Self-Sufficiency in Style
small garden self-sufficiency
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Self-Sufficiency in Style small garden self-sufficiency
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We only have a small garden and don't have the money to move!
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You are in luck. Self-sufficiency does not
depend on having a country estate.
As always in life, having lots of money makes things easier - easier but not more satisfying. You can do a lot to make yourself self-sufficient without much land. |
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You will all have heard of the "Law of Diminishing Returns." It means the more resources you put to the goal of Self- Sufficiency, the less each additional resource will bring you in returns. So for each Pound or Dollar, for each Yard or Hectare, for each Day or Hour of effort, the payback will become progressively less. |
But it is actually quite a cheerful story, especially if you are a little short of cash.
Yes, I know it does not make sense, but like all the laws of nature, you can make it work for you. |
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The key skill |
The
kitchen is the key Self-Sufficiency resource.
Using basic ingredients to make the more complex and attractive dishes is the basic skill that will give you fifty percent of all self -sufficient benefit. Skill in the kitchen allows you to leave the world of value-added behind. Your labour replaces the restaurant, your skill - the chef, your ability - the words of the marketing man. |
| Storage gives you 10 percent more.
The deep freeze brings you products out of season and the humble jar, the same. |
Storage is the next step. |
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Enough for a few salad crops |
A few yards of garden or back yard, the herbs, salad and speciality crops.
Find space for a small greenhouse and you can produce so much more for a
longer season.
Increase the space a little and you can grow some potatoes - and leave behind the waterlogged and tasteless supermarket product. |
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So, you see, the smallest house and garden can take you a long way to
self-sufficiency.
Add a country location and you can have some chickens. Find an acre, and you can have a cow and produce your own beef, butter, milk and cheese. No neighbours and a sow becomes a possibility. A couple more acres and you can have sheep. Add a small wood and you can have a wood burning stove. |
Add a few chickens. |
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You have become a farmer! |
Add any more and you have destroyed the dream.
You will have got back into the rat-race by producing more than you need. |
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You can return to Finding a Place or read on about the House, the Outbuildings and the Locality. ...and the boring, but rather vital, Services |
You see, it really is the Law of Diminishing Returns.
You can destroy the dream Be grateful you don't have too much |
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"preserving the best" from the incongruously named Hangman's Cottage, just to the south of Misery Corner. |
