Self sufficiency thread

FireFighterZero

Captain Zero!
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North Central Montana, bloody cold!
I have been thinking the last couple of years about becoming more self sufficient.

With the political landscape as wonky as it is all around the world and at home.....trillions in debt.....well, I am kinda worried about a global crash that we can't spend our way out of.

I have been reading a lot about root cellars and hoop houses. The USDA has some interesting plans and programs out there for these things. Also been talking my wife into doing some canning.

My great grandparents had a dedicated smoke house for preserving meat and I am thinking about building one.

Also, from what I read a big rabbit hutch can provide quite a bit of protein for your family.

Trying to come up with some water storage ideas for a garden and hoop house.

Anyone else interested in these things? Anyone got any ideas or stories to share?

Am I just being too cautious/paranoid?
 
Self-sufficiency becomes much simpler if you can separate what it is that you need from all the things that you just want or have become accustomed to.
 
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  • #5
Yes! Its good to shop in nature! I would love to fish the ocean.


We talked about that last night Dave, my wife and I.

We are probably as guilty as anyone, but we dont consume like some folks we know. We dont replace anything until its worn out, or cant be re purposed.

An interior designer would come to my place and puke. Everything is "dated".

I am not too worried about conditioner, or face creams. You can make most of that stuff out of pea nut oil anyway.

I am more just thinking about re learning the skills that my grandparents used to homestead in this horrible country.

I think there is a lot we can do to keep from having to stand in a bread line with all your neighbors.
 
I'm thinking about building a small cold room to store fruits and veggies in. We can and dry. Been planning to build a smoker here as well. I have water at about 30' so pretty easy to get it out if need be.
 
Love my smoker, it rules. Hoop houses are fairly inexpensive but have buddies over to help put together. Plan your fruit, veggie, herb garden now with a soil test that includes OM. You can set up basic compost pins with 2 X 4's and chicken wire. Good luck!
 
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I'm thinking about building a small cold room to store fruits and veggies in. We can and dry. Been planning to build a smoker here as well. I have water at about 30' so pretty easy to get it out if need be.
 
Don't get me wrong, a stockpile of some necessities and some capability to sustain ones self seems wise to me. A cache of tactical guns for one man with big ideas of being Rambo, yet no military training, well, those are who I'm gonna rob first.
 
How long were you with uncle same misguided children?
 
There are tons of forums, and blogs on homesteading. My wife was into it for a while, she was part of the homestead bloggers network. We still like the concepts and ideas, but we tried a little to much right of the bat and burned out a bit. The genius ideas that are out there are amazing. After we move (December) I'm planning on adding 1 or 2 of those big chemical totes to catch rain water from the garage and shed, which is slightly uphill from the garden.
The house already has a solar preheater for the regular hot water, and radiant floor heat with its own instant on water heater.
We used to have a giant garden, 20 chickens, etc. I miss the chickens. . .
 
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  • #20
One thing I have been trying to figure out is how the hell did my great grand parents, who homesteaded in 1914 out here, make smoke for their smoke house?

The original smoke house is in dads junk pile. It was probably 6x6 and 8 feet tall.

There are no trees. Could they have had hard wood shipped up on the rail road?

Could I do that?

Kinda along the lines of Chris and his prepper comments, I have been trying to work out how to get a years supply of wood up here.

I am wondering if I could just buy a load of junk pine logs or lodge pole or something. Like a semi load.
 
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  • #22
I have my great grandparents Majestic wood cook stove in my house. Grandpa and I would use it during our long and frequent power outages.

I know you can burn coal in it, but would rather burn wood. Once I figure out how to make bread in that oven I will be unstoppable!

Grandpa was actually a coal miner in his youth. We had is carbide lamp helmets for a while.
 
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  • #24
Ha! The Indians burnt buffalo shit, so did the early settlers I guess.

I cant believe that my ancestors did though. Well, my white ancestors.

We have it so good today. The early homesteaders up here had no timber, so they lived in dugouts. Just like you would think, a cave dug into a cutbank.

They would have had to burn shit, until they found some soft coal, which is abundant. Our soft coal is brown and just a grade better than peat.


Lots of times they would find Ma and Pa dead in the dugout in the spring, either that or they managed to escape. Imagine 40 below and several feet of snow.
 
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  • #25
A couple hundred miles I suppose.

Dad built logging trails for an outfit in the mountains south of me one winter. He never got paid.

I should look into it. What do you suppose a load of logs would be worth? Not good logs, but crappers.
 
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