fourteen quarts of tomatoes so far. tabitha just informed me that some of them didn't seal. they still might since they are warm. fingers crossed...
we had an excellent dinner. this was the side dish. our squash and onions cooked to perfection.
the onions were left over from the huge bowl that i cut up for the dehydrator when i got home. tabitha squished the dried onions into the half gallon jars. so they aren't quite making the five pounds to one quart ratio.
a fellow blogger was posting about making an income while trying to be self sufficient. being self sufficient is a full time job. we struggle on my three meager incomes. but, i feel very lucky for my situation.
my father-in-law recommended when we moved here to diversify and keep your eggs in several baskets. this means having several irons in the fire and hit the ground running wherever you light. after many struggles and tangents we are comfortably poor. i work just enough to keep us afloat and get to spend the rest of the time with my family. time spent with my kids is so valuable to me that i have shunned full time work. i have a job working 20 hours per week doing maintenance for the state of missouri. it isn't a sexy job. i clean the waste treatment plant. well, i spray it with a hose occasionally. i do just about everything, fixing equipment, mowing lawns, new construction, fixing old bodged electrical and plumbing, installing cabinets, repairing the vehicles and ect.. the facility is in the middle of the mark twain national forest and it is beautiful there. being state work i get benefits and stuff.
i also am building a huge house for bob two half days per week. he is doing it as he can afford it. at this rate it will take a few more years. bob and i are now more friends then employer and employee. he lets me use any of his extensive collection of equipment anytime i want. that is very cool
i also still do a bit of web work for sunlight and power. the company was my employer before we left california.
mostly i work around here on the farmette. that is what really makes it affordable to live here. food from our farm is more than sixty percent of what we eat. our garden, chickens, pigs, milk, beef, eggs and fruit trees offset our need to buy pricey organic foodstuff. we buy in bulk, i'm not talking the super-sized hot pocket packages here. we buy in bulk the raw components for our food. 50# bags of flour and sugar are regular purchases.
we invest most of what i make working-out back into our farmette and kids. school supplies, fence chargers, construction materials, books, pricey plants and trees are normal purchases. this is my hobby and life all in one.
mostly this life isn't for the faint of heart. it is hours upon hours of sweaty hard work. but, i love it. i am teaching my kids by example that they can provide for themselves a nutritious life.
the reason that i am saying all this is because i have been questioning some of our choices lately. we chose to pare down to one car. a car we don't all really fit into. now we have found that we need to probably travel to st. louis for several trips in the upcoming months for toly's medical needs. i knew it was a gamble when we did it. eyes wide open. we were pushing the envelope too far and now we need to re-evaluate and make some tough choices. mistakes like this one are costly.
it is hard to justify our choices when this trouble is just ahead of us. ultimately i know i'd probably do it all over the same but i still need to get this out.
13 comments:
The decisions you made at the time were carefully thought out and weighed, you cannot predict the future and should not feel failure in any way. It's a good thing to think positive as you and Tabitha have, hoping that Toly would be fine and the choices you've made in your lifestyle would help his health. Didn't work out that way, unfortunately, but have faith, things will work out, they always do.
I saw this the other day and it fits your needs right now:: "Sometimes Gods answers are better than your prayers".
Yep, I sure know that feeling. I gambled that we'd figure out how to break even in a couple of years, via working hard, high interest rates on savings, and living frugally. It's hard not to feel at least partially responsible for rolling the dice. In reality, though, who could have predicted the timing and magnitude of the downturn? Certainly not the economists. Maybe the pessimists, but they always predict such things.
Same with Toly. What can we do but make the best life-altering decisions we can with incomplete and inaccurate information?
For what it's worth, I can relate.
Oh yeah, the tomatoes look fantastic!
Ron
Hello I have been a long time reader of about three months and enjoy your and Tabithas blog.
To make a long story short we had a huge amount a debt two years ago. My husbands grandparents past away and left us over a hundred thousand dollars which we paid off our debts with and bought a few things. We still have a house payment which I wish we could have paid off, we only have one car, my husband works very hard at work 40 hours and own our own homestead which is one acre with chickens and a huge garden.
