Hey, to be fair to us youngun's, some of us are TRYING to make a come back. Honestly, it is my dream to be a subsistence farmer... Unfortunately, it's my beau's dream to own a retail gaming store and those two things don't really line up. My mom lived on a farm for about her first ten years but then she was thoroughly a modern person by the time I came along. While she still hung laundry to dry and washed dished by hand and cooked from scratch, that was about it. Not really the type of lifestyle you folks talk about.
Now that I have been at this for a year I really am starting to appreciate how much work goes into my food. I have been trying to eat less meat because I am trying to provide my own meat and that's really hard work and sometimes the animals don't even produce. It's been five months since I processed a rabbit! I haven't bought eggs in eight months, and even though I only have one hen laying I still don't buy em. I go without eggs instead. I'm looking at adding a miniature sheep and a mini goat to my property in the next year and I know it's going to be a ton of work. I spent a day butchering a tiny suckling pig this year... And I can't even imagine how tough it is to butcher a full sized pig! I've also gotten more people involved in their food. I have taught a dozen people how to skin rabbits this year, and I had a class of 8 come in from another city from a college to watch me butcher some as part of their agriculture class. I'm meeting some more people interested in learning later today. And yesterday I finished tanning my own rabbit hides! I am thinking of making a throw out of them by stitching a bunch of them together. I gave one of them to my sister that helped me butcher the pig. And later in the season I will be making my second ever batch of canned chicken broth out of the frozen carcasses from the chickens I butchered over the last year! I will be doubling the size of last year's garden this year and I will be trying to store more of my vegetables and working out the problems. By the end of next year I want to be confident in growing my entire supply of carrots for the following year.
So some of us are still trying! Personally I want to learn all this to be entirely self-sufficient. I don't want to be reliant on our current system. I wanna walk into my back yard whenever I need something and pull it out of wherever it is, still alive and growing and say "I made this, I know exactly what went into it, I can make more, and now I get to eat this" rather that a grocery store and grab something that was pulled a month ago and say "I know nothing about this and put no effort into it. Time to buy it, pay a hundred taxes on it, take it home, store it for a while, then eat it." And someday I will get there! And along the way I will drag as many people along the same path as I can. So people do try still! And that is about all we can do in a modern world.
Now that I have been at this for a year I really am starting to appreciate how much work goes into my food. I have been trying to eat less meat because I am trying to provide my own meat and that's really hard work and sometimes the animals don't even produce. It's been five months since I processed a rabbit! I haven't bought eggs in eight months, and even though I only have one hen laying I still don't buy em. I go without eggs instead. I'm looking at adding a miniature sheep and a mini goat to my property in the next year and I know it's going to be a ton of work. I spent a day butchering a tiny suckling pig this year... And I can't even imagine how tough it is to butcher a full sized pig! I've also gotten more people involved in their food. I have taught a dozen people how to skin rabbits this year, and I had a class of 8 come in from another city from a college to watch me butcher some as part of their agriculture class. I'm meeting some more people interested in learning later today. And yesterday I finished tanning my own rabbit hides! I am thinking of making a throw out of them by stitching a bunch of them together. I gave one of them to my sister that helped me butcher the pig. And later in the season I will be making my second ever batch of canned chicken broth out of the frozen carcasses from the chickens I butchered over the last year! I will be doubling the size of last year's garden this year and I will be trying to store more of my vegetables and working out the problems. By the end of next year I want to be confident in growing my entire supply of carrots for the following year.
So some of us are still trying! Personally I want to learn all this to be entirely self-sufficient. I don't want to be reliant on our current system. I wanna walk into my back yard whenever I need something and pull it out of wherever it is, still alive and growing and say "I made this, I know exactly what went into it, I can make more, and now I get to eat this" rather that a grocery store and grab something that was pulled a month ago and say "I know nothing about this and put no effort into it. Time to buy it, pay a hundred taxes on it, take it home, store it for a while, then eat it." And someday I will get there! And along the way I will drag as many people along the same path as I can. So people do try still! And that is about all we can do in a modern world.
)
One bit of advise that I want to give you and all young people... Take care of your health so that you can do what you are doing for a long time. You have no idea how important that is. I am a prime example. Since my mid-20's I have been overweight. It didn't bother me so I didn't worry about it. I was shaped okay and I could work just as hard as anybody I knew (men included) and I was very strong physically. I didn't take into account what damage I was slowly doing to my joints - hips, knees and feet. Now I can't do all I use to do or want to do because of the pain. Take care of your yourself! But the very best advise I could possibly give would be to get to know THE ONE who created everything and gives us all we have. You will never be sorry you did that. 
