Category: Gardening

Three Letters Re: Why Survivalists Should Buy Local Organic Food

Mr. Rawles, Yesterday, you posted Chad L.’s submission concerning buying “organic” and/or locally produced food. In it, Chad made a few statements that are simply wrong. This is an example: “…factory farming requires the use of fertilizer made from oil, largely derived from the Middle East. ” This is a wholly ignorant statement, ignorant because if the author had bothered to check, he would have found that the USA produces nearly all of it’s nitrogen fertilizer from natural gas. Even if we did use oil as the source for ammonium nitrate, OPEC only accounts for about half of the oil …


Why Survivalists Should Buy Local Organic Food, by Chad L.

I know the name of the woman who raises the chickens that lay the eggs that I eat. Do you? I know about her daughter’s college plans and her vacations and how she got into the business of raising chickens. This might not seem so important from a survivalist perspective, but I think it is and I’ll explain why in the following paragraphs. Now think about where you get your eggs. Chances are they come from a big chain grocery store. That means they are raised in a huge factory farm, staffed by underpaid workers of questionable legality, and overwhelmingly …


Good Fences Make Good Neighbors: Reinforcing Your Retreat for Long Term Survival on the Cheap, by Q.T.

We’ve all heard that particular proverb. For those of us reading this venue, we all have a specific mindset that probably keeps that at the forefront of our minds. We have our space. We have our preps. We have spent time and effort placing a lot of emphasis on keeping ourselves one step ahead. So how do we keep out everyone else?. Better yet… how do we keep prying eyes out? Still best, how do we create our sanctuary without drawing any attention to ourselves whatsoever? We can build a fence, but a fence can be cut. Fences cost money. …


Letter Re: Where to Find Quality-Made Hand Tools?

Hello, Let me tell you about an experience I had the other day and my frustration. I recently purchased some tools from Sears and got the “higher quality” Craftsman brand. One of the items purchases was a bow saw. I did not look closely at the quality of the item purchased because I thought to myself, “It is a Craftsman, they have a life time warranty.” Well, a few months later the saw broke because of bad construction. Some little nubs that were punched through the very thin sheet metal that held the saw blade in place. It does not …


Livestock for Survival, by Bobbi A.

With a cynical eye on the rapid downward spiral of events, it seems prudent to plan for a very long time of sustainable living. In this case survival depends not only on your stockpiled preps, but also in your ability to sustain food production past the end of your stored supply. Let’s assume, to begin with, that you have reasonably stocked retreat. I’m not talking a stock to the level described in “Patriots”, but rather one that includes a year (or more) of food, basic ammo, firearms, reliable water, heat and power source … the basics. Now it’s time to …


Letter Re: Successfully Trolling Craig’s List

Mr. Rawles, At the risk of turning on my local competition to the positive aspects of the free section of Craig’s List, I thought I would mention a few of the things I’ve picked up in the past couple of weeks. These include: A new round oak dining table and four oak chairs Three boxes of canning jars with lids A commercial fishing net (40′ x 60′), to be used for keeping birds and other critters out of the garden 36 Concrete cinder blocks (approximate value $130) Remington electric chain saw (yes, it works!) 30+ wooden pallets (can be used …


The 19th Century Home Retrofit, by Y. Cornelius

By now most SurvivalBlog readers have gone about your preparations for your ideal home or retreat cabin, all storage food and tools acquired, fuel stored, generators ready, PV panels carefully concealed and hooked up to the battery bank. You and your family or group are ready to handle the coming collapse, but are you really? Are you ready to do without? Without that generator when the fuel runs out, or a critical piece is worn out and a new one cannot be had? At some point your supplies will be used up, storage fuel consumed and there may not be …


Life’s Lessons and the Foundations of Preparedness, by A.B.

