We're looking for some accountability. 
This Spring/Summer it is my goal as a mother to include, train, teach and work together with my children and hubby on becoming more self-sufficient. We have taken a few steps in that direction. Why? Well, its very odd.
Part 1. CHICKENS
I got some extra money from a relative and thought about something I could spend on making my home prettier, but then I got to thinking of little finches in a pretty birdcage. Then it dawned on me...finches, although pretty aren't practical....WHAT ABOUT CHICKENS? They produce for the family. So I explored. I researched. Now we are getting 15 in April.
The chickens will make use of a horrible space we have right out the back end of our home. We have deck connected to our house. It had a pool, but the pool burst last fall. We had no idea what to fill this space with, but CHICKENS will do great. We've planned it so that they are a bit of an aviary. So we'll see their antics and enjoy them from our window filled living room.
Part 2. GOATS?
So I got loads of books from the library regarding chickens and got myself a good education with no experience. While perusing the shelves I came across this book on goats. I grabbed it, "for fun". >>>zip forward a week or so>>>
Hubby exits the parent sanctuary (i.e. bathroom) and lets out a laugh. "Honey, for a moment, I thought you were going to ask me about getting a goat!" I said nothing, just chuckled back. Two days or so later, "HONEY!!! We are NOT getting GOATS!" Apparently, he had entered the santuary and found turned the book over (on the back there were several titles, how to raise pigs, how to raise horses, how to raise cows, etc..). Now he actually read the title of the book I had been reading: How to Raise Goats.
Three weeks later and with minimum begging, my hubby is on board and we are dividing up that large pool area into two sections. One side for chickens and the other side for our 2 Nigerian Dwarf milking goats. We don't have them yet, but going to visit them this weekend and seal the deal!
YOU'RE DOING WHAT!!!!
That's pretty much the response from family and maybe a few friends, but we think we are being responsible.
We have lots of little mouths to feed. We have all lost the basic living arts of gardening, canning, chickens and goats. We have a large learning curve to tackle, but we think it is almost going to become a necessity if economic times keep going in the direction they are and we believe they will and MUST.
The "must" part comes from the fact that we are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Maybe some would call us Bible believing Christians and this is true. Others would label us as Fanatical Right Wing Fundamentalist Bible Thumping Holy Rolling Messianic End Times Christians (Whew! That on the other hand is quite a mouthful, but popular view taken by some nonetheless). Personally, to simplify matters without all the titles and names, my husband and I have recognized that we have blown it. We are sinners and weve got the past to prove it, which includes, breaking all 10 of Gods Commandments. No inherent goodness here! And no Brownie or Scout of honor points to our credit. Basically, we know we are in desperate need of a Savior and because at this point the statistics hold pretty firm that 10 out of 10 people still die, we have put our confidence in what the Lord Jesus promised, whoever believes in Me will not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16 (The Bible). This is our hope and confidence. Jesus also said, "In this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world."
So we expect some trouble, but we have our anchor in Christ alone. Now, from what we study from Bible prophecy, we are headed for one world government and the consolidation makes sense, along with many other proofs such as Israel and the Middle East crisis.
So, we believe that we have the opportunity for a short time to prepare for difficulty. If it comes in our time, we'll be prepared. If it comes later, we will have learned lots of new things and we'll have no regrets either way. We aren't fanatical about it, but we like the Proverb that says, "The wise man sees trouble and avoids it..."
This sums up the "why" we want to be sufficient all of the sudden. We love our children and want to make sure they are not only provided for, but also learn to be sufficient.
A little more about us?
We have no television.
We homeschool.
We don't live in the country, but suburbia (unincorporated so we have freedom if we don't cause a nuisance.)
I write stories for my children and we read them with ice cream and lights off. (They love it)
Everything we've learned has come from moving and doing things ourselves. Minimal contrator due to having been taken advantage of one time to the tune of $9000. That was our first step toward being more self-sufficient.
So we would love to journal our progress. Here are our goals this Spring/Summer.
1) Finish off our pool area and make it animal friendly.
2) Add our chickens and goats
3) Learn how to milk the milking goats who we are buying loaded with milk already
4) Create a large garden with minimal weeds (would love some input here)
5) Learn how to can and store veggies for future use.
6) Get a woodburning stove
7) Solar Energy. We purchases a e-book/video series on Home Energy and we want to start building panels.
8) Organize and acquire enough food items for 3-6 months. We've been counseled through a book called, "Economic Disorder" that we have somewhere between 2-5 years to do some basic survival things before the dollar begins devaluating quickly.
OK, that's my wish list. This is who we are. We could really use some accountability in our journey and to accomplish some of the goals above by fall of this year.
Here is our bi-level. It is not energy efficient and we want to reduce all heating/air, electrical bills. The first picture is before we redesigned it, when we first bought it. The other is the "after our diy" design and A LOT OF HARD LABOR!!!!
I'm learning a hard lesson that "pretty" isn't always practical. Maybe there is hope for us to apply our skills to learning this new things with animals, energy and gardening.
Thanks for listening. I'm hoping to journal our journey and by doing so, maybe we'll get more done just knowing others are cheering us on in the process.
God Bless!
