Maximizing and Extending Your Tomato Harvest, by Andrew A.

I’ve always wondered why some people tend to plant all of their garden at one time. It never made sense to me. Why have 30 pounds of tomatoes come in at once, only to can it all? Sure, canning is great (in fact we just put away 14 quarts of peaches today), but fresh is better than canned, 100% of the time. And yes, I understand home canning is so you have food to eat in the winter. But why not get fresh for as long as you can? But just hold on, we’ll get back to that later on. Being an unemployed teenager, I decided to do a little bit of experimentation in our garden. One day, I went across the street to talk to my neighbor, that also has a small, but successful garden. I complemented his garden, and we walked through it. When we got to some of his tomato plants he began to explain a way to root new tomato plants from your existing plants. They’re called suckers, and they can change the way you garden, and how much you can produce from Spring until frost. And who knows, maybe one day they could save your life. Okay, tomato plants really aren’t that exciting and dramatic, or are they?

What is a sucker? Stick out your left hand, with the back of your hand facing you. Make an “L” with it. Now, in the curve of that “L” on a tomato plant, there will be a branch that grows out of the “armpit” of the plant. It normally grows out of more mature plants, and can grow to full size and bear blooms and baby tomatoes, just like any other tomato plant branch. Some people say you can remove these “Suckers” off to enlarge your fruit. I personally can’t attest to that. But, suckers also have another special ability. If you remove them off at the base of the “armpit”, and stick them into some potting soil, or dirt, and water them once a day, you can have new tomato plants. Now, Suckers can be rooted very tiny or pretty large. However, when removing suckers from your plant, be careful not to tear the skin down the branch. This can expose your plant to diseases, and it diverts more energy to scabbing the tear open. Now removing a sucker from a tomato plant does not harm the tomato plant, and I have yet to kill a tomato plant in harvesting the sucker from it’s branches. Try and pinch the sucker off, more than cutting him. Cutting the sucker away can damage the plant if you slip, and it really seems to be counterproductive to growing for some odd reason.

Now, how big are you supposed to start them at? Well, I started a number of them anywhere between a single leaf (it broke off so I tried to root it) and up to about 8 inches. The bigger you start them at, the more apt they are to grow. The bigger ones grew more than the smaller ones, I suppose because they had more energy stored up that than the tiny ones. However, the smaller ones still grew. The leaf that I rooted actually developed a root system, about 2 inches long. Also, some of the smaller ones failed to grow much at all, they just got thicker and harder. So my suggestion is to start bigger, at about 6-8 inches.

So, you’ve got your suckers. Now, where to put them? Well you’ve got that empty spot in the garden, that 44 ounce slushie cup from the gas station, and a 6 pack seedling tray that you bought some plants in. Well, I tried all three. All I did to the ones in the garden was poke a hole in the dirt, stick the sucker in there, and water. I filled up every empty spot in the garden with them. And unfortunately, I had about a 50-60% casualty rate. Yikes! Well, I got a couple of the slushie cups, filled them with potting soil, and planted two large tomato suckers in them. They were actually the most successful of the containers, the plants grew fast, and matured fast. They even had blooms on them only two and half weeks after I planted them. I believe they did so well, because the roots had room to grow (If you use the cup method, be sure to dump excess water out of the cups since they have no drainage. We left for one week and had the neighbor take care of them, and there was some heavy rain, so when I got home the ones in the cups were very near floating in their homes). But I also planted about 48 suckers into the plastic 6 pack trays. How did they do? Well, they did okay, I only had one die out of the entire lot. They didn’t get too large, as the roots were confined to the small containers. But, beware, if you use these 6 packs, the taller ones will shade the smaller ones and effectively stunt their growth. I’ve planted my suckers that were mature enough (and I gauged that by how much the roots had grown inside the container) into the garden.

I had actually placed my tomatoes on a retaining wall in part sun / part shade. One of the advantages of putting them into this sort of area is that the sun will not dry out the plants and wilt them. I had no problem keeping my plants happy and wet (and there‘s no problem over-watering them either, as long as they have drainage) . Although because I did this, I also wonder if I could have made my plants grow more, and perhaps let the little ones grow more if I would have moved them into the sun more. But, when you put them into the sun you run the risk of blistering them. Worth the risk? I don’t know, but trust me I intend to find out next year when my tomatoes mature and grow. I also didn’t use any fertilize in any stage of my growing, mainly because I did not have access to any (one of my goals in this project was to keep it low cost). Perhaps if I had, I would have had more success with it. Again, that will be another factor that will be manipulated in next year’s sucker growing.

Okay, you’ve got your suckers planted into your packs, cups, whatever, and may have even transplanted some into the garden. Here’s some helpful hints and tips, that are pretty basic tomato gardening. One of the best things for tomato plants are cages and stakes. Of the tomatoes we planted this year, the ones that were caged grew exponentially more than those that were not caged (Note: None of my suckers have yet to reach a size suitable for caging. However, they have been staked). The stakes also seemed to promote growth. Be careful to try and attach your tomato plant to it’s cage or stake. Simple twine will do. If they grow too much, they will grow out of the cage, and can topple it over (High winds can also damage your caged tomatoes. Unfortunately this has occurred to one of my Roma plants, and has nearly severed one of the most loaded branches on the plant. The plant has started to die back, and I can’t help but wonder if it might be some sort of disease it got when it was opened up. Creating a tomato plant is easy, destroying one is easier.

So, Mister Prepper Extraordinaire, how can this simple, inexpensive, and reliable method be of benefit to you? Well, because it’s just that. Plus, I can give you a few more reasons. Firstly, Heirloom plants are more expensive than your hybrid tomatoes. And they normally come in one packs at the farm supply store. So what we did, was plant these heirlooms and grab the suckers off of them. This increased the amount of our heirloom tomato plants by tenfold, as most plants can give you a ton of suckers. And guess what? When you have more plants, you have more fruit, and more seeds to save. So, say you grab four varieties of your farm supply store’s first shipment of heirloom tomatoes in Early Spring. Plant them soon! Get them growing! As they grow, they will give you suckers (and lots of them). So while you’re gathering fruit from your 1st batch of tomatoes you bought, you can be setting out the suckers from those plants. And guess what? Tomatoes will produce until frost. So you can get a lot of tomatoes from just this little bit of investment. Of course there is some sweat equity, but hey, that’s part of the fun. And believe me, it’s really kinda fun to watch your tomatoes grow. So, you can have fresh tomatoes throughout the Summer and into the Fall by planting these suckers, and staggering your plantings. This will give a lot more seed to save for next year, and plenty of tomatoes to can and preserve for your pantry. And, you will have fresh tomatoes for your enjoyment. Happy Suckering!

How to Survive the Cities During TEOTWAWKI, by Lara W.

Get out of the cities. Most would agree this is a key rule of survival during the end of the world as we know it.  After all, millions of people reside in cities around the globe. Supply store shelves can become bare in mere minutes, water can become rapidly contaminated by overwhelmed sewage systems, and riots can outnumber and overtake law enforcement. The urban environment also renders certain wilderness survival tactics unsafe, such as cooking over a fire. Cities are vulnerable to uncontrollable fires. They make prime nuclear targets. Disease spreads among city dwellers at an astounding rate. There are many reasons why cities are dangerous in a TEOTWAWKI situation. Therefore, the logic to abandon them for a less populated area remains largely undisputed.
But what if one of the following scenarios makes leaving the city impossible?

Quarantine
A 2005 CRS report for the United States Congress, Federal and State Isolation and Quarantine Authority, states that the Secretary of Health and Human Services can give authority for the Director of the CDC to determine that measures taken by local medicine powers to prevent the spread of disease have been ineffective, and intervene directly by taking the “necessary measures”.

Simply put, the United States government has the power to quarantine sections of the country, as do governments in various parts of the world. Below are just several cases of quarantined cities throughout the world in the last ten years. Read and research the facts for yourself through the provided hyperlinks.

In 2003, over 8,000 people were put under quarantine in their homes and watched through installed video cameras due to an outbreak of SARS in Taipei City, Taiwan. More than 7,000 people were also put under quarantine due to SARS in the city of Toronto, Canada.

In 2006, over 60,000 people were put under quarantine due to an outbreak of bird flu in the city of Bucharest, Romania. Over 23,000 more residents were quarantined in the city of Codlea, Romania.

In 2009, the world’s second largest city with a population of 21 million, Mexico City, was put under quarantine for five days in the midst of a Swine Flu outbreak.

These quarantines, lasting anywhere from four days to a couple weeks, are a far cry from what could potentially occur should an outbreak threaten the long-term freedom of urban residents. The general rule of quarantines is simple: No one gets in and no one gets out.

Flooded Roads
Rain storms, broken dams, overflowing rivers, melting snow, and tsunamis are several occurrences which may cause sudden and dangerous flooding of major roads leading out of cities around the world.
In October of 2010, flooding left the city of Gisborne, New Zealand with only a couple round-about ways of entering or leaving the city. Had debris obstructed these roads, the city would have been completely isolated from the outside world.
In January of 2011, nearly 1,000 flooded roads and several closed bridges around the city of Brisbane, Australia only left one unclosed bridge as access to Southern Brisbane.
Also in January of 2011, the city of Rockhampton, Australia was completely cut off by flood waters. Here is a blog written by someone in the city describing their experience of urban isolation.

