We watched Ben Fogle's New Lives In The Wild on Channel 5 last night. Ben met Emma Orbach, a Hobbit type lady who lives in a mud hut/roundhouse in Pembrokeshire. Emma decided she didn't like conventional living with electricity ("it makes feel weird.") and built her own house for seven hundred quid.
In the programme Ben goes for a swim/bath in the stream and waits half an hour for the kettle to boil for a :
"nice cup of tea".
Emma keeps goats, grows her own veg and she seemed really happy living in rural isolation. The series is about people who decide to leave the rat race and live off the land. It's really worth watching. Here's a video I found of Emma:
So blog friends. What could you give up or would you be prepared to? I gave up my Sky subscription recently and I am regretting it very much. Can't imagine life without watching Manchester United on the telly.
In the programme Ben goes for a swim/bath in the stream and waits half an hour for the kettle to boil for a :
"nice cup of tea".
Emma keeps goats, grows her own veg and she seemed really happy living in rural isolation. The series is about people who decide to leave the rat race and live off the land. It's really worth watching. Here's a video I found of Emma:
l
She's an Oxford graduate and she seemed to have great animals skills. Wish I had her patience. Don't think I would like to have no electricity. No Internet, no thanks!
Good for Emma is what I say.
ReplyDeleteWe ourselves use very little electricity, our last bill was €15 and never rises above 20.
Over the years various people have foisted TV's on us and we have always found new homes for them. I truly don't like the energy that they emit you know. We read a lot of books between us each week and have great conversations each day.
I gave up going to pubs and rarely do I partake, except for a drop of homemade liqueur.
Actually there are quite a number of people in Ireland living off grid Dave and there is an old two storey farmhouse not a million miles away from me that has never been connected.
Hi Heron. Emma seemed to be at one with nature. I don't seem to read much at the moment apart from blogs like yours. I very rarely go in a pub because we have no public transport and a taxi and a night out is too expensive. I follow a blog called Lackan Cottage. Steve and his family live off grid in the North of Ireland.
DeleteI heard that when the ESB (electricity company in Ireland) came round in the Fifties installing mains electricity. A lot of the country dwellers didn't want it because they didn't want a bill.
I'd love to visit her life and live it for a week but I'd miss the cooker and washing machine
ReplyDeleteI would like to visit Emma too FQ, I would miss the Internet and the television. Think it would get cold at times and very dark early.
DeleteTis difficult to give up the 'luxuries' this modern life affords us Dave, but sometimes a feel that we're missing out on actually living when surrounded with all our material stuff.
ReplyDeleteHi John. I totally agree modern life does make life more bearable. It would be good to live and work and socialize with like minded people.
DeleteI agree with you John.
ReplyDeleteI could not be as extreme as Emma but I certainly understand and relate to how she feels.
It is sad that folk are so dependent on the television.
Hi Irene. I seem to be watching the news a lot at the moment. It's good to have social media and the television to communicate and have contact with the outside world. Rural living can be very isolated and you never get to talk to people these days.
DeleteThough I am not sure I could go quite as far as Emma. I do want electricity and running water where I live. I dream of a one room cabin isolated in the mountains. Where we live I can go a few weeks and see only my DH and I am quite happy with that. Unless work forces me out its nothing for me to go two weeks and never see another person. Before I went back to work I could go 3-4 weeks and just see my DH. Worked for me :O).
ReplyDeleteDh says I am the only person he has ever met that he is sure actually could live on a mountain top by themselves and be quite content :O)
We did give up our Dish TV. We have a Antenna, most here think we are nuts, but we watch so little TV it was crazy to pay what we were.
Now the Internet is a different story we both agree, don't want to give that up.
Hi Texan,
DeleteThe ideal location for me would be on a smallholding within walking distance of a village with a shop for provisions, public transport, a bar and a community centre. Your one room cabin would be good for a few days. I like a city break every year and see some rock bands and visit places of interest. I think the Internet is our lifeline to the outside world. Especially to read blogs and emails.
We were almost living a life like Emma when we first came here to France. It was tough. We had to have electricity because of the need to keep Internet access so that Lester could continue working online, but cooking was done by bottled gas. For three years we lived with just a bowl of water, soap and a flannel for our personal washing needs, and I didn't wash my hair at all for months at a time. It was a good time, a time for living outside, of getting in touch with nature, but, as I have said, it was tough. Would I do it all again? Yes. Would I LIKE to do it all again? Not really! But we do not have TV, keep up to date with things via our computers, and do live quite a simple life when compared to most other people we know. So I guess we have made a compromise, keeping a foot in the 'modern' world while still keeping a bigger foot anchored in a life which has vague similarities to Emma.
ReplyDeleteHi Vera. I have enjoyed following your renovations and smallholding adventures over the last few years. It's always been my dream to work from home over the internet. Country living and yet contact with the outside world. Emma seems to be at one with nature and not interested in materialism. Think you are right. We have to compromise our life styles.
DeleteI'm enjoying this series so far. I thought that I would find Emma to be "away with the fairies" but she wasn't, just down to earth and straight forward. I really liked what I saw.
ReplyDeleteCan someone explain the crystal thing to me though ? I don't get it.
Gill
Thanks for that Anne.
DeleteHi FID. Down to earth is a great way of describing Emma. We wondered what it was like in winter and the gales and snow and ice. Think you could enjoy a similar lifestyle in a rural part of Portugal where it's warm and cheap to live.
ReplyDeleteI watched the programme and found her remarkably peaceful and down to earth and knowing that she could not thrust this life on to her family. I warmed to her and respected her for her beliefs. I couldn't do it even though we live a pretty simple life here. It is always good to see other people's life styles particularly when they are at a very extreme like her's. We have many people around here who are not on mains water who still use wells and lots who do not opt to hitch on to the sewer when it comes. It is good to live as near to nature as possible so as not to lose sight of the reality of what life is.
ReplyDeleteWell said Rachel. I have seen people living in vans and even in an old cowshed in the countryside. Can understand why so many people want to get away from it all and live in the countryside. Thanks!
Deleteoh I love this program, I'm always watching for ideas :) I think I could give up normal grid electricity of I had solar and a small wind turbine (we do have big ones on the outskirts of our village so I know it's a viable option ) but sadly our housing association probably won't let us. there was a scheme a while ago where you could get free solar panels,but apparently our roof wasn't big enough (they are effing liars,plenty houses around here use solar) so I'm putting it down to being in a rented house :( im on the lookout for alternatives and things i can make myself all the time though :)
ReplyDeleteHi MEOD. I think every river should have a water wheel on it to generate electricity. If we could use wave power too. Good luck with the alternatives.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the blog, I missed this one but watched the first. Lovely series. Enjoyed the video clip.
ReplyDeleteHi BG. Yes it's a lovely series. Don't think I would like going to bed at 7.30 at night though. Thanks!
DeleteHi Dave, I saw this programme. my favourite one was the couple who had a wheelie bin business and they moved to scandinavia some where. And of course Ben Fogle!
ReplyDeleteHi Sol. Never saw the wheelie bin business. Will see if it's on You Tube. It's a great programme.
ReplyDeleteSorry Dave you probably cant find it as it is a Kevin Mcloud TV series not the lovely Ben Fogle.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.channel4.com/programmes/kevin-mcclouds-escape-to-the-wild
Will check it out. Thanks Sol!
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