Post by solargeek1 on May 30, 2012 10:42:10 GMT -7
Take a look at the cost of food prices and such...at this rate it won't be long and many will not be able to afford to eat or feed their families. With a lack of work comes a lack of funds. I have a few ideas...many I have done, many I do, and some I think are worth trying...I wanted to share them with you....bare with me...I am gonna be long winded!!
If you have a yard or are lucky enough to live on a piece of land large enough to call a hobby farm you are one step ahead of many. You can plant gardens...in the ground, containers, window boxes, etc. Fruits, veggies, herbs, etc. Plant a couple of peach or apple trees for fresh fruits, line fences with berry canes, hanging planters for strawberries if a raised bed is not an option. Container gardens can be done as simple as using 5 gallon buckets. Tyson foods for example gives them away by the truckloads! They are food safe and in like new condition. Many farmers are willing to let you have all the fertilizer you want as long as you load it and haul it. Added to compost it is an exceptional way to improve soil and feed plants. Sawmills will give away sawdust many times during the heat of the year, the overly large piles are a combustion waiting to happen and if they have a hard time getting rid of it, you can get a few loads to use for mulching fruit trees, bushes, etc.
Need seeds, you can get heirloom seeds as a 1 time investment and harvest your own seeds from then on. You can often find older farmers who have very large gardens that will let you work for them at a set rate...so many hours for so much cash & produce and generally they will know if the plants are heirloom or not. But just getting the produce to can and set up for winter will be worth it. Some privately owned meat lockers/slaughter houses are more than happy to let you work for the a few days a season in exchange for sides of beef or pork. 7 days working 8 hours using a vacc sealer and a stamp labeler got me 200# of pork, 500# of beef and 7 grown dressed out sheep. Well worth the work IMO.
Hatcheries will often let you work for them cleaning in exchange for chicks and older birds they want to replace. Many of these birds are still good layers, they just can't keep up with demand. They also tend to have many extra chicks at the end of the season and generally will knock them in the head...you can often got $3 chicks for a quarter or less. Either way, you can end up with meat and eggs this way. Live in an area that will not alllow you to have a rooster due to the crowing? Simple...find someone with chickens that CAN have a rooster, and when one of your hens decides to go broody, get a dozen eggs from them for hatching and stick them under her. In 21 days you have a new batch of chicks...replacement pullets and butcher cockrels. All without owning a rooster.
If you cannot plant trees or other fruit plants, find Pick-your-own farms. For reasonable rates, you can pick your own berries, apples, peaches, plums, watermelon, pumpkins, etc. and if you ever get them fresh from the farm, you will NEVER want them from the store again!
Learn about herbs for culinary AND medicinal use. Plant them anywhere you would normally plant flowers. Many of them are very pretty and make excellent additions to flower beds. You can have your own array of fresh spices at your fingertips as well as a natural medicine chest. Root veggies like carrots, turnips, sweet potaotes and such are very nice in flower beds as well, and no one but you knows its food!
A cistern, shallow well, deepwell, deep setting well, pond, lake...anything for water is a MAJOR bonus as far as being able to irrigate, tend to container plants, care for livestock, poultry, etc. Maybe you cannot have a deep well living in town...find out if you can have a closed cistern. Get a hand pump for this cistern. If nothing else, it will make it possible to water a garden and pump water for the toilet if SHTF. Have a septic tank set in your back yard with a few perforated leach lines. get plans and materials for an outhouse. This is better than nothing if sewage systems fail. Maybe your health prevents you from leaving wherever you are at...that does NOT mean you cannot do something for yourself like this. Rabbits, chickens, ducks, and other small animals may save your life. Learn how to care for them and where to get them now...before you need them.
Aside from gardens and orchards...don't forget the essentials....Learn how to can or process and store fresh foods in the event you have no electricity. Always get more rings, flats and jars than you need...keep them put away for when they are needed. And REMEMBER flats are NOT re-useable!!! Get a root cellar, if you can't, then make a root cellar room in a portion of your basement or in a closet NOT against an outside wall. Plan to store your foods in a cool DARK place.
Sample of livestock and uses include, but not limited to:
Dairy Cow: milk, cheese, butter, cottage cheese, yogurt, meat, hides
Beef Cow: meat, hides
Goats: Meat, milk, Cheese
Sheep: Meat, milk, wool/hair (depending on the breed)
Hog: meat, fat, hide
Rabbits: meat, hide
Chinchilla: meat, hide
Chicken: eggs, meat, feathers for fishing lures
Guinnies: eggs, meat, feathers for fishing lures, tick/insect control, alarm system
Turkey: eggs, meat, feathers for hand fans
Ducks & Geese: eggs, meat, fat, down for blanket insulation, beds and pillows
and the list goes on.
