How prepared are you?

[festus]

How prepared are you? I am not saying to post every bean and bullet...but take a mental inventory of where you are and where you would like to be. Somewhere in between is where you need to be.

For example:
+10
Self sufficient, garden, chickens, livestock, well and the ability to fish and or hunt. Gun owner with food and fuel set aside. Ham radio and other more secure means of comm. (could live for 3-6 months comfortably)

-10
Urban Dweller no real outdoor skills; gun owner but does not use or maintain weapon...little or no ammo...little or no storage of supplies due to space, cost, etc. No fuel set aside...cell phone for primary means of comm with no backups.

-100
welfare recipient with no job skills, will to work or any thing set aside. drug dependency and no real education


As for me...I'd have to say I was about +3 or so.

[HK4U]

Realistically between 0 and 1.

[ricbak]

Realistically between 0 and 1.

That's pretty close, 'cept we do like to hunt.. Fish, if I have to..

[wolfhunter]

Yeah, I've been weighing this since Festus posed the question, and I just can't rate myself higher than +2

[Ed Hamberger]

Being medically retired, I'd say I rate between a -2 or -3. I do some hunting and a lot of fishing (although I toss the fish back, afterall, this is NC, and most of the lakes here are polluted!).

[oldvet53]

well being 100% disabled i'd have to say economicly -100, being able to live off the land i'd say pretty good having lived in a national forrest for 18 months till i finaly got my v.a. dissability and s.s. started after loosing my place on the lake in hot springs,ar.

[AR Hammer]

We call it 'Sustainable Living' and it's a personal choice...
A 'Lifestyle Change' to beat a dead horse of a slogan one last time...

Solar, Photo Voltaic (electric),
Indefinite, panels guaranteed for between 25 & 35 years.
Limited daytime production without battery backup.
Powers the entire house, out buildings, well pump, ect.

Solar, Thermal.
Outdoor solar cooker,
Outdoor solar thermal collectors for hot water.

Deep Limestone filtered well.
Electric pump with backup hanging on the wall.
Hand pump in case both electric pumps go out.

Lake for back up on top of that.
Still have my 'Solar Still' for distilled water purification production, although I'd have to dig it out of the storage building.

2 ea. 20 Foot long shipping containers buried for 'Root Cellars',
Good SECURE, DRY Cold Storage.
Probably have 2 years worth of home canned food, plus a good quantity of 'Store Purchased' stuff.

LARGE garden, fruit trees, berry vines, and about 20 acres of crop space (currently leased out for income).
17 Acres of pasture for live stock and hay cutting (currently leased out to horse owners for income).

Rabbit cages currently, plan on chickens later.
Have Guinea birds right now for insect, particularly tick control. Guineas LOVE ticks and they make great non-plouting tick and insect control, and they are pretty good 'Watch Dogs' also.

3.5 Acres of woods, mostly nut bearing hard woods,
Beach, Hickory, Ash, Pecan, Walnut, Sycamore and some Maple.
Growing mushrooms on the down trees from the storms a few years ago,
Not quite as good as 'Wild' mushrooms, but plentiful and tasty.

Growing flowers and decorative plants/herbs for extra income.
You wouldn't believe what 'Lavender' sells for in a collage town down the road!

My Melons are coming in, and the first of the sweet corn is almost ready.
Cantaloupe, watermelons, squash, 5 kinds of beans, 3 kinds of potatoes and two kinds of peas this year,
Radishes, lettuce, turnips, beets, Strawberries, and a bunch of other stuff is making my life really good at meal times!

We have popcorn this year, usually only grow pop corn about every 5 years,
You usually don't want to store popcorn more than about 5 years, and the excess makes good animal feed.

Rabbits are multiplying.... Well... Like RABBITS!

Small lake/large pond has bluegill, red ear, Crappie, Cats and bass in it, along with turtles and frogs.
Favorite watering hole for everything from the farm mutt dog to deer and bobcats.

The retarded dog eats grasshoppers like they are good, so he's self supporting in an 'Emergency'

House is nearly self supporting, earth sheltered on three sides and the top,
And it's insulated to hell and back,
So it's VERY easy to heat/cool.

Built with passive solar design in mind, it's pretty much self heating in spring and fall, self cooling in the summer, and we have to add a little heat in the winter,
Heat is currently supplied by two primary sources, Electricity which we produce on site (Via PV Solar) and propane which we still have to buy.
I have two 300 gallon underground tanks currently, and they have lasted over two years without refill.
(I buy when the price is DOWN in the summer and store for needed times)

We have a 'Rocket Mass' type wood burner as back up and for ambiance lighting/heat.
That stupid 'Wood Burner' DOUBLED my insurance rates even though the home is pretty much concrete and there isn't much to burn!
Shouldn't have told them what it was for, burner wasn't installed when insurance inspected the house during construction.

I hunt, fish, sometimes trap, and it's all for the freezer, I don't have ANY dead animal parts mounted.

Two electric vehicles, golf cart for getting around the 'Farm' and a small electric truck for going to town or hauling wood, or whatever.
When they aren't being used, they are plugged into the solar array charging in the daytime and vehicle batteries provide nighttime power to the inverters to power the house.

