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HomePosts Tagged "homesteading" (Page 2)

The world we live in continues to get scarier and uglier with each passing day. During any disaster, you want to be as secluded as possible from any looters and punks.

Living on a suburban homestead still places you within the civil unrest danger area because you are located so close to a city but putting your backyard to work for you to increase your level of self-reliance and investing in alternative power, will make you more prepared to live without outside help during at least a short-term disaster.

There are many reasons why a homestead is the ideal place to be during a SHTF scenario. We’ll be looking at the top 20 emergencies you’re more likely to survive on a homestead than in an urban or suburban location

#1. Pandemic

One of the most likely disasters to occur next is a pandemic. Any airborne illness can be transferred rapidly, especially in the city surrounded by a large crowd of people.

On your homestead, you have the luxury of privacy and isolation. While on your homestead, the chances of you catching any airborne disease is very slim.

When the SHTF, if anyone in your family or group has the disease that led to the pandemic, you have the opportunity to use a shed or building on your homestead and create a quarantine. Making a quarantine on your homestead will decrease the chances of the illness being spread quickly.

power grid lines

#2. Power Grid Down

Hackers can easily attack our power grid and people that are not prepared will not have any idea on how to survive.

You can live off-grid on your homestead while still feeding and protecting yourself and your family. Or, if you choose to have different energy sources besides electric, such as wind, solar, hydro, steam power, or natural gas, you will be able to make it when the power grid goes down. If you do not have either of these options on your homestead yet, you can use a generator for a short amount of time while you build yourself a wind turbine or hydropower system.

#3. WWIII

WWIII is very likely to happen with all the chaos from North Korea and Russia. If WWIII would break out, your homestead could protect you from various situations.

If WWIII would occur on our homeland, major cities would be the first targets. Small towns and rural villages would be attacked next. You want to be as isolated as possible during any war.

You will be secluded on your homestead which makes your group less detected and not as likely to become a victim. If you have plenty of acres on your homestead, you can set up traps and be stealthy while on “look out.” The people in your group can also plan for hideouts within your homestead to lessen the risk of you being caught or killed during WWII.

#4. Economic Collapse

During an economic collapse, you will not have to worry as much about the survival of your family because your homestead will already be providing for their basic needs.

If an economic collapse would occur again, people will be looting all stores and gas stations. They will be desperate for food for their family once they run out of food. When people become desperate for food and water, they will be willing to do anything to feed their family, even if that includes killing people to get their belongings.

You also have livestock on your homestead which will provide your family and loved ones to not have to stress about starving. With the livestock on your homestead, you will not need to have you or a member in your group travel to town to gather food and other items, which would possibly save a life.

riot

#5. Civil Unrest

Sadly, civil unrest has occurred more frequently in recent years due to increasing cultural, political, and racial tensions in our society. Even a slight difference of opinion or the uttering of a politically incorrect comment can cause violence and near rioting. The extent of the violence that occurred in Ferguson just a few years ago clearly illustrates how quickly a single spark can turn an entire neighborhood into chaos that costs millions of dollars to repair.

You do not want to be in the city where these riots can break out due to how dangerous they can become. Thankfully, you will be safe and sound on your homestead and not have to worry about punks coming onto your land causing a riot. Your homestead will keep you isolated from the chaotic mess.

#6. Martial Law

If WWIII would begin or if civil unrest goes to the extreme, Martial Law is a huge possibility.

If Martial Law happened in your town, consider all your freedoms vanished. The government can and will walk into your home and swipe your most valuable belongings. Your guns being the first items they take. You will have a curfew and will have strict living regulations.

Thanks to your livestock and garden on your homestead, you will not have to travel to town to gather food which will protect you from being spotted by the government. Eventually when people run out of their food stock, they are going to run to the government for help and end up being sent to FEMA camps. At the FEMA camps, they will basically be like prisoners and many will die. You and your family will be self-reliant on your homestead, so it won’t really affect you when Martial Law is happening.

Make sure to hide your weapons in places they wouldn’t think to look. Such as inside your couch (staple it back up so they won’t be able to tell your rifles are hiding in there), and you can also purchase clocks that open for you to hide your handguns and ammo.

solar cme

#7. EMP

An EMP striking is America’s worst nightmare. EMP catastrophes can end civilization and result to TEOTWAWKI. There would be years of darkness to recreate the power grid. That’s years without hospitals, transportation, gas, grocery stores, communication, and any electricity.

The horses on your homestead can provide you with transportation. All you need to do is saddle them up or jump on and ride bareback to get to any needed location. You can also haul items (such as wood, water, or injured people) on the back of your horse.

Your livestock will provide you with meat and dairy, so you won’t have to worry about anyone in your group dying of starvation or dehydration. You also can live off your garden and receive all your vegetable nutrition.

#8. Job Loss

Many homesteaders and preppers prepare for doomsday events but don’t often prep for personal SHTF scenarios. If you experience job loss, you and your family can get by on your homestead without struggling.

For food, you can butcher your livestock and hunt for deer on your land. For drinks, you can use a water purifier on your creek or any water supply or milk your cow or goat.

If you need money to pay your bills, you can breed your livestock, sell them, or butcher your livestock and sell the meat and their hide. If you have chickens, you can sell their eggs by the dozen for extra income.

If you do not have enough money to purchase hay, you can get your tractor out and take it out to your field and begin making your own.

drought

#9. Drought

If your local area experiences a drought, your family and livestock won’t necessarily have to worry about becoming dehydrated. Your rainwater collection system on the homestead allows you to stockpile water that can easily be purified for both human and livestock consumption – as well as garden watering.

Get into the habit of stockpiling extra water from your creek or pond to help you better prepare for a potential drought in the future. Put extra water in water barrels, mason jars and other containers, and stockpile them up for later. You will also need to gather up buckets to fill up with water to haul down to your animal’s multiple and to haul water down to your garden. You don’t want your crops becoming dry and dying out.

#10. Snowstorm

Wood is one of the most valuable resources on your homestead and will be essential during a SHTF situation. With all the trees surrounding you on your homestead, you can cut them down and start chopping up the wood. Chop and split wood during the spring, summer, and fall so you have a healthy stockpile to use each winter. A home without heat will cause illness and ultimately death, during a winter snowstorm. Frostbite and hypothermia can set in quickly and it is unlikely first responders will be able to reach your home to help the patient due to weather and road conditions.

You can use your wood for your woodstove, make a fire for warmth, use the wood to boil water to purify your water, or use wood to make your food over it. Wood can also be used to build extra shelters for family or anyone in your group, so they can get out of the nasty frigid weather.

#11. Summer Heat Wave

Intense summer heat puts a drain on the power grid because air conditioners are running nonstop. Designing a home to make best use of natural air flow and putting in a basement to retreat to for a break from the heat, will help prevent you and your loved ones from becoming heat stroke victims.

If the power is out for long, generators at grocery and gas stores will run out of fuel. People will not be able to replenish their supplies and can become desperate for food, generator fuel, and water.

Take steps to prevent the creation of additional heat inside your home by cooking your stockpiled and preserved food outdoors. Grill or over a fire in the morning before the heat of the day starts.

Both you and the livestock you are keeping can use the pond or creek on the homestead to keep cool. Take dips in the waterway and mist yourself and the animals with water throughout the day.

For breakfast, lunch, or dinner you can squeeze your fresh fruits or veggies from your garden into juice to cool you off and give you energy. You can also grab one of your homegrown watermelons and snack on that to replace the electrolytes you lost while sweating profusely while doing chores during the hot wave.

flood

#12. Flooding

Your homestead can protect you from flooding because you can dig ditches around your home, barn, and buildings to help direct water away. You can also fill your stockpiled feed sacks with sand or dirt to help prevent water from reaching your home, growing areas, and outbuildings.

If you live on a suburban homestead, make up sand bags in advance to help protect your backyard garden. Storing preps in your basement could be a huge mistake if your region is prone to flooding. Use wall and ceiling mounted storage units to protect your long-term storage food and gear from rising water.

Flood waters destroy crops and kill livestock, causing food prices to rise and potential shortages. The food you have preserved and stockpiled will help keep you and your family from growing hungry during the days, weeks, and months it may take the community or region to recover from the flood.

When the roads are covered and unsafe to travel, you will be able to rely on your homestead to provide for all your basic needs and not risk getting in a vehicle.

wildfire

#13. Wild Fires

If a wild fire blazes across the region it can destroy homes and crops. The stockpiles you have on the homestead survival retreat could see you through a time when you are out of work and protect you from either a food shortage or price gouging. Building your home out of poured concrete, cinder block, and a metal roof will help protect it from wild fire.

If a wild fire breaks out near your homestead, you can rush to your creek, pond, river, lake, or any water source nearby and attempt to get the fire out.

Dig fire breaks around your home, keep brush cleared, and engage in select cutting in your wooded areas to further harden the homestead from seasonal brush fires that destroy properties of people who did not exercise sound fire deterrent practices.

#14. Earthquake

An earthquake can be hard to prepared for if you aren’t warned in advance. For the aftermath of an earthquake, your homestead makes you self-sufficient. If the nearby grocery store or convenience store collapsed, you would still be able to provide you and your loved ones with delicious food on your homestead.

If power lines go down from the earthquake, you will be able to use your alternative energy sources to provide power to the home. You can also make your own alternative fuel run your generator, so your frozen meat doesn’t go bad and any frozen food that you canned.

The homestead will also provide you with trees to cut down for warmth, cooking, and water from your pond, rainwater collection barrel system, or creek.

tornado

#15. Tornados

You can use the root cellar on the homestead as a bunker during a tornado. The underground storage area should protect you and your loved ones from the forceful winds and flying debris if both it and the door entry-way were built in a sturdy manner.

#16. Terror Attack

Your homestead would be one of the safest places to be during a terror attack because of the isolation. When you see the headlines on the news of such attacks, you’ll notice that the majority of the attacks occurred in a big city. Cities are usually the targeted location because there are so many more individuals in the city to make victims.

During a terror attack, you will be able to sit cozy on your homestead and not need to travel to town to gather up food, water, or any belongings. If you need anything to eat, you can just walk on out to your barn or butcher shop instead of risking the lives of you and your family members by entering a big crowd of people.

#17. Nuclear War

Not everyone will die during a nuclear war. The further you are away from the explosion, the better. Although, even if you are all the way across the country from the location of the nuclear bomb, you will still have to worry about radiation in the air.

Build a nuclear fallout shelter on your homestead and use it to store some of the food and medicines you grow so it is always stocked and ready for you to live.

Even if you are far from the attack area, the food supply chain will be disrupted, causing a shortage and riots by panicked people desperate for clean water to drink, food to eat, and emergency medical care. Your survival homesteading retreat will provide you with all these things – without being forced to leave the safety of your home.

Plan for nuclear contamination issues and learn how to cover your growing crops and water supply to protect them from radiation and acid rain.

#18. Cyber Attack

Cyber attack could take down power grid or destroy financial system and wipe out your bank accounts. Most people won’t know what to do without having their money but luckily you are prepared.

Your homestead will allow you to survive without money. You won’t need to trade anything for food because you have your livestock and garden. But if there is any other item you want or need, you can also barter or trade your livestock, crops, canned goods, farm equipment, wood, medicine, herbs, purified water, and any other necessities that others would trade with.

#19. Illness and Injury

One thing you do not want to happen to any of the members in your group is to experience an injury or illness. Your herbal apothecary on your homestead will help tremendously on naturally treating the illnesses and injuries. Your additional herbs can also help ease the pain during any illness or injury. There are natural home remedies that can even treat tetanus! Make sure to stock up on colloidal silver and keep in your first aid kit.

