Category: Gardening

Letter Re: Web-Based Soil Survey Maps as a Resource for Retreat Selection

Dear Mr. Rawles, I came across this web site: SoilWeb: An Online Soil Survey. Its purpose is to allow users to access NRCS and NCSS 1:24,000 scale detailed soil survey data (SSURGO) in many parts of the lower 48 states. Where this data is not yet available, 1:250,000 scale generalized soils data (STATSGO) can be accessed instead. (In Arizona, California, and Nevada only.) An interactive map interface allows for panning and zooming, with highways, streets, and aerial photos to assist navigation. This could be useful for those considering relocation, as soil make-up and condition should be a consideration for any …


Suggestions From a 2 for 1 Prepper, by M.M.

I especially liked the February, 2001 SurvivalBlog article about Forever Preps. I now have enough salt to last me forever in Mylar lined buckets. That includes regular salt for salt curing. I need saltpeter. I have dry bleach, hand tools, skills, and Jesus. I’m working on the rest. As a matter of fact, within my extended family we have four medical people, a fireman, a teacher, a banker, an accountant, HVAC technician, mechanic, farmer, baker, trucker, engineers—we don’t exactly have a butcher or candlestick maker, but my son tends to his own deer and fish and I have made plenty …


How to Winnow, De-Hull, and Clean Your Own Home-Grown Grains, by Notutopia

I thought I’d share some of the options available on de-hulling grain, for others, who are embarking on raising their own plot or field of grains and then plan to long term store their harvests. This information is also relevant to processing many varieties of grains, seeds and hulled legumes. Processing Overview There are several separate steps to the processing of grains to get them ready for storage, if, they are to be utilized for human consumption and not just for replanting as field seed. These steps include:  Harvesting or cutting the grain stalks, upright stacking the cut stalks and …


Letter Re: Preventing Raised Garden Beds from Drying Out

Mr. Rawles: The biggest drawback of raised planting beds is their greater need for water.  Water leaks out and evaporates from the sides of the planting beds, as well as normal bottom drainage.  If water is scarce, or you have to supply it manually, this drawback can become serious. Simple solution:  when constructing the raised planting bed, place a plastic liner along the inner walls all around, sealing it with sturdy plastic tape.  Do not put the plastic on the bottom of the raised bed, or you will have a mud bathtub with no drainage at all.  This will keep …


A Guide for the Herbal Medicine Closet, by Heather F.

So you stock up on a year’s supply of medications. What then? There comes a tremendous sense of confidence when you know how to find and grow your own “medicines”. I have to begin with my very favorite herb and actually most common “weed”; though, weed is a dirty word in my vocabulary! You will find that most of the plants we consider nuisances are some of the most beneficial herbs for healing. This article has an emphasis on herbs for respiratory ailments. Herbs You Can Find Growing Wild: Plantain can be found virtually anywhere in the United States and …


Letter Re: Buying Stock in Apple (Not the Corporation)

JWR: A few things to take into account when thinking of apple trees.  I planted three trees about five years ago and they are still far from being fruit bearing.  I figure they have about five years more before they are capable of bearing fruit.  This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t use them, but its defiantly a plan ahead thing.   Another thing to take into account is that they require a bit of yearly maintenance to keep them bearing decent sized fruit.  An un-pruned tree bears a fruit that is about three fingers wide.  A properly pruned tree …


Buying Stock in Apple (Not the Corporation) by Mike M.

In my journey as a prepper, I’ve been able to amass quite a bit of bulk food.  Present estimates place the tally at roughly two tons.  As of late though, I can’t help but look upon all that food like sand in an hourglass. It is disturbingly finite and in the grand scheme of things, a fleeting resource.  I come from a large Italian family and I already know that in a post fan scenario I would be shepherding at least 12 family members. My Christian convictions would not allow me to turn them away. This makes a measly few …


A Single Dad With Kids, Prepping to Our Fullest, by Kurt G.

