I can't say I'm entirely certain where to start with this as I've never been very good with journals or diaries. But it's been suggested to me that I start a journal as I've just joined and it would be a good way for people to get to know me. I found the "New and Improved Questions List", so I'll start with that as best I can and go from there, I suppose.
1. What state/province/country are you in and what is your climate like?
I'm from the Adelaide Hills, in South Australia. I'm sure everyone can guess which country a state called "South Australia" is in. As for the climate, that's a little more difficult to answer. In general, the climate in SA is rather hot and dry. We hve this imaginary line called "The Goyder Line", above which it apparently doesn't rain (and it doesn't, much). Even in the city where I used to live, it was quite hot and horrible a lot of the time, but very rarely humid. Where I live in the Hills now, it's much cooler, and we have trees! This doesn't sound like an achievement, but compared to the rest of SA, the presence of hills and trees is a major thing. It's much greener here, compared to the orangey-brown of the rest of the state, and it rains regularly during winter, too. Our average temperature during summer is about 40 degrees Celcius during the day and about 25 or 30 at night; in winter, it's about 20 to 25 during the day and in single figures at night.
2. How many people are in your family? Marital status?
There are four humans who live in my house; my parents, myself, and my thirteen-year-old sister. I'm single, which probably isn't surprising as I'm 16. My extended family is much bigger, but they don't live with us (most of the time).
3. How would you define self sufficiency?
Being able to provide for oneself - not having to go to the shops all the time to buy food and clothing.
4. What would you do with your spare time if you had any resources you needed?
Right now, my answer is 'build a fence'. I really, really need a fence to keep my chickens from getting into the vegetable garden. They are not happy with captivity and want to get back to free ranging. Apart from that, I really don't know.
5. Have you ever built a house , or other types of building? Do you want to?
No, I don't think so. I help my father build a wooden chook coop when I was about 2 and a wooden cubby house when I was about 7, and I've built numerous chook runs and coops by myself since then, though.
6. Can you weld? Steel, aluminum, MiG, TiG, stick, Oxy-Acet?
No.
7. Who or what inspired you to become more self sufficient?
Mostly my father; he's really into it all. But I guess it's not just him, as we're being self-sufficient in different things. I guess I've never really like having to rely on other people for neccessary things like food and clothing - it seems so much easier to do it myself! At least then I know where it's come from and what's gone into it.
8 Cloth or paper?
I don't understand the context of this question.
9. In what ways are you self sufficient now and in what ways would you like to learn more?
My father's very big on green living and we've always been as sustainable as possible even when we were living in the city. I think we were the first private home in Adelaide to get solar panels, in late 2000, and we've kept a small flock of laying hens since 1998. We grew a lot of our own fruit and vegetables in the city. We have solar panels now for electricity and hot water, so we don't use mains electricity except for the electric oven, which is being replaced as soon as possible (we're still working on fixing up the house since we moved in).
We're working on getting our small piece of land mostly self-sufficient. My father has several vegetables gardens growing, although the soil was very clay-y so it will take a while, and he has planted a number of fruit trees. He has expanded his flock of chickens to almost twice the size and I have started my own. He sells the surplus eggs from his flock and I intend to sell both the eggs and some chicks from mine - his are only hens but mine are mixed as I have a couple of roosters. Any male chicks I hatch will also be eaten (sorry I can't put it more delicately!), which my father thinks is a good idea as meat is quite expensive. My sister keeps ducks and rabbits mostly as pets but my father wants to start breeding both for meat, which my sister isn't too keen on. We're also planning on getting some larger animals, some sheep and a piglet. My father wants to get a goat but my mother and I are a bit apprehensive about it eating through everything!
My father belongs to several Sustainable Communities/ Transition Towns groups - two up in the Hills and one down in the city where we used to live. The one down in the city as a market once a month which we sell produce at - mostly fruit, vegetables, and eggs, although my sister sells handmade handbacks and I sell crocheted rag-rug-oven-mitts, among other things - it depends what scraps I have and what I've been working on making! Once my flock gets going, I'll sell eggs and chickens there, too. One of the groups in the Hills is going to start a market soon, too. If anyone doesn't know, Sustainable Communities and Transition Towns are both community groups wherein people keen on green/sustainable living can get together, talk, and share ideas and produce. We share a lot of produce around, since a lot of us are in different climatic zones (there's a big difference between the Hills and the city) and we get food that we can't grow in exchange for giving others food that they can't grow.
