Quote:
Originally Posted by joebill
I also recall reading where somebody suggested that getting away from propane and buying a large chainsaw would "reduce one's dependence" on outside forces, but IMHO, the propane truck is many times more reliable than the chainsaw.
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Hmm... I completely disagree. I can cut wood to heat our home with, or without, a chainsaw. If necessary I can break the sticks to short enough lengths to fit my wood stove, no need for a chainsaw, bowsaw or axe. I would rather use the saw, but I don't have to. Propane is not sustainable at all. Using propane puts me dependent on an outside input under a stranger's control - a stranger who does not have my interests at heart. Additionally, propane is very expensive. Wood is practically free for me. Wood is always there. The trees live their lives, die, fall down and I can collect the branches without even a chainsaw if needed. With a chainsaw I can block-up the trunks too.
Perhaps part of our difference in how we see this is our skill sets. I'm very good with a chainsaw, I have about 40 years experience with saws, can build one from other broken saws, repair them, sharpen them, can make fuel if I had to do o but would probably just switch to a handsaw and axe. I don't like propane because every year somebody's home goes boom from it. Very bad. Your experience may be different so you may thus have different preferences.
Sustainable means I can keep doing things. I farm sustainably and live sustainably.
Example: I am not using up my soil but rather I'm building it. I have legumes in our fields sucking free nitrogen out of the sky. I have those and other plants sucking carbon out of the sky. I graze livestock and most of their inputs end up back as outputs on our pastures.
Example: I do sustainable forestry. I don't harvest our forests faster than they grow and I don't cherry pick but rather work to selectively cut to improve our forest over time. The land pays.
Example: I breed, farrow and raise pigs sustainably selling their pork weekly to stores, restaurants and individuals. I have a sustainable herd that keeps producing new generations of animals. If instead I used up all my stock by slaughtering them that would be unsustainable.
Example: I'm building our own on-farm meat processing facility (almost there) which will further improve our sustainability by reducing our costs and keeping the offal here on the farm to further build our soils.
Example: I keep a lot of hens. They eat pasture and pests in the warm months and in the cold winter months they eat slaughter scraps from our pigs. In turn I feed their eggs to our weaner pigs. This is a part of the sustainable system of life on our farm. The output is pork. Most of our input is water and sunshine. The chickens are part of the motion in the middle.
While available I use inputs such as electricity from the utility, diesel for my tractor, whey from a cheese maker across the mountain and such. However I can also do without those things should the SHTF. I'm not expecting that any time soon but I can handle it if it came to be. I carefully set things up with this in mind. It's a matter of living lightly, having skills and setting up systems that work.
Sustainable is not just a buzz word. It is about being able to keep doing things instead of frittering away your capital.
Cheers,
-Walter
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