Homesteader Week

What do you get when you bring back a class from the past, combine it with two NEW classes and add two more popular (and dare I say timely) classes? You get a 5-day self-reliance experience that you won't find anywhere else! Are you up for the challenge?

Our October 2024 dates represent the 5-day Homesteader Week, which can be taken in parts or (as we recommend) in its entirety.

Day One - Let's start growing our own vegetables! The first day of the week is our updated Sustainable Gardening class.

Day Two - Learn to raise goats, chickens and rabbits in our NEW class Raising Small Animals.

Day Three - Continue your hands-on experience with our NEW carpentry class Build A Homestead Shed.

Day Four - Reap (and save) what you sow with our tried and true Food Storage and Preservation class.

Day Five - Complete the week with a day of food prep and feasting. The final day of Homesteader Week is our Offgrid Cooking class.

This 5 day program will give you a hands-on experience that you just can't mimic by reading or watching other people do these skills. You need to do these things for yourself to really understand them.

For those who cannot make it to the whole week, there is the option to take days individually or smaller groupings.

Each member of this class will receive a copy of Advanced Survival Training's manuals on self-reliance. Camping and four evening lectures/projects are also included in the 5-day package.

Five day Homesteader Week - $697

The Component Classes of Homesteader Week

Sustainable Gardening

It's been a few years since we offered our Gardening class, but since food prices doubled, this is the perfect time to bring you an updated version. Sustainable gardening is a heritage skill that has existed for millennia and the rewards can be delicious! Learn how to grow food for a fraction of the store cost.

The subjects of this class include:

• Garden site selection

• Deep soil preparation

• Growing from seeds and plant cuttings

• High calorie crops

• Pest prevention and much more!

One day Sustainable Gardening class - $127

Raising Small Animals

Raising Small Animals is a very important part of our 5-day Homesteader Week program! In this hands-on class, you'll learn how to raise and care for goats, chickens and rabbits for home use.

The subjects of this class include:

• Breed selection

• Housing options

• Predator protection

• Processing meat animals

• and much more!

One day Raising Small Animals class - $127

Build A Homestead Shed

Build A Homestead Shed is another facet of self-reliance in our 5-day Homesteader Week program! Learn some very pracical carpentry skills as we build a small shed that can be adapted to many uses. Small sheds make excellent chicken coops and rabbit hutches, but they can also be used for storage and even emergency lodging. We can't promise you'll become a great carpenter in just one day, but we can promise that building sheds is a great way to learn carpentry.

The subjects of this class include:

• General carpentry skills

• Planning and design

• Simple framing

• Even simpler roofing and much more!

One day Build a Homestead Shed class - $127

Food Storage and Preservation

There are plenty of scenarios that could leave you and your family going hungry. If you weren't sure about the need for a multi-week food supply in your home, the recent pandemic might have you thinking a little more clearly.

It's YOUR responsibility to take care of yourself and your family. Let's get real. Food storage won't pay your mortgage and knowing how to make jerky won't keep you from catching a deadly virus; but these skills can save you some money and they WILL help you to feed your loved ones in a crisis.

So how do you begin? Storing food properly can be a challenge, and making mistakes in food storage can be an expensive waste of food!

We'll walk you through all of the details and help you build a personal plan. We'll even show you how to preserve your own food. In this class, you'll gain the skills to:

• Package ordinary staple foods to last for more than 30 years

• How to eat well on less than $3 per day

• Use water bath canning to save acidic foods

• Dehydrate fruits and vegetables, with and without power

• Make delicious jerky

• Build your own personal food security plan, an edible insurance policy!

One day Food Storage and Preservation class - $127

Off Grid Cooking

During a disaster, you may not be able to fire up your electric oven or use the microwave to cook your family's meals. If you don't have a viable and safe back-up plan, this could be a real problem. Don't worry, we have a wide range of solutions - for all weather and situations. In this fun new class, we will give you all the skills you need to cook excellent meals, both outdoors and indoors, even if the utilities are down. This class is structured similarly to our Primitive Cooking class, in which you spend the morning cooking a lunch and the afternoon cooking a dinner. In this class, however, we won't be using primitive cooking techniques. We'll create a lunch and dinner for ourselves, using an assortment of modern materials and off grid cooking techniques (frontier style up thru modern camp cookery).

• Learn to make your own rocket stoves to burn a variety of fuels

• Create and use solar ovens to bake bread and treats

• Make meals with dutch ovens, and even use pots from a modern kitchen.

• Learn the basics of cooking with staple foods

• Find out how to maintain clean dishes and cookware

• We'll even show you how to become a great fire maker!

• Spend the morning preparing an off-grid lunch and enjoy an afternoon preparing our self-reliant feast!

One day Off Grid Cooking class - $127