Is becoming Self Sufficient the new fad?
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lwheelr
Lovin' The Homestead
Some of us get that faster than others.
I think some of the things that the more self-sufficient people do are catching on, but not in a big way. I don't think many people truly feel that they should take more responsibility for themselves and their needs, or want to.
The soap-making that goes on is all the melt-and-pour craft store thing. It's about the pretty, or the pretty smell--about making gifts etc. It's not sustainable without all the expensive (I assume) ingredients.
Canning comes and goes in waves, I've seen it several times over the years that I've been doing it. I grew up with a Mom who canned in waves. When we lived in a fruit-growing area, my Mom canned like crazy. When we didn't, she just froze the excess garden produce. When we lived on the coast, she canned salmon like crazy--to the point we didn't want to eat it anymore! My Oma and Grandma canned/preserved just about everything because they had to, they didn't always have electricity for a fridge, and my Grandma didn't get a freezer until the 60s.
Same with gardening. I live in an area where gardening is quite difficult due to the seasons, weather, arid climate, and heavy clay soils--but there are more gardeners in my city than I ever see when I visit more temperate cities. People here like the challenge, but most are not food gardeners. So people have pretty yards, many zeriscaped to deal with our lack of rain, but not a lot of people raise anything to eat.
I don't think many people are willing to take on the responsibility of livestock, or even chickens. Many larger cities don't allow it, gathering eggs/milking are "too messy" for a lot of people, and most people can't get past killing an animal for food.
I think we notice things in the media because they are close to our hearts, not because people are really getting on the bandwagon. The majority of people don't change their ways unless they have to. Some people really have to change their ways, due to job loss or price increases, but even amongst those people most won't. They can't imagine living differently and will continue to try to maintain the status quo at all costs.
People generally behave in a way that fits the bell curve:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Diffusionofideas.PNG
The soap-making that goes on is all the melt-and-pour craft store thing. It's about the pretty, or the pretty smell--about making gifts etc. It's not sustainable without all the expensive (I assume) ingredients.
Canning comes and goes in waves, I've seen it several times over the years that I've been doing it. I grew up with a Mom who canned in waves. When we lived in a fruit-growing area, my Mom canned like crazy. When we didn't, she just froze the excess garden produce. When we lived on the coast, she canned salmon like crazy--to the point we didn't want to eat it anymore! My Oma and Grandma canned/preserved just about everything because they had to, they didn't always have electricity for a fridge, and my Grandma didn't get a freezer until the 60s.
Same with gardening. I live in an area where gardening is quite difficult due to the seasons, weather, arid climate, and heavy clay soils--but there are more gardeners in my city than I ever see when I visit more temperate cities. People here like the challenge, but most are not food gardeners. So people have pretty yards, many zeriscaped to deal with our lack of rain, but not a lot of people raise anything to eat.
I don't think many people are willing to take on the responsibility of livestock, or even chickens. Many larger cities don't allow it, gathering eggs/milking are "too messy" for a lot of people, and most people can't get past killing an animal for food.
I think we notice things in the media because they are close to our hearts, not because people are really getting on the bandwagon. The majority of people don't change their ways unless they have to. Some people really have to change their ways, due to job loss or price increases, but even amongst those people most won't. They can't imagine living differently and will continue to try to maintain the status quo at all costs.
People generally behave in a way that fits the bell curve:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Diffusionofideas.PNG
Icu4dzs
Super Self-Sufficient
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I don't think it is as much of a fad as it is becoming more important to the average citizen who is beginning to feel the pinch of the economy.
I remember seeing things about becomming self-suffcient in the Mother Earth News magazine when it first started in the early 70's. It appeared to me that their "self-sufficiency contest" was a wonderful goal to set for myself. (I will admit they seem to have gone a "different direction" since then) . However, to me it has been a life long (well for as long as I have been "conscious and aware after coming home from Viet Nam) goal. I began to see the signs in the world back then. If you go to the string by KevsFarm on this forum, you will see he asks the question and there are a number of answers. Many of them tend to drift from answering the question, but the majority actually give good descriptions of the things that we are seeing.
