Most people would probably name the great depression of the 1930s as the largest example of a worldwide economic crisis in US history. But did you know that there have been over 48 total recessions in United States history?
As we all know, history tends to repeat itself. With these numbers on display, it’s not a question of “if” but “when” the next major worldwide economic crisis will happen.
If the next big economic collapse is anything like the great depression was, international trade will fall, unemployment will rise, food and work will become scarce, and most folks today won’t know what hit them.
What’s more, some of these things have already started happening.
Knowing this, it is in the best interest of preppers like us to do what we can to prepare for it – including stocking up on essential household items before the next great depression.
If we look to the past for what our great grandparents did to survive such harsh times, we can learn from their example and stand better prepared.
Since the recurrence of a great depression that could impact the entire world is almost certainly on the horizon, there are a few household items you would be wise to stock up on before the next major economic crisis hits.
Bleach
In a worldwide SHTF crisis, it is said that dehydration will be the first major killer. Next to dehydration, infection is the second most dangerous threat.
This is why if you don’t already have a few gallons of this stuff under a sink or in your bugout bag, you should start to stock up now.
Bleach has a wide range of uses in survival situations and would be a great item to have in your prepper stockpile or bug-out bag.
It can help disinfect surfaces to prevent the spread of disease and infection, repel some types of pests, and more.
⇒ The 3 Bucket Water Filter That You Can Build in Less Than 30 Minutes
Plus, when using bleach, a little goes a long way. So if you’re reasonably stocked up on bleach you typically don’t need to worry about running out for at least several months per bottle.
Needles and Thread
Finding quality fabric and buying clothes made to last has become more difficult and more expensive throughout the years. During an upcoming depression, though, it would be a smart move to invest in a few clothing items made of long-lasting materials such as leather, canvas, or other strong and durable fabric types.
Clothes that will last a long time are important, however, knowing how to fix rips and holes in the clothes you already own is even better.
Knowing how to repair clothing will make the clothes you have last much longer. Plus, knowing how to sew well will be a marketable skill if trade and barter become the norm post-depression.
Jars and Other Reusable Food Storage Containers
When SHTF, the public services like trash, electricity, sewage, and water might not be so reliable anymore.
If this happens, you can expect trash to become a very serious problem.
In order to prevent your own trash build-up, keeping glass jars or other types of durable containers around will help you keep your space cleaner and consequently cut down on pests and germs.
Additionally, glass containers can be used to germinate seeds, ferment food, catch yeast, clean water, store food, and more.
Seeds
In the thick of the great depression, people had to learn to stretch meals very far if they wanted to keep their families from going hungry.
During this time, the government would give food handouts or “ration coupons” to the unemployed. A typical handout consisted of things like beans, potatoes, powdered milk, and sometimes even a five-pound bag of sugar or flour. Depending on your family size and what you knew how to cook, this might not stretch as far as you’d think…
However, if you have seeds, soil, a little patience, some forethought, and a lot of determination, you can grow enough food and medicinal herbs for yourself and your family.
When medical care won’t be available, having medicinal herbs on hand could make a world of difference. Here’s a medicinal garden kit that has the 10 medicinal plants you need to have in your backyard in a crisis.
Gloves
Leather gloves, gardening gloves, latex gloves, rubber gloves, kitchen gloves, cold weather gloves.
Whatever gloves you can get your hands on, you will most definitely want a variety of gloves in your stockpile in the event of an economic crisis like the Great Depression.
It’s prudent and practical to have – at the very least – two pairs of each type of glove. This is so you can use one as your everyday pair and the other as a backup when your main gloves become damaged.
Baking Soda
Super versatile and shelf-stable, baking soda is cheap and pretty much always stocked in stores. However, just because it’s inexpensive now doesn’t mean it will stay that way. When people start to realize just how valuable this stuff is, there’s a good chance you will have trouble finding it at all – at least not at a fair price.
You can use baking soda for a myriad of cooking, cleaning, and hygienic purposes.
