Not Happy with SS?

[BeccaOH]

I don't like sitting on the fence. I usually like to jump into things with both feet. It's very hard for me to try and be SS while dealing with the everyday challenges of suburban life.

I guess the only thing about being SS is that I am not. Like Pam said it feels like I will never get there.

Maybe we need to call ourselves A.S.S's Almost Self Sufficient.

Pretty much the same feeling here. It's a nice dream that my family will never totally understand and I will probably never be able to fully demonstrate at the rate things are going. :/

 

[Blackbird]

Having to explain to people that homesteaders are NOT hippies.

Both are equally awesome..

 

[lorihadams]

I agree, the comments from people and I hate it when they look at you like you have lobsters coming out your ears when you tell them you are raising your own meat chickens or bake all your own bread.

But on the up side, I went to a friends son's birthday party and got to talking about pets with a group of older ladies and I started telling them what all I had. This led to a conversation about my broilers and the cost and the work and how it affected the children. After talking for about 10 minutes one of the ladies had to leave and she walked over to me and said "I so enjoyed meeting you, I think you just have the most interesting life."

I also agree that I wish I could do more.....(picture me dreaming of more land and more animals)

 

[me&thegals]

It's a lotta work. Some times of the year (like now) I would rather lie around, sipping hot cocoa and reading books, but instead I need to make up time on all the projects that have been ignored for the past 5 months

 

[MorelCabin]

SS in the summer is alot of fun...it's the winters I dread, especially when you have animals that need feeding in -40 and then you end up having to take some of them into the house...it just gets too cold!

 

[freemotion]

Not being able to find the supplies readily....ok, that is not really purist ss if you have to buy stuff, but I won't be growing my own wheat here in New England. Not having friends or neighbors who have the same mindset, so no one to trade with. If I had several people to trade with, I wouldn't feel such a need to be going in so many directions.

I would love to trade milk for meat or produce or work or whatever. I love the chores that go with keeping goats and would be happy to increase those, and reduce other things.

I hate having to go to work on the only sunny day in weeks, then having to fix fencing in the rain on my day off. Darn mortgage! The bank won't take goat's milk and eggs in exchange for my mortgage. Shoot.

 

[punkin]

Snide comments from idiot relatives?

Big Fat Ditto!!

ETA: the fact that I haven't found anyone else hardly around here that share the same ideals.

I feel like BB's goat: One horn sticking out of my head from the way some people look at me.

 

[delia_peterson]

As above: Chicken little comments. Feeling like I'll never get anywhere. Knowing that virtually none of my friends or relatives are prepared, even for a few days of emergency. That gives me mixed feelings, I vary between "Don't expect me to feed all of you!" to "At least I have enough to share some."

As above.I have found out who my fair weather friends are-and who is willing to get chicken poop on their clothes! And in my area I know no one to barter with or who has the same ideas-yet. I am still looking! I do not feel the need to explain my lifestyle to anyone anymore unless they are truly interested. It is hard to keep up with a job and being SS, but I am finding the balance-I dont watch TV and manage my time alot more wisely now.

 

[patandchickens]

I still don't quite get the idea of there being "a" or "the" "self-sufficient" lifestyle...

... but if you're talking about individual things, doing 'em yourself instead of hiring out or buying premade stuff, then sure, of course it is sometimes a drag to *have* to do something *now*, when you don't feel like it and it's hard work, rather than just trot off to the store or pick up the phone and whip out the checkbook. I can't imagine that anyone doesn't at least SOMEtimes get grumpy about having to spend another day canning, weekend chopping firewood, madly trying to get things harvested before an unseasonably early frost that night, etc.

OTOH, things that would aggravate me too much, or that are just physically more work than I could do, I *don't* do.

The fact that we have that OPTION, virtually everyone, and that it's purely a CHOICE, is what to me separates what people on this list are doing from the sort of pioneer-days lifestyle that it sometimes seems some folks are trying to emulate. I think there is an awfully big difference between trying to can enough food for the winter because you want to, versus trying to can enough food for the winter because otherwise, realio trulio literally, porcupines will be chewing your dead white bones next spring.

Not that there is anything whatsoever wrong with doing it by choice -- I think it is a *good* choice, obviously

Pat

 

[Wolf-Kim]

Having to explain to people that homesteaders are NOT hippies.

Both are equally awesome..

In there own way, but my friends know I dislike being called a hippy.

Just because I want to be self sufficient doesn't mean that I want to live in a place like "The Dancing Rabbit" where they hold hands and sing kumbaya.