Farm Fresh January 2021: Digital Nomad Community, Tent Life

Farm Fresh News - January 2021

In this issue:

Digital Nomad Community
COVID Memorial
Farm History - Tent Life

Sunset over our rig. Digital Nomadness, camping in a 21,000 wilderness preserve, South Florida

Dear Friends,

Back in November, I wrote, "We have taken a step back from the edge of darkness. May a new time of sanity prevail. Still, in spite of all that has happened over the last 4 years, 70 million people voted for (he who shall not be named). We are a long way from what is needed to turn things around, to bury the specter of racism, to combat climate change, and build a world safe for our children and grandchildren." I lost one subscriber (that I know of) who was upset that I grouped Trump voters along with a term like racism. I hope the events of January 6 have done something to open their eyes.

There are the tens of thousands who acted in violence in DC, but they are supported by millions of enablers. The memes of QANON have penetrated and are being parroted by too many white people who might deny they are themselves white supremacists, but in my mind cannot they deny their white privilege. The march toward freedom and equality has always been uphill. We must carry on.

The Digital Nomad Community

As many of you know, my wife Deborah and I embarked on an epic family journey, taking our grandkids on a Great Western Road Trip back in October. Upon our return to Tennessee, Deborah and I purchased our own RV and headed out again in December, this time chasing the warmer temperatures to South Florida. We have found a way to navigate the COVID nation, exploring nature while maintaining our social distance from people.

We love our tiny home on wheels! We try to hike 10,000 steps a day, have kayaked in many rivers and lakes, and discovered the beauty of cypress and live oak hammocks, abundant with water birds, alligators and other types of wildlife.

Along the way we have discovered a new, different sort of community, those who follow the RV Lifestyle. Once the domain of retirees, over the last decade it has grown to include young couples who desire to home school their children surrounded by Nature. There are the refugees who lost their homes to the foreclosures of 2008 and the wildfires on the west coast. There are van-lifers, full-timers, and all sorts of people seeking an affordable lifestyle away from the 9 to 5 grind. COVID unleashed a new wave of people who work remotely, as I am now, writing to you from my RV on the side of a lake in Central Florida, the Digital Nomads.

Moving to The Farm is not an option for everyone. But if you seek an alternative lifestyle, one with a closer connection to the earth, away from the rat race, living off the grid, this might be an attainable path for you. I will be talking more about this in the months to come.

And one surprising aspect of all this, is that the RV Life may be the one of the few places where liberal lefties like myself can mix it up with those on the right side of the aisle, in a situation where everyone is friendly and nice, even helpful to each other. Deborah and I do spend some time in the campgrounds of State Parks (to get access to fresh water, laundry facilities etc) parked side by side with other campers who no doubt have a political affiliation different than ours. This seems to be one place where we can find common ground.

Peace,
Douglas

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COVID Memorial

Lulie Flowers, with her great granddaughter and my granddaughter, Lulie.

On January 2, my wife Deborah lost her mother, Lulie Flowers, to COVID. She had been living in an assisted living facility for a number of years, where she received daily visits from Deborah or one of her other two sisters. That all changed when COVID hit last March. Unlike the nursing homes of the northeast, for a long time there were no active cases at hers, or only an occasional case of a staff member who had no contact with the residents. Then in late December, 20 residents tested positive in a wave of infections. At the age of 98, having survived a broken hip, a broken arm and rib, and three bouts of pneumonia, she held on for a couple weeks and even seemed to be on the road to recovery, when it took her from us.

Lulie was one of those people who was nice to everyone and all who met her fell in love with her, to the very end. She like to draw and color, and some years back when she moved from one facility to another, the art instructor followed her to give her personal classes, as her friend.

I was listening to Ram Das this morning, and he said, "When you think someone has left you, that is coming from your mind. If you look in your heart, they are still there."

