More thoughts on self sustainability

I have been reading more and more and trying to do more and more and I tell you what it would be a HUGE shift to be completely self sustaining

For those thinking about this like me one thing we need to remember is that those who do go to the effort of being self sustaining and living off of only what they can produce every article or story I have read about them they all say this one thing

it did not happen overnight

The descision did not even come slowly it was not something someone wakes up with one day saying "I am going to live off the grid and produce all my own food"

I guess you could do it should you choose to We could easily live without some electrical things in our home I would happily give up the TV (I would miss discovery channel but that is about it) I would miss my computer but I could live without it and not be miserable what I would miss the most about the computer is the access to information

I would NEED a way to pump water our well is deep and has an electric pump

I would NEED a way to circulate the heat so our heating system would either need to be rethought or electric fans with the wood stove

lights I can do without (and have)

I cook better over a fire than on a stove

I would need an oven built

but that is not even the main thoughts that have run through my head the biggest things have to do with the every day objects we get so used to

while cooking I think ...how would I get _____ flour pepper sugar yeast

and that is when I check the internet

Pepper I love black pepper and use it A LOT I have a pepper mill we got for our wedding and one that was my mothers they are fabulous I have this huge thing of pepper corns and the other day while filling my mill I wondered where the heck do THESE grow? so I looked it up

You guessed it I could grow black pepper in my house I immediately showed my Dear Dave the plant and he looked around at our window sills filled with plants desperate for a garden and said "where do you think you are going to put that?"

I'd find a place the big goof seems to think that I am not thinking ahead our windows will not always be full of the other plants those are going outside and then I need greenery in my house

so I want a Pepper plant

We are still waiting on our bannana tree and our lime tree eventually we will order an orange tree and perhaps a lemon tree all in miniature (miniature being 5 - 6 feet tall) my house will then truely look like a jungle

these exotics are obviously NOT native to WI that is what is frightening to me about living a more self sustaining lifestyle while there are many wonderful fruits native to the wilds of WI some of our family favorites are not

It is not easy to think of the things we can live without I ask myself on my quest for being self sustaining would I be willing to live without chocolate?

I know I could do with LESS chocolate which is saying a great deal I love chocolate but can I live without it and not miss it terribly

Coffee is another one can I live without coffee? or Coke a Cola? (I drink one Coke a day at dinner time)

Sure there are lots of things I am willing to sacrifice for the sake of being a more self sustaining family I can make a great deal of things and I can create things easily I enjoy the challange of it all I always have. Again the journey to get to that point will take a long time and I know I am one of those instant gratification type people (as many are) so trying to slow things down to be able to appreciate the small victories is a difficult thing to do.

Today Dear Dave and I went for a walk up our hill to check on the wild strawberries I am very impatient for them to ripen and I have to catch them at just the right time before the other animals get them all we need a good hard rain to make them big and juicy I looked at the bounty we have here rasberry bushes black berry bushes wild strawberries on the hillside and apple trees and that is just the things that grow wild here I have not found any wild Asparagus this year which is a shame . however we still have quite a collection of wild plants

I need to be patient to wait for the right time for all of these things to get ripe

Our garden is almost completely in place I will type more of that another time I am tired we had so many things to finish today and we completed a lot of them