The Greatest Truth Never Told #12. The Great Depression Is The Best Case
o o o
Motorcycle Powered by Sewage. (Thanks to KAF for the link.)
o o o
Spitfire redux: The WWII guns firing after 70 years buried in peat. (Thanks to Hope for the link.)
o o o
Reader L.M.W. recommended a recent Day By Day cartoon strip on the Gunwalker scandal.
o o o
Ron W. sent us this: Police raid Heckler & Koch in bribery probe
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.” – John 3:16-21 (KJV)
Today we present another two entries for Round 37 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 Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $300 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.), B.) Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy. This is a $185 retail value, C.) A Commence Fire! emergency stove with three tinder refill kits. (A $160 value.), and D.) Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security.
Round 37 ends on November 30th, 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.
As a family, we have been practicing – and experimenting – for years. It started with a small garden, which took the place of the kids’ swimming pool when they got older and lost interest.
Our soil is a heavy clay, so after a couple of years of wrestling with the rototiller (it always won the battle), we decided to move up. Of course, by that I mean raised beds. So we bought some boards, and nailed them together. Then we ordered a truckload of top soil, and wheeled it out back one wheelbarrow load at a time. And since it was spring, we pushed each load through the mud and puddles. Whew!
Our first years of raised bed gardening were enlightening. We chose to use extended release fertilizers, and gradually learned how much to use and when. The time-release stuff is a good idea, but don’t trust the label! We found that toward the end of July, we had to add more to the surface, and gently scratch it in. And then there was the year we decided to add organic nitrogen to our sweet corn bed – it was looking tired. Unfortunately, we added too much and burned up our crop in a few days. Lesson learned… As far as pesticides? Well we decided to not use them. Surprisingly, we’ve had very little problem with pests. On the other hand, the grandkids have had a ball finding the praying mantises and the ladybugs. Every year, we use mulch to protect our beds, and to add humus to the soil at the end of the season. In addition, we’ve systematically added sand and compost to our beds. Loosening up the soil has shown great improvements in our yields.
Around our raised bed garden, we’ve arranged apple and pear trees, and this year we planted grape vines. Along the side of our house we’ve got blueberry bushes growing. By the way – be prepared to accept the fact that you’re going to provide treats for the local wildlife. I was excited one day while I was picking green beans when I noticed a nice big deer hoof print right in the middle of the bed. Cool! Deer are beautiful animals! And there was no evidence that our visitor had bothered our garden in any way! My excitement faded away the next day, however, when I realized that our Granny Smith apple tree had been completely stripped of all of its fruit! And later in the summer, we found out that the birds are very adept at picking blueberries and sunflower seeds. So yes – that’s always going to be a small glitch in the survival plan… [JWR Adds: Time for some serious fencing and bird netting!]
Overall our journey has been a series of experiments. We’ve tried growing crops vertically. The pole beans and vining tomatoes do great. The cucumbers we tried didn’t do as well. By the way, pole beans love sunflowers. Kind of a two-for-one deal. We’ve grown bush beans under corn, cucumbers under tomatoes, and onions and leeks lined up around and in between peppers and tomatoes. We grow nasturtiums on the edges of our beds (and eat the blossoms in salads). We’ve increased the variety of our diet by growing eggplant, okra (and we live in northwest Ohio!), parsnips, beets, celery, and greens (spinach, arugula, mixed lettuces, etc.). We’ve grown a whole bed of carrots, and then stored them in five gallon buckets of damp sand in our pantry. They were sweet!
The key is that we try new things every year. Sometimes we win; sometimes we learn new lessons the hard way. But every year we add to our “bible”. It’s a thick book of knowledge gained from our own experiences as well as tips and ideas collected from all kinds of sources – magazines, books, and the Internet.
Over the last couple of years, we have experimented with several new things.
