February 22, 2025
Day 1,240 of the Adventure
Last week, I received a number of responses concerning the whole "Crisis" subject and most of it was prompted by the egg shortage and their subsequent high prices. It made me stop and think whether that was the crisis itself or just a symptom of a much more serious, true crisis. I'm not even referring to the "bird Flu" that most believe is causing the egg shortage. I believe it's more basic than that. I believe there is a "Crisis of Dependency" that can be discovered at the root of much of our culture and conditions these days. We have largely given up control of a lot of our future by simply relying upon so many outside resources and forces to sustain us. If you think about it, we are dependent upon, employers, grocery stores, utility companies, mechanics, handymen and even the government at almost every level to provide for us. Of course, all of it comes at a cost. A recent monthly grocery store run cost us $750. My local mechanic's hourly rate is now $125 per hour (and that's quite a lot less than the dealer rate) Costs of almost everything we consume is drastically higher now than just a few short years ago. Not to mention the interesting conversations happening now concerning ingredients in processed food. And almost everything available in our stores is "processed". Sometimes I feel that I'm beating the whole Self-Sufficiency subject to death, but really.......... Looking at the world through the lens of dependency, I think it's important to beat the drum even more.
Maybe I'm just weird, and I'm not offended when people think that of me. A friend of mine made a comment to me years ago that stuck with me ever since he said it. I was managing a modest sized production facility, and he was one of the technicians working there. One day I was in the shop trying to help with an issue and probably getting more in the way than anything else. My friend said, "We can handle this. Our job is to take care of these day-to-day problems. Your job is to deal with the problems you see six months or twelve months down the road." It's been one of the few governing principles that has remained in my mind for over 40 years. What does that mean in terms of self-sufficiency?
In many ways, the "security" we believe we have surrounding our lives is slowly becoming increasingly fragile. At the same time, we, as a society, are becoming more and more dependent upon it. For those who ignore the signs of it, some may find themselves relying upon credit cards more just for food and essentials. They may be starting to choose between making the car payment or paying the electric bill. Heaven forbid that the morning trip to Starbucks gets scaled back to getting the morning coffee at the Quick Stop! Or even the coffee maker on the kitchen countertop at home. Everyone deals with it differently, but the raw edges of frayed nerves is showing up more and more in the circles of social media. It's easy place to vent and solicit supporting comments and views from many others feeling the same pressures.
Self-Sufficiency is not a switch that can be simply turned on. That may be the reason for many, to not choose that path. If there is a "switch" related to self-sufficiency, I believe it would be that trigger that comes in the form of a decision to begin. In a moment, one may decide "I've had enough, and things have to change". That may be the switch. All it's really done is turn the motor on. From there, the engine needs to warm up, speed up and eventually begin moving. Every day, month or year that passes before that engine is turned on, results in motion that moves us further away from independence and closer to complete reliability on other people, systems and governances. All of which continually bring us closer an unreliable and fragile life of dependency. And that, I fear, is the real crisis we face.
We started the engine on self-sufficiency back in the spring of 2021. Six months later we had found a wilderness acreage to begin our journey upon. Roughly six months after that, we had a simple cabin, water, septic system and a small solar plant for energy. By the next year, we had completed much of the preliminary systems and made the cabin livable vs minimally functional. By the following year we had about a quarter acre garden producing an abundance of food, which was preserved and stored in a variety of forms. Of course, there's many other things that have happened along the way, but hopefully you get the picture. It's a process of many steps and it begins with the first....... Making the decision.
Adventure Quote: “You are not the victim of the world, but rather the master of your own destiny. It is your choices and decisions that determine your destiny.” ― Roy T. Bennett
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