Stockpiling and Replenishing, by CPT Blackfox

As a U.S. Army Battalion Logistics Officer, it became very evident to me that at some point my stockpile of parts, petroleum products, uniforms, etc. would eventually run out, and I needed a way to replenish those stockpiles during steady-state operations.  A total collapse situation would unfold in much the same way as a deployment of a military unit would in regard to an interrupted supply chain.  Initially, you have no logistics network and you need to rely entirely upon your stockpiles brought with you or kept in your secure location.  I learned this the hard way at the National Training Center (NTC) [at Fort Irwin, California] when I decided not to bring enough turboshaft jet engine oil to last our battalion through a month-long field exercise in the desert.  As I walk through this experience as a vignette, I will also translate the bigger issues from the organizational level down to the household level in respect to preparedness.  Additionally, I will go through how logistics and supply lines are severely interrupted during a disaster or collapse scenario and then how they are reestablished after things calm down somewhat and find their equilibrium. 

Bad Assumption #1-  The logistics network is already established, so when I become a part of it there will be an easy transition.  
When we deployed from our home base to the NTC, I made the faulty assumption, that since I was moving into an existing logistics network, that it would be easy to obtain supplies, because everything on the receiving end was already established and working like a well-oiled machine.  I should have known better from my first deployment to Iraq, when our shipping address was set up to a warehouse in Texas, so everything the battalion ordered did not go to Mosul, Iraq but sat in a huge pile doing us no good thousands of miles away.  Fortunately, I wasn’t responsible for that fiasco, but my soldiers and I ended up paying for it by cannibalizing our own vehicles to keep up maintenance, not having any sundry items replenished, and being without hot food for two months while this SNAFU was sorted out.  Whether you are bugging-in or bugging-out, in a total collapse scenario, the supply networks are going to be totally screwed up.  The grocery store shelves will be bare after about four days provided there isn’t a panic, and if they receive any shipments, it will likely be random items which may or may not be of use to anyone.  At a minimum, you need to have about six months of everything to operate your household set aside.  Primarily this buys you some time.  When hyperinflation hits and no one wants to accept paper money, there will be a time when it is a free-for-all before either folks locally decide what is acceptable as a medium of exchange or the government reissues new fiat currency at some kind of crushing exchange rate with the old currency. 

Bad Assumption #2- Storing tons of supplies takes too much space and is a pain to transport, so I will just stock up on the basics.
Back to my example, I thought that shipping a couple of 30’ containers of petroleum products would be a huge pain (which it would have been due to hazardous materials shipping requirements) but it was even more painful having to go to the Forward Support Battalion Executive Officer and sheepishly ask for case upon case of turboshaft oil for my tanks.  I had brought a minimal amount of petroleum products with us which would last for about a week, but with us entering a new logistics network, it took much longer than I had anticipated for those requisitions to be filled.    And when they were filled, the supply depot didn’t just jump on the phone and give us a call to come pick up our order.  Typically, supplies could sit for days if you didn’t have an intrepid NCO checking in the morning and evening every day.  In our world, yes, your basement might be chuck full of food, water barrels, ammunition, medical supplies, clothing, and everything else, but if you haven’t gone through all of your possessions and thrown out anything you haven’t used in the last two years, you would be surprised the amount of space you can gain.  Maximize your wall space too.  Utilize shelving wherever practical in order to organize items more effectively and to give better access to what you need.  If you have a mountain of boxes in the basement and the toilet paper is in the very back of the room, you might have an emergency before you can get to it!  Treat your stockpile like a mini-warehouse.  Sort everything by either the military classes of supply or your own system as long as it’s organized.  Even a classification system as rudimentary as food, clothing, survival supplies, fuel, and water would work fine.  As long as you and your cohorts know where everything is, you will be leagues ahead when you have to find that one tiny specific item you need.  As an adjunct, I’ve referenced the Army classes of supply below for your use:

Classes of Supply
Class I – Food, rations, and water
Class II – Clothing
Class III – Petroleum, oils, and lubricants (POL)
Class IV – Fortification and barrier materials (Barbed wire, pickets, sandbags, etc.)
Class V – Ammunition
Class VI – Personal Items (Hygiene, alcohol, tobacco, etc.)
Class VII – Major End Items (Vehicles, radios, tanks, weapons, night vision, etc.)
Class VIII – Medical supplies
Class IX – Repair Parts
Class X – Miscellaneous supplies

Bad Assumption #3- I’ll just order some more later when I get close to running out.
Believe it or not, there are situations where I have bartered as an Army officer for things I needed for the battalion.  I had a pallets and pallets of MREs but I needed more bottled water, so I traded for it!  You need to have the figurative printing press in the basement to create your own barter items.  You should be able to produce something that can be used as a barter item if there is no way you can just go order some more.  Whether you practice reloading, canning, candle making, beekeeping, or any other craft, there should be a few items that your household or group are able to produce which would be an appealing medium of exchange.  In the past, cigarettes, alcohol, ammunition, chewing gun, and even toys have been used for barter items.  Think of something you would miss having.  My soldiers and I traded books & magazines that we brought to Iraq, since we would read them from cover to cover as our only entertainment.  Last night, watching the movie The Book of Eli, I was struck at how clever it was for Eli to trade Kentucky Fried Chicken wet naps with the Engineer in the town, so that he could get a new charge on his battery.  This scenario is not really that outlandish, considering how difficult it is to keep good hygiene when there is no running water available.  During our deployment to Iraq when our unit shipping address was wrong, baby wipes became worth their weight in gold, since you could do all of your daily hygiene with three of them if you were careful.  If you can’t produce the item you need yourself, you had better have something in hand that people are willing to trade for it. 

Bad Assumption #4- So we’re good, right…?     
When I took about a dozen cases of turboshaft oil from the support battalion, the XO grudgingly gave it to me with the understanding that I would order replacements for everything I had taken (along with my regular needs for continuing operations)  and pay him back.  He was pretty irked that I had taken his whole reserves in one blow and did not have any turboshaft oil to give the rest of the brigade.  I made the argument that we have the lion’s share of tanks, but he still grumbled about it.  The point being, I put myself in a position where I was indebted to him.  I don’t have a problem with owing someone a favor, but sometimes that person might ask for something you cannot deliver.  In a survival situation, if you had to borrow weeks’ worth of food from someone, they are either going to want that back or they will make you pay for it in some other way which may hinder you from meeting your immediate objectives of protecting and providing for yourself & your cohorts.  You’ll effectively be an indentured servant to whomever you are indebted or you could lose your shorts!  King Solomon had it right in Proverbs 22, when he said, “Be not one of those who gives pledges, who put up security for debts.  If you have nothing with which to pay, why should your bed be taken from under you?”  If you read the Biblical account of Joseph handling the preparations for the seven years of famine in Egypt, you see how Pharaoh ended up with all the physical wealth of the entire kingdom, because once the people sold their possessions, their animals, and their land, they had nothing to offer except themselves as slaves.  Don’t put yourself in that kind of a situation!   In a total collapse, the best AND worst qualities of people will surface, and you don’t want to end up owing your soul to the company store.