First, we bought heirloom seeds from a reputable supplier. We chose a variety, and we bought two or three times as much seed as we “needed” for the garden space that we have. Just in case. Then, we packed the seed packages together with packets of desiccants. We then wrapped everything up together in zip-lock bags, squeezed out as much air as possible, and then wrapped the bags in freezer paper. Into the deep freeze they went. The next spring, we gently thawed them out in the refrigerator and after a few days, finally took them out and let them come to room temperature. The final test came when we planted the seeds, and watched for the results. Success! The seeds germinated as well as any we had ever bought from the store. Last year, we froze a supply of seeds large enough to last us for years.
This year, our next major experiment took place in our dining room. We had tried to start seedlings in trays by the window, but had never had real good success. So last year we bought four inexpensive grow lights, and set up two tables in our Dining Room. Each table had a shelf underneath, so we set up a light above the shelf, and another above the table-top. Then we planted our seeds in the trays, and waited to see what would happen. The results were good – too good. The seedlings were ready well before the weather was. “Lesson learned”, again. Timing is everything!
Another experiment this year was to leave a couple of carrots, a few onions, and a couple of leeks in the ground (actually, we left them in last fall). This spring, they all took off growing again (2nd year growth), and by mid-summer, we saw them developing flowers. We left the flowers to bloom, and by the end of the summer, we harvested the flower heads. After a few weeks of drying time, we gently ground up the flowers and harvested the seeds. You would be amazed at the number of seeds we got from each flower head! Next spring, we’re hoping that those seeds will bring us a new crop.
So far, I’ve only shared our gardening experiences with you. But that isn’t all we work on…
If we intend to survive a real breakdown of society and order, we will need more than just a nice garden. So we’ve tried to round out our learning with other subjects. For example:
We can properly and successfully can our own produce, as well as dry our own herbs, and can meats and stocks. We purposefully watched for sales at the “clearance stores”, and stocked up on canning jars and supplies. We bought and learned how to use a pressure cooker. Then we found a large pressure cooker at a garage sale for $10. We picked up the tools and recipe books on sale or also at garage sales. We use a cheap dehydrator to dry our herbs (oregano, basil, thyme, parsley, and rosemary). We make our own apple butter, salsa, soups, and tomato sauces. We pickle cucumbers and peppers. Our holiday meals always end with a large stock pot simmering the goodness out of the carcass of our roast beast.
We have planned for power outages – we have stocked numerous bags of charcoal, propane tanks, candles, and oil for our lamps. We can cook, see in the dark, and stay warm when it’s cold.
For the future, we’ve collected books on almost every subject, and the tools to do things without the aid of a computer or electric power. We have the tools and information to enable us to do engineering, drafting, gardening, hunting-fishing-trapping, butchering animals for meat, signaling, military tactics and strategy, and medicine – all the way from insect bites to minor surgery. Our shelves are stocked with medical instruments and supplies, gardening and construction tools (hand tools), and canning and food processing supplies and tools.
We’ve scouted out possible sources of food and supplies. There is some heavy industry in our town, and their factories could be a source of coal, tools, and building supplies. Our neck of the woods is predominantly a farming area, though. And we’ve noted the locations of the hog farms, cattle farms, and granaries. The woods and fields have abundant deer, turkeys, and geese.
For our own food supply at home, we converted a closet/storage area behind the garage into a walk-in pantry, and moved the door to connect it to the kitchen. We’ve slowly built up our stocks of canned foods (vegetables and meats), dry pastas, and staples. And when we have a little extra money, we spring for the special things that will make life more bearable in the event of TEOTWAWKI, like sauces, ethnic foods, spices, etc.
And suffice to say, we’ve planned for our own defense. We have weapons and ammunition, communications and vision gear, and routes and defensive positions scouted out in advance. Google satellite maps/pictures are invaluable.
We don’t broadcast our preparations and plans. In fact, the key to our plan for survival is that we don’t want anyone to even notice us, so we certainly don’t go around bragging about our stocks of food and supplies.
