Dear JWR:
There is an estimated 250,000 animal-powered farmers in the U.S. doing all or part of their farming with animals. I’d recommend http://smallfarmersjournal.com/ for some good reading and information and a visit to Horse Progress Days to view the latest in modern equipment. Almost anything can be done with animals that can be done with tractors, even combining with a motorized forecart. Horse Progress Days has some interesting support equipment, including well made coal stoves and manual transplanters. If it’s in reach of you, I suggest attending for an eye-opening experience. The food is good, too. - James L.

Over at the One Scythe Revolution web site, Peak Oil expert Richard Heinberg states that in order to continue to grow the same amount of food in the future, without the use of cheap oil, we will need 40-to-50 million farmers, farming 3-to-50 acres each, cultivated with hand tools. No, not like in the Middle Ages. We are talking about "appropriate technology" here.

But let's face it, "appropriate technology" is wielded by slaves. Masters wield guns. Slaves wield scythes.

Here is quote: "One good scythe per farm, could revolutionize small-scale farming." I kinda feel like this has already been done.

I think the author of this tripe has never actually farmed on a large scale and has no sense of the man hours required. Also, mild steel work-hardened with a hammer and honed with slate was state of the art, around the year 900.  Carbon steel that can be heat treated has been the cool setup since around 1100 AD.  More recent alloys allow even better toughness along with light weight.  While the Austrian design may be better, it would still benefit from modern materials.

Then, of course, even 19th Century horse-drawn harvesters were tremendously more efficient:  

"Draft horses are used at Grant-Kohrs Ranch NHS to harvest and stack the annual hay crop. The stacks keep the hay preserved until winter when it is fed to the site’s livestock.
The hay harvesting process involves five steps: cutting, drying, raking, gathering, and stacking.

Upon reaching maturity in mid-summer, the hay is cut with a horse drawn mower. The team of horses, mower, and operator go round and round the field cutting a 5 foot swath with each round. Once the cut hay has dried, the draft horses are hooked up to either a side delivery or dump rake. The rakes are used to put the hay into long windrows. The horses are then hooked to a buckrake. The buckrake has fork like teeth that sweep under the windrows and gather them up into large hay piles. The piles are then taken by the buckrake to either an overshot or beaverslide hay stacker. The hay stackers utilize a pulley and cable system powered by horses to gain leverage to lift the hay piles off the ground and drop them into the haystack.
Demonstrations of the equipment used to harvest and stack hay will be given by Grant-Kohrs Ranch staff and horses."

And other animals can serve for various processes that are presently done with internal combustion engines--such as goats for clearing brush.

As far as forging scythes, without modern powered forges and induction furnace, either one mines coal, or uses every man in the village for a week to do a large scale charcoal burn to manufacture fuel.

- Michael Z. Williamson (SurvivalBlog Editor At Large)

JWR's Comment: If the Hubbert's Peak predictions are right, then the best places to be will be those with rich soil and plentiful hydroelectric power. Scythe? Check. Battle rifle? Check. Electric ATV that can pull a Plotmaster? Check. Electric power (with batteries) is not quite as versatile and lightweight as fossil fuel-powered machinery, but it sure beats doing it all by hand.

Perhaps the new rule book will be written by those who can afford horses, harness, horse-drawn hay mowers and enough land to provide sufficient hay for the requisite winter feed (which can be harvested with those same horses).

Only freeholders with both productive farm land and guns will remain free.

I was born into a family of preppers.  My grandparents were all farmers and lived through the Great Depression in the Midwest.   My parents both grew up on farms and came from large families.  While my folks would not label themselves today as preppers, they would consider themselves as independent and self-reliable.  In order to understand my journey as a prepper, you have to go back a few years.  Early into my parents’ marriage, my dad just got out of the navy and worked in various cities and towns, from Texas to Minnesota.  The largest town we lived in was Minneapolis, but usually we lived in towns with a population of around 100,000 people.  As the family grew, there was a desire for my parents to move to an acreage, to get a large farmhouse, and to raise some animals.  By the early 1980s they were able to purchase an acreage that was homesteaded in the late 1800s and was located in rural South Dakota.  It was about 8 acres, had a barn, chicken coop, and two-story house.  It was located at least 20 miles from any town over 1,000 people.  The acreage was situated on a high water table, so we had an outdoor well and had a sand point well for the water in the house.   

After my parents purchased the property, they bought a milk cow, laying hens, some sheep, and a dog.  My mom planted a large garden (roughly 30 yards by 10 yards) with a variety of vegetables.  She canned the extras and created a pantry with shelving all the way to the ceiling with the many jars.  All my siblings helped in the process, hauling up the vegetables to the house and cutting them up.  Many of our neighbors grew large sections of sweet corn, so we would usually eat corn most days in the summer and then would have a few days devoted to freezing the extra corn (sometimes two pickup loads).  My parents went from having a small chest freezer when they were first married to purchasing two large, used chest freezers (these were about 6 feet long).  These came in handy when they began butchering their own cows, pigs, and chickens.  It was not too long until their freezers and pantry were full of meat and vegetables.

In order to save money on clothing, we would wear hand-me-down clothing, and my mom sewed/repaired our clothes to make them last as long as possible.  We attended public school and even in by the late 1980’s and early 1990s, I can remember being bullied because we did not wear “cool” clothes, have neat electronic gadgets,  or bring homemade things for show-n-tell/holiday time instead of from a store.  I remember these bullies using various names to me and my siblings, ranging from being a loser and hick, to poor and worthless.

It was this time in school that I vowed that I was going to get a great job, make a lot of money and show these classmates just how wrong they were.  I vowed that I was going to study hard so I could be the first in my family and go to college.  I wanted to get as far as possible from the rural life.  The summers would especially motivate me to study hard and change my future.  It was during the summers that I spent much of the time on my grandparent’s farm, getting up at 5:00 am, picking rock, milking cows, pulling weeds out of the fields, fixing machinery, putting up hay, and doing other chores until late in the evening.  By the end of the summer I would be even more motivated to move away and was left with a motivation to do well when school started up again in the fall. 

I excelled in school and did end up going to college.  My parents were unable to financially provide for me to go to college, so I did work-study, took out student loans, and worked as a resident assistant to pay for my dorm room.  The motivation from the summers at my grandparent’s farm was still fresh in my mind and I graduated four years later.  I did well in college and ended up going straight to graduate school, this time even further away from my parents.  I enjoyed the college life, much preferring the academic pursuits as compared with my previous manual labor on the farm.

It was then that my “average” life began - the life that I had always wanted.  I got married, graduated again and got a great job.  With both me and my wife working, we were making great money.  We had accrued over $70,000 in student loans, but where happy to pay just the minimum monthly payment.  We enjoyed eating out many times a week and spent a lot towards “entertainment” each month.  We bought a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom condo; a new car; and took a trip to Disney World.  Things were good. 

Then my best friend, a man in his twenties with a young family died of cancer.  It shook me up and made me reevaluate all aspects of my life.  It was then that things started to change for me.  We had a young daughter at the time and made a decision that one of us would stay home with her.  My wife quit her full-time job and went to a very part-time position (a few days a month).  In addition, my parents gave us tickets to a live Dave Ramsey event and we decided to get “gazelle intense”, getting on a budget and paying down our debts.  Even with our income going down greatly, it still felt like we had more money than ever.  Less than two years later we had to push “hold” on our debt pay-off, as we had a son.  My wife did not work at all that year, and our son had a difficult beginning, so our medical bills were pretty high.  Being a father to a son, I thought a lot about my role as provider and protector, as well as the legacy that I wanted to leave for my family.  It felt that I was a long way from where I grew up in terms of my lifestyle.  Life was fast-paced, we lived in the city, we went to the grocery store near our house a few times a week, and we even had all our yard/maintenance taken care of thorough our homeowner's association (HOA.)  But I could feel a yearning that there was something missing. And thus began my return trip home!

It was with two young kids that we decided to move back closer to my family.  The decision did not happen overnight, but rather over 18 months and a lot of prayer.  The housing market bubble had popped and we lost about $25,000 on our place but we packed up and moved anyway.  We found a two-bedroom apartment in our new town, only about 25 minutes from my parent’s acreage.  We decided that we wanted life to slow down and get back the skills that generations of my family had all known.  In order to do this with only one income we got creative on how to save money.  We began couponing, collecting the weekend newspapers on Monday from the motel just a few blocks from our place.  We sold our car for a used minivan.  I went to my parent’s acreage and helped butcher chickens like when I was a kid – my folks were grateful to have us back and to be helping so they gave us 30 chickens for our freezer (we acquired to small chest freezers that we have in our garage).  I helped my uncle butcher four large pigs, and like my parents, he appreciated the extra help, thanking me by getting me about 50 pounds of ground pork.  We used the envelope system for our budget and paid cash for our purchases.  We got a used food dehydrator at a garage sale for $5 and began to use it.  We tried our hand at canning and did a few small batches with various foods.  We made our own laundry detergent, baked our own bread, and tried to drive our vehicles less.  With these small changes, we currently have our monthly food budget at under $250 for our family of four.  We are proud to say that our student loans are down to about $4,500 and we don’t have any car payments or credit card debt!  We even have our $1,000 emergency fund and within a few months hope to have the remainder of our debt paid off.  We then hope to save for a house, maybe even an acreage just like my folks. 

Since moving back closer to my family, I have devoted myself to learning about new skills.  I have always enjoyed reading, so I naturally began to follow blogs and read books on how to be self-reliant and how to save money.  Much to my surprise, most of the books and blogs I was learning the most from were from a group of folks called preppers.   While I do follow multiple blogs now, I do have to say that it is SurvivalBlog is my favorite.  Not only has it helped me to stretch my dollar for food, I have acquired so many new skills that I now don’t know how I lived without them.  I feel that I am now a better provider and protector for my family.  I like that our house now has a medical kit, a bug-out-bag that we can grab at a moment’s notice and enough food to last us for at least 3 to 6 months.  I enjoy how there is a focus in SurvivalBlog about family and the importance on building relationships.  I feel equipped that even with all the negative news on television, my family is going to be okay, as we are going to be prepared.    

James:
I'd like to take exception to the recent article by M.S. on using augers to make plant holes. No professional would consider using an auger for planting. Augers compact and glaze the edge of the hole as they work their way down.  While this is great for post holes, it's a death sentence for the plant roots.
A far better and faster way is to use either a small backhoe  or an articulated trencher that will cut a fan shaped hole.  The spoil from the hole is broken up and now suitable for back fill. 

Post-SHTF, a good quality fiberglass handle round point shovel is all that any realistic person would need.
As a post script, if you haven't tried "Straw Bale Gardening" , it's just a great way to grow food with minimal effort and maximum results. - Loren

JWR Replies: I have witnessed the glazing that you've mentioned in heavy clay soils. But in my experience is not a big issue in light loam soil. The "best of both worlds" approach is to use an auger to start a hole, and then finish it up by significantly widening its diameter with a shovel or clamshell post hole digger. This breaks up any areas that are compacted or glazed.

The "shovel only " approach will work, but of course it is more time consuming. And by the way, good quality digging bar is a must when digging in rocky ground.

When planning to grow their own food, many people understandably focus on the plants. A plant, however, simply expresses its genetic blueprint to the extent it can based on the energy and materials available from the sun and soil. We can therefore state that a critical aspect of successful vegetable production is the quality of the soil.

Given the limitations of either the amount of warning you might have before needing to produce food for your family, or the amount of money you are able to put toward improving your soil to the point it will yield reliably, amending your entire plot all at once is often not feasible. The best short cut we have found for this situation is the use of the auger. An auger is a spiral digging blade for mechanically digging holes. These can be designed to run from a three point hitch on a farm tractor, or be handheld, motorized versions.

Rather than trying to improve the soil over the entire area of your garden plot, an auger allows you to make custom soil conditions in a 6-18 inch wide vertical tube in the ground. Much has been written about the disruption to soil structure and beneficial earthworms with standard rototilling. With this system, only the sod need be skinned off and the surface area mulched or planted with white clover. The surrounding soil structure and its inhabitants are not disturbed while the planting spots are custom made via the auger. Fencing contractors are often called in to dig holes in this manner for the planting of numerous fruit trees, and you might find that helpful if your homestead plans include trees.

Here is an example of how the system is put into practice: If you have soggy clay that will not drain, you cannot grow such things as wheat that will not tolerate ‘wet feet’. When you auger out a hole, the spiraling action of the blade will bring the soil to the surface, and deposit most of it around the edge of the hole. Within each of these holes, you can add gravel at the bottom for drainage, then mix the clay from the hole with sand and humus, compost or manure. Fill this mix back into the hole. Having added other materials, you will be left with enough clay to leave a ‘shoulder’ of subsoil around the hole, minimizing weeds from competing with your sprouting plants. You will have customized the immediate growing zone to the needs of whatever you will be growing in that spot. The important bacteria and worm population in the adjoining soil is available to move immediately into your fill. Additionally, this high fertility fill allows for very intensive plantings – making the most of any plant-able spot. A good mulching around the holes discourages weeds even more.

There is no yearlong wait for soil just turned under by a plow to have become the mature garden soil you will need to feed your family. Also, the holes can be dug right now with rented equipment or by a fencing company and you can then work away at making improved ‘fills’ as your time and money allow you to source the amendments needed by your particular soil. Sand will need humus, clay will need sand, acidic soil will need buffering, etc. If time permits, get a soil sample analysis and it will tell you just what you will require – but in a pinch you can bet that good compost will cover most needs.

Even if you already have a garden bed in place, with a used handheld auger you can over time improve the soil of your entire patch while having full use of the already amended spots to produce the healthiest plants. Intensively planted holes can produce more food than a standard plot just tilled and planted in rows, and pests often have a harder trek from planting to planting.

The 6 inch blade of the handheld augers is rather small for a planting hole. This can be remedied by making three holes close together in a cloverleaf pattern, and knocking down the soil walls between holes. If you will be doing a large number of holes, a great time saver over lying on your stomach and scooping the soil out by hand is to use a ‘clamshell’ post hole digger. The digger is two long handles hinged together, with a metal half-scoop at the end of each handle, and allows you to reach into the bottom of your augered hole and scoop out the loose soil.

The depth of each hole is determined by the length of your auger bit, the depth of your soil, the amount of amendments you can spare for each hole, and how much amending the soil actually needs. This will have to be assessed as you go, and will likely be different for each place on the property you work.

Watering needs are minimized with this system, as only the planted holes need watered – not the surrounding soil. In a period of limited water availability due to interrupted electrical service, minimal service for a well pump due to living off grid, or simply a season long drought, this is no small consideration. As each hole is surrounded by soil mass, there is less drying out than in a raised bed or mound. There is also a cost savings in protecting your garden from rabbits, as each hole can be encircled with chicken wire held in place by a few stakes or rocks. This will buy you time to finish enclosing your entire garden with proper fencing, as your budget allows. The same concept of surrounding each hole can be used to make individual small hothouse covers for protecting plants in early spring or into the fall. There is much less expense in making a greenhouse tall enough for a plant, than in making one tall enough for a person.

Most plants fit well with the system, the climbing vines utilizing a homemade teepee trellis over the hole. Our earlier example of wheat might not seem feasible – but the planting circumference allows for staking to prevent lodging from growing in rich soil (the wheat falling over in a rain storm), and the stalks from each hole make one nice shock of wheat once cut and tied.

Some final points regarding the versatility of this system:

The first pertains to the price of quality farmland. More and more of the good soil in this country is being gobbled up by large industrial agricultural corporations and/or housing developments. The options are becoming limited for those who are of modest means and/or do not want to be enslaved to a large mortgage for thirty years. By and large, the best option is to buy low priced land in the areas of poorest soil. Improving said soil can seem daunting to the most enthusiastic of homesteaders. But, even Mt. Everest is climbed one footstep at a time – and the poorest of soils can be improved one auger hole at a time, with immediate use of the holes that are finished.

Second, in the unlikely event of a long term, widespread crisis, homestead security would become an issue. This is particularly true for the women of the family, who are often in charge of the gardening. If the main garden beds are distant from the house, or near woods and/or a road, desperate individuals would have an easy time targeting the gardener(s). The auger system allows growing spots to be dug close to the house. These can be tended by an individual with less risk than a patch by the road. The main garden can then be tended at such times as numerous group members can be present for added security.

Third, the large three point hitch auger coincidentally makes a perfect space in which to cache two 5-gallon buckets on top of one another. Pack the buckets with whatever you need to keep out of sight, secure the gasket-ed lids, turn the buckets over and caulk under the rim of the lid. When the caulk is dry, the buckets can be lowered into their hiding place and covered. If you are concerned about a fencing contractor asking what the holes at the back of your yard are for (which he probably won’t), mark two holes 12 feet apart. Answer that you want to set gate posts for a future fencing project. The only thought he will have is to leave you his card, hoping you’ll hire him for the fencing job.

Last but not least, a pre-drilled hole can be in place if the need arises for a privy. In the unfortunate event that conditions deteriorate enough as to require a long term privy, the last thing you are going to have the is time on your hands to dig one. Auger the hole now, then add leaves or other material that will be easy to scoop out later but provide enough fill to prevent a small child or animal from getting stuck, and lay a scrap of plywood over the top.

No one wishes disaster to strike – and the more peace within oneself, the more peace one brings to the world. But history teaches that troubled times can and do occur, and it is prudent to be able to take care of your family. Additionally, when trouble does appear it is usually with little warning. Murphy’s Law says that if a disaster happens, it will happen just as you have settled on the homestead of your choice, have some dry provisions laid away, but have yet to have sufficiently improved your garden beds to the point they will reliably feed your group. The auger system allows for maximum production in minimum time, and a used auger and some appropriate soil amendments might well fit into the ‘must have’ items on your list.

Hello Jim,
You have had a couple of good articles about having dogs for retreat/home protection recently. I couldn't agree more that dogs are a wonderful resource in many ways. I have two German Shepherds who keep my farm and home safe from humans and predators.  There are a couple points I would like to add.

First of all, not all dogs will fight to protect their pack. I had a German Shepherd several years ago who would try to hide behind me if there was danger. He was a complete coward, in spite of his attack training. When picking a protective dog, a person should size up the personalities of both parents, if possible. If the parents are rather laid back and unprotective, the puppies will probably grow up with a similar temperament. I have noticed that two dogs seem to be four times as good for protection, but they are also more difficult to control.

And once you have a protective dog, it is important to recognize that the dog doesn't always know when not to bite. A dog bite can be a death sentence without antibiotics, as infection is almost a guarantee. If your dog accidentally perceives someone to be a threat and bites him, there are numerous bad things that can happen to the you, dog, and the victim. My dogs are very protective and aggressive. I have to "protect" them from being in situations where they could get themselves in trouble. Although they are definitely my buddies, I have to handle them more like weapons than pets.

And lastly, dogs are not bullet proof. If there are desperate people who want to raid your retreat, do not believe they will hesitate to shoot your dog. In this situation, the dog will need to be protected too.  - Hobby Farmer

Should you shelter-in-place or move to a retreat?  Lots of pros and cons about this, and most of it depends upon strength in numbers.  Obviously, the more remote and inaccessible your castle is, the harder it will be for intruders to discover or invade.  But I’m 65, and I don’t own any remote property.  My house sits on a very defendable cul-de-sac, essentially surrounded on three sides by water – my “moat.”  I could pull stakes and move to a national park or wildlife preserve, but it would be a simple campsite with tent and no walls, and I would need several families to go with me for security.
 
When our civilization collapses, which seems inevitable with our current insane government, I plan to do all the right things to ensure my home and area are secure.  There will be perimeter alarms and felled trees for roadblocks, trip wires and night vision.  But one thing that people overlook may be the very best alarm system ever known to man.  A dog.  But, better yet, two dogs.

I’ve been a veterinarian for over 30 years, and I’ve owned, seen and worked with a lot of dogs, including military working dogs and police dogs.  Recently I accompanied an incredible Labrador retriever, “Buster,” in search of World War II Missing In Action (MIA) Marines and soldiers.  Buster can sniff out bones that have been buried up to 100 years ago, detecting the miniscule amounts of aromatic organic compounds still leaching up through the soil from what’s left of the body.  Incredible, but just an example of “superhuman” abilities of dogs’ senses that include hearing, sight, and, perhaps, a sixth sense or even seventh and eighth senses.
 
We’ve just adopted two 5-month-old female German shepherd littermates into our household.  Or, as they would see it, our “pack.”  Although people try to treat pets as human members of their families, the dog will always consider the family a pack, with an alpha male leader, and alpha female head of the female members of the pack, and a definite peck-order of all. 
 
Detect fear, evil, danger, “something wrong”
 
The stories about military working dogs (MWD) and other extraordinary dog-related events are endless.  Dogs have been used by military units since Roman times and before.  Soldiers and Marines who served in canine units during World War I and II, Vietnam, and more recent conflicts tell about being alerted of the enemy long before approaching an ambush.  Some tell about doubting the dog, that the handler couldn’t see or detect anything wrong, but the dog was always right.   The handlers learned that no matter what, you always trust the dog’s judgment.  If not an ambush, then it was a trip wire, mine, dead enemy soldier, or something wrong. Nothing yet has been invented that can do a better job.
 
Regarding a sixth sense, I’ve heard stories about cat owners who have a group of people over to their homes, and if there is one person in the group who doesn’t like cats, the cat will find that person and focus on them!  Unexplainable.  Then I’ve heard mothers say their child brought home some friends from school and the dog growled at one of the kids when introduced.  I’d trust the dog, that there’s something to be cautious of about that one child.  Always trust the dog.
 
On Alert 24/7
 
In a home or retreat, it would be ideal to have a “dog door” so that the dog(s) can come and go as they feel the need.  We have a fenced yard and our dogs can go in and out of our heated garage, where they stay when we aren’t home.  I prefer that they be with us always, but I do have to go to work.  This brings up another issue:  separation anxiety.
 
Dogs are pack animals, and now you and your human family are the pack.  With just one dog, when you leave them alone to go to work, some dogs become stressed.  “Where are you?  Are you coming back?  Why did you leave me?  I’ve got to find you!  I’ve got to find you NOW!”  You come home to the door frame chewed up, with scratches all over the door (the one you left by).  Or there is other destruction due to frustration and anxiety; general freaking out.
 
I don’t think animals other than man have a concept of time.  They truly live for the moment, and don’t understand, “I’ll be back in an hour.”  Alpha (the pack leader) must be kept track of in case he/she needs me.  “Where’s Alpha?”  “I’ve got to find him/her!”  There have been medications to help with separation anxiety, but who wants to have their pet on meds all the time?  I usually advise obedience school and another dog for companionship (part of the pack is still here), or at least a cat friend.  Dogs aren’t fooled by leaving the television on, even if you run “Lassie” on it.  Sometimes this is more of a puppy thing than with an adult dog, but all dogs (and cats) seem to have a “fuller life,” and are more content with another dog to relate to.  I say, “Cats speak French and dogs speak German, so the same species is always better.”
 
Since dogs don’t understand time, they are “on guard” 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  They probably don’t know what day it is, either.  They learn the sound of your car coming down the street and are at the door to greet you.  Common sounds, scents, and sights are recorded as “normal,” and everything else becomes suspect and in need of investigation.
 
Don’t need to be attack trained/naturally protective
 
Attack training would be a plus, but I’m a firm believer that all dogs need to go through at least level one obedience training.  That includes learning to, “Heal” (on and off leash), and unhesitatingly respond to the commands, “Sit,” “Stay,” “Come,” and “Down.”  Remember, these are COMMANDS, not requests.  If you have to repeat the command more than once, the dog needs more training (generally that means more assertiveness or “alpha-ness” from you).  In a bad situation, this may mean the dog’s life or yours if they do not respond immediately.  I’m always impressed by a dog with good manners.
 
Try to find a dog training club near you.  We have a local volunteer organization that offers basic and advanced courses at reasonable prices ($90 for 8 weeks/8 one-hour sessions).  Be involved in the training yourself, don’t give your dog to someone to train for you.  The dog will learn to obey the trainer very well, but who are you?  The trainer should be teaching you how to train the dog, not doing it for you.
 
Dogs are naturally protective of the pack, and will fight to the death to protect any and all pack members.  That doesn’t need to be taught.  Dogs seem to have the ability to detect evil/danger/threat, either through a sixth sense or from pheromones given off by the subject.  Pheromones are invisible clues that most animals live by.  A dog can walk out to the patio, sniff the air a couple times, and know that there are three dogs upwind; one a female (estrogen/progesterone), one a male (testosterone), and one “not right” (neutered).  Like the story of the male moth that can find the female moth on a tree miles upwind, they pick up on the ever-expanding “plume” of scent from the source.  By staying within that plume and moving toward increasing strength, the animal or insect can locate their quarry.
 
On patrol or translocating
 
When traveling, dogs tend to enjoy the trailblazing part; they like to run on ahead.  They are your “point” when patrolling or moving out.  Again, two dogs afford twice the sensory strength and can scan better than one.  Dogs can be trained to “alert” by lying down or freezing on point.  Down would be better, if you have to fire over them.  More training beyond the level one obedience will give you better control and more options.  In any situation, dogs are tremendous “force multipliers,” extending your eyes and ears well beyond human capacities.  Most sensible people also fear big dogs, and some ethnicities abhor them.  Because of this, dogs are sometimes shot first.  You don’t want this to happen, but it will put you on maximum alert and make you more than willing for payback.
 
 
Feeding
 
Long before there were pet foods in bags and boxes on the grocer’s shelves, pets ate what we ate, or the scraps.  In general, if there is a balanced meal for us, the dogs can eat the same foods.  Commercial dog foods contain enough fat to go rancid if not kept in oxygen-low or vacuum storage.  Preservatives help delay spoilage, but all foods eventually degrade.  Certainly the dog will hunt on its own and eat wild game, as well as vegetation.  Eating a whole rabbit provides meat protein, some fat, calcium from the bones, and vitamins from the liver and organs.  But they are also eating everything the rabbit ate in the previous 24 hours, providing other vitamins and some roughage.
 
There are numerous dog food recipes online today to make your own balanced diet, but realize that all the ingredients may not be available in a future situation.  Share your vitamins and what you are eating, and the group will probably survive.  I won’t mention eating your dog in a survival situation!
 
Vaccination
 
Keep your dog’s vaccinations current.  Nine-way “distemper” shots are good for a year or more.  Rabies vaccine is good for one year the first time given, then should be boosted every three years thereafter.  Some states don’t recognize a 3-year rabies shot, but that doesn’t mean it won’t last that long.  Lyme disease (Borrellia) vaccine is also available, as is kennel cough (tracheobronchitis - Bordetella).  The nine-way shot includes canine distemper, hepatitis/adenovirus-2, parvovirus, parainfluenza, coronavirus, and four types of Leptospirosis vaccine. 
 
Post-collapse it will be hard enough to find human vaccines, let alone veterinary ones, so keeping your dogs away from other stray dogs will be important, too.  Some of these diseases are more deadly for puppies under a year old than adult dogs, such as parvo and kennel cough.  Mature dogs that have had several annual vaccinations should be well protected for years beyond their due dates, but anything is possible.
 
Flea/tick/heartworm/intestinal worm control
 
Many of the preventive products for dogs have very long shelf lives, and some have no expiration date.  In general, medicines and preventive products are good for at least five years beyond their expiry dates.  Mosquitoes carry heart worms, so basically all dogs are susceptible to infection.  The infection takes about three years to debilitate and kill a dog, but it is easily prevented with monthly heartworm medicine that you can stock up on and rotate annually.  Many heartworm preventives also contain intestinal worm medicine to kill roundworms and hookworms as well every month. 
 
Flea control is necessary to keep your abode from getting polluted with fleas, and monthly liquid applicators do a great job of keeping these bugs down.  Be sure to get high quality (98+% control) flea products from your vet, rather than over-the-counter look-alikes that are about 50% effective.  Some flea products also control ticks, but there are some very effective tick collars available that do an even better job.
 
Not From Pet Stores
 
I’ve been battling the puppy mill-pet store connection for more than two decades.  I didn’t know what puppy mills were when I graduated from vet school, but learned about them when I worked for a humane organization.  Pet stores (and now enterprising individuals who set up a puppy sale web site) buy puppies directly from the puppy mill breeder, or through a “broker,” who cleans up the puppy, vaccinates, de-worms them, and creates a “pedigree” of sorts.  The broker generally has the puppy for two or three days, then they are shipped out to the pet store.  The pet store pays $25 to $50 for the puppy (some breeds are more), then adds a zero or two to the price and has them on sale the next day.  People who say they, “rescued the puppy from the pet store,” are simply perpetuating this industry and creating an open pet store cage for a replacement puppy to take their place.
 
Not all puppy mill puppies turn out to be “lemons,” but quite a few have problems from inbreeding and neglect.  Realize that puppy mills (intense breeding facilities, dogs kept in “rabbit hutch” confinement, no vet care, minimal overhead investment) are the only consistent source of puppies for pet stores.  No matter what the pet store owner or staff tell you, the puppies are coming from mills.  One pet store chain was proud to proclaim, “We do not buy from puppy mills.”  That was a legally true statement, because they bought from a broker, not directly from the puppy mill. 
 
Puppy mill dogs are more likely to have genetic problems due to inbreeding.  When a mother dog is no longer producing sizeable litters, a female puppy is often kept to replace her.  When she comes into heat, she’s bred back to (guess who?) her father dog.  The pedigree is fudged, and business continues.  Congenital defects include bad hips, trick knees (patellar luxation), eye problems, epilepsy, and other issues not immediately detectable.  Ear mites, Demodectic mange, intestinal parasites, eye infections, lack of socialization, and exposure to distemper and parvo viruses are also common.  If the puppy is exposed to a virus, then vaccinated the same day, it’s virtually a race to see which wins.  Incubation time for the virus and the time it takes for a puppy to develop immunity against it are about the same, so it’s a gamble.  Also, if you take into account that many of the mother dogs are unvaccinated or behind in their vaccination schedule (overhead, remember), then the puppy lacks adequate maternal immunities.
 
Today you can find hundreds of online web sites that sell puppies, but the situation is the same; they buy from brokers or directly from mills, and only have the puppies for a few days to weeks before they are sold.  It’s all smoke and mirrors on the web site.
 
Here are some red flags to help prevent a puppy mill purchase:
 
1.    The mother dog is not on the premises (don’t believe, “She’s at a show” or some other excuse).
2.    There are a bunch of different breeds for sale by the same person.
3.    They’ll “meet you halfway” to complete the transaction (that’s because they don’t want you to see their facility or lack of one - all a sham).
4.    If registered, it is not through the American Kennel Club (AKC).  There are many “registration” companies out there that provide phony “papers.”
5.    The comment that “She was rescued from a puppy mill.”  That usually means she was bought at an auction or directly from the mill owner.  The source is the same.
 
People are making six-figure incomes by selling puppy mill puppies.  That’s why they do it, not for love of dogs.  Some will offer a lower price for cash, because they don’t claim the cash to the Internal Revenue Service.  So you are picking up some of their tax burden as well.  You are generally better off adopting a dog from a humane shelter or dog pound than buying one from a pet store or web site. 

Choice of Breed
 
If you want a particular breed, check with local kennel clubs about reputable breeders in your area.  You may have to drive a few hours to visit a breeder, but it will be due diligence.  Don’t be in a hurry to get a puppy.  Sometimes the breeder won’t have any puppies available just then, but have a litter or two on the way and you can put a down payment on one or get first choice.  It will be worth the wait to get a sound dog from a reliable breeder.
 
Breed rescue organizations should not be overlooked.  We’ve adopted three Dobermans from a rescue source that places adult dogs from various situations.  One of ours came from a home where the young son developed extreme allergies to the dog.  He turned out to be the best one ever.  Google “rescue” and the breed you’re looking for, and you might find a great match in your area.
 
Recommended breeds (personal choices): German Shepherd/German shepherd crosses, Belgian Malinois, Akita, Border Collie, and Doberman
 
Now, I know some of you are going to say they had a Jack Russell that was incredible, or a Staffordshire terrier that could hear a leaf turn over in the yard, but there are reasons why the military and police forces choose certain breeds.  Size is intimidating, and with size comes strength.  Herding breeds are more conscious of their surroundings and are always scanning the horizon and listening for clues.  Some breeds seem to be easier to teach than others (Irish setters come to mind at the slower end of that scale).  There are always exceptions to the rule, such as an occasional Lab that makes the cut, or beagles for airport sniffing, but the best overall dog, in my opinion, would be a shepherd or shepherd cross.  The smartest/sharpest/most alert dog I ever owned was a 65-pound German shepherd cross (3/4 shepherd by appearance).  She was $20 at a farm home with a hand-lettered sign out front. 
 
No reason to reinvent the wheel here.  Pick a breed that’s now being used for security work.  I’ve had several shepherd crosses over the years, three Akitas, and four Doberman pinschers.  Also a collie and a couple dachshunds.  Never owned a malinois or border collie, but I’ve worked on quite a few, and I totally respect the malinois.  The border collies are just high-energy, super-alert dogs that are anxious to work and anxious to please you.  I take care of a family of champion Rhodesian Ridgebacks, which are sight hounds, and they are very alert, fast, and powerful, but they’re going to cost you more.  Remember, you should get two.

Sir,
Thank you for your service and for your tremendous witness and testimony shown through your blog!
I am not an expert on poison, but a recent event made me realize this is probably an important topic to cover on this forum. My forum searches did not produce anything on this subject.

About a month ago, my daughters small dog wondered into the garage while I was taking out the trash. When I went back into the living room I found him eating something green... which turned out to be an old rat poison bait he found in the corner of the garage. Knowing these can kill in a single feeding (he's very small) I rushed him to the all night emergency animal clinic with the remains of the poison cube in a small Ziploc. They asked me what type of poison he ate and I produced the green cube. They said they are all green and that there were no tests available to determine what kind it contained. One type was treatable and the others weren't. Fortunately they were able to make him throw up and basically empty everything from his stomach. I have been treating him with supplements (just in case) for a month and he is doing great.
Here are the key lessons that I learned… If you are storing food and decide to place poison with the storage and on the approaches:
1.      know the exact poison you are using
2.      keep the original boxes just in case
3.      know the treatments and be prepared to administer
4.      place them in a way protected from children and pets
5.      monitor them regularly
There are many different kinds of poisons available for rats/mice/etc. It is my recommendation to only use a type that IS treatable. These may not be as fast working, but at least you have a chance to save a child or pet.
A common type of poison I found that is treatable is called Brodifacoum - which should be listed as the primary active ingredient. There are many brands that offer this product. This type is highly lethal (4 to 5 days) and attacks the body’s production of vitamin K causing the blood to lose its ability to clot. As with my daughters dog, you may be able to treat an exposed animal by forcing them to throw up and giving them vitamin K supplements twice a day. I purchased some beef flavored vitamin K tablets from my vet to ensure he would eat them and that he received the proper dose. Note that this poison is 2nd generation.. so it lasts much longer in the body (from 20 to 130 days) than older similar types. My vet felt we successfully emptied his stomach and that I had caught him before he ingested much at all, so she recommend I treat him with supplements twice a day for 30 days just to be safe.
I'm sure there are many readers who have more knowledge on this subject and particularly the medical aspects of human ingestion. I look forward to their comments.

If someone decides to use poison and has any doubt at all about the type you have... I recommend that you throw it all away. Start over with something you know is treatable and obtain the treatment. - J.W.M.

Dear Editor:
Congratulations to TJ and family for getting connected with a great dog. I love German Shepherds!

Allow me to offer a couple of additions to the concept of survivalists utilizing guard dogs.

Food; When you ask people my grandparents age how they fed dogs “back in the day” you are likely to get the answer “the dogs ate table scraps” or the dogs ran around and found their own food. In a survival scenario there aren’t going to be any scraps nor is there going to be much to “forage.” Therefore if bringing a dog on to the team is your plan then you need to ensure you will be able to feed them. “Dog preps” if you will.

Vaccinations;  In addition to food preps it is a good idea to have a years worth of de-wormer on hand. How often you de-worm depends on the environment the dogs are in. Meaning in the suburbs once or twice a year should suffice however if they are around livestock they should probably be de-wormed every three to four months.

In a Schumer scenario rabies and “rabid” dogs will likely be rampant.  Have your dogs vaccinated with a three year rabies shot every year. 
Breeds;  The author mentions “watch” dogs versus “guard” dogs and there is a third category frequently referred to as “working guard dogs”. Working guard dogs sometimes referred to as “livestock protection dogs” do just that.  The litmus test amongst goat and sheep people of what breeds qualify as working guard dogs is breeds that can kill a cougar and run off a pack of wolves.  Much as I love German Sheppard’s and agree that “dobies” and Rottweiler’s can make excellent guard dogs, they are, on balance, no match for a cougar or wolf.

There are a good number of breeds used around the world as working guard dogs most of them are in the extra large breed category (German Sheppard’s are a large breed dog). The two most common working guard dogs are The Great Pyrenees’ and the Anatolian Shepherd.  The Great Pyrenees is an awesome breed but we opted for the Anatolians for two reasons. First where we live (within the American Redoubt) gets very hot in the summer and we felt that their thick bodies and long hair would not do well in such heat. Secondly the Anatolians have more of an “edge” towards people protection so they can function as both a guard dog and a working guard dog. These are very independent and head strong animals so don’t expect to teach them to attack on command but they are highly intelligent and fiercely protective so you don’t have to.  They are a 6,000 year old breed of dog from the Anatolian region of Turkey. In fact I was looking at some of the maps in my Bible and you can read about the area called "Anatolia" in the days of Moses.  With 6,000 years of breeding a “guard” dogs they know what to do instinctively.

The AKC web site states that the Anatolian is “a working guard dog without equal”.  However these dogs need space and are not for the uninitiated dog handler.  You can love these dogs up and play fetch with them etc but they are not pets. They do not go to the dog park ever, we have the veterinarians come to us or if they have to go to the clinic they go in through a side door directly to the exam room. These dogs are not to view any person or animal who is not part of the “pack” as anything but outsiders who need to be chased off.

Lastly any survivalists who decide to employ dogs should have a perimeter fence. That is your line in the sand and keeps your dogs from running away which helps insure their safety.

There are many great dogs and breeds out there and the German Shepherd may well be the best fit for TJ and family but I wanted to throw these ideas out there as a compliment to his article. - Peter P.
 

JWR,
I read the recent post about guard dogs with interest, as I'm a new owner.  I agree with most of the points submitted.  A guard dog can be a 'heightened sensor' so you can rest as well a fierce opponent of aggression toward you and your family.  I have owned mine for a year and to be truthful never had an interest in dogs beforehand.  Even though I am a prepper, and practice stocking up on the 5 Gs (Gold, Guns, Ground, Gas, and Grub  - a Robert Kiyosaki-ism) I never gave considerable thought to a guard dog. 

Recently a friend of mine was very generous in that he gave me a puppy.  The breed was Black Russian Terrier and was shipped to me from the Ukraine.  As stated, I never had an interest but felt compelled to accept this gift if for nothing else that show appreciation for the immense generosity.  After being around this dog I quickly grew attached.  I also saw just how intelligent and quick to learn this breed is.  Even though I have limited knowledge of dog training, I could teach him basic commands in a few hours or no more than a day.   He is big and strong - tops out at about 130 lbs.   He doesn't slobber and doesn't shed.  I had him house broke in a few days and now he guards my family while I am away on business.  After saying this I guess I was a bit disappointed that this breed wasn't even listed in Caesars Top 10.  It's possible that it wasn't listed simply because of rarity and many Americans never heard of it (my vet included).  Even so there are several kennels in the USA that raise these unique canines and I would encourage those in the market to research them before making a purchase.  I would also encourage them to study the breed.  It's beginnings were founded in the Soviet army.  It was a highly classified project to make the perfect working dog/Guard dog.  Roughly 20 breeds were mixed together to produce what is now a Black Russian Terrier.  Such dogs as the Giant Schnauzer, Rottweiler, Newfoundland, Yorkshire Terrier etc were mixed together in an attempt to make a working dog that was durable in the diverse  terrain and climatic conditions of Russia.  My friend showed in various Ukrainian competitions it almost always outperformed the German Shepard.   And I personally watched them in attack drills - seeing them perform immediately on command.   

The only breed that was close was the Belgian Malinois.  I have also seen where the breed is used to pull small carts which could be useful if you had some walking to do.  Of course there are pros and cons to everything, and with me the maintenance of it's fur is the big drawback.  Keeping him groomed properly is a continual task that I usually do every 90 days.  And monthly I brush him out.  Other than fur maintenance, I find nothing negative and would recommend him along side the 10 submitted - and feel confident to say he could even outperform them.  In a TEOTWAWKI situation he would be a force multiplier. - S.K.

Jim:
I enjoyed the posting by TJ about getting a dog to help out with protection during the long emergency, especially when you are "out of options".  There were many relevant points made, and I congratulate the writer's decision to add a protection dog to his limited preparation supplies.  That said, in my opinion, no dog will replace the necessity for other forms of self defense and home security.  More importantly, it is not as simple as it may seem...it takes a great deal of repetitive training to keep those dog-skills finely honed.  The addition of a dog to your mix is an augmentation, and a good one, if you have the right dog.  Chances are that even with zero background and training, a dog who has had the right exposure will come through for you.  A good chance exists that in the event of an attack upon your home, your dog may unfortunately be the first casualty, but in the meantime, we all have an inherent fear of getting bitten, and even a small dog's aggressive bark when we least expect it, can make us jump out of our skin.  I would also not recommend a "junk yard dog" that never gets the benefits of human interaction or controls.  The risks far outweigh the benefits...unless of course you actually have a junk yard.

I am a  former K-9 handler with a medium-sized Sheriff's Department in California prior to my retirement;  I was blessed to have lived and trained with the Danish Police, the source for my k-9 partner, "Sheik" (pronounced "Shike").  We worked night patrol and trained hard, for 5 + years, until I promoted out of the unit.  We lived together in my bachelor years, and became very close buddies.  We handled many high-risk situations together, from crimes in progress to felony car stops, and I miss him, to this day.  My only complaint?  That dog never wrote one report or testified in court even one time!. 

Needless to say, I have many fond memories.   His nickname among our squad was "John Wayne" because he was such a hard charger.  If he could talk he would say that I was a knucklehead and a pain to work with, but I had never been loved by an animal more.

It took a while before I was competent, and even longer to become really good at being a handler;  that came only after I learned from Sheik, and learned how to read him.  One of the enduring traits of Shepherds is that they are very loyal and forgiving.  I also witnessed and played the decoy or "bad guy"(taking bites or being a hidden suspect for the dog to find) for lots of K-9 teams, from departments all over, including the Danish Police.  I saw lots of dogs and lots of handlers, in all stages of training.  Most of the teams here in the states had dogs that were "Shutzhund".  More on that later.  Compared to the Europeans, who have been at it much longer, Americans were in the infant stages of understanding how dogs tick, and utilizing them  to their full capacity.  Our military has a much better grasp than the civilian/LE world, but of course the mission is entirely different.   I will also note that there are scientific studies going on now that are opening up whole new realms of understanding about man's best friend, and how he got to be so.

 A word about the mission.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with having an "alarm dog", even a sissy-pooch, who will notify you whenever anything goes bump in the night.  Know that you will have many false alarms, but he is just doing his job, and to the dog, a possum intruder, a butterfly intruder, and a man intruder are equally suspicious, and worthy of sounding off with an alarm.

Most if not all dogs are naturally suspicious, and protective, of their territory, whether that is the car, or your yard, some more than others.  Keeping your dog kenneled, or confined to your fenced yard, will make that suspicion grow.   He will become extremely suspicious of anything that makes a move or a sound on your property, which he views as his own.   I am a fan of kenneling, because it helped to protect my dog from the outside world, not the other way around.  Encouraging him to "watch him" when the moment presents itself will also help him in knowing what you want from him.  The right dog desires to please you! While his senses will be heightened outdoors, if the dog lives in your bedroom, frankly, his alarm will be too late coming, his sense of smell will be less sharp, and his sense of natural suspicion will be dulled...in short, he will get lazy!

 In no case, ever, should the animal be allowed to wander the neighborhood.  That is a death sentence for him, not freedom.  Remember that dogs are pack creatures, their DNA is identical to wolves.  Don't let those floppy ears, wagging tail and soulful eyes fool you...they are pack animals (and you  must become the pack leader!)  Capitalize on the keen sense of smell that the dog is blessed with and that has proven itself time and time again, the acute hearing, his instincts to identify and neutralize dangers, and his physical fighting attributes, to your advantage.

On breeds.  Naturally I am biased toward Shepherds (the term "German" Shepherd is not used in Denmark, where they are known as Shaeferhunds, or "Shepherd dogs").  Of the 250 dog teams in the country at that time, there were only two that were not Shepherds, a pretty good indicator that the Danes did their homework on which breed would be best suited.  With respect to my Rottie-owning friends out there, just be aware, that Rottweilers require special handling, because they are stubborn!  One very major factor is the physical characteristics.  Shepherds have great endurance, and are able to withstand harsh climates.  Like some other breeds, there is an undercoat that acts as an insulator.  In my area, the short haired breeds are probably not the wisest choice for an outdoor dog.  A down side to having a Shepherd is that in certain parts of the country, they can be mistaken for a wolf or coyote, at a distance.

Nor does the dog have to be huge. One of the best working dogs I ever witnessed was a female Shepherd no more than 50 pounds...but you did not want to be on the receiving end when she hit you from six feet out on the run (and you will not outrun most dogs);  the "decoy" would hit the deck like a sack of potatoes, and without protection, would have been out of the fight, period.   The same holds true for the Belgian Malinois;   wirey, fast, and tough, now a leading figure for our military's combat needs.

Larger dogs have more physical problems, and of course can be expensive to feed as well.  They die sooner, and invariably suffer from joint and bone problems.  Never allow your dog to jump into car windows, crawl around on ladders in the air, jump over limbo sticks, all for the sake of "trials" that have nothing to do with the real world.  This will shorten the life of your dog and/or subject him to injury;  all of that pounding on the joints and tissues are not good for the animal, just like it is for us.  Yes, I did open the car door for Sheik, and no, I never competed in trials.  We would have received poor scores, undoubtedly, but I was more interested in the patrol dog attributes than what some judge determined to be the perfect "heel".  I would put my dog up against any other, any day.  We were actually one of the few teams who were always asked to do the "call off" drill during public relations "demos".  Why? because I had every confidence that the dog would call off in the midst of a full-on attack, even on a decoy without protective gear.  But it took training.

All of that said, folks will make up their minds on which dog to choose, much like firearms and motor oil, so let's move on.

Shutzhund dogs are impressive!  Just keep one thing in mind.  Shutzhund is more or less a sport, or competition, that tests obedience, scent work, and aggression, mainly.  It takes place on flat ground, usually a soccer field or similar setting, and is entertaining, as well.  Anyone would find it thrilling to watch.  Not to say that Shutzhund dogs will not "transition" to law enforcement or protection work, believe me, I have seen some fantastic dogs with a Shutzhund background.  But not always.  Put the dog and handler in a real world setting, on rural ground or an urban environment, like the roof of a department store as my memory serves me, or a pier jutting out into the ocean, and all of a sudden it is not the trial, or competition setting.  Stress enters in, and if the dog has what is known as "trained courage", and his heart is really not in the real world, you may have a problem if this is your sole source of protection.

I remember testing, and then rejecting, a police donation from a couple whose dog had a lineage to be proud of, and a high ranking in the dog show world and Shutzhund arena.  A beautiful animal with perfect conformation.  However, once away from his handler, on his own and early on in the test, the dog showed signs of extreme stress, i.e. diarrhea, straining to escape, etc.  I shut the test down immediately to avoid trauma, but at the owner's requests, brought the dog back a few days later for another round of different tests.  Unfortunately, when the handler was absent, the dog freaked out, clearly unable to handle a threat coming his way.  Perhaps his training was too harsh in the early phases, who knows.  The couple were miffed and bewildered at the same time, but could not but accept that their (expensive) prized animal was not even close to Rin-Tin-Tin status.  He was, undoubtedly, a great alarm dog, and a loving pet, and a dynamite show dog.

Some dogs are actually what is termed "sleeve happy", which can be attributed to misdirected training or just a dogs' obsession for the fight...it happens when a decoy can simply slip out of protective garb when the dog is hanging on during a bite, and run off, leaving the dog to wrestle with his prize, having torn the suspect's "arm" off.  Or "ball happy";  he loves to retrieve so much that he will leave the bad guy on his own, in order to go chase a thrown ball or other object.  These examples beg the questions...how will the dog perform under stress, multiple assailants, gunfire, around a female in heat, or offered food?  These are all things that must be included in training routines, constantly, so that the dog is always thinking.  Do you have the time, energy, or expertise to really tackle that?  If not, then settle for a giving, energetic, forgiving, and loving dog that also has protective traits, and suspicions of what he senses.  In other words, a good alarm dog.  That training is a lot less intense, and you have a good tool in your arsenal.

You will find that most "dog people" readily admit that they do not have all of the answers or pretend to have the correct fix for a problem each and every time.  The "dog whisperer", Caesar Millan, gets it.  He knows that the dog has a prey drive and other natural instincts, that he wants to interact with his human master, that he wants to have a job in the order of things, and above all, that the dog owner/trainer must be the pack leader in order to be successful.  Until our canine friends learn how to talk in order to tell us where we go wrong, then we will never be sure, at least this side of Heaven.  

Bottom line?  Choose the right dog for your mission, at least give it your best shot.  Do not pick up a freebie with "issues" and expect to change the animal to your liking.  You will, through love and patience, bring a traumatized dog "back to life", but you will not turn that dog into the hero that you may be seeking.  Dogs are much like children, they react negatively to trauma, but unlike children, they do not learn how to cope  as they mature.  Trauma has a huge negative impact on the dog's life, throughout his life.

So what would be characteristics to look for?

Besides the obvious health issues, look for a natural inquisitive nature.  Which pup chases the toy tied onto the fishing line, which one actually grabs it, and the ultimate, will he give it up to you when you ask him for it?  This is the classic retrieve, which in the form of a game will tell you a lot about the dog.  It goes against his grain to give it to you, but if he is willing to do that, this is a major plus...the desire to please, to make friends, to share his new-found bounty when he doesn't have to.
Test him with like models, just never demand at this stage, or frighten him.  Know this:  the dog who will not retrieve will usually not meet your demands of him.

Look for the leader of the litter, one who displays confidence.  Size is not the issue here.  How many times have we seen a Chihuahua-sized dog rule the roost in a group of dogs?  We hear, "he doesn't know how little he is".  This guy is the alpha, and dogs respect the leader.

Does he react with curiosity to noise, like some pebbles inside of a tin can that you have rolled into his world.  Does he chase it, poke it with his nose, bite it, bark at it, or, does he run away to the safety of the litter, never to return to that vile thing that makes a strange noise.  Does he show no ambition to check it out?  The ideal youngster is the one who cautiously approaches, perhaps barks, and grabs it!  This is a trait of courage, and overcoming his prey.

I personally like a pup that is mouthy, a big mouth.  Usually these are happy fellows.  This usually ties into that trait we seek, the alpha, the fighter jock, the confident one who wants the world to know that he his there and does not intimidate easily, that the world is his kingdom.  Dogs that bark on command are a huge plus, and keep in mind that once this command is mastered, and he knows exactly what it means to follow it, it is far easier to then teach him "Silence!" when the time for silence is appropriate.  

As previously stated, size is not necessarily the number one aspect of why you should choose a particular dog.  As Americans, we love everything big...big cars, big guns, big horses, you name it.  Just remember, the bigger the dog, the more problems you must deal with, not to mention that the larger dog is usually slower, and agility suffers as well... just as in the human world.  Picture that nimble Border Collie vs. a tank like a Mastiff, moving that herd around.  On the other hand, if you have ever wandered into a sheep pasture being guarded by a Newfoundland or similar livestock protection dog, you quickly realize this guy's capabilities, and will, to crush you like a rodent.

Male or female?  The facts are, that males are usually chosen for their fighting spirit rather than the females for their nurturing spirit, in the world of K-9.  That said, I have broken up my share of dog fights (a dangerous pastime that also gets real tiresome) to know that one usually does not suffer the same fate when handling the ladies.  Ditto for cat chasing, peeing on everything in sight, and other knucklehead things that, okay, males do.  Sheik, bless his heart, even went out of his way to drink from another dog's water bowl on the training field, and then, with a look on his face as if to say, "...bring it dude",  he peed in it.  The choice is yours, but just know that many of the same attributes are there for males and females alike, but with less aggression for the females who do not have the testosterone that the males do.  

A word on nutrition.  We have a 16 year old Dachshund, with Cushing's Disease, which is in essence a benign cyst on the pituitary gland.   Her weight ballooned, and with her severe diabetes-like symptoms,  I was preparing myself to say good-bye to this beloved little pet.  A friend told us about "Honest Kitchen" food, which is dehydrated, all natural, organic, USA-made dog food.  It comes in varieties depending on needs, and is easily prepared in small batches ahead of time.  It completely turned our little girl around.  The Cushing's has taken it's toll, and she has little muscle left now, but she is pain free, and for being the age that she is, gets around, at least for now.  We were blessed to have been given the gift of having her around for a little while longer.   The vet was amazed at how quickly she got back to her 8 pound ideal weight.  So I highly recommend it, and will keep it in my larder from now on as a nutritional, and tasty, protein-rich main source of dog food.  I read where it is actually approved for use by humans...if you were so inclined of course.  The poops, normally a messy and smelly chore, come out quite different with this food, easy to pick up and with far less unpleasantries, I am supposing due to the high fiber content and all natural ingredients.  Even in the case of occasional indoor "accidents", it just picks right up with no stains, smears, or intense odor.

At a cost of $50 or so for a 10 lb box, at first glance this stuff sounds unaffordable for most of us.  Keep in mind, however, that it is dehydrated, so in adding water, it is equal in duration to a big bag of high quality kibble.  It would be a great food for a working security dog.

Don't forget one final aspect of all of this: People who have dogs have a happier and more adventurous life, with less stress.  They live longer, and just enjoy their existence more.  Dogs are even taken into nursing homes and cancer wards, with fantastic results.  These animals can be our companions, our friends, and can make our tasks a bit easier.  In a world where chaos and social unrest are the rule of the day, I would say that owning and caring for animals, especially a good dog,  just might put a smile on your face.  As one pastor put it, the "Goodness" and "Mercy" mentioned in the Psalms, that follow us all the days of our life, are just the names of our four-legged pals. - L.R.D.

I always planned to have a bee hive someday but someday had not come until I mentioned my interest to a friend who promptly told me he was splitting a hive (taking a few hundred bees out to prevent them from feeling over crowded) in one week and that he would share the "split" (a couple pf hundred bees) with me.  I promptly ran to the library and checked out three books on bee keeping.  Many questions and concerns kept floating around in my mind, a few of which included:  I know nothing about bees!, What equipment do I need to start a hive?, How do I care for them?,  How will I get the honey out?    Following is the answer to all of these questions.  This will hopefully guide you in your steps to managing your own apiary (scientific name for bee keeping).  It is important to start beekeeping now and make mistakes before you really need the honey.  But if  you are reading this post TEOTWAWKI there are still ways that you can obtain a honey bee hive that I will address. I now have one hive in production and plan to build more.

  
I KNEW NOTHING ABOUT BEES
Bees live for one purpose only and that is to work.  They spend their entire lives working themselves to death.  During the summer, when bees are the busiest they can live up to 6 weeks.  If a bee is born during a non-busy season they will live up to 6 months.  Within the hive you have three types of bees: Queen, drones, and workers.   The Queen bee is bigger than all of your other bees.  She looks different with a shorter thorax (the middle of the 3 sections on a bee), small wings, and a longer torso which enables her to back up her behind into a cell and lay an egg.  She puts off pheromones (a scent) that inhibits all other female bees' ovaries from working.  She can lay up to 2,000 eggs daily. 

A drone is a male bee that exists in the hive at a ratio of 1 drone to every 100 worker (female) bees.  The drones exist for the sole purpose to mate with the queen.  They are not able to feed or care for themselves and are cared for by their kind sisters. 

Worker bees, once hatched from a cell, start their work within the hive cleaning cells,  (a queen will only lay an egg in a clean cell), feeding and caring for baby larvae, grooming and feeding the queen, removing dead bees to the front of the hive, cleaning dust pollen and debris off other bees,  building wax from wax glands (located on the underside of their abdomen) and rendering it to honeycomb, capping pupae and ripened honey from their secreted wax, fanning honey in the cells to remove water which preserves the honey, and placing propolis (a sticky substance they make) in any crack that needs to be filled.  Once a worker's mandible and stinger are fully formed, at three weeks, they can work outside the hive foraging for pollen, nectar, and water and protecting the hive from impending dangers.   

The life cycle of a bee starts when a queen lays an egg in a cell.  The eggs, shaped like a small grain of rice, are hard to see inside each cell.  A pair of reading glasses may help a beginner spot the eggs easier.  The workers regulate the ratio of males to females by constructing larger cells for males and smaller cells for females.  The queen recognizes the cell size and deposits the correct egg within.  Usually drone and queen cells are on the edges of the frame and females are concentrated in the center of the frame.  Eggs develop for three days before moving to the larva stage where they look like small pearly white semi-circles in their cell.  The top of their cells are sealed to enable them to spin a cocoon around themselves and turn into a pupa.  They will emerge 7, 10 or 14 days later depending on if they are a queen, worker, or drone.  A queen takes 16 days from egg to maturity, a drone 24 days, and a worker 21 days.  
This is a brief overview of the life and function of a honey bee.  There are great resources to learn about honey bees if you decide you are interested in bee keeping.

WHAT EQUIPTMENT DO I NEED TO START MY HIVE?
It is important that you obtain a hat with a veil.  There are many options but I like an XXL (I normally wear a women's medium)  jacket with the veil attached.  This way the back of the jacket will cover me at all times no matter how much I bend over.  I will have no chance of being stung on the back.  You will need a hive tool to pry apart the boxes and the frames.  A smoker is used to induce the bees into a more submissive state.  Smoking a hive takes a lot of practice and has not come naturally to me.  You also want white gloves.  Bees do not like dark colors and if you can find white goat skin gloves it is best. 

The type of hive I have is called a Langstroth hive named for the man who invented a way to obtain honey and avoid ruining the hive each time honey was harvested.  For the hive itself you need a bottom board.  They come solid or screened.  Where I live in the Rocky Mountain region I have chosen to go with a screened bottom board to prevent significant condensation inside the hive in the winter that would drip and kill the bees.  You will need 2 hive bodies called brood chambers.  The height on these boxes are 9 1/2 in. and most of the eggs, growing larva, and pupa reside within these chambers.  When these boxes are full of brood, bees, honey, and pollen they can weigh 60-80 pounds.  On these brood boxes "supers" are often placed.  These boxes are shorter at 6 5/8 in height which makes them easier to carry and move around when they are full of honey and you are ready to extract.  Full they can weigh 40-45 pounds.  Within the boxes you will usually have 10 rectangular shaped wooden frames that contain foundation sheets stamped with a honey comb pattern to guide bees in building regular combs with uniform cells.  There are many types of foundation including:  pure beeswax, plastic with beeswax overlay, and plain plastic.  The foundation can be bought separately or already in the frames.  An outer cover rests on the top to protect the hive from rain, hailstones, and snow.  There are many other parts that can be added to a hive but these are the basics.

WHAT EQUIPTMENT DO I NEED TO START A HIVE AFTER TEOTWAWKI?
You will need to fashion from a net like material a hood that will keep your head and neck covered to prevent being stung.  Light colored gloves are preferable but any gloves will work.  Many beekeepers do not wear gloves because a stinger left in the glove will put off a scent that tells the other bees to sting. 

Early settlers frequently  used "bee gums" or hollow sections of a tree with a board placed over the top and the bottom to house their bees.  The problem that occurs with this type of hive is it will have to be destroyed by breaking it open in order to obtain the honey.  When you chop down the tree keep a few sections of the it to be able to replace the section that is dismantled every year to obtain the honey.  Make a few openings in the front of the hive small enough for the bees to enter but not large enough to allow mice or other small rodents that are looking for a warm house.
A smoker will be difficult to come by but a big torch from a branch will work just as well and will assist in helping the bees become more docile.  Over the centuries, wildfires have trained the bees that when they smell smoke they gorge themselves on honey and then leave the hive to find a new home. 

HOW DO I CARE FOR BEES?
Placement of a hive is important.  You want good drainage around your hive.  Raising it off the ground onto cinder blocks or wood will usually keep moisture from getting inside the hive due to run off.  The hive needs to be in an area that you can get around and access easily.  You need to have water accessible.  Water is crucial to a bees survival.  They may need a float in your water source to prevent drowning your bees.  A windbreak will help them maintain their temperature during summer and winter.  A southeastern exposure is ideal to provide morning sunshine to stimulate the foraging bees to get up and get busy. 

Putting the bees in the hive
Early spring is the best time to start beekeeping.  This gives the bees all summer to build their stores for winter.  During the first year you will likely not extract honey.  The bee population is usually not high enough to produce extra honey and the bees will need the top and bottom brood boxes full to feed themselves from during the winter.  Bees are shipped in a box with a wire screen (also called a nuc box), with a can of syrup that will feed them on their journey through the postal system.  Be prepared for an early morning phone call from the post office to come pick up your buzzing package.  The queen will be in a small cage inside the package with several bees attending to her needs from the outside. 
            1. In the late afternoon or evening put on your protective gear, open the hive up to have access to the frames, place the nuc box near the hive and light your smoker
            2. There are 2 ways to do the next part, either a) splatter a syrup mixture onto the wire cage.  This will calm the bees.  Continue doing this until they quit eating. or b) Spray a sugar water mixture onto the bees.  This will not hurt them but will make it difficult for them to fly.  The sugar water mixture will also give them a snack as they will clean it off of each other.  Rap the cage onto the ground and let the bees fall to the bottom of the cage.
            3. Take the cover off the cage, remove the queen, and put the lid back on to prevent escaping bees.  Make a small hole in the candy plug that will allow the bees to eat their way through to the queen and release her.  Wedge her small cage between 2 frames within the hive making sure the candy plug is accessible to the bees. 
            4. Again rap the cage on the ground, then remove the lid and pour/shake the bees onto the frames in the hive.  At this point they are not going to be territorial and try to sting you.  They currently have no home and are not going to try to protect this hive.  It will take a few days before they call this new box home.  After you have poured most of the bees onto the hive, lay the box on its side to allow the other bees a way to crawl out and get into the hive.  Put the lid on top of the hive and then leave them alone.  Bees do much better without our help. 
After 3-5 days you want to make sure the queen has been released from her cage.  Open the lid during a warm sunny afternoon.  Hopefully most bees will be foraging and not at home.  If she has not been released, pull the candy plug out or push it carefully into her cage being careful not to squish her.  After this, leave them for a few weeks.  It is not prudent to check them more than every 2 weeks and many people wait 4 weeks.  When you do open the hive it will be hard to separate the boxes and the frames.  Bees use a sticky substance called propolis to glue all openings and frames together.  You will need to separate the box lid and the box with your hive tool, then put a little smoke into the crack.  This will induce the bees to go down into the frames and gorge on honey making them more sluggish.  After you take the lid off, lean it against the hive.  Pry a frame apart and lift it up, being careful to keep it over the hive so the queen does not fall off onto the ground.  When you look at your frames you want to make sure there are eggs and brood (growing baby bees).  The egg should be in the center of each cell and there should only be 1 egg in each cell.  If there are more than 1 egg in each cell it could mean your queen has failed and the worker bees have taken over by laying non-fertile eggs.  This will produce an all male (drone) hive which will die off very quickly as they are not able to care for themselves. 
In the spring before bees have a lot of plants to forage from they may begin to starve because they have eaten their reserves and have nothing to forage.  At this point it is a good idea to feed them.  There are many contraptions you can buy to feed them but last year the method I chose was to make a syrup with a 2:1 ratio of sugar to water, place it in a gallon zip lock bag, lay it on top of the frames, and then cut an X in the top of the bag.  The bees will land on the bag and eat from the syrup oozing out of the X.  My only expense was the sugar.  There are other recipes and substances you can use to feed bees but the important thing to remember is that during early spring you may need to feed your bees.
When working with bees use slow and gentle movements.  If you are quick or abrupt they will feel threatened and are put on high alert.  If a bee stings the stinger rips away from the bees body and the bee dies.  The stinger continues to pump venom into your skin so brush the stinger off quickly.  If you grab the stinger to pull it out you will force all of the venom into your skin. If a bee is squished this sends the bees into high alert and they are more likely to sting.  To get the bees off of the rim of the hive before putting the lid on use the smoker and they will bury back down into the frames, to again gorge on honey, you will be less likely to squish the bees and they will not try to harm you. 

POST TEOTWAWKI - OBTAINING HONEY BEES
In the event you do not already have bees, you can try robbing a hive to get your bees.  If you see honey bees around your property and are not sure where they have their hive hidden you can try this trick.  To do this you will need to make yourself a box with a glass or plexiglas top piece that will fit onto the box by sliding into grooves.  Place honey, molasses or a syrup mixture inside the box and place it somewhere you think the bees might come.  Once a few bees are in the box filling up on your sweet substance sprinkle them with flour.  Let them fly away and watch where they go.  They will go back to their hive and recruit other bees to come get food.  Other bees will come to your box.  Once your original flour coated bees come back to the box place the lid on the box and walk in the direction the bees flew off to.  This will bring you closer to their home.  At this point the bees will be full and ready to fly away.  Put the box on the ground when you no longer know which way to go, take the lid off, and let them fly away.  The bees will be confused for a minute, once they find their bee line they will head off towards home.  Watch them to see where they are headed and make a note of the landmarks you should walk to that will bring you closer to their hive.  When the floured bees come back do this again.  Put the lid on, walk their bee line (the path they take to and from their hive), let them out, watch them.  Do this again and again until they lead you to their honey tree.  Likely the tree the bees are in will need to be chopped down.  Doing this at night will be easier because the bees won't be active.  They will be sluggish and sleeping, especially if the temperature is a little cooler.  When you chop the tree down, place your hollow log (with a board nailed to the bottom) next to your main body of bees.  You want to find the queen, which is much larger and has small wings.  When you find the queen, deposit her into your hollow log and the other bees will follow.  You can take a stick and pick up bees on the end to shake into the log being careful not to squish your queen.  Place the lid on your hollow log and place them in their new location during the night.  At this point you would want to also take all the honey you can. 

HOW DO I GET THE HONEY OUT?
There are two ways to extract your honey.  The first way is to buy or make an extractor.  Using centrifugal force the honey is spun out of the frame, collects in the bottom of a vat or bucket and then can be poured from a gate/nozzle near the bottom of the bucket into containers.  The second way to extract honey is to crush the comb and honey together and then strain the wax out of the honey.  One reason most people use an extractor is to save the bees the work of making beeswax.  For every pound of beeswax formed in the hive the bees could have made around 10 pounds of honey.  By using a machine that will spin the honey out of the frames the bees do not have to work to make more beeswax.  They spend their time and energy refilling the wax that is ready.  Extractors bought from a bee supply company range in price from $199.00 to $2,000.   Many people make their own extractors out of scrap metal, a food grade bucket, and a tool like a grout mixer that fits onto a drill and allows the frames to spin.  Many plans can be found online how to make an extractor.

Post TEOTWAWKI, unless you have an extractor, you will extract honey by crushing the comb and honey.  When a frame is 80% capped off (the bees seal the honey with a white/ yellowish waxy seal) you can harvest the honey.  Materials for your gravity extractor include two buckets, one of those buckets needs a lid.  To get a mental picture of what your setup will look like when you finish you will have two buckets stacked one on top of the other.  The bottom bucket will have a lid for the top bucket to sit on.  Poke or drill 3/16 in. holes in the top bucket to allow honey to drip down through.  This bucket will be placed on a bucket of the same size that has a lid.  Cut the middle section out of the lid.  This will allow the honey to drip down from the top bucket into the bottom bucket while sitting comfortably and securely on the lid of the bottom bucket.   If your frames have plastic foundation inside them you will cut or scrape the comb and honey into a pot or pan.  If you have wax foundation in your frames you can cut the foundation right out of your frames and place it a pot or pan.  Working in small batches crush the comb honey in the pot/pan and place it in the top bucket.  The honey will separate from the wax, for the most part, and move down through the holes into the second bucket.  Once your honey has moved to the bottom bucket, which can take hours to days depending on how warm the honey is and how much you have, it is a good idea to strain it again using a cheesecloth or strainer.  Make sure you do this in an area the bees can not get to.  They will rob you of your honey quickly if allowed the opportunity.  
Once you have completed your project, put your sticky tools and buckets outside near your hive.  The bees will usually clean the honey off of them and take it back to the hive.  Bees can not reuse their wax.  You can take the beeswax from the top bucket and use it.  Here are a few recipes for bees wax:

Candles:  Place wax in a pot or a crock pot and heat until liquid.  Use old metal food cans or small jelly or half pint jars, place a candle wick inside and fill with beeswax

Taper candles:  Cut a long piece of flat braid wick.  Heat beeswax in a pot and dip the wicks into the wax to make them the desired length.  Tapers are made in pairs because you dip both sides into the wax which allows them to hang while drying.  For the first dip leave them in the wax one full minute to allow the wick to soak up the wax.  Thereafter keep dipping until they reach your desired width.  When you pull them out hang them over a dowel or a rolling pin to dry.  This process will usually take a few hours so give yourself ample time.  Let them sit for a day before using them. 

Hand lotion:  1 part beeswax, 4 parts olive oil- heat the beeswax and mix in the olive oil.  You can add essential oils but that is optional. Mix thoroughly, place in a small container while still liquid.  It will harden up.

Chapstick:  2 parts coconut oil, 1 part beeswax a few drops of vitamin E.  This can also be used as a hand salve.  Use a cheese grater to get small pieces of beeswax.  Heat these, mix, then use.

Honey is amazing when I think about the health properties it has.  It is full of vitamins, antioxidants and minerals.  It tastes great and can be substituted for sugar in smaller ratios.  I am fascinated as I stand by my hive watching them come in and out interacting with each other.  Whenever someone asks me about my bees I tell them, "I don't know why I didn't do this sooner.  They are fascinating little creatures."  If you have thought about bee keeping in the past, just start.  Honey bees are very easy and beneficial to have around.      

Recipes using honey: 
Cough and sore throat remedy: 1 T of honey, 1 T of lemon juice, 1 c. of hot water

Soft Whole Wheat bread
2 1/2 c. very warm water
1 Tbsp. yeast
3-4 Tbsp. honey
1 Tbsp. vital wheat gluten (secret ingredient)
1 Tbsp. dough enhancer (opt.)
1 Tbsp. Lecithin (opt.)
2 tsp. salt
1/3 c. softened butter
6-7 c. freshly ground wheat flour
Put water in mixer. Sprinkle yeast on top, then drizzle honey over it. Let sit for 3-4 minutes, or until yeast has bloomed and risen to the surface.
Mix in vital wheat gluten, dough enhancer, lecithin, salt, butter, and 1 cup flour. Slowly add 5 more cups flour. Let mixer knead dough for 8-10 minutes, then add more flour if the dough is still sticking to the sides. Add flour until dough pulls away.
Take dough out and knead on OILED surface. CUT, do not tear dough into 2 equal parts, and shaped into loaves. Place in greased bread pans, and allow to rise 1 hour uncovered. Place in cool oven and turn on to 350°F.
Bake for 30-35 minutes.
Remove from pans immediately, brush tops with butter or spray with a fine mist of water. I usually let them cool to room temperature while enjoying a few pieces with jam or honey, then slice completely and store in bread bags. I recommend freezing and thawing out the pieces as you need them - it is not hard, they defrost very nicely. Just make sure not to put it in the freezer while it is still warm, or the pieces will stick together and break when you try to pull them out.


References:
Adams, John, 1972: Beekeeping: The Gentle Craft
Delaplane, Keith, 2007: First Lessons in Beekeeping
English, Ashley, 2011:Homemade Living: Keeping Bees with Ashley English: All You Need to Know to Tend Hives, Harvest Honey & More   
MacBride, Roger Lea, 1995: In the Land of the Big Red Apple (Little House series)
Readers Digest, 1981: Back to Basics

We came late to the prepping party.  We didn’t own any guns.  We lived paycheck to paycheck in a suburban area.  We couldn’t afford to buy property in Idaho, while it’s still a dream.  We have slowly stocked up on short term and long term food and water, bought heirloom seeds and learned to garden, loaded up on firewood for two huge fireplaces for cooking and warmth, but that’s about it.  Recently our son, honorably discharged from the Armed Services, came home to start his life as a civilian.  He owned a 9mm and promptly proceeded to purchase a .22 handgun for ma and pa.  The problem was, we couldn’t find any ammo, anywhere.  We are a long way from being prepared, but better off than most people we know.  We decided to get a guard dog.  The difference between a guard dog and a watchdog is the guard dog is trained to protect the family using aggression, while the watchdog will alert the family by barking and making a fuss (with not much to back it up).  Our Brittany Spaniel is a good watchdog.  She barks at every new sound, when she needs to outside, and when she thinks it’s time to eat.  I think she trains us.

After searching for the right dog, we stumbled upon good fortune.  An acquaintance, a breeder and trainer, was looking to place her prized purebred German Shepherds trained in Schutzhund (google it or youtube it) with good families for personal reasons.  Schutzhund trained dogs learn to control their drive and learn to obey the owner even when very excited.  We gratefully met the dogs and selected a lovely 5 yr old gal who had won awards in self-defense, provided puppies over the years, and who was ready to relax with a good family.  If you didn’t know this gorgeous animal, she would scare the daylights out of you if you met her in a dark ally.  Our experience with her so far, is that she is obedient, playful, loving, and loyal.  She bonded quickly with our small family, including our existing family dog.  Our Brittany Spaniel was quite put out with the very big Shepherd invading her space, but the Shepherd helped her along by being respectful and careful.  They now can eat and nap in close proximity to one another.  It only took 48 hours for the dogs to come to terms with one another.

Our goal is to ensure our new dog doesn’t forget her good training and we have some planned exercises with her former owner to learn the Schutzhund commands and routines.  It is amazing that you don’t need to collar or leash this dog.  She responds immediately to voice commands and hand motions.  One afternoon she decided to explore the neighbor’s backyard (we have very low fences between yards).  With one firm call of her name, she turned around immediately and raced back to me, almost apologetically.  Impressive.  I’m not sure my Brittany Spaniel would have been so obedient.  She would have played hide and seek for a while first.

Schutzhund training includes tracking, obedience, and protection.  The most important part to understand about protection is that the dog has been trained to attack upon command, but more importantly to quit the attack by command.  The bite force of a German Shepherd, depending upon size and ferocity, is quite strong as compared to other dogs.  However, this is not an out of control attack dog.  This is a dog that works on command and quits working on command.  She only barks if confronted with a threatening situation.  She hasn’t made a peep since we’ve had her.  We are learning the German commands, but were assured by the trainer that she is very smart and will adapt quickly to our version of the commands without a problem.  This gave us a great sense of confidence. 

Some people believe that getting an aggressive-tempered guard dog is the right way to go, but how do you know that dog will not attack one of your
sweet grandchildren, the mail carrier, or a neighbor walking his or her dog?  One of my daughters is terribly afraid of German Shepherds having been bit by the neighbor’s Shepherd when she was a young teenager.  That dog took a huge bit out of her thigh, requiring a trip to emergency and many stitches.  She still has scars and is terrified.  The dog was not teased or threatened in any way; it just decided to attack for no good reason while the children were playing in the front yard.

One of the web sites I found that provided good information on what type of dog to get for personal protection was Cesar's.  Cesar listed the top 10 dogs in this order from best to least protection dogs:

1.       Bullmastiff – very big dogs
2.       Doberman Pinscher – need room, very fast, very smart
3.       Rottweiler – big, loyal
4.       Komodor – needs socialization to become a family pet
5.       Puli – very active and love to bark
6.       Giant Schnauzer – requires strict training
7.       German Shepherd – calm, smart, reacts quickly to threats
8.       Rhodesian Ridgeback – strict training required
9.       Kuvasz – very territorial
10.   Staffordshire Terrier – requires strict training and socialization

You can do your own research and talk to other dog owners.  Our choice was to find a highly trained and skilled German Shepherd for family loving and protection since we didn’t have the fortitude or experience to train one from puppyhood.  Every family is different and has different needs.  We wanted to snuggle by the fireside with our protection animal, as well as expect her to attack an intruder.  Purebred Shutzhund trained shepherds can cost into the thousands of dollars.  We were graced with a great deal by a loving trainer after searching for months online for the right dog, so I don’t suspect you will find the same kind of deal.  However, selecting a guard dog should be part of your preparation plans. 

Should SHTF, home invasions are expected to commence by the have-nots. The CCW By State web site provides home invasion statistics for 2011.  According to the web site:

“…1 in 5 homes in the US will be broken into or experience some sort of home invasion – in other words, more than 2,000,000 U.S. families!”  Other statistics cited: 8,000 home invasions occur every day in North America, 720 forcible rapes occur every day (that’s 1 every 2 minutes), 1,440 robberies occur every day (1 every minute), 4,320 violent crimes per day (1 every second), 2,468 grave assaults per day (1 every 35 seconds), 8,640 burglaries per day (1 every 10 seconds), and 28,800 property crimes (1 every 3 seconds)."

You may live in a low crime area, as we do, but should SHTF expect the aforementioned statistics to skyrocket.  These statistics cover all of North America, but just think about it.  I confessed to my husband that I had slept better than I had in a long time, since we brought the Shepherd home.  She hears what I cannot and is alert even while resting.  We all need our sleep to remain alert and make good decisions.

While you, like us, wait out the ammunition shortage, think about investing in a guard dog.  I would rather have our dog scare off would be intruders prior to using what little ammunition we have and save those bullets for worst-case scenarios.  Do your research and understand your family needs.  Understand your own limitations in regards to breeding, raising, and training a guard dog.  It is a huge commitment.  Don’t think you can go to the pound and pick up a Doberman or Pit Bull (which are plentiful at the pound) and hope for protection.  The dog may turn on you, your family members, or neighbors if not properly trained and socialized.  And the neighbors will sue.  You don’t want to stick out as the one house in the neighborhood everyone is afraid to walk by and be subject to a police visit for suspicion of having an aggressive and dangerous dog.  We made the choice to invest in a mature, fully trained animal rather than go it alone.  Good luck and good hunting.

A preface: This article is not about the perfect excursion to relieve your tensions regarding coming doom and gloom. If you need a vacation from your constant worry, then you have become slave to it. Slaves don't get to take holiday in Babylon! I wanted to share with friends and family some holidays that I feel were instituted specifically with the prepper in mind.

Many of us are well aware of the practical advantages of observing the sabbath. For those of faith it becomes obvious through practice. Those who are not religious but still enjoy a day of rest will doubtless recognize that this day of laziness is not wasted. Not only does it offer us time to relax and recharge, but time to reflect on the six days of work (or perhaps lack of.).

My family have long been observant of the sabbath but had never observed other festivals of the Bible. (I don't propose to convince the reader whether these festivals are commanded or not of modern generations, however.) I have chosen to celebrate them with my family and teach them to my children.

The keeping of these celebrations offers practical advantages to the faithful which only experience reveals fully and words do not suffice.

I have decided to only write about the two holidays with which I am most familiar and for which I have the most affection. Others more experienced may rightly point out that I deny justice to the wonderful holidays I have not included. But, my experience is limited by our slow rate of travel round the sun and lack of encouragement I received from our local spiritual community. Of the major holidays required of the ancient Hebrew people, I find most useful the holidays of Pasach and Sukkot, otherwise known as passover and tents/tabernacles.

Celebrating these holidays starts by finding them. It's not as simple as looking to the calendar and saying "Look, July 4th. Fireworks!". Yet it is simple none the less, and does not require inspection of a device that must be carried with you or placed on your wall. Every small child learns quickly that the sun passes across the sky during the day and the setting sun marks the end of outdoor playtime. Some (my children) learn that time of day and direction can be generally ascertained by watching for this sign. What was once common knowledge to the lonely shepard and astrologer alike and is no longer common knowledge, is that by watching the moon it is possible to determine what day of the month it is with a small margin of error. It won't help determining the days of the civil or gregorian calendar, of course. Noting the phases and completion of moons and counting them will help you determine when to have all of your nuts and berries packed away in your squirrel nest and when you should expect to emerge to plant your crops and assist in livestock giving birth. When you have been cut off from normal social contact and modern media, and your 20xx calendar doesn't arrive in the mail because there is no USPS or Fedex, and when you have long forgotten whether it's Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday, or August, or September, the moon will be there for you!

The first sighting of a crescent moon indicates the beginning of the month. There are differences among observers regarding whether the day of the crescent or the day before is to be regarded as day one in the month, however I am content that the idea serves as a model for a people reliant upon providence of nature or deity. Meetings among remote groups of related or united people can easily be arranged in advance without need of device simply by counting the passage of days from the sighted crescent, which will appear the same day for my family in Oklahoma as our relatives and friends in neighboring states and communities. The anticipation of celebration or solemn ceremony heightens awareness of the passing days and lends to a more accurate count. There is always the possibility of cloud coverage for a particular region, in which case some communities may not be able to sight the crescent. For the benefit of those whose sighting is obscured, ancient Israelite communities that had clear view and could sight the crescent would sound a horn at high elevation enabling other expectant peoples or individuals to begin a count regardless of cloud coverage. The use of this horn of course is to protect against the margin of error previously mentioned.

Exodus 12 contains the first mention of my Prepper's holiday. It is a document that modern scholars can agree has been used for more than two thousand years and contains the story of an ancient people fed up with slavery. When the protagonist Joseph arrived in a foreign land he found wealth and prosperity after great ordeal. This wealth and prosperity was shared for many generations but ultimately his descendants found themselves slaves to the system that had been of such benefit. Many patriots today can relate to this predicament. In preparation for the coming declaration of freedom for these people, a holiday was provided. This holiday is not simply a time to munch down, or hope for a new toy. It is a mental and physical preparation for the conditions required of a free people. Passover approaches and it is fitting that I should share this event first.

The holiday is determined by counting 14 days from the sighting of the first crescent of the spring, at which point the moon will appear nearly full. The light provided by the full moon allows for nighttime activity which may be regarded as clandestine by those not participating. On the first night an animal is slaughtered. It is to be a year old male sheep or goat. The practical reasoning for this is not obvious to those who don't tend some sort of livestock, but those of us who witness a large number of hatched cockerels or bucklings kidding in spring, quickly adapt to the idea of dispatching the year old rooster that has begun attacking guests, or the young buck, newly invigorated with his masculine hormones, decides he's going to begin ramming you. Because new bucklings are born, and the yearlings have already done business with the does, these guys are obvious candidates for culling before the big break from captivity.

Instructions for the holiday include placement of a sign upon the dwellings of confederated parties in order to prevent death by friendly fire. Participants are instructed to prepare along with the culled yearlings, bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. You will find that edible bitter herbs are abundant for the wilderness traveler, and that flat dry bread packs nicer and lasts longer than the puffy and moist Wonderbread that we use to encase a picnic lunch. The meat is to be entirely consumed the first night. None is left to rot, attract scavengers, or be confiscated. All of this activity is done with awareness of the events to come and so the instruction to eat with cloak tucked into belt, shoes on the feet, and staff in hand is a protocol for SHTF preparedness. On this night (and every full moon) our family checks survival gear and makes certain that everything is ready to go should the need arise to head out the door forever to secure the blessings liberty.

Instructions for the holiday include seven days during which unleavened bread is to be prepared. In the zeal to produce a bread nearly void of yeast it is necessary to remove all yeast from the house in order to prevent airborne yeast from infecting the dough. This requires thorough cleaning and inspection of the home. In the process of looking for something so tiny and seemingly insignificant as invisible yeast, you will uncover every other imaginable flaw in your dwelling as well. Discipline in making this activity a yearly occurrence will provide the practitioner with a deeper situational awareness of his or her fortress and improvements that need to be made over the following year.

I have read that COSTCO is offering 6 gallon pails of long term storage foods. This may or may not be practical for you. For "do it yourself" types the preparation of unleavened bread serves as a wonderful model for homemade meals that pack lite, last long, and leave no plastic package behind as evidence of travel route. During these seven days the practitioner rests from labor and prepares mind and body for dangerous adventure and develops resolve concerning the decision to be free. As the full moon wanes, light sensitivity of the observer adjusts to the change resulting in excellent nighttime vision in comparison to those not preparing for the event or recently acclimated to operating by moonlight.

Moses told the Israelites to keep this tradition for all generations to come. It is a constant reminder of the path from slavery to freedom coupled with some very logical strategies to continually prepare for recurrent need.

The second holiday I want to share with you is Sukkot, also called festival of the tents or "booths." It is first mentioned in the book of Exodus chapter 23. After the exciting events surrounding the departure of the Israelites from Egypt, these newly freed people endured forty years of life on the run, living like vagrants in temporary shelters built from whatever they could scrap together in the wilderness. To be sure, this was a hard thing. Though slaves, these people had been living in modern homes according to Egypt's standards and had no experience with "camping out". They were apparently accustomed to fresh produce from the market and found no vendors in the barren Sinai Peninsula. Freedom is beautiful, but it is not easy.

The festival of tents is practiced in remembrance of the condition freed slaves often find themselves in. Upon release from incarceration, a felon may quickly learn that he has difficulty finding housing, employment opportunities may not be sufficient to provide adequate nutrition, and his social interaction and advancement among those not sharing this sad state is stifled by stigma. Newly obtained freedom is like this, and this is the situation faced by that ancient tribe.

