By Daisy Luther
The Self-Reliance Weekly Report is a collection of strategies, made up of the articles, books, DIYs, and products that I found useful on my own little prepper’s homestead. It seems like Mother Nature was out to get many of us this week! This week, massive rains and flooding have caused our septic system to make our home almost unlivable. No matter what’s going on with our home, of course, we still have a responsibility to our livestock, for producing our food, and for maintaining our self-reliant lifestyle, and that’s true for preppers in every situation, including those who have been dealing with crippling winter storms in the East.
Prepping
Septic system issues are a nightmare. This piece from Backdoor Survival was certainly relatable to my family this month. As the rain continues to pour down on California (yay!!!!) areas that have had little water are suddenly flooding, and causing issues that no one expected. For us, that issue is flooding that is pushing the contents of our septic system into our house. Even though we now have “too much” water, we had to resort to the most stringent of our water conservation strategies because we were forced to limit what we put down the drains. Take some time this weekend to check out your septic system or sewage system and learn how to keep the contents thereof from backing up in an emergency. The clean-up was bad enough with power – imagine facing this type of disaster during an outage. Even though I’m a renter, it’s important that I not fully rely on someone else to solve my problems in an emergency, so I ordered this book to learn more about my system.
Sometimes, disposable products are the best choice. This week, with our septic system issues, I certainly had reason to be glad that I stock disposable paper products for emergencies. We often take water for granted, but there are many reasons why you might have a crisis in which you can’t run your washing machine or dishwasher. Although I had plenty of water, I was unable to send much down the drain without risking my septic
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backing up into the house again. Here are some other tips I used for sanitation while limiting my use of running water this week.
How does your bug out bag measure up? With our issues this week, we nearly had to bail and stay elsewhere. Of course, we always have bug out bags ready to go. Is your bag packed? You truly never know when an emergency will occur that requires evacuation. If you haven’t checked out Graywolf’s Ultimate Bug Out Bag, you’re missing out. And while you’re busy packing your own ultimate bag, here are 20 of the best foods to include. After reading that article, I revamped some of my food choices.
Homesteading
How efficient is your homestead? There are several things that separate a productive homestead from an expensive hobby farm. One of the most important is your efficiency at recycling nutrients back into the production system. (These 3 tips can help you be sure to use absolutely everything.) Another great exercise in self-reliance is growing fodder for your livestock – this will supply you with nearly unending nutrition for your animals, even when there is nothing for them to graze on due to winter weather. Some of my homesteader friends are relying almost solely on fodder this winter and their animals are thriving. Not only is it super-nutritious, but you’ll also save a fortune on your feed bill.
Do you raise meat chickens? Now that my layers are finally producing, my next big project here on the homestead is meat chickens. I bit the bullet and ordered 25 Red Ranger chicks that will arrive sometime in mid-March. I chose the breed based on advice from The Frugal Chicken. (This is an excellent guide that I’ve been referring to often while preparing for their arrival.)
Are you an urban or suburban homesteader? Then do I have the book for you. Angela England has really outdone herself with this beautifully illustrated guide to stealth gardening. She offers lovely suggestions for planting even your front yard with edibles that won’t have the neighbors calling the head of the HOA to rat you out. When space is at a premium, you need to be able to use every bit of your land. Check out Gardening Like a Ninja: A Guide to Sneaking Delicious Edibles Into Your Landscape.
DIY
- DIY Incubators – If you are planning to hatch fertile eggs, check out these inexpensive incubator ideas.
- How To Make An Outhouse Seat That Won’t Freeze Your Hind End
- The Easiest Homemade Chapstick (Nice pure ingredients!)
- How to Season Cast Iron Cookware (Don’t pass up those rusty yard sale finds!)
- How Saving Money with DIYs is Better Than Earning It
Farm Blog
Even though I have had a billion other topics to write about, we are still sticking (mostly) to our Once a Month Shopping Challenge. I have to confess, December ended up being a wash. I started out well, with a fully loaded fridge and freezer. But then with houseguests, holidays, and a spur of the moment vacation, we shopped several times throughout the month for food.
The good news is, aside from a trip to the feed store for the animals, we did not have to do any grocery shopping for the month of January. My cupboards and freezer are still bursting. These months of only shopping one time have not only saved us money on our groceries, but quietly and with no added effort at all, my food supply has multiplied. I guess when you focus on things that will get you through a month, you begin to move away from the perishables that most of us pick up constantly. February will be the last month of our six-month challenge, but we fully intend to stick with the once-a-month shopping plan.
