Eight Letters Re: Mountain Money Isn’t

Hi Jim,

May your family count your blessings during this holiday time of the year. Being the first after losing a loved one. We all make that trip eventually. If the time was spent in a good fruitful life, then their are no regrets. Peace be with you and your family.

I was in the Peace Corps in West Africa, The Sahel. This was the southern portion of the Sahara Desert. Water was plentiful but had to be drawn from 60 to 80 ft. deep wells by hand. Then transported in containers to or throughout the village. It was labor intensive. Water was the most critical item for everyday existence.

No one in the native population living in the bush used toilet paper. It was the left hand wipe and clean off in the sand.

Water drawn from the well was not used by the natives for body washing. They just could not afford that kind of labor. Nearly all of the adult men were gone to neighboring countries to work. The women were left to do the manual labor.

Viruses abounded in this area.
Once I was deathly sick with massive diarrhea and massive vomiting simultaneously for six hours. The Peace Corps doctor told me I had UAV: “Unidentified African virus”I learned my lesson. Extreme cleanliness had to be the norm.

Staying healthy was the most important thing you did each day in terms of time. No shortcuts. This activity to transport, purify water and cook meals that were not contaminated took 60% to 80% of my time each day. Exposure to viruses, bacteria, skin parasites and internal parasites and insect vectors was vast. Both subtropical and tropical diseases were present including malaria. Because I had taken classes in bacteriology and microbiology during my college trials I was aware of the potential for infection. I was extra careful.

Cleaning yourself rectally with your hand was inviting exposure to a plethora of sickness. My answer was to use a rubber glove and soft cotton cloth. Then sterilize the glove in water and Clorox.
Wash the cloth in warm soapy water and sterilize it also for reuse. I kept dozens of these cloths in case the trots returned. Note: the bleach was not that brand name since it was a French product. I don’t recall the name of it now but it was the same [hypochlorite bleach sold] as Clorox.

This method worked well for me. I stayed healthy during most of my time as a Peace Corps volunteer. But I was told that the greatest infectious problem among the Peace Corps in this country was sexually transmitted diseases (STDs)

I was the only person in our group [46] of Peace Corps volunteers to bring with me pairs of work and rubber gloves. Also among the few that showed up for transport to Africa without a Western style suit and street shoes. Instead I brought a kit of tools, an 18″ Ontario machete, a large Buck knife and a good compass. Being raised partially on a farm by extended family I knew about gloves, tools, boots and such. Most of the Peace Corps people in my group came from the far east coast ivy league universities. They for the most part were helpless outside a modern house without water, electricity, phones, television and air conditioning. For this they suffered and were not prepared for life in the bush.

I was all of 44 and the third oldest in the group. But I was the best prepared of all of them for the bush.

Learn to solve problems using the simple principle: Complexity is time and intense maintenance. Avoid creating problems that are greater than the one you are to solve. Use what you have and improvise. Above all else, engage brain and think.

I read your site every day. Cordially, – J.W.C.

Sir:
As a member of the military, I’ve spent a lot of time in cultures where toilet paper is uncommon, like writer E.B.G. I’m deployed to one as I write this. But before I agree not using toilet paper and instead using your hand and water is a practical alternative for Western preppers, I would point out one key issue. In most of those cultures, the left hand is considered unclean and unfit for almost any other use. It’s not hard to deduce the very practical reason behind this- and this “one-handed” society is not something many of us adapt to very well. – Todd in Baghdad

Mr. Editor,
There’s no need to clean your backside with your hand. Just use an ordinary kitchen sink sprayer to clean yourself after using the toilet. Come on people, this isn’t that hard!
Regards, – Owen G.

Sir:
While I agree hot water and soap would be a sanitary alternative to toilet paper (TP); a bucket of cold water sitting next to the toilet does not. Even with toilet paper (TP), the lack of hot water and soap is of concern in light of limiting disease transfer. I’ll stick to stocking TP; it is relatively cheap, and while space is always a concern, TP can be stored just about anywhere that is not wet. God Bless,- Eric G.