Diesel welder/Generator provide 'Back Up' power in the event we don't have sun for several days at a time and provides 220 volt power for the garage when I need something that really sucks power or need to do some welding.
Diesel stores MUCH better than gasoline, but not as well as propane does.
300 gallon above ground 'Farm' diesel tank behind the garage/shop for tractor, generator, lawn mower, ect.

Welding/machine work supplement the income and make for easy on site construction/repairs.

'Bone Yard' or 'Back Fence Row' vehicles provide parts for my old Full Size Jeep Wagon and little Jeeps, along with providing parts for my wind mill projects and a ton of other stuff.

My gun range parallels the drive way and gives me range markers for anyone that would approach with 'Ill Will', and the house is VERY secure, and if we needed to, we could fall back into the 'Root Cellars' which are virtually impervious.

I'd say I'm pretty well 'Self Sufficient', but I'd sure miss soft toilet paper and 'Starbucks' coffees!
(everyone has their vices! )

So, how do you think I'd rate?...

Spent 12 years and about $200K on setting all this up, but it's *ALMOST* the way I want it... Never QUITE done...
Keeps me from playing in traffic! Lots of work!

[buckslayer]

If I had to rate myself based on my gardening skills this year I'd be in trouble AND thanking God I'm a better hunter/fisherman! My garden turned out BAD this year to say the least. I'll be working on it over the next several seasons. That and taking stock in a LOT of packs of seeds for "just in case".

[JJFlash]

Right now, I guess 1 or 2: Have weapons, well-trained, use 'em frequently, am a meat hunter and kill and process all our game, have some food and fuel stockpiled, have gas-powered generator. We alway have plenty of firewood on hand to heat the house in winter if we need to (and we have, as the occasional blizzard takes out the power, and at -35 you better be prepared), and food stockpiles (essentials, some canned stuff, a freezer full of game) to last for a few months.

This past weekend, my son and I settled on a 20-acre property where the whitetails do play. Immediate plans (besides whacking whitetails) are for major garden and a calf or two to fatten up for the freezer. I suspect I'll bump my "number" up one or two points by next spring.

[festus]

I don't know about 'SURVIVAL',
But we are pretty self sufficient, about 85% right now.









We have a LARGE garden build over the septic system leach bed.
Even the septic does two jobs before it gets away!

I CALL BS ON THIS ONE...THIS IS SOMETHING THAT HAS THE POTENTIAL TO MAKE PEOPLE SICK OR GET THEM KILLED!!!
Septic Tanks, Leach Fields and Vegetable Gardens
Septic Tanks, Leach Fields and Vegetable Gardens
Can you have a vegetable garden over a septic tank leach field? On some lots it seems like the majority of the lot is septic tank. Even if you have extra land, the septic tank takes up the best spot on the best soil.

If the septic tank leach field always worked there would be no problem with a garden over the top. Unfortunately, septic tank leach fields are not on the short list of perfect things. I guess most people have smelled a catastrophic septic tank failure. This is the kind of situation where you wouldn't want to harvest the garden, let alone eat anything out of it. The only thing you would lose in a situation like this would be one year's harvest. Even more hazardous would be a short term failure that introduced pathogens to the soil surface without creating an obvious smelly long term problem. In addition to being hazardous, this type of failure is more common. While human waste has been used as fertilizer for 1000's of years, it carries more risk than I think is necessary.

If at all possible, I would garden somewhere else.

If a leach field is the only place I could garden, I would stay away from root crops and leafy crops. Things that bear a fruit like greenbeans, squash and tomatoes would be the only crops I would grow. I would stake as many vegetables as I could, including things like cucumbers that I normally don't stake.

Washing and peeling would reduce pathogens. Of course high temperatures normally created while cooking will destroy pathogens also.

I don't know of any research based information on mulches in a situation like this. Some people think mulches would reduce the amount of pathogen that might splatter onto the plant. I lean toward the view, that mulches will reduce the amount of water evaporation creating a higher incidence of soil saturation. Saturated soil is not good in a leach field. I would avoid mulches.

Some people say stay away from raised beds for the same reason. I don't think a raised bed would cause a problem with reduced evaporation, but it isn't going to help solve any pathogenic problems either. The same cautions mentioned above would apply.

If you do decide to garden over a leach field be careful with your tillage. 40 years ago septic lines were 5 and 6 foot deep. I am not sure what the current depth is but I know it is a lot less. At 5 and 6 foot the nitrogen in the effluent was gradually sinking into the water supply. At 1 to 2 foot the nutrients have a chance to get recaptured by the plants growing on the surface. So the shallower depths are better for the environment but it does increase the possibility of destroying the lines during cultivation.

Plants that receive too much nitrogen from any source including leach fields will not be as nutritional as plants grown without excess nitrogen.

In conclusion, you can garden over a leach field but it is not the best situation.

Article was written by David Goforth Agriculture Extension agent North Carolina Cooperative Extension Cabarrus County Center. Visit my homepage Cabarrus County*Center: Home or Cabarrus County*Center: Lawn & Garden or my blog Gardening Guru Goforth

Contact me at David_Goforth@ncsu.edu. Reviewed 2007.