Is Recession Preparing a New Breed of Survivalist? [Survival Today

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Here’s a mighty creative way to protect your plants from animals

By Joy Lamb

A huge brown beast stared at me as I drove through our apple orchard toward the house. I parked, walked quickly into the house, and said to my husband, “Tom’s bull is munching on our apple trees.”

He shot past me out the door, yelling, “Call Tom and tell him to get over here now!”

The next half hour was spent running this way and that. We chased south and withdrew to the north. We herded south and blocked on the east and west. Finally the bull, several cows, and one fat sheep were escorted out of our orchard and into their own pasture. During this process, the bull nonchalantly stepped over a three-foot fence and trampled my garden. Later, while discussing the event with Tom, we decided that we were glad that most of our vegetables, flowers, and shrubbery had been spared. The apple trees were left standing with only minor damage to the foliage and fruit.

This incident was only one of many animal-related problems we had faced since we had become backwoods homeowners. Deer stripped new growth off young fruit trees, cats used vegetable plots for litter boxes, and visiting dogs dashed through flower and vegetable gardens, trampling as they went. Even our own dog loved to dig in planted areas rather than the natural wooded areas. We were frustrated. My husband built fences higher and higher around the orchards. This was useless, as deer can jump amazingly high. I planted shrubs, flowers, and vegetables, only to have them torn up by dogs. The cats loved the freshly worked soil, and rabbits nibbled at what was left. And this was not the first time we had been invaded by bovine beasts. What were we to do?

At first we tried fences. We fenced groups of trees, we fenced islands of flower gardens around the house, and we fenced vegetable plots. We created a botanical zoo with plant cages all over our property. The fences kept the dogs out but did not faze the cats, cows, and rabbits that wandered through. The deer were not even slowed down by the fences, no matter how high we made them. The fences were unsightly and very inconvenient when we were caring for the plants and trees. We became vigilant plant guards, but decided we did not want to dedicate our lives to this pursuit, especially our lives between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.

Fencing is laid in two sections around a fruit tree. The tree can be watered, fertilized, sprayed and harvested with the wire in place. Fencing is laid in two sections around a fruit tree. The tree can be watered, fertilized, sprayed and harvested with the wire in place.

We thought through the problem and came up with a solution. We immediately put into action our “Protect Trees and Plants from Four-Legs Plan,” and very soon we knew we had a plan that worked.

We had used livestock fencing attached to wood and metal stakes for fences. We removed the stakes, cut the wire fencing into workable sizes, and just laid it on the ground in the areas we wanted to protect. Once an animal puts a foot on the wire, it backs up. We were and still are amazed at how well this works.

Our dog will not enter the areas covered with wire, so no more uprooted and trampled plants. No more holes dug under trees. The cats find better areas to scratch, and best of all, the deer keep away from our trees. It is so nice not to have all the new growth eaten off the trees. We have not had a visit from a bull, cow, or sheep since we laid the wire, but we think it will work for them, too. We have found bear spoor in the areas furthest from the house, but our trees and their fruit have remained undamaged. I still see rabbits in the clover surrounding the apple trees and in the native undergrowth, but there have been no holes dug around the wire-protected trees. We have not detected any damage to the fruit trees or the gardens caused by rabbits.

Since we heartily recommend our method to anyone wanting to protect their plant life from four-legged animals without using harsh methods, the rest of this article will provide specific information about it.
Use livestock fencing

A 12- or 14-gauge field fencing works well. It is sturdy and holds up well. It can be cut readily with a wire cutter and is rigid but bendable. There are many kinds, heights, lengths, and hole sizes available. The twisted wire is cheaper and easier to work with than welded wire. My personal favorite is a three-foot-high, 12½ gauge, non-climb fencing that has 2” x 4” holes.

Wire fencing can be purchased at feed stores, hardware stores, and garden shops. The price depends upon the gauge, whether it is twisted or welded wire, the size, and the amount. A 330’ roll of twisted wire field fencing with 2” x 6” holes at the bottom and 6” x 6” holes at the top sells, in my area, for $104. A 100’ x 3’ non-climb 12½ gauge fencing that has 2” x 4” holes sells for $85. I saw 50’ x 3’ of 14-gauge welded wire fencing for $23.

Save and reuse previously used wire fencing. There are no definite size requirements for the fencing. We often use whatever is on the scrap pile.
Cut into workable sizes

Get out the wire cutters, pliers, tape measure, and work gloves. Besides the fencing itself, that is all you will need to implement the method. “Workable size” means something that you can handle. This obviously varies from person to person and depends on the size of the area and the plant that is to be pro tected. You need to remember that you will have to be able to remove the fencing to work the soil. Don’t worry about the size of the pieces if you are using scrap fencing. Just do the best you can with what you have. The wire can be overlapped lying on the ground or joined with a twist of the pliers if need be.

For garden areas:

Sections of fencing can be laid right over small plants Sections of fencing can be laid right over small plants

Roughly measure the area. If the fencing can be cut in one piece, great. If not, cut the fencing into the largest sections possible that will cover the area. However, the pieces should not be so large that you cannot handle them comfortably. Arranging the fencing is discussed below.

For trees and shrubs:

Cut two pieces of fencing, each about 6’ x 3’. It is better to use two pieces rather than one, because it is easier to remove. However, we have sometimes placed one smaller piece of fencing over a newly-planted bare root tree. The wire can always be cut later.

Placing fencing over bare or just-seeded soil is easy. Just lay it down and bend over the ends, poking them into the soil

Care needs to be taken so as not to damage plants when placing the fencing over trees, shrubs, or growing vegetables and flowers. Some cutting will be required to make the fencing fit over or around them. At any cut, poke the wire ends into the ground to secure it and to make it safer for you. Overlap fencing as needed for coverage.

Most watering, fertilizing, spraying, and weed control can be done with the wire in place. After all, people wearing shoes can walk on the wire.

When major work needs to be done, such as harvesting, tilling, or planting, simply lift the wire fencing from the ground and replace it when you are finished working. If you originally cut the wire into sizes that you can handle, removing and then replacing it is very easy to do.

We have been pleased with the results of this method at our house. We hope you will be, too.

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Green or yellow:
Grow your best
bush beans ever

By Lisa LaFreniere

Bush Beans, or snap beans as they’re sometimes referred to, are a growing favorite among many gardeners, and with good reason. Beans are high in vitamins A, C and B2, they’re easy to grow and, unlike other vegetable varieties, growing beans will actually improve the fertility of your soil. Bush beans are also easier to grow than pole beans, require no training or staking, and you won’t need a ladder at harvest time. If you’re a true bean lover and haven’t grown bush beans before, give them a try. I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.

Soil preparation

While bush beans will grow under most any soil conditions, a little extra effort will go a long way in improving yields and lessening the chance of disease.

Beans prefer a rich, well-drained soil with a pH of around 6.0 to 6.8, so add plenty of organic matter before planting. Heavy amounts of fertilizers are not necessary for proper bean growth; however, adding small amounts of nitrogen prior to planting is beneficial. Till the area and your seed bed will be ready for planting.

Planning and planting

Before rushing off to the store to buy the first pack of bean seed that catches your eye, take the time to do a little bit of planning. Think about the way you will use the produce. Will you be canning the harvest? Freezing? Want only enough for fresh eating? Many varieties are grown with a specific purpose in mind. As a general rule avoid those varieties whose descriptions include the words “all-purpose” or “general use” and instead focus on varieties grown for the purpose you have in mind. You will get superior flavor from beans intended for fresh eating, and you won’t have to worry about the vegetable not holding up to your chosen method of preservation if the variety has been specifically chosen for that purpose.

Growing tender delicacies
Those fancy beans fetching high prices in markets and restaurants can easily be grown at home. Filets, or “haricots verts” are grown in the same manner as other beans with the biggest difference being how they’re harvested.
These beans must be harvested on almost a daily basis as they become tough and stringy if left on the plant for even a short time. Picked when about 4 to 6 inches and less than ¼-inch in diameter, these beans will provide you with some of the best fresh-eating beans you’ve ever had. They will not, however, hold up to processing, so enjoy them while they’re here. Some of the best tasting include: Tavera and Delinel Filet.

If you’re in a hurry for that first pot of beans, resist the temptation to start a few plants indoors. Beans do not hold up well to transplanting and the amount of individual plants you would need to start would be difficult for the average gardener to handle. Instead, choose varieties with the shortest maturity dates. I like to plant a short row of Earliserve (45 days) or Contender (40 days).

To get a continuous supply of beans throughout the season, plant varieties of differing maturity dates or make smaller plantings every two to three weeks until about mid-season. The latter method is a must when planting the fancier French or filet beans, as they must be picked frequently and have a very short harvest period. Those who plan on preserving much of the harvest could choose either method depending on whether they wanted to preserve most of the crop at one time or prepare smaller batches throughout the season.

Plant beans after all danger of frost has passed and daytime temperatures have reached into the upper 60s. Short spells of cooler temperatures won’t hurt the bean plants but will slow their growth, and a long stretch of cold could stunt their growth, so be patient. Also, don’t soak bean seed to speed germination; this could damage their structure and leave them open to disease.

Once the soil and air temperatures have warmed, your beans will thrive and their performance will usually be superior to that of those who tried to rush the season.

Plant seeds 1 inch deep and about 2 to 3 inches apart in rows wide enough to cultivate easily, usually 24 to 36 inches. Thinning is not necessary, but if you feel you must thin leave plants close enough for leaves to touch as this will give you improved production.

Care of the crop

One of the great things about beans is that they really don’t need much care or fuss at all. Just keep the soil fairly moist and the weeds out. Because beans’ root systems are very shallow, take care not to cultivate too deeply. Better yet, apply a heavy mulch of grass clippings when the beans are about 6 inches tall and avoid weeding altogether. Never work with or around bean plants when they are wet; this will cause rust to develop on the pods and can spread disease. So wait until plants are completely dry before handling.

SEED SOURCES
The following companies offer a good selection of bean seed, including varieties mentioned in this article. If you are having trouble locating suitable seed, request copies of their catalogs.

Vermont Bean Seed Company
Computer Operations Center
Vaucluse, SC 29850-0150
(803) 663-0217

Johnny’s Selected Seeds
Foss Hill Road
Albion, ME 04910
(207) 437-4301

Shepherd’s Garden Seeds
30 Irean Street
Torrington, CT
(860) 482-3638

Beans can be affected by a wide variety of diseases. Luckily, most varieties grown today are resistant to most of the more common ones. If you’ve had problems before or know of a particular problem in your area, choose varieties proven to resist them. Good gardening practices, such as those mentioned in this article, will also help to keep down problems associated with the spread of disease.

The biggest pest associated with bean plants is the Mexican bean beetle. These pests usually show up later in the season but are occasionally found early in the spring. Pick off any beetles you spot and destroy them. If eggs are attached to the underside of leaves they must also be removed. If heavy infestations occur consider treating the crop with an application of rotenone dust or a non-toxic insecticidal soap.

Finally, pick, pick, pick. Picking frequently encourages further production and will provide you with beans that are both tender and flavorful, which is, after all, the whole point of growing your own beans. Happy eating.

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These chocolate treats make great gifts and delicious holiday desserts

By Tanya Kelley

Just in case the world comes to an end, I plan on keeping plenty of chocolate on hand in my food storage. That is, if I can keep out of it. The trouble is, aside from just eating plain chocolate, there are too many delicious ways to use chocolate.

Although I have met one person who doesn’t like chocolate, it’s a pretty safe bet that holiday gifts of chocolate will be a hit. Fortunately they also meet my other requirements for gifts: inexpensive and quick to make. One size fits all, and no one will complain if you give everyone their own box of chocolates. No more struggling to find something for the person who has everything. And best of all, your recipient will need more again next year.

