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I’ve had the same supper for 10 years
- cfqycwz 5y agoA britishism I've never come across—does anybody know what "sandwiches with paste" are?
- mrmincent 5y agoMy mum spent a couple of years in the UK and refers to peanut butter as peanut paste. Could be a term for ‘spread’.
- zabzonk 5y agoUs UK people call peanut butter "peanut butter" - it's what's written on the jar.
- mrmincent 5y agoMaybe it’s an old Australian thing then :)
- SturgeonsLaw 5y agoNope, it's peanut butter here in Aus too. Maybe it's your mum's thing :)
- batiudrami 5y agoin WA it was called peanut paste back in the 90s and prior. Uncommon to hear it now though
- forsakenkraken 5y agoIt definitely isn't a term for 'spread'. It specifically refers to meat or fish paste sandwiches. The paste comes in little tins. Meat is most common, but when I was a kid I loved crab paste.
- munificent 5y agoProbably meat paste: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paste_(food) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paste_(food)
- zabzonk 5y agohttps://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/shop/food-cupboard/jams-sweet-and-savoury-spreads/savoury-spreads-and-pastes https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/shop/food-cupboard/jam...
- thamer 5y agoGood find! Some of these products though… Princes Beef Paste 75G, description: "Beef Paste with Minced Chicken". Price: £0.50 (≈ $0.70) Good for him that he enjoys his four(!) "sandwiches with paste" for lunch, but this doesn't sound particularly appetizing.
- zabzonk 5y agoNo, I wouldn't touch them with a bargepole. But I do remember my grandparents eating such things in the early 1960s. And British cuisine (?) has a long (centuries) history of potted meats and shrimps, which I guess these are trying to emulate. A bit like the French and pate.
- t_von_doom 5y agoHere (in the UK at least) you can buy little jars of paste, often made from some kind of meat or seafood. It seems the intended use case is to spread it on bread. I personally have never tried it nor plan to but see for yourself via James May: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVdodVA3qTk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVdodVA3qTk
- throwawayboise 5y agoLiverpaste is popular in Scandinavia. It's great on dark rye pumpernickel. It's really quite tasty especially topped with some sliced cucumber and fried onions.
- guerrilla 5y agoTrue true but we also have things similar to these pastes but they come in tubes and often have mayonnaise. Don't you think that's kind of the same idea?
- pmorici 5y agoI believe paste is a general term for any kind of spread made to put on a sandwich.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- thinkingemote 5y agoPaste is basically pate, long life, in little jars, with the exception of (confusingly) "sandwich spread" which many would say would be a paste but it's more like chopped pickle salad.
- canadianfella 5y agoThat’s the dumbest “manage my cookies” popup I have ever seen. I will never click on a Guardian link again.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- eMGm4D0zgUAVXc7 5y ago[Removed by myself to obey voting result of being a bad post. Please do not beat the post's corpse any further :) Thank you.]
- patrickm129 5y agoCan you share what meals you enjoy making? :)
- rubidium 5y ago“ By not leaving my apartment for a year except for shopping” this is entirely foreign to me. Where do you live?!
- eMGm4D0zgUAVXc7 5y ago[Removed by myself to obey voting result of being a bad post. Please do not beat the posts' corpse any further :) Thank you!]
- marmot777 5y agoAre there outside places to hike outside? That might be a healthy and safe. Frankly it doesn’t sound healthy to not leave home but you aren’t the only one who’s been shut in for a year. Millions of people.
- eMGm4D0zgUAVXc7 5y ago[Removed by myself to obey voting result of being a bad post. Please do not beat the posts' corpse any further :) Thank you.]
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- giantg2 5y agoDilution is generally the point when a specific threshold must be breached to succumb to infection. You can always where a mask, like a serious gas mask. People wi think you're weird, but fuck them.
- auslegung 5y agoThis guy is a saint. To have that kind of contentment and peace is the goal of most religions. Honestly I'd like to hear more of his life, would love to talk to him.
- marmot777 5y agoYes, he kind of reminds me of the aesthetics in India and elsewhere. Respect.
- scubbo 5y ago(In the interests of educating, not of "dunking") I suspect you mean ascetic? The difference is explained [here](https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/aesthetic-vs-ascetic https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/aesthetic-vs-a...). (Of course, it's also possible that that was just an autocorrection failure)
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- giantg2 5y agoI feel like my could hear that kind of contentment. But of course there are property taxes and the like. It's easy to lose what you have and what makes you happy. I want land, but will never get it.
- sxv 5y ago
- lmm 5y agoHow incredibly small-minded. I respect people who've tried something and decided it's not for them. But to never even try a different kind of food? I suspect it's less that he's found what he likes and more that he's scared he'd find out he actually liked something else better, and has wasted those 10 years.
- herbturbo 5y agoDude just loves his life. Doesn't feel like he needs anything else. Lucky him I say.
- systemvoltage 5y agoI think I would be more worried about the nutrient diversity and serious deficiencies of vitamins and minerals for having the same meal for 10 years.
- cogman10 5y agoFiber seems to be the main thing he's missing (typical for a British diet). Other than that, he's eating a pretty well balanced meal. Between the fish, bread, and fruit, you end up with most nutrients you need.
- rubidium 5y agoAw ya poor nutrients and mineralogy be out of tune. Worry is your life unless you decide not to.
- darkerside 5y agoHow incredibly ironic
- seaknoll 5y agoMaybe food just isn't that important to him as anything but sustenance. He sounds like a very kind and content person.
- noofen 5y ago> How incredibly small-minded. How incredibly patronizing. Have you considered that people have different tastes? Personally, I hate eating; if I could take a pill to replace all my nutrition needs, I would in a heartbeat, even if it costs more than my current dietary expenses.
- montenegrohugo 5y agoThere is value in finding your place in life and being content with it. Yes, you might be able to change it, perhaps to conform to more traditional standards of 'success', but why bother if you're happy as you are? If we humans optimize by happiness, then we should have nothing but envy for a life like Wilf Davies leads.
- marmot777 5y agoWell said.
- georgeecollins 5y agoI agree. If you don't want or like this person's life, more power to you. But here is someone who works hard and finds satisfaction and enjoyment in what they do. I hope we can all be so lucky.
- FractalParadigm 5y agoI came to this realization in university - I love software, I love writing programs and solving problems, but I really don't love office work or the idea of sitting at a desk all day. I dropped out of a software engineering program to work on a factory floor, a decision I haven't regret once in five years (even if my parents would consider me a failure). The hours are good, the wage is good, benefits are good, I get to come in stress-free and leave 8 hours later in the same cheery mood. I tried stints in "more successful" fields like in-house software or sales teams, but there was just something about it I loathed. To the outside world I'm just some deadbeat small-town factory worker, but I don't think I could make my life any happier or more enjoyable if I tried.
- Jtsummers 5y agoMy happiest period with relation to work was similar, laborious but satisfying because I got something done every day and didn't have to think about it after work. When you're writing software, it's hard to turn off the switch (I think especially if you find software development itself to be an interesting subject) when you leave the office. It's hard to not think about the design, the thing you'll do tomorrow, continue pondering that failed test case or new bug report into the evening. I only really got past that myself by introducing a significant break between work and the rest of my day with exercise in the 1-3 hours after work. But that's a rather high cost for anyone with a family.
- marmot777 5y agoA buddy of mine has rice and beans nearly every dinner though he knows how to cook variations so it’s a surprisingly tasty diet. I’m surprised the guy in the article could go decades without eating any veggies but his diet has clearly worked for him. The strokes could just be genetics and/or old age catching up.
