[RUSTYME]

I have been trying to  make a list of my plans for the future , and this time of year seems as good as any to have a go.
  My main aim is to live a life as free of the system as possible .
 In many respects i am off the merry go round already , but the systems control is so deeply embeded , it is hard to avoid at times .
  Anyway , food free of poison , is number one on the list .
 Apart from the odd problem , i have that covered as far as veg goes .
 A larger amount of grain , wheat , oats , barley and rye , will cover my bread and other food grain needs , including animal feed .
 It will also cover animal bedding , thatching needs etc .
 Growing more hemp , linseed , sunflower , rape seed , will supply oil for fuel , paint , preserving and food , along with fibre for yarn , cloth , string , rope , sacking , as well as animal feed .
  The willow beds will supply material for baskets , hurdles , firewood and charcoal . They can also act as a water filter .
 The river will provide mechanical power for the woodwork shed , the forge , the grain mill and the saw bench , as well as a small amount of electricity for lights etc .
  Chickens for eggs and meat , quail for the same , pigs for meat , sheep for meat and wool and horses for transport mmmmm ?
 The resultant manure heap will feed the veg etc and so the cycle continues .
  Apart from the leccy , it will be life as was , a couple of hundred years ago .
 I will try to keep the odd mod con such as the mobile , but that will depend on how much money i have once things sort out .
Why ? I hear some say , well why not ?  I have done the 'normal' life , it wasn't for me .
 Many of you already know what my aims are , but the above should explain to newer members what i am up to , sort of anyway .

Cheers Russ

[yankieGirl]

I love to hear about folks putting the time machine in reverse. What is a willow bed?

If you don't mind answering:  how much land do you have?

I also am trying to shift into reverse.  However we only have about 2.5 acres of land.  I do find as time passes that I can do much more than I ever thought possible on such small acreage.

3 goats, 2 pigs, 17 chichens, 1 young beef cow.  Garden, fruit trees.  Plans for more.  I do have to purchase my hay and feed. 

I'm not gaining anything in $ but I am far ahead in quality and happiness.

God Bless and Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

[RUSTYME]

A willow bed is just an area where willows are grown as a crop for a specific purpose ie rods for basket making .
 I have 6 acres in 3 fields , one  with a small river running through it. 
 I do have access to more land to grow stuff if and when i need it . 
I live 3 miles from the land at present , so just have 3 horses . The chickens , sheep , pigs and cattle will come when i move onto the land .
   Pics of the land are on photobucket at rustyme57 , if you can access it ?  I am only on an old mobile phone so can't put a link up .

Cheers Russ

[mab]

Good luck with your plans Rusty. 

I'm keen to go as off-grid as poss' myself, and if I can get enough land when I get my own place, I'll have a good try at off grid living - I can do the off grid power stuff already, but I'm still a complete newbie when if comes to veg and livestock.

I probably have more confidence in the system than you, but I'd like to be as independent as I can - just in case.

Also, Having contributed to the system for years and received very little return, I have developed a reluctance to contribute more for the benefit of bankers and politcians.

[Dan]

   Pics of the land are on photobucket at rustyme57 , if you can access it ?  I am only on an old mobile phone so can't put a link up .

rustyme57 at Photobucket

[princesspiggy]

it sounds so ideal, except 200 yrs ago there would have been more labour around to help you. its all knackering work! and so many skills to learn too.
if i cud get off grid id be alot richer. our council tax is ridiculous too.
wev used ponies for the farm, from shifting rocks and logs, and carrying equipment whilst doing some job or other, and for riding whilst checking stock. wev used ponies for collecting kids from school, and have a cart too, but the speed and size of traffic where we live is a bit scary when kids are involved.
i wish we cud turn the clock back a few hundred years tho....for all the best bits tho, not illnesses etc!
 

[RUSTYME]

lol  yeah , there as well Dan , cheers mate !
  I have no faith in the system at all as long as it is run and controled by people such as Cameron , the bankers and big corps , they are all corrupt to the hilt ! , and i just want no part of it .
 I do like leccy though ! , but it is the devils own job to have it and step off the merry go round as well .
 So , i will most likely do without in the main , just make enough for lights . 
 Water , food and clothing , i can grow and make , along with making tools etc . But i wear glasses , so need the optitian for those and  i don't fancy filling my own teeth or trying diy surgery , so as i have always said , there is no such thing as total self sufficiency , just self reliance as much as possible .
  However , things can go tits up  , i think this year may be the one ! I hope i am wrong for other peoples sakes , but for myself , i don't give a toss  if it does . It won't make that much difference really , must get my eyes tested and kidnap a surgeon !

[deepinthewoods]

interesting photos and vid russ, what river work were you doing, was that a little trout...
nice bow btw

[northfifeduckling]

Since I started this self-sufficency thing in my head with reading John Seymore as a teen - you are the person living it, politics and all - and I've been watching you, Rusty  . I wish I could do more but with family and bills to pay I am content with what I can do... watch this space 

[RUSTYME]

The river work was meant to be just a slight re-directing , but the neighbour that did it totally buggered it up . So i have spent god knows how many hours shifting stone by hand , to try to get it back as it was !
Yes mate , the fish is a tiny trout , Millie my Weimaraner , who died in May , used to catch and eat them , lovely old girl , i miss her so much.
    The bow is only 37 lb draw , but still shoots 3/8"x 31" arrows 120-140 yards . Had to leave it alone the last 2 years due to me buggering up my left arm . Hope to get some practice in this year though .
  Yes nfd , i read that book too , but i have since found out that he mainly did the writing , while others did the work ! Nice book all the same .
  I do walk the walk as well as talk the talk , although many probably wish i just did the former , lol . It is just my way though .
Living life off of the system , with almost no money or tranport , does make getting things done take so long . But it goes against everything that i am , think , and believe in , to do it any other way .
 But things are slowly getting there now , at last , i am patient if nothing else !
It would be unfair , not to mention very hard , to live the way i do , with a family .
 We all have different needs as well as goals , so my way suits me , but is no better than yours , just different lol . 
  One thing i would like to  do less though is walking , my old broken body is starting to fight back and say " enough !" .
  This year i hope to move down the land , so , less walking and thus more time to work  , fingers crossed .

