Emergency Preparedness- Part 2

I started The Emergency Preparedness thread almost a year and a half ago.
The thread was hijacked, and us that were prepared were made out to be a bunch of blood sucking crazy's.
That was then, now gasoline is close to $5.00 a gallon , food price increases are pushing 20%. Travel costs are resricting simple trips.
Heating and utility costs are through the roof.
So are any of you folks doing anything differn't ? Putting back food ? Changeing spending habits ?
Lets talk about it, OK ?....................Alaskan

 

Saefort you have one good head on your shoulders...whatever you do dont fall into debt! If its for university then thats different, aslong as you manage your payments and get good work after and be very careful. But otherwise be so careful, me and my husband are stuck by debt at the moment and it majorly sucks

 

oh boy alaskan,, ere we go again

When we had the last tank of propane delivered it was over 400 for a 105 gallons so we built a brick oven and cook top to do all our cooking on. The only thing the inside stove is used for is making coffee.

... we are now at between 85-90 % of our own raising and growing. The only things we buy are staples and we are working toward eliminating that too. we have begun growing our own grains for both our use and critter food. We also built a solar oven and solar dehydrator . I use the dehydration station daily and am making soup/ stew bases that are lightweight , easy to store and still contain nutritional value. We have gotten a couple rabbits to begin breeding them for meat sources here in the near future. Just need to find a good lil male to go with the girls. We began foraging more for some of our foods and this fall will try doing the acorn collection for flour . I have learned more of the wild edibles and medicinal uses of them as well as more of the medicinal uses of herbs in the gardens n have begun drying those for future use as well.

Have gotten about a year n half to two years supplies in stock at all times, all divvied out in three month allotments and boxed away. First aid supplies are probably still what we need to work on a bit more but dang some of that shit gets expensive and difficult to find.

We have downsized the number of critters here because they are by far our biggest expense. We now have four does, one buck for breeding and two wethers for eats come winter rather than 16 . Rather than going with meat breeds we have just begun crossing the pygmy with the dairy breeds for a couple reasons. Ease of handling, amount of feed needed and aint on real big difference in taste. We keep one doe milking for dairy products and only enough kids (goats) around that we can eat yet keep producing more. We no longer buy hay for them either. instead i go out into what was the front lawn and cut them forage.Chickens n bunnies get all the garden waste... So far just what we have done has cut back feed costs to about a 1/3 of what they were a year or so ago.

We quit going to the laundry mat a few months back , at 12 bucks a week that is near 500 bux a year plus the cost of gas going to town and back. All our breads are now homemade from scratch and we have virtually eliminated all packaged foods from our diet. HHB now gets a brown bag lunch for work rather than a quiktrip visit . We began to get all of our water here from the spring rather than making town runs. No unnecessary trips to town anymore and only go out once per week and will soon be dropping that back to once every couple few weeks cuz it is now the most stressful couple hours in my life a week and i just dont need it .

The gardens are being expanded as time permits. This not only allows us to have all our food sources here on property but eventually will be used for a produce / product stand or the farm market with larger amounts than what we have had in the past for sale or trade.

We got rid of the website and all but closed our doors for folks other than word of mouth and those we invite. No more slack ass useless eaters allowed and someone here to babysit them at all times and keep there butts busy... (aint had noone in quite awhile... majin that)

We also put the land into agricultural conservation in order to save on the taxes. This alone should save us about 1500 dollars this year. We have virtually eliminated any debt other than the piddly mortgage n taxes which should not be too much of a problem if hhb loses his work source, a very real possibility at this point.

As time passes we keep on cutting what we can and keep on reverting more n more to primitive living and simplicity. About the only thing we havent cut are our wrists. The next step will be the internet to go, much as we enjoy having it , it is not a necessity and with the land line and net service would eliminate another 1200 bux a year from being swept from the pockets.