None of this writing is meant to instruct you on the exact steps you need to take for your own survival. Every situation is different. Every family is different. But what we’ve tried to do is to search out the knowledge that’s available, and make a plan that fits the particular needs of our own unique extended family. It’s important to understand that none of this happens overnight. You learn and grow over time. Our situation is always changing slightly, and we adjust our plans and preparations as we go.
But we do want to encourage you. You can do this! A little at a time – a little every day, every paycheck, every holiday (my wife gave me a flint and steel kit last Christmas – the perfect gift!). And every little thing that you do for yourself and your family will increase your chances of survival just a little bit more.
Good Luck! – From our family in Defiance, Ohio
I was fifteen years old when the Sylvester Stallone movie, First Blood
My grandfather’s home was another refuge during this time. He was raised on a farm during The Great Depression where he would walk to the railroad tracks and flag down the train to town to trade his butter and eggs for sugar and coffee. He dug his basement with a team of oxen after buying his home for $1,700 in 1934. That basement contained a modern furnace, a backup coal stove, and two deep freezes filled with produce from a large garden and meat from hogs we slaughtered ourselves. I always wondered why he had flashlights hanging in every room of the house. It was not until he died in 2010 at the age of 99 that I found out he was afraid of the dark. His Depression era carnival glass kerosene lamp has a prominent place on my dresser.
As a teenager in the eighties I expressed myself with surplus camouflage pants and a black T-shirt proclaiming ‘Kill Them All – Let God Sort Them Out.” Sometimes I included a defused hand grenade on a chain around my neck as seen in the movie Uncommon Valor
I attended college locally which I paid for in part by making lye soap and selling it at craft festivals. I took every ROTC class that I could without committing to accepting a commission. When I finally went away for graduate school in the nineties, I rented an apartment on a man-made lake for water security. I brought along a generator and kerosene heater and plenty of firearms. The linen closet was re-purposed for an extra pantry and lacking outdoor storage, I risked driving around with several cans of fuel in the back of my truck. I returned home well ahead of Y2K and started a business with a large Amish and Mennonite customer base. While not a member of their churches, I attended on occasion, visited their homes, and were invited to their weddings and funerals. I learned a lot from those relationships. I learned to live out my faith. I learned that simple living brought independence regardless of income. I learned the value of community. When asked to complete a questionnaire by his government employer about his Y2K plan, my best friend merely wrote that he would come to my house. I had done nothing differently to prepare.
After Y2K I worked part-time as a firefighter and summers teaching wilderness survival and shooting sports at a high adventure camp for the Boy Scouts of America. I owned a lot of real estate until I relocated to my current state, got married, and started a family. I married a city girl who is not a prepper, but recognizes the value and supports my lifestyle. She had just purchased a home in this small city before we started dating. Since we cannot sell her home without paying down the mortgage, I added rain barrels and backup heat and sold my free and clear home on the outskirts of town to purchase land on which I built our wood-heated, solar powered retreat. Using an asset protection trust, I purchased secluded acreage near the national forest. It sits on a former logging road off a dead end road forming an easily defensible community of about twenty homes which sit in a hollow. The logging road is inaccessible in summer without 4WD and tire chains are necessary in the winter. I formed relationships with my neighbors who heat with wood and hunt on their own land. This seclusion is just an hour from our home via the primary route or longer secondary routes in my EMP resistant tri-fuel 4WD. I can even get my family out of Dodge by riding my dual sport motorcycle on the trail that parallels the local railroad. I would prefer to live year-round at the retreat, but that would mean giving up our income stream and health insurance and expending savings, precious metals and food storage. Checking for trigger events is the first thing I do in the morning and the last thing I do at night. When the markets are open, I will get an automated text message in the event of an economic slide. Hopefully, this proactive approach will allow us to bug out while the desperate masses are still paralyzed by their ingrained normalcy bias. The benefit of a government job is one can leave for up to three days without advance notice in the event of a perceived trigger event. Not only does one not get fired, but usually gets paid for those days.
