How Self-Reliant Are You?

[unkachuck]

Poll question: How Self-Reliant Are You?

The economy is depressed and money is tight. How are you coping with the daily traumas of life? Are to doing home/auto repairs? Are you canning food, making clothes, gardening? Or are you all thumbs, hopelessly lost?

[Orrex]

1. Somebody help me come up with an answer for this poll.

Please?

[Voice for Peace]

5. hahahahaha

sorry you're on your own.

[bbinacan]

2. I have money

but I have worked in construction and can fall back on that experience if I need to.

[graywarrior]

3. We live on $268 a week...plus Mr Gray's small SS check...lol.

We don't starve, nor do we have everything we need.

[izquierdista]

4. Working hard on it

House is paid for, still needs some $$ for repairs. When I get solar panels installed, I'll be less reliant on the electric company. The garden is coming along well and next year I may reach food self-sufficiency.

[zeemike]

9. I think that is the wise course for all.

Particularly the food self suficiency....you really can't be self sufficient unless you can make your own food.

[Voice for Peace]

6. Utterly dependent on the kindness of Life.

rec'd back to zero..

[stray cat]

7. I'm doing my job full time plus and stimulating the economy by letting others do their jobs

such as paying them to repair my car

[BlooInBloo]

8. I almost always rely on others for almost everything, almost all the time...

I don't make hammers - others do that; I just use them occasionally. I don't farm food - others do that; I just eat it. And so on.

[Harry Monroe]

10. I can kill a man using only my thumbs...

...and live in the wilderness with only a loincloth and a pocketknife so don't fuck with me!! B-)

[Fumesucker]

14. I can make a fire by rubbing two dry cliche's together..

In the middle of a rain forest.

[Orrex]

11. I can kill a man using Harry Monroe's thumbs

That'll teach him to use Harry's thumbs without asking!

[Skink]

12. I'm self depricating sometimes.

:beer: or drunk.

[NickB79]

13. By next spring, pretty damn reliant

We're buying a house on 1.5 acres of land in 2 weeks. It has its own well and septic system, a massive vegetable garden, a supply shed/chicken coop (the previous owners are giving us their 8 chickens), and a wood-burning stove to supplement the propane and electric heating systems. I'll be spending a weekend at the family farm splitting wood to haul back for the stove, I'm already pricing fruit tree saplings (apples, pears, peaches, apricots, northern kiwi, plums, cherries, chestnuts), growing what I can from seed (hazelnuts, persimmons, prinsepias, Corellian cherry, wild plums, crabapples, etc), and gathering up canning supplies. All the vegetables I have grown in the past, and will continue to grow at our new house, are heirloom varieties that breed true from seed (no hybrids or GMO varieties). I have been using mostly organic methods of gardening since I was a kid and will continue to do so.

I'm not very mechanically inclined, but that's where my dad and brother come in. They do all of their own repairs on trucks, cars, tractors, farm machinery, etc. I can ask them for help, and learn how to do repairs myself over time. The same goes for woodworking and home repair. In return, I have been helping out around the farm, especially maintaining their gardens and planting edible trees and shrubs. That's my specialty: a green thumb.

[WillowTree]

15. I'm the son my Dad never had.

I did most of the remodeling on my home myself, including some plumbing and minor electrial work. Had to have an electrician come in to re-wire in the kitchen for a halogen light fixture and I did have a fella my Dad knew help out with a few major woodworking things I needed done for which I didn't have the correct tools, but other than that, it was all me.

The local fire marshall just recently mandated that all the unit entry doors in our building have to have auto-closing hinges installed. The hinges should cost between $30 and $45 to purchase and there were a couple of local guys who advertised that they would install them for between $70 and $95. Just to replace two or three hinges! Sorry, but that's just highway robbery. Not only am I doing my own, but I've also put out the word among the retirees in the building that I'll do theirs for no charge, as well.

I've also been known to do some minor auto repairs (very minor) and I can change my own oil and brake pads if I need to, though anymore I'm willing to pay a local shop to do those little maintenance jobs 'cause I'm too lazy to get outside and do it myself if I don't have to.

[csziggy]

16. I used to be very self-reliant

Built a lot of stuff I needed, grew a lot of veggies, canned food, froze food. I can make my own clothes, but ready made is better for farm work. I am hopeless with engines, both fossil fuel and electric.

Then I had accident after accident, and the accumulated damage to my body plus getting older has made it more difficult to do the things I want to do. If - and that is a big IF - over this winter I can catch up with the maintenance on my decorative garden beds around the house, I may try to prepare a couple of beds for vegetables next year.

Aside from my physical problems, though, I will have to fight off the deer and wild turkeys - they already munch on my decorative plants right around the house. They would feast on a real vegetable garden! I really do NOT want to have to put up an electric fence and I enjoy watching the deer when they come to visit.

I'd have a similar problem if I wanted to raise poultry - we have red and gray foxes that live here as well as bald eagles, red shoulder and red tailed hawks that hunt here. Not to mention the coyotes that live in the region. So we'd have to have a very secure poultry yard to keep them safe. Now, I love to watch the wildlife, but if it were a choice between me and them, I'd encourage them to hunt elsewhere.

If it came down to it and I needed the food, I'd make a deal with some friends to let the hunt here for a share of the meat, and have venison and turkey to eat with my produce. I could also work out deals with friends to make a bigger area for crops and share the work. I've got the land as my contribution. And if we needed to, we could train our horses to pull plows to till fields. When we bought this place, it had about 20 acres of corn fields and about three or four acres where they raised pigs, so I know it could be a working farm again. We could also hunt mourning dove and maybe encourage the local quail population.

For now, a better plan for me at my age is to make deals with local farmers to trade for produce and meat.

[rucky]

17. I do most self-reliant things, then get an expert to clean up my mess.

[cherokeeprogressive]

18. Not much I can't do.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

19. Completely self reliant in terms of home repairs, construction, etc.

Reliant with help on minor automotive repairs.

[asdjrocky]

20. Need help with the cars.

Home stuff is no problem. I own my house free and clear and I take care of it. I have a big garden in the backyard and I give vegetable to the foodbank once a week from it.

If it's an old car I can do it, these new ones make me scratch my head a bit.