Don"t Let Anyone Laugh At Your Self-Sufficient Lifestyle

Peaceful Forest Homestead In Fall

Prepping has become big business now. We all know why! Our economy is getting worse with each day. If you think preparing is silly because you have seen television shows that make fun of it, then you are silly! Television is a way that the masses of people can be programmed to buy certain products, believe propaganda and basically sit back and do nothing. I am not a person who usually speaks against television on my blogs, because I know so many people love it. I have lived without it for over 13 years now. That is why I think my husband and I have our own opinions, not influenced by what we see on television.

Life Depends On Which Road You Choose!

We are on the computer a lot, and you could say we are influenced by sites we go to, or what others write on the internet. The difference is, that there is more places to research what you read. Then you can find out if what you are reading is true, current, or nonsense. You can decide what your opinion is based on your research. Everyone is entitled to make their own choices in life. One wrong choice can change your life. Of course, when you make the choice, at that time, you have no way of knowing. Later, you know.

Grow A Garden!

Don't let anyone tell you that growing a garden, storing food and supplies and being independent is wrong or silly. We all see those people who laugh at what you do, or when you say that you are homesteading. They have no clue what it means. Otherwise, they wouldn't be laughing at you! You should laugh at them when they are in a pickle, and have nothing to eat, or heat to keep warm. But you won't. You will probably help them, and so you should. In that way, next time, they will have prepared. They will have learned from you.

Ground Beef and Chicken

Not only storms and power outages will cause you to live in emergency mode, but the loss of jobs or the loss of the income source in your household. Cutting back means buying the food your family eats, not what a list of preppers tell you to buy. If you do not eat breads and grains, don't store it. If you are a vegetarian, don't store meat. If you do not eat sugar, do not store it or make a lot of jams, jellies and preserves. Store what you eat. It is a waste of time and money to grow, process (can, dehydrate, freeze, ferment) or buy foods you don't eat or don't think are healthy. Make smart choices and you will be thankful later on!

Copyright © 2012 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2012  Kathleen G. Lupole

Learning And Trying New Things

Robin Redbreast keeping an eye on the strawberry plants!

Learning to be self-sufficient does not have to be hard. I know many people write to me saying that their spouse or children refuse to do it, otherwise they would do it. You can learn to be self-sufficient even without their help. Did you know that? Yes, it is a fact that if one person starts doing something and it becomes a habit or routine, then the other family members will follow along. In the same way that your parents did things raising you. Do you ever do things exactly as your parents did? That is because they taught you to do it that way!

Chives! Easy to grow!

If you are new to self-sufficiency getting started can be easy as planting a garden. Or planting some containers of vegetables. Or purchasing produce from your local farmer's market and learning to can it. Or freeze it. Whether you live in a city or suburban area and are not in a rural area makes no difference. Even if all you do is buy a book about gardening and start learning this year. Plan to have a garden next year for sure. If you can possibly start one now though, would be best.

Green bean seedlings much bigger than this now.

Take little steps, spending small amounts of money or finding useful tools at auctions and thrift stores. Taking the steps to be self-sufficient now, before you really need it. The reason to do this is not because civilization is going to crumble necessarily, but because it will provide you with peace of mind. In my opinion that is the best reason to do it!

Copyright © 2012 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2012  Kathleen G. Lupole

Paying For Convenience

How important is convenience to you? Is it more important than money? Is it more important than time? As we all know, in centuries back, people did more hard work than we do today. Children walked miles to school. Nowadays, parents drive their children to the end of their driveway. Housewives carried water from a well, split firewood, cooked from scratch, as well as cleaned their houses, made their clothing, gardened and preserved the food. Not to mention raising their children, and helping their husbands raise the livestock and processing the meat and milk from them. Maybe that was one of the reasons for raising so many children. Extra hands were worth the extra mouths to feed since they had plenty of food anyway. The family worked together back then. Nice idea!

