# Self Sufficiency/Living off the Land or Off the Grid > General Homesteading >  Homestead Rescue....New program rescue....On Discovery

## hunter63

Homestead Rescue....New program rescue....On Discovery.

Started tonight...on now.......
Guy and his family are helping Homesteaders in trouble.
First couple are a trip........Lots of dreams, no money.....

Fridays at 9:00 CST
https://press.discovery.com/us/dsc/p...estead-rescue/

Bought 11 acres in Montana, no way to grow food, no water on property....drives 40 miles every day for 20 gal of water from a store.....

Should be a lesson for the backpack and big knife folks.........

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## Adventure Wolf

Sounds interesting, but in my opinion if they need to be rescued then they are doing something that they had no business doing in the first place.

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## hunter63

> Sounds interesting, but in my opinion if they need to be rescued then they are doing something that they had no business doing in the first place.


Isn't that the theme of many would be "RATTW" folks....... "My world sucks....I want to live off the grid"......And "Where can get free or cheap land for a homestead....I don't have any money....."

Yeah, the rescuers ended up giving them, a water tank and a truck full of water.....so much for "Off the grid"...
We will see...

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## Adventure Wolf

> Isn't that the theme of many would be "RATTW" folks....... "My world sucks....I want to live off the grid"......And "Where can get free or cheap land for a homestead....I don't have any money....."
> 
> Yeah, the rescuers ended up giving them, a water tank and a truck full of water.....so much for "Off the grid"...
> We will see...


The problem is that people think living off the grid is a better choice because they've never done it. If they grew up like my mother in the hollers of Kentucky without running water or electricity. then they would have a completely different view of living off the grid.

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## hunter63

Yeah, That's kinda the point of the show....

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## crashdive123

I saw previews.  Looking forward to catching up on-line.

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## hunter63

It seem there is a familiar theme here.....
Dumas decides the life "Off Grid Homesteader" is a new romantic, idealistic way of life.....

Start or with minimum of knowledge, experience and MONEY......
Project is failing...
Hero's...with a resume of NOT dying doing the same thing.... to the rescue..... 

Perform obvious problem solving....then ride off into the sunset with the audience believing that "just maybe, these people will be successful...."
Tune in next week.....

Was NOT real impressed so far....will most likely try again to see how it goes....

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## Manwithnoname

> It seem there is a familiar theme here.....
> Dumas decides the life "Off Grid Homesteader" is a new romantic, idealistic way of life.....
> 
> Start or with minimum of knowledge, experience and MONEY......
> Project is failing...
> Hero's...with a resume of NOT dying doing the same thing.... to the rescue..... 
> 
> Perform obvious problem solving....then ride off into the sunset with the audience believing that "just maybe, these people will be successful...."
> Tune in next week.....
> ...


Being a fulltime RV'er at a very rural small RV park, Discovery isn't a channel my antenna picks up, if it gets broadcast OTA at all so never seen it, probably never will. My net is via smartphone and I don't like paying for extra DATA, so I'm not going to watch it online.

I'm just going off of purely what you guys have said this far and from my perspective I'm wondering does this show have alterior motives of portraying the homesteading/self-sufficiency/off grid types as the idiots that "normal" society thinks they are. Normally I would say who cares but......in this day and age with bleeding heart do gooders and Big Brother feeling the need to intrude to save people from themselves could this show cause them to take action and try to regulate this type of lifestyle? Yeah, moving to the middle of nowhere with no viable plan for water is pretty flippin stupid but they've got every right to do it. I'm probably just over thinking things as usual, but in a society where legislation can limit the size of the soda pop you get at the local convenience store, I don't think my thought is terribly far fetched.

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## kyratshooter

Been there done that.  I started several homesteads.  Have not seen the show but know the retinue.

They are all dumb azzhats, some just live through the experience and learn to stay alive as they go, then take that knowledge to the next location and meet a new set of problems.

The average person is under the impression that if they work hard, read a lot, try hard enough, and they are "good people" then the rules say it just has to work out.

The truth is that there are never enough hours in the day, you never have enough money to do what you want, the instruction books never contain all the steps, everything that can go wrong will go wrong, you will find out everyone else is not good people, and the whole place has a good chance of burning to the ground while you sleep.

