We Must Transition Toward Greater Self-Reliance

How will we meet essential needs in unstable circumstances? We need to re-evaluate ways to handle necessities in changing, uncertain times.

When it comes to preparation, we don’t need to be doomsday-proof. Being completely off-grid, in a bunker, growing all of our own food is not something many of us could do even if we wanted to. What’s important is to understand the types of things that could happen in the future, and make choices that help buffer against the problems those could create.

This is a condensed listing of info and resources. The goal is to provide solid ideas to check out, not get into a lot of detail.

The breakout is skewed toward important, low-cost, flexible ideas. Preparedness is a big business these days, and it’s easy to burn a lot of money buying things we think we need, but don’t. This list focuses on things that will put people in a better position, but it does not cover all the bases.

Create Plans That Span Multiple Scenarios

Things look sketchy, but no one knows for sure what exactly is going to happen. Preparation is best when it addresses things that are common to multiple scenarios. We can face personal economic hardship (like a lost job), an extended power outage, runaway inflation, food shortages, or civil unrest.

Any of these society-wide issues could easily cascade into others. Inflation could cause food supply problems, causing civil unrest. If things break down, we could have multiple, interwoven difficulties. BUT - if it’s not such a hard landing, and things just get difficult (not crazy) then we’ll want preparations that cover that, too.

Instead of just throwing money at things, we need to think through clever ways to create more resilience in our lives.

It’s important to spend time thinking through possible scenarios, and the challenges they could create. What might each of those look like? Consider that multiple scenarios could all lead us to the same result - such as a prolonged power outage. In February of 2021, Texas experienced electrical outages that lasted 2 ½ weeks in bitter cold. What can we do without? What do we need alternative options for?

Location Considerations

Moving is a significant decision with financial and other implications, but we shouldn’t build our preparedness on a bad foundation. If you are in a city, and have considered moving out - consider it again. It’s the general belief among the preparedness-minded, that cities will be a rougher ride in times of trouble.

Do you have even a small amount of yard that gets sun, where you could grow vegetables?

What are your neighbors and surrounding area like? If things get tough, do you suspect your neighbors will be an asset, neutral, or a problem? Some places are full of people with good values that are likely to be at least somewhat preparedness-minded. In other areas, you might see more problems, like increased criminal behavior. This isn’t necessarily an issue of people’s economic status. High-living suburbanites existing on credit, without a care for tomorrow could be some of the most dangerous folks. Shrewd assessment is needed.

There’s a reason lots of people are moving to rural areas. But this doesn’t mean we all have to. If you think you need to move, do it rationally, and find a good fit. Don’t create problems via rash choices.

And finally, bear in mind that the state, region, and local area you choose if you do move, is not just about jobs and amenities. If you’re going to move, find a spot where you are likely to be among people with values and mindsets that will be an asset in hard times.

Water & Food Considerations

Water and food are top considerations. We can’t just think about what will get us by, but what will help keep us healthy, even in times of real stress.

Drinkable Water

Water is a top priority, since we can only go about 3 days without it. We need to make sure we have drinkable water available in case there is a problem with tap water. Storing water can be done in various containers as long as they are food grade. You can often find food grade poly barrels that have been used for industrial food ingredients for sale at $25 or less per barrel. People even use storage kits designed for bathtubs, for a quick fill just before water goes out.

Wherever we get our water, we need to make sure it’s clean before drinking it. A purifier is an important investment, and we need something we can trust. Everyday filter pitchers people use in the kitchen are created more to treat water for taste. An emergency purifier operates at another level - taking out pathogens (incl bacteria, viruses) that can make us sick. In-line purifiers that connect to household plumbing may not help if the water service goes out. The big names everyone likes in purifiers are Berkey and AquaRain. You can also go with something economical in a pinch, but be aware that it won’t process as much, or last as long, or be as convenient as one of the above.

Food Storage

You likely see ads for emergency food everywhere you go. Offerings can be pricey, and of varying quality. These have their place, but consider instead buying bulk foods. Get items like rice, beans, and other items that you can buy in 20lb - 50lb sacks. These can be stored in 5 gallon FOOD GRADE plastic buckets (don’t use buckets that aren’t food grade). Buy food grade diatomaceous earth (we have also used feed-grade from Tractor Supply), sprinkle 1 cup of it through each bucket as you add the food. This is because all dried foods may contain insect eggs which can hatch, and the diatomaceous earth is a non-chemical way to kill them. You can also put in an oxygen absorber before sealing the gasketed lid on top, since this can make it last longer.