Collapsed and Closed Bridges
Major bridges in and around cities may collapse at some point due to structural wear, though they are more likely to collapse due to a disaster such as an earthquake, fire, train wreck, sink hole, or tsunami. Total collapse aside, a bridge need only be threatened or damaged by any of these disasters for city officials to make the decision to close it to road and foot traffic.
In August of 2007, the Interstate 35W bridge connecting the city of Minneapolis to St. Paul collapsed into the Mississippi River during rush hour traffic. The MSNBC news article states that the bridge was “a major Minneapolis artery”.
In December of 2009, a bridge collapsed in the city of Kota, India, killing at least 40 people and leaving cars with no way to cross the Chambal River.
On July 14th, 2011, a bridge split in half in the city of Wuyishan, China. While it’s too soon to know how this will affect city residents, it’s fair to assume that months of investigation and repair are in order.

Mass Rioting
Riots can be deadly. If riots consume the streets of your city, it won’t merely be
impossible to drive through the crowds, but dangerous to leave your home. Damage done by rioters could also be severe enough to close roads leading out of the city long after rioting has ceased.
On January 28th, 2011, over 10,000 protesters began rioting in Cairo, Egypt and several were killed. Some policemen even went as far as to join the riot.
On June 15th, 2011, rioting in Vancouver, Canada caused five million dollars worth of damage which took weeks to repair.
On July 11th, 2011, rioting in the city of Belfast, Ireland injured 40 police officers when the Orange Order performed their annual march. The violence continued for over five hours.
Riots are one of the most common forms of social disruption around the globe. Whether caused by political unrest or due to a win/loss at a major sporting event, they can last anywhere from several hours to days on end. [JWR Adds: Stay away from riots! They quite typically devolve into a classic Suave qui peut situation.]

Terrorist Threat
The news is constantly regaling us with stories of how bombers have taken hostages in libraries, schools, city halls, and other public venues. Would it be a stretch then, to speculate that a terrorist could take an entire city hostage? Or that a country could threaten to destroy the capitol of another country with a nuclear weapon? It’s possible that one day, cities may be put under lock down and its residents held hostage until negotiations with terrorists end.

Poor Health
It will be impossible to move out of the city, even if the direct threat is over, should you or one of your family members become seriously wounded. Terminal illnesses, post operation recovery, old age, and disabling diseases can also slow or halt a move, forcing you to stay in the nearly abandoned city for an extended period of time.
So how can you prepare yourself for isolation in the city?

Rule #1: Be Aware
Awareness will be a key component of survival in the cities. You need to be aware of what’s happening in the streets so you don’t stumble into a riot, the location and direction of local fires before they consume your building, and what’s happening in other areas of the city so you know if friends and family are okay. It’s also important to be aware and stay updated on the possibility of leaving the city.

Therefore, a crank radio that at a bare minimum features local weather and news stations is essential. Many people who prepare for emergencies boast the importance of a battery-powered radio. Batteries are expensive, perishable, and wasteful. Personally I recommended the Etón Scorpion crank radio at only $50, which features an AM/FM digital radio, seven NOAA weather stations, an antenna, both a manual hand crank and solar panel for recharging, a large LED flashlight, clock, aluminum carabineer, bottle opener, AUX port, and headphone jack. After about 500 cranks you get two hours of power and after about ten hours in direct sunlight you get twelve hours of power. Be sure to count out the 500 cranks, as it’s easy to get impatient and only charge twenty minutes of power. A radio is one of the best ways to stay aware of what’s happening in the city while safely indoors.

When outdoors, you must be aware of what’s progressing around you at all times. Modern day order has urban residents walking the streets while talking on phones, having conversations, daydreaming, or eying their destination with tunnel vision. During TEOTWAWKI, you must be aware of anyone walking too close, people loitering, dark alleys ahead, people who may be following you or watching you from windows above, or the sudden pickup in the pace of footsteps near you. Anyone could be hunting for prey to rob, rape, and/or kill. Be aware.

Rule #2: Know Your City
The more you know about your city, the more of an advantage you have in a TEOTWAWKI situation. If you know the underground routes and/or back alleys, travel (such as getting home) will be safer than using the main roads. If you know the location of underground rooms, you can move there if fires consume the city or if radiation is at deadly levels. If you know the rooftops that provide the most shelter, you won’t be in a panic if floods wash out the roads. If you know every possible route of escape and place to hide, you can evade any pursuer. Your city may become your world. It would serve you well to know every nook and cranny.

An easy way to begin exploring your city is to study detailed maps and blueprints, walk the streets to confirm what you’ve studied, and to enter public buildings you’ve never been in before. Knowing all entryways and exits, including ladders and fire escapes, could prove vital in an emergency.

Once you’ve memorized the surface streets, seek out tours which take you beneath the historical districts. Seattle, for example, hosts a tour of the Seattle Underground, tunnels created after the Great Seattle Fire of 1889. The Brooklyn Historic Railway Association hosts regular tours of a hidden tunnel directly under Atlantic Avenue. There’s a shopping center called Underground Atlanta which covers over six blocks beneath the streets. Houston even has over seven miles of underground passageways! Cleveland, Dallas, Chicago, and many other cities around the world have similar underground passages. All you need to do to find underground tours and shopping centers in your city is to to do a web search on your city’s name, along with the term “underground”. [JWR Adds: Some of these underground passageways can be amazing, even akin to the Traboules of Old Lyon.]

The final process of exploring your city is an option called urban exploration. Urban explorers commonly explore off-limits areas such as abandoned buildings, transit and utility tunnels, storm drains, catacombs, and roofs. Discovery Channel’s television show Urban Explorers has made urban exploring more popular in recent years, and has also exposed the risks and dangers urban explorers face. Many abandoned buildings are unstable in structure, house hostile squatters, and contain poisons in the air, paint, and bird droppings. There’s also the risk of being arrested for trespassing and breaking and entering, depending on the area of exploration. Therefore, proper gear and significant research is necessary if you choose to explore your city in such depth.

Rule #3: Know How to Protect Yourself
Protecting yourself goes beyond just self-defense. It encompasses basic knowledge, using your resources, adapting to the situation, and always keeping your personal safety at the forefront of your mind. Below is life-saving advice for a variety of TEOTWAWKI urban situations.
Avoid walking in the city alone. Remember, there is safety in numbers.
Avoid walking in the city at night, unless you need the darkness for cover. Even if you have a night vision lens, if you get into trouble and yell for help, people who don’t have a lens may not be able to find you.
When it rains, don’t take shelter in the storm drains. “When it rains, no drains.”
Avoid looking like a victim when walking the streets. Stand straight, square your shoulders, and walk with a strong stride. Look people in the eye long enough for them to know you’re unafraid, but not long enough for them to interpret your stare as a challenge.
Blend in, blend in, blend in. Don’t call attention to the fact that you’re carrying a gun by wearing military fatigues. Don’t call attention to your supplies by wearing a large backpack around people who have nothing but the clothing on their backs. Don’t call attention to your access to water by being the only clean person in a crowd of filthy people. To not blend in is putting yourself in danger.
If you’re caught in a riot, your immediate goal is to reach a safe shelter. Keep your head down to avoid flying objects and slowly make your way towards the edge of the crowd. If you’re caught by police or rioters, stay calm and say whatever is necessary to be released. Don’t use the main roads to reach a safe shelter.
If you’re in a city building during an earthquake, the safest place to be is under a sturdy piece of furniture against the inner wall of the building and away from the windows. Don’t try to run outside, as objects may hit you as they fall. If you’re already outside, stay as far from buildings as possible, which may be in the middle of an intersection. Watch out for falling poles and objects. Be ready for aftershocks.
In case TEOTWAWKI occurs before you’ve obtained and practiced with a gun, your best bet is to learn some knife defense techniques now. A knife also serves well as a backup weapon if you run out of ammunition. Due to the density of city populations, I’ve chosen a short video presenting the Tactical Defense Institute’s knife defense technique used against multiple attackers.
There are an indefinite number of circumstances in which knowing how to protect yourself in the city can save your life. Do you know how to protect yourself from looters trying to break into your apartment? How about from disease by keeping your small living space sanitary? What would you do to ensure your safety if the city air raid sirens started going off? Have thoroughly-researched and practiced plans in order to protect yourself.

Rule #4: Have Supplies and a Bug out Bag
While it’s possible to survive without supplies, urban conditions will make it extremely difficult. Rather than expend the energy it requires to trap and cook city delights such as rats, pigeons, and squirrels, you could be in the safety in your own home eating from your stockpile of food. Rather than risk a city fire by boiling all water from a questionable source, you could make use of a ceramic water filter such as the Katadyn Pocket Water Microfilter, which has a 13,000 gallon working life. Rather than face looters with nothing but a kitchen knife and scissors, you could face them with a loaded gun you’re well practiced with. You get the idea. Preparing now by stockpiling self-tested supplies will raise your chances of urban survival by allowing you to save your energy for when you need it most and allow you to stay in your home, away from the danger on the streets.