Becoming more or completely SS is a goal we here have had for differing periods of time; some more than others. Some have simply had to adapt because of finances being short, losing a job or various financial catastrophe's in their lives. The reasoning is different for each. Some want healthier life-style, some want healthier food or to be away from "the maddening crowds".
Some of us are the children of the folks who survived (I use that term literally, not figuratively) the GREAT DEPRESSION. It is mentioned earlier in this string but there appears to be a lingering feeling that this can/WILL happen again. We grew up with parents who stock piled "EVERYTHING" and I mean everything. You didn't throw anything away because you might be able to use it to make something you needed/wanted but couldn't get/afford in a serious situation.
I call that group of parents with that mentality "pack-rat syndrome" and it is a serious problem for us, the children they raised because we have that "programmed into our brains" by them and perhaps that is where the SS attitude in us comes from. While I don't think all SS'ers are children of the depression parents and many may be quite a bit younger, the mentality is still there. They may have learned it from their grandparents or even great grandparents in some cases who DID live during the "GD". What is interesting is that the folks who learned to "MAKE DO WITH WHAT YOU HAVE OR MAKE IT YOURSELF" were by and large happier and mentally healthier individuals because they had the confidence and determination to do what they "had to do".
Now do you suppose the "GENERATION 'Y'" folks can match that? If you take away their computers, calculaters, video contraptions of all sorts, you will have a seriously disrupted life style and some really lost folks. Do any of you still remember how to find the square root of a number with a (I hesitate to use the term) SLIDE RULE? Yes, I mean 10 to the 1/2 log of X. Sounds silly doesn't it? You can just pull out a calculater and punch the button and it does the thinking for you. This goes for hand tools rather than power tools as well for those of us who like wood working and metal working.
Anyone who thinks being SS is an easy life needs to (by way of giving it a few years of trial) see that it is not only NOT an easy way of life, but a much more demanding and difficult way to live. There is NO SUCH THING as a day off. You can't take off and leave the farm for 2 weeks and expect it to function without your input. Perhaps if you are lucky, you have children grown enough and responsible enough to manage the farm in your absence but that is the exception, not the rule. What is more than concerning is that we are all getting old. While we are young and strong, this is a "doable" way of life but as we get to the years when the old body doesn't want to do some things, it may become a bit tiresome and even downright impossible.
How we cope THEN is the real question. It appears that the majority of folks who post here have higher education; many with college degrees and some with advanced degrees. While education is a significant advantage, it does NOT replace the failings of the human flesh once it decides it is not wanting to work that hard any more. I realized this while I was hooking up the tiller to the tractor the other day. Yes, I am nearly 62 and while I don't feel that way, I can't ignore the truth nor can anyone else.
So, for those who have managed to create a "SS" style of life the more pressing and important question is "can we sustain this style of life despite the possibility of social collapse, or the inevitible ravages of advancing age?"
Planning ahead for when we are unable to throw 50# feed bags is a real concern. Yes, we are healthy now, but the American diet we have grown up eating has done its damage years ago. When it strikes our body's will be anybody's guess. That is when our planning and resolve will truly be tested.
YMMV
//BT//
Trim sends
I remember seeing things about becomming self-suffcient in the Mother Earth News magazine when it first started in the early 70's. It appeared to me that their "self-sufficiency contest" was a wonderful goal to set for myself. (I will admit they seem to have gone a "different direction" since then) . However, to me it has been a life long (well for as long as I have been "conscious and aware after coming home from Viet Nam) goal. I began to see the signs in the world back then. If you go to the string by KevsFarm on this forum, you will see he asks the question and there are a number of answers. Many of them tend to drift from answering the question, but the majority actually give good descriptions of the things that we are seeing.
