#and since i have hens sufficient to my needs i do not normally pay attention to the price of eggs but

[jensownzoo]

After 3 weeks of it being too icy to walk without accumulating fall damage, the warm week we just had meant that I finally got to go on a run to pick up food waste for the chickens. Which I did and they were thrilled about.

But also I came home with three new houseplants from the green waste dumpsters! Unexpected, but I guess people were spending more time indoors staring at their ailing plants recently so.

First up I have clumps of variegated snake plant soaking in a bucket because they had apparently been yanked out of their pot unceremoniously and were a bit dry. I'll repot it after some perking up.

Prognosis: may or may not make it depending on root damage.

Next is a somewhat pathetic fiddlehead fig that was still in its original black plastic nursery pot and had some white crusting at the base of the stem indicating an unacceptable accumulation of salts. Which figs are sensitive about. So I rinsed it as thoroughly as I could and repotted it.

Prognosis: not great but worth a try.

And then we have a very large corn plant (the houseplant not the food plant) that just has some browning leaves. The roots looked in great shape and no signs of pests, so maybe a nutrient or husbandry issue. It is a good 4 foot tall (gave me a "paper" cut on my neck trying to carry it home) and has three nice stems. I potted it up with some slow release fertilizer pellets and will monitor.

Prognosis: I feel pretty good about it. May still be some fungal issue though so we'll see.

And as a bonus, someone chucked a very colorful flower bouquet so I picked out the two colors of pink carnations (still in great shape) and put together my own bouquet to brighten up a bookshelf.

(Behind it is a snake plant I pulled out of the green waste dumpster LAST year--maybe people just get tired of them?)

[the--sad--hatter]

Name Calling (10)

FANDOM - MARVEL MCU

PAIRING - BUCKY X READER (female reader, no physical descriptions)

WARNINGS - ALL OF THEM, SMUT, VIOLENCE ANGST.

DESCRIPTION -  In which the ongoing and bloody war of words between you and Bucky turns in your favor when a disgruntled one night stand of his lets slip a secret when you run into her in the elevator… Now you have all the ammunition you need to destroy your enemy but you don’t plan on killing him quickly. Oh no, Bucky Barnes was going to suffer and you were going to enjoy every second. You just didn’t count on how much you would enjoy it.

MASTERLIST

Chapter Ten - The Lies We Tell

A steady beeping pierced the air, rousing you from your sleep. You grumbled and reached out to find your phone without having to open your eyes so you could shut it up and go back to sleep but something grabbed your hand. Or rather someone. Everything came flooding back and your eyes shot open.

You wrenched your hand from Tony��s grasp and started frantically patting your chest.

“Whoa, whoa you’re alright. Calm down.” Tony assured you, grabbing your hands and making you look at him.

“I, but… I was. What’s going on?” You spluttered, your voice hoarse and croaky.

There were monitors and IV drips attached to you and you resisted the urge to claw at them, if Tony let them be put on you then you must need them.

He let go of your hands and held out a cup with a straw to your lips and you blinked. Water. That was a wonderful idea. You gratefully sipped at it and it soothed your dry throat.  You looked at him properly then. His skin was sallow, his eyes dark and tired.

“You were hurt, you’re in the med bay.” He explained.

“Then why do you look like the one who should be in this bed?”

“Well don’t tell anyone but I might have been slightly worried about you.” He joked.

You let out a huff of laughter.

“What happened?” You asked.

“What do you remember?”

“The mission. South Mexico. That’s the last thing I remember.” You said.

“That was three days ago. You got pretty banged up. you’ve been here since.” He explained.

“I… jumped off a cliff. I went full Vernichtung.”

“You did. There were Hydra agents scattered in the jungle, you stopped them from escaping. There was an earth controlling mutant on their side and she caused an earthquake that made the cliff collapse. You were hit by the rubble, just as you were coming back to yourself. It knocked you unconscious.”

“Ouch.” You muttered

“You should be fine now. You can’t suddenly speak French or anything though right?”

“J'ai appris à parler plusieurs langues quand j'étais enfant. Tant mieux pour conquérir le monde avec.” You snarked.

“Right you already spoke French. I knew that, I was testing you.” He covered.

