Living Off the Grid - Survival Techniques

[yiolas]

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.

[rosie]

I agree yiolas, saw this a few years back, and thought it would be cool to make a dog house using this technique, but, alas, no dog house yet, life just seems to be getting in the way.

I find this following construction interesting, but of course it would have to be built withing the right conditions for such material. (I am not associated with this company at all, just ran into it during one of my searches.)

Living In Paper - 2010

Papercrete is relatively light and quite strong, which makes it an ideal material for building arches, domes, and vaulted ceilings. In practical terms, the advantage of domes and vaulted ceilings is that they obviate the need for expensive and often insufficiently insulated roof systems. Papercrete is used for the ceilings as well as the walls. Besides providing great insulation, this minimizes the number and variety of tools necessary in construction. Over the life of a home, the roof is arguably the area which requires the most maintenance. By building dome and vaulted ceilings, a great deal of extra maintenance expense is avoided. In aesthetic terms, curved lines, rounded openings and high ceilings are simply more interesting, graceful, comforting and relaxing than sharp lines and squares. Both designs have their place.

Sean Sands builds his domes using fidobe, a version of papercrete with no cement. (Some practitioners have expressed the viewpoint that using unstabilized padobe or fidobe blocks for domes may be unsound.) See Mixes for more information on various papercrete formulas. Sean's building methodology is fascinating and simple. He starts by attaching a rope to a pivoted anchor set in the ground at the center point of the proposed dome. He then stretches the rope taut, and ties a knot in the rope at the radius of the dome. With the rope pulled taut, that knot can be moved left or right, up or down, to define all possible horizontal and vertical arcs. To build the dome, the rope is pulled taut and each block is positioned so that the knot can touch the block's inner surface. As each course of block is laid, the knot and the angle of the rope determine the gradual inward position and tilt of the blocks. This procedure is followed all the way to the top of the dome. As each layer of block is completed, that course locks into place against itself. This makes it possible to build the dome without any interior support. According to Sean, it's similar to building a paper igloo, but without the need to shape the individual blocks. When the dome is complete, Sean digs out the earth beneath it to create higher ceilings. Sean's domes are a testament to what is possible with papercrete, a rope, a mixer and a few hand tools.

Link, http://www.livinginpaper.com/domes_vaults.htm

[HORIZONS]

There are two ways to approach this: Those that live in city/urban areas and those that live in the country. I live on a farm so it is way different for me then for those that live in cities and other urban areas. It will not be near as difficult for me to hunt, fish, grow a garden, get water etc. as I do most of those things now. We grow garden food and have livestock, lakes/ponds and other water sources, and LOTS of open space to do/build whatever we want. This is not true for all others. Really concise plans are in order for those that are caught living in city/urban areas. This is very important to do - to be prepared for when/if the grid goes down.

[Majorion]

Posted by HORIZONS (here)
I live on a farm so it is way different for me then for those that live in cities and other urban areas. It will not be near as difficult for me to hunt, fish, grow a garden, get water etc.

I envy you my friend. Its always been one of my dreams to live that kind of life being more in tune with nature and living away from industry and city life, dependent on your own skills to survive and can even grow your own food.

I think one of the most important things people need, I haven't seen it mentioned yet, but a good stock of high quality/grade Vitamin C, good stock of antibiotics, and any other medicine like an analgesic anti-inflammatory (aspirin). One thing you can't discount if the world plunges into some chaotic situation is how the state of health would be, I'm pretty inclined that disease would become more widespread (population reduction? who knows, you never know), and you need these meds; not only in this hypothetical scenario, but you need these things right now, you should if you don't.

Peace,

[Vidya Moksha]

MMS would be top of my list. Easy to transport, and good vs lots of different problems, its even a water purifier.

I built a self sufficient farm 13 years ago and learned a lot of different techniques. These days I would say fuel (firewood) and good water are perhaps the main requirements (with shelter of course). If you have the good fortune to have a good water supply and a drop in elevation, then micro hydro would be the way forward if you needed power generation.

