One of my vices is to go to Youtube and watch "village life" videos made in developing countries.
This way of life is fading away in even the least technologically developed countries, so these videos are time-capsules in how pre-petroleum cultures solved the complex problems of survival.
And while there are totally awesome videos from places like Tuscany, Santa Clara County California, Long Island, Bristol England...I learn far more from the videos that are made in places that less affluent, places where the climate is less Garden-of-Eden like.
3:26 Apricot trees in bloom. Turkey is the world's largest producer of dried apricots. Part of that is because they ripen (in Turkey) when the air is dry.
3:41 Wood "ring beams" in masonry wall. Wood has much better properties in tension than masonry, especially mortar-starved masonry, and makes walls much stronger under seismic loading. If you see ring beams in local architecture then know that you are in a place subject to violent earthquakes.
3:56 More ring beams, but now with wooden cross-ties to stabilize rubble-filled walls...maybe
4:21 Abandoned (?) hydropower site
6:07 Interlacing of fruiting trees (peaches, in this case) and garden plots. Other cultures seem less anal about having gardens separate from orchards.
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| Rocks stacked on edge of tile roof to keep it from blowing off |
7:20 How to say it gets windy without saying it gets windy
8:27 Possibly staged. Man fries meat in seed-oil in non-stick, aluminum pan with plastic handle over wood fire in place where there was no evidence of a fire ever being built before.
9:42 A serious apricot orchard. Trees are evenly spaced and in rows.
10:32 Firewood stacked in th background.
11:07 The milky look to the water is typical of snow-melt off of mountains.
11:42 "First grass" can be a tough time to keep animals under control. Winter hay is running out. First grass is also low in magnesium and animals are vulnerable to grass tetany.
12:00 Walnut (Juglans regia) in foreground.
12:05 Apricots everywhere...you cannot miss them
12:35 Livestock barn on left (dry-laid stone walls). Very stout corral in background, maybe for bull? Stakes stacked vertically on far wall of corral, bean poles? Tree in extreme upper-right corner appears to be a sweet cherry
13:48 Water race. Possibly to power (abandoned?) water wheel 4:21, but not likely.
16:30 Citrus trees
16:35 Grape trellises in the village. Quick shade. Delicious fruit as a byproduct. Out of the reach (mostly) of goats passing through town.
17:14 Women making donuts. Tree in the background looks like a fig tree. Much sound from traffic.
17:40 In the US we pay men to ride $6000-to-$60,000 machines to cut grass beside roads. In Turkey they let undernourished calves do it for free. The calves are really scraping to find a full mouthful. This looks like two weeks later than when the apricot were in full bloom.
17:55 Better view of fig tree. The donut factory has a tiny footprint.
22:45 Vistas of the surrounding mountains. Important because that is where the firewood, summer grazing, water and wood for construction comes from.
24:15 Sheep, approximately 80 of them. Color of mark on their rump indicate which ram inseminated them. Every ram is fitted with a harness with a uniquely colored "crayon". If not inseminated, the ewe is culled so as to not feed it through the winter.
29:34 The next thirty seconds are interesting to me. Sweet cherry trees with moss growing on them. Heavily manured garden plots. A gazebo with a large oven/fireplace and a young chestnut tree (retained leaves) in an orchard of walnut trees, background that suggests that annual precipitation equates to Upper Sonoran life zone in US but the moss suggests high humidity and slow plant growth.
30:50 About a dozen milk cows grazing at the edge of the common pasture. The alluvial plane stops and rocks start in the background. Right at the transition, feral fruit trees are growing. I assume that the fruit is harvested, otherwise they would have been cut down for firewood. One of the fruit trees even has a stockade built around it.
33:22 Close-ups of animal handling facilities, perhaps to facilitate milking the cows.
41:44 Old man with bad knees watching the goats. Matching the man-to-the-task is a dynamic problem. I am not sure he will be up to it next year...but there will be something he CAN do. A bit later
44:06 Looks like a mulberry tree on the right. Mulberries were used to raise silkworms. From Spain to Afghanistan, dried mulberries are a staple food. "Civilized" people don't plant them near their homes because they are "messy".
45:45 More grape trellises. It may be the same one taken from different angles.
47:18 Poplar tree "pollard" left-center of frame. Sticks were probably used in the garden to stake beans and tomatoes.
48:13 Ancient vineyard. This style of vineyard predates steel wire.
48:42 Obese person watching sheep. Has hip and mobility issues. Lots of traffic sounds in the background.
49:34 Poplar and willow suggest that the water table is close to the surface
49:46 Artesian well
50:13 Goats. If you look closely you will see that the man watching them is packing a long-gun. Whether to fend off predators or to pot the occasional rabbit is subject to debate. Perhaps both.
51:19 Not everybody has water piped to their homes. A public well-head
51:34 Pollard willow and dog
52:40 A shepherd pouring a the last cup of tea from a samovar
Please do not hesitate to correct me if I got something wrong. Please add any insights, especially those of you who have been in that part of the world.
My take is that many families take personal responsibility for food security. They plant nut and fruit trees for landscaping. They harvest poles and firewood from "shade trees"
I also admire that there is a very rich ecosystem in the work environment. There are a myriad of tasks that don't require somebody who is totally fit and in the prime of their life. As the locals get older, there is a graceful, downward trajectory where they can keep contributing to the family economy in spite of increasing infirmity.
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