Welcome to the forums!

A slightly reluctant spouse might be an obstacle. I got mine started on prepping by tasking her with putting together a 72 hour kit based on the government of Canada's emergency preparedness recommendations, then I asked questions, provided constructive criticism and helped her beef up the kit. From then on, she was fully invested in prepping, since she fully believes it was her idea. 🙂 Our budget was $500 for the whole kit. If your spouse can get invested in a project such as prepping, you can be assured that he/she will have valuable skills/insights to offer. Even something as simple as being able to pick out and prep her favorite foods, or organizing the shelves, can be enough to get someone on board.

$10-12k is a pretty healthy budget for prepping. The main question is, how long are you planning to make your preps last you? One month? 6 months? More than 1 year? Are you interested in having preps that lead towards self-sufficiency, or are you fine with a a year or two years worth of non-renewable, store-bought preps?

Thanks for the greetings Rabbit! Great questions by the way.

I was thinking of getting to a spot where we could live sustainably growing, hunting our for food. however I understand establishing a homestead it takes time.. So from a prep stand point I wanted to be able to establish the homestead and not starve 😉 . We do eat organics now. When it comes to survival I don't care whether it's organics or not, survival is the key. There's a hurdle for us, we have a family member that has to be on blood thinners. So we are incorporating a blood thinning diet in our prepping plans as well. I was thinking of building a 2-3 yr supply of food. I was looking at the shelf reliance product - good or bad? thanks for all the advice I appreciate it.

Homesteading is much more complicated (by at least a factor of 10) than simply purchasing prepared goods from a store, but it is something that many of us strive to achieve eventually. Knowledge and skills play such an important role in this regard. 🙂

Check out the other forum thread on the guys that really homestead (20+ years and counting): http://internationalpreppersnetwork.net/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=2597

As for the Shelf Reliance products, I hope someone else chimes in here, since I haven't had experience with them before. I just checked out their website, and it looks very interesting. Congratulations, you've contributed to the forum already!

Thanks again Rabbit, Oh I'd love to homestead... that relucatant partner popped up again.. however my obsession for sustainability has lead me all over map when comes gardening to sustainable community. We've been experimenting with square foot gardening and utilizing companion planting to help growth and ward off pests and it works!

Folks who are watching the stock market or new to watching the global economy. check out the app StockTouch. I'm not pitching it guys, it just helped me show my better half the bigger fiscal picture and keeps me on top of the global picture.

Welcome and watch the AB forums for any future meetings we have; though we are on holidays during the cold winter months 😳

We have some of the Shelf Reliance. It's pretty good. We went to Briden Solutions in Cochrane, where they let us sample some before we bought some.

Welcome and watch the AB forums for any future meetings we have; though we are on holidays during the cold winter months 😳

Thank you for the invite. I'll keep my eye out.

We have some of the Shelf Reliance. It's pretty good. We went to Briden Solutions in Cochrane, where they let us sample some before we bought some.

Thanks for the heads up. We've been wanting to go check out briden's.

Is there any books or place on the forum talking about the community after any major colapse?....that can be my noob question of the day. 😀

hello offgridhippie

there are definite growing challenges in your area (chinooks for one, late & early frosts, etc.)
they can be overcome, but represent a variable to consider
but if you want to homestead in province there is better growing north (3 hours should do)
plus cheaper land and with your skills at sq. ft. gardening the land is even cheaper,
due to being able to grow right on the worst soil nobody wants

for books pick up "Storey's Basic Country Skills",
to whet your appetite for homesteading, or just some general knowledge
if you can find "The American Horticultural Society - Encyclopedia of Gardening" at the used book store/online,
for a reasonable price it is a great resource

not the type of books you were looking for,
but thought they might be of interest to you

take care

Thanks freedom, I appreciate the input. Sustainability ultimately is the long term answer. I'm also on the hunt for a heirloom seed vault but all I can find is available out of the states, any suggestions? I've googled and googled but out of the states..

Hey, try typing "heirloom seeds" into the search engine at the top of the page... I got 5 pages 😯 worth of hits from the forum archives. There may be a reference to a Canadian supplier amongst all those threads. It may take time to sort through it all though.

good luck

i've found 'william dam seeds' out of ontario to have excellent germination
http://damseeds.com

along with 't&t seeds' out of manitoba
http://ttseeds.com

look for heirloom or open pollinated seeds

check this post for info on storage:
http://internationalpreppersnetwork.net/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=2732

Thanks for the info!

We are on the hunt for a BOL in a warmer climate a couple growing zones. We just got Eliot Coleman's Winter Harvest Handbook, I've had an interest in the potential of 4 season gardening

and we know arthritis may become an issue - old bones 😉

We thinking of trying something like in the future.. when it's peaceful.