Simple Life = Good Life by Touch Jamikorn

To us at Rawganique.com, the good life is a dynamic and multi-faceted one. For starters, it involves living lightly on the land and eating freshly prepared, vegan-organically grown raw foods from the garden and orchard because our own health and that of the planet demand it. It involves taking and tearing apart beliefs long held as truths and re-examining them under new insights gained from years of living naturally. Living the good life also involves choosing to be part of a dynamic solution to, rather than part of, the ever-worsening environmental problems that, taken together, appear insurmountable but which are manageable and solvable if individually traced back to their causes. At least, we are hopeful they are manageable, one thought and one action at a time.

Our one hope for humanity is that it is not too late to make a change, that we have not reached a point of no return on the destructive path we're on. To that end, the good life we lead--in its mundane everydayness--must account for all the problems we see around us. It starts but does not end with choosing to wear only natural clothing made from low-impact fibers such as hemp or organically grown cotton and choosing to compost our wastes and to live our lives in such a way as to minimize waste and pollution to the environment. Every piece of clothing we wear that is untainted and un-poisoned by chemicals is a major step towards fighting pollution in our soil, air, and water. Every little piece of biodegradable material kept out of the landfill is also a big step Mother Nature will thank us for.

We do not use any chemicals at DeerMeadows, the home of Rawganique.com. No soaps, perfumes, deodorants, shampoos, or cleaners have graced our household for a very long time. We shower in the open air when the weather allows (which is most of the year where we are) or indoors in movable tubs using low-tech solar showers. We also recycle gray water back into the garden.

Instead of flushing our humanure (human waste) along with drinking water (that's what flush water is!) down a tube that in many cases leads directly to the underground water system and polluting it, we collect our humanure in 5 gallon buckets housed in cedar cabinets which we made ourselves from untreated scrap wood (see picture on left). Feces and urine covered in sawdust emit no odor whatsoever. We then compost them along with garden refuse and tons of straw in a huge outdoor compost bin made of cedar mill-ends. In a few months, the whole pile is transformed into compost of the highest quality: rich, dark, moist, and full of goodness!

On the subsistence front, we enjoy a plentiful and lush harvest from our gardens and orchards without any help from chemicals or even animal manure. It always amazes us how big a vegan-organically grown broccoli plant can grow or how prolific a vegan-organically grown tomato plant can be. And all for basically no work. As a general rule, we don't dig, plant cover crops, or do what most gardeners do, which is weed. In fact, we don't disturb the soil at all. We simply do what nature has been doing since time immemorial: we mulch our gardens and trees heavily with hay (as nature mulches the soil with leaves every fall) and allow the ever-industrious earthworms to transform spoilt hay and straw into the moistest, softest, darkest soil imaginable, all with no work from us other than sowing and mulching around seeds, and watering periodically. If you're looking for a miracle, then look no more. Just spend some time observing a bunch of earth and compost worms at work and you'll be amazed at the alchemical wonders of nature--except that the magic is real. You can see the transformation from waste into humus in just a few weeks.

By now, you must think we are either saints or loonies, or perhaps both? Actually, we're neither. We are in fact quite human, with all the failings that humans are prone to. That's why we acquired DeerMeadows--we found that staying out of temptation's way makes it that much easier to stay the path. We used to think otherwise, but then there are a lot of things we used to think otherwise that we no longer think now. We realize the things we do aren't the easiest or most convenient things for most people to do in today's world; in that sense, we are a bit of a hard-liner. But we have our sights on the world of tomorrow and how we would like it to be and what we'd like it to be won't allow us to compromise on even the tiniest detail. The thought of tomorrow is what keeps us going, through good times and tough times. It's why we put together Rawganique.com, which, to us, symbolizes convergence; it's a virtual meeting place capable of housing countless folks who care as much as we do about the environment. Rawganique.com is a turning point for us, a convergence, again, of all that we have learned about life and nature.

So we are not crazy crazy. We are indeed a sane, well-read, and educated bunch (whatever the last qualification means; we don't know anymore after having gone through the system's highest grind). We can tell you that what we have described is all doable (since we are doing it everyday!). The resulting life is always dynamic, exciting, and full of wonder. Visitors to DeerMeadows Manor are usually timid at first (especially about the humanure "thing," so brainwashed are we into unreasonable fear of our own wastes) but the quiet beauty and pristine ambience of DeerMeadows loosen them up fast and they soon become enthusiastic about living the rawganique life. One even went so far as to say she wished the whole world were like DeerMeadows; then it would be so easy to live naturally.

At this point, you might rightly wonder, so why do WE do it? Really, why do WE do it? Well, once upon a time we were each bogged down by little ills, although not really, fatally sick to the extent that we had to change our lifestyle or die. But we did change because the natural lifestyle brought about so many positive side-effects that common sense told us were hard to ignore. The little cold every now and then and the little asthma attack from time to time disappeared completely after we took up the natural life. Our bodies became light, our energy level noticeably rose, and we began to feel so good that we were smiling all the time. A big part of it had to do with no longer fearing the arbitrariness of disease--we'd say that that is what bogged us down most: the fear of the unknown; we didn't know what were were going to 'catch' and always lived in fear of coming down with something big. Living naturally took care of all that--we began to understand the cause and effect relationship between lifestyle choices and health and realized that our well-being is what we make it. We'd like to get a dialogue going here so would appreciate your feedback and comments on the natural lifestyle. From time to time, we'll be posting letters and responses to the editor on the ezine (with your permission of course) so that others can join in the discussion about the most important in our lives: our health and well-being. Till then.

Your friends at Rawganique.com
Touch, Klaus, Nok & Chao

Off the grid raw vegan homesteading articles

• Introduction to off-the-grid homesteading
• Back to the Land: In Search of the Good Life
• Living totally off-the-grid
• Year-round gardening, winter gardening in the Pacific Northwest
• No-till mulch gardening in the Pacific Northwest
• Edible flowers for your salad bowl
• The best traditional and exotic fruit trees for the homesteader
• Living on raw organic vegan foods on a self-sufficient homestead
• Organic building materials, clothing, bedding, and bath
• Enriching the soil: Compost & humanure
• Life with wildlife
• Keeping chickens, ducks, and geese
• Saving seeds for the next crop
• The joys of backyard ponds
• Water, well, and solar pump for the garden

Spotlight on Denman Island Artists

• Matsuki Masutani (poetry) (page D1)

RawForLife Raw & Sustainable Living Ezine

• Rawganique.com Blogs
• Edible Flowers (page 1)
• Michael McCarthy: En Route to Portland (page 2)
• Rawganique Convergence (page 3)
• Random Ruminations (page 4)
• On Hybrids and Such (page 5)
• Steve Scharmer's 36-day Fast (page 6)
• The Simple Life IS the Good Life (page 7)
• Raw Veganism and the Protein Myth? (page 8)
• Rawganique Diet (page 9)
• September 11, 2001 (page 10)
• No-till Vegan Organic Gardening (page 11)
• Rawganique.com's Story
• Humanure (book review)
• Hemp Facts & Info
• Hemp & Raw Food Books (30% off)
• Free Gourmet Living Foods Recipes

All opinions expressed herein, excellent though they may be, are those of their authors and do not in anyway imply agreement from us or our staff. We publish them here solely in the spirit of sharing and in the hope that they may be of service to others who are also seeking a simpler, more sustainable, and healthier way of life. We do not give recommendations or advice and cannot be held responsible for them. Please seek advice from professionals if you need help. There are also many excellent books out there by qualified professionals to help you on your path to health. May your journey be a gentle, loving, happy, safe, and fulfilling one.

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