6 Ways to Promote Self-Reliance In Your Community
Self-reliance isn’t just about being able to provide for yourself with your own two hands. Your own self-reliance is intrinsically tied to the community and larger world around you. Learn how to promote self-reliance in your community and, in turn, support your own security and self-sufficiency by making conscious choices about where and how you spend your time, money and resources.
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Ah, self-reliance. It’s so, well, self-centred. Not in a bad, narcissistic sort of way. But in the sense that it’s often depicted as living alone in a cabin in the woods, off-grid and far away from society, living completely off the land and producing, hunting or foraging for everything you need, enjoying the complete freedom and solitude that such a lifestyle affords.
We rarely equate self-reliance with dependency on other people. After all, the definition of self-reliance means to rely wholly on your own skills and resources without needing help from anyone else to provide for your own basic needs. And while that might be a nice thought, the reality is that self-reliance looks nothing like that for most people. In fact, I’d venture to say that complete self-reliance is a myth for just about everyone.
While I love fantasizing about living alone in the woods, far from civilization, the reality is that it’s tough if not impossible to be 100% self-reliant without depending on any outside sources for anything else. Even Ma Ingalls had to go to town for flour and sugar and coffee that she couldn’t grow herself!
And even if you do manage to produce 100% of what you need to live all by yourself from your own land using nothing but your bare hands, you’re still affected by the health of the environment and the community around you, as well as by the politics, laws and regulations in your area. No one exists in a bubble, whether we like it or not.
The good news is, you can actually support your own self-reliance by supporting self-reliance in your own community. Because while we can’t do and produce everything we need by ourselves, when we support our local communities, we reduce our overall dependency on goods and resources that have to be shipped in from far away via large, faceless corporations who put profits over the health and wellbeing of the people and communities they’re supposed to serve.
So today I want to touch on six different ways you can promote self-reliance in your own community and, in turn, support your own self-reliance.
Of course, there are more than six things you can do to get more involved in your own community. But these are good starting points. Still, I encourage you to add to the list in the comments section below so let me know what other suggestions you have!
Related: 25 Self-Sufficiency Goals to Set and Smash This Year
Six ways to promote self-reliance in your community
1. Support your local farmers
This is something I’m really passionate about. Even though we grow a lot of our own food, we still don’t produce our own meat, eggs or dairy, and we certainly don’t grow everything we eat on our little homestead. Far from it.
Luckily where we live there are tons of small-scale organic farms, a widely-renowned year-round weekly farmers market and a community of like-minded people passionate about sustainability and food security in our area. And obviously as a homesteader, food security and sustainability are also very important values of mine (and I hope yours too!) So what we don’t grow ourselves, we try to source locally if possible.
Of course, this isn’t always possible with everything, and it’s not always the most affordable option. But I know firsthand that growing food (the sustainable, healthy way) is hard work, so I try to buy local as much as possible and give my money to our wonderful local farmers rather than to the Walmarts and Superstores in our area whenever I can.
I believe we vote with our dollars, and that we should (whenever possible) support small farms and farmers who have the same values and vested interest in our communities that we do, rather than a faceless corporation that makes it hard for local farmers to compete.
By purchasing from your local farmers, you’ll be helping keep them in business and also ensuring that your whole community (including you) has some level of food security (and is therefore self-reliant) should something ever happen where the grocery store shelves are bare and you have no access to outside food sources.
Where we live on Vancouver Island, this is a very real possibility that a major Earthquake or other large-scale disaster prevent the boats from running back and forth between here and the mainland. If that happened and we were on our own, we would need to rely only on what we were able to produce here on the island. So while you might grow your own food, your neighbour might not, and lest you want everyone banging on your door in the middle of a disaster, supporting local farmers in your area will help to ensure both your family AND the other members of your community have access to good, healthy food in both good times and bad.