10. In what way(s) will you never choose to become self sufficient?
I'm not sure... I'd never really thought of it. It's just something that happened! However, I don't think I'll ever make my own cheese - the process takes forever!
11. Are you interested in stocking up for future needs?
Yes, I guess. My sister's a Scout and she keeps saying "Be Prepared" but that's just her excuse for packing for to much for a camping trip. I think it's a pretty good motto, though, and I reckon it's a good idea to keep a good stock of non-perishables somewhere. I tend to look at the reduced section when I go to a supermarket and buy useful non-perishables for future use. I guess there's some sorts of stocking up which are just natural and make sense - my father always chops wood and makes a large pile throughout spring and summer and early autumn, so that in late autumn and winter, we don't have to worry about running out of wood.
12. Where do you end up when you sink into yourself, away from the outside world?
In my head. Seriously, I can spend hours just sitting and thinking... or not thinking, as the case may be. Physically, though, I'm usually in the middle of the chicken run somewhere, sitting in the sun.
13. Can you drive a farm tractor or a semi?
No. Our land isn't really big enough. But I am going to sit for my L-plates for car driving soon, since I'm now old enough to learn to drive!
14. Do you make crafts or useful items? Would you want to teach others how to do these?
Yes. I've been able to sew most of my life - I learnt to hand-sew at about three or four and use a sewing machine at seven - and I make most of my clothes. I often take in mending work for small amounts of money and sometimes I make clothes for other people, too. I make crocheted rag-rug-style oven mitts, hot plates, et cetera, and sell them at various markets; my sister makes cloth bags. I've recently tried my hand at smocking and made a passable child's dress so I think I'll do some more since I can sell them for quite a bit. I'm trying to master basket-weaving, which is MUCH more difficult than it sounds, but we're de-reeding our pond at the moment and we need to do something with all those reeds.
As for teaching, I don't see why not. I've tried to teach my friends now and then and it never really worked, but I reckon if someone truly wanted to learn I could probably teach them. I think it's sad that there's so many people who don't have these skills, so of course I'd be willing to teach them!
15. Can you have legally livestock where you are at? Do you have any? What kinds?
Yes. We live in a semi-rural area. It used to be quite rural but as we're only about half an hour from the city, and the city is expanding, we're not officially rural anymore. However, my locality is one of the few places in the Adelaide Hills which could probably be called 'rural'. Although we have the smallest property in the 'town', the others around tend to keep sheep and alpacas, and sometimes cows.
As for what livestock we have, most of ours is rather smaller. In the house, we have two cats. The rest of the livestock is generally claimed by one person who's responsible for feeding and caring for said livestock (and was usually the one who spent the money on the livestock in the first place) so I'll sort it by person.
My father has 6 ISA Brown hens and 6 white Leghorn mutt hens, who lay well and he sells their eggs. We're going to a poultry sale in two weeks where he hopes to purchase some meat birds. He would also like a goat or a pig and has the area ready for it. He's also interested in breeding rabbits for meat.
My sister has 4 Muscovy ducks and 7 rabbits. We keep telling her she should sell the rabbits as they're in 5 seperate cages but she won't.
I have a growing flock of chickens which I'm putting together in order to sell the chicks and the eggs. I also have some quail. Although my flock is continually changing, at the moment I have:
6 Araucana pullets (24 weeks)
6 white Leghorn bantam pullets (about 30 weeks)
1 light Sussex X silver-laced Wyandotte pullet (about 16 weeks)
1 light barred Plymouth Rock cockeral (about 17 weeks)
2 Frizzle roosters (about 35 weeks)
2 Old English Game Bantam roosters (about 35 weeks - I'm trying to sell these two)
5 Silkie X Frizzle chicks, unsexed (about 9 weeks)
1 Silkie chick, probably female (about 9 weeks)
1 Welsummer chick, male (about 3 weeks)
2 Welsummer chicks, female (about 1 week)
2 unidentified, unsexed chicks (about 3 weeks)
1 golden Coturnix quail rooster (about 1 year)
4 Coturnix quail hens; one each of golden, orange Tibetan, red Tibetan tuxedo, and white (varying ages, between 10 weeks and 1 year)
2 golden Cotunix quail chicks, probably one each of rooster and hen (about 4 weeks)
48 hopefully-fertile chook eggs (in the incubator)
I think I'll put here that I found out about this forum through BackYard Chickens.
