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Thread: Self-Reliant Living is Critical

  1. #1
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    Self-Reliant Living is Critical

    ........................

    Perusing current news articles and even threads on forums sometimes brings me to the point of wanting to shake some people to get them to wake up and to see the bounty around them and to say to them ‘you don’t have to be a victim to people in authority or to circumstances you feel are out of your control’.

    Be Self-Reliant! Take control of what is negatively or apathetically affecting your life! You don’t have to live in fear or constant worry of things you may feel are out of your control or out of your ability to change.

    An Example: The residents in and around Flint, Michigan are drinking, cooking and bathing in highly contaminated water and have been for over a year. People are literally dying or will suffer health ailments for the rest of their lives from using water THEY KNEW something was wrong with it.

    http://news.yahoo.com/how-the-people...043602916.html

    I ask myself WHY would anyone with half a brain drink water they knew wasn’t right? People have become so apathetic they feel their local, state and federal governments will take care of them to the point they blindly continue with actions that are dangerous to their health AND life.

    Who holds the greater responsibility? The government or the individual?

    If I lived in Michigan this is what I would be doing:

    • Set up a system to collect rainwater and store in barrels or cistern
    • Find where there are local natural springs and set up a collection system
    • Collect water from streams, rivers or ponds
    • Even water from the municipal system

    Of course these would need to be filtered and there are many filtering systems from high dollar reverse osmosis systems to Berkey water filtration systems with additional filters that take out the worst of containments, including lead and fluoride (I use) to the old standby of sand, charcoal (make your own) and boiling.

    With what these people are spending on buying bottled water (that probably isn’t much better) they can invest in a Berkey filtration system and be rest assured their water is pure and one set of filters last for many gallons.

    Neighborhoods can group together, families can group together, friends can group together .. . . . . share the work and share the expense!

    Learn. Learn. Learn. How you can take care of the basic necessities essential for life. Don’t stop at one solution, have several . . . . . options are your friend.

    Self-Reliance is freedom and peace of mind . . . .


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    .....................

    85 million people will be effected by a massive snowstorm in the Eastern U.S. in the next 3 days. Snow fall accumulation records are expected to be shattered in many areas. Forecasters have been warning for over a week that power outages for millions will be a stark reality. Government officials are telling people to stay home and stay off the roads.

    The actual storm will be 3 days but problems the storm will cause will last days and weeks for many.

    Sadly there will be many deaths . . . . . . . . deaths that could have been avoided if people were more self-reliant because most have the expectation that the government, police, rescue squad or others will take care of them. But these agencies will not be able to physically get to them for days.

    There will be those who will bitterly complain that their governments failed them and are at fault for the inconveniences and dangers this storm will bring and that they will have to endure.

    I live on the border of Kentucky and Virginia at one of the highest altitudes in the Appalachians, right smack in the middle of it. As I type snowflakes as large as cotton balls are cascading from the sky . . . . . it is absolutely beautiful and I am unconcerned with what the days and weeks may hold.

    But, my heart goes out to those not prepared and are expecting others to take of them without taking responsibility for themselves, their family and their neighbors.

    I have lived on this farm for almost 5 years (this will be my forever farm) and my first priority these past 5 years has been to secure backup and secondary backups for heat, water, food, medicine and transportation (if I need to leave this mountain). Necessities like water, food and heat I have 4 and 5 sources.

    These self-reliant measures have not been expensive, most have just taken a lot of willpower, know how or experience and tons of hard work and sweat equity. I would like to mention I am a 56 year old woman with one reconstructed knee and the other knee is mostly bone on bone. If I can do it most anyone can!

    As our planet continues through the ongoing climate change self-reliant and sustainable living is going to become more and more important . . . . actually it will become a matter of life and death . . . . and already has.

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    Your inspiring Blufire, I do love love waking to the snow quietness.

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    I'm working on becoming more self-sufficient. It's a process. I always appreciate tips and advice. I come from a family that was always modern, interested in modern amenities, and definitely not into survival or even long-term disaster prep. I recall we had to go shopping just after the blizzard of '78 because my mom hadn't gotten enough groceries before hand. We couldn't drive, and we couldn't even carry it all home and someone took pity on us and gave us a ride. I should have learned from that experience....

    I had never seen that much snow in my life. Growing up, if I got hot, I went inside to the AC. If I was thirsty I got water from the tap, or the fridge. If I was hungry I got food from the fridge or pantry. There was no hard work of gathering, growing, raising, harvesting, preserving, etc. Just shopping.

    In the system we live in it seems almost impossible to be self-sufficient. Of course it's entirely possible. There have been many good ideas and information shared here and all of it is much appreciated.

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    Thanks for the thread, blufire. I really appreciate these kinds of posts. Btw I ordered that book "Four Season Harvest" you recommended me, so I have it now and I plan on reading through before winter's over so I can implement some things this year.

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    Quote Originally posted by bsbray View Post
    Thanks for the thread, blufire. I really appreciate these kinds of posts. Btw I ordered that book "Four Season Harvest" you recommended me, so I have it now and I plan on reading through before winter's over so I can implement some things this year.
    I really think you will like this book and especially if having year around fresh food is something you would enjoy. I get a little thrill every time I harvest fresh greens in the middle of January. Also, implementing ‘four season harvest’ techniques brings garden jewels to the table sooner. Last year we had ripe tomatoes by the middle of May.

