photo by Gena DyeOur niece Lucy Van Veckhoven feeds Grover, Pip, and Jack during a recent visit to the farm. The old rusty gate that was once the entryway to the family tree farm serves as the backdrop, as it is now in use in our goat pen.

I spent most of Saturday moving and patching an old hunting blind, all the while contemplating the benefits of recycling and the principles of Japanese minimalism. I know that seems to be a pretty random dichotomy of activity and thought; however, there was a connection.

Since moving to the farm, I have noticed a major shift in my thinking, a shift toward a “Depression Era” mindset when it comes to reusing versus throwing away. Much of this line of reasoning can be attributed to a visit to the local landfill while we were moving and remodeling our house.

There’s just something unsettling about standing high atop a literal mountain of waste that you helped to create that drives home the reality that we have to do better as consumers. Since our county doesn’t offer a recycling program, I’ve set out to find other ways to do my part in creating less garbage.

We’ve tried to cut out single-use plastics where possible, ditching the Keurig K-Cup pods for a French press coffee maker and eliminating bottled water. While we often still cave and buy both items out of convenience, especially for large family gatherings, overall we have done better.

Our best “recycling” efforts are most noticeable in the reuse of old items around the farm. It seems to me that farmers and ranchers have always been among the best role models when it comes to recycling, as on the best farms and ranches little is wasted.

On this front, our efforts to reduce waste at the farm have been much more successful. The old gate that I wrote about last year (“Hands on a rusted memory maker”), which once served as the entryway to the tree farm, is now in use in our goat pen.

As I sit here writing this morning, looking out over the front pasture shrouded in fog, I can see the gate and it makes me smile knowing that it is still in use. The pen itself is a showplace of repurposed items that includes an old playhouse, tractor tires, a mini-trampoline, and a couple of large wooden spools, all of which add up to create an amusement park for our trio of Nigerian dwarf goats. A redneck resort for ruminants, if you will.

It pleases me to know that were it not for their use in the goat pen these items would be piled in a heap in some landfill. Breathing new life into old things gives me a good feeling inside, and seeing these items around the farm always brings to mind the memories associated with them from the past, like those associated with the rusty gate.

Saturday I moved an old wooden hunting blind that I discovered while working in the woods near the hunting spot we call the High Road. During the past few seasons, we have hunted this spot from a ladder stand that I love, but the addition of the blind will enable us to get out of the elements.

From the outside, the old blind was in disrepair and appeared to be near the end of its usefulness. The inside also needed work, as open windows had allowed a plethora of creatures to call the place home over the years.

Fortunately, it stayed intact during the move and, after I placed and leveled it, I was able to patch a couple of holes and replace a couple of the windows. The tin roof appears to be sound, though I’ll have to check that in the rain soon and patch any leaks. All in all, I think we’ll be able to get a few more seasons of use out of it.

When I finished cleaning, I placed a chair inside and sat looking down the long lane through the woods. I wondered about those who had sat inside looking out those windows in the past, and then about the hands that had crafted it. It is a simple structure, but effective and well suited for its purpose.

While sitting there, my mind filled with thoughts of hunting. The coupling with the simplicity of the blind also brought to mind a book that I had recently finished on Japanese minimalism written by Fumio Sasaki. In his book “Goodbye, Things: The New Japanese Minimalism” Sasaki lays out several principles that can be employed in order to simplify your life.

Of all those precepts, the one that kept coming back to me while sitting there was this: “It’s the things you’d be willing to buy again that give you true satisfaction.” In my thoughts, I began to apply this standard to my hunting equipment and, no doubt a result of my surroundings, it was no surprise that the item that came most readily to mind was my favorite hunting rifle.

Of all the gizmos and gadgets that I have purchased over the years for my various hunting pursuits, there are really only a select few that I determined I would readily buy again. Only a few that I really valued. Perhaps that’s a great way to assess everything in our lives.

Here’s to focusing on the things that give us true satisfaction and here’s to seeing you out there in our great outdoors.