patandchickens said:
Before I start, let me say that I have just been informed in very strong terms that many people here do not like me and think I should shut up. I suggest they simply don't read this, or anything else I write <shrug>.
Ok, I'm a little late but I have to say this - (and it's not directed totally at you, Pat!) people on the internet have to have thick skin. You can't be too sensitive to what others say, this is a flat media, no one can tell the emotions behind a post. I've found Pat's posts to be informative, mostly, sometimes opinionated, but heck, I'm one opinionated woman and have no problem giving anything right back if I think it's necessary! But it's hardly necessary to be argumentative, so for the most part I take the good out of what anyone says and try to ignore what I may consider bad. Life is too short to get your knickers in a knot over what goes on in a forum!!!
To the topic: I live on a .6 acre lot. Not much room for my Bit of Earth Farm, so all it will consist of are honeybees, vegetables and hens. If selling products from the front door counts towards self-sufficiency then I've got it made, I'm on a fairly major country road with lots of traffic, so many potential customers. My biggest problem is my current occupation (Pilates instructor) means I am away from the house for much of the day (this is my day off), so harvesting and putting stuff out is hard. Of course sitting indoors browsing forums doesn't do much to help me there!
I live south of Boston, in the heavily developed South Shore. My area was once rural, but it is now a bedroom community with a train to Boston. Fortunately most of Hanson is built as much as it can be built, because we've got lots of wetlands, bogs (home of Ocean Spray Cranberries), and now conservation easements as people with larger tracts are trying to preserve the town - a noble effort that can cause its own problems. There are still a few working farms, and with the push for local foods, some of them are doing quite well, we can only hope that growth continues.
There's still hunting around here, in season, in the southern part of town, and down further, into Halifax, Plympton, etc. but slowly those places are being built up, soon there will be too many houses to allow hunting.
Fishing? You have to be careful, many of the ponds and streams have high levels of mercury, and the septic runoffs cause severe algae blooms that they try really hard to control, but with few town sewer systems where does it all go but into the groundwater?
I don't think I can be 'self sufficient' totally here, but I am trying to do as much for us as I can.
Now for the house in Maine, up there, you still have more of a chance to be self sufficient. That's our safe house, if/when TSHTF we're planning on holing up there. That house is heated with wood, has a well, my husband is very good at living on a shoestring (he had many years of practice). He'd be my rock and guidance if anything bad happened - I've got a lot to learn from him! But up there people take care of each other, too - not so much around here.
