Preparing for the End of the World: Making Your Family Tough

Human Events ^ | 11/30/10 | Skip Coryell

[Kartographer]

In the opening article of this series I painted the following picture:

Close your eyes and imagine a world without electricity: no Fox News, no facebook, no email, no Blackberry, no cold drinks, no heat in the winter, no automobiles, no food and no way to cook it even if you had it. It’s the end of the world as we know it (TEOTWAWKI) and you and your family are going to die.

That’s a pretty bleak picture. But I left you with a little hope.

I clarified it by saying: “Unless, of course, you are prepared.”

[Quix]

MAYBE I can be slightly clearer.

I’m NOT saying that one’s

A) Escatology results in

B) lack of Salvation.

I’m suggesting that in the more rabid folks cases . . .

Their . . . how to put it . . .

cheeky affrontive unwillingness, incapacity to take God at His Word

results in

BOTH

more than questionable escatology

AND

possibly an unwillingness to comply with God’s minimal understanding and trust IN HIS WORD sufficiently to believe in their heart and confess with their mouths that Jesus is Lord.

[the_conscience]

I believe you just contradicted yourself.

You said your Not saying it and then you did say it.

[1000 silverlings]

Haiti

[1000 silverlings]

believe it or not, we grew up without running water in the house, we had outhouses and in the wintertime, chopped our own firewood, hauled water for about 1/4 mile away, killed chickens, canned food, and it was a hard life. I dont want to live like that again, but if we have to, we have to

[1000 silverlings]

A group will ALWAYS be more effective

exactly so, have friends with assets, ie I have beef and my neighbors have an orchard

[1000 silverlings]

I use DE on the ranch for different things-— you can use it on fruit trees to kill insects, I use it to control flies (have cattle), you can feed it to cattle and horses to control flies as they wont hatch in the droppings, and use it on the ranch dogs for fleas. I use it in the yard for ticks, and bugs in the flowers etc, and as an all around bug killer. you can also use it indoors if you suffer from earwigs getting in. I buy it by the 50 lb bag, a hundered pounds lasts all summer

[Quix]

Uhhhhh . . . NO, I did not. I don’t understand

which word was unclear.

Your perception seems to be 180 degrees from mine.

You are saying

that I said

that “A” causes “B.”

I did NOT say that “A” causes “B.”

I said that “C” causes both “A” & “B”

I don’t understand which word is so troublesome.

[Quix]

WOW. I didn’t realize we came from such similar backgrounds.

We had free gas a year or so after moving into the adobe mud hut.

We had a cistern from rain and irrigation water . . . Step-dad had to cement it in the day after mother drew a bucket of water up with a snake in it.

The outhouse was a long walk away for a fraidy cat little boy.

[Quix]

How should I apply DE in say my 3’ X 13’ X 4’ solar minigreenhouse?

I have white fly. Have let the freeze kill off all the flies but want to deal with the eggs that are left before I allow it to really heat up again.

[wbill]

Yep. Not a lifestyle to glamorize, I think. Do-able, but a tough way to live. .... Fwiw I prefer indoor plumbing, myself. Especially at night and in the.winter. :-)

[The Duke]

Thanks for the great info on DE powder .. sharing that with others I know who are very interested in this.

[1000 silverlings]

I would just dust lightly, put it around in cracks etc. I do that outside and have gotten rid of carpenter ants, spiders, earwigs, ticks and fleas. It wont kill the eggs but will kill the hatching larva

[1000 silverlings]

you’re welcome

[1000 silverlings]

lol. I think the water is the hardest part, we had a well and cistern but the water was polluted from all the run off of the rest of the town’s unsanitary conditions. I cant even imagine not having a washer and drier for clothes-— what a nightmare, especially in the winter

[1000 silverlings]

not sure if you have livestock, but if one does feed it to cattle and horses, one drawback is the droppings will not decay-— it obviously kills any bugs recycling it.

[spitter]

Thanks for sharing the many ways to use DE. It is good to know from your personal experience using it. Duke also has some good experience using it. I have been using a dust mask this week when mixing it in with various food stuffs for long term storage in buckets with mylar bags. I imagine it would be a nightmare getting it in your lungs. I applied it to one of my dogs and it seems to be working very well.
Today I’m going to apply it on my hibiscus plants and an a yellow angel trumpet that have nasty white flies. I’m trying talk myself into taking it internally like Duke did for health benefits.

Thanks again for the great tips.

[spitter]

I do have a small amount of livestock and yes I was planning to use it for fly control, but I also use their poop for compost to fill my many raised beds. hmmm, maybe I better hold off using it with them. I read it makes their coats thick and lustrous if fed to them regularly. Thanks for the tips.

[driftdiver]

I’ve read about using dry ice to eliminate pests in stored food.

[spitter]

Really!? I thought dry ice was used to displace the oxygen.
I did not know it was effective against bugs. I thought about using dry ice on my next round of buckets, and sure would appreciate any tips you would care to share.

[spitter]

You can also pick up salt blocks at your local feed store pretty cheap in 4 and 50lb blocks. I put back a few 50lb blocks in mylar bags just because they are so easy to store away and take up less space. I keep a block out year around for the girls anyway. I’m also planning to add a goat or two and rabitts this next Spring so I figure I’ll use it up eventually.