How many of you sit around and think about..?

[Arkansaslongbow]

Living more off the land?  seems like more often here lately that the food we buy in our stores carry more diease and causes more sickness than ever before; I am leaning towards more and more about doing all my own gardening and quit all together buying meat;

I am reading more books than ever before about preserving and canning my own food,growing better gardens, and my desire to "trophy" hunt is being thrown out the window; this year{God's will)I am not going to pass any deer and more small game will be killed to provide meat for the table; it's a learning process with me on how to can meat and veggies but learn I will;

Anyway, just wondering if any of you trad guys are thinking about the same; let me know.........      

[vtmtnman]

I've been under that school of thought for a while now.Just bought a plow for the tractor and plowed up some land.

[Turkeys Fear Me]

Not really.  

Disease seems to be more prevelant, but in reality we are just better and diagnosing them than ever before and we are living longer than we ever have.

In 1940 when we lived "off the land" much more than we do today, life expectancy was 62 in America.  Today, when virtually nobody "lives off the land,"  life expectancy is 78.

Now, we do have a garden, my wife cans our own stuff, and we eat more venison than beef, but it's hard to argue with the stats.

   

I have to admit, I think more about food plots for deer than I do garden plots for me.

 

[Zradix]

I DO!!!
Many times I think to myself..To heck with this BS!!
I would have a lot to learn before I made the move.

The biggest thing holding me back is my kids.
I won't do that to them. That would be too hard on them...especially  socially.

Anyway..I feel it's a perfect dream many of us have.
I also feel that it could turn to a nightmare in a blink of an eye.

[Mudd]

Can you say "Farmers Market"?..lol

All the benefits without the work and fresher than the store.

I'd rather give my sweat equity to stalking through the woods in order to add the meat to my plate of fresh vegetables grown by those who seem to just love doing that sort of thing.

God bless,Mudd

[Don Stokes]

This will be the first year I haven't had a garden in quite a while. My gardening site is poor, with low fertility and every plant disease known to man, and the rewards just haven't been worth the effort the last couple of years. Yes, I will be saying "Farmer's Market" this year! My deteriorating body will appreciate it too, I'm sure.

If I had a better site, though...

[Stiks-n-Strings]

I was born in the wrong era myself. I would love to just go pick me a spot on a mountain and put me up a small cabin and spend the rest of my days there living off of the land.

 My wife says otherwise and you know a feller needs his brides lovin so I guess I will stay here and just go on a few trips a year.

 As far gardens, Love it and my bride does all the canning. Canning is pretty simple and I enjoy it myself. raise a few pigs and a beef every year along with some chickens and the game and fish that go's in the freezer and there ain't no better way of living if you ask me.

 Stiks

[Hopewell Tom]

I'm knee to waist deep in it right now and heading for over my head! Feels over my head already with the new (and much bigger) garden plot needing work. My plan is to be the SELLER at the Farmers Market. Getting into Non-Timber Forest Products and more wild food, like Fiddleheads and Chanterelle mushrooms. It's a ton of work, but what isn't? Been self employed for the last 30 years, no pension, so as my son says, "probably work up to the day I die"! We're country folk on 500 acres of our own land, so other options aren't that appealing. Hunting is right out the back door, so pretty much a homebody.

[cobbow]

Man I am with you on this I would love to do this. We are trying to sell our house so we can find something with more than .19 of an acre. I dream of the day when I have my son helping me raise a few chickens, work in a garden, and help build bows in a shop. He is four and I want him to be more self reliant than I was raised. Not that I am not handy was on my Dads framing crew any day I wasn’t in school, but we never did much more than build. I want to know how to truly Live and survive. The hard part (other than selling a house right now) is finding land that is not to expensive without moving to far from our jobs. Wish I didn’t HAVE to have one I would be happy just staying out in the sticks doing my own thing.

Cobbow

[SveinD]

I do! I'm starting to real tired of the way we are blinded and made a part of the wrongdoings of certain companies! Unethical treatment of animals, pumping our food with hormons, antibiotics and chemicals. So almost two weeks ago I started small, buying only ecological food, eating more healthy veggies, and plan to take the hunters and bowhunters exam this fall so I can secure my own meat! (I like meat^^) I've also been stocking up on info on how to survive in the wild.. Problem is, I know the wife won't come, so I can't go all-out.. Seems some sort of compromise is needed! Anywhoo, it's still important knowledge!

If you research what is actually in our food supply it will leave you with the conclusion that the big companies are out to kill us.  I just learned of the difference between A1 and A2 milk and what pasteurizing does to its digestibility.  A1 none pasteurized is good for you A2 clogs your arteries.  All kinds of animal/plant gene splicing in the crops, chemical and drug carry over in the livestock, and nutra sweet is made from slime excrement and will kill carpenter ants and red ants infestations around the home.  We just had the annual Tulip Festival and I ate some seriously bad traditional Dutch food made with modern ingredients, boy can I tell I have been off my organic diet. My organic beef and lamb supplier is on the way to restock my freezer.  his none hybrid cattle are tiny compared to the modern  version and the cholesterol is more balanced with way less fat, but surprisingly tasty.  If you do your own garden stay with heirloom plants and stay away from the garden chemicals.  I do not believe for a minute that they wash off or cook out like the old brainwashing PR says. For some reason I get a health kick every year when my garden products come in.  It must be true, we are what we eat. One old saying I do agree with, "If God did not make it, don't eat it".

