Homestead Survival: 6 Steps To Prepare Your Homestead For Survival

How To Develop Your Bug Out Location Into A Homestead Survival Safe Haven

Once you’ve locked down your bug out location, you need to figure out how to establish this place. That’s where homestead and survival come together.

You want to come up with a plan to develop your new found property into a SHTF safe haven. A self-reliant homestead survival home, where your family can thrive.

Establishing your bug out homestead will be a difficult topic to cover. There are so many homestead survival possibilities. There are no absolutes. There just isn’t one right way to build up your homestead survival establishment.

To each their own!

However, I believe there are a few best practices that we can discuss.

In this article, we are going to cover the following:

• 1 – Decide What Sort of Roof You Want Over Your Head
• 2 – Quench Your Thirst With Less Effort
• 3 – Layout Matters So Do It Right The First Time
• 4 – Your Survival Will Eventually Come Down To Food
• 5 – Accessibility: The Doubled-Edged Sword
• 6 – What It Takes To Go From Survive To Thrive

Phew…that’s a lot to try to cover in one article, so we better get started.

Step 1 – Decide What Sort Of Roof You Want Over Your Head

The best shelter for your bug out property depends on if it’s private or public land. Also, financial resources (as always) will come into play.

Maybe you purchased a homestead with a small survival cabin already on it. That makes this section simple; you can move on to the next section of this article. However, if you have a blank slate or plan to squat on public land, you’ll get to decide what works best.

If you have private land, then you have all options available.

• You can build a bug out cabin
• You can park an RV or use any number of camper setups
• You can keep it basic and go with a tent

I tend to prefer the first two options of a home or a cabin, but it’s your land, so you get to decide.

If you plan to bug out to a remote piece of public land, then building a home or cabin ahead of time is not realistic. Laws become the problem; you don’t own it so you can’t build on it. If you have skills and tools you’ll be able to build a simple cabin after SHTF (when laws no longer matter). But this won’t be possible ahead of time.

So you’ll need to plan on an RV, camper or tent. These are mobile shelters and being mobile can be a plus. But it makes it harder to move your homestead survival supplies ahead of time.

Basically, there are two categories of shelter options: mobile shelters and non-mobile shelters.

Homes, bunkers, and cabins are non-mobile options. They are great if you have no intention of moving and can build them now before SHTF. If your non-mobile bug out location gets attacked, you’ll want to defend it by any means necessary.

The good news is, if you stock this shelter with lots of guns, ammo, food, water, etc, you’ll be ready. You can also set up your property with alarm systems and booby traps. Now you’re going to be a tough target for any unfriendly stranger to deal with.

RV’s, campers, and tents are the primary mobile options. If things go south and the conditions change, you can leave. You have the option to look for a new location to set up shop.

The downside to this is it’s much harder to stockpile key supplies such as guns, ammo, food, etc. You can do it, it’s just much harder to do. Your stock limit will be what you can haul in your bug out vehicle.

With RV’s and campers, you can stock them pretty well. But it’s going to be harder to find remote concealed places to park these (especially if they are large). If they are small, they won’t stock as much food or gear.

There’s always those damn tradeoffs in survival.

If you plan to set up a tent, then you’re either going to carry your supplies in and attempt to live heavily off the land. In this case, you’ll need to make several trips to leave a lot of cached resources each time you visit. If you plan to do this, you can buy some plastic barrels with good seals and bury them in the ground waiting for SHTF.

So your choice of bug out shelter is drastically dependent. Dependent on how you plan to bug out and how you prepare your resources.

Step 2 – Quench Your Thirst With Less Effort

I’m going to assume that you found a property with plentiful water. One with a natural source of water nearby,

Whether it’s a lake, pond, river, creek does not matter.

As long as it won’t dry up seasonally, or at the first signs of a drought. Otherwise, you’ll need to put a lot of thought and effort into your water storage system.

If you live right next to the water source, then an extensive water storage system is not necessary. Because you’ll be able to walk out, fill up a pail or two and then carry it back for immediate use.

