My family came to Alaska in the 40's well before statehood. My Grandfather wore many hats but one was that of a bush pilot and hunting guide. My Grandmother held down the fort while he was away and raised 6 kids. They always had a big garden, chickens, and mostly canned what they needed for the winter. I was the second youngest of her grandchildren so she was older by the time I came along and no longer canned but she still had a big garden and greenhouse. I learned about gardening for her and heard many stories about "the way things were." They did for themselves for the most part because no one was going to do it for them. My father instilled the same ideas in me while I was growing up. We had a garden and were commercial fishermen so we put away enough of the catch for our winter needs.
BW was raised in Oregon and Montana but they also had a garden and hunted. His Mom grew up on a farm with a lot of siblings so they also grew and hunted most of their food, canning it for the winters.
BW grew up with a love of hunting and fishing so when we got together we started hunting and fishing together. I had never really recreationaly fished so that was new for me as well as hunting. Even though my dad grew up hunting he never really hunted when I was a kid. When BW and I had Skiffbaby we decided that we wanted to her to grow up on as much good Homegrown, Home Canned, Home Produced food as we could get our hands on.
Also I started looking into what goes into our food about 7 years ago and it scared the beegeeberz out of me. It started with me buying organic milk, then organic produce and went on from there. In 2010 we got meat chickens then a small flock of layers and on from there.
For now we have had meat chickens, a laying flock of hens, a garden, we fish, and we will hunt this fall as we always do.
All in all we choose this lifestyle because we love it and believe it is the best way for our family to thrive.
Linked to
No comments:
Post a Comment