Becoming more or completely SS is a goal we here have had for differing periods of time; some more than others. Some have simply had to adapt because of finances being short, losing a job or various financial catastrophe's in their lives. The reasoning is different for each. Some want healthier life-style, some want healthier food or to be away from "the maddening crowds".
Some of us are the children of the folks who survived (I use that term literally, not figuratively) the GREAT DEPRESSION. It is mentioned earlier in this string but there appears to be a lingering feeling that this can/WILL happen again. We grew up with parents who stock piled "EVERYTHING" and I mean everything. You didn't throw anything away because you might be able to use it to make something you needed/wanted but couldn't get/afford in a serious situation.
I call that group of parents with that mentality "pack-rat syndrome" and it is a serious problem for us, the children they raised because we have that "programmed into our brains" by them and perhaps that is where the SS attitude in us comes from. While I don't think all SS'ers are children of the depression parents and many may be quite a bit younger, the mentality is still there. They may have learned it from their grandparents or even great grandparents in some cases who DID live during the "GD". What is interesting is that the folks who learned to "MAKE DO WITH WHAT YOU HAVE OR MAKE IT YOURSELF" were by and large happier and mentally healthier individuals because they had the confidence and determination to do what they "had to do".
Now do you suppose the "GENERATION 'Y'" folks can match that? If you take away their computers, calculaters, video contraptions of all sorts, you will have a seriously disrupted life style and some really lost folks. Do any of you still remember how to find the square root of a number with a (I hesitate to use the term) SLIDE RULE? Yes, I mean 10 to the 1/2 log of X. Sounds silly doesn't it? You can just pull out a calculater and punch the button and it does the thinking for you. This goes for hand tools rather than power tools as well for those of us who like wood working and metal working.
Anyone who thinks being SS is an easy life needs to (by way of giving it a few years of trial) see that it is not only NOT an easy way of life, but a much more demanding and difficult way to live. There is NO SUCH THING as a day off. You can't take off and leave the farm for 2 weeks and expect it to function without your input. Perhaps if you are lucky, you have children grown enough and responsible enough to manage the farm in your absence but that is the exception, not the rule. What is more than concerning is that we are all getting old. While we are young and strong, this is a "doable" way of life but as we get to the years when the old body doesn't want to do some things, it may become a bit tiresome and even downright impossible.
How we cope THEN is the real question. It appears that the majority of folks who post here have higher education; many with college degrees and some with advanced degrees. While education is a significant advantage, it does NOT replace the failings of the human flesh once it decides it is not wanting to work that hard any more. I realized this while I was hooking up the tiller to the tractor the other day. Yes, I am nearly 62 and while I don't feel that way, I can't ignore the truth nor can anyone else.
So, for those who have managed to create a "SS" style of life the more pressing and important question is "can we sustain this style of life despite the possibility of social collapse, or the inevitible ravages of advancing age?"
Planning ahead for when we are unable to throw 50# feed bags is a real concern. Yes, we are healthy now, but the American diet we have grown up eating has done its damage years ago. When it strikes our body's will be anybody's guess. That is when our planning and resolve will truly be tested.
YMMV
//BT//
Trim sends
FarmerChick
Super Self-Sufficient
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I go with both.
people do stuff for many reasons. some have true interest in dirt and animals and say, hey why not try my hand at a bit of this 'farm stuff'
then others cause of economy say, hey Mom used to can/preserve maybe I will try
others have health problems and are waking up knowing taking control of their own food sources and buying healthier etc. is the way to head.
others aren't going to have to or want to many ANY changs to their life styles.
it is everything happening out there. money is a big factor, then your interests come into play. Anyone who hates chickens and other animals isn't going to run out and buy chickens to become SS in hard times.
so I float with 'kinda' both fad and money necessity and people who kinda thought about their hobbies/interests and are taking an interest to do something.
people do stuff for many reasons. some have true interest in dirt and animals and say, hey why not try my hand at a bit of this 'farm stuff'
then others cause of economy say, hey Mom used to can/preserve maybe I will try
others have health problems and are waking up knowing taking control of their own food sources and buying healthier etc. is the way to head.