Here are a few of my favorites for gift giving as well as holiday entertaining. The cookies and candies below all keep well and ship well. Packaged in a box, they make a gift that few can resist.

Dark moons

These buttery cookies will melt in your mouth. Makes three dozen.
1 cup butter (not margarine)
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
11/2 cup flour 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup of rolled oats
1 7-ounce chocolate bar, milk or dark chocolate
Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add vanilla and rolled oats. Sift flour and baking soda together and add to mix. Mix thoroughly. Shape dough in a two-inch roll and chill in refrigerator for one hour. Slice in 1/4” slices. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet at 325° for 25 minutes, until the cookies are lightly browned. When the cookies are cool, melt the chocolate until it can be stirred smooth. Dip the side of each cookie in the chocolate, rotating it to make the crescent moon shape.

kelley42_1.jpg - 22090 Bytes Dark moons and turtles

Turtles
Quick and easy. Makes 30 candies.
4 ounces shelled peanuts (preferably jumbo)
3-ounce milk chocolate bar
30 caramel candies
Preheat oven to 300°. Unwrap candies and place on buttered cookie sheet. Place in oven, bake for eight minutes, until caramels are soft but not runny. Push two peanuts in center and five around the outside of the caramel to make legs and head. Let cool. Melt chocolate. Spoon chocolate on top of caramels to make a “shell.” Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Milk chocolate truffles

Use either chocolate chips or chocolate bars for this rich candy. Dark chocolate can be substituted for the outer coating if desired. Makes 15 to 20 candies.
12 ounces milk chocolate (divide in half)
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup whipping cream 1 Tablespoon shortening
Sprinkles or finely chopped nuts
Melt half of chocolate and butter until it stirs smoothly. Stir in whipping cream. Refrigerate 30 minutes until stiff enough to form into balls. Freeze balls 30 minutes. Heat shortening, adding remaining chocolate until melted. Using a spoon, dip frozen balls in the melted coating until covered. Place on wax paper. Sprinkle tops with nuts or sprinkles before chocolate hardens. Chill in refrigerator for 10 minutes.

kelley42_2.jpg - 19960 Bytes Truffles and chocolate caramels

Chocolate caramel
Chewy and chocolatey. Makes 81 candies.
1 cup butter
21/4 cups brown sugar
pinch of salt
1 cup light corn syrup 15 ounces sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-2 ounces unsweetened chocolate (depending on preference)
Butter a 9x9 pan. In a saucepan, melt butter. Stir in sugar, salt, and corn syrup. Slowly stir in the milk. Add chocolate. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until candle thermometer reads 245°, when a small spoonful of the mixture dropped in a glass of cold water will form a firm ball. (Test with fresh water each time.) Cook for 12 to 15 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Pour into square pan. When cool, cut into one-inch squares.

The desserts below are perfect for holiday get-togethers. The ingredients might look expensive, but when compared to store-bought confections, you save a bundle. (After all, you don’t have the added expense of all the preservatives!)

kelley42_3.jpg - 10372 Bytes Chocolate cheesecake

Triple chocolate cheesecake
The crust is a little crunchy when cutting, but the rich taste will melt in your mouth. Serves eight.
Filling
2 eggs
8 ounces softened cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
11/2 cups sour cream
3 Tablespoons cocoa Crust
11/2 cups crushed Oreo cookies (about 10 cookies)
1/4 cup butter
1/2 of a 11/2-ounce chocolate bar
Crust

Melt butter and chocolate. Stir together until smooth. Mix well with cookie crumbs. Press the mixture on sides and bottom of a nine-inch cake or pie pan. Set aside.

Filling

Preheat oven to 375°. Beat all ingredients together until smooth. Pour into crust. Bake for 35 minutes. Chill before serving. If desired, drizzle top with melted chocolate or any remaining cookie crumbs. Top with whipped cream.

kelley42_4.jpg - 24757 Bytes Chocolate raspberry torte

Raspberry chocolate torte
It only looks like you spent days making it! Serves 8 to 12.
Cake
1 devil’s food cake mix
butter for cake Filling
2 cups raspberries or pitted cherries (fresh or frozen)
2 cups sugar
1 cup water
3 cups whipping cream, whipped
1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 11/2-ounce milk chocolate bar, shaved into curls (use a potato peeler)
Maraschino cherries for garnish
Mix cake as directed on box, except replace the oil with the same amount of butter. Bake in a greased (not floured) nine-inch round pan according to directions. Let cool.

Mix sugar and water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and add fruit. Boil for three minutes. If using raspberries, you might want to strain the syrup to remove any seeds.

Whip whipping cream on High until stiff. Add sifted confectioner’s sugar and vanilla. Mix in.

Cut each cake layer into two layers (see * below), to make four layers. Place one layer, cut side up, on serving tray. Drizzle one-third of syrup mixture on layer. Spread one fourth of the whipped cream on top but not on sides. Place next layer of cake, cut side up, on first layer. Repeat topping with syrup and whipping cream with the next two layers. For remaining layer, place cut side down. Top with whipped cream, shaved chocolate, and cherries.

*A quick and neat way to cut a cake layer is to evenly space four toothpicks around the layer in the middle of the sides. Place a piece of sewing thread around the sides, resting on the toothpicks. Cross the ends of the thread and gently pull. The thread will cut evenly from the sides into the center, splitting the layer in two.

Tips for cooking with chocolate

Chocolate scorches easily, so heat on a very low heat in a thick-bottomed pan or in the oven at a low temperature.

If microwaving chocolate, stir every 15 seconds until melted. Do not overcook.

Do not let water get in the chocolate. The chocolate will harden into a lumpy mess.

To keep melted chocolate from cooling while working, place the container on a heating pad.

You can use any kind of chocolate bar for the treats above, but I prefer Hershey’s or Nestle’s.

Any of the recipes above can be made using white chocolate in place of the milk chocolate.

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Biological & chemical terrorism

By Dave Duffy Dave Duffy

More than 5,000 American civilians lay entombed in the World Trade Center wreckage and more than 20,000 are taking antibiotics to fight off anthrax. America wages war against terrorists with cells in 60 nations. The enemy is willing to die in order to kill us, and they may have access to biological and chemical weapons.

How much danger are we in? Can they really unleash plagues of genetically altered bacteria and viruses among us, for which there are no vaccinations or treatments? Will they attack us with a nerve gas that can kill thousands of people in minutes?

No one has definite answers to these questions, but the military and the civilian medical establishment are both gearing up to treat biological and chemical casualties. The American Medical Association website (ama-assn.org) is packed with the latest information for physicians on how to treat biological and chemical patients.

But a lot of perspective is needed when trying to assess the actual danger we are in. It is not as great as the constant news coverage of anthrax, for example, would indicate. But it is real. In fact, one could argue that whoever first mailed anthrax through the U.S. mail did us a favor as a nation, because at long last we are taking seriously a threat that has existed for years.

Perspective

First the perspective:

If America was at war with a sophisticated military power such as the former Soviet Union, we could be attacked along the frightening scenarios mentioned above. The Soviets had hundreds of tons of genetically altered anthrax that even their own vaccine appeared defenseless against, they had hundreds of tons of nerve gas that could kill thousands of people in minutes, and they had the missile means to deliver both to our shore. In fact, Dr. Valdimir Paschenick, a defector from the secret Soviet biological warfare program of the 1980s, told Western intelligence that the Soviet’s view of a possible World War III included biological and chemical-tipped missiles being lobbed into the United States.

But we have not been attacked by a sophisticated state; we have been attacked by terrorists who spend a lot of their time living in caves. Terrorists may be able to catch us by surprise and hijack planes and drive them into buildings, and they may be able to grow batches of anthrax bacteria and send them through the mail to kill a few unsuspecting people, but actually waging biological or chemical war on us is quite another matter.

Producing germs and being able to disseminate them widely among a civilian population requires hundreds of millions of dollars of research and a country with a large scientific infrastructure. Terrorists do not have that combination, nor do the third world countries who support terrorists and are reportedly attempting to develop biological weapons.

Iraq, for example, had the hundreds of millions of dollars and they made a concerted effort to develop anthrax, botulinum toxin, and other biological agents into weapons. They succeeded only in developing a liquid form of anthrax, which they put in the warheads of a few SCUD missiles but never used, because even Saddam Hussein realized they were totally ineffective as weapons.

The only countries to have succeeded in developing biological agents as weapons have been the former Soviet Union and the United States, and it is not at all clear just how effective those bioweapons would be if used.

Anthrax

Let’s take anthrax as an example of just how difficult it is to turn a bacteria into a weapon. Anthrax is a good example because it is considered by military analysts as one of the most promising bacterial candidates to be weaponized. It is relatively easy to grow, stable, and has a good ability to infect people. Cutaneous (through the skin) anthrax is 20% fatal if untreated, and untreated inhalation anthrax is 90% fatal.

Both the making of the bacteria and the delivering of it successfully to the intended target must be considered together because there is no point in making a germ unless you can deliver it to targets. Nature is full of terrifying bacteria and viruses, but they don’t always reach humans.

Anthrax lives in the ground in rural areas and typically infects only grazing animals because they spend so much of their time with their noses in the ground. A few anthrax spores cannot create an infection in humans; it takes about 10,000 or more. Wool sorters often inhale small quantities of anthrax spores, but do not get infected.

To be used as a weapon, anthrax spores must be converted to a dry powder one to five microns in size so it can be inhaled. It usually attacks the lungs, but it can also enter the body through cuts or undercooked meat. In a bad year about 10,000 people worldwide get anthrax, usually from tainted meat in third world countries.

The dry powder is necessary so the anthrax can stay in the air to be inhaled. If wet it will simply fall to the ground. Creating the powder is technically very difficult, requiring washing the spores in large, expensive centrifuges, then drying it by spraying a mist into a vacuum. It’s expensive, technically demanding, and requires a lot of sophisticated equipment with several PhDs guiding the process.

Once the powder is made and disseminated, presumably through some sort of sophistical aerosol device (crop duster nozzles won’t work) it still needs the help of wind to keep it from falling to the ground. If it falls to the ground it can’t be inhaled. But the wind will also rapidly spread the powder too thin so most of the intended victims would not inhale enough to cause infection.

An aerosol attack with a large quantity of anthrax, which terrorists would probably not be able to do, may kill a few hundred people but not the hundreds of thousands some media people are suggesting. Opening an envelope full of the powder would be another matter. There may be millions of spores present so it would be easier to inhale the 10,000 or so necessary for infection to occur.

Once someone is infected, anthrax is also not contagious from human to human, and antibiotics are effective against it.

It is important to realize the difference between terrorists attacking us with biological weapons and being able to kill large numbers of people, and terrorists scaring the hell out of us by sending anthrax germs through the mail, or disseminating it in some other inept way, and killing a few unfortunate people. Mailed anthrax has a tremendous terrorizing effect, but that is probably the only effect the terrorists can achieve.

Even if the terrorists managed to somehow get hold of a quantity of the former Soviet Union’s purported supply of genetically altered anthrax, against which there is no vaccine or antibiotic, they probably could not use it effectively except as a terror weapon. It does not spray well through nozzles, as bacteria likes to clump together and clog up the nozzles.

Some of the anthrax sent through the U.S. mail was contained in a powder, which may mean it came from the Soviet Union or the United States military anthrax stocks, since they are the only countries capable of making anthrax into a powder. The fact that the anthrax, when caught in time, apparently responded to antibiotics tends to indicate it may have come from the U.S. stocks. But that’s only my speculation.

Living with terrorists and other nuts who set about to infect us with disease may be something we must learn to live with, at least until these people realize they can’t do a lot of damage and we become immune to the terror aspect of it.

