How many here would love to stay at home full time to look after their garden, house and family?

Question

Let's pretend again.

You have a unearned income which means you don't have to go to work. You are not rich, but it is enough to cover the bills and have a bit left over for fun.

Would you prefer to be self sufficient or not?

Would you love to stay at home full time to look after your garden, house and family?

Answer 1

I wouldn't mind it ,but I must run with the rest of the herd.

Answer 2

I would, this has become one of my most treasured dreams of life.  Sustainable living/Permaculture has been mentioned in the previous answers, and done so eloquently that I couldn't say anything of any additional value.  I have traveled and seen a great many things because of work, I think if I could still travel at will, then certainly.  My idea is to find other like minded individuals and form a small co-operative.  That way I wouldn't be lonely...

Answer 3

Of course!

Answer 4

Did that.  Liked it.  Am ready to go back to work.

Never expected that to be the case.  But after enough doing for myself, I am anxious to do for others again.

Being alone gets lonely after a while.

Am very blessed to have had this opportunity.

Answer 5

I have similar dreams to what bohemian is talking about.  I just started learning about self sufficiency this year.  We currently live in town and have the two full time jobs, two cars, etc.  My dream is, within 5 years I'd like to buy some property and build a cob house.  Meanwhile, I'd like to learn about canning and other preserving methods, gardening, etc.  I learned a lot of this as a child, but I never considered following through as an adult...until now.  Now it just seems crazy to me that I've lived THIS way for so long, and we're so far in debt with keeping up with the Jonses that the 5 year goal is even a bit lofty.  *sigh*  We'll get there!

Answer 6

I do this for the past 6 yrs. We don't have a load of income (we're on avg 45K) and no car but it's worth it for us to give our all to the kids. If the kids didn't have sufficient food, nice clothes and ability to join a sports team then we'd re-evaluate but it's worth it.

I love looking after my 7 gardens and veggie garden and home decorating and repair plus look after my family. That's what makes me feel good.

Answer 7

You put in the words "self sufficient."  I don't believe most of the people here who have answered your question really have any idea what that entails....because I actually LIVE the life you are talking about (minus the mystery income).

I'm married.  My husband works on the commercial windturbines.  I'm the stay home wife, who cares for home, hearth, and farm.

Yes, we VASTLY prefer to be self sufficient.  It is a goal we keep working toward every single year.  And every year we are a bit more self sufficient.

We live on a permaculture farm.  We raise meat goats, and meat rabbits.  I also have 9 horses.  

We raise alfalfa for the critters, as well as rapeseed (canola).  The rapeseed is made into biofuel to run our trucks and tractors.  The squeezings from the rapeseed are fed to the goats (good for them).

When I say I cook from scratch, I'm VERY serrious.  Right down to butchering our own animals for dinner, and grinding the wheat to make flour for our bread.

We grow a lot of our own food in our garden and with our fruit trees, berry bushes, and herb garden.

If you are being truely self sufficient your live revolves around food.  Planting, growing, harvesting, and then perserving your food.  I can, pickle, dehydrate, and freeze our food.  

Our pantry is huge.  We have over a years supply of food.  Being self sufficient is serrious WORK.  There are some months that are very quiet on the farm...like right now.  It's snowing, and negative 10 degrees (F) outside.  Of course I'll still be going outside many times today, and all night  (about every four hours round the clock) since I have does kidding.  In this freezing weather it's easy for babies to freeze to death fast.

Making your own quilts takes time.  Shearing your angora goat by hand, cleaning and spinning the fiber into yarn, and knitting hats, scarves and other items all takes time and skill.

By the way, eventually we will not have much in the way of bills.  If you have bills, you are not self sufficient.  So we plan to pay off our mortgage years early, and then buy more property.  We will build a straw bale house, from straw we have harvested, and baled ourselves.  The house will be totally off grid, with solar, wind, and a Central Boiler for power/heat.  This also goes for the shops, and barns (straw bale, and off grid).

The only bills we eventually intend to have are taxes (unescapable), cell phones, and internet.  Cell phones and internet are both luxury items.  We can do without them, we just happen to like the convience.

