Working and self-sufficiency

[dragonlaurel]

Use a crockpot! They make life so much easier I wanted to give mine a wedding ring. I'd eat what I wanted that night, then divide up the rest into containers, and freeze some for fast meals another busy day.

The chickens sound like a great idea.
Making yogurt has a waiting period, but most people either set a timer, or start it at night and check it in the morning. The parts you do are all easy.
Most herbs can grow in pots pretty easy. Most cooking herbs are fairly easy as long as it doesn't stay wet. Parsley likes a gallon sized pot- it doesn't like its roots cramped.
What are your hobbies? Some of them give some good SS skills too.

 

[Wifezilla]

You've already got some great advice. You do have to pick and choose. If I could, I would be raising a few dairy cattle, growing all my veggies, and doing a full grown aquaponics operation. With a disabled son and a full time job along with a small lot, I garden when I can and raise ducks and quail. I do have a pond, but use it to raise a little extra food for the ducks instead of fish for people.

Do what you can when you can. I think the most important thing is learning. Then when opportunities arise you have a better chance of taking advantage of them.

 

[Beekissed]

I think the key to self-sufficiency is lowering your dependecy on many things and often this can be done merely by cutting out the fat....luxury items that consume both time and money like cable or dish tv, cell phones, fast foods, impulse shopping, prepackaged foods, etc.

These things can be done without much energy or time and will often result in your having more time to devote to meal planning and preparation, organizing your house to save wasted motion and wasted energy...both yours and your home's.

You can co-op with someone who doesn't have a disability but may have less funding and agree to buy the plants and seeds and provide the space, if they will tend a garden, then split the proceeds.

With the money saved on one hand, you can have someone build you some nice, deep flower boxes along your porch railings...and then plant some lettuces, radishes, onions, etc.

Advertise your needs and your predicament and see if there are any out there who would like to donate their excess veggies to you. I would have loved to donate extra garden produce to people if I had only known someone who would take it....many times I was overwhelmed with excess and it went to waste.

Same with fresh eggs....I couldn't even give eggs away to folks and finally started taking them to the local food bank. Advertise, word of mouth, say something to someone....every time I do this I find that someone out there has what I need and really would love to get rid of it!

If you have a freezer, then you can cook down veggies in a crockpot while you are at work, let them cool and freeze them in quart freezer bags when you get home.

Single working mom of three hungry boys ....it can be done, one just has to use the imagination and work at it. After everything~routines, resources, etc.~ is in place it becomes so much easier!

 

[FarmerChick]

What about just doing what you feel most enthusiastic about (given real-world constraints of course). If you are "enh" about gardening but canning/freezing/drying sound like they'd be right up your alley, then do that (from farmers markets or whatever's cheapest at the grocery store this week). Or vice versa if you really enjoy gardening more than cooking. Or maybe neither of them greatly float your boat but you'd like to try sewing. Or knitting. Or whatever.

It's a lot easier to find time/energy to work something into a full and exhausting schedule if it's something that you really get personal enjoyment out of, not just "oh cool, I did this myself" but really have FUN with.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

X2

if you like your life as is basically, but have limited energy and time, just fit into it the things you love. garden, eh, love to can/preserve your own foods, hit the market for bulk veggies from local farmers.

Pat is right on key. It is about what you can fit into your time and enjoy it and find that right balance of how to do it easy and in your time restraints.

it is never about 'just' being SS, it is all about enjoying the SS things you can do.

sit down and figure what you would love to accomplish, 2 items....no more...then tackle those. when you have those 2 SS projects happening then you can see if you have more time or not etc.

worse thing anyone can do is 'take up all their free time' on projects........I know, and then you crave free time so desperately, again, I know LOL

(good advice Pat...I so agree!)

 

[raro]

Thanks so much for your replies. I knew I could count on you to make me feel better.

I do, in fact, have chickens. I had four sex-links and just added two silkies, and since they're semi-babies, I've been doing everything twice over because they have to be kept separate. It's made my morning routine much longer.

