Survival Acres

Finding the right location as a retreat for survival acres involves a thorough analysis of the environment to determine if it can provide shelter, protection and reliable water and food-production source. The right property depends on the person choosing the location because many different factors determine the right site for each person. You have to consider the weather, infrastructure, medical conditions, available resources, and your skills in surviving in these conditions for an extended period.

Choosing the land

Choosing the land is the most important part of finding land suitable for your needs. Once you figure out your budget, you can start looking for survival acres suited for your particular requirements. In choosing your property consider some of these features:

• Farmable land
• Elevation, flood risk and fault lines
• Sustainable environment with many different species of trees, plants, birds and other wildlife
• Distance to the nearest water supply and health care

If you plan on using the land to grow your own food or raise livestock you have to have the land and water tested to make sure it is not contaminated with chemicals, industrial or livestock waste.

Homesteading Skills

Homesteading in your survival acres requires a particular set of skills in order to survive. Being self sufficient takes many different skills and hard work but once you acquire these abilities you will be able to live in your environment just like our forefathers. If you do not have your property, you can start practicing some of the skills now so you can be self sufficient, such as:

• Learn to fix everything in your house such as plumbing, electricity and anything that has to be fixed.
• Garden, find out what you can grow in your homesteading property. Choose organic gardening because chemicals and fertilizers might not be available.
• Learn to select animals that can provide food, useful function, by-products and waste
• Learn how to preserve food, such as canning, dehydrating and salting
• Learn how to hunt, trap and fish

Being self-sufficient means you will be responsible for you and your family. Take first aid classes, survival skills, self defense and different weapons training such as fire arms, bows, and knives. Learn how to use all these skills now so you can be an expert or at the very least capable because you cannot afford to make mistakes in a survival situation.

Amount of Land

Most people think that a survival acres retreat needs to consist of acres and acres of land, but that's not necessarily true. With the correct land-management, even an acre will provide enough room for a substantial garden, orchard and animals.

• Garden - With vertical and raised bed gardens, you can grow more food and grains than you could on twice the amount of land.
• Orchard - Dwarf fruit trees take up less room and produce more than enough fruit for eating fresh and preserving until the next harvest.
• Hydroponics - The method of growing without the need for soil, and can be set up to also support fish and duckweed for feeding chickens.

Remember cows are not the only source of meat, a number of small livestock will not only give you fresh meat, but the by-product is gold for your garden. Other small livestock for your survival acres:

• Goats - Easy to take care of and like to eat brush and weeds. Also, their poo doesn't need to be composted before being used on the garden. The smaller pygmy and dwarf goats provide both meat and milk.
• Rabbits - Very prolific and a very lean meat. The hides can be tanned and the poo can go directly onto the garden.
• Chickens - Not only provide meat, but fresh eggs. They can also free range, lessening the amount of grain you will need to store or grow.

Shelter

You have many options when it comes to the type of shelter you can build on your survival acres property. If you are building your house consult with a security and survival expert to implement safety features during the construction process. If a house is already on the property, you can consult with the same experts to upgrade your home to make it safer.

Another alternative is building a bunker on your property, which will protect you and your family from most natural and manmade disasters. If you are building a doomsday bunker, make sure you do your research and hire an expert.

Water and energy

Your chosen survival acres must have a reliable water source since water is essential for survival. A natural water source such as ponds, streams and rivers can be used for irrigation, feeding your livestock, fish farming and generating hydropower. If you don't have a reliable water source, then rain water harvesting using anything from barrels to a cistern capable of holding thousands of gallons of water, can be a viable alternative.

If your property is not part of the electrical grid or if you need power, you must find alternate sources of energy. You can use power generators or install solar, wind and hydropower producing equipment to meet your power requirement.

Security

One of the reasons for settling on your survival acres is to provide security for you and your loved ones. Go through your property, find any vulnerability and fix the problem. If you are not a security expert either hire a professional that will guide you with this process, or do some research online, then follow the recommendations to the letter.

Even though some of the measures might seem extreme at the time, history has proven desperate men will do desperate things during desperate times. Being prepared is a way of protecting yourself during these times.

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