Tuesday, April 19, 2022

Self sufficiency

That used to be one of the ideals of the "hippie generation" in the sixties as they left their middle class urban lives and set up shop in the bush in countries like the US, Canada, Australia, etc..

Turn your back on civilization and live off the land, was the catch cry. And I sure enjoyed my time in the bush in North Queensland, Australia along with my hippie friends in the seventies and eighties.

I managed to find some real estate along the shores of the Wild River in Silver Valley that was available for free from the Queensland Government, if you were a miner (like looking for tin in the creek beds).

So, we all became miners, of one form or another and some of us actually worked for a local tin dredging company.

The reward was legal ownership of beautiful lands with river frontage, available after a big dam project was shelved by the Queensland Government.

As for being self sufficient? Yeah, somewhat in veggies and always in weed. But making a living in the bush is hard work and most drifted back to the cities again in due course.

But all of us, diehards or ultimate urbanites, had an experience we would never trade away.

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