Everything evolves.

When I started this blog (91 posts ago!!!) the main topic was our foray into car-less living, all be it almost car-less living.
Well we have certainly learnt a lot in the last ten months!
The main thing being that no, we can't live without a car, not in a permanent capacity.

A lot of things have changed since August 2009.

For one thing Kim now has work. Having gone self-employed he finds himself having to ditch the bike more and more in favour of the car as his work takes him further afield. For example we have to take a clients horse to be x-rayed on Friday. The vets don't have a mobile x-ray and so he will have to box the mare ten miles down the road and back.
Another blow was that one of his clients is now very ill and he has taken over a lot more work that he was originally going to do and they insisted he have the use of one of their cars so he can be up to their yard quickly in all weathers and also take over jobs such as collecting feed from the feed merchants.

Winter 2009 also conspired against our eager plans. The worst winter in thirty years hit Aberdeenshire and for the best part of four months it was impossible to cycle anywhere, with sporadically gritted and ploughed roads and grocery deliveries often not arriving or refusing to come down our lane, we were forced to drive into town to collect our shopping.

Then, after getting ourselves geared up to do nearly all our shopping within cycling distance, the local veggie cabin closed, meaning it was no long financially viable to do more than a fraction of our shopping locally.

All in all, despite our best efforts we now acknowledge that our rural location makes it incredibly hard (because nothing is IMPOSSIBLE!) to be 100% car-less.
With bad weather, no reliable and regular public transport, young children and animals (who always seem to need the vet when you are least able to get them there!) the whole thing was getting more than a little stressful!

Are we giving up?

Hell no!

Just being realistic.

I can still cycle to the little town and Kim still cycles to work when he is able, we still try and get the kids on the bikes to visit local areas. 

After a recent trip to the city of Edinburgh (FANTASTIC by the way!) I suddenly realised just how infrastructure poor we are here.
In a large town or city the majority of things you need are THERE, within walking distance or at a push easily reached by bus or train.  
I've been using the Tuesday bus into town for a while, but the two hours you get before having to catch the bus back home are woefully inadequate, you can do your shopping OR you can do jobs in town, but not both, so you spend the best part of £6 travelling and the whole morning away from home and will probably have to go back into town in a car as well at some stage in the week.

I don't feel we have failed so much as I feel let down by a country that takes relish in closing small local shops and businesses, cutting public transport and making life so hard for those not in te city to live car-less that you end up with country people migrating to the towns and richer town people taking over the country and villages.

So we have a newer outlook.
A do-what-we-can outlook that tries not too feel too bad when a car is a necessary evil.
Go through the options first and use the car last, but don't beat yourself up for having to use it outlook.

I think we can live with it.

HOWEVER......

This puts us in somewhat of a quandary.
How can we continue to call this blog "The (Almost) Car-Less Family" when we are now more the "Definitely Car Owning Family"?

So I feel a re-jig coming on.

A new name to go with the evolution of the blog.
I'm thinking about it at the moment and when I have half a dozen options we'll put it on a poll!!!

Feel free to throw any suggestions in there!      

Winter reflections on life and all that jazz.

Well the snow is going.
For the while at least.
In a usual year we have a bit of snow late November/ early December and then a large fall around February time, so it will be interesting to see what happens between now and Spring.

Although to be fair today was almost spring like.
Enough snow has melted to be able to do some work on the veggie garden, and I spent an hour forking over and adding much to the bed that the garlic is going in (late but..well). When the sun came out I actually had to take my fleece off!
Be moaning about heatstroke soon ;)

Anyway, today we took the kids out to the Bennachie Centre on the other side of the mountain.
Now to be honest we have all gone a little stir crazy the last month, what with being snowed in and all, and as the weather had broken and the temp was up we decided to go for it.
The child grill, I mean DOG grill of course..essential bit of kit ;)

Am I the only one who's kids moan and whinge about going for a walk but when you make them they have the best time?

They love this place because of the free visitor centre, a huge open plan modern wooden cabin with lots of tree and animal related information, interactive touchscreens, webcam hides the works.