There are so many great things baking soda can do and it is a pleasure to have in any preppers stockpile.
Candles
If an economic emergency like the great depression happened today, it’s easy to imagine what that could mean for public services like electricity.
Blackouts and service disruptions could make your light and power sources unpredictable, to say the least.
Most people already have some kind of preparation in place for blackouts due to things they’ve experienced in the past like bad weather or service interruptions.
However, to really prepare for a long-term crisis, you’ll want to stock up on a lot more than what most people tend to have on hand.
Related: How To Make 30 Hours Survival Candles with Soy Wax
While the light of a candle won’t illuminate a room as well as a lightbulb, it will still provide you with enough light to work with when the sun goes down.
Trash Bags
Trash bags are usually one of the more overlooked household items that can be used in so many different survival situations.
They can be used for water collection, flood prevention, waste management, food storage, and more.
A trash bag and some duct tape can be made into temporary footwear or clothing and can even help you build a temporary shelter if you find yourself in a tight spot.
Duct Tape
Duct tape makes repairs to everyday items much easier.
It’s easy to use, it’s inexpensive, and it’s great for fixing leaks and holes, marking trails, repairing glasses, mending shoes, and so much more. There are an infinite amount of things you can do with a roll of duct tape.
Books
While books and other forms of entertainment aren’t normally considered survival items, it’s surprising what a creature comfort they can be for a tired mind in hard times.
During the great depression, luxuries were few and far between. It’s no wonder why people treasured the time they could afford to enjoy entertainment with family.
Books and radio provided them with a way to escape the hard times they were facing– if only for a short while.
Although you don’t need books to survive, it’s good to have an outlet. This is especially true when you’ve suffered heavy blows to your finances, home, family life, and your pantry. When times seem bleak, you will be happy to have a good book or two around.
While there are many other household items that would be smart to have in your bug-out bag, these are the items that are at the top of my list.
Which household items would you stock up on before the next economic crisis like the Great Depression hits?
You may also like:
The ‘Superweed’ That Saved Large Communities During The Great Depression (Video)
The writer mentions seeds and doesn’t mention non hybrids ?……
The warning i would give out to everyone is that China has put “dangerous seeds out so bewared of what your getting”
MI garderner has a plenty of good seeds and isn’t a covid nazi like baker creek is
MI gardener is not someone I would follow. He’s made too many videos that demonstrate he knows nothing and makes it up as he goes along.
I buy seeds from Willhite Seeds. I get bulk for the price of a couple packets at the big-box store. I divide them up, and store them in Mylar with desiccant in the freezer. Of course the most important thing, as we have discussed in other threads, is to collect your own seeds and, as Raven pointed out, get heirloom or open pollenated (generally the same thing but some like to differentiate).
I know you can live on vegetables only. If you grow kale, spinach etc. I am also storing rice beans pasta salt sugar etc. I have about 8 months of food and want to have a year and a half but I have an unbelieving wife. She has tolerated my storing up but she thinks its enough. Most of my storage is coming in the mail and its good, so they say, for 25 years. I hope the mail don’t go down before it gets here which I am overseas. I have many seeds stored up and soil and learning to do hydroponics and have equip and knowledge to do it. I am now stocking almost everyday getting ready as now they are openly saying there will be food shortage.
Hairloom is where it’s at! Non-GMO . My buddy is growing green beans and their 18” long. His Corn stalks are 17’ tall.
I should have specified seed type, you are so right! This is why I love reading the comments. I always find things I missed and I can pocket the missing info for the next article. Non-gmo and heirloom seeds are always best imo.
Seed Savers, which is located in Decorah, Iowa is known for heirloom seeds.
Non- GMO and open pollenated.
Also collect your own seeds from your garden(s) and keep them refrigerated for years later.
You need a mix of both hybrid and heirloom seeds
Sponges have uses too.
Why would you need hybrid seeds? Humans lasted tens of thousands of years without hybrid seeds. Oh, sure, there was natural hybridization but no sustainable, repeatable, Monsanto-style, hybridization. No; you don’t need hybrid seeds and, if you have them, you have seeds for one season. If you have heirloom seeds, you have seeds forever.
