Budweiser: It is Time.

[Budweiser]

Going to start a journal, starting out with the question list I found in the sticky. I find myself a bit scatter-brained at times, and I will try to not be so confusing for those who may be following along. I'm a 22 year old male, raised in a pretty rural area, lots of farms, and located near a what some would call tree hugging, organic obsessed town. I'm trying to create a type of thing where our food is mainly raised by myself and some others so we aren't so dependant on super markets, and lets face it hunting, fishing, and growing your own food is the healthiest thing one can do for themselves, and it's fun.


1. What state/province/country are you in and what is your climate like? Central Ny... Mild climate

2. How many people are in your family? Marital status? I live in apartment with my girlfriend

3. How would you define self sufficiency? Completely living off of the land

4. What would you do with your spare time if you had any resources you needed? Build my own cabin in a remote location, and settle there

5. Have you ever built a house , or other types of building? Do you want to? No, and yes I do

6. Can you weld? Steel, aluminum, MiG, TiG, stick, Oxy-Acet? Mig

7. Who or what inspired you to become more self sufficient? Economy, a few neighbors, and recent personal issues

8 Cloth or paper? Cloth?

9. In what ways are you self sufficient now and in what ways would you like to learn more? I can grow a garden, decent hunter, and I love to fish. I want to gain more knowledge/experience: in raising some animals, constructing small buildings, growing new foods, and learning about wild edibals

10. In what way(s) will you never choose to become self sufficient? Completly living off the grid, just don't think it'd be my thing

11. Are you interested in stocking up for future needs? Somewhat, I think it's very important to be prepared for any situation

12. Where do you end up when you sink into yourself, away from the outside world? It's variable

13. Can you drive a farm tractor or a semi? Absolutely, the big the tractor the more fun to run

14. Do you make crafts or useful items? Would you want to teach others how to do these? Not usually, but would like to learn some new things

15. Can you have legally livestock where you are at? Do you have any? What kinds? Not yet, it's in the plans

16. Can you operate a lathe? Metal, wood? No, but wouldn't be too far out of reach to do

17. Do you like to garden? If so, what do you enjoy growing? Very much so. I like a variety: spaghetti squash, cukes, radishes, tomatos, etc

18. Do you fish? Bait or explosives? Yes, bait....but hey explosives sounds like fun too!!!

19. How much space/land do you have or rent? City? Country? I just rent a one bedroom. My parents own around 30 acres nearby which is where I do gardening, and hopefully raising some pigs and chickens this year

20. Are you a Novice, Technician, General, Advanced? ARRL? Um? Techinician in my field of work if this is the question lol

21. What is your self sufficient specialty? Or what one would you like to learn? Hunting

22. If you could create a degree and curriculum, what would you major in and what classes would you take? I'm not sure

23. Do you do wood work? framing, finish, cabinet? Not really

24. Are you interested in herbal medicine? Why yes I am

25. If you could live any place you chose, where would it be? Tennessee

26. Do you use a wood stove for heating or cooking? Used to for heating

27. What would your ideal super hero/villain be? Oh idk

28. Are your family or friends also interested in self sufficiency? Yes a few friends and most recently my parents

29. Do you like to cook? Are you interested in whole foods and natural foods? raw milk? farm fresh eggs? YES! I love to cook. Nothing better than going out to the garden and making something out of what I've grown. And I'm very very close to a farmer that sells raw milk that I haven't made the move to get any yet

30. What was your MOS? Job? I do body work

31. Do you forage or hunt for part of your food needs? Absolutely. I'm addicted to whitetail. Love to make hand sliced jerky, and fresh tenderloins with butter and garlic
32. What skills do you have that help you be more self sufficient? Being able to learn and adapt quickly. Used to do a boy-scout like group for years

33. In which fictional universe would you most like to live? I actually just like it in this universe thanks

34. Do you have solar panels? Plans to use solar energy? Nope

35 What is the mass/weight ratio of a European swallow carrying a coconut from the tropics to England? Thomas Jefferson..... One time that will be the right answer to a question asked

36. Have you ever lived completely off grid? Would you like to? No.

37. In what do you trust? Close friends, family, duct tape

38. Do you make things yourself to save money? When I'm in a pinch

39. Has trying to be more self-sufficient changed your attitude or habits about money/spending? very much so

 

[Budweiser]

I only live for so long, I need to make better use for my time. I'm a drinker, been into it pretty good since I was 17. It's starting to get out of control a little more. I'm sick of waking up with a hangover, and broke. Last year I got a dwi, and my sister passed away very unexpectedly at a young age. Since then I've had a hard time dealing with everything. It'
s bad enough there is not a whole lot of things to do for entertainment around my area besides drinking with friends. There are some, but I'm not interested in a lot of things most people are so it's hard to find things that anyone else likes doing. None of these reasons are good excuses for my crazy lifestyle- I know.

