Why, hello. Let me introduce myself...

My name is Shannon, and I am in recovery from Capitalism. I have suffered from Capitalism nearly my entire life, as it was there from the time I was born, surrounding me, brainwashing me, and I have just within the past few years recognized it for what it truly is. Capitalism is a disease, it's a cancer. This method of thinking is destroying our society, and causes people to be viewed only in terms of how productive they are in society. People are not valued, they are numbered, and our environment is seen only as a source of various resources. I am sick of the way our Capitalist culture treats the environment and people, and I have really begun to look at everything with a very critical eye. I want out, I don't need a brand new car, I don't need clothes that are in fashion every season, and I don't want to get caught up working in a job that I can't stand just for some illusion of financial security. If this economy has taught me anything is that nothing is permanent, and that even if you work hard your entire life, when it comes time to retire you could find your pension/retirement is completely gone. I don't want to endure the stress of a life dominated by a job I don't like, I need to make some change. I want to live more simply, I want to learn about the environment around me, I want to be more green, I want to live in tune with the Earth.

I really began this journey when I became pregnant, I began to not only look more critically at the way that food was grown and processed, but also at the way we impact the environment as a whole. This is often the case when you realize you're going to be a parent, you start to self-evaluate, because your values ultimately affect your child. What kind of child did I want to raise? What was important to me that I wanted my child to value? I have a son, he just turned 5, I have come to have a new appreciation for everything, and have worked hard to teach him to appreciate things, and value them. Though it's a hard lesson to teach a kid, less IS more, and you should value the things you have. Learn to want the things you have, and also learn to distinguish between needs and wants. This is a work in progress, however, these are the things I determined to be important to me. I am not just raising another consumer. I don't want my child to be concerned with material things, I want him to be compassionate and caring and spend his energy on more rewarding pursuits than the pursuit of more stuff.

There is more to you than the stuff you own. So many people are devastated when they have a house fire and they lose everything, but are you really the things in your house? I have tried to downsize, and living in a small one-bedroom apartment this past year has taught me to really evaluate what I truly need. Live simply. How much space do you really need, how much furniture, how much clothing? I have constantly asked myself these questions over and over, and ultimately it is leading me to the path of living in a smaller house, I am enamored of the tiny house movement. Do I really need cable, a smart phone, wireless internet, and air conditioning? I am slowly getting rid of all these things from my life. I don't need to use as many resources as I do, I can downsize, and I can start producing food for myself and my family. I can fix things rather than replacing them, I can re-purpose things that are beyond repair. Through this I also free up money, which will allow me to work less. In terms of work less is most definitely more. The more time I have to myself, the more time I have with my family, the more stable my way of life will ultimately be. I think one of the greatest problems with society is the amount that we work, that we spend commuting to and from work, and the amount of time we spend trying to just de-stress once we get home from these jobs that, let's face it, most of us cannot stand.

I want to simplify, I want to revive old crafts and skills, my dream is to have my own homestead. I have been slowly collecting information, finding better ways to do things, sketching plans. I can't tell you how many hours I have spent reading, and researching on the internet. Everyone should have this information available to them. Anyone who wants to stop merely consuming and start producing should have the information available to them and thankfully we have the internet for that. So, in conclusion, this blog is going to be my space to share sketches, photos, recipes, plans, information, tutorials, and anything else I come across as I start to intensively move toward my ultimate life goal. So I hope this can be not only an inspiration to some, but also a resource of a variety of things involved in a journey from being purely a consumer to being more self-sufficient.