A bug out bag is also of utmost importance, as all survivalists know. But in the city there are specific aspects of a bug out bag to take into consideration.
First of all, weapons such as guns, knives, and mace should not stay in your bag. They should be put on your person in several places and close at hand for when you need them. The city is full of small escapes and narrow passageways not large enough for a stuffed backpack. If you need to abandon your bag, you need the ability to do so quickly, with the knowledge that you can still protect yourself in a dangerous situation.
As a city dweller, your bug out bag should be smaller than the bags used by rural residents. This isn’t because you require less survival gear, but because the bigger your bag, the more robbers will notice it and target you. With a large city population, armed robbers will be much more of a risk than out in the country.

A key item in your urban bug out bag will be a long length of thin, strong rope. Think collapsed staircases, blocked fire escapes, and no fire trucks. There are two essential knots to learn and practice for you to be able to use the rope safely. As a sailor, I recommended the Bowline (for tying the rope securely around something at one end) and the Sheet Bend (for a secure connection between two rope ends).

Other urban bug out bag necessities include eye-seal goggles and an N95 respirator to protect against debris dust, maps for when you’re so panicked you don’t remember which streets or tunnels lead where, and an LED light and crank radio (like the Etón Scorpion) to light dim back alleys, read maps, and being aware of situation progress and dangers. If you wear heels day-to-day, consider packing a comfortable pair of walking or running shoes. Then there are the essentials for any bug out bag, such as water, food, and a medical kit.

Rule #5: Keep Fit
If your city became a battleground, how long would you last?
Cities are home to many people on steady doses of anti-psychotic medications, many drug addicts, and many alcoholics. When the system breaks down, these people may face a sudden and sometimes violent detoxification as these substances are no longer available. Criminal activity may soar as thieves, ex-convicts, and sex offenders are no longer under the watchful eye of the law. Usually peaceful people who are unprepared may become brutally cutthroat in the midst of survival.

As the city can quickly become one of the most dangerous places to be, it’s important to always be at your peak physically. To be prepared to outrun pursuers and fight off attackers. Many people in the city do plenty of walking, but may be unprepared to run several miles.

The three basic fitness components include cardio, strength, and flexibility. I would also encourage you to focus on endurance, as there won’t always be time to rest when you’re trying to survive. Adrenaline will only last so long before the stress on your system takes its toll.

And for those of you who already consider yourselves fit, there’s always room for improvement. Keep striving and one day it may save your life.

Oral Rehydration Solutions Revisited, by Dr. Bob

The following is the “Simple Solution” –  Home made Oral Rehydration Salts (ORS) Recipe
Preparing 1 (one) Liter solution using Salt, Sugar and Water at home.
Mix an oral rehydration solution using the following recipe.

Ingredients:

  1. Six (6) level teaspoons of Sugar
  2. Half (1/2) level teaspoon of Salt
  3. One Liter of clean drinking or boiled water and then cooled – 5 cupfuls (each cup is about 200 ml.)

Preparation Method:

  1. Stir the mixture until the salt and sugar dissolve.

Oral rehydration will make the difference between life and death with many serious diarrheal illnesses.  Please make sure you have this formula somewhere on your prepper shelves and that you have adequate stockpiles of salt and sugar.  Drinks like juice and Gatorade are fine to use with water until your stores run out.  There are many other formulas out there, this one is simple and easy with just three ingredients.  

Stay strong , people!  – Dr. Bob

[JWR Notes: Dr. Bob is is one of the few consulting physicians in the U.S. who dispenses antibiotics for disaster preparedness as part of his normal scope of practice. His web site is: SurvivingHealthy.com.)

Letter Re: The Versatile Closet Door Shoe Rack

Jim:
I just wanted to drop an alternate product use suggestion. In my gun closet I have a mesh over-the-door shoe organizer that mount to the doors by hooks. When I swing the door open to get to the gun safe I have loaded magazines in easy to grab and recognizable rows in the shoe holder. I also keep other small parts like extra scopes, bipods, and other detachable items in the compartments.  It is four pockets across and six down, for 24 total pockets. Each pocket will easily hold two loaded AK magazines or three AR magazines.  This gives a ready reserve of 72 loaded AR-15 magazines that are taking up essentially zero [floor] space. – M.A.T. in Virginia

Letter Re: New Survivalist Movie “Phase 7”

Mr. Rawles,
I am writing to tell you about an amazing movie I just saw titled Phase 7. I saw it at our local AMC theater and realized it was only doing limited showings in limited cities. My interest peaked, I watched the trailer and saw that it was an apocalyptic genre movie about surviving a viral outbreak. I gathered up the wife and headed out. I was amazed to see a low budget film that was all about survival!

The main character is a thirty-something city boy slacker who has a pregnant wife. As things begin to unravel, his neighbor (the ultra prepared survivalist) befriends him and teaches him to survive. First, we think it is just for charity, but by the end of the movie, you see it is for other reasons. There are a few scenes of unbelievable gun violence that are depicted, earning the movie its R rating. Overall, it seems the writer must have been a Rawlesian survivalist. This movie is surprisingly accurate, kind in places, and funny when it needs to be. The survival lessons and tactics used, especially demonstrating how to be prepared in an ultra urban setting are very valuable. Check it out! – I.S.

Two Letters Re: Dairy Goats 201 – Birthing Kids

James:
This is my first time writing to SurvivalBlog. We have been raising goats and sheep for five years. Country Lady’s comments in Dairy Goats 201 – Birthing Kids are pretty much on the money. We have had to pull stuck twins, bottle feed when one of our ewes’ had 1/2 of her bag go dry(she had twins) and have lost sheep to pneumonia and a goat to bloating. We raise our sheep and goats for meat on the table. My wife read every book about sheep and goats that she could. It was a good information source, But in the end, our vet, who is a wonderful country vet who has seen it all, said “throw those books away!” You have to be with the animals. You have to be ready for what ever. We use old towels to wipe down the babies, we vaccinate right away and babies and mom go to a horse stall with a heat lamp for a couple days. Its can be cold in upstate Michigan. The best advise you can get when starting out is the advise of someone who has done it before. Our sheep and goat experience has been rewarding and we plan to eat if everything falls apart . Happy hobby farming , it’s a good way to be prepared. Remember to help those willing to help you! Chuck in Northern Michigan

JWR:
Being addicted to raising goats, I was quite interested to read Dairy Goats 201 – Birthing Kids, by Country Lady. I realize that if one crammed 1,000 goat breeders/raisers into a large auditorium, 1,000 different “correct” ways would probably present themselves as to birthing. I’d like to take a moment to point out several issues that in 10 years of being a goat keep I’ve learned:

First, re: “The father of all the babies listed below is Cappuccino, a half Nubian, half Nigerian Dwarf yearling buck. Since Cappy is fairly small, we expected easy births of smaller babies, but that turned out to be just a theory as both male kids had large Nubian heads that caused a lot of birthing pain for the two smaller does.”

Bucklings, specifically Nubians, do not mature until approximately three years. A yearling might weigh 80 pounds and the same three year old might weigh in at 200 pounds. I might look to the width and depth of the pelvic cradle of the does, especially smaller breeds for inability to kid with ease.

“Anne punctured the sack with her fingernail (she had already washed her hands and poured alcohol over them).”

The alcohol is great, the puncturing might present a problem.

In a perfect delivery, goat kids would be delivered with “nose down between legs.” But we don’t live in a perfect world.

Presentations are likely to be breech, one leg forward with the other hitched behind the pelvic bone, or a myriad of other complications. The placenta is designed to protect and cushion the kid from the outside world until full delivery. If the presentation is not “appropriate” or one must manipulate a tangled set of limbs as the kids seem to “race to emerge first”, what happens if the Placenta has been pierced? The fluid, and in some cases the Meconium can be forced back into the lungs. A kid might suffocate before emergence if the delivery is extended beyond several minutes. Worse, the kid might survive to not thrive with constant infections.

God designed a wonderful system in which a Doe in most cases will remove the membrane from the muzzle of the kid by licking. This serves numerous purposes two of which are: stimulating breathing and eliciting the cry which from first breath will be identified as “her kid” strengthening the bonding process.

“We tried to get Baby to nurse Calico, but all she would do was lick her – we realized that Baby must have been bottle-fed and did not know how to mother.”

This is a fallacy that many newer individuals subscribe to. While there are Dams who are what we might consider “poor” mothers, Nature has imbued in these critters the drive to reproduce and nurture their offspring. In the case of a CAE (Caprine Arthritis-Encephalitis Virus) Positive Doe if one chooses to “reduce the transmission” (notice I do not say eliminate, but that would be another post entirely) it is imperative that the kids be removed before the Dam cleans them at all.

After years of “clean goats”, I did have a positive and did pull the kids. Both Doelings delivered and mothered kids 20 months later. This year our crop of kids totaled 42. Of those I chose to remove a Quad or two, pull some as bottle babies for 4H or Show purchasers, or assist a first freshener with production issues. In the years that I have done this, not one Bottle Doe has kidded with issues of inability to Nurture with the exception of one line that seemed to have a reappearance of this trait. This line was culled as if TSHTF, coddling cannot be continued at this level.

In all it is wonderful to read of someone who enjoys raising goats. I’d encourage those who are interested to research, research, research – now. Our lines have been bred over the last six years or so to maximize production with lower grain input, increase worm resistance thereby reducing our dependency on wormer, and increase mothering skills. – Mutti (A SurvivalBlog Reader via TMM, and originator of The Goat Chronicles.)

