How Much Land does a (Wo)Man Need?

I live in a place that hasn’t quite made it onto your GPS.  If you try to get to me with the help of a satellite tracking device, you’ll end up needing to cross a river.  At one time a ferry would have been of some help, but Camille whisked it away while I celebrated turning three with a train of party guests going through London Bridge.  Had place-based education been at the fore, we would have been singing about the ferry washing us out instead.  (Much livelier than taking the key and locking us up would be my guess.)

I’ve learned to tell delivery and repair people that they really do need to pay attention and listen to me when I give directions.  Every once in a while, somebody “yea, yea, yea”s me and they end up having to head back into town to get a cell phone signal so they can call and say, “How do I get there?  The road just STOPS at the river!”

Um, yea, I know.

So they head back through town, cross the bridge into my county, and get there in ten minutes.  This is why I’m so amazed that my address doesn’t register on Mapquest, Google maps, or the FBI’s database (just kidding).  It’s not like I’m off the grid or something.  Today I looked it up with Google’s aerial view feature, and guess what I found?  The river.

So I looked for a business nearby and lo and behold, a sign of life.  By moving the hand thing-a-ma-jiggy around I tracked my way to my road and my farm (saw the garden too!).  I guess I’m not from the fifth dimension after all.  My kids used to get me to tell this story about our farm being on a different planet, and I was beginning to wonder if convergences and time warps had stuck around and seeped in when we weren’t looking.

And you’re wondering about the title to this post?  Just a play on the title of one of Tolstoy’s best short stories, “How Much Land Does a Man Need?”  I got to thinking about this story when I saw the aerial view.   I’ve learned a thing or two about sustainability while doing this agrarian thing, and size and scale are key features.  Guess what happens on a farm if you get greedy?  Things suffer.  Good land to animal ratios mean that your pasture has time to recover so that animals have the food they need when they need it.  In the garden, taxing the soil by overplanting creates nutrient issues in the future.  Balance is key, and the first step in balance is to know what you have.  You can’t generate more raw material from thin air, but how many people believe that you can?  I’d say the number of people suffering from credit card debt could be one possible indicator.

I’d recommend reading Tolstoy’s story.  The answer to his question is definitely something to ponder. Forget searching as far as the eye can see, and look around you.  What’s keeping you grounded?  That’s probably all you need.