Prepping for

the day the

SHTF

A complete bug-out and survival plan for life after doomsday.

Ken Benton

© 2013 by StupidityinSociety.com

All Rights Reserved.   No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, including scanning, photocopying, or otherwise without prior written permission of the copyright holder.

Disclaimer and Terms of Use: The Author and Publisher have strived to be as accurate and complete as possible in the creation of this book, notwithstanding the fact that he does not warrant or represent at any time that the contents within are accurate. While all attempts have been made to verify information provided in this publication, the Author and Publisher assume no responsibility for errors, omissions, or contrary interpretation of the subject matter herein. Any perceived slights of specific persons, peoples, or organizations are unintentional. This book is not intended for use as a source of legal, business, accounting, medical, or financial advice. All readers are advised to seek services of competent professionals in the legal, business, accounting, medical, and finance fields. Pursue the contents of this book at your own risk.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Survival Plan Outline

Locating Suitable Land

Putting Up a Practical Structure

Drilling a Groundwater Well

Preparing your Ground for Mini-Farming

What to Store and How to Store It

The Bug-Out Plan

Surviving Your First Year Off the Grid

Homesteading 101

Building a Worthwhile Future

A Word from the Author

Introduction

The thought has recently entered the minds of many westerners that society as we know it could suddenly collapse. Before the financial sector meltdown of 2008, it seemed to most of us that only the wackier folks were seriously entertaining these kinds of ideas. You know who I’m talking about; the paranoid types who are worried about fighting the battle of Armageddon from their backyard, and who are burying enough canned food and ammunition to supply their own militia. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

My, how times have quickly changed. In the last five years, the prepper movement has simply exploded. Prepping is no longer considered kooky – in fact, it has become downright fashionable. In 2011, network news reporters conservatively estimated that the number of preppers in the USA had grown to over three million. Today, websites that use the acronym SHTF and names like survival forum are purchasing more bandwidth to accommodate a tsunami of new visitors. There is even a cable TV show called Doomsday Preppers now. It’s enough to make even a blissfully-blind city-slicker take notice and start thinking.

What do you think about all this? Is it just a fad? Are we witnessing nothing more than a natural overreaction to a historically-sharp economic down-cycle, coincidentally followed by an unprecedented onslaught of devastating natural disasters? Is everything really going to be okay after all?

What could really happen, anyway?

Glad you asked! Here are the major SHTF candidates:

• Real economic collapse. Not like that little hiccup in 2008 through 2010. If you haven’t seen photographs from pre-Nazi Germany of people with wheelbarrows full of money trying to buy a loaf of bread, Google it. You can’t eat money, folks. You also can’t live purely on credit, continuing to borrow more and more from future generations to pay for your every whim – but that is exactly how western governments currently operate. Those unborn future generations are not going to roll over forever and just accept the debt bondage they will be born into. This is how revolutions start, and how currencies become worthless.

• Natural disasters. Severe natural disasters have the very real potential to stop trucking traffic. When the trucks stop rolling, store shelves become empty very quickly – usually from looting – and there will be no more food delivered until normal trucking resumes. In such a situation, confidence that normalcy will soon return may prove to be wishful thinking. Don’t think a disaster on a national scale would be unprecedented, either. The New Madrid earthquakes in December 1811 were so massive in scale they were felt from Iowa to South Carolina and from Louisiana to Pennsylvania. Entire forests fell. It is frightening to ponder what kind of damage a quake like that might do today.

• Viruses. Every year it seems we hear about a new virus discovered that has the potential to run rampant through human society and wipe out hundreds of millions of people. Many scientists are telling us it is only a matter of time before such a nightmare scenario actually plays out. This would not be an unprecedented event! The flu pandemic of 1918 is believed to have killed around 75 million people worldwide, roughly 2% of the world’s population. It would be a good idea to get away from public places when you first hear about such an outbreak.

• Nuclear War. We have gotten a little complacent about this threat, haven’t we? It may be sobering to realize the nukes are all still there, ready to fly in a moment’s notice, and world governments are just as politically uncooperative as ever. It only takes one crazy leader getting control of one small nuclear-power country to set off a chain reaction of events (think Arch-Duke Ferdinand in World War I) that will literally blow up like a string of firecrackers. Say, some country like Iran, who just happens to have recently formed an alliance with Russia.

• Mass-Scale Terrorism. They have shown what kind of cold-blooded organization they are capable of. Now picture a coordinated attack on a much larger scale, perhaps involving dirty bombs or biological weapons.

No wonder prepping is becoming so popular. This hobby isn’t just for eccentrics anymore – it’s for anyone watching the nightly news whose boy scout training didn’t go in one ear and out the other. Being prepared is generally considered wise. We all apparently know this, as insurance companies are among the wealthiest organizations on earth. At an early age, we are taught to save for a rainy day – only this particular kind of rainy day may well render the usual kind of savings worthless. The question, then, is exactly what should we be saving, how should we be saving it, and where? It is the purpose of this book to provide that answer.

Should a SHTF scenario actually occur, God forbid, there will be two types of people left here alive: The prepared and the unprepared. The unprepared will be in a state of panic as they come to realize that money in the bank doesn’t mean anything when the banks are all closed, the grid has shut down, and you can’t eat money anyway. You can’t even eat gold and silver, although man’s historic fascination with these shiny metals has probably ensured they will continue to be perceived as valuable in all but the most dystopian of scenarios. Expect to see bread lines and food riots after the initial looting and pillaging leaves retail stores in burning heaps of ruins. Imagine attempting to feed your family, and keep them safe, in a lawless society where roving bands of hoodlums are free to run rampant on an ultimate crime spree. It could get ugly, fast.

In the following pages, we will outline a plan that I think is your best chance of surviving and resuming a fairly normal and satisfying life should the absolute worst happen. Basically, we want to set you up with a well-stocked destination; a survival retreat to bug-out to when things start looking bad. We need to get you there safely and make sure it is prepared not only for your immediate, initial survival, but that it is a place where you can stay indefinitely as you begin to live a self-sufficient lifestyle. Knowing you have this plan in place will help you sleep better tonight after watching the 11:00 news. So, let’s get started…

Survival Plan Outline

The plan I am presenting is meant for people who live normal lives by all outward appearances; closet preppers, if you will. We are just everyday folks who are alarmed at what we see happening in the world, and want to have a survival plan in place for any catastrophic events which destroy the modern society most people have become completely dependent upon. This is not a manifesto for immediately adopting an off-the-grid lifestyle. Nor is it an advocation for a gradual migration to that type of existence, although this material can certainly be used for that purpose if desired. What I am about to roll out is essentially a bug-out plan, albeit an extremely detailed one. This plan must become a major project in your life if you are to become properly prepared.

Bug-out bags have recently risen in popularity. I bet you even have one under your bed right now. That bag may get you out of your home and 10 or 20 miles down the road – maybe further, who knows? But if you don’t have a survival destination in place, you will be no better off than anyone else after a few days. Imagine finding yourself camping out in the desert with dozens of others who managed to escape the city, but who all now have no place to go, no shelter, and whose food and clean drinking water has just run out.

If you have a survival destination in place, you are much better off than those desert campers whose hope now lies in rescue helicopters dropping supplies. (That situation will get grim if the helicopters don’t come, or when they eventually stop coming.) However, note that you are actually worse off than those desert campers if your destination retreat is not stocked with survival supplies. You won’t even have the hope of helicopter drops. Of course, it would be just as bad to learn your survival retreat has been discovered by others and is now occupied by armed squatters, reducing your entire project to a gigantic exercise in futility.

If you reach your survival destination safely, and your storehouse of supplies is secure, you will be in good shape – for a while, anyway. Even so, your pre-stocked survival supplies are a non-renewable resource, a finite reserve which will become depleted probably sooner rather than later. The catastrophic events mentioned in the last chapter have the potential to end modern society permanently. We are talking about the beginning of a new age, one where skilled survivalists will become the new upper class. If you want to be one of them, you need to be ready, willing, and able to live self-sufficiently. That means preparing for it now.

Our bug-out plan is a permanent one. Hopefully, should the time come to actually exercise it, the situation will not need to become permanent. Perhaps a localized natural disaster will be cleaned up within a month or two, and you can then go back home to the city and resume your old life. In the case of a virus, nuclear war, or complete collapse of the financial system, however, that may not be possible. In those cases, you will need to know how to live and provide for your family perpetually at your survival retreat, long after your initial stock of supplies is consumed. That means knowing how to harvest and purify drinking water, provide your own food, build and maintain your own shelter, keep yourselves clothed, and defend yourselves.

It is best to prepare for the absolute worst, especially since the chances of the absolute worst happening seem to be increasing every day. If you do need to bug-out, but it ends up being only a temporary situation, great – but we will go ahead and prepare for a permanent bug-out in the following pages, just in case. It would be foolish to only prepare for a temporary retreat, because once you have such a destination established and stocked, it is not that much more work to get set-up for self-sufficiency.

The basic outline of our plan is:

• Get a plot of land out in the sticks somewhere

• Put some kind of living shelter there

• Stock it with immediate survival supplies

• Stock it with necessary tools and materials for beginning to live a self-sustained existence

• Protect it

• Prepare for bug-out day

• Plan for living a decent life, come what may

Once all these pieces are all put together, you will no longer be a helpless dependent upon the infrastructure of modern society. You will have a backup plan. That’s what I’m talking ‘bout.

Does it sound expensive? It can be, but it doesn’t have to be. These preparations do not have to be completed all at once, and the major elements of the plan can possibly be financed well within your budget. This is, after all, a project. The sooner you can get started on it, and the faster you get everything in place, the better – but do not fret if you cannot make it all happen overnight. Just get started on it, that’s all. Take it one step at a time. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither will your survival retreat. The important thing to do today is commit to it, and make it your new hobby. It’s kind of a cool hobby, actually. Within a few years’ time, you can be all set.

