All you need to go off-grid

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Turning hobbies into cash

hobbies-cash
AKA, doing what you love and getting paid for it!
Have to be careful here, it’s starting to sound like one of those infomercials :)
BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!

I have had people ask me how I earn a living, since everything we have here is paid for, it makes it very easy to live on very little. Saving money is as good as making it, bartering is gold! Voluntarily living on less, doesn’t make me feel like I’ve given anything up, in fact I feel like the richest person I know :) My main “job” is being a caretaker for my friend, I get paid to do a little cleaning, some cooking, some shopping and walking the roads with her, the hours are flexible, and it’s not hard work at all.…

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September 8, 2013 20 Comments
Communities

Hate shopping…

ihateshopping

Living out in the wilds of far west Texas, major shopping (for me) has been curtailed… not that I mind though, I’m not a big shopper in the first place. I think that’s why I have not gone crazy since moving from the big city. :)

It’s a 20 mile drive (one way) to the closest town, it has one grocery store, a small one… there is a thrift store and a couple of restaurants, not counting the 2 hotels with their restaurants… I tend not to eat in them, not that they aren’t good, they are very good, BUT they cater to the tourists and tend to be a little more on the spendy side.

Another 20 miles down the road, gets us a slightly bigger town with more shopping, but still nothing like big towns like Dallas, Fort Worth, Odessa and such. To get to a town with malls, WalMarts and such is a 3 hour drive.…

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September 7, 2013 No Comments
Communities

Sky castle in early fall

PICT0566

It’s Sept 1, summer is all but over, the days are still warm but the nights are cooling off quite a bit, I notice the cottonwood trees in town are starting to turn that crisp yellow color, in a few more weeks it will be a riot of yellow with some reds, rusts and burgundy from some of the other trees.

The animals are putting on their fall into winter coats, adding weight to make it through the cold winter that is about to beset us. I just saw a fluffy squirrel looking in the window at me, this year has been a banner year for the squirrels, they are still fearful of us, but don’t get too concerned over our daily coming and going. …

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September 1, 2013 1 Comment
Communities

Other people off-grid

otherpeopleoffgrid

I love seeing how other people live off-grid, each of us has our own ways, some are hard core, no electricity of any sort, some have all the modern conveniences… it just all depends on what you are looking to do and the finances you have to spend… of course the more modern conveniences you wish to have, the more $$$s it’s going to cost. We went somewhere in the middle, leaning towards slightly primitive……

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September 1, 2013 3 Comments
Communities

How to go off-grid with little money…

areyouready
How to get off-grid with not a lot of money… that is the holy grail, right? I see many people posting messages here and on other websites, all saying very much the same thing, they want to be independent, to have a piece of land, to have a small place to live, to be off-grid, but they don’t have the money to do it, they often want to join other people in hopes of pooling resources, or just jumping on someone else’s bandwagon.

I am here to tell you it is possible to do this without resorting to illegal means and without having to join with other people or a group to get off-grid.…

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August 25, 2013 20 Comments
Communities

The Pantry Primer: Making meals from pantry basics

food-pantry
Your pantry is only useful if you can make tasty, filling meals from it.  It is vital that you purchase “ingredients” rather than meals, so that you can make a wide variety of foods. Not only is this healthier, but it is also a much more cost-effective way to build a stockpile.

The ingredients that you buy or preserve are the basis of your future health should a situation arise in which you must rely on your pantry.  It is imperative that you have the ability to cook from scratch if you intend to use a pantry full of ingredients, so brush up on your skills by using these items now, and not just storing them away.…

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August 25, 2013 No Comments

How to butcher a chicken humanely – video

This is one method of dispatching and butchering a chicken, I noticed he said “sorry” to the chicken before starting the procedure… it’s what I would do too.

He uses a killing cone, a plucker, I will say that I think he needs to sharpen his knives, he does a good job but I noticed a couple of times he had to saw more than I thought he should have to cut through… this is part one of two…

…

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August 11, 2013 No Comments
Communities

Autumn is coming, what’s in your garden?

garden-07It’s hot, hot hot, those of us with gardens are in full swing… now it’s time to start your fall gardens. Things like greens, spinach, lettuces, garlic… honestly in the past, I haven’t given much thought to fall gardens, I have gardened so hard all summer that I’m pretty worn out for thinking about planing more things. But this is not the mindset of a good homesteader or off-gridder, especially if you are relying on that garden to supplement your food.

So let’s keep that excitement we had during the late winter and spring and get that fall garden started!…

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August 4, 2013 No Comments
Communities

20 Ways to build a whole food kitchen on a half price budget

garden-veggies

Making a trip to the grocery store these days is like running a gauntlet.  From one side you are assaulted by food-like substances in brightly labeled packages, some even touting exaggerated health benefits from the toxins within.  From the other side, you are gouged and poked by cleverly marketed “natural” foods that are 4 times the price of conventional foods.  When you change directions to avoid one onslaught, you are immediately attacked by the other.

We’re at war and the grocery store is the battlefield.…

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August 3, 2013 No Comments
looters and preppers
Communities

Fight them or Feed them

A long thread on City-data Forum has a number of individuals discussing their attitude towards looting in the event of a general social collapse or weather crisis.

One said he would without a doubt be a Looter because he was not in a position to prepare for possible crisis.

“I’m not going to lie. My preparedness is almost nonexistant at this stage. I would label myself a “well planned looter”. I have maps and plans on how to take the things I need from various places in local areas, but financial means keep me from stocking up on much of anything I would need for any bad situation.

In my neck of the woods and with my mindset, the situations I want to prep for the most are Civil Unrest, a Meltdown from a “nearby” Nuclear Reactor, and Martial Law/Hostile Military Presence.”

Another contributor replied that people who did not prepare would not survive – either they would starve, or be killed – and the author seemed quite ready to do the killing:-
…

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July 19, 2013 3 Comments
Communities

Tanning Rabbit hides

1x1placeholderNow that you have chosen to raise rabbits for meat, it’s time to learn how to tan their hides, you can either use the fur or lose the fur, you can use the leather for many things, you can also sell it to earn some extra money.…

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July 19, 2013 No Comments

Rabbits for meat pt 1

Living more frugally can mean growing your own food, that can include more than just plants, it can mean meat. Many people who live in more rural areas grow chickens for eggs and meat, it’s just as easy to grow rabbits, this is something that has appealed to me ever since I moved off-grid, I would have no problems eating them, but it would be difficult, at least in the beginning, to dispatch one, I’m sure after it’s dead I would be able to skin it, gut it and prepare it… I did see a video of a man who invented a method of humanly dispatching the rabbit, here is the video…

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July 14, 2013 11 Comments