Best products from r/SelfSufficiency

Library books. Read them before you buy them. I've a HUGE collection of books, and quite a few are just crap.

I like:
Back to Basics - There's an updated version of this, but it really isn't an update as far as I'm concerned, just a re-edit. You may like the third edition updated one better, as it covers Adobe houses (better suited for Texas, no?)
http://www.amazon.com/Back-Basics-Traditional-American-Skills/dp/0895770865/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1416268351&sr=1-2&keywords=Back+to+Basics

The Complete Book of Self Sufficiency - I find I open this book all the time to reference gardening stuff, as well as just homestead improvements. It's British, but they know how to do it.
http://www.amazon.com/New-Complete-Book-Self-Sufficiency/dp/1405345101/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1416268500&sr=1-1&keywords=Complete+book+of+self-sufficiency

Home Repair - if you haven't fixed anything around the house (plumbing, patched walls, heating, some common electrical) I highly recommend something like this. It covers tools and their uses, and it breaks down almost everything in a home (or barn) into 'systems'. A lot of pictures. I recommend this to everyone I know that buys a house, or I give it as a house warming gift.
http://www.amazon.com/Black-Decker-Complete-Photo-Repair/dp/1589235371/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1416268592&sr=1-5&keywords=The+Black+and+Decker+Home

One thing I'd like to say too. And this may sound like I'm being harsh, but I'm not. Don't hope to start something. Do. Yes, I'm sounding Yoda. I've found (and I'm slightly guilty of this as well, but not so much anymore) that people tend to overanalyze the crap out of everything. Just do. Start small (even a 4'x4' garden teaches you a lot) and do. You WILL make mistakes. You WILL fail sometimes. You WILL start to be successful after you make the mistakes and you WILL learn not to fail as much.
The first attempt will never be pretty or go exactly as planned. If it is pretty and it goes exactly as planned, then you have spent way to much time in starting it.

Oh. And if you plan on raising any livestock, remember that they do die despite your best efforts to keep them alive. And don't invest in any sort of permanent fencing until your nearly 100% sure that you are going to be raising that animal for some years to come and your 100% HAPPY in where you are confining them. Pulse-portable fencing is the greatest invention in the history of mankind.

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'm late to this thread but I thought I'd mention a great book I've been using for around-the-house repairs and other projects: Dare to Repair! It's geared towards women but I think it's very useful for people of all genders who are just starting out with learning how to fix things. The authors also wrote an edition for replacing and renovating things in your home, and another one for maintaining and understanding your car. I haven't read those two yet but I want to.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

What is your goal? Is your goal to design the cheapest home possible? Is it to get the home built as quickly as possible?

My goal is to design a home that will heat itself in the winter and cool itself in the summer and provide it's own water, electricity, and clean up the gray water.

I am looking at a passive solar home that uses the sun to heat thermal mass (think stone or brick walls and floors) in the winter to heat the home. What I love about the passive solar design is the heat is free, and there are no moving parts to break and need repairing over the lifetime of the home. However, I like the idea of redundancy for backup. I'd also like to have a solar panel attached to a radiator heated floor for heating. I'd install the solar panel on the porch under the eaves(watch from 9:55 - 11:06) because I only need to use it in the winter when the sun is low in the sky. A masonry stove could be the final fall-back plan. Regular fireplaces are horribly inefficient because much of the warm air escapes up the flu. A masonry heater prevents that.

Placement of windows and eaves to keep the sun out in the summer coupled with earth bermed on the north and west sides of the house (in the northern hemisphere) will keep the home naturally cool in the summer.

Solar panels on the south-facing roof would generate electricity. Reed beds to filter and clean the gray water. I'd use a metal roof so I could collect rainwater.

This is an example of what I described.

Some of my favorite resources have been:

The Solar House by Daniel Chiras

The Earth Sheltered Housing Design

Choosing Ecological Sewage Treatment by Nick Grant

Acquiring food in nature is easy once you know what to look for. A book I suggest is How to Eat in the Woods: A Complete Guide to Foraging, Trapping, Fishing, and Finding Sustenance in the Wild.

This book is awesome. Has great illustrations of the plants, growing season, location, as well as tips of how to prepare them, and what other foods they go good with. You would be amazed on how much food you can eat outdoors: clovers, cattails, birch tree inner bark, etc. Just some I can name off the top of my head.

I don't have a definitive answer to you, but I will point you to a resource that is incredibly useful on these questions: The new Organic Gardener. However, we're not talking raised bed, because at a certain size, you need to be able to weed with a hoe or wheel hoe, use a mechanized planter, etc. This is a more traditional style market gardening, except Coleman takes a 100% organic approach, and discusses crop rotation, timing, spacing, green manure, etc.

This book does not talk about pollination or seed saving. I haven't found a good source of info on this, but I'm sure there are some good books.

We have four large raised beds, plus raspberries and fiddleheads. Two are quite sunny, so we rotate sunny crops between them, with two trellises on the north side for climbers like peas and cukes. The other two are shadier and we plant greens exclusively in one, and a mix of greens, carrots and beets in the other. With a raised bed system, you don't really have the real-estate (at least we don't) to do green manure or fallowing, so we maintain soil fertility with lots of compost (kitchen waste, home-made leaf compost, and some bought sheep manure).

11 lbs.