“Bucky? Oh God Bucky was on the other cliff.” You remembered, sitting up in a panic and trying to get out of the bed.

Tony pushed you back down firmly but with care.

“Barnes is fine, not a scratch on him.” He muttered, irritation dripping from his tone.

You breathed a sigh of relief and looked him over again, noting how his eyes were rimmed red and he looked a little gaunt.

“You look like crap, I’m fine. You should get some rest.” You told him.

“So should you. Unconscious isn’t the same as sleeping.”

He was right, you did feel quite tired and as soon as you realized that a yawn broke free from your mouth and he chuckled.

“Get some sleep Kit Kat, you’ll need your energy for all your worried visitors in the morning.

You hummed gently in response and burrowed yourself deeper under the blanket, your eyes already closed. You felt a soft pressure on your forehead before Tony’s footsteps receded towards the door.

“Was it just my head?” You mumbled and he paused.

“What?” He said worriedly.

“I didn’t hurt my chest did I?” You asked sleepily.

“Why, does it hurt?”

“Hmm, no. Just feels like it should. Dunno why.” You muttered into the pillow and if he responded you didn’t hear it, you were already fast asleep.  

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The Avengers, minus Steve and Bucky were all congregating in on the couches in the common area, a film on the flat screen that none of them were paying attention too when Tony walked in tiredly. All heads snapped up to look at him as he made his way over to the bar, pouring himself a glass of scotch and draining it in one gulp.

“She’s fine. Doesn’t remember a thing after being on the cliff with Barnes.” He told them.

“Are you sure?” Wanda pressed.

“If she remembered what happened we’d know about it.” Tony pointed out unhappily.

“Are we sure this is the best thing to do?” Sam asked, yet again.

“If I may Interject? Whether or not we think this is the best thing to do is irrelevant, it has already been done. Turning back now would only cause more problems.” Vision said.

“He is right, what is done is done.” Wanda agreed.

“We have much more pressing concerns right now. Hydra have made an alliance with Docherty, which considering his agenda is worrying.” Natasha reminded everybody.

“I’ll add it to the list of secrets I’m keeping from my best friend.” Sam snapped.

“If you want to be the one to tell her that she slaughtered nearly 200 Nazi’s because they made a deal with her tormentor to try and capture her then be my guest.” Natasha offered coolly, unphased.

“Nobody tells her a damn thing.” Tony snapped and they all looked at him.

“As far as she will ever know, she’s been unconscious for the last three days, Cap and his buddy are on a mission for Fury and she won’t hear the name Docherty again until I can deliver her his head in a basket.” He continued.

“Man that’s dark.” Clint remarked and Tony slammed the glass down and stormed out.

“Well I guess we have our orders. We lie to her and secretly hunt down the insane scientist without her knowing it.” Sam said bitterly and stormed out after Tony.

“”Anyone else have anything they’d like to storm away over or can we watch the movie now?” Clint asked.

Natasha cuffed him over the back off the head but nobody said anything and they went back to not watching the film.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The next time you woke it was to the sound of footsteps approaching you in the medbay. You opened your eyes and blearily blinked up at the small unassuming man checking your vitals.

“Bruce?” You asked.

“Good morning, Miss Stark.” He smiled at you.

You sat up and grinned at him.

“You’re back!” You exclaimed, pointing out the obvious.

“I’m sorry I missed your party but I was very happy for you when Tony told me.” Bruce said.

“It’s alright Bruce, your work is really important. I know that.” You assured him.

“About that, I would like to talk to you later, when you’re feeling up to it.”

You frowned at him, what could Bruce want to talk to you about concerning his work? You weren’t a scientist, you didn’t understand most of what he said. You didn’t see what you could contribute.

“Ah, you want to run some tests don’t you? What do you need doc? Blood? Spinal fluid? Pound of flesh?” You joked.

He smiled fondly and shook his head.

“Nothing like that, the samples I took from you last time were more than sufficient. They were actually quite enlightening. I just want to talk about what I discovered.” He assured you.

“It’s nothing to worry about, I promise.” He added upon seeing your nervous expression.

You were going to press him for more information rather than wait until later but a familiar tread of footsteps was hurrying towards you.