Instructions for the practice of this holiday are found in Leviticus 23 and Numbers 29. Again this festival is found by sighting the crescent in the seventh moon and counting 15 days, when the moon should be fullest. The practice involves the building of a temporary shelter of locally obtained materials. Presumably the Israelites used very crude materials to build dwellings. In our family we camp out and cook in our Sukkot booth for seven nights. We build pole structures from cut or fallen limbs and cover with jute cloth made for deer blinds, lining the interior with cheap lightweight tarps as windbreak/insulation. We build our stove from clay and/or stone found at the location. Everything is done under the assumption that we have limited resources for this temporary situation. This entire planned event forms a real impression on the mind of a child. They love to have a go at making their own structure, and starting their own fire to cook their own food. It is a holiday event that celebrates the accomplishment of being able to make it on your own without the luxuries of the place you left behind. Following through every year with this practice at a prescribed date allows the participants to gauge attained growth and develop a sense of which deficiencies need to be addressed. This holiday along with passover and feast of weeks forms a chain of celebrations which coincide with important harvests. We found in our days spent living in the Sukkot booth this past year that aside from the hay harvest we were wrapping up with, the wild grape vines were full of ripe fruit and the hackberry, pear, and persimmon trees which dot the Oklahoma landscape were covered in ripening little blessings as well. We consumed piles of wild grapes during our celebration and made puckery faces eating the persimmon flesh.

All of the preparations I have described herein are very basic, and common knowledge to the readers of this blog. My hope is to share a practical method of incorporating productive behaviors into, or understanding them to be present within, ancient traditions and festivities which I find most wholesome to embrace. When practiced with regularity like a fire drill, and with the attention which accompanies exciting events and holidays, preparedness can become an enjoyable tradition for your family that will endure for generations. If these are not your traditions or you don't feel comfortable practicing traditions foreign to you, find these practical applications within the tradition of your people. If you have no traditions, it's time to start some!

To follow up on chicken coop design article "A Newbie's Perspective on Raising Chickens", please consider: 

My first coop had chicken wire all the way down to the ground.  The possums would get one on each side at night, bounce the chickens from side to side (chickens are stupid at night) and then they would grab one through the wire and extrude them through the wire eating as they went.  Within a month they were all gone.  The whole thing was very disturbing.

My new coop has plywood sides with hardware cloth (1/2" squares) on the upper part.  As in the article, mine is closed in with plywood siding on three sides (1/2 way on the ends) and open at the top on the remaining sides with siding on the bottom part (all the way around)  The closed in area has the nesting boxes.  I did a closed in room behind the nesting boxes so I can access the boxes by lifting a small door in each box on the rear wall.

In the chicken run area, I used chicken wire at the top and roof but I used hardware cloth for the first two feet off the ground.  Raccoons and possum are proficient climbers and will easily access the coop mentioned yesterday.  There is also nothing to stop an owl or chicken hawk.  We have panthers and I am sure an open top will not stop them.  if you put a pressure treated wood piece at the bottom perimeter in the dirt as a nailer, it will be very difficult for an animal to dig in.  I have not had any problem.  I did use cypress fence lumber in the beginning and that has rotted out.
 
Additionally, I put a thin stainless floor over pressure treated plywood in my coop, sloped it slightly towards one wall, left an small 3/4" gap under the wall bottom plate which is what the studs are fastened to  (supported on short 3/4" wood blocks every two feet) and I put a 3/4" piece of wood in the gap (loose)  to keep the snakes out.  Removing the wood plug allows me to wash down the floor.  If you taper the wood block and point the taper to the inside, it will funnel the waste out.

I am having a problem with something getting my larger birds during the day while they are free range, mainly the turkeys but the loss is manageable.  A fake owl has stopped most of my chicken hawk losses during free range.
 
In my garden area next to the coop, the chicken wire buried in the ground has rusted away and this weekend project is to put another wood nailer on top of the first one to refasten the shorter wire.

And regarding the recent article on underground caches I must mention you need to put a hard secondary cap over a rubber cap or a plastic bucket that is buried at a shallow depth.  This protective secondary cap can be made of thicker hard plastic, aluminum, steel, or pressure treated plywood.  I have cows (and they would collapse a rubber cap or a bucket.  A metal cap prevents that.  Of course metal will show up with a metal detector which would be good for you if you are caching so that would be bad if you have unwanted people searching.  With a cap, you can also use a probe to help relocate your items if the soil is not rocky. If you bury deep enough, you could use a dummy scrap metal piece above the cap to fool a coin shooting metal detector.

Mr. Rawles and Readers,
I would like to make an additional comment on the well written article “A Newbie’s Perspective on Raising Chickens”.  It is true, that most of the hatchery breeds of chickens have lost their inclination to brood, however a few breeds still maintain their skills as good brood hens.  We purchased three Silkie chickens two years ago and I have been amazed at their tenacity toward both laying and setting eggs.  One hen tried for six weeks to set eggs in the pen in the middle of a snow drift in February and March.  She was so persistent that I had to build a small shelter over her to protect her.  Another hen tried twice to set a clutch of eggs.  She even continued to set after her eggs were destroyed by another hen.  I purchased three baby chicks from the local feed store and snuck them under her one evening about dusk.  She promptly stood up with a startled “BOK” and settled down on those babies.  It was an instant bond.  She is once again setting this spring.

I would also like to extol the virtues of the Silkie breed roosters.  We have had a couple of regular breed roosters that were brutal to both our hens, and us.  I finally had to dispatch them to chicken heaven.  We now have a Silkie rooster.  Silkies are a smaller breed and the males are very mild-tempered.  Because of the smaller size, they don’t tear up the hens (or the owners) like the large breeds.  Roosters are not only necessary for breeding but they provide protection to the flock.  They will sound a loud alarm when an intruder is in the area or a predator flies over head.  The hens know to immediately get under cover.  Roosters also alert hens to especially good food when they are free ranging.

I don’t recommend getting all of your flock in the Silkie type or any other small breed.  Definitely mix up the flock for size, temperament, cold hardiness and productivity.  Some of the old breeds work well like the Rhode Island Reds, Barred Rocks and Orpingtons.  These have proven to be hardy and consistent layers.  Because we live in an Alpine area near a ski resort, I have found the Leghorns to be inferior in length of time they produce as well as hardiness.  I have also found that on bitter cold nights, I need to bring my little Silkie hens in at night and house them in a cage in the basement.
Regardless of the breed, chickens are guaranteed to provide enjoyment and eggs in the right setting.  Of all the “farm” animals, they are one of the easiest to raise and keep.
Thank you for all you do through Christ, - Heather S.

I wanted to comment on this article.  I thought it was a great play by play of getting chickens and keeping them for eggs.

Just a few comments about the article and some tips I've learned over the years (mistakes I made myself) that I figure could help Adventane and others reading the article.
 
1.  It's common for a group of hens to find a preferred nest and use it as a community nest.  I commonly find two hens in the same nest.
 
2.  The crumbles are great for smaller birds but unfortunately for larger laying hens and other mature birds they can be a waste of money. Chickens are notorious for scratching it all out to find the perfect grain.  Pellets are a better choice and reduce waste IMHO.  Scratch grain is more than necessary during the winter when some animals look for high sources of fiber (it apparently helps them warm).
 
3.  For keeping some grass growing inside runs you can always place a grazing frame inside.  This is small wooden frame with 1/2" hardware cloth covering.  The chickens can't scratch it up but they can take advantage of the grass peeking through.
 
4.  Unfortunately most hatchery chickens have had the broodiness bred out of them.  Adeantane should not be worried about introducing new hens.  The adaptation period is generally short and mostly painless.

Thanks, - Jason A.

More than fifteen years ago my wife and I began collecting a year’s supply of food.  Once we’d collected almost 20 cases of food in #10 cans, we pretty much let the matter slip from our thoughts.  It wasn’t until about six years ago that we began to realize that we didn’t really know what we had, or how long it might last.  That led us to thinking about what else we needed, and eventually we stepped with full intent into the prepping mindset.  We recently moved out of the urban shadow of a major US metropolis and into a small ‘Mayberry’-type town.  We found new friends, one of whom has a flock of about half a dozen laying hens.  After hearing his occasional story and anecdote over the months, my wife got it into her head that we needed to also do something like that.

Now whatever the reader might think of me or my masculinity for bowing to my wife’s wishes in such a crazy idea, let me only say that you haven’t known her for as long as I have, and one of the most important things I’ve learned is that she can be truly inspired by God.

At first I moved slowly.  We don’t have the land for raising flocks of chickens, and I don’t know yet if it’s even permitted in our town.  However, I did some reading and some internet searches and learned a few things.  While I was doing that she was actually working on the project.  She spoke frequently with friends about our/her plans until she found a nearby family that had the land and might just be persuaded to join in her reckless scheme.

We met to discuss the matter, sharing what little we all knew, and honestly, some of it was laughable.  But not letting ignorance stand in the way of progress, the two wives decided to go ahead and order a small flock.  Then they told us husbands that we’d better get moving on putting together a coop and a protected yard.  Not much can motivate a man more than the concern of disappointing his beloved, so we men-folk got started.  So here are the details of our joint effort, and some lessons learned.  (Full disclosure; I have no financial interest in any products or businesses that I may name, and will receive no compensation for any positive reviews.)
 
Our Girls, The Hens

Our wives ordered a flock of a dozen Sussex hens.  They are a reliable laying breed with good cold weather resistance, and this was useful, as we can have snow on the ground for about half of the winter days each year.  They were shipped together and were a month or two short of their standard laying age when they arrived, but I understand that gives them a little time to finish maturing and to become acclimated to their new home.  They are docile birds, (ours are brown in color,) and tend to greet us when we enter their yard, sometimes following us and pecking gently at shoelaces or socks.  They are still nervous at being picked up, but rarely struggle when I do it.  I’ve been told that our friends’ children can pick them up and sometimes even cradle them on their backs without the girls getting frantic.

They lay brown eggs.  The first ones laid were small, slightly larger than golf balls, but now they are all normal in size.  A few are double yolks, but this is rare.  They do have a slightly stronger flavor than store-bought eggs, but not as strong as the wild goose eggs that I’ve sometimes found in this area.

When they arrived we saw that they had all undergone de-beaking, or beak trimming.  This has become a common practice with laying hens, as it removes about 20 or 30% off the tip of the beak.  This reduces the severity of any injury if pecking occurs within the flock.  This hopefully prevents the hens from eventually descending into cannibalism.  The job done on our girls’ beaks appeared to have been a little rough, but I’ve seen no evidence that it causes them any current discomfort.  When they’ve taken food from my hand it’s felt like tapping my palm firmly with an index finger.  A sharp beak would probably have felt more like getting poked with a pencil point.  That is only supposition, however.  I cannot offer more of an opinion either for or against the process of de-beaking in domestic fowl.
 
Care

Our friends’ oldest son takes care of most of the daily feeding and watering.  My wife and I come by when our schedules permit, which averages 30 to 60 minutes twice a week.  We try to let the girls out to scratch in the field.  The daily care is done mostly by them, but we help out where we can.  Let’s be honest; a 12 year old boy probably has a lot of other things he’d rather do than farming chores, so it’s only fair that we help out without complaining.
 
Their Shelter

Our partner was able to collect scrap lumber from his job and used that to build the coop.  It measures about 6 feet square with a 7 foot ceiling.  A single light bulb is always on, as we understand it helps the girls in the laying process if their day isn’t too short.  I expect we’ll turn it off in the summer time.   There are enough laying boxes for each of the girls to have their own, but we’ve seen that they tend to share.  We’ll frequently find three eggs in one box and four in another, indicating that they aren’t territorial.  They like to clump them together.  There are three horizontal perching rods inside, each about 3 feet long, for them to sleep on at night.  Access is via one  door for us and two for the girls.  Two are recommended in case one of the girls tries to block one in a dominance display.  The coop itself was built on stilts.  This provides protection from rodents that would otherwise nest under the floor, and it also tends to keep smaller children from climbing up inside without  adult supervision, as the first step is about 24 inches.  This entire structure was built in one side what may have been an old horse stable; it measures about 13x20 feet and is open on two adjacent sides.  This provides some wind protection, but even better rain and snow protection, as the coop was built under the existing roof.  This gives the girls some room for scratching and exercise.  Due to the slope of the land, some rainwater tends to flow in under the walls.  I’m working to improve the drainage so the girls don’t have to walk in muddy areas.

I was in charge of the fencing, and my wife and I dug about 30 feet of a 2-foot deep trench before finding out the high cost of the fencing I’d had in mind.  (I’d read that extending the heavy fencing deep underground would deter almost all digging predators.)  After apologizing and filling in the trench, I rigged electric fencing around their little yard.  I used single-strand wiring and an 8-foot grounding rod, and ran two lines in an alternating horizontal pattern starting at about one inch above the ground level and ending about 6 feet up.  The strands are 2 inches apart lower down, and the spacing increases after every few strands, so the upper lines have an 8-inch separation.  Above the final strand is a 2-foot gap to the roof, but I figure no predators will be able to jump that.  Electrical power is available to the stable, so that is used to power the system.  I chose a Dare Products Enforcer, model DE 60.  It’s rated to cover 4 acres of fencing, and provides .15 joules of kick.  I usually test it each visit by touching one hand across two wires and getting snapped.  I once tried touching the soil and a wire with opposite hands, and the jolt across my chest was more like a fist-punch.  I’ve not tested it that way since.

The wires are strung on the outside of the 6x6 beams that support the roof.  I rigged a 24-inch width of standard chicken wire around the inside of the beams to prevent the girls from reaching through and getting shocked.  However one day I was inside scattering dry grass and they were outside when one of the girls took off like a shot, quite angry and loud.  Seems she’d gotten a little too close and learned for herself what the yellow wiring can do.

The other two walls of their enclosure are old 4x8 plywood panels, and in most places they don’t quite extend to the ground.  This would have offered an easy entrance to any predator willing to dig for a few minutes.  Rather than slap wire fencing vertically on the wall, I laid it horizontally on the ground under the wall.  The fencing is 2”x4” welded wire, 18 gauge I believe, 3 feet wide.  About 4 inches extends into the chickens’ yard and the rest is outside, staked down in several places to prevent it from being dragged or tripped over.  Any predator digging at the base of the wall would have its efforts immediately frustrated.  I expect that some ground cover will grow up through it in the spring, helping to both hide and anchor it.
 
Feed
We purchase 50-lb sacks of layers crumbles, and they currently cost about $16.50 each.  ‘Crumbles’ is a mixture of rough-ground grains and has the consistency of cornmeal.  The girls have no problems with the feed, meaning they’re showing no evidence food fatigue.  I’m contemplating getting an extra bag of scratch grains feed.  Crumbles feed only gets lost on the ground when I’ve scattered it for them.  ‘Scratch’ consists of whole grain kernels, which will be easier to see and will provide them some variety.  Over the new year’s holiday I was delayed several days in getting a fresh bag.  That meant our friends had to find makeshift food, and it wasn’t fair to them or the girls.  The extra bag of scratch grains will provide a backup food source, and it has a longer shelf life than the crumbles.

The food is currently stored inside a galvanized steel trash can to remove the risk of attracting rodents. We suspend their feeding and watering trays about 8 inches off the ground for the same reason.

The water supply is susceptible to freezing, and one of the mornings I visited I had to chip the ice off the surface.  Since then I rigged a 60 watt bulb inside a half-cinder block, and set the water tray on top instead of suspending it.  It’ll keep the water warm enough, but the red glow from the plastic tray is kind of spooky.  It is intended to only be used when cold weather threatens, as it did for about a week recently.

The girls like a variety of foods, and kitchen leftovers are sometimes much appreciated.  “Sometimes” refers to both the food and the delivery method.  For example, they don’t like carrots.  Same with an over-ripe zucchini.  The ignored a half-apple someone tossed in, until it was stepped on; then the girls loved the resulting mush.  They love breads, but tossing in a three-inch heel from a stale loaf of french bread was useless.  They can’t eat it until it’s broken up, and they need us to do that for them.  I heard that chickens like raisins, but so far ours don’t.  We’re still learning.

Obviously, we’re trying to make this a working partnership, so finding faults or making recommendations for changes has to be done… diplomatically.  Only the condition of the water and feed get promptly mentioned to the parents if we find them empty.
 
Well-Being

Our Sussex hens are quiet birds.  They’ll ramp up their chatter when they hear someone approaching, because they’re curious to see who it is.  They seem to get along well; I’ve seen a few brief instances of pecking between some of them, but so far there’s not a bird who stands out as either the alpha or the omega.  They sometimes scare my 5-year old grandson when they get close, but he’s getting used to them and asked to see them when he was last at our place for a sleep-over.

As mentioned, we let them out occasionally to scratch in the surrounding field.  Their enclosed yard isn’t overly large, so they’ve scratched up what little vegetation there was.  I make an effort at each visit to pull up several handfuls of long grass from the surrounding field and scatter it in their yard.  It was originally intended to help soak up the puddles that sometimes formed after the rain.  Instead I found that the girls also enjoy eating it!  It also now provides a place to hide other food/treat items that they can discover as they satisfy their instinct to scratch.
 
Threats

Our area has its share of predators.  Raccoons and foxes are probably the most prevalent.  Before I had the electric fencing finished and charged up a neighbor’s dog got into their yard on two separate days.  Fortunately he wasn’t large, and he seemed more interested in the birds as entertainment, rather than food.  After the fence was activated there have been no problems.  However I have seen footprints of a large canine around the fencing.  This may be why we had our greatest loss.

I previously mentioned the gap I’d left above the electric fencing.  I stopped at that height because it became unwieldy for me to stand on a chair on the damp ground, and besides, no predator would jump that high, right?  The mypetchicken.com web site says that Sussex chickens are not prone to flying when mature.  Perhaps the girls weren’t yet fully grown (although they were already laying regularly,) or perhaps some of them didn’t read the web page, but several of them showed a tendency for escapes.  They stayed close to their yard, fortunately.  At first I thought the fencing had been shut off or the wires had been loosened.  After it happened again  my daughter and I trimmed several of the primary flight feathers on one wing of each bird, so that they would be unbalanced if they tried flying again.  It wasn’t  enough; we had yet another escape.  Eventually I resolved to block the gap above the wires with a few more rows of horizontal twine, and see if that kept them in.  I didn’t act soon enough.

Just before Christmas I got a text from our partner saying that 3 of the birds had gone to heaven.  Several patches of feathers outside showed where they’d been killed and partially plucked.  It was a needless loss, due to my procrastination.  After that I promptly ran the twine above the wire, and we’ve had no more escapes.  The feathery patches are still there, and they provide a sobering reminder of my need to be a more faithful steward.
 
What the future holds

We’ve discussed ordering a few replacements, but from what I’ve read the addition of new birds to a flock frequently results in pecking and a period of anxiety.  Another option would be to rent a rooster and see if any of our girls want to brood.  That’s a process I’ve only read about so far, so I can’t offer anything on the subject.  I do understand that a broody hen will need to be isolated from the rest of the flock for about 2 months, until the hatched chicks are at least a month old, and that she’ll not produce again for a few months after that.  Right now that step is only in the discussion phase.

Either way, the size of the coop is sufficient that we might keep up to 20 birds.  All we would need to add would be a couple more roosting perches.

Sussex hens aren’t bred for eating, but I realize that that will be the intended finish for our girls some day.  I’m not looking forward to that because, frankly, I’ve grown rather fond of them.  Perhaps we’ll sell them to a neighbor, or maybe I’ll have to man up and do the deed.  Either way, I’ll need to prepare for it, so that I can harvest the girls as humanely as possible.

While I am new to the world of prepping; (having just read Discovery to Catastrophe and learned of prepping society), I have lived on a farm my whole life, and have spent the last 16 years home educating and canning my way to heaven.  It appears that my grandmother and mother taught me to be a prepper when I did not even know it and gave me life skills that are severely lacking in America today.  To pay homage to them, I respectfully submit the following essay:

Raising chickens for survival is an interesting topic these days when so many suburbanites are jumping on the bandwagon of backyard poultry simply because they want fresh eggs and a useful pet.  Considering the fact that the useful life of a laying chicken is about 3 to 5 years, with 5 years being a one- egg-a -month stretch, many of these folks are left with the question of how to humanely dispose of their now beloved pet.  If they are not big on chicken and dumplings, the compost pile may be the next best alternative.  Chicken retirement homes are a costly, disease harboring alternative.  But suppose said suburbanite would like to have a last supper with their pet- where to begin? This essay will proceed from egg to table, and the reader may decide where to enter or exit the train ride.

STARTING FROM SCRATCH
The safest and most efficient way to begin a survival flock of chickens is to order 15 to 25 baby chicks from a hatchery and have them delivered to your home in warm spring or summer weather.  By ordering from a commercial hatchery, the chicks will be free of disease, can be vaccinated for Mereck’s disease, and will be of a predictable lineage, meaning the breed will be expected to perform to the owners’ requirements. Research breeds before ordering, and match the chick order to the climate and the intended purpose of the chickens- meat, eggs, dual purpose free range birds or natural insect control. Hatching chicks at home is a romantic idea, but may not play out in reality unless eggs from a disease free flock are available. Hatchery chicks are available by sex also, to avoid raising too many males if eggs are desired, or too many females if fast growing meat males are needed.  Take time to explore the wonderful variety of poultry breeds available for their beauty and versatility.  For instance, many new breeds of pastured poultry like the Red Ranger combine the efficiency of commercial boilers with the free ranging adaptation of older breeds.  Breeds like the Silkie and Cochin are beautiful to look at, but need more protection from weather and predators, and tend to be more interested in hatching eggs than laying them.  Game chickens and jungle fowl require little care, will roost in trees and find their own grub, within reason.  They will hatch chicks and raise them without electric help, but don’t lay that many eggs or produce much meat. Let the chips fall where they may, a weekly chicken dumpling dinner from a bird shot out a tree is okay.  If you want eggs in the winter, consider old breeds like the Russian Orloff or Sussex that are known to be good winter layers, or put a light fixture in your chicken house to stimulate egg laying.

Many heritage breeds of chickens are not available for sexing, which means the chicks will be about half roosters and half hens.  There will be lots of roosters from certain breeds that eat feed but don’t produce much meat.  For economic reasons, it is best to allow these birds to free range in pasture and sunlight, don’t worry about toughness, and allow them to become stock chickens.  Process them for slaughter at about 2 to 3 months of age, as soon as it can be determined they are roosters.  Rooster chicks tend to fight more, have redder combs, a more pointed face, long, lanky legs and shorter tail feathers than pullets.  Of course the proof is in the crow!  In order to save on feed costs and prevent overcrowding and competition with the young pullets, slaughter these birds and turn them into canned chicken stock.  Chicken stock is a very important survival food, especially if water is in short supply.  Stock is an important source of minerals in the human diet, and using it to cook beans or rice in instead of water increases the available nutrition.  It is an important cure for colds and viruses and excellent nutrition for those recovering from injury or illness.  The cookbook Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon has an excellent recipe for soup stock.  Turn all spare poultry into stock during good times, can it in quart jars with a pressure cooker, and your emergency food supply is enriched, while you have less livestock to feed and care for.  (The same can be done with bones harvested from deer, beef or goats as well.)

As soon as the chicks arrive, they need to be placed in a small enclosure indoors (like a bathtub or large storage container) with a heat lamp bulb hung in the center to bring the area to 95 degrees F. Use old bath towels. [JWR Adds: Be sure to use a towel with a cut pile rather than a loop pile, so that the chicks don't snag their claws.] This will create a non-slip surface.  The chicks will need to be brooded at 95 degrees the first week, decreasing the temperature by 5 degrees each week until outside ambient temperature is reached. Clean water and chick starter feed need to be easily accessible.  On a daily basis remove the towels, shake the manure into the compost pile and replace with another clean towel.

At about 5- 6 weeks of age, the chicks will be independent enough that they can be moved to a protected outside enclosure with roosting space and shelter.  Expect to be a good mama hen, keep them out of drafts or damp and away from predators like dogs, cats and raccoons.  Do not leave cat, dog or chicken feed out at night as this attracts predators like raccoons, opossums and skunks.  Chilling of birds is the most likely cause of poultry diseases, many of which are airborne. Keeping birds protected from extremes of weather and good hygiene reduces chances of infection when supported by proper nutrition.

Young pullets begin laying eggs at 20 weeks of age.  Most breeds of meat birds are ready to be dressed at 6-8 weeks, depending on the desired product.  Young hens need a safe, secluded place to lay eggs, and young meat birds should be restricted to small pens to encourage tender growth.  Eggs do not need to be refrigerated unless they have been washed, extra eggs can be shared with neighbors or removed from shells, whisked, and frozen.  Dispatching meat chickens or non-laying (spent) hens is not an overwhelming project with prior preparation.  A garage or well-lit shed will suffice.  Assemble the following materials:

1. A large pot for scalding water with a few drops dish detergent, deep enough to hold water and a whole chicken. Gas camp stove or indoor rangetop.
2. A table covered with newspapers to catch feathers from plucking and blood .     
3. Sharp knives and kitchen scissors.
4. Coolers of ice to chill the birds, after washing the carcass in a large sink.
5. Storage bags or vacuum bags and sealer to  preserve the birds for freezing, or largemouth canning jars to pressure cook canned meats.

Do not feed the chickens the day you plan to slaughter them.  Use para-cord to hang the live bird by its feet (slip knotted) from a tree limb, clothes line or etc.  Use the knife or shears to cut the jugular vein below the jawbone.  Allow the bird to hang and exsanguinate until dead.  [JWR Adds: A killing cone that retrains the chicken in a head down position minimizes the flapping and blood splatter. For smaller breed chickens, a plastic milk jug with the bottom cut off and the top spout enlarged slightly will suffice. You can attach it to a tree with a couple of drywall screws. For more sturdy designs, do a web search. There are lots of designs available on the Internet.] Be prepared for flopping and blood dripping below.  Once the bird is dead, use the legs like handles and dip the bird repeatedly in the hot water until  all the feathers are wet.  Keeping the bird too long in hot water will cook the skin, too cool a water temp will make plucking difficult. Depending upon if the work is done in cool weather or hot, water temperature must be continually monitored.

Pluck the chicken, remove the head and feet.  Remove the crop, esophagus and trachea (which makes a neat whistle!) from the neck side.  Split the skin of the abdomen under the breast bone, carefully bung the rectum and remove all the entrails and the lungs.  Reserve the liver, heart and gizzard if so desired.  Wash the bird thoroughly inside and out.  It is ready to be frozen whole or cut up in parts and canned the in the pressure canner.  If the chicken is going right to the table, soak it in a mild salt water solution while chilling it.  Then prepare older birds in the crock pot for dumplings, or fry younger birds. 

Discard the entrails [forelegs, heads] and feathers in the compost pile, or feed the entrails to your self-sufficient pig.  Pat yourself on the back for graduating from the preppers school of poultry life skills.

[JWR Adds: Chicken entrails should not go in your compost pile if you live in bear country. Bury them several hundred yards away from your house, or you will have uninvited guests!]

James,
I really learned a lot from the Cooking the Farmyard Fowl article by Irishfarmer.  My chicken flock is reaching an average of two years of age and they are laying fewer eggs.  It is time to learn how to put them into the stew pot.

I had two questions raised from that article.  How do you make a killing cone, and how do you kill and process a chicken?  I found good information at the following links:

How to Make a Killing Cone  It includes sizing information ranging from bantams to turkeys.  That page referred me to How to Kill and Process a Chicken

On another subject, I have been compiling information, such as the above, on all subjects of preparedness, by creating PDF files using the free openoffice.org Writer software, and storing the files onto 4GB SDHC cards, which are suitable for use in any basic Android OS type of e-reader device.  I select e-readers based on their ability to display files from SD cards and to be able to charge up from a 12VDC power source.  One such suitable device is the Pandigital Novel, which is now showing up on discount electronics web sites.  I believe that these e-readers and SD cards will be highly useful for both survival and barter in the post SHTF world.

Regards, - Curtis from Texas

In today’s world most people will never pack an animal to move their goods from point A to point B. However it wasn’t that long ago that animal power was the primary land transport system. In a grid down scenario it may return if only briefly. I offer this article only as an introduction, or primer with a few “how to’s” and a few “how not to’s”. If only one piece of knowledge stays with you, it could be very beneficial.
 
Many of the things I will cover are the basic principles of packing.  Some of the knowledge may seem like small details and subtleties but these can be crucial to an uneventful trip. These are learned through experience, trial and error and thoughtful observation. Some of the skills and nuances are becoming things of the past as we as a society become too civilized. Most of the readers of this blog should understand how fragile our system has become. When the supply chain breaks down because of lack of fuel, goods and supplies if available won’t be distributed. Since most people do not have a one year supply of food on hand, options have to be considered. If there is an apple orchard only twenty miles away how will the apples be utilized? Want to trade for some? How are you going to bring them back? In your Bug Out Bag? Wagons may be put into service if available and someone has the knowledge to drive them. Packing a horse or mule, to my way of thinking, will be a better option for most people.

Pack animals can cover just about any terrain and make their way through obstacles that inhibit anything wide or not smooth enough for wheeled vehicles. They have been used though out history to connect, conquer and advance civilizations. The desire to move bigger quantities further distances led to an occupation that few think about today, “The Packer”.  It may prove valuable to at least be aware of the subject.

Saddles: The foundation of your packing equipment will depend on several key items. This includes what kind of animal you are packing, the type of cargo being transported and the availability of saddles or makeshift items to construct a saddle. This may boil down to something as simple as two bags draped over the animals back (which never works out very well). The saddles could be custom made with all the bells and whistles.

The Sawbuck: Used on horses, mules, burros and a variant on llamas and goats. Frames are generally made out of wood, oak for the crosses and something softer like pine or poplar for the bars. The bars are what rest on the animals back and are carved and shaped accordingly. Side loads are hung from the crosses with leather straps attached to the bags or panniers. In my opinion this is the best all-around saddle. It lends itself to almost any equipment and hitch.

The Decker: Very popular in the Rockies and used on horses and mules. Instead of wood crosses steel rods shaped in an upside down U in both the front and back are bolted to the bars. There are variations in shapes that help with different equipment and load scenarios. Hooks are often used on panniers to attach quickly to the saddle. A padded canvas “half breed” is incorporated with this saddle to cushion the animal from the load. It is basically a saddle pad that stays attached to the saddle. Thin pine boards in the bottom of the half breed help distribute weight across the rib cage. The basket and barrel hitches are used commonly with this saddle.

Riding saddles can be used in a variety of ways. Saddle panniers made to fit over riding saddles are quick and easy. Box and diamond hitches can be used without a problem here. A lash rope tied to the saddle horn and looped around the cantle can be tied into a basket hitch. Harder to find now, old military saddles like the McClellan can be reworked into serviceable rigs.

Saddle pads protect the animals back. Whatever you end up using should be kept clean. Caked up sweat, hair and mud will start to rub a sore in their backs. Keep the pads about three inches in front of the saddle so that it doesn’t slip back and allow the saddle bars to dig into the lower withers. Make sure that the pad is square and even before placing the saddle on. Then take your hand and push the pad up into the gullet of the saddle. This takes pressure off of the withers and will allow some air to circulate down the back bone.

Cinches should be kept clean. Wide cinches are best since they have more surface area. Narrow or old cinches that have cords broken only serve to cut the animal in half. If you want to see what getting kicked by a mule feels like, snug up a narrow dirty cinch on a cinch sore.

There are a variety of soft packs that are used on dogs and goats. Most of these hug the animal so care should be taken if hard and irregular items are placed in the packs.

Like your Bug Out Bag the saddle and rigging straps must fit the animal to work correctly and be comfortable. A breeching (or britchen) strap too low on the hind legs will inhibit movement and chaffs the skin. Same with the breast collar, by  placing it too high it can cut off the wind pipe. Saddle the animal and only snug the cinches at first. Let the pads compress and warm up especially when it’s cold. Tighten the cinches right before packing the animal. Done right, the horse or mule won’t become “cinchy”. One mule I used to pack could blow her belly up tighter than a steel drum. I would slowly take up the slack, maybe five times over ten minutes. Sometimes after loading her, the cinches would be loose and hanging down and we hadn’t gone anywhere yet. That was the way that mule preferred it. As long as the load was balanced she would go all day without a problem. Often at the end of the day all of my mules would come into the camp with their cinches swinging. They were working hard, sweating buckets and losing weight. It’s best if they stay snug but shows how balanced loads are key.

Hitches: Diamond, box, basket and barrel hitches are what are mostly used. There are many others and many variations. I have decided not to try to describe these. Some form of visual instruction is vital in my opinion. Pictures, videos or personal instruction will get you started on the right path. I will offer some tips learned from personal experience and observation of other professional packers. Often when watching someone else I learned what not to do!
-Lash ropes should be around 45 feet long and lead ropes 10 to 12 feet. Don’t short yourself.  1/2 inch to 5/8 inch diameter is good to work with. Cotton poly blends are nice, they don’t stretch as much as straight cotton. If cotton gets wet and freezes you are all done, you’ll need a saw to get any knots out. Manila is better in the cold and wet.
-Tie it right the first time. A living breathing animal is a huge variable in the equation. If the hitch is not right there will be a problem. It may be small and fixed quickly, or it could be quite a wreck.
-Don’t let excess rope dangle. Stumps, brush, logs, rocks and feet all have a way of “grabbin a-holt” of a loose rope.
-Any metal, such as cinch hooks, should not be in contact with the animal.
-Some people feed the lash rope through the spreader strap connecting the cinches. I don’t. If you have a wreck this can compound your problems. It’s harder to take the hitch off when your mule is standing knee deep in a creek with his load under his belly. During a wreck this strap is often broken any way.
-Always face the cinch hooks backwards so they don’t catch brush and branches.
-Always use the most effective and simplest hitch for that particular load. Don’t weave a spider web.

Loads: Amazing things have been moved with animals, grindstones, suspension bridge cables, timbers, wood cook stoves, eggs, guitars, gold and silver ore, generators and grandmas rocking chair. There are two main considerations here, the animals comfort and a balanced load. Without either one your load will be lost or the animal hurt. Now packing is one of those jobs where there are many ways to accomplish the end result. Endless arguments are made on the best way to pack a particular load. Do we split it in half? Box or basket hitch? Wouldn’t the diamond be better? In any event we can use some generalities in using the right tool for the right job.
-Canvas panniers: These are great for general purpose packing. Remember to place flat or soft items on the side going next to animal.
-Boxes or hard panniers: Use for canned goods, loose or heavy items. Provides protection to items like; eggs, pie, whisky bottles and Coleman lanterns.
-Slings: These are made of a sheet of canvas, maybe five feet long by two feet wide. At the top is attached a thin board with leather ears that the load hangs off of the saddle by. Two leather straps on the outside support the weight and wrap the canvas around the load. Great for duffle bags, hay bales, ice chests, cook boxes and the like. Quicker than having to manty some items up.
Manty: Basically a big canvas sheet wrapped or folded around smaller objects and tied up with half hitches to make a big duffle. It is used a lot with the decker pack saddle and the basket hitch.
-Top pack: This is gear placed over the animals back and onto each of the side loads. It’s usually lighter and softer than the rest of your load, like a bed roll. This can be shifted off center to help with balance.
-Pack covers are thrown over the tops of loads to help secure items and protect them from the elements. 6x8 or so is about right. Tuck the edges under the load and lash rope. This prevents tears, hang-ups and keeps the load secure.
-Load weights; Yes, I know that some of you He Men out there can carry a one hundred pound bug out bag, but for how many days in a row? See, this is why I like a pack mule; I’m not carrying the weight. Or if I do carry a pack, it’s a light one, allowing me freedom of movement. So, for day in day out traveling shoot for about 20% of body weight. As an example I would pack up to two hundred pounds on a standard to large size horse or mule. THIS INCLUDES THE WEIGHT OF THE SADDLE, ROPES AND PANNIERS ETC. We usually went for no more than one hundred and fifty pounds of cargo. Once the animals are in shape they can go like this a long time with an occasional day off.

To be efficient all voids are filled in making up the load. NO WASTED SPACE! A coffee pot for example would be filled with small items or maybe your coffee beans. Packing is an art and it is a 3-D puzzle. Now I have put together some unusual combinations, but a word of caution here, use common sense. Fuels such as gasoline should be completely sealed and checked. If it should leak out it will burn the animal’s skin and leave blisters. And don’t place it with your food items.

All sharp items such as axes, saws, shovels etc. should each be in a scabbard, sheath or wrapped securely. The front and back edges of loads should not come into contact with shoulders or hips. Tender raw spots will stop any travel plans. Baler twine or Para cord are used to tie up wrapped duffels or make quick repairs to saddles and rigging. Duct tape is one of the marvels of the world. Use it for taping over axes and shovels, repair holes in tarps, smooth over rough surfaces that might come into contact with the animal, keep buckles and hooks in place. Tape ice chest handles down to stop them from “knocking out a tune” while going down the trail. An ice chest on each side makes a great load but the handles banging and clacking gets old quickly and maybe you don’t want to attract attention with undo noise.

Balance is the key to packing a load so start with the saddle in the middle of the mules back. As an animal moves down the trail the load will rock back and forth. This is natural. If the load is balanced it will stay where it is supposed to, on the animal. Many people use scales to weigh out the cargo. This helps get close. When I worked as a packer we often would have contests to see who could come closest “by feel”. Picking up fifty to seventy five pound side loads, we could often get to within a pound or two. However, this alone will not mean that your load will balance. Is the majority of the weight high or low, inside or outside of the pack? Leverage plays a part here. After hanging your loads on the saddle, the packer rocks the load by pushing down on one side. Does it move equally side to side? Think of a teeter totter. Even if each side weighs the same they may not balance on the animal due to the weight distribution in the side loads. To correct this several things can be done. First check the ears or straps of the load hanging on the saddle. Are the loads hanging equidistant down each side? One may need to hang lower. Adjust up or down so the load rocks evenly. Items can be moved from one side to the other and the top pack can be moved off center to achieve balance. These should be small adjustments only. If the loads are really out of whack they need to be repacked. After starting your trip many loads will settle and items may shift. It is critical to pay attention and watch the loads as they rock back and forth as the animal moves. After you have started no one wants to repack. Adjustments can be made on the trail by using a “pack rock”. Take a fairly flat rock weighing a few pounds and shove it under the lash ropes on the outside of the pack. This adds weight and leverage to the lighter side.

Here are a few more considerations.
-Give your animals time to negotiate obstacles; they can handle the load better if not forced into going too fast.
-If your animals are tied in a string know that they have a pecking order. Some critters are best not tied to each other.
-Never tie your lead rope hard and fast to your saddle horn. If something doesn’t break you are likely to get pulled over. Take a dally if you need, and let go when necessary.
-Don’t use oversize saddle bags. I have seen this time and again. Thirty or forty pounds of dead weight over the horses’ kidneys is not doing him any favors. At this point pack the saddle correctly and walk yourself. An out of shape horse carrying too much weight first thing in the spring heading into the mountains will die. I’ve seen it.  
-The length of the lead rope should allow the animal to lower its head to the ground or get a drink but without any slack in it. Too much slack and one of the animals will step over it. A rope up between a horses’ hind legs is uncomfortable and they will let you know it. A front foot over the lead rope pulls that leg into the air and his head down when the leading animal takes off. It’s Hard to walk that way. And it always seems to cause rope burns.
-You may want to have a troublesome load on your lead mule where you can watch it easier.
-Learn how to tie a quick release knot and a bowline.
-There are many ways to tie animals together into a string and many arguments can be made for and against each. Never tie into the load of the leading mule. This would cause the load to be pulled off the animal. The majority of the time I tied the lead rope into a weak link on the saddle of the leading mule. Usually this was baler twine or Para cord. It can be tied into the back buck or ring of the saddle. Some make a “reach” from the top rigging rings to the back middle of the saddle. Then tie in a loop of baler twine or small diameter rope for the weak leak link. This kept the mule string together but allowed them to break apart and prevent catastrophe. Although there are situations calling for it, many horses and mules have been injured or even killed because they were tied hard and fast and one of the animals miss-stepped surged forward or pulled back at the wrong time. Steep switch backs and drop offs call for more attention when pulling a long string. One animal not staying in line and going around the wrong side of a tree always makes things exciting. Many packers use a bowline to tie the pack animals together. A better knot is a modified sheep shank. A loop of the lead rope is passed through the weak link and held with the remaining tail. Two half hitches are thrown over this with the rope leading back to the animal. This method stays tight and will always untie.
-Keep your animals hydrated. They need the water just like you do.

Horses, mules, llamas, dogs, goats and other four footed critters can be a huge help in logistical support. My experience deals with horses and mules but a lot of the principle methods hold true across the board. After an initial grid down disaster and a lack of fossil fuels, people may be forced to go back to real horse power. There are several good books on packing. I think one of the best is Horses, Hitches & Rocky Trails by Joe Back. A used copy should run you around ten bucks. His illustrations alone are worth the price.

Packing in the Rockies and Sierra Nevada wilderness areas has given me many fond memories. To ride a good horse, while leading a smart looking string of mules is satisfying.  Do it around a high country lake after the snow has melted in the spring and feel connected to the universe.

Hi Jim,

A couple of things worth considering for painless pet euthanasia.  This is never a pleasant subject, but:

1. Carbon monoxide poisoning.  People die of this painlessly all the time.   Prepare a setup now to connect to your vehicle exhaust (or any other gas engine exhaust) to an enclosure sized to hold your pet.

2. A person can be made unconscious simply by pressing two fingers against the juggler veins in the neck without any feeling of strangling or otherwise. It's like going to sleep (the brain is deprived of oxygen and you black out).  A prolonged application of this will cause brain damage, of course, and eventually death.  I don't know the specifics, but one might be able to find out by a medical person or veterinarian about application to a pet.

Sincerely, - Paul B.

JWR:
Responding to J.M.’s letter, Advice on Disaster Pet Euthanasia, I would like to say that even living on a hobby farm and dispatching chickens, turkeys, and sheep, if it came to putting one of my dogs down before a bugout it would still be difficult. Most good dog owners realize their dogs are not “just” animals, there is some degree of person-hood there that requires consideration and compassion. They’re not human beings, but they’re also not just inert, instinct-driven things either.

Trust me that euthanasia is only stressful up to the point where you actually do the deed. After that point it is a relief, and you know you did what had to be done. You move on to the next thing on the list and the grieving can wait until things settle down a bit, and it’s not an emergency any longer.

Speaking for myself, I find it enormously comforting to realize that God probably has a purpose for them beyond this life. Not sure why that’s so comforting, I guess it’s just realizing that God has a plan and He is good beyond my wildest imagination (and I can imagine a lot!).

Ponder the implications of these tantalizing Bible verses: Psalm 36:6, Psalm 50:10-11, Psalm 145:9, Proverbs 12:10, Ecclesiastes 3:21, Romans 8:21, Revelation 4 (mistranslated in most English versions as “living creature” the word is actually “animal” – the animal kingdom is represented before the very Throne of God!), and the inclusiveness of Revelation 5:13 – 14. I don't believe that the “Lamb who was slain” will forget the lambs who were by their very being a picture of his character. I just don't believe they will be left behind in the glory to come. And that’s an encouraging thought.

That said, for me it’s a matter of making a rational decision (usually old age or illness, so far) based on criteria that my wife and I decided on long in advance of the actual need. Make a list! And when the circumstances fit that list then decide! Follow through on that decision by doing what must now be done, suck it up, do not dwell on it or stew on it or stall – just set aside your emotions for a few minutes and focus on doing it right for your animal friend.

One thing that has been a big help for us in the past is to give our dog a dose of Acepromazine, an inexpensive, commonly-prescribed veterinary drug that we have on hand for sedating our animals during trips (and there was that one hyper dog who freaked out in thunderstorms…). If you crush the tablet (and give an overdose) then mix it with a little peanut butter you won’t have any problem getting your dog to take it, and when crushed it will take effect more quickly and more profoundly.

Being sedated, your dog will not pick up your agitation/stress/fear in the crisis situation and they’ll be easier to handle, you might even need to carry them or drag them on a rug or tarp if the sedative hits before you’re ready (might only be a minute or two). I wouldn’t try to smother a dog, it takes too long, is very hands-on, and even sedated the dog may reflexively struggle. Bleeding an animal out once deeply sedated is fairly quick (with presumably little perceived pain) with a deep cut to the neck jugular vein behind the jaw (shave off the hair, if you have time, to be able to see what you’re doing there).  

Using a firearm as James Rawles described is the quickest and most humane method, just bring enough gun – dog’s skulls can be very hard in the bigger breeds (I’d recommend being sure the bullet is entering perpendicular to their skull, or nearly so). Take your time and do it by the book. If your dog is sedated but still moving around you might need to tie them to something to safely hold their head still. (Once your dog is sedated you do not want to offer them anything else to eat or drink, so be sure you’ve got the sedative dose you want on the first try.) You do not want to botch your first shot. And make sure there’s no one downrange or anywhere a ricocheting shot might go!

If you have enough Acepromazine you may be able to give a massive overdose and they will just fall asleep and stop breathing on their own. Unless you have a stethoscope and are experienced with its use you can’t assume your dog has passed on, so once you think it’s dead you’ll need to take some additional step to guarantee that fact. They’re already dead, it’s just their dead body now, and you’re just making absolutely positive. Some paracord ought to do the trick… Our dogs depend on us, if we’re going to do it we need to get it right – they’re counting on a quick, humane death and we owe them that much.

Look, I know this is a hard, hard topic to discuss! People hate to talk about death, but we MUST! Working out the final details for your beloved companion dog will be a good conversation-starter for talking about our own deaths, and the deaths we may one day be forced into inflicting in self-defense. I’m sorry it’s so hard – ask God to help you through it with clarity and peace. Jesus, after all, knows all about death… and conquered it!

I fully expect to see my dogs around the Throne of God as well as redeemed humanity, angels, cherubs, seraphim, and however many other classes and species of sentient life God has chosen for the honor. It will be a big, noisy, slobbery reunion!

“He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed.” – Revelation 21:4 Amen!
 
Trust God. Be Prepared. We can do both! - ShepherdFarmerGeek in Spokane

Mr. Rawles,
I am constantly impressed by the wealth of information that I am able to find on your web site and I would like to take this opportunity to thank you and all involved for the work you do on this.  I was also wondering if you, or your readers, might be able to help me out with a certain, unsavory aspect of my preps.  

Currently, our family is overseas in a country where we are required to maintain an evacuation plan and needed supplies at all time.  I am wholly on-board with this and have done this, even when not required, no matter where in the world we have found ourselves.  This time, however, we seem to have hit a potential snag in our evacuation plan in regards to one member of the family - the dog.  We brought the dog along with us (as we have done to several other countries) and were fully aware that, in an evacuation scenario we would be legally required to bring her with us to the evacuation point.  We have no issue with this and are fully prepared should the need arise.  However, we have now been told (contrary to the information received when deciding whether to bring the dog) that the dog's presence will potentially delay my children being evacuated as quickly as possible.  This, I have a huge issue with.  I have owned this dog since long before I met my husband or had our children, but I am still fully aware that it is only an animal, and my children's safety most definitely comes first.  

Should it ever come down to my dog or my children, the dog needs to be removed from the equation, no matter how well-loved she is.  Our concern now is how to best prepare for the potential need to euthanize the dog.  Unfortunately, I have been unable to find reliable information on this subject on the internet, as the vast majority of voices on this subject spout that only a licensed vet should be allowed to handle euthanasia.  In an perfect world, that would be where I would take her, but in a chaotic, SHTF situation I will need something a bit more hands-on.  If we were stateside, we would have the ability to simply choose the proper caliber, but due to our current location, firearms are not an available solution.  

Ideally, I am looking for the quickest, most humane way to put down a dog when firearms are unavailable and without the use of drowning or baseball bats (two of the more cruel solutions presented online that I could never bring myself to use on the family pet).  She is roughly 35-40 lbs and I am no bodybuilder, so I'm assuming that attempting something bare-handed, such as snapping her neck, would be not only ineffective, but cruelly inhumane as well.  Are there human medications that could be used to put the dog to sleep?  If a knife is necessary, what type is most effective and what would be the most humane cut to make?  I have never had to dispatch an animal before so please excuse the ignorance in these questions.
Sincerely, - J.M.

JWR Replies: Readers are advised to research their state and local laws. As J.M. mentioned, it is not legal for individuals to euthanize their pets in some sissified Nanny States. The proverbial "long walk in the woods" is never pleasant for those who must pull the trigger, but a .22 to the brain is quick and painless. SurvivalBlog reader Steve N. recommends shooting squarely down into the brain at a point made at the cross of imaginary lines drawn from each eye to the opposite ear opening. The shot should be angled in such a way as to have the shot travel in a straight line to where the spinal cord would meet the brain. (Aim very carefully, make sure that you have a safe backstop and be advised that in most jurisdictions, shooting is not allowed inside city limits.) If silence is a must, then repeated hammer blows to the back of the skull work well, and generally this isn't messy. For those who are soft-hearted about their pets, I recommend asking a neighbor to do the deed. And unless you are extremely soft-hearted, you should offer to return the favor, at a later date. (This way you aren't euthanizing your own pet.)

How can a family cow be an ideal addition to your food storage and survival plan? We started our self-reliance plan with gardening.  Then we planted a few fruits and added chickens.   One day we realized that if we had a cow, we could truly be self-sufficient with our food supply.    We now raise family sized milk cows with grazing genetics in Virginia.  This article should persuade SurvivalBlog readers who own two or more acres, of the wisdom of owning a family cow. It should also answer questions we frequently hear.

Why a Cow?
Owning a cow produces milk, cream (butter, crème fraiche, sour cream, cream cheese), hundreds of cheeses, buttermilk, yogurt (which you can keep going for years), ice cream, meat (the bull calves), and manure for the garden and fields.  Raw grass-fed milk is 500% higher in conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) which is has health benefits for the heart, joints, and a myriad of other things.  Raw milk has natural probiotics and enzymes to help you digest all the goodness in the milk.  In fact, we learned that 90% of people who think they are dairy intolerant, are just reacting to the processing.  We used to think that three in our family were allergic to milk but found out that they can all drink raw milk and have no reactions whatsoever.

Raw milk is probably one of the most nutritious foods on the planet and has all the amino acids.  According to history, the famous Mongolian warlord Genghis Khan would ride a mare and take a mare into the rugged winter mountains and live on raw mare's milk for weeks at a time during his battle forays.   One could survive quite a long time on raw milk.  I know people who have done raw milk fasts for weeks at a time and their health thrived.

How to Purchase a Family Milk Cow? 
One can choose to purchase a calf or a mature cow.  There are advantages to both and some of it may come down to personal preference and/or budget. 
It will be less expensive to start with a weanling.  If one starts with a calf that has been “bottle” fed (as long as the calf has been fed with the bottle in a bottle holder the calf should not become too pushy.  Otherwise, they tend to butt you as they would their mom.  That is not "cute" when they get bigger.  Make sure the calf has been raised on real milk for four months.  This insures that the rumen will properly develop so they can digest forages as an adult and not need to have much grain, especially if you get what we call grazing genetics, which I will explain later.  It also sets the cow up for a healthier immune system for life. 

If you purchase a weanling, we suggest halter breaking and leading it while young.  Also, touch her all over.  Touch her on her belly, legs, udder, etc.  Make her move her leg back like you would if you were going to sit down and milk her.  Give her a voice command.  I say, “Move your leg back”.  Once your calf has bonded to you, it takes much less time to maintain that familiarity.  If your calf gets too pushy, correct them as mama would.   A smack to the nose, which is tender, and a sharp, “no!” usually works.  Eventually they learn what "no" means.

You could also purchase a mature cow but be forewarned that unless they are hand-milking already, you may need lots of determination  and patience to train them.  Mentoring would be useful too.  Sometimes a cow takes to milking almost right away once they get over their fear of people but it can take a good bit of patience if they were not what we call “gentled” as a calf.  The obvious advantage of an adult is that you can enjoy your milk and other dairy products right away.  Usually a neighbor or friend will donate money toward the care and upkeep of the cow to help pay for her, and take the extra milk if you have extra.

If the SHTF you can always breed her to a bull of any kind in the neighborhood but a cow will also keep lactating for years.  You just will not get the peak production that a freshening brings on.  However, you can live pretty well on 2 gallons a day, which is what the average Jersey should maintain with decent grazing and no grain.  Especially after the second and even third lactation which get subsequently more productive.

Size?   
Size is one thing to consider.  You could purchase a miniature cow such as Dexter.   I personally have not been impressed with them but do your own research.  If you purchase a Dexter, make sure they come from milking breeding lines, as many Dexter’s are not milked and being bred for production.   You could purchase a mini Hereford that will not give as much milk but as any beef breed, can be milked.  Our favorite cow is the Jersey whether mini or full-sized.  The minis as a rule do not give as much milk and to be honest, there is always some way to use extra milk.  I will cover that later.  However, mini’s work well for some situations such as smaller acreage, family size, and are sometimes not as intimidating to new hobby farmers.  Minis will cost more as a rule.  All Jerseys whether mini or standard have wonderful cream so we skim off ½ of the cream to use for our ice cream and butter and we still have great tasting milk.  To me the most important factor to consider as far as intimidation goes is whether the cow was gentled (not spoiled) as a calf and whether it trusts and is bonded to people.

I prefer a full sized Jersey with the old-fashioned genetics and size.  The smaller, efficient size that Jerseys used to be a few decades ago.  Unfortunately, they are breeding the American Jerseys larger in later years and American Jerseys as a rule have many health challenges.  We have been fortunate enough to work with a couple of organic farmers that have preserved the old style Jersey.  You could also cross a Jersey with a beef breed such as Terrantaise (a French dual-purpose breed that has very rich milk) or Hereford to get the grazing genetics and better health genetics.  Make sure the baby is dam raised or raised on real milk four months to develop the rumen properly.  This will set up the immune system for life and help her to be an efficient grazer and not need large amounts of grain if any.

How Do I Care For a Family Milk Cow?  
In our post industrial revolution confinement operation farms where all the food is made and brought to the animals, most people no longer realize that in much of the U.S. animals can be pastured all year.   It helps if one learns the basics of rotational grazing and what is called stockpiling in order to accomplish this.  There is no need to stock mounds of hay in the barn except for drought or very deep snow where the cow can’t paw down to the stockpiled grass.    I also use a nice flake of green tender hay during milking time but if it could not be purchased, it would not be essential.  Rotational grazing also in effect doubles your acreage as it creates healthier forage.  The cow cannot just take what she likes and leave the rest.  This will kill off certain plants and allow weeds to thrive.  With rotational grazing you can reduce weeds dramatically and allow seeds that can lie dormant for many decades to grow such as legumes like red and white clover for example.  When you create the right environment, you will find that you have more variety and healthier forage.  This variety gives the cows a smorgasbord of nutrients necessary to go without grain. 

When we started to use rotational grazing, we could not believe the difference in the quality and variety of our forage.  We do spot spray the thistles but have been able to control all other weeds with rotational grazing.  Also, in our case since we have growing calves and lactating cows, we keep ours pasture shorter than many beef herds will so we like to mow it on the high setting after they graze an aisle to keep the tender lush forages coming.  In a TEOTWAWKI situation, this would not be necessary or even for a small hobby farmer.

We have split our field up into aisles.  There is a corridor all the way across the front of the field that every other aisle has access to and it contains the water trough.  We work on one aisle at a time.  Each aisle has a gate handle at the front end.  We open the gate to the aisle we are working on.  Then we use three or four step-in posts (you can push them in the dirt with your foot and pull them out by hand, no pounding needed) for the single [electric] wire that we move.  (You would use more if your aisle is wider.) Every day, we move the wire to give enough grazing for the number of animals we have in that field.  You will get a feel for that as you move them each day.  Don’t worry, they will let you know by bawling if they are hungry.  During some times of the year, you will have to move the dividing line faster or slower.  We use one line of the poly wire with several small strands of wire running through it.  This is easy to work with and if it breaks, you can tie it in a knot to connect it.  Knots do not affect the electrical current at all.  On our cross line that determines the amount of grazing for that day, we use an alligator clip with rubber protector (purchased at local hardware) to hook onto the main aisle wires on both sides.  This makes the dividing wire hot.  Our aisles are all done with the cheap fiberglass posts from the farm store that have to be pounded in except the corner stakes should be T-posts, which are sturdier and will shore up the whole set up and you will have less frustration operating the “gates” to each aisle.

We always rest one section each year for a seven-year rotation.  Another wards, in seven years we should be rotated back to the original plot to rest it again.  Resting is done by grazing once early in the spring and then letting it grow all summer.  This section can be grazed in the winter after all the plants have re-seeded themselves.   This improves the ground and forage wonderfully and is a biblical principle with benefits now proven by science.

Fertile soil produces nutrient rich forage, which keeps the cow healthy, and the nutrition is passed on in the milk.  One can do many things to improve the soil.  I will list a few.  The best thing to do is to have the local extension office or local feed store come out and take soil samples (or you may need to do it yourself with their instructions).  You want to know the ph of your soil and calcium level to know if you should lime it.  If it needs lime, do you need the high calcium lime or the high magnesium lime?  You only know by testing.  If you even consider doing chicken manure, test first.  Your phosphorus could already be high and it would not be the best choice of fertilizer your field needs.  The other improvement we do to our fields is to spray diluted milk, 3 gallons milk to 20 gallons of water , per acre and a very dilute solution of something called sea-90 (we get it from Countryside Organics but you could google it to find a dealer near you) which is a naturally mined sea salt that is very high in minerals.  If I were only going to do one thing,  it would be to spray the milk and if you can, the minerals during the spring and fall growing seasons each year.    You can use a 4-wheel ATV and sprayer or a backpack sprayer for smaller areas.  This will draw the earthworms and help to break up the soil and provide many benefits to your land.  The milk feeds the microbes in the soil (the living part of the soil that makes nutrients available to the plants.  Milk also raises what is called the brix, which is a natural sugar in the plant.  This makes the plants more nutritious and palatable for the animals but since insects such as grasshoppers do not have a pancreas and therefore cannot digest sugars, they leave.  It is simple and you can use your very own milk! 
You do not have to do these improvements to the soil.  If you can, and you want your forages high in naturally occurring minerals and nutrients so you gain the benefit of that through drinking the milk and your cow has better health, go for it.

We also feed our cows a few supplements.  Give free choice (always available) ½ kelp and ½ Redmond trace mineral salt.  You can go to RedmondNatural.com to find a dealer of the natural trace mineral salt near you.   Hopefully, that same place would have the kelp as well.  If you keep both cool as possible and dry, they will last for years.  The most important nutrient to prevent mastitis is calcium.  (In addition, not overfeeding grain.)  The kelp and trace mineral salt does not provide a source of macro minerals but only has trace minerals in a highly digestible form.  For the macro minerals, you need to free choice something like Cattle Mineral Mix sold by Country Side Organics in Waynesboro, Virginia (they ship) or at least top dress a calcium supplement on their grain each day.  Lancaster Ag in Pennsylvania is also a wonderful source of natural supplements.  There are other ways to get the free choice supplements.  One of those is thru Advanced Biological Concepts, which has a top-notch free choice system for cows and horses.  Be prepared to pay a little more though.  You can do a web search on "natural animal supplements" for your state or find natural farmers in your area and query them.  We have done something similar to the above with all of our large animals for almost 20 years and have had maybe one or two incidences where we needed the vet for sickness.

As far as feeding the cow other than grazing, we give a very small amount of grain, mostly to top dress a supplement.  For example, we would give our ½ mini milk cow about two cups and our standard sizes one quart.  They do not need grain at all though especially if you get the grazing genetics going for you.  Too much grain is not good and will shorten the cow’s life.  Excess grain will make the cows system acidic and cause many health challenges that most confinement dairies think are normal occurrences.  If you feed more than ½ or 1% of the body weight in grain, the starch-digesting bacteria overcome the cellulose-digesting bacteria.  When that happens, they are no longer getting the nutrition out of their forages.  More and more organic farms are going grain free and focusing on rotational grazing to improve their forages instead.  We work with two different farms that only have the vet for pregnancy checks and routine testing, etc.  That is unheard of on conventional dairies where the cows only have 1-3 lactations because they are so unhealthy.  A note of warning:  If you buy a cow that is being given a lot of grain, change their diet slowly.  You may or may not be able to let her go completely without grain and stay in condition but try to get her down to not more than ½ of 1% of her body weight.  To be sure, a dairy cow does not have to look like a beef cow and in fact, we do them a disservice trying to “fatten” them up, but you do not want them to thin either.

Another advantage of not overdoing the grain is that you never have to trim hooves, as conventional farms have to do.  Our first cow was a cull cow.  She had really long feet and we could not find someone to come out to trim them.  We had her a couple of months and one day realized that her toes were chipping off.  They literally fell off to be a normal length.

Is There a Once-A-Day Milk Cow? 
Yes!  We milk our cows once a day.  If you are not pushing them with lots of grain, they can usually be milked once a day with some knowledge.  If you are over-graining your cow, you will not be able to milk once a day.  If you go out to the barn and her bag is tight and very full of milk, then you need to milk twice a day or cut back on the grain.  We milk once a day and have no trouble with mastitis or ketosis which is the scourge of dairies and many family cow owners.  We have the grazing genetics firmly in place and feed very little grain.  The only time you really have to watch them is the first couple of weeks after calving until the calf is drinking enough.  You can let the calf nurse or milk and feed the calf in a bottle and later a bucket.  You can also let the calf have all the milk (after a month or so) until you need milk and then separate the calf for 12 hours and milk the cow for your milk.  You can go on vacation or if you get too busy, the calf will eagerly milk for you.  When we travel, we turn the calf with mom and go.  We do not leave the calf with the mom full-time if the calf starts tearing the teats up.  If that happens, we only let the calf nurse twice a day and keep them across the fence from one another the rest of the time.  This way there will be very little separation stress and after the first couple of days, they get used to the routine and no longer call out to one another.   When we travel, we still put the calf with the cow but then separate and put salve on the teats if they have teeth marks when we return.  This usually works for short term even if it doesn’t work for long-term in cases where the calf has gotten to the size that they tear up the teats.  Some calves can nurse until they wean at 9 months, for others, they have to be separated and allowed nurse once or twice a day after four months or so.

When Do I Wean the Calf? 
The calf can be safely weaned at four months.  Their rumen is well developed and they are ready to just eat grass and good quality hay.  However, if you want, you can keep the calf on until 9 months.  Follow the suggestions above for nursing long- term.

Tethering 
Cows can be taught to tether.  Start with a shorter rope 10- to 15-foot (cotton will not burn them if tangled) and only where you can keep a close eye on her.  If you have a nervous cow, you should be right there to watch it.  You can lengthen the rope as she learns to untangle herself and not to take off so quickly that she hits the other end and flips herself.  I like to start with a calf but most adult cows can be taught to tether with time and patience.  You can purchase a tie out kit from outback outfitters for horse camping.  It is said that a chain does not tangle and loosens when they lift their foot.  I have not used a chain. 

Fencing   
This can be as simple as an electric fence but the perimeter fence should be woven wire or four-board fence for a TEOTWAWKI situation.    For now, you could do a 3-strand electric perimeter fence with plans to make it more secure as time and finances allow.  Talk to the most knowledgeable person at your local farm store for details about fencing.  If you have electric, be sure you have a solar charger and extra supplies.  Insufficient grounding causes 90% of electric fence problems so be sure to cover that with your farm store knowledgeable person.  In general, the rods must be galvanized to retain conductivity and if the soil is dry or poor then you will need more grounding rods.  Do not place the grounding rod to close to a building as it can electrify the building.

A good reference to read is Grass-Fed Cattle: How to Produce and Market Natural Beef by Julius Ruechel.  It is geared toward beef cattle but much of the information about fencing and rotational grazing and more is helpful for the family milk cow.

What to Do with the Extra Milk? 
We find so many uses for extra milk that we can easily use all that one cow produces.  We make cheese, butter, and yogurt as well as other dairy products.  Many cheeses can be made with buttermilk and rennet, which are quite easy to store.  Buttermilk can be kept going indefinitely as can yogurt.   You must buy the cultured buttermilk from the grocery store.  Add ¼-cup cultured buttermilk to ½ gallon of milk and let it set until it thickens.  Make more using the same ratios (you can make less) each week.  We buy yogurt cultures from CulturesForHealth.com.  They specialize in cultures from around the world.  The two that we keep going are cultured at room temperature.  We don’t have to heat the milk or keep the temperature steady with a yogurt maker.  We simply skim our milk to allow room in the ½-gallon jar and put in one cup of yogurt from a previous batch.  If you make the next batch before the last one is too old, you can keep it going for a very long time.  It is best to heat the milk to 160 degrees, make a pure mother culture, and use that to start your first batch.  I freeze the mother culture in 1-cup batches so I can occasionally fall back to my mother culture if my yogurt gets to old before I make another batch.  In TEOTWAWKI situation, you would just be diligent about keeping your yogurt going and keep it away from other cultures such as buttermilk and sourdough as the bacteria’s can compete with one another and weaken your strain.

You can buy cheese-making supplies from cheesemaking.com or hoeggerfarmyard.com, which is a goat supply catalog, but they have products for anyone who milks.  They also carry my favorite cheese recipe book "A Cheesemakers Journey" by Mary Jane Toth.

Whey from the raw cheese making recipes, yogurt, and buttermilk can be used to make lacto-fermented drinks and veggie dishes such as kvass, kimchee, and sauerkraut.  These products have more probiotics per serving than a whole bottle of probiotics from the store.  Probiotics is one of our main treatment protocols for any immune system related issues as the gut is 75% of the immune system.  Your food becomes you medicine.  Two of my favorite books for this is Sally Fallon’s big book, Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats and Real Food Fermentation: Preserving Whole Fresh Food with Live Cultures in Your Home Kitchen by Alex Lewin.  With these two books, you will be able to preserve probiotic rich foods the traditional way.  Be sure to have glass ½ gallon jars, 1 gallon jars, and or lead free crocks on hand.

We also use extra milk for fertilizer as mentioned above.  We have never seen so many earthworms in our garden as since we have started putting on diluted milk as previously mentioned.

We feed extra calves, lambs,  and animals such as the cat (mouse patrol), the dog (head of ranch security), chickens (bug patrol and chief egg layers) and I have even fed it to baby rabbits whose mama just couldn’t keep up with the large litter. 

I hope you will consider adding a family cow to your homestead for your health and long-term food security. 

Finding a good sustainable food supply post TSHTF has been a difficult and long journey. It’s going to be a lot more than storing dehydrated food, water and having some seeds. Eventually you will run out of food and will need a way to feed your family in sustainable way.  What are the best options of doing this? A remote retreat with several different types of livestock and a large garden all sound very nice but is it practical? Let’s go thru all of the options. In a post TSHTF situation we might have to consider mobility. Fire, radiation, large gangs or worse yet, our own government troops coming after us are just a few of the possibilities than could cause you to be highly mobile. I do believe it’s a great idea to have a remote retreat and even better if you live there full time. We also have to worry about security and maintaining a perimeter over all key infrastructure including livestock, barns, gardens, cisterns etc. We will have to maintain noise, light & smell discipline. It’s always better to avoid being a target going undetected. I would rather avoid a firefight at all cost. The sound of a generator or livestock, can be heard a long way off. It will mean I have power and or food. Same holds for maintaining light & smell disciplines. Cooking beacon or meat outside can let others know you have food. Blackout curtains will help with light shinning thru windows. The smell of a fire and or food that is cooking must also be avoided. Stealth is a key goal.

There will probably be long hard work days and or nights. This will cause us to need more calories and good sources of proteins. What are our best options?

Garden
Better have that garden already planted and know how to save seeds. There is a long learning curve with gardening. A large garden is very time consuming. There is a lot of hard work turning over the soil, planting, watering and weeding especially if it has to be done by hand. It usually takes several seasons to establish a good garden. How large of a garden will you need? A typical family of four will need between 1 to 2 acres of farmable land for use as a garden. Growing in pots or larger cans can help with mobility but the yield will be small. Drought, pests, diseases, deer and rabbits can all decrease production.  Higher calorie and protein needs will be very hard to meet with a garden. You might be an easy target for a sniper in a large open field maintaining or harvesting your garden everyday. Lot’s of work. So, having a garden as large as you can maintain is good but we will have to supplement it with some higher quality of protein. Pros: provides some necessary nutrition & vitamins. Cons: Can’t provide enough high quality proteins, hard work to maintain, poor mobility.

Fish
Fish can be raised in a pond if you have one. They can meet the protein requirements that you will need. Usually not too much work if it is already established. Raising fish in a barrel is another possibility. An aquaponic setup is another possibility. If you live in cold weather region where the water freezes you will not be able to produce year round. Pros: quality protein & fish oil. Cons: no mobility, seasonal, expensive set up costs, can be difficult to maintain, uses lots of water, water is very heavy to haul.

Small Livestock
There are many types of small livestock to consider. The best livestock will be one that is easy to care for, no special feed or supplements, reproduces fast, grows quickly, are very quiet, resistant to diseases, good mobility, no smelly waste, easy to protect against predators and large enough to feed a family of four. It would also be nice if it is easy to butcher, cook and tastes good. Let’s check out our common options:

Chickens
Pros: Eggs (protein & fat) and meat are very high quality protein. Small space, good mobility and easy care.  High production of eggs- usually one a day.                                                                                            
Cons: Hens can be a little noisy at times, need a rooster for sustainability (lots of noise). Vulnerable to predators, need a good coop for protection at night.

Rabbits
Pros: small space, reproduces quickly, good mobility, quiet, good mothers, high quality meat protein, fiber, fertilizer- that can be used immediately.                        
Cons: high maintenance, don’t like the heat, messy, may have to grow some of the feed.

Goats
Pros: Milk, good quality meat protein, fiber.
Cons: harder to handle, get intestinal worms, need to rotate fields, hard to keep them penned in, must keep them dry, will need a large quantity of hay in the winter, management problems, noisy.

Sheep
Pros: Milk, quality meat protein, wool, easy to handle.
Cons: Need to rotate fields, intestinal worms, need hay in the winter, can be noisy, management problems.

Pig/Swine
Pros: Good source of fat & quality meat protein.
Cons: Can be hard to handle, noisy, can take up a bit of space, poor mobility, can be escape artists and are messy.

Geese
Pros: Good quality meat, down, seasonal eggs. No special feed needed, good mothers.
Cons: need a large area to graze, noisy, aggressive, vulnerable to predators, 

Turkeys
Pros: Seasonal eggs, meat. 
Cons: need a large area to roam, noisy, difficult management especially when young.

Muscovy Ducks
Most ducks are very noisy. Muscovy ducks are extremely quiet. They don’t quack. They make a very soft hissing noise as a warning. They make this noise when you corner them or get too close to them. The sound is as quiet as a whisper. So they pass the first big test- noise discipline. The waste they produce is not too smelly. You will have to eventually compost it as they do produce a lot of it. Using a deep litter method, it can be done every 6 months. So they pass the second test- smell discipline. They are easy to care for. They do not need a lot of space. They are very resistant to disease and don’t require a lot of human intervention. Good fencing, minimum of 4 feet tall will help against predators. They free range/forage for their food. They do enjoy a high protein pellet food at the end of the day but it’s not necessary. They will produce eggs, meat and feathers. Feathers can be used to make pillows. They will lay between 80 to 150+ eggs a year depending upon their nutrition and if you remove the eggs or allow them to sit on their eggs. They will accumulate about a dozen or so eggs and then sit on them until they hatch. Training them to use nest boxes will help. Usually if you put their first eggs into the nest box, they will get the idea.

The process takes approximately 35 days for their eggs to hatch. They will hatch an average of ten to twelve baby ducks three or four times a year. After they hatch their eggs they will not lay eggs for 2 months. During this time they are great mothers and will spend all of their time with the baby ducks. The baby ducks will follow their mother everywhere during the first couple of weeks. The mother will protect them for older ducks that will occasionally peck at them. They can co-exist with chickens without any problems. They can eat table scraps or anything that you will eat. They forage well. They grow extremely fast. After 6-8 months the new baby ducks can reproduce.  They do not need a pond. They only need water just deep enough for a quick swim, maybe a foot to eighteen inches deep. A kiddie pool or a nice sized bucket is all that they would need. They will dirty the water fairly quick.

To clip their wings or not? They have a natural instinct to roost up high in trees or on top of the barn. They can and will fly around. Best to clip their wings after they molt, usually in the early summer. Two people are needed. One to hold the duck & one to cut the flight feathers. It does not hurt the ducks. Sort of like us clipping our nails. You cut the flight feathers on one side only. They like the shade, will eat insects and most types of grass. They like fresh water. It’s better to have a small creek then having to haul fresh water everyday. Standard poultry crates can be used to transport Muscovy Ducks. Catching them at night usually prevents as much stress as possible. The more interaction you have with them, the closer they will let you get to them. They grow really fast. Butchering usually occurs around four months of age. Wet-plucking their feathers can be a real pain. Adding a wax or a dishwashing soap can help. They are very tasty.

So Muscovy ducks are number one on my list. Since they get along well with chickens, I would include a few of them as well (no rooster). Rabbits would also be a must have. Goats, sheep, pigs and small cows are nice to have but do require a big step up in care, maintenance and are less stealthy. There is also a big learning curve as well. So if you plan on having these animals you should start now. Add as large a garden as you can care for. A garden may produce 25% of your food on average. Fruit trees and all types of berry type plants must be started now because it can take years before they will yield fruit. Bees can be added for honey and wax. Your time is going to be a big factor in any post-TSHTF situation. Lots of your time will be needed for security. Start your planning today.

I’ve always been a “glass is half full…when life hands you lemons you make lemonade…” kind of person.  So despite a divided nation after this recent election, geopolitical unrest, and our nation on the brink of financial collapse, I still see the silver lining. 

My husband and I purchased a small 900 square foot home, because it was all we could afford.  It was near the height of the housing bubble so we bought high.  We then spent the next four years, remodeling the one bathroom the tiny kitchen and living room to suit our needs.  After investing tens of thousands of dollars of our hard earned money, blood, sweat and tears we were feeling good about our sweat equity.  Then the market crashed and I got pregnant.  Deciding not to pour any more money into the pit, and deciding to take control of the financial situation we decided to sell our home and purchase a new one.  By that time the real estate market seemed to have no bottom and loans were nigh on impossible to secure from lending institutions.  We staged the little house perfectly and lived in that staged house for several months, evacuating every time a potential buyer came by, because an extra body in the house made it feel so much smaller.  Fortunately we were able to find a larger home that was more suitable for our expanding family and were able to purchase it at a 30% discount, however we finally sold our first home at a significant loss.  Investment guidelines for the early 2000s had become: “Buy high and sell LOW.”  But not paying two mortgages was nearly “priceless.”

The Tale of Two Mortgages

It was the tale of two mortgages that was the spark that initiated this whole journey.  My husband and I carefully assessed our financial situation and eliminated all “non-essential” expenses.  Those things included:
-Some expensive vitamins that were being shipped automatically and payments were automatically being submitted to our credit card. This was something we weren’t paying attention to until then.
-A wine club gift that we had gifted to our neighbors. We didn’t read the fine print that after the $60 intro offer, you’d be billed quarterly for $200.
-No non-essential food items. Only buy what’s on the list and only if we really need it.
-The Cable Television – Gasp. horror! What will you do without television?  This is the key to us developing our survival plan.

Life Without Television

We did keep Internet, as this was our means for paying bills, e-mail communication, web surfing and phone connectivity.  We began to read, a lot.  In fact, we can’t wait to crawl in to bed, early, once the kids are sleeping and read the news.  The mass media has become such a biased and agenda-driven source of misrepresentation, it is no longer reliable.  It has become a vehicle for propaganda.  The children absolutely did not miss television.  Though we’re not purists, we do have Netflix and Amazon video, so the young one loves the educational shows and the older one loves Mythbusters.  But as a parent I now have total control over what they watch and this includes, not exposing them to the early sexualization of children, the “new normal” of a “modern family” the extols the virtues of a non- mother, father, and God-centered family.

My Favorite Web Sites

I truly admire those talented individuals who are able to organize and centralize great information into a user friendly web site.  I wish I could do it because I occasionally get some good ideas, but I don’t have the time.  My "go to" favorites include:
-The Drudge Report
-Redstate.com
-SurvivalBlog.com, of course
-Thedailysheeple.com… “Wake the flock up” one of my favorite new quotes!!!
-Dailymail.co.uk  (my ultimate gossip go to site for pure entertainment)
-Happyherbivore.com (because after watching Forks over Knives I freaked out and went plant based for six weeks)

My Eyes Open

When you begin to piece together the unprecedented power grabbing, freedom-reducing moves our own government is doing and put it in the frame of reference of what is happening geopolitically; it’s enough to lose lots of sleep.  The Middle East is destabilizing and essentially is one misunderstanding or missile away from full out war.  There has been an increasing frequency of climate change that has unleashed massive power outages, gas rationing, and Martial law – as evidenced by Hurricane Katrina, Fukushima, Haiti, Irene, Sandy, and the recent Nor’easter.

So We Became SLOW Preppers
I believe that these patterns are an excellent opportunity to learn “real time” about how people and governments react in times of duress.  We’ve all seen how the grocery shelves are wiped out within 48 hours of the weather channel predicting a storm. 

When we lost power with Irene then the Nor’easter, we decided the first order of business was to install a generator.  That project was eight months in undertaking.  There were no generators to be had, as a freak windstorm affected the western half of the US knocking out power to 3 million people in the southwest.  Once we got the generator, there were no transfer switches to be had.  The demand was high.  We finally got the transfer switch.  It took another three months to get a propane tank and service, again because of the backlog, but we stuck to our guns and finally got it all put in.  This time around, Hurricane Sandy left us without communication by phone but we had power thanks to the generator.

2nd Amendment

Speaking of guns.  Living in the Northeast makes obtaining a firearm difficult.  It took about 8 months.  First to find a class, then get signed up – another backlog there.  Then permits at the police station, state processing, temporary permit, and official permit, followed by my favorite part, shopping.  We started slow, read a lot and made one purchase at a time.  Now whenever we go to Wal-Mart we buy essentials and a box of ammo.  Say it with me now: milk, bread, eggs, toilet paper and ammo.  Try it again, diapers, wipes, and ammo.  See how easy it is?

The Mormons are on to something. I like their idea of food storage and rotation.  We should get into the practice of that.  I’m still working on it.  Christmas = family gift of a case of MREs.  When Mountain House backpacking pouch freeze dried food goes on sale at Wally world I pick up a bag or two.  It doesn’t have to be in bulk, but building it slowly is cheaper and you incorporate it into your lifestyle.  The kids love the camping section of the stores.  Then once in a while we pretend to camp in the basement and “sample” the food stores that are about to expire and rotate fresh stuff in.

Bug Out Tins

There are so many good Bug Out ideas on the web.  I came across “survival in an Altoid tin.”  It’s good to keep a few bucks in the car, some analgesics, band-aids, floss, matches a mini mag lite etc.  It’s always a good idea to carry a case of water in the car, you never know.  Making the tins was a fun weekend afternoon activity for the kids and we may turn this into a Christmas gift idea.

Livestock

Our new home has a little more land and I grew up with chickens as pets.  My husband loved the idea as we often romanticize “living off the grid.”  Easter came around and we bought three chicks and the kids loved playing with them and caring for them.  My husband is pretty crafty and good with tools.  We purchased a scuffed up Rubbermaid tool shed from the local home improvement store. He cut some windows and a trap door out.  He installed a 2x4 beam for the roosting bar and because of the shape of the interior, was able to put two nesting boxes in there.  My husband thought that pets that give back in the form of food were so cool.  We eat beautiful omelets with tasty eggs that truly are antibiotic-free and hormone-free.  I reduce my garbage by putting kitchen scraps into a bucket and the chickens are so happy to get stale bread, pancakes, and bok choy stems.  The chickens think left-over spaghetti = worms and go nuts!  When we can’t keep up the 15-20 eggs per week, we again make good neighbors by giving away farm fresh eggs.

Gardening

My parents always made it look easy.  Let me tell you, if you can grow a successful tomato plant from seed, you are waaay ahead of the game.  Gardening is a major skill.  Start by trying to grow anything.  I love perennials.  I have peonies, lilies and some other flowering bushes that come back every year.  Collards and Kale are almost year round depending on how harsh the weather is.  Herbs like rosemary, lavender, thyme, chives, mint, come back every year and are low maintenance.  I just put in some asparagus; we’ll see how it does.  I also am trialing cranberries as a ground cover and purchased a really great book on edible weeds, so I can increase my foraging knowledge.  This really makes you think twice about using poisons in your yard when you free range the chickens and want to forage weeds.

Conclusion

It takes time to build up your stores.  I think you should store things you like to eat because then you use it up and aren’t throwing away expired “survival rations.”  Pick up new skills, whether that’s gardening, weed identification, how to camp or build a fire, start small, make it a hobby.  When a disaster hits your area, open your eyes and perform your own mini SWOT analysis: S – Strengths, W-weaknesses, O- opportunities, T- Threats. 

This is a very individualized thing.  But I can tell you when gas cans become available again at the local store, I’ll be stocking up on a few.  While it’s nice to have a stockpile of gold and silver coins, it can be expensive.  Buy an extra roll of aluminum foil or duct tape the next time you are out shopping.  When you’ve been sitting in a dark cold house for a week, it can be demoralizing; you’d love some hot cocoa with a splash of brandy.  Stock up on cocoa, liquor, comfort foods and items.  Some of these have a very long shelf life and will probably be easier to trade or barter than a precious metal that has precious few calories.  Good luck with your slow and systematic prepping!

I wanted to make a couple of clarifications to Emma C.'s article on fabric choices in survival clothing, specifically with regards to wool. As a full-time Shepherdess of more than 100 heritage breed sheep, my experience in handling and processing wool runs deep. 

It was written that (with regard to socks), Wool does take more care than other fabrics in that it should be washed in cold water and lay flat to dry. While that statement is mostly accurate in general fabric care, there are primarily two things that can permanently change (i.e. shrinkage or felting) wool fabrics: agitation (washing/scrubbing) and temperature.

Washing of traditional woolen items must utilize as little agitation as possible while cleansing. Intense scrubbing will simply cause your wool item to felt.  The soaking method is preferred whenever possible using a mild, easy rinsing type soap. Gently squeezing out excess water by folding the item in half is ideal. Larger items such as pants or sweaters can be folded multiple times, pressing firmly to release the water. Never wring or twist wet wool as you may end up with a hopelessly misshapen garment. When you wash wool, it is the temperature of the water for BOTH wash and rinse that affects wool.  You can wash your wool in hot water, if so desired, but you must also rinse the item in hot water to avoid shrinkage. It is in the variation of the water temperature that causes your wool treasures to shrink so drastically. If you wash in hot, rinse in hot; wash in warm, rinse in warm and so forth. Consistency throughout the cleansing process is key.

While cold wash/cold rinse is generally deemed the rule of choice when washing wool but it is not something set in stone. I personally prefer the hot water method, especially when cleaning my wool. Hot water kills germs and is much safer on the fibers themselves than using chemical disinfectants. Most smartwool blends have already been 'pre-shrunk' and are much less likely to be affected by water temperature or agitation. I have multiple pairs of these socks that go into the washer and dryer routinely with no effect on the end product. I could go on about the many benefits and uses of wool, perhaps another time. God certainly knew what He was doing when creating the sheep!

Thank you for such an informative blog. Blessings! - C.A.T.

I’m a prepper, however my situation is a little different than most.  I wanted to write an article explaining my unique challenges.
My family has a small ranch in New Mexico.  In the old days when it rained more often we ran about 100 head of cattle.  With the drought that has hit the southwest so hard, we’re down to about 50.
I know most of you are thinking, oh my goodness this guy is so lucky.  He can eat all the beef he wants when TSHTF.  The answer is yes, and no.  I had about the same initial reaction when I first started prepping.  I thought I’d just go home, to the ranch, from my day job and be safe.  I read all the books and browsed all the prepping blogs, then began to realize it wasn’t so simple.  Not only did I have to prep for myself, I had to prep for 50 head of cattle!  Plus a lot of other animals like chickens and dogs.
After I got my beans, bullets, and band aids squared away, my family and I started prepping for the cattle.  There’s little question that they are our greatest resource.  Imagine what half a beef could net us in a barter situation when everyone is starving.  Provided I can defend the livestock, and keep them happy, healthy, and alive. 

1. Water

Everything needs water.  There are dozens of articles about water on survivalblog.  One gallon per person per day seems to be the golden rule.  For a cow in 100 degree summer heat its 50 gallons a day!  Crunch the numbers and that’s around 3,000 gallons of water per day worst case.  Some days they don’t need near as much.  We’re in the high desert, and do not have surface water.  No streams, lakes, ponds, etc.  Our current water source is pumped via an AC pump from a depth of ~600ft.  Running a generator to pump the water we would need isn’t feasible.  Solar was the solution.  We ended up drilling a new well and equipping it with a solar pump that can produce about 2,500-3,000 gallons a day in the summer.  To supplement this we installed a very large and complex rain catchment system.  All in all we have ,7500 gallons of potable (people) water and 38,000 gallons of stock water that we keep on hand at any given time.  This is fed all over the place via gravity to stock troughs and solar powered booster pumps to other areas such as the house.  As you can imagine this cost a great deal of money and my income is lower middle class.  It was a matter of priority setting for us.  In a grid down situation the cattle would all die without water.  That is not acceptable.

Here’s some advice about drilling a new water well.  I did a lot of the work on the well myself to save money.  Of course the actual drilling was done by a “professional”.  When you interview your well driller be sure to ask the following question, “Are you the actual person who will drill the well?”  Make sure it’s not his cousin, son, or some neighbor down the road.  We ended up with an inexperienced guy.  Our well also proved to be extra difficult to drill, because soon after drilling started he ran into caves and basically freaked out.  This ended up costing more money.  Ask around for recommendations and don’t just go with the lowest bid.

