millie
Sustainable Newbie
Thank you. Be patient as I am quite computer illiterate. I have not learned all of the abbreviations or different smiley icons to use when needed
What influenced you on your path to self sufficiency?
- Thread starter FarmerDenise
- Start date
reinbeau
Moderator Extraordinaire
On the path is fine, Millie, many of us are on that path, just at different stages. As for using the smileys, look just to the right of the reply box when you're posting a reply. You'll see Smilies [show] [hide] Click on [show] and you'll see all of the smileys - just click on one to use it in your message. Make sure to leave a space between the end of your sentence and the smiley or you'll just get the code, not the smiley.millie said:
Farmfresh
City Biddy
Welcome to all the new folks! 
I have a little saying "Stop Dreaming about the Good Life and Start Living IT!"
Self sufficiency starts with a baby step in the right direction. As you learn more and feel more confidence in yourself your skills keep going up and up. It is like a steamroller - before you know it you are fermenting things in the basement, putting up extra shelves to hold all of the canning supplies and planning next years garden - IN AUGUST!
As for what started me down this path. It was where we lived.
We had a pony and needed a place to keep her, so my mom and dad rented a little dump of a house on an acre in town to live in. The previous occupants - now old were pretty much self sufficient on that acre. They had raised a calf to eat every year and had a milk cow on the acre. After moving away they had left an acre full of food. There were two peach trees in the yard, a plum tree, a pear tree, a mulberry tree, about 6 cherry trees and bunches of black raspberries, strawberries gone wild and other things. Because of this I could actually just walk around the yard and graze!
My parents both worked and these plants were never cared for at all, yet my belly got full and I loved the feeling! I also had a grandma up the street that still carried on with old skills like making her own sausage and lye soap. So I got a taste of that as well.
I never wanted anything else than that stuff. So here I am. Still in the city, but pretty darned self sufficient at that!
I have a little saying "Stop Dreaming about the Good Life and Start Living IT!"
Self sufficiency starts with a baby step in the right direction. As you learn more and feel more confidence in yourself your skills keep going up and up. It is like a steamroller - before you know it you are fermenting things in the basement, putting up extra shelves to hold all of the canning supplies and planning next years garden - IN AUGUST!
As for what started me down this path. It was where we lived.
We had a pony and needed a place to keep her, so my mom and dad rented a little dump of a house on an acre in town to live in. The previous occupants - now old were pretty much self sufficient on that acre. They had raised a calf to eat every year and had a milk cow on the acre. After moving away they had left an acre full of food. There were two peach trees in the yard, a plum tree, a pear tree, a mulberry tree, about 6 cherry trees and bunches of black raspberries, strawberries gone wild and other things. Because of this I could actually just walk around the yard and graze!
My parents both worked and these plants were never cared for at all, yet my belly got full and I loved the feeling! I also had a grandma up the street that still carried on with old skills like making her own sausage and lye soap. So I got a taste of that as well.
I never wanted anything else than that stuff. So here I am. Still in the city, but pretty darned self sufficient at that!
modern_pioneer
Mountain Man
- Joined
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- In the woods with the critters
I gotta whole mouthful to say on this question. 
I can describe it as a contrast view of two different worlds with the emotions of home grown roots.
For 21 years I spent living in the city, apartment complex to another, trying to find a place to settle in. Even when I bought my house, I never felt settled. Getting married didn't fulfill what I was missing inside. Though I had a very small garden, grew taters and some other small stuff.
After my first year in business, kids went to the folks house for a few weeks, DW and I decided to take a vacation and visit some glass making companies, we collect different pieces. While on our trip we also decided to visit the old farm that I was raised on. I stood in the spot where the house once stood and saw the farm as it was through the eyes of a fourteen year old boy.
That's when it hit me, eyes swelled with tears, it hit me like a ton of bricks.
So while driving I started to talk to DW about moving back up here, I was nervous because I wasn't sure she wanted to move out of the city. But that conversation lasted about four sentences long, and she agreed to move back up here with me.