Best place to get your heirloom seeds is your local extension office through your in-state agriculture university.
Our agri university (TAMU) is now being funded by China, so I won’t be using ours in Texas. Seems risky.
NOT IN Illinois they do not have any thing at least in Crawford county,
.they do not even carry gov .pamlets
Covid nazi? What the hell does that mean? Baker Creek has excellent seeds and they’re great people.
Missouri Prepper:
Pay Ravin’ Sooperdoopertrooper no mind – I think he gets likkered up and shoots off his mouth to hear himself think without having to listen to the echoes.
I’ve done business with Baker’s Creek Seeds and been pleased with the service and selection, but everyone has a pet business they like to go to. I get seeds from several different sources because I like a variety on hand, and I avoid GMO stuff. Read the packets and the reviews from other shoppers.
I’ve also had some luck with sprouting seeds and beans bought to cook with, seeds saved from food I’ve bought and eaten, and have traded seeds. Go with what works best for you.
Baker creed shut down the seed fests due to covid and then made it mandotory that the employees get the vaccine. strange from a comany that promotes self reliance and getting away from GMO and chemicals eh.
raven: MP is right as is Miz Kitty. Baker’s Creek and a lot of seed companies shut down because they ran out of seeds. Right now they’re running low and so are a lot of companies. Baker’s may or may not be nazis–most liberals are and refuse to admit it–but they’re a pretty good company. When you act strange, people are not going to respect what you say. Hein, Anfänger? Happy spring.
red, interesting suggestion that Baker Creek ran out of seeds. Do you mean they couldn’t get seeds to sell or sold all of their inventory?
Considering the crop separation requirements for growing different varieties of the same vegetable, sometimes those distances being in miles, I always wonder who is really growing the seeds. Neither Baker Creek nor Willhite (who I use more than BC) are likely to have that kind of land. Honestly, with what we know about the rest of the US economy, I would not be surprised of most of the seeds we buy are grown in China – but I have no evidence at all that anything like that is actually going on.
Dale: Baker’s, Native Seed Search, and a lot more that depend on local growers run out of seed. For the most part they were overwhelmed by the sheer volume of new buyers, and those buying a lot more than normal. It happens from time to time. Watch for down-turns in the stock market. That comes after dems take control in DC because they buy stock and then change law and regs to make their stocks boom.
Baker’s get seed from around the world. Most, like NSS and Southern Exposure, have farms, but also buy as local as possible. Always go local for seed because it’s more adapted to your locale.
I’ve been giving away black (winter) radish seeds, kohlrabi, collards, cowpeas and so on. Rooted fig-, tangerine-, and pomegranate cuttings, as well. By fall, pigeon peas and, I hope, black maize- and sorghum seed. niio
It means forcing employees to get the jab, which makes them nazis, or any other derogatory word you use to describe evil pukes.
Always buy heirloom seed from U.S. sellers that are in that business and raise the majority of their own seeds. They are non-GMO by nature and most are non-hybrid as well.
Heirloom seeds are preferred. Their seeds will reproduce the same veggie/fruit as the parent plant when replanted.
100% agree
Still,I heard to have a mix of heirloom and non-heirloom seeds in case there are cases of heavy pest, blight, etc. problems. Won’t be a whole lot of fertilizers available.
There are usually a lot of fertilizers available. Do you mow your lawn? Do you get boxes from Amazon or elsewhere? Do you have trees that drop leaves? In normal times, I would also suggest the grass clippings, boxes, and leaves from your neighbors but in bad times you may not want to make it so public that you’re gardening. A good compost pile and compost tea is likely all you need.
If you live in the country or otherwise have the ability to have almost any farm animal, such as chickens, rabbits, goats, etc., you would have excellent fertilizer and nitrogen addition but you can also get nitrogen from the grass clippings and garden waste. Also buy 10 pounds of legume seeds for ground cover.
