Self-Reliance: How do you?
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I’m going to go out on a limb and assume many of you are like-minded to myself in that you not only find enjoyment in meat processing as a hobby but also the connection to a sense of self-reliance that the skills we’ve developed and equipment we have obtained brings to us and our families. It’s a good feeling to know that you are working toward a life that is less reliant on other people, services and the status quo of modern day living.
Some may call it prepping, I wouldn’t consider myself a prepper….but I’m not living in an ignorant bliss of unawareness either. You may call it self-reliance or homesteading. Whatever you call it and wherever you land on the spectrum, I wanted to share with you what I’ve been working toward for my family and friend circle and am looking for others to share their ideas and methods if there is interest.
In the last year, my family has moved from a town of 200, previously had lived in a town of 7K-ish to a 12 acre piece of land of our own. It’s mixed vegetation of grassland and wood lot about 50/50. There is a spring fed pond and our place is at the dead-end of a dirt road. We got lucky, really lucky. A PA owned the place with plans that fell through but that’s another story in itself.
House was a mess and a lot of work to get it to where it is today, with more to go. Anyway I like the idea of working toward self-reliance. We keep a well stocked pantry, we harvest game, we buy family beef and have plenty for each year. I have a well and septic system and most appliances are electric with a few propane exceptions. Working toward adding a fireplace and wood burning stove. Solar is on my mind as well. Maybe not full capability but a supplemental system that could run a select few circuits would be nice if a fully sized system was too expensive. This spring I got a few ducks that we collect eggs from daily, the pond has some panfish and carp in it so far that I’ve caught. There is an abundance of wildlife and foraging resources (several mushroom species, sandhill plumb, prickly pair fruit. We broke ground for a garden but I think it is too shaded. It has not done very well. Planning on changes there.
I’d like to add a small orchard with some
Apple trees, a grape vine or two, black berries, blueberries and the wife wants a peach tree even though winters are hard on peaches here.I have an un insulated shop next to the house as well and have been hitting up auctions to fill it will items that help me to be more self-reliant. An old welder, drill press, chop saw and some carpentry tools are where I’ve started. We have an ATV that we inherited. In the shop I am planning to partition off a corner and insulate it and finish it out. It will be my home processing plant/hobby kitchen. I hope to start that this fall when I finish an ongoing bathroom remodel that I’m working on for my wife.
I love to travel as well and want to work toward a lifestyle that allows for more travel experiences with my growing family. My wife and I are very much in the working class, I hope we are able to inspire others who are wanting to build a similar path.
I’d like this thread to serve as a resource to share what we’ve implemented/experienced and learned along the way for those who may be working toward or who may have achieved a higher level of self reliance.
@matt-westerhaus I very much understand and am heading there myself. Connections with other like minded people make things a bit easier
About 90 % finished an old farmhouse. Barn and warehouse complete.
In the process of installing all my commercial equipment. Now can make my own lump coal for reliable smoking and cooking. I now have fruit trees that are producing, so I can always make my pear and pecan pies.
On the bucket list is a well pump that can be used manually if needed. Need a few bee hives. Then converting a portion of the barn to chickens. Would love to have a few ducks, but that’s the chef in me.
I understand where the group is about privacy. I probably don’t worry about it enough. I have several large knifes, meat saw, manual and electric equipment. If anyone makes the poor choice of trying to collect things from my property, well, I’ll just turn them into sausage…
processhead Jonathon Tex_77 Seriously, living in a very small town may have me too trusting. What kind of vulnerabilities do we have with posting on a site such as Meatgistics?
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@matt-westerhaus I very much understand and am heading there myself. Connections with other like minded people make things a bit easier
About 90 % finished an old farmhouse. Barn and warehouse complete.
In the process of installing all my commercial equipment. Now can make my own lump coal for reliable smoking and cooking. I now have fruit trees that are producing, so I can always make my pear and pecan pies.