I gave my farm to my son when I toddled off to India, Im still semi nomadic, perhaps that is my strategy if TSHTF? I have a fair idea what will be in my rucsac

[HORIZONS]

Majorion -- You are correct my friend, and this is exactly what I have been doing - stockpiling homeopathic meds, vitamins and mineral supplements. I can generate colloidal silver as well. All of these will be needed, and will be GREAT for bartering. There will be a big need of natural products and know-how in a situation like this.

I grew up in S. Cal (beach cities) and slowly made my way out to this farm life. I went from a corporate management position to a poultry farmer. Hows that for change!!! I HAD to get away from all of the corporate industrial hodgepodge of crazy energy, and I was able to. It's not an easy transition but it CAN be done. Now I am working on developing a self-sufficient life as much as possible. That too is not easy - but it WILL be done. :-) All I know to do is to "keep a plowing".

[MargueriteBee]

Horizons, thanks for this thread. I went from living the pampered life in the city to living on our family land. We have cows, chickens, etc. Tomorrow I start planting the garden. Of course I am learning as I go. Today we seperated the mama cows from the calfs and they are still mooing!

I'm thinking of buying the latest in solar and keeping in a faraday cage until needed.

I have fresh water and lots of firewood. I will be doing a ton of canning this year.

[HORIZONS]

There are two different kinds of canning: Pressure and water bath. Each kind has its benefits depending on what you are canning. As a general rule, you shouldn't can more than what you can eat over the winter.

[MargueriteBee]

I have a steam canner and I will report on how well it works this fall. We have ten fruit trees so I will be sharing alot and there are many mouths to feed on the mountain so I won't let it sit around too long.

Edit: All my city friends think I'm nuts.

[Vidya Moksha]

Posted by MargueriteBee (here)
I have a steam canner and I will report on how well it works this fall. We have ten fruit trees so I will be sharing alot and there are many mouths to feed on the mountain so I won't let it sit around too long.

One of the things I played with was a solar dehydrator. This is great for all fruit, I understand they retain much of their goodnes and vitamins after dessication, have a shelf life of many years and are small to pack and carry. We built a small wooden dehydrator that looked rather like a chest of drawers and worked very well...

[Vidya Moksha]

[QUOTE=MargueriteBee;1491
I'm thinking of buying the latest in solar [/QUOTE]

Hi MB, solar as in solar photovoltaic? for producing electricity you mean? I did this... would have reservations about doing it again.. on many levels...

[HORIZONS]

Posted by MargueriteBee (here)
I have a steam canner and I will report on how well it works this fall. We have ten fruit trees so I will be sharing alot and there are many mouths to feed on the mountain so I won't let it sit around too long.

Edit: All my city friends think I'm nuts.

LOL!!! All my old city friends thought I was nuts too, and some people still think I'm nuts -- quitting good jobs, moving out to a farm??? Your crazy!!!. You should have seen my boss's face when I turned in my notice. Ha ha... Well if i'm crazy - so be it. :-)

[MargueriteBee]

Yeah I am looking into that and will be building a solar oven this summer. I mainly mean solar power for music and a fridge, least for music. I need to do some research on the latest solar techonology.

Edit: And, I need power for fans, it gets hot here.

[Vidya Moksha]

Posted by MargueriteBee (here)
Yeah I am looking into that and will be building a solar oven this summer. I mainly mean solar power for music and a fridge, least for music. I need to do some research on the latest solar techonology.

You cant run a fridge off solar power, not really (unless you install a huge system). They take far too much juice. You can build a good fridge from canvas.. if u put charcoal in a dish and drip water onto it there is some chemical reaction that keeps things cold. If this is done inside a canvas box suspended from the roof, you have an effective fridge! I used one of these in portugal with good effect, not as good as a regular fridge but good enough. I have even kept things in containers inside water pools, another good option. While they are avaiable, gas bottles are good for fridges

The small solar devices are great, so a portable solar charger for a phone, or cd player etc are great. I really couldnt recommend going much bigger than this in scale, unless money really is no object and you realise it could all be useless if the sun doesnt shine.

solar ovens are great. If you drive a car or a tractor you can cook in the engine bay in tin foil while you work, and after you work you have a hot meal

[MargueriteBee]

Thanks for the information Vidya. I don't want to go all out on solar power so your suggestion on making a fridge from canvas looks good. I've also thought about digging out a root cellar but this place is all rock so I'm not sure I can.

