Category: Self-Sufficiency

Seventy-Five Ways To Save Money For Prepping, by E.S.

There seems to be a significant uptick in the number of people who are concerned about preparing for unforeseen circumstances. Have you been studying on the necessity of prepping, but you wonder how you can afford it? Do you read article after article that outlines someone else’s backup plan, the backup to the backup plan, as well as plans A, B, and C on any number of topics? Are you concerned about inflation and food prices but can barely afford to feed and clothe your children? So am I. Flash back to 2012, when Hurricane Sandy made landfall on the …


Letter Re: Getting A Real Education

HJL, No disputes on the article from me. It points out that the “college education” and the attendant debt only assures more debt and dubious occupation opportunities. I made the error of having a career. When the economy went down the tubes and I was out of work, I did the degree thing. I was left with debt. Essentially no job opportunities were there. The economy was still failing. Because I had experience and an education, I was told I was “overqualified”. Say what? Reentry in the job market was at minimum wage, in a job normally filled by a …


Product Review: Harvest Right Freeze Dryer, by HJL – Part 3

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Note from the Manufacture Harvest Right has been very responsive to their customers feedback and, in fact, responded to the first two parts of this article with the following letter: Thank you for using the freeze dryer, and thank you for your article. Because of your thoughts, we have made the following modifications to our unit: We have changed the riveting of the tray holder assembly. It is now quite stable. We extended the length of the drain tube. We are also using shrink-wrapped solder connections instead of electrical tape. It is much faster and looks better. (We don’t know …


Two Letters Re: Harvest Right Freeze Dryer

Hugh, Thanks for the review of the freeze dryer, I’m very interested. Just wanted to share that the first thing I thought when reading your review and clicking on their pictures is “that display is going to go bad”! And it did. Gotta worry about $4K and something major (and predictable) goes like that, with only a 1 yr warranty. – M.R. HJL Replies: I was initially worried about that, too, but the company was very responsive in taking care of the issue. While I did the repair myself, they offered to have a local appliance repairman do the work. …


Getting A Real Education– Why Becoming Self-Sufficient Is Better Than Going To College, by D.T.

Everywhere you turn experts are predicting that the world is heading into some very troubling times. At every level, they say we are heading into a period of history that will see major upheavals in economics, politics, education, food production, housing, jobs, and basically everything. These major changes will effect everyone on earth. That is why so many people are trying to prepare for these changes before they happen in full force, and most experts agree the best way to prepare to meet the challenges of living in this kind of future is to have a skills-based education rather than …


Livestock Breeding Strategies For When SHTF – Part 2, by S.W.

The goat is called the poor man’s cow. They are inexpensive, easy to handle, and eat a wide variety of vegetation. They are basically browsers, meaning they eat leaves and stems from shrubs and trees. They are the most efficient animal to convert browse to lean meat. When commercial feeds become unavailable, they would be the most likely survivors. They are also easily trained as pack and cart animals, able to pack 20 to 40% of their weight and pull five times that. They can negotiate more difficult terrain than any other pack animal and continue with only the water …


Seven Years of Preparation, by CHG (Chicken Hating Grandma)

We work best when we have a deadline, so our preparation began in October 2008 with hopes of reaching our goal in seven years. Our son, who is a university professor, became convinced that we had seven years to “prepare”; we were not sure of exactly what we were to prepare for though. (We thought perhaps he had changed his name to Joseph, since the Biblical Joseph had seven years to prepare before the seven years of famine.) We decided to join him, because it couldn’t hurt to be ready for any calamity. Our half-hearted efforts took on urgency after …


Letter Re: Generators And Their Proper Implementation During TEOTWAWKI/Disasters

Excellent article about generator usage. I might mention that when using a portable generator there is a better option than running an extension cord to an outlet and then cutting off the main breaker. You can buy a manual transfer switch that will allow you to wire selected circuits in your breaker panel through the transfer switch. After plugging up and starting the generator, you flip breakers on the transfer switch. This transfers the selected circuits to the generator output and isolates them from the main incoming power. These switches are readily available at almost any home improvement store or …


Generators And Their Proper Implementation During TEOTWAWKI/Disasters, by RKM

I want to share useful generator information so that serious and possibly dangerous pitfalls can be avoided and tactical efficiencies can be realized. Outside Only: First, there is an important warning– generators MUST be run and exhausted OUTSIDE! Carbon monoxide can and will kill you with no warning. Carbon monoxide has no smell or taste. Of course there are things you can do to run one inside, but that involves technical issues not covered here. Be careful and plan accordingly! Our emergency implementation: On August 23rd of 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck Southeastern Louisiana and Mississippi. Fortunately, I was living in …


Product Review: Harvest Right Freeze Dryer, by HJL – Part 2

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Why It Works I spent quite a bit of time, over the last three years, researching how freeze drying is accomplished. I wanted to know why and how it worked and ultimately, if I could do it at home. Earlier, I alluded to some pretty bad information I had run across, and I think a short primer of what makes freeze drying successful is in order, so that the user can understand just how useful this appliance actually is. It is well understood by any high school student who has taken a physics or physical science course that there are …


Product Review: Harvest Right Freeze Dryer – Part 1, by HJL

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I have to admit, I was excited when I was first contacted by Harvest Right. A freeze dryer in my own home? What a thought! This has been a dream of my family for a number of years. I have even played around with the idea of creating my own freeze dryer several times, but in the end, the work involved and the daily grind always won out. The Dream Our food preps have always had issues, with the solutions seeming just out of reach. When we first started, the preps simply meant two things– remodeling the pantry to hold …


Letter: Mastitis

HJL, Mastitis nearly killed me. In a more primitive country, I could have been another maternal death statistic. Mastitis is just one path of infection and death for new mothers. Mastitis cannot be downplayed. Nor can the value of breast feeding “support” be over estimated. While my response to the excellent and informative article by Dr. Goscienski is intensely personal and private, perhaps in the future it may save a baby or mother’s life. I come from a comfortable family, in the socio-economic sense. It would not be correct to just say we are advocates of breast feeding. Simply, everyone …


Letter Re: Multi-Purpose Power Solution

HJL, Liquid fuels are expensive, heavy, dangerous to transport, and a short-term solution to a long-term problem. Even if you have enough stored for a year, what then? Direct conversion of biomass to fuel for gensets has been proven successful for thirty plus years now. I have operated a design for powering small gensets that works as well today as it did in the early 80’s. It’s also driven a few thousand miles on a truck that runs on nature’s finest. Due to space and weight limitations not present in stationary applications, refining wood into gas on board a vehicle …


Trades for Surviving After the Collapse, by A.W.

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You have been preparing for the unknown– economic collapse, social unrest, nuclear war, or even just a downsize at work– for quite awhile now. Perhaps you are feeling confident in your ability to survive a catastrophic event by putting to use your survival know-how and stores of food. You even learned valuable gardening skills that will ensure your long-term survival. Now, imagine what life will be like after the collapse for which you have diligently prepared. You will be surviving, but will you be thriving? You will be eating, but will you be contributing to the rebuilding of your region …


Guest Article: A Recent Experience On An Ultra-Low Calorie Diet, by BadIdeaGuy

Caloric intake, in a post-SHTF, has been mentioned before, but I wanted to share a recent experience with a low-calorie disaster and what its implications are for challenging times that lie ahead. After some health concerns, my doctor asked if I’d like to try their physician-overseen weight loss program. I’m a 38 year old man, who is busy raising a family and performing in a career. I eat what I can when I can. The long workdays following by parental responsibilities have cut into my workout time, which results in my being fatigued, and have resulted in some poor dietary …