Our weekly Snippets column is a collection of short items: responses to posted articles, practical self-sufficiency items, how-tos, lessons learned, tips and tricks, and news items — both from readers and from SurvivalBlog’s editors. Note that we may select some long e-mails for posting as separate letters.
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A century in the Siberian wilderness: the Old Believers who time forgot. Here is an excerpt:
“The Lykovs were proud of their ability to read their smoke-stained Bible, though it was so thoroughly blackened that the words were no longer visible. Akulina had taught her children to read and write in Old Church Slavonic, using a stick dipped in honeysuckle juice to draw blue letters on birch bark.
Over time, the taiga had become an increasingly important source of calories, as the Lykovs reverted from a primarily agricultural life to one closer to that of Neolithic hunter-gatherers. They drank birch juice and ate wild nettles, wild onions, mushrooms, berries and fish.
Only when they were very lucky did they manage to catch an animal in their primitive pit traps. In late August, the whole family climbed Siberian pines, harvesting nuts.”
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Reader D.S.V. sent us this: Here’s Why You Shouldn’t Throw Out Those Silica Gel Packets.
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