Caution: The closer you are to the water source the higher chances of flooding so be aware of that.

You’ll also want a water storage system if your shelter is not close to your water source. A system that you can occasionally fill up and be good on water for a few days. Batching your water gathering efforts is an important survival time-saving efficiency.

You’ll also want to consider a rain collection system.

You can never really have too much water stored. By setting up a rainwater collection system, you’ll collect fresh water in barrels. If done right, you can locate your barrels inside or just outside your shelter. Making the rainwater use efficient.

You can even do this with without a traditional roof. You just need to use tarps.

2 – Distance

Your second priority is shelter distance from your water source. Ideally, concealment and your water resource location are complimentary to each other.

If the concealment is good next to the water source then you’ve got a great setup. If not, then I suggest you choose better concealment over the hassle of hauling water. But, it’s ultimately up to you.

3 – Garden Setup

Your third priority is the setup of your garden. You want to locate your garden where the soil is best, and sunlight is readily available. It’s also preferable to locate your garden close to your water resource. This will make water hauling much easier.

Ideally, that would also be close to your shelter.

Those are the 3 major considerations when trying to master plan your survival homestead. I think you’ll discover that putting some upfront thought into it will provide a lot of value later.

Step 4 – Your Survival Will Eventually Come Down To Food; Plan For It

This just might be the most difficult part of your homestead survival plan. Why? Because the skills you need to do this properly are vast. Many of us (myself included) don’t rely solely on our own food systems today to sustain our families.

Our current calorie intakes are dependent on the “food system”. The massive food system works today, but what happens when it fails. Most of us are nearly 100% dependent upon this food system.

A Quick Breakdown Of Our Modern Food System

In general, farmers are dependent on seed producers, equipment makers, fertilizers, and pesticides. These are all necessary to produce high yields per acre.

Food manufacturers  are dependent on farmers, equipment manufacturers, electricity, trucking companies, and labor workers. If any of these items become compromised so does a food manufacturers ability to produce. At least at current production levels they produce today.

The grocery stores are dependent upon the farmers, food manufacturers, and trucking companies.

And we are dependent on this entire system.

Sure, some of us have gardens, some larger than others, but does this garden alone feed you daily? No.

Many of us hunt and even freeze excess meat for future use, but do you hunt enough meat to feed you daily? No. Even if you did hunt enough, do you practice the skills of preserving this meat without a freezer? Do you have a smokehouse and a root cellar? Do you package your meat with copious amounts of salt and check it regularly for signs of spoilage? Do you practice canning your meats? Odds are no.

Do you forage your local area for fruits and berries? Is there enough there to provide a significant percentage of your families calorie needs? Doubtful.

This is why I say “food replenishment is the most challenging part of your long term bug out plan.”

Those living in the pre-technological age (think 1850 frontier homesteads), had poor survival rates. Especially when compared to today’s standards. Yet, they lived and breathed these survival skills DAILY.

Every winter they faced the real possibility of starvation. Not to mention the challenges of illnesses, freezing, animal attacks, and Indian attacks.

Actually, a SHTF future will look a lot like the past, and people of the 1800’s were expert survivalists. So what chance does the modern day American have, when thrust into this dire situation?

Ok, you get it. It won’t be easy. Now that that’s out of the way, here’s what I recommend you do to prepare for this dire situation.

I believe in a four-pronged approach to this problem.

1) Build a large food stockpile as an insurance policy.

The bigger your food stockpile today, the more time you have to establish your own food system.

Let’s say you stockpiled three years worth of 25-year shelf life food. You now have three years to “figure it out”. When grocery shopping is no longer an option, begin expanding your independent food system.

You have three years to figure it out.

Growing your garden, foraging, preserving, and hunting. You should practice these skills today to help give yourself a nice head start. So when SHTF and life as we know it is over, your new job is to become a full-time homesteading survival expert.

If you only have six months of food stockpiled, then you only have six months to figure it out. Better than nothing, but I like my three years odds better.