Mr. Rawles-
E.B.G. mentioned a method of cleaning up after a bowel movement that, as you noted, would not be an ideal choice. Here in the south the old timers kept a basket of corn cobs or a Sears and Roebuck catalog in the privy to use in place of toilet paper. If you shell your own corn the cobs would be available and while it would not rate up there with Charmin’ for comfort some of that junk mail could be used. The junk mail won’t last after the SHTF but you can conserve toilet paper while it does. Don’t forget old phone books, too. – Gordon in Georgia, a former ASA 98C

JWR:
Well, I’m not quite ready to use the old left hand for that.. but I did buy a bidet. it was less than $30 on eBay. its plastic and connects right on the [toilet] seat. the wife doesn’t like it. But I bet she will reconsider when the TP runs out. My eight year old son thinks its lots of fun, I just have to watch him so he doesn’t make it hit the wall on the other side of the bathroom. – Brad S.

James,
I grew up in good old USA. I traveled to the Philippines after High School. They sell toilet paper in the stores and we bought some, of course.

It wasn’t until later that summer that I forgot to bring some toilet paper with me once when we went to the mall. (Yes the malls do not have any toilet paper, it is a “bring it yourself” world). Luckily I happened to pick the stall that had a scoop and a bucket with water. I had no choice but to use the water “the way the natives do”.

After this experience, and it was quite a learning experience, I learned to use a good amount of water and to splash it around really well. Only after I used 1-2 scoops and splashed it around well did I then touch anything with the 3rd and 4th scoops of water. Usually after the first one or two scoops there is hardly anything left.

I happen to be lucky this day and the bathroom had soap. They don’t always have soap but I guess it was fortunate for me that they did.

Would you believe it that I actually felt cleaner using water rather than toilet paper? It is true, it feels much cleaner. My wife and I joke that we will buy a bunch of toilet paper and then hold it for a while if/when the SHTF. We’ll then sell it for a premium while we use soap and water.

Anyhow, if you have never tried it then at least try it for a few days and learn to use it. Remember, you always have soap and you can always clean up. It may be a skill that will come in handy in the future.

Take care, – KP

Dear Jim,
When my daughter was growing up, some of our favourite home-school activities were our history ‘lessons’. We didn’t just read about it, we would spend a week or so actually living as if we were in a particular period of history. It was a great educational experience for all of us and went some way towards preparation to cope with possible primitive situations. My daughter is now quite at home making soap, paper, gathering herbs and a myriad of other low-tech activities.

One thing we discovered during these enactments is that the Roman method of cleaning one’s nether regions – a small sponge on a stick kept in disinfected water – was particularly effective and not unpleasant. We kept several small sponges in a bucket and the used ones would be washed at the end of each day. Natural sponges or artificial baby sponges are the kindest on your rear. This is probably more acceptable to First-Worlders than the hand and water method and requires less storage space than cart-loads of toilet paper. For the record, I store both paper and sponges!

Praying for you all. Blessings, – Luddite Jean in England

Economics and Investing:

A news item flagged by GG: IMF: Banks Still Hiding Half of Their Actual Losses; $1.5 trillion in bad debt on bank balance sheets, and losses on these bad loans still threaten the solvency of many institutions.

From El Jefe Jeff E.: One in Four Borrowers Is Underwater

Also from Jeff E.: FDIC Reports 552 ‘Problem Banks’ As of Sept. 30, 2009

Items from The Economatrix:

IMF Warns Second Bailout Would Threaten Democracy

Wave of Debt Payments Facing US Cities

Wall Street Pummels US Cities Over Billions in Fees on Investments Gone Bad

More Bankruptcy Cases Filed

Rates on 30-Year Mortgages Sink, Match Record Low

India Plans to Buy More Gold from IMF

Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government — lest it come to dominate our lives and interests." – Patrick Henry

Note from JWR:

JRH Enterprises is having their fourth annual “Black Friday” sale, which includes brand new Generation 3 AN/PVS-14 Starlight night vision scopes for $2,995, complete with the factory data card. I should mention that I personally purchased one of these units from them, and I love it. It is very versatile, since it can be used as a weapon sight (lined up behind a Aimpoint Comp M3), or with the flip of a throw lever be used hand-held, and then with the provided head mount it can be used as a hands-free monocular. The quick detach and consistent return to zero feature has turned my dedicated night-fighting rifle into a true day/night rifle. This is the Hotel Sierra set-up!

