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Living off the grid

I grew up on a 20 acre farm. We had 7 acres of garden, pasture for cows and pigs and goats. We grew tobacco as a cash crop and my grandfather did a little 'distilling' too. I'm glad for the skills of growing and preserving meats and veggies but I'm in no hurry to go back to farming for a living. That was hard, relentelss work. Honestly my siblings and I mostly felt like we were being used for free labor and we didn't like it. We all moved away as soon as we could (and all to urban areas).

Now at middle age, I do like sharing the fun of growing things with my granddaughters, but I have no illusions of how wonderful living off the grid is because it's a lot of very hard work and it doesn't pay well.
Currently we have an acre in a small town, so we're able to have 'sneak' backyard chickens and a few raised garden beds. We're happy with that but we know that if we had to survive we have the skills to do it.

'Darling I love you but give me Park Avenue!"
 
I found out that people in the big cities can have more chickens and goats than we can here in the county/countryside.
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The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy


I just got a Tikka 30-06, yay for hunting this fall :)
 
I'd like to take my granddaughters to a farm for the weekend and let them see how a larger farm works and maybe help plant or harvest what ever was in season. Wonder if something like that would be profitable for a home business?
 
John Whitten said:
This is such a great desire of mine, but not likely for me. I wish everyone well that gets the opportunity to do so. Just one comment though, if the society is destroyed and you are the only one in the neighborhood with food, watchout for those who will attempt to take it from you at any cost.
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If I may I would like to touch on what John has said and I would like to share some thoughts and Ideas that may be very helpful when it comes to food. First I want you to know that on this point if you side with me I will make some profit but that is not why I share this information. It comes from a deep desire to see my Brothers and Sisters in Christ taken care of with what I am about to share.

when looking for food that you can store for a rainy day we look at a few things
1. Price - if we have to pay a lot we get less because we are all just trying to make it day by day
Answer: the company that I work with saves you 1/3 to 1/2 on most of the foods and if you contact me I can show you
programs that the company has for consumer that will save them more

2 Nutrition - we want good food, and as important as what is in our food. It is important to know what is NOT in our food
Answer: This food is pick at it peak of freshness and Freeze Dried within 48 hours of it being picked you will get the best flavor and without loosing Nutrition
And it is non GMO (genetically modified organism) meaning it is food that they have not Genetically mess with and it is as God made it and will be better for your health

3. Taste and usability - Wow this food was meant by the company to be use everyday and save you money and it is so good that you have to get some to know how good it is and the company says if you don't like it send it back and we will give you your money back

please feel free to contact me or call me at 612 834 8034 or email me at genekennedy@gmail.com and I can send you a video that will explain how you can save money and get prepared and use the food that you store

thank you again for letting me share with you what I have been doing and saving food myself

PS you can store this stuff for 25 years without loosing food value and you can even bury it in the ground safely asks me how
 
there comes time that we must learn to survive off the land and make things by hand not always going have what we have now so what we teach our children now could them in the future.
 
Living off the land is a good thing, but this will help to buy some time as you learn. Now with that said there is a video and 3 book that will help those that are new to a Idea to wilderness survival

The Website is for the Books: http://www.prairiewolf.net/store/Store_ ... N=88482562

and For the Video that help to give you a visual of what is going on in the books go to: http://www.prairiewolf.net/store/DVDs.cfm
and there are some Video samples of what is on all the videos my recommendation if you can is to get all of the Videos and share them with you like minded friends and loved ones

now if you do not have these skills or are not ready to live off the land the food I mentioned is a great help. I know that I have the skills to live off the land and I am still using the food as a help and it will and has served me well
 
What really convinced me to learn a few of the "old" skills was an ice storm. We were 11 days without electricity in an all electric home. Two of my children were little and I was pregnant with my baby and it is definitely NOT fun trying to figure out how to keep them warm and fed with no way to do so. I did the Scarlett scene with fist in the air stating "As God is my witness, never again"! lol

I have pretty much always lived in the country and did grow up on a farm, but did not practice any of what I had learned growing up. My first plan was learning to can. I found that I enjoy it very much as it relaxes me. :) I can veggies as well as meat. I would have my garden every year, but am starting to rethink this and plan to go with sq. ft. gardening next season as I AM getting older and it is harder to maintain a huge garden alone.

Another thing I did was to make sure I always have alternative ways to cook food and keep warm.

I began making candles and then soap. :) I also picked up sewing, but have not yet advanced to quilt making, which is what I would love to learn. :)

My fruit trees and bushes have been a real blessing to us. Next season, I will begin growing herbs. So many plans.. *sigh* :)
 
I would love to have these skills, too. I quilt, but only by sewing machine at this time. I would need to get better at hand-sewing to live without electricity. That is when sister-wives could be so helpful and it would be sooo fun! The Amish do this just to get together and help each other out!

Steven and I both hope to do SOME type of small farming someday, but we are seeing if He plans to move us or keep us put first.
 