You can support local farmers by:
- buying direct from them (a great way to stock your freezer is to place bulk meat orders directly from a local farmer in your area)
- shopping at your local farmers market
- purchasing local foods from the grocery store or asking for local, organic food (grocers will listen to customers when enough of them ask for something)
- investing in a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program in your area
2. Shop/buy local
While I think farmers deserve a mention of their own on this list due to the specific importance of food security, I also think it’s important to support all local artisans, services and businesses whenever possible for many of the same reasons as I listed above.
Maybe do your Christmas shopping at a local craft fair. If you don’t make your own soap or candles or clothes, consider purchasing from someone local instead of from the mall or Amazon. And even if the thing you’re after is a brand name item, you can still order it through a local store so that you’ll be supporting your local economy and keeping people employed in your town.
As an example, I got my daughter a Lego princess castle for Christmas this year (Shhh! Don’t tell!) But instead of ordering it on Amazon (the default method of shopping for many of us nowadays), I got it from our local toy store. And guess what… It was actually CHEAPER than the Amazon price!
Honestly, even if I did end up paying a few dollars more, it would be worth it just to know that my money was going to support a local business instead of becoming a drop in the bucket of Jeff Bezos’ multi-billion dollar fortune.
Remember, we vote with our dollars!
Plus, if you have your own local business or goods or services to trade or sell, this is also a great way to make connections in the local community and advertise through word of mouth (or even find people to trade with!). My husband and I have actually sold many of our local handmade items like candles and custom carpentry pieces in other people’s local stores because we originally went in to buy something ourselves and made a connection with the store owner. We’ve also traded goods many times at local craft fairs we’ve set up at.
3. Volunteer/Teach your skills
You can further support your community members and your community’s overall self-reliance by volunteering and/or teaching your skills to other people. I’m a firm believer that we’re all better together, and that when others are more self-reliant, we support our own self-reliance and security because there are other capable people who are able to support themselves and contribute to the community. Ya know, hence the old saying “give a man a fish and you’ll feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you’ll feed him for a lifetime.”
You could volunteer at a local community garden or a school where you help others learn how to grow, cook and prepare their own food. Or you could host free or paid classes at your local community centre and teach cooking, crafting or homesteading skills or even things like home economics, natural health, preparedness and financial literacy to other members of your community. Any of the above things could help to increase the self-reliance of others in your community which benefits you as well (and could even be another source of income). Plus you’re likely to make valuable connections with other people and learn new skills yourself while you’re at it!
4. Get to know your neighbours
This one sort of sounds like a no-brainer, but it’s a little shocking how many people don’t know their neighbours nowadays. And even though us folks who live rurally tend to live farther away from each other (geographically), I can say from experience growing up in the city that it’s even more common not to know your next door neighbour (or the guy who lives in the apartment on top of you) when you live in an urban environment.
Nevertheless, no matter where you live, it would behoove you to get to know your neighbours and foster positive relationships with them.
Even if you’re a bit of an introvert (like me), try to push yourself out of your comfort zone and introduce yourself, invite your neighbours over for a drink or dinner, or simply chat in the lobby of your apartment building if that’s all you can do. Once again, doing this opens doors and allows you to make connections with others who you could trade goods, skills or simply create good friendships with.
Plus, if ever there is a disaster or emergency in your area, you and your neighbours may have to rely on each other, so getting to know each other AND if possible getting to know what skills and resources each person/household can contribute beforehand will help increase your overall preparedness and self-reliance and make responding to a crisis just that much easier if and when disaster strikes.
An example of this came up last night for us as we sat around the bonfire in our backyard with our neighbours who we invited over. As we chatted with them, we found out they have a rather extensive gun collection and buckets of food with a 25 year shelf life, just in case of anything. So we know what their level of self-reliance is, and we know that if the SHTF, they are well-armed and could help provide security for our neighbourhood.
These same neighbours also look after our animals whenever we go away and we bring them fresh produce, home-canned and homemade goods in return. Then there’s our neighbours out back who have chickens and who have traded their eggs with us for seedlings we’ve grown, and our other neighbours who brought us tomato jam that they made with tomatoes from seedlings we gave them, and then who lent us their smoker when we were processing the salmon we caught last week. In return, we gifted them a package of smoked salmon and some seeds from our garden. The bartering system is alive and well in our little neighbourhood!