Taking care of livestock is hard and time consuming. It can be expensive unless you are willing to work hard for a living. Grain can be had at local grain elevators in exchange for work shoveling and bagging feed. Instead of setting in front of the tv or computer in the early evenings, put a few plastic bags in your pocket and walk through fields (get permission, don't trespass). As you walk, wear gloves and strip seed heads and save the seed. Only take some so the fields will replenish the next year...spend 2-3 hours a night doing this and it won't be long and you will have a LOT more feed than you would imagine. You get to walk for exercise, get fresh air, enjoy nature and do something very productive all at once...and it is relaxing believe it or not!! Get a couple of kids to help and you increase the harvest...no gas or fuel used, and everyone spends time together. May sound a bit crazy, but if you want to do everything possible to make it on your own...this TRUELY works! When you milk that dairy cow, add a little milk to the grains you collect when you feed. EVERY farm animal will eat it! And they will be healthy from it. Mow your yard? Rake up the clippings and feed them to chickens, pigs, whatever animals are in a dry lot type of area. They will appreciate it. Teach livestock to walk on leads and to be tethered out...stake them along the outside of fences and let them keep the weeds and grass mowed for you. Save on the cost of gas and oil.
Live in the country? Let a growth of cedars or other trees grow up, make a food plat and attract deer, turkey and other wildlife...leave the big females for reproducing...take only what you need and you will have a regular supply of some form of fresh meat...although not fatty. Put ducks and geese on a water hole for the fat you will need...they are loaded with it!
I have a TON of other things that just keep popping up as I go...but I think I will stop here. If you want to survive in the long run...you NEED to figure out how to grow and provide your own food. Living in the wilds will get you so far...but in the long run you will need something substantial to live.
And if S never HTF, then you are still much better off, eating healthier, living a more active life...living off your land and taking care of yourself. NOT dependant on someone else.
_______________________
The biggest reason farmers are trading in cattle for goats and sheep has to do with the fact grain is so high right now. At almost $7.50 a bushel for shell corn, it can be expensive to feed them, even if they are bringing record prices at the market.
I agree it is hard and somewhat expensive to raise your own livestock, but if you work with local farmers, feed stores, granaries and such, you would be AMAZED at how much you can save especially if you only need small amounts as compared to the large marketing farms. MANY places are willing to exchange office help doing orders, bookkeeping, tagging, sales, etc and even more in exchange for shoveling and bagging feed or operating machinery in exchange for feed, supplements, vaccines, medications, etc. Farmers will trade hay bales in exchange for someone to drive a truck pulling a trailer, or operating a tractor and mowing or raking hay. Some farmers will sell year old hay for almost nothing (I just got 1 yr old 1200# round hay bales for $5 a bale that he sells for $30-$45 fresh) and I have even found a few who will give it away just to be rid of it (in the field, we haul it before its time to cut again). Sure it’s lost some nutrients and you have to feed more, but you can't beat free!! All a person has to do is look and ask. Worst case you are told no or laughed at, best case you get what you need for a little work or even free.
NOTHING about living on a farm of ANY size is easy...it’s ALL about work, as you know. But to me personally, there is no comparison to home grown meat. I am guilty of naming ALL my animals...except a few of the chickens or the guinnies. And I must say, Brutus and Sampson made some of the BEST steaks...Happy was AWESOME steakburger (ask WC). Gimpy is setting on 13 eggs, I am hoping for baby ducks from her in the next few weeks. And ******** will make some wonderful bacon!! I may have an assortment, but I only have the minimal amount for what I need. I name them and treat them like pets all the way up to butcher time. I do not feel guilty for killing and eating them. It’s what they are for, and I know I gave them the absolutely best life possible while they were growing. I am sure many see this as mean or callous, but its how I was raised.
I'm just glad to be healing up so well, getting closer to getting off disability and FINALLY able to get on with a normal life and getting my poop in a group again! Just wanted to share a lil bit!
_____________________
Just thought I would add something else to this...
In our area, we have an over abundance of people getting the 15'x4' swimming pools with the pvc pipes on the outside for support that come with pump kits and everything. Many use them for a year and then fail to clean them out or take care of them. You find them free all over the area. A person could easily get a couple of such pools, set them in a shaded area of their property out of the way, say behind a barn, or such. Run a drop cord to them to run a water pump (no need for a filter, you just want to keep the water moving to keep it from stagnating and could get by with just using it during the hottest part of the days). Fill them up...NO chemicals!! You can get a couple 5 gallon buckets of pond water to throw in them to get the PH to setting in right. Instant fish pond.
