My goal in buying and building up the place where I will retire is to make it as self-sufficient as possible. Can I buy all my food? sure. But I take enough to last my family a year and that's about all the red meat we eat. It's a couple minute stroll from the house to the blind and I butcher it the careful way I want it done. Yes I enjoy it. Gear costs money.
Put in a pond so I can take some fish for the table. And enjoy doing the care and fishing. Pond costs money. I have loved fishing for Piranha with a hook, steel leader and a hand spool. Fishing can be very simple.
Will put in a significant garden when I move there permanently. Will enjoy that.
Doing almost all the home rebuilding myself. Enjoying most of it. I have bought tools that cost money.. but cheaper than hiring it all done.
Logged, cut and stacked in the barn many cords of wood that will heat the house. Enjoyed much of it, but toting a hunk of wood that weighs as much as I do is not that fun. Love my expensive Stihl.
There is satisfaction in using my hands to build and provide. Whatever I engage in, I want to understand it and do it "well"
Well means different things to each of us. Trophy vs meat. Some like to drop them on the spot. I like a lung/heart shot, let it run a bit and bleed, but I don't lose meat. I concur with the disdain for the 8-shot burst people. I take my shot and put the rifle down.
Tony, I think the answer to your question is, "Be true to yourself in all you do." Many of us will end up in similar places. Some will choose differently. No shock that PB'ers are hunters. We connect with the natural world.