Letter Re: Generator Experiences During a Recent Nor’easter

Greetings Mr. Rawles,
I just wanted to pass along a quick reminder to your readers who took the time and expense to buy a backup generator, but haven’t taken the time to periodically test and maintain it. Here in southeastern Virginia, we are still recovering from what was called the “Atlantic Assault” by the hyperventilating reporters on the Weather Channel. To be fair, though, this was indeed a whopper of a Nor’easter that gave us flooding only a foot or so less than Hurricane Isabel in 2003. We lost power the evening of November 12, but luckily got it back 29 hours later even though we were told to expect several more days of grid-down living. But here’s the kicker: on my street, only two of the four houses with generators could get them started. Of three other friends I checked with after the storm, there was one other [like me] that could not start his generator. So what’s going on?

As many boaters unfortunately have also discovered, infrequently used engines are suffering significant damage to their carburetors from the ethanol in our gasoline supply. Extra precautions to completely drain fuel tanks, fuel lines, and carburetor float bowls are absolutely essential before putting the generator away for storage. Ask me how I know…

I was also guilty of insufficient testing and maintenance, but I discovered my mistake well before this storm. In early June I pulled my generator out for its yearly testing at the beginning of hurricane season. Yes, I know. Testing my backup power source only once per year was pretty stupid. Anyway, no amount of cord-pulling or carburetor cleaning would induce my generator to start. The gasoline had stabilizer in it, and even draining the old gas and using fresh didn’t help. I eventually got tired of messing with it, and I bought a replacement carburetor via eBay for $70. After installing the new carburetor, along with a new in-line fuel filter from the marine parts store, the generator started on the second pull and ran like new.

I now have a standard monthly testing cycle for my generator that runs it under load for about half an hour. I also have a standard routine for servicing my generator after each use. This routine includes draining the fuel tank, pulling and draining the fuel lines, and fully draining the float bowl of the carburetor. I even leave the lid off the fuel tank for a few hours — in a well-ventilated space — to let it completely air dry. And I also have a new schedule for changing the engine oil. During heavy use, I change the oil every once three days (about 50 hours) of operation. Otherwise, I just change it once per year. Remember that oil is cheap and it’s the life-blood of a small air-cooled engine.

So my generator was one of the ones that worked during the recent storm, and I was able to run 12-gauge extension cords to two of my neighbors to keep their refrigerators running, too. It was nice to be in the position of being able to help others rather than needing help myself. I hope your readers can learn from my mistakes and how I corrected them. – Mike in Virginia

Letter Re: A Tip on Egg Organization

Good Day JWR,
My prayers continue daily for you, and for your son’s hearts healing at the loss of Memsahib. May you find some fraction of reciprocal solace and warmth from the Thanksgiving Blessings from God for the many hundreds of thousands of lives that you have enriched with your blog and books. Thanksgivings to you JWR for what you have done and do so very well, by providing this valuable multi-national information highway of connectedness on survival and preparedness!

Here is my organizational tip of the week I would like to share. We have free range poultry and very rogue ducks and geese. The chickens and guineas are pretty reliable about returning to the coop for their egg “layoff”. However, our many hen ducks just roam and lay where ever they get the urge to do so. Most of their eggs are used for baking and if I don’t check the property for newly made nests with eggs every day or so, I end up with occasional bad, rotten eggs in my mixing bowl, because I have lost track of the age of the eggs. This is a smell you are likely not wanting inside your kitchen! Phewy! Always break eggs, one at a time, in a separate bowl before adding them to your other ingredients.

To help me organize and pull these piles of eggs for sorting in this order for my use: for eating,(the freshest), for incubating under a surrogate brooder, (the next in oldest date and these get marked with the date with a wax china marker pencil before getting placed under the surrogate), and then those which are past hatching (after 35 days) and end up in the compost pile. What I use now as nest place markers, is a saved and placed used and cleaned styrofoam plate or used aluminum pie pan (these are long term reusable) which have been marked and dated with a fine tip marker onto a piece of masking tape on the outer rim of the plate where it can be seen easily once filled with eggs, the actual date that I set it on the ground and place it under the surrounded pile of leaves and plucked out down and pin feathers. Then when I am scratching my head, two or three weeks later, wondering when this pile was layed, I have a reference to refer to and do not have to toss all the eggs in the composter. Those eggs that are freshest, by the way, are usually on the top and to the back, and are still warm to the touch hours after being laid.