This Spring/Summer it is my goal as a mother to include, train, teach and work together with my children and hubby on becoming more self-sufficient. We have taken a few steps in that direction. Why? Well, its very odd.
Part 1. CHICKENS
I got some extra money from a relative and thought about something I could spend on making my home prettier, but then I got to thinking of little finches in a pretty birdcage. Then it dawned on me...finches, although pretty aren't practical....WHAT ABOUT CHICKENS? They produce for the family. So I explored. I researched. Now we are getting 15 in April.
The chickens will make use of a horrible space we have right out the back end of our home. We have deck connected to our house. It had a pool, but the pool burst last fall. We had no idea what to fill this space with, but CHICKENS will do great. We've planned it so that they are a bit of an aviary. So we'll see their antics and enjoy them from our window filled living room.
Part 2. GOATS?
So I got loads of books from the library regarding chickens and got myself a good education with no experience. While perusing the shelves I came across this book on goats. I grabbed it, "for fun". >>>zip forward a week or so>>>
Hubby exits the parent sanctuary (i.e. bathroom) and lets out a laugh. "Honey, for a moment, I thought you were going to ask me about getting a goat!" I said nothing, just chuckled back. Two days or so later, "HONEY!!! We are NOT getting GOATS!" Apparently, he had entered the santuary and found turned the book over (on the back there were several titles, how to raise pigs, how to raise horses, how to raise cows, etc..). Now he actually read the title of the book I had been reading: How to Raise Goats.
Three weeks later and with minimum begging, my hubby is on board and we are dividing up that large pool area into two sections. One side for chickens and the other side for our 2 Nigerian Dwarf milking goats. We don't have them yet, but going to visit them this weekend and seal the deal!
YOU'RE DOING WHAT!!!!
That's pretty much the response from family and maybe a few friends, but we think we are being responsible.
We have lots of little mouths to feed. We have all lost the basic living arts of gardening, canning, chickens and goats. We have a large learning curve to tackle, but we think it is almost going to become a necessity if economic times keep going in the direction they are and we believe they will and MUST.
The "must" part comes from the fact that we are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Maybe some would call us Bible believing Christians and this is true. Others would label us as Fanatical Right Wing Fundamentalist Bible Thumping Holy Rolling Messianic End Times Christians (Whew! That on the other hand is quite a mouthful, but popular view taken by some nonetheless). Personally, to simplify matters without all the titles and names, my husband and I have recognized that we have blown it. We are sinners and weve got the past to prove it, which includes, breaking all 10 of Gods Commandments. No inherent goodness here! And no Brownie or Scout of honor points to our credit. Basically, we know we are in desperate need of a Savior and because at this point the statistics hold pretty firm that 10 out of 10 people still die, we have put our confidence in what the Lord Jesus promised, whoever believes in Me will not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16 (The Bible). This is our hope and confidence. Jesus also said, "In this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world."
So we expect some trouble, but we have our anchor in Christ alone. Now, from what we study from Bible prophecy, we are headed for one world government and the consolidation makes sense, along with many other proofs such as Israel and the Middle East crisis.
So, we believe that we have the opportunity for a short time to prepare for difficulty. If it comes in our time, we'll be prepared. If it comes later, we will have learned lots of new things and we'll have no regrets either way. We aren't fanatical about it, but we like the Proverb that says, "The wise man sees trouble and avoids it..."
This sums up the "why" we want to be sufficient all of the sudden. We love our children and want to make sure they are not only provided for, but also learn to be sufficient.
A little more about us?
We have no television.
We homeschool.
We don't live in the country, but suburbia (unincorporated so we have freedom if we don't cause a nuisance.)
I write stories for my children and we read them with ice cream and lights off. (They love it)
Everything we've learned has come from moving and doing things ourselves. Minimal contrator due to having been taken advantage of one time to the tune of $9000. That was our first step toward being more self-sufficient.
So we would love to journal our progress. Here are our goals this Spring/Summer.
1) Finish off our pool area and make it animal friendly.
2) Add our chickens and goats
3) Learn how to milk the milking goats who we are buying loaded with milk already
4) Create a large garden with minimal weeds (would love some input here)
5) Learn how to can and store veggies for future use.
6) Get a woodburning stove
7) Solar Energy. We purchases a e-book/video series on Home Energy and we want to start building panels.
8) Organize and acquire enough food items for 3-6 months. We've been counseled through a book called, "Economic Disorder" that we have somewhere between 2-5 years to do some basic survival things before the dollar begins devaluating quickly.
OK, that's my wish list. This is who we are. We could really use some accountability in our journey and to accomplish some of the goals above by fall of this year.
Here is our bi-level. It is not energy efficient and we want to reduce all heating/air, electrical bills. The first picture is before we redesigned it, when we first bought it. The other is the "after our diy" design and A LOT OF HARD LABOR!!!!
I'm learning a hard lesson that "pretty" isn't always practical. Maybe there is hope for us to apply our skills to learning this new things with animals, energy and gardening.
Thanks for listening. I'm hoping to journal our journey and by doing so, maybe we'll get more done just knowing others are cheering us on in the process.
God Bless!
How many little mouths do you have to feed?
