Yes, absolutely.  DH and I feel it is an important American tradition to be as self reliant as possible, although I have met people all over the world who do practice it as well.  We were completely off grid for more than a year, but then moved and had children.  We still research and  practice continually.  This has been an interest of both DH and myself for over ten years.  It builds confidence and skills, and preparedness for major or minor catastrophes (plus it makes for great story telling)!  Don't let mistakes throw you off, they are a part of the learning process. We both got our start from the Backwoods Home magazine, and The Encyclopedia of Country Living, but have since branched off into other areas of a more conservative nature than BHM generally has these days. Improvise, adapt, overcome!

love,

Sopranette

There was a lot of homesteading done here.

a young married couple would move to this country and the first thing they would try would be to  build a dug out pn their piece of land  .
a dug out is mostly only two or three logs high with a roof and then it is dug out the rest of the way so you can stand .
most of uhm are  one room one widow and dirt floor.
the most successful homssteaders raised some chickens and  some had hogs also. their was these dug outs all over this country
during the depression. most couldnt make it and just left .The lucky ones traded them for their land the more land one could eventualy have some sheep or cows  so they traded for it . so those who couldnt make it  could get out. Before winter.

Most also had to hall their water from far away as their roofs on the dug out could only collect water in their hand dug  cistern when it rained .





 

know little about it

We are more self sufficent out here on our property (5 acres) than those who live in the cities, but we are far from being entirely self sufficient. I think to be totally off the grid would take a fair amount of time and energy, plus probably a lot of property.

We grow some of our own food, although in an emergency we could probably kill most of our own meat from the wildlife on our property (deer, elk, rabbits, etc). We have our own well, although unless we got a substantial hand pump, we still need electricity for the electric well pump. We heat the house with our wood stove; we can cook on the stove if necessary. We backpack so we have a fair amount of survival equipment, extra clothes, and emergency medical equipment/training that we could use in an emergency.

Some of this actually may come in handy this fall - I live near an area that may flood heavily during the next 3-4 rainy seasons. A dam in the Cascade Mountains is seriously damaged; if things get ugly here (a miniature Katrina), food supplies and transportation would be seriously impacted. So - being at least somewhat self sufficient would be to our advantage, even though we are actually above the area that would be flooded.