New to homesteading, self sufficiency and skill building.

I am new to homesteading and self sufficiency.  I got into it through The Survival Podcast, which is an internet based radio show. Jack Spirko is the host, he talks about "living a better life, if times get tough, or even if they don't."  As I listened to him I realized that if I lost my systems of support (i.e. the grocery store, the gas station, my job, the power company, or any of their systems of support.) I would not be able to take care of myself let alone my family.  That scared me.

As I started my journey into self sufficiency, I realized it was going to be a long one.  I started plugging holes right away like backup emergency power.  I bought a Group 29 deep cycle battery and used a microprocessor controlled battery charger to charge and maintain it.  That allows me to keep cell phones and rechargeable AA batteries charged for emergency light and emergency communication.  I started filling soda bottles for backup water, and also made my blackout kit.

I like water features and I could never justifying spending money to put a pond in.  I then saw a TV show where a prepper was using a pool as a tilapia pond.  I figured that is useful, not just water that looks nice.  Jack,  talked about how to build a pond naturally using bentonite.  I walked out into my backyard marked the shape of the pond that I wanted to build and started digging.   I checked around and could not find bentonite.  I talked to some landscapers and they suggested sand clay.  I got about 4 cubic yards of it and layed about 4 inches thick.

   After tamping around the pond, I attempted to fill it.  It took a long time. I think it was a full day and a half.  At that point I knew something was wrong.  I turned off the water and it took a half a day to drain.  I was bummed.  While tamping I got tennis elbow from the repettitive movement.  My friends told me I should have brought in heavy equipment to do this but i wanted to do it myself.  I now know I can dig a pond by myself but tamping the clay is not something I should do by hand.


I also ordered a backyard orchard from Raintree Nursery.  I got 2 apple, 2 pear, one nectarine and  2 cherry trees.  I think I may have planted then too close together but they have only been in the ground a year.  Ill call the nursery and ask how close can i plant them. I wanted to create a living edible fence.  I figure the bottom of the canopy will be around 5 feet and I planted some blueberries rasberries blackberries to fill in from the ground to the bottom of the canopy.  Along my fence I planted grape vines.  Three types, red seedless white seedless and concord.

My annual crops didn't do to well.  We had a lot of rain this spring and I was told that my corn tassled to early as seen in the first photo on this post.  I planted tomatoes and cucumbers to late and we got 1 tomato and 1 cucumber.  The only thing I am concerned about is teaching my son that food does not grow in grocery stores.  He loved helping me with digging the pond, tamping, planting and harvesting.

I got a good start.  I think a part of homesteading and self sufficiency is also knowing your limits.  I'm still learning mine.  Hopefully I can learn quickly.  Because my elbow is killing me.

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Starting my food forest.

This week I was able to start my food forest.  I bought a concod, white seedless, and red seedless grape vine.  I also bought two blueberry bushes, and three different types of rasberry bushes.

It was hard finding time to plant them but I did it.  The grape vines I planted along my fence.  Each section of fence is 6 feet and I planted each one in the middle of a section.  the bushes I  planted in a row 5 feet from the fence.  For all of the beds I dug a trench 1 foot deep and a foot and a half wide. I then filled the trench with wood.  Some was dry some was green.  Jack from the survival podcast says that the wood wil rot and become sponge like and will trap moisture lowering the need for irrigation.   He also says that for the first year the wod will soak up nitrogen from the soil.  I'm hoping that by adding green vegitation it will not take the nitrogen from the soil or if it does the greens wil replace it as hey rot.  We'll see what happens.