Back to Basics.
Back to Basics.
Last year I found myself on a farm in the Maritime French Alps, which really helped me to connect to myself and to nature again.
It was situated in the mountains, about a 40min drive away from the last village. The middle of nowhere, quite literally. There was not much but beautiful mountain views. And I could have not imagined what a kind of life there would be. A simple one, indeed.
It was my first completely “off-grid” experience and the first shock came quite quickly, as I realised there was no internet or phone connection. Except in one little cabin, which had wifi. The first 3 days I experienced some severe withdrawal symptoms. So many times I habitually pulled my phone out of the pocket for distraction just to realise again and again, it was not working.
Furthermore there was no running water from the tab. It came straight from the mountains. The water was led to the farm over kilometres in a black pipe. Since it was March and we were pretty high up, it was still very cold at night. So during that period the cold mountain water froze. And in the morning shortly after the sun had came up over the mountain tops, the black pipes absorbed the heat and it would run again.
This situation led to a few other extraordinary circumstances. For example, no washing dishes in the evening. And if you wanted to wash yourself, there was a huge pot in the „shower house“, that you had to heat up. With fire of course, which could take up to a few hours. Same with washing clothes. There was no ordinary washing machine, but one with a little self built in bycicle. So you were basically turning your clothes and having a work out at the same time 😉 The toilet was a compost one, which I had already been familar with. So, no problem. And during my stay, we even ended up building another one, which was pretty cool.
In my room, there was of course no heating, but a little oven. So every night before going to sleep I first had to make a fire. Which was completely new for me and quite a challenge in the beginning.
So as you might have realised, next to the normal farm work of planting, building, caring for animals, cooking and cleaning etc. other chores would take up so much more time than I was used to. And in the beginning it was really exhausting. But later I really came to see the beauty in those things.
It felt quite rewarding and like I had spent my time more meaningful than if I would have just been scrolling on my phone. I have learned many things there and especially not to take everything for granted, that we have in this modern society. And now I am always feeling grateful, when I’m having a hot shower 😊
Thank you for Reading,
Nina
