To our newly updated
* Introduction * travellers living on the road * houseboats & narrowboats *
* self-sufficiency
or "the Good Life" * intentional communities *
Although Mark considers himself to be what you might call a "conventional hippy" (and no, I don't mean it as a contradiction in terms - he's what you might expect a hippy to be: into nature and peace and love and stuff!), I'm a Christian and you might think that being a Christian and living an "alternative" lifestyle is a contraditction, but actually, I have to say that the opposite is the case - my wish to live an alternative lifestyle stems from my Christian beliefs, that Christ calls us to a simple life in which materialism and "worldliness" have no place. I don't worship nature, but I do respect it as part of God's creation, and see that "communing with nature" can be a way of getting closer to the Creator. [Don't be misled, though - I believe there's no substitute for Christ... take a look at my Gospel page]
Anyway, we are seriously considering "selling up" (not that we've got anything to sell, as we're renting our house at the moment) and living "on the road" - either in a mobile home or on a narrowboat. We're also interested in "intentional communities" especially of the "new age traveller" type (although I don't embrace a "New Age" philosophy... I don't really know anything about it, so I wouldn't want to criticise it either).
My (our?) ideal would actually be to have a farm with some land out in the middle of nowhere & replace cars with horses & carriages & become self-sufficient! But since all that tends to cost money to start off (especially in this country), I think we'll most likely have to settle for something a lot less environmentally friendly...we'll see!
I hope to find some more links to "alternative lifestyle" types for addition here... suggestions welcome!
Suggestions would be welcome!
Travellers
Living on the Road
We've been thinking about living on the road as 'travellers' for a long time. Some of the things which make us stop and think are, having to get used to living in a small space after renting a big house (and affording to buy a caravanette or mobile home in the first place), the fact that travellers seem to get so much trouble from people living conventionally, and the worry of how we would make a living on the road. (and where to hook up the computer!!) We'd love to hear from anyone who is travelling or has done it successfully! e-mail us at littlebears@tesco.net
I'm looking for links - Suggestions would be welcome!
Narrowboats and Houseboats
We seriously looked into buying a narrowboat to live on before we had children: we particularly like the idea of being mobile, but we ended up not quite having enough money, certainly not for a new one - you can't get a mortgage to live on a boat, but I understand you can get a special "boat-loan". Part of the whole reason for wanting to do it though was to live simply and inexpensively... we weren't confident to buy an older boat as we didn't really know enough about them to know whether we were getting a good one, so we didn't take it any further. The other thing which stops us doing it now is that we're worried about living on a boat with children - we'd love to hear from anyone who has managed successfully to live on a boat with children! mail us:- littlebears@tesco.net
I'm looking for links - Suggestions would be welcome!
Self sufficiency
or "The Good Life"
"The Good Life" was a classic 1970s British TV 'sitcom' series in which a couple living in Surbiton (probably the poshest part of Surrey, a jolly posh county) decided to stay in their big posh house but give up their job & try & live self-sufficiently, growing their own vegetables, producing their own energy and so on, but really not quite knowing what they were doing but just making it up as they went along. If we end up living conventionally in an ordinary house (which is probably the way it will be) we'd at least like to have a go at being self-sufficient, with some kind of generator - maybe a wind turbine! We'd love to hear from people that have done or are doing this, and how! e-mail us at littlebears@tesco.net
I'm looking for links - Suggestions would be welcome!
We keep trying to persuade Mark's sister & brother-in-law to join forces with us to get a little bit of land & a house (I can't see either family being able to do it alone). Living together seems to me to be such a good idea! But they won't go for it so far! We have thought about looking for an existing commune (I'm not sure it would be so easy to start one, as you'd have to find likeminded people who you can get on with - easier said than done!) I've recently been e-speaking to some fellow home educators about a type of intentional community called co-housing which doesn't actually involve living together in a conventional "commune" but rather a group of people getting together to buy some land and build individual dwellings on it together with a communal building, so you can choose to be as sociable or not, as you wish. We'd like to hear from people that have done it successfully! e-mail us at littlebears@tesco.net
There's a list of "conventional communes" at the Intentional communities site: http://www.ic.org
I'm looking for more links - Suggestions would be welcome!
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Sharon's Personal Interest Homepage
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© Sharon Mortemore
Update: 08 November, 2000