Locating Suitable Land

Most land for sale these days is expensive and overpriced. That is not what we want. Fortunately, undeveloped land (also known as raw land) can still be acquired relatively cheap, especially if it is extremely rural away from utilities and services. The farther out it is, the cheaper it usually is. That is exactly what we are seeking. When it comes time to bug out, we want to have someplace to go that is far away from crowds.

That doesn’t mean you won’t have neighbors. Most likely, any neighbors you have near this type of property will be like-minded. There is also a pretty good chance they will be reclusive and unfriendly. That’s okay too, but it is best if you are able to meet your neighbors so they at least know who you are. Strangers will not be welcome in out-of-the-way rural communities after doomsday occurs. If, by chance, you are able to become friendly with all your neighbors, there is even a chance your property will be defended by them when the SHTF.

Where to Look for Land

While the entire country is fair picken’s when it comes to buying a plot of land, in all practicality, you need your retreat to be reasonably close to home. You need to be able to get there quickly when the time comes to bug out, possibly without the aid of a motor vehicle. One or two states away is about as far as I would be willing to make the journey – and the closer, the better. Depending on where you live, however, you may need to go out 500 miles or so before you find an affordable plot that will work for you.

Seriously consider the climate and seasons for the location you choose. You can survive almost anywhere, but extreme climates are very hard on people who are not used to them. Both severe heat and severe cold will take their toll on the former city-slicker who goes rural. Additionally, the types of produce which can be grown become limited in extreme conditions at either end of the scale. On the other hand, if you do have some experience living rural in an unbearably hot desert or on the frozen tundra, these types of locations figure to be less populated and have fewer visits from undesirables in a post-doomsday society.

Perhaps it is best to compromise on climate. Maybe you can find an area in the mountains that has cold, snowy winters but not ridiculously cold. Or, maybe you can find a nice piece of land at higher elevations in a desert area, giving you some relief from summer heat and a wider mini-farming spectrum. (The Prescott and Tucson areas in Arizona come to mind. I just did an online search and found 10 acres near Prescott for $15,000.)

I live in Southern California. There is actually some decent land for sale in the high desert areas right here in-state, which would suffice, but I think I would be willing to travel farther to get away from people more. Arizona, Utah, and Colorado are good places to look for me, especially if I am on a budget (but only the lower elevations in Colorado, since I have no cold-weather living experience). If you live in the heartland of America and are on a tight budget, the Ozarks region of Missouri is a good prospect.

One of the off-grid survival forums on the internet recently posted a list of what they considered the ten best places to buy land in America for survivalist living, taking into account the land prices, natural resources, and sparse populations in their rankings. These are the nearby cities in their results, in no particular order:

Pennsboro, West Virginia

Pikeville, Tennessee

Cedar City, Utah

Red Oak, Oklahoma

Alton, Missouri

Sierra Blanca, Texas

Carlin, Nevada

Hettinger, North Dakota

West Liberty, Kentucky

Mountain Home, Arkansas

If you live in the USA, at least one of those places is probably close enough to you to work, and should be considered prime searching ground for beginning your hunt for a plot of land. Use that as a starting point and expand out from there. Your situation will be unique, so find what’s right for you.

Important Land Considerations

When considering land, the most important pieces of information (other than climate) are soil condition and the local water table level. Soil that is too hard in clay will be difficult to drill a groundwater well through and will not be good for farming. Marshy soil that does not drain well will also present gardening problems, and the water table will be so high that the groundwater will likely be more contaminated than you want.

Look and see what the homesteaders in the area are growing. If you see grain fields, fruit trees, and green stuff growing in the yards of your closest neighbors, that is a good sign. Also, avoid land that has a rock problem. Too many rocks and boulders will present obstacles in both well-drilling and farming.

You want the local water table to be closer than 25 feet. This is the level where you first strike water when digging or drilling. Ideally, it will be close, within 8-12 feet on non-marshy land, as that will make drilling your own groundwater wells quite easy. You can find out how far down people are hitting water by asking your homesteading neighbors, and/or asking at a local rural family-owned hardware store (or better yet, a drilling supply store, if there happens to be one nearby).

The proximity to natural food resources should also be a consideration. Public hunting and fishing grounds within walking distance are ideal. Fields where edible plants may grow wild are a huge plus. A population of wild rabbits or game birds such as grouse, doves, or partridge is highly desirable.

Wild hickory trees in the area make the land much more suitable for survival. Hickory is an extremely versatile hardwood which can be used for many building projects, as well as slow-burning firewood. In addition, hickory nuts are good eating, and the young branches from these trees can be boiled to actually produce usable table salt. It is a good idea to plant these on and/or around your land.

If hickory trees are not present, then a nearby salt source is desirable. This can be a body of saltwater, or salty ground where saltbrush grows. Ask if there are any old salt mines or salt flats in the vicinity.

Some type of hardwood tree forest nearby is needed in order to make gathering wood for building projects possible.

Consider the vicinity to highways and turnpikes when looking at land plots. You want to be away from them, not close to them. You don’t want all the characters from the “Road Warrior” movies rolling up to your homestead one day.

You need at bare minimum a 2-acre plot. If you have a family, consider 5 acres the minimum. You can live a nice rural life on five acres. The bigger the better, of course, but financial considerations may restrict your search to smaller plots. I advise looking at five-acre plots to begin with, but keep your eyes open for good deals on something a little larger.

How to Find Land

To shop for land, use the internet while the grid is still up. By now, you should have a good idea of the general location in which you want to start looking. Type it into a search engine with the words “raw land for sale.” For example, you might search for “raw land for sale West Virginia.” You will get some websites that have actual listings for sale in the search results and can peruse those, but they are not as likely to list rural land plots that are way off the beaten path. You can at least get a good idea of prices on land plots that are closer to power and water lines, however.

What you can do then is contact the website operators and ask for referrals for rural plots that are farther from utilities and services. They may have some of these handy, or they may refer you to a local real estate agent. To that end, you will probably get some local real estate agents running ads alongside the search results and should contact them as well. Just send them an email telling them you are looking for a rural off-the-grid plot of land near good hunting and fishing grounds if possible, and tell them the general area. They will search out what is available and get back to you.

Use different search terms as well. For example, search for “off-grid land for sale Colorado” or “rural land plots Oklahoma.” You will also find some interesting websites if you leave the location off the search query; for example, simply search for “off the grid land for sale.”

Another excellent resource is eBay. There are plots of raw land listed for sale right now on eBay in every state. Many of them include financing options right in the listing details.

Take a weekend trip out to the area where you have found interesting land plots and check things out. Look for the features just discussed. Go to the nearest town and stop in at local real estate offices and maybe a couple of banks and ask about raw land for sale in the area. While you are at the bank, find out about financing options. You should come up with additional prospects that way. It might even be a good idea to stop in at a tavern, have a couple beers, and get chatty with the locals. Tell them you are looking for land in the area, and they may have some leads for you that you simply would not find by any other means. Someone may even subdivide a plot for you so they can raise a little cash.

Financing

Raw land is supposed to be more difficult to finance than improved properties, but everywhere I look for land on the internet, I seem to see financing options to go with it. The interest rates are certainly higher. Figure on putting down 20% and paying about 8% interest with a 10-15 year amortized loan. For example, I found a nice 13 acres in Oklahoma for $24,000. That would be a $4,800 down payment and a monthly payment of roughly $184 per month at 8% interest for 15 years. That is probably much cheaper than your car payment.

I should point out that I also found attractive 10-acre lots as cheap as $12,000 in some areas. If you don’t finance the land, you might be able to get a discount for a cash payment. Consider putting the whole thing on a credit card, or refinancing a car that you own free and clear, so you can have the title to the land. That may come in handy in a post-apocalyptic society, and you won’t have to worry about somebody showing up who “says” they represent the now-closed bank who really owns the property.

If the expense is a financial hardship for you, consider getting a partner. Having a partner can make the project more fun, and you will have someone to help you with the prepping in addition to sharing the expenses. Two families can live comfortably on 5+ acres, and there is safety in numbers. If you don’t have any friends or family who are interested, you might be able to find a potential partner on one of the survival forums on the internet.

Putting Up a Practical Structure

Once you have the land, you need to place some kind of housing structure on it where you can live after bugging out of the city. What type of structure you decide to build should be determined by how close your neighbors are, and how friendly you plan on getting with them in pre-SHTF times. Here’s why:

Our primary concern is being able to reach our retreat and then actually having a place to live when we get there. That means finding it unoccupied. If you build a beautiful self-sufficient cabin way off the grid somewhere, far from neighbors, that is going to be very attractive to anyone who discovers it in post-SHTF times, or anyone who knows it is there and can get to it faster than you. Occupation is going to trump legal documents if the worst happens.

There are several possible solutions to this issue. One is to go ahead and build your dream cabin, and then let someone you know and trust live there rent-free in exchange for doing the property maintenance. We all have an old “wandering waif” friend from high school (or maybe even a family member) who never really settled down into a normal lifestyle. You know – that guy who makes your wife roll her eyes when you mention his name. A free place to live off the grid is probably going to be the answer to his dreams. You can get him set up there, have him maintain the property, and get him working the land for becoming self-sufficient. Let him know why you built the place and make sure he learns how to defend it until you get there when the time comes.

The other option is to have good neighbors – really good neighbors. You need to become close friends with them. The more of them you have, the better. These are folks you are going to trust to defend your property for you. So, invite them over, have your kids become friends with theirs, have barbeques, go on fishing trips together, and whatever else is necessary. Stay on their good side and avoid political or religious discussions. Having great neighbors is the best form of security. After society collapses, they are not going to want to see undesirables invade your property and take up residence next to them any more than you want to see it. If that does happen, your neighbor friends figure to be people who offer you temporary shelter and help you remove the squatters.