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The walk as always was great, and the higher up the mountain we got the more snow was still about!
We stuck to one of the lower trails as it was late in the afternoon by the time we got there but the kids went free running through the woods at the side of the trail, jumping over ditches and logs and generally running off 4 weeks of house arrest





We talked about our car-less plans while out.
Obviously we had driven for this trip, the ice still thick in places, the daylight fading, the kids...well, being kids.
The plan had been to try and live car-less over the winter with a long term view of going completely car-less had we got on ok.
I think on reflection this is an un-realistic plan.
Don't get me wrong, our commitment to cycling and public transport remain, but the factors that rally against us, the isolated location, the lack of affordable public transport, the yucky winter weather (and lack of infrastructure for clearing roads etc) all conspire against winter car-less-ness.

There are also the kids to take into account.
If it was just me and Kim many things would be simpler. For example we have a wedding to go to in the spring. For two adults it would be easy and cheap to bus down south. With the kids though? For one thing it is a horrible HORRIBLE journey (14 hrs, late night wait in Glasgow bus station, no security and lots of drunks. toilet too unspeakable to think of ..and that's is it all goes well!), but the big issue is not our lack of "adventurous spirit" but pure finances. Seriously, it is cheaper for us to hire a car for a WEEK than it is to take 5 people on a bus.
There is something fundamentally wrong with that I think.
This same problem crops up locally as well.
Two train tickets to Aberdeen is do-able, five is beyond our means.

Bottom line is we can't keep the kids cooped up all winter only going from home to school and back again.

Our revised plan is this.
Our commitment to cycling spring through Autumn (and on suitable winter days also) is still strong. There are lots of places available in the locality to visit and we plan to do the lot this year.
The landrover stays. In the depths of winter when snow and ice are on the ground and daylight appears around 9.30 am and goes away just after lunch, we need a life line to the "outside world".
We already spent more time on bikes since we started than in the landrover so we still have credit as it were.
A once a week trip to a nice walk with some chips for dinner on the way home are surely not too much for kids to ask?

So its all good.
Our plans evolve and bend and change as needed.
After all, who wants to be so pure that your kids grow up to be raging consumers and petrol heads because they never got to do anything when they where growing up.
If it was just me and Kim we could hibernate for the winter, watch DVD's listen to the radio, chat, read.
But we have to remember that we share our house with three other people, lively curious, insatiable children who will not rest for winter and are not easily fobbed off with another game of snap.

Roll on spring :)

The benefits circle of hell.

As most of you know we are on benefits, the dole, welfare to our friends over the pond.
I would like, at this point, the reiterate that we do NOT feel bad about this. Kim worked very hard his whole working life and has paid over 35 years of income tax and national insurance so I don't think anyone could accuse him of not "contributing" to the economy.

Its amazing to think it has been a whole YEAR now since he was made redundant and in that year he has been invited to maybe a dozen interviews, had countless letters saying thanks but no thanks and has sent our even more CV's than he can remember. So really no one could accuse him of not TRYING to get a job.

Well it was his 12 month assessment the other week.
The job centre called him in to try and find out why he wasn't working yet, so armed with all the paperwork he had accumulated over the year he set off on the long trek to Aberdeen.

Now, we never expect to be treated like long lost friends at the job centre. Yes we realise that a good amount of their time is taken up with people who have never worked (and probably never will and don't care) but who always seem to have enough money for fags and booze and (openly) drugs, and who do it all in designer street wear.
But you should be able to expect a little civility right?

So the interview opened.
The unsmiling clerk, spends 10 minutes checking up on the computer exactly what Kim has been applying for.
Ok...
"We need you to cast your net a little wider Mr Basford."
"Ok."
"You need to stop setting your sights to high."

stop.

"Setting his sights too high!?"
So applying for work in a warehouse and being a school caretaker is "setting his sights too high?"

Not one of Kim's applications have been for CEO of Texaco or Arch Bishop of Canterbury (can supply own dress).

Ok.

"You also need to be prepared to commute further. You need to apply for more jobs in Aberdeen."
"I don't have a car, so I am limited by public transport."
*Shocked look*
"What do you mean you don't have a car?"
"Well we have a 30 year old petrol land rover but I can't commute in it. My Car blew up and I couldn't afford to fix it or buy a new one."
*Looks at Kim like he blew the car up on purpose*
"Right, public transport..."

