homesteading

The ABC of P-R-E-P-P-I-N-G

I can’t remember the first time I heard the word “prepping.” Probably back during those school camping trips when our PE teacher tried to show us how the Native Americans used to whip up a fire, long before matches and lighters were ever invented. Of course, what child was taken far away from home with his friends would have the energy or the attention span of listening to a man rubbing two sticks together?

That’s one of the things I tried showing to my students – if someone shows you a trick, even a small one like I don’t know, turning a poncho into a rainwater collector, pay attention and learn. You’ll never know when that stuff will come in handy.

Anyway, on to the topic du jour – what is prepping and when should we start, well, doing it, I suppose? This isn’t Merriam-Webster, nor the “P” volume of Encyclopedia Britannica. Don’t know any fancy definitions and never needed one, for that matter. For me, prepping is like knowing you will receive a slap for somebody and doing things in order to prevent it to the best of your powers. Something like that, I suppose.

Come to the prepping side! We have MREs

We don’t prep because we’re members of the tinfoil brigade or strongly believe that the world’s coming to an end and survival of the strongest and all that BS. We do it because it makes sense. I remember reading in a magazine (yes, I’m that old!) that prepping is like having your own crystal ball and being able to see into possible futures.

Leaving the mystical mumbo-jumbo aside, this sentence does raise a very good point – being able to predict something and act in accordance. For instance, if your car’s bulbs would burn out while you’re on the road, the most sensible thing to do would be to go to the nearest auto shop and get them replaced.

However, a good prepper would have the hindsight of carrying a box of extra in his glove box or vehicular emergency kit. A seasoned one would, however, get his car a good going-over before hitting the road, in addition to making sure that he has everything he needs to deal with this sort of emergencies.

This is just one example. There are countless more out there, and neither one spells out crazy or paranoia. Do you consider yourself “having bats in your belfry” just because you have a stockpile of canned food around the house or an extra pack of bottled water? No, you’re not, my friend. It’s, in fact, the other way around – it would be foolish not to have those around the house. All it takes is something as ‘harmless’ as a blackout to realize just how much you would have needed those stuff.

I tend to get this question a lot: when do you start prepping? Well, let me put it to you this way. This is not the sort of thing you only do when it’s convenient or fits into your agenda. You just start doing it and never stop. Still, anything has to start somewhere, and a good starting step would be the news. Have you tried reading them lately? One thing you’ll realize is that no matter where you live, there’s always something happening – a blackout, earthquakes, tsunamis, snow blizzards, rioting, active shooter.

The world’s littered with danger, and you can’t always rely on the authorities to keep you safe. Remember the Christchurch mosque shooting, the event that ended with the death of over 50 people? Well, as it happens, New Zealand was and is still considered one of the safest countries in the world, even though it has the same gun regulations as the United States.

The last event of this magnitude occurred in the early 50s, and even then, the country was still considered a safe one. Don’t make the mistake of assuming that you live in this glass menagerie, where everything is pink, fluffy, and happy. Shit happens, and when it does, it brings along all its friends.

Congrats! You have just taken the first step of your prepping journey. It’s called risk assessment and, in my opinion, the most important aspect. Knowing the name of the demon gives you power over it, the guy from The Exorcist used to say. The same goes for natural and man-made disasters.

The next steps are fairly easy, and all of them have, more or less, to do with your little incursion in the realm of danger. As a future master prepper, you will have to focus on the following areas: food, water, shelter, and security. Let’s take this one step at a time.

Water

Fact: the human body needs water for, well, everything. You need water to digest the food, and your brain needs water to keep the lights on. Remember the rule of threes? You may go for three weeks without food, but no more than three days without water. That’s how important water is. And no, chugging energy drinks, soft beverages, coffee or booze does not replenish your body’s water supply. In any survival-type situation, find a source of water is crucial.

More than that, you will need to know how to make water drinkable and maybe palatable. For instance, in heavily wooded areas, there are plenty of ways to get water: springs, tree holes, puddles, rivers. Some of that water’s safe to drink, but, in most cases, you will need some sort of filtration like water purification tablets. Even tap water can sometimes become unsafe to drink, especially in the aftermath of a disaster. Water purification is an essential skill, one that you will need to master.

Food

Food for the belly, food for thought, and food for the soul. No matter your choice, you should also have a well-stocked pantry at home. This includes emergency rations such as canned or easy-to-prepare food, MREs, and cured meats. If you get lost, you may need to replenish your food stocks by hunting small game or fishing. Apart from that, knowing with that do with it is as vital as getting it. Venison can be easily turned into beef jerky with salt, wind, and a little sun. The same goes for fish or plants like seaweed. No matter where you are, you must always remember to have a 72-hour food supply.

Shelter

Shelter comes in all shapes and sizes – makeshift ones like those constructed from scavenged materials or retrofitted rooms as in those used to hunker in during a natural disaster. Remember that a shelter’s role is to protect you against the elements and any threats that may be in your area. Anything can be a shelter as long as it protects your body and keeps you warm.

Security

I kid you not when I say that entire books have been written on the topic of defense and security. To make a long story short, security refers to two things: how you keep your property safe and defend yourself in case of an attack. Security bars, alarms, motion-triggered sensors, VoIP cameras are all great security measures for your house. As for yourself, try to squeeze some self-defense classes into your schedule or learn how to take down opponents using non-lethal weapons such as tasers, pepper sprays or security batons. The choice is entirely up to you.

If prepping was as art, which it is, then it would definitely be the art of teaching yourself how to listen to your instincts. In some cases, it may be the defense you have. Logic may be great, but nothing beats a tad of hindsight.

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If someone shows you a trick, even a small one like I don’t know, turning a poncho into a rainwater collector, pay attention and learn. You’ll never know when that

8 Mechanical Tools for Your Off-Grid Home

A couple of days ago, I took my wife and kids for a ride to our hunting cabin. The weather was holding and, I said, why not? Four hours later, we arrived only to find out that someone nicked the power transformer from one of the nearby electricity poles.

Long story short, our weekend was doomed because the electricity company representative said that a replacement should arrive in a couple of weeks. Back when we furnished the place, we didn’t consider that something like this could happen, and so we went ahead and bought all the electrical appliances we could find at a discount.

Here’s where things get interesting. My grandma gave me this old and battered chest. Told me that inside it I’d find anything a chef needs to whip up a quick dinner, power or not. Because that thing was heavy and smelly, I figured that the best place to store it would be the hunting cabin.

Seeing that the power won’t come any time soon, I took a peek inside the chest to see if there’s anything of use there. I am not exaggerating when I’m saying that I struck gold. Inside, were indeed all the kitchen tools one could need to live a totally electricity-free life. And I would be lying if I didn’t admit that we had some trouble figuring out what goes where or how to use those thingies.

Anyway, seeing that more and more of you guys are asking about powerless appliances, I figured showing you my list of 8 most useful kitchen stuff. Dunno if you have chest inherited from your grandparents or not, but, surprisingly enough, most of this stuff can be bought from just any kitchen appliances store, and, yes, they don’t cost a fortune. So, without further ado, here are my choices in powerless kitchen gadgets.

Hand-operated coffee grinder

Because I’m a coffee junkie I’m going to start by saying just how awesome and handy a cordless coffee grinder is. I mean, nothing compares to that subtle, yet flamboyant, freshly-ground coffee aroma – way better than sex (hope my wife doesn’t read this article).

Anyway, if you get ahold of one of these gadgets, be sure to hit your local gourmet coffee store for some great beans. While you’re at it, learn how to make Turkish-style coffee – beats espresso any time of the week. Be sure to clean your grinder every now and then and oil those parts to prevent blockages.

2. Meat grinder

If we’re talking of couldn’t-do-without kitchen items, the meat grinder’s is out there with the big shots. Nearly every recipe that calls for minced meat, whether it’s lasagna, moussaka or meatballs, will taste even better with freshly-minced meat. For a while, I used to buy minced pork from my local supermarket.

Gave it up for Lent after I discovered that I could make it at home, with the cuts of choice. More that than, I simply abhor the fact that even the most expensive minced meat is filled with so much water that you mostly end up boiling your meat instead of searing it. Great little gadget, very low maintenance, but now so great when it comes to cleaning it. Pros and cons, man. Pros and cons.

3. Hand-cranked food processor

I like preparing salad dressing as much as the next person, but doing so without an electrical blender is quite difficult. Wrong! The hand-cranked food processor will chop down your veggies or meats in a matter of seconds just like any over glorified electric blender. Just make sure to give those blades a quick sharpening from time to time and to apply some oil or WD 40 on the moving parts.

4. Kitchen scale

My wife’s madly in love with making all sorts of cakes and cookies and pastry. However, most of the time, she needs a scale to measure the ingredients – sometimes I feel like I’m stepping into a meth lab or something.

My take on the electronic scale is the old and moderately precise mechanical scale – a cup, a platform, and several weights. Might not work that well if you need to measure with Swiss precision, but other than that it’s a very dependable kitchen item.

5. Tea kettle

Not much of a tea drinker myself (usually do that when I’m nursing a cold). But I have to admit that a tea kettle is pretty useful around the house, especially when the power goes out. More than that, if properly maintained, a kettle can last for decades if not more (mom said granny got her tea kettle from her mom). It’s also a very fast and low-gas consuming way of warming up water for other necessities.

6. Eggbeater

Forget the mixer! If you really want to step up your kitchen game, learn how to tame the egg beater. IT’s a really simple item, but one that helps you prepare far more stuff than omelets (I like to use it to prepare the bather for my MRE survival bars).

7. Can opener

Those electrical gadgets are shinny and new but much too unreliable to be kept around the house. If the power doesn’t go out on you, that thing will break down faster than you can say “preparedness.” I had to fix two of those blasted things and buy three others. So, my solution was simple – out with the bad and in with the good, the good being the mechanical can opener. Solid piece of work, capable of breaking into just about any can out there.

8. Water filter

Water comes, and water goes. No matter where you’re from, you must always ensure that the water you drink is, well, drinkable. That’s why a water filter is a must around any house, hunting cabin or duplex. It may be a little expensive compared to the other items on this list, especially the spare carbon filters, but it’s an investment worth making.

That’s my list. Do you have some other mechanical gadgets on your mind or in your off grid house? Share it here.

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Dunno if you have chest inherited from your grandparents or not, but, surprisingly enough, most of this stuff can be bought from just any kitchen appliances store, and, yes, they

10 Retro Prepping Tools I Found at Flea Markets

I know this is not the first time I’ve written about flea markets and garage sales. Probably won’t be the last time either. Do you want to know the secret behind a successful flea market shopping spree? – never expecting to find anything of use. It really works, and I’ve tested it a couple of times.

