Self-sufficient/preparedness living--Where to start?

[hqueen13]

Those are often the best learning experiences, Deb. I'm grateful we've spent the time here, where things aren't "ours" to worry about. In the time we've spent here thus far we have really found our direction and our dream. We would not be on this path without certain events coming our way through this experience. I am grateful for it!

 

[BarredBuff]

Those are often the best learning experiences, Deb. I'm grateful we've spent the time here, where things aren't "ours" to worry about. In the time we've spent here thus far we have really found our direction and our dream. We would not be on this path without certain events coming our way through this experience. I am grateful for it!

This is sort of how I feel about how I am right now. Like this is more of learning, get the hang of it sort of thing. I don't plan to live here all my life, I intend to purchase some land in the backwoods up north and homestead full time there. That's my dream anyway. Where I can raise my own food, work, have a family, and focus on life not it's so called "frills"

But I know for certain that if certain events early on had not taken place, I wouldn't have known this lifestyle. It just would not have happened. What I have learned and done for the past 5 years has more than likely shaped and described the rest of my years on Earth. Its quite sobering to know that "mistakes" can make the best things possible.

 

[terri9630]

I need to get my computer fixed so I can get some of those soap recipes. My phone doesn't like the search button.

 

[Bettacreek]

Homemade Liquid Detergent Recipe

1 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
1/4 cup liquid dish soap
2 tablespoons pure lemon juice
2 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon washing soda

Combine all the ingredients in a non-reactive saucepan over medium heat. Mix until everything has dissolved. Remove from heat and let cool. Pour into glass container. Shake before using. Fill dishwasher compartment and pour white vinegar into rinse compartment.



This recipe comes from here: http://lavinashealthyhome.blogspot.com/2012/01/homemade-dishwasher-detergent-without.html
And it was originally posted by HQueen. Not trying to take credit for anyone else's work.

 

[terri9630]

Thank you!

 

[moolie]

Those are often the best learning experiences, Deb. I'm grateful we've spent the time here, where things aren't "ours" to worry about. In the time we've spent here thus far we have really found our direction and our dream. We would not be on this path without certain events coming our way through this experience. I am grateful for it!

This is sort of how I feel about how I am right now. Like this is more of learning, get the hang of it sort of thing. I don't plan to live here all my life, I intend to ...

Interesting. I get what you both are saying, but I've always been taught that there are no guarantees in life--especially as far as how long life will last. I've known many friends and family members who have died younger than they we humans would like to think they ought to have--from cancer or accidents or whatever. Life is short, we each only have so many years, days, hours on this earth. My Dad has always told me that it is important to LIVE life. Be where you are, be now, and get the most out of life. Don't spend all your time working, you work to live, not the other way around. And don't hang around waiting for something better--enjoy the blessings you have right here and now because some blessings are so fleeting.

I'm not saying that I think the two of you aren't living life, but I just think it's interesting that you have such big plans and seem to really know exactly what you want. I have ideas about what I'd like in the future, and have vague 5-year and 1-year plans, but they are ever evolving. I get new ideas all the time. I learn new things. I'm in a different place today/heading in different directions than I thought I'd be at 18, 28, even 38 and that was only 3 years ago.

BB, what you say about learning from mistakes is hugely important in life, and it's so great that you've come to that realization as a young person--some people never find the value in mistakes made. Mistakes, failures, the unforeseen teach us how to go forward--they shouldn't hold us back or make us wish we had done differently. A great test of a person is how they deal with adversity. Not to wish it on anyone, but things happen and we each have to get through them.

I really don't want to scare anyone with that post from my journal that I quoted above, because nothing in it was learned in a day, month, or even a year--it's taken years--and some of what's quoted there is the words of other forum members. And the books certainly weren't all collected at once either--that has taken years, and several on the list are still ones I borrow from the library when I need to check something.

 

[Dawn419]

I also have family that have the land and before they erected one structure, put up a fence, bought farming equipment, etc., they went out and collected many pricey and useless animals. They have spent the last several years burying dead animals, chasing their animals out of their neighbor's yards, never producing an ounce of edible food or preserving it, and flushing tons and tons of money down the drain while going deeply into debt. Still no fences, no barns, no good equipment, no good livestock, no good food sources, no skills learned and no way in any shape or form could they be considered SS or even farmers.

I also have some family like this. They had a herd of cows that they fed but the cows never earned their keep, were run on weed "pasture" and never given any minerals or needed supplemental feed. They were there because someone wanted them and that's it...they were nothing more than an extension of the dust-collecting knick-knack cow collection that covers the inside of their home.

