Reusable Pantyliners

This subject may interest women more than men, but research about the ingredients and the effects of the chemical composition of feminine napkins and tampons should be of concern for everyone. Men, in caring for the health and well-being of the women in your life, please research this information together. It can make a difference.

I came across the information about reusable items for feminine hygiene about the same time I found the information for reusable food wraps. There is an amazing plethora of information out there about reusable everything if you take the time to look. Well, after I made the food wraps, I got motivated to make reusable panty liners. I have had this in mind for quite some time.

There are quite a few places to purchase these items that make good, quality products. I have been sewing for over 40 years and knew I could make my own, but to start out, I bought a few from Glad Rags. They make a very good, quality product that I would recommend to anyone. I wasn't sure if I would like wearing them or not, but I do. Now, to clarify the purpose I have for these. I am not using them as menstrual pads, only as a panty liner for light urinary incontinence. It's not something I generally talk about with strangers, let alone my friends, but it is something that affects many women. And in my quest to eliminate as many chemicals from my body as possible, this is definitely a step in the right direction. 

My initial plan for making my own panty liners was to follow the pattern of my Glad Rags liners. But I wanted them to be a little narrower and longer. So I went online and started looking for other folks that made their own panty liners or menstrual pads. There are many! Some of the sites I ran across have done a great job of covering the chemicals included in commercial feminine hygiene products and I strongly encourage you to read them. It will convince you to make a change in your life as well. The chemical absorption rate of the female body when using commercial, chemically laden hygiene products is astounding. It's just one more area where it is simple and easy to eliminate the amount of chemicals we expose ourselves to daily.

While I was in the midst of trying to make panty liners, Patrice Lewis over at Rural Revolution published this article, Product review: Naturally Cozy feminine hygiene. She included great pictures which gave me even more ideas as I made adjustments to my initial efforts. Patrice gives a great review of this company, and personally recommends their products.

Here is my journey at making panty liners that fit and absorb just the way I like them. It took about a month of trial and error before I was satisfied with my design and their performance.

I started off with my original purchase from Glad Rags. I wanted to make something a little longer than these, and not quite as wide. I found they tended to buckle a little in the middle when worn. So this is what I tried the first time.

I trimmed down the sealed sides of a commercial panty liner to get the approximate width and length I wanted, and used it as well as my original reusable to figure out my measurements.

I decided to try two different ways to determine how much and what kind of fabric would provide the best absorption. One, I made with two layers of flannel. The other I made with two layers of flannel and one layer of terry cloth from an old bath towel. To this I added the strap, from two layers of flannel, that wraps around the underwear.

I used a contrasting color of thread to show you how I stitched these together. It looks kind of tacky, I think, but when I finalize my preferences, I will use matching thread.

I have had this snap wrench for many, many years, I think since the 1970's when I was in high school. I had to find some new snaps to go with it, but it still works just fine.

Here is version #1.

I quickly found out that these were just not adequate. They were too narrow, the strap did not hold them in place, and they were too thin. There was a tendency to move back and forth, which defeats the purpose. After I made this version, Patrice posted her review of the products from Naturally Cozy. This gave me more ideas to work with, as well as the other sites I listed above.

On to version #2. This time I decided to make an all in one piece instead of having the wrap around strap a separate piece. I was hoping it would hold in place better. At the same time, I wanted more layers of fabric to provide more absorption, without being too bulky and uncomfortable.

I made the body of the liner out of two layers of flannel, while adding two more layers of flannel in the shape of the commercial liner in the middle. 

I stitched the inner layers in place on one side of the outer body, before stitching along the same lines on the other side of the outer body to hold everything in place. I hope the pictures help explain this step.

I zigzagged around the outside of the body, then went back and straight stitched along the inside of the zigzag. This works well for keeping everything nice and flat and finished, and doesn't add any bulk or discomfort.

These liners worked much better than version one. They stayed in place better, but not as well as I would like. And they were more comfortable. I think it is because of the way they wrap around the underwear. But, I wasn't satisfied with the absorption rate. They were very comfortable, though. If absorption of liquid is not an issue, and just light protection were the goal, these would work very well.