I encourage you to get to know your neighbours and trade skills, goods and services with each other to increase your overall self-reliance and that of your neighbourhood too!
5. Join or create a community Facebook page
While I highly encourage you to actually get out in your community and get to know people face-to-face, in this age of social media, we also have the advantage of being able to connect with people online. And while it’s really cool that we can connect with people all over the planet over social media, it’s perhaps even cooler hat we can connect with likeminded members of our local community in much the same way, and then we can actually meet them face-to-face!
Many communities have local Facebook pages for different interest groups, for buying, selling and trading or even just for community news and neighbourhood watch programs for smaller communities, rural areas and suburbs. Here where we live, we have tons of local Facebook pages for every interest, including a local self-reliance group and a zero waste group through which I have already met several people in person and even managed to trade some goods with them!
Search on Facebook for keywords like “your area” + “community page,” “self-reliance,” “homesteading,” “sustainable” or “buy, sell and trade”” depending on what you’re looking for.
Can’t find a local Facebook page for your area/community/interest? Create one! Our local zero waste page was started by a member of our community a year or so ago and has now grown to hundreds of members who share knowledge and information, trade goods and even meet up in person for various activities. It’s also a fantastic way to connect with others in your community if you’re new to the area or struggling to find people you connect with or share interests with.
6. Vote/Be politically active and informed
While politics might not seem to have much to do with homesteading and self-reliance, the political decisions that impact your area can have a very real effect on your community’s overall self-reliance and many aspects of your everyday life, including things like what you (and other community members) are legally allowed to do on your land, whether you’re allowed to have livestock, grow food and herbal medicine, run a business, have a farmstand, build your own structures on your property and and even whether you’re allowed to collect rainwater or hang your laundry to dry (yup, for real. Homeowner’s Associations in many states have tried to make it illegal to hang your clothes to dry outside. Luckily, “Right To Dry” laws have been passed in a handful of states, which override any HOA laws in these areas. Read more about this here and find out whether your state is protected by a “Right To Dry” law.)
Political decisions also influence things like environmental regulations (which can either have a positive or negative affect on the health of the land, water, air and species on and around you, your community and your homestead), and of course politics also affects things like how much money we all pay in taxes and what sort of funding goes back into our local communities, as well as what our overall rights are as citizens.
But beyond just voting once in a while when an election rolls around, do your best to stay informed about local politics and decisions in and about your area and maybe even consider taking a more active role by attending town halls, campaigning or petitioning for a cause you’re passionate about, writing your local representatives or even running for office.
I’m super proud to say that our district representative is also an organic farmer in our area so I know she has a vested interest in things like protecting agricultural land and advocating for food security and a clean, healthy environment.
No one fit to advocate for community self-reliance in your area? Maybe there’s a seat in government with your name on it 😉
Of course there are so many more ways you can get involved and promote self-reliance in your community by investing your time, money and resources locally. But the above suggestions are a good place to start and may just spark some other ideas.
What about you? Do you support your community in any of the above mentioned ways? Got any other suggestions or ideas regarding how you can promote self-reliance in your local community? As always, I invite and encourage you to share your thoughts in the comments section below and keep the conversation going!
Wishing you homemade, homegrown, homestead happiness 🙂
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Do you dream of escaping the rat race and starting a homestead far from the chaos of the modern world?
It’s no surprise that in this day and age, more and more people are ready to leave it all behind and move to a property in the country where they can grow their own food, live a simpler life and become more self-sufficient and less dependent on “the system.” But as romantic as it sounds, it’s definitely easier said than done.
In the latest issue of Modern Homesteading Magazine, I sat down with Ann Accetta-Scott of @afarmgirlinthemaking to talk all about what people need to know about buying and selling a homestead property.