Funny thing was, they had all of life's finest accoutrements...said to our faces that they couldn't live like we're living and yet always came to doc and I asking questions about gardening/building and livestock while they were they ones with electric and internet access and we were without either. I figure it was probably their way of putting us down for our chosen life-style, but it made us that much stronger/resilient with the life we've chosen to live.

We've made several mistakes in choosing "priorities" since living out here but we've learned from them and don't dwell on them. We call it "paying tuition" and move on, having learned our lesson, but at the sime time, we value those lessons learned since they make our next baby step much easier.

My biggest problem has been wanting it all done yesterday and it doesn't work that way without a lot of frustration being involved. I'm learning to slow down, spend time analyzing/thinking things through and then doing. I'm getting a lot more accomplished towards our goal since learning this lesson.

 

[so lucky]

You know, there are two opposing schools of thought that each make sense but at the same time can be excuses for things not turning out right:

1) Take your time, plan well, think everything out thoroughly and research. Try to envision how this will impact your life and what it will look like 5 years from now. This line of thinking can cross over into always being a planner and never being a doer. I know several people who plan the heck out of a project, but never get around to doing it. I think fear of failure is high on the list of reasons why.

The other side of the coin:

2) You just gotta start somewhere even if conditions aren't perfect. The thing to do is get moving in the direction you want to go, take baby steps; adjust as you learn from your mistakes. If you wait till all the wrinkles are ironed out, you will never get started. The down side of this is that you are always jumping into things, not anticipating the "what ifs", acting on impulse.If you have someone who comes in and cleans up the mess you made, no changes are predicted in the future.

I am more of an impulsive person. I don't suffer buyer's remorse, and I am pragmatic about lost opportunities. My DH is a meticulous planner, who compares and contrasts before (and after) undertaking any project or purchase. So far we have managed to work through problems that arise because of this, but sometimes it is touch and go!

 

[hqueen13]

This is sort of how I feel about how I am right now. Like this is more of learning, get the hang of it sort of thing. I don't plan to live here all my life, I intend to purchase some land in the backwoods up north and homestead full time there. That's my dream anyway. Where I can raise my own food, work, have a family, and focus on life not it's so called "frills"

But I know for certain that if certain events early on had not taken place, I wouldn't have known this lifestyle. It just would not have happened. What I have learned and done for the past 5 years has more than likely shaped and described the rest of my years on Earth. Its quite sobering to know that "mistakes" can make the best things possible.

Heh, I can so relate! The other half and I have been together now for 10 years, and I finally feel like I know what we will *DO* with our lives... We have a sense of purpose that we didn't have before. There is a part of me that laments that its taken us 10 years to figure this out, but at the same time I do know that things only come when you are ready (despite what we all may think now and then!) and so it is what it is. And yes, what can seem like a "mistake" or even a bad situation can turn out to be the best thing that could have happened to us, despite the pain that happened in the moment. You can't have a rainbow without a little rain...

I hear what you are saying, Moolie, and I can relate to that. It isn't that we weren't doing anything with our lives, but we were just rocking along without much of a thought to what else might happen or what we could be doing. We just didn't know. And when you don't know what you don't know, ignorance is bliss! Now that we've learned more and had doors opened to us, and had our eyes opened to alternatives and ideas, we have a sense of purpose that we didn't have before.

The ironic story that I have is that I remember being in kindergarden at the age of 5 being asked what I wanted to be when I grew up (terrible question to ask a child, btw!). I replied "a farmer" because I didn't have a word for a horse trainer, or someone that works with horses. The irony is that more than a person that works with horses, I *DO* want to be a farmer. At the age of 5 and living in a suburban neighborhood with the closest thing to a "farm" that I could get to was the property adjacent to my uncle's where there were cows (mostly scrubby land that nobody really cared much about, and some cows wandering around now and then) and the garden that my grandfather had, I still KNEW somewhere underneath that the land called to me. I am just now finding that dream, and beginning to bring it into reality. It meshes into everything that I have been moving towards - getting back to basics, canning, making my own household items, working with the land, and having livestock, knowing why cooking from scratch is so important.... it all just fits together like the last piece of that 1000 piece puzzle falling into place.

 

[Denim Deb]

When I was asked what I wanted to be, I always gave the answer people expected to hear, nurse, teacher, etc. But, what I really wanted to be was an Indian! I envied them for their knowledge of plants and animals. Plus, they had horses!