Self Sustaining-urban vs. rural

The idea of growing food for yourself is becoming more attractive to people by the day. Fear or common sense, it doesn't much matter anymore as long as the idea is followed thru. "Urban homesteading" is the latest fashion trend. What these people fail to realize is that growing a garden, learning canning techniques and actually doing those things isn't enough. Having a small pen full of chickens isn't enough. Eating wholesome, organic foods isn't enough. Only what you can hang onto is all that matters.

Self Sustaining, what's that mean then? Taking care of yourself, feeding yourself, doing for yourself. Everyone can do it with a little effort and applied know how. What makes country folks better at this than city folks? Country folks have the correct mindset already. Every day something goes wrong! We've learned to adapt and overcome, we live with frequent power outages and things that break down. We hunt, we farm, we raise livestock every day of our lives. City folks can learn that too is the argument I hear all the time now. Sure they can but what happens when the power goes out? There's a thousand of them all trying to get thru the same intersection in traffic all at once! People become rude, even violent when they can't buy their Latte... getting my point? So, here you are, the perfect "urban homesteader", you've mastered all the skills you need and your chickens are laying tons of eggs every day and the power grid goes down. All the sudden your neighbors start to panic... what do you think is going to happen to your garden and your chickens in that nice little box? Only what you can hang on to matters.

Will it be better in the country? I think it will, for a while anyway. I don't think it will take long for the hordes to find country gardens and country chickens to eat. With any luck, they'll be thinned out some before they get to me.

So, for the urban homesteader sheltering in place- keep your head on you shoulders and have a plan for alternative living arrangements. Find a small lot of junk land away from the concentration of people, fix it up and be prepared to get there. Me, I'll be right here......

Canned butter adventure

I'd give credit if I could remember who it was that wrote the post with this idea and a link to Green Apple Orchards blog for the directions on how to do this neat little project. Hermit just canned himself a batch so I felt a little left out ;). Just a 1lb batch of home made brown swiss cow butter in half pint jars for my pantry. I was distracted during the process by hubby who took my kitchen over for a while and the butter cooled down too much to shake/mix so I had to put it in the oven at 170 for a few minutes to fix it. Seals stayed good thru it, I re-shook the jars until cooled properly, all seems as it should be. I'm counting this as a success!