how are you doing, really?

[pintail_drake2004]

Hey folks, this is a bit different that I normally post. My wife and I are trying our best to be as self sufficient as possible. We know that realistically we will never be 100% self sufficient, but we try our best to get there. For instance, I know to how to grind my own flour but I'd never hope to do it on a regular basis. My wife bakes about 50% of the bread we consume, including her homemade biscuits 3x a week. We eat a lot of poultry, rabbit, fish, and deer. We don't eat beef (when we do, be buy it from a friend), and the only meat we routinely buy is pork (for now). We grow and preserve a large portion of our garden, but things like potatoes we buy as they are easier and cheap. But every couple of years, we grow some potatoes just to "remember how" so we don't forget. Realistically, we produce about 50-60% of what we consume, and we are comfortable with that. Do we really want to produce our own lard or press our own canola oil? No, but I know how to make lard if I need too.

So, I guess my question is: Realistically, where are you with self sufficiency and where do you want to be?

 

[hysop]

We barely got chickens two years ago. This will be the start of year three. We got calves recently but will not be butchering them ourselves when the time comes so I guess that’s not really self sufficient. Even though we have processed a bird or two we still buy chicken from the grocery store. And we have a horrible green thumb.

My goal is to get better at gardening and start getting all our vegetables and herbs from our garden, but will still shop for our fruits (although maybe I’ll one day do well growing berries). I want to eventually have enough chickens to lay eggs as well as for processing so I no longer have to buy from the store. We don’t eat pork at all. We do have a female calf that we hope to breed so we can get milk from her in a year or two. Hmm pretty much as self sufficient as I can be without it taking up 200% of my time since I still have to homeschool my boys.

 

[Nardo]

I have a huge list of things that I have learned how to do, in the hope that I won't have to rely solely on my ability to do it.
I do garden and can grow veggies. I know about chickens, horses and cattle. I can hunt and fish. I can make soap the hard way. I can build shelter. Actually, my list is more about being able to live if the SHTF. I'm not trying to hijack this thread; it's only in typing that I realize that maybe I'm not exactly answering to your intent?
One of the most extreme experiments was making flour with acorns. Not so tasty. But edible.

 

[wyoDreamer]

I am doing very poorly in the Self-Sufficient department. I can home grown tomatoes. That's about it.
I have a grain mill and over 200 pounds of wheat in storage, but my grain mill is also in storage for the moment. There are alot of things that I bake that require white flour - so I buy that anyway. The grain mill will not be in storage for too much longer, DH is going to build a kitchen cabinet for it.
I can just about anything cherry - pie filling, spirited cherries, cherry BBQ sauce, Black Forest jam. But I have to drive over an hour to get to the cherry orchards to pick those cherries, lol. I hope to get some cherry trees in my orchard soon.
I can meat that I buy from the store. I have raised meat chickens and will do so again this summer. But, I buy the day old chicks. No roosters at our place. Not self-sufficient at all, lol.

 

[reddogmaster2]

For my wife and I, living the homestead/self-sufficiency lifestyle is a journey with no destination. Sure, we'd love to be 100% self sufficient but we still want to live an adventurous fun filled life.

We have nearly 30 acres in a small southeastern US town, garden is well established, food, water, fuel and other long terms stores have been built up, canning/preserving is a skill that we have done well with for over 10 years. We're growing our chicken flock and goats are in our 5 year plan.

I'm a pretty skilled construction person but I lack in mechanical engine skill. (Dang vehicles today are all computerized anyway!) We've established plenty of tools to complete most jobs and have back ups of most items.

Defense and security is in place, for OPSEC that;s all I'll say about that!

Medical is a continuous learning area, especially as we near retirement age. Getting old is not for the weak!

Every day we learn something that we lack or that we excel in...its a journey!!!

 

[hysop]

For my wife and I, living the homestead/self-sufficiency lifestyle is a journey with no destination. Sure, we'd love to be 100% self sufficient but we still want to live an adventurous fun filled life.

We have nearly 30 acres in a small southeastern US town, garden is well established, food, water, fuel and other long terms stores have been built up, canning/preserving is a skill that we have done well with for over 10 years. We're growing our chicken flock and goats are in our 5 year plan.

I'm a pretty skilled construction person but I lack in mechanical engine skill. (Dang vehicles today are all computerized anyway!) We've established plenty of tools to complete most jobs and have back ups of most items.

Defense and security is in place, for OPSEC that;s all I'll say about that!

Medical is a continuous learning area, especially as we near retirement age. Getting old is not for the weak!

Every day we learn something that we lack or that we excel in...its a journey!!!

If you have the land, get goats. I love goats. I know they say they’re escape artists but mine don’t seem to be to the extent that I was expecting them to be. They have a large area where they graze so maybe they have no need to want to escape.

 

[HomesteaderWife]

I'm proud of how far we've come. We invested in a sawmill and it paid for itself after selling wood for a corn crib, then building our first timber-framed cabin. We lost it in an accidental fire, and thank God above the sawmill and the chainsaw and old 1954 Ford tractor we not nearby. If we didn't have those key items, it would've been very hard to start over. Here we are on log cabin, and we managed it entirely without large machinery and only needle pully/winch system and the tractor to haul them. We do alot of crafting and tanning and firewood sales to help support things, and invest back in things to sell. Our business has nothing to do with homesteading, but allows us to stay at home and get things done and in turn we have the ability to do alot of things ourselves and make wise choices.

We should've been further by now, if not for losing it all. BUT, a key lesson is KEEP MOVING. Also lost alot of our birds in dog attack. My husband was my strength and we moved on. Future goals include a workshop to get into furniture making and tanning on a better scale. Want to build a nice pole barn and train some working oxen for small scale logging where the tractor can't get, but also baby them a little and train them to ride. Would love to get back to raising a large duck group because we love them so much. Big goals- we're getting there! All in all just want to start our family.