While doing research for this article, I encountered a lot of information in the mass media that talked about the terrible lethality of a lot of these disease agents. For example, botulism toxin, which some countries are developing as an agent and which folks can encounter while eating improperly canned food, is pound for pound the most toxic substance on earth. It sounds scary, and it is meant to be for the sake of readership, but it really has no relevance when you are talking about weaponizing diseases. As I said before, Nature is full of horrifying diseases, but if they can’t get to you easily who cares. When we can food, we do so under strict rules so as to guard against botulism, just as when we eat in restaurants we avoid those that operate under third world conditions. We are so used to being conscious of cleanliness in America to safeguard our health—unlike many third world countries where diseases often run rampant—that we forget Nature has many diseases and toxins all around us.

Influenza kills about 20,000 Americans in a typical year, but most of us manage to carry on our lives in spite of that terrifying fact. My own daughter has asthma so is in a high risk group for influenza, and she doesn’t get a flu shot because it gives her the flu. So she is vulnerable, but both she and I do not walk around terrified. Life has its risks.

This is not the first time bungling terrorists will try to attack us with disease, and it won’t be the last. As recently as 1984, the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh cult had a beef with local officials in The Dalles, Oregon. They grew salmonella typhimurium in a laboratory at their Oregon ranch and used it to contaminate salad bars in four local restaurants. No one died, but nearly 800 people became ill. The culprits were all jailed for a few years, then deported.

Smallpox

Now that we’re feeling a little more secure against anthrax and bacteria, and a few other germs, there is something to worry about. It is viruses. Many are contagious through the air, or from human to human. In many cases, one infected person can infect 10 or 20 more very quickly, so infections can multiply rapidly.

One virus in particular is worrisome—smallpox. Smallpox is a very contagious virus that is fatal in 30% of cases. Most people my age (57) were vaccinated against smallpox when children, but vaccinations stopped in 1977 when the disease was eradicated. The World Health Organization decided that only two laboratories should possess the eradicated smallpox: one in the former Soviet Union and one in the United States.

The former Soviet Union is believed to have developed smallpox as a biological weapon in its secret biological weapons program of the 1980s. In 1992, amidst the economic ruins of what had been the Soviet Union, Boris Yeltsin admitted the existence of the secret program and promptly discontinued it. Some 60,000 scientists and technicians who had become expert at developing biological weapons during the 20-year existence of the secret program were thrown out of work. The fear is that some of them may have sold their expertise, or perhaps samples of the smallpox, to other nations who wanted to pursue biological warfare research.

The United States still has some smallpox vaccine (15 million doses), but it is at least 25 years old and we are not sure how viable it is. It could take two to three years to develop a new vaccine. As for my vaccination, it may still offer some protection against a smallpox strain that was not genetically altered, but it has most assuredly lost a lot of its effectiveness in the 50 odd years since I got it.

Compounding the concern is that the Soviets may have made a genetically altered smallpox. Dr. Ken Alibek, former deputy chief of Biopreparat, the civilian arm of the Soviet Union’s secret biological weapons program, stated recently that the Soviets had been working to genetically alter the smallpox virus, and had explored combining it with Venezuelan equine encephalomytlitis and with the Ebola virus.

The entire thrust of the Soviets’ biological warfare program, according to Dr. Alibek, was to develop agents “for which there was no prevention and no cure,” which was in sharp contrast to the U.S. program which created vaccines and treatments for each agent studied.

The danger is that suicidal terrorists, if they were able to get hold of some of the smallpox, will infect themselves and walk among us in crowded cities. Once infected, people are contagious for 7 to 10 days. Even smallpox that has not been genetically altered is still a virus, and viruses do not respond to antibiotics.

The Soviet breakup

Since the ending of the Soviet Union’s biological program, not all of their biological stocks have been accounted for. The Soviets amassed hundreds of tons of anthrax, smallpox, tularemia, botulinum toxin, and a host of other diseases and toxins. Have terrorists bought some from unemployed biowarfare scientists desperate for money?

Another concern is the way the Soviets disposed of their biological weapons. For example, in 1988 they secretly buried tons of supposedly deactivated anthrax spores on the remote island Vozrozhdeniye (Renaissance Island) in the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan, just north of Afghanistan. A subsequent ill-thought-out irrigation project has drained 75% of the water from the Aral Sea so that the island can now be reached by land.

The United States is working with Uzbekistan to secure the anthrax. Analysis has determined that 6 of the 11 burial sites on the island contain live anthrax spores. This island was also used by the Soviets to test other germ warfare agents, such as smallpox, tularemia, plague, Q-fever, typhus, brucellosis, glanders, Venezuelan Equine encephalitis, and botulism toxin. Uzbekistan is also home to former Soviet chemical weapons plants.

Chemical weapons

Chemical agents, including some nerve agents, are much easier to make than biological weapons, thus earning them the reputation as “the poor man’s atom bomb.” Iraq manufactured several nerve agents, which it used with deadly effect against Iranians in their 1980s war, and again against its own people, the Kurds, in 1988.

Chemical agents are particularly frightening because many of them can be made with chemicals that are readily available to terrorists. They can be made in a home laboratory, and many of them can be disseminated fairly easily.

The agents come in several varieties: choking agents like the chlorine and phosgene used in World

War I; vesicants (blister agents), like mustard and lewisite; nerve agents, which are closely related to the insecticides and pesticides we use around the house and garden; and blood agents like cyanide, which is used in many manufacturing processes and is always being transported on our nation’s highways.

The most deadly chemical agents are the nerve agents, which include VX, GF, soman, sarin, and tabun. They may also be the most likely choices as terrorist weapons. They are chemically similar to pesticides, and like pesticides they can be disseminated through spraying devices such as those on crop dusters.

Many of us are familiar with the Japanese cult, Aum Shinrikyo, which in 1995 released sarin gas, a nerve agent, in the Tokyo subway system, killing 12 people and injuring 5,500. The cult was also implicated in a sarin gas attack that occurred in 1994 in Matsumoto, Japan, killing 7 and injuring 200. The cult had produced an impure form of sarin that was not nearly as lethal as military grade. The same cult was unsuccessful at developing a successful biological agent, even though it had six laboratories and a budget of $300 million.

Some nerve agents, such as VX, are at least 10 times more powerful than sarin, and it is known that some countries that are sympathetic to terrorists possess it. In the case of VX, a single drop on the skin can kill a person.

Nerve agents are acetylcholinesterase inhibitors and interfere with the nervous system’s ability to control muscles, causing muscles to spasm. They are absorbed through the respiratory tract or skin, and symptoms include chest tightness, pinpoint pupils, shortness of breath, drooling, sweating, vomiting, stomach cramps, involuntary defecation and urination, and extreme muscle twitching and seizures. It is very nasty stuff.

In the Persian Gulf War, Hussein’s possession of nerve agent, and his suspected possession of biological weapons, caused the U.S. to arm troops with chemical defense kits and immunize them against anthrax and botulinum toxin. The U.S. said he never used the agent, but some veterans groups claim that Gulf War Illness (GWI) exhibits symptoms that are consistent with nerve agent poisoning.

Possible methods of delivery by terrorists would be to modify aircraft with tanks designed to spray the agent. Iraq was working to develop such a method in 1990, according to CIA reports. An aerosol system mounted on a remotely controlled Unmaned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is another method.

The Aum Shinrikyo cult that attacked the Tokyo subway possessed a Russian helicopter and two radio-controlled drone aircraft that could have been modified to spray chemical agent over a city. The cult used exploding canisters to distribute their nerve agent in the subway system.

Tanks mounted under a car and crop dusters are obvious ways to deliver nerve agents. A crop dusting manual was found among the belongings of Zacarias Moussaoui, a material witness detained by the FBI as having links with the terrorists who destroyed the World Trade Center towers. Moussaoui had also sought to take flying lessons.

Most nerve agents tend to dissipate fairly quickly, but VX agent was designed to be sticky and so stays on a surface for a long time, making an area unusable. It is mainly absorbed through the skin, while other nerve agents are mainly absorbed through inhalation.

When I was attending CBR Warfare School in the Army 35 years ago, atropine injected into the thigh was the life saving antidote against nerve agent. That is still the antidote today, but rapid decontamination is also critical for survival. In many countries, military personnel carry an auto-injector containing atropine and pralidoxime chloride. Pretreatment to withstand an attack is also available to the military in the form of pills that lessen the effect of the nerve agent.

Recovery from nerve agent takes about two weeks, but long-term effects that include mental disorders are possible. As I said, this is very nasty stuff.

The “terror” aspect

During the Persian Gulf War in 1991, 39 Iraqi SCUD missiles reached Israel. Even though none carried the nerve agent anticipated, 230 Israelis were treated for atropine overdoses, and an additional 544 people were hospitalized for anxiety. Just the threat of attack by a biological or chemical agent is intimidating to civilian populations, and an actual attack with its ensuing panic has the potential to cause major disruptions in society.

During the Cold War we lived under the specter of sudden nuclear annihilation; now we live under the specter of imagined annihilation by germs we cannot see or smell, and chemicals that our enemy can make in the neighbor’s bathtub.

At least 17 countries, some of whom sponsor terrorists, currently have biological and/or chemical weapons programs. They include Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Cuba, Vietnam, Laos, Bulgaria, India, North Korea, South Korea, Vietnam, Russia, China, Taiwan, and Israel.

There are hundreds of bacteria, viruses, and toxins that could be used to attack people, but the military has chosen to develop only a handful because of they meet criteria involving ease of production, stability, and ability to infect. They include anthrax, smallpox, plague, cholera, Venezuelan equine encephalitis, Q fever, brucellosis, tularemia, staphylococcal enterotoxins, ricin toxin, and botulinum toxin. There are also many harmful and deadly chemicals being developed.

Some American officials have long realized that the nerve agent attacks in Japan’s subway could just as easily have occurred in any subway system in America, and some analysts have been trying to warn us that a terrorist biological attack on America was just as possible. Few people listened to them until now.

America is in a new type of war with terrorists, with part of the battlefront on our own shore. They can certainly inflict casualties upon us by surreptitiously inserting diseases in American society, and by surreptitiously releasing chemical agents that can harm, even kill us. But they cannot do it with effectiveness, especially in light of a now alert America.

For the initial stages of this new type of warfare, there will be a learning curve. But this is not the Middle Ages when plagues of various sorts visited generation after generation and went unchecked. We now have the science to quickly ascertain any threat and to develop preventive measures.

The learning curve will involve some casualties but mostly anxiety because we won’t know when or where or how the terrorists will strike. Our loyal ally Britain has lived with that anxiety for decades at the hands of IRA terrorists. Now we have even more in common with them.

The history of chemical & biological warfare

The Germans are given credit for introducing both chemical and biological weapons into modern warfare during World War I.

Modern chemical warfare began April 22, 1915 near Ypres, Belgium, when the Germans released 160 tons of chlorine gas from 6,000 pressurized cylinders into the wind blowing toward the Allies. The gas choked to death 5,000 Allied troops. They repeated the attack two days later.

The Germans introduced Phosgene, which was 10 times more deadly than the chlorine gas, in 1915, and mustard and cyanide later in the war. Before the war was over, both sides had released 113,000 tons of chemicals, killing 92,000 and wounding 1.2 million.

Modern biological warfare was introduced as an antianimal weapon in 1915 by an American-educated surgeon and German agent who grew anthrax and glanders in his Maryland home laboratory, then passed them on to another German agent who inoculated horses bound for the Allies.

After the war the combatant nations signed the Geneva protocol, which barred both gas and bacteriological warfare. During World War II, no combatant used chemical or biological agent on the battlefield, even though the Germans by then had developed nerve agents that were 15 to 100 times more potent than the World War I agents. (There is some evidence that the Japanese may have released plague-infected rats in China that killed several thousand civilians.)

Even though the agents were not used on World War II battlefields, the Germans did murder millions of civilians using Zyklon-B and other chemicals. Allied nations seized the German chemical weapons after the war and started their own programs. Most of the chemical weapons manufacturing plants were taken by the Russians to Volgograd.

