http://ourright2selfreliance.today.com Self reliance in any degree or portion we can get it! Fri, 17 Apr 2009 02:22:57 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Goats are usually right behind poultry in livestock acquisition when people start working on becoming more self reliant.  Unfortunately, even folks developing self reliance too often start off with an attitude of their first goat being "just a goat", possibly because they managed to acquire the animal without having to ... http://ourright2selfreliance.today.com/2009/04/16/no-goat-is-just-a-goat/ Increasing global energy consumption and the contorversy over petroleum has brought focus to exploration and development of alternative energy sources---and not just for people focused on self reliance.  Using alternative energy sources can be both beneficial and difficult. Let us explore various pros and cons of generally available alternative energy ... http://ourright2selfreliance.today.com/2009/04/15/looking-at-energy-self-reliance/ Many years ago I ran across directions for making a "ginger beer plant" in a delightful sort of coffee table book full of oddments.  I tried it and it worked well---but while we had run across a way to be self reliant for our soda pop yen, a ginger beer ... http://ourright2selfreliance.today.com/2009/04/14/make-your-own-ginger-beer/ The USDA puts out a new hardiness zone map about every fifteen years, and although there was one due out a few years ago, they are apparently just now getting around to it.  There are appreciable changes to the zones, and you may want to be apprised of them now ... http://ourright2selfreliance.today.com/2009/04/02/new-hardiness-zones-map-coming-out/ Food self reliance has been getting a good bit of press of late, and it's about time.  While there seems to have been the at least occasional article in main stream media, movies about food and the food shed have been on the upswing. The attention drawn by movements like the ... http://ourright2selfreliance.today.com/2009/03/22/seen-any-good-movies-lately/ I haven't spoken about the National Animal Identification System on this blog, though I've been quite vocal about it elsewhere.  Producing our own food is a corner stone of our right to self reliance, no matter how small a scale we pursue it on---and implementation of the NAIS would so ... http://ourright2selfreliance.today.com/2009/03/09/alert-for-self-reliance-focused-small-livestock-owners/ It's been a busy couple of weeks here in Lake Self Reliance.... The baby goats are arriving!  Baby goats are rather like dividends of the investment of good animal husbandry.  If you treat your productive friends well and see to their needs, they'll not only provide you with the best milk ... http://ourright2selfreliance.today.com/2009/03/05/baby-goats-are-dividends-of-self-reliance/ Often, a prominent aspect of self reliance is innovation---such as using what you have at hand to make bread, even if you are a little short of regular white flour.  Or perhaps you would just like a bit of a change.  If you have mastered the basic concept of bread ... http://ourright2selfreliance.today.com/2009/03/03/self-reliance-includes-using-what-you-have-at-hand-to-make-bread/ Here's reason #987 to decouple yourself from the petroleum-based economy and life style and increase your self reliance.  Unless you have an oil derrick in your backyard and a small scale refinery in your garage, you as an individual are completely at the mercy of factors and factions over which ... http://ourright2selfreliance.today.com/2009/03/01/from-point-a-to-point-b-the-diesel-drag-on-your-life/ One of the cheapest, and perhaps most fun, ways to get a batch of baby chickens is to order "assorted chicks" from almost any hatchery.  When you open the shipping box, an entire rainbow of chicks looks up at you, and they can be any of the breeds that hatchery ... http://ourright2selfreliance.today.com/2009/02/28/assorted-chicks-dont-have-to-mix-you-up/