I credit my pioneering mom with planting the seeds of being as ss as possible.
Often folks mention about being poor, but you gotta ask yourself what is being poor. Because when I was raised on the farm, we didn't have a lot of money, but I always had clothes/food/shoes/friends/family/animals/always something to get done/a part of something bigger/learning skills/doing things together as a family. I think folks can have all the money in the world, though money makes things easier, money can't give you a sense of accomplishment and better ties with your own family members.
being as ss as I can rocks!!!!
I can describe it as a contrast view of two different worlds with the emotions of home grown roots.
For 21 years I spent living in the city, apartment complex to another, trying to find a place to settle in. Even when I bought my house, I never felt settled. Getting married didn't fulfill what I was missing inside. Though I had a very small garden, grew taters and some other small stuff.
After my first year in business, kids went to the folks house for a few weeks, DW and I decided to take a vacation and visit some glass making companies, we collect different pieces. While on our trip we also decided to visit the old farm that I was raised on. I stood in the spot where the house once stood and saw the farm as it was through the eyes of a fourteen year old boy.
That's when it hit me, eyes swelled with tears, it hit me like a ton of bricks.
So while driving I started to talk to DW about moving back up here, I was nervous because I wasn't sure she wanted to move out of the city. But that conversation lasted about four sentences long, and she agreed to move back up here with me.
I credit my pioneering mom with planting the seeds of being as ss as possible.
Often folks mention about being poor, but you gotta ask yourself what is being poor. Because when I was raised on the farm, we didn't have a lot of money, but I always had clothes/food/shoes/friends/family/animals/always something to get done/a part of something bigger/learning skills/doing things together as a family. I think folks can have all the money in the world, though money makes things easier, money can't give you a sense of accomplishment and better ties with your own family members.
being as ss as I can rocks!!!!
Farmfresh
City Biddy
How lucky you are to have a place to go back HOME to!
rebecca100
Almost Self-Reliant
We just moved back to where I grew up, too. Here in the last 3 months actually. My dad passed and I got his old place. We have 10 acres in the middle of nowhere-where I like it. We moved to 1/2 acre near a small town now. Now the neighbors aren't very happy about my animals, but they will get over it. There is enough woods around us that they don't have to be near them.I have always, even as a kid had the desire to be self-sufficient. Don't know why. The driving desire has always been there to prepare for the worst even though I haven't a clue what it might be. The storms(tornados and ice) have been proof enough that there is always something to be prepared for. They are also saying that there could be an enormous eathquake on the new madrid any time. There was a small quake in our town about 6 months ago. It barely made the news. I want to know that we will be taken care of. And.... the experience of gardening and raising animals for kids is ALWAYS a good thing. As I was writing this my dh called to ask if there were any recent quakes in our area since he works for a propane co. and he responded to a hard-line leak that he says there was no way should have been leaking. There was one earlier this month, a 2.5. Weird I was just typing about that..... Huh....... :/
FarmerChick
Super Self-Sufficient
- Joined
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Actual influence to head to SS
MONEY
I was a farmer type gal loving animals. Always wanted a horse, got one and then many after, then met my hubby (Tony) who had tons of land and a farm........so then the natural step was to live more off the farm and save money.
then to get off the merry-go-round of manufactured, processed to death lifecycle that we live in..........doing well, still dependent on alot in this world, like electricity...lol....but doing more and more SS stuff all the time.
I try!
MONEY
I was a farmer type gal loving animals. Always wanted a horse, got one and then many after, then met my hubby (Tony) who had tons of land and a farm........so then the natural step was to live more off the farm and save money.
then to get off the merry-go-round of manufactured, processed to death lifecycle that we live in..........doing well, still dependent on alot in this world, like electricity...lol....but doing more and more SS stuff all the time.
I try!
Beekissed
Mountain Sage
Another good thread found in my meanderings through old posts.....on this forum it is a subject that pops up frequently.
moxies_chickennuggets
Super Self-Sufficient
What is "poor"? I felt more close to poverty, when I had a job, 2 car payments, a mortgage and a 2nd mortgage, credit card bills, loans, and on...and on...an on. Each month was living a nervous wreck. Trying to work enough, to earn enuff, to pay minimum payments, to leave enuff money to buy food for 3 teenagers, myself and the husband.