Here's a link to my little blog if anyone is interested.

http://margueritebee.blogspot.com/

[THE eXchanger]

Thanks for sharing, all this good stuff

[Vidya Moksha]

Posted by MargueriteBee (here)
Thanks for the information Vidya. I don't want to go all out on solar power so your suggestion on making a fridge from canvas looks good. I've also thought about digging out a root cellar but this place is all rock so I'm not sure I can.
http://margueritebee.blogspot.com/

Dynamite is good for making root cellars in rocks and depending on the rock they can be really good. Having two cellars is always a good idea, one dry and one damp. Sometimes you can get lucky and have natural seepage in a natural rock cave...

I was going to post a link to the canvas fridge but I cant fnd one! I only googled but even so ....?

The design is really simple. Make a wooden frame, say 1m tall 30-40cm square (or whatever you want, even several smaller ones?) . Put in as many shelves as you want. Fix canvas to 3 sides, top and bottom. The fouth side is the door, simply attach at the top and weight the bottom, so the whole flap is moveable for the door. Tie cord or wire to the top of the 4 uprights and suspend from the ceiling so its vermin proof. Then on the top shelf of the fridge (deosnt have to be very deep) put a dish of charcoal. Then either run a wicking material through the roof, or a simple tube, to an external water container (sited above the fridge).. then gravity drip the water onto the charcoal.. and you have a fridge!

I guess you can even wet the canvas, the latent heat of evaporation will further cool the unit.

How easy is that? And it really works

[yiolas]

Hi Guys, thanks for all of the great info provided. Starting this thread was the result of months of imagining what I would do to protect and sustain my family in a variety of threat situations, i.e., nuclear fall out, radiation from the sun, solar flares, earthquakes, tidal waves, breakdown of society, etc.

I live on the outskirts of the city on a medium sized plot land on the small Mediterranean island of Cyprus. The elevation is 700 ft, but there are mountain peaks of 2000 ft within 30 minutes driving distance, if we have to go to higher ground. We have about 25 mature fruit trees which include olive trees for oil. We raise about 20 chickens which provide eggs for us and enough left over to sell to the neighbors. We also have a water well which we pump for garden irrigation.

My concerns are:
How are we going to pump the water out of the well without electricity? I need an inexpensive way to do this w/out electricity.
What if we are forced to go to higher ground? How do we get and store water then?

How would one heat their home w/out a fire place? If you were to build one, you would need to learn the mechanics of ventilation and exhaust pipes.

What kind of protection does one need from radiation either from the sun or man made sources.
Most everyone knows how to grow a garden, but do we all know how to harvest and grind grains for flour? Do we know how to extract oil from olives or other seeds?
Our emergency supplies of food will eventually be depleted. Do we know how to preserve, can, smoke or dry foods?

Do we all know the basics of first-aid ?

A lot of questions which I hope that we can explore the answers to in this thread .

[MargueriteBee]

Just Goggle: hand pump wells and you will get several listed. I have to get two myself so I am checking these out. My family doesn't know, and doesn't want to know, anything about SHTF so I have taken it on myself to get them ready and I do have most everything already.

[stardustaquarion]

Solar power for laptops and batteries works general speaking quite well. For refrigeration the best method is to big terracota pots that fit inside the other leaving a small gap to fill with sand in between. One just have to put water to moisten the sand and a wet tea towel on top. Apparently it works very well is Africa.

I have a solar cooker (just carboard) and it works very well here in England in the summer months.

I would love to live in the country but family does not want to know anything about it

Love