Economics and Investing:

Gold to Rise on $14.3 Trillion U.S. Debt Limit Increase

Bob G. spotted this: Europe’s Contagion Effect: Prepare for a Global Economic Collapse

Ron’s Paul’s speech on the Federal Debt Ceiling

John T. sent this: How to make sense of the gold-to-silver ratio

Chris D. recommended: The Symbolic Nature Of Money

Dr. Gary North’s comments on debt-based money and its alternatives.

Items from The Economatrix:

Gold Could Hit $1,700 By the End of the Year:  Analyst

Fitch Reiterates Warning on U.S. Credit Rating

Iran Opens Oil Bourse — Harbinger of Trouble for New York And London?

Economy’s Spring Slump Could Last Through Summer

Odds ‘n Sods:

Geoff S. sent: Farm Thieves Target Grapes, and Even Bees

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A final reminder that the deadline for the Ready Made Resources Preparedness Video Contest is July 26th. Instructional (nonfiction) videos on any topic related to family preparedness are sought. The prizes are a brand new Rock Rivers Arms (RRA) Elite Comp M4 (AR-15 series compatible ) complete Barreled Upper Receiver and a Trijicon Reflex sight with a combined retail value of more than $1,400. Please keep your privacy in mind when you create your videos. (Don’t mention any surnames or towns). You may post up to three videos to YouTube for consideration in the judging. Videos up to 10 minute long that are your original work that are already posted to YouTube are also eligible for the judging. To enter, e-mail the URL for video(s) to: grisrob@gmail.com. Do not send the videos themselves or links to videos stored at other web sites. Only nonfiction videos that you post to YouTube are eligible. The creator of the best video will win a brand new a brand new complete Rock Rivers Arms (RRA) Elite Comp M4 (AR-15 series compatible ) Barreled Upper Receiver and a Trijicon Reflex sight. The deadline or posting videos is July 26th. The video judged best will be announced in early August.

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Confused motives?: An anti-jihadist jihad by a freemason in Norway? Something is not right with this story, and there are obviously some key facts about Breivik missing in the press reports. Obviously, a true “Christian” would not have done this! And who were the accomplices that helped him? (The likelihood of it being a truly solo endeavor is slim.) Just like the never-located John Doe #2 from the Oklahoma City bombing, I suspect that only the approved story will ever be publicized. Oh, and BTW, the liberal pundits (who wasted no time to dance in the blood) falsely claimed that firearms are the “weapons of choice” for terrorists. They aren’t. Bombs are. In fact, statistics show that on average, bombs and flame weapons are much more efficient at quickly killing lots of people, than guns. This has been the case time and time again in the modern era, dating back to 1927. The incident in Norway was unusual, in that the terrorist used both a bomb and then guns, but by choosing unarmed victims that were isolated on an island, bullets accounted for more lives than did his bomb. And the plot thickens: An altered Facebook page?

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F.J. sent this, over at The Art of Manliness: Five Unexpected Skills Needed on an Ultra-Backpacking Adventure

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Karen P. Sent this tale of being in the wrong place at the wrong time: Gas tanker truck crashes near Saugus; driver dies

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” – Galatians 5:22-25 (KJV)

Note from JWR:

Today we present another two entries for Round 35 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The prizes for this round include:

First Prize: A.) 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 B.) Two cases of Alpine Aire freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $400 value.) C.) A 9-Tray Excalibur Food Dehydrator from Safecastle.com (a $275 value), D.) A $250 gift certificate from Sunflower Ammo, and E.) An M17 medical kit from JRH Enterprises (a $179.95 value).

Second Prize: A.) A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol. It is a $439 value courtesy of Next Level Training. B.) 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, C.) A $250 gift card from Emergency Essentials, and D.) two cases of Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Third Prize: A.) A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21. (This filter system is a $275 value.) , and B.) Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy. This is a $185 retail value.

Round 35 ends on July 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that articles that relate practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

Dairy Goats 201 – Birthing Kids, by Country Lady

A few months ago, SurvivalBlog posted my article entitled “Dairy Goats 101” which described some basics of goat ownership.  This follow-up article will take you through the five kiddings that we recently experienced. 

Let me start by emphasizing what many others have stated on Survival Blog:  Book learning is not enough – you must  practice survival and self-sufficiency skills.   Don’t just read about having livestock, get out there and buy some animals and gain experience immediately before you need to rely on these animals for food.

To get into milk production the does must give birth.  We waited until February to breed our goats because we have long, wet springs – goats are susceptible to pneumonia when wet or chilled.  Five months later in sunny June and July our five does gave birth.  I read books and web sites about birthing baby goats, the only problem is that most of my goats did not read the same books! 

About two weeks before our first doe was due to kid, I prepared a birthing kit containing large and small towels, paper towels, The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery, a bulb syringe, alcohol, and an iodine tincture. I added another large bag of towels, it seems that you just cannot have too many towels, especially when twins come along.  With each birth we spread  towels to keep the babies off the dirt and straw.  This made it easier for the mothers to clean them off and prevented contamination with feces.  We also wiped noses and mouths and sometimes suctioned them out if there was a lot of mucous. 

Assisting with birthing animals is not for the faint-hearted or those with weak stomachs.  My teenage daughter was quite put off by the  amniotic sacs, membranes, fluids and blood attending each birth.  Watching a doe eat the afterbirth is a bit unsettling, but is important for both predator protection and nourishment.  After delivery, I prepared a large bowl of warm water with molasses for the mother.  Some does drank two bowls; a couple refused it entirely.

The father of all the babies listed below is Cappuccino, a half Nubian, half Nigerian Dwarf yearling buck.  Since Cappy is fairly small,  we expected easy births of smaller babies, but that turned out to be just a theory as both male kids had large Nubian heads that caused a lot of birthing pain for the two smaller does.

Birth #1.  Nana, our large Alpine doe, let me know she was ready to deliver while I was milking another doe early in the morning.  How did she communicate this to me?  She stuck her head over the fence to get my attention, then I saw her extremely full udder and that there were two deep hollows on either side of her backbone where it connects to the tail.  I finished milking in record time, then used a halter to slowly lead Nana to a clean stall in our new barn.  We stopped along the way for each contraction and then she bedded down in a clean stall with fresh hay. 

First she passed a mucous plug, which she promptly ate.  Nana is an experienced mother.  She even sucked the wax plugs out of her teats during the contractions so her kids would be able to get the milk easier.  I called my neighbor for help when I noticed a chunk of tissue coming out where I expected to see a sac of amniotic fluid.  Anne, my neighbor,  did not know what the tissue was, but by now the contractions were coming much stronger and finally a sac started to emerge.  Anne punctured the sack with her fingernail (she had already washed her hands and poured alcohol over them).  Soon we saw two little feet, then a nose.  Anne put steady downward traction on the legs during each contraction.   Traction  means that she did not try to pull the kid out, just held the legs downward so they didn’t slip back inside between contractions.  Soon a slippery little kid was out and struggling to get on her feet.  We helped wipe the kid down while Nana licked her feverishly, making soothing goat sounds the entire time.  We understood her hurry when she laid down and a second sac began to emerge.  This kid was born much more quickly and again Nana did a great job of licking and cooing to her baby.   About an hour later Nana delivered her afterbirth – a slimy mass of tissue, fluids and blood.  It is important that the entire afterbirth comes out or deadly infections and/or bleeding can occur.  Nana ate part of it, but as soon as she lost interest, I used a plastic bag to gather up the rest and I put it in the trash – we did not want to bury or compost it because the scent would attract our dogs and the local coyotes, mountain lions and bears.

Nana obviously read the same book I did and had a classic delivery – two beautiful twin girls, Keri and Fawn,  who were on their feet within ten minutes of birth and experts at nursing after we helped them a couple of times.   To help a newborn latch onto a teat,  get them sucking on your finger then use your other hand to push the teat into their mouth, squeezing a little milk so they get the taste.  Pushing their heads onto the teat does not work well. 

For several days I had to milk Nana because her udder became too full for the kids to latch on.  After that  I put her in the milking stand with some grain and minerals  just to get her in the routine for milking.

Birth #2. Baby is a sweet half Pygora, half Nubian doe.  She was very uncomfortable during her pregnancy, resting on her front knees when she laid down and not wanting  to be around the other goats.  I eventually put her in an entryway by herself at night.

Baby’s birthing process was an absolute disaster.  She went into labor one evening 20 days prior to her due date (typical gestation is about five months). Instead of being bedded down in a clean stall in the new barn, she went back to the old barn which was filthy and gave birth in quick succession to two small, weak kids.  Then Baby began to bloat.  She was grinding her teeth, breathing rapidly and obviously in great pain.  She could not take care of her kids or move.  We figured she was bleeding internally and was unable to pass the placenta.  I thought we would have to put her down if her suffering grew much worse.  We wrapped the kids in towels and kept rubbing them down to get them dry and warm. The male kid was chilled from the time he dropped and died within an hour.  The little doe, whom we named Calico, was stronger. 

We checked on Baby throughout the night and about 3:00 a.m. she had passed the placenta.  In the morning we showed her her daughter (Calico was too weak to stand).  We tried to get Baby to nurse Calico, but all she would do was lick her – we realized that Baby must have been bottle-fed and did not know how to mother.  Calico put up a good fight for a day and a half  (we used a heating pad to keep her warm and an eye dropper to feed her) then she too died.  We kept Calico with  Baby for several hours after she died so Baby would know that she had lost her kid.  Still, two days later when Baby regained her strength, she spent many hours each day looking for Calico and crying for her. 