“We can talk about it later, after Sam fusses over me.” You told the good doctor just as Sam came trotting through the door.

Sam wasted no time is clucking at you like a mother hen.

“If it’s not Rogers it’s you. Can we go one mission without someone ending up in here?” He demanded.

“A fucking cliff fell on me Sam, how is that my fault?”

“Don’t try and play innocent with me missy, do you have any idea how worried I was about you? I’ve been going out of my mind for days.”

“I’m sorry, I’ll try to avoid rubble hurtling at me from the sky in future. I promise.” You apologised with your best puppy dog eyes.

He visibly softened and leant down to hug you.

“You scared the hell out of me kiddo.” He whispered in your ear earnestly.

You felt incredibly guilty then and hugged him back as best as you could in the awkward position.

“I’m really sorry Sammy, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Sorry to interrupt this touching reunion but I actually woke you up to tell you you’re completely healed. You can leave if you like.” Banner said, looking uncomfortable but it was betrayed by the amusement and fondness in his eyes.

“Oh thank god, I’m starving.” You admitted.

Previous trips had taught you that while the medbay food came from the same place as the rest of the food in the compound it somehow tasted much worse.

“I’d normally recommend having something light to start but your enhanced metabolism can probably handle a real meal. In fact I insist you get some protein. Doctors orders.” Banner told you before he left.

“Did you hear him say you have to make me breakfast, cause that’s what I heard?” You asked Sam.

“Yeah yeah, that’s what he said.” Sam said with an eyeroll.

“Come on sleeping beauty, you shower, I’ll cook.” He said, picking you up and throwing you over his shoulder.

“Sam I can walk!” You protested.

And kept protesting until he dumped you on the floor outside your room and jogged away.

“I hate you.” You grumbled.

“No you don’t.”

No, you really didn’t you thought with a fond grin.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The concussion hadn’t left any adverse effects, the pounding in your head was from Thor’s booming voice. As soon as he had spotted you in the kitchen he had roared with joy and picked you up, crushing you against his much larger body and yelled about his joy at your recovery.

You massaged your temples and scowled. Stupid big blonde teddy bear. You had eventually extracted yourself from his grasp and escaped the kitchen and your chattering team mates. You loved them, you really did but they were acting like you had never had a concussion before. Yes you were unconscious for three days but that wasn’t a huge deal. They were acting like you had nearly died, what with all the shouting and hugging.

You padded through the halls towards Tony’s lab, planning on hiding under his desk again. You saw him and Bruce through the glass and remembered Bruce saying he wanted to talk with you and your curiosity rekindled, pushing back your mild headache. The doors opened automatically for you, courtesy of Friday and you strolled in.

Bruce looked up and waved at you as Dum-E whizzed over, spinning around in circles excitedly.

“Hey little guy, guess you missed me as well.” You chuckled, leaning down to pat him on the head.

Dum-E patted your knee in return and scooted away, returning a second later with a chair he was pushing along the floor towards you.

“Hey, what did you want to talk about?” You asked Bruce, throwing yourself onto the empty chair and rolling it over to Tony’s desk who ruffled your hair in greeting and went back to his tinkering.

Bruce looked at Tony who nodded. Bruce picked up a bunch of papers and came over and stood in front of the desk.

“The files on you we extracted from project Vernichtung weren’t complete, do you remember?”

You nodded.

“Your father and I have been curious as to what Docherty had taken the time to remove from them before he made his escape that day. We think we might know now. I’ve been doing extensive research on your genetic make up, trying to understand it. Would you like to know what I have found out?” He asked.

Bruce had asked you a while ago if he might study you. While you weren’t entirely comfortable with the idea you had acknowledged that Bruce wasn’t like any other doctor you had been subjected to. Tony trusted him and you trusted Tony implicitly so you had agreed.

He had promised to be honest with you regarding whatever he might discover and assured you that you could say no or change your mind at any point. Knowing he was the hulk had gone a long way in getting you to trust him, he was the only person who could possibly understand how you felt about Vernichtung and was your best shot at finding out if there was a way to remove it.

“I want to know. But keep it simple, I don’t understand any of the big words.” You joked.

