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How many of you can get by with out going to a store?
Posted by amybyrd21 • 8/31/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: can you make it, homesteading, self sufficent
How many of you could make it with out a store? Can you become self sufficent and live with out having to go to the store all the time? Can you provide your own food if needed? (Not five star eating mind you jus what you need to survive.)
We are getting better at it. We are looking into getting a milk cow and a beef cow and then we will be all set in the grocery department. We would like to live off grid and not rely on any thing like that at all. That just takes a little time.
User Comments
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I live in the city but if I got off my lazy butt I could have a nice garden.-
you cant grow bacon on a plant but you can make your own bacon and save a ton from that is the store and it would be better.
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too much effort
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No is isnt I can send you how. Oh byt he way I am getting two more pigs at theend off Oct and one more sometime between that so I will have pigs coming out of my ears. Enough bacon to go around for everyone.
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lucky!
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@ca, second comment: Actually, in my experience it is easier to raise animals then plants as there is very little yard work involve, especially if you're doing it feed-lot level rather then from the piglet/chick/calf. It's also more humane as you can supervise their slaughtering yourself and make sure that they'd have more room to run around in then they'd have at the commercial feed lot. Of course, it does poop. -
But Jeremeyjanson that poop is a gold mind when growing veggies and such. Free fertilizer
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That's true. But we're assuming he's too lazy to do yardwork.
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well I already garden,that's just what you do in the south. When it came time to killing an animal no way in HELL I could do it. -
I used to have a pot belly pig named BLOSSOM.... I miss her so much. she was my guard pig.
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I want one!
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craigslist here gives them away everyday or super cheap like $35 for a baby.
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$35 for a baby? -
yes,but you have to live in the country because they can get kinda big.
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I knew a lady with a pot belly pig, it was really smart it learned to open doors to the point the refrigerator and cupboards had to be chained. It also taught her dogs the trick so even after it was long gone the doors had to remain locked at all times.
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I know they are soooooooooooooo cute!!!
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That would be great ! Not where I live now though..maybe someday.
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Where do u live?
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in New York City..
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oh.I don't know why I was thinking you lived in australia
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I did it when I was living in Miami. Never went to a store. I used to eat all my meals in restaurants.-
that is cheating. I make due with what I raise most of the time.
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Technically a restaurants a store, it's just one that sells more then food.
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tehehe,that's funny
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It is cheating and he knows it. lol He could grow his own food if he really wanted to I know it. I wish I could eat out every dauy so I didnt have to do the dishes.
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I couldn't where I live it is an urban area but not quite a city. I am at the store usually 3 days a week so it would be a change but if I had to and lived in a different area I could do it. Had a full garden growing up and my parents had farmers for friends. The animal part was hard, some you get attached to. We had a pig we got as a baby, my Dad named her Pork Chop thinking that would make it easier when the day came but it didn't. She was my buddy as a kid, it was a sad day
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oh no, u ate pork chop
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Yeah We got her with that intention. We also had chickens which weren't as easy to attach to (except when little chicks.) Pork Chop was soooo cool though, I was a kid who got juiced by the electric fence everyday just to play with her and she would let me ride on her back. She got big too! That day was the only time to this day I saw my Dad shed a tear
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oh your gonna make me cry. I so love animals.
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One of ours is 750 lbs and you can ride on her back. She is so cool. she is intelligent and loves people.
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Sorry This is going back over 20 years. My Dad never got any other animals for that purpose after that day. We had pets but only pets from that day on.
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@Amy
Yeah pigs are cool and people don't realize that they can become lovable oversized babies
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ours are for breeding so we wont eat her. But the kids got attached to the runt from the ls litter and I gave her away before world war three started here. Hubby brings her to the house and names her for cying out loud. They got attached to little salley mae
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We havent eaten one of our hogs yet because we have sold all the babies but I have done a ton of chickens. Hubby cant eat tem the same day but he does after about a week.
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Amy. That is awesome. Glad to hear that. We haven't gotten that far ourselves. I grow more of my own food and trade with neighbors as well as getting plenty from local growers/farmers in our area. We go to the store less and less. Off the grid is a ways to go yet but a good aspiration. My family is getting closer every year. Now have pigs, goats, chickens, organic raised beds, gardens, fruit trees and bushes, herbs, etc. Were getting there. It is nice to save some $$$ too. How good does it feel to pay off a bill and save some $$? Real good. -
We are also working on becoming store independent. We grow what we can, and hopefully we will be in a place where we can keep a few chickens and some goats for eggs, poultry, and milk. (I can't do cow's milk). I also want a green house so I can grow more food for longer periods of time so I can do less canning
We also hunt.
Alas, I still have to go to the store twice a month -
Oppsy daisy
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I don't have enough room for livestock. I'd probably have to eat stray cats and dogs.-
ur just craaaaaazy
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that is nasty. I couldnt do that at all. yuck. lol
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I'll be honest. I wouldn't last very long. However, if worst comes to worst, I may have no other choice. -
I actually like grocery shopping. I guess it's because I did that a lot as a kid with my parents. I don't have a green thumb or a farm so I don't have much of a choice either.-
I have gotten where I hate grocery shopping. I dont have the money, nor do I want what they put in the store bought foods alot of times. If I make it on my own then I dont have to worry.
