Whatt does self suffcient mean to you?

[Better Half]

What is your idea of self sufficiently? Obviously few of few of us can or want to be completely self sufficient. The USA could be a self sufficient country but imports what percent of what it consumes?

I just do the simple stuff. We planted fruit trees and blueberries when we moved in. Were raising some chickens. We have a vegetable garden. This year the weather was so bad I couldnt even get tomatoes. I love avocados which will never grow here so Im dependent on the Californians and Mexicans.

I like electricity but its not windy enough for a windmill and we dont get enough daylight in the winter for solar. We lost power for three weeks once. Rather than getting a generator we cooked on the wood stove and put our food out on the porch. The popsicles were the only items we lost. It was a real drag washing with cold water though.

When making purchases I look for items that will last and/or have another use in the future. What are you willing and able to do to become more self-sufficient?

 

[patandchickens]

I may be in a minority here, but to me if 'self sufficient' means anything (and with apologies, I'm not convinced it means much, or at least not much like what it sounds like it OUGHTA mean), it largely boils down to deciding for yourself what is sufficient. Rather than letting society tell you what all you need to have and ought to do and have to buy.

As in, "these are the things I want in my life, a list which I've arrived at by a bunch of observation and deliberation that is as clearheaded and openminded and critical as I can muster -- those things are sufficient for me, no matter what anyone else may say."

So, it is pretty important to me (for instance) for to conserve electricity use, both by doing things more efficiently and by minimizing the electricity-consuming things we do. It is important to me to eat well and frugally, meaning COOKING not buying prepared food and meaning growing the food I have time and energy to grow and finding relatively low-environmental-footprint sources for the rest of it. It is important to me not to be wantonly wasteful, e.g. I just can't see paying $50 in a department store for a dress that I could get for $4 at a thrift store, and I do not think shoes *exist* that could possibly make my feet feel so comfortable they would ever be worth more than $75. *Max*.

In contrast, it is not, personally, at all important to me to prepare for western civilization to collapse (I am quite sure I'd be one of the first to go in a World of Anarchy, and you know what, Oh Well); nor to make homemade versions of things I didn't need in the first place; nor to discard the parts of modern technology that I think are a really major and justifiable contribution to quality of life (such as fridge/freezer, laundry machine, machine-produced cloth, plastic freezer containers, commercial flyspray for the horses, beverages containing caffeine, certain cooking ingredients such as salt and sugar and spices, my lawnmower and wheeled weedtrimmer, etc).

<shrug>

'Sjust me, though. Everyone has their own 'thing'. But that's more or less mine, since you asked

Pat

 

[BrookValley]

I suppose at the core of my attempts to be more self-sufficient, it means not having to depend on the "stuff" that "they" say I "need." For sure, there's a lot more to it than that, but I guess that would be my in-a-nutshell description.

What I want out of being more self-sufficient is more peace of mind. More peace of mind that I can be financially stable, to know that I can feed/take care of my family through emergencies, and that I can be free of many of the material things that have come to define us as a society--that there is happiness in living simply. Of course, I haven't fully achieved all of this (though I suppose no matter how hard you try, there's always room for improvement, right? ), but I'm darn sure trying.

We recycle and re-use, are mindful of our energy and fuel consumption, and try to do everything we can ourselves--be it building something, fixing a car, or baking something from scratch. For example, I use cloth diapers and breastfeed my child (I had no idea that cloth diapers and breastfeeding were "radical", but I can't tell you the two-headed looks I get from people all of the time on these two very simple things). I make my own laundry detergent and line-dry 95% of the time (the weather sometimes throws a wrench in my plans). I keep chickens for eggs, and goats for milk (well, the milk is in the "works", as the girls have a boyfriend right now ).

I am on a constant mission to find new information to help us become more self-sufficient. Part of the reason why I am here on this forum so often and am so glad to see it up and running! I'm willing to go pretty far for self-sufficiency. Given the resources and the support of my family, I would go to the extreme, or at least extreme by society's standards. I'll never have the kind of support necessary to go as far as I would, which is OK because I do have a lot of support (my husband wouldn't go quite as far as I would, but he's a very willing participant in general ) but I think that as a family we can and will go further than we already have.

Of course, there are and probably always will be those few things that I consider frivolous that I just won't give up. Right now, electricity for AC (well, I would do without, hubby won't) and refrigeration is one of them. The other is a few horses that don't provide anything towards self-sufficiency here on the farm, though I am seriously considering teaching my 4-year old to drive. But there is a lot that I would be willing to give up in the name of self-sufficiency.

And, oh yeah, don't try to take my coffee. Me and my caffeine, we got a good thing goin' on...

 

[Beekissed]

Having been the poster family for self-sufficiency when we were growing up (the folks were real into Mother Earth News ), I can tell you what the experience has meant to me.

I won't tell you all the details but we homesteaded a place, built our own dwellings from logs we cut, lived without electricity and running water, grew our own food, carried our water from a spring, cooled our food in a spring, heated with wood, etc.
We were off grid, off the map, you name it, we didn't have it!

All those years of very hard work and learning how to survive, without the things folks take for granted, taught me a valuable lesson or two. The lessons and skills I learned made me into a much more versatile, adaptable person who knows just what I can live without.