Consider getting a couple of boxes of Miracle Grow or similar dissolvable fertilizer now while you can. Measured and poured carefully, a box will go a very long way. They can be a last-ditch measure.
One thing to consider: do you really care about being organic or do you care about getting food in your belly? If you can or choose to stock up on organic fertilizers now, that’s fine but in the EOTW, the first-world privilege of organic gardening, made possible by the wealth of chemical farming, doesn’t matter as much as getting food in your belly.
Dale: I was going to answer Maaah but read your post first. Good one! If you live in an area with a lot of moisture, thereby having earthworms, too much organic is too much of a good thing. Leaves are about as high in nitrogen as cardboard, but when worms get into either one, nitrogen booms.
Away back when Dad was still alive, I buried a lot of leaves in the garden. He said now we had no garden because leaves can take a few years to rot. next spring, he was out, watching me dig the rye under, and was amazed at how black the soil was. He shook his head and I said Chemicals like you used kill the soil. Grampa and Grandfather (Dad’s grandfather) told you that. He nodded, smiled at that black soil, and walked back in the house.
Best way to turn under leaves, use chickens or turkeys. They shred as they go and I had old-time open-pollinated field corn about 12 feet tall and each day, Dad would just look at it. That year was when he told the family (extended family, the longhouse) to not buck going organic. What was old, is new. niio and happy spring to all a lot closer to the North Pole than we are 🙂
red,
I agree about the value of organic gardening in general. Sometimes, the synthesized compounds are the exact chemical makeup of the organic compounds, though so organic is not an absolute win in all cases. What organic does provide though, and we’ve certainly had enough debate about whether to follow science on this thread, is generally accepted science of safe gardening. If you garden organically, you get safe gardening without having to do your own research and decide whether to believe Monsanto about whether alternatives are safe.
But, still, organic gardening is good for good times but when push comes to shove, produce your food how you can. Find any way you can to make your garden grow while you are sourcing organic supplies and building organic systems and skills. I didn’t mean to suggest that organic gardening wasn’t valuable. Thanks. And your anecdote is interesting; thanks for sharing.
dz: We’re all still in school. In the future, will there be chems to garden with? Good soil, high in humus, can got several years without any fertilizer input. I’m hearing some bitter stories from farmers who now have to pay thru the nose for fertilizers and the cost is still rising. Me, I don’t do pure organic, but leave room for some things not approved by NOP. What we do is called natural farming, not organic. BTW, as I understand it, a very light use of eucalyptus tea is very good for chasing bugs. And, maybe, those gophers. niio
Maaah, you “heard”? On the Internet, no doubt. Yeah, you should go with that. Hybrid seeds are seeds for a year. But now you’ve “heard” on the Internet that storing hybrid seeds is just about useless as a survival idea beyond the next season.
If you have the pest problems in the second year, then what? I suppose you could store 20 or 30 year’s worth of hybrids and hope you can keep them viable – which probably you cannot. By the time you know that something went wrong with a year’s crop of heirloom seeds it is probably too late to plant your hybrids as a backup. Next year’s another year.
Heirloom seeds are far better for storage and you can refresh them yearly.
Just like saving enough money to increase the value of your savings, even adjusting for inflation, you should collect more than a year’s worth of heirloom seeds each year. Collect two or three years, every year. You can then toss the very oldest if you choose.
Definitely do a viability test each year on the oldest. If the viability drops below whatever standard you set for yourself then, assuming you’ve been collecting extra each year, you can toss those older ones before they’re completely useless. You might even use the viability tests to trigger moving some to a different location. Lots of good ways to manage seeds with heirloom seeds.
No disrespect friend but there is fertilizers all around. Pond muck, rotted leaves and grass, animal dung, hell … even human, dog, and cat waste can be composted and roasted (kill pathogens). Native americans used fish guts (super high in nitrogen).
I guess soap would be nice too…
And some tools and skills to use them!
Agreed and if you have yet to work a garden…. .i feel incredibly sorry for you. It can take years to understand what works and needs help in a Garden. So you really are running out of time.
