7 Surprising Reasons Why Americans Aren’t Prepared for What’s Coming

Survival Sherpa ^ | 3/13/12 | Todd Walker

[Sarajevo]

But I guess most “fresh” fertlizer has to be cured for a year or so before becoming useful.

I use fresh horse manure in my raised beds. The plants love it. Chicken manure definitely needs to be decomposed, and it's wise to let cow manure sit for a while or you'll end up with toadstools everywhere.

[berdie]

I’ve never used horse manure. So this is interesting to know.

Since the store bought chicken manure fiasco I mentioned, I have chickens an cattle that produce a more than adequate supply of fertilizer.

As a novice to the practice of fresh fertilizer in the beginning I made quite a few near fatal errors. I didn’t have toadstools in the garden...but it looked I had planted my garden in the middle of the grassy pasture. I nearly tilled it under that year, but was finally able to get most things under control. Some of the more delicate veggies didn’t make it. They just burned up.

[goat granny]

LOL We all learn some lessons the hard way..Horse, goat, sheep and probably a few others can be plowed under without waiting, but my neighbor had cows and he piled up cow manure for the following year....but cow pancakes are sloppy like mud pies....they would just drip off a shovel if real fresh....(I think) :o)

[goat granny]

If there ever is a bomb, I want my house to be ground zero. The idea of shooting a child to save my food store is not too appealing. Adults are a whole different matter..:o)

[Hugin]

The only ‘meltdown’ that was notoriously promoted in the past 50 years was Y2K,

Well, there was that little business about the cold war, nuclear holocost, etc. that really started the whole "survivalist" thing.

[ladyjane]

Absolutely, you need to let it dry out before making the chicken tea. I should have mentioned that. I don’t wait a year though. And you’re right about chickens, the pee and poo. They only have one opening, a cloaca.

[berdie]

“I want my house to be ground zero”

I totally agree.

[berdie]

After reading..that reply may have come out completely wrong, lol.

I meant my house..not yours.

[jy8z]

It’s quite another to grow enough vegetables and other crops to live on between harvests. Or to bring home enough wild game to live on.

Vegetables are pretty easy to grow. Canning/preserving them can be learned. Not everybody has room enough to grow enough, but if you do I highly recommend it. It may take a year or so to maximize your efforts but you will not regret it. I have 3000 sq ft gardening area that supplies enough produce for a family of four, many relatives and I sell to a local market also.

What do I grow? It's easier to list what I don't grow.

[jy8z]

I keep twenty hens in a coop and use the deep layering method. I also use cat litter under their roosting position. No ammonia, no smell and no flies. Just plenty of fresh eggs that feed a lot of hungry people.

[Tammy8]

If you use wood shavings (the kind sold for horse bedding at feed stores)instead of cat litter the shavings will absorb moisture, keep down smell and you can clean it out when needed for your compost pile.

[Iron Munro]

Vegetables are pretty easy to grow.

I have been trying to learn to garden as part of a plan to cope with a potential disaster. Over the last few years I have planted a lot of vegetable - mostly tomato, pepper and zucchini. They will do well to start with and look nice and healthy. The blossoms set and baby vegetables start to grow. Then one by one they start to look sick and eventually die off. When I pull the plants up the roots are almost gone and what is left is all gnarled and knotty.

The local nursery said it is nematodes and that there is almost nothing that can be done by the home gardener to alleviate the problem. Commercial growers can purchase control chemicals not available to backyard gardeners which explains how this area can sustain a large number of commercial vegetable farms.

The nursery people advised me to try container gardening using newly purchased bags of soil and to throw the old soil out after one year as it will probably become infested.

But that wouldn't solve the problem for me - buying bagged potting soil will cost as much as just buying vegetables and isn't exactly a solution for self sufficiency.
There must be a way to deal with the problem but I haven't been able to find it yet.

[southern rock]

Sports is a diversion that maintains people’s reactions and perceptions of the world on the same level as fourteen-year-olds.

Not to mention the misguided perception that the team's success = their success. eg "We" won!!. How do you think "we" are going to do this season"

[jy8z]

The cat litter is only used under their roosting positions. Deep layering/litter methods use wood shavings.

[Tammy8]

I guess I am still confused why you would use cat litter, why not use shavings under roosts too? I am not being critical, I really want to know how/why.

[jy8z]

I have a 12’ by 12 ft coop for the twenty hens. On the back wall I have five nests. Over those five nests is a shelf with several inches of cat litter. Their roost is spread out 5 inches above and wall to wall along that shelf(they poop a lot while roosting). The eight inches of wood shavings on the floor take care of their daytime business.

[jy8z]

I forgot to say cat litter immediately absorbs the moisture, reducing the flies.

[jy8z]

I forgot to say cat litter immediately absorbs the moisture, reducing the flies.

[Tammy8]

Thanks, I have just never heard of using cat litter- do you use a certain kind? Seems there would be an issue with some kinds if they ate it.

[jy8z]

I haven’t had a problem with my little laying ladies eating the cat litter in the five years that I have been using this method. I usually use the cheapest kind that Wally World or Dollar General has. It has been really effective in keeping flies to a minimum. I hate flies in South Texas in the summer.