See, when you go with a shopping list in hand, chances are you find zilch or end up buying crap you really didn’t need. That’s the beauty of browsing without purchasing I guess – expecting nothing, but, boy, when you do finally find that one item you were looking for, it’s as if the skies themselves opened up to you (with trumpeting angels and everything).

Anyway, as I’ve said it countless times, the flea market is treasure troves, especially to us preppers who are always on the lookout for more stuff to enhance our survival kits or B.O.Bs. And since “old is the new, well, new,” in today’s article I’m going to talk about some neat vintage items I picked off from my last trip to the flea market.

Why vintage? Because they’re cool and, of course, most of them have no need for electricity or whatever to work, which makes them invaluable in just about SHTF situation. If you’re interested in visiting this flea market, I was talking about, come to Bozeman, Montana, and check at the corner of S. Wilson and W. Main Street. If the weather holds out, the chances are that those wonderful guys will probably stay for a couple of days more.

Now, before I bore you to death, here’s my list of retro\vintage things I bought from the flea market.

Adze

No, it’s some kind of STD or ad on someone of those websites with a lot of onomatopoeia, it’s actually a very useful wood-working tool. See, if you’re into carpentry and would like, say, to make the surface of a log smoother, you need this bad boy to scoop out the excess wood.

It kinda resembles a pickaxe or a garden hoe, except for the top part which is shaped like a cone or scoop instead of being pointy. I guess you can buy one from any hardware store but, in my experience, special tools like the adze are very hard to come by – a friend of mine had one custom-made ‘cause he was unable to find one for sale. Picked up mine for $10. ‘Twas a little out of shape; the scoop needed to be straightened, but there’s nothing a little hammering can’t solve.

Apple slicing implement

How about them apples? Everybody loves ‘em (except for docs, of course, who tend to cower in the corner like Nosferatu or something) and for darn good reasons. Still, the most annoying thing about them is having to peel and remove the core. Well, for me, that’s kind of a thing of the past, since I’ve managed to get one of those apple slicing and coring gadget. Nothing too fancy about it: just a squid-like metal ring with several tiny jagged strings in the middle.

Handy to have around the house, especially if you like (or are forced) to prepare stuff like baby purees, salads or are plain lazy. I got mine for two bucks, and I can wholeheartedly say that it was money well spent. Dunno why it’s considered a vintage item though. Sure, compared to a food processor, nearly every kitchen tool can be considered obsolete. However, sometimes, simple is better. Doctor, it’s safe to come out now! Finished talking about apples.

French press

Of course, brother Eddie is going to write about another nifty coffee gadget he bought from the yard sale. This time, it’s an awesome and, why not, a peculiar contraption called the French press. No, it’s not used to print newspapers or counterfeit money, but for making coffee. I really can’t figure out why people stick to coffeemakers instead of using one of these bad boys. Anyways, the French press is basically a glass jar with a little flat piece in the middle that can be moved with a lever.

All you have to do in order to make a great cup of coffee is to add water, coffee, and wait a couple of minutes. Then you simply press the lever all the way down – coffee ground remains on the bottom, and you’re free to serve. The one I got from the flea market is made out of the tin, which means I can also use it to boil water. If I’m not mistaken, there’s even a tea version of the French press – works the same, but the strainer is thinner.

Cameras

Time and time again, I’ve been trying to convince myself to go digital. Sure, nothing beats the 35mm for a mirrorless or 8mm for one of those vintage cam records, but the thing is, they’re very hard to come by these days. In fact, the last 8mm dozen I bought came from an online auction on eBay.

If you really don’t want to spend hundreds of bucks on something you may or may not use (if you’re not into photography, selfies or whatever, you should at least have a digital with you for insurance purposes), you should definitely take a closer look around the flea market.

My wife managed to get ahead of me this time, and, oh boy, the stunt she pulled! We managed to get ourselves a brand-new Canon EOS (thing was literally inside its original packaging). For this jewel, we forked over 25 bucks. Now that’s what I call a great bargain!

Electric bum warmer

Before there were self-heating chairs and portable heaters, there were the so-called electric bum warmer. Basically, it’s a blanket with heating elements placed on some kind of support. These things sold like hot cakes during the early 50s and were very much appreciated by the ladies, especially during those not-so-pleasant-days of the months.

If you happen to come across one of these babies during one of your trips, do yourself a world of good and buy one. I purchased two of them for my hunting cabin – beats cranking up the heat and it comes really handy when it’s cold outside, and I have to do some tinkering in the garage.

Keyhole saw

Also called the jab or alligator saw, this nifty little tool is great for jobs that call for precision cutting. Yes, I know that you can probably find one in every hardware store, but do keep in mind that the manufacturing tech has changed quite a bit.

In other words, you might end up doing more stuff with the one you found in your grandpa’s toolbox than a brand-new one. You should also know that the first batch of alligators ever produced had their blades made from stainless steel, and the handles from sterling oak – not that’s what I call solid, all-American craftsmanship!

Goosewing axes

And because we like to enjoy the little things in life like splitting a fire log evenly, here’s on an item that shouldn’t be missing from your tool shed – the goosewing ax. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the terms, goosewings resemble those broad axes Vikings used during their raiding parties.

The ‘civilian’ version, if we can call it that, has a smaller head, shorter handle, but preserves the same curvature. As for the answer to our Friday night trivia: “what the Hell can I do with the midget version of the executioner’s blade?” (dramatic pause). Busting knots. Plain and simple. No matter how much strength you put in that swing, the blasted thing will not keel.

That’s where the goosewing comes into play – the blade chops and, at the same time, splits the wood. Careful though, because this ax version is heavier than most. And yes, you can find goosewings at any flea market. Just give it a good sharpening after you bring it home (handle might need some polishing too).

Stanley’s Zig-Zag Rule

No, it’s nothing like Occam’s blade or Murphy’s rules which should, by the way, be taught in prepping school, if there ever will be such a thing. Stanley’ Zig-zag is a foldable measuring device that can fit inside any pocket. Shorter than a tape measure, but far sturdier, it’s the kind of tool carried around by engineers and constructors ever since the late 19^th century.

The most common Stanleys had 15 folding points and a total length of 35 inches. Now, this is the kind of tool you would want in your shed, especially if you’re into carpeting or metalworking. I found one at a flea market in Toronto last year. Think I must have paid 2 bucks or something. Ka-Ching!

Plumb bob

Sometimes it’s hard to guess whether the thing you’re working on is straight or will turn out crooked. This is why it’s always a great idea to have a plumb bob nearby – a nifty and very basic tool that lets you determine the true vertical faster than you can say “preparedness.” Of course, if have the right materials, you can build one at home. Still, if you come across a flea marketeer selling one of these thingies, you should definitely go in for the kill.

Vise clamps

I very much like wood-working, but I always had trouble gluing pieces together, especially when I have to use fast-setting epoxy. Vise clamps are great for this kind of job and, if you’re lucky, you can probably walk off with a whole bunch of them.

That about wraps it for my list of 10 retro items bought from flea markets. Before going away, I should give you a bit of a heads up – don’t expect everything you buy to be in tip-top shape. Sure, there’s always a chance you can end up with a mint-edition item, but those are very rare instances.

In fact, in most cases, the items have some kind of defect – missing screws, paint scratched, faulty wiring, extensive warping, and the list goes on. My advice to you is this: don’t blow a gasket and don’t throw the object in the trash. Yes, I know it’s very frustrating to end up buying a big nothing, but do keep in mind that with a bit of love, care, tenderness, and the right Philips screwdriver, everything can be fixed.

So, what are your thoughts on this list? Think something’s missing from it? Then hit the comment section and let me know. I would very much also like to hear some of you more “unusual” experiences from trips to the flea market. Who knows? Maybe some of you managed to find a missing Rembrandt or perhaps other treasures from the past.

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Do you want to know the secret behind a successful flea market shopping spree? – never expecting to find anything of use. It really works, and I’ve tested it a

15 Items I Got from Yard Sales

You’re looking at a man who is 50 bucks richer than yesterday. Why? Because I just won myself a bet, that’s why. See, a while back, I got into an argument with a prepper friend of mine – great guy, but a bit of a shrewd when it comes to buying survival equipment. His theory is nothing can beat first-hand, mint, hot-off-the-press items (yup, he’s that kind of dude who believes in the power of new, I’m not talking about religion here).

Anyway, we were out talking about the finer points of pre-EMP prepping (meaning that we cracked open a couple of cold ones and watching the game), when he got around to telling us how he spent this $1,000 monthly bonus on gear.

Can’t say that I was too impressed about the sum, and neither were the other guys. Now, a couple of minutes later, I wagered him that I could probably get the same items he got for $20 if not less. Of course, no wager’s complete without something to sweeten the pot – our bet was 50 bucks. Kind of have to admit that it was like taking candy for a tyke because I knew that the yard sale season was coming (sorry, dude, but you kind of asked for it).

And so, at the crack of dawn, I got up, put on my awesome lumberjack jacket and went around the neighborhood to see what’s cooking.

Living in the suburbs does have its perks – neighbors are annoyingly friendly and, with a bit of luck and, of course, a wide smile painted on your face, you can probably end up buying everything you need from the house without having to spend more dough than necessary.

And wouldn’t you know it, I managed to spend no more and no less than 20 bucks. Needless to say, my wife gave me the death stare when I got home with all that stuff because I knew too well that we have a major storage issue. But, a bet’s a bet.

So, after my glory dance and in-your-face-loser moment, I thought I should let you guys on the spoils. Now, I know that most of you are not quite taken aback by the perspective of buying survival stuff from an old man’s garage, but if you know what you’re looking for and know how to haggle a bit, you can even walk out with stuff you usually find in antique stores (a friend of mine bought a fully functional pair of WW2 field binoculars from a guy with a “$5 everything” sign on his table).

Now, without further ado, here’s what 20 bucks got me from yard sales.

Radio

I was planning on buying myself a CB radio for the family van, but never really got around to it. Luckily, while doing a bit of snooping at the yard sale, I managed to find a fully functional one.

The owner, who was a cab driver in NY before retirement said he bought the thing back in the ’70s for his pickup but never used it. After a bit of haggling, I’ve managed to convince him to sell me the thing for five bucks.

Apparently, he was so grateful for getting rid of that thing, that he even gave me the matching antenna and car dongle. Neat!

2. Hiking pack and frame

One does not have to be a mountain junkie to get a hiking pack. Those things are great for most any job that requires some serious lifting.