Bad Assumption #5- I’ll get everything I ordered.
During that aforementioned training exercise, I ordered about 450 quarts of turboshaft oil in order to account for the 300 quarts I had borrowed and another 150 quarts for the tanks to use for ongoing maintenance, which was only about six quarts a tank and left me nothing in reserve.  (A tank with a bad turbine engine burning oil can go through that easily on ONE patrol!)  That’s roughly two 55 gallon drums of turboshaft oil.  I received something like 200 quarts in reality, because I totally cleaned out the supply depot with that large of an order.  I never ended up paying back the support battalion XO entirely, and if it had been an extended deployment, that would have created a strain on our relationship and my ability to procure special items or receive priority in the future.    If you end up doing something like that in a collapse situation, you have just used up all of your capital with that person, and if you need something in the future, you are entirely on your own.  Worse than that, you have to fix the mess you created initially, mend the relationship, and probably do them a favor in return, so that you are on par again with each other.
A water shortage might have people dipping into streams and lakes nearby, and when potable water finally shows up in a truck, there might be a two-hour line to fill your containers.  While we were in Kuwait waiting to head north into Iraq, my driver spent an hour and a half waiting in line to buy a case of bottled tea, since there was only one store for the whole camp for thousands of soldiers.  When the logistics network is reestablished, it does not have the capacity to make up for weeks of disruption.  The supplies will start to trickle in and become more steady as the situation stabilizes.  Initially though, there will be a mad-dash for those resources that do trickle in, so don’t expect to get much from the first few supply drops.  If you have ever seen footage of the Peace Corps bringing in wheat to a starving African village, it’s usually gone within minutes.  That’s what it looks like when desperate people are competing over a very limited amount of critical supplies. 

Bad Assumption #6- I need to keep up the same stockpile as I had before the collapse.
We talk a lot about storing up everything you need for a collapse situation, but we do not usually talk about what those stores should look like when you are months or even years into TEOTWAWKI.  You still need some padding against the unknown, but you will likely not need years’ worth of supplies stashed away as long as you have a way to replenish some of your diminishing supplies.  I would recommend maintaining roughly six months of stores available in the middle of a collapse situation for those times when the logistics network is disrupted again or in case of other contingencies.  Think of this smaller stockpile as self-insurance against the unknown. 
You might have a month’s worth of drinking water stored in your garage, but what will you do once you use it all?  You need to be able to filter your own water if you have a reliable source nearby or potentially dig a well if you don’t.  You might have months’ worth of food squirreled away, but do you have a garden, fish pond, and a hunting rifle?  The first step is to have that emergency cache but as you are able to build up those stores, it is wise to think about how you will replenish those supplies over time.  Perhaps you don’t have the land to grow a large garden, but you have everything you need to reload ammunition.  If you are part of a prepper group, you might not need to have every possible contingency covered as long as you are providing something of value for exchange.  Maybe you do all the reloading and Joan is seriously into canning, and you can barter for what you both need. 

Start Small & Prioritize
Even as a Battalion S-4, I had a budget.  I couldn’t just magically wave my money wand and have all of my supply shortages filled and have a huge mountain of consumable supplies for every contingency conceivable.  So how do you get started?  Most of us are unfortunately living paycheck to paycheck these days, and I won’t get into how debt is robbing you of your ability to prepare, because you likely already know that if you are reading this.  Let’s just assume that you have nothing set aside at all, and you need to start building your supplies from scratch.  Where do you start?  There is both the time factor and quantity factor involved in supply caching.  How many people do you need to prepare for?  How long do you need to supply those people?  Just as a start, save some old milk cartons and fill them with water to create a water cache. Make a goal to put aside a week’s worth of canned food for each person in your household.  Go to a dollar store and find First Aid supplies and sundry items on sale.  Get the bandages, tape, and gauze first and then worry about sutures, antibiotics, and syringes later.  Take a balanced approach and then continue to build on it. 
Every month, I look at my stores and I set aside a couple hundred dollars to improve on a few areas.  This money is available not from a great excess in my paycheck, but from small sacrifices like dropping our satellite television service and eating out less often.  Last month, our priority was to fill some gaps in our pioneering toolbox.  This month it will be candle making, soap making, and canning supplies.  Make a plan for several months out and check your progress each month to see how you are incrementally accomplishing your goals.  It feels good to be able to track your progress toward your final goals, but if you don’t make goals, you aren’t going to achieve them.  We all need a concerted plan that focuses us, so that we don’t end up just picking up a pallet of toilet paper that’s on sale even when we have no need for it.  Having a few cartons of MREs, one barrel of water, a few magazines of ammo for your weapon, and a couple bottles of fish antibiotics is much better than having three months of food supplies when you end up getting an infection and die from lack of medicine.  Keep the end-state in mind.  You should have an inventory of what 100% stocked looks like.  There are some things that you probably can’t have enough of, and I would argue that medical supplies and ammunition are in that category, not because you will end up using every last bit of your stores, but because they have great barter value. 

Know the Real Expiration Date
There is a difference between the “best before” date and an expiration date.  I rediscovered this recently from a box of granola I have in my office.  I finally opened it up for a snack and noticed that it was dated “best before” March 2011, and it tasted like I had just bought it even though it was almost a year and a half out of date.  Your expiration dates on semi-perishable commodities will drive your supply rotation schedule, but you need to know when to toss it and when to keep it.  This is particularly useful in regard to antibiotics and medications.  There are some medications which are expected to work 100% of the time, and once they expire, it’s not worth taking the risk.  Insulin is the best example of this.  If your life depends on an insulin shot, you don’t want to risk it with something expired.  But then again, if you need insulin during a collapse situation, you likely have bigger problems.  The US Army Medical Department did a study on how long antibiotics actually last beyond the expiration date and discovered some surprising data.  The multibillion-dollar pharmaceutical industry is in the business to make tons of money selling you medications you typically don’t need and even more medications to mask the side effects , so they have a conflict of interest by telling you the expiration date on their own drugs!  Some antibiotics can last 7-14 years after the expiration date on the bottle.  Do some research on the actual shelf life of these drugs.  There’s no point in throwing out food or medicine prematurely when it could last you much longer.

Conclusion
Keep in mind that the flow of supplies is like a steady stream or river.  When the flow is interrupted, you need to have adequate reserves to cope until the stream is reestablished.  In a collapse situation, you might need to take some drastic measures to reestablish that supply chain.  When you can’t replenish your supplies from a big-box store, you will need to resort to bartering and the black market, which would likely be the only operating commerce in a collapse situation.  Your replenishment should be about equal to your distribution, so that you can maintain your stockpile for those rainy days.  When you need to dip into your stockpile, be sure that you make efforts to replenish it.  The important thing is to not let those people on the receiving end of the supply chain pay for the hiccups in the supply flow.  Dipping into your stockpile when the flow stops is the way you consistently deliver supplies to your family and cohorts without them having to feel the effects of the supply network failing.  The mightiest fighting forces in human history have been stopped by lack of supplies.  Consider the Battle of the Bulge in 1944 when the Germans had very limited fuel supplies and could only maintain a sustained attack for a couple days before their superior heavy tanks became sitting ducks.  Take measures now to build your stockpile and create methods for replenishment and when you need it, your supply chain will support your overarching goal of safeguarding you those you care about.