If you choose to install the pump and pipe yourself be sure to put more check valves than you think you’ll need.  I put one every 200 feet, and it’s not enough.  Install a good brass check valve every 100 feet. Do your own research about the gauge of wire to be used.  I ran number 10 wire down to the pump at 575 feet.  To compensate for the DC voltage drop I added another solar panel to bump up the voltage instead of buying the recommend more expensive number 6 wire.  The new well is working better than I dreamed it could.  Solar water pumping is amazing.

Nutrition/Health

To feed cattle; it rains, the grass grows, and the cattle eat the grass.  Unfortunately for good healthy critters you have to add to that diet.  At the very least you must give your cattle some salt and minerals.  You’d be amazed at how much salt we use in a year.  I have food for myself stashed away, but also we’ve included several thousand pounds of bagged stock salt, and minerals.  We went with granulated bagged salt instead of blocks because it could be used for other things like salting beef. 

Sick animals need medical care too.  In my band aids section there’s plenty of the normal veterinary supplies we use on a regular basis.  Many of these items can be used for all types of animals including the two legged kind.  I did not include vaccines as once TSHTF the cattle should not be exposed to other cattle that could be carrying something nasty.  Of course that isn’t 100% certain but one must pick their battles. 

Security

If you think your retreat security causes you to lose sleep at night imagine securing seven square miles of land.  Without an army; it can’t be done.  I don’t have an army, so another solution had to be found.  The current plan is to pen the cattle up at the ranch house during the night, and then send a small patrol with them during the day to graze.  We’ve erected guard towers at the retreat and at least one of them will be manned at all times.  I hope however that our remote location is adequate to keep the golden hordes at bay, because defending our retreat properly would need a very large force.  I suppose that could be said about any location.  I’m still searching for more people to join me at the ranch, and as many of you know, it’s very difficult to find like-minded people.  I’ve been fortunate so far and have some great folks who will stay with us in the event of a disaster.  We have a doctor and a dentist as well as some ex army guys.  I don’t know what the magic number of people needed is but there’s safety in numbers.

Bartering of beef

Without the power grid, cooling and preserving raw meat will be a challenge.  Currently (if you want really good meat) after you dress out an animal you typically hang them in a cooler and let the meat age for a couple of weeks.  This allows the natural enzymes in the muscle tissue to break down some of the harder parts of the meat.  Aged beef is quite simply the best food there is!  I’m sure 99% of the population has never had it.  The fast paced production slaughter plants today don’t age meat more than a day or two.  To age and store the meat we kill we have two large deep freezes.  I’ll soon be installing a solar system to run them.  One of the freezers will be equipped with a thermostat to regulate the temperature so the freezer can be used as a cooler.  Without the solar freezers processing and selling meat during the summer will be all but impossible unless of course I try to make 600 pounds of jerky.

To supplement the beef sales we also have a milk cow and lots of chickens.  If you have a bug problem, get yourself some chickens instead of an exterminator.  You’ll be amazed at the result, plus free eggs!  Our chickens and guineas roam free, but generally lay their eggs in the hen house.

Miscellaneous

We’re going to need more flexibility than other groups when we’re hunkering down on our ranch.  For this reason a blacksmiths shop has been setup.  Not only is it fun to learn how to make metal parts with nothing but a hot fire and a hammer.  There will certainly be a need for building things.  I don’t know what those will be; otherwise I could go buy a few.  
Heat in the winter is an issue too.  Our ranch house has no central heating.  We have a large fireplace and a wood stove.  I was 19 years old before I lived in a house with a thermostat.  A wood stove is a great way to heat a space but it uses a lot of wood.  We burn between 3 and 9 cords of wood a year depending on how cold it is.  I can only imagine how much wood the folks up north are going to need.  If you live in the colder areas of the country you had better get a spare chainsaw and all the stuff needed run the heck out of it!  I’ve stashed gas for the sole purpose of hauling wood from the pasture to the house, as well as a spare chainsaw (don’t buy a cheap one).  There are no trees around our house.  That makes for great sight lines from the guard towers, but it’s a long way to haul wood for the stove.

I know the EMP group out there must see that my plans would come crumbling down in the event of an EMP.  I just pray it’s not an EMP or CME that kicks off the SHTF chain of events. 

In conclusion: next time you feel overwhelmed about your prepping remember the poor ranchers out there who are responsible for a great many more mouths to feed and water.  I envy your relatively simple preps often, but this is the lifestyle I’ve chosen to keep.  I also feel that after the collapse, if I can pull my family and herd through, ranching won’t be such a hard way to make a living as it is in our current society. 

James:
As a reformed "slip and fall" attorney, I would like to point out some issues related to dog ownership. I have defended homeowners and sued homeowners relating to dog bites.The article about the decision to pick a certain breed, Doberman Pincher, was well written and informative but I would like to add some additional points, too often overlooked, about dog ownership. For sure, I would check with my homeowner's insurance carrier to see if you have coverage for a dog bite, and secondly, if there are specific breed coverage exemptions. Often you will be unable to insure the risk of ownership for breeds such as Pit bulls, Rottweilers, German Shepherds, Dobermans, etc. For me ownership of a breed that cannot be inured is a deal breaker. One quick way to jeopardize your retreat and possessions is to have a dog bite victim sue you, even if the "victim" was an uninvited "guest" or even an invited visitor for that matter. A small yapping dog will alert you just as well as a Pit bull. A couple/few midsize mutts (insurers will consider Pit bull mixes the same as a full blooded Pit bull) would work well. You can't earn a living breeding mutts but there some perfectly good breed choices that can be insured. Aside from the monetary levels of liability insurance coverage, the best feature of a policy is the contractual right to have the insurer hire an attorney/law firm to defend you. This all relates to basic asset protection and if you are considering buying/breeding a dog consider the ramifications of a dog bite. Also, before you move, check out the homestead protection level of the state you may move to.

The American Redoubt states vary in degree of asset protection via homestead exemptions. I won't be moving there, but Texas is real good in this regard. Idaho $100,000, Montana $250,000, Washington $125,000, Oregon $40,000 and Wyoming $20,000 (I'm not moving to Wyoming). There is a whole lot more to this. I have been on both sides, plaintiff/defendant, and have seen people lose most of their assets. This is one of the most overlooked areas of "survival." If you want a pack of Dogo Argentinos, a great defense/offense, make sure you are not going to lose the shirt off your back. Thanks and God Bless. - Attorney John M.

Jim:
I believe Dale has hit on some great points for taking care of the dogs. But the type or breed is something I need to address, there is another breed of dog to consider, it was breed in China for one and only one purpose to be a temple guard dog of both the building and the Monks who were non-violent believers.  The Chow has a undeserved reputation of being a mean and aggressive animal, as a SPCA volunteer and a part time breeder of chows, its a false conclusion.  The chows in this country have been bred to eliminate those type of characteristics and temperament.  Having said that, a chow has a very high pack mentality as it relates to its family pack (human & critters)  I have a few over the years and those chows have been devoted to even the cats in our pack. 
 
A chow is interesting in that even though its a med to  large dog, it requires very little "space" its pad will suffice and can exist with a person very well thank you in a small apartment.  It not a high strung or hyper dog, it very seldom barks or growls, but as their nature and training intended when it does you need to investigate. They are great with small children and infants, they will want to be close and have a very social inclination. You do have to watch non-family members interacting with the pack members(your family members) even horsing around and playing will put them into attention mode.    In China as a temple guard they were very respected and with good reason, they fear nothing, including mountain lion, bear or even an automobiles, ( I lost one of my males to a late night visitor who decided to explore my fenced back yard with 3 chows on guard, my male chow was killed chasing this person out on a highway and was hit by a truck).  I acquired a small female chow from the SPCA after her owner turned her in to them because they were fearful of her because she would just stare at them and they were intimidated by it.  I had her in my life for almost 15 years and the only time she even turned into a Zombie killer was the day a neighbors male 110-pound or so Rottie strayed into our yard from its home a mile away with the intention of showing that it was the king of the hill to my 55-pound female Chow.  The neighbors were all fearful of this rottweiler as it had caused problems with the neighbors animals and the owner was proud that his dog had that reputation.   What ensued next made me a believer in a chows capability as a guard dog, the rottweiler attacked my chow and she went ballistic on that male dog, I was sure she was going to be seriously hurt or killed, but after what seemed to be minutes and before I could secure any type of a weapon the rottweiler all bloody and looked like the preverbal jigsaw puzzle with a few pieces missing, left for anywhere except where it was and into contact with this thing that ate its lunch.  

Chows have a secret weapon, which I came to understand gives it such an advantage in a fight with anything, it possesses a extremely thick double coat of long hair which in a battle protects it from a bigger an even more determined opponent, while the opponent bites nothing but hair the chow is using it massive teeth to rip and shred critters with short hair and thin hide.   The next day I received a visit from the owner of the rottweiler, who was attempting to recover some money for the vets bills from the 50 or so stitches it had incurred.  He tried to sell his story that my chows had attacked his dog, at which time I pointed out it was his dog who trespassed on my property and attacked my female chow (my other chows were with my wife at the time who was out of town)  and my chow was forced to defend herself.  He was in disbelief that my little dog had almost destroyed his  bigger and meaner Rottie, to be honest at the time I was in shock myself that she escape a major injury.   So the lesson is make your own evaluations and choose the dog(s) that fit your family and situation.  Take a look at a Chow that was breed for one thing and it does that one thing very well.  Happy trails, - John in Arizona

They can move faster than any man, their loyalty suggests an inborn canine bushido, their senses seem to border on the supernatural, and their situational awareness chart does not include condition white.  They are the creatures you want to sleep at your bedside, walk beside you, and watch your children.  While the choices available for study cover a broad range for the serious survivalist; and the options for raising animals include many worthwhile creatures, consider the canine as an early pick.  Long before we finished moving to our retreat I was already plotting the pros and cons of various parts of the property and outbuildings.  Too much woods for cows to graze, just enough grassy hills for goats, garden here, greenhouse there, new bridge over there.  The list of possible projects was, (and still is) a never ending source of satisfying improvements.  One of the earliest undertakings in our endeavors towards self-sufficiency was raising dogs.  The goal was to get far past the learning stage during the pre-collapse world and maintain a selection of working dogs in a normal society.  During a crisis, the dogs will be used for protection and barter. 

The first real choice that had to be made was in a specific breed of dog.  After much study I narrowed the selection down to three breeds; the German Shepherd, Doberman Pinscher, and American Bulldog.  All had key traits in common I found important for a survivalist dog owner.  All had a high level of intelligence, trainability, and protectiveness with the size, speed, and courage to back it up.  I considered each breed in light of how we would need to live together with our family in a long term collapse / worst case scenario.    The  German shepherd was the first of the three to be marked off the list for one reason: hair.  The German shepherd sheds once a year for 365 days in amounts that exceed all bounds of belief.  I wanted dogs that can stay by my side 24/7 but building an extra solar array just to power a vacuum lest we all drown in dog hair wasn’t going to happen.  Note that we live in Tennessee and rarely deal with bitter cold, in less mild climates I would’ve needed dogs with the German shepherd’s protective coat.  If dog hair is not an issue for your situation, that a German shepherd requires no ear trimming or tail docking makes them a stronger pick.    

I next looked into the American Bulldog (not to be confused with the more common English Bulldog), a breed once very popular in the deep South but became nearly extinct during WWII.  Despite my interest, I was unable to find breeders that I felt were trustworthy and had any puppies available within a reasonable distance.  My other concern was that they have a less well known reputation compared to the other two picks, in a barter economy I wanted a highly recognizable, commonly known breed.  Last of the top three first considered breeds was the Doberman Pinscher.  I was at first hesitant due to the need for a professional vet to trim the ears to get the Doberman “devil dog” look; but decided to pick function over form should TEOTWAWKI ensue.  A Doberman without cropped ears is readily identifiable, unlike the American Bulldog who gets a “what’s that?” response in many cases. 

I spent several months picking my first pair of dogs from separate bloodlines then training them with the help of an experienced dog handler/breeder.  The joy of living with such intelligent and graceful creatures I soon found to be a tremendous boon that transcends the planning and training of the more mundane aspects of survivalism.   Lessons learned along the way:    When one of you dogs eats an entire bath towel bed, you get to spend $1,700 at the vet.  When you quit using towels as beds and think straw is a good idea for a bed while they are in the kennel (such as when you are at work), its not.  It is a huge mess and can introduce mold, bugs, etc.  Dogs are not goats so save the straw for animals that produce cheese or steak.  A 2’x4’ outdoor panel secured over a 2”x4” frame will have plenty of give for a dog to be comfortable on.  Add a dog bed heater to the underside and your dog will snooze happily on it.  The inexpensive heaters stay about 110 degrees and draw about 40 Watts.  Use small slats of wood to keep the heater in contact with the underside of the flexible panel.       

When your female is in heat, the chain link fence dividers in the kennel will be ripped apart by your male, you will then have puppies earlier than you wanted.  When you make the chain link fence three layers thick to keep your male from ripping them apart and your female is in heat, your male will rip the door off of the kennel and you will then have puppies earlier than you wanted.  Light chain with carabineers securing the door in a “Z” pattern seems to work.       

Other than the aforementioned surprises, everything went exactly as planned; good thing we started learning sooner rather than during a crisis.  A 20’x 60’ concrete slab under a roof to the side of the workshop proved to be a perfect location for a dog lot.  I partitioned it off with commercial dog kennel panels, reinforced on each side with an extra layer of fence.  A brick at the corner of each interior kennel section makes it easy to hose things down (a big plus when one kennel is full of puppies). I added lots of insulation to the ceiling and enclosed the walls with OSB and thrift store windows.  New shingles ended some rainwater leaks.   During the first winter after setting up the dog lot, I used an electric space heater to keep the temperature above 55 degrees.  The power bill was unacceptable!  The second year I insulated the roof which was previously plywood and shingles and switched from straw to heated wooden beds.  I kept the space heater set at 45 degrees but it proved to be largely unnecessary.  A large sheltered dog lot will make life much easier.  Don’t skimp and just throw a tarp over some 6’x6’ chain link fence.  Your dogs need protection from weather and room to play.  A lone dog is a little lot will be miserable but several dogs with room to exercise will be more content when they need to be out from underfoot.  When there is company, or when we are cooking, and certainly when pressure canning; all dogs go out to the dog lot.    

Cost: Kennel and dog lot remodeling ran $2,000.  Each dog was about $1,000 after ear trimming, shots, etc.  Each dog consumes about 500 lbs. of dry dog food per year, their diet is supplemented with eggs from our chickens, leftover meat from supper, and the occasional canned food as a treat.  I use Black Gold brand dog food in the black bag from my local farm store.  This amounts to $250 per dog each year.  Dry food in the bag stores for about a year and a one year supply for two dogs will stack on two standard pallets without being so tall as to be a hassle.  

Puppies:  After we’d had a bit more than a year of training our adult dogs we started raising litters of puppies.  Since the dogs were an exercise in prepping from the start, the puppies were an extension of this.  The first litter was a learning experience but over time the puppies have paid for the initial investments.  The best idea on puppy for prepping came from my wife.  She was looking at our then current “to buy” list of gear and noticed several firearms.  “Not everyone has the money to buy an expensive purebred puppy, but some people might have some guns they would trade instead.”  Now any time we have puppies available, we let people know if the price is too high for them, we’ll consider “an old deer rifle or something” as part of the deal.  As a survivalist this has been a huge benefit.  For example, last litter I ended up with a H&K MP5A5 look-alike in .22 LR.  I took it to a gun show and swapped it for an AK for my wife.  From other puppies I kept a very nicely modified Mauser and a .243 Savage.  We live close to the border of another state so I do take care not to deal over state lines, not that I honestly suspect an alphabet agency is looking for dog breeders to make examples out of, but I feel it is only prudent to be above board.  So far I have found that most of my customers have previously owned Dobermans, and are either in law enforcement or military families.  The most satisfying puppies were the ones that have gone on to be therapy dogs for disabled veterans.  In a long term crisis, and even post crisis, I suspect there will always be a market in the barter economy for a recognizable working breed of dog.  Practicing up on breeding, training, and trading has had a high initial cost and been time intensive relative to our other prep work.  Pure “dog time” runs about 1-1½ hours a day during puppy raising months, when the puppies are sold or the next litter still on the way I focus more heavily on training the adults.   

Whatever breed you select, be sure to do plenty of homework before you purchase your first dog.  Know what health problems are common in that breed.  Find out what problems come from genetics and if the parents have been tested; don’t discover that at age five, your dog comes from a line of dogs with terrible joint problems.  Pick a line that dies after a very long life rather than one that falls apart and has to be put down young.  Get your property ready, be it dog lot, kennel, or crate for housebreaking inside.  Have collars and leashes ready with spares for the ones that get chewed up or lost.  Find out what brand of food the breeder you’re purchasing from uses and have a supply of that.  You can gradually switch over to a different brand but have plenty on hand before you get home.  AKC has plenty of good information on basic training and breed specifics that you will want to consider before getting your first dog.  If you desire to have your dog professionally trained for protection, expect the trainer to ask you to wait until your dog is 18 months old or more so that they have had time to finish developing properly strong bones and an adult temperament.    

Be good to your dogs, and before you hand over a puppy to their new master, look them in the eye and know that those brown orbs looking up at you are going to change someone’s life forever.

I delved into raising quail by accident. What I mean by that is that a member of a local preparedness forum that I belong to (and administrate) posted some information about them and the idea that they could be a great homestead bird, either with or opposed to the standard chicken flock. My extensive research and admittedly short experience with them has lead me to some very positive conclusions about the Coturnix Quail.
First, these are truly amazing multi purpose birds. Not only can you get an end product of extremely nutrient and protein rich meat, but they can lay an egg nearly every day and amounting to 300 per year, starting at 6 weeks of age in their first year and will continue to lay for up to three or more years, although at a declining rate. Second, they are the rabbit of the bird world regarding breeding and feed conversion. Not that they can set eggs and have a few hatches a year. In fact, you’ll certainly need an incubator because rarely do Coturnix Quail ever set on eggs. They’ve been captive bred for so long now that [brooding behavior has] just been bred out over time. The upside is the egg production. With no eggs for the hens to set and hatch then raise, they will just continue to provide your egg a day unfettered by chick rearing. Third would be demand for eggs, meat and by-product of the birds.
Starting Out, the Incubator…

Raising quail is an easy proposition and requires little of your time if set up properly. First, you’ll need an incubator. These are easily home-made or may be purchased either used or new online. In any case, a decent new incubator is not terribly expensive. I started out looking around for used ones and found them at a few on places like Craigslist and eBay. I ended up finding a nice new model that suited me from GQF Manufacturing. The one I chose is model #2365 for $91.50 + shipping. This is a basic model that runs off of 12 VDC power and also comes with an inverter to plug it into your 120 volt electrical outlet. To a prepper, the benefits of the ability to run off of 12 VDC power is obvious. This model has a built in circulator fan that keeps the temperature in the incubator even. There is an automatic egg turner available that comes with quail egg sized cups, but I chose not to add this because of the additional electrical draw. The egg turner runs 24 hours a day. The incubator will hold over 100 quail eggs without the turner. The built in fan also runs all the time. Even so, drawing less then 3,000 Milliamps at maximum load even when the heating element comes on, a deep cell battery with little recharging should run it for the entire incubation period. Pick a warm spot in your house and it will run less often.

Got Eggs?...
Quail eggs are incredible as much as or maybe even more then chicken eggs. This applies to the health benefits as well as the very short incubation period and high hatch rates. Standard Coturnix Quail eggs only require 16-17 days to hatch. The Jumbo variety only takes 18 days. The incubator temperature should stay between 99.5 and 100.5 degrees Fahrenheit. Humidity should be kept in the 40-50% range until two days before hatch. Then, the incubator goes on “lock-down”. You should stop rotating the eggs and increase the humidity to 60% during lockdown. Once the chicks hatch and dry off, they can remain in the incubator for up to 12 hours. Then, it’s off to the brooder.

Quail eggs are quite small as compared to a chicken egg. Chicken eggs tend to be around 55 grams. Standard quail eggs are in the 10 – 12 gram range and jumbo varieties can be as much as 14+ grams.  So it takes 4-5 quail eggs to equal a chicken egg. The differences in quail egg nutrition as compared to a chicken egg are many. One 10 gram Coturnix Quail egg has 3 to 4 times the nutrition of a 55 gram chicken egg. It has 13% protein as compared to a chicken egg’s 11%, It has twice the vitamin B2 and vitamin A. Quail eggs also contain three times the amount of vitamin B1 as well.  You can also get 5 times the iron and potassium along with being rich in calcium and phosphorus. Furthermore, quail eggs have a good deal of good cholesterol and none of the bad cholesterol. Thanks to an ovamucoid protein contained in Coturnix Quail eggs, they do not cause allergies or diathesis. That same protein is helpful to those suffering from allergy symptoms and, in fact, there are allergy drugs derived from this same protein. Quail hatching eggs can be found on E-Bay and there are some great breeders out there as well. A quick internet search will be very productive in locating these breeders. Quail eggs taste slightly different then chicken eggs. One reason is that the quail eggs have a slightly higher yolk to white ratio. The quail eggs are “richer” and taste better in my opinion. A great tasting way to preserve them is pickling.  They can be used in place of chicken eggs in any recipe.

Raising Quail Chicks…
Once they leave the incubator, quail chicks should be placed in a brooder. A brooder is simply a warmed container large enough to hold your chicks until they can be put in permanent breeder cages or community pens. The brooder should be kept warm, starting out at 95-100 degrees, with decreasing temperatures as the chicks grow and feather out. I, and most others, use an infra-red heat lamp suspended over the brooder. You can tell if the temperatures are too cool for the chicks as they will bunch together and try to keep warm. If the chicks are too warm they will get as far from under the lamp as they can. Brooders can be made up of any container that is high enough for the chicks to not jump out. I use plastic storage  containers for brooders and they work very well and are easy to clean. For the first 3 days I use a shelf liner material for the chicks to walk on. Using something solid but disposable helps prevent leg development problems that might occur from using a looser material. After 3 days I use hardwood pellets of the type typically used for horse stalls. The pellets break down very slowly and are highly absorbent, making them long lasting. Avoid using softwood shavings like cedar or pine. The dusts from these are dangerous for the developing chicks. Also avoid shredded newspaper. If they try to consume it, and they usually will, it can become a choking hazard or impact their bowels. Watering the chicks must be done carefully as well. The waterer must not be deep enough for the chicks to drown in. It takes very little water for this to happen. I use small bottle caps for the first three days that has some marbles in it. You’ll need to dip a couple of the chick’s beaks into the water so they know what and where it is. The others will follow along. Quail should be feathered out by 5 -6 weeks and ready to go to breeder cages or pens.

On To Adulthood…
Quail reach sexual maturity in 6 weeks. This means the males will be mounting the hens and the hens will begin laying eggs. That’s right, 6 weeks! At this time they should be in their permanent surroundings. Some breeders use large breeder pens and some use small cages. Either will work but I find the breeder pens work best. These can be old rabbit cages or purpose built cages. I actually made mine from inexpensive plastic 55 gallon barrels that I laid on their sides and built wire floors into. They are very easy to clean, never rot and are waterproof. Coturnix Quail only require 1 square foot of floor space per bird. They are very cold hardy and heat tolerant. Cage them according to your local conditions. They should be protected from wind and rain and extreme (sub freezing) cold, otherwise they’ll be fine. Coturnix Quail very much enjoy sand baths. They will jump into the sandbox and lie on their sides and happily chirp. It’s a big deal to them. Use a small plastic shoe box sized container with children’s play sand. Breeder pens should contain 3-6 hens and one male. All of my excess males are culled at 6-8 weeks. They are at their best size for the table at that time.

Feeding…
Coturnix Quail require a very high protein diet. The feed should have a minimum of 22% protein or the quail will suffer. Some signs of lack of protein are feather picking and fighting. Most growers use a non-medicated game bird starter typically available at Southern States or Tractor Supply Company type feed stores. Check your local feed store and if they do not carry it then see if they can order or make it for you, most will. Quail can be fed this throughout their lives and will require no supplement with this type of feed. Although they do like occasional treats of leafy greens (mine love spinach more then I do) and insects like mealworms or black fly larvae. Your quail chicks can be fed the starter feed but it should be crushed lightly for their little digestive systems. In a “grid-down” situation, alternative feeds may be used. Mealworm raising is something I’ll be trying out soon. The mealworms or other insects, such as black fly larvae, in combination with thistle seed, garden and table scraps can keep your quail fed without commercial feed while maintaining their strict protein requirements.  Thistle is easily grown so I keep some viable seed on hand for harder times and I stockpile a few buckets as well.

Watering…
Quail should always have access to fresh, clean water. I use 32 oz. rabbit water bottles for my quail cages. These can keep as many as 5 quail in water for at least 24 hours a fill on the hottest of days. A self watering system would also work as well. Any of the nipple or cup type waters, typically used in chicken operations, will work fine. Be sure that your system is kept clean and ice free.

Got Quail?
Once your Coturnix Quail are laying eggs and you’re collecting and eating or hatching them, you’re ready to start culling birds. I hatch birds every 3 weeks. On this time table, I can keep us in quail meat and eggs as well as keeping fresh hens around to replace hens that are not laying or have produced through their maximum laying period. Quail can be culled any time after 6 weeks of age. That means that you can keep fresh meat around without refrigeration or freezers just by culling when needed. Quail are very easy to process. After some practice I can now butcher a quail in around 3 minutes each using only a pair of kitchen shears. I first hold the quail over my utility sink upside down. They will naturally extend their necks and I quickly remove it with one quick snip of the scissors. This is the most humane way I’ve found to perform this. After the bird settles, I remove the legs by cutting just below the knee joint. I then cut the wings at the joint where they meet the body. I then turn it in my hand and cut across the tail where it meets the body. I turn it around again and slide the scissors down its back between the skin and backbone. Peeling the skin off at that point is very easy. Once the skin is removed I cut along each side of the spine from that tail end. The entrails will come out with the removal of the spine. The bird can then be rinsed and is ready to store or eat. Quail meat is quite delicious and can be consumed any way that chicken can be prepared. It is moist and palatable with no “gamey” taste to them at all. Nutritionally, one Coturnix Quail has 20g protein and is very low in cholesterols and fats and is high in nutrients.

What Kind of Quail is that?
Standard Coturnix Quail are native to Asia and Europe and have been domesticated since ancient times. From this domestication, the Japanese Quail come in three main varieties. The choices are standard Coturnix Quail (Coturnix Coturnix Japonica), Jumbo Coturnix Quail and Texas A&M Coturnix Quail.  The standard Coturnix Quail do everything fast. They hatch fast at 16 to 17 days; they mature fast, are laying eggs and reach an ideal eating size at 6 weeks. These are the standard type from which the others varieties are derived. The Jumbo Coturnix variety is simply selectively bred Standard Coturnix Quail. The Jumbo variety will hatch in 18 – 19 days, and mature in around 8 weeks. They mature to a slightly larger weight then the standard sized Coturnix to nearly one pound. The Texas A&M Quail were selectively bred by Texas A&M University and are white in color, they typically sport a black or brown spot on their head. They hatch and mature like the Jumbo variety. Texas A&M differ from the other quail varieties in that they have a lighter colored meat. They are otherwise like the Jumbo Cotunix Quail. All of the quail varieties are very hardy and very rarely have health problems. They should be raised away from chickens, however, because they can transmit disease to each other.

Boy Quail Habits…
Male Coturnix Quail show much the same habits as other game birds. They are somewhat territorial and require access to 3-6 hens to be happy. Male Coturnix do crow but it’s nothing like a chicken. Their crow does not carry far and sounds much like any native wild bird you might hear close by. This means that Coturnix Quail are great for urban and suburban areas. They are very low-profile. Their mating habits appear a little rough and the hens will occasionally lose head feathers from courting activities. Any male that causes a hen to bleed badly or abuses a hen, and that does happen sometimes, should be culled. A good male takes good care of his girls. When you add treats to the pen, he will hover over the treat and emit a low grunting sound to invite them to what he found for them. He will also alert them to perceived danger with a quick series of grunts. Males can be identified by rust colored chest feathers, usually showing by around 5 weeks of age.

The Girls…
Female quail are generally referred to as hens like any other fowl. Females make no loud noises but can be quite vocal. They make a cricket chirping sound when they’re happy and “keep in touch” with their harem mates with low whistles. They will “bow” to you when you add treats to their cage and they will also puff and quiver their feathers. It’s very cute. Hens will occasionally fight. I’ve only seen this once but it can be brutal. I had one hen lose an eye to another hen. Hens displaying this behavior should be culled. Hens will usually ignore their eggs once they’ve laid them. Only about one in one thousand will set and hatch eggs. I have read of folks successfully setting quail eggs under bantam-sized chickens. Hens will only lay consistently year-round if given 14 hours of light. I have achieved this with a simple solar light set up over my opaque plastic barrel cages. A hen can be identified by her white chest feathers with small, black dots.

By-Products…
By-products from quail raising are many. Top of the list is their droppings. Very high in nutrients, composted quail manure is excellent for gardens and they’ll make a lot more of it then you think. Used quail egg shells go into compost as well. Feathers can be separated and used for stuffing for pillows, dyed for fly tying, crafts, etc. Cured quail skins can be sold and used for bird dog training and crafts.  Entrails and leftovers can be used for high quality pet food. I have sold them in pairs as pets as well. They make great pets requiring minimal care or space.

Summary:
Coturnix Quail are a nearly perfect pre and post SHTF food source. Eggs hatch in 16-17 days. They grow to eating size in only 6 weeks. Their feed conversion ratio is extremely high. The eggs and meat are very healthy and the eggs are considered somewhat medicinal (Coturnix Quail eggs have been used in Asian medicine for centuries). Eggs can be used in any way that a chicken egg can. They are great for pickling and may be sold to local drinking establishments or at flea markets. I sell my excess eggs to Asian restaurants, particularly sushi establishments. They fetch $5.00 for a 10 pack in my area… That’s $0.50 per egg!! I do discount for larger orders, though. Coturnix Quail eggs are quite “under the radar “as well, making them easy to sell to establishments and at farmer’s markets. Most state health agencies do not regulate sale of Coturnix Quail eggs because they are considered game birds and not “fowl” and are generally not regulated by state game officials because they are a non-native species(just don’t release them, they will not last very long in the wild anyway). Check your state regulations if you do decide to sell them for human consumption because all state laws vary. They require only 1 square foot for each bird of living space. They are very quiet making them great for OPSEC. Pens can be indoor, outdoor, breeder pens, colonies or even re-purposed outbuildings. They make a great trade item… Quail are delicious!

Some helpful quail links…
http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=1831&page=147
Raising Mealworms
BackYardChickens Forum has an informative quail section

My foray into quail raising , including do it yourself details and pictures on building my 55 gallon drum breeder cages, brooders, finishing pens, incubator details and other experiences can be seen at MdPreparedness.com in the Gardening section of the forum. Regards, Bigdtc in Md.

Mr. Rawles,
I have just finished reading your book How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It and found it very helpful and enlightening. There is one thing I was wondering and can't seem to find an answer anywhere.
 
Owning horses in an extended grid-down situation presents the question of worming. After most worming meds has been used or expired how would you treat your horse for worms? I've read about using different herbs but wonder about their safety and dosages.
 
Thank you, - Michael N. in Arizona

JWR Replies: As with most medications for humans, the expiration dates marked on veterinary medications are very conservative. Stock up when you find de-worming paste on sale. Perhaps a reader could chime in with some herbal or 19th Century do-it-yourself alternatives.

It is my opinion that survival in a long-term, system-down situation will require a lot more than stored food and water. Survival may boil down to being able to produce food in a sustainable manner with little more than natural resources. Many people seem focused on “bug out” plans, food storage and gardening, with seemingly little thought to the long-term survivability of their plan. While gardens will provide sources of nutrition which are very necessary, the higher calorie and protein needs cannot be satisfied by gardening alone.
 
Eggs, milk and meat are good sources of protein with caloric benefits that vegetables cannot meet. Many people who share their “plan” seem to think that wild animals can be easily harvested to meet their needs. However, if one adds up all the people who plan to “live off the land,” there is an evident shortfall. I have spent the past several years experimenting with various types of animal product cultivation and I have found that, regardless of the fact I was raised on a farm, I have had a lot to learn. During the past year, I have tried my skills with sheep and found myself in wonderment of the most original homestead animal. In this article I am going to highlight some of my experiences and provide some information about vital reference materials.
 
Throughout the Bible, analogies and references to sheep were used to illustrate certain behaviors, scenarios and offerings. Jacob was given a “coat of many colors” which was spun from sheep’s wool. Abraham was asked to offer a lamb for sacrifice. Jesus was referred to as the “Lamb of God.” Sheep were so interwoven with early human culture, that their characteristics provided a source of analogy for many of the Bible authors. We have learned through thousands of years of example that history has a tendency to repeat in certain patterns. And throughout ancient history, sheep and humans played a coexistent dependency. I do not think I fully understood many of those Bible analogies until I made the choice a year ago to add sheep to my homesteading experience. Sheep are, for good reason, the original choice of livestock in the history of humanity.
 
Sheep provide a plethora of resources, while the overhead of raising them can be quite nominal. Wool can be used for spinning into clothing, blankets, rugs and other useful accessories. Sheep’s milk can be used fresh, in cheese or other recipes. Lamb is a delicious delicacy, which is both nutritious and healthful. Sheep can also help control weeds and provide fertilizer, as well as being a great source of entertainment. The understanding sheep and how to keep them alive could prove very useful in a situation where modern conveniences are disturbed.
 
When I purchased my starter flock of sheep, I was rather naïve and I did not do much research. But I found an older gentlemen who was eager to share his knowledge, and wanted to thin down his little suburban flock, due to neighbor complaints. His passion was for the Border Cheviot breed, but his daughter had started their small flock with Suffolk’s which were part of her FFA project. So, I purchased a mix of purebred Border Cheviot with Suffolk. It meant little to me at the time, but I have been learning the importance of the breed. One of the best overall references I have found, and use constantly, is Storey’s Guide to Raising Sheep. This book has a very good section on breeds of sheep.
 
Selecting the breed of sheep is a rather important step in getting started. There are sheep (referred to as “hair sheep”) who do not need to be sheered, because they shed their wool each year, and their primary purpose is for meat. Right now, wool is not worth very much, so this seems an attractive option. There are sheep, such as the Suffolk, whose selling characteristic is the fast growth of lambs for meat, but their wool is not very desirable for spinning. I have been told, all of the black-faced breeds of sheep are not considered desirable for wool. The white-faced sheep, such as the Border Cheviot, have softer, more desirable wool. The Moreno breed is considered to be the best for wool production. There seem to be three major categories of traits for sheep: Wool, meat and heartiness.
 
I found the Border Cheviot to be flighty and difficult to deal with at times, but stronger and heartier than some of the other breeds. They are also quite small, so not as good for meat, and sometimes they have a hard time producing enough milk for two lambs. But the ewes have strong maternal instincts and rarely abandon a lamb. Some breeds are known for large numbers of offspring each year. They tend to have more problems raising the lambs themselves, with shortage of milk and apathy toward the big family, but are good for production of both milk and lambs for meat. The various breeds of sheep all have a set of attributes and drawbacks, so diligent study should be done before deciding on a breed to raise or cross-breed.
 
One of the most important choices a person must make is the Ram (or Rams) that will be used to produce next years’ crop of lambs. I was guided into purchasing a well-bred Suffolk ram, and I am happy for that guidance. My lambs this year are bigger and growing faster than the ones from the Border Cheviot ram last year. The Suffolk ram is also quite docile and not as aggressive as other rams I have seen. Although he does challenge me from time to time, he responds well to reprimand and he has not attacked me. The biggest challenge with rams is to make sure they do not hit you from behind. They wait for an opportunity, because they enjoy smacking other animals with their heads. I treat my ram cautiously because I know he could become quite dangerous, if not kept in check. I do not pet him on the head and I keep the relationship somewhat distant. Rams feel that friendship involves head-butting. The ram determines not only the type of lambs you will get, but also their personality and the mood of the flock.
 
My first major lesson in being a shepherd came when my costly young ram started looking depressed. He went off alone and lied under a tree for a day.  I figured I would keep an eye on him and hope he was better soon. He went downhill fast. By the time I got him to the veterinarian, it was discovered that he had a massive infestation of worms. When I asked if they had seen one this bad before, the veterinarian replied, “not in a living sheep.” He died shortly thereafter and I spent the evening digging a deep hole with a shovel. That was when I became educated on the most deadly threat to sheep – parasites.
 
There are a number of worms that will infest sheep. Roundworms are the most common infestation, and the culprit in my lamb loss. Initially, I used the chemical wormer, sold to me by the veterinarian. But I wanted to find a naturally sustainable way to manage this problem. The worm infestation runs in a cycle. Millions of eggs are passed in the feces of the sheep, later hatching and becoming worms that are ingested. My first strategy is to encourage my chickens to spend more time in the field, feeding on the eggs and worms. To do this, I changed their grain feeding pattern. I only feed a small amount of grain in the evening before they roost so they forage during the day instead of waiting around for food. But this will only help slow down the cycle.
 
The second part of my strategy has been the use of garlic juice. Initially, I was using powdered garlic in their grain. I had the veterinarian test a sample of feces from the sheep and it was found that there was a significant population of worms. It was recommended that I use the chemical worming solution immediately. I did a little reading and decided to hold off on the chemical solution. I bought a large quantity of whole garlic and put it through my juicer. I stirred the juice into the grain and fed it to the sheep. I repeated the treatment a week later, and then had another test done. The worm population had decreased, but there were still worms. So I continued with treatments for another month and tested again. Although still present, the number of worm eggs in the feces has diminished to a point that is not considered dangerous and chemical treatment is no longer being recommended.
 
Another type of worm of particular concern, especially for dog owners, is the tapeworm. It can be transmitted to dogs through ingestion of feces or meat.  However, natural treatment for this type of worm turns out to be much less complicated. I have been mixing a couple of tablespoons of food grade diatomaceous earth with the sheep salt, and tests have found no presence of tapeworms. I purchased a 50 lb. bag of this miracle solution at Amazon.com for an affordable price. A little diatomaceous earth goes a long way and it has many uses.
 
In addition to garlic, I have found apple cider vinegar to be of use in both controlling worms and aiding in the overall health of my sheep. I add several cups of vinegar to their water from time to time. Runny noses dry up and the sheep look healthier. The health benefits of vinegar for sheep, chickens, and even humans, are numerous. I use vinegar regularly for all of my animals. Sheep, like most animals dependent on our chemical treated culture, have a number of health hazards that are important to know how to treat. I am learning daily and I imagine the learning will continue as long as I have sheep. My friend, who has commercially raised sheep for 30 years, says she still learns something new every day. She recommended a book that is no longer in print, but I was able to buy it used on Amazon.com: A Practical Guide To Sheep Disease Management, by Norman Gates.
 
Sheep are more economical with feed than many other four-legged creatures. However, quality of feed is very important for sheep. I have a high quality pasture grass with gravity flow irrigation. My sheep get very upset when I flood irrigate each week, but it creates a healthy growth of grassy nutrition. During the winter months, I feed premium alfalfa hay. When ewes are pregnant, the size of their stomach can be reduced by the space needed for the growing lambs. This can cause severe health problems, if proper nutrition is not provided. I grain my ewes daily during the last few months of pregnancy. A friend told me of her first year raising sheep wherein she lost more than half of her ewes due to lack of nutrition during pregnancy. It has crossed my mind how difficult it would be to sustain any of these creatures without the hay and grain so readily available in today’s world. But it was accomplished during Bible times, so I’m sure it could be done again.
 
Lambing can be a stressful time for both the sheep and the shepherd. Depending on when they are bred, sheep tend to lamb between February and April. In many parts of the country, this is a cold, blustery time of year. Some sheep are naturally good at pushing out healthy lambs, while others are going to need help. I am not going to cover all of the things that can go wrong, because that would be an article in and of itself.  However, I am going to say that, from what I have learned, being ready to take a gloved hand and feel around inside a sheep is part of the business. And I say “gloved hand” because, I am told there that as a woman, there are diseases which I can get from sheep without the use of gloves during birthing. Some breeds of sheep are natural with the lambing process and some will require a lot of help. I have had to “pull” two lambs this year from first year ewes that had trouble. It was a trying, but worthwhile experience.
 
Lambs need to nurse within the first hour of being born, or things can go sideways. If a lamb has not nursed properly, its mouth will go cold. This means the lamb is in trouble. Colostrum needs to be given to the lamb quickly to avoid death. The easier way to avoid this scenario is to hold the sheep and try to get the lamb nursing. Lambs need special treatment for the first 10 days of their lives, so separate enclosures with good shelter is advised. I had two pens with huts I purchased used from another breeder. It worked well for my six ewes. The new lambs should have their umbilical cords treated with iodine until they dry. They will also need to monitored carefully to make sure they are nursing properly and staying healthy. Books have been helpful, but I have found there is almost no better resource than a person who has spent a number of years raising sheep and is willing to share knowledge.
 
Lambs are also mentally weak. They will literally lay down and die if they think things are bad. My veterinarian put it this way, “remember the four S’s of sheep raising: Sick Sheep Seldom Survive.”  And most of the time, the ones that sick are the lambs. Recently, one of my lambs was somehow interpreted by my guard dogs to be a buddy that wanted to wrestle. Although there was no blood or obvious physical injury, the lamb thought this was the end of his life and just gave up. His neck seemed to have had some sort of whip-lash type injury from the incident, but he was otherwise healthy. I spent a hectic week trying to keep him alive and convince him to nurse again. My secret weapon turned out to be a mixture of water, honey, egg yolk and garlic juice, plunged down him from a syringe. He perks up substantially after a half cup of the concoction. However, without the intense care, he would still have given up at times because his neck hurt.
 
Predators are another big threat to lambs and sheep. I have my acreage surrounded with near-predator-proof fencing. I have watched coyotes and foxes stand at the fence and gaze hungrily at my animals. They have only a few places where they can get in around my gate, with some effort. And when they do get in, I have two 120 pound. German Shepherd guard dogs who will try to kill them. So predators are, for the most part, not much of a problem. However, in a situation less secured, there are dogs (such as the Great Pyrenees) who are capable of killing even a wolf to protect the sheep. Devising a predator plan is a very important part of a sheep operation.
 
Setting up my operation has been a somewhat costly venture, but I have found some significant tax advantages in doing so. Because I am raising livestock for a profit, the costs of setting up the pastures, fences, facilities, and purchasing of the initial stock has provided a significant tax deduction for several years. I will probably make a “profit” on my sale of stock this year and have some tax liability. But, so far, the benefits of the learning and the improvements to my small farm have proven to be a good move for taxes.
 
Lamb is a sheep of less than a year old. Lamb is considered to have a more “mild” flavor than mutton, which is the meat of a grown sheep. I “culled” a problem ewe last fall, by adding her to the butcher list. The “lamburger” and meat from the mutton sheep has been as popular with my customers as the lamb. My favorite ingredient for everything I cook with lamb is rosemary. Rosemary seems to sweeten and enhance the flavors, so I raise several rosemary plants in my kitchen and use it regularly. I recently marinated a leg of lamb in my sauce for 24 hours before roasting it on the barbeque grill, with terrific results. I often use the marinate sauce as a base for gravy. I have received some rave reviews from friends and family.
 
Rosemary Marinade Sauce

Combine:
½ cup olive oil
¼ cup dry red wine
¼ cup fresh rosemary leaves, minced
¼ cup fresh garlic, minced
1 tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
 
Preparing to live without modern conveniences is a lifestyle. I have made many sacrifices to live in my homestead. And raising animals can be very challenging while holding down full time employment. I imagine the thousands of years of history when human survival hinged on a herd of sheep that were watched over while they grazed on the hillside. The stories of the wolves and the battles to keep the sheep safe have become more meaningful for me. I have fortified my little farm to resist threats, both four-legged and two-legged. I believe long-term survival could mean that protecting a flock of sheep and a homestead might include dealing with people who are “bugging out” and need to be sent down the road. I strongly urge people to change their way of living now and move to a sustainable lifestyle.

Many children today are ill prepared to safely conduct themselves in a variety of natural settings. Watching all the parents around me twist themselves into knots dropping off and picking up their children, running them constantly to practices and clubs and using all their vacation days to be with the precious children on every field trip, it is apparent that wrapping children in steel wool is still strongly favored. The world is a harsh place and many of these children are ill prepared for a really bad situation. Older but still useful skills can encourage independence in a child and allow for a child to develop his or her response to a variety of situations where bad decisions with consequences will be faced. Horseback riding has danger associated with it and parents should act to discipline their children with regards to safety rules and safety training.

Preparing your child to react in a calm thoughtful way if they find themselves in a dangerous situation can save their or another child’s life. In my childhood, I found myself with the neighbor’s children playing on the banks of a freezing creek. The neighbor’s son went out onto the ice and being the smallest got out about 3-4 feet from the bank. He went through and was standing in water up to his chest. The current pulled him hard against the ice. When he tried to climb out the ice broke and when he tried to come back toward shore the current under the ice made him unsteady in the water. My mother had made sure I knew I should never walk on ice unless freezing temperatures had lasted many days unabated but if I did and it cracked I needed to get down and crawl or lay on my belly and slide to safety. I also knew if someone were to go through you needed to find a branch to help pull them out. He was completely soaked but we got him out. Since I was the better rider I got up on the fastest horse with him in front and cantered ten minutes back to his house. He suffered no ill effects but waiting in icy water for twenty minutes or more for his parents to arrive might not have had the same result. Would your child know what to do and have the skills to act safely and decisively?

While in a TEOTWAWKI situation, working horses will become more prolific. Being a lover and former owner of horses, I do not recommend anyone purchase a pony or horse for a child unless the parents are very clear as to the amount of work and expense it will require. Owning a horse is not needed to learn how to ride. In most communities, local stables offer riding lessons. It is also possible to trade work for riding lessons with persons who own horses as well. This work for lessons arrangement is better for many reasons than paying for lessons. Mucking stables, grooming, tack care, feeding and basic medical care provide needed lessons on handling and care of horses.

Early riding instruction can be vital. Older children and adults have difficulties learning basic riding skills due to being a larger size and height. The most common reaction of larger sized beginners I have observed is the tendency to lie down on the horse followed by fear and quitting or frustration at the lack of fast progress. A very young child can be sat on very gentle horse with an experienced handler and walked in an enclosed space at a very young age. I was sat on horses and my horse walked by lead at the age of 2. Below I summarize the basic plan of lessons I received building on my early introduction to the horse.

A. Orientation - On the ground.

Basic riding gear is needed. Proper footwear should include a sturdy covered shoe with a low heel. Clothes that are comfortable and will not ensnare you as well as a helmet should be worn. As a child, I did not want to wear a helmet but after seeing a friend of mine fall off numerous times I decided it might be prudent to wear my helmet.  Horses can be startled by running and loud sudden noises. When walking behind the horse either stay far enough away he cannot kick you or stay very close to his rump while running your hand along his body so he does not startle. Speaking normally and running your hands along the horse will help avoid spooking your animal.

1. Introduction to the horse.
2. For the first time, the horse should already be haltered and either in a stall or tethered. Now would be the time to bring that piece of carrot. Hold the hand flat with thumb tucked against the side of the palm and allow the horse to take the food. Stand at the side of the horse’s neck facing him on his left side. This is also the side where you will mount and dismount. Make sure he can see you. Speak gently. Scratch under his jaw or his chest as he prefers. Come forward and untie the lead rope. Lead ropes should always be knotted in a slip knot so a horse can be released with a single quick pull.

Since children may be too excited to pay a great deal of attention to the next three phases (2a, 3 & 4) some instructors choose to have a horse groomed and saddled and save the following three parts as follow-up instruction at a subsequent training session. Removal of the following three instructions is also appropriate for very young children. These techniques cannot be completed by any child who cannot reach the horse’s ears.

3. Practice standing near the horse and walking. Show the child how to be firm without shouting. Have the child hold the lead with one hand close to the horses head and the other to hold a place to keep the lead from dragging. Explain and make sure the child does not wrap the rope around their hands or wrist so that if the horse bolted they could just drop the entire rope without being snared by it. An intermediate skill to practice here would be jogging with the horse at a trot. Walk the horse in a circle bringing the horse to the area where you intend to groom. The slip knot should be demonstrated and the child should complete it at least once prior to moving to the next phase. Observe the child at all subsequent rides until the child can tie the knot without any assistance from you.

4. Grooming. The child should be taught the various implements used. A basic kit will include a curry comb, brush, hoof pick, sweat slicker (optional) and mane comb. Grooming takes place before and after a ride. The child should know that you use the curry (the sharp circular one) holding a steady and not overly hard hand moving in a counter clockwise fashion (against the hair) to loosen mud and hair under the minimum areas of the saddle, saddle blanket and girth. Horses generally like being curried so you may find that your horse likes his chest to be done and also his rump. You can also curry the legs and in a precise gentle way also get a patch of mud on the horse’s jaw. Horses are most sensitive on their belly and will shimmy their belly, pull away, bring a leg forward to kick at you or turn and bite you if particularly annoyed. Lighten your pressure in any of these cases and if this fails keep the curry to just the girth areas of the belly. The bony parts of the horse’s legs can also get unfavorable reactions so keep the curry comb to the other parts and only use sparingly to remove mud.  A child should not be afraid to apply some pressure to the curry comb since the purpose is to loosen dust, mud and hair. It should be done thoroughly. Rubbing it over an area once will not be enough to accomplish the loosening needed. The next step is to brush the curried areas with the hair brush. Brush the hair flat and remove all loose material. Horses love the hair brush and it can be used on all parts of the horse’s body excepting be careful around the eyes. 

The next stage is cleaning the hooves. For the purposes of this section, I will describe the procedure to you so that you can in turn demonstrate this to the child or beginner. I start at the horse’s left front leg. Stand with your back to the head of the horse and facing the tail. Run your hand down the horse’s leg and grab the fetlock area. Have the hoof pick in your other hand. Trained horses may automatically lift their leg but it is likely you will need to pull up bringing the hoof off of the ground. Rest the horse’s leg against your knee bring the hoof only a few inches off the ground. The hoof will be slightly in between your legs and to the side. If you are in the correct position, the horse is able to turn and bite you on your bottom. Most won’t. They are much more likely to put their foot down. Since they are strong they will probably succeed. Just lift the leg back up. When the horse sets his hoof down this is the most likely time they will step on your foot. If this happens, do not pull away but lean forward pushing your body weight against the horse. The purpose is to get the horse to shift his weight or step away. As soon as pressure is relieved pull your foot away. Depending on how much weight and how they got you this is going to hurt. Good shoes make all the difference. Now it’s time to clean out the hooves take the pick and slide it into the mud, pebbles, horse manure you find there clean it out from the sides. The sensitive part there is the frog and it is the leathery spongy part in the middle of the exposed area. Clean this area but do not jab it with the pick. Running the pick on its side here is one way to clean without worrying about hurting the horse. On either side is a cavity with a hard material bottom. The hard material may be scrapped with the pick without injury to the horse. This should be thoroughly cleaned out. Picking out material from the horseshoes is also a good idea. If there is a stone lodged in the hoof you need to work on removing it before you ride. Every leg is done in this manner. The back legs will be the ones the horse is most likely to put his leg down and must be done quickly. Most horses will take over when you release their leg putting their hoof down but some will need to be pushed down a bit to realize you are done.

The sweat slicker is used to remove sweat after a ride especially in summer and the mane comb is used to manage the mane and tail. These items should be easy to figure out but when you comb the tail stand to the side of the horse and pull it over. Do not stand behind the horse.

5. Saddling and bridling the horse. The girths should not drag and be brought over the seat. On the English saddle secure the stirrups. It is easiest to do this at the end of the last ride. On an English saddle, you pick up the metal stirrups and run it up to the seat of the saddle then you pull the leather strap through. This should secure them. Most English saddles have a saddle pad attached but with a western saddle you need to grab a blanket. Place the blanket so that its start rests slightly over the withers (the shoulder blades of the horse). Both types of saddles should be lifted and placed on the horse so that the saddle rests just on the edge of the withers. If you don’t get it placed correctly at first go ahead and lift and replace it until it is set right. Keep the English stirrups secured until you are ready to mount.  Go ahead and drop the girth. Reach under the horse and grab hold of the dangling leather. Children may need an adult to push it over so they can grasp it. The English saddle is the easiest to secure you just fasten the buckles under the flap like a belt. A girth of either type is the proper tightness when you can only insert your fingers under the leather and should rest on the smallest circumference of the belly behind the legs. If you cannot fit your fingers go ahead and loosen the girth. Horses tend to suck in air when saddled. This means that after you have secured the bridle you must recheck the girth’s tightness. In some horses, you will need to recheck just before you mount. The western girth is secured in a different manner. Take the leather and pull it up through the O-ring from the girth up to the O-ring near the seat of the saddle. Push the extra leather through the saddle O-ring and bring it out and to the side as you look at it. Wrap it horizontal in front of the leather just below the O-ring. Take it up and loop it through the O-ring again bringing it out and in a vertical direction. Now tuck this through the horizontal piece you have just created.  Pull it down. Tightening this girth will be needed and you must follow the leather re-tightening without untying the knot.

B. Mounting and Riding

Carry the bridle hung over your shoulder holding the reins up so they do not drag. To remove the halter go ahead and unbuckle the side letting it hang. Stand next to the horse’s head hold the bridle in front of the horse and pull the halter free of the horse’s ears. Horses tend to lift their head when the halter slides clear. If needed, circle the horses under the neck and behind the right ear with your arm to maintain some control. I prefer to hold the bit in my hand and lift it separate from the leather bridle bringing it to the horse’s teeth and having him accept it then quickly lift the bridle so the bit is not dropped back out of the horse’s mouth. This will keep the bit from smacking the horse’s teeth. Put the top piece over the horse’s head and secure the side buckle.

1. How to mount properly. Bring the reins down so that they fall from the bit. Hold the reins with both hands. Emphasize the importance of holding the reins so that the thumbs are clear. Lead the horse into an enclosed space, if possible. Put the reins back up over the horse’s head and bring the stirrups down for the English saddle. Beginners can take the reins and a goodly chunk of horse mane in their left hand. Place the left foot in the stirrup and face the front of the horse. Beginners may need a lift and can have someone cup their left leg and boost them up without using the stirrup. A push from the bottom can also be used with the left foot in the stirrup. Swing the right leg wide so that it clears the horse and sit down on the horse. Encourage the child not to plop on the horse’s back. I have found that to maintain control bring the knee over and squeeze it against the saddle.  The instructor may hold the horse’s bridle while the rider still has the reins in their hands. They should hold the reins so the extra material goes over the top of the hands. Hold the reins with a little slack.

2. Orientation on the horse.

3. Now is the time to train the child how to react if a horse bolts or another horse nearby bolts. First, the child should try to halt the horse the standard way with steady pressure with both hands. If this fails the next method is to tighten and loosen the reins with alternating uneven pressure to regain control (this causes the bit to slide through the horse’s mouth) and if that fails, shorten the rein tremendously on one side and allow the horse to move in ever tightening circles until control is restored. The final method involves the emergency dismount. This generally hurts upon landing. The feet will sting and strength is needed to push the rider clear of the horse. The child does not want to end up near the horse’s legs. This is not a riskless maneuver and would most likely be used to avoid a collision. The correct way to do this during a real emergency is to drop the stirrups and reins, although the reins may be draped over the saddle horn in the western saddle or a loose tie of the rein ends could be created to avoid the reins dropping down to the horse’s legs. The hands are placed on the pommel or the withers and the left leg is swung over the back of the horse as in a dismount. This must be done with more force to propel the rider off and away from the horse. Use the hands to push off as well. When practicing this dismount with a horse that is not spooked some people keep their hands on the reins. Emphasis the rider to use caution following any incident where the rider would use these techniques as it is possible the horse will spook again at something small.

4. The proper way to ride a horse is to use your legs and thighs to grip the horse. Many new riders and even some that have been riding for a while only sit on the horse primarily using gravity to stay there. Children will struggle with this at first since their legs are not long. Growing up many of my friends never made the transition to actual riding but continued to sit on the horse. You can notice this when a child falls for seemingly no reason such as a horse pulling forward to try and grab some grass causing the child to roll or fall off. The knees of the rider should be bent and heels should be pointed down. This stance will help keep full contact with the horse between the rider’s thighs down to the calves. A stair step can be used by the rider to develop more flexibility in keeping the heels down. Stand one stair up and lower one heel over the edge of the stair keeping the ball of the foot on the stair. Press down on the heel. Both feet can be conditioned in this manner.

5. The aids. There are four natural aids used to control of the horse. They are the voice, seat, legs, and hands. Unnatural aids include the crop, whip, spurs and most importantly the bit. Beginning riders will use the legs and hands the most. Experienced riders will use the seat most. Only after experience and practice will the rider gain the confidence and expertise to have an independent seat. Riders should work toward reducing the large movements to control the horse. As is traditional now and may be imperative in a TEOTWAWKI situation, voice should be used sparingly or not at all. The bit is the most useful of the unnatural aids. After a ride and after good individual performance, I do praise and pat my horse.

6. Time to ride. The first aid used is generally a kick or tap from the heels into the sides of the horse. A young child may actually need to lift their legs a bit to make an impression to get the horse to walk and later trot. The older the rider the less force will be needed and experienced rider will generally only squeeze the horse’s side with their heel or just reposition their leg slightly. The hands should stay quiet and be low near the horse’s neck. Once the rider’s seat is more developed go ahead and have them shift forward to also signal the command to start walking. Encourage the child to be firm and keep the horse from stopping or trying to eat grass. From a walk or trot, lean forward and squeeze the horse’s side to proceed to trotting or cantering. Later, when the seat is developed it is possible to canter without trotting first. Turning is accomplished by tightening the rein on the side in which the horse should turn. Have the rider avoid pulling on the horse’s mouth. This desensitizes them. If a horse salivates, while working the bit this is fine. Apply steady pressure on the reins to halt the horse. Now is the time to keep practicing. The emergency dismount should be practiced as well as walking and trotting.  Save cantering for later lessons. If you are using an English saddle, you will need to post (lift yourself off the saddle) while trotting. I enjoy posting and find it makes riding a horse easier for longer timeframes. Posting when done correctly is all from the knees and thighs. Beginners will push off the stirrup at first but should work on strengthening themselves. Advanced riders can post in a trot with no stirrups (either removed from the saddle or crossed over so they do not bounce). These are the basic skills needed to progress to intermediate and advanced riding skills.

7. The ride is now over. Walk the horse and let him cool down. The harder he has worked the longer you should spend walking. Show the rider how to reach down and examine the horse’s temperature on his upper chest while still mounted. If he is hot there have the rider keep walking. Once the horse has cooled down have the rider dismount, pull the reins over the head and if using an English saddle run up the stirrups. Take him to the area where you will unsaddle and unbridle the horse. Have the halter ready at that location. Unsaddle and unbridle the horse. Have the rider slip the halter up and over the horse’s head. Now the rider should get a grooming kit and use the sweat slicker if needed and give the horse another curry and brush. The hooves should be examined as to whether cleaning is needed. After trail rides this may be necessary.

Happy riding.

Rabies – a legitimate concern or fear-mongering? 
As I watch my pet Golden Retriever "Doodles" cautiously sniff at the curb sewer, I believe the threat is real.  A family of raccoons lives in the sewer pipes, and just a few months ago a local dog died of raccoon rabies.  Could my children be next?

Ohio is on the frontier of raccoon rabies, but despite yearly aerial and ground baiting programs for oral rabies vaccination, the uniformly lethal infection is moving westward.  Bat rabies, the other common threat, is distributed more evenly across the United States.  (If you’re wondering about your own state, check out the maps at Rabid Raccoons Reported in the United States during 2010 and Rabid Bats Reported in the United States during 2010. 

Odds are you’re unaware of anyone who’s died of rabies. That might not be the case if you live in India.  In the U.S., human rabies is so rare that every case is investigated by the CDC (only 2–4 per year). In India, annual deaths top 20,000, with someone dying of rabies every 30 minutes. (Read this article.) This is largely due to under-vaccination of the dog population.  Per the World Health Organization, 15 million people worldwide are treated with post-exposure vaccination, which is estimated to prevent 327,000 rabies deaths annually.

So what would happen in America if the vaccine became unavailable and the population of stray dogs exploded? This could well occur in a true end-of-life-as-we-know-it scenario.  Though our population density is not that of India, clearly the number of cases would skyrocket. 

The next logical question is: what can be done about it?  Avoiding contact with bats, raccoons, wild canines, skunks, and suspicious dogs is obviously indicated.  Even pacifists may be motivated to acquire a gun and the knowledge to use one safely.  Clearly you should vaccinate pets and other domestic animals now. 

But what about pre-exposure vaccination in humans?  This is already recommended for veterinary students, spelunkers, and travelers to endemic regions where dog contact is likely.  In 2009 a Virginia physician diagnosed his own subsequently fatal case of rabies a few months after returning from India – and without suspicious animal exposure! His agonizing end is detailed at the CDC web site. 

If you ask your family doctor whether you should be vaccinated against rabies in case of widespread disaster, the answer will likely be no.  At a cost of up to $800 for the series of three shots, your insurance is unlikely to cover immunizations without a clear indication. However, if you visit a travel clinic, perhaps at your local health department, you may be able to obtain the vaccine, especially if you fall into one of the high risk categories mentioned above.  The low-risk state of Indiana has a nice summary regarding vaccination on their web site. Your own state should offer something similar, or read the CDC’s guidelines on Human Rabies Prevention.

If you do desire vaccination, how long is immunity expected to last?  Unfortunately only a few years.  Current recommendations for those at high-risk include blood testing for effective immunity every 2-3 years, followed by re-vaccination if titers are low. (Pets simply receive repeat vaccination.)

I have also investigated the question of using canine rabies vaccination on humans.  This has not been tested and likely never will be.  I expect the likelihood of allergic reaction might be increased.  However, per the doctors I consulted, they felt canine rabies vaccine has a good chance of effectiveness in humans.  If I were bitten by a bat or suspicious raccoon, skunk, or dog, and the only thing I had available was animal vaccine, I would certainly use it.  Curiously, some states, including Ohio, allow purchase of veterinary rabies vaccine by non-medical personnel, although most states limit sale to veterinarians only. The same dose is used for dogs of all sizes, with twice as much administered to horses.

So where does this leave us?  As a family physician, stockpiling human rabies vaccine is cost-prohibitive.  On the other hand, at $20/dose, stockpiling dog rabies vaccine is a consideration, both for professionals and laymen.  Vaccines do require refrigeration and commonly list a shelf-life of only a year or two, but having something on hand may be preferable to having nothing.  

While I cannot offer a one-size-fits-all answer on this topic, rabies vaccination is a valid question for serious preppers.
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Dr. Koelker is the SurvivalBlog's Medical Editor and hosts the popular medical prepping site ArmageddonMedicine.net.   

I grew up in the suburbs of Houston, Texas. I was raised by a single mother who didn’t have time for much besides working to pay bills. I wasn’t lucky enough to grow up on a farm or learn canning or learn any useful survival/life skills besides how to cook Hamburger Helper and I was doing that at the ripe old age of 10. I did become a pro at making stew though and I could probably tell you 101 ways to use pasta. And thanks to my grandmother I could even crochet you a scarf if you’re lucky and if I have the spare time between working as a realtor and raising six kids, who are now ages 10-to-22.
 
Getting married, moving away from home at the age of 18 and becoming a military wife introduced me to a lot of new people, new ideas and I was able to learn things along the way that have prepared me for almost any event that may occur in the future that would take most of us out of our comfort zones, be it a job loss, world financial crash, hurricane, government collapse or any disaster that may hit my area. When your husband is out of town for sometimes as long as a year at a time, you have lots of time for reading, television watching and experimenting and that is what I did and continue to do with my current husband who also works long hours. I didn’t think of it as prepping or hoarding or whatever terminology you want to give it. I didn’t have a book that was specifically about a SHTF (I really don’t like that acronym but it is one most people understand so I’ll use it) scenario and there was no Internet back when I started down this path in the 1980s. I just felt in my gut this instinct that I should always be ready for “something”. Maybe that was a result of being so close to the fire so to speak because my husband was in the military and his whole career revolved around preparing for what might one day happen, maybe it was from listening to my grandparents talk about the Great Depression or maybe it was a higher being and verses I had read in my Bible about what one day might happen to this world but regardless I started preparing for something that may never happen in my lifetime but if it does…I’m ready and I want to teach my children to be ready and hopefully these skills and knowledge will be passed on from generation to generation so if “it” ever does happen my loved ones will not only survive but prosper.
 
I don’t talk about survival skills or preparing for any cataclysmic event with my extended family or my friends because I know they’d just think I was crazy and I don’t ever want to worry my children or have them live in a constant state of fear but I do want them to learn so in our house we call the preparations “getting ready for hurricane season.” Most of the people I know have the proverbial “it will never happen here or it will never happen to me” mindset. That is fine for them but not for me and mine. They know we live in the country and we grow a garden and we have a lot of animals. They make fun of us, ask us how we can live so far out and why we don’t just buy our veggies at a Kroger's supermarket. That’s fine, but one day if the SHTF scenario happens then whose door do you think they will show up at? Exactly, mine. Because they will remember that Mrs. S. grows her own veggies and has guns and ammo and raises her own chickens and has cows at her back door. Only problem with that is the part we aren’t telling anyone and that is that we have another even more remote place that we are stocking and getting ready so that if the SHTF event ever occurs we will be leaving here because we feel that every hungry soul in Houston is going to head outside of the city limits and end up on our doorstep and we don’t want to be here when that happens.
 
When Hurricane Rita was due to hit in 2005 we got a taste of what would happen in the event of a disaster. We had nowhere to go so I sat on my deck and watched the farm to market road close to me turn into a parking lot. Several vehicles ran out of gas and there were no gas stations open because those people were evacuating too. There were no bathrooms so the street was littered with whatever people could find to relieve themselves on the side of the road. And I’ve never seen so much trash on my road. We were afraid to go to bed that night because those people might break into our house. One of my kids suggested we open a lemonade stand on the corner. We’d have probably made a fortune!  Regardless, that storm didn’t even blow away a plastic bottle that I’d left out off of the deck railing but it did teach a lot of people a valuable lesson, that they weren’t ready.
 
When Hurricane Ike hit in 2008 we thought we were ready. We weren’t going to evacuate after seeing the results of Rita, we were going to stay home and ride it out. I’d made sure that our above ground pool was emptied and cleaned and then filled it with clean well water and a little chlorine bleach straight from the bottle. I’d gone to the store and bought supplies and we’d battened down the hatches. My uncle had come over to wait out the storm with us and he and I stood in the garage and watched the storm blow by. Once again it didn’t do much damage at our house. Just a few fallen limbs. Then my current husband who was 42 at the time started feeling sick within minutes of the storm passing. He got dizzy and couldn’t walk. The phones, both land lines and cell had all stopped working a few hours earlier so I couldn’t call 911 but I knew he needed help and none of my skills as a Realtor were going to help at this point even though I had learned CPR as a Girl Scout Leader for my daughter’s troop. We loaded him into the car and headed into town 10 miles away. The storm hadn’t done much damage at my house but the streetlights were out and some were hanging so low one nearly hit my windshield. There were trees down everywhere and I had to navigate carefully around them. I had my hazard lights on the whole time. When we got to town I needed to make a left at what was once a light but was now just wires dangling down to the ground to get to the ER and no one [in the oncoming lane] would let me turn. The traffic lights weren’t working so why should they stop? I got a glimpse of how humanity becomes under stress. My uncle had to get out to stop cars and I pulled my Suburban out in front of them with a “you will let me turn into the ER or we’ll both get killed” mentality. I have raised six kids, so you can’t bully me and get away with it because I’ll push back! I got him safely to the ER which was packed with people and later learned that he’d had a stroke due a blocked carotid artery. Yes, even 42 year olds can and do have strokes, especially when they are out of shape, they dip tobacco and are under severe stress. Luckily for him he survived it and has very little residual damage except for poor vision and vertigo. We learned a valuable lesson that day. We still weren’t ready.
 
So that is the who and why of Mrs. S. in a nutshell. The whole point of this however is for you to learn something. So the following bullet points are my suggestions on what you should know, do or start learning now and what you should have on hand or stored so that if a SHTF scenario occurs you won’t have to show up on Mrs. S’s empty doorstep. There isn’t enough room here for me to list everything so I suggest you go online and order some books on surviving under tough situations. Do web searches on “prepper books, survival books, first aid books, Amish books, canning, homesteading, animal husbandry, gardening, etc” because there is a lot of information out there. You can go to Netflix and watch a television series called “The Colony”, it gives you an eye opening view of life in a post collapse situation although not everyone is going to be living with an engineer a doctor and a handyman who can build cars out of toothpicks MacGyver style, ha ha. There’s another show we watched called Survivors which was a post flu pandemic scenario. (Not to be confused with the television show Survivor where you outwit your fellow Survivor opponent on a pretty tropical island somewhere.) There’s also the Out of the Wild series on The Discovery Channel which I enjoyed. The old episodes are on Netflix. It will really open your eyes if they aren’t opened already. So, here’s the list and remember….this just touches the surface of what you need to know to be ready for a life changing event.

1. Have a safe place to go in the event you need to leave and if you plan to go to someone else’s house, make sure you have permission or you might get met at the end of a shotgun. Don’t wait for evacuation orders. Leave at the first sign of trouble. If nothing else, think of it as a little vacation and if you leave a little to late, take the roads less traveled. Learn them now so that if your GPS isn’t working you can navigate your way safely out of town. Buy maps and keep them in your car. Most states have web sites where you can order them for free or go to a State’s travel welcome center and get one there.
2. Volunteer with the Boy or Girl scouts so you can start learning basic survival skills. It’s amazing how many people in this world don’t even know how to start a fire. Speaking of fire, have lots of water proof matches, lighters and a magnesium fire starter. Having a fire can mean the difference between life and death. You can also make fire kindling using Gulf wax, an egg carton and lint from your dryer. Google it. It’s a Girl Scout trick I learned (I learned to cook on the bottom of a coffee can too!). Learn how to make candles or buy cheap ones at the dollar store. I prefer beeswax ones myself. [JWR Adds: All those new open flame sources around your home will make fire fighting skills just as important as fire starting skills. Buy several fire extinguishers or your house, and one for each vehicle. Study how to use them.]
3. Take a CPR class and learn basic first aid then stock up on first aid supplies. Watch videos online about first aid. My current favorite is Dr. Bones and Nurse Amy. I learned to do stitches that way recently. Join your local volunteer fire department so you can use those skills you are learning.
4. Start buying extra non-perishables and canned goods now because once the SHTF you can forget it. I like to buy freeze dried products because they can last for many years without expiring. There are several online companies to order from. Google “freeze dried foods”. I like the #10 cans but I have a large family. Regardless, most of those last 20+ years sealed and two more years even after being opened but read the labels. If you don’t know how to can foods, find someone who does and learn. Look at it this way, you can always give some homemade stuff away at Christmas time. My family loved last year's Pumpkin butter when I planted too many pumpkins in my garden.
5. If you have the space and live in an unrestricted area, buy some chickens and start your own flock. Contrary to popular brainwashed opinion the eggs are safe to eat. We’ve been eating eggs from our chickens for nearly 10 years and we aren’t dead yet. I read Storey’s guide to raising chickens and that and trial and error taught me all I need to know about raising this food source. Hint: stop using ant poison granules in your yard our you’ll lose a lot of chickens. I like to order my chicks from Murray McMurray hatchery online but they sell them at feed stores and some farmers will sell to the public as well. You can also check with your local 4H club and go to livestock auctions. We don’t eat our chickens, just their eggs but if we had to we could. I keep a minimum of 12 but that is a lot of eggs per week even for my large family!
6. Get a generator or alternative energy source now. Plain and simple. Personally, I like to have more than one source because generators run on gas and you could run out of gas and then what? My two choices are solar panels as a back up to the generator but I live in Texas where we have a lot of sun so maybe wind power could be your alternative power source.
7. If you need to buy some land go to your local Realtor or do your own search online. One of my favorite web sites is Landsofamerica.com. There I was able to find lots of good deals. 50 acres for under $50,000, yes it’s on there! Hint: look in states like Tennessee, Arkansas and Oklahoma if you are in or close to any of those states.  Don’t buy land that is a two day's drive away from your main home though. You want to be able to get there safely, not run out of gas trying to get out of Dodge. If you are lucky enough to not need to live close to town then you can live at your remote location and that isn’t an issue but for us we have to still live close to town so my husband can work. My job as a realtor allows me to work from anywhere. 
8. Get a gun and learn how to use it. As a woman I prefer lighter guns with little recoil. Recoil is what a gun does when you fire it and it jerks your arm up. Not including the guns my husband has I have my own .25 handgun, .380 handgun (I wanted a pink one but they didn’t have any!) and .22 rifle. I’m your average sized woman at 5’5” and I can handle those guns easily even if I would need to use more bullets to take down my target. The important thing is that I be comfortable with the gun I am using and relying on to feed me and keep me safe. I used that .22 rifle to run off a cougar in my back yard once. I didn’t kill it, but it decided it didn’t want to stick around and eat any more of my chickens. I sure wish I had gotten a picture of that cat. My hunting family still thinks I was seeing things and just shot at bobcat!
9. Have some sort of water storage set up or be near a water source like a creek, lake, river with year round water. A seasonal creek is great except when you have no water in the winter! I don’t mean “near” like a mile near. Carrying buckets of water from a mile away or more would be too much even for my football playing sons! I mentioned earlier that I have an above ground pool. I bought it at Wal-Mart for about $300. I keep it filled year around “just in case”. The week that my husband was in the hospital after Hurricane Ike passed through I was very thankful for that pool water. I used our huge Cajun turkey fryer pots to boil water on a Coleman propane stove for drinking, cleaning and cooking and used unheated water for flushing toilets even though we followed the “if it’s yellow let it mellow” philosophy that week because mom was not toting water all day. I was alone here with my kids and I was easily (I use that term lightly at my age) able to carry water in from the back yard as we needed it. I took showers at the hospital when I’d visit my husband but if I’d had to I could have heated pool water to bathe in. My next big purchase will be a Big Berkey water filter unit. I can’t wait to get it and try it out.
10. Learn how to grow your own fruits and veggies. Trees are great for the environment and great for a hungry belly. Most fruit bearing trees require at least two of the same kind to produce and some don’t start producing for several years. You can also get a book on foraging and learn what you can and can not eat from nature. Most people don’t even know that those pesky Dandelion “weeds” are great on a salad.

 
I hope that I have provided some useful information to get you started on your journey to being prepared in the event of a catastrophic event in your area. Don’t be caught with your pants down. SurvivalBlog has lots of valuable information and resources that I hope you will take advantage of. I recently enjoyed reading James’ book, How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It which led me to his blog. Be sure and read it as a follow up to this article, because he covers many things that even I hadn’t thought of yet. Good luck and God bless.

My family is from the former Yugoslavia and it had been a family tradition to go back and visit the homeland of my grandparents. Unfortunately for me, by the time I could go, my father had passed and I found only one cousin willing to do it again. As luck would have it, it was the summer of 2000 and I thought the war had been long over. It was only recently I discovered that the horror continued right up until just before my arrival there.
 
After a short stopover in Frankfurt, we boarded a smaller plane to Zagreb. The flight was beautiful, the scenery, breathtaking.
I thought about the stories I was told about this place. My family were farmers there, and I was excited to experience the way of life that used to sustain them. I wanted to see the animals, horses, pigs, cows, chickens, the fields of vegetables, and how they did it all. I had heard about how they would slaughter the pigs, then salt and smoke them, and I really wanted to know how. I don't know if you've had them, but Yugoslavians are famous for their cabbage rolls. I wanted to know how to make the sour cabbage, and how they did all this for ages without refrigeration. I was fascinated with the idea of being self sustaining off the grid, and how they managed even after the war.

We rented a van to get to the tiny village of Covac near the larger city of Okucane. I was surprised at the military presence there still, there were checkpoints with armed guards asking to see your passport. Luckily most of them spoke English and didn't actually seem that concerned with us. We must have went through three before getting to our destination.

Arriving in Covac, it was like nothing I had ever seen. One gravel road, off of another gravel road, one small store at the corner. There were maybe 40 houses altogether, surrounded by fields and farther back, forests. At one time this place was beautiful. Now, unreal. Most of the houses had been destroyed and abandoned. Some had walls missing, bullet holes marred the surface of the concrete, trees even growing where the roof once was. The town pavilion that once held meetings, dances and parties was reduced to rubble. We pulled into the gravel driveway of the house we would be staying at. 

Our hosts came out to greet us, a young lady and her elderly mother. The house was small by western standards, a concrete square with a kitchen, bedroom and cold room. The kitchen had a table and chairs, a woodstove and small counter, and a laundry line all lit with a single bulb hanging from the ceiling. The bedroom held two single beds, and a dresser with a television with rabbit ears atop, again all illuminated with a single bulb. The cold room was farthest away from the woodstove, just a concrete room with shelving on all sides which interestingly doubled as the room to bathe in. The outhouse was about 40 feet away, past the open well, unlit of course. My cousin told me a story about using the outhouse while a chicken pecked her from below, I guess that's when they closed it off at the back. Regardless, I still had some anxiety about using the outhouse at night. The well was open, like the ones you see in old fairytales, with a roof and a bucket on a rope. Looking down into the water, I counted four frogs swimming around down there. I hoped they boiled the water before drinking. They didn't. Meals usually consisted of smoked, salted meats, sausage or bacon, eggs, fresh vegetables like tomato and onion, bread and soups.

I remembered my Grandmother telling me about picking beans in the fields, and moving the livestock from the forests to graze, and back to the barn. Looking out at the fields, there was nothing but weeds. The only livestock in the town was some chickens and a cow. I asked what happened, the stories I was told and the place I was in seemed vastly different. When the war came here people fled and later were forced out or had their homes destroyed or taken over. Most of the younger people never returned leaving a town of mostly elderly. There was no one to do the hard work involved in farming here, and no one could afford the start up costs again even if they could. At one time this land was self sufficient, the people were happy and free, now barren, a way of life lost. I wanted to walk in the fields that sustained my family for generations, I was told I was not allowed. Not allowed? Apparently it had not yet been cleared of land mines so it would be an enormous risk. I still can't believe that a tiny village, so far away from a small town had been hit so hard in this conflict. I recall a story from my Grandmother about her family hiding from the Nazis back in the war. That happened here, at least twice people were murdered in war, here, on this tiny strip of houses, seemingly in the middle of nowhere.

We went to visit other relatives in nearby Gredjane, I had hoped they fared better, they didn't. My Grandfather's brother and his wife lived in a small brick house, the size of a shed. The four of us couldn't all be inside at once it was so small. It held a single bed, a woodstove, and a table and chairs. Nothing here was refrigerated, they had no electricity, not even a light. The towns people came by to say hello. Once again I was surprised at the age of the people who remained here. It amazed me that the elderly people chose to stay or come back while the youth took to the cities and stayed there. Leaving that place, it would be the last time I would see my relatives again. My Grandfather's brother died two years ago, six months after my Grandfather.

Back in Covac, it was bath day. My gracious hosts had to heat buckets of well water on the woodstove for me. I bathed in the cold room, in a plastic bucket a foot deep, two feet across. It wasn't pretty, but it did the job. I had to get used to brushing my teeth outside, and just spitting on the grass. I had never done laundry by hand, that wasn't so bad. All in all, life there seemed so quiet, peaceful. It was actually hard for me to sleep at night, I wasn't used to it being so dark, and so quiet. There were no streetlights, no traffic sounds, not even the familiar sound of dogs barking.

They did have a small garden close to the house. They grew potatoes, onions, carrots, cabbages, tomatoes and beans. Since the summer was ending we did get to help with some of the harvest. At this time, they didn't pull out all of the root vegetables, just some for the cold room to use, and some for next years' planting. We put the seed potatoes in a hole near the house. It was full of hay, we placed the potatoes and onions inside then covered them with hay and buried it. The cabbage was harvested, washed and placed in large tubs with brine, enough to just cover them.The tubs were stored in the cold room, then covered with fabric, a wood plank, and weighed down with a brick. Unfortunately my stay was not long enough for me to try them once the process was complete. I must say, although delicious when cooked up, the smell of them fermenting was a little harsh.

I did not have the opportunity to see any meat processing but I was told how it was done. Once ready, the meat was salted, and then smoked in smokehouses. This would occur in the fall so the meat was then hung in the attic which vented the woodstove smoke in one end and out the other. This would continue the smoking process thus preserving the meat longer for later use. After my visit, the smell of a wood fire always reminds me of my trip, and the taste of homemade smoked bacon.

Three weeks had gone by so fast, even here where there were no distractions in daily living. On the long ride home I had a lot to think about. I believe the one thing that made the deepest impression was the fact that this village, so remote, and so small was so deeply affected in their own TEOTWAWKI. I had just assumed that in almost any situation fleeing the cities is always plan A, this trip taught me otherwise. I believe we need to be careful in creating a plan for disaster that is sort of one size fits all. In this situation, in this civil war, the resources in the city were better. Those left in the country were completely alone in a horrific time and to this day, many of their stories remain untold.

Captain Rawles,
I wanted to add my two cents to the award-winning December, 2011 SurvivalBlog post How to Make Homemade Dog Food. This post was great to educate people on the fact that it wasn't that long ago that dog food wasn't purchased at the store and that the store bought "dog food" really isn't that great for "man's best friend". I learned this after getting my third dog. The other two did great on store bought dog food, and in fact, my Lab lived for almost 15 years on the cheapest dog food from Wally World.

When I bought my current dog I did the research on the breed and everything said that Great Danes, had digestive problems. Starting out, everything went great. Purchasing the middle to upper expensive dog foods did the trick, until she grew to full size. That's when it went south, and by south I mean she had uncontrollable diarrhea. Upping the ante I went for the most expensive food I could. Even with the lamb and rice formulas designed for sensitive stomachs, nothing worked. After about two months I was ready to give up. Back to the research phase. What I came up with was that the commercial dog food is full of grains and "filler" that, even though most dogs are able to adapt to this diet, isn't a natural food source. So now what?

If you notice what a dog's teeth look like, they are nothing like a cow or even like a humans. They do not have the teeth to grind up grains and grasses. They have teeth that cut their food. That is why our sharpest teeth are called canines! They may be able to eat both meat and some veggies like D.M.D. stated but since they are descendents from wolves, think of what a wolf eats. The only veggies/grains/grasses that wolves eat come from the stomachs of the latest kill.

I began feeding my beast raw chicken, eggs, and any other meat I could get my hands on for cheap. I have never seen such a turn around from a dog that didn't tolerate "dog food". She gained about 20 lbs within a couple months and was very healthy. The diet I started, and am still doing to this day four years later, is mainly chicken quarters. Raw and whole, with the bone and everything. I add eggs, raw, shell and all. Elk when there is scraps from the hunt, deer, fish, pork, really anything she will eat, which is almost any meat I have tried. The main ingredient for me though is ten pound bags of chicken quarters from Wal-Mart. When I started this diet, three years ago it was about $0.49/lb, now (no such thing as inflation right?) it is still about $0.67/lb which, when compared to any dog food from the store, it is very competitive.

I do not cook the meat and I do not take out the bone. From a young age everyone is told, "don't give dogs chicken because the bones will splinter and isn't good for them" well when chicken isn't cooked the bones are very soft and spongy, not dry. They don't splinter when they aren't cooked and aren't dried out. They go down with the rest and actually milk the anal gland when coming out the other end (a lot of pups have to have this done manually when they go to the vet/groomer, or they do it themselves by dragging their behinds on the ground). Again, think of what a wolf eats in the wild. They don't strip the meat of bones and cook it do they? Wolves and dogs have a higher acid level in there stomachs that take care of the bacteria that make humans spend the day in the bathroom.

Until that post I didn't know there was a debate about whether dogs were carnivores or omnivores. I do believe that dogs have adapted to their surroundings and can survive eating both, but, I do believe and have proved with my current dogs that they not only can eat an almost strictly meat diet but actually thrive on it. Try it yourself. Get your dog a raw piece of chicken and some rice with green beans and carrots. You'll see that your pooch, while able to handle all of it, has carnivorous tendencies.

SHTF scenario, Cujo will do just fine if he is eating the scraps from your table. Be it all meat or meat with veggies. I would guess that they could revert to their ancestral state easier than most would think. I think there are post's on feral dogs on here so you can educate yourself on that some other time. Keep your powder dry. - C.A.

Transportation is so easy today, its laughable.  I can take a flight from Seattle, Washington to Hong Kong and arrive 13 hours later.  Before oil was processed to produce fuel, a trip from Seattle to Hong Kong took several months on a boat in cramped conditions and meager rations.  Millions, if not billions, of people take our current methods and modes of transportation for granted.  What if these modes of transportation were suddenly not available because of (insert scenario here)?  If you can't think of a scenario, I'll list a few:  Peak Oil, World War III, End of the Petro dollar, and/or a societal breakdown.  If cheap gasoline were no longer available, how would you get around?  This article will attempt to address concerns of what could happen and what a survivalist/prepper can do to become more prepared to get around in a post-disaster world. 

Bicycle
I want to first consider one of the most efficient methods of transportation: the bicycle.  The technology in making bicycles has changed very little over the past hundred years.  This is because the main concept is so simple and so efficient.  The main advances in technology for the bicycle have been the materials.  Expensive bicycles in today’s world are made out of light-weight, durable metals and plastics.  You can find cheaper bicycles, but they tend to be made from cheaper materials, which tend to be heavier and less durable.  As far as the type of bicycle I would go with, it depends on the terrain around you.  If speed and lightness is your requirement, a road bike may be for you; however, if there is rugged terrain around you, or if you want to go off-road a mountain bike would be best.  If you don't have much cash, a cheap bike can be found at almost any department store for around a hundred bucks.  I would, however, pony up a little more dough for a lighter, heavier-duty one at a bike store.  Be sure you know how to repair your bike.  Talk it over with your bike mechanic and purchase the tools you will need in order to fix your bike.  The most common things are brake pads, tires, inner tubes, chains, and cables (for the shifters and brakes).  Be sure to have a few spare wheels, tires, inner tubes, and as mentioned before, chains.  As always, there are pros and cons to using a bicycle for transportation.  The upside is the light weight, effort to energy ratio, speed, low cost and ease of maintenance.  The downside is low cargo capacity, the need for roads or a trail, and they are also easy to steal.  One thing to consider is in a TEOTWAWKI situation, in almost every garage around the United States there is a bicycle, and sometimes spare parts.    So if you're short of cash, you can skimp in the spare parts area and focus on something more important.

