Tracking the next pandemic: Avian Flu Talk |
Could you live off the land |
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candice
Adviser Group Joined: July 17 2006 Location: Canada Status: Offline Points: 63 |
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Posted: August 21 2006 at 12:21pm |
What if your preps were taken or you just want to add to them by living off the land .
My cousins live in a small town and fish and freeze their catch , they can vegetables and pick wild berries and mushrooms and share a moose between families. They grow vegetable gardens and fruit trees
and bake amazing cakes and pies.
They have two wood stoves, one indoors to heat the house and one outdoors for canning. They work normal nine to five jobs , this just enables them to live more comfortablaly.
If all broke loose they would only need seeds, shovels, water filters ,wood for their wood stove, flour, sugar, rice, spices, dried fruit for winter.
Could you survive where you live.
What would be the minimum you needed.
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If you cant get in the front door try the side door then the back door.
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Candice,
You mention "If all broke loose ...."
In the worse case, if the avian virus mutates to H2H2H in a virulant form, there will be massive social disruption, supply shortages and a complete change in daily life.
Little or no electricty, running water, gasoline, food, medical supplies, medical professionals, law professionals and on and on.....
The state of technology will be that of 1806 in a matter of weeks. Then what? What did your ancestors do? What did your ancestors, ancestors do?
They got busy, pulled together and started over. They made it, and so will you. Have courage. We'll need it.
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I could do this. I can make weapons, traps, hunt, smoke meat, dry meat, tan hides, make clothes from hides, build a shelter from nature and have a fairly decent life doing so.
It would help if I can keep my cast iron pots and pans, axes, knives and other tools tho. |
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Scotty
Adviser Group Joined: March 06 2006 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 846 |
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I could stalk a deer, but not if 300 million others were stalking the same annimal.
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Why would there be 300 million others stalking that same deer? I mean, if things got so bad that you'd have to resort to subsistence hunting/foraging/farming, then that would mean that the vast majority of those 300 million are dead/dying/too ill to work, right? My problem would be so much as hunting as a place to hunt. No public lands around here. Everthing is fenced in and there are way too many 'Trespassers will be shot' signs around here...
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oh man,,this is my worst fear,,
though thanks to you good people,,i have prepped for my family of 6 for 6 months,,but living off the land is so out of my realm. my ancestors were homesteaders,,but believe me, i am far from that,,i am a city girl at heart.
dont mind hard work in the least but we live in a large city suburb of washington, d.c.,,, shaded lot off a wooded park,,,and though it's very cool in the summer,, we only get about 3 hours in one place of total sun a day. i have grown container tomatoes but that was a struggle., due to the lack of sunshine. i have been researching (that is my job at the smithsonian, lol) on which veggies, etc need less sun,but it is frustrating.
anyone have any luck with growing any food in less than great sun?
i can't cut trees down because these are HUGE ,,,to the sky trees and it would cost in the 1,000's of dollars (already had it priced out)
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I'm going to get a good book on wild edibles. I think there's
lots of stuff we can eat that people don't know about, like juniper
berries, sticker bushes, pine needle tea, wild lettuce, etc. I
just don't know what some of this stuff looks like!
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First rule of living off the land.
Live in a place where it is possible to do so. Even living in the country would make this almost impossible. Way to many people. People could not live without some items needed to get by on. Even in the Daniel Boone days, there were blacksmiths and factories that the made items for the pioneers. The indains did it the right way, and that is the way I have tried to learn. Tho I am getting a little to old to start trying to live this way. |
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Could I live off the land????hummm....Not with out crying a lot...I have been taught to shoot and how to cut a deer and clean a chicken and turkey...but I would be crying I'm cold while hunting......The winters here are harsh and it cold here 5 months of the year.
We live in the country and there lots of game here...I have two ponds and an apple orchard...It's like bring the food to you...but living off the land...I'm a dead person walking....
Perhaps for a short while.....1 hour 2 hours thats about it....
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mom24kids: Get a chainsaw, if TSHTF then go out and cut you a swath through those trees and create yourself a field. Call on your immediate neighbors to that field to help work it and you all will benefit from it and they can also help to guard it. You can use the wood from the downed trees for firewood, even the branches and twigs for firewood. Use the leaves for mulch or as helpful agent in your compost pile. The trees would thereby be completely recycled back into your environment and you'd have them GONE so that the land would be open to you to use.
For all of you that don't think you can do it, prepare for it by buying two or three good books on how to do it and then at least you'll have that knowledge to draw from should it come about. Half.com and used books on amazon.com won't set you too far back in your BF budget and they might be one of the best investments you've made!
Stay alert, take a different road around your neighborhood than you normally do, ask if anyone knows of any artesian wells or running streams nearby? Buy twine as the books will teach you how to use it to trap small game such as rabbit. My husband said the first thing that would go (he can't wait to get the little buggers) is the squirrels. So think small as well as big.
I've contacted a goat supplier in our county and researched all about the goat I would want, a dwarf Nigerian - it's a miniature milker. I figure I"ll get three females and a stud and that will take care of my milk and with their offspring, even meat occasionally. They won't take up as much room as a longer legged, larger bodied goat would. So think like that, what can you research now to do in that one to two week frantic time frame of getting supplies before it hit? I'm getting my research done now, calls made now, notes made NOW and I just hope I'll have the time to put some of the last minute plans into action.