- kohanz 5y ago> but his diet has clearly worked for him. Is it clear, given the multiple strokes? We don't know with certainty whether the diet was a significant factor, but it's possible.
- giantg2 5y agoI know of people who do not eat veggies an have lived into their 70s before they have a stroke. The are also people who have strokes or other problems before 70 even if they eat their veggies. I fully expect that my high stress and sedentary life of a software developer will kill me long before 70. Such are the trade offs of a well paying profession.
- SturgeonsLaw 5y agoYou must be young if you think that dying in your 60's is a long, well lived life. The retirement age is around 65 (depending on where you live and work). Surely you want some time to live life without the obligations of work? Otherwise what is it all for?
- throwawayboise 5y agoAs I have gotten older and felt the speed-up in the passage of time, I realize a few years one way or the other won't matter. You'll reach the end of your time before you know it either way. The key is to be satisified with your life now, not waiting for some "later" that will be over and done with far too quickly.
- enraged_camel 5y agoI did the same thing when I was an amateur weightlifter. Granted, I only did it for about 2 years, but the level of peace it brought was real, especially since it made it way easier to keep track of calorie and macronutrient intake, which is important in weightlifting.
- justapassenger 5y agoI often envy people like him. Working in tech it’s very hard not to get lost in rat race and always go for more money, more knowledge, more everything. I’m actively trying to avoid it, but it gets to me as well. And most of my friends think I’m weird that I don’t want to get one more promotion or why I don’t want to push myself outside of my comfort zone. I’m fine where I am.
- giantg2 5y agoIf you don't at least pretend you want a promotion, you might be fired. It almost happened to me.
- throwawayboise 5y agoYes, that can happen, but it entirely depends on where you work. Some employers are fine with letting people stay at a level if that's what they want. Of course their salary tends to stay pretty constant too in that case, you'll basically just get COL raises.
- p1mrx 5y agoI was basically doing that in tech: working for food and a place to be. It was like living in a VM. After 2020 and 14 months of isolation, I'm retiring. Need to find a real place.
- paxys 5y agoHere's an interesting thought experiment – would you (and everyone else here) have the same reaction to this article if it was written by a North Korean farmer who was perfectly happy with life being in the exact same situation as this Welsh one? Would he still be "enlightened" and "content" or brainwashed, oppressed and a victim of propaganda?
- bombcar 5y agoPeople have a range of “happiness” - in other words they can look at X and say “I think I could be happy doing that” and hold that the person truly is happy. But if it is outside their range they will adamantly refuse to believe the person could truly be happy.
- greshario 5y agoWell, my reaction to this one is suspicion that it sounds a little too perfect and either the farmer is idealizing his life or the journalist has taken editorial liberties.. so, maybe?
- BuyMyBitcoins 5y agoJournalists love to craft articles around some narrative theme. Edit: I’m talking about consistency within the article and a “focus on the subject” stance. If the author wants to present the farmers happiness, that’s what they’re going to frame the whole piece on.
- ricktdotorg 5y agomini quote from a good article about the Guardian's Experience column works: > [Our writers] tend to interview the subject and then work with them to tell their story in their own words. via https://www.theguardian.com/membership/2021/feb/15/experience-guardian-real-life-stories-inside https://www.theguardian.com/membership/2021/feb/15/experienc...
- greshario 5y ago
- KptMarchewa 5y agoCan't think of anything that semi-reasonable would do that would make me less happy.
- oftenwrong 5y agoThis is similar to Sven Yrvind's philosophy on eating at sea. >I will eat twice a day, breakfast and lunch four hours later. >... >I say, “Cows only eat grass and wolfs only eat meat” >Modern society is so boring and there is so much food that we have to be stimulated by spices and chefs and different foods to eat. At sea in a small boat its different. Life itself out there is so interesting that I do not need stimulants. >My breakfast consists of one can of sardines, one slice of dense dark rye bread and muesli. >... >My lunch is the same as breakfast but no sardines. https://www.yrvind.com/provisioning/ https://www.yrvind.com/provisioning/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sven_Yrvind https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sven_Yrvind
- ip26 5y agoSounds like starvation rations…
- nabogh 5y agoI agree the food itself is pretty bleak. But this resonates with me because I have a fond memory of a rushed meal after a surf with my father. We were on a camping trip so all we had in the car was two small cans of tuna and some multigrain bread. After getting out of the water and feeling completely exhausted, there was something satisfying about slapping the contents of the can onto a slice of bread and biting into the most basic meal imaginable.
- goostavos 5y agoDon't sleep on the canned sardines. They never stop being good imo. Their high protein and fat content makes them really satiating. I think they're the ultimate food if you're dieting. Since gyms were closed, I cut for about 4-5mo at the start of lockdown. Everyday for those 5 months: sardines. Never got tied of 'em or felt like I was on horrific starvation rations.
- Koshkin 5y agoI call it “an acquired taste.” (Many things in life are.)
- anonymousiam 5y agoIt's an inspiring article, but it left me wondering what is his exit plan. He's got nobody to pass the farm on to, and his sister is dependent upon his care. At 72 and with his medical history, he will not be able to continue much longer.
- Osmium 5y agoThis is in the UK where there exists something of a social safety net. For example, I very much doubt he pays for his sister's carers (speaking from experience), and he will have healthcare available for himself if he needs it. So he may not feel the need to consider an exit plan.
- throwawayboise 5y agoHe never married, presumably has no kids, so what happens to the farm after he's gone probably isn't a big concern of his.
- User23 5y agoMy understanding is that in the UK if you have no heirs your property reverts to the crown.
- flatline 5y ago> She has two carers who come in four times a day, and they are wonderful. My dad arranged something similar for my mom in the advanced stages of Alzheimer’s. It is nearly impossible in the US, I don’t even know if you can still do it without being wealthy. It required long term care insurance prepaid for years, and it was still a nightmare of weekly paperwork to manage all the claims. The care for his sister, and treatment and recovery for multiple strokes - out of reach for many farmers around the world. This man is very lucky indeed.
- worik 5y agoSocialised medicine. It is great
- someelephant 5y agoEven small European communities have adult day programs for people with Alzheimer's etc. The idea of old folks homes is foreign in places where people aren't wealthy to begin with. Interesting how a market appears to extract wealth when it exists.
- forsakenkraken 5y agoThis is pretty common on the NHS. Also, as Wales is a devolved nation, we can plough more money into the NHS than happesn in England. Also less privatisation.
- tonyedgecombe 5y agoThe NHS isn't responsible for social care, that falls under the local council.
- hycaria 5y agoIt’s not really a sustainable solution though is it?
- ipaddr 5y agoI wonder about the two strokes. Him and his sister. Probably genetic or is it a result of the same diet they both share? Is eating an egg a day really bad for you. Science has gone back and forth on this. He would get plenty of exercise what could have caused the strokes?
- greshario 5y agoGenetics and aging? He's 72.
- Jtsummers 5y agoStrokes can be caused by a variety of factors and are increasingly common as people age regardless of physical fitness and diet. An injury or illness leading to bed rest can cause clots to form. Clots can just form anyways. High blood pressure. Which, again, becomes increasingly common as people age regardless of fitness level and diet.
- watwut 5y agoThen again, vegetable intake lowers chance of stroke too. The guy lives wholesome lifestyle, but that lifestyle is not that terribly healthy as people want it to be. Simple lifestyles are not always the most healthy thing you can do. His diet is limited by habit/routine, but also possibly by cost and additional effort it would take to cook more healthier. He already works a lot and healthier food woold require more effort.
- throwawayboise 5y agoFrom the photo, he does look overweight. Could be hypertensive.