If you are going to go ahead and build now, you need to search out local contractors who have experience in off-grid homes. Most of the residential building contractors will be used to building on-grid homes that depend on local utilities. Your home can be wired for electricity as normal, but will be powered by alternative energy. The most common way of accomplishing that is with solar panels, and solar-home contractors are fairly easy to find near rural areas. Plumbing can also be installed in the normal manner. Have a well professionally-drilled first and a septic tank installed, before hiring the builders. Running water will simply come from your well, and wastewater will exit to your septic tank. However, most wells operate from an electric motor. Talk to the drilling company you hire and make sure they are able to provide you with a manual method of pumping water out of the well, at least as a backup. (You can always use a small solar generator to power the electric well-pump.)

If you cannot arrange to have your retreat protected by one of the means mentioned above, I suggest not building anything too attractive on your land. Maybe throw up a simple small cabin that is intentionally designed to look like a broken down shack from the outside, and a few small storage sheds. Even easier, put an old trailer on the property. Try to do this in a low-key manner. Whatever living structure you place on your land, put it in an area where it will be less visible from the surrounding land plots and especially hidden from any roads. Surround it with large bushes and trees if you can.

Popup trailers are especially stealthy. They can be completely surrounded by bushes and plants and nobody will know they are there. My family has an old Starcraft tent trailer stored on the land where we have our Montana fishing cabin, and you cannot really even see it from the surrounding roads even though it is parked out in the open. Brush can be encouraged to grow up around any kind of popup trailer and render it invisible. These can be suitable temporary living quarters when stocked with good bedrolls and basic survival equipment. Old used popup trailers can be purchased cheaply on Craigslist.

Consider having a concrete foundation installed on your land, on top of which a good cabin can be built later. You may not use it, and you don’t need a foundation at all to build a good, solid, livable cabin, but it figures to be a nice feature to have installed already, and a difficult thing to obtain after the SHTF.

I strongly advise putting in a deep well and a septic tank now. This may cost thousands of dollars, but is a good investment if you can swing it. At some point, you will probably be able to incorporate these items in your future building projects, and thus provide your home with modern plumbing, and be darn glad you have them in place. A professionally-drilled well produces a never-ending supply of potable water. We will get into drilling our own groundwater well in the next chapter, and that can be used to route plumbing through your home, but the water quality will not be as good as that from a deep, professionally-drilled well. Likewise, you can dig outhouses to use for bathrooms, but will probably want to route plumbing to a septic tank at some point. Getting those items installed now is just a smart thing to do. A well and a septic tank are not visible items on your land.

If you want to build a cheap cabin on your land now, you can do that as well. This is a slightly bigger project than putting up a barn or a shed, and you will probably need some help – but it isn’t as daunting a task as it may seem. The frame can be put in place with boards and a little cement. The roof can be fitted with sheet metal, and small solar-powered appliances can be installed, including a wood-burning stove for heat. Go to YouTube and search for a channel by user solarcabin (the guy’s name is actually Lamar Alexander so you can also just search for him on the internet) and watch his videos. They are very inspirational, and you will probably want to run out and start building your own small solar cabin straight away after watching them.

When you finish watching Lamar Alexander’s videos, do a basic internet search for ‘how to build a cabin.’ The first three pages of results will give you complete step-by step plans for putting up something better than a shack that you and a small family can live in when push comes to shove. Reviewing the photos and diagrams in the various stages will enlighten you as to how it all goes together. Framing is really simple, and getting the roof structure in place is part of the framing and not difficult at all.

I want you to print all this stuff out, pages and pages of photos and diagrams of the steps for basic small-cabin building, and invest in a small fireproof safe-box to store it all in. This information may end up being like gold someday, as simple as it seems when you read it now. You will forget important things if you try and memorize it all. Also, the different plans each have unique aspects about them. Having the plans for a half-dozen different structures will allow you to combine them into what will work best for you, as it is the principles which are important, not so much the exact steps. This is a bit like cooking. Studying different plans for small-cabin building, and watching a bunch of videos on the subject, will educate you for the entire project. After having put up a structure or two, you will have become something of an expert on the subject – and thus you will find you are a valuable commodity in a post-apocalyptic society. Someone who can build small off-grid cabins figures to be in high demand. Hide this fireproof safe-box (with the printed-out cabin building plans) in a safe place on your land or in your popup trailer.

Now comes the difficult part: storing building materials. If you are going with the shack/trailer plan, then you need to have building materials stored on the land that you can use to put up a better structure after you arrive. This should not be a critical issue – that is, whatever you have in place, a small shack-looking cabin or some hidden pop-up trailers, should be able to provide sufficient shelter in the short-term for your family. Building a better structure will be a project, one that comes secondary to survival and protection in the early days. It will, however, become your major focus within a short while, so the tools and materials must be there. This is going to be one of your major expenses, unfortunately, and you must take steps to both disguise and protect the building materials from poachers and the elements, which is a bit of work.

That probably means burying the larger materials, at least partially. Wood will rot if not protected, so you must make a burial chamber that keeps your boards dry and out of the soil. I would suggest using a combination of sheet metal and thick plastic tarps to accomplish that, lining the inside of buried, large wooden chests. Metals that are subject to rusting (anything not stainless steel) will need to be protected in a similar manner. Small sheds can also be a great help in storing tools and other building materials. Sheds are relatively easy to lock and hide, and are not all that attractive as a shelter even if they are spotted. Barns, on the other hand, are attractive shelters and are just too conspicuous. I wouldn’t use a barn unless you have a tenant or good neighbors to protect the property.

Here is a list of building materials you should seriously consider stockpiling on your land:

• Plywood and boards (including 2x12’s, 2x6’s, and 2x4’s.)

• Sheet metal, perhaps the ridged roofing type as well

• Metal piping in different lengths and diameters, including elbows, washers, and connector pieces

• PVC piping in different lengths and diameters, including elbows, washers, and connector pieces

• Rolls of window screening and greenhouse screening

• Glass windows (the stronger the better)

• Lots of hand tools including axes and large saws with extra heads and blades

• Nails, especially 8-penny through 16-penny sizes

• Screws, with washers, especially 1.5” through 2.5” sizes

• Glues, including good waterproof wood glue

• Rope and twine in different sizes

• Rolls of wire in different sizes

• Chicken wire and fencing wire

• Measuring tools including tapes, triangles, and levels

• Assorted knives and cutting devices with sharpeners

• Flashlights, spotlights, and lanterns

• Shovels, spades, hoes, strong rakes, and a post-hole auger

• Plastic buckets in various sizes

• Several large bags of cement and bentonite clay

• Rolls of plastic sheeting and tarps in various sizes

• An assortment of handles and doorknobs with hardware

• Rolls of rubber stripping in different widths

• Putty, clay, and sealants of different types

• Rolls of tape – different kinds, including electrical, duct, packaging, and double-sided 3m tape

• Cans of weather-proofing sealant for wood.

• Solar panels and the wiring/hardware to make it work

• Small appliances including a wood-burning stove

• Well drilling equipment (see next chapter)

• Hoses and hose fittings for plumbing

• Toilets, toilet seats, and camping toilet seats

• Lighting fixtures and long-life bulbs, oil lamps and oil

• A couple of portable solar generators

• Large barrels of various sizes and material

• Anything else you see in the YouTube videos and in all your printed-out cabin plans that you think you will want for building your permanent cabin

I recommend dispensing with modern luxury materials such as tile and paint. The list is getting big enough already, don’t you think? People once lived perfectly happy lives in simple wood cabins and you can, too. The more forestry you have on and around your land, the less wood you will have to store in advance, especially if they are good hardwood trees. In that case, be sure to search for videos and plans for making log cabins from trees you cut yourself.

If there is no fence on your property line, and no natural barriers, you should put one up now, even if it is just a simple wooden pole and wire fence (in fact, the simpler it is the less valuable the property will appear). Marking the property line lets people know they are trespassing and will thus make them more reluctant to explore your land. If you do a good job of hiding your sheds and trailers, and/or make your small cabin look like a dilapidated old shack, a fence of any type may be enough to discourage potential squatters.

Drilling a Groundwater Well

During the initial preparation days, a professionally-drilled well is a highly recommended investment on your land. This will be a deep well, possibly several hundred feet in depth that will be properly cased and sealed at the top, with a submersible electric pump installed. The well-drilling company will test the water for you and give you the report, but you can pretty much rest assured the water will be safe for drinking straight from the well when the source is that deep. You will need electric power to pump the water, however, which can be accomplished through a portable solar generator.

You can, and should, have a backup emergency hand pump. For deep wells these must include a submersible cylinder. Emergency hand pumps for deep wells are a fairly recent innovation. Companies by the names of Stalwart and Bison make products which can fit down your well casing beside the pipe and wires, and retrieve water from a deep well manually without having to remove the existing piping and electric submersible pump. This is likely the only other way you will be able to get water out of your deep well, as you will not be able to fit a PVC-type water bucket inside the well casing because the pipe, wire, and pump will all get in the way. You would have to first pull all that out of the well, which is too big of a job to do without special heavy equipment. (You might, however, be able to drop a leather skin down on very long twine and manually draw water without removing the existing pump.)

Hopefully, you purchased land where the water table (also known as the static water level) is closer than 25 feet, to make drilling your own groundwater wells a fairly easy task. Not only is it more difficult to drill deeper, but you cannot manually pump water from greater depths using standard pressure pumping. This is a limitation imposed on earthlings by the atmospheric pressure, so there is no solution other than to use more complicated pumping technology such as submersible pumps or jet pumps, which are both impractical solutions for post-apocalypse homesteaders. Due to the cost factor involved, you probably are not going to want to store more than one or two manual submersible pumps, and you may very well find yourself drilling several groundwater wells.

