Last minute tips for parents when the SHTF

Refrigeration Methods: Part Three

Creating a vacuum is not hard, it's just hard to create a perfect vacuum such that the water will boil at lower temperatures.

Some bicycle pumps can easily be reversed to produce a vacuum. You should learn this process because you need to vacuum seal jars anyway to preserve food. See previous postings.


Some bicycle pumps are more difficult but not impossible to reverse.


See not so tough.

If you had a large volume of water in a tank, and then released it (and recaptured it so as not to lose something so essential), then you could create a venturi system of creating a vacuum.


If you can source a mechanical vacuum pump, I would get one.

Previously I discussed how using a mountain bike you could use a belt driven system to drive an alternator to recharge batteries and then power dc devices. If you had an inverter too, then you could briefly power low current ac devices.

This setup would alternatively be used to mechanically drive your vacuum pump as seen in part two.

It also could be used as a water pump to remove water or relocate water into another container. It also could be used (within reason) to pump water from a well. There's limits of course, the longer the length of the draw, the more power is needed, so this won't work on very long wells.


Having such a rig only makes sense because it can be used in so many ways. Maybe a basement is flooded, and you need to remove the water from it and you have no power and no other way.

An exercise bike is frequently used since there's a lot of them laying around as junk and they're already stationary. The problem is that they are direct acting without many gears so you have to pedal too hard, and if using one for any work, that's a significant factor, right? A mountain bike with many speed makes things easier.

Last Edited by Don'tBeAfraid on 01/04/2013 01:53 AM

Refrigeration Methods: Part Four

Now if you combined methods, and you should, then you could do intelligent things like source ice in Winter, cover it with an insulating material from Nature like sawdust, and then place it inside your root cellar, spring house, etc and lengthen the cooling period plus lowering the temperature around specific foods. The larger the space, the more is needed to cool it, so you can make contact with the food in a small space and use less ice.

Or you could make ice using the vacuum method and then do as above.

All of these little factoids that I'm showing you will be combined when there's a collapse. Individually they are only curiosities. Together and applied they make practical sense to save money, perform some task, make things last longer, etc.

You're going to MacGuyver things a lot after a collapse because chances are no one else is going to bail you out.

Maybe the bicycle setup later is used to drive a washing machine. Maybe if you can make ice you can trade it, or you can teach someone how to make one for a significant trade.

Knowledge is power.....if you can apply it practically.

Edit:
Because someone is bound to ask, "Is there any common additive to raise the freezing point of water?" In other words, is there there some substance that will make water freeze at even higher temperatures?

It's a good question, and it means you're thinking. Good for you!

I don't think so. Most substances lower the freezing point of water. It's why we add things like salt to water so it melts. However salt added to ice makes things colder. This is why rock salt is always added while cranking a ice cream maker.

Salt will be one of your prized supplies, and I doubt you'll want to use it up this way.

If I can think of a common substance, or a way to cool things even easier from common materials or simple principles then I'll edit or add to this topic.

While many folks have probably seen the Jericho episode where garden fertilizer is used to make ice, you probably don't want to use it up like that. I think it's probably theoretically possible to use urine since ammonia is a refrigerant. It's an old school means of refrigeration, but I don't know much about it.

Urea is the way that instant ice packs are made.


Also a little thing. Metal containers conduct temperature faster, right? That means whatever you're chilling will get cold better if metal versus something like a clay pot which is an insulator.

Last Edited by Don'tBeAfraid on 01/04/2013 01:52 AM

Winter Sickness

A lot of people are sick right now. I doubt it's anything unusual.

Post-Christmas, a lot of people are run down. Haven't you ever come back from a vacation more tired because you were doing more activities than your normal sedentary job? Maybe you did a lot of honey-dos (Honey please do this or that...)?

You get less sleep and this always translates into illness. Remember pulling all-nighters to cram for exams and then inevitably getting sick later?

A lot of people don't eat right. You need extra vitamin C during the Winter. A lot of cooks are careless since they don't cook all of the time and maybe didn't wash their hands like they should have. Many times intestinal flu happens for just this reason. Food is kept warm, or eaten after sitting out for hours and people get food poisoning.

There are websites that monitor the flu like [link to www.flutrackers.com]
They monitor all kinds of common and very rare illnesses internationally. There's even state by state reporting. If concerned, you can briefly look around and see if a lot of people, especially nurses are reporting something occurring.

Take good care of yourself NOW. The longer you delay, the longer the virus (most likely) will be replicating in your system without self-care.

When sick with a respiratory infection, often there is drainage. Your pharynx is connects your nasal sinuses (there are others by the way), to your throat. As you eat food travels down your esophagus, and there's a flap called the epiglottis that moves to allow air in and out, and then shuts when eating to divert food.

To keep the lungs clean, dust cells migrate over the surface and there are cilia which are tiny hairs that oscillate and mucus too. All of that sweeps up and then past the epiglottis, and then is diverted out the esophagus and digested.

When sick, food particles can mix with sinus drainage. This can lead to a secondary bacterial infection. This is gross but young children and some adults don't blow their nose but swallow that hunk of mucus and then it mixes, and possibly gets aspirated into the lungs and that's how a small illness becomes a big one.

It's why sometimes you start off feeling bad and then it worsens. While no antibiotics will help viruses, they do work to fight bacterial infection. Most doctors don't want to prescribe antibiotics because it's viral, but maybe things change and now you really are sick.

Learning to read your body and heal your tribe is a very basic essential part of prepping. I'm not sick and haven't been sick for a long time. Try to take better care before hand rather than spend a lot of time and effort and maybe money treating an illness.

Remember all of those herbal remedies like Echinacea, Slippery Elm tea, crushing some fresh garlic in real honey (with pollen). Use a strong anti-inflammatory like Naproxen for aches and pains that aspirn doesn't touch. You need rest mostly uninterupted sleep. How can your body heal with out it? Put something hot, nutritous, and delicious in your body not processed food.

Please take all of this to heart, because imagine that there was a collapse and you were attempting to deal with it under those circumstances. This is why Winter was a deadly time for tribal people who were undernourished, sleep-deprived, miserably cold, etc.

Last Edited by Don'tBeAfraid on 01/03/2013 01:53 PM

Nasal Rinsing


Here's a very good video with an animation which show the importance of nasal rinsing.

BOIL THAT WATER. You don't want to put potentially contaminated water directly into your sinuses as at the top is a thin plate (criboform plate) that goes to the brain.

You use some salt. This is a good way to gently moisturize those dry irritated tissues in there.

The easiest way to do this is with some help. Have someone prepare it, and bring it to you in the shower, then you do it there. It's far less messy.

Often people feel squeamish the first time, and need a little help. It's like when something is in your eye, you need help, right? It's the same kind of irrigation.

See previous postings on why the aspirated nasal contents accidentally into your lungs is harmful.

Last Edited by Don'tBeAfraid on 01/03/2013 03:06 PM

The Danger Area of the Face: Cavernous Sinus



Wow, I just read someone talking about a sinus infection for months and I feel shocked. In a collapse, a sinus infection of any length of time could result in a very serious bacterial infection of the sinuses.

Doing the nasal rinse EARLY will wash out the sinus so that any infection that's present will be removed, so new healthy mucus will form, and it will also gentle lubricate the area.

If you're taking a medicine to remove the infection, ummm wouldn't it be better to clean it first?

Think about it this way, if you get a wound infected on your hand, the first thing you do is remove the dirt and infection, then bandage it, keep it clean, create good conditions for healing, and maybe take antibiotics. You don't leave it alone and take antibiotics, right?

Any place in this triangle can become infected, and if not treated with simple care, will worsen and fill up the sinus. Popping a simple pimple can result in a bad infection. Keep that skin clean, especially during a collapse when others are being too loosey-goosey about hygiene.

Something as simple as a tooth infection (abscess) can follow along the nerve associated with that region and go to the brain.

See this picture. The olfactory fibers cross the skull and join the nerve through the cribriform plate.
[link to rozeklaw.com]

This is precisely how a dangerous fungal or bacterial infection can turn into bacterial meningitis.