I don't get bent out of shape if the lights don't come on...I have kerosene lamps ready and waiting. Washing machine don't work? I can wash my clothing by hand and don't consider it an big deal. No phone or TV? Family time and card games are great! I don't get bored easily, I don't need a stimulant to wake up in the morning, I don't need a fan or music to get to sleep at night, I don't need a new car, cell phone, prepackaged foods, a microwave, a computer, etc. The reason I know I don't need these things is because I have lived a long time without them before, which makes it easier to do so again.

Its the height of folly to get comfortable with modern conveniences, as we see on the news every day...people who are not prepared to do without, or make do with what they have, fall to pieces in a crisis. They are no help to their families or others. They have to try to adapt all at once and with little skills or knowledge on how to do so.

No, I'm not one of those folks who stockpile in case of emergency, though I think its a good idea if one has the money and space. I am stockpiling knowledge and practical skills in survival by training myself to be less dependent on modern conveniences. The more I know, the more valuable I am to my family unit and community in the event of a crisis. I don't do it to leave a smaller footprint on the world, I don't do it to save energy and I don't do it because its a fad right now, or even out of fear. I do it because it makes me feel stronger and more prepared in these uncertain times, it helps me save money, it teaches my children things they need to know.

That is self-sufficiency to me!

 

[FarmerChick]

Hi Everyone
newbie here...just started posting and I am finding great tips and such on the board

self-sufficient for me is 2 things
financial stability and knowing how to survive when my conveniences are lost for some reason. I have "somewhat" stable finances, LOL, and I can do alot of things without conveniences.

I own a farm so I do produce food and such and I make do with what I can.

I am not giving up my conveniences like my washer, etc. I will never be a homesteader type to go all out and live off the grid, but I am reducing my "grid" usage etc. wherever possible.

I have a 1700 sq ft home. Last year my elec. usage in June was 1900 kw....this year it was 1689. Yup, I took measures to save elec. and it is working.........so little things I am working on.

self sufficient nowadays is where everyone wants to take it to meet their needs.

 

[enjoy the ride]

I really like this post and will be keeping up with it.
To me being totally self-sufficient would be able to live without needed anyone outside of the family for anything.
And like being a perfect person, not only not possible but not worth the effort.
A person living off the grid usually did not make his solar panels, or mill his pumps, create his canning jars, weave his own cloth. I can see that there are people who are able to do these things or will do without but not for me. I will admire from afar.
I wish to be able to do what I can- grow and raise much of my own food, use well what is available, be able as much as possible to fix my own things, not bare the burden of having more than I need to live reasonably comfortably and still have some time to enjoy the world around me. That is as self-sufficient as I can get.
To get good ideas from others doing the same things is great.

 

[sweetproserpina]

To me, I think self-sufficient means being independent, and being able to do and accomplish something from beginning to end. That's something we don't get to do a lot of anymore in our society, as people become hyper-specialized. I'm a jill-of-all-trades, master of none

There's lots of wiggle room though I'll make the bread, but I'm not really interested in growing the wheat. The fella can take apart the car and put it all back together again, but he didn't manufacture it. To me being self-sufficient doesn't mean isolation, just being more self-reliant. Hope that makes sense!

Self-sufficient to me also means less waste, less chemicals, and less pollution, and more simplicity. Why use poisonous weed killer when vinegar will do? Etc.

If a blizzard snows us in for a week or two, I want us to be a-okay and non-plussed about it. When I lived out west, we used to think that if there ever was a big earthquake or major disaster, we'd just grab our camping gear and head to the mountains for awhile, no worries.

Great topic guys!

 

[Tutter]

For once I can say something without writing a novel!

To me it's very simple. It's being able to do for myself, that which I don't wish to rely on other's for. (I'm realistic enough to know that I can't do it all, and wouldn't want to. I don't want to make all my own clothes, from raw materials, for example, though I know great weavers.)

Ta da! Short and sweet!

 

[me&thegals]

To me, I think self-sufficient means being independent, and being able to do and accomplish something from beginning to end. That's something we don't get to do a lot of anymore in our society, as people become hyper-specialized. I'm a jill-of-all-trades, master of none

There's lots of wiggle room though I'll make the bread, but I'm not really interested in growing the wheat. The fella can take apart the car and put it all back together again, but he didn't manufacture it. To me being self-sufficient doesn't mean isolation, just being more self-reliant. Hope that makes sense!

Self-sufficient to me also means less waste, less chemicals, and less pollution, and more simplicity. Why use poisonous weed killer when vinegar will do? Etc.

If a blizzard snows us in for a week or two, I want us to be a-okay and non-plussed about it. When I lived out west, we used to think that if there ever was a big earthquake or major disaster, we'd just grab our camping gear and head to the mountains for awhile, no worries.

Great topic guys!

Welcome, sweetpros! Well said. I completely agree. I don't want to grow my own wheat, either! That's where I think local is fun without going completely nuts trying to be self sufficient. I plan to trade eggs this winter for locally grown wheat. Yay

 

[Beekissed]

This older thread seemed a little "thread-bare" without the newer member's perspectives included, so tell us!