Old Magazines To Peruse

Here's a link to some old magazines.  Interesting info and a little trip back in time a few decades.  Fun to look through.

Downloadable.
Here

https://digitalmaine.com/farmstead_magazine/?fbclid=IwAR1-Tj3KhdX55XWr7K-2-JbN1K-0Kvgq24xvpxJjt23VYgOZLRGy4jk0EQQ

A Little on Bartering

Bartering.  There's tons to be said... more than I'm going to say here and now, but I'm always considering bartering.  It's been around for a jillion years.  I think it's "the thing" for hard times.  I think most of us have considered bartering.  We learn what items are the best to have in store for post SHTF just for the purpose of bartering.  That's great! but...

Who will you be bartering with?  Do you have a network?  Do you have any idea who will have what you need, and whether or not you'll have something they want in trade?  

Bartering is true free market economy, but it will be useless if you can't get what you need or if you haven't got the right trade goods.  It might not be easy to access goods or people who want to barter.  There may not be a big marketplace.  This is where tribes, groups, clans come in.

NOW is the time to find prep groups, to establish relationships with neighbors, and to build tribes, or clans, with close friends.  Make NEEDFUL contacts and build on them NOW before the balloon goes up.

If you're one of these "lone wolf" types, sorry... you're not prepping, you're hoping, and you will lose.  Don't come around my place being G.I. Wanabe and think you're going to get my stuff.  You are officially the first bad citizen of the new normal, and you're not welcome.

SO-- prep and be ready, but don't leave contacts and groups out of your plans.  You'll need them, and they'll need you.

On that note; Have skill sets that are helpful to a group, keep (and learn to make/produce) items that will be valuable for barter.  Have something to bring to the table.

Emergency Water Storage

One of the things, if not THE #1 thing, we should be most concerned about storing for emergencies is water. I'm dangerously, woefully behind on realistic water storage, so this is my current area of research.

We live in a very small home (450 sq ft? 3 people, 2 pets) and storage is a difficult, continuous issue. Some things I can squeeze into little nooks and crannies. Some things I can repackage or redistribute to save space, but water is water, and you can't compress it, and you can't squeeze it into the cracks. Yet, it's vital to have it on hand in an emergency.

You need water available, independent of "the grid", municipal, or shared sources. Shoot for outdoor tanks. Water catchment would be awesome. You can survive if you have a 1500 gallon tank outside, but can you access it? If you're in an emergency situation things are already uncomfortable and strange. Wouldn't it be nice if you planned ahead so that the most mundane tasks don't turn into an additional burden?

The general rule is to have 1 gallon of water per occupant per day. That adds up, and I think that's a conservative estimate. Multiply your daily use by how many days worth you would feel best about having on hand and you'll see, it adds up fast.

That 1 gallon rule probably just means drinking water. You will NEED water for sanitation and hygiene. It's really not optional. Hand washing, dishes and even showers are important, and become more important the longer the emergency situation drags on.

There are lots of reasons to have, and ways to stash, emergency water, but have you considered how you will access it? If you have barrels outside or some other way that you store larger quantities of water, do you have a way off accessing it with relative ease if you need it? Have you ever siphoned before? It's not hard, but have you done it? If you need to, can you do it? Can you pump it? Can you transport it to your house?

One of the pics I added to this post is of a product called Water Bricks. I'm NOT promoting them. Like I said, I'm researching, but I do like the idea and the design. There are lots of different kinds of products on the market for water storage, some are cheaper, some just as good, some just cheap knock offs, different sizes, etc... I chose to picture these because of their ready-to-go functionality. By observation alone I can see:

A. They stack neatly and interlock securely.
18.5 x 18.5 x 18.5 inches ; 18 pounds
B. They hold 3.5 gallons per unit, which makes them portable. Incidentally, most toilets will flush with less water than that... just thinking out loud here.
C. They seem well constructed and durable.
D. You can get an optional spigot to fit the opening. Big plus.

This last feature would be great in the kitchen. Think about it. If you've ever done any primitive tent camping where there's no running water and you didn't have a faucet, you instantly understand what a benefit it would be to sit one of these blocks along side the kitchen sink.

There are some good looking, but costly and bulky equipment you can get for camp kitchens and water, etc... but it wouldn't be practical in a house. I've tried to figure out how to fashion a similar system and adapt it for indoors in case of emergency. Think about a camp shower. The pic I chose was the cheapest, simplest one I saw. They are very portable, lightweight (when empty) and stowable. You pop them out of the box, hang them up, and you have a gravity fed faucet.