I had to start milking her due to udder engorgement and it is still difficult to get her to stand still for a milking.  Her teats are small so milking takes a long time.  However, she is giving a half gallon a day of rich, sweet milk.  Now when I lock her into the milking stand I give her a lot of fresh grass along with a bit of grain to keep her occupied while I milk.  Some days it works, some days she fights and fidgets the whole time.  With does who kick and fidget, I milk into small glass jars, emptying them into a larger jar every few minutes.  Much more milk is saved this way.

Our research revealed that the most common cause of premature birth is being butted in the side during pregnancy.   We sold Becky, a doe who continually butted other goats in the side, when we learned this.

Birth #3. We knew that Holly (a mixture of Alpine, Nigerian Dwarf and Nubian) had been bottle-fed, so we were concerned about her ability to mother.  During the latter stages of the pregnancy I noticed that she had an extra teat right above her normal teat on one side of her udder. Her labor began normally, but then the contractions got stronger with no results.  Finally I saw the hooves and began to feel around for a head, then I realized that this was only one very large hoof and I couldn’t find the other foot at first.  Again, we called Anne. 

With the contractions getting more forceful and Holly arching her back and screaming in pain, Anne finally got the second hoof out.  Then she extended one leg more than the other to allow more room for the head.  While Anne was at the action end, I was comforting Holly and helping support her body during the strenuous contractions.  With tremendous  effort, Holly managed to get the head out and delivered a healthy buck kid.  The head was Nubian-style, much larger than an Alpine head.  She licked him a little, but we did the majority of the cleaning up.  Anne and my husband helped Holly get to her feet after a while.  She did not eat her afterbirth so we disposed of it.  By the way, washing huge loads of towels was an almost daily chore during kidding time.

Holly delivered late at night so I spent the night in the barn.  She had apparently put something out of place in her neck during labor because she shook her head and cried most of the night.  I comforted her and helped her kid nurse when he wanted to.  She  recovered the next day.  Holly is not  a wonderful mother, but she does an adequate job.  Because of the udder defect we sold her as a pet along with Bandit, her son, to some very nice people who adore her.

Birth #4.  Boots is 100% Nigerian Dwarf, a real cutie and an experienced mother.   Generally a rather timid, stand-offish gal, she buddied up to me before her kidding time.  I spend a lot of time with each doe to be sure we have a bond during labor – which translates to them waiting for me before they give birth and delivering in the barn rather than off on the mountainside. 

Boots did not read the book.  Her ligaments thinned three days prior to kidding and she had a mucous show every morning.  After a few days no one believed me when I said that Boots was going to kid that day. 

On the third day, Boots was ready to go into full labor when a friend arrived for a tour of the property.
While Boots put her labor on hold due to the interruption, our friend  taught us how to use our dehorning iron by disbudding the two kids who were ready.  One of the twins turned out to be naturally polled (hornless).  He also showed me how to tell when the back ligaments are fully relaxed by feeling along the backbone.  He said that Boots would deliver  within a few hours. 

As soon as he left, Boots laid down and went into serious labor.  Again, hard contractions and no action, so dear Anne arrived again.  This time my husband learned how to do the gentle traction as the legs were delivered.  Boots worked very hard to deliver a large buck kid with a Nubian head.  (Nubians have large wide heads, Alpines tend to be narrow and wedge-shaped).  It is unnerving to have your little goats screaming in pain.

Boots also has  a defective udder.  She has double teats on one side,  both of which give milk.  I had to milk that side out for several days until her son was strong enough to handle both teats – now that seems to be his favorite side.  We also sold Boots and her son as pets.

Birth #5. Angel Rose is the daughter of Nana and also a full-blooded Alpine.  This was her first kidding.  Her  ligaments thinned  and her bag got tight with milk, but she did not go into labor that day.  I checked on her a few times in the evening, then opened my bedroom window so I could hear any noises from the barn during the night. 

Early in the morning I ran out and checked, but still no action, so I turned her out with the other mothers.  I was home alone and Anne out of town.  It was afternoon when I saw Angel Rose lying down under the trees.  I checked and sure enough there was a membrane showing and definite contractions.  I coaxed her back into the barn with a bowl of grain.  She ate some blackberries  I picked for her and seemed pretty relaxed.  I went to turn off some hoses in the orchard and by the time I got back I could see two hooves  through the sac. I punctured the sac and soon  a little nose and tongue protruded.  A couple of easy pushes later her kid was born and she began licking and cleaning her up. A few minutes later I saw three different sacs protruding from her .  Deciding it was best to just trust God that all would work out, I enjoyed watching the new baby get to her feet quickly and start looking for food.  But just as she starting rooting in the right spot, Angel Rose moved away, laid down and quickly delivered another kid with the same ease as the first one.  No screams, no hard labor; you would never know this was her first birth.  While the second kid was being born, kid #1 crawled over to her mother, found a teat and nursed as her sister came out.  The second little doe was trying to stand up before the hindquarters were delivered.  All I basically did was put towels in the right places.

Angel Rose was fastidious about cleaning herself up after the birth, so I gathered the twins onto my lap and they took a nap until the afterbirth was delivered and eaten by their mother.   While you do have to make sure that the entire afterbirth is delivered, you do not need watch it get eaten!  I named the precious little girls Sugar and Spice.

So to sum up our experience:  We had it easy, all the presentations were feet and head first, no breech births.  While the two smaller does struggled with the large heads, they both delivered without tearing because Anne used clean gentle fingers to help ease those heads out of the birth canal.  We are very pleased with the four doe kids and will be keeping them as a three-way cross that we expect will give lots of rich milk (from the Nubian and Nigerian Dwarf breeds) for a long time (from the Alpine side).

Because we are keeping the daughters, we have also sold Cappuccino, their father.  We will not be breeding any does this coming fall and to keep Cappy separate from the herd for a year-and-a-half seemed a waste.  To avoid the large head issue, we are going to get a Nigerian Dwarf  or Alpine buck in a year so that all our does can have smaller babies.    We will also be keeping the pregnant does in separate stalls to prevent injury during the latter stages of their pregnancy. 

Within a few days of birth all the kids with horn buds must be disbudded unless you keep a horned herd.  The two kinds cannot mix because goats like to butt each other.  Disbudding is a painful, but quick process that kills the horn cells with extreme heat.  We bought a highly recommended disbudding iron, the Rhinehart X-30 with a pygmy tip, for about $70, online.  We use three people to disbud.  My husband uses a leather glove on one hand to hold the head still and protect the ear while the other hand  holds  the hot iron.  My daughter holds the rear legs off the ground to prevent jumping and I support the upper chest, front legs and help stabilize the head.  It is not easy for us to deliberately inflict pain on our baby goats, but we do three 2-second holds  on each horn bud to be sure the job is done right.  The kids scream bloody murder while the iron is touching them, but quiet down as soon as it is off.  We carry them right back to their mothers afterwards.  Usually they run and play within minutes while we need a few hours to calm down.  Since we sold the buck kids at a young age we made sure that the new owners would know how to castrate them in a few months. 

[JWR Adds: A hinged-lid kid holding box can easily be constructed from plywood. (There are are also commercially-made boxes, available from companies like Caprine Supply.) A disbudding box has a hole for the kid’s head. The box minimizes the squirming factor, thus making disbudding safer, and reduces it to just a two-man job. In my experience, a box that is narrower than those shown in most of the online plans works best. The only crucial dimensions are the box height and the size of the neck aperture. Also, do not wimp out on the number of seconds that the iron must be applied, or the germinal roots will grow sharp horn scurs, which can be worse than full-size horns.]

Now that the birthing is behind us, we spend lots of time each day just enjoying the antics of these adorable kids.  They run, jump, climb and play king of the mountain on every stump, then snuggle into chairs, boxes and hollow logs for their naps.  They are learning their names and in a few years will be having kids of their own and providing milk for our homestead.  I am milking two goats presently, getting 1-1/2 gallons of milk daily and making cheese, yogurt, ice cream and kefir to add nutrition and variety to our diet.  I love my goats!

This is a good time of year to buy some goats.  Check out Craigslist, the local feed store, and shopper ads.  Get to know someone who has raised goats for many years who can mentor your first year.  Start small and enjoy these amazing creatures while you become more prepared to face an uncertain future.

Simple Prepping for the Suburban Home, by Keep-it-Simple Suburbanite

Our family lives in an average house on an average lot near the edge of an average midwestern city.  While we have two evacuation invitations and are looking into purchasing “camping land”, our primary plan is to shelter in place.  From the very beginning, JWR’s “blinding flash of the obvious” has been the watchword in my quest for simplicity.  Limited time, space and resources have led to some streamlining that might give others a few helpful ideas.

Garden

Have you ever felt overwhelmed and intimidated by all the great gardening advice you read here on the blog?  If so, why not just try a practice garden? 
For me, gardening started when I walked in to a bookstore looking for something to read as I recovered from my upcoming cancer surgery.  I felt the Lord direct me to Steve Solomon’s Gardening When It Counts.  At the time I thought it was to facilitate better nutrition and exercise to get my strength back, but it was also my introduction to SurvivalBlog and the preparedness world.   