Those eggs that a broody hen has pushed or rolled away from the nest, you can go ahead and remove and place in the compost pile. She knows that the egg is not viable for hatching.
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Also, another tip for barnyard time savings: Keep your old egg cartons out by the hen house. Instead of transferring the eggs twice, from the nest to the basket and then to a bowl or carton, just pull the fresh eggs and place them straight into a carton, mark the date on a piece of masking tape on the end of the carton for easy viewing. Eggs that I donate to charity, or sell to neighbors and friends, I ask them to please return my cartons cleaned for reuse and recycling again. May all Have a Blessed Thanksgiving Day! – KAF

Letter Re: B&M Baked Beans and Canned Bread

Jim,
Being born and raised in Maine, I was introduced to B&M baked beans at a young age. Beans and brown bread were our standard fare on Saturday nights for many years. Over the years, I have grown increasingly fond of them, although harder to find in the Midwest – they seem to get crowded off many grocery store shelves in favor of lesser rivals.

In particular, I love B&M brown bread (with or without raisins) – rich, moist dense bread made with molasses and packaged in a can. It is heated inside the can (hint: slice it cold, before heating). A pat (or two) of real butter melting on it makes the meal complete.

From a preparedness perspective, both the beans (available in glass jars or cans) and brown bread are a treasure. The manufacturer confirms (below) that their standard freshness shelf life is three years from date of manufacture (longer is still good, I’m sure). Given that we regularly eat it, there is no problem adding this to our “rotation”. And in the case of distress, we have the ability to heat the meal right in the can – the original MRE.

When I had trouble finding B&M at my local grocer, I wrote the B&G Foods and purchased several cases directly from their distribution group.

Blessings and love to you and your family. – BeePaw

Economics and Investing:

GG sent this: A Mad Rush as Gold Bugs Get the Boot

FAF sent this from Fox News: Economic Growth Revised Down in 3rd Quarter

From El Jefe Jeff E.: Stocks, Oil Drop After U.S. Consumer Spending Trails Forecasts

Items from The Economatrix:

Crude Prices Sink Down Near $76

Reports on Consumer Confidence, GDP Tug at Stocks

Banks Earn $2.8 Billion in 3Q, Insurance in Red

Reports on GDP and Consumers Signal Modest Rebound

Fed Under Fire as Public Anger Mounts

Goldman Sachs and US Demise

Wall Street Plays Hardball

Restaurants Brace for a Sour Season as Consumers Lose Appetite for Dining Out

PBS: Ten Trillion and Counting

Most Global Banks are Still Unsafe, Warns S&P

Odds ‘n Sods:

Real estate bust opens doors for parties at vacant houses. (Thanks to GG for the link.)

   o o o

Reader Ken S. wrote to mention: “I have also been diving construction dumpsters at various construction sites for excess building materials. You’d be shocked at what a construction hand will throw away. It’s just another way to survive this worsening economy and put stacks of building materials in my storage shed.”

   o o o

Courtesy of reader HPD comes another Nanny State Britannia Update: British police arrest people ‘just for the DNA’; More than three-quarters of young black men are on system, watchdog says

Note from JWR:

A reminder that the special two-week 25% off sale on canned Mountain House foods at Ready Made Resources ends in less than a week. They are offering free shipping on full (“unbroken”) cases lots. But because of the higher handling costs, if you “mix and match” cans within cases, shipping will be charged.

Letter Re: A SurvivalBlogger Reviews Roland Emmerich’s 2012

Jim:
I saw [Roland Emmerich’s new movie] 2012, the movie and must say it failed to live up to my hopes. It depended little on Mayan predictions and the coming of Planet X or Niburu but instead on some very iffy particle physics, the rapid heating of Earth’s interior due to an intense neutrino flux from an immense solar flare, the “largest ever recorded.”

Never mind that a flare that size would have fried all grids, chips, and transistors and reset civilization back to the early iron age due to Carrington Effect. Nobody would have known what the hell was going on because communications would be kaput. But in the movie cell phones, Internet and television were fully functional until the earth gave way beneath them or volcanic blasts engulfed them.

I wasn’t looking for good science fiction though, just stunning special effects, and I thought the inclusion of Niburu would have presented some great possibilities: approaching extra-systemic planet causing miles-high tides, polar ice fields deposited on Europe, supersonic winds stripping Earth’s surface down to bedrock, and so on. It could have been downright Velikovskian. And the material was right there for the taking; Niburu is the Web favorite of the more ardent 2012 speculation.

