1. What state/province/country are you in and what is your climate like?
SW Washington state, pretty much in the rain forest, south facing slope.
2. How many people are in your family? Marital status?
Married with Children. Gosh, not like the show though.
I have a grown daughter referred to as Bud and she has The Granddaughter, 19-year-old Computer Nerd son who live with us and works from home, and Trouble who is 15 and just starting high school this fall.
3. How would you define self sufficiency? I would define 100 percent self sufficiency as not requiring anything from the outside world, which is beyond my goals....I would never want to be a complete hermit, I like to talk too much!
But you can be MORE self sufficient as a goal.....
4. What would you do with your spare time if you had any resources you needed?
ANY resources.....gosh, with limits like that, I'd have some sort of dog rescue shelter that I could run, with staff to scoop poop!
5. Have you ever built a house , or other types of building? No Do you want to? Possibly in the future. I'd love a solar-powered home, off grid.
6. Can you weld? Steel, aluminum, MiG, TiG, stick, Oxy-Acet? No but my Hubby can.
7. Who or what inspired you to become more self sufficient? My husband. It wasn't a hard push however as I'd been fascinated as a young adult by books such as Jean Auel's Earth Children series and in reading the Laura Ingalls Wilder books to my daughter when she was young, and The Story of Dora in the book Time Enough for Love by Robert Heinlein.
8 Cloth or paper? Paper!
9. In what ways are you self sufficient now and in what ways would you like to learn more? We heat the house partially with a wood stove and use it for cooking on sometimes, we harvest the wood from our own forest mainly. We have a local well shared with a good neighbor. We have animals to provide us with milk, eggs and some of our meat, with goals to eventually provide ourselves with 80 percent of our meat grown here on our property. As far as what ways we want to learn more....in EVERY way. I'm a curious person I guess.
10. In what way(s) will you never choose to become self sufficient? I must have hot running water for washing and cooking and a decent toilet. Other than that I could rough it. I also have health limitations I have to consider though. In the pacific northwest, a year round garden is difficult to maintain, so I'd rather barter with someone who is good at that skill (although I'm not done trying).
11. Are you interested in stocking up for future needs? Yes! Not far enough along on this project however.
12. Where do you end up when you sink into yourself, away from the outside world? Honestly? I imagine myself on the Oregon Trail. I have a book idea about it that I've thought about for about 25 years and I tell the story to myself at night to go to sleep (guess it isn't that exciting....)
13. Can you drive a farm tractor or a semi? Absolutely not...I don't even drive a car anymore.
14. Do you make crafts or useful items? Soap, laundry soap, cheese, rag rugs.
Would you want to teach others how to do these? Sure!
15. Can you have legally livestock where you are at? Yes, that is why we moved here.
Do you have any? Bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
What kinds? Dogs, cats, chickens, goats, ducks and rabbits.
16. Can you operate a lathe? No
17. Do you like to garden? yes, very much, but I have a little bit of a black thumb regarding vegetable gardening. If so, what do you enjoy growing? I like doing landscaping projects and such more than growing food, and I'm trying for more of an "edible landscape" at most of the homes I've lived at. I love the english garden look with plants overflowing everywhere. I remove lawns whereever I've lived. I pour over Sunset magazine and wish I could have been a landscape designer as a career, I would have loved that.
18. Do you fish? Bait or explosives?
Neither! We don't fish as no one but me will eat it. I had a dad obsessed with fishing and my first boyfriend also was a fisherman fanatic, so I have been kind of relieved my Hubby does not enjoy it. I love to EAT fish though.
19. How much space/land do you have or rent? City? Country? We have five forested acres in the country, very very remote. But we lived all of our prior life in the city, originally from Lost Angeles.
20. Are you a Novice, Technician, General, Advanced? ARRL? n/a
21. What is your self sufficient specialty? I'd say the chickens, although I'm not particularly expert! Or what one would you like to learn? I'm getting to know more about the goats and find they interest me the most, as far as my livestock is concerned. I'd like to learn more about food storage, solar energy, raising meat, gardening.....just about everything we talk about here.
22. If you could create a degree and curriculum, what would you major in and what classes would you take?
Constitution 101. I would major in The Founding Fathers. Classes would include economics, US history in Depth and How to Win Friends and Influence People.
23. Do you do wood work? framing, finish, cabinet? no
24. Are you interested in herbal medicine? Only in case TSHTF. While it was fine for Ayla and The Clan, I like my modern medicine, thank you very much. I do have an interest in herbs as food and as healthful additives however.
25. If you could live any place you chose, where would it be? Well if I answer from a practical sense, I'd say Skamania County, WA. If I was fantasizing, I'd say somewhere on the coast of northern California, i.e., Russian river area, or in the Sequoias, or maybe Montana De Oro or Big Sur.
26. Do you use a wood stove for heating or cooking? Yes, mostly for heating. Cooking on it happens during power outages, but I bought a dutch oven this summer so that I can use it more, come winter.
27. What would your ideal super hero/villain be? I'd say right now, my super hero is our own dear OFG.
28. Are your family or friends also interested in self sufficiency? ha ha ha ha ha ha ....not at all, except Hubby and to some extent Trouble.
29. Do you like to cook? sometimes.....I have never been a good cook but have been working improving that recently. I watch cooking shows and try to make nice meals. I love Rachael Ray!
Are you interested in whole foods and natural foods? raw milk? farm fresh eggs? Yes! Yes! Yes! I have found my health depends upon it.
30. What was your MOS? N/A *takes off hat in respect to all that have served*
31. Do you forage or hunt for part of your food needs? Yes, but not a significant portion. Berries and nettles. Hubby intends to hunt but has a soft spot for wildlife so hasn't really done it. He would if we needed him to.
32. What skills do you have that help you be more self sufficient? I'm a very patient and determined person, willing to "do without" or "make do" or find a new way of doing things. I'm not afraid to ask questions. I understand animals and have a lot of knowledge about them.....probably just enough to be dangerous
, but I'm especially experienced with dogs. I think I can be trusted with them.
33. In which fictional universe would you most like to live? Probably Heinlein's Time Enough For Love
34. Do you have solar panels? no Plans to use solar energy? Would love to be able to make the investment.
35 What is the mass/weight ratio of a European swallow carrying a coconut from the tropics to England? growing a coconut tree in the tropics looks like...so that coconut got pretty darn heavy and the bird stayed in the tropics
36. Have you ever lived completely off grid? no
Would you like to? yes! I HATE the power company.
37. In what do you trust? The only answer here for me is God.
Good thing you have Trouble around to help you out. The GEEK has been working his tail off at this garage sale. Thank goodness. 
