How self-sufficient are you?

[prolesunited]

I don't have the finances to get further off the grid, but I do try to save as much energy as possible. I'm a vegetarian and grow a significant portion of my food organically in my back yard. I'm prohibited from having chickens, but would like to for the eggs, which I still include in my diet. I've also learned to can foods, but need to invest in a pressure cooker to broaden what I'm able to preserve.

I've become good at scavenging and making do as well as finding what I need at resale shops. I ride my bike more than I drive my car. However, since I live just outside of Chicago, my self-sufficiency is limited by the weather.

So, where do you fall on/off the grid?

[MrSlayer]

1. I'm completely on the grid.

I live in a city, grow none of my own food or any of that. I could figure out how to live off the land if I were forced to retreat from society but I really would not enjoy it.

[slackmaster]

2. Canning is easy and fun. I do it at least once a year with surplus tomato sauce.

Get a pressure canner that holds at least seven one-quart jars. I have an older aluminum one that can't be used for cooking food directly. If you can afford a stainless steel one, do that.

I'm not nearly as off the grid as you are. If I couldn't get to Trader Joe's, I'd starve soon.

[prolesunited]

5. They are really pricey

and I'm not going old or second-hand on that. I don't worry too much about botulism with my high-acid foods -- I do assorted jams, apple butter, pickles, three-bean salad, dilly beans, assorted relishes, beets, tomatoes and salsa. But other foods are trickier. For now, I'm just freezing different soups and other cooked meals. I do have a chest freezer in the basement.

[Denninmi]

3. Well, energy wise, I'm not at all.

Off the grid isn't an option for me, either, at this time. Or, perhaps I should say, it's not something I realistically have investigated, because, despite the push for alternative energy here in Michigan, my community still discourages it -- they were debating last year on an ordinance to allow wind turbines, but couldn't come to an agreement. It was kind of discouraging, considering my township board is 5 dems and 2 repukes, and the dems coulnd't agree amongst themselves.

Otherwise, I am VERY self-sufficient. I have 2.2 acres in the 'burbs of Detroit. I have chickens, ducks, turkeys, and quail. Six beehives. About 100 fruit and nut trees of various kinds and stages of maturity. I plant extensive vegetable gardens every year, and have all kinds of small fruits and berries. I grow several kinds of mushrooms, lots of herbs. I can, freeze, and dry everything I possibly can.

My latest project -- I'm in the middle of grinding about 100 lbs of heirloom flour, dent, and flint corns I grew into cornmeal. While tedious, it will provide me with about 2 years worth of cornmeal. My mother, who is 85, is still working on cracking black walnuts from last year. Two years ago, she ended up with a total of 68 lbs of shelled nutmeats.

I hate to admit this, but I have 5 chest freezers plus 2 additional fridge/freezer combos.

[StandingInLeftField]

7. Did you see Detroit Wild City?

If you did, what did you think of it?

http://vimeo.com/15415055

[prolesunited]

8. Wow! That is very, very impressive.

Is it just you doing all of this? I just have strawberries and raspberries, but no nut or fruit trees, since I just have a small yard. I successfully tried one of those mushroom kits you can order, but haven't done anything since.

With such a short growing season, you really need to stock up. I don't have an expensive vacuum sealer for freezer items, but I have a Handi-vac with special bags that work well with minimal expense. Sometimes it's hard to keep on top of things to eliminate spoilage.

[kestrel91316]

26. If I had the land and the climate, I'd be doing exactly what you are.

Oh, BTW, don't grind that corn for meal until shortly before you use it - the nutrients last MUCh longer in the intact kernels.

I have a lovely Country Living grain mill - in my Los Angeles apartment. People think I am odd. I think the flour I grind with it is superb, lol.

[DeschutesRiver]

34. I just met the person who has more chest freezers than me.

I can't believe it:)

We raise our own cattle now, and freeze summer harvests for the six months of winter (when we rarely leave our hill once the snows start flying).

P.S. Hugs to your mother who is a champion of shelling as far as I am concerned - that is a whole lot of nutmeats to pull out, and it is hard work.

[Xipe Totec]

4. The lesson of the bee hive

The bee hive is an emblem of industry, and recommends the practice of that virtue to all created beings, from the highest seraph in heaven to the lowest reptile of the dust. It teaches us that, as we came into the world endowed as rational and intelligent beings, so we should ever be industrious ones; never sitting down contented while our fellow creatures around us are in want, when it is in our power to relieve them, without inconvenience to ourselves.

