All good advice and pointers. Thanks for that. Easy options, and tips for substitutions or when caught in a pinch is welcome information for anyone in any circumstances. We pampered Americans have lost touch with the wisdom of our elders, who knew survival skills we've never needed. Instead we've grown up, beguiled by ease and convenience. I really appreciate voices like yours. These times hint of things to come that may require skills and knowledge we all would do well to know.
If one doesn't have a big spread for hooved livestock, and not restricted too much by HOA, chickens are pretty easy to raise, and so are rabbits. Rabbit manure has the additional benefit of not needing to age before you use it for fertilizer. The big benefit of rabbits is they don't make noise, and only the urine smells, not the poop. One buck and 3 healthy does should be enough to produce about 500# of lean meat per year. Gestation for does is 31 days exactly, and the offspring are ready for butchering at 4 - 5 months (longer for bigger breeds).
You mentioned getting hard cover how-to books for the most important skills you will need. It would be great if you came up with recommendations for a basic starter set. Thanks for all the effort you put into this.
Honestly, I made copies of books from the library or printed recipes, instructions, etc from family and friends. My husband had the books on solar, but most of them are for systems tied to the grid and being off grid doesn't work exactly the same. But... I will do my best compile a list of books and links to share. Thank you for the suggestion!
A helpful set of books are "Storey's Guide to X" - raising chickens, rabbits, goats, etc. For Square Foot Gardening, no better source than "Square Foot Gardening" by Mel Bartholomew.
In any SHTF scenario, its clearly good to prepare for basic needs. However, there will be large amounts of people who are not prepared. Many old people will need help. People in the area may be doing desperate things. We should include skills on how to lead and guide people who are at their wits end. How to get people calmed down and productive. Let's look at getting our communities ready. If we get to know our farmer, we can be sure that farmer will be overwhelmed. And honestly if there is no food in the stores or electricity, people will be dying.
We have a small sheep farm and plenty of chickens for eggs. After many fails at growing a decent vegetable garden in our sandy "soil" and small raised beds not doing great, I finally designed a large, raised bed and made soil from water-damaged round hay bales and sheep/horse poop. It looked like a tropical rain forest last year. We have friends and family we keep supplied now with free-range eggs, and if SHTF, the reality is hungry people will panic and the food supply will have to be protected, so dogs to protect the sheep and bullets to protect the hens and garden. We cannot supply everyone, but I've been able to encourage and help a few in the suburbs get started with backyard hens. I believe a few hens and tearing up a section of mini-golf course (AKA a suburban lawn) and creating a vegetable garden is critical for the future and preventing rioting and killing over food. But I fear we've been living with great supply chains and grocery stores for so long, where food magically appears, we cannot avoid a mass of hungry and panicked people. Fortunately, laws have changed in many urban and suburban areas to allow homeowners to raise some hens and/or tear up lawn grass for a veggie garden.
Good article. Thank you for posting. Came here via Holly Mathnerd.
Keep in mind the rules of 3’s: 3 minutes without air. 3 hours without shelter. 3 days without water and three weeks without food.
Priorities should be shelter, water and food. If you can’t stay where you are, make arrangements to stay with friends and stage supplies in advance.
If you have a well, unless you make a mechanical provision to extract water, like a simple pump, you are going to need electricity to get water out of it. Which means a generator / stored fuel or batteries / inverter and enough solar to recharge the batteries. Many well pumps are 220v. Basic 120v inverters won’t power a deep well 230v pump. Buy a bigger inverter than you think you need - at least 2.5X the size of the running current of the pump.
Whatever your plan is, make sure you practice it and eat from it.
You pictured a single burner butane camp stove above for those in apartments or without other means to cook with wood. That stove and a case of 12 butane cartridges takes up a little over a square foot. Lots of heat in butane. Reasonably light too.
Buy in bulk. Buy staples. Buy seasonings you enjoy (buy lots). Buy food you like to eat, not just survival food.
Build a community of like-minded around you. Find others to share and learn from/with.
Good information but...I did much of this back in the '70's because I thought the sh!t was going to HTF then. I built an off grid cabin, had chickens and goats (for milk) and a garden. Homesteading is a hard full time job with little income. Eventually since SHTF didn't happen, reality forced me to get a job. I still have a small garden and a few chickens but now I don't live off the grid and at age 77 still have to work to make ends meet.
