Chris over at One Acre Homestead posted this new questionnaire. Visit his blog, leave a comment and play along on your blog.

Basic Questions About You
1-What is the biggest goal of your lifestyle? To be self sufficient

2-When did you start this lifestyle? Summer of '08

3-What was your main motivation? Michael Pollan's books and my need to do things myself.

4-Did you have any previous experience in anything you're doing now? I've grown a garden every year for about 18 years now. I was an avid Girl Scout earning nearly every badge they had.

5-Does your spouse/significant other (if you have one) share the same ideas? He could live in the woods by himself just fine. He isn't as far along in the need to prep as me, but he is much better at being a survivalist than me. He has an iron stomach whereas I wouldn't eat a bug unless I was starving. Also, I haven't been able to get involved in the butchering chores but I'm working up to it.

6-Do your friends and family understand and support these choices? What about your kids? Friends and family don't understand ~ they're asleep in my opinion. Kids, yes they do. All 5 of our kids wish we lived out in the country on a farm so we could keep more livestock.

7-How happy are you with your achievements so far? Absolutely! I have realized that I didn't can nearly enough food so I adjusted my garden plans to accommodate more production. Best choice that I've made so far: getting chickens. EASY and man, those eggs are delicious.

8-Are you more of a gardener, homesteader, prepper, health conscience, "green"' or a combination of several? I think I was a gardener first, moved to homesteader and am now a beginning prepper. I would say I try to make green choices (especially when it comes to utilities) but prepping is far more important to me right now.

9-Has this change of lifestyle affected your personality? We went to the grocery store today to grab some potatoes as our stockpile is gone. I realized that we have been shopping just the produce section. We make our own bread, buy milk fresh from a cow (thanks Phelan), have bought meat from local farmers, make all our own cleaners including laundry and dish soap. It's freed up money that we can put to paying off debt.

10-Has it changed your view of your life before? Well, I've always considered myself frugal, but now I'm hyper frugal.

11-What about how you view others that don't understand it or naysay? You can't convince people to see things your way when they're spenders. They'll come to the conclusion eventually. I have friends who are losing their home, but their car's payment gets paid every month. Hardly any food in the house, no garden plans but they eat out a lot. I don't get it, but to each his own.

12-If you could convince someone to live the way you do in ONE sentence, what would you say? That's a tough one.... Prep for a rainy day because the rain is on the way!

Other Questions-
1-How large is your vegetable garden? I actually have 4 gardens. One at my house which is 25' x 50'. I have 3 other gardens tucked in friend's yards since they don't garden. Total: I have over 1 acre in gardens.

2-Do you grow any fruits, and what and how many? Trees: apple, pear, plum. Bushes: raspberry, boysenberry. Plus strawberries, grapes and rhubarb.

3-Do you have any animals and what are they? (other than pets) 10 Egg laying hens and 25 meat chickens.

4-Do you can/dehydrate/freeze/store your own produce? Yes I do all of those. This summer will be our first summer to have an outdoor canning kitchen.

5-Do you work with mainly power tools or hand tools in your gardens and others? (wood cutting, splitting, tiller vs. broadfork etc...) My husband has chainsaws that makes getting free wood easy. We use hand tools in the garden at home but did use a tiller to prep the new gardens at the other locations.

6-Do you compost? YES! We have rabbits and chickens which give great compost.

7-Do you recycle? Yes

8-Do you consider yourself energy conscience? (conserving to save $) Absolutely

9-Do you make any of your own household cleaners? Yes

10-Do you make your own bread? Yes

11- If in an emergency situation, are you able to not leave home for a week? How about a month? A year?? We easily can do it for a week and once we get the hand pump for our well water, we could do it for a month and even a year. We have a few other items to get done with on the prep list to ensure the one year plan but we'll have them within the month.

12-Are you tired of answering questions yet? Ha ha, um, yes. But this quiz is better than other ones I've done before. I'll really be interested to read other peoples answers too.

13-If you prep, what do you consider to be your most useful tool/items Water bath canner and pressure canner. Husband says his gun and a good knife (or two).

14-Are you able to heat your home without gas or fuel oil? Yes!

15-Are you able to cook without gas or electricity? Yes, inside and outside of the house.

16-Again, if in an emergency situation, could you live in the wild or out of a tent? ( camping,hunt/fish, cook,etc.) Only if husband was there. He is a necessity in my prep plan. LOL

17-Have you ever practiced your prep skills? (turning off main power for a day or 2) How did you do? (this can include a power outage due to weather as a test) We lost power a few years ago during an ice storm. That was the first challenge but we sailed right thru it for 5 days. Boredom and cabin fever set in though.

18-Do you have the knowledge & skills (plus tools) to hunt and fish for food? Yes, but fishing would be tough as we live in the middle of prairie land.

19-If you don't prep, why not? I think Depression era folks called this saving for a rainy day or "you'll never know when you might need it" mentality. Everybody should prep!

20-Do you or can you sew your own clothes and make your own bedding? Yes I can although hubby is a better hand sewer than I am.

21-Can you field dress a deer, drink a coffee, smoke a cigarette, make a cell phone call, light a fire, AND answer all of my annoying questions at the same time? No on the deer, coffee and cig. I don't drink coffee or smoke and um, see the first #9. But, yes on a cell phone and light a fire using flint (skill hubby taught me) and yep, I can answer questions all day long. :)

lol thanks for playing!