We all use clocks and calendars, however when returning to the land and living off grid, time works very differently.  Living on natural time requires that we get intimately involved with Mother Earth so that we can go with the flow.  The cycles of nature ebb and flow despite our best efforts to mechanically control time and productivity.  Transitioning from the mechanical time to natural time can be a huge adjustment if one is not aware of how it works.  

This distinction is the difference between living slave time and freedom time.  The weekend, vacations, stat holidays and other benefits we receive from the employer or state are nothing more than slave breaks so that productivity is maintain and the slaves don't fatigue or rebel.  

Cycles of Nature

Sin wave

Everything in nature functions on it's own vibration which creates cycles.  The sin wave is a simple visual representation of this cycle.  We experience it on a constant basis, whether it is our heart beat, breathing, light & dark to mark our days, lunar cycle to mark months and even seasons to mark the year.  There are cycles that are much smaller and others that are vastly larger.  To master living on the land and in natural time requires that we learn these cycles and find ways to get in tune with them. 

Go with the flow

This was, by far, the biggest lesson we learned. Nature does not run on calendars, clocks and timers. Moving from a mechanical, highly structured society that depends on hyper accurate time pieces, schedules and just-in-time inventory systems to the natural ebbs and flows of nature is a huge adjustment. We still use a calendar only because we interact with other people. Given a choice, we would move to a lunar calendar in a heart beat. We find our clocks don't apply either as all the plants and animals live in natural time. The goats want to be milked every 12 hours only because we taught them that cycle to maintain milk productivity.  Without us, they would ween themselves at their earliest convenience.  

Around here, that cycle changes drastically throughout our trip around the sun. We get about 16 1/2 hours of sun light on the summer solstice and 7 1/2 hours during the winter solstice. That is a huge shift to deal with that has significant implications to our capacity to grow food, generate solar power and even milk goats. That also does not take into consideration the 3 months of cloudy weather we get from October to January where we would be lucky to see the sun 6 days out of each month!   Along with that huge shift in sun line, we also find a huge shift in temperature, rain/snow fall and other seasonal changes.  

People using the mechanical systems don't really care what is going on out side.  However, we decided to not depend on brute force and instead learn how to go with the flow. If it is a sunny day, then we do laundry. During the summer I would fire up the table saw and make things we need. But if it is a cloudy day we may work in the garden, visit or do less energy demanding tasks. We choose not to demand anything from nature, but rather work with what she can provide on any given cycle.   

This requires flexibility, observation and creativity to work with what is being given to us.  When setup properly, we find that almost every day is a good day.  If it is sunny, then we have power to do things, rain gives us water, wind also provides some power.  The only day I really work on accepting is a calm, dark, cloudy day.  Perhaps they are supposed to be rest days.  lol

Think long term - synchronizing with yearly cycles

When we lived in the city, if we needed food we just run to the store. Tomatoes were there all year round, so no big deal. But when living in the flow, tomatoes are only available from about mid summer to early fall. Same goes with potatoes and all the other fruits and vegetables we eat. So the game has changed and learning to go with the flow means that we need to think at least one year ahead. So instead of working for cash, we work for our basics, food, clothing, shelter, heat, water, air, etc.    Here is what we found with the seasons:

• Winter is a time for resting, recuperating and planning for the coming year. When nature rests, we rest!  We hunker in for the long winter and make plans for spring. We do a lot of research, reading and writing during this period as well. We evaluate how the past season went so that we can improve for the next year.  Winter is vacation time when living in natural time.  People on mechanical time take vacation in the summer which is crazy.  Mechanical time is almost the complete opposite of natural time.  No wonder people want to come to nature to re-charge!

• Spring is when we put all our plans from winter into action. Planting our garden starts in the earthship in February or March. By May our house is full of hundreds upon hundreds of plants waiting to get outside. Because of our short growing season we wait until end of May or early June before we plant outside. Greenhouse gets started in early May. Chicks get hatched in March or April and put out into the greenhouse for brooding until they are big enough to go out into the pasture for the summer. Baby goats show up at this time as well, so we keep an eye on the moms in case they have any trouble.   Spring is all about birth, so there is a huge flurry of activity to get things started as soon as possible to take advantage of the next season.

• Summer finds us tending gardens, greenhouses and heavy into construction and repairs. Summer is all about growth, building new and repairing existing infrastructure.  Due to the excess solar energy, I can run my tools to fix all that broke through the winter or build new projects to help improve our lot in life. Lots of time is spent weeding the gardens and caring for the birds and goats. The wood harvest starts in earnest to replace all the fire wood that we burned through the winter.  There is no time to take vacations as the summer hours may be long, but the days are short before winter comes again.  So the rush is on to grow all the food we need for the coming year.  

• Fall is all about harvest. The scramble to get all the food, wood and other resources collected before the snow starts to fly and the temperatures freeze the water.  This is where a year of hard work starts to pay off as we start to reap what we sowed.  This is a busy season too as it is critical that we get all the food canned, frozen, slaughtered, dried, smoked or preserved in any way we can so that it will last for at least one year.  There is no grocery store next door to depend on, so we do all we can to squirrel it all away, just as the squirrels are doing right outside our door.  Then we return to Winter again, so that we can rest for a year of hard work!

Mechanical time works very differently and in my view, it is not a wonder at all to see so many people sick.  They are so out of touch with natural time, which the body needs, that the body starts to burn out and break up.  Since returning to natural time, we find our health and stress has decreased significantly!  

Temperature Cycles

Statistics say that 90% of Canadians live within 100km of the US border. We are over 700km north of the medicine line, living north of the 54th parallel. I suspect we live farther north than 95% of Canadians.  Living this far north means that we get about 88 frost free days per year, while Edmonton which is a 2 hour drive south of us, gets 135. Our winters can easily reach -45C/-49F and our summers can hit +35C / 95F. About 3 years ago we had snow on October 1st and it never left until April, giving us 7 months of winter while I also remember riding my motorcycle every month of the year about 15-20 years ago.  But on average, a typical winter is about 5 or 6 months of snow. To say we live in extremes is an understatement. I should also point out that we are not alone out here. We have many small towns, farmers and even some industry around us as well.   Of course our situation could be much worse, we could live even further north. The point behind all of this data is to show that despite the environment, we have found a way to survive living off the land in the northern boreal forest. As with any off-grid venture, being aware of the environment is a critical component to survival. The extremes we go through is because of the environment we live in. For people who live in more temperate climates, the challenges are much different, but still challenging! So what works here may not work where you are at and the other way around. But some our observations may apply.  Learning to grow food and survive on the land without the seemingly unlimited energy of the grid is a challenge, but very doable!

Tools like earthships, greenhouses, gardens, water collection, our relationship with the animals and plants have all contributed to our thriving on the land.  Learning all the cycles is critical to that success.  Abandoning the mechanical systems and surrendering to live within natural time is paramount.  

I could speak to the idea that the industrial, mechanical system wants exponential growth which violates natural law, natural cycles and natural time.  This too will be corrected, catastrophically.  I could go on as there is a lot more involved in these topics, but I trust this will help you along your way to exploring natural time, where ever you may live on this beautiful mother of ours.