# Lifestyles & Discussion > Freedom Living >  Looking to get started with all of this

## DeadtoSin

I have a bad feeling about the future, and I am not sure how bad things are going to get in our country. I would like to start preparing ahead of time, because at the very least food prices will get quite expensive. I am a poor college student, but I will have some disposable income since I am living with my parents. I would like some help with the essentials, and I was hoping I could get some help.

I live in a fairly rural area, but I don't have a LOT of land. (I do have a friend who lives out of town who owns a lot of land in this area, but I'm not sure if it came down to a crisis if he would allow me to use any of it.)

I have _The Encyclopedia of Country Living: An Old Fashioned Recipe Book_ and _Crisis Preparedness Handbook: A Complete Guide to Home Storage and Physical Survival_ shipping to me. Are there any books you guys consider necessary for me?

I am mostly concerned with food and water storage, and if you have any advice in this area I would appreciate it. If there are any other things you consider important for a SHTF scenario in my situation please let me know. Basically what it all boils down to, is I am overwhelmed with all the information and how I should get started and I am looking for help with a starting point.

Thanks.

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## pacelli

How much of a friend is this friend of yours?  You might consider asking him if you could work with him on creating a large garden. Don't mention anything about a SHTF scenario, but if he brings it up definitely encourage him, "yep we could definitely work together on it, and make it much bigger than 1 person could do".  Tell him you'd be willing to put in the work to set it up, buy and plant the seeds, in exchange for sharing the bounty.

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## pacelli

As far as water storage, start collecting 55-gallon water containers now. You'll want to get either a pump for the barrels or have a tap installed on the bottom of each of the barrels so you can hook up a hose to them.  Keep your eyes peeled on craigslist, nurseries and other organic places have lots of these things, and if you play your cards right, you can get them very cheap.  The barrels are usually listed as Rain Barrels, and can be found in CL's Farm + Garden section.  Also search their Free listings.  I recently missed a 10-barrel giveaway by a local nursery   That was 10 free 55-gallon food grade barrels.

Also work on getting a water filtration system.  Specifically, go with one that you can use every day (pour in top, gets filtered & comes out clean from bottom).  I find a berkey water filter to be great personally, but I know that there are other brands like MSR and Katadyn that are just as good.  A cheaper but less safe alternative is to boil all stream / river / rain water and strain it.  

Food-- every time you go to the food store, get at least 1 can of food that appeals to you. Just make sure you look through all the cans and get the 1 that has the farthest away expiration date (which is a marketing thing anyways).  On the can, write the month and year you bought it, and stock it somewhere in which you won't immediately use it.  Anytime you eat one of your current canned goods, buy 2 next time and put one of them in your stock shelf.

Also, get some books on wild edible plants.  It is better to have the knowledge that you can walk into the woods and come out with dinner, without firing a shot.

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## DeadtoSin

He is a good friend of my father and I know he would let me go out there tommorow and start tilling if I felt inclined. My concern is for whether or not he would let me do anything in a SHTF scenario.

I do have some room in my backyard to grow (just not a whole lot), and I would more like to focus on my yard and supplementing my food stores with vegetables from that. I prefer not to rely on anyone but my family if things do get bad.

So would that Crisis book I've ordered get me started on preparing food/water stores? I was thinking of buying _Gardening when it Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times_ to get me started on the gardening thing. It seems to stress growing things even through scarce times, and I thought that would be important.


*Edit* Thanks for the nice post Pacelli. I appreciate it.

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## pacelli

How much of your land gets around 6-8 hours a day of full, unfiltered sunlight?  Maybe there is grass there now?  I know a lot of people around here are ripping up their lawns and putting in gardens instead, and they have 1/4 acre lots.

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## pacelli

> He is a good friend of my father and I know he would let me go out there tommorow and start tilling if I felt inclined. My concern is for whether or not he would let me do anything in a SHTF scenario.
> 
> I do have some room in my backyard to grow (just not a whole lot), and I would more like to focus on my yard and supplementing my food stores with vegetables from that. I prefer not to rely on anyone but my family if things do get bad.
> 
> So would that Crisis book I've ordered get me started on preparing food/water stores? I was thinking of buying _Gardening when it Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times_ to get me started on the gardening thing. It seems to stress growing things even through scarce times, and I thought that would be important.
> 
> 
> *Edit* Thanks for the nice post Pacelli. I appreciate it.


I'm glad to help, we're all in this together.  I haven't reviewed either of those books.  One that I would recommend specifically for gardening (and it has a low budget theme) is The Four Season Harvest by Eliot Coleman.  I own it, and it has been a very valuable resource for me in terms of planning. He goes through everything, from seeds to seedlings to planting and harvesting; all with the different seasons of the year in mind. He even goes a bit into root cellars and long term crop storage principles.  You'd be amazed what you could do with just a little bit of land that gets sun and has adequate soil.

