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Survival – Page 6 – Homesteader Depot

Homesteader Depot

Category: Survival

  • How to Secure Food When Your Garden Fails

    How to Secure Food When Your Garden Fails

    Gardening is the first place to start if you’d like to be more food-independent on your homestead, and for good reason! There’s nothing quite as satisfying, healthy, and cost-effective as growing your own food. But, sometimes crops fail, or your garden doesn’t produce as much as you want.

    It’s always important to have a plan B, especially when it comes to food, as well as supplementary and alternative options for food. If your homestead is for the purpose of being totally self-sustainable or prepared for when SHTF, you’ll need to make sure you have multiple sources of food beyond your garden.

    Here are some options for food sources to plan on when your garden fails:

    Learn to forage

    Know what grows wild on your homestead and in your area, where to find it, and when it grows. Keep careful record of this, either in a notebook or with pictures (physical records are probably best as you never know when electronics won’t be reliable, but there’s a good chance it will correlate with a situation in which you’ll need extra food!). You’d be surprised how many edible foods there are out there, and even before you you’re in need you might greatly benefit from learning what you can forage!

    Store food

    As with so many topics on this blog, we will always recommend learning to can, ferment, and dry your food to preserve it for the long-term. Invest in a root cellar if you can, and when your garden is fruitful, preserve everything you can. Always try to have  more food than you need!

    Raise animals

    Raising animals should really go hand-in-hand with gardening if you want to be food independent on your homestead. It’s also a great way to have an alternate food source if your crops fail, since the same conditions that might cause a small harvest from your garden might not necessarily affect your animals. Plus, they reproduce on their own, no replanting needed! (Although you’ll probably need to learn a bit about birthing livestock if you want to rely on this).

    Learn to hunt

    Like foraging, it’s very important to know what sources of food are available in your area, and hunting is crucial. Equip yourself with some weapons and learn to hunt now, so you’ll be prepared when you need it as a reliable source of food. Invest in a deep freezer so you can store whatever you get. This is nearly 100% free meat, so it’s an excellent way to stock up.

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  • Tips for Growing Herbs Indoors

    Tips for Growing Herbs Indoors

    Herbs can be a helpful addition for any homesteader. They can be used for flavoring food, and in some cases, the herbs will even have medicinal purposes. Depending on where you live, you will not be able to have a garden all year long, and this would normally mean an end to your herb production until things warm up again. However, if you still want to grow your herbs throughout the year, it is possible. You just need to grow them indoors.

    Types of Herbs to Grow

    When you are growing herbs, think about the best types for your needs. Consider the herbs that you will be using the most of and that you want fresh. What are you using in your food? What might you need for medicine? Some of the most popular options when it comes to indoor herbs include mint, thyme, oregano, parsley lavender, and sage. Once you know the herbs you would like to grow, spend some time learning more about them and what each one takes to grow.

    Prepare the Soil

    One of the big differences between growing outside and inside is that when you grow your herbs indoors, they will usually require more maintenance. You need to make sure you have a layer of small rocks on the bottom of the pot before you add the soil mixture. The mixture should be 20% perlite and 80% soil. Make sure that you know about each of the different herbs you are growing and anything special they might need to thrive.

    Misting the Plants

    When you are growing the herbs inside in the winter, there is a chance for the herbs to dry out. This is especially true when you have heating in the home, as you naturally will during the cold months. Instead, your best option is to use a spray bottle to mist the plants. You can add some water to the soil, but you should also mist the plants about once per week.

    Although you want to be sure the herbs do not dry out, they still need to have good drainage. If the water sits in the soil and has no way to drain, it can cause the roots of the herbs to rot. Add drainage holes to the pots.

    The Temperature and Light

    You will find that you do not have to change the temperatures too much to make the indoor herb garden happy. The plants will do well in the mid-60s to the mid-70s, which is typical for interior home temperatures in the winter. Overnight, the temperatures dip a bit, but the plants are fine with this as well. It closely mimics temperatures outdoors during the warmer parts of the year.

    The herbs should get at least four hours of sun each day. Placing the herbs in windows that are facing the south or the southwest should give you plenty of light.