In other news, the septic system issues may well be unsolvable. Estimates for repairing the system are far in excess of $10,000. This is because the current system was installed before some county regulations that will force it to be completely relocated, pumped uphill, and other ridiculous and impractical requirements. (I’m incredibly thankful right now that I rent and that bill won’t be coming to me.) However, the bill that WILL be coming to me is the one for relocating. And when you have livestock, finding a home that is set up for it (and will allow it) is easier said than done. It’s so disappointing – heartbreaking, really – because it seemed we had found the perfect place, but it appears we will be forced to move as soon as we can find a place. The air quality in a home with issues like this is not conducive to good health and, of course, that has to come first.
Books and Products
The following are products that I personally use and have recommended in the article above. (These are affiliate links, and purchasing through them costs you nothing extra but provides a small commission.)
Gardening Like a Ninja: A Guide to Sneaking Delicious Edibles Into Your Landscape: Turn your yard into the envy of the neighborhood while adding to your dinner table! Learn how to garden like a ninja as you sneak in plants that you can use for everyday cooking, creating a sustainable and beautiful landscape that’s easy to maintain. Save time and money using the visually appealing and edible designs and harvest the fruits from your delicious paradise! (ORDER HERE)
Have you joined Spark Naturals Oil of the Month Club? It’s the least expensive way to build your supply of essential oils. All oils are 15ml bottles – shipped out to you once a month (on the same date you ordered the product). The price is $15.99 a month and includes shipping and tax.I like the fact that Spark doesn’t have the hype of some of the multi-level marketing oil companies out there. They are simply good products at a fair price. ORDER HERE
If you’re considering switching your livestock to a fodder system, this excellent guide to getting set up is free for the moment. Sprouting fodder is the best way to stretch your feed and still give your animals plenty of nutritious, high-quality goodness.
The Septic System Owner’s Manual: This clearly written, illustrated guide addresses that need, emphasizing conventional septic systems powered by gravity flow, filtering through soil, and the natural soil organisms that purify sewage. The book discusses maintenance, what to do if things go wrong, and alternative systems such as mounds and sand filters. Additional chapters cover graywater systems, composting toilets, and a unique history of water-borne waste disposal. (ORDER HERE)
The Prepper’s Water Survival Guide: You can survive up to three weeks without food, but only three days without water! When catastrophe strikes, having enough water can spell the difference between life and death. The Prepper’s Water Survival Guide offers a step-by-step plan with straightforward information you can easily follow. (
Let’s hear your Self-Reliance Weekly Report!
With half of the country covered in a crippling blanket of snow, I’m sure that many of you have been dealing with your own issues with Mother Nature. I would LOVE to hear some stories about how your preparedness endeavors have paid off this week, while many residents dealing with the blizzard were panicked and unprepared. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a round up of “How Prepping Helped Us Survive the Blizzard” stories? Please share yours in the comments. 🙂
What’s going on at your farm or urban homestead right now? How’s the weather in your area? Have you participated in the once-a-month shopping challenge? Please share your updates in the comments below!
I too was reminded this week of how lucky I am to be renting. My friend thought there was a leak in the chimney of their house, spent lots of money tying to fix it, wound up not being able to so bought a new furnace which doesn’t need a chimney, then learned it was actually the roof which leaked and that requires an extra ten grand on top of the water repair damages inside.
Houses are depreciating liabilities.
The heat wave finally returned this week, it’s been above 20 degrees, sometimes it’s even been above 30 degrees. Yay!
No, we have not participated in the once-a-month shopping challenge. It’s been interesting reading about it though.
This was like seeing a flower bloom:
I heard about how a few people out East are getting the idea in their heads about having just a little bit more in the house after going through the blizzard. One said they needed to store more food under the bed because they love in a very small place and don’t have any room to put anything anywhere else. They felt they had enough wine for one person but they wanted to have more on hand if anyone else arrived. They recognized they needed to have more dog food on hand. And, they realized they needed more ways to pass the time if the TeeVee or power had gone out.
Another couple realized they needed more home canned goods, and chips to go with it. It’s – The – Start, eh?
When I read the link, ‘How To Make An Outhouse Seat That Won’t Freeze Your Hind End’ I thought that might be something that might be worth having inside, here in the Northland, however; the link doesn’t work.
Helot – thanks for letting me know about that link. It’s fixed now, and here is the proper link. http://northcountryfarmer.com/?p=1340
Ouch – that’s a pricey repair!!!! Man, home repairs are painful!
RE: ‘Man, home repairs are painful!’
No doubt. And, thank goodness I stumbled upon thehousingbubbleblog years ago or else I’d likely be in the same costly upsidedown boat.
As Housing Analyst would say on that blog: ‘Why buy, when you can rent for half the monthly cost?’ And, …he’d add something about locking in your losses for the next twenty or thirty years, too. …Opps, there goes your pro-real estate debt donkey audience.
I imagine you’re thinking about buying now, especially with wanting to keep livestock. I suppose our overlords could fandangle things so that becoming a debt donkey looks like it’s the sthmart move now, in the short run, however; from what I’ve read, that’s not going to happen. YMMV, I guess. It’s a crazy mixed Up world.
