Category: Self-Sufficiency

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 …


A Retreat for Aging Preppers, by Barbara H.

Addressing the problems facing aging preppers. Start early! Our initial problem was two-fold: Finding sustainable land while still trapped until I was retirement-eligible. Two years before retirement, we began our search for viable land approximately 100 miles from any major city. Our initial search was for about 20 acres, a nearby small town, and off of well-traveled roads. The land had to have a water source with a full-year-running creek. Remember moving to an unknown rural community places you at a disadvantage of finding appropriate skilled help and unscrupulous persons who will overcharge you based on your lack of knowledge. …


Bank Failures are Driving What I’m Doing, by Sara Sue

I’ve been trying to figure out what The Powers That Be (TPTB) are up to and how it’s going to affect me. I can only speak of my own strategy for the coming deep recession and/or depression. I can’t solve the big picture crisis. I can only attend to my own farm and family. My primary goals have been to grow food as if our lives depend upon it, and to get as far away as possible from any big city without being so remote I can’t get help. Additionally, since I rely on banking, a year or so ago …


Foraging for Fun & Survival – Part 2, by Hobbit Farmer

(Continued from Part 1.) Foraging Best Practices 1.) Make sure you are collecting in a legal manner. Many state forests or public lands allow foraging for personal use (not for profit/resale) and as long as the plant is not endangered/protected. It is your responsibility to find out those details. 2.) Ask for permission on private land just like you would if you were hunting. Be responsible, be reasonable, be considerate, and be ready for people to think you are a weirdo. When possible share a taste of your harvest. People will more readily understand why you are foraging if they …


Long-Term Survival Poultry, by J.S.

A few years ago, we moved out of the suburbs and onto a farm/homestead with plans to start raising every farm animal imaginable. Lots of friends and family thought we were crazy, but we had spent years researching animal husbandry and couldn’t wait to put our book knowledge to work. We moved in around Christmas and by mid-January we had baby chicks in the brooder and some donated hatching eggs in an incubator. While our farm is not our main source of income, we do run it like a business and each spring we raise a few hundred pullets (young …


It Is Chick Season!, by Hollyberry

I open the mailbox and oh… there it is! Nothing perks me up from the winter blues more than getting the McMurray Hatchery chick catalog or a garden/seed catalog. I spend hours pouring through the pages of the catalogs and planning and plotting where I can add more chickens or growing space! I really don’t need any more birds in my flock but that will not deter me from adding at least 4-5 more this season out of our incubator. The first time I purchased chicks I ordered 50 meat birds and 50 Leghorn layers figuring I would kill at …


Some Stark Realities of the 2020s are Pushing Us Off-Grid

There are a number of societal changes that have accelerated our plans to fully go off the grid. The day may soon come when we decide to lock our gate at the county road, and hunker down. Our only regular contact would then be with our contiguous neighbors. For many years, I thought that the only circumstance that might necessitate such a move would be a societal collapse. But now, I have many other concerns. The most prominent motivators for taking on the mode of self-isolation include: Currency inflation The surveillance state Increasing regulation Forced vaccination schemes Supply chain disruption …


Beginning Bees on a Budget, by St. Funogas

“Bees do have a smell, you know, and if they don’t they should, for their feet are dusted with the spices of a million flowers.” Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine It’s January and getting close to time to get your bees ordered for anyone wanting to try their hand at beekeeping this year. Most bee suppliers have begun taking orders for bees and they typically sell out by late March so now is the time to start looking more seriously into whether or not you want to want to give beekeeping a shot. Many people want to get into beekeeping until …


Lessons Learned From a Winter Storm – Part 2, by Michael X.

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) Generators: TWO is NONE In all this time my second biggest concern, after the generator, was our outside hot tub. When the power is out it becomes a liability. 250 fifty gallons of hot (warm but cooling) water, waiting to freeze and wreck the tub…. The hot tub water temp was down to 74 degrees after one night. My choices were to get the generator going, or drain the tub. Part of the equation for this decision was the availability of the hot tub’s water for toilet flushing. I had only hours …


Lessons Learned From a Winter Storm – Part 1, by Michael X.

I have often bugged my wife to let us try a “long weekend without power”. I wanted to test my preps, byt so far she has not taken me up on my offer. However, recently Fate stepped in and gave me what I wanted. I am writing this to document my experience and my analysis of what I need to do to further my readiness. I have been interested in Prepping for many years. My early introduction to prepping was on this website, and by reading the Patriots novel series by James Wesley, Rawles. Many, many books followed that rounded …


Are You Self-Reliant, Self-Sufficent, or Self-Sustaining?, by Mrs. Alaska

One of our goals each year is to decrease our dependency on others by increasing our skills and resources. In the city, it was convenient to pay for services and products. Living remotely, we learn to do many things ourselves or do without. I evaluate aspects of our life on a continuum from dependent to independent: Dependent on others Self-reliant Self-sufficient Self-sustaining Given recent news reports of coronavirus and the economy, tornadoes, wildfires, and power outages, perhaps readers are applying this sort of rubric to their situations, too.


Preparedness Regrets and Priorities, by N.C.

We all have our own ideas of how much risk we’re running and what type of disaster seems the most likely threat. Your answer to that will depend largely on where you are. Doubtless, my focus would certainly be different if I lived in Germany and it would be different if I lived in Ukraine or in New Zealand. Since I live in the United States the one that has cost me more than a little sleep is the prospect of a civil war in the US. It used to be that this was an extreme subject, raised only rarely …