Living off the grid sounds great at first, and truthfully for a well prepared person, it can be. But, before you head off on the adventure of a lifetime and begin the journey towards a truly self sufficient lifestyle you may want to take stock not only of your own skills and resources, but your tool chest, too.
A very real fact to consider when preparing to start an off-grid homestead is what tools are you going to need not only during everyday life, but even on a less frequent basis.
The following is a breakdown of some of the best tools to have for living in an off grid homestead that should help you assess your own readiness and prepare for this new chapter in your life.
Personal Use Tools: Go-Bag / Bug Out Bag / Day Pack
Living in an off-grid homestead means that you are going to be striving for more and more self reliance and independence from the luxuries of modern life and that independence will require a certain level of personal readiness. Think back to the adventurous cattlemen and outdoorsmen of past generations – they often had what was referred to as a ‘possibles bag’, a collection of certain small, personal items and tools that they kept close at hand for quick use. Modern survivalists refer to these as a ‘go-bag’ or a ‘bug out bag’, we’ll call it a ‘day pack’.
Below are some tools to consider for individual carry or in a convenient manner such as a light weight back pack:
A Full-tang Fixed Blade Knife
It may seem unusual, at first, but a good knife has a million uses during the day – especially in an off-grid setting. from use shaping wood for assorted applications to digging up roots or clearing away small vines or debris while foraging to field dressing game while hunting, fishing or walking your trap line. Think practicality when choosing your blade, you’re not out there to impress people and this isn’t a costume party, leave the Roman gladius behind and opt for a well made, carbon or high grade surgical steel blade length of between four and eight inches.
A Well Made Folding (Pocket) Knife
Yes, you already have your fixed blade knife, but it’s more of a specialized tool for larger projects. Your pocket knife will see a lot more use and abuse than you may think, but it’ll quickly become one of your favorite tools. You’ll use it for many tasks from trimming away that pesky thread that’s been hanging from the edge of your shirt collar all morning to far more meaningful tasks like trimming the line on your fishing pole after you’ve just attached a new hook or lure or maybe you’re working on putting your trapping skills to the test and your luck has improved, and you snared a nice bit of small game – yes, you can use your fixed blade knife for the task of cleaning the meat, but the smaller, more maneuverable design of a folding knife will make the task move along much more quickly and generate less waste.
A Sturdily Built Multi-Tool
A multi-tool, those fantastic folding gadgets what open out into a set of pliers with various blades and small tools built into the handle will prove to be invaluable living off the grid. think of them like a personal-sized emergency tool kit. While this too may seem redundant when you already keep two cutting tools close at hand, keep in mind that it could take the place of your folding knife, but not so much the other way around. The more you engage in daily maintenance around your homestead and the more you find yourself working with various pieces of your survival equipment, the more you’ll learn to appreciate the diverse capabilities of this particular tool.
A Small Survival Hatchet
The smaller survival hatchet may not seem like an every day carry tool and, you may be correct, but this small tool – the majority have a roughly four to six inch cutting blade – is a light weight, highly useful tool when foraging and hunting. It takes up minimal space on your belt or in your backpack, and can be used to gather fuel for smaller fires, as a cleaver when processing game and many are manufactured with various openings cut to fit common nuts and bolts, allowing you to use the survival hatchet as a wrench when needed.
A Personal First-Aid Kit
While the need for a general first-aid kit around the homestead should seem obvious enough to even someone just beginning to prepare for a life off the grid, many fail to consider the benefits of a personal first-aid kit. A personal first-aid kit doesn’t need to be as extensive as your primary kit; but, it should contain the basics such as sterile bandages, alcohol prep pads, a small tube of antibiotic cream and a mild pain reliever such as naproxen or something similar. You should consider the fact that working with your hands and living off-grid, you will likely experience commonplace abrasions, small cuts, etc.
A Small Flashlight
Another tool to consider adding to your personal kit or day pack is a small flashlight. It may not see daily use, but from performing routine maintenance to lighting the way home after dark to even signaling help in an emergency, a small bright LED (higher visibility, lower energy consumption) flashlight will prove to be an invaluable tool.
Day To Day Use Tools For Living Off The Grid
With the personal essentials covered, let’s discuss those tools that are best for day to day use in, on and around your off grid homestead. these are the tools that you will need for routine work but are too large or heavy to simply carry about with you wherever you might venture and thus will more likely be stored somewhere when not absolutely needed or being put to use.
Valuable tools for everyday or common use around your off-grid homestead:
A Weather Radio
Staying informed may or may not feel important to you as you begin your life in an off grid homesteads, but knowing what weather emergencies are coming your way will give you an advantage that could mean more than you think. Picking up one that either relies on more than one primary power source or one that relies on an internal, hand-powered magneto for charging is usually your best course of action as batteries tend to either lose their charge too quickly or corrode when left in the devices too long which could damage the circuit and possibly ruin your radio.
