One of the benefits of living in the country is the ability to have chickens. Our chickens are prodigious layers and we have a seemingly never-ending supply of eggs. This is a huge part of our preparedness strategy: as long as we have healthy birds, we have plenty of eggs to eat, plenty to give away, and plenty to trade, and eggs even supplement our dog food. But things happen. One day we may not have chickens, so we discovered a method of long-term storage of eggs, no refrigeration required.
Food Preparedness on $20 a Paycheck
For a long time I’ve been telling friends, family, and readers how easy and inexpensive preparedness can be. I recently got curious about what a reasonable dollar amount – say $20 a paycheck – could actually do for one’s preparedness. I decided to find out, first-hand, and report the results to you. I’m pretty excited and consider this little experiment a success!
Long-Term Preparedness Heating and Cooling
Heating and cooling in the absence of “the grid” is a subject that seems to get addressed only rarely in preparedness literature. Most of the recommendations are short-term in nature, anyway. This posts is going to cover the most important parts of my long-term heating and cooling system, in hopes that you can learn something and make yourself more resilient on what I feel is an overlooked topic.
Preparedness Part III: Be Financially Prepared
In my last two posts on preparedness I have discussed preparing your body and preparing your mind. Today I am going to talk about yet another unpopular preparedness topic: financial preparedness. This is a very simple, two-step process: reduce expenses and increase reserves but don’t worry – I’ll go into a bit more detail.
Preparedness Part II: Prepare Your Mind
In my last article on preparedness I discussed preparing your body. In this article I am going to discuss preparing your mind. This is arguably just as important as preparing your body; all the supplies, food, ammunition, and “stuff” in the world won’t get you through if you aren’t mentally capable.
Preparedness Part I: Preparing Your Body
I may have mentioned that I have some plans to write a series of articles on preparedness. It has been difficult to decide where to start. Yesterday I was reading Sherman House’s Civilian Defender blog and saw an article about personal health. It really resonated with me, and immediately I knew where to start this series. This series will proceed in a logical fashion, beginning to the most important, most urgent priorities. Let’s begin with preparing your body.
A Brief Introduction to Rechargeable Batteries
I decided to adopt rechargeable AA batteries only recently. I admit that I’ve always having sort of a bias against rechargeables. After having worked with them for a few months I’ve gained a whole new perspective and confidence and in them. Let’s talk about why.
A Primer on Raising Chicks
Chickens are one of the quintessential preparedness food sources, and for good reason. While it is still fresh in my mind, I’m going to offer some after-action information for those of you who may be thinking of raising chicks. It’s a little late in the season for this, so maybe I’ll repost it early next spring, as well.
Homestead One-Year Progress Report
Last week I gave you guys some insight into what I looked for when I purchased my home and land. Today I’m going to give you a progress report on what I’ve done in the roughly one year since moving there.
Homestead Planning 1: Site Selection
I recently received a reader email interested in my homesteading project. He asked quite a few questions, and I am going to address several of them here. Expect to see some more articles on homestead planning considerations, as well as some progress reports from me in the near future.