When I decided to purchase retreat land a few years ago, I inquired within my spheres of influence about buying a large tract together. No one was interested in doing so, but many were interested in using the land afterward. For this reason, I elected not to disclose the location to anyone other than my wife. I will not have to make the decision of who gets in the lifeboat and who does not that so many who have prepared will be forced to do. Two years of food storage only lasts a dozen people two months. As the real estate market continues to collapse, I look for the opportunity to pay cash for a rural foreclosure with several tillable acres. This would give my friends, who passed on the opportunity to become my partner, a chance to work the mini-farm as sharecroppers.
I have seen survivalism gain and lose and rise again in popularity during my lifetime. I was drawn in by personal experiences and memories of gas rationing and popular movies. For a while when the economy was booming, I quietly lived my lifestyle while watching other people become increasingly reliant on long, just-in-time distribution channels. At first I was encouraged by this latest surge in the popularity of my lifestyle choice because I felt I was no longer alone. As I dug deeper, however, I became disappointed. It appears anyone with $9.95 can point a domain name at a blog and become an ‘expert’ by assembling misquotes of published authors on particular subjects. Some popular pundits admit in their biography that they became interested in the movement after the 2008 crises. Would we hire a surgeon who became interested in medicine just three years ago? I would hope not, yet many people are betting their lives on someone who may not have actually done many of the things they are espousing on the web.
I know the terms survivalist and prepper are used interchangeably, but it is starting to appear that a prepper is someone who prepares for some future cataclysmic change while a survivalist actually lives the lifestyle today. Many preppers I have met remind me of those who play fantasy football. They know all the terms and discuss online what one should do, but never actually ‘play the game.’ I am starting to fear for those who shoot at paper targets, but never at anything that is shooting back even if only in a paintball tournament. I don’t recall anyone ever getting attacked by a paper target. Preppers are not rotating out their food storage. The other day I had to teach someone how to cook dry beans! Many have never killed and butchered anything. If one cannot live off-grid for a month during normal times, how are they going to fair when the utilities don’t come back on? It is almost as if this movement is becoming a religion where we talk about the good we should be doing instead of actually doing it.
I realize that people have busy lives and understand the argument that some provision is better than none, but believe many preppers are giving themselves a false sense of security. My concern is that they are making preparations that will ultimately belong to someone who is better prepared to fight for them or knows how to utilize them properly. The other day I was in a forum where a prepper was bragging about where he kept his money. Using just his user name, I visited two public access web pages where I viewed pictures he posted of the interior and exterior of his retreat and sent him a link to a satellite map of his rural retreat. He was unconcerned that someone with different values than me might be doing the same thing and their SHTF plan may include his provisions. I know that sometimes I seem a little harsh, but if I can convince one person to transition from being a prepper to being a doer, it is worth it any criticism I might endure.
Sir
I am providing a link to a web page on “Air Wells”–the history of harvesting atmospheric water, in the form of water vapor, dew ,and fog. I know this was done in ancient times, and when I was in Europe I went on several tours of old castles, etc. At one of these sites I saw a odd building on the grounds, and asked what that was used for. It was used to collect water from the dew in the mornings, there was a cistern inside, and the water dripped from the tile walls and collected in the cistern. The outside walls were some kind of ceramic blocks with holes through so the wet morning air could collect inside.
I had read somewhere once that the indians in the desert areas had survived on dew collected in the night and early morning before the sun burned it off. They did this by leaving a blanket out in the air or waving it around in the morning air and when it became wet they would wring it out into a container and do this until they collected enough water for the day. This method was demonstrated by a couple of Boy Scouts at the national Jamboree sometime in the 1970s as best I can remember. I read about it in one of the science magazines at the time, as I recall, it was Popular Science. The article said that two Boy Scouts got up early in the morning and waved a blanket around in the air to collect water, then wring it out into a garbage can. In about 20 minutes they were able to collect 20 gallons of water in the 20 gallon garbage can.
