Self Sufficiency - What are we doing?

Sassy · December 07, 2007, 02:36:13 PM

Robert, hope your wife is doing well - sounds a little like my family, my brother had radical neck surgery to remove a cancerous tumor, chemo & radiation; my dad has esophageal cancer & his wife went through 35 radiation treatments & is on chemo now for re-occurance of breast cancer - this all happened in the past year...

When I lived in Ohio, we had a 5 acre farm - pretty much grew all our own veggies. Also had a great strawberry patch. In fact, one year the local town was having a strawberry festival & bought all the strawberries from us - we had such good ones.

My mom froze most of the produce.

We also had at least 100 chickens - the big white ones. When I was old enough to collect eggs, I was the one to do it as my mom was afraid of the chickens - they'd always peck her... I'd carry those chickens around like a cat, swing with them, they'd pretty much let me do anything with them

Still remember butchering time - my dad had a stump he'd lay the chicken on, chop off its head & the chicken would run around in circles for awhile - guess that fascinated me so much that it didn't bother me that he was killing my pets

My job was to dip them in the hot water & pluck them. Don't remember my older brother helping out - he probably did, though.

While gardening, there was lots of rocks - my dad made rock walls all around the property. Wish I had pix of it now. Also remember getting lost in the corn patch

Great memories, though

Homegrown Tomatoes · December 07, 2007, 03:04:18 PM

just a quick note on the butchering... the only thing that you have to really be careful about is when you remove the vent. Other than that, butchering chickens is fairly easy. And after the first one, you could practically do it in your sleep. My kids are only 3 and 4, and thankfully they understand already that butchering is the price you have to pay to eat meat... a few days ago when we'd gone out for dinner, my oldest announced the next morning as she was scarfing down her leftover steak, "That is one of the best cows I've ever eaten... I sure appreciate her."

January 24, 2008, 04:16:33 PM

Just ran across an very interesting site - there's a video that has some great ideas if you scroll down the article a little bit...

http://www.ecospace.cc/design/earthship-house-tires-0108.htm

There's lots of great articles on this site - another one titled "Pedal Power" for carrying & filtering water while you are pedaling your bike looks very promising... there's also a video http://www.ecospace.cc/water/water-filtering-bike-0108.htm

Willy · January 24, 2008, 07:30:12 PM

Been doing that for close to 20 years now. Of course we have electricity but since it is there we will use it. I have 2 sources of electrical back up that I figure I can still have some for around a year plus if needed real bad. I can also figure a way to get it later if needed. We have a baking buisness so normaly we have 1.200 lbs of assored organic grains, nuts, molases, oils, flour ect to live off of that is allways being refreshed. We have our lake, 28 GPM well, 6,000 gals of stored water under ground, several pumps and lots of fuel on site. Normaly we have enought food to last over a year with out having to buy things excep cigs and coffie. Meat is not a problem we have over 35,000 lbs of it on the hoof all year. Milk can be got from the goats, eggs from the chickens and fresh veggies from the garden which we freeze. I have a lot of assorted bullets to hunt with and on one shot kills I could live a lifetime off them and probley another one after that. I have generators to run power tools off of, wood heat and cut up firewood cords for 2 years and lots of wood to use later. I do know how to fix things and have some heavy equipment to plow with, move snow or block roads if needed. Wife knows how to cook from scratch and allways has, daughter knows how to skin, tan, raise, butcher about any animal we could eat or use. I can plumb, wire, build and do mechanical stuff and have the tools to do so. So it is a every day way of living for us and if the world goes to crap we will be OK and will just make a few changes but still live confertably. One other thing is we are luckey and require no medications, drugs or alcohal to live with. Ciggs are a problem for me but I have allmost kicked that habit! Mark

glenn kangiser · January 24, 2008, 07:40:52 PM

That's what I like to see, Mark. I'm about the same way. No Establishment, no problem...except the cigs. I don't use them. I want my lungs to be pink when they fry me.

(OK, so I ripped off the McKinsey Brothers for that one).

January 24, 2008, 08:17:28 PM

Quote from: glenn kangiser on January 24, 2008, 07:40:52 PM
That's what I like to see, Mark. I'm about the same way. No Establishment, no problem...except the cigs. I don't use them. I want my lungs to be pink when they fry me.

(OK, so I ripped off the McKinsey for that one).