As time went by, the housewives' chores became easier and easier. Especially with the invention of electricity and processed foods. Most women made bread daily. Many loaves depending on the size of the family. When store bought bread came out, they loved eliminating that job, not to mention the appearance of the soft white bread. They gave up that chore without a second thought. Now if someone comes to your house, and you have just taken some freshly baked loaves out of the oven, it is special. They keep complimenting you about how good it is, and how you can't buy it that good anywhere. I know that!

Heating with wood, cooking with wood, cutting your own firewood is replaced by going to a job and giving your time in exchange for money. Then you pay for heating fuel or for firewood, however you buy it. So in the long run, how many hours do you have to work to pay for that firewood? Instead go out into the your woods with your crosscut saw (that does not use gas), and cut the firewood you need. Do it one day a week for four hours, all year long. You would build your supply, get exercise and cost less than a load of logs delivered to your home, which in NY,  is over $600.

I admit to liking convenience myself. I think my choice of convenience is different than most people of today though. It is not that I am living old-fashioned as everyone thinks I am. Not at all. It is really more in the future than you may believe. Though I see the things that come to be, when we are too dependent on services and products, and how it will effect mankind in the future. Not a pretty sight once you really start learning about it. At least try to provide some ways to do things, if there is no one to do it for you. No one to pay for the service you need. Make a list of all the things you are dependent on, and couldn't live without. Then figure how you would manage without those items. What you would do if the service you paid for stopped.

I have been reading a book on my kindle that really brought it home to me. It is a fiction book, but the author presents it in such a way, that it will make you think twice about the very things we are so concerned about. Giving up the choice of taking care of ourselves for the convenience is one of the main focuses in this story. The name of this book is,Dark Mountain and is written by Andrew Culver. Today it is free in the Kindle store, but won't be for long. I wrote a review of it for Amazon and I compared it to the book, 1984 by George Orwell.

I am not trying to scare you. Just trying to make people think for themselves and not give up their independence for the easy way of life. Sometimes it is not so easy after all.

Copyright © 2012 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2012  Kathleen G. Lupole

Our Homesteading Journey

I grew up in the country. My father was a hunter and a fisherman, so we pretty much always lived in the country. He grew up on a farm. It wasn't a very good farm, because they were very poor. That taught him how to survive and many times his family relied on him for game and fish. Even when he was just a young boy.

Having lived in the country all the time I was growing up, I was eager to live in the city. Aren't all kids like that? I dreamed of living in New York City. I remember reading books about being a career girl living in the "Big Apple" written by Helen Gurley Brown among others.

Somewhere along the way I changed. We lived in the city of St. Petersburg, FL, in 1994. It was a very beautiful place and I loved it. We walked everywhere and had such fun there. Our kids had all come down there, first my husband's daughter, Hollie, then my Jeff, and then my husband's Jeff. We started our business, Exclusively Cruises and then later, Intricate Systems. But there was so much crime in our area. I was chased home by a guy in the middle of the day and had to hide in an ally. No, I did not feel safe there.

We started reading the homesteading magazines and both of us, started talking about this new found love we had for the homesteading lifestyle. When I read the editorials JD wrote in Countryside magazine, I wanted it even more. So eventually we ended up moving back to NY. First in an apartment in the country in one place, where we worked on learning about gardening, baking bread, making and canning jelly. We started washing our laundry by hand and hanging it outside on our clothesline.

Next we found a house to rent that was even more in the country. On an old farm that was no longer a farm. We loved it and there is where we grew our first real garden. My husband plowing it with our first wheel hoe or cultivator, whatever you wish to call it. While there we started acquiring our various nonelectric items for our future homestead. Our first wood stove, the wood cook stove (which I still use to cook with), our collection of kerosene lamps (that would become our means of lighting our future homestead), our treadle sewing machine (which was owned by my husband's great great grandmother), our clawfoot bathtub and our doctor's buggy.

