How Did You Get to Today?

[Javamama]

I had a few different issues that converged and put me on this path. One was just a longing for what I grew up with in childhood -the woods, a pond, country life, solitude. Then I felt the strongest need to step out of cookie cutter suburb life and simplify. To stop accumulating, to declutter, and not even visit the "Joneses". Thirdly, I felt some health issues creeping up on me and I see my parents and grandparents having problems and the traditional medical system scares the heck out of me. I feel that doctors I had been to really did more harm than good, treating symptoms and not interested in finding the cause. No way will I be dependent on that! It was time to take charge of my and my family's health and I started learning about nutrition, getting artificial stuff and chemicals out of my household, and getting in touch with how real food is intended to be. And to find ways to treat our bodies with natural remedies - our pets too.
It's all coming together and it makes me feel at peace. And my kids know that eggs don't get made at the grocery store.

 

[BeccaOH]

So, (how) have you turned your dreams into reality?
I really don't know if I have a clear dream or self sufficient vision yet. I grew up in the country and always knew I wanted to stay where the yards are big and nature is close by. I've done that by buying the house my parents built on my grandparents' farm. Now I have my widowed mother living with me (which really is a good situation since I'm single in my late 30s). I have somewhere around 2 acres (need to check the deed) and I care for 2 more belonging to my sister and BIL. I have always put in a fairly large garden, and my mom taught me to can.

Like Javamama, the health of my mother and things I started to see potential for in myself made me determined to be more mindful of what I eat, where it comes from, staying in shape by working for that food -- and not rely on doctors to be of any real help. I got my chicken coop up and going last fall, but now I have so many poultry projects that my gardening is way behind schedule.

I took a simplistic class in wild foraging. I'd like to get into that, but I have little time to play with.

If you live in the country, are you self-employed or do you commute?
I commute 20 minutes to a job. If I had high-speed Internet, I could do 75% or more of my work at home.

Does your day job speak to who you are outside of work hours?
My job pretty much has shaped and defined me. I work with editing book material. I still love it, but I do get drained by the demands sometimes and I'm often torn by the desire to be at home.

 

[Beekissed]

We moved off-grid when I was 11 yrs old and started a homestead back in the woods on 110 acres of grown-over old farm, two room, handmade log cabin....all very primitive and hard work. Had the usual homesteading animals, lived off the land, made do, etc, etc.

Always just wanted to be a farmer's wife, have kids, work hard at home making food and a living for my family.

Didn't ever happen.

My 20s were spent making one stupid mistake after another and just trying to survive while raising 3 young children by myself. By then was out in the world paying mortgages, utilities, car payments, insurance...the usual stones around one's neck.

My 30s were spent recovering from my 20s and slowly, slowly realizing that what I had left behind was more peaceful and more me than anything I was currently doing.

I've lost count of the jobs somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 or more, career choices number 3 now, but holding steady on nursing for the past 16 years.

All that time, I just wanted to stay at home and be a real mom, make real food, have real quality time with my kids.

Never happened. Still dreaming, but never happened.

Had gardens, had chickens....still didn't have a farm.

The dreams have been many, the goals innumerable, the lost hopes immense.....

Finally....in my 40s. I decided to seek serenity, clean air and simplicity with all my might....for my sanity, for my health, for my life! Moved further into the mountains until around every bend was beauty and awe-inspiring sights. Renewed my relationship with God and started walking a little closer to Him and praying for guidance....finally! That was the turning point in my life.

Decided to grow where I was planted and quit hoping for acreage, a farmer husband, horses, cattle and all the things I'd dreamed of for so long. Decided to grow where I was planted.

I'd already had most of the skills from living the life while growing up, so decided to work my way back to where I came in. Going backwards in time, so to speak. Collecting the old implements, reading up on the old skills, working towards getting closer to being independent of the system....the rat race....the big machine.

