Category: Self-Sufficiency

Traversing the Hinterlands – Part 3, by Iowa Farm Boy

Dangerous Areas It will be extremely difficult to cross this region while avoiding some major cities. For example, Cedar Rapids and Iowa City are very close together. You all know as well as I do what happens when people get desperate. How far away from the cities this will effect the countryside, I don’t know. Cities to avoid specifically are the ones with major prisons, like Fort Madison or Anamosa. There are several prisons or minimum security facilities across the region, and someone coming through Iowa needs to do their research and avoid them, if possible. I have spent the …


Letter Re: Raising Meat Rabbits

HJL, This is just a note to let you know that three years ago, based on information obtained on SurvivalBlog, my daughter stopped using commercial pellets to feed her pedigreed silver fox rabbits. I gave her an article about all the things you can eat from your yard. Two hours later, she had found most of them in our yard and decided to feed her rabbits that way. Since then, she harvests clover, wild strawberry, dandelion, mulberry, sorel, wild violet, and much more from about six yards in the neighborhood that use no chemicals. She supplements in winter with bales …


Raising Meat Rabbits: Mistakes and Successes, by JEE

We currently live on one acre. So finding a protein source that is easy to house, is inexpensive, has a fairly good turn-over rate, and doesn’t require a lot of land, was hard at first. We actually stumbled upon it by accident. We were given two Rex rabbits with a cage shortly after moving into our new house. Three months later, we had babies, lots of them. However, not ever having butchered anything before and not really wanting to, as they were such small animals, we re-homed them. However, it got me thinking and researching. It turns out that there …


Letter: A Problem Today That is Only Going to Get Worse When SHTF

HJL, About ten years ago my wife and I made the decision it was time to get out of the city and move to a more sustainable rural environment. We discovered a place with great climate, reasonable land prices, good neighbors, good job opportunities. You know, it had all the right stuff. We moved and began and continue to put our “prep” plans into effect at our new location. Over the years we have had numerous family members come to visit, and they also have fallen in love with the area. Although they are not involved in any type of …


To Bee, or Not to Bee – Part 2, by Prepared Grammy

Getting Bees You have two options for getting bees; you can buy them or capture them. As a beginner, I would suggest buying bees or have an experienced beekeeper help you to capture a swarm. (I will not go into the process of capturing bees in this article.) If you capture a swarm, you must make sure that you capture the queen too. There are two ways to capture “wild bees”. You can capture a group of bees that are swarming. These are bees that are on the move and looking for a new home. They are relatively easy to …


To Bee, or Not to Bee – Part 1, by Prepared Grammy

About Me When I was a small child, I know I was a bit odd. I loved bees. I played with bees and tried to get them to crawl on my hands. I caught them, put them in a jar, and wanted to keep them as pets. I wanted my own beehives, so I could harvest my own honey. I told you, I was odd. Yes, I was occasionally stung, but my love for bees did not waiver. I never got over the desire to have bees. My husband and I have three grown children, and our third grandchild is …


Letter Re: Illusive Self Sufficiency

Hugh, When I read the letter from RG, I thought, “Did my husband write this?” We have been in the same spot, also at year three of striving for preparedness and self sufficiency. I wrote SB over a year ago; it was the article on Year One at the New Retreat. We have continued our preps and property improvements and are still working very hard. I suspect we will never reach that point where we have thought of everything. Since my husband travels as part of his work, a great deal of the work around the property falls to me. …


Letter Re: A Guide to Assembling an Off-Grid Carpentry Tool Box, by B.F.

Good morning, Hugh, In reference to “A Guide to Assembling an Off-grid Carpentry Tool Box, by B.F.” posted Saturday 5/23, which is an excellent treatise on carpenter’s tools, I’d suggest adding an assortment of mechanic’s tools to the “prep list.” If one peruses estate sales one can often turn up mechanic’s tools– wrenches, screwdrivers, punches, files, pliers, et cetera– in fair to excellent condition at extremely reasonable prices. I never turn down the opportunity to pick up more. Having maintained my own vehicles and performed home repairs for decades I have a good idea what tools are necessary and what …


A Guide to Assembling an Off-Grid Carpentry Tool Box, by B.F.

I pre-ordered JWRs book Tools for Survival last year and have read through it twice now. It is a great guide for anyone preparing for a time when self reliance becomes more of a day to day necessity than it is today. With that in mind, I wanted to add to the body of work by reviewing and commenting on the contents of two different tool kits that I have had a fair amount of experience with. Either one or both will serve well in an off-the-grid world. The first one is the US Army Combat Engineer Carpenter’s Squad Tool …


Orange Coffee Nut Firestarters, by Missouri Maven

One of the favorite things I create over the course of spring, summer, and fall are my Orange Coffee Nut Firestarters for my wood stove. I think my recipe came about because my grandparents instilled their Great Depression mindset of “use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without” into me at an early age. The stories they told me, of using things up until they were used as fuel to survive winter on the prairies of South Dakota, are ones I still tell my grandchildren today. With all their gadgets and technology, it is a little …



Understanding Unconventional Warfare As It Applies to Conservative Families, by Swamp Fox

Worldview Before reading a book, watching a youtube video, or obtaining any form of information from any source, a wise consumer will ask a few questions. What is the worldview of the individual imparting the information? Is the individual, who is imparting that information, qualified to do so? Is this person sufficiently capable of relaying this information through his or her chosen means of communication? It is said that one “cannot judge a book by its cover”. I disagree. As a man who has, from a very young age, frequented used book sales in search of hidden treasures among tattered …


Letter Re: Water issues

Hello, We have a submersible in a four-inch casing/well. Our well is 125 feet deep. I don’t know what the static level is right now. The well casing sticks up out of ground about 18 inches and has the cap on it, where the electrical goes up into the cap next to the casing. There is a pitless adapter. With the four-inch casing and because of the pitless adapter I don’t think there’s room in the pipe for a manual pump. Is there any other way that we could make a hand pump in our existing well? If not, do …


Accommodations for the Dietary Requirements of Infants, by L.C.

Infants have specific nutritive needs that at the present moment may be met in two ways: breast milk and formula. In a collapse or post-collapse scenario, the supply of formula may dry up and no longer be an option. There are several strategies to cope with this as well as breastfeeding supplies that can easily be acquired now. I’m the mother of five kids under the age of six with the youngest being six weeks old, so for the past six years I’ve been pregnant, nursing, or both. I breastfed my first four exclusively, until we started solids between 6-7 …


The Time Has Come, by JTH

Suddenly it hit me. We are DOING IT! After years of dreaming about moving to the Redoubt, planning, plotting, learning new skills, understanding what is important, we are finally doing it. I am scared and excited at the same time. We have two more months of frantic remodeling and updating our home, in order to get top dollar, and then we’ll put the house on the market. After searching for property in Idaho online and with the help of several couples who live in Idaho and a realtor recommendation, it’s time to make a couple of trips out and get …