Welcome to our self-sufficiency blog

June 16th, 2009

Welcome to our self sufficiency blog where we blog about anything to do with becoming self-sufficient. We blog about gardening, raising meat, wind power, solar power, alternative fuels, root cellars, greenhouses and more.

Bookmark this site if you want to learn how you can become more self-sufficient as we will be adding information often.

Join our community and talk about what you do to be more self-sufficient or ask questions about what you can do to become self-sufficient.

We are here to help you

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Homemade Solar Heater

December 12th, 2011

Here is another video to show you about making a homemade solar heater:

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$3 Solar Heater

December 7th, 2011

Build these quickly and easily. Start with one and then add on as you are able. These will save you money on your heating bill and are a great way to recycle old stuff you (or someone you know) may have already laying around.

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Cheap, Simple Hydroponics

December 3rd, 2011

Growing with hydroponics will extend your growing season and can be tasty. It can also get expensive. Here is a video on how to do so simply and to be cheaper you can use fish water from your aquarium instead of the boughten chemicals.

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Bottle Gardening

December 3rd, 2011

You may never heard of bottle gardening before. Doing so to the extent shown in the video was new to me but I like the idea. You could do so much in a small space and if you use bottles that you cannot recycle it would be even better yet.

Take a look at this video and see if it gets your mind jumping with ideas of things to grow all year long, just ion the winter months or in an apartment.

Take a look:

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Become Self Sufficient in Electricity

November 9th, 2011

Become Self Sufficient in Electricity

Author:

Bill Humphreys

Each year we spend increasing amounts on electricity to power our homes. We have made ourselves increasingly dependent on fossil fuels and that produce the electricity we consume. However, we can become self sufficient in electricity.

More and more people recognise that the energy crisis we face is due in large part to the intransigence of successive governments and the slowness of the scientific communities to embrace planet saving technologies. Fortunately we are in a position to help ourselves. Private engineers and inventors are virtually giving away the know how for the average householder to use.

Present scientific and technical thinking is stuck in a time warp and stubbornly refuses to adopt new ideas with the speed that will help you and me today. Windmills and solar panels are free power generators and are well known and some countries depend on them completely. But one source of electrical power that is free and not so well known is Michael Faraday\’s discovery, electromagnetism.

The international electrical scientific community has been resisting updating this ‘old knowledge’ and does not ‘think outside the box’ when it comes to adapting it to industry let alone the home. No doubt large scale production will take place sometime in the future but not soon enough. Let us hope that is not too late to prevent further economic collapses such as we are experiencing now!

Meanwhile inventors around the world, have embraced and developed electromagnetism to the point where you and I can use it to become self sufficient in electricity in our own homes. Now, thanks to the internet, people like me can help to spread the word about these ‘magnetic machines’ and people like you can take advantage of it.

The technology of  electromagnetism is gradually finding favor with an increasing number of homeowners as more and more people discover the wonder and the power of this free energy source. I am sure you or someone you know would like to become become self sufficient in electricity, so find out more about it and spread the word!

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/diy-articles/become-self-sufficient-in-electricity-1206759.html

About the Author

Bill Humphreys uses free electricity. Read more about how you can become self sufficient in electricity.

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How To Live A Country Lifestyle And Become More Self Sufficient

November 2nd, 2011

How To Live A Country Lifestyle And Become More Self Sufficient

Author:

Debbie

Have you ever wanted to move to the country and become more self sufficient?  If so, you are not alone.  More and more people are choosing to move out to a more rural setting and acquire some land.  You don\’t have to go crazy and buy 10, 15 or 29 acres.  Even 5 acres will allow you to live a country lifestyle and become more self sufficient.

You have your land, now what?  The first step you need to take to become more self reliant is to grow your very own garden.  If you have never gardened before, small may be better the first year.  Any garden can be a lot of work and a very large garden can be a huge amount of labor so be sure you know what you are getting into.

Once your garden is lush and producing abundantly, you should consider learning to preserve your harvest.  There is really no sense in growing lots of veggies if you can\’t have them through the winter months.  You can also talk to your neighbors and maybe trade some of your abundant veggies for some you didn\’t grow this year.  It is also possible to learn to harvest your own seeds to put up for next year.

Living in a more rural area usually means that you can find wild fruit trees and berries like black berries, cherries, plums, apples, etc.  You may also check with your neighbors to see if they have any fruit trees that they don\’t mess with or that maybe have an overabundance of fruit.  This is a great free way to be able to put up jambs, jellies and juices for the winter months.  Just be sure that you don\’t ’steal’ from your neighbors by getting permission first.

The next thing that all small farms need to become more self sufficient are livestock.  Chickens are perfect animals to start with because they are small, easy to care for and they can provide eggs and even meat for the not faint of heart.  You will need some chicken fencing, a chicken coop and a chicken run if you have a lot of predators.