- slics 5y agoThe beauty of a simple life. Away from noise, stress and all things that make one miserable. Being content with simple things in life is nothing more than a beautiful life for you and your family.
- blimplab 5y agoI think this is the first HN article that I upvoted. Thank you for a wonderful article.
- lacker 5y agoWow, he eats a whole onion at dinner every day? That seems like a lot of onion to eat! I wonder how he cooks his onion.
- spaetzleesser 5y agoI would assume it's fried or cooked with his other food. Eating a whole onion is pretty hard on the stomach.
- exciteabletom 5y agoOnions are quite nice to eat raw like an apple. The perfect combination of spicy and sweet.
- fridif 5y agoIf this is HN's opinion on onions, I now know how React got so undeservedly popular.
- chrischattin 5y agoThat was a publicity campaign by Facebook. It never would have grown organically from the open source community because it solves a problem only a handful of companies on the planet have - to offload processing power to the client.
- lacker 5y agoOh man, I don't think I have laughed as much at an HN comment in a long time :D
- fridif 5y agobig respect friend :)
- jkepler 5y agoTor, the onion router, perfect combination of spicy and sweet, as long as the TCP/IP packets are raw.
- lifeformed 5y agoNo vegetables?
- FredPret 5y agoThis is the kind of person who has a wifi password like welcome2007
- sg47 5y agoHe's probably happier than your arrogant little self
- dang 5y agoHey, please don't respond to a bad comment with a worse one. I get why you didn't like it but escalating just makes things worse. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- throwawayboise 5y agoSounds like the kind of person who doesn't have wifi. My dad died at about his age, never had the slightest interest in the internet, and he was a career scientist and did a lot of computer programming (mostly FORTRAN). He main interest outside of work was gardening.
- eyelidlessness 5y agoSo I’m the only person who’s reading this as a parody? I’m trying not to dismiss it, I understand this might be a real person’s honest thoughts and experiences. But it has a cadence, repetition, provocation and smart innocence that could be an Onion article if penned by Douglas Adams. I recognize a lot of myself and several of my family members in the letter, but I think they’d take it the same way.
- nessex 5y agoI've found a lot of freedom in similar decisions. Not sure I could take it to the same level, but even just having a small set of meals to eat every week makes shopping, cooking and planning around expiry dates so much easier. Clothes can be similarly hacked such that everything goes together and every combination is something you are comfortable wearing, leaving you never needing to consider what to wear. I've optimised these to the point that they take up nearly zero mental space and generate no stress. In my case, I use pre-prepared frozen meal delivery service, but I know some meal preppers who find similar freedom that way. Don't cook or order anything you won't eat at any arbitrary time, and you'll never be stuck with wasted food or indecision. And for clothes I found a small set that works for me and can be worn in any given situation (except formal, though that doesn't impact me in any way). I see a lot of comments that seem to see all the things you miss out on in this situation. But in my mind, it frees up a lot of mental effort, time and stress. If I ever get bored I can go to a restaurant and eat something wild and it will be all the more exciting given I don't optimize for excitement or luxury in my everyday steady-state. When Soylent came out I was super excited about this idea. Don't think about three meals a day that you normally fuss over, and instead have two predictable, quick meals and optimize to make the third one amazing. Soylent was OK, and DIY soylent offered some hope too. The third meal WAS always amazing, in a relative sense, and tasted better somehow than when I had the same thing before this diet. Unfortunately liquid diets are just not satisfying to me and so frozen meals won out. I'd love to find other areas of my life that can be similarly optimized. I have hope for bill management services to take the annoyance out of juggling payments etc., and roboinvestors or similar automated financial services. Doing these things manually offers no excitement and no added value beyond the transitively provided service so I don't think they should take up my life. The amount of time wasted across the whole human population on things like preparing meals, choosing outfits and managing everyday responsibilities must be huge and that is all time that could be spent doing other exciting or valuable things.
- theonething 5y agoMay I ask which frozen meal delivery service you use?
- 5y ago
- caturopath 5y agoNo mutton, no malvern?
- tyingq 5y agoAppears he once tried to venture out and try a pizza instead, but was thwarted by Pizza Hut: https://twitter.com/WilfDavies3/status/1244888108413394944 https://twitter.com/WilfDavies3/status/1244888108413394944 Edit: Yes, just a different Wilf Davies, but also from Wales.
- throwaway1777 5y agoLOL, good find. I wonder if the whole story is made up.
- x3n0ph3n3 5y agoIt's not the same person. Look at the pictures of each of them.
- axiom92 5y agoTwo different Wilf Davies (unless you were joking).
- annoyingnoob 5y agoWorking the same code base for 10 years could have you eating dog food every day.
- tonyedgecombe 5y agoI've been working on the same product for 21 years now, although I did rewrite it in C# about five years ago.
- worik 5y agoSeventy one sheep? And he makes a living? Something missing here.
- peteretep 5y agoCouple of cellphone towers on the property maybe, leasing some land to other farmers, and/or he did a bit more before his stroke and now just focuses on the sheep? All pretty plausible
- inimino 5y agoHe's 70 years old. Nothing said his sheep were the only source of income he ever had over his entire life.
- throwawayboise 5y agoAt that age he'd be collecting a government pension yes?
- desas 5y agoYes, that'll pay about £7000 pa, depending on payments in and other wealth. 70 sheep will probably attract a farming subsidy too
- vb6sp6 5y agohe eats for a few bucks a day, never eats out, never travels, etc. he probably doesn't need much cash to live
- robotmay 5y agoFarmers in Wales are pretty canny and they have some unique advantages due to the hillyness. Leasing out land for mobile towers is one option, as someone said above, but I've also seen them group together to build small hydro power installs in their streams, or set up solar panels, and sell that power to the national grid. Sheep are pretty much all you can raise due to the geography of the place. Wales is poor, outside the cities. You can still buy a house for £10k here (it'll be shit obviously). He'll likely get some subsidies and his pension now too, and I imagine he probably trades for some of his food. Eggs for fish, that sorta thing.
- robbrown451 5y agoDoes it strike anyone else as oddly ironic that he is so sad that people don't go to the effort to hear the cuckoos, and yet he basically doesn't want to experience... well, pretty much everything. It's great he's happy with the life he has chosen. But I personally find people who are even slightly like that (i.e. closed off to new experiences) depressing to be around. My parents are kind of like that, and have been as long as I can remember. But to each their own.
- cldellow 5y agoI read that differently from you. I think he's sad because they _do_ go to the effort of hearing the cuckoos, but they're rushing. They're not fully present, and so they don't get the full experience. He, by contrast, is very present in the things he does. That he doesn't choose to do many things is a different topic.
- taneq 5y agoIs it different, though? Can you do things that deeply without limiting the number of things you’re doing?
- riffraff 5y agoI believe there is probably a balance to be struck. I am from (near) Rome, and am familiar with the phenomenon of people visiting the city over a weekend, or even worse, on a day trip. That literally means you cannot experience the city, you can at most put some checkmarks on the 3 most popular sights. In a month you may spend a weekend in Paris, Madrid, Rome and London, but I believe it would be better to spend a few more days in only one of those. This is still different from, say, spending six months in a given city (which is what some people do to really experience it!). To each their own, some people do prefer broad & shallow to restricted & deep, but I think these days we do tend to over-emphasize the shallow side.
- FalconSensei 5y ago
- Snoogans775 5y agoThis is a shoe-in for membership in the Dull Men's Club https://www.dullmensclub.com/ https://www.dullmensclub.com/
- avaldes 5y ago>4. Is the DMC a movement? > >No. We prefer to stay put. Gave me a good chuckle.
