by Will Ryan
Prepping for your withdrawal from mainstream society comes with a steep learning curve. A small mistake could leave you in a pinch when you least expect it, leading to costly repairs or, worse, the end of your remote hideaway. You need to take care of your equipment, prepare for the worst and make sure you have everything you need to live a healthy, sustainable lifestyle off the grid. From truck seat covers to vitamin deficiencies, learn how to create the ideal homestead operation.
Going off the grid takes practice and patience. If you’re new to the game, avoid these five rookie mistakes at all costs.
Not bringing a paper backup
Leaving the modern world behind usually means not having access to the internet. Even if you set up your own router, you should prepare for potential outages. Nasty weather, weak connections and damaged equipment can leave you without this convenient tool, especially when you’re on the road.
That’s why it’s best to bring along paper copies of equipment and vehicle manuals, how-to guides, maps and just about anything else you might need to read in the wild. Bring along plenty of books to keep boredom at bay, as well as physical resources, such as those for purifying water, growing fruits and vegetables and hunting wildlife. Print off web pages you’d normally read on your computer and keep these documents organized in case you need to access them in an emergency.
Not creating a contingency plan
Let’s face it, there’s always a chance your homestead could take a turn for the worse. You could run out of food or water, accidentally injure yourself or get hit with a natural disaster. But that’s all a part of the fun.
However, you need to create a series of contingency plans for every conceivable scenario. Run through the possibilities in your head and create real-world solutions. Imagine the worst-case scenario as well, such as what happens if your backup radio dies or you can’t reach the closest town because the phone lines are down. Learn when and how to call for search and rescue in any situation. Put these plans in writing and record several backups.
Research the area in question and talk to those who are familiar with the land, including the local climate, soil and crop patterns, wildlife and other potential hazards that may not be on your radar. Here’s some more information about when plans go wrong.
Failing to protect your vehicle
Your vehicle will become your lifeline to society when living off the grid. If you plan on fixing and repairing your car or truck yourself, you should focus on preventative maintenance. Unless you’re an experienced mechanic, there may be a limit to your knowledge under the hood, especially if you need to repair your vehicle on the side of the road or in the middle of the wilderness.
Regularly inspect and maintain your vehicle to keep it running as long as possible. Keep plenty of essential tools and supplies on hand so you can change the oil or add air to the tires without visiting your local auto shop. Avoid certain problem areas in the wilderness when driving off-road, such as deep bogs, rocky ravines, and icy pathways that could damage your vehicle.
Don’t forget about the inside of your car or truck. This will start to feel like your second home as you work the land, so keep the interior as clean and sanitary as possible. Use a truck bed liner and floor mats to protect surfaces from spills, water and mud. You can quickly rinse off these mats and covers as they start to fill up with dirt. Living off the grid can be messy. You should be able to go about your business without worrying about dirt, deep stains, mold, rust or electrical damage.
Neglecting your health
Maintaining a balanced diet is hard enough. You need to take precautions when leaving modern society behind. As humans, we need a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. Thirty-one percent of the U.S. population is at risk of at least one vitamin deficiency or anemia, with 23 percent, 6.3 percent and 1.7 percent of the U.S. population at risk of deficiency in one, two or three to five vitamins or anemia, respectively.
Living off the land and growing your own food may severely limit your diet. Talk to your doctor about your health and your plans to go off the grid and heed their concerns. Create a plan for corresponding with your doctor over the long-term and keep a log of your health as you start changing your diet. Try to balance your new diet as much as possible. If you have to drive to the local grocery store, so be it. Be aware of certain vitamin deficiencies and what they mean to your health.
Keep plenty of medication, first-aid supplies and sanitary essentials on hand so you can practice good hygiene. Learn how to use common medical equipment, such as a scale, blood pressure monitor, thermometer and stethoscope, so you can monitor your own health at home.
There’s no point in living off the land if you’re not taking care of yourself. Just because you’re totally independent from mainstream society doesn’t mean you shouldn’t see a doctor from time to time.
Limiting your survival skills
You should always try to expand your survival skills when living off the land. Going solo comes with plenty of risks that most people don’t have to worry about, such as testing their drinking water, protecting themselves from wildlife, or not having access to the internet.
You may encounter new challenges and obstacles down the line as well. Use this opportunity to build on your homesteading knowledge and experience. Explore new areas, try growing different types of food and learn more about the local climate as time goes on.
Use these tips to dot your i’s and cross your t’s before going off the grid. The more you prepare, the better off your homestead will be.
