Last minute tips for parents when the SHTF

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Good information. Keep posting--I read it all!

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ive been missing these lately

I intentionally deleted my posts for privacy reasons, but the major drought that I feared would happen this year has happened.

We now have a very similar combination of events equivalent to the Great Depression occurring.

If you do a search of recent news, you'll see that the greatest US disaster in US history is unfolding before our eyes. Drought is affecting an enormous swath of the US, and it is happening at a critical time for corn, and most likely for other agricultural products as well. What we have is a repeat in effect of the great Dust Bowl.

Couple this with the inevitable fall of the EURO, the LIBOR scandal, the eventual fall of the US stock market, and the bankruptcy of cities, and you have the combined effects of the Great Depression.

I urge all of you to read what few posts that were not deleted here, and begin prepping immediately. Those who have prepped in earnest, test your preps to see what areas have been neglected. See what works and doesn't work in reality. What have you forgotten?

Many folks have considered heirloom seeds as the eventual back up to any plans. Given the severe drought, if it continues, and follows history, then we could see major soil erosion from winds and loss of existing plant life. This means topsoil could easily become sterile from loss of nitrogen fixing bacteria, and also simply airborne.

Know where the closest natural water supply is in your area as well as the water table and have a means of digging a well. Rain water catchment may be severely limited with the drought.

Each current city of any size more than 10,000 cannot grow, gather, or harvest enough animals within their confines due to the practical levels of sustainability. Don't expect that one can simply hunt, fish, or gather enough plants in your area to live. Your neighbors will be doing the same things to survive, and it won't last very long.

God Bless You

Get yourself and your kids away from urban and densely populated areas, before and during the first quarter of 2013.

If you can't develop an escape plan and test it, one that does not use any main roads, highways or bridges, have enough survival supplies to last you and yours for up to 6 months.

You need to find a place that is isolated, and away from fleeing and panicked crowds... You may only have as little as 4 hours to get out before escape will become impossible.

You will need to avoid contact of any kind with others when the time comes.

You make it out and survive, you and your kids will be among those who will rebuild the new world..

You have a choice!

Thread: Welcome to the beginning of the end

Need to know more?

Ask in that thread.

Good luck!

[link to www.foxnews.com]

Why did William LeFever survive in the desert, when so many have died under similar circumstances? It wasn't training, or intelligence, or mental toughness. He survived because he adjusted what he thought he needed to survive by drinking river water, eating frogs, and immersing himself in river water to cool down his body temperature.

He'd been lost for three weeks, and no one must have been expecting to find him alive.

What one person can do, another person can do.

If you think about some of the things I've written, you'll see that play out in his story. He made many mistakes, but recovered some.

While it's true that amazing Native Americans like Geronimo and his band of warriors could travel 70 miles in a day, this young man traveled only 40 miles during a three week period. Let those who have ears hear. Traveling through the wilderness is NOT like walking down a flat highway. It's easy to get lost, enter into blind areas or canyons, have impassable cliffs ahead, tough river crossings, anything might happen. Don't think for a minute if your plan is bugging out and traveling on foot that you're be breaking distance records.

Despite the odds being against him, he managed to live long enough to be rescued. Imagine though in a real SHTF scenario having to rough it alone.

Why drought is one of the worst case scenarios

Drought on a limited scale is a fairly common problem even a seasonal issue in some locales. Some places near the ocean or in the dry Southwest commonly have periods of miniscule amounts of rainfall. Still, a historic drought like the one we're experiencing is not common, not at all.

Many people are not living in an agrarian lifestyle. They don't grow their own food sources, don't have livestock, don't bother with gardening or gathering herbs from the fields, nor do they hunt or fish. Their lives are separate from the natural order of things as they can simply go to the nearest store and find all manner of preserved or fresh food in abundance.

When drought has a major impact locally, then it becomes an nuisance, but when it persists it becomes a serious issue for anyone who does live in harmony with the Earth as above. When it becomes a state-wide issue, it can have a major impact upon the availability of certain food sources, but what's worse, a long lasting environmental impact.

All of that bounces right off most people, as it has only a minor effect on their lives. Usually it's a relatively short phenomena, and hence one merely waits it out, and pays a short term price for the vagaries of Nature.

This is NOT a seasonal drought. It's not a state-wide drought. It's a major drought that is impacting across the majority of the agricultural regions of the US, and will have a severe economic affect. Don't kid yourself that it won't. It already is affecting food contracts for companies, and that will have very long lasting effects.

Your food comes from somewhere. It isn't always available in abundance. We have been enormously lucky and shielded by our relative wealth compared to third world nations. That has changed severely.

During times of economic stress, Americans will find themselves competing for food stores rather than simply growing their own sources. This shift will most affect people who are dependent upon government aid, and that number is aberrantly high right now. It should raise major red flags, but still a large portion of the US is employed, and so some blithely ignore the issue.

If you've been reading some of my postings, then I hope you realize that those on government assistance are not merely the poor, but also retirees, veterans, those with mental illness, lots of people who rely upon assistance since they paid into the system though their sweat equity through work over time and economic contribution.
...

When Spring and Summer rainfall upon a small roof of say 1500 square feet, with ten inches over those seasons, it produces over 8,000 gallons of water. Most of that is absorbed into the Earth, and accumulates into the ground water, and some trickles back to lower levels, and finally into our streams, lakes, and rivers.

When there isn't rainfall at all, those crops that rely upon shallow root systems quickly die. Because most crops are grown using short chemical fertilization and because most agricultural plants are annuals (live for one year versus perennials which live for many), their roots do not extend deeply. In the absence of rain, and if there's a situation without a reservoir of water to pull from, then those crops die. No reservoir can possibly supply enough water to both provide water for people AND agriculture. It's why we rely upon good old Mother Nature to supply rain.

Plants with deeper roots like shrubs and perennials can last longer based upon their size, but they also are prone to dying based upon NEED. Larger plants draw more water too, a lot more, and many are dependent upon artificial supplementation since they were not evolved into that locale. People like certain plants and relocate them into newer environments than they developed into, and so those plants are not typically drought resistant.

Usually none of this is an issue. In a drought it all is an issue. What's worse is that each of those plants collectively creates and fosters microenvironmental niches that allows bacteria, insects, worms, reptiles, birds, and mammals to live. They are dependent upon those plants to create a suitable space for them to thrive and also to reproduce. Sure, one drought area may not have enough rainfall, but the next space over does, and so it's usually not an issue.

Now it will be.

In a SHTF scenario, all people will not being buying food from stores. They won't be able to turn on the tap to get a drink. They become hunter-gatherers like in days of old. I've written extensively about carrying capacity. Throw out the most optimistic paradigms with those tales given a drought. It's a worst case scenario.

The lower lifeforms that need water will die first based upon an inability to migrate in time. Soil bacteria is the first, insects that provide decaying biomass, worms to aerate the soil and castings. This means that bird life moves to other hunting grounds too. Many of the food sources for field mice and rabbits will die off. Squirrels will be luckier since they harvest nuts, but that means making it into the harvest time, but they need ready sources of water, and if those sources are not available, then a whole generation dies.

