Self Sufficiency Home STudy Course
Live a healthier and happier life, learn to becme more sustainable with food, energy and other daily needs.
Whether your aim is to reduce living costs, produce healthier food, or something more dramatic like quitting your job and relocating to acreage; this course is a great foundation for those scenarios and more
Course Structure
There are ten lessons is as outlined below:
1. Introduction- “What can I grow or make myself?”
2. Health, Nutrition and Clothing- Learn the importance of good nutrition and health
3. Horticulture ‑Learn about the relevance and application of horticulture to self sufficiency with Fruit and Vegetables
4. Horticulture ‑ Learn about the cultivation and use of herbs.
5. Animal Husbandry ‑ Learn about Poultry and Bees
6. Animal Husbandry ‑ Learn about Grazing Animals and Pigs
7. Building- Learn about the appilcations of building self sufficently
8. Energy- Learn about the application of alternative energy sources
9. Craft and Country Skills- Learn about skills to make the most of your new lifestyle
10. Making Decisions- Decisions that are made in a self sufficent lifestyle are differnet to those in modern society.
Content
This course covers many aspects of self sufficiency, including the following:
- how to live with lower income
- identification of essential and non-essential services offered by society
- identification of services that one can be self sufficient with
- identification of self skills that can aid in self sufficiency
- skills that can be developed to assist in self sufficiency
- identify needs, wants and likes; and the purpose of prioritising needs
- identify items one can provide for oneself
- development of cost efficient meals
- identify purpose of fitness to self sufficiency
- plan a food garden
- identify crops plants most suited to a persons locality that assist in self sufficiency
- use of bees hives, poultry and other animals for self sufficiency
- estimating carrying capacity of a piece of land for animal stocking
- importance of pasture
- multipurpose animal stocking and their uses
- energy alternative techniques such as wind, solar, water fire, etc.
- reducing present energy usage
- cloth and garment making processes
- food preservation techniques
- handicrafts techniques (eg candle making)
- identifying criteria when planning to set up a self sufficient lifestyle in a new location
- identifying criteria on how to improve self sufficiency in present location
Aims
Discuss the nature and scope of self sufficiency.
Explain the importance of good nutrition and health.
Explain the importance of suitable clothing and clothing care.
Explain the relevance and application of horticulture to self sufficiency.
Explain the cultivation and use of herbs.
Explain the main requirements for successfully raising animals.
Explain the fundamentals of caring for grazing animals.
Explain the available alternatives to eating meat.
Discuss various building techniques that can be used to construct buildings.
Discuss alternatives to conventional energy sources.
Determine and describe accessible craft and country skills that may contribute to self sufficiency.
Analyze potential changes in lifestyle to increase a person’s level of self-sufficiency.
This is an example of some course notes:
The concept of self sufficiency is all too often bandied around without people properly understanding what it all means. Consider the following statements:
To be self-sufficient, is to produce the things which you need to survive without the assistance of outside people.
You can produce some of your needs and be partly self sufficient, produce all of your needs and be completely self sufficient.
An individual person can be self sufficient, a small group (eg. a family) can be self sufficient, or a large group can be self sufficient (you might think in terms of a whole society, city or nation).
To become self sufficient usually involves making certain compromises or concessions in your lifestyle. You might have to wear different types of clothing, adapt to a different level of mobility or change your diet. The degree to which you can achieve self sufficiency is usually related to the degree to which you are willing to make compromises.
Large areas of land are not necessary to become self sufficient. Depending on what you produce and how you produce it, you can become relatively self sufficient on even a standard suburban house block.
Bartering or swapping goods and/or services is often adopted by the person interested in pursuing a self sufficient life-style. This is not self sufficiency strictly, but like sufficiency, the barter system offers an escape from a dependence on the monetary system.
Along with self-sufficiency comes the idea of a system of living that is self-perpetuating - the basic structure of which works with the cycles of nature. The permaculture concept, companion planting and alternative medicine are all seeking to establish a self supporting system both economically and environmentally.
Self sufficiency means different things to different people.
The one thing that all fans of self sufficiency share in common is a desire to reduce reliance on goods and services supplied by others.
In reality, we will never be totally independent for one reason: it is in our nature to be social, and we all need to interact with other humans in order to be psychologically fulfilled.
We can however take far more control of our own destiny by doing two simple things:
1. Increase our capacity to independently provide the goods and services we desire
2. Change our attitude and lifestyle so as to reduce the demands we place upon ourselves to provide as many goods and services.
Duration: 100 Hours
This course can be started when you like and completed at your own pace.