Now have a little rent-a-farm of a little over an acre, orchard, milk cow, chickens, garden, sheep(next week), cellar......and a head full of ideas and old-fashioned thinking.

I would have loved to have been as focused as you are and to have a good partner with the same goals while still in my 20s. These folks are right.....dreams and goals change with circumstances but I think the heart wants what it wants all the same. If you really want it bad enough, you won't let circumstances keep you from accomplishing what you really want.

Remember, it doesn't have to happen quickly and I would explore all the options before spending large sums of money on any one thing.

And....in the end....follow your heart and it will lead you home!

 

[Farmfresh]

First Welcome - oh like minded one - to Sufficient Self!

In your original post you said "feel so claustrophobic in this city sometimes, I just need to know that there are people out there who have succeeded in living differently."

My answer is - just start living differently and the claustrophobia will disappear!

I have been what is now considered an "urban homesteader" (before it was classified as weirdo ) for the last 25 + years (more if you count the "homesteading" I did before I moved out of the family home.

When I was a little kid we lived on a acre plus rental property (so we had room for my pony ... I was a little spoiled in some ways!). The land we lived on had helped to provide for the family that lived on it for many years. There was a pear tree, two peach trees, plum tree, many cherry trees, a wild overgrown patch of black raspberries, some gone wild strawberries, and mulberry trees - all on the little place. The story was that the family before us had a milk cow and put her baby on the table (or into canning jars!) every year they also had a huge garden. The house was TINY, but they had raised 5 or 6 kids there.
Living at that little house kind of warped me. I thought EVERYBODY could just go outside and graze around in the yard for breakfast!

When I was about 8 or 9 my grandpa bought me bantam chickens and even before that I had had ducks. So all my breakfasts could include eggs as well as "yard grazings"!

When I got older our horse project expanded and we moved to a new place. A place with NO FOOD! Only a pasture and nicely landscaped flowers and shrubs.
That is how I got a taste of how "normal" people live. It was yucky.

I gardened at the new house and raised my first broilers in addition to breeding and showing countless bantams (just like Quail!). When I got married at 17 my weird tendencies went right along with me.

We lived at first in a four plex townhouse and when they told me upon move in that we were free to use the 4 foot strip beside our end unit to garden I was ecstatic!
Unlike all of the "normal" residents I did not plant daisies. My first act of townhouse living was to truck in a pickup load of composted horse manure! The neighbors WERE a little shocked at first, but the tomatoes were great and people kept stopping by to ask about the exotic flowers I was growing over the front railing and shrubs. "How beautiful!" - they were pumpkins!

At the same time I conned my in laws into letting me raise broilers in their backyard. We raised several batches, but the distance (we had one car) and the neighborhood dogs made that project stop.

Our next move was to a bigger townhouse (baby by then). At this home I again brought in the manure. This time people came with their buckets asking for a share! At this home I expanded to the 4 foot tomato strip plus a 5 x 6 (now I am pushing limits!) sweet corn plot in the backyard and peppers between the neighbor's steps and mine.

When we finally saved up enough for a home of our own (still there) it was to be a starter. Three kids however slows down the roll. We thought it more important to have me at home raising the kids than saving for that land. This old house has taught its lessons as well. I can now do wiring, plumbing and most types of construction. I have even built my own kitchen cabinets! Our house is in the CITY (over 150,000 people) and smack in the middle of it too. We have a "back forty" ... it is 40 feet wide and about 40 feet deep! Our total available "acreage" is about 4,000 square feet.

On our "farm" we raise: peaches, plumbs, apricots, nectarines (same grafted tree), another peach tree, three kinds of grapes, two kinds of cherries. All of our own herbs, salad fixins, tomatoes, green beans, limas, peppers, onions and chickens for eggs!

