Living "both ways" at the same time, are you able to do this?

[country freedom]

I'm curious about people living this way, already - or, taking steps in do so.


Working in the modern world, with modernized conditions/ living at home without "anything modern", like living in two worlds.

Vehicles - "Green fueled"? Electric/solar powered?


In my eyes, cell phones are modern - are you able to make your own from scrap, and charge it up as like a computer (see computer below), or live without one?
Computers - you can build and use while pedaling/walking on a stationary bike/manual treadmill, also charge it for the next usage.

If you have no way of keeping food/drink/medication cold/frozen in the warmer months, how do you preserve food/drink/medication, (I know of canning, fermentation, dehydrating, root cellaring).

I am interested about wood stove cooking, making candles, soaps, and all those other homesteading needs, including the edibles people make, also foraging/hunting for wild foods.

Growing your own foodstuffs - like grains, etc.

Trying to live as simply as you are able to - minimizing your carbon footsteps at home/work.
Bringing your own food/drink to work, etc.

There are a good number of Thrift stores/Flea markets within walking distance from both home/work, so bartering, getting some things really cheap isn't an issue.



I live in Public Housing (literally right behind the office), (planning on moving this summer), there are no community gardens nearby, having even a flower garden isn't possible here.
I work at a very busy Mcdonald's - so the thought in my title came to me.

I ride Public bus half the time half way to work, then walk rest of the way, and vice versa.
Ride to work/home via my daughter's car - her, or DFiance' driving, on rainy days in a gasoline driven car.
Walking to work is a 45 minute walk, and vice versa, roads are being worked on, so hazardous to pedestrians in areas.

Anything I've forgotten, please include!
This has got to be an interesting topic - learning from your experiences!

 

[tortoise]

I found a hand-crank cell phone charger a few years ago. I bought it for my brother because he was going camping and hiking a lot at the time.

You can have a container garden indoors if you have a window with lots of sunlight.

I'm stuck between lifestyles. Live on a suburban lot. SO will always have HDTV on his HUGE flat-screen TV. Although, we don't watch much except for football.

On the plus side, the house is Energy Star. I started a veggie garden this year. I raise rabbits - more for show/sales than for meat but I am growing 2 meaties right now. SO lives about 2 miles from work and MUST drive. I stay home so I rarely drive. I sew some of my own clothing. I buy (nice!) second-hand clothing for DS. We are very energy-conscious and minimize electricity use during the day. The water heater only runs at night.

 

[Ldychef2k]

Because I am older (60), partially disabled, low income, and own a dilapidated home on the corner of two busy streets, I am not able to live a heritage lifestyle. And this morning with the pain in my hands and legs acting up, I don't think I could survive by doing everything "the old way". But I am prepared to if I have to. I still have to learn to make soap, but there are many other skills I am in the process of learning and someday mastering.

I work from home, so I don't really have to "go out amonst the English" every day. I find that a profound blessing on many levels.

It is very difficult to live as our foremothers lived when you are doing it alone. I have tried to do it all, and it would be great if I didn't have to earn a paycheck. I would so much prefer to be doing something to directly benefit my lifestyle rather than earning money that has to go for taxes !

 

[mrs.puff]

I think my house is very "heritage" as ldychef said, but we also have to rely on some modern conveniences.

I cook on a wood cookstove when the weather is cool enough, then switch to propane in summer. We don't have electricity, but we do have a generator (which we almost never use), and we have battery powered lights. We charge the batteries (car batteries) by hooking them up under the hood of the truck to the other battery. Sounds complex, but it's not at all.

We can a lot of food and dry some, but a lot of our meat gets frozen and stored in a freezer at a friend's house. She gets to use a big freezer, and we get to use her electricity. She also lets us take a few gallons of water each week, which we freeze into blocks to keep food in a cooler at home.

I have a farmer's market stand in summer, so I grow most of our vegs, and DH provides almost all of our meat. The only meat we buy is pork products and canned fish, tuna, salmon etc. My chickens provide eggs.

We have a phone at home, but we don't do cell phones, which is highly inconvenient at times. Internet is used at the library, or when I am at work (I'm a sub teacher), where I am right now. (My students are watching a video).

