Replenishing Your Water Storage
Our friend, The Berkey Guy from LPC Survival, Ltd., has shared this article with us to share with you. Enjoy!
While frequently helping individuals and families set up their emergency drinking water storage, one of the most repeated tips that surfaces is that their water storage should be routinely rotated or replenished within a six to twelve-month period. For many, this comes as an unwelcomed surprise, as if water should just be able to set there for 20 years without any problems!
This brief article offers three points for routinely replenishing existing emergency drinking water storage. It was written for those who already have a basic understanding of sound practices in storing drinking water.
Security & Quality
Replenishing your water storage within a six to twelve month period ensures that the integrity of that water remains complete and that no unwanted influences have compromised the container or the immediate storage environment.
Some authors recommend accessing the water itself and simply closing it back up if all appears alright, but I disagree. The second that the stored water is re-introduced to an outside environment such as air, tools, or hands, the potential for contamination is a done-deal. Sterile technique outside of a lab is impossible which is why I recommend using tamper-proof caps after each replenishing session. This ensures a quick visual evaluation of tampering and compromise. Rest assured, if your technique was appropriate while putting the water into storage, routine replenishing and repeated form will ensure continued success. I also recommend writing the date of storage on each tamper-proof cap as a universal reference point.
The quality of the water is always affected by appropriate storage conditions:
- Using appropriate sources of water (U.S. tap water approved for drinking is a minimum)
- Using virgin (new & unused) containers approved for water storage
- Appropriate water preservative considering container & environment
- Proper filling & sealing techniques
- Out of direct sunlight
- Away from exposure to extreme temperatures
To read the original article, click HERE.
Interview with Steve of UVPaqlite
Equip To Endure‘s Adam Francis interviewed the creator of the UVPaqlite at Mesquite’s Self-Reliance Expo last weekend. This product is truly amazing! Enjoy the video:
Self-Reliance Expo: FalloutX
FalloutX provides products designed to handle minor, moderate, and acute fallout associated with radioactive events. Their website has many articles to support the education of their product’s use. They offer solutions beyond the traditional potassium iodate/iodide that most Americans only learned about as a result of Daichi’s disaster last spring.
On their site, they also offer valuable maps that provide real-time information on conditions, weather patterns, and detected radiation. Access their maps by clicking HERE.
From their website:
- If you are in the northern hemisphere, what level of Fukushima fallout are you breathing, eating, and drinking?
- Do you live near a nuclear power plant where an earthquake, flood, or similar event could cause fallout?
The U.S. Government, in 1963, sanctioned the addition of pectin in the Alaskan Brooks Range Native diet. Average total body load of radio-nuclides (radioactive fallout) was 100 times above normal. Decades later, LM pectin and kelp were administered to the children of Belarus, dramatically reducing their high body-load of 137Cs and 90Sr particles. *
Please visit their website and also be sure to visit them at the Self-Reliance Expo, booth 312.
Self-Reliance Expo: Dallas Chicken Coops
We are pleased to announce that DallasChickenCoops.com will be attending the Self-Reliance Expo this weekend in Mesquite, Texas! They will be in booths 510-512 and will be glad to answer your questions regarding building your own chicken coops, chicken coop plans & blueprints, valuable resources available to raising poultry, and many more topics related to the subject.
From their website:
Our main focus is chicken coops. There are several challenges when trying to find the right chicken coop. There are usually not that many designs available locally. So, many chicken owners are faced with building a chicken house themselves or paying to have one shipped to them. Shipping these chicken coops is not cheap!
We offer a different solution! We will bring the chicken coop to you in the Dallas area. We can build the coop on site. You can choose from any of the designs we have available or we can do custom work to suit your needs. We can build custom chickens coops in your backyard. Tell us what you want and we will get you a free quote.
Please be sure to pay them a visit and get their advice on chicken coops.
Cast Iron Collection Contest, Inspired by Backwoods Home Magazine Article: Cast Iron Loaf Pans from Breakfast to Dessert
The following article from Backwoods Home Magazine has inspired a contest over this next week. We are looking for pictures of your cast iron cookware. Please post your pictures to the Self-Reliance Expo Facebook Fanpage. The winner will receive a FREE year subscription to Backwoods Home Magazine. The article is available online and in the print edition, and was written by Matt & Linda Morehouse.