“Your files said that you were created from a unique blend of several individuals DNA strands, all spliced together and implanted in a fertilized egg. Your embryo was then grown in an incubator and subjected to gamma radiation and injections of a knock off super soldier serum. Scientifically a lot of what was in those records was dubious at best, especially since there was nothing to back it up. No evidence or explanation.” Bruce said.

You knew all this already, you were well aware you were grown in a lab.

“You weren’t the first attempt. You were the first and only fetus to survive.” He told you.

That wasn’t surprising but it was still made you feel ill.

“Why me? What made me so special?” You whispered shakily.

Bruce looked apologetic.

“Because of the serum. It was passed down genetically to you, not injected directly. Your fetus wasn’t subjected to Gamma radiation directly either, your host was.”

“My host?”

“I’m sorry. Docherty lied to you, you weren’t artificially grown in the laboratory like his other attempts. You were born, like any other child. We, myself and a trusted associate of mine found two sets of genes in your autosomal chromosomes. Maternal and Paternal.”

He pulled off his glasses and wiped them nervously, looking to Tony. Tony took a deep breath and turned to look you in the eye.

“You have a mother and a father. You have biological parents.” Tony told you.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The lot thickens! And I swear, I’m not doing some weird,gross plot twist where Bucky or Steve is her dad. 

@dugan365 @fluffeh-kitty @memanda17 @krystallynx@theonelittleone @piscesbarnes @free-as-fishes@tarastudiesalot @captainamericasbeard @buckybearbabe98@nerdandproud-86  @clarkesardothien @harrison-shot-first@chook007 @thejourneyneverendsx @thelostallycat@inquisitor-selvala selvala

@the-corruptor @iover  @buckitybarnes @kendrawr-kitkat  @Pheonix-Whiskey-Tears @the–real-wombat @fairislesheets@angiept

@pizzarollpatrol @payformycollegepls  

[mensbodybuildingtips]

20 Easy Diet Tips For Lazy Mother-F`ers

Clean Out Your Cupboard Of All Refined Foods

A pantry (or food shelves) could save a great deal of crap over time. How many of us would discover sweet bars, crackers, chips, and also sugary grains if we cleared out our pantries. Mixes, canned products and various other refined foods typically aren't great for you. You must recognize exactly what you take into your body at all times, as well as any type of ingredient listing that has greater than five ingredients is possibly not a great selection for covert calories, and unhealthy fare.

Start Reading Labels

Know your components. Search for man-made components, excessive sodium, harmful fats, and various other items if you need to acquire foods in containers or packages. Leaving out top quality whey healthy proteins and meal substitute beverages, normally speaking, fresh entire foods are constantly healthier compared to tinned or packaged.

Shop the border of the grocery store store

To acquire whole foods, stay searching the boundary of the store. This is a great diet plan suggestion for anyone dieting, but additionally a terrific suggestion for any individual wanting to come to be healthier and not consume components they really did not imagine. Create, meats, fowl, dairy (yogurts) and whole-grain breads are constantly found on the boundary. (PS The bakery does not count!)

Frequent Farmers Markets On Weekends

Talk regarding fresh food. Large cities like L.A., Portland, Seattle, and also New York typically have numerous farmers markets throughout every week. In a location like L.A., it's year-round, and also not simply seasonal. Make the most of every little thing from fresh onions and potatoes to beets, apples, and other foods that you could learn how to incorporate right into your daily diet.

Take A Cooking Class

You may not be striving for a spot on Bravo TELEVISION's Top Chef, but you can discover how to expand your collection from wild rice bowls, yams and boiled hen breasts to beetroot salads, egg white as well as mushroom tarts, and a host of various other imaginative fare that will certainly have you grateful you cleansed all the black out of your kitchen and also began paying interest to what you eat.

Make Checklists Of The Finest Meals You have actually Eaten

Making lists of the ideal dishes you've consumed stimulates concepts - simply like logging your day-to-day food can assist you see just how bland your diet regimen truly is. It behaves to have a regular, however not when it obtains stagnant and also old as well as makes you intend to grab packaged foods and also points that keep you fat in the off-season. Keeping in mind the most effective dishes makes you choose ways to perk up meals.

