Category: Self-Sufficiency

Update: A Worthy Charity in Thailand

An Update: For several years, I have been supporting and recommending a Christian mission school and orphanage in northern Thailand. One of our good friends has volunteered to work onsite there several times in the past three years, so I can vouchsafe that this is a worthy charity with genuine needs.  The orphanage/school Center is called Baan SuFan. (That is Thai for: “Home Of Destiny.”) The school and dormitories are located near Chiang Rai, Thailand, which is fairly near Thailand’s borders with Burma and Laos. This is commonly called The Golden Triangle region. The majority of the Baan SuFan students …


An Elderly Prepper Moves On, by L.T.

My husband and I started following the writings of Jim Rawles many years ago and his advice helped us find our ideal location in the Missouri Ozarks. Then, unexpectedly, my husband passed away and now Jonathan Rawles’ SurvivalRealty website is helping me sell my homestead. The tapestry of life. My husband and I loved the challenge of creating a sustainable lifestyle, a productive homestead, and learning the rural life.  We took a piece of rather rough land and created a beautiful place. Not finished when he passed, but I’m not sure it would ever be finished, that was the enjoyable …


A Water System Adventure – Part 2, by E.R.

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) I used 30 amp Anderson Power Pole connectors with 12 AWG (American Wire Gauge) stranded ‘zip cord’ for the connections. I did this so that replacing any potentially failed components would be quick and easy. Do however note that 12 AWG wire, while versatile, is considered slightly large for a pump that might use only 8 amps, intermittently. The inlet of the Shurflo RV pump was connected from the outlet of the storage tote using a fitting which adapted the IBC outlet to a garden hose thread. The outlet of the RV …


A Water System Adventure – Part 1, by E.R.

Many folks might take water for granted as being a mundane issue, although readers of this blog might be the exception. No matter, please read on. Our adventure began when the municipality decided that they no longer wanted us as a customer. “To really know something, one must go directly to people with immediate experience of the situation. You can’t really know by talking with someone who has only read about it.” – “The Great Taking”, by David Rogers Webb, p xxi. I am not a professional writer. Instead, I am a strong-minded individualist who insisted on paying my own …


Encouraging Plant Pollinators, by Steve R.

Editor’s Introductory Note:  Over the years, we’ve published several articles on beekeping in SurvivalBlog. But this is our first fundamental article on pollinators.  If you want to have abundant crops, then you should encourage pollinators, locally! – JWR We are getting help with crops, fruits, nuts, and vegetables from little flying, crawling things you probably know little about. They are animal pollinators of plants. A book about pollinators has a first sentence of the first chapter that says it is impossible to overstate the service they provide to plants. You can do a lot to help pollinators, no matter where …


Useful Christmas Gifts, by Hollyberry

It is that time of the year again and what do you get the homesteader/prepper who has everything? I love giving gifts and I try to give gifts that are mainly useful or serve a purpose. Of course, I add some extra nonfunctional items, like houseplants or decorative doodads, for close family and friends and I like to think outside the box. Even if someone is not necessarily a prepper or homesteader you can always give something that can be useful. I am just throwing out some ideas of gifts that I have received and given that were big hits! …


12 Basic Actions To Make It Through The First 12 Weeks of TEOTWAWKI – Part 1, by Michael X.

Is TEOTWAWKI imminent? I do not know. But things are slipping toward it happening soon. Will it be a violent, giant crash, like one involving many cars on the turnpike, or will it be a quiet breakdown along the side of a deserted country road? For myself, at this point, I am not thinking it will be a catastrophic, instantaneous crash caused by nuclear war, an EMP, asteroids, or alien invasion. More likely, I think it could be a slow slide that will catch people off guard until it is finally too late to get the basics in place. This …


My Experience with a Bluetti AC180 – Part 2, by Rick S.