“Cast iron loaf pans are not just for bread. Nearly as versatile as the cast iron 10-inch (#8) covered skillet, the venerable cast iron loaf pan will truly see you from breakfast to dessert — and all points in between.
“Want proof? Here are four recipes ideal for cast iron loaf pans. One is for breakfast, one for anytime bread, one for a dinner entrée, and one for dessert.
(Click on the images to visit the original article at Backwoods Home Magazine)
Quick Video-Tips for the Urban Homesteader
The following clips are from Christropher Nyerges‘ appearance on National Geographic’s “Doomsday Preppers” show. He’s a smart guy who is also extremely resourceful…he should be, considering he’s living in Los Angeles, California! Christopher also attended the Self-Reliance Expo in Salt Lake City, Utah last fall, promoting his School of Self-Reliance.
Meet Christopher Nyerges Video
Make a Survival Bag
How to Start a Fire
How to Forage
Using Nature to Heal
You will be able to watch this season’s new series premiere of Doomsday Preppers on the National Geographic channel Tuesday, February 7, 9 PM ET/PT.
Pantry Paratus Wondermill Electric Grain Mill Give-Away
With the Dallas Texas’ Self-Reliance Expo almost 1 week away, it’s time you know that our good friends from Pantry Paratus™ will be hosting a FREE Give-Away of a Wondermill Electric Grain Mill. The drawing will take place on Saturday, February 11 at their booth #100-101.
Wilson & Chaya will both be conducting educational classes at the Expo:
Wilson- will teach the Basics of Dehydrating Food…using an Excalibur Food Dehydrator (although he’ll share principles of dehydrating)
Chaya- will teach Milling Flour at Home
How to sign-up for the drawing:
- Buy your tickets for Mesquite, Texas’ Self-Reliance Expo (February 10 & 11) HERE.
- Visit Pantry Paratus’ booth #100-101 and write your valid email to sign up for their newsletter
- Make arrangements to be there on Saturday when they will draw the lucky winner’s name & email…and cross your fingers!
For details of the drawing, please visit PantryParatus.com and send them an email or call them.
We wish you good luck!
Homestead Gadgets & Technology: The Fencerunner
January/February 2012
This article was featured recently by our friends at BackWoodsHome.com. This is just one of the reasons I enjoy their magazine. It provides insight into Self-Reliant living, educational articles, along with humor & classifieds too!
Author: Dietmar Berg
Here’s a gadget I developed to run barb or barbless wire. You mount it on the back of a pickup truck using the ball hitch (see drawing) so the wire can spin off the roll. I call the device the Fencerunner and am currently trying to market it. It works like a charm and saved me hours of work, enabling my sons and I to do a quarter mile fence in 45 minutes.
The unit uses the ball hitch or tunnel hitch attachment found on some cars and most trucks. It can be adjusted to use one or two rolls of wire. It consists of two units, the fork unit and the bar unit. The fork is installed as shown in the figure. The ball itself is used to secure the fork unit to the hitch. The bar unit consists of a shaft assembly to hold the wire rolls. The shaft of the bar unit is inserted through the wire rolls. The disc is next and then the spacer. The bar unit has three spacers for different width wire rolls. The next step is to lift the bar unit and insert the two slots on the fork unit.
Two views of the Fencerunner, one showing a tunnel hitch installation and the other a ball hitch installation.
With my first prototype, I had to lift an 80-pound roll and drop it over a vertical shaft. I found this difficult, so with my second prototype I made the fork unit with more of a horizontal angle.
You need to park the vehicle as close to the fence posts as possible, securing the end of the wire from the roll to the first post to start the run. The vehicle is then driven slowly along the fence line as the wire spools off the roll. When the vehicle reaches the end of the run or when the wire roll has about three turns of wire left, insert the wire into one of the slots in the fork unit. This will kink the wire and keep the bar unit from turning. Then drive the vehicle forward just enough to stretch the wire. Another person can signal the driver when the wire is taut. At this point the wire is simply lifted up to each post and secured. I didn’t need a wire stretcher when I did my fence.
The crank handle on the unit allows you to reel in the old barbwire instead of just leaving it on the ground.
This article was originally published in Issue #68 March/April 2001. CLICK HERE to begin your subscription to Backwoods Home Magazine.