Not knowing anything about raising food, we decided to put in a practice garden.  A friend with a rototiller got it started, but it took all summer to dig and plant a little every day as I recovered.  The next year we started practicing Mel Bartholomew’s Square Foot Gardening.  Every year we “practice” some new things, eat the mistakes and never worry about doing it the wrong way. 

Design

As the garden evolves, discoveries and challenges lead to better design.  Here are some fun facts my garden has taught me.  The things that are harvested all at once can be in less accessible areas, but the salad fixings and herbs should be handy for daily use.  It can be hard to find the fruits under the leaves of vines; but planting vine crops next to trellises oriented north and tipped 30-45 degrees means that they’ll grow with the leaves on top and the fruit underneath.  Root crops generally grow well in clay but are hard to harvest, so put them in areas with loose soil or in deep containers.  A vegetable garden with a few flowers and a focal point is a decorative garden, so toss in a few flower seeds and use interesting discarded items as trellises or art. 

Aesthetics
For those of us living in suburbia, aesthetics is an important part of getting along with neighbors.  If it’s ugly, it should be hidden in the back yard, but it shouldn’t get too ugly.  Fences are great for privacy, trellising and security, but can also separate you from the community.  We have opted for hedges of native and edible shrubs.  Most utilitarian gardening should be done in inconspicuous areas, and everything visible to the neighbors should be inoffensive, hopefully even attractive.  The more the neighbors garden, the more they see all gardens as things of beauty.  Sharing seeds, plants, produce and especially compliments can work wonders. 

Perennial landscaping can focus on attractive food-producing plants, and most of these can certainly be in the more public areas.  My next practice garden will be a medicinal herb garden disguised as an English cottage garden in the front yard.  We also have space between the house and evergreen foundation plantings to stack firewood so it’s out of the weather and out of sight.  Decorative features such as arbors and pergolas can also support food production.  A yard can blend in with the neighbors and still be attractive and productive.

Compost
Even the best soil needs to be renewed with compost, but it seemed so complicated that I was hesitant to try it.  There are lots of fancy expensive complicated systems out there, but the simplest and quickest method is just to compost in place.  Basically, everything organic will rot and become humus in the soil. Dig a hole.  Put organic material in it.  Cover it up.  Wait a while.  Plant something.  How simple is that?  If you give worm medication to your pets, the feces would kill worms, so don’t compost that.  If you try to compost meat or bones, the neighbor’s dog might dig it up, so you might not want to compost that either.  On the other hand, don’t most people bury dead animals, which are essentially meat and bones?  Leaves and grass clippings make great mulch throughout the garden.  As it breaks down, it becomes more compost. 

Seeds
Seed saving has been thoroughly covered by others, but here is one simple idea I haven’t seen anywhere else.
Don’t you wish that annual vegetables were perennials?  Anyone with a yard can start a living seed bank.  In fact, two would be even better, one at the residence and one at the retreat location.  This garden takes on a lush but wild appearance, so select the site accordingly.  Simply plant favorite crops and don’t harvest most of them.  Enjoy a few nibbles, but leave most of it to reproduce naturally.  Choose one variety of open-pollinated seeds for each vegetable to avoid undesired crosses.  Potatoes, squash, tomatoes, carrots, parsnips, lettuce, onions, garlic, beans, peas and such will establish themselves and natural selection will finely tune the best traits for your location.  Omitting tall corn and red tomatoes will make the garden less noticeable.  Certainly, not everything will do well, but in time of need it’s good to have an additional source of nourishment and hardy seeds. 

Bathroom  

Disposing of wastes is high on the list of concerns for a suburban prepper.  All this talk of five gallon buckets and outhouses is not very appealing.  A friend who served as a SEAL informed me that full five-gallon buckets can and do break.  They also get extremely heavy.  The neighbors might not like the looks of an outhouse, and they are not generally designed for ease of thorough cleaning.  Here is a simpler solution that I haven’t seen anyone mention. 
Simply modify indoor facilities.  Place a 5-quart ice cream pail in the toilet bowl.  (You may need to remove a little water so it doesn’t float.)  Voila, the most convenient chamber pot imaginable!  The family will be more comfortable sitting in a familiar place, and it is easy to keep sanitary.  You may want to put a little bio-friendly soap in the pail first.  It should be lined with sawdust, grass clippings or other suitable material, which will also be used to cover fecal material after each use.  Keep this in another pail next to the commode.
The odor and toxicity of solid wastes are reduced when they are not mixed with urine, so a separate pail for urine is a good idea.  This can actually be stored and used in the shower or tub, which also makes for easier maintenance.  Using a pail for this purpose is easier if one responds to the “urge” sooner rather than later.  If there is an occasional splash, the design of the shower/tub makes clean up easier. 

Washing
Hand washing can be done at the sink, almost as usual.  Large liquid laundry detergent containers with spigots can be reused wherever you need convenient hand washing.  (We keep one in the garden.)  If you want to reuse the water, just set a pail in the sink.  That water is suitable for sponge baths, cleaning the bathroom, cleaning the waste pail or all three if you’re really short on water. 

In a situation without running water, keeping the body clean would be more necessary and difficult than usual.  A solar shower designed for camping is what we have for now.  It necessitates a sturdy hook (or two) to hold the shower as high as possible.  Placing it above the tub at the opposite side from the showerhead is most convenient.  You might also want two in front of the bathroom window to warm the water on cold sunny days.  Our solar shower is heavy, awkward, hard to dry out after use, and it cannot produce significant water pressure.  It is OK for a quick wet down and rinse, but a washcloth is going to have to take the place of water pressure.  Several quick rinses throughout the day sometimes work better than waiting to scrub everything off in the evening. 

For simplicity’s sake, one multi-use cleanser is ideal.  Dawn dish soap is good for almost everything.  My hairdresser said the pH is fine for oily hair, and no one is going to shampoo hair unless it’s greasy in an extreme situation.  Dawn is used on wildlife affected by oil spills, so it is nontoxic and effective.  Using a foam soap dispenser makes a tiny bit of soap go a long way.  It’s also Okay for hand laundry, but difficult to rinse if too much is used. 

Maintenance
It is essential to keep the bathroom clean.  Everything from the mirror to the floor should we wiped down every day so there is no build-up of nastiness.  Empty the waste pails at least once a day.  With the small capacity and distinct odor, the pail will demand frequent attention.  Since the handles and lids are somewhat unreliable, be careful to hold each pail with one hand below and one above the pail!  Solid wastes must be buried.  Doing so near trees or shrubs may hasten decomposition, but obviously, you’re not going to bury it near the potatoes and carrots.  I make it a practice to dig a suitable ditch before the ground freezes each fall, just in case.  The waste pail should be cleaned daily.  Consider alternating two pails so one can sit in the sun to dry and disinfect.
This might seem gross when there is perfectly good city water and sewer, but it’s not a bad idea to try it out now when mistakes don’t matter. 

Food Storage

Start in the kitchen. When I first found SurvivalBlog, I started stashing packaged goods in the backs of file drawers and behind books on the shelf, wherever there was a little extra room. What a mess!  The best place to start is in the kitchen, of course. Work through each cupboard, using or tossing the things the family usually doesn’t eat.  This is also a good time to reorganize and pare down the things that aren’t needed.  With all this newfound space, it’s easy to have multiple cans or packages of what you really like.  (Are you old enough to remember the Beverly Hillbillies ads where Granny had an entire cupboard filled with Campbell’s Soup?)

Add the Pantry
If there is already a pantry next to the kitchen consider yourself blessed.  My husband had actually set up a pantry shelf at the foot of the basement stairs for extra food. (Silly me; I had thought it was unnecessary since we already had a fine kitchen.)  I started adding to his stash, sorting and resorting to make new additions fit without giving away the fact that I was building up the stores.  The point is, starting with one set of shelves in a handy place outside the kitchen keeps momentum going without overwhelming the kitchen. 
At this point, it was time to know how long this storage food would last.  There are all kinds of fancy charts and spreadsheets, but anything that complicated was not going to work for us.   A calculator was kept on hand to calculate and label the number of calories in each package.  For our family, about 8,000 calories per day is what we currently consume.  Every time 8,000 calories was added to the pantry, a hash mark went on the tally on a cardboard box on the shelf.  When food went upstairs or was purchased, the tally was adjusted.  It would have been way too complicated to calculate the food in the kitchen, so that was just considered bonus food.  This was a simple way to keep score until there was about 9 months of food in storage.
About this time I also realized that separating my storage and weekly groceries in the shopping cart meant that the food would end up pretty well sorted into the grocery bags.  That made it a lot easier to put it all away. 

Create a Cellar
The pantry at the basement stairs was becoming unmanageable, so one day my insightful husband decided we needed shelves.  That weekend we had four huge shelving units.  These was placed farther back in the basement, in the cool northeast corner.  We knew those shelves would be too heavy to move, so we left plenty of elbowroom.  It doesn’t have to be attractive, but it should be sturdy, easy to keep clean and as discrete as possible.  We placed old bookshelves full of miscellaneous basement junk back-to-back with the food storage shelves, essentially forming a wall to keep the food cellar out of the line of sight. 

If you’re reading the blog, you already know about rotation, buckets, vermin, and such, so let’s skip that.  It is important to have a simple organizational plan.  At this point a place for everything and everything in its place is not optional.  Top shelves, which were warmer, were for non-food items, and the bottom shelves have functioned marginally as a root cellar for garden vegetables.  Medical supplies were located in front at eye level.  Labeling shelves as well as buckets and boxes made it easier for the rest of the family to find what they needed.  Especially important was a handy place for markers, calculators, bucket openers, and a shopping list. 