I would love to see the casting call for that series!  Wanted, people from the city trying to live off grid, must be engaged in a near death experience or to have made decisions so stupid no one will quite believe it is real.

Do we not constantly tell people that if land is vacant or cheap in 2016 the reason is that you can't live there!

This pilot episode sounds like that moron we had a couple of months back that wanted step by step instruction on how to live on a dry farm in Nevada.  He though as long as he had 350 days of sunshine a year and a solar panel he was set! He didn't consider water a priority either, collect some dew, store roof runoff from the 4 inches of rain a year....

Reality TV will never end as long as there are new homesteaders and people willing to starve in the woods for money, with or without clothing.

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## Rick

Crap, I don't have enough hours in the day to take care of my house in the 'burbs. I have no idea what I'd do off grid. As for rain run off, I have 100 gallons of rain catchment and even with all the rain we've had this spring I have still used most of it for watering flowers and the garden. 4 inches a year would last about 12 minutes.  :Thumbup1:

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## kyratshooter

Good Lord above I was right!!

I am sitting here watching the first episode and it is exactly as expected.

These people should have never left the suburbs of PA where one can survive as a dumazz and hard headed stupidity is expected.

These people are surrounded by elk, deer and small game and they are starving.  The man has not picked up a gun and gone to the woods although facing starvation.  They even have a goat heard living off site because the "goat mansion" is not present and there is no water.  They have not planted a single seed in the ground even to watch if fail, because "good enough" is not what she expected.

And OH YEA! We did mention there was no water!

So now the tank is there, but I will guarantee you that when it runs dry, and they do not have the funds for a 1000 gallon delivery, they will revert to the 20 gallon water runs again while cursing the empty tank.

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## 1stimestar

They are using too much water if they have to go every other day and why don't they stock up more?

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## hunter63

Same reason the lasy didn't want a green house...but a garden "down the hill.... the "goat barn" wasn't big enough....not going to work on the house as it just temporary ,...... she's waiting on the "Big House".......

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## kyratshooter

> They are using too much water if they have to go every other day and why don't they stock up more?


I could not figure that out either.  If you have no regular income and you are dribbling away a nest egg of some sort then why not buy a week/month of water at a time and avoid wasting money on the trip.

Unless you enjoy the trip and it is a daily escape from the homestead.  Is an escape worth $19,000 a year?  That was their estimated water and transport cost hauling it 20 gallons a day.

Neither one of them are suited to homestead life, or life as westerners, and there is a western thought process the people that live in the west develop related to their climates and environments.

Months latter, in the final scene follow up, the man had still not "gone hunting".  

How do you live in the wilderness and walk past game daily and not pick up a gun and shoot some food?  That is as much a non-homesteading attitude as waiting for the goat castle to be supplied.

What you want to bet they bought that land sight unseen off the internet?

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## finallyME

The whole purpose of the show Doomsday Preppers was to make fun of the prepper community and make them all look like idiots.  I haven't seen this show, so don't know what their motive is.

This show sounds pretty funny though.  If you don't have water on the property, then you probably shouldn't homestead there.  Some rancher probably died and his kids didn't want the family business, so they parsed out the land to sell.  The property with water is probably a lot more expensive.  This property is probably only good for hunting land.  

Hunting in Montana, like most of the west, has a specific season.  If it is not in season, you can't shoot it. http://fwp.mt.gov/mtoutdoors/HTML/ar...m#.V2hAoKLGXeY  Of course, if they have been there for more than a year, they should have taken an elk by then.

The wife and I have been looking at land in Montana.  It is a lot cheaper.  But, first I have to find a job there.  I want a hobby farm, not a complete off grid homestead.

Having not seen the show, but listening to you guys, it sounds like the misses expects it to be all perfect.  My sister in law is like that.  They want to buy land and live on it.  He is a lawyer who works from home.  All he needs is internet and he is making money.  Every time they look at land, they start stickin' their noses up at the "trash" left behind from the previous owner.  You know, old farm equipment, trailers, rusty stuff, stuff that isn't pretty.  The only way they could pull off a homestead is if they paid someone full time to work it. Some people just don't want to change enough to make it work.

