Thread: Getting back to living off the land.....

I remember hearing on TV; either river Cottage or Jamie Oliver, that 85% of the UK's food is imported. That's an amazing lack of food security..... I've always said that it will only take a ruckus between North Korea and the US, a pandemic or a flare-up in Saudi Arabia to send us into this sort of situation.

I'm no prepper or conspiracy theorist, but have always seen how fragile our society is. Especially so with the amount of debt people need to take on to buy a house. And of course the "I must have the latest and greatest/annual overseas holiday" mentality that prevails......

Bumblefoot... have you ever tried to test how strong your vinegar is? I've made it too, but I haven't been confident about using it for preserving as I don't know how 'acidic' it is compared to shop-bought vinegar. I asked a chemist once about testing vinegar, and he didn't come up with any simple tests that I could readily use.

Litmus paper?

I don't know enough about testing for acid. Litmus paper would show that acid is present, but is the acid percentage enough to penetrate all the food in the jar and be effective at preventing the growth of organisms? We use plenty of store-bought vinegar, but it would be great to experiment with using our own.

We use cheap white vinegar for a lot of the cleaning around the house. I especially like using it 'before and after' to clean the kitchen bench when processing an animal. We keep a spray bottle of undiluted white vinegar for such purposes.

I did a quick bit of research about making cider vinegar, the most discussed facet was not using it for preserving as the level of acidity was hard to gauge.
I now have a jar brewing in the hot water cupboard!

I am not a prepper either, but get great satisfaction from any thing I can DIY .... we were all once a bunch of talented people that could manage most things, it just got easier along the way to "get an expert" and the "I dont have time" excuse isnt valid at the moment.

I use it for cooking, salads and take it 3x a day with lemon juice and water as a tonic. Been doing keto to lose weight etc for the last 2 months but had a craving for bread so today is a cheat day. a new loaf in the oven......

Greetings All and Especially Johnd and Bumblefoot,
While neither of you are preppers in the US meaning of buying heaps of firearms, shit loads of ammunition and truck loads of canned food that their kids would rather starve to death than eat you are preppers in the wider meaning of building resilience to survive in hard times. I also remember growing up in the 1950's and early 1960's. We had chooks and dad had a stupendous garden and although there was not much money we lived well on eggs, poultry, vegetables, vegetables and more vegetables cheap cuts of meat like hearts, liver and thirty bob ($3.00) sides of blue stripe mutton. There was also the odd leg of venison that my Uncle Hec dropped off This was a bit like how my dads parents had survived the depression with five adults and two children on one small income. My father talked of one meat meal per week and vegetables with left over gravy for the rest. I used to watch the Doomsday Preppers TV programs a bit, best comedy on TV at the time. With a few exceptions they all would have been dead in a fortnight. Preparing by building resilience is however something quite different.
Regards and Keep it Up, Grandpamac.

My life hasn't changed that much. Living out of the freezer and garden. Work-wise it's still a bit up in the air.... I work as a freelance mag writer/photographer so things are still in a state of flux. Most of my work recently has been for Dairy Farmer mag. Dairy Exporter, Farmers Weekly and Countrywide are now classed as essential and we are still waiting for confirmation whether DF will be too. I also work for the other 3 mags. I also work for Lifestyle Block; they have pulled the plug on the next issue and stopped accepting stories so oh well; whatever happens, happens..... Could be worse; could be a Bauer Media staffer.....

This is my latest piece..... https://farmersweekly.co.nz/section/...boosts-charity

I like your succinct paragraphs Bumblefoot... and the way you start some sentences with 'But'.

It is interesting Grandpamac. Since I was quite young, I've had an interest in 'survival'. I've killed game with my home-made bows and arrows, I can light a fire without matches etc etc. Even wrote a book on it. Dunno why so many of us seem to have sporadic visits of thoughts related to disaster. Perhaps I picked up on the vibe of my parents and grandparents who lived through wars and the great depression.

