I have been thinking of all of this for a while but it helps when you get to know others who think the same. I follow a few blogs but I will share two of them. 1) Down to Earth and 2) Old Green Pastures (which is run by the lovely Sam). I met Sam through a pot holder swap run via the Down to Earth forum. Amongst many things, we share a faith in God and a desire to be self-sufficient. How good is this book! It's one Sam bought from the net. I love the idea of being able to stop using the supermarket. Ok, so I won't be able to stop altogether but it is interesting to know what you can do without.
I want our property to be as self-suffient as possible in the long run. Maybe when the kids are all at school :) We have started by having steers and chickens that will provide meat and eggs. Then there is the vegie patch. There are some really clever ideas out there for both large properties and units with limited space. We need to create a green house of sorts as we have free range chooks who EAT ALL MY VEGIES!!! Solution: Put them in boxes up on tyres. It lasted maybe a week. The chooks have eaten about 1/4 of the poly box and the vegies are just stumps now.
The milk bottles have strawberries in them. They are safely(?) up higher. The lattice is there for
the raspberry canes. I will have to cover the raspberries as they flower.
I make my own bread, buy in bulk* and use the green grocer where I can. I am trying to buy things outside of the large chain supermarket but on a budget it is hard. Laundry liquid is easy to make and much cheaper. The recipe can be found on the Down to Earth blog. I use cloth nappies (as well as disposable) and have been sewing up my own dish/face cloths from flannel nappies. I used them for both newborn nappies and spew rags. They have been cleaned well and I thought, why not? They are much better than the cloths from the supermarket. It is also teaching me to make my dinner bases from what I have and not using a packet mix base.*I have started to buy from PFD Food Services. They have cash sales on Friday mornings and they have a huge range of products. The prices are cheaper and as the bags of flour are 12.5kg - I shouldn't run out for a while.
I hope that I have inspired you do what you can. I think it's a case of doing what you can with what you have but not putting pressure on yourself to do so.
xox Enjoy your week.
It's a big one for us :) How's it looking for you? What is one thing you can do or change to be self sufficient?
I made my first vegie patch at this house in a little bit of an impatient way. I didn't have the tools or money to buy fencing equipment or planter boxes.... so I made a stick fence and wrapped vine around it to strengthen it.... Did take a few hours... but it is keeping out the wombats, possums and our chooks... Could be worth a try! xx Pics were up a few weeks ago on my garden journal. xx
ReplyDeleteI did start to put lattice up around the vegies when they were in the ground but changed ideas. I didn't want to clip the chooks wings as I like them being able to fly up onto their perches in the chook shed. I will end up with a green house thingy but until that happens will just have to go without a vegie garden. Plus I think i have enough to do at the moment ;)
DeleteI love your idea with the wall of sticks, looks great and works well.
Say hi to Sam :)
xox
Good going so far. You are living what for me has been a dream. I tried a few vegies, but watering requirements and snails meant it was really as easy to buy at my super vegie shop. We two don't eat much anyway. Had a nice little herb triangle (easy to reach the plants. Alex chose for me to do this. But how often did I go down the garden to pick herbs?
ReplyDeleteSounds good, Mel. Hint: you can clip the chooks wings, as they should still be able to fly to their perches, just not much further. They are very destructive though, one out can destroy my garden in an hour. Thanks for the bread tip... I might try PFD for my bread making. And watch that the birds dont get your strawberries!! :)
ReplyDelete