Can’t say I needed a pack, but seeing that this dude was selling and an army-style pack with a metallic frame – those things are so old-school, that even pops said he hadn’t seen one of those since his days in the Army. The pack was in a pretty good condition, considering the price (paid $4 for it).

Still, I had to sew back one of the straps which probably came lose some time ago and reinforce the metal frame with some pieces of sheet iron. Other than that, I think I got a pretty good deal if I say so myself.

3. Propane tank

Propane tanks aren’t that pricey, but hauling them can give anyone nightmares. I personally abhor to go and refill the propane canisters for our generator, that’s why I always avoid using it till the very last moment.

In searching the yard sale, I came upon a nice lady who said that she no longer has a use for a BBQ propane tank since the thing broke down years ago. Scored one full propane tank for a couple of bucks. Great! Now I got to figure out what to use it on.

4. Suturing kits and medical instruments

One of the biggest frustrations is not being able to get into pre-med. Don’t quite recall exactly what happened, but it doesn’t really matter. Anyway, I’m sort of a freak when it comes to med stuff (even got my own CPR dummy in the garage), which means I’m always on the lookout for a way to make my super-duper first-aid kit even more awesome.

In searching for stuff, I came upon this elderly gent who used to be a gynecologist back in the day. We chatted for a while about the med, disease, pills, aches, and things like that. Didn’t leave empty-handed, though – got a couple of sealed 3.0 silk suturing kit, forceps, and a pair of pickups for $6 (of course I’ll sterilize them before use!). He was nice enough to throw in a scalpel, as a bonus (love you, gramps!).

5. Gold and silver coins

You don’t know a thing about swindling if you’ve never been to a yard sale. One of the guys living next to my house was offering for sale a small chest which he claimed to contain golden and silver coins from Napoleon’s time. Was a bit skeptical at first, but I soon came to realize that the man was right.

What follows is a “don’t try this at home, kids” moment – took a bit off one and told the man that all of them were tin replicas of Napoleonic coins. Yes, I know I should be ashamed, but that’s how it went down. I bought the chest and lot for $8. The things you find at yard sales nowadays!

6. Hand-cranked lantern

Remember those oil-powered lanterns you see in any Victorian movie? I managed to get myself a pretty decent electrically-powered replica of one for $3. Still, I think it needs a little bit of work – the bulb flickers from time to time, and the reflector dish is smudged.

The crank could also use a bit of oiling. Other than that, the lantern’s pretty good, and I can’t wait to try it out the next time I go camping with my wife.

7. Shit-ton of books

You can never have enough books. Yes, I admit to being a true-blooded book hoarder, and f-ing proud of it. Now, I’m painfully aware of the fact that electronic gadgets such as Kindles are great for the environment and all that, but I wouldn’t trade the smell of old books for anything. Not even at gunpoint.

Anyway, this time I managed to restock my poetry shelves with some classics – Tennyson, Whitman, Coleridge, and a little bit of Edgar Allan Poe. Some of them are in a deplorable state; the complete poetical works of Tennyson is covered in childish doodles, and even Poe’s not in very good shape. Still, two bucks are two bucks.

8. Canning jars

Whether it’s for pickling meat, stock, bouillon or storing MREs, canning jar are always a sight for sore eyes. Yeah, I know you can buy them by the dozen from any supermarket, but why bother when your neighbor is selling them at ludicrously low prices? I picked three jumbo pickling jars for 20 cents, each. Wife won’t be thrilled to find out that I’ll soon pickle more stuff, but, hey, can’t a man have fun around the kitchen?

9. Weathering stones

If you’re just as obsessed about keeping your knives razor-sharp, you know that weathering stones are a must around the house. Each time I go out shopping, I never forget to bag at least two or three. My yard sale tour was quite fruitful in this regard – managed to buy several sharpening stones of various smoothness for 10 cents each.

10. Intact tarps

Tarps are the Tom Mix pocket knife of B.O.B prepping, meaning that you can do just about anything with them – collect rainwater, use them for cover, make them into rain ponchos.

They’re also quite useful for keeping firewood dry and covering swimming pools during fall. The trouble with buying tarps from yard sales is that most of them are either warped or have small holes in them.

Yes, I know that you can fix those in the jiffy, but what’s the point of paying for a tarp if you have to patch it afterward? I got lucky on this one – my next-door neighbor sold me a couple of military-grade tarps for 2 bucks each. Quite a bargain and after getting them home, I realized that they were in pristine state.

11. Sleeping bag

It’s not what you might call hygienical, but who cares about germs and all that when you’re in an SHTF situation – probably the man with an infected wound.

Anyway, I really didn’t need another sleeping bag. Still, who can resist those granny eyes telling you that you’re as sweet as her grandson? A couple of minutes later and minus five bucks, I had a brand-new old sleeping bag.

12. Vacuum cleaner

You know what irks me the most about today’s electronics? They’re so fragile. Two years ago, I had an argument with my wife about what kind of vacuum cleaner we should buy. I may be stingy, but compared to her, I’m a spendthrift. So, we got this cheap-ass vacuum from the electronics store. Fast-forward in time, just before the bet, the wife called me to say that the motor burned out.

Great! More money on electronics, I told myself. But that yard sale really managed to sort this one out. There was this man who was selling a brand-new, no-sack, water filtration Samsung vacuum. The thing was in perfect condition – he didn’t even open the box. After haggling for a bit, I managed to convince him to sell it to me for $25 (yes, I know that I didn’t play fair, but the vacuum wasn’t even on the list).

13. WWI gas mask (I shit you not!)

On the topic of curious picked up from flea markets, sometimes, I have to admit, that these things are veritable treasure troves. During one of my raids (yeah, that’s what I like to call them) I actually managed to get my grimy paws on an authentic WWI gas mask.

Sure, it had no filter, and the bag was a little warped, but other than that the mask was in pretty good condition. I spend around $7 or $8 (can’t remember) for this piece of war memorabilia.

Dunno for sure what I’m going to do with it, though. It’s obvious that it can’t be used in this state, and spare WW1 gas masks filters are pretty expensive. Anyway, if you know someone who refurbished infantry equipment, do give me a holler. Beer will be on me!

14. Portable ashtray

Yes, I know I should give smoking for Lent – easier said than done. Meanwhile, I have had some issues over what to do with those butts while hiking. Lucky for my local yard sale, because I managed to pick up some sets of three portable ashtrays (they even come with a lanyard hole in case you want to attach it to your backpack). The set was 2 bucks a piece. I bought three of them!

15. Spare ammo

Well, if you’re missing a couple of ammo boxes, you can always call upon your neighbors’ stocks. Haven’t picked up ammo from yard sales, but I’ve seen a guy who sold shotgun shells and AR ammo for $5 apiece. So, whenever in doubt, check your local flea market.

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I know that most of you are not into buying survival stuff from a yard sale, but if you know what you’re looking for you can even walk out with

Things They Don’t Teach You In ‘Prepper’s School’

A couple of days ago, my nephew, who’s 8 years old, asked me what do I do for a living. Of course, my answer to him was that I’m a prepper and that I write about it. Cute, I know, but try explaining to a toddler what the Hell is that supposed to mean. Tried to give him the prepping talk with Smokey the Bear and Ivan the gas mask-wearing city denizen.

Dunno if I managed to get through to him – barely convinced my teen daughter and son to help me move some stuff to the family’s mountain cabin, but here’s the thing – in talking to the tyke I got around to realizing how much BS’s floating around our prepping world.

Hell, even the word itself sounds like a cheap millennial knockoff when in fact it’s something as old as time itself. Our grandparents used to call it “common-sense” or just survival. I sometimes wonder – could it be that in prepping for disaster, we actually welcome it in our lives?

Today’s topic will somewhat different. Perhaps you have friends or close acquaintances who wish to become preppers themselves. That’s great, but we really mustn’t lose track of the fact that, in most cases, prepping is far more than buying a nifty gadget or stockpiling food and water in case shit hits the proverbial fan.

The truth of the matter is, not all of us are NBPs (natural-born preppers). Sure, there is such a thing as survival instinct or, as my dad likes to call it, knowing how to guard your royal keister, but that is, more or less, case-dependent. Prepping is not. You do it around the clock, and, most importantly, you never stop.

Sure, for some, it’s a way of life, but for most of us, it’s one of those nagging thoughts nesting at the backs of our heads, keeping us awake at night: “But what if Katrina strikes again? What will happen to me or my family if North Korea declares war on the United States?” Okay, I’m going to stop right here with my end of the world train of thought.

Now, in wanting to show my fellow preppers that this lifestyle choice is no bed of roses, I’ve thought long and hard and finally managed to jot down a small list of reasons why prepping’s more challenging in reality than it is on paper. Call it my way of letting the skeletons out of the cupboard.

Yard Sales or Thrift Shops Are Not the Answer to Everything

I can give you a ton of reasons why you should check out garage sales and thrift shops more often (be sure to check out my article on SHTF items you can find at yard sales for 20 bucks or less). Most items can be repaired and reused. For instance, a while back I found this great garden solar lamp at a Montana flea market.

The owner wanted only 10 cents for it because it was broken and he couldn’t be bothered with the repairs. One new bulb later, the thing was up and running in my garden, giving off the most enchanting glow you’ll ever see. That’s my tiny slice of Heaven or hygge, as the Danish like to call it.

So, if you ever find yourself at a garage sale, spare a couple of moments and look around. You’ll never know what you’re going to find.

Unfortunately, this is where the fun part ends. With a couple of minor exceptions, prepping for every contingency is very expensive. Even if you’re not yet fully ready to drop off the grid, making your house safe, even a small one at that, can run into hundreds of bucks if not more.

Of course, smoke alarms are not that expensive but consider the rest – surveillance system, safety room, sprinkler system, which is a must for any respectable yard owner, garage, keeping your bug out vehicle up to speed, tools, keeping those food and water stocks up to speed, medical checkups, and the list goes on and on.

Prepping’s not the kind of thing you want to rush into or to do it, as the Brits like to say, half-heartedly. You either do it, or you don’t.

Many years ago, before settling down, I lived in a cramped apartment on the 12^th floor of this new and shiny glass building. Rent was awfully expensive, but hey, at least I have my own place now.

So, instead of doing what’s right – setting some money aside, making an emergency food and water supply, I went ahead and bought every pack of instant noodle soup I could find. Long story short, city power grid failed one day, and I had to go without electricity for two weeks. Guess what I had to eat all this time? Noodle soup! All day, every day for two whole weeks because I was stupid enough to burn all my money on stupid things like beer and movies and computer games and another crud.