 We were preparing while there. I bought Carla Emery's book, The Encyclopedia of Country Living and read it all the way through. I loved it and I learned from it. I read Backwoods Home Magazine and started following Jackie Clay. When she wrote in there about storing water, I filled over 20 gallon containers with water and stored them in our basement. Then when we had blizzard, we had all the water we needed and never had to leave home. The landlord and all the surrounding residents had to go stay somewhere else. My brother in-law wanted to know how I knew to store the water! I still do it.

While we were there we planted our first real garden and it was awesome. We learned to can all our produce. Even my husband did it. In fact, he did more than me because I was working at the time and he was not. We gathered kindling and explored the woods. And we got our little puppy, Nikita, who is now 13 years old.

We prepared and planned for the day when we would move to our own homestead. That day finally did come. But it took four years to find one that was just right for us. So for all the readers who say they will start when they move to the country, my advice is to start now. Start learning and doing things little by little. Then it is not too much at once. If you already know how to do something when you get there, you can learn other things.

Good luck on your homesteading journey!

Copyright © 2011 Kathleen G. Lupole
All Photographs Copyright © 2011 Kathleen G. Lupole
 

Are You Prepared For Your Next Emergency?

Never know what is on horizon as far as weather goes!

If you are coming to my blog because of my networking with people who are not a part of my homesteading community, welcome. I am glad to have you here. My focus though on this blog is self-reliance, self-sufficiency and being independent in a very dependent world. Most people are dependent on others. And even homesteaders are in some aspects. Though we all strive to stand on our own two feet.

Why be prepared? Even our own government tells us to prepare. The Latter Day Saints have always been taught to prepare. That is why many people use their guides on preparing. In the old days it was just what people did. They didn't discuss it so much with each other because it was nothing unusual or new. My grandmother lived in the city with her children, grew a huge garden and canned just about everything she could get her hands on. She raised chickens in the city. Worked at the local shoe factory, made all her children's clothes and was self-sufficient. She never learned to drive but she was an independent woman before the feminist movement ever took place. I say to that question, why not?

Water for all your animals as well!

What will happen to you if you cannot leave your home for days? Your water pump will not operate due to no power. Your refrigerator is not working and your food in the freezer is defrosting. Your car is low on gas and the local gas stations' pumps all need electric to operate. You go to the ATM machine to pick up some cash and find out that the ATM machine also need electric to operate. So now you also have no water. Just enough food for a couple of days. No power to cook it. Now here's a biggie for some people. They have no heat and it is cold. Or they have a wood furnace or heater but it needs electric to work. You need alternatives for all of these issues. And not electric alternatives. Remember a generator is only good as long as you have gas for it!

Pitcher Pumps use manpower not electric!

Are You Ready? That link is to the FEMA website that will explain to the people who think they don't need to be prepared why they should be. You really never know what could happen. If you all of a sudden are hit with a really big bill of some sort and an unforeseen expense, and could not buy groceries for a few months, could you survive it? If you were prepared you could. They recommend having three days worth of supplies but I recommend much more than that. Though if you at least start preparing, no matter where or how you live it will help.

I don't mean to scare you into doing this, but wouldn't you rather be the one to help others than to have to find someone to help you? Don't forget in preparing about your grown children who are on their own, as well as other family members and neighbors. So always store extra if you possibly can. Do not forget your pets and livestock too. I have written on this many times before as it is utmost in my mind every day. Here is a link to a post I wrote in 2006 called Being Self-Reliant.

Copyright © 2010  Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2010  Kathleen G. Lupole

List Of Homesteading Skills

Our off-the-grid homestead is only one example of homesteading.

I know my lifestyle does not appeal to all the readers who happen onto my blog. They are searching for a certain piece of information. By studying my hits coming from certain keywords I have found that most of the viewers are looking for articles I have written about these topics.

