Any Peppers Hard Core Or Other Wise In Alberta

Hello I'm currently living in Alberta in the red deer area and am wondering if there are any others near that would like to talk and share ideas.

 

Hello there I’m in the East Kootenays BC about 2 hours from Alberta

 

Hello kootenay prepper thanks for responding to my thread.
If I may ask what kind of steps have you taken for prepping in this part of canada?

 

I’ve stockpiled food and water in my primary location and have backups in bug out locations. I have enough knowledge and practice in the area to live off the land. We have mountain springs marked on maps if our water becomes unsafe. Between me and my family we hunt, fish, trapping, foraging wildfoods, gardening, raising animals, preserving foods, first aid, construction, mechanics, welding and lots of bush survival from search and rescue training. We’ve been working on making our primary property more resistant to flooding and wildfires. Always trying to learn new skills.

How about you?

 

I don't have my own property but I have several bug out points picked out along with a bag made to deal with multiple weather conditions.
My place has a minimum month worth of water and long life spand foods/dry and canned. And I've kept my first aid training up to date from my volunteer firefighter days as well as being a hunter and fisher.

 

I take it you spend time cleaning your surroundings of dead wood and digging fire tranches if fire is a concern for you?

Do you make canals to runoff the water for flooding as well or do you build a stop wall?
I'm curious you probably know better then me about long term home readiness.

 

House has metal roof and planning to replace with metal siding in the next few years. Have a 10 foot completely fire proof zone around the house. have 100 foot zone around house with fire resistant vegetation only. Property is cleared of brush and dead trees and branches yearly. Built fire guards surrounding the property line.

For flooding I’ve worked on directing water down the hill in ditches lined with larger rocks to prevent high flow years from eroding the hillside. Planning on replacing the culverts under the driveway to larger ones hopefully this year.

 

That sounds rather impressive
That's alot of work put in to your home you should be proud.

 

Do you have rain catchers or do you use the streams as your source of water exclusively?

 

Have a well on the property and been working on a rain catchment system for the gardens

 

I imagine your pretty much off the grind power wise then too.
I'm personally getting a solar charger for power outages

 

That’s one area I need to improve I’m still on the grid but have started to plan to make changes there. I’ve been planning a solar system for the roof but still have to figure out how to deal with the snow. The neighboring town did a solar system a few years back on a old mine site to power the town. They get double the snow load and installed automatic swiper systems so I might check into that as well.
That’s a good idea to get even a basic solar charger to maintain a small amount of power.

 

Have you considered wind based or perhaps something similar to a bicycle generator?

 

The wind I’m definitely looking into. Located up on a valley hill so the wind is consistent. I have plans for the homemade bicycle generator but never got a chance to make one.

There is a guide cabin up in the mountains I’ve helped fix up in the past that has a mini hydro system. They have a hose that runs up the mountain and sits in a creek and uses gravity for the pressure. Just above the cabin they have the hose running into a mini homemade hydro system to power lights and small charging bank in the cabin. The outflow of the hydro system has a tap for water outside the cabin with a bypass to flow back in creek when not using the tap.

 

Sounds like your pretty much set then
You've got food, multiple water sources and your working on secondary power generator. You prepared for natural disasters like fires and floods.
Besides perimeter security like fences and pre warning system (which you may already have) you've got your bases covered.

 

Always room for improvements. What plans do you have on the go for preparations.

 

As I said before I don't own a property so home enhancement isn't really an option I'm getting that solar charger that can keep a cooler and two other appliances working. I would like to get a rain catcher as well did you make your or buy one from some where?.
I also have an idea for a small green house inside my building if my numbers are right and the plants take I should have food for two people maybe three if I ration. So I won't need too go into my stock supplies.
Do you use a green house if so have any pointer this would be my first attempt

 

I have a store bought rain catchment system for now but would like to make my own with it plumbed to a drip irrigation for the garden.

Don’t have a greenhouse, have been collecting windows to make one eventually. Keep a eye out there is always people replacing windows and give away old ones for free. Do you have any type of outside space? Deck? Look for a book for container gardening and research the plants you are planning on growing as some require insects (bees or butterflies) for pollination.

Start small and don’t get discouraged if some don’t grow. Check into what types of plants to have around each other as some can be beneficial to other types and others can stunt growth. Some herbs and spices can be very easy to grow inside. Some aloe plants can be a good plant that can be made into burn salves.

 

Those are good points never thought about plants benefiting each other.
Do you use any means of pest-cotrol or is that not to much of an issue for you?

 

I try to keep the garden as organic as possible.

Use broken up egg shells for slug problems.

Buy 1000 bag of lady bugs when aphids infest the plum trees as lady bugs are a predator insect that will eat up to 50 aphids a day.

This year had red currant fruit flies or gooseberry maggots in there earlier life stage wipe out the gooseberry bush and the raspberry patch. Still working on a solution to them.

