Sometimes Self-Sufficiency Means Asking For Help
Up to this point, I’ve done nearly everything that needs doing on the farm on my own. But once summer hit in earnest (it now hits 100 degrees pretty much every day) I started spending more and more time working on the interior of my house, which involves using skills I don’t fully possess. My latest project has been creating a serving window between my kitchen and dining room. I had a hunch that simply knocking a hole in the wall would improve life inside my house immeasurably, and I was right. There’s more light in all the rooms, and my small house now feels much bigger.
Making the hole was easy. Destroying something always is. All I needed was a sheetrock saw and a Sawzall. Making the frame for the new window was much trickier so I gave my friend Matt a call. Initially, I thought I would only be borrowing some of the many saws he owns, but in the end I discovered that I needed his expertise even more. Simply put, he knew what he was doing, and I did not. Without his help I wouldn’t have been able to do the job correctly.
This project didn’t require the use of any of my natural building skills, but it did demand that I use an ability that’s been gathering dust during my quest for self-sufficiency, and that is the willingness to ask for help. It’s much harder for me to do this than you might imagine, and I know I need to get over it. For the farm to reach its full potential it’s going to need many hands pitching in and helping out. It seems counter-intuitive, but I think seeking help (from friends, not paid laborers) actually improves my self-sufficiency. Now I just need to start asking.
Tags: self-sufficiency, serving window
August 26th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
I’m glad I’m not the only one to learn-as-you-go, dammit, as far as diy homeownership goes. To us diy-ers, it seems reasonable to just do everything yourself, wonky as it is, even if you’re spending seventeen hours in tiling forums (or what have you) just so you can do it without having to hire out. But there does come a time when you hit that wall, so to speak, and have to ask for outside help. Does this make us less self-reliant? I don’t think so. We learn as we go, do what we can, and “get by with a little help from our friends” from time to time. ‘S okay, and if I lived near you guys I’d definitely sign up for some work & skill trade. You’re lucky to have friends with the necessary skills, and if it costs ya a sixer of beer or a few bucks, that’s a small price to pay for the peace of mind of having it done right the first time! (Believe me, I think I’ve done about everything twice around here…oh well, live & learn, right?)