Long story shortened ..10 years later.....divorced. Moved 1,000 miles away for a job...got laid off. No more bills, no more car payments, no credit cards, no loans. My income is actually 0 (zero) per month. I live with my SO, take care of an manage the home front while he is at work...35 miles away. We have both had better jobs and better incomes...but we don't feel poor. We have each other, 1 acre with house-paid off, no mortgage, no loans, no credit cards, stay warm, have food, have chickens, 2 paid off trucks, and lots of buildings onsite. I am currently working at getting my alterations business set up..so I can at least earn something. But, I in no way feel poor. Neither does he. So many have so much less then we do in this sad economy.
Long story shortened ..10 years later.....divorced. Moved 1,000 miles away for a job...got laid off. No more bills, no more car payments, no credit cards, no loans. My income is actually 0 (zero) per month. I live with my SO, take care of an manage the home front while he is at work...35 miles away. We have both had better jobs and better incomes...but we don't feel poor. We have each other, 1 acre with house-paid off, no mortgage, no loans, no credit cards, stay warm, have food, have chickens, 2 paid off trucks, and lots of buildings onsite. I am currently working at getting my alterations business set up..so I can at least earn something. But, I in no way feel poor. Neither does he. So many have so much less then we do in this sad economy.
Joel_BC
Super Self-Sufficient
Well, my mother had grown up in a small town, my dad on a poultry ranch (but he wanted to escape that and see the big city and maybe be an urban "success"). But we always had relatives in the small towns and countryside. I always liked making and building and fixing things. I got drawn into a job in a natural/organic-foods store, and moved outside of the city and part of my job was to truck produce from the farms into the city to the place I worked.
An older person or two introduced me to back issues of Mother Earth News and to old Whole Earth Catalogs, and to old books by Helen & Scott Nearing. I knew that was what I wanted to do. Grow food, build (or repair and upgrade) buildings, maintain machines, live outside of the hubub of the city - and outside the cramped limitations of the suburbs. Sure, the city and modern suburb offer educational opportunities, movie theaters, big bookstores and libraries, shopping opportunities (tools and supplies, clothing, reconditioned cars), and all of that, but they also present many distractions. There is a kind of superficiality to a city, in terms of nature and the sources of human sustenance. Also, in a number of ways, the cities are more expensive settings (you all know that's a big subject - won't open that up, here).
So then the logic of SS becomes very real, because if you're not going to work for cash all the time, you have to budget and economize. My wife and I almost always had jobs, either self-employed or employed outside the home. But given where we decided to live, we've had relatively few years on average where our household income would have equalled what we'd earn in the big city. I explained my experience of gaining what amounts to economic leverage by learning to use tools, in the opening post on this thread: http://www.sufficientself.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=11497
An older person or two introduced me to back issues of Mother Earth News and to old Whole Earth Catalogs, and to old books by Helen & Scott Nearing. I knew that was what I wanted to do. Grow food, build (or repair and upgrade) buildings, maintain machines, live outside of the hubub of the city - and outside the cramped limitations of the suburbs. Sure, the city and modern suburb offer educational opportunities, movie theaters, big bookstores and libraries, shopping opportunities (tools and supplies, clothing, reconditioned cars), and all of that, but they also present many distractions. There is a kind of superficiality to a city, in terms of nature and the sources of human sustenance. Also, in a number of ways, the cities are more expensive settings (you all know that's a big subject - won't open that up, here).
So then the logic of SS becomes very real, because if you're not going to work for cash all the time, you have to budget and economize. My wife and I almost always had jobs, either self-employed or employed outside the home. But given where we decided to live, we've had relatively few years on average where our household income would have equalled what we'd earn in the big city. I explained my experience of gaining what amounts to economic leverage by learning to use tools, in the opening post on this thread: http://www.sufficientself.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=11497