When we take a survey of nature, we view man in his infancy, more helpless and indigent than the brute creation; he lies languishing for days, months and years, totally incapable of providing sustenance for himself, or guarding against the attack of the wild beasts of the field, or sheltering himself from the inclemencies of the weather.

It might have pleased the great Creator of heaven and earth to have made man independent of all other beings; but, as dependence is one of the strongest bonds of society, mankind were made dependent upon each other for protection and security, as they thereby enjoy better opportunities of fulfilling the duties of reciprocal love and friendship. Thus was man formed for social and active life.

[JuniperLea]

37. Damn socialist bees...

Hives, communes, same thing.

I hope they survive... I hear they're having a rough go of it right now. Damn humans are probably to blame.

[Xipe Totec]

38. Probably?

Definitely!

:rofl:

[tularetom]

6. We could get off the grid but we don't

We have about a half acre veggie garden and we pretty much furnish our own vegetables from it.

We have chickens and they provide all the eggs we need plus the occasional chicken dinner.

Meat, dairy, bread, condiments we buy usually at Costco. Because we live 35 miles away and a trip to the store is usually at least a half day affair for us.

I really have no aspirations to live off the grid. A lot of what we do is because we are relatively isolated in terms of access tomarkets.

[Lyric]

9. About half.

I grow part of our family's food, and we make most things from scratch instead of buying prepackaged, boxed versions. We don't have a car, so we either walk or take the bus. I know how to sew by hand, and I've made blankets, curtains, pillows, and other household goods that way (although I've never made clothes). However, I receive Food Stamps and Medicaid, so I guess that cancels out a huge chunk of our self-sufficiency. :(

[rgbecker]

10. On, for now.

I'm totally beholding the government at all levels. I need them to inspect the meat, milk and eggs and everyone who handled it from the farm to my house. I'm hoping they keep the roads in good repair so the trucks can keep coming to my town. My local board of health makes sure me and my neighbors ensure our septic systems are working and they are running the local waste water treatment plant to keep my neighbors from polluting the streams, ponds and ocean. They take care of my kids for most of the day and teach them some things. I'm lucky and have been able to continue paying my mortgage which the registry of deeds has registered and is keeping track of. The running water from the town water company is pretty safe and thanks to the state the electric company, cable and phone company and car insurance company have to get permission before they can increase my rates, giving me an opportunity to bitch about the rates before they do. I don't bother keeping guns because the cops will be here in about 5 minutes if I call them as would the fire department We have zoning here so I know my neighbor can't build a deer tanning factory or fish processing plant or any other things which would greatly reduce the pleasantness of my living situation. We still let people have chickens, but I'd just as soon let others take care of that. When the gasoline and oil runs out, I'll be burning more wood and looking into an electric car which I could charge with a solar panel or two.

[Kennah]

11. I've told the wife ...

... with our minivan paid for, we'll always have a roof over our heads.

[Dappleganger]

12. Good one!

That's how I feel about our vehicles.

[TBF]

17. LOL - us too - only not so high a roof on the station wagon. nt

[La Lioness Priyanka]

13. i have a small carbon footprint because city dwellers tend to

but if trader joes/farmers markets were not around, i would starve

[bvar22]

14. So far, so good.

We sold everything and moved to The Woods in 2006.

Free Range Chickens
Big Veggie Garden...getting bigger
a variety of Fruits & cultivated Berries
2 Honey Bee Colonies
On Property Spring water
National Forest 3 sides/ Wild Game
Wood Stove primary heat
Can and Freeze surplus when possible
Buy in bulk and cook from scratch
Buy 2nd hand or salvage when possible
Establishing barter relationships with neighbors

Its a process.
After 4 years, we are getting better at it.
Next year, we will !CONSUME! even less.
Less IS more.

We are not fanatics.
We enjoy doing this, but take the occasional Road Trip to The City for some good:
Memphis BBQ
Chinese,
Italian,
authentic Mexican,
Gulf Coast Oysters (moratorium here since the Gusher :().

I guess we could do without,
but life would be pretty grim if we were limited to what we could produce ourselves...
especially during Winter.
We really hope it never comes to that.


---bvar22 & Starkraven
Living well on skills we learned in the 60s
:hippie:

[Liberal_in_LA]

16. Nice plot

[bobbolink]

15. Completely off the grid. Living in my car creates a very small carbon footprint.

Eat your hearts out, liberals!