Water that normally renews itself in ponds, lakes, and rivers...falls precipitously. This means a higher than normal algae count increases by evaporation. Bacteria count increases through less volume too. That dearth of water has an immediate effect upon insects that live in the water, plus the fish and turtles that are dependent upon them.

Many large mammals consume smaller mammals, and an absence of availability means switching to other non-normal food sources. When those too are depleted, then the animals move on in ever widening circles looking for game, plants, or water. The few survivors compete for the food and water that is available. The natural cycle of reproduction is inevitably disrupted, and any chances of hunting or trapping diminishes.

In the prepping world, the worst concern is finding clean potable drinking water. You can last a long time without food, even a month if healthy and not burning lots of calories by being quiet and sedentary. Three days without water is the upper limit based upon maintaining consciousness and not living in an altered state.

In a survival situation, the most important aspect for most people is quickly creating a reservoir of drinking water in case there is an absence of utilities. Then when those sources run out, and that's very quickly, then the conventional wisdom has been to harvest from rivers, rainwater catchment, and ultimately wells. All are in danger when there's drought.

The major drought called the Dust Bowl in the 30's resulted in mass migrations of people moving to find work, food, and shelter. One doesn't simply “bug out” to a safe place when there's a huge drought. Bugging out has always been a short term paradigm, say a 72 hour journey to a safer more secure location. That most likely will not be the case with a major drought coupled with a severe economic crisis too.

I cannot imagine many worse scenarios than a lack of drinking water. I hope that you're making preparations for it. A family of four would need at a minimum 4 gallons a day to make it. Half of that is for drinking; the other half for staying reasonably clean and better equipped to stave off illness. That means that in a month's period, that family would need 120 gallons of water. None of that means much if that family can't grow their own food and harvest animals in some long term way. Yes, one can be a vegetarian when living in abundance, but all grain crops are major users of water: corn, wheat, rice... Think about it and plan immediately.

If there's is a persistent drought how would you cope?

All prepping is about adapting and overcoming to whatever deficits you have. Despite this, all civilizations occurred around the availability of water. Often this meant a village around a river bend, as that meant not only water but also travel, food sources, and a reservoir during drought times, etc.

In the absence of the close proximity of rivers, tribes dug wells with simple tools. There are several organizations, often spiritual ones, which have developed pragmatic plans in order to use local materials and procure a regular reliable clean water source for the tribe or village. These can easily be found with Internet searches. See:
[link to manualwelldrilling.org]

Evaporation will be heightened when there is an absence of moisture in the air. The low humidity will suck the water from existing basins or vessels, and should be planned for. It would be terrible to collect scant rain, and then lose it to the infiltration of dust into the vessel, or lose it to rapid evaporation.

This low humidity will mean adapting your clothing as the loss of sweat will lead to higher amounts of heat exhaustion. There's a reason desert people dressed the way they did, even though it would seem to be hotter, it allowed them to sweat and retain moisture. It also means skin cracking is a constant issue, and this disturbance allows more infections. Constant dust in the air, much of it blown soil, means that many illnesses we don't usually see like botulism will occur in higher than normal amounts. Unusual fungal diseases will occur from the blown soil, as our bodies will become the water source for them.

Drought means very careful conservation of water. It isn't wasted for disposing of human waste. The degradation of waste occurs with intentional bacteria dosing, and dry conditions means that this will NOT occur correctly. Waste must be carefully and intentionally disposed of far away from any water source otherwise terrible disease will occur. In a tribal society, this must be a managed project. Urine is created by the elimination of amine bonds from consuming protein. This has historically been used as fertilizer, so saving it into a container and spreading it will allow a better crop. Doing this with human feces is a terrible idea, and will likely create community-wide illness.

As firewood is used up, and less and less wood is available, then solar ovens to heat up food is essential. We heat up food to dispel bacteria and to make the food digestible as it breaks down protein bonds. All food must be properly and thoroughly heated, not rare, as that means potential illness. Rocket stoves can be initially made. One tribal adaptation by the Sioux Native people was the Dakota Hole fire. There are many videos on how to make one and available on youtube. It is simply a low tech rocket stove. Still, firewood will quickly be consumed, so solar ovens are the way to go to minimize calories burned looking for firewood.

When it's persistently dry, then the best source of food comes from what few wet area still exist. Animals will relocate to watering holes, which means trapping will be better in those area, as they become “high traffic” locations. If you are having scads of people trafficking the only watering hole for miles, then of course you will be disrupting the only good place for trapping too. Meditate upon this.

Think crayfish or crawdads collected in wire baskets and baited with discarded animal offal. Turtles would provide a lot of meat. Water snakes too, though the best means of removing the meat is to make a soup to allow it to fall off the many bones. Carp often will continue to thrive as bottom feeders, and their flesh can be smoked or dried. Any fishing will become about trapping, not regular fishing as it is too hot and labor intensive.

Most plants will wither and die. The root systems will not allow them to survive. Larger plants like trees will often offer seasonal crops, but the harvest will be greatly reduced. I urge you to search about foraging for tree crops like the Honey Locust beans, a food unlike acorns that few people will consider harvesting. J Russel Smith's excellent book on the subject of tree crops can be found here:
[link to archive.org]

Note that acorns are an excellent protein and fat source, but it takes a remarkable amount of water to remove the tannins, else it's impossible to digest them. Save the tannic acid produced as it's useful. The seasonal harvesting of acorns is labor intensive and is best as a community activity.

Obviously in a pinch, water can be harvested with a spile driven into birch or maple trees. This skill is not only for making maple syrup, but a survival skill in the absence of water sources. It is surprisingly simple, and anyone can identify either birches or maples with ease.

It will be extremely difficult to raise crops even if you are located near a river, the high evaporation will make irrigation difficult and a huge amount of calories will be expended for such an endeavor. If one germinates what stored beans or legumes you have as needed, you fool the seeds into producing much higher nutrition, and hence a good way of adapting. Vitamins are an essential prepping stored item as many will be difficult to acquire under these conditions and without any regularity of consuming them too.

Likewise, some insects are adapted for living in arid environments. The locust or grasshopper can be simply gathered and dried, and the abdomens will crumble into a powder, and this added to make a protein rich broth. The pioneers learned how to do this from Native American tribes. It's a way for finicky people to find protein calories without having to eat them whole.

Toilet Paper

The simplest and easiest plant to harvest as a natural toilet paper is Mullein. [link to en.wikipedia.org]

Mullein contains a natural emollient. It's very simple to identify. Lots and lots of questions get asked about this, and one doesn't or shouldn't use any old plant on one's rump as many cause contact dermatitis. Unless you are ridiculously sensitive, mullein is the way to go, and is located almost everywhere as a common meadow "weed". There are wonderful uses for it too.

Knowledge is good, experience is better, wisdom is best.

When most people begin a lifestyle of living the old pioneer ways, they often read a lot first, begin to purchase some equipment, and watch some videos. Today, there's a lot of resources on the Internet as people share their knowledge as well as freely available copyright-free information at places like:
[link to archive.org]

The easiest way to learn is from a mentor, but there's no replacement for practical experience in the field. Even though you have a theoretical knowledge on a subject, a million things can go wrong in the field based upon the dynamics of all the variables. Murphy's Law still applies.