Of course, it’s way cheaper to have a pantry stocked with ready-to-eat noodle soup, but it’s not exactly healthy nor nutritious.

Another harsh reality of prepping is the need vs. afford dilemma. Any like-minded prepper will tell you that in an SHTF situation, dropping off the grid and starting anew is the best option. Regrettably with today’s real-estate market, you can’t even afford to buy a parking spot, let alone a parcel of land.

You may get lucky and find someone willing to part with such a property, but I wouldn’t bet my bottom dollar on that if I were you. Moreover, buying a piece of land means nothing if you can’t build a shack or something on it. I don’t want to sound like the lovechild of Richie-Rich or something, but I could’ve bought two new hybrid vans and refurbish my city house two times over with the money I’ve spent on my off-grid location.

More than Money

As William Ernest Henley so eloquently put it: “beyond this place of wrath and tears, looms but the Horror of the shade.” You know what Henley’s shade is? Loneliness. Sheer, mind-wrecking, solitude. A prepper’s life can be a lonely one, especially if he’s surrounded by ‘pals’ who gift him tinfoil hats for his birthday.

I had a rough time convincing my wife to join me on my prepping merry-go-round. Although she’s as much into prepping as most of you are, I still can’t shake the feeling that she sometimes gives me the stink eye. Can’t say I blame her considering that I spend most of my off days working on our hunting cabin garden.

Anyway, the loneliness part becomes even more apparent when you decide to drop off the grid. And it’s not just about being in a relationship or hanging out with your buds on a Saturday night. I’m talking here about the absolute lack of human contact.

Sure, every wide-eyed lad toiling for a big-shot corporation dreams of living everything behind and going to live in seclusion. It’s not like in the movies – you don’t get to discover the true meaning or purpose of life, and you don’t get to be a sultry, ax-wielding Paul Bunyan ersatz. It’s wild, hauntingly quiet, and, most importantly, not the kind of gig you would want to get yourself into unless the shit really hits the fan.

Solitude aside, piecing together such a project takes a lot of work, dedication, and energy. Of course, I’m talking about good, old manual labor. Yup, off-grid living mostly means that you will need to get off your couch and put that shoulder to the wheel if you want to build something that’s abiding.

Most of the challenges you’ll face will be mostly due to your mindset. Growing veggies may be a quaint and probably soothing endeavor for someone who never held a hoe in his hands, but it’s really not that amusing. I threw my back a couple of times before I was able to plant all of my wife’s herbs and veggies.

Sure, it’s nice to snuggle next to a cozy little fireplace, but it becomes a nightmare when you have to clean out the damn thing. One of the most nerve-wracking parts of setting up an off-grid place is how you choose to deal with things like electricity, water, heat, and, of course, the Internet.

Certainly, you need to have electricity for a couple of appliances, but you also need to think about a backup – a gas-powered generator or something (thinking on doing a piece of how I managed to whip up a water-powered generator for my hunting cabin). Everything has to be thought thoroughly. Otherwise you wind up with another house that’s just as vulnerable during an SHTF situation like any city location.

And probably, the most daunting aspect of prepping is knowing that everything you do is a gamble. There’s no guarantee for anything – nobody can tell you for certain if your crops will yield something or if the home you’ve to build won’t fall on your head in case of a disaster.

Yes, I consider myself to be a gambler of the sort, but the only difference, in this case, is that I know when to cash out. That’s probably the most important aspect – trying to do a lot of stuff at the same time can end in disaster.

A couple of years after I bought the hunting cabin, I was faced with a big dilemma. The mortgage on our city house went up big time. I was the only one who was bringing enough money into the house.

So, there I was, all alone with my thoughts, and forced into making a choice: either keep the hunting cabin and live pay-check to pay-check until I can find a better-paying job or sell the blasted thing. Naturally, I went with option A.

It’s not hard to imagine how this kind of thing ends – arguments after arguments, she threatening to give everything out for Lent and move away. Fortunately, this story had a happy end.

See, when you’re a prepper, natural disasters are only a small part of the equation. You still need to find a way to deal with your fellow man. And let me tell you, convincing someone about dropping off the grid is just as difficult as starting a fire with an ice lens.

Bottom Line

I can’t help to think that, in some regards, preppers are superheroes. Sure, we don’t have capes or X-Ray vision, but we do have this knack to counter every possible problem long before it comes into being.

In rereading T.S. Eliot’s Wasteland, I realized that A Game of Chess, the title of the poem’s second canto, is the best prepping description anyone could come up it. Most of the times, it’s exactly like that – you make a move Mother Nature, and I’ll play my gambit. Crown me not for getting to the edge of the board, but for finding the resolution to survive.

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A couple of days ago, my nephew, who’s 8 years old, asked me what do I do for a living. Of course, my answer to him was that I’m a

What the Great Depression Has Taught Us

Lately, I’ve been up till the crack of down reading all kinds of stuff about the pre-war era. Of course, if you’re a history buff yourself, then you must know that they didn’t call the roaring ‘30s depressive for anything.

The 1929 Wall Street stock crash not only left half of America destitute but also encouraged people to find other means to earn a living, some of them not what you might call “legal.” Yup, this is the era of John Dillinger, moonshine, and gangsters.

Though most of the people that outlasted the Great Depression are mostly gone now, some of them left behind some awesome testimonies about their lives and, of course, how they’ve managed to make it through one of the worst financial disasters in modern history.

They say the measure of a man is given not by what he shows to the world, but by to what extent he’s willing (or destined) to go in order to ensure that he and his beloved ones are safe, well-fed, and laughing like there’s no tomorrow; love you grandma, for all your wisdom-laden tidbits.

Anyway, if it’s one thing the Great Depression has taught us is that, sometimes, less is better than having it all. Why moonshinin’ in the Big Shouldered City you ask? Because most of the stuff I’m going to talk about in today’s article came from K., a 60-year-old vet and active member of our community.

As K. was taken aback by our way of handling things, he was kind enough to share with us some insight into the art of making-do-with-what-you-have and not asking for more. So, here’s what I learned from the Great Depression.

How Carelessness and Absent-mindedness could get you into lots of trouble

In today’s world, nobody’s gonna bat an eye if you say that you’re going out into the city to have a cold one with your boys (maybe your wife or girlfriend, but that’s an entirely different story).

Anyway, back in the roaring ‘30s, saying out loud that you had a pint of beer with your co-worker could have very well landed you in jail since there was a country-wide prohibition on booze. Of course, that didn’t stop every Tom, Dick, and Harry from stashing a bottle of liqueur in place from prying eyes (a man’s got to do what a man’s got to do).

Still, as the saying goes, a slip of the lip could sink the ship, and those who got too enthusiastic about their late-night jocularities would have easily ended up making gravel at Leavenworth. The same thing went about anything pertaining to anything washed ashore by the Eastern (and red) Tide if you know what I mean.

Anyway, history lesson aside, times may have changed, but some things stayed the same: knowing when to keep that trapper shut. Even though the era of federal bans has passed, there are touchy-touchy subjects which can get you into a lot of hot water. You heard about them on the news or on the Internet. What’s this have to do with the Great Depression?

Simple – living with less doesn’t entice stupidity or absent-mindedness. When everybody’s nerves are more tensed than a piano string, any little thing can make them break. That translates into anything from verbal violence to pay a visit to your emergency room. So, act smart, think smart, and, as mom used to say, don’t spew out the first thing that comes to mind.

Budgeting used to be a serious commitment

The irony, man! We have all these gadgets and applications and computer programs, and we’re still living paycheck to paycheck. Where did we go wrong? If it’s one thing youngsters should learn from their grandparents is how to do their budgets. Back then, there were no computers, smartphones or whatever.

Everything was done with pen and paper. Sure, if you counted yourself among the lucky ones, you could have gotten yourself one of those lever-actioned tax calculators which made the job easier. Still, for most families, paycheck day meant burning the midnight oil to figure out how that money should be spent.

And they weren’t kidding – even the most basic budget journal was split into various categories such as food, water, utilities, and unforeseen expenditures (hospital bills, birthday parties, funerals, births).

Of course, with times being so rough, our grandparents had no choice but to stick to the budgeting journal. Can’t say if that’s a little too extreme or the sensible thing to do.

Still, when all your friends post pictures from their abroad summer vacation, and you’re stuck visiting the local amusement park because you’ve burned through all your saving, the idea of keeping a budget journal doesn’t sound that bad. The choice is yours: either download a smartphone application (I like Mint.com because it allows you to create as many categories as you like) or stick to pen and paper.

Oh, and another thing: budgeting envelopes. See, each time a family member cashed his paycheck, a small amount went into these envelopes which had a clear destination – my grandma made three: one for the mortgage, and two others for electricity and gas.

That old is better than new

Money was kind of an issue during the Great Depression. Apart from the fact that thousands of people were fired each day, those still employed earned next to nothing. Perhaps to some of you, the idea of a father laughing like a raving maniac because he managed to put aside to buy a new doll for his daughter may sound bizarre, but the truth of the matter is that things were very expensive.

That’s why most families preferred yard sales or bartering over shops and supermarkets. And yes, if you had a great neighbor, you could’ve struck a bargain – mowing his lawn in exchange for one or two bucks or trading veggies from your garden for some of his home-made products (my gran’s neighbor used to make Bavarian-style sausages and soft cheese).

That self-reliance was not a choice

Probably every prepping article and book talk about self-reliance. Of course, it’s easy to spew out a couple of words about why it’s important to be more independent, more of a you-person. Can’t say that I entirely disagree with that statement.

My only beef with this kind of speech is that no one tells how hard it really is. Sure, it’s neat to have your own farm or veggie garden or hunting cabin, but what about getting to the part where you have to put your shoulder to the wheel?

Anyone with a little bit of cash can buy a patch of dirt and raise a small cabin, but how about learning about how to do things around the house like splitting logs, cooking, tending to the garden or making repairs? Self-sufficiency is harder than one realizes, but there’s a bright side to all of this: for us, Walden-ing (that’s what I like to call self-reliance) is a choice. For our grandparents, it was not.

Just try to imagine how hard it must have been for a housewife to hold the fort down until her husband got back from work – sewing, washing, cleaning, helping the kids with the homework, and the list goes on. They had to learn stuff on the go. Otherwise, everything would have crumbled down.

This is the very reason why mail courses became so popular back then. Sure, some of them were made just for the purpose of parting a fool with his money, but most were very instructive. For instance, my grandfather learned how to fix many electrical appliances after taking a three-month course by mail. They weren’t cheap, mind you, but it was money well-spent, unlike the other crap I see in my spam folder.

