Is a Self Sufficient Lifestyle Only Feasible if Healthy and Strong?

[FarmerChick]

Many good suggestions.
I should have mentioned that I have every intention of living to 120, active, alert and healthy. I am vegetarian and pay close attention to my food choices, do not smoke, drink, or caffeine. I have a naturopathic doctor, run average 4 miles per day for 23 years, consider myself a happy person. However, DH is looking at 8 years, tops.

DrakeMaiden, the metal roof is something that has been gaining in popularity. I'll look into that.

Keljonma, outside the norm is why I'm on this forum!

For me you are right about what is doable and not.

I didn't want a woodstove. No time and getting older and cutting and hauling wood was not an option I wanted. I got a propane fireplace for backup heat in the winter if I lose power.....so I did weigh in "age" as a what if.

Older people make do with different solutions. Friends help, you can do smaller raised beds instead of tilling, etc. etc. Like anything people adapt to their situations. You can be a "sick couch potatoe" or a "sick person who uses the max of their limitations" to still live as active as one can.

I am sorry to hear about your DH. Saying 8 years tops is so sad cause a person knows their time and that is just heartbreaking. I hope all goes as well as it can and more time is available for him!!!!

 

[Beekissed]

Thought I'd reawaken some old threads now and again to see what the newer member's take was on the subject.

 

[CheerioLounge]

Bored Beekissed?

I'll bite...

I am disabled (I hate that word, but I use it) with a chronic illness that combined with the medication I have to take leaves me quite fatigued, with pain in my legs and feet, often quite nauseous and requires that I have a restroom available at a moments notice. It is a real PIA!

Thankfully, I have my SO "J" to help with the real heavy work. But I refuse to just lay down and give up. I may not be able to work a regular job, but I don't have to stop living! I get up at before 6 every morning and go for a 45 minute walk with the dog. Come back to the house and have a couple cups of coffee, then it's time to tend to the chickens. I rake out the run, fill the feeders and waterers and sit out and enjoy their company for awhile. Then it's back to the house to wake "J" and start breakfast. I sometimes will take a little cat nap before lunch and then I'm on the forums! I spend a few hours with my online friends, then I do whatever else needs to be done, laundry, etc. I prepare dinner and then spend a little more time online and am usually in bed by 11. I often have trouble sleeping because of the pain in my legs, so sometimes you might see me here on SS into the wee hours...

We are currently in the process of finishing an addition to the house. I've never been more thankful to be on a fixed income, because it means we can only do it a little at a time, which totally plays to my situation. "J" sometimes gets frustrated that I am not as capable as I was when we first met 18 years ago, but he is generally sympathetic and supportive. I can't wait for the weather to get warmer, as I do much better in the warm, dry desert summer. I have lots of plans for this Spring/Summer. And I am going to give it every ounce of my being that I can muster. I have no choice!

 

[moxies_chickennuggets]

Oh...good thread to re-awaken.

I too am laid off, 2.5 yrs ago..have a chronic condition..MS..and know my limitations. I am always willing to learn new things though. We have all been thrown under the bus with the economy.
Will add more later...coffee hasn't kicked in yet.

 

[Marianne]

We actually didn't start the SS lifestyle until a few years ago. We sure aren't young, but all the extra labor helps keep us that way..or so we keep telling ourselves. We know our limitations, but still keep plugging along.

A guy that we buy some firewood from when we don't have enough is 82, still cuts an amazing amount of wood year 'round and splits all of it by HAND using a 12 lb maul. Wow. He still works 32 hours a week, too. He's just one of several people we know that will never retire. They all say that as soon as you retire, that's when you get old.

After we met him, DH quit talking about getting a log splitter and bought a maul instead.

 

[Beekissed]

Bored Beekissed? lol

There are no boring times...merely boring people! At least, I always told my kids that when they would whine about being bored.... But...yes...found myself with a little time on my hands and hoped to move the board along a little. Get people talking.

 

[CheerioLounge]

I totally agree Beekissed! And thanks for doing it. It worked!

 

[Joel_BC]

Being strong and healthy can be fairly - though maybe not absolutely - important, if we're talking about living on a homestead or farm. Of course, over time it's natural to set up methods and systems on your place that make doing things easier and more comfortable. And technology has been moving ever more toward an easier circumstance for people with less brute strength. Example: chainsaws for felling trees and cutting firewood often weighed over 50 pounds in 1950, and now often weigh less than 14 pounds (and are considerably quieter).

A lot of what is discussed on SS here is applicable to suburban or urban lifestyles which, in some ways, may offer fewer physical demands.

Obviously (well, maybe just to my way of seeing things), part of the problem overall for people wanting to live more SS lifestyles is that for a good 60 years we've had an increasing disconnection of the generations. And, related, we have smaller, more isolated families. In the days when more people in society lived on farms, homesteads, etc, there were often three generations living in the same home or piece of land. The adults not only nurtured the kids, but teenagers as well as adults aided the aged (less strong) members of the family.

I read a book a couple months ago, Peak Everything by the energy expert Richard Heinberg. His view is that energy (oil, coal, etc) is going to become much more expensive, overall, in the near future, He offers the view that this will influence nearly all aspects of life in our societies. One of Heinberg's conclusions is that America will need to have about one person out of every six or so living on the land, growing food. Fifty million farmers for the U.S. - and in Canada, where I am, I suppose that would mean about five million farmers. If he's right, then it may mean the return of farming and homesteading as widespread family lifestyles. I'd think it would follow that more people will try to help one another.

 

[Theo]

Scott Nearing was in his 50s when he and his wife Helen moved to their self sufficient farm. Amongst other projects, he hand-built several stone buildings, using stone he quarried himself. So most of us are not too old to begin with self sufficiency.

I hark back to my grandad, born in 1900. In his time, old people who could no longer do strenuous work were assisted by their children or lent a hand by neighbors. Often the older generation would move to town and leave the farming to their children. And there was the community, too, the churches and organizations they were a part of, as described in other posts. I don't think my grandad, who farmed and lived alone after my grandmother's death until he was 94, saw himself as alone or isolated. He had relatives who lived nearby who lent a hand and kept an eye on him.

Personally, I don't think self-sufficient means being isolated. I have friends who will help gladly, and who will be paid in produce or honey for their efforts. Right now, I don't need help. One day I might.

 

[~gd]

I also read somewhere that people were healthier and lived longer when they farmed . . . before chemical pesticides and single crop farms that is.

OMG read the old census reports or walk through an old cemtery and check the dates on the headstones then tell me about the good old days.