The bottom line: Stockpile as much food as you can ahead of time. Sure, it may run out eventually, but what you’re doing is buying precious time to figure your skills out.

2) Practice your homestead survival skills on a smaller scale today.

You don’t need to live independent of the food system yet.

For most of us, it would be nearly impossible to do so anyway and still live a normal existence today. You probably have a full-time job and maybe you have kids. How in the world can you find the time to live off only the food you produce? The answer is you probably can’t.

So instead, hone all these skills in smaller doses.

Grow a backyard garden. Tend to it regularly and practice growing different fruits and vegetables each season. Buy heirloom seeds and then practice seed saving. Seed saving will help you become independent of needing to buy new seeds each season.

Start a compost pile and learn how to tend it properly. It’s not nearly as hard as you think, and it’s worth it.

Go hunting when hunting seasons are open for small game, large game, and bird. The then take a percentage of the meat and practice making jerky. Package it in salt to see how long you can keep it before it begins to spoil. Start canning it: Here’s a great Step by Step Meat Canning Guide by PreparednessPro.com

Forage for fruits, berries, and plants in your local areas. Teach your kids how to identify them, learn what’s edible and what’s not. Learn about edible plants and how to cook them. Add them to your meals occasionally. Identify poisonous plants and become experts at identifying edible vs. deadly plants.

Raise backyard chickens for eggs and meat.

Build a backyard aquaponics system for fish and veggies.

Try your hand at beekeeping by building a backyard apiary.

If you have your bug out location sorted out, start planting longer term items such as fruit trees on the land.

Perfect these skills a little bit at a time each day.  These skills will be a major short cut in the future when your life depends upon them.

3) Take advantage of the internet while you still can.

The majority of people who use the internet today are wasting their time and wasting its potential.

Cute cat videos, who gives a crap “status” updates, and filthy adult site surfing are popular internet activities today.  And this is a huge waste of potential.

You are different. You are using the internet to better yourself.

Think of the Internet as the largest knowledge library ever assembled. Sure, this library has a lot of trash, but it also has unimaginable amounts of useful knowledge.

When you stop to think about it, it’s the one advantage we have versus those living in the 1800’s. They learned by trial and error, or word of mouth, or dumb luck, or (the few lucky ones) a book or two.

You use the internet properly. You have decided to learn all the available knowledge about homesteading survival. You want to speed up your survival and prepping skills ten fold. You do this by visiting the right sites and follow the right methods.

You have to assume that the internet will no longer be available after SHTF. So, find these sites today.  Subscribe to their email lists. Download, print and practice all the best skills they have to offer.

The internet is your secret weapon, don’t waste it.

4) Create or join a survival coalition you can trust.

To be blunt, trying to survive SHTF alone (single person or small family) is going to be near impossible. You need to be able to do some basic bartering and have a support community. You don’t necessarily have to live right next to this group. But you still need a system of barter to get access to basic supplies going forward.

Salt is critical for meat preservation without electricity. The only way to continue to get salt is to find others who have access to it. Unless you live near the ocean.

Medical supplies, same deal. You should begin stockpiling key medical supplies today. Why? Because at some point you will run out. That’when you’ll rely on your barter systems to access to these critical items.

Coalitions are also great to go on supply runs. A group heading into an abandoned town to find supplies is safer than an individual.

The key is to join a group you can trust with your life. When things get bad, you need to know the group is like-minded and will work together as a team.

You have two options. You can either find a like-minded survival coalition and try to join them. Or, start your own survival coalition.

Once resource worth taking a look at is PrepperGroups.com. It looks to be a bit hit or miss with results, but worth a try. Or else you could always post an ad to craigslist to try and put together a local group that way.

By following these four steps, you’ll significantly improve your odds of keeping your family fed no matter what happens.

Step 5 – How’s Your Accessibility? The Double-Edged Sword

Is your choice of bug out location relatively easy to access?

If you answered yes, then that’s great you’ll have no problems getting to your bug out property fast. With a ton of supplies and gear. You’ll be able to easily leave your establishment to go on supply runs and come back quickly.