On the bucket list is a well pump that can be used manually if needed. Need a few bee hives. Then converting a portion of the barn to chickens. Would love to have a few ducks, but that’s the chef in me.
I understand where the group is about privacy. I probably don’t worry about it enough. I have several large knifes, meat saw, manual and electric equipment. If anyone makes the poor choice of trying to collect things from my property, well, I’ll just turn them into sausage…
processhead Jonathon Tex_77 Seriously, living in a very small town may have me too trusting. What kind of vulnerabilities do we have with posting on a site such as Meatgistics?
I’ll just turn them into sausage…**
Chef , you have nothing to worry about. lol
Seriously though, A determined dirt bag who read our posts and decided we owned something significant enough… and they really wanted it… could conceivably look up name and address information if a user here includes their full name. The rest is all public record.
In the grand scheme of things, the actual risk may not be great, but IMO it still is good to think about this stuff.
Paul
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I’ll just turn them into sausage…**
Chef , you have nothing to worry about. lol
Seriously though, A determined dirt bag who read our posts and decided we owned something significant enough… and they really wanted it… could conceivably look up name and address information if a user here includes their full name. The rest is all public record.
In the grand scheme of things, the actual risk may not be great, but IMO it still is good to think about this stuff.
processhead It is worth considering. I know if I were not practicing safe website (okay, don’t know what to call it) I would rather one of the regulars tell me about it so I could change.
Other than that, I keep my 357 ready. Here , in Texas, we will not be required to be licensed to carry
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@matt-westerhaus I very much understand and am heading there myself. Connections with other like minded people make things a bit easier
About 90 % finished an old farmhouse. Barn and warehouse complete.
In the process of installing all my commercial equipment. Now can make my own lump coal for reliable smoking and cooking. I now have fruit trees that are producing, so I can always make my pear and pecan pies.
On the bucket list is a well pump that can be used manually if needed. Need a few bee hives. Then converting a portion of the barn to chickens. Would love to have a few ducks, but that’s the chef in me.
I understand where the group is about privacy. I probably don’t worry about it enough. I have several large knifes, meat saw, manual and electric equipment. If anyone makes the poor choice of trying to collect things from my property, well, I’ll just turn them into sausage…
processhead Jonathon Tex_77 Seriously, living in a very small town may have me too trusting. What kind of vulnerabilities do we have with posting on a site such as Meatgistics?
Chef Ah I forgot to mention my bees, how could I have forgotten those girls! I’m new to them, on my first year. I’ll have honey soon! Pulling the supers this weekend for processing!
Matt W.
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I’ll just turn them into sausage…**
Chef , you have nothing to worry about. lol
Seriously though, A determined dirt bag who read our posts and decided we owned something significant enough… and they really wanted it… could conceivably look up name and address information if a user here includes their full name. The rest is all public record.
In the grand scheme of things, the actual risk may not be great, but IMO it still is good to think about this stuff.
processhead I took heed to your comment and changed my user name and removed my full name from profile. It isn’t a bad Idea at all.
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I have the gardens the fruit trees I just planted a year ago I have apples peach’s and plums planted we grow a lot of are own food my wife cans and I do a lot of vacuum sealing and freezing we have a friend we get half a beef from and another we can get are pork from I make all our sausage we have a propane generator for when the power goes out we have solar on are roof but let the power authority store it so we don’t need batteries I hunt and fish and we have a huge farmers market 20 minutes away that we go to for stuff we can’t grow now is a good time to do solar the government gives you back a lot of the coast we did ares 3 years ago and love the outcome.
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Chef Ah I forgot to mention my bees, how could I have forgotten those girls! I’m new to them, on my first year. I’ll have honey soon! Pulling the supers this weekend for processing!
RafterW said in Self-Reliance: How do you?:
Chef Ah I forgot to mention my bees, how could I have forgotten those girls! I’m new to them, on my first year. I’ll have honey soon! Pulling the supers this weekend for processing!
