Back to Basic things

[Stravinsk]

Back to Basics things.

What do you do, if anything, in being self sufficient in terms of domestic life?

By this I mean -

Have you built your own house?
Grow vegetables and fruit?
Make Jams?
Use solar or wind as a supplement, or in place of grid electricity?
Bottle fruit?
Make clothing?
Raise livestock?
etc etc.

I do just a few things:

I make beer - but it's almost always from commercial kits. I made wine once from scratch, though, using just sultanas and water and home grown yeast.

I have recently started buying tomatoes in bulk(when on sale), bottling them, and boiling them in the bottle to preserve them.

Have recently started buying bulk broccoli - when it's on sale, blanching then freezing it.

Make homemade beef jerky.

I have grown some vegetables - but I've been lazy about keeping it up.

I have fruit trees - but I hardly ever eat fruit - I'm thinking I should take advantage of what I have and bottle some of it or make jams.

Nearly everything I eat is, in fact, store bought- but 95% of it is unprocessed. Beans, vegetables, meat, rice, whole wheat flour for making bread etc...


What do you do along these lines?

 

[Rhye]

I'll get back to my stuff but the first thing that came to mind was my two uncles, both grandfathers, and father who build their houses. It was a fantastic experienced to see my uncles building their house by themselves when I was younger.

 

[mina]

Back to Basics things.



Have you built your own house? no, but I did a lot of my own home improvements over the years
Grow vegetables and fruit? Yes, my parents have a huge garden and I grew up learning to do this. At my old home I had a fig tree, apple tree, pomegrante tree, tomatoes and an herb garden. I would have liked to have done more. I hope that when we find a house I will be able to have a garden.
Make Jams? I have before. My parents do this on a regular basis. For my wedding my dad made blueberry strawberry jam for favors.
Use solar or wind as a supplement, or in place of grid electricity? no
Bottle fruit? Is this like pickling? I've pickled fruits and veggies before.
Make clothing? Yes, I can make things from a pattern and design my own things.
Raise livestock? Not currently but we had chickens growing up; my brother has a farm and raises goats and cows and chickens.
etc etc.

.


What do you do along these lines?

If I can do things on my own I try to. Especially where food is concerned. When I was growing up we never bought fruits and veggies unless there was something we needed that we didn't grow. My parents and neighbors all had substantially large gardens and we often all shared produce. There is nothing like fresh strawberries that you can pop right in your mouth after picking them.

 

[Socktastic]

They may not be actual "answer these" questions, but they give me a starting point rather than a wall of rambling mess.

Have you built your own house?
I've lived in a tent, which involved setting it up/taking it down on a daily basis, if that counts? And i've built snow tunnels and wood shelters, but not a permanent structure. Planning permission, lack of money and know how, that generally means building anything is a no-go until land/permission/knowledge is obtained and I can source materials i'd feel comfortable using.

Grow vegetables and fruit?
Yes. I'm always slightly shocked when people don't . I like growing things, even if they're limited to various pots and make-shift windowsill greenhouses/containers. At uni I have kind of given up trying to divide my time between adequately caring for a garden/windowsill of plants and just buy big sacks of dirt covered things from the farmers market.

Make Jams?
I make all sorts of preserves, when time allows and I do not have housemates who are less than happy with valuable space being taken up with stuff they have no desire to eat. Really got into making fruit butter though, gosh, that stuff... sure it was a little (lot) like baby food, but who cares? It was a delicious addition to an otherwise oaty breakfast. That and marmalade, i'm all about bitter-sweet spreads.

Use solar or wind as a supplement, or in place of grid electricity?
If I were not in a house where the energy supply is pretty much dictated by the actual house owner then solar panels would be upon the roof and making neighbours shout about how ugly they are by next week (or whenever someone could come round and fix it up). We'll see. It's a possibility depending on feasibility.

