You summed up our thoughts and feelings so well. We look daily for more ways to detach ourselves from the machine that is set on consuming all of us. My partner and I both have barterable skills and such, but each day we look for more ways to become even more self-sufficient. During my childhood we were considered "poor", but I gotta tell ya if poor means knowing how to take care of ones' self without the help of "the man" I'm overjoyed at being raised "poor".
I love it!! :-) My father kept the same washer and dryer going for 30+ years and, I swear, the microwave he brought home in the 80's was a "prototype"! Those things really made appreciate a man who can fix things, and it made me comfortable with using tools, too. I understand parents wanting to cushion their kids from discomfort, but I think sometimes "helping" is not helping in the long run.
Thanks for the wonderful, thought-provoking article. In the past few years, I have been expanding on my survival skill set. Baking bread, growing food, preserving food and cooking from scratch. It takes so much more time, effort and energy to live this way, but the way I think of it is that I know what's in my food, I am not paying someone else for the labor and most importantly, I know how to do it. Now that I have more skills, my neighbor and I trade vegetables, she'll bring me seeds and I'll get them started for both of us. It's nice to have a skill to cultivate a relationship of reciprocity :)
That's wonderful! I rarely buy bread anymore for the very same reason. It's more work, but I know what's in our bread and it tastes so much better, too!
While I really like living WAY OUT like we do, I also wish I had good neighbors to trade with. That sounds really nice.
It's a necessity right now, Shannon! Also, you mentioned you haven't started your seeds yet - didn't you guys just move into a new house?? I'm sure you have a million things on your list. Be kind to yourself.
I still have to remind myself to slow down and not try and do too much at once. Our season is so short, I often pressure myself to get it ALL done when, honestly, haste really does make waste. I'm doing better though. Today I sat on the porch in the sun and embroidered for about an hour listening to nothing but birds. It was heaven. :-)
Thank you for this great article. Not only pointing to the obvious but sharing positive things we can do. You continue to be an encouragement...BTW...sadly, I haven't started my seeds yet! LOL! But making progress! ;-)
I started some basil in the kitchen window-box and planted some onion, lettuce, spinach and arugula in the greenhouse cloche today (it's my mini-greenhouse within the greenhouse bc the actual greenhouse is still too cold!). I won't be planting my other seedlings for a couple more weeks... The waiting is getting frustrating!!!! :-)
Mar 27, 2023·edited Mar 27, 2023Liked by Greta at Love Off Grid
we are learning to live without using money more and more…baking is one skill I am working on every week. This week I learned how make Gyoza wrappers. All hail the manual pasta roller! We eat a lot of home canned food and learning to make meals we used to enjoy going out to eat keeps spirits up and the pallet excited!
"All hail the manual pasta roller!" :-) I love making pasta, too. Our plan is also how to live without money, but it's taking a lot of money to get to that point. Better to trade those depreciating dollars for hard assets while we can (tractor, snow-blower, etc.). We don't go out much anymore either but being a good cook means we don't miss it (as much, anyway). I'll have to look into the gyoza wrappers! Thanks
They were tasty! I know what you mean- it’s expensive getting the infrastructure and supplies to live off-grid. We still need money but don’t have any! Our tourism biz was devastated in 2020 and
may never recover. However, are we ever glad we got what we could when we did and started putting food away. It’s kept us well fed this winter. The way I look at it is we have to adapt now. Sadly, I believe everyone will face these kind of challenges, we just got our income and cash flow devastated sooner than most. With the UN 2030 plans coming down the pipe tourism is a dying industry unless people wake up…not banking on that lol. Anyway love your substack- we have learned and been through a very similar learning curve- we started building our off grid place in 2018. Not as remote as you are but try not to have to leave home very often.
I feel like not many people see the Agenda 2030 connection with literally everything that's happening (Problem, reaction, solution). I don't think there's much chance of them waking up - sadly. Even with the economy tanking, food production plants and infrastructure "accidentally" blowing up... they just continue to swallow the official explanations (insert eyeroll). Meanwhile, the divide between us seems to be growing and will continue as long as people believe the left/right paradigm.
I'm glad you're out and building your own space. I'm really frustrated today with the dang snow that just keeps hanging around here!!!! but it could be worse. :-)
We have two feet of snow on the ground too! Although there is hardly any frost in the ground so I think it will be gone before long. Some years it’s here until June! Got some pepper and onion seeds in trays inside to start. 🌱
Yep. All of it.
