Selfsufficientish.com

You are all so lucky to have been brought up in such a life... I am starting from scratch, teaching myself everything as I go along... Am I really the only newcomer to all this?

Not, you're not the only one, I was just thinking the same thing.

Imagine being the typical suburbanite parents. 2 jobs, 2 kids, 3 bedroom house. The older child is typical too, interested in video games and action figures, while the youngest is just starting to string words together into sentances.

Now imagine that younger girl looking you in the eye one day, hands on hips, and demanding "I want my own garden."

Yep, that was me. Self-sufficiency has been my obsession for longer than I can remember. My parents were mystified. Still are, in fact. Fortunately, they tolerated me while thinking I'd outgrow that phase. Made toys easy to find, I remember at the age of 6 I discovered a mulberry tree not too far from our house. After verifying that the berries weren't poisonous (even then I was cautious), I picked a bucket full, and spent the next hour or so with a saucepan and a potato masher "making jam".
(I had no clue how to make jam, and neither did anyone else in the family, but I had fun, and the mush tasted good.)

I have since discovered that people actually wrote books on the subject, and have amassed quite a collection. Unfortunately, 2 weeks after I bought my own land, I suffered a major setback in terms of health. But, I'm starting to get back into the swing of things, I just got a bunch of seeds in the mail, there's a dozen more gardening catalogs to go through :D

-Ellendra

Annpan wrote:You are all so lucky to have been brought up in such a life... I am starting from scratch, teaching myself everything as I go along... Am I really the only newcomer to all this?

i would consider myself a newcomer as well, Annpan.....i didnt grow up with parents who followed in their parents footsteps, so what i'm doing now is all about me teaching myself one step at a time. i just never lost the memory of my grandfathers backyard and have always known one day i'd get back to that.

For us it was very much like the first episode of the Good Life in that we created a long list of what we didn't want. At the time we lived in London, both worked stupid hours and were continually hopping on and off planes. On the rare occasions when we were both at home we were generally too tired to do anything. Increasingly we would go to the country with our free-time; always dreading returning to our flat and our jobs. After returning from one such weekend away, the list was born and the idea just snowballed.

I am a newcomer. my grandparents had a veg garden but even then it was only a hobby rather than full self sufficiency. my grandad thought himself to be quite the Tom Good at one point but like all things he never followed through on it properly. I have planted lavendar out the front, saved my landlord's rosemary from certain doom, pulled out all his dead plants (REALLY dead not just hibernating lol!) and planted some flowers in the back garden, and some thyme and garlic by the shed. the thyme is planted in a big pot so it has room to spread a bit but not take over.

I'm not only a newcomer, I'm a newcomer with very little actual soil lol! I'm going to be doing toms in a growbag or 3, strawbs and nasturtiums in a couple of hanging baskets and I got some special "container growing" cucumber seeds this morning to try out. they will no doubt be planted in a modified plastic curver box 'cos i'm trying to do all of this as cheap as possible.

I'm having to start from scratch too, although my granddad always grew his own veg, and had chickens and ducks, I don't really remember it, I can only remember walking down the garden path and loving the smell of the mint, and sitting in his greenhouse made completely out of old windows that used to shake when it was windy!

I was put off though at the time, because he ate my albino rabbits. I came home from school to find their skins on the washing line

But having my daughter seems to have flicked a switch and I can't wait to get back to the earth and live as naturally as I can.

Amanda

Back in the land of the living, last week I was bitten by a dog, had to have a tetanus injection to cover it, and then to top it all, picked up a rotten cold.
The injection and the cold seemed to have joined forces in order to put me flat on my back. This morning I have decided I'm not going to die Lol, the day before yesterday I was frightened that I wouldn't.

I have just been catching up with all your brilliant posts, it really is good to read all your stories and hear about your plans, and hopes for the future

Forward and onwards Carruthers.

I come from a small holding background, that my poor mum desperately tried to escape by moving to the UK and living in a town.

Unfortunately she moved in with older relatives who just could not give up their upbringing so they were growing veg and keeping chickens in their large back garden. And for a child uprooted to another country it was very soothing to find myself back amongst things I understood.

But of course being a teen you then hit rebellion and I tried to put all that soft stuff behind me and got on with being a bit of a gothic biker and then a corporate grey suited commuter slave, and then when I had my daughter it all just welled up and so we went in search of our good life here in France.

Full circle!