Bottle fruit?
No. I should start, freezing is good but takes up so much space, plus bottling looks a whole lot more useful if the mood suddenly takes me to do something, rather than working with frozen goods. Plus if the plan goes ahead i'll be living without a fridge/freezer for a while, so i'll definitely need to go back to some of the more traditional preservation methods.

Make clothing?
Haha, yes! Sometimes. I'm too lazy, I need to do it on a far more frequent basis. Maybe once I graduate, and get a job which lends itself to such things. I always take far too long with clothes, they have to be just right and robust enough to cope with boisterous dogs.

Raise livestock?
Previously, yes. Now the chickens are all I have and they're not even 100% my own. They're shared chickens, which is a nice thing. No worrying about what i'm going to do with them when I move but all the joy of chicken ownership up until that point. Not sure if i'd go back to keeping anything else ... I really should consider sheep so I can spin my own yarn and use them as lawnmowers again but that would require a far more dedicated search than simply finding a landlord that'll allow chickens. There are a few traditional breeds that are just small and hardy enough to consider though. It's an option. Should probably go back to pot/fur rabbits too. Would make it easier for the raw aspect of the dogs diet and rabbit fur can be a brilliant lining for winter boots.

Do bees count as livestock? They're on my "animals to get once not living with hysterical females/I claim an allotment" list. Honey, I use it in so many things that I should at least give beekeeping a go.

Drinks and things.
I make a lot of seasonal beverages. Generally I don't take them to the point of fermentation, if they are they're intended as gifts rather than something to guzzle. Elderflowers, at the right time of year, are fabulous for it. Dandelion too (and of course burdock). Nettles are interesting. The only problem with it is that sourcing good quality plants away from heavily polluted areas can be a drag.




I still buy a lot of things. I'm a lazy student who really needs to get back into the swing of things before this city life made me lazy.

 

[twnsrkr]

I'm a farmer, so I do a little bit

 

[Inkachu]

Can't do much of that stuff while in an apartment so...

Don is the gardener and chef of the family, so once we're in our house (March 30th, yay!) we do plan to have a garden and grow our own veggies. He also makes homemade bread and jams (wOoT!) and a ton of other food items.

 

[Miss Spaulding]

Have you built your own house?
No. But the home I live in now was my grandparents home which my grandfather, my father and my uncle built themselves. I love it.
Grow vegetables and fruit?
We were growing vegetables last year, but it wasn't working out very well. I guess we don't have much of a green thumb, which is weird since my grandfather was the KING of growing. I can't even begin to explain what all he could grow and how well he grew it when he was alive. It's all a shame that we can't seem to make it work because our soil is so rich and healthy. We'll probably give it another shot this year.
Make Jams?
No. But though most every vegetable we tried to grow failed, our okra was a success (of course we didn't have a large amount) and I did pickle some of them. It was SO good!
Use solar or wind as a supplement, or in place of grid electricity?
No. However, my Dad is so into this kind of thing. Lol.
Bottle fruit?
No. But I'd like to do it. We really should start doing this kind of thing, but of course with only non-GMO fruits (all foods for that matter).
Make clothing?
No, I can't sew for the life of me. But Mom can. She could totally make clothes is she needed to.
Raise livestock?
Yes. Well, only chickens. But they all were killed. We'll be getting some more soon though. I loved having chickens. And our neighbors always appreciated the fresh eggs.

 

[Nienna_Lady_of_Tears]

I grew up in Silicon Valley as a geek child in a mobile home, so only one of the above applied to me. I can sew, knit, and crochet, but the only things I'm capable of knitting and crocheting are scarves. I can repair clothing, but my proportions are oddly shaped (as are the proportions on pattern sizing, only mine are to the other extreme) so I don't do much sewing unless it's a fabric with some stretch or doesn't have a fixed waist.

Some years I grow basil in a pot if that counts.

 

[Stravinsk]

I grew up in Silicon Valley as a geek child in a mobile home, so only one of the above applied to me. I can sew, knit, and crochet, but the only things I'm capable of knitting and crocheting are scarves. I can repair clothing, but my proportions are oddly shaped (as are the proportions on pattern sizing, only mine are to the other extreme) so I don't do much sewing unless it's a fabric with some stretch or doesn't have a fixed waist.