Not only that but gardening is a very satisfying activity as is eating what you raised.
JPUP nothing like spending hours in a garden and hundreds of dollars to eat a 30 cent tomato lol
Its a skill and people need to pick it up quickly. 5 years of Gardens here and we have had better success each year.
wow, “spending hours in a garden and hundreds of dollars to eat a 30 cent tomato”???? You definitely need to improve your gardening skills if that is an example of your production. I’m a novice gardener and still have a lot of vege’s I grew last year in the freezer. I’m glad I dated the bags, it’s time to make a lot of soups and stews to use them up, we’ll need freezer space soon for this years spring harvests, especially the peas and long beans which freeze very well, even early potatoes.
There was a man named Jerry Baker. He was a home brew exert for gardens, lawns, bushes, and more. he had a book out and dvd set from PBS. try their website and or the library.
You can make soap from wood ashes and animal fat
Do YOU know how to do that? It takes a lot more work than you think to make your own soap from the raw ingredients! Like PJ Fox says, when SHTF, you’ll be so busy that making soap will not be on the top of the list of things you want to be doing!
Knowing your seed hardiness zone and what grows well in your area I think is one thing a lot of folks research which is good to know but one area that I believe a lot of folks overlook and really should pay attention to is what pests are in my area I mean you could have someone living in the same hardiness zone on the other side of the country and they’re not going to have the same garden pests that you do.
Give you an example where we live now and I’ve never seen it anywhere else that I’ve been is one test that we have is called a lover l u b b e r I believe it’s like a banana sized grasshopper and they’re common in our area but I’ve been to other parts of the US that are in the same seed zone is where I am now and they never even heard of these things never seen them
Sorry speech to text it’s a lubber
A couple of years ago, I read that zinnias and african marigolds also keep squash bugs away cause they hate the smell. Funny thing about that, I used to have squash bugs that killed my squash plants by burrowing into the stems. Now, we have not see any squash “destroyers” with interplanting tall zinnias, african marigolds, and those giant Aztec marigolds that grow almost into a heavy-duty shrub! My squash plants have been delighted to be free from those nasty bugs that killed them year after year! WE ARE REJOICING!!
Forgot to say “AND we are rejoicing with how beautiful our garden looks with all of those flowers (and borage herb flowers), too!
I picked up a set of books a few years ago on natural prediters of garden pests and flowers that can protect your gardens.
Do you remember the name of the book? That sounds interesting. I’ve heard of companion planting to deter pests but I’m very interested in the book you mentioned if you know the name. Thanks!
We had a derecho here in 2020 and those winds from the west brought a new batch of weeds I have never seen before. So your statement rings true.
I’ve got one called “Humane Critter Control The guide to natural, nontoxic pest solutions to protect your yard and garden” by Theresa Rooney. She was a lady is used to work with who is also a master gardener and all about organic gardening. All of her tips and solutions are organic methods and suggestions.
Bleach has a very limited shelf life of 6 to 12 months before it turns to salt water.
Kept cool and sealed bleach loses about 20% effectiveness a year. Open containers DO lose it pretty quickly as they tend to be in warm laundries.
Learning how to garden in your area is a process.
First you need to know your grow zone. That establishes EXPECTED last and First Frosts. Trying to grow things that take longer than your frost-free growing time is difficult. Heirlooms are preferred BUT be aware that they too can cross breed with other plants. One error I made early on was growing summer squash and zucchini near each other and saving seeds. 2nd year was some odd-looking summer squash.
Now you need to look at your soil. Is it nearly sterile “Scotts Yard” ™ or does it grow dandelions well? As Dandelions need good soil they are a good sign you have soil NOT construction Dirt. Roundup and other weed killers are Heirloom garden Killers also and take a LOT of time to decay away.
Water and sunshine exposure. Most veggies need 6+ hours good sunshine. All veggies need plenty of water. THUS selecting plants that thrive in your area is important. Red lives in a desert area and thus grows different stuff than I do in treed New England.
