Home Production

[Zowieink]

Not with machinery, but if a family wanted to raise rabbits, or a couple of whatevers, you are free to do so as long as you have at lease 3/4 acre. The smaller the land, the smaller the number of animals. If you have an acre (around here, that's the rich folks, or those that have been here a million years ) the basic allowable livestock is two large animals (horse or cows) 4 medium animals (goats, sheep, llamas, el pacas (sp?) but absolutely no pigs (do not know why), and then small animals (chickens, geese, rabbits (more than 20), etc. etc. etc. However, with a use permit through City Council you can get as many as your neighbors will allow you to have.

I, however, like everyone else, live on a small lot in a BIG subdivision. By law I can do some rabbits, and other small mammals. But generally, does anyone have ideas of what we can do?

I have, this year, been and continue being a container planter. Started with flowers, then tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, onions, celery (this is a really pretty plant), mint, and edible flowers. Then I took out most of the ornamental landscaping and made areas for vegetables (still working on this for this fall garden, summer is to hot at 110 or higher). When you only have about 2000 or 3000 square feet in your back yard, what can you do.

Suggestions :-s

[Scarecrow]

Deleted

[SmallFarm]

Gonna experiment with sugar beets---> sugar---> vinegar this year

[highfive]

Kenssurplus wrote:

EVERYONE, I have 20 + years experience in mostly alternative energy, off grid living, and what I call creative junk reutilization (home manufacture of essential items from beyond its life everyday things). - there is some quote from a prophet who said use it up, wear it out, or do without. (or something similar).

I am willing to teach you what I know and help you to build key elements for your own system. I really hate to list these things but here are some of my efforts:
Solar photovoltaic electricity
Small to medium windpower
Microhydro electric systems
Solar thermal augmentation for domestic hot water, and for radiant heating
Energy efficiency audits and improvements
Vehicle fuel mileage improvements
Hydrogen / oxygen manufacture and use
Vortexing heat exchanger for catalytic cracking of normally unusable fuels
Highly efficient lighting
There are other ongoing areas of study /and building, but not far enough along to consider them sucessful enough to help others with.

Kenssurplus, I would love to learn some of the technology for producing electricity, if it's not too expensive.

[Rincon]

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[Rincon]

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[highfive]

Learn to cut hair. I have 7 kids, and they never went to a barber until they moved out. I still cut my husband's, and have given hair cuts to grandchildren and children when they were unemployed. It has saved us thousands over the years.

I have used sesame oil as a moisturizer, put on when face is wet. Just a little.

I use table sugar as cleansing grains, way cheap, and my face doesn't feel clean unless I use it.

learn to patch jeans, I mean a really good patch that is stronger than the original cloth.

[Rincon]

Removed

[Songbird]

This is a great idea. We do have a garage and can knock out a wall and dig, but we have a huge moisture problem. When it rains, the water seeps up through the cement in the garage. So I would have to solve that problem....

I think there are so many variables to our own individual situations, that Heavenly father will take that into account. Rincon, keep working on it, keep praying about it.

For myself, I just found out that I can't raise chickens and have eggs...You should see my place and they say it is residential! Ridiculous! Somebody want to tell the coyotes, deer, fox and turkeys, possums, raccoons, hawks, mice, moles and all the others that I live on residential property and they are not allowed to be there???? =)) ) I love my place and I may get to the point where I don't care what they say...but for now, since I live right next door to the county assessor, I will be good.

I don't know if I can have bees yet either...I forgot to ask. But I like your list...I am working on a few things...One thing my husband is super excited about is having a root cellar. That is not on your list and if you are creative, which we will have to be, you can have one somewhere....(if you are not in an apartment!)

Have you a basement with a garage or carport with a cement covered floor? Knock a entrance way through your basement wall under the garage, remove enough dirt to make the size root cellar you require. Put your freezer in there also, The small room will stay at about 55 degrees year around if its under a garage, warmer if under a carport unless the carport is on the North side of your house. Be sure to take into account possible flood conditions. The entrance to you root celler can easily be hidden behind a false wall, also works as a hiding place when danger lurks----

Bob

[Teancum]

Kenssurplus, I would love to learn some of the technology for producing electricity, if it's not too expensive.