Self-Reliance Expo’sed Radio Show, Friday, January 28, 2012
Join Colorado Ron & Bubba Davinci on their show tonight 8 pm Central on the Preparedness Radio Network. (Click the image for the link or click HERE.)
This week 1/27/2012, on Self-Reliance Expozed, the official Self-Reliance Expo radio show, your hosts Colorado Ron and Bubba DaVinci will be introducing themselves and discussing what the future brings for both the Self-Reliance Expo and Self Reliance Expo’zed.
Tonight they’ll have a special guest who is a long time supporter of the Self-Reliance movement and creator of one of the best solar back-up power units on the market The Humless Sentinel. We will also be introducing a segment called “Radiation Watch”.
BHM Radio and Self Reliance Exposed will alternate weeks in this time slot, Friday at 8pm Central. Please join us again next week for our BHM Radio Show!
Featured Product: The Doom and Bloom™ Survival Medicine Handbook
I, for one, am super-excited to pick up Dr. Bones & Nurse Amy’s new book: 
Check out the trailer for the new book:
We look forward to reviewing this book & posting that review here…Stay Tuned!
-David SafeWater
Dallas, Texas Self-Reliance Expo: WIN FREE Tickets!!!
With the Dallas’ Self-Reliance Expo right around the corner February 10-11, we want to give individuals and families the opportunities to win FREE tickets to the Self-Reliance Expo! (It’s actually gonna happen in Mesquite, just east of Dallas). What we are looking for:
- Entertaining videos which highlight/demonstrate your most innovative Self-Reliance Creations, Contraptions, or Inventions (this can include modifications to products that you use or a tool that you created to fit your needs)
- A brief & entertaining instructional video that teaches a Self-Reliance Skill or Short-Cut
- A 2-3 minute silent video on anything Self-Reliance themed:
- Comedy/Parody
- Educational
- Entertaining/Creative
- Product Review
- A humorous video that features a song you write & perform on:
- Self-Reliance
- the Benefits/Joys of being a Prepper
- Buggin’ Out
- Things Preppers Say
- Life on the Homestead
We have plenty of tickets to give away for the most creative, fun, and entertaining submissions, so have fun & be SAFE! Only selected submissions will win tickets to the event. Winners will be selected by judges from the Self-Reliance Expo, based on creativity & entertainment. We look forward to seeing your content!
It almost goes without saying, but please remember that the content should be appropriate for families to share & we will be featuring the winners on the Self-Reliance Facebook fanpage, an interview, and will likely be featured on other websites online. By submitting the content, you are allowing the Self-Reliance Expo to use that content in a promotional manner, with the opportunity to win a prize of tickets for admission to the Self-Reliance Expo referenced above. You must be the original producer of the content that you submit. Any prizes awarded for selected & featured content do not hold cash value, void where prohibited, winner must confirm contact, blah, blah, blah…
Several Ways to Submit Content:
- Upload your content to your YouTube account & Email the link to david[at]selfrelianceexpo[dot]com, or
- Upload your content to your Facebook account & share it on the Self-Reliance Expo Facebook Fanpage, or
- Send an Email to: david[at]selfrelianceexpo[dot]com with a link to your content outside of Youtube & Facebook
Winning submissions will be notified via email and announced here & on the Self-Reliance Facebook Fanpage. Content will be accepted until February 6, 2012, with the earliest announcement of Ticket winners beginning this Saturday, January 28, 2012. We are accepting submissions from anywhere and everywhere. Remember: be safe, have fun, and be creative!
I’m thinking that if we get enough submissions…we can open it up for a grand prize winner to be announced at the February’s Self-Reliance Expo…the Grand Prize will be awarded to the winner there. The Grand Prize is yet to be determined….but it’s gonna be GOOD!
-David SafeWater
Featured Post: Recycling a Glass Bottle Pantry Paratus Style
Our friends Wilson & Chaya at PantryParatus.com wrote a great article, and we are featuring it here with their permission. Enjoy!
Convenience is pretty expensive. The just-in-time logistics system has changed our shopping experience in the Industrialized world. If you pick up the last bottle of ketchup on the shelf, there is no such thing as “the back room” for someone to check to see if there is more.
