Yet as is true of all the ‘best’ tools to amass for homesteading purposes, the question of what type of weaponry one may need is tied to what type of situations any weapon will be expected to deal with. Sometimes that may mean firearms. The homesteader will have to take into consideration what types of wild animals are most likely to be encountered in their location, whether or not someone in the family hunts for food, the likelihood of having to put down injured livestock, and any property or personal protection needs the family may encounter. In many cases the best tool for the job – and the person wielding the tool – could be a BB or pellet gun. Which is surprisingly effective at discouraging bears from the trash or compost without actually hurting them so as to leave an injured bear on the property (a real, live danger). These can be well less than deadly, but also come with CO2 cartridges that can turn them into effective small game/bird hunting weapons.

Your basic pump-action pellet gun will also discourage a fox from the henhouse without killing it, but you’ll probably have to spend enough time guarding the henhouse with it that the fox learns to associate chickens with the ouch. If you are a good enough shot with a long, compound or crossbow, these weapons are every bit as deadly as a rifle for most encountered critters that must be killed. There are entire weeks set aside in my area for bow hunting game, and there is never a shortage of hunters making use of the no-gun time span. Just remember that arrows are as deadly as bullets – small children don’t need access to pointy sticks of any variety. Older kids often take to archery like ducks to water, which is why it’s a regular feature in many youth organizations’ listed activities.

For actual firearms individuals will need to be aware of various regulations and responsibilities associated. Traditionally, homestead firearms have fallen into the long gun classification – rifles and/or shotguns. The caliber of long gun you may need should be dictated by what you’re most likely to be shooting, and how good an aim you are. You have to be a pretty good shot to kill a chicken-stealing fox with a .22, while also being educated enough about guns to know a .22 won’t stop an angry bear (but just make him angrier). And despite what you may remember from fictional television westerns, no kind of gun is the best weapon against a snake. Having had to deal with a rabid raccoon at our homestead this summer – big threat to pets and kids as well as all other wildlife in the area – the mess you can expect with a shotgun can be justified by being able to kill quickly and surely with just one pull of the trigger.

For home protection, the homesteader is in the same boat as anyone else with the expectation that the likeliest target in a showdown will be human. Some deep and honest soul-searching is required before rushing off to the gun shop, more than just the question of what type or caliber of gun you should get. If you honestly can’t think of any situation where you could shoot at another human being, don’t get any kind of gun for home protection. Bluffing with an unloaded gun can get you killed in a tense situation much quicker than simply giving a burglar what he came for.

If you have small children in the home or who visit regularly, keeping a handgun where it would be handy to YOU in an emergency situation could well prove way more dangerous to your family than not having a gun at all. My husband and I chose early on in our homesteading life not to own any kind of handgun due to a steady supply of children around the place at various times. Even though there have been a couple occasions over the past twenty years when grandpa’s shotgun did have to be pointed in the general direction of invading humans (home/property defense), in neither case would a handgun of any variety have served better.

Trust Mother Earth News to have excellent information on this very subject. This link is to an available 6-page article, and there are links to Mother’s over coverage in a sidebar. I think most homesteaders can get a very good feel for the questions and issues there.

Pioneer Living has some good member discussions some may find informative, and Homesteader Life blog has treated the subject as well. The FreeLibrary offers a good article on the .22 as an entirely adequate weapon from Countryside Publications, .22 caliber: the homesteader’s weapon. It also takes a look at various types auto-loaders and the handgun vs. rifle pros and cons. Much good information is out there for anyone planning to enter a homesteading lifestyle, or is just now getting around to meeting the challenges of said lifestyle that would call for designed-to-be-deadly tools.

Meanwhile, for those of us who started our homesteading life with Better Homes and Gardens in our monthly magazine roundup along with Mother Earth and Organic Gardening, I have just recently discovered what is to me a ‘new’ high-end country-living (or just consuming) rag: Garden & Gun. A friend’s newly-opened establishment in WNC was featured in the June/July issue of Garden & Gun “Summer in the South” review issue, thus I encountered this publication. I’ve gone ahead and paid for a subscription, as I can see this will be a new favorite of mine in the rotating magazine rack.

Useful Links:

Choosing a Homestead Firearm
.22 caliber: the homesteader’s weapon
Homestead Guns and Some Thoughts…

One of the biggest long-range planning issues involved in making a successful transition from a seriously inefficient and wasteful fossil fuels economy toward a more healthy renewables-based way of life is the problem of our petro-based system of agriculture. Those huge tractors and combines that dominate the endless landscapes of Big Agri-biz operations can translate into an entirely unsustainable 10:1 ratio of fossil fuel use to food on the table. Obviously as the cost of petroleum fuels keeps on rising, our society at large must come up with more efficient alternatives. Fortunately, there are a couple of alternatives that bode well for the future.

