I try to live a self sustaining life. What are some things you do at home to create, decorate, grow etc. . .?
Image by USDAgov
Orren Fox, (aka @happychickens) a teenage chicken/bee keeper, from Boston, talked about learning where his food comes, from raising chickens in his backyard since he was nine. Now he has 32 chickens, 4 ducks and over 200,000 bees. He is the face of Agriculture’s future. He is joined by his father, Henry, during a Know Your Farmer Compass event that used twitter social media to continue the National Conversation on Local and Regional Food projects and how they offer economic opportunities to local farmers, ranchers and food entrepreneurs. The virtual conversation via twitter was from the White House, in Washington, D.C., on Monday, March 5, 2012. USDA Photo by Lance Cheung.
Question by professor grey: I try to live a self sustaining life. What are some things you do at home to create, decorate, grow etc. . .?
I make what I can (i.e. curtains, aprons, some clothes), grow what I can (garden, fruit trees, fruit bushes and grape vines) and can or freeze what I grow. I raise hens for eggs and bees for honey. My goal is to use my little one acre piece of land to provide all I need for my family. But not just outdoors, inside as well. I’m currently making vanilla and almond extract. Can you give me more ideas? What are some interesting and creative things you’ve done from recycling to restoring or anything to decrease your carbon footprint.
Oil Trash Field: I’m not saying I’m perfect! Just saying I try to do whatever I can and I’m looking for new ideas all the time. No I don’t make my own vodka (I do make wine though) but I need only walk to the store to get a bottle. No I don’t make my own cloth but I don’t purchase clothes made in some other country by slave workers and then shipped to the US thus I am aware of the difference it makes in the carbon foot print. The same goes for fruits and veggies. In our local market every piece of fresh produce comes from Chile or Mexico. What I grow on my little acre is something that was not shipped, trucked or flown to the market. We can ALL do our part to sustain this planet. What are you doing may I ask?
bonitaka: That’s great. I try to do that too however we entertain a lot so I have paper towels hanging in the bathroom for guests. Most people don’t want to wipe their hands on a used towel.
Feel free to answer in the comment section below
2 Responses to I try to live a self sustaining life. What are some things you do at home to create, decorate, grow etc. . .?
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Well, we mostly gave up paper products about 35 years ago. We use rags, cloth napkins, etc. Must have saved a lot of paper in that time. (But used a lot of water, which is abundant where we live).
No, it’s not interesting, and it’s not creative. I don’t even iron the napkins or fold them into fancy shapes. But we do use napkin rings for their real purpose — to keep a napkin for the same person for the next meal.
bonitakale
August 4, 2012 at 11:17 am
I am not sure what you are doing would be called “self sustaining”. You have a computer and a freezer for starters. Both of those require outside power. You are making vanilla and almond extract. Unless you are making your own alcohol and growing your own vanilla beans and almonds then you need outside materials for both. Unless you are weaving you cloth from material you grow on that one acre then making your own curtains, etc is doing little if anything to reduce you carbon footprint.
I am not criticizing your efforts but just saying that you need to look more closely and critically at your ideas about self sustaining life and the reduction of your carbon footprint. Your efforts are admirable so keep on trying but think a bit more about what is effective and what is not.
oil field trash
August 4, 2012 at 11:57 am