The Horse
People I've spoken to often praise horses as a main mode of transportation come TEOTWAWKI.  This is most likely due to the prevalence of the horse in books and movies of the old west.  While they do provide fast transportation, horses need a high level of care.  Horses often weigh around a thousand pounds and require a high input of feed to maintain energy levels.  Horses need plenty of grazing land and a fence or corral in order to be kept.  They also need to be fed during the winter, and the availability of hay or alfalfa will probably be almost nonexistent, depending upon where you live.  Unless you plan to ride bareback they also require a saddle and bridle which require maintenance.  Something else to consider is how others will see you.  Not many people will be riding around on a horse, and if people see you riding one, they perceive you as being wealthy.  You may then immediately become a target for theft or worse. 

If you do intend on living off of the land and traveling often, a horse may be the right mode of transportation for you, for the horse can graze constantly when you're not traveling.  If you have a group with you, a buggy or wagon can be beneficial.  The issue is obtaining one post-disaster.  Be sure to know where you're going and the land around you for horses need to be watered just as you do. 

Our Own Two Feet
People have been walking from place to place since...well, as long as we've existed.  Our own two feet are wonderful machines of transportation.  The only problem is they need to be covered, unless you've lived your life barefoot and don't intend to walk on random sharp objects.  What you can do now is purchase several pairs of well-fitted hiking boots and other footwear you will need.  Tennis shoes wear out quickly, but you can run faster in a pair of tennis shoes than in boots.  The important thing is to purchase what you think you will need, and to be on the safe side, buy a few extra pairs and store them away.  If you have a bug out bag, it might be wise to throw in one of these extra pairs of shoes. 

Socks are often overlooked when prepping.  If you can afford it, buy several dozen pairs of socks that are suited to your environment.  The colder the environment, the thicker the sock you want.  Consider wool versus cotton as well.  Some people prefer one over the other, you will have to make your own choice.  The ability to wick water away from your foot is a definite must.  When walking long distances, or hiking, moisture is the enemy; water-wicking socks help remove moisture away from your skin, keeping your feet dry.  In your first-aid kit, also be sure to have some mole-skin; the best cure for blisters.  Mole-skin can be found in any first-aid section of most pharmacies.  Another addition to consider for your first aid kit is a spray or lotion for combating foot fungus.  If your toenails are yellow or unusually thick, then they are infected with fungus and need to be treated.

Waterproof boots are a must-have if you live in or near a wet environment.  If a flood happens and you don't have a pair, you'll regret not purchasing them.  They also work great in the mud.  If you happen to live in a snowy environment, you will want to purchase a good pair of snowshoes, and skis for cross-country skiing.  The ideal way to transport goods in a snowy or icy environment would be a sled and a team of sled-dogs, but they require a lot of upkeep and training.  A simpler way to transport goods would be a travois, which I will cover next. 

Travois
A travois is easy to build out of natural materials, and can be used to transport a load of goods, or even a person.  It is built by crossing two long poles or straight pieces of wood.  These two pieces of wood are bound together at one end; strips of leather, 550 cord, or rope will do, while a net or piece of canvas can be secured along the length of both poles, forming a triangle.  The narrow end of the triangle then leads to a person or draft animal to drag the travois after you've loaded it with goods.  Native American Indians used travois extensively, carting around goods, and even their tepee homes.  They also made smaller travois to be used by their children as well as dogs.  If a harness is made, it can actually be easier on your back if you use a travois instead of a large backpack.  You can also transport an injured person on a travois stretcher. 

Two-Wheel Carts
Hand cart have been used for centuries, and they are more efficient that a travois. They also don't leave a rutted trail like a travois. They are relatively stable and can carry surprisingly large loads. Modern carts include garden carts and deer carriers. Modern carts use bicycle type tires, so you will have to plan for patching tires, just like with a bike. And like a bike, the tires can be treated with Slime, internally, for self-sealing of minor punctures. There are also "airless" foam-filled tire available,m although these have greater weight and rolling resistance than air-filled tires..

Water Transportation
Water transportation used to be the main method for transporting large amounts of goods before the invention of gasoline and diesel.  It is still the main method of transportation, but by use of large oceangoing barges carrying thousands of tons of materials, commodities and products.  What do these barges rely on?  Fuel. 

If you live by a body of water, or the ocean you definitely want to consider using water transportation.  Canoes, kayaks, floats, tubes, and row boats in general are excellent ways of traveling on the water.  They also provide a platform to fish from in deeper waters.  Live near a lake?  You most likely already have a kayak, canoe or small waterborne vessel.  If you don't, put that on your priority list.  If you're thinking about a kayak, there are several varieties.  Recreational kayaks tend to be shorter and wider, offering more stability.  They are, however, much slower than the racing kayaks, which tend to be slimmer and lighter.  There are lighter recreational kayaks, but will cost more money due to the materials used.  If you're into SUP (Stand Up Paddling), that's okay, but a SUP board is more for recreational use than practical use.  The only practical use I can see for a SUP board is for spear or bow fishing, and even then it's not very practical.

Another thing to keep in mind is storing supplies in your boat, kayak or canoe.  Keep a few gallons of water, dried food and fishing supplies in the storage compartments, because you never know when that may come in handy down the line.  You can even think of it as your bug-out-boat.

Others Animals
Some may think using a cow or a donkey for transportation isn't very logical.  At first, I would agree, but it depends.  As a last resort, a light rider can ride a cow or donkey but it isn't going to go very fast.  Cows of course also provide more than just a mount.  A dairy cow can provide milk, providing that it hasn't dried off.  A cow can also be used for meat as we very well know, so don't begrudge the cow as a mode of transportation.  Cows as well as goats can also be used as pack animals.  Be sure the load is evenly distributed along the animal's back, making the animal more comfortable and less likely to give you trouble during the trek.  Goats also give milk as well as cows as well as offering meat.  Sheep don't make very good pack animals. Horses aren't widely known for their milk, yet there are people, mostly in Mongolia, that are known for drinking horse milk.  Unless you have previous knowledge of milking a horse, do not attempt to milk a horse!  Attempting to do so can endanger your life.  I once had trouble milking one of our goats (it did not want to be milked), I can't imagine the amount of trouble a horse can give you. 

Oxen or other large draft animals can be used to pull a wagon for group transportation or carrying large amounts of supplies.  Needless to say these animals will need to be taken care of, and the wagon will need to be maintained and fixed.  This includes spare parts, tools and a knowledge of carpentry.  These animals can also be used on a farm, for plowing, if you have the land available, and cleared land with good soil for growing crops. 

Dogs
Man's best friend can help you in a number of various ways.  They may not be able to carry much, but they can be given some food stuffs or other gear to carry, provided you have saddlebags that fit the animal.  Dogs, if trained, can be hunting companions as well.  They can aid in defense, and also be a wonderful companion.  They don't take much to feed and generally take care of themselves very well.  If you also have several other animals, or a farm/ranch, dogs can also be trained to help protect your herd of animals.  Be sure your dog is trained, for domesticated dogs have been known to kill chickens, goats and other livestock simply because it is in their nature as a predatory animal. 

Hopefully this article points you in a direction you want to take for post-disaster transportation.  Once you have an idea, investigate your method further, and ask more questions of a subject matter expert.  The best thing is to adapt to your environment, now and in the future.  None of us have all of the answers, but if we adapt, and work together we will survive anything that comes our way.

The following are my observations based upon my experience with the care and processing of small livestock, living in a hot and humid climate on the Gulf of Mexico

Poultry:

Chicks of all species need warmth for their first few weeks, but on the Gulf Coast, and anywhere else with a hot climate, it's easy to overheat them. If you're keeping the birds outside, and it's anything over 80F or so, they probably do not need additional heat from a heat lamp or other source. Generally, I would take away a heat lamp and use a regular incandescent bulb if the temperatures were regularly over 65ish. If it is cool enough to still require external heating, keep the lamp off to one side of the enclosure. Be very careful to "round out" any corners the enclosure may have, particularly when the chicks are very young. Chicks pile up on top of each other and suffocation is a common cause of death in the early days. Ensuring there is enough room for all of the chicks also helps decrease the chance of suffocation.

[JWR Adds: In our experience, an oval galvanized steel livestock water tank works quite well for raising chicks. Add a screen of chicken wire across the top to keep out curious cats and to restrain hopping chicks. By placing a 200 watt heat lamp at one end of the tank, allowing the chicks to choose a place with a comfortable temperature.]

The food and water should not be under the lamp, to help minimize fouling or tipping of either. It also encourages chicks to move out from the heat. If the chicks are very young, and aren't a waterfowl species, marbles can be placed in the waterer (or bowl) so the chicks do not trip and drown. On account of their absolutely tiny size, quail chicks are particularly susceptible to falling into water sources, even despite marbles, if there is anything much more than a finger's gap between the marbles, as are guinea fowl chicks. Keep quail chicks in wire cloth enclosures for a very long time – some of the species are so small at adulthood, they can still easily slip out of standard chicken wire.

Some sources recommend treating the water with tetracycline and electrolyte additives – I personally had mixed success with that course of action. Some breeds and species seem to fail to thrive without it, and some fail to thrive with it. My best advice is to – if you choose to purchase and use the powdered additives – do so sparingly and not for long periods of time. And if you turn the water a bright yellow from how much you added – dilute it!

Chick starter, which is a higher-protein chicken feed with very small granules, can be used for most chicks with a fairly high rate of success. Some of the smaller quail species are actually too small for even that – cornmeal can be used for these, if you discover they are having issues, or grind some of the chick starter more finely.

While I have, at times, raised regular poultry and waterfowl chicks together, ducklings and goslings are very, very messy, and will make all the other chicks rather dirty, smelly, and sickly on account of how wet they'll get. The best course of action is to generally keep them separated, particularly since ducklings and goslings are happiest when they have a tiny "pond" to swim in from the get go. While very young, a pie pan will suffice for a pond (glass is better, as it is usually too heavy to tip over). The only real concern is "can they climb into it and climb out of it." If you do not keep a small swimming area for them in their enclosure, a kiddie pond is plenty acceptable, provided they have supervision (aka, "rescuers" for when they've tired themselves out). Stopped up bathtubs or sinks work, too, but as waterfowl defecate while swimming, you may want to pass on that option.

Should non-waterfowl chicks get wet, getting them warm and dry again is a priority if at all possible, as even in warm temperatures, they will catch cold and basically freeze to death. If you have a lot of chicks to dry, a heat lamp and a hair dryer (on low, held at a distance) works, but a dry towel and rubbing is better for the chicks (just be gentle!).

I have generally had poor success when grouping chicks of too disparate ages together – two weeks makes a huge difference in size for most birds. The older chicks will suffocate the younger ones, simply by being large enough the younger chicks can get underneath them and then get trapped.

Most chicks will begin to get their first real feathers (along their wings) within a week – unless it is unseasonably cold, or these are winter chicks – it is generally safe to remove a heat lamp (and sometimes even a regular lamp) once the chicks are about half feathered over their bodies. Naturally, common sense should be employed when deciding whether chicks still need their heat source or not.

Depending on the purpose and breed/species of the chicks, the methods of feeding and care after this point vary in detail, but not in the basics. All birds should have enough feed to "free feed" (unless range – these may or may not need supplementation, depending on your situation) and access to plenty of clean water. For chickens and turkeys, meat breeds can be grown at a quick rate by regulating their daily light exposure and feeding a high protein selection with added corn gluten (for that bright yellow color). Long periods of light and artificially cold temperatures are how the best "market" birds are produced. If you don't particularly care that it'll take twelve weeks instead of eight weeks for a similar size, I suggest skipping building an insulated and air conditioned enclosure. The birds turn out healthier, anyhow.

For waterfowl, if you don't provide them with a place to go for a swim, they will find one – usually another pen's waterer, based on my experience. Their food and drinking water should be kept fairly close together, as they generally need to water to help them eat standard crumble-based feed.

Once the birds are older than a month to six weeks, the care is basically the same. Adult birds should have access to grit – which is also a calcium supplementation for the laying hens. If you have guinea fowl (be careful about purchasing/acquiring these, as because of their volume and constant racket, they are generally banned in urban areas, even the urban farming friendly ones), be sure to keep them penned until they're about six months old, so they know where "home" is. The moment you let them range, if you intend to, they will spend time flying about and generally being a nuisance. On the other hand, they do tend to keep the hawks from dining on too many of your birds, as well as alert you that running outside with a weapon to scare off whichever predator was a-hunting maybe a good idea at that point.

If laying hens are your intent, be sure to build a coop with easy access for egg collecting. Our first coop had two wire doors that allowed for human entry (basically crawling into the coop) near both ends, on the same long side, the better to catch birds with. It later was modified, when we built a chicken wire enclosure with a wire roof (because of hawks), to include a chicken-sized exit in the middle of the long side without human-sized openings. The laying boxes were built into the ends of the coop, so that it was easy to reach in to collect the eggs. The coop had a solid floor, as did the nest boxes, and was raised a couple of feet off the ground to help discourage the rats. (This did not always work.) The coop was effective, but had its limitations. If you are unfortunate enough to have a cock that grows up to be violent and frequently attacks, having to crawl face-first into a coop is rather daunting. (As an aside, if any of your birds become human-aggressive, regardless of their age and quality, I strongly suggest culling the bird. An old rooster, even if past the point of being edible for your pot, makes good dog and/or pig food.)

Nest boxes should be large enough that the largest of your hens can sit comfortably in them with a couple of inches to spare. Because of this, if you intend to keep turkey hens for layers, I suggest the smaller breeds such as the Cannonball, although the Bronzes will also work.

Raising chicks from eggs laid by your own birds can be rewarding – and heartbreaking. It is a combination of equipment, practice, and luck. Research the topic thoroughly before attempting – and you may just want to let a broody hen (who will valiantly guard a nest of eggs from being taken) go through the trouble.

Chicken manure will burn plants if added straight to a garden. Let it "age" before considering adding it to a garden. I recommend adding it to the compost pile, first, so it cools down enough to not burn the plants.

A note on pigeons and squab: while squab is a fairly tasty meat, attempting to raise the chicks yourself is not something that should be undertaken. Purchase adult birds, and let them hatch and raise chicks. Squab should be "harvested" before the chick can fly, and the size will depend on the breed. The nest boxes should be placed a few feet above ground, and can probably be a little bit smaller than a chicken hen's nest box. If penned, they will need standard poultry fare. If allowed to range after they've learned where "home" is, they will pretty much take care of themselves.

Rabbits:

Rabbits are small, relatively easy to keep livestock. The meat is lean, if that is a concern for your family, and the hides can be tanned for either fur or just skin. There are many breeds of rabbits. I do not suggest the long haired breeds for at least the Gulf Coast unless you intend to keep the animal as a pet or in an air conditioned facility. Californians (white rabbits with dark colored ears, nose, and feet) and New Zealands (mostly found in solid white, but sometimes red or black as well) are the two most popular "commercial" breeds. They mature fast and are fairly prolific. The does I kept often had litters of eight kits or more. I also raised Satins, which are so named for the satin sheen to their fur – very beautiful creatures, and lovely soft furs. We tried Palominos (colored much like palomino horses), which are supposed to have excellent growth rates for their fryers (butcher sized rabbits) but had issues with their feet being torn up in cages that the New Zealands had no issues with. However, don't overlook a doe and/or buck of totally unknown pedigree. Our first doe, Attack Rabbit, and the one who produced the largest kits, although often not the largest litters, was bought at a feed store who had gotten her from someone-or-another. She was a great producer for early Spring cash – she mostly threw spotted babies, regardless of the buck, and spotted baby bunnies sell very well as Easter bunnies and pets in general.

Rabbits are best kept in multi-cage hutches, with one adult rabbit per cage (except for breeding, which is not a long-term activity for a rabbit). Commercial rabbit food is certainly sufficient – it is a mostly alfalfa pellet with some additives. Roughage, such as grass, corn stalks, lettuce, alfalfa cubes, hay, or the like, should also be provided. Chewable items, like blocks of wood, should be readily available, as rabbits have to chew on things to keep their teeth from growing too long. Salt licks (small round discs of salt) should also be made readily available. There are plain salt licks (usually just white), and mineral salt licks (usually brown in color). My rabbits always seemed to prefer the mineral blocks to the plain. Rabbit feeders can be metal containers that fit into and through the side of the cage or crocks (heavy based bowls) sitting on the floor of the cage.

Like any other living creature, water should be readily and easily available. Rabbit waterers are bottle-fed gravity metal tubes with a ball-bearing that prevents too much water from coming out until the rabbit licks it to get water. These are generally attached to the outside of the cage. There are similar "nipples" for water lines, for larger rabbitries. Some breeders prefer to offer both food and water in crocks – I personally had issues with the water crocks being knocked over more times than not, particularly once a litter of bunnies was bouncing around in the cage along with the doe.

Despite the ease of growing and raising them, rabbits have a few "issues." Rabbit urine is highly acidic and corrosive. It will, eventually, damage cages to the point of requiring repair. Rabbit feces are rather "hot," and cannot be placed directly on a garden – the exception here being blueberry bushes, which love them. Worms, however, are often grown immediately under a rabbit hutch, as they break down the waste rapidly, and thrive on it. Allow rabbit waste to "sit" under the worms' tender care for a bit before attempting to add it to a compost pile or garden directly. Adding it to compost to finish cooling down is a better option than adding it straight to the garden.

Domesticated rabbits are descendants of the European cottontails, and thus, are not terribly heat tolerant, and, in the Gulf Coast's climate, are prone to heat exhaustion and heat stroke during summer. They are also not very productive during the summer months, because of this heat intolerance.

Despite their heat intolerance, rabbits can be successfully kept in the high temperature and high humidity climate of the Gulf Coast, with a few caveats. When selecting an area for the hutches, pick an area with decent air flow and shade to help keep them cool. The hutches should not be 100% solid sided, but be at least half hardware cloth, as well as having wire bottoms. Do NOT use chicken wire as the primary material – some rabbits like chewing on it. It can be used to wrap around any wooden posts (double wrap it and secure with U-nails; it's a pain to do, but works better). A piece of wood or sheetrock should be provided as a place to sit that isn't the wire bottom. Failure to do so can cause sores on the rabbits' feet. The nest boxes should also be constructed with wire bottoms, with an ability to mostly enclose them for winter litters. The hutches should also be located in a relatively quiet area – constant loud noises will stress the rabbits and increase the chances that the does will reabsorb their litters before birth, or even eat the kits after birth.

If you build the hutch, each enclosure within the hutch should be at least two feet square plus a reasonable height – it may look like a lot of space, but a nest box should be at least 12" wide by 18" long and 12" tall. Also make sure to construct the openings large enough to easily get the nest box into the pen.

After selecting a shady area with good airflow, the next caveat is this: if you intend to breed rabbits during the summer, for late summer or early fall litters, the buck will need, at minimum, a large bottle of ice to rest beside to maintain his fertility. Bucks lose their fertility when the temperatures get into the upper 90s F. I recommend two liter bottles mostly filled with water and then frozen solid for the purpose. You should probably have at least two bottles per buck – the first bottle will probably have thawed completely out by the end of the day, and he'll need cooling even overnight often. A fan in addition to the bottle of ice certainly would not hurt the buck, nor any doe in the area. One of the more serious show rabbitries I interacted with had an entire barn for their rabbits, somewhat insulated and could be enclosed during the worst of the summer heat for air conditioning, and in all but the coldest of winter, large livestock style fans ran from every roof-corner in the barn. The reason for this was that it ensured the rabbits' fur was not thinned out in reaction to the temperatures. As I was not involved in showing rabbits, and the furs and hides were kept for home use only, we usually made due with ice bottles and fans for our bucks – or forwent litters from June to September.

Breeding is done by placing a doe in with a buck for a short period of time. We generally kept ours separated unless breeding, because neither of our bucks were very bright (we only kept two bucks at a time). I had to occasionally move the buck to the correct end of the doe. Unless it is midsummer, if a doe does not produce kits after a couple of breedings (approximately 3 months), it is probably time to cull her from the colony.

The gestation period of a rabbit is approximately 30 days, with the resulting litters being 4 to 12 kits. Place a clean nest box in her cage a couple of weeks after breeding. The doe will start nesting a few days to a week before the kits are due, and she'll do this by pulling tufts of fur from her belly to make a nest with. Fill the nest box with a mid-quality hay (not too scratchy) for her, and she'll take care of the rest. Try to ensure her toenails have been trimmed, so she doesn't hurt the babies when they're born. When the kits are born, the doe will eat the afterbirth.  Occasionally, a doe may accidentally "eat" part of one of her babies – remove the corpse as soon as possible. An over-stressed doe may eat, or partially eat, an entire litter. Some … very few … seem to acquire a taste for doing so. If two litters are destroyed in such a fashion, cull the doe immediately. I have only had two does, in all the rabbits I've raised, acquire this "habit" – they both were violent rabbits to begin with. One was named Rabies, the other Rabies II. Rabies II left claw marks on my arm that took the better part of five years to fade. Does are likely to attack as they get close to birthing up until the kits have been weaned (4-6 weeks). In my experience, the ones to keep an eye on are the ones who attack without kits in the cage.

The kits are born furless and blind, but start putting on fur nigh immediately. Their eyes open between 8-12 days, and they start getting into trouble shortly thereafter. They can be safely removed from their mother's cage by eight weeks of age, and butchered from eight weeks to four months without any influence on the flavor – size and how long you want to feed them are the real factors here.

If you are attempting to grow your colony, select the best doe and/or buck from the litter. "Best" can be the largest, the most docile, the most wildly spotted, the most interestingly colored one, or what have you. If none of them meet your fancy, cull the whole litter. Sexing rabbits is an acquired skill, and not easily described with words alone. The pictures here are pretty good. Does are more useful than bucks, but raising an extra buck isn't always a bad thing. My personal preference, however, is to usually bring in a buck from another breeder, to keep from causing problems for the later generations. If you do keep any of the babies for breeding stock, make sure to keep a breeding book to track them, so you don't breed a doe to her grandfather-and-daddy – that's pushing it. Skip a generation at that point. Two unrelated bucks would be a minimum for raising breeding stock does. (If you want to get really complicated, you can also tattoo the ears of rabbits, to better track them. This is particularly useful for single-breed rabbitries which may not be able to distinguish animals by sight alone.)

Does can be bred at 6 months of age, and bucks at 7 months of age, but all the experienced breeders and books I read on the subject strongly suggested waiting until a doe was a minimum of 10 months old prior to breeding her. While a doe can theoretically be bred back to a buck the day her litter is removed from her pen, it is generally suggested to give her a short break between litters, for her own health.

Processing:

I was introduced to the "art" of butchering chickens at the age for 12 or 13, when I raised my first set of market chickens for 4-H. It was messy, I cried, and hated it. I wasn't a stranger to death (one of the dogs had slaughtered, rather methodically, all but the birds that had been penned up as "the best" for show, two days before), I just wasn't comfortable with me being involved in it. Not to mention, there's something terribly savage and horrifying about seeing something's head cut off with an axe blade in real life, regardless of how many horror movies you've seen growing up as a kid.

By the time I was fourteen, and for the next twelve years, I performed almost all of the butchering. My father assisted with the larger animals (goats and pigs). He slaughtered and butchered one cow, while I assisted – I was too short to do that one primarily. When I visit now, I still lend a hand with the task if needed.

My father quickly established that I severely lacked the hand-eye coordination to use the axe to butcher chickens, and that I also lacked the upper body strength (and distance) to use the "standard" pull the neck method of breaking a chicken's neck. We cast about for a better option for a short girl in the 6th grade. We settled on tree branch clippers, the sort with handles about 2 feet long, and a short, curved blade, with a scissors like motion. It was my idea – the leverage gave me enough mechanical strength to make a clean kill, and the blades were long enough to pin a bird (and later rabbits) for the duration. My experience has been that clippers can be used successfully on birds below the size of geese and turkeys, and on rabbits as well. If the blade is sharp, the animal may be almost entirely decapitated, which allows for it to bleed immediately. I do suggest that, for rabbits, it be a two person job, to hold the rabbit's ears out of the way – their ears are extremely sensitive, and the commotion is enough to scare them a bit anyhow, no need to taint the meat. For geese and turkeys, I strongly suggest that the bird's wings be restrained (we did so by cutting a turkey-head sized hole into the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket, and having the body of the bird be inside the bucket) and a .22 bullet be used. It's fast, it's still cheap, and by pinning the bird's wings, the post-death twitching/flapping/etc. cannot break the wings.

When selecting a site for processing, I recommend access to clean water, buckets for offal, and fresh air. A flat surface is necessary for poultry; a place to hang the carcass is necessary (or at least vastly more convenient) for most mammals. A sharp knife or two is important; my preferred for butchering is a skinning blade with a gut hook.
           

Poultry:
             
From this point, there are three methods for finishing poultry: dry plucking, wet plucking, and skinning. Frankly, in my opinion, none of them are particularly easy to do, but wet plucking takes my number one most-hated spot.

Dry plucking involves pretty much exactly like it sounds. I strongly recommend this method for quail, squab, and young broilers. Remove the head and neck of the bird, as well as the lower scaly part of the leg. Generally I remove the first wing joint, as well, because it is far more hassle than it is worth to do otherwise. You may need a pair of pliers to remove the primary feathers on older chickens, turkeys of any age, ducks, and geese. Grab a handful of feathers (starting on the breast of the bird is easiest), pull against the "grain" of the feathers. On smaller or younger birds, such as quail or broilers, the skin is very tender and can be torn very easily, even when plucking. Start off with a lighter hand than you might think you need, and work up in force from there. Continue to do this until the carcass is as completely de-feathered as you can get it. You may prefer to leave the tail feathers on, and remove the tail during the next step.

Wet plucking involves a large pot of very hot water. If you are going to wet pluck waterfowl, a few drops of dish soap is recommended, to break the oil barrier on the feathers, so it is possible to do so. Prior to removing the head/neck, lower legs, and wing tips, dip the carcass into the pot of very hot water for 15-30 seconds, using the lower legs as "handles." Bring the bird out of the water, and give an experimental tug on the feathers. If they pull out fairly easily, continue plucking the bird. You may have to re-dip it if it is a large bird, or it cools off too much. Be careful to not over dip the bird, as when this occurs, the skin scalds and starts peeling. You will notice that wet feathers are very clingy, and like to stick to everything – you, the table, the bird, the pot, the post one landed on when you tried to get some off your hands. Wet feathers also don't smell particularly wonderful, which is why I rather intensely dislike this method. Once again, remove all the feathers. After this, remove the head/wing tips/lower legs.

Skinning is pretty much like how it sounds. It is trickier on poultry than it is on a mammal, however, as the skin attaches in odd seeming places. On chickens, it attaches rather firmly around the leg-thigh joint, the chest bone, along the back, and very firmly attaches at the base of the tail. The skin also tears easily, so instead of larger chunks, you generally end up having nearly strips. It can be a bit frustrating, and does remove some cooking options later. Remove the head/wing tips/lower legs before commencing; it makes the task easier.

Once the bird is plucked or skinned, very carefully cut across the abdominal cavity, effectively thigh to thigh, and then approximately down the middle (there is often a sort of ''seam" here, it may just tear a bit under tension). Only use enough pressure with the blade to cut the skin, not any more than you have to use. Scoop the offal out, being careful to not touch more of the exterior of the bird than necessary. At this point, you can try to either remove the tail entirely, so as not to risk fecal contamination, or, once you have some practice, you can detach the anus from the tail with minimal problems. Rinse the bird out and off with fresh water (as well as yourself), and get the bird into refrigerated conditions as soon as possible, preferably before you start on the next bird.

Rabbits:

Mammals are more or less the same process, regardless of size. The tools necessary may differ – I don't have the strength to crack the hip bones on a cow or pig, or most goats, and need at least a hacksaw to do that job, but I can do so with a rabbit or other small mammal with my bare hands. Rabbits make for good practice animals for larger animals later, and the process is effectively the same for anything smaller.

Hang the rabbit from your chosen point. I either used bailing wire wraps around the hock of the back legs, or twine from hay bales tied into slip knots, tightened around the hock. Either way, the hock is a good place for an anchor point.  The rabbit's head should now be pointing at the ground, and all directions from this point are referencing the current up-down direction.

Run your knife in a circle just below the anchor point, all the way around the leg. Pull the skin taut with one hand, and gently run the blade down the middle inside of the thigh to the pelvic area. Repeat on the other leg. Very carefully cut across below the vent area, making the two cuts meet. Peel the skin down the legs, and work a finger under the skin, just below the tail, until you can get the knife through to cut the skin. Leave the tail on the carcass; it'll be a useful handle later. At this point, you should be able to peel the skin down the body slowly. Don't peel it down completely yet.

Finish removing the head from the carcass; there is usually a good bit of blood at this point. In a method similar to the hock area, cut the skin at the forefoot area, and then break the bone at that point. Use the knife to cut through the ligaments, and discard the forefoot into the offal bucket. Repeat with the other front foot. It's now possible to continue peeling the hide off of the rabbit without impediments. If it sticks at any point, very carefully cut through the offending tissue, as you don't want to pull the hide out of shape (if you intend on keeping it). If you don't care, just remove it as necessary. If this were a larger animal, you would have sliced the hide all the way down the belly of it, and pulled the hide off that way. You can do that with a rabbit, but it's just as easy to split the hide after it's off as when it is on. If you intend to keep the hide for other uses, feel free to take a moment to lay it out on a wooden board, flesh side up, and sprinkle it with salt to start the initial curing process.

To break the hips easily, grasp one thigh in each hand, and bend them backwards. You will hear a crack, and possibly even see the pelvic bone fracture through the muscle, which is very thin. This should be more or less directly below the vent. At this point, very, very carefully cut around the vent area to open it, and down across the fracture. Using the gut hook, if you have it, or a very delicate touch with a straight blade if you must, cut the abdominal muscles all the way down to the ribcage. Cut through the tail bone, and use it as a handle to pull the intestinal tract down/away from the body of the rabbit, to prevent contamination. Then carefully remove the lower organs. You can remove the heart and lungs without cutting through the ribcage, but as rabbit is generally cut up instead of served whole, there is rarely reason to avoid doing so. Cut through the ribs and scoop out what remains. Rinse the rabbit, your hands, and knife (or knives) thoroughly. Then, gripping the thigh and foot of one leg, break the leg as close to the anchor point as you can. Repeat with the other leg. Hold on to the carcass, and cut through the remaining tendons and ligaments on one leg and then the other to bring it down from hanging.

Place the carcass into a refrigerated area as soon as possible. The meat can be aged for a day or so, if you prefer, frozen immediately, or even made that night.

Again, this is roughly the same procedure for almost any mammal. I've even used it on raccoons that managed to get caught in the traps set up to stop chickens from being stolen. (On a side note, to get rid of the really gamey taste, cook raccoon with onion, sliced apples and potatoes. The apples and potatoes won't be human edible afterwards, but the raccoon will turn out tasting rather like beef. Just be sure to cook it very well done.)

Good Afternoon,
 As someone who has tried playing the big stock market as mentioned in Profitable Homesteading: How to Thrive in a TEOTWAWKI World, by Dusty, I’d like to add the following caution.  Don’t quit your full time job if you want to try this option.  For the past year or more we in Central Texas have been in  exceptional drought conditions.  I have a small herd of Dexter cows.  Due to the lack of grass in my sixty plus acres of native pastures I have been forced to rely on 1000 lb bales of hay and local co-op 20% protein pasture cubes.  My five adult Dexter cows and three unweaned calves consume a $150 bale of hay in approximately a week ( roughly $21/day).  The hay is supplemented with two sacks of cubes a day at a cost of $17 pr day.  Due to the drought we have been feeding for almost a year in an effort to sustain our small herd of breeding stock until the rains return.  Please note that this one year cost of $13,870 for feed alone requires that we have an outside source of income to maintain our homestead lifestyle. 

Just as you gamble putting your money into Wall Street stocks, you gamble with large livestock. While your gains can be great – your losses unless you are willing to sell your stock at the local sale barn as soon as you run into trouble can be catastrophic.  If you are trying to build a sustainable herd of large stock you have to have sufficient capital or a well paying full time job to see you through the hard times.
 
Sincerely, - Pete in Central Texas

The idea of homesteading is not a new one.  As a species, we humans have mastered the art of living off the land better than any other species, learning along the way to capture fire, clothe ourselves and even preserve food that we grew to later nourish us. We weren't content to stop there though.  Mankind “evolved” to reassemble natural materials into unnatural materials such as plastic and combine countless ingredients produced or grown by man into processed foods such as Twinkies, which we figured we might as well wrap in plastic.  Although the modern age has brought many possibilities, many fear that we have gone too far.
We now find ourselves, as a species, barley able to live on our own in the natural world, as we’ve accumulated too many allergies, too many dependencies on modern conveniences, too much dependence on government assistance and, let’s not forget, too many pounds to make it on our own.  Now, Mother Nature is calling many of her children home.
Modern homesteading is alluring to many but let’s face it, even (especially!) in a TEOTWAWKI world taxes still have to be paid, fuel needs to be bought and most of us want health care.  And so we find that the living off the land begins with considering how we will generate personal income.  As a new and modern homesteader, you will get to (have to) create your own job description and set your own priorities with the goal of earning sufficient income to afford you the lifestyle you want off the land. In other words, your first step as a homesteader is, ironically, to think like an entrepreneur.
This essay is designed to help you to develop your own plan to do just that so that you can make the transition from traffic to tractor. While it was tempting to write a quick, one-page article about "how to make money as a homesteader", it requires much more effort to do the concept justice.  Therefore, this essay will be organized as follows:

• Part One includes this introduction and the steps you'll need to take before you being homesteading to give yourself the best chance for success.
• Part Two will provide ideas for Generating Income With Your Land
• Part Three will focus on Using Your Skills to Make Money
• Part Four will discuss ways to Generate Income With your Farmstead Products

Of course, while this essay is detailed and specific in many ways, it must be viewed as a starting point for each individual reader.  With so many specifics unique to each reader such as level of debt, skills, cash, health, knowledge and countless other factors, no article can inform a reader of exactly how to go about homesteading. Rather, the intent of this essay is to get each reader thinking about what they want, what they’re capable of and showing just some of what is possible so that they can develop their own plan.
The good news is this. There are tons of ways to generate dependable, steady income from homesteading! This essay will list dozens of them but that represents just the tip of the iceberg. Viewed all at once, it may seem overwhelming, dangerous and best to just stay put in the safety of your cubicle.  However, as Winston Churchill said, “The optimist sees opportunity in every danger; the pessimist sees danger in every opportunity." And you, my prepared friend, are an optimist!
So, are you ready? Let’s get back to the land!

Part One - You’re Not Ready to Farmstead...Yet!
The ideal situation is that you're thinking of becoming a homesteader but haven't transitioned yet.  You may make the leap down the road...say, in a year or two, unless TEOTWAWKI forces your hand sooner! 
Here are the priorities and actions as I see them to help you to get ready to homestead.

• Get Some Land.  I realize that sounds obvious. I mean, after all, it's hard to really homestead without at least a little land.  You don't need too much but you do need some.  If you're one of the lucky ones who has inherited land, fantastic and congratulations!  But most of us have to find and buy our own land.  For a couple of reasons I believe the time to do that is now.  First, I believe that rural/farm land prices will only escalate over time as more and more food will need to be produced to feed a rapidly expanding global population.  Second, if you need to finance the land as many people do, interest rates are at absurdly (and artificially) low levels.  Getting land is an undertaking in and of itself though.  Consideration must be given to the region and climate since so much of homesteading depends on what Mother Nature decides to do. There is also that tiny problem of how to pay for land.  Consider making a trade. You may be able to find cheaper land in a more remote area that is equal to what you could sell your suburban home for.  If you are not already a homeowner, then your main focus will have to be how to save for land.  No matter what your situation, the next priority on the list is probably the most important.
• Get Out of Debt. If you're an American, you're almost certainly in debt. Almost all of us are...the entire country is.  We use credit for mortgages, furniture, automobiles, appliances, school, health care, home improvement and, of course, for consolidating other debts we owe!  Our society seems to collectively embrace using debt to enjoy today what virtually none of us saved for yesterday. Whereas we once left college with degrees in hand and went straight to a waiting job, today we leave laden with tons of debt and, with no jobs waiting, leave to occupy city parks instead.  Debt becomes part of our life and few of us are ever able to jump off the treadmill that propels us to chase always more income to pay it off.  Of course if you've amassed a lot of debt it is easier said than done to get out of debt. It begins with a change in mindset.  Rather than dreaming of what we want in the moment and seeking immediate gratification, we must keep our focus on the ultimate goal of homesteading.  The best way to get there is to pay down the debt.  Make your homesteading dream so real that you can almost taste it and it will become easier to forgo the taste of that morning cafe latte because it means you are one dollar closer to your dream.  The purpose of this article is not to give debt management advice, but rather to underscore the importance of doing everything you can to eliminate the debt you have.  Society has conditioned us to believe we're entitled to conveniences and luxuries, whereas the mentality of homesteading is about living on what we can produce and do ourselves and not borrowing. Get into the homestead mentality, now.  For every dollar that goes out ask yourself, do I need to spend this now or should this be saved? The less debt you have as a homesteader then the less income you'll need to realize.  
• What Do You Really Need? In the homesteader mentality you will likely find that you don't have a lot of time or interest in those things that occupy so much of your mind-share (and wallet) as an urbanite.  This makes the transition easier once you've made it.  Urban life seems to require many non-essential expenses and distractions such as cable/satellite television, lattes, newspaper and magazine subscriptions, dining out, gym memberships, furniture, clothes, tobacco, alcohol, movies/sports/concerts, HOA fees, lodging/vacations, pet care, shiny appliances, repairs to shiny appliances, pest control, lawn services, water bills, and so on. You'll find as a homesteader that you'll incur very few of these expenses.  Take whatever steps you can to start practicing this now. Instead of missing television, homesteaders will become distracted by nature and the pleasures of growing their own food. You can too! While the Internet may be seen as a very real necessity for homesteaders, particularly given their isolation and need to connect with customers, that one expense can consolidate to give you access to most news, information and even free video programs on Hulu, YouTube, iTunes and elsewhere.  All of these expenses seem "necessary" to us as urbanites, but viewed through the lens of a homesteader they are quite unnecessary indeed. If you can't cut the cord and do without them where you are now, TEOTWAWKI homesteading may be very trying for you.
• Learn to Garden. Now! Regardless of which income producing paths you choose one thing is constant among all homesteaders; they ALL garden and grow at least some of their own food.  No matter where you are currently living you should be able to practice some gardening skills.  Learn to plan your garden, plant and germinate your own seeds indoors, transplant into small raised beds or container gardens, learn how to improve soil, how to identify and manage pests, study companion planting and square foot gardening if you are keen on a small parcel or raised beds if room allows and so on.  And you don't just have to focus on your veggies.  Practice with small fruits such as strawberries, raspberries and even blueberries.  By the time you get to your ideal homestead you'll be comforted by the hands-on gardening skills you have practiced and the knowledge you have gained through reading. 
• Get in Shape. I don't mean do more push ups, squats and more crunches. Sure, those are great if you're trying to look good on club night but the cows and sows on the homestead won't give you a second glance.  Farmsteading takes a toll on the body.  Your tasks could include bending and kneeling to weed and plant, hoisting 50 pound or more bags of feed and balancing them over a feeder, carrying crates of chickens, shoveling compost or wet snow, bending over cheese vats, lifting heavy wet trays of veggies out of the sink to prepare for the market and so on.  To make matters worse, if you get injured while on the job you'll have no one to call to inform you can't make it in that day, so you better get your body ready. How?  Focus on flexibility and tone.  To my way of thinking, this means yoga and pilates more than dumbbells and pull up bars.  It also means getting your weight down to the right target level for your age and height, so walking, hiking, swimming or climbing may help. Whatever it takes, get your body in farmstead shape!
• Read - For millennia knowledge was passed from elders to juniors in social circles so that succeeding generations understood important food production, preservation and survival skills. Unfortunately, most of us missed out on that transfer of knowledge as our parents and grandparents instead were part of the convenience generation that food marketers cultivated.  So how do we regain those lost skills?  Start by reading as much as you can.  The problem is sifting through all the sources of information available such as books, blogs, articles and magazines.  Your study assignments go even beyond reading to watching movies, videos and listening to podcasts.  The choices are many and it can be hard to find exactly what you want, so I suggest finding topics that intrigue you and then learning everything you can.  Once you find something, get involved with a forum or group and start talking with your virtual buddies.
• Find Like Minded Souls - Get off of Facebook and get onto sites such as SurvivalBlog.com or Farm-dreams.com that can give you practical knowledge and encouragement.  Seriously.  Find people who share your ideals and who are searching for the same answers.  Networking will get you there much faster and you eyes will be opened to new possibilities.  Talk to people who have taken a similar journey and ask them to share their story.  Find people who have learned the skills you are seeking and reach out to them.  Ask them for resources or see if they would be willing to let you watch a homestead activity the next time they do one, like making soap or collecting honey for instance!  And seek out and attend all of the free farm tours and events you can find.
• Focus on Lasting Investments - There are many things you may want to acquire before becoming a homesteader that will help you once you're on the land. There may also be items you want to trade in for something more practical.  For example, how about trading your shiny compact car for a good, solid used diesel truck that you can ultimately drive into the ground.  In addition to saving money when buying and insuring this truck, it will be useful for hauling animals, seed, feed, fertilizer, tools...you name it, and being an older model it will be easy for your rural friends to repair and keep running.  If there are any new items you are considering buying between the time you read this sentence and the time you move to the land, ask yourself this question: is this item essential to my homesteading dream?  If not, then you don't need it.  If you can afford it then the choice is yours, but make sure it will be a lasting investment well worth the expense.  After all, homesteading is not about deprivation. But if you're not sure how to afford living off the land then perhaps you should consider postponing any discretionary expenses until you figure it out.
• How Much Do You Need? - Finally, you should calculate how much money you really need to make. And, while your first thought as you contemplate becoming a homesteader may be "how will I make money" remember this: Saving Money = Making Money!  By lowering your expenses and producing much of what you'll consume when you homestead, you'll find that you don't need to make nearly as much as you think you do.  After all, how much of your current paycheck goes to food that you'll produce on your own?  How much goes to nice clothes, dining out, fuel and simple luxuries that you'll want to do without?

So there you have it, a few things to get you thinking before you put the shovel in the ground and start digging the homestead garden.  Let’s move on to Part Two.

Part Two – Making Money With Your Land
Let’s not think of living off the land, but rather “thriving” off the land.  You’ll probably be able to figure out how to produce your own food so that your health and nutrition thrives, but what about income?

Homesteading is all about multiple streams of income...the old “don’t put all your eggs in one basket” concept. There are almost countless opportunities for income generation but of course there is no one “right” answer given the differences in personal situations, markets, climates, inherent skills and so on.  What I will attempt to do for you is to categorize the three main income areas, and then break those categories down into specific ways you can sell something to earn money.

The three categories of earning money off the land are, 1) using your land to make money, 2) using your skills to make money and 3) selling products that come from your land and/or skills.  This section will focus on using your land to generate income.
Thinking Like a Homesteader
Before we get to the actual ways to make money it’s appropriate to spend a moment discussing mindset. As you contemplate each of the income generators in this and later sections, attempt to evaluate them from multiple perspectives.  For instance:

• Is the income opportunity one-time, seasonal or continuous? Raising heritage turkeys can be fun but you'll likely only get paid at Thanksgiving, whereas consumers buy pork year round.
• Can the income opportunity be scaled (if there is a lot of demand can you expand to meet it) if you want to?
• Can you overlap operational/income producing areas to increase efficiency? For example, If you raise a hog then you need either a large garden (scraps) or local cheese operation (whey) or brewery (spent grain) to make raising the hogs essentially free.
• Does the income opportunity allow you to differentiate yourself or are there lots of people who can offer the same thing?
• What are you good at now and can that be transferred to income opportunities on the homestead (accounting, writing, woodworking, etc.)?

Play the Big Stock Market
No, not the NYSE big board but the big time live(stock) market.  For most homesteaders this means cows, but could mean bison, water buffalo, large flocks of sheep and I'll put pigs in there as well.  It goes without saying that you'll need an adequate amount of pasture land to accommodate these voracious grazers and there are many benefits to raising them.  For example, if you were to purchase a young bull for $1,000 or so and five ready to breed heifers for the same price, you'd likely end up with 5 calves produced and fed for free (by their mothers and your pastures) each year for 12-15 years. 
What will you do with those calves?  Maybe sell them as stockers when they're weaned, maybe raise grass fed beef, which we'll discuss in part four.  However, to give you a sneak preview, if you did raise them as grass fed beef it's quite likely that each calf would become worth about $1,500 each for you (net) in about 2 years if you can get them to urban markets. Clearly there's a ramp-up period of a couple of years before this produces income for you, but starting in year 3 those 5 heifers will be throwing off about $7,500 per year in profit ($1,500 per calf x 5 per year).  If they do this for 10 years then your initial investment of $6,000 for the bull and heifers will return $75,000.
Of course you'll have to consider any expenses you may have, such as hay when grass isn't growing, vet bills if you plan to use vets and of course taxes on the land they graze, but the income will drastically exceed the expenses...IF...you can market the product successfully.
I would caution you to avoid exotic animals unless economic times are very good or are likely to be. In poor economic times people want basic foodstuffs and materials, and your attempt to market grass fed zebra may turn out harder than you anticipated. 
You can do similar calculations with other species such as pigs, bison and so on, but the point is this; putting the animals to work allows you to generate a stream of future income, improve your soil and create wealth.  The wealth is held not necessarily in fiat currency but in the value of your fertile soil and livestock.

Play the Penny Stock Market
I'm not talking about you becoming the Gordon Gekko of the pink sheets but rather raising rabbits, goats, chickens, turkeys, eggs, bees, and the like on a limited scale.  These species are much more common on the homestead than water buffalo and herds of grass fed cattle, and for good reason.  They're smaller, easier to handle in small areas, diversified and in many cases you can even process (slaughter) them right on your farm or homestead and sell to consumers, which you cannot legally do with red meat (lamb, pork, beef).

No doubt that many if not most of these small livestock belong on every homestead, but keep in mind there's a difference between you raising rabbits for your own table and you raising meat rabbits to generate income. Unlike the example with the cows, you'll likely need to continually purchase feed for your rabbits (and especially chickens) and feed costs seem to perpetually escalate.  The amount of income you can generate may be rather limited for a farmer, but may easily help to sustain a homesteader.  For instance, if a doe produces 4 litters per year of 8 kits each, we'll assume you may have 30 fryers to sell (losing two to mortality) each year at a weight of 3 pounds each.  If you could charge $6 per pound then each doe would generate $540 in sales of rabbit meat before backing out feed costs.  Alas, you'd better be prepared to butcher them yourself as your beef processor might be a bit perplexed if you hauled in a load of rabbits for slaughter.

Small stock could also include honeybees, which may be particularly attractive with all the concern about colony collapse disorder.  With bees you can sell nucs, full hives, 2 or 3 pound bags of bees or just queens.  For many commercial beekeepers, this is quite a lucrative endeavor!
Bottom line?  Small is beautiful, but smaller the livestock, the smaller the absolute income potential.

Farm Stays & Events
Agritourism is a growth area and I expect this to continue even if economic conditions remain soft.  It's not just you who is being called to the land.  We are all becoming more aware of how disconnected we are from our natural world.  Can you not imagine a soon to be married couple wanting to have their wedding overlooking your beautiful pastures, ponds and happy animals?  I can, and they'll pay well for it because competitive alternatives also charge good money for the service.  But ask yourself if this is a one-time, seasonal or continuous opportunity?  Likely seasonal at best depending on how well you market it, but getting back to re-purposing all your investments and efforts, you could use the same facilities for corporate retreats and other events.
What about a farmstay bed and breakfast in your home or in a refurbished barn?  Sounds quaint, romantic and what a lot of people would be in the mood for.  And it doesn't have to be a normal house. It could be a yurt, tipi or the wall tents that they do at MaryJane's Farm bed and breakfast, for $240 per night.
If you don't want guests staying over night then you could consider farm dinners. These outings normally feature local chefs and offer the advantage of introducing paying customers to other products or services you have available.
Variations  - A hunting preserve, guided hunting/fishing excursions, RV/tent farm camping, summer youth farm camps, pond fishing, corn mazes, haunted woods...

Skills Classes
This is a variation of the above but the emphasis is on teaching skills to consumers.  What kind of skills?  How about cheese making, butchering classes, hide tanning and earth skills, foraging, soap making...you name it. Butchering classes can run the gamut from this $50 hog butchering class on a Wisconsin farm all the way to Fleisher's $10,000 Level 3 butchering class that takes 6-8 weeks!
This seems to be an area that many homesteaders and farms ignore. Perhaps they don't feel they have the patience or demeanor to meet the consumer expectations.  If you're comfortable with students or people in general then I encourage you to consider offering skills classes. It will do far more than generate seasonal or continual income for you; it will forge a bond with many of your visitors that will motivate them to become loyal supporters of your farmstead.

Become a Grower
This is one reason why you want to become a homesteader, right?  To put your hands in fluffy soil, tug gorgeous carrots right out of the ground, cut fresh flowers that you planted, snip asparagus in early April...  If these iconic images of homesteading inspire you then it's reasonable to expect consumers will want the same.  Retreating to our earlier discussion of one-time, seasonal or continual income opportunities, "growing" is one income area that can absolutely be as year-round as you want it to be.   And, unlike farm stays or classes, eating is not normally viewed as a discretionary expense. After all, people gotta eat.  In a TEOTWAWKI world, focus on the essential organic foodstuffs!
There are lots of great books on growing including several by Elliot Coleman that I'd recommend.  Just remember that if you're new to gardening and if you're garden plot is new, you should expect it to take at least 3-5 years before your soil tilth and fertility catches up with your expectations of light and fluffy soil.
Variations - Mushroom cultivation, live plants, greenhouse transplants, heirloom seeds...

Hays Sales and Grazing
If you find yourself with some decent pasture acreage you can use it in many ways to create a "cash crop": grazing or selling organic hay.

Custom grazing is a contractual arrangement where you provide the pastures, fencing, water and grazing management for others who place their animals on your land.  You can charge either by the day, by the pounds gained or both.  If you're short on cash but long on time and enthusiasm this may be a good option for you.

Let's say you had 40 acres and you wanted to improve the fertility anyway.  You may strike a deal to graze 40 cows, stockers or cow/calf pairs and someone else would provide the animals that you wouldn't have to pay for. Be careful if you take in bulls as they'll eat 50% more, on average, than cows so you're stocking rates (and prices you charge) need to reflect this. 

In a stocking scenario you may have 40 weaned calves that are dropped off in April that you graze until October. Let's assume they arrive weighing 550 pounds each and your pastures could allow them to gain 2 pounds per day on average for 180 days.  By the end of October each stocker would weigh 910 pounds, having gained 360 pounds (180 days x 2/lb/day). In total you would have added 14,400 pounds of beef (180 days X 2/lb/day X 40 head).  If you charged a rate of $.60 per pound of gain then your income for the six month grazing contract would be $8,640.  Rates vary of course and you could charge much more in drought/dry areas than you could in lush areas, but then again you'd achieve more weight gain in lush areas than you would in dry.  Then again, you don't even need to own land to custom graze for others. You can lease it as Greg Judy explains here if you have a smaller homestead and don't have the room yourself.

Another alternative for some income is to simply produce organic hay, either for the grass-fed beef or horse quality market.  Organic doesn't just mean letting your pastures go...it means having quality forages that are non-GMO and are managed organically with no chemicals at all.  You'll get more per ton for square bales than round, but those in the cattle market will very likely not want to fool with square bales, so you should choose your market first.  If you don't own hay equipment then you can hire out the job, but this is often challenging since all hay tends to come in around the same time and those with hay equipment are in pretty good demand during those times.

Variations: Blending tree plantings into grazing areas for a silvopasture, thereby generating both current and long-term income from timber

Breed and Board
Do you love animals and want to become a breeder?  There are many ways you can do this on your homestead.  Of course you can use the large or small livestock mentioned above and become a breeder of rabbits, sheep, goats, pigs, cows or any combination.  There's always ads in Craigslist and in local ag publications for these and many people looking to buy weaned piglets, 4H rabbits and calves, and so on.
Another idea is to breed and train livestock handling or guardian dogs, such as shepherds or collies to herd sheep and cows or great Pyrenees to protect livestock. I expect both of these to be in constant demand as more and more preppers and homesteaders emerge and need proven genetics to help with their animals.
If you love horses and your new homestead has a barn of sorts, offering boarding and grazing for horses may be just the thing for you.  You may be able to charge $150-250 per month or trade in value for full 24/7 pasture turn out...the more you can offer the more you can charge but of course rates vary from region to region. It's yet another way you can generate income from a homestead parcel that you couldn't from a city apartment. 

Basic Materials
Finally, you're sitting on a gold mine of sorts with your new piece of land.  You'll likely have some woods that could offer rough timber, firewood and pine straw among other things.  If you're handy with a chain saw or if you want to invest a few thousand dollars in a portable saw mill, you could be producing lots of custom cut lumber in no time.
Understandably, many people look upon all the rocks on their land disapprovingly, but perhaps those rocks and boulders could become landscape rocks for someone else?  Although this falls more into the category of one-time income streams than continual income, it could be a good way to clean up your land while beautifying another person's property at the same time!

While some of these ideas touch on product offerings, the above represents just some of the ways you can use your land to generate income.  Some techniques are quite passive and very long term (silvopasture) while others are very labor intensive and offer immediate income gratification (transplants).  Of course there are more ideas and perhaps you'll share some below, but this is enough to get you thinking. 
If you know how much money you need to make, how much capital you're comfortable risking and, most importantly, what you are passionate about, then I'm sure you'll find some ideas that sound right to you.  But I'll repeat something I said in the first post to be sure it sinks in: Saving Money = Making Money!
To a homesteader's way of thinking you not only save money and therefore need to earn less (and therefore pay less in taxes) by producing so much yourself, you also lock in prices and create a personal buffer from inflation.  Milk prices may go through the roof for everyone else, but yours will always be the same.

Part Three – Making Money With Your Skills
Regardless of who you are, I'm confident in assuming one thing about you; you have at least one or more skills.  Everyone does.  And your roster of skills and capabilities will only expand when you move to the homestead as you learn all sorts of new gardening, farming, mechanical, crafting and other talents that others need, and are willing to pay for.  The trick for you will be to market those skills into income generating assignments that will allow you to comfortably live your dream life off the land.
Hopefully part two of this four-part series gave you ideas to think about how your land could work to generate income for you, and tomorrow's part four will give you numerous ideas for products you can sell. This third portion of the series will be a rapid fire listing of money making ideas that bridge the gap between your current/future skills and market opportunities.
In this section we’ll focus on skills and services that you can sell from your homestead and I'll divide the list into two macro categories. The first will be physical skills that you can perform for your local community.  You need to be in close proximity to make money with the ideas on this list.  The second will be virtual/online skills you can easily sell to anyone around the world and collect money via PayPal, check or wire-transfer.  As always, these ideas just scratch the surface so please share your ideas and comments. If you're interested in some of these ideas but don't have the skills yet, just remember that it's not too late. You'll be learning lots of new skills as a homesteader.   Get the knowledge and training you need and start earning income with it.
Ready?  Let's begin!

Physical/Local Services to Make Money as a Homesteader

General Services- There are lots of "general" needs that many folks in rural areas need.  By the way, just because you're moving "out there" to become more self-sufficient doesn't mean that the people already there think that way. You may be surprised to learn that they value the convenience of grocery stores and having hired help to do things for them.  What kind of things?  Fence installation and repair, automatic gate installation and repair, painting, household repair and so on.  If you're interested in or handy with any of these then put the word out by printing a business card and pinning it at the local feed store and elsewhere where people congregate.

Tractor Work- One way to really justify (or rationalize) the purchase of a tractor and implements is to use it not only for your property, but to hire it out for local projects.  The jobs you can hire it for depend on the features of the tractor (does it have a front-end loader, for example) and the attachments you have. Depending on what you have you could earn good money by cutting/baling hay, mowing large fields, disking, tilling, seeding/planting, maintaining long gravel driveways, bush hogging, moving piles of dirt/gravel/debris, snow plowing, and more. Advertise yourself.

Gardening Work- You'll become expert at organic gardening and growing food in no time, and you'll likely become the best in your area as others are happy to let the grocery chains feed them or, if they have their own garden, rely on chemical controls.   I expect that more and more people will become interested in organic methods of growing food and you can avail from this trend by "marketing" your expertise to others.  What can you do?  Teach them how to install raised beds or drip irrigation lines, how to build soil with manure/leaves/grass clippings, how to garden without tilling, how to schedule successive plantings and winter gardens, protecting plants from frost, how to set up compost bins, how to capture rain water for the garden, how to companion plant or how to trap plant for pests, etc.  Get the idea?  There's lots you'll be learning that others won't know but will want to know.  Yes my dear reader, you can become THE Plant Whisperer!

RV Repair- Repairing recreational vehicles isn't necessarily difficult, but it is specialized. Given the concerns about the economy, jobs and so on, it's reasonable that there will be more and more people taking economical RV getaways or simply living in their RV's.  This means more and more will need repairs and, let's face it, how many RV repair people do you see on the side of the road?  It's an opportunity to specialize and become "the" RV repair person for your area.

Mechanic- If you are good at mechanical repair then you'll be in need.  It's always hard to find a good mechanic.  If you are also good at small engine repair and farm equipment repair (tractors, RVs) then you'll be even more in demand.

Welding- Many people in rural areas know how to weld but most do it for themselves or their farm.  The opportunity is there to offer welding and small fabrication for hire, if you have the skill.

Sheep Shearing- If you have sheep on your homestead you could shear them yourself and then hire this service out to others.  Most sheep owners don't shear themselves and it's always hard to find someone local who does.

AI- Artificial insemination (AI).  With more and more homesteaders and small farmers starting up with smaller herds of animals, many don't want the danger or cost of having bulls, boars and rams on their property.  Or perhaps they simply want to add genetic diversity to their herd by using AI.  Either way, if you learn this skill and make the modest investments in equipment, then you will be in demand for sure.

Boarding- I mentioned how boarding could be an offering that your land could enable, but you could expand this if you're skilled with horses by offering riding lessons and horse training.  There are horse people in every neck of the woods, so you'd likely find a waiting clientele.

Get Sharp!- Perhaps you could become expert as sharpening knives, chainsaws and tools.  You'll likely need this for yourself anyway so why not make some extra bucks by offering it to others?

Equipment Operator- Perhaps you don't have the equipment to hire out but you know how to operate a tractor, bobcat, bulldozer, track loader, excavator, ditch witch, backhoe or the like. There's always a need for this in the country.

Carpentry- If you like to build then you're in luck as this is a skill that most people either don't have, or don't have time for.  From repairing buildings to constructing sheds, additions, barns and so on, you'll probably find more work than you can handle as fewer new homes are built and more repairs/add-ons are in demand.  And, to broaden your offering even more money, learn and then teach cob building techniques!

Electrician, Plumber- Not much I can add to this. If you can do these, people will need them, especially if you develop skills with alternative energy and plumbing techniques!

Hauling Animals- You may have a truck and purchased a livestock trailer when you moved to the country. Guess what, not everyone has one.  Let locals know that you can haul livestock for them or post your skill on Craigslist.

Photography - With fancy new phones anyone can take a picture.  However, only skilled photographers can compose and create an emotive work of art worthy of celebration...and compensation. If this is a talent of yours then you'll have a unique income stream.

Workshops- I'll probably include workshops and classes both as a skill and a product, but with your new skills why not offer mobile city/suburban workshops on creating raised bed gardens, chicken and rabbit tractors, etc.  If the money is back in suburbia, go get it and bring it home!

Computer Repair- Are you good with computers and Internet issues?  Many people, if not most, are not.  If people know you're around and that you're good with eradicating viruses, freeing up memory, recovering files, providing Internet access alternatives and the like, then you're in luck...and in demand!

House Cleaning- Yea, you know what this means. Just clean your own house first! :-)

Meat Processing- Now, you can't do this as an inspected processor unless you want to go through the red tape process, but since you'll likely learn how to skin rabbits, eviscerate chickens and maybe even slaughter sheep and goats, you could offer this as a service for others who want to butcher their own animals. Just be very careful how you position this; you are selling only your knowledge and service and in no way are you selling meat, since the animals already belong to the customer.

Bridge the Gap - Some farmers struggle with marketing and distribution but perhaps that's an area you're good at.  Consider becoming a distributor for local farmers and getting their products to retailers, restaurants, resorts and other stores.  It will be good for the producer, good for the buyer, good for the local community and you won't have to produce anything yourself!

Online/Virtual Services to Make Money as a Homesteader

Broker Deals - Basically buy something for $.25 and sell for $5.  How?  Farm auctions have lots of valuable and often new items that can go for very little money.  If you can create a market for it via Craigslist, eBay, Facebook or your own community contacts, here's your chance.  My advice is to consider useful items that are harder to find and are easy to ship.   A wood stove may be cheap but you'll need to sell it locally which will limit your market reach. [JWR Adds: I recommend gathering references on collectibles. See our Bookshelf page for some coin, gun and antique book links. Study and then bring those reference books with you when you go on farm auction trips. If you become a subject matter expert, then you can turn that into a money-making venture. Many people make a good living as "pickers". (See the television shows "American Pickers" and "Antiques Roadshow", for some examples of collectible items that are sought after.] I concur about only buying only small and lightweight collectibles that can be mailed.]

Consulting - What do you do today?  Is it something in business, academia, law, medicine, technology, etc. that you could offer as a distant consulting service?  Can you package it into an online or remote training offering?  Perhaps you're an accountant and setting up and managing Quickbooks is easy for you, but challenging for folks around you. Or maybe you're a business hot shot with expertise in logistics, marketing, human resources or strategic planning.  With all those skills I bet you can figure out how to offer business coaching, life coaching or consulting online.

Making Money Online- As I said, I don't know you or what specific skills you have. That said, there are lots of ways to make money online using skills you probably already have. I don't want to define each of these here, so let me just list a few ideas for you to think about or research:

• Copy editing
• Free-lance and content writing of e-books, articles, blog post, press releases, product reviews, proof reading, forum posts...
• Illustrating for authors, web designers, etc.
• Become a Virtual Assistant (VA)
• Offer research assistance to authors, editors and writers
• Web or graphic design
• Web security consulting
• Voice-overs or record your own ad-supported podcast
• Language translation

Note: Not sure how to find these opportunities or how to market yourself?  Try eLance, Guru, Sideskills, Freelance Jobs or iFreelance.  You'll probably be surprised how many opportunities there are. Just be sure to specialize and differentiate yourself, otherwise you'll likely get lost among the other freelancers.

Authoring - Authors such as James Rawles, Wendell Berry, Gene Logsdon and Joel Salatin have been able to make a living off the land with publishing being a primary source of income. Could you be the next one?  Why not!  If you have good writing skills and can identify the right topic for right audience, it's easier than ever to get published and, more importantly, distributed with print on demand (POD) offerings from Createspace by Amazon, Lightning Source, Dog Ear and others.  Just take a page out of Salatin's and Rawles’ book and remember the importance of "branding" yourself and your expertise.  If you create a following as they have, followers will eagerly await your next book and you'll be on your way to a passive income stream.
There you have it, just a sampling of ways that you can use your skills to get money from the farm fairy, often very good money, while living your dream life off the land.  For modern homesteaders the Internet creates a global market and, unlike with physical products, it doesn't matter where you are geographically located if you're offering virtual/online/writing services.

Part Four – Making Money Selling Farm and Homestead Products

Farmstead Meats- Organic, grass fed, sustainably raised, pastured, heritage...what have you, there is a growing market of consumers looking to connect with and support farmers who are tending the earth ethically.  These consumers are just as anxious to support the local community as they are to tell Monsanto and concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) to take a flying leap. 

When selling meats directly from the farm you'll have lots of choices to navigate. The first choice may be if you want to sell bulk (whole/half/quarter) animal or small retail packages.  If you sell bulk then you can avoid the hassles of becoming licensed to store packaged meats in your farm freezers by technically selling a "live" animal to the consumer. You then deliver the animal to the processor and the consumer determines how they want the animal butchered, pays the processor directly and picks up their cuts.  The consumer saves money or a per pound basis and you save headaches.
Alternatively, you can sell individual packaged cuts such as roasts, ground beef, pork chops, rack of lamb and so on to consumers.  This requires you to have meats processed by a state or USDA inspected facility and you'll have to follow regulations for storing and transporting your labeled products.  The regulations aren't that burdensome in most places, but the costs for freezers, utilities and transportation must be considered. Of course, when you sell this way you offer products to a much larger market. After all, there's more people able to buy a pack of ground beef than there are those interested in half a cow!
Other options for selling meats are wholesale, retail and restaurants.  The above options that sell directly to customers constitute direct marketing. You'll get the highest price selling that way for sure, but you'll also expend the most effort and need the most marketing savvy...for sure.  Selling to wholesalers or distributors could put your products on retail shelves and it takes time and effort to set up these relationships (you can also sell your other farm products ((below)) this way).  Many farmsteaders want to sell to restaurants and for good reason. If you're near the right markets there are many fine chefs who value delicious and local ingredients, and you want to sell to people who value what you produce.  Some chefs want smaller portions and packaged cuts that you are selling directly to customers.  If that's the case you probably won't have much room to discount prices unless the chefs commit to larger bulk quantities or weekly deliveries since your costs won't be any lower.
Of course a lot more could be said on this topic but the point of this essay is to give you ideas and to get you thinking of what works for you.  For many farmsteaders, selling farm raised meats will be the heart of their income generating engine.
Variations - In many states you may be able to process poultry (which includes rabbit) on your farm and not use an inspected processor by using a P.L. 90-492 exemption. Read carefully and check with your state regulators before proceeding.

Farm Fresh Milk- Admit it...the phrase kind of conjures the image of the old milk truck, glass bottles being dropped on your doorstep and old fashioned wholesomeness. Consumers today have become so disconnected with their food that many don't even realize that they're drinking ultra-pasteurized "formerly" milk until they read an article about it or hear mentioned on the news. When many do they go looking for real milk, usually raw, from a local farmer.  And they're willing to pay anywhere from $6 - $12 per gallon for it depending on where they are in the country and if the cow was fed grain (least expensive) or if it was purely grass fed (most expensive).  Be sure to operate within the implicit and explicit laws of your state.  Also check out the Weston A. Price campaign for real milk and if you decide to sell milk, list yourself there.
Variation - butter, buttermilk, yogurt, etc. if you want to pasteurize. [JWR Adds: Be sure to check all the legalities first, particularly at the State level.]

Farmstead or Artisanal Cheese- If you're milking cows, sheep or goats anyway, why not turn the milk into delicious farmstead cheese?  Farmstead cheese is cheese that you produce from the milk of YOUR animals, where as artisanal cheese is cheese that you produce from milk that you buy from another dairy.  Either way, you'll need a state approved and inspected cheese operation and anywhere from a modest investment (several thousand dollars) to a major investment (over $100,000) to set up your make room, ripening room, cheese cave, equipment and so on.  There's no denying that it takes an investment to become a cheese maker, particularly a farmstead cheese maker where you have to invest in animals and milking facilities, but for many the lifestyle and payoff is undeniably alluring.

Farm Fresh Eggs- If you raise your hens on pasture then you'll be producing the most beautiful and nutritious eggs available anywhere.  Just check out the chart to the right.  And keep in mind that not all egg varieties are the same.  Many consumers will pay much more for duck eggs than chicken eggs, and you can also sell hatching eggs (turkey, geese, ducks, chicken, guinea, etc.) instead of eating eggs.

Vegetables and Herbs- There's not much limit to what you can grow for consumers and restaurants.  Warm and cool season vegetables, fresh flowers, herbs, you name it. You'll have the same choices to make regarding selling (direct, restaurants, retail, wholesale) as you do with meats but there's one big difference. Whereas meats can be stored frozen for months the value in vegetables is to be sold fresh, often the day they're harvested.  So you'll want to line up your customers first either by having a solid relationship with restaurants or by operating a CSA for individual customers.

Fruits- Strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, cranberries, peaches, apples, figs, melons...get the idea?  Almost everyone has a sweet tooth and these can be harvested, sold and delivered directly to farmers markets, restaurants or consumers, or you can offer pick-your-own options.

Sweeteners- Maple syrup, honey and sorghum syrup all come to mind. With concerns about allergies I would expect a continued rise in the demand for local honey.  All you need is to make or buy some bee boxes, get a bag of bees and a queen or a nuc and let them pollinate your garden. Then you're on your way to the sweet life!

Craft Supplies- You'll likely find countless supplies on your farmstead that can be marketed and sold to crafters, such as rabbit pelts, turkey and peacock feathers, wood cuttings, wool and more.  Take a look on eBay to see what's selling and then see what you have.

Jewelry- Rather than selling craft supplies from the farm why not make your own jewelry!  Think of using feathers from peacocks, turkeys, guineas or geese. Or, perhaps you have a large deer population and you'll find lots of shed antlers in late winter. These and more can be used to make unique (one-of-a-kind) pieces of jewelry. [JWR Adds: The Etsy web site is a good place to retail your wares online.]
Variation - Instead of jewelry, make rustic woodworking gifts from your downed trees.  Think of tables, willow furniture, log furniture, kitchen utensils...whatever you can dream up..

Wine and Beer- Due to stringent regulations you may not want to produce wine and beer, but what about becoming an accomplice?  Could you grow local hops for the beer market or grapes for local wineries using your land? I bet you could and that few people are!

Value-Added Products - I won't attempt to count all the ways you could add value to products that you could produce on the farm, and most would require some regulatory approval.  But imagine farm fresh baby food, dog treats, lard, jams, salsa, grains, cured meats, pickles, sauerkraut...the list goes on.  Don't be afraid of seeking regulatory approval as it's not as hard as you think. Just call the health department or your state department of agriculture and find out what you need to do to comply.  Others do it and so can you.

Mushrooms- Cultivate mushrooms for consumers or restaurants and if you live among chanterelles, morels, etc., learn to hunt and sell these delicacies at farmers markets and to restaurants!

Photography - I mentioned photography yesterday as a skill and it certainly is that, but your rare breed animals and quaint rural landscape offer you unique resources to create poetic imagery.  You could add value by printing and creating frames from your woodlot and selling through various resorts and stores in your state, or license use of your high-resolution images through various providers.

Make Custom Knives, Tools - Necessity is the mother of all invention, they say, and farmers are an inventive group.  Perhaps you'll come up with tools you need to tend your garden such as the wheel hoe to the right. Or you could offer plans on how to build them yourself like the the folks at WhizBang. 
Perhaps you know how or want to learn to make knives from rustic materials such as spent saw blades, antlers, wood, etc.  It's not too late and it would be unique and functional.

Building Chicken/Rabbit Tractors- When folks, particularly urban folks, see your fancy chicken coops and tractors they'll likely want one of their own. They won't have the time or skill to make it, but they'll have the money to buy it. Market directly to them through local organics associations, conferences, publications and online groups.

Manure- Put your marketing hat on now. You're not selling a load of smelly waste, you're selling organic fertility! Better yet, nutrients!  From worm castings to rabbit pellets and, yes, horse manure, you're selling what everyone needs for healthy plants and topsoil. Variation: Compost

Artisan Meat Products - You don't see many people doing this because, as with cheese making, there is skill, investment and regulatory compliance required. And therein lies the opportunity!  Imagine making pancetta, pepperoni, saucisson sec, salami or Iberico style long-aged cured ham from your rare-breed pigs that consumed acorns and whey.  Know anyone else in your state doing this?  In your entire region? Is that sausage I smell or is it opportunity?

Tractor Dealer, Feed Dealer- Perhaps you'd like to sell a small amount of farm equipment or feed in your area.  If it's under-serviced then you'll find opportunities to do so. This will be especially true with feed as you'll likely find organic feeds, fertilizers and nutritional stuffs hard to come by unless you have them shipped in. Is it possible that others can't find these as well and you could become the supplier?

Homemade Lotions, Soaps, Candles - You'll no doubt learn to make all of these things anyway for your homestead. If you have the raw materials, such as lard, goat milk, etc., then you may want to make artisan soaps for customers.  You can sell to local markets or sell online. There may even be more of an opportunity with making lotions, shampoos and creams that are all natural and free of chemicals.

Sewing/Knitting - You could sell supplies such as wool or yarn, or you could add value by sewing bags, aprons, cloth diapers and more.

Hopefully some of these ideas got you thinking about how you can sell products and make a good living off your farm or homestead, but I bet you know of even more ways!  Many of the products and skills I've discussed are small scale and tug more at the homesteader's heart. Some, such as retail meats, cured meats and commercial cheese making speak more to those interested in farming as a business.  What's right for you?  It depends greatly on how you answer the questions in part one of this essay, namely how much money do you need to make.  But also how ambitious you are and how much energy you have.  Those are issues for you to ponder. 

One thing is certain; there are lots of ways to earn income from your farm or homestead. I don't know about you, but I take a lot of comfort in that.

People who are new to farmsteading or entrepreneurial life in general are often nervous, if not downright scared, about the prospects of not having a comfortable and secure paycheck coming in each week.  What I will say is that when you do make that transition and learn how to generate income for yourself that you will never again worry about whether you may get laid off, how your employer is doing or if you'll have money in retirement.  You'll make the life that you want for yourself and no one will be there to deny you the pay raise, if you want it, or more time off, if you want that, although getting both would be the ultimate triumph!
TEOTWAWKI will be present a scary new reality for most people. But you can begin to position yourself now to not only thrive financially in a TEOTWAWKI world but to help others to adapt and enjoy their new world.

Mr. Rawles,
I very much enjoyed reading the article about Keeping Chicken in a Backyard Flock, by Nightshade. I have 58 hens and seven roosters and I enjoy every one of them. I did want to address one statement, however. It's concerning the comment about the presence of a rooster and his ability to produce a hormone that turns bad cholesterol into good cholesterol. Perhaps the author of this author could verify that claim? I have contacted the nutrition experts at our state's university research center on the matter, and they have informed me that there is no scientific evidence to support that claim. They said: "Dietary cholesterol, cholesterol that is found in the food itself, including meats and meat based products, are not measured by HDL and LDL and instead listed just as dietary cholesterol. Once a person has consumed the food, whether it contains dietary cholesterol, dietary fat or a combination, the person's body makes cholesterol to handle/transport the fat and cholesterol. This transport includes HDL and LDL among others. The type and amount of each is unique to the individual and each person's body handles the lipids (fats) differently. So, even if the egg were to have more HDL (which it wouldn't) there is no guarantee that once it was ingested it would react the same way. Your body may choose to handle the cholesterol differently dependent on several factors."

Personally, I believe that the nutrition of the egg and the hen that lays it is directly correlated with the diet she is given. Green grass and other green matter is very good to supplement the diet, and is said to reduce the cholesterol of the egg. The rooster should be more fertile on the same diet. I have had questions before now about whether the presence of a rooster would cause a hen to lay more, but I haven't found any claims to suggest that. I suppose that if nothing else, the rooster crows very early in the morning, which wakes the hens up so they get off the roost and thus are exposed to more light, which is what makes them lay more. My purpose for having roosters is to produce fertile eggs for the sake of hatching new chicks and for them to to watch for hawks and owls when my flock is free ranging. It may be possible that the sperm has some nutritional benefit, I suppose, but I can't find any proof of it. Sincerely, - A.R.

In a SHTF scenario, already having a small flock of laying chickens will be of great benefit for everyone from an urban backyard to a rural, backwoods bunker setting. They are easy to care for, provide eggs and eventually, can grace your stewpot once they have stopped laying. Given the opportunity, they are also resourceful, and will scavenge for insects, grubs, and their favorite greenery. Be warned, they absolutely adore strawberries and kale, and will eat it right out of your garden!

A laying hen reaches maturity and begins laying eggs at around 4-6 months of age. She will lay an average of two eggs every three days for the next 3-5 years. After that, you may wish to consider adding the girl to the stewpot. Laying hens are not as tender as young meat birds (which are typically slaughtered at eight weeks of age) but their meat is still salvageable if boiled or tenderized with some vinegar prior to cooking.

Laying Hens or Meat Birds?
The first decision you need to make is whether to have laying hens or meat birds. Chickens have been cultivated for a long time, and while some breeds make excellent laying hens, and lay large eggs for a long period of time, other breeds are definitely cultivated to grow quickly and be consumed in short order.
We have twelve Araucanas and one Rhode Island Red – all laying hens. The Araucanas lay a pale blue-green egg, that is considered a medium sized egg. The Rhode Island Red lays an extra-large brown egg. Rhode Island Reds are known for their large, high production egg capacity.
At this point, we have no meat birds. However, from my past interactions with them I have to say that they are very different from their egg-laying counterparts. Meat birds have one goal – to consume as much food as possible. That is why in eight weeks, a meat bird will average about 6-8 pounds, whereas my delicate Araucanas weigh in at a total of five pounds each full grown. Meat birds can also be rather aggressive, pecking and drawing blood on each other and more importantly, you. Take care if you have small children and meat birds, it could be traumatizing.

Benefits That Chickens Give
Will Eat Leftovers - Besides the obvious benefit of providing eggs and meat, chickens are one of nature’s garbage disposals. An omnivore, a chicken will consume nearly anything – meat, fish, vegetables, fruits, grains, rice. Not a single thing goes to waste in our house between the chickens, dogs and cats. Chickens will eat anything smaller than themselves – this means mice, if they can catch them. A few months ago, we caught two marauding mice in the house. We fed them both to the chickens who fought over the little carcasses – waste not, want not.
We also feed them their own eggshells, which are high in calcium, negating the need to buy crushed oyster shells as a calcium supplement.
If you have carnivores (dogs and cats) than you will probably feed them most of your meat scraps, but save a little for the birds. I’ve given them leftover soup, rice, quinoa, carrot peelings, the bases of broccoli, cauliflower leaves, tomatoes, and so much more. For a special treat, feed them some grapes, they go crazy for them and it is also a good source of water for them as well.

Will Process Paper – There’s no need to burn paper, and please don’t throw it away. Instead, shred it (I actually use a high-capacity shredder and shred everything (phone books, newspapers, magazines, envelopes, you name it) and then place it in the chicken house. On the floor and in the roosts it absorbs the chicken waste, which is high in nitrogen. From there, simply sweep it out the door onto the ground of the enclosed chicken coop. This makes the ground less muddy. During the summer we also add grass clippings and encourage our neighbor to bring over his grass clippings to us as well. During the warm months, every 1-2 months we will rake up all of the gunk from the ground and throw it into the compost. A month or two later and it is compost, full of nutrients and ready to be spread onto our raised beds and worked into the dirt.
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Pest Control – In the warm months we open the door to the coop during the day and allow the hens to roam free, scratching and digging in the grass and raised beds. They search for and find plenty of insects, grubs, and even will go after mice and small birds. This provides them with some extra protein which they need for egg production. Later in summer, feed them any tomato hornworms you may find. They adore them, and it saves your tomato plants from being denuded of the sheltering green leaves tomatoes need for protection from the sun.

The Chicken Rules
Chickens are easy to keep as long as you follow the basic rules of good chicken ownership. So here are some quick tips to keep in mind.
Easy to Doctor – They are quite easy to doctor. You will need: Q-tip cotton swabs, triple antibiotic cream, pine tar, and if you like a general poultry antibiotic. Basically the first three ingredients are to treat your bird if they get in a tussle with another bird. This happens more when they are younger and the pecking order (yes, it’s real) has not been established. A chicken will rise within the flock by pecking a foe until she bleeds, and since chickens are naturally attracted to the color red (blood, red-painted toenails, red grapes, etc) that bird will then be pecked and pecked repeatedly, and chickens can and will kill one of the flock if not stopped. We bring in the hurt bird, wash off the blood, sometimes apply baby powder to help with the clotting, spread some antibiotic cream on the wound and then paint it with pine tar.
It smells bad and tastes worse. An attacking bird gets a mouthful of that and decides to pick on someone else!
As for the general poultry antibiotic…chickens sometimes get colds. If you see one that is lethargic and has not moved, has drainage around the beak or eyes, she may benefit from a regimen of antibiotics. They are available in most feed stores and you simply add them to the water. In one hen’s case, we had to force feed the antibiotics to her with a dropper. After three days she got better and she is now doing great.

Excessive Heat Will Kill Them – I suggest letting them loose during excessive heat waves and allowing your hens to search out the shaded, cool areas of your yard. Provide plenty of water, throw in some chunks of ice if you can to cool it down. We installed a fan in the chicken house last summer and placed it in front of a hunk of ice. The girls clustered around that or dug into the dark, shaded areas of our yard and into the cool dirt. I would not advise trying to eat a bird who dies of heat stroke unless  you see it die and know there wasn’t any other reason for it to be deceased (sickness, etc).

Cold Doesn’t Affect Laying, Light Does – I hear it over and over, “My chickens stopped laying because it has been so cold.” No, they could care less about that. Instead, it has to do with light exposure. Chickens need approximately 12-14 hours of exposure to direct light, in order to release an egg. Cloudy, overcast days have the same effect. Beginning in October, or earlier if you live in the more extreme climes, install a 40 watt bulb in your chicken house on a 12-14 hour timer. We have ours set to turn on at 6am in the morning and turn off at 8pm at night.
We had watched our production rates fall to around 3-5 eggs per day from our thirteen hens. After installing the light, production spiked and has stayed steady at 8-10 eggs per day. Our record is 11 eggs in one day – keep making those eggs, girls! (Or it is the stewpot for you)

Keep a Rooster (if you can get away with it) – Roosters can be noisy and are often aggressive. And most of us live in urban and suburban settings that prohibit us from having one. However, if you can get away with it, I do suggest having a rooster. For one, roosters provide an enzyme that turns the ‘bad’ cholesterol in eggs to ‘good’ cholesterol. Most importantly though is the ability to renew your flock. If push comes to shove, you want the ability to make more birds and in a SHTF scenario, you won’t much care if they are meat birds or laying birds – they are FOOD, plain and simple. Portable, easy to maintain, FOOD. Having a rooster there to propagate more of the food opportunities just makes good common sense.

Protect Them From Predators – I would think this would go without saying, but there are plenty of creatures out there besides us who think chickens, and their eggs, are tasty treats. If you let your birds free range during the day, be aware that hawks and eagles find them to be a yummy main dish. Raccoons and possum will also happily hunt and kill your birds in the dark of night. I recommend a chicken house that you can lock them in at night in, and an enclosed chicken yard (covered which chicken wire on all sides) as a sort of double protection. Occasionally dogs or even cats have been known to hunt chickens. Our dogs know not to hunt them, but one of the cats found the practice to be fun and entertaining – until the entire flock of chickens chased after him and ‘pinned’ him under a forsythia bush for a good twenty minutes. After that he wasn’t too interested! Snakes, rats and mice are also a concern. Snakes love eggs, and the rats and mice tend to go after the chicken feed.
We have found keeping chickens to be easy, entertaining, and…delicious. For more tips on chicken care, recipes for pickled eggs, and more, click on the link below.
Chickens, Recipes and More

James:
I got one of the USDA's surveys, too, and had an interesting discussion with whoever responded to their "contact us" email address. I noted that my paper form claimed very clearly that response was required by law, but the web site version of the survey said it was voluntary. So I asked which was true, and was told that Public Law 105-113 "authorizes the [USDA] to conduct an agricultural census every five years," and explained the form was to help them save time in some further census process. The response said nothing about whether my response was required or not, though it did (of course) say the law required all information from respondents to be kept confidential, specifically that it "cannot be used for purposes of taxation, investigation, or regulation." It ended with a warm fuzzy statement about how important agriculture is to America (for some definition of "agriculture", I guess).

So I replied, saying they hadn't answered my question, which I repeated. Their response said, "To try to completely answer your question, the Census of Agriculture, conducted every five years, is a survey that by law requires a response from operators who are involved in agriculture. Though other NASS surveys do not by law require individuals to respond, NASS is required by law to conduct these surveys and publish statistics from the information gathered."

You'll note this still doesn't answer the question, though it does say I need to respond if ever they come knocking with actual census forms. In my emails I also mentioned that the questions ask about "land that is in government programs", in the description prior to question 1. All other questions depend on this answer to question 1. I own "land with the potential for agricultural production" (kind of vague, don't you think?) but none of it is part of any agricultural government programs. It's subject to property tax, emergency services can presumably access it without penalty in time of emergency, and I guess it could be subject to seizure under eminent domain, all of which means it's probably part of one government program or another. But, I don't have a government loan on it or equipment I use on it, I don't get subsidies, so I call it "not a government program", and put "0 acres". All my other responses were thereby zero, as they all depend on how much acreage I operate. Regards, - E.K.

A range of considerations come into play when selecting food to cache at your retreat for survival post-TEOTWAWKI: caloric load, shelf life, storage space required, price, ease of preparation, etc.  This article will deal with a topic I hold dear to my heart: fresh meat.  Depending upon where your retreat is located, hunting may or may not be a viable option; space, facilities, and season impact animal husbandry choices as well.  While pork and beef are preferred sources of meat for many Americans, there is no argument against the fact that pigs and, even more so, cattle require a fair amount of room and feed to thrive.  That is why guinea pigs make an excellent survival food, whether your Bug Out Location is rural or urban, temperate or alpine.