Letter Re: When Will TSHTF? One Population Modeler Says 2020

Dear Mr. Rawles,

Most of your readership is likely convinced that the coming decades (or years or months) will yield considerable social instability. The hard question is always what form it will take and when it is likely to happen. I found an article about ecological models that seem to describe past historical patterns with some degree of accuracy. From these models, their author is predicting another spike of instability around 2020.

 From the article:

“To Peter Turchin, who studies population dynamics at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, the appearance of three peaks of political instability at roughly 50-year intervals starting with the U.S. Civil War is not a coincidence. For the past 15 years, Turchin has been taking the mathematical techniques that once allowed him to track predator-prey cycles in forest ecosystems, and applying them to human history.”

Just as with climate change, I am skeptical of the ability of any model to accurately predict such a complex system. However, just as with climate change, there’s likely some truth to these models if they capture the essence of important system dynamics. Whether these predictions turn out to be accurate, only time will tell.

Best, – Mike X.

Odds ‘n Sods:

Appropriate Firearms for the Beginner in troubled times.

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Yishai was the first of several readers to mention this: Pedal-powered washer could make a big difference in developing nations

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Reader Tom K. recommended the recently-released Second Edition of Nick Taleb’s book The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable. This new edition includes a new section: “On Robustness and Fragility”, that ties in nicely with many articles and letters that have been posted to SurvivalBlog.

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Rescuing Injured Soldiers With An Ingenious Backpack System. (Thanks to H.A. for the link.)

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This news story is troubling: New Port Richey man had vast collection of fake IDs and uniforms, authorities say.

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"Fathom the hypocrisy of a Government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured…. but not everyone must prove they are a citizen." – Ben Stein

Notes from JWR:

I just noticed that my yet-to-be-released Founders: A Novel of the Coming Collapse is now ranked around #2,200 in Amazon Best Sellers. Please stop pre-ordering, folks! Please wait until the release date (September 25th)–which is also our planned Book Bomb day–to order your copy. Not only will you get yours at a better price (probably around $11), you will also help boost the book’s sales rank–hopefully into Amazon’s Top 20 titles. Thanks!

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Today we remember the birthday of inventor James Paris Lee (born August 9, 1831). He was born in Scotland, but was an American citizen by the time he started designing firearms. Whenever you see an Lee-Enfield, remember James Paris Lee.

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Today we present another entry for Round 42 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize: A.) A gift certificate worth $1,000, courtesy of Spec Ops Brand, B.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795, and C.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $350 value.) D.) a $300 gift certificate from CJL Enterprize, for any of their military surplus gear, E.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $300 value), F.) A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo. and G.) A $200 gift certificate, donated by Shelf Reliance.

Second Prize: A.) A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training. Together, these have a retail value of $589. B.) A FloJak FP-50 stainless steel hand well pump (a $600 value), courtesy of FloJak.com. C.) A “grab bag” of preparedness gear and books from Jim’s Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $300, D.) A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials, and E.)Two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value) and F.) A Tactical Trauma Bag #3 from JRH Enterprises (a $200 value).

Third Prize: A.) A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.), B.) A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206, C.) Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy. This is a $185 retail value, D.) A Commence Fire! emergency stove with three tinder refill kits. (A $160 value.), and E.) Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security.

Round 42 ends on September 30th, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Navajo Corn, by Rachael E.

When people stockpile food they like to stick to the basics; beans, rice, and pasta. The one crop I would like to include to this list is corn. The corn I will be talking about is fresh corn and not the canned corn you can buy all year round. Unlike rice and pasta, many people have the ability to grow more corn if they run out. With beans you have limited ways to prepare it. Corn on the other hand can be used in many different ways.  From one ear of corn you can collect enough seeds to grow enough corn to feed a family.  Corn is not only a lifeline for the Navajo people but a sacred plant that is part of us.  We use every part of the plant as we would an animal. The two varieties of corn that are used are white and blue corn. White corn can be found in your local supermarket in the summers as well as grown at home. Blue corn never sold in super markets and would need to be grown at home. Seeds can be found online and I would suggest Hopi heirloom seeds.  I would like to share a few of our traditional recipes and uses of this wonderful plant with everyone who reads.

Steamed corn
Possibly one of the most common preservation methods we have is steaming and drying corn. This is a delicacy because of the amount of work involved.  As a plus, the corn can last years in storage.   White or yellow corn is best used for this method.  In order to do this you must first build an oven. Our ovens are usually made out of sandstone blocks arranged into an igloo shape and stand 3 ½ feet high and 4 feet across.  The roof is formed by metal pipes that are placed side by side and stacked until they form a corbelled dome.  A door and an opening on top will need to be left opened. The door will later be closed off with another large sandstone slab. The roof opening will need a round metal barrel lid that is big enough to cover the opening.  The exterior is then covered by 2-3 inches of mud and left to dry.  The end result will look somewhat like a Navajo Hogan or pueblo oven.  Before starting your fire it is best estimate how much corn will fill your oven.  Our oven usually takes 4-5 wheel barrels to fill our oven. Hard wood is burned inside the oven until it becomes coals and is spread out evenly. While the fire burns down get a mud pit ready with mud soaked potato sacs and a gallon of clean water ready.  The water will be used to steam the corn.  The potatoes sacs are needed to plug holes and seal the doorway once the oven is filled.    You will then need to collect and stack your corn. When stacking your corn pile it helps to place the tops with the silk side facing your oven.  That way you will be grabbing the top and tossing and flipping it in, so the tops point towards the exit door.  This makes it easier to pull out and prevents the bottom and back corn from catching on fire while the rest are being thrown in.  Once everything is in place, line the roof with mud around the edge of the opening. This mud will be used to seal up any holes on the roof once the round metal lid is dropped.  It is best to have 3 or more people helping out because speed is important if you do not want to burn the corn on the bottom of the oven.  Then start to quickly toss the corn into the oven through the door.  Seal the door with the stone slab when you cannot toss anymore corn in. Then plug the edges with the potatoes sacs and cover with mud to trap in the steam. Keep filling the oven through the opening on the roof until it is full.  Prepare to finish by having one person hold the metal lid at an angle on top so it can be quickly dropped once the gallon of water is dumped into the oven.  Quickly dump the water and drop the lid closed.  Push the mud onto the lid and the surrounding area to close off all holes where steam may escape.  It helps to spot the small openings by dumping some water and wetting the outside if the oven.  The corn is left to steam for 10 hours or overnight to cook.  The corn will be hot and steam can quickly escape when opening the oven, so use caution.  A shovel or hoe can be used to take the corn out safely.  The freshly steamed corn can be eaten or dried.  To dry simply husk the corn leaving two or three leaves on the ear of corn.  Tie the two ears together using the left over leaves and hang to dry. Once dried, the kernels can be taken off the cobs and stored to be used in stews. The following are some recipes:

Roasted corn
A simpler alternative to steam corn is dried roasted corn. This can be done by husking fresh corn and roasting it on a wood fire to infuse more flavors into the corn. It is then left out to dry. Once dried it is ready to be stored or to be used in stews
Cornmeal
Cornmeal is uncooked dried corn that has been ground into a fine texture. Once in this state it can be prepared different ways such as corn bread or used as a creamer in coffee.  If you have a favorite pancake recipe you can substitute the flour for corn meal to have corn pancakes.