Also I read an article years ago about a archeological dig in the desert in Asia or Africa where they couldn’t figure out how the city they found there survived in the desert with no apparent water source. They found a clay tile pipeline that led to a hill. There they found the remnants of an apparent dew collecting setup that supplied water to the city.
Of course Rain water is the number one way to collect and harvest water, roof run off is good, but you must use a “roof washer” method to eliminate the bird droppings, etc as you don’t want them in your “cistern”. I grew up on a farm in South Dakota, we did have a well which we used to water the livestock but it was very hard and a lot of iron and other minerals in it including iron bacteria. We relied heavily on rain water for household use, since it is a soft water. We had a gutter collection system that came off the roof to a ” Y” pipe with a switch over valve. When it started raining we let the rain wash the roof clean (about 20 minutes of hard down pour) and then went out and switched the valve over to drain the roof water into the cistern. This is a great method , but I have seen “automatic” switchover valves, where the runoff water flows into a bucket and then once heavy with water it closes the valve to dump the subsequent water into the cistern.
CAUTION: I would recommend you use a charcoal filter of the “Whole House”-type to filter the water going into the cistern, and another one on the water line being pumped from the cistern to the house plumbing. There are always contaminants in the rain water that could be toxic these days. From time to time we would find a mouse or rat floating in the cistern and have to fish it out and chlorinate the water. This could be prevented by sealing the cistern off very well so this won’t happen.
Also sailors at sea have often harvested water by rigging a sail or other canvas used for that purpose to collect rain water when raining and draining it into barrels or now days directly in the boat’s water tanks. At suppliers that supply the boating community there is a device that you fasten into a canvas and it allows a common water hose to be screwed onto it and drain the water away to a tank.
CAUTION: Don’t use a common green water hose for collecting water as they have been found to out-gas toxins into the water. Use the white hose as sold by recreational vehicle suppliers for supplying water to campers, or use the black plumbing plastic pipe with garden hose style connectors.
I have an idea to put one of those fittings in the middle of a large tarp, connect it to a pipe, and roll the tarp up like a window shade and unroll it when it starts to rain that would minimize the collection of bird droppings on the water collection surface. Then roll it up again after the rain stops. If you put your water collection system on a hill above your dwelling , you can utilize gravity flow from the tank at the top of the hill. Or you could put a tank on a stand above the dwelling and a roof or tarp above the tank to collect the water and also use the time-proven gravity flow supply method. The beauty of these systems is that no power is needed to supply your water. (Except perhaps for pumping out the cistern, depending on how your house is sited in relation to your cistern.) I hope this will be of use to someone. – Darrell in Ohio
Mr. Rawles,
The recent article, “Staple Food Storage by the Numbers by Paul B.,” offers good insight into how to calculate for food storage and what foods offer more versus others. Following his idea, I went to Self magazine’s mentioned web site nutritiondata.self.com to see about other foods I had been planning on storing. When I looked into the kidney beans information provided by Paul, I noticed that the nutrition data provided in his article was based upon raw red kidney beans. The problem with uncooked beans is not only the difficulty in eating them, but they are potentially toxic when consumed if they are not cooked. For cooked kidney beans, the nutritive value is a bit lower as well, and should be accounted for when doing the math on food storage. Regards, Matt S.
Roman sent the link to this great piece: Storing Your Value–Old-School Wealth
G.G. flagged this: EUROPAC: We Have Entered The First Of Four Phases That Will Destroy Fiat Money
Some Context: How Bad is it in Italy?
The U.S. Dollar Has the Upper Hand Here. [JWR’s Comment: The U.S. Dollar’s relative strength versus the Euro is transitory. In the long run, our debt (as a percentage of GDP) will become all too obvious, and U.S. Treasury debt instruments will be propelled to double-digits yields in order to attract investors. That will be a precursor to an extended period of stagflation that may very well mean a decades-long economic depression.