We may soon depend on all of what we have learned over the years. Putting all of the threads of knowledge together into a tapestry of self-sufficiency, and survival capabilities, is part of the lifelong quest for our family’s security. We learn from many sources and experiences such as: family, church, friends, teachers, teammates, co-workers, reading books and SurvivalBlog, and hopefully from our mistakes. Preparedness Skills from our Grandmas and Grandpas The foundation for preparedness begins with my childhood in Michigan. We lived in Lansing where my great-grandmother was next door and my grandmother lived next door to her. My …


Three Letters Re: Hunkering Down or Storing Gear in a Commercial Building

Hello Jim: After doing Industrial Security in some of the roughest English Industrial Towns, we found that “moating” vulnerable doors and walls against heavy equipment traffic was a great help in preventing the equipment from prizing open doors, or more simply being run backwards through the doors and walls. The floors at the man doors and protected vehicle doors had a two foot deep by three-to-four foot wide ditch dug and a light weight (two inch in many cases) concrete topping poured over an infill of mostly styrofoam bead. When we needed to bridge in with heavy gear we used …


Letter Re: The Value of Sprouting

Mr. Rawles, In addition to seeds for a garden, anyone can produce fresh healthy and extremely nutritious sprouts on a kitchen counter with nothing more than a couple of plastic ice-cream containers. They can provide a real respite from canned veggies while you’re waiting for the crops to mature and year-round fresh greens. I sprout the common mung beans (think Chinese cooking) but I also do lentils, various peas and beans and (if I could get it) I would do alfalfa and clover. You can also make a respectable salad in your kitchen with a tray of mesclun seeds, grown …


Herbal Cures at Your Doorstep, by Organic Cathy

“Health care” in America – while having “evolved” – leaves much to be desired i.e. cost, effectiveness, government restrictions of natural medicines, deaths caused form “modern” medicine, control and pharmaceutical greed to name just a few. in the blaring light of reality of today’s coming collapse even simple health care will be challenging to say the lease. While I am not formally trained in herbal medicine, I do have some medical background and twenty plus years of growing and using herbs and more recently delving into wild herbs. TEOTWAWKI will change the availability of “home health care” from government regulated …


Letter Re: Learning Beekeeping is Worthwhile for Self-Sufficiency

Hi Jim – I am a beekeeper and would recommend your readers look into the option of keeping bees. Honey bees produce food that stores without excessive processing (it has two things to fight spoilage, a natural antibiotic and the sugar concentration is so high it won’t support bacterial growth). I use the conventional Langstroth bee boxes but a person desiring to use the bees for home or farm could benefit by using the inexpensive top bar hive method. The top bar hive produces comb honey and the wax makes great candles. Top bar hives are not migratory in nature …


Letter Re: Some Preparedness Lessons Learned

James, The need for usable skills in tough times, goes without need for embellishment. The grand question is: which skills are the most valuable? In any situation the basic needs are obvious – food, shelter, and clothing. Choosing what I would concentrate on learning, became predicated on what I could do, and what the community could provide in stressful times. I moved some time ago from the gulf coast to Tennessee to retire and begin preparing for the coming events. I moved into a community which is pretty much self sufficient, mostly by religious choice. Livestock husbandry ranges from cattle …


Depression Proof Jobs for a 20 Year Depression – Part 2: Developing a Home-Based Business

Yesterday, in Part1, I discussed the “safe” and counter-cyclical occupations for the unfolding economic depression. Today, I’d like to talk about one specific approach: self-employment with a home-based business. I posted most the following back in late 2005, but there are some important points that are worth repeating: The majority of SurvivalBlog readers that I talk with tell me that they live in cities or suburbs, but they would like to live full time at a retreat in a rural area. Their complaint is almost always the same: “…but I’m not self-employed. I can’t afford to live in the country …


Depression Proof Jobs for a 20 Year Depression – Part 1: The Counter-Cyclical Jobs

The current economic downward spiral has prompted several SurvivalBlog readers to write me and ask: “My job is now at risk, so what are the safe jobs?” I’ve actually addressed this topic fairly well since I started SurvivalBlog in 2005. We ran a “best recession-proof jobs” poll, back in May of 2006. Then, in February, 2007, we ran a poll on “Best Occupations for Both Before and After TEOTWAWKI”. Later, we even ran a poll on the current occupations of SurvivalBlog readers. In the past three years, we’ve also posted a panoply of more detailed employment-related letters and articles on …