We are on a journey to living a self sufficient lifestyle. This lifestyle is more than living "green", it is a way of life that is independent from the demands of society. Many people do not understand the extent to which we want to live. Ideally, I would like to go back to frontier times. A time without major technology. If I was to summarize my ideal life it would be to have a one room log cabin with a loft bedroom. I would have a wood stove for cooking and heating, and I would not use electricity. Currently, my family and I are already incorporating this old way of life into our modern life. I hand wash all our clothes, I bake all our breads and baking needs, I cook as homemade as possible, we have begun raising animals for consumption and needs, we garden and can, and this is just the beginning. It is important to us to teach our children the old ways with life and faith. We believe in natural living and worship our land and beings. Respect for the God's and Goddess's as well as the land and its inhabitants is important to us as a family. We honor all the animals that we use for nourishment. Giving them thanks and a good life is important to us. I am a big believer in the circle of life.

"I got a Pig" This has become my new motto so to speak! I've talked about this briefly, but I'm really liking the way of thinking that I'm kind of forcing myself to think like. Couple months ago we butchered our first pig. We have been going through a rough patch financially (waiting and depending on our lovely government!) just trying to get through. Then on this fine afternoon as our Pig is hanging from our tree it hits me. Why am I worrying about these things. Why is my happiness being held hostage because of money. The questions of how I'll pay for this or what to do for that, etc..etc... Every time we go through money problems it always gets somewhat better eventually. It will this time too, its just a question of when! Anyway, so I started thinking that if we were in a survival situation, having this pig hanging from our tree we would of thought we struck it rich! Nothing else would have mattered, but the fact that we had each other and food on our plates. I began looking at what we have. Food, health, family and kids running around playing, land, shelter, transportation, work. What more could I ask for? Why am I letting myself be so unhappy, so uneasy with worry? I still keep trying to slip into that worry and despair over needing money for this and that, but I keep telling myself " I GOT A PIG! " over and over again.