Living Off the Grid - Survival Techniques

[blue777]

Posted by yiolas (here)
Whether it be from earth changes, solar flares or political and social upheavals, I believe we should begin preparing for living off the grid. There might come a time in the near future when we will have to provide for ourselves and family without electricity, pumped in water supply, energy for cooking and heating, waste management, ventilation and food supplies.

Even if we remain in our homes during the coming times of change, we will still need to know how to provide food, water and shelter. We should obtain this knowledge while there is still time.

I would like to begin with providing a couple of you tube videos and hope that others can share the same:
How to build a two can stove: https://youtube.com/watch?v=a5Q2-mXk4Bo
Building chimney parts: https://youtube.com/watch?v=YbN5xhV8Auo

The list is endless:
Growing Food, Animal Husbandry, obtaining water, first aid, etc., etc.

I agree totally, we need to get organized....thank you for your info...
lol
blue

[EsmaEverheart]

This guy has some great wilderness survival videos.

https://youtube.com/user/HedgehogLeatherworks

[yiolas]

Hi Guys, This is a link from from Matthew Stein's website where he gives advice on earthquake precautions: http://www.whentechfails.com/node/28
His website is chock full of info.

This is also a link to one of his radio interviews:
Financial Economic Collapse - How to Prepare Pt. 1
https://youtube.com/watch?v=8uHzK...relatedollapse
Part 2
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Po7f9...eature=related
Part 3
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Qi3pQ...eature=related

His material is a must.

[yiolas]

New Product Innovation: The Peepoo Bag By designer Anders Wilhelmson, in collaboration with Camilla Wirseen and Peter Thuvander, has developed the Peepoo bag – a single-use, disposable toilet bag intended to improve sanitary conditions in developing nations.
http://www.dezeen.com/2009/03/16/pee...ter-thuvander/
The toilet is actually a biodegradable, plastic bag filled with crystals that transform waste into fertilizer, while destroying pathogens.
2 min. you tube intro. https://youtube.com/watch?v=Dp5_ySFsH9E

This small single use bag made of degradable bio plastic processes and sanitizes feces and and transforms it to valuable fertilizer within 2 weeks !

[morguana]

i would love to live off grid, a hobit house would be my first choice, love the idea of earth eco homes, to be inside the earth would be very beautiful (have a thing for caves too, lol). but i am not in any position to do this so i have been busy learning and relearning bushcraft skills instead, and have been passing on my knowledge to my children. they love to gather food, make fires and build camps, we have done water purification tecniques to. all of us have very decent equiptment (5 season, extream use and hardy), and it is always packed to go, should we ever need to.
love m x

[yiolas]

Hi everyone,
Looks like we've been given our own sub forum. Don't know if the moderators are going to do this or not. But it would be great if everyone who posted links to various topics within the main thread, copy and paste your replies/links within the subdivisions of food/water, shelter etc. etc.
This will help us all in finding the sub topics that we are interested in.
Thanks,

[Swanny]

I'm pretty much set up for living off the grid in my van
Will head south when things start getting really bad

[yiolas]

Posted by Swanny (here)
I'm pretty much set up for living off the grid in my van
Will head south when things start getting really bad

I can respect that Swanny, but what about your supply of PeePoo bags ! lol

[Swanny]

I'm like the queen I never poo

[Gita]

Dave does!!

[Fredkc]

Posted by Swanny (here)
I'm pretty much set up for living off the grid in my van

Ahhhh... youth! he heh...

I can remember my mid-20's (yes, barely) I would proudly point to my Chevy Van named "ShoeBox" and tell people
"Yup! everything I own fits right here in the van, with me!"

...and it came in real handy a time or two, back then.

Then.... life happened. (See: George Carlin, re. "Stuff")

[xbusymom]

I can't find my stuff from years ago... but here are sites that have very good directions to follow:

make a drop spindle-
http://www.joyofhandspinning.com/make-dropspin.shtml
* and the collar piece doesn't have to be round, i had 2 drop spindles (1 triangle, 1 square)...
just be sure to notch around the edges to help anchor the thread/yarn so you don't end up unwinding as you spin.

washing the wool:
http://www.joyofhandspinning.com/washing-fleece.shtml

pre-spin prep: (carding the fibers)
http://www.joyofhandspinning.com/hand-carding.shtml

natural dyes:
http://www.joyofhandspinning.com/natural-dyes.shtml

plus a lot more on the left-side menu-

these people seem to have it all together- and they have world-wide list of contacts:
http://www.interweave.com/spin/resou...inning_guilds/


I will finish up my simple loom instructions and post it this weekend...

