Have you ever considered giving up on being SS?...Spoke too soon???

[old fashioned]

I'm about to that point since nearly all my attempts have not been successful.

Chickens: we now have four hens and currently NONE of them are laying

Heirloom Seeds: I had finally obtained atleast 95% heirloom seeds of the veggies/herbs we eat/use and usually have atleast 3-4 years supply but with the last few years of cooler weather & having to make several replantings still with little or no success I ended up buying store bought seeds/starts cause we gotta eat. Right now I'm down to about 1 years worth of heirloom seeds left. I don't know for sure if the problem is me, weather or being heirloom= less predictable. Right now the garden SEEMS to be growing well enough although we could surely use more sun/heat...we shall see what happens come harvest time

Fruit trees: apples have scab, peach has curl, cherries have crows/birds, pear & asian pear have lost branches because of being overloaded with fruit in previous years & only a few bearing left.

In other words, at the rate we've been going for failures around here we may be the first zombies

 

[rebecca100]

I'm with you exactly. It seems like everything I try fails too. My garden stinks no matter how much time I spend in it trying to coax it along. I have never gotten a peach or a plum off the trees and I feel like I am alone in the whole thing. I just keep on trying. We are no where near SS, but I keep hoping someday we will make it work. On top of it all I think dh is rethinking going back to our 10 acres in favor of this one acre on a busy highway " because it is easier to get to work"! He thinks it's all good and that SS is just something to keep me occupied during the day!

 

[Henrietta23]

I'm not sure I can say I've given up since I've never thought I'd really get to be all that SS in our current situation. I certainly understand the frustrations though. We got goats for milk, then the one that was in milk turned out to be CAE positive with arthritis symptoms that made me not want to breed her. The doeling didn't reach full size in time to breed her this year. So no milk. My gardens always tend to be small and meager due to our issues with shade. The chicken flock is about as big as we can handle with maybe 50% laying. The ducks at least are reliable during the warm months.

 

[k0xxx]

Nope. We have had more than our share of setbacks and "learning experiences", but we just keep plugging away. Each success wipes out all of the earlier failures. I guess in that way we are like Thomas Edison. When asked about his many failures, before perfecting the light bulb, he said "We now know a thousand ways NOT to build a light bulb.

 

[old fashioned]

Since DH's job stopped providing medical benefits in Jan. and has now stopped all other benefits, put the business & property up for sale and its only holding out for a possible buyer since they haven't had any new orders....it's only a matter of time before DH is unemployed and he knows it and has talked more in favor of my feeble SS attempts. Since we currently live in the burbs there is only so much I can do in the backyard and will never be 100% SS. Our main concern is when the company does let him go---what do we do then? We surely can't afford to stay here nor can we afford to move.

I dunno, maybe this is God's way of testing my faith and dependence on Him. I can only hope we survive it with our hair still intact.

 

[miss_thenorth]

No one can truly be 100% ss. YOu do what you can. plain and simple. IF what you do doesn't work, try to find how to fix it. Be the best you can with what resources you have available to you. Even Christians believe in evolution--micro evolution. We all evolve. We just didn't come from rocks

 

[old fashioned]

Nope. We have had more than our share of setbacks and "learning experiences", but we just keep plugging away. Each success wipes out all of the earlier failures. I guess in that way we are like Thomas Edison. When asked about his many failures, before perfecting the light bulb, he said "We now know a thousand ways NOT to build a light bulb.

thanks for the laugh Koxxx and putting it into perspective. So I'll take this as a 'learning experience' although I'm not so sure what I have done differently each time to result in success or failure but what the hay, I tried.

 

[FarmerChick]

I give up certain projects and trying to grow certain varities etc...that is trial and error. chickens, well we all know there is a NO LAY time for every hen....so that is predictable actually. but when something gets to hard or annoying, I change up to a different project to handle.

I will never be 100% SS...not even trying...I just try to eat fresh as I can, grow what I can with my time allowed. I won't let my SS ventures take up all my time. I did that, and I ended up hating it. To me life is to be enjoyed with some down time (alot of down time for fun lol), so I plug along doing just want my time allows to meet some ss goals, other than that, I don't worry about it anymore.

 

[tortoise]

edited to remove post

 

[big brown horse]

OMG YES! But will I? No. :/


This has been the hardest year I've ever lived in my life. On Sept 3, 2011 it will finally be over and then, I'm writing the last 12 months off. We have suffered the most major setbacks and casualties as far as "the farm" is concerned. I'm worn out and would like to give up for a while, but I won't. Things can only go up from here.