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4abbieand maddie,,thanks for all those excellent ideas..
we have an abundance of squirrels,,i really love that idea.
the chain saw idea though wouldn't work cause we live on a city size lot,,(small) that backs to a wooded park. the sun exposure is such that even if i cut down all the trees (and we are talking massive 300 ft or more trees that would easily fall onto other houses if they came down) on my lot,,the sun still wouldn't reach that land because of the shade from the house in the afternoon. and no sun coming from the other side because of acres of shady,,wooded parkland. does that make sense? the only sun i get is on my deck, for a few hours a day and ithen lots n the front yard,,which is large, but way exposed.as we live on a corner lot. even if grew a veggie garden there, which i could due to good sun,,everyone would stroll down the sidewalk on front and side of my house,,and steal the veggies.
i did buy survival guides from ebay and amazon. i have enjoyed looking through them,,that is what pretty much made me realize,,this ain't going to be hard,,it will be much harder than that=)
anyway,,thanks for the ideas,,i am going to think about it some more. i love this forum!
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OK, are you one story or two? I'm asking because you can go down now and buy window boxes, like you'd do as flower boxes, get the brackets, etc. that you'd need and literally turn every window of your home that's in any way in the sun a growing medium. Buy seed now that would work for both the window box ideas, any flower pots that you can use on the back or front porches. Thinking in terms of limited sun space, if you find an area even five feet wide, consider vertical runners for things like peas. Re-evaluate your yard completely - if you have any flower beds, consider ITSHTF that you'll pull them up completely and they'll become full time vegetable gardens. If you're worried about stealing, blend in things like carrots and other underground growers as they're hard for people to notice what they are. Potatoes. You can think of ways to "hide" what you're doing and feel a certain amount of pleasure in knowing you're doing it right under their noses. But some of that will take some mental legwork now so that if you need certain things they'll be in place or so you can take your time in finding them and thus look for the best bargain. And think "outside the box" in terms of pots for your vegetables, you can use things like rubbermaid containers (the big ones) to use your back deck as another garden area. Use a drill to put some holes in the bottom for drainage, some rock in the very bottom to help with drainage too and then dirt, you can convert your back porch into a decent size garden, outlining the outside of your deck so that your still able to use it for recreation for the kids but it'll be a garden area too. You can go vertical here too, using the same idea as different level potted basil and parsley gardens that are sold, you can do that with a lot of things and even further maximize your space. Buy your supplies now as most garden centers are on clearance for end of the season and it'll be hard some things later this year. One thing that will save you money and effort later is to begin to get dirt ready. There are lots of books on how to "home grow" miracle grow type dirt for your gardens, and by starting on a pile of it, through a compost type process, you might have a super-duper garden when you need it! Good luck. |
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I have a card set that has pictures on one side and information on the plant on another side. Bought it at ActionGear dot com. Just go there and search for edible plant, and you should get about 4 items. The card set is either general plants, western US, or eastern US. Rather informative card set. Hope this helps.
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I could make it but it sure would be rough if it were in the dead of winter and you didnt have anything.Wild foods are seasonal.You can only grow so much if you dont have a green house.
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roxy
Valued Member Joined: February 27 2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 534 |
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hi to all, I don't think I could by myself. I have books on the subject.and have been prepraing for the loss of services 3 male family members fish and can shoot , may be only one knows how to really hunt. water, there is a hidden spring in a land locked piece of land 2 lots down, only a few people know its there, but I,m sure once we make it viable ,the neighbours, will use it, I have copied the know how, but need to get a purification sytem, I have brought enough seeds for years and have a new green house,I am going to try growing greens , ? tomatoes this winter, IF the pandamic happens,the next door 2 neighbors have a large enough lot s to plant and be hidden from the road, plus what I have in land and fruit trees,brushes,plants .the small group of neighbours already work together, I have a celler full of canning jars, the problem will be the lack of lids , can only buy so much of them. besides the food issue , I think here in the northeast, the winters will be a problem, wood is a cost that is as much as oil now,if we can get it then, we need a wood burning stove, I have plans for a conversion of a hot water tank, to wood burnig stove,and son can weld it together if need be, also brought more carbon monoxide detectors, just in case. I live in a urban area ,and I think, food wise, no hunting around here, but we can fish, but so will everyone else. I think I;m better preppared than most ,who aren't, but for a long winter no,the people in the south have better weather and will survive this better good luck roxy
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candice
Adviser Group Joined: July 17 2006 Location: Canada Status: Offline Points: 63 |
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What about not just living off the land but subliming your supplies
dandelion weeds for salad , wild berries,
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If you cant get in the front door try the side door then the back door.
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[QUOTE=4abbie&maddie]
OK, are you one story or two? I'm asking because you can go down now and buy window boxes, like you'd do as flower boxes, get the brackets, etc. that you'd need and literally turn every window of your home that's in any way in the sun a growing medium. Buy seed now
omg,,abbie&maddie!!! you are AWESOME!! thanks for the ideas! =)
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mom24kids, Here's another thing that could prove helpful to you, it's about potatoes.... I'm personally going to do this one as I know my kids need a "filler" or they'll be miserable. Potatoes will be a good one for me to have... It says bushel basket but I've seen directions for 5 gallon buckets, clay pots and other containers too. I think the bottom line is this is definitely something you could grow in your situation on your back porch. Hope it helps.
Planting Potatoesby National Gardening Association EditorsGrowing Potato TowersEver think of growing a few potato plants in bushel baskets to make a potato tower? Well, you can -- it's easy and fun. You can be a potato grower in the smallest yard or just on the back porch or patio. Line a bushel basket with plastic and punch a few holes in the bottom for drainage. Stir a few tablespoons of houseplant food or fertilizer into a bucket of moist soil. Put a 4- or 5-inch layer of soil in the basket. Position several seed pieces 6- to 8-inches apart on the earth, then cover them with 3 or 4 more inches of soil. Keep the basket in a warm, sunny place. As the plants grow, add more soil around the stems to give the tubers room to expand, and be sure to keep the soil well-watered. |
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