The bad news? Strangers can drive up to your bug out encampment with ease. I doubt they’ll be the friendly variety after SHTF.

If you answered no, then that’s great. The odds of bandits stumbling upon your encampment will be significantly reduced.

The bad news? It’s going to suck getting established. You might have to haul all your supplies in by foot, probably by backpack. Supply runs might take days to accomplish.

So there it is, the double-edged sword. The benefits and risks of accessibility.

Hopefully, you can find ways to have a bit of both.

Maybe you can conceal your access entrance with natural debris. Overgrown bushes or downed logs can help significantly. It might be a hassle to move this debris every time you want to enter and leave. But it might be well worth the effort to keep your property hidden.

Again, alarm systems and booby traps can help deter strangers from seeking out your establishment.

Step 6 – What It Takes To Go From Survive To Thrive

So what are some of the luxuries of setting up a thriving bug out location? Here are a few of the items that can develop a basic bug out establishment. To help turn it into a thriving survival homestead.

• Developing an off-grid energy system (solar or hydroelectric)
• Stockpiling key items (that are good for bartering)
• Lots of guns and ammo (self-defense and hunting)
• Perimeter alarm systems (to help you sleep better at night)
• Surviving with a group of people (who you trust and pull their own weight)
• Growing food seasonings and spices (think variety)
• Smokehouse (for meat preservation)
• Fireplace (to cook, keep warm and boil water)
• Lots of firewood (for fires)
• A solar hot water system (baths)
• An outhouse and waste control system
• Compost system (for maximizing garden potential)
• A rain collection system (free water)
• Solar oven (baking bread and cooking other simple meals)

Unfortunately, each on of these skills deserves its own blog post. So I won’t be diving into these in detail today – Cop out? Maybe…but now you’ll have to stay tuned for these future posts .

You should also read some post bug out tips by Patrick Blair from SurvivealAtHome.com

Overwhelming? That Just Means You Better Get Started

For many of you, all these steps might seem overwhelming because it’s not going to be easy. If you want to survive the worst case TEOTWAWKI then you need to roll up your sleeves and begin planning and doing.

Here is your action plan:

1 – Determine where you are going to bug out to: Private or Public land.

2 – Decide on your homestead survival shelter options and build or buy what you can afford. Maybe you want to build a cabin, but have a camper for now (just in case) until that dream becomes a reality.

Great, always have your future plans and goals, but also have your “if today’s the day” plan too.

3 – Decide how elaborate you want your bug out homestead to be. Water resources, food supplies, firewood, gear, etc. Start purchasing an item or two a month. You can start small. Buy a year’s worth of long shelf life food, buy some seeds.

If you’re nowhere near ready, then you need to think both short-term and long-term.

In the short-term, what do you have work with already? What food, gear, supplies, and skills do you currently have and are they enough? What food, gear, supplies or skills do you need to get you to a bare minimum of being prepared? Decide what the bare minimum is for you and then start building up to that as quickly as you can.

Once you’ve achieved that basic level of preparedness, what’s next?

What can you do that will move you from the bare minimum to something better?

• Maybe for you it’s an upgraded shelter? Maybe you get that cabin built or buy a larger RV.
• Maybe you can afford to buy a solar oven and start practicing a few meals.
• Maybe you find a solar panel or two on Craigslist for cheap.

What about practicing setting up a basic perimeter alarm system in your current backyard?

Or how about stocking a few items for future bartering purposes?

The key is to get to the bare minimum level of preparedness as soon as possible. The potential for life-altering disaster is too great, its time to get serious.

Then once you meet that minimum level of preparedness, it’s time to keep going. Time to grow your abilities and supplies to a level that we can all recognize as thriving.

Remember a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.

Ok, I know I missed something. There’s just so much to try and cover, hard to pick and choose what to put in this post. I tried to select the most relevant considerations. Yet, if you know of something that should be added to this list, please share what I missed in the comments below.