Let's say you decide to garden. Well, you don't merely just plant seeds and then expect bountiful harvests.

It may very well be that the seeds you plant don't appeal to your family's taste buds. Having tons of inedible food is no good at all, but will sustain you with calories, albeit with terrible grumbling. Many times, it's wisdom to taste varieties, and see if you like them.

There's is a wide variety not only in taste, but in yields. The plant you may have chosen may not fit well with your soil conditions, frost or drought resistance, may bolt too easily in your region, etc. You must research what works well by asking old hands what they plant and why. Never assume you know more from your scant working knowledge. They may have tried it, and failed, and there may be many considerations as to why that plant is not a good idea.

The very first thing you should do, is to seriously test your soil's composition as there may be some essential trace mineral that is missing, or it may be that the pH is wrong, or it may be that you already have an abundance of this, but need that. Don't assume you can look at it and tell. Why spend hundreds of hours in failure when a simple test will help you?

You can waste an enormous amount of water through evaporation, or you can use drip irrigation and help your plants grow healthy root systems.

Yes, adding decaying material to the soil as amenities will make it better, that is if you time it correctly. Otherwise adding fresh material to the soil, you may cause a chemical change to the soil, and it will tie up the nitrogen in the decaying process and ruin your crops. You most likely don't know what's best, unless you ask, read, try, read some more, ask some more, etc. Don't just “wing it”. It seldom works.

Visiting a master gardener's plot and seeing what they do will spur on your own special spot. You'll get ideas, but don't run with them, but ask if they've tried it. Most likely someone has tried what you're attempting.
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Let me give you example. For really difficult clay soil, you can spend an enormous amount of time to attempt to make it better suited for gardening. You can literally spend a lifetime adding humus to the soil and slowly make it better. Clay packs tight, and hence it's why it's excellent for making pots. On a microscopic level, it really does look like stacked dishes in the cupboard. One can bust up sod and find clay soil and form rows and then find them baked by the sun into what is essentially pottery. It's the worst kind of soil. It repels water, so the water will run off and not penetrate well at all.

One simple practical way is to add sand. Sand will place micro-spacers in between those plates. This makes it friable and much more suited for gardening. But...where did that sand come from? Has it ever been contaminated with anything...like salt water? When at all possible, use local river sand, and even then, examine it carefully. Are the local dredging operation right near a chemical plant or where dumping is going on?
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Regarding clay, if you've ever read anything about harvesting clay from the soil to make pots, at some point you'll get a hankering to try it. Rivers naturally wash away silt, and as a result clay is “winnowed” by the water's action. That said, many books will mention digging a hole and finding a source of clay, allowing it to dry and air winnowing it. This is a much more difficult means of creating clay that is useful for pottery.

A much easier means is to attempt to artificially create the same conditions that a river uses to make it. Immersing that clay soil in water and waiting patiently for it to settle into layers, you can greatly sift the clay out, and then with several washes create ideal clay for making pots. You should always think about how many calories you are expending for your return. One may expend more energy then you could every get back and this is a losing proposition. Let Nature do the work while you spend time on other things, then come back and collect the clay instead.

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You find what you think is a great knife. It looks pretty and dangerous. Well, is it the correct size for the job? Does it fit in your hand well? Can you resharpen it? Does it hold an edge well? If not, is it because of your poor technique, or is it a poor blade for the job? Is it practical? Is it the right price for your budget and will it hold up? What does your mentor say about it? What are they using? Why?
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Do you actually know how to use the equipment you have? Have you practiced using it? It very well may be that once you do, you'll see what other equipment you'll need to make things safer, simpler, easier to do, and save time. Trying to learn how when stressed and fumbling is a terrible way to learn. It's so much easier to practice when not under the gun.

Who are you? Are you the original poster after all this time?

I am a conundrum, and I'd like to keep it that way. Yes, I have been writing hundreds of pages in this topic for almost a year.

I do hope that whatever you've learned here has been helpful. My intentions are honorable. If anyone has practical information, I hope that they'll share it too.

The issue of sustainable lighting post-SHTF

There are few things more frustrating than finding a reliable source of sustainable lighting in a world without rule of law.

Sure, in the first few months after a series of bad events, we can utilize our flashlights, especially if we use a solar panel and a battery recharger and rechargeable cells. That will work fine as long as you're using good rechargeable batteries, perhaps for a year. You might also use dynamo style flashlights that charge up using a capacitive effect to produce very short term lighting too. If one simply purchased inexpensive outdoor LED lights and brought them inside once charged up, you'd have a light source of about a year. Then what happens once you cannot replace the batteries from so many discharge and recharge cycles?

From everything that I've looked into, there are only a very few practical means of creating light in any way that doesn't create a nuisance of soot and heat indoors. While in a perfect world we could use kerosene, that isn't likely to happen when the SHTF. Kerosene comes from distilling crude oil, so unless you have the proximity of petroleum plus the chemical knowledge and equipment, it ain't happening.

We'll use whatever lamp oil we have, then once it's gone, we'll be reduced to creating candles from animal and plant waxes.

While animals will be harvested on occasion, unless one has livestock, those numbers will dwindle from trapped or hunted game. Much of that supply will be iffy based upon the local area's habitat and remaining population. Rendering fat into usable tallow was a community activity that happened seasonally at Autumn harvest times, then the meat was often smoked, and the candlemaking occurred with premade wicks and into molds or repeatably dipped. Animal fat is not easy to store in the absence of refrigeration, not without going rancid, but one could render small batches. Much of the animal fat being routinely collected will go into providing desperately needed calories.

If one was extremely blessed, you would have a bee hive. In recent years we've seen a huge die off of bees, but still you will on occasion harvest some honey and beeswax, but you shouldn't count upon it.

Some plant waxes can be harvested from two main sources: bayberry and sumac. Both of these have different melting temperatures, and by combining animal tallow with these waxes, you get a better burning candle.

[Couple this with a candle follower, and you have a candle that can burn efficiently for quite awhile. A candle follower is simply a circular ring atop a candle, and it limits the burn rate and pools the wax in such a way as to maximize the burn efficiency. Spring loaded ones are located in good backpackers candle lanterns.]

It takes an enormous amount of berries from either plant to realistically make candles, and that means expending a lot of calories in order to harvest them, dry them, and fabricating an oil press. Car jacks are common, and one could creatively make a press without too much mechanical or carpentry skills.

The Native First People of America would combine dried cattails and immerse them in rendered animal fat, and perhaps some plant waxes, and form rushlights of a sort. These can be smoky based upon the rendering technique and purity. Other plants like birch and pine can be slowly heated into charcoals, and by starving the burn rate of the materials, and draining them into a vessel, one can collect a burnable pitch, but it's smoky and not recommended for indoor use.

So what did people use way back when? I mean in times prior to using kerosene.

