Almost at the end of the Walkabout

walkaboutjacks

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1. What state/province/country are you in and what is your climate like? Florida! HOT HUMID Just it was where I grew up in Brisbane QLD.
2. How many people are in your family? Marital status? Just me and DD who is 24....now widowed from 2 timing cheating,controling....ok you get the picture LOL
3. How would you define self sufficiency? Growing and raising our own food and being prepared for wshtf
4. What would you do with your spare time if you had any resources you needed? Everything I can't do now like canning and preserving.
5. Have you ever built a house , or other types of building? Do you want to? My ex was a builder..I was the cheap painter and punch out person/lady LOL
6. Can you weld? Steel, aluminum, MiG, TiG, stick, Oxy-Acet? Nope but willing to try
7. Who or what inspired you to become more self sufficient? God
8 Cloth or paper? Paper
9. In what ways are you self sufficient now and in what ways would you like to learn more? Not yet and that's why I am here
10. In what way(s) will you never choose to become self sufficient? No way
11. Are you interested in stocking up for future needs? Big YES
12. Where do you end up when you sink into yourself, away from the outside world? In a book or on the front porch
13. Can you drive a farm tractor or a semi? I can do anything
14. Do you make crafts or useful items? Would you want to teach others how to do these? I sew and have been a chef
15. Can you have legally livestock where you are at? Do you have any? What kinds? Not yet..but sooooon
16. Can you operate a lathe? Metal, wood? No
17. Do you like to garden? If so, what do you enjoy growing? Vegetables
18. Do you fish? Bait or explosives? Bait
19. How much space/land do you have or rent? City? Country? Hope to soon have at least 5 acres
20. Are you a Novice, Technician, General, Advanced? ARRL? Novice
21. What is your self sufficient specialty? Or what one would you like to learn? No specialty yet
22. If you could create a degree and curriculum, what would you major in and what classes would you take? I dont think you need a degree to be self sufficient.
23. Do you do wood work? framing, finish, cabinet? I built our last Chicken coop and made a mouse house for my DD out of a cabinet
24. Are you interested in herbal medicine? YES
25. If you could live any place you chose, where would it be? NC I loved it there when I was working on a horse farm
26. Do you use a wood stove for heating or cooking? Not yet but it's on my list
27. What would your ideal super hero/villain be? Maxwell Smart
28. Are your family or friends also interested in self sufficiency? DD
29. Do you like to cook? Are you interested in whole foods and natural foods? raw milk? farm fresh eggs? All of the above
30. What was your MOS? huh? Whats that?
31. Do you forage or hunt for part of your food needs? No but I can shoot :D
32. What skills do you have that help you be more self sufficient? I can do anything I set my mind too
33. In which fictional universe would you most like to live? ......
34. Do you have solar panels? Plans to use solar energy? I would like to
35 What is the mass/weight ratio of a European swallow carrying a coconut from the tropics to England? TOO heavy!
36. Have you ever lived completely off grid? Would you like to? Myself and DD camped in a tent for 3 months (no electric)
37. In what do you trust? God
38. Do you make things yourself to save money? Yes
39. Has trying to be more self-sufficient changed your attitude or habits about money/spending? Yes indeedy!
 

walkaboutjacks

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Soooo...It's been a long journey and this my first blog, It's sometimes really hard to talk about your life and especially when you get older (55) to look back and try to remember everything that's been important in your life. I always thought it was about getting married and having children ...but nahhh! that wasn't correct I now find. I have always loved animals especially horses and dogs, my poor corgie, Sadie was my pretend horse as a child and I would crochet bridles and lead lines for her and make her go over small jumps and I think I pined my childhood away wishing for a horse, especially on long trips with my 3 brothers in the car going past horses in pastures, I imagined running away and riding off into the sunset on one :lol: That'll make em sorry!

I met my dear departed ex (insert sarcasm here) back in 1985. He was an American working for a CA company that had an office in Australia and he was the CFO.....sort of a trouble shooter (pity he didnt look after his money as well as he did theirs.)

I was getting tired of the Aussie bar scene and my Mum ( Mom LOL) convinced me to sign up for a dating agency...they were quite stuck up and thought I was way over my head (being ONLY a hairdresser after all):p that I would request an executive type. Well.......the American manners won me over and I was in love. He always wanted to open a Restaurant so after his branch was back on it's feet he resigned and started looking and designing the perfect place. It was an old church in Brisbane that had been turned into a rather seedy and unsuccesful french restaurant and he went gung ho american in remodeling the place into a top class steak house. he had all the girls in french maids outfits and the wine waiters were all men. Brass and glass and french blue carpets and a baby grand piano just off the dance floor. It was a magic place! and scandlous (being in a church and all) but became very popular in a very short period of time as not many Aussies at that time had seen anything like it! Our first new years eve we sold out of every type of champange we had, including all of the case of dom perignon! @ $100 a bottle.

Feb. 2nd 1985
Lunch as usual and it was winding down when I went to the stockroom with another employee to do inventory....we heard a storm approaching and i peeked out the door to see pelting rain and the start of hail, so I shut the door and kept on working until it passed.
The hail got louder on the metal roof and there were no windows in this seperate outbuilding, so I couldnt see what was going on...especially when the power went out :lol: Finally it stopped and we looked out at the devistation of the courtyard ...every umbrella shredded and torn ...all the beautiful old shade trees with not a leaf left on them.....all shredded into mulch on the pavers a foot deep.
We rushed inside the main building to see all the stained glass windows smashed and water everywhere! The baby grand had hail on it as big as golf balls with spikes on it that made them look like mines in the old movies set in the ocean to catch and destroy subs.
Broken glass everywhere and the office computers were not spared. The insurance company said it was the landlords fault that the roof wasn't kept up plus it was an act of God (yeah right) so they were not paying...bank called in the loans and we were up the creek and headed to jail (no bankruptcy allowed) (pay or go to jail) so we did the "midnight flit" to USA

Feb 15th 1985
Arrived in LA ...exhausted and stressed and DH decided to rent a car to drive to San Francisco, just the sight of those LA freeways from the plane was enough for me, let alone actually getting on one! :ep I was terrified! Never in my life had I seen more than 2 lanes in each direction! After screaming a few times when cars cut us off trying to exit the freeway, I told him I was going to "close my eyes, don't get me killed and wake me up when we got there" :lol:


to be continued...............
 

walkaboutjacks

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SSDreamin said:
:frow :welcome

What is a mouse house?
Thankyou! a mouse house is a house for mice? LOL it had a plexi glass front so you could see what they were doing and ramps for them to go to the 2nd story :p all my daughters idea..I just had to cut the wood and nail it together. They were actually rescue mice as the guy downstairs had snakes and a couple escaped...mice...not snakes. So we decided they deserved a chance :lol:
 

walkaboutjacks

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snapshot said:
Welcome from an ex-Floridian! Plenty to learn!
You or me? Like how to live in the cold? nahhh been there done that and bought the huge 2 ft icicle back (from ohio) in the cooler (esky) to florida where it hadnt melted an inch :lol: It kept my freezer stuff cold though!
 

snapshot

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walkaboutjacks said:
snapshot said:
Welcome from an ex-Floridian! Plenty to learn!
You or me? Like how to live in the cold? nahhh been there done that and bought the huge 2 ft icicle back (from ohio) in the cooler (esky) to florida where it hadnt melted an inch :lol: It kept my freezer stuff cold though!
Me! From Bradenton/ Sarasota area. We've been on our own walkabout for 9 years and have finally settled in MS. We seem to get four seasons here!
 
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