know your land

There are people who think they will hunt to fill in the gaps in their preps. I urge people to walk their land, take a slow stroll in cammo. On my usual walk of about one mile I generally see 2 rabbits, 6 doves, 2 ground hogs, 4 -5 skwurls and an occasional deer. If I alter my usual walk I might see a couple of geese and ducks. I am also close to two streams and a river with some pretty good holes. I know almost exactly where to find these animals and I know there are more that I didn't see but I am fairly sure that there aren't enough to sustain me for more than a month or two before becoming scarce. Whether you bug out or in you should take the time to know your surroundings better. Care to share what is on your property?

 

One day, when I have some, I will. In the next three or four months if everything goes well. The idea of taking a quiet stroll around my own land makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. While I cannot contribute anything to this thread otherwise, I can thank you for giving me that few minutes of daydreaming peace.

 

i have seen rabbits ,squarrles, dove,there WAS a woodpecker,
Deer and hogs are there but i have never seen them ...

Also the pond is soon to be stocked ...

o yea and racoons plenty of racoons big corn fed ones ...
Also stray dogs and cats plenty of them .....

 

During the Depression in the 1930's a lot of wild game (deer, elk, bison, turkey.....) almost became extinct due to the extreme hunting pressure from those trying to feed themselves. Best not to even plan on trying to feed your family or yourself from wild game. If you are able to score some fresh meat before they disappear, cherish it like it was your last meal.

 

There's always the hope that those who have never hunted will end up hunting themselves by accident. Me, I plan to do some decent hunting this fall and work the canner overtime

 

I will agree, know your land. I bought 22 acres last Sept and I know I have not been over every inch of it, yet.
I know where 2 rabbit holes are, several deer trails, ground hog holes and where the squirrels like to hang out.

Interesting note, when buying the land the wife and I TRIED to walk the perimeter (it's fenced in on all sides), but could not due to the dense under growth and number of thorny vines. Most of the exploring came during our first week, when I found several old trails on the property that were used to install and maintain the fencing (one of the previous owners had cattle on the land). Cleared some brush away and now we have nice trails to walk the property.

Additionally, during hunting season I found a small spring, very small but fresh water none the less. This spring the deer have been hanging out around the spring, now I know where to move the hunting stand to

 

We work actively to attract wildlife to our property by putting out feed, particularly during the winter. One, we love wildlife; and two, we recognize the potential future benefit of having animals near to hand. Our place generally hosts a small family of deer, a fairly large flock of turkeys - 20 to 30, lots of doves and other smaller birds, a small beaver family, and small fish and crayfish in the creeks.

I agree with ColtCarbine that it wouldn't be a great idea to count on an endless supply of wildlife to feed your family. The occasional score may help supplement your food supply, just as the gathering of roots, plants, and nuts can provide a supplementary food source. Obviously both hunting and foraging should be exploited for the benefits that each can provide; but a close look at hunter gatherer societies show that even in relatively unpopulated areas they must range over large distances to consistently find enough food. They aren't able to stay in one place very long and, for that reason, they aren't able to establish permanent abodes.

Throughout the history of mankind, hunter gatherers have almost inevitably evolved into herders and farmers. Agriculture and animal domestication has always proven to be the superior method of feeding a family or a community. Generally, hunting and gathering has only remained the dominant source of nutrition in those areas where agriculture and animal domestication are extremely difficult or impossible.

 

You might want to get some goats and stake them out near the thorn patches.

 

That spring is a goldmine. i would highly recommend you dig out a pond for it to feed. It doesn't need to be large to fill and maintain a pond, and the wildlife, (as well as stocking it as a fish source) will treasure it as well. I am digging/ building a cascade for rainfall on my property, to catch and hold water for the animals, a fire suppressant, and if necessary, drinking water. If I had a constant source like that, i would build a bit larger, and add fish.

 

I would add farm animals. The most successful societies in history have had horses, cows, goats, sheep, or other large animals that produce a lot of products, food, and/or labor. why wait?

 

I would, if I lived there. Goats and/or sheep would also help with some of the poison ivy.

We do plan on putting a dam in, just making sure we don't attract the wrath of the guberment. Have a co-worker who drills wells and knows the laws in making dams and such. I don't think there will be a problem, but we are just making sure.
In the attached image my daughter is there to show scale, she is about 4', we want to make a dam just behind where the camera is at, the stream starts another 20' behind my daughter.

 

I would say that would give you a good sized fish pond, at least 3-4 feet deep at the center, 10-12 feet wide and maybe a hundred feet long. Any buildings nearby? Slope? above or below the spring? At the very least, you could have a water holding tank fed from that, even if it was free standing.

 

There is slope above and below. No buildings anywhere near it (none on my property actually). My rough estimation is the pond would be 6-7' deep and 30-40' wide and about 100' long.

The spring is on the back portion of the land, there is a seasonal pond that i'm working o making permanent at the front.

 

Do you know that water in hose will travel over any obstacle, cover any change of elevation, over fences, around trees, without difficulty as long as the hose has no kinks, and there are no air bubbles in line? The only thing that matters is that the exit be lower than the entrance. if your pond is lower than the water level at the entrance, you could feed that pond with a siphon from your spring.

 

Couple points I think are worth mentioning:
1. You can "landscape" your property, by putting in wildlife-friendly plants, that will encourage the critters, big and small, to spend more time on your property.
2. In a SHTF situation, there's no guarantee you won't have to deal with other folks poaching on your land. Another good reason to be familiar with what's yours, so you can "discourage" poachers.

 

Just a heads up, if you think that gardening and animal husbandry are going to be your saviour post-shtf, if you haven't started, get cracking!

learning what to do when say,
your goats coat starts looking dull and has listless eyes.
your turkeys start sneezing.
your chicken start getting eviscerated in the middle of the night.
your 'maters leaves start falling off dead over night.
how to kill creepy crawly critters that are feasting on your harvest without petro-chemicals
how to keep the bunnies and ground hog from pretending to be the logging crew clear cutting the garden

will save your mule.

And, it's a learning experience and time invested in them will take a lot more than you think.

after 15 years of raising a large percentage of our food, I'll tell you there are some years that replanting the garden and hatching a few broods seemed pointless but necessary.

McTavish's Law rules the farm (McTavish thought Murphy an optimist)

 

Interesting point. Right now I could probably do ok but even backed up to thousands of acres of wilderness when everyone was running to the hills my only hope would be that they died off due to lack of skill. I see a couple deer, handfull of timber tigers and grouse most times I wander the hills, Its a rare occasion I see an elk, bear or cougar, though I do see far to many of the latter.

 

We have salmon/steelhead river frontage and a creek on the property and hunting hasn't been allowed on the land for about 30 years...across the river is a couple hundred thousand acres of USFS & BLM land leading into the national wilderness.

I figure we have a pretty good shot at small amounts of meat, fish and poultry (lots of geese, some ducks) to supplement our LTS food. We regularly get deer drinking at the creek and feeding in the clearing between the house and the river and there is a veritable herd of rabbits in the blackberry brambles. There is a herd of elk that come through across the river every summer...and turkeys all the time.

I picked up a bunch of traps at yard sales some years back and have wire and snare hardware stashed away somewhere...I don't really expect to see a big influx of hunters considering the location and distance from the highway and real cities.

 

Found several springs around my place but would be very careful about drinking it untreated. Giardia is comman in the ground water in the mountains.