Plant oils were used in simple oil lamps. While olives are ideal, it's hardly simple to raise them in the US. Some varieties of sunflowers produce oil, and this could be pressed, but it would take a lot of effort to create a practical amount in the absence of automation. Soybeans can be grown in much of the US, but most likely these will be consumed as an excellent source of protein. There's some concern about men eating a monodiet of soybeans as they contain high amounts of plant estrogens, but in a SHTF scenario, one will be glad for the protein calories. It's possible that one could press the beans to express the oil, then eat what is leftover, or use this as a livestock feed too.

There are two likely candidates, both of which have a history of being grown in the US. Sesame is the first as it creates a pleasant oil that can be used for cooking as well. The second is rapeseed or today what is known as canola oil. Both produce relative high amounts of oil versus sunflowers. Rape is an excellent plant for penetrating clay or even stony soil and saving a lot of backbreaking work. The main issue with rapeseed is that unless you've got hybrid GMO seeds, the oil will not be in high volume, and the plants will contain a bitter organic component called glucosinolates. This means that most likely, should one have a variety that is non-hybrid (i.e. seed bearing into perpetuity), the oil will only be used for lamp oil, and the spend pressed seed will not be usable as livestock feed.

Both sesame and rapeseed oils have historically been used in oil lamps and produce good amounts of lumens for the size of the lamp. We should always look to history to provide some answers, but make every effort to see what other sustainable lighting ideas that are being tried in third world nations in the absence of modern technology and factories.

Both may be our best hope for creating light in the absence of being able to create batteries, a topic for future discussion.

Note- so many people in a tribal society using open flames will no doubt create a very real and common issue of house fires. Obviously there will be a greater impact on anyone with medical breathing issues from soot particles, and we have millions of Americans with lung disease.

Picked up a set of M14s for both my 6 year old granddaughters . They be ready!

Useful Barter Post-Shtf: Finding and assembling a tinderbox

In truth this post touches on many skills to barter: rocket stove construction, rocket mass stoves, Dakoda hole fires, solar ovens, and creating a firemaking kit too. The later is the focus of the post.
...

The worst has happened, but all is not lost as you've prepped well. Months pass, and your firestarters such as butane lighters and wood matches are being used up rapidly. Sure you've got some still, and ultimately intend upon using your magnesium firetool that you've been saving for emergency use (for when it's bitter cold or very wet and unwilling to muck around). You have a fresnel lens hopefully instead of a magnifying glass, as it produces a hotter flame too. Still, the later is a more difficult means of starting a fire for patient people plus having good intense sunlight too. Some fresnel lens are inexpensive, made of thin plastic and wallet sized, and might be good barter items too.

Most of the time, you're starting fires from existing coals, and minimizing fires since too many is a waste of wood fuel, and all the neighbors are inefficiently burning all the timber up. You're burning a cooking fire using a brick or a metal rocket stove , or maybe using a Dakota hole fire. If really smart, using a solar oven on hot days to avoid fuel altogether, but knowing it takes awhile. Having access to a hot roof might make this easier to do, as well as keeping the meal from getting stolen since it's outside cooking.

For making a large heating fire, you might consider rocket mass stoves too. Obviously this is something that will be more important based upon the average temperature in your area in late Autumn and Winter and Early Spring. Like it's smaller cousin, it uses wood much more efficiently than a woodstove, and burns cleaner since better combustion is occurring.

Before you're halfway through your provisions, you decide that creating a chert or quartz firestarting kit would be a decent barter activity that requires little work, but is useful by everyone with a little training. Everyone needs the ability to make fire, but few people know how to, and barring the time consuming and technical ability of making a good bow drill, a firemaking kit is far simpler. It takes a lot of time to make a bow drill by comparison, and most trappers or pioneers used a flint and steel kit. Matches will seem like an enormous luxury by then.

If you're very intelligent and personable, by timing this correctly you can teach people how to cope rather than being a know-it-all, and then you can also more easily sell the firestarting kits, save the entire neighborhood from using up all the existing firewood for miles, and as such have wood for making tools instead. This takes good judgment i.e. common sense something that will also be in short supply.

Villages came into existence because of the influx of greenhorns and barter items into an area with old hands who taught skills (took people under their wing) in exchange for friendship, their new-found friends' lending them a hand later, and a reciprocity of trading goods too. Not everything is about money and wealth.

There are four items in the kit:
some initial charcloth (under the charred punkwood section since it ignites rapidly)
charred punkwood
a sparking rock of hardness 7 or more (on Moh's Scale of Hardness) like flint, chert, quartz, or jasper
a bit of carbon steel (which will be kept outside of the kit to prevent accidental sparking.

Now you could simply sell pieces of gathered quartz, but most likely people will simply go get some, if they recognize it. Anyone can easily identify it with ten minutes of training. I did in 2nd grade. Flint is usually mentioned, but it's not common in the US in many areas, but chert is commonly found inside pieces of limestone and can be used also. Jasper is reddish in color and also easy to identify too. Flint is the ideal stone for throwing a spark hence flintlock rifles. Anyways, it may be difficult to sell a stone as people don't understand it's usage, but many will probably trade something for a firemaking kit.

Ideally the chert or quartz or jasper is fractured to create an edged piece like this:
[link to en.wikipedia.org]

The main thing is to have a sharp piece since the material is harder than the carbon steel, and you are literally shaving off a sparked steel fragment. It is in effect a chisel.

No one will buy one initially as they will have some matches and lighters, but as time goes on, everyone will use one. It will be essential for each home and for each hunter/gatherer.

Charcloth can be made ahead of time from rags. You'll have plenty of these as many of your clothing items will be worn out and discarded, that as well as from your neighbors. In the absence of a high availability of fresh water for laundry, many people will alter their personal hygiene habits and wear clothing for longer periods, and most clothing is not made strong enough to endure this practice.

Charcloth is not truthfully how they did it long ago, but a quick method of easily igniting a substance, and was made from a rag that literally had no further use at all. Sure it works, but one is not going to waste cloth no matter how small in this way. Not post-SHTF. A small bit of cloth might be used to patch another article of clothing.

By mostly suffocating a bit of discarded rag in a heated metal container, you'll form some charcloth. Teach people the right way, for if not, they'll waste cloth. It's used for a time when you need a foolproof method.

Most important: find some soft rotten wood, often called punk wood from an aspen, cottonwood, or popular. Some pines will work too. Now lightly char the top of the wood piece for your kit. You will throw a spark downwards on to the charred punk wood, and it will create a coal. Now you add a bit of dry grasses, called the “kindling”. Once a coal is created and blown upon, then you can use that to create a flame, the whole point of the exercise. Those ignited grasses will then be used to start a fire. Of course you can also light a taper for candles too. I have seen pictures of some tinderboxes that actually and practically had a small candle holder built into the top of them. If so, it would be as easily to pack into a bundle. My best candle is one that fits inside of a tin so I can quickly extinguish it, rather than a candlestick.

Certain local materials like fatwood from the heart of a pine can be reused as tapers, a little niche business too. (Good for torches too). Otherwise that coal could be used to ignite a cigarette. Lucky you if you have tobacco for trade. I don't smoke.

