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Every so often, life has a way of alerting us to things that are obvious, yet somehow go unnoticed just the same. Sort of like the friendly rooster that crows each morning to let us know that the sun has come up, even though the bright rays of sunshine streaming through our bedroom window should be ample notification. (Although, if you are like my wife, who seems to have an irrational fear of live chickens, perhaps the early morning crowing is more likely to cause panic than awareness.)
In any event, life was kind enough to provide me with one of these “wake up calls” recently as our family was preparing for a casual get together to play games with some friends. Because the automatic ice-maker in our freezer had been malfunctioning, leaving us, tragically, without the convenience of automatic ice cubes, I attempted to be a proactive host and asked my son if he would “make” some ice to ensure that we had plenty on hand for the upcoming party.
The conversation went something like this.
Dad: Hey, can you make some ice for the party?
Son: I can’t. The ice machine isn’t working. (Read with the passionless indifference of an aloof teenager.)
Dad: I know it isn’t working. That is why I am asking you to “make” the ice. (Read this with the composed sincerity of a father that has the rugged good looks of Brad Pitt.)
Son: You can make ice? How do you do that?
Dad: Seriously? You know ice is just frozen water, right?
Son: Yeah, but I didn’t know we could make it ourselves. How do we do that?
This is when the alarming realization occurred to me that my son had never enjoyed the experience of twisting an ice cube tray to dislodge the “magic squares of frozen goodness” that appear after putting “enchanted water” into a “mysterious tray” that is then placed into a “miraculous freezing chamber”.
The point is that with all of the modern conveniences (like automatic ice-makers) that have been developed to enhance our lifestyle and make each day more efficient, we sometimes lose the ability to be self sufficient when those conveniences are suddenly unavailable. Like the sickly arm that has atrophied from being in a cast too long and emerges weak and frail, too often we lose the knowledge necessary to accomplish tasks that were so commonplace to our parents and grand-parents that it seems absurd that someone would not know what to do, or how to do it…like making ice.
With this life lesson fresh in mind, my wife and I decided that we needed to review some basics and focus ourselves, and our children, on Becoming Self Reliant. To unearth the common sense secrets that past generations almost intuitively understood, we determined that we are going to focus each month on rediscovering, learning, or developing , things that will help us become more Self Reliant. To help us remain committed to this quest for greater self reliance, we have decided to share our experiences each month in a series of posts.
Some things may be simple or small, like baking our own bread or practicing better budgeting; others may be more involved, like planting a bigger garden or building a chicken coop to have chickens that can provide us with our own fresh eggs. (My wife has not fully committed to this idea yet and continues to wander around the house mumbling to herself about crazy “chickens having large talons” but I am hoping by the end of the year to have helped her see beyond her poultry paranoia.)
I am not suggesting that you need to cut yourself off from civilization, start wearing clothes made from burlap potato sacks and cooking all of your food over an open fire, but there is something wonderfully liberating about knowing that you are not completely dependent upon a store, the government, a machine, or chance. Some things we share will be skills we have already developed, some things will be about new talents we will try to acquire. And there may even be the occasional post that talks about the challenges and failures we have as we try to expand our abilities.
As we relate the experiences in our Becoming Self Reliant series, we hope that you will join us in sharing things you currently do, or are trying to put into practice, that have helped your family become more self reliant. And if you have any, “you can make your own ice” experiences, we hope you will share those as well.
AMY says
This is exactly what I have been trying to do this year with myself. I can’t wait to read future posts and get some ideas.
Stephanie says
I am so excited for future reads! My husband and I are making the transition into becoming more self reliant too as well as prepping our family in the event of an emergency. We have started out slow but have realized that we are in a place in our lives now (we are now debt free except for our mortgage) that we can afford to spend some money on things that we have been wanting for our house (rain water collection, we are talking about the idea of chicken, etc). I look forward to reading upcoming posts!
Rachel says
This sounds great. I can’t wait to read more. I laughed out loud when you mentioned the “rugged look like Brad Pitt”. Sorry, no offense if this is inherently true 😉
Valora says
Looking forward to the series. I am curious if my kids could make ice, I will have to check and see…hmmmmm…I think they can.
Julie says
First of all, kudos to you! This will be a fantastic adventure. Love this post too, very well written and just the right amount of funny.
Second, I had to laugh a little when I saw the post on Facebook saying you were working on becoming more self reliant but you had your husband write a post. I knew there was more to it and it now makes perfect sense but you’ve gotta see the irony of that one . . . it made me chuckle a little.
Third, I wanted to share our experience. I started couponing and stockpiling (reasonably) a couple of years ago, before our son was really aware of what was changing (he’s almost 4 now). As a result, he thinks that all food is available in the garage in our pantry. He shops with me and knows if it isn’t on the list, it isn’t coming home with us and he realizes that we always have what we need in the house. I like knowing that too and that we’ve always got enough to coast for a couple of months if some kind of disaster hit. On a similar note, we started a garden last year and he got it in his head that we could have salad any time we wanted to so when the garden died out at the end of the summer and we didn’t plant any winter crops, he was more than a little ticked when I couldn’t always say yes to salad because I hadn’t grocery shopped and gotten more. I love that he’s growing up in an environment where he’s learning that food comes from the ground, not out of a plastic bag.
We just had a baby but we too are talking about chickens. I mention the baby just because last summer seemed like an absurd time to take on more lives but perhaps this summer or next. We’re vegetarian so it would be purely for the eggs but there’s something really wonderful about fresh eggs.
I’m eager to follow your series. Thanks for sharing your journey.
marie says
That was a great read, We too have been trying to be more independent with our lives. Am anxious to read more.
P.S. I too was leary of chickens with talons, but after 3 years, and showing them I’m the boss, I now bore friends with chickens stories!
Jamie says
I know many people including my family are working to get back to basics and become more self reliant so I am anxiously awaiting all the posts in this series!
emma says
Love the ice story. I have a similar one. I used to take care of a four year old and took him to the bathroom at a friend’s house. When it was time to wash his hands I handed him a bar of soap and he just held it in his hand and looked at me. It was then that I realized that he had always used bottled soap with a pump and had absolutely no idea what a bar of soap was!
Sarah fish says
I’ll never forget our daughters first trip to a cabin in the woods. Not because she had never been in the woods, we hike often, but because they had bar soap and she had no idea what it was nor what to do with it. Hilarious and eye opening. My second child has never seen a land line phone, let alone a rotary dial. My, things have changed. Getting back to baking oneself and doing the things we can do, while often don’t need to, is important for the upcoming generations who have never had to do “by hand”.
jennifer says
We live in the country so becoming self-reliant would seem to be a no brainer but we haven’t even started yet. I guess with the exception that I have learned to make homemade bread…but I still prefer store bought for ease of carbon tracking (diabetic). We would like a small garden but it is not a small undertaking because of rabbits, deer, and oddly enough the occasional herd of sheep wandering through our “yard “. Filling the freezers with fresh deer meat is also a goal one of these days… 🙂
jennifer says
Yeah…autocorrect. that should have been carb tracking, not carbon tracking. O.o
Sara says
We are trying to be the same way!!! We got chickens this past February and they are soooo much fun. Our kids enjoy them so much and they are not mean or scarey. Just get them as babies and handle them a lot so they like people. Ours let our kids 8,6,4 carry them all over the place!! Highly recommend it!