Ann and her husband Justin recently moved from their two-acre homestead outside of Seattle, Washington to a 40-acre homestead in rural Tennessee. Ann and I sat down to talk about the realities of buying and selling a homestead, moving across the country to pursue your homesteading dream, what to look for when you’re searching for your next property, pitfalls to avoid (if you can!), and what you can do if you’re not ready or in a position to make your move just yet.
Whether you’re looking to purchase your first homestead or trying to sell an existing homestead and upgrade to a bigger property, Ann had some great insights to share that can save you time, stress and money when you’re ready to make your move.
Check out the full interview in the fall issue of Modern Homesteading Magazine: link in bio @anna.sakawsky or visit www.modernhomesteadingmagazine.com to subscribe, login to the library (if you’re already a subscriber) or view a sample of the current issue!
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This is why people don’t trust our medical system!!!
I very rarely go on a rant about current events but this has me feeling really fired up…
My husband and I each got an Amber Alert on our phones the other night along with millions of other British Columbians, informing us of a child abduction in Vancouver. It made the suspect sound like a dangerous kidnapper and said “do not approach. Call 911.”
As it turns out, it was the mother of the child (a 3-year-old boy), who had refused medical treatment without getting a second opinion and follow up blood tests, so the Ministry of Child and Family Services was called, she was arrested and her son was taken from her and was administered medical treatment in the hospital without consent and without a guardian present.
There’s a lot more to this story than I’m able to share in this video or this caption, so I’ll post some links below where you can hear directly from the mom what happened, and check out other IG accounts that have been in direct contact with her and the father. But the point is this was a GROSS misuse of our Amber Alert system, a GROSS abuse of power (turns out the boy wasn’t sick in the end anyway), and has now traumatized this family for life.
Doctors are not gods and as mothers we do not co-parent with the government!!!
This hits close to home for me because I too have been through the medical system and had my concerns dismissed, was misdiagnosed and given wrong information, and was treated with obvious contempt when I got a second opinion.
In this day and age of rampant medical coercion and the erosion of bodily autonomy over our own bodies and over those of our children, this story highlights the dangers of the very slippery slope we’re on.
As parents who only have the best interests of our children at heart, this could happen to any one of us. We can’t let this be normalized. Remember “first they came for (fill in the blank), and I said nothing. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me.”
Check out my stories for the full video that the mom, Wiloh made explaining the details of what happened or check out the comments for links to learn more & support this family.
I’ve hesitated about posting this reel over and over because I know I’ll probably get backlash, hate and vitriol from some people in return. But I wouldn’t be being true to myself if I didn’t speak the truth that’s on my heart and mind…
If you haven’t noticed, there are currently thousands of Canadians sharing their stories and using the hashtag #trudeaumustgo on their social media posts right now in response to the divisive rhetoric and actions of our prime minister over the past few months. But our media has downplayed the issue and has attributed most of the hashtags to “bot” accounts and foreigners trying to influence our politics.
In response, real Canadians are making videos and sharing their stories to show that we are not bots, but real people who have been negatively affected by the words and actions of our leaders, particularly our leader at the top.
I used to consider myself a lifelong leftist and have supported the liberal government and Trudeau over the years, but after what I’ve witnessed over the past few months; After how he has spoken about Canadians who have made a different medical choice or who have protested mandates (which have done nothing to stop the spread of you-know-what anyway); After the hate and division that has trickled down from the top and infiltrated our communities, I can no longer stand silently by.
While I am 💉, a few months ago when I voiced my support for those who stood up against mandates and against the division being pushed on us by our leadership, I suddenly found myself among what our prime minister called the “small fringe minority” of citizens with “unacceptable views.”
I lost followers, friends and even a couple family members. I was told I’d been “radicalized,” although my views have never changed.
So today I’m adding my voice to the chorus of real, everyday Canadians who are taking a stand against tyranny and division in this country. As the saying goes, if we do not stand for something, we’ll fall for anything. I stand for freedom & autonomy, and against division & tyranny.
#trudeaumustgo
(Special thanks to fellow 🇨🇦 homesteader @meggarlandd for inspiring me & giving me the courage to post this:)
What would you do if the grid went down?