I’m a single dad (32 year old) of three amazing children, Aaron 12, Sarah 11, and Savannah 3, and this is our journey. In 2008 we had lost everything, my job, our house, our jeep, the truck and pretty much everything else. We did manage to keep our four door sedan as our source of transportation. We were fortunate to have family who had a 2nd home and welcomed us to use it. I had prepped a little here and there for the past10 or so years but was still learning and very naïve to what being prepared really meant. …


Traditional Womanly Arts for Austere Times by Sue of Suburbia

Sometimes I ponder what it means to be a woman in our society of hyper-consumption.  If you watch television or read today’s women’s magazines, you are led to believe that the activities most preferred by a woman are shopping, poisoning her nails, getting her hair yanked around in a salon, zapping packaged foods in the microwave, and ingesting a concoction of prescription drugs to stay sane through it all. I tried some of these things in the past.  Each time, I was left with an utterly unfulfilled feeling and thinking, “There has to be more to being a woman than …


Musings From a Novice Gardener, by Mike in Western Pennsylvania

Last year I planted my first home garden in my adult life. I am 46 years old and grew up most of my years in suburban America so I had little experience with the nuts and bolts of a family garden but I did spend twenty years in the Marine Corps so I do have a level of self-sufficiency that I garnered over the past 20 years during my service in the Marines. I will also add that my Dad did a little family gardening in the 1960s and 1970s but by the 1980s we were a complete suburban family …


Four Letters Re: The Struggle for Meat After TEOTWAWKI

Dear Mr. Rawles, The picture provided by N.N.R. just doesn’t seem sustainable. He or she does realise that most Americans get whatever they want whenever they want it, and that this is a problem, but seems unwilling to do anything about it in his or her own family as a means of preparedness. Most of us – as preppers – should understand that our lifestyles are going to change in the scenarios we all talk about. As a society, we are far too focused on dietary meat as a right and necessity. We don’t need meat for every meal, every day, every week or …


Your First Step into Gardening with Raised Beds, by H.R.

Up until last year, I had never had a garden or even worked in one for that matter.  I decided to start one because of the rising problems with chemicals and pesticide risks that are being put on vegetables, not to mention how much the cost going up.  We started off small with one raised garden box. (The soil is harsh here).  What I mean by small is that we started with a 4 ft x 8 ft x 14 in. deep bed.  By going 14 inches deep we could ensure that we would have plenty of good soil to …


Lessons in Survival: Family Innovation and Industry in the U.S. Great Depression by W.J.

I have always been fascinated with history and might have become a history teacher if there had been any possibility of making substantial money at it.  Growing up in the 1950s and ‘1960s in rural Texas the lessons of the U.S. “Great Depression” were still fresh in the memories of my family, so our frequent family get gatherings produced many stories from those days, some of which were “not so good old days”.  I want to relate some of this story for the benefit of those preparing for possible future, harder times: There was no money.  For a few years …


Letter Re: Suburban Preps on Long Island, New York

Hi All, I’d like to contribute some details on my preparations in a region where tricky geography, difficult society, and extremely difficult legal issues can make planning difficult. As for tricky geography, Long Island is essentially a 100-mile long 23-mile wide (at its very widest) ‘no outlet’ roadway prison stuffed with nearly 8 million people. Take a peek at the Wikipedia page about the island to get the idea. We are east of New York City with its 50 million people in the immediate 35 mile radius. When things get Schumeresque – there is very little most residents will be …


Letter Re: You are Only as Good as Your Equipment

JWR: I had to smile when I saw your comment about Fiskars products yesterday.  A recent experience pushed my Fiskars lopping shears (“loppers”) up to the top of my favorite tool list. During a lull in this ridiculous winter, my kids and I cleared a small area of my land to make room for some fruit trees we’re planting this coming season.  The vast majority of the stuff we cleared was between 1″ to 2″ in diameter. It was not really big enough for firewood, but big enough that it seemed a shame to us to just waste it.  So …