Blue corn mush
One popular way of using corn meal is to make a blue corn mush. To make this, start by straining a tablespoon of juniper ash to 3 cups of water and bring to a boil.  The ash is there to provide both coloring and vitamins and minerals.  Then slowly whisk in 3-4 cups of blue corn meal.  Continue stirring until you have a texture similar to running cream of wheat.  Eat just as you would cream of wheat.

Blue corn dumplings
Making blue corn dumplings is very similar to blue corn mush. Start by boiling a tablespoon of juniper ash in 3 cups of water.  Stir in 6 cups of corn meal and continue to stir until all lumps are removed and corn becomes dough like consistency.   Once the corn is cooked remove from the heat and kneed the dough. Shape the dough into little balls and dropped into a stew or boiling water to create dumplings. The dumplings will make its own gravy and add flavoring to the stew and water
Blue corn bread
Blue corn bread is a simple corn bread recipe which resembles a hard flat tortilla.  Similar to hardtack once it hardens, it becomes difficult to eat without soaking in liquids.  To make blue corn bread boil 3 cups of water with a tablespoon of ash and a tablespoon of salt.  Stir in 6 cups of corn meal with a whisk until the cooked corn becomes a dough consistency.  Remove from heat and kneed the dough into a flat bread loaf.  Place on a skillet and brown on both sides or bake in the oven.

Kneel down bread
Kneel down bread is another delicacy.  It requires a lot of fresh corn to have decent size bread. Start by first getting a pit dug in the ground about 3 feet wide and 10 inches deep. Start a fire inside the pit and until the wood becomes coals.  The recipe is easy because all it asks for is fresh corn and nothing else.  The corn you can buy at a grocery store or pick from your garden if you have one.  You start off by cutting the kernels off the cobs.  Then grind by hand or with a blender into a mush consistency.  If you will be eating the bread right away with no intention to dry, you can add small bits of meat, green chili, or other vegetables to the corn mixture. Rinse the husks that originally wrapped your corn with water and air dry.  Place your mush mixture inside a husk and wrap with additional husk as you would with tamales. Remove the coals from the fire pit and place on the side.  Place your kneel down bread into the pit and cover with the left over husks.  Cover the husks with enough dirt to prevent the husks from catching on fire from the coals.  Place the coals on top of the dirt, like you would with a Dutch oven.    After baking for an hour you can dig your bread out.  To dry your bread simply cut it into small 1/2 inch cubes and dried. The dried kneel down bread can be rehydrated with stews, milk, or other liquids. 

Once the ears of corn have been picked the rest of the stalk can he used to feed animals. The cobs themselves can he dried and used as fuel for your fire or pellet stove. I hope you enjoy these recipes and choose to add this wonderful vegetable to your dry storage. 

Letter Re: Heavy Rainfall — Now Hitting The Fan in The Philippines

Dear JWR:
We have been hit with massive rain and flooding here in the metropolitan Manila area.

We are getting at times more than 1 inch rain per hour. We have received more rain than Typhoon Ondoy already. On August 7 we got 477mm rain in 22 hours.

About half the city is flooded and roads to my area are impassable. The gas stations are out of unleaded gas and only have 97 octane racing grade remaining as of last night.

I hit up the supermarket last night and it was busier than Christmas. I expect food shortages soon and we will be avoiding purchase of fresh and restaurant food from the stores for awhile because of wide spread contamination.

Electricity is on here but Internet went out last night. I still have data plan on the cell that works but very slow.

Our well water might be contaminated now. It has a bad smell. We switched to bottled water for drinking and the ceramic filter for wash water.

Local government weather forecasts are terribly inaccurate. We resorted to making a rain gauge from a water glass and ruler to know the rain fall rate here. I recorded about a inch per hour rain fall yesterday evening.

Flooding has damaged many of the flood sensors here also. The weather agencies are now unable to give accurate flooding estimates in parts of the city and the government flood web site crashed two days ago.

I am out of the flood zone, we have lots of food, back up generator, fuel and security. No worries here, just a involuntary vacation for my family.

I did get a case of pink eye however. Probably while at my shop that had run off water blowing in with the wind. The sides are only wire mesh.

Odd, however, it is not reported on the international news. – B.&L.M.

Economics and Investing:

Five Surprising Facts About Hyperinflation

Why Europe Matters… And How Spain Could Wipe Out Your 401(k)

Reader Pierre M. sent this: The 11 Graphs That Allegedly Prove That the West Is Doomed

The Daily Bell asks: Fed Bankrupting Consumers While Enriching Wall Street as a Matter of Policy?

Items from The Economatrix:

Despite Jobs Report, Street Unsure Of Fed’s Next Move

The Employment Rate In The US Is Lower Than It Was In The Last Recession

The US Economy By The Numbers

Odds ‘n Sods:

I’m often asked how people can discreetly find fellow preppers in their region. My long-standing advice is posted in my static page: Finding Like-Minded People in Your Area. But now I’m adding this new venue recommendation: Chris Martenson’s Resilient Life Groups Page.

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Dave T. sent this: New York’s Used Police Shells, Reloaded for Sale. The “I’m so offended” tone used by these Big City statist scribes is hilarious.

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DHS Requests Plastic Explosives Then Hides Evidence. Perhaps the DHS officials saw the references to Detasheet explosives in my novel Patriots and thought that they sounded like something cool to train with…

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KAF sent a link to some useful info, presented by Nick over at the Sustainable Preparedness blog: Hot water for free–from the wood cook stove! [JWR Adds: Don’t omit the pressure relief valve from your design!]

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Is not joining Facebook a sign you’re a psychopath? Some employers and psychologists say staying away from social media is ‘suspicious’. (Thanks to O.Q. for the link.)

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"The only foundation for…a republic is to be laid in Religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments." – Benjamin Rush Essays, Literary, Moral and Philosophical 1798

Notes from JWR:

I’m pleased to announce that author Mat Stein has accepted the volunteer position of SurvivalBlog’s Back Country Editor. Mat is a design engineer, green builder, and author of two best-selling books: When Disaster Strikes: A Comprehensive Guide for Emergency Planning and Crisis Survival and When Technology Fails: A Manual for Self-Reliance, Sustainability, and Surviving the Long Emergency. Stein is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he majored in Mechanical Engineering. Stein has been a guest on dozens of radio and television programs.  He is an active mountain climber, serves as a guide and instructor for blind skiers, has written several articles on the subject of sustainable living, and is a guest columnist for The Huffington Post. His web sites are www.WhenTechFails.com and www.MatStein.com

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Today we present another entry for Round 42 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize: A.) A gift certificate worth $1,000, courtesy of Spec Ops Brand, B.) A course certificate from onPoint Tactical. This certificate will be for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses. (Excluding those restricted for military or government teams.) Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795, and C.) Two cases of Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $350 value.) D.) a $300 gift certificate from CJL Enterprize, for any of their military surplus gear, E.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $300 value), F.) A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo. and G.) A $200 gift certificate, donated by Shelf Reliance.

