Part of setting up a self-sufficient homestead is ensuring that you have the equipment you need to sustain yourself. Many preppers invest in solar or propane devices that they can use to maintain their property, preserve their own food and keep their home sanitary. As homesteading has gained in popularity, off-grid machinery has improved in quantity and quality.
The equipment you personally need to outfit your homestead falls into two categories: items that are essential and unessential items that increase efficiency and comfort on your property. Essential items are defined as those necessary to protect your health and normal functioning as a human being.
Depending on where you live, essential machinery could include heating or cooling units, a water filter and a pressure canner. The items you find essential will depend partially on your goals for off-grid living – if you intend to sustain yourself completely without outside help, you’ll need more machinery.
Unessential but handy equipment to have on your homestead includes items like motion sensors, seed drills and treadle-powered sewing machines. Although these machines will save you time and energy, the cost of outfitting your homestead can add up quickly. Keep reading for a thorough guide on how to choose the best machinery for off-grid living.
Quenching Thirst
The most basic human need is access to clean water. That means that the most essential equipment you can install on your off-grid property includes items for finding, transporting and purifying water. In addition to drinking water, you’ll also want access to water for daily washing, showers, dishes, cleaning and laundry.
Equipment for water collection will depend on your specific property. However, wells are a better resource for cold climates than ponds or streams because they don’t freeze over during the winter. Well pumps operate with electricity, which you can supply either from a generator or from solar energy.
You can also collect water from the sky with a rain barrel. This is particularly handy for doing laundry and watering livestock since it gives you access to a lot of water with very little work. Locating barrels near your house and barn will also solve the problem of transporting water from a lake or distant stream.
Having a filtration or purification system for your water is another essential item. Contaminated water can transport unhealthy bacteria and environmental pollutants into your body. Many companies, including Berkey and Lifestraw, make filters that remove bacteria and heavy metals to ensure you stay healthy and hydrated.
Breaking Ground
Machinery for growing food is also essential for your property. However, some agricultural equipment is unnecessary – you can do a lot of gardening by hand if you are willing to put in the time. For example, you can invest in a tiller or you can plan a no-till garden and spread mulch to prepare the soil instead.
If you’re planning to grow a large garden, it’s important that you have the basic tools you need to care for it across the whole season. Helpful garden tools include rakes, hoes, trowels, greenhouses, row covers, garden gloves and trays for seed starting. You may also want to invest in a solar-powered grow light for raising seedlings inside.
Although it’s not essential, purchasing a composter will make it easy to recycle organic matter into your soil as fertilizer. An ordinary compost bin will do, or you can get a complex model that turns food scraps into fertilizer and a natural gas supply. Choose a model that works best for your homesteading goals.
A lawn tractor is a nonessential item that’s nice to have for maintaining your property and preparing fields for sowing. A seed drill can help you quickly plant seeds across a large area and a wheat thresher can turn your grain harvest into food with minimal labor. Smaller tools like post diggers and electric weed whackers are also handy to have around.
Raising Livestock
Another way to access fresh food is by raising your own livestock. Farm animals like pigs, chickens, goats, sheep and cows take a lot of work, but they can bring a large return. To care for livestock on your off-grid property, you’ll need some important equipment.
The first thing to consider is fencing. If you intend to build a fence yourself, you’ll need to invest in axes and crosscut saws or an electric chainsaw to down trees and shape the wood. A hammer and nails can get the job done, or you can invest in a nail gun for a faster setup.
Some homesteaders prefer to install electric fencing that runs on solar power or a backup generator. This type of fencing is often cheaper than traditional barriers because it operates on a psychological rather than a physical level. After enough training, your livestock will simply avoid the fenceline. Although electric fencing works well for livestock, it won’t do much to keep deer or other pests out of your garden.
You’ll also need to build barns to shelter your livestock and keep them warm through the winter. You can rig these buildings with solar panels or use lanterns for indoor lighting. To save time, some small-scale farmers invest in mechanized watering and feeding systems. However, many of these tasks can be completed by hand without depleting your sources of energy.
Hunting Meat
To supplement your garden and livestock, you may also want to hunt fresh game on your property. There’s a lot of equipment you can invest in for hunting, but most of it isn’t essential. The most important item you’ll need is some kind of weapon like a gun or a bow.
Larger, longer guns like rifles and muzzleloaders with sights are good for hunting large mammals like deer, bear and elk. Although you can go hunting with a revolver or handgun, it will be challenging to have any kind of accuracy with these guns across a far distance. If you’re worried about running out of bullets, you can purchase equipment to make your own ammunition.
Compound bows or crossbows are also good options for taking down larger mammals. Whatever weapon you choose, it’s essential that you learn how to take care of it and then practice using it often before you take it out for use. You’ll also need equipment for gutting, cleaning and transporting meat after your hunt is successful.
Many hunters also invest in camouflaged clothes, tree stands and tents to enhance their chances of getting a shot. Having basic camping equipment will prepare you to hunt in remote areas where more wild animals tend to congregate. For trekking through the woods, a sturdy compass is invaluable.
Preserving Food
During the summer and fall, you can eat from the abundance of your harvest. However, to make it through the winter, you’ll need a plan for preserving food. Old-style homesteaders used to prepare food for the winter in many different ways, including smoking, salting, drying, canning and storing in a cool cellar.
