I wonder what will happen when we run out of electricity, gas, oil etc. because we have all become so dependant on these things. I made a conscious decision some years ago to be as self sufficient/reliant as possible.  I refuse absolutely to buy my grandchildren anything that needs to be plugged in or needs a battery.  I make a lot of their Christmas presents and use natural materials and far from thinking I am a boring mean old grandma, they actuall thinks it is "cool".   We grow our own veggies and have opened up our fire place and burn free wood which otherwise would just, unbelievably, be taken to the local landfill.  We are lucky enough to have an endless supply for the taking from our local council, but if you dont ask, you dont get!  I have, over the years, taught my daughter and several friends how to knit, sew and bake. Not only are our food bills much lower but we know what we are eating and dont have to worry about how many airmiles our food has travelled.  My husband and I have taught ourselves many skills over the past few years and we are passing these on to anyone who wants to learn.  We are not goody goody "greens" ~ we do have a 4 x 4 as we live in a place where the roads are extremely bad, but our vehicle works hard for its keep ~ carrying bags of horse manure, loads of wood, plants and veggies to sell at car boots, etc it is definitely not a Chelsea tractor! ~ we dont feel guilty about our choice of vehicle ~ we dont go abroad for our holiday so I guess you could say we have traded our carbon footprint.  We keep our central heating (the little we use it) at 15 degrees and only use the washing machine, tumble dryer and oven when we can fill them.  We have seen our bills go down in real terms and feel more in control.  Fuel and food prices go up, they rarely seem to come down. We recycle as much as we can.  Leftovers go to our dogs; organic matter to the compost heap; glass to the recyling bin, paper and card on the fire and our rubbish that we put our for the bin men has halved.  Books that have been read and outgrown clothes get sold on e bay ~ I make dog beds from old pillows using any old sheets or curtains as covers and these I take to the local animal rescue centre.

We are lucky that we dont have any desire for the latest MP3, Wii etc., we dont even own a DVD player. We dont knock those who think differently to us or think we are weird,  we chose this way of life and they chose theirs. But if there are any of you out there who would like to know a  more about becoming a little more self reliant  and a little less deendant on outside entities, please e mail with your query and if I can help I will.