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Farm History: Tent Life

Once the buses from The Caravan got settled into the backwoods, it became apparent right away that more housing was needed. There were various attempts to build small homes, but there just wasn't enough money to build a house for every family. Single family homes were also deemed inefficient, each one requiring a wood stove to heat, rather than that same amount of wood providing warmth for a larger number of people living communally. The equitable solution came in the form of army tents. It is one reason we look upon those early years as a sort of boot camp. - Douglas

"There were tent dwellings all over the Farm for the first 10 years, used by couples, single folks, and groups. They came from a connection someone had with the government military surplus distribution network. Most were 16' x 32' army squad type tents. A few had cold weather liners, but most did not." Tomas

"Andrew and I took the Red White (a flatbed truck - Douglas) over to pick up a ton of tents at the Parris Island military base. The Farm had won a surplus auction in 1973. I remember having to drive by the dogs at the gate wondering just how good their noses were. I lived for some time in a single men's tent. Quite a trip!" Tom

"I was on the trip to Parris Island, NC marine base to get the tents, riding across the Smokey Mountains in the bed of the big pickup, a bus made into a giant pickup truck. The base was so scary. It was on an island so the recruits could not escape, but when the tide was out, there were several miles of mudflats. Escaped men were chased down in these giant muck buggies. Few made it out of the mud.

We got the tents loaded on and we were getting a lot of attention from the soldiers. We started throwing them flyers. The base police hauled us into the Provost Marshall's office. Because we were polite, they decided to let us go. 'Take your tents and leave!' I rode all the way back over the mountains on top of a pile of 13 big tents. Quite a view of the mountains up there." Christine

"They were dark in color, army olive drab, and made of a very heavy canvas. We did not have electricity, so we used kerosene lamps for light, as the tents were very dark inside. Considering how poor we were, the tents were a step up. There was not much privacy, but we enjoyed each other’s company, and we survived a lot of cold winters. Many babies were born in them, like my first son Orrin, in April of 1974." Tomas (dozens, maybe even a few hundred of babies were born in the tents and buses- Douglas)

Craig and Martha

"The two of us lived in a 10 x 20 army tent. We enjoyed every second of our rural honeymoon paradise. Once we obtained pallets for flooring which lifted us off of the dirt it was sublime. Comfy wood stove for heat, tent flaps open for a breeze. I don't recall ever wishing to live in a house. Enjoyed living alone and not in a large group. Just turning 18, fresh out of high school and the city, this was living! Once we had a baby, we decided to leave. Tent life was no longer as appealing." Martha

I became one of the people in charge of the wrecking crew, going out into the local community each day, tearing down barns, old houses, even a few large commercial structures, bringing back the materials for building on The Farm. Getting up off the ground and on to wood floors under the tents was a top priority. Two by four boards provided better support for walls and two by sixes became rafters holding up the canvas roof, which was eventally replaced with salvaged tin. Holes were cut in the canvas walls and recycled windows inserted to let in more light. Actual doors were added to tihten upthe entrance and keep out marauding critters like possoms and raccons. - Douglas

"One embarrassing to admit detail is that we sometimes coated the tent roofs with a painted-on wax and paraffin based homemade sealant which of course turned out to be highly flammable." Rupert

Ultimately during those early years there were a number of fires of both tents and some of the early ramshackle structures that served as communal dwellings. - Douglas

(As one house burned to the ground...) We spent a good hour pouring water on the cinders that kept landing on the canvas roof because the thermal was coming directly over us. Lucky Don had that day built a ladder and stowed it under the bread truck that formed one of our rooms. The guys hauled it out and Rob went first to the truck roof and up to the ridge pole. The rest of us stationed ourselves to pass pitchers and pans of water up to him. I don't know how long I stood at the sink drawing water into containers. We hadn't had running water until that fall. All in all, one house that was not a tent burned, and we saved the tent." Patricia

"For a while we had one, then two Visitors Tents (holding up to 40 visitors at a time - Douglas). A different Farm couple had to” manifest “ the tent each week. It was their job that week to feed and integrate the visitors. We didn’t charge the visitors, but they had to work the two days they stayed on The Farm. Most were put to work on The Farming Crew." Tomas

"We lived in the Third Road Couples tent through one winter with three other couples. We had a big wood stove in the center of our tent that we called 'the dragon' as it spewed fire out the top when it was opened. Living in tents made it difficult to keep clean, stay warm, to cook properly, and care for babies and kids, but it made us live closer to the Earth. The tents were much needed transitional housing for us."

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Peace,

Douglas

Douglas@thefarmcommunity.com