About the Author
Will Ryan is Marketing Manager at Husky Liners. With a wealth of knowledge of and passion for restoring classic cars, off-roading and researching new car technologies, Will has proven time and time again to be a huge asset to the Husky Liners team. In his spare time, Will loves to spend time with his dog and fiancé.
Biggest mistake we’ve seen is someone moving from the suburbs with the latest-greatest tools, machines, clothes & boots (horrible blisters), and all the stuff from their previous life and expecting to be able to do everything within a couple of months of moving. A particular couple we knew slightly, gave up after their first winter when they realized no one was going to plow them out, their firewood was green, and power lines went down during an ice storm and they had no backup electric source.
I’m actually going to be interested in how much rural land will be for sale in about 6-12 months after those moving out of urban/suburban areas find out just how hard it is.
I’ve had the same thoughts about newbies calling it quits fairly quickly. If nothing else, it might bring prices back down to somewhat reasonable levels.
Basically this is not about Prepping, but off grid living.
Though the two share some aspects. Most of these tips are useless come SHTF.
Paper backups are great but after SHTF, who will have the time and energy to read them and if you
have to bug out they take up to much weight and space.
Better to learn those things, now.
Contingency plans are great, but there will be no rescue services or 911 to call for help, during SHTF.
The first contingency is; what if you lose (or they are destroyed), all your “paper” books.
Without that knowledge, you might be in deep trouble.
The second Contingency is; how do you survive if you find yourself all alone? or Alone and injured ?
With no help to call, it is all on you, your knowledge, your will to survive.
Without fuel, it does not matter how good a shape your vehicle is in, after SHTF. It will become a giant paper weight. Even if you plan to store some fuel, it will go “bad” in time. Leaving you without a vehicle. So in “prepping” , you had better be planning for that.
You should not neglect your heath, but modern medicine is not the way to do that. Besides which those medicines get old, used up and are not always replaceable after SHTF.
Go to Herbal medicine instead.
Knowledge and skills are great to have. Unfortunately, most Preppers and off Gridders will not be much better off than the regular population. Why? because as this article demonstrates. that they do not comprehend SHTF.
You can not properly “prep” or make plans, for some scenario that you do not understand.
So most will be no where near as prepared as they think they are. They will also hesitate to leave their “preps” or homestead when danger arises. Having invested so much time and effort in setting this stuff up, they will hate to leave it all behind. a fatal mistake.
Then there is a good chance that they never planned on this occurring and are unprepared to survive without their “preps or off grid Homestead”, to support their needs.
Which leaves them no better off than the “unprepared” masses.
No internet??? OMG!! How will you survive without internet? We do it on a regular basis. We are an hour from civilization and we love it!! No internet? We can sure live without that!!! Much of the time we have no phone service either. You weenies who can’t live without internet and must check with your doctor to make sure your healthy enough to live on your own need to stay in the city. You won’t be happy out here.
Let me begin with an excerpt about the “Homestead Rescue” TV series.
From:
https://www.renewcanceltv.com/homestead-rescue-season-7-on-discovery-cancelled-or-renewed-release-date/
As of August 2020, it’s unclear whether the 7th season of this long running TV series will be renewed or cancelled. See the description below — and especially the numbers of people who have attempted off-grid living, and how most have failed.
Excerpt:
“ABOUT HOMESTEAD RESCUE TV SERIES
In the last decade, two million Americans have attempted to leave behind civilization in favor of life off-the-grid – but MOST have failed. For the hundreds of families who decide to become homesteaders, the learning curve is a steep one. On Homestead Rescue, struggling homesteaders across the country are turning [to] expert homesteader Marty Raney – along with his daughter Misty Raney, a farmer, and son Matt Raney, a hunter and fisherman – to teach them the necessary skills to survive the wilderness. The stakes are high, but the Raney family is determined to prepare these families for nature’s worst and set them up for success. Each family faces the ultimate decision: will they tough out their first year or pack up and return to civilization?”
A buddy of mine who has watched a lot of these episodes tells me that many of the people trying to become off-gridders were town or big city kids. They never learned how to use tools, never learned how to cooperate (and sometimes defend against) nature, never learned the list of issues that can be horribly wrong with a land purchase, never learned about some sociological groups that will hate your guts (because you’re not “one of them”) and treat you like dirt, and never learned what it takes to make a living off-grid.
My ancestors, who were really good at this, all grew up on farms long before Rural Electrification came in during the 1930s. They also had generations of their families to learn from — who had mostly come to the midwest in the late 1800s in covered wagons. Generally the women did all the gardening while the men worked their butts off in the fields, the barns, and in the animal pens. When they got too old to do that heavy work, they all either handed off the property to some of their willing children, or sold out. In either case, they then ALL moved into town and left all that hard work in their past.