In your quarantine, you can keep your loved one safe and sound while you wait for them to get better to reduce the risk of other loved ones catching their illness.

#20. Food Shortage

During any type of disaster, people will eventually experience food shortage and will result to death.

Your livestock gives you the gift of meat and dairy. You will have a lot of food and milk to get you and your family by. You can freeze extra meat and can your milk to make a stockpile for when you run out of your current supply. You should also can your garden goodies for easy access!

For additional meat, you can grab your gun or bow and hit the woods looking for deer on your homestead.

Final Word

Living on a homestead gives you so much more access to food rather than living in a city. People will be out scouting the streets, breaking into houses, and rioting in grocery stores with empty shelves, while you and your family will have a food supply that you are living comfortably with.

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The world we live in continues to get scarier and uglier with each passing day. During any disaster, you want to be as secluded as possible from any looters and

One of the hardest cords to cut for homesteaders is dependence on commercial feeds. Our modern livestock – even a lot of the dual-purpose homesteading breeds – are accustomed to certain types of feeds, heavy on mass-production monoculture grains and hay. Sometimes planting options seem limited, sometimes storage space is at a premium, and sometimes we struggle to figure out what folks did before Buy’N’Large made kibble and meal mix cheap and accessible. There is no one way to do anything, and no solution is going to work for everyone. However, I’ve put together some ideas for root vegetables and their tops that can cut some of our feed bills and feed dependency and alternative or “forgotten” ways of storing and using grains, legumes that might help cut feed costs and increase resiliency and self-sufficiency.

The methods here can be applied from sprawling homesteads to suburban homes and lots. Some of the tips actually apply to humans, too, especially the storage tidbits. There will be another article on alternative livestock feeds that will have even more help for smaller lots with livestock like rabbits and a couple of ducks or goats, and will also include some alternatives that are feeding people and animals on a larger scale in other parts of the world.

Corn Storage

Corn can be collected sweet or allowed to dry on the stalk for grinding and feed types, and an awful lot of livestock is happy with rough-grind “cracked” corn. Dry corn can also be soaked overnight to become more palatable and attractive to livestock. Natives used to dry corn on mats, both shucked and rubbed from the cobs or still attached to cobs, and colonists regularly had stacked racks that allowed good airflow beneath a roof for further drying before corn is transferred to a bin. Corn will keep better (stay dryer) if it’s left on the cob. Leaving the cob on can be space consuming, however. White folks have traditionally used large silos and smaller cribs for dry corn. Once it’s dried on the stalks, husks that have been left on can also be braided into ropes or wider bands, then suspended from ceilings in barns, cellars or homes. Birds and rats are still a risk, but it can be a space-saving way to store corn compared to old-style cribs, since it can go right over our heads, livestock heads, or additional storage areas.

Common grass grains

For households that are putting in limited amounts of grass grains like wheat, barley and oats, each square foot is precious. When there are small amounts, such as turning one or a few 5’x20’ plots and 5-10 pounds of seed into 40-65 pounds of grain or next-year’s planting-for-consumption stock, it’s incredibly important for that seed to dry properly. On a small scale, the cost of specialty machinery may not be available, especially at first, despite the time it can save.

Old-school stooking of stalks helps get them up into the air and at least somewhat away from some pests. However, if a corn bin has drying racks, or there’s a shed with wide doors and enough power to run a box fan, heads can also be cut from the stalks after bundling into stooks, and the bundles hung upside down in tiers, similar to old tobacco barns or even overhead in homes and barn walkways. Doing so cuts down on the amount of floor space needed while protecting the grains from rain, and increases protection against pests.

Old tobacco shed (braided corn or inverted grain bundles can be stored from racks and chains as tobacco once was)

Old tobacco shed (braided corn or inverted grain bundles can be stored from racks and chains as tobacco once was)

Storing corn and other grains overhead, even once bagged, can save space on the floor and shelves for harvests of apples or* potatoes, autumn and winter squashes, yams, and sweet potatoes, or for jarred and dehydrated produce.

* Potatoes and apples in the same space will make each other ripen/rot faster, but pears, yams and sweet potatoes get along like white on rice with pretty much all other crops once they’ve had their cure period. Since grain storage is ideally dry–dry, crops that like bins of damp sawdust and sand like carrots and turnips aren’t really great sharing space with corn, oats, barley, teff, buckwheat, or any other grain.

African grains

Millet and teff are incredibly difficult and time consuming to mill, but poultry can handle them easily without that step. Teff also makes a good hay and an excellent straw. The major advantage to the relatively rare teff is that this African crop is accustomed to some pretty harsh conditions, nutrient-depleted soils, and hand- and low-mech harvest. Millet is largely seen in game plots and songbird feed, but has plenty of nutritional value and some of the millets can handle pretty much any conditions. Both millet and teff are available in varieties can be had for serious clays, droughts, flood-drought, and saturated field tolerances, which can make them a huge asset for small homesteaders trying to cut feed-store cords.

Millet and corn kernels can also be turned into a type of silage for storage, or the entire still-green plant can be used – as can other grains, legumes, and leafy plants.

Silage

Silage is basically a type of fermentation that produces a high-moisture feed. Haylage and oatlege are basically just specialty types of silage. Brits produce a version called balage. In World War II, farmers sometimes used silage made from turnip and rutabaga tops to help get their breeding pigs and cattle through spring.

It can be created small-scale in heavy-duty contractor or special-purpose bags, in kegs and casks, by round-bale equipment and covers, or in bins from 5-10’ stock tanks to pits and shelters measured in meters. The green matter is chopped, packed down in layers, and covered. Sometimes something absorbent and lightweight like finished straw or chaff is added on top or a sweetener like honey or molasses or tree syrup is used in the layers. The important part of any silage process is to press out the oxygen, and to cover it against reintroduction of oxygen and precipitation.

Silage

Cows munching on silage.

Silage can be beneficial in that the starting moisture content is very high. A hay harvest that would be ruined by dews and rains can still become safe animal feed by converting it to silage instead.

It’s not pretty, but just like it got some of our heritage and rare breeds through World War II, in a disaster, the waste-not, want-not aspect of using the tops of storable feed and food crop, “ruined” hay crop, or a grain crop that isn’t going to get all the way to our frosts and freezes to feed our livestock may make it worthwhile for some raisers.

There are naysayers on the topic of silage as animal feed, so do research about the nutrients of various components and methods. Ducks and turkeys can’t have it and I haven’t seen a horse willing to chomp in, but most goats, cattle, pigs, chickens, rabbits, and donkeys could have at least part of their diets replaced, putting that much less pressure on hay and grains for winter and spring.

Roots & Tubers – Swedes, Beets, Sweets, Yams, Radishes and Turnips

Along with pea hay and straw, something farmers haven’t done in a while is maintain big stacks of root veggies along with their tall stacks of hay and straw, or keep tubers in big cellars to haul to their calves, rams, and steers. Forking forage turnips and swedes to cattle and pigs used to be just part of daily life, especially early in winter, and it wasn’t uncommon even up until the 1950s for British farmers to shred or grate swedes to a consistency we’d use for drying apples or potatoes, then use it for weanling cattle and goats, or “slop” them for their meat chickens and pigs.

Turnip Slicer

Image – Turnip slicer from WWII

Britain’s farming directives in response to World War II offers us a fair number of clues for hard-times livestock feeding, and one of the other fabulous nuggets that came out of it was the cooking of slop for pigs. Cooking makes things like potato and sweets and yams safe to eat, skin to “meat”, and boiling allows things like junk meat from pest animals to be included.

Although they aren’t as traditional, most of the cellar- or pit-worthy long-storage root crops like African yams, Chinese yams, and sweet potatoes can be used the same way for our vegan livestock (oca can be used for some livestock in low quantity, but those New Zealand and South American “yam” is a gas-producer capable of twisting up even goats and pigs). They tend to be low on protein, they aren’t the calorie powerhouses of grains, but they work well for stud stock, meat stock, un-bred stock, and things like rabbits and chickens that convert leafy foods efficiently.

Forage and sugar beets and turnips can be had relatively inexpensively as deer plot and pasture-improvement seed. Daikon-type radishes are available in the same genres, but some of the field-improving radishes are bred to produce a spongy biomass and then dissolve in a pretty short amount of time, so we need to pay attention to what we purchase.

BeetFodder

Image – Dairy cattle on forage beets.

Some livestock will eat a daikon radish as-is, but some will pass it unless it’s been boiled – and it’s as much animal-to-animal as it is species or breed. Introducing new foods should progress slowly, but livestock that is regularly exposed to a variety of foods is more likely to nibble something new when it’s mixed in with the old favorites.

Things like sweet potatoes, radishes, turnips and beets are double winners, because both the tops and the roots are edible – for us and for livestock. They can either be grazed early and allowed to develop roots later with pasture rotation, pigs can be rotated in after goats and cattle to dig up tubers (not sweets), tops can be culled and delivered to livestock as green food a little at a time to avoid serious stunting where climates are less forgiving and then the roots can be harvested, or tops can be removed and fed or added to silage when the tubers are being harvested.

Some of the root veggies are ideal to grow in spring, others in the heat of the year. With yams and sweets on the Southern summer end of the spectrum and swedes and Daikons on the shake-off-frosts end, there’s a livestock augmentation in the root crops for pretty much everything but ducks, horses and turkeys. Even donkeys can chomp into some cooked radishes, yams and sweets along with their hay.

*Ducks can nibble some, but they aren’t really supposed to be grazers; they really need grain seeds and more proteins than root veggies provide.

Apples and Pears as Fodder

Images – Hogs on apples

Images – Hogs on apples

 

Chickens and hogs have historically been scrap compactors, turning odd ends and wilted produce into nummy bacon and eggs, but, again, evolution means they’re not quite as good as it as they used to be. Look for foraging-capability in breed and lineage descriptions (sometimes in percentages and sometimes a rating system), and try to buy from people who at least partly pasture raise their livestock.

Goats, sheep and cattle will chomp into apples, pears and plums as well as the chickens and pigs that go ga-ga for them, but chickens and hogs can handle a higher amount of sweet fruit in their diet. Chickens can also easily handle crabapples and wild plums. Using even just windfall and wormy fruit from existing trees or planting some storage and needs-to-cure apples to our tree fruit can help increase the amount of nutrients and calories we produce on our property, especially if we’re able to situate chickens and rabbits under the canopy – stacking our food production into an even smaller footprint.

Extra bonus: Most meat stock that is finished on apples, pears or beets ends up with really excellent flavor once it’s in the pot. At least a week, but up to a month with a diet supplement or change in those directions can make a huge difference. They still need access to hays while finishing. In Southern climes where sweet potatoes will grow in abundance between traditional crabapple and wild plum hedges, they can have the same effect on hogs, lambs, kids and chickens, making for some seriously succulent eats.

Growing & Storing Livestock Feed

Another article is in the works looking at alternative livestock feeds, things that go even further out on a limb than turnip-top silage and researching African grains and tubers (like tree hay and tree fodder options, and boosting protein for game birds and young chicks).

Even with more traditional foods and feeds, we can start impacting our livestock costs by looking back at history to see what was used – and how – before we depended on fuels and electricity for delivering kibble. We can learn a great deal especially looking at hard times when farmers and small raisers had to make due with limited feed options, such as in Great Britain during World War II and Cuba during the initial months and years of the oil embargo. Those methods can help us figure out how to cut costs and how to develop a sustainable plan for our modern livestock should we ever need it.