Go to a local feed store or farm supply store in the spring and summer. You can buy live fish at low prices according to their size. A few catfish, some bass, panfish, whatever you want...put them in the pools. Or you can go fishing at friend’s ponds and keep what you catch...put the smaller ones in your pool to grow and eat the rest!!
You will need to invest in a few bags of floating fish food. But you can also go to local bakeries and get old bread, donuts and such, break it up and use it as fish food. You can also get a few young kids together and a few plastic 1 gallon jugs, for fun, go catch big grasshoppers in a field a several days a month. Thay will have fun doing it and it will make great fish food. You can also turn over hay bales, logs, whatever comes to mind and find worms, grubs, and many other kinds of insects. When they get to a certain size, you can get minnows ($25 for 500 around here) once a month. Throw them in the pool and let the larger fish have some live food. They will grow very fast with the wide variety of food.
When they are the right size, you simply start draining the pools until you can get in and wade around in knee deep or less water. Net them out a few at a time and start butchering. Put the finished product in saved plastic food grade containers with lids, fill with clean cold water, set level in freezer and freeze solid, after frozen make sure to top off the container with water and refreeze. You have a nice supply of fish in the freezer. Thaw it out for baking, BBQ, however you like it. No wondering if the place it came from had contaminated water or not!!
I know more than a few low income people who do this, and it works GREAT!!
SIMLPE: cleaning a fish is a fast and easy thing...
Scaled fish: remove scales or not (your choice), cut off head behind gills and cheek fin, carefully remove the back fin and belly fin, slice belly open to remove guts, rinse under cold clean runnign water, package and freeze or eat.
NON scaled fish: cut off the head including the gills and cheek fins. Carefully remove back and belly fins, slice belly open adn remove innards. Use pliers to grip skin at place where head was removed and carefully pull skin towards tail takes some practice and a little strength, but its easy. OR leave the skin on and freeze or cook like it is.
I leave the tails on and the bones in until I eat them...seems to be less waste adn I like the flavor better...just watch out for bones and don't eat the tails!!
The heads (and tails) can be used for fish head soup (oriental dish) or it can be added with the innards and fins to make excellent trap or fishing bait. It can also be used as a fertilizer in a garden or for feeding to barn cats as a treat for being good mousers.
If you have a yard or are lucky enough to live on a piece of land large enough to call a hobby farm you are one step ahead of many. You can plant gardens...in the ground, containers, window boxes, etc. Fruits, veggies, herbs, etc. Plant a couple of peach or apple trees for fresh fruits, line fences with berry canes, hanging planters for strawberries if a raised bed is not an option. Container gardens can be done as simple as using 5 gallon buckets. Tyson foods for example gives them away by the truckloads! They are food safe and in like new condition. Many farmers are willing to let you have all the fertilizer you want as long as you load it and haul it. Added to compost it is an exceptional way to improve soil and feed plants. Sawmills will give away sawdust many times during the heat of the year, the overly large piles are a combustion waiting to happen and if they have a hard time getting rid of it, you can get a few loads to use for mulching fruit trees, bushes, etc.
Need seeds, you can get heirloom seeds as a 1 time investment and harvest your own seeds from then on. You can often find older farmers who have very large gardens that will let you work for them at a set rate...so many hours for so much cash & produce and generally they will know if the plants are heirloom or not. But just getting the produce to can and set up for winter will be worth it. Some privately owned meat lockers/slaughter houses are more than happy to let you work for the a few days a season in exchange for sides of beef or pork. 7 days working 8 hours using a vacc sealer and a stamp labeler got me 200# of pork, 500# of beef and 7 grown dressed out sheep. Well worth the work IMO.
Hatcheries will often let you work for them cleaning in exchange for chicks and older birds they want to replace. Many of these birds are still good layers, they just can't keep up with demand. They also tend to have many extra chicks at the end of the season and generally will knock them in the head...you can often got $3 chicks for a quarter or less. Either way, you can end up with meat and eggs this way. Live in an area that will not alllow you to have a rooster due to the crowing? Simple...find someone with chickens that CAN have a rooster, and when one of your hens decides to go broody, get a dozen eggs from them for hatching and stick them under her. In 21 days you have a new batch of chicks...replacement pullets and butcher cockrels. All without owning a rooster.
