We both started in our youth, at about age 10, to garden and take care of animals. We have a large family and were able to supplement our food needs by growing, storing, and preserving large quantities of home-grown food. We also have had a 400-tree organic Granny Smith orchard, a 400-tree kumquat orchard, a 120-tree sweet cherry orchard, a 50-tree apple orchard, and a 50-tree permaculture orchard. Additionally, we have had the following trees: apples, apricots, plums, all kinds of citrus trees, peaches, pears, almonds, avocados, and more plums. We have also bred dogs and are now raising chickens, turkeys, pigs, and goats for meat and milk. We have been living a self-reliant lifestyle for over 50 years. We have been stake emergency preparedness specialists and served as missionaries for 24 months in the Africa Southeast Area as employment and welfare missionaries, and we also had the opportunity to teach members how to become more self-reliant.