really old style living?

zarazara

mardatha wrote: »

Is anybody in here so OS that they can cook, eat and live without shopping for months on end ? Like past generations who maybe lived on a remote farm & only went to the town a few times a year ..? I would like to really try for this next year, and would welcome your ideas and tips on how to do it.

Sounds like someone living in outer Mongolia. The problem with this is lack of social interaction. Also dairy and meat. If you have a large freezer for milk,butter etc and half a cow and a sheep then you could probably get away with it.
Re dairy produce, we used to have goats and when DH was young his family kept a jersey house cow. They ae no without problems though! milking daily,or twice a day,every day,vet fees ,what to do with all that milk [keep a pig]and so it goes on. These days theres lots of paperwork and regulations too. I'd love to have a Jersey cow though,but theres too much TB in my part of the world unfortunately.

zarazara

Just another thought, there are people in the valley next to us and they are doing the Good Life thing properly. They have sheep,a house cow,wind turbine,solar panels,grow veg etc etc etc . They do weekend "hands on " learning courses for people and B&B. I suppose this pays the bills. Its rather like the Victorian Farm tv programme [Acton Scott] which is about 30 mins drive away from here.

zarazara

You've got me on a roll here, theres bee keeping,willow weaving,wood turning,hurdle making,pottery making. My friends place has reed bed sewer management,it works well,they have 3 large fish ponds stocked with fish and they "discharge" into them so they must do their job and clean up the effluent. The Centre for Alternative Technology at Machyncleth [sp?] has tonnes of info and runs courses about all sorts of eco stuff.

Penelope_Penguin

zarazara wrote: »

You've got me on a roll here, theres bee keeping,willow weaving,wood turning,hurdle making,pottery making. My friends place has reed bed sewer management,it works well,they have 3 large fish ponds stocked with fish and they "discharge" into them so they must do their job and clean up the effluent.

I'm really interested in doing something like this - can you post a link, please (or PM if you don;t want to divulge your location :cool: )

TIA

Zazen999

Penelope_Penguin wrote: »

I like hedgerow wine (my 10yo eldeberry is yummy :beer: ) but it's not a patch on a rich Rioja, or my annual bottle of Veuve Cliquot :beer:

Ooh no - I much prefer my home brew to bottled stuff. We made fruit tea bag wine, about £5.00 per 5 gallon demigod and nectar to the taste buds. The fresh rasp wine - just £1.20 per 5 gallon demigod and that's just for the sugar and yeast.

We grow grapes and can't wait for those to be ready again this year.....

mardatha

Ah, its nice to share ideas and rolling is good fun ! I am not so much into the green or eco side of things though, I am just LAZY ! There are a few places up here with turf roofs and wind turbines but we wouldn't have the money or strength for all that stuff.
I do have a very different life to most of you in here.. my life is much slower and more old fashioned than most - so it would be easier for me to do this than for somebody who is out & about in shops cafes streets, etc, every day.
I suppose I'm more into survivalist mode than green mode I'd like to know that I could live without supermarkets/electric/etc for a while if I had to. Thanks peeps, you've given me great ideas and help

Kadeeae

wmf wrote: »

I like the idea of this but think I prefer reading about it to doing it..........Will read this thread with interest

Like wmf, I'll be watching this thread too. I don't know that I would want to do it if it wasn't necessary but do find it fascinating reading and best of luck to you mardatha if you give it a go!

zarazara

For Pen Pen http://www.smilingtreefarm.com/ and http://www.actonscott.com/index.php and http://www.cat.org.uk/

ginnyknit

Yes definately an interesting thread. I would love to live life more self sufficiently and am heading as far that way as possible. I now get most of my social interaction through the pc anyway as many friends abandoned me when stopped having money - ie when I left the rat race. We have always lived differently than most people round here so don't really fit in - well Im a dyed in the wool goth anyway so that scares off most people on a council estate

I don't think I will ever be able to call us self sufficient as we live on disability benefits, if you see what I mean but survivalist, yes, that sounds right. You are right though Mardatha the veg growing needs to be better planned out here too but I have done better than last year so its a learning curve.

Its interesting to hear how others are on the same track but I am a little envious (dont like jealousy - bad!) of people with land and storage as we dont have much of either.

zarazara

Hi ginnyknit, well we all have something someone else hasnt got,sometimes its just not obvious. Time is one,storage another,peaceful thoughts,and so on. I live in a tiny cottage,I store a heap of stuff under the bed and the bedroom is filled with extra pasta,jamjars and all sorts of things which really belong in other rooms. I have cup hooks screwed into all the beams for hanging things on,even for drying washing. Sadly I cant do bacon or have our owncheesemaking place [we used to have a dairy/cold room where we used to farm]. We used to do our own bacon,hams,cheeses store spuds through the winter. hang game]. Now theres no where cool enough for all this where we live now. But we are in better veg growing country. Its swings and roundabouts. Best Wishes with the veg growing, its very theraputic I find.