This weekly Snippets column is a collection of short items: responses to posted articles, practical self-sufficiency items, how-tos, lessons learned, tips and tricks, and news items — both from readers and from SurvivalBlog’s editors. Note that we may select some long e-mails for posting as separate letters.
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Reader H.L. sent us this link: How Appalachia Has Become a Hot—Even Hip—Place To Live That’s Still Dirt Cheap. Here are H.L.’s Comments:
“No one has to tell me how beautiful and affordable West Virginia is. I lived there for 10 years. I loved the land and the people. The four seasons are wonderful, no tornadoes nor hurricanes to speak of, fairly low crime rates, helpful folks, and a reasonable cost of housing. There is lots to do, like fishing, hunting, skiing, and white water rafting. There are four seasons that rival much of New England. West Virginia is great for church-goers. They may be Rednecks, but they are a proud people with a very interesting heritage.”
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A fascinating and inspiring video for all you gardeners and orchardists: I Filmed Plants For 15 Years — Time-lapse Compilation.
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Recommendations from Tim Brown: The Herbalist’s Bookshelf. JWR’s Comment: I’m surprised that he didn’t mention one of my favorite herb books: From The Shepherd’s Purse, by Max G. Barlow.
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Reader T.E. wrote:
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SaraSue sent this snippet:
“A busy week. The recent glorious rains brought the pastures back to life. I brought in lots of tomatoes from the garden, and harvested Anaheim chili peppers that grew beautifully. I’m not a hot pepper person but there are many in my family who love to cook authentic Mexican food so I wanted to try my hand at growing peppers and this little experiment worked. Happy dance!
The not-so-little Great Pyrenees/Anatolian Shepherd puppies who are 5 months old and over 50 lbs each, discovered a way into the chicken run and went after all the young chickens with happy abandonment scaring the chickens half to death. Fortunately, I heard the commotion and immediately flew into action, and they haven’t developed big dog teeth yet so there was no damage to the chickens. They got a good scolding and “spanking” and haven’t gone near the chickens again, so far. I’m amazed at this breed of dog. They are very responsive, smart, and capable at a young age. My German Shepherds ate a few chickens before they got it through their thick, prey driven, skulls that they can’t eat the chickens. I fixed the hole in the chicken run fence.
I sold a dairy cow that I had recently acquired, but kept her heifer calf. When I bought her, I only wanted her heifer calf but they were a package deal. She went to a family that was grateful to have her. The calf bawled for almost 3 days/nights straight, but at 7 months old it was a good time to wean her.
Four of my grandchildren came for a visit while their parents escaped. I really adore them and they love coming to “Gramma’s Farm”. They participated in all the farm chores, even milking the cow, and loved every minute. I had almost forgotten how to change a diaper, but I was successful with the help of the 7 year old who told me I was doing it all wrong and showed me the proper way. LOL.
I am thankful for the productive “busy” in my life because world news + national news if fairly terrifying. And I’ve noticed it’s terrifying for different reasons to various people on all sides of the fences. Everyone, for sure, is uptight these days. The situation reminds me to be calm, stay focused, pray, and keep moving forward on making the farm a productive haven as best I can.”
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Murphy sent us this: A man missing for 14 days in Kentucky’s wilderness was found on the last day of the search for him.
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Video: Mosquitoes Hate This Smell — Use This and you’ll never get another bite.
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ShepherdFarmerGeek wrote:
“It warmed my heart to see in the July 31st Reader’s and Editor’s Snippets the submission by J.R.G. regarding using cattle panels arched over a trailer bed for a storage / bugout space. I actually built something very simliar over my pickup bed, at the beginning of COVID as a home project to keep myself sane. It uses two livestock panels, the kind with the wires evenly spaced throughout (rather than starting small on the bottom, I think they’re 6” squares but am too lazy to go measure…).
I anchored the panels to the sideboards with screw anchors (1/4″ Vinyl Coated Clamps by Crimp Supply / Amazon) AND big zip ties, and I made sure that the sideboards themselves were anchored to the truck bed with camper clamps. (And I tied the panels to each other once they were in place, with heavy wire and zip-ties.)
Then, I covered the two panels with a layer of Reflectix aluminized bubble insulation and attached that with zip ties and duct tape on the underside (tape the Reflectix to the panels). THEN I covered it all with 3′ x 8′ sheets of corrugated plastic as if they were roofing shingles (to cover the Reflectix seams between pieces, and as extra insulation), and zip-tied those to the panels.
Finally, I covered the whole thing with a 13′ x 13′ white vinyl tarp. (White keeps it cooler inside) NOT your usual tarp – trucker tarp. I actually started with heavy tarps from the local hardware store but they weathered and tore. Not good. The trucker vinyl has been VERY durable and I haven’t had to change one out in a few years now. Oh, and I bought a spare to carry in the truck!
