We attempt to be as self sufficent as possible. We do own our own small acerage.

I try and grow as much as I can but its not always that successful after 2 particularly bad seasons. We also have chooks that supply us most of the year with eggs. My husbands father is a butcher although my husband kills and prepares a lot of our meat. We can't handle cattle as we don't have a cool room so only do sheep at the moment and the local mobile butcher just happens to be the brother of my ex who we don't get along with so his not an option.

We have solar power although its not enough to run our property so have normal electricity. It cuts our bills down but only by half.

I have started growing an orchured but have only planted orange, lemon and mandarene trees. My Olive died. I was very keen to make Olive oil in a few years (time consuming) but have not had any luck with that.

As for clothing we do buy new, lots of hand me downs as I have 3 girls and also love op shopping. I'd love to make goats milk soap and have more vegies growing. Pumpkins and corn are especially good as we usually get a large harvest or with corn can have them going at different stages so can usually get most of the way through the year with the previous season as they last a long time. Our spinich is also somehting that produces all year round.