We recently purchased 12 acres just outside of a smaller town, and are sharing our journey as we build our self-sufficient lifestyle.
I have learned a lot in the last 10 years of becoming more self-sufficient. This feels like the end goal to a dream, but really it's only the beginning. There are so many things you can do to become more self-sufficient no matter what your living arrangement is. The important thing is to start where you are.
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I almost lost our $4000 Zero-Turn to our pond not too long ago.
I woke up that morning to a beautiful sunshiny day. With dreams of completing some work in the yard, and getting ready for spring.
10 minutes later the mower was stuck in the mud 😂
Using the jack and some plywood, I was able to get it on a steady platform so it could get traction. That didn’t work. So I jacked up the front end and realized that the mower had sunk down and was stuck on the 4-inch tall stump (maybe 2 inches wide) that had been in the middle of the weeds (4 inches tall, because the mower is a BEAST and cut through it - also a good reason we probably needed to buy new blades recently.)
Off to the garage for the chainsaw... cut that baby down, dropped the mower, and I was back in business.
The dogs and I went for a ride around the property, mowing down bits of weeds.
I took the dogs inside for a water break and decided to mow around the pond....
And that’s where the trouble happened...
Apples are one of my favorite fruits.
If you are buying them from a store, they can also be the most pesticide-exposed fruit available. They remain high on the EWG’s dirty dozen list because they are sprayed with pesticides post-harvest to prevent them from discoloring during cold storage.
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I enjoy a good pun every now and then, and lettuce is exactly what we planted this week, so I had to roll with it. There is so much to do around our property, I was starting to feel like we wouldn't be ready for Spring, and we would end up pushing off our garden goals even further.
Not everyone has a 9-5 job. Many businesses operate 24 hours a day and require employees to work all shifts to keep their production line moving.
This is our reality.
When we first moved to South Carolina, Andy was hired for 1st Shift. He wasn't told about the possibility of shift change 6 months later... And he was changed... to 2nd Shift.