As mentioned, modern livestock – even the heritage breeds to some degree – has half a century or more of the Green Revolution under its belt. They are accustomed to pressed and formed feeds in large part, the condensed calories of grains. Modern livestock is largely built for enormous feed conversion, which may be slowed or delayed with certain types of feed, and in many cases, they won’t have correct gut microflora to immediately switch to something new. Always keep good stock records of production and feed, and always transition feeds slowly for livestock, especially small and young livestock.

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One of the hardest cords to cut for homesteaders is dependence on commercial feeds. Our modern livestock – even a lot of the dual-purpose homesteading breeds – are accustomed to

When we think of castles in the medieval periods particularly, we generally think of staid, damp, barren places. Within some areas, they certainly were. It was a harsh, brutish time for many. It and the times leading up to it were filled with violence – hence the need for wall-ringed castles and hillforts in the first place.

And yet in these periods when death by violence and disease was prevalent, when survival was a constant chore, we find castle gardens within the very walls that were so utilitarian. By medieval and Tudor times, portions of the castles and even villager areas were being designed for pleasure as well as productivity. While we may not have enough land or resources to truly create our own castle, we can take away a fair bit from the layout of those castles, hillforts and even some of the equally guarded and protected monasteries.

First let’s take a look at some of the general consistencies between castles and protected areas during the pre-cannon times, and then we’ll look at how the residents can impact how we arrange large, sprawling homesteads and even small areas and yards.

Castle Layouts

British Hillforts tended to be Spartan environments, but even there – and when the Spartans existed – defensive structures also included water sources and regularly livestock and at least some limited garden spaces or wild foods within the safest palisades.

In the case of castles, there was even greater gardening taking place within the tiers of earthworks and walls carved out of hillsides.

Dunlop Hillfort and village – a macro-example of defensive structures and Spartan existence.

Castles and hillforts both made use of terrain. At the time, high was good, since it afforded more outward line-of-sight and thus more time to sound alarms. Deep trenches or moats surrounded the innermost walls and upper levels. Attackers not only had to scale the lower and outlying walls, they had to get themselves and siege equipment uphill, while defenders had the benefits of gravity and elevation on their side in all phases of attack.

If they could hold a force outside even middle and lower rings and walls, the defenders could even still reap the benefits of having crops and livestock grazing the rings around the inner walls.

Bonus – Fun Fact: This is the era in which we became obsessed with lawns. Rich folks had bunches of livestock, especially sheep. Sheep grazed all around, closely cropping grass and anything else that dared grow. It resulted in tightly mown lawns. The more sheep, the more pure grass and closer shorn it was. Having nothing but foods, shrubs and trees right around the house meant you couldn’t afford sheep. That poverty-wealth dichotomy stayed embedded as specialization grew, and everybody wanted a lawn so show their worth. It has stayed so embedded that here we are, hundreds of years later, burning fuel to prove we’re rich enough for short grass and competing with neighbors to have the most perfect, even, level grass on the block.

We can apply the lesson the same way Iron-Age Europeans did. We can create alleys or rings of silvopasture to shade and feed livestock and ourselves, creating tough fixtures and alarms where we can’t see – like the age-old sheepdog and sturdy gate or ha-ha. We can arrange properties large and small so that lower pastures and fields are outlying, allowing us more time to visualize threats.

We can create some of our first-line defensive walls with things like hugelkulture beds and other raised beds, and create ditches across roadways or leave trees standing that we can use to reinforce gates. Low or mid-height and dense, thorny brambles can also form our walls or create enough depth, noise and pain that simple thugs can’t make the jumps or choose and easier target.

We can use water catchment, mandala and keyhole beds, and our buildings and vehicles to form an inner wall from which we can defend property if necessary, keeping the things and supplies we most need access to safe within the innermost ring.

And we can use the castle gardens as examples of ways we can still produce food and medicine even if we decide to retreat inside our high, inner walls and abandon the rest.

The aerial view of Pensevey ruins helps show the amount of green space inside a hillfort and its moats, with sheep still grazing one of the inner walls and farm and grazing land still laid out around the lower and outer earthworks. We don’t have to have a true castle or that much space to follow the example laid out.

Zoning

In permaculture, a concept called zoning is at the forefront of design – right up there with the ever-pressing reminders of health and productivity through diversity and edge habitat. Zoning is where we create spaces for each thing, working by patterns of traffic frequency.

The places we go most are Zone 1, and we put the most needy members of our homesteads there, the things we’ll need to visit most often. Zone 5 is the outer limit. It’s basically an area left wild, only periodically visited for at most a little foraging and hunting.

The terms and definitions may have changed, but castles made use of the same theories.

The inner set of tall, high walls would be our Zones 1-2, with 3-4 those rings of livestock and feed and large crops outside the moat. Maybe we have a true Zone 5, or maybe we designate little patches of brush, hang bug motels and bat houses, and create towers and boxes where swallows and owls will do their things – ridding us of pests as they do.


Pottager Gardens

Pottager gardens are just a different way of saying kitchen garden – or they were.

Starchy peas, turnips, potatoes, and the grains for bread were largely grown in some of the outer rings and beyond them – the equivalent of Zone 3 and 4 from our permaculture example – but most of the rest was either from the hedgerows and wild fruit areas, collected by foraging, or grown very near the kitchens where they’d be used.

Most of the British populace ate little meat and roasted foods even up into Tudor times. Instead, pottage was the daily meal – and was for a long, long period of history. It’s basically just a stew based around peas and whatever is in season. The gardens that mostly influenced the stew’s flavor picked up the same name.

Pottagers evoke certain images for designers and historians: small beds, regularly bounded by wattle (woven horizontal branches and saplings) or stone, raised as often as they were ground level.

They were usually surrounded by bent-hedge (laid hedge) living fencing, dense hedges, brush fencing that used upright posts filled with thick timber debris laid horizontally between them, rip-gut twisted-timber and -stick fences, vertical wattle, or simple vertical stick and top-rail fences, either vertical posts or arranged in a series of bottom-heavy X’s with horizontal poles laid in the cross sections.

The fencing was largely dependent on what it guarded against – poultry, dogs, rabbits, a loose horse in some areas, geese – and was made out of fast-growing “junk” brush and the leftover debris from cutting housing timbers, firewood, and clearing fields. Wattle was even used to make livestock housing in some temperate areas of Great Britain, particularly.

Medieval Style Garden

We see pottager beds inside tight castle spaces as well as out among the village cottages and even used in the wide-open outlying guard shacks.

Outside the castle walls, fencing would typically be stronger and taller to prevent entry by deer, but thick debris fencing was even used to contain or exclude pigs.

Square beds predominate, with triangular or curving beds as well, particularly in later periods. In the small square and rectangular courtyards between various walls and towers and portions of the castles and hillforts, they were efficient to work by hand without losing much space.

It’s hard for us to conceive breaking up long rows, even with our high-yielding, milder, sweeter vegetables. In fact, Europeans and early colonists with their less-efficient crops may have benefitted hugely by using them instead of the plows.

Pottagers were visited and tended much more frequently than crops that were alternated with grazing animals between the rings of the further, lower outer walls around a castle. The field crops had to deal with much less compaction as a result.

Working the smaller beds from walkways likely kept those beds in better health because no one was stepping on the soil, packing it down the way we do when we work down our rows and lines.

Every Single Inch

While there were gardens near kitchens, and while chatelaines typically also had gardens, they all also had to compete with the chapel gardens that were typically allowed and with the physic gardens maintained by the official healers.

It could get tight.

Because so many people could be expected to cram into castles and protected monasteries during attacks, carrying everything they could, to include livestock, and because the early castles and the hillforts, especially, tended to be high-traffic areas, growing space within the inner walls was at a premium – a condition many of us can relate to.

Growing food and herbs in long sweeps between sets of castle walls.

It was also vital to be able to grow some of the food inside walls in case of siege.

So they made use of roadsides not only for foragable hedgerows, but also for small trees, flowers, herbs, and annual and perennial fruits. In some cases, they even built up raised beds against the castle walls themselves.

It was also very common to have orchards in the graveyards inside one ring of a castle or another, to use arbors around gates for vining fruit, and to make use of the steep sides of the earthworks that were left with sometimes vary narrow verges.

Images: Recreation of the castle-interior kitchen gardens of Highcote

Diversity

The small spaces weren’t necessarily a bad thing. From the narrow spaces available between pathways and walls, to the kitchen, noble women’s, and monk’s gardens, the tight quarters led to increased diversity in garden strips, hedges and beds.

Historians have decided that it was actually pretty rare for herbs and high-yielding fruits and vegetables to be separated into rows. Bulk-produced foods – especially those that needed each other for pollination, kept close because gardeners realized they did better when grouped even if they didn’t understand the mechanics – might occupy whole beds, but most were rambling and intermingled where there was space for annuals.

Recreated and English-style kitchen gardens typically have fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers intermingled, with perennial hedges, shrubs, arbors, and trees in corners an surrounding the garden space.

Beautification and “smelling” gardens around trees in graveyards and orchards increased diversity there. Even when things were only planted to take advantage of pre-leaf-out sunlight and make every use of the space, it resulted in longer periods of flowering, a heavy mixing of herbs and perennials near and with annuals, and a great many microclimates where all the plant types met each other.

Until formal gardens took over, those “margin” areas undulated and staggered in differing waves and sizes, further increasing the amount of edge.

Diversity and a mixing of microclimates creates the same relationships we see with both companion planting – where a plant attracts or repels something for another plant – and at the edges of roads, places where water meets woods or meadows, and other verges – places that we harvest the most game and the most edible weeds.

With rich, diverse webs of life taking place in the soil, nutrients are cycled effectively. Mixed plants mean roots are drawing from different levels, and pests find it harder to locate their victims.

It also creates resiliency. With so much life, if something in the soil is wiped out one way or another, it’s not that big of a deal. There’s plenty of other life available to make up for it.

Likewise, with many types of herbs and foods growing together, should one fail in one spot, another might survive. If all of a type were lost, because gardens were so diverse, there was still food production taking place – inside the inner walls, even if it was unsafe to venture out into the lower-walled sections with bulk crops and livestock.

Fences were made with what you had on hand, designed for simple function.

Castle Gardens

We can learn a lot from history, and given the defensive mindsets of preppers, we can apply some of the defensive lessons directly to even our suburban and urban homes. Really, up until the last hundred years, we still very strongly relied on defensive works designed surprisingly similar to castles – well after the widespread adoption of cannon and cartridges.

The gardens kept within the walls of palace castles and hillforts have particular application as well, both for efficiency and for remembering that even when life was short and brutish in the Iron Age an medieval eras, peons and princes still planted their castles for beauty as well as yield.

Castle defenses, medieval gardening methods, and permaculture sectors and zones are all things that can be further researched to forward the preparedness of our homesteads. Permaculture’s stacking functions can help make our spaces even more efficient.

They can also help city dwellers, looking at apartments and condos as inhabitated towers and making use of the narrow strips of greener. Japan’s container and small-bed growing has been in place since the time of the Samurai in the largest cities – about the same time we’re looking at European castles – and can make for good study as well for those in tight, tiny spaces.

For more information about some of the garden features from the Iron Age through medieval and Tudor times, check out http://www.castlesandmanorhouses.com/life_06_gardens.htm and http://www.sudeleycastle.co.uk/gardens/tudor-physic-garden/ . There are tons of images, as well as lists of foods and medicines valued by people who depended on what they pulled out of the ground.