It's mostly the gardening and cooking that have been getting to me. I love some of your ideas, like crock pot (I've done a few crock meals, but not lately) and making extra to freeze. Vegetable gardening I've done for YEARS...and am still terrible at it! I grow beets that are woody and shaped like carrots (they never swell, I don't know why. I've tried everything - soil, water, sun, etc.). I can't grow large carrots to save my life (finger-sized if I'm lucky), and if I miss one day of watering, everything is wilted or dead. I grew a ton of broccoli this year...and every bit of it messed up. Grew six feet tall with long flower spikes. I've heard of plants bolting in the heat, but our early weeks of intense heat made these things do very funky things!

Anyway, I think I was just getting burned out. When I was growing up, I wanted a garden, but my mom said no, it was too much work. Now she has moved a half-mile away from me and decided to have a garden and guess what? She has peas and strawberries coming out her ears. I have exactly four pea pods and a couple of squishy berries. I put all this time into it and get so little out of it.

It's weird, Monday is my last day of school, so I have a summer that I can devote to some really cool ideas that I got from you guys, but already I have to force myself not to stress about getting it ALL done before school starts again. I really want to just enjoy the summer and maybe use it to prepare for the fall.

Anyway, thanks so much for your ideas. They've given me a lot of hope.

 

[Wifezilla]

Where do you live?

 

[raro]

Virginia, about an hour south of DC. Suburbs, with a hint of Southern.

 

[patandchickens]

I had four sex-links and just added two silkies, and since they're semi-babies, I've been doing everything twice over because they have to be kept separate. It's made my morning routine much longer.

I wonder if there is some streamlining that could be done to ease the workload. In most (not all) situations it is possible, if you try, to set things up so that the chickens require next to no daily time investment other than letting out/ putting in... if waterers adn feeders are large enough to only require refilling every few days or week and positioned to stay clean, optimize sanitation routines, etc.

Vegetable gardening I've done for YEARS...and am still terrible at it! I grow beets that are woody and shaped like carrots (they never swell, I don't know why. I've tried everything - soil, water, sun, etc.). I can't grow large carrots to save my life (finger-sized if I'm lucky), and if I miss one day of watering, everything is wilted or dead. I grew a ton of broccoli this year...and every bit of it messed up. Grew six feet tall with long flower spikes. I've heard of plants bolting in the heat, but our early weeks of intense heat made these things do very funky things!

Pick easier things to grow The things you mention are either intrinsically a bit challenging or require no lapses in watering or must be harvested exactly at a particular time.

To me, the easiest things to grow are tomatoes, beans, and (in the cool season, if you can ensure even watering) lettuce. Also herbs, most of which don't mind at all drying out sometimes and require no care whatsoever once they're established.

The other thing with veg gardening is that so much depends on your soil. Not even the most dedicated energetic enthusiastic experienced gardener is going to get far unless the soil is got into good shape.

So I wonder if it might be worth forgetting the garden for the rest of the year -- just rip everything out (sparing whatever you think is still going well) and start dumping grass clippings and so forth on it, enough to make a heavy mulch to prevent weeds; and then this fall steal everyones' bags of raked leaves and put them on the garden for the winter. In spring, get someone to till or dig it over for you, and it should be much-improved soil. Also with your chicken cleanings, that'll help too.

With gardening especially, IMO a lot of times there is working hard and then there is working smart, and just doing a few things to get the ball rolling and then "working smart" and letting Mother Nature do the hard work FOR you (instead of sweating and spending money to improve your soil Right Now) can pay off big-time.

Just a thought anyhow. Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[Wifezilla]

Herbs are a great idea. Chives, oregano, mint, and thyme all do really well in my garden.

 

[FarmerChick]

I fought tough growing things that didn't want to grow in my fields.
duh, stupid me, so much effort, no good produce.

now I grow what the ground likes, not what I have to work hard to grow.

anything I can't grow I buy from farmers that CAN grow it hahaha



think easy.
think steamlined like Pat said.
think sensible work for the amt. of time you can give a project.


you will do well and be giving others advice on how to 'work SS' to your advantage soon LOL