A groundwater well is a shallow well you drill yourself. In many places, the water table is no more than 12-20 feet down. This is the level where you first strike water, which will really be nothing more than a layer of swampy, muddy soil. Your professionally-drilled well will likely continue for another hundred feet or so to reach good well water. You, on the other hand, will only be continuing another 3-10 feet below the water table to reach a layer of fine water bearing sand.

Water from these types of shallow wells is not considered safe for human consumption straight from the ground. It is normally used only for irrigation purposes, but it can be made safe to drink by purifying it first. There is a decent chance the water will test as safe to drink straight from a shallow well, especially if it is deeper than 12 feet. You should drill at least one groundwater well during pre-SHTF days and have the water tested, just so you are aware of the quality and what types of contaminates are present. Don’t get complacent if the water tests as safe, though. Home-dug groundwater wells are much easier to contaminate than professional deep wells, so habitually purifying any water you decide to consume from one is highly advised.

There are five ways to purify water: boiling, distillation, chemical treatment, filtering, and ultraviolet light. Boiling is the most practical method, but it does not remove radioactive contamination or harmful chemicals. Neither does chemical treatment or ultraviolet light treatment. Distillation produces pure H2o regardless of the type of original contamination, but it also removes all the nutritious minerals from your drinking water, which is undesirable. Effective filtering cleans water of all contaminants except viruses. Therefore, the best solution for purifying groundwater for human consumption is a 2-step process of first boiling it and then filtering it. You may want to store up a supply of water filters for this purpose, as all you need to do is run the boiled water through the filter in some manner. This can be accomplished by inserting a filter cartridge snugly inside a length of PVC pipe, and simply pouring the water through it to a clean collection vessel.

It is also possible to make your own water filter from sand, charcoal, and silver coins. Charcoal left from a wood fire can be used for this. These elements can be layered inside a large plastic funnel that has a fine screen at the bottom to hold everything in place (you might also put a layer of boiled rocks at the bottom to further keep the sand and charcoal particles from exiting). Surround the charcoal layer with sand and bury silver coins in the sand layers. You want a solid layer of charcoal that all water must pass through. Any USA coins dated 1964 or before are made of silver. Silver kills pathogens in water.

Here are three ways you can drill a groundwater well.

1. Pounding in a Well Point: This method uses a sledge hammer, driving cap, metal piping, and a well point. This is all equipment you can buy at a local, rural hardware store (or possibly even from a Home Depot). The well point is a pointed fitting attached to the end of the first length of pipe, and has a screened hollow section in the middle where the water comes in that is usually several feet in length. The driving cap goes on the up-end of the pipe and is what you strike with the sledge hammer. The metal piping is rather thin, only 1.25” in diameter (there are 2” well point pipes but they are much harder to drive). Dig a small starter hole with a spade or post auger, fasten the well point to the first length of 5’ pipe, get up on the tailgate of your truck, and start pounding. It’s a lot of work and can be slow going at times. When the pipe gets down low to the ground, screw on another section and repeat. When you get close to where you think the water table is, start testing for water by filling the pipe with water every few feet, attaching a pitcher pump, and pumping. When you first hit water it will be very muddy. Keep pounding down, maybe another length of pipe or two, until the water you pump is full of fine sand (you will hit coarse sand before you reach fine sand). Then just keep pumping until the water runs clear. At that point, you have a well, so make sure the pitcher pump is securely attached

To use this method, the water table must be within 20 feet. The thin 1.25” piping is too small for any submersible pump to fit down inside of, and, in all practicality, you won’t be able to drive down 2” pipe farther than 20 feet in most soil. If your soil has hard clay before the water table, you will get stuck and not be able to drive the well point through it. If you hit hard rock, it will likely end the project and you will probably lose the well point and pipe that is already in the ground, and will need to start over in another location.

2. Hand Siphoning Mud: This method works for fairly shallow wells in soft soil such as sand or soft, clay-free ground. Lengths of 2” or 3” metal pipe are used for drilling and are usually left in place as well casing after the drilling. Water is constantly added to the drilling hole, which is larger than the drilling pipe because of the sloshing around and thrusting of the drilling pipe. That’s how the drilling is done – you simply keep thrusting the metal pipe and adding water in the hole. The mud you create all shoots out the end of the pipe that is over your head. As you go deeper, you keep screwing on a new length of pipe, keeping the end over your head where all the mud blows out. It’s a bit messy, but it gets the job done in soft ground. An outer well casing pipe, such as a 5” PVC pipe, can be inserted around the outside of the drill pipe and pushed in lower as the hole deepens, with additional sections added as needed. If an outer well casing pipe is not used, you will need to add a thin bentonite clay mix to the drilling fluid (the water you add to the hole), just to thicken the drilling fluid so the well hole does not collapse in on itself.

When you reach the fine water bearing sand level, meaning that is what blows out the drilling pipe instead of mud, insert a well point on a smaller diameter pipe down to the bottom of your hole. This smaller pipe will be your well pipe and will be what your pump attaches to. When the well point is in place, dump 8-10 feet of small gravel down the well hole to secure the well point and give an additional filtering layer. Remove the drilling pipe carefully as you add the gravel. Next, pour in a layer of (thick) bentonite clay as you further remove the drilling pipe, and finish by sealing the last few feet of the hole with cement to the ground level. Your well is now in place; secure the pitcher pump and pump until the water runs clear. If you inserted an outer PVC pipe casing, pour the gravel/bentonite/cement layers into that as you lift out the drilling pipe.

PVC Pipe Washing: This method twists PVC pipe into the ground as a drilling pipe, as water is constantly run in through the inside of the drilling pipe, washing all the cuttings out the hole around the outside of the drilling pipe. For complete video instructions, check out the website drillyourownwell.com. It takes two hoses to supply enough water pressure to go down farther than 20 feet. You can reach depths of 50 feet with this method, and drill your way through hard clay and even small rocks. Just keep twisting. Notice how you don’t even really need a metal tooth on the end of the PVC pipe, although it may be easier going with one. Many wells have been dug with teeth simply sawed into the end of the bottom drilling pipe. It’s slow going and may take several days of hard work to complete, but good groundwater wells are dug through hard soil this way. When you reach the fine water bearing sand, insert a well point on a smaller diameter metal pipe and then pour in gravel around the well point for 8-10 feet as you pull up the drilling pipe. Add layers of (thick) bentonite clay and cement to finish it up. If your water table is deeper than 25 feet, sink one of those emergency submersible hand pumps at the end of the well pipe (instead of a well point) and attach the appropriate well pump fixture above ground.

I advise drilling several groundwater wells in addition to having a professional deep well installed on your land during pre-SHTF days. These water sources will be invaluable resources. The groundwater wells will serve as emergency backup water sources and give you a source of water for irrigation and grey water usage, such as washing clothes. Also, you can maintain your own fish pond on your land using one of the groundwater wells, and use that to farm tilapia and catfish. Wells are easily hidden and will not be noticed by people passing your land. A small pond does not figure to be an attractive feature to poachers, either, and can be somewhat hidden with cattails and watercress plants – both edible, and the fibers from cattails can be used to make cordage from.

For more details on water purification and backyard well drilling, I recommend Nicholas Hyde’s book Harvesting H2o.

Preparing your Ground for Mini-Farming

Any stockpile of stored food will only last a short time. While your initial food supply is critical for your family’s survival, you need to get on a self-sufficiency program as quickly as possible. A major part of this will be mini-farming on your land. Growing your own grains, fruits, and vegetables will keep you and yours alive and healthy. Hunting, fishing, and foraging can certainly play their part, but attempting to subsist for any length of time without your own mini-farm will be problematic. There figures to be considerable competition for wild food sources after a breakdown in society. More importantly, the human body requires the nutrients and vitamins from fruits and vegetables in order to remain healthy, and needs a source of complex carbohydrates to maintain proper balance and digestive function.

You need to plan your mini-farm out in advance, and prepare the soil for food production. In many areas, the ground is good for growing without much preparation. However, the soil will need to be replenished regularly. This is done by composting when you are living off the land. Composting is all the fertilization your ground will likely ever need to keep producing bountiful crops year in and year out. During the preparation process, you should purchase large quantities of compost and work them into the soil in the areas you intend to use for gardening. I would also build one or two compost piles and just leave them there.

Composting is accomplished inside a vertical structure with a lid on top and an opening at the bottom. Organic material goes in at the top (dead plants, fruit and vegetable scraps, never meat scraps) and is mixed with dirt and chicken manure. Earthworms play a major role as well, so leave them in the dirt you add. Pure compost emerges at the bottom. The structure should be about five feet high and can be a simple wood-frame box with one of the bottom boards missing where the finished product comes out. Put a layer of rocks in the ground underneath it for drainage, and you need a cover for the top to protect it from rain. Start new composting boxes with a layer of store-bought compost on the bottom. Keep in mind you may need several of these placed around your land near grain fields and gardens.

Planning your homestead is the important step at this stage of the game. You have the land. You have walked around it and have decided what kind of structure to put up for now. You now need to use some vision and plan the layout of it all. The grain and vegetable gardens must be in full sun, and the vegetable garden should be close to your house. Compost all that soil now. The septic tank should be installed downhill from your house and food gardens. The deep well should be uphill from the septic tank and close to the foundation (or wherever your house will eventually be). If you are going to have your own fish pond, that should be dug in a natural depression away from the house and gardens. Groundwater wells should be dug near the gardens and next to the fish pond.

If the land is rocky, get digging and remove as many rocks as you can. Rocky soil is a hindrance to farming. Likewise, marshy soil is no good. Most of the vegetables you need to grow require well-draining soil. If your land is marshy, plant Eucalyptus trees. They will suck up all the groundwater. This is how Israel turned their marshlands in to highly productive fruit orchards.

