SufficientSelf

Whilst I wait for the revolution, I’ve been busy… Learning how to live within my means and by my own hand.After some economic disasters–job loss, foreclosure, another job loss, crippling surgery, job loss–and watching our government turn it’s back on below 30K-a-year workers, I was worried about security. Real security. Not just “money” but the basics. Shelter, food, water, air conditioning.

Thanks to a death in the family and a small bequest, we were able to purchase two and a half acres with a mostly delapidated 25 year old mobile home. Paid cash, and settled down. I started with a small herb garden. Then added a small vegetable garden. Both were planted at the wrong time, in the wrong place in poor soil. But I had fresh parsley, oregano, chives and more for a short season. Only the chives still live, much to my surprise. Planted too many radishes. Found out the French eat them sauteed in butter.

The squirrels got the corn. One little squirrel, pulled up an entire stalk, sat on my fence post and peeled back a cob, stared right at me and nibbled away like a six-year-old on a summer day. I think he wanted to know why I hadn’t provided salt, pepper, and butter.

During winter I find myself a little lost. The garden is covered in snow, the farmer’s market is finished. Our chickens and goats are bored, sure that there should be more for them to do this time of year. Inside, my husband is keeping us cozy with lots of wood in the woodstove. I can’t help but turn on every light I can to battle the winter blues. There are projects that we should be doing during the winter months, but sometimes a little fun is needed. We have found a few indoor projects to entertain ourselves, thus far our favorites have involved culturing various things. It’s the lazy person’s winter entertainment! You take a basic ingredient like milk or water, add some powder or starter culture, keep the mixture warm while you sleep and BAM! You’ve got a wonderful edible product.
We started with a Mr Beer kit, which can be purchased at Target, or off of Amazon. It comes with a barrel about the size of a large fat cat, that is shaped exactly like those root beer candies. In our kit was a set of plastic bottles, beer mixes, a sterilizing powder and a couple other things. I myself don’t enjoy beer all that much, but I like making it! It’s been fun to tend to it. You just follow the directions to brew in the barrel, then once the brewing is finished, you bottle it and let it sit a little while longer. We plan to give some of our home brew as gifts for the holiday season. I enjoy projects that take little time, lots of waiting (while I read and sleep), and only a bit of effort for a great return. Australian beers are delicious, and a company called Coopers, out of Australia, makes wonderful home brew kits. The Mr Beer fits only a third the content of each can that come from Coopers, so we divide the ingredients, and get three batches out of every Coopers kit, all ordered off of Amazon. There is a wonderful home brew supply store online at www.homebrewsupply.com. They also have some fun kits for making your own wine.
Another thing we have been playing around with is to make our own yogurt. There are many different recipes on the web, using the stove, crockpots, thermos’, and more. I used Stoneyfield Farms yogurt as a starter, because it seems to start so well. I was afraid my yogurt might be like something I tasted with relatives in Scandinavia, a slimy chewy concoction that translated to “the mother of yogurt”. My texture conscious sister gagged at it. Our homemade tasted great, although a little loose in texture, almost like kefir. We flavor ours with a teaspoon or two of jam. All kinds of jam taste great in it, try fun ones like passion fruit or just your average mixed berry. The texture of homeade yogurt makes it perfect for a smoothie. I found a used yogurt maker at Goodwill, and it fits a quart sized glass or plastic container. To thicken my yogurt I like to hang it in a cheesecloth. My favorite website to order yogurt cultures from is www. cheesemaking.com . While you are there, check out their 30 minute mozzerella. You’ll impress your relatives when they find you stretching a rope of mozzerella like taffy, that took you less time than baking a batch of cookies. Make sure that you don’t use ultrapasteurized milk, because it will not work to make your cheeses. I try to use only pasteurized milk for my yogurt as well, but I am not sure if it makes a difference or not. Grab a partner and experiment!