16. Can you operate a lathe? Metal, wood?
I don't think so. I did a semester of 'materials technology' (basically woodwork) in Year 8, though, and I can use a hammer and nails to build a chicken coop.
17. Do you like to garden? If so, what do you enjoy growing?
Not overly. Generally, my father and especially my sister prefer gardening. I'm more of a chicken and other livestock person.
18. Do you fish? Bait or explosives?
No. My sister keeps trying and it seems very boring to me. In four or five years, she's got one squid. That's it.
19. How much space/land do you have or rent? City? Country?
We have one acre, in a semi-rural area. It's not really the country (here that basically almost means 'Outback', which it's not), but it's certainly not the city. If it's any help, we're the smallest property on the street and the next-smallest is over three times the size. We moved here about twenty months ago from the city, and both of my parents are from the country originally.
20. Are you a Novice, Technician, General, Advanced? ARRL?
I don't understand this question.
21. What is your self sufficient specialty? Or what one would you like to learn?
Well... chickens? I have lots of chickens and I'd like to consider that I'm pretty got at raising chooks. Apart from that, I suppose things like sewing. I sew a lot. I also hate waste - I'll use up leftovers or re-cook leftovers in a different way instead of cooking something new and I'll patch up clothes until they can't be any more and then still use them to make something else. I blame my Scottish blood for that.
I'm not sure what I'd like to learn - there's so much out there to learn!
22. If you could create a degree and curriculum, what would you major in and what classes would you take?
Oh, goodness. That's a difficult one. Well, since I'm studying for my high school certificate at the moment, how about I tell you what I'm studying and what I intend to study? And no, before you ask, I'm not crazy.
I'm doing four languages: German, French, AUSLAN (Australian Sign Language), and Spanish. My German is almost fluent, I can hold a reasonably conversation in French and a basic one in AUSLAN, and I'm not much beyond numbers and colours in Spanish! I'm also studying English because it's compulsory for two semesters. Maths is compulsory for one semester but I was ahead in maths so I did that last year. I did Mathematical Applications which was quite useful and had a lot about banking, interest, earning, and such forth. I'm also studying Certificate II in Community Services, as a precursor for Certificate III in Child Care, which I'll study next year, specialising in working with children with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder).
After I've finished high school, I'd like to become a governess for a couple of years and hopefully with that I'd be able to continue studying by correspondence as I am now (I think I will be - all a governess does is look after children who are doing School of the Air and make sure they do their work. Although SOTA is for primary school, I've been doing the high school version (Open Access College) for three years now and have a good idea what it involves. Before OAC, former-SOTA children usually had to study through the Australian Correspondence School, which is now no longer a school but a university. They have some interesting courses there, such as Certificates in "Home Poultry Production" and "Alternative Farming" and an Advanced Diploma in "Alternative Agriculture", and a "Design-Your-Own Diploma".
23. Do you do wood work? framing, finish, cabinet?
No, not really. Nothing too delicate, but I can do basic building of small projects and small pet coops and chicken coops (I keep saying this. Sorry, but the questions ask it!)
24. Are you interested in herbal medicine?
I suppose so. I think it's better to know what you're putting in your body than just chemicals and a lot of the time the herbal stuff actually works. Although it's not medicine, I do use 'herbal' concoctions for shampoo, conditioner, and toothpaste.
25. If you could live any place you chose, where would it be?
Probably near either Echunga or Wistow. Those are two small towns near here, both in that hazy area that's not really Hills and not really Plains. Because of this, they still have the hills and the trees that I love but the properties are bigger. Alternatively, near Birdwood, a much larger town not-so-near here but with the same sort of landscape. I love South Australia and particularly the Hills area so I wouldn't want to move far. I might consider moving to the Snowy Mountains or the Dandenongs in Victoria, though, but that would be rather unpatriotic of me, wouldn't it?
26. Do you use a wood stove for heating or cooking?
We have a combustion heater near the bedrooms and an open fireplace in the kitchen and dining area. At the moment we have an electric stove/oven which is rubbish, won't cook evenly, and uses rediculous amounts of electricity. It will be replaced very shortly, hopefully by a wood cookstove.
27. What would your ideal super hero/villain be?
This is a strange question.