1. Storing food for the winter.

2. Squash casseroles.

3. Lasagna recipes.

4. Living without a motor vehicle.

5. Living without refrigeration.

6. Self-reliant or self-sufficient homestead or home.

7. Making a living from home or on a computer.

8. Growing your own food.

9. Cooking over a campfire.

10. Using or cooking with cast iron cookware.

11. The Christian Homesteading Movement.

12. Forest living or living in the woods.

13. Homesteading, homesteaders or homesteads.

14. Frugal living, frugal recipes, frugal shopping.

15. Cooking from scratch.

16. Wheel hoe or antique wheel hoe.

17. Wild plants for medicine or food.

18. Herbal remedies from the land around your home.

19. Wild Edible plants.

20. Christian homesteads.

These are not in order of what got the most hits. But they are keywords that come up daily. I find it interesting to see what topics interest my readers or viewers. If there is a topic you wonder about and think it fits my niche, please let me know. I am more than happy to research a topic if it is something I haven't covered yet. There are many things I am trying myself for the first time and will be writing about them as well. Ever since I bought my new camera last year I have been putting many more photos on my post as you can see. It helps when I can actually show you what I am talking about.

You do not have to be a homesteader or even a farmer to be self-sufficient or self-reliant. Even someone like Donald Trump living the luxurious life in the center of Manhattan can someday need to know how to live by his own skill instead of paying for it. As the Native Americans said long ago, "Money is not going to do you any good if there is nothing for money to buy."  So take the time to learn how and what to do in case things take a turn for the worse in your life or in the world. You never know what might happen. I know, as I have lived through bad times myself. We relied on our root cellar and pantry that was full of canned foods that I canned when things were going great. They were there when it counted! 

Copyright © 2010  Kathleen G. Lupole

Sacrifice Makes You More Self-Reliant!

Our Water System

I keep telling everyone that I am sacrificing by living without running water or refrigeration for the past eleven years. According to Wikipedia the word sacrifice means:

"Sacrifice (from a Middle English verb meaning "to make sacred", from Old French, from Latin sacrificium: sacr, "sacred" + facere, "to make") is commonly known as the practice of offering food, objects (typically valuables), or the lives of animals or people to the gods as an act of propitiation or worship. The term is also used metaphorically to describe selfless good deeds for others or a short term loss in return for a greater gain, such as in a game of chess. Recently it has also come into use as meaning doing without something or giving something up."


Some days it is easier than others. And as I am eleven years older than when I started......it is harder than when I was younger! We are on the brink of getting our water piped in the house so that will be history soon. Refrigeration shouldn't run too far behind. That was definitely my own choice. We had two different gas refrigerators and I love the way they keep your food cold all the time. No turning on and off and so quiet! Loved that about them, but for some reason the propane bothers me. I get very sick from it and just could not tolerate it. So we are doing without the refrigeration for now. (Thank you to my sweet hubby...)

Green Beans Ready To Eat!

Back to the idea of sacrifice......what it means to me, is that I will have a completely self-reliant home in the near future. I like that. It also means that I am not helpless if I was without the electric for any period of time. I can make do and live primitive if needed. When our homestead is complete we will be pretty much independent. We do not know what is going to happen in the future, and from the looks of things it is time for everyone.........even the modern urban and suburban families to learn to be self-sufficient. Learn to grow a garden for starters. Store water for another. Can some of your food instead of relying on a freezer. If your power is out for days, do you really think you will have the time or energy, to prepare and can the food that is in your freezer? I don't think so. Besides it depends on what kind of circumstances we are talking about. If you had to go to a shelter and then return home..........your food would be totally ruined by that time. If it was canned, it'd be sitting there ready to eat. Even if your house was flooded, the food would be protected in the unopened jars.

I have learned that I am pretty self-sufficient, and that makes me feel good. I have learned to do many things since moving out here in the forest. I can take care of myself and my family just by having sacrificed. I have many herbs and wild plants growing around my homestead and in my forest that can be used for food or for medicine. As for me, that is usually all I use for medicine anyway.