- fridif 5y ago> even on Christmas Day: two pieces of fish, one big onion, an egg, baked beans and a few biscuits at the end > I've had several strokes
- alashley 5y agoI could be wrong, but it doesn't seem like any of that meal in moderation could predispose someone to a stroke?
- kwdc 5y agoA lot of his other food isn't mentioned. The weight around his neck shows his exercise has definitely slowed down. Lack of exercise is a factor for stroke. That is a long term trend for him. He's definitely slowed down over the years and likely hasn't adjusted his diet. I'd guess he's consuming more bread/sugar than that regular supper implies. Likely some long term dietary deficiencies as well. At 72(?), though, he's still doing better than plenty of others. Full of flaws and imperfections like everyone else but he's doing his thing and apparently enjoying it, so good for him.
- fridif 5y agoI think you missed the part where he said he eats nothing else except some fruit and sandwiches for lunch?
- zebnyc 5y agoThis is not that hard to do and can happen naturally without overthinking it. I used to do a variation of this when I was single. I used to eat the eat the same breakfast (blended milkshakes with fruits/green veggies) and the same dinner (salmon/slice of bread with tomato and walnuts). The key was a) Eat to live instead of living to eat b) Being too lazy to commit more than 5-10 minutes for food preparation. c) Being single where I could own my decisions and "weirdness".
- davchana 5y agoExactly. My breakfast consist of Buns, cheese slice, cream & coffee. Easy, repetitive routine, nothing to spend brain energy. Same with lunch, fruits.
- voidfunc 5y agoIm nowhere near the extreme of this guy but I cook a vegetable soup and eat it 4-6 days a week every week for dinner. I save the calories and good (edit: interesting) cooking for restaurants. I mess around with the soup occasionally trying new flavoring or techniques but its the same damn soup and I like it. Its easy to make, keeps well, costs nothing relative to output, and leaves me time to think about other things other than food. Also its very healthy. At this point its just a habit. Sunday or Monday evening is soup making time. Two hours nets me two weeks of food.
- sethjgore 5y agoand whats the recipe?
- voidfunc 5y ago1 onion 2-3 carrots 2 potatoes 2-3 celery sticks 1 fennel heart 1 red pepper 1-2 tomatoes (optional) Canillini beans 2 bayleaves salt and pepper suit to taste. 2qt water cook/simmer for 1-2hr I muck around with it sometimes... thrown siracha, hot peppers, sausage in it to varying degrees of tastiness. I generally sauté the onions, celery and fennel together then add the rest. It can all be done in one pot for convenience.
- prawn 5y agoYou could easily tweak this to be similar to something I grew up with, from Slovenia: https://www.tasteatlas.com/manestra https://www.tasteatlas.com/manestra Maybe cook longer and blend some of it to thicken it up. Ours typically had pork and Polish sausage added, plus this type of pasta: https://www.google.com/search?q=Ditalini&safe=off&source=lnms&tbm=isch https://www.google.com/search?q=Ditalini&safe=off&source=lnm... It's similar to what Italians would know of as Pasta e fagioli (pasta and beans) but obviously varies by region, even village by village.
- voidfunc 5y agoVery familiar with pasta fagioli (Italian heritage). Ill check this out tho, thanks!
- Magicstatic 5y agoMany of us including myself are unable to fathom living a life like this, but I imagine this man will die in peace with a flock of sheep to his name, listening to the cuckoos. And he will be just as happy (if not happier) as any of us reading this article.
- satyambnsal 5y agoWow. What an amazing story!. I'm glad, I started my morning with this one. State of satisfaction and living in present moment is one very difficult to achieve.
- dzink 5y agoI find that our childhood joys imprint and become adult obsessions for some. If you grow up in one place, like this man, you may crave to stay there. If you are taken to new places frequently, you condition to want that. Happiest moments on the beach? You crave beaches. Favorite foods for a kid become comfort foods in adults. I grew up in the delta of the Danube, rich with fruit trees and amazing tomatoes. Ended up settling in a place that has great orchards within driving distance as well (every other climate felt really uncomfortable). Be careful how you condition your kids :)
- visarga 5y agoMany people over 40 in Romania still crave the communist era sweets. I crave my grandpa's smoked meets and his wine, and my grandma's home baked bread (they lived in the countryside as peasants).
- lapnitnelav 5y agoReminds me a lot of my uncle that had sort of taken over my grand-parent's farm and never really moved away from there. I can definitely empathise with his mindset, especially after many years in the city. Though being from a culinary-centered culture, the one size fits all meal is really depressing to think about, especially that he probably can get some really good produce from people in his network. Being a farmer is really something different and here in Western Europe (I'm going to assume there's not that much difference between UK and FR farming cultures), it's really a labour of love. I've been lucky to have some exposure to this world through my family and people often have the wrong perception of it and quite often looked down upon by people that should know better.
- diehunde 5y agoTrying to eat something different everyday is an American obsession that I'll never understand. It's just so stressful and inconvenient. I grew up in a small town where eating the same for dinner everyday was extremely common. Tea or coffee and bread. The only variable would be what you put in your bread. Some days it would be butter, some days it would jam. Some days it would be honey, some days it would be avocado.
- aniforprez 5y agoEating something different every day is not "an American obsession". Heck most people I know would want change and something different in their routine of food. I personally have 10-12 breakfast recipes that I cycle through and regularly try stuff I find online
- geocrasher 5y agoI'm American, and I have to disagree. I have the same thing for breakfast every day, and I love it. I usually have the same thing for lunch, too. It's convenient and I change it up just a little now and then. For dinner, my daughter and I do different things. I think that embracing this is a good thing. It's comfortable. It's safe, and I am content. On the weekends I do change it up too, but during the week, I find my favorite foods to be part of my daily routine. I like it.
- thaumasiotes 5y agoI tried eating a particular dish every day for a while. (To the exclusion of other foods.) I didn't get tired of it -- I loved it and still do. But I had to stop because, after a while of this, I would still be hungry after eating a large meal. My stomach would be physically full, but I'd be hungry anyway. I'm still not sure what the problem was. It was a dish basically consisting of lentils, onions, and shredded chicken, spiced heavily; I'd eat it spread over bread.
- slim 5y ago
- dinamic 5y agoMy great-grandfather was traveling to USA for work back in 1912. He came back after 6 years and settled in his village becoming its head. Almost everybody in my family knows this story and it's indeed fascinating, because at that time people rarely moved anywhere. And now we are fascinated by a man living in the same place all his life. It's funny how the concept of norm changes in 100 years.
- aeternum 5y agoA man living in the same place all his life has no basis for comparison. I would be more convinced that your great-grandfather's village is something special since he experienced elsewhere yet still returned.
- sverhagen 5y agoDon't most migrants have nostalgia for their country of origin? Where their roots are, no matter how much of a globetrotter they were. Sure, if the country you grew up in a beleaguered place, you wouldn't think of going back. But I've heard so many migrants say things along lines of: "oh, man, once I'm retired... <fill in blanks>". "Disclaimer": migrant myself. Not necessarily my dream to go back "once retired". But my wife yearns for her motherland. And so do many.
- raverbashing 5y agoYeah, it's funny how that feeling happens even if you're not coming from an "idyllic village" Though not necessarily yearning, but more like "yes this was part of my history and you have a feeling of nostalgia"
- tshanmu 5y agoWhat I found that is as migrants we have an idealistic nostalgic image of the homeland in our minds but in reality our homeland also changes quite fast so much that one is left with disappointment mostly....