I have bargain hunting in my genetic makeup. I come from a long line of blue-collar immigrants who worked beyond modern imagination and were determined to get ahead in this great country. My grandmother lived through the Great Depression in a family of ten children. Her pantry was stocked deep at any given time. She gardened actively throughout the summer and always had food in the refrigerator. To her credit, I would put that below the fishes and loaves miracle when you consider how many grandsons she had. If you left her house hungry, it was your own fault. Her basement could have been a Cool-Whip museum for all of the washed, dried, sorted and organized-by-size containers that she kept down there.
So when I passed by this bottle in the break room at work, my upbringing kicked in and I reflexively picked it up to examine it and see what other purpose it might fulfill. After all, the price was right—it was being thrown away. Here is a short list:
- Lightning bug catcher—it is winter in Montana, bummer
- Soil sample container—see conclusion number one
- Yellow jacket trap— see conclusion number one
- Seed sprouter—cool
- Head bonker—as seen on the movie, The Gods Must be Crazy
- Food storage container—yes, my grandmother would be proud!
Then the idea hit me that this bottle had a capacity in fluid ounces, but how much food could it store for me?
Great thoughts often sneak up on you, and it eventually came to me that frozen vegetables were on sale at the local grocery store. We dehydrate with our Excalibur 9 Tray pretty much all the time. Bananas were on sale this week and so we have banana chips in process as I write this.
First of all, why glass? As fantastic as plastic is for space exploration, medical devices or fishing line—not all food plastics are the same. We typically reuse all of our glass jars in our house. A spaghetti sauce jar is on a one way trip when it leaves the store. With this experiment, I wanted to reclaim something from the waste stream that can be used for our profit. A post-consumer glass bottle can be taken to the dump or to the bank.
Secondly, why fill the bottle with dehydrated food? I have seen some interesting experiments done with commodities such as rice, oatmeal and wheat in post-consumer bottles before, and I do like the idea. Storing food in a five gallon pail is great, but if you want oatmeal do you really want to break the seal on a five gallon pail for one or two breakfast servings? Ditto for wheat or rice in a spaghetti sauce jar.
There are lots of great posts on the internet telling you how to store water–slightly chlorinated in a two liter soda bottle under the bed is great peace of mind. And it is mighty cheap insurance if you are in earthquake country.
Lastly, why frozen vegetables? Anything that goes into the dehydrator with as much cellulose and fiber as a carrot or corn kernel needs to be blanched first. If you are not familiar with blanching, here is a great article on it from our friend Sharon Peterson at simplycanning.com. Basically you dip the item in boiling water to soften the outside so that you avoid “case hardening” in the dehydrator. You would have to look long and hard to see the down side to something that is blanched (dehydrator ready), pre cut and on sale!
- Step one: wash and dry bottle.
- Step two: dump frozen vegetables on dehydrator tray.
- Step three: set time for dehydrator.
- Step four: put dehydrated vegetables in the bottle.
- Step five (optional): add oxygen absorber
Here are the vegetables at 12 hours:
Here are the vegetables at 24 hours:
Done!
Later, when frozen vegetables are not on sale, you can still enjoy them in a soup or stew anytime. They will always be on sale to you because you preserved them minus the risk of freezer burn.
I managed to get two one-pound bags into the bottle. As you can see, 2 ½ pounds would have easily made it in there. These will go on the shelf without any further cost to store them.
Wilson
Pro Deo et Patria
Shelf Reliance Consultants @ Dallas, Texas Self-Reliance Expo, Feb. 10-11, 2012
Texas Shelf Reliance®
For those of you out there who enjoy the free samples given out at Costco, Farmer’s Markets, or In-Home Presentations, you’re in for a treat at the upcoming Self-Reliance Expo just outside of Mesquite, Texas in three weeks. A team of select Independent Consultants from Shelf-Reliance® & Thrive™ Foods will be there, coordinated by John & Diane Runnells. The Runnells are based out of North Richland Hills, Texas and are excited to share their experience and knowledge of their products.
Shelf Reliance® Consultants will include (click on any one of the links to visit their independent sites):
- John & Diane Runnells, serving North Richland Hills, Texas area
- Vicki & Emmett Koen, serving the Canton, Texas area
- Krystal Windham, also serving the Canton, Texas area
- Carrie & Michale Folsom, serving the Forney, Texas area
John & company will have fresh samples available as well as a display of their practical shelving options for storing & rotating home food storage cans. They look forward to answering your questions & arranging free consultations for individuals as well as families. Having tasted tons samples of the Thrive™ Foods, I can vouch for their quality and goodness!
