Bookmark for later.
I’m not as pessimistic as you are on hunting. I don’t think most of the durned fools will be around long enough to make a dent in the deer population. Plus, my money is on squirrels as a meat supply. They multiply like rodents, and my area is so full of them that I could take a half dozen a day forever, without effort.
I don’t suck at canning I just hate it.
Fruit, veggies: drying, root cellaring
Meat, fish: smoking, jerking, salting
You should have four types of food sources.
1.) Canned food for short term (a few weeks) or ration supplementation. Not labor intensive. Can it yourself or buy it this type of food required no water, no cooking and is currently easily available and cheap. The down side is that they have a comparatively limited shelf life, are heavy and take up lots of space.
2.) Dried foods staples. Requires water and cooking (fuel) longer shelf life (but not forever). Good for time when you might need to eat for several months from your stash. A bit more labor intensive.
3.) Grown food. Requires seeds, land, animals, water, time and fuel for cooking. Labor intensive and you need to know HOW to do it without power tools. There is a book out there "gardening when it counts" that is pretty good as long as you can overlook the fact the author is a commie. For situations that last for years.
4.) Foraged foods, requires knowledge of what is edible. Supply is more dependent on chance then anything else. Can be used any time, I forage for fun but in survival situations not recommended as a primary source of calories.
I saw a video on youtube where a rich couple converted their swimming pool into a fish growing pond. I know fingerlings are not expensive - they’d bought tilapia.
There were lots of different videos on raising fish in your yard. My favorite was the people with a kiddie pool and an overflow into a smaller pool. The large pool had the fish, fed with fish food and grass clippings. the overflow pool had an ‘island’ of styrofoam with lettuce growing in holes cut in the styrofoam.
If electricity were no longer available, you could always go ‘old school’ and dry it on lines in the sun like a pioneer.
Thanks for taking over the prepper ping list, Mike. I read them thoroughly though seldom post.
If Kart is still around and reading these I pray you and the Mrs. are well.
Best to all, OOS
Thanks for taking over, Mike.
2 questions for All:
1. I’m considering building an old-timely smoke house to smoke and dry meat. Does anyone know if smoking meat also preserves it for storage, for any length of time? I mean without refrigeration. Even a few months would be okay, not necessarily years. Wouldn’t be worth the bother if it’s gonna go bad in a week, though. Anyone have experience with a smokehouse?
2. Off topic: awhile back, somebody posted a photo of a manually operated log splitter, now I can’t find it. It was a seesaw-type contraption, mounted on a heavy spring, with a maul on one end. If anybody has that photo or link, I’d be grateful.
Thanks again.
Something I haven’t seen recommended that I recall, but good to have - - extra pair of prescription glasses and maybe some el-cheapo reading glasses too.
Learn to can. It’s not that difficult, just takes some practice.
We also have a vac sealer we use a lot. A foo dehydrator is next on the list.
L
For almost a decade now, we have been raising most of our own food. 2000 lbs of vegetables and fruit a year, my wife raises bees so we have honey and beeswax for many products. Our herb and vegetable gardens have at least 60 different varieties of items. We can, dry, smoke, vacuum freeze, ferment, dehydrate and root cellar. Several deer a year from the forest or off the front porch, trout from the stream out back. While we own 34 acres, only 1/4 acre is used for the intensive raised bed gardening we do. What we don’t raise: smoked rabbit, free range chicken, eggs, we get from our neighbors.
Until last July, when we retired, we built this up while holding two full jobs in the “city” 130 miles away.
We live in a fully modernized log cabin, heated by a small soapstone wood stove. If I decide to put in a shallow gravity fed well fed by a spring at the top of our field, then the grid can go completely down and I wouldn’t care.
You need a plan. You need an inventory. You need some, not a lot of land. You need experience. You need mentors. You need a variety of firearms, lots of ammo, and know how to use them. You need neighbors you can trust.
There are millions of families doing some or more than what we do. It’s called “country”.
You need to be doing something about this now, not later.
If you have questions feel free to ask.
Ok. Did you know stinging nettles are one of the most nutritious plants. For real. For tea, greens like spinach or as tincture. Tomorrow I go harvesting.
Thanks for the ping - later.