What To Expect

I love that new blog smell. It smells of potential, of ideas, of... alright there is no new blog smell. I'm sorry. I have led you astray.

Lack of smell aside, it is still an exciting thing. At least for me. Hopefully for you too. To keep you reading I wanted to take a moment and tell you a little about me and what I plan to do with this delicious wedge of internet I've carved myself.

Hi. My name is Jake. I like roses and long walks on the beach. I'm a 27 year old college student who has been and will be in college forever, studying biology. In addition to my full-time studentry I work from home very very part time and volunteer at our local zoo. I also have an assortment of pets from the mundane (dogs and cats) to the farm-oriented (horses, chickens, rabbits) to the exotic (finishing my mantella frog terrarium) to the weird (Madagascar hissing cockroaches). Interestingly enough, everyone gets along.

I, like a lot of people in my age range, live at home with my parents. It feels a little shameful to type, but according to the Census Bureau 19% of men aged 25-34 live with their parents. I believe roughly half of men and women between 18-24 are still living at home as well. It'll be interesting to see if this is a temporary economic setback or a return to the multi-generational household. I hope it's temporary, personally. If finances allowed I'd much prefer to live on my own.

That's not to say I'm not grateful for the generosity of my family or the benefits that come with living at home. My parents have a couple of acres and are graciously allowing me to stuff it with animals and rip out fencing and dig up the yard as I see fit. One can work on self-sufficiency in any setting, but having this much space really does give you options. What kind of options? Well, I'm working on that.

My goal for this blog is to chronicle and share what I learn. Farm animals aside, most of this is very new to me. I don't know how to build anything and I'm not really good at gardening and I'm sure I'm delightfully wasteful. By the end of 2012 we're not going to be living off grid and surviving on the land. But I hope I can create a few things of value. I hope I can grow something edible. I hope I can pick up a few skills that will serve me well in the future. I know there are going to be a lot of failures and a lot of mistakes. Like today when I apparently cut my hands tearing down a fence and decided to make freshly squeezed lemonade afterward. In my defense, lemonade is delicious.

So this blog will document my progress, my flops, and hopefully my successes. I'd like to share things I learn, ideas I find, information I think is useful. I reserve the right to derail the train of progress to bring you tidbits of other goings on in my life, too.

And I really hope you'll stick around to watch.

Those People

"sur·viv·al·ist (noun): : a person who advocates or practices survivalism; especially : one who has prepared to survive in the anarchy of an anticipated breakdown of society." Merriam-Webster Online, Dec. 21, 2011

"I will never be one of those nutbar survivalist people." -Me, circa 2011

I have never met a survivalist in person. I am absolutely certain of this because I knew what a survivalist would look like. Based on my online encounters with "those people" I was sure I'd be able to spot one. They'd probably be hauling around cases of mason jars and MREs, a glinting look in their eye as they mumbled something to me about The Big One or The Antichrist or The Guberment. Those people were scared of things that would never happen and what a sad, paranoid way to go through life.

And then it happened.

I don't know what 'it' was exactly.  It was gradual. For years I'd loved the idea of raising my own animals for meat. After all I'm no fan of factory farming. Given that it makes sense to grow some food too, doesn't it? Oh! But what if I could grow almost all of my own food? Yeah! And then I could learn to can it. There could be a compost pile! And worms! And I could work the land with horses! And what about rainwater collection? Solar power? What if I actually learned to build things? What if I used mostly recycled materials? What if I relied largely on my own abilities and labor? Wow!

Yeah. Somehow, it happened.

I'm still not convinced that "survivalist" is the most appropriate label. I'm not preparing for social collapse or zombies or the end times or the day Robo-Nixon emerges to rule us all. The ideas of being able to provide for myself even in small ways, of being able to turn dirt and discarded items into something useful, in feeling secure in my ability to thrive in a variety of situations are all things I like.

Thus I dub myself The Self Sufficientalist.