Kitchen

The kitchen has never been my primary area of strength; in fact, my family calls the smoke detector the dinner bell.  That should give anyone hope.  The simple approach to preparedness has made the kitchen a slightly happier place.

Canning
Anyone who can read and follow directions can learn to can.  Butter seemed the obvious first step because it was uncomplicated, it’s not easy to produce at home and you can’t help but notice if it goes bad.  Meat was next, since it is also easy and saves a lot of money.  It would be a waste to mess around with little batches, so it seemed sensible to start with the largest pressure canner available.  Cases of mason jars were found inexpensively on Craigslist, along with a cheap dehydrator to practice drying fruits, vegetables and herbs.

Cast Iron
In preparation for an eventual woodstove or cook stove, I wanted to collect cast iron cookware.  However, when my husband’s used his dutch ovens in the campfire, everything had to be lined with foil or it would stick.  Certainly that’s not how grandma did it.  Paul Wheaton explained things wonderfully in this article on his blog.  Now cast iron is all I use, even on my electric stove.

Mixes
Despite not being a great cook, it’s important to serve healthier and tastier foods.  We obtained a number of large genuine Tupperware containers for free about the time I was reading about DIY mixes on the blog.  Unfortunately, many recipes for homemade mixes are decidedly unhealthy.  I took my favorite cookie, pancake/biscuit and other recipes  and multiplied them to fill the containers.  To make it even easier, I marked 10 & 20 cups of flour on two sides and listed the ingredients and directions on the other sides.  This makes it super easy to frequently make healthy homemade foods and to prepare a new batch of the mix.  
herbs

Reading a few books on herbal benefits and remedies made me want to add some herbs to our meals.  A few seeds and a few seedlings made a good start.  Then I bought my very first bottle of alcohol, some vodka to practice making tinctures.   Cooking, teas and tinctures are definitely easy ways to start getting the benefit of herbs.   

Cook Stove

Having purchased a used Blaze Princess stove for heat, I was hoping to also cook a few things on it when it’s installed before next winter.  Then a pathetically rusty miniature cook stove turned up for $60.  It had probably been a salesman’s sample, but it works just like the full-sized model.  It’s kind of a joke to look at, but it provides an opportunity to practice using a wood cook stove in the back yard without putting a hole in the roof or smoking up the house.  Glitches that would have been disasters in the house are humorous in the back yard. 
 

Explaning Your Preps

No doubt about it, the preparedness lifestyle can be a bit out of place in suburbia.  Comments will be made.  A list of one-liners prepared ahead of time makes it simpler to respond truthfully without revealing too much.  Here are a few of my favorites. 

  • “We teachers sure do have odd hobbies, don’t we?”
  • “A friend teaches a unit on Little House on the Prairie, and I wanted to try this.”
  • “Organic food is important for us cancer survivors.”
  • “Think globally, act locally.”
  • “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle”
  • “This lowers my carbon footprint.”  Yes, this can be said with a straight face.
  • “I’m doing my part to save the earth.”  Likewise.
  • “We’re a Scouting family; be prepared!”
  • This is my all time favorite.  “It’s for the Boy Scouts.”  My sons are Eagle Scouts, and everything I do is ultimately for them. 
  • When the guy at the bakery asks every few months what I do with all those buckets, here’s the answer.  “It’s for the Boy Scouts.  They’re great to organize food because they’re weather-proof, critter-proof, and you can sit on them.”

The very best explanation I ever gave was to our dearest friends.  When I confided my concerns and preparations, they said they used to be prepared, but now they would just come to our house.  I think I had read this response somewhere in SurvivalBlog.  “Sure, just bring a year’s worth of food, a gun and a thousand rounds.”  They’ve been prepping ever since.  In fact, last month they bought a ton of wheat and two handguns.  Having our best friends preparing with us is one of the best things in my life.

Keep It Simple
There is a lot of practicing going on at our home.  We are preparing, but in a way that fits with our life and neighborhood, because in this suburban household, we are a lot more successful when we keep it simple.

Pat’s Product Review: Taurus 800 Series Pistols

Many years ago, when I was living back in Chicago, Illinois for a couple of years I was working as the Investigation Manager for a large detective agency, that had offices all over the USA. As an extra duty, I also maintained the company-owned firearms that our armed security officers used. We had well over 200 armed security officers in our Chicago office alone, and most of them were armed with company-owned Taurus .38 Special revolvers. I used to keep a supply of spare parts on hand, as those guns were breaking with regularity. Truth be told, I spent more time than I liked on repairing those firearms – when I should have been overseeing some important investigations. Luckily, I had a good staff on investigators working for me, so I only had to check on their work from time-to-time.

Back in those days, Taurus revolvers were anything but “good” in my book. They were meant to be used only when necessary. If you did a lot of shooting with a Taurus revolver back then, you had to expect a lot of problems and repairs in order to keep your Taurus up and running. The detective agency I worked for, didn’t require their armed officers to do a lot of shooting, but many did, on their own time, go to the gun range and shoot, and this led to a lot of guns breaking. So, I have something of a history and a lot of experience with Taurus firearms.

I’m happy to report that Taurus has come a long way from what they used to be. Today, Taurus firearms are just as good, if not better, than any of the big name firearms on the market. As an aside, I’m the first gun writer to do web site only gun articles, and my first articles started appearing several years ago on the Taurus web site www.taurususa.com as a result of working with Chuck Fretwell who handles the Public Relations and Marketing for Taurus firearms. Chuck is one of the good guys, he’s an ex SpecOps guy, and he knows guns.

The guns under review in this piece are from the Taurus 800 series of handguns. Some folks simply don’t like striker-fired handguns. Personally, I don’t have any problems with striker-fired handguns, they always seem to go “bang” whenever I pull the trigger. However, some folks prefer a hammer-fired handgun, and Taurus listened, and came out with their 800 series of handguns. These include:

  • a 9mm Parabellum (the 809 with 17 round capacity)
  • a .40 S&W (the 840 with 15 round capacity)
  • a .45 ACP (the 845 with 12 round capacity)

I have had the opportunity to test and evaluate the Taurus 809 (9mm) and 845 (.45 ACP) handguns, and they are both outstanding firearms. My good friend and fellow gun writer, John Taffin also tested the 845 a couple years ago, and he also thought very highly of the pistol.

My 809 sample came from Chuck Fretwell during a visit with him to discuss doing web-only articles on Taurus firearms. I was more than a little excited to get home from Lake Oswego, Oregon to my digs 70 miles away, so I could test the 809. I was really taken with how nice the 809 felt in my hand – it felt “just right” as Goldilocks would say. The grip frame is about as thin as you can get side-to-side, as well as front-to-back. It just plain ‘ol felt good in my hand.

The 809 can be carried cocked ‘n locked, like the venerable Model 1911, or you can chamber a round, and use the frame-mounted safety/decocker to safely lower the hammer, and carried the gun with the hammer down, in which case, the first shot would be double-action. With the hammer cocked, with the safety “on” – you simply swipe the safety “off” and the first round is fired single-action, with all subsequent rounds being fired single-action – my preferred method of carry on this gun. The trigger reach is outstanding in either the single-action or double-action method of carry. All buy those with the smallest hand and trigger reach will like the way this gun feels in the hand.

Coming in at 30.2 ounces, the 809 is heavier than a Glock full-sized model 17, however the 809 doesn’t feel much heavier in the least, as it balances very nicely in the hand. The magazine release, slide release and safety are all ambidextrous, too – so the gun is great for right or left handed shooters. Carrying 17-rds of 9mm, the 809 is also right up there with other hi-cap 9mm handguns [like the Glock 17] when it comes to carrying a lot of rounds. The polymer frame helps keep the weight down on the 800 series pistols.

The frame has an extended beavertail-type frame extension, which helps control the gun during rapid-fire – nice touch. White dot sights adorn the slide, and they are quick to pick-up, under most lighting conditions. Taurus isn’t offering night sights on the 800 series of handguns, and that’s too bad, wish they would – at least as an option. The frame has an integral Picatinny-style rail for mounting lights or lasers, and this is fast becoming the norm with a lot of pistols these days.

Take-down of the 809 is fast and easy, and requires no tools or paperclips. You can break-down the 809 in less than half a minute for cleaning and maintenance. The grip frame on the 809 has horizontal serrations for a secure grip under just about any weather conditions, too. Finish on the slide is a black Tenifer, which will stand-up to the harshest weather conditions you can throw at this gun.

If you want more technical information on the 800 series of handguns from Taurus, go to their web site. I don’t want to bore SurvivalBlog readers to death with specifications.

So, how does the 809 shoot? Well, this is an excellent shooting 9mm pistol. In over 300-rds of shooting, in one range session alone, I never experienced anything remotely looking like a malfunction of any type. I fed my sample all manner of 9mm ammo from Black Hills Ammunition, Buffalo Bore Ammunition and Winchester’s white box, USA brand. The 809 ate up 115 grain FMJ as well as JHP rounds, as well as 124 grain JHP rounds and 147 grain FMJ rounds without any problems. The 809 didn’t seem to prefer any particular brand or bullet weight over another when it came to accuracy at 25-yards. I could keep  5 round inside of 3″ standing on my two legs. The 809 can also handle +P 9mm loads. While most gun manufactures advise you to not use +P+ loads, the 809 handled some Buffalo Bore +P+ loads without any problems. However, be advised, accelerated wear can occur with super-hot loads.