Imagine not just the lights going out, but all power, all digital communication and information. Would you be prepared?
A lot of us THINK we’re prepared for a grid down situation, but unless you’re already living off grid, you might not realize how dependent on technology we really are!
In the fall issue of Modern Homesteading Magazine, contributor Ashley Constance of @dirtypawshomestead and @alittleselfreliant shares her experience voluntarily going without power for the day, and what she and her husband, Shawn learned from their grid down experiment.
You might be surprised at the things they discovered and missed on their prep list, and it might prompt you to reevaluate whether you’re ready in case the grid goes down, or even just Google 😱
Check out the full story in the latest issue of Modern Homesteading Magazine!
Link in bio @anna.sakawsky or visit www.modernhomesteadingmagazine.com
#modernhomesteadingmagazine #homesteadersofinstagram #homesteading #modernhomesteading #prepping #nationalpreparednessmonth
The other day when I had a few minutes to spare, I was out in the garden doing a little work when my neighbour said hi over the fence.
I lamented to her about how busy we’ve been and how hard it’s been to keep on top of this year. Very sincerely, she replied “wait until you have another one,” referring to our baby on the way.
“You’ll be moving back to the suburbs so quick, mark my words,” she said.
Now, I don’t for a second think there was any ill intent behind her statement, but still, it took me aback.
“We’ll never move back to the city or the suburbs,” I replied with a laugh. “This may be hard work but we love it.”
She then repeated her statement and followed it up with “just you wait and see.”
I decided not to continue the back and forth. After all, I told myself, it doesn’t matter if she or anyone else knows what’s truly in your heart. It doesn’t matter if she understands that there’s no amount of difficulty that would make me run back to the suburbs and leave this life behind. In fact, our dream is to upgrade to a bigger property someday where we can grow an even bigger garden and add more livestock to our homestead!
Likewise, I visited the city last weekend for a family event and as always, I had at least a couple people ask me “so when are you moving back to the city?”
Seven years later, and still we have friends and family members who think this is just a phase we’re going through, and eventually we’ll come to our senses and move back.
I used to get offended by these questions because I felt unseen; I felt like nobody took this life that I’m so passionate about seriously, and thought it was “cute” that I was “playing farmer” for a bit, but eventually I had to grow up and become part of the “real world” once again.
Now I just smile and reply “never:)”
Can you relate? How do you (politely) respond when someone questions your lifestyle choices or implies that you’ll eventually come to your senses and come back to “reality”?
Let me know below 👇
The fall issue of Modern Homesteading Magazine just dropped!
In this issue you’ll find:
• Preparedness tips, tricks and advice to help you be ready for anything on the homestead (and in life!)
•The ultimate guide to growing garlic at home and it as both food and medicine
• Drool-worthy recipes that feature garlic as the star!
• Expert advice from A Farmgirl in the Making’s Ann Accetta-Scott on what to look for (and look out for) when buying or selling a homestead property
• Advice on how to learn and grow from perceived homesteading “failures”
And more!!!
Go to modernhomesteadingmagazine.com or click the link in my bio @anna.sakawsky to subscribe or login to the library and read the latest issue if you’re already subscribed!
When I first started homesteading, I had a burning desire to become more self-sufficient and live a more sustainable life.
Ever since I can remember, I’ve been a rebel at heart, and learning how to homestead and become more self-reliant was a way for me to “throw a proverbial middle finger to the system” and live life on my own terms.
As a teenager, I was the girl who drove around town with punk rock music blaring from my car, Misfits sticker on the back and studs around my wrists. I felt misunderstood and angsty and like I desperately didn’t fit in with the world I grew up in.
I always knew in my soul that I wanted something different; Something more.
Today I’m the mama with stretch marks on my belly and battle scars on my heart. I’m the woman who gardens and cans food and makes her own tinctures and believes in something greater than herself and fights every day to stay free in a world that feels increasingly engineered to keep us hopelessly dependent.