[MorningSong]

What a wonderful surprise!!! Thanks Mods!

Looks great xbusymom!

[morguana]

i would like to share this book with you folk http://www.amazon.co.uk/New-Complete.../dp/0751364428 one of my all time fav's, a super read with loads of self sufficiency knowledge.......definatly worth a read

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Seymour_%28author%29

love m x

[Vidya Moksha]

Posted by morguana (here)
i would like to share this book with you folk http://www.amazon.co.uk/New-Complete.../dp/0751364428 one of my all time fav's, a super read with loads of self sufficiency knowledge.......definatly worth a read

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Seymour_%28author%29

love m x

I had to smile the other day. There is a copy of 'self sufficiency in New Zealand' here in the house, and I see thats its seymours book, with the seasons switched over, and a 'new' author credited

[annemirri]

Posted by yiolas (here)
I can respect that Swanny, but what about your supply of PeePoo bags ! lol

You do not need peepoo bags as,

"Human urine and wood ash appear to make a potent, inexpensive fertilizer combination for boosting the productivity of food crops, scientists say.

Results of the first study evaluating the use of human urine mixed with wood ash as a fertilizer for food crops has found that the combination can be substituted for costly synthetic fertilizers to produce bumper crops of tomatoes without introducing any risk of disease for consumers.

The new study found that plants fertilized with urine produced

four times more tomatoes than nonfertilized plants and as much as plants given synthetic fertilizer. "


http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releas...-sfu090209.php

a.

[yiolas]

Posted by annemirri (here)
You do not need peepoo bags as,

"Human urine and wood ash appear to make a potent, inexpensive fertilizer combination for boosting the productivity of food crops, scientists say.

Results of the first study evaluating the use of human urine mixed with wood ash as a fertilizer for food crops has found that the combination can be substituted for costly synthetic fertilizers to produce bumper crops of tomatoes without introducing any risk of disease for consumers.

The new study found that plants fertilized with urine produced

four times more tomatoes than nonfertilized plants and as much as plants given synthetic fertilizer. "


http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releas...-sfu090209.php

a.

This I've got to see to believe. I always thought that human feces and urine had e-coli bacteria and the such because we are meat eaters, therefore not suitable to throw on the compost pile.
The sight of catching my elderly Dad taking a quick pee in the corner of the yard has always upset me. If this is true, I can tell him to at least aim it over the wood ash pile.

I'll check the link out and let you know.

[annemirri]

Posted by yiolas (here)

The sight of catching my elderly Dad taking a quick pee in the corner of the yard has always upset me. If this is true, I can tell him to at least aim it over the wood ash pile.

I'll check the link out and let you know.

We had an outhouse in our summerhouse, and my father would spread all the waste,
pee and poo, on our fields, even to our kitchen garden.

(but first he let the waste dry for a whole winter, like in a compost .)

And my mother was a nurse and a real hygiene freak !
and we grew up just fine eating our home grown vegetables and berries.

My father did not let us buy poisonous, fertilized strawberries,
or eat imported fruit without peeling them and washing our hands afterwards.

The link I posted earlier is about the results of a scientific study,
which are to be confirmed today in university debate.

a.

[Vidya Moksha]

Posted by yiolas (here)
This I've got to see to believe. I always thought that human feces and urine had e-coli bacteria and the such because we are meat eaters, therefore not suitable to throw on the compost pile.
The sight of catching my elderly Dad taking a quick pee in the corner of the yard has always upset me. If this is true, I can tell him to at least aim it over the wood ash pile.

I'll check the link out and let you know.

The quote says urine and wood ash (no faeces), i can believe this. If you pee on a straw bale it makes great compost. and no smell. Wood ash is great in compost toilets as it reduces smells and gives potash to the mix...if you add faeces to this mix you would have big trouble! but then a separate compost toilet would be easy enough - compost toilets are great and easy to make, but they dont give enough for the land, out faeces is mostly water......my compost toilet had a one metre cube collecting chamber, it took 3 people nearly 2 years to fill it! another 6months to a year to compost, you have a couple of barrows of compost every 2 years

[MargueriteBee]

Anyone have links to a composting toilet or have you used one on a steady basis?