Carbon steel must be used to “throw a spark”. Stainless steel will not work. Old discarded pieces from junk are good candidates. Yes, you can use the back (unsharpened section) of your knife, but abusing your most trusted tool (knife) is not a good idea versus a piece of scrap carbon steel from your kit. Tool steel like an old file works well if properly shaped to throw sparks well and easy to handle.

Get this right. Strike the steel with the edged chert or quartz. Don't do the reverse. Carbon steel strikers were often made in an O, C, or D shape such that it could be grasped in one hand while the other hand with the flint struck downward against it. Sometimes they looked like brass knuckles too.

By assembling the kit in this way, and teaching people, you'll have a barter skill to trade for something useful in trade. Imagine how delicious some canned apples or cherries would be? Perhaps Some difficult to find item that isn't useful at the moment (like a solvent) will be a good trade item to a person without firemaking ability.

Note that many historical tinderboxes were made of metal, and the charred punk wood SHOULD be placed in metal, perhaps an altoid tin, as it can then be immediately smothered by closing it, and ready for use the next time. It will be hot.

Someone will no doubt say, why not sell them matches? If you had the luxury of matches, would you part with them? I doubt it. The goal post-collapse is to find skills or produce goods that you can barter for needed items: medicine, alternative foods, luxury items, crafts, etc.

Useful Barter Post-Shtf : Creating Solar Ovens from common materials

Many folks today haven't spent any time at all constructing something from scratch. We used to be nations that created thing from Nature, but because of the Henry Ford model of mass production, we became nations of people who performed a role that was extremely specialized. That time has come and gone, as jobs moved to areas of cheaper labor, but we still have the innate ability to construct the things we need. Some people even like it once they are exposed to it. Many people enjoy making crafts since they find the idea of “creation” therapeutic, useful, and relaxing. It may be very likely that the Source placed that desire deep within us.

There was great wisdom in the items created by frontier folks. They made the things that were commonly needed since perhaps no one else was around to help them, or they traded their creative abilities with others who could fabricate items. Regardless, human ingenuity has not stood still, but continues to consider ways to create new items that reduce work and save money.

One very method that is being used in third world nations is the construction of solar ovens. Many members of a tribal society will spend an enormous amount of time gathering firewood. It may seem that there is an abundance of wood in your area, that is until EVERYONE is looking for a combustible items to cook with. When each person is walking in walking in ever widening circles for a resource, then not only is the resource depleted, but the ground compacted and killing plant life, removing natural habitats for game animals, creating erosion from a lack of plants' root structures holding the soil in place, and wasting valuable resources from trees: lumber, medicine, tree crops, tea, pitch, solvents, etc.

Save the wood for useful construction, and don't waste it on cooking fires. It is something that a forming tribal society will have to impose on it's members, otherwise a tribe will be forced to relocate based upon a search for that ______. See? That blank can be wood, water, game, plants, etc.

Solar ovens will be excellent barter items post-SHTF. They can be constructed using waste cardboard and aluminum foil, from tires and glass, from a heat reflective windshield cover, and in other means. The easiest and cheapest method currently being taught is the box cooker:
[link to solarcooking.org]

A box cooker is simply a cardboard box with a lid that has a glass or plastic cover and that has reflective material added to concentrate the sun's rays. By placing a black pan inside, the sun will heat up the area, and cook your food slowly. Slow heating means more vitamins are preserved. Many of your meals will be simple one pot dishes to minimize preparation time. Then, that saved time will be used to fabricate other things that are needed, gather food items, grow crops, teach children, etc.

[link to solarcooking.wikia.com]

A solar oven can be used for many more uses than cooking. A solar oven can be used as a dehydrator, a crucial method of preserving garden crops for later, as canning will be very difficult. Heating the water slowly using the soldis method will eliminate many pathogens from the water. See the many benefits of them below:

[link to solarcooking.wikia.com]

Not only that, but older solar ovens will need to be replaced or repaired too. This means repeat customers. Yes, some folks will make one themselves, but chances are they won't know all the benefits, so you'll be able to teach people their uses for trade too.

If you can make these, many folks will trade you something for one, rather than spend an hour or more each day looking for wood to burn. Now of course, they only work on sunny days, so those same folks will need alternative cooking strategies. This leads us to rocket stoves, a barter item for the next post.

Do not be afraid

We see changes occurring all around us. Change is something that makes humanity most fearful, and when it happens suddenly, we have little time to cope for the change itself. This causes the fear to make us irrational, and when that occurs, we panic.

Panicking never helped anyone. When you simply react this way, you tend to instill that panic into others, and this will not do in a civilized society. Most people react and don't choose to respond. Reacting is the normal means of coping, and it's why soldiers are taught discipline in order to respond appropriately.

It's your choice. You can let go and choose to live the remainder of your life, be it minutes or decades, afraid. What will you do?

Fear is a natural response to danger. It's a built-in emotional system to cope. Fear is fine when controlled. It leads us to action when tempered with discipline,knowledge,and wisdom.

Being afraid is a mode of living with perpetual fear. No one can thrive under those condition. Relax, all is not lost. Being afraid will turn you into a quivering mass of jelly.

Let me give you an example. As a rock climber, the worst possible situation is when you become trapped and unable to ascend or descend safely, and are unable to see a handhold to grasp upon. Standing there for very long, and your muscles will shake with trepidation, and form lactic acid and you will lose your strength to extricate yourself.

Despite that, somehow you got yourself into that mess. You climbed to that spot. You didn't materialize there. This means that it is entirely possible to go back, shift your focus, and retry again.

The only alternative is to wait for help, and perhaps it's not coming. Still, if you see that happening to someone else, many times because of our faith and because people have saved us before, we pass along a helping hand to those in such trouble. Reach out to grasp a helping hand or be that hand for someone else, and honor some ancestor or friend who helped you once.

Think back to when you best coped with change. Chances are it was because somehow you were blessed with an abundance of resources to fall back upon, a surplus if you will. Those resources might have been extra money, food, water, knowledge, physical strength, and your health. Even more so, chances are good that it was a time of an abundance of friends and family too.

Reality is partially what we perceive through the lens of our eyes and experiences. If we are twisted by misfortune and perpetual fear, then what we see is a demented perception of reality. No matter what we see within the range of our perception, it is only a partial glimpse of all reality.

We don't know everything. That sense of the Unknown creates fear. More people perceiving reality offers a consensus of reality. Often this community will dispel fear.

Ultimately we must completely trust some Vision of Hope. Putting a passionate belief in that, part of us can put our faith into believing and trusting in the Future. When we cannot see the handhold to extricate ourselves, then we must reach out in faith. For me, that is the Source of All Life.

It is true that we may not survive. Perhaps sadly even our children may not survive. Somehow life manages to survive. It is tenacious that way.

Your life is not what is ultimately important. If our existence goes on into perpetuity, as somehow life manages to do, then I believe that some aspect of who you are now will live on. This afterlife then is the most precious aspect of who we are, the Life to come.

If we cannot survive this Life, but we can reach out a helping hand and save another, then perhaps our life had meaning. Perhaps that alone will make our afterlife beneficial.

Breathe. Create a surplus to rely upon. Become centered by a faith. Be willing to both reach for help and to be help for another. Find a community. All these things dispel fear.