Good for you.
I think we all went through that stage, i certainly did.including the power clothes

For me, I think self-sufficiency may be in the genes. My dad did some gardening, hunting, and fishing. His dad grew up on the farm, but thought he'd be happier doing something else, so he let his sister have the farm.

My father in law was a small farmer here in Germany. He had to give it up, though, shortly before I met my wife, due to changes in the agricultural landscape. Large scale farming drove prices so low he could no longer make a living at it. He did keep his fields, thoough, and leased them instead of selling to the larger farmers. He gave us a small piece of land, with room for a garden and the carp pond. It's not much, but it is more than most have and enough to get a good start in being self sufficient.

Another reason I am trying to be self-sufficient has to do with my health. I've been out of work since 2002, and still not really able to work well enough to hold down a full time job. Being self-sufficient helps with the grocery bills and gives me something to do.

Annpan wrote:You are all so lucky to have been brought up in such a life... I am starting from scratch, teaching myself everything as I go along... Am I really the only newcomer to all this?

I am a new comer really! My Nana made sure I had a tiny seed of "selfsufficientishness" sown in me before my parents moved us 300 miles away from her when I was 9, but it has taken years for it to germinate! My mother was a snob (people actually called her Margo!) and was always worried about keeping up with the Jones' and what the jones' were thinking, so she was always wanting and needing, whether it was new clothes, carpets or re-decorating etc. My dad was more laid back and I think if he'd married the right person (ooh that sounds awful) he may have followed in his mother's (my Nana's) footsteps a bit more!

I have fond memories of picking wild berries and nuts from hedgerows and helping my Nan with the watering on her veggie plot!

People's stories are so fascinating. When I was a child my mother cooked many things from scratch, but that was due to her home economist training rather than any higher ideals. I've always had an interest in the natural world (what an awful phrase!), considered the origins of my food etc, but with a varying income and circumstances sometimes had to turn a blind eye to what I was eating.

My husband is vegetarian, and it was moving in with him seven years ago (itch itch lol!) followed by our daughter arriving a year later that really had me tackling all this stuff. Cloth nappies led to near-total eradication of paper bought to be chucked out (ie kitchen roll, tissues etc - haven't yet won the battle on loo roll!), and there's nothing like pristine baby skin to make you examine what's in the products you use on them and around them. A severe drop in income necessitated making big cuts in the food bill too, so it's been a combination of things.

Living where we do in the midst of breathtaking scenery and in an agricultural economy it all feels very natural. I love it!

Living in cities in the US that have been hit by hurricanes scared me. When basic human services are suddenly cut off in cities like Houston and New Orleans, self sufficiency suddenly becomes an imperative condition.
This forum promotes lots of self-sufficiency without all that survivalism nonsense.

Chuck

Both sets of Grandparents grew their own. One had done the whole dig-for-victory thing and seemed unable to give it up. The other one was younger so spent the war fighting, but came home to what he thought was a 'better world' and that included the use of pesticides, fertilizers etc. I learned loads from both of them. The older gramps made compost and used manure and made his own sheds and greenhouses, the younger one bought it all via catalogues, but could grow anything from seed. My grannies knitted, crocheted and sewed and knew from bitter experience how to be frugal. My parents would have nothing to do with this and our garden was simply lawn which Dad grudgingly mowed once a fortnight. But I was always happier and more comfortable living as my grandparents had, so spent lots of time with them, being given my own little patch in both their gardens. As an adult I've taken it to an extreme that even they didn't attempt, but I'm so happy with this life-style I keep wondering what's going to go wrong.

I'm here having learnt about Peak Oil and Transition Towns about a month ago. I'm currently a million miles away from even bearing the slightest hint of being self sufficient but the intention is there.. one small step each day.

[quote="Earth Nat] My mother was a snob (people actually called her Margo!) and was always worried about keeping up with the Jones' and what the jones' were thinking, so she was always wanting and needing, whether it was new clothes, carpets or re-decorating etc. [/quote]
Are you my long lost sister?? My mother does garden - but only to make it the most perfect and admired garden in the village! My Dad likes to potter in the green house and would happily plant lots of veg- but that's just not good enough for "Margot"!
I think that at first it was lack of money that began my journey towards Ishness but then I realised that I had a responsibility to take care of our environment if there is to be anything left for my children and they children to come. I'm by no means perfectly green - but I am trying as best I can and I'm always open to suggestions as to how to do more.