All gardens fail for various reasons. So you need 2 years stored foods to carry you over the learning curves and failures.
Michael, You really need to quit making stuff up from the top of your head.
Bleach lasts 6 months to a year. http://blog.rjschinner.com/clorox-shelf-life-date-codes/
Dale did you get a THRILL posting this?
Just because someone like Raven posted it on the internet doesn’t make it right.
Mine came from Bob Vila site.
Snip The shelf life of bleach is approximately six months, but proper storage can help it last a full year before its effectiveness begins to drop by 20 percent yearly.
Other sites say same thing given a cool, dark storage area and still sealed.
I’ve personally used and tested the Clorine content of year plus sealed jugs. Pool test strips if you must know. Science, it’s a thing.
Michael, I just pulled weeds and noticed something is eating the new green leaves on my potatoes. Time to investigate and identify the pests, then look up what’s best to get rid of them.
Oh, and I’m just guessing but it wouldn’t surprise me if Dale and X-spurt are related, at least as “Kindred” spirits. Most of the time the arrogant know-it-alls are more than happy to insult and even lie.
Bob Villa or actual people in the business? Who should we believe? I’ve even confirmed with Clorox company in the past but no longer have the email. Bob Villa is not a chemist. I wouldn’t believe Bob Villa any more than I’d believe you or any more than anyone here should believe me – that’s why I posted a credible link in support of my claim.
No, I don’t get a thrill out of you making shit up all the time; I get a thrill when people post accurate, wonderful, helpful, information about how to prepare for what may lie ahead. Your post was not thrilling. Responding to your defensiveness about being proven absolutely to be wrong is not thrilling. The question is, do you get a thrill out of quoting an NPR TV personality as your science source? You must really love Fauci.
You must certainly know, dz. I posted science and Michael posted Bob Villa… and you challenge me? Seriously? You just lost a lot of credibility.
You do what you want. You store your bleach for years on end and depend on it to protect your family; your choice. I feel bad for your family that you choose Bob Villa over proven science but I can’t take them on for support in the EOTW so they’re stuck with you. It’s just too bad for them that they aren’t worth it to you to choose actual science over Bob Villa and Internet experts.
Dale, you contacted Clorox eh? and they gave you the sales pitch about you need to consume and replace your bleach before the “best by” date so you keep buying more because it “expired”? Thats like asking Monsanto about what to do to get rid of weeds.
Michael,
You’re lying. You haven’t tested the chlorine with pool test strips. You aren’t smarter than the actual chemists who know this crap and had you actually tested then you would have quoted the results of your test rather than quoting Bob Villa. “Other sites” does not equal science, either. You wouldn’t know actual science if it bit you in the ass. You’re an Internet clown, making crap up and then attacking anyone who challenges, even with absolute proof, that you’re making shit up.
Pool test strips test up to 200 PPM – many test far less because normal levels in a pool are maintained at about 4-5 PPM, and over 8-10 PPM will irritate your skin and eyes. The chlorine in laundry Clorox is from 5 to 6.2 per cent or even 10 per cent or higher for sterilizing use. 5% is 50,000 PPM. Had you actually done the test you claimed that you did, which you haven’t really done and you know it, the test is NOT science. That you can’t even handle the basic math proves that you have no clue about actual science.
Dale you seem to have an anger issue. Your logic chain is so weak you drop some weird “I must love Faci” into a Chlorine Bleach disagreement?
I’ll not call you a Lier over a disagreement because I was raised by good parents.
Nor will I attack you for much the same reason.
Good luck to you and yours when the lights go out, Sir.
Dale, you didn’t post science, you posted opinion, and sometimes your judgement, and especially your temperament, are faulty. Next, you’ll be telling us that N95 masks stop viruses because you were told that is also based on “science”. For anything regarding sanitation, disinfecting, and sterilization in the home, including the effectiveness and sustainability of common over the counter supplies that really work, I’ll consult with the medical practitioners in my family and get honest real-world information.