In 1952, in England, during research on chemical agents being developed from insecticides, a new nerve agent many times more lethal than others was discovered. Codenamed VX, the United States took over the large-scale production of it from 1961 to 1968 in Dugway, Utah. In one accident at the plant, a cloud of the agent escaped and killed more than 6,000 nearby sheep.

In the 1960s and early 70s in Vietnam, chemical agents called “Agent Orange,” “Agent Purple,” “Agent Blue,” and “Agent White” were used by the United States to defoliate the jungle surrounding the enemy, and unconfirmed human casualties were reported.

In 1969 President Nixon unilaterally discontinued America’s biological weapons program and destroyed its stockpiles.

In 1972 the Biological Weapons Convention outlawed biological weapons, and in 1973 the Chemical Weapons Convention outlawed chemical weapons. The Soviets, however, continued to operate a secret biological weapons program employing 60,000 people.

In 1979 an accident at a secret Soviet biological plant in Sverdlovsk (now called Ekaterinburg), Russia, caused at least 66 people living downwind from the plant to die of inhalation anthrax. In 1992 Boris Yeltsin admitted the existence of the secret program and discontinued it.

During the 1970s there were allegations that chemical agents were used in Laos against the Hmong tribesman who had supported the United States during the Vietnam War.

During the Arab-Israeli War of 1973, no chemical agents were used but captured Egyptian soldiers carried an antidote to the nerve agent soman.

There were allegations in the 1ate 1970s and 1980s that a biological agent, tentatively identified as a mycotoxin produced from a fungi, was used in Kampuchea, Cambodia.

During the 1980s in Afghanistan, there were frequent allegations that the Soviets were using chemical agents against Afghan rebels.

Also during the 1980s, during the eight-year Iran-Iraq War, it was confirmed that two types of chemical agents, the blister agent mustard and the nerve agent tabun, had been used by Iraq against Iran. Many Iranians were evacuated to Europe for treatment.

In 1988 it was also confirmed that Iraq had used nerve agents, mustard, and cyanide against Kurdish civilians when they bombed the village of Halabja in northern Iraq.

Although the U.S. says Iraq did not use chemical agents in the Persian Gulf War against Coalition Forces, some attribute “Gulf War Illness” to the possible use of them.

The use of chemical and biological warfare goes way back in history: Hannibal hurled poisonous snakes onto ships at Eurymedon in 190 BC. In 1346 DeMussis, a Mongol, catapulted bodies infected with bubonic plague into Kaffa, a seaport on the Black Sea in Russia. The British gave New England Indians smallpox-infected blankets in 1763. Even in America’s Civil War, there were incidents of selling smallpox-infected clothing to unsuspecting Union soldiers.

Historical occurrences are numerous: Water wells have been poisoned by leaving dead bodies in them, arrows were dipped in blood and manure and decomposing bodies, wine was tainted with leprosy patients’ blood, and artillery shells were filled with the saliva of rabid dogs.

Hurling plague-infected bodies at the enemy was a tactic used more than once in history’s wars, and plague is still considered by the military as a good candidate for a modern biological warfare agent.

but it’s a “DRY” cold” LOL!<<<

LOL, just like my ‘dry cold’.

I am glad she is with you, it will make the trip go faster.

Make it a safe one and let me know that you are there and safe.

http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/sanders99.html

[Photos at link]

Gardening tips and tricks

By Charles Sanders Charles Sanders

Gardeners are an ingenious lot. Trial and error, time, study, observation, and experience all help us to come up with ideas that result in better gardens, more produce, less labor, and more enjoyment of our homesteading efforts. Over the years, I’ve learned several tricks that have helped us on our place. I’ll present some of them here and perhaps you can benefit from my experience. Let’s jump right in.

Put a board over your beets and carrots after planting. Leave it for a week or week and a half. It will keep moisture in the soil and help to sprout these slow-to-germinate seeds.

Another good way to help germinate carrot seeds is to sow radish seeds in with them. As the radishes grow and are removed, it loosens up the soil for the carrots.

Bottomless apple picker

I made a nifty apple picker from scraps around the shop. I use this easy-to-make picker every year when harvesting our apples.

I began with a length of 1/2” conduit. I made a cylinder of 1x2 welded wire as shown in the photo. The top of the cylinder was made with the individual wires protruding. The tip of each wire was doubled back so they would not present a sharp end. The bottom of the cylinder was left open. I attached the cylinder to the conduit using two ordinary hose clamps available at any hardware store. Now the neat part: I took an old bedsheet and cut a piece of material lengthwise and stitched up a cloth sleeve about 8-12 inches in diameter. Then the sleeve was attached to the open bottom end of the wire cylinder using some heavy lacing thread. On the cylinder itself, I bent the wires closest to the conduit inward towards the center. This will help to hook onto the stem of the apples you are picking. On the front edge of the wire cylinder, I bent the wires slightly outward. This will help herd the apples into the cylinder for picking.

A mailbox in the garden.
A mailbox in the garden.

To use this simple device, grasp the conduit pole and the cloth sleeve in one hand. Give the sleeve a few loose twists around the pole and hold the open end tight to the pole. Now, merely creep up on an unsuspecting apple and let the back wires hook onto the stem. Give a slight tug, perhaps with a deft twist, and the fruit will fall into the cylinder. Since the wire basket has no bottom, the apple will fall into the cloth sleeve. Its descent will be slowed by the loose twists in the sleeve. Repeat until you have several apples in the sleeve just above your hand. Now just position it over your bucket or basket and let the apples fall out of the sleeve and gently into the container. This handy device speeds up picking and prevents bruising the fruit as you harvest.

Mailbox in the garden

Over in the garden, it seems like I am constantly misplacing the trowel, hand fork, or other tool. I helped to solve the problem by posting an old mailbox right at the entrance of the garden. After painting it up a bit, I erected it on the gatepost, and now I don’t have to try to remember where I last laid the handtools. It also makes a handy spot to place packets and sacks of garden seeds.

For vining plants

A section of woven fence wire suspended upright along your row of sugar pod peas will allow the plants to climb and reach their full height. I use a few electric fence posts and put the bottom of the fence wire about 12-18 inches above the ground. The pea vines will grow and latch onto the wire and begin their climb. The heavy wire livestock panels also work very well for this purpose. You can also do this with other vining plants such as cucumbers, gourds, and melons.

Cage your tomatoes

Good durable tomato cages can be made from five- to six-foot sections of woven fence wire. I usually put them in place just after giving the tomatoes a good hoeing, working the base of the cage into the freshly turned soil. Drive an electric fence post in as well and tie the cage to it for further support.

The bottomless apple picker.
The bottomless apple picker.

Tomato cages can also be made from sections of concrete reinforcement wire. Anchor them as described above, or cut the bottom wire off to make a dozen or so little spikes on the cage to shove down into the soil.

Toolshed tool cleaner

It is vital for homesteaders to keep hand tools in good condition to get proper use and long life from them. A good way to help is to keep a wooden box filled with oil-soaked sand sitting in the tool shed (this is a good use for some used motor oil). When you are done using a hoe, spade, shovel, or other such tool, merely scrape as much dirt off of it as you can (I use a small mason’s trowel), then plunge it into the box a few times to further scour it clean and give it a light coating of oil. This will add years of life to your tools.

Give tool handles an oil rub

Hand-in-hand with long tool life is the following tip. If you have priced wooden handles for hand tools recently, you know that the price is outrageous and the quality of the handles has gone down. A good way to provide for long-lived handles in your tools is to try the following tip.

Give all your tools’ wooden handles a good rubbing with boiled linseed oil. This compound is available from most hardware stores. (Don’t try to make your own by boiling raw linseed oil; it won’t work! Just ask for it by name.) Application of the oil to the wood will prolong the life of the wood, maintain its springiness, smooth the surface for splinter-free use, and even make the tool look better.

Mend a bucket, tub, or stock tank

In this day and age of plastic and throw-aways, we are not often encouraged to make repairs to something as simple as a bucket or tub. However, an important part of homesteading is to make do with what one has, to use and re-use tools and items around the homestead to get the most out of them.

A good galvanized bucket or tub is certainly handy to have around the place and each can end up seeing a nearly endless variety of uses. However, if your bucket gets a hole in it, it is obviously of lesser use. Here is a good old way to repair a bucket that is simple and that works.

Emptying apples from the bottomless apple picker
Emptying apples from the bottomless apple picker

Merely enlarge the hole just enough to accept a small machine screw or bolt that you have handy. Put a metal washer on the bolt, then a washer made of a piece of old inner tube or a piece of leather. Slide the bolt through the hole. Put another washer of leather or rubber on the other side, followed by another flat washer, then the nut. Tighten everything down. Many old-timers prefer the leather washer because of the fact that it will absorb a bit of the water and swell to firmly seal the hole. Many folks use rubber because they had it lying around the workshop. It seems to work well, too.

This simple repair method can be used to extend the life of what might first be looked at as a throwaway situation. I have used this quick fix on metal buckets as well as large stock watering tanks. There is no need to throw away your bucket or tub, or your money.

Pinwheels and other small tools

Wire a short piece of 1/2’’ PVC pipe to a post near your berry patch and drop the shaft of a toy dime-store pinwheel into the pipe. The wind will keep the pinwheel turning, and the pipe will allow it to turn into any available breeze. This will help to keep birds out of your blueberries, raspberries, etc.

Plastic snakes placed among the branches of your blueberry bushes will keep birds out of the bushes and away from the fruit. Be sure to tell friends and family about the toy snakes before they go berry picking!

Here is a simple tip to use whenever you are using commercial granular fertilizer while planting your garden. Don’t place fertilizer directly in the row with seeds; beans, for example, will burn and they will fail to sprout. So, whenever I am preparing the soil for planting my garden, regardless of the seed types, I do the following. Lay off the rows as you normally would. Scatter your fertilizer at the desired rate down the row. Next, simply drag a short piece of chain attached to a length of binder twine or string down the row to mix the fertilizer into the soil. I use a short piece of an old log chain about a foot long and tie the ends together to the string. Then sow your seed and cover as you normally would. This simple procedure will help prevent the seed from getting burned by the fertilizer and will help insure much better germination.

Shake those insect pests

Come garden time, we occasionally have an outbreak of Mexican bean beetles or other insect pest looking for some easy meals. We usually use Sevin® or Bonide® in the powdered form to help rid us of the critters.

A box of oily sand will help keep tools clean.
A box of oily sand will help keep tools clean.

A really easy way to make a garden bug duster is to use an ordinary coffee can. In the bottom of the can, make several holes using a small nail. I’ve found that a #2 or #4 nail will do just about right. The snap-on plastic lid makes filling the duster easy, and another lid snapped over the bottom for storage prevents spills and keeps the powder where it belongs.

Growing good plants

In the greenhouse, use small containers that you have saved. Yogurt cups, butter bowls, tin cans, egg cartons, or any other old container that can hold a bit of soil. They can all be used to transplant seedlings into or to start seeds in.

Contact your local grocery store and ask them to save the wooden crates that grapes and other soft fruits are shipped in. They are sturdy and hold about two dozen seedlings in Styrofoam cups. Depending on your store, you might be able to get three or four to eight or ten of these crates a week.

If the store sells bedding plants, garden plants, etc., in the spring, ask them to save the plastic flats that the seedlings are received in. These, too, can be recycled to save you money and re-use the plastic. If you obtain these flats, I’d first recommend dipping them in a weak bleach and water solution to clean and disinfect them. Then, just fill them with your seed-starting mix and sow your seeds directly in the flats. This system has worked very well for us for years.

If the store has a deli, or if you can contact a bakery, convenience store, dairy, etc., then you should make use of the 5-gallon plastic buckets that most of these places send to the landfills. The heavy plastic pails are food-safe, and most places will save them for you for the asking or may request a dollar or so for them. They are very sturdy and very usable. I have used them to store cleaned and processed raw wheat for years at a time, and also to store bulk grains and beans in the freezer. A small farm can never have too many buckets.