A reiteration of at risk and risky members of society

Double counting occurs from co-morbidity in illness or disability, or in being in multiple categories.

No judgments here, simply some data to persuade you that prepping will help your family considering a lot of folks who cannot adequately prepare, and who might be desperate.

Number of US citizens: 307 Million
On public assistance: 92 Million (includes retirees on Social Security)

At Risk
Food stamp recipients: 52 million
Disability: 61.4 million
Nursing Homes 1.4 million
Subtotal

Illnesses
Diabetes: 26.3 million
Chronic Lung disease: 35 million
Chronic Heart disease 27.1 million
Mental illness:
Schizophrenia: 2.2 million
Depression: 30.0 million



Risky Populations (includes violent and non-violent offenders)
Incarcerated: 2 million
Excons: 7 million
Drug Abuse: 24.6 million (includes alcohol and medications but not tobacco)
Gang Members 1.4 million (a 40 % increase since 2009)

How thing could get worse

Besides the current financial collapse that's ongoing, what could happen that would exacerbate the issue?

Political crisis
Let's say that irrefutable evidence finally arises that demonstrates that the President of the US has extensively lied about his eligibility . This would invalidate not only his Presidency, executive orders, and any signed bills of Congress, but also the entire election would be a fraud, and hence the Vice-President could not assume power. A terrible power vacuum ensues. Most likely a special Supreme Court ruling would have to immediately occur. Possible riots for a variety of reasons.

State-wide bankruptcy
States decide that they cannot go on fiscally, major cities severely cut government workers including police and fire departments, and dramatically more crime and fires occur.

Dust Bowl levels of Drought
We already have comparable Drought to 1931. We haven't gotten as bad as 1934. Let's say the drought continues, and food prices rise enormously. Major hunger issues begin to occur as retirees, food stamp recipients, and simply the average consumer continues to spend way more for groceries. Reports of malnutrition cases appear on television in higher and higher frequency.

Saber rattling in the Middle East
Naval blockages of vital oil lanes occurs, drives the prices up dramatically from transportation costs, and the consumers are hit with major expenditures into the heating oil season. Rationing will be a major red flag.

Severe weather
A bad Winter hits and causes major ice or snow blockages, water lines burst, and creates disaster zones.

Epidemic
An influenza epidemic occurs that is worse than normal, and creates high absenteeism that results in supply chain disruptions.

Precious metal uncertainty
It comes out that major financial institutions have been manipulating precious metal prices. Many people become fearful of investing even higher percentages of precious metal given an inability to take physical delivery of it too. Thefts occur from those who have possession of gold.

Riots
Riots break out in several major cities, and they turn violent, and several are killed by police. National Guard troops are called in, followed by Northcom. New precedents for military occupation are created which supersede Posse Comitatus.

Hackers
Disgruntled hackers disrupt EBT transactions and/or Social Security direct deposits. Chaos based upon the high amounts on public assistance.

I think that many of the scenarios above could easily happen in the next six months. A combination of those events coupled with pre-existing issues could be disastrous.

Useful crops

Some folks are learning that you can cheaply grow tobacco for “personal use”. Check your regions' rules. Tobacco seed is very cheap. It goes without saying that this would be useful. Pioneers and trappers didn't smoke like they do now. It wasn't prevalent in abundance, but a luxury item that people enjoyed when they had more disposable income, and given the harvest time. It is labor intensive, ask any teen that has hung tobacco in a hot dark barn on narrow planks. Tobacco was frequently chewed to anesthetize decaying teeth.

Finding good sources of fruits with high sugar content like grapes that can be dehydrated into raisins, means that not only do you have a delicious and healthy food, but that you have a good alternative way to create yeast from them. This was a tried and true method of making bread (an alternative to sourdough). It also has been used world-wide to make raisin wine for personal use. Berries, honey locust beans, persimmons, whatever grows in your region. Often combination of these were used together to make the wine. The higher the sugar content, the higher the ethanol.

You don't need distillation for wine. Try searching for some raisin wine recipes online. It is usually placed in a ceramic cask and allowed to ferment and drunk while young. It is commonly consumed among Peace Corp volunteers too and they have placed some recipes online from their “scientific experiments”. Sometimes the concoction is dosed with additional sugar and or spices. Usually it's simply 2 lbs of raisins to 3 quarts of water. Sometimes it was simmered, often boiled down to intensify the sugar content. Then left alone for the fermenting process.

Pressed apple juice at harvest time, will also yield cider, and this is allowed to sit will turn into apple jack. If deliberately allowed to sit longer, these “wines” will become vinegar, a very useful trade item for pickling, cleaning, and curdling milk for making cheese. Everyone will want vinegar and run out of it.

Honey can be hard to find. We won't have apiary supplies to make new hives. You are lucky if you do have a working hive, and luckier if you stumble upon a hive to harvest from.

Sweets can be made from allowing maple syrup to crystallize and dry, so there's one excellent seasonal method to acquire it, and a real luxury item of great worth. The ratio of boiling maple sap to syrup is quite high, and requires a lot careful heating and large vessels. Maple syrup was a survival food for the First People and it got them through rough long winters. The best syrup comes from sugar maples, but other maples will also produce a good syrup, and you can get this from birch trees too.

A excellent crop would be sugar beets as boiling them down produces a usable sugar: a very good trade item. This variety will grow in any temperate climate.

Obviously soybeans are an excellent cash crop. They are practical and form delicious beans in pods that can be steamed and eaten simply. They have high amounts of protein and calories too. A useful oil can be extracted for cooking and for burning in oil lamps.

Useful Barter Post-Shtf: Creating some form of a rocket stove for others

I've often discussed the necessity of rocket stoves for cooking. To me, they are an excellent alternative to a typical cooking fire as they are small and require small amounts of combustibles for fuel. Rocket stoves have been used throughout history in some manner, they just have not been called as such.

I say combustibles, not wood because you might use alternatives. “What else could be utilized?” In an agricultural area, an great source of fuel is cow dung. It is gathered as it is drying and allowed to dry more. It is in fact concentrated grasses that have passed through the four compartments of the stomachs of livestock. When dried it burns hotter than wood and creates a good fire. Some people use cow patties for their wood stoves. That may or may not be good as it might invalidate the warranty due to high BTUs released. This requires common sense and experiementation.

It doesn't stink, but produces its own odor. Predicting an absence of lots of firewood as it gets colder, it would be very wise to collect it. Most people don't know it can be burned and has been burned in villages in diverse places. Sometimes grasses are added to it and rolled into similar sized patties for even burning, but I don't recommend this in a survival situation with poor sanitation and less soap then normal.

Dried cow manure can be used to create a red color too. In Sudan it is used to create a red hair dye. Worms can be raised in cow manure, which of course greatly aerates the soil as well as being fishing bait. It can be added after the harvest with lime often to sweeten the soil (raise the pH) and get it ready for the next growing season in the Spring.

[It's beyond the scope of this topic, but cow dung can be used to create methane gas for cooking, and this method is used when combined with a garbage disposal to create a super source of energy from waste material.]

