Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Tough as Nails


I have a confession.  There have been times when I have resented our hard-scrabble lifestyle.  Everything we do, we do the hard way.  We can't just flip a switch and turn on the lights.  We have to fuel the generator, charge the batteries and monitor every watt of electrical usage.  Doing laundry hasn't always been as simple as tossing a load of clothes into the washing machine and later transferring them to the dryer.  It entailed making laundry detergent, hauling water, washing clothes in a 5 gallon tub on the top of a wood cook stove, lugging soaking, hot clothes to the bathtub and wringing them by hand.  Even food preparation is done the hard way.  Rather than going to the grocery store and buying a loaf of bread and a package of meat, we have to grind the wheat, chop the wood to heat the oven, bake the bread (turning it often and monitoring the stove closely so that the bread doesn't burn), open the jar of meat that we killed, gutted, skinned, butchered and canned.  Nothing is easy.

Even raising animals and preserving food proves challenging when you are off the grid. Rather than having the luxury of a stock tank heater to keep the stock tanks ice free, we have to chop ice morning and night with an axe, making sure we smack the ice hard enough to break it but not hard enough to chop right through the stock tank.  When the garden is in full production mode, there is not an option but to process the harvest - right now!  No putting produce in Ziploc bags and tucking them in a freezer - everything has to be canned immediately.

Challenges mount upon challenges during the winter, with no alternative heat source and nothing but sheet metal and a bit of insulation and sheet rock protecting us from the elements.  It is not at all unusual to wake up in 40° temperatures (inside) and have to chop kindling to coax the fire to life so that we can heat water to make tea.  If the night has been particularly cold, we have to thaw pipes to get water to heat tea.  That certainly makes for an invigorating start to the day!

As I think about the lifestyle we have chosen, I realize that we are gaining by far more than just hard work and independence.  We are becoming, and training our children to become, tough as nails.  We have learned that hard work is not something to shy away from, but something to be tackled with vigor.  We have learned to think (and live) outside the box - creating new and ingenious ways to deal with life's little challenges.  In reality, our hard-scrabble existence has been phenomenal life training.  If the world continues limping along as it is, we have learned the value of hard work and discipline - our arms are strong for our tasks.  If the world spirals into the abyss of societal collapse, our lifestyle will have prepared us for what lies ahead.  Either way, our hard-scrabble life will have served us well.

In the end, I would much rather be tough as nails than soft as butter.

17 comments:

  1. It is okay to feel the way you do. One has to let off steam some how. But sometimes easy isn't the best.
    And you have helped us by showing us that you are not soft as butter, but dogged after what you feel is the best way of life.
    Keep it up girl, you are blessed.

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  2. I agree with Ellen.

    You all ready know how to do things the easy way and if nothing bad ever happens in this world and your children grow up and leave home they will find out very quickly how to do things the easy way. In the meantime, your work is labor intensive but the product is far more appreciated. If things in this world do fall apart, your family will be the better for having made a practice of doing things the hard way.

    Proverbs 31:10-31. It's you. All your hard work and example. Until I found your blog I had not read that Proverb. The inspiration you provide in your work and in your articles on faith, family and marriage along with reading that proverb has led me to once again open my bible and read from the beginning. I am on Leviticus...again. The Bible is the best book I've ever read, but I've never read ALL of it. So now, because of you, I am on my way to reading it, in order, page by page.

    Thank you for all your hard work!

    sidetracksusie

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  3. It's good to hear this side of you. I've been prone to check the internet about every three months to see if Providence Farm is still for sale. Looks like it is which means perhaps you decided not to move closer to family after all? As I looked at all that I envy about your property (shooting range, wells, land, etc), I also always wondered how you felt living in the workshop (for lack of a better term). You guys never quite got around to building a house, if I remember correctly.

    I bet it is hard, for you AND the kids. But I can tell you, as a father of six girls still living at home, you children are far better prepared for making it on their own than my butter-soft city girls ;-)


    If I KNEW I could make a living where you are, I'd snatch that chunk of heaven up as fast as possible. But I'm controlled by fear. Fear of being unable to provide for my family. So, for now, I'll stay put...and frequent your blog.