Second Prize: A.) A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training. Together, these have a retail value of $589. B.) A FloJak FP-50 stainless steel hand well pump (a $600 value), courtesy of FloJak.com. C.) A “grab bag” of preparedness gear and books from Jim’s Amazing Secret Bunker of Redundant Redundancy (JASBORR) with a retail value of at least $300, D.) A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials, and E.)Two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value) and F.) A Tactical Trauma Bag #3 from JRH Enterprises (a $200 value).

Third Prize: A.) A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.), B.) A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206, C.) Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy. This is a $185 retail value, D.) A Commence Fire! emergency stove with three tinder refill kits. (A $160 value.), and E.) Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security.

Round 42 ends on September 30th, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Aquaponic Gardening, by D.P.

Aquaponic Gardening, by D.P.

This submission is about gardening (tips on what to grow and why) and how and why I am switching from outdoor to indoor gardening. I have been gardening since age 3 – much to the chagrin of my parents who, once they realized what was going on, quickly gave me my own 10 square feet with some lettuce and radish seeds and told me to tend to that in the future. I did get to take care of their garden as I grew older though. I also have had gardens on various soil types as my family moved about and so in many respects I am better prepped to grow (part of) my own food than most.

For many generations my ancestors, who lived in Europe, had small businesses and/or farms. In those days the grocery stores didn’t sell vegetables but just what we would call ‘dry goods’ today. People didn’t have much money so whatever they could grow themselves, they did in their own garden. They also didn’t have much in the way of weather forecasts beyond the type of clouds they happened to see and whether air pressure was rising or falling. To be successful in those days you needed to have a very different skill set than what most of us possess today. With respect to gardening it really came down to this: grow a wide variety of vegetable crops.

This tactic solved a number of problems:
– regardless of the weather there would always be a few crops that did well, so there was always something to eat.
– disease and pest control were iffy or non-existent, but again the chance that all crops failed due to them was small so there was always something
to eat.
– a lot of vegetables are high in specific minerals and/or vitamins.
Eating a variety of them was the best way to avoid deficiencies and stay healthy. I am sure that most of my ancestors had no clue about the science behind what they were doing but they just knew what worked. I consider myself lucky that a good chunk of this knowledge was passed on to me and apparently it still works: I haven’t been to a doctor in more than 30 years except for a painful episode with a kidney stone. And, no, I have
not taken additional vitamins or other supplements during those years.

So here is what kept us going for at least 4 generations:
Food staples:
– bread (white – though it wouldn’t be as refined or bleached as today’s flour).
– potatoes (peeled, washed, boiled, mashed)
– before potatoes where introduced in Europe their role would have been filled by dry beans, peas, lentils, etc.
– sometimes a meal would be based on rice but this was seen as a luxury

Vegetables (summer season):
– lettuce (can’t beat a cool salad on a hot day)
– spinach (early crop high in iron and vitamins – usually cooked but can be used as salad)
– purslane (high in omega3 fatty acids and vitamin E – usually cooked but can be used as salad)
– swiss chard (used mid summer when spinach tends to bolt – always cooked)
– endive (either cooked or as salad)
– radish (said to ‘cleanse your system’ – used in salads or sliced on bread)
– rhubarb (maintenance free perennial – cook stems and sweeten to use as vegetable or in jams) [use in moderation because rhubarb is high in oxalic acid, which is nasty stuff if you get too much of it]
– strawberries (used fresh or in jams)
– tomatoes (high in vitamin C – used fresh in salads or on bread; canned as base for soup, meat tenderizer)
– cucumbers (high in vitamin A,C, phosphorous, magnesium and other minerals)

Vegetables (rest of the year):
Most of these would be stored throughout at least part of the winter season and therefore be used as cooked vegetables, in stews, etc. They tend to be more filling then summer vegetables and would rarely be used raw in salads.
– cabbage species (good source of Vitamin C, amino acids)
white cabbage (is really just meant for sauerkraut production folks)
red cabbage (served with enough vinegar to change its color)
savoy cabbage (tastes much better than white cabbage)
– cauliflower
– kale (high in vitamin C and various minerals)
– brussels sprouts (high in vitamins A,C and folic acid)
– leeks
– onions
– rutabagas (high in calcium)
– broccoli (high in vitamins A,B,C and phosphorus and potassium)
– peas (moderate amounts of vitamins A,C, calcium, iron, phosphorus – used as vegetable or as soup)
– green beans (high in vitamin A,C, dietary fiber – used fresh or canned)
– carrots (excellent source of vitamin A and beta-carotene)
– red beets (good source of carbohydrates)

This is a very complete list and not all crops were grown each year or by each family but finding 10-15 crops in a garden in the course of the year was the rule rather than the exception. Most of these crops grow best in temperate climates, so if you live in a warm or hot climate: forget about summer and grow them in the winter.

To round out the picture: the farmers usually had some apple and pear trees and sometimes plum trees in their yard. Then there were red and black currants, raspberry, blackberry and alderberry bushes. Most had at least a few chickens to turn food scraps into eggs and were fattening 1 or 2 pigs per year for personal use. Not much beef was consumed because dairy cows were supposed to be milked (some of that milk was for personal use). And a 10 year old cow can give you some really tough meat. If goats and/or sheep were kept their milk was used for cheese making. Fish might be consumed once a week because it had to be purchased even though it was readily available. Some crops (potatoes, onions, peas, beans) would mostly be grown in the fields for marketing purposes, but part of the crop was kept for personal use.

Food storage.
I won’t bother to tell you about canning; many articles have been written about it already. Actually my preferred way to preserve vegetables is to freeze them because, if you do it right, frozen is hard to distinguish from freshly harvested. And, barring power outages, nothing spoils. With the exception of lettuce, radish and cucumber, all vegetables mentioned above can be frozen. Kale, leek, peas and beans can be frozen raw if needed, all others should be cooked first. Onions and rutabagas are usually stored dry, but if there are quality concerns or your onions won’t dry properly, there is no harm in processing/freezing them. Cabbages, brussels sprouts and cauliflower can be stored from 2 to 6 weeks depending on temperature and quality of the crop. If their outer leaves turn yellow you should process or eat them. Carrots and beets can be kept several months in a cool somewhat moist area. In cold (not frozen), damp soil they will keep till spring without much deterioration. Cabbages, brussels sprouts and kale can be kept in the garden as long as temperatures don’t drop much below freezing. To keep them from growing too large in the fall, you can lift them. This means you pull them straight up until you hear some roots break but leave the plant in the ground. This will keep your plants fresh but prevents additional growth. Leek will survive a light frost as well but its leaves become less appetizing once the plant stops growing.

