Archive for March 2011
Urban homesteading/Modern Survival/ Self Sufficient Living
These are are very great ways to live, but there also very time consuming. They can go from being a joy to a giant burden over night. I highly recommend to any one thinking about getting into either of the life style changes listed above, make a list and set small goals. Small goals add up fast and turn into the completion of large goals. Try to find humor and fun in every project you take on. Most of all do not compare yourself to the neighbors or “insert blogger x,y,z here” .
A friend I follow on twitter judgmentalhippy posted a link to a great article from Half Acre Homestead Titled At What Point Am I “Real”?
Quick Paraphrase: Every one reads about the super Urban homesteader who has everything. Don’t let that get you down if you are just starting and you still rely on modern or community systems of support. Small and be happy with what you have accomplished.
Posted in 
When your sitting down with your family, and putting together your disaster preparedness plan. Something very important to keep in mind is perspective. Don’t get tunnel vision and only prepare for one type of emergency. Research and pull information from all sorts of locations.
Don’t just rely on one or two survival blogs, read seven or eight. Also find blogs of like minded people. You it may not be all survival info all the time but you will gain little insights into what other people are doing.
An example of this is a blog that I follow called Hey Laura, What? . While I myself have never had the privilege to meet Laura, I have found her to be very like minded. I was turned onto her blog by my very loving and supportive lady prepper of the house Brandi.
The Primary focus of this blog was answer questions people had about a slew of topics. Well recently Laura has started a string of posts on emergency preparedness. I highly suggest taking the time to read them. They are practical and rooted in personal experience and research.
Before you can start to lay away food, water, and other survival materials, you’re going to need space and locations inside of your dwelling to store and secure your supplies. Also, if you have a vehicle, you will want to find space for your “bug out bag” and roadside emergency kits.
A great place to start storing things is under your bed; clear out all the junk that might have accumulated, and you’ll be surprised at how many low-profile storage containers you can fit under there. Next, closets. Every closet you have, from your bedroom to the storage closet at the end of the hall, can be used for keeping your supplies and emergency rations stashed.
Finally, the kitchen and pantry: while cleaning out your kitchen cupboards, start taking an inventory of what food you already have. Get a list of what cooking supplies and seasonings you have and stack and reorganize everything.
You probably have these huge piles of belongings and clutter that you had in your closets. Go through it with a fine tooth comb and try to eliminate anything you don’t need. (WARNING: If you have a roommate or significant other, MAKE SURE THEY ARE ON THE SAME PAGE YOU ARE!!!!! You don’t really want to throw away your roommate’s snowboard or a glass vase your wife got from her great aunt Zelda. Doing such things is a great way to end your survival early.)
Great ways to eliminate the clutter in things you don’t need are:
1. Hold a yard sale (You can use proceeds to fund your food prep and survival projects or pay off bills)
2. E-bay (Same idea as above)
3. Barter (There may be things you don’t use but you can trade with a neighbor or other people of the same mind set.)
4. Donate (See if you can find an agency that is local and will even come to you to pick up what is left after steps 1-3.)
Now that you have freed up all of this space and have a little extra dough, you can start putting your preparedness plan into action. I will be posting a lot of helpful tips and tricks for accruing and storing all of your emergency prep supplies.
I started looking around the web the other day and I noticed there are more and more survival or self-sustainability blogs popping up everyday. There are new sites offering survival tips and tricks, all with their own angle as to why you should be prepared.
I really had to sit back and weigh the pros and cons as to why I want to throw my own two cents into the arena. Today I watched a documentary called Collapse. Out of all the subjects and topics touched on in the movie, the one thing that stuck with me the most was the ending, where Michael Ruppert explains in his words the hundredth monkey effect.
If each and every blogger and survival/natural living expert or professional reached a hundred people, maybe three to five of them will start a blog and reach another hundred people. Before we know it, our neighbors and their families will all be taking steps to live a life of self sufficiency and reliance.
This could allow for those people who don’t need the added systems of support to remove themselves and let those that really need them take advantage of them without every one having to worry about the country or society as a whole going bankrupt.
If more people could just feel the self empowering affects of what it is like to accomplish a project, run their own business, or even plant a garden and enjoy it’s harvest I think the world as a whole would have a different outlook and an easier time securing a future for our children and their children.