Remember that during a collapse, like always a stitch in time saves nine. Catch those little nuisance health issues early otherwise they're deadly.

Last Edited by Don'tBeAfraid on 01/03/2013 06:24 PM

Don't be silly and expect a frontal assault

A lot of people have watched too much TV. There it is high drama to have the bad guy show up with the gang and make a frontal assault on the defenders. That kind of action results in high casualties and a lot of wasted ammunition. It's also unnecessary.

What's much more likely is a quiet 4 am action by surrounding a place, blocking chimneys to smoke people out, picking people off from brush with guerrilla warfare, attacking when the community is in the field harvesting, infiltrating slowly into a community and then simultaneous attack from all sides during a community event or on a holiday, etc.

Sometimes in history, all the attackers had to do was deny resources like water to a tribe, and then they'd either have to surrender or fight to the last person.

If there ever is a collapse, it will come in a manner you don't expect, in a way you didn't consider, from a different direction, at a bizarre time, etc. This means thinking about all kinds of ways you might defend.

In medieval times, people defended behind very fortified walls and unusual defenses like boiling oil, hurled rocks, their own siege weapons (primitive artillery), ranged weapons in waves of flaming or not arrows or bolts. They had an interior water supply, cisterns too, medicines and food stock for months, because a siege might last that long or longer. They'd fight from the walls, pull back to secondary walls, pull back to the main area, and then finally retreat to the Keep.

You have thin walls that can easily be driven into or penetrated. Many of you have few supplies and no water. The amount of ammunition you think will be used is actually a gross approximation, for countless bullets might be fired.

A castle strategy without a castle is foolish.

Understanding the role of sugar in survival

As Americans, we eat WAY too much sugar. There's nothing wrong with a little. In fact, it's important to survival because the body when working everyday as tribal people, you'll be depleting the glycogen in your muscles.

If you've ever watched any survival show, after three days, the people start to fall apart because of this simple nagging fact. Every show. People for the most part are unused to heavy labor. Athletes know they have to eat an enormous amount of calories every day when building muscle, because they're doing so much heavy labor that whatever they consume is immediate used up. They exercise one body part per day, and then rotating to the next one and eating like a horse.

In a survival situation, you're exercising ALL of your muscle groups and there's lots of soreness. There's an unrelenting daily grind wearing away at joints and frayed muscle fibers and no recovery time save the Winter months.

Fail to get adequate sugar to maintain your blood sugar level, and the brain shuts down and you pass out.

If you read any good preparedness manual on food supplies, you'll be astounded by how many sugar containing foods are on the list. While we need to avoid eating all of them on a regular basis, when surviving you modify all of your habits including diet to cope. Don't obfuscate the issue by thinking about eating the way you are now into the future when there's a collapse.

If you fail to store enough of the recommended simple carbs, you'll doom your tribe with weakness. Believe me, when struggling on the 3rd day of a hunt desperately trying to get enough food to take back because you know people are really hungry, exhausted by your efforts, and still have to travel back to base camp, then those hunters better not be sugar deprived. Same thing with soldiers. Same thing with carpenters creating a cistern or well diggers or harvesting workers or whatever.

Fructose comes from fruit. Sucrose is found in sugar bearing plants like beets or sugar cane. Galactose is also found in beets, but also milk. Some sugars are easily digested in the stomach. Others like lactose from milk products breaks down in the intestines if you have the genetic adaptation that produces the enzyme lactase. Words with -ose often mean a sugar type. Words with -ase often mean an enzyme to break down a food component like protein or carb.

When harvesting, many veggies and fruits reach a peak sugar content and hence they're ripe for pickin'.

When complex carbs are chewed by your teeth, the first part of digestion begins and some sugars are immediately released giving energy.

Runners will sometimes carry energy gels to get this immediate release of calories as an energy lift. They are made up of simple sugars and maltodextrin which is a starch that comes from wheat or corn.

Here are two recipes of simple homemade energy gels. They mostly are a mix of honey and molasses. Post-collapse, you'll probably make some of this from honey or sorghum or both with maybe dried fruits for your work/hunting parties to carry. This will give them a regular snack, immediately replenish their energy, and might give them an edge if something happens in the field.
[link to www.active.com]

Adding something like nutmeats or jerky gives them long lasting energy from the protein release, but they're carrying meals with them too. Those fill in for survival when they have to eat some fast on the run.

Remember that thin people, athletes with low body fat, those folks have low reserves. While stronger and more fit, and often more tenacity, they don't always hold up as long as their body is depleted of glycogen. Later starving people start catabolising fat and these folks don't have it. They might be doing most of your work, so you have take care of them.

Last Edited by Don'tBeAfraid on 01/12/2013 10:10 PM

Just a quick note: For pre-collapse butter making, be sure to _not_ use ultra-pasteurized heavy cream. It is pasteurized at a very high temperature which denatures some of the proteins and damages the fats, which will prevent it from coagulating properly into butter. As always, keep up the great work!

Understanding symptoms: coughing

Most people don't treat the illness, they treat the symptoms. I'm sure you get irritated when you hear that, but there's pearls of wisdom in it.

As a shaman-in-training, you need to understand why your tribal member is coughing. Please read the extremely thorough link which explains all of the most common reasons that a person could be coughing:
[link to www.webmd.com]

The basic reason someone is coughing is the conduit in which air is transferred to and from the lungs has NARROWED. Make sense?

Here's a very brief and easy to understand animation which demonstrates this conduit and the transfer of the invisible gases that are taken in and out.


Actually, only 20.9 % of the atmosphere that you're breathing is oxygen. When it gets low, then breathing is more difficult. People are hypoventilated. Less oxygen is getting to their conduit of air (respiratory system), and hence they turn blue from cyanosis (cyan means blue). In the animation the blood corpuscles, little inner tube like cells, easily can absorb gasses. This is because they contain hemoglobin which can grab four oxygen molecules like a monkey grabbing with their hands and feet.

The respiratory system is composed of channels with cilia and it is constantly sweeping with these hair like cells and because it's covered with a thin layer of mucus, it traps particles of debris and the body eliminates them with dust cells, warrior cells that fight potential infection.
[link to en.wikipedia.org]

If there's a lot of dust in an environment, then the body senses the increase in particulate matter because more and more invading bits of debris are detected, and more and more inflammation is happening. So the body ramps up mucus production, and white blood cells, and these go on the attack.

If you're sitting in a dusty room, or creating more dust or there's tons of allergens in the room, then you're going to cough. Why? The body has made more and more mucus to trap these particles. This causes the conduit to clog up, narrow, and therefore less and less oxygen is getting to your lungs. The body is causing a spasm to cough up the mucus plug.

Likewise, a virus or bacterial infection is causing the same process in some causes.

A lot of you are coughing for one of those two reasons.

If you've read previous postings, then you know that I recommend an inhaler be kept on hand in every household. An inhaler releases a stream of medicine which relaxes the tissues which line the respiratory tract. This dilation increases the opening, reversing the narrowing that was caused by the mucus and temporarily allows the patient to get more oxygen. The body senses this and coughing is reduced. This phenomena really really helps a patient that is suffering.

An extended can cheaply be made by an empty water bottle and this causes more diffusion of the medicine into the lungs. Or you can spend too much money on an extender. Your choice. Same effect for zero dollars.


Now, is the cough productive or not (allowing mucus to come up and be expelled). If no mucus is coming up, then you possibly need an expectorant. It's made to help expel the mucus. Make sense?



Most cough syrups don't work well. You can spend a lot of money on them. Try tea first and an inhaler. I think you'll save money and fix this and feel better.

A baby or small child can't expel the mucus or they're irritable or tired from it happening over and over, and this is why those icky snotsuckers are actually very useful. When someone gets very sick, and weak, anyone could use them.
[link to kk.org]

Because a lot of the mucus plugs are in the nose, they are very helpful. They also make a kind with a squeeze bulb.

A nonproductive cough is when no mucus is produced, but a hacking dry cough. There are usually too many allergens and overwhelming the patient. Smokers frequently get this. A little tobacco on rare occasions grown organically probably wouldn't hurt you. That tobacco made by corporations is addictive, has additives, and smoking it all the time is killing you. Big world of difference, huh?