Hi highfive,

Before I can steer you in the proper direction, I need to ask a couple of questions:

What do you want the electricity to run?
Where do you want to use the electricity, and related to that is what resources are available?

in other words, running a small cfl or large freezer in an apartment, and related resourses might be a mountain stream or river running through your property, windy hill, solar south face, geothermal spring, gasoline or diesel generator set, lawnmower, bicycle etc....
Some ordinances make it so that only a very quiet and small generator can be run in your backyard, so that limits what you can do. But don't be discouraged, because when the Lord gives a comandment or counsel, he prepares a way to acomplish or comply with it.

[bobhenstra]

Chickens and rabbits both can be raised in a basement. You keep the smell down by placing the pens above boxes of dirt and plain old earth worms. The worms make short work of chicken and rabbit poop. Just remember, you must have a years supply of food for each chicken or rabbit, worms gotta take care of themselves--- Guinea pigs can be raised in place of rabbits, and are easier to raise for meat. Trouble with Guinea pigs is they also make great pets, kids love them till---stew time------

If you decide on rabbits, pick a small breed. Both rabbits, chickens, and worms-- love fresh lawn clippings, chickens also love worms, so keep the coop floor well above the worm bed. Plan on 1.5 hens per household member. Place chicken pens as close to a window light on the South side of your basement as possible, and plan on at least 14 hours of light per day for continued egg production, some type of artifical light works just fine.

Teach your kids to be very quiet around the animals, mommy rabbits will eat their young if they are frightened.
Bob

[infowarrior]

cheese making link: http://schmidling.com/making.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

soap making link: http://www.orthogonalthought.com/blog/i ... ic-recipe/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

sun ovens link: http://www.sunoven.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; http://www.solarcooking.org/plans/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That Sun Oven is quite impressive. I noticed they sell them on ebay for $244 with free freight. I am thinking seriously of getting one.

http://cgi.ebay.com/GLOBAL-SUN-OVEN-SOL ... 150wt_1032" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It is impressive! I would recommend one to someone who wants the ability to cook food year round in case SHTF!! It can boil water too : D

[WhereCanITurn4Peace]

cheese making link: http://schmidling.com/making.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

soap making link: http://www.orthogonalthought.com/blog/i ... ic-recipe/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

sun ovens link: http://www.sunoven.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; http://www.solarcooking.org/plans/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That Sun Oven is quite impressive. I noticed they sell them on ebay for $244 with free freight. I am thinking seriously of getting one.

http://cgi.ebay.com/GLOBAL-SUN-OVEN-SOL ... 150wt_1032" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

They're cheaper if you have a Honeyville or any kind of preparedness store near you...I've seen them around $200 at both. The Sun Oven is definitely on my list of preparedness items!

[Randy]

Actually gold and silver will have their place within a commodities based trading system. But I fully agree that having food storage and being self reliant is superior to precious metals.
Precious metals as well as scrip[ts from the Church (just as in the early days in Utah) will become one standard of exchange. After all you may not half a bushel of wheat to trade for an equal measure of corn or shoes for the family, etc.

This is one reason my wife and I are focusing on obtaining open propagating, heirloom seeds. We also buy the single season hybrid seeds as an early starter, but they will be planted with heirloom seeds. Watch out for Monsanto's terminator seeds. Only buy heirloom seeds from a reliable source. Native America seeds are also excellent. It will be extremely important in the future to have seeds with a clean genetic makeup -- not those manipulated to destroy crops. Hybrids are okay for the short term as long as they are organic (as much as possible). Seeds Of Change are an excellent source for good quality organic seeds. Even Burpee now has 100% Certified Organic Seeds.

Randy in Gunnison

[1984Orwellherenow]

Teach your kids to be very quiet around the animals, mommy rabbits will eat their young if they are frightened.
Bob

Can you put on a show? Or at least upload a youtube? That's much cooler than watching a boa feeding. Boring.

Actually gold and silver will have their place within a commodities based trading system. But I fully agree that having food storage and being self reliant is superior to precious metals.
Precious metals as well as scrip[ts from the Church (just as in the early days in Utah) will become one standard of exchange. After all you may not half a bushel of wheat to trade for an equal measure of corn or shoes for the family, etc.