Fun times! Bees are amazing. When I was a kid, a neighbor and I captured a swarm of honey bees on the side of his house. We managed to avoid getting stung more than three or four times, somehow.
My Dad built a hive with frames and we kept them for a few years till I moved out of the house.
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matt Westerhaus Huge flex post! You have exactly what I want! I am sure you worked hard for and sacrificed, that is how you get what you want but I am very JEALOUS! Prickly pair fruit is a BASTARD to eat though, I got one stuck in between my fingers once and it hurt for a few weeks but it is like a somewhat sweet cucumber with a really nice fresh taste. How are duck eggs? I have NOT heard good things about them in the past.
Now, 100% I think there are a lot of people on here who pride themselves on self-reliance. That old-school sense of doing for yourself isn’t being promoted much currently so I think people like a place where they can come and share it and talk about it. If you guys want I’d be more than happy to create a category and group for …what? Self-Reliance? Homesteading? I don’t know what to call it… Also, I am pretty sure we can make it so you’d have to be part of that group to view it?
Travelling is great and all, it opens your perspective to how lucky we are to be Americans but if you asked me if I could give up a few of our more extravagant vacations to have the money to put down on 15 acres and a pond? Yeah, I’d probably make that trade.
If there is interest in that I would agree. But like processhead and Tex_77 said, we have 16k registered users and normally we have over 1,000 people visit the site in a day. I have no idea why anyone with bad intentions would be on meatgistics but you really never know!
Jonathon I would be interested in this group. Not a full blown prepper but as someone always looking to be more self reliant.
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For the military minded folks OPSEC is the word of the day.
I will change the below saying to meet the challenges of today’s environment.
Loose lips will absolutely sink ships!
Not being critical of anyone on this board, but our enemy is within our very midst, be careful my friends.
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Chef Ah I forgot to mention my bees, how could I have forgotten those girls! I’m new to them, on my first year. I’ll have honey soon! Pulling the supers this weekend for processing!
RafterW Chef I’ve only had bees for a few years, but have a great 80 year old mentor. Since our winters can be long at times, I did not rob honey the first year from any of my hives. Keep in mind that honey is their natural food source and what sustains them throughout the year. We do feed them as well, but its not like their natural food. Bees are the ultimate example of working hard to put up food and sustain themselves through the year. For those of you who garden, both flowers and veggies, I think you will find out those little girls will help by polenating many of those plants. Also be aware of the insecticides on your plants. Even some “organic” insecticides can decimate our winged friends.
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I never think of my self as a prepper, it was the way I was raised. We always had a garden and my uncle raised cattle, hogs and chickens. We helped process the chickens which I hated because it was always a Saturday in the fall or late summer. Plucking chickens was not what I wanted to be doing. Always canned items from the garden for use in the fall and winter, I realized later it was probably to save money but I always told my friends the vegetables were better than what their parents were buying from the store.
bocephus been doing it for longer than prepping & all that business has been cool, long before it was cool. Sadly, we have now slowed down a lot & that part does bother me some.
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bocephus been doing it for longer than prepping & all that business has been cool, long before it was cool. Sadly, we have now slowed down a lot & that part does bother me some.
calldoctoday old age is overrated.
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RafterW Chef I’ve only had bees for a few years, but have a great 80 year old mentor. Since our winters can be long at times, I did not rob honey the first year from any of my hives. Keep in mind that honey is their natural food source and what sustains them throughout the year. We do feed them as well, but its not like their natural food. Bees are the ultimate example of working hard to put up food and sustain themselves through the year. For those of you who garden, both flowers and veggies, I think you will find out those little girls will help by polenating many of those plants. Also be aware of the insecticides on your plants. Even some “organic” insecticides can decimate our winged friends.
GWG8541 our winters can get rough at times too. In Kansas it is generally ok to give them one deep for the winter but I added a second deep this spring during peak flow shortly after I got them settled in. I supered on top of that and will leave both deeps for them through winter. Both deeps on my two hives are full. One hive filled the super quite well, the other didn’t but that’s ok. They’ve got what is needed to get through winter now.