I also use a "vacant" lot near my home which is about 1/2 acre and it is all my canning garden plus an apple tree and berry patch (strawberries, blackberries, black raspberries). Since my daughter now owns the place I used to live as a kid (the bigger house) I raise our own meat chickens at her house. We have also raised meat rabbits at our current home, but now I have a 4-H girl who raises them and I buy from her.
We buy all our meat (that we do not raise) on the hoof from local farmers and take it (or have it delivered) to the processor. I can almost all of our own veggies or freeze or dehydrate. What we don't grow we buy from a local self-grown farmers market.

All kids are out now and I still look to owning land someday. (hopefully soon) Hubby and I both work and I have a second VERY part time job.

Every year I add new skills to my set. I can now knit, sew, can, butcher, make soap, tan leather, construct, and this year I am trying to learn how to make cheese! (just found a local source for fresh goats milk)

Bee kissed said in an earlier post
Decided to grow where I was planted and quit hoping for acreage, a farmer husband, horses, cattle and all the things I'd dreamed of for so long. Decided to grow where I was planted.

My slogan now is "Stop Dreaming about the Good Life and Start Living IT!"

Start small - learn lots as you go - and just go, go, GO!

 

[headred]

Love this thread lonelilly!

When I think back on my life (I'm almost 48), I wonder if I had goals or dreams when I was 20. I know my dream was to get married (28 years now!), have a couple of great kids (grown and gone) and have a happy life. I can honestly say that has happened. Not without a few bumps here and there, but I've always kept a great attitude and try to always live in the moment!

"Decide to be happy now. Certainly have goals and work towards them, but don't wait to be happy". That was one of the best said remarks as I scanned through all of these great stories. The key words there are DON'T WAIT. Seems thats what most folks do.

My life seems to change about every 5 years and has since early on. My husband and I know that life changes and circumstances also change. If you can adapt and be open to change then life becomes something of an adventure. And isn't that what we are all looking for?

Do what pulls you at the moment. Don't be afraid to try something new or someplace new. You can always go back! Makes me think that when we were young and fresh out of college we just wanted to GET AWAY and go someplace far off from our parents and relatives. Funny, as we get older, we are drawn closer and closer to those who we once were running from!

I'm not afraid to do anything I want to do, I just do it. I have a yearning for the country, but it's not in the cards YET. One day it will happen when the time is right. SO, I talked my DH into ducks in my backyard. I could go on and on how much fun that has added to my life, but then you would see I've really gone off the deep end!

Life is billions of small steps. Take the next one that seems right for you! xxxooo

 

[lonelilly]

These are all lovely posts. Thank you for your words. I hope the thread stays active!

Well, we've decided to take the plunge and rent a farmhouse near Bellingham, WA (DH's family lives there).

You can read all about it on my blog, http://www.lonelilly.com

I hope to learn many things from you all in our time there!

 

[hennypenny9]

Ahhh, where in Bellingham?! It's pretty awesome here, I must say. I'm only moving because my lot is currently less than a 1/4 acre and killing me.

 

[lonelilly]

@hennypenny9 --We don't know where we'll be yet! We'd like to find something open, without a lot of trees, hopefully in Ferndale area or off Smith/Hannegan somewhere north of town. Something with land (I feel your pain. I'm in an apt. now and it's excruciating!). We're going to stay w/family till we can find something--we don't want to jump into anything if it doesn't feel right. I can't wait!

 

[hennypenny9]

Those are great areas. Also maybe Lynden, if you want to get a bit further north. I posted some picture of Bellingham on my journal. If you would like less trees and more farmland, whatever you do, stay away from Sudden Valley! Very forested, and connected by a road that is downright scary in the winter. I'm going to ask where a co-worker of mine lives. Her family has a sheep farm, and she lives near someone who sells organic eggs, out in Everson.

http://www.mistymeadowsfarm.com/Eggs/eggs.htm

I think you'll like it up here a lot. Too bad I'll be moving away, but it's got to happen, and then I hope to also get some land.

 

[headred]

Keeping the thread alive! Love all the stories and would like to hear more