From the category archives:

SELF-SUFFICIENCY

Tough Times Survival Guide vol 1 – book review

October 8, 2009
Tough Times Survival Guide vol 1 – book reviewReading, learning, it's what I enjoy doing. Before the internet, I would go to the three local libraries in my hometown, I would check out as many books as each on would allow, take them all home, read-read-read until I had gotten through all of them, then I return the books to their respective homes and start all over again. I tended to read non-fiction, I preferred them over fiction most of the time. With the exception of a few notable authors such as Stephen King, Jean M. Auel, and such… With the advent of the internet and ebooks, I mostly read what I can get in digital format, including audiobooks. So these last couple of books I’ve read, I have held in my hand, turned pages, it was quite old-school for me. J I love it. Now, on to the book review.

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Makeshift Workshop Skills for Survival and Self-Reliance book review

October 3, 2009
Makeshift Workshop Skills for Survival and Self-Reliance book review

I typically do reviews on eBooks, but a while back I was contacted by James Ballou to do a review of a hard copy, Makeshift Workshop Skills for Survival and Self-Reliance, published by Paladin Press. Of course I was thrilled to review his book; honestly I had seen it previously and had been interested in reading it, so I jumped at the chance. It turns out that my instincts were correct, this is a great and useful book!

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Grow your own tobacco – book review

September 28, 2009
Grow your own tobacco – book review

A while back, I had some trouble with the government about buying cigarettes from outside the country (USA), it is perfectly legal to order cigarettes for import into the USA for personal use. I assure you that the cigarettes I ordered WERE for personal use, I did not trade, sell, barter or in any other way distribute these cigarettes. After receiving a threatening letter from the Dept of Homeland Security, a very scary thing to find in your mailbox, especially for a law abiding citizen! I decided that I needed to find a better way to get smokes without having to pay an arm and a leg, or having the threat of the government over my head. I found an alternative way, it's legal and it should be doable by nearly anyone.

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Chia pets or survival food

September 15, 2009
Chia pets or survival food

Remember those silly little Chia Pets? Little did we know then that those strange little seeds painted on those cheesy terracotta pots shaped like animals were actually GOOD for us... It turns out that they are, they are high in vitamins, minerals, loads of fiber and it's a better source of omega's than flax seeds are. This is a very good survival food.

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Winter’s coming, get ready now

August 24, 2009
Winter’s coming, get ready now

It's the middle of August, smack in the middle of summer, and it's time to start thinking about winter. Yes, the cold air is coming. I have a hard time thinking about cold weather when I'm sweating and grumbling about where the breeze went... But there are little reminders about the coming  cold, the sun is setting sooner and sooner each night. The evenings are cooling off nicely, it's all but getting cold at night. Of course cold is relative, when it's been near 100° F, then 55° or 60° feels cold, after it's been in the 30°s, then 55° to 60° will feel like a heat wave. :)

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The new-old way to cook / book review / video

July 24, 2009
The new-old way to cook / book review / video

Retained Heat CookingHave you heard about hot box, hay box or cook box cooking? It’s the new-old way to cook that saves energy, improves flavor and increases the nutrition in your food, and frees up your time. All you do is heat up your food to boiling then retain that heat by insulating the hot pot of food until the cooking process is completed.

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Alive and well-updates

July 20, 2009
Alive and well-updates

Alive and wellHere is an update on what has been going on in our off grid life. I know I haven't written in a while, I took a mini-break from blogging and writing, it was something I needed to do, but now I'm back. :)

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We’ve come a long way baby

July 18, 2009
We’ve come a long way baby

I've been going back over the first pictures we took of our cabin, before it was renamed the sky castle, it's hard to believe we have done so much with so little. Here are some of the original pix followed by more current pix. Enjoy!

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Seven best Bug-out Bags

June 22, 2009
Seven best Bug-out Bags

Ready for anything

If, like us, you wonder what you would do in a real Emergency, you'll appreciate this handy list of Bug-out Bags - each one packed with everything you need in a sudden survival crisis.

Bugging out is survivalist slang for leaving your home to go somewhere safe. To do so, you'll want a bug-out bag (or BOB) full of survival supplies for the road; a bug-out vehicle (or BOV), to get you out of the impact zone and through traffic as quickly as possible; and a bug-out location (or BOL) stocked with provisions to get through whatever crisis is occurring.

So, in short, WTSHTF (When The Sh** Hits The Fan), you're going to want a BOB to put in your BOV to go to your BOL, where you'll pray it isn't the EOTWAWKI - The End Of The World As We Know It.  Here's the list:

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