Self-Sufficiency

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DIY washing machine and homemade laundry soap

What do you get when you combine a 5 gallon bucket and a toilet plunger? An off-grid washing machine. Well, maybe not a machine in the traditional sense, unless you consider my hands the motor. This is something I have been wanting to make for quite some time now. The other day while I was in town, I saw a toilet plunger on the shelf and put it in my cart. I also picked up 3 bottles of Mrs Stewart’s bluing, I’ll explain more about that in a bit.…

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DIY-Loom knitting

Round loom knitting, have you heard of it? This is a type of knitting that uses a loom instead of using knitting needles. I never learned to knit with needles, my mother like to crochet. She always had something going on her lap. Mostly baby related, baby blankets, baby booties, baby sized hats and outfits. I think it was an unfulfilled wish that she had to be surrounded by babies.

She taught me how to crochet, though it was a challenge for both of us, she was left handed, I being right handed. But I learned, thanks to a patient mother. I learned the chain stitch and the next stitch after that. Unfortunately, being young, I had zero patience, it just didn’t go fast enough for me and I was not able to appreciate the zen like qualities of just working on something and watching it grow.…

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Off the Grid and the prepared

So, just what does that mean? I can tell you from personal experience and from the responses I have received from people over the years that it definitely has different meanings to different people. From living completely without any utilities, no electricity, water or gas (think hunter’s cabin, wood stove, candles or kerosene lamps, no running water…), to generating one or more of these items on site yourself (think solar panels, wind power, methane digester…), I even had one person say that for him, living “off the grid” meant living so remotely that the government couldn’t find you, essentially hiding from the world. For some people it brings up a picture of a hermit living in a shack on a remote location, others envision a state of the art home that independently takes care of the needs of all occupants from food and water to electricity.…

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Humanure – sawdust toilets

Sit, flush and forget, that’s what most of us do, multiple times a day. Composting toilets are the answer.

We use perfectly good, drinkable water to flush our waste —  what a waste it truly is! After we flush, we don’t think about all the water that is used/wasted to process the sewage that is created, chemicals are pumped into our water system, the water we DRINK, so that we can do it all over again.

I’m starting to sound pretty green aren’t I?…

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Community

Off-Grid update

Winter RoadWhat a great early Christmas gift, I know that to those who get snow every winter, it’s not that exciting, but for those of us that live in places with little to no snowfall, it transforms everything into a winter wonderland.…

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Community

Off-Grid questions

Every now and again, I get an email with some great questions, this evening I received such an email from a new ‘net friend, Marcy. She has recently taken the plunge to live completely off-grid. She is starting out in a rather primitive way, much like we did. I found her questions very good and decided I would post the email exchange here. Thanks Marcy, enjoy!…

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Possum Living-How To Live Well With (Almost) No Money

possum-livingI wish I could say that I had read this book way back when, and that was what inspired me to live my off-grid life… but my earliest inspiration was the Grizzly Adams series. If I had come across Possum Living before now, I know it would have also been a great inspiration for me. It  was written in the 70s by a very smart young lady, Dolly Freed. She and her father lived in a regular house, on a large lot by today’s standard, though small compared to homesteading standards. Neither one worked a regular job, yet they lived a full and enjoyable life.

Dolly wrote the book to document their lives and teach other people how to live a more simple life, unfettered by a 9-5 work week. I was re-inspired and excited to find this video about their life on YouTube. It’s a 3 part video, the second and third should play right after the first.

The book and video are dated, it was written and filmed in the late 70s, but I’m here to tell you that this type of life CAN still be achieved, I’m living proof of that. I was thrilled to find out that a revised version of her book is coming out, it apparently has updated info about Dolly, she is still alive and well. I will say that if you look hard enough, you can find a digital version of her original book to download (it’s out of print) , I have read this, but I look forward to getting the new and improved version coming out this January.

Even if you don’t want to go all the way and live like she did (and like I do now), it’s still good information to have, with today’s uncertainty,  unemployment and underemployment, these are good skills to have to help get you through lean times.

Here is her original book, it’s a bit pricey Possum living: How to live well without a job and with almost no money

Here is a  link for the new revised book, at a much better price Possum Living: How to Live Well Without a Job and with (Almost) No Money




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Shoestring Survivalism – book review

This is the third book I received from Paladin Press to review. I appreciate the chance to read and review these books, I have enjoyed them immensely. This book is about survivalism on a budget. Being on a budget is a full time occupation for most of us.  With these uncertain times, it’s good to have backups, ways to get along if things go wrong. It’s ludicrous to think the government will step up and take care of us, your best bet is to be your own best advocate, take care of yourself and your family. With the knowledge gained from this book, even someone on the tightest of budgets should be able to implement many of the ideas in this book with little or no financial output.…

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Tough Times Survival Guide vol 1 – book review

1192_1459_largeReading, learning, it’s what I enjoy doing. Before the internet, I would go to the three local libraries in my hometown, I would check out as many books as each on would allow, take them all home, read-read-read until I had gotten through all of them, then I return the books to their respective homes and start all over again. I tended to read non-fiction, I preferred them over fiction most of the time. With the exception of a few notable authors such as Stephen King, Jean M. Auel, and such…

With the advent of the internet and ebooks, I mostly read what I can get in digital format, including audiobooks. So these last couple of books I’ve read, I have held in my hand, turned pages, it was quite old-school for me. J I love it. Now, on to the book review.…

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Makeshift Workshop Skills for Survival and Self-Reliance book review

61naptestel-_sl160_-9729446 I typically do reviews on eBooks, but a while back I was contacted by James Ballou to do a review of a hard copy, Makeshift Workshop Skills for Survival and Self-Reliance, published by Paladin Press. Of course I was thrilled to review his book; honestly I had seen it previously and had been interested in reading it, so I jumped at the chance. It turns out that my instincts were correct, this is a great and useful book!…

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Grow your own tobacco – book review

Tobacco PlantsA while back, I had some trouble with the government about buying cigarettes from outside the country (USA), it is WAS perfectly legal (at the time) to order cigarettes for import into the USA for personal use. I assure you that the cigarettes I ordered WERE for personal use, I did not trade, sell, barter or in any other way distribute these cigarettes. After receiving a threatening letter from the Dept of Homeland Security, a very scary thing to find in your mailbox, especially for a law abiding citizen! I decided that I needed to find a better way to get smokes without having to pay an arm and a leg, or having the threat of the government over my head. I found an alternative way, it’s legal and it should be doable by nearly anyone.…

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Chia pets or survival food

chia-pet-puppyRemember those silly little Chia Pets? Little did we know then that those strange little seeds painted on those cheesy terracotta pots shaped like animals were actually GOOD for us… It turns out that they are, they are high in vitamins, minerals, loads of fiber and it’s a better source of omega’s than flax seeds are. This is a very good survival food.…

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