Small Acreage Homestead OSSBC
Old School Survival Bootcamp Class Resources and Outline
1. What is considered a Small Acreage Homestead?
Small Acreage Homesteading is about being as self sufficient as the space you have allows.
Apartment <–> Less than 5 Acres- Focus: Less One Acre
Food, Shelter, Barterability/ Income, Wealth Preservation\
2. Food
A) Growing Food- How to Grow Food in Small Spaces
Container/ Balcony Gardening
Community Gardening
Flower Bed Gardening
Raised Beds
Making the most of your space
Companion Planting- For example we have a grape arbor with the Back to Eden woodchip method and we grow all kinds of plants in the rows, particularly medicinal herbs, perennial garlic, onions, raspberries, blackberries, and even a couple fruit trees.
B) Raising Animals
Rabbits, Pigs, Chickens, Goats
C) Preserving Food
Canning, Dehydrating, Fermenting, Freezing, Cheesemaking
All these can be done even if you don’t grow them yourself but buy or trade from a local farmer or market.
D) Selling/ Trading
This is where the government steps in and likes to make trouble. Each state has different cottage food laws and meat sales are regulated at the state level as well.
Baked Goods, cheese, herd shares, farmer’s markets, bees/honey, selling bees, make nucs, queen rearing, breeding pigs, hatching chickens, selling meat chickens $3.50 lb., teach classes, canned goods, baked goods
Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense: https://www.farmtoconsumer.org/
3. Shelter
A) Your home
Water:
We have a cistern with gutters that can be hooked up. Rain Barrels, Wells
Oil lamps, candles, generators, hydro power, solar panels,
Heat- generating Heat and holding heat
wood stove, clay pot rocket stove, insulation, live in a small area- survival
Cooking sources- wood stove, fireplace, emergency fondu
B) Animals
Water for animals
We have downspouts to rainbarrels to a 500 gallon container with a hose to a water spout. Nipple waterers for pigs and chickens. Hose running underground to a push waterer.
Shelters- Pallet wood, lean toos, poly tunnels, chicken tractors, moveable fence/pasture rotation. Orange construction fencing for chickens and electric netting for chickens, cows, pigs, sheep, goats
C) Hay, Wheat, Grain, Wood
50 gallon barrels with lids, gamma buckets, pallet wood shed, reclaimed wood for barns, greenhouses with poly or reclaimed windows.
4. Barterability/ Income
A) Items you can Trade- prepping extra just to trade
Commodities, ammo, guns, tools, salt, spices, chocolate, tobacco, coffee, old fashioned equipment-
B) Talents/Skills you can trade for or hire out for
Sawmilling, sewing, carpentry, maintenance, gun smithing, entertainment such as singing/music, hunting
C) Food
Grown, raise or made
D) Craftsmanship, selling items you produce
Quilts, candles, beeswax, furniture
5. Wealth Preservation
Gold – Long-term savings/ big purchases
Silver – for everyday trade, silver dimes, silver dollars,
Land- your own land that you live on and produce on
Land that you own just to preserve your wealth
Inheriant through time where the value stays roughly the same. Housing prices may go up and down drastically but land prices should only go up.
6. Health Preservation
A. First aid items, bandages, band-aids, alcohol, peroxide, (food grade), iodine, burn bandages, medicinal tinctures, splints, sutures, chlorine dioxide for water purification, chlorine
– fire cider
– elderberry syrup
– cbd oil
– herbal tinctures
B. Medicines/Antibiotics
Many covid doctors are now helping people be prepared in case of an emergency to have medicines on hand
-ivermectin
– antibiotics
– steroids
– herbal medicines, know your weeds
C. Animal care- worming, antibiotics, blu kote, ivermectin, needles, syringes
1.Spring beauty- 5 petal white flower, tubers like potatoes cook
Don’t eat with red or orange flower
2. Bittercress
3. Garlic Mustard
All edible leaves, roots and seedshelps stimulates circulation of the blood.
High in Vitamin A and Vitamin C as well as trace minerals, chlorophyll and enzymes. The roots taste like horseradish and can be pickled or used in soups as a root vegetable. The seeds when ground make a fabulous mustard sauce and the dried greens can be made into a paste like wasabi.
