Michigan

[chicken grandma]

It's just not realistic for me at this point in my life. I would love to live off the land (and off the grid) but it's just not something I can do right now w/the bills I owe and my job and BF's job and such. I'd like to retire that though.

What we found is that it is too hard for retirees. And usually the location is remote from medical care. So actually younger people do better with the natural lifestyle. Anytime you jump into it, you will learn as you go and start saving money right away. As long as you can get to a job, you'll do well.

 

[Olive Hill]

I read somewhere that Homo sapiens are the only mammals that continue to drink milk after they have been weaned.

Only because we're the only ones that have figured out how to have a consistent and convenient supply of it.

 

[M.sue]

I know my grandparents house (my moms parents) didn't have a milk shoot and I can not recall them having milk delivered since they lived on a farm and had their own own supply. As for my grandmother who lived in town ( my dad's mother) I know she had it delivered. I do remember the glass milk bottles ....City Dairy was printed in red on the front!!

 

[Juise]

Quote:

Juise, when I make granola bars I use natural peanut butter and honey, after I mix it all together I pack it back into a sheet pan and bake it for 8-10 min or until it starts to brown. Then I let it sit overnight on a cooling rack and cut it into bars/squares in the morning with a serated knife. About 3/4 of the bars stay together and the rest becomes loose granola for yogurt.

Thanks! I am going to give it a shot.

I lost 2 more of the eggs my broody has been sitting on.

She can't seem to figure things out on her own & is always the last to go anywhere they go

Sarah, one of our cats was this way when they were kittens. He would get lost in the basement and cry until someone came to get him, ("Zomg! I'm in the playhouse and I can't figure out how to get out!") he would try to jump up onto the bed or couch... and miss completely.

While running upstairs he would frequently suddenly just run into the front of the next step instead of jumping, and he took a number of tumbles down the stairs, too. He took forever to figure out the cat door, he would stare at the other cats when they came in or out, and you could totally see him thinking, "SORCERY!" He would wait and cry at the door until someone opened it for him, or shoved him through the cat door.

As they started getting older, and he siblings began bringing in mice, moles, birds, etc, Nate (his name is Nate,) started bringing in pine cones and sticks... When his siblings started bringing in rabbits and bluejays, Nate started bringing in grasshoppers and butterflies. One memorable time he actually quite proudly brought me a rock.

He's still not the brightest crayon in the box, but he is not nearly so bad now. He doesn't (usually) run into things, he doesn't (usually) miss a landing, and he doesn't (usually) fall off things. While all the other cats can weave through a bunch of things on the mantle and not so much as disturb them, he goes through them like a bulldozer, and seems surprised when things fall over, though.He doesn't catch as much as anyone else, but he does catch things now, even if he does still being in the occasional butterfly, grasshopper, or pine cone.

He's a great big lug of a sweetheart, though.

Maybe your little chicky will get better at life as she gets older, hehe.


Quote:

As I sat drinking coffee with Granny this morning we started taking a stroll down memory lane.

Opa, we used to have a lot of fun with our grandparents milk chute, mail flap, coal chute, and, oh, man the attic stair that was disguised as a closet and we were forbidden to go in. We went up there all the time, of course. I did start working when I was 11, and while part of that was because my mum ran a business, another part must just be that those child labour laws aren't enforced very well. Aside from landscape labour for my mom, I worked the blueberry fields, and when I was 12 I even taught an extracurricular class for the school system here, and I was on the official pay roll and got a real paycheck and all that.

I've had milk in plastic bags, but that was in Canada where it is still not very weird, hehe, and I did have milk that needed to be shaken, but that was because many of my relaatives are dairy farmers. If I had warm milk, it wasn't warmed up, if you know what I mean.

Does anyone do homebrewed kombucha?

I haven't yet, but I have been thinking about it, so if you don't mind sharing your experience....

I roasted the oats and the nuts/seeds for as long as it told me but everything is still light colored. Shouldn't it be more golden?

Just roast those suckers until they are as roasted as you like them! Just do keep a close eye on them near the end, those suckers go from "almost there..." to "OMG BURNT" in like two seconds flat.

 

[M.sue]

. There is also a laundry chute in the hallway to drop your dirty clothes to the basement.

Growing up we had a clothes chute and when we built our home that was a MUST HAVE. Have you ever gone down one??

Better yet what about a coal bin? The perfect esccape route when grandma specifically told you that YOU COULD NOT GO OUTSIDE! lol

 

[Juise]

Quote:

I read somewhere that Homo sapiens are the only mammals that continue to drink milk after they have been weaned.

That's because they're weirder than anyone else.

Growing up we had a clothes chute and when we built our home that was a MUST HAVE. Have you ever gone down one??

Heck, yes! We had one in our house when I was little. We would pile all sorts of stuff at the bottom.

 

[Juise]

I mean *we! We're weirder. I'm a human.

 

[EeyoreD]

What we found is that it is too hard for retirees. And usually the location is remote from medical care. So actually younger people do better with the natural lifestyle. Anytime you jump into it, you will learn as you go and start saving money right away. As long as you can get to a job, you'll do well.

I was actually going to say that. While what I've done hasn't really been intended as "living off the grid" I did want to garden, if not farm, and have some kinds of livestock. It's been a ton of work and I'm not done yet. At almost 40 it's still totally doable but I couldn't imagine trying to do it in retirement unless I had enough money to buy everything I needed rather than clearing/building/etc myself. And in that case i would have had to have had a TON of money and not minded being tapped out when all was said and done (and not really had a buffer to make a lot of mistakes - which I'm finding is all part of the learning curve).

I've got gardens/growing space in. Thanks to Olive have an early start on some flocks and have some RIRs just about ready for the coop I need to build. But there's fencing and coops and outbuildings and water hauling and and and. Not to mention the growing list of "at some point I'd like to..."

I'm not trying to discourage anyone at all. I'm just saying, especially now that I'm here, I would have a hard time imagining just starting to do this 15-20 years from now. If I had the basics built in (which means more $$ outlay for the property itself) then maybe. And later, once I learn the most efficient way I think I'll be ok. But to start? That would be rough.

I'm happier than I've ever been in my life. But some days I feel old. Really old.

But then the dirt delivery guy says that his 25 year old nephew is about the same age is me and...

But still.

 

[EeyoreD]

I mean *we! We're weirder. I'm a human.

Mmm hm. Just about gave it away, didn't you.

So, do you wear the human as a skin like the MIB "Edgar Suit" or is it some kind of perception filter a la Doctor Who?

 

[Olive Hill]

At almost 40 ...

You are NOT almost 40. You don't look a day over 30.