A cough suppressant relaxes the smooth muscles inside your respiratory tracts. Smooth means a special kind of tissue, not that it's smooth inside. Muscle contraction is being artificially relaxed. The inhalers are smooth muscle relaxers.



Putting garlic, onions, ginger all also fight the infection if that's the issue.

Breathe Easy tea is an excellent cough suppressant and cheap.

Throat Coat tea applies slippery elm to the surface of the throat. It help sooth very scratchy irritated inflamed tissue.

I always have both on hand as they work. You could make your own by reading the ingredients and making a tea. It would be cheaper in the long run. Previous postings have discussed doing this.
[link to www.traditionalmedicinals.com]

Fennel, licorice, slippery elm these are the triad of most helpful herbs for coughing and respiratory issues.

Most people try to stop a cough. NO. The idea is to ascertain what's the issue and causing the coughing.

In Winter, the air is too dry. This evaporates the moisture that is being produced all the time by the respiratory tract. It allows the irritations to worsen. There's reasons you need to increase the humidity in a home. If worried about mold, there's less to worry about in Winter, but a little apple cider vinegar will prevent it.

These are the best cheapest ways of treating the patient. When people get wound up, then they literally cause breathing issues. Help them to calm down, take care of them, help them to relax.

If they lie down flat, then the passage to their throat could become obstructed. Sitting up slightly can help them breath easier. This is important for sleep, both for them and you. No sleep = no healing because it's only when sleeping that the body can concentrate on healing.

They make sleep aids and place them in some cold medicines and cough syrup. It's unnatural sleep. Something mild like chamomile or skullcap tea will do the trick. They can be brewed and mixed into juice and consumed if people complain about more tea.

If the patient is cyanotic (turning blue at the lips first, look at fingers and toes).


They're not getting enough air, and this is dangerous. The inhaler helps but they need to get medical treatment.

Last Edited by Don'tBeAfraid on 01/12/2013 10:16 PM

Please prepare

I can teach you all kinds of things, and I've been very devoted about doing that. I can't make you prepare.

If you're not preparing, then one day soon, there's won't be a day to prepare. You will be within a morass of the worst SHTF possible. You'll be swallowed up by it.


A lot of you are already stuck, and I'm reaching out a hand, and trying to talk you out of it.

When you're on sinking ground, a vacuum forms on your feet as you try to extricate, and get one foot lose, the ground is weak and you step and get stuck again.

If alone, what seems funny, could kill you if it's cold and wet and exposure ends the hilarity and it becomes deadly serious.

Right now a lot of you are cutting up because a way of dealing with stress is blowing off and gallows humor. At some point, there's won't be a way to safely prepare.

As time goes on, and more and more people get scared as they are now, then they buy up supplies like guns and ammunition because they see the handwriting on the wall.

This leads to shortages, high prices, inflation, nervous armed people who have no other skills. It's all bad.

I'm not discouraging people from arming themselves. I'm saying learn and do both.

One day, mark my words, there won't be a way to use an Internet forum anymore because there will be a police state.

Last Edited by Don'tBeAfraid on 01/05/2013 02:46 AM

Blood pressure: Why it's so important
Part One General Thoughts

As a shaman, you're going to be the primary person taking care of your family. They're looking to you to help look after them. That can make you spread very thin, like too little butter on too much bread. You must teach everyone in your family how to do very basic things so that if the worst happens, you'll have help, or if you get sick, then they can take care of you.

The more people you train, the more hands there are in any emergency. It might be that your tribe is going around taking care of lots of neighbors if sickness is going around. While you might watch some film like Contagion and think the worst, most illnesses are short lasting. If you want to accelerate community building, then the very best way to do that is by being neighborly and helping people when they're debilitated.

When you help people when they are weak, they when you are weak, then they will help you. It's no different than everyone putting out a barn fire. You pitch in when someone is too sick to feed themselves, need help getting to the bathroom, need help cleaning up, help them get chores done, take care of their children, etc. Life doesn't just stop.

This builds genuine friendship and maybe romance someday. Most people are selfish and will only think of themselves. As a shaman you instinctively know that to perpetuate culture you model it by your own behavior. People will see that altruism, and one or two will also do it. Eventually more will, especially when benefiting from your actions. Trust deepens. Relationships get stronger.
…

One of the easiest things to learn how to do is measuring pulse and heart beat. If you have some inexpensive equipment and take care of it, then you can measure blood pressure as well.

The first thing you need to understand is that the body specializes roles just like most communities do. The heart cannot digest food. It relies upon the stomach to do that. The stomach can't pump blood. It relies upon the heart to do it. The teeth can only break up food, not digest it, and so on. Each aspect of the body needs to broken down into simple parts.

You won't be a doctor. Of course not. It takes what seems like forever to learn all of those things and keep learning them because medicine is an additive science over time. [So is prepping and that's why little tiny bits of information have been gently fed to you so you end up learning a whole lotta stuff!]

Some people have a mental block about some aspect of preparedness. For many it's mechanics, carpentry, or healing. Don't be blocked, but try doing simple things to learn more.

You can learn how to do very basic things, and since most of the time the issue is very simple and straight forward, then you can detect an illness or injury. That's a huge part of healing. “What the heck is going on?”

The problem is that you have to understand “normal” and “aging” because people are NOT machines, something that a lot of medical personnel don't learn for a long time. They are dynamic creatures that have lots of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual things going on. You must listen to them talk and they'll tell you what's going on and possibly what is wrong too. Talk long enough and they might change their story and admit, “Yeah, I let myself get rundown. I'm depressed. I fell two weeks ago and hit my head. I've been feeling out of breath during exercise and sex. I've been noticing bleeding in my stool for two months.” They'll tell you lots of things, but if you're in a hurry, and they're embarrassed, then you're the idiot because you'll be treating them for something that isn't the real issue.

A lot of people are very shy when alone with someone. Even if you know someone a long time, if they're a private person, they might be hiding a lot of things. Maybe they're getting smacked around at home. Maybe there's some sexual abuse going on. Maybe they were dating someone and got sexually assaulted. Maybe they're getting older and for a million reasons, some having to do with stress, the death of a partner, bad nutrition, normal aging, on top of a collapse, then they're losing their ability to cope and remember things.

They are scared because something is wrong and they felt brave enough to show up and they're waiting to see if you're like everyone else and don't care. If you're actively listening, genuinely care, and connect with them, then having established trust, they MIGHT tell you what's wrong.
…
“Wait, I thought this was about blood pressure?”

Yes, my friend, it is. All of those issues in the patient and in your friend, acquaintance, or loved one generates STRESS. When we are stressed, our pulse quickens, our heart beats harder because our bodies are trying to force more blood into muscles so we can fight or flee. When people relate their stress, the mind is powerful and the though of it often generates the very same circulation patterns.

Helping establishes trust in the very beginning, and means smoothing their ruffled feathers like a perturbed frightened chicken. “Easy, easy there. It's okay.” Look into their eyes, smile genuinely, let them know you're glad to be there, and they will relax. Watch their breathing. Their chest will move less and will slow down. While in an emergency it's good to see how people are reacting and definitely checking their blood pressure, when trying to determine and troubleshoot, you'll get elevated readings.

It's actually dumb in some ways for the doctor to measure blood pressure right away, and actually this is why the nurse comes in, takes some general readings in a light way with some pleasant banter, so there's a baseline blood pressure while relaxed. Make sense?

If it's high then, then the doctor knows, hmmm the patient is either agitated, has circulatory issues, has an endocrine issue, drank way too much coffee, is worried, etc.
…
The heart is a powerful pump with two sides. 95% of people don't know what a pump is, just what it does. It does generate pressure, that's for sure, and in the heart's case it's generating pressure to the lungs on one side and to the rest of the body on the other.

Seem weird right? That's a lot of power to the lungs by comparison. That's because the lungs are transferring oxygen to the blood, an essential job, and also expelling carbon dioxide created by metabolic processes. Your body has incredibly tiny organelles called mitochondria. They need oxygen to create energy. If not, the heart can't beat and the totality of the body can't do hardly any work at all.