Instead we were treated to one car chase after another, except the chasing car was the fragmenting, tilting, erupting landscape/seascape and the fleeing vehicle was alternately a limousine, a motor home, a small prop executive plane, a Russian cargo jet, and finally a Chinese-built “ark” that narrowly escapes going accordion on the north face of Everest.

The massive inundations for which the arks (4-6 of them maybe) were presciently and speedily built were not caused by the slippage of the Earth’s crust mentioned in the movie, but instead were giant tsunamis produced by powerful earthquakes. Fill a cookie sheet with water then jerk the cookie sheet across the counter. Inertia will keep most of the water where it is, flooding the counter. That’s crustal shift; oceans stay where they are while land mass moves, causing wholesale landmass inundation. The 10.5 magnitude undersea quakes blamed in the movie would be woefully insufficient in my opinion. A very large region of ocean floor would have to experience sudden, huge, tilting uplift to move the amount of water required to flood the Himalayas if crustal shift were not the cause.

Well, I suppose on the bright side there yet remains the opportunity to produce a film based on Velikovsky’s “Worlds in Collision” with all the effects I was hoping for. They had better hurry it along though. 2012 is not far off . Regards, – Jim McC

JWR Replies: Upon seeing the promotional trailer for 2012, My #2 Son’s droll comment was “I don’t think the script writer likes America’s landmarks.” Prepare to munch some popcorn at this blockbuster thrill ride, but don’t expect to learn many practical survival tips from this film. For that, get a copy of the Jeremiah Johnson DVD.

Letter Re: Preparing Your Spouse

I really liked the post about preparing your spouse but saw one thing missing or at least not stated explicitly. Your spouse needs to know how to do these things and the only way to really learn most of these practical tasks is to do them with your spouse. Binders [full of information] are great but unless you know how to execute all the steps, where all the necessary tools and pieces are and how to use them binders are not going to help much. To illustrate the importance of actually doing something I will relay a recent tale from my house.

A while back I tried to make Spanish rice from the recipe Wifey always uses. Every ingredient and step was there but I didn’t know what a couple of the steps meant. I was able to get her help me figure them out but if she wasn’t here I definitely would not have had Spanish rice with dinner. Now that I know how to do all the steps I could probably look back at that same recipe in a year or two and make it.

That same point could be easily applied to getting the chainsaw ready for the season or making soap or any other task which is done (even almost) exclusively by one spouse. Think of it like an Infantry Platoon. You are probably never going to be able to shoot the M240 like the gunner or program the radio as fast as the RTO but everyone should at least know how to use both of these essential tools. An added benefit of making sure your spouse is at least somewhat familiar with all of the household/ preparedness tasks you do (and visa versa) is spending time together doing productive things. Spending a weekend afternoon doing something together that is normally done alone can sure make another boring chore into a fun day. Also as always many hands make light work. – TheOtherRyan (of Total Survivalist Libertarian Rantfest)

Letter Re: Mountain Money Isn’t

Mr. Rawles-
I’ve seen it repeated everywhere that an item of big importance in survival preps is toilet paper. I do not understand this, myself. While I do use the stuff, I grew up as the son of immigrants from an impoverished nation, and learned a bit about the bathroom customs of the old country. Basically, my progenitors would use a small bucket of water and their hand to wash themselves post-elimination. Frankly, I think it gets the area cleaner than the best 3-ply can. It would put less of a load on a septic tank, if you’ve got one. It certainly costs less. It’s far more gentle on your skin than wiping, and less likely to irritate or exacerbate a hemorrhoidal condition. And you can store a lot of food and ammunition in the space that a 1-year supply would occupy. It’s even a more “green” solution to that particular problem, if you’re into that sort of thing.

I understand that there may be a bit of a “blech” factor in getting used to this manner of post-BM cleansing. And in areas where water will be difficult to obtain, this may prove less convenient than storing a pallet of hind-end wipes. I think, though, for a great many people, this would be a superior hygienic solution.

Sincerely, – E.B.G.

JWR Replies: This method is not appealing to most First Worlders, but I must admit that it is pragmatic, if the requisite sanitary measures are taken. Just be sure to to store lots of soap, and in the long term, be prepared to make your own soap. (Regardless, be sure to get a copy of Anne Watson’s book Smart Soapmaking.)