If you cannot plant trees or other fruit plants, find Pick-your-own farms. For reasonable rates, you can pick your own berries, apples, peaches, plums, watermelon, pumpkins, etc. and if you ever get them fresh from the farm, you will NEVER want them from the store again!
Learn about herbs for culinary AND medicinal use. Plant them anywhere you would normally plant flowers. Many of them are very pretty and make excellent additions to flower beds. You can have your own array of fresh spices at your fingertips as well as a natural medicine chest. Root veggies like carrots, turnips, sweet potaotes and such are very nice in flower beds as well, and no one but you knows its food!
A cistern, shallow well, deepwell, deep setting well, pond, lake...anything for water is a MAJOR bonus as far as being able to irrigate, tend to container plants, care for livestock, poultry, etc. Maybe you cannot have a deep well living in town...find out if you can have a closed cistern. Get a hand pump for this cistern. If nothing else, it will make it possible to water a garden and pump water for the toilet if SHTF. Have a septic tank set in your back yard with a few perforated leach lines. get plans and materials for an outhouse. This is better than nothing if sewage systems fail. Maybe your health prevents you from leaving wherever you are at...that does NOT mean you cannot do something for yourself like this. Rabbits, chickens, ducks, and other small animals may save your life. Learn how to care for them and where to get them now...before you need them.
Aside from gardens and orchards...don't forget the essentials....Learn how to can or process and store fresh foods in the event you have no electricity. Always get more rings, flats and jars than you need...keep them put away for when they are needed. And REMEMBER flats are NOT re-useable!!! Get a root cellar, if you can't, then make a root cellar room in a portion of your basement or in a closet NOT against an outside wall. Plan to store your foods in a cool DARK place.
Sample of livestock and uses include, but not limited to:
Dairy Cow: milk, cheese, butter, cottage cheese, yogurt, meat, hides
Beef Cow: meat, hides
Goats: Meat, milk, Cheese
Sheep: Meat, milk, wool/hair (depending on the breed)
Hog: meat, fat, hide
Rabbits: meat, hide
Chinchilla: meat, hide
Chicken: eggs, meat, feathers for fishing lures
Guinnies: eggs, meat, feathers for fishing lures, tick/insect control, alarm system
Turkey: eggs, meat, feathers for hand fans
Ducks & Geese: eggs, meat, fat, down for blanket insulation, beds and pillows
and the list goes on.
Taking care of livestock is hard and time consuming. It can be expensive unless you are willing to work hard for a living. Grain can be had at local grain elevators in exchange for work shoveling and bagging feed. Instead of setting in front of the tv or computer in the early evenings, put a few plastic bags in your pocket and walk through fields (get permission, don't trespass). As you walk, wear gloves and strip seed heads and save the seed. Only take some so the fields will replenish the next year...spend 2-3 hours a night doing this and it won't be long and you will have a LOT more feed than you would imagine. You get to walk for exercise, get fresh air, enjoy nature and do something very productive all at once...and it is relaxing believe it or not!! Get a couple of kids to help and you increase the harvest...no gas or fuel used, and everyone spends time together. May sound a bit crazy, but if you want to do everything possible to make it on your own...this TRUELY works! When you milk that dairy cow, add a little milk to the grains you collect when you feed. EVERY farm animal will eat it! And they will be healthy from it. Mow your yard? Rake up the clippings and feed them to chickens, pigs, whatever animals are in a dry lot type of area. They will appreciate it. Teach livestock to walk on leads and to be tethered out...stake them along the outside of fences and let them keep the weeds and grass mowed for you. Save on the cost of gas and oil.
Live in the country? Let a growth of cedars or other trees grow up, make a food plat and attract deer, turkey and other wildlife...leave the big females for reproducing...take only what you need and you will have a regular supply of some form of fresh meat...although not fatty. Put ducks and geese on a water hole for the fat you will need...they are loaded with it!
I have a TON of other things that just keep popping up as I go...but I think I will stop here. If you want to survive in the long run...you NEED to figure out how to grow and provide your own food. Living in the wilds will get you so far...but in the long run you will need something substantial to live.
And if S never HTF, then you are still much better off, eating healthier, living a more active life...living off your land and taking care of yourself. NOT dependant on someone else.
_______________________
The biggest reason farmers are trading in cattle for goats and sheep has to do with the fact grain is so high right now. At almost $7.50 a bushel for shell corn, it can be expensive to feed them, even if they are bringing record prices at the market.