The rest of the circulation is sending blood everywhere though a vast network of blood vessels so skin renewal and temperature control, digestion, tissue regeneration, muscular activity, sexual play, all these things can happen.

Your blood is a sea of clear fluid in which tiny discs float around, much like scores of inner tubes floating down a river. Those special cells can carry oxygen to other tissues (and carbon dioxide away) because they can't do themselves. They also carry nutrients to the cells and cellular wastes away. They also contain warrior cells that fight for us called white blood cells. They also carry platelets so our body can patch a wound, and special clotting factors so we stop bleeding too.

Interfere with this circulatory process and the whole body begin to break down. All of those jobs don't get done, and all of the organs doing their specialized activities don't get done. Or what's most common is a gradual decrease in the quality and quantity of the work being done. “Hey someone's lying down on the job!”

As we age, things decline in efficiency. Some parts are “powerfully tired” as they say 'round these parts (quite an oxymoron). Things like the strands which connect to heart valves weaken and fray and don't open and close so well. The heart muscle maybe has had some blockages or interruptions to flow, and this damaged the heart itself. The conduits that the blood flows through gets clogged, so blood pools in the lower parts and can't get back to the heart.

The sides of the walls of the conduit gets packed with animal fat from our meat-eating diet. It's like when you were a kid, and you kinked the water hose, and then it bulged, and then you released it. It was building up pressure inside, right? The same thing is going on inside your body, and the older you get, the more accumulates inside those blood vessels, and your blood pressure rises as the heart beats harder and more often to get more blood where it's needed.

But there's other potential issues. Say someone got hurt. They could have squished a blood vessel or penetrated it by a foreign object or a broken bone. Some could be bleeding internally so critical systems are not getting blood and not able to do their jobs, and the lose of blood pressure is detected in baroreceptors and the person passes out. Sugar that supplies immediate energy is carried in the blood and if low they also pass out. Blood carried warmth and so if freezing cold then the body shuts blood to the core to stay warm since those are critical systems and people pass out.

Maybe some infection harms a valve in their body and it's injured from malnutrition, and so some part of the heart is not emptying blood from inside that chamber.

All of this means that being able to take pulses in numerous places to detect adequate flow, listening for alteration in the heart sounds, and detecting blood pressure will tell us all kinds of good intel about the person's overall health.

Blood pressure: Why it's so important
Part Two Overview of flow

Chances are you are an expert on something. Most people have a passion, so they “study up on it”, buy certain tools to do their craft or art, and then try different techniques so their ability progresses.

But remember when you didn't know that much? You had to learn some basic words, otherwise you had to keep referring back to a boring general lecture about what those words meant. Once you get past that, then the juicy interesting aspects that make the craft interesting can be learned.

Let's say you can build fires well. Well at first someone gave you a boring lecture about a spark, oxygen, and fuel so combustion could occur, right? Let's say you like fast cars from 1990 onward. You read magazines or visit websites about transmissions, alternative fuels for performance, wheel sizes, etc.

Or maybe you know about stuff that isn't prepping related and so all of this sounds interesting but alien, so you're daunted by the task of learning new things. Regardless, you do have a brain, and are willing to work, so you can learn on your own if you just listen, ask good questions, and read.

Here's a very short video on the two cycle portion of the special pump we call the heart. Don't be put off by all of the names. Pause the video to watch the flow. Look up some of the words. Take your time. It honestly is not any harder than following a recipe, reading about some new makeup product, learning a language. Don't let yourself get overwhelmed by it. You're only learning basics.


There are four chamber, a right atrium where blood builds up as a staging area, then released down into the right ventricle. It's just a balloon. The right side is blood that's used up it's oxygen because it dispersed it from the blood cells (corpuscles). The left is the left atrium which fills up then drains to the left ventricle.

Look at the path the blood flows. The balloon at the top (atrium) fill up on the left side, then pushes the blood down into the next room, the left ventricle. Then it squishes and pushes up that side of the heart to the pulmonary artery.

The lungs breathe in oxygen and expel carbon dioxide. The incoming blood is de-oxygenated (missing oxygen) and so it goes back to the lungs to get a little. Then that oxygenated blood comes back to the heart on the left side to the left atrium, pushes it down into the left ventricle, and then squishes up and out to general circulation through the cock's comb-like looking aorta. Pretty simple really.

The heart has to be next to the lungs, right? Otherwise it would have to diffuse oxygen or carbon dioxide a long way and give up gasses. Look how far away the blood is pumped. It's why frostbite is an issue because your fingers or toes are so very far away that heat is lost the most. The blood is pumped down through the aorta through a fat channel and down into the legs. Because of gravity and because the veins are the returning way that blood gets back, it oozes slowly in a trickle back. It's why as people get older this process gets less and less efficient and so more clots in the leg, varicose veins result. This often will happen to a pregnant mom because she's got twice as much blood and so more issues with getting that blood back.

Common sense things will help these issues now that you understand how it works. Already I bet you're going, “Aha!” because even the smallest knowledge helps. Can you see why massage is so VITAL? Massage helps overcome the natural lowered efficiency of blood circulation over time and should be done unless someone has an infection. Getting the blood back makes us feel better and gets more fresh blood to tissues that were inflamed and soreness goes away. Massage also greatly helps the lymphatic system operate which I'll talk about another time.

Those valves only work one way, because you don't want backflow. However backflow happens. Sometimes a valve goes bad because infection, often from not brushing your teeth, gets coated on the valve opening. A valve that is failing is called incompetent.

A lot of women have bad mitral valves. It might be congenital (happened at birth). A lot of people have small imperfections at birth or abused their body or got sick or got old or all of the above.

If you're wounded a tiny leak will result in bruising because something smacked into the blood vessels and then the body has to repair the damage. As the blood gets reabsorbed, the bruise fades. If your diet is lacking in enough leafy green veggies, then it doesn't have the stuff (vitamin C and K and iron) that helps this process.

If wounded, a blood vessel may be penetrated such that less blood is getting to the body part in that region. Mostly new blood vessels will slowly form. However in serious ones, it's too much to expect a total repair, and so since no blood is getting to the body part and none away, it slowly rots. Then other bacteria affects the wound since no white blood soldier cells are clearing the damage and repairing it and killin' the bad guys. This is how gangrene happens.

Some part of the heart has to take care of itself, and it can't happen on the inside since it's pumping. On the outside, there are special coronary arteries that send oxygenated blood to the heart tissue to maintain it. If those get clogged, pressure increases, as well an inflammation constantly exists. Over time these can burst, or get so low that insufficient blood flow happens. This can cause heart disease or a heart attack. A little prevention is worth a pound of cure and you can't do much at home or even in a medical center with heroic measures. If you think you're having a heart attack, the first thing you should do it somehow open the clog. Since aspirin thins out the blood it helps this to happen.

If the coronary artery is damaged on the left, then it's going to affect the pressure of the blood to the lungs first, right? If on the right, it's primarily going to affect the pressure of blood to the rest of the body.

If you have a heart attack, the body can't repair perfectly. It puts scar tissue in the place where it leaked or the muscle was damaged, and so that part is no longer pumping, so it's less efficient.

This animation shows the effect of aspirin on a clot in the Circle of Willis, the spider-like network of arteries that give blood flow to the brain. Remember that aspirin is a like millions of tiny footsoldiers roaming around exploring and looking for clots. Because it takes time to get digested, absorbed by the blood vessels around the stomach, and then pumped into and out from the heart, there's a slight delay between when you take it, and when it finally helps and for how long it helps too.


Something must power the heart. It runs on an electical jolt that's induced. The first one is the sinoatrial(pacemaker) node that on top of the left side and top of the heart, then there's a delay and second one called the atrioventricular node that contracts the ventricles. Then a third node is called the Bundle of Hiss along the ventricular walls.

Something makes this jolt happen or can make it happen more often or make it contract the muscle harder. See part three.