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## Grizz123

I'll refrain from judging the people on the show since I dont know them or their history. And even though they had many issues (lack of knowledge) at least they have the testicular fortitude to make the jump and get away from society...

I didnt think it was very entertaining but I did learn some do's and don'ts so I will watch it again

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## Wildthang

I'm holding out for the other new show, Naked and Homesteading!!

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## kyratshooter

> I'm holding out for the other new show, Naked and Homesteading!!


I have done that one back in 1982!   

No camera crew involved.  

It worked out well and was a lot of fun.

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## hunter63

This week...Couple in Virgina, bought land on Craig's List....
Had 40 hogs and a bunch of chickens...all free range (hog wild?...LOL)....
Hawks, eagles, coyotes....killing them like crazy....
Lady killed a yote and was crying, but realized they need to control the predators.

No out house, crapping anywhere in the woods........built house (shack) 12X12 2-story .....with a big azz oak tree next to it......they did cut it and traded 3-  8 ft logs for about $3000 worth of cut lumber.

Trying to convince the guy that the sows need to be kept in a pen so they could suckle the piglets.....so far had only one make it.
Seems he kinda hard headed....
So building a pig pen and chicken coop they "were" free range as well....not many left. 

All I can say is....Good Lord.

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## shiftyer1

I can understand being emotional after killing an animal,  especially if it was a first.  I will say that she didn't question him...it was should I take the the shot,  YES..... BOOM.  Of course that was probably shot #35 cut 3..........  

I can also understand their trying to let the chickens totally free range,  it's the first year.  I've provided a chicken buffet in the past.  

He was very hard headed and convinced everything should run loose.......with 40 hogs on 20 acres??????   

I REALLY don't understand why they've been squatting in the brush for a year?????????

At the end they said that the people had built a greenhouse using "  a bunch of sliding glass doors that were on property" and had also made steps to futher confine the pigs.  They made some electric pastures.  

The man said he learned things from youtube and had already cut himself on the leg with a chainsaw.

I'm real curious how to get rid of the birds they have.  I have quite a few hawks owls and buzzards around here but holy cow they were just circling around their place.

I don't know,  it's kind of entertaining to me.  If anything maybe someone sees it and realize it takes more than a hog, chicken and bucket of water to make a sustainable homestead......because that's what it seems these folks are working with.

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## hunter63

Looking back in my experience.....I will give the lady credit.....or question her intelligence, but DW said to me back when....
"Build what ever you want....but if I say there...there will some sort of crapper"

After 15 years of Porta-potty, then composting toilet.....when the cabin went in....Inside running water, shower, and flush toilet.

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## kyratshooter

I just watched the second episode of this series and I am being successfully entertained!

I have not seen the Rainey family do anything I could not agree with even if I would not have done it that way.

Problem is that they are dealing with people that do not realize they are dumazzs, are failing in every way and arguing against change.

There is just something encouraging when the geezer Dad speaks the words "I don't want to here the words YOU-TUBE while I am on this property!" that rings true.

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## hunter63

LOL....That YOU-TUBE comment made my day...........
I am kinda enjoying seeing a little light coming on in their heads, the only thing worst than a Dumas is a stubborn Dumas.....LOL

Remember, they are allowed to be Dumas's.......Lord knows many of my endeavors were viewed by other as sorta Dumas-sy.

Maybe do a follow up in a year?

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## kyratshooter

Their short term follow up showed a big litter of piglets already squealing and happy.  It probably would have been a dozen or more if they had sheltered the sow while she was pregnant.  

One might also come to the realization that our protective attitude toward predatory birds can only exist in a world of factory farms where all small and infant livestock is caged or housed.  It was not random sport shooting that kept the number of predatory birds in check during our settlement and farming years, it was the need to protect our livestock.

Yet people that do not live on farms will argue that hawks, eagles and buzzards do not really kill livestock and that attitude is a myth.  They have never walked out their back door and picked up a dead chicken that some hawk seemed to have killed for sport and left to rot.  

And they definitely have never sat up all night waiting for a coyote or raccoon to return to the hen house for a snack.

