A journey off the grid

I can't get use to the stars. Those moments when you look up and see the stars, not the city stars when you maybe see three, I mean properly see them,  still catch me by surprise. I've spent a reasonable amount of time camping and sleeping outside, measured against some it might seem an excessive amount, against others I'd be a rookie.  Either way, every time I find myself outside on a clear, dark night and look up I am shocked to realise that this is the view we have blocked from ourselves. Our modern lives of electricity and lighting have meant that for the majority of us that unbelievable panorama is a rare sight. Some people will have lived their entire lives having never even experienced it. Yet without our intervention this view would always be there. The latest star gazing wasn't far away from the city geographically but it was a long way away in nearly every other comparison. It was a public holiday over in Vancouver this weekend and that means one thing, get out of the city. This time around Rachel and I decided to continue exploring the nearby islands by bicycle with a trip to Lasqueti Island.

Lasqueti, from afar, looks like any other island in the Salish Sea that sits between Vancouver Island and the  mainland. The main and quite significant difference with Lasqueti is that it is a fully off the grid island. No electricity, no mains water, no gas. I have always dreamed of living off the grid, it is something I plan to try to some extent in the future but living in the city doesn't make it possible for the time being. I love the idea of living in sync with nature, being forced to live a simpler life and leaving as little footprint as possible. So it was with some excitement that we set off to see what is created when approximately 380 people choose to live off the grid on an island.

There is no camping on the island so we stayed in a tiny cabin which was little more than a shed. No facilities, just a bed and a composting toilet, we had to bring our own water and food, and take any trash we made home with us. It might sound like hell to some but for us it was all we needed. We cooked food on our camping stove, listened to the wildlife around us and were, of course, surprised by how bright the stars were.

When I first spoke to people about Lasqueti it seemed to have some mixed reviews from both previous visitors and those who have never even stepped foot on the island. As with anything that goes against the grain it attracts criticism from those comfortable getting in line. I find it strange that as a society we are so fearful of people doing things differently. The stereotypical tag of "hippies" is so often thrown around whenever the words off the grid, nature or even organic is used. It makes no sense to me that the people selflessly trying to look after the planet are the odd ones. I wasn't there long, but long enough to see enough. What I did see was lots of smiles amongst the odd disapproving look, a tight community mixed with some fierce independence,  the health conscious, hemp wearers and the beer drinking, chain smokers, some unbelievable levels of self sufficiency as well as a reliance on diesel powered generators and food brought in from outside. The people were really no different to anywhere else except for one thing. Everyone there had made a conscious decision to live on this off the grid island. Everywhere I looked I saw someone who was taking a big step to being the change they wanted to see in the world and it was inspiring.

We left the island and headed inland on our bikes to spend some time camping and to digest a bit of what we had just experienced. Sat round the campfire, with our few belongings we managed to bring on our bikes, making a meal out of the very last of our food, listening to the wildlife, I was again surprised by the stars. I may not be able to live off the grid in the city but I realised if I am in pursuit of living in sync with nature, being forced to live a simpler life and leaving as little footprint as possible then sleeping outside in this way will do for the time being.

Why I eat organic food

2 years ago a friend asked me if I ate organic food and I remember my response was something like "It's too expensive, we can't feed the world on organic food and the research doesn't prove pesticides do us any harm". Today the same question would result in a very different answer from me. The reason for this change is not because I suddenly came into lots of money and could now easily afford organic food, it's not that I read a report that says organic food can feed the world, and it's not that I have seen studies that conclude that certain pesticides "probably" do cause cancer.  No, I had heard all of that before and despite deep down believing them to be true I still continued to buy non organic. Besides for each of the hundreds of articles you can read spinning it this way you can find just as many going the other way. Pesticides are safe. GMO's are the best bet for feeding the world....etc, etc.

The alarming reports did little to change my habit.  We're an odd bunch us humans. We have an amazing ability to disconnect from realities that aren't convenient for us. Take smoking for example. As someone who grew up in the early 80's I was fully aware that smoking was bad for me. It was conclusive. No questioning the facts. Yet still I wanted to try it. Thankfully for me it didn't go much further, turns out attempting to smoke an entire packet of Marlboro Reds is enough to put a 13 year old off for life, but lots of people I knew continued to smoke and some still do. Even though we all know 100% that it can cause cancer, cigarette companies still make millions each year from new customers. It's madness. I'm sure a psychologist would be able to explain what it is in our psyche that causes this and if anyone knows please do let me know in the comments. Anyway, I digress...

