Actually, the journey began sometime back when I was about 5 or 6 years old. We were living in a house with a large backyard and my father raised chickens and gardened just about everything he could make grow back there. I used to follow him all over that yard, watching everything he did.
As I got older though, I delved into the world of "Don't make it! Buy it! We have everything you need right here!" Of course I got caught up in getting what I wanted as quickly as possible. I bought everything and even got into using credit cards to buy everything NOW!
Then, I got married to a wonderful man who is still at my side after 34 years. Together we raised 2 wonderful children who are now off and leading lives of their own. We lived like our neighbors and enjoyed life but through it all there was always the yearning for something simpler.
My husband is an outdoorsman who loves being in the forest. My daughter is now in college to be a biologist and my son has the gardening bug. It seems we all want to reconnect with the earth in one way or another. This year I decided the time was right to give in to that old yearning and set up my self-sufficient life right here. Why wait until I can move to the country?
My husband and I live on a large lot in a small town in the San Francisco Bay Area. The house is fully on the grid. That means we have electricity, gas, water and sewer from the city that we live in. We have television and internet access from our local cable company and we buy gas and groceries from the local big name stores. We are totally reliant on the big corporations and the government. We ( I ) want to change this.
The next post will focus on what we have to work with and my view of what needs to come next. Please follow us along on our journey. Even if we only get a few steps into it, we will be making a difference in our lives and in our impact on the earth and maybe, if you find something interesting in this story, you can make a difference too.
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