What influenced you on your path to self sufficiency?

[Theo]

When I was a teeny little girl, when someone asked me what I wanted to be I'd say "a farmer!". My mother, a farmer's daughter, stomped on that idea. She saw it as a dismal fate, too much work and isolation. She discouraged me. In my teens I worked during the summers for my grandparents on their farm in Iowa. I loved it, but I -did- feel isolated--I was just a kid, and long days of walking corn rows looking for weeds to hoe with only my grandparents for company got to me. So I gave up farming as a career possibility. Went to college, married, raised two kids and worked for almost 30 years at the same job. Yet I still want to be a farmer!

We recently started to manage a small farm which is owned by members of my husband's family. My husband isn't crazy about the whole farming idea, plus we do not yet have the skills or tools needed to take over the whole farm, so we lease the land to a family member who farms it. We rent the house to a friend of ours. We grow a big garden, more stuff every year, and we have chickens. I've been having a wonderful time, even if I'm still not a farmer!

 

[moolie]

I've always been on the path to "ss", although hubs and I prefer the term "sustainable lifestyle" to "self-sufficiency" because we live in community with others and see the "self" in "ss" as somewhat of becoming an island unto one's self.

Both hubs and I were brought up by families for whom living this way (frugal jack-of-all-trades people) was just natural, so for us it's just natural. We don't live in the country as we both did as kids, or on a farm as our parents did, but we walk pretty lightly on the earth and do for ourselves and others as much as possible.

Influences for both of us have been grandparents and parents: my Oma and Opa were immigrants who came to Canada with nothing after the war and built up a lovely farm and taught me lots, my Grandma and Grandpa who came west during the Depressions years (both second-youngest of large farm families) and found a good life with a farm/orchard, and hubs has a similar background with immigrant grandparents who came to Canada--both mirrored my Oma and Opa's experience.

They all built their own homes, broke virgin land, lived without any modern conveniences well into the second half of the 20th century, and worked hard for what they had. Our parents taught us the value of a stay-at-home Mom and a hard working Dad, hubs' Dad was a mechanic until he retired, my Dad an accountant--and continued on with the skills and lifestyle they had been brought up with and which we continue on with today.

Friends around us have always been interested in our lifestyle, not necessarily in following it, but friends do ask for recipes and admire our gardens and our skill set when it comes to DIY things like carpentry or plumbing around the house.

 

[Doozerdoo1]

Im a bit different then you all, but I'm also one of the best in my family to save money and be frugal as all get out. I 'awoke' last year, saw the writing on the wall and decided to get my butt in gear to stock, store and learn to survive with what I could gather and glean.
I am a single grand mother raising 3 kids, and I do not have the money to move out of my small town, wish I could but that's not going to happen so .... I decided to begi. Stockig, storing and gathering everything I could in case of EMP, money failure, power failure, etc. I worked hard to get gas, propane and water stored, mNy different cooking stoves and fuels to use them, then started getting a generator, and on to the food... First off 25 year storable foods I can rotate, canned goods I can rotate and so fourth. Then onto grains, grinders. Bug. Out bags, -20 below sleeping bags and so forth. No I'm not rich, this took me all my excess cash taxes etc. But it was worth it. I added chickens to my back yard, bought a gun and amo and will be praying I will be fine. I know what's coming down the pike, I wish to God I had land, but I'm also grateful I live in small town America or smaller town America lol ( 32,000) wish I had the parents you all had to teach you frugal living, but we were poor but mom did not really shop well and both my parents are still bad with what little money they have. So it's up to me to do for my family, and to make sure we have enough food and water. A heavy burden that some days causes me stress.

 

[FarmerChick]

When I was a teeny little girl, when someone asked me what I wanted to be I'd say "a farmer!". My mother, a farmer's daughter, stomped on that idea. She saw it as a dismal fate, too much work and isolation. She discouraged me. In my teens I worked during the summers for my grandparents on their farm in Iowa. I loved it, but I -did- feel isolated--I was just a kid, and long days of walking corn rows looking for weeds to hoe with only my grandparents for company got to me. So I gave up farming as a career possibility. Went to college, married, raised two kids and worked for almost 30 years at the same job. Yet I still want to be a farmer!