Plant a bunch of potatoes in your future garden area. Compost the spot well. Just cut up about twenty pounds of potatoes in pieces and put them in the ground. Each piece will grow into a new potato plant. You only need to do this once. Potatoes are self-seeding. They won’t produce good yields without attention and care, but when the plants rot and die they will just keep coming back and growing more potatoes, in every season except deep winter. If you have potatoes in the ground, you will have a source from which to start potato farming when you arrive, without needing to lug a bunch of potatoes up with you. This is a fairly important step. You can’t really store potatoes because they will rot, so the best place to keep them in the meantime is in the ground.

Plant some wild strawberries off in a far corner of your land that gets sun. They will likely take over that area and develop into a large patch all by themselves. With any luck, they will come back every year and just be something that keeps growing on and around your land. The fruit only produces in spring. This is a good plant to introduce to microenvironment in the area. The fruit is small compared to domestic strawberries, but still delicious and rich in vitamin C. These plants will also attract small game.

Likewise, plant blackberries or blueberries (and/or possibly raspberries) in another corner of your land, in an area you don’t plan on doing much else with. Blueberries if you live in a northern, colder climate and blackberries or raspberries elsewhere. These plants require no maintenance and should come back every season. They are excellent sources of vitamin C and make wonderful preserves.

I also highly recommend planting the following perennial vegetables now, during your preparation days: wild leeks, asparagus, Jerusalem Artichokes, celery, sorrel, and dandelions (yes, dandelions, the leaves are very edible and nutritious). These are all very hardy plants that require little or no care. Plant them in the extra spaces of your land, those areas not slated for grain and vegetable production. All these vegetables can handle partial shade. Till and compost the soil a little to give them a running start. At least some of these species should take up permanent residence and just be there for you on your land, returning every season to provide food, with no effort on your part to maintain them. Many of them will spread and begin growing wild in fields outside your plot as well; especially the leeks, asparagus, and dandelions.

Grapevines should also be planted now. You will need to find an area in the sun away from the vegetable garden and grain field and build support trellises for them. If nothing else, they can grow on your perimeter fence. The only real maintenance for grapevines is pruning them, which can be done semi-annually during your pre-SHTF visits. Concord is a popular variety because it grows almost anywhere and is a delicious table grape. Decent wine can also be made from Concord grapes. You may want to plant several different varieties, however, including a good winemaking species. All winemaking grapes are also decent eating, although some have large seeds. Find out what grows well in your area from a local nursery. Grapes are extremely hardy perennials and your great grandchildren can probably eat from the same vines as you.

Then, there is the orchard. You need food-production trees on your land, away from the main vegetable garden. Figure out where those are going and compost the soil. Then plant the trees. I strongly recommend a combination of nut and fruit trees. You must get the small trees from nurseries. Find out what grows in your climate and soil type. Some nut trees take up to ten years before they start producing, so plant all your trees now. Fortunately, the shady ground underneath your trees can be used to grow potatoes, Brussels sprouts, and green leafy crops (lettuce, spinach, cabbage, kale, chard, etc.) which grow well in the shade.

Cold Weather Fruit and Nut Trees

Black Walnut

Hazelnut

Hickory (also great for the wood)

Chestnut

Korean Nut Pine (also great for the wood)

Apple

Sour Cherry

Plum

Hardy Kiwi

Pawpaw

Honeyberry

Persimmon

Apricot (certain varieties)

Fig

Warm Weather Fruit and Nut Trees

Almond

Pecan

Pistachio

Orange, Tangerine, Nectarine, and Tangelo

Grapefruit and Pummelo

Lemon and Lime

Sweet Cherry (also great for the wood)

Fig

Persimmon

Peach and Apricot

Plum

Fig

Avocado

Olive

Obviously, you cannot grow every one of these trees. You need to choose which ones are most practical in your region, and what types of tree crops your family will benefit from most. Talk to the local nursery about what does best in your specific area. Some of the cold weather fruit trees do not do well in extremely cold climates, and some of the warm weather fruit trees cannot handle extreme desert heat. Also, you will need to plant two trees of different cultivars for many of the fruit tree types in order to get cross-pollination so they produce fruit. Depending on your specific location and acreage, you will probably narrow the list down to three or four fruits and one or two nuts at the most. That’s fine. It’s more important to be efficient than to have a large variety. Do, however, grow at least one nut tree because they are a good healthy protein and can be ground to produce cooking oil.

Sunflowers are another good source of oil and will reproduce by themselves in dryer climates. You may wish to grow a small field of them and see how they do.

Olives are probably the best source of oil (and healthy fat), but these trees cannot survive extremely cold winters. Also, they are quite a bit of work to harvest and make oil from during the short harvesting window. However, they will grow anywhere, even in the worst rocky soil and on slopes where nothing else will grow. If your winters are not severe, you may as well have a couple olive trees growing among the rocks in the poor soil areas.

So, now we have your soil prepped for mini-farming, an orchard planted, potatoes in the ground, wild berries and perennial vegetables growing in different spots, and grapevines started. You are well on your way to a self-sufficient homestead. Even if you do nothing else, this land of yours now produces food all on its own. That’s a pretty good start.

What to Store and How to Store It

Assuming you already have clothes on your back, the three most important elements for immediate survival upon reaching your retreat are potable water, food, and shelter. We already have you set up with shelter and water. We also have some food growing, and, with any luck, maybe some of it will be ripe for picking when you arrive.

It’s time to stock up on survival supplies. Note that we already have quite a storage list going with all the building materials from several chapters ago. That list is about to get bigger. Fortunately, we have covered the large items already. Here is the rest of what we need to stock, in order of importance:

Food: Canned and dried food, mostly. The dried food must be in sealed containers protected from insects and rodents. Go heavy on canned tuna, canned chili, canned fruit and veggies (especially tomatoes), dried legumes, sacks of brown rice, and sacks of raw cereal grains.

Water Filters: These are small and easy to store. Combined with boiling, they can make groundwater safe for drinking. There are even desktop water filter devices that look like coffee dispensers which use reverse osmosis and can make safe water without boiling it first. You can also stock sports water bottles with built-in filters (plus extra filters) that work instantly.

Cups and Canteens: Vessels for drinking water from. It may also be a good idea to have some backup drinking water stored, in case there is a problem with your wells.

Clothing: For all weather types, and lots of it, for all members of your family. You might need an additional trailer or shed just for this, depending upon the number in your party. Don’t forget gloves, hats, and extra shoes and boots.

Medication and First Aid: Stock up on everything you see in a first aid kit. You need lots of bandages, disinfectant, medical tape, small band-aides, splints, and a tremendous supply of whatever over-the-counter medication you depend on including stomach medicine and aspirin. You should also stock whatever preventative medication you take, such as vitamin supplements and herbs. Storing a few gallons of alcohol is also a good idea.

Eyeglasses: Have a bunch of extra cheap pairs made for your prescriptions and store them. Stock up on reading glasses in all different magnifications. Your eyesight may be getting worse in the coming years, trust me.

Personal Hygiene Items: Lots of soap, shampoo, a ton of toothbrushes and toothpaste (baking soda or hydrogen peroxide may be more cost effective), miles of dental floss, and washcloths. Deodorants and powders are a luxury item and can be dispensed with, but baby powder may be stored as a first aid item for rashes. Don’t forget feminine hygiene products, bobby pins, mirrors, and a zillion rolls of toilet paper (it may be more practical to store paper towels or even old newspapers).

Bedding, Linen, Towels: Sleeping bags, bedrolls, pillows, sheets, blankets, inflatable mattresses, towels, shammies, rags.

Cooking Supplies: A camp stove with extra fuel, an initial supply of good dry firewood, portable barbecues, fire starters, a Dutch oven, pots and pans, metal plates, bowls, silverware, knives, can openers, various spices, cooking oil, vinegar, dish soap, food storage items such as zip-lock bags and Tupperware containers, and two large bags each of salt, sugar, and all-purpose flour. Seal the spices, sugar, salt, and flour in plastic containers.

Lighting: Battery powered camping lanterns, spotlights, and flashlights with lots of extra batteries.

Backup Shelter: Store some camping tents in different sizes and picnic tarps that can be set up to provide shade. Plastic tarps have many uses, so stock extra.

Furniture: Camping chairs, hammocks, plastic card tables, and folding lounge chairs. Maybe a picnic table or two.

Firearms: I like rifles. They are much more practical in survival situations than pistols for both hunting and protection. You will want several, in different calibers, and lots of ammunition. Most of your hunting can be done with a .22. For bird and small game hunting, you will need a shotgun and lots of birdshot shells. Bury your firearms and ammunition supply near the edge of your property line and disguise the places they are buried extremely well. Use a good burial chamber, perhaps a large sealed metal or plastic box. Mark the burial spots so you know where they are, under a certain rock or next to a tree or something, but absolutely work the ground back so it looks undisturbed. If you do find squatters when you arrive, you want to still be able to dig up your firearms using a small camping shovel, possibly in the middle of the night.

Rope, Twine, Cordage: In various sizes and lengths. Parachute cord in particular is extremely versatile.

Fishing Equipment: Rods, reels, lots of line in different sizes, lots of hooks, weights, and lures.

Seeds: For growing your own vegetables, herbs, and grain. Whichever ones you decide to grow among the species which do well in your climate. Store grain seeds in whole grain form. Keep all your seeds and grains in sealed, dry containers and store them as cool as possible (consider burying them). Whole grains properly stored have a shelf life of 30+ years. Vegetable and herb seeds have a shelf life of only about three years, however, so you will need to replace your stored supply of them regularly in pre-SHTF days.

Pots: For growing plants in, various sizes.