Cook More Meals At Home

Eating out is the solitary biggest factor (behind eating packaged foods like crackers and also chips) for gaining unnecessary weight. You might desire to really feel like a "large male" in the off-season, yet not when you can not get to down and connect your personal footwear - or even worse, clean your very own butt! We understand numerous bodybuilders that cannot do either since they obtain so big in the off-season. Food preparation in the house indicates you save loan and also know exactly what you're eating.

Cook Healthy proteins On Sunday And also Wednesday Nights

Cook hen busts, grill steak, bake turkeys or any various other protein two evenings a week to make sure that you could pile them in a Tupperware container as well as maintain them in the refrigerator to reach for at any type of time. This will enable you to have a meal at the all set when you leave your house with 5 minutes to spare, or if you require to pack 3 or 4 meals for a day far from house. When chicken is perfectly experienced as well as barbecued, or you have a big brisket waiting for you when you get home, it's a wonderful means to stay off the chips and candy.

Cook Fresh Veggies And also Starches Everyday

Cooking proteins a couple times per week is sufficient, however you must always prepare your yams, broccoli, make salads and also prepare various other fresh fruit and vegetables on a day-to-day basis.

Eat At The Table, Out The Couch

Get out of the habit of eating while watching Damaging Negative, or Jeopardy. Consuming at a table away from the television triggers you to reduce your eating, and that maintains you from overeating. Consuming gradually implies your body stays in rate with its sense of "capacity" and also you can not overeat. You'll really feel complete as you normally get complete and won't make a pig of. None of us establishes out to gorge - generally anyhow - yet we discover ourselves there by eating rapidly and mindlessly.

Eat Before You Go To The Store, Motion pictures, Or Out

Candy counters and other rapid foods are appealing when you head out into the globe hungry. Require time to prepare a meal, consume it, then get back for your next one. You will certainly conserve a lot of cash, will certainly not be lured to treat and also could remain on track too in the off-season as when you diet. Take healthy snacks (fruit or rice cakes) to the films as well as miss the Milk Losers and Hershey's bars.

Make A Daily As well as Weekly Meal Plan

Intention is whatever. Equally as you enter into the gym recognizing you're mosting likely to educate legs as well as knowing specifically how you're mosting likely to approach your workouts - what workouts, weights, sets and reps - you should also understand exactly what you're mosting likely to eat each day before you ever consume it. This will certainly offer you the methods to attentively prepare foods.

Shop For Only Those Foods On Your Plan

Impulse buying is exactly what all grocers desire you to do. Go to the market with a checklist of just the healthy proteins, produce, and staples (such as rice, potatoes, milk, etc) that you need at one time. You will not over-buy and you will certainly stay on your meal plan.

Ditch The Milk And also Cheese, Add The Greek Yogurt

Some individuals simply won't do without milk, however milk and cheese have the tendency to trigger at least a movie on the body, otherwise a great deal of added swelling as well as mucous manufacturing within the body. Cheese and also milk are additionally loaded packed with fats you do not need. If you must by dairy, stay with non-fat ranges. Don't abandon Greek yogurt, however obtain the reduced- or no-fat level and include your very own fruits, or include yogurt to healthy protein shakes. It's one milk product you should not pass up!

Ditch The White And Go Brown

Ditch the white flour, white rice and white pasta - opt for whole wheat items instead. White items have such a high glycemic index that they surge insulin causing fat storage space a lot more easily. If you are the least little bit sensitive to carbs, aim to stick to unprocessed whites or browns, by choosing just brownish rice and also not flour or pasta.

Rid Your Diet regimen Of Standard White Sugar - Use Agave Nectar As well as Stevia

Cut out the white sugar. Professionals claim that your body doesn't recognize the difference in between honey, white sugar and also molasses or brown rice syrup, the glycemic index of all these foods varies. White sugar is additionally very refined. Like white rice versus brown rice, it excels to remove the white and go for brown rice syrup, Demerara sugar (natural walking cane) or any type of sugar that is unbleached. Reducing on sugar is a smart idea also, however if this is all you can do, it's a better choice for insulin response.