Guinea pigs were domesticated by the Incas about 7,000 years ago in what is now Peru; people there eat around 65 million guinea pigs a year – over fifty percent of Peru’s animal protein, according to veterinarian and food expert Calvin Schwabe, author of the book  Unmentionable Cuisine.  Vegetarian mammals, they can be fed for little or no money, depending upon your access to grass. Guinea pigs are quiet, which provides an advantage if your retreat must be hidden or appear unoccupied, and they are highly portable.  They reproduce quickly, due to a short gestational cycle, and reach sexual maturity (important for a breeding herd) at a young age. Guinea pigs do not usually cannibalize one another, and people living in an area served by Craigslist or near a guinea pig rescue organization can often find free guinea pigs.  While their skins are small, they produce supple leather that would be well-suited for clothing items.  In addition to their short gestational cycle and early age of sexual maturity, guinea pigs are advantageous for a post-disaster environment compared to other livestock because their feeding efficiency is high:

4:1 ratio of forage/food to growth weight for guinea pigs
8:1 ratio for cattle or sheep

Establishing a breeding group of guinea pigs

Female guinea pigs are fertile one month after birth; breeding females are called “sows”, and the males are “boars.” The gestational cycle, including estrus, averages 80 days; females can bear up to five litters a year.  Each litter averages four pups, though established pet breeders in the United States have achieved much higher litter size.   Stillbirths are fairly common, so you will need to plan to breed more guinea pigs than you expect to keep or eat. Research supported in the book Microlivestock: Little-Known Small Animals with a Promising Economic Future indicates that a herd of 20 females and 2 males will produce enough meat annually for a family of six. Depending upon the size of your retreat and the number of people in your survival group, you might select one of the following models for your breeding herd:

Model A
1 boar and 2 sows bred over a 5-month period with no harvests:
2 sows x 2 litters yield an average 16 pups
8 pups from first litter (assume 4 females/litter) bred 1x during initial 5-month period yield an another 32 pups
At end of initial 5-month period, herd is likely to = 48 guinea pigs
This model is good for short-term food production but unsustainable for long-term breeding because it will promote the appearance of recessive genetic traits.

Model B
2 boars and 3 sows bred over a 5-month period with no harvests:
3 sows x 2 litters yield an average 24 pups
12 pups from first litter (assume 6 females/litter) bred 1x during initial 5-month period yield another 48 pups
At end of initial 5-month period, herd is likely to = 72 guinea pigs
This model is better for both long-term food and breeding.

The more boars you have in your initial breeding group, the more genetic diversity you can create in your herd.  Make sure to select the larger guinea pigs for breeding.  If your food needs are not urgent are expected to exist long-term, rotate/rest your breeding females to promote greater likelihood of full-litter delivery.

Tips for herd management:

• Guinea pigs are social animals and mix well in a herd, though an all-male group may incite aggression.  Boars do well together if they are pairs that have been brought up together.  Cull boars from your herd for eating to keep space/management needs low.
• Use spray paint or Sharpie markers to identify lineage; this enables you to maximize genetic diversity in your herd. Colored markings on the guinea pigs conserves space better than creating segregated pens.
• You will want to segregate by sex if you are establishing breeding lines or trying to control the rates at which litters are produced.
• Pregnant females should be housed alone when possible to minimize stress.  Keeping the mother and babies separate from the herd until the babies are weaned is a good precaution.
• Sex the guinea pigs early (you will  need to examine the genital area closely to do this; females will have a Y-shaped opening under a flap, and males’ penises will appear if you press above the genital area.)  Knowing the sexes of your herd will allow you to control breeding rates.
• Harvest your guinea pigs before the age of 3 years; the strain of breeding shortens their life expectancy (by contrast, pet guinea pigs commonly live to be as old as eight years.)
• Females must be bred for the first time when they are between four and seven months old.

Feeding Your Herd of Guinea Pigs
If you have a yard or outdoor space with grass available, your guinea pigs can subsist totally on grass and vegetable scraps leftover from your kitchen garden.  If your post- TEOTWAWKI retreat is an apartment or bunker and you do not expect to have access to vegetables and fresh plants, you will want to store baled alfalfa or pellets; you will likely also have a smaller herd than makes sense for someone with a rural retreat or city house with a yard.  Guinea pigs must have green food to eat, as they are susceptible to scurvy.  Grass or the ends of your vegetables are fine.  They are selective eaters and will not eat once they are full, so if you add fresh food to a bowl or cage and they have leftovers, the leftovers will not get eaten; make sure they finish what you’ve made available to them before providing more food.  If possible, make hay and/or pellets available to them all the time and supplement with vegetable scraps.  For indoor guinea pigs (think – urban stronghold), you should provide a small handful (1/8 to ¼ cup) of pellets per guinea pigs each day.  Their weight gain should be apparent; you are raising them to eat, so too much food is not really a problem.

Housing Your Herd of Guinea Pigs

Being both small and sociable, guinea pigs require very little room; you can keep ten females and one male in a cage, pit, or cardboard box together.  Extensive herds can be cared for by a single person.  It is helpful to provide bedding (straw, wood shavings, etc) whether they lodge indoors or outside; if provided adequate bedding and shelter from wind, guinea pigs can live outdoors in any season.  They handle cold temperatures better than hot, as they are chubby, furry little creatures.  Some people in Peru let the guinea pigs run loose in their homes; others allow them to forage outdoors during the day and herd them into pens or underneath their homes to sleep at night.  For a rural retreat that may have lots of predators, I recommend building tractors (essentially wire mesh cages with no bottoms) to concentrate the guinea pigs in small areas for grass consumption.  Their portability makes them a good food source even in the event that you may have to bug-out.  Guinea pigs do best if they are housed either outdoors or indoors; going back and forth between the outdoors and a conditioned environment is not as good.

Food Value and Preparation

Guinea pig young may be weaned at three or four weeks and experience rapid weight gain for four to six weeks; by age ten weeks, they should be big enough to be worth eating.  Dressed carcasses result in a little over half of the guinea pig mass to be food value.

Preparation is simple: skin and gut your animal.  The head is commonly left on and provides a few little morsels of crispy flesh.  You can also blanch if you wish to scrape the fur off but leave the skin on.  Grilling or cooking on a spit over a fire is the easiest way to make your meal; simply rub with salt and spices and cook over flame – turn frequently, as the animals are small and burn easily.  stewing is also yummy.  The feet can be eaten whole, bones and all.

A few simple recipes:

Dry-rub with a mixture of spices:  cumin, paprika, black pepper, coarse salt, dried basil or cilantro.  Butterfly and grill over flame until the skin is crisp.

Rub with salt and pepper and deep-fry or pan-fry in oil; serve with a spicy peanut sauce or garlicky marinara.

Bake whole in an oven or pit lined with coals (if using this method, wrap with foil or large green leaves from a plant you know to be nontoxic); guinea pig is an excellent dish for preparation over a campfire. Enjoy!

JWR Adds: I know that Lisa's article will elicit howls of criticism, but facts are facts. Just because guinea pigs ("cavies") are cute, doesn't make them inedible. Harvesting them for meat is no different than what has been traditionally done with rabbits. Both rabbits and cavies are herbivores and in my estimation both are perfectly safe to eat. And both breed almost like tribbles. But be advised that neither are considered kosher. Raising guinea pigs can actually be profitable in the short term, by selling most of your sows' offspring to pet store buyers. Our family did this in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when I was briefly lured back to the corporate world, and living in the suburbs. As I recall, our family's little herd peaked at around 90 cavies, at the turn of the century. In 2001, weaned cavies were selling for $5 each, wholesale, in Northern California. The buyer even came to our house to pick them up, and he offered to buy all the cavies that we could supply. This arrangement more than covered all of our expenses, including feed and cages that we had bought via mail order, from Bass Equipment. Eventually, we sold our entire remaining herd to the wholesaler, just before we moved back to the hinterboonies. But we still make good use of the cages, for our rabbits.

Although most states don't even have procedures in place for commercial processing and sale of cavy meat, there are very few restrictions on selling them "on the hoof." Peruvian ex-pats are few and far between in the U.S., so plan on raising your cavy herd just for the pet store trade, for now. Thus, you can gradually build a herd and selectively breed for size, large litters, and and sows with good nurturing behavior. If and when the economy disintegrates, you can easily transition your cavies into a sustainable meat herd for your own family's use.

But needless to say, consult your state and local laws before starting any breeding program.

After reading "Survivors: A Novel of the Coming Collapse", I thought I would share a few experiences with horse ownership. I really enjoyed the book, a real page turner. And I wanted to weigh in on the techniques and experiences outlined in the book concerning horses. Let me first say that what was portrayed in Survivors is indeed real and doable, however the techniques and experiences in the book require a good deal of experience and training.

For the beginning first time horse owner who isn’t sure how tight to cinch a saddle, I would say getting a horse to lie down is a daunting, near impossible task at best. Getting a horse down is difficult because the last thing a horse does before it dies is to lie down, not something they are naturally inclined to do on command. Also, horses are a prey animal and think in those terms, that is, when you can get them to think and not react.
My horse journey started in my mid-teens on my uncle’s horse ranch in northeastern Ohio. He had a slew of them, stallions, brood mares and geldings. His top stallion was a grand national reining champion and was not a horse for the casual or timid rider. He required a firm, experienced hand. My exposure to this level of horsemanship kind of escaped me at the time and looking back I would have made better use of this experience. Fast forward 35 years or so and I regret not taking the opportunity to really learn from the best.

Today, I own three horses, two geldings and a mare. The mare came to us when my wife adopted a wild mustang who was with foal at the time. The foal was born on the farm and on my daughter’s birthday so it is easy to keep track of her age. Two summers ago, we were able to take the mare’s mother to a wild horse sanctuary and set her free as she was unbreakable. By unbreakable, I mean unusually harsh methods of training would have had to be employed to get her to accept a bit and saddle. With her being raised in the wilds of Nevada (Alkali Flat Region) this resulted in her being hopelessly on high alert. We believe in a more humane, natural horsemanship method whereby the horse becomes your partner and a willing participant with will broken but with spirit intact.

Training is a real big issue and should not be skimped on in the beginning. When we realized that our knowledge and experience were woefully inadequate, we sought out info on the internet and found several trainers with programs that you could buy. My two favorites are Clinton Anderson and Chris Cox. (See SurvivalBlog's DVD page.) Both are outstanding and are past Road to the Horse champions. I have been to many Clinton Anderson events and training clinics and his methods are very adaptable to even a green horn with little or no training or experience. Both of these horsemen are the real deal and have proven methods at an affordable price.
A word of caution on choosing a method and trainer as there are many people in the market place who make lots of big claims. Our experience after having been taken advantage of a couple of times as we learned about trainers is results. If you look into the two horsemen above, you will find they are very stingy with their endorsements. They do give them but it is after the new trainer has been under their direct supervision for several years. The internet is full of wannabe “Horse Whisperers” who will take your money and not produce any lasting or tangible results. Just keep in mind that horse owners and trainers are like firearms owners, everyone has their own opinion and way of doing things and are not afraid to tell you.

Today, seven years later, our mare is a top notch, do anything, bomb proof ride that is eager to please. My wife just completed a nine month saddle series for barrel racing, pole bending and hairpin at our local horse club. While she didn’t place high enough to win a saddle, her 14 ribbons out of 27 possible, speaks to my wife’s and the mare’s ability. She is not a barrel racer per se but chose this nine month event to truly develop her skills and relationship with her horse. The journey to get them there was not always an inexpensive, pleasant or easy one. The lesson here is that if you are considering getting into horse ownership, it comes with many hidden challenges. Depending on your level of experience, an older well trained gelding is probably best. In a survival situation, western is the preferred style of tack and riding, in my humble opinion.

The geldings are quite different from each other and the mare. The paint is about 8 years old, beautiful to look at but a handful, we call him “Dennis the Menace”, he’s always in trouble. The quarter horse is 18 years old and you can leave him in the pasture for months on end then decide to saddle him and off you go, no worries. The quarter horsewas a rescue and we got him to keep the paint company as the mare will beat them both to a pulp if pastured together. Hence, you need multiple pastures if you have mixed genders. Stallions are only for the most experienced owners and have their own special requirements. The average 1,100 pound stallion is not to be trifled with under any circumstances. Wrecks happen in a snap; you “will” not “can” be seriously injured or killed in the blink of an eye. Even the best, well trained gelding can spook without warning resulting in injury for the horse or rider or both.

Veterinary care is the next big issue. Just this week Dennis the Menace, who can be very colicky when the weather changes, had a particularly bad episode of colic. A cold front moving through with 20 degree temperature changes can wreak havoc on a horse’s digestive tract, don’t ask why just be aware it is a real phenomenon. We treated his early symptoms ourselves with some Banamine which usually helps him through. After several hours he showed no signs of improvement and a call was put in to the vet. After examining the bowel by hand (yes, long plastic glove and up the rear, armpit deep), intubation and pumping water and meds down the nose, 2 shots, one to sedate him and the other an anti-spasmodic, he was put in a paddock to watch for the rest of the night. And yes they’re like kids, they never get sick at 9 in the morning, it’s always after dark and in the rain. The cost was $285 which was not that much considering that a trip to the university vet hospital for a surgical remedy can run in the thousands. You have to be prepared to make some difficult choices to treat or to put down. These are real issues and can’t be sugar coated. As much as we love Dennis, he is not worth several thousand dollars in veterinary costs for one episode. The mare probably is at this point but I pray we never have to make that decision. You must be prepared for this eventuality.

Tack, grooming and housing are other serious expenses that must be considered when deciding on horse ownership. Tack can be a huge cost to get into; we recommend used tack until you firm up you discipline choice to keep the cost of entry low. There are many good deals to be had on used tack and Craigslist is an excellent resource. If you choose to take the plunge you should choose which avenue of horsemanship you want to travel. Western, English, Western Pleasure, Reining and Dressage are just a few of the different disciplines you can try. In a survival situation your choice should be adaptable to light draft work like pulling a buggy or cultivator or other small implement. If you intend to have a horse pull anything bigger than a small buck board or one or two row cultivator you will need a big draft horse or mule. My neighbor has a big (19 hands, 1,800 lbs) Percheron mule that can really lean into a plow and work all day. When in a crunch situation every extra mouth had better be in a position to carry its weight. Horses are big vacuum cleaners that suck up large amounts of food and resources, plain and simple.

There are many intangibles involved in horse ownership and choosing the right horse. Each discipline requires its own set of tack, temperament and tools. In my way of thinking, horses are like employees; I would rather hire for attitude and train for skill than hire a talented but high maintenance prima donna. When looking at horses for sale, it is important to look at a lot of them as this will give you an idea of what a good temperament is and how to spot it. After you have narrowed down your choices don’t be afraid to show up unannounced or on short notice to make sure no shenanigans are afoot with drugging and such. I have heard on more than one occasion of people getting home with their new horse only to have major problems after the drugs wore off. All reputable sellers should be willing to spring for a vet check when you are ready to get out the checkbook and buy.

It is worth noting that there are over 100,000 unwanted or under-wanted horses in America alone as I type. The BLM manages the Wild Horse and Burro Adoption program. There are many more horse rescues throughout the USA. I would suggest that anyone seriously interested in ownership with the time, skills and energy can find many opportunities to come up to speed very quickly. If you think you will find yourself in need of a horse in a crunch situation, do it now while things are pressure free. Trying to harness Ole Shiloh to get to the General Store after the flag goes up could be a life threatening proposition if you’re not prepared.

In closing, it must be stated that inexperienced riders and green-broke horses “Green on Green” leads to “Black and Blue”. We have the scars to prove it and want to make sure if you are heading into horse ownership you’re forewarned. Go volunteer at a rescue or find someone who will let you muck stalls in exchange for training and riding time. That said, we have had a wonderful and pleasurable journey with our horses. They can be very troublesome at times and make you scratch your head in worry. They can also give you many wonderful times of enjoyment. There is nothing as satisfying as spending the day at an event or on the trail with friends. One last thing, it is very easy to be all gung ho in the beginning, it is also very easy to get sidetracked with other things and end up with an expensive pasture ornament. Horse ownership is a serious commitment and should not be taken lightly. Happy Trails!

How do we feed our pets when there is no dog food at the grocery or pet stores? Do we give up our pets or panic? Neither, we go back in the days before Iams or Purina and do what our grandparents did to feed their dogs. Now we can fed our pets in a balanced and considered way from what is now known about pet nutrition.

So what did people fed their dogs? People fed mostly table scraps or their developed their own recipes. There weren’t the hundreds of dog food varieties as there are now.

After World War II, Gaines and Kennel Ration began the pet food trend with canned horse meat. Mostly as a way of getting rid of surplus horses and using up cans made for the war effort. It wasn’t until the 1960s and 1970s when dog food really come into its own.

The ironic trend is now going back to natural dog food. After the poisoned grain episode from China and the increasing cost of dog food. My dog, Adam, who I adopted came with multiple bags of very expensive sensitive stomach dog food (that he upchucked anyway). I decided I’d try my friend’s homemade dog food recipe she used.

With a degree in Animal Science, I decided to put my education to a practical use. So after several versions of the following recipe, here is the most balanced one. My German Shepherd dogs love it. My pup Adam went from 56 to 104 pounds and his liver functions have improved 100 points. This recipe is simple and versatile and far less expensive than canned or dry food.

I call it the “Third Recipe”, because all the portions are in roughly thirds; Rice, Vegetables and Meat. Once you get into the routine, it is very easy and you’ll know what amounts you are regularly using.

Important point to remember is dogs are omnivores, not carnivores, which mean they eat all sorts of stuff, not just meat. A meat protein diet will make a dog hyper and overly aggressive plus damage their kidneys. Feeding dogs is being sold as an “exact” science now. The basics of good nutrition are covered in this formula and inexpensive to feed.

The “Third Recipe” for Dogs

• White rice boiled with an optional chicken bullion cube – carbohydrates for energy, easy digestion and bullion cube for favor. You can substitute potatoes occasionally. No pasta, will ruin a dog’s teeth.
• Vegetables - frozen or canned or fresh - green beans or peas/carrots or mixed vegetables – I prefer frozen over canned – and green beans are best. Easily digested and have fiber.
• Meat – chicken, turkey, tuna or beef or wild game or eggs
• Two half meals – morning and evening- and the cup portions depend on the size of your dog(s).  All ingredients are roughly in thirds, but if you have an active dog, use more rice.

Rice
The most inexpensive way is to buy 25 to 50 pounds of rice is from Costco or similar retail outlet. Those little bags in the grocery store are quite pricey. I store rice in “Vittle Vaults” porthole screw top lid hard plastic dog food containers. Buy on these storage units on Amazon.com--the least expensive and free shipping and you use these for all sorts of bulk food storage.

You’ll need to make more rice every third day as it gets watery and becomes a great bacteria medium. You can use a rice cooker, which I don’t like to clean. Or make it from scratch in a stock pot. White rice recipe is usually 2 cups of water for every cup of rice.

If you are not used making rice, it takes a little effort at first.  So for two big German shepherds, I make four cups of rice at a time - eight plus cups of water, bring to a boil with a bullion cube and then add 4 cups of rice. I have on designated big stock pot Brown rice is harder to digest, tastes like cardboard and the point of the white rice is carbs for energy and easy digestion.

Vegetables
Green beans are the best all around vegetable. Green beans are fibrous, full of nutrients and pulls particles through the digestive tract. Mixed vegetables, peas and carrots are fine also. Vegetables, like corn and lima beans, aren’t broken down in the digestive tract and a waste of money. Shop around for the lowest frozen vegetables or seal-a-meal or can your own. Broccoli is fine if you are willing to perish from dog gas attacks.

Meat
You can use a variety of meats in this food. It depends what your dog will tolerate. Be careful not to rotate types of meat until you have a feel for what your dog can tolerate. I always cook the meat. There is too much contamination to take a chance on causing a hemorrhagic intestinal bug from raw meat. When adding to food, cut or pull the meat into smaller portions for better digestion.

Eggs
Eggs are a very cheap and inexpensive protein. I hard boil the eggs and add one or two to the meal. You can fry or scramble if you want to spoil your pooches. Eggs and rice are the ingredients of expensive ID (intestinal diet) dog food from the veterinarian.

Chicken - is great, it is easy to digest and inexpensive. I crock pot or broil a $5 pallet of 10 chicken thighs from Wal-Mart. Chicken thighs have lots of meat and only one bone to remove. I add one chicken thigh per meal serving for my German Shepherds. When traveling I bring cheaper canned chicken breast to open and add. Chicken with bones removed is the perfect meat.

Turkey is inexpensive. Cook a turkey up when they are on sale, then package the meat into portions, freeze and take out as needed.

Tuna – I give this for only one meal a week. It is inexpensive if you buy the store brand and the oil/water is good for their coats. Too much processed ocean fish has mercury. So limit the amount.  Fish oil capsules from what fish? Goldfish? Natural fish is best.

Beef – Beef is hard for dogs to digest. Crock pot up beef stew meat until tender and broken down. So if you insist on feeding beef, crock pot for tenderizing and easier digestion. Hamburger is fine in limited amounts, but can be it is a little greasy and pricey to feed regularly.

Wild Game– Feeding your dog, venison or other game is okay. Just make sure it is thoroughly cooked. You don’t want your pet to get sick from some weird intestinal bacteria or parasite. Some wild game is very rich and less is more with pets. Just make sure your pet can tolerate this meat to avoid diarrhea and other intestinal episodes.

Vitamins
You can supplement your dog’s nutrition with a daily over the pet counter vitamin. A money saving tip is to buy the senior dog vitamins. They contain twice as much vitamin per pill. So, buy the senior dog vitamins, break them in half and you get two vitamins for the price of one.

Tips
As in all things in life, balance is the key. Dogs don’t mind eating the same thing daily. Do not give your dog gravy or lots of fatty food, as this can cause pancreatitis and could kill your pet.

This food can be put it into zip lock bags and frozen. Don’t blend this food into a paste that is bad for the dog’s teeth and causes the food to lose all the nutritional value.

Dry Dog Food
I do have some dry crunchy kibble dog food out. I prefer Purina, mostly because they are an all American ingredient dog food and never had recalls from overseas tainting like Iams or other brands. Purina One chicken and rice is a good all around dry dog food. Old Roy is a suspect dog food made in China. Science Diet is mostly corn based and not as digestible. Friend with kennels call Science Diet the poop making food, since it all gets eliminated. Eukanuba is a very fatty dog food and should only be fed to active bird dogs or dog with similar energy burn levels.

For three days with two meals a day, it costs me about 75 cents a day per dog on average. This is for the rice, green beans and chicken, even less with eggs or more with beef. Once you get into the routine, making your own dog food it is a very healthy and economical solution and better for your pet’s health.

I cannot even remember a time when I wasn't a "prepper".  Although until a few years ago, I had no idea of what I was preparing for.  Before the dawn of my awakening, I had serious urges to learn how not to kill plants and flowers. I wanted to grow my own food eventually, so I started with a trip to the local Big Box store, and bought some bare root fruit trees. Now in my mind, they are already dead, so if I could resurrect them, and keep them going, I was on my way. If they didn't survive my over-nurturing tendencies, then I wouldn't feel bad, as they were dead already! To my surprise, all but one survived the first year, and I tasted the sweet success of peaches fresh off the tree!  What I didn't know then, was that you always thin out the fruit the first year or two, or all the branches break. I learned the hard way.  That summer I built two 4x8 raised bed garden boxes, and planted up a storm. I read nearly every garden web site, watched all the you tube videos and read all the books that I could get my hands on, and learned about proper drainage, shading, and organic pest control. It is all a balance act as I found out, but I am now eating most of my diet from my garden. Quality garden soil is the key. Everything else can be managed. 

Along the way, I found articles  and blogs on TEOTWAWKI and WTSHTF. I read Bible prophecies, Hopi indian prophecies, and listened to those whom I trust, warn of impending disasters, and world wide trouble. Economic collapse, social unrest, changing weather patterns, and evidence of global disasters increasing in intensity, and frequency, answered any questions I might have had about the urges to prepare that I had been experiencing for many years.   In a disorganized way, I started buying long term food storage, beans, rice, wheat, and canned meat. At the time, I did not have a wheat grinder, and had absolutely no idea of what I would do with it, when the time came.  A plan would have been the smart way to start, but I eventually bought a hand grinder.  It was not until the electric grinder that I found at a yard sale, came into my life years later, that I actually ground the wheat to make bread.   Another lesson learned along the way : White wheat? Red wheat? Which do I use for bread? Gluten? Why do I need to add that?  Gluten needs to be added to make it rise better. After a few flat loaves, I asked  questions. Once again, I learned the hard way. I also did research, and learned that the nutritional value of wheat is increased by up to 700% by sprouting. What a find that information was, for my long term food storage plans. I will sprout my wheat, and throw it into salads! 

Momentum was building, as guns were acquired, CCW permit obtained, ammo purchased, water tanks, 72-hour kits assembled, and a trailer for hauling what I needed out of town if it came to that.   I'm a single mom here, with two grown boys, and I was feeling a little bit lonely as I used what extra money I made, to purchase more and more food storage, for at least a year's provisions. I personally knew of no one else doing this. I was feeling a bit like a hoarder, and occasionally had to do a reality check. Finding like-minded people on web sites, and blogs like SurvivalBlog.com was a tremendous help, to center myself.  Reading and re- eading the lists of organized ways to approach preparations has helped me move forward. I sure wish I had started that way.  Just after the real estate bubble burst, I saw the values declining so rapidly in housing, that I realized one of the most valuable pieces of advice given to me is to be debt free of consumer debts, and to own a house free and clear. I accomplished getting free of installment debt after a time, but the house mortgage was going to be a bigger challenge.  

I still had a little money in savings, but really felt uncomfortable with the money in the bank, after having narrowly avoided the markets' mini-crash in the late 1980s, and read about savings and loans collapsing.  So I decided to use what I had, to build my emergency short term, or long term retreat on a piece of land that I had purchased some seven years prior when I had been buying things to prepare without knowing why.  This was a perfect plan, to secure a small home that would be paid for, off grid- independent of city utilities of any kind.  It would be for me, a great investment, and a place to retire to as well. I work for myself, so for me, this was it. This was the only retirement fund I would have, a place to live.   Construction started two months later, after researching plans found on line. Again,  planning was lacking, as there was urgency in completing this project, and the builder was pressed for time too.  But my cabin stands proudly, in a rural area, 165 miles from the nearest city, and 15 miles from a town of 20,000.   

There is a fantastic neighbor across the street, but the first line of defense, is a fence! So that went up right away with the help of one of my sons, and some friends.  In spite of broken bits for the rock drill, cuts, bruises, and sore backs, we made it through the excruciatingly long week of stretching fence, and barbed wire on top. I did the hard part - I watched, and made lunch for everyone! :)  

The house is equipped with a composting toilet because I bought property without doing a percolation test first.  (Learning the hard way.) The perc test determines if a septic can be put in, and in this case, there were too many rocks!  Water must be hauled, but there are underground tanks that can be purchased inexpensively, to hold plenty of water. (you can buy up to 10,000 gallon tanks) I presently have 1,200 gallons stored, in 300 gallon tanks,  but will be installing two 1,500 gallon tanks this next summer. Wells dug in this area run $35,000 and up.  When in conservation mode, the average adult uses three gallons or less per day for drinking, cooking and washing (heated over the stove- sponge bath I would suppose)  So I will have plenty of water for over a year. The water system is pumped with a 1/3 horsepower recreational vehicle water pump, and an extra pump is hidden away for emergencies. Water is run through the cabin with pex line, which is easy to work with. I installed an on demand propane water heater for the shower, and kitchen sink. The Berkey water filter sits proudly by the sink, and is always filled. Extra filters are in the pantry. 

The cabin has a ventless propane heater, and a cast iron wood fireplace.  A funny thing about propane I learned last winter: In extreme cold, regulators freeze, and propane heaters do not work, nor do propane stoves and ovens!  Last winter I went to the cabin to experience the Christmas season in the snow. Hah to me. the temperature had dropped to -15 degrees Fahrenheit and everything in the cabin when I got there at 9 p.m., was frozen!  I think of SurvivalBlog, where I learned "two is one, and one is none". Oh thank goodness I thought, that I had just installed this new woodstove. I had not yet used it, but this was to be it's maiden fire.  Funny thing about fire places and wood stoves... there is a bit of a learning curve. I was being conservative of electric, because I wasn't sure of how charged the batteries were on the solar system, so I lit the oil lamps for light, which adds a cozy feel, and I set out to light myself a great fire! I remembered to be sure the flue was open, but I left the door open while I was attempting to defrost the cabin. I grabbed a cast iron pan from the kitchen, threw in a piece of chicken and some veggies, and shoved it into the wood stove.  Yum, dinner was great, but when I stood up and turned on the light to wash the dishes, I realized that the whole room was filled with smoke, and if I had installed a fire alarm, everyone within miles would have known what a dummy I was with my first fire!  

The smoke was so thick in the cabin that I had to sleep on the floor that night, because I couldn't breathe!  Yes, I did open the windows a crack, to vent the smoke outside, but I realized that there was a flue adjustment, and the door was suppose to have been closed.  (No wonder the cabin was still cold, outside the four foot ring around the hearth).  I called a friend in a panic, who after having a great laugh at my expense, told me how to adjust it to heat the house comfortably. (yes I learned the hard way - again)  

The following day was sunny, and a bit warmer but still no propane. No worries, I have a solar oven. It worked like a charm to cook lunch, but I soon realized that if I was to survive with this thing, I had better plan my meals a day in advance, because the sun is out for a limited time. No planning dinner at 3 p.m. in my neck of the woods!   The sun... A funny thing about the sun I discovered. It never makes appearances when you need it! I had decided with the cabin, solar was the way to go. So I started small, with two 175-watt panels, and eight T105 batteries, and an Outback pure sine wave inverter. Great system if the sun is out all day. Some days it is not. Darn that jokester the sun. It seems to be out all day when I am not there, but when I go to visit the cabin, it is cloudy. The battery bank is drawn down too quickly, and then Wham! I'm out of juice. No lights, no water pump, no radio, no charging the cell phone.  During the summer, which is the rainy season, it happens this way every day.  So I learned two more lessons the hard way:   Lesson 1. Always have a water tank that provides gravity feed to a house. Lesson 2. Buy more panels to charge the batteries up faster, or a wind generator.  I also have a gas generator, but it does require gasoline, and I am 15 miles from town. Lesson 3. Always keep a spare can of gas handy.   So now I have a great log sided shed built behind the cabin, to house the back up generator, and the 25 gallons of gasoline, the stockpile of charcoal, the 8 gallons of oil lamp fuel, the tools, washer (which will be run with generator power, and gravity fed water), dryer for use when it is raining, and all of the camping supplies.  

I have built up to a two year supply of food, soaps, Clorox, medical supplies, hundreds of matches, and flints for when it is raining, and I am outside for what ever reason. Handguns, rifles, shotgun, ammo to hold off an army,  300 + seed packs 1/2 heirloom, and 1/2 hybrid to sell or trade.  I am finally taking inventories of all that I have stored, to best rotate, and plan for future needs. I have learned that vodka is used for making tinctures with herbs, and I may consider buying a couple of cases to sell or trade in an extreme situation.   I am designing my green houses, and a heating system to extend the growing season well into winter.  I am collecting books to read, mostly non fiction, and movies to watch on cold dark nights. I have purchased 4 more solar panels 190 watt each, and before they are installed, I will be pricing the tracking pole mount. It increases productivity by at least 30%. 

I now have two 55-gallon drums, and hand crank gas pump, which will all be assembled and filled next summer. I expect to fill one with diesel fuel for barter or to sell. Diesel lasts for years, and I have distant neighbors who use it.  A four wheel drive vehicle is a must in a rural area during winter.  I would love to learn about ham radio, and to be certified to operate one.   I have a 10x20 covered chicken run with a coop at the retreat location and a small flock of eight hens. They live in the city for now with me, but travel to the cabin and stay in the summer for extended stays. They seemed to enjoy their last summer vacation. I always have eggs to share with neighbors.  Last but not least, My son and I purchased an older kick-start dirt bike, kept in our home in the city, with a 72 hour kit nearby, and an off road map from point A to point B.   Next year my project is to learn to use those fishing poles I bought at the swap meet!  Respectfully submitted B. R. in Arizona

Dear James,
Thanks for all you do to educate us all.  You certainly woke me up.  I offer a few thoughts that may be of use or interest to your readership:

I live off-grid, at end of a mile-long driveway. Been here twenty years. Spring water, solar power, wood heat. Have chickens, goats, cows, machine shop, wife and kids, and a few bang-sticks.

Save for the critical issues of man-power to mount a defense, and deep enough pockets for deep stock of supplies, I look “prepped”.

From this perspective, a couple of thoughts.

First, I am not growing all the feed for my livestock. I purchase corn for the chickens, mixed grains for the animals I milk, and hay to winter the cows. Having livestock does not improve preparedness, unless you are growing all their food: they are just more mouths at your table. My plan for mine must be to kill and preserve, or trade them off, early in any economic collapse scenario.

Second, we are remote enough (in People's Republic of West Virginia), and sufficiently off beaten track, to have little concern about the hungry urban refugee hordes. There are however two real, local threats to our security.

The first is neighbors, who are not well-prepared with supplies of their own for the long-term, but know or suspect that we are. We are deliberately on good terms with them all, but hunger trumps politeness for most folks. Some country people have moral codes they live by, but many that are raised on public school and “disability” and sixteen kinds of welfare, are more elastic.

The second is, alas, the Sheriff. Ours currently is a former Marine, who was elected as perhaps most are in hopes of improving an office seen as corrupt and ineffective. Unfortunately he turns out to have no respect for what I would consider fundamental Law. I discovered this a few years ago, when my ex-wife was making false complaints to various State agencies about me, and on one occasion when the Sheriff was escorting one of these onto my property I asked him, did he not feel that these people should have a warrant?

His response was, “John, when was the last time the Constitution was actually followed?”

I feel confident that, in the event of any real or threatened collapse of large scale order, he will either cooperate eagerly with any Federal or State martial law or relocation or collectivization plans, or will attempt to establish his own locally.

I think this sort of situation potentially exists in many places that might otherwise be considered fairly safe. Even local authorities who consider themselves highly principled, may easily be misled by what seems to be compassion, to use their power to “save” the ill-prepared by expropriation from the prepared.. This is of course no more than the the welfare-vs-charity debate in microcosm....with flying lead dressing.

“Zombie hordes”, “Blue Helmets”, or “Federales” will not know to look for you by name. But your neighbors and your local sheriff will. If you do not know them already, then get to know them now, and plan accordingly. - John in West Virginia

Greetings, fellow preppers!  In this article we share our experiences of the past two years to help you see the complexities of growing your family's food.   In the long run, food production is crucial to survival.  It takes both knowledge and hands-on experience to successfully manage livestock and grow fruits and vegetables.  Currently  three of us live on our homestead full time with a possibility of about 20 folks ranging from infants to senior citizens if TEOTWAWKI occurs. 

Fall is a good season to make plans and prepare for next year' s growing season.  I think this basic information will help you realize just how much effort is entailed in raising sufficient amounts of food with limited or no machinery to assist.

The two basic categories of food production are animals and plants.  In addition, we also have a large amount of stored bulk foods for both humans and animals, along with a wide variety of heirloom seeds.

ANIMALS

Overall, we try to invest in heirloom breeds, not fancy over-bred  versions that are reliant on special diets and medications.

Chickens - Provide eggs and meat.  Our bantam hens typically raise a brood of 8-10 chicks once or twice a year if we do not gather their eggs.  Right now we have 12 five-week-old and 11 three-month-old chicks. About  half of them will be roosters who fight and harass the hens when they mature. We also have several large hens who lay brown eggs.  The chickens  free range mostly in the orchard and herb/berry garden.  They receive  whole wheat and oyster shell in the evening. We could easily supplement their protein needs by adding a worm bin in our garden. Another way to reduce the amount of grain needed is to sprout it for several days.  This increases the bulk of the grain to three times the original amount and provides additional nutrition.  I soak about 2 cups of wheat in a  half gallon jar, rinse it several times a day and feed it when the green shoots have their first joint.

Ducks - It has been very satisfying since the ducks came to see empty snail shells scattered around the property.  We have established a small pond for the ducks to enjoy.  Our four Khaki Campbell ducks used to consistently produce four eggs per day, but then we got rid of the drake because he damaged some of the hens.  That was a mistake.  Without the drake, the ducks actually started changing into drakes and we ended up with only one duck laying eggs.  We purchased six newly hatched ducks and one drake who are now old enough to swim in the pond.

Goats - Currently we have three does and two doelings.  We chose to sell this year's wethers rather  than butcher them.  Two does are milking full time.  We sold one doe with twins because she had two orifices in one teat and it was impossible to milk her with a bucket - the milk sprayed straight out.  The goats provide us with more than enough milk for drinking, cheese-making, kefir, yogurt and cooking.  The milk also helps feed our dogs and cats.  During milking the does are offered a quart of grain that we mix ourselves from bulk oatmeal, wheat flakes and split peas.  I also cut greens for them  to reduce the amount of grain needed.  We planted two small raised beds of alfalfa last year and this year we were able to get three cuttings from them.  I used organic sprouting seeds because the FDA recently approved GMO alfalfa without restrictions and we do not use GMO products. We added  two more alfalfa beds this year. We also have comfrey, kale and miscellaneous vegetable thinnings.   We cut the tops off of our strawberries to reduce slugs and discovered that the goats love strawberry leaves.  All the goats have access to minerals with kelp, diatomaceous  earth and wormwood added occasionally for parasite control.

Sheep - We purchased five registered Icelandic ewes a few months ago.  They also free-range and are given a cup of alfalfa pellets at night, with kelp and herbs added twice a week.  They have constant access to minerals. The Icelandic breed is hardy and can be triple purpose:  Wool, meat and milk.  We are going to breed them this fall to an outstanding ram.  We have an experienced shepherd as our mentor to teach us about keeping sheep.

Dogs and cats - The dogs provide predator protection, particularly at night.  The cats reduce the rodent population.  We feed our dogs beans and rice with eggs, milk and an herbal powder that supplies trace minerals.  They receive kefir-soaked oatmeal at other times. Thus, we can get by without commercial dog food and, as an added bonus, our older dog became much stronger and healthier once his diet was improved.  The cats are trickier.  They require more whole protein so we mix commercial cat food with eggs and milk for them.  If times get tough the cats can be on their own with just supplemental milk from the goats.  All the animals enjoy whey leftover from cheesemaking.

PLANTS

Here is a list of the fruits and vegetables we are currently growing.  An * means that we actually harvested food, feed or seeds from that plant this year.

Fruits:  Apples*, aronia*, asparagus(chose not to harvest because it is a new bed), avocado, blackberries*, blueberries*, cherries (birds got every one), citrus, date, figs (birds again), gingko, goumi, grapes, kiwi, medlar*, mulberry*,  nectarine, peach, pear, plum*, pomegranates, raspberries*,  rhubarb, serviceberry*, silverberry*, strawberries*, and wintergreen*.

Vegetables:   Alfalfa*, amaranth*, artichokes, beans, carrots*, celery*, chard*, chick peas*, chives*,  corn*, cucumbers*,comfrey*,  favas*, French sorrel*, kale*, leeks*,  oca, onion*, parsley*, peas*, potatoes*,  pumpkins*, shallots*, squash*, stevia*, and sunflowers.

Grains:  Buckwheat*, flax*, kamut*.

We also have about 20 herbs.

Diversity is the key to success.  Depending on weather conditions, pests and diseases, fruits and vegetables may do well one year, then nothing the next.

We have four main growing areas for our plants:  A young orchard with about 90 trees, an herb and berry garden , a vegetable garden and a greenhouse my husband built this spring. 

PLANT PRODUCTION CHORES

Watering - occurs about six months out of the year in our area, takes 4 to 6 hours per day. 
Manure water/Urine bucket - this is dumped on plants for additional nutrients.
Weeding  - grass and clover are our ground cover, but constantly invade the plant spaces.
Pruning/Staking/Trellising - dead limbs can be removed at any time, thinning is usually done in dormancy.
Remove pests/diseased leaves and plants - We have sawfly larvae (aka slimy guys) that hatch 3-4 times a summer, along with caterpillar eggs deposited in fruit tree leaves. 
Mulch - we do this just before the rainy season so the nutrients can soak in over the winter.
Netting for protection from birds - losing all the cherries this year taught us the need for netting.
Manage greenhouse - what to plant, when, how to arrange plants for the most production space.
Start and tend seedlings - We are trying to grow food year-round, so this is a constant process.
Enrich soil - we add manure, sawdust, and compost.
Manage poultry for insect control in the orchard and herb garden - have to remove the animals before they start eating the crops.
Save seeds - one of my favorite chores.  I use lots of plastic containers to keep the seeds until they are totally dry, then I label and put them in plastic bags for the next year.
Manage planting schedule - I spread out my seedlings plantings so I can take better care of each batch.
Harvest fruits and vegetables - this can include canning, drying and freezing.
Clear land for planting/build new raised beds - we  keep adding land as we have the time and resources to improve it.
Plant propagation from cuttings and layering - this is to gain experience in starting plants.

A TYPICAL SUMMER DAY

So, with all these plants and animals, how does a typical day look at our homestead?  Here is a sample of our daily summer chores for food production.  This does not include housework, building projects, emergencies, community involvement, etc.

Each morning we let the chickens out of several  coops - the regular coop, the small coop with half-grown chicks, and the little coops that have moms and chicks.  Ducks are let out;  goats and sheep are turned out to graze and the does are milked.  Goat stands are cleaned.  Water containers are filled and ground grains are put out for chicks.  Whey is also put out in pans in the herb garden for chickens to drink.   Cats and dogs are fed.  If it is a cheese-making day, I get the milk started early in the morning and work on it along with my other chores.

After breakfast it is time to begin watering.  We stagger our watering so that we do not empty out our 1,500 gallon tank, which can refill one time during the day giving us a total of 3,000 gallons.  Currently I begin with watering a dozen trees in the orchard for 20 to 30 minutes per set, running four hoses at a time.  It takes six days to cover all the trees .  While the hoses run, I inspect the trees for pests, remove diseased leaves, leaves with sawfly larvae and webs with caterpillar eggs.  Recently I have begun putting a gallon of manure tea on the  trees after watering to increase their nutrition.  Our trees are young and mostly semi-dwarf.  I pull weeds and cut grass which I feed to the ram who is kept in a small paddock.

Then I move to the vegetable garden and do one of four sections.  The greenhouse is watered about every third day depending on temperature.  Seedlings and new transplants are watered daily, usually with manure tea.  Seeds are gathered as they mature.  Weeds are tossed over the fence to the ram.  Old plants are removed.  If it is a planting day, I will do that in the late afternoon; usually I fill the pots with soil the day before.

We take a break in the heat of the day, sometimes down by the creek or catching up on things in the house; often we take a nap.

In the afternoon I am back to watering. The herb/berry garden takes the longest and is divided into five section, one is watered each day. Then the evening round-up begins.  Cats are fed, ducks are given food and clean water.  Chickens are fed, eggs gathered, nesting hens are checked.  The sheep are lured in with alfalfa pellets, then the goats are milked.  The ram is taken out and grazed under supervision for about an hour.  By dark everyone is secured in a barn or coop. Our new pond is still leaking so if there is water left in the evening, it goes to the pond. Often dinner is after chores.  Then we relax with games or movies or reading articles to each other.  We go to bed before 10:00 p.m. most nights because chores start again at 7:00 a.m. the next day.

MISCELLANEOUS GARDENING TIPS

I plant by the lunar cycles because the groundwater is affected by the pull of the moon's gravity.  Each month I mark a calendar with the planting dates and  whether is is time to plant above or below ground.  The basic idea is to plant all things that produce above the ground when the moon is increasing (from the new moon to the full moon) and things which produce below the ground when the moon is decreasing. 

I must confess that I have a hard time eating raw greens  even though I am well aware of the health benefits.  This year I began training myself to eat and enjoy greens by taking a small bite of one type at a time until I developed a taste for it.  I began with French sorrel which has a delightful lemony flavor, then added common amaranth (aka pigweed) which has little flavor at all.  Then I added tender young comfrey leaves. Parsley, which I enjoy in small amounts, grows year-round in our climate so we are keeping several beds of it around.  Currently I am working on chard - again, I started with young tender leaves.  Next for me is kale which I started for our winter garden. 

We love peas and this year grew several rounds, starting them about every three months with the fall peas getting planted just last week.   I am going to see if I can grow them year-round,using the greenhouse in the winter. Our favas also did well this year.  We dry them for sprouting or cooking.  I save the largest and healthiest seeds for next year's garden. 

I love seed saving.  All it takes is letting a few of each type of plant to grow its complete cycle which is two years for things like carrots, celery and parsley.  When the seeds have dried on the plant you simply remove them and after drying for a few more days, place them in bags or containers in a dark, dry environment until planting time next year.  If the rains come early, the entire plant can be put indoors tied to rafters.

Grains are a staple of life.  I have several small raised beds of kamut growing - an ancient wheat.  The kernels are much larger than today's commercial wheat and I enjoy the flavor, plus kaumt seems to agree with my digestive system more than hard red winter wheat (which we have stored).  It would take much  more than we grow to supply our bread-making needs, but my experiments show that grains can be planted from May through July and still ripen before our long rainy season starts.

Another lesson I learned the hard way here is that I must start seedlings in pots and transplant them after they get several sets of leaves, otherwise the many birds, rodents, and slugs have a feast.

Avoid growing one crop year after year in the same place.  We rotate crops and also intermingle different species  in the raised beds.  Companion planting can actually boost production.  Grow different varieties of the same plant.  Did you know that the 1845 Irish Potato Famine in Ireland was because most farmers  grew only two species of potato which a disease wiped out?

Our soil is mostly clay and our heavy winter rains seem to leach out any nutrients that might be in it.  Vegetables that we planted directly in the ground our first year were dismal failures.  We built raised beds and put together the best soil we could for the first year out of some topsoil we came up with, but it was not until we had manure from the goats and sawdust from logging some trees that our plants began to thrive.  This summer our original compost bins from our compost toilets were a year old and well-decomposed so we filled three new beds with it.  I planted kale in those and one old bed.  The kale in the compost beds is four times as tall and wide as the little seedlings in the regular raised beds. Our composting toilets cost less than $30 to build and work well for our family.  In one bathroom we keep urine separate to apply directly to plants. 

All winter I clean off the goat stands and put the droppings around the trees in the orchard, the berry bushes and replenish the raised beds with it.  In the summer I half-way fill 5-gallon buckets with goat pellets, add water and use it for manure tea.

A kind neighbor filled our trailer with river silt from his property which we put around the orchard trees.  They are young trees and have not been doing well in this soil despite applications of manure. 

The high-hoop greenhouse has been a worthwhile investment in our Pacific Northwest climate.  The greenhouse is 16 x 24 with a raised bed along the south side and a planting table on the north side.  Even though it is unheated, we started tomatoes, squash, pumpkins, cucumbers, peas, carrots(for seed) and various other plants a couple of months sooner than our neighbors were able to.  The center is filled with Earthboxes - unique planting containers that have a water reservoir in the bottom.  I put about a foot of composted soil in them and plants flourish.  Earthboxes and the greenhouse seem to complement each other.  Our main concern with the greenhouse is the short livability of the plastic covering - although supposedly good for 8 years, ours already shows signs of near-tear marks after just one season.  We plan to use our old glass windows to build a second greenhouse.

Birds are another learning experience.  The crows and bluebirds ate every single fig on all of the fig trees.  Other birds ate every single cherry and they began picking off the ripe blueberries until I got netting up.  While I am writing this, my husband is putting up PVC hoops over the two largest figs which we will cover with netting - I don't mind sharing with our wild creatures, but they simply cannot take every bit of our food supply.

Blackberries are abundant here.  Most people clear them away as noxious weeds - we use goats to clear ours, but I have a large planting of blackberries in the herb/berry garden along a fence line and found that their quick growth provides lots of feed for goats when they need to be confined for some reason.  We also enjoy the berries, so this fall we will allow more blackberries to start along our fence lines.

Although this sounds like a lot of work - and it is - my husband and I love our life.  We have spent many years at desk jobs battling office politics and worrying about the stock market.  Now our stock investments all have fur or feathers a and our rate of return is phenomenal!  We dance in the meadow and thank our Creator for our beautiful slice of paradise. 

Technology is a significant force multiplier in emergency situations.  There are several options I’ve found in my preparations to incorporate electronics into our everyday use and emergency preparations.  Hopefully these ideas will be of use and get others thinking about possibilities.  My goal in utilizing these ‘gadgets’ is to increase availability of resource while decreasing maintenance and effort – all at low cost if possible.  I’d like to share a few of the low-cost options that are simplest to try that we’ve adopted in our preps.

I’m an engineer and realize most of the tools I use won’t be appreciated by everyone, but I do recommend that everyone invest in a simple Digital Multi-meter.  They are quite inexpensive (as little as $15) and useful for troubleshooting automotive and equipment electrical problems.  They are easy to use and with all the information and tutorials on the internet anyone can begin taking advantage of their use.  Besides this tool, the rest of my recommendations are targeted to anyone of any background.  There are several helpful electrical gadgets we’ve found and use that have many broader options.  The best part is that these ideas will hopefully start generating interest or ideas of your own.  Realistically most adults won’t start collecting schematics or advanced electrical tools, but they can start learning new things, or may have friends or better yet, children, who are interested in pursuing these areas more.

Some simple things, first.  In a big family we have need for a lot of flashlights.  The kids use them often and so we often find batteries are dead when we need the light most.  On eBay we have found many Chinese suppliers of low cost, solar powered LED lights that have dramatically decreased our monthly expenditures for batteries.  Sure, these lights are cheaply made (you get what you pay for) but work great for everyday use.  Do a search for “Solar LED keychain” on eBay and you can easily find them for less than $1 each ($0.73 on average).  Over the course of a month we accumulated 10-15 of these lights and they all work great.  They are cheaply made and break easily, so think of them as disposable and to keep the kids from wearing out your more dependable gear.

Another good source of solar LED lighting is the inexpensive outdoor lamps available at all hardware stores.  Wal-Mart sells them for ~$2.  We keep these lights all around our chicken coop, outdoor buildings, and garden to help keep deer and predators away.  They also contribute to security and our own convenience when out-n-about at night doing chores.  They are inexpensive enough to proliferate anywhere needed and require no maintenance.  Another option is to use electrical tape to blacken the side of the light facing our home to improve visibility, or to help minimize visibility of our place from roadways.  Keeping these lights about the chicken coop also has improved egg production and extended the laying season longer into the dark days of winter.

EBay is also a great source for inexpensive wireless door chimes and passive infrared (IR) motion detectors.  For $3 each we picked up a number of different devices to test out as deer and predator alarms.  Some devices work great, others are less effective.  All are effective at detecting our dog at 6 feet, and many will see the dog as far away as 30 feet. For less than $10 we have a wireless perimeter around the chickens that detects any small animal movement and provides loud alarm to deter intrusion and warn us of detection.  Another $20 watches over our half-acre garden from deer or elk intrusions.   The alarms seem to deter the deer better than when we left a radio on out in the dark, and do well to give us and the dog a heads-up that marauders are probing the defenses.  The dog is learning well to respond to the cheerful doorbell chimes when they go off.

We purchased a more expensive IR detector that turns on a sprinkler when deer approach the garden and it has worked well, however it requires us to leave the hose on all night, and is too expensive to deploy in adequate numbers to cover all the fruit, garden, and other vulnerable locations on our place.  These low cost wireless chimes have worked very well for us to provide numbers and coverage.

All of these devices use the smaller, “pen-light” batteries and require replacement every few weeks.  Being an engineer, I’m always looking to ‘improve’ original designs or modify them to my unique needs (or wants).  I hate stocking and replacing batteries, so the logical next step was to combine the solar panel from the LED lights to power these wireless motion detectors.  Simply disassembling the LED lights and wiring the power (red) and ground(black) wires into the motion detectors has eliminated the battery need.  Some motion detectors require more power than others, but all the ones we’ve tested are adequately powered by the solar cells.  If more power is needed, simply use two or more solar cells daisy-chained together to boost the voltage to the detector.  Dropping a clean plastic container over the top is adequate weatherproofing that will not hamper the detector too badly, though I recommend spending time to make a more robust enclosure for your device to ensure longer life and use.

Another option to consider with these low-cost LED devices is to make an emergency charging circuit for your cell phone or handheld gadget.  The landscaping lights are recommended for this option.  Again, simply connecting multiple lights in a daisy chain and wiring a surplus USB cable to the mix works well for charging a FRS radio.  If you disassemble the light, you will discover one or more rechargeable battery inside – usually an “AA” size.  This can be removed and used as needed, and then replaced to recharge in the sun.  Some lights we’ve looked at have the battery soldered or “fixed” in the light, and others use a non-standard size battery, so do some snooping before purchasing in quantity.  Many of these solar devices have a single 3.6V battery.  The cheap keychain lights, for example, are sufficient to power a small “spy” camera that is the size of a car’s FOB, and can power the small camera to record video for up to 3 hours, continuously.

I wanted a more ‘discreet’ warning system around the chicken coop than the loud siren of the motion detectors provided, and found that by simply cutting the wires to the small piezo speaker inside the detector and connecting a separate LED to those wires, the detector gave a visual instead of a verbal warning to me.  Individual LEDs in various colors are available from Radio Shack or online for pennies.  The longer wire on the LED connects to power, the shorter one to ground, though on the speaker’s wires it doesn’t matter which wires the LED connects to.   I inserted the LED into a small tube cut from a pen, and now the LED indicator became very discreet and directional – only seen in the direction the LED was pointed.

There is another alarm available for very low cost to detect movement.  Small magnetic alarms that commonly are attached to a door or window are available at our local “Dollar” stores, and have a piercing alarm when the smaller bar is taken away from the main unit.  Besides their obvious use for detecting unwanted entry into your home or shop, these alarms work great to ensure the kids don’t forget to cover up the chicken feed bin, or leave the coop door open, or any other ‘reminder’ you want to keep a door closed.  I like to turn one on and throw it into the boy’s bedrooms on those mornings they haven’t gotten out of bed by the 3rd call!

As a science project with the kids, we created a GPS-based device that we wanted to launch with weather balloons of helium to track wind patterns, and to set adrift in the ocean to watch water currents.  First, we designed a custom circuit and software to record the GPS track, but in the end we found a much better, low cost solution that has many other applications worth considering.  Instead of a custom circuit, we found that on eBay we could purchase an older cell phone (I recommend a Motorola i415) with GPS capabilities for less than $10.  For another $6 we got a pre-paid phone SIM for the phone.  Using an on-line service for real-time cell phone tracking, we could watch the cell phone travel in real-time, and get our GPS data even if we never got the cell phone back from the ocean.  These phones make great, low-cost equipment tracking similar to Lo-Jack for much less cost.  A possible option for farm equipment, shipping container, or other large item you want to keep tabs on.  Gluing a strong magnet to the phone and modifying the charging cable would allow you to place the phone under the hood, wired to the vehicle’s battery for constant power. 

Rather than running 120AC power out to some of our remote locations, we’ve chosen to use car batteries for lighting and power needs instead.  It is great having a spare battery or two on hand, and with inexpensive solar arrays it is easy to keep them charged and available.  I’ve wired our garden house to use low-cost LED lighting strips, which run off the battery.  The solar panel easily keeps the battery topped off and ready for the infrequent use and the 12V is a standard supply for most battery powered devices and gadgets to run off, too.

With 12V readily available, there are a couple other electrical devices worth mentioning.  Various Internet sellers and eBay have remote controlled relay devices for under $15 (search for “12V remote relay”) that are great for remote control of any motor, light, or device.  They are simple to wire up and use, with little electrical experience needed.  It is nice when the lights are left on out in the garden house to have a remote control by the window in our house to simply click, and turn them off.  This gives all kinds of options to our OPSEC considerations.

For locking or mechanical actuation, I love using inexpensive, 12V automotive door lock solenoids.  Again, for less than $5 these can be had and applied to any number of uses.  We lock our chicken coop door at night with a door lock solenoid (remotely controlled, of course).  These solenoids are very strong (more than 7 lbs of pull in some cases) and work well to flip a wall switch, too. 
Two options we are using for power generation include solar panels and hydro power.  Neither option is able to generate more than 150W of power, but that is adequate to charge a single or bank of 12V car batteries.  Car batteries are the power supply of our choice because they are readily available, stable, and carry significant electrical power.  They are robust for charging and 12V is a common input power for many handheld devices.

I do not believe 120V AC is a viable option for TEOTWAWKI.  It requires extensive resources to generate and is neither safe nor versatile.  We do have several generators for running our freezers and power tools, but in a dramatic or long-term scenario, our plan is to rely on gas-based power tools (i.e. chainsaws, generators, rototillers, etc), propane powered stoves and refrigeration, and DC power based communications equipment.

Solar panels are readily available and easy to use.  We have several that are 40 to 50W, and with an inline diode to protect from back current, they work well to maintain car batteries.  Several springs and creeks in our area provide us and our neighbors with hydro power sources, too.  One design we built for a neighbor is based on a GMC truck alternator.  GMC alternators have a built in voltage regulator and are robust for many alternative power generation options - do a search on Google for “bicycle alternator” and you will see many clever designs for bike-power, for example.  This is one reason we keep several older model GMC trucks and a Suburban around – useful, common parts.  The alternator can be used for a 12V generator supplying up to 100 Amps of current to run AC inverters, charge batteries, or run pumps.  The neighbor’s spring is captured in a 2,000 gallon tank, and channeled off the side to ABS piping into the alternator’s turbine.  The alternator was ~$80; turbine blades are homemade and piping all from scrap on hand.

A lower cost option we used on another neighbor’s stream is my favorite.  Instead of an Alternator we used a 1200 gallon-per-hour bilge pump as a generator.  More regulation circuitry was required, but because the output was under 10 Amps, a simple solar regulator from eBay for $12 was adequate.  The smaller stream’s flow was diverted into a garden hose, fitted easily to the bilge pump’s output to run the motor as a generator.  Total setup costs (besides labor) were under $50.  These have been simple, fun, and safe ways to engage with neighbors in exploring options for remote power generation.  This setup is charging two car batteries and running 12V lighting, shortwave radio, dual-band ham radio station, and a fan in his remote shed.

Finally, one last electrical option that has worked out well for us is a water pump for our drip irrigation system.  Some of our plants require more regular watering than others, so we put in a simple drip system of tubing.  To automate it as much as possible, I used a small barrel suspended from 30 feet high to provide the water source for the tubing.  To keep the barrel full, especially in the summer months when rain is less frequent I used a small bulge-pump (12V) I had on hand to pump small amounts of water out of the livestock trough into the bucket.  I did rig up a simple microcontroller to only turn the pump on for 20 minutes each day which required more than basic electrical skills.  The pump is inexpensive and keeps the water barrel charged without any attention required.

All of these ideas are inexpensive and as simple as possible.  Just imagine what is possible with a small, microcontroller (mini computer chip) that costs less than $1.23 and very advanced sensory and computing power!  While not generally of use most people, there are options out there for your consideration.  As an engineer my emergency preparations include keeping extra microcontrollers on-hand for any number of needs.  The powerful capabilities of these modern devices are a big force multiplier for automating farm and garden tasks as well as the obvious security/OPSEC roles.  If you don’t have a working knowledge in these areas, your children may.  Many different options are available to encourage your kids, friends, etc to pursue learning if they are interested in these things, which will pay off not only in your emergency preparations, but enable them for potential engineering careers in life.

Since all of the devices mentioned are less expensive, it should encourage people to experiment with them.  Hack them, open them up, and try using them in new ways.  Kids love exploring and tearing apart things, and many of these projects have been fun for us to explore with and for the children to learn new concepts, science, and practicing putting stuff back together.  There are several photographs of these and other projects on our family blog, (Northwest Podcast).  Since these ideas are based on 12V DC they are much safer, though higher current levels must be respected.

The last note I would make regarding using electronics or technology in your preparations is to echo the warnings of the scriptures.  No gadget can replace faith and trust in the Lord.  There are significant risks and dependencies in using electronics but many of these (such as an EMP event) can be prepared for.   The scriptures warn us of trusting in the arm of flesh (Jeremiah 17:5) and of worshiping the works of man’s hands (Micah 5:13).  I believe that our culture is at great risk to this form of idolatry because of the technological blessings the Lord has given us.  Let’s use these gifts to bless the lives of our families and those around us, and put all of our trust in the Lord.

After reading the article about protecting your chickens, I would like to comment on my solution.  After experiencing my early failed attempt at chicken raising because the possums would chase the night dumb chickens back and forth against the chicken wire enclosure and extrude them through the chicken wire eating as they pulled, I built chicken coop number two. 
 
First I built it off the ground with a slightly sloping plywood floor covered by galvanized sheet metal ship lapped to protect the floor. When pressure washing, the water flows to the outside.  At the low end I raised the wood stud base plate up 3/4" (on pointed wood spacers below each wall stud) to allow the water to drain into a gutter on the outside.  I put removable tapered wood pieces in the gap to keep the snakes out. A lip on the spacer allows removal with a flat shovel.  I then paneled the walls up 4 feet.  The next four feet is hardware cloth on three sides so the animals cannot reach through.  I have an aluminum roof of surplus house trailer porch panels.  Inside I have nesting boxes, a roost, and a closet on the back side for gathering eggs in a closed in room through hinged and latched access doors.  This closet is great for my incubator and I could use it for baby chicks but I currently put them in a garden area with the hen.  Out of 30 chickens, I only have two that will set.
 
I built a closed in chute into the closed in garden area, which includes a wire roof.  The chickens have access to five different garden areas that can be individually separated.  From the adjacent garden area,  I built a small opening with a slide door two feet off the ground.  On the outside of the opening is a horizontal metal grate (I used stainless) suspended on electric fence isolators. Plastic tie wraps worked great.  I put a thin stainless plate on the ground below the grate.  This is not necessary but guarantees a charge.  I installed a 12 volt fence charger to the grate and to a ground rod with an additional wire to the bottom plate.  I use 12 volt because of future power issues.  A small solar panel keeps it charged and solar fence chargers are available.
 
The chickens being two legged jump up on the grate without being shocked.  The four legged animals reach up and get a shock as they are grounded.  I later had to add plastic sheets around the door opening as I had a baby possum get through.  The only problem I had is a big chicken walking under the grate and touching the grate underside while grounded.  A fence under the grate around the grate posts would fix that.  The fence would have to be grounded.  I used this method for months and could leave for days at a time or not worry about coming home after dark.  Since I go to work before daylight, they could leave as needed.
 
Since I now have geese, ducks and prior turkeys which are all stupid, I have quit using the device.  I put them up at night now.
 
I am building coop three in the deep woods.  I am using stainless for the floor as the galvanize is starting to rust due to the acidic chicken manure.  I am going to experiment and see if the chickens can live with out me feeding them. I may not check them for days at a time.  The design is the same but with my hot water collectors on the roof.  I have noticed the chickens are not eating chicken feed if they are free range.  I also feed them wild bird seed which they devour.  I note the wild game is not eating the corn and sunflower seeds we are putting out including my chickens. Perhaps it is because chicken feed is now made with GMO grain. 
 
I put up a fake owl over the garden and I have not lost a chicken to chicken hawks since even though they range a 100 yards away.  Before, I lost at least one per week.
 
I bought three of your latest books and sent two to my daughters.  I have just started reading last night.  So far it is a little slow compared to your first book which I could not put down and which caused me to spend since 2007 prepping day and night.  I built a container house complete with living areas all on solar including refrigeration.  Since I now realize I cannot defend the house, I realize that was a mistake and therefore I am working on plan C which is more remote.  My live in nurse girlfriend is getting tired of not going anywhere on weekends.  The video I saw recently of biker types raiding retreats got my attention.  If events transpire as expected, I have you to thank for my being prepared. - Jim T.

My foray into the world of self-sufficiency began with two animals and a dream: two Nubian dairy goats, to be exact, and a whole load of criticism and laughter from those who thought I was crazy! “What do you know about raising goats?” , and “Why bother, isn’t it easier to just go buy milk at the store” Smirk, smirk. Little did they realize, this made me ever more determined to have the last laugh.

My husband was grudgingly tolerant, and my children were excited and blindly trusting their mother to know exactly what she was doing. After all my thorough research I jumped in feet first….and fell. And fell and fell again. But, after some blood, sweat, and tears I believe I have learned a lot and would like to share what wisdom I have gained with those who might be considering the dairy goat as a fresh milk source for their family.

Goats are an excellent choice for family dairy needs! They are intelligent, inquisitive creatures and they each have their own unique personality. Some have endeared themselves to me more than others and I am only a tad ashamed to say that I have my favorites. Most of my does (females) weigh around 130 pounds, and are easily handled by both myself and my small children. Their senses are sharp, and they are curious to a fault. I have one particular doe who will refuse to hop on her milk stand when I have swept the floor underneath it, because she knows something is different.

In comparison to a family cow, goats are much smaller, and obviously require less feed. They are less intimidating than a cow, and again easily handled by children. The only exception to this would be the buck (an intact male goat). Bucks can grow quite large, and some become aggressive or try to show dominance. We have a rather large buck on our property with enormous horns, and my children are strictly forbidden to go into his pen.

Goat’s milk, if handled properly, is delicious. It is not “goaty”, bitter, or distasteful. It is creamy, sweet goodness, and is good for you! Goat’s milk is easily digested, and some folks who cannot tolerate cow’s milk will have an easier time with goat’s milk. Please do yourself a favor and never judge fresh goat’s milk by the vile concoction in the can at the store.

I will only briefly touch on the subject of pasteurization. I believe this is a personal choice, and I do not believe there is a right or wrong choice. Please do your research and make an informed decision regarding what is best for your family. Regardless, your milk will need to be filtered before drinking. Filtering will ensure that any bits of dirt or hair will be removed from your milk. I use milk filters bought from a dairy supply catalog (Hoegger’s, Jeffers or Caprine Supply). I have personally tried using coffee filters and several layers of cheesecloth and those methods did not go over well for me. If you choose to pasteurize, it can be done stovetop with a stainless steel double boiler, or you can purchase a pasteurizer. You will need a thermometer if you go the stovetop route. I use a simple candy thermometer, but there are dairy thermometers available for purchase. Dairy thermometers come in handy if you so choose to try your hand at making cheese! In reference to raw milk please check with your individual state’s laws and regulations. In many states it is legal to drink raw milk [produced by your own goats] but illegal to sell it. Again, please do your research and try to be respectful of others personal decisions.

That said, I would like to provide readers with some insight that I wish I had had when I started out. I love and respect my goats for being providers(of milk or meat), however, should you choose to neglect or abuse them do not expect much in the way of getting anything back.

1. You will become a doctor. You must learn your goat’s body language, and recognize immediately what might be “off” behavior. Once a goat is obviously very sick, I would say you have about 24 hrs. to diagnose them or have them seen by a vet, or you will likely end up with a dead animal. There is a saying “A sick goat is a dead goat”. Most of goat care is focused on prevention, because once a catastrophic illness hits, very rarely will a goat pull out and be “normal”.

2. Do not expect to find a vet easily or at the last minute. Waiting until your goat is in the throes of a difficult birth, or until they are off feed running a fever are NOT the time to try to find a veterinarian. First of all, veterinarians who are well versed in goat care, or even those who will give it a half-hearted attempt are in incredible short supply. For reasons unbeknownst to me telling a vet that you have a goat is like telling them the black plague has infected your household. Most vets do not want to even talk to you-I have, in fact, had vets actually hang up on me when I mention the word “goat”. I have been so lucky to find a wonderful veterinarian who actually has been spot-on with most of my goats vet needs. It took me five years to find him. Until then I had to read everything I could get my hands on regarding goat care, illness, disease, etc. I wrote everything down in a “goat notebook”, and wrote down vaccines, antidotes, medications, side effects, common diseases, etc. I learned to recognize symptoms and make decisions quickly. There will be times when you just have to guess and hope you’re right, when death is imminent. Do not feel guilty for this, it is part of the trials of raising livestock.

3. Goats will not eat tin cans (although they may nibble on them out of curiosity). In all reality, goats are pretty picky eaters. They are small ruminants, meaning they have a four chambered stomach. They need roughage(hay, pasture, weeds, tree leaves) to maintain a healthy rumen. They love to browse, but will do very well grazing on pasture like a cow or a horse. Growing kids and lactating mothers are benefited by a grain ration. I use a loose grain mix with 16% protein mixed at my local grain elevator. Please do not overfeed grain or let children feed them grain unless you are certain they will not overfeed them. Grain can be measured or weighed, but if consumed in massive quantities can cause death by acidosis. Regular over-usage will result in fat goats which causes difficult births and overall unthriftiness. This can also cause susceptibility to goat polio, which I can tell you first hand is a heartbreaking disease. Goats also need certain minerals to maintain good health. There are minerals in block form, loose mixes, or you can even mix your own if you are so inclined. Please educate yourself by reading as much information as you can on maintaining a healthy rumen for your goats - it is vital to their well-being. In my experience the local extension office and 4-H manuals have been very informative!

4. Buy a good book or two. This is something I wish had done years ago before writing down enough information to write a book myself!

5. Goats require a certain amount of dedication and perseverance. You will have to milk every day. If you cannot commit to this please save yourself the trouble of purchasing any dairy animals. You will also have to learn to give your own vaccinations, trim hooves regularly, assist with birth, deworm them regularly, provide fresh water and food daily, and much more. You will watch them give birth and you will eventually watch some of them die. You may even have to shoot them (or have hubby do it) if they are suffering. In a large herd euthanasia is not a realistic option.

6. Learning to milk will bring frustration and tears. Please do not give up-it is worth it. It will come naturally over time. I did have days that I ran from the barn kicking whatever happened to get in my way, tears streaming from my face, ready to commit a mass murder of those *!#! Goats. You will cry over spilt milk! Or at least feel a tinge of joy at the prospect of committing physical violence against those stubborn creatures!

Remember, just as a new nursing mother cannot “let down” her milk if she is anxious, or in pain. If her baby screams in frustration, she will tense up and the whole thing goes down from there. A goat will sense your nervousness or frustration, or even your anger. The best bet is to try to stay calm even if you must walk away for a few minutes and come back. Learning to milk my Jersey cow was one of the worst times in my life. I know now it was because I was deathly afraid of getting my head bashed in every time I put my face next to those enormous legs. My cow knew this-knew I was afraid, and she decided to become “boss”. Another reason to never let your livestock dominate you. If they refuse to back down, even after time, they become a danger to you and yours, and I would recommend sending them to slaughter.
Milking can become very relaxing as you get better and better at it. Music helps, too. Milking should always be done in a stainless steel bowl/pail and all your milking supplies meticulously washed after each milking. There are commercial washes you can buy, although I think Clorox and soap and water work pretty well. After time your equipment may develop a residue of sorts called “milkstone”, and you can also buy cleaner to take care of that.

Please don’t let this deter you. My six year old can milk (until her little hands get tired!). As with any new skill, it takes practice. One more thing-if your hand muscles tire even after you master milking, or you have arthritis, there are many kinds of milking machines out there. Some are even just simplistic pumps, similar to a breast pump.

7. Most of your does (females) will need to be bred once a year to keep a steady supply of milk. Many people who choose not to keep a buck for this purpose can usually find someone in their vicinity who is willing to let their buck “service” your doe for a small fee. You will need to do this when your does go into heat. Watch for these heat signs-Excessive bleating, tail wagging (called flagging), swollen, red vulva, discharge, riding other does. Some will display all, some, or none of these behaviors. One of my does has a few hour window where she will stand to be mounted by a buck. This is called “standing heat”, and sometimes it’s difficult to catch! Some breeds of dairy goats will go into heat year round, some only in season (usually September to March).

If you decide to keep [an intact] buck he will grow big and usually pretty stinky! He will urinate on himself, and do some pretty obscene things! A buck needs care as well, so even though it is difficult sometimes, please don’t neglect him. Hoof trimming is an area where bucks often get neglected. Who wants to pick up that smelly, urine soaked leg? I always enlist my husband’s help in dealing with my buck, especially if he is in rut. Please don’t ever turn your back on a buck in rut. That is unwise at best, dangerous or deadly at worst.

8. Have an idea beforehand what you want to do with your surplus goats. It is always exciting when kids are born, but then you have to figure out what to do with those boys. It is not realistic to think you will be able to keep them all. Yes, they are adorable when little, but they grow quickly.

Castration can be done in a few different ways. There is banding, which is simply placing a string latex band around the testicles with an Elastrator--a tool designed for that purpose. This will of course cut off circulation and cause the testicles to go necrotic and fall off after some time. If done too early, you risk the urethra not maturing enough and susceptibility to bladder stones. If done too late, it will be agonizing for your goat. I know this because it happened to me recently and after watching said goat literally screaming and writhing on the ground, I had to cut the band off. Now I have a young buckling trying to breed all his sisters, and I have to rid myself of him ASAP. He will either be sold to slaughter or will go in our own freezer. This was a huge mistake on my part, but being the softie that I am, I could not bear to see an animal in so much pain. This method seems to me more torturous as time goes by and I can hardly bear to do it anymore.

Another method is to find and crush the cords carrying the sperm to the testes using a tool called a burdizzo. This involves no blood and is considered a “closed” castration. I have no personal experience with this tool however there is a lot of support for it on the Internet.

The last option is surgical castration which , in my opinion, is not a feasible option for most folks, considering the price tag. A lot of people are in support of keeping a wether (castrated male goat), as a pet. In my experience they are sweet and wonderful for about two years. Then it seems that this would be about the time a buckling would be coming into maturity, and they get some dominance issues. I have known many goat people who have sweet and loving wethers. This has just not been the case for me. Your excess males can be sold for meat or 4-H projects, or as pets. It will be a decision you will have to contend with.

9. Last of all, try to find "goat people" to help you out especially the first few years. There were many times when I called upon others who knew way more than I did. I even called some late at night in desperation. They will be your best support system!

In closing, all of this may seem intimidating, but as with anything new you will find what works for you. As raising my own "kids", it has been a challenging , yet rewarding experience. And I promise you, you'll never see any sight more joyful than children playing with all their new "babies". It doesn't get any sweeter than that!

A friend of mine was thinking of getting into the meat goat business.  Since I have been raising goats for several years now, she asked me a few questions to which I responded with the following.  I thought that preppers considering adding a goat or two to their menageries might be interested in these thoughts as well.  In the past five years I have learned a lot and it has taken five years to become really competent.

First off, it is important to get your goats from a reputable source.  I got mine at auction, which meant that I was getting other people’s culls.  Most of the does I bought this way were fine, but they did bring in some disease that I have had to fight ever since.  I knew to isolate the animals for two weeks before putting them all together, but that was not long enough for a classic problem to arise.  This is casseous lymphodonitis (CL), which is a bacteria that gets into the goat’s system through a break in the skin and manifests as an abscess, usually on the neck.  It is said that there are only two kinds of goat ranches; "the ones that have CL or the ones that will have CL."  Everybody gets it sooner or later, I am told.  You can have a specific vaccine made for it by sending a culture to a veterinary lab, but I haven’t done it.  I have tried the commercial vaccine, which is good on several strains, but it did not work on mine.  So, now I just lance the lumps and isolate the goat until it’s gone, but it seems to pop up again every so often.  At least I have never had a kid get it and that is the most important thing.  The disease seals itself off from the body, so there is no harm to humans to consume the meat, but it is illegal to sell the carcass of an animal that has it. 

Another reason people cull a goat is that she might harbor parasites.  It is said that 5% of the goats carry 80% of the parasites, so if a rancher notices one that gets wormy a lot or sooner than the others, he is going to be culling her.  Parasites are responsible for nearly all goat death and battling them is the most important part of raising a herd.  We drench with Ivermectin every three weeks through the summer, starting in March, or the month before kidding is expected to begin.  Each nanny also gets a drenching the day she kids because birth causes an explosion of parasites for some reason.  You check for anemia by looking at the inside of the eyelid, the pinker the better.  If I see that the Ivermectin isn’t keeping the goats in the pink, I switch to Cydectin.  It is recommended that you use only one type of wormer for a year because parasites develop immunity and you need to have a back up medicine that still works.  Don’t even bother with Safeguard, goat parasites are completely immune to that. 

The great goal of all goat people is to get to the stage where they don’t have to use any commercial wormer at all.  This is accomplished by frequent field rotation so that the goats do not re-ingest larvae as they graze.  Rule of thumb is to move the herd every three weeks to interrupt the life cycle of the pests and to move goats off a field whenever the grass is shorter than six inches.  Some goat people swear by diatomaceous earth as a supplement, and we have tried it with good results. 

To start with 5 or 6 goats, you wouldn't need that much fenced space. You want to use field fence or some other stuff they are calling "goat fence" with holes of approximately 8 x 12 ".  I just use the regular woven wire 39-inch stuff that sells for around $120 for 330 feet.  The benefit of the larger holes is that goats with horns are not likely to get their heads stuck and all goats seem to think that the grass is greener on the other side.  If you are going to grow meat goats, one good thing is that they are not the escape artists that the leaner dairy goats are.  They seem to know that they are too heavy to jump over unless they are highly motivated.  We also fenced off about half an acre to hold the billy when he is not in use as stud.  Again, a Boer buck generally knows he is too heavy to jump over the fencing and as an added bonus, the Boer males are usually quite gentle and sweet tempered. 

I would fence 10 acres to start and also invest in some solar powered electric mesh fencing so that you can rotate the goats from one section of the field to the next (to avoid parasite infestation).  General rule is that one acre will feed 6 goats, but I don't agree with that.  We run 30 to 35 goats on ten acres, but we have two extra ten-acre fields into which they rotate every 3 weeks.  This amount of land supports them fine as well as all their kids, of which we usually get around 50 a year.

Prior to when TSHTF, you will want to know about selling your kid crop for profit.  Recent butcher kid prices were $1.34-1.44 per pound for 40-50 pound kids.  50 to 70 pound kids were fetching 1.60 a pound.  Bigger than that and the price goes down.  So, you can get $100 per kid if you can raise them to a good weight before summer forage peters out, which is questionable around here.  My kids were not up to weight by the end of August this year, but I think it was because no one wanted to eat much during the heat wave. You will be paying at least $7 a head to the auctioneer and of course transportation costs because there are only a few places to sell goats.  Get on line and search for usda goat auction prices.  I am unable to get the URL to transfer in here, sorry.  They publish each week the prices they are getting, August and Sept being prime time for goat selling.

There is no need to be around to take care of the kids once they are born. Nannies are great for taking care of their kids. Of course, you will almost always get one bottle kid a season, where for some mysterious reason a nanny will reject a kid.  If you are going to insist that she feed that kid, then you would have to be on hand to catch her and make her do it 4 times a day, or you would have to be around to do that feeding for the first couple of weeks.  But the easier thing to do at that point is to sell the kid cheap, or give it away to a 4-H-er. I only feel that I have to be on hand for the births and most of the time, not even then.  Out of my 30 nannies this year, I was needed for only one breach birth.  I stay with them long enough to make sure the kids know how to eat and after that, they are on their own.  I do "jug" my new families, put them into privacy stalls for three days before returning them to the herd.  This is to make sure all is well, the doe is getting enough to eat, and the kids know exactly whom their mothers are, but you don't really have to do this.  If you are willing to lose a few kids, you can leave them completely on their own. 

If you leave your kids on their nannies, there is little that you need to be on hand for, but maybe you were thinking of taking the kids off and feeding them from a milk bar so that you can re-breed the nannies faster.  If you do that, of course, you will have to be around to fill those canisters.  But, if not, all you really should do is watch to make sure the kids are eating.  Right after they are born, they usually find the teat within a few minutes.  If a kid searches too long and gets tired before getting that first dose of colostrum, he may just give up and die.  So, I help them out in finding the teat.  Often though, a doe will kid unexpectedly and by the time I have found her, she will already have those kids cleaned up and nursing.  I would say only about ten percent of the newborns need any intervention at all, as long as the weather is reasonably warm.  About an hour after the kid has had its first meal, I check back to stir the kid up for a second meal.  They can get sugared out and sleep too long if their mothers don’t wake them and then they are too weak to get back to the breakfast table.  I find that it is usually a first time mother that doesn’t know to nose the kid back to life.  If a kid doesn’t get to the teat at first, I milk some of the colostrum out and give it to the kid in a syringe.  Just an ounce of that stuff is enough to save a kid’s life. 

Timing your kidding is the most important thing to being able to sit back and enjoy it.  I don’t put my buck into the herd until November 1, so that our kidding always starts in April.  If kids come in the winter, you MUST be there to dry them off, warm them up and get them in under a heat lamp.  They will almost certainly die if you don’t.  Much better to wait until all danger of freezing is past.  Gestation is five months and five days, so you can pretty much time your kidding for your vacation or take time off from work if you want to do all of the things I do.  Lots of people just let Nature take its course and they lose a few kids, but that is the price of not having to be there.  One great thing about goats is that they almost always kid during daylight hours.  I don’t think I have ever had one kid at night.  In April, one of us checks the herd every two hours during the daylight hours.  When we notice kidding happening, we stick around, but more often than not, the nanny doesn’t need us at all.  But, if a doe is in labor for an hour without kidding, you have to intervene, go in and get those kids out.  Most men’s hands are too big to go inside a doe, so I hope there is a willing woman on the ranch.  If you don’t intervene in a breach, you won’t just lose the kids; you will lose the nanny too.

The other big thing about goat tending is trimming their hooves and this probably takes more time than anything else we do for the herd.  If you don’t do this, you will get foot rot, the animals won’t want to go far to graze, they will re-ingest parasite larvae and then they die.  So, foot rot is no laughing matter.  You may get rot even with perfectly trimmed hooves and they get a kind of weepy skin condition in between their toes in wet weather.  I slather them with a commercial hoof antibiotic and give antibiotic (LA 200) injections if the case is a bad one.  A footbath through which the goats must walk each day would probably get me out of this chore, but I haven’t ever figured out how to make those demons go through one.  They hate wet feet.  Putting the goats’ feed stations on top of a circle of gravel or rock also helps to keep hooves drier and excess hoof growth in check.

Goats do need some shelter.  They hate rain, but don’t mind snow a bit.  As far as food goes, goats need higher protein levels than other ruminants, so we feed clover/grass mixed hay in the winter, alfalfa for the last month before kidding.  We also set out several high protein vitamin and mineral blocks.  Goats are picky eaters and they are terribly wasteful with hay.  We use V-shaped square bale feeders with a tray beneath to catch falling hay.  You can also just set a round bale in the field, but pretty soon it will be soiled from goats jumping up on top, and most of it will be strewn around the ground. But a round bale of plain old grass is fine for filling them up, even if it doesn’t give them all that they need.  If you go this route, you should also feed a cup or so per goat per day of commercial goat pellets.  They push and shove each other in a mad dash to the dinner table when you feed pellets, so we have to make sure that the underlings in the herd get something to eat.  No goat will ever admit that she is full and will always tell you that she is starving. 

Few vets have much experience with goats, so you are on your own a lot.  You will need to learn about health issues, preventions and treatments. Whether to castrate or not.  Vaccinations.  Get some good books and make friends with other goat people.  Your local land grant university may have a goat expert and a small ruminant project, so you can go to classes or even just call them up.  And be prepared to fall in love.  You know, a sheep is a sheep is a sheep, but each goat is an individual.  They are clever animals and very personable.  You will quickly learn their language and be able to communicate with them.  After my dogs, my goats are my best friends.  Oh, that reminds me.  You don’t want to have a herding dog on the ranch.  Instead, you want a guardian, like a Great Pyrenees.  Any dog that starts to chase a goat should be banished from any dealings with them, for sooner or later that dog will give in to instinct and either hurt or kill a goat.  Even little dogs are a danger in this regard.  Your enemies are dogs first, coyotes second. 

And that also reminds me to tell you that goats don’t herd, they follow.  If you try to herd them, more often than not, they will just scatter and circle around the herder to get back to wherever they want to be.  We accomplish herd moves by pouring goat pellets into a wheelbarrow and walking down the lane with the herd following.  Goats are so smart that they learn any routine involving food in a matter of a day or so.  I just honk my truck horn and they all come running up from the field.  They can be stupid too, though, forgetting how they got where they are and wanting to go through a fence instead of back to a gate.  Just remember that you are smarter than a goat and if you think about it for a minute, you will figure out a way to get them to do what you want them to do.  One of the best bits of advice I ever got was, “if you are fighting with your goats, you are doing something wrong.”  Pay attention to what motivates them, which is always either food, the need to be in a herd, or the well-being of their kids.  Pay attention to what is happening in any move.  If kids get too far behind, you will lose them because they only care about Mommy, not pellets.  So, always make sure the kids are keeping up, slowing your movements to allow for that.  Keep the herd herded up as much as you can.  Any stragglers will be impossible to catch.  Watch the nannies too.  They will show you what they care about most at any given moment by looking at it.  If they start to lose interest in the food you are offering to make them follow you, it is a matter of proximity, so get closer. 

In conclusion, I know that I have neglected to tell you which items you should stock up on and how to tend the herd without any commercial products.  I have not yet addressed this issue in my own herd in a complete manner.  I would definitely pre-order a good supply of a long-acting antibiotic along with a drenching gun that doubles as a vaccinator.  Be sure to order replacement parts and lots of needles.  Get five good pairs of hoof trimmers.  An annual vaccine that must be kept refrigerated is Clostridium Perfringens Types C and D with Tetanus Toxoid.  I have stocked a five-year supply.  I also keep on hand about twenty pouches of powdered Corid for the treatment of coccidiosis, a condition that can be avoided for the most part by keeping goat quarters clean.  To get around purchasing commercial feed, we have planted twenty acres of alfalfa and that is a complete feed.  I feel that Vitamin B injectables are necessary just in case you see a goat convulse.  I also mix up my own “go juice,” which is a combination of water, corn syrup and vitamins.  I give this whenever a goat may need a quick jolt of energy.  Finally, I keep a powdered supply of electrolytes for dehydration.  There are many supplements and preventative or curative products on the market.  You will simply need to decide which ones to stock up on for yourself, given your specific circumstances.