Depending on how adventurous and strong of stomach you are, you can also try your hand at raising a few rabbits, goats and hogs for meat as well.  The goats are also a great source of milk that you can drink or you can sell in your local area.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/home-and-family-articles/how-to-live-a-country-lifestyle-and-become-more-self-sufficient-3401181.html

About the Author

You can live a country lifestyle and become more self sufficient.  Living this kind of lifestyle can be as simple or as complicated as you want to make it.  CLICK HERE to get more information on how to become more self sufficient.

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You Can Achieve Self Sufficiency

October 25th, 2011

You Can Achieve Self Sufficiency

Author:

Debbie

Have you ever wondered about self sufficiency?  It is very easy to get caught up in the ease of day to day life and being able to purchase whatever you want on a whim.  It\’s so easy to get in your car and run down to the grocery to buy what you want to fix to eat that night or to just run through a local drive thru.

Self sufficiency sounds so hard when you think about it and many people are just ‘too busy’ to bother.  It just doesn\’t seem like a realistic goal to some people and it just doesn\’t seem like a doable thing.

But, self sufficiency doesn\’t have to be this impossible dream.  The common thinking is that you need at least a couple of acres to grow your own food.  That isn\’t true though.  As long as you have access to a plot of land, you can grow enough fresh food to feed your family and even raise a few chickens. 

If you are lucky enough to own or have access to an acre or two or three, you can obviously do even more to gain more self sufficiency.  There are millions of people around the world and in the United States who have gotten tired of the high cost of qualify fruits and vegetables and have decided to till up some land to plant some of their own food.

The initial labor of setting up your garden can be intense but the rewards are great.  Depending on how much time and energy you want to put into this project, you can grow your own plants from seeds or invest a little more money and buy plants from a local store.  All in all, invest a weekend or two of your time and then an hour or so here and there for weeding, maintenance and harvesting and you too can achieve a degree of self sufficiency.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/home-and-family-articles/you-can-achieve-self-sufficiency-3401172.html

About the Author

The work can be hard at times but the rewards far outweigh the hardships.  Check around in your area and visit some local ‘farms’ to get some ideas for implementing your own self sufficiency plan.  You can go small or you can go as big as you want.  CLICK HERE for more tips on self sufficiency and homesteading,

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A Start in Self Sufficiency

October 25th, 2011

A Start in Self Sufficiency

Author:

KristHiles

 You may also generate a little additional income. This article will give you some tips on starting on the road to self sufficiency.

To begin you need to look at your reasons for wanting to take on a more self sufficient lifestyle. These could be a desire to leave the ‘rat race’ or be more environmentally friendly, you may want to generate an additional income or simply be less dependent upon the global society in which we live.

So what do we mean by self sufficiency? Well, most of the people I speak to think of self sufficiency as generating your own power, growing your own food, and using as little commercial produce as possible. Of course complete self sufficiency is very hard in the world we live in. But there are many things you can do to put you on the right road such as:

1) Grow your own food – This can be done in anything from a window planter to a whole garden. You can save hundreds, by using fresh produce from your garden and have the added benefit of really tasty vegetables or fruit. I have personally grown carrots, beans, peas, parsnips, raspberries, plums and apples and with each of them I found the flavours 100better than the store bought produce.

2) Generate power – this could be a simple solar cell to power a shed light or a complete solar and wind power system through which you could even sell power back to the national grid. Many companies around the world are offering the opportunity to sell them power and whilst the initial set up costs can be high, generating your own power could pay for itself in a short period of only a couple of years.

3) Use less – recycling maybe all the rage but do you actually go out of your way to use less? You will be surprised how much you can save by simply using less commercial produce such as over-packaged foods. When you buy many commercial produce you are paying a large amount just for the packaging.

4) Brew your own drinks – you can create some delicious drinks by following a simple method and brew nearly any kind of fruit or vegetable into an alcoholic drink. But be careful, I have made Blackberry and Plum wine at home from my own grown fruit (The first batch I made could have stripped paint!), after a little experimentation you will find the right process.

There are so many ways for you to become more self sufficient and using the above tips as a starting point you may even save enough money to reduce your hours at work; freeing up more time to spend on your new self sufficient lifestyle.

Thanks for reading.

If you have found this article useful and would like to know more Go here for more information.

Rob Carr is an analyst and self sufficiency advocate living in England UK.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/self-improvement-articles/a-start-in-self-sufficiency-4042362.html

About the Author

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Facts on Self Sufficient Living

October 25th, 2011

Facts on Self Sufficient Living

Author:

Gregorio Russell

The mantra need to be ‘conserve just before you generate\’ — and there is much a lot more possibility to lower the sum of power essential to heat the home than there is to lessen ability or hot h2o usage. The 1st step is design and style. Placing power at the centre of the layout signifies that you will know what you are likely to will need. It gives you the option to handle insulation, airtightness, warm drinking water use and ventilation — all of which have a huge influence. 2nd is to take into consideration what assets you have available. A windy environment presents the possibility to make sufficient vitality for an all-electrical house, maybe using warmth pumps for area heating. A sunny internet site may possibly make it possible for passive and energetic photo voltaic vitality. Photo voltaic thermal power will often be necessary for self-sufficiency but photo voltaic PV (photovoltaic) can be high priced and wants a ton of area.