But I believe that the ultimate superhero is Jesus (with Samson coming in a pretty close second... come on, he had super-strength!), and the ultimate villain is Satan.
28. Are your family or friends also interested in self sufficiency?
Yes, in fact it was my father who got me interested in it. My mother and sister sort of go along with it. As for my friends, I don't think it's ever occured to them, but most of the families in my homeschooling group grow a lot of their own food and keep chooks, so I'd say my friends from the homeschooling group probably do it a lot without knowing!
29. Do you like to cook? Are you interested in whole foods and natural foods? raw milk? farm fresh eggs?
Yes, I love cooking! I prefer cooking proper meals, unlike my sister who prefers fancy desserts. I'm quite cautious about what I use since my family has a lot of allergies - we use raw ingredients most of the time. We use wholemeal flour and raw sugar in cooking that requires those things. Milk we get from the shop so I assume it isn't raw, but if we ever get around to getting a cow, I'd love really fresh milk like that! As for eggs, my family's had chickens since I was two. I can always tell if we're over at someone else's house and we have shop-bought eggs - the yolk is much paler and it tastes different. I don't like it very much - it's like fake egg to me! I rarely use eggs more than a few days old and I can usually tell you which hen it came from!
30. What was your MOS?
What's an MOS?
31. Do you forage or hunt for part of your food needs?
Not really. We used to go out and pick blackberries as there are thousands of blackberry bushes in the parks around here (we're surrounded by national parks), but they keep spraying the bushes so the berries die. We don't really forage or hunt anymore.
I reckon I'd like to, though - it sounds interesting and somewhat fun. My father and a lot of my older relatives in England tell me about when they used to participate in hunts regularly - fox and pheasant hunts maybe. I reckon a lot of the time the hunts were sexist (men shoot, women and children wave sticks around and shout) but even so it sounds fun.
32. What skills do you have that help you be more self sufficient?
I can sew and have been able to since I was a small child. I make a lot of my clothes and I buy the material cheap by purchasing good-condition second-hand sheets from op-shops. It's usually polycotten, which wears well, and usually has pretty decent patterns on it. There's also enough to make one dress for an adult out of a double-bed sheet, or an apron for an adult or a dress for a child from a single-bed sheet.
Apart from sewing, I suppose being able to cook and to tend livestock helps a bit.
33. In which fictional universe would you most like to live?
Narnia? That's the first one I could think of.
34. Do you have solar panels? Plans to use solar energy?
Yes, we have solar electricity and solar hot water. When we lived in the city, my family was the first private home in Adelaide to get solar panels, in late 2000.
35 What is the mass/weight ratio of a European swallow carrying a coconut from the tropics to England?
I have no idea. I could probably do some research and work it out but I don't really want to. Does it matter?
36. Have you ever lived completely off grid? Would you like to?
No, but probably. At the moment, we don't have mains water, but we do have mains electricity (when the electricity goes out, we have no water at all!). I don't reckon I could get by without electricity at all at the moment because my school is done by phone and over the internet, but maybe after that I could. However, I know that a lot of the students at my school who live on cattle stations in the middle of nowhere don't have any mains electricity or water or anything at all, and they generate their own electricity, so there's always that option. I reckon it would be sort of cool though to see whether I could live completely off the grid.
37. In what do you trust?
Not sure what you mean. But God. There are countless verses in the Bible saying to trust only in God, our Lord - not weapons, not men, not politicians or princes, not wealth - just God.
38. Do you make things yourself to save money?
Yes. I guess the most prominant example would be clothes. I can make a dress for myself from a double-bed sheet from an op-shop. That's usually less that $5. It takes me 2 hours to make a dress, including cutting the pattern. One dress will last me... well, I don't actually know as I haven't worn one out yet, just outgrown them. But I've stopped growing now, so we'll see. But anyway, it's much cheaper than buying clothes from a shop which only last for a couple of wears!
39. Has trying to be more self-sufficient changed your attitude or habits about money/spending?
I couldn't really say. My family started heading towards self-sufficiency quite a while before I had to worry about money or spending! Now that I earn and spend money myself, I'm very careful with it and have managed to save quite a bit simply because I don't like spending to much -- but I'm not sure whether that cautiousness is just part of who I am and would happen anyway, or whether it's because of what my father has taught me.
