You can start anyway. I started by getting a book called The Self-sufficient life and How to Live it by John Seymour. I saw a section on how to make butter. So my husband got me a butter churn from the 1900’s, two butter paddles and a butter mold for Christmas. I went to Walmart got a pint of heavy whipping cream. Opened the book up when I got home and started churning. My son loves to make butter. I have been on fire since.

Here is a really good example of how quickly you can learn this stuff. I bought a bale of oat hay to mulch my garlic three years ago(didn’t realize it had seeds it)but I let those grow. Harvested it and saved it for next year. Every year I threw the seed out in the garden somewhere to grow always around the time I mulched the garlic. I grew that bit because it reminded me of the country home I was planning for. Didn’t take much effort. Now I live in the country and had about a pound of oats I planted for my chickens next year (from a hand full). The seed will be saved one more year but the hay will be used. After that I will have enough to feed to them a bit and plant for the next year. The moral here being it doesn’t take much effort to learn this stuff but a little here and there grows into a lot quickly.

Look into how much you are paying to work. I cut my mortgage by $700 dollars but got more land to live off of. By quitting my job in a year I will be saving $800 a month on day care, who knows how much on gas and alot on eating out because we work too much. In the end I save OVER half my monthly pay check by staying at home. Plus this year of setting up the property to supply us with all fruit, vegetables and herbs we need, plus chicken, eggs, milk, butter, cheese and add to that hunting and fishing, wood from the property for heating and cutting down on one cell phone, less milage on my car and less car repairs. This will make up for most if not all of the rest of my pay I will be loosing. And my husband will be working and I will be doing most of that. But that is because I like doing that! We can get by on one pay check.

It pays to stay at home with good planning. The house may not be fancy ( who am I to complain at least I am not living in a tent!) and you may buy clothes at a thrift store but my health will be better from home cooked meals and hard work. I won’t worry too much about the failing economy. And the family is more likely to stick together due to dependency on each other. The best part of having little money and living closer to the land is it makes you more dependent on God.

Sorry to ramble but I love this topic. I could go on and on. It’s exciting to see that to follow God really does make life less stressful and more fun!

I remembered in the Bible when buying the new house where Jesus says to leave everything and follow him. And for the wife to look well into the way of the household. To work with your hands, to get up before dawn and lay down last. To teach your children diligently in the way of the Lord. For the wife to make things to sell and help the husband with the income. This life requires that. And that brings me closer to God. Set yourself up so that you have to be what God wants you to be.

Sure would like to meet this lady. I will be checking in on this site quite often to see what else she can teach me.

Your sister in Christ,

Kieva

When I was a kid, we lived on an acre and raised rabbits, chickens, and goats. I and my sister hated goat milk, but we didn’t use the goats for meat. I helped to clean the butchered rabbits and chickens – that was quite a childhood!

Raising dairy cows and chickens for eggs top my list of what I’d really love to do.

Will you continue to share what you learn with us?

Many Blessings,
M.