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5 Improvements You Can Make To Your Homestead To Better Prepare For A Grid Down Disaster

If you run a homestead as a prepper, you almost immediately enjoy numerous benefits and advantages that preppers living in the city or a suburban are not able to: you’re more isolated, probably a ways out of the immediate danger zone, and you get to enjoy an abundance of natural resources.

But still, that doesn’t at all mean that your survival during a major disaster or a significant natural disaster is guaranteed just because you live out in a homestead.

There are several things that you will be able to do to improve your fortunes and better prepare your homestead for a grid down disaster, and with that in mind, here are five ideas for you:

1 – Create A Stockpile of Water

water-stockpile

A surprisingly large number of preppers who have a homestead actually don’t build a stockpile of water.

The reason is that they figure that since they already have a water well or a natural source of water such as a stream or a pond on their land that they don’t need to.

But this is a big mistake for one simple reason: what if that natural source of water or that well gets contaminated in some way?

That’s why building a healthy stockpile of water is so important regardless of whether you have access to a natural source or not, and since you’re living on a homestead, you have the benefit of having plenty of place on which to store it.

Remember the golden rule: you will need to store one gallon of water per person per day. With that information in mind, you can then calculate approximately how much water you will need for your family for any given amount of time.

2 – Keep Animals and Pests Out

If you’re like most people, you should like that idyllic picture of living on a farm or ranch with the deer grazing outside and rabbits hopping about.

wild-animals

But what you should not like is the idea of rabbits and other pests getting into your barn or shed, or your deer grazing from your gardens or crops.

Besides your pets and farm animals, wild animals and pests have no place within the boundaries of your homestead in places where they can cause damage and ruin your chances of survival. That’s exactly why you need to take action to keep those pests out.

This means you need to build a fence or wall around your gardens to ensure that your crops are not feasted upon by animals. You should also construct a barrier of some kind around your shed or barn to prevent pests from getting into it.

For example, you can create a trench around your shed or barn, and then place metal slats into the trench in order to prevent animals from burrowing underneath it.

You might also find interesting our article about tips for a power generation system.

3 – Set Up Better Defenses

fence-installation

Having a perimeter around your property or house is a no brainer, such a fence. At the very least, it makes your property more intimidating to hostiles.  A barbed wire fence in particular is very intimidating, not to mention difficult to break through.

You should also give strong consideration to the idea of natural obstacles. Thorny barriers such as poison ivy and oak being set up around your property will also be very intimidating to intruders, to the point that they may not even want to attempt breaking through.

Finally, don’t forget about investing in guns for defense of your home and property as well. In the case of having a homestead, a shotgun with its limited range will most likely not suffice, and you would be wiser to invest in a semi-automatic rifle such as the AR-15.

Finally, don’t forget to have a method to secure your firearms and other valuables as well any of these gun safes. Many people who live in rural areas believe that they won’t need to do so because they live outside of crime in the urban areas, but the truth is you can never be too careful. Furthermore, a safe can protect your firearms and valuables from fire and moisture as well.

4 – Invest In A Generator

This is something else that many preppers who live on a homestead overlook: investing in a generator.

portable-power-generator

You may think that living outside of the city or any urbanized areas, your homestead won’t be vulnerable to a power outage. And even if you know it is, you may also think that you’re ready to live without any power or electricity of any kind.

But still, having a generator on hand to create electricity and power for you will still be a wise idea so you can use it if needed. Yes, it’s more than possible to live without it, and some people embrace it.

But still, you want to be ready for that “just in case” scenario, and that’s why investing in a generator will be a wise move for you.

Even a small, portable generator will be better than nothing and can create up to four thousand watts of power.

We also recommend reading our article about generating your own electricity at home.

5 – Join Forces With Other Homesteads

Last but not least, don’t neglect building relationships and alliances with other people and homesteads in the area.

work-together-with-homesteaders

This step is critical, because if you don’t build those relationships and alliances now, everyone is going to turn on one another when the going gets tough after a grid down.

What you can do is exchange resources, manpower, and other essentials as necessary by helping one another in need, and furthermore, you will help ensure greater safety for yourself and your family.

Conclusion

Are there extra steps that you can take to improve your homestead for a grid down disaster as well? Absolutely, but these five are also not ones that you want to neglect.

About the Author:

Sam Bocetta is a former naval defense analyst and current freelance journalist specializing in writing about disaster preparedness, self-defense, firearms, tech, cryptography, and cybercrime.

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