At your local pizza place, ask about the fate of the glass jars that the peppers, sauces, and other ingredients come in. These are food safe, easily cleaned, and can hold large quantities of beans, pasta, rice, sugar, flour, and many other foodstuffs. The pizza maker will likely be glad to get rid of them. We like to fill these containers with pasta, kidney beans, black beans, and so on, and then store them in one of our freezers. It adds greatly to the storage life of the foods.

Paper garden mulch

To help recycle paper, contact the large users of paper in your community. Banks and large businesses go through enormous quantities of computer printer paper. Most of these places shred paper as they dispose of it and either landfill it or incinerate it. If you contact these establishments, they are often happy to allow you to pick up the bags or boxes of used paper for nothing. In some communities, organizations such as the Boy Scouts or civic organizations may already be hitting up these sources of paper. Once you’ve obtained your supply of shredded paper, you can either make a few cents off of it at the recycler (paper isn’t bringing much at this time, although computer paper is of higher quality and pays more) or you can use it to mulch your garden plants with. The shredded paper works very well in controlling our weeds and allowing moisture to soak down to the soil. In addition, it breaks down reasonably slowly.

Since we’re talking about paper recycling, try contacting those food stores and supermarkets and ask them to save some of the large boxes that paper towels and toilet tissue come in. These large cardboard boxes can be broken down and make an excellent mulch. They can be trimmed to fit between rows of vegetables and strawberries with excellent results. We often use these cut-up cardboard boxes to place beneath a layer of straw when mulching.

Cheap feed

While you are at the supermarket, you might ask the produce manager to set aside the boxes of vegetable scraps for you to pick up. When cases of vegetables are received, many of them must be trimmed and sorted prior to displaying in the produce section. These trimmings, or overripe or damaged fruits and vegetables, make superb additions to the compost pile or can be used to feed your fattening pig or chickens. The sorted lettuce and cabbage leaves can be fed to your rabbits. Some produce managers will set a box or two of trimmings out on the back loading dock for first come-first serve use.

Attach webbing to your cart to help keep hand tools in place.
Attach webbing to your cart to help keep hand tools in place.

Now, I realize that it sounds like you’re going to be hitting pretty heavily on the local grocer. True, you need to be careful not to wear out your welcome. Always be friendly with the folks. They are likely members of your neighborhood and are reasonably eager to build good public relations with customers. Of course, it’s likely you do business there already. Obviously, if you explain your intentions in obtaining the refuse from the store, that will help, too. Return the favor to the store folks by offering them some home-grown produce or plants for their own use. In fact, many stores will welcome the chance to sell some of your sturdy homegrown plants and produce in their store. I have sold fruits, nuts, and vegetables in our local supermarket. The produce manager, who supervised the selling of garden plants at the store, contacted me wanting some of our homegrown tomato plants for her own use. We were happy to just give her several. In any case, take the time to cultivate a relationship with the folks.

More tool holders

Back when I built my “Copy Cart,” I added a couple of strips of webbing to hold some hand tools in place. You can see in the photos that they are handy for holding a variety of tools, keeping them where I can find them. I attached the webbing with small bolts and washers directly on the side panel of the cart.

Hanging baskets

We like our hot peppers. My wife uses the tiny, yet fiery, Thai peppers when she makes her infamous 911 Sauce. A few of those little peppers go a long way!

We often grow the plants in recycled hanging baskets. The plants adapt well and can soon fill a basket with pretty white blooms that soon grow to become a green globe of tiny red peppers. They make a nice accent on the porch.

Use hanging baskets for some of your vegetable plants.

These are just a few ideas of ways to utilize materials that are usually free for the asking, and just as importantly, would otherwise end up in one of our already bursting-at-the-seams landfills. Remember, just use your imagination and the materials that you have on hand. You can come up with your designs or easily improve upon my ideas. Just use what you have available.

http://www.wwmag.net/tips.htm

Narly Dude

One thing we’ve used around here (The Pacific Northwest) is pitch wood from old tree trunks. Some of these felled giants from the last century look badly decayed from a distance due to our plentiful rainfall and their age. However, a little research may lend you to discover that those old and decrepit stumps have a solid heart drenched in pitch.
We treasure these for survival purposes knowing that they’ll rescue us in our time of need, just like the grouse. The grouse does not move far away so you can harvest them easily in your time of need with a stick, always remembering that it takes a very long time for these birds to replenish another’s territory, and therefore, should only be taken in a true time of need. Walk softly, friend.

Monk O. Doom

A “hobo-style” stove my partner and I use when camping — ingredients are: an empty tuna can, a strip of corrugated cardboard (1-1/2 x 6 inches) and a box of paraffin wax; roll the cardboard lengthwise and dip into melted wax; let soak; melt some wax in the can and set the cardboard coil in it; fill the can with more wax and let it melt till about 1/4-inch of cardboard remain sticking out. Makes for an excellent cooking stove for two. All you need is 3 rocks around it to set your pot on! Make sure you put in more chopped wax every 20 min. or so, keeping it semi- full, or the wick will burn away; otherwise the same wick will serve you for a long time. the downside of this contraption is the soot buildup on your pan.

Jake Leslie

When constructing a desert shelter, erect a “second roof” one or two feet above the first. This will reflect much of the heat your first roof would normally pass on to you and it can be removed and used as an extra blanket at night.
Kevin O’Toole

Take just one mitten off when in the arctic if you got too hot that way it will eventually cool the whole body down.

Roy Sherman, California:

Pine snap, which is easily gathered from tree wounds, makes a wilderness glue and sealant that is hard to beat. To give it some body, heat and mix with a little powdered black charcoal from your campfire. (Then ball it to the end of a stick, let it cool, and it will be easily transportable and ready to melt off as you need it. —Tamarack)

Don Mortenson:

Before throwing your fish bait in the water, douse it with cod liver oil. The smell will make your bait more attractive and attract fish from quite a distance. It is very effective.

Drew Lanier, Georgia:

Wash a fur in the same way that the animal would-dip in water and shake vigorously. Repeat several times if necessary, then let dry. (Try not to get the skin itself wet, and comb or brush only after the fur is dry. —Tamarack)

Use sawdust or pulverized punky wood to degrease a pelt in preparation for tanning. Work it in with your hands, let it sit for 15 minutes or so, scrape it off, and reapply if necessary.

Tamarack Song:

When using an absorbent material such as sawdust to degrease a pelt, warm the pelt first. The warmer the grease, the better it absorbs. When scraping to degrease, chill the pelt to as close to freezing as possible. Cold grease firms up, which make it easier to scrape off.

For faster action on a counterweight snare, grease the pole your cord slides over. This is particularly effective in cold weather when things are slow and stiff.

Make trap triggers out of hardwood rather than softwood. Hardwood compresses and sags less, so the trigger will respond more quickly and better maintain its original set. Also, because of the relative strength of hardwood over softwood, trigger components can be made thinner. This will increase the speed of the trap.

When you do not have a steel or stone knife to slice meat thinly for drying, mash it out with a stone or wooden pounder. Some soft flesh can be rolled flat, as one would flatten dough to make cookies or pie crust. The occasional piece of meat can be torn apart by hand.
Hank Fletcher:

To keep deer flies and mosquitoes away while in the woods, pick a sassafras leaf’ roll it between your hands; and put it behind your ear. The smell will keep them away, and is pleasing to humans.

Rob Johnson:

When making the spindle for your bow drill fire making kit, follow this rule of thumb-keep the spindle your thumb diameter or smaller. Fire starting will then be easier and faster.

Nicole Finan:

Fire starting is also easier when the grain of your fireboard runs vertical.

Tim Nelson:

To keep your joints and bones strong, consume the soft bone and connective tissue along with the meat you are eating.

Kimberly Wilson:

No matter what the climate is or time of year, keep a supply of dry firewood handy. You will never know when you may need it.

To avoid internal parasites, gather them away from areas where they might be contaminated by body wastes or waterborne parasites, and wash all questionable wild edibles.

David Jonas:

Balsam fir resin makes an excellent wilderness antiseptic for treating cuts and abrasions. To obtain it quickly, simply pierce the resin bubbles that appear on the bark surface.

Rob Johnson:

Because of folding, a blade knife has a joint that could fail. A straight blade knife can prove more reliable in a wilderness situation where there is no ready backup.

Matt Nelson:

I prefer a tomahawk to a hatchet, because I can easily slip off the tomahawk handle and use the head as a separate tool. In the woods, I can easily make a tomahawk handle replacement.

Jill Thompson:

Wear the lightest footwear possible. It is cooler and less fatiguing on long hikes, dries faster, and interferes the least with feeling the trail, especially at night.

Andre Therrien:

Watch the weather closely. Being able to foretell a weather change can help to avoid a potential survival situation.

Neil:

For backcountry wear, I choose wool clothing, because it maintains its loft and insulates even when wet.

Tamarack Song:

Something akin to sandpaper can be a hard item to come up with in the wilderness. The original sandpaper was wet sand on a piece of leather. A rounded sandstone can work well for sanding hides; a squarish stone might work better for wood.

A quickie clamp made of a split stick works well for pulling needles through materials like tough buckskin.

David Jonas:

Balsam fir resin makes an excellent wilderness antiseptic for treating cuts and abrasions. To obtain it quickly, simply pierce the resin bubbles that appear on the bark surface.

Rob Johnson:

Because of folding, a blade knife has a joint which could fail. A straight blade knife can prove more reliable in a wilderness situation where there is no ready backup.

Matt Nelson:

I prefer a tomahawk to a hatchet, because I can easily slip off the tomahawk handle and use the head as a separate tool. In the woods, I can make a tomahawk handle replacement.

Jill Thompson:

Wear the lightest footwear possible. It is cooler and less fatiguing on long hikes, dries faster, and interferes the least with feeling the trail, especially at night.

Andre Therrien:

Watch the weather closely. Being able to foretell a weather change can help to avoid a potential survival situation.

Neil:

For back country wear, I choose wool clothing, because it maintains its loft and insulates even when wet.

Ed Cotton:

In the west and other dry areas, cedar or sage brush bark and other fibers are used to carry fire from site to site while on the move. In the wooded areas of the world, especially the northern hemisphere, the grape vine is available. The piece of fiber or vine that is available in your area has to be dry. Simply light one end, and carry the other end in your mouth. Give the vine a puff or air once in a while. The vine glows red and burns slowly, maintaining an ember for hours and can even burn for days.

Tamarack Song:

Something akin to sandpaper can be a hard item to come up with in the wilderness. The original sandpaper was wet sand on a piece of leather. A rounded sandstone can work well for sanding hides; a squarish stone might work better for wood.

A quickie clamp made of a split stick works well for pulling needles through materials like tough buckskin.

Kimberly Wilson:

Drink before you are thirsty, especially before going on a hike. Once you feel thirsty, you are already dehydrated. This is important in the winter, too, because we do not overheat and sweat as easily as in the summer. It is not as obvious that we are dehydrating.

Winters can be long, and the days short. To help avoid depression, take advantage of all the sun you possibly can by getting outside. Regularly expose your skin to the sun in order to as much Vitamin D that your body needs.

Chris Bean:

Breaking trail in deep snow takes a lot of energy. When you are traveling in a group, switch off the lead person periodically. North country wolf packs move this way in order that none of the wolves will get over tired. This works great for humans, also.

Warm rocks by the fire, and wrap them in a towel to take to bed with you to keep your feet warm and help soothe tight, sore muscles.

Tim Nelson:

Always be aware of rodents; they will eat things we do not normally consider edible (such as rawhide). They can cause considerable damage in the process. I keep a year-round trap line going around my lodge.

