Vince’s Daily Journal – Day 6
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Happy Independence Day!
A centerpiece of my fiance and my goals for the future is living a self-sustainable lifestyle in which we either produce what we need to live or sell what we produce to cover the cost of what we can’t produce ourselves. A big part of the reason behind this decision is that relying on ourselves gives us much more control over the kind of risks that can so quickly get someone on supervision back in trouble – primarily issues with housing and employment. A bigger reason, however, is that it just fits with our personalities. We’re both people who value hard work and a life in which we can live directly off of what we can produce ourselves is incredibly appealing to us. It’s certainly not the easiest route, and there is absolutely no guarantee that we’ll succeed. We both come into this relationship with plenty of complementary skills that will help us get started (in my case, construction, handyman and landscaping skills; Megan is a veterinarian with a boatload of livestock experience, to say the absolute least), but there’s an immense amount that we’re going to have to learn ‘on the job’. A large part of our preparation is doing research into self-sustainable living, off-grid water and power, food prep and storage, micro farms, etc. It means a lot of work, obviously once we’re on the land, but even more so right now, when we have nothing but time to learn and plan. It will be a ton of work, and homesteaders don’t get days off. However, for the level of independence that we desire, there’s no other way comparable. We all need different levels of independence, but we also are intrinsically dependent on each other. This Independence Day, let’s think more about how we can support each other, than how we are separate from them.