So will booze. I hear most calling theirs a "biodiesel still".

[Rincon]

Removed

[bobhenstra]

Learn to cut hair. I have 7 kids, and they never went to a barber until they moved out. I still cut my husband's, and have given hair cuts to grandchildren and children when they were unemployed. It has saved us thousands over the years.

I have used sesame oil as a moisturizer, put on when face is wet. Just a little.

I use table sugar as cleansing grains, way cheap, and my face doesn't feel clean unless I use it.

learn to patch jeans, I mean a really good patch that is stronger than the original cloth.

For your face, try sea salt in cold yougert. Don't rub to hard around the chin bones or eye sockets, finish the yougert with a hot towel for a few minutes and carefully wipe off. Then ice cubes rubbed all over you face, another hot towel, ice cubes again and carefully rinse your face in cold water and pat dry.

The sea salt removes the dried skin from your face, the hot and cold treatment, though uncomfortable at first will soon be your favorite part. Your face will glow! Start with1/2 teaspoon of sea salt per cup of yougert, add until your comfortable with the mix.

Bob

[bobhenstra]

Actually gold and silver will have their place within a commodities based trading system. But I fully agree that having food storage and being self reliant is superior to precious metals.
Precious metals as well as scrip[ts from the Church (just as in the early days in Utah) will become one standard of exchange. After all you may not half a bushel of wheat to trade for an equal measure of corn or shoes for the family, etc.

This is one reason my wife and I are focusing on obtaining open propagating, heirloom seeds. We also buy the single season hybrid seeds as an early starter, but they will be planted with heirloom seeds. Watch out for Monsanto's terminator seeds. Only buy heirloom seeds from a reliable source. Native America seeds are also excellent. It will be extremely important in the future to have seeds with a clean genetic makeup -- not those manipulated to destroy crops. Hybrids are okay for the short term as long as they are organic (as much as possible). Seeds Of Change are an excellent source for good quality organic seeds. Even Burpee now has 100% Certified Organic Seeds.

Randy in Gunnison

Its going to take a lot of gold and silver to get my last packet of pea seeds from me. I have chosen to load 12 ga. shotgun shells and have a lot of cooking oil in my freezer for barter, gold and silver will not be on my trading list, unless I run out of lead to make bullets (highly unlikely)!

I think I ask this every time the precious metals thing comes up: "When you eat your gold, do you season it first?"

Bob

[bbrown]

For myself, I just found out that I can't raise chickens and have eggs...You should see my place and they say it is residential! Ridiculous! Somebody want to tell the coyotes, deer, fox and turkeys, possums, raccoons, hawks, mice, moles and all the others that I live on residential property and they are not allowed to be there???? =)) ) I love my place and I may get to the point where I don't care what they say...but for now, since I live right next door to the county assessor, I will be good.

I have a brother-in-law in this situation and he bought domesticated heritage breed ducks...so they at least look wild. LOL Not suggesting you go around it, but I think very soon you'd care more about egg and meat production than what the assessor has to say. And he might also!

[bbrown]

The leftover liquid in the bowl is "whey" and you can save that for protien smoothies or chuck it, but the yogurt is nice and thick now.

We have our own dairy goats (Nigerian Dwarfs, mostly --about the size of a medium dog) and so we make raw milk yogurt that only has to heat up to 110-115. I make mine in the crockpot. I heat up the milk (usually on the stove because I have kids and will forget in the crockpot and my milk won't be raw anymore #-o ) then put it in a warm crockpot and add about 2 ice cubes of frozen starter (from previous batches) per quart. This allows me to turn it on to warm any time I think it needs a temperature boost and then I turn it off again. I also wrap it in towels on the countertop to help it stay warm overnight (turned off though, a crockpot will boil the stuff and that isn't good for anything but farm animals).