I look back now and wish we would have been wiser with what we had....we did all we knew how with that kind of money.
We all make mistakes and we learn from them:)
Thanks for a peek into your lives...I have been praying for you and your children!
Renee
Hi Karl, thanks for sharing what you do to get the ends meet - that's an area where a lot of people (myself included) always can use more ideas in. Hope the things will work out with the car and Toly's problems.
Hi, it's me again, from Oklahoma. My daughter, oddly enough, is a pediatric nurse at Children's Hospital in St. Louis. She works the neurology floor. I was sharing with her about Toly and she said, "I might be seeing him sometime. This is one of the best units in the country." She has a gift with children.
I am very proud of all of you and of all your efforts toward the support and nurture of your family. You have already done a great good for Toly by bringing him closer to the Earth.
I delurk for the following comment. I've been a visitor for a year or so and have been amazed by your progress. Your blog and Ron's have inspired some thought exercises about what it means to be truly self-sufficient and sustainable, not to mention searches for a reasonably sized parcel of out-of-the way real estate in SE MO. I commend you for your choices.
I am so tired of listening to worthies prattle on about this sort of thing, when they have no idea of the commitment involved nor the willingness or ability to actually see it through. You, however, not only talk the talk but walk the walk.
Well done!
Cheers.
DebB- we are going there! we don't have the exact date yet but we probably will see your daughter! They already have Anatoly's file, we are waiting on a call back.
Tabitha
I know you and your friend (whom I read also) don't need my admiration, but I admire both of you and your families. Your simple approach to life is so refreshing. Sorry for the hard times, but keep up the great efforts and work...I am sure it is paying off in ways you can't even imagine!
This is a really interesting subject.
My wife and I are debt-free, in a self-built home on 40-acres. We are in our late-30's. I know some of our neighbors think we're trust funders b/c we're home a lot (I work at home, and very part-time), but nothing could be further from the truth. We lived in tents and house sat for years so we could afford to buy our land outright (in '98, before the big runup); then we camped on our land while we slowly built a house around us. The night our first son was born at home, I had to move the table saw so the midwife could get through the door.
Now, we have very little income ($15k last year), no debt, and lots of time to do as we please. And we please to do much as you: We have cows, pigs, sheep, chickens, gardens, berries, etc, etc. We don't buy much. We drive an $800 car.
We have almost no savings. This is the one tangible downside. It makes me nervous in this economy.
I'm always curious how others do it, so I really appreciate this post.
I'm with Pigrider and you & Tabitha! My husband lost his (relatively) high paying engineering job a couple of years ago (trust me, the down turn started long before the "official" date).
We got out of debt, bought land, and feed ourselves with cows, pigs, chickens, sheep, etc. Hubby now works part time in town and we are trying to make a go with our small mail order business. We too can get by on about $15K/year but I too miss the nice fat savings account! But we have lots more time together now!
Keeping your eggs in different baskets sure was great advice. Wish had done it sooner. Thanks for letting us know how you get by.
I hope it all works out for your family, Karl.
Your post reminded me of a discussion that played out in my home several months back:
My oldest daughter's room-mate came to visit with her. The two did not share food expenses because they eat so differently. I asked the room-mate what kind of foods she preferred. The list included only frozen and over processed foods. On the list was "Hot Pockets". When my 9 year old heard that he said, "Mom, what's a hot pocket?"
I laughed and so did the room-mate who on a previous visit asked if we were Amish. She had never seen a homemade loaf of bread before and I had one that had just come out of the oven.
K
I think all of us go through that second-guessing, especially when things don't turn out exactly like we hoped they would, but the reality is that life isn't a chess game with a finite number of possibilities, and any significant decision can result in any number of possible outcomes.
Personally, I'd rather be self-sufficient, like you guys are, than having lots of money. In the long run, the self-sufficiency lasts longer. I've had times in my life when I didn't have enough money, but I needed money to pay for everything - including food. You, at least, can feed yourselves.
And for that, you should be very proud of your great accomplishment. There aren't many of us who can boast as much.
I hope someone steps out to loan you a car or something equally nice happens so you can work through this situation.
You all work so hard an set such a lovely example of what hard work and dedication can acheive!
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