Self Sufficiency

We are at the beginning of our quest to not only buy American made, eat without chemicals included, provide a lot of if not all of our needs our selves.  Some might call this work, we call it entertainment! When you are milking a goat who decides to fidget and you set the container of milk on you chair while you rearrange the milk stand and then sit in the milk yourself, this is entertainment. 

Self sufficiency to us means we will produce very little garbage to pollute the earth with. It means that we truly know what is going into our bodies. It means that corporations cannot pressure us how to spend our money and that if we were to spend it with their company we become more important.  Self sufficiency means if we want to be lazy only we suffer the consequences and the enjoyment!

We are far from where we desire to be in providing most everything for ourselves but we have begun our journey. We garden, we have chickens, & we recently bought a hilarious Nigerian dwarf goat, Betty who kidded 2 gorgeous babies for us 10 days ago and provides us milk. The weeds come out of the property by my hand and soil is made better by my composting.

I am surprised at how good it feels to realize at the end of a day that I missed some of my favorite TV shows but I did not suffer. Playing on our property with the dogs, chickens and goats, tending the garden allows us to completely enjoy time....living in the moment.  When you find yourself smiling a full toothed grin while tending to your projects that make our world a better place you know deep down that there is no better way to invest your time.

When I recall the things that I believed made me happy in my younger days and compare that to what makes me happy today I just shake my head. No one thing -fancy car -new house built just for me -exotic trip -fine jewelry...makes me as happy as watching the baby chicks roost or baby goats climb for the first time. there is not one thing anyone can buy me that I choose over what I already have here on our little piece of land.

We are planning to retire to a decent size acreage so we can add more chickens, Nigerian milking goats, larger gardens, a couple of large dogs, and maybe a lamb or two with a turkey on the side.

Diana

Sugar Suhweet is what I call my little baking, crafty entity. Our daughter's name is Sugar and we love our sweets! So do our dogs!!