Looking Back

Strap on your seat belt, hang on. We are going to look at few curious facts. Total knowledge, everything man knew about everything, doubled at the painfully slow rate of every 2000 years back around the year 1 AD. By the year 1000 AD, knowledge was doing a little better and it doubled every 1000 years. By 1700, knowledge was doubling every 300 years. Printing presses were starting up and you can see the effects. By 1900 Knowledge doubled at a rate of every hundred years and the marvels of the twentieth century developed.

Care to guess how often total knowledge is doubling now? Every three months, everything we know about everything doubles. If your on facebook, you know way more about your friends activities than you used to way back a year or so ago in the prefacebook era or the golden age of the cellphone as some nostalgically refer to it.

Things from the future are whizzing by us at blinding speeds and they are accelerating. New technology in every area is introduced before we can begin to master the current technology. Thinking about the future gives me a headache and is more than a little worrisome.

Ergo, I live in a mish mash of past technology and a very small amount of current technology. I am sitting at a computer and checking the time on a kitchen clock that my grandmother passed down to me. It has a pendulum, gongs on the hour and half hour and goes tick tock. As clock technologies go, we have gotten more accurate, but newer technologies have lost the ability to connect with the soul for the sake of an accuracy beyond my needs. So time at our farm is kept by a clock that has been performing faithfully, with grace and charm for more than a hundred years.

The power to run the computer that I am typing on comes from solar panels. The energy they capture is balanced by chips, fitted to the batteries and sent through a computerized inverter that puts out 110v household current. I wired it up and set up the system without actually understanding anymore than I needed to to get it operational. When I get done typing, I will punch a few keys and lots of you scattered around the globe will be reading this in seconds. (Lots is a relative term, but since my blog tracking indicates hits from China, Slovenia, Russia, and Malaysia, I stand by my around the globe statement.) I understand absolutely none of the technology but how to post the blog with a couple of key strokes.

When I was 18 I had a 1939 pick up truck. I could work on the engine and I rebuilt the carburetor. I understood how it worked in theory and in practise. I have 2007 pick up truck that I can change the oil on, that's it. Only garages with computers can work on the engine. Both trucks got me around. I had more faith in the old truck since I could fix it. I could feel some connection and confidence as a result.

It turns out, like everyone else, I use what is practical, affordable, and convenient. I do try to use older technologies if I can simply because it is more fun and is more satisfying. I have a lemon squeezer made of wood that someone carved way back when. It was homemade, simple and made life easier for a cook back when cooking was a lot more work. I can feel a connection to the past just by seeing it hang on the wall. It fits my needs more closely than an electric juicer from Wal-Mart.

I have a more practical reason for favoring older mechanical or simple tool technologies and why I view the race to newer computer enhanced electronic technologies as a last resort. I like to use things I can fix. If the any electronic component of the solar electric system fails, I certainly cannot fix it and very probably neither can anyone else. They are not built to be repaired. Replacement is the only option. All electronics are designed to last a few years. The clock I mentioned earlier was built during a time when things were designed for maximum longevity. It has lasted over a hundred years. The lemon squeezer could be a lot older. If lemons were available a thousand years ago, this design could have been built to squeeze them. It will be around long after the solar system is scrap, and for that matter, even my grandmothers faithful old clock.

When we started Missed Skeet Farm, we knew our income would immediately drop to near zero, our capital was limited and would run out. We have tried to equip ourselves with things that can be used and maintained at no cost. The land would supply us with raw materials for building and wood energy would supply our heat. We would need to grow our own food and since there was only two of us, mechanical equipment would have to multiply our efforts without breaking the bank. We have put together an odd assortment of very low, medium and high tech tools to make this possible. We have, I think, created an interesting, challenging life that is uniquely suited to Kris and I.

Yesterday, we went snow shoeing out back in the morning, went for a walk along the road looking for animal tracks later in the day, made cookies, tamale pie and watched a movie on the computer. I was able to do a watercolor and we built Christmas presents for the grand kids last month. You are reading the blog I've been writing. Construction continues at a pace we can maintain. As a result, I believe our lives are richer than they would be if we were both working and living a more conventional existence.

Friends and family fall into two camps. Some have understood what we are doing and the others think we are crazy. Perhaps, we are, but most things that are fun have a bit of daring that adds an element of excitement for which there is no rational explanation other than "just for the fun of it." That's why Kris and I are here busy creating Missed Skeet Farm--just for the fun of it.