Today I feel whole and at peace, and connected to a higher power and a higher purpose. I feel like I’ve finally found the place where I belong.
This journey has been about so much more than homesteading for me, and I've learned, lost, gained and loved so much more than I ever could have imagined.
Because, as I've said before, homesteading doesn't happen in a vacuum. Life is always happening at the same time.
This is the full, raw and unfiltered story of my homesteading journey, and how I've gained so much more than a pantry full of food along the way.
Click the link in my bio @anna.sakawsky to read more or check it out here >> https://thehouseandhomestead.com/how-it-started-how-its-going
The news we’ve all been waiting for…
IT’S A BOY!!!
After so many years and too many losses, our hearts are so full and it feels like we are inching closer to our family finally being complete.
I’ve always known in my heart and soul that we were meant to have a girl and a boy. I know, it sounds cliché and very “nuclear family,” but years ago I saw a psychic who told me I would have a girl who loved to be centre stage and had a personality larger than life, very much how our daughter has turned out!
She also said I would have a boy who would be much more introverted and in tune with nature and with his own intuition. That’s yet to be seen, but I’ve always had this unwavering vision of a son and a daughter that fit these descriptions, and my heart has been set on a son ever since we had Evelyn.
Of course, things went sideways for a few years. Shortly after Evelyn was born, I became pregnant again, but we made the heartbreaking decision to terminate that pregnancy at 24 weeks due to a severe medical diagnosis. We lost our son, Phoenix Rain on June 15, 2018. Our hearts were shattered and have never fully healed.
Over the next few years, I had 3 more early miscarriages. None of the doctors knew what was causing them as most didn’t seem to have any sort of genetic explanation. We were told it was “something environmental,” but weren’t given any clues as to what that could be.
After pushing to see several specialists last year (after our most recent loss), and being told once again that there was “nothing wrong with me,” I finally got another opinion and found out I had something called Chronic Endometritis: A low-grade infection in my uterus that I believe in my heart was caused by my c-section with our daughter; A c-section I didn’t want and probably didn’t need, but felt I needed because I was under pressure to make a decision before the surgeon went off duty.
I’ll never know for sure, but when I pushed for more testing and finally got a simple round of antibiotics, the endometritis cleared up. I got pregnant again almost immediately and so far we now have a healthy baby boy on the way.
(Continued in comments…)
My baby girl is 6 today!
For the last couple months I’ve been making a concerted effort to be more present with her. While I try to do this all the time, it’s easy to get caught up with work, the daily to-do list, etc. But with her home from school for the summer, dad working out of the home full time at a new job and me pregnant with a new baby on the way, I knew that not only did I need to take a step back from work and the daily grind for a while, but that this time together, just her and I, is precious and fleeting, and I need to make the most of it while I can.
Over the last few weeks we’ve had many adventures and fun times together. We’ve gone camping, hit the beach, she learned how to ride a two-wheeler, is swimming in the deep end of the pool and in the ocean on her own, and we’ve spent countless hours together just talking, bonding, cuddling and enjoying each other’s company.
Many nights I’ve gone to bed after a long day of fun with dishes still in the sink, emails still unanswered and not one thing scratched off my to-do list. But then I remember that my most important “to-do” right now is to be a mama to my girl, and to cherish this time together because I know it won’t last forever.
She’s an independent spirit who probably won’t always be willing to spend hours hanging out with her mom or invite me to snuggle with her every night before bed. So I’m gonna soak up as many of those moments together as possible while I can.
Today my baby girl is 6, but she won’t be forever. So if you can’t find me here, you know where I’ll be:)
Oh, and maybe from now on I’ll remember to get a few more pics of the two of us together too 😉
We’re living through interesting times. Many people have even used the term “unprecedented times,” and while that may be true in that there has perhaps never been another time in history when we’ve faced so many existential threats all at once (ie. a global pandemic, climate change, political divisions, AI advancing at an incredible rate, cyber attacks, nuclear threats, globalization, food shortages, supply chain issues, hyperinflation, social media and the age of information/misinformation, etc. etc. all converging at once). But despite all of this, we are not the first generation(s) of humans to face hardships and threats of great magnitude, and in fact we’ve had it better than any other previous generations for most of our lives, especially here in the west.