    A few hints I have found helpful over the years in becoming a sustainable gardener/homesteader

    The USDA zones are outdated. The planet climate change is happening so rapidly that we are failing to change with it or adapt adequately. If the charts say you live in zone 5 then I suggest to go down to zone 4 for all your gardening plantings and especially long term things like fruit trees.

    Start the seed and plant varieties that are suggested in books like Eliot Coleman’s ‘Four Season Harvest’ but every year save seed from your best plants and plant that seed the following year and save seed from that plant and so on and what you will have in 3 to 4 years is seed that is fully adapted and acclimated to where you live, your soil, you altitude etc. . . . super seed.

    Even if you start with hybrid seed or plants . . . . save seed from that hybrid and the first year you plant the saved seed you will get a very poor harvest but save seed from the best plant from the hybrid plant parent because you will have the best result from the hardiest genetic material that presents itself in the new plant and go on from there.

    Of course I also always plant regular ‘purchased’ seed and plants to ensure a sufficient harvest but I keep those plants far from the one I am cultivating into my ‘super seed’. I am almost at the point I will no longer have to buy seed or plants but I have a few more years because of the new growing areas I am creating all over my mountain farm.

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    The infrastructure based around technology that has replaced survival skills, such as freezers, water pumps, and food markets has created many changes in the past decades since their uptake. Much of these changes have been in dependency being created parallel to the claims of independency for the individual. Skills and knowledge cast aside and replaced with focuses on the new survival technique of squeezing money out of others.
    From my view point the helplessness and out of shapeness of people is more frequent in big cities and seems from my place of view to also have been quite severe in the USA generally, for quite some time.
    I am not sure of my opinion exactly, as I am quite a hard nosed person on one hand, and caring on the other. In one opinion, I see letting the responsibility of remaining capable of survival slide as a tough luck response. I abhor the embracing of the system by people who are pretty much too far gone and are a blight on the rest by sucking everything dry and blindly holding out their hands for more while trying to maintain a mask of being successful versions of humanity. In this view, I say let the stupid eaters devour each other, helping is being an enabler to the greater problem of an overflow of leeches and liars.

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    It is all about indoctrination Nothing...............yours definitely is different than the leeches and liars I presume!!

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    Exactly right Sandy, I have not led a life blindly entwined in an embrace with the system and let go of the tethers which keep me from being a helpless model citizen busily forcing my will on others in order to placate fears based on lack of knowledge of how to survive without credit to exchange for processed foods. I have not joined the army of those who have fallen into line and have become part of the machine which sucks the life out of others. I have not been part of the housing speculation which has ramped up the division and the eagerness to stomp on others. I do not laugh at people who are poor and state they brought it on themselves. I have managed for the most part to stay on the fringes of fashion and see through most of the mechanisms which cause people to join the pack.
    I live in a country that is not long out of its settlement period by global standards and we tend to have a reputation for invention and 'down to earth' knowledge of nature and how to's.
    Yet, even here, there has been a take over in the minds of city folk especially. Victims trying to be sophisticated like the faces they see on TV. Bitten by the bug of consumerism and out on the prowl for symbols of status at the cost of others, leaving no time for reflection and getting back to basics.

    I also have not been indoctrinated into the total belief that all is like it is because of the power of the few and that the many are the innocents. I have elements of the indoctrination into the belief of the conspiracy of the existence of human meddling and selfishness and error making.
    Last edited by enjoy being, 31st January 2016 at 00:24.

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    ................

    Just to be clear. I am not a survivalist. I am not a prepper. I do not live in fear or trepidation.

    I am a self-reliant, self-sufficient homesteader . . . . if you must put a label on me.

    I do not live as in the 1800’s . . . . although I could.

    I am working toward melding the ‘old ways’ of living with new technology. Although I have started with the ‘old ways’ because those ways cost very little. This farm is at the point that with the money I make from it I can reinvest in new technology.

    The way I live is very satisfying and is abundant and produces a wonderful peace of mind.

    Although at times my body hurts in various places! Nothing a hot Epsom salt bath and hooch can’t take care of!

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    All of us were asleep to then be aware To awaken, we are blessed, can you imagine being asleep still, beggers belief, spose it is what one does with their awareness and awakenedness.

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    Mod edit (by Aragorn): I've fixed the video link. Click the image to run the video.


    Here’s a great idea for winter gardening. This family is growing food in Canada in single and subzero weather.

    I’m definitely going to incorporate some of this into one of my growing tunnels.

    Thanks for fixing the video . . . . not my thing!!!
    Last edited by Aragorn, 10th February 2016 at 13:08.

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    This gal (who is about my age) has been living off grid for 30 years in Australia. I feel a great kinship with her.



    thanks again Aragorn for fixing my link . . .
    Last edited by blufire, 10th February 2016 at 13:44. Reason: fixed your video link ;)

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    I just built the bins for a worm farm and coconut coir is in the mail. The worms themselves will be next, once everything else is situated. Then I'll have free worm compost from food scraps for this season.

    This guy has over 1000 videos on YouTube about organic gardening, and all kinds of edible plants that most people don't know much about:


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    Thank-you Bsbray, I have some vids to learn from and create, good timing for me.

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