K.A.F. sent this: European debt crisis spiraling out of control
Why Iceland Should Be in the News, But Is Not
Items from The Economatrix:
14 Reasons Why We Should Nationalize The Federal Reserve
My buddy Pete in Switzerland mentioned a new marketing angle for oral rehydration solutions: Warrior Wound Care.
o o o
Clearly, it is not safe to live near the Mexican border! SWAT teams dispatched as gun battle unfolds near Escobares.
o o o
Kevin S. sent this: The Darknet Project: netroots activists dream of global mesh network
o o o
The left-of center Mother Jones magazine recently posted this: Map: The Nuclear Bombs in Your Backyard. This map helps to confirm that the portions of The American Redoubt that are upwind (West) of Montana’s missile fields are relatively safe, at least in terms of anticipated target structures in a superpower nuclear exchange. (A hat tip to Kelly D. for sending the link.)
“Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me [with thy] free spirit.
[Then] will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.” – Psalm 51:12-13 (KJV)
Notes from JWRs
Today marks Armistice Day/Veteran’s Day/Poppy Day/Remembrance Day, observed in many western nations. If you meet a veteran, thank him for his service.
—
Today we present another entry for Round 37 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 Mountain House freeze dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources. (A $300 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.), B.) Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy. This is a $185 retail value, C.) A Commence Fire! emergency stove with three tinder refill kits. (A $160 value.), and D.) Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security.
Round 37 ends on November 30th, 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.
While remodeling our kitchen several years ago we purchased an antique coal/wood kitchen stove. This stove was a replacement for a wood-only cook stove that had seen better days. With the economy crumbling and living in New Hampshire where winters can be long and harsh we thought it would be a good idea to have an alternative to our all-electric kitchen. Power outages are relatively common here as well. Several years ago we lost our power for 8 days due to an ice storm.
We have lived in our current home for 33 years. It is a log home several miles outside of a small city of approximately 25,000 people. For the most part we have burned wood and home heating oil for heat. My only previous experience with coal came 35 plus years ago when we lived in town in an 80 plus year old cape with little insulation. My father-in-law was an experienced coal-burner and set us up with a small coal stove in the cellar.
Our original cook stove was given to us by a friend who found it in the barn of a house he had purchased. The stove was in sad shape, but the price was right; free, just take it away. After having it sandblasted and reassembled it sat in our kitchen for 30 years. We only used it when the power went out or when the temperature got below zero for a couple of days. Other than that, it was only lit on Christmas and Thanksgiving when I would cook a turkey or prime rib in the oven as a special treat.
Our original plan during the kitchen remodeling was to get the old stove restored. After searching on-line I contacted a father and son team in southern New England and brought the stove to them for an inspection. It was in worse shape than we suspected, so a replacement was in order. Replacing the stove opened up options we would have not had if we had stuck with the old stove. I had not given coal any thought for many years. When we walked into the stove shop they had a coal fired base heater running…it was fantastic!
After wandering around the stove “junk yard” for several hours we settled on a coal/wood burning model from the 1920s. This “new” stove had several options our old stove did not; a warming oven and a compartment under the oven for storing pots and pans. It was also narrower in length than our original which helped the overall design of the new kitchen.
We got the stove up and running during January of 2010. There is a “learning curve” required to burning coal. After getting the hang of it, you can light your fire in October and shut the stove down in April if you want. I shut ours down every couple of weeks so I can clean out the fire box, ash pit, and the area around the stove so the ashes don’t build up. Ash build-up around the oven makes the heat transfer to the oven less efficient. Unlike wood that burns up rather quickly, coal will burn constantly as long as you are available to shake down the grates and restock the fire box several times a day. I have also found that the coal burns at a more consistent temperature without the “highs and lows” you get with wood.
The first season I purchased my coal locally through the last remaining coal dealer in the region as well as one of the local hardware stores that happened to have a supply. I chose to buy bagged coal for convenience and ease of handling it. Even at 61 years old I can handle the bags without much trouble.
