(Part 3) Top products from r/SelfSufficiency

I’ve been thinking along the same lines of a garden to allow me a full diet with lots of variety. Good luck in your journey!

I have been considering using the [Square Foot Method](All New Square Foot Gardening, 3rd Edition, Fully Updated: MORE Projects - NEW Solutions - GROW Vegetables Anywhere https://www.amazon.com/dp/0760362858/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_p8uSCbBV7NCH2) to keep everything compact.

So far, it seems that it’ll be a slightly higher startup cost, but if I can compost effectively, building the boxes is a weekend project with some spare wood. I’m hoping it’ll allow enough nutritional variety, plus I plan on building a lot of solid companion plots to let nature do what she does best.

Haven’t started any of it yet, but I felt it was a great resource to change my perspective of how much I would really need and how much I could practically take care of.

I’m also considering aquaponics, but that’s a project for waaaaaaaaaay down the line.

Depending on where you live (climate) and your local soil and runoff conditions you will have lots of things to consider.

This book is good.

http://undergroundhousing.com/book.html

This amazon page has some other books (that I have not read, so I can't comment on them)

https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Book-Underground-Houses-Build/dp/0806907282

Here is my thinking (just from reading, my own home is an above ground timber frame built for a Canadian climate)

[1] Surface bedrock (Like Halifax NS where I grew up) means you dig to the bedrock or blast, and then build a home you are planning to cover with earth. This gives you a sturdy home/foundation but you really have to take the natural water flow into account.

[2] Close to the water table (near most swamps, streams and lakes) means you are more worried about water getting into your home from seepage. Take great care to prepare drainage and a sealed waterproof membrane below AND around your house. Remember, a few dollars and paranoia is better than flooding every spring. It is probably best to build up by making a hill with your home and then covering it with earth.

[3] Talk to companies who pour concrete foundations. They are more likely to know the special conditions in your area.

[4] If you want to go multiple levels down you run into special problems with construction and ventilation. Talk to a company that builds foundations for high rise apartments that typically have 3 or 4 levels below ground.

[5] If you are wanting to do much of this yourself, practice first by building an "underground greenhouse (aka walipini 1 2

This Book is the best I have found. I suggest using concrete in some way on your greenhouse so you can learn about concrete before you DIY a concrete foundation for a home.


edit: The book above suggests PVC pipes to support the plastic "roof". In my area where heavy snow loads are a thing you should use 2x6 or 2x8 spaces no more than 16 inches apart. Look at your local building codes for what is required for your roof.

I don't know about making pre-fabs or building them like a contractor, but there is a guy who has an earth-sheltered home building school of some sort. I too am interested in efficient, environmentally friendly (or at least friendlier) homes and found this book by Rob Roy. He has made several types of earth sheltered homes, including one that was completely underground. I like his book because he goes through the entire process of building both homes he talks about as a learning experience; he writes about all the mistakes that he made and how to potentially avoid them, how to save money, and re-use old materials. For example, one thing that he mentioned, that I would NEVER have thought of, was how he designed his windows. Before he built the frames, he went to a window manufacturer and asked if they had any returns, which they would have to essentially eat the cost for and got those for a huge discount.

First there are the essentials:

1. Water is life. Does the area you are considering have enough? Are the aquifers depleted? Is it clean? (I'm thinking fracking & pollution)
   
   
2. You want good soil to grow food.
   
   
3. You want a long growing season. If the growing season is too short, you cut down on the amount of food you can grow.
   
   Some things you want to avoid:
   
   
4. Personally, I want to avoid large population areas.
   
   
5. I want to avoid being too close to nuclear power plants.
   
   
6. I want to avoid areas that will have severe climate change problems like coastal flooding.
   
   Here are some criteria that you might want to consider:
   
   
7. What are the local people like? Do you have a community of like-minded people? Do they have skills that compliment yours? Will you be accepted?
   
   
8. Is renewable energy a possibility in that area? Is it already in place?
   
   
9. Are the building & zoning codes strict? How much does the land cost? How much will the property taxes be? What's the cost of living for that area?
   
   
10. Is there something you can't live without? For example if internet access is important to you, can you access that?
    
    Finally, get a hold of the book, Finding and Buying Your Place in the Country, which will tell you about easements and laws governing what you can and cannot do with water on your land and shady practices of realtors, etc. It's worth a read.

Another idea for a source of cool water...I have this book, Handy Farm Devices, written in 1909. In it there is a design for an ice house (14'X14' structure, 2 feet of sawdust for insulation, ventilation at the top and drainage at the bottom). You fill the ice house with ice and there is an adjacent room where the farmer stores all his milk... the ice melts slowly all summer, and the cool water runs through pipes in the milk house, keeping it cool.

John Seymour has pretty good ideas for one acre and five acre homesteads, and this book is what made my wife and I take the leap...
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0751364428?pc_redir=1406731652&robot_redir=1

I have well-worn and much treasured copy of The Complete Book of Self Sufficiency dating from the 70's. I wonder how much it has changed, and if I will ever get a chance to butcher a pig.

Some good books for reference.

http://www.amazon.com/Mini-Farming-Self-Sufficiency-Brett-Markham/dp/1602399840/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333634510&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/Back-Basics-Complete-Traditional-Edition/dp/1602392331/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333634541&sr=8-1

Check out Eliot Coleman's books on winter gardening, particularly this one. He runs a market garden in Maine, and successfully grows and markets vegetables in the winter. I don't have a cold greenhouse yet, but I'm planning one.

If you grow a lot of veggies in the summer, you can do a lot of preserving in the fall to get you through. Beans are easy to dry. I have this book and have built a root cellar. And I've purchased a pressure canner and preserve all sorts of stuff.

Good book, I have it in its two earlier versions (Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency/New Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency).

I've found Food for Free by Richard Mabey useful, but again its UK-centric.

I like Steve Solomon's Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times, especially the parts about gardening when water is at a premium.

Hunt Gather Grow Eat

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0962676705/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00

The Encyclopedia of Country Living

This!

Are you perhaps looking for something along this line?

[Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities Paperback – January 1, 2003
by Diana Leafe Christian] (http://www.amazon.com/Creating-Life-Together-Ecovillages-Intentional/dp/0865714711)

http://www.amazon.com/Farming-Self-Sufficiency-Independence-Five-Acre-Farm/dp/0805205101/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1411734444&sr=8-1&keywords=Farming+for+Self-Sufficiency%3A+Independence+on+a+Five-Acre+Farm

One Second After seems pertinent

There is not conflict between individual's rights. Violating your rights is not in my interest. My rights end at your property. Do whatever you want with your property. For me to say I have the right to decide what you do on your property leads to...well...our current state of affairs.

However, I just finished a many day argument with a redditor about this stuff, in which I made no progress in convincing him, which was very disappointing. I'm not really ready to get in to it again so soon. Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal does a good job of explaining my opinions on the subject.