I agree it is hard and somewhat expensive to raise your own livestock, but if you work with local farmers, feed stores, granaries and such, you would be AMAZED at how much you can save especially if you only need small amounts as compared to the large marketing farms. MANY places are willing to exchange office help doing orders, bookkeeping, tagging, sales, etc and even more in exchange for shoveling and bagging feed or operating machinery in exchange for feed, supplements, vaccines, medications, etc. Farmers will trade hay bales in exchange for someone to drive a truck pulling a trailer, or operating a tractor and mowing or raking hay. Some farmers will sell year old hay for almost nothing (I just got 1 yr old 1200# round hay bales for $5 a bale that he sells for $30-$45 fresh) and I have even found a few who will give it away just to be rid of it (in the field, we haul it before its time to cut again). Sure it’s lost some nutrients and you have to feed more, but you can't beat free!! All a person has to do is look and ask. Worst case you are told no or laughed at, best case you get what you need for a little work or even free.
NOTHING about living on a farm of ANY size is easy...it’s ALL about work, as you know. But to me personally, there is no comparison to home grown meat. I am guilty of naming ALL my animals...except a few of the chickens or the guinnies. And I must say, Brutus and Sampson made some of the BEST steaks...Happy was AWESOME steakburger (ask WC). Gimpy is setting on 13 eggs, I am hoping for baby ducks from her in the next few weeks. And ******** will make some wonderful bacon!! I may have an assortment, but I only have the minimal amount for what I need. I name them and treat them like pets all the way up to butcher time. I do not feel guilty for killing and eating them. It’s what they are for, and I know I gave them the absolutely best life possible while they were growing. I am sure many see this as mean or callous, but its how I was raised.
I'm just glad to be healing up so well, getting closer to getting off disability and FINALLY able to get on with a normal life and getting my poop in a group again! Just wanted to share a lil bit!
_____________________
Just thought I would add something else to this...
In our area, we have an over abundance of people getting the 15'x4' swimming pools with the pvc pipes on the outside for support that come with pump kits and everything. Many use them for a year and then fail to clean them out or take care of them. You find them free all over the area. A person could easily get a couple of such pools, set them in a shaded area of their property out of the way, say behind a barn, or such. Run a drop cord to them to run a water pump (no need for a filter, you just want to keep the water moving to keep it from stagnating and could get by with just using it during the hottest part of the days). Fill them up...NO chemicals!! You can get a couple 5 gallon buckets of pond water to throw in them to get the PH to setting in right. Instant fish pond.
Go to a local feed store or farm supply store in the spring and summer. You can buy live fish at low prices according to their size. A few catfish, some bass, panfish, whatever you want...put them in the pools. Or you can go fishing at friend’s ponds and keep what you catch...put the smaller ones in your pool to grow and eat the rest!!
You will need to invest in a few bags of floating fish food. But you can also go to local bakeries and get old bread, donuts and such, break it up and use it as fish food. You can also get a few young kids together and a few plastic 1 gallon jugs, for fun, go catch big grasshoppers in a field a several days a month. Thay will have fun doing it and it will make great fish food. You can also turn over hay bales, logs, whatever comes to mind and find worms, grubs, and many other kinds of insects. When they get to a certain size, you can get minnows ($25 for 500 around here) once a month. Throw them in the pool and let the larger fish have some live food. They will grow very fast with the wide variety of food.
When they are the right size, you simply start draining the pools until you can get in and wade around in knee deep or less water. Net them out a few at a time and start butchering. Put the finished product in saved plastic food grade containers with lids, fill with clean cold water, set level in freezer and freeze solid, after frozen make sure to top off the container with water and refreeze. You have a nice supply of fish in the freezer. Thaw it out for baking, BBQ, however you like it. No wondering if the place it came from had contaminated water or not!!
I know more than a few low income people who do this, and it works GREAT!!
SIMLPE: cleaning a fish is a fast and easy thing...
Scaled fish: remove scales or not (your choice), cut off head behind gills and cheek fin, carefully remove the back fin and belly fin, slice belly open to remove guts, rinse under cold clean runnign water, package and freeze or eat.
NON scaled fish: cut off the head including the gills and cheek fins. Carefully remove back and belly fins, slice belly open adn remove innards. Use pliers to grip skin at place where head was removed and carefully pull skin towards tail takes some practice and a little strength, but its easy. OR leave the skin on and freeze or cook like it is.
I leave the tails on and the bones in until I eat them...seems to be less waste adn I like the flavor better...just watch out for bones and don't eat the tails!!
The heads (and tails) can be used for fish head soup (oriental dish) or it can be added with the innards and fins to make excellent trap or fishing bait. It can also be used as a fertilizer in a garden or for feeding to barn cats as a treat for being good mousers.
