What You Know Might Save You

We received a very interesting and informative comment yesterday that we feel is worth posting for all to read. I have said something similar to this opening statement, that I was born in the wrong century. Frank and I have long known that our varied life experiences have brought us to this place and time with a plethora  of skills and perspectives that may help us as the current crises of the world unfold. It really doesn't make any difference when we were born or where we live, this is where we are and what we have to deal with. The events of the world will continue to unfold, whether we are ready or not. Please share your thoughts. Enjoy.

I feel as though I am a person born out of my time period. I am not yet sixty but my childhood experiences include using an outhouse, drawing water from a well, and taking baths in a tin bathtub after heating water on a wood cook stove. My parents grew corn, peanuts, and other vegetables in a five acre field. I grew up helping to harvest and can what we grew. We milked cows and my mom made butter from the cream. I was the last born of my siblings, and born late in my parents' lives. They grew up in the Depression and married at the beginning of WW2, so I am a tail end of the Baby Boomers. 

My experiences were embarrassing as a child but came back to help me cope many years later in the aftermath of a hurricane that plowed through our area. We lost power for about four weeks. I tried to do what my momma did and found that I was not the woman she was. But I did learn some very important lessons. I relied too heavily upon electricity and on my freezer for food storage. I had a pressure canner and had canned some vegetables, but I still had a lot of vegetables and meat in the freezer. Now I try to keep plenty of jars empty for emergency canning of meat and most of my vegetables go in jars. 

 I was given a dehydrator several years ago and found that drying vegetables and sealing them with a food sealing system in jars takes up less space that fresh. 

Since I did and do most of my cooking on an electric stove, the lack of that power has stirred me into looking into other ways of cooking without power. I have since discovered an interest and love for cast iron, especially Dutch ovens. My first experiment with one was in the coals of a burned brush pile from a tree blown down by a hurricane wind. Food burned on the bottom and was raw in the middle. But my daughters have taken up my pursuit and they cooked much of our Thanksgiving dinner last year in Dutch ovens outside over a wood fire. 

I liked your article because it fits my lifestyle of gardening, canning and enjoying the fruits of my labor. I live in a climate that allows me to grow food almost all year round, but for the past several years, I have had an urge to save seeds from the vegetables we grow and to try to save extra possibly for neighbors in the future since I can't feed them all and they may need to have something to plant. Most of us "country folk" live like city folk now because we buy fresh seed from the feed and seed stores each year and there are fewer and fewer of us gardening and growing our own food, because it is quicker and easier to run by the grocery store and get what we need or want. It is a lot of work to grow and process your own food. I have heard comments to that effect. 

After reading the Woodpile Report, I found someone giving voice to some concerns that have been in my heart for a couple of years...namely, what would happen if we could not grow food for a year or so because of outside circumstances. And what would happen if the stores that sell seeds are no longer open or stocked? About three years ago, I saw a clearance sale of end of summer goods at a dollar store. Included in those goods, were packets of flower and vegetable seeds. I bought quite a few for pennies a packet and so I have been collecting these seed packets and storing them in my freezer for my own use and for future giveaway seed. To my surprise I even found a few heirloom seeds among them. I have other seed that I have saved in glass jars using the food sealer system and jar attachment. I opened a few jars of seeds this spring and was amazed that most of the seeds were viable. Only one of the jars of seeds failed to germinate. 

Anyway, my next canning experiments are going to include oranges, lemons, and butternut squash. By the way, have you heard of okra seed being roasted and ground to be used to stretch coffee grounds? I have heard that such a thing was done in the Great Depression, but I would like to know if anyone else has knowledge of this. 

Thanks for sharing your experiences with others.

[Name removed]

Please share what you know and have experienced. We're all in this race to survive together. The finish line is simple. It's your life.

Until next time - Fern
 

I'm Going To ???

Hi Everybody, Frank here.

There are many articles out there that talk about what people are going to do when the collapse comes. Most of them are going to raise a garden, many are going to have livestock, many are going to forage for food, and some of them are going to take food from others. These articles all have the same general theme, what they are going to do. Unless you read very closely, some of these articles make it hard to tell that the wishful folks have not started these endeavors yet. Yes, I know, everybody dreams. Some people plan quite extensively before they make their move. Dreaming and planning are good things to do, but there comes a time when you have to put your boots on the ground. Literally.

