Gulf Shrimp

My wife and I love seafood. When we lived in Maryland we had regular access to Seafood, especially blue crab and striped bass which I love to fish for. When we moved to Georgia we realized that we were so far inland that we pretty much gave up eating at seafood restaurants because the seafood is never fresh. Then one day we found out about Destin, the worlds luckiest fishing village and fell in love with the place. When I come down here I'm like a grizzly fattening up on salmon. The Gulf Shrimp are caught everyday and most are alive when purchased. They come in all sizes and a few different species. We love the giant prawns, they are sweet and taste great when grilled or sauteed. We bring several pounds of seafood back home on ice when we make this trip and this time I have to do research on how to use fish emulsion as fertilizer and what I can do with the shrimp heads. And oh, yes, that shrimp is as big, as a whole ear of corn.

The Whole purpose to being a Self-Sufficientist

From an amatures' perspective:

Being Self-Sufficient is more than just living off of the land. It's enjoying the hard work at the end of the day, the end of the harvest or the end of the hunt.

The whole purpose to being Self-Sufficient is to reward your stomach with hormone free produce and livestock that is unadultrated by the stress which comes with the territory of produce and livestock that is prepared for market.

Some people take it to a whole nother level. They are absolutely vegan and will not think twice of slaughtering an animal for food. Although I have respect for their stance against eating meat. I however, am a Complete Carnivore that relishes in the delights of cooking particularly barbecuing, grilling and smoking meats.

For me this is my joy from the Field to the fire Pit, I would not want to enjoy it any other way. My Plan is to start off small and learn as I go. I believe in recycling. For 15 months in a combat enviroment I lived in a tent in the desert and we had to utilize anything and everything to make our little space comfortable. I hope that I am not going to turn into some old denim wearing vet with patches of every engagement and hording everything I find and never letting go. I hope I do not turn out like that. So I am being careful.

My chicken Coop is made up of a dog house that my neighbor was going to throw away and all I did was screen off the front and add a roof. The back has a metal sloped roof that can be opened so I can collect eggs and place feed in there. I don't think I would have thought of these things had I not been forced to look at life through a survivalist eye.

But needless to say I am moving in a different direction from the rest of the world, and hopefully my journey leads me to have a much better appreciation for things grown, prepared and killed by my hands. To me this is what being a Self-Sufficientist is about.