Growing up in the city, everything I needed and could want were all available at any given store. While I did learn how to knit and can as a kid. Learning how was much more because I was interested in learning how to do these things, and much less out of necessity and it being a way of life.
While I was in college I lived in the heart of farm country here in the valley. That combined with becoming passionate about history, and learning about women’s roles in history became a huge part of my life. I also discovered that I learn better by doing rather than just reading about it or watching videos about it. Even though Women historically were homemakers, keeping house and raising children, they worked just as hard as any man.
I know times are tough right now, so I am unable to afford to follow through on this right now, but I would love to live on an acre or two of land, and grow a garden, raise some chickens, both meat chickens and egg chickens, and live a healthier life with less reliance on grocery stores, all while learning what life would have been like out here in the early days of Anglo Americans living out here.
Home grown (or at least local) and home canned food tastes so much better than store bought food. A lot of the reasoning behind my mom and I canning pears yesterday is the fact that they taste better than store bought. There is also the satisfaction in knowing where your food came from, and the fact that you preserved it yourself.
I have also found that doing it myself when it comes to hats and scarves is not only less expensive, but I get a better quality product and materials for the same price or even less than I would spend to purchase it ready made, if I do it myself. Case in point of getting two 100% wool hand knit scarves and three 100% wool hand knit hats for $11. You can’t beat that.
I’m not one who is all about bucking every societal norm, I am more fascinated with how things were done throughout history, and how modern convinces have aided us in getting away from being about to take care of ourselves. I am all for electricity, indoor plumbing, using a computer, and such, There is also something to be said about knowing where our food came from, and putting the effort into sustaining ourselves, and not being solely reliant on others to meet all of our basic needs. Even if I were able to live on an acre and was able to grow a lot of my own food, I would still avail myself of the grocery store for the items I could not, or it would not be cost effective to grow, make or do myself.
You could say that the life I want to live is somewhere in the middle of living off the grid homesteading, and being 100% reliant on stores to meet my needs.
Adventure is my Middle Name 