We recently started to manage a small farm which is owned by members of my husband's family. My husband isn't crazy about the whole farming idea, plus we do not yet have the skills or tools needed to take over the whole farm, so we lease the land to a family member who farms it. We rent the house to a friend of ours. We grow a big garden, more stuff every year, and we have chickens. I've been having a wonderful time, even if I'm still not a farmer!

I wanted a career with horses. I wanted to go to an equestrian college in Virginia. Parents said no way....choose a real career.
I wasn't willing to even try to pay my own way cause it was expensive. wasn't going to happen. So I did the next best thing...went to college for computer programming, got a well paying job and bought my horses and land. So while it isn't a career, I kinda go what I wanted...horses. And of course that threw me right into farming eventually.

that is me too, having a wonderful time even though I wasn't exactly what I thought I would be

 

[Denim Deb]

Im a bit different then you all, but I'm also one of the best in my family to save money and be frugal as all get out. I 'awoke' last year, saw the writing on the wall and decided to get my butt in gear to stock, store and learn to survive with what I could gather and glean.
I am a single grand mother raising 3 kids, and I do not have the money to move out of my small town, wish I could but that's not going to happen so .... I decided to begi. Stockig, storing and gathering everything I could in case of EMP, money failure, power failure, etc. I worked hard to get gas, propane and water stored, mNy different cooking stoves and fuels to use them, then started getting a generator, and on to the food... First off 25 year storable foods I can rotate, canned goods I can rotate and so fourth. Then onto grains, grinders. Bug. Out bags, -20 below sleeping bags and so forth. No I'm not rich, this took me all my excess cash taxes etc. But it was worth it. I added chickens to my back yard, bought a gun and amo and will be praying I will be fine. I know what's coming down the pike, I wish to God I had land, but I'm also grateful I live in small town America or smaller town America lol ( 32,000) wish I had the parents you all had to teach you frugal living, but we were poor but mom did not really shop well and both my parents are still bad with what little money they have. So it's up to me to do for my family, and to make sure we have enough food and water. A heavy burden that some days causes me stress.

Can't say for anyone else, but my parents didn't teach me frugal living. We always had a garden growing up, but so did many of the neighbors. My mom canned stuff, but didn't teach me how. She also didn't teach me how to cook, shop or anything else that would be considered frugal living. She made most of my clothes, but once I got to a certain age, I hated it. If she had made me nice clothes, that would have been one thing, but I stuck out like a sore thumb. I guess what taught me to live frugally was being in debt. We're still in debt by way too much. I try to be as frugal as possible, but have trouble w/a hubby that likes to spend. But, even he is starting to get it now.

 

[yourbadd]

My DH and I grew up in the suburbs with parents who wanted to keep up with the Jones family. DH's parents were lower middle class and they lived paycheck to paycheck with disconnect and shut off notices weekly. I lived upper middle class, always had nice, new clothes never went without.

My mom was raised on a dairy farm and ran as fast and as far as she could from all that. She had a small garden but never canned or froze anything. She did sew clothes, but mostly for fun(costumes, new baby clothes, etc..) I new I was different from them when we'd visit my grandparents and I would sneak off and hide with my grandpa in the barn(by this point he'd switched over to raising rabbits). I fondly remember spending Thanksgiving with him and my uncles installing an automatic watering system and would spend countless hours feeding, cleaning and helping count/sort the babies.

Fast forward many years and DH and I are seeing the collapse of our once great nation and watching food and gas prices rise while incomes stagnate. Looking back it was luck we were evicted from our suburban apartment(for supposedly running an auto repair shop from our garage-it was just hubby's own car he was fixing) and moved 30 miles out to the country to a little village with only 2 stop signs. Our landlords were amazing folk who helped us till up a spot of a garden, taught us about fruit trees and encouraged us to get hens and buy a house with a little land.

We began to realize that an SS lifestyle fit with where we wanted to be in life. We now have 2 acres (not much but all we could afford at the time), a decent sized garden(a garden can always be bigger), 15 laying hens in a snug coop, plans to add goats for milk/meat, a slowly growing supply of canned/frozen foods and most importantly a willingness to learn!!!

 

[FarmerChick]

My mom was raised on a dairy farm and ran as fast and as far as she could from all that.

that was my mom.
small town nowhere, farming and little general store to survive, and when she had the chance, age 18 went to Washington for a secretary job with an Admiral.
she couldn't get out fast enough she said.