I really need to go and do things now, so I'll leave it there and write some more later!
from Rachel.
1. What state/province/country are you in and what is your climate like?
I'm from the Adelaide Hills, in South Australia. I'm sure everyone can guess which country a state called "South Australia" is in. As for the climate, that's a little more difficult to answer. In general, the climate in SA is rather hot and dry. We hve this imaginary line called "The Goyder Line", above which it apparently doesn't rain (and it doesn't, much). Even in the city where I used to live, it was quite hot and horrible a lot of the time, but very rarely humid. Where I live in the Hills now, it's much cooler, and we have trees! This doesn't sound like an achievement, but compared to the rest of SA, the presence of hills and trees is a major thing. It's much greener here, compared to the orangey-brown of the rest of the state, and it rains regularly during winter, too. Our average temperature during summer is about 40 degrees Celcius during the day and about 25 or 30 at night; in winter, it's about 20 to 25 during the day and in single figures at night.
2. How many people are in your family? Marital status?
There are four humans who live in my house; my parents, myself, and my thirteen-year-old sister. I'm single, which probably isn't surprising as I'm 16. My extended family is much bigger, but they don't live with us (most of the time).
3. How would you define self sufficiency?
Being able to provide for oneself - not having to go to the shops all the time to buy food and clothing.
4. What would you do with your spare time if you had any resources you needed?
Right now, my answer is 'build a fence'. I really, really need a fence to keep my chickens from getting into the vegetable garden. They are not happy with captivity and want to get back to free ranging. Apart from that, I really don't know.
5. Have you ever built a house , or other types of building? Do you want to?
No, I don't think so. I help my father build a wooden chook coop when I was about 2 and a wooden cubby house when I was about 7, and I've built numerous chook runs and coops by myself since then, though.
6. Can you weld? Steel, aluminum, MiG, TiG, stick, Oxy-Acet?
No.
7. Who or what inspired you to become more self sufficient?
Mostly my father; he's really into it all. But I guess it's not just him, as we're being self-sufficient in different things. I guess I've never really like having to rely on other people for neccessary things like food and clothing - it seems so much easier to do it myself! At least then I know where it's come from and what's gone into it.
8 Cloth or paper?
I don't understand the context of this question.
9. In what ways are you self sufficient now and in what ways would you like to learn more?
My father's very big on green living and we've always been as sustainable as possible even when we were living in the city. I think we were the first private home in Adelaide to get solar panels, in late 2000, and we've kept a small flock of laying hens since 1998. We grew a lot of our own fruit and vegetables in the city. We have solar panels now for electricity and hot water, so we don't use mains electricity except for the electric oven, which is being replaced as soon as possible (we're still working on fixing up the house since we moved in).
We're working on getting our small piece of land mostly self-sufficient. My father has several vegetables gardens growing, although the soil was very clay-y so it will take a while, and he has planted a number of fruit trees. He has expanded his flock of chickens to almost twice the size and I have started my own. He sells the surplus eggs from his flock and I intend to sell both the eggs and some chicks from mine - his are only hens but mine are mixed as I have a couple of roosters. Any male chicks I hatch will also be eaten (sorry I can't put it more delicately!), which my father thinks is a good idea as meat is quite expensive. My sister keeps ducks and rabbits mostly as pets but my father wants to start breeding both for meat, which my sister isn't too keen on. We're also planning on getting some larger animals, some sheep and a piglet. My father wants to get a goat but my mother and I are a bit apprehensive about it eating through everything!
My father belongs to several Sustainable Communities/ Transition Towns groups - two up in the Hills and one down in the city where we used to live. The one down in the city as a market once a month which we sell produce at - mostly fruit, vegetables, and eggs, although my sister sells handmade handbacks and I sell crocheted rag-rug-oven-mitts, among other things - it depends what scraps I have and what I've been working on making! Once my flock gets going, I'll sell eggs and chickens there, too. One of the groups in the Hills is going to start a market soon, too. If anyone doesn't know, Sustainable Communities and Transition Towns are both community groups wherein people keen on green/sustainable living can get together, talk, and share ideas and produce. We share a lot of produce around, since a lot of us are in different climatic zones (there's a big difference between the Hills and the city) and we get food that we can't grow in exchange for giving others food that they can't grow.
10. In what way(s) will you never choose to become self sufficient?
I'm not sure... I'd never really thought of it. It's just something that happened! However, I don't think I'll ever make my own cheese - the process takes forever!