Regular tarp grommets tore out when I drove the truck. But I used EZ Tarp Tie Downs (Amazon) and they are AMAZING. I put them along the side edges of the tarp and use RUBBER trucker bungees to hook the tarp down to the truck. Regular fabric-covered bungees failed/rotted quickly in the sun. The rubber ones rot too, but much more slowly. And, yes, I keep a spare set in the truck.(And, yes, the hooks on the bungees will mar the paint job on the side of your truck. Maybe someone can figure out how to avoid that.)
That leaves the front and back. I don’t use the trucker tarp across the back. I measured and cut a regular, heavy hardware tarp into the shape of the archway. Then I attached a self-adhesive zipper from top to bottom – a Vivosun 3″ wide 7′ long, heavy duty, peel-and-stick zipper, unzipped it, and cut between the zippers as instructed. Then I hung this assembly across the back of the arch as a “back door” (clear to the floor – you have to drop the tailgate to open it), using more EZ Tarp Tie Downs, set back a few inches.
The front of the arch – was covered with the end of the 13′ x 13′ (I have a standard bed pickup) – the tarp hangs down to the top of the pickup bed. I pull that to each side and ROLL the excess tarp up and clamp it with powerful steel spring clamps. Trust me, rolling the excess works!
THEN I made TWO arch-shaped “doors” out of big bubble wrap, the kind with big bubbles, and I can attach it to the front and back of the arch, inside the zippered door to increase the insulation for winter.
I bought Wrap-It storage ties to attach things to the INSIDE of the livestock panel arches – tools like a shovel and window scraper, and hung my spare bungee cords.
Finally, I bought rubber horse-stall mats and cut them to fit the floor inside the truck bed. Water and snow that gets tracked in will run through the mat holes (they’re covered with holes) and if I parked the truck on a slight incline, the water will run out the tailgate. Then over the stall mats I bought and cut to size a piece of indoor/outdoor carpeting. Now even the floor is insulated and will drain if necessary.
And I bought a small kerosene stove: I built a metal base for it to catch any embers or spilled fuel – my plan is to initially use kerosene for heating and cooking. Made sure I had all the necessary tools for handling hot pots and food and kerosene fuel. And I made a safety grill with a piece of livestock panel to go around the stove to completely keep clothes and bedding and the dog away from the hot thing. Then I bought a fiberglass tent jack (a panel with a hole in it). IF I decide to switch to my wood stove (later), I would cut a hole through the arch material, zip tie the jack to the arch and run a chimney out the hole. And I’ve got a nice fire extinguisher I keep nearby.
Basically, it’s a four-season camper that doesn’t weigh ANYTHING near what an actual camper weighs – and that leaves more capacity for a LOT more survival gear and food! Just be sure your food is rodent-proof because the little buggers (or actual bugs) WILL explore this setup. I put out mouse poison blocks to try to stop the mice from turning it into a condo, and so far it seems to be working.
Oh, and I bought a “horse mounting block” online. This is a hollow plastic stair, mine is 3 steps tall. Measure the height of your tailgate and get either a 3-step or a 4-step. It’s relatively lightweight and very strong. When I drop the tailgate and unzip the back door I reach in and pull out the steps. I discovered I can climb the steps and up and onto the tailgate if I’ve tied a “guide rope” at the top of the arch and I hold/”climb” that as I take the steps. Try it, you’ll see, it really helps. It’s almost like having handrails – you do want to practice with it. The stairs have tread molded in, so they’re not bad in rain or snow.
Almost forgot: I cut a piece of livestock panel to fit across the rear arch, and bought some small Master padlocks. I can set that piece in place and lock it to the livestock panel itself. A thief would have to cut the cattle panel piece or the padlocks, and make a fair amount of noise doing it. I leave it locked up at home just to be sure no one goes poking around (p-r-e-t-t-y unlikely here!).
Drat, ONE more thing: I bought a camera and monitor and built a camera mount that is attached at the very top of the rear arch, under the tarp. Then I ran the cable back to the truck cab (THAT was tricky). Now, when I’m driving, I can turn the monitor on (it’s mounted on my dash) and see the vehicles behind me on the road, or clearly see to back up. Just remember to unplug it from your auxiliary power jack (cigarette lighter socket) when you park or you’ll run your battery down…….
I’ve had the truck up to 70 mph on three occasions (I usually leave it parked, loaded with bugout supplies), so I can tell you this plan WORKS. I’m hoping I don’t need to EVER drive it at 70 mph, 60 would do just fine to get me wherever it is that God will lead me!
Trust God. Be prepared. We can do both!”
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Sunlight is crucial for health; avoiding it doubles mortality rates and cancer risk.
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And lastly, H.L. sent us this interesting piece: Five Inventions That Came Out of the Great Depression.
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