You can build a simple trailer just using lock nuts and screws. It all depends on how big, roof, sides, etc. I watched my neighbor build ones out of old grating, metal shelving units and I think the tires were old lawn mower tires.

Arge. The computer just erased my rather sarcastic message...

I will see if I can remember some of the better parts.

I guess I got semi famous talking about this subject so I guess its my reasonability to give some advice here. Yes, A bike and trailer, in my opinion is the single most valuable possessions any prepper should own. I own six and two flat deck trailers.

Before thinking about the meriod possibility of home made trailers, you are in an excessively lucky piece of history where the (Western consumer) world is awash in a new form of land fill. A little over a decade or two ago, fashionable yuppie breaders started filling up valuable garage space with high teck, space age ubber survivalist trailers...that only hauled spoiled fashion accessory children for max 2 years. That valuable garage space needed to be cleared out for fashionable Harley Davidsons. Thus a glut of little used bike trailers sold for next to nothing...or left to disintegrate outside. Then there is the even cheaper models out of walmart,etc...cheaply made by the industrious little hands of Chinese children that never got to ride in one...to make poor western consumers feel they were keeping up with the yuppies. Diatribe over, we are awash in cheap second hand trailers, cheap new trailers and recycled trailers....to strip all the useless breeder crap off of and turn into ultilight flat decks. If you are creative enough to make your own trailer...you can take one of these recycle trailers with all the scookum pre made parts we never had in the 80s and customise it to carry fire wood or gas cans to your empty pickup truck that will soon be a greenhouse and raised bed garden.

I will keep my eyes open for a used bike trailer , I missed my opportunity once already at the thrift shop because I was not too confident I could convert it to something useful but I guess all I can do is keep trying until I get it right . Right now I am very fortunate to live about a 20 minute bike ride each way to the local grocery/livestock feed store and if I were truly fit , I am willing to bet it is less than 20 minutes to get there but loaded to go home it is an uphill incline . So why am I battling the bulge when I should be on the bike for jaunts to pick groceries saving a trip out a week ? I have destroyed my knees and the bike is a very good form of exercise for me .

Another initiative I have undertaken is finding ways to insulate my house and concentrate the heating to where I need it .

Tonight my last project is just planting some cherry pits from a very good producing local tree .
So I am wondering what are other people doing to increase their resilience that might be a real positive for our environment too ? I am sure someone out there has some novel idea I have never heard of before : )

I'm cheap so I have been doing this kind of stuff my whole life. Although I have had to start over from scratch since the split from hubby. Farmgal's blog, in my opinion is a great "how to" on a slow collapse.

My idea has always been if I can build it myself, then I will out of found bits. I used to dumpster dive & refinish stuff to avoid spending money. I have been off work the last 18 months on disability which means 1/2 pay. I have to say it was a good way to see how well I would do at reducing the use of electricity, water, heat and spending in general. My pet peeve is the fact that my electricity cost is less then the cost of the debt retirement charges, regulatory charges and delivery. So matter what as long as I am hooked up to the grid I will always have a bill of at least $72.00. I know doesn't sound like much but times that by the number of billing cycles in a year and it adds up.

I know my gas charges to heat the house drive me nuts that way, I consume about $20 worth of gas for 6 months of the year and have an additional $60 worth of charges on every bill. I have a Pioneer wood cook stove I would like to hook up in my basement plumbed to heat water and the house in winter with, and I have a solar water heating system I would like to heat the water with in summer and I am acquiring parts for a solar electricity system and would like a hybrid wind turbine solar for electricity . I am hoping at some point I can get rid of the gas and hydro companies . I would like a windmill that is made dual purpose so it can either mechanically pump water, grind or press oils, or can be switched easily over to making electricity . So I think these things are possible, but I actually am not good at doing these things nor funded to have them done for me . But over time I am making small dents in achieving this .

I have no plans on leaving my cabin so the preps I make are for staying put. When I leave it will be feet first.

I'm not worried about electricity right now but in the future will be looking into solar and wind.

Right now I'm more concerned about food....growing and hunting. I have the materials to build my green house and just need to find someone that can teach me how to build it. I think the big worry should be about food and fresh drinking water and the need for everyone to be self sufficient be it a lone wolf or with a group.

Syn -Take a look into getting insurance for rebuilt or home built trailers. I know they changed the rules last year.