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When we think of castles in the medieval periods particularly, we generally think of staid, damp, barren places. Within some areas, they certainly were. It was a harsh, brutish time

I recall reading somewhere that we don’t actually measure life in hours, minutes, seconds or years, but rather in a coffee spoon. I have to agree with this one – if I did that right, I would say that my age would be around two cargo containers filled to the brim with coffee.

Anyway, today’s topic won’t revolve around coffee, per se, but the coffee ground. Yup that icky stuff that usually ends clogging the kitchen sink has many uses. So, without prolonging your agony too much, here are 9 ingenious ways to reuse coffee grounds.

Pots and pans detail

The only thing worse than burning your food is having to scrape that pot or pan afterward. It’s frustrating because no matter how hard you scrub, that scorch mark will still cling to your cookware. When everything else fails, use coffee grounds. Even though that stuff’s been drenched in hot water, it’s still quite abrasive – good news for you, bad news for whatever dirt’s left on the pot. I personally prefer giving the skillets a through coffee grounds scrub every now and then. That’s the reason why I keep a box of that stuff next to the kitchen sink.

Creating awesome marinades

Cooking’s great because it allows you to experiment with various ingredients combos. Take marinades, for instance. Each marinade consists of 5 basic ingredients: oil, salt, pepper, water, and spice mix. However, this doesn’t have to stop us from trying other things. Some use scented oils, veggie mix, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco, and whatnots. I personally prefer to use coffee ground. Apart from the fact that it makes the meat literally melt in your mouth (try this the next time you’ll be cooking pulled pork) it also gives it a smoky, earth-like aroma and aftertaste. Not to mention the fact that it’s a great way to recycle coffee ground which in 99.9 percent of cases would end up in the trash.

Giving plants a run for their money

Many people have asked me what type of chemical I use around the garden. Well, I don’t use that stuff because I don’t want to end up with supermarket tomatoes. I usually make my own compost from coffee grounds, wilted veggies, and dung. Plants simply love it. Sure, you need to wear a hazard mask to walk around the compost pile, but nothing beat a tasty and nutritious veggie dinner.

No more ice-skating

If you’re having trouble figuring out a way to remove the ice from your driveway with destroying the driveway in the process, try with coffee grounds. That stuff provides great traction while melting the ice.

Getting rid of dead skin and acne

Acne’s always an issue, regardless if you’re 14 or 44. Don’t waste your money on expensive skin creams when there’s a cheaper alternative – using fresh coffee grounds. After grounds cool down, stick them inside a food processor and give them a couple of spins. Use this fine powder to scrub your face and other parts of the body.

No more ants in the pants (or food basket)

Summer’s just around the bend, and we all know what this means – quite family picnics, hiking, and drives. If you don’t want to see any ants or other pests crawling all over your food, sprinkle some coffee grounds the picnic area. They hate them. Apparently, according to researchers, caffeine, the very same substance that gives us a kick in the morning, disrupts their central nervous systems, making the critters feel mightily uncomfortable.

Getting rid of nasty fridge smells

I know that no one’s in the mood to take everything out of the fridge and scrub that thing clean at the end of the week. Obviously, if you postpone this for too long, you’re going to end with a smelly fridge. Now, if you’re not a clean freak, you may be able to get rid of fouls smells from the fridge by putting some coffee ground on a plate or small bowl. Place it inside the fridge, and that’s it. You can also use the same stuff as an air freshener. FIY, coffee grounds are very effective at removing tobacco smell from the room.

Grow your own shrooms

No, not those kinds of mushrooms, because they’re illegal. I was thinking more on the lines of champignons, the same shrooms you find in every supermarket. It’s super easy to do it. Take a plastic bucket and fill it with some earth. Add a handful of compost and mix with a trowel or hands. At your local supermarket, take a look around the gardening section for shroom seeds. They’re very cheap (around $1 per package). Empty the pack’s content in the bucket, water, and place in a dark room with a loss of moisture. I personally keep my bucket shrooms in the basement. After a couple of weeks, you’ll be able to harvest and use them for cooking your favorite meals.

Keeping mold away from your linen closet

Nothing beats opening your closet and taking a whiff of those freshly-ironed bedsheets. Well, you wouldn’t feel that way if your nose was to be assaulted by a rancid smell. That’s the trouble with keeping linen for far too long under lock and key – they tend to smell of mold. However, there’s a quick to prevent that from happening, and it doesn’t involve washing, ironing or buying pricey closet fresheners.

Fill a small satchel with coffee grounds and place it between the bedsheets. The coffee grounds will remove any mold from the closet and make your linen smell as if they were just taken out of the washing machine. You can also do the same for your wardrobe and drawers where you keep stuff like underwear and socks. These coffee ground sacks will also keep moths and other critters away from your clothes.

Well, that’s about it on how to reuse coffee grounds around the house. What’s your take on this? Hit the comments section and let me know.

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Yup that icky stuff that usually ends clogging the kitchen sink has many uses.

This is the second article looking at ways we can cut our dependence on commercial feeds for our livestock. The first article primarily dealt with historic feeds and ways of storing them and some of the feeds that are rarely seen in small-scale production in the U.S. As stated in the first article, our modern livestock – even a lot of the dual-purpose homesteading breeds – are accustomed to certain types of feeds, heavy on mass-production mono-culture grains and hay. Those feeds tend to produce the fastest results and be cheap and easy to access.

However, they do contribute to the financial cost of keeping livestock and they require certain cultivation methods that may not be available to everyone. Substituting fertilizers and water-hungry crops for tubers and less-common grains may be part of the solution to making our livestock resilient to a small personal crisis or a major regional disaster. It can help us weather some of the ups and downs in pricing, as with droughts that send livestock feed and grocery bills skyrocketing.

There are some other ways we can increase our self-sufficiency and resiliency, though, even if it drops our livestock’s production to historic levels and takes a little longer to finish our meat stock. There is no one way to do anything, and no solution is going to work for everyone. However, having some backup ideas and methods in place as alternate feeds is rarely a bad thing, especially if we’re counting on meat rabbits and chickens, eggs, and milk in a collapse or Great Depression situation.

 

Rule of Thumb – Rabbits to Goats, Chickens, & Pigs

There are a couple of rules of thumb that can apply to our livestock and what we provide as a base feed or supplement. The first is that if hares can eat it, so can goats. Happily, chickens and pigs will eat almost anything – especially if they see other livestock going after it. Most feeds safe for rabbits will apply to them, too.

The Rabbit Food Pyramid

The Rabbit Food Pyramid

The rabbit point comes in because of all the lists available out there for pet or show rabbits. Some of the feeds for rabbits come right out of our kitchen gardens. Some of the feeds in those lists lack the roughage both hares and goats need to keep their guts processing. Others offer some excellent ways to increase the feed availability for livestock using something that already exists.

One example is trees and tree hays. Rabbits and goats can happily consume a wide number of trees, some of which may already be on our property and in need of pruning, such as willow, apple, maple, elm and mulberry.

Tree hays are little different from using a fodder like locust and calliandra that’s fed green. We can treat a surprising number of trees just like we do grasses and dry limbs at peak nutrition to pull out for hay or add to our silage. Like grasses, tree leaves are at their highest nutrient content before they flower and start directing energy toward fruits.

That allows us to selectively harvest small green boughs that would be pruned in another season normally, selecting for branches with lower impact on our future fruit harvest. And since the flowers themselves are sugary powerhouses and pollen is an excellent protein source, collecting limbs that bear those is only a bonus.

rabbits eating tree leaf and branch

Rabbits, tree branches and leaves

 

The richest tree fodders can only be used in limited number to modern rabbits, because they have sensitive digestions. Once it’s hay, instead of a leaf or three for a large meat rabbit, up to 20-40% of their grass hay can be replaced by tree hay. The larger branches themselves can go to rabbits, goats and chickens, too, even a couple of inches across should you prune something that large. They’ll strip the bark in some seasons, and rabbits will use chunks to help keep their ever-growing rodent teeth under control.

Soaking tree hays can help increase the interest and palatability for finicky livestock. Individual leaves can be soaked, or branches can be righted and stuck in a bucket of water for 24-48 hours to soak up liquids. Chickens won’t eat quite as many of the tree hays, even soaked, and pigs regularly need them soaked and sometimes mixed in with something like turnips and grasses. However, both are a little more willing to eat silage.

Don’t use the whole branches for silage, just the leaves and the tenderest tips that cattle in bare lots are willing to nibble.

Tree Fodder & Fruits

Cattle - lucerne tree fodder

Cattle consuming tree lucerne

 

There are actual trees like the black locust and smaller options like pea shrub that are being studied and cultivated as livestock feed replacements, especially in places like Africa with limited irrigation and poor soils. There are mixed feelings about keeping livestock on tree fodders, there are mixed research results, and studies tend to focus on one aspect of feed or another – it’s hard to get a comprehensive paper on DM, protein, digestibility and palatability all at once. Still, if livestock is part of the plan, it might not hurt to look into some of them. A lot of U.S. climates can mimic climates found somewhere in Africa – where a lot of the research starts and focuses still.

Fodder and forage trees and shrubs can be managed for human harvest and transport, or planted along outsides of fences or inside curbing poles and fences that limit livestock’s reach. Quickly rotated pastures can also allow the trees and shrubs to mature and grow back.

Native trees and shrubs that can be used for grass and hay replacement for rabbits and goats include American sycamore, blackberry, dewberry, raspberry, roses, hackberry, gooseberry, alder and mesquite. Livestock can eat currants, but currants and some of the other soft berry shrubs tend to not respond as well to “pruning” as brambles and gooseberry.

Other options for livestock include planting trees that drop seed or nuts, either for human harvest and fodder, or for livestock to forage on its own. Elm samaras can be collected green or brown to use as a fatty nut or seed supplement as well. Acorns are another example. There are a wealth of oaks out there that produce at different times, produce in ebb-and-flow cycles, develop acorns for two years instead of one, and produce different sized acorns. Most nuts are too valuable for livestock, but somebody with thriving hazelnut/filbert thickets might run in goats and then pigs or chickens.

 

Goat climbing and eating black locust

Goat climbing and eating black locust

There are the conventional fruits such as apples and pears. For me, the focus on fruit trees for livestock is largely on storable fruits that can go from tree to cellar. Most tree fruit is going to be too rich for domestic rabbits and a lot of cattle and horses, but pigs and chickens seem just fine with even large portions of meals made up of pears.

“Weedy” fruits like wild plum and mayhaw need absolutely no help from me to grow, but will produce some goat forage and fruits for pigs and chickens. Shrubs like chokeberry and chokecherry can be used alongside chicken tunnels and moats and runs, with the birds helping themselves to berries that protrude or drop within reach, and humans harvesting the berries they can’t reach – berries which don’t look like “normal” human or livestock foods and that dry well for later feed.

Rule of Thumb – What we eat, they eat

A lot of livestock feeds are already made from things that humans can consume – corn, soy, wheat, sunflower, millet. In the first livestock feed article, we pointed out things like tubers that store well. We can also take a look at local foraging options, and encourage what are basically weeds to use as feed. I wouldn’t try to forage for a goat’s entire diet, although there are things I can plant (and protect) that they can forage for themselves.

Sheep eating Kudzu

Sheep eating Kudzu

Cattail in the four or five human-edible stages is happily and healthily consumed by everything but cattle and horses. Reed grasses (avoid European phrag like the plague) provide a storable seed. Chickens and hogs will dig chufa. Don’t plant the stuff for heaven’s sake, but if kudzu is nearby, it makes a nice flower jelly and its leaves are readily palatable to even cattle.

