Homesteading / Simple living / Downshifting... anyone?

[momma's chickens]

Oh this is a VERY cool thread...

I have been trying to get more self-sufficient for years but still have a long way to go. We have chickens for eggs. I sell our extra eggs or trade them for other things. I also have ducks for eggs and a pair of geese. I got four turkey poults 5 weeks ago so that is something new for us. We have three goats, Nigerian Dwarfs, and they eat our back hillside for us. I garden and can and freeze. We just built a greenhouse this year, not a fancy one but it works for us. We have grapes, blackberries, raspberries, cherries, plums, pears and apples. We were lucky and they were here when we moved her. I shop yardsales and we are trying for hard to get out of debt although this seems hard for us. I finally got dh's approval to shut off our tv service which was $60 per month so that will be used toward debt. I am using the snowball effect toward our debt but wondering if there will ever be light at the end of the tunnel. I use my clothes line six months out of the year, makes a huge difference in our electric bill. I homeschool our oldest two children through a charter school.

Looking forward to hearing about everybody else way of life!

 

[Guitartists]

We're starting to look into things that we can do (solar, wind etc) for our current house, and it is my dream that we will build an off the grid homestead up north by my father someday in the near future.

It certainly only makes sense to become more self-sufficient and greener in light of MANY things these days.

 

[St-Hubert]

Add another two to the "starting" list. We have a small chunk of land (maybe an acre and a half or so) in a relatively uncluttered outskirt of our city. The wife moved down here from Canada (long story for another time maybe) to marry me, and we have been working on becoming a little more self-sufficient for over a year now. She gardens wonderfully, and we had a fairly decent harvest last year. Learned what does and does not grow....and she learned there are a greater number of weeds down this-a-way than she had up there to deal with.

She's already started the gardening for this year and we're both hoping for a little more success. It's a very wonderful feeling to be eating something grown by one's own hands. Now, the wife does a far greater amount of the gardening than I do. I cut the grass and sometimes dig the holes....that's about it.
This year, we decided....well, the idea was gracefully forced upon me....that raising chickens for fresh eggs would be grand. I fought and protested the whole time. Then I saw the chicks. All hope was lost at that point. I promptly set about building them a coop and run which should be ready for them soon. I'm also talking about increasing the number of chickens we have (three at the moment), and that about gave the wife a laughing fit. Never would have thought I'd be the one to suggest more chickens!
I don't know that we'll ever become entirely self-sufficient, but we're trying. Alternative power sources are next, but that requires money and research....

 

[esthermgr]

We live in Atlanta but have a pretty big yard, so we've planted veggies and fruit trees and hatched out some chickens for eggs and meat. We're also growing mushrooms on logs. I'm moving towards being a stay at home mama for a while to devote more time to my kids and teaching them about sustainability and to simplify our lives a bit. We're trying to move away from a "consumer" mindset and appreciate the value in getting things slowly, both stuff and food. We compost everything we can through a multistep process to try to get the most use out of it. Future projects include getting a dairy goat if feasible, building a "koi pond" that we use to raise catfish and duckweed, and putting up a clothesline that can handle our copious laundry.

It's been such a joy to see my kids having some of the experiences that I had growing up in the country even though they're city kids. It's also been fun to have neighborhood kids over to pick carrots or play with the chickens. We're lucky to live in a beautiful climate where we can be outside gardening and playing most of the year!

 

[Cindiloohoo]

We're in the starting stages of all of this. Some things we have done for years, others we are just now implementing. We recycle/repurpose a lot of things and have for years. We make our own bread, sauces, and can veggies grown from our garden. We make all our own cleaning supplies too. We raise chickens, turkeys, ducks, and goats at the moment. We hope to move into bigger animals later on a bit at a time. I enjoy knowing how to do all this stuff, and the kids do too. We homeschool so it makes for great hands on experiences for them. I hope one day before I die I will have a completely off the grid home! That is my little dream. I'd love to be completely self sufficient. It seems it's a lot less work and much more satisfying than the current way of life with all it's worries. We're in our 30's as well and we have lost a bit of time, but we're learning fast and trying to make up for it

 

[ZooNana]

We are trying to be self-sufficient. We have 5 acres of rural land where I raise my home educated children. We of course have chickens, and now ducks, and turkeys. (and 2 mini horses) I'm hoping to get quail started here very soon, and I'd like a cow, but we have no money for one right now. When we can afford to fix the fences I'd like to get goats. We're also going to start bees soon.