I am sure there is more but my hands are sick of typing and hhb will surely chime in at some point this afternoon to give his rundown of the things i have left out

 

Heres one of I'm sure many sources for Grains I'm heading there today for some Quinoa (Incan "Mother Grain), Buckwheat and Austrian Pea. The pea is mainly for wildlife forage, the thinking being that if I can coax enough wildlife to come for forage in the winter months I wont have to raise & feed livestock. Getting a bunch of Veggie seed too, but I've got alot of prep work before this plot in the Ozarks is really ready for small scale farming. Huge friggin sandstone boulders everywhere, thank God for the Spike maul, Sledge hammer & Chisels. Lot's of good potters clay (Once washed) mixed inbetween too, and thanks to http://www.nativetech.org/ I'll be able to figure out firing methods even when the socket where I plug the electric kiln in stops giving out juice. So either for sale at craft shows or a barter item when shtf,,, (They've got alot of good stuff there and links to sites for info on Natural medicines too) I'm also thinking this sandstone will make for a good building material and possibly be useful as the body of a foundry / forge provided I dont raise the temperatures in it too quickly. Plenty of scrap metal around to salvage and reforge into useful items.

Still need to build the Greenhouse thou.

I'm certain there will be "Oh shit" items I've completely overlooked, but theres more often than not an alternative approach in any situation to get one thru till they can "retool"

 

i am harvesting our quinoa right now and setting it in to dry before stomping on it.. The amaranth will be along shortly as well... One bonus to both these grains i have found so far is they are both drought resistant and both have done very well in plain ol ground dirt with no amendments what so ever

 

If anyone is interested, Me and the Mrs. will be on ABC Nightline this Friday Aug 8 th.
Their doing a story on preping and survivalists. We consider ourselfs prepers.
Dont own an assault weapon or camo's.........Alaskan

 

sweeeeeet... will it be online somewhere where we can catch it since we dont have a boob tube? If there will be n you know where could ya post us a link. i would love to see yall on there without the survivalist crazy folk twist... YEAH!!!

 

Hey Alaskan! Were still here in the interior doing prety much the same thing as always. Horrible growing year this year, so we are having to buy some local tomatoes and such to can all the things we need for winter. We had a new baby in March so my wife has been pretty busy with him and the two year old, so that's put us behind also.

We bought a part of a locally raised cow to go along with the moose I'll put up in the fall. Everyone kind of got tired of moose as the only meat. Chickens are doing great and I have a coop that should keep the layers alive this winter.

The gas prices have been killing us so I bought an 4 cyl Ford POS to commute to work and have started carpooling four day a week. And propane, damn dilli/hhb you are paying as much as we are up here for that shit.

Gotta put up more wood.....

 

Hi Freein: Good to hear from you again. Right our garden hasn't done shit this summer, chickens are laying well.
Just got an email from ABC, now they say we'll be on next Tuesday.
They've changed the airing date 3 times now, Oh well thats showbiz....Alaskan

 

Oh, and as mentione in H.H.B's thread, for those expecting to go without power, you might want to look into the Tesla Turbine. Pretty nice method of harnesing steam power without having to use a complex steam engine, just a boiler to generate a good head of steam is needed to get it spinning. I've seen pre-fab "you-assemble" kits selling for as little as $150 for those without access to a machine shop.

With the boiler and turbine in place, all thats needed is a salvaged generator / alternator to turn the mechanical into electrical. Even if you end up living without it for the most part, it will be a handy thing to have in ones arsenal for emergency power needs.

Heres a google for the turbine, the Wiki gives a good layout of the basic principal
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=tesla+turbine

 

So, heres that eBook list I mentioned, all from
http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/search

Just search for the title or preceeding Etext # to find the pdf or html file, save to your hard drive for future use, etc.

Theres many, many more on the site, but these were the ones most related to what could prove quite useful to the homesteader / Survivalist should they want a few of the more familiar comforts if the grid were to collapse. It's likely the majority of information in these books may be of little consequence to many, however also as likely many will find useful tidbits with which to improve their quality of life when tshtf.

10998 -- A CATECHISM OF THE STEAM ENGINE
IN ITS VARIOUS APPLICATIONS TO MINES, MILLS, STEAM NAVIGATION, RAILWAYS, AND AGRICULTURE.
WITH
PRACTICAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE MANUFACTURE AND MANAGEMENT OF ENGINES OF EVERY CLASS.

22766 -- Electricity for Boys, by J. S. Zerbe

22298 -- Practical Mechanics for Boys, by J. S. Zerbe

22657 -- Steam, Its Generation and Use, by Babcock & Wilcox Co.