[RUSTYME]

You are right about the labour pp ,  but most things are now and then jobs ,like willow . Once planted , it basically just needs cutting , a few hours , and processing a few hours again at a different time . Same with wheat , oats barley etc.
 I have been growing veg for 40 odd years , can do woodwork , metalwork (forge and foundry) , basket making , coppicing , cart/wagon making including wheel making , charcoal making , pottery and god knows what else , so most things are at least doable . Plus i can sew , by hand and machine , my mum was a seamstress , and i was making my own clothes from 11 . I can spin wool and weave but can't knit with needles , although i can use Dubied knitting machines .
I have spent years learning all these things , so now i am just doing them as part of my life . Still lots to learn though , how to print money next i think ! lol .

[Sylvia]

Rusty, you don't need to print money. There are a lot of folk who would pay good money to learn from you

[RUSTYME]

Yes Sylvia , people have said that before . However , it would be jumping back on the merry go round to do it even part time .
A number of reasons get in the way .
 First would be public liability ins . That means i have to earn x amount of £ before i start ! Then there is access to the land , only  4x4 and nowhere to park on the road .
 No toilet facilities , no running water  .
 No seperate area for camping .
 No time to spare from what i am doing .
  It is really hard to explain all the reasons , but the above are some of the main ones .
 The print money comment , just harks back to my days on the merry go round .
 Some money will always be needed , but i really am stepping off the mgr , as near off the system as poss . 
I don't want to avoid contact with people , just commercial interaction , that entails full on system  rules , laws , compliance , control ,  the very things i reject and remove myself from  .
 Hope the above doesn't sound dismissive , it isn't meant to be. 
  All ideas are welcome , although most entail stepping on the mgr/system .
 
Cheers Russ

[Hermit]

Well done you, hope everything goes to plan .

[Lesley Silvester]

I knew an amazing couple, called Zoe and Fred, who lived in East Sussex.  When they got married (before the war) they bought a field two or three miles from the nearest village, because they liked the view (until someone built Dungeness Power Station) and lived in a Romany caravan, planted fruit trees and vegetables and kept a cow for milk.  During the war, the powers that be said that the caravan wasn't safe to live it because they were on the flight path from Germany, so they aquired two sea front huts (the type that cups of tea were sold from) and lived in those instead.  Not too sure how that was safer but no one questioned it.  They reared two daughters.  Fred was a conscientious objector but, as a farmer, was classed as in a reserved occupation, and grew veg to feed the nation.
After the war he decided to build a house, bought the bricks from a burnt out farmhouse a mile or so down the road and moved them to his fields in a wheel barrow. It took a while.  Once he's build the walls, he had no money for tiles or slates so bought a book on thatching and grew a field of grain to use the straw.  Having thatched his own cottege, he found he had a knack for this and ended up as a thatcher which brought in money to pay for the things that had to be paid for.
As a time served plumber, he was able to fit a bathroom but then discovered that the cost of running water from the nearest road (about half a mile) was prohibitive) so they decided to stick with the well that that had had sunk when they first moved there.  Likewise elecricity.  They had gas lighting instead and a gas cooker all run on calor.  Their daughter used to visit weekly and take a collection of rechargeable batteries for the radio.  Don't know how they managed before she moved out.
Zoe spun wool on a drop spindle which she could use while walking round the fields checking the animals.  She dyed the wool and knitted garments without using a pattern.
The cottage consisted of one big room heated by open fire and two very small bedrooms off.  At the other end was a small kitchen and the defunct bathroom with a bath that always held full Kilner jars.  The toilet was in a small hut a couple of hundred yards away until the hurricane of 1987 took it into  a distant field.  They then used an even smaller brick built building that had been erected to house a generator (never used because of the difficulty shifting enough petrol by wheelbarrow.  When the toilet was full it was emptied onto the manure heap.
Laundry was done by steeping clothes in a series on buckets under the eaves of the house for two or three days, then rinsing, wringing out and hanging on the line for several days to drip dry.  There were sticks near the bucket and every time someone went in or out the house, they would give the washing a quick stir. 
When we used to visit they had a cow called Ruby who was well into her twenties at that time.  Every year they thought that winter would see her off but every year she survived and presented them with a calf.  One calf, Rachel, still lived there but Reuben, the following year's calf, was sold on.  As vegetarians they would neither eat nor sell males to market, but sell them as newly weaned calves, knowing how they would end up.  Ruby died after getting into the orchard one night, gorging on windfall and, back in her hut, bloating to such a size the hut had to be removed to get the body out.  Fred was very upset - he loved his cows - but cheered up when I pointed out that she was probably extremely drunk.  As a man who liked a whisky or ten, he could appreciate that.  Whe we visited, we would often go home with a bottle of fresh milk, in a whisky bottle, still with a slight taint.  We never gave it to the children.
Zoe and Fred were also talented artists and the loft above the cottage was full of paintings.  I'm not sure why they didn't sell them.
They died in the mid 1990s, Zoe first but Fred shortly afterwards.  He didn't want to go on without her.
I wish I had written down some of their stories and taken more photos.  It would have made a wonderful book.