One rocket-like stove is a Dakota Hole fire. If you've seen movies like Dances with Wolves, the Native Americans are shocked by the immensity of the fire the soldier produces, when ordinarily tiny fires were made underground and air is channeled to them from the prevailing wind side, and this air contacts the fuel and burns it more efficiently than an open fire. Less smoke too, and this is great as it is less irritating to the cook and creates even cooking and predictable cooking times.

[link to survivaltopics.com]

There are videos that can easily be found which show how to construct them in a few minutes based upon simply using a tiny trowel. This is the easiest means of creating a cooking surface using minimal supplies, and it's something that you could create for your neighbors for trade items. All neighbors will need some form or a rocket stove, and without tools and metal, this will work almost everywhere.

If the cooking surface is made with a smaller orifice, then no grate is needed. Well dried rocks (not from streams as they can explode from the heat within turning to steam) can be used as supports for the pans too. The rocks will absorb heat and disperse it, so that is a useful property in of itself.

Sometimes people have attempted to improve this form of fire for open pits. I saw a video once that was doing this and used plastic piping to channel the air into the center. I think their rationale was that they wanted to keep it from caving in from soggy ground in that location. Regardless what they ended up creating was a useful bellows for a fire due to its efficiency, and had they burned charcoal instead of mere wood, then they could do some blacksmithing there. If one had a way to vary the amount of incoming air with a dampner, you have a crude heat control based upon introduced air volume.

This is definitely something to consider since it would allow forging techniques. If one knew how to make charcoal, and it was a primitive skill used in the Dark Ages and discussed previously here, and access to metal like old railroad spikes, then in a SHTF scenario, knives and hatchets and all manner of iron instruments could be created.

Charcoal burns hotter than wood. It's made in small batches by starving hardwoods of oxygen, and gives off flammable gases in the process. These gases are vented, but not enough to allow an influx of oxygen. A smoldering fire was created and buried and watched over by several people taking turns to prevent combustion to complete, and as such they created batches of charcoal. This charcoal makes an excellent barter item, as it is essential to everyone to purify water, brushing your teeth, given as an antidote for some poisons, and blacksmithing.

The process of creating wood-gas that is flammable means that one can divert those wood-gas fumes into a preexisting combustion engine, say an electric generator, and do useful work in the absence of petroleum products.

The next kind of rocket stove uses bricks, over 16 or so, to form the channel and cooking surface. See:
[link to www.youtube.com]

This is often done in 3rd world nations by creating a brick making operation, so that all of it can be done locally. All you need is a little wood for the molds, clay soil, and a filler like sawdust. If one created the molds and had access to poor soil, then they could set up a little business to make the bricks, and make the rocket stoves for others. Again very few materials and tools are needed, and it's not complex...haha not rocket science. Obviously if one made several brick rocket stoves, then one could use multiple molds to shape the needed sizes, and then no cutting tools for the bricks would be needed at all. Ideally you do not stack one brick on top of another identical brick, but stagger them for mechanical strength and use mortar to make them permanent too.

Having a source of clay, means that you could have a water winnowing operation to create clay sediment, and then of course a small pottery operation.

The typical way of making rocket stoves today is to use four tin cans to make a modern day rocket stove. I like this one. He really tried several methods to get the best BTUs.
[link to www.youtube.com]

If you had some hand tools (mostly good tins snips) and discarded cans, then you could make these and demo them on Trade Day. In the early period, tin cans will be mostly discarded. You don't have to have vermiculite, as sand will work fine. It's about personal preferences for insulation and the dispelling of heat.

Children can create small fans to fan the coals, and each owner will need them. Because they are very hot, a good pair of channel lock pliers will make it easier to relocate the metal versions, or a clever person could build in an insulated handle of some sort as a even better product. A piece of bent wire with a threaded spile made from bone or wood would work. Sumac is naturally hollow and it's easy to drive out the pith.

Burns will commonly happen from a lack of knowledge about using these, and so it is wise to teach people properly, and save a child or a greenhorn from accidentally touching them. A burn can be very serious in the absence of antibiotic ointments as the complete barrier of the skin prevents infections. Pioneers died from simple mistakes like that.

I've discussed the absolute necessity of organizing Trade Day as a centering community activity, and this would be one excellent first product to minimize wood consumption. It benefits everyone to become a leader as this benefits each family to acquire their own special needs.

Each idea presented in these posting are carefully communicated to help you foster a village operation. There must be a method to the madness, otherwise you will waste time, talent, and treasure.

Next up, creating personal water filters as a barter product.

Useful Barter Post-Shtf: Creating water filters for others

Believe it or not, the vast majority of working water filters were not purchased, but were constructed from local materials. All people with some basic materials can make one. Obviously not a perfect filter, but when roughing it, then making do with what you have. That's realistically what the majority of survivors will do.

Hopefully you have a good water filter for you family. One that will successfully eliminate any microbes like Giardia, a freshwater amoeba that poses a long lasting (sometimes eternal) issue as it can take up residence inside of us, causing dysentery. You're removing cysts from the water and harmful bacteria. Both are aerobic, that is oxygen loving creatures, and removing oxygen is key to making a biosand filter operate.
[link to communitychoicestool.org]

When you have a water filter, and they do not, that's a problem for security as water shortages create desperate people. You never take it outside, but haul water back to your site from the source, and filter it indoors. Making water filters for trade improves security as it means less desperate people trying to acquire you own.

Look at the links for exact specifications. You'll need a reservoir, some tubing or pvc pipe to harvest the water cleanly, and gravel, sand, and charcoal. Charcoal isn't absolutely necessary but will greatly improve taste. See the previous entry for a brief discussion on making charcoal.

Think practically and clearly. You want to kill any microbes that are introduced from the water, but pre-filtering means less work for the biosand. That means that it's essential to create a series of pre-filters to catch the largest bits of tiny debris, then a sieve of some sort (panty hose or recycled plastic screen are two choices), and only then will the biosand filter the water.

Few filters can eliminate chemicals. This means that some judicious should be made on water sources. Water flows downhill, and washes the chemicals down too into the lowest point. Chemicals cannot be reliably removed with biosand or sodis methodologies. Many times the chemicals are agricultural runoff like fertilizers and sometimes livestock fecal matter.

In the absence of a good community latrine system and refuse area, plus burial and garden spaces, many people will carelessly accumulate decaying garbage and human waste. Even if everyone is being considerate, without careful planning, human waste will infiltrate back to lower sources, and perhaps your water source. This has implications previously discussed for wells and the water table. That means looking to see if designated areas are potential clay sources too since that may mean contaminating brick and pot materials. Plan plan plan to save work later.

The water trickles through prefilters, then the droplets work their way through fine sand, and as they do deeper the microbes cannot get adequate oxygen and die, then the water goes through large sand and into a reservoir, and in the simplest ones, out through pea gravel to reduce sand washing out. Most often it is then sent via a small hose or pipe into another reservoir, and that way, more water can be filtered.

Sodis
[link to www.sodis.ch]
An additional step is to take the purified water, and place it in some clear vessel like a two liter plastic bottle, and place this on rooftops with intense sun rays. This final method heats the water and doubly ensures that the water is free of most pathogens in as little as six hours of sunlight.