11. Are you interested in stocking up for future needs?
Yes, I guess. My sister's a Scout and she keeps saying "Be Prepared" but that's just her excuse for packing for to much for a camping trip. I think it's a pretty good motto, though, and I reckon it's a good idea to keep a good stock of non-perishables somewhere. I tend to look at the reduced section when I go to a supermarket and buy useful non-perishables for future use. I guess there's some sorts of stocking up which are just natural and make sense - my father always chops wood and makes a large pile throughout spring and summer and early autumn, so that in late autumn and winter, we don't have to worry about running out of wood.
12. Where do you end up when you sink into yourself, away from the outside world?
In my head. Seriously, I can spend hours just sitting and thinking... or not thinking, as the case may be. Physically, though, I'm usually in the middle of the chicken run somewhere, sitting in the sun.
13. Can you drive a farm tractor or a semi?
No. Our land isn't really big enough. But I am going to sit for my L-plates for car driving soon, since I'm now old enough to learn to drive!
14. Do you make crafts or useful items? Would you want to teach others how to do these?
Yes. I've been able to sew most of my life - I learnt to hand-sew at about three or four and use a sewing machine at seven - and I make most of my clothes. I often take in mending work for small amounts of money and sometimes I make clothes for other people, too. I make crocheted rag-rug-style oven mitts, hot plates, et cetera, and sell them at various markets; my sister makes cloth bags. I've recently tried my hand at smocking and made a passable child's dress so I think I'll do some more since I can sell them for quite a bit. I'm trying to master basket-weaving, which is MUCH more difficult than it sounds, but we're de-reeding our pond at the moment and we need to do something with all those reeds.
As for teaching, I don't see why not. I've tried to teach my friends now and then and it never really worked, but I reckon if someone truly wanted to learn I could probably teach them. I think it's sad that there's so many people who don't have these skills, so of course I'd be willing to teach them!
15. Can you have legally livestock where you are at? Do you have any? What kinds?
Yes. We live in a semi-rural area. It used to be quite rural but as we're only about half an hour from the city, and the city is expanding, we're not officially rural anymore. However, my locality is one of the few places in the Adelaide Hills which could probably be called 'rural'. Although we have the smallest property in the 'town', the others around tend to keep sheep and alpacas, and sometimes cows.
As for what livestock we have, most of ours is rather smaller. In the house, we have two cats. The rest of the livestock is generally claimed by one person who's responsible for feeding and caring for said livestock (and was usually the one who spent the money on the livestock in the first place) so I'll sort it by person.
My father has 6 ISA Brown hens and 6 white Leghorn mutt hens, who lay well and he sells their eggs. We're going to a poultry sale in two weeks where he hopes to purchase some meat birds. He would also like a goat or a pig and has the area ready for it. He's also interested in breeding rabbits for meat.
My sister has 4 Muscovy ducks and 7 rabbits. We keep telling her she should sell the rabbits as they're in 5 seperate cages but she won't.
I have a growing flock of chickens which I'm putting together in order to sell the chicks and the eggs. I also have some quail. Although my flock is continually changing, at the moment I have:
6 Araucana pullets (24 weeks)
6 white Leghorn bantam pullets (about 30 weeks)
1 light Sussex X silver-laced Wyandotte pullet (about 16 weeks)
1 light barred Plymouth Rock cockeral (about 17 weeks)
2 Frizzle roosters (about 35 weeks)
2 Old English Game Bantam roosters (about 35 weeks - I'm trying to sell these two)
5 Silkie X Frizzle chicks, unsexed (about 9 weeks)
1 Silkie chick, probably female (about 9 weeks)
1 Welsummer chick, male (about 3 weeks)
2 Welsummer chicks, female (about 1 week)
2 unidentified, unsexed chicks (about 3 weeks)
1 golden Coturnix quail rooster (about 1 year)
4 Coturnix quail hens; one each of golden, orange Tibetan, red Tibetan tuxedo, and white (varying ages, between 10 weeks and 1 year)
2 golden Cotunix quail chicks, probably one each of rooster and hen (about 4 weeks)
48 hopefully-fertile chook eggs (in the incubator)
I think I'll put here that I found out about this forum through BackYard Chickens.