You summed up our thoughts and feelings so well. We look daily for more ways to detach ourselves from the machine that is set on consuming all of us. My partner and I both have barterable skills and such, but each day we look for more ways to become even more self-sufficient. During my childhood we were considered "poor", but I gotta tell ya if poor means knowing how to take care of ones' self without the help of "the man" I'm overjoyed at being raised "poor".
I love it!! :-) My father kept the same washer and dryer going for 30+ years and, I swear, the microwave he brought home in the 80's was a "prototype"! Those things really made appreciate a man who can fix things, and it made me comfortable with using tools, too. I understand parents wanting to cushion their kids from discomfort, but I think sometimes "helping" is not helping in the long run.
Thanks for the wonderful, thought-provoking article. In the past few years, I have been expanding on my survival skill set. Baking bread, growing food, preserving food and cooking from scratch. It takes so much more time, effort and energy to live this way, but the way I think of it is that I know what's in my food, I am not paying someone else for the labor and most importantly, I know how to do it. Now that I have more skills, my neighbor and I trade vegetables, she'll bring me seeds and I'll get them started for both of us. It's nice to have a skill to cultivate a relationship of reciprocity :)
That's wonderful! I rarely buy bread anymore for the very same reason. It's more work, but I know what's in our bread and it tastes so much better, too!
While I really like living WAY OUT like we do, I also wish I had good neighbors to trade with. That sounds really nice.
I didn't think of a greenhouse within a greenhouse. Great idea!
It's a necessity right now, Shannon! Also, you mentioned you haven't started your seeds yet - didn't you guys just move into a new house?? I'm sure you have a million things on your list. Be kind to yourself.
I still have to remind myself to slow down and not try and do too much at once. Our season is so short, I often pressure myself to get it ALL done when, honestly, haste really does make waste. I'm doing better though. Today I sat on the porch in the sun and embroidered for about an hour listening to nothing but birds. It was heaven. :-)
Thank you for this great article. Not only pointing to the obvious but sharing positive things we can do. You continue to be an encouragement...BTW...sadly, I haven't started my seeds yet! LOL! But making progress! ;-)
I started some basil in the kitchen window-box and planted some onion, lettuce, spinach and arugula in the greenhouse cloche today (it's my mini-greenhouse within the greenhouse bc the actual greenhouse is still too cold!). I won't be planting my other seedlings for a couple more weeks... The waiting is getting frustrating!!!! :-)
we are learning to live without using money more and more…baking is one skill I am working on every week. This week I learned how make Gyoza wrappers. All hail the manual pasta roller! We eat a lot of home canned food and learning to make meals we used to enjoy going out to eat keeps spirits up and the pallet excited!
"All hail the manual pasta roller!" :-) I love making pasta, too. Our plan is also how to live without money, but it's taking a lot of money to get to that point. Better to trade those depreciating dollars for hard assets while we can (tractor, snow-blower, etc.). We don't go out much anymore either but being a good cook means we don't miss it (as much, anyway). I'll have to look into the gyoza wrappers! Thanks
They were tasty! I know what you mean- it’s expensive getting the infrastructure and supplies to live off-grid. We still need money but don’t have any! Our tourism biz was devastated in 2020 and
may never recover. However, are we ever glad we got what we could when we did and started putting food away. It’s kept us well fed this winter. The way I look at it is we have to adapt now. Sadly, I believe everyone will face these kind of challenges, we just got our income and cash flow devastated sooner than most. With the UN 2030 plans coming down the pipe tourism is a dying industry unless people wake up…not banking on that lol. Anyway love your substack- we have learned and been through a very similar learning curve- we started building our off grid place in 2018. Not as remote as you are but try not to have to leave home very often.
I feel like not many people see the Agenda 2030 connection with literally everything that's happening (Problem, reaction, solution). I don't think there's much chance of them waking up - sadly. Even with the economy tanking, food production plants and infrastructure "accidentally" blowing up... they just continue to swallow the official explanations (insert eyeroll). Meanwhile, the divide between us seems to be growing and will continue as long as people believe the left/right paradigm.
I'm glad you're out and building your own space. I'm really frustrated today with the dang snow that just keeps hanging around here!!!! but it could be worse. :-)
We have two feet of snow on the ground too! Although there is hardly any frost in the ground so I think it will be gone before long. Some years it’s here until June! Got some pepper and onion seeds in trays inside to start. 🌱