Mr. Rawles;
Greetings from a new fan.  On the subject of horses, I can recommend the video from Pat Parelli titled The Seven Games. I have ridden horses for years but when I bought my own horse I got a few Parelli lessons from the owner.  It completely changed 30 years horsemanship almost overnight.  My horse is my friend now and much easier to train since I know how to communicate with him.  The cd's and the Parelli method is great.  

Yes, horses do require your time they are not an ATV that can be parked and left behind.  They are not for everyone, but they can do things that an ATV can never do.  Keep up the good work. - Rodney W.

JWR Replies: Thanks for that recommendation. And by the way, a friend recommended the Mike Bridges horse training clinics.  Mike is not the best known clinician but he's one of the best teachers and horsemen in the nation. He's based in Halfway, Oregon, but does clinics all around the country.

Jim,
The cover art on your latest novel prompts these comments about horses.  There may be  folks who are thinking that in the future horse power would be a viable alternative for transportation, agricultural, and other uses.   It can be.  But you need to be aware that horses are not just hairy vehicles, and they don’t come with an owner’s manual.  They are thinking, feeling, decision-making animals.  And regardless of how well trained they may be when you get them they will quickly settle, for better or worse, at your level of knowledge and experience.  If you don’t know what you’re doing you may fairly quickly wind up with a horse that is useless, dangerous, or both.

If you’re considering the use of horses in the future it would be prudent to learn all you can now.  And that means hands on learning.  Book learning won’t do.   The only thing that will keep you safe is knowledge and awareness.

A lifetime isn’t long enough to learn all there is to know about horsemanship, but it’s a start.  Find a competent teacher, start now, and enjoy the experience. - Rick S.

JWR Replies: Thanks for your letter. A good deal of the story in "Survivors" has to do with the lead character getting to know and work with his horse, an excellent gelding named Prieto. Yes, I agree that there is a steep learning curve.  For newbies, I recommend that they learn from a pro, and that they spend a lot of time around horses before they ever even consider buying one to bring into their family. (Yes, I do mean family.) Clinton Anderson's excellent series of instructional DVDs (such as Downunder Horsemanship- Gaining Respect and Control on the Ground) are a great start, but there is no substitute for lots of hands-on time. Frankly, most people's temperaments are better suited to buying an ATV than a horse.

When I began to plan my families survival food stores, it quickly became apparent that if/when we lose our suburban grocery store lifestyle, my stores are only going to last a limited time.  I also realized that there is a point at which more food is pointless without more trucks to move it and more people to drive them and more mouths to feed requiring more food.  I live in Phoenix, in the suburbs, in the middle of one of the harshest deserts in the world, where any TEOTWAWKI scenario will be a G.O.O.D. situation.  Relocation now is a desirable but unattainable option, so I am preparing to the best of my ability.  The solution to this vicious food cycle is to develop a plan that incorporates short term emergency food with long term sustainable food generation.  To this end, my plan includes emergency food to sustain my family through transitional periods, a garden and a store of non hybrid seeds for future planting, and carefully selected livestock which the rest of this article will be devoted to.

The idea of having to rely entirely on hunting or fishing for meat and other animal products does not seem sound to me.  Sport fishing becomes sport crawdad catching when the Game and Fish Department haven't stocked the rivers and streams of Arizona, and if the populations of major cities were suddenly all roaming the countryside trying to find food I imagine game would become scarce.   My solution: become the crazy neighbor with all the weird pets.  (I tried to be subtle, but roosters crow at five a.m. and my goats aren't silent all day long either.)  But, I have very strict criteria for all my 'pets'.  #1 They must be useful for feeding my family.  #2 They must be low maintenance and able to feed on forage.  #3 They must be small enough to be kept in my suburban backyard and small enough to go on the road if we need to bug out. #4 They must be hardy and disease resistant.  Cows, pigs and horses are too big for the backyard, too expensive and complicated to care for, and would be impossible to bug out with, but chickens, rabbits, and dwarf goats are compact, practical, low maintenance, and a renewable source of eggs, meat, and milk.   

Chickens/ Eggs

When I first started looking at small scale livestock, the obvious place to start was chickens.  There is no end to the benefits of the egg.  They are a source of protein and healthy fats that you can't get from gardening alone.  I purchased my first baby chicks as an impulse buy and thought they could just free range in my back yard after outgrowing the box in my laundry room.  Turns out the free range plan had drawbacks and after the dog ate my baby chicks we put a little more planning into action.  A year later, we have healthy, thriving birds, tons of eggs and we only spend 3 or 4 minutes a day caring for them. 

Chickens are very low maintenance critters.  In a back yard setting they need food, water and shelter.  Shelter can be just about anything that keeps the dog out.  Ours is a 4 ft. by 4 ft. cube made of 2x2 lumber enclosed by plywood on one end and chicken wire on the other, with a little door and some roosts.  Or, they can free range, but you'll want to clip their wings to keep them from flying over the wall, you'll have to hunt for the eggs, and instead of cleaning the coop once every few months you'll be cleaning chicken feces off everything all the time, and then there's that whole dog thing.  I feed commercial food, because it's easier in our compact space, but they can feed on forage alone, they like bugs and grass.  The watering is the most difficult part because it gets nasty quickly.  You have to change it frequently(like twice a day).  I solved this by making some nipple style bucket waterers.  Now all I do is check the water level of the buckets and top them off every now and then.  You can get the nipples for under $2 on line at farmtek.com and find information about making them through an internet search.   

I ordered my chicks on line because I was very selective about the breed.  There are hundreds of breeds of chicken and some are bred for eggs, some for meat and some for both.  I chose Wyandottes because they are a dual purpose bird, good egg production and still meaty enough for dinner.  They are also relatively quiet, docile, and bear confinement well.  The web site backyardchickens.com has detailed information on the characteristics of different breeds and links to mail order suppliers.  When you order through the mail you usually have to buy a minimum of 25 or they won't survive shipment.  Twenty five birds is a lot so plan on butchering some or go in with someone else or sell your extras on craigslist.  And of course a handful just won't make it through the first week so get at lease a few more than you need.  After that they are very hardy.  

Each of my five birds lay about five eggs in seven days giving us two dozen eggs a week.  I also have two roosters (just in case one dies) so that we can hatch our own fertile eggs.  To hatch eggs, you can buy an expensive incubator, but all you really need is a box, bedding, a thermometer and a hygrometer that can be found in reptile supplies at pet stores so that you can monitor and adjust the temp and humidity, and turn the eggs every day.  You do not need a rooster for your hens to lay eggs for eating.  A rooster will keep your hens bred resulting in eggs that are fertile and can be hatched out.  You only need one rooster for about a dozen hens, but it's always good to have a spare.  There is very little difference between eating fertile and non fertile eggs.  When you collect your eggs, the ones for hatching should be kept warm and the ones for eating should be refrigerated, or kept cool, this will prevent them from growing into baby chicks.  It takes about twenty days for chicks to hatch, it takes about five months for the hens to grow to laying age, then they will lay for two to three years, then dinner.  Butchering and plucking are not as difficult as they sound either.  The hardest part is waiting for them to stop moving after you kill them, (I'm girlier than I thought).  You can find anything you need to know about chickens on line, but it's a good idea to have a reference book in hard copy. 

In a G.O.O.D. scenario, we have a 2x3 ft wire cage that they all will fit into for transport in the back of our truck and I made a lightweight run out of PVC and cloth netting that can be easily assembled and broken down in the wilderness.  It is low to the ground and has a larger footprint, 5ft by 10 ft by 2 ft tall, so I can move it around allowing the birds to find forage during the day and be returned to the more secure wire cage at night when predators might be out.  After the initial investment of the birds and their equipment, and the work of building the shelter and setting up the bucket waterers and the homemade incubator, their daily care consists of dumping a cup of feed in their trough twice a day.  I spend 12-15 dollars a month on feed but I get 8 to 10 dozen eggs in a month. 

Rabbits/Meat

According to what I've read on line and in books, rabbit meat is among the most nutritious you can eat.  They are also easier to butcher than chickens, no messing around with feathers, and provide you with leather.  There are several breeds of meat rabbit.  I picked New Zealand because I found a local supplier.  Another meat breed is Californian and now we have one girl of that breed as well.  The pet rabbit world is a little offended by the idea of meat rabbits, so you might want to be subtle.  For instance, a craigslist search for meat rabbit will come up empty, but if you search for homestead rabbit or New Zealand rabbit you're more likely to yield results. 

Rabbits are easier than chickens to care for.  The trick is to be clever about their hutch set up to minimize extra work.  Each rabbit needs their own hutch or else they will fight.  We had two sisters together for a long time and thought they were fine, but as soon as they reached maturity they began trying to dominate each other and had to be separated.   We have very roomy hutches for them here in the backyard, but a few well placed pieces of plywood will divide one cage into separate spaces for each rabbit in a G.O.O.D. situation.  We made them out of 2x2 lumber, plywood and hardware cloth for some sides and the floor.  The bottom of the hutches are made of hardware cloth so that the feces falls through and the rabbits feet stay clean and dry.  This is important for their health.  Our hutches sit on a 2x6 frame on the ground filled loosely with straw.  This absorbs the urine and contains the feces.  Rabbit manure is extremely good for the soil so every three months or so we move the hutches off to the side and shovel the whole mess into a wheelbarrow and into the garden.  Rabbit manure does not have to compost.  It can be added straight to the soil.  The babies won't do well straight down on the hardware cloth.  So we add nesting boxes to the hutches a week before kindling.  The bottoms of the nesting boxes are made of tighter hardware cloth and filled with dried grass, and then momma rabbit lines it with her own fur.  The doe is completely self sufficient with her young.  Just keep her fed and she knows what to do.    

We feed a commercial rabbit food for the same reason as the chickens, it's just easier in the city.  But our californian doe is an escape artist and she lives under the shed for weeks at a time with no food provided from me.  I save all my veggie scraps and strawberry tops for them and give them weeds from the yard.  If they had to subsist on forage they would be fine.  We use the same bucket style watering system that we made for the chickens, with the same nipples and all.  We have one five gallon bucket from the hardware store sitting on top of the last hutch and a length of PVC pipe that drops down then angles and spans the length of the hutches with a cap on the end.  Each hutch has a water nipple poking in through the hardware cloth side.   Fill one bucket, water every rabbit, yeah!  A five gallon bucket is more than a month's supply of water for five rabbits and it stays surprisingly clean. 

Now for the good part, the gestation period for the rabbit is about a month.  They have 8 to 12 kits per litter.  It takes about two months for the young to be up to butchering size, which coincides with weaning so you only ever have to feed the doe. New Zealands give about three pounds of meat per rabbit.  So you're looking at 20-30 lbs of meat every three months per doe.  If we round that to 25 lbs, you're looking at 100 lbs of meat per doe per year.  This rapid turn around is what makes them so valuable.  Of course, not every mating results in pregnancy, not every litter is born alive, and sometimes mom isn't producing enough milk for all the kits, so the law of redundancy is important.  Breed more than one doe at the same time.  I'd rather have too much than not enough.  Rabbits are also less hardy and disease resistant than chickens, but keeping one particular animal alive is not as important.  If one isn't healthy, cull it.   Frequently save your strongest kits for new breeding stock.  It takes eight months for them to reach maturity, so plan ahead. 

The other main advantage to rabbits are their hides.  Tanning is surprisingly easy, but yucky.  All you need is an acid/brine solution, a plastic bin, and gloves.  I followed the directions in the book Backyard Livestock: Raising Good, Natural Food for Your Family, by Steven Thomas and George Looby (ISBN-13: 978-0-88150-760-7).  It worked great.  Water, salt and two ounces of sulfuric acid, which I found at a prospecting supply store, mix in the plastic bin, add the hides and shove it in the shed for a month.  I couldn't make shoes from the leather, rabbit is too thin, but there are a million other uses for it.  Tanning in a wilderness setting is a topic for future research. 

Goats/Milk

Goats are getting a little further into the realm of farming than backyard pets, but in the city I live in, a person can keep two dwarf breed animals in a suburban backyard, under the exotic pets exemption.   The Nigerian Dwarf Breed is perfect for this purpose.  They were bred specifically for milk and have a higher butterfat content than other breeds.  Their milk is also less goaty tasting than the stuff you can buy at the store.  They are about the size of a medium to large dog, smaller than my border collie, but bigger than my beagle.  They won't do well alone so you must have two.

They need a shelter that will keep them out of the elements.  A doghouse is fine.  They also need enough space to move about.  I wouldn't suggest letting them roam free in the backyard because it's easier to clean up after them if the mess is contained to one area and they will eat things you may not want them to eat.  We enclosed a corner of our yard with chain link fencing.  It's about 15x15ft, very roomy for them, and then we put down a layer of straw.  We have a heavy duty bucket for their water, we tried the nipple style and they figured out how to use it, but I didn't feel like they were getting enough that way.  We feed them alfalfa hay and a loose mineral supplement that includes copper.  They must have this.  It's also sold in bricks like a salt lick but the brick melts away in the rain.  We leave a few spoonfuls of loose minerals in a pan in the pen and it lasts for weeks.  We also feed them baking soda.  They have complicated digestion and baking soda helps them with tummy aches.  We just leave a little in the pen and they eat it when they want.  For a treat, they love animal crackers.  Grooming includes keeping their hooves trimmed.  If you buy goats make sure you get ones that have been tested for CAE.  CAE is a virus that causes a joint disease and animals can carry the virus with no symptoms.  It is non-communicable to humans so the milk is safe for consumption from an infected animal, but it is communicable to other goats through nursing and breeding.  If your goat has this virus they might eventually need significant veterinary care. In a survival situation you must have healthy animals or you've wasted your efforts. 

I have two female goats, one is barely up to breeding age, 8 mos, and the other is pregnant.  The gestation period is about six months and they have one to three kids usually, sometimes more.  I have been caring for them for a while now but we haven't been milking yet.  This next bit of info is the result of research and has not been tested by experience, yet.  Nigerians give up to a quart of milk per day.  You'll need a milk pail, strainer and strip cup, preferably all made of seamless, stainless steel.  Nigerians are small so your milk pail shouldn't be huge.  You wash the udders before milking, and then collect a test sample in the strip cup.  Look at it and smell it.  If the milk seems off, milk the animal, but toss it out.  If the milk looks and smells normal, keep it.  After you're done milking, pour the milk through the strainer to remove any hair that may have fallen in.  Pasteurize or don't pasteurize depending on you personal preference by boiling the milk to kill possible pathogens.  This will also kill beneficial enzymes.  Now you can make butter and cheese.  My grandmother made what she called "kick butter."  She put the cream in a gallon glass jar with some ball bearings and the women would sit and sew, or chat, while rolling the jar back and forth across the floor with their feet, kicking butter. 

My girly goats are not as low maintenance as my rabbits and chickens, but daily care still only takes a few minutes to toss out some hay and check their water and minerals.  When the kids come, the milking process will add 15 minutes twice a day to my chores.   Every few months we use a gas powered tiller and turn the soil under, burying the old chicken feces and straw, and then we lay down new straw.    Eventually this is going to be very, very good soil for the garden.

When the SHTF, we have a large dog crate that they will both fit into to travel in the back of the truck.  They walk on a leash and we also have a corkscrew stake and 20 foot tether that we can use in the wilderness to let them roam about during the day.   They can also survive on forage and a wilderness shelter can easily be constructed for them that suits the climate in question.  We do not have a buck because they need to be housed separately and we don't have the room.  I am trying to talk my sister into housing a buck for us in her backyard, but have been unsuccessful so far.  If the SHTF before I work out this detail we will be praying for a baby buckling to mate to our other doe and keep the whole thing going. (Our girls aren't related.) 

In Conclusion

This article is intended to provide an overview of the ease and benefits of raising small livestock in a suburban setting and a survival situation.  It is not all inclusive or a replacement for doing your homework.  Again, a good book to start with is the book Backyard Livestock: Raising Good, Natural Food for Your Family.  It provides a range of information on raising and harvesting animals. 

Since I began my experiments in small scale livestock, my family has completely changed our eating habits.  I started this because I want to know that I have the skills to feed my family if there are no  grocery stores.  But now, whether TEOTWAWKI happens or not, we are trying to become grocery store free.  It is rewarding in ways I can't capture with words.  Food from restaurants I used to love, tastes like cardboard and motor oil now.  My husband and I sit in the backyard in the evening surrounded by life.  I love watching him sweet talk the chickens when collecting the eggs.  My children are learning to respect nature, understand food, and give thanks to God for it.  My first experience with butchering was also very eye opening.  There's a reason why the first kill turned a child into a man in primitive societies, now I know I can do what it takes to feed my family. 

One final note, the skills you acquire from these kinds of things are far more important than the stuff you collect.  You can't expect to try something new for the first time in a crisis situation and have it succeed.  My first chickens were killed by our dog(we no longer own him).  My first gardening attempt was a dismal failure because my soil was bad and I didn't know to fix it, I do now.  My first litter of rabbits died because the doe didn't get her milk in and you can't bottle feed rabbits successfully, now I'm growing herbs that increase milk production to feed to my rabbits and goats.  And the first two goats I bought had CAE and we had to sell them and start over.  Everything is a learning process.  Our little "mini ranch" in the city is starting to thrive now that we're getting the kinks worked out, and I'm confident we could take this show on the road.  Get skills and experience before you are facing starvation.  Start small and take it one project at a time.  If you've never made food from scratch, start experimenting.  Make butter.  Sew a simple project.  Grow some herbs.  Can some food.  Don't wait for a life and death situation to learn how to be self reliant.

While TEOTWAWKI may or may not happen soon, one can never be too prepared. Loss of job or illness can happen any time. Being prepared can lessen the stress in your life and also lead to strengthening your family bonds. Not everyone has the financial or physical means to opt out or bug out at a moments notice. What we can do is start with Baby Steps and work our way up to where we want to be.

• Research
• Plan
• Schedule
• Execute
• Learn to be thick-skinned
• Follow up and be flexible.  Change can sometimes lead to opportunity.
• Try new things when possible.
• Don’t get discouraged.
• When you can’t trust your own government, trust in God

Below is how we started.

Baby Step 1:  Get out of town if possible. If you are in a city, at least try to position your family / self as close to the edge as possible. If you ever need to escape quickly, the closer you are to the edge, the higher the probability of making your exit strategy work.

After many years of research and talking about moving out of town and becoming self sufficient, last fall we finally had the means to do what we called our first Baby Steps. We purchased a new home on 5 acres out in the rural farm area. While not as off-the-beaten-path as we would like, it was what we could afford at the time and it had several advantages.

It is largely wooded, with a creek running along the property, deep well that is connected to one of the largest aquifers in the country, septic and leach field already in place, sufficient outbuildings to get us started, and no neighbors for a quarter mile. The downside is that it is on a state highway and is totally electric. We can’t remedy the location, but will do our best to be off grid as soon as possible.

While we had been talking about doing this for years, many of our friends and family thought we were nuts! No we are not right wing fanatics, just realists. My husband and I have watched, listened, read, talked about trends we see happening in our country and figured, better safe than sorry.  Raised as a Mormon, it was routinely pounded into my brain that we needed to have 3 years food storage. While I'm no longer Mormon, I still believe that they were right about being prepared. Our journey had begun.

Baby Step 2.: Do your research. Write your plans down and make a schedule. When possible include family and let them help you execute your plans. Develop a thick skin as you will always have someone who doesn’t get it.

I am very lucky that my 76-year-old mother has always supported me in anything I wanted to do. She is one smart woman and realized that what we were contemplating was not only to our advantage, but hers as well. If SHTF, she too would be cared for. God blessed me with a wonderful mom and to this day, she still inspires and encourages me to do my best and knows I can do anything I set my mind to do. She has also come out to the farm to help with canning, gone to yard sales looking for supplies and even come out and taken care of our animals so we could be elsewhere for a few days.

Baby Step 3: Learn to be flexible. Plans can change and rigidity can lead to disaster.

This spring we bought our first chickens. We didn’t have a coop yet, but bought chicks and had them in a big tub with a light and feeders lying on top of wood chips. Watching them grow fast, we realized that we needed a coop quickly and began to prepare in earnest. My husband designed and built a very affordable chicken tractor that would allow us to move it around to a fresh spot on our property every day so that the chickens could forage. They can get in out of the weather when needed and have a safe place to roost at night. While this was a good start, after two months of having to move it every day, we soon realized that we wanted a more permanent coop before winter. I really didn’t relish going out in the cold to move it or even to feed and water the chickens in the cold. Also, watering in a tractor in the winter could be impossible in freezing weather. We will continue to let them free range in the warm months, but are building a new 9' x 12' coop with a covered 20' x 20' run for the winter to keep them safe from hungry predators. This will also allow us to increase our flock size.

While they may be dirty little birds, they can be quite endearing as well. All of our chickens come running to greet me whenever I come out. I have a couple of small hens that when I sit down, will jump up and sit on my lap and wait to be petted. They don’t do this to my husband or anyone else, just me. This may seem weird to some readers, but they tend to lay more and larger eggs when I treat them well. They will eat any scraps we have and between the chickens and dogs, we don’t waste anything! They are now laying eggs every day and our friends and family who once thought we were nuts, are asking if we have any extra! Eventually we hope to produce enough eggs to provide local family and have extra to sell to cover the cost of feed. We will also be raising chicks to coop-ready size and selling them to folks who don’t want to raise baby chicks but want to have a small backyard coop. Again, this should offset the cost of feed and supplies. They are also great for barter or for a charity item.

Baby Step 4: Be willing to try new things.

At the beginning of summer we decided that we needed to be raising meat in some form, but couldn’t afford to buy a cow, pig, or sheep. After researching alternatives we decided to invest in rabbits, so we purchased two small female California/Mini Rex cross rabbits, and soon after added one California buck and two California does. In August we were lucky enough to obtain another California doe and a New Zealand Buck.  Breeding began. We had our first two litters last week and are getting ready to breed the other does this week. These first litters will be part of our breeding stock. Their offspring will be dinner! Many of our friends and family are watching our farm’s progress. I know when it comes time to butcher; there will be those with their hands out wanting meat since prices are steadily rising, even here in farm country. Rabbit meat tastes much like chicken but is much leaner. We have limited freezer space,  so we will be canning much of the meat as well as smoking some of it. 

Baby Step 4: Don’t get discouraged if you have to deal with stumbling blocks. Think of them as opportunities.

This was our first year to have a garden and we were very unprepared. To say that it didn’t do well is an understatement! When the opportunity to make friends with a couple of local farmers arose, I grabbed it. We now have a list of farms and orchards to get fresh fruit and veggies and have been canning up a storm.  I have even canned chicken and inexpensive cuts of beef. Later we will be doing venison and rabbit…. Yum!

We have a room with really good light exposure and I hope to grow herbs, lettuce and whatever else will grow there this winter. I’ve already signed up for a Master Gardener class in January and hope not to have the same issues with my garden next year.

We don’t typically eat much jam, but I decided to can as much of it as I could. This can be used for gifts or as barter down the line. I let all my friends and family have samplers of my Caramel Apple Jam to try. Getting volunteers to come help is no longer a problem! I can always use the help and this is also a way to get them to start thinking about prepping for themselves. Apples don’t can well unless you are making apple butter, jam or apple sauce. Using a dehydrator we have been able to put up a bushel of apple slices with a sprinkle of cinnamon and sugar. Later they can be eaten as is or added to oatmeal, bread, muffins, or anything else.

Food storage is such an important part of our survival / self-sufficiency strategy and knowing how to store is important. We would love to have a nice hidden root cellar or storage room, but it isn’t feasible yet. For now we have  converted a small room into our storage room. We purchased metal shelving from Sam’s Club that are easy to put together, take down or move and have shelf height flexibility. Everything is dated and oldest items are used first. I have divided the room into six sections.

1. Canned foods/ bottled foods
2. Non-foods such as shampoo, soap, zip-lock bags, aluminum foil, garbage bags, paper towels and toilet paper, etc.
3. First aid supplies.
4. Barter and/or gift items
5. Animal feed and supplies.
6. Seeds for next year.

One of the things that drew us to our property was the backwoods. When we initially walked the property, there were signs that deer had been bedding down in the little glade out back. Neither of us have had much experience hunting. I have been once many decades ago but really want to develop that skill-set. We bought my husband a shotgun and I’ve been encouraging him to hunt. He loves my cooking, so talking to him about a recipe for venison pot roast or spicy venison sausage gets him thinking about hunting. I may try to hunt myself, though being only five feet tall, I am unsure of how I would get it strung up or transported without the help of a much sturdier person.

Our dryer went out and the washer is on its way out. We have been nursing it along for weeks now. Instead of going out and buying another big expensive set, we have ordered a small portable washer and a dryer that mounts on the wall. We put up several retractable cloths lines, two in the house and a large one outside. While I don’t particularly like the feel of line-dried clothes, they will do in a pinch. To save on our electric bill, I am line drying everything we don’t need right away and the things we do need quickly, starting them on the line and finishing in the dryer when they are just slightly damp. This also softens them up so they don’t feel like cardboard. It is good to have options!

This summer I took up fishing and was able to stock some fish in the freezer. Some of it was carp. People say they aren’t edible, however, they are a great source of protein for our animals. I keep and process anything that was legal size. I would love to learn how to smoke them the way the Indians did. For the time being I am only able to can, freeze or dehydrate anything that we want to store.

Division of labor has been a big deal here. My husband works seven days a week most of the time and because it is third shift, his internal clock is not on the same schedule as mine. We discussed the division of labor when we first got together 17 years ago and while the workload has increased dramatically since we moved out here, we have tried to stick to it. He brings home the majority of the money that allows us to survive and I take care of the day-to-day things. I am able to generate some income from my home, but can only do so in my spare time. I currently design web site for local groups, do art work and hope to add more money to the family kitty by selling eggs, chickens and maybe a few rabbits. For any woman reading this, there are always things you can do to help your family financially. Whether it is bartering or cash, it all helps.

During our Baby Steps process, one of the most important lessons I have learned is to keep myself on a schedule. If I keep to one, I get things done in a timely manner and have extra time to read or try new things. If I miss a scheduled time, my whole day seems to be flipped upside down and I feel exhausted by days end.

I tried cleaning the rabbit hutches and coops every day, but found that it ate up too much of my time and really could be done every other day. Now I have set it up so that the chicken coop is one day and the rabbits the next. The rabbits and chickens can’t tell the difference.

There will always be extra projects to take up your time. If you stick to a schedule as much as possible, you will have time to do more! While we are still taking Baby Steps, we can foresee a future where we are self sufficient and ready for anything. With God’s blessing and many Baby Steps, we know we will survive what is to come!

We don’t have a lot of money, however with everything that is happening in the world today and all of the signs yelling in my face that I better get ready or face not being able to feed my family of 6, I started prepping.  I have taken a class at our local community college on the subject and learned a lot of very useful information.  However I didn’t stop there.  I sought out and purchased numerous books that are on the book list here at Survival Blog and did some extensive research on the subject.  Just recently I decided to write my story to share with others because I noticed that most people are purchasing their food storage items from different food storage companies and while we don’t have the money to be able to do that, I have still been able to help get my family better prepared for WTSHTF.

The first thing that I did was invest in two pigs, one of which we've already butchered, which was quite a learning experience.  I purchased what I was told was eight hens, and ended up with six hens and two roosters.  Which is fine because without roosters you can’t get more chickens unless you purchase them and WTSHTF we will not have that as an option.  I also purchased 8 goats of different breeds, six of which have died for undetermined reasons. This left me with just one male and one female.  While the death of most of my goats was a great inconvenience, I would much rather it happens now while I am able to easily replace them.  The pig that I still have is currently pregnant and is due to give birth the 1st week of October, and I have made the arrangements with a local farmer to trade one of her babies straight across for one of his males that have not been altered for breeding purposes.  With us taking these steps now, we have been able to practice butchering the animals and will have a consistent supply of fresh meat therefore taking that out of the list of things that we will need.  One thing to keep in mind when it comes to any type of livestock is that you do not need to stock up on commercial wormers and things of that nature.  Do your research and you will find out what you can use as a natural means to take care of these issues.  An example is that cantaloupe is a natural wormer for goats and pigs.  I just cut one up and feed it to them and they love it.  Also after you are done with your garden at the end of the year, don’t just leave what is left to rot or till into the ground.  You can chop up most of the stocks and use it as food for your animals.  The corn stocks are good for chickens and pig, and the list goes on and on.  Once you are done with that, just let the goats lose in your garden and they will do the rest of the cleanup for you while also fertilize the ground for next year.

Most of what we have in our food storage is done at home by me.  I can, dehydrate, and preserve almost all of the food in our storage.  There are numerous things that you can do yourself that will save you money instead of purchasing it from a food storage company, not only that you will know what is in it and can alter the ingredients to suit your family.  Today for example, I have way too many eggs in my fridge and instead of letting them go bad, I am making egg powder with the extra’s and adding it to my food storage.  To make homemade egg powder, you put the eggs in a mixing bowl, do not add milk or grease to your frying pan, and then fry them up in your frying pan, just like making scrambled eggs, but without the grease.  Once this step is complete, you put the eggs on a cookie sheet in a single layer and then put them in the oven at 135 degrees for about 10 hours.  I prefer to use the food dehydrator to do this since it takes less electricity and does not heat my house while it is getting done.  Once your eggs are completely dry and brittle, place them in a blender and blend them into a fine powder.  To store them, I use an old jelly jar that I cleaned when it was empty and then pour the egg powder into that and then place an oxygen absorber on top, seal the lid and then label it with the date and what it is and the reconstituting information.  To reconstitute powder eggs is simple, 2 T. is the same as 1 egg, mix the 2 T. with 4 T. of water and then use as you would a fresh egg. 

|The wheat that we buy for our food storage is purchased from the feed store that we currently get our animal food from.  I took the label off of a bag of wheat and called the company and asked them what the difference was between what they sell and what I can get at the store.  The guy that I spoke to explained to me that farmer’s do not decided what field they plant is going to be for human’s and what is going to be for animal’s and the only difference is that what is bought at the store goes through another [screening] cleaning step that can be done at home.  What I do is, I have an old window screen, take the wheat out of the bag and then shake it around on the screen on a breezy day. I would not suggest doing this on a windy day as it will blow away a big portion of the wheat, but on a breezy day, it is just enough to help blow away the extra dirt or left over shells that were not completely removed.  Once I am done with this, I store it in a food grade bucket that I get for free from a local fast food owner. 

The point that I am trying to get across is that you do not have to buy everything that you will need for food storage from a company, there are many things that you can do at home and then you will also be able to do it without everyone and their brother knowing what you are doing.  I can’t express enough to do your research before you begin and do not listen to everything that you hear.  I was once told that there is no way of preserving cantaloupe and I didn’t listen, did my research and found a great recipe for cantaloupe preserves that my family loves.

When it comes to water storage, we buy all of our soda and juices in the plastic containers and then when they are empty, I wash them out, sanitize them, and then refill the containers with water.  Do not do this with milk type containers as the jugs are now made to naturally decompose and when you need to use the water that you stored, you do not want to find out a minute to late that the containers have started decomposing and all of your water is now on the ground.  I go out every six months and dump the water in the garden area and refill the containers with fresh water so that I know that it has not gone bad.  When you store your water you want to keep it in a dark area, what I did for this was, I got an upright freezer that no longer works and store my water in that, it stays dark all the time except when I am adding more jugs or changing the water in the jugs.  People will give you these old none working freezers and fridges for free, you just have to look for them.  I also like using this method because I don’t have to worry about stray animals getting into them and doing their business on my containers.  Also WTSHTF and they start to get empty from using the water these containers will be used as containers for gardening, this will allow me to plant more crops without the worry of small animals getting them before we have a chance to eat what is grown.  It also is a way to grow more without others not in our group knowing what is in there, from afar it will just look like an old appliance.

With the money that we save on our food storage, I go to the local thrift stores and seek out other items that we will need.  I have purchased wheat grinders, meat grinders, and none electric items that would be useful and some that will be just nice to have.  One of the items that I purchased was a hand crack ice-cream maker.  Now if there is no electricity then you are wondering how I have going to use it, well when we hit freezing temperatures outside I can make ice that way and it will be a nice treat to the kids.  The one thing with kids is that they don’t care how cold it is outside, they just know that they like ice-cream.  I have saved so much money by going to the thrift stores and buying the items that people don’t want because they can get the new and improved version that takes less work.  These are the items that I want and use.  I have gotten 2 dehydrators from the thrift store and am able to dry twice as much in one shot.  Always remember that someone else’s trash can be your new treasure and can make life so much easier WTSHTF.

You also do not need to purchase heirloom seeds from a manufacturing company, I get mine from an organic farmer that has a roadside stand that only grows and sells heirloom varieties.  I purchase my produce from them and then preserve what I buy and then save the seeds for storage.  It is cheaper this way because I am cutting out the third party.  Just make sure that the farmer that you are getting these from is a reputable farmer and is not just saying that they are heirloom when they are not.  Again, do your research. 

Soap is one of my favorites.  I e-mail the company that sells Fels-Naptha and Borax and they will send you coupons in the mail, I then take these coupons to Wal-Mart and purchase these items as well as Arm and Hammer super washing soda.  Do not get the regular baking soda as it does not work the same, you need super washing soda.  I make our laundry soap and this soap is also good for washing dishes.  I have stocked up on enough ingredients to make two years worth of soap for laundry and dishes for under $10.  To make the soap you need, 1 bar of fels-naptha, 1 cup Arm and Hammer super washing soda, and ½ cup borax.  In a large pot boil 4 cups of water and grate the fels-naptha soap into it.  Mix it until the fels-naptha is completely dissolved.  Then place this mixture into a 5 gallon bucket and add the remaining ingredients.  Stir until everything is mixed together and then fill the bucket the rest of the way with hot tap water.  Let sit overnight and the soap will gel.  When you need to use it, stir the soap in the bucket and dilute half soap and half tap water in an old laundry container.  Shake to mix prior to every use.

I also save money when it comes to personal hygiene items.  Do not overlook the fact that you will need soap, shampoo, toothpaste and brushes, and so on.  I get most of these items for free or for fewer than 50 cents apiece.  I am able to do this because I jumped on the coupon bandwagon and do my research prior to going to the store.  There are many web sites that have already done the research for you if you do not have the time to do it yourself.  An example of one that I use is TheKrazyCouponLady.com.  When I purchase toilet paper for the house I get the bigger package and then take a few rolls out and repackage them in old plastic bags from the store and then put them up.  It is cheaper to get the bigger package and put some away for storage then it is to get the package for your house and then another for storage.  The plastic grocery bags will be used in other areas such as trash bags WTSHTF.  Always look at prices of things and try to think outside of the box when it comes to storage.  Everything has a use, don’t overlook this and think that you need to throw away things because there is nothing that they are good for.  Look around and you can probably think of something.  WTSHTF, we will need trash bags, but I am not going to stock up on them when I save the grocery bags that I get at the store for free package other items in them now and then have them with I need them.

We have four children and WTSHTF, I feel that they will be affected more than us adults will be.  What I am doing to help them during this time, is, I buy small cheap toys, coloring books, and reading books for them that are a part of our storage.  The toys that I buy are ones that do not take batteries that have been clearance out during the year and at the big clearance sales after Christmas.  I plan on using these items as birthday and Christmas presents for my kids.  This will better enable them to adapt to the new way of life as we will know it without then having to give up on everything as they know it.  They will still have these special times of the year to look forward to and will also give them a sense of normalcy in a time that will not be normal to our current way of life.

As a final thought, I would like to say, that while there are easier ways of preparing, don’t let not having the money stop you from getting ready for a time that I believe is fast approaching and is inevitable.  Think outside the box and make use of the Internet for some of your research.  Just remember that if you research things on the internet, you write down the steps of how to do whatever it is that you are looking at.  Don’t rely on your memory since WTSHTF, we will all be living life much different than we do now and it is better to have a written copy of something then try to remember something when life is already going to stressful enough.  Good Luck to everyone.

James:
This is my first time writing to SurvivalBlog. We have been raising goats and sheep for five years. Country Lady's comments in Dairy Goats 201 - Birthing Kids are pretty much on the money. We have had to pull stuck twins, bottle feed when one of our ewes' had 1/2 of her bag go dry(she had twins) and have lost sheep to pneumonia and a goat to bloating. We raise our sheep and goats for meat on the table. My wife read every book about sheep and goats that she could. It was a good information source, But in the end, our vet, who is a wonderful country vet who has seen it all, said "throw those books away!" You have to be with the animals. You have to be ready for what ever. We use old towels to wipe down the babies, we vaccinate right away and babies and mom go to a horse stall with a heat lamp for a couple days. Its can be cold in upstate Michigan. The best advise you can get when starting out is the advise of someone who has done it before. Our sheep and goat experience has been rewarding and we plan to eat if everything falls apart . Happy hobby farming , it’s a good way to be prepared. Remember to help those willing to help you! Chuck in Northern Michigan

JWR:
Being addicted to raising goats, I was quite interested to read Dairy Goats 201 - Birthing Kids, by Country Lady. I realize that if one crammed 1,000 goat breeders/raisers into a large auditorium, 1,000 different "correct" ways would probably present themselves as to birthing. I'd like to take a moment to point out several issues that in 10 years of being a goat keep I've learned:

First, re: "The father of all the babies listed below is Cappuccino, a half Nubian, half Nigerian Dwarf yearling buck. Since Cappy is fairly small, we expected easy births of smaller babies, but that turned out to be just a theory as both male kids had large Nubian heads that caused a lot of birthing pain for the two smaller does."

Bucklings, specifically Nubians, do not mature until approximately three years. A yearling might weigh 80 pounds and the same three year old might weigh in at 200 pounds. I might look to the width and depth of the pelvic cradle of the does, especially smaller breeds for inability to kid with ease.

"Anne punctured the sack with her fingernail (she had already washed her hands and poured alcohol over them)."

The alcohol is great, the puncturing might present a problem.

In a perfect delivery, goat kids would be delivered with "nose down between legs." But we don't live in a perfect world.

Presentations are likely to be breech, one leg forward with the other hitched behind the pelvic bone, or a myriad of other complications. The placenta is designed to protect and cushion the kid from the outside world until full delivery. If the presentation is not "appropriate" or one must manipulate a tangled set of limbs as the kids seem to "race to emerge first", what happens if the Placenta has been pierced? The fluid, and in some cases the Meconium can be forced back into the lungs. A kid might suffocate before emergence if the delivery is extended beyond several minutes. Worse, the kid might survive to not thrive with constant infections.

God designed a wonderful system in which a Doe in most cases will remove the membrane from the muzzle of the kid by licking. This serves numerous purposes two of which are: stimulating breathing and eliciting the cry which from first breath will be identified as "her kid" strengthening the bonding process.

"We tried to get Baby to nurse Calico, but all she would do was lick her - we realized that Baby must have been bottle-fed and did not know how to mother."

This is a fallacy that many newer individuals subscribe to. While there are Dams who are what we might consider "poor" mothers, Nature has imbued in these critters the drive to reproduce and nurture their offspring. In the case of a CAE (Caprine Arthritis-Encephalitis Virus) Positive Doe if one chooses to "reduce the transmission" (notice I do not say eliminate, but that would be another post entirely) it is imperative that the kids be removed before the Dam cleans them at all.

After years of "clean goats", I did have a positive and did pull the kids. Both Doelings delivered and mothered kids 20 months later. This year our crop of kids totaled 42. Of those I chose to remove a Quad or two, pull some as bottle babies for 4H or Show purchasers, or assist a first freshener with production issues. In the years that I have done this, not one Bottle Doe has kidded with issues of inability to Nurture with the exception of one line that seemed to have a reappearance of this trait. This line was culled as if TSHTF, coddling cannot be continued at this level.

In all it is wonderful to read of someone who enjoys raising goats. I'd encourage those who are interested to research, research, research - now. Our lines have been bred over the last six years or so to maximize production with lower grain input, increase worm resistance thereby reducing our dependency on wormer, and increase mothering skills. - Mutti (A SurvivalBlog Reader via TMM, and originator of The Goat Chronicles.)

A few months ago, SurvivalBlog posted my article entitled "Dairy Goats 101" which described some basics of goat ownership.  This follow-up article will take you through the five kiddings that we recently experienced. 

Let me start by emphasizing what many others have stated on Survival Blog:  Book learning is not enough - you must  practice survival and self-sufficiency skills.   Don't just read about having livestock, get out there and buy some animals and gain experience immediately before you need to rely on these animals for food.

To get into milk production the does must give birth.  We waited until February to breed our goats because we have long, wet springs - goats are susceptible to pneumonia when wet or chilled.  Five months later in sunny June and July our five does gave birth.  I read books and web sites about birthing baby goats, the only problem is that most of my goats did not read the same books! 

About two weeks before our first doe was due to kid, I prepared a birthing kit containing large and small towels, paper towels, The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery, a bulb syringe, alcohol, and an iodine tincture. I added another large bag of towels, it seems that you just cannot have too many towels, especially when twins come along.  With each birth we spread  towels to keep the babies off the dirt and straw.  This made it easier for the mothers to clean them off and prevented contamination with feces.  We also wiped noses and mouths and sometimes suctioned them out if there was a lot of mucous. 

Assisting with birthing animals is not for the faint-hearted or those with weak stomachs.  My teenage daughter was quite put off by the  amniotic sacs, membranes, fluids and blood attending each birth.  Watching a doe eat the afterbirth is a bit unsettling, but is important for both predator protection and nourishment.  After delivery, I prepared a large bowl of warm water with molasses for the mother.  Some does drank two bowls; a couple refused it entirely.

The father of all the babies listed below is Cappuccino, a half Nubian, half Nigerian Dwarf yearling buck.  Since Cappy is fairly small,  we expected easy births of smaller babies, but that turned out to be just a theory as both male kids had large Nubian heads that caused a lot of birthing pain for the two smaller does.

Birth #1.  Nana, our large Alpine doe, let me know she was ready to deliver while I was milking another doe early in the morning.  How did she communicate this to me?  She stuck her head over the fence to get my attention, then I saw her extremely full udder and that there were two deep hollows on either side of her backbone where it connects to the tail.  I finished milking in record time, then used a halter to slowly lead Nana to a clean stall in our new barn.  We stopped along the way for each contraction and then she bedded down in a clean stall with fresh hay. 

First she passed a mucous plug, which she promptly ate.  Nana is an experienced mother.  She even sucked the wax plugs out of her teats during the contractions so her kids would be able to get the milk easier.  I called my neighbor for help when I noticed a chunk of tissue coming out where I expected to see a sac of amniotic fluid.  Anne, my neighbor,  did not know what the tissue was, but by now the contractions were coming much stronger and finally a sac started to emerge.  Anne punctured the sack with her fingernail (she had already washed her hands and poured alcohol over them).  Soon we saw two little feet, then a nose.  Anne put steady downward traction on the legs during each contraction.   Traction  means that she did not try to pull the kid out, just held the legs downward so they didn't slip back inside between contractions.  Soon a slippery little kid was out and struggling to get on her feet.  We helped wipe the kid down while Nana licked her feverishly, making soothing goat sounds the entire time.  We understood her hurry when she laid down and a second sac began to emerge.  This kid was born much more quickly and again Nana did a great job of licking and cooing to her baby.   About an hour later Nana delivered her afterbirth - a slimy mass of tissue, fluids and blood.  It is important that the entire afterbirth comes out or deadly infections and/or bleeding can occur.  Nana ate part of it, but as soon as she lost interest, I used a plastic bag to gather up the rest and I put it in the trash - we did not want to bury or compost it because the scent would attract our dogs and the local coyotes, mountain lions and bears.

Nana obviously read the same book I did and had a classic delivery - two beautiful twin girls, Keri and Fawn,  who were on their feet within ten minutes of birth and experts at nursing after we helped them a couple of times.   To help a newborn latch onto a teat,  get them sucking on your finger then use your other hand to push the teat into their mouth, squeezing a little milk so they get the taste.  Pushing their heads onto the teat does not work well. 

For several days I had to milk Nana because her udder became too full for the kids to latch on.  After that  I put her in the milking stand with some grain and minerals  just to get her in the routine for milking.

Birth #2. Baby is a sweet half Pygora, half Nubian doe.  She was very uncomfortable during her pregnancy, resting on her front knees when she laid down and not wanting  to be around the other goats.  I eventually put her in an entryway by herself at night.

Baby's birthing process was an absolute disaster.  She went into labor one evening 20 days prior to her due date (typical gestation is about five months). Instead of being bedded down in a clean stall in the new barn, she went back to the old barn which was filthy and gave birth in quick succession to two small, weak kids.  Then Baby began to bloat.  She was grinding her teeth, breathing rapidly and obviously in great pain.  She could not take care of her kids or move.  We figured she was bleeding internally and was unable to pass the placenta.  I thought we would have to put her down if her suffering grew much worse.  We wrapped the kids in towels and kept rubbing them down to get them dry and warm. The male kid was chilled from the time he dropped and died within an hour.  The little doe, whom we named Calico, was stronger. 

We checked on Baby throughout the night and about 3:00 a.m. she had passed the placenta.  In the morning we showed her her daughter (Calico was too weak to stand).  We tried to get Baby to nurse Calico, but all she would do was lick her - we realized that Baby must have been bottle-fed and did not know how to mother.  Calico put up a good fight for a day and a half  (we used a heating pad to keep her warm and an eye dropper to feed her) then she too died.  We kept Calico with  Baby for several hours after she died so Baby would know that she had lost her kid.  Still, two days later when Baby regained her strength, she spent many hours each day looking for Calico and crying for her. 

I had to start milking her due to udder engorgement and it is still difficult to get her to stand still for a milking.  Her teats are small so milking takes a long time.  However, she is giving a half gallon a day of rich, sweet milk.  Now when I lock her into the milking stand I give her a lot of fresh grass along with a bit of grain to keep her occupied while I milk.  Some days it works, some days she fights and fidgets the whole time.  With does who kick and fidget, I milk into small glass jars, emptying them into a larger jar every few minutes.  Much more milk is saved this way.

Our research revealed that the most common cause of premature birth is being butted in the side during pregnancy.   We sold Becky, a doe who continually butted other goats in the side, when we learned this.

Birth #3. We knew that Holly (a mixture of Alpine, Nigerian Dwarf and Nubian) had been bottle-fed, so we were concerned about her ability to mother.  During the latter stages of the pregnancy I noticed that she had an extra teat right above her normal teat on one side of her udder. Her labor began normally, but then the contractions got stronger with no results.  Finally I saw the hooves and began to feel around for a head, then I realized that this was only one very large hoof and I couldn't find the other foot at first.  Again, we called Anne. 

With the contractions getting more forceful and Holly arching her back and screaming in pain, Anne finally got the second hoof out.  Then she extended one leg more than the other to allow more room for the head.  While Anne was at the action end, I was comforting Holly and helping support her body during the strenuous contractions.  With tremendous  effort, Holly managed to get the head out and delivered a healthy buck kid.  The head was Nubian-style, much larger than an Alpine head.  She licked him a little, but we did the majority of the cleaning up.  Anne and my husband helped Holly get to her feet after a while.  She did not eat her afterbirth so we disposed of it.  By the way, washing huge loads of towels was an almost daily chore during kidding time.

Holly delivered late at night so I spent the night in the barn.  She had apparently put something out of place in her neck during labor because she shook her head and cried most of the night.  I comforted her and helped her kid nurse when he wanted to.  She  recovered the next day.  Holly is not  a wonderful mother, but she does an adequate job.  Because of the udder defect we sold her as a pet along with Bandit, her son, to some very nice people who adore her.

Birth #4.  Boots is 100% Nigerian Dwarf, a real cutie and an experienced mother.   Generally a rather timid, stand-offish gal, she buddied up to me before her kidding time.  I spend a lot of time with each doe to be sure we have a bond during labor - which translates to them waiting for me before they give birth and delivering in the barn rather than off on the mountainside. 

Boots did not read the book.  Her ligaments thinned three days prior to kidding and she had a mucous show every morning.  After a few days no one believed me when I said that Boots was going to kid that day. 

On the third day, Boots was ready to go into full labor when a friend arrived for a tour of the property.
While Boots put her labor on hold due to the interruption, our friend  taught us how to use our dehorning iron by disbudding the two kids who were ready.  One of the twins turned out to be naturally polled (hornless).  He also showed me how to tell when the back ligaments are fully relaxed by feeling along the backbone.  He said that Boots would deliver  within a few hours. 

As soon as he left, Boots laid down and went into serious labor.  Again, hard contractions and no action, so dear Anne arrived again.  This time my husband learned how to do the gentle traction as the legs were delivered.  Boots worked very hard to deliver a large buck kid with a Nubian head.  (Nubians have large wide heads, Alpines tend to be narrow and wedge-shaped).  It is unnerving to have your little goats screaming in pain.

Boots also has  a defective udder.  She has double teats on one side,  both of which give milk.  I had to milk that side out for several days until her son was strong enough to handle both teats - now that seems to be his favorite side.  We also sold Boots and her son as pets.

Birth #5. Angel Rose is the daughter of Nana and also a full-blooded Alpine.  This was her first kidding.  Her  ligaments thinned  and her bag got tight with milk, but she did not go into labor that day.  I checked on her a few times in the evening, then opened my bedroom window so I could hear any noises from the barn during the night. 

Early in the morning I ran out and checked, but still no action, so I turned her out with the other mothers.  I was home alone and Anne out of town.  It was afternoon when I saw Angel Rose lying down under the trees.  I checked and sure enough there was a membrane showing and definite contractions.  I coaxed her back into the barn with a bowl of grain.  She ate some blackberries  I picked for her and seemed pretty relaxed.  I went to turn off some hoses in the orchard and by the time I got back I could see two hooves  through the sac. I punctured the sac and soon  a little nose and tongue protruded.  A couple of easy pushes later her kid was born and she began licking and cleaning her up. A few minutes later I saw three different sacs protruding from her .  Deciding it was best to just trust God that all would work out, I enjoyed watching the new baby get to her feet quickly and start looking for food.  But just as she starting rooting in the right spot, Angel Rose moved away, laid down and quickly delivered another kid with the same ease as the first one.  No screams, no hard labor; you would never know this was her first birth.  While the second kid was being born, kid #1 crawled over to her mother, found a teat and nursed as her sister came out.  The second little doe was trying to stand up before the hindquarters were delivered.  All I basically did was put towels in the right places.

Angel Rose was fastidious about cleaning herself up after the birth, so I gathered the twins onto my lap and they took a nap until the afterbirth was delivered and eaten by their mother.   While you do have to make sure that the entire afterbirth is delivered, you do not need watch it get eaten!  I named the precious little girls Sugar and Spice.

So to sum up our experience:  We had it easy, all the presentations were feet and head first, no breech births.  While the two smaller does struggled with the large heads, they both delivered without tearing because Anne used clean gentle fingers to help ease those heads out of the birth canal.  We are very pleased with the four doe kids and will be keeping them as a three-way cross that we expect will give lots of rich milk (from the Nubian and Nigerian Dwarf breeds) for a long time (from the Alpine side).

Because we are keeping the daughters, we have also sold Cappuccino, their father.  We will not be breeding any does this coming fall and to keep Cappy separate from the herd for a year-and-a-half seemed a waste.  To avoid the large head issue, we are going to get a Nigerian Dwarf  or Alpine buck in a year so that all our does can have smaller babies.    We will also be keeping the pregnant does in separate stalls to prevent injury during the latter stages of their pregnancy. 

Within a few days of birth all the kids with horn buds must be disbudded unless you keep a horned herd.  The two kinds cannot mix because goats like to butt each other.  Disbudding is a painful, but quick process that kills the horn cells with extreme heat.  We bought a highly recommended disbudding iron, the Rhinehart X-30 with a pygmy tip, for about $70, online.  We use three people to disbud.  My husband uses a leather glove on one hand to hold the head still and protect the ear while the other hand  holds  the hot iron.  My daughter holds the rear legs off the ground to prevent jumping and I support the upper chest, front legs and help stabilize the head.  It is not easy for us to deliberately inflict pain on our baby goats, but we do three 2-second holds  on each horn bud to be sure the job is done right.  The kids scream bloody murder while the iron is touching them, but quiet down as soon as it is off.  We carry them right back to their mothers afterwards.  Usually they run and play within minutes while we need a few hours to calm down.  Since we sold the buck kids at a young age we made sure that the new owners would know how to castrate them in a few months. 

[JWR Adds: A hinged-lid kid holding box can easily be constructed from plywood. (There are are also commercially-made boxes, available from companies like Caprine Supply.) A disbudding box has a hole for the kid's head. The box minimizes the squirming factor, thus making disbudding safer, and reduces it to just a two-man job. In my experience, a box that is narrower than those shown in most of the online plans works best. The only crucial dimensions are the box height and the size of the neck aperture. Also, do not wimp out on the number of seconds that the iron must be applied, or the germinal roots will grow sharp horn scurs, which can be worse than full-size horns.]

Now that the birthing is behind us, we spend lots of time each day just enjoying the antics of these adorable kids.  They run, jump, climb and play king of the mountain on every stump, then snuggle into chairs, boxes and hollow logs for their naps.  They are learning their names and in a few years will be having kids of their own and providing milk for our homestead.  I am milking two goats presently, getting 1-1/2 gallons of milk daily and making cheese, yogurt, ice cream and kefir to add nutrition and variety to our diet.  I love my goats!

This is a good time of year to buy some goats.  Check out Craigslist, the local feed store, and shopper ads.  Get to know someone who has raised goats for many years who can mentor your first year.  Start small and enjoy these amazing creatures while you become more prepared to face an uncertain future.

Food storage is important for short term survival, and everyone should have at least a six months to a multi-year food supply. But long term survival requires that you grow your own food. Whether it is TEOTWAWKI or just losing your income because you were laid off from your job, a home food production system is essential to your security.

Most successful food production systems involve using a greenhouse for year round food production, as a greenhouse extends the growing season, and shields your crops from severe weather. Another advantage is that a greenhouse is better protected from nuclear, biological, and chemical warfare than open field farming. And a greenhouse has greater physical security than an open field against pests and animals that might want to share in your harvest, whether they have four legs or two.

One problem with a greenhouse is providing an efficient watering system that doesn't require you to hand water your plants, and that will reclaim the run-off or excess water that would otherwise be lost into the floor of the greenhouse. Water is always an expense, and if your city water supply or electric powered well pump is not working, then it would be almost impossible to manually haul enough water by hand to maintain your greenhouse plants. Another problem is how to keep the temperature of the greenhouse stable without using propane or electric heaters. A greenhouse needs to store the heat collected during the day, and slowly release this heat so that the plants won't freeze when the sun goes down. I believe that the concept of "Aquaponics" solves both of these problems, and is the perfect technique for growing food off the grid in a greenhouse.

Aquaponics is a combination of Hydroponics (growing plants in water), and Aquaculture (growing fish in water). Aquaponics uses low energy water pumps to move the water from the fish tank through a gravel-filled bed to filter the water for the fish, while providing water for the plants growing in the gravel bed. The low pressure water pumps recycle the water for continuous use, and require a very small amount of electricity power which can be provided by a solar panel.

The fish in an Aquaponic system are a good survival protein source, but more importantly the fish create ammonia as a waste product, which provides fertilizer for the plants. The fish ammonia is converted into liquid nitrate fertilizer by autotrophic bacteria that reside in the gravel-filled growing beds, which is where the plants are raised. The water pump moves the water from fish tank into the gravel filled grow beds and back to the fish tank, thereby watering all of the plants automatically, while purifying the water for the fish by removing the ammonia. Around 98% of the water is conserved and reused, with very little makeup water needed. This solves the large water consumption problem that most greenhouses have. And, the large amount of water contained in the fish tank (ours has nearly 1,000 gallons) acts as a temperature buffer, which moderates the daily swings in temperature in the greenhouse by storing the excess heat during the day, and gently emitting the heat each night to keep the plants from freezing. The thermal storage capacity of the water based Aquaponic system fully complements any "Solar Greenhouse" design.

Aquaponics produces a large amount of organically grown food, as much if not more than a standard hydroponic greenhouse, without purchasing any hydroponic chemicals. Once you have the system set up, it pretty much runs itself with much less effort than traditional gardening. And if you can grow your own fish food from duckweed, black soldier fly larvae, earthworms, crickets, etc., then the system becomes almost completely self contained.

Our setup is pretty simple, and cost around $1,500. We built a small greenhouse frame using recycled wood. Inside we built our Aquaponic structure that is 8' x 8' wide and 8' tall. The foundation of the structure is an 8' x 8' wide by 2' deep fish tank made out of 2x12 lumber lined with a 12 mil rubber liner, all of which rests on concrete blocks. Above the fish tank are 4 gravel filled grow-beds mounted on 8' tall 4x4 posts. The grow beds are wooden boxes made from 2x12 lumber that are 8' long, 2' 6" wide, and one foot deep. The grow-beds are spaced 5' and 8' off the ground directly above the fish tank, mounted on top of each other like bunk beds with a walkway between them. Since the grow-beds are only 2' 6" wide, there is room between them for a 3' catwalk over the fish tank to let us stand and work between the two sets of stacked grow-beds.

There are a lot of ways to build a cheaper aquaponic system. Once way is by using recycled plastic barrels for the fish tanks, and making the grow beds by cutting plastic barrels longways and laying them on their sides on a wooden rack and filling them with gravel, and then plumbing everything together with PVC pipe. You can also do it on a small scale with a standard aquarium and small water pump to push water through your potted plants on the windowsill, as long as you have a place for a "biofilter" such as a gravel filled bed or refugium where the bacteria that changes the ammonia into nitrogen can reside.

A working "biofilter" is the key ingredient to a good aquaponics system, as the bacteria in the biofilter keeps the fish water clean, and changes ammonia into nitrogen for the plants. The bacteria need to reside in a wet environment that has plenty of oxygen, and little or no light. A gravel bed that is alternately flooded and drained, is perfect for this type of bacteria to thrive in. Other aquaponic solutions, such as Nutrient Film Technique (NFT) and Deep Water Raft Technique, use a large amount of netting submerged in the water to give a place for the bacteria to reside. We chose a grow-bed filled with 1 foot of gravel as our biofilter, as it is simpler to build.

The bacteria in the gravel biofilter changes the ammonia into nitrogen in two steps. The first step is performed by the Nitrosomonas bacteria, which changes the total fish ammonia (NH3 and NH4+) into nitrite (NO2). The next process is accomplished by the Nitrobacter bacteria that changes the nitrite (NO2) into nitrate (NO3), which the plants use as fertilizer. The ammonia and nitrites are very toxic to fish, while the nitrates are fairly harmless, so it is important to monitor the bacteria by testing the water quality using the inexpensive aquarium test strips sold at any pet store. As long as you have a large amount of gravel or other media for the bacteria to colonize, your water quality won't be an issue. If you are using sterile media, you won't have any bacteria to start with, and you will need to purchase the bacteria from an aquarium shop or from Fritz-Zyme. We used gravel from a creek, as the Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter bacteria is always abundant in river gravel. Since these two types of bacteria work in tandem and do not reproduce quickly, it may take anywhere from 2 to 4 weeks to ramp up the bacteria to full production. So, it may important not to add a large number of fish at the same time unless you already have a good supply of bacteria at work in your system.

Our first step in construction of our Aquaponic system was to lay an 8' x 8' "carpet" of around 40 concrete blocks for the foundation of the fish tank. It took a long time to get the blocks level using a spirit level and a long 2x4, but this is probably the most crucial part of the construction. The next step was to build the fish tank out of wood, that would ultimately be fitted with a rubber liner. I created a square box out of 2x12 lumber standing on their edges, that was a little less than 8' x 8' and held together by wood screws. I designed it so that the 2x12's had an extra 3.5" overlap or "flap" on each of the corners, so I could drill holes and put carriage bolts through the 4x4 posts and 2x12 sides from two different directions on each of the outside corners. This holds the wood seams together. It is very important to "overbuild" the tank seams on a wooden fish tank with carriage bolts, wood screws, etc. as the water pressure is very great. Once I had my square box built, I made sure it was perfectly "square" by measuring the distances diagonally across from each corner. When these two distances were the same, I knew it was square. Then I covered what was to be the bottom of the tank with 8' long 2x4s, nailed into the 2x12s with a 2" gap between each 2x4. When I turned the 8'x8' box over and placed it on the concrete block foundation, the gaps between the 2x4s allowed me to put shims between the blocks and the 2x4s, so that each concrete block was helping to evenly support the 2x4s that held up the fish tank.

For the bottom of the fish tank, I nailed an 8'x8' section of heavy duty 1" flooring over the 2x4s that were shimmed against the concrete blocks. The next step was to secure the second set of 2x12s standing on edge on top of the first set, to bring the fish tank up to two feet in depth. I again secured it to the 4x4s with carriage bolts in all of the corners, all the while making sure the 4x4 posts were plumb. Copious amounts of wood screws were added wherever possible. After this I inserted the rubber liner to make the tank hold water.

I calculated the weight of the water in the tank as follows: 8' x 8' x 2' equals 128 cubic feet of water, times 7.5 gallons per cubic foot, equals 960 gallons of water. With around eight pounds per gallon, this would give a total of 7,680 pounds of water, not to mention the gravel beds. So, I am giving a lot of detail on how to over-engineer the fish tank, as with this much weight and water, there will be no small failures, only big ones.

Now this is a very large tank, and as you can always add more grow-beds or an NFT system to the tank, but it is not so easy to add another fish tank that is incorporated with the pumps into the same aquaponic system. The general ratio from the research I have read is that you can use 2 cubic feet of gravel growbed for each cubic feet of water in the fish tank. Since I plan to feed my family off this system, I thought it was better to start with a moderately large fish tank, and then add more grow beds later. And, the larger your tank, the less problems you will have with any rapid changes in temperature, pH, Ammonia, or other problems. A larger tank with over 500 gallons of water buffers most problems, and gives you more time to find a solution and correct it.

The construction of the grow beds was much easier, as there were no real water pressure issues. I nailed 2x12s to the upright 4x4 posts to form boxes that are 8' long, and 2'6" wide. For the bottom of the grow-beds, I nailed 2x4s laid on their sides, and covered them with 1" flooring, topped off with the same 12 mil rubber liner I used on the fish tank, which I purchased at FarmTek.

The next part was the plumbing. I used rubber Uniseal bulkheads to hold the 1" PVC pipe straight up for a stand pipe drain in the bottom of each grow bed. The Uniseal is great, you just drill a hole with a hole saw through the rubber liner and 1" flooring in the growbed, and insert the rubber Uniseal bulkhead, and then slide the PVC pipe through the bulkhead. The 1" PVC pipe is a tight fit, but there are no leaks, and you can pull the pipe out later if you have a problem. To keep the gravel away from the stand pipe, I used a 3" PVC pipe about 8" long that I drilled with about 50 ¼" holes and nested the 3" pipe around the 1" standpipe.

By stacking the grow-beds on top of each other like bunk beds and placing the inputs and drains on opposite ends, and I make the water traverse the entire length of each of the two gravel-filled grow-beds in the stack before it can return to the fish tank. I use two 330 gallon per hour fountain pumps I got from Lowe's to pump water to the top growbed. Since it takes about 15 minutes for the grow-beds to fill up, and about 45 minutes for them to drain, I set a timer that runs the pumps for 15 minutes on the hour. This gives me the "ebb and flow" water system that is crucial to aquaponics. Each growbed needs to fill up with water to irrigate the plants and the bacteria for the system to operate. But each growbed also needs to dump all of the water back out, so that oxygen can reach the plant roots, and the bacteria can function. If you don't drain the water, you will have an anaerobic condition (no oxygen), and your plant roots will die and harmful types of bacteria will begin to develop.

One way to create an "ebb and flow", or "flood and drain" cycle is to use a Bell Siphon, which will automatically siphon all of the water out of the grow bed once it reaches a certain depth. Bell siphons are widely used in Aquaponics, and the University of Hawaii has a good research PDF on how to build one. However, the bell siphon can malfunction, and they assume that your water pumps will run continuously. That is, with a bell siphon, if your pumps quit working, you may end up with a grow bed half full of water and no drainage. I opted to build something simpler, with just a 6" long stand pipe out of 1" PVC, with a ¼" drain hole just above the bulkhead. The stand pipe is the main drain pipe, that sticks straight up and keeps the water from ever cresting higher than 6" deep, as it will just flow into the pipe. The ¼" drain hole just above the bulkhead keeps a continual drain going, but the amount of water it relieves is less than the 330 gallon per hour pump is putting into the growbed. So, after the growbed fills up and the water crests over the standpipe, the timer will shut the water off and the rest of the water will slowly flow back out through the ¼" hole at the bottom of the standpipe. I found this approach to be more energy efficient for an off-grid system, and the water retention period in the growbeds is long enough for the ammonia-eliminating bacteria to function completely.

Using "free" river gravel for the media in the grow bed is the cheapest option possible, but other media options are vermiculite, perlite, expanded clay balls (which are sold under the trade names of Hydroton and LECA for Lightweight Expanded Clay Aggregate), and coconut fiber, which is also called "coir". We have tried adding a layer of coir over our river gravel, and found that it makes it easier to start the plants from seed over planting directly in the river gravel. The coir does not deteriorate, is PH neutral, and wicks the water up to keep the seeds moist for germination. You can get 35 pounds of coir in compressed bricks from Terra Prima Industries for around $70 with shipping.

Fish selection is another topic for Aquaponics. Tilapia are the most commonly used fish, as they are herbivores that eat algae and aquatic plants, grow very fast, handle crowding well, and are very prolific breeders. Tilapia are mouth-brooders, and raise their young inside the mother's mouth. Tilapia have a lot of advantages, but they cannot handle cold water. The White Nile Tilapia, which grows the fastest of the species, will show stress at water temperatures less than 62 degrees, and will die at 55 degrees. The Blue Tilapia is the most cold tolerant, but will die at temperatures less than 50 degrees. Tilapia really need 80 degree water. If you are off the grid in a cold climate with Tilapia, you will need to find a way to heat the water to these temperatures, year round. This means some sort of solar thermal panel that will thermo-siphon or otherwise pump hot water up to the fish tank. Fish cannot handle thermal shock or any quick changes in water temperature, so you will have to construct some sort of heat exchanger that can fit inside the fish tank. This adds a lot of complexity to an off grid food production system.

For this reason, I chose to go with Bluegill, as they can handle water temperatures down to 39 degrees, and the greenhouse always keeps the water at least that warm without assistance. Another reason I chose Bluegill is that they are much cheaper than Tilapia, as I cannot get Tilapia locally. The "Tilapia Source" is a great company to work with, but they would have to overnight them to me for $70, plus charge $2 a fish – for a total of $170 for 50 Tilapia fingerlings. Instead, I bought 100 Bluegill for only $40.00 from Farley's Fish Farm from their truck that came to our local Farmer's Co-Op. Farley's serves about 12 or 13 states here in the Southeast USA, and I found them to be a very reasonable resource for fish.

Bluegill is a good fish for Aquaponics, as they handle crowding well, can tolerate various PH and other water quality issues, and do not generally eat each other. Other fish used in Aquaponics are Catfish, Yellow Perch, Bass, Koi, Goldfish, and sometimes Trout.

I had a minor problem in the beginning with a fish disease called "Columnaris", which I diagnosed from from a "Fish Pharmacy" web site. Columnaris is a small white growth that occurs on the fins. The Fish Pharmacy web site had a toxic pharmacy solution for every fish problem. However, in Aquaponics you are not going to be able to treat the fish with anything that is not organic, or that you would not eat yourself. This excludes all of the anti-fungal treatments, or any medicine that contains some type of poison. Even the regular antibiotics that are meant for fish are not meant for humans to eat, and need to be excluded. I found from research on the web that Columnaris responds well to the addition of salt and other minerals to the water, on the order of 1 tablespoon for every 50 gallons of water. For my setup, I put over a cup of sea salt into the water, and the disease has began to retreat, with only one fish still showing signs. Columnaris is in almost every fish tank, and probably came in with the fish, or in the river gravel I used. It finds an opening when the fish are mishandled in some way. My mistake was to not acclimate the temperature of the fish when I brought them home in a bag from the fish truck, which created a lot of stress. We should have let the bag float in the water for 15 minutes before letting the fish out. The thermal shock and other rough handling I did on day one is probably the reason for the Columnaris problem. But since I only had to add sea salt to the fish tank to correct the problem, I will have no worries about eating the fish at some point. I can discard any fish that show signs of Columnaris, if they still have that problem when I harvest, and only eat the best. I know exactly how these fish have been raised, and what has gone into them, which is much better than what you buy at the supermarket. But what I find most reassuring about raising and eating fish I raise is that when the fish are eaten fresh, there are very few diseases that fish have can be passed on to humans, unlike the trichina worms that pigs can give to humans, tularemia in rabbits, tetanus in horse meat, etc. These diseases can kill you if you live in a time without access to modern medicine. Columnaris won't hurt humans, and aquaponically raised fish will not generally have diseases that affect humans, and so are a very healthy source of protein.

But the real purpose of the fish in Aquaponics is not just for food, but to provide the ammonia to power the bacteria-based fertilization system. If you don't have fish, any organic ammonia source can work. In a TEOTWAWKI situation, the ammonia contained in human urine can work just as well as what the fish produce, and while waiting for my fish to arrive, I actually used this technique to jump start the bacteria in the system. The result was that the water clarity improved once the bacteria were given enough ammonia to thrive. Another option if you don't have fish is to use the ammonia and nitrogen found in a "manure tea", which is made by placing horse manure in a burlap bag and immersing it in the water tank for short periods of time.

Dissolved oxygen in the water is another important topic. Using an air pump to diffuse oxygen through airstones in the fish tank improves water quality by helping the aerobic bacteria to grow and the fish to be active and healthy. Without an air pump, you cannot raise enough fish to power the nitrogen needs of the plants. I purchased a 65 liter/minute Eco Plus Commercial Air Pump from AquaCave for $79.95. This pulls 35 watts on 110 AC, and is quite sufficient, as it easily powers four 12 inch airstones in the tank, plus 4 48" flexible air curtain diffusers I buried under the gravel in the grow-beds to help aerate the bacteria there. This is a floating piston commercial type of air pump, as the standard diaphragm pumps would not have enough power or longevity. For a backup system when the power goes out, I bought a 25 watt 12 volt DC air compressor from AquaCave that runs directly from a 125 amp-hour marine battery, which gives over 2 days of run time. To kick in the DC compressor when the 110 AC power goes out, we used a small plug-in DC transformer to hold open a relay, both of which we ordered from Jameco. When the 110 power goes out, the transformer loses current, and the relay closes which completes the circuit for the DC compressor to draw power from the battery. For a large Aquaponic system with over 100 fish, you have to have redundant air systems, for if the fish go for more than four hours without air they will asphyxiate.

In calculating our total power consumption for running the Aquaponic system using solar panels, the two 330 gallon per hour water pumps for the grow-beds draw 13 watts each, but run only 15 minutes each hour, for an average hourly usage of 6.5 watts. Adding the 25 watt DC air compressor gives a very low total power consumption rate of 31.5 watts. Solar panels and a few marine batteries can easily power this system if you are permanently off grid, and I hope to do this soon.

But to be truly off-grid with Aquaponics involves more than just using solar panels, as you need to create your own fish food as input to the system. Right now, I am using some water containers to grow Duckweed (which is an aquatic plant with high protein that the fish love), but mainly rely on Purina catfish food to feed the fish. To close the loop that would make me independent, I will be building a compost pod that harvests Black Soldier Fly Larvae, along with giving the fish the earthworms from the compost pile. Another protein source I am using is a small electric light about 4 inches over the fish tank with a timer that turns on at night. The bugs fly in and bounce against the light and into the fish tank, where the bluegill snap them up. Now that's a good bug lamp!

The output of produce from the Aquaponic setup is phenomenal. The cucumbers, tomatoes and basil are growing about 3 times faster than in my container garden, and 5-6 times faster than using traditional soil techniques. For more scientific proof on the superiority of Aquaponic gardening, a Canadian research group has written a paper that indicates how Aquaponics outperforms hydroponics. Will Allen of Growing Power has a great video that shows how he grows 1 million pounds of food on 3 acres using Aquaponics. The tremendous production potential of Aquaponics over traditional gardening techniques should make anyone that has a greenhouse investigate Aquaponics.

My next step for the Aquaponic project has been to develop a Nutrient Film Technique (NFT) setup, which consists of running the fish effluent through 20' long sections of vinyl gutters, which feeds the plants that are mounted with their roots in the gutters. Thin plywood is mounted on top of the gutters, with a 2" hole drilled every 6 to 8 inches. Inside the holes I put nylon netting that holds some pea gravel to provide support for the plant roots in the nutrient-rich fish water. The top of the plants grow on top of the plywood. The gutters have a 40:1 slope (6" over 20'), and a small pump puts water into the high end, with the water transversing the gutters and draining back into the fish tank. This is nearly identical to a standard hydroponic setup, except I am using renewable fish effluent from the fish tank instead of purchasing standard hydroponic chemicals to feed the plants.

YouTube is an excellent video resource for understanding the various Aquaponic systems. A quick search on YouTube for "Aquaponics" will bring up many videos. Be sure to find the videos by Will Allen at Growing Power (an aquaponic farm in downtown Milwaukee ), or by Nelson and Pade who did much of the original Aquaponic research, or any videos by "Backyard Aquaponics" which is located in Western Australia. Aquaponics is very big in Australia as it is a good solution for gardening in a dry climate. One of the best technical articles online to understand the technology of Aquaponics is "Optimization of Backyard Aquaponic Systems." Any articles written by Dr. James Rakocy of the University of the Virgin Islands would provide another expert source for Aquaponics. Wikipedia also has a good article that gives an excellent overview of Aquaponics, and the picture in Wikipedia of the "small portable Aquaponic system" (which came from Growing Power) is the model I used for my system. I just kept looking at this picture, and it finally dawned on me how simple this is. For more technical advice, the book "Aquaponic Food Production" by Nelson and Pade will teach you everything you need to know.

Most preppers live, or hope to live, as far away from the city as possible. But the problem with rural life is the lack of a steady income. An Aquaponic greenhouse can potentially earn enough to make rural living possible, as long as you can occasionally get to a market to sell your produce. Aquaponics is the only type of hydroponic vegetables that can be certified 100% organic, as all other types of hydroponic vegetables use inorganic chemicals for their nutrients. Premium organically raised vegetables will command much higher prices at restaurants and stores that cater to health conscious buyers. But Aquaponics gives you something that no other organic producer can create, and that is, organic produce with roots that have never touched any soil. You can sell lettuce and other vegetables with the roots attached, as no dirt will have ever been on your roots. By leaving the roots attached and not injuring the plant, the "living lettuce" and other vegetables you sell will keep much longer and your profit will be greater.

The one final thing I have to say about Aquaponics is that it gives any prepper something even better than a nearly endless supply of food, and that is, a large quantity of water. If everything else fails and I end up eating all my fish and produce, I still have 960 gallons of water that I can filter and use. In fact, if I extract the water as it comes out of the gravel-filled grow beds, it already has a good amount of filtration, and is probably healthier to drink than the chlorinated and fluoride filled water that comes out of a city tap. Every prepper needs a large amount of stored water, and this is a great way to do it.

Dear Mr. Rawles:
A few months ago I sent in an article titled, 'Midget White Turkey, the Perfect Homestead Bird'.  The article described everything as it was...then.  But we've had a few hitches and I thought if people are preparing for serious times, they might want to know some of the problems we've also faced (and are facing) raising turkeys, especially since Survivalblog keeps a 'library' of all the articles that come in and someone might be using our article as a guide.

After the first successful hatch, we were unable to raise a second one.  Multiple candlings showed most eggs were fertile and began to grow, but then the eggs died.  Changes of nest, weather, which birds were allowed to set, etc., did no good.  Clutch after clutch failed to hatch.  The eggs that were incubated didn't hatch, either. 

There really isn't much out there about Midget Whites, but we finally found someone at a hatchery who was able to shed light on our problem.  It seems that turkey eggs only have about a 50% hatch rate even among the experts.  The hatchery lady said we were very lucky on our first hatch.  The key, she said, is to be sure to have clean eggs, even washing them in a solution designed for eggs.  Bacteria is said to be the big culprit in losses, but there are also tight protocols for incubators.  We don't mind working hard if we get birds out of this!  We're following the new lead now and hope to have more success.  But we would like your readers to know that if the 50% hatch rate is true, this isn't the ultimate meat bird we were recommending and hoping for ourselves. 

The breed doesn't have to be artificially inseminated, is hardy in winter, the birds are calm to work with, and all the rest we said is true.  But without better hatch rates, the feed to meat conversion rate is pretty bad. - L.C.

JWR:
Texas Rancher’s comments on fence building are spot on.  Build it right the first time or you’ll regret it.  If you’re in big country, then barbed wire is the way to go.  If you have a smaller place, from a few acres to a few hundred acres, you may want to consider high tensile electric fences.  High tensile fencing has a number of advantages over other types of fencing, particularly if you live in an area where there are trees.

If you’re not familiar with high tensile electric fencing take a look at  Kencove.com  They are a good source for information and supplies. 

High tensile fencing is as close to indestructible as a fence can be.  I’ve had trees two feet in diameter come down on the fence.  If they haven’t hit a post I can take a chain saw, cut the tree off the fence and the fence springs back into place.  This happens because the fence is built with springs on each strand of wire.  When something hits the fence, be it a tree or a bull, the fence gives and then springs back.  A tree will lay there until you take it off.  A bull will bounce off.  If the fence is properly built it’s hard to break.  You may have to replace a few staples, perhaps a post or some insulators, but that’s about it.  Use a solar charger and you’re not dependent on the grid.  Plus, a high tensile fence allows for more distance between line posts.  This means lower cost.  I build six wire fences, with three wires electrified. There are other choices.

I’ve built fences from boards, pipe, barbed wire, woven wire, and high tensile.  Unless you measure your land in sections rather than acres I think high tensile electric is the way to go.

The following are some of my suggestions on backyard poultry flocks, based on my experience:

Before you take possession of your birds consider where you will keep your flock. A backyard can work just fine, if your local zoning abides it. If you are going to let your birds roam outside their coop then you will need to fence your yard in to keep the birds in and four legged predators out. Fencing can be as simple and as aesthetically pleasing as you want. If you have an existing solid fence you are in luck. If you do not have any fence in place, consider the cost and what you have available. Wire fence comes in many forms. Typical rural fence, sold as “pig” fence which keeps large livestock in their pastures could work if you put chicken wire along the bottom to keep your birds in. If you are starting from scratch you could use 48 inch chicken wire and T-posts every eight feet or so. Some folks prefer to use an electric fence to keep the birds in and the pests out. Don’t forget a gate so you can get in and out with your wheelbarrow. I have found wire, posts and gates at yard sales and farm auctions.

Next you must consider what you will house your birds in. Take into account how many chickens you want to start with. I would recommend an even dozen to start. There are plenty of designs out there to facilitate a small backyard laying house. Another method is a “chicken tractor’ which is a large cage on wheels. The idea is that the birds are free ranging inside the pen and the pen can be moved around inside your property to keep the grass fresh. Things to consider are ease of cleaning and egg collecting. Some designs have a mesh floor raised off the ground so you can scoop up the future compost without going inside the building. There are designs with the laying nests accessible from the outside, so you don’t have to go in the coop to retrieve your eggs.

Chickens do poop and you need to clean it up promptly to keep the smell and the flies down. Also what are you going to do with the end results? Will the garbage man take it away? Can you compost the litter for your garden?  The litter makes excellent compost but there is a bit of a smell that may cause a problem in the urban environment.
Also you will need to consider what bedding to use. You will need to cover the floor with something to collect the waste. I use wheat straw since I compost the litter. In the past I have used wood shavings with good results, but consider how the wood chips might affect your garden.

To keep the flies at bay a proactive approach is best. I try to keep the coop clean by cleaning out the litter every week. Some flies will hatch though so to get the varmints I hang glue strip fly catchers inside the coop. Just hang them from the ceiling where the chicks can’t get caught in the sticky tape and the tape won’t catch you. You may need to replace them during the fly season as the tape fills up. Also the flies can be trapped using the stinky bait method. You can purchase the bait and trap from your local store. It is usually a plastic jug half filled with fly bait and hung around the coop where flies congregate. Once the trap is filled it can be disposed of or emptied, refilled and reused.

You will need some basic tools. A pitchfork, a flat shovel and a yard rake are the bare essentials. If you go with a bigger coop and a larger flock you will find that a wheelbarrow is essential to haul the litter and the straw bales or wood chips.

Now that you have a fenced in place for the chickens to run and a coop to protect them you need to select your birds. You can order live chicks from any mail order bird supplier and pick them up at the post office. The local agricultural supply outlets usually order chicks and birds in the spring. As a new birder I would recommend you start with grown birds. The mortality rate for the baby chicks can be high and if you start with the grown birds you will be ahead until you have some experience raising birds. Look on Craigslist under Farm and Garden for birds in your area. You can also look for a local sale barn or poultry swap meets in your area. There are merits for the various breeds and they all have their supporters. Heritage breeds are becoming more popular and are a way to preserve history right in your own backyard. The idea is to keep the genetics of the old time birds from going extinct. Look on the internet for ideas for different colorful breeds. I would recommend starting out with hens only. The flock of hens will provide you with unfertilized eggs and be much quieter than a flock with a rooster. The rooster will crow at all hours, day and night and the neighbors may not appreciate the noise. You can branch out into trying to raise chicks at a later time if you so desire.

You have to feed and water your fine feathered friends. Any agriculture supply store will have laying feed for your chickens. You will also need to offer crushed oyster shells and cherry stone to your birds. The cherry stone goes in their gizzard to grind their food and the oyster shells provides calcium and gives the eggs a tough shell. You will also need a place to store your grain. I buy chicken feed in 50 pound sacks and store it in blue barrels with lids in my garage. The bigger the barrel the more feed you can store.
I hang my feeders and self waterers about eight inches off the floor using light weight chains. You can buy the feeders and waterers at the ag store or the net. The birds will eat lots of feed and drink plenty of water, especially in hot weather. For the cold weather there are insulated and heated water containers so the birds can always get a drink. Keep the waterers clean by frequently spraying them out with a water hose. Algae may grow inside the plastic waterer, so add a drop of bleach and let it go to work by setting the waterer in a secure place where the chicks can’t get to it. In a few hours rinse the waterer thoroughly and set it back up in the pen.

Other things to consider. The chicken coop should be locked at night to keep the predators out. Tragedy can be averted by keeping your coop locked up tight at night. My coop has a small chicken sized door that is locked open during the day for the girls to have free access and has a hasp with a spring loaded snap to keep Mr. Raccoon out at night. Ventilation is provided by two doors on opposite sides covered with chicken wire and securely closed at all times. In cold weather there are solid doors to keep the snow out and are wired open in good weather.

Once you have your flock established in their coop you can sit back and watch the eggs roll in. You should check for eggs in the morning, when you refill the feeders and check the water, and in the evening before you lock them up for the night. You may want to check more often in the warmer months. Our eggs go straight into the fridge and once a day the chief egg washer cleans them up and puts them in the carton. Eggs have a natural oil on them that protects the inside. If the eggs are clean you can hold off washing them until ready for use and they will last longer. Cartons are another matter. You can have family and friends save egg cartons for you to get started, or you could buy a gross of cartons from a retailer. Be sure and get the bigger sized cartons so the lid will close over the eggs. Some of our girls lay monster sized eggs. Cartons can be reused several times until being sent to the recycle bin. If you have enough eggs for your own consumption you might consider giving them away or trading or selling them. Check your local laws for the rules on selling eggs in your area.   

This is a short list to get you started. Use your local County Extension office, library and the Internet for resources to get more information. Chickens are easy and rewarding to raise. They don’t take lots of room or time, and they provide eggs for the table. You don’t have to spend a bunch of money to get started. Of course you need to check local zoning and have good relations with the neighbors to make sure you can raise a flock where you are. Good "Cluck" with your birds.

Dear Mr. Rawles:
As a Texas rancher, I understand the difficulties associated with fence building and repair. Too much fence building in a short amount of time will run off a good ranch hand. Mudflap's comments about proper clothing and hydration when fence building are right and should be given attention. We use twisted smooth wire (no barbs) for horse pens but to contain cattle, barbed wire is necessary. Good gloves are essential. Pigskin gloves are very barb resistant. You will be nicked by the barbed wire, so stay current with tetanus shots. Every vehicle on my ranch has a set of fencing pliers and other fence repair items because I have discovered many small repairs over time to be much easier than waiting for things to get so bad entire fence sections need rebuilding. Many small repairs over time is also much easier than continually tracking down stray cattle.

Six wire barbed wire fences are stronger and seem to function longer than those with fewer wires. They also catch more tumbleweeds and blowing debris which in high wind conditions can bend T posts. We go on tumbleweed patrol during sustained wind conditions. I can walk across the prairie and maybe see one rattlesnake but let me work on a fence and they are everywhere. My wife was bitten by a rattlesnake a few years ago and almost died. After that, we got really serious about rattlesnakes and wear pistols in flap covered holsters at almost all times when doing routine ranch work, and at all times when fence building. Flapped holsters are a must in our windy and dusty climatic conditions. They also protect the pistol against wear and damage and help preclude loss, especially when on horseback. Sure these holsters are slow but so is a dirt clogged weapon and where the wind blows almost all of the time, a weapon can clog in one day. Graphite rather than oil helps reduce dirt problems. Blowing dirt also causes magazine feed problems so we use flapped holders for them as well. We disassemble magazines routinely for cleaning but I digress.