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I remember in the 1990's (before girlfriend) and living alone .. it actually was cheaper to eat out at restaurants every day instead of buying groceries at a store for 1. -
well hunny it ain't no more.
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you could go around and eat off the dollar menus every where and try it. But you would be very unhealthy and as big as a barn
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Questions: How many of you could make it with out a store? Can you become self sufficent and live with out having to go to the store all the time? Can you provide your own food if needed? (Not five star eating mind you jus what you need to survive.)
No problem here. We are back-to-the-landers, who were originally raised in the bush and on farms and then spent some time in cities before we chose where we wanted to live. We could go for weeks without entering a store and possibly even months. We no longer raise livestock, waterfowl and poultry. However, we both produce and barter for food, fruits, meat, fish, nuts and eggs. We preserve, dehydrate and freeze foods and we have a full pantry at all times. We make our own cleaning products, soaps, candles, wine, beer, liqueurs, etc. (Sadly there are no cereal/grain crops grown here.)-
you can grow buck wheat it doesn take alot of space and is suppost to be good for you. Hubby is looking into that now.
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I don't mean to sound negative but our situation is probably very different from yours. We no longer wish to till our soil. Farming in very thin gray wooded soils and in clay based soils, on small islands where freshwater recharge zones overlay the freshwater aquifers can have a very negative effect on the natural ecosystems and the life they support. Without doubt animal manures can and do poison aquifers. This is why we have spent over 30 years educating expatriated urbanites, who expect to raise cattle, sheep, chickens, waterfowl and there packs of dogs and apassles of cats on an acre of land people about the the inability of the soils to sustain that kind of without poisoning the soils, their wells, and the aquifers that the wells draw from. The majority of our property is in it's natural state, and we are allowing the rest to return to its natural state.
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we are planting our buck wheat in a place we mowed. We do very little tilling here. We are putting it out for the bees. I read that you can use the grains off of it so I have an added benifit. We have alot of natural land here just go look at the pasture the weeds are taller than my head where the horse doesnt go any more. lol. We are planting three types of clovers and buckwheat on the creek bank and crown vetch on the other side (to hold the bank in place better than what is there now) The only little spot we till is for the small garden we put in every year and it has been tilled for years before we got the place. We plant other stuff where it will benifit the wild life. My corn and watermelons got hit this year by the deer.
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We have stopped gardening in the ground at all on our own property and chosen to take part in a community garden that's situated on a very large farm that has excellent soils, and high elevations and abundant water supplies. At home I'm into container gardening on my very large covered deck on the second story. In addition we are part of another group that work on another very large property that orchards and fruit tress. There are also many beekeepers here BTW.
P.S. I apologize for that jumbled up entry above. I didn't type into an editor first and tried to type directly into the comment box. The results were not good ... lol but I think you got the gist. I must sign off now. G'night.
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My grandparents were farmers and I spent a lot of time with them (months on end). As a girl, I was tasked...along with my aunt and cousins...with helping Gramma. By the time I was ten I knew how to bake bread, pluck chickens (ewww!), smoke meat, grow veggies and fruit and can/dry them, and a whole host of other self-sufficient tasks. They went "into town" (which was usually an all-day event for which Gramma packed a lunch, including a thermos of coffee for grampa) about once a month where we bought flour and sugar (in 50 lb sacks), coffee, and yeast, feed for some of the animals, and parts, lubricant, tools etc., for the equipment. We didn't have to buy gas, as Grampa had an underground tank near the pole building and it was delivered to us. Gramma sold eggs and the shearings from her Angora goats for "pin money" which was spent on things for sewing and knitting. Grampa had a lathe in the basement on which he made bowls and plates and even lamps from timber cut on the back parts of the property (half of the farm was in woods)...and smaller things like crochet hooks and knitting needles for Gramma.
It's difficult to produce sump oil, steel wool, sewing needles, and yardage goods, so they bought that, and they were happy to get electricity the year I was born so that they could run the well pump and have electric light instead of kerosene lamps. But down in the basement was Gramma's old wood stove and those lamps, in case we ever needed them.
Before Gramma got her first wringer washer, I helped with the laundry...it was done on a tub with a washboard and strong yellow soap...and it was wrung out by hand. I had my own tub and miniature scrub board and my job was to pretreat the stains and to prewash the collars and cuffs of Grampa's work shirts. That big washtub was also the bathtub and there was an outhouse on that farm until I was in my teens.
If anybody finds this hard to believe, remember than I was born in 1947 and great tracts of America's rural lands were not electrified. Without electricity to run pumps to get the water into the houses, there was no way to get running water so there were no bathrooms, toilets, washing machines, dishwashers or any other convenience that depended on water. The farm was electrified the year I was born...my father, who had been an electrician in the Navy during WWII ran the Romex to electrify the house and then ran the electrical wiring from the main power line, 1/4 mile away, to the house. The first electrical item they bought was a submersible pump for the well, the second was to put electric light in the barn, doing away with dangerous lanterns.
Like my cousins on the next farm, I learned how to live close to the land because that was the way I had to live while I was out there. So, yes, I could live for extended periods of time without going to a store if it was necessary, but I am 62, my husband earns a good living, and I am no longer into doing unnecessary work...I even have a maid now.
But if I HAD to, I know how and I could do it.-
I cant knitt or sew. I have lucked out that my daughter can do it so she is learning
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