Ease Up On Sodium

In the off-season, we have the tendency to period things freely. From salt to MSG to soy sauce, and also other salt blends, we pour it on due to the fact that we aren't weight loss. Yet sodium over causes hypertension, which could create significant illness. Excessive sodium likewise bloats us. Aim to make use of a range of sea salts, with a little iodized once in a while. If you consume beans, cook them in the crock pot and do your very own spices, forgoing canned products that contain a whole lot.

Substitute Monounsaturated And Polyunsaturated Fats For Trans Fats And Saturated Fats

Most professionals agree that hydrogenated fats raise levels of LDL (" negative") cholesterol in the blood, which could harm the heart and also arteries.

How? I'll surrender cheese. (Keep in mind, this is simply for a week!) It is, by much, the most significant resource of hydrogenated fat in my diet plan, given that I do not consume much butter or meat or numerous fried foods as well as I drink low-fat milk. I'll make use of healthy and balanced fats instead of cheese (avocado in my burritos as well as almond butter on my toast) to assist keep me satisfied.

Change Your Crunch

No much more crackers and potato chips. Opt for raw veggies, such as carrot sticks, jicama, celery, broccoli, green, red and also yellow peppers, raw beetroots, as well as any kind of veggie in the fruit and vegetables section that is cold, crispy as well as has a great deal of taste. Make the effort to cut up veggies on a Monday morning, and also treat on them all week. Keep them in a bowl of ice water to keep them fresh (and also wilt-free) in the refrigerator.

Eat Fewer Big meals And also Choose Little Ones

Eat 6 small meals daily, in contrast to 3 huge ones as well as you'll get the same number of calories, however will not develop fatigue (from eating way too much) fat storage, or insulin spikes. And also, your body can just utilize so numerous grams of healthy proteins, carbohydrates and fats at one time. Excess of any of these can be stored as fat despite how healthy and balanced you eat.

[dawnfelagund]

Hi! I thought it was interesting that you mentioned becoming self-sufficient was very important to you. If you feel like sharing, I'd love to hear more about it!

Absolutely! I love talking about this topic but, since I’m aTolkien blogger, I assume my followers aren’t interested. But I’ll gladlyjabber on about sustainability and self-sufficiency for hours. (However, I’lltry not to actually write a post thattakes hours to read! ^_^)

Mr. Felagund and I are both millennials. We were both bornin 1981, which makes us oldmillennials, but the definition in recent years seems to have settled into arange that includes us. As such, we were beginning our lives as independentyoung adults right when George W. Bush was destroying the U.S. economy. Iremember when it was officially announced that the U.S. was in recession andbeing surprised that no one had realized that yet. We’d been suffering foryears: the usual borderline poverty that most young people endure when theyfirst move out on their own, compounded by the fact that unemployment was high,which employers took as license to underpay, overwork, and otherwise abusetheir employees.

We were both among those employees. For more than a year, Iwas led on by my employer to believe that my contractual position would be madepermanent if I helped him with the restructuring of the agency within I worked.He wasn’t very academically smart; I was, so when something needed to bewritten or created, I did it, although it was not in my job description and Iwas not being paid for it, in an attempt to secure a tiny bit more economicsecurity for my family. Probably needless to say, when the time came forpositions to be made permanent, my boss’s was and mine was not. My hours werealso cut 20% and my workload simultaneously increased due to the restructuringof our agency. At the same time, my husband was commuting two hours one-way toa good-paying job; he had to leave at 3AM to avoid Washington, DC, traffic, sohe had the choice of giving up his life to go to bed at the same time as aseven-year-old or to live on four or fewer hours of sleep. He chose the latterand became sick and depressed as a result. Like me, he was also a governmentemployee and, under Bush administration appointees, was more regularly beingexpected to support positions that intellectually and ethically he found to bewrong. We were both constantly fighting against our employers both in overt andin passive-aggressive ways. (I may have used work time to write an awful lot offan fiction and run the SWG, for example. >.>)

In the midst of this, it occurred to us that we had verylittle control over our lives. We were both being asked to do things regularlythat we found wrong or that made us physically or mentally unwell. We were bothbeing required to do work for which we were not being compensated. We werebeing forced into actions like crushingly long commutes that robbed us of ourlives outside of work. We could fight these indignities only at the risk oflosing our jobs during a recession, starting a domino effect of possibly losingour car and home, which would further jeopardize our ability to get a new job,and so the vicious cycle goes.

