Tradition.  As a child all the family would gather at my grandparent's house and "do" whatever happened to be in season at the time.  They had several acres at their place with a huge garden, berries, fruit trees etc.  They also lived in the middle of orchard country so drops were always available.  The men and children would harvest and prep the food, the woman would preserve it.  Everyone was expected to help.  Even though we were working hard it was a lot of fun.  I have wonderful memories of spending time shelling lima beans while swinging on the porch swing at my Grammy's house.  Sneaking into the kitchen and grabbing a hot ear of corn to eat before one of the aunt's would tell us to scat.  Good times.

As a young married woman, I continued the tradition because I enjoyed the preserving aspect and the food and because I had never eaten store bought basics.  While my mom was still alive we would preserve together.  A big pot of soup would be frozen for later meals.  Jams, jellies, fruits, pickles, applesauce and all forms of tomatoes would fill jars and fill shelves for winter use.  The memories of my childhood also filled those shelves.  After my mom passed, I tried to continue preserving.  Unfortunately, my spouse at the time, did not approve and made it very difficult for me to continue.  I still managed to can the basics, applesauce and tomatoes.

Necessity.  When my spouse left, I had no job and no money.  My children and I relied on what was in the pantry.  I planted a garden and the kids and I put up all that we could.  My kids grumbled and complained while husking corn or snapping beans but there was also lots of laughter as well.  They never complained when opening a jar of jam or pickles.  That pantry was essential while we were on our own for over 10 years.

Tradition continues.  Five years ago I remarried to someone eager and willing to learn and help preserve what was growing in our garden.  He expanded the garden and I expanded my skills.  I started pressure canning and that opened a huge new world of sustainablility.  I started dehydrating more than just my usual apples, onions and peppers.  I may even try watermelon!  I am now teaching my step-daughters how to can and dehydate.  The one has a 7 month old and we make all of his food.  I guess I'm passing on the tradition to a new generation now. 

We've always dreamed of a country life, but thought it more of being out of the hustle and bustle of life versus a more self-sustaining life.  Then we noticed one dd's mood swings way before we thought she should be having them and the other dd's lack of weight gain and issues with store bought milk.  Extended family started to have major health problems and we lost my sister-in-law and mother-in-law within a year of each other.  A friend started educating me about how our store bought food is grown, processed, and shipped.  I started to dig more and more.  Though in the midst of a metropolitan life we started to go to the farmer's market for eggs, milk, meat, and produce.  We started to bake some of our own bread and started to change some eating out habits.  Within two months of starting raw milk, our youngest dd jumped two sizes and has had no more milk issues unless given pasteurized store milk for two servings.  Two servings!  That's all it takes for her to be in pain. 

Anyway, to sum it all up, health concerns are what started us on this road to self-sustaining.  Now the children and I are on the farm while dh finishes out his military career.  We have chickens and cows.  We have a creek that dh has talked about how he could get energy from. lol  He also talks of solar panels and wind turbines.  We have lived without electricity for a week and survived.  Surprisingly it wasn't as bad as I had imagined it would be.  We missed running water the most.  Now we have a generator that we can turn on for showers and to keep the freezers cold.  That generator makes us feel as if we have everything we could ever want.

My biggest surprise has been how satisfying it is.  When I came to the realization that we had to make changes in our food sources, I knew that most of the work would fall upon me.  Whether it was to find where to get what we needed as we've moved from place to place or now where I'm the one milking the cow, I've been surprised that it is satisfying rather than drudgery.  I can now understand the saying, "work is good for the soul".

When hubby decided to retire, we left our university jobs and set out to find our perfect retirement locale.  Our idea was to find a nice private place in the country and have hours and hours to stroll idyllically through the woods.  We made lists of property requirements so that we could logically evaluate property.  We had a 5-year plan for buying. One day we came back to Roane County to visit with family and checked in with one of the local realtors. There was a 67 acre parcel with a hand-built 7-sided house that caught our eye.  With verbal directions from the realtor, we made our way across the river ford and drove up a 3/4-mile-long, single-track dirt driveway, had a enlightening visit with the owner and proceeded to chuck our carefully crafted list of property requirements out the window.  The property was ours by the end of the weekend and our 5-year plan had just become a 6-month plan.

Our new dream home had a home-made electrical system, an outhouse with french doors and full length window, no pressurized water and wood heat.  We discovered that the river and creek crossings that flowed so placidly in July became torrents after it rained and froze nearly solid in winter.  The road going in the other direction travels IN the creek in many places and for the last two miles, the road is very steep and curvy.  Not fun in ice and snow. Thus we were plunged, somewhat out of necessity, into developing a more self sufficient lifestyle.  We found we enjoyed this new life that was very much centered around the 4 seasons.  We learned many skills related to preserving, storing food, and keeping warm.  Also we discovered that outhouses don't clean themselves and that the quick trip to the store to get that last minute item was not happening if it snowed (or rained much for that matter).

As our interests grew we decided we needed more space.  We purchased a nearby farm and completely rebuilt a delapidated farmhouse with our own two hands. We had NO prior building experience.  We re-wired, re-plumbed framed and roofed the entire house plus added new living space.  We built all our kitchen and bath cabinets and planed local lumber for our floors.  It took us nearly 5 years before we could move in.   We planted an orchard, cultivated a larger garden and canned, dehydrated and froze our produce.  We built animal housing and learned to keep chickens and dairy goats.  I learned to skin a deer and put up venison.

Our journey is not one I'm sure I could ever knowingly repeat but I would not trade the past 15 years for anything.  I don't tell you all of this to brag but to inspire you that one can do more than they ever imagine.  We had few skills when we started but we had a deep desire to do everything ourselves.  Although a farmstead is NEVER finished we are able to relax a bit now and enjoy that stroll though the woods, this time WITHOUT a chainsaw.