Homesteading and teamwork

[Lightspeed]

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.