I have allways figured there would be some short term warning this was going to happen and then I would stock up on extra fuel, coffie, tolet paper, soap, ect. Storing all this stuff year long is sorta hard to do. I figure between 5 motorised vehicals I will allway have 40-50 gals min of fresh fuel in them at all times and the Water Tender holds 100 gals of diesel and 30 gals of treated gasoline at all times. I have 4 - 1000 amp 12 volt battrys charged at all times. My main 30KW generator has 60 treated gals in it plus I have a lot of cans of gas for the tractor. I have a small 6KW generator that conserves fuel that I can run the well off of to fill tanks of water for drinking. I have a portabler plastic 250 gal potable water tank to store it in. Using the generator right I can have all the water I need plus keep reffers cold in the summer with very little fuel use per day. I can allways trade meat for more fuel, ect and living cows/livestock don't rot! Mark

glenn kangiser · January 24, 2008, 08:46:52 PM

What type batteries, Mark?

Willy · January 24, 2008, 10:00:11 PM

Quote from: glenn kangiser on January 24, 2008, 08:46:52 PM
What type batteries, Mark?

3 of them are regular heavy duty semi truck battrys and 1 is a heavy duty deep cycle all on my Water Tender and less than a year old. As far as back up I have converters that I can hook to them for 120 volt use. Add those to 4 more battrys in the vehicals I am good for a while with out a generator if I wanted. As another note I have 3-2 way Bendix King 148-172 Mzh 2 way programable radios that are on the fire/rescue emergency freqs. I even have my own fresh air pack and escape hoods with 30 min supply air. Never know when you need to go into a burning building on your place. I guess I am coverd for a lot of things to go wrong but still deal with it myself. I have a lot of toys on my Water Tender that you normaly would not have at home. Mark

glenn kangiser · January 24, 2008, 10:18:00 PM

Sounds good. We have all of our solar and wind power - off grid, and in emergency, we have a year round spring at the bottom of the hill that puts out a minimum of 1/2 gpm potable water year round. Our garden has pretty well enough to keep us alive year round and we have large rodents (deer) always nearby.

January 24, 2008, 10:25:13 PM

Quote from: glenn kangiser on January 24, 2008, 10:18:00 PM
Sounds good. We have all of our solar and wind power - off grid, and in emergency, we have a year round spring at the bottom of the hill that puts out a minimum of 1/2 gpm potable water year round. Our garden has pretty well enough to keep us alive year round and we have large rodents (deer) always nearby.

My neibor is off the grid and has a nice solar power panels and wind generation set up. I would like to pick up a wind generator some day because it allways blows here. I have to be on the grid for Carols Baking Ovens. She has 3- 10 KW Convection ones to run. They would take some big panels to get 30KW @ 240 volts! I am thinking of setting up a battry emergency unit for the house to run a few lights and the TV with. I allready have UPS on the Computer. Mark

glenn kangiser · January 24, 2008, 10:30:22 PM

Of the commercially available ones, I think the Bergey's are the best. I have the XL1

http://www.bergey.com/

Or you can build your own.

Willy · January 24, 2008, 10:55:14 PM

Quote from: glenn kangiser on January 24, 2008, 10:30:22 PM
Of the commercially available ones, I think the Bergey's are the best. I have the XL1

http://www.bergey.com/

Or you can build your own.

The price is not to bad for the head I wonder how long there good for with out problems? The neibors has been running non stop for 12 years that I know of. I can hear it at night and it is over 2500 ft away on a hill above me not in view. It makes a WOOP WOOP sound but does not bother me. At first it was a strange sound but now blanked out. I think it is louder under loads cause I don't hear it all the time in the wind? Mark

glenn kangiser · January 25, 2008, 12:20:00 AM

It is generally louder in low wind speeds or turbulent winds. It needs to be 85 to 100 feet up for best performance and as a minimum always at least 30 feet over treetops or nearby obstacles. Generally a pleasant sound that doesn't bother.

As the wind gets higher it generally covers the sound of the generator, Hooking to a building amplifies the sound and sends it through the building. If I recall correctly it has a 5 year guarantee and service is at 10 years, although I probably won't take mine down until it has a problem. Bearings are sealed.

Several small units are better than one big unit and noise is not much greater. Cost per watt should work out similar. Bergey has one of the better reputations. I am a dealer but only sold my own to me. I should push them a bit but we are in a marginal wind area so I won't promise miracles to sell them.