Dad was same. joined Marines at age 16. lied and got in.


both were the depression and war people so they wanted technology and easy ways...not the farm they both had lol

 

[StarWish624]

I share many of the experiences of posters, here, in this topic. But also, I remember Mom always having metal shelving in the garage filled with food and supplies. When we ran out of something (Mayo, p'butter, powdered milk), we didn't do without, and she didn't have to make last-minute trips to the store, she just sent someone out to the garage to get another. I don't know, but I always thought that it was rather like "magic". So Cool, And I LIKED IT! I decided, as a child, to do the same when I grew up. I kept my promise to myself, and have my "magic" stash, - now, I'm just waiting to "grow up"

 

[pinkfox]

i think for me its part genetics...
my grandparents on my dads were "small holders" (or homesteaders) grandad always had a small tree and berry orchard, perenital fruits and a large veggie patch, they raised critters for meat and eggs and hunted (mostly rabbit)

my dad grew up in the lifestyle then as he got older he left to have his own life, met my mum and joined the ranks of the suburban homesteader...making his own wine and yogurts and growing berries in smal pots as they didnt have a backyard in the early days.
when we got our first house with a garden, i remember having a large herb garden, and planting fruit trees and bushes, wed forrage for wild blackberries but as i got older dad has less andless time and things fell by the wayside...

we moved to another house and had a large flower garden but the fruits fell by the wayside, too much upkeep not enough time...
then we moved to the US...which became even more of a "not enough time" untill i got old enough to get a job and start putting myown in...i started with flowers and overthe years as i relearnt everything eventually talked the parents into chickens, and fruit trees and a sqft veggie patch and it seemed to not only light me, but dad too.

i decided it was time to strike out on my own and do what my heart was telling me, i LOVE animals, LOVE planting and being out in the dirt, ect, i had dreams of having my own farm, ect...it seemd the only logical step...

now ive been out of CT and here on my little plot for almost 6 months...and Dads got the bug...the more i tell him about the prokjects im doing or what to do...the more his little flame grows...

so i guess grandparents, dad and genetics...
add that to the fact i simply couldnt afford to live in CT unless i stayed with my parents forever and ate ramen for the rest of my life.

im not realy "prepping" for anything in particular, didnt move out here as a "just incase SHTF", i just wanted to do what i enjoy, try and make a deacent living and support myself doing it...if i cancut $50 out of my monthly grocery bill by growing my own, im one step closer right?!
i like the fact that shoudl something happen, im at least on my way to being self supportive...but im not realy "planning" for that...just doing my thing.

 

[Wannabefree]

StarWish!

I guess living "below poverty level" and with an alcoholic father, and workaholic mother, is what drives me. I do remember helping mom and my aunt cut out and trade coupons at my aunts kitchen table...back when there were "no expiration date" coupons I remember working in the garden as young as 5 years old. We always had a garden, and gleaned from others gardens too, and shared our over production of things we grew. Mom always canned, made my clothes, cooked from scratch, etc. for as long as i can remember. However, it was my grandma that had chickens and cows, and drug a kitchen chair up to the stove for me to stand on so she could teach me how to cook my own breakfast on Saturday morning when I got to stay with her. Then we'd feed the chickens together and pick blackberries or plums, pears, whatever was ripening that season and she'd make cobblers and jams with our bounty. Mom never had time to teach me much, she just did what she could, and worked most Saturdays to meet the bills. She was very frugal, as was grandma, but I rather think I just fell into developing those habits on my own from both of them, rather than particularly being "taugt" it was "caught" instead. I share the lifestyle with a lot of my family that were raised similarly. Our home situation is what makes me hesitant to work a "real" job, and make do with what I can at home rather than outside the home. I never wanted my kids to be "latchkey" like I was, and always have wanted to be able to be home when they get home. We even homeschooled when we had issues with the local school system until we couldn't afford it any longer. There is a lot of different circumstances and people who have influenced me personally. I think "poor" is a state of mind rather than a state of income. We are technically well below "poverty level" now, but we don't want for anything, we're never hungry, and we're generally happy people and ALWAYS busy with something fun I feel sorry for some of my neighbors who "have it all" income wise, but really are just enslaved by the system and never even have time to go sit on the creek bank with a fishing pole and reel in dinner. Money isn't everything.