Your Lifestyle?

[TwinMommy2009]

Nice to meet you, as well.

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TwinMommy, nice to meet you.

 

[gritsar]

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Tell the spouse and the dogs to go out around the coop to do that. Might as well put all that marking behavior to good use and help keep the coyotes away.

Grits has a DH and a male dog both of whom keep the chicken yard well marked.

 

[AngieChick]

Well, it's a hard thing to describe! I am a SAHM at the moment, homeschooling a 16yo DS (part time) and a 13yo DS. Hubby is a techie-nerd as well as an amazing photographer and an artist. I am a visual artist, I've been an art teacher and owned a gallery some years ago. Our eldest son is heavily involved in local theater. So, we live in the country (just bought our house & a bit over 2 acres) and have animals but our lives are also filled with art, music, theater and we do love our technology. My eldest is starting a screenplay and we will utilize all of our resources (building, sewing/costuming, and photography) skills as a family to be his minions in this project. My youngest son's website is: http://crittersbychris.com/ . He is a fantastic puppeteer. We are nature nerds, constantly bird watching and looking for critters. Not quite "My Family and Other Animals", but we do envy the story.

Like my love of the other arts, I do love to cook. So, most of our food is made from scratch using many whole grains and fresh veggies. We are vegetarian, but certainly not judgemental of other's choices. My next big projects are to put up the veggie garden deer fencing so that my silly chickens can weed it for me (50' x 30' plot of overgrown weeds, they will be in heaven!) and then build my goat hut and fence it off. I am excited about getting goats to help clear our overgrown property, and I love their little attitudes, but really it's all about the dairy. Fresh food always tastes mountains better, so the idea of fresh butter/cream and milk is irresistable. I wish I could say that it was for a high minded reason, but really it's all about the fun and the food

This picture of DS pretty much sums up our lifestyle:

He's multitasking, playing with the kitty & kitty toy while reading in the swing. Heaven.

 

[Joz]

Well.....

New homeowner of a 2000sf double/duplex in New Orleans, with a tenant on other side of the center wall. I drive a vintage diesel Mercedes, because one day I'll have a place to filter waste vegetable oil to use as fuel.

Grew up in Oregon, so I'm a bit crunchy. Wish I had enough $$$ to put solar panels on my roof and tell the local energy company (Entergy) to SUCK IT! Jerks. Except then I'll still be buying gas from them since I prefer a gas cooktop. Cest la vie.

I'm not "lifestyle", but I know what it means.

I'm a 3-months-unemployed Intern Architect. I like to design houses, which I don't really need a license for in the state of Louisiana. So I'm planning on making a go of it on my own as soon as my house isn't an embarrassment. It's a fixer-upper, and for someone who professes to be a residential designer/redesigner, I can't exactly have a money pit of a house in a state of un-done-ness, eh?

My boyfriend and I are currently living in the front two rooms of our side of the house, since it's SO COLD and the wee gas heaters don't work so good, and I've not finished re-glazing all the windows I pulled out back in October..... It's a mess.

And I don't have a kitchen yet. Fridge is in the bedroom, bed is in the living room, and I'm getting REALLY GOOD at cooking in an electric skillet/rice cooker/toaster oven.

The reasons we chose this house are very much tied into our lifestyle. Boyfriend is a mechanic, and the house is raised on ground floor garages (+8'-0"). So he's got 2000+ square feet of garage for all his scooter/motorcycle/car/racecar projects. He's probably going to give me a couple hundred square feet to put together a woodshop though, so I can build out the library/office and kitchen myself. I needed to renovate a house, since everything I saw that was "done" was done stupid and I didn't like all the contractor-grade fixtures and trim that I'd be paying a premium price for. Bah! The yard is big enough for a small garden and chicken coop. We're 3 doors down from a bar that I could work at (hopefully! I've recently learned how to tend bar, and I'm hoping I can get a gig doing so until the architectural industry/my house sorts itself out!).

And we've got crazy crazy friends, which is 90% of the reason why we love New Orleans (the other 10% is totally Mardi Gras, and the lack of liquor laws). One friend is a college professor, with a husband who works at a bar and has a huge mohawk, and she cooks awesome food and we get together and drink too much wine. One friend is a crazy painter from New York (she rarely calls herself an artist. You be the judge: http://www.marrusart.com . Buy her book, it's fun and good and inspiring!) Another friend is someone I met in school who has a crazy little house in the bywater neighborhood and throws the most awesome Easter Brunch in History, where we consume epic amounts of champagne mixed with myriad fruit purees. Another friend is a fabulous chef, with a famous-ish author wife, and he makes the most AMAZING FOOD EVAR. http://www.greengoddessnola.com. Another friend and his partner are/were professional gamblers, running around to casinos and playing to match funds in credits and travel, and they hired me to re-plan their French Quarter sherrif's repo auction score of a house. And on Mardi Gras we all meet up at 8:am in full costumes, to bar-hop and house-party-hop all through the french quarter all day long, and call all our friends who aren't lucky enough to live in New Orleans and for whom it's JUST another Tuesday!

