My family is embarking on an adventure of self-sustainability. We are going to try and become as self-sustainable as possible within the range of our abilities.
What is self-sustainable? Well, for some it means living in a tent in the woods completely independent from culture and society as we know it. This is not the self-sustainability that we are looking for. I am way too comfortable with a few of modern society's conventions.
I'm not giving up my car. I live in a very rural community. The nearest larger grocery store is 45 minutes away. My husband's commute to work is 45 minutes one direction. My longest commute is 15 minutes one direction. None of these distances sound reasonable on a bike for me. I am, however, committed to trying to walk and bike within our small community as much as I reasonably can.
I'm not giving up internet. Ah, internet, I think this is the one modern convenience that is a guilty pleasure for me. I simply depend on the wondrous amounts of information at my fingertips. How do I make/do something? Head to the internet!
You will still see me at our grocery store. Gardening is the one area that I am really struggling with. I *want* to be a good gardener. I *want* to provide my family with healthy home grown food. The one year I was successful in growing a garden, I grew Barbie food. Seriously, I grew fully ripened green bell peppers that would fit on a quarter. Fully ripened carrots were smaller than my pinkie. It was sad. I’m not giving up though. I have my lovely container garden going on the back porch this year. My little fledgling starts are planted and watched over. We shall see if we actually get any food from them in a few weeks. We do try to purchase from local farmers as much as possible. I hope to increase those purchases and decrease the purchases from commercial producers even further.
We are trying to minimize our purchases and pay off our debts. We are looking at one large purchase in the next few months. I have my eye on a piece of property that I believe would be a great little homestead for us. A few financial things have to fall into place, and then we can make it work. For now, we will continue to learn and grow on our little slice of neighborhood.
So, I hope you will join me. Follow my adventures in learning to become more self-sufficient in our modern world. I’ll be talking about homemade, homegrown, and community living. Sometimes the commercial alternative may be the best choice, but I hope that I can find sustainable alternatives to as many things as possible.
Do you have a topic you would like to see a post about? Comment! I’ll see what I can learn and share about it.
I bought a book years ago called "The Self-Reliant Homestead". I have been laughed at for even broaching the subject before, but becoming self-sustaining has always been important to me. I figure the more we do for ourselves, the more we can insulate ourselves from things going on in our country's economy and legislation ( and gas prices ) that we can to nothing to change. I'd like to see the principles in action.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, people who are interested in self sustainability are often viewed as aluminum hat wearing extremists. Lately it has become more acceptable.
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