Do not neglect your teeth when you are out in the wilds. In fact, I would suggest taking extra special care of them. This is one area “where an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

Have two or more plans or projects going at all times. That way, regardless of weather, materials shortage, or whatever other variables may come up, you will be able to keep yourself occupied. This also helps to prevent disappointment and keeps your spirits up. This is very important in the wilderness.

Susan Smith:

A good way to get (or keep) warm is to stay active. Just be careful not to overheat and sweat, as that can cause chilling and lead to hypothermia.

Gary Odum:

The next time you are fishing in a creek, try finding mussels or freshwater snails in the shallows of the creek. If the creek is fast running try looking around the downstream side of a sunken log or stone. The snails prefer these areas of calmer water. Mussels can be found in shallow sandy flats of the creek. Their shells are black usually and they can be seen fairly easily against light colored sand. Once you obtain a few snails or mussels crack them open and use them for fish bait. Both the mussel and the freshwater snail have hard bodies and you can often use the same snail or mussel to catch several fish. Bream love them.

As a kid my father taught me how to rob wasp nests to get the pupae. Use your cane pole (the longer the better) and slip the tip of it between the nest and whatever it is attached to.
If you go slow and easy, the wasps will not be disturbed. Quickly scrape the nest off and run. The wasps will swarm around a while but will settle down in a few minutes and you can pick the nest up off the ground. The pupae make excellent fish bait. It is hard to bait hooks with these pupae so take a piece of nylon stocking and make a small pouch and put the pupa in the pouch and run your hook through it and the pupa.
You will have more fish than you know what to do with if you are not careful.

Shawi Hickman:

Wild duck or large bird? Find where they nest! Then, you get the eggs.Put out some corn (dry) just to say thanks to them. Good to start the day!

Edward Reck:

I once read a book where it said that some Indian tribes would melt down empty whiskey and beer bottles into huge lumps which they broke up, and chipped into arrow heads and other useful items, the same as they did with obsidian and chert. I do not remember the name of the book, since so much time has gone by since I read it. Also, I never experimented with the concept, although, I have knapped flakes off of broken pieces of glass with a blunt nail so I am pretty confident that it works.

Ken Lee:

Take a couple of compact discs next time you go into the wilderness - not for music, but because they make a great light-weight signaling mirror, double sided, complete with center aiming hole. They can be easily cut with a Stanley knife into fit any pocket, or a hole can be drilled through them to hang from a cord.

Larry Snyder:

Whenever I am out hunting or hiking, I always carry some blue-tipped matches dipped in wax, and a wad of “000” steel wool. If you get into trouble and need to start a fire, you have waterproof matches and the steel wool as one of the best tinder that will start even wet twigs. All you have to do is put some of the steel wool under some small twigs and sticks, and touch your match to the wool. It won’t look like it is lit until you blow on it. It will be glowing red and hotter than hell The nice thing about the steel wool is that it does not matter if it gets wet. It will still work.

John Thomas:

For a good firestarter you can use a Duraflame fireplace log. I broke one into small pieces and it lasted all summer into the fall starting many fires. Just touch a small flame to it and you’ve got flames-a-plenty.

Consuelo Quisumbing:

We can always buy lighters and kitchen matches at stores. But what if modern civilization falls apart, and factories and manufacturers stop producing these products? What do we do? Brown or waste paper twine is used in my country for wrapping goods. But paper twine can be an alternative “match.” Snip off 2-inch pieces from a length of twine and dip these in melted paraffin or beeswax. Take care not to coat twine “matches” with too much or too thin a coating, or they will not work. Dry, and keep in a small Ziploc pouch. The next time you need to light your fireplace or campfire, light this “match” with your lighter and use it to set fire to the tinder. The twine “match” produces a strong bright flame for a full minute. You save on kitchen matches and lighter fluid.

James Wells:

About “not eating if there is no water around...” You had better find water SOMEWHERE, and quickly. The old movie stuff about a troop of men hiking across a desert by conserving one canteen of water is pure fiction. If you do not get enough fluid for your kidneys to produce about 30cc of urine per hour, you will soon notice severe weakness due to impending renal (kidney) failure. Death will soon follow. If you have water and are at all thirsty, DRINK IT. It will help you stay clear-headed, hopefully long enough to find more water.

E. Musik:

ALTERNATE FIRE STARTER (an alternative to Steve Dexter’s fire starters): I cut up a paper egg carton, dip the small cups in paraffin and allow them to dry. Then, I pack them with saw dust and wood shavings onto which I pour liquid paraffin to top off. They burn for a long while without a large consumption of paraffin.

Jim Mainwaring:

FIRE CRAFT: While in the woods, collect the moss (lican) hanging from the branches of fir and pine trees. This moss is found through out the Pacific Northwest. Place it in your pocket to dry. Once dried, you can light it with a simple spark from a flint bar.

Another one is using cotton balls with Vaseline worked into them. It also can be ignited with a spark and burns hot. All though this second method really does not represent true wilderness skills, it is excellent for a survival situation.

T. (Clarence) Porter:

To help disguise your natural human scent just before the hunt, try this method taught to me by a true (old-time) woods-man. When your warming up next to the fire on that chilly morning Just before daylight; Before putting out your fire and it has burnt down, lay a large portion of fresh cut GREEN pine needles on your coals. When they start up a good cloud of smoke, start jumping through the smoke several times while in your hunting clothes for the day. Be sure to close your eyes when doing this, as the sap smoke may burn your eyes a little. The pine sap and odor will coat you and your clothes with a layer of pine scented residue. The odor is pleasing, and if you have a very light sticky feeling (which shouldn’t last long before drying) the sap smoke has done it’s job. Be sure to coat your boots real well by holding your feet in the smoke about twice as long, as it will ware off quicker while walking to your hide.

Mike Powers:

A sure way to keep warm is to carry a candle with a candle holder and an extra large poncho. Pile a layer of insulation on the ground. Sit down on that insulation pile and have your extra large poncho totally enclose your body, including your head, and light the candle. In this small space the air will quickly heat up. It is best to have a candle holder with a protective top so you don’t end up burning your poncho should it fall on the candle flame. This set up can keep you warm in an emergency situation. You will need an extra large poncho to totally enclose your body when you sit on the ground. Don’t forget to put that layer of insulation under you.

Tim Roy:

If you are in the woods and it rains, get wood and whittle away the outside. This will leave dry wood on the inside (provided it is not rotten, or too soft), and you can use the shavings for tinder.

Michael Castleton:

Clean and Filtered Water Made Easy: Filters are just too big for survival kits, and sometimes even during a light hike. Easily solved. Using a bandana (a high priority item in any survival kit) and some type of container (hopefully your canteen survived the crash;), cover the top of the container with the bandana securing it with either your hand/sting/ rubberband whatever... Dip this into the best source of water you can find and allow the cloth to filter out all large items If the water is sandy and/or you ca not see through it, fold the bandana over a few times. The more folds you have, the longer it will take usually. Using a small eye-dropper bottle (can be found at pharmacies and the like) drop in 1-2 drops of bleach per liter of water, (yes, bleach, Clorox) Allow the stuff to work for 5 minutes, shaking it every minute. This process will filter out and/or kill everything that you will need to worry about, and the taste is much like home.

Ed Reck:

If your area does not have a lot of flint or obsidian laying around on the ground, try glass. I remember years ago reading about Native Americans melting down whiskey bottles, then chipping and napping the mass into arrow heads. If it worked then, it should work now.

Roger Inman:

One of the best set of books to learn almost all of the survival skills is the BOY SCOUT HAND BOOK and the BOY SCOUT FIELD GUIDE. Every thing from making shelters, collecting food, water, to building materials. How to choose a camping site. Which plants and critters to eat, etc. These books can be found at scouting outlets (i.e. J C Penneys in some areas and other stores) as well as as well as district or council service centers. Look in the yellow pages.

Two other books are the US ARMY SURVIVAL MANUAL and THE SAS SURVIVAL HANDBOOK by John Wiseman, Collins Harvill, publisher. Both may be purchased from army surplus stores and some book stores. But remember, you can read for 20 years, but if you don’t practice the skills that you read about, you will not be ready when the time comes.
I have been teaching and practicing skills for 35 years and hope I NEVER, NEVER, EVER HAVE TO USE WHAT I KNOW! Have had a lot of fun along the way!

Fred Melvin:

MAKING FIRE WITH ICE: Shape a piece of ice like a magnifying lens, and then polish it by melting the outside with body heat. It does not work as good as a magnifying lens, but it can be done.

Steve Dexter:

If you want a guaranteed fire-starter here is what to do:
Take a small wax covered paper cup and melt paraffin or wax into it. Let it dry. It lights even if it is wet. Use a match or lighter or whatever.

Consuelo Quisumbing:

USING FISH TO CATCH OTHER FISH: My grandparents had fishponds on their farm, surrounded by fruit orchards and coconut trees. One particular pond contained as ugly a bunch of freshwater carp as could be found; the kind only other carp could love. They were good eating, but my cousins and I weren’t allowed to catch them, although they were so stupid you could catch them quick. These fish were gluttons, and their gluttony on some occasions helped me catch several fat and tasty catfish. There was a small bridge at the end of the pond, and there were large cats that were living under it. The trouble was, it was difficult to cast bait under the bridge; the hook always caught on snags. One day I fed the carp leftover rice next to the bridge, and a gang of them trudged along the bottom, dredging mud and debris. To my surprise, catfish started to surface, and they joined the feeding. It seemed that either the dredging disturbed them out of their holes, or it was a signal to come out and eat.

SURVIVAL NEEDLES: Many survival kits fail to include a compact sewing kit. This is unfortunate, because having a needle at the right time, when stuck in the wrong place, can be a lifesaver. Known as tailors’ or leathercraft needles, these items are found at crafts stores and special hobby fairs. They are usually contained in a package of seven to eight assorted needles, each with its own purpose: flat-bladed needles are used for sacks, tents, canvas, and carpets. Spear-like needles are used for leather goods, chairs and sofas. Curved needles are for beds, mattresses and seats. A single type cannot suffice for most sewing duties. Just imagine yourself in a leaky tent in a rainstorm, and you wish that you had brought a sewing kit! Among the Inuit, it was said, there are (3) three important things a man must have to survive the Arctic: a good knife, firestarters, and a sewing kit.

SPACE BLANKET VS. SURVIVAL BAG: The space blanket and the survival bag are two items which are products of the new age in survival gear. Before these were created, men made do with bulky clothing and heavy woolen blankets. It was hard to get warm if your clothes and wool blankets got soaked with sweat or water. Both the space blanket and survival bag have become camping and/or search and rescue essentials, and both have their merits, as well as faults. For instance, the space blanket is cheap for purchase, compact, light for carry, a good reflector of body heat and sunlight for rescue, and can withstand low temperatures. The survival bag, on the other hand, is very strong, durable, wind-proof, light for carry, keeps in body heat, makes a good mattress, can be a duffel bag in a pinch, can be used as a signal device, and is good in temperatures down to freezing. The space blanket is not flameproof, wind-proof, and tear-proof. It is also noisy. The survival bag is not cheap, compact, flameproof, noiseless.

THE SURVIVAL WHISTLE: The little orange “survival” whistle has been around for some time, and I believe that most people take this item for granted, since there are better survival items available to the public. However, for its compactness and it being one of the smallest survival kits around, it is also one kit that would most probably not attract attention from nosy official folks, since it resembles a toy. It is an item that can contain matches, line and fishhooks, iodine tabs and other medication, money, etc. Its value is doubled with the addition of a small mirror, compass, and whistle. This is a “toy” that I would give to a child, in case they got lost. Also, hikers could benefit by putting it along with larger survival kits. Kayakers could hang it around their necks by its cord, along with a neck knife and compass, in case the kayak turns over. The only flaw is that it is constructed of a not-too-durable plastic.