Storing food this way is cheaper, and more flexible. You can mix and match ingredients and prepare things in different ways - unlike premade food storage meals. It’s also good to experiment with sprouting (requires a wide-mouth mason jar and mesh lid), since some of this stored food can be sprouted as well - providing nutritional fresh greens. Seeds that are especially good for sprouting can also be bought in packets to keep them fresh long term. You can also plant some stored food (like beans) in a garden to grow more.

Something I thought of and tested during the supply chain woes of early 2020, was an alternative source for bulk food. All the beans and rice were gone from store shelves, and online sources were backordered. It occurred to me that restaurants get their bulk foods through different channels, and those might not be tapped out. Sure enough, I found a local restaurant that was happy to work with me, and was able to buy some large quantities while everyone else was sitting on their hands. Be clever, and look for alternative solutions.

Look for dried fruits (the kind not sprinkled with sugar). A dehydrator will let you dry your own things. We have found that items we have dried have an explosive flavor, and are a great way to keep vegetables around without refrigeration. Frozen vegetables dehydrate very easily, and are handy for making soups.

Another popular method of preserving food is canning. Water bath and pressure canning can both be done at home, and provide ways to keep what you produce over longer periods.

If you have chickens, (or have access to farm-fresh eggs), eggs that have not been washed (so their “bloom” is still intact on the shell) can sit out for a couple of weeks or more. Unwashed eggs can also be water-glassed for much longer-term storage of a year or more. You just need pickling lime. I would avoid the agricultural lime some people are using, for possible purity reasons. Check egg freshness by water testing.

It’s good to look closely at what you currently eat at home, and pick up extras of the things that store well, as long as they offer good value for their price. Everyone needs to keep a “deeper pantry” than we have been taught to. Work up to 30 days of food, then consider 90, then we can think beyond that. Finally, eat through what you store, using a first-in-first-out approach, replenishing as you go.

Producing Food

As mentioned above, sprouting can be a great way to have the nutrition of fresh produce when you need it. But now is the time many people are looking into vegetable gardening. Not only is gardening good for emergencies, but we can have high-quality, nutritious food at your fingertips. This can offer some real resilience in the food department, by letting you eat more you have grown, and less you bought for inflated prices at the store. When we first ate a meal created completely from home-grown items, it was in another category regarding flavor - amazing!

Don’t wait until an emergency to start growing food. It’s an art, and we should all be practicing it sooner, rather than later. Best to work through the challenges before we really need it.

Buying & Saving Seeds

Many are selling emergency seed kits. While some may be good, I prefer buying individual kinds from a trusted seed company. I have gone through lists of vendors put together by garden clubs, and I really like True Leaf Market. They have a great selection, high quality, sell in bulk (big savings!), and most of their seeds come in foil-lined, resealable ziplock packs. Another vendor worth checking out is Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. They are pricier than True Leaf, but their focus is on exotic and unusual seeds, which can be fun. Pro tip: if you want kids involved, growing black tomatoes, or black, purple, and red carrots is a good way to spark interest.

Many food items don’t automatically grow back, so there’s a need to learn how to collect and save seeds from a crop. Seed Sowing & Saving is good, as is nearly anything from this publisher (Storey).

Optimizing Growing Methods

Two intriguing farming/gardening systems from Korea are designed around using natural elements found in your environment (indigenous microorganisms) to produce excellent results. Korean Natural Farming (KNF) was created in the 1960s as a way to lessen dependence on argi-corporations that produce fertilizers. Be sure to download the free PDF book linked in that article. Note also that the article mentions American experts changing out certain elements to use things more readily available here. Adapt as you need to. Here is a collection of videos tagged #koreannaturalfarming. You can also find videos from KNF experts Chris Trump, and Drake Weinert.

The founder of KNF’s son created a modified system focused on making things as inexpensive as possible. This “KNF 2.0” is called JADAM - a Korean acronym for “people that resemble nature.” You can go to the JADAM YouTube channel, but be sure to start with the lectures. Steven Cornett at Nature’s Always Right has a good YouTube channel that gets into JADAM as well as general vegetable gardening (and livestock!). While I am told nearly all of the info is in the lectures, charts and other reference material are better looked up in the JADAM books.

