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The quest for self-sufficiency isn’t exactly new, but it used to be different than it is now. When our parents and grandparents were growing up, almost everyone had a backyard garden. A few other things have changed, too. We’ll go through a few of them here. It used to be patriotic These days, when you…

Self-sufficiency means different things to different people, but all of the different approaches have some things in common.  Here, we’ll walk through what those things are. The core of self-sufficiency is minimizing your reliance on others for the important things in your life: Food and water Shelter – your comfortable home Clothing The extended view…

There are a lot of things to do to create a self-sufficient life. The first few, however, will set you up for long-term success. These three things are a foundation you can build everything else on for your self-sufficient life: create a spending plan, do things yourself, and plant a garden. Here’s why and how….

This summer, I’m getting back into fishing for a couple of reasons:  (1) it’s a nice pastime that allows me to spend some quality time with my son, son-in-law, and anybody else who comes to visit; and (2) it’s a fun way to put a little bit of variety in the meat that we eat,…

In another post, I detailed what I did to get my mower ready for the yard maintenance season. I’ll do the same thing here, but for my trimmer and blower, since both have 2-cycle engines. Here’s the checklist: Change the fuel filter Check, clean and gap the spark plug Check and (maybe) replace the air…

With Winter behind us and the growing season starting, it’s time to get the mower, trimmer, and blower ready to keep the yard clean. Here’s a checklist of the things I do at the start of each Spring to get my mower in tip-top shape. The mower is the workhorse of maintaining the vast majority…