Month 1 in review

So my first month of subsistence living is over and I have learned a lot about what it takes to make this type of lifestyle work. Put simply it takes WORK. Instead of sitting around and watching tv or playing video games or reading my favorite book. I have to put in the time to ensure that all the needs are met to make it through the next day/week. Forward planning, and as I talked about in a previous post, good time management are essential. Such as thinking about what meals can be made ahead of time or prepped ahead of time to shorten the cooking time, that way I have time for bread making or packing the kids school lunches in advance. Setting up the coffee maker the night before, and even running the same grounds twice, something that was unheard of for me before have all helped make this month possible. Getting the family involved has also been a huge help. From my wife helping with the cooking, so I was freed up to go fishing or hunting, to my sons helping bring in firewood, go hunting with me to act as look outs for rabbits, even my 7 year old helping make the bread, have all been a huge help. Ultimately too, though I won't tell them this, it is getting them up and moving, and learning. The days of them sitting watching cartoons or movies while I cooked dinner or my wife did laundry are gone. And because we make it fun to do they don't even realize they are working to help the family.
They are learning too, though again I won't tell them that. My 7 year old can identify most animal tracks now on sight. He has learned the behavior of different types of animals in terms of habitat. Even my moody 14 year old is learning these things, and along with that learning why it's important to conserve and protect these things. They are learning what it takes to make food, and where it comes from. They understand that there is work involved in cleaning and skinning the animals. These activities I have used to demonstrate even grocery store meat has to go through. Planting and growing vegetables is a topic, as we near spring, that will become a larger part of the day.
Most importantly I think they are starting to learn that work doesn't have to be work. It can be fun, and helpful to not just themselves but to others.
My 14 year old asked the question a few days ago. "What if we actually lived in a place where you couldn't buy the stuff we eat for school lunches?" This was an excellent question and allowed me to explain how real subsistence living can be done. Of course a lot of this is area dependent, but for this answer I told him lets say we are living here in the North East Kingdom.
It takes less then 1 acre to raise a dairy cow. A bred dairy cow will supply 6 gallons of milk per day. Now of course you need to feed the cow. And while I was at my in laws farm I should have asked how much hay and corn it would take to feed 1 cow, I will for a later post. Now since that cow has to be pregnant to produce milk she will have an off spring, which can be used for 1 of 2 things. More milk or meat. In terms of meat you can expect on average about 600 lbs from a single full grown adult.
Since you have all that milk from  your one cow, you can now make your own butter,  and cheese.
Chickens even just 5 as the city I live in allows would supply more eggs than you know what to do with. And they take up less then 40 square feet of space. With a single roster you could allow breeding for meat birds if you wish. Setting aside the off spring for meat and so that less in breeding would occur.
Raising your own oats and berries and honey bees would give you all that you need for a nice cereal for the kids to eat in the morning, or why not just have eggs since you have the chickens.
Of course that takes some space or you can simply buy the oats by the 50 lb bag
Apple trees, pear trees, berry bushes would supply fruits for snacks through the year either as canned or dried.
So I think that covers a lot of ground so far this month. In the coming months more things are going to be piled on, gardening, college courses for myself, fishing, cutting splitting and stacking wood for next winter, beekeeping. All are going to keep piling on, so as I move into spring keep reading because I'm sure it's going to get interesting. And thanks for reading.