Outdoor & Greenhouse Growing

If you have some money to spend in this area, you can look into some additional niceties that can improve your results. Where we live in north Texas, the crazy temperature fluctuations, occasional flooding rainstorms, and high winds, along with heavy clay soil can make gardening a challenge. Add to that the invasive grass varieties that are hard to keep out of the garden, and marauding small animals that have eaten many a thriving plant. It has been frustrating at times. We decided to do raised beds with a custom soil mix, and a tent style greenhouse after seeing our neighbor’s success with raised beds. Now, our vegetables are doing very well, and our growing season is extended because of the greenhouse.

We considered building our own beds, and looked at various bed kits. We decided on the Vego Garden because of their long life/corrosion resistance, and because so many users are happy with them.

After looking at a lot of options for tent greenhouses, we went with the King Canopy 10 X 10, because of the solid reviews, quality manufacturing, and the fact that they sell replacement covers. We also got the anchoring kit due to high winds, and it has worked well. Customer service was excellent when we had questions.

If you’d like some inspiration, check out the Dervaes family, who grow over 6000lb of food on 1/10 of an acre.

Indoor Growing & Seed Starting

Indoor growing can be inexpensive for starting seeds, and growing greens like lettuce.

For seed starting, you’ll want trays, or something else to hold the soil for your seeds. You can use the trays that have compartments to make removable soil blocks for each plant, or you can use open trays, and a soil block maker. I prefer the soil block maker, because the compartment tray approach can be less forgiving (plants have a much narrower window of time when they must be removed from the trays). Note that I linked to the original British-made soil block maker, since it works very well, and the cheap knockoffs seem to have issues with not working properly. Use light/fluffy seed starting or potting soil if you can for best results.

For indoor growing, if you don’t have abundant natural light, then you’ll need lights. Fluorescent shop lights, with 3 or more bulbs work pretty well if you already have the fixtures. Just be sure to get bulbs that are 5000K or higher in color temperature, since the plants need that “daylight” light spectrum. A more effective (and cheaper if you have to buy everything) option is these LED shop lights that have gotten a number of recommendations from growers. Frugal hacks are always nice. Keep in mind that these lighting solutions are for seed starting, or growing greens. If you want to grow things that fruit (like tomatoes or peppers), then you will need much pricier full spectrum lights.

Indoor/Outdoor Growing

A clever and space-saving indoor/outdoor solution is the GreenStalk vertical garden. They are easy to work with, you can move them around on wheels, and their simple watering system is smart. These are also far less expensive than other vertical gardens out there.

Container gardens of all sorts can be useful when you are short on space, or even have no land - perhaps just a balcony. Look into the high-density planting done in biointensive gardening in order to get maximum yield from what you do have.

Optimizing Resources & Yield

In tough times, minimizing waste becomes even more important. We must learn to get the most we can out of available resources. Composting is an excellent way to start getting value out of waste we’d normally throw away. Start a compost pile, and get familiar with what you should and should not put in it.

Urine is an effective fertilizer. Another helpful fertilizer is Wood ash. Biochar is also worth looking into.

Pets & Livestock

Don’t forget your animals. Store extra food, and look for ways to produce things you can feed them as well. Examples: grow sorghum for chickens, and feed eggs to a dog (if you have chickens laying eggs). Keep in mind that any stored animal food could be subject to mice or other creatures. We store our dry dog food in a galvanized trash can.

Health & First Aid

It’s important to also keep a “deep pantry” of any essential medications. Look at how long they are good for, and how far ahead your doctor will prescribe. Use them in a first-in-first-out manner as well to keep them fresh.

I will share this because we know a lot of people who use it, and have had success with it ourselves: ionic silver. What’s attractive is it’s strong anti-biotic/anti-viral properties, and the fact that it does not expire. Buying bottles is very pricey, but you can make your own inexpensively. If you are unfamiliar with it, or skeptical of alternative health practices, I strongly recommend you look through Steve Barwick’s site. It’s packed full of application information which is backed by citations from scientific studies. Here are useful articles about anti-viral qualities, and proper dosage. Note that Barwick sells a well-respected generator, but it’s pricey. I like the Silver 9 that we got, which is made by another respected person in the ionic silver world, substantially cheaper, and has some very smart features, like the alternating polarity on the electrodes. It will also run off of a 12-volt battery if power is down.

