Being Prepared | The Prairie Homestead

Pondering Alternative Water Sources

May 26, 2011 By Jill

(Photo Source)

Once again, my husband and I have felt an increased urgency to be better prepared.

Though things like food (stored in our frugal buckets, of course!) and a milk cow are important, we have both been shying away from addressing the real elephant in our homestead preparedness:

WATER.

Our little part of Wyoming can be dry. Really dry. We are still coming out of a drought, and though we usually get some good moisture in the spring, sometimes we can go weeks without a drop of rain in the late summer/fall.

If we were ever to be without power for a length of time, our biggest downfall would be there is no way to run our electric well. (Thankfully, we DO have our own well. That’s a start.)

Though we might be able to store enough water for ourselves for a little while, our animals would be in trouble. If you are expecting to have chickens, dairy animals, and a garden to help sustain you during a power outage, then they need water, and lots of it.

A few of the ideas we’ve pondered so far:

1. Storing water in 55 gallon drums. Like I mentioned above, this would work for us, but not our critters. Plus, you then have the issue of keeping it fresh, etc. Perhaps a partial solution, but not a full one.

2. Solar/Wind Powered Electrical Systems. While we would still LOVE to do this, there is no way we could afford it right now. As we work on our preparedness, we like to implement things that we can use even in our every-day life, not just during an emergency. A small wind turbine is still a possibility, since hubby is employed in the wind industry, and can pretty much fix/troubleshoot/take apart any turbine that has ever been made. But as a immediate fix? Not so much.

3. Rainwater Collection. I am still intrigued by this idea, as we have a lot of square footage of roof area. However, in order to implement this, we would need to install gutters on our house, shop, and barn, as well as rig up some kind of storage system or cistern. I worry that with the minimal amounts of rainfall in our area, that all this work might still be in vain.

4. Hand powered pump jack. This is the most promising option for us so far. We have looked at installing a back-up hand powered pump. Ideally, we would need one that connects into our current system, so we could still use the electric pump as long as we had power. The biggest issue here? Price.

5. Getting Creative. As we weighed our options, we tried to think outside and box and get a little creative. We then remembered that we have an extra well on our property. It is actually the original homestead well, drilled in 1910. It has an old, broken hand pump attached to it and sits nestled in the lilac bush. Although we’ve looked at it a bit in the past, we’ve never really considered it, until now.

In progress...

Last week, on one of our beautiful spring evenings, we fired up the tractor and hubby went to work. It’s not easy taking apart something that has been sitting unattended to for decades! We were able to lift the pump jack off with the tractor and determine that there IS water at the bottom!

The next steps involve pulling up 200 feet of pipe and seeing if/how we can fix the pump at the bottom.

The plan is to get it running again and hopefully be able to use it as a full functioning pump jack, in addition to our electric one.

My imagination ran wild as we were dismantling the well. It made me so excited to think that we were reviving an actual piece of old time homesteading history and making it usable again.

Isn’t it cool how things come full circle?

The old pump jack

I bet the original homesteader never imagined that there would be 2 young adults, 100 years later, in an age of amazing technology, trying to breath life into his ancient project.

We are still a long ways off, and many things would have to happen for this to work, but I will keep you posted on our progress!

What ideas/plans do YOU have for alternative waters sources or back-up? I would LOVE to hear your ideas!

I shared this post at the Homestead Revival Preparedness Challenge #10

Filed Under: Being Prepared, Homestead Love 40 Comments

The Latest Addition

March 26, 2011 By Jill

Last time I went to the grocery store, I got angry.

Though our real food transformation has greatly decreased the amount of food I purchase at a conventional grocery store, there are still some items for which I don’t have local or homemade sources.

Last shopping trip I went to grab a package of butter and was shocked to see that the prices had risen nearly a dollar since last month. Butter and cheese are 2 things that we use a lot of, and I don’t quite have the capabilities to make them at home yet.

My irritation in the store that day got me to thinking about how much I really dislike being a “consumer”. I’ve become spoiled on the things we are able to produce ourselves (eggs, goat milk, vegetables, etc) and I get a bad attitude when I feel like I have to be dependant on a store to provide me with necessities. We just assume that the food will always be there and will always be the same price, but that is not a guarantee.