Thanks enuff, you do know the trailer I am talking about is for my bike so I can carry groceries and bags of animal feed home from the closest grocery store, not a recreational travel or work storage trailer . I don't have any insurance to ride my bike but I do wear a helmet . Do I need insurance if I pull a bike trailer ?
For food production I make coldframes right now out of poly and salvaged wood bedframes that they recycle and give away and in summer I use them in the pasture to protect little trees I plant and in fall it is too wet for the animals on the pasture and I use them in the garden with the poly to extend the season a bit . It would be lovely to work inside some hoop in the houses off seasons though , I think it would be mentally uplifting to beat the weather a bit and be that little bit warmer or drier and keep things growing greener and harvesting longer : ) I have done 200 chickens this year and about 40 rabbits and established two parties I trade for fish with, but I also traded for plumbing and grapevines, canning equipment and an apple press . Oh and I will be trading rabbit for muscovey duck this week too , and I acquired a small flock trying again to keep them safe from coyote and raccoon . I am growing extra trees and plants in pots in case I relocate away from the lower mainland as well . I will plant some at my friends island that is my present bug out destination but who knows I may even end up relocating because that is the best time to bug out, before it is an emergency and be set up : ) I have 50 blueberry bushes beginning to produce fruit this year and I will propagate more bushes and grape and kiwi vines and walnut , apple, plum and fig trees for my friends . It seems the more I give them, the more I receive a benefit and build more resiliency for myself. My ability to supply all my own food is a long ways off but this year I doubled my capacity from last year . And I have a laying flock so that is eggs year round right through winter. And I have some herbs established I have been dividing and giving to friends too to push them a bit towards having that idea that they can grow things they use instead of buying them. This was the year I discovered how good dandelion buds and flowers were and ate them for for weeks and right now I am building up my daylily collection and eating them in salads . And I am learning to can as I pretty much have everything I need for that, mostly from the thrift store .
I may be in a suburban area and truly if shtf in a fast crash I may be a target but in the mean time I am better and better set up to eat clean good food and not be so dependant and some of it is able to be moved with me if I find reason to move .

Hey Syn...I grew up and lived in Langley until a few years ago when I moved up to the Cariboo. Got too built up and busy for me. If you gave me your address (not that I'm asking for it) I could probably pin point where you are.

What you are building is great and especially if god forbid TSHTF really happens. If not and lets hope not what a legacy you are leaving your children with the skills they will learn living this lifestyle. Not hooked up to a TV or computer but out in the yard working. I grew up that way and there are so many homesteading skill I have learned that I didn't realize that were being taught to me.

I read here where some of the preppers are going to go out hunting and what size of gun they have. But protein is only one small part of your diet plus when hunting seasons starts up here you can't find a deer anywhere but right now there's lots. They need to learn how nature works to survive on the bush. You have rabbits and chickens....fast reproducers and egg layers and they don't eat a lot of food and easy to look after. Plus you can survive on vegetables and fruit alone but not just protein.

I think you are going in the right direction but when the population leaves the city and come knocking on your door....do you have a plan?

......if they knock. They just might swarm through taking everything.

It is highly unglamourous producing your own food . I went out today and had to scrape up the remains of a dead chicken. Yeah when people get their chicken wings out of box from Costco they simply heat , it is a long ways off from what it actually takes . I have scratches and bruises and callouses from working to put organic food on the table . I produce several hundred pounds of nuts a year too but it is a heck of a lot of work to keep the birds and squirrels from harvesting more than I get and it is a LOT of dirty work husking, roasting and shelling the nuts, I simply have to learn a better system . I don't know many who would do all the work, the pruning in winter , the shoveling manure daily and a thousand other things it takes , to save their own lives. Yes I know people would absolutely eat me out of house and home right down to the breeding stock if the wheels fall off the current system . I actually had a couple of friends stop by about 5 years ago to see a new foal I had and while over the man turned to me and said if SHTF he was coming to my place and I truly think he recognized the horses were food too ( that is before I started doing chickens, ducks, rabbits and turkeys for meat for my family ) Now I have seasoned firewood and I plant trees for future harvest too and I have the woodstove but I have no disillusioned ideas I can be sustainable here because there is always others who simply aren't providing for themselves and will want a handout and when they are desperately hungry will simply take everything I have including wood fuel . We are in crisis now, the adulteration and processes that actually put affordable food in the stores and garbage that passes for food . I don't think people understand that that abundance is all based on the replacement of slaves with oil and chemicals and now genetic modification experiments that will go about as well as fukushima produces abundant cheap clean energy that nuclear is touted to be . Today an appeal was sent to my feed the aboriginals in the artic citing that milk was $12 and cheese spread was $29 . Really and that is after I pay out taxes, support my own two kids as a single mother and I am asked to contribute to feed aboriginals in northern communities who will be the very first to lay claim to traditional lands, rights and yet want to be supported by a modern national welfare network but apparently aren't feeding themselves traditionally . The people who are not working on feeding themselves right now , and that is a lot of people, are just an example of what is to be expected so I am planting up pots of things anticipating relocating away from the lower mainland. I am preparing to deal with re-establishing now before the wheels fall off . In the meantime I could not hold off marauders but I do have a predug hole for the first one that tries . Pre dug holes are a prep in themselves in case you ever have to suddenly erect an outhouse it saves a lot of calories doing it now .