Some years I grow basil in a pot if that counts.

Both those things count.

 

[sampa]

Back to Basics things.

What do you do, if anything, in being self sufficient in terms of domestic life?

By this I mean -

Have you built your own house?
Grow vegetables and fruit?
Make Jams?
Use solar or wind as a supplement, or in place of grid electricity?
Bottle fruit?
Make clothing?
Raise livestock?
etc etc.

I do just a few things:

I make beer - but it's almost always from commercial kits. I made wine once from scratch, though, using just sultanas and water and home grown yeast.

I have recently started buying tomatoes in bulk(when on sale), bottling them, and boiling them in the bottle to preserve them.

Have recently started buying bulk broccoli - when it's on sale, blanching then freezing it.

Make homemade beef jerky.

I have grown some vegetables - but I've been lazy about keeping it up.

I have fruit trees - but I hardly ever eat fruit - I'm thinking I should take advantage of what I have and bottle some of it or make jams.

Nearly everything I eat is, in fact, store bought- but 95% of it is unprocessed. Beans, vegetables, meat, rice, whole wheat flour for making bread etc...


What do you do along these lines?

Love this question. Working on my garden (landlords) and adding each year. Non-hybrid seeds. using vinegar for laundry softner. PH more natural products. Tukrning more vegetarian (beans) to save money. Joined a preppers club. And looking to most likely be with someone in the future geared towards this same lifestyle.

 

[Inkachu]

Now that we're settled in our house (goodbye apartment, we will NOT miss you!) I can update a little bit

We've planted several kinds of veggies in our new garden, and hope to expand it each year. We agreed not to do fruit trees because Don is allergic to bees and I'm terrified of bees, and fruit = bees lol. Don still makes his homemade, organic breads and we've been selling them at our local farmer's market. We've made huge strides away from processed foods in general, which is actually fun and very satisfying

I'd LOVE to have a little farmette someday, with a few laying hens, and some other critters who may not produce anything, but would just be fun to have around, like donkeys I lurve donkeys.

 

[Puptart]

My definition of self-sufficiency is driving my own car to the nearest WalMart. I am not domestic or crafty (I do make beaded necklaces but that's not what I mean in terms of 'crafty' here), I do none of the above and hopefully will never have to

 

[sampa]

Little by little I'm becoming less reliant on technology and learning ways to adapt to not being with electricity. Every 3 weeks a tree goes down where I live and electricity out When it goes out, I start taking the time to read my self-sufficiency books and make a list of the things I need to do and do them that week.

 

[Verve]

Have you built your own house?
No

Grow vegetables and fruit?
I do not have good luck with plants.

Make Jams?
I've wanted to try and I'm pretty good at cooking from scratch.

Use solar or wind as a supplement, or in place of grid electricity?
No, but I'd consider it.

Bottle fruit?
What?

Make clothing?
Yay! Something I can do. Now I don't feel so incompetent!

Raise livestock?
I've raised rabbits before. Mmmm tasty tasty bunnies.
To all those who have pet bunnies.



I took this quiz and it said I'd need 1.6 earths if everyone lived like me.
Ecological Footprint Quiz by Center for Sustainable Economy

 

[mina]

Next month I'll be able to start a garden! Yay!

 

[sampa]

Next month I'll be able to start a garden! Yay!

awesome, I've been eating some good greens (kale, lettuce, and chard) out of mine so far.

 

[lisah]

I am not very domestic or self-sufficient when compared to my husband, who:

Makes jams
Makes jerky
Gardens
Cans and freezes foods
Built his own smoker (awesome)
Built his own kiln
Built his own band saw and metal lathe
Built his own generator
Casts his own machine parts
Fixes (practically everyone's) cars

Does laundry and cooks

-------------

I can:

Sew
Develop photo's (film)