Wednesday, April 16, 2008

The Plan

Many people feel that something enormous in impact is about to occur. With me it is a feeling that I must flee from the populated areas to a remote location somewhere, in hiding as it were. At times this feeling becomes almost overpowering, and I want to load up and go. Since I do not have my retreat property yet, I will only be able to plan for the day I do get it.

My plan is to buy 5 – 20 acres in a semi-remote area and place a travel trailer there. Yes, this is being done by others, and is overall a good plan. Once purchased, the land will be placed into a Trust to protect it financially. By not building permanent structures, I hope to keep the property taxes down.

If I do drill a well, it will not be recorded with the county. I plan to harvest rainwater for much of my needs. I will use a greywater/blackwater system to reuse as much of my water as possible. A greenhouse or 2 will help with my vegetable gardening needs, as I plan to container garden to a large extent as well as use the square foot gardening and companion planting methods.

I plan on a small orchard of dwarf fruit trees, and a vineyard of various types of grapes. I will plant nut trees such as Filbert, Pecan, Almond, Walnut, Oak and Chestnut; berry bushes such as Blueberry, Raspberry, Currants and Goose Berries. As many varieties as possible. I will plant a woodlot on one corner for a firewood supply, using fast growing poplars. I will also include Alder and Sugar Maple.

By not building a house, I will avoid the mortgage trap, leaving any income free for supplies and such. This will allow me to pay cash for items and not leave a paper trail. For storage I will use earth sheltered CONEX containers (re-inforced with channel iron).

I will raise rabbits and chickens, as well as geese, turkeys and ducks. If I feel adventurous enough, I will try sheep, goats and perhaps a beef or two. I will raise fish in a small pond or will try it in a barrel as I have read about. I will raise earthworms (vermiculture) to make compost from my kitchen and yard wastes, and to supplement either my chicken's or fish’s food.

My energy consumption will be reduced to what I can provide with Solar, Wind, and Generator. I will have a root cellar or if near a stream, a spring house. My refrigeration will be either springhouse, 12volt or propane. My heat will be either hydronic/solar or wood. I will use evaporative cooling to keep the living quarters cool in the summer.

These are all great aspirations, to be limited only by time, money, energy and my ambition. The goal is to be as self sufficient as possible for my food supply.

Next: The Starting Point.

11 comments:

  1. It's a sound plan.
    Flesh it out as you go and you'll do well. Welcome to blaogland, May your post's be many and fruitful. Dragon

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  2. Thank's for the encouragement. I will be going into more detail on these ideas as I implement them. Some of the plan can be implemented now, like starting to raise some rabbits and the container gardening.

    Both of these can be moved to a new location once I find my property. I live in a town with an ordinance against raising farm animals in it so the chickens must wait.

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  3. irishdutchuncle here...
    i like your advise that i've read so far, in other places, look foreward to lurking here too. maybe a couple of grape vines to round out your plantings? when you feel that call from inside, listen to it. be prepared to just bolt. have the wife and kids accustomed to "spontaniety"(hope i spelled that one right) from you. act like it is just a day trip to the mountains for fun.

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  4. irishdutchuncle,
    Thanks for the compliments and I am glad you have stopped by to visit my blog.
    I hope to post daily, but as I can see from other sites, it can become a challenge.
    So I will settle for frequently if not daily.

    I want to add Concord grapes as well as some other eating varieties as I do not want to do the wine thing. I suppose if that was the only way to preserve the grapes I would consider it.
    Since I have no where to go currently, I have to quieten that “inner call” until I have the land issue taken care of. I have been divorced for 7 years with the custody of my two teenage boys. The oldest (17 ½) seems more interested in having a good time than working on any skills. My youngest (16) is following in my mindset when it comes to preparing.

    I just hope the oldest turns around before the crash, as he might become a liability if he doesn’t.

    Again, welcome, and feel free to post anytime.

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  5. irishdutchuncle again...
    i re-read the original post, and see to my embarassment that you did mention vinyard and grapes, sorry. it is a very good plan.

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  6. That's quite alright. I miss things too, like grammar and whole words unless I re-read several times what I have written.

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  7. Suggestion: do not buy the dwarf fruit trees. They may be easier to harvest and can be placed closer together, that is true. However... Often, what is sold as a 'dwarf' tree is a 'normal' tree grafted onto a 'dwarf' root. This stunts the growth, but also makes it very susceptible to high winds. The real genetic dwarf fruit tree can vary significantly in size, and productivity. Commercial fruit tree varieties are optimized for production, so are generally better to go with. Also note that different species have different lifespans: a peach tree rarely lives longer than 20 years, while an apple can live longer than 100 years. Plums and apricots are commonly grafted to peach roots so that they bear sooner (3 years to get a crop versus 5-7), but will also die sooner, so you may want to pay attention to the root used. Your climate and soil are key to tree choice - my mother, despite her green thumb, has yet to successfully get apples in Phoenix, but her citrus are incredible.

    tweell(at)excite(dot)com

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  8. Thanks for the heads up! Your points will certainly be considered when I make my choices. I wish I could grow citrus, but living in th PNW pretty much rules that out.

    I appreciate you stopping by and commenting.

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  9. Have you thought about growing native foods (aka Bush foods)?

    A lot of people would not know or would have to be very desperate to eat bush foods. You could grow them in plain sight ;-)

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  10. By Bush foods I am assuming you mean wild plants? Yes, I am planning that.

    I have a future post in mind, similar to one posted on SurvivalBlog some weeks back, but geared to my perpsective and geographical location.

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  11. Excellent plan Scout, almost an exact mirror of mine. I too face the same problems as you: mortgage, stupid city codes, etc... A larger hurdle is that my current property is coastal, and therefor hurricane prone. Not good. I'm researching a better location for our retreat.

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