Are You Still Prepping?

I have looked into hydroponics also, but I was thinking of growing greens and such for humans and, forage for livestock.

 

Right now we've topped out. We have no more storage space for preps. Will probably be erecting a new shed at the BOL hopefully built over underground storage, basically a shed with a not-so-obvious basement. That's going to depend on soil conditions as some areas tend to be rocky, as in boulder type rocky. You can't see the ones that are under the ground until you dig them up.

There's a like-minded fellow who lives in the area with extensive construction experience and a good backhoe who I will probably hire. If I tried to dig such a hole by hand, I would die of old age before it was more than a foot deep. The ground is like concrete. Picks and digging bars ricochet off of it. So do high powered rifle bullets.

 

I think I have found a solution in hydroponics .best of both worlds you might say .
1,the nature of things demand growing in a green house for several reasons . remove the need for bug and pest prevention measures. In the open critters will steal every thing..
2. the sun's intensity has driven commercial growers to green house.
3. weather changes have force commercial growers to green house .
4 . a friend does hydroponics and used the garden to filter the water for them, this was a mistake fish facies plugged the rock and he remedied it by Prefiltering the water before the garden .
5, maintaining nutrients with out using conflicting chemicals became a problem
6..using dirt in the garden was a better solution than the gravel .

I have got the frame of the green house, but as a learning tool I built a trough for growing in, and a 40 gallon fish tank at the end so as the garden needs water it's pumped from the tank to the far end of the trough and waters the garden and it drains back into the tank,
Under normal operation the tank is continually filtered any way for the fishes health ,I don't use the garden for that .
Curranty I am growing turmeric onions and carrots in the 10 ' trough .
I had been growing in the pre-filter water tank for the fish duck weed ,and feeding it to my fish and chickens and it got into the garden .
Not a problem, the chickens love it as the duck weed grows much bigger there. Supposedly it's eatable ,and at the rate of growth it might be worth a try for my own consumption but so far my animals love it .
. Any thing that Is killed I don't eat get's put in mulch directly in the garden rotten eggs, dead fish, dead rats I've shot (not poisoned ), spoiled food ,any thing organic get's put in mulch and in the soil ahead in the water flow of the things growing .
My next tough will have a base of gravel 3' deep a loose fiber barrier to suspend the dirt above and water will be able to travel the gravel more freely and steadily so the roots will grow down through the dirt to the water source , This has proven to be effective without dirt but then you must add nutrients to the water your using ..
If you must buy nutrients as a water additive , what are you going to use when they become no longer available ? But if your system depends on conditioning the soil I believe one is further ahead.
Another project is to build an office chemical lab for soil and water analysis and examining the fish and monitoring their health,
An adjacent structure for the chickens and their contributions.

 

wow arleigh that is amazing and you are using dirt instead of clay pellets? With a gravel and Fiber base so that water flows?

@Wildbilly there are some really good sites on here for growing forage and greens. I' m just saying my experience, using low inputs has been a huge learning curve. I started out trying to use the kratkey method and it works but you do have to have your inputs (water mineral balances) correct and i found with out additional LED light things did not grow well except for the herbs and the water cress... watercress is amazingly easy to grow for greens but i harvest it young because the bitter has a bite to it if you let it get too big.

My point being that prepping isn't just buy stuff and put it on the shelf. There are cycles for acquiring new skills and deciding what's important to you.

I still think sprouting is one of the best methods for using stored grain for greens
Sprouting- Using Stored Grain, Nuts, Seeds to Optimize Health
https://www.survivalmonkey.com/attachments/basic_sprouting_guide-pdf.10103/
Sprouting Seeds for Food

But you have to replenish the seeds. I still think dirt is the best method.
I don't see the hydroponics people growing seeds. They grow for consumption

 

I purposefully let things go to seed and consume very little of what I grow ..
At this point the seed and the knowledge of how to get it there is most important to me besides canning .
Your right it is a long learning curve ,and doing it is the best way to get it rooted in your brain. . books don't do that.

 

@Ganado "Digging in the dirt is way more fun...I've decided I'm a dirt digger"
I will never understand the fascination some get from 'digging.' Don't get me wrong, I love the produce that comes from the 'diggers' and certainly understand its benefits but I simply hate doing it, rather have a tooth pulled without anesthesia.

During the Spring and Summer, I have to yell to get my wife to come in out of the garden so that I can see her face once and a while to know that she's still alive because, I swear, she would sleep out there if I let her. For me, I hate digging. I only do it when she requires help and she orders me to appear - then and only then - do I dig.

 

It's a major achievement to dig in dirt, Grow food and eat it, Pretty much like bagging a nice one hunting, You know your going to eat and eat well.
Myself I prefer a set of chopper's or tillers behind a tractor if I'm going to do the dirt thing.

 

I was forced to hoe the garden so much as a kid it was 20 years afterwards before my hand would fit a hoe handle again.

Now, it's not so bad. I still prefer all the hard work putting in a garden to hoeing.

I'm more likely to dump mulch on weeds now then incinerate anything that pokes through that with the weed burner.

 

@Zimmy I call that smart gardening, I only dig a small hole deep enough to plant in... in marketing circles it's called organic gardening lol


Sorry moto did not mean to hijack the thread from topic

My point was preparing for any possibility is impossible so it's on going or me and I do slow down from time to time. And sometimes I just find a better way to do something.

I also call it a hobby, not a lackidasical hobby but I spend a lot of free time and money on prepping so yeah it's a hobby there are worse things I could use money on. Now if I could just get the whole brewing and distilling thing down for making beer and vodka I think I could be truly self sufficient in any situations

 

Slowed down a bit this year. Part of the sandwich generation. In-laws need a lot of our time and help and a bit of money. Daughter moved to the desert and bought a house, so I helped her with the down payment. Slowed my own preps although I've been slowly building up a MSR with accessories with 4 more 80% lowers to build. I think our next big move will be to buy a freeze dryer. We only have 4 months of food put away (or so) that isn't reliant on electrical power. Have a standby generator and some solar assist but not enough if there is a major disruption. May build a full blown solar generator trailer where I can load the majority of my prep supplies should a bug out be necessary. Panels go on the lid, the batteries and inverter go inside, with plenty of room for supplies.
SOLAR EQUIPMENT HOME PAGE looks like this one.