16. Can you operate a lathe? Metal, wood?
I don't think so. I did a semester of 'materials technology' (basically woodwork) in Year 8, though, and I can use a hammer and nails to build a chicken coop.
17. Do you like to garden? If so, what do you enjoy growing?
Not overly. Generally, my father and especially my sister prefer gardening. I'm more of a chicken and other livestock person.
18. Do you fish? Bait or explosives?
No. My sister keeps trying and it seems very boring to me. In four or five years, she's got one squid. That's it.
19. How much space/land do you have or rent? City? Country?
We have one acre, in a semi-rural area. It's not really the country (here that basically almost means 'Outback', which it's not), but it's certainly not the city. If it's any help, we're the smallest property on the street and the next-smallest is over three times the size. We moved here about twenty months ago from the city, and both of my parents are from the country originally.
20. Are you a Novice, Technician, General, Advanced? ARRL?
I don't understand this question.
21. What is your self sufficient specialty? Or what one would you like to learn?
Well... chickens? I have lots of chickens and I'd like to consider that I'm pretty got at raising chooks. Apart from that, I suppose things like sewing. I sew a lot. I also hate waste - I'll use up leftovers or re-cook leftovers in a different way instead of cooking something new and I'll patch up clothes until they can't be any more and then still use them to make something else. I blame my Scottish blood for that.
I'm not sure what I'd like to learn - there's so much out there to learn!
22. If you could create a degree and curriculum, what would you major in and what classes would you take?
Oh, goodness. That's a difficult one. Well, since I'm studying for my high school certificate at the moment, how about I tell you what I'm studying and what I intend to study? And no, before you ask, I'm not crazy.
I'm doing four languages: German, French, AUSLAN (Australian Sign Language), and Spanish. My German is almost fluent, I can hold a reasonably conversation in French and a basic one in AUSLAN, and I'm not much beyond numbers and colours in Spanish! I'm also studying English because it's compulsory for two semesters. Maths is compulsory for one semester but I was ahead in maths so I did that last year. I did Mathematical Applications which was quite useful and had a lot about banking, interest, earning, and such forth. I'm also studying Certificate II in Community Services, as a precursor for Certificate III in Child Care, which I'll study next year, specialising in working with children with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder).
After I've finished high school, I'd like to become a governess for a couple of years and hopefully with that I'd be able to continue studying by correspondence as I am now (I think I will be - all a governess does is look after children who are doing School of the Air and make sure they do their work. Although SOTA is for primary school, I've been doing the high school version (Open Access College) for three years now and have a good idea what it involves. Before OAC, former-SOTA children usually had to study through the Australian Correspondence School, which is now no longer a school but a university. They have some interesting courses there, such as Certificates in "Home Poultry Production" and "Alternative Farming" and an Advanced Diploma in "Alternative Agriculture", and a "Design-Your-Own Diploma".
23. Do you do wood work? framing, finish, cabinet?
No, not really. Nothing too delicate, but I can do basic building of small projects and small pet coops and chicken coops (I keep saying this. Sorry, but the questions ask it!)
24. Are you interested in herbal medicine?
I suppose so. I think it's better to know what you're putting in your body than just chemicals and a lot of the time the herbal stuff actually works. Although it's not medicine, I do use 'herbal' concoctions for shampoo, conditioner, and toothpaste.
25. If you could live any place you chose, where would it be?
Probably near either Echunga or Wistow. Those are two small towns near here, both in that hazy area that's not really Hills and not really Plains. Because of this, they still have the hills and the trees that I love but the properties are bigger. Alternatively, near Birdwood, a much larger town not-so-near here but with the same sort of landscape. I love South Australia and particularly the Hills area so I wouldn't want to move far. I might consider moving to the Snowy Mountains or the Dandenongs in Victoria, though, but that would be rather unpatriotic of me, wouldn't it?
26. Do you use a wood stove for heating or cooking?
We have a combustion heater near the bedrooms and an open fireplace in the kitchen and dining area. At the moment we have an electric stove/oven which is rubbish, won't cook evenly, and uses rediculous amounts of electricity. It will be replaced very shortly, hopefully by a wood cookstove.
27. What would your ideal super hero/villain be?
This is a strange question.
But I believe that the ultimate superhero is Jesus (with Samson coming in a pretty close second... come on, he had super-strength!), and the ultimate villain is Satan.