Please be sure to visit their websites where there are many valuable tools available to guide your food storage. Some of the free online tools available through Shelf Reliance® include:
- Their online store of course!
- Food Calculator- calculate your family’s food storage needs
- Shelf Reliance® University- learn about food storage & becoming better prepared
- Recipes- get tastefully creative with your food storage!
- How to host a Food Storage Party in your Home
- The Thrive™ Q- develop your own personalized food storage solutions
- & Many more…
We look forward to seeing you all in Dallas! Please visit www.SelfRelianceExpo.com for details. To order discounted tickets, please visit the Self Reliance Expo Fanpage on Facebook & be sure to Like it.
-David SafeWater
Lehman’s 2012 Cast Iron Recipe Drawing: Enter to Win a Gift Card!
Lehman’s-”the world’s purveyor of historical non-electric merchandise technology”- is hosting a drawing for a recipe which utilizes cast iron cookware in one of four possible categories:
- Main Dish
- Dessert
- Bread
- Breakfast
I want to point out that this is a drawing and not a contest to select a preferred recipe. All submissions/entries must be received by Lehman’s by February 1, 2012 at the latest, and the drawing will occur approximately one week later. One winning entry will be selected per each category, with each winner receiving a gift card, redeemable at Lehman’s for products they sell.
Once the winners are selected, their names will be posted on Lehman’s blog. Please visit Lehman’s.com for full details regarding the drawing, and GOOD LUCK!
Tech for the homestead…or maybe not?
photo credit: SiGNa Chemistry
Well, many of us are into our technology as well as our basic self-reliance skills…and we know that CES is still going on right now in Las Vegas, Nevada. It’s happening at the Las Vegas Convention Center/The Venetian through Friday, January 13. With so many exciting consumer gadgets, and James Bond-like contraptions, there is a lot of buzz about nifty products Inspector Gadget would be proud to own!
Here’s one of the craziest things I’ve read in the last 24 hours via SFGate:
[SiGNa Chemistry] is ready to sell [the PowerTrekk™ Fuel Cell Charger] that can put the juice back in your cell phone, iPod or GPS device just by adding a little water.
And if there’s no water available, it works with urine.
That’s right, they are promoting their product’s pee-power-production-for-phones! Now, I am not terribly anxious to unzip to recharge, but the idea is pretty cool…if you get stuck in the boonies and are able-to-get-cell-coverage-to-make-an-emergency-call-but-need-to-charge-your-phone-first. Seriously, this product sounds like more of a novelty item for several reasons:
- The retail price point is too high (for my taste) for a product that is more of a convenience gadget than a necessity. I’d rather put $200 toward splitting a cow, or getting a new Sun Oven™ , or tons of Sport Berkey® bottles, or toward a Humless Power System!
- If I find myself stranded in the wilderness outside of cell range, one of the last priorities I have is to power my electronic gadget…water, food, & shelter are first on my list…and this device will tax the precious blue-gold you are trying to conserve…or at least its golden by-product.
- Again, how inconvenienced must I be in order to spend $12 for the chance to charge my phone 6 times ($2 per phone charge)? Perhaps this is best suited for business people who rely on their cell phones while traveling internationally…
...like this guy
I like the ingenuity & commitment it takes to produce a product such as this cell charger, but we’ll see how many REIers use this on the homestead.
Can you think of a creative/funny scenario where you would want to use this product? If so, write us an email and we’ll post the funniest/most creative response we get! Send responses to david[at]thomesteadbasics[dot]com.
Beekeeping 101…A Sweet Resource
Kate Ferry is a beekeeper in Custer, Washington. Her blog is SacredBee.net and offers great information about beekeeping, as well as many matters focusing on self-reliance. She writes:
- Are you fascinated by the honeybee?
- Do you have access to a bit of land? Anything over about 20 feet by 20 feet will do just fine.
- Are you interested in reaping the benefits of a well-pollinated, seasonally rounded garden?
- Do you have a spare hour every two weeks or so?
- Do you have a sweet tooth for honey?
And, last but not least…
- Can you check off the “no” box on the doctor’s information form that asks “Are you allergic to bees”?
If you can answer yes to these questions – any or all of them – then beekeeping might just “bee” the thing for you.