others aren't going to have to or want to many ANY changs to their life styles.
it is everything happening out there. money is a big factor, then your interests come into play. Anyone who hates chickens and other animals isn't going to run out and buy chickens to become SS in hard times.
so I float with 'kinda' both fad and money necessity and people who kinda thought about their hobbies/interests and are taking an interest to do something.
dragonlaurel
Improvising a more SS life
Lots of people are just trying to save money and doing more DIY projects instead of paying somebody else to do it. That builds their confidence in their abilities though, so it may turn into a real hobby or even a job later.
Lots of people are kinda scared to eat certain foods, due to GMO s, BGH, crop contamination, additives, contamination with allergens, etc. Growing it yourself or cooking from scratch are good options and those habits might stick.
Raising city chickens is probably a fad for about about 1/2 of the people that started recently. That's ok. Their coops, and stock might be cheap or free on Craigslist in the next year or so. . . They wont have to wait long for somebody to come get it.
The bee trend will probably keep growing, especially on farms. Not just Mason bees. People will never quit loving honey.
Booze making supplies will be pretty popular too. When times are tough, people still drink. But they are more likely to make their own.
Lots of people are kinda scared to eat certain foods, due to GMO s, BGH, crop contamination, additives, contamination with allergens, etc. Growing it yourself or cooking from scratch are good options and those habits might stick.
Raising city chickens is probably a fad for about about 1/2 of the people that started recently. That's ok. Their coops, and stock might be cheap or free on Craigslist in the next year or so. . .
They wont have to wait long for somebody to come get it. The bee trend will probably keep growing, especially on farms. Not just Mason bees. People will never quit loving honey.
Booze making supplies will be pretty popular too. When times are tough, people still drink. But they are more likely to make their own.
Wifezilla
Low-Carb Queen - RIP: 1963-2021
Well, I am 47, so my grandparents saved everything. My mom was all in to disposables. Grandma gardened and canned. Mom only did it during the Carter years because she had to. Maybe the SS gene skips a generation?
FarmerChick
Super Self-Sufficient
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my mom grew up during depression times and you farmed mainly to eat...a store was not often 
she swore never to live that life...and she hasn't had her hands in dirt and not a fan of animals all over 60 years now.
she swore never to live that life...and she hasn't had her hands in dirt and not a fan of animals all over 60 years now.
THEFAN
Lovin' The Homestead
I want to believe it is people waking up from the matrix but the mainstream medi will sell it to help the economy someway. Corp America isn't stupid. They will profit from this. If the media sells it people will buy it.
Most on here know how to buy stuff frugally and will barter for it. With the masses waking up they will go to the big box stores and buy it. Most will be hoodwinked.
Teach them when you can!!
Most on here know how to buy stuff frugally and will barter for it. With the masses waking up they will go to the big box stores and buy it. Most will be hoodwinked.
Teach them when you can!!
Wannabefree
Little Miss Sunshine
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I've always been poor and so has most of my family. Canning/gardening/reduce/reuse/recycle etc. etc. etc. is nothing new. 
For some it is a fad, for others, the only thing we ever knew. I've never gone a single year of my 34 without eating home canned produce. My grandma survived the great depression, and I'm sure it may have had an impact. We have always lived independent of a lot of things folks are going to be missing soon We have no TV now, and I caught a bit of the Today show while sitting at the doctors office with DD this morning, and realized...I don't miss it at all. It's just a stupid time sucker 
For some it is a fad, for others, the only thing we ever knew. I've never gone a single year of my 34 without eating home canned produce. My grandma survived the great depression, and I'm sure it may have had an impact. We have always lived independent of a lot of things folks are going to be missing soon We have no TV now, and I caught a bit of the Today show while sitting at the doctors office with DD this morning, and realized...I don't miss it at all. It's just a stupid time sucker 