Well, let's talk about what it means to do some of those items up above, like gardening, livestock, foraging and taking from others. Let me deal

with taking from others first. If you plan on surviving in a rural setting by taking from others, and this is your plan, then you might want to consider that most rural folks are armed and know how to use their weaponry. It's not uncommon to scare off a dog with a shotgun, send a mangy dog to dog heaven, and you get the drift here. Most rural folks use guns like any other tool. So, if you're planning on taking from others in rural areas, this may be your biggest failure of all times. I know of little old ladies that are very comfortable with a 410 shotgun. We all know talk is cheap, but this type idea, taking from others, will promptly get you killed, even by a granny with a 410.

Okay, let's go on to gardening, for those who plan to garden when things fall apart. I dearly hope you have a years supply of food stored up, and you have an existing garden place to go to. The reason being, if you're going to take a lawn somewhere and just start planting seeds, you're going to get awfully hungry by the time that seed produces fruit, if it does. Things to consider before planting. First, you have to be able to get to your soil. You need to be able to break the soil some how or another. Do you have a

source of water? If you're going to use manure, then you have to have a source for the manure. Now you need to mix it in and let is sit for, hmm, a month maybe. During that month you can continue to weed it, water it, if you have water that is, and just overall tend to your soil. If I remember correctly, this is what you're going to eat and feed your family. So, that piece of soil I'm talking about is probably going to be around 100' by 100'. Better get started early if you're going to do this with a shovel and a hoe. Say you like corn? Now you've got that 100' by 100' turned over and all conditioned, and the big day comes when you put that corn seed in the ground. What are you going to do for the next 90 days? Yep, this will give you time to weed everyday, because, remember this is what you are going to survive off of for the rest of your life.

Okay, while you are waiting for 90 days to get your first bite of corn, you can get a batch of day old chickens. That's right, I forgot, there's been a collapse of society. The guy you brought with you to help you survive decided one night he would expedite the matter and go steal granny's

chickens, but he never came home did he? So, by some miracle, you get a batch of day old chickens and it's in the heat of the summer, so the little guys might live, and you brought 90 days of chicken feed with you, because you're not going to be able to grow it until your corn is ready to harvest. Remember, you're waiting on your corn to get ready, some how or another you got some baby chickens, you've got less help now because your buddy never came back, and in about 12 to 14 weeks, you can butcher friers. What are you going to do with them? Well, if you butcher them at 12 weeks, you can have fried chicken and corn on the cob. Okee-dokee? You're not getting any eggs yet because your birds aren't 6 months old. You didn't by mistake butcher your hens, did you?

Oh well, you're going to eat red meat. Where are you going to get it? When you moved here, you were lucky enough to find a local farmer to sell you some baby goats. They're probably about 8 weeks old. You want milk and meat, right? Right. Those 8 week old

baby goats you bought, you can butcher the males when they are about 6 months old. Now, aren't you glad you brought that years supply of food with you? You've already waited 90 days to get your first ear of corn, 12 weeks to get your first bite of fried chicken, 6 months to butcher your first goat, you do know how to butcher a goat, don't you? But you haven't had that drink of fresh milk yet, because it's going to be 6 more months before you do, right around one year from the start. You do know how to get milk out of that thing, don't you?

Okay, now it's been one year. You've got corn, eggs, chicken and goat meat, and milk. Congratulations on the milk. I'm really surprised you lived this long. Too bad your buddy didn't. That was halted when he was stealing granny's chickens. Lost some weight, haven't you?

Okay, let's talk about foraging. You know those books you brought with you about things to forage? What to eat, what not to eat. Those pretty glossy pictures, they just don't look the same as they do when you are down on the river bank. That thing that you picked up that you're considering eating, it looks just like that other plant there that

will make you deathly ill. Do you take your chances? Well, maybe we'll forage a little deeper. What's that pain in my ankle? Is that snake edible? Am I going to die from that thing that just bit me? Still got that book you were carrying with all those pretty pictures in it? Okay, so foraging didn't work out too well.

