I’m looking for a wide variety of topics. Feel free to call me crazy :)! But I would love any/all info regarding the following:

  1. Self-sufficient farming and gardening techniques
  2. Solar power installation and maintenance
  3. Water collection and filtration methods
  4. Off-grid food preservation options (canning, fermenting, dehydration)
  5. Constructing and maintaining off-grid shelters (tiny homes, yurts, earthships)
  6. Sustainable waste management practices
  7. Home remedies and natural medicine for common ailments
  8. Wild foraging and hunting skills
  9. Basic wilderness survival skills (fire building, shelter construction, navigation)
  10. Off-grid communication methods (shortwave radios, Morse code)
  11. DIY appliances and tools for off-grid living
  12. Sustainable living practices (permaculture, composting, recycling)
  13. Essential off-grid kitchen equipment and cooking techniques
  14. Emergency preparedness and disaster management
  15. Financial planning and budgeting for off-grid living.

Please feel free to include any topics along those lines. I’m sure if you’ve read to this point you get where I’m going.

  • Otter@lemmy.caEnglish
    19·
    10 months ago

    There should probably be a community for this, I’d be interested in things like disaster prep (earthquake kits, supplies etc.)

    In terms of resources, this is something I keep installed on my phone:

    In the same theme, I have these other reference apps:

    I haven’t explored those apps much, but rather left them installed for if I ever need the information. I also have ‘Medical Wikipedia’, ‘Sky Map’, ‘PlantNet’, and ‘Merlin’, but I don’t think I’d find much use with those in a survival situation. I would need to learn other skills first.

    Not to hijack your post, but if anyone knows of other cool offline reference apps, that would be useful in a survival situation, it would be cool to know!

  • gears@sh.itjust.works
    12·
    10 months ago

    Download Wikipedia and put it on a USB drive. Then buy a portable solar panel so you can charge some electronic device to view the wiki. There’s a lot of farming, gathering, hunting, etc knowledge on Wikipedia.

    The text only download is way smaller than the media download, but the media may be worth it for identifying plants.

  • Gunpachi@lemmings.world
    7·
    10 months ago

    There is an android app which may help.

    Also, having some information in your head will definitely help. I’m not an expert but I try to brush up on random relevant topics when I get some time.

  • centof@lemm.eeEnglish
    6·
    10 months ago

    Maybe there is somewhere, but I have yet to find it. This advice is geared towards relying on the economy minimally instead of going fully self sufficient. Our economy encourages hyper-specialization so having one person skilled at many things is discouraged.

    1. I would recommend Will Prowse’s content on youtube as a reference for solar systems.
    2. As far as water filtration, I would look into filters posted here. YMMV sourced via a reddit survivor thread
    3. I would recommend Modern self reliance on youtube. of particular interest may be tiny cube house
    4. Look into human composting humanurehandbook.com
    5. Not really up to date on this. I suspect most of them are BS. I would just go with the generics of common medicine for the most part.
    6. No idea. I prefer to use the centuries old agriculture system that is the foundation of human society.
    7. The internet supercedes all of those. You can get an unlimited Cellular plan that functions fine as a basic internet plan for ~$30 monthly if you are willing to root a tablet so you can tether its unlimited internet. See reddit nocontract thread
    8. I would recommend a handcrank washing machine, a used convection microwave oven (can heat through microwave and/or convential oven mode), a used induction cooktop, and a smaller energy efficient fridge(3-10cuft). I would also recommend either a minisplit heat pump heating / ac system and/or a diesel heater like this. These suggestions are geared towards an individual living in about a 50sqft shelter and seek to minimize electrical usage and water usage when possible.
    9. May not be what you meant, but the single most sustainable thing you can do to help the environment is to not consume fossil fuels. One way to do that is to a. get all your energy from the sun and b. travel via ebike or traditional bike instead of car when possible. You can get a cheaper one for about $500. All the parts come from china so I would expect poor quality and be prepared to replace some parts of it.
    10. See 11. You could also include camping equipment like propane burners or a plain old campfire.
    11. Own everything you rely on. I would try to minimize your consumables just down to food products and internet service. Limit food expenses to $2-3 dollars a day per person and $30 monthly for internet. Also buy used via thrift store or fb marketplace when possible. That would work out to $100 monthly plus the one time expenses listed above which could be as little as $7.5k. It would likely be prudent to budget closer to $150 monthly when you factor odd purchases for maintenance of the few things listed above. The one tome minimum 7.5k expense break down as follows: $3k in raw materials for a 8*8 shelter. $2.5k in supplies for an electrical system. $500 for small piece of land. See notes. ~$500 for all of the following A. HVAC B. Transportation C. Cooking, Water, and sleep furniture.

    Notes: This assumes you personally do all the required labor and are in the US. The Land is probably the biggest challenge due to the regulations imposed by US powers. You definitely can’t do this legally in a city limits and probably will run into resistance when doing it in the countryside. Farmland is valued at median of $5000 an acre and if you are able to convince someone to sell you a tenth of a acre at that rate you get $500 dollars. You will have to bypass an formal survey and probably consult a lawyer to to draft and file the paperwork with the government.

    Living in this way is formally illegal unless you adhere to corrupt regulations designed to limit housing supply. A. Zoning regulations, B. Buildings code. C. Public health regulations requiring a sewer system be installed by a list of approved contracters(grift). A and B can be avoided in some counties in the US. C Largely cannot be avoided but there the amish have successfully argued against some of these regulations on religous grounds. In my view A B and C are all unconstitutional and immoral restrictions imposed by our corrupt government and deserve to be ignored if you are prepared to face the possible consequences of it. I suspect many areas effectively turn a blind eye to C.

    Not a lawyer. this post is not legal advice.

    Feel free to ask any follow up questions.

  • janus2@lemmy.sdf.org
    3·
    10 months ago

    If you don’t already, a good thing to own is a road atlas of your country.

    I also have been wanting an astronomical almanac that would have info like sunrise/sunset times (got that idea from I Am Legend), and various other sky stuff data I don’t know how to use for timekeeping and navigation but would like to learn :] My lack of expertise (ok, maybe also motivation) has prevented me from finding one.

    There used to be agricultural almanacs also, with recommended planting dates. I looked into the extant USA ones (Old Farmer’s and Farmer’s) but they seem to have devolved into something more like annual rustic-themed magazines with barely any useful info… :[