Posted on 09/16/2023 3:07:53 PM PDT by CottonBall
This is an ongoing thread – meaning come back to chat, post information, or ask questions any time. Hopefully the thread won’t stagnate and I’ll do better at posting weekly (or bi-weekly) topics than I have in the past. (anyone willing to post a topic now and then we'll be highly praised and appreciated).
We are in for some bumpy rides, and prepping can only help. If for peace of mind, if nothing else. We have a wonderful gardening thread and a current-events survival/prepping thread, and hopefully this one can piggyback off of those, maybe having a longer discussion about certain topics or … whatever. It's your thread, do what you like with it! (civilly, of course)
Here are granny’s threads, if anyone wants to peruse them:
nw_arizona_granny’s Thread #1
nw_arizona_granny’s Thread #2
nw_arizona_granny’s Thread #3
“No, I am not giving out recipes”
LOL!
It’s not surprising that our modern medicines can be made from plants. For the most part. That’s where they originally came from.
Other then that you can make a bunch of stuff. The thing you have to be careful of is quality control. When you picked can make the difference between something that is not strong enough, just right and "oops you're dead".
People say, "well it's natural". So is nutmeg. It can be used to make your food taste nice, a bit more and it can send you on a trip I have been told is most unpleasant and a bit more then that and you are saying hello to St Peter.
It is like distilling (which is where the name "Still Room" came from) you can make something very good that will help keep you alive or you can make poison. And at the same time.
So be careful is all I am saying.
“Oral Antibiotics, clear headed pain killers and steroids.”
Natural anti-inflammatories don’t touch what steroids do?
I have eye issues, so I have plenty of steroid drops. Store them in the fridge, but I really don’t know what their shelf life is.
I’m sure I need to take a look at my fish antibiotic stock. I can’t even remember when I last ordered. So clear headed painkillers, like ibuprofen?
Nope.
They can help but are not as good. And often they are things like eye packs where you would have to sit with them covering your eyes two, or three times a day.
Ibuprofen, naproxen, aspirin (NSAIDS) and acetaminophen are all what I call clear headed pain killers. And you should keep some of all of them. They all work in different ways and some medications can not be taken with NSAIDS. For example if you are taking any kind of blood thinner. You should rotate the medications. Do not take the same one every time.
You should also have a variety of oral antibiotics. Some work better for some things and some work better for others.
Once again, if possible, rotate.
And read warning labels. Right now we have the internet so check to see what your stock may interact with and print them out. Store with your supply.
Yeah, I am a bit obsessively careful about home medical treatment. I think the more you know the more you get that way.
Here’s a very interesting article for anyone interested in natural anti-inflammatories.
Calming the Storm: Natural Immunosuppressants as Adjuvants to Target the Cytokine Storm in COVID-19
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphar.2020.583777/full
” Anyway, I’m going to try the wood chip idea! We have a ton of them from trees that fell in a storm last summer and we were trying to decide what to do with them!’
that sounds like a perfect solution. You know how to make lemons out of lemonade!
For laundry detergent, there are a few plants that can work. The one I recommend most is horse chestnut. The nuts are NOT edible, but they have such a high saponin content that they’re basically nature’s Tide pods.
Yucca and soapwort are also good soap plants to know.
How to Grow and Care for Yaupon Holly
https://www.thespruce.com/yaupon-holly-growing-profile-3269333
The end of the world scenario is extremely remote, and there are lots of other more likely contingencies one could encounter before it gets to that (power utility outages due to storms, cell infrastructure failure, scarcity of goods available in the market), so ‘prepping’ should prioritize by likelihood at least as much as severity of the scenario.
For example, power outages are more likely than complete society collapse and anarchy. So a generator is a good back up (keep your freezer running and not lose all that frozen venison.)
Runs on essential from store clearly more likely (after COVID) than either of the above.
So having a few months of food and fresh water on hand is more towards the top of the list, generator and maybe a wood stove is down a notch, but looking poor (being a stealth prepper), probably at the bottom. IMHO. Probably a better investment to have the necessary tools to defend your family and home, and figure out ahead of time which neighbors you can trust and show them they can trust you.
I have a punch list I have been working off. Things like: good outdoor lighting and cameras; back up power that doesnt necessarily get you off the grid but isnt going to be subject to ‘green’ power generation failures; water, food, batteries, and fuel storage; a home defense plan (which includes lots of firearms training); inviting my neighbors to shoot and train with me; amateur radio comms back ups; vehicles with go-bags and tanks always topped off; always having some emergency cash on hand; etc
Good heavens, I had no idea there were plants to help with laundry. Stand by for the topic having to do with that, I think it’ll be an important one.
So far it has survived with no trouble.
I’m trying that with lavender this winter. I figured along the south side was dry and well drained like they like and since it’s right up against the house, the heat from the house will keep it warm enough to keep it in another climate zone so to speak. I had them covered with burlap at first but the last few weeks when it got much colder, I did the wood chips on those too. Snow cover is rare there as the snow tends to not stay between the ground heat from the house and the sun.
I have covered my other lavender with wood chips and that worked for a few I have away from the house. The wood chips are supposed to be better as they drain well and don’t stay soggy and rot the plant and roots. Between that and the snow, it protected them during a -20 night we had last year.
That is good to know. I had heard that back in the 70's on a family trip out west. We were taking a tour of somewhere and the tour guide told us that.
I grew some yucca in my yard in CNY but it started to get away from me. I tried to dig it up. No dice.
You CANNOT get all the tubers and they WILL come up for years afterward. Years.
But the worse thing I ever ran across was Horsetail. Someone planted it in her "mini" garden because it kind of looks like mini pine trees. And then it spread.
And it kills all the other plants in the area.
We have been fighting that an other invasives on our property for years now.
Autumn Olive, Japanese honeysuckle, wild rose, wild grape vines, and wild parsnip, to name a few.
The seeds of the wild parsnip do not survive for more than a few years, so it’s not bad to eradicate. You just have to suit up well and make sure you don’t get the sap on your skin. I also do it either very early morning or late evening so the sunlight isn’t going to hit anything where the sap might have gotten on me.
I had no idea chrysanthemum could be used for tea.
You can have it hot with honey or cold and unsweetened.
I’m going to need a medical degree to understand that article!
We will have a natural remedies topic one week, I’ll look into that article and ask questions then!
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