Now Aberdeen is 30 miles away. By train and bus you are looking at a minimum of £60 a week in travel. Fine if your on £25'000 per anum, not so hot if your on say £15'000. It becomes a serious chunk of your income.
Kim explained this, he also pointed out that if he took a minimum wage job he would still have to pay full council tax which would mean that as a family we would not be a little worse off but significantly worse off.

"*sniff*, we don't take that into account Mr Basford. You need to be looking at a maximum of 1 and 1/2 hours commuting each way."
"But that would take me as far as Inverness!(80 miles, @ £135 a week..nearly half a low wage. Very ecological.)
"Yes it would."
"I think your being unreasonable. I can't commute that far."
"Well Mr Basford, you should have thought about that before moving to the country."

WHOA!

Is this what it comes down to?
Is he suggesting we sell our house and move into the city?
Does he not take into account that for 8 of the 9 years we have lived here Kim has been in gainful employment?

Wait a sec..how about we tell all the CITY people to move BACK to the city where THEIR jobs are so that their spouses can get low paid "pin money"jobs (ie , jobs they don't NEED, but do because they are bored)THERE and free up jobs in rural areas for ..oh..I dunno..PEOPLE WHO LIVE RURALLY!

I have lived in the country for over 17 years, Kim his whole life! We did not move to our house to "downsize" (ie sell 2 bed flat in city and buy 6 bed country pile) We moved here because despite us both (seperatly) trying to live urban, we both hated it so much we moved back to the country.

We are arriving in a time when only the wealthy are deemed "worthy" to live in the country, because moving to the country is what you do when you have "made it."

Would you uproot your kids from a good school, leave all your friends behind and sell all your animals, forget growing any food of your own, and live in a shitty council flat because you MIGHT get a minimum wage job stacking shelves?

I refuse to bow to that. While we have our house (paid for, so no mortgage) and our veggie garden we have a fighting chance of making our lives better. If we moved to the city we would be a million times worse off.

Our plan is to get off this moral draining merry-go-round, better to be worse off and self employed doing a bit here and there,than to be worse off and living in a crap part of a crap city in a crap job.
Its a scary thought.
Being on benefits is like being a slave.
Yes you get fed and a roof over your head, but they can whip it our from under your feet when ever they feel like it.
They can threaten you into taking the worst possible job by dangling the little money your entitled too under your nose.

Shall we finish the interview?

"You need to get more proactive Mr Basford."
"Yes."
"We think you should spend two days a week going door to door with your CV's iN inverurie."
"I can't afford the train to do that! It would be nearly £25 a week!"
"We don't take that into account Mr Basford."
"So, do have any training available for me?"
"No Mr Basford."
"But I thought you where meant to offer me training?"

"No. You can find some yourself, but you will have to declare it and it may effect your benefits if you work over so many hours."

Ok.

Fuck 'em.

Even a guy in a cardboard box has more freedom than that.

Think of us.

Can't give up the car? Green your outlook anyway :D

Regular readers will know that although we here at the (almost) car-less family, strive for a life without the car,we also accept that in some instances people (us included) are not fully able to give their car up completely.

For example, we live in a rural area with inconsistent and highly variable public transport. We have children and animals and also like to use Freegle (ex freecycle) a lot.
Do we beat ourselves up about occasional car use?
Hell no!
We're only human, and we have lives to lead, but we do try to stick to a few golden rules that I thought I'd share with you today....