We do laundry at the laundromat. It gets expensive, but it's our only option right now. I just don't have time to hand wash everything, and with fancy school clothes on top of our grubby home clothes, we have a lot of laundry.

Unfortunately, the main cost we have is gasoline. We spend around $150 to $200 a month on gas, since we live quite far from the "outside world". It's 20 miles to any of the schools I work for, and 45 miles to the main town we do our business in. Plus DH does a lot of traveling for various other reasons. We "go to town" about once a week.

That's a bit about my house.... maybe too much huh??

 

[noobiechickenlady]

It is very difficult to live as our foremothers lived when you are doing it alone. I have tried to do it all, and it would be great if I didn't have to earn a paycheck. I would so much prefer to be doing something to directly benefit my lifestyle rather than earning money that has to go for taxes !

It's tough even when you have a burly DH to help out. I can't imagine the strength & determination you have. But I totally agree, its a vicious cycle.

I find a big disconnect between my home life & work life.
At home, while we do have a TV, video game systems and two computers, we rarely use them during the day, even on the weekends. The normal sounds are kids playing, goats bleeting, chickens clucking, tree frogs, distant traffic & sometimes baseball playing from next door. We wash dishes & clothes by hand, drink raw goat's milk, love to watch the critters & kiddos scampering around the place.

Then I get to work and there are computer monitors buzzing, printers running, phones ringing off the hook. Plus air fresheners, cleaners & gossip. I get a headache sometimes just from the normal office noises. Oh, how I wish I was allowed to work from home.

 

[country freedom]

I found a hand-crank cell phone charger a few years ago. I bought it for my brother because he was going camping and hiking a lot at the time.

You can have a container garden indoors if you have a window with lots of sunlight.

I'm stuck between lifestyles. Live on a suburban lot. SO will always have HDTV on his HUGE flat-screen TV. Although, we don't watch much except for football.

On the plus side, the house is Energy Star. I started a veggie garden this year. I raise rabbits - more for show/sales than for meat but I am growing 2 meaties right now. SO lives about 2 miles from work and MUST drive. I stay home so I rarely drive. I sew some of my own clothing. I buy (nice!) second-hand clothing for DS. We are very energy-conscious and minimize electricity use during the day. The water heater only runs at night.

Hand cranked cell phone charger? Wow and nice find!

 

[VickiLynn]

I have a Red Cross emergency light/cell phone charger/AM radio that is powered by hand crank or solar or batteries. We keep it for when the power goes out. I ordered it from Amazon.com about a year ago for around $25.

 

[Dace]

My 2 cents is just that you have to find what works for you. I think there is a lot of trial and error, so keep plugging away.

Personally we are not anywhere near the level of SS that I crave, but I do the little bit that I can.

Kudos to you for having great plans!

 

[TanksHill]

I like to think of my home as an escape from the modern world. It's funny but we live in a very suburban area, my dh has a 40 hour a week job and my kids grew up with cartoons and x box. I love my Internet connection. I use it for so much.

But at the same time I garden, can, crochet, have chickens, make my own laundry soap and many of the SS things. Like Dace said we are no where near where we want to be. But, if we ever get there I will have some of the basic skills necessary.

Figure out what you can do with what you have. One little step at a time try something new. Sooner or later you will look back at all of the progress you have made. It's a journey, and sometimes it takes forever to get there.

By the way welcome!!!

Gina

 

[Ohioann]

I agree with Dace. I think you have to go step by step and be as self suffieicnt as you can at this time, in this place, with resources you have. My goal is to raise some of our food, buy food from others that is as sustainable raised as possible and ocassionaly splurge on goodies that don't fit either of these nitches. I am much more sustainable than most of my co-workers (some of whom think I'm really strange!) but I still drive a decent car, spend money on hobbies (spinning, weaving and beading mostly) and own and use a computer. Face it, if we didn't use computers we wouldn't have this group. I have several friends among out local Amish community and find that although they live "plain" they don't live "backward" and while I admire their lifestyle , share alot of their belief system and know I could live that way if I had to (no electric, no car, etc) I am content with where I am now. You can do lots of little things on the road to your personal level of SS, just take it a day at a time.