- znpy 5y ago
- Shorel 5y agoHah. I eat the same thing for both breakfast and dinner.
- doe88 5y agoI usually have the same dinner or close variants 6-days a week, then after few months when I'm tired of this menu I slowly update parts of it and it then evolves to something new. I don't force myself in doing it, it's often just about the simplicity of knowing that a given meal has the right balance of calories by knowing it works (i.e. maintaining the same weight) from one day to the next.
- arketyp 5y agoI do the exact same thing. Usually parts are rotated by things which come in season or on sale. After a day's work I enjoy spacing out doing something predictable.
- chrismarlow9 5y agoStop and listen but also discover new things. There's only so much time and too much spent on one or the other seems sad.
- smcameron 5y ago> I’ve never had Chinese, Indian, French food. Why change? I’ve already found the food I love. Jeeeeeeeeezus. That's some pathological parochialism right there. Try some new things, you might find some new things that you love that you didn't know you loved. You're rejecting Chinese food. You're rejecting Indian food. You're rejecting French food. And you're expecting anyone to take your opinion seriously? GTFO of town. You're a moron.
- mod 5y agoHave you tried eating the same thing every day? You might find that you love it and didn't know you loved it. You're expecting anyone to take your opinion seriously? ...etc
- newbie789 5y agoThat’s a good point aside from “trying a new dish” and “trying out a lifestyle for a decade” being entirely unrelated aspirations even if they have eating in common.
- vasco 5y agoHe's not expecting much, he only shared his life with a journalist. You on the other hand expect a lot from him it seems.
- earthlingdavey 5y agoHe's content, I admire that. Not much curiosity when it comes to food, but it sounds like he's interested in nature. And to say that he is rejecting the other foods is a bit of a stretch, I mean, for example, are you rejecting a career as a sheep farmer? You might love it. Or maybe you're content with something too
- phobosanomaly 5y agoHe's had 'several strokes.' Who knows when his first stroke was? His sister's history of stroke as well could indicate that there is something more going on. He could have had multiple microinfarcts over the years leading to a mild form of vascular dementia with cognitive impairment or something. He probably isn't holding the secrets of the universe in his noggin, but cut him some slack. I'd have tea with him. Sounds like a chill guy.
- User23 5y agoReminds me of Steve Jobs and his closet full of dozens of identical black turtlenecks.
- throwawayboise 5y agoI can kind of see the advantage of having one outfit. Eliminates all decisions about what to wear. But if I did that, I would not have a closet full. Maybe a weeks' worth, to get from washday to washday.
- Talanes 5y agoI did that with pants in high school, wearing 5 identical pairs of black dockers that fit my after-school job dress code. Worked fine until another kid pulled me aside and asked if I needed help getting another pair of pants.
- telesilla 5y ago"This valley is cut in the shape of my heart". I've known farmers like him, bachelors who are mild mannered and love their lives and the extended family that comes with living an entire life in one valley. He maybe goes to Sunday service for socialization and the local pub to watch the game, and as long as his sheep are healthy and the sky does what it promises (because he knows the day before always if it will rain), the peace he feels is the result of being in place, of not creating too much fuss, the satisfaction of seeing the stone walls he built in his 20s holding strong and knowing they'll be there long after to tell his story. He leaves behind him more of a legacy than many of us.
- usgroup 5y agoI appreciate the romance, but those of us who have children leave behind much more than stone walls we built in our 20s. He’s a 72 year old Batchelor who’s once stepped foot outside a Welsh valley. If happiness is a lobotomy then credit to us who don’t choose it.
- chuckSu 5y agoHater alert!!
- jorvi 5y agoChildren aren't much of a legacy either. They have 50% of your DNA and nurture. Grandkids 25%. Grand-grandkids 12.5%. Within a few generations your contribution is watered down to almost nil. Children are amazing in their own right, but they're not exactly a legacy. If you want legacy, write a good book, start a successful company, etc; ideas are things that can become legacy.
- boredtofears 5y agoYes, what an amazing world we are leaving our children. I'm sure they'll be so thankful of the task our habits and livelihoods have left them. You've left them so much, indeed.
- testmasterflex 5y ago
- thomble 5y agoI like this dude.
- davidedicillo 5y agoBeside when I travel, I have only had 3 type of breakfast for the past ~35 years. First 20 milk and cookies (a specific type from a specific brand), then honey bunches of oats with almonds for another 13 years, and the past couple of years I switched to a different brand with less added sugars.
- irjustin 5y agoHappiness - he's found it. Sure, he's an extreme and very few want to emulate it because there's a mild element of delusion. But, he's found the thing so many of us work our entire lives for only to never find. Part of life is letting happiness find you, part of life is finding happiness, and part of life is pushing away things to find happiness in what you have. I say, well done.
- DyslexicAtheist 5y agoyou did use the word "mild". but it made me wonder if not every person I've ever encountered that looked happy seemed like that a bit. The happier somebody is the more deluded they look to the rest of us. People in love are perhaps the most obvious. But it says probably more about the observer.
- Griffinsauce 5y agoI think this just tells you that happiness is not objective.
- Gene_Parmesan 5y agoThe specific happiness that we're talking about here is contentment -- with your life, with who you are. I think it looks so odd to so many of us because we tend to be an ambitious bunch, and I find ambition to be pretty inversely related to contentment. The sort of acceptance that this man displays feels like giving up, in a sense. And in many ways, it is -- but that's something that Buddhists have been teaching for centuries.
- mekkkkkk 5y ago"Giving up" seems to imply unfulfilled ambition, though. It only feels like giving up because we project our own ambitions onto him. If his ambition always was to lead a simple, predictable life close to nature, he's achieved flawlessly. Maybe I'm just re-stating what you said, sorry.
- 5y ago
- ozim 5y agoJust take a mental note while reading this article, those people that moved out, probably had to move out because there was no place/work for them there. He is a wealthy man that owns a farm. Same story about someone who would be a bartender in a local pub, where he was just an employee serving local drunks, would be much sadder one.
- Barrin92 5y ago>He is a wealthy man that owns a farm. He's got 70 sheep mate. In Romania (IIRC) they'll unironically gift you farms like this because there's nobody else there to maintain them and you basically get some land for free. As the man himself points out it's a very simple life that involves a lot of hard work during all seasons, he's not privileged. Most people move out because life even in the service industry is easier.
- dannyw 5y agoI don't know, big difference between running a farm and working as a bartender.
- berkut 5y agoWhat makes you say he's wealthy?
- robotmay 5y agoHis land is probably somewhat valuable compared to the local area, but West Wales is rural and the land is steep and hilly - it is really only good for raising sheep. And he's had it his whole life, so that value is meaningless to him. However yes, you are right that many local people will have had to move away for work. Aside from Aberystwyth there's not a huge amount of work out that way. Lots of them will come down south to Cardiff and Swansea.
- sampo 5y ago> two pieces of fish, one big onion, an egg, baked beans and a few biscuits at the end How do you eat an onion for supper? Raw, or cooked? If cooked, how do you cook it?
- sleavey 5y agoYou can bake onions. Quite nice.
- telesilla 5y agoA white onion can be eaten raw thinly sliced. Perhaps a dash of vinegar but that might be too fancy for his tastes.
- mastazi 5y agoBesides baking as the other comment said, you can also caramelise onions on a frying pan with a tiny bit of oil, they're quite nice that way. If you like stronger flavours, you can add your favourite salad dressing to a chopped or sliced raw onion (I usually add extra virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar and oregano).
