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["Don Bowen" <don.bowen AT earthlink.net>]

> > Say, a person had only small animals (rabbits?) up to the size of
> > maybe a couple of sheep , a coupla pigs, and a coupla goats, per year
> >  (that should be plenty for two-three people?).  With this , and
> > fishing, and perhaps a little hunting, couldn't a couple feed
> > themselves?.

This is what we did when I was growing up.  We would butcher a couple head
of cattle and 2-4 hogs a year.  My father would bring in a deer in fall.
The meat feed us and my uncles, I do not think we ever bought meat at the
store.  My mother had a huge garden and canned everything in sight and again
I do not think we bought many veggies from the store.  Trips to the grocery
store were few and mostly for things like flour, coffee, and sugar.  We did
not have chickens after the first few years but enough around us did to keep
us well supplied with meat and eggs.  We did buy milk and butter.  I hunted
rabbits and squirrels but my city raised mother was not all that keen on
cooking them.  She was not at all interested in the frog legs we would bring
in.

It is work all year long but that was farming in the fifties.  I did things
that many now do not like to think about, putting the bullet into the right
place for a clean kill of a cow or chopping the head off a chicken.  One
advantage I have now is that with the SS check I do not need to be so self
sufficient.

My ideal now is a reasonable sized garden that will provide a summers needs,
a few chickens for eggs, and some bees.  Then a large shop to go build
things in.

Don Bowen  KI6DIU
http://www.braingarage.com/Dons/Travels/journal/Journal.html