Many fencing problems are caused by not placing rigid poles (steel pipe, creosote dipped wood, or cedar) at intervals in a T post fence. We use six to eight inch oil field pipe either driven into the soil with a ram or set in concrete both at low spots to keep a tight fence from pulling the T posts up, and on ridges which seem to be weak places for wind and animal caused shear forces.

We take extra time with T post clips to ensure both ends are securely wrapped around the barbed wire. This causes the wire to be pulled up tightly against the T post. It can be tedious but I believe greatly improves the integrity of the fence. Western union and other type splices can work with barbed wire but I have found that pairs of high tensile crimp style tube splices per wire splice to be more trouble free in the long run. Tab through the photos to see how these are crimped. A well built fence (and it must be surveyor straight - vertical T posts with tops all aligned) will always need less care than a shoddy fence.

At every point where a barbed wire fence changes direction we use six to eight inch pipe braces set in concrete. Such a brace consists of an eight foot long vertical pipe at the point of direction change (three feet buried in the ground) flanked by similar pipes on either side in line with the old and new fence directions. The three vertical posts are connected by five foot runs of horizontal pipe welded a foot below the tops of the vertical pipes. A front end loader is essential because these size thick walled pipes when welded together into a brace, may weigh a thousand pounds. Wooden posts are easier to work with and steeples easy to use, but nothing lasts like thick walled oil field pipe. We wrap several turns of a short piece of barbed wire around the vertical pipes leaving two wire ends, one about two feet long and the other four feet long. The shorter free end is wrapped tightly around the the longer end. The fence stretcher and splices are then used to connect the free end of this wire to the long run on down the fence line. This is the only way I have found to ensure taught wire runs using when metal pipe braces. We strive to get it right the first time.

A good quality fence wire stretcher is also important. T posts can be difficult to pull out of the ground if a fence line is being moved. We use a T post puller T-Post Puller. Everyone should have a Hi-Lift Jack and they work well with a post puller, but if I'm moving a line of fence, we usually have a tractor with a front end loader on site so I chain the T post puller to the front end loader in order to pull up the posts. The loader bucket is also a good place to store the pulled T posts. The higher on the T post the puller is placed, the less chance of bending the post.

I hope these comments help. The only thing I like about fence building is the end of the day. - Texas Rancher

I especially liked the February, 2001 SurvivalBlog article about Forever Preps. I now have enough salt to last me forever in Mylar lined buckets. That includes regular salt for salt curing. I need saltpeter. I have dry bleach, hand tools, skills, and Jesus. I’m working on the rest. As a matter of fact, within my extended family we have four medical people, a fireman, a teacher, a banker, an accountant, HVAC technician, mechanic, farmer, baker, trucker, engineers—we don’t exactly have a butcher or candlestick maker, but my son tends to his own deer and fish and I have made plenty of candles!  What works for me may not appeal to you but I’m on a tight budget now so here goes.

I have several health issues, so I have plenty of prepping to do. I think I finally have a handle on the high blood pressure, cholesterol, gout, diabetes, and GERD. I’ve lost 5 pounds in the past five months, blood pressure-perfect, A1C is 6.4—waiting on cholesterol and gout results. The doctor wanted to know if I’d been exercising so I told her yes.

The truth is, I’ve been working long hours at the store and have been raising chickens for meat, eggs and feathers. That means building a coop and run. I got my ideas from here and here, and here My framework is all PVC—3 pieces 1 ½” for base and 5 pieces of ½” for ribs . I used 2 pieces of ¾” plywood, hardware cloth, screws, hardware, lath, 2” x 2”s, clear and aluminum building panels for the 4’ x 8’ x 4’ coop and chicken wire for the 8’ x 10’ x 2’ covered run again PVC framing-8 pieces of ½”. I can easily expand this run for more birds.  I used a skill saw, drill, hand tools, and a borrowed jig saw. I had three pairs of hands to help. Since my latest batch of Buff Orpingtons are only three months old, I haven’t installed nesting boxes yet. I plan to install in the area below the roost. There’s plenty of room in the 4’ x 4’ roost for more birds so I can raise more in my bathtub on newspaper and flaked pine shavings. They are covered by aluminum screening anchored with scrap boards and warmed by a 100 watt light bulb. The screen keeps them from flying out when they get six weeks old or older and keeps the inquisitive cats out if the door gets left open. My work at the store allows me to get a few dollars worth of nickels a week and recycle all the newspapers I care to. (To use for mulch or TP in hard times because Sears doesn’t publish a Big Book any more.)

I’ve been gardening, canning, drying and freezing for years. I have plans to raise rabbits for meat and fur. Right now, we only have a pet rabbit for learning.  We catch and use rainwater when possible. My son and I ask friends and clients for used barrels. We have a spring and ponds. I need to get an alternate way to pump water. My son and a friend of mine are the fishermen. My son and I hunt. I think we should learn to trap also. If I could talk my son and daughter into letting me have sheep for meat, wool and cheese and goats for meat, milk and cheese, I’d be happy—besides, they would mow the grass instead of a gas guzzler or even a reel mower. (Boy, was that fun growing up!) My daughter helped me get my son on board with a root cellar. She has agreed to supply the labor this summer. I did manage to talk my son into a raised bed for carrots and potatoes. He even suggested silt fence from a home center instead of boards. You will need additional stakes to fit your area, heavy duty stapler, and a sledge hammer to pound the stakes into the ground.  I was lucky and got all the peat moss I needed on clearance. I had compost and also added vermiculite. 

See the book Mini Farming: Self-Sufficiency on 1/4 Acre by Brett L. Markham. The potatoes are growing berserk. If I could talk my dad into letting me farm his land, I’d have self-sufficiency in sight. I want sheep, goats, llamas, ducks, geese, horses and cows. We had chickens, pigs, ducks, horses and cows when I was growing up. We raised most of our own vegetables and grain also. I could raise enough food for the livestock and the family too. Yes, I learned how to plow with a horse and a tractor. My 25 year old Troy Bilt tiller needs another engine. So, in other words, I’d have the ‘beans’ covered. 

For the ‘bullets’, I buy cases of ammunition on sale from big box stores or online with tax returns. As long as that lasts…I have a .22 LR (with 3,000+ rounds), a 12 gauge semi-auto shotgun with interchangeable chokes that takes 2 ¾” – 3 ½” shells (I've accumulated 575+ shells of assorted types), a  .32 Special revolver (150 rounds), 35# right hand and 40# left hand recurve bows, edged weapons from 2 ¼” folders to a 40” fencing foil, slingshots, and have plans to buy a crossbow. I need to stockpile arrows and bolts. I’m also growing bamboo arrows. Bamboo is very invasive. There is a good Instructables article on making arrows out of bamboo. I prefer to grow my own feathers [for arrow fletching] instead of buy them. My son also has a 75# compound bow, guns including a black powder pistol and .243 Winchester rifle. He also has blades that range from large folders to a 2-handed claymore. I know how to reload shot shells and my son wants to learn rifle reloading. We are saving brass and shells to that end.  Before leaving ‘Bullets’ I’d like to add a few words about security. I really appreciated Chino’s Retreat Security article. My budget does not include razor wire topped chain link fencing. I plan to use rocks in aluminum cans but they may be suspended by waxed dental floss. Cans would be painted on the away side. My son has planted holly bushes. We also have wild blackberries.

For barter, I sew and have a treadle ready to convert my machines. I bought one at an antique shop and got tubing, connectors and shaft collars from McMaster. I also found the instructions for that project. I couldn’t bring myself to sand a plastic hand wheel.  I have fabric stockpiles from before Wal-Mart’s closing of the fabric department at $1 and $2 per yard. Don’t forget sewing needles, machine needles, and thread. I also do many types of needlecraft—you’ll need yarn or roving to spin. I could also barter chickens, eggs, feathers and so on. I was a math teacher. My son is strong and can do many types of labor. Right now he’s a landscaper. He can also weld, do auto repair, body work, masonry, and carpentry. My daughter is a cosmetologist but since I’ve taught my kids all they would pay attention to. She can install flooring, plumbing, cook, clean, and do most of her own auto repair as well! Their dad, a Navy SEAL, has passed away.  He served in Vietnam and was the only one of us not in Scouting. We are teaching my grandchildren everything they can understand also.

Now for the Band-Aids: I grow many of my own herbs but triple antibiotic ointment does not grow on trees. However, there are plenty of dollar type stores that can supply gauze, alcohol, peroxide, adhesive bandages, etc. $5 dollars a week can buy a lot at those places. When I run out of a bottle of cinnamon for metabolism support, I buy two. At the end of 5 years I’ll have enough for another 5 years, if I don’t forget to buy two when I run out of the first bottle. Same for all the other OTC meds my doctor has me on for various conditions. Go for the twin packs at the big box store. If your goal is to be ready in less than five years for five years of lean times, then you’ll have to adjust your plan accordingly. Don’t forget to rotate! I wish I had the budget to buy it all up front, but I don’t so I do the best I can and try not to worry about the rest. I cannot grow my prescription medications so I’m trying to reduce the need for them.

Would you like to provide a good meal for your family and know where the meat has come from and who has handled it and not have to rely on going to the grocery store to purchase it?  Well that was me a few years ago.  I was concerned about the safe handling practices of store bought meat as well, the cost of the store bought meat.  I really wanted to be able to take pride that I could grow and process my meat and not have to rely on the grocery store.  I already process deer so I thought this couldn’t be much different.  It really isn’t.  The killing is the only part that I truly hate, but that part is extremely quick.  If you live in a suburban neighborhood, then you can most likely still have “pet” rabbits.  We also make raised garden beds from the little pellets that are conveniently deposited into a waiting wheel barrel. We add worms found in the yard to the garden beds and have very nice rich soil the next season once the worms do their job. 

Before obtaining your rabbits, you will need some basic equipment: 1 cage per adult rabbit, 1 feed trough and water dish or bottle per rabbit and then you will also need 1 or more nesting boxes for your does.  If you have just one doe, then one nest box will be fine.  If you have two does, then depending on your breeding routine you might be able to get away with just one box or you could decide on keeping two nest boxes.  Nest boxes can be made or purchased.  When we first got our rabbits we picked up some cages, water bottles and nest boxes from where we got the rabbits at. 

You will need to start off with some good breeding stock of a meat breed.  In rabbits you can line breed (breed siblings) for a few generations before you start seeing genetic problems.  I personally have chosen to start with non related stock.  You can start breeding your doe or does as early as 4-1/2 months of age.  We have found rabbits are extremely easy keepers and have been very healthy for us.  We have purchased our stock from local animal auctions and off craigslist as well. 

We chose on the New Zealand breed of rabbit.  They have a good meat to bone ratio.  They are the typical Easter bunny rabbit, you know the white bunny with red eyes.  Some people like breeds that produce various colors and such.  But for me my bunnies all look the same so I don’t focus on getting attached to one particular rabbit.  My son who is now five thoroughly enjoys them as well.  He knows that what happens to them and where they end up, but he also knows that just two weeks after butchering time a new batch of bunnies will be born to play with.  He is there around us when we are butchering.  When he was younger we would just leave him inside to watch cartoons and we would tell him what we were doing, but after time went on he prefers to be outside watching us during the butchering.  We want our son to know where his food comes from and not to be afraid of it.  Someday his life could depend on it. 

We have one buck and one doe that we regularly breed.  Their names are Max and Ruby. (If you have little ones, you might recognize those names from a cartoon.)  We have Ruby in a larger cage than necessary, but that is just because I choose to keep the litter with the mother until the day of butchering.  During the summer I do not want them crowded and overheating.  We butcher our bunnies at 8 weeks of age.  Some people do it as early as 6 weeks and other wait until 11 or 12 weeks.  We have found that if we allow them to get older then the skin gets tougher to skin out and the meat is a little tougher.  Rabbit meat is a very lean meat.  There is generally some loose fat between the hide and the shoulders and again some between the hide and the belly.  You won’t find any inside the actual meat though.    Rabbit can be utilized in any chicken recipe.

Make sure that you keep your rabbits housed where they will have adequate shade and a roof over their heads to shelter from the sun, rain and other elements.  Rabbits are very easy keepers.  Our rabbits our housed outside with a roof over their heads and we use a privacy fence to block the wind from the west and there is a garage to their north to block the north wind.  During the summer there is a large shade tree that provides them with a cool shady spot and during the winter we will tack up plastic over the remaining sides of their cage.  The plastic can be left up or allowed to cover the cages in times of nasty storms in the winter.  You always take the doe to the bucks cage.  You can just stand around and watch to ensure that your buck has successfully completed his deed.  We usually allow him three times during this visit, then put your doe back in her cage.  Do NOT keep them in the same cage on a permanent basis.  If you do you will never know when to expect a litter.  Then if you want to ensure a larger litter put the doe back in with the buck twelve hours after the first breeding.  Rabbits ovulate based on sexual stimulation and they can ovulate once every twelve hours.  So this is the reason to re-breed your rabbit twelve hours later.  Now is the hard part, just waiting.  The gestation period is 29 to 33 days.  Each doe will have a very regular schedule as to how many days she will go before producing her kits.  My doe goes 30 days exactly.  About five days before you are expecting the kits to arrive place the nest box in her cage.  Depending on the temperatures, I may add hay, straw or pine shavings to her box as well.  If it is very cold, then I will fill the nest box up completely, the doe will make the nest in there and pull out any excess she doesn’t want.  We will check on our doe various times per day when she is due so we know exactly when she has her kits.  The doe we have is very trusting and does not mind if and when I mess with her nest and kits.  We have had other does in the past who have been aggressive in regards to us checking out their babies.  Those does went bye bye very soon as I do not enjoy being scratched or bitten.  Mostly though, New Zealand rabbits are extremely gentle. 

After your babies have arrived you will need to check out the nest box to make sure that there aren’t any dead babies in there or any uneaten afterbirth.  Remove all the nasties and then just check on and count the babies each time you feed and water your doe.  Rabbits cannot pick up their young the way a cat or dog can so if a baby gets out of the box there is no way for the mommy to put it back.  You will have to move them back to the box or they will die.  Also, if you go out one day and you find a dead cold looking kit on the cage, go ahead and put it back in the middle of the nest box with the other kits.  I have found babies like this and thought they were dead, but after placing them back in the nest box, they came back to life.  So do not count a "dead kit" as dead unless it is cold and dead.  Ideally there needs to be at least three kits in the litter for the babies to be stay warm enough together.  Once I did have a litter of only two babies during the fall, they did make it just fine.  When the babies are three weeks old you can remove the nest box and continue to watch them grow. 

When the babies are six weeks old is when I like to breed the doe.  Then two weeks later your babies are 8 weeks old and we butcher.  This routine will allow the mother to keep her young with her and also allow her to have a two week rest period before she kits again.  This routine also keeps you from having to keep a cage just for weaned babies.  I really like this schedule as it keeps me from having to move the babies to another cage.  I keep one buck and one doe at this time.  This schedule allows us to have up to one rabbit per week as I butcher a litter of rabbits every ten weeks.  Rabbits usually have 7-12 bunnies per litter.

When we butcher the rabbits, we prefer to can the meat now, as opposed to freezing it.  We do still freeze some, but the canned rabbit has such a wonderful flavor and it is also extremely tender. 

We have chosen the raw pack method with the meat still on the bones due to it being simpler and more time saving.  Cut up your rabbits so that you have good size pieces.  Add those to your quart jars.  Add one teaspoon of salt to each quart.  Do not add any liquid.  Allow a 1-1/4” headspace per jar, add your lids and bands and process for 75 minutes at 11 pounds of pressure in your pressure canner.  The flavor and texture is completely different from fresh or frozen to canned rabbit.  Yummy!

Having two does and one buck will provide your family with up to two rabbits per week all year long. 

As we find ourselves moving back to basics on and around the farms, more people that have had no livestock ever also have no clue how to feed them or how to take basic care of them, are getting them. In the past two years, I have personally rescued and placed 115 horses and assisted in numerous other rescues. I can’t stress enough about proper care and feeding. It is easier to maintain a healthy weight then to put it back on an animal. For each 100 pounds lost, it takes three months to put it back on the right way, without injuring or killing the animal. Water intake is crucial, the amounts are based on age/weight, type and breeding status. When the SHTF, there will be little or no access to bagged feed, bulk/surplus hay and supplements.

When you are looking into buying horses, cows, sheep and goats, take into consideration that – the smaller the animal the less it needs to eat and it will yield less meat, milk and in some cases offspring. The calculations in this article are taken from research done during my time working horses (almost 40 years), cows and farm living. For those raising young stock – powdered milk, Carnation canned milk and Karo syrup are a must for orphans. If you can find powdered colostrum get it and vacuum seal it. Stock up on wormers and antibiotics for your animals too, because they can and will need them. Common veterinary antibiotics include Penicillin, Amoxicillin, Erythromycin ("E-mycin"), Keflex and Sulfonamides. Tetracycline and Doxycycline can also be used, but are more disease specific. A Merck Veterinary Manual is extremely useful and if you have livestock get the right tools to help diagnose and treat. [JWR Adds: I also recommend the books Veterinary Guide for Animal Owners by as well as Where There Is No Vet by Bill Forse.]

Here is a standard feed calculation for horses :

             
W = HG 2 X BL
          ______
             330

Where:

W = Weight in pounds
HG = Heart girth in inches
BL = Body length in inches

Starting at your horses chest at the top shoulder point to the point of the buttocks (about an inch away from the tail) gives you body length, from the wither to the to the point of buttocks.
It is a maximum of 3.5% of their total body weight in grain and forage, with the maximum going to only foals to age of 1 year. Of that only .5 to 2% of it is supposed to be grain. That means if you have a 60’ x 150’ yard don’t get a horse unless your supply of hay is permanent and inexpensive. In the northern states where the grass dies off fairly early (late fall) then you need to have this down – each horse will consume 1-2 flakes of hay 2 times per day, each bale has 10 flakes. (DO NOT feed out a lot of alfalfa as your horse can colic or founder).

Let’s say your horse will eat 2 bales per week at a cost of $3-$10 a bale. Buy in large quantities when the hay is being baled and it will cost you less. Down in the southern states we feed out less hay as our grass doesn’t begin to die off fully until later in the year (based on heat and rainfall). Round bales are great BUT will mold if not covered properly and then can’t be fed out to special needs or stalled horses, some say you can’t feed it out at all, but those with horses mixed with their cows do know a little different. Round bales weigh from 400 lbs to 1200 lbs and are priced from $10-$75 each. With seven horses on 12 acres I will go through 12 round bales from December to May, average of 1 bale per pasture per week or every other week. Horses need some supplements so we need to have alternative methods to buying them. Grain does go bad and you do have to balance what you give them, lower protein for less active horses from 3-10. Use no cotton seed or cotton seed oil, as it can damage reproducing horses and can cause other health problems.

Your first horse requires at least 1.5 acres, and as you add more, you will need at least 1 acre per horse. Straight oats and corn can be given, but both are higher in protein and corn causes the horses to produce more heat so I would be careful how much feed to put to them. There is one kind of horse that will eat other protein: the Icelandic Horse will eat fish (dried salmon). Remember that horses need from 6-20 gallons of water per day per horse.

Cows the feeding is a little different due to creep feeding and hay consumption but on average they will eat up to 30 lbs of feed per growing animal at 1,200 lbs so about 2-3% of body weight and whether they are dairy, beef, pregnant, steers or calves. You will need about 1 acre per animal or you will have to supplement more. The nutritional needs vary based upon what you have and you need to plan accordingly. If you have had even 1 case of blackleg show up in your calves stock up on vaccines because it doesn't die out in pastures, it will lie dormant and will kill infected calves. Cows need from 4 gallons per day to 23 gallons per day per animal.

Goats: You can have quite a few, but I would recommend only 8 per acre, maximum . They do need roughage and can have ¼ lb to 1 lb of grain per day, but no urea, natural protein only as it can make your goats sick or they can die. Goats will eat everything including poison ivy, your garden, blackberry and raspberry plants. Goats tend to jump and require better fences than other livestock. You can train them to tie out; I wouldn’t use a drag because they will drag it through your fences, bust the pipes and eat pipe insulation. Kids can die off quickly if exposed to rain and cold when very young. They can also suffer from floppy kid syndrome, which is just as it sounds and can be treated early with thiamine, penicillin and Vitamin B. Goats need from 1/10 gallon to 3 gallons of water per day, per animal.

Sheep need roughage, at ½ lb to 1 lb per day for babies and recommended creep feed adults from 2.5 lbs to 7 lbs or increase 2-4 lbs to 6-12 lbs haylage/corn silage but not for lambs, no copper. Protein supplements for late gestation ewes, lactating ewes, rams and feeder lambs. Use it only when you give no alfalfa with corn. Urea can be fed to adults at 1-3% of feed. Sheep need 1/10 gallon to 3 gallons of water per day per animal.

Pigs can do very well in pastures, but even a well fed pig will nibble on a sick or dying animal. Horses can and will hurt pigs, so when feeding, separate them. Farmers used to plant mangels (fodder beet), turnips or rape. This can be given to cows too. Boars can be killed without neutering if they are kept quiet for about 24 hours before slaughter. Pigs need ½ gallon to 6 gallons of water per day per animal.

Due to over grazing, no rotating, or tilling, we do rob the pastures of natural supplements and make it more necessary to add grains. With livestock pastures should be rotated, rested, tilled and replanted as needed.

Stack your pasture with cows and chickens (bug control) and geese with sheep.

Some people do give out store surplus stale bread to all their livestock and it does work. But if you give them a lot right off the bat they can get sick. Rice bran can be given; we use it on underweight horses. Wheat bran we feed out in the cold weather and to older horses that need a little extra. Mineral oil can be kept on hand for occasional colic.

Natural herbal worming – caraway 56%, parsley 20%, chicory 10%, chervil and dill 14%. You can also use wormwood, mug wart, chicory and common tansy. They have found that the ingredient in some plants and ferns that are effective against parasites is filicic acid. Willow has salicin and it is said if you feed horses the leaves they will not get worms and a decoction of the bark treats flukes and diarrhea. Tannin also works. But I would discuss the options with a vet or vet school and see what is toxic in your area and what will work on the parasites in your area. Never use tobacco as it can damage the lining of the stomach. Injectable wormers have a longer shelf life than paste wormers.

Fly control helps reduce parasites. In easy fly control method is ¼ cup apple cider vinegar twice daily over food. Larva and such in your troughs add algae eaters and goldfish. Keep chickens in your pasture. For fleas adding some guinea fowl keets (they are great watch birds too) and sheep will help. (When we have sheep I do notice a decrease in the presence of fleas).  Muscovy ducks eat mosquito larva in standing water.

In a SHTF situation remember that prevention will be a huge thing and our ability to treat ailments in our animals will be limited. Find alternatives now, look for what you will need later and buy extra.

Like many preppers, we've been looking for ways to expand our self-sufficiency.  With 25 years of experience raising chickens for both meat and eggs, adding another meat fowl seemed like a good move.  Although we had raised both broilers and laying hens of many breeds, we hadn't found a good all-purpose bird among the chickens, although many lay claim to the title.  They either laid poorly (eating all the while) or were very short on meat when killing time came. 

As readers may know, chickens in America have been bred for two tracks:  meat (fast growing, often leg problems, too big to properly breed) and egg layers (broodiness bred out, goal of one egg per day bred in, hens 'wear out' quickly, especially if pushed to lay with extra light.)  The standard way of raising for us had been get chicks from a hatchery, raise to eating/laying size, replace with a new set as needed.  This is not a self-sustaining plan.  So, after extensive research, we chose the Midget White Turkey (MWT) and began our personal experience with this breed.

MWTs have several huge advantages for the homesteading prepper:  (1) they're smaller, eat less, need smaller housing and can do some foraging for themselves, (2) they love human beings and are easy to handle, (3) they are good setters and mothers, and (4) they taste wonderful.  The meat is close grained and takes like real turkey.  Every bite, from the long, oval breast to the broth from the bones smells and tastes like an old-fashioned turkey dinner.  Finally, (4) they are easier to kill and clean than bigger birds, and in a scenario where food has to be eaten because of lack of electricity or refrigeration, a MWT can be polished off in a meal or two, depending on the size of the group.

I say 'we', because two homesteads are raising the MWT right now so as to have a larger gene pool.  SW Farm used electricity in the shed this past winter and raised the birds, initially, on wire.  NW Farm got young birds from SW Farm and raised them in a well-insulated shed on wood and on the ground.  So we got to see how different methods worked.

The turkey lore warns of grave problems with disease if turkeys are raised on the ground, and this may be so for young birds or other breeds.  SW Farm found that the turkeys didn't like being on wire and their claws became so long and curved they had trouble walking on a regular floor on the coop.  As soon as they were let out on the ground they ran to get dust baths, then began to graze.  The claws were worn down, as the Lord intended.  So both Farms moved to a 'barnyard' setting for the turkeys.  SW farm uses a moveable pen, with protective netting.  NW Farm uses a stationary yard, with netting, again, against hawks.  Both flocks have done well with no losses to disease.  SW Farm did find it's easier and healthier to have a low screen made of furring strips covered with hardware cloth in the coop under the roosts.  There's less walking in droppings and a quick cleanup by removing the screen, raking out, then replacing it.

Turkey are susceptible to coccidiosis, a bowel disease that makes their droppings look like chocolate pudding.  They do not 'grow out' of this like chickens do.  It can progress to blood loss and small, unthrifty or dead birds.  So we began the birds on commercial feed with Amprolium.  After the birds graduated to regular pellets we still had to treat for coccidiosis with liquid medicine added to their water.  Oddly, the stated cause for coccidiosis in turkeys is from the ground, previous birds, or their own feces.  In our case, the housing was new, the birds were on wire (droppings fell through and were promptly cleaned up) - there was very little contact, yet they got the disease.  The Merck vet Manual seems to imply it's almost impossible to avoid.  With treatment and more space, they seemed to recover, and now there is only an occasional problem that I suspect is more from too much forage than disease.  Perhaps a reader is more expert and can respond to this idea.

Throw away all the turkey legends when dealing with MWTs.  Midgets are not stupid, won't drown looking up at the rain, aren't susceptible to diseases that ravage the commercial birds, such as blackhead, and do not have to be artificially inseminated.  When we initially ordered our birds we had one loss upon arrival and another due to an accident with the waterer.  All the others flourished.  They got wet as dishrags on rainy days, don't mind walking on snow (and we had a lot of it) and seemed hardier than chickens in many ways.

The poults (baby turkeys) were ordered from Murray McMurray Hatchery and came as 3-day old birds on 4/21/2010.  As poultry go, they are expensive, and only straight run were available from any breeder.

They were brooded very simply, with a heat lamp and draft shield.  The first egg was laid on November 1st at SW Farm.  NW farm didn't have the first egg until spring.  This is probably due to the fact that SW Farm has a light in a coop  with large windows and NW doesn't. 

You'll immediately notice that these turkeys mature much more quickly than chickens.  Not only do they get bigger faster, they display pecking order behavior and sex-linked behavior only a few weeks old.  Initially it was hard to tell which were the males and which the females from our straight-run order because the females would fluff out their feathers, fan their tails and display aggressively while finding their place in the flock.  A turkey fight is pretty impressive - the birds grab each other by a beak lock and fight until one is exhausted.  They can and will draw blood in the fight.  They also peck the head and beak of another bird and can damage the beak.  So beak clipping is necessary.  If you clip too deeply, be ready to cauterize with a hot knife.  We did not de-beak them as poults.  Females will fight this way as well as males.

As adults, females will still fight over the mating order, the nests and pecking order.  I found it necessary to re-clip the beaks of the more aggressive ones.  But toward humans, they are friendly, interested, and will allow themselves to be fed by hand and handled.  Keep in mind that birds discover things by pecking, and they'll peck your clothes and skin.  Our turkeys were trained not to peck hands and even a nesting hen would only give a 'warning peck' to a human, that is, not really bite down hard.  A hard bite will leave a blood blister, and those claws are sharp.  So be warned and wear gloves yourself if you're clipping beaks or some unwanted attention.  MWTs are very forgiving, though.  Where a chicken would run away for a week after a de-beaking, the next time the Farmer came in they were all gathering around.  

Under normal conditions, overall MWTs are less aggressive to humans than other fowl I've seen.  This is good, because a WMT male weights 13 - 18 lbs. dressed out, and the females 8 - 10 lbs.  So far there have been no aggressive attacks defending the hens as there were when we had a rooster, even when entering the pen during mating.

Turkey males will fight to the death, so once the birds were able to be out in the ambient temperatures. we chose one male and segregated the second.  In my flock, the chosen bird (called 'Studley') seemed like the best choice - he was big and healthy - that was almost making the fatal mistake among small turkey breeders of choosing the big birds and ruining the breed.  But 'Thanksgiving'  (to remind everyone on the Farm of his destiny) wound up being the flock male because the females liked him better, he seemed to breed more easily, was more attentive and protective, and all around more like the classic MWT bird.  After observing both with a chance at the flock, Studley 'flew into the freezer'.  He was very tasty, and wasn't greatly missed. 

A turkey killing cone is highly recommended when killing time comes.  A bird that big flopping around makes a huge mess and can break wings.  They're strong - don't plan to hold one down.

We use the 'brain stick' method once the bird is immobilized in the cone.  Take the head of the bird in your left hand, and a small knife with the end honed into a sharp on both sides half-circle, in your right.  Insert the blade into the slit in the turkey's upper beak, push the blade toward the palm of the hand holding the head, (think of a line from the blade through the eye and into the brain) and give a sharp twist.  (Obviously, you're wearing gloves, although we've never seen a blade go through the skull.)  There should be one sharp cry and then the bird is dead.  Immediately cut the veins on either side of the neck and bleed out the bird.  There will then be the flapping and shaking, which is why the cone is so important.  Even then, you want to stand back, because a flopping head can spray blood all over the Farmer. The bird should be eviscerated, plucked and chilled as soon as it's bled out. 

MWTs seem to have a high quality down.  We didn't have the chance this year to test it out, but it might be worth cleaning and using the down.  Also, the biggest flight feathers of a turkey have been, and in places still are used to make quill pens. 

In the NW Farm flock, it took a couple of months to determine that some possible males were females.  This is because the Midgets seem to come in two types, those with rose colored feet and more reddish necks in the females, and those that are paler in the neck and have white feet.  Both sexes have a beginning snood.  There is no question, though, as the males get older, that the red necks and wattles, the snood, and blue heads are very distinctive in addition to the tail fanning and low spread of the wings.  MWT males are beautiful birds when displaying.

We soon learned that a 'nesting house' or area was necessary.  When the large white eggs with purple/brown speckles began to come, some birds became broody.  They would compete for nesting space, and the others would keep coming into the nest to see what was going on.  A nesting bird coming out for daily food and water was getting beat up. So we segregated the nesting birds with her young.

A nesting MWT hisses like a goose, fluffs up her feathers and tries to defend her eggs by pecking, but another bird would steal the eggs with a curling motion of her beak, or even sit on top of the nesting bird, crushing eggs.  Since SW Farm has limited space, I chose one female to lay on all the eggs.  Gestation is 28 days, and the first bird hatched Turkeys will lay eggs for several months, at least 6, but not all year.  The eggs are good to eat, a bit more viscous than hen's eggs, and some people say a bit stronger.  They are excellent for baking and quickly incorporate air when beaten.  We had very tender meringues and high-rising quick breads with the extra eggs.

Extra eggs?  Yes.  SW Farm learned not to try to let a hen brood in the winter.  This past year temperature\s were regularly in the 'teens and the eggs died in the cold in spite of everything I could do - two heat lamps, etc.  It's sad to see a hen lose her whole clutch, or to open an overdue egg and find a fully formed poult frozen to death.

At NW Farm they there's no electricity in the shed, so the birds did not start to lay until this spring.  This is a good idea, in my opinion.  Perhaps SW Farm's birds were too pampered. If meat is needed in winter and the hens are laying, plan to incubate them yourself.  There are both electric and non-electric incubators - an ingenious one is available from the Amish at Lehman's.

The standard lore is that turkeys will lay 110 - 115 eggs in 28/30 weeks, 7 - 8 months.  They are 'eating size' at 32 weeks and ready to lay.  We found that the turkeys were small for eating that early, and this is the main reason that MWTs are not commercially raised - they don't grow fast enough.  But for the small farm, time is not that critical.

MWTs will eat out of your hand, so when we were ready to cull our extra male, we put him in a smaller cage and made a point of feeding him high carbohydrate snacks.  The lack of exercise makes the meat more tender, and the high carb diet put on some fat.  But MWTs will not pork up the way store birds do.

Setting hens are very attentive.  I even have to boot mine out of the nest to be sure she eats.  There will be one, large smelly poop a day, and it's better done outside.  Food and water kept near the nest is a good idea, and a handful of rye grass from the garden or scraps will keep her in good health.  When the poults come, she'll eat and drink from their food source, although I keep adult food available for her.  So there has to be enough for all, and the water fount has to be appropriate for chicks. 

MWTs don't like change.  It takes a long time for them to adjust to a new coop or a change in their old one and to find nests.  When they come from the hatchery they take longer to find food and water than chickens - this is extremely important to know.  Like all chicks, they are susceptible to drowning in a small amount of water, so there should be a special waterer), or marbles put in the fount so the water can be drunk but not swum in.  When raised by another bird, though, this doesn't seem to be a problem.  Our poults found the food and water with no problem, were kept warm, dried after coming out of the egg, gently gathered under the hen's feathers when cool...this is the upside of having birds raise their own.

Their long necks mean it is easy for them to scatter food, so SW Farm found that a deep container, like a window box, filled only to 2 or 3 inches, made a good feeder.  NW Farm fed the birds daily in a large pan to conserve the grain - the birds were only given enough for each feeding.  A plain bucket works for water.  They drink a lot, so be prepared for daily fillings.  MWTs are not as omnivorous as chickens, either.  They like the occasional bread crust but prefer something green, and will graze like wild turkeys, whereas our chickens will eat anything that doesn't eat them first.  MWTs can eat a grain of corn whole, useful info for those who grow their own feed.  They swallow, rather than peck at the food.  In winter I used some scratch feed, but they preferred the whole rye grains rather than the cracked corn.  (I personally wonder about that cracked corn - my birds don't like it the way they used to and I think it's because of the poor quality and genetic alteration.  I'm planning to start growing some feed this year.)

MWTs make sounds that have meanings.  The male, of course, has the traditional 'gobble'.  Females will whistle to find each other to point out food, or when they see Their Farmer.  They make a different sound when about to lay an egg or talking to their eggs and chicks that sounds like 'buddle up'.  This sound, with raised back feathers, means an egg is on the way.  If you're collecting to incubate, wait and gather the fresh egg as soon as it is dry.  Don't wash the eggs, because this protective coating is part of God's plan to keep the egg safe from bacteria. 

There is also a sound almost like the bark of a small dog MWTs make when agitated or really need something.  There is a little murmuring sound at mating, or when they're choosing a mate, or when the male is trying to talk a female into mating.  Males mount the females, who present themselves by settling on the ground, putting their feet on the females' outspread wings.  This is another reason not to have too big a male - if you're raising them on wire, they can get hurt. We had some cases of torn feet.  A receptive female will raise her tail, and a male doing his job will be working at this all day.

Once the eggs are laid, they should be candled at intervals and the unfertilized eggs discarded.  Don't wash or refrigerate the eggs.  I'm told eggs will keep at room temperatures for up to 20 days, but a clutch can be assembled in less time than that.  Also, it seems to be true that a hen remains fertile for about a week on the nest, even away from the male if she lays additional eggs.  Mark the date the egg was laid with an indelible marker, candle at least twice during the incubation period and mark the egg.  Remove eggs that don't hatch by 10 days after that date.  A bad egg will actually explode with a sound like a small caliber pistol, and they smell horrible.  I found that a chart (many available on line) showing the development of the bird inside the egg helped in learning to candle eggs. 

Cooking the MWT is a little different than the store bird.  First, store birds are injected with water (and sometimes flavored solutions that contain salt), and are fattier.  Homegrown Midgets have a finer grain of meat and smaller breasts.  The whole bird, plucked, is a bit more oval than the standard store turkey.  They can be dry plucked, but it's pretty hard work, and should be chilled for 24 hours to allow rigor mortis to pass off for more tender eating.

Once the bird is ready to cook, slip your hand between the breast meat and skin, and place pats of butter there and on top of the drumstick.  This will baste the bird from within.  The butter can be seasoned, if you like.  We found cooking them in a covered roaster was best, then removing the lid for browning.  This takes about half the usual cooking time.  In general I think fresh cooks faster than store-bought.  The 'dark' meat will be darker than on a commercial bird and folks who like it raved about the MWT.  (I'm not a big dark meat lover, so I think this is a fair assessment.)  It will be tougher if the birds have had more exercise.  Remember, the store birds are raised in crowded conditions for meat, only, grown just until they are saleable, but your birds will be raised in barnyard conditions.  For a special meal, choose a bird, put it into a smaller pen for a couple of weeks, and feed it the high carbohydrate diet for best eating.  This is what the old-timers used to do with chickens.

Leftover MWT makes excellent soup, croquettes, pot pie, etc.  Unlike the store bird, this meat is good and doesn't need a sales pitch to get eaten.  We foresee a time when any meat will be welcome, but for the small farm, the Midget White seems to be a very good choice. 

Sir:
Just a few more thoughts on cattle.  

The author had mentioned some of the issues that may arise when raising cattle.  Some treatment methods are important to understand.  The most common treatable problems encountered in cattle will be related to calving problems, prolapse and bloat. 

Calves are born with the front feet first, followed by the nose.  Any position that deviates from this may require some intervention on your part.  A prolapse can also be easily treated.  With the cow secured in a chute, wet the prolapse with water, and wipe down with sugar or dish soap.  Next push it back inside.  Put 2 to 3 stitches  in the labia (near the middle so as not to interfere with the cow's bathroom functions.  Prolonging the treatment of a prolapse interferes with a cows urinary excretion.  The final common thing to know is how to treat bloat, which will quickly suffocate cattle.  Bloat is usually most common in fed cattle.  You should keep a long needle on hand for such emergencies (longer than 2")  If bloating cannot be alleviated by exercising the cow, the air pressure can be relieved by sticking the needle in the rumen in the area between the hip and ribs.  This must be done on the appropriate side.  

Another thing that concerns me with cattle are the diseases TB and Brucelosis.  Every state claims to be free of Brucelosis.  In other words they have managed to control the disease, but are no longer willing to throw money at the problem.  Brucelosis is known as Undulant fever in humans, and is an extremely miserable disease.  It would most likely be fatal without medical intervention.  Cattle handlers often come down with the disease from handling urine or milk.  One of your best bets now would be to keep your herd vaccinated, and tested.  If you have a clean herd now, its probably a safe bet that it will be clean later, providing you don't introduce strange animals into your herd (especially for breeding)  That's my 2 cents on the subject. - J.F.

JWR,
The "Buy cow-calf pairs in the Spring" strategy described in a recent letter has inherent risks. Cow/calf pairs sold in the spring are often defective in some way. Here are some of the reasons beef producers would sell cow/calf pairs in the spring. Foremost reason is the cow is no longer a viable breeder, this can happen several ways but most common is either a prolapsed uterus (when the uterus turns inside out and extends outside the cow's vagina) or a C-section delivery. The standard treatment for both of these procedures include veterinarian intervention and extended antibiotic treatment by owner. The sale of these animals are normally done after the recommended antibiotic withdrawal interval has elapsed so the cow can be slaughtered. In either case the cow will still be recovering and may not raise a healthy strong calf. In some cases her milk production may have actually stopped during her treatment stage.

Another common reason a cow /calf pair would be for sale in the spring is what I call 'attitude' reasons, these include 'jumpers' (they jump fences won't stay where you put them and cause an inordinate amount of fence damage) or 'rips' (nasty critters that either hate all humans and are dangerous or they hate their own calf and refuse to let it suckle).

The last reason I can think of and it occurs late in the spring season is 'broken mouth' this term refers to an aged cow with either broken or missing teeth. Cows only have lower front incisors to harvest grass with, think about cutting a celery stalk against your thumb with a knife. When these teeth are worn down to the gum level these cows will only be able to graze on tender green grass i.e. irrigated pasture or hay. The other form of 'broken mouth' is when the molars, which grind all of the cows feed into small pieces, have been themselves been ground down to the gums. This inability to chew their food or 'cud' decreases their digestive efficiency which yields poor milk production and weight loss. These pairs are normally sold after winter feeding is done and before the herd is turned out onto rangeland, because the beef producer knows these cows will suffer in these conditions.

One last reason for this kind of sale concerns the calf, it is exceedingly rare (I have seen on three in approximately 4,000 births) and that is a premature calf. The three I have helped raise were from 1/3 to 1/2 normal size at birth and this ratio is maintained throughout it's life. Where normal beef animals attain full size at 1,000 to 1,500 lbs. depending on breed, pre-mes will be all done growing at 500-700 lbs. I have sold pairs in the spring for all of these reasons.

Just remember LET THE BUYER BEWARE All of these types have telltale signs which the buyer should look for so he/she knows what they are buying:

• Prolapse - Look for a series of healed holes 4 or 5 on each side of the vaginal opening- prolapse sutures are like old fashioned cotton shoestrings and the holes (even healed) are large about the size of shoe eyelets. Also field expedient treatments that do work and are done at really remote locations include inserting a football size rock or even a gallon plastic jug into the uterus to retain the uterus internally until the cow ceases pushing. Veterinarians use drugs to stop the pushing.
• C-section - A large patch of shaved hair with a central vertical scar extending below the hollow ahead of and below the left hipbone.
• Jumpers - They will try to jump out of the auction ring.
• Rips - They will charge ring attendants or kick at the calf as it runs alongside it's mother.
• Lack of milk production - Teats a matte type finish to skin, and the hair around teat is straight and dirty. A suckling teat will be shiny, clean and surrounded by curly hair.
• Premature calf - harder to discern because even I have seen so few, obviously very small size but that could be hard to tell if in reality the calf was born early in calving season and has grown for 1-2 months before it was sold. The ones I saw had obvious physical defects including lack of full range of motion in the legs and smaller head size as compared to body size than a normal calf.
• Broken mouth - The only way to determine is with actual inspection of mouth.

I hope you find this useful. - Mike H.

Jim:
Just a few things to be added on cattle raising.

One can often buy older cow-calf pairs in the spring, let the cow raise the calf over the summer, sell the cow as a slaughter animal at auction in late summer or butcher for yourself and have the calf left over at very little cost. You can then sell the calf or wean and raise to a yearling for either sale or fattening for your own butcher beef. These old mommas know how to raise a calf, that's why they got to be old in the first place. Prices for these pairs are basically the value of the cow for slaughter and the price of a baby calf, you generally are paying no premium at all and often they can be bought for at or less than what a cow without calf at side brings. 

Know how to figure the value of the cow for slaughter by the pound and the value of the calf and you'll know what they are worth. Focus on the slaughter value of the cow because that is really the source of most of the worth and what you are paying for.

Older cows don't have much tooth length left so don't run them on desert range but if you have some good grazing pasture they will do fine.

If you stick with older cows you don't need a bull either since your purpose is not to keep them as breeding animals but rather to raise the calf and then use them for their slaughter value. And when you go to sell the slaughter cow and the calf (ready to wean) you often have enough money to then buy back a younger cow that is already bred. Regards, - Aaron R.

Someone recently asked for suggestions on raising livestock.  I won’t claim to be an expert, but I’ve had cattle for more than thirty years so I’ll offer some observations.

Think it through before you begin.  Don’t get cattle because you think it’s something you should be doing, or because you think they will be a cheap source of meat.  Do you have the resources—time, land, money—needed?  Are cattle the best use of those resources?  Cattle are selling at historic highs right now.  Getting started is not going to be cheap. 

There’s also a lot of investment in infrastructure before you get your first cow.  Fencing, water supply and distribution of winter feed, and perhaps shelter.  You’re also going to need some way to handle and doctor the cattle.  This means corrals and/or traps, head gates, squeeze chutes, loading areas, etc.  Or you could work them with horses and head and heel them if you have those skills.  We work our cows horseback, but drive them to the chutes when they need doctoring.  We either work the calves (ear tag and castrate) when they’re a day or two old (at that point, you can just walk up to them and catch them) or head and heel them when they’re older.

Keep in mind that if you’re going to work with large animals you are going to get hurt.  It’s not a question of if.  It’s a question of when and how bad.  You’re working with animals that weigh in excess of half a ton.  They can hurt you with very little effort and no intent.  The better your working facilities the safer you are.  One trip to the emergency room will pay for some pretty good facilities and equipment.  Where would you rather spend the money?

If you’re going to raise cattle select them for temperament.   Gentleness is genetic, and a gentle cow also is a more efficient converter of feed to meat.  One wild cow can contaminate an entire herd.   If you get a wild one either sell it or put it in the freezer.  Be aware that the gentle ones can be even more dangerous than the wild ones.  You’re careful around the wild ones because you don’t trust them.  You tend to let your guard down and get careless around the gentle ones.  Don’t make that mistake.  I’ve pulled calves from cows that were dog gentle, brought the calf around to the cow’s head, and had the cow go after me.  Be careful.

The way you handle your cattle will also affect their behavior.  Learn and use low stress cattle handling methods.  You can ruin a gentle cow with poor handling.  Keep in mind that cattle are livestock, not pets.  I don’t want my cows to run when they see me, but I also don’t want them to come into my space.  That keeps me safe.  I want them calm enough to be able to approach them, and respectful enough to move off when I ask them to do so. 

You’re going to need a bull, but you really only need him for 60 days a year.  Do you want to own and feed him for the other 305 days?  Can you lend him out, or lease him out, for some of that time?  What kind of condition will he be in when you get him back.  Can you lease a bull for your breeding season?  Do you want to learn how to artificially inseminate your cows and get the equipment and supplies need for that.  The bull is half your herd and plays a very important role in determining the quality of your calves.  You need a bull with good genetic characteristics or you’re wasting your time and money.   

Having said all that raising cattle is not rocket science.  They need feed, water, and a mineral supplement.  What keeps them inside the fence is the feed (grass or hay) inside the fence, not the fence.  If you don’t feed them they will find a way out of just about any enclosure.  The acreage you need for a cow/calf pair depends on where you are.  It may be 100 acres in New Mexico and one acre elsewhere.  Don’t overgraze.  Worm your cows periodically. 

Herd health problems are going to have to be dealt with as they come up.  Whatever you’ve prepared for won’t be the problem you’re faced with.  Cows are hardy creatures and will get over most things on their own.  But if you’re going to raise cattle you’re going to loose some to accidents (I once had a tree fall on a cow), calving problems, or something completely unforeseen. 

This winter I had a cow that couldn’t get up.  The vet diagnosed her with grass tetany, which is a magnesium deficiency.  That was strange since she had access to a high magnesium mineral supplement.  We gave her minerals IV to correct the problem.  I was told she should be on her feet within 72 hours, and that there was no point in lifting her to get her up.  Five days later she still could not get to her feet.  That’s five days of hauling feed and water to her inside an improvised enclosure that kept the other cows away.  At that point I lifted her to her feet using a hip bone lifter and a front end loader.  Once on her feet she just walked off.

Next time she lay down she could not rise.  The vet and I decided it was a nerve issue and three days of IM steroid injections followed.  During that time I was lifting her at least once a day.  After four days she started getting up on her own.  That continued for awhile and then she relapsed and was unable to rise.  I went back to lifting her.  After about a week I decided it was a lost cause and decided to shoot her.  My wife suggested I give her another few days.  The next day she got up and has been fine since.

The point of this story is that no one, not even a well trained and very competent vet, knows everything.  Sometime you’re going to be guessing and making mistakes.  Accept it. 

If you have cattle you will eventually have calving problems.  You’ll need a set of obstetrical chains and will have to learn to use them.  Your best resources for learning what you need to know are neighbors who have cattle.  There’s also a lot of information on YouTube.

A lot of calving problems can be avoided by selecting a bull that produces low birth weight calves.  This makes for easier deliveries.  Even so there will be problems.  If you need to do a C-section and no professional help is available you’re going to loose the cow.  If the uterus prolapses (comes out with the calf) your chances of replacing it without access to either professional help, or drugs and the knowledge to use them, is slim to none. 

You have to decide whether to vaccinate and if so for what.  I vaccinate mine only for rabies, and that’s for my protection more than theirs.  On rare occasions you may have to use antibiotics to deal with a health issue.   If you want to avoid antibiotics be sure any feed you buy is not medicated.  This is most common in milk replacer, or calf feeds.

Slaughter.  If you can slaughter and dress a rabbit or squirrel you can do the same with a cow.  It’s the same process, just a bigger, more difficult job.  If you have a choice take it to a slaughter house and pay the fee.  You won’t regret it.

 If you’re going to slaughter do it humanely.  Cows have a big head, but a small brain.  Imagine a line extending from each ear to the opposite eye.  The brain is behind the spot where the lines intersect. A shot anywhere else will not be effective.

If you do it yourself you’ll need a way to cool the carcass before butchering it (cold meat is easier to cut than warm meat) and before putting it in a refrigerator or freezer.  The amount of warm meat in even a small cow carcass will overwhelm home refrigeration equipment.  Instead of cooling the meat you’ll warm everything else.  Slaughter when the weather is cool enough for you to be able to hang the meat outside.

If you’re looking for a reliable source of antibiotic free meat you may be better off talking to a neighbor who already raises cattle and making arrangements to buy whatever you want.  Will that guarantee a meat supply in an emergency?  Probably not.  But could you protect your cattle in an emergency?  Probably not.  If you need to buy feed for your cattle could you get it in an emergency?  Probably not.  But you probably could protect and provide for your chickens or rabbits. 

Does that mean I’m getting rid of my cattle, or that you shouldn’t raise your own?  No.  Just  be aware of what you’re getting into, and that there will be a learning curve.

 Are there other things you need to know?  Of course.  The last thing you learn is always the first thing you needed to know.  There’s no way around it.

Mr. Rawles:

Thank you so much for enriching our lives with your knowledge.  My question is:

I lost electricity this past week for two days.  I had enough water stored for me and my wife for cooking, drinking and flushing toilets stored and for our dogs, too.  But what would I do in a longer duration power outage?

I remember my grandfather having an old hand pump on his well that we used to get a drink from on hot summer days when I was a kid.  My question is, where can I get one of these kinds of hand pumps now and how hard is it to adapt to my well head? Thanks, - Tim P.

JWR Replies: Depending on the size of your well casing, you might be able to use a hand pump alongside your AC submersible pump.

Traditional Pitcher-type hand pumps with the pump cylinder located at the surface ("shallow well pumps") are generally limited to lifting water from a depth no greater than one atmosphere (33.6 feet.) For a hand pump to lift water that is any deeper, you would need to use a pump that has it cylinder at the bottom of the well. Typically, the cylinder is connected to a sucker rod that is attached to an actuator at the surface. A sucker rod arrangement is commonly seen with both windmills and "jack" or "cricket" type pumps. But several vendors like Lehman's and Ready Made Resources sell deep well hand pumps that employ a sucker rod. One relatively new brand is the Bison. They are made of stainless steel.

Deep well pump technology hasn't changed much in 100 years: brass pump cylinders, leather valves, and ash wood sucker rods are still used. Although these days, fiberglass is often used in place of wood for the sucker rods. This is extremely reliable technology--and truly "appropriate technology" for survivalists. It is not unusual to hear of windmill pumps that haven't been serviced in 30 years that are still going strong. It is noteworthy that one half of a set of "leathers" can be changed by pulling up just the sucker rod. But replacing the lower leathers (in the bottom of the cylinder) requires pulling up all of the well pipe sections, to access the brass pump cylinder.

For those who can afford an alternate power system, there are a lot of options for deep wells, including submersible pumps, jet pumps, and Brumby (air compressor) pumps. The latter have recently been developed with great success in Australia. Because the mechanical "works" are at the surface, and even if you have to pull up the cylinder, it can be done by hand. in most cases. Thus, they are a good choice for survivalists who own large PV power systems.

As I've mentioned before in SurvivalBlog, a deep well pump that has its motor "down hole" should probably be an AC motor. (With an alternative power system, AC power could be supplied by an inverter.) Because of the tremendous line loss with low voltage DC cabling, it is not efficient to have a submersible low voltage DC well pump that is more than about 60 feet underground, even when using very large gauge DC power cables.

JWR:
A few things to take into account when thinking of apple trees.  I planted three trees about five years ago and they are still far from being fruit bearing.  I figure they have about five years more before they are capable of bearing fruit.  This isn't to say that you shouldn't use them, but its defiantly a plan ahead thing.  

Another thing to take into account is that they require a bit of yearly maintenance to keep them bearing decent sized fruit.  An un-pruned tree bears a fruit that is about three fingers wide.  A properly pruned tree bears fruit that is closer to the size of what you see in a store.  It can take a few hours to trim a single tree with a trimmer. But with hand trimmers it takes about half a day per tree.  This is something that only needs to be done once a year, normally in the yearly spring. 

 Bugs are also a major issue that apple trees will run into the trees need to be sprayed once a year.  In a SHTF situation your not going to have bug spray handy but there is an easy natural way to take care of problems like this.  Buy a few pods of Praying Mantis eggs.  The Praying Mantis will eat the bugs that give you problems and not harm the plants you are trying to protect.  Because you are controlling them by nature; on the years that the bug populations are an issue then more of your predators will take care of the problem, and on the years where you are light on pests then you'll be lighter on the predators.  As a nice by product you'll also have less of other insect pests as well.

Apple trees will produce a nice amount of fruit for the last half of summer and the first half of fall.  During the Winter and spring you'll need to have canned any excess from the year before.  Also Apples shouldn't be your only source of food.  You need vitamins and minerals for more than one source.  While your researching the trees that you want also research things like Black berries and other fruit sources that will allow you to have a variety of food.  You can easily make sure that you have a variety of food that will return without the need for replanting on a yearly basis.  With the example of black berries you can easily make a couple of short fence rows that goes through the tree rows and plant the black berries to grow on them.

Cross pollination between tree types can be your blessing or curse.  If you research different trees and find that the fruit of one apple tree that will grow powerfully in your area; but you in your quest for the perfect Apple your find that this Apple is way to sweet for your taste.  Then you stumble on another that you find is to sour for your taste.  You can plant these 2 trees within your planting range.  (apple trees are suppose to be planted within around 15-25 feet of each other, or at least mine are.) So your trees will cross pollinate and give you a resulting fruit that is a combination of the original trees.  This is also where your curse comes in.  If your neighbor likes sour fruit and you like sweet fruit then you might end up with a combination because some of his trees are close to some of your trees. 

Some plants to look at:

• Apple trees
• Blueberry
• Blackberry
• Raspberry
• Hazelnut
• Almonds
• Cashew
• Cherry
• Pear
• Fig Trees
• Pomegranate

Also as an advantage of keeping things like this going is that you'll attract small wildlife such as rabbits and Squirrels.  Which is another nice food source. - W.P.

JWR Replies: One downside to having a lot of fruit trees and berry vines is for those of us that live in bear country. Bears can be very destructive. They often knock down fences and tear limbs off of fruit trees. In many states it is illegal to shoot a bear in defense of your crops and trees, unless you have a current bear tag and it luckily coincides with bear season. But thankfully most states sanction the killing of bears when a human life is in immediate danger.

Raising chickens is a wise investment in your survival, especially if you are now living on your rural retreat. We live in the deep southern United States, so it would be much different the farther north you live. I can only speak out of my own experience, so you will have to take what I say, combine it with all the other things you have read, heard and experienced on the subject, and modify it for where you live.

Housing
You need to have plenty of room for the chickens to live. If your chickens free range every day, less pen space is required. We keep our chickens in 10’x10’Xx6’ dog pens with chain link fence. The roof is recycled roofing tin, attached with recycled electric fence wire. In a pen that size, I keep one rooster and about 12 hens. If they never free ranged, they would need about twice that much room.

Down here, we don’t worry about winter temperatures, since winter is very mild and short. In the winter, we give them a wind break by tying either roofing tin, recycled plastic feed sacks or other tarp-type material onto the sides. We have chickens that are cold and heat tolerant, though the heat is the biggest concern.

We have a dog, which is essential to the life of the farm. He stays in his own 10’x10’x6’ dog pen with metal roofing, while the chickens are out free ranging. When the chickens are shut up in their pens, he roams free, checking for skunks, possums, other dogs, etc. He keeps them from digging under the dog/chicken pens.

Nesting Boxes
The hens need a quiet, dark place to lay their eggs. Five gallon buckets make wonderful nests. Wash it out well, then cut a hole in the lid, with a lip, to hold the nesting material inside. Put the lid on the bucket. Make sure it’s dry inside, then put in some straw, grass, leaves, etc. It has to be refilled often, since the hens throw the hay about, to try to camouflage themselves. If you wish, a nesting box can be made from wood or metal. Dimensions and building plans can be found in various places.

Feed

In a SHTF scenario, chickens could be fed table scraps, corn or wheat, and free ranging. While it’s ideal to keep commercial feed in front of them, they can make do with whatever they get to eat. They get a lot of green grass and minerals and bugs by free ranging. I haven’t tried to feed them without commercial feed. There are recipes around for substitutes for the essential nutrients, but I haven’t tried them. I do know that my chickens are healthier and happier when they free range, and it saves a lot of feed (money). Some people don’t want the chicken poop all over the yard, but chickens can be trained to stay out of certain areas. If you have compost bins around your trees and borders around your flower beds, you might want to make them tall enough that the chickens can’t scratch out everything. Compost and chickens make a great combination, since the chickens are more than happy to aerate the compost for you, and they get lots of bugs and other nutrients from it. They do not, however, discriminate against flowerbeds- that’s one way to find out which flowers are edible; the chickens must be trained to leave them alone by firmly and consistently being shoed away. They also like grapes, blueberries, pears and apples, so beware. Remember, they have a very small brain and a very short memory. They operate mostly on habit.

Chickens love cracked corn. You can lead them like puppies with corn chops, so keep it on hand, but try to not feed them too much— fat hens don’t lay too well. When training them to come back into their cage after free ranging, throw some corn inside the pen. If you can get a few to come eat the corn, they will call the others. After a while, they will come to you when you come out to the back yard, expecting to be fed. When training them to follow you into the pen, it’s helpful to pull their feed about 2 hours before close, then lead them back in with corn and feed. If you are fattening some to eat, such as roosters, feed them only corn. It will fatten them up like nothing else.

Roosters
Having chickens is a (fun) time commitment. You must maintain your relationship with them. If you are not out and about with your rooster enough, he will think you do not belong near his pen or hens, and will attack you. You must consistently and firmly pick him up if he attacks someone, to show him that he may be boss of the hen house, but not of you.

Having a rooster has many benefits. He is very protective of his flock, and when they are free ranging, he is constantly on the lookout for dogs, hawks, owls, possums, etc. Often he will send out a warning call if he isn’t familiar with some sound, and all the hens will hunker down and be very still and quiet. If you have a big problem with varmints, I suppose you couldn’t free range. It is important to keep the roosters’ spurs trimmed. I personally do not like the idea of removing them, since I do want him to be able to fight, but I don’t want him spurring me or my family or the hens, so I believe in trimming them, similar to trimming a cat’s nails. I pay attention to the phases of the moon, not to worship it, but to be able to understand phenomenon in the physical world. It is a good thing to trim the rooster spurs close to the new moon, to cause him as little pain and blood as possible. If you cause him pain, he will cause you pain. It’s best to do the trimming after he’s gone on the roost. Take a file, nail clippers, scissors, or a veterinarians’ nail trimmer, and another person with you into the chicken pen. Take the rooster off the roost, tuck him under your arm and hold his feet, one in each hand. The other person should trim off his spurs. Cut close to the end, then round it off. Next month do it again, and so on, until they are shorter. Work as quickly as possible, then put him back on the roost. If you do draw blood, don’t worry, it will dry and he will forget. The next morning, he will be crowing his cheerful wake up call just like always.

Hens
It is a good thing to have a broody hen to be able to maintain your flock if you have no electricity. However, if allowed to free range, a broody hen will often make a nest in some secluded spot, away from your peering eyes. Just follow her when she goes to lay, or watch where she comes from when she cackles, to be able to find her eggs. I haven’t had a hen hatch any eggs, since they are less people friendly when they do. A broody hen is much more self-sufficient, which is a good fit for a survival situation.

Hatching Eggs
I started out with Rhode Island Red chickens, since they are supposed to be a dual purpose chicken (eggs and meat), and my husband liked them. The Rhode Island Red roosters tend, however, to be aggressive. I then tried some Barred Rocks, in a different pen, while keeping the Rhode Island Reds as well. The Barred Rocks are much more docile, and make better meat chickens. And they lay as well as a Rhode Island Red. I am going to try some Buff Orpingtons now. They are supposed to always be broody, though the Barred Rocks are sometimes broody. It is possible to take the eggs off of one hen and give them to another that is broody, so a Buff Orpington or broody Barred Rock can hatch Rhode Island Red eggs. It is important if you want to hatch chicks to have a heritage breed, which all three of these breeds are. A heritage breed reproduces well, generation after generation. It is ok to in-breed chickens, though it is better if you don’t. If you are worried about it, you can get a new rooster from time to time to introduce new blood. Hopefully, you can find one of the same type, to keep your flock of the same breed. In a survival situation, it is a very good thing to start with as healthy chicks as possible, so that they will require much less maintenance with limited resources. Free range eggs make stronger, faster growing chicks. I have hatched caged eggs and also free range eggs, and much, much prefer the free range eggs. I won’t go into the details of how to hatch eggs, as the instructions are readily available. It’s a lot of work to replicate the conditions that a hen provides.

Raising Chicks
When the chicks first hatch, it is important to get them into a brooder box. You can buy fancy expensive brooders that work very well. Or you can make your own, if just for a few chicks, from a cardboard box and light. Put a thermometer in the area by the light. The ideal temperature for very young chicks is 95° to 100°F. Have an area where they can get away to cool off— a long narrow box is a good shape. In my commercial brooders, I have a red fabric homemade curtain to separate the heated area from the “cool” area. They can easily go under it to regulate their temperature. You will learn the difference between a frantic “I’m too cold” chirp, and a calm, happy chirp. If you hear the frantic chirp, and see them hovered under the light for a long time, you might put in a bigger wattage of light bulb and drape a towel over the box, being careful to not touch the light with the towel. It is very important to keep the box clean. In a homemade brooder, you have to change the paper out at least twice a day. A paper towel is a good choice to cover the floor, placed over newspaper to be absorbent. Newspaper is too slick for the chicks to walk on. The commercial brooders save a lot of cleaning by putting the absorbent newspaper under a net wire floor.

Chicks can be started on straight corn meal instead of commercial chick starter, but when they get to be about 3-4 months old, they will need lot more foods with more protein. Always make sure that the feed and water are clean, and make sure that they are always available. If you are using plastic water troughs, add a few drops of vinegar to the water. It helps to clean the digestive track of the little chicks, though free range eggs hatch healthier chicks that don’t have too much trouble with that. Baby chicks can’t free range. They are so vulnerable to cats, varmints and older chickens. If I was having the hen raise them, she would stay in a small pen and not free range during that time.

Problems
This isn’t going to cover nearly all the problems, but here are a few.

Cannibalism. This is where the birds (young or old) peck each other and draw blood. I used to have problems with this, until I found out that they only do this when they are terribly deficient in meat. Free range chickens get plenty of bugs and small creatures for protein, so they don’t peck each other. Whenever I have any kind of meat or animal bones that I don’t want, I feed it to the chickens. The bones can either be beaten up with a hammer, if you have a strong arm, or pressure cooked for an hour or more in vinegar water.

Thin Egg Shells. This is the result of a calcium deficiency in the hens’ diet. The cheap and easy way to fix this is to save all your egg shells after using the eggs, wash and dry them, and grind them up. Feed this to the hens. The more effective solution is to buy oyster shells and feed to them. I add both to their feed. It saves a broken egg if you happen to drop one or two.

Blood spots in the eggs. This is the result of bacteria in the water. Always keep fresh water available to them. Better yet, save your rain water to give them— they prefer it. Add a little vinegar to their water, if it is in a plastic container. Vinegar will rust metal containers, which will produce more blood spots in the eggs. A simple solution: cut a hole in a milk carton and put some water in it, and add a little vinegar.

Ant Killer
Here in the south, we have these wonderful (yeah right) creatures called Fire Ants. I have yet to find any way to get rid of them other than to put fire ant killer on them. I have to be really careful about it around the chickens, though, because it will kill chickens. It is poison, wrapped around cornmeal. If it is put down in the ant mound, the chickens won’t bother it, but heaped on top, the chickens will eat it before the ants get to it.  

You have to love the chickens to do a good job raising them. Mine get every little scrap of meat or vegetable I can save for them. They love carrots, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, strawberries, apples and pears, peaches, etc. And they fight over any little scrap of meat. They love anything made with flour (whole wheat or white), corn, oats, etc. They will clean up termites if given the chance (so I hear). Chickens are so much fun to keep. They are an investment in my sanity during a SHTF scenario since I enjoy watching them. Farm raised eggs also make a wonderful cash crop. You would not believe the demand among people who aren’t quite ready to take the plunge into farm living, but want the best of both worlds. Before my first batch of chickens hatched, I had people asking me for eggs. I have planned to make a little sign for our road, advertising eggs for sale; I might get to that if I ever have any excess eggs. Store bought eggs simply do not compare with farm eggs. The shells are thicker and the yolks are usually a dark, deep orange. The eggs have 4-6 times as much vitamin D, 1/3 less cholesterol, 1/4 less saturated fat, 2/3 more Vitamin A, 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids, 3 times more Vitamin E, and 7 times more beta carotene than caged eggs. And no one will ever be able to convince me that caged chickens are happier than my free range chickens, and happy animals make happy meat and eggs.

Greetings Mr. Rawles;
First, allow me to thank you for your work.  I have only recently become aware of your site, having heard you on Mike Ruppert's radio show.  In the short time since, I've gathered many useful facts and sources from the material on your site.  We all owe you a debt of thanks.

The post on protection from predators by John L.  is very valuable.  I have no disagreements with any of his approaches or solutions.  I would like to offer an alternative that has worked for us for the last 15 years, and may be suitable for some of your readers.

John L. is certainly correct that dogs are the worst predator problem for most people.  They can also be the solution.  I am referring to livestock guardian dogs (LGDs).  

Our property is located on the ridges running east from the Continental Divide in the Northern Rockies at 5,500 foot elevation.  We are very fortunate to own a small piece of a large private wildlife preserve.  We've been on this property for the last 11 years.  Although not as remote from neighbors as John L, we are on the edge of wild country with all the large predators either resident or transient on the property, including the neighbor's sled dogs.  We keep goats, chickens, ducks, geese and turkeys on the place.  We also have two Great Pyrenees  LGDs.  In the 15 years we've kept Pyrs we have never lost a goat to a predator.  In the 11 years we've been here we have not lost one chicken to a predator- either raptor or four legged.  I did lose two little chicks and a duckling to a raven - but that was my fault. 

On our place we have two and a half acres fenced off - roughly in an oval shape.  Within that perimeter are the house, outbuildings, poultry enclosures, small pond, garden beds and young permaculture orchard.  The poultry -except the geese- are pretty much free range inside the perimeter.  We keep them out of the garden beds during the growing season, but otherwise they are generally free to chase ants and grasshoppers wherever the hunt may lead.  This cuts way down on insect damage to the gardens.  The goats are housed immediately outside this fenced area because of their taste for fruit trees.  Goats will be as tough on your orchard as deer.  The goats' main task has been brush and weed control in this fire-prone country, thus they are not penned, though they do tend to stay within sight of the dogs and the homestead.  This arrangement has made it possible to easily move the poultry - if we need some of them in a particular area - within the fenced perimeter without major interior fencing or structure.  We do this to prepare garden beds and soil by letting the animals do most of the work.  A few short step-in posts and 3 feet of 2" poultry mesh will tend to enclose any of the birds as long as there is plenty to eat.  I've built movable lightweight shelters for the poultry that are easy to re-locate.  To be accurate, the turkeys can fly, so we do have to be careful they haven't landed in the lettuce.  You can clip a turkey's wing, but we prefer them to be able to roost in the trees at night during the warmer season.  Also this allows them the ability to leave the main enclosure and forage for food in the surrounding woods - they fly over the fence and fly to avoid predators - returning in the evening.  Sounds risky, I know, but they stay close to the perimeter and the dogs.  We haven't lost a turkey yet.

The dogs are free to patrol within the 2 1/2 acres because they are completely trustworthy with all the other critters.  As long as the perimeter fence holds predation is simply not a problem.  We've installed the 8' deer fence that is a plastic/graphite combination for the perimeter.  This fence is used by the Forest Service, BLM and various state agencies as an "exclosure" in areas where it is necessary to keep the elk, moose and deer out--protecting stands of aspen trees.   We reinforce it with either snow-fence, poultry wire (along the bottom to keep rabbits from chewing through the fence) cattle panels, or some combination of these.  The elk and deer have not challenged the fence because of our dogs.  Only one of my neighbor's sled dogs (which he occasionally seems unable to control) was ever stupid enough to actually try and dig under the fence to get at our turkeys.  I can't say if missing half an ear has an effect on his ability to pull.

In the last 16 months the property has been visited by the usual assortment of fox, coyotes, feral dogs and bobcats.  No sweat for our dogs.  Although we've had several cougar on the property they stay at least 200 yards from the homestead.  What has made the last 16 months special are the wolves and bear.  In December/January adolescent wolves will leave the main pack and strike out on their own.  We have not had a pack here but have seen several of these loners.  They don't even stop for coffee.  About a year ago a grizzly sow and yearling cub came through the place when they first woke up.  Our lead dog (female in this breed) bit through the poultry wire and the graphite and went out after the griz which were near her goats.  The grizzlies left and raided the neighbor's barn for horse grain.  This last fall a large old boar black bear came through the place with much the same result.

When a predator is in the area the goats will crowd up against the outside of the fence as close to the dogs as they can get.  The fun part is that the deer that come in close at night to clean up the goat's hay get the same idea.  The dogs try to bark the deer off the goats' hay but otherwise recognize that the elk and deer are no threat.  This time of year when both mule deer and elk can be seen in large numbers the dogs will sit quietly and watch a group of 20 head or so grazing and browsing less than a hundred yards away.

These dogs are fabulous with kids.  When my grandchildren visit they simply do not go outside the perimeter without at least one dog - that's the rule.  The kids climb on the dogs.  I even have a photo of a chicken standing on one of the dogs.

A good livestock guardian dog is as aware of birds of prey as it is other predators.  However, we see very few raptors here because there is a raven nest close-by.  The ravens, of course, despise hawks and owls and drive them away at first sight. 

LGDs are known to locate sick or injured stock and stay with them until the shepherd arrives. 

Disadvantages?  Well, the fact is that LGDs work at night.  They bark a lot to let the predators know about their territory.  My closest neighbor is more than a quarter mile away and keeps dogs himself so this is not a problem for us.  I have gotten used to the barking and find it reassuring, sleeping through much of it.  I've never had a problem distinguishing between this normal patrol barking and the "Boss, you better get out here!" bark.   In those instances I take the warning seriously, and just as John L proposes, I stumble into my boots, fill my hand with a 12 gauge and go deal.

Also, the Pyrenees will tend to wander a bit if not well fenced.  They don't run away.  They are patrolling their territory.  It is just that their idea of their territory and yours may not match up.  This is a generalization and I've had a female Pyr who never needed a pen or fence.  She just stayed home.

Besides the Great Pyrenees there are numerous breeds of livestock Guardian dogs including Akbash, Anatolian, Kuvaz and Komondor.  They all have much lower food requirements than most dogs of a similar size and though there are differences between the breeds they all share the great protective instincts.  They are not attack dogs.  They are guardian dogs.  If you think an LGD may work in your situation, please do your research.  If someone were considering LGDs I'd strongly recommend getting a pup from working parents.  That imprinting maximizes your chance of having a good dog.  You can occasionally find adult LGD dogs through rescue services.  We have a rescue Pyr now who is absolutely the best guardian dog you could ask for.  I've had another rescue Pyr who was a pleasant doofus and completely useless for watchdog work.  Of course, if you have a good dog, bringing in a pup to learn from the older dog also increase your chances of success.

By keeping LGDs in this manner we've cut way down on the bomb-proof building requirements that would otherwise be necessary to keep the critters and the young trees safe.  In the times to come, when keeping electronic security items charged up and running may be a challenge, LGDs offer a low-tech security option.  It's true, I really like these dogs.  Any critter actively guarding us and willing to give its life to keep the family and homestead safe deserves my affection. Thanks again for your work. - M.F.

JWR,  
I particularly enjoyed John L.'s article about predator-proofing property. My family has lived on a 40-acre former farm since 1990, and for quite some time we kept pheasants, chickens, and quail. At times we had nearly 100 birds. To a lesser degree, we did garden as well, though the local whitetail deer tended to make a mess of it. The game birds helped keep the local wild population up and the chickens provided us kids with valuable opportunities to learn how to keep animals for food.  

While not living in mountain country, we had our share of predation as well. The chicken wire we had counted on to protect my 25 chicks brand-new from the Murray McMurray hatchery proved no match for a weasel, which slipped in through the openings and killed and hauled off half of them before their first night at the farm was over. We caught him the next night in a rat trap baited with one that he left stuck in the chicken wire. We also had various other predators come by with less success- including opossums, raccoons, and skunks. The foxes and coyotes on our place never bothered with the pens thanks to a vocal beagle and a couple Labrador retrievers nearby. None of the smaller predators ever made it into our well-built and covered aviaries, but they did set the birds into a panic on a regular basis. A couple of these birds flew up into the wire so hard as to kill themselves. After the weasel attack we fitted our brooding pens with tight-weave metal mesh instead of chicken wire, and the birds were kept in these pens until large enough to fly up and away from a weasel or other smaller predator.  

As John L. mentioned, by far the most-successful predator on our farm was Dad's beloved beagle. We went to visit our grandparents one weekend and found him escaped from his kennel upon our return. He had killed all our pheasants and most of our chickens, chewing through the chicken wire to get into the aviaries. The event so traumatized one old hen that we saw her hoofing it across a neighbor's field, away from the slaughter, never to be seen again. When we tell stories about that beagle, we always remember the great chicken escape along with it.  

We learned from our experience and constructed a kennel with a food of buried fence and big, un-digable rocks along the perimeter and a roof that he couldn't chew or claw through. Our beagle spent the rest of his days looking forward to the winter and chasing rabbits and never again killed another farm bird. Dad still counts him as one of the two best hunting dogs he ever had.  

The point to me writing is to say that dogs are, and always will be, predators. These instincts are exactly what makes them valuable to us humans- and building a proper kennel and training them well can save you, your neighbors, and your dogs considerable heartache over the years. Building your animal enclosures to keep the neighbor's dog away can also save some grief for your animals and neighbors, too.  

SurvivalBlog is one of my daily "must-reads"- thanks for all you do. - G.R. in Texas

It was a morning in January, 2007 here in the Northern Rockies, a place far removed from what most folks call civilization. My wife, children, and I had lived here for thirteen years since escaping the now people-overwhelmed State of Colorado. We had searched for “The Last Best Place”, and to us, there was no difference between the State of Idaho and the State of Montana where that alluring slogan comes from. The “Last Best Place” isn’t actually defined by some line on a map; rather, it’s where you have chosen to be and living in a place that fits both your needs and dreams. We are “Northern Rockies” people.

Our youngest son had gone up to the animal sheds to feed the array of poultry, sheep and goats a few minutes earlier. He ran back into the house, and in spite of being almost breathless, yelled “Lion! Lion! A lion killed Carmen (one of the goats) and it’s still there!”

It was “Wild Card Sunday” and I didn’t need this. I was well into implementing my well-crafted plan to do nothing but watch playoff games on a snow-covered zero-degree day, and a real crisis had just been unpleasantly thrust into my life. Foremost was that our seventy five pound son had been within ten feet of an apex predator, separated from it only by a six-foot fence that had already proven its lack of worth to keep such an animal either in or out of the building or the attached pen enclosure. The second concern was our milk supply has just been compromised by at least half, given that we had two milk goats with one an already known casualty.

After a thirty-second kid debriefing, I grabbed my 870 Remington 12 gauge “Slug Gun”, threw on a coat and headed out the door while stuffing the seven round extended magazine full of shells loaded with 00 Buckshot. I also grabbed the next biggest kid, stuffed a .357 Magnum S&W revolver into his hand and told everyone else to stay in the house.

Bigger kid and I arrived at the crime scene a couple minutes later, and everything seemed totally normal. The chickens and turkeys were pecking away and the creek was cascading as usual in the background. The sheep were acting a bit agitated, but I had always been somewhat suspect of their sanity anyway. Yes-sir, “normal” seemed to be absolutely the case.

It was one of those cloudless days, with a full sun glinting off the snow. Absolutely beautiful. Squinting our eyes to sort minimize the glare, we walked around the pens towards the side of the building that houses the goats and sheep. I thought to myself, “The lion saw the kid, and now it’s gone. No big deal.” More than that, nothing could really be wrong except one dead goat, right? Beautiful day, the creek is running the same as usual, the birds are feeding, and if we lost one goat, that’s just the way it goes. And besides, where was all that ominous background music like on the Disney nature movies or those old “The Rifleman” shows when things are about to go south? Not playing. And there had yet to be the “As Heard On Television!” obligatory roars from the lion either! Just a dead goat and life goes on… heck, it might have even been a Bobcat. What does an eleven-year old kid know anyway?”

We arrived at the gate to the pen which is directly adjacent to the door of the shed. I could plainly see a dead goat lying across the entrance to the door, and being a bit snow-blind, it could not see inside the building at all. I was still convinced that the cat was gone, my mind pretty well still “Disneyfied” as I told the kid to open the gate.

Chambering a round just in case (mistake – should have done that when I walked out of the house), I stepped through the doorway into the blackness, and somehow saw movement immediately in front of me as my eyes attempted to adjust to the darkness. There was indeed a lion, and he was right in front of me. All I saw were yellow eyes and fangs backed up by a guttural growl, a big cat defending his kill and I’m blocking his only exit. Think expletives.

On pure reflex I fired a snap-shot at a range of about six feet, killing the cat. I let out a bit of a string of expletives as I backed out of the structure while rapidly chambering a second round, uncertain if the cat was actually dead. Buckshot – my favorite. But dead he was, as well as both of our milk goats. Carmen and Polly, mother and daughter lay there deader than a doornail.

According to the State game agency, a “legal but unlicensed kill” is what such an event is called. [JWR Adds: In some states it is termed a "Defense of Life and Property" (DLP) kill.] I’m talking about the cat here, not the goats. I call it something else, but such is best left unsaid. We called the State Fish and Game, and the fellow arrived at the place a couple hours later. After we loaded the dead lion into his pickup truck (The state gets the animal when it’s a “legal but unlicensed kill”), I asked him how often this happens. He looked at me and remarked, “First of all, that had to be pretty darn exciting, eh?” I shot back, “That isn’t exactly how I’d describe it, but if we’re talking about getting your blood running, yeah.” He then followed up by saying that livestock kills happen regularly even when the critters are kept near the main home. Looking up he sort of chuckled and said, “One thing’s for dang sure, 99.9% of the time the perpetrator isn’t shot dead at the scene, if at all. This deal here is kind of rare and has a whole different ending.”

No argument there…

Folks, the odds of this happening are so close to zero that it is almost not calculable. “Rare” doesn’t even suffice as descriptive. And in many ways, it was my fault. That is why I am writing this, because 99.99% of the time, predation can be prevented.  It is your obligation to wholly recognize the totality of where you live, what critters live around you, and then plan and construct buildings and pens to keep out what you do not want in. And I will add this: You do not want that kind of excitement. Further, the ending could have been a tale told quite differently.   

Prevention

It is all up to you. I erred completely by not having the pens covered. And I did not lock them in the shed the night before. “Eat at John’s!” My mistake led to an old lion and two valuable goats dead, for he had killed both our does. Did I know there were lions about? You bet I did. We live in prime lion habitat, with wolves, black bear, an occasional grizzly around, coyotes, foxes, badgers, wolverines, raccoons, bobcats, lynx, and weasels, not to mention the occasional dog that wanders in from “neighbors” miles off. Then there are the airborne lot - the eagles, hawks, falcons, and owls. Not covering the tops of the outdoor enclosures wasn’t so much a question of cost. It was a lack of paying attention to a detail I knew was important, but had generally dismissed that detail ignorantly thinking that the odds were low that anything would rally come in from the top. Turns out the odds were 100%.

The building themselves are first class because I knew what was out there as you peruse that list of predators above. Steel. Concrete floors. And even though we’re off the grid, we built our own alternative power system over the years and that little barn has electricity in it. I have seen critters both large and small tear wood off the sides of buildings to gain entry as well as dig underneath. Steel and concrete, period. And with the cost of wood nowadays, if you aren’t milling it yourself, steel is a bargain and will far outlast wood. Ingress to our livestock was at the top of the pen and nowhere else. That weakness was breached and I had failed.

Most of the male readers are probably thinking that facing down a lion at six feet is pretty cool. It isn’t. This wasn’t one run up a tree with a bunch of hounds keeping his attention, which in and of itself is exciting. But this sort of circumstance is a serious and dangerous situation that could have caused the death of one of our children or myself, animal aside. Close quarters stuff. Having the 12 gauge, the .22, a couple handguns and a medium bore rifle or two handy makes sense even though your wife probably wishes they weren’t leaning on the wall next to the front door and side door, but that’s where they have to be. But having them handy didn’t stop this a bit. The goal when you’ve homesteaded or are retreat living is to not feed the wildlife, and killing perpetrators after the fact compromises your own hard-won and self-created food chain.

Last night I was sitting on the porch adding up how many animals I have lost to predation over the years. Since a kid, I (and then “we”) have lost well over two hundred head of various poultry to critters with fangs and fur. Almost all of these were not to wild animals, but to my neighbor’s dogs or my own. Dang near all of them. I watched a hawk kill one of my birds once and on another an owl. There were other kills that I’ve blamed on wild animals, but there was no evidence to argue they weren’t killed by dogs either. I’m not saying wild predators haven’t tried. The amount of coyote, badger, coon and fox tracks I’ve seen around the poultry, sheep and goat buildings is astonishing. But predators are smart. If they can’t get in, they keep going. Killing is a calorie-consumptive activity in and of itself, and if they have to engage in too much demolition work to fill their stomach, they simply trot off looking for an easier meal.

The fact is most of your problem is going to be with dogs, and if you want to be the least popular person in the county, start shooting peoples dogs. A phone call and conversation can go a long way towards rectifying a circumstance where someone’s dog becomes a regular problem. I remember years back when living down in far Western Colorado there was a gal with a German Shorthaired Pointer that had turned chicken-killer. I had to have shot that dang dog over fifty times with a BB gun trying to discourage it, and called the woman probably ten times about him coming over. She fenced her place and he’d dig out. She would then chain him and he’d break the chain and dig out. She would buy a bigger chain and he would pull the stake out of the ground, dig out, and over he would come. He looked like a one-dog sled team, as the chain had collected weeds, grasses and brush, as well as a few small trees on his way over. He’d be dragging twenty feet of crud behind him on his way over to kill more chickens, the plus being he was awful easy to spot.

I called her up again for the hundredth time and she started begging me to kill him. I kid you not. By then, everyone for miles around wanted that dog dead. I didn’t get to kill him, but within a number of short days, I never saw him again. He had made enemies.

Now let us address that subject we most like to ignore, our own dogs. When folks finally shuck off the trappings of city or suburban life and decide to “homestead” a piece of land, they either bring Rover with them or finally get a dog - “Man’s best friend” and all that. “We need a guard dog, dear!” There isn’t a one of you reading whose lived on acreage who has poultry who can deny that your own dog killed at least one of your own chickens. Perhaps five or ten? Twenty? Maybe that pup took a year and a half to finally get it? And then there was that other one – “Remember old Duchess? That dang dog killed more chickens…”

It’s true. We are caught up in either a total fantasy or some faint semblance of reality about those “terrible” predators, when upon reflection, the worst of the lot we actually pet affectionately and then feed Alpo to. We fed it the same day it killed those two Black Australorps and that Barred Rock, right? Admit it! Even your neighbors’ dogs probably weren’t as bad as your own. We rationalize our own pet’s behaviors away, but then when we spot a coyote trotting along minding his own business and not even remotely interested in our birds, that “Where’s the ’06?” mentality takes over.

Stop! You know those mice and pack rats you hate? The garden-destroying rabbits and voles? Those coyotes will kill and eat them. So will Brer’ Fox. Leave them be unless they are being caught in the actual commission of a crime. So will Disney’s “Flower” the skunk. They are the essence of natural order, and we are surely not. Once you’re living in the sticks, it still remains more their place than ours, so the smart thing to do is to learn to cohabitate with them, not the other way around. You’ve simply got to be smarter than the fox, so to speak.

What you have to do first is employ intelligent cultural practices. Put your birds away before dark, as well as the sheep and the goats. And by that I mean securely lock the doors to the pen and the barn. If you choose to leave the doors open, when you build the run for the livestock, trench around where the fence is going to go about a foot deep. Drill the fence post-holes in the trench. Pour concrete in the entire affair or at least fill it with 8”-12” diameter rock. Run number 9 wire as tight as you can on the bottom and secure the other fencing to that wire. Cover the top with hog panels.

If you don’t, it is you rather than the predator that is the problem. Predators are by nature on offense, and the only truly viable defensive strategy is intelligent construction techniques and your own behavior. They are sort of like four-legged MZBs, and you have to out think them.