I thought this weeks big "grow a set" factor was the young couple realizing that if you survive on a homestead you are going to have to learn to kill things, both as protection and for food.

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## Seniorman

It's all "show biz," folks.  Everyone wants to be in "show biz."   :Yes: 

S.M.

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## WalkingTree

I haven't seen any of this show. But from reading you guys, it sounds like I'd just end up shaking my head - them not having any sense, not doing any thinking beforehand, not willing or able to kill an animal for food, not trying to garden or have any water. I wonder if they'll have a show about them folks going to south America illegally that we heard about in here recently.

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## 1stimestar

> Homestead Rescue will be airing an episode this Friday that takes place here in Fairbanks.
> 
> Marty Raney says when working on the show with production companies, he wanted to make sure that it was as authentic as possible.
> 
> Raney said "I'm not doing scripted TV. Nobody in L.A. is going to sit in an office and tell me what to say when they get here. It's not going to happen. You don't script real Alaskans. Alaska is better than fiction. I can see that Discovery and Raw Productions out of England did in fact gain my trust, and we shot six episodes across America -- one in Alaska... Fairbanks."


I'm not sure whether this qualifies as bragging or not hahhaha.

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## kyratshooter

They got to apply fire proof siding to a cabin and dig a root cellar while fighting two twenty-something year old homesteaders all the way.

They were in the last house at the end of a dirt road in the middle of no where but wanted a barrier of trees, that were creating a fire hazard, for "privacy".  You are in the middle of nowhere on top of a mountain, why do you need a privacy screen?

Dumping garbage 20 feet from the back door in bear country. Keeping dog food in plastic tubs, meat in an unlocked deep freezer.

The "team" got most of that sorted out.

They will still be lucky if a grizzly does not eat one of them.

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## hunter63

I'll have to try and catch this one....had company so missed it......Oh well.

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## izameez

I watched the second episode entitled "Under Siege" with the Virginia couple and their free range pigs and chickens. I found it entertaining. However, are these people for real? Can people really be so stupid and naive to move out into the countryside with zero knowledge about self-sufficiency and survival? It seems so. It appears that the little knowledge they have came from Youtube. Much information can be garnered from Youtube, but it's not a catchall. The mentality of these naive folks who decide to move out into the country and believe they will automatically become self-sufficient and successful without the proper preparation and knowledge needed in advance, I refer to as the "Field of Dream" mindset. Like in the movie, "Build it, and they will come". They seem to believe, "Move out, and we will prosper". 

For example, how can you live in the developed world and seem to know nothing about sanitation and hygiene? Apparently they don't as they went #2 in the woods surrounding their no electricity and no plumbing dwelling for over a year.

The guy Josh is a card-carrying, charter member of the Maroon Club. He says they have principles and ideals concerning their free ranging pigs and chickens, even though they are all slowly dying due to predation and other causes. What? I thought the first principle of raising critters was common sense and responsible stewardship. Free ranging is a great concept, but you control the critters and not vice-versa. Also, he argues with the Raneys over their pigs after they talked to a man who had successfully been raising pigs commercially for over 20 years. He says something like, "But you only talked to one person". (Yeah, who has 10,000 times more experience than you and is successful too!)

The couple does finally come around, so intelligence finally does win the day. Ah.... such is reality TV!

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## hunter63

Hunter63 saying Hey and Welcome.....
But you would be surprised at what people do.

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## DSJohnson

So, what I hearing is that these people really need a copy of the WEC.

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## hunter63

Steve Jobs was quoted as saying the WEC was the Google of the 1960's, so I don't think things are that different.

I gonna guess we were all over confident and stubborn back when.......
But we(I) got slapped down enough times that we(I) learned the hard way...matter of fact one on MF favorite saying was "Experience is the best teacher".

So far we are kinda seeing that in these shows.

Back when Mother Earth News used to have articles on "Them that are doin'......Homesteaders that had been successful at least for a while.

Then were only a couple of articles about "So and So's Homestead, 10 years later.....many couples were divorced and had moved on.
But there were still the Helen and Scott Nearing stories....of a life long Homesteader life style.

So who knows....but I sure the drama is cranked up....

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## DSJohnson

I loved the Helen and Scott stories and really were encouraged and challenged by them.

