How Self Sufficient Are We?

[Nuggetsowner:)]

Well, I would like to be more self sufficient. I am do what I can, I garden and can, I raise chickens for meat and eggs, I buy other meat from small farm owning friends, we hunt, we fish, we pick wild berries all of those kinds of things. I too wish I could go off grid. I just don't think its going to happen any time soon. The cost for starting up alternative power is just too high for us right now. I do what I can to conserve gas but of course I wish I could do more.
In my opinion this is a process. Each and everyday I learn things that I can do to live my life in a way that is better for myself, my children, and the future. This is in part thanks to you guys!!

 

[Beekissed]

FC, could you do the same kind of farming with work horses to pull your wagons? Just wondering....I've been reading where some folks are doing just that to defray the high cost of diesel. They say the initial cost of the teams and harnesses aren't near as costly as a truck, no insurance or taxes required, they make more of themselves (renewable resource ) are pretty low maintenance as far as vetting goes....just slower than a truck. Wouldn't that be kind of fun? More work in the long run, but I think it would be a more quiet and down-to-Earth feeling to farm with horses. Your farm would probably get more business, just from people being curious about you're going back to the "old ways"! AND, you could have some more animals! I love the cold bloods....So sweet and slow!

It hurts to work so hard on a lovely place like yours just to give it away to someone else, doesn't it?

 

[FarmerChick]

LOL--Tony's grandpa ONLY ever farmed with a team. Even though Tony's Dad bought tractors, his grandpa wouldn't use them..LOL--horses for him only.

Time is my problem. The farm makes good income but not enough to live on.
Tony works a 12 hr 4 day shift job----4 on, 4 off.....on those 4 days off he MUST get as much done as possible...so the tractor is the way to go.

We just bought a tractor pulled rototiller. WOW...now that has helped him immensely but it wasn't cheap. (what is?)

I can't do a team. No time. I handle a 3 yr. old and sell every sat. at the market and care for all animals and the entire maintenance of the house, inside and out and make TONS of batches of soap (I supply stores also)

Literally time is gone. I can't take on more.

But a small fantasy is to DITCH it all and go back to the olden days....LOL...but I don't know.....maybe just trying to slow down would be nice too--HA HA

 

[shareneh]

I don't know if it's empty nest syndrome but I have changed my whole life style. My husband and I agreed to buy a woodstove and heat our home with wood this winter. We bought chickens for eggs and meat. We started to recycle things from the yard and now it's moving to the house. We stopped shopping every week and have saved tons of money. We are just getting back to basics and it's a fun game for us. Now we can help our older children when they need rescue without putting a dent in our wallet.

By the Way, I love this site

 

[Beekissed]

Kind of fun, isn't it? To kind of compete with yourself about how much you can save vs. what you used to pay out.

Welcome to the site....I love it too! I keep trying to troll people from BYC over, but not having much luck! :/

 

[enjoy the ride]

About thirty years ago, I lived near a man who farmed with a pair of Belgians mares. All his equiptment was horse drawn. He hayed each year with his team- sold a foal every other year. Bascially he was self supporting on 40 acres in Michigan.
He was the only farmer in the area to make a profit each and every year. But his profit was small- I doubt he could have supported children in college for example.
The other farmers in the area would have huge losses for 2 out of 3 years but make a bundle that one year. They were always worried about everything from equiptment payments to seed cost. They always were looking for more land to farm and usually leased quite a bit - only the older farmers had enough land and freedom form large debt- then they stopped farming and leased their land. Buying land for young farmers seemed out of the question for many unless they had relatives willing to help.
Two different lifestyles- each with their own problems I think.

Those large scale farmers were not self-sufficient at all- they took loans out each year for new equptment to make faming more profitable but then had interest- they had to buy chemical fertilizer and seed- they almost all had outside jobs of one sort or another.

I believe that the key to a simpler life it to want less- but that is hard work if you want to be clean, well fed and raise children. Wanting a city life on farm income trips up a lot of farmers but that's not an unreasonable desire. I treasure my hot showers lol.

You picks your life and take your chances. I talked to a man once who was crying because he had seriously broken his leg and could not work enough on his land to make payments on it- he was going to lose it for a broken leg.

Maybe having as little debt as possible is the first real key.

The older I get the less I look forward to hard work- I just hired a college kid to dig fence post holes for me. Is hiring self-sufficient?

 

[FarmerChick]

Is hiring self-sufficient?

********it sure is...it maintains the quality of your health and that is being self sufficient to me

your post was good and have so many valid points!

grass is not always greener on the other side, regardless of what any of us think of a particular situation lol