Told my wife that if I lost my job...

[AzNick]

(I am the main financial provider, she works part time)

I told her, if I lost my job, I would just bail out and go live in the woods, raise chickens, and live of little resources.

I am 41, if I lose my job, I will never get a good paying job again and what for?

All we do is pay for stupid crap we don't need.

This "modern" life is nothing but trouble. What do we get in return for our gadgets? Longer work hours. Longer commutes. Less time with our kids or working on what matters most.

There are tons of books I never read and that I should read.

And yes, I know about raising chickens.

[RandomThoughts]

1. heh, yea, enough money to be around people, is all people really need.

Although there are different ways to do that, that cost different things.

[Capitalocracy]

2. maybe you'll do well

some of us don't want to have to cook our eggs for three hours to avoid salmonella, maybe you'll find a market there

[reggie the dog]

3. here in France we often eat raw eggs

as part of desserts, the key is to get eggs from farm raised chickens which go outdoors as opposed to factory chicken eggs. i am bummed because i lost my job and a flood took all my marijuana plants, next year i will have 2 plots of pot, I only need about 5 kilos to live for a year so 15 plants will do me fine.

[madrchsod]

10. i was thinking about that but

i`d have to raise a house full just to pay the deducts on my medical bills.....

[reggie the dog]

32. single payer national health insurance

takes care of that for everyone here in France....the usa is so rich, but is richness is so poorly divided....

[EOTE]

19. 5 kilos?!?

So you go through about a pound a month or about a half oz per day? Does that mostly go to edibles, or is that all smoked? I'm a fairly regular smoker, but I rarely go through more than a half per week.

[reggie the dog]

31. no, i misrepresented myself

1 pound would do me fine for a year, one kilo and i would be smoking as much as i wanted for free for the whole year. The other 4 kilos would be sold in bulk for 2 euros 50 cents a gram to the people from whom i buy my hash already. 5 kilos would get me enough to smoke free for the year plus 10 grand in euros to live on (which is roughly a minumum wage slarary) and there is national health inusrance so I am fine on that end. I tried to do that this year and lost my crop. The idea is that I could drop off the grid pretty much completely and live demanding no aid from the state with as little as 5 kilos harvest each fall.

[a la izquierda]

8. you have no idea what the hell you're talking about.

my boss raises chickens, and she and her husband, and me and my husband, along with her whole family, eat the eggs her chickens lay.

Obviously, we're all zombies from having died of salmonella poisoning.

[Capitalocracy]

17. you have no idea what the hell I'm talking about

was there a problem with the way I worded that or something? I was wishing him luck because I know freerange eggs are better

[Land Shark]

23. It was a tad ambiguous, and then your screen name threw folks a bit (I'd guess) nt

[Capitalocracy]

24. it's common for things to be ambiguous on forums

without a face or a voice

my screen name is my term for the dystopian political system I believe we live under

[Javaman]

15. You really don't have a clue, do you?

way to push the ignorant ball forward.

[Capitalocracy]

18. please reread

thank you

[uppityperson]

26. True, free-range/homegrown eggs are much much better and safer

when we sold ours we broke even on feed and get to keep all that good manure to compost for the garden.

[pepperbear]

4. check this out...

http://www.wimp.com/livingland/

[onestepforward]

5. Ah, the beauty of simplicity.

I'm trying to get there myself. Thanks for the video!

[Delphinus]

6. That was

really quite interesting - thanks for sharing.

[malaise]

7. Thanks for that video

That's the life

[EXneoCON]

14. That's the life! Unfortunately...

there have been any number of lawsuits brought against would-be urban homesteaders by both neighborhood associations and municipalities for infractions of by-laws or zoning regs that mandate a certain "look" to the yard.

I'm tired of that kind of sh*t, and have been trying to figure out what to do, but without $$$ it looks rather bleak at the moment.

edited for clarity

[shireen]

25. i love them! Inspiring.

i wish i had a house with a yard so i could adopt some of those concepts.
http://urbanhomestead.org/

[a la izquierda]

9. that sounds delightfully simple...

and nice. depending upon where i get a job, my husband and i might do that anyway.

[Dawgs]

11. That's what my 41 year old brother is doing.

They are moving to nowheresville Ohio to crap in litter boxes and live off the land.

I'm a little jealous and can't wait to visit.

[mstinamotorcity]

12. Sometimes less is more

We have all been guilty of thinking about everything we lost during this recession. This should shed some light on how to do some things that the recession can't take away from you. And some times just altering your lifestyle and a few habits can have a tremendous effect on your life,health and budget.Very good video.

[Dappleganger]

13. If we could have sold our house we would have moved...

but we are stuck here, now underwater (it wasn't a year ago) just like most of our neighbors.

[Javaman]

16. Google...

Path to Freedom.

You will be glad you did.

[zipplewrath]

20. You might be surprised

I don't know you so it is hard to know. But subsistence farming is hard, very hard. When the industrial revolution started, they POURED into the factories, and many of them found it to be a much better life than they had on the farms. And mind you, they were working 60+ hour weeks in the factories that weren't exactly OSHA approved.

There was an article some time back, from Mother Jones if I recall correctly, about a woman who had divorced her husband after they tried "living off the grid" for about 5 years or so. It was an honest assessment of how hard a life it was. It works for some folks, but not as many as you might think.

[hfojvt]

21. cue the music

da da da da-da - - da-da!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mbk81X6WHA4

[Tsiyu]

22. The life has its drawbacks

I live it, in the wooods, substandard housing, constant issues with water, no TV, only dialup internet. Scraping by with a few clients here and there.

But I wouldn't trade it for the world.

The last job I had nearly cost me the use of my arms. I'm over 50, and was working 50 - 70 hours a week, because that is the new labor model - do three people's jobs for less than one person's pay. And it wasn't enough money - even with overtime - to let my place fall worse into disrepair because I was never home.

So now I am rebuilding my employment, one small odd job at a time, I feel like a human being again. I am so poor, it's really ridiculous, but I can go out and still pick beans and squash and peppers and herbs from the garden and I get two dozen eggs a week from the hens and my place is completely paid for (such as it is).

Freedom isn't free, but it feels better than wage slavery...

[Capitalocracy]

27. That statement is the harsh truth

"that is the new labor model - do three people's jobs for less than one person's pay."

[Tsiyu]

30. It really is depressing

because the Director made ten times my salary but constantly was after us to "cut costs." It was all about him, when it comes down to it, not about the business or the employees, but about justifying his bloated salary and benefits.

I'm not killing myself to make someone else's life more comfortable while I suffer. Just not gonna do it any more...the alternative is scary as hell and it's hard work surviving on next to nothing, but at least I can use my arms again without being in constant pain.

Good luck to all of us...

[cbayer]

28. Just do it.

Living off the grid and spending very little money is the most liberating feeling on earth. Those that say otherwise are just jealous that they can't do it.

:toast:

[Greyhound]

29. "I am 41, if I lose my job, I will never get a good paying job again and what for?"

That's where we're at as well.

One important thing to consider is owning your water rights and having a well. This is one of the few advantages we generally have here in the west. We do ducks, chickens are meaner and dirtier.