 

Who sells bags of lady bugs?

As for you berry bushes maybe there good candidates for that green house you were thinking about.
A more controlled environment might help with the pests.
All I can think of is those vinegar traps I used when camping.

 

Find the lady bugs online the hardest part is finding places to ship them to this area.

Ya the raspberry plants I’ll definitely find a more controlled environment to prevent losing them again.

 

It heartens me to learn of strong youth with fresh minds to solve problems. If anybody's gonna survive, it'll be your lot.

You started a family yet? If not, you're so young, you've got time, not to worry. I ask because I'm old and the sweep of life is under me. I look down from thousands of feet and see life-maps measured in Time. My wife and I have been together for over four decades. I've witnessed births to deaths. I'm starting to get separated from it all.

Reading you two young men conversing has been refreshing. I know that there'll be people of my own ilk still around decades after I'm gone. If you have lived a full life, when you get to the end, death is no big deal. It's just another bridge to cross.

 

Thanks Old Geezer (i know it's the name you chose still feels kind of disrespectful to call someone that)
I've read some of your threads and seeing as you've been reading ours here maybe you have a suggestion for kootenay prepper's pest problem.

 

Thanks Old Geezer. I believe there won’t be many of my generation left when shtf as cooking to them is the McDonald’s drive thru.

 

I haven't owned a microwave for like 10 years haven't missed it once.
The food wasn't that great and it's way healthier to actually cook your food.
Far more satisfying too.

 

But I'm afraid kootenay prepper is right when I even have a conversation with someone in my generation even close to being prepared for a disaster there reaction is either the government will handle it. Or it's about how when the aliens or zombies come they be this mega awesome badass super action star and take the fight to them while saving the world and rebuilding civilization single handedly while creating a harem.
First time I heard that from someone I thought they were just mocking me but then I realized that was exactly how they thought it would go down and the only way for civilization would fall was at the hand of an invasion of aliens or zombies ( now before someone reads this and gets upset thinking I'm mocking them I didn't say aliens dont exist just that if they do its unlikely they would come billions of light years to attack us.
And I also thing a type of zombie could be possible but in order for it to be a threat more then 2/3 of the worlds population would have to become one instantly.)
That aside most don't even see the value of being ready for a natural disaster because it will all work out and they'll be back to there old lives in a month to in the end.

 

Anyway I believe that I've got quite far from the actual purpose of the thread.

Let's try too come back around shall we.
Anyone willing to share the basics of there efforts to prepare.? You dont have to own any land to talk here the urban prepper is welcome to share ideas and ask questions as well I myself am closer to an urban prepper then what I call a wilderness prepper. ( hope my terms dont offend anyone)

 

Next year going to work on some more of the wild foods you can find in the area. Picked up the field guide for mushroom picking in the Pacific Northwest.

 

This book is full of useful information in it as well if you want to know the useful plants or trees in the northern areas.

 

That's a really good idea I'll have to go see if I can find it at a book store.
I only know of a handful of plants in the area so that book could be interesting to see how many plants I walk by in a day that could be used for surviving.

 

Are you staying in the city or planning on bugging out if anything ever happened

 

I have prepared to stay in the city without utilities for up to a month if things don't improve by then I would bug out. I have multiple plans for it depending on the situation and weather and season.

 

How is it in the interior of Alberta for finding water and wild foods I’ve never lived in Alberta, my sister used to live in Calgary but moved to Canmore to be closer to the mountains.

 

If you go outside of the city's there is still forests and natural water sources tho it's not as abundant as bc. I've walked through some of them and the forests remind me alot of bc forests just smaller scales. You do have to travel out of the city rather far thought.

 

What kind of animals are over there for food

 

Deer and rabbit mostly there are some good fishing spots as well I'm not sure how magpies, raccoon or skunks taste or if you should even try but For the most part is smaller game.

 

Ya my area mainly go for elk, deer, rabbit, grouse, ducks and geese.

I don’t know much about the others as the skunks and raccoons will eat anything so the meat might taste different.

People use the beaver meat from trapping sometimes for stew meat I’ve heard never had it though.

 

Unless I have a planned spot to stay I think a deer would be as big an animal I could hunt and that's still alot of work to clean, cut and store.
I knew a guy that ate muskrat he didn't recommend it.

 

Good to know muskrat is last resort. I try to avoid the diving ducks that eat fish as the meat isn’t the best tasting at times. Where I am I hunt a lot of grouse as it’s hard not to fill the daily limit of 5. Ya the larger animals definitely want somewhere to store them, I’m not sure about where you are but around here a bear will steal it if you give them a chance.

 

Not sure if bears are in the area but not something I want to test.
But there are other scavengers that would take what ever they could not to mention the risk of the meat spoiling.