Becoming a freelancer is not a millennial thing

When you think about freelancer, you picture this guy with big glasses writing stuff on Apple laptop while sipping a pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks. The truth is that freelancing is older than most of us realize. Obviously, it was not always called that.

My grandma used to name this ‘doing the stuff that earns you an extra penny without having to toil from 9-to-5’. Since money was scarce during the Great Depression, people used to take on extra jobs or gigs in order to supplement their monthly earnings. For instance, some housewives would offer tailoring service below the market price. Other would bake or cook for big parties.

And, of course, you always could have earned extra dough by lending a hand to your neighbor. Call it what you like, but freelancing’s been around since the dawn of time. Of course, it’s not for everyone, but do keep in mind that having a side-gig is one of the most important prepping lessons.

Bottom Line

As Tom Brokaw used to say “the greatest generation was formed first by the Great Depression. They shared everything: meals, jobs, clothing.” It’s indeed something with a very powerful spiritual and visual impact – a history lesson that teaches us that we shouldn’t take anything for granted. What today brings can be gone by tomorrow’s light.

See, this era wasn’t called like that for anything. Sure, it wasn’t depression in a clinical sense, more like a time of great uneasiness and numbness. Come to think of it, this kind of resembles today’s world, especially the being numb part – yes, we have become absent-minded and boorishly reliant on things that can one day vanish.

An EMP strike could make every piece of technology vamoose, and a plague could wipe the entire human population in a matter of days. For this, and more, we turn to our ancestors for help. If you know someone like this, go and chat with him or her. You’ll never hear greater advice than from someone who was tried by life in every conceivable way. With this, I’m off to doing some tinkering in my backyard, and I’ll see you in the next article.

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The 1929 Wall Street stock crash not only left half of America destitute but also encouraged people to find other means to earn a living, some of them not what

How We Set Up “Our” Outdoor Shed!

Our family just moved into a new home. It’s in a great neighborhood but is rather small in size with only two bedrooms. In addition to updating the paint and replacing windows, we’ve added an outdoor shed that will serve a number of purposes. My husband works from home, which is awesome. However, it can get a little stressful when he’s taking an important call and our precocious two-year-old is running around and screaming like a crazy person. So, we started looking for some cost-effective solutions.

Our first reason for the outdoor shed was a way to create a home office space for him to work. When we really got to thinking about it though, we realized the shed could offer so much more. In addition to building an awesome work station for my husband, we ended up adding a lofted bed, small bathroom, and kitchenette and lots of room for storage. So basically, when SHTF we’ll be jumping on the tiny home wagon.

This is how we designed our perfect prepper outdoor shed:

What are we storing?

When TEOTWAWKI hits, our plan is to hunker down. So, you better believe our hidden-in-plain-sight home office turned prepper shed is stocked full of food, medical supplies, water and ammunition.

Stockpiling too much can leave you susceptible to looters. So, we chose to store our goods in an unassuming spot – a home office shed. We built a bookcase into the wall with hidden storage and placed our canned and dry goods there. The space is cool, dry and dark and perfect for our food. We’re also storing important medical supplies and ammunition in the built-in storage space.

Solar Panels

We are millennials so when SHTF we’re still gonna really want power. That’s why we installed solar panels on the roof of our outdoor shed. If the power grid collapses, we’ll be ready. Well…at least I’ll still be able to check my news feeds.

Many see solar energy as cost prohibitive and I did too at first. I was hesitant to believe that purchasing and installing solar panels would fit into our budget. But, in the glorious age of the internet and YouTube, we quickly realized a DIY effort is not impossible and building our own solar panels was really quite doable.

A little research, a trip to your local home center and some sweat equity is all that’s required. You’ll be on your way to harnessing the power of the sun in no time and you’ll take your self-sufficiency and disaster readiness to the next level.

We live in a hurricane prone area, so in addition to building the solar panels ourselves and therefore understanding how they work in their entirety, we’ve stocked extra supplies for repairs in the event a destructive storm comes our way.

When building our outdoor shed / home office / prepper paradise we asked ourselves: why not utilize the all-powerful sun when things take a turn for the worse? In the meantime, these solar panels are helping reduce our electric bill. It’s truly a win, win.

Hideaway Storage Unit in Roof

We were able to control every aspect of building this shed and therefore we opted to add important stealthy storage spaces that would be challenging for the average Joe to locate. For example, we built a hideaway storage unit in the roof of the shed. This is an inconspicuous spot where we can keep important documents and stash away extra cash.

Shed Security Measures

This shed is so important to us on many levels. First off, it’s my husband’s space to get his work done and provide for our family in peace and quiet (SUPER IMPORTANT). Second, it’s our family’s contingency plan for TEOTWAWKI. If disaster strikes, or we can no longer check social media every 2 minutes (which is a disaster if you ask me), our home remains a great spot for us to hunker down.

We’ll have access to food, water, medical supplies, ammunition, our important documents and power. You can’t really place a value on this. And that’s why it’s important to us that our shed remains secure.

There are a ton of ways to secure your outdoor shed and we did our fair share of research(also here) to determine the best method for us.

In addition to installing upgraded locks on our shed, we also opted for an alarm system with video surveillance that immediately notifies us if there has been a break in. We also fixed our shed to the concrete foundation. This helps to protect it against natural disaster like the tropical storms and hurricanes that tend to plague our area.

One of the final security measures we took was to reinforce the entry door with metal bars. This essentially turns the shed into a vault and would allow us to truly hunker down.

Key Cache

This leads to me to the final feature I want to highlight in our prepper paradise (okay, it’s a shed I know!). We all know about survival caches. This is a smaller version of just that. A key to the shed, a pill bottle and a decorative rock are all you need accomplish this final tip for securing your outdoor shed. Glue the rock to the pill bottle lid, slip the key in, dig a hole and voila! Hardly a chance your snoopy neighbor will be able to locate that key hidden in plain sight.

We have found that our outdoor shed has increased our quality of life in the here and now tenfold. Converting an outdoor shed into livable space and a prepper station was both cost effective and an interesting, fun and educational adventure for us.

We also feel confident that this space will continue to provide for our family, especially in this current age of extreme uncertainty. Securing our outdoor shed has given us a significant increase in peace of mind. We know that we are prepped for what lies ahead and that our goods and materials are safe. And thanks to those solar panels, I’ll be able to charge my iPhone to live tweet TEOTWAWKI.

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Our family just moved into a new home. It’s in a great neighborhood but is rather small in size with only two bedrooms. In addition to updating the paint and

Hardscaping Projects for Your Backyard

Your home should be your castle. For all the talk in the preparedness community about bugging out and heading for the country, unless your home is under direct attack, it is a far better plan to attempt to stay at home. It’s where your food supply is, it’s where your clothes and your tools are, and hopefully you have a solid, dependable roof over your head.

The fall and winter is usually the last time that you’d think about your outdoor areas, but it’s the ideal time to start planning for what you can do this spring and summer to help improve your home’s preparedness plan. Here are some great features to consider when creating your plan:

Food & Water Storage

Your backyard might not be the first place you think of when you start considering food and water storage, but it’s actually quite convenient.

The ideal food storage idea you can have in your backyard is a root cellar. If you’re creating a big one, you simply need to dig a large hole, build supports for the wall, and set up some form of ceiling with an air flow, add an entrance, and you have a walk-in storage solution for many of your vegetables that will keep your produce cool for the season.

Smaller root cellars can be as simple as burying a cooler in a shady spot, or digging a hole and covering the area with something. These are not the greatest or largest solutions, but they’ll work in a pinch.

Putting a survival cache in your own tree is also an option. PVC pip can be used to create an airtight seal that can contain anything you think you might need in order to survive. What’s nice about the cache is that in case of a fire, flood, or home invasion, at least you’ll have something you can use to get you through a tough time.

For Water Storage, a cistern is an excellent solution. Cisterns are usually buried under your lawn, but could be free-standing. In either case, this is something you likely will want to have professionally installed, as mistakes could lead to thousands of gallons of water flooding your property. Either way, these large storage tanks take much of the guesswork out of storing water for an SHTF situation, and are made large enough that they will be useful as water for people, plants and cleanliness.

If not a large cistern, then how about a rain barrel connected to your gutter system. When well managed, rain barrels are a great method of securing a source of water for your survival garden at least, and for your family in a pinch.

You could also consider installing a pond or large fountain, which would be the most scenic water storage choice, although likely the least practical for usage, as the water would require a more significant filtering and cleaning process before use.

Living Space

This past summer, when considering my preparedness plan, I noted that one thing we really needed was a redundant way to cook our food. We have gas appliances in our home, and I have a propane tank attached to the grill outside, but otherwise, we had no dedicated space or method for cooking. We solved this by putting a firepit in our backyard, along with a simple firewood storage box to keep nearby. Now we have a dedicated cooking area that will last as long as we keep getting branches from our trees (in other words, forever).

We ended up using our firepit so much that I installed a pergola, a few garden trellis walls, and a patio stone floor, and now we have almost a “room” outside where we can cool off, warm up, or camp out quite easily with minimal equipment. I’d feel comfortable out there with just a blanket if the weather permits.

My wife and I also like to adapt the kid’s stuff towards preparedness in some way. Our daughter’s play area includes a triangular set of trellises, and during the summer months, we plant pole beans around them to create a kind of teepee. Her tire swing and treehouse are built into our sugar maple, which we tap annually for syrup. She also has a small playhouse with a few built-in planters outside and a living roof that has a few herbs growing on top.

If you have the space for a shed, you could easily build one of those as a guest house, useful for storage, and if it’s far enough away from your main home, an easy bug out location on the premises in case of fire, flood or other catastrophe.

Food Growth & Gardening

Of course, in an SHTF situation, your backyard will serve as your grocery store. Raised plant beds are easy to install in any grassy area, and are perfect for growing all manner of veggies. Simply purchase the wood or bricks you wish to use, and lay them out in the area you choose. Build the wall at least four to six inches deep, and you’ll have enough soil to grow a bunch of different veggies in. If you want to go the extra mile and put landscaping fabric underneath, that may help control weeds, but it’s not necessary, and many people (myself included) have had mixed results.

In addition to raised beds, you can consider creating miniature greenhouses. Build a box with a glass or plastic lid that can be easily raised or propped open so you can work in it, and ensure that that area gets plenty of light. During the winter months, you can plant a large number of vines or crops in these mini greenhouses that can provide fresh foods year round. This is also an ideal spot to start your seedlings in spring.