Speaking of a camp shower, after a few days without water you will be pretty gritty and grim. It won't kill you, but "survival" would be nicer with a few simple preps. Hang one in your shower stall, or outdoors in a tree, rig a curtain... You will be surprised how good a shower will make you feel, and how morale will improve.

You can buy a pop up shower stall for around 30-40 bucks if you want to go that route. There are even portable propane water heaters for around a 100 (and up). On the cheap end, my husband used to drive for the oil field and he'd be out for WEEKS with no access to showers. He used baby wipes and a 7 dollar pump up, pressurized type sprayer like you'd use for bug spray or weed killer. lol Innovative, but if you're gonna prep for comfort and "homey" familiarity, that ain't it.

I'm just sharing my thought as I'm having them. These things might not be life saving preps, but they are life improving preps, and probably time/labor saving preps. They aren't for your B.O.B. but if you're bugging in through a power outage, a natural disaster or something like that, they're worth a look.

These are just a few considerations concerning water and it's usage in an emergency. Feel free to point out things I've missed that are needful. I'm sure I'm not hitting them all. I need to learn, too.

My 2.

Addendum:



It turns out, the Water Brick also has a water filter that fits in the opening. Like I said, I'm not promoting this product at this point, but it has given me some great ideas.  It's pretty cool, and pretty well thought out. You could probably be innovative and McGyver your own equipment if you already have water containers. There's no reason not to just adapt something to them if you have them. I don't have any real stash supplies for water yet, so this is looking pretty inviting. It's a bit pricey, though, all together. I'm going to shop it and see what I could cobble together myself before I commit.  Just cogitatin'.

Shifty...

What if I decided 1 foot could be 11 inches just this time for this one build, because I have a good reason, and it's just easier- .just.this.one.time.

NO, 1 foot = 12 inches. It's the standard. You start changing the standard and nothing will fit, and whatever you try to build will be horrible, ugly and unstable. Trust me: your "one time" easy way out will catch up one day, and the fall thereof will be great.

Keep to your standards. If you don't, don't come crying to me, don't think you can convince me to change mine because my emotions are pricked. Don't expect me to feel anything for you but pity for your foolish, stiff-necked ways. You made your choices and now you have consequences. The way of the transgressor is hard.

To the rest of us: learn from the ways of those who suffered by thinking that changing their standards could ever help them. DON'T CHANGE YOUR STANDARDS.

I'm stunned at how many people will lower their own standards because of their feelings, as if emotion had any bearing on the truth. Shaking my head, for real. How can you trust people like that? Their foundations are like sinking sand. Maybe that's what it means to be "shifty." Just ponderin' life.

Learn Some New Skill Sets

So much of what "preppers" teach and study is just stuff our grandparents did as every day practices. Some of us older folks remember it. It's not magic, and it's not some mystical lore. It's just practical things that have been bred out of our culture by the onslaught of industrial farming, big box stores, electronics, and our convenience oriented age.

Most of what we want to know is really easy to access without buying gadgets or gear or even taking classes. Just study up, practice and build up some skill sets. It's easy and fulfilling, and it gives you a great sense of accomplishment along with the knowledge that you have gained another needful skill.

Check out some of the free resources. There are MANY, but I recommend starting with these three, just because they are MASSIVE:

Internet Archives
https://archive.org/

Project Gutenberg
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

Google Books
Google Books>tools>any book>free ebooks

In order to get  link I had to do a search.  I typed in farm buildings so that's what will turn up in this particular link:

https://www.google.com/search?biw=1920&bih=889&tbs=bkv%3Ar&tbm=bks&ei=PpEFXPyxHYeH8AP9iaWYCQ&q=Farm+buildings&oq=Farm+buildings&gs_l=psy-ab.3...6253.9314.0.9886.14.14.0.0.0.0.137.1482.7j7.14.0....0...1c.1.64.psy-ab..0.7.746...0j33i299k1.0.P7HFbrEK8DM

Or, just go to google and search what you want to learn, then go to the top where it says "more" and choose books. After you do that you can click "tools" and it'll let you pick several things. Go under "any books" and choose what you think you will want to see. I usually go to free google ebooks, or however it's worded. Most of the free ones are old books. FASCINATING stuff.

Books: old, out of print, past the copyright dates, and chock FULL of valuable, timeless information.  Just go to one of these, type in the subject you're interested in, and strap in. You can read for yourself what people used to do everyday before we found ourselves so dependent on our modern systems. You can learn steps, how to's, materials; the list is almost endless. I can spend literal HOURS reading once I get on one of these sites. You'll have so much info you'll be swimming in it.

Enjoy!