Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Homesteading and teamwork
8 February 2014, 16:42,
#1
Homesteading and teamwork
This is a quick heads up for all those not used to my posts...I drift off subject, then come back on, so bare with me.

Firstly, today saw me increase my water storage by over 1300 litres! I am a happy bunny. However, how that 1300 litres got into the garden was another matter altogether!

Before I go any further, please don't assume I think I'm superman or the Hulk. I'm far from it, although I can shoot lazers out of my eyes (I'm not showing off, just letting you all know haha). But I had to shift an IBC over a 6foot fence, by myself. The wife didn't like the cold, and the neighbour had popped back home for a minute, so stubborn old me just set to doing the whole thing by myself.

After taking apart the frame for the container, then separating the container from the plastic, I lifted the plastic over the fence, and as gently as possible, rested it over onto the ground. Easy.

The metal frame was easy enough to detach. Just one big star key and a small spanner, and you're good to do. But if you don't have those tools, you may end up getting frustrated and just hiking the whole thing over the fence by yourself. Worked for me.

Well, this is where teamwork and homesteading come into play. If that had gone even slightly wrong, and I had many moments where I thought it was about to all go wrong; I would have very easily seen myself knocked out, lay in a pile of dog poop, in the back garden. VERY embarrassing. Potentially deadly...but more embarrassment than fear of death.

Great story hu? Well, no. The story is just setting the scene. Shortly after this hulking feat of super-human-stupidity, I felt a warm patch on my lower back. It was the kind of feeling that is a muscle saying "Any more of that S13 and I'll be busted up...which will see you stuck in bed for a long time, totally useless!" As you can figure out, that's not anyone's plan. However, if it was to happen, especially post-SHTF, there would be some real issues.

The likelihood for my lower back to chunk out on me is, at the moment, greatly increased. I feel like I'm running in a Yellow Zone situation.

All this could have easily been avoided with a little teamwork and not getting angry that your star-key screwdriver thing was the wrong size.

Okay, so team work is important when it comes to lifting heavy equipment. So what?

That's missing the point entirely.

How many books and how many years does it take to get good at growing various crops and the alike? What about learning medical stuff? How long would it take, and how much would you need to sacrifice, to become a GOOD all rounder?

So, let's look at homesteading.

Just the basic construction of a good system will involve various skill sets. Think, PV panels, batteries, wiring, waterproofing, currents, volts, etc. Then think water e.g.storage, purification, use, catchment, distribution systems, pumps, etc. Now let's look at plants, soils, nutrients, harvesting, light levels, times to sow, what to replant, how much to water, when to repot, how to pollinate, etc. Next will be heating, coppice, when, what, where, how often, transporting, etc. The list goes on and on. We've not even mentioned any animals yet, so....shoe a horse? Plough a field? Clear a frog? Did someone mention hydroponics? Aquaponics? And all the systems and nutrients required there?

Okay, so now that you have a heads up about how to go for more of a Homestead situation, how easy would it be for 1 person to BUILD a working system? What about maintain a full system? Let's say there's an issue with the roof collapsing. Now you have to multitask. You have to fix your roof, while also looking after your garden and maintain defences. Wow, this is a hell of a lot of effort for a single person.

So, now, with your homesteading ideas, let's look at the reality of it all. Is it possible for a person to homestead by themselves? Clearly it is, as people do it. But the real question is, how possible is it for a person on an average wage to get reasonable results from a system that can be totally set up and managed by themselves? It'll be damn hard. Harder still will be to maintain silence and being hidden while it's all going wrong around you. At least in a group you'll be able to have someone to get your back if something was to happen.

The truth is, it's much easier to build and maintain a system when you have help from those in the know.

There's nothing wrong with asking for help from those around you. But problems can occur when you try to do everything by yourself. If you have another prepper in the area that can help you out with something, maybe it's some heavy lifting, or how to pour concrete, it's worth asking for some help.

The same is true the other way round. If a fellow prepper asks you for a hand, don't be a stiff, and offer what help you can. At the least you'll build bonds, but you'll also start to know those in the area and start to build a network you can count on.

Homesteading is meant to be a team effort anyway. After all, it is called HOMEsteading. Home is when you're with those you care about.
Dissent is the highest form of Patriotism - Thomas Jefferson
Those who sacrifice freedom for security deserve neither - Benjamin Franklin
Reply
8 February 2014, 19:48,
#2
RE: Homesteading and teamwork
In America our homesteading law of 1784 allowed for the family land grant of 1/4 section of land to be 160 acres. That was because 160 acres was deemed the most land a farm family could work in the pre-industrial era.

40 acres would be left as woodlot while the remainder was placed in crops.