Food preparation.
There’s plenty of recipes on the internet so I am sure you can find something you like. However preparing your food correctly is very important because if you do it the wrong way you will loose all your nutrients to the drain or the kitchen sink. Here are the important steps: – Cook your veggies with salt: about 1 teaspoon (meal) to 1 tablespoon (large batches for freezing) depending on the size of your pots and pans. The reason is that you want to prevent the cells from bursting open during the cooking process (think salt water fish in fresh water). Don’t worry about your salt intake because most of that salt will disappear down the drain again. I you get it right, it won’t even alter the taste of the food.
– Do not overcook your veggies. If you can stick a fork into the stems (beets, carrots, etc.) without much effort then they are done. Again you do not want the plant’s cells to spill their guts any more than you have to.
– When freezing your vegetables, you really only want to blanch them:
– Cook them a few minutes less then you would otherwise.
– Immediately pour the boiling water out of your pan and fill to the rim with cold water
– Immediately pour the hot water out of your pan and fill to the rim with cold water
– This water should stay cold or only get luke warm: pour it out
– Put the food in plastic bags or boxes and put it in the freezer
– When serving frozen foods you only need to heat them to the proper serving temperature; no need to cook them again. A microwave works great for this purpose.

I have read advice on gardening ranging from: ‘here’s a list, just get those seeds’ to ‘just eat what you like’. I agree with neither. Getting seeds if you don’t know how to grow them or refuse to eat them afterwards is a waste of your efforts. Just eating what you like increases the chances you will develop some kind of deficiency (unless you happen to like broccoli, kale and cabbage – or follow Victory garden which uses a very well rounded subset of the list above).

My advice is: variety, variety, variety. Your body knows exactly what it needs and, given the opportunity, will pick those things in the right quantities from the food you give it. It doesn’t get much easier than that! Your body is also capable of storing most minerals and vitamins in one form or another (sometimes as precursor molecules) for up to a few months. So there’s no need to worry about what you eat on any given day. Tastes are acquired. I heard from my parents that kids in the old days didn’t want to eat certain foods anymore than kids do today. However they weren’t given much of a choice. Their own parents knew from experience that without the (vitamins and minerals from) vegetables, sickness and mortality skyrocketed. In Europe this situation persisted until around 1950. If you are serious about prepping you should know by now that we can get back to such a situation in a hurry.

Part 2: Why I am switching to an indoor setup:
Last year I read a primer on aquaponics on Survivalblog.com and deep inside there was the conviction that I too had to pursue this angle. Having had the time to reflect on that conviction I believe it has something to do what is coming our way. As of today I can think of two primary reasons:
– Fukushima-type reactor melt-downs
– Climate change

I am sure most of you know what Fukushima stands for. After matching atmospheric particle dispersion maps generated in Europe to systematic denials of North-American governments, I had quickly seen enough and got hold of a geiger counter. Even this summer, if we get rain after a dry spell the unit shows elevated readings when put it up against my rain gauge. The levels are not worrisome at this point in time in so far as many people on this planet live in areas with higher radiation without suffering noticeable negative effects. Having said that, the pattern is repeatable so there must be something raining down on my food. I am afraid that Fukushima will turn out to be just a warning of future nuclear disasters. Given that in many aspects it was a fairly standard type plant (albeit in an unfortunate spot), we need to seriously consider the possibility that we will see a dozen or more Fukushimas in the northern hemisphere due to grid down and/or extensive coastal flooding scenarios. Unfortunately both of these have a probability of happening this decade that is too high for my taste. So its time to prepare for that eventuality. My personal attitude on this one is to prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

When I mention climate change, I am not referring to the mainstream media (MSM) angle which blames everything on man-made carbon dioxide emissions and so it wants to tax them. Which is very convenient for MSM’s owners who seem to be trying hard to get global weather patterns under control. Trying to control a complex system is a tough job because it doesn’t necessarily react the way you expect. It is also an expensive proposition, so if you can use your mishaps to get taxpayers to fund your research, that’s an added bonus. [One’s got to admire that business model.] Now I know that this sounds a lot like some conspiracy theory. I have no interest in promoting those, however the weight of historical evidence (check the adventures of the vikings in Canada, for example) suggests that MSM is blowing another smoke screen. Which leads me to follow the money instead.

An even bigger influence on earth’s climate is our solar system. On the one hand sunspot data suggests we should expect a cooling trend for the next 20 years. On the other hand satellite images from other planets suggest they are actually warming up. There is rampant speculation in some circles on the internet as to what would cause this but I haven’t seen anything conclusive that’s worth mentioning. Whatever may happen, physical evidence and the written records of our ancestors suggest that drastic climate change can come very quick. Think frozen mammoth with palm leaves between his teeth. I do not believe that I will join that mammoth otherwise I wouldn’t need to prep. All I am saying is that to blindly assume all things will continue to be the way they always have been during my (relatively) short life is dangerous at best.

While working on this article, SurvivalBlog.com had a link to an article by Kellene Bishop that asserts we may be entering a seven year famine. It points out several more reasons why you may want to get your garden out of sight and an aquaponic garden would fill that bill rather nicely; it can also be used by people who have no access to a land area.

Of course, it doesn’t help is that my outdoor vegetable garden isn’t doing all that great this year. The weather events we have had since the start of the growing season aren’t too extreme in and of themselves. Its just that the continued sequence of alternating high rainfall, high heat, baking sunshine and high winds is starting to stress the plants. They look like the big rains we have had are stunting their root systems and so the plants are unable to properly cope with the other events.

Alas, if our climate is really shifting gears, this situation will be the norm for coming years. And so its prudent for me to shift gears as well and I have started by building a small test setup this year with just 4 grow beds to try a bit of everything and whatever it yields is fine with me. Because it is a setup so very different from traditional soil based gardening, I have done some comparative tests on germination, fertilizing and growth medium particle size. So far I am quite pleased with the results and plan to go with 16 grow beds next summer. That should allow me to grow everything except my corn under a roof. I will relate some of my observations later but will first discuss my setup.

My choice of setup:
There are a variety of ponics systems and about the only thing they have in common is that they don’t use soil. The so-called hydroponics system only uses water and no growth medium. It is mostly used in commercial operations. I wouldn’t recommend it as a home based system because you will have to content with algae and fungal problems. Apparently algae will quite happily interfere with a plant’s root system and need to be controlled at all cost. It also has a higher startup cost than other types of ponics systems due to required electronic control systems.

A complete aquaponics system is the most elegant because the plants live from the waste that the fish create, while in due time you can harvest both fish and vegetables. You can even grow your own fish food in the form of duckweed, making for an almost closed system that just needs sunlight and some minerals. I do not have a real aquaponics setup because the fish are missing. The reasons I chose not to use fish are of a practical nature. My growing season is too short (200 days at best) and temperatures vary too much day to day for the fish to really thrive. I have had a few aquariums over the years which worked fine but those were electronically controlled environments which I cannot hope to replicate with a solar powered aquaponics system at my current location.

