MY THINGS!

I love youtube off-grid/homesteading videos because they're always like "living the simple life" and then depict a life ten times more complicated than mine

Like I'm sure it's way more rewarding to grow and can your own tomatoes and they're probably healthier or whatever but is it simpler than me giving Coles one dollar to bring a much more safely canned can of tomatoes to my house? No. No it is not.

spark1eheartemoji

growing your own tomatoes is a fuck load more simple than having a job and keeping a job plus paying all the fees of living in society.

Most homesteaders still need to have a job and keep a job and pay all the fees of living in a society. There seem to be a lucky handful who have reduced their costs by homesteading (usually due to the free labour of friends and family) but there were easier ways to reduce those cost. In the vast majority of cases, homesteading is a lot more expensive than not homesteading. And where people are saving money, the amount of labour per dollar works out to well below minimum wage in savings.

From what I've seen, successful homesteaders do it because they find it rewarding. Rewarding does NOT mean simple.

rosstmcd

I can't speak to Australia, but at least in the US there is another group of homesteaders who are trying to live self-sufficiently off-grid because they expect the imminent total collapse of civilization, and they have fantasies of themselves living happily on home-grown produce while everyone else is killing each other for the last can of tomatoes at the store.

alex51324

Another thing about this subset of homesteaders* is that they are insistent--proud, even!--of doing things that are unsafe, and encouraging others to also do those things.

One example is canning dairy products (milk, butter, cheese). They'll show up in a canning group and say something like, "Look how I canned all this milk that the store was getting rid of this milk for 50 cents a gallon because it's the last day!"

Sane and responsible members of the group will say things like, "Dairy isn't safe for home canning; if you have fresh milk that you need to save for later, you can freeze it or make cheese!" And, "If you need shelf-stable milk you can buy powdered milk," or "You can dehydrate it at home, but you need a really good dehydrator, plenty of trays, and it takes forever; you're usually better off just buying it."

And then the person who just canned 20 quarts of botulism will start frothing at the mouth about how when the shit hits the fan--

And yeah, I'll grant that if grocery stores cease to exist, and you are entirely reliant for your winter survival on what you can put up during times of plenty, the risk-benefit analysis would be different. But in the actual world that we currently live in, it's false economy at best, and at worst a stupid flex that could end up killing somebody.

Anyway, TL;DR, "simple" often refers to an imagined past when the problems of modernity did not exist--yet somehow, the problems of that era have been left behind--which in turn is often a racist dogwhistle.

(*Besides their substantial overlap with weapons stockpilers/"militia" types.)

The Can/Dehydrate Absolutely Everything people baffle me. Most homesteaders (sensibly) have personal solar panels, because they want to live off-grid and still have electricity. When Shit Hits The Fan, their solar panels will not stop working. Their freezers would work fine. Canning or dehydrating or salting is great for certain foods (especially if you want to ferment, pickle or flavour something) but for so much stuff the best thing you can do to preserve nutrients and preserve it safely is chuck it in the freezer.

Freezers just aren't homesteady enough I guess.

reikiajakoiranruohoja

The simplest, but also the most immature, answer is that solar panels are 'cheating.' These people base their doomsday images on Fallout and zombie apocalypse movies. But not even on them but this lone wolf stereotype of a stereotype. If you can just create electricity from the sun, then it means you can bypass the gritty survival of eating canned goods and just live like you used to. And that kills the fantasy.