Wood sorrel, henbit, low clovers, plantain, purslane, and dandelions are so routinely cursed by gardeners and lawn-growers, but they provide an enormously beneficial mix of protein- and micro-nutrient heavy foods, with the benefit of being enormously palatable as well as cold hearty. That means we can stick them under some plastic or grow them in tiers of soda bottles in our windows in winter, and be providing fresh foods to our livestock, even in just dribbles. That keeps our livestock healthier and more ready to transition back to pasture grazing.

Wood sorrel, henbit and chickweed are also tall enough and “heat”-tolerant enough that we can use them in grazing frames inside chicken runs, letting the birds munch them down as far as they can reach but having them grow back faster because the birds can’t get all the way down to the roots. They’ll hold up to grazing and manure better than just wheat or barley grasses.

Chicken grazing frame

Chicken grazing frame

Cheno-family lamb’s quarters, mallow, amaranthus pigweeds, shepherd’s purse, most of the sonchus thistles, any strawberry plants to include the invasive “weed” variant with little or no flavor, and wingstem or Iron weed can all be consumed by rabbits, goats and chickens. Most can also have leaves and stems dried to provide roughage or healthy supplements throughout winter and early spring.

Check out what Sam Thayer says about your area and your local foraging guide. Nettles have to be treated for livestock the same way they are for us, and some wild edibles are too time consuming, but there are others that can increase our feed (and pantry) potentials without a great deal of work because the weeds grow like … well, weeds.

Alternative feeds for your livestock

Using a mix of intentional forage and fodder trees, increasing the use of fruit trees and shrubs to harvest green grass and dry hay replacements or increase silage content, and looking at the wild edibles in our areas as a way to increase livestock feeds can make a difference in both resiliency and livestock costs, especially if we’re running small flocks and herds.

You need to slowly transition livestock to new feeds, especially if they’re accustomed to 1-2 base feeds, but livestock is just like humanity – we all do best with a variety of foods. Livestock is especially dependent on gut microflora to help them break down foods. I’m sure you’ve heard the “starving with a full belly” nugget. Before commercial feed and penned livestock was so prevalent, there was also “spring sickness” or “green dribbles” that came in part from livestock being able to access pasture again after winter, eating their heads off, and ending up with upset stomachs. Slowly transitioning livestock and keeping them on a variety of feeds can help limit those conditions because their guts stay primed to consume them.

Some other nuggets to research, especially for game birds like ducks and young poultry that need higher proteins, include black soldier fly farms, algae and duckweed aquariums, and worm bins or troughs. Fast-breeding minnows will change the flavor of eggs and meat, but can be kept in pretty small tanks with low energy needs. There’s also barely-sprouted grains (the ones that barely have any “tail” showing when they’re offered). I’m not a major fan of sprouted fodder systems (the kind that grow root mats and green shoots in trays) as a primary livestock feed for anything more than a couple of chickens or rabbits, but then, I’d also rather grow and re-grow rotating flats of mixed weeds and wheat grass for them in winter because it’s a lot less costly and labor intensive. Just remember that while some livestock like chickens and rabbits can be vegans and have lower protein needs, the game birds like ducks are not really grazers – they need seeds and-or live foods and the higher calories and proteins those offer.

There are a world of livestock feed options that don’t begin with slicing an alfalfa bale or cutting open a bag of pellets. Even if we choose to stay with grains and conventionally farmed feeds, having the alternative foraging and fodder options gives us a fallback and gives us something to shoulder as we walk around, giving our livestock extra nutrients and variety that can help keep them healthier.

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This is the second article looking at ways we can cut our dependence on commercial feeds for our livestock. The first article primarily dealt with historic feeds and ways of storing

Homesteading’s the fine art of getting your land legs while learning how to do most of the stuff on your own. It’s great to have your own slice of heaven by the sea or in the middle of a dark and twisted forest – I for one can vouch that, most of the time, it’s rather amusing to figure out how our ancestors did things like tending to the garden, raising farm animals, settling in for the winter, picking up fresh herbs from the garden or building simple stuff out back.

Still, as pleasure-laden, as homesteading may be or become, it’s rather a turnoff when you need to do all of the things or more when you’re sick. Even a simple cold or the flu can turn a grown man into a noodle, but imagine what happens when you become bound to your sickbed with no one around to take care of you and your house.

Yes, that may strike as being a little depressive, but, unfortunately, it can happen even to the best of us. I being struck down a couple of months ago by the stomach flu somehow wound up all alone at my hunting cabin. Wife couldn’t come up on account of the kids being sick too and no driver’s license, so I was kind of force to get ingenious about my homesteading.

Anyway, after careful considerations and some chicken soup, I came with this wonderful piece which details my journey from sickly couch-potato to a regular Paul Bunyan wannabee. Without further ado, here’s are my golden rules to successful homesteading while you’re sick.

  1. Stay in bed

Of course, my first golden rule had to be a no-brainer because of reasons. Just kidding – most people tend to underestimate the severity of their medical condition and decide to just brush it off. Don’t do that. If you’re feeling that your legs are turning into the noodle, get to bed, medicate, and sleep on it. Remember that you’re all alone out there, and if you happen to collapse while working the field or chopping wood, there’s no one around to pick you up or drive you to the hospital.

  1. Get in touch with emergency services

No matter if you’re a big city dweller or the king of your own hill or mountain, you’ve still got to figure out how to get in touch with the emergency services in case shit hits the fan. A while after I bought my hunting cabin, figuring out that I kind of get down with the flu when spring comes, I went to my local drug store and bought me a one-push emergency bracelet.

Surprisingly, the device has great coverage, even in places where there’s no phone signal. Don’t kid around with your health, especially if you decide to drop off the grid. If you can’t find an emergency bracelet, use an emergency service smartphone application like Emergency+ if you have adequate coverage. A portable distress beacon is always a great alternative, but it will need some tinkering before you can use it to alert the local emergency services.

  1. Keep an ample supply of chopped wood or fire-starting material

Golden rule number three – when you’re game, chop as much wood as you can because you won’t be able to do so when you’re sick. It would also be a good idea to keep a small wood stack as close to the home as possible to minimize exposure to the elements.

Yes, I know that’s a big no-no in the big book of prepping, but some rules are meant to be bent if in doing so increases your survival likelihood. If your stove is running on another kind of fuel, be sure to keeps some close by, but not too close to the heating device.

  1. Soup broth all around!

I know it’s kind of a cliché but hot chicken soup really help you’re sick or feeling down. Making some in your home is no big deal. Still, I would skip the cooking part and go buy some canned soup. Sure, nothing beats a home-cooked meal, but do keep in mind that you can’t prepare the broth that much in advance.  So, make sure you have enough in your pantry for whatever the case may be.

  1. No one should be without a checklist

Checklists are a marvelous way of keeping everything nice and tidy, especially if you’re the kind of person that has no love for neatness. If you find yourself alone and sick on your property, get yourself together and try to jot down a small to-do list for the next couple of days. That way, you will have ensured that you haven’t missed anything.

  1. Let someone know you’re there

You may be king of the mountain, but every king sometimes requires the aid of a royal advisor. In this case, you should let someone know where you are and, most importantly, how long you’re planning on staying. If you plan on moving there, get to know your neighbors and, if possible, ask someone to check up on you every couple of days to make sure that you’re safe and sound.

  1. Keeping your meds close

You don’t need to be sick in order to figure out that it’s really important for the meds to be within reach. I personally emptied an old wooden wardrobe and sort of turned it into a big med cabinet. Of course, you can do as you like when it comes to med storage. Don’t forget about the golden rule of med hoarding: painkillers first, anti-histamines second, and vitamin supplements last.

These are my golden rules of homesteading while I’m sick. As I’ve mentioned, all of this stuff are the results of my me-time at the hunting cabin. Sure, it may be possible that some steps might be a bit off, but, as I’ve said, this was a personal experience. Think something’s missing from the list? Then go ahead and hit the comments section and let me know what you think.

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Homesteading’s the fine art of getting your land legs while learning how to do most of the stuff on your own. It’s great to have your own slice of heaven

American colonists were once encouraged to grow and cultivate cannabis for hemp, but it all changed when the plant’s more “medicinal” uses were discovered. And here we are now.

These days it seems like Wall Street has high hopes for the blossoming cannabis industry — with marijuana stocks rapidly gaining traction. Tilray (TLRY) , the first marijuana IPO in the United States, has been having a heyday in the market, with one of the most astonishing sessions earlier this week that saw the stock shoot up over 90% before closing lower. And with an estimated valuation of around $24 billion, cannabis is no longer a joke on The Street.

As other companies like Coca-Cola (KO – Get Report)  work on getting a piece of the pot pie, it seems the wave of approval for cannabis-based companies and IPOs won’t be stopped.

 

Question is – why aren’t you investing in marijuana stocks right now?

You’re missing out on what could be the quickest and easiest way to get rich in your lifetime. Right now, literally hundreds of these marijuana stocks are exploding to rare highs of 8,500%, 11,430%, 17,054%, 25,099% and even 127,900%…

Minting hundreds of new millionaires — and even billionaires, like Christian Blue and Michael Kennedy — along the way. And because many of these marijuana stocks are still trading for just pennies, you could literally start investing in marijuana stocks with just a $100 bill.

So what’s keeping you from turning that tiny stake into a massive fortune, and retire incredibly wealthy in less than a year. I’ve seen it happen to literally dozens of folks already.  And even more, are still becoming millionaires seemingly every single day.

One fellow I know of, for example — Terry Braid — was a local electrician in his hometown, when he decided to invest in this once-in-a-lifetime boom with a friend. The result? His combined stake is now worth over $200 million! Imagine that… A 53-year-old now has more millions than he could ever spend. All because he invested in what historians could look back on as the biggest boom ever.

You will NEVER see an easier way to get rich than explosive marijuana stocks… not in your lifetime. And if you miss out, you’ll spend the rest of your life regretting it.

news headline

Right now, hedge funds, venture capitalists, institutional investors and even massive corporations like Constellation Brands have marijuana investments in the pipeline. And once they get set up, billions — possibly even trillions — of dollars will flow into the marijuana industry, helping push these marijuana stocks even higher.

This really is the new gold rush.

That’s why we’re already seeing some of the world’s biggest investors, like hedge fund billionaire Leon Cooperman, and billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel, go all in. It’s the biggest no-brainer of our generation.

But while the “smart money” is going all-in right now,  everyday folks are being left out of this once-in-a-lifetime “get-rich-quick opportunity.” Regular Americans like you are not participating, simply because they don’t know how to get started, or what marijuana stocks they should buy.

And that’s not fair.

Many of These Tiny Marijuana Stocks Are Still Trading for Just Pennies!

 

 

Because there are literally countless dozens of other small marijuana stocks still trading for pennies, you could get started with a single $100 bill. You could cash out with a retirement fortune just a few short months from today.

After all, just look at what happened with shares of Abattis Bioceuticals Corp., a tiny Canadian-based marijuana company. You’ve probably never heard of it. But had you invested a single $100 bill when shares were trading for just 3 cents, you could have cashed out with $9,208 in profits. In just a little over three months!

chart

Look, take it from someone who has been involved with the markets for well over a decade. There’s never been ANYTHING like this before. This is the true “get rich quick” opportunity you’ve spent your whole life waiting for, one that could turn a single $100 bill into a retirement fortune.

That’s because Abattis Bioceuticals Corp. is just one of literally hundreds of marijuana stocks that are exploding right now…

For example, look at what happened with shares of Acacia Diversified Holdings, a tiny marijuana company from Clearwater, Florida. Had you put $100 in when shares were trading for just pocket change, you could have turned your $100 stake into a quick $13,700 windfall. Invest $1,000 and you’d be looking at $137,000 in profits!

