One thing bothers me about the book, but it's my own issue, and it's the way many of these folks sort of "dropped out" altogether, suddenly veering in a single direction, one which requires squatting or using others' means for part of their day-to-day living. I think it's good to be honest with ourselves about what we're still consuming, even if it's not our cash paying for it. I don't think health care or food programs are bad--on the contrary. But using them is still being a consumer, it's just accepting someone else's payment.
Sharon Astyk's Depletion and Abundance resonates more with me for a number of reasons, but maybe because she looks at this sort of productive lifestyle as good for the whole community as we move into a post-petroleum world. She advocates self-sufficiency AND community interdependence, building strong local bonds. She recommends making changes now, not necessarily because a few people can undo the damage, but in order to figure out how to be OK later. And she recognizes it's a process to get there, not necessarily an event.
I live on a small farm on the edge of a small metro. Our family raises almost all our own vegetables and meat. We buy our other meat "on the hoof" from neighbors close by, and do our own slaughtering. We raise a lot of vegetables, and have planted fruits. We have chickens for eggs and goats for milk. We're rehabbing an abused farm, so it will take time, but we are working on establishing hay production so we don't have to buy it in the future. We're taking as much lawn out of lawn duty as we can, and instead growing stuff or grazing sheep on it. We have a couple hives of bees both for pollination and honey.
We've got plans (hopes?) to fix the chimney on our old farm house and install a wood stove. I'd like to get a hand pump for the well, too, but that's further out. I dream about a small wind turbine and/or solar panels on a shed roof, but those are pipe dreams at the current cost.
Inside the home, we try to minimize our consumption of resources, but this tough. I bake the bread and cook the meals, we hardly watch TV and we're looking at getting rid of a lot of the things we don't need or use and "downgrading" our lifestyle further to help reduce or footprint. We drive old used cars (and I mean old and used) but they are small cars that get great mileage and we do our own maintenance and repairs. We make a lot of our own fun.
Still, a lot of it takes cash money. Dh and I bought the property without any savings, really, and we are busting hump to pay off as much mortgage as we can now. We both work, he's FT and I'm PT, and all the "extra" is invested into our home--repairs, equipment, trees, livestock, etc. Our combined income is pretty good. If we still lived in town, we'd have our little house paid off and could probably afford to travel a good bit. But we love the farming aspect, so here we are.
People are not used to paying full price for agricultural products in a system where conventional ag is heavily subsidized. We figured that a fair price for one chicken raised on our farm, one that would be fair and "life-serving," to use Aykens' term, is about $14. A lamb would be much more than the typical going rate of $100 or so. Industrial production of meat, milk, eggs and vegetables drives prices for authentic food down, because on the surface, they appear the same. (Same goes for artisan-crafted clothing/equipment/etc.) So until a change takes place, our work continues to be undervalued.
So, for the time being, we're both subsidizing our "radical" life with conventional(ish) jobs and making small steps toward the kind of self-sufficiency/interdependence that strengthens community bonds. It is, honestly, an exhausting amount of work about 9 months out of the year in our climate. The other 3, we're holed up and it's cold and snowy.
And like EdnaMarie, I value the things I can bring in through trade with others. I paid for a few bales of hay this week with some honey. I give a friend eggs and milk from time to time; she has sewn me clothes. Another sometimes watches my children, and I give her eggs and produce. I give gifts of food--applesauce, pickles, honey, fresh eggs. If I can get good olives/oil/spices, I will--with money.
Also, my dh's family lives on another continent. If we are ever to see them, we have to invest large amounts of money in travel. So we do. In purely financial terms, this has added up to about $50,000 over the years we have been married. A huge chunk of our mortgage. But parents don't live forever.
There's a lot to the picture, and everyone's picture is different. Which is why interdependence is as important as self-sufficiency.