Once the end of the growing season hits, you’ll be very thankful if you created a compost pile where you can get free dirt and fertilizer. Enclosed three-bin systems are very easy to build, and provide the easiest long-term plan for gathering compost, but a simple garbage can purchased from the hardware store can function as a tumbler. Some people I know don’t even have bins, they simply have a pile covered with a tarp or wrapped in chicken wire. Compost is excellent for growing crops and a good way to reduce the amount of garbage you throw away every week.

In case you don’t have a lot of room, there’s still plenty you can do to garden. It’s possible to grow fruit trees in large pots, or if you have even a little room for planting in ground, you can maximize space by growing vine plants like cucumbers, pole beans and squash on trellises. Espalier is a method of growing a fruit tree next to a wall, and is ideal for creating a smaller fruit tree that actually makes very large and wholesome fruits in a small area. Arbors also work for maintaining a small tree in a controlled area. This method works best for pear plants and apples. It’s easy to grow many veggies in pots as well.

If you have the space and the equipment, there is no better “greenhouse” solution than a Walipini. A Walipini is a dug out section of earth that is enclosed with a clear plastic or glass roof. Underneath, you have a 12-month greenhouse that can help your plants endure in any climate. A traditional greenhouse is an option as well, but may not offer the 12-month guarantee of a Walipini.

We got most of our ideas for our backyard from two sources – Pinterest and our local botanic gardens. Both of these options offer a wide variety of alternative options for growing plants, and their hardscapes are not only beautiful, but often have tutorials attached.

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Your home should be your castle. For all the talk in the preparedness community about bugging out and heading for the country, unless your home is under direct attack, it

Simple Steps to Raising Healthy Backyard Chickens

The explosion in popularity of backyard chickens doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon, and it’s no wonder why. They are cheap to keep, very self-reliant and an incredibly hardy animal. Not to mention those fresh eggs you get every day taste too good!

Raising chickens can be incredibly straightforward once you understand the basics. Fortunately for you, today we are going to cover the simple steps you need to know to make your journey into the chicken keeping world a successful one.

Simple chicken keeping all starts with choosing the appropriate breed of chicken. In order to do this you need to think about why you want chickens. Some people want meat chickens to grow and slaughter as a cheap source of food; however, the majority of people want chickens to lay eggs. Once you’ve figured out why you want chickens you can choose an appropriate breed.

There are three ‘groups’ of chickens:

egg layers,
meat birds,
dual purpose.

Clearly if you want a meat bird then you should choose either a meat bird breed or dual purpose. Most of the birds available today from hatcheries fall under dual purpose. This is also what I would recommend to beginners as they are generally hardier and less prone to illness.

In case you’re wondering dual purpose means; the hens are both good for egg laying and also meat birds.

Now you’ve actually chosen and bought your hens you should want to keep them healthy. In my experience chickens need three things to stay healthy; food, water and shelter. In terms of chicken feed, a high quality layers pellet will make up the core of their diet. They will pick up other trace nutrients through free ranging and foraging. As for water you can keep it nice and simple; just make sure they have access to clean, cool water, 24/7.

Finally the shelter. Chickens are humble creatures and aren’t fussy at all. They don’t need much out of a shelter, just dry, warm and security. Security being key here; especially if you live rural or off grid. You don’t want a coyote taking your chickens for its dinner.

Once you’ve got your chickens used to their day to day routine (feeding, letting them out to forage, etc.) you will need to periodically perform a few ‘maintenance’ tasks to keep them healthy. The most important maintenance task you will need to perform is the monthly health check. This should involve handling each chicken and checking them over for any lice or parasite infection. In addition to this, each day, as you let your flock out, you should keep an eye on them. Once you establish what normal behavior is for them, you will soon realize something is up if they start acting abnormally… As I mentioned earlier, chickens are incredibly hardy however they do still occasionally fall victim to illness or some form of ectoparasite.

The final topic you need to know in order to raise healthy chickens is: the pecking order. I imagine most people reading this will already be familiar with the term but uncertain about its origin.

The pecking order refers to the social hierarchy between chickens; you will find this in any flock of chickens. The hens at the top of the pecking order get first access to food and the best roosting locations. Hens towards the bottom of the pecking order can be bullied and treated as a second-class hen. At times this can become too extreme and you will need to take action; you know the pecking order and bullying is too extreme when blood is drawn from one of the lower ‘ranked’ chickens. If this happens you should remove the chicken causing the damage for a few days before re-integrating them back into the flock.

I mentioned the pecking order because the occasional bickering and pecking between hens is to be expected and is perfectly healthy chicken behavior. It’s only when it goes too far that it becomes a problem; however this is fairly rare in practice.

We hope this foray in the exciting world of chicken keeping has given you the confidence you need to go out and get yourself some hens. They are incredibly hardy and won’t give you much trouble at all. Leave a comment below letting me know which breed you decided to go with.

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The explosion in popularity of backyard chickens doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon, and it’s no wonder why. They are cheap to keep, very self-reliant and an incredibly

Lessons from History – The Importance of Water

Throughout history, settlements form near water. The largest and most successful settle with plentiful water. There are a number of reasons for that. One, water really is life. We require water for drinking. We also use it for cleaning and laundry. As the human species advanced, we needed additional water for livestock. Then we became stationary, mastered various forms of irrigation, and bred our crops to become more and more dependent on water. Doing so allowed us to reap larger yields of sweeter and more mild crops, but it also tied us inexorably to water systems.

Historically we were further tied to water systems for faster and easier travel and trade, and we eventually turned to it for some of our labor. First with direct-labor systems such as grinding mills, then for the generation of power that could be sent across distances, water made life easier as well as sustaining it.

We are no less tied to water now than the caveman, Viking or European colonist. We just don’t always notice. And because most of North America enjoys easy, low-cost water, we aren’t great about conserving it.

Test Your Water Use

Want to see just how influential water is, and how much we use? Easy enough. Turn off the water at the main for a day. Remember to also tape or turn off faucets so you don’t empty any hot water heaters and end up with problems.

If you’re on a well, use your backup pump system. If you don’t have a backup system, one immune to fire and earthquake and the prepper-minded EMPs, you don’t actually have a water system. Turn it off.

Do it on a standard day. A day you’re not off backpacking, not working on your three-day bare-minimum drill doing a dry camp in the living room or backyard. Really ideally, do it in summer or autumn on the day(s) you’d be watering if you irrigate gardens, and on a day you’re hunting or harvesting some doves, chickens and rabbits.

For less-immersive comparison, just monitor the water gauge. For livestock on a non-metered system, fill containers that can have checks and tally lines added quickly.

Don’t let yourself become complacent or say, “well, that’s just because” to justify the amount of water used. Yes, our grooming standards can go down and change, and we can adopt some laundry methods and clothing treatment from the past that limit our uses more. Eventually, though, hygiene suffers.

If water’s out, something else is regularly going on, from “small” family-sized crises to storms and other disasters that affect the area and region. Roads and doctors may not be available if someone does become ill.

If anything, a crisis is a time to focus more on proper hygiene.

Handwashing, especially, can make a major impact on fecal-oral route infections, which tend to be the root of most of the illnesses laymen call “food poisoning”.

If your hygiene is dependent on wipes, run that test as long as you can to get the best possible average for how many you run through per day. Whatever your backup toilet system is, use that.

Use the data to create a baseline. How much do you use? How long will your stored water last? What seasons can you reasonably count on resupply?

From there, we look for ways to increase our sources and our efficiency in harvesting and using the water we can access.

A Double-Edged Sword

Water is one of the few things we can’t do without, and a functioning stream, river or lake system or even just a marsh can make a huge positive impact on our preparedness. They aren’t without hazards, however.

Flooding is a primary risk, although healthy marsh systems can actually mitigate and minimize floods. Still, the levee systems in the U.S. are aging and Midwest floods aren’t uncommon. Colorado and Tennessee have both had major, devastating disasters due to river- or creek-originated floods.

In a protracted crisis, the hydro dams put in by the Tennessee Valley Authority and in the Northwest are likely to suffer failures, on top of the failures we see washing out roads and creating mudslides and large floods right now.

In addition to those failures, there are mines and factories along our waterways these days. We’ve seen in just the last year what can happen as they fail and toxins leak out. Nuclear plants are routinely along waterways.

Failures combined with flooding can wash those contaminants into our farmlands, cities and suburbs, affecting creeks and wildlife long before and long after we can see the effects.

EPA Accidentally Turns Colorado River Orange With Pollution, Putting Drinking Water At Risk

Livestock are also a contamination risk to both well intakes and streams, just like human waste can already be right here in the U.S. Those risks are even more prevalent in some of the third-world nations that live without our level of basic services. Disease is rampant after earthquakes, hurricanes, and floods due to fecal wastes, and can be expected to go up after a major disaster.

Mosquitoes and the spread of ever increasing and previously “dead” diseases by insects are another risk.

Many of those risks can be limited with site selection and sculpting the land a little, by planting a few things that can help create buffers, predators, and sinks for water and its diseases and pests. An interruption in “easy” water after we’ve become accustomed to it is still the bigger and more likely threat for most of us.

While a gravity-driven well with a pressure-driven cistern would be ideal, not everybody is there. Not every well can either reach or hit the amounts needed for livestock and crop irrigation.

Pairing the unprecedented, super-filtration power of an all-new gravity block core with a hybrid ceramic shell, it removes 99.9999 percent of impurities, including bacteria, cysts, disinfectants, volatile organic contaminants (VOAs) and heavy metals.

Because requires no electricity, it is ideal for home use, on or off-grid.

Self-Sufficiency through Streams

A moving channel is a fantastic element to site. One aspect to watch for with small systems is that they don’t dry out in summer. Ideally, they won’t even dry up in the 25- and 50-year drought cycles.

Through much of history, moving water has helped us either with direct labor, such as the old mills we can still find here and there, or later by producing power for us to then use however we like.

Running streams, creeks and rivers can also turn water wheels that help us by lifting water into aqueduct systems or into cisterns that will produce enough gravity from water weight to push water further away from the source.

With even a small amount of motion, there are sling pumps capable of moving water for us. Even if a sling pump won’t reach all the way to gardens and livestock, saving us the bend-lift labor of filling buckets and being able to fill a cistern while we move the first load can make an enormous difference.

With greater rates of movement, we can create hydro re-directs to lessen some of our labors and in some cases produce small amounts of energy. We can dam small waterways to increase pressure or create channel- or pipe-based systems to generate power.

In some cases it’s not going to be a lot of electricity, but even the ability to slowly charge electric tools, appliances, and our music and photo devices can be a huge boost.