The land needed to support one human per year was 6 acres. Even if the family had 8 children there would still be surplus production on half the cropped land, insuring that every homesteader made a profit, and had a big family.

During the early agricultural era we find that work was traded as a commodity, carefully recorded and treated as if it were cash. Most farmers kept a transaction book that showed how much labor they had done for each neighbor, and how much was owed to themselves. They also "rented" out their children to other farmers as circumstance allowed.

Daughters were rented out as nannies and domestics, especially when a neighbor wife was ill. This led to many of the May/December marriages on the frontier, as men married the young women that were already functioning in their homes. But that cut down on a lot of other daughter-management problems we face today. A well brought up girl was capable of running her own family much younger than the texting morons we are raising today, plus she would have had Mom and sisters close by.

Plus, if you married her you no longer had to pay her parents for her labor!

It was not the utopian one for all/all for one system proposed in the literature with barn raisings, corn husking and "free labor" at harvest time. You paid for those services one way or another.
__________
Every person should view freedom of speech as an essential right.
Without it you can not tell who the idiots are.
Reply
9 February 2014, 09:08,
#3
RE: Homesteading and teamwork
Scythe, homesteading and Prepper homesteading are different things.

Normal homesteading I agree is a highly collaborative affair, as highlighted by Mort's comments above. Prepper homesteading needs a different approach, one that is conditionally collaborative, to play down the homestead's resources and capabilities.

For sure a homesteader, and in particular a prepper homesteader has to get good at DIY, needs to understand and have sufficient tools and skills to maintain and repair every critical aspect of the property. We are new to both aspects of this. Its been, and continues to be, a steep but rewarding and satisfying learning curve.

We have decided to avoid neighbourly collaboration on installing stuff like your IBC, the PV kit, water systems and filtration etc. This sort of stuff is unusual and will be remembered by intrigued onlookers an co-opted assistants. Asking neighbours for help to get your IBC into your garden might mean them remembering it as a possible source of fresh water if they were trying to keep their family alive after a big event. We don't want to risk that, and go to considerable effort to avoid it.

Knowing how to get things done alone, assembling tools and devising techniques for doing so alone are all part of prepping for us. As is knowing what can be done alone and what needs assistance.

But collaboration is necessary, for sure. For us the internet is proving a good knowledge source, which we back up with an ever increasing library of books to back up critical knowledge. Also we are grateful for advice and encouragement of preppers with real life experience who have helped, and continue to help us here on the SUK site. We thank all of them, for having saved us a great deal of time, effort, heart-ache and cost, as we grappled to understand what we were setting up.

So that we do not appear a socially isolated fortress in out community, we are setting up our place, dual-skinned: A visible layer to the outside world and social neighbourly visits, which is mundane, and un impressive. Behind this, and out of sight, are the resilient capabilities we are installing. We want to draw as little attention to ourselves as possible, and in fact are at pains to make our place look to be a not very rich source of pickings if ever anyone got desperate for supplies. This way of working costs more both in terms of economic cost and time, but we see it as an investment as we want to build relationships with our neighbours so that we can collaborate effectively together in adversity. But we are building community relationships without showing our hand as either a well provisioned store house, nor as a source of technological equipment and solutions.... that would be to invite raiders sometime in the future.

Its a balancing act. We just need to remember that what becomes normal to us as our prepping progresses, is often highly intriguing to outsiders. If like us you are part of a village community, you need to consider how wagging tongues will start flapping at the slightest intrigue.
72 de

Lightspeed
26-SUKer-17

26-TM-580


STATUS: Bugged-In at the Bug-Out
Reply
9 February 2014, 10:19,
#4
RE: Homesteading and teamwork
That's all true LS. I did try to make the post more about asking other preppers in your area for help. The last 5 lines of my post said that, but I don't think I made it very clear. Sorry mate.

But yes, I totally agree with what you're saying.
Dissent is the highest form of Patriotism - Thomas Jefferson
Those who sacrifice freedom for security deserve neither - Benjamin Franklin
Reply
9 February 2014, 16:07,
#5
RE: Homesteading and teamwork
Hi Scythe,

Sorry. Heavy handed reply from me. Written early this morning after a heavy night on the town :-(

I think I must have skip-read past the last part of your OP.

Help from and to other preppers is what I was getting at in the bit about the SUK forum.
72 de

Lightspeed
26-SUKer-17

26-TM-580


STATUS: Bugged-In at the Bug-Out
Reply
9 February 2014, 20:32,
#6
RE: Homesteading and teamwork
That's cool LS. I have a habit of not making things clear. So it's all good. You've never given bad feedback anyway, and you've still not.
Dissent is the highest form of Patriotism - Thomas Jefferson
Those who sacrifice freedom for security deserve neither - Benjamin Franklin
Reply


Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)