Zenbirder - living alongside nature

[Zenbirder]

He should just do what I do... don't even bother being miffed, and just right off the bat, be all, "hey! I cleaned things!"

So true! Most of the time we are around each other all the time, so he can't sneak cleaning in on me like that. It was because I was gone that he took the opportunity to have an empty house and do the floors. So, he is the cleaner and more organized one of us, believe it or not.

I have been told that pineapples take a year-and-a-half to mature the fruit. Now I sure wouldn't want to have to grow them as an actual food source unless I had a lot of land in a really mild climate

A week ago we walked the perimeter of our land, 40 acres. It is something we only do about once a year because the back portion is thick with catclaw, a really nasty bush that resembles its name. We like to do a good fence check, to make sure the surrounding rancher's cows are kept out. So we found a split oak tree that is actually on our land, but in an area where the fence is not on the property line so looks like it is on the rancher's land. We decided we needed to get the wood before someone else saw it. So we have been working on it a bit every day. Here are my thoughts while moving the HEAVY GREEN oak wood:

Wood lift #1 - from DH cutting to a pile out from under his feet.
Wood lift #2 - throw wood down steep embankment to wash.
Wood lift #3 - pick up from wash and put in truck
Wood lift #4 - take out of truck to woodpile
(from here on out will be another year or more in the future)
Wood lift #5 - take wood out of woodpile to truck
Wood lift #6 - take wood out of truck to pile in carport
Wood lift #7 - take wood from carport to in-house wood bin
Wood lift #8 - fill stove with wood to burn

So for every ton of this wood, we need to lift approximately 16,000 pounds of weight (well more when it is green and less when dry, but you get the point!)
No wonder my Mom likes her pellet stove

 

[dacjohns]

You're going to build some muscles doing all that lifting.

 

[Zenbirder]

I read some of the negativity about member's journals in another thread. Personally, I feel I can read journals if I want and skip if I want. I think there is a possibility for me to gain some good insight from the sufficiency journey that others are going through, since each of our paths is so very different. Not only that but we also are at such different places along those paths.

I have been at this a very long time, and judging from reading here I probably have accumulated more physical resources than most here. No better, no worse, just at a different place on a slightly different path.

I know enough to know that I can not be truly self sufficient. I am not sure one small family can do so almost anywhere these days. It would at least take a small community. For every task I take on to be more sufficient, there are time and labor costs above all else. I am STUBBORN, so when I take on a new lifestyle pattern I rarely give in or go back. For example, I gave up buying soy milk for making my own. This requires I be on top of my supply daily, because it takes soaking beans overnight before the milk can be made. This commitment expands to so many choices I have made. I have committed to our wood stove. So even though this house has a furnace I have not lit it for 6 years, no exceptions. I have not used the clothes dryer more than 5 times in as many years.

So I do try to think through new forays into sufficiency before starting, but I am drawn in by the nature of my being. I find a strange mix of old time ways and modern knowledge and technology works for me. I make all the bread, but I use bread machines and a solar oven. I grow food in the greenhouse which is sheathed by ultra modern poly-carbonates.

Part of my willingness to use the technology is knowing that I will at some point be able to generate all our electricity needs with solar power.

I ramble tonight... I am tired from a day in the woods. We live near the great Gila forest. From it we harvest many resources for our family. Firewood is the primary one. Today we cut the spent dried flower stalks of the sotol plant. These will be made by us into sturdy and light walking sticks for sale in many local places. This week we will gather pinion nuts, and soon a trip for the acorns from the Emory oaks. These special acorns are part of our family history, as they can be eaten as is with no processing.

Good night and sleep tight and enjoy the ride

 

[roosmom]

I am sorry for the negativity. I agree with you, read it or not it is your choice. Post or not, it is your choice.
I wish I was in warmer climate like you. But then again, I couldnt take the bugs.
Everything is all about knowing yourself honestly.

 

[dacjohns]

It's pinyon season? Crawling around under the trees gathering nuts. What fun. Lot of work but such a great reward. How are the nuts this year?

Self sufficiency no matter what level you are at is really a life style commitment.

It sounds like you live near Silver City. I used to work on the Gila.

 

[Zenbirder]

I wish I was in warmer climate like you. But then again, I couldnt take the bugs.

Actually we are quite bug free most of the time, it's too dry. I would say almost every area of the country I have traveled to has more bug problems than we do!

Dacjohns, I was too late for the pinions this year, they had already dropped or been stashed by the jays. Next year I will try collecting earlier.

I am going to post some pictures from our pond camera, it is motion or heat activated. This is my "living alonside nature" reality!

Javelina

Fox

Mule deer Fawns & Does

My friend Bobby

 

[dacjohns]

Nice photos.

When I lived in NM I was surprised to see javelina north of Reserve. You have quite the crew there. Do they do much damage?

That is some striking coloration on Bobby. It almost doesn't look like a bobcat.


I want a game camera. I would like to say need but I don't really "need" one.

 

[roosmom]

oooooo, I like the kitty.

You dont have very many bugs? C'mon let me keep my assumptions lol.

We didnt have very many bugs either thanks to the chickens,

 

[FarmerChick]

great pics!

you have a great sense of your SS and how you want to proceed thru life....what more can one ask...that they know their own mind and know their own true direction! fab!