Comments on: Ten Things That Make a Survival Homestead

By: Kat

Kat — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 21:27:19 +0000

Mother Earth News has a DVD set that covers the past 40 or so years. Not too expensive, and full of all the homesteading information you could want. It might be easier than trying to find old issues – which are very hard to come by. It would be a wonderful addition to anyone’s survival library! Backwoods Home is another magazine dedicated to homesteading and survival, and they have a DVD set as well. They cover everything from getting started, arms and ammo, gardening, home building – you name it! Both are awesome magazines with much info. The Foxfire books might also be a good set to have – the cover so much of the old-time skills from the Appalachia region. Thanks for all the wonderful advice Tess!! You are a bright star in the survival universe – succinct and to the point. You make one want to dig further!

By: larry

larry — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 00:21:37 +0000

Tess and Maxine, horse manure, if the supplier of hay for winter feeding is using Grazon or an equivalent broadleaf herbicide, is no good for composting or use with earthworms. Take care.

By: Tess

Tess — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 07:00:17 +0000

Maxine,

Great book suggestions,thanks for letting us know! A lot of gardeners swear by horse manure. In fact, look around for an equestrian facility around the area you live. You can typically get manure there for free if you hall if off. Talk about a great deal!

I’ve been doing a lot of research on earthworms lately. My son is loving it! I just ordered some earthworms and I’m waiting on them to show up. I can’t wait to see what kind of work they can do!

Thanks for commenting,
Tess

By: Maxine

Maxine — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 05:58:13 +0000

Reading all of this info. it brings back to mind 2 book subscriptions I had about 40 years ago. “Mother Earth” and “Organic Gardening”. All of the info in these monthly books was the best way to do everything. I remember the making of a compost bin. Not just an ordinary compost bin but a “fantastic” compost bin for production of the best garden around. Also, this is where I found out that horse manure was all you needed to grow the biggest and best earth worms with “super” castings for enriching your gardening.
I havent looked yet but I am hoping these books are still in print or maybe on a magazine rack in the libary. If you find them you will have hit a jackpot of wonderful info.

By: Tess

Tess — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 17:48:35 +0000

Great comment Arthur! The strategy your friend has is a great way to keep track on what is on the homestead property. There are also berry bushes and trees that a person could put on their property to attract wild game and wild foul. These essential berries and trees can provide food for humans as well. You mentioned items that one could use for bartering items for a longer term disaster. I would also like to add seeds to your list. Nutritious food is going to be harder to come by if a long term disaster. Without the proper nutrition that certain foods can provide, the body will lose it's stregnth, mental clarity, as well as become vitamin deficient. Having a wide variety of seeds for a homestead will also be valuable commodity. I admire your homesteading library. I have a nice collection as well, but we can always use more homesteading and survival books. Thanks for the suggestion of the Readers Digest book. I will definately look into it. There is another Back to Basics book that I own. It is by James Talmage Stevens and is an amazing homesteading reference. The author, who also has a radio show, has put everything a person needs to know about homesteading and self reliance in this book. It's definately worth the investment.

By: ARTHUR BELGE

ARTHUR BELGE — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 13:46:12 +0000

There are a number of items we are used to having that will disappear rather quickly and be slow to be replaced – good trading items.

Flour, Sugar, salt, milk, guns & ammo, tobacco and alcohol. Having these items to trade will be worth more than gold. Being able to produce them even more valuable for the long haul.

A friend of mine had 5 acres out in the country, not for survival but because he liked the country. He had a stream that cut across the back corner of his property. A natural gully and path way had been there for obviously generations. With lots of berry bearing bushes adding good cover he discovered he had a herd of his own – wild deer. He added a deer lick to encourage them to come there and would spend a lot of time with them so they would get used to him and his hunting bow and also he would keep a log of each deer so he could track his herd – as he called them. Then when primitive hunting season came (S.C.) he would remove the deer lick the required number of days ahead, and would then take 3 or 4 deer he had already determined would be big enough but not to old. Not a bad survival technique either. Your own herd without a lot of work.

Streams can be dammed up for ponds (water irrigation and fish source) as well as a power source. Not a bad combination.

Reader Digest put out a book called “Back to Basics “on traditional skills that had all this and more. It even had simple methods for surveying and determining flow of a stream for power purposes and determining if a site is adequate for power production. YOU COULD MAKE IT ON THIS BOOK ALONE, BUT I have about 5 books that cover NEARLY everything. 10 books that cover other areas that are really helpful ALSO. I’ll make a list.

By: Tess

Tess — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 05:51:28 +0000

Penna,

What a great suggestion. There are some interesting youtube videos that I watched about preparing guinea pigs.

By: Penna

Penna — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 05:46:34 +0000

In our small town you can have livestock as pets but not for consumption.

If I were to do something secretive it would be guinea pigs, they are Peru’s national Christmas dinner and they breed rapidly.

By: Tess

Tess — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 21:35:15 +0000

Rahim,

Often times, cities do not allow livestock on property unless a person has 10 or more acres. I would check on the city website that you live in to see if they have any livestock guidelines.

Tess Pennington
Ready Nutrition

By: Rahim

Rahim — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 01:18:13 +0000

Me being the overprotective safety junkie that I am, I love this list. Question: How can you have and/or maintain livestock if you’re living situation is urban (apartment)?