Huge swaths of the American breadbasket where staple monocrops are produced by the square mile would probably be better off going with Rudolph Diesel’s engine which he invented in 1893 to run on peanut oil. The Big machines could be run on SVO biodiesel that could be produced in a centrally located co-op type operation from oil crops cooperatively grown just for the purpose. These could then power the growing of those massive amounts of staple crops like oilseed, sugar beets, corn and other grains needed for both humans and livestock that are most efficiently produced by agribusiness concerns. Less petroleum consumption for this purpose, combined with programs aimed at lessening big ag’s dependence on petro-based chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides would help a lot.

But is biodiesel the best alternative to the small producer? Smaller, more diverse farms, organic operations and homesteads that participate in Community Supported Agriculture programs and/or agritourism offerings don’t need those huge multi-purpose machines to grow just a few acres’ worth of truck crops, culinary herbs, grains, etc. Luckily for us small-timers, there’s electric tractors.

Electric tractors come in a variety of sizes and conversions from standard small farm size tractors produced by the usual manufacturers to your basic lawn-tractor sized unit that is mostly a glorified riding mower or 4-wheeler/golf cart. Such small units can easily handle the standard machine jobs involved in 1-5 acre fields, often able to plow, till or seed those 5 acres on a single charge. These machines can generally accept any of the standard tractor attachments that any similar sized gasoline or diesel tractor can accept, and while not exactly cheap, are generally not much more expensive than standard models.

Electric tractors actually get more oomph for the buck than traditional tractors or regular transportation EVs that need to be lightweight and go fast. This is because tractors are more efficient at their jobs when they are heavy and going slow. The trick for homesteaders is the power supply for charging the batteries, and of course that must factor into whatever power sources – solar, wind, micro-hydro, etc. – you are using to lessen your dependence on the grid. There are even conversions out there for your basic Small farm size Allis or Deere or Ford tractor that sport nifty overhead canopies (shade!) of solar panels that charge on-the-fly.

On more graded land such as we have here in the Appalachians, any kind of riding tractor or mower type machine is more dangerous than a walk-behind with low profile. And while power for that could be provided by a mule, it’s kind of exciting to find that someone on the electric implement front has already thought of that. Even better, these electrical implements make no noise in operation beyond the noise of the tines working the earth.

Below are listed some great links with lots of good information about electric tractors, tillers, mowers, cart-pullers and such that interested homesteaders will find useful. Several homesteaders I know who have livestock are already using rechargeable battery powered electric 4-wheelers to pull trailers loaded with hay and feed and such to their stock, haul logs cut at distance to where they are split for firewood, and to get that firewood to the furnace/wood stove. More useful actual farm implements attachable to riding mower type vehicles, or conversions of that old Ford might be a great project a homesteader who is already involved in CSA and/or agritourism projects could even find grant money to support.

Useful Links:

EEEVEE: Electric Tractors
The Natural Farmer: Electric Tractors
Permaculture: Electric Tractors
Modern Electric Tractors Incorporated
GE Elec-Trak E15
FreePower: Solar Gardening & Lawn Equipment
SunPony Charging Tiller

I was somewhat surprised on one of my web surfing jaunts to see a blog dedicated to ways of saving money weigh in against the notion of doing odd jobs and building projects yourself. Because for my homestead – and very likely yours as well – if we didn’t do our own odd jobs and building projects, then no needful jobs or building projects would ever get done. So I’ll take the opportunity presented to offer a rebuttal to some of the objections logged in the Money Bucket blog.

The article is Saving Money – Or Not – With DIY Projects, and it’s worth a read if you’re genuinely unsure of whether or not you’ve got the ability to tackle a project on your own. Of course for big projects it’s very important to understand going in exactly what will be necessary – time, tools, materials and a certain degree of skill. Homesteaders already know about budgeting their time toward the “work in progress” that describes our way of life, as there are always a dozen or more projects and repairs that need doing. Most of us, if we’ve been living this way for some years, have amassed more tools than many city-folk even know exist. In fact, for most projects the primary concern is coming up with the money to purchase the materials, and making sure we’ve got every little nut, bolt, pipe, sealant and extraneous parts before we start.