[twitchstick]

I do think this way also. Yesterday I didn't go turkey hunting because of the gardening chores that needed to be done,sad but true. I try to stay as close to the land as I can, most years I don't have to buy too much at the stores. It was a good thing last year because work was a tough thing for me. I feed a pig ever year along with splitting a 1/2 of beef with the father-in-law,grow a big garden and fish and hunt like a mad man. It's not to hard to get a free mutton and lamb around here ether,fencing chores have bennefits other than hunting rights. On a good year I can have a couple of elk and deer in the freezer and maybe a moose this year. I still have a few squash for last years garden. I am one of thou's that would be happy if the homestead act came back or they would just let me squat on a peace of dirt. If it wasn't for the wife and daughter I might end up hills living off the land in a small cabin.

[T. Downing]

I have definitely embraced this way of thinking recently. Much of it is due to my second son's autism. He is on a dairy and glutton free diet and the rest of my family has primarily joined him. Also, I have heart disease/high cholesterol in my background, so I went away from eating a ton of burger and cheese and right now, just about the only meat we are eating is last year's elk and whatever wild meat I can usually get my hands on. Veggies and fruit,etc is usually bought from organic suppliers like our farmers market. Just trying to keep it simple. No processed food at all except for corn chips. I gotta have my chips and salsa! The wife is in the planning stages of growing veggies at home in a garden. Problem is we live at 8000 ft, might have to get a greenhouse. I must say that at 41, I have never eaten better in my whole life. I feel fantastic and I love how my  little boy is doing with his special diet. T

[Chris Shelton]

You know this is kinda funny.  I think about this on a daily basis.  Just last week I went to a try a trout stream not far from my house.  On the way there in the middle of nowhere I found this colonial house.  I don't know if you guys have seen the patriot, but it was like "aunt Charlotte's" house only made of brick.  Overgrown and boarded up.  Then I keep thinking of the Notebook, when Noah fixed up that old house.  And a thought keeps crossing my mind like crazy . . . I-WANT-THAT-HOUSE, lol.  It will never happened, I don't have the funds, the patients, or the time.  But that would really be awesome, at the foothills of the Appalachian, with deer, trout.  I could plant a garden, and I already know how to can.  But like a lot of you have already mentioned it would be tricky to talk a woman into living off the land.  I think the standard response would be,  why should I do all this work when a wall-mart is just down the road, lol.  ONE DAY, lol

[John3]

I've have thought about this as well... I just don't have the time for a garden but this thread has me motivated to make small steps..  I may just put in a small (10x20) plot if the rain ever stops here.  

Over this past winter I made the decision to kill enough game to NOT buy commercial meat again. I hate treestands but as of today I have four stands placed in good funnels waiting on September and have four other properties to scout and hang more...  

Last bowseason I saw 28 deer with most being in close longbow range. In 2009 I shot at a total of one buck and of course had a deflection. I am usually only a ground bowhunter but not this season. Treestands are deadly and I will get "a quantity" of deer killed this year.  No more talking myself out of not taking them... I will not pass any legal deer other than small bucks this season.  I have two dehydrators for jerky and have the spices and recipe to make my own sausage..
This is the year!!  No more commercial meat for me...  At least this is the goal.. LOL

[stevemfwills]

we put out a 2 acre garden this year.40 tomatoe plants,20 cucumber,10 zuccini,and various peppers and corn...save money there so i can get a new bow

[Shawn Rackley]

it is a great lifestyle. i lived on my dads organic farm for two years. we grew a huge garden every year and canned hundreds of cans of vegetables for the wnter. we even made our own butter from our cows. ate our own beef and deer. chicken and turkey aswell that we raised. 60% of what we ate in the winter we butchered or grew. i lost 60 pounds. much healthier. i always think of the simpler times that my grandfather grew up in. im only 29 but be self sufficient is the goal for the rest of my life. you are not alone in thinking this way. lol its our instinct.

[Chris Shelton]

Originally posted by Turkeys Fear Me:
 In 1940 when we lived "off the land" much more than we do today, life expectancy was 62 in America.  Today, when virtually nobody "lives off the land,"  life expectancy is 78.

these stats have a lot of hidden variables, such as improved medical care, cleaner living conditions etc.  So I think that has more to do with the life expectancy vs. living off the land.  just my .02

[Kris]

Barry,

Great topic, totally onboard with it.  That would be one of the most sustainable things any of us could do!  My wife and I (and baby boy now) try to eat organic food as much as possible.  My wife did not grow up in a hunting family but completely embraces and prefers to eat wild over anything domestic anymore. We eat one to two deer a year and some small game but would never be able to sustain our diet on this alone.  We had wild turkey the night before (that I shot with my recurve this spring)and are having venison tonight.  Going out to work on my garden right now!  Best of luck in your pursuit of self reliance!

Kris

[SveinD]

You guys should see the movie/documentary on Dick Proenneke called "Alone in the Wilderness"
 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0437806/