A Bunny Runs Around the Tree and Other Skills for Unstable Times

I have spent the last couple years studying ways to become more self-reliant, so I found this article very interesting. http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/4259/ I hadn't thought about the need to walk where we need to go. I would be in a lot of trouble if we couldn't drive, esp since every friend we have is at least 2 miles away (and many are more like 10+ miles away). I suppose public transit will still be around even if driving becomes too expensive, and we made sure that the house we bought is right off a main bus line (so we can still get to HR for Mass and homeschool get-togethers!). Then there is the whole thing about needing good walking shoes...I just got running shoes for Damien who is in CYO track this year, so he would be good, but the rest of us would be in trouble if we had to use our shoes instead of relying on the car!

I agree 100% with the need to revamp American industries (and home-making skills) necessary for survival such as farming, carpentry, cooking, food preservation, sewing and shoe-making. OK, so technically carpentry and shoe-making are not necessary for survival, but they are critical for sustaining anything close to our standard of living now. These kinds of skills are actually more important to me as homeschooling goals than many academic subjects, but I am a little odd in my homeschooling tactics. Something not mentioned in the article, but is just as important as the other skills is homeopathic medicine. It is really neat to be able to successfully relieve and treat things like sore throats, ear infections, bronchitis (mostly for my incredibly stubborn husband who hates going to the dr and waits until I drag him there), burns and sinus infections with things I have around the house and/or can grow (I don't mean ibprofen or acetaminophen either, though I have and use both when needed). A huge *nod* to God's wonderful design of the human body and its amazing ability to heal itself! I have been known to take my avoidance of the dr farther than most people...the last time Vivian fell and split open her ear I would have put the 3 stitches in myself if I had lidocaine to numb her (much better than the $525 ER visit!).

I think my favorite line in the article is when the little girl tells her mom “you are a living GPS!” after mom used a map to find where she needed to go. Yep, I may just be further along in my self-sufficiency goals than I thought.