some branches, no growth on others, and sparse foliage only on the upper portions of the branches. The first growth of the year was killed by a late frost and that’s part of the reason that I think recovery has gone so slowly. I also have no doubt that the heavy defoliation last year is at least partly to blame.

I removed the supporting blocks under the split tree and the roots are established well enough to hold the tree up, it seems. As would be expected, there are some injuries where the tree limbs rubbed against the blocks. I’ve noticed a lot of injuries on both of the trees, but especially on the tree that my son likes to climb. He calls it his “fig tree house” and I think he whacks it with sticks and other objects from time to time.

These trees have been through a lot. I noticed yesterday that they are starting to get tiny fruit buds, so I guess I’ll just wait and see how it turns out.

Strawberry cobbler and venomous snakes

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It was my son’s idea to go out and pick berries for pie yesterday. We picked a few handfuls of blackberries (actually dewberries) and brought them back to experiment with cobbler making. Most of the time I try to avoid recipes, and instead I rely on what I already know about mixing ingredients. Yesterday’s topping was more cake-like, and the sour blackberries made a very tasty filling.

Today we repeated the cobbler experiment, but I tried for a streusel topping with oats. Instead of fresh blackberries, we used some of our frozen strawberries (from a flat that we bought earlier this spring). I added stevia to the strawberries and cooked them for about 12 minutes at 350 degrees to thaw them. While the berries cooked, I made the topping by mixing a stick of butter, about 3 tbsp of sugar, a handful of oats and enough flour to thicken the melted butter. We spread it over the fruit and baked for about 15 mins more, with a 5 minute broil at the end to make the topping golden and crunchy.

These were delicious. (Sorry for the low quality photos. I still haven’t invested in a decent camera so I’m stuck with what I have.) This is one of the quickest ways to make dessert with kids, and it’s a good way to teach about using simple baking ingredients along with fruit from the garden.

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A note about wildlife: While picking our dewberries yesterday, I took a few steps into the bushes to reach the ripest berries. Beneath the bushes was a bed of tan oak leaves. I was standing still for a few minutes, only moving my hands and twisting around to reach the berries, then I heard a steady rustling sound like someone pulling a rope across the forest floor. I knew immediately that it was a snake. I looked down and right next to my ankle was a huge copperhead. The snake was moving slowly and cautiously. I turned to my son, who was a few steps back and told him to turn around and run. Then I slowly stepped away from the snake, and we escaped without incident.

copperhead

Notice how well concealed the snake is in dead leaves. This image is from WikiCommons.

This is the second time we have seen a copperhead in that area. About two years ago we saw a much smaller snake. My son almost stepped on it, and in a split second I was able to recognize it and snatch my then two-year old out of its way. So we’ve had two very close encounters with copperheads, but no issues. Researchers at NC State have found that copperheads are actually more likely to strike than cottonmouths and even some types of rattlesnakes, but that they rarely inject much venom. Even so, the copperhead bite is painful, destructive and can be deadly.

The big snake we saw yesterday will serve as yet another warning to be cautious around the homestead.