Last Edited by Don'tBeAfraid on 01/05/2013 08:30 PM

Expelling mucus that's cause coughing with percussion

As shaman-in-training, massage is not allowed during infection, but percussion is allowed and if someone has a productive cough (producing and expelling mucus), then the sicker they get, the weaker they get, and so it gets increasingly difficult to expel the mucus.

The narrowing of the respiratory tract results in less and less oxygen, and therefore causes weakness. Make sense? It should if you've been reading along.

Here's a video which shows one kind of percussion to move mucus out.


The methodology in a pdf:
[link to www.cff.org]

Doing this will greatly facilitate the expelling of mucus since the rapping on their back, shoulders, and chest mechanically relocates the mucus, and then their smooth muscles can spasm easier and remove the blockage.

In a collapse, you might be the only person who knows how to do this, and so prevent people from choking to death, literally drowning.

By the way, look at their mucus.If it is yellow or green, it means a bacterial infection. The color is from dying white blood cells in their sputum. Sometimes you can actually smell the bacterial infection. If this happens you need to go get antibiotics.

They often have a 102+ deg F fever too.

Last Edited by Don'tBeAfraid on 01/06/2013 01:49 AM

Potential ways to self-treat viral pandemic influenza

In 1918, half a billion people were infected with influenza. 2% of the people of the world died. As you can imagine, with so much chaos across such a wide geographic area, there wasn't enough healers, support staff, medicine, transportation to get them to hospitals, food sources to feed the sick, etc.

In almost every case, very little could be done to help them. Nothing seems to work.

However osteopaths used common massage techniques to help their patients accelerate lymphatic drainage. This saved their lives.

Osteopaths are medical doctors who can prescribe medicine. Some even teach at MD programs even though they are ODs. An allopathic doctor (MD) uses prescription medications to help alleviate suffering, a practice that has its origins around 1920. An osteopathic physician uses that plus, exercise, massage techniques, clean water, and nutrition to totally treat the patient. They were the original doctors prior to 1920. They still practice today. In fact, if you live in Maine, chances are good that your physician is an OD. One of the three medical schools in Kentucky is an OD school. The osteopathic schools are scattered across the USA, and perhaps you've been treated by one before and never realized they were ODs not MDs.

Here's an animation which illustrates what the lymphatic system is, and it's role in healing and particularly about the immune system.


Here are several videos which show SOME of the massage techniques that were used to save patients.




A lot of very devoted osteopaths have spent an lot of energy to help disseminate this information due to concern about pandemic flu. However since it's an esoteric subject, chances are you haven't heard of it.

If we have an influenza epidemic that continues, and it is intense, and our medical system is overwhelmed, then these techniques may be the ONLY way that you can treat the illness.

When we are up and about and doing work, our bodies twist and move, and much of the lymph gets pushed around and back to its central reservoir (cisterna chyli).
[link to en.wikipedia.org]
However, most people don't get enough movement today because we are largely sedentary. Patients who are ill get minimal movement, and when sick with a respiratory illness they are so debilitated that they can't possibly get enough lympatic movement back and so this depresses their immune system further at a time when a high demand is on it. It's a dual attack on their health.

Remember, antibiotics don't do anything for viral infections. Because antivirals only reduce the length of symptoms, they may not help. They also may not be available. In a collapse, they would be prohibitively expensive, and perhaps patients would be triaged, and those with a low potential for being saved, denied antivirals.

It would be wisdom for shaman-in-training to learn how to do lympathic drainage techniques to save lives in this manner.

Please print this methodology out which details many kinds of osteopathic manipulations. That's their medical jargon for this specific kind of massage.
[link to www.om-pc.com]

We live in a very different world than our ancestors from 1918. They were largely a rural folk which far less density of people, and they could self-limit their exposure to one another because they provided a lot of their supplies themselves or acquired them locally. Today because of supply chains, a pandemic could easily be spread along those transportation routes, and result in far more intense pandemics.

How to share your faith

I have met some extraordinary saintly people, filled with the Holy Spirit, patient, kind, considerate, sincere, folks who talked the talk and walked the walk.

They are rare. It's so difficult to live that way. Many of them are selfless.

There are others, they mean well. They can cite chapter and verse of Scripture, but most of these “pronouncements” fall on deaf ears. Some of them choose to speak louder and more forcefully because they think that will work. It's obtuse behavior and annoys people. Some of them are actually ruining any chance that the Gospel can be spread. They are goats.

There's a 99% chance that they won't make an impact, just be a loud clanging gong.

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity (often translated as love), I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 1 Corinthians 13:1

Charity...that's one proven way to share your faith. I hope you commit the entire passage of 1 Corinthians 13 to memory. It is a precious jewel. However reading it aloud to nonbelievers won't do a dang thing but irritate them. It's meant to inspire YOU, not them.

This kind of love (agape in the Greek) is the most magnificent kind of love. You love God with such strength that all of your behavior cries out to God and manifests as love for people and God's creation.

You don't try to convert people, you change yourself to be as charitable as possible. You keep on trying to help people. To do that you have to help yourself first so you can help others.

Though we are sinners and make mistakes that make us fall short of what God desires for us, when we demonstrate agape, then we demonstrate how we love God.
Some people will see it. Some people might be inspired if you keep doing it.

Keep doing it.

Our strength will fail for we are fallible fragile beings. The only strength we can count upon is God who has infinite strength. We must drink from the Source's inexhaustible well and there find strength.

There are a hundred million gifts inside you to share with humanity. Even if you don't know anything, can you give a child a drink of water? Can you give them a crust of bread? Don't you want to?

Don't give them a stone to weigh them down. Give them a drink of water to help them. Most people are struggling and barely hanging on, so don't weight them down MORE.

Find daily ways of helping others. Don't fail to do it for them because you don't feel charitable, do it because you love God, and the best way you can show it is by demonstrating it. We all can feel grumpy but it passes.

When it costs you something, it means more.

When times are terrible and tragic, and you still demonstrate your love for God by helping others, it means something. You gave when all others were selfish.

How does Jesus separate the sheep from the goats? How does He judge us? That's Him speaking to believers by the way, not a condemnation about the nonbeliever.

Matthew 25 is about the believers taking care of others and demonstrating how to share faith. That's where the rubber meets the road. The Master tells us what to do, just like he does at the seashore when he cooks us breakfast and demonstrates it. John 21 is about what we're supposed to be doing.

Jesus (Yeshua) doesn't say cite chapter and verse. He says to feed His sheep and tend His lambs. He says to feed the hungry, cloth the naked, heal the sick, visit people in prison.

Worse, some Christian actually starve the starving, strip away the clothing of those struggling, make people sick in all manner of cruelty, put people in prison by their actions.

What are you doing?

We are cursed in Jesus' judgment if we don't do these things. Cursed...we are...not the unbeliever...we are because He asked us to help them, and we didn't do it.

Fix yourself so you can help them. Stop trying to convert them, help them and perhaps some will be converted by the demonstration of your love, but mostly by God finding them and transforming their lives. Stop being a clanging cymbal, be a symbol of love and charity.

When someone is struggling here in this community, help them. Do it in real life too.

Differential Diagnosis

Here's a website that might help you figure out what you or your loved one is sick from:
[link to en.diagnosispro.com]

In medicine, a lot of symptoms can occur over many times of illnesses. However, a good shaman is looking at clues. Where did they go? What did they do? Did they eat something unusual? Have they taken an unusual medicine? Is this poisoning? Have they been exposed because of their job?

Ask questions. Take your time.

Because ultimately you need an expert, if you gather up details in a journal and explain them succintly, then many doctors will agree with you OR you might help them isolate it OR you become a team with the patient and medical staff and solve the issue.

TEAM: Together Everyone Accomplishes More

Don't rely upon experts, but learn and help troubleshoot.

Last Edited by Don'tBeAfraid on 01/06/2013 05:42 PM

Thank you all, or y'all as we say in the South. I now have ban immunity for a month, so I'll keep writing that long.

If you find a post helpful, and moved to do so, then please every once in a while send me a karma point. Spread them around though. There's plenty of deserving people. Believe me, I give as many as I receive, and often karma tag you back.