Slow it, Sink it, Spread it, Store it

In permaculture, there are several “S’s” promoted in regards to water. They simplify the desires to:

Catch water for future use
Prevent flooding even on the “daily” and seasonal scales, and by doing so prevent erosion and soil hardening via water (runoff, soil compaction)
Allow water to infiltrate so roots can access it, and to lift the water table for springs and swale systems
Keep chemicals and waste from running across landscapes and polluting our waters or gardens

Catchments are one way we capture water – storing it for later and preventing it from running wasted over the surface of the soil.

Water catchment on a huge scale was and still is used in Australia, with systems similar to water towers and large roof-to-cistern systems both above ground and below ground.

Sheep and cattle stations and small farmers also create nearly lock-style channels to store water for the three- to six-month dry seasons. Those systems can be duplicated in North America depending on local laws.

In places where regulations prohibit such large scale water harvesting or hoarding, it may be possible to obtain permits to put in lakes or ephemeral or permanent pond systems, which can function similarly and have added benefits for homesteads.

On a small scale, water can be stored using systems as complex as we like, or we can go simple and create pyramids or triangles of trickle-over buckets and barrels with no plumbing and just mesh or permeable cloth to prevent mosquito infestations.

Small, shallow swales sequester less, but can prevent damage from rains over years. Larger swales can hold more water, allowing that water a greater amount of time to infiltrate. That water then creates a “lens” beneath the surface of the soil and allows plants a longer period of time to access it.

The slope of the land and the soil type and structure play the biggest roles in the types and sizes of swale systems we put in.

Preexisting vegetation and the type of vegetation we want to put in, if we plan to move livestock through the swale systems and what type of livestock also affects what type of swale system will work best for us.

Reducing Reliance On Systems

We have to have some water, and ideally a constant source. However, even with the best of planning and siting, sometimes we run into droughts or damaged systems. One way to build resiliency to those is to lessen our overall dependence.

Silvopasture over turf can provide forage and fodder even in drought years, and lessen dependence on irrigated grains and delicate pasture and hay. Some silvopasture is coppiced, but most will be either pollarded or selective-drop of large limbs from each tree.

The type and number of livestock and the amount of labor desired affects what style of silvopasture is effective.

Our livestock selection can also lessen dependence.

Ducks tend to be wasteful of water, while with drip waterers, chickens can be highly efficient. Pigs really need a lot of water to gain weight efficiently, and they need regular access to it. Comparatively, dairy and meat goats need a little less access and less total water per pound of produce.

If we veer a little further away from the American norm, camels need less yet, and have traditionally been used for milk, meat and hides and in some cases angora just like llamas.

We can also look into more water efficient breeds from typically dry regions of the world. They may be more expensive as an initial investment and have less-efficient feed-milk-meat ratios, but in a survival situation, the fact that they do survive with little water may make them invaluable.

If we have a fair bit of property, we can also tailor habitat for hunting small game, and focus our water labors on egg and dairy producers.

Hugelkultur beds are another way to limit use and dependence on rainfall and irrigation. Once established, a properly sized and layered hugel bed requires almost no assistance at all. It retains and essentially generates moisture from within.

When we do use water, we can use it as many times as humanly possible instead of letting it run and flow past our fingers.

Gray water systems, using cooled cooking water in gardens or for livestock, and reclaiming runoff from sprouts and sprouted fodder for livestock or re-watering can all help decrease our total draw.

Then there are little things like using a cup of water to rinse while brushing teeth, and having catch basins for washing hands or rinsing produce that then gets used for laundry or put back into the garden systems – at least once, and in some cases, several times.

Water Is Life

We have always been dependent on water as a species, and civilization and modern post-industrial life has made us more so. However, we can look back at history and to some of the underdeveloped nations to find ways that we can harvest and store water against need, and in some cases, use water wheels and even small creeks or lake properties to help us move water or generate a little bit of power.

Pairing the unprecedented, super-filtration power of an all-new gravity block core with a hybrid ceramic shell, it removes 99.9999 percent of impurities, including bacteria, cysts, disinfectants, volatile organic contaminants (VOAs) and heavy metals.

Because requires no electricity, it is ideal for home use, on or off-grid.

There are a few tips here. The article about gardening in droughts has additional lessons from fairly recent history that can be applied to reduce water uses for human and livestock food production, large scale or small, urban or rural.

When we’re ready to delve into long-term disaster planning, water needs to be a focus. Without water, and a backup plan for water, all the rest of our preparations become null and void in a large-scale emergency.

Water can also be dangerous. It’s worth researching the local flood patterns, especially pre-levee system, and looking up the diseases, symptoms and cures common to waterways in third world nations and after disasters.

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Throughout history, settlements form near water. The largest and most successful settle with plentiful water. There are a number of reasons for that. One, water really is life. We require

Site Planning for Your Survival Homestead

A great deal can go into site planning for your survival homestead, even when the infrastructure is already in place and funds don’t exist to renovate lines or move buildings. Where we place things can increase or decrease our defensive abilities, success in growing, and how likely we are to see something – which can be good or bad. It can also hugely impact the efficiency of a site, whether it’s a small suburban or urban lot or a large rural retreat. While more space creates more options, planning for efficiency has major merits for any size site. When things are more efficient, they require less work to maintain. Whether that work is manual or powered, using less time, labor and resources frees up our abilities elsewhere, allowing us to do more.

Site Planning Factors for your survival homestead

The three most important factors in site planning for efficiency are arguably access, sun, and water. They are equally important, although when aspects like defense and drought resilience come into play one or another may take more precedence. There are variable levels of importance within factors as well. For example, access for ease and convenience might drop to the bottom of a list, but access for maintenance should stay near the top.

Cattle on silvopasture – Trees can be saw logs, firewood, forage/fodder or fruit and nut trees in a rotational pasture system that creates shade and stacks the functions taking place on a piece of land, creating a more efficient use of that land.

Sun

Sunlight plays a lot of roles in our lives, far more than just which plants will be successful – and where. Sunlight can be manipulated to create passive heating and cooling, such as using deciduous trees to shade greenhouses, coops, homes and windows, and livestock in silvopasture. Shading even just the entrance of a cellar can help dramatically reduce the amount of heat-cool transfer while loading it during harvest season. Shading can also significantly reduce moisture loss. On the flip side, opening canopies can not only increase availability of sunlight for plants during winter, it can help us dry up spring-bog areas and provide free lighting.

Using sun and shade to create passive heating and cooling by combining livestock and deciduous trees with a greenhouse, or locating coops and hutches beneath trees.

When we look at shading, a lot of times we only look at trees, but buildings, fences, and walls come into play as well. One rule of thumb is to place the tallest things on a site to the north in the northern hemisphere, to allow the most light through. However, if we want that shading factor to limit our irrigation or keep our rabbits breeding longer without running fans, we can play with them, interspersing buildings and alleys of pasture to create the best fits for our needs.

Another school of thought – especially in areas heavy on buildings and trees – is to group tall things together and slope mature heights to create either a peak effect (tallest in a central area) or a valley effect (tallest things on the rims sloping down to the center).

All three have their pro’s and con’s, and the slope of land, amount of irrigation, soil types, and purposes or function of the land play a big role in deciding which works best for us.

If you are building a survival homestead, take advantage of the sun’s natural path to position your home most effectively.

Something to remember is that sunlight changes through the year and by location, with summer and winter, extreme elevations, and distance from the equator affecting not only the track the sun takes in our skies, but also the intensity of the light – light quality, compared to light quantity. Even quantity comes with some wiggle room. “Full” sun is about 6-8 hours of direct light, but 8-10 hours of diffused light works too, unless the quality of light is low the way it is during winter in the middle and upper latitudes.

Water for your homestead

Water is one of the basic necessities of life. Manually hauling water sucks big time, and so does hand pumping water if mechanical systems fail. Ideally we plan our site so that things with the greatest volume needs are nearest the pumps and catchment systems.

When we’re accounting for high-volume needs we need to take into account our own varied uses such as laundry, cooking, and cleaning our homes as well as direct consumption. Livestock, young trees, and crops also require water. The closer they are to a water source, the less time and labor (of any kind, manual or mechanical) is needed to provide that water for them. We also want to bear in mind year-round needs, as opposed to seasonal like a garden with three months of growing season.

There are two types of water catchment systems that can decrease the need for pumping water – passive and active. Studying the sheep and cattle stations of the Australian outback, especially at the turn of the century, can provide a number of examples of how people survive near-desert conditions using active and passive water catchment systems.

Active catchment includes things like water barrels and buckets, which can be highly complex or pretty darn simple, or rain-filled water catchment on towers and roofs – both of which then disperse water through lines via gravity. Another example of an active catchment includes old-style towers that are filled by pumping, but then provide a gravity-fed reservoir for use during dry periods.

There are all kinds of passive water systems, some of them overlapping with the sunlight and wind vectors that we take into account as incoming and outgoing factors on a site. Some of the most common passive water-catchment and water-conservation systems include:

Simple low spots or dug swales that increase the infiltration of water by slowing its loss, making water available longer after a rain.
Ponds
Hugel-type, lasagna-type and Eden Gardening style growing beds with layers of material that absorb water and release it slowly
Gabion-style and stacked stone walls and fences that create drip-back microclimates by condensing evaporation on the underside and lee of the stone
Trees and shrubs planted to block and filter drying winds from the north and west or block sunlight and provide shade during the hottest hours (usually 1-4 p.m.)

Access

Arranging things for ready access is arguably the most important of the three factors, depending on the primary focus of site planning. At the simplest, we have to be able to reach things to use them. With some foresight and planning, we’re able to reach them in the most efficient and economical way(s) available to us. In the best case, things are conveniently near each other as well as just being accessible, saving time and work transferring them.

We can increase efficiency by locating things that need regular care close to our daily paths, like putting greenhouses and veggies near our homes. Alternatively, they could go near water sources, or be located beside chickens and pigs that till, turn compost, provide manure, and will be helping with garden clean-up. We don’t want to have to cross a yard to get tools and hoses and come all the way back to a garden plot, though.

When we plan the space we want to leave to facilitate access, we want to take into account our methods of reaching our targets:

walking with hand tools, with hay bales on hooks, with forks or bags of feed or seed or fertilizer, or with buckets, blickeys and crates
wheelbarrows, push or pull carts
tractor or ATV and attachments
truck or gators/field carts
tree pruning tools, branch removal or chipping (and chipper size and type)
firewood harvest methods
distance between storage and harvests of hay, straw or crops
type of brush control and access for it
longevity/sustainability of methods chosen for all phases (we all get old unless we die young, and what we can manage by now may become impossible due to age, illness or injury)

Tall hugelkultur beds increase our efficiency not only by decreasing water and fertilizer needs but also by increasing by 3-5 times the amount of growing space we have. Tall beds also eliminate some of the stooping involved with veggie gardens, creating longevity in our growing systems.

