Being Self-Sufficient

by Deanna
(Medford, Oregon )

HI, I LOVE your website! Sometimes I get choked up when I am reading all the wonderful information.

I know that might sound silly but it's because I live in a mobile home park and I have ALWAYS wanted to have a farm, ranch, homestead, place of my own. When I first started reading some of the articles, I thought, She gets it!!, She understands!! I have that soul-deep, wrenching, it makes me cry I want it so bad and am afraid I won't ever get it, kind of thing when it comes to this topic.

I love to make my own stuff. I have always said if I could have it my way I would grow veggies, fruits, herbs. Have animals, land, everything so I could be self-sufficient. It seems more than just a want or desire, it is more like a need.

I have always loved cooking and baking and I like to make from scratch things like barbecue sauce, tarter sauce and spaghetti sauce. I have tried bread, and although I enjoy the process, it never comes out right so I need to work on that and have
made a starter to work with. I want to learn how to make cheese, and other dairy products at home.

I have quite a few herbs on my porch, a few strawberry plants in pots although they don't make very many. I am trying to get some things together to make a raised bed so I can plant some fall veggies soon. I am trying to learn as much as I can here, now to help for if we ever do get a place elsewhere.

Sorry this is so long, my fingers just kept going! :) Thanks for reading, God bless.

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Jan 22, 2012
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Being Self-sufficient?
by: Anonymous

I am an well-educated man who has been gainfully employed in a company for 14 yrs.

Recently a person I know told me that they wanted to leave a corporate job that pays him well to have a self sufficient life as a farmer and live off the grid with a firm decision to never date or have a family.

He drinks a great deal (3-4 bottles 750 ml) a week. Aside from the booze he is a lazy one whom hasn't done anything with his hands his entire life.

I'm curious to know people's honest opinions on his new decision which he plans to start in next 2 yrs.

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I think that we can all be too harsh in our judgement of people.

I always like to look at people's behavior and try and see why it is that they are behaving as they are because there is always an underlying cause.

You say he drinks too much, but to some people if he was drinking 3-4 bottles of wine a week, some would consider it drinking in moderation. And if it wasn't wine one has to ask why he is drinking so much.

Most people take to drink to numb their stressful lives. It is a way of escaping reality because their reality is not a good place for them.

He may be getting well paid, but clearly he is not happy. Many of us find ourselves like hamsters on the wheel when working in jobs we don't like; doing the hard yards, but going no where.

His appearance of being lazy may not be laziness at all, but that he so hates his job so much that he has totally demotivated - even if it does pay him well. For him, clearly money is not that important if he wishes to give it all up for farming.

In playing Devil's Advocate, I also want to point out that farming is one of the hardest jobs one could ever have, and that if you are lazy by nature as a lazy farmer you will never succeed.

Finally, farming is also not a job that you will become rich on. People don't go into farming because they think that it is an easy life that will make them wealthy. They do it because they love the land, it gives them pleasure in working the soil and producing something that they can be proud of come harvest time.

Perhaps your friend knows all of these things, and is looking to change his life with a new interest, or perhaps he is delusional about what he is getting into. Only time will tell.

However, it is not up to us to either judge his plans, or gloat if he fails. Whatever the outcome, we can admire him for following a dream and to have the determination and guts to try something new outside of his 'comfort zone'.

Countryfarm Lifestyles

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