20763 -- Carpentry for Boys, by J. S. Zerbe

12655 -- The Boy Mechanic

20846 -- Handwork in Wood, by William Noyes

21531 -- Woodwork Joints, by William Fairham

22784 -- On Laboratory Arts by RICHARD THRELFALL, M.A. (Glassworking)

12299 -- THE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF WOOD

14664 -- Things to Make

14873 -- Instructions on Modern American Bridge Building circa 1874

15460 -- A COURSE IN WOOD TURNING By ARCHIE S. MILTON

15622 -- Handbook on Japanning: 2nd Edition, by William N. Brown

20195 -- Wood-Block Printing, by F. Morley Fletcher

22107 -- Wood-Carving, by George Jack

23319 -- Mechanical Drawing Self-Taught, by Joshua Rose

23666 -- Mission Furniture,pt 1 by H. H. Windsor

23770 -- Mission Furniture,pt 2 by H. H. Windsor

23991 -- Mission Furniture,pt 3 by H. H. Windsor



And some Catalog numbers of titles related to Gardening or cooking

7hmvg10
8loc310
8loc410
8loc510
8mgrd10
13357
13537
15191
15407
16900
19775
21252
21414
21442
21682
24076
24931
24944
25373
grdwr10
trcrs10

 

Got a email from ABC this AM . Tonight the show will be on.
..........................Alaskan

 

just watched it.. nice to put a face with the name..

heres a link to it..

http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/story?id=5565070&page=1

so what did you think of there portrayal of you alaskan?

i gotta admit i was somewhat surprised at how little food you keep stored but then again as you stated theres plenty there to supplement it with..

dilligaf posts on a survivalist board and someone started a thread on this and some idiot replied "hes not a survivalist,he doesnt even have any assault rifles"..

lol some people are morons..

 

Hillbilly :
They only showed our can pantry , behind the wall are pallets of 5 gal buckets along with large rubber maid totes, plus another freezer in the garage.
As I said on the show, I don't consider myself a "survivalist" but rather part of the preparedness movement .
No I don't own any assault weapons, was in the Army and shot enough automatic weapons to last me a life time. Give me a high powered bolt action or shotgun and I'll do just fine.
They spend over 3 hours interviewing me and my wife , 3 1/2 minutes made it to the show. Think they already had a plan for the show befor they got here..
............................Alaskan.......................

 

I figure there's enough rats around here to last me eight months...

 

Dont sweat it Professor, there will always be Hookers to take their place when you do.

 

Preparedness is not taken seriously by Americans because they have their heads in the clouds of status quo. Here is my 2 cents. Just get started folks---

http://sites.google.com/site/saveyourbuttnow/

 

while this much is certainly true,
it is hard to expect otherwise of people unwilling to desist
from known sources of known self-harm.

i don't think anything people do in america will protect them from the effects of famine and disease resulting from global climate change.
which ARE the real not just threat, but nature making what economists call a 'correction' on the human species.

the real threat really is natural and our own doing, and THAT much is real enough. but the solution is solar power, narrow gauge railways, indiginous spirituality and ending economic and ideological fanatacism, NOT more of chauvanistic fanatacism of ANY kind. the latter being at the very root of the problem and its source, NOT any part of its solution.

pray certainly, but promote and encourage clean energy and public transportation. and it really needs to involve social organization on the level of governments and the whole planet, not JUST the ad hoc actions of a few isolated individuals.

350ppm (max) because there is no planet B

 

Most don't take it serious, but then it's probably a good thing. I mean, when t.s.h.t.f. do we really want to start over with an equal global population to what it is now?

But speaking of preparedness I came across a huge database of D.I.Y. info available to all for free. 13 gig filesize but it covers everything you ever wanted to know about everything but were afraid to ask,,,

Just google cd3wd dot com

 

while i have absolutely no faith in direct violent action resulting in a world i would be happier with, i am also aware that there are many people in our existing world who are simpler and less self restrained them myself. this is not a prospect i look forward to with any great cheerfulness of heart for the immediate future, but for one long after the dust has settled that i have no reasonable expectation of living to see.

an unsustainable condition is one that will not endure, regardless of how popularly it may be wished to. many of todays conditions will be forcing themselves to change, and if not changed voluntarily with a minimum of suffering and pain, will bring about their own changes, in all likelihood far less pleasantly. famine and disease will at some point result in population decrease if less painful measures are not taken to reverse its increase. along with this, the excessive use of combustion, because of population levels involved, is causing the very climate change that will result in this widespread famine and disease.

and it's not that there aren't people who can't see what needs to be done. but that economic incentives and economic interests are largely in opposition to doing so.