So, on to version #3.

This version is almost the same as version #2 with a slight variation. I made one end of the body of the liner just a little longer so the wrap around snap would be just off center. The goal here was to hold the liner in place a little better. I also made them just a little bit longer overall than version #2. Here are the measurements of the final version.

length

width

inner liner length

inner liner width

The other change I made was to make one with four layers of flannel for the inside liner, with two more layers for the body, making this liner six layers thick overall.

The second type I made had two layers of flannel and one layer of terry cloth for the liner, with two more layers of flannel for the body, making this liner four layers of flannel and one layer of terry cloth. This time I used matching thread, and they look much, much better.

I am very satisfied with version #3. Either thickness will provide the absorption rate I want. If I have a cold with a cough or sneezing, the terry cloth version will hold out much better. Both types, flannel or terry cloth with flannel, are comfortable and effective. This design could easily be adjusted to accommodate a menstrual cycle.

Now that I am finished with my trial and error period, I will make up about a dozen of these, which will last long time. I am so grateful for a mother that taught me to sew by making my clothes when I was a little girl. I sat by her side and got to get the 'wheel' started for her sometimes. It was great. Share a skill with your family that will last a life time. It will mean more to them than you will ever know.

Please share any ideas or things you do to increase your self-reliance and health. We are all in this together and the more we can share and learn from each other, the better off we are. There are many different ways to teach and learn, and this is only one of them. All of us have something to teach. Everyone has something they can share with others. Your input is very welcome here.

In our efforts to become more self-reliant, we have learned so many new things. Things that will increase our safety, like radio communications. Things that will provide us with food, like gardening and canning. Things that will increase our physical health by eliminating chemicals and dead food from our bodies, like no shampoo and panty liners. This project is just one more step toward living life the way we want to, and not the way society dictates to us that we should. And while we still have the freedom to do so, we will continue to learn and do for ourselves the way we see fit. I pray you do the same.

Until next time - Fern

How Do I Help Others Prepare?

We had a very interesting, thought provoking email a few days back. Part of our response to this reader was, "Your email has created quite a bit of discussion in our house." It really has. Initially we started thinking of items that would be useful. Then we got to the point of lists of lists. But as we pondered and discussed it further we came to a realization.

You can't help someone 

who doesn't want to be helped. 

Here is the email we received.

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Hi Frank and Fern,
I have a question that I thought might appeal to some of your readers, as well as myself. I have been working for the last few years at becoming more self-sufficient, and am really ramping things up as I feel we are rounding the final corner. That said, my family has been watching me put up fence and raise animals and grind my own grain with a tolerant shake of their heads, but without much concern that I might be right about the future. So now that I see things really looming, I have realized that I need to at least make an attempt to insure that they have some of the basics that they will need. And finally to my question: what would you suggest putting into a "starter kit" that I could put together for a couple hundred dollars? I would like to make up a kit for my parents, and perhaps each sibling, or at least give them a list of where to start. I have the skills, and some of the tools necessary that I can teach/lend, but where to start for them? Lighting? Seeds? Water? Food storage? Canning supplies? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,

[Name Removed]

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It is very admirable that this woman wants to provide starter kits for her family members, especially for family members that tend to just shake their heads and wonder if she will come to her senses someday. She asks some good questions about where to start. FEMA has lots of information on their website about creating disaster preparedness kits. So does the Red Cross and a number of other sites, including many, many blogs. Each individual family member's medical and dietary needs would drive the contents of a personal preparedness kit. Of course, at the top of everyone's list would be water. Then other items that may be needed or desired would depend on the individual, their location, age, physical condition, and on, and on, and on.

This may not be the type of information this woman was looking for when she wrote to us. But the more we thought about it and talked about it, we kept coming back to one basic foundational concept.

You can't help someone 

who doesn't want to be helped.

What we mean by this is that a person that truly doesn't foresee any disasters, downturns, collapses, catastrophes, or TEOTWAWKI (the end of the world as we know it) scenarios possibly occurring in their lives, will

not benefit from anything you can prepare for them. Why? Because it has no meaning or value to them. They have no use for any material items you may give them, because they will never need them. IT, a disaster, won't happen to them, maybe to you, but not to them. And if IT, a collapse, ever does happen, they probably won't be able to handle it mentally or emotionally, because IT wasn't supposed to happen in the first place.