So despite the reports I had read about pesticides,  I was still taking the smoking attitude to my food consumption. I was choosing convenience and price over my health. But this has changed. I am not any richer but I now make sacrifices elsewhere in my life to ensure I can afford to buy good food. I heard a quote the other day which sums up my new attitude towards this perfectly

Don't ask why organic food is so expensive ask why junk food is so cheap

It wasn't that one day I woke up and had an epiphany that non organic might be bad for my health. The shift in my mindset actually came from gaining more of an appreciation for nature and realising that if I believe in evolution then maybe I should trust that the planet wasn't simply sat around for 3.8 billion years waiting for us humans to come and save it. 

3.8 billion years. That's quite a long time. Us humans have been around for, give or take, 200,000 years. Which is 0.0052% of the time that the planet has been going. Us clever humans only discovered modern, synthetic pesticides in the 1930's which is roughly 85 years ago. 85 years is 0.0000022% of the time the planet has been evolving. If you are lucky enough to live to 100 years old that would be less than a second of your entire life.

So despite all the reports, studies and food documentaries telling me organic food was bad for me it was actually the realisation that it's a little bit arrogant of us to assume that we know better than 3.8 billion years of evolution. We are only just starting to understand how amazingly nature has evolved, and when we look at nature versus man made creations nature wins every time. Spider silk, bee hives, dragon fly wings, we haven't come close. So for us to rock up 3.8 billion years into the job and tell mother earth she hasn't a clue is a pretty dickish move on our part.

Sure organic food production comes with it's own set of problems. It still has a considerable level of tinkering in it from us humans.  When it comes to food perhaps large scale mono-culture farms in any format conventional or organic aren't what we need and maybe smaller scale intensive farms or permaculture is what we need to strive for. I don't have all the answers. It's just what works for me.

The secret of your future is hidden in your daily routine

"The secret of your future is hidden in your daily routine" 

Like most good quotes you hear them and realise they are so obvious you kick yourself for not thinking of them first. Despite my lifelong fear of the word routine this was no different. Up until hearing this quote I have always thought of routine as a thing people who wore suits to work did and something I would try to avoid in my life at all costs. However when you actually think about it maybe a routine isn't so bad.  Obviously if I have a daily routine whereby I wake up whenever I want, sit on the sofa all day and eat ice cream the future is probably not quite going to pan out how I envisage it. However if my routine was to wake up on my own piece of land, go for a surf with friends, tend to my animals, harvest some fresh fruit and veg before having a nice organic, homegrown brunch with the family I think I would be pretty content. So maybe there's something to this routine business after all.

With that in mind I'm going to start changing my daily routine to see if I can make progress towards being the change I want to see. I'm going to challenge myself to take on a new routine every month that will push me in the right direction. Why a month?  I can't exactly set it at a random number of days! I'm a sucker for a neat bundle of time. So it's either a week, a month or a year.  A week seems a bit too easy and a year seems a bit extreme to get me started. I figure a month will give me enough time to get through the honeymoon faze, into the stage where I wish I hadn't decided to do it and then hopefully at the end will either leave me with a new routine or at the very least with a new lesson learnt.

I was thinking for a while what my first challenge would be, I wanted it to be something that would be a big step towards where I want to go. I have decided to try to watch the sunrise every morning for the month of July.

There were quite a few reasons for choosing this but the main ones are:

1. Waking and working by the sun is what the majority of the world does. In modern society, especially in cities we have become so used to relying on unnatural light to get by, we go to bed at the same time throughout the year regardless of what the sun is doing. For me this has always seemed strange and is a perfect example of our disconnection from nature. This challenge will be a good reminder and way to spend a little time each day observing mother nature doing her thing. It will hopefully also reduce my electricity usage too as I won't need lights for as many hours during the day.
2. I have always wanted to get up and do more in the mornings, I'm way more productive in the morning than at the end of the day. I am interested in establishing a morning routine of work, exercise and meditation so this will give me lots more time to do this.
3. Sunrise is a beautiful time of the day. It seems a shame to miss it for so much of the year.

I'll post a blog at the end of the month to let you know how it goes.