Perhaps the author is speaking more to urbanites than those of us who live out in the boonies on purpose and strive continually to be ever more self-sufficient. When the faucet washers wear out and start wasting our precious water supply (and driving us crazy with drips), or the drain clogs or cracks, or the windows break or the door needs replacing, we aren’t usually inclined to call a plumber or contractor. Heck, many of us would laugh at the very idea of paying some stranger extra to drive from town to our property and repair or replace what we could repair or replace, for ten times more than we could do the job for. But even urbanites with some tools, patience and an ability to turn screws/wenches could fix a leaky sink or hang a door without breaking the budget.

DIY disasters can cost big money to fix. Before starting any home improvement project you will need to understand each step from start to finish. Research potential pitfalls and problems you may encounter along the way to determine if the project is over your head. Be honest with yourself because your enthusiasm will quickly wear thin if something goes wrong – and if you don’t know what you’re doing, things can head south quickly.

That paragraph in the Money Bucket article made me chuckle. Sure, the author is talking about ‘home improvement’ more than simple repairs, but we homesteaders are quite used to those type of projects. We remodeled our kitchen last summer, which included replacing a window and door, re-siding the exterior wall, re-plumbing so we could move the sink, re-wiring, installing new cabinets and countertops, removing a bar to make room for the dining table we inherited, drywall installation, re-framing, flooring and insulating the attic space, and even reinforcing the main load bearing beam. It cost a pretty penny for all the materials, and we did have to replace the drill twice (old chestnut and locust beams are literally hard as rock). And of course things discovered along the way once we got into the walls and attic weren’t planned for but had to be dealt with anyway. Such is life.

Hiring a reputable contractor to complete an upgrade at your home generally gives you the peace of mind that the job is done right the first time. You will pay dearly for that peace of mind, but in some situations it can be worth every penny.

Heh. That’s kind of a surprising bit of advice to give to people described in the first paragraph of the article as “…planning to sell and need to update your home to make it more attractive to potential buyers…” I mean, if you have to pay dearly to upgrade your home in order to sell it to somebody else, then your improvements aren’t likely to cover the costs in this awful real estate environment. If you’re already underwater on that mortgage, digging yourself in deeper isn’t going to help.

It’s a little different if your home is where you plan to live for the rest of your life, but not much different when money’s tight. I had no kitchen all summer (it wasn’t officially finished until Thanksgiving), had to cook on the grill out back while a big sheet of plastic served as a front wall to my house. We all worked very hard, this is not the kind of project that allows much time for other things, and it involves everyone. It even upset the dogs and cats. But if we could have found a contractor to do that much structural damage to a hundred year old chestnut cabin with a crew of a dozen, it would have cost more than we paid for our entire homestead. Literally. And no, that would NOT have been “worth every penny.”

Sure, those kind of huge projects – new roof and/or installation of solar panels/wind or hydro generators, reworking the entire water supply (my next big project), tearing out walls or floors to get to wiring or plumbing, building a barn, etc. aren’t things one undertakes lightly. Or often, if you can help it. And it certainly helps to build up your confidence in the meantime by tackling small repair and replace projects first, learning to handle all the tools, and such. And exercising your mind about how to plan clever ways of getting around serious issues that may be encountered.

It’s all good for you, and just puts that much more of yourself into the overall Being we lovingly call “Homestead.” Good planning works too, so that several projects can be tied into one – the solar panels at the same time the new roof goes up. Replacing the old water-guzzler toilet with a low-flow at the same time you replace the sink and shower. Going ahead with the better insulation when any section of wall comes out. Things like that deserve the time it takes to plan ahead.

Money Bucket is correct in their bottom line that doing things yourself doesn’t always save you money, especially if you’ve got more money than time, skills and tools. But for those of us who have dedicated ourselves to a broader, more expansive and involved way of life that highly values self-sufficiency, doing things yourself is simply another aspect of the life we’ve chosen for ourselves. And we’ve usually got way more time, skills and tools than money to spend. Plus at least one friend with enough time, skills and tools to help us out if we need it.

In an economy like this one, sometimes a friend will help just for the nightly cook-outs, fresh garden veggies and fruit, refreshing cool-down at the swimming hole after swinging a hammer and wielding a circular saw all day, and maybe some iced beer and story-telling around the fire while the fireflies rise.

Money, after all, isn’t everything.

Having posted with pride about our new honest-to-hillbilly deck, I thought this might be a good time to talk a bit more about the many tools a homesteader needs in order to keep the place in order, do the gardening and landscaping, renovate and repair home and outbuildings. I can do this because during the deck project we had a total of 4 hammers on hand, and two of them ended up without handles before we were done. Frustrating.