For example. We have tried to give useful, functional Christmas gifts for many, many years. Almost every year the recipients give us that forced smile and say, Thanks. You can see in their eyes that they are thinking

more along the lines of, "What in the world did they give me this for?? I will never use it." Then there was the year we gave everyone heavy duty outdoor extension cords. Our brother-in-law opened it and said, "Great! Thanks! The rats just ate through my extension cord last night. This is just what I needed." Or another year when a nephew had just started to college. When he opened a set of Maglights he said, "Great! I needed a flashlight just the other day and didn't have one. Thanks!" Other examples of Christmas gifts we have given are fire extinguishers, small battery chargers, rechargeable lanterns, water storage containers, hooded sweatshirts and other items of this nature. But, most of the time, the kind of gifts we give just get tossed aside once people get home, never to be thought of or used again.

So, back to this person's question. What should she give her family? Our answer? Her continued vigilance and example of what it takes to be prepared, doing the work entailed in trying to learn and live a self-reliant

life style. Encouragement to learn, and gentle challenges to try a few new things, may be all she is ever able to do for these family members until the time comes. Then, it is almost guaranteed they will show up at her door, if possible, knowing that she was right all along. Knowing that they are not prepared and ignorant of the knowledge and skills needed to survive. Knowing that with their arrival, they are placing an impossible burden upon her for taking care of their needs, and in many cases their wants, as well. 

So, what advice can we offer this woman? That's a really tough question, and the answer will be colored by our own experiences, biases and opinions. We have long wrestled with the total lack of preparedness of our family members that live in this area. No matter what we say, do, or how

we live, there is not one, NOT ONE, of our family members that is in the least bit ready for the collapse of our society and world. And, you know what? We can't feed them all. It's impossible. We have read about people that say they will let everyone in and when they run out of food, they'll just all starve together. I'm sorry, but that's ludicrous. Just how long will that happy family get along all hunky dory when there isn't enough food? I'm not going to paint the picture of what will happen, but it won't be pretty, and not everyone will survive. Harsh? Yes, incredibly so. But true. Hiding from the truth of the starvation and deprivation that will come with a collapse of society will not change anything. It will still happen.

Our recommendation comes down to this. Instead of giving people something that they don't value, will not use, and will probably waste instead, store what extra things you can at home. Then sit down and do some very serious soul searching. If you cannot feed the people you are thinking of in your family in a collapse situation, then you need to decide

ahead of time who you can feed. Then once that decision is made, you have to come to terms with turning away those you can't, if they make it to your house. Another question to consider is, are you going to tell them ahead of time that they are not welcome at your house if a collapse occurs, because you will not be able to feed them without causing your own family to starve? Easy conversation? No. Will they believe you even if you tell them? Probably not. After all, it's not really going to happen anyway, and you are just one of those whacko prepper people that think the sky is falling. Just like Henny Penny. And they have never believed you anyway. Another very hard question. Are you prepared to do what is necessary for the survival of your family if they do show up and refuse to leave? Hard thoughts.

We are grateful for this woman's email. It has caused a lot of thought and discussion in our house. Please share your thoughts and ideas on this topic. We can all benefit from this conversation. The conclusion we have come to can be considered disheartening by some, but in the long run, we prefer to have a clear picture of the possibilities. We don't like to play head 

games with ourselves, and pretend everything will always be peachy and smell like roses. We have tried to share, teach, show, gently nudge and point out some of the markers of the coming collapse to our friends and family, and by writing this blog. But few there are that have come to see the truth of what is coming. While there are many that continue to be blinded by the distractions of the world, and choose not to see what is happening around them. We have been brought to this place and to this blog. We will continue to share what we have been shown in the hopes of reaching just one more person, that they might be ready. And maybe, just maybe, they can help one more person to be ready as well. 