We also want to leave space for things like sorting, curing, drying, and curing harvests of various types, running our chipper-shredders, PM’g and repairing our equipment, and to get out of sight of nosy neighbors for livestock culling and harvest. Ideally, that space is conveniently located to the origin or destination, to water, and to where we collect and leave our tools for the tasks. Leaving room for living space and accounting for where we’re creating shadows, damper areas, windbreaks, open sight lines, and cover or concealment for thieves and worse as we plot out our sites is also important.

Something I’ve seen lower harvests in both small-scale and large-scale is somebody cutting a corner with a wagon or tractor a little too close and wrecking the end of a row, or having room when everything is small and new or just seeded, but having no room to maneuver once perennials or large crops grow in. Paying mind to the turning radius of our chosen methods can help save those. (So can practicing when a field is still empty.)

The general rule of thumb when planning for access is that things that need the least care go farthest away and off beaten paths, while things that need the most care and attention go nearest the living space(s) and along walkways.

Our own needs and desires and our infrastructure plays into where we might stick things. I may not use my shop much, but it may be easier to run power to it if it’s close to the house and since my trucks are near the house, I may not want to cross an acre or two for my air pump. Fruit and nut trees traditionally go further away from my home since they don’t need daily care, but if I’m using them for passive heating and cooling or am stacking the productivity of the space by keeping birds or rabbits under them, I may want them closer. My soil type and spring bog might also lead me to avoid an area that would be considered prime, or I might choose to locate things further away so I have a yard space where I can see my young kids easily from a window. Everyone’s situation is different.

Convenience factors into access – The easier it is to reach and see something, the more likely we are to deal with it. There’s no reason not to put veggie beds near the house even in a large yard, or to incorporate herbs and veggies into traditional flowers and landscaping along our driveway and footpaths.

Convenience should also play a role when it comes to access, and for some people the convenience is more important than for others. If it’s difficult to get to something, most of us are less likely to deal with it. It’s up to us to accurately judge ourselves and decide how likely we are to ignore or procrastinate with chores and checks.

Likewise, the “out of sight, out of mind” factor plays a role. Not only are we more likely to remember that something needs dealt with if we’re seeing it every morning on the way out, we can also arrange things to serve as canaries in a mineshaft for us.

Planning & Efficiency

Planning is a big part of efficiency – with anything, military excursion to home to garden to daily tasks. As a permaculturist, efficiency is basically my Holy Grail. The interactions of biotic and abiotic factors get manipulated to death to allow nature to do a lot of our work for us and to limit the time and effort of our labors.

It’s helpful to start with sketches of what already exists on a site, what is staying and what can go, and the inputs from the surrounding area when planning for an efficient site. Permaculture zones and sectors are excellent research points for anyone just starting out.

Wasted steps are wasted time and wasted energy, no matter what scale we’re living and growing in, just like allowing runoff, sunlight, and wind to enter and exit a space without ever harnessing them. In some cases, poor site planning ends up costing us extra money when we upgrade, downsize, or need a repair.

We can limit some of our inefficiency just by making lists.

Lists start as big, general goals of our wants and needs. We can make other lists of our potential resources, challenges, and capabilities. In the case of our homestead – urban balcony to 5-50 acre farm – knowing our long-term goals lets us start accounting for them from the get-go. Lists also help us streamline and prioritize, which allows us to stay focused.

We can refer back to our lists as we approach each step in making our goal a reality. Likewise, sketching a plan and making lists of the pro’s and con’s of placing various components where we have can give us a guideline to refer back to as we move forward over months and years. Lists and a sketch can keep us from feeling hemmed in to a decision we made five years ago because we didn’t realize what a pain it was going to be to haul water 500 yards because the hose pressure won’t reach the spot where we put in our annuals.

Increasing efficiency can be as fast and simple as putting coops and hutches over compost and worm bins to decrease some of the back-and-forth steps of moving manure to those systems and being able to check levels and moisture and harvest worms at the same time we care for other livestock.

Planning for Efficiency for your Survival Homestead

Water, sun and access are just the tip of the iceberg for site planning. There are dozens and dozens of things that can factor into creating an efficient self-sustaining homestead. People have written books on the subject, and placement considerations – from the things we’re possibly going to want on location to how we decide where to put them – occupy week-long lectures. Particularly when it comes to access.

Another aspect of efficiency we don’t regularly want to consider is old age, if not a Seventh Generation outlook. How much annual care does what we’re putting in need? Will it start spreading beyond our control when we hit cane and walker age? Will that oak destroy the lawn between the house and “yard” in 10 years, leaving dogs and people ginger stepping 8-12 times a day and washing away good soils? Will those coppiced trees start wrecking fences if we’re injured or busy standing watch?

Most of us just can’t plan for everything, but at least being aware of goals, of some of the factors that affect our efficiency and the long-term effects of inefficiency, and of the priority we’re willing to assign components in and around our homes, we can be better prepared for smooth transitions and limit some of our wasted labor. Being aware of site planning and efficiency as something to research allows us to let the environment around us and that we build do some of our work for us.

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A great deal can go into site planning for your survival homestead, even when the infrastructure is already in place and funds don’t exist to renovate lines or move buildings.

5 Things You Need to Go Off Grid Now – Pt. 3

Welcome back to our series on the 5 things you need to go off grid now, where we began with the premise that going “off grid” might not be something that as Preppers you elect to do for the sake of your family in hopes of greater harmony with Mother Nature. The “Grid” might simply take the kids and leave you in the middle of the night like Katie Holmes did to Tom. You wake up and something is wrong but it takes you a few minutes to realize your world has changed – in a big way.

To prevent something like this from taking you completely by surprise, or rendering you helpless when you least expect it; we can make plans now to prevent a loss of the grid from being as awful. It could save your marriage too. Well, maybe. I made that last one up, but if making your spouse’s life better and providing for their survival earns you points, this is something to consider.

In the first article in the series we talked about the importance of not only having water stored, but developing a renewable source of water for your family’s needs. If the grid down emergency lasts longer than the amount of water you have stored for emergencies, you will need to collect and filter water; possibly in significant amounts.

After water, we discussed planning for food that will feed your family which would not only take care of short-term emergencies but also allowed you to sustain yourself and your family for longer durations. Long term food storage, gardens and even raising livestock were discussed as part of a balanced plan of food preparedness that can benefit you now as well as if the grid went down.

So you have food and water taken care of or at least an idea on how to start prepping for these essentials in your family plan. What next?

Sanitation and Hygiene

Sometimes the throne is a little less regal, but just as practical.

What goes in must come out. Yes, I know this concept isn’t the sexiest out there, but everybody has to go, sooner or later and we have to have a plan for dealing with “the poop” when it hits the fan. What about electricity or transportation or something else like that? We will get to other items, but sanitation and hygiene are so much more important to the overall health of your family that I chose to deal with them first. Not having electricity won’t kill you, unless you rely on it to live as in life support or breathing machines. Getting sick from germs can kill and frequently does kill in disaster scenarios.

In January of 2010 you may remember the earthquake in Haiti that caused tremendous loss of life, but even after the direct effects of the earthquake stopped, the risk of death from disease only became worse. Ten months after the earthquake, cases of Cholera began to spring up. Cholera is an acute intestinal infection causing profuse diarrhea, vomiting, circulatory collapse and shock. If left untreated, 25-50% of severe cases of Cholera can be fatal.

How do people get Cholera? They get Cholera by drinking water or eating food contaminated with the cholera bacterium – which usually comes from fecal contamination of water or foods. How does food and water get fecally contaminated? Poor or non-existent Sanitation and Hygiene. In Haiti alone from that earthquake they estimate that over 470,000 cases of cholera have been reported. But cholera isn’t the only disease you have to worry about. Poor sanitation can cause Intestinal worms, Schistosomiasis, Trachoma and a whole host of others. We want to have a plan for keeping these germs away from your family so that illness like cholera, which can be prevented doesn’t show up on your door.

Waste Removal

It doesn’t have to be pretty, but you need to have a plan.

So the grid goes down and you need to go to the bathroom. Can’t you simply go in the toilet or just find a good spot in the yard and let her rip? It really depends on what infrastructure is in place and what services are functioning. If the septic or sewer systems are still functioning, you can use the toilet in your home. The only thing you need is water to flush the waste down and out of your home. If this isn’t possible you have to make other accommodations and since we are talking about the grid going down we have to assume that water isn’t flowing.

Waste needs to be eliminated and you have to do this in a way that does not contaminate water supplies and can be covered to prevent flies and other insects from spreading disease. Human waste should be kept at least 150 away from the nearest water source and you can create grid-down bathroom facilities in a number of ways. Five gallon buckets with modified lids make a simple option that will allow you to do your business inside and carry the waste, usually in a plastic garbage bag outside for disposal. Keeping a supply of lime to cover the waste is a good idea also and will keep odors down, dirt works in a pinch too.

You can also dig cat holes or slit trenches and get fancy if the need to sanitation lasts for a long time. If the grid actually goes down for more than a few days, you will need to look at a more permanent solution for waste disposal.

Hygiene

The basics of keeping your cooking utensils clean and germ free.

Eventually, you may need to make your own soap.

Even with waste being kept far away from humans and the water supply, you will still need to practice hygiene to keep surfaces clean that will come in contact with your body or the food you put into your body. Hand washing is an obvious one and you will need to wash your hands to reduce infection. Some people simply plan on stocking up on giant containers of hand-sanitizer but I prefer good old soap and water. Plus you will want to shower occasionally or bathe I am pretty sure. As part of your prepping supplies, you can learn how to make your own soap, or just buy a couple of dozen bars of cheap soap. It won’t go bad and doesn’t need refrigeration.

Along with your hands and body, you will need to keep cooking surfaces clean. You can stock up on paper plates and plastic cutlery but like anything else, that will eventually run out. Plastic spoons can be washed, but you can’t really do that with paper plates so at some point you will need to consider a wash station. This can be as simple as two plastic bins. One with clean, soapy water and the other for rinsing. Keeping your cooking utensils will eliminate the risk of disease and give the slacker in your group something to do if they don’t want to dig another latrine hole.

Tomorrow we will continue on the journey of planning for off grid living in a disaster. I hope you will join us again.

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