What kind of SS are you?

[ducks4you]

Ducks4you-explain "solar fairie lights" please..do you make them or buy them? Thanks!

I'm sorry--SOMETIMES I forget that everybody doesn't use my familys' vocabulary. I was just referring to ANY small, cheap, free-standing, "stick-in-the-ground" solar lights that operate on that once-a-year (or longer) change rechargeable battery. The very first time my family saw them was when we were camping. There were several stuck next to gravestones in a cemetary close by, so we starting calling them, "Fairy Lights."
When I first bought mine, I asked the clerk at Menard's about battery replacement, so I was told that the batteries would wear out in about a year. I have several that lasted only 6 months, and several that are going to two years now, same battery. I live on 5 acres on the west side of a rural town of around 200. There is farmland in back of us, and lots of dark corners and dark places next to dark colored fencing. I've put several right below the posts of gates to find them on nights when it's particularly pitchy.
For a constrast, I was up visiting my mother in suburban Chicago last summer. TERRIBLE, impossible star viewing, though right next to a forest preserve. One night there was cloud-cover and I didn't NEED a light to see the yard!! Where I live, it can dark enough to not see your feet as your walk!!
Didn't mean to confuse--sorry!

 

[delia_peterson]

Thanks! I have two acres..the front 1/2 acre is lit up with a yard light, but these are a great idea for those dark walks to the back yard and barn! I see a store run in my future....

 

[miss_thenorth]

Well, I'll tell you where I'm at, and you can decide where we are on the spectrum.

I currently raise 80% of all our meat. Quail, rabbit, chicken (eggs and meat) ducks, (and soon to be lamb) and hubby hunts deer, turkey and fishes. All I buy is bacon, but that will change hopefully next year if we get a pig. (I used to buy pepperoni, but I am dabbling with a recipe right now). So, meat is taken care of. I garden, (not successfully the last two years, but, normally provide our summer veggies. I frequent local pick your own farms to stock up on the rest of the yearly supply. I trade with a neighbour for potatoes, and a neighbour a concession over supplies me with squash in trade for eggs. I can and freeze all of our harvests. I make 99% of all our food from scratch. I still depend on grocery stores, for basics like flour, spices, sugar and minimal produce, dairy. Soon we will have our own dairy supply, if the sheep work out. If not, we will get a miniature jersey.

We frequent second hand stores for most of our clothes (although I have a tween dd who is now getting into clothes, but she has her own money), we use reusable cloths instead of paper towels, I use reusable feminine products, we all use a deodorant crystal, and baking soda for toothpaste. We do not have town water connected to the house, we truck it in, so we conserve water use as much as possible. We contain rainwater for gardens and animals ( when not frozen). We keep the temperature between 55 and 60 F in the house, and are currently looking into installing a wood stove in our basement. I'm sure there is more , but I can't think of any right now.

Plans for the future--I hope to get to the point where I can make enough to go past breaking even with selling animals, I plan to expand my garden so that I am less dependant on the PYO farms, and I plan to set up an herb garden and plant some perennial plants like asparagus, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries. I plan on getting the pig. I plan on heating with wood. I plan on grocery store trips once a month as opposed to every two weeks. I plan on reducing our dependance on electric even more. Even farther down the ss road, I plan on making my own soap, more cheese, and would like to venture into bees, and training my one horse to pull a cart so that we might actually be able to work with him.

I think we are doing great where we are. Hubby has a job that he loves, and we have house payments and taxes , so that's a good thing. I have not had to work since my eldest was born, 13 years. ( but did get a job twice out of boredom)

We started out on this path due to the fact that hubby and I decided that I would stay at home with our son, and money was tight. What started out as a journey into frugality, has blossomed into a desire to do so much more, fuelled by the time that we had some land up north where we lived off grid, (or no grid) for our vacation/free time and loved it.

 

[dacjohns]

miss_thenorth,

I think you are way past the middle towards the self reliant side. There isn't a lot more you can do in this day and age and still be part of society.

 

[MorelCabin]

Wow Miss North! You're doing wonderful!

 

[TanksHill]

We started out on this path due to the fact that hubby and I decided that I would stay at home with our son, and money was tight. What started out as a journey into frugality, has blossomed into a desire to do so much more, fuelled by the time that we had some land up north where we lived off grid, (or no grid) for our vacation/free time and loved it.

Exactly!!!

 

[Beekissed]

off grid to me means literally nothing. no electrical supplied even by the old car battery or the generator or water wheel or anything.

Actually, the grid is the electric/power grid or system in your area and when they refer to home energy systems, they are either grid-backed or not. If not, they are backed by storage cells of some kind~usually yaht batteries.

Some states or regions offer grid-backing to these systems and some do not.

If they are grid-backed, they are connected to the existing power grid and the energy is stored there, and one can even be reimbursed for any extra energy one produces and does not use.

"Literally nothing" would be how we lived for the first year of our SS life, but then later on we had propane energy to an old fridge. So, I guess we would have been on a type of outside energy source at that point, although not exactly connected to a grid.

I think, if I had an independent electric source, I would probably have the storage cells handy....but I would have it grid-backed, just to avoid dealing with the batteries all the time.

 

[bibliophile birds]

a good geothermal system shouldn't really "use" water. it just cycles it through the system and back into the water table. it never leaves the pipes, so it's still as clean as it started out.

It's not a closed system. It was originally going to drain to the ditch, but instead the outlet pipe got buried deep in the field... So, not a good system, for sure.

yeah, that's bad. i mean, it's bad enough that the system is inefficient, but isn't that field turning into a bog? sheesh. it seems strange someone would go to the effort of putting in a geothermal system just to halfass it..... some people are strange.

 

[Up-the-Creek]

There is a broad spectrum of levels of self-sufficiency on here. I am, admittedly, a dabbler. The other end of the spectrum is the ones who go off-grid.

I had some chickens and a garden; I found it really cool to make a meal entirely from my own yard. I like to bake bread and would like to try fermenting and canning. For the rest, I am pretty mainstream. I work in an office, shop in a grocery store, buy things on the internet.

I am here to learn about other ways of life, and maybe learn ways of being frugal that work for me.

Where do you fall on the spectrum between dabbler and off-grid?

I have always seen it as being life. It is just the norm in this area for most people. I was raised this way by my parents as was my husband. We never have thought of it as being SS or even being frugal, but of course I guess it is being frugal because it can save a ton of money if done right. You can also spend a ton of money and end up in the hole. We have always had chickens and a garden. Canning is a must for my family because they won't eat store bought veggies or jellies(or eggs). We hunt deer,rabbits, and squirrels. This is done more for enjoyment than financial reasons, but it does help on the grocery bill. We raise a pig every other year, that is because we like pork. Raising pigs can be a costly venture, this is one of those where you can end up in a hole. You have to be careful. We also buy local produce that we don't raise to can or to freeze and we also harvest wild stuff. Berries, apples, paw paws, or whatever else you can luck up on. Nothing is more fun than going out and finding an old apple tree on an old abandoned farm and it being loaded, with permission of course, and letting the kids climb that tree and shake it till all the apples come off and hit the ground. Picking berries is also fun,..wineberries, blackberries, raspberries, and elderberries,..it's more fun going out to look for them than anything. We as a family look forward to doing this stuff, this is why I say it isn't dabbling or being frugal for us. It is our life.