The 809 has a suggested retail price of $656 – and you can usually find most Taurus firearms deeply discounted in most gun shops. In my book, the Taurus 809 is a best buy in a 17-round 9mm pistol.

I purchased the Taurus 845 .45 ACP pistol out of my own pocket, at my local gun shop. Given my druthers, I’ll usually take a .45 ACP handgun over a 9mm when the chips are down. I’m not about to start a discussion over which round is “better” – I just happen to prefer the .45 ACP over the 9mm in most cases, especially if I were limited to using only FMJ ammo, as opposed to JHP loads as a man stopper.

Like the Taurus 809, the 845 is very similar in most respects. It has a 4″ barrel, polymer frame, etc. It weighs in at 28.2-oz so it’s a bit lighter than the 809 is. All other specs are the same as the 809.

The 845 holds 12-rds of .45 ACP in their magazines, and you get one spare magazine with the 845, just as you do with the 809. I personally don’t understand why all gun makers don’t provide at least one spare mag with their guns. And, it seems like, the more expensive a handgun is, the less chance there is of getting a spare mag – shame on those gun companies who don’t provide a spare with their handguns!

As I mentioned previously, my good friend and fellow gun writer, John Taffin, tested the 845 at about the same time I was testing my sample, and he loved it. I concur with most of what John wrote in his article, with one exception. My 845 sample shot low with all ammo tested – and we’re talking a couple inches low at 25-yards. This could be easily corrected with a lower front sight – I asked Taurus to send me one – never heard back from them. I’ve read some place, and I can’t remember where, that Taurus uses the same front and rear sights on their 800 series guns, 9mm, .40 S&W and .45 ACP. I don’t know if that’s true or not, however I measured the front sight height on my 9mm and .45 ACP samples and they were the same height.

I really liked shooting the 845, even more so than the 809 sample. Then again, as I mentioned, I like the .45 ACP round better. The 845 had zero malfunctions, and I tested it with Winchester’s USA 230 grain FMJ, Black Hills Ammunitions’s 230 grain JHP and FMJ loads,  and Buffalo Bore’s 185 grain JHP+P loads. As with the 809, the 845 didn’t seem to prefer one brand of ammo over another when it came to accuracy, and I could easily keep most loads in the 3″ range at 25-yards. I will say, the Buffalo Bore 185 grain JHP +P load catches ones attention – they are stout, to be sure. And, the 185 grain JHP load shot lower than the 230 grain loads, which is to be expected.

I’d like to see Taurus replace the 845’s front sight, with one a little bit shorter, so it would bring my point of aim, to the point of impact. Then again, John Taffin, didn’t have any problems with his sample hitting point of aim, point of impact. So it might have just been my sample.

The suggested retail price on the 845 is $674 and again, you can usually find Taurus handguns deeply discounted at most gun shops. As with the 809, the 845 is a best buy in a full capacity .45 ACP.

Now, if there is one serious complaint I have with most Taurus handguns it is this: It is very difficult to get spare magazines from Taurus, from your gun shop or most mail-order places. Look, I know the President of Taurus USA, Bob Morrison, and even with that personal contact, I have a difficult time getting any spare mags directly from Taurus. I discussed this with Chuck Fretwell from Taurus, and he said he doesn’t understand this problem, either. In any event, you get one spare mag with either the 809 or 845. So, you have a good start with being able to carry your 809 or 845 with just one spare magazine – and you should always carry at least one spare mag with any semi-auto handgun. Spare mags are out there for Taurus handguns, you just have to look for them. [JWR Adds: My philosophy on buying guns when magazines are scarce is to buy a half dozen spare magazines before you buy the gun itself. You never know when another magazine ban might be enacted!]

In the past dozen or so years, Taurus firearms have come a long way from what they used to be, and its all for the better, too. I would have no problem carrying any Taurus handgun, in a fight-stopping caliber, for self-defense. And all Taurus firearms come with a lifetime warranty, too – and they have some really outstanding customer service should you have a problem with your Taurus firearms. If you’re in the market for a new pistol, then take a close look at the Taurus 809 or 845. – SurvivalBlog Field Gear Editor Pat Cascio

Avoiding Heat Injuries, by Dr. Bob

As it is affecting so many of us right now, seems like a good time to give you some information about heat-related problems and preventing heat stroke and heat exhaustion.
Heat Exhaustion most often occurs when people work or play in a hot, humid place and body fluids are lost through sweating, causing overheating of the body.  Usually a person is dehydrated to some degree, from mild to severely.  The person’s temperature may be elevated, but not above 104 degrees.  Now, most of us can go inside a cool down either in air-conditioned vehicles or homes.  Even the movies are a great cooling spot, (as bad as they are until that ape movie comes out that I want to see…creepy apes).  This will not be so simple WTSHTF.  Again, making some assumptions about TEOTWAWKI that may or may not hold true; but, if there are basements that are underground, usually the temperature there is never really dangerous for heat-related illnesses.  Go there for the worst weather of summer.  Or your favorite cave nearby.  Or Starbucks…oh wait…that won’t work.  Find your cool area now so that you can plan for it if we get this kind of weather next year. (Possibly without a grid power?)

Heat stroke, also referred to as heatstroke or sun stroke, is a life-threatening condition. Your cooling system, controlled by the brain, stops working correctly and body temperature rises to the point at which brain damage or damage to other internal organs may result, usually 105+ degrees.  About 700 people die yearly due to heat-related illness, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  And that’s now with power and air for most of us to spoil ourselves with.  Think of what that number may reach without a grid and a medical system to back us up.

Infants, children under four years old, overweight folks, and the elderly are more likely to have heat stroke, as are those who are taking certain types of medication.  So if you are fat, lose it.  If you are an infant or child, hurry up and get over four before this all “goes down”.  If you are elderly, well, nothing you can really do about that now unless you get some of that swimming pool deal from that old person/alien movie.  If you do, don’t tell my granny cause I don’t want to have to hear about it constantly and watch her dancing around. The short message of this paragraph is pay special attention to little ones and elderly folks in this kind of heat…they might need it more than the rest of us.

Heat Exhaustion and Heat Stroke Prevention
Avoidance of heat exhaustion is pretty easy now but may not be WTSHTF.  Your best try is not engaging in strenuous activity in hot, humid environments.  People who are not used to the heat should be particularly careful.  Intersperse periods of rest in a cool environment with plenty of available fluids to drink.  Avoid strenuous activities during the hottest part of the day.  Hydration is key. Fluids will be important every day but on those days 100-fold more so.  Don’t forget electrolytes too, water alone with profuse sweating can cause some electrolyte imbalances in potassium, sodium and chloride that can really get you too.  Best things to do now when it’s really hot or then (WTSHTF) are simple things:

  1. Rest in a cool, shaded area.
  2. Drink cool fluids like water or electrolyte-containing drinks.  Salty snacks are appropriate as tolerated.
  3. Loosen or remove clothing.
  4. Apply cool water to skin.
  5. Do not use an alcohol rub.
  6. Do not give any beverages containing alcohol or caffeine.
  7. If you are treating someone that is overheated with exhaustion or possible heat stroke:
    1. Move the person to a cooler environment, or place him or her in a cool bath of water (avoid drowning the person by watching them, please!)
    2. Alternatively, moisten the skin with lukewarm water and fan the person to blow cool air across the skin.
    3. Give cool beverages by mouth only if the person has a normal ability to swallow.

This is really basic information, but hopefully it helps and may get you thinking seriously about this issue if you currently plan to live out on a trailer in the desert WTSHTF.  You won’t make it in this weather unprotected from this kind of heat.  Try turning off your air for 48 hours and see what kinds of temps you run in your home…it might surprise you how hot it gets fast or how cool your lower level actually stays.  Everyone’s situation is very different so start to plan yours accordingly.  Even you northerners can end up dying of heat stroke when the temp stays above 100 for a couple days, so figure out your preventive strategies now.  And everyone can in theory die from heat stroke if they push themselves without proper cooling.  There’s tough, there’s smart, and there’s alive.  Better to be smart and alive than tough and not.  Stay strong, – Dr. Bob

[JWR Notes: Dr. Bob is is one of the few consulting physicians in the U.S. who dispenses antibiotics for disaster preparedness as part of his normal scope of practice. His web site is: SurvivingHealthy.com.)

Letter Re: The Thinning of The Horde

Dear SurvivalBloggers,
After reading “The Thinning of The Horde” by Matt B., I would like to make aware the realization that if TEOTWAWKI were to happen during the winter months, which may be as long as five months in the northern tier states, the Transportation Departments (state or local) will not be plowing roads making them impassable by most vehicles. I can imagine the local Good Samaritan plowing out a neighborhood, but in the urban areas, most people do not own plows. In rural America, the distance between neighbors is sometimes measured in miles. A foot of fresh snow would minimize looting in many areas as well as minimize [travel by] those searching for food and warmth. I think that if SHTF during the winter months in the northern states, it would be a dire situation to those that are not prepared. – Dave K. in Washington