Until next time - Fern

When There Are No Pellets

What are you going to feed your animals? We have raised animals for many years, dogs, cats, chickens and goats, mainly. As the world has evolved into a place where we are no longer as sure of the animal feed supply as we once were, we have begun to question the sustainability of maintaining our animals should the SHTF. Thus, the title, when there are no pellets. There are many people that write and talk about storing up 500 pounds of animal feed or extra hay in case things get bad and they can't buy anymore. Take dog food, for instance. Eventually, that food will run out. Then what are you going to feed your dog? Are you going to let it go because you can no longer feed it? And if you do, will it leave? It has always been dependent on you. Are you going to eat it? Most people would cringe at reading that sentence, but if it comes down to you or your dog, what are you going to do?

Sustainability. It's something we contemplate regularly. The projects we work on are geared toward sustainability. Why start a new project, especially involving responsibility for another living creature, if it's not sustainable? We have gradually started trying to grow more feed for our chickens and goats. Luckily, these animals can graze and forage for most of their own food, for most of the year, should the need arise.

Our cats will have plenty of rats and mice to eat. But what about our Great Pyrenees, Pearl? She doesn't eat a whole lot, but she does need to eat. That goes back to storing 500 pounds of dog food. But what is dog food?

Most dog food and cat food is made out of corn and other assorted ground grains.We supplement the cats' and Pearl's diet with scrambled eggs from the chickens and milk from the goats. It's good the goats and chickens can forage for themselves, but would some grain be nice? Yes, and you can raise some grain if you try hard enough. But you're going to have to have a way to grind, or crack it for them to efficiently digest the nutrients inside. And if it is truly an SHTF scenario, you're not going to be putting all that energy into raising grain for your animals, you're going to be raising it for yourself. 

When we butcher goats, we save the organs, fat and some grisly meat that we don't eat for dog food. We bag it up and freeze it, then add it to the dog's diet on a regular basis. This, along with the milk and eggs, cut down on the amount of dog food she eats, and also has the added benefit of being a natural food source, which is much healthier than what's in that bag of dog food. So if we ran out of dog food altogether, it wouldn't be a big shock to her system to change over to these other foods. We would need to find a way to preserve this food for the dog instead of relying on the freezer. We would probably can it when we canned some of the meat for ourselves. Sounds kind of familiar, right? Canned dog food.

We have a friend that raised pigs every year for meat. A portion of their diet was always road kill. Yes, road kill. This friend would keep a container in the back of her truck and whenever she found a dead animal on the road, she would load it up and take it home to her pigs. She was different sort, and lived a life of sustainability with solar panels and a wood cookstove long before Y2K and the prepper movement came along, but it's another example of how to manage. 

Now, if the SHTF we're not going to be driving around gathering road kill, but we could trap things like opossum, raccoon, skunks and the like. This could feed our dog and cats, and it could also feed us as well. Until not so long ago, in the area where we live, people ate mud ducks, opossum, squirrels, raccoon, cotton tail rabbits and of course, deer. If people from 

this area ate these animals for food, then dogs and cats can too. Not so long ago, dogs and cats lived off of the leftovers from their owners, and will probably will have to again. We have never done this, but I do know someone who has recently begun to learn how to trap animals the old fashioned way. They caught a racoon and cooked it like a roast, eating only small portions at first to see how it might affect their bodies, which I thought was wise. They thought it tasted good, and just so you know, by watching these folks, you would never expect them to be doing these activities. It goes to show, that looks can be deceiving.

So, if you're thinking about getting animals to increase your ability to raise your own food and become more self-reliant, stop and think about how you will feed them if there are no more pellets. Some animals that are great

meat producers, like rabbits, require specialized pellets when grown in hutches. We researched rabbits more than once because of the great feed to meat production ratio, but it always came back to the reliance on specialized feed. That is not something we wanted to be dependent upon. I know some will comment that you can raise your own rabbit feed, but today's commercial rabbits are extremely sensitive to dietary changes which greatly affect their behavior. Therefore, rabbit will not be on our diet, unless of course, it's wild rabbit, and we have some big, fat, wild rabbits around here.