I first became interested in honeybees while studying anthropology in college a few years ago. The social structure of the honeybee is unlike any other living organism and the level of organization, community and work ethic is second to none. Inside the hive, they are truly remarkable creatures. Outside the hive, they are both critically beneficial and incredibly fascinating to study.
After graduating from college, I enrolled in a six-week course at a honeybee learning centre just outside Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It was an intense learning environment and it only fueled my interest and determination to bring honeybees into my life.
That next spring I jumped in headfirst and haven’t turned my back on them since. For the past seven years, I have enjoyed keeping bees at my homestead in northwest Washington. And, through trials and tribulations have managed to keep the honeybee a sacred part of my life and that of my family.
But, back to you and keeping YOUR bees…
1 - First things first – Read up on honeybees. Get familiar with the terms and the level of time involved. Start to understand the basics and what you will be tackling when you make the commitment.
My absolute favorite book on beekeeping goes by a somewhat embarrassing moniker, but it’s loaded with quality information that is presented in an easy-to-follow format – whether you are a complete novice or well-practiced beekeeper.
Beekeeping For Dummies by Howland Blackiston and Kim Flottum
The second and third book worth taking a peek at are Natural Beekeeping: Organic Approaches to Modern Apiculture by Ross Conrad & Gary Nabhan and The Backyard Beekeeper – Revised and Updated: An Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Keeping Bees in Your Yard and Garden by Kim Flottum.
Still ready to keep going? Good, because you’re gonna have fun!
2 – Find your local beekeeper’s association and check it out. And, if you are lucky enough to find one or get to a meeting and meet one – try, try, try to hook up with a mentor that you can observe in the field and go to with question after concern after inquiry.
3 – Get your ducks, er bees, in a row. Find that plot of land to keep your hives. Order your gear through a local supplier or a number of online retailers including Mann Lake and Glory Bee. Start-up cost for one single hive and all brand-new gear is going to be about $200 to $300. Be on the lookout for used beekeeping gear (hat, suit, smoker, etc…) but, be wary of used equipment (hive boxes, frames, tools). Hive parts can harbor diseases and parasites that may have infected the previous colony and transfer over to your new, healthy bees.
4 – Scout out sources for acquiring your bees. A box of bees is going to run you about $80 and a nucleus colony is around $100.
- Order them online through a retailer of choice
- Get in with your local beekeeper’s association and join in on their group order
- For the brave at heart – capture a swarm (a.k.a. FREE BEES!!)
5 – Enroll in a formal course. If you live in the Pacific Northwest, check out the Honeybee Centre in Surrey, B.C., Canada. Otherwise, you can check out your nearest university and ask to speak with their agriculture department. Most state universities offer extension courses at the very least, but a number of them have an apiculturist on staff, too!
Well, if you know you aren’t planning on keeping honeybees, thank you for sticking with me and reading the past 600 words. The next bit pertains to those interested in welcoming honeybees into the garden and providing a safe haven for an endangered insect.
The past five years have seen an enormous decline in honeybee colonies.
The honeybee population is vanishing at an apocalyptic rate and keepers are opening the hives in spring to find them empty. The fate of the honeybee is particularly worrisome when considering that over one-third of the food on our table is the direct result of honeybee pollination.
So, even if you aren’t interested or can’t keep honeybees, you would doing a world of good to educate yourself on how to help keep them relatively safe and enjoy the benefits of their industrious work ethic.
How can you help?
Keep that garden natural – a bonus for the honeybee, your home, your health and your environment! Avoid pesticides at all costs and work with natural, environmentally friendly products. Or, embrace the weeds.
Try to have a variety of flowers and plants in your yard that are in bloom all year round. Think early spring to harvest time – work with the dandelions in April and finish with some sedum in late fall.
Get those wasps. Wasps are carnivores that feed on honeybees. A hive can be severely incapacitated by a wasp attack and the only evidence for the keeper is the body remnants after wasps have dissected the abdomens of the bees. Wasp queens are all that live over winter and are responsible for starting the entire hive on their own come spring. So, each wasp you kill in late winter or early spring (you know those sneaky slow movers that come out of the wood pile?) is one wasp hive down. An affordable and effective organic bait for wasps is half orange juice/half water in any sort of trap. If you use a sugar bait – you are going to be killing honeybees, too (a big no-no).
Host a hive. Contact your local beekeeping association and let them know you are interested in hosting a hive. Your provide the land and an experienced beekeeper provides and cares for the bees and gives you a portion of the honey harvest for your support and participation. Can you say win-win?!
