We have belonged to this site for a while and popped in and out fom time to time and thought now was a good time to introduce ourselves.
We are Dave and Becky moved down from Auckland 3 years ago to half and acre in little ole Nightcaps Southland
We are still in a balancing act of doing up our house semi self sufficiency and... the consumer treadmill
My wife works full time and I run a small business which can be a bit seasonal so there is more that we can do re self sufficiency however can be hard to shed off the consumer treadmill at times.
So far we have managed to manage 5 sheep down to 2 now since homekill lol... have chooks for eggs and meat and a garden in the summer.
looking at doing more and interested in hearing from everyone especially those with small amounts of land like us who are are rung higher than us re sufficency to help us take the next step.
Cheers Dave and Becky
Consumerism ... aren't the most important aspects of that culture - or rather the rejection of it - getting out of constant upgrading of technology, of whatever kind? Do you need the new carpet, car, lounge suite, potato peeler, fridge ... let alone the smart phone and the latest tablet computer? All those wasted resources as perfectly functioning tools are discarded to landfill, not to mention all the ridiculous packaging which comes with the new stuff. Those are the consumer aspects I wish to reject.
We're consumers of food whether we like it or not or we're not around for long anyway.
We have a cow. I love getting away from Fonterrorism.
Yep couldnt agree more thats why we left Ak . A guy from Telecom rang me the other day wanted to upgrade me to a new smart ph and I said all I want to do is make ph calls .
Some of the other consumer stuff can be a bit harder to aviod re heating etc and regs around such like.
When we first moved into our house we would going into the lounge in the morn and it was a barmy 3 deg in the lounge.
Have upgraded to new log fire goes good . Takes a bit to heat a house that was built in the 1920s with high ceilings ... none of this heat pump stuff here 21 kw log fire does the trick .
when still living in Switzerland, up high in the Eastern Mountains, with winters of -15degree Celsius and up to 2m of snow, all we had was a little log fire in the kitchen for cooking, and the large log burner in the middle of the house which was fired up every second day and was built in a way that retained the heat for up to 60 hours, and was suitable to bake bread. the house we were living in was built in 1627. we loved it![8D]
Bollocks. If the meat industry did today what the dairy cooperatives did way back when Fonterra was created then a whole lot of sheep and beef farmers would be a whole lot better off.
Welcome aboard Dave and Becky. Living in the city would drive me mad. Wish you luck with your endeavours.
igor;465991 wrote: Bollocks. If the meat industry did today what the dairy cooperatives did way back when Fonterra was created then a whole lot of sheep and beef farmers would be a whole lot better off....
You misunderstand my intent: I loathe processed milk. I have no argument at all with the business model and agree entirely that if the meat industry went the same way, we'd be a great deal better off.
Thank you all for your welcome ..... yes city life I see on the Goodmorning show this morning a house in Ponsonby only 80 sqm no land to speak of and attached to another house sold for over $900,000 crazy the difference in value of land in areas and how humans place that value
Indeed. For the price of a flash house in a fashionable Auckland suburb one can buy a sizeable farm and, in essence, get a free house with it. I have always felt this to be wrong somehow.
igor;466012 wrote: Indeed. For the price of a flash house in a fashionable Auckland suburb one can buy a sizeable farm and, in essence, get a free house with it. I have always felt this to be wrong somehow.
yes, but not everyone should be on a sizeable farm either. Dare I say it, but some ''simple country folk'' should be back in residential areas where they can control what others do and when with their properties... and leave us ruralites to it.
swaggie;466045 wrote: yes, but not everyone should be on a sizeable farm either. Dare I say it, but some ''simple country folk'' should be back in residential areas where they can control what others do and when with their properties... and leave us ruralites to it.
Sorry I hope we are not mean to take that comment personaly ... just thought we would introduce ourselves to the group The comparison was just that of how unbelievable Auckland house prices have got for what you get, I dont think it is foremost on peoples mind when they move their family down to the bottom of the country how they will control others
swaggie;466045 wrote: yes, but not everyone should be on a sizeable farm either. Dare I say it, but some ''simple country folk'' should be back in residential areas where they can control what others do and when with their properties... and leave us ruralites to it.
Gee... thanks for the welcome swaggie .... just off to tell my neighbour what to do with their property :rolleyes:
] Blueberry