What would you need in order to live completely self sufficient and "off the grid"? Land, Power, Resources?

Question

Assuming you would need to do all of the following for a group of 10 people indefinitely:

1. Grow your own food, (assume both livestock & agri needs)

2. Make your own clothes,

3. Educate your children,

4. Provide for your own power,

5. Secure and normalize potable water sources

6. Make any necessary repairs to infrastructure

7. Provide for the maintenance of health & mental wellbeing

Is there a manual out there that describes what you'd need if there was a general failure of the modern infrastructure?

I know this is a lot of data I'm requesting, so the obvious things don't really need to be laid out. I'm looking for the bigger questions that I might have missed the boat on:

How much arable land is necessary to support the dietary needs of 10 people?

How many chickens, goats and cows?

What books would be invaluable?

What tools would be invaluable?

Really any productive thoughts would be useful....

Answer 1

Mother Earth magazine is a great source of such information.

Answer 2

Just ask an Amish farmer.

Answer 3

You'll also need to manufacture your own ammo to protect your 10 from raids by the commune down the road during famines.

Answer 4

There are plenty of books available, consult your local library system. Few will cover the ENTIRE range of your question. You are going to need plenty of resources, and a sizeable piece of land (About 40 acres minimum) with good drainage and an artesian well rank high on the list. (THAT'S not going to be cheep!) The skills list outweighs the tools list, you'll need to know vetrinary skills, some intense first-aid and medical skills, Ranching and farming, hunting, butchering and tanning, Logging, food preservation, and a butt-megaton of fibre-arts skills. Are you going to grow cotton? or linnen? use wool? Each has different particular skills. You'll need someone with electrical, electronics, carpentry, masonry, plumbing, welding, sheetmetal, blacksmithing,...well, you are getting the picture I hope. THAT's just the beginings of the skills-list. The tools and supplies list will become evident once you begin doing jobs for yourself around the enclave. This is NOT a small order project you've set up, and another, and in fact a MAJOR question is, how compatible ARE these 10 people, and how will they fare if the group has to become totally self-sufficient? The group psychology will be the thing that makes or breaks this before anything else does. Does everyone hunker-down and get with the program, or do some begin pulling-away, hoarding supplies, and withholding efforts towards the common good? That is a very likely course of events, given a group of this size. Good luck.

Answer 5

check out series of books called foxfire books it's all about these things.

first to live off the grid is to use as little electricity as possible I recomend only using it when nothing else will do radios and such. build or get manual devises stone grinder for grains animal harnesses  for plows water pumps for wells. a good supply of salt. look up ancient uses of salt without refrigeration salt is as valuable as money. you'll need a forge and know how to use it as well as a tannery nothing goes to waste

crops depend on your area and soil they need to be something that can be stored and reseeded as well as maximizing yeild by feeding leftovers to animals. cereals corn and rice have saved civalization before.  vegetables are also important the tomato and potato are also very adaptable and the seeds store for long periods spinach kale and okra as well. tobaco has use as medicine and pesticide as well as establishing trade. as well you need medical herbs.

animals, goats are perfect the eat almost any plant produce little waste and produce good milk they also reproduce quickly only kill when neccecery otherwise let then rome reproduce and eat they clear new farmland very well. at least two pigs male and female you want pigs for trade fertalizer and methane production with a methane digester and a means of producing methanol you will have a fuel to bith heat and drive with should the need arise. chickens as many as you can get they revert to a wild state easily and find there own food when you can't feed them as long as you have trees near by for roosting guinees are needed as well they eat more bugs than chickens and act as watchdogs. kill all dogs and cats in the area they are direct competition for food. get a donkey lama or alpaca as they are great watchdogs and protect the flock.

water, a well is needed if you don't have one settle near running water as close to it's source as possible ir you can't do that you need as much clorine iodine or fuel you can get your hands on. you'll use one till it runs out then the next till you can resupply. a hand crank pump and a reusable filter or also needed never plan for the short term always assume this is life protect your water.

shelter, first many small buildings for individual living privacy on the long term is important. second a large communal eating/meeting buillding you'll need the space to expand and for bad weather when you need to be all in one place. your animals are almost as valuable as your people provide shelter for them replacements are hard to come by.

one gun for each household learn to make ammo and gunpowder predators come on more that two feet. a hungry human can at least be persuaded to work for a meal and you must keep in exchange reputation is your only credit left. bows and arrows are best for everyday use hunting and such.

the idea here isn't to isolate your group of ten or so thats what creates raiders. what you want to do here is to establish a  trade route find others out there develop a means of communication and rebiuld civilization as long as there is hope of rebuilding raiders have fewer recruits people fight to regain their lives if it's just you and your ten thats all thats left don't bother.  

hope that helped  email if you need more

Answer 6

My husband and I and 2 children have been living off grid for 4 years now.  We have 10 solar panels, a small wind generator for dark windy days and a store of batteries.  We have planted an orchard of trees and are not yet living off our land but that is the plan.  It is a difficult life but very rewarding.  We homeschool our boys with gov funding and our income is very small but not much is needed we have only the food and gas and car insurance to pay for.  We figured that we could survive pretty comfortably where we are at if there were hard times elsewhere.  

I would recommend that you try it but transition may be hard with so many.  Although...when hard times hit you may not feel it as others will.

Answer 7

Didn't the Branch Davidians try this a few years ago?

Answer 8

Well the first thing you need to do is SELL that computer you are using to post this question.

It consumes a bunch of electrical power and its parts are made from petroleum.

Answer 9

For a really general start try the book "When Technology Fails" by Matthew Stein. Also Mother Earth News is great for do it yourself. If you love learning and have access to the internet you can probably aquire a modicum of all the skills you'll need. Especially if you have 10 people to divide it amongst. I've learned how to fix cars, raise chickens, build solar water heaters, do plumbing and electrical work, raise bees, distill alcohol. If you want to learn it its out there. Now go find 10 people who won't go all Lord of the Flies on you!

Answer 10

I truly do not recommend as the grid is more environmentally and cost effective at balancing supply and demand for electricity.

You can have your own PV and battery but it is less enviro-efficiencient as grid connected PV where by far less power produced is wasted.