4. Chickweed- white flower.
Let wilt 24 hrs for salve
Salve- coconut/beeswax
Oil- heat to 100 24-36hrs
Diaper rash salve
1 cup of infused calendula oil
¼ cup beewax
1 Tbsp marshmallow root
1 Tbsp chickweed
1 Tbsp comfrey root
1 tsp barberry root powder
5. Burdock Root, harvest and cook in fall
root’s anti-inflammatory and antibacterial components may help different skin conditions, like wrinkles, eczema, acne, and psoriasis when applied topically
anticancer and anti-inflammatory
Face- tea or powder
The bioactive compounds, including lignans and arctiin, have stimulating properties that give the skin a younger, supple look.
By purifying the blood, burdock root is an excellent solution for dry skin, psoriasis, eczema, and acne.
You can get your glow back by regularly using a burdock root mask. Simply mix the dried root powder
The root has chlorogenic acid, arctiin, and lignin called arctigenin, which minimize swelling and redness.
regulate progesterone and estrogen by enhancing spleen and liver activity. This hormone regulation addresses hormonal imbalance, the most common cause of PCOS.
Using small doses of burdock root can have surprising results in relieving menstrual cramps and regulating periods.
phenolic acids, quercetin and luteolin, which are all powerful, health-promoting antioxidants.
Burdock root is used in traditional medicine to relieve tonsillitis because it increases wound healing, decreases inflammation, and helps relieve coughs, sore throats and pain
Leaves for burns
the Amish community, burdock leaves are a common remedy for burns and wounds.
6. Wild Violets
Salicylic acid also reduces pain and swelling, and therefore, violet leaves and flowers used in the form of a poultice will soothe inflamed skin, sores, varicose veins, hemorrhoids, and skin infections. The leaves of the wild violets contain a high level of mucilage, which helps soothe irritated tissues.
7 Wood Sorrel and Sheep Sorrel
Lemony
8. Dead Nettle- purple fuzzy no toxic lookalikes triangle leaves
Health benefit
Vitamin C, vitamin A, vitamin K,
Relieves allergy symptoms
Quercetin encourages histamine release to help reduce allergy symptoms. This paired with the anti-inflammatory
Antibacterial, antifungal
Salves for pain
Mixing in other helpful herbs like calendula, yarrow, and plantain
9. Henbit- looks like nettle but smaller rounded heartshaped leaves woth purple flowers
It’s high in iron, magnesium, manganese, calcium, and vitamins A, C, E, and K, as well as a whole host of beneficial antioxidants and phytochemicals. Medicinally, Henbit is best used internally as a tea. It is anti-rheumatic and anti-inflammatory, so it’s great for relieving chronic pain, soreness, and stiffness.
antispasmodic, astringent, anti-proliferative, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antioxidant and antiviral.[1]
10. Purslane
Succulant, thick leaves
Don’t eat similar spurge, thin leaves, white sticky when broken openFresh or cooked
Cooking purslane also removes much of the sour apple flavor, making it taste more like a spinach or other cooked pot-herb.
Can use like pasta but has a musinex property can be used to thicken soups or rinsed for pasta sub
Nutrition
more heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids than any other leafy vegetable plant.
It’s protein and iron concentrations are higher than in any cultivated vegetable–including kale.
Purslane has more magnesium, vitamin A and vitamin E than kale as well.
In a calorie to calorie comparison, it has more potassium than a banana. In addition there are some B vitamins, a good amount of vitamin C, a fair amount of calcium, and a smattering of those micronutrients
Health benefits http://healthymindmagazine.com/purslane-health-boosting-wonder-plant/
11. Dandelion
Dry in sun
elixir of life because it purifies the body cleansing effect, it is also called blood purifier, laxative agent, liver cleanser and fatigue remover.
lymphatic inflammation, anemia, to improve gastrointestinal tract function and liver metabolism
just at the time of flowering. In addition, the roots include many beneficial and valuable substances that have a overall strengthening effect on the body, such as up to 15% protein, inulin, 10% glycoside taraxacin, unsaturated acids and bitter substances
Salve is antiseptic and anti-inflammatory