Depending on your area coal may or may not be readily available in bulk. Bulk deliveries require a specially designed truck capable of lifting the bed and dumping the coal through a chute into a bin, usually located in the cellar. In most areas bagged coal should be fairly easy to find. Coal is available in several sizes. Our stove uses “nut” coal; others may require “pea” or “stove” coal. Some experimentation may be in order to find the optimal combination for your stove. For me bags are easier, no coal bin, less mess and unlike cordwood, it can be stored just about anywhere. Bags are either 40 or 50 pounds each depending on the supplier.
This year I got together with three other people and arranged for a tractor-trailer delivery of bags from Pennsylvania. The truckload consisted of 22.5 tons of coal in bags on 18 pallets. I borrowed a skid steer with forks from a friend to unload the truck. You could unload it with a tractor or by hand. But I would plan on getting some younger, strong backs to help. In the end I kept 10 tons for myself. The savings by buying in bulk was almost $170 per ton over purchasing the coal locally! The cost per ton, delivered, was $270. 10 tons will last several years heating my house and shop which also has a coal fired boiler.
According to a chart I picked up at the local plumbing and heating supply store coal at $270 per ton has the equivalent BTUs of oil at around $1.70 per gallon, propane at $1.10 per gallon, wood pellets at $190 per ton and [hardwood] cordwood at $200 per cord.
I recently filled my oil tank with #2 fuel oil at $3.499 per gallon. Last week I bought propane for our gas cook top at $3.53 per gallon Earlier this fall I bought some cordwood as well; 16” lengths were $180.00 per cord and 10” lengths (for the cook stove in the early fall and late spring) was $200.00 delivered. Makes the coal look like a pretty good value to me considering how much easier it is to deal with. Keep in mind, the closer you live to the source of the coal the cheaper it will be, we had about $1100.00 in transportation costs with our 22.5 ton load and it was still a “deal”.
Once I start the stove in the kitchen in the fall we do the vast majority of our cooking on and in it for the rest of the season. In fact it’s rare for us to start the electric oven or our propane cook top in the winter. Once you master the “art” of burning coal there is very little work involved.
When I get up in the morning I open the damper on the smoke pipe and open the air intake under the grates. This causes the fire to burn hotter. While I am waiting for the fire to pick up I put my percolator and water for my oatmeal on the cook top. After a half hour or so I toss on a shovel or two of fresh coal. It takes a few minutes for the new coal to take off. When it is going good I shake down the grates letting the ashes fall into the ash pan in the bottom of the stove. If we are not going to cook anything until supper time or the outside temperature is moderate I will shut the pipe damper and leave the air intake about 1/4” open. On our stove this equates to about a 200°-250° oven, just right to keep the kitchen area warm during the day. Every couple of days I empty the ash pan out back. That’s it. (Be aware that every stove is a little different; every chimney draws a little different so you need to adjust you technique to your situation.)
When I get home at 5:00 p.m. I repeat the process from the morning and normally cook supper on the cook top or in the oven as I feed/shake down the fire. I repeat the process at bedtime. Typically I put between 25-30 pounds of coal through the stove daily.
Like just about everything in this life there are pluses and minuses to burning coal. Nothing is as easy as walking over to the wall and turning up the thermostat on your oil or gas fired furnace…but we’re talking about alternatives here.
Coal is not for everyone. If you are considering an alternative to your oil/electric/gas heat, give coal a look. In my opinion there are several distinct advantages to coal. The BTU content of coal is superior to most other fuels per dollar spent, it is more convenient to store than wood, either in bulk or bags, it will not rot like wood (it’s already millions of years old) so you can buy years ahead and store it without fear of losing you investment. It takes up much less space than the equivalent amount of wood or pellets. As I get older I find it is easier to deal with a bucket or two of coal than the amount of cord wood that it takes to provide the same amount of heat. From a safety standpoint coal does not produce creosote, so chimney fires are unlikely. Stoves designed to burn coal will also burn wood; wood stoves can not burn coal without the proper grates.