    When you first start your indoor herb garden, you will have a period of trial and error as you start to grow different types of herbs and try to perfect your techniques. Overall, it is easy though, and you will get the hang of it quickly.

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  • Are Fish Antibiotics Safe for Humans? (Video)

    Are Fish Antibiotics Safe for Humans? (Video)

    Fish antibiotics are a really popular item for preppers who want to stock up on crucial, life-saving medical supplies. Antibiotics can be incredibly crucial when disaster strikes, and might be particularly appealing for homesteaders, especially those that live in rural areas who might get caught with an infection, miles away from the nearest hospital.

    For this reason, it’s worth looking into whether or not fish antibiotics are a viable option for you. Being concerned as to whether or not fish antibiotics are safe for human consumption is a reasonable concern, so this video from one of my favorite YouTubers, Patriot Nurse, explains it quite well.

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  • Are You Making Prepper Mistakes?

    Are You Making Prepper Mistakes?

    If you are into learning how to survive and prepping, you read as much as you can on the subject, and you are generally willing to work hard to make sure you have everything you need when it comes to living after the SHTF. Of course, many out there do not take any steps beyond buying some “cool” and interesting gear, some freeze-dried food, and maybe some water. Those who fall into this latter category could be making some serious prepper mistakes.

    One of the big issues is people buying supplies and then never bothering to rotate through them. If something has a shelf life of five years, you should use it before those five years are up. You need to learn to rotate your supplies. Buy new and use the old. You can’t just buy it and forget it when it comes to things like food and water.

    Another problem people have is forgetting to resupply their items. If you have a first aid kit that you have been taking from over the last year, and you never bothered to resupply it, when the SHTF, you could be in trouble. What if you have a lot of ammo, but you decide to go out to the woods or the range to do some target shooting? You need to resupply that ammo so you have it when you need it.

    One of the other problems comes from preppers and survivalists who have all of the gear they think they need to survive, but they have no practical knowledge of how to use it. They have items they have never used or tried and simply bought them because it seemed like the thing to do. You need to know how to use all of your supplies, and you need to increase your knowledge well beyond what the supplies offer with real world skills.

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  • Tips for Surviving a Tornado

    Tips for Surviving a Tornado

    Tornadoes cause devastation across Midwestern states each year. Unfortunately, people die in these storms, so it makes sense for you and your family to be as prepared as possible if you live in or are visiting states that are in the path of tornadoes.

    Although you might not have too much warning before the storm hits, the experts are getting better at predicting tornadoes. Always listen for tornado alerts and messages and follow the instructions provided. Keep aware of the way the weather changes and stay inside. You can often tell that a storm is on the way by the color of the sky. It becomes dark, and in some cases, dark green. There may be large hail and strong wind. Of course, there’s also the typical tornado funnel.

    Your goal should be to head for a storm shelter or a basement. Those who live in mobile homes or who are in vehicles should make it their priority to get to a secure building and then to take shelter inside. If you are stuck outside, you need to get as low as possible. look for a ditch and lay down inside of it. However, do not go under bridges or overpasses, as this could put you in even more danger.

    Once the storm subsides, it doesn’t mean you are safe quite yet. There could be injuries you need to attend to, and there could be downed power lines. Remember that the structures around you could be damaged, which could make them dangerous.

    Consider having an emergency bag as well, which contains extra water, food, and some first aid gear, just in case you are trapped in place for a while. A tornado is always frightening, but with the right knowledge, you can increase your chance of coming out of the situation unscathed.

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  • Survival Skills You Need Now

    Survival Skills You Need Now

    Do you have all the survival skills you need? Would you be able to survive if the world as we know it were to implode tomorrow? While you might have some skills that others are lacking, you might not have everything you need to survive. Just because you know how to read a compass and fire a rifle doesn’t mean you are going to live. You need to start acquiring more skills, and you need to start sooner rather than later.

    Medical training is very important. You don’t have to become a doctor or a nurse, but you should learn first aid and get some emergency medical training. You never know what you might have to face in a survival scenario.

    Learn to use firearms, learn to trap and hunt, and learn to skin and butcher animals. Learn basic gardening skills, and learn how to can and prepare food. Sewing classes can come in quite handy as well, as you will learn how to mend your clothing.