Imagine that… six figures in gains in just a few short weeks.

chart

 

 

You’re probably starting to see why so many people are becoming marijuana millionaires seemingly every day. That’s because the bottom line is this: almost every single day, dozens of marijuana stocks are exploding, making it the fastest and easiest way to grow rich… starting with just a few dollars in your pocket. 

But this WON’T last forever…

The marijuana stocks that are trading for pennies will soon begin trading for $25… $50… $75… or maybe even $100 or more. And once they get expensive like that, it will be too late for you to get rich quick. We’re already starting to see it happen with some marijuana stocks like Canopy Growth Corp., which recently reached a high of $51.53.

That’s why I can’t emphasize size this enough, there’s no time to waste.  We will NEVER see an opportunity even remotely like this again in our lifetime. That means you have a very small window of opportunity to act. One that’s closing with each passing day.

Just remember, every day you sit out, someone else is growing rich from Marijuana Stocks!

Funny or not, it’s just the simple truth.

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Just remember, every day you sit out, someone else is growing rich from Marijuana Stocks!

Ever since I bought my very first computer back in the odd ‘90s, I sort of became a hoarder of everything related to tech – I kid you not when I say that the back of my garage is filled to the proverbial brim with outdated components like CPUs, motherboards, video cards, monitors, and boxes of CDs, DVDs, and floppy disks.

Sometimes I feel the urge to pop open my PC’s optical drive just to see what’s on them. Unfortunately for the computer geek in me, half of that stuff has stopped working long ago. As for the CDs and DVDs, not even wishful thinking can restore them to their former glory. Still, that doesn’t mean I should throw them away.

Even the thought of parting with a single CD would break my hear. So, as usual, I paid a visit to my old pal Google to see what other people have done with their optical disk collection. I was stunned to see just ingenious people get when it comes to repurposing stuff.

And yes, even though all the threads began with “do, I really need to throw them in the garbage?”, they usually ended in a lighter note – great homesteading projects and some of them carried out by guys who haven’t even head the word “prepping.”

So, if you are the proud owner of a huge CD or DVD collection, here are X clever ways to use them around the house.

  1. Building a gigantic solar cooker

I simply love outdoor cooking, no matter if it’s barbequing or watching others prepare food. Anyway, this one thread was speaking about creating a solar cooker from CDs or DVDs. Yes, I know it sounds crazy. That was my first impression as well. However, the math seemed to be right, and since the weather’s nice, I tried to see if it works.

Now, keep in mind that you will need around 100 or 200 CDs and DVDs for this project and old parabolic antenna (the biggest you can find). If you don’t want to invest too much cash, you can always pay a visit to your junkyard to scavenge for parts (that’s where I found the antenna). Here’s what you will need to do in order to create your solar cooker.

Place the antenna in the yard’s hottest spot (that would be around the back). Using a nail gun or zip tie, attach the CDs to the antenna. Make sure that you don’t leave any gaps. When you’re done, take a small grill and attach it just below the receiver (I used a couple of metal pieces which I secured to the receiver using screws).

Wait for the grill to get hot, then BBQ your meat of choice. If the weather’s holding out, you should be able to get at least 700 degrees Fahrenheit. Now, if the temp’s too high for you, simply remove a couple of CDs to lower it.

  1. Creating a retro-futuristic night lamp for your off-grid cabin

Everything can be solved with a little illumination. If you’re a big fan of DIYs and repurposing, you should definitely try out this simple and neat project. The result is a cool, retro-futuristic night lamp that’s brighter than anything you have around the house. Even neat is the fact that it won’t cost you a dime.

Here’s what you’ll need to do – salvage a bulb socket from an old lamp. Search around the house for an LED bulb (there’s bound to be one somewhere, especially if you’re committed to stockpiling survival items).

Take a closer look at the wires coming out of the socket. If they’re too far gone, replace them with new ones. Now grab a handful of CDs (I used about 50 for my project) and some epoxy. Stack and glue them together. Place the socket inside the stack, screw in the bulb, draw the wires, attach a plug, and have fun with it.

  1. Keeping pests away from your veggie garden

I like birds and bees and flies as much as the next man, but not while they’re tearing apart my veggie garden and my corn. Still, I can’t find it within me to take out my hunting rifle and shoot those birds down. And no, I won’t even consider using chemical pesticides. While reading about CDs and DVDs, I came across a thread which suggested that old optical supports can be used to keep pests away.

Didn’t believe it for a second, but I hung up a couple of ones at the edge of my garden just to see what happens. Don’t know how or why, but those crows seemed to be scared shitless of the light reflected by those old CDs. What can I say? Win-win.

  1. A hiding place for docs and jewelry

Not enough dough for a strongbox or a safe? No problem. You can use a stack of old CDs or DVDs to create a hiding place for your valuables. Here’s what you will need to do. Get ahold of one of those mini-CDs (you’re going to use this as a reference point). Place it over a bunch of old CDs (at least 50) and draw the mini disk’s outline using a marker.

Now here comes the fun part: using a hacksaw, cut on the ‘dotted line.’ When you’re done, glue all of them together to create a miniature tower. It’s now time to put everything together. Place one CD on the bottom of the plastic holder.

Glue the stack to the base. Now put a holder inside your mini safe (I used an old muffin mold). Place another CD on top, screw the plastic lid in place and, voila, your project’s completion.

That’s it for my four neat ways of repurposing old CDs and DVDs. Now, I know there are tons of other ways to make use of disks, and I would really like to know your thoughts on this. So, hit the comment section and let me know.

Other self-sufficiency and preparedness solutions recommended for you:

The Lost Ways (The vital self-sufficiency lessons our great grand-fathers left us)

Survival MD (Knowledge to survive any medical crisis situation)

Backyard Liberty (Liberal’s hidden agenda: more than just your guns…)

Alive After the Fall (Build yourself the only unlimited water source you’ll ever need)

The Lost ways II (4 Important Forgotten Skills used by our Ancestors that can help you in any crisis)

The Patriot Privacy Kit (Secure your privacy in just 10 simple steps)

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Ever since I bought my very first computer back in the odd ‘90s, I sort of became a hoarder of everything related to tech – I kid you not when

Probably the best thing about an off-grid home is that it kinda forces you to get back on speaking terms with things you wouldn’t do for all the money in the world. If someone had told me 15 years ago that I was I going to split logs, stack manure or making candles out of bacon, I would’ve probably told him that his mom’s a very nice person (not!).

Anyway, ever since I bought this dingy, I learned that the things I once considered as being nasty or beneath me are actually very entertaining and, dare I say, therapeutic to some degree. Of course, shoveling manure can hardly be considered fun, but spending an afternoon splitting logs for a cozy campfire or late-night BBQ is awesome.

On the latter activity – splitting logs and making fires is fun. Cleaning up afterward is not. The only thing that kept me from doing this all day was sawdust. It gets everywhere – I found that stuff inside my boots, my pants, even my skivvies for God’s sake. And no matter how hard you broom or power wash the place, you will still find sawdust piles.

Okay, so cleaning sawdust is not entertaining, but figuring out what to do with that stuff after gathering it, well…still not fun enough for me. I mean, what in Hell’s name can you do with a handful of wood chippings and dust apart from taking it to the thrash? That’s when it hit me.

I remember watching this outdoor cooking show featuring this guy who had the same problem with sawdust. The only difference between us is that he figured out a way to reuse it. His clever workaround was reusing the stuff to cure and smoke meat. Neat, isn’t it? Well, long story made short, I hopped on the Internet and searched for ways to reuse that stuff around the house. And, wouldn’t you know, there is indeed life after death, at least for sawdust. So, without further ado, here are X creative recycle and reuse wood dust.

Making a campfire

Remember about the tinder box? Well, because it can get so lonely for that char cloth of yours, here’s one more thing you can add – fine sawdust. Since this stuff’s the byproduct of woodworking, it’s safe to assume that it can be used to start a fire. However, since sawdust’s very, well, dry, it will need something else to sustain a flame.

On a prepping forum, someone suggested that you can make a briquette out of a bar of wax and a handful of sawdust. It’s very easy – melt the wax in a small pan and add the wood shavings. Stir and allow the mixture to harden. After that, cut it into tinder box-size pieces and profit.

Weed-whacker

A gardener has but four sworn enemies: moles, bad weather, moles, insects, and weeds. Moles can be kept away by sprinkling a bit of wood ash at the base of the plant, while insects go nuts around coffee grounds. There’s nothing you can do about bad weather, though (you can try a rain dance if that makes you feel a little better). But weeds can be dealt with by using sawdust. After planting your veggies, place a thin layer of sawdust on top.

Veggies don’t mind wood chippings; weeds, on the other hand, won’t go near that stuff. I don’t know the science behind this claim, but I’ve read somewhere that it has something to do with inhibiting the weed’s natural parasitic properties. Tried it a couple of times in my garden, and it works like a charm. You can also use some of this stuff in those cracks that appear on your driveway.

Pulling a fast one on a drunk friend

I don’t think there’s anything more disturbing than waking up butt-naked outside during the winter. If you want to pull a fast one on someone’s who got sauced at your party, get some sawdust, spray-paint it white, lay it outside, and carry your bud then. Well, this may not be your typical SHTF use, but at least it makes for a great YouTube video.

Dealing with oil spills

Probably most of you have attempted at least once to fix your car in the garage. The operations might have gone well, but the same thing cannot be said about the floor, which is covered in motor oil. Power washing the floor won’t work. Trust me. I think I’ve used up more water than two hospitals trying to clean one tiny spill.

To quickly get rid of that thing, sprinkle some sawdust over it. In a couple of minutes, the sawdust will absorb all the oil. All you need to do now would be to use the power blower to get rid of the oil-soaked sawdust pile.

Make neat garden or forest paths

If your home’s next to the forest, there’s bound to be a place of interest nearby – a creek, rock with peculiar features, an old tree, perhaps even a cave. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a nice path leading to it, instead of relying each time on markings or memory? Well, you can do that using sawdust, sand, and a couple of river rocks. Start by choosing you rocks – they should be flat and smooth because you wouldn’t want to hurt your feet now, would you?

The path should be at least one-and-a-half meters in width which mean that you’ll need to use at least three small and flat rock or two big ones. Figure out just how many rocks the path will require before heading off into the forest to scavenge for materials.

Use a hoe or an implement with a flat head to trace the path from your garden to the place of interest. After that, add a think layer of sand and a layer of sawdust on top – this combo will allow you to them the river rocks easier. Finally, arrange the rocks, place some tiki torches on either side of the path for mood, and you’re done.

Extra fertilization!

Plants don’t have enough yum-yum to grow? Try a little bit of sawdust. Here’s what I like to do about pretentious veggies – in a plastic bucket, put one full shovel of manure, two shovels of organic compost, and half a kilogram of sawdust. Add some water and mix with something (I usually end up putting some surgical gloves on because it’s easier to mix that stuff with your hands). When you’re done, pour that mix over your veggies of choice and wait to see what happens.

Sawdust’s also a great and eco-friendly way to combat soil erosion. Some gardeners even use it for mulching.  Word of warning though – if you plan on using sawdust in conjunction with manure and compost, avoid walnut trees. Apparently, walnut wood contains a substance that kills plants without discrimination.

For when nature calls

Well, these are shitty times, which means that we always have to ensure that there’s at least one functional toilet around the house. This is not a problem for those of use leaving close to the woods, but what do you in case your city toilet gets clogged, or the water pump fails? Sure, you could go to a friend or neighbor’s house for number 2 or number one, but that’s hardly what I would call a solution. In the immortal words of Bear Grylls: adapt, overcome, and…. make a portable shitter.