On the negative side: Coal is harder to obtain than wood, and unlike wood you can not mine it yourself [unless you are very fortunate to have a surface coal seam on your land]. Burning coal is dusty no matter what the hard-core proponents tell you. You will be vacuuming and dusting more often. I have not heard of a use for the ashes other than as fill, and as a traction compound under your tires if you get stuck in snow or on ice. If anyone else has any other uses for the ashes I’d like to hear about it.
A side note that might matter in a SHTF situation is that coal burns without any visible smoke. Looking at my chimney you can see heat “waves”, but no smoke. Coal does have a distinct odor but in my experience wood smoke is more of a problem from an OPSEC perspective. My closest neighbor is 1/8th mile away; I know when he has his wood stove running, I have been at his house and there is no indication that anything is burning at my location. Being able to cook and heat in a grid-down situation without attracting attention could be a real asset. Another advantage to coal when/if the SHTF is the ability to store large quantities out of sight. It can be left outside, in a cellar, or even buried to be dug up years later…try that with cordwood. It also never goes bad…try that with fuel oil, kerosene or gasoline.
If you are planning for a SHTF or a grid-down scenario I would look for an older stove that was designed/built in the late 1800s to early 1900s when coal burning was prevalent. These stoves were state of the art at the time, burn relatively cleanly, are simple to operate, and require no electricity to run. Vintage (and new) cook stoves are available with options including warming ovens, cabinet models with storage underneath the oven, left or right side fire boxes, fire box extenders for burning longer pieces of wood, water tanks, and water heating coils. Many times the original users of these stoves also got their domestic hot water from them as well. There are also coal fired stoves used for heating only, these can be used in a living area or in the cellar to provide heat throughout the living space. I am also experimenting with a small coal boiler that I have attached to my oil fired boiler for our radiant heat and domestic hot water. I will report back as I make progress on that project as well.
JWR –
I cannot thank you enough for all you do. Thanks to your “List of Lists” and articles I am well on my way…. above the 80% so to speak.
As everyone is, I am limited by finances. So while I pursue the items I need I also wanted to pursue skills. That is the most important anyway. So I was searching the site for a list of practical skills. Skills many times can be practiced without money or with existing gear.
Is there a list of skills on the site? And if not, then what articles would you say to start with?
Thanks again for everything. – Ben J.
JWR Replies: In general, I recommend that you take a look at the SurvivalBlog articles and letters that I’ve indexed in the “Traditional Skills” category.
Also see these SurvivalBlog pieces in the archives:
Mr Rawles:
I had to send along the link to the news article about the failure of the nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) with the observation that I would have bet this wasn’t going to work.
I say that as a retired Air Force avionics technician whose job was maintaining and flying as a crew member on the EC-135A, C, G, H, and L model Airborne Command Post Aircraft. As well as in an advisory capacity for five years when the job was passed over to the Navy E6B in 1998. Even on our best days with everyone doing the absolute best they could we would have to work around something. That was with multiple communication options.
I knew the odds of everything being interoperable were going to be slim to none, and I wasn’t disappointed.
Keep up the great work your site has really been a “go to” for me and my friends. Respectfully, – Bill T.
Josh flagged this: 100% Chance of Crisis, Worse Than 2008: Jim Rogers
M.C. highlighted this headline: The Fall of the Eurozone? Merkel Calls for “New Europe”
C.D.V. alerted us to this: Alabama County Votes for Biggest Muni Bankruptcy on Record ($3.14 billion!)
M.E.W. sent this piece by “Recovering Venture Capitalist” Bill Freeza: Will Western Civilization Rediscover The Moral Foundations Of Sound Money?
Items from The Economatrix:
Employers Post Most Job Openings in Three Years