Learning To Live Naturally
One of my daughters has a homestead. She and her husband have eight children and each of them help with the very numerous tasks required for it be be successful.
In addition to the vast garden, they raise goats, chickens (both layers and eating), turkeys, pigs, beef and more! The garden requires planting, caring, harvesting and then canning or other method of preservation. The goats require milking, feeding, watering and more. The pigs and beef require feeding and tending, while the chickens require feeding, egg gathering and for the eating chickens butchering for those being sold. I’m certain I’ve left out some of the duties, but the point is, it’s busy!
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They are also incredibly active in their local 4-H and all the children have learned to sew, while some care for and train cats, dogs and show rabbits! Others have incredible baking and cooking skills, along with herbal knowledge. It’s a fascinating lifestyle.
What I find interesting, is in the disability people group, it’s been discovered, they can function productively and adapt well to this type of lifestyle, as well! Farms and ranches are popping up across the US that provides the opportunity for those with mental challenges, autism, as well as physical ones to learn about caring for vegetable crops, fruits and even animals. One even teaches the skill of making goat milk soap!
These learning opportunities offer the education and knowledge needed to enable those with special needs to acquire jobs, or even create a sustainable business of their own as they offer their product to local markets, that will support themselves and perhaps even a family.
These farms and ranches offer a safe place for the disability community to gain confidence in skills and social interactions while performing meaningful and productive tasks. One even includes a pottery studio, as well as a bakery and a studio to learn weaving!
Another teaches everything you need to know about caring for roses, the arts and music, becoming a sous chef, tour guide and more. Still another is all about job training in a commercial greenhouse, that again, provides the skills and knowledge necessary for real life living through the building of life-long skills for productive independence.
Out world is changing quickly as we adapt to less and less self-sufficiency. We go to the supermarket and buy all our foods harvested, cleaned, cut up and ready to prepare; sometimes even fully cooled. All we need do is pop it in the microwave or oven and in just a few short minutes dinner is complete!
Long gone are the skills required to live life naturally. On the larger scale, we no longer tend large gardens and harvest the healthy veggies grown there, have animals to help feed the family with fresh milk, eggs, or even hunt for meat on our tables. The very idea of any of this ‘work’ is revolting to many.
These farms and ranches which teach these skills are to be commended for their foresight into helping the ‘disability people group’ in a unique way that adds viable, and valuable, learning opportunities to skills long forgotten. Actually, it’s a way of life we could all draw a bit closer to. As our world changes, it might be our best option!