Manual Grain Mill: For crushing grains and making oatmeal. Many can also be used to grind flour.

Canning Supplies: Jars, lids, a big steel pot, a pressure canner, lots of vinegar, and pickling spices.

Plastic Trash Bags: In various sizes. You probably won’t use them for trash, but they have many uses.

Archery Equipment: Takes practice to use, but good to have.

Backpacks: For foraging and maybe even another bug-out.

Maps: Of the immediate local area, and compasses.

Radio: Maybe you can get news on what’s happening in post-apocalypse society.

Insect Repellent: Including netting.

Sewing and Mending Supplies: Needles, thread, materials of different types, pins, safety pins, crochet supplies.

Office Supplies: Good to have a few pens, paper, and paper clips.

Rat Traps: Can also be used for other small rodents.

Entertainment: Small musical instruments and maybe a collection of classic books for reading. Don’t forget the Bible!

Money: Paper money will probably be worthless by the time you arrive, but you never know. You could, however, bury some gold and silver in the form of both coins and bars, as it figures to have trading value.

Figuring out just how you are going to store all this stuff, in addition to the building materials list I gave you in the chapter on putting up a structure, is a project all by itself. It may seem overwhelming at first, but many of the items are small. Once you get cracking on the list, you will see it isn’t such a daunting task after all, especially as you begin to make rapid progress on it. A lot of the everyday living stuff can be stored inside trailers or in your shack. Perishable materials must be protected from pests and the elements.

Multiple small storage sheds are a better plan than fewer larger sheds, because they won’t be appealing as possible living quarters to squatters, and they are easier to hide with brush. Put good locks on the sheds and seal them from rodents.

Large plastic boxes that are sold as “car-topper” travel storage units make good underground containers for burying items, as they will keep water out. This is what I use for my firearms and the food and clothes I have decided to bury. Smaller burial containers can be made from 1’ diameter PVC pipe with end caps. Sealed plastic containers are best for this purpose, but you can make your own burial chambers from wood lined with plastic and/or sheet metal as long as you tightly wrap whatever you are burying in plastic tarps (this is probably the best method for your building materials). Disguise burial mounds as natural hills and plant brush on them.

The Bug-Out Plan

The primary piece of equipment in your bug-out plan is your bag. It should be big enough to carry basic survival items, but small enough not to hinder your travel. Think like a cross-country backpacker when putting it together. You also need a fairly new (but well broken in) pair of hiking shoes. Remember, the journey to your survival retreat may have to be made by foot and/or bicycle. For that reason, it’s a good idea to stay in reasonably good hiking and biking shape, and whip yourself into even better shape when news stories get you thinking the day may be approaching fast.

A motorcycle or scooter makes a pretty good bug-out vehicle for some people. Plan on it taking you only as far as one tank of gas will get you, however. Depending on the distance you need to travel, you might end up getting their faster on a mountain bike. Take this into consideration.

…Unless, of course, you figure out a way to refuel at strategic points on your intended path. Let’s say you have a Vespa scooter and it gets 75 MPG. They have a 2.3 gallon gas tank, so this puts you at about 150 miles out from your city home. Maybe you can hide a 2-gallon tank of gas somewhere around the 130 mile mark, by burying it in a sealed container out in the desert or some other strategic location that figures to be safe from looting (certainly not in a bus station locker, which would not be legal anyway).

Another interesting possibility is the placement of a secondary vehicle along your strategic path; for example, at a friend’s house. I wouldn’t count on storage unit lockers being secure after a SHTF event. So, a motorcycle could get you to a mountain bike, or maybe even to a cheap 4-wheel drive car with a full tank of gas, that can take you the rest of the way. A Jeep or a Subaru wagon, for example, could be stocked with additional survival items. It will need to be kept with a trusted friend who happens to live along your route somewhere.

You probably already have a bug-out bag. Below is a list of the items you will need to have in it when the bug-out figures to be permanent. There are two specific items on that list I want to address. The first is a small folding camping shovel. Most bug-out bag lists do not include this item, but yours needs to, because you may need to dig up the firearms chest you have buried near your property line.

The other item is a hand gun. I have mixed emotions about these. In certain situations, they figure to get you into more trouble than you would be without one. If you are detained by a criminal mob, for example, it is conceivable that having a gun on you could get you shot. On the other hand, there are many situations in which you might be very glad you are armed. I leave the final decision up to you and your experience with firearms. If you have little to no experience with them, you are better off not carrying one. Consider a small one that can be hidden well for the bug-out trip, and get some experience shooting it a local range. Whatever you decide, obey your local laws!

Bug-out Bag Items

1.        Some water. Not a lot. One canteen full. Can be filled with a sports drink instead, if desired. Never an energy drink!

2.       Water purification tablets. These are chemicals that will treat water coming from questionable sources and make it reasonably safe for consumption. Get them at a camping supply store.

3.       Emergency food bars. Camping supply stores sell them. Get the 3600–calorie bars. These things are great. Some of the better recommended brands are Mayday, Mainstay, and Datrex. If you bring your own food instead, make sure it is compact, light, rich, nutritious, and not thirst-inducing. Heck, just go with the emergency food bars!

4.      First Aid kit. An expensive one, not a cheap one. Get one that includes a small handbook.

5.       Flashlight and extra batteries. Alternatively, there are hand-cranked models which don’t need batteries.

6.       Radio and extra batteries. Alternatively, there are hand-cranked models which don’t need batteries.

7.       Rain gear. A lightweight rain jacket or heavy poncho.

8.      Sun glasses, lip balm, and sun screen. Take an extra pair of sun glasses.

9.       Extra clothes. Both for cold and hot weather. An extra hat in case yours blows off. Extra socks in case yours get wet. Gloves and/or hand warmers.

10.    Shelter. Bring a good backpacking tent such as a “tube tent.”

11.     Fire. A cigarette lighter and a slow-burning candle are good items to have. Extra matches are a no-brainer since they are light and small.

12.    Portable spotlight. Or any kind of lightweight signaling device, in case you need to signal for help. Even a small laser cat-toy may work.

13.    Maps and a compass. Of the area you will be travelling through.

14.   A good survival knife. Can be used in many surprising ways.

15.    Parachute cords. This is the best type of cordage for back country hikers and may save your life in some unexpected way.

16.    Small spool of fishing line, weights, and hooks. You can dig worms for bait almost anywhere and fish with a hand line.

17.    Small folding camping shovel. As already discussed.

18.   Bedroll. Optional. Standard backpacking bedroll. You won’t be getting that much sleep on the road, however.

19.    Hand gun and ammo. Optional. As already discussed.

20.   Small multi-tool. Think Swiss Army Knife.

21.    Small travel toiletry kit. Fully stocked.

22.   Folded up paper towels. For toilet paper and who knows what else. Maybe some sanitary wet wipes as well.

23.   Extra shoes. Optional. If you end up hiking and get blisters, these may be a welcome relief.

We should talk a little more about travelling during your bug-out. There figures to be a lot of traffic on whatever roads are still open if you wait until the SHTF before bugging out. Usually, there is safety in numbers, and this may hold true to some extent during your trip. Being around a lot of people might make for safer travelling. In general, however, crowds are bad for survival situations. There won’t be enough supplies for everyone. They will likely be hungry and not as well prepared as you. Your bag will begin to look mighty appealing to folks. Most of them won’t have any place to go, and if they get a sense that you do have somewhere to go, you could pick up unwanted followers. You probably want to avoid making friends while you are on the road and just keep moving. If you are to fall into company, it would be best to do it with other preppers who are also bugging out. You guys can probably spot each other; the ones wearing professional looking backpacks peddling mountain bikes who are not stopping to chat. That is the crowd you want to team up with.

The probability of traffic jams on the still-open roads may make travelling by car impossible. When all those cars run out of gas, the highways will become blocked entirely. Maybe hauling a 2-wheel vehicle in the back of your truck as far as you can go will be the best course of action, and then abandoning your truck and switching to the 2-wheeler. Be aware that the switching point may end up being a lot closer to your city home than you think. For many of the scenarios you are prepping for, the only likely way you will be able to drive out is if you see the situation developing and bug out ahead of it, perhaps anticipating the worst when you start to see stories of civil unrest in the news. Otherwise, it may be best to make the entire trip on 2-wheel vehicles. You will be surprised how quickly you can travel several hundred miles on a bicycle, even when burdened with a pack.

If you are planning on travelling by bike, have a flat tire repair kit with you. Keep your bicycle tuned up and consider stocking an extra chain in case yours breaks on the trip. Fixing flats will probably not be possible on a motorcycle, but scooters do have spare tire rack accessories available – so if your plan involves a scooter, outfit it with a spare and keep it in good running condition.

Surviving Your First Year Off the Grid

Hey, you got there – great job! The first few weeks after arriving at your property will be the toughest ones. Adapting to a rural lifestyle and living in conditions one step above camping may put you and your family to the test. The stress of knowing everything has changed and the uncertainty of your survival situation may take their toll on you both mentally and emotionally.

The best cure for that kind of stress is to stay busy and understand you are not alone. Rural survivors will be all around you, and you will all have a common goal. The threat of intruders will be the same for all of you. This is why neighbors are prudent to form into small communities who watch each other’s backs and help each other out. That’s how they did it in the western frontier days. You may have to become your own law enforcement agency.

Staying busy and working hard will soon reap tangible rewards, and result in a tremendous sense of personal satisfaction. If you did a good job prepping in advance, you will have all the materials you need to build a fully functional and comfortable rural existence. Seeing progress being made toward that end will keep you motivated. You might even discover the new life you are building is better than the old one you left.

The first order of business is to simply establish a long-term camping situation and make it work. You have plenty of stored food, shelter, clothing, and all the potable water you will ever need. Set yourself up to be able to camp and live in all weather conditions. Check on the condition of your existing food trees and plants and start tending to them to optimize their production. Scout out any good local fishing, hunting, and trapping grounds and learn to procure fresh meat if practical. Investigate the local foraging opportunities, which you should already be familiar with.