    Learn how to drive a stick shift. If you don’t already know how to drive stick, it’s time to learn. It will take an afternoon or two to get the basics down, but it is a good skill to know. Also, learn basic mechanical skills that go a bit beyond just changing a tire. Having some basic knowledge of how engines work can come in handy.

    These are some of the skills we feel are very important, but they aren’t the only ones you should learn by a long shot. Start with these and then start considering other skills that you can start learning. No matter how much you know, you should never stop learning. In addition, share your knowledge with others so they have a better chance of surviving as well.

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  • Growing Calories for Survival

    Growing Calories for Survival

    One of the biggest reasons people want to homestead in this day and age is to be prepared for some kind of disaster. But what should you grow that would actually help you survive?

    Obviously, you will need food, and not just edibles, but calories. And rows and rows of herbs and kale are probably healthy, but they’re not going to keep you alive for very long. You need dense calories, high yields, and hearty crops that can grow through winter.

    Potatoes are an ideal long-term survival plant. You can grow them discreetly, they are high in carbohydrates and calories, and keep well through the winter with minimal processing.

    Breadfruit is not commonly known in the Western world, but again, if you live somewhere that you can grow it, do. It is highly caloric and delicious, with a soft, mildly sweet, savory flesh that can be slow cooked in a fire, boiled, or fried.

    Cassava, also known as yucca and tapioca, produces the most calories per square foot of any other crop in the world. It is much like a potato, and its thick husk will preserve the root for a very long time. The best thing about cassava? You can simply hack up the large bush that grows above ground, and stick in the ground to grow a whole new crop for next year.

    Beans have protein, which is difficult to grow, and have high yields and produce very quickly. They also fix your soil with nitrogen, and can be easily dried and kept through the winter.

    Crucifers like broccoli and cabbage are highly nutritious, more filling than other greens, are cold-hearty crops and can keep relatively well through the winter, when stored properly.

    If you’re lucky enough to live somewhere that you can grow avocado, do. It is high in essential fatty acids, and virtually one of the only ways to grow fat. They are caloric as well, and can keep you alive and thriving for a long time.

    Apples are relatively high-calorie for a fruit, and can have a very high yield. They will also keep very easily through the winter.

     

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  • How to Plant a Hidden Survival Garden

    How to Plant a Hidden Survival Garden

    For regular life, it’s great to have a neat little garden, with divided rows and beds, cleared of weeds and with plenty of sunshine. But if  you want to plant a garden for post-disaster survival, you might want to consider hiding some plants on your property or nearby your house, so that looters (or even government officials) cannot easily find your precious food supply.

    There are a few tricks to camouflaging plants that might help:

    1. Grow plant barriers

    Hide a garden behind a row of thick, brambly hedge. A thorny plant would be ideal, as most people will probably not want to bother trecking through it.

    2. Plant in weeds and bushes

    If you’ve got sections on your property or areas around your house with lots of overgrowth, plant within the weeds, junk plants, and inedible brambles. You can clear small patches of dirt and keep them clear for the plants to grow, then once they’re big enough they will be able to compete easier on their own.

    3. Use plain-looking edible plants

    Bear in mind, not all vegetables will camouflage well. Avoid colorful tomatoes, and stick to some of the plants listed below, which will camouflage well and provide essential nutrients in your time of need.

    Best plants to camouflage: 

    Potatoes and sweet potatoes: most people these days wouldn’t recognize a potato plant. It mostly just looks like ground cover and it’s very easy to hide among other plants. Not to mention, it is one of the best sources of calories you could grow.

    Bush beans: also easy to hide among weeds, they’re leaves look like many plants that grow wild and they’ll blend right into many un-weeded areas.

    Kale: most varieties of kale have dark, leafy greens, that wouldn’t immediately catch the eye. While low in calories, they provide an excellent source of nutrients.

    Blueberries: the darker berries don’t catch the eye so much, and blueberries are an excellent source of nutrients and antioxidants. They’re used to growing in hedges and brambles, so they’ll do quite well planted among other plants.

     

    Remember, just be creative, think like a criminal, and spread your plants over several different areas. The object is to obscure your food source for survival, so try to be as innovative as you can. Planning ahead can save your life one day!

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