#8 Simple Living. No, Seriously Simple!

“Simplify, simplify,” insisted Henry David Thoreau, an important precursor of the simple living movement. He declared in 1854 that our lives had already become “an unwieldy and overgrown establishment, cluttered with furniture and tripped up by its own traps, ruined by luxury and needless expense…and the only cure for it … is in a rigid economy, a stern and more than Spartan simplicity of life and elevation of purpose” (in “Where I Lived, and What I Lived For,” Walden).

In a contemporary effort to live more simply and reduce stuff, a couple declared they would buy nothing new for a year except for food, shoes, pharmaceuticals and toiletries. Everything recycled--like many people are forced to live anyhow, right? (See article on them: http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/2008/1210/colorado-couple-tries-to-go-a-year-without-buying-anything-new) I found their story inspiring.

Many of us rant about seemingly planned obsolescence of goods—the phone, computer, camera, or microwave--that all too soon break down and require replacement. We become dependent on our stuff, as I am on this laptop and my camera to communicate. In fact, for the first time ever, I actually bought a camera to document my new life. How is that for irony: simple living woman buys more technology to document her simple life style!

I have claimed that life in my cabin is simple: lacking hot water at present, dependent on solar power for very basic electricity (and lacking even that with so much rain), no internet access: forms of technology we have come to depend.

But now I will test myself with even more simple living, moving into the shed while the renovations occur.

First, what are these renovations I keep talking about? Principally, I’m getting an indoor bathroom added onto the cabin, incorporating the current composting toilet.
The renovations also include new energy efficient windows (more efficient than the newspaper currently stuffed into the cracks) and real floors, not the painted plywood with the holes that are really a drag to clean down on my hands and knees (there's the floor with Cholo's dish)..

As for the shed I’ll be moving into, one day it'll be a fabulous guest cottage. Right now, it’s a shed.
When I became a land partner with my friend Sage, I wanted to make the shed into my own little cabin. The bottom half inside already had insulation and rough wood paneling. Above, I added more insulation and sheetrock. A friend Helen, who once lived in the cabin, put in a small propane heater, a rug and rocking chair and called it her studio. The little space was a beautiful retreat, and shall be again one day.

However, in the process of preparing the shed to become a guest cottage this time around, the boards were clearly too rotten, moldy and pest-ridden to merit saving for the long term—but not too decripit a place to stay in for a few weeks while the cabin is being renovated. Eventully I’ll find a design for a cute little guest cottage, one worthy of inspiring rest, writing, and reflection.
For example, here is a wonderful little video about Jay’s wonderful tiny house (a little too tiny for me): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbRvsWuWNUM&feature=player_embedded
Here’s another picture of a very organic little house:
http://blog.lib.umn.edu/hans2463/architecture/2009/06/roundtimber_round_house.html

Thoreau on adhering to simplicity in our shelters:

…. Consider first how slight a shelter is absolutely necessary. I have seen Penobscott Indians, in this town, living in tents of thin cotton cloth, which the snow was nearly a foot deep around them, and I thought that they would be glad to have it deeper to keep out the wind. ....

Most men appear never to have considered what a house is, and are actually though needlessly poor all their lives because they think that they must have such a one as their neighbors have. … Shall we always study to obtain more of these things, and not sometimes to be content with less?

[By the way, great video on "The Story of Stuff" in relation to consumerism: http://www.youtube.com/storyofstuffproject#p/u/22/9GorqroigqM

At present our houses are cluttered and defiled with [belongings] … I had three pieces of limestone on my desk, but I was terrified to find that they required to be dusted daily, when the furniture of my mind was all undusted still, and I threw them out the window in disgust. How, then, could I have a furnished house? I would rather sit in the open air, for no dusts gathers on the grass…

As for my own ultra simple dwelling, here are some pictures of what the shed looked like before I started moving in. Thoreau would have identified with this “airy and unplastered cabin, fit to entertain a traveling god, and where a goddess might trail her garments” (okay, not sure about that goddess part…)
In the photo on the left, you can see the loft (stores boxes now), but it used to be a sweet place to sleep—and will be again, in some form.

I’ll soon set up an outdoor kitchen, reminiscent of camping and the outdoor kitchens so typical of humble homes in Mexico where I lived and traveled for three years.

Humble as this abode will be, it will provide a sweet little view, as even here in the rain and mist.