What did you do to be/become more self-reliant today?

[sumi]

Mini Horses, what a blessing! Especially when you can turn anything unsuitable for your own table into pork My husband refers to pigs as "waste food disposal units" and they sure are!

I discovered the marked down fridges in the supermarkets and found some wonderful bargains there. We often find fresh meat still more than a week off it's sell by date, marked down up to 60%?

 

[Mini Horses]

I regularly check the meat markdowns! I have found the grass fed organic beef way down like that. Try to buy what I can then to use later. Throw it in the freezer! Most times I could eat for several months from my freezer -- add the fresh eggs & goat milk, I'm pretty well set. It's a good feeling.

 

[baymule]

haha! I call shopping the mark down meat, The Dead Meat Counter. I love The Dead Meat Counter. The grocery store puts the mark down meat in a nice bin at the end of the meat display. Almost never buy meat any other way.

We are raising 3 feeder pigs, one for us, two for friends. I have to buy feed for them, but today I raked up a couple of 5 gallon buckets of acorns for them. They LOVED them. I put one bucket of acorns in the storage room to give as treats. We also have wild persimmon trees and I pick up the persimmons for them.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Oh no - tell me you're not giving all the persimmons to the pigs! I love me some persimmons!

 

[Denim Deb]

Same here.

 

[Britesea]

You might want to can or dehydrate some of that extra--- just in case the freezer breaks down or the electricity goes out. I've lost hundreds of pounds of food over my lifetime due to freezer problems

 

[Mini Horses]

Yeah, Britsea, I've lost a freezer in past yrs. Messy & costly. I thought & have insurance coverage and I have a "whole house" generator for emergency outages. Feel pretty safe with it now -- it only takes an outage to show where you failed . I love to can but, haven't done so in a few yrs as no time with farm work, paying job work and my mom here. This year my plans are to have a garden, can & dehydrate some, also. Those are "plans" and I hope it works out well. Working for it.

Definitely am ready with all that is needed -- open land, pull-behind tillers, tractor, discs, graders, etc., organic composted manure, piggies doing some "pre-plow" , chickens working an area...and seeds!!!! lots of seeds. Had ordered many heirlooms, used a few, then couldn't get to garden. Thankfully I stored them well and found them last week. Plus things I ordered this year on close-out discounts from fav seed places. Then, one day working at one of my stores I saw boxes of seeds at 2to5 CENTS per pkg. I spent a while going thru and got some fantastic buys, heirloom of various type, many flowers....etc. a bag full for $3.50. Heck, I could open a seed store! AND with the love of tomatoes the chickens and pigs have, I can justify planting some of all the varieties I have -- about 20 heirlooms, all colors, sizes, etc., that I want to try.

Only working couple days a week now (cutting back) and will have the time to work the garden now. One day, like you guys, I hope to "retire" (again!)

Really hoping to make the farm produce enough to support the feed bill.....otherwise I'm great! Sell some piglets, goat kids, milk, eggs, veggies, flowers, goat soap. Have outlet for all but pigs/kids, will craigslist those. People want home grown organic. Most word of mouth, a couple feed store posters and some beauty shops. A more leisurely life.

 

[sumi]

That sounds absolutely wonderful @Mini Horses

@baymule I'm going to thinking of this every time I go into the supermarket now! lol

 

[Britesea]

lol @Mini Horses ! It hardly sounds like "a more leisurely life" to me, although it does sound like a more satisfying one!

 

[baymule]

Yes, I have given persimmons to the pigs. They are the little wild persimmons, super sweet, but I only want so many of them. They fall off and the dogs eat them too. I have one small pasture that has probably a dozen fruit bearing persimmon trees in it. I look at them and the oaks (acorns) as free food for the animals.

Today my DH and I raked up tiny native pecans at the city park, got 1 feed sack full and another 3/4 full. And yup, pig treats! The pecans are good to eat, but so small that it's a PITA to shell them. I have picked up many native pecans and shelled them out, but these are SMALL!