I am glad to see this thread come back to life! I love the OTG concepts, and that is my eventual goal as well.

Blessings

Doc
 
DocInKorea said:
I am glad to see this thread come back to life! I love the OTG concepts, and that is my eventual goal as well.

Blessings

Doc
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:D I didn't even realize this thread was that old. This is just one topic I always find interesting as I love to learn knew ways of being as self-sufficient as possible. I would rather be able to help out others during a time of need rather than having to wait on someone to come and help me, i.e., FEMA or the like.

I do not believe I would want to HAVE to live off grid as in going back to days of old of beating clothes on rocks, but I would like to know that I am capable of managing it should circumstances dictate it. It has been my intention to sell my property once youngest graduates and buy a smaller place to "homestead." God will lead me in what to do, in that, I have complete faith. I once read that if you want to hear God laugh, tell Him your plans. :D So, we shall see.
 
Yes, this will be part of my long term plan. It obviously depends a great deal on a possible future relationship, but in the future I would like to move out of town and into a more rural location and try to be a lot more self sustaining.

B
 
Isabella said:
Yes, this will be part of my long term plan. It obviously depends a great deal on a possible future relationship, but in the future I would like to move out of town and into a more rural location and try to be a lot more self sustaining.

B
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In what area would you like to start as far as being more self sustaining? Are you able to have a garden now? I actually started with container gardening. :) I have two acres here where I am now and was able to add a few fruit trees to go with the ones already in place here. I did start a nice strawberry patch this year that seem to be doing quite well. :)
 
CountryWmn said:
In what area would you like to start as far as being more self sustaining? Are you able to have a garden now? I actually started with container gardening. :) I have two acres here where I am now and was able to add a few fruit trees to go with the ones already in place here. I did start a nice strawberry patch this year that seem to be doing quite well. :)
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I haven't got a clue where to go but I would love a garden and land....so there would be part of the garden give up to recreation. But no, at the moment I live in an apartment.

B
 
We have spent alot of time in our lives trying to be as self sufficient as possible. We raise all of our meat, veggies and herbs. We also heat with wood and right now are in the middle of installing a wood cook stove. One day I would like to be completely off of electric except for at the barns. We just finished butchering our meat chickens. Living off the grid is what I enjoy doing. We are looking at a windmill for pumping our water, maybe we can do this next year. 8-)


Dairyfarmer
 
Dairyfarmer said:
We have spent alot of time in our lives trying to be as self sufficient as possible. We raise all of our meat, veggies and herbs. We also heat with wood and right now are in the middle of installing a wood cook stove. One day I would like to be completely off of electric except for at the barns. We just finished butchering our meat chickens. Living off the grid is what I enjoy doing. We are looking at a windmill for pumping our water, maybe we can do this next year. 8-)


Dairyfarmer
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Oh, this is what I want to do!! I hope someday to have the same setup. I know it won't be easy, but the benefits are definitely worth it.
 
Well, we're living it, and it's not all plain sailing but it's certainly interesting! We've got solar electricity and a generator for our only power, an old coal range as our only oven & hot water, and a home-made composting toilet and greywater system. It's a bit tough on my wife, particularly when the house is too cold as I haven't sorted out a good heating system yet, but we're certainly enjoying it on the whole. Fire away with any questions!
 
FollowingHim said:
Well, we're living it, and it's not all plain sailing but it's certainly interesting! We've got solar electricity and a generator for our only power, an old coal range as our only oven & hot water, and a home-made composting toilet and greywater system. It's a bit tough on my wife, particularly when the house is too cold as I haven't sorted out a good heating system yet, but we're certainly enjoying it on the whole. Fire away with any questions!
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What do you use for the range? You said it was a coal range but as coal is not a sustainable source and pretty dirty to boot, have you looked into peat or pressed wood?

Anyway, I am pretty jealous.

Bels
 
FollowingHim said:
I haven't sorted out a good heating system yet,
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What is your structure like? There are a number of ways you could build an open hearth fireplace, or series of them, closed heating system (not open flame), or for that matter earthen cook stove and/or oven from primarily earth on your own property. Here are some resources to spark your interest:

Rocket Mass Heaters: Superefficient Woodstoves YOU Can Build

Build Your Own Earth Oven, 3rd Edition: A Low-Cost Wood-Fired Mud Oven; Simple Sourdough Bread; Perfect Loaves

You Can Make the Best Hot Tub Ever: Relax! Warm Your Bones! Get to Know the Sky

Lorena stoves: A manual for designing, building and testing low-cost wood-conserving cookstoves

The Hand-Sculpted House: A Practical and Philosophical Guide to Building a Cob Cottage: The Real Goods Solar Living Book

and Building With Cob: A Step-by-step Guide

In case you can't tell, I'm pretty taken with Cob, a building method that has withstood major earthquakes in your neck of the woods (NZ), and the rough weather of the British Isles, where I sorta suspect our Bels just might be from, and where the technique originated.
 
Woohoo....links galore!!! :D

Thank you.

x
 
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