A Medicine Chest In My Yard.....Red Clover is Awesome!!


Copyright © 2010  Kathleen G. Lupole

The Self-Reliant Water System

Another highly important component of the self-reliant home is water. We can live much longer without food......but not water. Look at how important water is for survival. We need it for drinking, cooking, cleaning & washing. For our pets and livestock. For our gardens and house plants. It is very important to include it in your homestead plan.

As much as water is needed........look at how brutal it can be also. Where I live, two summers ago, we had such bad flooding that so many people lost their homes, and some, their places of employment, and then some....their lives. I will always think of the two truck drivers who were driving on Interstate 88 that night, and the highway was not there. Washed away by flooding. Many people, as my father's garage was one of these, was flooded, not by living close to a river, or stream, but from water rushing off the many mountains and hills in New York state.

Think back to the bad hurricanes we have had in the last few years, including this year. Look at what the water did to New Orleans and surrounding areas, and parts of Texas and now again to Texas and the surrounding states. Not to mention the tsunami that took so many people's lives in such a brutal death. A wave that was as high as a huge mountain, while people were frolicking on the beach.

Then again, the lack of water is also something that is equally as devastating. This brings about the wild fires, that sometimes are uncontrollable. People who gave up on growing food, for lack of water. No hay for their cattle or horses, so they sold them at auctions. Prices of horses are way down at this time, but the price of hay keeps going up. Can't grow hay in a area with no water, yet can't bring the hay in at another area due to too much rain ruining the hay laying on the ground waiting to be baled.

So water is the very thing that can do you in, or help you to survive.

I live in home that has never had inside plumbing. At first I thought it would be hard for me to adapt to this lifestyle change. Wasn't hard at all. My husband turned the downstair bedroom into a bathroom, and put a cast iron bath tub in with connected drains. It had a cobbled up kitchen sink with an outside drain that just drained right out into the yard. So he dug a trench for the pipes out past the yard and connected the kitchen sink and the bathtub drains to empty through that.

Luckily we had a pitcher pump on our hand dug well that was probably the only well that was ever on this property since the house was built in the 1850s. I am still using it today as my only water supply. In the winter, contrary to popular opinions, it does not freeze up. As long as you put the handle up when you get done using it, the water will drain back down until the next use. Then you just pour a cup of hot water down to prime it and it will keep you in water all winter. We use it for all our household water and for our horses' needs as well.

At a time when everyone feels they have to trust the water from the store rather than their own supplies, I feel safe with my own water. Since I live rather secluded, surrounded by the state forest, I feel as if my water supply is superior to all others. Everyone who tastes it comments on the fresh healthy taste of our water. But if you were just now purchasing a home with a pitcher pump as we have, I would suggest you having the water tested before putting your money down on the home. Just to make sure.

I have spent more time than I like on washing my laundry by hand. We puchased a very energy efficient washing machine last March thinking we could just pour the water into it. Since it is computerized, that was not a good idea. It would just empty out the water we just carried in and had poured inside! So it is on vacation until our water system is brought inside, which is what my husband is working on right now. Not until next spring though. He had to build a battery and water pump room first, and is only now getting the walls up. Then he will put our batteries that are connected to our solar panels in there as well as the water pump which will be bringing our water into the house. I am looking forward to that!

We carry all the water into the house every morning when we do our horses' water. Then in the evening if we need more, we bring it in. During the winter I have at least two big stock pots of water on the woodstoves in case we need it. For my long hot baths that I love, I usually heat three. So I am looking forward to turning my faucets on like in any other house. Though for awhile I will probably still have to heat it on the stove. For that we will be investing in the evacuated solar tubes that are heated by the sun. Yes, I know, New York state is not known for lots of sunshine.....but I am using the sun right now to power our system.

I hope I have given you some ideas to think about. Whatever you do, never take your water for granted. It is a very precious resource.

Have a blessed homesteading day!

katlupe

"I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse." Genesis 12:3