Yeah, I think I am ok with my 2x Fullriver 224 Amp 6 Volt golf batteries (224Ah @ 12 Volt or 2688Wh) w/ 2000 Watt Pure Sine inverter (to power actual appliances up to and including air conditioners) w/ my suitcase 100 W Solar solution in the back of my Jeep. It's more likely I will drive that apparatus around then I will carry an under-powered 11 lb "battery pack"

Also a retail price of $599. You could reproduce the aforementioned battery bank for the same price:

Fullriver Group GC2 6V 224Ah T-105 AGM Sealed Lead Acid Battery

Yes it weighs 120 lbs for the two of them, but you are getting 4.5 WH per $ as opposed to 0.69 WH per $

Lithium Ion is still EXPENSIVE a f, the advantage obviously is the weight savings, but in this case now you are talking 37.8 WH per LB vs. my setup of 22.4 WH per LB, so you are effectively saving half the weight but paying 5x the cost per WH.

Alternatively you could get a 200Ah Li-Ion battery for $2400 that weight 72 lbs, so similar weight savings at a much better price 1 WH per $

..and for the curious a 35Ah (440Wh) Li-Ion battery for $450 that weighs 10 lbs - so given that price this unit with its electrical "wizardry" built in is not that much of a ripoff.

Here are all the things you need to know to start canning foods at home.

Canning Basics

Only Pressure Canning is recommended by the USDA for home canning of Meats or Vegetables. I recommend this large capacity pressure canner

Fruits, Jams and Jellies, Tomatoes and Salsas can be Water Bath Canned in most cases. This is a nice kit to get started with from Jarden

Ignore the steam canner, microwave canner, open water bath kettle, and any "reusable" canning lids---these are all a quick way to discover food poisoning.

Buy standard canning jars at garage sales and thrift stores---I like the wide mouth jars best. I also run an ad on craigslist offering to buy jars when I need them. I pay $2.50 per dozen for the pint size and $4.00 a dozen for the quart size. Carefully check each jar's rim to make sure there are no flaws or chips. (Always store empty jars with rings on them to avoid getting chips.) New jars with lids and rings are available in most grocery stores for $9-$14 per dozen. Buy brand name jars only---this is not a time to use cheap knock offs. Each jar should be clearly imprinted Ball, Mason or Kerr. There are many brands of vintage jars and all of those should be fine as long as the rim is sound. Save the boxes and dividers that come with new jars and use them to store the finished products.

Always use new canning lids Never reuse this part!

Remember, you don't have to grow a garden to benefit from home canning--now is a great time to buy produce while it's cheap!

Today's Buy of the Day: 12 ounce bags organic green beans-already trimmed and washed at 2/$1.00 = 24 quarts of green beans with bacon and shitaki mushrooms(33 cents a pack!) now in the pantry for about 50 cents per quart!

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.

Plant whatever you're going to eat. I recommend oats and wheat if you get the space. I love having a sickle in the house. Great conversation starter, and gets rid of pesky salesman as well.

Here's a book recommendation for you:http://www.amazon.com/Self-sufficient-Life-How-Live/dp/0789493322/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255627396&sr=8-2

John Seymour shows you exactly how to parcel out your space. It's the bible of homesteading.

2,100 Asanas: The Complete Yoga Poses https://www.amazon.com/dp/1631910108/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_kYTuyb1GRH3J1

I love this book. I dog ear poses that look fun, may feel good, might challenge me. You can learn the progression and make your own flow.

My favorite so far is probably The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It by John Seymour:

http://www.amazon.com/Self-Sufficient-Life-How-Live/dp/0756654505/ref=pd_sim_14_1?ie=UTF8&dpID=61t6SRQzuNL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR129%2C160_&refRID=19QK02D2JDVH1815J35Y

I've also enjoyed The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery:

http://www.amazon.com/Encyclopedia-Country-Living-40th-Anniversary/dp/1570618402/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=029NTQA9FBYZB5Z7SDMF

Some of the Storey's Guide books have also been helpful to becoming more self-sufficient (Storey's Guide to Raising Rabbits, for example). I'm always on the lookout for others! <3

You know, the people that will blindly believe the rhetoric they hear from political propaganda outlets are the same that willingly commit genocide.

I prefer literature such as this. My ideal life is a hard earned, satisfying life enjoyed with my family.

Excellent book! May I also recommend the self-sufficient life and how to live it

A good start would be picking up and reading Eliot Coleman's book The New Organic Grower. It is very readable, and you can use it to come up with your own plan for growing year-round.

The Bible of Self-Sufficiency is this: Self Sufficient Life & How To Live it

Even better than Carla Emory's Encyclopedia of Country Living, which is #2.

the new complete book of self suffency is a good one.

Completely agree. One insect infestation, one round of bad seeds, or an overly rainy or dry summer and you and you're family are dead. I've seen a few [books] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Self-Sufficient-Life-How-Live/dp/0756654505/ref=pd_sim_b_17) on self-sufficiency on a single acre and that seems more possible. But even then, that assumes an already established farm with a ton of capital improvements - everything from pantries, cold rooms, chicken tractors, fencing, canning equipment, a greenhouse, sheds, bee hives etc. Not to mention really crucial things like housing for the animals, and space for compost bins both of which the infographic completely omits.

So more like, read a bunch of books, buy a small piece of land, spend five years and tens of thousands of dollars on infrastructure, and maybe, MAYBE, in your 6th or 7th year you could start to approach self-sufficiency and have canned enough surplus goods to not live in fear every winter.

edit: a word

I recently picked up this guy.

[How to Eat In The Woods by Bradford Angier]
(https://www.amazon.com/How-Eat-Woods-Complete-Sustenance/dp/1631910124)