A Draw Knife
A draw knife is a bit of a specialized tool, comprised of a sturdy, sharp blade with a handle attached to each end, which does take a little more practice and some to master, but it is well worth not only the initial costs associated with finding one that is well made and holds an edge. The draw knife tends to be a fairly versatile tool that can be used both in woodworking, specialized crafts such as basket making and preparing pelts to be processed into rawhide and leather.
A Sharpening Kit
From knives to hatchets to axes and saws, living on an off grid homestead you’ll use more cutting tools than you’d think and they’ll require upkeep. A sharpening kit consisting of an assortment of files, whetstones, and other similar tools will become a mainstay in your daily life. Those more experienced in maintaining a blade’s edge will more often than not suggest that you also incorporate various types of fine-grit sandpaper or a honing strap along with your more aggressive sharpening tools to help remove the burs from the knives you use to process meats in order to give you the keenest edge possible; while they’ll recommend a six, eight or twelve inch bastard file for axes and hatchets and other similar cutting tools.
An Axe
You should consider having at least one, if not more axes. An ax tends to be a highly useful tool when gathering and storing firewood, clearing ground for shelters, storage structures, or food plots and gardens. You’ll also discover that when processing larger game or livestock that a sharp ax will come in handy in more ways than one.
A Framing Hammer
Building things often requires diving nails, every good homesteader already knows that one of the first tools they’ll use regularly will be a framing hammer, these come in different weights with various handle lengths and it never hurts to own a couple of them to ensure that you have every advantage when selecting the right tool for the right project. After all, you wouldn’t necessarily use a twenty-two ounce framing hammer to hang a feed bucket when a sixteen ounce claw hammer would do the job more comfortably.
A Sledgehammer
Much like the ax, you should consider investing in more than one sledgehammer, they may be heavy and you may not use them often, but when you need to repositioning a heavy beam, or break up a large stone they’ll be your go-to tool. Then, too, by employing a secondary too known as a splitting wedge, the sledgehammer can be used to split stubborn or knotted firewood with relative ease.
A Standard Socket Set and Ratchet Wrench
The ratchet wrench comes in three most common sizes, 1/4″, 3/8″ and 1/2″; in most cases you’ll need a 3/8″ drive ratchet and socket set mainly for routine mechanical maintenance of things like your generator and other small engines (It’s advisable that you consider purchasing all three as you will find uses for all of them from time to time). It’s advisable that you purchase a set of sockets which includes both standard (US) and metric sizes as you will more likely than not encounter both when working on various machines.
A Set Of Combination Wrenches
Your sockets and ratchet wrench will handle a lot of your needs, but it’s a guaranteed fact that you’ll encounter bots and nuts that you simply need more leverage or a slimmer profiled tool in order to reach from time to time, a good set of combination wrenches – open and box-ended -will easily solve this challenge and help make maintenance project move along more smoothly.
A Cordless Tool Set
Working under the assumption that you will be using self-generated electric of some sort to be able to maintain a charging station, a cordless tool set consisting of a power drill, a reciprocating saw and other such items with batteries rated not less than 18 volts will allow you to work more quickly on certain projects and even simplify others.
A Chainsaw
Another highly useful tool to have when living in an off-grid homestead is a chainsaw. whether you’re stockpiling firewood for cooking and heating, clearing ground for garden space and food plots or to add another shelter or structure a chainsaw will save you considerable effort and allow you to work more efficiently.
A Mattock
Preparing a garden plot in rocky soil or in areas rich in clay deposits can seem daunting using more widely known tools such as a shovel. rake and hoe. However, a mattock – a tool which is similar to a pickaxe with a broad, flat blade – will ease the process and make removing obstructions such as lumps of hardened clay, larger rocks and stubborn roots, allowing you to clear larger areas and increase your food production. A mattock can also be used to clear drainage and irrigation furrows quickly and with far less effort than a shovel.
A Shovel
A fairly obvious, but invaluable tool to have is a common shovel, though it’s best to have both a round tipped and a flat or square tipped shovel. These tools do take up a bit of space compared to others, but, given the number of varied and vital uses, they are well worth the time and effort to have. Many will suggest that you find these tools equipped with a handle made from fiberglass or other similar composite material; more experienced outdoorsmen or homesteaders enjoying a life off the grid will quickly point out that wooden or metal handles will serve you much longer and in the event of damage are all too often more easily replaced. A round tipped shovel, with a good sharp edge will make common tasks such as preparing soil for planting a garden or food plot much easier than just using a mattock, not to mention simplify certain construction projects where earth must be moved to prepare or facilitate building various structures from lodging to storage areas, a latrine (you may not like thinking about it, but it’s going to be a part of life off the grid), composting area or even a recessed area to build a smokehouse to preserve fish, game and other meats. A square tipped shovels makes life a lot easier when shaping an opening if you’re preparing to build any structure that requires a recess in the ground, plus makes leveling prepared areas or removing sundry obstructions like gravel.