If there's something I can help you with, or would like information about, if I know it, I'll post a reply.

There aren't any dumb questions. Better to learn now while things are relatively stable, then to make a mistake in gardening and then starve.

Tribal people have always tried to help others because that's the only way to learn and for these skills to be passed on.

You might certainly know more than I, and the community would be blessed if you correct my errors or know a better way.

Last Edited by Don'tBeAfraid on 01/07/2013 01:33 PM

Massaging the sinuses

While generalized total body massage is not usually a good idea when you have an infection, massaging the face to help the sinuses drain when you have a sinus infection or an allergy might help you.

If you're getting older or weaker and your hands are no longer strong enough to do it, then you can purchase a massager and vibrate away the drainage by continual stimulation of one spot at a time. No jokes please!

Vigorous rubbing of the sinuses may help the fluid built up as well as congested mucus to relocate and drain into the pharynx. Then it will be whisked away and digested.

[link to images.medicinenet.com]
[link to www.ghorayeb.com]

Note how many sinuses there are. They're all over the place.

If sinus pressure builds up, and there are nerves around, then pain is stimulated and you get powerful headaches. Massaging these areas may alleviate those headaches. You could take medicine for pain, but if the sinus isn't draining, it's just going to come back. Do steady even pressure in circular patterns from the beginning of the sinus to the drain point. Sweep it towards the throat.

Nerves, blood, and lymph vessels twist together. It's like the tendrils of a pea plant clinging to another stem. Massaging this helps those areas too.

Don't do a generalized body massage when people are sick. You'll push the infection into their limbs. Bad idea.

However a brief massage to help the pain in the face go away and express the fluid buildup, might help.

We instinctively do this, but when very ill and weak, the patient often can't do it.

I am going to give you a hand: Pay it forward

When the collapse comes, and it will come, maybe as a temporary one that affects one family, or as a limited one as a disaster, or even a full blown one that brings chaos, then people will need help. As a shaman-in-training, your role is vital. Locked up in your head is a limited pool of ancestral knowledge. The information will save lives.

It won't just magically leap into their brains nor will they just figure it out themselves. If you rely upon that strategy a lot of people will die, get very sick, be severely weakened, or at the very least be resentful. In tribal societies, the descendants of the survivors harbored grudges for generations.

Ever asked directions somewhere? They rattle off a quick list of the way back. Often they're not including details to get you back, just half-hearted instructions. The person getting the instructions looks dazed and doesn't write down the instructions and doesn't even have a local map. It's lunacy.

What's the right thing to do? If you can, offer to get in your car, drive them most of the way, show them how to get to the main road, and extricate themselves. That's right, as shaman-in-training, you have a responsibility because you were chosen. A spiritual person might even say that the Source called your name. Your name, not that other guy who's stronger, has more money, is usually the leader...YOU.

Today, the Source chose you.

Whatever you believe, even if you think that there is no afterlife, no karma, no Source, then the right thing to do is to give someone a hand.

Why?

In a tribal society all people have some skill that becomes essential to the whole. If people don't give a hand without being asked or pleaded with, then group dynamics will suffer terribly and people will be very resistant to offering hospitality and aid.

At some point, you're going to need help getting the harvest, canning all of the crop or dehydrating it, putting out a fire, dealing with a sick animal among your livestock, caring for a loved one, digging a well, winching out a vehicle, etc.

Even if none of that happens, your children may end up liking their children and even having relationships and marriage. Today, that doesn't happen much, but it used to be the norm in tribal societies.

What comes around....goes around.

It's entirely true that you can't help everyone. No one is asking you to. Can you break out of your old paradigms and decide that even if you don't like your neighbors, they actually are your neighbors? Someone must make the first move. The next time you know that they are struggling, without being asked, go over and help.

“Howdy. We don't know each other. I saw you working, and it looks like you need a hand. I can't stay long, but I have done this before. Would you like a hand for awhile?”

Friendships and romance begin with these simple sincere words.

People are total strangers now. Someone moves in. They don't know a soul. Since most people are powerfully lonely, including you, why don't you bake a loaf of fresh bread which everyone enjoys, knock on their door, welcome them to the neighborhood, be cheerful, offer them the bread, leave your contact information, and then be gone? Five or ten minutes of initial contact. They may be busy and nervous and skittish to strangers. But your actions may start a cascade that begins a friendship.

A real genuine friendship, the rare kind, the one that's worth more than gold.

It is better to be in chains with friends, than to be in a garden with strangers. Persian proverb

Last Edited by Don'tBeAfraid on 01/07/2013 03:34 PM

Be generous and helpful can leave you tired or it can energize you

Because there are a few of us that are altruistic, we sometimes hear the Source's words, see the Source's actions, feel the Source within us, and so even though tired or even exhausted, we heed the Call.

A lot of times others could do those things, but their senses have been made numb and dead and blind because of fear, hate, sadness, depression, insensitivity. They are blocked from the communication like radios that have dead batteries.

Your actions can reinvigorate them, dispel those fears. Make them reconsider the basis for their hatred. Replace sadness for joy. Lift their depression. And all of that makes them more aware of the Source's love.

But...you can get so tired in the process. Sometimes becoming grouchy and even irritable.

I once knew a guy very well, an old country boy so full of piss and vinegar that you'd think he was the worst bully in the world. He actually was highly intelligent, gentle and kind, considerate when it was just the two of us, generous to a fault to me. He'd lost his faith in people, got tired of helping others who didn't listen, and had given up on almost everyone. The only difference was I reached out to him, respected him, listened because he had important things to say, knew a lot of good information, was an incredibly hard worker, and a damn good friend.

You can use up a lot of energy helping people like that. Some people get really weak from trying to help them.

Here's a good way to cope. You'll think it's stupid. If so, then don't do it and still be exhausted.

When you wish to talk to the Source, close your eyes, try to picture the Source as Light. Breath in the Light. Let their goodness penetrate you. Fill up your lungs with it until it's coming out of your pores.

Position your body in a pose of respect. Acknowledge the Source's worthiness and superiority.

Open your arms like you would if asking someone for something. It is empowering and simple to do.

Do it for progressively longer periods until doing it for 20 minutes is possible without losing your concentration.

This is called praying in adoration. It's ancient. It works. It's drinking from the well of the Source. It charges up your spiritual battery.

I do meditate every night before going to bed,asking the creator to help me deal with the days difficulties. It does help me to sleep.

Think before reacting

In a disaster or collapse, a lot of people will act in wild ways. They'll be desperate. The instinctive thing to do is shoot first and ask questions later. However real life is not like the movies. The ammunition is real as is the reaction. Life is precious and once a bullet is fired, you can't put it back in the magazine.

Warning shots are wasted shots. This also is not a good idea. Not when ammunition is irreplaceable. Only in Hollywood does someone use bravado to fire an shot overhead. If you do that, in the moment that you telegraph the motion, you're distracted, and someone might rush you and fire into you. Smooth move there, Ace.

If you talk to some law enforcement and who have experienced a firefight, they weren't fearful of shooting, they were fearful of killing someone accidentally, and perhaps one of their fellow officers in the melee. That's a far cry from the blustering Internet folks saying “tactical” every other word that will probably overreact.

Many law enforcement were soldiers once and they had discharged a weapon. They're not afraid to do it again.

Things ramp up. People get nervous. Someone might accidentally react and discharge a weapon and then, all bets are off, because people will empty their magazine(s), not fire short controlled bursts and deliberately targeting to double-tap folks in non-lethal areas if possible.

A wounded bleeding person likely has damage to blood vessels. You have seconds sometimes to control the bleeding or they may rapidly lose blood, and even though they survive, may lose a limb, or end up dying if it hit a vital organ. The liver and the kidney are organs which filter blood, and wounds here are mostly fatal under the poor survivability conditions of a disaster or collapse. A leg wound can easily make someone bleed out. That's where a major part of the blood is located due to gravity. The femoral is large enough that it will rapidly pump out and you're dead.

Any penetrating gut wound may hit intestines, expose their blood to anaerobic bacteria like E coli, and they go septic and then into shock as the bacteria and immune response shuts down the liver and kidneys. Same result.

