How self sufficient are you ? Honestly ?

[Domush]

Rob-d, sounds like you have a wonderful setup! Looks like you took the electronics route rather than the roughneck route. Interesting to see the different approaches people take for preparation.

As for me, I can live about two months, fat and happy, on stuff on hand. No power needed, as I have oil lamps, a wood stove in my woodshop and plenty of dead tree books to keep my interest. About two hundred downed trees and an axe for firewood. If I run out of diesel or gas, I have a horse for travel (likely the best method for bad roads) and dogs and guns for protection/hunting if things stay bad for more than a couple months. For water, I have two ponds within 100 yards and a 75 foot well I can drop a bucket into.

I also have enough seeds to grow stuff indefinitely, enough plastic and wood to make a greenhouse for year round growing, and a small fruit orchard for harvest time.

Being partial to back country camping, I have everything I need to cook, drink and sleep outside if I really need to. I'm one of those people who gets excited when the power goes out. Power is for toys, not essentials.

I'm also one of those evil liberal types who, *shudder*, works with my neighbors, so we don't all waste money buying three of everything. When you combine all of us together we have a nice community with the combined resources and knowledge to block off the end of our road for a good long time, possibly forever.

I'll be just fine, and so will my neighbors.

Sent from my SCH-I500 using TractorByNet

 

[acdblues]

After watching all the news stories about the people affected by the Sandy storm and the problems they are enduring ,How self sufficient are you and could you take care of your family and yourself in the event you had no power / water/ or communications with the outside world ?:confused3:

I live in West Virginia and had 2 feet of snow from Sandy, my power was off for 10 days phone was off for 13 days, I have a suppy of fuel and food for quite a while and have a water well and several springs around the farm, I fired up the generator basically to watch the news and see how bad everyone else was but I really had no issues other than taking a few days to cut all the trees off the road so I could get out to the public again, just did not want to get out too quick and be under other trees while they were still weighed down with snow, we did have some people killed in the area from falling limbs when they tried going out to quick after the storm

 

[muddstopper]

Food and shelter I think wouldnt be my biggest concern. We can way more than we consume every year and can survive off what we have stored for a very long time. We save seeds for planting and can grow more than enough food in the summer to last the winter. We have a greenhouse and can grow some crops in the winter. I already dont use commercial fertilizers and have a pretty big stash of composed material on hand. I can make moonshine for alcohol to run in my tractor (gas) and tillers and even my old truck that isnt computer managed. I have running water in the forms of creeks and streams for water and even own cross cut saws for cutting more wood. My biggest concern would be self defense since I know many around me dont have the resources on hand that I do.

Back when Clinton was in office and the guncontrol crowd was doing their best to take away our guns, I bought a reloading outfit, complete with the dies for every caliber of gun I own. I bought bottles of powders, 1000's of primers, brass, and bullets for just incase in the future I wouldnt be able to buy these things. I bought bullet moulds for casting my own bullets. I keep hundreds of lbs of tire weights just for this purpose. I have several boxes of ammunition for each caliber of weapon I own on hand already. Desperate folks will do desperate things, but trying to take my means of survival away would surely result in lead flying. I can do long ranges as well as short ranges and have guns sighted in for just that type of situation.

If a super storm blew away our house, I have someplace to stay in a different location not that far away. If we get flooded out, well I live on a mountain top and if we get washed away, everybody else has already been under water for a pretty long time and, it would probably be a moot point to think I would have even survived in the first place.

 

[Rob-D]

Rob-d, sounds like you have a wonderful setup! Looks like you took the electronics route rather than the roughneck route. Interesting to see the different approaches people take for preparation.

As for me, I can live about two months, fat and happy, on stuff on hand. No power needed, as I have oil lamps, a wood stove in my woodshop and plenty of dead tree books to keep my interest. About two hundred downed trees and an axe for firewood. If I run out of diesel or gas, I have a horse for travel (likely the best method for bad roads) and dogs and guns for protection/hunting if things stay bad for more than a couple months. For water, I have two ponds within 100 yards and a 75 foot well I can drop a bucket into.

I also have enough seeds to grow stuff indefinitely, enough plastic and wood to make a greenhouse for year round growing, and a small fruit orchard for harvest time.

Being partial to back country camping, I have everything I need to cook, drink and sleep outside if I really need to. I'm one of those people who gets excited when the power goes out. Power is for toys, not essentials.

I'm also one of those evil liberal types who, *shudder*, works with my neighbors, so we don't all waste money buying three of everything. When you combine all of us together we have a nice community with the combined resources and knowledge to block off the end of our road for a good long time, possibly forever.

I'll be just fine, and so will my neighbors.

Sent from my SCH-I500 using TractorByNet

Domush,
It's funny you say this, my wife is just the opposite of me so we work well together. She spins wool from my friends sheep and makes all our winter wear, she has lots of gadgets that work by hand. She encourages me to make cold frames, root cellars, hoop and green houses. My friend with the sheep also has horses that we can ride if things get that bad. So I understand where you're coming from. I use technology and she uses old tried and true ways. Personally I think both will have value if things get as bad as it looks like they will.

 

[charlz]

Root cellar is one thing I really wish I had. We had one growing up and it was always full from home canning, potato harvest, great place to cure your deer for a few days etc. Where I am now the water table is pretty high and no one even has basements. My place is flat as a pancake so no hillsides. I may build half underground/half mound root cellar some day but picking the spot is the trick. Need to do a lot of research to as moisture control would likely be a huge issue due to the high water table.

 

[Car Doc]

As prepared as most of us are for most natural scenarios we are vulnerable. The cold hard truth is we will not be able to hide or defend our stuff from someone or some organization that really wants it. I personally try to never make any claims to the contrary in my preparedness. I am counting on that scenario never playing out. my .002

 

[ddb123]

Shoot, I can't even make my own peanut butter sandwiches.

 

[Grumpy Old Man]

I'm the OP on this thread and plan to go as far off grid as possible , To say you can't or don't want to is your choice , as I get older and grumpier I cherish my solitude and would rather talk to my chickens than most people , you may find out as you get older that some things just aren't important to you anymore and living to try to impress anyone to me is one of those things I can do without ,I would rather have a good set of mules than close neighbors. You may have to have the $400,000.00 house and the newest truck in town to feel good about yourself, I would rather have a nice garden and some homemade wine and a basket full of eggs , If you fall on hard times your neighbors will only say "yeah bob used to own that house " so what !, My neighbors will say "yeah that old grumpy guy planted this orchard these apples taste good don't they !

 

[charlz]

The cold hard truth is we will not be able to hide or defend our stuff from someone or some organization that really wants it.

That sort of assumes an End Of The World As We Know It (EOTWAWKI) scenario but the situation we are most likely to encounter is End Of The Week As We Know It where you need to be able to survive a week or three 'on your own'.

Being somewhat self-sufficient also lends itself to insulating you from increases in food prices etc. which are real and ongoing

 

[muddstopper]

I'm the OP on this thread and plan to go as far off grid as possible , To say you can't or don't want to is your choice , as I get older and grumpier I cherish my solitude and would rather talk to my chickens than most people , you may find out as you get older that some things just aren't important to you anymore and living to try to impress anyone to me is one of those things I can do without ,I would rather have a good set of mules than close neighbors. You may have to have the $400,000.00 house and the newest truck in town to feel good about yourself, I would rather have a nice garden and some homemade wine and a basket full of eggs , If you fall on hard times your neighbors will only say "yeah bob used to own that house " so what !, My neighbors will say "yeah that old grumpy guy planted this orchard these apples taste good don't they !

Agree 100%