We decided this was not a life we wanted to live.

We’d followed the trajectory of correct adulthood: went tocollege and graduated tops of our respective classes, found professional jobs,moved into our own apartment, married each other, eventually bought a house. Werealized that the need to pay our bills forced us into a position where wecould be used however an employer wanted with little recourse because of fearof losing our home. So it seemed the first thing to do was to get rid of thebills.

The biggest was, of course, our mortgage. We lived inMaryland, currently the wealthiest state in the U.S. We lived in the hinterlands,not in the pricey Baltimore-DC corridor (which is why we had the longcommutes), but cost of living was still high. We decided our number-one goalneeded to be getting rid of our mortgage. You gain a lot of power when you havea home that cannot be taken away from you. Of course, no one tells you that youdon’t have to have a mortgage! The normal, correct adult life is depicted asthirty years working and thirty years paying back a bank for the roof over yourhead. Success is measured in the things you possess over those thirty years:nice cars, a house bigger than you need, regular upgrades to your wardrobe,fancy vacations, all the nicest and the latest things. It’s the “Youdeserve it!” culture that leads people to spend the better part of theirrent or mortgage on a watch or a handbag or tickets to a sporting event.Because if you put your earnings primarily toward securing a home for yourself,why would you work? And if you chose to keep working even if you didn’t need to,what power would an employer have to force you to do their bidding? I’mconvinced that these things are all connected.

So, to make a long story short, Mr. Felagund and I dedicatedourselves towards increasing our self-sufficiency so that we could walk awayfrom a job at any time without worrying about the consequences. We’ve sincemoved to Vermont, to a rural region where the cost of housing means that allthat we poured into our more costly home in Maryland means that we will nothave a mortgage. (Currently, we rent our house in Maryland to friends whoneeded a place to live on short notice right when we were moving last year, butwe will be putting it on the market in the next couple of weeks, and once itsells, our mortgage is gone.)

We’ve also dedicated ourselves to learning and practicing self-sufficiencyin other areas of our life to the extent that we can. Since we both workfull-time, we can never do all that we want to, but we’ve accumulated a lot ofskills over the last ten years so that we could live much moreself-sufficiently if we had to.

First, we learned how to produce our own food. We flew bythe seat of our pants in our first garden, but we made mistakes and learnedfrom them. When I left the job I mentioned above to freelance write for a yearwhile finishing my teaching certification, I wrote about sustainability and, inthe process,  studied plant and soilscience. We began a concerted effort to improve our soil in Maryland. (We livedin the foothills of the Appalachians, so our soil was clay and rocky.) We bothtook classes at our local agricultural extension office and went to conferencesabout sustainable agriculture. We had less than an acre in Maryland, but webegan to use what little space we had for growing food. We put in fruit trees, asparagus,strawberries, perennial herbs, and brambles. By the time we moved, we were ableto grow much of our own food.

Mr. Felagund converted an old, disintegrating shed on ourproperty into a chicken coop, and we always kept around ten hens for eggs. (Wedidn’t raise meat birds in Maryland because we lived in a residentialneighborhood, and slaughtering chickens in our backyard would perhaps drawunwanted negative attention from our neighbors; we always did try to be goodneighbors with respect to our various little projects.) We also took amonth-long course in beekeeping and kept one or two colonies of honeybees.

Both of us learned to cook from scratch. We were both raisedwhere “cooking” was dumping in ramen and a flavor packet into boilingwater, or emptying a can of condensed soup and pouring in an equal amount ofmilk. We sometimes laugh over how, when we first got married, we wouldcelebrate special occasions by buying a frozen pizza and jazzing it up with allkinds of special toppings. But I think it’s important to recognize theimportance of small steps and not to feel the need to go overnight frommicrowave dinners to baking your own bread from scratch and pressure canningyour excess meat and beans. It took us years to go from the special pizza stageto being able to feed ourselves from stuff we grew or raised and a few staples.Mr. Felagund is the better cook, so he has learned how to make things like breadand preserve any extras we grow.