A Sharp Garden Hoe
If you’ve ever had a home garden before you are already familiar with the frustrations associated with the daily battle you must wage with weeds, or other intrusive plants that tend to spring up voluntarily in your prepared soil. It’s just a fact of life, they’re going to sprout, and they’re going to take nutrients away from your garden if they aren’t kept in check. A good sharp garden hoe will prove to be one of your most relied upon tools.
A Garden Rake
Sometimes a forgotten item in your gardening tools is a heavy-tined rake, it may not see as much use as other tools, it can be used to maintain various areas from your garden beds to an outdoor fire pit and makes removing small debris such as roods, organic waste from your garden areas and gravel much easier than simply gathering them by hand. This tool will also prove to be an asset if you raise livestock of any type and thus have pens or feed lots to maintain.
A Pry Bar
Sometimes called a crowbar, or wrecking bar, a sturdy pry bar should always have a home among your larger tools – it may not seem as much of a priority to some people, however, when making changes to an existing structure or repurposing materials, very often, using a pry bar will allow you to separate two or more pieces of lumber that have been nailed together without causing as much damage as it would to simply beat them apart with a hammer.
A Wheel Barrow or Garden/ Utility Cart
While you can handle many smaller chores fairly quickly, there are many daily chores on a homestead, which can be made much more simple by using a basic wheel barrow or garden/ utility cart. From transferring the remnants of processing and preserving your crops, to moving smaller loads of firewood or other materials from place to the next. If you’ve decided to raise any sort of livestock, you’ll find that a wheelbarrow tends to make certain aspects of pen maintenance and cleaning far more bearable and will reduce the amount of time you’ll invest significantly.
Other Essential Off Grid Tools: Less Used, Not Less Useful.
Now that you have put extra thought into your personal and more commonly used tools, let’s discuss your larger tools or assets that will prove to be essential living in an off grid homestead. No, they’ll likely not see as much routine use as your basic essential tools or your personal tools. However, that doesn’t make these larger items any less meaningful or valuable. In fact, they’ll likely prove to be some of the most invaluable assets that you will ever have on a homestead, off rid or on!
Larger Essential Tools and Equipment:
An ATV or UTV
Not everyone is ready to tackle the burden of raising larger livestock, especially beasts of burden such as a mule or horse. For those less inclined, or even those who simply prefer not to add the additional work associated with the care and upkeep of larger work animals, an ATV or UTV is the next logical choice. Whether it’s transporting a load of freshly felled firewood to the woodpile to be split into more manageable pieces for cooking and heating, to hauling debris or even pulling a particularly stubborn stump free of the ground where you hope to start a new project after you’ve loosened the ground around it and cut away the feeder roots. The uses of an ATV or UTV are virtually limitless on an off-grid homestead; and while they do require a bit of routine maintenance and may fall victim to mechanical failure from time to time, they don’t require regular veterinary care, special feeds or additional medications to be kept on hand. Best of all, unlike an animal, they’re not going to spook at a strange sound or randomly decide that they would prefer you weren’t sitting on their back and offer you a free, impromptu flying lesson. Humor aside, there are many reasonably priced attachments and implements that can be used with an ATV or UTV such as trailers, harrows, plows, wenches, grading and drag blades that will simplify larger projects and improve your overall quality of life.
A Garden Tiller
These great little machines are one of the most fantastic inventions to have ever been introduced to the art of modern gardening. whether it’s a single or double tined unit, forward drive or rear, the common garden tiller is a tool that will allow you to prepare and maintain larger gardens and food plots with much less effort and wasted energy. Yes, just like your ATV/ UTV they will require fuel and maintenance, and they’ll be vulnerable to mechanical failures as use and time take their respective tolls, but consider this – would you rather have a dozen plants in your garden and find your supplies running short, or three dozen food producing plants providing not only sustenance but surplus? Then, think of your composting pile, would you rather spend an entire afternoon working that nutrient rich matter back into your garden, or would you prefer to invest a couple hours into spreading it and then running your tiller through it, mixing the soil far more efficiently than you could with a hoe, shovel or rake?
A Portable Generator
Regardless of your primary source of electrical energy, it’s a good idea to have at least one small, portable generator on hand for emergency situations or in the event that your primary system fails for whatever reason. Beyond that, a smaller portable generator can be used to power additional electric heaters, and other related items during harsher weather as needed.
Conclusion
This is by no means a complete list of off grid tools that you will need to have a successful off grid living experience but it is definitely a start to get you to a place where you are confident enough to take on even the most difficult of challenges.
I hope that there was at least a few useful tools in this article that you hadn’t yet thought of.
As always good luck on your journey to finding success while living off the grid!
-SuccessOffGrid.com