• Do you REALLY need to take the car out today?Learn to analyse your proposed trip out in the car. Is it really necessary? Can you wait until a day you can use public transport? Can you even do without making the trip at all? The majority of car trips in the UK are UNDER 5 miles!! Easy cycling distance, moderate walking distance.
• Plan ahead.It sounds so simple doesn't it. But think about how many times a week you run out of bread, cat food, loo roll etc. Work out how much you need of something for a week and then buy one extra.
• Use your car trip in an industrial way.So you really REALLY need to go out in the car, ok, its life or death right? Well make sure you have other things to do while your out. Before you go out make sure you have all the shopping you need. Is there some DIYing you were going to do? Maybe this is the time to nip to the hardware store to pick up those washers or screws or whatevers. Fill the back of your car with the re-cycling you haven't got round to taking out yet. Better yet, ask a neighbour if they need anything while you are out. That way you are potentially saving TWO car trips, and maybe next time they will ask YOU if you need anything from town.
• Make your own rules and stick to them.We never..I mean NEVER drive to the local shop. It is 3 miles away. I can cycle to the shop and back within 40 minutes. The only time the car goes near the shop is if we are on the way back from somewhere further afield. If the weather is too bad for me to think about cycling there, I can't have needed the item that badly can I.
• Re-priorities "emergencies"We tend to treat running out of olives or icing sugar as a family disaster in this current car loving society. So you didn't plan ahead? You will next time right? But in the meantime, change your dinner plan and have pasta WITHOUT olives, leave the icing off the cupcakes. Learn to adapt, learn to be flexible, learn what is really important and stop worrying about the small stuff.
• Explore other avenues of transport.You need to get some where. If you can't walk you can see if its practical to cycle. If not check out the public transport in your area. If that's no good see if you can get a lift with a friend going in the right direction (com'mon, EVERYONE is in their cars, you must know SOMEONE who is driving your way that day?). If all else fails take your car and re-read point no. 3.
• DON'T PANIC!! There are ways around everything if you use a little thought. Try and make appointments around your public transport timetables. Get as much delivered as possible. Talk to your friends and neighbours, try and organise lift shares.
• Don't beat yourself up because you can't afford the new "eco" cars. Its better for an old car to only be driven twice a week than to use an "eco" car so indiscriminately that wheels never stop turning.

Try to look at the thing as a whole.

Use your car as little as possible and its better than using it without thought or care. Before you know it you will have turned around and realised that the car you "couldn't live without" hasn't left your drive for a week.

Good luck and have fun!

Public transport and other things that SHOULD make car-less easier....but don't.

I get angry at the lack of reliable public transport.
Yesterday I had a Dr's appointment and caught the ONLY bus into the little town, but because I had planned on walking home I only brought a one way.

Trouble was it then rained like stink and I couldn't be sure the bus would come back through town. No one else had got on or off when I did and if that happens the driver often misses the town out on the way back!
My Dr's appointment had left me a little sorry for myself and I *shame* called Kim to come get me in the Landrover.
Do I call that falling off the wagon?? Or falling off the Bike ? ;)


The point is I wouldn't have cycled in that day and had to rely on the bus, but the bus can not be relied upon.

Is this the main reason people feel they HAVE to own a car??

A couple of years ago Kim tried taking public transport into work. He would catch the commuter bus at 7am and it would take him into town to catch the train. Trouble was on more than on occasion the bus would be late, or in some cases not turn up at all.
This would mean he would miss his train and have to run home and drive into work. Of course though he had paid for a season ticket, but at the end of this period he worked out that using public transport (AND his own when public transport failed him) had cost him significantly MORE than if he had just driven.

So what is the incentive????

How can governments ask you to drive less but give you no alternative??

Lets face it not everyone is able to grab two wheels. What about the elderly, the heavily pregnant, the ill, the injured?

Any government serious about fighting climate change should be pushing for more reliable public transport for everyone.
When there are only 2 buses out of my village (one 5 days a week to train station, leave 7am, home 6.30 pm. One bus to BIG town once a week, only 2 hrs allowed for visit before coming home again)what incentive is there for the villagers to give up their cars?

Parents want to take their children to activities after school or at the weekend. People work in the week and are unable to use the bus into the big town. Other people have different working start and finish times and so are unable to use the commuter bus and train.

What we need are incentives. A tax break? Low fares? A cash incentive after so many journeys maybe? Lay on the transport and make it attractive.

Three or four buses a day into town would cover a lot of people, incentives to buy season tickets would mean buses would not be in danger of running at a loss.
Where can we take it from here?

Free range kids and the great divide.

