Is becoming Self Sufficient the new fad?

[Farmfresh]

That is the way it was for me and horses.

I always had horses (since my Roy Rogers loving mom bought me a pony as a baby!) We rode them and showed them and basically had a good time with them, but learning as we went. I never felt like I knew all that much. Then one day people started coming to ME for answers and "expert" advice! When I got over the shock and looked around I AM the most knowledgeable expert horse person in our area!!! Not because I am "all that" - just cause I have been around a while and EVERYONE else is so blinking stupid.

Now the same is happening with the chickens and even gardening and canning. All of these newbies following the fad are making me look mighty good! :bun :bun :bun

 

[dragonlaurel]

Boogity - You achieved your goals, even when it was hard. Since lots of us want to make sure we can still do well if/when times are harder- that kind of story is encouraging.

Marianne - I usually make my own cleaners. Still like Simple Green also, but a big bottle of the concentrate lasts me 2 or 3 years. These apartments wont allow clotheslines but I like them. Anything that isn't quite dry gets hung up around the apartment to finish.
The dirty dozen list helps me decide which veggies are usually okay in the stores, and which ones I better grow or buy organic. I also planted favorites that are hard to get in my area or really expensive.

Lwheelr - I can sympathize. Peanut allergy here, and I cant use so many processed foods because of the allergy risk. Being able to make your own is safer. I'm still hoping to get a manual grain mill.

Savingdogs - Think of yourself as a trendsetter.
If I won the lottery- I'd get some convenience items myself. It would be awfully convenient to have a nice off grid cabin, a good well, solar panels/windmill/waterwheel for power, a root cellar in the basement, a big garden, some laying hens, a doe in milk, and a few sheep and a barn with running water.
Nice thorny Osage Orange and Locust fences would be convenient too. I'd have an extra cabin for a trusted friend to live on the land too that could fill in if I want a vacation now and then.

 

[Denim Deb]

FF, I'm always amazed when people ask ME horse questions, too. I feel like such a novice since I haven't really been in horses that long (8 years). But I went in not knowing ANYTHING and determined to learn what I could. I had the vet tell me a few years ago that I knew more than some people that have been around horses all their lives and he likes my CARPet method for remembering vitals. You just need to remember 2 numbers (3 and 11) instead of 4.

 

[FarmerChick]

I appreciate Dirk's perspective. While I love being as SS as possible, I have to admit that my non-SS friends have a LOT more free time. To them, I probably look like the slave. As with most things in life, there are pros and cons to everything.

that is very true. 'where' people spend their time is important to 'them'.

since shutting down the farm biz, my free time is amazing. I forgot how much fun it is not to work so hard!



in general, life is what the person wants it to be, not about how others think they should live.

 

[Farmfresh]

FF, I'm always amazed when people ask ME horse questions, too. I feel like such a novice since I haven't really been in horses that long (8 years). But I went in not knowing ANYTHING and determined to learn what I could. I had the vet tell me a few years ago that I knew more than some people that have been around horses all their lives and he likes my CARPet method for remembering vitals. You just need to remember 2 numbers (3 and 11) instead of 4.

I think the key is that we are interested in our animals and TRY to learn all that we can. I see that as an unspoken theme on SS.

We are not just contented here with animals that are not sick/dead. We all love HEALTHY happy animals. The same goes for gardening and other SS activities. Most of us here work hard to learn, so that we can do it right.

When I refer to people as being "blinking stupid" it is because they only bother to learn a bare amount about their animals (or other things). They walk around with a saddle bag full of beer and expect a boney wormy animal to haul their drunk behind all over God's creation on the weekends. When I treat my animals well .. it makes me the "expert".

 

[lwheelr]

We had been taking care of rabbits for a month and a half when people started asking us for advice. Now they are asking us for advice on things we have not even done, simply because we've done the research in preparation - since we've done more research than they have, they ask us.

Funny.

Lately on FaceBook there have been a bunch of people complaining about ABC ditching their daytime soaps. I just thought, "Get a life!". I don't live and breathe FaceBook, I use it partly as a business tool. If it went away, I'd be ok. Haven't had TV for about 12 years either, and could care less about American Idol.

Right now, life is frustrating, because we have to divide our time between the farm, and our web business. I am SO ready to be done with the web business, but we have to continue with it for the income, at least until we can find a qualified buyer. But for now, that means I'm fortunate if I can get one significant task done with the animals or garden each day.

I think my in-laws are still in shock over their son first going Redneck (as in, he drives a truck, listens to Country music, hunts, and wears a Cowboy hat), and now going off to farm in Texas. I think they must be completely mortified - I think my father-in-law is still telling people his son owns a Web Design Corporation. I don't know if he'll be able to get the words out when it is a Farming Corporation.

 

[FarmerChick]

Get a life!

funny as it sounds, with ABC thinking of cancelling soaps etc on tv....well many are in wheelchairs that must be home for medical reasons, etc...all over the world. Sometimes maybe a soap opera is all they have....you just never know.

we all think "if it was ME" well, it isn't "us" living those lives....so many situations effect many others very different.


My Grandma who passed at 89, was for the last 10 years of her life a SOAP FAN......up til then "she had an active life".....but those last 10 years living thru those soaps helped alot. It gave her something ya know.

so while we all have our predjudice on 'everything' in this life, sometimes what we don't think is worthy, means ALOT to someone else.


(not directed at YOU lwheelr) just food for thought

 

[lwheelr]

I think if soaps weren't there, people would find something better. I think that they ARE there, often times distracts people from finding what is better.

Yeah, that's just me though. I'd rather LIVE than just have the illusion of it.

 

[FarmerChick]

If soaps weren't there, it would just be something else.

works for you, but sometimes others lives 'just don't fit yours'


good thing 'one person' never has a say in how life should progress for everyone....good thing life has options. so we choose what "we" desire.

works for me

 

[patandchickens]

I think if soaps weren't there, people would find something better.

Yeah, like facebook or twitter or youtube, or shopping, or....



I'm sort of in the middle of you and FC I guess... I think the more mindless distractions there are, the more often people get sucked into wasting time with them to the exclusion of useful activities, BUT I think that some people can perfectly well indulge 'recreationally' so to speak without it cutting into their useful activities, and some other people would never voluntarily move to take up gardening or carpentry or other useful things even if you locked them in an empty room with nothing but Useful Implements

Pat