So I shared at the beginning of the year that I’m tackling not only a self-reliance challenge but also a resilience challenge.

In March, I had planned to tackle a self-reliance monthly challenge of creating a home evacuation plan and then trialling it with our family. I shared over on my substack (where I’m documenting both challenges) a post about setting up a home evacuation plan and how we practiced it with our family. You’ll notice that the date of the Substack post was in July.

I also went about sharing why the challenges fell off the rails for me slightly this year.

It’s important when things fall by the wayside to pick right up where you left off and recommit. I thought I would come over here and share a little bit more about the importance of prioritizing evacuation plans for your family.

The reason why is because I have watched natural disaster after natural disaster affect many different areas, especially in North America. And I have watched families on my Instagram be very unprepared for the possibility of having to evacuate their homes.

From forest fires in California to Kelowna, BC

Freak snowstorms in Mammoth Mountain, California

And tornados in our hometown of Ottawa

I’ve seen people post about cleaning their homes while forest fires raged around them. And it frustrated me and angered me that more people aren’t prepared to have to leave their homes.

I’m going to choose to be helpful instead of raging by offering a list of what’s in our go bags in case we ever need to evacuate our home at a moment’s notice.

Go Bag Packing List

I have 1 Go Bag packed for each human in our house and in the fall I update the bag for winter and in the spring I switch it up for summer.

Go Bag Year Round

1. Important documents on a thumb drive
2. An envelope of cash
3. Collapsible water bottles
4. Freeze-dried camping food
5. Granola bars
6. Flashlight or headlamps

Winter Go Bag

Here are the items I include during the winter:

1. Toque
2. Mittens
3. Fleece Pyjamas
4. 1 Long Sleeve Shirt
5. 1 Pair of Warm Pants
6. 1 Sweater
7. Wool Socks
8. Winter Coat
9. Blanket
10. 2 Packages of Wipes

Summer Go Bag

Here are the items I include for the spring/summer:

1. 1 Tshirt
2. 1 Long Sleeve Shirt
3. 1 Pair of Shorts
4. Thin Wool Socks

When the babes were smaller and in diapers I also packed 3 cloth diapers for each kid!

I don’t include a lot of other things that we’d need because I have a mobility bag in my car which we’d have if we evacuated by car.

What’s in your go bag that I haven’t included in my go bag packing list or my mobility bag?

I shared in my 2023 Goals & Intentions post that I wanted to complete a monthly resilience challenge in 2023. This is in addition to my 2023 self-reliance challenge that I’m repeating this year.

Because I’m a big word fan, I normally start blogs out like this by looking at the definition of the word.

I’ve noticed since the twins were born that I haven’t been able to adjust or recover well from stressful situations. My stress response has been difficult to manage and I’ve found myself battling depression. I want to turn things around for myself before it gets worse. I want to consciously work on building my physical and emotional resilience through monthly challenges.

So every month this year I’m going to focus on one thing. The frequency might be daily, a few times a week, or weekly each month.

My 2023 Monthly Resilience Challenge

• January – cold water plunges (3 x a week)
• February – Wim Hof breathing (daily)
• March – 10 pull-ups (daily)
• April – 15 mins of daily sun gazing
• May – weekly friendship dates
• June – do 1 thing a week that scares me
• July – reduce phone time by 50%
• August – no TV (for a month)
• September – no sugar (for a month)
• October – daily prayer
• November – daily time in silence
• December – 10 push-ups (daily)

Similar to my self-reliance challenge, I’m trialing a new platform to document both challenges over on substack. There will be free and paid content if you’d like to read more about this year’s challenge you can subscribe to the newsletter.

I started a self-reliance challenge for myself in 2022. And I’m continuing it this year!

I really loved learning 1 new skill a month. It was enough to challenge myself but not too overwhelming.

Here’s a recap of what skills I wanted to learn and which ones I was able to tackle. The checkmarks are skills I started tackling and have learned a bit about. I’m obviously not an expert in any single one. The circles are ones that I just didn’t get to this year, or wasn’t successful in (that one is reserved for hunting).

A 2022 Self-Reliance Challenge Recap

So how did last year’s challenge actually go? Well according to the checkmarks, I would say it was a 75% success 🙂 I learned a ton of new skills, ones that I’ll continue to improve upon this year and create space to learn even more new ones in 2023.

Sourdough Bread

I taught myself how to make gluten-free sourdough and have just recently started teaching myself how to make a regular sourdough recipe. I’m still learning how to make a regular sourdough but am proud to have stuck to improving upon this skill all year. It’s a lot to feed two starters a day so I’m hoping I’m more successful in regular sourdough recipes and can go down to one. I’m purchasing 1847 flour that does not include added iron so I’ve been able to eat these sourdough loaves of bread without any issues.

Canning & Ferminting

I have successfully canned pickles, beets, peaches, pumpkin, and “nomato” sauce. I use a water bath canning method and that felt very doable for me. I have also successfully fermented sauerkraut and carrots. I’ll continue expanding my food-preserving knowledge but feel very accomplished in this area in such a short amount of time.

Seed Starting

I successfully started seeds in March & April of last year. I was able to grow onions, cauliflower, pumpkin, cucumbers, watermelon, lettuce, squash, zucchini, leeks, kale, and cabbage. Let’s not discuss how many of them survived in the garden but at least I know I can start plants well! I didn’t end up growing microgreens. I just haven’t been eating enough salads to warrant growing these to add on top of them.

Gardening / Weeding / Composting

I had my husband build me 2 gardens. A long rectangular one and a square one with fencing around to keep our dogs and the squirrels out. We miscalculated the placement of the gardens this year and they just didn’t receive enough sunlight to provide the plants with enough to grow. We’ll keep going next year but move the gardens to a more sunny spot. My husband was saying he’d like to put them on the roof but I’m not keen on hauling buckets of soil up there to move them there. We considered even putting them in the front yard but have to look up by-law regulations first.

In regards to composting, I had wanted to organize a back area of our yard but just never got to it so I’m adding it to the list for this year.

Foraging

I took a really great workshop last year on foraging and identifying edible plants. With new book resources in my possession, I’m excited to continue learning in this area.

Volunteer on a Farm

I actually managed to do this earlier in the year while I was between jobs. I volunteered on a farm called Alpenblick Farm. My job was to move cow feed from the shed to the barn, make the feed buckets for the cows, feed the sheep hay, and muck sheep, goats, or cow pens. I learned a lot while I was there. I loved getting to know the owners and asking lots of questions. I was only there for a few short months but am grateful for the experience.

Homeschooling

While our twins are not school-age, I wanted to create an environment for them to start learning. And at 2 years old it’s super simple with reading, learning the alphabet, numbers, and crafts with their hands. I bought them a few key things that they use with us or their nanny. I also simply created a schedule for crafts so they are doing something different every single day.

• Monday – Playdough
• Tuesday – Messless Painting
• Wednesday – Painting
• Thursday – Colouring
• Friday – Construction Paper Glueing

Seed Saving

I managed to dry and save seeds from cucumbers I grew and from squash I bought from a local organic vegetable farmer.

Knitting

I ordered two kits from We Are Knitters. In December I managed to knit half a blanket. I’ve got a pair of mittens that I’ll try next. Knitting is so calming and such a perfect stress-reduction tool. I’m putting it on the list again this year but specifying that I’ll learn how to knit a hat.

My 2023 Self-Reliance Challenge

So I’ll take the skills I didn’t learn in 2022 and tackle them in 2023.

I’m trialing a new platform to document my self-reliance challenge over on substack. There will be free and paid content if you’d like to read more about this year’s challenge you can subscribe to that newsletter.