What Does "Sustainable" Mean to You?

We recently watched a documentary called "The Hermit of Treig" about a hermit in Scotland who has lived by himself for 40 years before opening up his life to be interviewed. He had become very proficient at feeding and housing himself. But I couldn't help noticing that he still wasn't 100% independent from other people at any point in his life. He still needed supplies -- clothing, equipment, material, etc. His dependence on the outside world become especially obvious after age started to catch up with him.

So what does "Sustainability" mean?

For myself, in years past, this has meant I worked one job, paid my bills, and didn't have to worry about much else. If I was hungry, I'd go to the grocery store or to some casual dining place such as Chipotle. If a pipe broke, I would call the plumber.

However, this has changed drastically over the past few years.

Now my idea of sustainability is growing as much grass as possible and other foraging material on my own couple of acres to feed my goats and decrease my long term feed costs.

Grass / Leafy branches ➡️ Goat food ➡️ milk ➡️ food for my family, or material for soap etc.

Now I see what seems to be messy topsoil and grass mixed together and think "chicken food."

Messy topsoil ➡️ chicken food ➡️ eggs and a byproduct of mulch for planting needs.

At the same time, no one is an island -- besides, where's the fun in that?

Ironically, trying to be self-sustainable is a great way to expose the fact that we can never truly be a completely self-sufficient island.

We are blessed to have a handful of friends who are skilled and experienced in many of the ways we are not. Sometimes we have to lean on other people's knowledge and sometimes it's nice to know a guy with a trailer. We hope to be useful to others as well. We can't be great at everything, but we hope to be good at a few things at least, produce a surplus, and be able to network with others so we can complement them, and they can complement us.

So what do you think?

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