Growing your own foods can support minimize the price tag of the grocery invoice. As a substitute of spending hundreds of bucks and month at the grocery retail store on meals that really don\’t definitely nourish you, spend time in the garden, external, exercising, discovering to expand your private foods. While comprehensive self sufficiency calls for a reasonable total of land and consequently suited to a extra rural environment, a lot can be carried out with a really smaller room and an even smaller spending budget. A windowbox is a excellent put to commence in producing your personal foods. It can be acheived with little information of horticulture or useful expertise, and the small scale presents you a good setting up point in the principles of nature.

Self-enough dwelling is not just about becoming thrifty, rising your individual fruit & greens or preserving hens & ducks: it is really about earning, shelling out, budgeting, bargain hunting and the pursuit of credit card debt free of charge living. It\’s the full ethos of \’make do and mend\’ combined with \’reduce, reuse, recycle\’. Frugaldom is a complete way of living, it\’s about living within just your usually means, even if people signifies are meagre, and helping other folks to do the similar. Self-sufficincy is about the economics of dwelling your dream. We uncover the most secure approaches of managing a household while earning a dwelling from dwelling – some may call it subsistance, but I uncover very little \’sub\’ about it. There\’s a zero tolerance on waste, a dislike for squandering and all of this is blended with an insatiable will need to be credit card debt cost-free and mortgage free of charge. Only then can your daily life actually be your unique.

Self sufficiency is a rising movement that brings together a sustainable way to live with a excellent satisfaction of staying ready to supply for most of your needs with out needing any outdoors assist. New technologies has made it a great deal cheaper, less complicated and extra smart to attempt to offer for your self as modern answers to requiring like huge sources are increasingly favoring lots of modest producers in addition to the large scale farms and factories already in use. From a suburban family members to a large rise city dweller, anybody can increase their self sufficiency in some way. Self ample living lessens your Carbon Footprint by doing little variations in each and every spot of your everyday daily life.

 

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/news-and-society-articles/facts-on-self-sufficient-living-5012093.html

About the Author

A keen interest in developing your very own food, conserving funds and caring about the setting brings together into a passion for self sufficiency and self sufficient living in the modern day planet. self sufficient living

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Being Self-Sufficienct to Survive

August 13th, 2009

I am so sorry that I haven’t been posting lately. Our family has had a lot going on as far as deaths in the family and family friends, car trouble and I have been having health issues.

I was reading recently that some people believe that in just 5 years the cost of living could go up to 10 times what it is now. Even worse is that these same people are forecasting that even with this incredible increase in the price of everything that there may be no increase in salary.

OMG! That is a scary thought- isn’t it?

Now I have always said that you should prepare for the worst but hope for the best.

What can we do?

Well, some people think that there must be something that we can do to avoid this happening.

If you have any ideas about what we all can do to keep this dramatic price increase from happening then please post your ideas here and let’s see what we can all come up with.

What can you do to prepare for such and event?

First of all try to pay off any and all bills that you possibly can in the next few years. This will give you more of your income to be able to use in the even that this does happen.

Insulate your home to cut back on energy waste

Switch to fluorescent bulbs and shut off lights when not needed

Switch to solar and/or wind power

If you don’t already then you should try gardening. Don’t have room? Maybe you can find someone that does and you can work something out about the seed, plants and work and then divide up the produce accordingly

Plant fruit and nut trees, shrubs, vines NOW. Most of these will be producing something, even if it isn’t at full capacity, in 5 years. A friend of ours planted a cherry tree 3 years ago. They canned something like 30 quarts of cherries this year. That’s in just THREE YEARS!

My best advice right now would be to start planting as many different kinds of fruit and nuts in your yard as you can. With your own fruits and nuts and a vegetable garden you will know that no matter what happens in the world and with the prices of food that you will have something to feed your family. AND it will be good healthy food which can cut down on medical bills so it is a WIN WIN situation.

If you have the room and can afford to you should install a root cellar and build a greenhouse. This will help you to be able to feed your family year round with home grown fruits, nuts and vegetables

If you are on low income you might also want to try to become educated and/or certified in a career that will increase your income.

Cut down on wastes wherever and whenever possible.

Raise some chickens and rabbits. These don’t take up a lot of room but will provide you with eggs, chicken and rabbit meat for protein. Homegrown NATURALLY Raised meat is actually more filling than much of the meat that you buy at the market. Rabbit meat is also one of, if not THE, leanest meat that you can eat.

If you have a pond you can also grow your own fish. Fish is becoming VERY expensive and I am sure that it’s price will only continue to go up so this could be a very good investment for you if you have the room. A pond will give you entertainment, fire protection, you can use it to water your garden or your animals if needed AND you can grow fish.

These are just some suggestions for you. Anything that you can do to raise your income, lower your outgo and be able to provide for your family will help you to become more self-sufficient. Anything you can do to become more self sufficient will help to increase your family’s chances of survival and their comfort level during tough economic times.

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