So what the heck IS an "acre" anyway?

[a nameless entity]

Or more accurately, just exactly how big is an acre? In practical terms just how much land is that anyway?

These are questions I that I've often wondered about, since when I was growing up we learned in school about measuring the perimeter and the area of a piece of land, and were given figures for how large an acre was (4840 square yards, or 0.4 something hectares, whatever the heck those are, too.) But we were never taken outside and shown by measuring or even pacing off just how large an acre was in human terms.

Recently some homes on some old side roads went up for sale, and I would see signs that said "9 acre lot", "4.5 acre lot" or even "home plus 30 acres for sale". But without stopping and looking around, those are just numbers with no meaning.

Well, leave it to good old PBS to educate me once again.

I have been seeing the listings for the show Michael Wood's Story of England and finally was able to watch an episode last night.
It turns out that an acre of land is the amount of area that can be ploughed by a man with a team of two horses and a single bladed plough in one day. And that at one time all of the fields around a town were held in common, and the fields would be divided into long narrow strips of land of one acre each. And each family was given several strips of land to farm but not all in the same field, so that the best to the poorest farming land was equally divided amongst all. The strips were probably about 22 yards wide by 220 yards long, which is exactly one acre.

Later today I plan to pace off 22 yards across my street, and have a go at counting off 220 paces along the length of the street. Then I will know just how big an acre is, and get an idea of why it would take a full day to plough that much land.

I also learned a new word last night. In the show some property in the town was given to someone to live upon, comprising a house and just over 3 virgates of land. It turns out that a virgate is 30 acres. So the guy got about 100 acres of land along with his house, I figure.

I really should donate a few bucks to my local PBS station, even if I am a foreigner. I learn so much from their broadcasts, and this stuff sticks with me far longer than any of the crap I see on the commercial channels.

[Dragon]

When someone kicks you in the balls that is an acre

[Hermskii]

You know, that sure would have helped back in the day for a coach to rope off a square acre, and then a 1/4 mile too!

[a nameless entity]

I live on a long street. Aware of the fact that at one time one pace of mine was very close to 1 yard in length but may be no longer, I set out to measure off a one acre strip. I found that from the middle of one sidewalk on one side to the middle of the other was darn close to 22 yards. 220 paces later after heading North up the street, I had an idea of what one day's worth of ploughing looked like. I figure the whole street from top to bottom is at least 5 acres in area, more likely about 6. So that's a week's worth of work right there.
One wonders how narrow the furrows were, for 1 acre to take a whole day to plough, and how much time was spent digging up rocks and moving them off of the field. (And how many generations of doing that it took for those stone walls around the fields to come into existence, there in England.)

When someone kicks you in the balls that is an acre

No doubt if one of your horses kicked you there in the morning, it would take all day to finish up with that acre as well.

[Dragon]

It sure would

[a nameless entity]

You know, this question of what an acre is, and how much work it is to plough one is really only one aspect of a much larger question.
I have seen on our provincial education network TV programs on what the future will be like once all the conventional oil reserves are used up. On one program they pointed out that agribusiness will no longer be able to function as it does now, and world wide fresh food shipping will be a thing of the past. No more out of season fresh fruits and etc from Africa and South America. We will be forced to return to eating in season foods only, like people did a couple of generations ago.
With no gas powered tractors available, how will farming cope? There is only so much going back to horse drawn equipment can do. Food production will fall. And moving the harvests around will be harder. Distribution will be challenging.
There won't be any pesticides or fertilizer based on oil any longer, either. New ways or perhaps tried and true traditional methods will have to be introduced.

Perhaps the new generation of young people who are taking to more traditional farming methods and refusing to use the pesticides and synthetic fertilizers on their organic farms are our best hope. They will be the pioneers of a new way of life that we will all gradually have to adopt.

Around here the tradition of farmers market days in the town square are coming back. And many people are pledging to eat only locally grown foods, in season. I think that's a good idea. We lost too many good traditions when we all jumped into our cars and moved to the city. It's time to rediscover the best things of the past we left behind and reintroduce them into our lives, in a way that best suits modern life.

[Hermskii]

You should start by being forced to make your own beer and butter. LOL

[a nameless entity]

Later butter churns were a drum and you just turned the crank handle. I can do that!

And there's lots of businesses around here where you can make your own wine and beer in their building using their equipment. But you end up with 11 cases of beer!

[a nameless entity]

I just reread this thread and started thinking about how things are going to have to change in at most a few generations just because the way we live now is not a sustainable way of life.

That got me thinking about modern inventions and devices I'd be willing to give up and those I am not. Off the top of my head, I think that:

I am willing to give up: Cell phones, imported out of season foods, computers, and reluctantly, automobiles.

Things I won't give up: Land line telephones, and microwaves. (And thank god I won't live to see the end of gasoline, so I can keep my Harley. )

Perhaps this idea of what one is willing to do without in the coming future deserves to be its own thread?

[Hermskii]

Like you have a choice. You have seen our government take away big cokes in New York. There is then nothing they can't take away. Your hog hurts people's hearing. it must go. It stinks too. It must go. It polutes the air. It must go. The leather on it is real and that is cruel. It must go. Some componants are made from stuff that is natural or actually is known to cause desease lile lead in the wheel weights. It must go. Is that an incandescent bulb for the headlight? It must go.

See where I'm going with this. If any of that is true then eventually a minority in numbers will complain about and my or your government will take it away or make us pay more for it. it must go. Sorry. No spell checker on this PC.

[EvilGrins]

When someone kicks you in the balls that is an acre

*dies inside, both from the imagery and the REALLY BAD pun*

[a nameless entity]

Like you have a choice. You have seen our government take away big cokes in New York. There is then nothing they can't take away. Your hog hurts people's hearing. it must go. It stinks too. It must go. It polutes the air. It must go. The leather on it is real and that is cruel. It must go. Some componants are made from stuff that is natural or actually is known to cause desease lile lead in the wheel weights. It must go. Is that an incandescent bulb for the headlight? It must go.

See where I'm going with this. If any of that is true then eventually a minority in numbers will complain about and my or your government will take it away or make us pay more for it. it must go. Sorry. No spell checker on this PC.

I'm not sure what "big cokes" are, although I'm guessing it's super sized colas at fast food outlets that you're talking about. And as for the rest:

I am talking about rational choices we can make as individuals, not the dictates of the loony left or the ridiculous right.

But yes, I am willing to give up Pepsi, but not Coke.

And I will give up my Harley on the same day that all those jerkwads who strike up a conversation and then give me a lecture about why the Yamahond-kawazuki cruiser that they bought was "just as good" or "better" than my Harley for all of these [insert tediously long list here] reasons are ready to give up theirs. But only after I am satisfied that they actually have come to honestly believe all that bullshite themselves.