The same board in your link.....was one I spent hundreds of hours on, for 3 or 4 years. I ate drank and slept that place. They also had a fellow, Fer Fal, who survived similar economic collapse, Argentina in the 90's iirc. Had a lot of good and interesting points. Sca
I have some of this on reel to reel home made movies. He liked his double bladed axe and his 2 man saw. Also a bow saw and the one shaped like this/-\ narrow at top
Yes, he or brother put in face cut with ax, then back cut with 2 man depending on size He would walk tree to limb it while other man started next face cut. Everything was cut to log length then broken down further at farm. At least that’s what reel to reel show
I will have to do all my growing inside, only a couple months of summer and even then the wind ruins plants, no farms around here to buy/barter with so I'd like to get creative beyond microgreens though I love sprouts personally. I have some short plastic totes for storage, like 10x18x4H I was thinking about though they are not food grade. But I might get to town and buy some food containers from the dollar store. Is anyone else doing hydroponics too? What do you grow or might grow in times of need? One thought was spinach. BCB with tomato has my interest but not sure I can do it inside at 10% humidity.
billb3 , I have access to many short 2-2/5 gal buckets that screws were shipped in. I've seen your garden pictures and envied them. Would you use non food grade buckets?
Wildwest, could you build a greenhouse to grow in? That would protect from the wind, and should extend your short summer months on both ends.
I haven't done it to grow in, but our local grocery store sells the pails they get frosting for the deli in for $1 ea. when they are done and bonus they are already washed out. They range from 1 - 2 1/2 gallon are food grade, and only need a few drainage holes drilled and would work for portable planters. Maybe an option to look into?
I haven’t logged into the site in a while and decided to stop by. I think it’s funny that I got an alert for something I wrote two years ago! You are right. I do think attitudes have changed over the past few years. If you were already into prepping, you’re that much more into it. If never considered at all, I’m sure many have started.
Some of the tubs I have are not marked "food grade". But they are HDPE which generally can be considered a food grade plastic although there's no guarantee of that without being labelled as such. . Plus, some plants may or may not actually uptake any leachates even if they do exist. Plus, using potting soil (some of which is NOT necessarily safe for vegetables) and the amount of watering required, the soil gets fairly aggressively "flushed" . In fact I consider the nutrients in the soil pretty much gone by the end of the season, if not before from both the flushing and plant uptake. Two and two point five gallon buckets are kinda small for many vegetable plants. A general rule I follow is if the top visible part of the plant doesn't fit in the bucket , it's not big enough for its roots. Plus during the hottest part of the year, that small amount of soil baking in the sun doesn't hold water very long. You usually end up with tiny fruit and/or scorched leaves. I've tried small pots and shallow pots and they generally just don't work. I have some two gallon pots and they're OK for one lettuce . One of some things. Like a cayenne pepper. If you do square foot gardening you can pretty much apply the same rules to bucket size. Keeping in mind the watering frequency is going to be much higher. Also, I've been surprised at well how some plants effectively shed rain water to its dripline, which is often outside the pot perimeter.
I have yet to taste anything grown using hydroponics that had much taste to it at all. The veggies can look really great but eating them seems to be a big let-down. We had thought about doing some a long time ago but after trying some things we just gave up the idea. I like some flavor in my food.
If you don't have soil, you don't have the minerals and biodiversity in the soil. Food doesn't taste as good and it is not as good for you. In old America, people did a lot of fermenting to get through the winter. Hard to go wrong with that.
It dawns on me that having a working stove and lots of firewood is a very good way to be self sufficient. I won't have a working boiler until the 10th but we still have heat.
That is my fantasy but I have yet to find anything rated for hurricane winds. I have a double sliding glass door wall, 16', a microburst damaged it so it's drafty and loam comes through the cracks in the winter. We were toying with the idea of building a green house just outside of that, it would protect me from the draft and I could put my green thumb back to work. Except now it's going to be a 16x20 room addition if/when it ever happens lol.
I wonder if on-site nitrogen generators are the answer or at least part of it. Short of everybody having a cow in the backyard that is. All centralized infrastructure (electric, water, gas, etc) is vulnerable to supply chain disruptions.