Britesea
Sustainability Master
1. What state/province/country are you in and what is your climate like? Dry side of Oregon, in Klamath County snow has been recorded in every month of the year. Gardening is a challenge here
2. How many people are in your family? Marital status? Married, 3 children all moved out.
3. How would you define self sufficiency? being able to produce most if not all of your needs, even if you choose not to at this time
4. What would you do with your spare time if you had any resources you needed? any and all resources? wow. buy more land, expand my garden and orchard, get a goat...
5. Have you ever built a house , or other types of building? Do you want to? does the "house" I made from appliance cardboard boxes as a child count?
6. Can you weld? Steel, aluminum, MiG, TiG, stick, Oxy-Acet? nope, but my husband can braize. I'm a whiz with wire though
7. Who or what inspired you to become more self sufficient? I've always been fascinated with cultural anthropology - how people lived- and reading tons of post-apocalyptic sci fi tends to screw with your brain, lol
8 Cloth or paper? Cloth!
9. In what ways are you self sufficient now and in what ways would you like to learn more? We have a garden, a few fruit trees, and a wide variety of diy skills. I am hoping to get some ducks, nut trees, more fruit trees and vines and expand the garden further including cold frames and greenhouse. We don't really have that much room on 1/2 acre with a well on one side of the driveway and the leach field on the other... lol I would like to set some photovoltaics set up-- enough to at least run the well pump, the leach field pump, the freezer, and the water heater
10. In what way(s) will you never choose to become self sufficient? can't see myself growing all our grain needs, especially rice. And I think I will continue to rely on a doctor for serious conditions...
11. Are you interested in stocking up for future needs? I've been doing that most of my adult life on a small scale (having enough for a month or so) Now I'm trying to expand that to a year.
12. Where do you end up when you sink into yourself, away from the outside world? my own little world, but it's ok because everyone knows me there
13. Can you drive a farm tractor or a semi? No, but my husband can, and he's a diesel mechanic too
14. Do you make crafts or useful items? Would you want to teach others how to do these? I knit, crochet, sew, make wire art jewelry and other wire items
15. Can you have legally livestock where you are at? Do you have any? What kinds? we are in a rural area so pretty much anything goes. currently we have no livestock, but I got my husband to agree on acquiring some ducks next spring
16. Can you operate a lathe? Metal, wood? nope. carpentry is one skill I wish one of us had
17. Do you like to garden? If so, what do you enjoy growing? I have loved gardening for years. For the last 10 years I had to put it on hold because all of my spare time was taken up by my mother, who had Alzheimers and finally passed away last November.
18. Do you fish? Bait or explosives? Neither of us are much as fishers, although my husband wants to buy a crawdad trap to use in the river that flows past our property
19. How much space/land do you have or rent? City? Country? We have 1/2 an acre in the country
20. Are you a Novice, Technician, General, Advanced? ARRL? erm...?
21. What is your self sufficient specialty? Or what one would you like to learn? I am learning how to store food by other means than freezing. My husband had a small goat dairy for several years, and spent his teen years working on the family farm. I grew up in the city, mostly I have book-larnin'
22. If you could create a degree and curriculum, what would you major in and what classes would you take? History is more about ordinary people trying to eat, sleep, have sex, and keep amused than it is about kings and wars. Looking at a set of measuring spoons that some housewife in ancient Egypt used to cook dinner is more fascinating to me than D-Day (although that is important too)
23. Do you do wood work? framing, finish, cabinet? I managed to create a decent bookcase once.
24. Are you interested in herbal medicine? very much so.
25. If you could live any place you chose, where would it be? We are living in paradise on earth right now, as far as we are concerned.
26. Do you use a wood stove for heating or cooking? There used to be a wood stove in our house, you can see where the vent has been capped off. But someone removed it before we bought the house. I would like to get one again at some future date.
27. What would your ideal super hero/villain be? I have no idea
28. Are your family or friends also interested in self sufficiency? Not as much as we are, but my oldest son has started a garden
29. Do you like to cook? Are you interested in whole foods and natural foods? raw milk? farm fresh eggs? love to cook (why do you think we look the way we do?) We've been cooking with whole and natural foods whenever we could get them for most of our adult lives.
30. What was your MOS? Navy, Aerographer's Mate
31. Do you forage or hunt for part of your food needs? we gather elderberries and chokecherries and sunchokes. Hubby wants to buy a crawdad trap
32. What skills do you have that help you be more self sufficient? Hubby is good at making repairs on lots of things, I am crafty by nature and learn well from books, so I can learn lots of skills that way
33. In which fictional universe would you most like to live? most of those fictional universes involve uncomfortable things happening to other people. I'm very unadventurous.
34. Do you have solar panels? Plans to use solar energy? no panels, but we bought plans to make a simple window-mounted heat grabber. I want photovoltaics
35 What is the mass/weight ratio of a European swallow carrying a coconut from the tropics to England? lol. why would an insect-eating bird be interested in a coconut? (love the movie though)
36. Have you ever lived completely off grid? Would you like to? never have, but would like to.
37. In what do you trust? you can trust the government to NOT have your best interests to heart
38. Do you make things yourself to save money? as much as possible.
39. Has trying to be more self-sufficient changed your attitude or habits about money/spending? I've been planning our expenditures a little more carefully than I used to.