The fact is, there are lots of things we can do to ensure we’re not sitting ducks when these threats come knocking at our door. But it takes action on our part, not waiting around for someone else to fix things or take care of us.
In the Summer issue of Modern Homesteading Magazine, I sat down with The Grow Network’s Marjory Wildcraft to talk all about the realities of our current climate, including worsening inflation and looming global food shortages, as well as what every day people like you and I can actually DO to improve our food security, become more self-sufficient, care for our families and communities and ensure our own survival and wellbeing even in difficult and uncertain times like these.
While I don’t believe in fear mongering, I do believe in acknowledging hard truths and not burying your head in the sand. That being said, things may very well get worse before they get better, and we would all do well to start learning the necessary skills, stocking up on essential resources and preparing now while there’s still time.
Check out the full interview in the summer issue of Modern Homesteading Magazine. Link in bio @anna.sakawsky to subscribe or go to www.modernhomesteadingmagazine.com to subscribe or login and read the current issue.
#foodshortages #selfsufficiency #selfreliance #foodsecurity #foodsecurityisfreedom #homesteading #growyourownfood #fightinflation #stayfree
If you’re like most homesteaders, you probably have a pile of scrap materials laying somewhere on your property, all with the “intention” of being resourceful and using those scrap pieces for future projects. And let’s be honest: With inflation and the cost of lumber and, well, pretty much everything these days, being resourceful with our scraps isn’t just practical, it’s downright necessary in many cases!
But the reality is that it’s often much easier to accumulate scrap pieces than it is to actually put them to good use, and if we’re not careful and discerning with what we keep on hand, that scrap pile full of homesteader gold can quickly turn into a junk pile of clutter taking up space on our property.
In the Summer issue of Modern Homesteading Magazine, our resident handyman (my dear husband @ryan.sakawsky ;) shares his best tips for how to put your scrap pile to good use and knock some projects off your list while the weather’s still good, including which materials are worth saving and which ones aren’t.
If you haven’t had a chance to check out the summer issue yet, you can subscribe via the link in my bio @anna.sakawsky (or login to the library if you’re a already a subscriber) or go to www.modernhomesteadingmagazine.com
Do you keep a scrap pile? If so, what sort of materials do you have laying around?
#scrappile #modernhomesteading #homesteading #diy #getscrappy #resourcefulness #inflation #beatinflation
What’s doing well in your garden this year??
Every year in the garden, some things don’t do so well. We tend to focus on the failures, but there is abundance all around us if we just look in the right places.
This year our raspberries have been incredibly productive, but I didn’t even really notice until recently because I was too focused on the things that weren’t doing well.
No matter what area of life you’re feeling lack or scarcity or dealing with “failure” in, remember that it’s all a matter of perspective.
Sometimes we just need to look a little harder to find the blessings, but when you finally see them you’ll wonder how you possibly could have missed them in the first place.
Our broccoli might have bombed and our tomatoes and peppers might not ripen and our strawberries may have been ravaged by pests and disease, but we’ll be eating raspberries from our garden well into the winter months this year, and for that I’m eternally grateful.
What are you grateful for??
(P.S. Since Instagram is very much a “highlight reel” of everybody’s best selves, I totally plan on sharing our garden failures soon too. Stay tuned 😜)
Great opinion and article. I too believe a little self-reliance is good for everyone! I really liked your suggestion to get to know your neighbors. You never know how cool the people around you might be unless you get to know them.
I’m a total Amazon mom, especially around the holidays. Your article has inspired me to check out the local stores first this year before I hop online. Thanks!
https://ahappiereasierlife.com/
That’s so great! I know, Amazon is so easy and has EVERYTHING! Don’t get me wrong, I love Amazon and order from there a lot. But if I can get something locally I usually try to. And yes! Getting to know your neighbours has so many benefits:)