The very best thing you can do, of course, is to purchase the absolute, best quality, longest-lasting tools – any tool – you can possibly afford. Yet in today’s economy, getting the best quality tools is often beyond the means of those of us trying hard just to make things work. Here at my homestead we’ve got a shed chock full of old chain saws, string trimmers, handle-less shovels, pitchforks, axes, mauls, sledgehammers, pruners, etc., not to mention a whole collection of broken hammers, screwdrivers, various saws and power tools bought cheap over the years and which didn’t last long enough to get to the second job.

Worse, I’ve an energetic daughter and some grandchildren who work hard on occasion, but can’t ever manage to put the tools back where they belong. Which means I find rusted things all over the place, often with wooden handles that long since rotted into compost. It’s extremely frustrating, and having to replace the tools every time you start a project is a regular pain in the ass. Not to mention expensive.

My friend and local homesteading hero told us many years ago to “Buy The Best” because that way you don’t have to keep on buying over and over again. Great advice, but not very practical if you’ve got to have an axe (the last one has only half a handle) and you’ve got just $20 to spend right now. And my hugest complaint about ALL homestead tools with handles – when the heck do the handles get to the modern composite resin/graphite world, just like golf clubs?

Luckily for all us non-wealthy homesteaders, There Is A Way. Why, we can purchase ‘best’ quality tools secondhand! There are a number of ways to do this, and you won’t be sorry. Often you can acquire the super guaranteed-for-life item at or below on-sale cheap stuff at Walmart if you just spend some time looking around. There are estate and farm auctions, there are whole secondhand warehouses, and there are a good many sites on the internet where even with shipping costs the ‘best’ tool comes in cheaper than the Walmart Special.

You could go local to the auctions and auction houses that will let you inspect the items and brands pre-auction, you could go to Craig’s List or Freecyclers and hope for the best, or you could check out some of the links below and surf some of their cross-links too. The ‘best’ of our tools is a Craftsman tiller my father-in-law bought for me when we first moved here. It’s still in the shop right now for its 5-year tune-up, but that thing’s a true workhorse that may never really die. We went ahead and put out the bucks for a Stihl chain saw about 7 years ago, and it’s still going strong on its 4th chain. Which is better than the several cheap ones under the shed that didn’t last 2 seasons.

What’s your most elderly tool, and are you glad you bought the ‘best’?

Links:

Used Tools
How to Buy Good Used Garden Tools
Used Snap-On Tools

In Part I of this series on being prepared for the storms of nature and humanity that may require us to take care of ourselves and our families for days or weeks at a time, we looked at the idea of “Survival Kits” and where those should be kept so that we’re never far from them if ever we need them.

On a scale of likely types of emergencies or disasters homesteaders (and the rest of society) might face, it’s best to be prepared for the ones that would present the most significant survival challenges when planning on what to put into our survival kits. That way the lesser emergencies will seem positively trivial in comparison, and the whole family will become ‘expert’ at getting through tough times. Some examples on that scale -

• Short term local utility outages. Usually resolved within hours or a couple of days, sometimes these last weeks if storm damage to the infrastructure is severe.
• Major earthquake. These can cause extended utility (including water) outages and make it very difficult to evacuate due to road and bridge damage or earth/rock slides.
• House fire that destroys all or part of the home and contents. Definitely a “disaster,” and the one thing you’ll wish most to have saved on your way out are the family photo albums. I know this because it happened to me!
• Getting stranded in your car in a remote location. Both heat and cold can be deadly in these situations. Be prepared!
• Widespread, extended power outage. Major regional storms or a serious breakdown of the grid infrastructure could cause the power to go out for weeks or months.
• Flu pandemic. We’ve heard quite a bit about this one as Bird Flu starts crossing from fowl to humans. In this situation you’ll want to keep your family isolated so long as they’re not themselves sick with flu.
• Larger neighborhood or forest fires. These can be fast-moving and take out large swaths of property.

Some considerations on things to keep in your evacuation bag or do ahead of time just to ensure survival of things you might not be able to save if you must leave home quickly include those family photo albums I mentioned. It’s a terrible feeling to lose your family’s entire history – baby pictures, family portraits, candid snapshots of junior’s 4th birthday party, your wedding album. Such precious items can seldom be replaced. The well-prepared homesteader will have the albums in an easily accessible spot where they can be quickly grabbed and tossed into the car trunk as you’re leaving. Some people keep negatives in their safe deposit box at the bank, or in a fireproof safe in the home.