All good advice and pointers. Thanks for that. Easy options, and tips for substitutions or when caught in a pinch is welcome information for anyone in any circumstances. We pampered Americans have lost touch with the wisdom of our elders, who knew survival skills we've never needed. Instead we've grown up, beguiled by ease and convenience. I really appreciate voices like yours. These times hint of things to come that may require skills and knowledge we all would do well to know.
Thank you so much for this. I am SO GLAD you are here on Substack and sharing this information.
If one doesn't have a big spread for hooved livestock, and not restricted too much by HOA, chickens are pretty easy to raise, and so are rabbits. Rabbit manure has the additional benefit of not needing to age before you use it for fertilizer. The big benefit of rabbits is they don't make noise, and only the urine smells, not the poop. One buck and 3 healthy does should be enough to produce about 500# of lean meat per year. Gestation for does is 31 days exactly, and the offspring are ready for butchering at 4 - 5 months (longer for bigger breeds).
You mentioned getting hard cover how-to books for the most important skills you will need. It would be great if you came up with recommendations for a basic starter set. Thanks for all the effort you put into this.
Honestly, I made copies of books from the library or printed recipes, instructions, etc from family and friends. My husband had the books on solar, but most of them are for systems tied to the grid and being off grid doesn't work exactly the same. But... I will do my best compile a list of books and links to share. Thank you for the suggestion!
A helpful set of books are "Storey's Guide to X" - raising chickens, rabbits, goats, etc. For Square Foot Gardening, no better source than "Square Foot Gardening" by Mel Bartholomew.
In any SHTF scenario, its clearly good to prepare for basic needs. However, there will be large amounts of people who are not prepared. Many old people will need help. People in the area may be doing desperate things. We should include skills on how to lead and guide people who are at their wits end. How to get people calmed down and productive. Let's look at getting our communities ready. If we get to know our farmer, we can be sure that farmer will be overwhelmed. And honestly if there is no food in the stores or electricity, people will be dying.
We have a small sheep farm and plenty of chickens for eggs. After many fails at growing a decent vegetable garden in our sandy "soil" and small raised beds not doing great, I finally designed a large, raised bed and made soil from water-damaged round hay bales and sheep/horse poop. It looked like a tropical rain forest last year. We have friends and family we keep supplied now with free-range eggs, and if SHTF, the reality is hungry people will panic and the food supply will have to be protected, so dogs to protect the sheep and bullets to protect the hens and garden. We cannot supply everyone, but I've been able to encourage and help a few in the suburbs get started with backyard hens. I believe a few hens and tearing up a section of mini-golf course (AKA a suburban lawn) and creating a vegetable garden is critical for the future and preventing rioting and killing over food. But I fear we've been living with great supply chains and grocery stores for so long, where food magically appears, we cannot avoid a mass of hungry and panicked people. Fortunately, laws have changed in many urban and suburban areas to allow homeowners to raise some hens and/or tear up lawn grass for a veggie garden.
Good article. Thank you for posting. Came here via Holly Mathnerd.
Keep in mind the rules of 3’s: 3 minutes without air. 3 hours without shelter. 3 days without water and three weeks without food.
Priorities should be shelter, water and food. If you can’t stay where you are, make arrangements to stay with friends and stage supplies in advance.
If you have a well, unless you make a mechanical provision to extract water, like a simple pump, you are going to need electricity to get water out of it. Which means a generator / stored fuel or batteries / inverter and enough solar to recharge the batteries. Many well pumps are 220v. Basic 120v inverters won’t power a deep well 230v pump. Buy a bigger inverter than you think you need - at least 2.5X the size of the running current of the pump.
Whatever your plan is, make sure you practice it and eat from it.
You pictured a single burner butane camp stove above for those in apartments or without other means to cook with wood. That stove and a case of 12 butane cartridges takes up a little over a square foot. Lots of heat in butane. Reasonably light too.
Buy in bulk. Buy staples. Buy seasonings you enjoy (buy lots). Buy food you like to eat, not just survival food.
Build a community of like-minded around you. Find others to share and learn from/with.
Good information but...I did much of this back in the '70's because I thought the sh!t was going to HTF then. I built an off grid cabin, had chickens and goats (for milk) and a garden. Homesteading is a hard full time job with little income. Eventually since SHTF didn't happen, reality forced me to get a job. I still have a small garden and a few chickens but now I don't live off the grid and at age 77 still have to work to make ends meet.
The disconnect is definitely real! Ditto on the happier and healthier part :)