Keeping bees is a wonderful hobby, but is understandably not for everyone. Even if honeybees are not an integral part of your life, they can find nectar and pollen from organic sources in your yard.
Give beekeeping a whirl – it’s truly a delightful pastime and a special stewardship to the honeybee.
Featured Post: How Much Land To Survive?
Today’s featured post comes to us courtesy of Dr. Bones & Nurse Amy from Doom & Bloom! He has wonderful articles full of practical information for homesteaders, preppers, and the rest of open-minded folk!
“Have you ever wondered how likely it is that you’ll be able to produce all the calories you’ll need on the piece of land you have? How much land for livestock? How about those solar panels you were thinking about? How many square feet of panels will provide you with the electricity you’ll need? The folks at one block off the grid, that’s 1bog.org have figured this out for you.
Let’s start by talking power.
In a collapse situation, you’ll probably be able to rely on the sun and wind and not much else, unless you’ve built a watermill. The best answer might be installing some solar panels on your roof. This is a commonly available option that many people are considering nowadays.
Let’s say part of your roof is facing South (the best place for a solar panel) and you get 7 hours or so of sunlight, on average. To get the amount of power that an average home uses in a year, you’ll need 375 square feet of panels. These things aren’t cheap, and that much hardware is going to be beyond the average family’s financial reach. This means that you’ll have to make decisions regarding how to ration the power you ARE able to produce.
Look around the house, and you’ll probably see lots of things that are plugged in that you can eliminate if the you-know-what ever hits the fan. This is part of the planning you’ll need to do now, so that you’ll be better prepared for times of trouble.
How about food? If you have a family of four, you’ll want to provide at least 2000 or so calories per adult, more if you’re a big guy, maybe a little less for kids. The formula is simple: At least 30 calories per kilogram of body weight. One kilogram equals 2.2 pounds, so an 80 kilogram adult would weigh 176 pounds. 30 x 80 = 2400 calories/day. Less for kids, of course. You’ll need to provide 8000-9000 calories a day to maintain your family’s weight.
One block off the grid separates your garden out in three categories: fruits, berries and vegetables, then wheat, then corn. If you went totally vegetarian, you would need a little less than half an acre per person to provide all of those calories. That means a family of 4 needs almost 2 acres of farmable land! If you stock up on wheatberries and use your handy dandy Wondermill, you can cut that down a bit. Corn isn’t a very land-efficient crop, but you might need it for your livestock. An alternative if you need to trim that acreage more is to stock up on bushels of corn feed; that’s about 56 pounds of feed for about $8-10. This is a good idea, but you’ll use a lot of it. It takes 10 bushels of corn to get a hog from weaning to slaughter. Btw, corn prices are going higher, they were less than 5 dollars a couple of years ago.
Don’t forget, you’ll need some land for hog wallows, goats, rabbits and chickens. All of these animals can be raised in relatively small amounts of space. A good 200 square feet for 3 hogs, more if they have piglets, less for each of the other animals. You might have to forget about cows, they aren’t land-efficient. If you want milk, think about goats, especially Nubian Goats. This variety can produce 1800 lbs. of milk a year, according to 1 block off the grid. That’s a lot of milk! How about eggs? The average family of four will eat 1000 eggs a year or so. To reliably get this quantity, you’ll need about 13-15 birds in your henhouse, depends a lot on the breed.
You could probably squeeze this all in with an acre and a half of land. If you don’t have that much property, now you know you’ll need that much more food storage to make up for the difference. This is information I thought was important for me to know, and now you know it too.”
Featured Post: Survival Transportation: Is it Time for the Third Wheel?
This post was featured at directive21.com/blog
Bikes and motorcycles of various kinds and sizes were the rage a couple summers back when gas prices went through the roof. Will they again gain popularity when fuel prices get as high as they did before?
Will bikes be in our foreseeable future because of economic considerations? Or, are we locked into our normal routines of transportation?
I’ve got a recommendation that may be better than a bike for you. Consider the adult sized tricycle.
No kidding. Don’t laugh.
A trike has a lot going for it, especially if you’re unable to ride a bike for any reason at all. I could never ride one, so an adult trike works great for me.