And what is this BS you claiming I get my info from Bob Villa? It seems you have been infected with the “X-spurt” syndrome; you may want to get some professional help for that.
Michael, answer the question. Tell the truth. You didn’t actually do a test of a bottle of bleach with pool strips, did you? You are the one who used the word “science” first. Remember this: “Pool test strips if you must know. Science, it’s a thing.” You said it. So science proves you wrong. Math proves you wrong. Yes, science is a thing. Testing your Clorox laundry bleach with a pool strip is NOT science. It’s a lie. Period. You know it’s a lie. Just admit it.
No, it is not me spouting Fauci-style fake science. It is you and Fauci. Pool test strips. N95 masks. Three masks. You and Fauci.
I will accept that Clorox wants to sell bleach but the link I provided is a distributor who focuses on medical sales. If a medical sales company was selling products to hospitals using lies, it would quickly come out. Clorox’s statements are backed up by the medical community. If you know of any science to support an alternative shelf-life, please share it. Otherwise we have “Michael” on askaprepper.com’s word that Bob Villa said that bleach loses 20% of its strength a year. Michael on askapaprepper.com is not science. Clorox is using science to establish their shelf life. In fact, they state that it can be safely poured down the drain, and the reason you can safely use it in your laundry, is that it breaks down to saltwater relatively quickly.
Consider that the shelf-life is a year then what Clorox is saying is that it’s ineffective some time shortly after a year. That doesn’t mean 0% chlorine left, it means lowered chlorine than what their sanitizing instructions support. Do you want to rest your family’s safety on a guess? Do you know what the percentage of chlorine is after a year and do you know how long, or if at all, that lower percentage takes to kill bacteria and viruses? If you have better science, better than Bob Villa, you should post it, Mr. Science.
Dale your anger issues continue. I have no need to prove anything to you Sir.
Your opinion is your opinion. Anybody on this list should look towards researching anything said here including your own posts.
I’ll not waste anybody’s reading time here responding again to your severe need to be proven or disproven, assuming you’d actually accept that you may be in error.
Goodnight, Sir.
Michael, that’s great to hear that you’re going to ignore me and quit trying to defend the indefensible. It’s a reflection on you that you don’t admit that you were wrong and that you didn’t test with pool strips and that, even if you had, it was meaningless and not science. But as long as you concede that you can’t support your statements and cannot defend a longer-than-a-year shelf life for bleach, then future readers of this topic will be safer. Their families will be safer. The world will be safer.
Dale, since you failed to prove your claims because it is too complicated for you to search and provide valid links, and then lie about what I post, I just searched for “what is the shelf life of Clorox chlorine bleach?” and found the Clorox website, which is definitely set up for promoting their products, but even when I search the Clorox website for “chlorine bleach shelf life” it listed a bunch of products instead going to a straight user-friendly answer. So, I checked other links and the Readers Digest has this:
“When does bleach expire?
To figure out when a product expires, it’s good to know out when the product was made. According to the Clorox website, the production code on the neck of the bottle allows you to figure out how old the bottle of bleach actually is. But how would you be able to decipher this code? Clorox breaks it down by using the example code A81421321CA3. Moving from left to right, the plant number is “A8,” the last two numbers of the year it was made is “14,” and the day of the year the bottle was made is “213.” That translates to a bleach bottle being made on the 213th day of the year, or August 1st, 2014.
According to The Scripps Research Institute, bleach can last about six months. After that, “bleach starts to degrade. Even in its original bottle, bleach becomes 20 percent less effective as each year goes by.” It’s important to know how to correctly store your bottle of bleach. According to the Clorox website, a bottle of Clorox Regular Bleach “should be stored between 50°F and 70F°, and away from direct sunlight” and that pertains to bottles that are both sealed and opened. Clorox states that a bottle of beach that has been correctly stored has a shelf life for about one year. They recommend replacing after one year since sodium hypochlorite begins to break down.”
https://www.rd.com/article/yes-bleach-expires-heres-what-you-need-to-know/
So, if I correctly store a sealed bottle of liquid chlorine bleach for two years its effectiveness will be reduced by approximately 40%, which means instead of adding 440 CCs to my 55-Gallon potable water drums I would add 700 CC’s instead to have the same potency for sanitization. It’s not hard if you do the math, which is a Real Science.
