Once upon a time...


*I lived on a farm.
*I was married.
*I raised chickens and goats.
*I was not stressed out.
*I was not in debt.
*I was not middle-aged.


I had no idea I would end up living in the inner city of the 29th largest US city, divorced with debt, trying to reinvent who I am and who I plan to be, trying like a heart attack to gain back my independence.


Back in my farm days, I read a lot of homesteading blogs. In fact, I kept a homesteading blog. I believed we should be learning how to adapt to changing times, be independent and live on the land and learn how to survive. I had acres to do such things and it was easy to grow giant gardens and can lots of fresh food.


In those early days of blogging, we young moms interacted frequently and I am still friends with many of those beautiful women I met through blogging. One of our comrades was a intellectual by the name of Sharon Astyk. She started something called Independence Days Challenge that we would all participate in weekly (if I recall) on our own blogs. It went something like this (it ended up having several variations):


Plant Something
Harvest Something
Preserve Something
Waste Not
Want Not
Eat the Food
Build Skills
Build Community


The basic premise of the challenge was to share with each other the ways in which we were developing our own sustainability and independence from the "system" in our homes and land. It also included a component as to how we were sharing or teaching these skills to others or growing stronger communities around us. I took the challenge seriously and self-taught myself skills such as canning, mushroom hunting, poultry rearing and many other things. I found ways to use up garden produce and preserve meals for the future, I stockpiled food and supplies for emergencies, I felt prepared and ready for just about anything. I feel like the lessons I learned during my early blogging days are invaluable. All of it was to prepare for something unstable like a flood, a tornado, a deflation of our political system, basically an apocalypse.


What I did not predict back then was that I would end up transferring to a new city to keep my job; buying a house in an underserved urban area and go through a high-conflict, divorce that nearly destroyed my core spirit. I won't go anymore into that hell except to say I could not have known back then that this would be my own personal apocalypse. I did not prepare for it, but I have survived it.


My current situation is that I live in an old house on a small, urban lot...mostly alone these days (well, except for my soul dogs and my kids when it is my 'parenting time'). I rarely preserve food these days, but I do try to small batch can something every year just to keep my skills sharp and I have a small freezer. I have been frugal and am trying to low spend to pay off the divorce debt. I helped start and run a community garden in my neighborhood, so I still garden (until recently because the garden lot is being developed). I still keep a pantry, make bug-out bags and make myself identify edible weeds on my walks through the concrete and litter. I live austerely. However, urban survival differs greatly from rural survival. It's not like we can go outside and shoot a deer or raise a pig (I am a vegetarian so this wouldn't happen anyway for me, but I am sure you get the point!) I have learned some urban foraging skills in the years I have been here now like dumpster diving,  finding edible weed and berries, shopping and couponing for sale items and community and small space gardening.


I have wanted to return to blogging for some time, but just couldn't get myself to dive back in. Tonight I suddenly remembered the Independence Days Challenge and I realized I only participated when I lived on 11 acres in a very different lifestyle. While many skills clearly carried over to my new environment, there are many I have had to learn.


So, I decided if I am having trouble blogging again, I could start again with a modified Independence Day Challenge. What am I doing to make myself stronger, more independent, more sustainable on myself and the city around me? How am I paying off those debts? Am I prepared if SHTF?


So, if nothing else, I will share weekly my own Independence Day Challenge:


Plant Something: Nothing (winter)
Harvest/Forage Something: Oranges, grapefruit, peppers (DD)
Preserve Something: Froze a bag of tomatoes and peppers that froze in my car while out of town
Waste Not/Want Not: See above, took my food on the road for work, bought a case of toothpaste samples (34 of them!) for $3, trying to participate in no spend 2018, made sautéed red potatoes with wrinkling peppers and potatoes that were growing eyes.
Eat the Food: Eating a lot of citrus obtained cheaply or free, drinking water.
Build Skills: Watching lots of YouTube videos on prepping, Dollar Tree survival kit making,
Build Community: I need to work on this again as I have been very reclusive for months.