We actually have to make the yogurt right now because my son is on a raw goat milk based formula and cultured whey is one of the required ingredients. But, there are many uses for whey. You can use it in lacto-fermentation canning (just tried my first sour kraut), you can feed it to chickens or other animals for a health boost (lots of live cultures in there), and you can even make lemonade from it without needing to use much lemon. We use the strained yogurt, now called "yogurt cheese", in lieu of cream cheese and as a sour cream replacement in recipes. Makes the BEST scones ever!

[davedan]

Rocket Stove: smokeless fire without CO production. Heat home and cook with just tree clippings.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtM2NYfTEJI" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-BQMpaW-E0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSMR2ANIZ7E" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_e0vOfjvH0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; <<< great video of rocket stove in 3rd world

Rocket Stove + Mass Heater: heats bricks and adobe mud that absorbs heat from stove exhaust
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfKHVoCY2so" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Rocket Stove + Water Distiller: heat water and distill/purify water
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY6QOB8pql8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[bbrown]

I think a HUGE component to food storage is knowing HOW to use it and actually having your body adjusted to it. I keep hearing that switching to food storage from the standard American diet will kill you faster than starvation will, and I don't doubt it! I can't help but think that the Lord has prepared us (unwilling and ungreatful though we've been) through our children's milk-soy protein intolerance issues since it has forced us to learn to cook food from scratch. I've learned how to make breads, yogurt, waffles, cakes, scones, white sauces, gravy, chocolate, tortillas, chips, crackers, home-made vanilla, how to make everything with olive or coconut oil, how to replace tomato products with rose hip that grows plentiful and wild here...and there is more yet to come!

We too are trying to grow heritage plants and collect seeds, but it is an experiment right now trying to figure out which grow well in our area.

But that brings me to another topic --everyone is talking about planting their food. Why not learn how to harvest it? Granted, Utah has very little in the way of vegetation, but up here in SE AK (as with parts of WA and OR and other places as well) it is all around us year 'round. If you learn what plants are edible and how to prepare them, it'll help spread out that food storage and really make it more palatable.

The TJed people (Oliver DeMille) did a few webinars called "The coming aristocracy" and it basically suggested that you learn to do ANYTHING that is currently done by big business, shipped in, or outsourced. Think of it!? That's just about everything these days. Homeschooling, gardening, cloth diapering, sewing, cooking, animal husbandry, canning, salting and smoking meat, up-cycling, hunting, fishing, tying flies, building, natural/herbal healing, midwifery, butchering, knitting, crocheting, knife sharpening, tatting, rug weaving, harvesting and spinning wool, how to re-use things we generally throw away, etc, etc, etc.

We keep buying books, studying, and learning new skills but still worry that we won't have the time we need to learn it all or to be able to prepare as we desire...there is always so much more to learn and to prepare. Though we do have faith that if we are working towards that end, the Lord will help us to make our preparations be enough with His help.

Our Stake President yesterday (Ward conference) actually invoked a blessing upon us in Relief Society by the authority of his calling and priesthood that we would have health, shelter, the guidance of the Spirit and the ability to teach our children the gospel. I was really hoping he'd add food and safety, but that can come with the help of the Spirit, so we're good! I do think it will come as a complete shock to many of the members here when those things aren't readily available.

Catherine (the posts above were mine too, not Mr. B's)

[davedan]

Tin Can Solar Heater:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jzxw1j-dzY4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WGASsjNFmk&NR=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; << aluminum siding
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLNViUsRCVU&NR=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vzfwu83L0g" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[believer]

For clothing production you should have scissors, needles, thread, pins, if possible a treadle machine, fabric. yardstick, measuring tape. Quilt frames would be good, along with batting. The ability to use those things is a necessity. Bedding is a must. Ability to knit and crochet and weave would be very helpful too.

Believer

[believer]

My parents lived in an older neighborhood in the inner city of a large city. Behind all of the houses and back yards were a lot of bushes. Wild chickens lived in the bushes all along the back of the yards. They didn't belong to anyone. How convenient when there are laws against having them on your property. No one gathered the eggs, but if onyone were so inclined, they could certainly do so. The chickens seemed to survive any threats from dogs, cats, or any other critters. Maybe some of you city dwellers could, (accidently, of course), let some of your chickens escape. Who knows, they may multiply. Of course, they would need a rooster.


Believer

P.S. This is a great thread.