We plant a garden every year. Last year's garden was destroyed by hail, and the one the year before was almost completely destroyed by hail too ... sigh. I need to get started with the garden here soon. I'm trying to do raised beds this year and lots of containers too. I'm not very motivated after the last few years of disappointing harvests, and I'm not sure how to get the supplies we need to build the raised beds. (we're trying to pick up as much scrap wood as we can) We're on the plains and we have high winds hot, hot days, no trees, crappy sandy soil and a watering problem, so a garden is a HUGE chore. (and we only have 1 spigot since the well pump in the back of the property isn't working, and it's not anywhere near where we can plant so watering is a pain)

I cook almost everything from scratch and I can and dehydrate food.

I have a clothes line but since most days out here have sustained 20-30 mph winds and gusts over 50 mph, I can't hang clothes out as much as I'd like.

I try hard to be picky about what we bring home, so we'll have little waste.

We have a lot to do to be truly self sufficient. Luckily we're on a well for water, but without elec the well won't work (and we lose power out here quite often because of the weather) I'd really like some solar panels and a wind generator, and I'd give anything for a large greenhouse. We have very little income, and that can be a problem when we need to do things like fix the fence.

I sometimes wonder if we'll ever get to the level of self sufficiency I want.

 

[momma's chickens]

Quote:
There are days where it seems like it is so much work and no progress is made but I know I am working toward something I love and dream of. Hang in there!

 

[sandspoultry]

Quote:
Hi neighbor! We are outside of Washington, NC I know that snow. forgive us everybody but snow in Eastern, NC is big news

We do more of the simple living here. Our ducks, chickens, turkeys, quail, pheasants, guineas and geese give a nice variety for the table plus a few deer. The only meat we really buy is pork and that is just because we haven't had the time to finish the pig pen. We have a big garden and with our climate here it's growing just about all year. Our biggest problem is time. my husband and I both work during the day so there isn't much time left during the week and weekends are animal care, cleaning, projects and anything else that needs done. We can and freeze as much as we can, make sausage and dehydrate most of our herbs and spices.

Sharon

 

[schellie69]

I have been trying for years to have a simpler life, I try and be as frugal as possible, sometimes due to health reason's making from scratch is impossible but I am working on it, we have 14 chickens to help with eggs, I am planting a garden this year (raised bed) and I am going to be making bread and freezing it and I want to learn to can this summer I have a cloths line which I use and some of the kids do also so at least 3/4 the time the clothes are hung up which is better then none at all. I need to fine a way to buy a half of cow or something but no butcher around here need to do some checking we got rid of tv (cable, satellite) over a year ago and really don't miss it. I am just taking baby steps right now have to do what I can when I can and just hope that everything falls into place. We are making our chicken coop bigger by using old pallets as lumber which I think is cool hope the girls like it we did buy the material that is made from recycled plastic bottles it never rots or get termites so that is good plus it has no chemicals like the processed wood and its easy to wash. I reuse/recycle everything that I can think of there is a web-site its like byc but for frugal forks wasn't sure if I could post it or not if you are interested just let me know and I will send it to you they have great ideas and forums like this to answer any questions anyone has.

 

[ChikeeMomma]

Quote:
Just interested if you make your own cleaner for dusting wood, shelves, objects? If so what do you use? That's one I could use help on. I use a lot of vinegar/water combo for mopping and general cleaning. Thanks!