When I was a little kid people used to ask me my favorite color.  I knew that some kids in my class liked blue and others liked red.  There were several who professed that purple was their favorite shade and one girl in my class especially loved yellow.  I however, could never make up my mind.   I mean really.  All the colors were nice in their place.  A nice yellow school bus or a pretty red apple would just not be the same if they were pink or purple.  Then one day it hit me.  I love the color GREEN!  Green … like the tiny leaves budding in Spring, or the strong scented needles on our twinkling tree at Christmas.  Green … like sweet smelling clover and a pasture full of deep grass.  Green … like the moist, springy moss growing between the rocks around the lake.  Green like money.

I am a grown up now and green is still my favorite color for all the reasons above.  Now green seems to mean even more.   People talk about “being green” – recycling, saving the planet, and protecting the environment.  I guess you could say I am green.   I became green quite by accident.  I started as being cheap.

I am an urban homesteader.  I try to be as self sufficient as possible in the middle of a big city.  I grow my own fruit and vegetables, I freeze and can and dehydrate to preserve our food, and I raise my own chickens for meat and eggs.  If I can’t raise it myself I buy local from farmers in my area.  I recycle my unused items on Freecycle. I shop at thrift stores and primarily wear used clothes.   I make some of my own clothes and repair them when they tear; I wear them until they are threadbare.  I go to garage sales and the Salvation Army if I need things.  I drive older vehicles and sell them to scrap when they are done.  I have all energy efficient appliances and heat primarily with wood.  All my light bulbs are compact fluorescents.  I even make my own soap.

Do I do this to save the world?  I wish I could say yes, but the sad answer is no – I do all this because I am CHEAP!  I invest in energy efficient appliances not to save green house emissions, but to save a buck on my electric bill.  I wear thrift store clothes or make my own, because I get an evil streak of excitement when others talk about spending $40.00 on a pair of jeans and I bought my equally nice ones for a buck!  I drive those old beater vehicles not to lessen the energy impact of industry on the environment, but because I can buy them cheap, run them cheap and easily make a little money when they finally die.   I buy meat from local farmers because the meat is better, the meat is safer AND the meat is CHEAPER!  I can and preserve so I don’t have to go into a grocery store to be robbed by paying the line of people between the farmer who grows it and my family that eats it.

So does this make me bad?  Is my motivation any less noble than the person who sacrifices to save the planet?   One thing is for sure – the results are the same.

So next time someone asks me about why I choose to live the lifestyle that I do … what should I tell them?  Should I tell them I am a cheap frugal old skinflint?  I think I’ll just say I’m green!

Potatoes are probably the easiest vegetable to grow. At least they are for me, and can be for you too.  I’ve been growing  them for about 3 years and have had continuous good harvests. Prior to this I have had almost no
gardening experience. Potatoes don’t require much maintenance like weeding or watering.  In fact you can get almost as good size spuds from a weed covered patch as from a cleanly weeded area.

They are high yield, high calorie, keep well and are like money in the bank.  Having a few crates full is knowing you can provide filling meals for a long time.

college fund

First you’ll need some seed potatoes and the springtime.  There are basically 2 types of spuds, the long ones, and the round ones.  I’ll leave that up to you.  I buy whatever seed potatoes are cheap or on sale.

You’ll need to (more…)

A fancy new addition to the SufficientSelf website!

Many of our visitors are familiar with BackYardChickens.  That great site started out as an article based website which eventually added a community forum.

SufficientSelf (SS) was born in July 2008 as a community and we’re finally adding on a new system that will allow us to share some great articles and information in a format with which many are familiar.

Our goal is to have a plethora of “guest posters” on the SufficientSelf.com Blog.  We want to draw on the extremely diverse experiences and skills of our amazing community members.  We’ll be calling on them (and you) to submit articles to be posted to this new blog.

As always, please let us know if you have any suggestions or questions about this exciting new development!

Please post your ideas, comments, & questions in our sufficient self / sustainable living forum.

There will always be a link to the forum to the top right of every page… Up there ^