- watwut 5y agoCut raw into small pieces and eat it slowly. As a spice or something like that - it adds flavor when mixed with other foods. For example, you can put butter or lard on bread, spread those small pieces of onion on it, add salt. It is actually good. You can also cut it into thick ovals and bake. Third option is to caramelize it. But, these two are time consuming.
- adeltoso 5y agoWith that diet sure thing he had several strokes!
- haihaibye 5y ago71 sheep is a hobby, not enough to make a living as a farmer. In Australia a family farm can have 10-20x that number.
- zwayhowder 5y agoThey also use different tools and methods size is relative. My favourite anecdote for visiting Welsh friends is to tell them about Anna Creek Station, a cattle farm in South Australia that is slightly larger than Wales.
- haihaibye 5y agoI have no doubt Welsh land can support many more sheep per acre, but to make minimum wage (£17k) off 71 sheep you need to make £240 profit per sheep per year. At £100 per fat lamb, you still haven't made minimum wage even if all 71 have twins and you have zero costs. Maybe they sell some wool, too. In reality you have bills, sheep die, and you need to keep some lambs for breeding stock
- zwayhowder 5y agoAbsolutely, and I suspect there are other things to consider as well, he certainly doesn't need minimum wage if he owns the land and lives on a diet that - based on my last trip to a Tesco in the north of England - would require significantly less than minimum wage to subsist on. I'm not saying it's a life I want, but unlike an Australian or American farmer he doesn't need to drive for several hours to get to the nearest hospital/major shopping centre/his mate's farm. His sister's carers are paid for presumably by the UK version of the NDIS which ours was modeled on with all the good bits taken out because they were too expensive. Unlike an American farmer he won't spend the rest of his life paying for the ambulance and hospital stay from his stroke because it was covered by the public system. It sounds to me like he is contributing to society as best he can, and as someone who has hiked through farms in the UK, and gazed at them from the train for hours on end, I think he has done more to improve the general condition of England than many other people can claim.
- rdiddly 5y agoThe hedonic treadmill has a slow setting too!
- tomcooks 5y ago> I’ve had several strokes. This sums up the article
- kaiku 5y agoThis guy better brace himself for internet fame, he's got a full page dating profile on The Guardian. He might never leave Wales but I bet people come to him now.
- kewrkewm53 5y agoThere's just something inherently satisfying about farming, growing your own food and taking care of land. Obviously it's hard work and difficult if you actually need to make a decent living out of it, but as a hobby it has been most refreshing for someone who spends his days staring at display. I hope eventually I can raise my family in a farm-environment while working remotely, and get some extra income on top of that by growing stuff in small scale.
- faichai 5y agoI’m not trying to be mean, but there is a chance this guy has some deep anxiety and self-esteem issues which means he doesn’t even think to look outside of his comfort zone. Routine is a way of not stressing yourself out with newness and the possibility you might not cope, and fail.
- StanislavPetrov 5y agoIf he is happy and content, why would he want to leave his comfort zone? Why does that denote some mental flaw? You could just as easily say that those who feel the need to challenge themselves outside of their comfort zone suffer from some deep-seeded inadequacy that they are trying to fulfill.
- throwawayhermit 5y ago> I’m not trying to be mean, but there is a chance this guy has some deep anxiety and self-esteem issues which means he doesn’t even think to look outside of his comfort zone. As a person with some anxiety and (what I have diagnosed in myself as underlying) self-esteem issues, this is something that I have been thinking about. People around me tend to think that "oh, throwawayhermit is just a bit of hermit and likes to be on their own", which is partially true and my introvertedness needs time on its own. But on the other hand, a big part of my closing off from others is anxiety and self-esteem issues, which I presume are not that easy to spot at first when a person "seems confident and well off". So, that has got me thinking, how many of the people closing themselves off from others are doing it because they are happy that way and how many are hiding from issues/fears (regardless whether they realize it themselves or not)? > Routine is a way of not stressing yourself out with newness and the possibility you might not cope, and fail. I feel that there is a place for routines. They can give you space to focus on something that actually matters, teach you mental discipline and give you some kind inner peace from not constantly searching for new and shiny things.
- guerrilla 5y agoThere's no evidence of anxiety or self-esteem issues in the article at all though, so what are you basing this on? It specifically says he's happy, which people with those problems generally aren't. As an extremely cynical person, I have to say I think you're being way too cynical.
- MichaelMoser123 5y agoNow he's 72, what happens if he grows too old to care for himself? How do they care for the elderly in rural Wales, when they don't have a family?
- robotmay 5y agoIt'll start with his neighbours and friends helping out, and maybe eventually he'll have to scale down and be looked after by carers himself. But there's an equal chance he'll die happy on his farm - I've seen farmers with very progressed Alzheimer's that could run their farm without any trouble, as it's something they've done literally their whole life.
- 29athrowaway 5y agoReminds me of the person that has only eaten macaroni and cheese for 17+ years: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1TWvXwgKr0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1TWvXwgKr0
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- 74d-fe6-2c6 5y ago> If I could go anywhere, it would be to the Great Wall of China. The amount of work that went into building it is unbelievable. I’ve been a stonemason; I understand the ingenuity involved. There are some rich people here on HN. Can somebody pay him a week there? I know I'd do it if I had 7 digits on my bank account.
- waihtis 5y agoAll the highly important software people (myself included) would do good to remember that farmers are literally keeping us alive while basically working 7 days a week - and in many cases barely getting by.
- simonhfrost 5y agoHappy international workers day the other day (May 1st), I hope you celebrated it.
- waihtis 5y agoNot entirely sure if this is coming from a sincere place or not, but Labour Day is a rather large event here in FIN. Of course like anything the original meaning has been lost to most people, and many treat it as a "drinking holiday."
- urbandw311er 5y agoOn much of Reddit this thread would have been dominated by snarky comments about his food choices and lack of variety. I was positively lifted by the HN response/vibe on this.
- jiggawatts 5y agoMy partner was horrified to learn that I ate the same breakfast pretty much every morning for something like five or six years when I was a teenager. I always had cereal with milk. If I was extra hungry, I would have a second helping. Very rarely, I would try a different cereal brand, but I would always gravitate back to the same one. The funny thing is that at the time, I thought nothing of it! It was just a part of my morning routine, not a sign of poverty or an unusual personality. I still don't think it's unusual at all, many people eat the same breakfast every day. Yet, this horrifies her. She cooks a different breakfast every morning and refuses to eat leftovers from yesterday. I never had a problem eating something my Mom cooked on the weekend for three or four days in a row. Schnitzel is delicious for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!
- Al-Khwarizmi 5y agoI'm a foodie, and still, I eat cereal with milk, for the straightforward reason that I just don't feel like cooking or doing any extra effort at 7 AM. Of course, if I'm at a hotel, I storm the buffet and try all kinds of things. Surely my breakfasts would be much more creative if I had a cook and a butler.
- pkorzeniewski 5y agoI've "rediscovered" cereal with milk after a long time and it became my favourite "default" breakfast - fast to prepare, nutritious, healthy (if you choose the right cereal) and easy to diversify. I highly recommend a YouTube channel called Cereal Time TV [1] where you can find reviews of old and new cereals - I don't even know how I found this channel but after watching dozens of videos about old cereals I thought to myself "man, I want some!" so I bought a pack of cereals that I remembered from my childhood and that's how it started, I now eat cereal with milk almost everyday :-) [1] https://www.youtube.com/user/MrGabeFonseca https://www.youtube.com/user/MrGabeFonseca
- nly 5y agoI'm 35 and pretty much have the same cereal for breakfast every week day. It's not even a wholesome cereal. Sometimes I'll mix it up and have toast. People have very different ideas of what meals should be. While we have similar ideas about breakfast, my girlfriend makes large ish but quick cooked meals for lunch, whereas for me lunch is always a light meal like a sandwich and a cup of tea. Dinner is the main event for me, a reward for a day's work and a way to unwind, whereas to her it's just to tide you over until bedtime. Living together reveals these things.