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## DeadtoSin

> How much of your land gets around 6-8 hours a day of full, unfiltered sunlight?  Maybe there is grass there now?  I know a lot of people around here are ripping up their lawns and putting in gardens instead, and they have 1/4 acre lots.


We have a decent amount of lawn that gives full sunlight, and my mom is a big gardener. I will have an advantage in that area, but I was looking for some tips and suggestions anyway. I will probably be buying Four Season Harvest then. Thanks.

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## Dr.3D

If you put down some black plastic or tarps for a long period of time, everything under them will die out and leave you a nice plot to grow things.  I've done that and had a nice garden I didn't even have to till it up to use it.

Just a thought.

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## pacelli

> We have a decent amount of lawn that gives full sunlight, and my mom is a big gardener. I will have an advantage in that area, but I was looking for some tips and suggestions anyway. I will probably be buying Four Season Harvest then. Thanks.


Awesome!  Make sure when you start looking into buying seeds, you buy only the non-hybrid / open-pollinated varieties (also called Heirloom seeds). This way in a really worst case scenario, you can save your own seeds from your current harvest to use for next year.  An excellent book that is the 'bible' of seed saving is: 

Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners (Suzanne Ashworth.

This is a very technical book but is full of specific information for each variety of vegetable you wish to grow.

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## pacelli

> If you put down some black plastic or tarps for a long period of time, everything under them will die out and leave you a nice plot to grow things.  I've done that and had a nice garden I didn't even have to till it up to use it.
> 
> Just a thought.


Absolutely.  Those black plastic tarps can also double as mulch once all of the weeds are dead.  Tomatoes and bell peppers seem to give higher yields when using red plastic mulch.  

I would also add to avoid using the quick and dirty solutions like Round-up to kill weeds.  Round-up is made by Monsanto, so I'd have reservations about using any of their products.

Build a compost pile and get it going now, this way you can use it when you are ready to start your garden.

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## DeadtoSin

Ah a compost pile, that's a good idea. I'll get started on that tommorow.

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## pacelli

> Ah a compost pile, that's a good idea. I'll get started on that tommorow.


Here's a good online resource that has general guidelines for composting:

http://www.compostguide.com/

You don't have to buy any of their materials to have a great compost pile.  Start saving the non-color parts of newspapers and just shred them with your hands as you add greens, layer the newspaper on top in the ratio suggested at the site.

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## Mahkato

The Army Survival Manual is nice.

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## DeadtoSin

Thanks for all the suggestions guys I feel a lot better now.

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## DeadtoSin

My mother and I are both pretty handy with tools, I was wondering if you guys thought it would be easy enough to make my own rain barrels. The parts would be a 55 gallon food grade barrel, garden hose valve, garden hose washer, and a MHT to FPT 3/4" plastic adapter. _MHT = Male Hose Thread. FPT = Female Pipe Thread._ With this there will be a hose with a valve connected to the bottom of the barrel. I can find all of that stuff at a hardware store except for possibly the 55 gallon barrel.

Where would I find a barrel like that? I was thinking maybe a feed store or something, but I couldn't really find anything when I googled it.

*Edit*

Actually I think I might have found a local store that sells food grade barrels for 10 dollars. The other stuff will probably be around 10-15 bucks per barrel as well so that is pretty affordable.

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## JoshLowry

> I can find all of that stuff at a hardware store except for possibly the 55 gallon barrel.
> 
> Where would I find a barrel like that? I was thinking maybe a feed store or something, but I couldn't really find anything when I googled it.





> As far as water storage, start collecting 55-gallon water containers now.   Keep your eyes peeled on craigslist, nurseries and other organic places have lots of these things, and if you play your cards right, you can get them very cheap.  The barrels are usually listed as Rain Barrels, and can be found in CL's Farm + Garden section.  Also search their Free listings.  I recently missed a 10-barrel giveaway by a local nursery   That was 10 free 55-gallon food grade barrels.


...

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## DeadtoSin

> ...


I didn't find any from Craigslist that were under 70 dollars, and I don't have a CL's around here. I was hoping that there would be a more nationwide hardware/feed store that sold them.

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## GunnyFreedom

look for a store called "Tractor Supply," they have water storage even better and cheaper (per x volume) than 55 gal drums.

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## pacelli

> I didn't find any from Craigslist that were under 70 dollars, and I don't have a CL's around here. I was hoping that there would be a more nationwide hardware/feed store that sold them.


Might be able to find something here, not sure if prices are in your range or not, but I've used this company and they are legit: 

http://www.bayteccontainers.com/

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## JoshLowry

> I didn't find any from Craigslist that were under 70 dollars, and I don't have a CL's around here. I was hoping that there would be a more nationwide hardware/feed store that sold them.


You should look every few days.  Sometimes they have them as cheap as $15.

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