As consumers, we are bombarded with new and improved devices and other consumer goods constantly. Buying something to make our daily work and tasks easier has been ingrained in our psyche over the centuries. As I prepare for the end of the world as we know it (TEOTWAWKI), I don’t look for the “new and improved” devices that have electronics, require power (either AC or DC), are made of plastic or that are made in China. That does not mean that I don’t have a Ham (amateur) radio, flashlights, solar panels, and plastic items made in China. What I mean is, that I try to look for prepping items from days before all the “modern conveniences”. Those items have survived decades and will, more than likely, continue to survive when pressed into service after TEOTWAWKI. What should we be looking for and thinking about?
The stark reality of post-TEOTWAWKI life is that the surviving people will have to revert back to self-sustaining agriculture for the most part. Sure, there will be exceptions to the rule, like a doctor or nurse who may be paid in food for their services. Raising crops and animals is not as labor-intensive as it once was. Mechanization allows one person, with millions of dollars worth of high-tech farm machinery, to plow, sow, maintain, and harvest hundreds of acres of crops. We live on a very small homestead where we cut hay, have a large garden, and have an orchard. We have cows for meat and chickens for both meat and eggs. We currently have one pig for meat, as well.
Over the past four years, I have observed how much diesel I use to hay and rototill the gardens. We keep at least 200 gallons (usually more) of diesel on site. It takes one, 5-gallon tank of fuel to cut, tedder, rake, bale and move one cutting of hay. Rototilling takes less than a quarter of a tank so we could conceivably have enough fuel for several seasons assuming we didn’t use the tractor for anything else. The use of the tractor post-TEOTWAWKI also assumes that the tractor does not break down. We keep a decent supply of filters, oil, hydraulic fluid, and grease on hand. But we do not keep extra repair parts. Since predictable is preventable, we plan and prepare for farm tasks without the tractor as a failsafe.
Our garden plots are close enough to the barn that we can wheelbarrow manure out of the barn. Our garden plots have been rototilled for several years so we can easily break the ground with hoes and hand cultivators. I have been watching auctions and other second-hand sales venues for a wheeled push cultivator. We have hand scythes along with extra handles and sharpening stones to cut hay and forks to toss (Tedder) and pick it up to put on wagons and/or carts to move to the barn loft. Since our tractors are small and the land that we hay is just a few acres, we use a lot of ground drive equipment that may be used without the tractor either by being pulled by a horse or ox. Other farm tools that we keep on hand include corn shellers, grain grinders, picks, shovels, mattocks, and other long-handled hand tools. Perhaps the most important agricultural prep we have are 2-foot lockers full of assorted work gloves. We are also putting away a supply of wide-brimmed hats to protect us from the sun when working in the fields and gardens.
Keeping Clean
After working in the fields, gardens, and barn all day, everyone will need to clean up to maintain their health and to maintain good sanitation practices to keep germs from spreading. How did our ancestors stay clean? Well, most did not. But when they did decide to clean themselves up how did they do so without running water and hot water tanks? Put away in my preps are a few sets of pitchers and bowls that, back in the day, were used to wash up in. Water was kept in the pitcher and some poured into the bowl to wash hands, face and perhaps even to shave. When done more water from the pitcher was used to rinse off. These old pitchers and bowls would be handy to have in the kitchen and near the latrine when the grid is gone. You can find old ones in antique stores but they are still made today mostly for decorative purposes.
Outdoor showers are an option depending on where you live and your availability of water. One of our stored-away preps is a black vinyl solar pool “heater”. This doesn’t need a pump as the heating of the water will cause the water to circulate on its own. Again, this is very dependent upon your local weather and a few other factors such as the height of the tank et cetera. Besides water, things like scrub brushes, washcloths, and soap are stockpiled. The ability to make our own soap will help keep germs at bay well after our stockpile of soap is gone.
Once we have successfully grown and cultivated our crops and cleaned up we need to focus on preserving the crops and meats from our livestock.
I read well over a decade ago, in a food trade publication, that the food industry was trying to get the average dinner prep and cook time to around five minutes. Microwaves, Instapots, and pre-packaged “foods” have made this a reality. But when the lights are out for good, our dinner prep and cook time could revert back to 6-8 hours as it was in the 18th Century. However, we could make preparations now to help ensure that prep and cook time are a more reasonable few hours. Look for kitchen gadgets from long ago such as bean pots, cast iron Dutch ovens, weight-driven meat rotisseries, and utensils like ladles, mixing spoons, tongs, and dough cutters. Find ones that are made of metal that will prove better than today’s cheap plastic utensils. Those are more for serving than for more strenuous food preparation tasks. Considering that cooking with microwave ovens and stoves will be replaced by cooking over fires or perhaps a wood-burning stove, metal utensils will withstand the heat and flames. And, in my opinion, they can be cleaned better than their plastic counterparts.
We have built an outdoor wood-fired oven that will help us bake things like bread. We have put away large stock pots and multiple pressure cookers/canners to help ensure we can quickly preserve our garden and orchard harvests. We are always on the lookout for canning jars. Along with hundreds of canning jar lids, we also stock lots of cheesecloth and 100% natural (unbleached) cotton cloth for use in the fruit press or as a place to lay baked goods down. To help preserve and store food we also have crocks of various sizes for pickling and brining.
As we revert back to using old methods of food preservation and food preparation it makes sense to have cookbooks from an era where there were no microwaves, Instapots, food processors, and blenders, et cetera. I have a reprint of a colonial America cookbook from Williamsburg and a newer book from the late 1800s. These books contain simple recipes that assume that you have limited basic food items and no modern kitchen conveniences.
Back in the pre-electric days, people used ice for refrigeration. Once lakes and ponds froze, people would cut large blocks of ice and move them to an ice house. The ice house was normally a business and would store enough ice for the community until the next winter. Blocks of ice were delivered to homes and people would have had an “ice box” where the block of ice would be placed and food stored. Other methods of pre-electric food cooling included spring houses where food was kept in water fed from a spring. Milk, cream, and other food items were placed in crocks and then placed in the water.
Having a smokehouse will also be a valuable and efficient way to preserve food. One of the many projects on my “to-do” list is making cold frames and a solar food dehydrator. I have thought about making the cold frames and the solar food dehydrator the same dimensions so that I can lift the glass from the cold frames and place it on top of the solar dehydrator.
(To be concluded tomorrow, in Part 2.)