Matt W.
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GWG8541 our winters can get rough at times too. In Kansas it is generally ok to give them one deep for the winter but I added a second deep this spring during peak flow shortly after I got them settled in. I supered on top of that and will leave both deeps for them through winter. Both deeps on my two hives are full. One hive filled the super quite well, the other didn’t but that’s ok. They’ve got what is needed to get through winter now.
RafterW good deal on the honey. I didn’t mean to infer you cannot pull honey on the first year. I know plenty of keepers that do. I just don’t to make them feel more at home on the first year and build up the hives health. I understand that part of the formula is also when the hive was established and the size of the hive. I have bought packaged bees in the past, but I do not buy packages any more, I just trap after being taught how to do it and have had better results with the trapped bees.
My nephew works for KDoT and he definitely plows a lot of the white powdery stuff in the winter. Im lucky here, zbigjeff and Jonesy really get the brutal part of the Ohio winters. -
RafterW good deal on the honey. I didn’t mean to infer you cannot pull honey on the first year. I know plenty of keepers that do. I just don’t to make them feel more at home on the first year and build up the hives health. I understand that part of the formula is also when the hive was established and the size of the hive. I have bought packaged bees in the past, but I do not buy packages any more, I just trap after being taught how to do it and have had better results with the trapped bees.
My nephew works for KDoT and he definitely plows a lot of the white powdery stuff in the winter. Im lucky here, zbigjeff and Jonesy really get the brutal part of the Ohio winters. -
Brianzipperdog123 to help the bees get through the winter it’s important to deal with the condensation that forms on the inside of the lid of the hive. When this ice melts it wets the bees and causes deaths. Putting a child’s diaper that absorbs urine will absorb the water produced by the bees and is an easy and cheap solution for this issue. Works well in the Great White North
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Finished jarring our first batch of honey. I’m waiting on labels at the printer. Ended up with about 30 lbs. one of my two total hives produced the excess honey that we were able to harvest and I didn’t get the bees until late spring. Hoping for 70+lbs next year. I was able to fill 33 jars with 12 oz of honey in each, plus a couple 16 Oz jars that I gave away already.
A good bit of this batch will be saved for gifts to friends and family but I’m hoping to have enough to sell to cover my materials cost on the jars and labels. It’s been fun getting to find jars and design a label. Already have a design started for next years batch.
Matt W.
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Finished jarring our first batch of honey. I’m waiting on labels at the printer. Ended up with about 30 lbs. one of my two total hives produced the excess honey that we were able to harvest and I didn’t get the bees until late spring. Hoping for 70+lbs next year. I was able to fill 33 jars with 12 oz of honey in each, plus a couple 16 Oz jars that I gave away already.
A good bit of this batch will be saved for gifts to friends and family but I’m hoping to have enough to sell to cover my materials cost on the jars and labels. It’s been fun getting to find jars and design a label. Already have a design started for next years batch.
RafterW way to go. I really need to get into the
bees. -
cdavis it’s been a fun process. Way more work and thought goes into them than I initially guessed. Not the cheapest hobby to get started in but hopefully we can sell some locally and cover some costs. It’s less expensive than many of my hobbies though. All the fun ones just cost money.
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Finished jarring our first batch of honey. I’m waiting on labels at the printer. Ended up with about 30 lbs. one of my two total hives produced the excess honey that we were able to harvest and I didn’t get the bees until late spring. Hoping for 70+lbs next year. I was able to fill 33 jars with 12 oz of honey in each, plus a couple 16 Oz jars that I gave away already.
A good bit of this batch will be saved for gifts to friends and family but I’m hoping to have enough to sell to cover my materials cost on the jars and labels. It’s been fun getting to find jars and design a label. Already have a design started for next years batch.
RafterW good job on the harvest, I’ve been keeping for 5 years now and them insects are far more fascinating than I ever could have imagined.
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