Comprehensive self sufficient living is the ability to provide for all of your needs, such as growing your own food, generating your own energy, building your own homestead, and working for yourself, without depending on any external aid. Self sufficiency is all about being parsimonious, cultivating resourcefulness, and injecting wisdom and meaning in the ways of life. In today’s throttling economy, un-tethering from the work-earn-spend consumer economy and thriving instead in a self sufficient, locally centered culture, is a prudent step to emancipation. Transitioning to this rudimentary form of life requires perseverance and solicitous planning to seek alternative in any area where your actions shout dependency. Here are a few tips to get you started: Back to the Basics Deciding how to commence your journey is the most daunting process. You should aspire foremost for sustenance and survival without getting in to more nifty details. Water, shelter, energy, food, finances and community are the major factors on which self sufficiency is dependent. Aim to practice financial discipline by committing to unflinching frugality. To live within the meager resources of a self sufficient living, it is indispensable to forego the unnecessary luxuries of life, such as a smart phone, satellite TV, credit cards or a new car. Aspire to shop at clothing swaps where you can trade out old ensembles while picking up new attires for yourself, and restrain from chain stores, franchises, and boutiques. Avert splurging on renting movies when you can get them free at the library. Instead of indulging in hefty bills, chop off firewood and cook over a sun oven solar cooker. With these creative methods, you could pay off your mortgage with ease instead of relying on extrinsic sources. Intensive Gardening Self sufficient living requires you to produce your own food, which incorporates installing an annual garden, planting shrubs or trees for perennial fruits, canning any excess yields, and learning to fertilize sustainably. Half of your farming land should be reserved for growing grass and pasture for the livestock, while the other arable half should be farmed as a highly intensive garden. It should be divided in to plots, around which all the annual crops that you want to grow follow each other in a strict crop rotation. Ideally one plot should be delegated to potatoes or polenta, one for legumes, one for root vegetables, one for Brassicas (cabbage family), and one for growing animal fodder for winters. Perennial culinary and medicinal herbs and certain spices, such as chili, can be grown in small pots on the balcony or the terrace where they receive ample sunlight. Raising Livestock To glean unpasteurized, unadulterated dairy products, such as butter, milk, yogurt, cream, cream cheese, and cheese, raising a cow is imperative. Not to mention the bucket load of dung, that would go far towards providing the manure for your lands. In addition to a dairy cow, aspire to own a goat, a few chickens for eggs and meat, and pigs on your property. Tether the cows and pigs or keep them in pens so they don’t over graze the pasture. In such intensive husbandry, as is being envisaged for a self-sufficient homestead, careful grazing management would be vital. Energy To create energy for your homestead, you could consider installing solar thermal system and a 10-kw wind turbine to suffice your electronic needs. Localized energy production is highly dependent on the environment and the method you choose, depends on your circumstances and the local laws within your area. Make sure you have generators and batteries to charge upkeep charged for a rainy day. Unless you own you a oil field, producing your own fuel is impossible and it is better to walk, ride a horse or use a bicycle for transportation. Make Your Own Produce Many essential and value added products can be prepared from scratch at home, such as soaps, breads, ointments, preserves, yoghurt and cheese. To wean yourself off extrinsic aid, learn composting toilets, home haircuts, sewing, knitting, crochet, hunting and fishing, plumbing, maintenance and repairs, home birthing, homeschooling, and home cooking to name a few. Consider ways in which you reuse house waste to craft new projects, such as old plastic bottles can be transformed in to small pots or terrariums for seedlings, and worn out clothes can be reused