There may be good reasons one will be a solution for you, too. For example, you may be someone who doesn’t have the sense of balance you used to have. Or perhaps you’ve put on extra weight over the years.
What if you have a disability or some sort of medical limitation that keeps you from riding a bike? Or what if you’re afraid a bike isn’t safe for you to ride? Then why not get a trike?
A trike is a low cost, alternative means of transportation just about anyone can use. A basket behind the seat can be used to carry groceries or other items. Because a trike is stable, you could pull a small trailer for transporting a child. Or you could put camping supplies in it.
If there’s an electromagnetic pulse in the not too distant future, it’s likely cars won’t be going anywhere. But you’ll still be able to travel on a trike. That makes a trike a great means of survival transportation.
Of course, you don’t have to wait for society to collapse first. A trike will let you go on short errands nearby and leave the car at home. Imagine getting trikes for the whole family and going on little excursions such as to the park for a picnic.
The comfort of a trike ride will enable you to go farther than you might think. An obvious benefit is the exercise you get, in addition to the fun.
Give it some thought. One day you may enjoy the simplicity and fun of survival transportation with the third wheel.
Win A Country Living Grain Mill
Open to the public! Here is your chance to win a Country Living Grain Mill!
Only at the Self Reliance Expo
April 8-9, 2011
National Western Complex
Denver CO
View a demo below:
Choosing the Ultimate Post-Apocalyptic Vehicle
Today I have the opportunity to start our very own radio show. For our first episode I wanted to do something fun. A lot of emails come in asking me what the best “do-it-all” type vehicle is available. I will cover this topic in depth over our 30 minute show. Its today at 4:30 MST. Hope you join in!
Lets Talk Water Storage
Caution! Do not store water in milk jugs! Photo c/o chartertn.net
Water Storage Info: I am sure that if you are reading this you already know how important it is to have water storage. After I read about Iowa City having to use bottled water it reminded me that perhaps we should talk on the subject some more. Store shelves can literally be emptied in hours! Water is so important! If this has not been a priority, make it one now! Its more important than food. Watch the video below for a good reason:
Storage Containers: There are many different ways to store water. You can buy tanks that are designed exactly for food and water storage such as Sure Water tanks. You can also buy new or used 55 gallon tanks. These work great if you think you might need to move your water storage, although 55 gallons of water is a serious task to move! You can even use old soda or juice bottles, you just have to wash them out and treat it.
CAUTION!!! Do NOT store water in milk jugs! They will break down and leak your valuable water all over!
Water Treatment: Here are some common quantities for various containers. Make sure the bleach you use in NON SCENTED! Just plain bleach.
- 1 quart bottle 4 drops of bleach
- 2 liter soda bottle 10 drops of bleach
- 1 gallon jug 16 drops of bleach (1/8 tsp)
- 2 gallon cooler 32 drops of bleach (1/4 tsp)
- 5 gallon bottle 1 teaspoon of bleach
How to Use Your Water Storage: I have been amazed at the number of people who have water storage, but no way to access it. No pump, no siphon hose, or no way to purify. Be sure you have pumps, bleach, and hoses that are put away and stay clean for when you need to access the 50 gallon drum of water. I would highly recommend a hand pump for these. Make sure you also have smaller containers laying around that you can use. You wont want to go to the basement to pump water everytime you would like a drink.
Buy a pump for your 55 gallon tanks. photo c/o nutri-tech
Grover Rocket Stove
Here at Homestead Basics, we have been looking for a great option for a backup type stove. We wanted something we could use to cook in the back yard and not use much fuel. We have a small propane reserve for our BBQ grill, but that wasnt enough. We found this Grover Rocket Stove and really like it! I just called them to get the specs. The thing is built with 14guage steel and should last forever provided its not left in the weather all the time. Like all rocket fuel designs, these require very little wood to heat up and cook dinner, or boil water. My opinion is that a rocket stove of some sort should be something that every home should have in their emergency preparedness category.
Project HOSS-Dump Bed Complete
So finally have some time to give a follow up on Project HOSS. The bed has been attached using custom fabricated mounts. The power comes from hydraulics powered by electric.
So its all good to go and working great. The next thing was to test it out. Hauled about 4000lbs of wood in a couple of different loads.
Its been really nice playing with my new toy. This wood in the picture above was free off of Craigslist. Cottonwood is NOT the best wood out there, but hard to beat free. More HOSS projects to follow.