J. Keller:

If in the woods and it is raining and/or snowing and you need to start a fire look for the belly wood on downed trees. The pitchier, the better. Belly wood is the wood on the bottom part of the tree that will still be dry even though everything else may be soaked. A small hatchet is very helpful for removing strips of it.

A second pointer is to practice your survival skills on weekend survival hikes with friends. Then, when you need to really use the skills, you will have already perfected them.

Jason Coombs:

Whenever using rocks in coal beds, reflectors or as boiling rocks, be sure that the rocks are collected from a high and dry area. It may take a little more time to secure good rocks, but the effort is certainly worth it and could save you from a painful accident. Rocks that are collected from a creek bed or in a damp place can hold moisture in them that forces itself out when the rocks are heated. This creates an explosion of incredible force. Not only is it dangerous, (i.e., loss of eye, puncture wound, etc.), but the loud pop sounds like a gunshot and may scare away any wild game you hope to harvest. Nine out of ten accidents in the woods are self-inflicted, so be careful and use your head.

FOOD IN THE WOODS: Cattails are one of the most abundant and best tasting plants out there. Sometime you should plan on getting “lost” near a patch of them, and take along a good guide. They have six edible parts and numerous other utilitarian uses (i.e. insulation from the down, mats and baskets from the leaves, toothbrush, medicine etc.

This is not really a primitive idea, but it would work well in an outdoor situation. Always take along a couple large sized plastic garbage bags with the pull-string ties on them. They have hundreds of uses, but one of the really good ones is to use them as an emergency poncho if you get caught without a real one. Just cut, rip or tear a hole in the bottom and one on each side. Your head goes through the bottom one and your arms through the side ones. It wears out fast, but would certainly get you out of a pinch.

Consuelo Quisumbing:

I grew up in the suburbs, and when I was twelve or thirteen years old I came across one of the first editions of SURVIVE magazine in a second-hand bookstore. I remember being so fascinated by the articles in that long-forgotten magazine. They were so unlike the familiar scouting manuals being used by my scoutmaster uncles and cousins. When I began saving money to buy any old survival magazine I could get my hands on, my Daddy would just shake his head and tell me to pursue more “ladylike” interests. I am in my thirties now, and I can survive by myself out in the wilderness, and have more confidence to rely more on the skills I have learned from survival magazines, than on the machines of modern technology that we have come to rely on to run our lives. Since I live in a tropical Asian country, some things are worth knowing: exposure to the elements, bugs, and bad food are three things that can do you in faster than reckless car driving or poor health habits.

Ralph Slater:

Very rotted black birch sometimes referred to as “punky” makes an excellent coal extender, as well as tinder. I discovered this a while back when blowing on some that I was using to smoke a brain tanned deerskin. While blowing on some new chunks that I had added to my already smoking ones, I found that with just a small amount of effort I could get a glowing coal to burst into flame. Since then, I have tried other rotted wood, and found some others will do the same, but maybe not quite as easily.

A.G. Drew:

If you are in a survival situation and have a seriously injured or ill member in your party, feed them the stomach contents of any large game you are lucky enough to catch. The body requires water and protein to both heal itself and to digest food. Feeding this particular food source to the injured or ill person, allows their body to absorb the nutrients in it while not having to divert protein from healing to digestion. The healthy survivalist may take advantage of this highly efficient food source as well (waste not, need not). It is said to have a sweet taste.

Scott Wiggins:

You can use Horse Chestnut leaves as a soap replacement. The leaves contain saponin.

Don Brink:

A tip for hand-drill fires that turned 5-6 passes down the spindle to 3-4. I do the sitting position holding the hearth or foreboard with my foot. The notch faces me, so I can see the coal when it comes. Spit on your hands to give them more grab on the spindle. Do one pass with no effort to warm things up a bit. On the first “real” pass, tilt the top of the spindle back toward you about 20 degrees (watch it or it will pop out of the hole!). About half-way down, tilt the top of the spindle about 20 degrees away from you. When you reach the bottom, get your hands back to the top and go again. As I said, this cut my number of passes in half, therefore, doubling my efficiency at the hand-drill. Another tip, start looking in the woods for any long straight and dry “weeds,” and try them for spindles. I have discovered many new materials this way.

CJ Flores:

I have suggested to people to bring a fresnel lens with them when traveling. If you are lost in the wilderness, it can be an easy fire starter. Keeping a fire going is one way to be spotted. For food, learn how to eat insects if you can. Find out which weeds can be eaten, and how to prepare them. If it is possible, dig out an underground home. Perhaps there is a cave somewhere. Watch out for hibernating bears!

Jeff Fields:

If you are stuck in the woods, and you are close to a lot of acorns, take the insides of the acorn out, and let them sit in water for a day. Then grind them up, and let them dry out. You can use them as flour, or make pancakes from them.

James Ninilchik:

SNOW SHELTER: The best and quickest and easiest snow shelter I have ever seen and used, that requires no skill or tools to build is this: Stomp out a trench or box or round shaped room in the snow, packing the snow and piling it up around the perimeter using your feet and hands. Next take branches, debris, leaves, or bark (whatever is available), and place over the top for a roof. To further insulate your shelter, you can place snow over this for a thick ceiling. BUT: Make sure you have adequate ventilation and remember that any snow overhead can melt and drip. You do not want to get wet, if your heat sources warm the inside up. For a door you can use any number of things to seal it off: branches, a backpack, clothing, etc. You can line the sleeping area with a browse bed composed of evergreen boughs about 2” - 8” thick.

A SMALL LIGHTER: In northern climates, especially in winter, a small lighter (either butane or Zippo) can be extremely handy. In a cold land with little light, you then have a method to make a fire quickly, and a light for short duration visibility. It is also great for melting synthetic ropes after cutting. A lighter can be seen for a long ways off at night. It is great for signaling over barren ground (i.e. arctic, desert or above timberline).

James Ninilchik:

BANDANA MADNESS: Here is a piece of cloth with a thousand uses. Catch the morning dew off the grass and shrubs and wring it into your mouth for water. Get it wet on a hot day to sponge yourself off and wear around your forehead for cooling. Wear as a cap over your head by tying a knot in each corner and then rolling them in towards center till you get a tight fit. Other uses include: hotpads, sunscreen, tourniquets, cleaning cloth, washing cloth, and carrying food and other articles by folding and tying it. Use it on a stick for a lure, or a signaling flag. A bandana is only limited by your lack of resourcefulness.

FIRE STARTER FOR COLD, WET CONDITIONS: Bicycle inner tubes cut into 1” - 2” squares make great fire starters in cold, wet conditions, like sea kayaking along the Pacific Northwest coast. Any bike shop will give you tubes that are no good, and you can keep them in a small container. If they are wet, they work just as well. They are easy to light, and burn hot and bright for several minutes, allowing wet tinder to dry out and start burning.

Thomas Bickel (age 13):

If you are ever lost in the woods, remember that the Pileated Woodpecker digs his home facing east, a Flying Squirrel’s hole is usually facing east, a spiders web is usually facing south, the rings on a cut down tree most often show a greater growth on north and northeast sides, and the tops of evergreen trees usually bend to the east.

Hans Wolfgang:

FIRE AT YOUR FINGER TIPS: I have found that the Boy Scouts sell a handy little processed flint and steel kit that makes a great zipper pull tab for your parka. Granted, I could probably find all of the fire building tools I might need in the wild, but sometimes it is nice to have a little man-made help right at your finger tips. I usually remove the included piece of steel, and just use the processed flint stick in order to avoid any undesired noise, due to the two pieces clanking together. Any piece of scrap steel will work (i.e. metal watch bands, belt buckles, etc.). Do not neglect the back side of your ever present pocket knife blade. It will serve admirably as a scraping bar. I have found that when it comes making fire, an extra back-up can never hurt.

Josh B.:

Having trouble making those beautiful bow staves? Why not attach another bow opposite to the front of your weaker bow staves to make what I call a “double bow.” It should look like a backwards letter “C” attached at the center. Remember to frap cordage to the extremities of the stave.

Jeff Gresser:

Do not throw away that dryer lint! It is a great fire starter. Save it in Zip-lock bags and flatten them, or pack it into a small plastic vitamin jar for your survival kit. Dampen the lint with lighter fluid, and you have got a “sure fire tinder.”

http://www.wwmag.net/imu.htm

[Photos at link]

IMU:
Hawaiian Underground Oven
by Dino Labiste

Anyone who has experienced a contemporary Hawaiian lu’au (feast) will find kalua pig a main part of the menu. Traditionally, the pig was cooked in an underground pit and served in plaited baskets made of coconut fronds or on large banana leaves. The shredded pork was just as tender and moist as pork roasted in an electric or gas oven. The word kalua refers to the process of cooking in an earth oven (ka, the; lua, hole).

Throughout Polynesia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and even the Americas, traditional underground ovens have been utilized to cook and steam food. The Hawaiians used a pit oven, called an imu, to steam whole pigs, breadfruit, bananas, sweet potatoes, taro, chicken, and fish. The imu was essentially an underground pressure cooker. Due to the amount of time and labor to prepare the imu, most earth oven cooking was done for group meals, festivities, or religious ceremonies.
To build an imu, a lua, or round pit about 2 to 4 feet deep with sloping sides is dug into the earth. The diameter and depth of the lua will match the amount of food to be cooked. The pit must be large enough to contain not only the food, but also rocks and the vegetation. Keep the imu as compact as possible. Place the excavated dirt next to the pit. Later, it will be used to cover the imu.

Next, gather kindling material, like twigs, small branches, and any other combustible tinder. Place the kindling material in the bottom center of the pit. Larger wood (preferably hardwood) is built around the kindling wood. Do not use wood that will impart an unpleasant taste to the food.
Stones, about the size of a closed fist, are then positioned on top of the larger wood. Vesicular basalt stones are ideal for imu cooking. These porous rocks retain heat and are less likely to break. Stones that contain moisture, which causes the rock to explode when heated, should be avoided. The kindling wood is lighted and the blazing fire heats the pit and the stones. As the wood turns to charcoal, the imu stones drop inward on the hot coals. Firing time varies from 1-1/2 to 3 hours until the stones are at their maximum heat. The hot stones are then leveled out with a stick or wooden tongs to an even floor on top of the coals.

Since the cooking process requires steam and not dry heat, green plant materials are needed to create the steam. The Hawaiians utilized grass and leaves for their imu cooking. Some of the traditional plants were banana stumps, ti leaves, honohono grass, banana leaves, and coconut palm leaf (see the section on “Modern Adaptations on Imu Cooking” for plant substitutes). The common term used today to describe the green vegetation material and its use is hali’i, which means, “to spread like the mat covering the floor.”

While the stones are being heated in the pit, gather and prepare any plant material you will need. If you will be using banana stumps, they will have to be cut into sections smaller than the diameter of the pit. The sections are sliced lengthwise, either in half or quartered, depending on the size of the trunk. Then, the sliced stumps are pounded with a rock to break up the fibers and to release the moisture in the stumps. If a whole pig is going to be cooked, the skin and the inside cavity area are rubbed with a small amount of rock salt. When the stones are about ready, place all your food and vegetation materials near the pit. Also, lay your covering material next to the imu. Traditionally, the covering material before the final dirt cover was old lauhala mats or worn tapa cloth.

When the heated stones are ready, it is time to layer the imu with green vegetation, food, covering material, and dirt. The first layer of hali’i is laid directly over the hot rocks to prevent the food from being scorched and to create steam for cooking. If you have access to a banana trunk, use smashed banana stumps. Next, a second layer of hali’i is placed over the first layer. In Old Hawai’i, the green vegetation was ti leaves. This second layer is important in that it touches the food and adds flavor to the cooking meal. The food is placed on top of the ti leaves. If you are cooking a whole pig, a few hot stones are also placed inside the body cavity to insure the pig is well cooked. A third layer of hali’i covers the food. The old way used ti leaves with young, whole banana leaves on top. The covering material is then laid over the imu. The covering material must extend beyond the diameter of the pit’s opening. This will keep any dirt from falling into the imu when the food is unearthed. The final layer is loose dirt, which is shoveled over the entire covering material to prevent any steam from escaping.