If you have a safe deposit box, do keep copies of all your important paperwork in it. Birth certificates, wills, deeds and mortgage paperwork, marriage license, vehicle titles and insurance policies. Now that home computers have become fairly indispensable for household recordkeeping and such, make backups regularly of your necessary files and put those in the safe too.

What Needs to Be In the Survival Kits?

There are some things that you’ll want to have with you at all times no matter where you go, to be on your keychain or wallet, or taking up space in your everyday purse or fanny pack. Among these will be your photo ID (usually driver’s license), your cell phone, an LED flashlight, Swiss Army knife and some sort of tweezer thing. You should also carry a basic magnetic compass, a few band-aids and a little tube of antibiotic cream. I also carry a coach’s whistle (good as an alarm system and not too big to put in the purse), a little zip lock bag with matches, a travel-size bottle of aspirin and a few bubble-pack tablets of Benedryl.

I’ve also purchased a few of those little plastic packs of rain ponchos and mylar “space blankets” and have divvied these up between the car kit and purse. My purse doubles as a back pack, so it goes with me on all hikes through the National Forest that borders our homestead.

In the car (which for us is actually a pickup truck) we keep a cell phone charger that plugs into a lighter socket and has replaceable phone jacks that fit a variety of cell phones – since we can’t seem to ever get cells for all of us at one time that all use the same jacks! Got it for not much at Radio Shack. In the glove compartment we keep twine, a roll of duct tape, a little sewing kit with small scissors, and the basic first aid kit along with a couple of space blankets still in their tiny folded and packed state and those cheap folded plastic ponchos with hoods – dayglow orange – in a zip lock bag. In the truck bed there’s a 2-gallon plastic jug of water bunjee’d in a front corner along with a couple of quarts of extra oil and a little socket wrench and tool kit in a metal box.

There are bill caps behind the seats, along with a couple of sweaters and some leather gloves plus towels and rags. A box beneath the passenger seat holds some flares and a good sized crank flashlight/radio. These things are totally cool, and never need batteries! My husband always carries his “Man-Tool” multi-purpose tool he got for Christmas and would never be without. It’s got a saw, a nice file and pretty much any other tool you can think of built right in, and fits in his pocket.

What I need to add are a metal camp-kit, some candles and sterno, and some basic survival food. Granola bars, Ramen noodles, high vitamin dried drink mix and such. There’s a deck of cards and 5 dice in my purse, so if we’re stuck we won’t get too bored. Now, I realize that what I’ve described isn’t exactly a “kit” all packed into a single container put somewhere specific in the truck. But that’s sort of the story of my life… stuff here, stuff there, all of it’s somewhere.

Everyone in the family has taken – and passed – the basic Red Cross first aid and CPR training course, but the first aid kit has that information in a little booklet too. I also keep a field guide to edible plants in the glove compartment and several similar type books in the house. Did you know that you can eat kudzu? It’s officially an “invasive species” in my region, but it’s also a high-protein legume that can be eaten raw like salad greens or steamed for side greens. Jerusalem artichokes and ground nuts grow wild in much of the country as well, and these can add some potato-like chewable substance to a little pot of greens.

Some experts insist you should carry at least a couple of hundred dollars in bills and coins in a little cash box, but I’m pretty sure those experts aren’t as cash-strapped as my family is. It would be nice, but if we’re caught out in the wilderness in a broken down vehicle, I’d be surprised to find a grocery store, restaurant, motel or ATM anywhere close by anyway.

Insect repellant is a must for most of the year in the southern Appalachian region where we live. We use whatever’s on sale at home (and I have a net shirt-hood combo thing I wear in the garden because those bugs will bite no matter how much repellant you wear). In my pack-purse I keep a little container of straight DEET repellant. Only need a tiny bit of that and you’re bug-free for hours. Yes, it will eventually cause cancer (if you live long enough), but given the diseases you can get from bugs (Lyme and West Nile and Encephalitis are big around here), I figure the trade-off is reasonable. Kind of like chlorine, which also causes cancer ‘someday’. Carrying chlorine water purification tablets as well as some patches of filter cloth in your first aid kits is a good idea – the diseases you can get from contaminated water are nasty too!

I mentioned in my last post that you should double up on prescription medicines in the most you can get at one time from the pharmacy, then divvy those up between your home and car kits. I keep medicines I take frequently (aspirin for headaches or other aches, Benedryl because I have allergies) in my purse, replenish regularly because I find I need them whenever I’m away from home.

