Here are some fascinating country-living related books from Project Gutenberg. Some may be a little dated, given recent technological developments though… Livestock feeder’s manual The Making of a Country Parish A Woman’s Wartime Journal (circa U.S. Civil War) Home pork-making Dry-Farming Electricity for the Farm Everyday foods in wartime (WWI) On Horsemanship (Xenophon!) Regards, – Jonathan W.
Dear Jim, Feral dogs and coyotes aren’t a problem over here [in England], but urban foxes certainly are. Here is a recent news headline: Baby twins savaged by fox treated for ‘life-changing injuries’ in separate hospitals All the fox-loving ‘experts’ say that this is an isolated incident, but the reader comments suggest otherwise. I’m not sure how these guys get to be called experts, one on the radio insisted that foxes don’t kill chickens for fun, either. I’ve never had it happen to my chickens (I’m more wily than the local foxes) but I’ve seen the result of a fox …
The problem of feral dogs after TSHTF will be a real one. In my part of the country we have a problem with people dumping unwanted dogs. They were cute when they were pups but outgrew the family. Some people would take them to the pound, but with it’s over population and short ‘stay’ led a lot of people think that they were doing the dogs and cats a favor by letting them loose to fend for themselves. This is animal cruelty any way you look at it. There have been several cases where a feral dog joined up with …
I’ve spent the better part of the last decade in service to our nation. First as a Marine in Iraq and the last three years in Afghanistan as a civilian “security” contractor. And I’ve spent more of the last three years in a very rural valley in north-eastern Afghanistan than at home. In the last year with the birth of our first child, and the destruction of the ideals our country was founded on I found myself thinking more and more about the state of affairs in the world today and began to prepare for TEOTWAWKI. Starting as many beginner …
If you have some land for livestock, then give thought to raising animals that will need as little care as possible, and are survivalists themselves. In a TEOTWAWKI situation, you want animals that will need little if any veterinarian care that you cannot provide, that can live and flourish on almost any kind of vegetable matter for food, and will give you multiple benefits for having them around. Our sheep have cleaned the bark off of Juniper trees as well as ate the berries and leaves. They also like the leaves of yucca and have turned some into very small …
JWR: Regarding livestock, I recommend long horned cattle. During the U.S. Civil War, cattle in Texas were left to fend for themselves. By the time the men came home from the end of the war there were over one million wild cattle taking care of business on their own. Many of these cattle were rounded up the next few years, making for the cattle drives north to Kansas and Missouri. If cattle are left feral and have access to water, they are pretty successful in foraging on their own. There is no comparison in maintaining cattle and goats, or sheep. …
Jim, The recent submission by K. in Florida left me scratching my head in disbelief. I don’t know if his wife thinks shaving her legs after TEOTWAWKI will be important, but I absolutely don’t intend to shave mine. Nor do I think spare car parts will be important. Folks are thinking in terms of Pre-TEOTWAWKI rather than Post-TEOTWAWKI. This way of thinking is just plain wrong, IMHO. Let’s face it, we can only imagine how things will be. We don’t know how things will be. But I seriously doubt that anybody will be needing replacement parts for his car — …
I just found your blog and want to thank you and all the like minded individuals who post to it. I have never thought of myself as a “survivor” or as most on here seem to prefer, “prepper”. I just always thought of myself as a collector of knowledge much to my wife’s annoyance. I can’t help it, I just like to learn different things. For one of the most recent “hobbies” I’ve been researching and learning about Quality Deer Management (QDM). I don’t know if this has been brought up before now, I’m still going through the archives, but …
Christine W. wrote a very nice article about raising rabbits for meat. As a rabbit raiser myself, I’d like to add a few suggestions: I have never had problems using straw in nest boxes, but prefer to use hay, or better yet, long dry grass. The does like to arrange their nests, and they get a good snack as well. You can add more bedding material if a doe gets piggy and eats all the bedding. I used to raise fryers commercially, and rigged up a great way to stack cages but eliminate the expensive trays that are time consuming …
Food production is the most important skill in survival. Without sufficient food you’re sunk. You won’t have the energy to protect yourself or your supplies, you won’t be able to get firewood to keep warm, or water to stay hydrated. So yes, you can live for weeks without food, but only if other people are there to take care of you and they have enough food! And meat is one of the best energy foods. Unfortunately most meat production is a high feed/time endeavor. It takes a lot of feed and time to get that cow to butcher size. Two …
James, I just read [Chet’s article in] the blog on urban and suburban gardening. I wanted to suggest something because I’ve been seeing people want to be more self sufficient by growing their own gardens. I don’t want to come off as a salesman for these two products made by the same person. I’m not someone that sells these items. But to give credit where credit is due, I’m impressed with buying both of these items. I picked up a DVD from Linda Runyon about a year ago, and bought her “Wild Cards” card set for identifying wild plants. The …
Today there seems to be any number of reasons for the average American to turn the corner towards preparedness and being self-reliant. Back in 1993, I would have been able to give you just as many reasons based on my observations through the 1980s. Not surprisingly there are twice as many reasons for the average man to not start around that corner. The reasons I have heard the most include the cost factor and objections to living so primitively. Simply put: today’s average American is too poor and soft to endure hardships like camping, physical labor, and no TV. These …
I always assumed that I would relax when I retired from my life’s vocation. I have now retired from working; however, there is no relaxation. As I absorb the news of the day my other life long avocation, family survival preparedness, continues to plague my mind. The current probability of a societal collapse looms ever closer. I am sure everyone concerned about their family’s safety understands the problems in America . I have been preparing for over 50 years to self sufficient that my family, including children and grand children, would have the ability to survive hard time and hunger. …
I’m fairly new to SurvivalBlog but now it’s an every day read. I wanted to write and share my own journey of preparedness with you and your readers. After living with three and a half million people for about 22 years, a move to the country was long over due. I made the decision to get out of the city back in 1999, when I starting to take things a bit more seriously with all of the talk about Y2K. I was really hoping that something would have happened back then so I could test my skills at being prepared …
Sir: Deer, rabbits, and squirrels are a real problem where we live in western Canada. The deer and rabbits love our fruit trees and the squirrels have a penchant for strawberries. (Yes, up here we can grow many varieties of apples, plums, cherries, pears and even certain varieties of kiwi, peach, grape, etc.) When we first moved to our farm we had several of our trees seriously damaged by deer and rabbits–not just fruit trees but trees in our shelter belt as well. The rabbits were the worst because they stripped the bark (several inches high) all the way around …