Optimizing Finances

This is an area where I defer to the experts, so I will just hit some highlights.

Streamline spending by combing through what you spend and evaluating if you could go with a cheaper alternative, with less, or without. We don’t have to live like paupers, but when evaluated, there’s always stuff that can be trimmed.

Also take a look at Dave Ramsey’s Debt Snowball method to get out from under debt.

Home Defense Firearms

This is a hot topic, with historic numbers of first-time gun owners buying firearms in recent years. Know and religiously follow the 4 rules of gun safety. Always treat firearms with sober respect, and know what you’re doing. If you don’t know, find local training.

Gun laws differ by area, and it’s always the individual’s responsibility to be compliant. Things you can do in Texas would get you jail time in New Jersey. Know your laws.

Life is not the movies - deadly force may be necessary in certain situations, but learn about how to know when (related to your local laws), and how to not do the wrong thing in the heat of the moment. Again, local training is a good idea.

The big reason defensive firearms are popular is because they are a force equalizer, and can neutralize even overwhelming threats. A small woman with a gun can stop an attack from a large man.

I am going to keep this very simple: the 12 gauge shotgun is considered by many to be the idea home defense weapon. Loaded with the right ammo (something like 00 buckshot) it’s very powerful. You also don’t have to be as exact in your aim. It’s better to have a 12 gauge with a tube magazine for extra shots, over a 1 or 2 shot break action shotgun.

There are many who like the pistol or AR-15 for home defense, but one big advantage of the shotgun is the lower risk of over-travel on shots. Anything firing bullets, like a pistol or AR, runs the risk of rounds going through interior walls, and hitting people you don’t mean to. For closely situated homes, a round could travel into a neighboring home as well. Shotgun shot has less tendency to do this.

Grid-Down Situations

What do you do if you’re without power, and it’s cold?

In cold weather, heat is critical. Do you have ways to keep warm? Solutions range from wood stoves to 0-degree sleeping bags. Wood can work in a fireplace, but a lot of that is lost up the chimney, unlike with a woodstove. They do make fireplace inserts designed to burn like woodstoves. A kerosene heater can work well, too. Consider sealing off non-essential areas in your house so you can localize and minimize what you need to heat. Just don’t let your pipes freeze.

What about your refrigerated/frozen food? We had a fridge fail during the winter, and managed to keep our stuff in coolers outside. Many opt for backup power.

Keep in mind that cooking will still be needed in an outage situation. If you don’t have a gas stove or oven, portable propane burners and stoves are a good idea.

Generators are popular to supply electricity, but before buying, consider how much fuel you can store, and how long that will last. Another thought is that if there’s any kind of breakdown of law, a running generator audibly signals “We thought ahead and have preparations.” Make your own determinations.

Solar is another popular route. Maybe you don’t want to run your appliances, but you do want to have juice for something more critical. After looking around, I really liked the offerings Renogy has. This starter kit gets you two panels, cables, and controller. You can also bump up to more powerful kits. You will need a way to store the power, and a 12-volt car battery is the cheapest options. Lithium batteries are better performers, but much pricier. Look into the battery amp-hours to know how much charge various options hold.

USB power jacks can hook directly to the battery, and charge (or run, if enough power) USB items. I have a Raspberry Pi computer with 7-inch LCD screen that I can run off of a car battery. You can figure out all kinds of useful ways to use low power backup like this.

Alternative light sources are good to consider as well. Some like candles, but they don’t put off a lot of illumination. Oil lamps are a good idea, and lamp oil is available at places like Walmart. I often find better prices for heavy liquid items like this locally, than on Amazon. Alternatively, you can rig a bunch of cheap LED lights to run off of a 12-volt car battery if you feel like a little DIY.

Closing Thoughts

If you jump into the world of prepping, there are a ton of people out there, all with their own perspectives on things. You will also see loads of other topics brought up - from shortwave radio to “junk silver.” The above guide is intended to get you thinking along the right lines, and make you aware of helpful resources. Keep the smart & frugal approach in mind as you look at what everyone else has to say. Always stay cool, and think it through. Don’t chuck unnecessary money at unnecessary items because you’re in a panic.