The first few weeks after arrival, be content to live mostly off of your stored survival food. Get it all dug up and organized. Develop a cooking and meal routine. Just be campers. The startling reality of society collapsing will still be fresh, and the uncertainty of the condition of the world will likely weigh heavy on your mind. If you and your family can settle into a camping survival routine, live off of stored food while listening to the radio for news, and maybe meet some of your closest neighbors, you will be doing well.

After the first few weeks, you will be settled in and the shock of it all will start to wear off. Now it’s time to start working on becoming a self-sufficient homesteader and living off your land. Break out the seeds and get started on gardening. The time of year will determine which farming projects you start first. Plant what the seasons tell you to plant.

Getting your potato production properly set up should be an early project. This is an important food staple. You have them in the ground, but you are not growing them properly. It’s time to start farming potatoes like a pro, whatever the season. The nice thing about potatoes is they don’t need sun, and can even be grown in buckets full of compost in a dark shed. All you need to grow potatoes are potatoes and well-composted soil. Each potato can be cut into six or eight pieces, and each of those pieces can quickly be grown into a new plant that produces 15 or 20 pounds of whole potatoes. These things are simply awesome.

The way you grow potatoes efficiently is to keep piling up soil around the base of each plant as they grow. Every time the above-ground plant gets about a foot tall, bury it halfway in well-composted soil. So, you keep building a mound around the plant as it grows. In the outdoor garden, you end up with trenches in the ground surrounding your potato mounds. This is one reason why many people fence their potatoes in a kind of sandbox, which is known as raised bed gardening. Another reason for using raised beds is potatoes need well-draining soil and don’t like too much moisture. You can control the drainage in a raised bed by having a layer of rocks buried under the bed. During the wet season, grow them in buckets in your sheds. Put a layer of rocks at the bottom of a 5-gallon bucket and start a potato piece in about 8 inches of compost and just keep burying the plant as it grows. Potatoes grow fast and each plant will produce 12-18 pounds of spuds when you do it right. They can, and should, be grown year-round. Grow them in the ground during the dryer months.

Once you have potatoes growing, the next order of business is building a greenhouse. This project should precede building your own home, assuming you have reasonably good shelter in the meantime. Putting up a greenhouse should be a quick project anyway. Build a frame, a slanted roof, and wrap it up in greenhouse screen. Now you can start growing vegetables inside of it, even small potted fruit trees, assuming it isn’t deep winter in a cold climate. I would at least get some tomato plants going right away. To germinate seeds, just soak them in water for a couple days and then wrap in a wet paper towel. Keep it damp until the seeds have sprouted nice looking roots. Plant the sprouts an inch deep in soil.

So, now we have your greenhouse up, potatoes in high gear, and your main vegetable garden going with whatever is seasonal. You have scouted out the local foraging, hunting, trapping, and fishing opportunities, and have developed a routine for those meat-seeking activities. You are living. Season permitting, it’s now time to build your home. This is where spending all that time watching cabin-building videos and plans on the internet (sigh, remember the internet?) pays off. Break out your safe with the plans inside and review them. If you have become friends with any neighbors, recruit some help. One hand washes the other in small rural communities; you will have ample opportunity to return the favor.

You have the materials, the plans, and hopefully a little help, so take it one day at a time and follow the plan. Get all your lumber, sheet metal, piping, and small appliances out and organized. Dig the first holes and cement those first frame pieces in place. You will be surprised how quickly the frame actually goes up. Just take it step by step and you will have your own home-built cabin in place soon. Post-apocalypse life just took a turn for the better.

After completing your cabin, get the grain field going. You have several choices as far as what kind of grain to grow. Choose one and make a go of it. There is nothing like your own grain field for boosting your confidence in your ability to live self-sufficiently. We will take a look at the different types of grains, their pros and cons, in the next chapter.

Homesteading 101

Homesteading is mostly about mini-farming; knowing what you can grow in your climate and soil and making the best of it. A smart homesteader makes efficient use of the seasons and properly stores their excess produce for the off-seasons. They use whatever they have available to their advantage.

Raising small livestock normally plays a significant role in homesteading. Chickens, rabbits, goats, and possibly ducks are the usual candidates. You won’t have any, of course, because you chose to live a city life and only stocked a parcel of land as a bug-out retreat – but maybe you will be able to trade for some. Any neighbors raising chickens and rabbits figure to produce some excess (especially rabbits), so perhaps your cabin-building skills or pure manual labor availability will be marketable enough for you to obtain your own animals.

Chickens need coops, but don’t like to be cooped up in them all the time. There needs to be a run outside the henhouse, and it needs to be moved around or they get really upset. Take this into consideration when plotting out your land, especially if you notice any of your neighbors keeping chickens. Many homesteaders simply let their hens roam around the land during the day, because they are typically good about coming back to the henhouse to roost at night. Since the only way you figure to get any livestock is by trading for it, learn the ropes of keeping that livestock from the person you trade with. Otherwise, you will have to live off what you can grow, trap, catch, and hunt.

Grain farming is the most important project. There are two types of grains; those with husks and those without. Wheat, barley, millet, and some varieties of oats have husks. Growing a grain that has husks creates twice the amount of work at harvest time. First, the grain seeds must be separated from the plant heads, usually by beating them outside in a breeze and letting the wind blow off the chaff. If the grains have husks and you want to store whole grain, you then need to run them through a grain mill (on a loose setting) to crack the husks, and then do an additional chaff separation, usually by pouring the grain from bucket to bucket in the wind. If you are grinding the grains into flour for storage, the husk chaff can be removed with a sifter.

Wheat and barley are the most widely grown grains. Barley is necessary for making beer, as it is the only grain that contains the necessary enzymes for converting starch into sugar. Wheat is the most versatile grain crop, and there are varieties that do well in both cold and warm climates.

To avoid the problem of husks, any of the following grains can be grown: husk-less oats (highly recommended), buckwheat, quinoa, amaranth, or sorghum. Buckwheat, quinoa, and amaranth are similar plants. They do not look like other grains, but grow on a stalk that resembles a large weed. Millet and Sorghum have the appearance of traditional grains such as wheat and barley.

All-purpose flour for baking and making pasta can only be made from wheat, oats, buckwheat, or sorghum. Flour made from other grains will have to be mixed with all-purpose flour for baking. Therefore, you are going to want to grow at least one of the above four grains. Husk-less oats seem to have the best of both worlds; good all-purpose flour, no husk, and there are varieties that do well in cold or warm climates. Oats are best stored in flaked form, however, which is what oatmeal is. They need to be rolled through a grain mill with smooth rollers, or you can buy a commercial grain roller. Only store oats in whole grain form that you plan on using as seed for the next crop (and store them in a cool, dry place). An additional advantage to oatmeal is it can be used as a soap alternative for bathing.

Sorghum, on the other hand, has certain advantages as well. There is a variety known as molasses sorghum that is of particular interest to homesteaders, because the stalks produce molasses when they are boiled. So, you get a husk-less all-purpose flour grain from the top, and sugar from the stalks. You can’t beat that. However, molasses sorghum only grows in hot climates during the summer. Not to worry if that’s not where you live; you can also grow sugar beets to make molasses from, which will grow almost anywhere during the spring and summer months.

Potatoes, tomatoes, and grains are important staples and should be addressed first. You have fruit trees already, so prune them and compost the soil around them regularly. Beyond that, grow vegetables you enjoy eating. If the ground doesn’t freeze where you live, you can grow winter crops of broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and winter squash. Even if the ground does freeze, you can still grow lettuce, spinach, and kale. It’s important for your nutritional needs to have green vegetables in the diet, which is why green beans, summer squash, cucumbers, and bell peppers are the most popular spring and summer backyard garden vegetables. What you don’t eat can be pickled or pressure-canned and preserved for the off-season.

Important: Other than tomatoes, all vegetables must be pressure-canned or pickled to be safely persevered. The old-fashioned way of simple hot water bath canning is okay for fruit and tomatoes, as they have enough acid to ward off harmful bacterial growth. Everything else must be pressure-canned or pickled. If pickled, the brine must be at least 50% vinegar to be safe.

That means you are going to need vinegar, as your initial stored supply won’t last long once you start pickling. Vinegar is simply spoiled wine. Make wine from your grapes or apples (apple wine is just apple cider that is allowed to fully ferment). These libations can both be made simply from juicing apples and/or wine and then waiting for them to ferment. Both apples and grapes contain natural yeast; it is nearly impossible not to get wine from grape juice or apple juice that is left sitting out at room temperature for a couple months. To turn wine into vinegar, put some of it in a warm place, such as next to a fireplace or wood stove, and in a month or so you should have it.

Some vegetables, especially herbs, can be grown indoors. You usually need a very sunny, south-facing window for this. Indoor vegetables will not pollinate to produce more seeds, so only grow some of them indoors. Outdoor vegetables pollinate because of bees. Consequently, you will need to invite bees into your greenhouse from time to time. A good way to do this is have some flowers in there and leave the greenhouse door open on sunny days. Or, you can intentionally leave holes in your greenhouse screen for them to get in and out of. Greenhouses will stay warmer than the unprotected outdoors, and for that reason, can be used to grow food that may otherwise not do well due to cold weather.

An important part of homesteading is seed saving. This is a little trickier than it sounds. Most vegetables only “go to seed” in the late season, after the vegetables themselves begin to rot in the ground. The seeds of many vegetables will not be fully developed until the plant starts to turn brown and die. This means leaving some of your crop un-harvested so it will die and go to seed. The seeds can then be harvested from the brown, drying seed pods. They need to be rinsed, dried, and stored in a cool, dark, dry place for next season. In the case of eggplant and squash, just let some of the late season vegetables rot on the vine and harvest the seeds from those.