#as someone who lives on a small farm #and had to help cut and make windows of hay AND THEN go load up a SHIT TON of hay into a trailer #IN THE MIDDLE OF HOT HOT SUMMER #yeah it's not simple

I haven't seen that kind, all the ones I've seen get solar panels as soon as they can afford them because living off generator power is expensive and sucks (and, unlike solar panels, would not serve you well in an apocalypse because you need to keep buying petrol for them). I don't think I've ever seen these anti-solar-panel homesteaders that you deal with. Variety in every community I suppose.

ineffectualdemon

Whenever I hear homesteaders and trad wife people talk about how much better it is to do your own canning I remember my grandmother telling me about the canning days from her childhood and how she would help her grandmother can fresh fruit (we lived in orchard country) in a hot canning shed built for that purpose for days at a time in the middle of summer

Specifically about how it was hell on fucking earth and how her grandmother fucking hated every single second of it

The moment her grandmother could buy canned fruit easily in the supermarket? Never fucking canned a thing herself again and was so relieved and grateful that she would never have to again

Canning as a hobby in your kitchen? I can see that being fun

Canning because you have a fuck ton of fresh fruit coming off of your trees and if you don't can it all NOW you won't have any fruit for winter and it's all you do from sun up to sun down in the middle of summer?

That isn't a cute fun rewarding time. It's hard fucking labour

snapscube

A summary of last night’s stream with @paperboxhouse

starlightshoe

mim. *hearty laugh* sos. kay, now let me-HOW AM I GONNA GET MIM WHEN I ONLY HAVE A BUCKAYEYUP? well you gotta SUCC and you gotta SUCC ᴀɴᴅ ʏᴏᴜ ɢᴏᴛᴛᴀ SUCC ᵃⁿᵈ ʸᵒᵘ ᵍᵒᵗᵗᵃ seis. I CAN’T SEIS, I’M DWITCH. not with that attitude you 𝖇𝖎𝖌𝖊𝖚𝖗 𝖋𝖗𝖊𝖊𝖗𝖋. [break for chuckling] DON’T YOU CALL ME A FRrᵣ rᵣʳᵣᵣ ₐᵃₐᵃₐᵃₐᵃᵃₐ ᵃₐᵃₐᵃₐᵧʸᵧʸᵧ ᵧʸᵧ ᵧ ᵧʸᵧ ᵧʸ I’M SWIS. you better. FUF. and then, you better BRRROOB, cause if you don’t BROOB, you’re NOTHING but a NOTHING and then the NOTHING becomes a NOTHING and then you’re NOTHING as a 𝓙𝓞𝓙 and then you’re NOTHING 𝓢𝓞𝓢 and then you think you’re thatthe top and you’re the Bottom and you’re a 𝚝𝚘𝚙 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚋𝚘𝚝𝚝𝚘𝚖 and youRearAvoovavoovavsusadSON. shis. I’ve been epIC, pa-

hashtagyorlosalfie

I… I legitimately can’t tell, did someone do sentence mixing on this clip or are they just somehow doing the most dead-on impression of sentence-mixing shitposting to ever be captured on audio?

possqueen

they are actually doing dead on impressions of YTP mixing and they did this for like a solid hour

#wyrm's savings (part 3)

radiofreederry

Christ this is so fucking cool

normal-horoscopes

I haven't been able to stop thinking about this. There's so much going on here. I genuinely love the conception of gender as mystic autodeism. Gender as divine microcosm. Gender as Great Work. It's gnostic, it's alchemical, it's got notes of bacchanalian worship of the body and the inherent magic of self-discovery. This but unironically.

#irrevivant buT IS THAT A FUCKING WOODCOCK-#(said in the most excited voice)#(can you tell i am my mother's child)#(my mother who's a birder)

So much of these people's worldview comes down to a disgust at the concept of personal autonomy. Making decisions about your body, your circumstances or your future is a demonstration of unbelievable arrogance that must be beaten out of you, either before you take the action via making it as difficult as possible or after you take the action via punishment and scorn, so that you give up this sinful concept of owning your own life. They treat the world like abusive parents who are completely shocked that their "ungrateful" twenty year old children refuse to call them any more.

#this but i'm atheist

halondrus

cutecipher

can you put that thing on a leash?

halondrus

stitchposts

Actually For The Medieval One (and sorry if i get any details wrong, it's been a hot minute since i've watched the episode) But They Aren't Refered To Having Been A Couple, And In Fact That Version Of Champ Had Been Refered To With She/Her Pronouns, Which Goes Against The Fact That Benny's GAY

I don't remember about the she/her pronouns. But I do remember that all the Benny and champagne variants were said to be dating.