Now that we live in Vermont, we are hoping to expand our small-agoperations yet again. We have our first clutch of chicks growing up right now.They will provide us with eggs, and we are now able to raise meat birds withoutworrying about neighbors. We have three turkeys on the way in June. We hope toadd dairy goats or even a cow within the next couple of years so that we’llhave a source of milk and cheese. And Mr. Felagund has started fishing(although he hasn’t caught anything edible yet!) and wants to learn to hunt.We’re both hoping to study more deeply of wild foraging.

Next is independence in terms of energy and other resources.We already have well water and a septic system. We are hoping to soon invest insolar panels on our roof; we have a south-facing house that would be ideal. (Wecurrently use all renewable energy, but again, one of the goals is to reduceour bills as much as possible, even though the electricity bill in a house thissmall is negligible.) We heat our home primarily with wood pellets, which isgood in some ways compared to a regular woodstove (it’s far easier to use and much less messy!) but less than ideal asfar as self-sufficiency goes since this isn’t something we can produceourselves.

Also important to us is strengthening the self-sufficiencyof our community. It always amazes me that people don’t worry when most oftheir food is imported from places nowhere near where they live. What do theythink they will do if a natural or other disaster interrupted the constantdelivery of food from far-flung places?

In Maryland, we had relationships with a number of farmerswho raised and grew what we could not. We are building those relationships nowin Vermont. For example, we don’t tap our maple trees for syrup (yet!),but Mr.Felagund knows quite a few people who do, so he barters for maple syrup, whichwe can use as an all-purpose sweetener to limit the amount of (imported) sugarwe must buy. We’ve found sources for the animal products we can’t or areunwilling to raise. (Mr. Felagund is forbidden from owning a pig, for example,because he has a soft heart and would become attached.)

We want people inour community to be doing things that are useful to our community, and we want our money to go toward supportingour neighbors rather than a corporate office a thousand miles away. This is anargument Mr. Felagund and I have constantly with our Walmart-obsessed families:savings at the cash register often mask more costly losses to a community wherepeople cannot find good work that pays good wages. We are very fortunate inVermont; almost everything we need as far as food is produced by someone inVermont (often the Northeast Kingdom, where we live) or nearby (like Maine orsouthern Quebec), and even our supermarkets sell local products. Big box storeshaven’t taken over here, so we can buy other necessities from local businessesrather than relying on Target and Home Depot (and having our money flowconstantly out of our community as a result).

In general, we try to avoid buying things, especially disposable things. We’re not obsessive about it,but we use things like cloth napkins to avoid cluttering the landfill withpointless trash. We compost food scraps and much of our paper waste. We have developed a flavored seltzer habitsince moving to Vermont (and my husband can’t resist Vermont beer!) so we dohave a lot of recycling, but everyone’s allowed one sin, right? ^_^ We’ve alsoworked to unlearn the cultural mindset that success, happiness, andaffection/love are represented by material things. This is deeply ingrained andhard to unlearn. When we moved from our house in Maryland, we were both shockedby the amount of stuff we had accumulated over the years and had to give away.(We live in a single-wide trailer in Vermont which is roughly half the size asour house in Maryland, which had a basement, i.e., a clutter pit.) It wasembarrassing: stuff we’d bought and used maybe once or even never, that we’dwasted money on for no reason.

For us, self-sufficiency is more a process than adestination. It’s possible to go entirely off the grid, but really that’s notthe objective for us. Instead, we never again want our lives to be governed byan employer’s (or anyone else’s!) convenience or to feel we have to choosebetween doing the right thing and having a roof over our heads. We both teachhere and both adore our jobs–I love my school so much that I even love the wayit smells when I walk in every morning!–and I hope to have a long teachingcareer here. But were things to change–and under the current presidentialadministration, one has to worry about that in a public school–I like havingthe power to walk away rather than being forced to do something I completelydisagree with (e.g., teaching to standardized tests versus critical thinkingskills and global citizenship, or denying services to students withdisabilities, as our Secretary of Education would like to see done). So we’vededicated ourselves to doing as much as we can on our own, to always improvingand doing better in terms of our obligations to protect and care for the Earth, and most importantly, to learning skills that maybe we’re notalways using at a particular moment in time but could use if the need arose. Over the course of years, it’s justbecome life: weird or fascinating to some people but just our life as we’vegotten used to living it.