In an aquaponics system you do need a growth medium to act as a biological filter that turns the fish waste into nitrates for the plants. I chose to keep the growth medium because it is a more natural environment for plant roots since they can grow in the dark, meaning no algae problems around the plant roots. It also means that I can run the system on manure tea if other forms of fertilizer are not available since the growth medium will act as a biological filter as well. Thirdly, nature abhors a vacuum and if you do not put your plants in an environment with lots of good microbes, the bad ones WILL move in. Again a growth medium is ideal to get the proper environment.

How I created a grow bed:
I started by cutting a plastic 55 gallon drum in half lengthwise to give me two grow beds. Clean them out really good and leave them outside in the sun for a few days so UV radiation can break down any leftover chemicals. If at all possible use drums that were used for food ingredients or chemicals that are approved for use in food factories. The grow beds lay side by side on a pair of 2×6’s, supported by a small piece of 2×4 on each side so they don’t slide around. You can find good pictures of how to build the supports in this document, which is where I got my first ideas. You will also see that my setup uses far fewer parts than the one in the document though. In the lowest part of each grow bed’s bottom I cut a 1″ hole using a hole saw. From the outside I put 1 leg of a 1″ poly tee through the hole. This leg has a male pipe thread on it. Inside the grow bed I screwed a 1″ female adapter onto this MPT leg. Make sure to put a liberal amount of silicone caulking around the MPT leg so your grow bed won’t leak. You may want to test this before you put the growth medium in your beds.

Then I put a 8″ piece of 1″ poly pipe on the female adapter. This allows the end of the pipe to reach above the growth medium in the bed. Which means that you can always reach the bed’s drain hole in case it gets plugged (one of my cucumbers decided to put a root through it …). On the side of the hose/female adapter, about 2″ above the bottom of the grow bed, I drilled a 1/4″ drain hole. This hole determines the speed at which the water drains out of your grow bed. Putting it a few inches off the bottom leaves the plants a small emergency water supply should there be a pump problem. Over top of this drain assembly I put a piece of perforated plastic drain pipe to keep the growth medium from blocking the drain hole. This drain pipe is 4″ diameter and can be cut lengthwise so it lays flat on the bottom of the grow bed. A length of 1 feet will do just fine. The drainpipe is shown in figure 25 in the above mentioned pdf document.

On top and around the drain pipe I put small rocks to act as fillers so I don’t need as much growth medium. In a true aquaponics system you will want as much growth medium as possible because you need a large biofilter to buffer against quick changes in water quality. However plants can handle a wider variety of circumstances so I can get by with a lot less growth medium. My beds are filled with about 6″ of medium at the center of the bed and spread out horizontally. This will fill the drum halves until the point where their walls are vertical. That gives me maximum growth space for minimum growth medium.

Growth medium:
Aquaponics people mostly seem to use expanded clay or pea sized gravel. I read about one setup in South America that used white sand. I couldn’t find expanded clay at my local garden center but did try pea sized gravel along with much finer gravel that I got from a brook on our property. Based on my test results I have to say that the plants definitely prefer the finer gravel from the brook. Germination is better and initial growth is faster; as the plants mature the differences tend to get smaller. Presumably because finer material has a much larger surface area per cubic inch, creating a more even moisture/air environment for plant roots. As a result I am going to fill my beds with gravel from our brook. Since its consistency is close to that of coarse sand, you could use that instead of pea size gravel. If you decide to use sand you may need to put a layer of pea sized gravel over the drainpipe to prevent the sand from dropping into it. Do not be tempted to go cheap and use garden soil. It contains way too much silt and possibly clay. Both particles are microscopic in size and under an ebb and flow situation they will collect in low flow rate areas and form a layer that won’t be appreciated by you or your plants.

How to create a system:
Creating a functioning system from the grow beds you made (doesn’t matter how many) is fairly straight forward. Remember that every bed is outfitted with a tee. I use the two legs that are open on the outside of the bed to connect the beds together with 1″ poly pipe (potable water rating), no hose clamps needed. One piece of poly pipe has a tee in it which is located above an opening in the collection tank. And that is the entire system for collecting the water that I pump into the beds and returning it to the collection tank.
The collection tank itself is simply a 55 gallon drum laying on its side (you want to keep the distance the pump has to lift the water as short as possible) with a few access holes for hoses and to add manure tea/fertilizer, made at its highest point. My collection tank is white which means I have some algae growth in it that I need to clean every once in a while. If you can: get a black drum or paint it black or put it in a hole in the ground to avoid sunlight from entering the tank. This greatly reduces algae growth in the tank.

To pump water into the grow beds I use a 1,000 GPH bilge pump (located at the bottom of the collection tank) with a 1″ outlet that is connected to a poly pipe (with hose clamps) that runs to the top of the grow beds. [Because the return lines are gravity fed the bottom of the grow beds are located above the top of the collection tank.] At the top of the beds the poly pipe connects to a 1″ PVC pipe. This PVC pipe runs across all 4 beds. In the middle of each bed there is a tee in the PVC pipe and connected to that tee is a PVC ball valve with a 1/2″ opening. I found that I have to be able to adjust the amount of water going into each bed individually because of the variety of crops (and the different growth stages they are in) in the system at a given point in time. I have outfitted each valve with a splash guard (made from a 1 quart plastic bag) because plants do not like to be wet 24/7.

The waterpump operates on 12V so I can run it directly off a 12V battery that is charged by a solar panel. Operation has turned out to be very simple. I start a cycle by running the pump for 20 seconds. Then it is off for 30 minutes; this drains the grow beds to the point where water is just dripping into the collection tank. At that point you should start the next cycle. The actual length of the cycle will vary with the way you construct your grow beds. I have seen reports from people with larger beds that had a 2 hour cycle. You may be able to find an electronic timer that allows you to fine tune your cycle.

What I have described so far is your basic system. You can now let your imagination run wild to improve on it. For instance I built my own timer using a microcontroller that controls the bilge pump through an automotive type 40A relay. But the microcontroller had unused pins. That is an eyesore for any DIYer. So the system has been expanded with a voltage sensor, temperature sensors and float switches. This allows the microcontroller to actively manage water temperature via a second water pump and an external heat exchanger. It can monitor battery charge levels and stretch the flooding cycle if voltage drops too much. That will slow down the plants but at least it keeps them alive. It also monitors water levels and pump action to prevent pump damage. If it finds an issue that needs my attention it will signal this by turning on a red LED instead of a green one.

