Oh I hear you! Last time I had that conversation with a doctor, I said, I'm too busy gardening, cutting down trees, building stone walls, digging holes with a pick axe to exercise. No thank you!!!"
That is true. There is nothing quite like sitting down to a meal and realizing you grew it all.After initial cost of equipment, fencing, etc., then it all gets drastically cheaper from there on out. One has to think about long term and how that expense is spread out over years, plus factor in the cost of organic foods....HUGE expense from the store. Same with the work...initially or occasionally the work is hard, but usually it's just maintenance type stuff, then harvest and canning.
Not to mention the quality and taste of the food....no comparison to anything found in the store. Corn from the store is about as tasteless as little nuggets of cardboard and I never, ever buy a store tomato...it's red and round but that's where the resemblance ends.
Then one gets to factor in the exercise and health benefits from physical labor, exposure to sun and fresh air, and eating the higher quality foods. All of that saves huge expenses when you realize that you are spending less for medical care and medicine than those who live sedentary lives and eat the tainted foods from the grocery store.
The final analysis is that one cannot even calculate the money saved over the long term. What in the world would we be doing if not growing our own foods? Sitting around watching so called reality TV? Might as well shoot me now and spare me the slow and agonizing death of all that.
Yes. My freind 3goodeggs I think about that all the time. My problem is I can work on somebody's car got a couple hours and make a quick $100. I'd never get that return out of the garden. But still I always go back to the garden. I guess it's a therapy sort of. And sure the initial cost I'd high but goes down
Afterward. The problem is I'm always expanding. Always adding something new.
My biggest problem is too meany irons in the fire. Since I retired I'm so dam busy I thought I was going to have all kinds of time to pursue my interest like fishing and hunting but I have less time now. Because I stepped up my gardening and basic homesteading activities. But with winters here being so long and cold I should have plenty of time to fish this winter.