And when we travel, and are inspired to go out on the town (which is less often than you might think, based on what I've written thus far), we're SHOCKED when the bartender yells, "Last Call!" Uh???? We feel that the lack of last call, and the ability to take our drinks with us when we leave, is the only civilized way to live.

And probably the only civilized aspect of New Orleans. Yes, we're concerned about crime, but we bought in a good neighborhood, and we're careful when we're out and about. And Katrina sucked, and flooding is a constant concern, so we bought a raised house, and we're getting a generator and a pirogue ASAP. Preparation and Awareness are the way to live here.

AND... I used to skate with the local Roller Derby, the Big Easy Rollergirls (if this intrigues you, search "roller derby" and your city... you may be surprised!). But I injured myself in April and only recently recovered.... and now I don't have health insurance and it's a sorta rough sport, so I'm waiting for gainful employment/health insurance before I start skating seriously again.

And I have a job interview tomorrow. Wish me luck!

 

[blessedchickenmama7]

I am a wife and SAHM to two kindergarten aged girls whom we homeschool. We adopted them "later" in life and we also have two grown boys. One is 20 and lives at home while he goes to school and works full time. The other son is 21 and is a helicopter mechanic in the Army, currently stationed in Iraq. DH is a pastor who left his last church about a year and a half ago and has since been driving a truck (we used to own our own business, so that's a skill he could use). Due to events of the last few years, with the church situation, one our daughters having very serious health problems and the medical expenses with that, we live paycheck to paycheck, literally. Income has been variable recently.

We moved to the house we have now after the church incident. The rent is high and we are looking for something else. We are in a nice neighborhood on 1/2 acre, but can not have the animals we want here. At our home we have 2 mutt dogs and some bunnies. The bunnies are for wool because I love to spin my own yarns. It's an art. I would like to get some meat bunnies, however, not sure I will be able to use them for that unless I am starving... We have 2 roos and 6 hens who are on my father in law's property not far from the house we are renting, so that works out well. We go over daily to feed and collect eggs. And I have 16 eggs in the incubator at the moment trying to hatch for the first time in our homemade incubator.

We are currently home churching and beginning a new work where we are. My husband works a lot just to make ends meet. I cook from scratch and we seldom eat out. I set a grocery budget to feed all of us for no more than $10 per day. It's been challenging, but I am getting to the point that I can do well and very nutritiously. We are not vegetarian.

Besides spinning, I enjoy knitting, crocheting, needlefelting and sewing. I am also an avid reader. Up until my daughter had her last surgery this fall I operated an etsy shop and sold things locally to help make ends meet.

I like to learn new self-sufficiency skills. I'm cheap, and it's fun. I like the feeling of knowing I can do certain things and would not have to depend on the grid or the grocery store. This is a fairly new undertaking for me and I've only been like this for a few years. So I learn daily. My favorite things to do are make bread, can, quilt. My next self-education projects are cheese-making and butter.

Between the 3 adults in this house, we have 16 yr old truck, a 12 year old Crown Vic, and a 5 year old minivan. I'd love to have a little "green" car, but don't want the payments and don't have the money to pay cash.

 

[BarkerChickens]

I am 27 and DH is 40. We have no kids, 3 spoiled dogs, 1 cat and 30 chickens (28 hens and 2 roos). We live on 0.41 acres in a rural suburb. We are a suburb of a small city, which as a whole is suburb of a large city (we still have lots of dirt roads and large acreage around, but also have Target within 10-15 minutes). We are completely tied into the city for utilities, but hope to live off the grid someday. DH was a Project Manager for a civil engineering firm, but was laid off before T-giving. He worked hard, which let me go to school full-time without working. I am just about done with my Master's and will be starting my job full-time as a geologist this coming week.

DHs position requires a degree, which he doesn't have (so employment options are limited to say the least), so he is thinking of changing careers and going back to school for plant science (meanwhile he is enjoying time working on projects around here). We have a huge garden (~40'x100') plus a few fruit trees, etc. Now that DH is home, he wants to build a couple greenhouses.

We are currently living paycheck to paycheck, but we should be able to be a little ahead shortly between my new job and his unemployment. We have a 2003 Toyota Corolla, 1994 Jeep Wrangler and 2001 Honda Insight (which we plan to sell once we get a new rear end in the Jeep). Our vacations (once a year usually) consist of a week or two long backpacking trip into the mountains.
We consider ourselves environmentally conscious and would like to live a self-sustainable lifestyle...obviously we are little ways out from that. We don't care about name brand clothes, etc; however, often times the name brands are the ones that last longer (which is important to us...why pay cheap if you have to keep replacing it!). We do try to live frugal...only buying what we need. I am learning to can and I can sew...I want to learn to crochet.

