Part of a more Self Sufficient lifestyle is all about getting certain things done for as little expense as possible. We spend money on certain things, such as Solar Panels and other construction stuff but if we can get something done for next to nothing then you can bet we will take that option. Now, i’m not saying this is for everyone. Not all of us have the time or the skills to build Chicken Houses from scratch. Indeed there are some great ready made Chicken Coops on the market. If you fancy keeping Chickens though, and they should definitely […]
Orange Egg Yolk-Tastic
Part of any Self Sufficient lifestyle, if at all possible, should be the keeping of Chickens. They are cheap to keep and you have the advantage of having the freshest, most fantastic tasting eggs imaginable. Many of us feed our Chickens on a mixed feed that is readily available and fairly cheap, but with added greens their yolks turn an amazing deep Orange. We have three Dogs and it is just not practical to let our Chickens roam free. Our Dogs would be pestering them, or a stray would most certainly be picking up a free snack at our expense. […]
Double Digging, You Know It Makes Sense!
Whether you are just about to start Growing Vegetables for the first time, or are making a new bed, or maybe want to get the best out of existing plots then as far as we are concerned Double Digging is the way to go. First a brief introduction: What is Double Digging? Double digging is different from the traditional way of digging over the ground in that, as the name suggests, you dig twice as deeply as normal. In traditional Vegetable Growing you normally dig to about a spades depth and turn over the soil. In Double Digging you will […]
Crease-free Laundry the Easy Way
This is either a post giving you the okay to be lazy OR it is a post about saving time, electricity and helping you be self sufficient, you decide. I have never liked to iron or press my laundry but I did always do it. Until that is, we ended up without any electricity for six months when we first arrived here. It turns out you can get perfectly smooth clothes and linen without the need to burn huge amounts of fossil fuel or giving over whole days to the task. Simply follow these steps to a crease-free future: never […]
John Seymour – The ‘Dirty Boots’ Gang’s Hero.
We gardened before we’d heard of John Seymour but once we had got hold of a few of his books our gardening really took off. He had small-holdings and lived a relatively self sufficient life with his family in Suffolk and then Wales for many years. In Wales he even created a school in the arts of self sufficiency. His books share some of his huge wealth of knowledge, personally gained and researched – he remained clued up on the cutting edge of self sustainability thinking. Most importantly though he was an excellent teacher. I wish we’d had the chance […]
Eco Wash Balls, Even Men Can Use Them!
Not so long ago Mrs.Dirty Boots went back to the UK and left me all alone (boo hoo) to cope with the running of the place. It was, to say the least, quite a handful! What with the running of the house, the looking after Chickens, the endless walks that the Dogs need and the myriad other things that running a more self sufficient household entails. I, like most other Men, am more than capable of building houses, working out the complexities of building a staircase from scratch,re-roofing an entire cottage, installing satellites dishes and many other manly jobs. However, […]
Introduction
Welcome to A Self Sufficient Life. Four years ago we sold our house in the UK and bought a run down, derelict farmhouse in the Catalan countryside. Now, years later we have become quite self sufficient in many aspects of our life. We grow a ton of vegetables, keep Chickens for eggs (as well as sporadically raising Chickens for meat), live completely off grid and live as frugally as possible. Our lifestyle is “back to basics”. We have learnt a lot in the past four years and hopefully with this Blog we will be passing on a lot of the […]