In their era, Sears and Montgomery Ward ruled the retailing roost. Try ordering today from Amazon without an internet connection.
Another example of a changed world is medical care. Lots of rural hospitals have, or are being, shut down. That can make an enormous difference if where you live is way far away from any such ER or medical services. Of course if (or your children) you never ever have some kind of bad accident, you might luck out until in later life when some of your body parts need immediate intervention.
The author mentions maintaining your own vehicles. That was much easier in decades long past when very little (to almost none) of trucks, cars or tractors had much electronics built in. (I used to buy Italian car wrecks and make one good working car out of three dead ones — can’t do that anymore with all the complex electronics and federally mandated gadgetry built in.) Yes, you can change or fix a tire, change the oil, and a few other such simple things. But when something electronic goes down, you won’t have the factory training and the expensive electronic gadgetry to make sense of the problem.
Water quality is a serious issue. The author’s link to Daisy’s excellent article on testing water is very helpful, but it does not appear to address what solutions an off-gridder might need if longtime local farming fertilizer has contaminated both the local town and the remote home’s well water with nitrates — which can be deadly to new babies or pregnant women, and in higher concentrations can cause multiple kinds of cancer. In my long ago hometown, it was so bad that the EPA and the state health department ganged up on the town and forced them to commit to buying a horrendously expensive water treatment plant that used reverse osmosis and required a full-time technician to operate — a guy who had zero incentive to move to such a troubled town. The town’s previous solution had been to hand out bottles of water for free to anyone who wanted it. But the bureaucrats can’t get their power trip from something that simple that just works.
Another side to water testing is that cities are only required to test water for what’s on the regulations list they are stuck with. Every time a new type of contamination comes along, it doesn’t usually get added to that list. I decided that taking chances on such matters made not sense, so twenty years ago I put in a kitchen water distiller so that not only did it take care of the water quality problems I knew about back then, but also it would protect against just about any series of “surprises” in futures years that the regulators would almost certainly fail to address.
If you’re living out in the country with such contamination, you either install a solution … or you move elsewhere.
The author also mentions getting good diet advice from your doctor. The problem with that is that mainstream medical schools have cut out most such nutrition training (since the early 1900s), so you really need to work with a naturopathic / holistic doctor instead. GreenMedInfo.com and EarthClinic.com are also useful resources. Also realize that the mainstream medical cartel is trying to destroy or run the naturopathic community out of business and of the country. The “unexplained” death / murder / suicided count of naturopathic practitioners and related researchers that I saw as of about 4 years ago had already reached about 90. Others are seeking other countries to move to, according to reports I hear from my longtime friend who conducts such tours.
You also need to understand what has already driven most farmers off the farms over the last couple of lifetimes. Little guys have a really tough time competing with giant corporate planters that use GMO/glyphosate laden/ pesticide carrying crops on the cheap. Unless you can find other produce the mega-companies aren’t interested in, there’s a huge risk of your market failure. Where I grew up — on a two-mile stretch of dirt road on the Great Plains — there were four houses all being lived in around 1930. As of 2016, the last of those houses was bulldozed by the mega-organization running high dollar circular irrigation machinery on quarter after quarter of crop land. Little guys can’t compete with that. It’s why most children of such farm family ancestry have moved away into the cities.
–Lewis
Reading the comments and article I believe there is a huge disparity in what “off grid” means. I’ve got a couple of friends off grid. Some still enjoy and use modern things such as the internet and some are almost back to a time forgotten.
Off grid and self reliance are often used as one which is wrong. Off grid just means you don’t have power n water service.
My dad and uncle bought a place when I was a teen that was “off grid”. We had a well put in, had the septic tank hole dug with a backhoe which isn’t self reliance. We dug the lateral lines with shovel and pick and hauled in the gravel and laid the line ourselves which is.
Kinda-cause we still had to go to town to buy it so basically the labor was self reliant.
At the end of the day we were still off grid but not self reliant and years later it was the same.
I hope I’m being clear on this so y’all understand the difference.
BTW neither my dad or uncle were “preppers”. That term didn’t even exist then. They were called “survivalist” later in the 90s made an evil term. But they were none of the above.
They just got a piece of cheap land and wanted to work it and make a place of their own with a small farm. So maybe homesteaders I guess but nobody worried bout titles back then like today. We was just folks doing and making.
I agree with Matt in OK.
This article was not about a SHTF bug out location, but those seeking to go off grid to get away from society, or just seeking a simpler way of life.
Started (en mass at least) back in the 60s and 70s with the “Back to the land movement.”
The article is more about things some may have not considered when they go to make the move.