You’ll also want some toiletries in your kits or vehicle or somewhere within reach in an emergency. Motel-size soaps, shampoos, lotions and tissues are great for this. I have a friend who travels for work as a nursing home inspector, she always takes her own toiletries but collects the freebies from where she stays. Twice a year she gifts me with a shoebox full of stuff, and I always carry a full set in my purse. The box full is right there in the bathroom for anyone to raid any time, so I haven’t bothered to put these toiletries anywhere but the evac bag.

An extra toothbrush or two or three is a good idea, along with travel size tube or two of toothpaste. In a pinch you can use baking soda, which I keep in a zip lock in the first aid kit because baking soda paste is the best treatment I’ve found for insect stings.

In the household kit (or cabinet) you’ll of course want the duct tape, tie wire and plastic sheeting Homeland Security told us will protect us from the terrorists (and we all laughed about). At least 50 feet of good nylon rope is a good idea along with those water purification tablets and filters, and a manual can opener. People tend to forget that last one, though we use a manual Swingline opener on a daily basis at this homestead. Having some canned goods on the shelf in the basement or root cellar won’t help you if you can’t open them.

Another thing most people don’t think of is a regular plug-in land line telephone. When the electricity’s out your cordless phone won’t work even if your land line is just fine. I keep one in a drawer of the treadle sewing machine that normally holds our cordless unit. When the electricity goes out I just plug it in and can call to report the outage.

Some experts advise a battery powered lantern, but the batteries don’t have a long shelf life and seldom get replaced if you don’t use the darned thing regularly. We like oil lamps, in which we burn kerosene instead of expensive scented lamp oil. I keep extra wicks in a drawer in the shed where the lamps and kerosene are stored, as they burn rather quickly if the lamps are your only light for days or weeks. The light is lovely, the lamps are pretty, and kerosene in a proper container doesn’t go bad.

I have also been collecting those nifty solar powered yard lights when they’re on sale. These can go anywhere, give some nice white light, and emit no heat at all. Keeping a roll of aluminum foil near your survival supplies is also a good idea. You can make good light reflectors out of it that will magnify the output, and of course there’s a million other things you can do with foil that you can’t do with anything else. A roll of kitchen-sized garbage bags too, these can be used for lots of things if you put your mind to it. Your homestead tool kit(s) will also be handy, and don’t forget that you need a basic tool kit in your vehicle at all times too!

In part III of this series we’ll look carefully at survival food choices for your home, vehicle and evacuation kits. There are specialty foods made just for the purpose, but who really wants to eat something processed not to go bad in your lifetime? There are choices from the supermarket or discount outlet that will serve fine, and only need to be replaced on a yearly or semi-yearly basis (rotate ‘em out).

And do check out sarahnity’s Frugal Fridays diaries over at DKos for great information. Her post Disaster Looms is particularly useful, a collection of expert advice and sensible extras that could well save your and your family’s lives one of these days!

Links:

Disaster Looms

USAToday: Survival planning starts at home

Survival Unlimited: Supplies

Emergency Essentials

CPR Savers: Emergency Kits

In the last post we established the wisdom of keeping a well-stocked general tool kit which is adequate for most any routine homestead repair and maintenance jobs, to be kept in a convenient location. I listed the hammers, screwdrivers, pliers, chisels and leveling square, about half of the necessary tools, numbered 1-12.

This post lists the rest of the tools that should be in your toolbox or bucket as well as those larger tools that will be kept in the shed or garage for bigger projects.

13. Tape Measure
Your basic 25-footer, 1″ wide metal tape, for a million useful measuring tasks. In our tool bucket we keep a longer and a shorter tape measure as well, as we often do multiple projects at the same time. A 1″ wide metal tape measure also doubles as a passable straight-edge and can be used as a passable plumb bob. Though we keep a good chalked plumb bob in the pocket next to our tape measures on the bucket belt.

14. Hacksaw
There is no ready substitute for a good hacksaw when you need one, and homesteaders will need a hacksaw quite regularly. These specialized saws cut metal, but will also cut glass and ceramics like tile. You’ll be using this for plumbing repairs, conduit installation and the odd job that requires something harder than wood to be cut.

15. Bow Saw
A bow saw is made of tubular steel or aluminum and holds a replaceable crosscut blade. This saw is used for pruning shrubs and trees, and can also be used to saw lumber by hand.

16. Maul
A maul is a heavy, 2-handed hammer with a long handle and a head that doubles as either a wedge or a sledgehammer. the 8-pound size is adequate for most homestead uses, such as splitting wood, cutting tree roots, knocking out walls, and pounding fence posts or stakes.

17. Circular Saw
Among power tools the circular saw is among the most useful. Get one that uses standard 7 1/4″ blades, and keep a few extra carbide blades on hand. They’re more expensive but last much longer, and will easily cut wood, plastic, plywood, aluminum, iron, steel, masonry, ceramic and just about anything else a homesteader will need to cut or score.