Meat can be smoked, salted, dried and canned. If you’re interested in smoking your meat, you can invest in a smoker that runs on wood, charcoal, or electricity. Dried beef, also called beef jerky, can be made in a gas or solar-powered oven. Some homesteaders also use salt or fat to preserve meat for the winter.
To keep your meat fresh until use, you can also preserve it in sealed mason jars.
Fruit can be canned or dried. Although you can dry fruit in an oven, it’s much easier if you have a dehydrator. Canning fruit requires a pressure cooker or a water bath canner. You’ll also need to have mason jars and canning lids on hand. To ensure food safety, you should create a notebook with estimated canning times and instructions for each kind of fruit.
Vegetables can be preserved through drying and canning. However, you can store many vegetables in a cool, dark cellar for several months before they start to go bad. Garden foods that do well in cellars include root vegetables, potatoes and pumpkins. It’s important to keep tabs on what’s in your cellar and protect your store from rodents and other pests.
Outfitting Shelter
Shelter is another essential human need. Fortunately, there are many ways to outfit the inside of your home so that it’s safe, warm and comfortable. If you live in a climate with extreme temperatures, it’s essential to have a system for heating and cooling your home.
Thoroughly insulating your house and adding a ventilation system for fresh air will reduce the amount of energy you need to regulate its internal temperature. Powering an electric system would take a lot of energy, so many homesteaders opt for a wood stove, furnace, or geothermal heat. In the summer, solar-powered fans can keep your home cool.
Cooking can be done on a gas-powered stove. Alternatively, you can install a wood or pellet stove or cook over propane. Composting toilets and washing houses make off-grid sanitation easy and save you water. Homesteaders can do laundry with hand-crank machines or wash items with a washboard and wringer and dry clothes on a line.
Indoor lighting is another essential feature for your homestead. You can rely on candles and many homesteaders learn to make their own from beeswax. Solar-powered lights are another excellent option. You should also have several lanterns handy – these run on solar energy, kerosene, propane and batteries.
Maintaining Property
Outside your home, you’ll need tools to maintain buildings and care for the rest of your property. While many of these tools aren’t essential right away, not having them will make continual improvement challenging. The more work you put into developing your homestead early on, the less equipment you’ll need for improvements later.
The most essential piece of maintenance equipment you need for an off-grid property is a truck. If you can, try to find an older vehicle that doesn’t depend on electricity to run. However, barring an SHTF event, newer trucks will still get the job done. You will need to find a way to fuel your truck and any other vehicles you purchase for your homestead.
Alternatively, you could purchase an ATV and pair it with a hauling trailer. With these vehicles, you’ll be able to move heavy logs and other resources around your property with ease. Managing your property without a vehicle requires finding innovative ways to move materials or purchasing a pair of strong horses.
A brush hog is another useful investment that can help you prep land for your garden and remove brush from across your property. This machine can also help you remove small trees when you need to clear land. Finally, you should have a complete tool belt and material for maintaining your buildings.
Securing Resources
Another item you may need equipment for on your homestead is security. Although security equipment is nonessential most of the time, it can become essential very quickly in am SHTF situation. Installing security equipment across your property can also help you with maintenance and hunting.
Some homesteaders install motion sensors or security cameras around the perimeter of their property. That way, they’re alerted to any visitors or 12-point bucks in the surrounding area. While video surveillance gives a lot more information, it also takes a lot more energy to run. If you’re already strapped for energy, motion sensors are the way to go.
You’ll also likely need to securely fence your garden to protect it from wildlife. Deer and groundhogs are notoriously difficult to keep out and usually require a combination of chicken-wire fencing, a tall wooden surround and electric wire to keep out. Do whatever you have to to protect your harvest.
It’s also wise to consider layout when planning the security of your homestead. Your water source should be protected and close to your home. Homesteaders who are concerned about protecting themselves from people can opt for bulletproof glass and protective siding on their homes. While you’ll hopefully never need these things, it’s good to be prepared.
Gathering the Equipment for Success
Traditional homes run on a long list of electrically powered systems and appliances. When you live off-grid, you either have to find alternatives for these items or choose to live without them. In addition, the farmwork you take on will require machinery and other necessary equipment.
Most homesteaders start by equipping their homes with essential items like wells and water filters, lighting, bathroom facilities and shelter from the elements. Equipment meeting your basic needs should all function on renewable forms of energy so that you can survive independently from the electrical power grid.
The next important step is to collect the machinery you need to maintain a garden and livestock. After you’ve raised your food, you’ll also need equipment to preserve and store it over the winter. Strategic machinery can also help you maintain your property and continue to improve your homestead over time. Finally, it can be useful to install a security system so that you can easily monitor your property.
Understanding the difference between what is essential and what is convenient will help you build an effective homestead that works for you on a budget. Start by providing for your essential needs and then invest in equipment that can help you reach your personal goals as a homesteader. Over time, you’ll accumulate everything you need for successfully living off-grid.
Author Bio:
Jane is the editor-in-chief of Environment.co. She is passionate about sustainability, gardening and homesteading.
Leave a Reply