While I don't think the current situation is right up there with the worst of the fantasies (fears?) that I may have entertained over the years, I may have once seen this scenario as my cue to grab my gear and head for a remote lair. My younger self would be interested to see that I have chosen to stay in civilisation to weather it out with the majority of the population.... while helping out my elderly Mum etc.

My interest in growing food, hunting and primitive technology have done me no harm though. I've learned a bit and I've had a lot of fun and satisfaction. And maybe some of my enthusiasm has rubbed off on to others.

I believe that people who are interested in these types of things are likely to have a good appreciation for what our planet provides, and thus make good neighbours and citizens.

Originally Posted by bumblefoot

My life hasn't changed that much. Living out of the freezer and garden. Work-wise it's still a bit up in the air.... I work as a freelance mag writer/photographer so things are still in a state of flux. Most of my work recently has been for Dairy Farmer mag. Dairy Exporter, Farmers Weekly and Countrywide are now classed as essential and we are still waiting for confirmation whether DF will be too. I also work for the other 3 mags. I also work for Lifestyle Block; they have pulled the plug on the next issue and stopped accepting stories so oh well; whatever happens, happens..... Could be worse; could be a Bauer Media staffer.....

This is my latest piece..... https://farmersweekly.co.nz/section/...boosts-charity

Bumblefoot,

Given your own experience and what you have observed writing for Lifestyle magazine would you be interested in starting a new thread on how you would approach setting your self up to be significantly self sufficient on a small block?

I like many on this site have or would like to work for another 5-7 years before retirement. At this stage I will be 60-62 years old, and with good health and fitness. While I have saved well for retirement I’d like to not touch to much of it straight up and allow it have 7-10 years to enable one more cycle of increase. I’ve separately put aside some savings to buy a small block or a good deposit on one with this in mind.

I think with the market crash many people due to retire may be thinking this way? It’s how retirees did things when I was younger particularly ex farmers as the scaled down to small blocks on “retiring “.

Perhaps you have covered this in a magazine article?

Greetings to You Bumblefoot, Coote, Dicko, Johnd and Others.
Recent posts on moving to self sufficiency in adversity and transitioning to retirement have struck a chord with me. I thought I should share some of my experiences of working toward retirement for what they may be worth. I've always tended to over think things and as a result have a tendency toward anxiety. Not far short of my 60th birthday I realized that retiring cold turkey on my 65th or any other birthday for that matter was not the best option for me. We had previously bought a small block (8 hectares) in 1992 and moved onto it about 8 years later. There was still much to do and to my mind trading some more days off now for a few worked after my 65th birthday seemed like a good deal. My job as a Property Asset Management Planner for the local Council had no public contact and only long term objectives so after a bit of dithering by my employer I went to a four day week (32 hours) late in 2009 and a 3 day week (24 hours) in about 2013. I retired in 2015 not long after my 66th birthday but continued doing casual property field data collection until 2018 when I finally pulled the pin. I was lucky to have been able to make the transition in this way as it has worked for me. My dearly beloved on the other hand retired cold turkey on her 65th birthday and never looked back. Your needs may be somewhere in the middle.
Regards Grandpamac.

Grandpa Mac,

Yes that is a great way to transition to start getting setup while you have good cash flow and more youth. Also let’s you buy in earlier and that can have benefits.

Heh. I started practicing for retirement when I first started work.

I served my time as a fitter, turner and machinist with the Ministry of Works in Nelson. It was a great job with a good variety, plus they were a good employer. I've worked as a fitter, safety coordinator, purchasing officer, recruitment coordinator, salesperson, customer services officer and security officer.

Back when I was about 53 I married for a second time. My new wife is a glass artist, having worked a lot with stained glass (leadlight windows etc) and more lately with fused glass. She also paints like a genius. It didn't take long before I became her assistant (although I did a few odd jobs for employers here and there after this time). We made jewellery from dichroic glass and our biggest outlet for this was at the Nelson Saturday Market, although we did go to a few other markets and events. Some years we made a really good living at this.

We still make a few jewellery pieces, but we gave up the market. Sales dropped there... possibly because our stuff had lost some of its novelty value, and another factor was all the cheap factory-made jewellery coming in from overseas, which enabled a lot of people to get more bling for their buck.