It’s very easy to build one. Best of all, you’ll only need things that are usually found around the house. Here’s how to do it. Take a big plastic bucket and saw the top off. Get a second smaller bucket, and place it inside the bigger one. Fill the smaller one with a mixture of sawdust, kitty litter, and perhaps something to wish away the nasty smell. Now, go around the house and search for an old toilet seat and a plastic ring.

The latter should be thin enough to slide in the narrow gap created by the two buckets. Use some epoxy to glue the plastic ring to the bottom part of the toilet seat. Congrats! You’ve just built your first portable emergency toilet. When the potty fills up, take out the second bucket, discard in the compost pile or heavy-duty garbage bag, and refill with sawdust and kitty litter.

Using as bedding for your cats and dogs

If you’re unable to get to the pet shop, you can use sawdust to fill your cat’s\dog’s poopy box. It may not be pretty, and your cat will surely have the murderous gaze in its easy, but at least your pet will not go number two on the carpet or bathroom tiles.

Provides extra traction

As you know, many counties made winter traction kits mandatory for drivers. A good thing too, because getting snowbound isn’t exactly relaxing. If you want to add more kick to your winter traction solution, try this trick. In a bag or bucket mixt kitty litter, sand, rock salt, and sawdust. It’s a great combo – litter, sawdust, and sand will provide you with extra traction while salt makes the snow melt.

Patching holes in woodwork

I was more than thrilled about my new home away from home. Mostly because I managed to convince the former owner to go way below the initial price. Well, long story short, there was a reason why the guy did this – the entire living room carpentry was full of holes as if someone had been using the walls for target practice or something. Obviously, the thing cost me a pretty penny, and I didn’t have much left to repair the walls. However, a fellow prepper told me that I could use sawdust to temporary fill the holes.

Yes, I know it was a piss-poor job, but at least the living room didn’t look like Swiss cheese. If you’re having the same problem, here’s what you will need to do – put a small amount of epoxy inside each hole. After that, take a handful of sawdust and fill the hole. Allow the glue to harden. Finally, give that wall a fresh coat of paint and, voila, no more holes.

Grow your own mushrooms

Remember my article about using coffee grounds to grow mushrooms? Well, there’s another way to grow a yummy-yummy batch of shrooms. The trick is to use Eastern Red Cedar sawdust. This might come as good news for people who have no love for coffee. Or for those who prefer coffee capsules over the regular variety.

The procedure’s more or less the same as in the case of using coffee leftovers. Get a plastic bucket, put some fresh dirt into it, add a handful of sawdust, add some stuff from your compost pile, mix, add some mushroom seeds, and store into a damp place. You’re welcome!

Well, that’s it on how to recycle sawdust. Do you have other ways in mind? Hit the comments section and share your thoughts with the rest of the community.

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Probably the best thing about an off-grid home is that it kinda forces you to get back on speaking terms with things you wouldn’t do for all the money in

Oatmeal – Jazzing Up the Ubiquitous Prepper Cereal

Being inexpensive, rolled oats can help us save money now, and it’s a good one to stock up on for the same reasons – cheap, filling and full of endurance-granting slow-release energy. I’m not a big fan of “just” oatmeal as a hot cereal. It’s just … well, boring. Too, I anticipate plenty enough spoon-and-bowl meals from beans and rice, boiled wheat or barley, or soups in a crisis, whether it’s a personal crisis or a widespread disaster. I’d rather avoid more as much as possible. The humble rolled oats tub actually helps me there in a big way.

Using mostly things that are also already in my storage or that are easy and inexpensive to obtain, I can churn out desserts, snacks, sides, dinners and breakfasts that are interesting and varied, and don’t really taste like oatmeal. Oatmeal also has a lot of soothing and absorption properties that gives it some handy topical uses.

Using Oatmeal to Extend Meats & Meals

Mix in flakes of oatmeal and-or lentils and ground beans to extend things like meatloaf, meatballs and the hamburger in stews. Oats also make a fabulous replacement for breadcrumbs that would be used as binding or for coating meats.

Add it into Stovetop or homemade bread dressing or stuffing to increase the healthy fibers and calories, and the feelings of satiety from meals.

 

Grind coarsely or finely and add to flours for bannock, breads, muffins, and biscuits. Zucchini bread, carrot cake and other sweets can take as much as a quarter of the flour in oats without a significant change in texture or flavor. Pancakes, pie crusts, dumplings, cookies and cobblers can all have part of the flour replaced, especially with oats processed to a fine powder.

Fifty-fifty mixes or greater will be far more noticeable and may require additional liquids, but it also increases the heartiness of foods, helps us feel fuller and keep that satisfaction longer over stripped bleached flours especially, gives us healthier, natural arcs of energy, and lowers the glycemic index of foods while helping stomachs process.

Ground oatmeal can also be used to thicken soups, stews and gravy, just like ground beans or lentils that are too old to soak up water efficiently.

Easy Non-Cereal Recipes

Oatmeal has a lot of applications for cooking, without resorting to a bowl of hot cereal. Most of them can be done with a Dutch oven, campfire, rocket stove, or a solar oven or Wonderbag cooker if we don’t have access to our stoves and ovens.

Ash cakes can be made out of pretty much any flour. Using some salt, milk, egg or fats will improve flavor, but the bare-bones way of doing it is to mix just a little water at a time with flour or meal – or in this case, oats – until we can form a patty, then flopping it onto a cooler section of ash. Rolled oats will do best if they’re ground to a flour or if they’re allowed to soak a bit first. As a plain, just-salted version, they make a bread we can have with soups or meats. A little sugar or fruits, and we’re getting closer to a cookie. Alternatively, we can top them with honey or jams, fruits, sweetened cream, or something like a chili or bean medley.

Baked Oatmeal Muffins – A basic recipe with add-in’s for interest and variety is here https://brendid.com/healthy-oatmeal-muffins-no-flour-no-sugar-no-oil/ along with additional links. You can also find dozens of recipes as simple or complicated as you like, with and without other flours and oils, with just about any search. They turn oats into a fast, easy finger food that’s readily portable.

No-Bake Cookies are a staple in some lives. With just a few ingredients and few utensils dirtied, we can use up our oats to satisfy cravings for a fork or finger food as well as a sweet treat. Given the speed with which they disappear as either drop clusters or sliced squares at BSA and adult gatherings these days, during a disaster they’ll be a for-sure hit.

Oatmeal bars can be found as Amish Baked Oatmeal or other standard baked oatmeal, such as this one http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/baked-oatmeal. Oatmeal can also be turned into homemade granola bars. They’re out there in the internet world as soft chewy bars or crunchy options. All of them are adaptable to the fruits, nuts and seeds we have on hand or prefer. There are also homemade granola bars that make use of cereals that store well such as Rice Krispies, Cheerios, or Chex, which can increase the variety even more.

Crunchy granola clusters like this one that has healthier ingredients and a few extra steps and this one that uses lower-cost and easy-to-source ingredients with fewer steps in the process have a lot of versatility. There’s a lot to be said for the ability to turn out a nice snacking portion while using up inexpensive oats, today and later. And, if you’re giddy for it, making mini clusters to throw in as a homemade cold cereal can help provide a different breakfast meal even with a spoon.

Fruit crisps – A basic oatmeal crisp recipe such as this one has a lot of versatility, both now and during a personal crisis or a widespread disaster. We can use it with any pie filling we have, or regular canned fruits we strain or thicken the syrups. We can also use it to make stuffed apples, pears or peaches. It can go over cubed, mashed or pureed pumpkin or sweet potatoes as well, or can be used as a topper for a baked sweet potato. Oatmeal crisp is pretty versatile and forgiving, so we can add a quarter to a half extra oats to our recipe if we want a somewhat heartier and healthier version, or just to help us use up a few more of our rolled oats.

 

Cookies, Pizzas & Pie Crusts – Cookies are pretty cool as they are. Made thick and gooey, they can be a pretty hearty dessert by topping with dried or canned fruit or pie filling, with or without heavy or whipped cream. We can spread them out in a pie pan to make a quickie crust, use a crisp recipe for a pie crust, or we can bake them as a big, wide cookie to then slice up as a dessert pizza topped with cream cheese, frosting or glaze and then whatever fruit, nuts or morsels floats our boat.

Southern Oatmeal Cake – There are numerous versions of oatmeal cakes, although they’re pretty similar. It’s not the prettiest dish in the lineup, but it’s gooey happiness that can satisfy our sweet tooth without enormous expense. For an easier version that’s more storage friendly or to create some variety, we can alternate the topping with tubs of German chocolate cake frosting, reduced sweetened condensed milk, or just honey if coconut isn’t available. It’s also pretty darn nummy just with some heavy cream, whole milk, whipped cream, or clotted cream on top.

Fried Oatmeal is like fried grits. It starts with the cereal we all know, then it gets packed in a glass or a lined bowl, chilled so it sets up, and later, gets turned out and sliced, then fried in grease, butter or oil. The amount or depth of oil in the pan can change the texture some. The size of the slice both in thickness and width-by-height can affect whether it’s a plate meal like pancakes or if it can be picked up like happy French toast fingers for a non-spoon meal. As with pancakes, waffles and French toast, the topping options become endless – fried “dippy” eggs, sweetened syrups or fruits, chocolate or strawberry milk syrup, cinnamon sugar, and sausage bits and honey are favorites in our house. Chopped nuts can be included in the cereal or added on top for a little bit more texture yet.

For additional ideas about using oatmeal, do a search for savory recipes. Even when it’s served as a bowl of hot cereal, inclusions like grated radish, sprouts, fish, and tomatoes and peppers can increase the variety we’re seeing with our rolled oats and help prevent fatigue from them.

Oats Outside the Kitchen

We can really feel our oats sometimes. Probably most of us have already seen or use – possibly regularly – a product that makes use of some of oats’ best qualities. Just as oatmeal is a pretty soothing and mild option for breakfast, it has a lot of uses externally, too.

Oats can be added to bathwater or used as a paste to relieve:

  • Dry, itchy skin (for animals, too)
  • Bug bites
  • Burns & sunburn

It can also be added to soaps for its soothing qualities, or turned into an exfoliating scrub.

Combined with baking soda, we can use ground oatmeal flour as a dry shampoo, scrubbing it in with our fingers, then brushing it out. The two absorb oils and relieve any itching, which can be an excellent low-weight and inexpensive option during sweaty garden seasons should water be in limited supply.

That dry shampoo can also safely be used on cats and dogs, to save money on no-rinse shampoos, to avoid stressing a pet with a shower bath, to treat flea or grass allergies, or to avoid getting them wet in cold weather.

Satchels & Sachets

When we don’t really want to turn a bath into an oatmeal pot to scrub, or don’t have a tub available, we can make little balls of rolled oats, with or without additives like baking soda or herbs and oils to gain relief from skin irritations. We can use them in showers, baths, creeks, or just dampened and dabbed on affected areas.

Those, too, can be used on our pets to treat hot spots, bites, and irritated skin.

Satchels of rolled oats can also be used to:

  • Absorb odors in shoes, closets, bags, coolers
  • Absorb moisture from containers before sealing, or sealed with important items

Heat relieves some of the discomfort from cramps, headaches and muscle pains. Pouches can also be filled with warmed dry oatmeal to create in-the-glove or pocket hand-warmers.