18. 3/8″ Drill
You can choose a plug-in or a rechargeable cordless drill, as long as you can remember to charge it between jobs. You’ll need variable speeds and a reverse switch, which allows you to use the drill for driving and removing screws as well as drilling holes. Spring for good quality bits, as these will last a long time and pay for themselves.

19. C-Clamps
At least a pair of 8″ clamps, more in varied sizes if you can afford it. Use these for clamping materials together when gluing, sawing, drilling, etc., or clamping materials to your workbench. Can also serve to hold broken parts together until more thorough repairs can be made.

20. Post Hole Digger
Into the big, shed-living tools now, the homesteader will have ample use for a post hole digger. So get a quality tool for fence post holes, rural mailbox installation, landscaping and other uses.

21. Shovel
Shovels come in a lot of shapes and sizes, and it seems like every homesteader has their favorite. We have several, but for most general digging purposes the basic rounded-blade, D-handle shovel works fine. Get quality because this is a tool that suffers lots of use and abuse, and I recommend one with a fiberglass handle that won’t split or rot if it gets left out in the rain. In northern climates you’ll want a snowshovel as well, and a thin, square ditch-digger is very useful around the place.

22. Six-Foot Step Ladder
A sturdy six-footer than folds for easy storage is a must. Whether you’re changing light bulbs or trying to prune low-hanging limbs, you’ll be using this tool often.

23. Extension Ladder
A homesteader and do-it-yourself city dweller will make ample use of a good adjustable aluminum step ladder. For cleaning eave gutters, getting to and from the roof, even getting kittens out of trees, you can’t beat it. A nice ladder will also double as scaffolding for painting or doing exterior windows if you suspend it on sawhorses.

24. Rakes, Hoes
If you do your own yard upkeep, maintain a garden or otherwise work with the landscaping, you’ll need these basic tools. As always, buy quality and opt for the fiberglass handles. They last much longer and the heads don’t come off as easily. There’s nothing worse than saving a few bucks in the spring on yard and garden tools, only to have to buy again in the fall because they’ve fallen apart.

25. Flat Hand Tools
There are a million uses around the house and homestead for your basic putty knife, mud-scraper and back-bladed wallpaper brush. So I keep these in my tool bucket too.

Once you’ve got a full set of Necessary Tools you’ll be ready for just about any normal job around the home and homestead. We’ll be referring to many of these tools in posts on particular projects for homesteaders. For the wise homesteader, “Be Prepared” is more than just the Boy Scout motto – it’s a whole way of life!

Are you forever missing ‘The’ necessary tool for what should have been a simple repair job on the cabinet doors that won’t shut, or the screen door that won’t close properly, or the bathroom fixtures that leak? Or are your tools scattered in so many different places across the homestead that you just can’t find the right one when you need it?

We used to have both those problems on a constant basis around my place, until a thoughtful friend gifted us one Christmas with the most useful tool accessory I’d ever seen, which has since become so indispensable that I got another one just for the outdoor and gardening tasks. It’s your basic 5-gallon white plastic bucket such as for wallboard mud, roofing tar or paint, plus a leather “tool-belt” with pockets and loops that fits onto the bucket like a collar. Both of these items can be purchased at hardware and home supplies stores, or you could create your own from old, emptied buckets and well worn tool-belts.

We have all 25 of the items on the “must have” list, plus several others we’ve found ourselves often needing for various and sundry repair and maintenance tasks. Not all of them fit in or on the bucket, so we keep the rest hanging just inside the door of the shed. If you need to dig holes or split wood, you know to get the bigger tools before you start, just as you know to get the lawn mower when you’re planning to mow the lawn.

We keep our tool bucket in the kitchen corner right behind the front door so it’s in a central location and can be picked up and taken to wherever in the house or on the property the work needs doing. So long as you remember to put it back in the convenient location when you’re done with the job, everyone knows just where to find it and the necessaries it contains, whenever the need arises.

Into the pockets, hung on the loops, and simply stashed in the bucket are all the right hand and power tools for most any basic job. Below is the first part of the list, to which each homeowner will no doubt add a few just as we have so they’re always well equipped to do what needs doing without wasting time and energy looking for what’s missing.

