Curbing the need for bigger, better, more of everything (March 28th 2009)

As most of you know I have acreage envy. Not too much acreage as this Crone would be the one maintaining it all, but a couple of acres just outside of spitting distance to the City.

A little bit of sitting and thinking brought up several issues. Firstly how much space does our family really need? In your 'normal' family each of our children would have their own bedroom so we would need a six bedroom home plus a study. Have any of you researched how much a six bedroom home costs in your area only 8km's out of the CBD on an 800 sqm block? So here we are in a four bedroom house, using one of those bedrooms as a study for The Husband (hurry up and finish that PhD for goodness sake!!!) with three tots stacked into one bedroom.

I also came to the realisation that even if everyones predictions about Climate change and Peak Oil are wrong, I still want to bring up my family the same way that I am doing so now; to live gently on the Earth. So for me to live up to my ideals (are you all as hard on yourselves as I am?) I need to find a way to content myself with what I have here and walk the gratitude talk.

Another lightbulb moment was that we have been here for over two years now and that is two years of growth for my garden. I know that I could buy larger more mature fruit trees for a new place but one of my three lemon trees has it's very first fruit this year and I am getting so excited at the prospect of seeing and gathering the harvest!

This week has been a huge eye opener for me and one of quite a few surprises. Firstly reading that Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Brasilia told the World that the GFC has been caused by 'white men with blue eyes' and while I abhor any references to racism, I feel that he is saying that the First World has yet again caused a mess which is going to have a huge impact on the World's poorest people. I have no idea what the long term effects the GFC is going to have but a part of me really clings to the hope that it will mean a more fair distribution of wealth for all. I suspect that the reality will be far from my romantic vision of Utopia however, so I shall continue to plant and learn as many skills to make do as I can. My second surprise? Go back and read this post and see if you can figure it out ;) Needless to say that I feel I have lost all eco credibility but am still feeling quite excited none the less.