Live in your car and you, too, can be "Green"!

[TBF]

18. Crap, bobbolink, with our luck they'll read this and add it to the platform in 2012.

It'll be their justification for cutting social security.

[bobbolink]

19. I would welcome the company. I don't wish to hog all the fun to myself. And, *I* have been cut

from disability, so why should all the rest of you receive what I can't?

[TBF]

21. You have a point there -

and I'm sorry your disability was cut. The wealthy have given up any pretense of caring about others, here and in many other countries.

[bobbolink]

28. The wealthy? I don't notice a rush of support from the middleclass......

Do you see any big push on DU to change the whole poverty situation?

I don't, either.

[TBF]

30. No I see complicit democrats. At some point you'd think

folks would realize that "middle class" is a myth. There are the very wealthy who own everything, and then there are the crumbs. I don't count the so-called "professional class" as wealthy either - they may have income but those McMansions and Lexus SUV's they are so proud of are mortgaged to the hilt.

[bobbolink]

33. And the "professional class" you mention are the ones running what used to be *my* party, and they

have absolutely no concern for the likes of me and the thousands who are trapped as I am.

And the more that the party and the "progressive" media keep pushing the problems of "the middle class", the more we who are on the very bottom are ignored.

I keep asking... when will all of YOU (plural, you... not you individually) start speaking up? How much suffering and deaths are YOU (plural, you) willing to ignore?

I live around this attitude, and know just how toxic it is!

[Catherina]

36. +1 which leads to the very sad statement

of fuck the middle class. It's an illusion and a lie. We live in a world of serfs and overlords with some serfs living better than others.

[tsparker78]

20. Self Sufficiency is unheard of in America

It is just not going to happen.

[Kennah]

35. Except Alaska

They're all fiercely independent--so long as the rest of us continue to subsidize the state. Same dementia afflicts much of Eastern Washington.

[InvisibleTouch]

22. I'm about 40% there...

...and ever year I get closer to my goal of total independence for self and family.

[Codeine]

23. Self-sufficiency is a fantasy, and a silly one at that.

Societies and civilizations exist because we can never truly be self-sufficient individually, at least beyond a bare subsistence lifestyle. And why would we want to? Everything that makes civilization great and edifying and soul-enriching comes from putting our efforts together and exchanging our effort and knowledge.

I don't want to live "off-the-grid." I don't want to grow my own food, at least not past some tasty tomatoes and my windowsill herb garden. I don't want to try to supply my own power when it can be done far more efficiently on an industrial scale.

In short -- fuck all that animistic, back-to-the-land, Luddite nonsense! Man has moved well past that, and I for one am glad.

[SoCalDem]

24. Commune-style self sufficiency is not for most people

But as individual families there is a LOT that can be done to make life a bit cheaper:)

[kestrel91316]

27. I don't suppose reading Sharon Astyk's blogs would make any

difference to your sad, hermetically sealed, Inland Empire-addled mind.......but here she is:

http://scienceblogs.com/casaubonsbook/

[prolesunited]

29. I didn't advocate being a Luddite

or advocate a bare subsistence lifestyle or call for the end of civilization. Overreact much?

My goal is to save the money I don't have, but also have found joy in living more simply and not being caught up in consumerism. I also think many of our habits are not sustainable and there are many simple things we can do far short of living in a cave that will lessen our environmental impact.

That industrial scale is literally killing the planet.

[TBF]

32. To be specific it is capitalism killing the planet. nt

[Exilednight]

25. I have a garden, but eat meat. Luckily, where I live I am allowed to have up to

six chickens. This winter I am going to build a coup and next spring a friend from work is giving me the chickens.

I currently have an electric hot water heater, natural gas is not available where I live and heating oil is quite expensive. Sadly, the water heater uses more energy than anything else I own, but I am looking to install small set of solar panels and move the water heater off the grid. It will reduce my electric bill by 1/3.

I have a pellet stove that is surprisingly quiet efficient. A 40 lbs bag of pellets leave less than a 1/2 lbs of ash and lasts up to 17 hours.

One thing I did for water conservation is switch over to an organic laundry soap and drain my washing machine out to my garden.

During the summer I try avoid using my dryer, but even when I do use it I keep the setting on low heat.

[Iggo]

31. Not at all.

[bemildred]

39. Self-sufficiency is a delusion. nt