Estimating the time it takes to cook the food depends on the heat of the imu, the thickness of the hali’i, the kind of food, and the mass of the food. A large whole pig, in a good hot imu, may take from 4 to 6 hours of steaming time. When the cooking is done, brush away any loose dirt from the edges of the covering material. Remove the dirt from the lauhala mats or tapa cloth. Carefully lift off the covering material and avoid getting any dirt into the imu. Uncover the layers of hali’i, and serve up your delicious meal.

http://www.wwmag.net/features.htm

Articles on wilderness survival

http://www.familyherbalremedies.com/toothache_remedy.html

Home More remedies Toothache remedy

Toothache relief with this natural toothache remedy!

The old standard kitchen toothache remedy

A great natural toothache remedy is to either ground clove or pure food grade clove oil on the affected tooth. This is the most well known of all herbal toothache remedies. I list this remedy first since most people have cloves in their spice rack.cloves toothache remedy

NOTE: In my Roots and Branches Herbal Home Study Course, I recommend people practice herbal nourishment at the same time they are treating an acute situation herbally or allopathically. In this course, I teach you how to make an herbal infusion. If you know how to make an infusion, I recommend using Oatstraw (Avena sativa) infusions while you are treating your toothache’s pain. You can order oatstraw in the bulk herb section of Mountain Rose Herbs.

Other great herbal toothache remedies…

Echinacea toothache remedy• Echinacea. This cold and flu remedy has a long history for being a toothache remedy. In fact, a Lakota elder I know calls it the “toothache plant.” That’s what his grandmother called it as well. Try using Echinacea tincture. The best toothache remedy would be to use fresh Echinacea root dug from the ground, so if you have some in your garden, try it some day! Click here to read more about Echinacea. You can make your own Echinacea tincture in our Herbal Medicine Making Kit. Read how.

First aid kit• A few drops of tea tree essential oil can be infused in water. Cleansing the mouth with this solution can give rapid relief to inflamed gums. It is a very potent antibacterial. Tea trea oil is an important component to our Travel First Aid Kit.

• A combination of the following items used on a regular basis can be very helpful as part of a home remedy for toothache. First, a calendula toothpaste such as Weleda brand seems to be very preventive in nature. Calendula has a long history of being used for the gums and teeth. Myrrh toothpastes are another option (Tom’s of Maine makes one). Both of these herbs have astringent and antibacterial effects. These are available in all natural foods markets and in many supermarkets.

• If your filling comes out…A paste of slippery elm powder and water put into a tooth where the filling has come out, will be very helpful until one gets to the dentist. And a mouthwash made with sage (Salvia officinalis) or calendula (Calendula officinalis) and a pinch of salt, is beneficial to bleeding gums.

Purchase these herbs and essential oils at Mountain Rose Herbs for your toothache remedy..

Garden or outdoors toothache remedy

yarrowYarrow (Achillea millefolium), originated in Europe and Asia, but is now naturalized throughout North America. Yarrow grows wild in fields, meadows, roadsides and open woodlands. Yarrow has the ability to stop bleeding and aids in healing wounds. But the root of the yarrow is also an anesthetic. To relieve toothaches, apply the fresh root or leaves to the gums or teeth. It’s yet another great herbal toothache remedy.

plantainRaw plantain leaves crushed and placed on the aching tooth will also help stop a toothache. If you happen to have a little salt with you, mix a little salt with the chewed leaves. Too read more about plantain, click here.

Here are some basic toothache remedies...especially if you do not have ANY of the above ingredients and you need toothache relief NOW!

Philip D. Corn, D.D.S., a private practitioner in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and director of the Pennsylvania Academy of General Dentistry, says a toothache may be a symptom of several things. The pulp of your tooth or the gums around your throbbing cuspid could be infected. There could be decay in a molar. You may have a cracked bicuspid. Or you might have been smacked in the mouth. But the ache could simply be an irritation from a piece of food caught between two teeth, adds Jerry F. Taintor, D.D.S., chairman of endodontics at the University of Tennessee College of Dentistry. Or it could be a backlash from a sinus problem.

So, until you can get your tooth checked out by a professional, here are some toothache remedy ideas Dr. Corn and Dr. Taintor give:

* Rinse your toothache away. Take a mouthful of water (at body temperature) and rinse vigorously, says Dr. Taintor. If your toothache is caused by trapped food, a thorough rinse may dislodge the problem.
* Floss gently. If swishing doesn’t work, you can try to pry the popcorn hulls or tiny bits of meat out from between your teeth by flossing, says Dr. Taintor. Be gentle! Your gums are likely to be sore.
* Take a “shot” to numb the pain. Hold a swig of whiskey over the painful tooth, says Dr. Corn. Your gums will absorb some of the alcohol and that will numb the pain. Spit out the rest.
* Rinse with salty water. After each meal and at bedtime, stir 1 teaspoon of salt into an 8-ounce glass of water (again, at body temperature), says Dr. Corn. Hold each mouthful, roll it around your mouth. Spit.
* Try a hand massage. When you have an achy tooth, this can ease the pain by 50 percent. Rub an ice cube into the V-shaped area where the bones of the thumb and forefinger meet. Gently push the ice over the area for 5 to 7 minutes.
* The doctors also recommend using cloves or clove oil.

http://kellishouse.blogspot.com/2007/06/show-and-tell-friday.html

Interesting site, paper crafts,recipes and more.

>>>In the past I’ve trained them<<<

They do train pretty well - My wife has one hen who comes running whenever she sees her in the yard. My wife always picks her up and carries her a while - they cluck to each other...

I have one rooster who when he hears me coming, gets up on the top perch and when I bend over to take the top off the waterer, he jumps on my back - and moves to my shoulder - he ‘supervises’ me gathering the eggs from each nest from his command position. Then he jumps off when I am done.

Since I have a small incubator, I have 4 batches already spoken for - people wanting some of their own a bit later in the spring. Geeesh almost 3 months of incubating...

I hope you didn’t list your lovely place?

Actually, it is one of the original parcels I bought.

Thru a weird twist of fate I had the opportunity to buy a bank owned home in 2004. There was a HUD auction and although I didn't have the highest bid, I was the only one to bid as an "owner occupant" rather than an "investor" and I got it. It's about ½ mile from the original parcels and is on 3.24 acres that backs miles of timberland.

I moved into it, my daughter moved into the lake house and for a while I rented the other place. But renters were more trouble than they are worth, so I sold it in 2006.

Well, the new owner only made a handful of payments before defaulting. I fought him in the courts for two years . . . he declared bankruptcy twice! I finally got it back in January and it's for sale again.

It's a nice place, perfect for a small homestead. Check out the photos.

And click here to take a tour of my bit of the boonies.

>>>Being able to adapt to a new situation and accept it as reality is likely the key to who survives and who doesn’t. <<<

Every so often, I think about how different people would react to survival situations. I can think of some relatives over the years who would do fine... Others, would have apoplexy - I had one GGrandmother of whom my only recollection is of going into a store with her. She wore a big fancy black hat, wore her gloves and carried a cane. She was very German, and didn’t ask for service, she ‘demanded’ it - instantly! I remember we walked into a large store in Philadelphia and she strode up to the first counter and with her cane, WHAP across the counter - ‘Let’s have some service here! Show me your selection of mittens for my great grandson... Made no difference where we were in the store, she had clerks scurrying to gather what she might want from all over the store.

Her daughter (my Paternal Grandmother) was nothing like her. She shared the stature of her mother, but she was one of the most resourceful people who when she needed to learn something, she just did it... Her first job was as a legal secretary. She applied for the job, and then... Then - she taught herself to type during her lunch breaks - and she did it well... She raised 5 successful children and was always a bit of an impish person - like if things were too quiet, she would stir the pot to get the children going over something.

My maternal Grandmother was totally different - she was very musically inclined - she played the violin, piano, even a harp beautifully by ear... Could not read a note of music. In addition to playing the pump organ at church, she also was a bit of what for the time might be called ‘risque’. She played the piano for the silent movies. Just watched the action and made up the music to go with the scene as she went along. In her later years, she showed other talents - organizing. She is the only person I ever saw who never batted an eye when someone would come over to help her - she could line up more work for them faster than anyone I ever saw... You could have 30 people and she would have them all with a job to do - and she would keep the whole project in mind and without any hesitancy, she would dole out your next job instantly. When they were all done, the project complete, she always could come up with another one - Never losing the opportunity to get something done.

Each of them were totally different, but you know, I think they all three (all depression era survivors) would make it today.

>>>I was born and bred in New York City and until I moved here I always lived in an apartment building. <<<

LOL - one of those - huh....

I remember thinking that all the girls in NYC were - well - weird...

Seeing all those girls with ‘beehive’ hairdos who used to come to Ft. Dix in New Jersey when I was going through training in the Army.... LOL They were sure a sight to see...

OK, so later I did go to the big city - (always gave me a headache) was surprised to see the whole hodgepodge of people... And the girls didn’t all have beehives.... LOL

Actually, over the years I have made quite a few friends there, even had to speak to several groups up there... Maybe they just wanted to see this ‘country boy’ who seemed to not meet a stranger and even talked to the meanest looking guys on the street corner, and the kids playing stick ball in the street - and got along with them all.

Amazing how people will usually open up when you talk to them in a friendly country way.

>>>I am not up on processing and will let you check first....Please.<<<

Oh boy, some of these look like they would be really dangerous!

I would never recommend one like this one from that site:

WICKED WEINERS”

4 lbs. weiners
1 lg. bottle catsup
2 gals. hot peppers
1 pt. vinegar
1 pt. Crisco oil
3 c. sugar
2 cloves garlic, minced

Remove seeds from peppers. Cut in pieces or strips. Small peppers need not be cut. Mix catsup, oil, sugar, garlic together and bring to a boil. Add peppers and weiners and boil for 10 minutes. Pack in jars and process for 10 to 15 minutes in hot water bath

1 pint of vinegar is NOT going to acidify it enough particularly for meat... Nope, sorry, no way would I do this one.

You forgot to include 1 gallon of Pepto Bismal.

BIP

>>>I would like to think that I might be that strong, but one does not know, until it is done.<<<

Of course you could!!

The one word that has killed more people and ruined many lives is ‘can’t’.

I can’t do that - I can’t survive this - I can’t ...

I have fortunately gotten to know quite a few people who have overcome severe adversity and survived it and who have had huge influences on others lives.

Like Dr. Sam Gwinn - He was the State 4-H club leader in the 50’s - Sam was in WW II and his position was overrun by the Germans and he was left for dead. Shrapnel had ripped his stomach open from one side to the other and all his intestines were hanging out. He managed to crawl 7 miles through the German lines to the American lines - while holding his intestines in - You couldn’t convince him that you ‘can’t’ do something.

Or, Dr. George Worrilow who was the Dean of the School of Agriculture. He had hit a rut in the field one day and it bounced him off a tractor - the disk he was pulling sliced his back and left him bent over, one leg 6” shorter than the other, and continuous pain. He was told he would never walk - he did - he was told the pain would be unbearable - it wasn’t - he was told he would be an invalid all his life - he wasn’t... In all the years I knew him, I never saw him not have a smile on his face. From his stooped position, he would look up at you with a smile that made you know that he had confidence in you and that you ‘could’ face your adversities. He never would give in to the pain and refused all pain treatment - always saying that you can do whatever you make your mind up to do.

So, Granny, You CAN do whatever you have to do! Just make your mind up and do it!