Whatever the case, I think your blog is certainly going to be more interesting. And, moving is always soo much Fun. Especially because it’s almost guaranteed to rain that day. … Still, it’s all not worth 20 or 30 years of locked in financial losses to avoid a week of moving when it’s raining. Jmho.
Nope, still planning to rent, Helot. It’s difficult to find the right place when you have livestock, but I’ve done it before. I’m confident I can do it again. 🙂
Great post! Loved the article about the meat chickens, especially. We have laying hens now, and have been on the fence about committing to meat chickens if we can’t go through with the butchering in the end, lol!
Best of luck in finding another rental, sorry this one isn’t working 🙁
We rent, as well, and it can be so hard to find the right property. But I have faith if you stay positive everything will turn out great!
Thank you! I have high hopes 🙂
Oh! I’m so sorry about moving again! It sounded like you’d found the perfect place! Have you thought of buying a trailer/mobile home/rv?? I moved into a trailer last year, and it has been a very pleasant surprise! Mine is in a “park” but we have a huge garden, can have pets, but of course no farm type animals. That being said, you can find them quite cheaply on Craigslist. You could either rent some property or buy some acreage. If you purchased property, you could even live in one while you and your daughter built a stick house. You could also put up a huge garage, storage shed, etc to store preps that could serve multiple functions.
I’d love to have chickens and the Red Rangers sounded interesting.
I have actually considered buying a trailer. I have found a couple of potential places to look at, so fingers crossed. 🙂 I’ve also put the word out with my like-minded homesteader type friends. I’m sure something will come up. I hope you’re doing well! 🙂
Sorry you have to move. On septic problems: around here in interior Alaska it is usually the septic freezing in the winter. Last winter around the area we had enough freeze ups that one enterprizing neighbor sold a bunch of outhouses for backup. We have an outhouse. Our deed gives us the right to have a “pit privy”.
If we wanted to have a septic system it would have to be an “engineered system” similar to your estimates or worse. I agree with your source that styrofoam seats are the way to go in winter. Also if we had a traditional septic we would have to haul and store enough water to flush! As soon as my plumber son has time to come 400 miles with his tools to run the stack through the roof of our new addition we will have a Sunmar composting toilet in the house.
We do use a “chamber bucket” for #1 at night for now.
I realize that many building codes would frown on outhouse backup but it would seem to me that a pit with a seat could be hidden in a garden shed only to be used for emergencies. Washing machine and dishwasher water are another problem. Many emergency situations would preclude using them anyway.
You should be happy with the Red Rangers. Are you getting all cocks or straight run? The strain we had straight run had the hens laying real young and I could not bring myself to butcher the ones that started laying. They got huge and kind of caused over crowding in the coup.
We had a couple weeks off from the intrusion but tonight the sound track from web TV showed up again
I ordered a straight run of the chickens. I would consider keeping a few for breeding future meat chickens. I’m pretty excited about this foray.
Thanks for the advice and good wishes, as always. 🙂
Daisy,Have you had the septic tank emptied, our system had similar problem 3yrs back we also used a power snake roto router and removed some hair from our mainline.This made a day and night difference for us.Our tank was loaded with solid poo.we use alot less water than others.Hope this might help this would cost your landlord less than $300.00 in our area.Thanks,Jeremy
Jeremy – yes it was pumped last summer and then again when the issue first began. The problem is that my house (and tank) are in a low-lying area and the leach field is too. With all of the flooding here, the leach field is saturated and began pouring water back into my tank. When the tank got too full, it pushed stuff back into the house. They have to add another tank, lay new lines, and create a different leach field. While I greatly prefer being on a septic system, it sure is a pain when stuff like this happens.
Thanks for the mention of the cast iron posts. A number of your loyal peeps stopped by to visit.
I hope you find an awesome new landlord and place to rent that is critter friendly.
Your point about keeping disposable products on hand for emergencies is a good one. My friend, Amber, ran into the same problem when they had flooding in South Carolina last year. She had gone to almost all reusable products – and then couldn’t wash anything because the septic was non-functional. They even had to resort to an emergency toilet with a 5 gallon bucket and a pool noodle seat. Not fun.
I have been in need of a long term survival shelter tent for a long time and someone shared it on facebook, usually these dome type structures are 5 to 10 grand before acccessories or add ons so picking up the dome for 2500 bucks was amazing. I get the dome in 1 week, which is way faster then I was quoted from the wall tent shop so I am stoked. Now I just gotta get some funds to get a wood burning stove put in. lol
Have any of you had a dome tent before? Whats your thoughts? Anyone have pictures or ideas on how to live in one? (The picture below is just he one from their website) I think I will be getting a second one for a Green House Dome
[IMG]http://www.vitaldomes.com/img/dome/panorama.jpg[/IMG]