Self-Sufficiency

bjorn2bwild said:
A playful exaggeration on my part in response to the idea of becoming ever more specialized and dependent on others.
Still, it think it is a useful exercise to ask oneself "how would I fare if the trucks did stop rolling".
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I guess I would get into the trucking business.
 
Self-sufficiency is not really the same as survivalist or "prepper" lifestyle.
There is a lot of cross-over between "preppers" and self-sufficiency/homesteader types but the best distinction I ever read was in one of Caleb Warnock's books on the old skills. His take was that preppers could live for several years on their stored, dehydrated foods but that the self-sufficient types a) wouldn't have to and b) probably would prefer death to such an existence.

He put out a couple good books by the way. Lot of it centers around keeping your garden going most of the year with heritage rather than hybrid varieties of plants. Something I'd like to try more of.
 
brewer12345 said:
I dunno. I was thinking barbecue sauce would be more appropriate with "long pig."
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North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, or Kansas?

These things are important! Gotta know what to stash in the emergency BBQ kit!

"Meat's meat and a mans gotta eat."
-- Vincent Smith
 
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M Paquette said:
North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, or Kansas?

These things are important! Gotta know what to stash in the emergency BBQ kit!

"Meat's meat and a mans gotta eat."
-- Vincent Smith
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Sounds like a requirement for a blind taste test. I live within walking distance of the final resting place of Alferd Packer I can certainly host.

In 1968, students at the University of Colorado Boulder named their new cafeteria grill the "Alferd G. Packer Memorial Grill" with the slogan "Have a friend for lunch!" Students can order an "El Canibal" beefburger and on the wall is a giant map outlining Packer's travels through Colorado.[13][dead link] It has since been renamed the Alferd Packer Restaurant & Grill.[
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Alferd Packer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
I had some fun with the perusing the Guttenberg copy of the 1911 Boy Scout handbook. Thanks Imoldernu

My self sufficiency efforts include maintaining a wildlife sanctuary and habitat. Otherwise known as gardening...
 
brewer12345 said:
Sounds like a requirement for a blind taste test. I live within walking distance of the final resting place of Alferd Packer I can certainly host.



Alferd Packer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Have been real hungry a few times, did not get as far as cannibalism. However here is a timely article on the subject. The original plan to serve human's bits was a hoax.

http://www.theguardian.com/science/the-lay-scientist/2010/sep/05/human-meat-taste-canniba

"What we need are some proper cannibals, and where better to start than one of Germany's most infamous citizens, the cannibal Armin Meiwes. Having eaten an estimated 20kg of his victim, Meiwes is something of an expert on the subject, and in an interview from his prison cell he was more than happy to explain the taste: "The flesh tastes like pork, a little bit more bitter, stronger. It tastes quite good." "

A second opinion:
"
Fascinated with the concept of cannibalism, he persuaded a medical intern at the Sorbonne (the University of Paris) to give him a chunk of human meat from the body of a healthy man killed in an accident, which he cooked and ate, describing is as follows:
"It was like good, fully developed veal, not young, but not yet beef. It was very definitely like that, and it was not like any other meat I had ever tasted. It was so nearly like good, fully developed veal that I think no person with a palate of ordinary, normal sensitiveness could distinguish it from veal. It was mild, good meat with no other sharply defined or highly characteristic taste such as for instance, goat, high game, and pork have." "

​
 
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Good it doesn't taste like goat.
 
Are you sure? I would suspect that it depends. :cool:
 
Probably not nearly as good as squirrel. Save yourself some trouble and just stock some rat traps for the apocalypse. Should bag you some limb chickens no problem.
 
Still hunt squirrels with a .22. Joke around here is coming up on an old hunter who is shooting 'em with a 12ga. Ask him how he likes the old cannon and he comments that he get by with it since shooting the 10ga is a little too rough on his shoulder these days...

Youngest son really likes squirrel. I prefer rabbit.
 
ArkTinkerer said:
Still hunt squirrels with a .22. Joke around here is coming up on an old hunter who is shooting 'em with a 12ga. Ask him how he likes the old cannon and he comments that he get by with it since shooting the 10ga is a little too rough on his shoulder these days...

Youngest son really likes squirrel. I prefer rabbit.
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I hunt lots of places that are shotgun only, or where I am after a mixed bag. In such cases, I much prefer a 20 gauge. I don't care for the repeated hammerings that come with using a 12 gauge loaded with heavier hunting shells.

Gonna be trying a .38 special carbine on squirrels this fall. Too bad it is looking like the season opener on Wednesday will probably be rained out.
 
When I hunt the woods my favorite carry is a Savage Model 24 with 30-30 over 20ga. so I can do ducks, small game, or deer. Problem is other half of farm is long hay fields. Much prefer a .243 for those.
 
ArkTinkerer said:
When I hunt the woods my favorite carry is a Savage Model 24 with 30-30 over 20ga. so I can do ducks, small game, or deer. Problem is other half of farm is long hay fields. Much prefer a .243 for those.
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Great minds think alike. My favorite early season carry is a .22/20 gauge Savage 24 that is vintage 1967. Our big game law here are weird and somewhat restrictive, so if I am west of I 25 carrying a centerfire is pretty much a no-no unless I have a deer tag for the specific area and dates I am doing so. It is easier to just skip it, and the Savage 24 does the trick nicely.
 
Most things I can design, build or repair; house, car, furniture - transmissions and home ACs excluded. But a friend can rebuild those.

Hunting and farming do not seem worthwhile for me, more because of the investment in time and effort, than money. I enjoy shooting, but never learned to trust other people handling firearms. Seen too many idiots. So I tend to avoid areas with hunters. Bought a fishing pole and license in the spring - never got around to using them, despite all the travel and time paddling on the water. Since we travel almost constantly, I'd be buying licenses in several dozen states every year lol. So I'll go to the butcher, the local farmers markets, and good restaurants. Have to be at least a BIT of a consumer.




Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum
 
daylatedollarshort said:
I would call our current focus more sustainable living than self sufficiency, though this house inspired me:

The Urban Homestead - A City Farm, Sustainable Living & Resource Center, A Path to Freedom towards Self-Sufficiency

It is a self sufficient micro-farm in an urban area. We have added in some of the elements on their checklist to our lives, like line drying clothes, using solar and LED lights and overall having low energy consumption. Our next up project is removing our lawn.
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Thanks for the link! Interesting site though probably more extreme than most of us would consider. I enjoyed a book called "Edible Landscaping". The premiss was very simple--if you are going to go to all this trouble to landscape your house anyway, why not get something back?
 
ArkTinkerer said:
Thanks for the link! Interesting site though probably more extreme than most of us would consider. I enjoyed a book called "Edible Landscaping". The premiss was very simple--if you are going to go to all this trouble to landscape your house anyway, why not get something back?
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Our water company provides free classes and rebates on the plants and design services for customers who will remove their front lawns. I am not sure if there are any drought tolerant edible plants in our area. I guess we will be finding out after the class and design services. We mainly just want to have native plants that will grow without watering or mowing and minimal upkeep. We went on a native plant tour of homes a couple of years ago. The yards looked amazing and most of the homeowners had at least cut their water bills in half. Some also had certified wildlife habitats -

http://www.nwf.org/How-to-Help/Garden-for-Wildlife/Create-a-Habitat.aspx
 
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