Maybe you'll just hunt your food. Did you know that wildlife, let me take the white tailed deer to be specific, during the early

1930's, the Great Depression, there were no white tailed deer left in the state of Arkansas? But, you're right, you watched all of those survival videos. If you think you're going to live off of wildlife, sorry buddy, it ain't gonna happen. Even if you do know how to butcher the animal. I hear opossum is tasty, never have eaten it myself. But, I have long past relatives that did eat opossum, racoon, skunk, snake, crow, deer, squirrel, ducks and they knew which were wild onions and which were not.

Back to that years supply of food you brought with you. Let's say it's a year later, your years supply of food is gone and you weren't quite able to restock it. Things are looking a little gloomy, aren't they?

We all hear stories about people that are going to do something. Everybody looks good at the beginning of the race, but there are few that finish the race. This thing coming our way is no joke. If we are not prepared, and we have not practiced, and if we don't have our head screwed on right, then we're probably not going to make it. You can practice in your apartment. You can buy a case of carrots or peaches

and start learning how to can. You can find chicken on sale and practice your canning skills. You can practice foraging while the times are still good. You can put together a 'get out of Dodge bag'. Doing this will give your mind a lot of good work. Even those of us that do it everyday need more practice, because right now we are all living with the abundance that God has given us in this country. Everyday it gets closer. Nobody knows the exact day, but there are things you can do. 

By the way, our national population has almost tripled since the times of the Great Depression. A significant number of the population at that time were rural, and many did not have

electricity. When this thing does come, we as a population are going to be much worse off than the folks during the early 1930's. Thank you for letting me play with your head, about gardening, livestock, foraging, gardening again and taking someone else's stuff. Take advantage of the opportunities provided us while the stores are still full, travel is still free and the internet still works. There are many, many people that believe someday, in the not too distant future, the stores will be closed, travel will be highly restricted and the internet will be gone. Give thought to it.

We'll talk more later. Frank

Life Experiences - You Just Never Know

Life is a journey and it is not so important where it leads you as what you do with it along the way.

Frank and I have had many different experiences that we can now bring to bear as we prepare for the changes our world is about to experience. Looking back, it seems that so many things happened so that we would be better able to deal with these times.

Living in remote, bush Alaska teaches a person a lot about their internal tenacity and endurance. We lived in a Inupiat village for nine months without running water. It was great that there was a laundromat to wash our clothes and that we could shower at the school, but we heated water to cook and wash dishes. Frank carried the water in two five gallon collapsible containers to fill up the 30 gallon trash can we had in the kitchen for our water supply. That winter for a week it got down to -65 degrees with a howling wind. That was when the entire village's water supply froze and we had to take the snow machine and sled down onto the river where there was a spring to gather water. It was a great time of learning and is just one experience among many.

We actually went to Alaska just to have a great adventure. And it was. We had a blast. But looking back, it has taught us so many

things and given us a confidence that we will handle, to the best of our ability, whatever life brings to us. We learned to cook many things for ourselves because the nearest store at one point was a 20 minute plane ride away and many things couldn't be flown in during the cold of the winter.

Raising sheep, goats and chickens has taught us how to care for livestock and process meat. Growing, or trying to grow a garden is always an adventure - sometimes much more successful than others - but always a very good learning experience. We are trying to establish a perennial herb garden that will not only make our meals more enjoyable, but the herbs may be used medicinally as well. Making bread, butter, cheese, canning vegetables, always reading, researching and acquiring books to improve the skills and knowledge we already have are part of our daily lives. Yes, we still acquire regular, old-fashioned books because this wonderful internet may not always be with us. We have been learning more about radio communications and how to set up a system that will work off      12 volts powered by solar panels and batteries, if the power is off. Learning, learning and more learning.

Many people in our position are slowly winding down to retirement and older age. Our learning curve seems to be almost vertical. There is so much to do and learn while there is still time, that it can be overwhelming. We get tired and achy, disappointed and disillusioned with the way life in our country is going. But....still....we go on. And we will continue to go on until we are finished...whenever that time may be.

We encourage everyone to learn and experience all they can everyday. Seek out the opportunity to do something that might increase your health, welfare and comfort in the event our lives change from this comfortable, cushy, get-anything-you-want when-you-want-it lifestyle. Use your mind and body to learn those things your family will need. Now. The time is short.

Blessings to you all,

Frank and Fern