Regular visitors here may have noticed that I have a blog list at the side of the page.
This list is a snippet of the blogs I admire, contribute to and think are relevant to the subjects I post on The (almost) Car-less family.
The Eagle eyed among you may have noticed that one is now missing.
Now I have nothing personally against the creator of the free range kids website. Many of her principles are sound and dipped in common sense.
The reason I have removed the blog is because of the bad feeling, vitriol and down right one-up-man-ship.
The post comments are full of parents belitteling anyone who dares to say "I'm sorry I don't agree", anyone who admits that no, their child doesn't walk to school is pointed at as the archetype helicopter parent.
The main thing that disturbed me was the black and whiteness of the whole thing.
Don;t get me wrong, I have no fear thet paedophiles are lurking behind every bush waiting to steal my children, but I DO worry about the fast road past my house where the only place to cross is at the bottom of two hills and is easy for an ADULT to misjudge let alone a child.
Because of this they can't go up the village to play in the street (another free range kids must), or ride their bikes without supervision.
Not one person on the blog comments could say "yes, I can understand that problem" without being shouted down by parents accusing them (and me) of just not letting go.

I don't need that kind of hate in my life.
Parenting should be a fantastic and loving journey, as individual as the people who created the children. There are no rules, there are no boxes that fit children perfectly.
The children, the area you live in, your own lifestyle, these are the things that determine how you can parent.

There are very few true free range children, just like there are very few true free range animals in farms.
Again it depends on several variables.
A pig for example cannot be taken out of the barn and called free range. He is the wrong pig on the wrong farm, making an intensively reared pig into a "free range one" means it becomes a form of neglect. You can see fields full of pink pigs in the winter, only steel shelters and not enough bedding to keep warm.
An old breed of "hairy" dark pig on a purpose made free range farm would be much happier. Many farmed boars are kept in woodland and have shelter from the elements to complement the hide they have.

Is this a strange analogy??

Stick with me now.....

These post commenter's bang on and on about how they where aloud to do this that and the other when they where kids and THEY didn't get hurt.
30, 40 50 years ago the traffic was a 1/5 of what we have now, the cars are faster and streets and housing complexes designed for the use of a car not a child's feet. To throw open your door to a wide eyed 6 year old and shout "Go play free range" is neglect in an unsafe area.

I just wonder, when will parents start to use common sense when they raise their kids, instead of latching onto a "method" and guarding it as jealously as a pit bull with a bone. When as people did we become so unsure of our abilities as parents that we have to belittle other people for being different in their own parenting approach.

Thoughts?

This time I'd really like to hear them.

A borrowed car and 5 frayed tempers.

Because our car died without warning and we where left with a limited amount of time before school starts to buy supplies for our three kids, we borrowed a car from some friends yesterday.
I thought this would be an interesting experiment.
Have we been car-less long enough to make a difference? Would we be tempted back to the "delights" of a car like an alcoholic thinking they can handle just one drink?
I asked Husband if he would let me know how he felt (he is the driver)but he said he doubted it would make much difference after only ten days.
Ordinarily I would agree, but I know from experience that sometimes when a light has gone on in your head its nearly impossible to view the work the same way again. Time scale has little to do with it.

I remember after being Vegan for a while I babysat for some friends.
Now we have no TV at home (yeah, another of those things that make us the weird family!) and this was the first time I had watched some TV for ages.
I watched the adverts with a mounting distaste, image after image of frolicking cows for milk and smiling pigs for sausages. Pictures of kids tucking into fast food while tranquil rolling fields dotted with cows served as the backdrop.
I even got riled when an advert for weedkiller came on with an "evil" cartoon dandelion being zapped by some urbanite with something gross (Dandy lion leaves are wild food in my house, young leaves taste like rocket).
I turned the TV off.
I felt angry that people, really MOST people, bought into this.
It made me feel isolated and yes, surrounded by idiots.
Unfair?
Maybe, but it was my reaction.

Anyway....back top the car.

The drive into town was fine, but in town the volume of traffic seemed magnified. I noticed husband getting tense as he had to wait for yet another driver in a hurry, in such a hurry that the way to drive was based on a style of driving that involved putting your foot down, wearing blinkers and presuming that everyone would get out of your way.