Using Up Oats

Oats are a major part of prepper food storage kits because they’re inexpensive. They store well, last well past supermarket best-by dates, have a lot of health benefits for the gut and cardiovascular system, and the fiber and whole grains of rolled oats help us feel full for longer as well as provide slow-release energy that can keep us moving through long days of work or travel.

Happily, they’re also pretty versatile, and with a little creativity we can use them to stretch our budgets now as well as increase our food storage.

There are probably fifty million more recipes out there for making oats without a steaming bowl and spoon, from breads to desserts. There are probably another dozen helpful ways to use it up outside the kitchen. These are just a few of my favorites, due to the ease or the effectiveness of them. Feel free to tag on your additional favorite non-cereal-bowl recipes and uses outside the kitchen.

Other self-sufficiency and preparedness solutions recommended for you:

Healthy Soil + Healthy Plants = Healthy You

The vital self-sufficiency lessons our great grand-fathers left us

Knowledge to survive any medical crisis situation

Liberal’s hidden agenda: more than just your guns

Build yourself the only unlimited water source you’ll ever need

4 Important Forgotten Skills used by our Ancestors that can help you in any crisis

Secure your privacy in just 10 simple steps

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Oatmeal – Jazzing Up the Ubiquitous Prepper Cereal Being inexpensive, rolled oats can help us save money now, and it’s a good one to stock up on for the same reasons

The best state for homesteading depends on many things and may not be the same for everyone. Every state has pros and cons, so which is best for you will depend on how you rank the individual pros and cons. For example, I would never consider homesteading in Alaska; it is far too cold for me. My son, however, loves it there and many people successfully homestead in the state.

So to determine the best states for homesteading, I decided to look first at the factors I am looking for in a homesteading location. You may not agree with my ranking; that is fine. We don’t want to be bidding against each other for the one ideal piece of property. Here are some of the factors that I consider to be most important in choosing your homestead location.

 

 

Good Soil and Easy Access to Water

This seems obvious, but I once tried to build a homestead on hard Texas clay. I had chosen a house with land, without considering the quality of the land. It was hard digging for that garden and my vegetables were small and sometimes misshapen. Check the soil in many different places around the property and consider whether water is available near the garden spot and where you might want animals. Also check the quality of the water and consider having it tested.

Another thing to check is the history of the land. An environmental assessment will tell you whether it has any environmental risks associated with former use. You don’t want to be gardening on a former hazardous waste site. This may seem rare to you, but it happens more often than you might think.

Related – Knowledge to survive any medical crisis situation

Moderate Temperatures

If you want to grow all your food, you need moderate weather and a long growing season. I consider USDA Hardiness Zone 7 to be a good cutoff for me. Lower zones can still be farmed, but you will need more land because of the shorter growing season.

I live in zone 9b where I have a long growing season. We grow two crops a year, planting in the early spring and in the late summer. Most plants die back at mid-summer because of the heat, but even then many plants thrive. While the garden produces well, people and animals may find the heat unbearable.

Southern states get more sun and are warmer, while coastal land benefits from the moderating effects of ocean breezes, but have higher humidity in general.

Remote Location or a Low Population Density

It is possible to homestead in the suburbs of a big city; however, most prepping homesteaders are looking for a more remote location. A remote location insulates you from many societal problems should SHTF, however it also might limit your access to emergency care or help when you need it. If you choose a remote location, take care to develop a good relationship with your neighbors, you will be relying on their skills as well as your own.

Instead of a remote location, you might choose a location in a state with low population density. Living near a small town has many of the advantages of the city, while still offering you insulation from the desperate masses.

 

 

Find a Community of Like-Minded People

Probably most important is choosing a place where you feel you belong. You belong because you love the area, but also because you have much in common with the community. If you don’t share similar values and ideologies with your neighbors, you may end up being the odd-man out.

To survive in a SHTF situation, you will need to band together with your neighbors. If they don’t trust you or feel that you aren’t their “type,” you may never be able to establish that connection. You could be shunned because of your politics or your beliefs on any particular issue. Get to know the neighbors before you buy.

Related –4 Important Forgotten Skills used by our Ancestors that can help you in any crisis

My Thoughts on The Best States for Homesteading

The best state for homesteading is fairly personal and depends on our personal likes and dislikes. However, I am going to discuss the pros and cons of several states from my point of view. Perhaps you will have other areas of concern or reasons to choose a particular state. If so, leave me a comment below telling me why you like your state or don’t like mine.

States with Fertile Land, Easy Access to Water, and Moderate Temperatures

Oregon and Washington have fertile land, plenty of rain and moderate temperatures, putting them high on the list for farmers and some homesteaders. However, I would think carefully before locating in these states due to their high concentration of liberal voters. It is probably only a matter of time before these states pass laws against rainwater collection or other laws that may not be friendly to homesteaders. Unless you are like-minded, this may not be your community.

Virginia, Iowa, and Tennessee also have moderate temperatures, fertile land, and plenty of rain. Most homesteaders are able to grow good crops and raise animals. Land is moderately priced and the population density is favorable to homesteaders. You’ll find other homesteaders as well as experienced farmers here.

States with Warm Winters and Long Growing Seasons

The southern states of Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, and eastern parts of Oklahoma enjoy mild winters, fertile land and generous rain fall. However, The summers can be hot, hot, hot. You’ll enjoy a long growing season, if you can work in the heat and humidity.

Choose your land carefully because some areas are prone to flooding and others are swampy during some months of the year.

Related –The vital self-sufficiency lessons our great grand-fathers left us

Moderate Temperatures, Good Soil and Rainfall

The summers are a little more comfortable in South Carolina and Georgia than in the steamier states of the south. It is still hot in the summer, however, the moderate humidity (inland) makes a world of difference. First frost is usually around October or November, so you’ll enjoy a long growing season with a mild winter. Some areas have rich black soil, while others have rocky clay, and still others are sandy, so check your soil before buying. South Carolina and Georgia land prices and taxes are very reasonable in most areas.

Make Sure You Have the Basics

New Mexico and Arizona show up on many homestead lists, however, I do not agree. For me, the lack of easily available water is a deal breaker.

They enjoy cheap land and warm weather, but it is tough to grow your own food without water. Many people truck in their water, but in a SHTF situation, it may not be as easy.

Which State is On Your List?

If your favorite state is not on the list, don’t worry. This list is colored by my own preferences for warm weather and inexpensive land, however there is no reason you can’t homestead anywhere.

Every state has its own challenges and advantages, so a lot depends on your skill level and how much land you can afford. Let me know your preferences in the comments below.

Other Self-sufficiency and Preparedness solutions recommended for you:

The Lost Ways (The vital self-sufficiency lessons our great grand-fathers left us)
Survival MD (Knowledge to survive any medical crisis situation)
Backyard Liberty (Liberal’s hidden agenda: more than just your guns…)
Alive After the Fall (Build yourself the only unlimited water source you’ll ever need)
The Lost ways II (4 Important Forgotten Skills used by our Ancestors that can help you in any crisis)
The Patriot Privacy Kit (Secure your privacy in just 10 simple steps)

5 Comments

You may not agree with my ranking; that is fine. We don’t want to be bidding against each other for the one ideal piece of property.

I never imagined that there’s anything better to start a fire than char cloth. Well, times have changed, and so have I. At least about the fire-starting bit.

Ever heard about steel wool? Yes, I know it sounds rather contradictory, but this thing which, by the way, our grandparents used to scrub clean all those pots and pans, is everything a prepper may expect to find when reading our articles.

Apart from the fact that steel wool goes up in flame like its gasoline or something, it has tons of other uses around the house and, of course, in survival-type situations.

Fascinated by this – I don’t know how to call it – a byproduct of the metalworking industry, I spend a couple of hours searching for ways preppers utilize this stuff. What can I say, other than the fact that I struck gold? So, without further ado, here are 6 ways to use steel wool in a shit hits the fan situation, both in and out of the house.

Prevent drain clogging

I’ve always hated the idea of playing repairmen around the house (at least in rooms that have nothing to do with the bedroom). You want to know why? Because everything can be avoided if everyone around the house would exercise a quint little thing called common-sense. Recently, I had to unclog the bathtub’s drain two times because my wife has this thing about washing the dogs more often than necessary.

Anyway, I found out that a great way to prevent these mishaps would be to put some still wool around the drain before taking a bath. That thing sucks up every lock of hair like it were a sponge or something. You should also try using it in your kitchen’s sink, especially if you don’t have a garbage disposer.

No more loose screws

You probably know how frustrating it can be to try and drive a screw through a piece of wood when the hole’s too big. Well, you can try your luck finding a screw to fit the hole (pun intended), or you can use this simple prepper’s trick – wrap some steel wool around the screw and give it one more twist. If you don’t have any, take rip a small piece from a match, and stick it in the hole.

No more mice around the house

If you’re having critter trouble, snoop around a bit to see where they’re coming from. Once you find the mouse hole, cover it with a big piece of steel wool. Don’t worry about the mouse chewing through it – never going to happen!

Keep things sharp

If you ever run out of sharpening stones (true story here), you can use a wad of steel wool to keep your tools in working conditions. Works great on knives, but steel wool really works wonders on blunt scissors. Just take a big piece and snip it a couple of times with your scissors. You’ll get that thing sharpened in no time.

No more critters in the exhaust pipes

Winter comes, many people allow their cars and motorcycles to take a breather until spring. Nothing odd about this. However, what about them critters which tend to crawl into the exhaust pipes and air intakes? Apart from the fact that you end up gassing them to death once you start the engine, the stuff they bring along with them can clog the exhaust, resulting in engine damage and, possible, carbon monoxide poisoning.

Plugging the exhaust is the most obvious. Still, you don’t need to buy something very expensive to get the job done. Take a wad of steel cloth and shove it inside the air intake and the exhaust. You can wrap a bright-colored cloth or take around the pipes which you’ve stuffed with steel wool to serve you as a reminder to take them up before using the car.

Make rusty tools shine again

While searching for some stuff around the attic, I stumbled upon a small toolbox with several rusty tools inside. Asked my dad about them, and apparently, they belonged to my grandfather. Seeing the state they were in made my heart bleed, which meant I had to do something about it. Luckily, I had a pack of steel wool in my garage which made my job a lot easier. If you have rusty tools, try giving them a good scrub with a wad of steel wool. Works like a charm.

Now, if you really want to restore them to their former glory, you can try this trick – fill a tub with Coca-Cola and put every rusty tool inside. Let them soak overnight. Early in the morning, take them out and use a towel or cloth to remove the excess liquid. After drying them, scrub them with steel wool. You won’t find shinier tools anywhere. By the way, this method works on chrome surface as well.

Remove persistent wood stains

I’ve never seen true Hell until my wife put her coffee mug on the small living room table I just bought. You know those rings on the bottom of the mug that usually form when the coffee goes over the edges? They never go away. And, no matter how hard you scrub that wood surface, you won’t be able to remove it.

Well, least I thought before using steel wool. Encouraged by the kickass results I had with restoring grandpa’s rusty tool, I attempted to apply the same method on the wood table. Wouldn’t you know it? It worked! I had my share of doubts about using something as abrasive as steel wool on a fine surface, but, apparently, it didn’t leave any scratches. If you’re having the same issues, try a wad of steel wool.

Well, that’s about it for my uses of steel wool around the house. Sorry for not writing a word or two about its fire-starting abilities, but it seemed like self-implied. Anyway, hope you liked my article. As always, for comments, additions, rants or all three of them, hit the comments section.

0 Comments

Apart from the fact that steel wool goes up in flame like its gasoline or something, it has tons of other uses around the house and, of course, in survival-type