Tomatoes and cucumbers will produce some usable seeds within every vegetable grown, but many will be dead. The way to harvest seeds from these plants is to let a few of the (picked) vegetables begin to rot, then squeeze out the inner pulp, including the seeds, into a small container such as a cup. Add a little water, and then let it ferment/rot for a week until a layer of mold has grown on top. Then scrape off the mold, fill the cup all the way up with water, stir well, and the good seeds will sink to the bottom. The bad ones will float and you can discard them with the disgusting gunk by pouring it all out except the good seeds on the bottom. Rinse those well, allow to dry for a few days, and store in a cool, dry place for the next crop.

Some vegetables and herbs will not reproduce seeds until they have been in the ground two complete seasons. Onions, carrots, beets, and parsley fall into this category. They are known as biennial plants. That means you have to leave some of them planted until next year in order to get more seeds. They will produce flowers and seed pods late in the second season; harvest the seeds when the above ground plant begins to turn brown and die (as is the procedure with normal vegetables).

It is important to let some green beans and peppers die on the plant and dry up. Those are the ones you can get usable seeds from for replanting the next crop. Seeds taken from good, ripe eating vegetables will usually not be developed enough to sprout.

I should now tell you how to make your own soap – but I’m not going to, because the procedure can be dangerous. You can make it in the wild, using animal fat and leftover ashes from a fire, but that’s as much as I am going to say. Search on the internet for the instructions if you simply must know, but be very, very careful when making and handling lye! What I am going to recommend instead is the use of natural soap alternatives. These include oil (from olives, nuts, and sunflowers) or fruit juices mixed with water and flower petals, especially citrus or tomato juice. You probably already know to take a tomato or lemon juice bath if you get sprayed by a skunk. Ancient peoples used oil for personal hygiene. A soap-like substance can be made from combining yucca roots or soap-lily leaves with water if you have these plants growing wild in your area. Then there’s oatmeal, as has already mentioned. Just put some dry oatmeal in sackcloth, get it wet, and use it like soap. It will emit a milky liquid and cleanse your skin. Whatever you use for soap can also be used for shampoo, laundry soap, and kitchen cleaning.

Replacing your clothes is a major concern for post-SHTF homesteading. Eventually, it will need to be done. Hopefully, some form of organized society will reform and you will be able to trade for clothing. It is an impractical notion to think you can grow cotton or keep silkworms and then spin it into thread and weave fabric. However, you might be able to do that with wool. No, you don’t need sheep for that. Rabbits are plentiful in most rural areas, and provide excellent wool pelts. You will be surprised how many rabbit pelts you can stock up once you start hunting and trapping these critters. They are good eating, too – but make sure you cook them well, as there are significant health dangers in eating undercooked rabbit.

Rabbits are easy to trap. The most common method is by setting a snare. This is nothing more than a lasso, or noose, spread across a game trail, hung open on the natural brush and tied to a tree or bush limb. The noose catches on the rabbit as they hop through and the rabbit’s own panicky reaction ends up choking it to death rather quickly – so it is a humane killing. For best results, use wire to make the nooses. You can also trap rabbits with deadfall traps or cage traps that are baited with vegetables.

Get good with a bow (or even a slingshot) and you can hunt small game such as rabbit, squirrel, and game birds like grouse and partridge, without using up your supply of firearm ammunition.

When you kill a deer, there will be a tremendous amount of meat. More than your family can probably eat before it begins to spoil. If you have a solar-powered freezer at your disposal, great. If not, share the deer meat with your neighbors–but save the skin! You can make decent clothing from deerskin, especially pants and coats.

Forest depletion could be an issue in your area. Plant new trees whenever and wherever you can. Otherwise, one day all the trees will be gone and that means no more firewood or building material, and significantly less natural game. All trees produce seeds in some manner or another. Learn to harvest the seeds from the trees in your region and sprout them for replanting. This is a project you and your neighbors should all be gravely concerned about in post-SHTF society.

Building a Worthwhile Future

The world will probably change dramatically when the time comes for you to bug out of the city and start living the rural homesteading life. Perhaps millions of people will die. There might be a prolonged period of civil unrest. Martial law may be instituted in the cities, with most people living on government hand-outs. Bank accounts may become worthless overnight. Any government which remains (or is resurrected) figures to have their hands full just dealing with the unprepared masses of citizens who suddenly find themselves in dire straits. It stands to reason that self-sufficient country folk will be left alone by any such government in that kind of situation.

Heck, maybe the small homesteaders will end up saving the remainder of society. After all, you are the guys with the food. Whatever government exists in post-SHTF times may come knocking on your doors willing to pay a handsome price for food supplies. This is another good reason for looking for larger plots of land, if you can swing it. Small-time farmers could find themselves becoming the moguls of tomorrow.

It makes you stop and think about what’s really important, doesn’t it? If money in the bank can suddenly become worthless, what does have worth? Land. Knowledge. Family. The ability to feed, clothe, and house your family. Staying healthy. Being safe from the weather, and knowing where your next meal is coming from. These things have true value, because they are basic human necessities, which have come to be taken for granted in modern society where our biggest concern is missing a text message when our smart phone runs out of juice.

If you are the reclusive type, that is fine – but it is important to realize you cannot stay that way forever, especially if you have a family. Humans are naturally social. We need some interaction with each other. Your children especially need socializing. Eventually, they will need to go out into the world and meet a spouse. In the early post-SHTF days, security and protection will be high priorities. At some point, however, perhaps a few years down the road, that will subside. People will be gathering and talking and socializing. Don’t miss out on that, and don’t cheat your family out of it. You simply cannot stay cooped up on your own plot of land with a deck of cards for the rest of your life.

Societies are built out of both necessity and the natural urge for socialization. God help you if you have a teenage daughter and your only close neighbor happens to have one teenage boy. You can bet your bottom jar of tomato seeds there will be a love affair developing there. Don’t blame them; you would do the same thing. Instead of fighting it, accept the situation and provide guidance. Perhaps we, as a post-SHTF society, can rediscover our lost morals.

Think of it as starting over, like one of those Twilight Zone episodes after a nuclear war destroys most of the world. Surviving as a loner and shutting everything else out isn’t any more satisfying than being a castaway on a desert island. Meet the neighbors. Form mutually strategic partnerships and projects.

If you have children, their continuing education is important. In that case, you might want to store a few college-level textbooks on general education topics on your land. Heck, you might even get around to reading them yourself. You and your neighbors should eventually (after things cool down) get together and figure out some kind of local schooling system. Put up a barn in a central location and appoint volunteer teachers from whoever is willing and most qualified.

These types of things are the beginnings of new society. You and your neighbors will find yourselves gathering for social occasions and discussing local farming, hunting, and fishing needs. Soon, you will come to agree on certain procedures and even establish rules. Before you know it, you will have local law enforcement. This stuff develops naturally out of necessity. Again, it is because we are social by nature and just cannot stay cooped up to ourselves. So, there needs to be established policies in the community.

That’s how it all starts. Cooperation leads to innovation and then technological advances ensue. Trading standards will be established. As you see it begin to advance, think about what went wrong the last time around. Try to avoid rebuilding a culture that will once again become over-governed, overly in debt, and heading for implosion. Leave that for your great, great grandchildren. For alas:

We are who we are, history repeats itself, and human nature seems to dictate that the collapsing of our societies is inevitable.

A Word from the Author

I’m probably a lot like you. I look around at the world we are living in and shake my head. The situation is unsustainable. But hey – we had a good run, right? Strong societies typically last about 200 years, and that’s right where we are. Maybe we will keep it together a while longer.

Even if the nukes don’t fly and the viruses don’t mutate, I cannot see our great grandchildren sitting complacently while we dump an unfathomable mountain of debt on their shoulders. At some point, the new generation will say nuts to that and refuse to accept being born into bondage to pay the bills for all the fun their recent ancestors had. This is exactly how revolutions start.

Going off the grid and getting out of the system is not just for crazy people any more. It’s also for very sane people. When you see an unsustainable situation and remain a willing part of it, hoping it holds together a little longer, what is it you are really hoping for? Don’t psychologists call this living in denial? The type of economic collapse that looms on the horizon will make your bank accounts worthless. Hoarding gold is a viable option, but how much of it can you really store in your city home and hope to use for money one day? Where will the food and clothing come from that you hope to trade it for?

Rural land and homesteading knowledge may be the only valuable things in the near future. This is what prepping is all about. Nobody says you have to wait until the SHTF to bug out. You can start building everything now and get out of Dodge well in advance. That way, you can get all set up with chickens and goats as well. When you have goats, you have milk – and when you have milk, you have all the dairy products you will ever need.

Knowing what you know, and having the ability to prepare now, you have no excuse when the day comes upon you like a thief in the night. The modern-day city life becomes less fulfilling once you see how you can be living an off-grid, self-sustained life on your own little mini-farm. Instead of saving money in a soon-to-be worthless bank account, you can stock up on the things that really count. You can be making new friends with like-minded neighbors. You can be building a real future.

If you are like me, this knowledge will eat away at you until you actually start to do something about it. Listen to your nagging inner self. Shift your focus. Become passionate about establishing the only form of security left to us.

I lift my glass of homemade wine and wish you the best of fortune. Maybe I will see you out in the country someday. Cheers.

Ken Benton

Table of Contents

Introduction

Survival Plan Outline

Locating Suitable Land

Putting Up a Practical Structure

Drilling a Groundwater Well

Preparing your Ground for Mini-Farming

What to Store and How to Store It

The Bug-Out Plan

Surviving Your First Year Off the Grid

Homesteading 101

Building a Worthwhile Future

A Word from the Author