Since you don't have antibiotics, a wound of any kind that gets infected could kill you. I'm talking about the smallest cut. “But it's only a flesh wound! It went in and out.” When the body has a penetrating wound, whatever was in-between the body and the bullet is going to also be propelled inward. That means bits of clothing will get carried inside and of course they have viruses and bacteria and dirt on them. That cloth has to be removed as well.

Because there's nil chance of having a surgeon look at it, the blood supply through whatever blood vessels were damaged ...is trashed. There won't be any blood vessels patched in to graft and repair the area. The tissue will be hypoperfussed of blood. No nutrients will get to it. Inadequate immune response to it, for no white blood cells can get directly there. No cellular repair or waste removal, and gangrene will attack the wound, then at best amputation, and at worst...death.

Think how to best protect yourself and also how to best ramp down the situation. Breathe. Your ability to negotiate as well as use subterfuge and distraction to get the drop on them ...that's crucial. Get the drop, and maybe you don't have to discharge the weapon.

If it's a burglar, and you shoot them, then prepare for their lawyer and jail time, because a persuasive lawyer can convince a jury that you didn't show restraint and that your life wasn't in danger, particularly if they left and you pursued them outside the home.

Most law enforcement never discharges their weapon. They use the weapon between their ears.

Talk to the stranger about their family. The need to survive is so great and compelling and coupling this with their role as parents and the need to see their children is extremely persuasive.

If you get wounded in a collapse, you're probably going to end up dead. That's reality. Who will feed your family? Heroes live to take care of their family. They don't act heroic and doom them to penury. Penury has the same root as penitentiary. Your actions imprisoned them in severe poverty.

Breaking a boulder

You're going to dig and hit bedrock. You're going to come across a boulder that's too heavy to lift as is. Even if you could get it out whole, you could never move it. You have to break it.

Maybe you even want to break it along a fracture line, and then use the pieces to do some construction task or to be building materials.

Here's how to use wedges and "feathers" to create a fracture line.
[link to upload.wikimedia.org]
[link to i03.i.aliimg.com]



Most certainly you could use a pick, but probably even if you don't have power, you'll use a masonry bit to drill a starter hole. Undersize it a little so the wedge is tight as it goes in. A regular bit won't work and will only grow dull as you drill the stone.

Use safety goggles. That dust is abrasive.

If the boulder is on soft earth, then naturally your hammering will transfer into the soft soil and not crack the boulder.

You're obviously going to have to acquire a block and tackle to move it. The more pulleys the easier it will be to use less force to lift it.


You need a good cart with strong wheels, not a wheel barrow. You'll not be able to move very much weight with a wheel barrow. The wheel is in the wrong place.



Last Edited by Don'tBeAfraid on 01/08/2013 09:53 PM

Several years ago, Dr. Grattan Woodson MD created a manual for folks to treat influenza at home and released it at the Flu Wiki. Here's a link to the pdf.
ftp://wikimember:[email protected]/Good%20Home%20Tre​atment%20of%20Influenza%2016pt.pdf

It's a comprehensive way you could take care of everyone if things became quite chaotic. Hopefully you'll never need it, but printing it out and reading it now before there's problems, will sure help you understand your options.

Because it's an old FTP link, you need to cut and paste the URL by hand.

Last Edited by Don'tBeAfraid on 01/09/2013 02:39 AM

You must be called to know the Source
Part One

People think that they can find the Source. They look in a book called the Bible. They might attend a church service. Perhaps they go on a spiritual retreat. They explore the wilderness trying to find the Source. They search the eyes of their friends for the Source too.

You cannot find YHWH that way. One could search a whole lifetime and never find YHWH.

Doing so, you will only find glimmers and disappointment in the end. Many fall away because of this, even though they begin with good intentions.

Because people look for the Source that way, and then cannot understand the Bible, then they assume if it a meaningless book.

They go to a church service, see some things which are good and others as hypocrisy and never find the Source.

They go on a spiritual retreat, and though surrounded by passionate believers, they feel lost.

They walk in the woods, and when no one is around, they speak to the Source...even aloud...and silence is the answer.

They see good works in their friends who believe and yet no matter what, they also see that they are human and fallible and the Source does not appear in their midst.

How then to find the Source of All Love?

You must ask to be found by YHWH and called.

John 3:27 To this John replied, "A man can receive only what is given him from heaven.

John 6:44 Jesus said "No one can come to Me, unless the Father who sent Me draw him: and I will raise him up on the last day.''

John 6:37 All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.

John 15:16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit--fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.

We can only draw near to the presence of YHWH if allowed. It is the Source's decision for it to occur.

Don't think you choose to believe in YHWH. First you were known and then called.

If you are not called, then something must be impeding the call to happen.

Have you ever wanted to meet someone, have a relationship with them, and it didn't happen? When that occurred did you get upset ? Maybe the one that you so longed for, that you felt was perfect, that was right for you, and still it didn't occur. Did you then say very negative things in your mind about them? Did you tell other people that that person wasn't any good, anyway? Were things awkward from then on? Now years later, do you find that your mind turns to that special time and “what might have been?”


Is the Source cruel then? Does YHWH evade us? That can't be correct.

What does Jesus say? John 3:3 In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."

What does that mean? What an unusual statement. He's speaking to Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a wise rabbi who was a Pharisee who spent an enormous amount of time searching the Torah and the Prophets looking for the Source. He was respected and a member of the Sanhedrin, the council of those with special authority. He also was kind to Jesus (Yeshua) and we know later that he did special things when Jesus died. At his own expense he made burial arrangements. If there was one good man in Jerusalem, then everyone would have assumed it was Nicodemus.

Jesus says he must do one thing...be born again, and then he shall see the Kingdom of God. That seems like a paradox until you read the entire chapter. Jesus has come, not to condemn. The world condemns you. Mean cruel people condemn you. Maybe your parents condemn you.

Jesus saves you.

You have been swallowed by the darkness. You are fearful of the Light of the Source. It exposed your darkness within. The only way is....shhhh it's secret:

John 3:19-21 For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. “But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”

Fear of exposure. That is what is impeding you.

When we decide that we will practice truth and be born again, then YHWH allow us to see the Kingdom of God. Only then will you be found by the Source of All Life.

The impediment is YOU, not God. Being born again is the door to discovering the Source.

Jesus is here to save us from the darkness. When the collapse comes, the we will need Him. The only way is stop being afraid of being exposed for the darkness in our hearts, and then practice truth so we can see the Kingdom of God.

Last Edited by Don'tBeAfraid on 01/09/2013 06:43 PM

Taking charge when your husband is sick

The prepper ladies that I know that are married are tough, sweet, resourceful women. However sometimes some are more submissive because of being spiritual. They let their husbands make a lot of decisions. They enjoy the differences between genders and like guys who are masculine and “take charge”. That doesn't mean they're wimps by the way. Hardly. Most of them can be very feminine but also drill and tap a metal hole, dig in the garden all day, ride a horse well, work all day taking care of people outside the home then come home and do housework late and still “love on” everyone.

When your husband is sick, then shhh it's a secret, they sometimes act like babies. It's true. Why the heck are they doing that? Well honestly it can be exhausting to be a guy, faking it by appearing strong when you have doubts inside. Then when they get sick, they want someone to “mother them”, because a lot of times they feel like they're taking care of everyone.

But, some guys are tenacious. They're usually wiry stout-hearted and will work themselves too much, demonstrating classic workaholic behavior. They'll not pay attention to their symptoms when sick, but will “blow it off” or “suck it up”. If you know guys who say those words, then chances are at some point, they'll get sick and not take care of themselves. They might let themselves get really run down.

In a collapse, if you let that happen, you're letting the one who has the most physical strength who you might need as a defender, as a hunter, who is resourceful, get so sick that you're actually shooting yourself in the foot.

Saying things like, “I know you're very strong. We respect you. Get back in bed. We need you to get well, because when you're sick, then work isn't getting done efficiently.” A lot of guys will respond to someone coupling respect with logic and tenderness. That triad is very persuasive. It gives them permission to get well.