Our fist stop in town was the lovely little Grocers (The "Green" Grocer, Inverurie, and I found out they will deliver!!)which supplies us with our oat milk, smoked tofu and other vegan and highly decadent food items and toiletries.
The woman who works there was highly interested in our car-less-ness.
"Ach, we didn't have a car when I was a child." She said to be wide eyed children.
"Did you have to cycle?" Asked my eldest.
She laughed and shook her head. "No! We couldn't afford a bike! We had to walk everywhere! Aren't you lucky you boys all have bikes!"
Of course she was right, but I couldn't help feeling that it was so very different then.
50 years ago even our tiny village was possessed of a butcher, baker and mill and general stores. In the 1980's there were still old folk who had never even visited the town 3 miles down the road.
There was no need, everything was HERE.
Our village post office and small store closed 4 years ago, and the heart of the village left with it.
It was more than somewhere to buy a paper and a loaf. The owners would make a fuss of the children, they would introduce new people to villagers as they came in, they where the glue that held our community together.
Now the old folk stay in their houses and there are new faces in the village who walk past you without a smile or hello.

The dreaded TESCO was a trial.
I have never liked big supermarkets, but I think this one has a serious case of sick building syndrome. The AC upstairs makes me feel ill, the kids always get hyper. My tolerance for maneuvering through the crowds was almost 0, almost panic inducing. The headache that was to stay with me for the rest of the day started in there.

There where a few more stops on our borrowed car day out, and although we got everything done, everyone was pleased to be heading home.

As we headed through the outskirts before hitting countryside, Husband turned to me and said "You wanted to know how I feel? Bloody awful." He pointed to cars pulling up at junctions. "I wonder if their journeys are really necessary? I bet most of them are only going 3 or 4 miles."
A mild evening, 3 or 4 miles in a residential area would be a pleasure to walk.

The car has gone home this morning.
Husband is even more determined to make sure tha majority of our journeys are now either under our own steam or by public transport.

I was just glad to be home.

Kicking the habbit

I think few people really know how addicted they are to their cars, or maybe more how addicted they are to the easiness of getting somewhere and all the other off shoot addictions that stem from that.
After a particularly crappy day of things going wrong, hard work and frayed tempers, I was standing in the tack room and round myself thinking "God, I wish we had the car. We could go up town and get some chips and something from the shop."

WHOA!!

Lets take a step back here.
When did I become the sort of person who measured her happiness in fried food and snacks?? (1990 actually, but that's another story :P )
It would have been so easy....such a rubbish day, we all needed a boost, chips and chocolate and coke would have felt goooood..But only for a while.

As it turns out I slunk indoors and surveyed the contents of my cupboard, which initially looked bare as the moon. I pulled out a bag of TVP (Textured Vegetable Protein) and eyed it cautiously.
I soon realised I had the makings of a veggie chili and with some paprika roast potato's (dug from the garden) we had a meal.
And not just a meal, but a GOOD meal in all ways, everyone ate it (even the littlies ate the potatoes) and declared it scrummy!

But how easy would it have been to drive to town and spend £20 + on crap.

Our car-lessness has taken us by surprise and I relish the little things it is showing us.
I need to hang onto these moments when I am cold and wet I think ;)

The car dies...no flowers please....

Our car, a highly polished, highly confusing, HIGHLY electric based, Frontera died.
Time of Death was record at @ 9am on Tuesday the 4th of August on our way to the doctors in the town.
It ground to a halt outside our village and has not moved under its own steam since.
On the long walk back through the stubble fields (in inappropriate clothing..of course, well no one had planned on walking had they!)the Husband and I discussed what we were going to do.
We already had a good idea that this was a BIG bill.
We have no money, in fact church mice are Donald trump compared to us at the moment. A big garage bill was not part of the plan this month, we had to eat, buy school supplies for our three kids, we had a barn full of straw arriving.
"Well its OK!" I said to him with a forced gaiety usually reserved for very small children on the edge of a large melt down, "We can finally have a go at living without the car!"
His glare was almost enough to shut me up.
Almost.
So I prattled on happily about reduced carbon footprints and exercise and money saving and the idea began to grow.
Now at this point I should say the reason this is called "The (almost) car-less family" is because it would be impossible to live where we live without a car forever. The plan is for Husband to buy an old landrover, which means that for about 9 months of the year he will be working on it and we will be without a car anyway....but also that an old landrover is not a car to be hammered around the hills and vales of Aberdeenshire willy nilly.
Well the final consensus is that we will use the Landrover for emergency journeys (Doctor, vet etc)and for planned trips into the nearest large town for those things that cannot be delivered or cycled to.
Well..it'll be a FINE adventure, won't it children...won't it?