Hi all,
I've been a prepper for about 20 years, but still feel I can learn a lot more.
In short. I have owned a 7 acre smallholding for over 10 years and have learned the very hard way that I could not, and never will be able to make myself self-sufficient in the ordinary sense of the meaning.
Should the SHTF then my plan is to eke out what food I have in store (about a year's worth) with shotgunned / air rifled small game, and fish from my three small lakes. Plus whatever veg I can produce. Rabbits and woodies preclude me from growing any meaningful quantities of any foods apart from spuds and some onion family. Having said that, if I was to start taking them for food, I might find that less of my crop gets eaten. Similarly stoat and suchlike prevent me from keeping chickens anymore, I'm sick of losing them.
I am in the middle of nowhere so feel fairly low on the 'invader threat', although it is something I do keep in mind.
I'm at the wrong end of my fifties now, so one of my short term goals is to increase my fitness, as I cannot rely on the fountain of youth to carry the day any more.
It's good to find this forum I look forward to some good reading on here.
inthehills wrote:
In short. I have owned a 7 acre smallholding for over 10 years and have learned the very hard way that I could not, and never will be able to make myself self-sufficient in the ordinary sense of the meaning.
on 7 acres you should be able to be self sufficient in food ! take a look at the link in my sign I might be of some help
I'm also trying to work on my fitness, but I am starting from a zero level of having sat on my backside for a long long time for my work. I'm 39 and am hoping that when I am 50 I will be bigger and heavier than I am now. Just using a whole body dumbbell routine and an elliptical bike to help the cardio.
I can understand where you are to a degree. Apart from the whole land owning thingy
reperio a solutio
Resident and Co-Ordinator of AREA 2 Area 2 = Hampshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Bucks
I would be interested to hear more about your experience working your small holding. Although I do not yet possess the land or allotment to try and manage my own, reading books by John Seymour I realize it is possible to have a self-sufficient small holding so would like to hear more about the troubles you have had and whether, and how, you overcame them.
Qr
Area 9 Coordinator and Resident
'At Spes Infracta'
'I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore'.
HI,
Well sorry to 'rain on your parade' as our American cousins say but, in short, here are the problems;
Keeping stock is a skill, lots of knowledge required. If you have livestock you will have deadstock, as they say around here.
Sheep, in particular are very fragile animals, I've had them just drop dead for no apparent reason, die of the cold and the heat. They get lungworm, various internal parasites such as liver fluke. They get fly strike - particularly horrible, and of course they need shearing every year, and forget about doing THAT by hand... It's a very skilled job!!
Pigs are a bit easier, however I have had a three year nightmare with them too. They just kept dying, the vet couldn't figure out why, and yes, he is a very good and experienced vet, you can't send them for slaughter for a set period after medication, then they get too big to eat..and anyway, you wouldn't eat anything else than a healthy animal.
I have had animals slaughtered and into the freezer, but year on year it has become harder as regulations become ever more onerous, with electronic rfid tags for sheep now mandatory. Pigs have to have a slap mark. You cannot really slaughter yourself either.
The smaller you are the more you pay for everything. Sheep drench comes in a minimum size to treat tens of animals, a bit of a waste of money when you only have seven...
The meat is usually very good, but of course I've had some that can only be consumed after extensive cooking, due to it's toughness...
Lambing is another potential nightmare, had a very bad lambing this year, so much so that I'm getting rid of my sheep, I'm never going through that level of grief again. - and I'm pretty resilient, and I'm not soft hearted either.
Growing veg;
If I was to spend every hour of every day working the veg plot, I'm sure I could be 'self-sufficient' but I do have a life..
Even if that was the case, storing veg is a problem, I don't have a cold -store, I could build one, but haven't yet. Freezing meat is the only real option and works just fine.
Should the SHTF then freezing would not likely be an option, getting hold of a limitless supply of salt would be nigh on impossible. Modern drugs to treat the various infections would be absent. Storing veg would be possible on a personal level, if I dug a root cellar...
Keeping male animals has it's own problems, have you ever seen the power of a ram when he butts something? Something like 13 people a year are killed by them in the UK every year. I have never kept cattle. Nor a boar, but more of the same I am sure.
Even if you have a male and females - which I did have in sheep, then you would have to exchange stock with someone else regularly otherwise you would be inbreeding... the list just goes on and on.
True self-sufficiency is not possible in these days, Too many skills have been lost.
All the tools you might stockpile against the day are merely putting off the day when you no longer have them.
Who could make a scythe? A chisel? nails or screws? From scratch, I mean, on their own, starting with the iron ore ?
that I could not, and never will be able to make myself self-sufficient in the ordinary sense of the meaning.
Similarly stoat and suchlike prevent me from keeping chickens anymore, I'm sick of losing them.
on 7 acres you should be able to be self sufficient in food ! take a look at the link in my sign I might be of some help