 

[Mattemma]

Dh and I both have college degrees,but we have not used them.Dh is currently an OTR driver,and I became a SAHM the day I homebirth my dd.We have 2 kids.Live in a ranch house in the city that is just under an acre. Every year I dig up more of the yard to plant edibles.We got our chickens last spring.We spend most of our time at home.Kids are in a Montessori school,but I prefer homeschool or eschooling.Resale shops for cloths,books,and misc. stuff.

Once I had the kids I learned more about alternative health and healthy living(less chemicals/processed foods).We have a mommy van that dh got at an auction.The van and a 99 nissan are paid for.Looking to sell the nissan to fix the van.Dh got a prius this past fall.Nice car but I won't *really* enjoy it until it is paid for. I would be happy to get rid of the cable,internet,and cell phone...but the rest of the familiy wants them.Maybe I can get them canceled for the summer.

We live pay to pay.Medical insurance rarely seems to pay our medical bills.I sell eggs,plants,and misc stuff on the side.Some childcare too,but I rarely get paid for that.We vacation at home.It will be nice once we just have utilies to pay.I hope we live to see that day! Overall we are a happy little family.

 

[Goose and Fig]

This is such a neat thread! Thanks for starting it TwinMommy! So many little similarities we all have

Mattemma- as for the cable tv- here's what I do. In the spring I call and have our programming cut back to "reception" only. They don't charge to change the programming. And then I upgrade again in the fall. I found out that if you completely cancel- they charge you a boatload to re-install. Even if it's just flipping a switch. That's how our co-op works anyway.

I forgot to mention "style" in my previous post. We don't leave the property much. Clothing has to be comfortable and functional. I'll spend the extra money to buy good boots (Columbia/Cat) and big warm hoodies (Eddie Bauer) and stuff like that. I've found they're more comfortable, made of better materials, and last ALOT longer.
I'd love to drive a Prius or something really efficient, but we don't have paved roads here. I've been a loyal Jeep owner for 10 years, and don't see that changing any time soon.

 

[HBuehler]

Been married coming on 20 years

My husband has been an interior trim specialist he's been in home building for 30 years..thankfully his reputation is outstanding so we still have a little work..kind of like throwing a dog a bone every once in awhile. Recently money runs out before the week does but hanging on by a thread.Thankfully we didn't go crazy when the work was great.Even though we were in Million dollar houses working we like our too small house for 5.3 kids all home births 18,6 and 4 our oldest has Aspergers so he's not moving out soon.Homeschool mom for all these years,Girl Scout Mom-PM me I would love my daughter to sell you some cookies! Also a gym mom-she's a Gymnast,rider,dancer.My husband still drives the same truck he did 25 years ago..it's his trademark.I drive 2 we share our 93 Jeep Grand Cherokee-great on these snowy days and pulling the camper.We love to go camping out and away from people just great family time.But I transport my chickens most often in my 99 Honda Accord.No car payments here ever we won't buy if we can't pay cash other than the house.
2 horses,a donkey,2 dogs 2 cats and if anyone wants to come count the chickens feel free.I live in the Country right on a large river and yet just minutes to everything you could possibly need...great feed stores,grocery stores,all the big brand name clothing stores you can imagine etc.I don't pay full price for most things because I can get it cheaper.I don't consider that cheap just smart..now if I really want that chicken...
We only eat all natural food no white sugar white flour or bad hydrogenated oils..wouldn't call that crunchy just smart.We have our own fruit-apples,blueberries,cherries,plums,pears,peaches,and I'm sure I'm missing some.Also a big garden every year.
So in a nut shell just trying to survive this and hoping for something better to happen but don't see that in the future.

 

[cap1717]

Bachelors degree in fine arts, single, own home & older (bought used) Prius, as well as elderly Toyota pickup. Non-degreed Horticulturist. Worked with animals post college for 20 + years, Kennel management, Vet Tech and Barn Management - finally got to the age where I was noticing that plants move a lot more slowly than critters and switched to Horticulture. Specialize in Native and Adapted Desert Plant for the Southwest and have worked with most of the well know "names" in Desert Horticulture. Nearing retirement, have added a very small art studio to my house, and am painting and showing, and selling paintings (well, the selling has slowed down a bit in the recession, but I have high hopes). Addicted to reading, both fiction and non-fiction, interested in sustainable living (the chickens are the direct result of having read Barbara Kingsolvers "Animal, vegetable, miracle), and a great folk music / singer songwriter fan with aspirations of really learning how to play the many instruments I have collected.