- max_ 5y agoWhat most people don't realize is that farmers have alot of free time. Most work of the day concentrates between early hours of the morning and lates hours of the afternoon. Most of your day is usually free-time. Better than a 9-5 IMHO
- forsakenkraken 5y agoAt the same time you basically never have holidays, unless you have family who can look after the farm for a week. Or you say farm chickens, then it's not hard to arrange a few weeks between raising a batch.
- FartyMcFarter 5y ago> I hear London is a place best avoided. I think living in a city would be terrible – people living on top of one another in great tower blocks. I could never do it. He should visit - most people in London don't live in tower blocks, and there's lots of nature around. There are wild deer in Richmond Park, and Hampstead Heath is almost indistinguishable from any other forest (and quite close to the very center of London).
- flr03 5y agoComing from the "actual" country side, Richmond Park and Hampstead Heath feel like parody of nature for me. Don't get me wrong I like to go cycling and see the deers in Richmond but I've never had a feeling of being really in the nature. Too many people, too many cars around. Hampstead Heath is bigger I've been a couple of time only, but I remember how poor the soil was at places because of how many people walk around.
- kebman 5y agoAh, the simple life... My grandfather would take me along and we'd go to the neighbour to fetch eggs. He had a plastic bucket that he put them in with some old newspapers scraps in the bottom. I heard that before the war they didn't even need money. He'd simply bring a bucket of milk, and he'd get a bucket of eggs in return. But it was of course a lot simpler to bring money. It was far cheaper than in the store too. My grandfather knew what all the birds were singing. Every bit, plus their behaviour. He'd especially heed the magpie, because it's a smarter bird. If it warbled this way, it meant that the weather would stay warm. If they warbled in another way, it meant that it might become rainy. He said that the birds knew, because their lives depended on it. Another more commonly known sign is dependent on where the magpie makes its nest. If it it's high in the tree, then it will most likely be a warm and sunny summer. But if it is tucked way down in the tree, the summer will be cold and wet. It makes sense. There's more protection from the elements further under the leaves, but it's also colder there. If I were a magpie, I'd want to make a warm and nice nest for the summer, but all that could be ruined if I didn't heed the weather. One day, the grouse was seen perching atop the family house. When I told this to my grandmother, she went silent at first, and then she told me that it means someone will die in the family. This was of course terrifying news to me. But it also turned out to become true, because my grandfather also died that year. May he rest in peace.
- randompwd 5y ago> One day, the grouse was seen perching atop the family house. When I told this to my grandmother, she went silent at first, and then she told me that it means someone will die in the family. This was of course terrifying news to me. But it also turned out to become true, because my grandfather also died that year. Do you actually believe the grouse perching on house was foreshadowing??
- x3iv130f 5y agoCould be a gentle way for an elder to let their grandchild know that they are passing soon. Does the Grouse know? Probably not. The grandmother would though.
- scared2 5y agoLoL, i Don't know why it got a lot of attention. If it is for the meal i would be surprised, because he eats the most diverse meal than a few billion people in the world.
- hermitsings 5y agoThat sounds like present-day Lao Tzu, man.
- scjr 5y agoI feel like the truely happy aren't writing articles about how happy they are. Happiness in this way is a hidden thing amongst us.
- nly 5y ago> I hear London is a place best avoided. I think living in a city would be terrible – people living on top of one another in great tower blocks His voice of London seems to be relatively naive, since there are relatively few what I would call 'great tower blocks' here.
- jumaro 5y agoThe first thing I thought after reading was that it's no wonder he's so happy and content. He's been literally doing dopamine fast for years.
- qwertox 5y agoTo me this sounds a lot like that he's built himself a solid foundation in evading critical thinking about himself, possibly to avoid a more serious psychological harm which he thinks he may face if he looks at the bigger picture. He compares himself to the animals: "They never ask for anything different for supper". > "People might think I’m not experiencing new things, but I think the secret to a good life is to enjoy your work. I could never stay indoors and watch TV. I hear London is a place best avoided. I think living in a city would be terrible" As a bachelor, how will he know what it is like to look into the eyes of a loved with whom you form a new family? Without watching TV, how will he know that movies like "Up" (Pixar 2009) or series like "Breaking Bad" are well worth spending their time, without incurring a dramatic time penalty in your life? Take the TV out to the porch, if staying inside is such a pain. How can he be sure that a visit to the British Museum in London isn't worth the effort, or time, or whatever he thinks that speaks against it? Will he find laughing people in the cafes of the city? All of this feels like a "too afraid to discover" that he disguises it as a "secret to a good life". Not a happy life, but a good life. His sheeps make him happy. Like his spouse or kids could make him happy, or a trip to the city or watching 40 minutes of TV once a week. Or a delicious steak. Or riding a bike on a trail, if he weren't so old by now. I wonder if the Welsh radio station has told him about the current dilemmas which AI is confronting us with, or if he thought about where and under which circumstances all this gear he owns to exercise his role of a farmer has been developed and produced and if his lifestyle, if applied to everyone, would have made it possible for this gear to exist. It's OK if he decides to eat the same supper every day, if he prefers not to live with people, but to me this feels more like an elaborate thinking system designed to avoid something which would cause him pain, which doesn't cause pain to others. Sure there is a lot to criticize about our modern life, and many people aren't happy living in the city and with their day to day jobs, or with their family situation, but he has built himself a very tall wall in order to be shielded from him being possibly affected by these problems and calls it a good life. Not much of a difference to a suburban man who tolerates his job, hates his kids, but has the biggest amount of fun when he jumps into his glider on the weekends, watches his favorite TV series at the end of the day and loves to go jogging every day for an hour. Or have a beer with a friend. At least his sheep are among themselves, maybe some of them enjoy spending their time together and are glad to get anything to eat at all. But how would he know, if he's just happy pretending to be a fellow sheep and calls it a day. Then again, there are comments like the one from telesilla.
- failwhaleshark 5y agoThis guy doesn't really farm. If he did, he'd be in much better shape. I had family who were serious farmers (many chores everyday) and they were lean/skinny like runners even in old age. This guy overeats and doesn't get much activity.
- dukeyukey 5y agoI dunno about that, I grew up in a Welsh farming town and there were plenty of farmers that looked a bit rotund but had astounding strength behind them.
- guerrilla 5y agoWhat a disgusting comment, as if you've surveyed the weight of all farmers and are some kind of authority that approves who is and isn't a farmer. Really, individuals differ and there are millions of fat farmers, you just haven't met them yet.
- dang 5y agoPlease make your substantive points thoughtfully and omit swipes and name-calling. Even if you don't feel you owe another commenter better, you owe this community better if you're participating here. Also, you've got a good point and you owe it better too. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- trainsplanes 5y agoThat's... an odd assessment. As someone from a family of farmers, yes, people can be fat and work on farms. I know people who are in the fields everyday and with beer bellies like you wouldn't believe. This man is 72. The fact he's working outside well past the age of retirement for most people shows he's not in completely terrible shape.
- TruthWillHurt 5y ago"An open mind is a fortress with gates unlocked"
- slothtrop 5y agoPeople often do behave as though new ideas, or changing their minds, is a threat. They make ideas part of their identity.
- momirlan 5y agoWhat he needs is a blog
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- znpy 5y ago> I’ve had several strokes. I wonder if his eating routine might be linked to it. Four sandwiches for lunch, that quite and amount of white bread for a single person, every day.