1. Hammer
For general purposes a 16-20 ounce rip-claw hammer with a smooth face is best. Purchase one with a fiberglass handle that will stand up to serious nail-pulling and won’t disintegrate with age and moisture. In our tool-bucket we keep three hammers hanging in the loops – a small magnetic tack-hammer, a basic ball-peen, and the 20-ounce claw. This covers pretty much any hammering job a homeowner’s likely to do for him/herself, including repairing chair and stool cushions, ripped-out couch coverings, door screens and trim brads.

2. Screwdrivers
You’ll have a basic need for two sizes (large and small) of each Phillips and flat-head screwdrivers. These should also not be the cheapest you can find in the hardware store. It’s true that a cheap tool becomes useless if you use it, and the saving of frustration is more than worth the extra dollar or two for quality tools in the first place. We keep more than these four in our bucket. We also have a collection of mini-drivers in a plastic case, as well as a whole set of hex-drivers in a similar small box. These little plastic boxes are good to keep your small tools together so they don’t get lost at the bottom of the bucket, and since we also keep our drill and driver bits for the drills in the bucket (in their own little boxes), there’s no reason not to include tools you’ll need for more precise, smaller scale projects. A 5-gallon bucket has lots of room!

3. Locking Pliers
Often referred to as “Vise-Grip,” locking pliers have a dozen uses around the homestead. Get a 10″ pair with curved jaws. These can remove bolts, nuts and even screws that have been stripped and don’t respond to the usual means. They can also pull nails that have lost their heads, they can lock shafts to facilitate removing nuts, it makes a fine pipe wrench, can be used as a clamp, a crimper, a bottle opener and can even serve as an emergency replacement for broken control levers until new parts can be obtained.

4. Needle-Nose Pliers
An 8″ pair of needle-nose pliers with wire cutter and stripper in the axis will do yeoman’s work around the homestead. These can remove and install small nuts and bolts, cut, strip, form and twist small to medium gage wires, insert small parts into hard-to-reach places, remove cotter pins, locking tabs and inside snap rings. They’re also handy for removing splinters from flesh (if you’re as accident prone as we are).

5. Pump Pliers
Also called “Channel-Lock” pliers, this tool is most useful when it’s big. Go ahead and spring for the 16″ size as these are invaluable for working with plumbing and as a pipe wrench. A home handy-man will use these a lot, so buy quality.

6. Linesman’s Pliers
These were originally used for electrical and phone line work, but are handy for crimping, cutting, twisting or stripping medium to heavy gage wire, removing bolts and nuts, flattening or bending metal, pulling nails and pulling or flattening cotter pins. They have square jaws and ample grip for leverage.

7. Utility Knife
Your basic “box-cutter” handle with double-sided blades, plus a box of extra blades. These fit nicely into a pocket on the bucket belt. We have at least 5 of these, but only because we could never find one when we needed it before we got the bucket. This handy-dandy tool can cut drywall for repairing holes in the wall or ceiling, can cut paneling as you’re fitting it, cuts fiberglass and foam insulation easily, and will also cut roofing felt and shingles, wallpaper and veneers, carpeting, etc. Ours has also come in handy to cut poster board and foam-core for school projects.

8. Four-in-hand File
Sometimes called a “horse rasp,” get the 8-10″ version, about 1.5″ wide. One side should be half-round, the other flat. This tool reshapes, can save door removal for minor planing needs, reduces sharp edges on metal and plastic fittings, and sharpens larger tool blades.

9. Adjustable Wrench
Get the 10″ version, which will serve the same purpose as an entire set of open-end wrenches both regular and metric. Also useful for bending copper or steel tubing.

10. Chisels
Unless you’re doing fine wordwork, all you’ll need are two – a 1/2 inch and 1 inch butt chisells with beveled blades. Stout handles that can tolerate pounding with your hammer are important, so again spring for the good quality tools. Keep these sharp and oiled so as to diminish rust, and don’t ever use them as screwdrivers.

11. Crowbar
A good curved-bottom heavy crowbar does a fine job of pulling even the largest nails without marring the surface. It can also be used to lift heavy surfaces for alignment, prying up the edges of molding and paneling, etc. Don’t just count on borrowing the one from your car when a need presents itself. Get a new one for the tool bucket.

12. Combination Square
A 12″ sliding square offering 45º and 90º angles with a built-in bubble level is standard for most basic carpentry needs. A homesteader will use this tool a lot when cutting wood, installing and repairing cabinets, setting circular saw depths, and leveling everything from picture frames to countertops.

Next time we’ll get to the rest of our necessary tools, including the large ones that won’t be kept in the bucket. From there we will take a look at the many types of homestead maintenance and repair that will be using these tools.

Links:

Bucket Organizers

Coastal Tool: Bucket Boss Tool Organizers