So, how are you going to feed your animals when commercial feed is not readily available? You can't just say, "Time out, I wasn't ready yet!" and expect your livestock or pets to wait six months or a year while you get ready. I know we're not ready, but we are working on it, and we're trying to be realistic about it. If you know that something is coming, and you're trying to live a sustainable lifestyle, then don't play head games with yourself. When you alter that rabbit's feed it is going to kill and eat any other animal it has access to. And don't think that your lap dog is going to revert back to it's wolf ancestors and start

hunting for it's survival food. It ain't gonna happen. We know that when we turn our chickens out to forage, our egg production is going to drop. Some of the weaker animals may not make it. When we quit feeding our goats grain, the milk production will drop sharply. These are just the realities of raising animals. Will our domestic animals eat foods raised in the garden? Hopefully. Will they eat meat and internal organs from trapped animals? Absolutely. So, give some serious thought to how you're going to sustain your livestock and domestic animals, especially if you are depending on them to provide you with food and protection. It's your responsibility. Think about it.

Until next time - Fern

The High Cost of Food

There have been a few things in the news lately debating whether or not we are having inflation here in our country. Since they have removed the cost of food, among other things, from the formula, the debate has become somewhat irrelevant. Not only has the cost of food gone up, if you really look, you also find that the food supply is being impacted as well. 

Unbeknownst to most people there are illnesses and environmental affects that are impacting the mortality rate or productivity of a variety of food products. Pork is being devastated in many areas by the  porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) virus that kill piglets at a very high rate. Shrimp prices have risen 61% since last year, because of early mortality syndrome which is a

bacterial disease. Zero Hedge has charts showing the rising costs of beef, pork and shrimp. This visual gives an even clearer picture of the nonexistent inflation for just these three food products.


The drought conditions that have existed for several years now in Texas and California, just to name a few large food producing states, are having an incremental impact not only on the cost of food, but on the availability of some products in general. Many Texas cattle producers had to reduce the

size of their herds dramatically to stay in business at all when the drought was at it's worst. And their drought is not over, by the way. This article clearly points out how the cost of beef is affecting everyone, from the prices at restaurants, to your kitchen table. How many families have had to limit their intake of meat due to rising costs? How many people have gone to buying the cheaper processed food products to fill in the gaps? When the cost of fixing a hotdog or hamburger for your children gets to be a luxury, then what?

According to Food Business News, the bread basket in the middle of our country is seeing the affects of our unusually cold and prolonged winter weather this year. Corn crops in some parts of the country have had to be delayed because the weather is too cold and wet to plant. There are areas in Kansas and Nebraska that are experiencing drought conditions which may impact their wheat production this year. There are also some areas that the winter kill of wheat has not been determined yet.

And then, there is the drought in California which has been written about in many places. It still amazes me that there is any debate at all on choosing

between food production and the habitat of a fish or bird, but that appears to be the case. One thing is for certain. The water supply in California for the major food producing areas is dwindling at an ever increasing rate, be it the aquifers, snow melt, rain fall or the reservoir or lake levels, they are running out of water. Thus, another area of the country is experiencing shortages in production and increasing costs that are being passed on to the consumers. The Wall Street Journal recently had an article with a very interesting graph. It gives a visual for many of the statistics we keep hearing about.

If these projections come to pass and continue following these trends, what will that mean for your family food budget? How will it affect what you put on the table for the family meal? Will you be able to sustain your current standard of living? If not, what will you cut to make up the difference? How deep will you have to cut?

July 2013

This is yet another important message to all of us. The time to become more self-reliant is here. If you haven't already started to learn about producing some of your own food, I would recommend you do so without delay. There are so many different ways to produce some of your own food, from growing sprouts by the kitchen sink, to container gardening on your patio, deck or in the back yard. We have had several people comment here about growing vegetables in containers because of where they live or their ability to work in a garden. Stay aware and informed of what is happening around your neck of the woods and in the nation. The world has become less stable than it has been in years past and the need for vigilance has never been greater. Remember one of Frank's favorite quotes, "I'd rather be a prepared fool, than an unprepared fool." It could make all the difference in the world.

Until next time - Fern