Hey syn.....I'm with you! I don't have money to give to support people that won't support themselves. I know there are some circumstances where the people can't help themselves. Anyways another female (in my 50's) here that kids are grown but have a unwell hubby (Alz) that I'm caregiving for and will probably be on my own soon. So am putting together my new life and I want to be as self sufficient and independent as I can.

I grew up on a farm and totally understand the hard work it takes to work it. I have plucked and gutted too many chickens to remember. You don't want to see how fast I can castrate pigs. 🙂 Your plants that you have potted make sure they can survive in the lower growing zone. I'm a 2 here and a lot of what I grew on the coast won't grow here. Do a lot of canning and freezing. I am also teaching myself about the native foods that grow here in the wilds and where they are located. I have about 140 acres here...a lot of it crown land but if something happens there will be no one to make me leave. Have about 3 - 4 years of firewood put away. Would like to learn about bee keeping. Getting to know my neighbours because they will be the ones that will have your back when the BO people with no plan arrive.

One thing I always thought about is if there was a family....mom, dad and 3 kids at my door starving could I turn them away empty handed. I think I would take him down to the lake and put a fishing rod in his hand and get him to catch his own fish and then tell him to get out of here. Unless you are really prepared my area is not some place you want to spend the winter. -40C in winter. Plus I would have my family here that I would be protecting, keeping feed and safe. Could you really shoot someone? I'm not talking about someone attacking you...different story....but some poor unprepared bugger that won't take no for an answer.

My girlfriend has big walnut trees in her yard and when she goes to collect them the squirrel gets so mad at her that they will pee on her....the little buggers. I told her I had a recipe for squirrel stew! 😀

I have gone for 4+ days here without power in the winter -30C and I learned what I needed in that situation. But mostly it went off without a hitch. I keep a couple of big water jugs full in the mud room so I don't have to go down to the lake when there's no power for the well pump. I cooked on my wood stove....no problems and moved the food from fridge and freezer out on the patio in coolers so the little animals couldn't get into them.

Good talking with you....any good ideas I'm all ears. Oh and I love my outhouse 😆 especially when there is no power...we lose it quite often here.

My point with kickstarter appeal sent to me by email today asking to fund food for natives in the north was that these are people who ask for respect for their traditional rights including hunting and fishing and others , but don't feed themselves traditionally anymore . You sort of would think native people might be the first to stand on their own two feet when it comes to their food security but apparently they are the same as everyone else, including myself , in regard to their food security being utterly dependant on being able to buy food , despite ascertaining they should have preferential rights based on traditional food gathering territories and preferential taxation, which we pay to subsidize them. I certainly rely on buying 80 percent of my families food but I am sure working on changing that percent and I am not particularly any more advantaged than the native population since I am pretty much a non status mutt with as much native blood as the rest. I was raised on an island and I will likely go back to on off grid island with no ferry access so I will not have to adjust my gardening zone just start over again with unimproved soils , build fences and barns, planting etc.

Syn...misunderstood...my bad. I hadn't given much thought to what you wrote but then I haven't received the appeal either. I think they have been so beat down from when the Europeans came here that it is going to take a couple of generations to get back on their feet. I have a couple of friends that were in the residential schools. They were constantly told that they and their culture were worthless and it has taken them years to find their voice. Also drugs and alcohol have taken away their pride and the money keeps coming in from the government so why go find work.

I believe that soon there will be food shortages and we...all people urban and country...have to change our thinking about just running down to the grocery store. They are running out of water in California where a lot of our food comes from. When that happens where are we going to get it if we don't have a plan to grow our own. Have to have exotic tropical fruit....not going to be available. We have to relearn to eat what grows in our area and eat in season. Thank goodness we have the Okanagan near. Plus there are so many native plants that we don't eat...I don't have a manicured lawn live in a cabin, I let it grow wild and harvest what is edible and I keep learning new things. Will I ever be fully prepared...probably not but I will be better prepared than most.

No offense taken at all , there is no ethnic background that has never not suffered some past unjustice, being conquered etc and honestly it is no excuse . I really don't sit around pining about the injustice of the past . I don't think using a heritage as a crutch works out too well and for me the idea we are all facing some coming time that right now we might try to mitigate the vulnerability as we can . Playing victim or being distracted and oblivious doesn't work for me , we can all do some things to improve our situation . Tonight I am going to go get some day old chicks because I have put a freezer full of meat away but would like a small flock of heritage meat birds going. I am going to try , I failed at an attempt to have a meat flock this year as I simply didn't do well with the fertility of the commercial broiler hens ( Cobbs) So I start small but I do what I can !