One day we were asked if we could produce a wall hanging using metal and a certain colour of glass. We did that, and the customer seemed pleased with it. So then we started making wall hangings from stainless steel and glass, and sales of these have provided the bulk of our living for several years. I started getting NZ Super last month, but we still intend to continue with the artwork for now.

We currently live on a fairly small section in a semi-rural area. We grow fruit and vegetables (but generally not things like potatoes and corn). I have owned a larger lifestyle block where we had a pig, a calf, sheep, chickens and rabbits along with fruit and veg. It is a lot of work though, especially if key people in the family like things to be perfectly tidy. I don't want to spend all my time dealing with weeds etc.

I am so blessed to have friends with lifestyle blocks who give me access to their place. It is wandering around in the scrub in my own neighbourhood which gives me the majority of my 'outdoor' pleasure and satisfaction. I am content now to have a smaller, more manageable property and the freedom to hunt and explore elsewhere.

In the interest of continuity to the last few posts.
I have been kind of self isolated for the last 4 months. An injury to the shoulder has seen me on the ACC shelf, So I have been living at 80% income for quite some time. My wife works part time, we have always been low to middle income and as such always strived to stretch as much out of every penny.
Growing up in the '60's we were a single income family typical of the era. Large 1/4 section with a big vege garden, my farther hunted pigs with a passion, being small town he would come home with mutton and beef as well (swapped for wild pork ).
We were always a family of foragers, preserving, blanching, harvesting, storing, the crops of the season.
Blackberry picking and wild mushrooms, tomatoes to be made into sauce. Crab apples, quinces, all made their way into our jars. I can still recall going to the railway goods shed to pick up the delivery of peaches / apples etc by the case.
I learnt at an early age how to break down an animal, and to utilise as much as possible, liver and kidneys was always a big hit, but I never got the handle on tripe? Even now the thought of it makes me shudder, I am not a fussy eater by any stretch of the imagination, and usually go back for seconds on camp oven cooked bulls balls.
Making the most of autumn harvest seems just natural to me, but with the advent of the internet there is so much more at your finger tips. Through the web I have learnt so much so easily. What would have taken many trips to the library can now be so easily gleaned from a few simple googles.
A heart attack and consequent triple bypass in 2012 at the age of 51 has seen me cherish and respect much simpler ideals. It was this event that caused me to start back onto hunting, and harvesting much more.
I sought out low fat meats and reducing salt and sugar intakes saw me googling like mad to come up with suitable alternatives to store shelf products, when I hunt the supermarket I stick to the boundary fence and dont venture into the middle much at all ( thats where all the crap lives ).

Greetings Again All,
I have always been conscious of the need to make the the management of our small block as low input as possible. I was 50 and my wife a couple of years less when we moved out here. I will be 71 next Sunday and we hope to be able to stay here for years yet. Eventually though we both know that we will have to move back into town. I haven't given it much thought (and probably shouldn't given my tendency to over think things) but it did occur to me that my late father had provided me with some guidance. Dad moved into a flat in town in his late 70's. He was finding his house and section too much to handle and scoured the market for a flat with a bit of ground around it nice and close to the Supermarket, Library and Doctors. Eventually he found one, moved in, dug up half the lawn and converted it into raised beds. Planting then began in earnest. In his younger years Dad had gardened to keep us fed, now he gardened to keep himself active and sane. As he got older and ate less supply of vegetables far exceeded supply. My mother had passed away in 1990 and dad was quite deaf, even with a hearing aid, and not a social animal at all, so he came up with a plan. He made it known to the lady in the front flat that he would be putting any surplus produce outside his gate on Tuesday mornings and that she and any one else could help themselves. Worked a treat. After depositing his weekly offerings dad went inside and made a cup of coffee. There was never as much as a leaf left by the time he had finished it. After Dad died in 2011 there was a row of giant leeks ready. My son took some, the Land Agent took some and there were plenty left for the new owner. Something to aspire to.
Regards Grandpamac.