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## DSJohnson

The fact that they used a buck saw and a bow saw to cut their firewood still wows the daylights out of me!!!

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## hunter63

Scott Nearing passed away couple of week after his 100th birthday, by fasting on purpose....was his own choosing.
Quite a story.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Nearing
Quote>
Nearing died on August 24, 1983, eighteen days after his 100th birthday. His death was described as a conscious leaving of life brought about by fasting in Helen Nearing's memoir, Loving and Leaving the Good Life. However, later accounts by Nearing biographer Ellen LaConte and Jean Hay Bright state that Helen Nearing glossed over some of the painful details[v

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## Faiaoga

Thank you for reminding about Helen and Scott Nearing, people I have heard of but never learned much about.  You might also mention Wendell Berry, a person with similar beliefs, but who seems to be still living - I have been able to learn more about him.

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## hunter63

The Nearing's weren't talked about by the main stream media....... as Scott was a fanatic pacifist and against war back starting with WWI...
Continued his teaching all his life.....so was kinda shunned except for homesteading and building skills.

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## kyratshooter

I saw one of the comments from a former employer during WW2 stated that his pacifists logic was "infantile".

He also considered the Stalinist purges of the 1930s a necessary preparation for WW2.  Hypocritical considering that violence and summary execution was acceptable to promote world wide communism but defense of democracy was against the rules of nature.

A socialist and communist who still accepted payment for his speeches against the capitalist system as a work product and sold the produce of his homestead on the free market as a working capitalist.

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## hunter63

That him.....and why they don't get much press.....wasn't real popular with most folks.
Heck of a homesteader and I would guess that the same hard headed tenacity served him well in that life style.

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## kyratshooter

Another episode of Homestead Rescue last night.  

I am convinced the Rainey family came to WSF and looked up every moron that ever came here and asked us how to make the impossible happen.

This week it seems it was the last guy that asked us how to start a farm in the Nevada desert.  No water, no house, no dirt, a thousand rattlesnakes and no common sense.

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## hunter63

Guy on the "other forum" is talking about a a water tote, tasting like plastic......seems he's hauling water for his "Place".

I am surprised that they hit water out in the desert last night, on last nights episode .....but then again they drilled close to the neighbors "spring".
But the "dig a hole for a well" out there?......Wow, what were they thinking?

Wonder how much the show paid the guy for the well?......and I didn't really hear how deep?

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## kyratshooter

They hit water at 150 feet.

It surprised the well driller too.  He was predicting a 1000 foot dry hole.

Water tote tasting like plastic???

Does he mean tastes like plastic instead of chlorine or any of the other tastes water picks up during filtering and transport.

It is truly amazing how people decide to do the "dry farm" thing and expect their water to taste like it came from a flowing spring and realize their solar system will not support an air conditioner in the 105 degree heat.

I used a plastic tank for three years in one spot.  I never noticed a taste in the water because I was using chlorine to purify the system.

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## hunter63

I thought that's what he said...????....They drilled for 2 days? ....for water at 150 ft?
My well on the hill .....is 185 ft. with water at 130' with a 4 " pipe in 6" case down 90ft (grouted)....was $4500 bucks with state approval and stamp.

My "stock well" on the river bottom is 30 ft. 1-1/2 pipe w/sand ......water was at 12 ft just under the hard pan.

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## 1stimestar

Was he leaving his plastic tote out in the sun?  That will make it taste like the plastic, especially if it is new.  Ask me how I know...

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## kyratshooter

1TS everything they had was out in the sun, they were in Nevada living in a pile of old RV trailers.  Every group they have helped has been a bunch of cloud brained dreamers and some of them could not even see the obvious solution for their problem even when it was presented to them.  

They all have a dream, so it is just supposed to happen!

I have noticed that all of the failing homesteaders have one thing in common.

None of them have a JOB!

I have never known any successful small farmer, and all of these homesteaders are on relatively small plots, who did not have regular employment bringing in a stable income.

Many of these people have quit their jobs, cashed out their retirement funds and dived into a life they knew nothing about.  And on each of the shows I have heard the same comment expressed.  "It wasn't supposed to be this hard!"

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