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) THE BLUETTI 180P This brings us to a real-world solution: the Bluetti AC180. This is a charge controller/battery bank/inverter in a single, elegant package. The heart of the AC180 is a bank of Lithium Iron batteries with an advertised life of 3,500 charge/discharge cycles and is warranted for five years. Integrated into the package is a charge controller capable of charging from a number of sources: 120 VAC house supply, car charger, or solar panels. It then is capable of supplying that stored power in a number of ways: various USB connections, …


The Time It Takes, by SwampFox

I work as a truck driver. That means I spend a lot of long, boring hours driving from state to state. I have a regular route, covering the same roads each day. On good days, not much happens that is new or exciting, and to pay attention to my job I need a bit of entertainment in the background. So I listen to a lot of audiobooks. A handful of these have been survivalist fiction or preparedness-oriented. I have discovered that many authors and readers may possess some unrealistic ideas about what a prepared life looks like, or what life …


Could You Live Off Your Land, Right Now?, by SaraSue

As world events, both nationally and internationally, explode in violence, deep debt, instability, and uncertainty, I ask myself have I done enough?  Am I far enough away from the violence?  Do I have systems in place that will hold me and my family in good stead for years to come?  It’s complicated, and a heavy burden, to detach from the culture, from the world systems, and to create a self-sufficient lifestyle.  It is also freeing.  There’s so much detail to each aspect that it’s no wonder people throw up their hands and say it’s impossible.  I think it’s possible to …


The American Redoubt: America’s Empty Quarter

A major part of my consulting work revolves around relocation and retreat property selection, for my clients. When I have conversations with clients from the eastern United States, they often have difficulty grasping just how empty The American Redoubt is. Their view of “The West” is often skewed by the teeming masses of California that they see on television. I’d like to quantify, describe, and anecdotally illustrate the American Redoubt in this brief article.  As our friend Joerg Sprave would say: “Let me tell you about its features.” Vast and Lightly-Populated First, let’s discuss basic geography. The American Redoubt consists …


Third World Living: Austerity Lessons, by T.S.

When I was a younger and more idealistic man, I had the opportunity to spend a year “nation building” in a Third World country. Although I now think those aid dollars would have been better spent at home, I did learn some lessons that could help in a dire situation. After all, there’s no better teacher to prepare you for SHTF than people who have been living in austere off-grid conditions for their entire lives. After some reflection, I organized the lessons I learned into four major categories: Power, Communications, Climate Control, and Food. Power None of the villages in …


A Recent Power Outage Experience – Part 1, by Big D.

INTRODUCTION I am writing this within a few days after a power outage on June 18, 2023, so that I will remember the details. I am a 74-year-old and somewhat handicapped grandpa who lives alone in the country. I still get around okay but a lot of physical effort wears me out rather quickly. Sometimes I think that I still have the physical capabilities of the athlete that I was as a younger man. Mentally, yes. Physically, not so much! I was awakened just after midnight on Sunday morning by the sounds of a storm with very high winds buffeting …


Cows and Chickens and Goats, Oh My!, by Elli O.

In this article, I compare different livestock – Start-up costs, Continuation costs, Profits, and Contradictions. I was not raised on a farm but when we purchased 20 acres I knew that we needed to put the land to good use. Thankfully, I have a husband who is almost as adventurous as I am so we jumped into the farm and homesteading life with both feet. God was gracious and we landed well- not very gracefully but we are surviving and even thriving in most areas! This article will compare the different animals that we have tried to raise on our …


Practical PV Power, by Graton

Even though I have been dabbling in solar power since about 2008 I hesitated to share my experiences because I felt totally incompetent about the subject. I still feel that way in large part, even though my “knowledge” has increased dramatically. One of my first projects was setting up a solar-powered well for a friend’s cattle where obtaining grid power would have been financially prohibitive. The equipment included a Grundfos 11 SQ-Flex 2 pump, 6 solar panels, Midnite Solar 60 charge controller, golf cart 48-volt battery bank, etc. You may have noticed that there is no mention of an inverter …