Housing:
As I mentioned way back when, one of my goals is to grow my veggies under a roof. I haven’t build the housing yet but its on the drawing board and I have pretty much settled on the design. It will be a cross between a cold frame and a greenhouse. 2 units of 8′ x 8′ x 4′ each. An 8′ x 8′ footprint holds 8 grow beds with a walkway in between. Each 4′ high side panel will have a 2′ translucent clear pvc panel at the top and white siding below. A unit’s roof will be made of 2 4’x8′ translucent clear pvc panels that can be easily removed. Putting the grow beds on the floor will leave the plants with about 3′ of headroom which is enough for 2 tiers. For instance tomatoes, cucumbers and pole beans can be easily made to grow to a second story made from a horizontal sheet of lattice with lettuce, spinach, etc growing below. Similarly peas love to climb a wall of chicken wire. If I start the system early I should be able to get 2 crops or multiple harvests out of most beds, improving production considerably.

First impressions on germination:
This is what really blew me away. You basically throw your seeds on the rocks, barely cover them and walk away … just to see the plants pop up in record time. Due to our short frost free season there are a number of crops that need to be started indoors. This year I divided those seeds in two portions and put half of them in trays with potting soil (mini greenhouses) to start them in the living room as I have done for many years. At the same time the other seeds were put in an aquaponic grow bed whose temperature ranged from high 40s in the morning to about 55 degrees at the end of the day. All crops emerged 1 to 2 days quicker in the grow bed than in the mini greenhouses and then simply kept outgrowing them.

Two striking examples:
– I planted 18 red cabbage seeds, 9 in each medium. In the aquaponics grow bed all 9 emerged and grew into healthy plants; in the mini greenhouse 1 cabbage plant emerged which died after 2 days.
– I had done a germination test of my tomato seeds in the living room to see how viable they were. I just kept them there until I saw a root come out of the seeds. No longer needing them I threw them on one of the aquaponics beds without bothering to cover them. Two days later I found a bunch of 1″ high healthy tomato plants some of which are now setting fruit.

On fertilization:
I started the system out with using just manure tea. Apparently you can make tea from pretty much any type of manure as well as from compost. Your mileage will vary because each type of tea will have different amounts of NPK (Nitrogen-Phosphorus-Potassium) in it, chicken manure being the highest rated.

Using just manure tea, the plants grew okay but not as I expected. They looked pale green and spindly as in suffering from nitrogen deficiency. After letting them muddle on for about a month, I decided to add some commercial fertilizer (10-10-10) that I use in my outdoor garden. Took a 2 handfuls of it, put it in a bottle with two quarts of water, shook for a minute and dumped it in the aquaponic system’s collection tank which held about 40 gallons of water. [Repeat once a week when plants are small and increase frequency as required during the season.]

Once again the system did not let me down. The plants turned noticeably darker pretty much overnight and took off. Growth rates easily match the best performances I have seen in any outdoor garden. Because the commercial fertilizer only supplies NPK I still feed the system a pail of manure tea once or twice a week along with a few tablespoons of sea salt once a week to make sure there are enough trace minerals in the system. Kelp is supposed to work really well too but for me it is expensive to get and as long as I see no deficiencies in the plants I see no need to use it.

On water issues:
The water I use comes from a 150 ft deep well we use for drinking water so I am not worried about its quality or contents. Water usage is minimal when the plants are small. Now that all beds are filled with more or less fully grown plants setting fruit and seeds, they use up to 8 gallons per day. Tomatoes and cucumbers seem to be the biggest users. Unless your water is very hard, you may need to add some lime or other pH booster to your system because the water will get more acidic as the season goes on. This is due to bacterial activity in the grow beds. My setup has come down from around pH=6.8 to pH=6 which is about the minimum I want to see. With the exception of red beets the plants don’t seem to mind at all though. I did buy nitrate and pH test kits so I could see what goes on in the system. I never see any measurable free nitrates so I guess I could put more fertilizer in the system but the plants look healthy so I won’t over do it.

On bugs/diseases:
I haven’t noticed any real problems yet. As expected there have been some caterpillars showing up on the cabbages. I tried to get rid of them with diatomaceous earth. It killed some but not all. Since I am a bit pressed for time this summer I sprayed the cabbages with a systemic chemical (same as you use for corn borer) which takes care of the problem in a day or two. An easy way to avoid them is to put screening over the beds where you grow these crops as it keeps out the butterflies. But make sure not to keep the bees away from your tomatoes, cucumbers, beans and peas. I didn’t expect to see any soil borne diseases in the beds and to-date they haven’t shown up. Nor have I seen any other signs of trouble.

If there are readers that are venting steam from their ears by now because I have broken all the rules of aquaponics and organic gardening: that’s okay, I understand. But I am rather pragmatic about it. My goal is to grow food; lots of it in a small space, with minimal inputs. I need to know what I can and cannot do. I won’t put stuff that I know is bad for me on my food, but if it is not bad and fixes a problem for me, I have no problem putting it on. Do I think fertilizer and chemicals will always be readily available? No, that is why I am trying to find the best alternatives while I have the opportunity.

Well, I think I have covered just about all aspects by now. I hope this will give you enough information to determine if (modified) aquaponics is something that fits your preparation needs. My garden is fairly large as I grow veggies for a few families. The goal with 16 grow beds is to match that output. Your system could be much smaller. For instance I still have 4 unused (20″x4″x4″) planters laying around. I plan on sealing their drainage holes and turning them into a small indoor system to grow herbs and start seedlings indoors. Together with a 5 gallon pail, an old aquarium pump and a timer they should do the trick. Happy gardening.

JWR Adds: I only recommend hydroponic gardening for families that have very copious and continuous power such as that provided by micro-hydro, photovoltaics, or an on-site natural gas well with redundant generators. Without a stable power supply, electric pumps don’t pump, and you’ll be back to traditional dirt gardening, very quickly.

Economics and Investing:

H.L. suggested this essay by Peter Schiff: We Have A Phony Recovery That Has Sown The Seeds Of Its Own Destruction

Also from H.L.: Chevron’s Largest California Refinery “Immediate-Extreme-Health-Hazard” Fire Emergency

K.A.F. flagged this: Emails: Geithner, Treasury drove cutoff of non-union Delphi workers’ pensions

Items from The Economatrix:

11 Signs That Time Is Quickly Running Out For The Global Financial System

Collapse Of Financial System Will Come In August, Maybe September

US Manufacturing Unexpectedly Shrinks For Second Month

Odds ‘n Sods:

Reader Sue C. sent us this: Solar superstorm could kill millions, cost trillions

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The folks at Camping Survival are now offering SurvivalBlog readers a 5% discount on LifeStraw Portable Water Filters.

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Over at novelist James Grady’s web site, an odd case of Life Imitates Art: “The nonfiction book Comrade J: The Untold Secrets of Russia’s Master Spy in America After the End of the Cold War by former Washington Post reporter Pete Earley reports that Three Days of the Condor — the 1975 Robert Redford movie based on my Six Days of the Condor novel — inspired the KGB to create a 2,000 man secret division to do the kind of work KGB Generals saw Condor /[Robert] Redford doing in the film. Essentially, my novel about spies who read fiction became a film that inspired the real world KGB to create a secret division of spies who read fiction.”

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Simon’s Black’s comments on Svalbard Island: A secret paradise for gun rights and residency

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The NRA-ILA reports: Anti-Gun Lawmakers Push Ammunition Sales Ban