I Tend To Notice Random Things, Though It HAs Been A Hot Minute... BRB I'm Rewatching The Video Just To Be Sure

Rewatched The Section In Question In The Video And I Heard She/Her For The Champagne (named brandy) And I Also Didn't Hear Mention Of Brandy Dating Benji Or However That Version Of Benny's Name Is Spelt

I don't remember about the she/her pronouns. But I do remember that all the Benny and champagne variants were said to be dating.

I Tend To Notice Random Things, Though It HAs Been A Hot Minute... BRB I'm Rewatching The Video Just To Be Sure

#signed 🌧️🌩️🌧️🌧️🌩️🌧️🌧️#luv you V ur the best #<3 #thanks for letting me borrow ur phone

I wonder what these could be... maybe a special treat that will come home with the Sibling? Maybe a special thanks for being awesome and cool and lending the Sibling phone?

horsefigureoftheday

Nova's tips for beating the heatwave:

1. Check that you have good access to shade trees, a shelter custom made to fit you and all your friends, and plenty of good airflow

2. Find the hottest, sunniest, and least windy part of you pasture and lay down

3. Make sure you look as much as possible like you have died of heatstroke

4. Get your friends in on it

#my goat brick is like that #though he does that regardless of the temperature #chronic death sleeper that stupid boy is

analog-autistic

i love my friends so much ok? ok

daftalchemist

did I ever mention that I know someone whose family owned a zombie dog because that’s some real shit that I get to delight with at parties

themintywitch

Tell us that story?

daftalchemist

okay here is the story of the zombie dog

this dog’s name was John. they found him half drowned in a bag of puppies that were not so fortunate as he was, and was taken in immediately. he was a runt and not quite right (most likely from the whole half drowned thing), but a very loving dog. the problem with John was that he smelled like death, and no one knew why. vets couldn’t figure it out. it was obviously some kind of skin problem, but they had no idea what kind. all anyone knew was that if you touched him, you would smell like death too, so you couldn’t pet him, and that for some reason, the only thing that made the smell go away was being around other dogs. so they got another dog and the death smell stopped and John lived a very happy life

when he was getting old, maybe about 15 years, part of his skull caved in. just like that! suddenly had a huge dent in his head! and he was totally fine. didn’t notice it, didn’t affect him at all. just this massive dent right there in his head where his skull had collapsed in on his brain, and he was still the happiest and most loving dog. the skull cave in, for whatever reason, caused the ear on that side of his head to just fall off entirely, but again, perfectly happy dog who did not know he was down an ear and a fully formed skull. they took him to the vet, thinking maybe they should put him down. I mean, wouldn’t you think so? but the vet said that the dog was eating, and pooping, and happy, so there was no reason to put him down, so they didn’t

but that’s not even the weird part. the weird part is the area of the brain that got caved in on was apparently the area that registers pain, so this one-eared, collapsed skull dog could no longer feel any pain. he got old, his joints got stiff, his teeth rotted out of his head, his tongue hung out of his mouth and got black and hard, and he felt none of it! in fact, he was happier than he’d ever been feeling no pain, and the fact that he didn’t feel how much he was falling apart somehow made him live until he was 23. that’s right, the collapsed skull, one eared, zero teeth, smells like literal death when alone dog lived to be 23 years old. they used to joke that he’d been dead for years, but was too stupid to realize it yet

and that’s the story about the literal zombie dog my friend’s family owned

#:0

scruffy-bunny

Thinking about bunny's and silver the heghog.....

I can't figure out what to be autistic about I'm scared...

Do Both

scruffy-bunny

thats a big ask...

Yeah, But With My Scatter Brain That Cannot Focus On One Thing It Is Easy. Unfortunately I Also Forget About My Interests Easy ):

scruffy-bunny

Thinking about bunny's and silver the heghog.....

I can't figure out what to be autistic about I'm scared...