2. How many people are in your family? Marital status? Married, 3 children all moved out.
3. How would you define self sufficiency? being able to produce most if not all of your needs, even if you choose not to at this time
4. What would you do with your spare time if you had any resources you needed? any and all resources? wow. buy more land, expand my garden and orchard, get a goat...
5. Have you ever built a house , or other types of building? Do you want to? does the "house" I made from appliance cardboard boxes as a child count?
6. Can you weld? Steel, aluminum, MiG, TiG, stick, Oxy-Acet? nope, but my husband can braize. I'm a whiz with wire though
7. Who or what inspired you to become more self sufficient? I've always been fascinated with cultural anthropology - how people lived- and reading tons of post-apocalyptic sci fi tends to screw with your brain, lol
8 Cloth or paper? Cloth!
9. In what ways are you self sufficient now and in what ways would you like to learn more? We have a garden, a few fruit trees, and a wide variety of diy skills. I am hoping to get some ducks, nut trees, more fruit trees and vines and expand the garden further including cold frames and greenhouse. We don't really have that much room on 1/2 acre with a well on one side of the driveway and the leach field on the other... lol I would like to set some photovoltaics set up-- enough to at least run the well pump, the leach field pump, the freezer, and the water heater
10. In what way(s) will you never choose to become self sufficient? can't see myself growing all our grain needs, especially rice. And I think I will continue to rely on a doctor for serious conditions...
11. Are you interested in stocking up for future needs? I've been doing that most of my adult life on a small scale (having enough for a month or so) Now I'm trying to expand that to a year.
12. Where do you end up when you sink into yourself, away from the outside world? my own little world, but it's ok because everyone knows me there
13. Can you drive a farm tractor or a semi? No, but my husband can, and he's a diesel mechanic too
14. Do you make crafts or useful items? Would you want to teach others how to do these? I knit, crochet, sew, make wire art jewelry and other wire items
15. Can you have legally livestock where you are at? Do you have any? What kinds? we are in a rural area so pretty much anything goes. currently we have no livestock, but I got my husband to agree on acquiring some ducks next spring
16. Can you operate a lathe? Metal, wood? nope. carpentry is one skill I wish one of us had
17. Do you like to garden? If so, what do you enjoy growing? I have loved gardening for years. For the last 10 years I had to put it on hold because all of my spare time was taken up by my mother, who had Alzheimers and finally passed away last November.
18. Do you fish? Bait or explosives? Neither of us are much as fishers, although my husband wants to buy a crawdad trap to use in the river that flows past our property
19. How much space/land do you have or rent? City? Country? We have 1/2 an acre in the country
20. Are you a Novice, Technician, General, Advanced? ARRL? erm...?
21. What is your self sufficient specialty? Or what one would you like to learn? I am learning how to store food by other means than freezing. My husband had a small goat dairy for several years, and spent his teen years working on the family farm. I grew up in the city, mostly I have book-larnin'
22. If you could create a degree and curriculum, what would you major in and what classes would you take? History is more about ordinary people trying to eat, sleep, have sex, and keep amused than it is about kings and wars. Looking at a set of measuring spoons that some housewife in ancient Egypt used to cook dinner is more fascinating to me than D-Day (although that is important too)
23. Do you do wood work? framing, finish, cabinet? I managed to create a decent bookcase once.
24. Are you interested in herbal medicine? very much so.
25. If you could live any place you chose, where would it be? We are living in paradise on earth right now, as far as we are concerned.
26. Do you use a wood stove for heating or cooking? There used to be a wood stove in our house, you can see where the vent has been capped off. But someone removed it before we bought the house. I would like to get one again at some future date.
27. What would your ideal super hero/villain be? I have no idea
28. Are your family or friends also interested in self sufficiency? Not as much as we are, but my oldest son has started a garden
29. Do you like to cook? Are you interested in whole foods and natural foods? raw milk? farm fresh eggs? love to cook (why do you think we look the way we do?) We've been cooking with whole and natural foods whenever we could get them for most of our adult lives.
30. What was your MOS? Navy, Aerographer's Mate
31. Do you forage or hunt for part of your food needs? we gather elderberries and chokecherries and sunchokes. Hubby wants to buy a crawdad trap
32. What skills do you have that help you be more self sufficient? Hubby is good at making repairs on lots of things, I am crafty by nature and learn well from books, so I can learn lots of skills that way
33. In which fictional universe would you most like to live? most of those fictional universes involve uncomfortable things happening to other people. I'm very unadventurous.
34. Do you have solar panels? Plans to use solar energy? no panels, but we bought plans to make a simple window-mounted heat grabber. I want photovoltaics
35 What is the mass/weight ratio of a European swallow carrying a coconut from the tropics to England? lol. why would an insect-eating bird be interested in a coconut? (love the movie though)
36. Have you ever lived completely off grid? Would you like to? never have, but would like to.
37. In what do you trust? you can trust the government to NOT have your best interests to heart
38. Do you make things yourself to save money? as much as possible.
39. Has trying to be more self-sufficient changed your attitude or habits about money/spending? I've been planning our expenditures a little more carefully than I used to.