The resistant one? “I'm not asking you.” That little phrase of non-negotiability says it all. Seldom will you have to say it that way.

A respiratory infection shouldn't last weeks. If so, then you're not doing the things that need to happen to heal. You're ignoring some aspect of the patient's health needs. Unless some serious deep infection is going on, one that need to kill a virulent bacteria, then they need rest, nutrition, clean water, fresh air, percussive therapy, nasal rinse, sinus massage to the face, etc.

A bone takes time to knit. A torn ligament needs a lot of time to knit. The more they abuse their body, the more scar tissue builds. That is the wrong kind of tissue and ultimately lowers efficiency. It's very counter-productive and dangerous in a collapse.

Being called by the Source
Part Two: Understanding selective salvation



This is a complicated (but brief) meaty bit of apologetics, so if not a Christian of a long period, or interested, then bypass it.

Some people believe in an elect. They think that since God knows all, that God knows who can be saved, who will believe, and then who are called, and then enter into a long-standing relationship, that lasts forever, and they(the elect) enter Heaven.

I don't think so. That gets into predestination. One could argue that such actions would exclude free will, a central belief of all believers of Jesus (Yeshua).

There are times when God has demonstrated in the Bible that God's mind can be changed by circumstances and intercession. There's numerous examples (Genesis 18), and the point could be argued, so rather than write a book, concede the plausibility of that one point.

The Source of All Love desires for us to be in a relationship with Them. We are sometimes not ready. We must do some things to make it happen. God set in motion some events from ancient times because God knows EVERYTHING about YOU. God knows even how many hairs are on your head (Matthew 10:30). That's more intimate than any parent's knowledge of their beloved children.

The Source loves you. They knew you would be born, how you think, what your hopes and dreams are. The Source has always known you. The Source is the God of Time and Space. All time.

You have to do something to show the Source your intentions, and Jesus tells us what those intentions should be like.

There are some well-meaning kind Christians who say “It doesn't matter.” God saved the whole world on the cross. Salvation is freely given. You can't earn it, and therefore you don't need to.” Nope. Sorry. I don't believe that. That contradicts my understanding of the Bible, but you should decide for yourself. If that is true, then those folks argue that we could do whatever we choose. Imagine the anarchy from such lack of consequence. It would mean we could sin 24/7 and harm the People of God. That there would be no need to do good works whatsoever. That cannot be so from numerous Bible verses.

That doesn't mean selective salvation is correct. It also doesn't mean salvation comes without cost.

Last Edited by Don'tBeAfraid on 01/09/2013 06:43 PM

Making some good ole Apple Scumpy

One of the most likely candidates for an adult beverage will be Apple Scrumpy. It's the name for hard apple cider that's made in England.

[link to www.thebackyardfarmer.com.au]
It's unfiltered cider, drunk when still very immature, and easily made.

Most likely, Americans will use a little tincture from sumac to give it citrus notes, a necessary bite that makes it better. Previous postings have dealt with yeast sources, likely from raisins or wild yeasts on bread dough.

Some people wrack it after a couple of months. Who can wait that long!? Yeeeehaw! I'm a country boy.
[link to www.somersetmade.co.uk]

This is definitely going to be a trade item if you can part with it.

The Brits use the F word, regardless of age like a punctuation mark! They sure have beautiful women. I like how they say, "Let's get pissed!"

Last Edited by Don'tBeAfraid on 01/10/2013 12:55 AM

This is arguably the most important thing I know. I don't even have a word to describe it. It is a failure of language that I can't put it into words. The best that I can do is say, "It is the beginning of understanding.", but that fails because understanding is the intellect. Perhaps, it would be better to say, "It is the beginning of KNOWING" , for that is about the deepest aspects of our being feeling something.

Read on if you dare.
...

Mysterium tremendum et fascinans

There was a man named Rudolf Otto who lived from 1869-1937 who coined the phrase mysterium tremendum et fascinans to describe God. God is the mystery that inspires awe and fascinates. God makes us tremble.

People like to imagine God as some understandable benevolent superior being. NO, THAT IS WRONG.

God is BEING. The Source is Ultimate Reality. We are like amoebas trying to understand a great mystery that inspires awe and fascination. Don't pigeon-hole God into a little box.

When you start doing that, then God becomes an idea that warm and fuzzy and comfortable that you can pull out when you feel like it.

If you were an astronaut floating above the Earth and could see it all at once, you would be dazzled by its immensity and beauty. Because you're sitting in your little room and cannot see the beauty outside, the diversity of the species places here by the Source, the vast canyons, rainforests, massive ice fields, etc, and so since self-isolated, you only are focused upon YOU. You separate yourself from the Earth.

No wonder people feel lonely and sad.

If it were possible to float above the Sun and not be instantly consumed by energy radiating out by the Sun, and much of that is invisible (we are so limited that we can't even perceive it), then you would realize that the Sun is enormous compared to the Earth.


I'm not saying that God is immense. I'm saying that God created all of the vast galaxies that we can barely perceive with all our technology and reason. Our minds are not ever going to be able to understand what God is.

The only tool you have to understand the Source of Life is your heart.

When people talk about the heart, of course they don't mean the two part pump that moves blood to the lungs and body. In reality, when we discuss “our heart” or say, “Wow that person has a lot of heart.” then really what people are talking about is the aspect of us that has FEELINGS.

That part isn't the mind. The mind is the intellect. It is the rational aspect of us. It isn't the heart, not really. It isn't the body as a whole, is it? It is the SOUL.

The soul is the essence of us. C S Lewis, a famous Christian said that, “You are soul. That soul inhabits a body.

The word psyche in Greek means soul = spirit = life. Another word might be consciousness. A scientist if they said, “soul”, the other scientists would shrug. They don't understand that word. They can talk about consciousness all day long, for it is self-evident that we posses some aspect outside of the intellect that is consciousness.

Our consciousness is our soul. What you mean when you say “my heart” is really your consciousness or soul.

The only way you can encounter the Source of All Life is using your soul to look and communicate.

Our intellect will never be able to do that. Those who say, “I cannot believe in God because it's not rational and cannot be proved.”, they are correct. Our minds are too limited to hope to understand the vastness of God.

They're using the wrong part.

You must learn as a shaman to use your soul to perceive.

In school, they train your intellect. You spent a lot of time, at least 12 years for the most part, training your intellect. It was good training, worthy time spent honing your brain.

Now hone your soul.

Most young children have wonder inside them. When they go outside, they instinctively use wonder as a means of perceiving the World. It's why their wonder is able to help them perceive the vast beauty and complexity of the Earth.

It would be better that you became like a child and used wonder to try to understand the Earth again. If you did so, you would become a better naturalist, hunter, fisherman, gatherer, trapper, grower. We lost that somehow even as we became older children. We lost “wonder”.

It's why we no longer feel “wonderful”. Does that now make sense to you? It should. This should be a moment of clarity. The proper word is epiphany. You should be having an “epiphany” now.

To understand God we can't use just wonder, but it would be better to begin with wonder and then slowly try to use every ounce of our consciousness or soul to perceive God.

One could define the soul as our being. Consciousness is our essential being or existence. So our being tries to understand Ultimate Reality or BEING. Does that make sense?

Today, not tomorrow, begin to start using your soul to perceive the Earth and the Source. Then you commit the entirety of yourself, your whole being, to the task of living.

When a disaster or a collapse comes, and it will, then the way that you can best cope is to use all of you, your soul, to cope. It probably won't be enough to use your mind to cope.

Last Edited by Don'tBeAfraid on 01/11/2013 08:06 AM

Now, read Psalm 42 in its entirety. It will make sense now.

The Psalmist, the one speaking is calling out to the Source (God) with their whole being (soul).

[link to www.biblegateway.com]


Your being, your consciousness, your spirit, with all your heart, your soul should be thisty for God.

You are dried up, withered, dessicated.
[link to s3.amazonaws.com]
If that continues, you will die. The aspect that makes you alive, your soul, it will be transferred away from your body, and you will not have a chance anymore to know God.

Last Edited by Don'tBeAfraid on 01/11/2013 10:00 AM