Now for the other oft-ignored problem: your garden and orchard. There stands Bambi and his Mom, gracing the yard or perhaps standing at the edge of “your” meadow. Thumper the rabbit is around as well; in fact there seem to be Thumpers everywhere. Birds chirp away, their songs being a thousand differing melodies wafting along from their voices, hidden amongst the trees. Pastoral dreams fulfilled…

You have spent countless hours picking rock, hauling and spreading manure, laboring along behind the old Troy-Bilt “Horse” model, bending over to seed and plant, and then irrigating away with dreams of an abundant harvest. Then you find out that those birds tricked you into liking them with that little springtime songfest. Turns out that they love your strawberries so much that they seemingly will eating nothing else. Those ducks you bought because your wife and kids said; “They would be so cute!” really love tomatoes. And I mean “Really Love Tomatoes.” And then there’s Bambi and his Mom - not really too cute after all as they eat your lettuce, cabbage, Swiss Chard and everything else, huh? And deer season won’t solve the problem. This is an April to Snowfly problem, and if you are going to succeed in the presence as a Homesteader or are preparing to deal with life after TEOTWAWKI, this is what you must do. 

Here comes that fencing thing again. Wire mesh eight feet tall preferably, six feet minimum. And for those rabbits? String 4-foot “Chicken Wire” inside and attached to that heavy mesh fence, and sink it one foot below the ground. “Dig through that, you blanket, blank-blank!” You will have to cover plants such as strawberries with bird netting, and your fruit trees with the same.

Got a few bears around? Of course you do. If so, I cannot stress enough the importance of including at least part of your orchard inside the fencing that surrounds your garden. I’ve seen apple trees that look like a tornado hit them after one visit from a bear. And then there are those deer again. Watching them walk on two legs is entertaining until your realize that the little dance going on under the apple and cherry trees means food out of your mouth and into theirs. This is why I recommend the eight-foot fence. You can’t really stop them - you just have to make so difficult that they will seek food elsewhere. Topped with an electric current though, the odds of stopping an entry go way up, and there are solar-powered fence chargers that are pretty inexpensive.

The bear and the deer wander off educated. You eat the apples and the cherries. Your trees survive to produce for years to come. And since bears are generally nocturnal, how many nights sleep are you willing to sacrifice for the rest of your natural life to protect your fruit trees when a good fence makes a good neighbor?

Intelligent cultural practices on your part ensure a full pantry, eggs in the fridge or ice box and meat either canned or in the freezer. Sure, it is a bunch of work up front, but if you thought this was a vacation, you moved to the wrong place. Put on those gloves and get to work!

Remember how this tale began? That old lion and our then dead and now replaced milk goats? We went out and bought some hog panels, using them to cover up the top of both the chicken run and the run that houses the sheep and the goats when they’re not out grazing. Problem solved, right?

Nine months and one week to the day later, my wife did not give birth to another child. Those “so close to zero odds of this ever happening again” statement got shot to pieces, both figuratively and literally speaking. Youngest son had gone out about six a.m. and staked out one of our sheep in a place where we wanted the grass and shrubs eaten down in case of a wildfire. He set a bucket of water out for old muttonhead, figuring he would have to check it a couple times during the day because that sheep had a penchant for knocking over water pails with great regularity pretty well regardless of where you put them.

It turned out that refilling the water bucket wasn’t going to stay on the day’s agenda after all. I was twisting a wrench on a rototiller about ten o’clock that morning and youngest son ran up yelling, “Dad! The sheep is dead! He’s dead”!  The kid had dutifully gone to check the water bucket and found the recently deceased sheep with a big old starting to get stinky gut pile strewn about, and the old fella had been partially consumed.

That critter had been sort of a pet, an initially unwelcome left-over from a county fair eight years earlier when one of the older kids couldn’t bear to see him auctioned off at the “Fat Stock Sale” at the conclusion of “Fair Week.” That’s the bad thing about “bummer lambs” and kids – the darn kids get attached to them after having to bottle-feed them from birth and all. Now the sheep purists out there are about ready to lecture me about killin’ and eatin’ the things, be they “bummer” or not, but no matter. We used that sheep to control brush and grass like there was no tomorrow, and if you want to use your goat’s milk I would surely recommend that don’t put them on fire-fuel reduction duty. The milk tastes just a bit “funny” if you do. So the arrangement we had between that sheep and the family was actually equitable. He had nobly served his purpose until an undeserved and evil fate befell him.

So the kid and I headed off to the carcass and I was thinking “Bear” the whole way over. It was heading towards mid-September, and given that we live along a creek, bears are in there hitting those berry-loaded shrubs that grow along them like there’s no tomorrow. I bent over that old sheep and looked at him, immediately noticing the telltale neck wounds characteristic of a lion kill. Unlike in January I was all legally licensed this time, a “Just in case because this happened before thing”, but still couldn’t believe what I was seeing. He had to have been killed early, maybe within thirty minutes of the kid putting him out. The lion may have even watched him do it. We were all outside and busy by 7:15. Twice in nine months? Zero times in the thirteen previous years? Was this because the wolves were driving the lions off their kills? Regardless of the reason, I had a problem – again.

Around five o’clock that evening, we ate dinner and then brought the dogs into the house. I grabbed a .45-70 Marlin lever gun and headed up to take a position downwind where I had a good look at the kill. For you guys who love hunting stories, I was using 325 grain Hornady “LeveRevolution” ammunition. Remember, it was heading towards dark and there were bears about too. Add to that the fact that the nearest town is thirty miles off (population 2,700) and the nearest neighbor a mile or so and a mountain-side away, so when it gets dark here, it’s “dark.”

I sat down in the high grass and waited about seventy-five feet off, knowing that this could not be allowed to continue. The kill had happened less than sixty yards from the house. That old sheep had to weigh close to three hundred pounds, and not a one of us had a chance if this cat decided to change menu items, and we had already replaced those goats the other lion killed months back. I was done donating animals, so this flat-out had to end and end now.

I waited and waited, hoping the cat would show before it became to dark to see. It’s kind of unsettling a bit when those thoughts run through your head when you sit around a kill all by your lonesome that’s been done by a major predator. “Is he behind me?” “Is the wind right?” I kind of wished I wasn’t alone, or at least had eyes in the back of my head. You are out there doing the man thing, the right thing, what must be done, but there is that almost pre-battle uncertainty to the whole affair. And in might all be in vain because he might not even show.

As the evening progressed towards night and it started to look like he wasn’t returning for left-overs, I was ready to give up and head to the house. I figured legal shooting hours were about over if not somewhat past, and as we live in a creek bottom surrounded by mountains the light flees pretty fast anyway. I was getting kind of cramped up from two hours of motionlessness anyway, and took one more real close look over at that carcass before I was going to leave.

We had covered the old sheep with a silver-colored tarp a few hours before, and thank God we did. Out of the darkness a ghost of a shadow became barely visible in front of it, low to the ground and definitely not a bear. Thoughts were racing like “dogs in, kids in doing homework, not bear, and got to be the perp” as I ever so slowly raised the barrel.
If we hadn’t covered that sheep with that tarp I wouldn’t have been able to see the sights.

I’d already chambered a round long earlier and had lowered the hammer while I waited, so I gently drew the hammer back and squeezed off the round. I heard the round hit followed by a series of growls and such as he bolted through the darkness towards the cover of the creek fifteen yards behind him. He didn’t make it, and kudos to Hornady for a great bullet. Nose to tail he was eight feet long, weighed 188 pounds, and he missed the Boone and Crockett record book by a stinking 1/8 of an inch. I kept this one.

Sometimes in spite of all you do you will lose livestock, and there are always critters that will get into your garden. Nevertheless, if you are going to make it even in “normal times” let alone after TSHTF, construct your buildings and fenced perimeters properly or all you’ll have to show for your expense and labor is happy, well-fed and happy to return  predators.

Sometimes I ponder what it means to be a woman in our society of hyper-consumption.  If you watch television or read today’s women’s magazines, you are led to believe that the activities most preferred by a woman are shopping, poisoning her nails, getting her hair yanked around in a salon, zapping packaged foods in the microwave, and ingesting a concoction of prescription drugs to stay sane through it all.

I tried some of these things in the past.  Each time, I was left with an utterly unfulfilled feeling and thinking, “There has to be more to being a woman than this!”  I stopped reading women’s magazines about 11 years ago and stopped watching television about five years ago.  With both of these moves, my life has changed dramatically.  I have been able to focus on the true meaning of being a woman, not the image fed to me by advertisers.  In the process, I have acquired a set of traditional womanly arts that I will never lose.  I began acquiring these skills first while living in a condo and have expanded my skills set here on my ½ acre suburban plot.

Many of these traditional womanly arts are also necessary skills during periods of austerity, and have been used by generations of women and mothers before us.  I practice them for the feeling of fulfillment I get from them, knowing that I am taking good care of my family and my land in the most healthful way.  When TSHTF, it will be necessary for us women to go back to our roots doing what our bodies, minds and hearts were designed to do.  Our primary function is to be selfless and nurture our families in a mindful way.  Succumbing to pressures from advertisers to be selfish and to consume their products does not achieve this and holds us back on so many levels.  Why spend $20 getting our nails done when we could use that money to buy a used book and a video on knitting or sewing?  Why spend $150 on getting our hair yanked around when that money could be spent more wisely on a whole library of books on gardening?  It is time to invest in ourselves as women in a real way.  Learning these womanly arts now will prove to be priceless and will help our families stay healthy when TEOTWAWKI occurs.  It will be necessary for a woman to be a “Jill-of-all-trades” and those trades do not include pushing a shopping cart, parallel parking an SUV, or operating a television remote. 

These are by no means an exhaustive list of traditional womanly arts, but they are what I love to do the most and what I have found – as a mother and wife - to be most valuable in my household:

• Cold-process soap-making:  This is an art that has been in my family for generations.  Both of my grandmothers and the generations before them practiced this traditional womanly art.  It skipped a generation with my own mother, but I am happy to say that I have nearly mastered this skill and will pass it on to my own two daughters.  This type of soap-making involves mixing fats and lye under strict temperature conditions to produce soap.  Soaps sold today in stores are chock-full of petrochemicals, unpronounceable ingredients and fragrance additives.    Making soap at home allows me to create cost-effective, healthful bars of soap from real fats that won’t poison my family.  It is a great way to use up some of the less-desirable cuts of lard from a slaughtered pig too.  For anyone interested in learning cold-process soapmaking, I like Anne Watson's book Simple Soapmaking. 
  
  
• Raising poultry for eggs and meat: I have been raising chickens for eggs and meat for awhile now, without needing any help from my husband, which frees him up to do other things.  Chickens and other poultry are simple for a woman to handle by herself, as they are relatively easy to herd and carry when necessary (unlike larger livestock like pigs, goats and cows).  They provide two very dense sources of protein: eggs and meat.  Slaughtering chickens is a task a woman can do alone as well.  I am deeply satisfied by raising healthy poultry for my family’s consumption.  I have pretty good carpentry skills, so I have been able to build coops to house my chickens, which has saved us a lot of money in that department as well (no need for a handyman or expensive pre-built coops).  YouTube is a great resource for any woman looking to learn more about this skill.  I particularly like all of Virginia farmer Joel Salatin’s videos.  He is a self-proclaimed Christian libertarian environmentalist capitalist and his philosophy will intrigue you and get you thinking.  This video will get you started (and maybe even hooked on Joel Salatin!): 
  
  
• Knitting: I find this activity to be much more relaxing and productive in the evening than watching television.   It is a better example to set for my daughters than watching television as well.  Whenever I pull out my knitting needles, my 4-year-old daughter sits right next to me with hers and pretends to knit something.  When she gets older and her dexterity is good, I will teach her this valuable, productive skill.  There are tons of videos on YouTube for beginning as well as experienced knitters.  I find a video to be much more helpful than a book when learning a new knitting skill. I really like the Cyberseams series on YouTube. 

• Sewing:  Learning to sew clothes is time better spent than aimlessly wandering aisles in clothing stores and swiping credit cards.  When I produce clothes for myself and my family, I have created an heirloom that can be passed down to the next generation.  Who does that with store-bought clothes made in Chinese sweatshops?  As women, knowing how to sew also allows us to repair our worn clothing, giving it new life.  It gives our clothes meaning and allows us to express our womanly desire to craft with our hands.  I love the pieces of clothing that my mother sewed for me as a young girl, and I still have them at-the-ready for when my oldest daughter can fit into them.    Again, YouTube is a great resource to learn this skill.  A good place to start is the Puking Pastilles Learn to Sew 101 series.
  
  
• Elbow-grease cleaning: I prefer to use good, honest elbow grease to clean my home rather than purchasing packaged, designer cleaning supplies that are toxic to my family and my earth.  A woman only needs a few ingredients to have a clean home: baking soda, vinegar, lemon essential oil, borax, soap (home-made of course!) and water.  An added benefit of this is that there is no longer a need to go shopping for a certain specialty product when it runs out.  I just buy all of my basic cleaning ingredients in bulk maybe once or twice a year.  The homemade product I use most in my household is a simple mixture of equal parts white vinegar and water in a spray bottle.  I use this to clean most of the surfaces in my home.  Advertisers want you to believe that you need a separate product for each surface of your home.  You don’t.  A great resource for both basic and fancier recipes is Annie Berthold- Bond's Better Basics for the Home.
   
• Making personal care products:  This is one area in our household where we save a lot of money compared to conventional households.  I spend literally pennies and a few minutes making a whole tub of body lotion that is safe for all of us to use, even my infant daughter.  I cannot express in words how much more fulfilling it is to craft a high-quality, chemical-free batch of sunscreen in my kitchen than it is to hop into the car to buy a little tube for $12.  I do not feel cheated; instead, I feel like a goddess.  You need not spend $3 a tube for lip balm when you can make it for 3 cents.  I also make all of the deodorant, diaper rash cream, baby massage oils and hair treatments in our household.  I estimate that we have saved thousands of dollars over the years from my learning this womanly art.  Annie Bertholdt-Bond’s Better Basics for the Home is a great resource in this area, as well.
   For fancier recipes in this area, you can try Stephanie Tourle's Organic Body Care Recipes.
  
  
• Edible gardening:  I know so many women who love to garden, but unfortunately their efforts are wasted on non-productive plants like roses and lilacs.  All that effort put towards a highly productive edible garden would be time much better spent.  It is in our DNA as women to nourish our families, and what better way than with edible gardening?  Learning this womanly skill now will prove invaluable in a SHTF situation and provides literally endless fulfillment.  I recommend The Vegetable Gardener's Bible by Edward Smith.
  I get nearly all of my heirloom  and/or open-pollinated seeds from Baker Creek.
  For information on time-saving and work-saving perennial vegetable gardening, I highly recommend Perennial Vegetables by Eric Toensmeier.
  
  
• Baking/cooking from scratch:  this is a skill that is strongly associated with women.  Unfortunately, in today’s hyper-consumer culture, this skill has been reduced to hopping in the car, buying a bag or box from the freezer section, and zapping it in the microwave.  I dare say that a loaf of bread baking in the oven or a slowly simmering soup made with ingredients from the garden and the coop give the home a warm coziness that is not achieved with supermarket microwaveable junk foods.  It is yet another fulfilling activity for women and can be easily passed on to future generations.  When TEOTWAWKI comes, it will be essential to be able to make use of whatever is on hand when there are no more fully-stocked grocery store shelves.  Using simple ingredients to make nutritious, delicious meals is a key skill for any woman interested in traditional arts.  I recommend Alice Waters’The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution. I also love Sally Fallon’s Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats.
  
  
• Natural/herbal healing:  learning which medicinal herbs to use to heal sicknesses in our families is a traditional womanly art that has been practiced by mothers for generations.  Unfortunately, it skipped my mother’s generation because of the onslaught of prescription drugs manufactured by big pharma in the last 50 years.  Sitting bedside, healing and nursing the sick is part of our genetic makeup as women.  Knowing the basics of herbal healing and when to quarantine is of utmost importance and should be part of our instincts.  This is an important skill to learn now, before a crisis situation occurs, as it takes much time to develop the confidence and knowledge to be able to apply it in a practical way.  I am by no means an expert in this vast field of ancient medicine and am constantly learning, but I find this area tremendously useful and fulfilling as a mother.  I recommend Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine: The Definitive Home Reference Guide.
  
  
• Lastly and perhaps the most important of all womanly skills is teaching.  In order to preserve these womanly arts for future generations, it is of utmost importance for a woman to include her daughters, nieces and/or young friends in all of these activities such that they become a way-of-life from an early age.  I have no doubt that the future holds much more austerity than what we know now.  We humans are using resources too quickly and we are not replenishing them.  Our current way of life in the U.S. is not sustainable for even another 20 years.  Teaching our daughters these skills now, while they are young and while resources are still abundant, will ensure that they have the capacity to care for their families in the hard times awaiting us. 

For good reading on the philosophy of homemaking, I recommend Radical Homemakers: Reclaiming Domesticity from a Consumer Culture by grass-fed cattle farmer Shannon Hayes.
While not specifically aimed at women, this book dives deeply into the fulfillment that traditional domesticity offers, and it aims to drive people away from the consumerist lifestyle into a more satisfying life of production.  I believe women of all walks of life can benefit greatly from this type of reading.

Dear Mr. Rawles,
The picture provided by N.N.R. just doesn't seem sustainable. He or she does realise that most Americans get whatever they want whenever they want it, and that this is a problem, but seems unwilling to do anything about it in his or her own family as a means of preparedness. Most of us - as preppers - should understand that our lifestyles are going to change in the scenarios we all talk about. As a society, we are far too focused on dietary meat as a right and necessity. We don't need meat for every meal, every day, every week or even every month, for that matter. It simply isn't required. I'd like to share some alternative thought on surviving with - and enjoying - the food you can grow yourselves.

In June of 2008, as a result of a medically supervised 18-day health program my wife attended, she and I made the commitment to continue eating the vegan - or plant based - diet she learned in the program "for at least a year".  That same month, we moved on to 24 acres of bare land in the hills, and proceeded to establish a new off-grid homestead from scratch.  Here it is, almost 3 years passed, and we are still eating essentially the same diet.  And doing just fine. 

Since the plant based diet we eat was chosen for health reasons, we weren't ethically bound to it.  We have never been what we would call strict or "militant" vegans. However, we both did notice a sense of spiritual relief at not "having" to eat animals. We each grew up on farms and have raised and slaughtered our own meat animals (beef, sheep, pigs, rabbits, and poultry), both as kids and as adults, so we know what is involved.  But, (surprise! surprise!) as a middle aged couple building a homestead, it has been no trouble at all to stay well fed by sticking to a plant based diet at least 95 percent of the time (maybe 5% occasional baked goods containing a little egg or dairy we chose to eat rather than avoid).  We only in the last month or two started to add an occasional whole egg back in to our regular diet, a bit of butter, and or putting a little milk in some of our tea as well.  Most of us eat what we want merely from habit, not what we need nutritionally.  No, I don't mean "if it tastes good, spit it out".  Food from the garden and orchard tastes great and with a little care will provide most if not all of the protein we need.  This is from personal experience, not hearsay.

We entered this project accompanied by several horses and a small mob of wethered goats for brush clearing, and have been diligently working on plans for how to provide enough feed for them from our own land, knowing it may become necessary in the near future.  But an early realization was that - in time - we could grow everything we needed for our own diets on our property, without having to worry about how to also feed, house and protect meat animals, either now or in a TEOTWAWKI situation. The raising and subsequent processing of meat livestock takes a lot of human energy, resources and time that we now can instead use on growing most of the fruits, nuts, vegetables and seeds that have made up our diets since June of '08. We will also be a less obvious target for the "Golden Horde", should they come our way.

We Americans also need far less energy than we consume.  If you live an unsustainable lifestyle, all the preparation you can muster will not be enough. Make the changes gradually now, not all at once and you will be much better off.  I urge everyone to get into the garden and off the grid as best you can.  Even if it's a little at a time, it's a means to an end and well worth the journey. - Dan the Mountain Man

Jim:
"The Struggle for Meat After TEOTWAWKI" was an excellent article and the author highlights a serious security issue of protecting your livestock after a crisis. I believe one answer was developed by the Spanish Missions built in early California. They designed their mission around very large courtyards with high adobe walls and buildings protecting this central area. One surviving mission in central California is called Saint Antonio de Paula and has a central water well and a courtyard approaching a full acre.

They planted their orchards and gardens in the courtyard and still had the room for pens to protect their livestock at night. This required having shepherds to move the stock to pasture each day. Small stock such as chickens and turkeys were allowed to scratch amongst the orchard trees for weeds and bugs. Outside the walls they grew pastures, field crops, and harvested nuts and firewood. When necessary they sent  large armed parties into the surrounding hills and valleys, but they protected their vital herds, gardens, and stores of food within their walls.

Since I am interested in building a Mission style homestead in a high precipitation area, adobe is not a viable material. Instead I will string high tensile woven fencing between 10 ft high posts made from used drill stem pipes. The bottom of the fence will be secured by a foot or so of concrete. CONEX shipping containers and a large pole barn facing the central area will provide storage and serve as the end walls. I calling this simply a farm yard, since I don't want to make it look like an armed compound. I would encourage folks to design it big enough to support multiple family groups, perhaps 2-3 acres of yard and surround it with several 4-5 acre pasture areas.  - Connie H.

Sir:
Just a brief anonymous note about storing eggs. Blue Water sailors have stored eggs in their original carton for three to six months simply by keeping them dry and coating each egg with cooking oil. Coconut oil has worked for me in the tropics, but I probably would not try it in cooler climates. The eggs should not be broken together. Break each egg into a small glass and observe and smell it before adding to a batch. I have heard shelf life can be increased to nine months by flipping each egg over biweekly with oil on your fingers to redistribute the coating. It sounded tricky to me so I never tried it. - Southsider

James,
In regards to to the poultry, I'd like to set a few things straight about  chicken eggs. They don't need to be refrigerated or pickled. If you don't wash the eggs, they have a shelf life of 30+ days. Maybe more. I'm not against pickled eggs. But eggs have a natural coating, that preservers them if not washed. There are several sites to look at. A great key word to help is "don't wash those eggs" Many of my chicken friends across the pond, have told me they never wash eggs, and go 90+ days with no problem.

We incubate eggs as well, I've waited as long at 20 days, without washing, and have had success rate in the 95 percent range.

From experience, the right breed of chicken will go broody. What breed that is? That's every chicken lovers dream question.

I'm putting my money on Silkie Bantams this year. - K.F.

JWR Replies: Thanks for those tips. OBTW, I've had several recent letters from readers recommending waterglass for preserving eggs. However, the folks at The Mother Earth News did some extensive tests a few years back and found that there is no good substitute for refrigeration for long term storage. Waterglass only provides a five month storage life. That is a lot of work for an extra 45 to 60 days of storage life (above an beyond a simple vegetable oil or vaseline coat.

Inverting eggs once evey week or so does extend their shelf life. To avoid cracking eggs, this is best done by storing them in cartons, rather than in open trays. Gently flip the entire carton.

From a practical standpoint, the best options for continuous egg availability in "grid-down" situations seem to be: 1.) Refrigeration (via a propane refrigerator, an efficient electric refrigerator powered by photovoltaics or micro hydro, or a deep-dug root cellar in northern latitudes), 2.) Dehydrating eggs, or 3.) Mastering the art of wintering over your hens and keeping a few broody hens for flock replenishment. Of course to keep hens laying through the winter, you will need artificial lighting. And storing their feed is also an issue.

Every day most of us in the U.S. have access to whatever we desire to eat whenever we want to eat it. We eat eggs for breakfast, chicken at any meal, and beef or pork as our dinner, nightly. There is no work or sacrifice in ordering a burger or chicken fingers. It would be very different after TEOTWAWKI.

One of the hardest things to do in a homesteading situation will be getting enough protein. We live in a meat eating society. Do the math on your daily intake of meat.  We eat two eggs and bacon or ham for breakfast, a grilled chicken breast for lunch, hamburger steak for dinner. Now multiply that for six months (180 days). How are you going to get 360 eggs, 180 chicken breasts, and 180 beef patties? It is daunting to consider. The logistics of raising different livestock would be a full time job. How to process and preserve them? How to feed and protect them? Between this and the time needed to garden, every daylight hour would be spent working.

On my small homestead are a variety of livestock.  I raise Dexter cattle, hair sheep, rabbits, ducks, chickens, honey bees and catfish. Of the 29 acres I have about seven acres fenced.  I have a small orchard of 63 apple and pear trees, and being in the Deep South, a pecan orchard. I have been working hard on my place for 10 years. It takes time to build a homestead and lots of work and money. Do not think otherwise, it is not easy.

I am trying to be self sufficient. I supply my own beef and eggs from home. I also butcher 2-3 sheep a year. I have had no luck with getting anyone to agree to eat rabbit or duck, but keep them around because of their reproductive prowess and quick growth. The catfish are not my favorite fish (I like tuna in a can). The fish are a last resort for me. I think it would take all of the above to come close to the level of protein we get from our modern diet.

The modern chicken is an amazing creature. A hen will produce 250 eggs a year if kept laying. This is an amazing feat and lot of food. Four to six hens laying will give you a thousand eggs a season. That is 1,000 eggs x 90 calories each. (90,000 calories) Every day will be an egg day. You will have to use these eggs quickly with no electricity for refrigeration WTSHTF.  The only way I know to preserve eggs without refrigeration is to pickle them. Yuck! Salt and vinegar are going to be used a lot in preserving everything if the SHTF, so stock up now!   Vinegar is easy to get now at any grocery store. I recently got an 80 lb bag of non-iodized salt from a restaurant supply for $11.50. These hens will also raise your replacement stock. You’ll need roosters for chicks. You don’t want all the hens to go broody and quit laying, so you may have to separate one and let her set on a clutch of eggs. All the incubators will be useless without electricity. The hens will last about two years laying, and then be eaten. 

You could raise your own birds for meat. I have never raised commercial broilers that mature in six weeks and if TSHTF they won’t be available anyway. It will take a lot of effort to raise replacement hens and have birds to butcher. It’s would be hard to store enough layer mash for the chickens. One may have to get a few hundred pounds of feed corn and crack it in a grain mill. Even then, I would only use it sparingly.  I think chickens will have to be allowed to fend for themselves WTSHTF. They are perfectly capable of feeding themselves. I have seen my birds eat everything under the sun.  Maybe they could be let out in the morning and coaxed back in the evening with a little cracked corn.  One person may have to be with the chickens when out to deter predators. I have lost chickens to owls hawks and dogs (domestic and wild).It’s the only plausible solution I can come up with. If you were to eat a chicken only once a week, think 52 birds, at least 24 weeks old including incubation time.  That’s six months to grow one chicken dinner. I have figured and charted and drawn diagrams trying to figure what I would need to supply this one chicken a week if TSHTF. I am still  skeptical of my ability to produce 52 chicken dinners a year without pre collapse resources available to me. (Resources such as grower crumbles, layer pellets, incubator, hatcheries that send chicks through the mail) I think the best use of my resources is to produce eggs in abundance and  replacement birds. Maybe a few chicken dinners, but the eggs would give you the most bang for buck. This is not meant to be skeptical, but to be realistic. I am not giving up on raising them for meat, but my experience tells me it would be very difficult.

The Dexter cattle are one of the most pleasurable additions I have made to the homestead. They are a naturally small (750-1,000 pound) and a docile breed. They produce good beef and small amounts of milk. I keep 2 cows and 1 bull. With the bull (Justice) left in permanently with the cows, (Hannah and Hershey) they have calves about every 18 months. When calves are born one of the previous born 18 months ago is butchered. There’s always one growing out and two pregnant. I keep the number of cows down because I want to balance the grass and the animals.  This is closer to sustainable. They eat grass eight months of the year and are easy keepers. A salt and mineral block is kept in with them. Besides that they just graze. During December, January, February and March I have to feed hay. This would be a hard problem to fix in a collapse. I think I would have to stockpile round bale hay to make it. Eight to 10 bales would get the cows and the sheep through a winter. These need to be kept at all times. We just don’t know when the SHTF.  If there was no fuel available to power the tractor I would have to hand feed them several times a day. The problem with this is the distance and amount of hay that can be moved by hand.  The rest of the next year I would have to scythe and haystack everything I could find outside the pasture. It would be very tough. I think they would be worth the trouble though.

I get a couple hundred pounds of meat from each cow butchered. In TEOWAWKI I would have to butcher the animal in winter myself. The meat would have to be preserved immediately. No electricity or refrigeration would mean the meat had to be cubed, cooked and canned. This is something that needs to be practiced ahead of time. The jars, lids, salt and spices need to be stockpiled. Two hundred plus pounds of cubed beef in quart jars would take at least 75 to 100 jars. That could be a good number of meals for a three person household. I would try to get at least a meal per pound, for my three person family group. A pound of lean beef has 1,000 calories. That’s 200,000 calories in meat.  

The Dexter cows are a dual purpose breed that also can be milked. I originally planned to milk Hannah, but haven’t done so yet.  She’s a good and friendly cow but I can’t seem to pull the trigger on milking. I don’t think she would give allot of milk. If she gave only a quart a day to us that would be close to 2 gallons a week. That’s nothing to sneeze at. Milk has around 150 calories and 8 grams of protein per cup. There’s 16 cups per gallon. That is 2400 calories and 128 grams of protein per gallons x 2 is 4800 calories a week. I think If TSHTF me and Hannah will have to come to terms on the milking. We will need the 650+ calories a day from her milk. Butter made by shaking a jar would be a luxury.

The sheep that I raise are hair sheep. There is no shearing of wool. They were developed to live in warmer climates but thrive anywhere. They are a meat breed. They are kept in the same pastures as the cows. Sometimes together, sometimes in rotation behind the cows. The thing about the sheep that would be beneficial in a collapse is there size and reproduction rate. The average size of an adult is 80 to 100 lbs for a ewe and 100 to 150 for a ram. Khatadhin sheep have the short gestation rate of five months. They produce twins most of the time and these lambs are 60 to 80 lbs in 5 months. They breed anytime of the year. Three ewes and a ram will produce a lot of meat. The best thing in a SHTF situation would be that you could butcher one at a time. They would be grazing till needed. Their size is more manageable, but still yields a lot of meat.  I have 3 in the freezer now. You will get about 35 lbs of meat from a 70 lb sheep. At approximately 650 calories per pound that is another 22,750 calories per lamb. You could have 3 to 6 animals to butcher a year with 3 ewes and a ram. That’s a lot of meat. One problem with sheep is parasites. It would be wise to stock up on at least 2 kinds of wormer. I have fewer problems with worms at my place since adding the cows and geese to my rotational grazing. This must have changed the parasite-host dynamic. I still worm occasionally, but not as much. I advise that when you do have to worm, don’t skimp on the amount of wormer used. You need to kill the parasite not promote resistance. Use the full amount and then a little extra. I also like to worm three successive times at seven day intervals.

Since I haven’t eaten any of my rabbits or ducks I have no info on their ability to supply meat on your homestead. I do know that you can be overrun with rabbits pretty quickly. A rabbits gestation period is very short (31 Days!) and the litter size is from 4 to 9. You can scrounge up grass and greenery year round to feed them. Six litters a year is a lot of rabbits. The ducks I have had are Khaki Campbells. They are a medium sized bird that lays as well as a chicken. They can easily lay 200 eggs a year. They can be imprinted very easily and will think you’re the mother duck if you feed and handle them when small. This would be helpful in getting them in at night. The thing I liked about these ducks is that they mature faster than chicks. This could be a lot of meat and eggs if managed well. If things were really grim, I would eat the catfish.

One of the most important things in a collapse would be the safety and security of your livestock. I was awakened at 4 a.m. last week to the sound of my last goose raising an alarm. I ran out to the pasture and found 6 wild dogs in the paddocks with my sheep and cows. They had run all of the sheep until they had collapsed then killed two ewes that were due to lamb. All alive sheep were being bitten while down. The sheep were covered with blood and my prize ram had one ear nearly tore off. These sheep represent 10 years of breeding and culling and cannot be easily replaced. They killed my last goose (geese are wonderful alarms). They were harassing the cows and scattered when I shone the truck lights on them. Thankfully I don’t have any baby cows now or it could have been worse. I got one with the rifle and have been working to get the rest. If I had to rely on these animals as the only source of meat for me it would have been disastrous. Predators are a big problem. If TSHTF I will likely have to shelter my animals every night for protection. The thing that would be difficult about this is getting the animals to respond without sweet feed as an encouragement. I think to make it with the livestock I would have to stock up on feed corn. I would probably need 5 or 6-50 gallon drums full. I have stored it in drums by the pasture before for the animals. It could be fed cracked or un-cracked to the chickens, cows, and sheep. This is the one thing that all livestock respond to. It would simplify raising the chickens. It would allow me to coax the cows and sheep where I needed them. I have gotten it at the grain elevator many times and it is not expensive by the bushel. You would also need to have your winter hay stockpiled. If things go bad it would be ready. You don’t want to chance your cows going hungry. A hungry cow is hard to contain. They will walk right through a fence. I have started using a solar powered fence charger. It will contain them.

Putting meat on the table will be difficult in the future but I think it is doable. If you gain the experience now you will be well ahead of the game. There will have to be multiple sources to supply you with enough protein. I believe raising chickens for the eggs will be the most efficient use of feed and bird. The larger livestock will produce stockpiles of meat for you if you learn how to preserve it by canning, drying, pickling, curing or smoking. The stockpiled corn for the animals will give you the ability to move the animals as needed for their protection. The hay will be your insurance for winter. The resources we position in preparation will allow us the time to grow the corn, wheat, or oats that will make the livestock sustainable. This along with our food storage program will give us a chance if TSHTF.

Background: 
You might say to yourself, I have no farm, I have no pump house, and I surely have no rats. My response to this is, “yet.” If and when the Sunflowers hit the fan (SHTF), you surely may have a rodent problem. Rodents can impact whatever integrity you may still have in regard to your utilities. That utility may be communications, electric, or as discussed in this article, water.

This is a true account about my dealings and responses to confronting troubles with Pack Rats. The purpose is to provide a few tips, not to dictate any exact method for dealing with pack rats. Pest control of these particular rodents has shown to be very important to keeping the water running at our farm house. I hope that by sharing a few of my experiences, that you will be less intimidated when confronted with an urgent task like getting the water, telephone, or backup power on line again. I have personal experience with rats impacting each of these areas. I have selected “water” to discuss, because I can address maintenance and preventative maintenance in a manner that you might be able to transfer to your own rodent dilemma someday. May you also take a little humor with you when dealing with these critters.

I have had several occasions with dealing with pack rats. My pack rats can grow bigger than the neighbor’s runt dog. Most of the time, the barn cats do a pretty good job with combating the spurts of pack rat population on our farm. There are, however, times when a structure is not suitable to opening for cat access. I must deal with the rats in other ways.

When I was still new to my pack rat troubles, I tried traditional research to seek out professional remedies. Most of the research summarized what I was already practicing. I visited the county noxious weed office for ideas, and the local hardware store for recommendations. I am also known for chatting off the ears of anyone that may have anything to offer from sharing their own experience.

In regard to other people’s experiences with pack rats, I have pretty much concluded, that there are more pack rat stories about safety hazards and costly repairs, than about remedies. Most of the stories included accounts about farm trucks catching fire, tools disappearing, electric wiring being molested, leather seats being turned to mush, and the list goes on.  

Several folks have suggested shooting the rats. (I do carry, daily.) For safety reasons, space constraints are not conducive gun fire. I carry a multi-tool type knife with me when working in the pack rat infested structures, but so far have not had the opportunity to use it as a weapon. My best plan of defense for the potential of a rat jumping at me, was to use my gloved hands and my stomping boots to crush them. So far, I have not actually stomped on any rats, it is a back up plan for personal protection, in the event the folding knife is not the best option at the time.

You might ask, why not just toss a cat into my pack rat troubles? For logistic reasons, and due to concern to exposing the cat(s) to toxic chemicals, tossing in the cats is not an option. I don‘t know about your pack rats, but mine are persistent. Even if I could make an area safe and accessible to cats, the rats would figure out the schedule and return in short order. 

Structure:
I will present my encounters and resulting maintenance solutions about pack rats by reporting upon one structure - a pump house. I have yielded some success with other structures when utilizing some of the same applications, namely: use of mothballs, and strategically placed rat poisons (under hood of trucks, under seats, near battery cables, and squeezed up in the visor).  However, the pump house turns out to be one of the most important structures to preserving the welfare of our water supply.  

Our pump house is located about a quarter mile deep into a pasture. The pump house is structured around an old hand dug well. The well is laid up with stone and covered. A modern pressure pump and other plumbing components rest nearby and  are assisted by electricity from a nearby breaker box. The walls are constructed of cedar blocks, and the roof is laid with galvanized tin. Now you have a picture of the interior of the pump house.

How I approach the exterior of the pump house is also worth describing. Basically, I approach the pump house at about waist level, remove the entry door in the metal roof, lift my leg and begin to climb in. There is a ladder that I usually bypass by just leaping in once I can clear the entry port down in.  However, when exiting the structure, I must utilize the ladder. 

So this is what happens and keeps happening when I do not keep up with needed maintenance. The pack rats get in the pump house by eating through the metal walls, eating through the wood supporting the roof, and eating through the spray foam and other  insulation. Those pack rats are awful. They like metal objects and haul in all sorts of stuff,  and pack it into the crevices of the roof and joints of the interior. Their favorite spots are stuffed into the breaker box, in the cabinet where the electric fence box is held, and around the heat lamp. Those bums even eat the hard plastic cover of the switch to the pressure tank. Last Christmas, I caught them just in time, the wiring to the Double D switch was fully exposed, but not fully chewed through.

When dealing with a switch box, or any electrical application, care must be taken. Get professional instruction. As a hint, keep a plastic insulated standard screw driver around, and seriously consider removing the breaker/fuse before handling anything that might even look like it might have electricity associated with it. This is such a serious safety issue, I will not comment on the details to how I go about the task, as your needs may be quite different. - While I am on a topic of safety, I try to remember to wear a vent mask to help lessen my exposure to harmful illnesses like the hantavirus. I usually forget the mask, and end up utilizing a piece of cloth.

Other items I utilize to help lessen hazards are the use of hand held radios. These serve as suitable communication between my husband and I. Due to his disability, he can not take the actions I am able body to do. Fortunately, he is very experienced and has a good brain. He talks me through trouble shooting tasks, and provides the guidance to reduce risk to shock and other potential accidents that I might other wise experience. During hazardous weather, electronic communications are a must. Other folks might prefer a cell phone for outside contact. At times, when I must walk to the pump house due to inaccessibility with a vehicle, I usually carry a cell phone too.
 
About every two to three months, I usually go down to check on things. To check on the pump house, all I have to do is remove the lid at the roof, and peek in. Most of the time, there is something going on as evidenced by the appearance of nests. So then it is time to hop in if I am prepped for it, otherwise, I return with the proper clothing, mask, etc.

I have tried the usual pesticide offerings for rats such as D-CON, loose bait trays, anchored bait blocks, traps, and bug bombs. For a variety of reasons, the results tend to be limited. Sure the rats eat the bait. It seems, I can hardly keep enough poison available. It is like a smorgasbord for rats on blood thinners. Now for those lovely boxes of Moth Balls. The bigger the box the better. One 24 ounce box of Enoz brand moth balls seems to work fairly well for our pump house interior measuring approximately 5x8x6 ft high. Yet, I am sort of the overkill type. I use two boxes. One of them I fully sprinkle out. The second I open and anchor down. The smell of the room is very strong and toxic, so I try to limit my exposure. 

The pack rats on our farm here in Kansas do not seem to favor moth balls, and this is good. I must caution you, that the moth balls need to be sprinkled. When I have left the moth ball box open and sitting neatly unanchored, it becomes the next big toy. On one occasion, the box was found in the process of being relocated. Don’t ask me how they do it.

Additionally, I might add a short note about snakes. I have not had that problem. A few of my neighbors have. Perhaps, I am just lucky, and perhaps the moth balls have something to do with my luck. Granted, if I had snakes, I probably would not have the intensity of pack rats to deal with. But, if I had to pick between snakes and pack rats, I would pick the rats.

Prevention:
This is a good time to present the topic of rat prevention maintenance. Basically, keep the pump house closed - don’t walk away and leave the entry door open to run back to the shop for another tool. Check the side walls, corners, overlaps and any other place you can think off for possible entry sources. Don’t get too far behind with repairing insulation. Insulation is another term or rat dessert. Also, keep an eye on the roof with layers that may begin to lift during high wind.

Now for what happens when I do not keep up with pack rat prevention and maintenance.  One fine day the water just stops running to the house. Shortly before Christmas, such a thing happened one more time. At first I misdiagnosed the problem- I thought it was an air pressure issue due to the cattle drinking from the stock tank. The real problem ended up being a ruptured line buried someplace between the pump house and the shop. Yet, when following up on the water issues, I got to inspecting the pump house. Down I went. I hauled off two 5 gallon buckets of rat waste and nesting supplies. I also hauled off a variety of plumbing supplies, some of which  I learned later were suppose to remain in the pump house for adding air to the well. I ended up tossing the contents of the buckets and was unable to retrieve them successfully. So off I went to the hardware store for more supplies and I returned to add air. The husband was not happy (note: husband is paralyzed due to stroke).

No Water:
A loss of water pressure or a loss of running water is often a sign of problems in the well house. Shortly after the Christmas event with the water line, the pipe was repaired. Two weeks passed and we were off line on water once again. Down to the pump house I go. I notice the rat trays have been reshuffled, and not much more. The temp gauge inside showed 13 or so degrees. Oops. Not good. Compared to the 8 degrees outside, the temp problem was not obvious to me until I looked at the gauge. I could feel the cold air blowing in from where the rats has chewed. I began bending my head and peaking around. Light was coming in, and some rather large holes where providing ample access to the bitter cold wind. The pressure tank was freezing up. 

Our neighbors came to lend a hand. They arrived with a propane tank and hand torch. The pressure tank is made of plastic. CW climbed in and warmed the nearby iron bench, as well as the ground around the unit. He took care to avoid a fire by removing the loose dry grasses and brush  that I had not fully emptied out prior.

After the propane heater went to work, a 1,500 Watt electric heater was carried in and turned on high. I stuffed the holes with a pair of pants that were in the car. The battery on the farm truck was froze. The 10 inches of snow that had fallen during that night and morning was varied due to drifts. I was concerned about getting the Toyota Yaris stuck. I asked the neighbors to keep an eye on me and make sure I cleared the pasture gate.

Later that day, I drove down again. It was still bitter cold. I opened the door and climbed into check the temp. The temp showed 20 degrees. Ouch. Still too cold. I take my scrap bag of quilt batting from the vehicle and begin stuffing it in anywhere I could. My multi-tool came in handy. Before leaving, I checked the heat lamp to be sure is was the right bulb - 200 watts. It was, but when the tank began to thaw earlier, it had trouble - off and on. The bulb had started to break due to the violent shaking. It was barely hanging on. Fortunately, I had one along just in case. I changed it out and hoped for the best for the temp to rise. Back at the farm house, I had every faucet on at a line trickle. Drip-drips don’t cut it when it gets too much colder than 10 above with howling wind.

Overall, the water to the farm house did ok in the days to come. The sinks and toilets kept working. The wash machine however had its issues. It is positioned on a North wall and our home is not insulated the modern way, just old dirt that blew in during the dust bowl days. Waking up to icy water in the pet’s bowls and our toilet bowls is not unheard of.

Patching Up and Wrapping Up:
So it finally warms up. I get the spray foam out. I prefer “Geocel” brand expanding foam sealant to other brands. It just handles better on metal application. I did not heed the warning label about wearing gloves this last time. The residue left the skin blackish for a few days. Avoid getting it on your face and hair too. Next time, I might consider latex free medical gloves. I keep a box on hand in the shop.

This about wraps up my story about pack rats in the pump house. I would like to  close with a brief snapshot of what happened in the Spring. Like always, I made a bunch of noise and rattled a tool on the galvanize tin roof before entering. I like to give the rats enough notice to leave if they can manage. I then paused a moment so nothing ends up jumping at me, and then preceded to enter cautiously.

It was a full house that day in the pump house. I was so aggravated, and thankfully dressed for the occasion. I could hear and see the rats at eye level once I landed in. My mouth was covered, and I wore a scarf around most my face. My clothing was thick. The gloves I wore were leather, the heavy winter type. A quick glance inside, and it was obvious that a fire hazard was in the making. Thick nests of grasses and other soft materials were snuggly stuffed between the stringers, walls, and electric outlets. The protrusions came inward as much as two feet. I was fearful as I slowly grabbed at the piles. I then took a few steps to the opening, stepped up on a metal object within, and tossed. I repeated this action 8 to 10 times.

Finally, I had had enough. There were still two rats running here and there as I moved about in clearing the debris. They remained at eye level along the top of the wall. I was ready to leave, and one of the rats wouldn’t budge. It stayed positioned on the wall ladder that I wished to climb to get the hood. I stepped around it, and gave care to where I place my hands. I’m out! I’m mad. So I lean over and grab the pest by the tail. The tail falls off in my hand, and I think to myself, “Now what?” I leave, and then later start to feel little bad about the rat’s tail. It was my intention to toss the pack rat out, not pack out with a rat’s tail. 

I hope you enjoyed this little story about my experiences with pack rats, and why they can become a serious implication to keeping the water flowing. I now try to keep extra pump house supplies on hand, such as, 200 watt bulbs, a heater, rat bait, moth balls and spray insulation. And, I can usually pick up the spray insulation on the cheap after the winter cold spell. 

Being able to take care of our own medical conditions is very important. Sometimes we can't get to a doctor, can't afford it or perhaps there will be a breakdown and there are no doctors available. I've found it invaluable to know what to do on my own when out on backpacking trips and an injury or sickness shows up.

In cases like this having a good knowledge of herbal medicine and having a few things on hand can mean the difference between agony and wellness or even life and death. I've used herbal medicine for over 20 years for livestock and pets as well as friends and family members. Having children around has provided plenty of opportunity for using herbs whether it's a scrape that's bleeding or accidentally eating something poisonous from the cupboard, not to mention a few colds, headaches, bruises and broken bones.

Living on a farm with livestock has also been an education. In the years I have used herbs I have never had to call in the veterinarian, everything encountered has been treatable with herbs and there have been many notable successes to prove the effectiveness.

This is a basic overview of the herbs and formulas I use regularly. It's not intended to be a complete course in herbal medicine. I do not have all the answers, I just have a small amount of experience that may help someone someday. These are basics, I have used many things that work wonderfully but I find myself grabbing these basic things most often and am sure that if I had these few herbs on hand I wouldn't be completely helpless, in fact, I feel incredibly rich. With that said, here's the favorites from my herbal medicine bag.

Fresh Garlic
One of the few herbs that I use almost exclusively fresh. Freezes well too. One of my favorite antibiotics, illnesses and parasites just can't bear to stick around when you are taking lots of garlic. For ear infections I make a garlic oil by soaking crushed fresh garlic cloves in olive oil, leaving in a warm place for 24-36 hours. Applied by dropper into the ears and held in place with cotton this has always worked for my family. Garlic works through the combination of chemicals in the plant that when combined work effectively. The goal is to combine them, and this is best done with fresh garlic. As distasteful as it may be the most effective way to use garlic internally is to chew up whole fresh cloves. Swallowing them (chopped to a manageable size) is a close second. Garlic products like pills and powders are okay but I prefer fresh. Garlic taken internally is a must as well to help fight infection.

Fresh Onions
For a bad bruise there's nothing better. Simply slice a thin piece of onion to cover the bruise and tape it on the bruised area as soon after the injury as possible. I've used this many times when one of the children runs in crying after being smashed up and with the onion slice in place they are soon out running around like nothing had happened, no bruise. For tender skin I will put a little olive oil on the area before the onion as this helps keep strong onions from burning the skin.

Powdered Charcoal
Do not be caught without a good supply of finely powdered charcoal. Fifty pounds would not be too much, it's free so there's no reason not to have plenty. You can buy activated charcoal for some absurd amount of money in small containers but the stuff you can make yourself works just fine, I've saved many of my livestock that managed to eat something poisonous with it. Powdered charcoal has a mechanical action, it's not some miracle thing, it just has microscopic pores that somehow absorb immense amounts of poisons and hold it fast. I use it internally and externally. Internally for any ingested poison, for instance, when my dog eats the rat poison, or externally for things like snakebite or spider bite. For cases of blood poisoning I clean the wound and keep a charcoal poultice on the area 24 hours a day until the red line is gone. This has worked well for everyone I have used it on.

Making charcoal is easy, simply make a nice hot fire with clean hardwood, willow is very good but most any other non resinous hardwood will work fine. Don't use old barn boards or treated lumber. Once the wood chunks are red coals use tongs or something as effective to place the coals in an airtight and fireproof container, a metal can with a tight lid works good. Leave this filled with the coals and sealed as well as practical in the fire, adding more wood to keep the fire burning fairly well. The coals will not turn to ashes in the can because there is no air for them to burn. After the fire has died down, usually an hour or so, I take them out and let cool. Once cool I grind it all up to powder in a blender. The finer the powder the better. Be forewarned, this makes a terrific mess.

Cayenne
My number one herb. Stops bleeding, heart attacks (almost instantly) and shock. A couple of pinches of cayenne powder in a glass of water will almost always stop a bloody nose, you have to drink the cayenne water though. I've had kids balk, thinking it will burn, it won't. I've tried it too many times and I know there's no burning.

Raspberry Leaves
I keep some raspberry leaves on hand, especially when I travel, if I feel like I might be getting a cold or flu I have a few cups of strong raspberry leaf tea and usually this takes care of things.

Yarrow
Yarrow works like the raspberry leaf, I like the taste better. Adding a little honey to a cup of yarrow tea makes a really nice drink and it's really good for you too.

Ginger
I like ginger tincture for motion sickness but the powder is good for adding to a hot bath. A hot ginger bath taken when sick really helps and increases the circulation quickly to help the body cleanse toxins and fight infection. Good for frostbite, colds, flu etc. Just beware, it's rather aggressive on delicate skin and can burn. If taking a ginger bath you would do well to cover delicate areas with Vaseline.

Slippery Elm
Thank God for Slippery Elm bark! It has so many uses, for people that can't keep food down a slippery elm gruel (powder mixed with enough water to make something like oatmeal) will usually stay down and is extremely nourishing, you can live for a long time on nothing but slippery elm bark and water. For deep wounds, large gashes or bullet wounds packing the wound and area with slippery elm bark powder mixed with water to make a paste will heal things up nicely. Don't remove, just keep adding and keep moist by covering with a bandage and some plastic. You can moisten the dressing with comfrey tea for even better effect. I also like adding a little marshmallow root powder and/or comfrey root powder to the slippery elm for a stronger effect. Often this will heal so well there will be no scar, I have proven this on myself but it's hard to convince people because there's no scar to show how bad the injury was.

Comfrey
One of God's healing gifts. I plant comfrey everywhere because I never want to be without it. The leaf and roots have the same properties but the root is stronger. I've used it on cuts, burns, broken bones, sprains, etc. Comfrey is also a highly nutritious feed for livestock and will help build strong bones. I feed it to my horses.

Alfalfa
Highly nutritious. When there's been a lot of bleeding I give lots of alfalfa to help build back up. It does thin the blood a little so wait until after the bleeding stops!

Kelp
Extremely nutritious, high in all kinds of minerals the body needs for health and for growing. I feed it to my livestock and there's a very noticeable improvement in their health and energy. When food is scarce or poor quality I'll be supplementing with kelp and alfalfa. A side benefit is that kelp is extremely high in usable iodine and works well as an inexpensive substitute for potassium iodide during a nuclear incident.

Yellow Dock
High in iron and highly nutritious. I use it when I need a blood builder or for anemia.

Beets
High in iron and other blood building nutrients. For cases where a blood transfusion is needed but unavailable a daily dose of beet juice, carrot juice, wheat grass juice, alfalfa juice, comfrey juice, bee pollen and slippery elm will often work instead to help the person recover without the transfusion.

Marshmallow
I would venture to guess that in a time where the access to good medical care is unavailable and life perhaps is more dangerous with more chance of gunshot wounds or stepping on a nail, gangrene will be more common than it is now and we will be glad to know what to do with it. Doctors usually cut off parts of the body afflicted with gangrene, I have a better solution. Soak the area in a very strong tea of marshmallow 12 hours a day until all traces of gangrene are gone. For instance, if a leg or foot were affected I would use a steel barrel (clean) over a fire to make an immense batch of marshmallow tea. Keeping it warm, soak in the barrel as long as it takes, usually not much more than a few days. If you can't get that much marshmallow you can use hollyhocks, which are from the same family. Another use for marshmallow is as a milk replacer substitute. When I was many years younger I raised three orphan lambs on a milk replacer made of slippery elm and marshmallow powder mixed with warm water until it would just barely go through the bottle nipple and a trace of kelp. When it was available I would add as much goat milk as I could in place of the water but it wasn't always on hand. The lambs grew into some of my finest animals and won many trophies at the fairs.

Nettles
High in nutrients, good for when the food supplies are poor. Also great for allergies believe it or not.

Chaparral
When I need a strong blood cleanser I reach for the chaparral. Not only does it help purify the blood but it cleanses the liver as well as fights internal parasites and is an antibiotic. For regular body maintenance when conditions are less than we could wish for or for helping with infections.

Tinctures

Cayenne
If I could only grab one thing cayenne would be it. For stopping bleeding there's not much that will work better. For bleeding I like to use the tincture internally and powder topically at the same time but you can use a teaspoon or more of the powder in a glass of water internally if you don't have tincture. Cayenne evens out and stabilizes the blood pressure and once you have used it will be amazed at how well the bleeding stops, from nose bleeds to large gashes it works great and doesn't burn like most people think it would. Also there's nothing better for shock, a real stout dose internally for someone that is in shock will really help them pull through. Also works for heart attacks, while I've never had one myself if I thought I might be having one I would drink a half bottle of cayenne tincture immediately, then take more throughout the day. I have heard from people with experience that this works but I hope I never have to try it out.

Lobelia
If I had to pick only two tinctures that I could take with me the easy choice would be cayenne and lobelia. Lobelia is a lifesaver, and I mean that literally. In large doses (tablespoons) it causes vomiting, which can be useful in cases of poisoning. In smaller doses ( 5-10 drops) it stops spasms, such as cramps, seizures, involuntary muscle contractions. It's also very effective at opening the bronchial tubes so when a child has croup or bronchitis I reach for the lobelia tincture.

Raspberry Leaf
Helps with making childbirth go much easier, at least that's what I've been told by the women that have used it, being a guy I haven't tried it myself. Also works great for anything I would use yarrow for.

Yarrow
I use yarrow constantly. Colds, flu, stomachache, headache. You name it, I grab the yarrow. Ginger About ten minutes after I get in a small airplane I am beginning to turn green and dizzy. Motion sickness is no fun but when I have a bottle of ginger in my pocket I don't worry.

Elderberry
Cold? Flu? Along with garlic Elderberry works great. Alone it works great too but I like using garlic with it. Shepherds Purse Here's a great one for putting a stop to excessive bleeding/hemorrhaging. Good in childbirth for instance.

Red Clover
A strong blood cleanser and blood thinner. Works good to help remove toxins in the blood, just remember your blood will not clot as well as usual. I made the mistake one time of castrating a bull calf that had been grazing on a rich clover pasture. He bled like a faucet.

Black Walnut
An extremely effective fungicide and vermifuge that I use for keeping my livestock free of internal parasites and problem fungus. I've used it just as effectively on people. Is also is a very effective dark brown stain so don't be surprised if when you use it, for instance on fungus on your feet, you have brown skin for a while.

Parsley Root
Urinary tract problems? Anyone that has experienced this will appreciate parsley root.

Yellow Dock
Has a good quality Iron, easily used by the body. With a lot of bleeding for instance you might be glad to get a little boost to your iron levels to help recover. Also good when you feel tired all the time. Echinacea I use to turbocharge the immune system. Works good for things like spider bites too. One warning, I don't suggest using more than two weeks at a time because the effectiveness wears off.

Usnea
Usnea is a parasitic plant that grows on trees in wet climates. Being an extremely powerful antibiotic it's one very useful tincture to keep on hand and in your BOB. In my experience it's more powerful than penicillin, cheaper too if you collect it yourself and make the tincture. Years ago I had a sheep with a retained afterbirth that had become infected. This usually results in death, and being one of my favorite ewes I reacted, probably overdoing things a bit but the ewe was completely recovered the next morning. First I manually cleaned out the afterbirth, then gave her via syringe and tube a large dose of raspberry leaf tincture to help her body clean out what I could not. Then I gave her several large syringes full of usnea tincture made with vodka. This resulted in the first intoxicated sheep I have ever met. Despite the obvious overdose she quickly recovered and the infection (which was serious by the time I found her) was gone.

Catnip and Fennel Mixture
Especially with a baby around, this can be a real favorite. A baby with colic or indigestion, screaming half the night can be a real miserable proposition for both baby and family and if life isn't normal this could happen more often due to various upsets. A few drops of catnip and fennel tincture (or tea if you prefer, works well, just not as easy to carry in your pocket) has always worked for my family.

Preparations

Herbal formula for internal parasites
A tincture made of black walnut hulls, wormwood and cloves is excellent for getting rid of internal parasites. I've used it on people and animals with great success. Taking large amounts of fresh garlic along with this tincture has proven to be even more effective as not many creatures want to stick around when you smell like garlic.

Powdered pool chlorine
A little of this goes a very long way. You'll need it for making a bleach solution which will come in handy for disinfecting. I suspect there will be plenty of applications.

Plantain and Chickweed Salve Made by gently melting beeswax and olive oil and steeping the dried herbs in this for several hours. The proportions of oil and wax determine how hard the salve is, you will need to experiment to see what works for you. I use it for any itching problems, healing skin ailments, bee stings, bug bites, etc.

Clove Oil
Ever have a toothache? Try getting a good nights sleep with one! At some point you will be willing to do just about anything to get a bit of relief and that's when you will be thankful you put that bottle of clove oil in your bag. Put a dab of oil on your finger and put it on the gums around the affected tooth. In my experience the relief is very fast, the taste is a little overwhelming at first but you won't care when you get the relief. It doesn't last long so carry the bottle of oil in your pocket, ready for application whenever you need it. I recommend keeping several bottles on hand.

Making Tinctures
I've mentioned a long list of tinctures that I like to keep on hand but for some it can be too expensive to buy them all. Thankfully they are very easy to make yourself if you are so inclined. Here's basic instructions for how I do it. I almost always use dry herbs. Fresh herbs can be used but their moisture content tends to dilute the alcohol a bit making it less potent. I like alcohol tinctures because they last virtually forever, never freeze in bad weather and are very effective as the alcohol can take the herbal properties into the system quickly. You take such a small dose that, unless you are giving insane doses like I did with the sheep, there's no chance of intoxication, and tinctures taste so bad nobody would ever take more than needed accidentally. I use Vodka because it's just alcohol, nothing added. I take the dried herb I plan on using and place it in the blender, cover with the Vodka, place the lid on the blender and blend until thoroughly incorporated. I then pour into a clean glass jar, put the lid on, label (very important) and place in a fairly warm place like the top of the refrigerator or by the wood stove for two weeks. Every time I go past or think about it I stop and give the jar a few shakes to stir things up a bit. You want to have enough alcohol to allow plenty of sloshing, not a mushy mass. After two weeks of this I strain into another clean jar, preferably dark glass, press out as much liquid from the herbs as possible, close up and label. That's all there is to it. Since almost all tinctures look the same it's extremely important to label them some way that won't disappear with time and use.

Storage: Keep tinctures in dark glass containers. Cool is better but I've never had a tincture go bad even when stored in the car through hot summers and below zero winters. While there are many more herbs that I like to use these are the ones I grab the most. These, in a kit with some instructions would be a great addition to any bug out bag or car kit and for sure keep a supply at home.

Mr. Rawles:
I had to respond to the article about meat chickens. We have raised laying hens from chicks many times. Last year we too decided to try Cornish Cross chicks. The company we chose only gave "straight run", so we couldn't choose their sex. We got 16 and filled out our 25 chick minimum with new laying hens. One died the day after we got them. We brooded them in a large black poly water trough with paper covering the litter in the bottom. And we had a heat lamp over the top. Plus even though it was also in our shop, we covered it with wire just in case. After about two weeks we used a fence panel covered with chicken wire to board off about half of the laying hens 12' x 12' stall in the barn and they moved out there. We didn't follow the food suggestion of removing the feed for 12 hours. They had chick starter and water 24 hrs a day. When we ran out of starter they went on the same high protein feed the hens used. When they were about a month old we took down the separation and they went in with the other layers. They are always locked in the stall at night. During the day the door is open. We do not have a pen, they are all free range. It was funny to see that a couple of them buddy up with the new layer babies and they would try and keep up with them. Most of the meat chicks stayed inside but they would go out and lay in the grass and sun themselves when it wasn't too hot. But to watch the ones following the layers was funny. They really looked like Baby Huey on the cartoons. But with our experience, we never lost another chick. We went through three 50 lb bags of food after the starter. And we took them to be butchered. $3.50 a bird was cheap as far as we were concerned. We could do it if we needed to but at this point it was just easier. The hens finished out at about 4 lb and the roosters were 5 lbs. But we took them in when they were 56 days old. We have been told if you go too long they will literally outgrow their organs. Ours weren't as big as those in the article, but we had no loses other than the first day. - Toni T.

Dear Sir,  
Thank you as always for your outstanding work. SurvivalBlog is a daily must read.   Though I do not yet raise poultry, I am doing my homework, and Pat O.’s article illustrates why I will never raise single-purpose specialty breed chickens or other livestock. There are many older breeds of animal that are well-suited in all ways to fend for themselves, be intelligent and resourceful, and still supply us with high-quality eggs and/or meat. Most heritage breeds of chicken are quite capable of foraging, thereby greatly saving on purchased or raised feed costs, and they have enough sense to know where they live. The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy is working to save over 180 rare and endangered species from extinction; there are many dual-purpose heritage chickens available that are better meat than egg birds, for example. When selecting breeds for your farm or retreat, please give a thought to helping maintain the genetic diversity and long-proven character qualities these animals represent, and are important to retain. Thanks again and best wishes, - Burne

Our family has raised about two dozen laying hens each year for several years, and we felt pretty confident in our poultry capabilities.  Learning more about meat breeds of poultry, we felt it was a good time to try our hand raising some of these birds to evaluate their value and quality.  Cornish cross chicks are well known for their rapid, almost freakish growth rates, so we found a large, reputable source online and ordered 50 of their male chicks.  We had to wait almost a month for the male chicks, because of availability – everyone seems to want the males which grow faster than the females.  Finally, the birds arrived. Inside the box, only 3 of the 50 chicks had died in transit.  In the next 24 hours, 30 more of the birds died, despite our best efforts with proper watering and heat.  The directions shipped with the birds and found online were followed religiously.  When we called the supplier, they indicated that losing this many birds is actually normal, and they agreed to ship us 35 more birds as soon as more males were available.  Not wanting to wait to late into the summer, we agreed to take 40 more female chicks as replacement.  The company was very easy to work with and shipped all the new birds to us free of charge.  For whatever reason, only two of the females died during the two days after we received them – a much better mortality rate. We could tell the males from the females right off in their behavior and size after one week.  The males were much more excitable, agitated, and larger.  They also got themselves stuck in places and needed help at times.  The females were very docile. 

Our setup consisted of two large vinyl kiddies’ pools with waterers and small feeders.  Heat lamps were suspended over the pools and were very important to the chicks.  We kept them in the pools for about 3.5 weeks inside our shop until they were feathered out and large enough we thought they would survive outside in the coop.  During these 3.5 weeks, another 10 chicks died – mostly females and most of them were “smothered” – literally smashed as the chicks milled together in tight groups.  It was clear these birds were very dumb, much more so than our laying hens.  By the third week the chicks were growing rapidly and becoming voracious eaters.  We began controlling the amount of food they received and the amount of time they had the food.  These birds will try to eat themselves to death, and care must be taken to keep a regulated food intake.  Another issue we had with these young birds is keeping their water clean.  All birds are messy, but these seemed to be clueless and dull. 

Raising these chicks required daily maintenance and frequent checking. We hadn’t expected the need these birds required of constant access to food.  We have a single, large three gallon feeder for our two dozen laying hens which was more than adequate.  One of these three gallon feeders was required for each dozen meat birds, because of their focus and aggressive eating.  We built two large, trough feeders about three feet long each to provide more food during the feeding hours.  We had to staple chicken wire across the food trough to keep the birds from lying in the trough while they ate, and soiling the feed.  The big male birds (noticeably larger and more pushy for the food) would plop themselves in the feeder, lie down, and just eat.  The trough could only accommodate 2-to-3 birds like this, so we put wire mesh across the trough which discouraged this behavior. The next problem with the feeders was that birds would literally push their heads, then bodies up under the wire mess at the ends and get themselves stuck under the mesh while eating.  So, reinforcement of the mesh was required.  Now, all the birds could literally lie down at the trough and eat to their heart’s content.  Most of the birds literally rubbed all their belly feathers off to bare skin by laying down so much as they ate.  Giant, dumb, eating machines.  Letting the meat birds out to scratch in the yard wasn’t a good option for these birds – they weren’t very interested and couldn’t find their way back in at night like the laying hens always did.

During August and September we catch a lot of salmon and sturgeon during the fall Chinook runs of the Columbia River, and would occasionally throw the carcasses in to the chickens.  Many of the birds would pick at the fish, though the biggest birds didn’t move far from their place at the trough.  We didn’t throw fish in often mainly because of smell and because it is a risk to dogs to get salmon fluke poisoning.  One idea we tried was to suspend a carcass about two feet over the birds on chicken wire to encourage “maggot production”.  The wire mess allowed the maggots to fall down into the birds, providing a very high protein diet supplement after about a week.  This is definitely a strategy for a single guy, because the wife wouldn’t let this move beyond the experimental phase once she found out about it (smelled it). We occasionally have predators around the chickens, and keep a large live-trap at the coop.  During these 10 weeks we caught 2 raccoons, 2 skunks, and several field rats.  None of the chickens were lost to these animals. 

One morning I found a dead, half eaten chicken in the middle of the coop.  It was not clear how it had died, or how the predator had gotten in or out.  The next morning, another dead chicken in the middle of the pen.  I was worried about a big rat or something, and then found a lot of bird droppings under one of the trees near the coop.  I figured it was an eagle, which frequent the area but had never bothered the chickens before.  A third chicken was dead on the third day.  That evening, just at sunset, I heard a large commotion out at the coop – the birds were freaking out and huddled under their covering.  I raced out with the dog and a huge, great-horned owl jumped just over my head and lighted in the tree above – an impressive and spooky silhouette in the sky above.  The chickens were terrified and all worked up.  It was an exciting experience, but obviously required something be done.  We had a large piece of “deer netting” – light plastic one inch mesh that we cut and draped over the chicken coop, wire tying it to the top of the coop’s 6-foot tall fencing.  The owl did seem to have one incident trying to push through the mesh, but we never lost another chicken and after a few days the owl seemed to move on.  Interestingly, the owl never bothered with the laying hens that were adjacent to the meat chickens and uncovered in their coop. Only occasionally would a bird die for unknown reasons. 

We had large coverings for the birds in bad weather, and purchased them in July so we would have nicer, warm weather for them here in Oregon to grow and butcher them before colder weather set in.  We ended up butchering them ourselves early in October.  The butchering process was a great learning experience for us and our kids, too.  There are several people available in the area with fancy plucking and scalding equipment for rent – about $100 per day; however we wanted to try it by hand, and see how inexpensively we could raise these birds from chick to freezer.  Instead of a killing cone, we would wrap each bird in a towel, and use two bungee cords to hold it against a section of chain-link fence.  The feet were tied together with a loop.  These big birds were quite docile and easy to handle for the most part.  Two of us working together easily wrapped and strapped them in no time.  I did the killing with a knife to the throat.  It seemed quick and humane.  With the birds strapped we could leave several of them to bleed out for 5-10 minutes.  Another technique we used was to put the birds into an old feed sack with a corner cut out for the head.  This worked well but wasn’t any faster than using the old towel.

Scalding the birds was also easy to do with our double-burner propane stove outside.  With a rolling boil, the larger birds took about 16 seconds to get a good scald.  Scalding was most important to prevent tearing the skin while plucking.  Plucking the birds was great fun.  With 4 of our children helping we averaged about 15 minutes per bird to pluck them clean.  Another thing we tried was to make a fancy plucker.  I cut the bottom out of a 5 gallon bucket, and drilled ¾ holes all over the sides of the bucket.  Into these holes we pushed rubber ‘fingers’ we purchased through eBay, and a whole chicken could be inserted into the bucket, and while holding the head and feet at either end of the open bucket, we’d quickly pull the bird back and forth through the rubber fingers to pluck off the feathers.  This actually worked really well for 90% of the feathers, but didn’t save much time in the end because it took more time going back over the bird to get the other 10% of the remaining feathers.  It was a fun try, though. After plucking the older kids helped butcher the birds.  We also skinned some of the chickens instead of plucking, because many of the bigger birds had work their belly skin thin from so much “belly eating”.  Skinning the birds was much faster than scalding and plucking, obviously.  Butchering the birds took another 10-15 minutes each and was fairly straight forward.  To clean and butcher 40-50 birds takes most of a day, and it is very labor intensive.  In the future we plan to rent the equipment and do more birds to take advantage of the larger volume of birds.  It was a good practice and learning experience for our family and in that sense was invaluable.  We all had a great time and it was a great science project.

For the 50 birds, we originally paid about $2.15 per chick.  We used a total of 18 bags of feed at $11 per bad, or about $200.  We ended up with about 40 birds averaging 8 lbs each after 11 weeks.  All of the big male birds were 10-12 lbs each, and about 10 of the females were smaller at 6-7 lbs.  All in all we were pleased with the size of the birds.  Our reading on the internet said we should see 10 lbs birds after 8-10 weeks, but our actual experience was not this good.  We did not experience any of the health problems or leg issues that many people have reported with these Cornish cross birds.  We calculated that each bird cost us about $9, or about $1 per lbs, not including costs for setup, feed trough construction, etc. We canned and froze our birds, and the meat quality is excellent.  Very good quality, in fact we believe better than what we would buy in the store on all accounts.  Canning the birds required a lot of additional work.  We were very pleased with our experiences and in the end results. 

Our final conclusion was that we would only raise meat birds ourselves if in more dire circumstances.  Chicken is fairly inexpensive to purchase, already cleaned, although of lower quality.  With a young family to feed, quantity is often precedent over quality.  The main complaint we had with raising our own birds was the high maintenance and big mess.  These birds eat a lot and make piles of refuse.  While good for the garden it was not pleasant.  These birds were of low intelligence and took daily effort to take care of – having to remove their food for their own health was a daily chore in the messy pen.  The cost savings was negligible in raising our own birds.  Raising 100 birds or more at a time would be a good way to make the financials work out, but would also significantly increase the daily maintenance and workload.  And the butchering would be significant as well.  Our best idea for getting large quantities of chicken meat for the best price was to buy the rotisserie chicken at Costco and to can it.  A whole chicken for $5 already well cooked and ready to just bone and can is the cheapest, easiest, and tastiest means for putting up a large amount of meat for the year.  Knowing we can do it ourselves, though, is priceless.

Dear Editor:
I read your article on dairy goats, and would like to share some of our experience with dairy goats.  The article paints a two gallon a day picture, but it does not tell the whole story, and anyone reading it, I feel, should know there are drawbacks.  We had two goats for over a year and a half, and it was great, with five kids, and three of them under the age of four, we went through the full gallon a day that the two goats provided us.  it was a good experience, and the milk was fantastic, I couldn't believe it, I liked it more than cow milk even. 

However, the two goats stripped every square inch of bark off all of our trees in the yard, as high as they could get.  They are voracious eaters, and quite a few of our orchard trees had to be cut down, as they peeled them almost overnight it seemed.  They destroyed trees and our one mulberry tree that we worked diligently to get growing.  They also pushed with their horns on two of our windows to the point of breaking, and replacing the windows was not cheap.  Also, we found out that the mountain laurel leaves are toxic to them, as our oldest daughter at the time was feeding them to the two goats we had.  We eventually left them to the local 4H, and have since taken on chickens, to go along with our bee hives that we have had for over three years now.  Also, they need milked at least once, preferably twice a day, and on the days where it was 10 degrees out, and a foot of snow, the wife seemed to think that it would be best if I were the one doing the milking.

Goats were good and bad, and I hope people can at least see that it's not as simple as it appeared in the article I read.  I would get goats again, and definitely in a SHTF scenario would get them, but for now, until the SHTF I would stay away from them.  In total, the cost was no better than buying milk at the store, it came out about even.  However, knowing the quality of the milk we were getting made it worth doing. - Paris

Hi Jim: 
I have been reading SurvivalBlog.com for several months now and have found it very interesting.  I purchased a 640 acre farm in 1970 in the Little Clay belt in Northern Ontario and started from scratch.  I was 25, not married and knew no one in the area when moved from a large urban city, six hours drive away.  It was daunting and I learned a lot of lessons the hard way.  Since I used up all my cash I also had to work out to make ends meet. Here are some of my thoughts in no special order:

1.  Treat your neighbours well.  It will pay off big time.  I had a field plowed when I could not.  Hay cut etc, etc.  Of course I helped out when I could.

2. I read entries by your readers about having livestock.  Depending where you live--I had to feed six months of the year--you have to grow and make feed.  This takes equipment, knowledge of hay varieties, proper storage and manure handling, et cetera. A good book in this regard is Feeds and Feeding by Morrison. In this regard selection of animal type can be very important esp. for a small scale farm.  My choices would be: 

Beef: Highland Cattle.  This breed came from Scotland and is very tough and can stay out side year round as long as they have a good wind break.  The cows are very good mothers, very protective and in case of an animal attack all the cows will gather the calves together and circle them.  I worked with a chap in the mountains of British Columbia who had a small herd and he said they would eat almost any vegetation. 

Dairy: My choice would be a Jersey cow.  They are on the small side, gentle and give milk that has a high fat content.  This is good of course for butter and cheese. 

Sheep: I liked the breeds that did not have wool on their faces.  Much easier when it came time to shear. 

Chickens: My vote goes for Red Rocks.  While they don't produce as well as egg-only breeds they are tough and I can keep them producing for three years.

3. Since I lived in a cold climate it is critical that once the weather turns cold to use the correct grade of diesel fuel.  In cold weather summer diesel will turn to jelly when it hit minus 30 C and colder.  If you have to start you tractor every day as I did you will need a block heater, a battery heater, thin engine oil and hydraulic fluid.  Also, make sure your injectors are in good condition and your glow plug works. 

4. Have a good dog.  I had wolves, bears, lynx and other critters around and the dog would let me know if something was poking around (people as well)

5. If you are going to purchase property make sure you ask if you own the mineral rights, any easements, water rights.

6. Have your water checked on a regular basis.  Also, have a test done to check trace minerals (esp. before you buy property) .  In the area where I lived there was a problem of natural occurring arsenic that caused the government to close many wells.   

The good news was that my jump from the big city went so well.  I learned many skills and made great friends and would not change the course of action I took.  While I was there I got married and the two girls had an education that most do not now have.  Also, I produced all my own meat, eggs, fruit and veggies.   If you are interested the Little Clay Belt is located 150 kilometers north of North Bay.  The main town (5,000 population) is  New Liskeard also known as Temisking Shores and is located at the top end of Lake Temisking on the Quebec border. 

I can get two cuttings of hay per season and close to 2,000 lbs of barley per acre.  Other farms in the area grow canola, oats, peas, wheat and some have tried out short season fodder corn. - P.H.

For those of you on your retreat property and wanting to add sustainability to your food supply, I present this article to give you an overview of goat-keeping.  Why choose goats?  The advantages of goats are manifold:

• Goats are smaller, therefore require less feed, space and fencing than a cow.

• Goat milk is less allergenic and more closely resembles human milk than cow milk.

• Dairy goats typically produce two quarts to a gallon of milk per day – a usable amount for a family, especially if no refrigeration is available.

• Goats kid (give birth) five months after breeding, so you can have a year-round supply of milk and meat fairly easily and inexpensively. 

• Goat manure comes in convenient pellets – much easier to clean up and use for compost or mulch than cow pies.

How to Choose Your Dairy Goat
Let’s start with breed selection.  There may be a certain breed prominent in your area, they may do better in your climate or just be more available.  See if that breed will meet your needs.  Here are the basic dairy goat breeds:

Saanens are pure white and used in many commercial and small dairies.  They are calm and bred for good milk production.  They need fences well-attached at the base as they have a tendency to burrow under them.

Toggenburgs came from Switzerland.  They are tan-colored with white and black highlights.  They are adventuresome and tough with a typically short lactation period – a good thing if you do not want to milk during a long-cold winter.

Alpines are my favorite breed.  They have long lactations and many will continue to give milk year after year with only one or two breedings.  I can attest to this fact because my dear Helga, grown when I bought her, was never pregnant in the 14 years she lived with us, but she gave milk enough for my children, orphan lambs and a few calves. 

Nubians are a large breed with distinctly large hanging ears.  They were originally a meat/milk breed, but now are mostly known for rich milk production. La Manchas are a milking breed from Spain, with miniature ears and weigh about 130 pounds.

Nigerian Dwarfs , an African breed, are small with rich milk.   Easier to fence and feed than the larger breeds. Crossbreeds are excellent for hybrid vigor and to develop characteristics you prefer.  We want medium to small goats with rich milk and long lactations, so we are using Nubian/Alpine/Nigerian crosses in our herd. 

Once you have a breed in mind, start looking at animals.  Around here (the Pacific Northwest) Craigslist is a great source if you are careful!  Plan to buy at least two goats, preferably already acquainted – they are herd animals and need companions to thrive.  You want a healthy, bright-eyed doe with a shiny coat.  Her udder should be large and well-attached under her back belly with two large nipples that squirt milk straight down.  Watch her being milked to be sure she can be handled.  Her legs should be straight, her tail should be up in the air and she should like humans.  However, if goats are used to a man, they may have a bit of trouble adjusting to a woman and vice-versa.  Our Nubian lead goat, Dee-Dee, adores my husband, talks to him and follows him around.  Luckily, our milking doe, Zella, was reared by a woman.  Zella loves me, comes off the hillside if I call her and would rather spend time with me than the herd.  Our 14-year-old son is able to milk her, but he spent a lot of time winning her over with carrots and apples before she was comfortable with him. 

With each goat you purchase get their date of birth, breeding, number of kids, any kidding or health problems, when she was last wormed, etc.  If she is bred, be sure to get a good estimate of the kidding date.  Stay far away from runny noses, respiratory noises and anything that makes you think a goat is unhealthy.  Expect to pay anywhere from $40 to $300 per goat.  We paid $45 each for our seven brush eaters, which includes a fine Nubian doe and a Nigerian Dwarf doe.  Watching Craigslist we were able to purchase three large well-bred Alpines for a total of $125 because the people couldn’t take care of them. 

I have transported goats in the backseat of my car, but nowadays, we use the pick-up with a canopy, tossing one of the dog cushions in the back with some hay to nibble during the trip.  Be sure you have a safely fenced pen and shelter all ready. 

Food and Shelter
We got back into goats when we found that our retreat property was heavily infested with poison oak.  Goats are browsers more than grazers, so brush like poison oak, blackberries, scotch broom and other noxious weeds are delicious to them, as is tree bark and most of your flowers, garden vegetables and fruit trees.  Good fences are a must.   We use welded cattle panels about 5 x 16 feet costing about $24.00 each to fence off our gardens and orchards, topped with deer tape to a height of about 6 feet.

Our herd roams free on about 30 acres with a creek and mountain as natural boundaries.  At night they are locked securely in a well-ventilated barn for protection from predators. We built sleeping stands out of plywood and blocks to keep them off our damp ground.  Five or more goats cuddle on each stand.

Our goats forage year-round along the creek and hill.  They receive regular supplements, mineral blocks and occasional hay if we get snow.  Most goats will be on hay – a mixture of grass and alfalfa seems to produce the best milk - but fresh feed is highly desirable.   Goats will not touch dirty feed so be sure your feeders are off the ground.  We mix our own grain from bulk oats, whole wheat, split peas, flax, kelp and molasses.  Always provide plenty of clean, fresh drinking water and wash the container often.

The most common killers of goats are domestic dogs.  Do not ever leave your herd at the mercy of anyone’s dogs, including your own.   We have one dog that we trust around the goats at any time and one dog that we keep an eye on whenever we bring a new goat around.

Liquid Gold – Start Milking!
Realize that milking is a twice-a-day-365-days-a-year chore.  We share milk with a neighbor and she milks whenever we are away.  Milking every twelve hours is best, but we milk at 8:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. because it suits our schedule better.   If you have never milked before, the best way to learn is from an experienced milker.  Here is a description of the process: The milk goat is placed in a stand, usually wooden with a slot for the neck that can be closed at the top to keep the goat in.  A pan of grain with cut up fruits and vegetables is placed at the front of the stand so the doe can eat while you milk. You come alongside the goat and sit on a stool that gives you adequate reach as you face the udder.  Loose hairs and soil are gently brushed off the udder area so none can fall into the milk pail or jar.  To begin milking, you place your thumb and first finger about two inches above the bottom of the teat.  Squeeze these fingers tightly together to capture the milk in the bottom of the teat.  Then bring your middle, ring and pinkie fingers around the teat one at a time to push the milk out and into your container.  Release your thumb and the teat fills with milk so you can repeat the process.  Nothing came out?  Try again.  Most children and adults are able to catch the system and rhythm of milking in a few minutes; they just need practice to strengthen hand and finger muscles. 

One method is to milk into a seamless stainless steel bucket.  This allows you to use both hands, saving time.  However, if your goat tends to kick or move around, or if you have weaker hands, I suggest using a pint or quart jar.  You hold the jar with one hand, milk with the other and change hands as you go back and forth between the teats (goats only have two; cows have four).  Goat teats are larger and easier to milk than cow teats.  When the flow slows down, massage the udder for 20 seconds or more and she will drop more milk.  Massaging is the key to maintaining and increasing production.  If you watch a young kid nurse, you will see it butt the udder like a punching bag to get more milk let down.  Massaging is a gentle version of this. Immediately put the milk into clean jars and place in the refrigerator.  Three things can put an off-flavor in your milk:  strong weeds, dirty containers, and nearness to a buck.  Watch the diet of your milk goat, keep milk utensils spotlessly clean and keep that buck far away from your milker during breeding season.

Flowing with Milk and Honey
So what do you do with all that milk?  I love to drink it warm within a few minutes of milking, which the teens find pretty disgusting!   They mix their chilled goat milk with a little vanilla or hot chocolate powder.  Their new drink is a blend of oranges, milk, egg and some sweetener for an Orange Julius type drink.  Very tasty.  We also make kefir and yogurt, use it in pancake batter and bread dough, chowders and other dishes.  In the past I have made goat cheese, which seldom got beyond the curd stage because cheese curds are delicious.  We also use milk and eggs for the dogs and cats so we are not dependent on store-bought kibbles.  I have experimented with leaving the goat milk out to replicate a no refrigerator scenario (like most people in the world experience daily!).  The milk clabbers – that is, it gets a bit thicker and tangier day by day.  After about three days it has the consistency of cream cheese with a tart flavor.  Whereas pasteurized, homogenized store milk will rot, clean raw milk will be usable warm or cool.

Adding a Buck
Keeping a buck (intact male goat) is not for novices.  I’ve had goats for several decades but this is the first time I have kept a buck.  We are doing it for sustainability reasons.  It will not be practical to take the goats to a buck in another town if gas becomes too expensive or travel becomes hazardous.  My husband and I considered the pros and cons very carefully before taking this step.  A buck means extra fencing, working out breeding plans so you have a consistent milk supply.  Your goat herd can triple with one round of breedings, so we discussed what to do with the offspring.  We decided that we could handle a smaller buck with good milkers in his pedigree.  Wanting richer milk for calories and a higher fat intake also influenced our choice.  When we saw a Nubian/Nigerian Dwarf cross for sale on Craigslist, we were pretty sure we had found our herd sire.  Cappy (Cappuccino) is currently five months old and already capable of breeding all but our tallest does.   Be fully aware of the bizarre habits of bucks during breeding season!  Even our cute young buck does things too gross to describe in this article that make him appealing to does in heat.  

Caring for the Kids
Having a buck brings babies in five months.  And goats can seldom have just one; twins and even triplets are not uncommon.  Called “kids”, nothing is cuter than newborn goats!  We try to keep our animals in as natural a setting as possible, so our does will stay with their kids for the first week while the colostrum (first milk with special antibodies and nutrients) is used up.  The second week the kids and mothers stay together at night, but separate for part of each day so we can begin milking.  This saves us from having to bottle-feed kids several times a day.  Doe kids that are going to be saved for milkers will be kept on the mother for 12 weeks, but young males will be castrated in the first few weeks (they are capable of breeding at 2 months!) and weaned at 6 weeks.  The best tool for castrating is a side-crusher.  We bought ours from Premier1 Supplies for $94.00 and printed off instructions from the internet.   All kids are disbudded (have their horn buds burned off to prevent horns from growing) at 2 to 3 days old.  We do not have horned goats and the two cannot be mixed because goats establish their pecking order with head-butting.  We bought a Rhinehart X-30 disbudding iron for $70.  The other tool needed is a pair of hoof trimmers for about $30.  If your goats have hard surfaces to walk on, their feet will wear down naturally and little trimming is necessary.  Have an experienced goat person help you learn these techniques.  You will be a pro in a short time.

Goat Psychology
What you will love about goats:  they have lots of personality, coupled with high intelligence.  What will drive you crazy about goats:  they have lots of personality, coupled with high intelligence.   So if we leave the property gate open for a few minutes because the goats are grazing elsewhere and we will be “right back”, you can count on the goats being out and over the hillside for an adventure i