SS challenge! - 100+ steps to self-sufficiency

[baymule]

@baymule - that's cool! Did you tan the hide too?

For chair seats, think old timey ladder back chairs with no seat, you don't tan the hide. I stretched it, pegged it, scraped the fat and meat off, salted it, and let it dry. Then I washed the salt off, soaked the hide overnight and slung it over the swing set to drip the excess water off. I cut the seat piece, leaving enough to lap over the side, front and back round wood pieces (don't know the proper term for them). Then I cut lacing, working in a round cutting manner, for a long lace, not in short strips. I cut slits in the edges of the seat piece and "laced" it on the underside of the seat. This is rawhide, it dries hard and stiff. These type seats can last for years.

 

[NH Homesteader]

How cool! Do you have pictures of the finished product?

 

[lcertuche]

I don't think any of these ideas are repeats, it they are I apologize.
91. Use an old parked car as a greenhouse in the same vein as dehydrator.
92. Put bended in an arc, pvc pipe on short stakes and stretch plastic over a bed of greens to last longer, maybe most the winter for a quick, cheap cold frame.
93. Keep sourdough starter.
94. Slice cucumbers and put in the leftover pickle juice.
95. Save every bone, onion core, carrot top, etc. in a bag in the freezer and make stock.
96. Buy in bulk. Beans at store 1.25 and up but 50 bag from Sam's Club .52 per pound. Buy 50 pound bags of rice and popcorn. According to Jackie Clay popcorn can be ground into cornmeal too and any of this could be cooked and fed to livestock in a pinch.
97. Buy spices and seasonings from ethnic stores. Our local mom and pop hispanic market sells cellophane wrapped spices for a couple of dollars cheaper than any chain stores.
98. Make and freeze meals to have instead of takeout. One day of cooking can produce a lot of food. Whenever you make chili, spaghetti sauce, soups, casseroles double or triple and put the extra in the freezer.
99. Buy a filtering pitcher instead of constantly buying bottled water. Refill the bottles you do buy to take with you. Have them ready in the refrigerator or freezer to grab.
100. Cover windows with plastic and put something in front of the doors to stop drafts.
101. Change out your light bulbs. Over time this saved us about $40 a month.

 

[baymule]

(101) Just went through the house with all LED bulbs. They are BRIGHT! It's like the morning sun, we love them!

102. This one to me, is VERY important. BUILD COMMUNITY. Know your neighbors, know who you could count on in an emergency. Know who neighbors strengths and weaknesses. Know who would need help and make provisions for that. After all, if your neighbor has 3 little children, are you going to let them go hungry or are you going to not only feed them, but teach them to feed themselves as well? It is not enough to sit on top of buckets of food if your neighbors starve. BUILD COMMUNITY.

Talk to neighbors now. Don't come across as a wack-job, come across as someone who is trying for a better life for your family. Talk about better food, and producing it. You will find out if they want to learn how to better provide for themselves and their families. If they are not interested in keeping pigs, garden, goats, chickens and so on, they may be interested in buying from you, and you will have gained a customer. BUILD COMMUNITY.

 

[rodeogirl]

I apologize if this has already been said.
103. make your own pet food

 

[lcertuche]

(101) Just went through the house with all LED bulbs. They are BRIGHT! It's like the morning sun, we love them!

102. This one to me, is VERY important. BUILD COMMUNITY. Know your neighbors, know who you could count on in an emergency. Know who neighbors strengths and weaknesses. Know who would need help and make provisions for that. After all, if your neighbor has 3 little children, are you going to let them go hungry or are you going to not only feed them, but teach them to feed themselves as well? It is not enough to sit on top of buckets of food if your neighbors starve. BUILD COMMUNITY.

Talk to neighbors now. Don't come across as a wack-job, come across as someone who is trying for a better life for your family. Talk about better food, and producing it. You will find out if they want to learn how to better provide for themselves and their families. If they are not interested in keeping pigs, garden, goats, chickens and so on, they may be interested in buying from you, and you will have gained a customer. BUILD COMMUNITY.

I would have to agree with Baymule about community. It is one of the most important things. My neighbors are the best. Also, our church family helps us so much. They have gave us produce, clothes, firewood, deer meat, etc. So, so much. Of course that is also part of our community and neighbors. Be a good neighbor and/or a good friend to reciprocate. I just took one of my neighbors a mess of homemade tamales but it was nothing compared to all she and her husband has done for us like the rick of firewood he cut because we were out and a winter storm was headed our way, another man from our church heard about it and gave us more than a rick of wood and loaned us his splitting maul. This weekend another neighbor called me to get some canning jars and when we got there she gave us a canner she no longer used. You can't buy that kind of goodwill.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Good neighbors are absolutely incredible. I've got one of the best!

 

[Mini Horses]

COMMUNITY --
As I read this I stopped to consider -- although I am rural, I am the only one on my road that actually has "farm" animals. It never really occurred to me before as others did. One still does BUT they are for her business of "kids parties" and are petting zoo type....never for anything else. There are 6 families with riding horses and only one that I know has chickens. To be honest, it is the first time in years that I actually gave this much thought. I have chickens, pigs, milk goats, retired minis and "suddenly" realize I am the only one. Shocking, really. Almost all the families on the road have 3-+ acres. There are some chickens & a few goats (meat) on next road over. Come to think about it, MOST don't even grow a garden -- I know of 3 that do, as I see them but, most do not.

This is not like where I moved to ......what an eye opener as I think about this. Geesh, I feel like I was just isolated in the reasons for even living here where I thought people were "into" these self sufficient things, & used to be.
OK, I've been here 17 years but, wow...have I been asleep?

Isn't that weird??? Anyone else find themselves in a different environment from what they had been ? Several families have changed and without my realizing it, the atmosphere has become very different during the past few years.

 

[NH Homesteader]

Oh timely post Mini Horses. I live in the town I grew up in. The farmers are being replaced by wealthier liberal money spenders, and the town and area have changed beyond recognition. Very sad. We are beginning to do some improvements and search for real estate elsewhere. There is a lot of anger here, it's not good.

Need to find a place with many good neighbors!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

We have noticed the opposite here. Many years ago when I moved here there were relatively few with a garden or livestock. I planted a garden the first year I moved here. I got chickens soon after that. Then - my neighbors planted a garden and got some ducks. Few more years - a few more neighbors trying - but a lot of them didn't keep up with it.

Fast forward about 10 years. New set of neighbors. Many of these new folks are Hispanic and they are sooo very interested in self-sufficiency and even more than that - FAMILY! Several of the families re related and they all help each other. They all have animals, they have gardens, they have orchards. It's really awesome. We've become friends with one family especially. I trade them milk for homemade tortillas. They gave me blood oranges from their trees - I gave them lemons/limes.

It has worked out well for all of us and I truly believe that in the event of any crisis we would all help each other out.