Then my thoughts went even further… What would happen if the price of food really skyrocketed or there become a shortage? What then? I can tell you one thing, I don’t want to be the one standing in line for a government handout of margarine (or anything else for that matter)!

So what was my solution to the problem? Clip coupons? Buy in bulk? Start collecting newspaper ad inserts?

Well, I suppose all of those ideas would have been feasible, but instead we decided to go buy one of these:

Meet Oakley, a Brown Swiss/Guernsey heifer. Don’t worry, I still love my goats, but my husband and I decided we needed a larger quantity of milk as well as CREAM. She’s due to calve in July, so I have several months to get her gentle and prepare for this new venture.

Yes, it most definitely was an investment. But, not only will she benefit our grocery budget right now, she also makes us more self-sufficient in the event of crazy food prices or a disaster liked we discussed last week. Once we start milking her, I plan to make all of our cheese, butter, yogurt, cream cheese, sour cream, cottage cheese, and buttermilk at home. Plus, we can feed the excess milk or whey to the other animals we have, further reducing our feed bill.

So, even though this preparedness step doesn’t exactly fit into a 5 gallon bucket, I believe it’s a important part of our family being prepared.

And also because, dang it, nothing is going to come between me and my butter.

What did you do to further your preparedness this week? Share your ideas and projects over at Homestead Revival’s Prepardness Challenge. We are currently on week 2, and it’s a great collection of knowledge!

I also shared this post at Farm Friend Friday.

Filed Under: Being Prepared, The Barnyard 24 Comments

A Frugal Source for Food Grade Buckets

March 19, 2011 By Jill

For the last year or so, my husband and I have felt an increased sense of urgency to be prepared for whatever the future may throw at us. Whether a blizzard knocks out our power for a few days, or we experience a major natural or man-made disaster, we have decided that we want to be the ones who are able to help others, instead of needing help ourselves.

I know of many other folks who are feeling this exact same way. I can’t help but think that it’s not a coincidence… Perhaps God is giving all us a bit of warning. Amy, from Homestead Revival, has really inspired me this week to step up our preparedness.

After watching the earthquake drama unfold in Japan, I have been hit with the realization that it is entirely possible for something like that to happen to us in North America. Now, please don’t misunderstand. I’m not laying awake at night worrying, nor am I paralyzed by fear. But, I do believe we need to have a calm, confident sense of urgency in having a plan for if/when disaster strikes.

Some of the very first steps in prepardness simply involve thinking. My husband and I have started talking more about these topics and thinking through how we would stay warm, have water, or put food on the table if we were to be without electricity for an extended period of time.

We have some food storage, but not nearly enough. So, after watching the earthquake coverage, I’ve been inspired this week to really work on increasing our supplies. I picked up 50 more pounds of dry beans, 25 pounds of lentils, as well as some more canned goods this week.

Obviously, the biggest issue in stocking up on food is how to keep it dry, fresh, and bug-free. Many people use food grade, 5 gallon buckets to store grains and legumes. There are many place to purchase these buckets online, but I wanted to share a frugal tip with you today, as a part of Homestead Revival’s Preparedness Challenge #1:

Check with your local bakeries and grocery stores and ask them if you can have their empty icing buckets. Sometimes, even donut shops have them.

I am able to purchase rinsed out frosting buckets from our local Albertsons for $1 each. I’ve been able to obtain both 3 and 5 gallon sizes. I bring them home, give them a thorough washing, outfit some of them with Gamma Seal lids (those are the orange and black lids in the photos), and they are ready to go!

Another place to check would be various restaurants. Some establishments have policies stating that all buckets must be thrown away (which is dumb, if you ask me), but many places are more than happy to give their buckets away or pass them along for a small price. It never hurts to ask!

So this week, I’ve picked up two loads of buckets and have them washed and ready to fill. It’s a small step, but an important, and frugal one, towards being more prepared.

Look for more upcoming posts about preparedness and food storage. It’s time to get serious! And be sure to head over to Homestead Revival to check out the Preparedness Challenge.

Filed Under: Being Prepared, Homemade Living 41 Comments