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  4. One small suggestion-how to get free insulation-high quality insualtion at that. Go to the warehouse/stores of any hospital, and have them save styrofoam for you-I work for a hospital, and great slabs of high grade styrofoam are thrown out(I could fill a boxcar in a year). It's used as insulation for transplant boxes, and some instrument/medicine boxes. Slabs of the stuff ranging from 18 in. square to the size of tombstones-1 to 6 in. thick. It's a shame how much perfectly good material is thrown away, and we save it for anyone who asks for it(it's being thrown away, anyhoos). This stuff is typically much better than the sheets you buy in a big-box home supply place. Just a thought.
    Many of my family do, or have lived as you do, and I was "Salvage One" for years, gathering materials they might use or need( and "engineering" them to work, at times). Check local hospitals, colleges-look around for military/industrial/commercial surplus places. They're common here, and a great source of cheap, high quality stuff. In a weird sort of way, being "Salvage One" was a lot of fun. I miss it....
    They're learning to be practical! Use it up and make it do. You're creating practical children, while learning things yourself.

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    Replies
    1. Just don't forget that styrofoam outgasses toxic fumes for years, and if it burns it releases the gasses very quickly.

      Personally, I wouldn't use it.

      Petra in Oregon

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    2. Couldn't that be said of most plastics? For that matter, lubricants, paints or any petroleum product. I guess you'd have to decide if the value of the stuff as insulation exceeds the risk.

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    3. While styrofoam is perhaps the worst of the bunch, yes, the same could be said for all the items you mention.

      You'd have to consider whether ruining your health in a survival situation is worth the risk.

      Petra in Oregon

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    4. On the flip side, freezing to death ruins your life permanently.- M

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  5. Joy is your/our strength!
    We live a VERY similar lifestyle (without the blogging that I REALLY enjoy) (Know your not the lone ranger) :^). I just think of it as "training" for when the fur fly's. When the fur does fly the majority of folks won't even know how to do much or even know where to crap...even the "preppers". It's one thing to read about it it's much different living it.

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  6. Jackie Clay, contributor to Backwoods Home Magazine, lives in MN, has written an article describing how her husband made a "submersible" steel container that goes into the water trough in which a fire is built each morning. After a short time, this gizmo thaws the water in the trough allowing the critters to drink.

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  7. I really enjoy your blog and respect your lifestyle. I don't see anything wrong with you considering maybe making some things easier on yourself. You have trained yourself and your children on how to do the hard stuff, now you can dial back and get some help with gadgets. When IT hits the fan you can always go back to manual processes, if need be. For example, you can buy bread, but for some reason you can't you know how to make it..

    Calvinist Wildman

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  8. i was raised up doing things the "old fashioned" way. and although these days i have lots of choices that i can make, i still do things the way i was taught. seems to me that the end results are just more personally pleasing and healthier all around. and when it is time to rest- i really rest better, perhaps because the rest is well earned.

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  9. I feel the same way as The Orange Jeep Dad. We are somewhat soft but crave that hard work which is so rewarding. We would like to be free of our fear and live free of all that keeps us in bondage. But until then, I will keep visiting you and watching! Hang in there. You are an inspiration.

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  10. I'd look to invest in a stove that will burn for 8-9 hours. Even in my suburban home, my wood stove will have heat and usable embers after a 9 hour burn.

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  11. Odd, but we are working hard here to go backward - for most (in my opinion) if there is a collaspe there will not be an option. Wood heat and cooking here, canning and other 'outdoor' activities. After a life in the corporate world, we live a good (if not hard) life, eat well, have good neighbors, are secure in our property and person and for the most part could not dream of living different. There is a lot to be said for re-learning the 'old ways' the least of which is self-suficiency.

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  12. I was just wondering. Do you have pets? How to you prepare for them? I'm at the begining stages of prepepping. I started canning, stock piling ER item, etc. I love your blog. I read it everyday. I have your ER book and can't wait for the cookbook. By the way I make your pork chop receipe twice a month - LOVE IT!

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  13. hi. look at jackie clay atkison's instructions for a propane stock tank water de-icer at backwoods home magazine. her husband invented it.

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