Thanks for writing this, Jezebel, and being on the road to becoming more self-sufficient. I agree with you completely that we have to rethink our way of being.

One thing that might practically help you is this free (donation-based) course in permaculture. It’ll you many answers on how the natural world does things and how we could re-design our lives by handling things like water, food, etc in line with nature.

And Heather Jo Flores is a great source of information in your country on this subject…