Having a power, water, sewer, electric, gas, or whatever bill, means you are not truelly self sufficient.  You are dependant on others to provide your water, heat, power for your house.  You cannot survive long term without those things.  If you have those bills, you are not sel sufficient.  Internet and cell phones, you can survive perfectly well without.  Notice I didn't mention TV?  We turned ours off months ago, when we realized we wer paying a silly bill for something we didn't watch.

Eventually my husband will no longer be employed outside the farm.  He too will work only from home/farm.  Right now we need that income.  As long as we are not able to provide for both of us to be able to work dirrectly from home/farm we are not self sufficient.  Our goal of course is for both of us to be working full time from home/farm, and providing us with enough income for itmes we must buy (toilet paper, salt/minerals for the livestock, tires for trucks/tractors, new shoes/boots for us, ect).

Being self sufficient means working a LOT.  Your on call 24/7.  Vacations do not happen.  Yet it also means you are fairly free to say to yourself, "Scrag work, lets go spend the day at Yellowstone," or spend the day reading a book, or have an after lunch fling with your spouse if you want to.  : )

Yup, I love the life...wouldn't trade it for anything.  It is our dream, and our goal to be as completely self sufficient as possible.  It can be a very lonely lifestyle though.  Very, very few people share the dream and goal, so there's almost nobody to talk to, or socialize with.

~Garnet

Homesteading/Farming over 20 years

Answer 8

to be honest i want a vacation and then be able to do some of both.

Answer 9

My wife is a house person if you will,  I think she gets lonely somtimes but for the most part she likes it.  We have two kids and another one on the way, so it is more economically efficient for her to be at home with our children.  We also have the benifit of teaching and rearing our children 100% to our method, we dont have to worry with 3rd party influence on our kids.  Now money,  ha we just learn to do without a lot but were happy and thats that.

Answer 10

yes and no...we all need to get out(away from home) and do other things before we go soft upstairs...

Answer 11

If I had a proper job and then didn't have to go to work I wouldn't! I'd rather use that time to make my house gorgeous with interior design. DIY and gardening and cook lavish meals and spend more time looking after my pets. But to be honest I am kind of in this situation already!

I work nearly full time as a jewellery and pet collar designer from home. So this way, I spend a lot more time looking after the pets, studying, drawing, painting, interior designing and playing music etc.

Answer 12

Well, my fiance is going to be making enough to support a family, so our plan is for me to stay at home so I can take care of all the house, garden, and family.

Answer 13

What bohemian said rang so true for me! My husband and I have been working and planning for this dream for 10 years, and it is now finally starting to come to fruition.

After years of saving, we bought land way out in the country, then lucked in to an adjoining property with a TINY house (less than 600 square feet) that was cheaper to buy than our original plan of setting up a trailer and living in that til we had saved enough to build. So now he and I and our 4 year old are living in this little space. It is a sacrifice, but we are managing just fine.

We own a house in the city, and right now we are renting it to friends whose payments pay the mortgage, taxes and upkeep. Once we are ready to build, we will sell the city house and use the capital to build our strawbale house. We have taken courses on timberframing etc, and have 40 acres of mature trees that we hope to use to build.

We grow most of our own vegetables and can/freeze/dry for the winter. Eventually, we will grow more. We are working and commuting an hour to the city everyday for the next while until we get our debts paid, then we can look for jobs closer to home that pay less, but allow us to be on the land more so we can have chickens and maybe goats and alpacas.

I can't wait til I can afford to leave my job and stay home to look after the garden, my son and the house. It is hard to leave a good, well-paying job. But for us, self-sufficiency is our dream. We don't want to be beholden to anyone. We want to live a healthy, real life.... enjoying the simple pleasures, safe in the knowledge that nothing or no-one can take them away from us, and hopefully leaving a legacy for the future.

Answer 14

Thats my dream! I love being a working girl. Im only 21 and I have literal dreams of my future children. OOooo I want to be a mommy so bad.  I'd be the perfect house wife!