Any water that passes these methods and also goes through charcoal will taste better. The more murky the water, the more questionable it is, and the longer that this water will take for filtering.

Intensely heating the sand prior to construction will negate and eliminate insect eggs and microbes too.

You'll have a daily routine of drudgery to make sure that the water is collected, filtered, improved for taste, heated, and cooled to drink. That's an enormous amount of work when you've been simply turning on the tap. It's made ahead of time so you have a reservoir. See how important a well will become? Children worked on the prairie and in early colonies for many hours each day.

If you can construct a water filter, you have a highly valued trade item. Yes, you can and should do rainwater catchment. While the rainwater will likely be pure, any channels it passed through will likely contain bird fecal matter, molds, fungus, and contaminants from asphalt shingles. Not good for drinking water, but very useful for gardening.

Water can and should be caught in a plastic tarp that is mounted on pvc pipe or branches, and allowed to collect. You can catch a lot this way. Any kind of rainwater catchment will be subject to evaporation based upon temperature and low humidity. Obviously, it rarely rains in some seasons, and not at all in most Winters. Low humidity means higher evaporation rates.

8 inches of snow = 1 inch of water

It is very difficult, time consuming, and mostly a waste of energy resources to heat snow into water. Some snow can be accumulated, put in clear bottles in a sunny location, or brought inside and slowly melted to create some water volume. The issue is the moisture content of the snow. Even in abundant areas of snow, it may not be effective to bring it indoors to melt it by higher temperatures within.

1000 mL of snow packed into a Nalgene bottle becomes 125 mL of water. That's not much. One person needs 1893 mLs (2 quarts) of drinking water. It could take too long to make enough by passive melting. Active melting could use up extremely essential firewood.

This means that careful water planning must happen for seasons without easy water transportation. Water is heavy, takes us space, and difficult to move. This means creating large volumes to get you though until it can be harvested again.

Knowing the skills for creating clean water means not only being able to provide for your family, but creating an opportunity to trade that skill for other needed items.

Don't put any faith in predictions

If I could imagine one aspect that has most harmed the Prepper community, it would be those false prophets who predicted a date and time when something was “happening with all certainty”, and then of course didn't.

Prepping is about learning practical skills that our ancestors utilized to live in harmony with the Earth. It was not the City of Eden, but the Garden, and ideally we would live in a manner in which we were intimately aware of the interconnectedness of all creatures, ourselves included. By doing so, we would not shit where we eat, but live intentionally in ways that made us and our environment thrive.

It is when we think that we can live the postmodern way, and then as a hedge buy a few things and weakly have a theoretical knowledge of tribal methods, that we fail. That dichotomy means we have not invested ourselves well.

Because people tend to prep this way, and because they see that we are declining in our connection with the Earth and each other, that it creates conflict and constant fear. So, some new prophet comes around, often to peddle a book, a religion, some supplies for 99.95, and that segment of the population buys into it.

Prepping is about living in the eternal Now. We practice and do these things now, because if things do get dire, then we cannot rush and get ready. Everyone who is weakly prepared will rush to get ready. We are ready now, at least reasonably so.

It is a big commitment to live like that, either choosing a weak attempt to prep, or a major attempt to prep, as either means committing to lifetime learning of skills, or choosing to mostly ignore reality.

What you say? Disasters don't happened! Look at all the failed predictions! I put it to you that disasters happen every day, and those who have an abundance of love, friendship, faith, and supplies will cope in silent ways with weather, divorce, death, unemployment, and illness...and because they have prepped in earnest in some ways, then they make it. Many others do not. The ones who do not have a lack of families and friends and supplies and a foundation, and they have to rely upon an often hostile government...a system that has failed us since the Great Depression.

Prep now, not because of being afraid or the latest prediction, but because if you did learn the old ways, then it will only enhance your life now. Learning about them now, makes you more affectionate, caring, believing, and hopeful. It is only when we become wrapped in fear and dread that we become tormented and afraid. Those are not preppers, but with followers of Thanatos (Death) as a Master.

"And there the children of dark Night have their dwellings, Sleep and Death (Thanatos), awful gods. The glowing Sun never looks upon them with his beams, neither as he goes up into heaven, nor as he comes down from heaven. And the former of them roams peacefully over the earth and the sea's broad back and is kindly to men; but the other has a heart of iron, and his spirit within him is pitiless as bronze: whomsoever of men he has once seized he holds fast: and he is hateful even to the deathless gods."
Hesiod 8th Century BC

When people get wrapped up in the latest prediction, they may be serving Thanatos without knowing it. It may be that they see the doom around them, and in all sincerity they cannot imagine surviving, and in that desire, they reach out to affect change. Often they speak of more guns and ammunition and little else.

Some are genuinely persuaded that the prediction is true. It may be true, but mostly those kinds of dire predictions have not happened, but lots of minor doom has. If they would switch to teaching skills and knowledge and affecting change, then how better off we would be.

Some are plain lazy, and think that they can throw money at problems in a hurry when doom is at the door, and that never works. We did that consistently during the Great Depression and after, but it was only because we became merchants of Death and Destruction and world policemen that our armaments pulled us from the brink of economic disaster, but at a terrible price and burden.

If all people had the ability to grow their own food, build the things that they need locally, and could pass that skill and freedom to the next generation, then how secure and wealthy we would all be.

We are selfish, and unless we feel immediately threatened, seldom will we act. Don't fall into that fallacy, but prepare because it is wise to know how to purify water, grow crops, gather herbs, perform first aid, hunt and trap, and protect ourselves by arm, foot, or ranged weapons.

Motivate yourself and others by positive encouragement and teaching skills, not by spreading fear that statistically will not happen. If the worst doesn't happen, then I have lost nothing by learning skills, and may become a more fully actualized human being in the process. If bad things happen and I can cope, then I may have a cushion to get my bearings and travel forward on my journey.

We are all in it together. Almost all of what I have written is about the vitality of community. Few brilliant souls know all the skills, and no one can be eternally healthy. We need each other.

Useful Barter Post-Shtf: Making charcoal

Uses for Charcoal:
Black powder
Water purification
Forging metals (Charcoal will burn up to 2700 degrees F.)
Sweetening distilled ethanol
Medicinal uses like removing toxins, treating wounds, brushing teeth, treating gastric distress
[link to www.drugs.com]
Deodorizer
Art and writing


You will not waste charcoal for grilling, but will utilize previously detailed means of efficient burning in small fires or solar ovens. The remnants of cooking fires that don't burn efficiently can be used in a similar manner as charcoal, but these will not usually be true charcoal.

Wood ash and a bit of charcoal and an aluminum can can be used to make a crude electrical battery. Wiring several in series ups the voltage (potential). Wiring several in parallel increases the amperage (flow). This has been previously discussed and forms the basis of a critical need post-collapse. Everyone will need batteries. See the link for a discussion of that very important barter item.
Thread: Last minute tips for parents when the SHTF (Page 6)


A brief overview of making charcoal
[link to www.youtube.com]

A detailed four part video series on making charcoal
[link to www.youtube.com]


Next up: Making pine tar and birch oil