- and0rskr 5y agoThis article hit home to me. I married into a traditional small town Indian family last year. One of the biggest idealogical challenges I've faced is the duality of ambition. My family in law live similar to the farmer. Low entropy. I know where they will be every day every 15 minutes, what they will eat, with little exception. It's such a stark contrast to my personal life, which has been characterized by the constant need to improve, challenge, and adapt. I don't know what I'll be doing 15 minutes from now let alone 2:00 - 2:15 a year from now. I personally am not an absolutist, and so I don't think there's a particular lifestyle that is wrong or right, but it's an salient dichotomy and something that I've found challenging to reconcile in practice.
- alibarber 5y ago"A lot of people, locals and birdwatchers, come here wanting to hear the cuckoo, but they don’t stop long enough; sometimes they don’t even leave their cars. This makes me feel so sad that I actually cry a bit; it pains me that others don’t get to enjoy it." Probably the most inspiring two sentences I've read in years. There's good in the world.
- williesleg 5y agoHacker news!
- ericls 5y agoSuch a happy man
- ckdarby 5y agoSounds like a much simpler life that for a lot of the readers here is doable. I purchased 3.3 acres of land this year to begin the process of simplifying. I'm leaving the software world over the next couple years to have a life of homesteading.
- forsakenkraken 5y agoFarming isn't any easier than software I'm afraid. However I live in the countryside and work remotely and I love it here. Just down the road from the chap in the article.
- Xcelerate 5y agoIt seems a lot of this comes down to personality differences, particularly with regard to novelty or sensation seeking. There's no right or wrong, but it's interesting that both groups don't really understand the other. For me personally, I have a very high inclination for novelty, even if that novelty comes with the risk of a bad experience. I just can't imagine doing, seeing, eating, working on, or talking about the same things my whole life. Heck, I work in tech but keep floating the idea of opening a restaurant to my wife (which promptly gets shot down). For other people in my family, they know what they like, and that's that. Why fix what's not broken? I can't relate to that viewpoint one bit, but I can respect it. Edit: Actually, now that I think about it some more, my desire for novelty might depend on the topic. I rotate between about three colors of T-shirts and wear the same brand of jeans every day and have no desire to branch out beyond this. Maybe openness is not a personality trait that applies universally to everything.
- globular-toast 5y agoMy girlfriend and I are at opposite ends of this spectrum in many respects. I seek novelty in most aspects of life. I often choose novelty over guaranteed enjoyment. My girlfriend, on the other hand, is afraid of novelty. When we eat out, if we have been to the restaurant before I can order her food without asking 100% of the time. It will be what she had last time. My desire for novelty can be problematic. I find it difficult to maintain long term sexual relationships. I'm so bored of having the same sex in the same positions over and over again. But I'm also too introverted to be happy with polygamous or short term relationships, not too mention how expensive that lifestyle is. Like you, though, I don't seek novelty in all aspects of life. I too wear the same few t-shirts and same pair of jeans every day. Maybe there is just so little room for novelty here that it doesn't matter? What difference does it really make to me if I wear a pink t-shirt instead of green? My girlfriend, of course, buys new clothes almost every week. I also don't change things for the sake of it. My desire for novelty doesn't override if it ain't broke don't fix it. When I cook something I've cooked many times before, I will reproduce the method exactly and produce consistent results. My girlfriend will slightly change things every single time, sometimes consciously, sometimes not. My dad cooks like this too. I think he actually does seek novelty in the way he cooks something. If I cook a dish and it's delicious it will be just as delicious next time. If he cooks and it's delicious, next time he'll add a completely new ingredient to it, for better or worse.
- drcongo 5y agoI'm surprised there's this many comments and none of them are wondering the same things as me: what does he do with that onion? Is it eaten raw like an apple? Roasted?
- paul_f 5y agoI only looked at the comments to find the answer to this question. How does one eat an entire onion?
- analog31 5y agoI spent a time period living by myself in the South, and I didn't have the same supper every night, but certainly followed the same algorithm: Buy whatever veggies look nice that week, some meat, and tortillas or rice. My lunch was similarly algorithmic: Sandwich and a piece of fruit. Breakfast: Oatmeal. Having family members who get sick of things changes that. There are certain of my favorites that are now off limits because I made them too many times in a row. Those things have to wait until they're all out of town for some reason. ;-)
- slothtrop 5y agoFarmers typically describe their animals as happy. This doesn't jive with the depictions made by activists vegans of even non-commercial farming. One of you is wrong. Which is it? That aside, articles like these are more about convincing the author than anyone else in my view. That doesn't necessarily mean he's wrong. See for example Marcus Aurelius' Meditations. He repeatedly mulls over the prospect of death, with aphorisms to suggest it's nothing to be afraid of. Death was on his mind. This farmer seems to focus on conveying that he has every reason to be happy. It's no coincidence that suicide rates are highest among farmers - is this man simply built different, or is he convincing himself?
- jollybean 5y ago"Feeding the sheep and seeing how happy they are makes me happy, too." That is some heavy Zen right there. Also: "two pieces of fish, one big onion, an egg, baked beans and a few biscuits at the end" Is probably very healthy. Minimal sugar, high protein. Would be nice to have a bit of veg and that would be it.
- rcpt 5y agoHow does the newspaper find this guy?
- asidiali 5y agoWhat struck me the most from this article was that he has had multiple strokes and was hospitalized for two weeks once. His diet doesn’t sound the worst, he seems to be active, just genetics? The beans every morning? He didn’t mention what he does for dinner.
- earth_walker 5y agoJust guessing, but a 72 year old farmer from Wales probably smoked most of his life.
- tibbydudeza 5y agoA very content man , a rare quality these days.
- narrator 5y ago"People might think I’m not experiencing new things, but I think the secret to a good life is to enjoy your work." Very true. Especially if one never starts a family.
- wly_cdgr 5y agoIt's bothering me that he is 72 and has 71 sheep. Someone get this man one sheep
- wly_cdgr 5y agoIt's bothering me that he's 72 and has 71 sheep. Somebody get this man one sheep
- weeboid 5y agoCOOL STORY BRO
- IkmoIkmo 5y agoGlad it works for him, sounds terribly boring to eat the same supper every day, and be so religious and stubborn about it, too. Imagine living your entire life and not having enjoyed Indian food, but only had the same meal every day, when you have a choice... Being content with what you have is great, but arbitrarily avoiding new experiences, even those at small cost (e.g. trying an Indian lentils recipe) is probably the biggest regret maximiser I can think of, for me personally. All the other stuff about enjoying nature, his surroundings etc, is great of course. But I don't see how it's mutually exclusive with some of the other things (like trying different foods worldwide nature + worldwide culture has to offer) that feel more like a stubborn pride to be able to say 'look how down to earth I am, compared with you fancy city folk'.
- stjohnswarts 5y agoI'm like this with breakfast (well maybe not -every- day) but I eat an egg/cheese/onion/spinach omelette almost every morning, sometimes the spinach is lacking if I used it in something else. It makes waking up easier for me, and I never really get tired of it. Some mornings I spice it up a little with salsa.
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- willlma 5y agoI'm surprised no one is talking about the possible connection between his diet and his several strokes. Although I love the idea of quitting my desk job, leaving the city, and running a farm, this individual sounds and looks quite unhealthy and I wouldn't be surprised if > two pieces of fish, an onion, an egg, baked beans and biscuits every single day is a contributing factor. I'm all about simplifying life, but think we should remember that eating a varied diet is fairly important to well-being.