28. Are your family or friends also interested in self sufficiency?
Yes, in fact it was my father who got me interested in it. My mother and sister sort of go along with it. As for my friends, I don't think it's ever occured to them, but most of the families in my homeschooling group grow a lot of their own food and keep chooks, so I'd say my friends from the homeschooling group probably do it a lot without knowing!
29. Do you like to cook? Are you interested in whole foods and natural foods? raw milk? farm fresh eggs?
Yes, I love cooking! I prefer cooking proper meals, unlike my sister who prefers fancy desserts. I'm quite cautious about what I use since my family has a lot of allergies - we use raw ingredients most of the time. We use wholemeal flour and raw sugar in cooking that requires those things. Milk we get from the shop so I assume it isn't raw, but if we ever get around to getting a cow, I'd love really fresh milk like that! As for eggs, my family's had chickens since I was two. I can always tell if we're over at someone else's house and we have shop-bought eggs - the yolk is much paler and it tastes different. I don't like it very much - it's like fake egg to me! I rarely use eggs more than a few days old and I can usually tell you which hen it came from!
30. What was your MOS?
What's an MOS?
31. Do you forage or hunt for part of your food needs?
Not really. We used to go out and pick blackberries as there are thousands of blackberry bushes in the parks around here (we're surrounded by national parks), but they keep spraying the bushes so the berries die. We don't really forage or hunt anymore.
I reckon I'd like to, though - it sounds interesting and somewhat fun. My father and a lot of my older relatives in England tell me about when they used to participate in hunts regularly - fox and pheasant hunts maybe. I reckon a lot of the time the hunts were sexist (men shoot, women and children wave sticks around and shout) but even so it sounds fun.
32. What skills do you have that help you be more self sufficient?
I can sew and have been able to since I was a small child. I make a lot of my clothes and I buy the material cheap by purchasing good-condition second-hand sheets from op-shops. It's usually polycotten, which wears well, and usually has pretty decent patterns on it. There's also enough to make one dress for an adult out of a double-bed sheet, or an apron for an adult or a dress for a child from a single-bed sheet.
Apart from sewing, I suppose being able to cook and to tend livestock helps a bit.
33. In which fictional universe would you most like to live?
Narnia? That's the first one I could think of.
34. Do you have solar panels? Plans to use solar energy?
Yes, we have solar electricity and solar hot water. When we lived in the city, my family was the first private home in Adelaide to get solar panels, in late 2000.
35 What is the mass/weight ratio of a European swallow carrying a coconut from the tropics to England?
I have no idea. I could probably do some research and work it out but I don't really want to. Does it matter?
36. Have you ever lived completely off grid? Would you like to?
No, but probably. At the moment, we don't have mains water, but we do have mains electricity (when the electricity goes out, we have no water at all!). I don't reckon I could get by without electricity at all at the moment because my school is done by phone and over the internet, but maybe after that I could. However, I know that a lot of the students at my school who live on cattle stations in the middle of nowhere don't have any mains electricity or water or anything at all, and they generate their own electricity, so there's always that option. I reckon it would be sort of cool though to see whether I could live completely off the grid.
37. In what do you trust?
Not sure what you mean. But God. There are countless verses in the Bible saying to trust only in God, our Lord - not weapons, not men, not politicians or princes, not wealth - just God.
38. Do you make things yourself to save money?
Yes. I guess the most prominant example would be clothes. I can make a dress for myself from a double-bed sheet from an op-shop. That's usually less that $5. It takes me 2 hours to make a dress, including cutting the pattern. One dress will last me... well, I don't actually know as I haven't worn one out yet, just outgrown them. But I've stopped growing now, so we'll see. But anyway, it's much cheaper than buying clothes from a shop which only last for a couple of wears!
39. Has trying to be more self-sufficient changed your attitude or habits about money/spending?
I couldn't really say. My family started heading towards self-sufficiency quite a while before I had to worry about money or spending! Now that I earn and spend money myself, I'm very careful with it and have managed to save quite a bit simply because I don't like spending to much -- but I'm not sure whether that cautiousness is just part of who I am and would happen anyway, or whether it's because of what my father has taught me.
I really need to go and do things now, so I'll leave it there and write some more later!
from Rachel.
We do have a thread for Christians, I take it you are Christian from some of your responses. We share insights on bible study and prayer requests and such over there. Feel free to join in any time!! 