Thats another reason why I'm starting to take this self sufficency thing so serious now. I know this will help take up more time after work, and will help me manage my time, money, etc. much better. I'm doing this to better myself. I'm doing this to better my health. I have to. My family is looking towards me to help them out and couple of friends as well. I have the capabilities of doing this. I've worked on a farm for several years before this job. There I learned A LOT of different things. It changed my life, and gave me the skills necessary to make my goals happen, and I love a challenge


Now this year I need to: Make a garden, big enough to provide for about 8 people. Raise 3 pigs, and possibly get a few chickens as well. I have all the materials to build the pig pen and chicken coop, I just gotta make it happen. Never have done much building but we'll see how it turns out. I'll take pictures along the way and post them up here.

So anyways, thats a bit of what I have going on and will post some more later

 

[Denim Deb]

Budweiser, I hope you're able to get away from the drinking. I live w/an alcoholic, and it's no fun at all.

I'm sorry to hear about your sister.

I look forward to hearing more about your journey to become more SS.

 

[Budweiser]

Thanks DD, I've been with my gf for five years now and she's not a huge fan either, just has gotten used to it I guess you could say and I started realizing how crappy it makes her feel- I don't want to keep putting herself through situations that can be avoided easily enough.

And I'm just excited to see where this whole new journey will take me. I think I just needed to find something that actually sparked my interest besides my job to keep me occupied. Not to mention I think it's a good opportunity to start actually saving some money, and work on getting my own home and starting all over there.... The work will never be done lol

 

[Wannabefree]

I'm with you on the quitting drinking buddy You really have no clue what it does to the folks who love you until you sober up and see how much better your relationships are without alcohol!! If you're strong enough to drop the habit, you can do anything I look forward to watching your progress, both with quitting drinking AND your SS life!

Take it from someone who knows, living with an alcoholic(parent) absolutely sucks, and being an addict of any kind(myself when I was young)sucks the life right out of you too. I love quitters myself... I think they're AWESOME It's actually very cool, you'll start finding money just laying around and have to figure out what to do with it now

Glad you started a journal

 

[wooddustmaker]

Guess my original post didn't make it. Keep busy, and enjoy the life around you. Glad you have a place to garden, and the means to occupy some of your time. When I get bored, I get tupid, and that is not a good thing. Good luck.

 

[Budweiser]

Well I've taken some time off from work so I can get some things done,a dn find another job.... Hoping to get a seed order in at the end of the week. Also trying to get some odd jobs to make some side money, I've already got a few lined up, but if I can keep the side jobs coming I'll quit my regular so I can have the luxury of choosing my own hours and have time for prepping the garden

 

[Mickey328]

Kudos to you, Bud! The first step toward improvement is recognizing the need for it : ) I've never been much of a drinker, thank goodness, but I'm a nicotine junkie In the process of changing that now and by gum it's a hard thing!

It does help though to find folk to hang around who don't smoke and who are into more of the things I'd like to move into...like being more self sufficient. The company you keep can have a huge impact on your actions. Of course, I still keep in touch with old friends, but I find more and more that I tend to want to be around folks with similar interests...gardening, livestock, food preservation, herbalism, etc. And it definitely helps...keeps me more focused and busy with less time to "miss" the cigs.

I applaud your plans and efforts to get more where you want to be in your life. I would suggest though...hurry slowly, LOL. Sometimes if you bite off more than you can chew it's easy to get discouraged and feel like you want to just give it up. It's awesome that your folks are near with so much space and willing to let you use it. Is there any chance you could live out there? Perhaps finding an old mobile home and moving it to the property could save your rent and you could use that money to make the other changes you're planning. You'd also be right there to tend to your livestock and garden without having to do any traveling.

In order to actually "see" your savings...take the cash that you'd normally spend on the hooch and put it in a jar or even open up a savings account for it...it's amazing how it adds up and you really don't miss it from your monthly budget because it's what you would normally just spend. I did that when I quit smoking...every cent I would have spent on smokes went into a big jar...and I leave it there till we have enough to get whatever new item we're looking to acquire. Our latest was a welder...and it only took about a month to accumulate enough for it! If I hadn't pulled that money out and kept it separate, we would likely just have piddled it away in dribs and drabs and wondered where it went.

 

[Joel_BC]

Welcome, Budweiser. What sort of body work? auto?

If so, plenty of transferable handskills in the SS life.

 

[Budweiser]

Thanks Mickey, you have a lot of good points... And yes moving back over to my parents is an idea we've seriously thought about and am in the process of figuring out exactly what I want to do, and if I can just get a used trailer will probably go that route.


Joel- Yes autobody work, shoulda been a little more specific And yes working on the farm for several years gave me some good skills, but my job has given me more speciality skills if you will