I believe you can buy any of several chemicals which can be used to make bleach. These include concentrated solutions of sodium hypochlorite which is most commonly used to make bleach, as well as calcium hypochlorite, sodium percarbonate and other chemicals used to treat pool water which also can be used for water purification. Before buying any of these chemicals for water purification purposes, get the Materials Data Safety Sheet (MSDS) for the chemical concerned and make sure you understand the possible threats to your health.
along with reading the Safety Data Sheet (SDS) for health hazards, it should also list other hazards such as flammability, corrosiveness, compatibility/reactions to other chemicals, and storage concerns. SDS’s are usually pretty long and sometimes hard to decipher, but if you don’t want to inadvertently create toxins, or encounter spontaneous combustion or other volatile reactions, it’s best to read up and handle chemicals properly.
Let’s not forget that bleach comes in plastic bottles now, and that plastic, while mostly waterproof, still leaches gasses to a degree.
So, I’m wondering if decanting bleach into glass bottles might slow down the rate of decay.
Thoughts, anyone?
Miss Kitty, since liquid chlorine bleach degrades over time, and if SHTF continues for an extended period we will all probably run out of liquid bleach within a couple of years anyway, so I intend to research the sodium hypochlorite in crystal forms to see if I want to stock some for “just in case”.
Miss Kitty, concerning plastic bottles, I’m not sure how valid this is but looks reputable:
Microplastics found in human blood for first time, new study
https://www.emergencyemail.org/newsemergency/anmviewer.asp?a=28277&z=58
PLEASE:
Make sure the bleach container label self-identifies as
“DISINFECTING BLEACH”
(not as much of it around as a few years ago)!
DZ:
Check on that soon. Most chemicals are mass produced overseas now, and between the latest COVID outbreak, the Chinese saber rattling and the Ukrainian war, a lot of shipping is probably going to get disrupted. At any rate, the prices are probably going to start shooting up.
You can find pool shock at a lot of general merchandise stores in the summer merchandise sections or garden chemicals, and there have been articles around that talk about using it for drinking water treatment and sanitation.
Do your own research into it though, I’m no expert (or XSpurt!)
I think there was an article posted here about a year or two ago on different ways to treat water.
That’s why I get several small bottles of bleach. So when I open it, I know it won’t last that long.
Maaah, small bottles or 55-gallon drum doesn’t matter, it still won’t last. Opened or unopened, the shelf life is 6 months to a year.
I think it’s that very reason many Preppers go to pool shock to treat water.
dz, why would we get the MSDS? We don’t believe that crap anyway. We have you, Michael, and Bob Villa. I don’t want to hear from the people who know the chemicals and the safety and the …. SCIENCE…. I want to hear from random posters on the Internet and NPR personalities… and Michael.
Dale, you’re not only an obnoxious liar, you are also a delusional idiot. You claim you were in the Navy and are now mocking about SDS’s? Yup, you have definitely proven what a fool you can be. Please go take a crap and a nap and come back to the playground when you can maintain a better grip on reality.
dz, you’re the one who made a mockery of MSDS because you made a mockery of science. You claim that Michael wins the argument based on the lie of a pool strip test and the word, Michael claims, of Bob Villa on the shelf life of bleach.
You claimed I should not take the word of Clorox on the shelf life of bleach but I should take their word on the MSDS? Is Clorox a trusted information provider on bleach or are they not? You’re the liar. You’re the fraud – at least in this thread. You can’t have it both ways; either you go with the word of those who know and do the science, or you do your own science, or you take the word of Bob Villa. Those are the only choices. You threw science out the window so don’t pretend you’re using it now.
Yes, I am an expert in MSDS, both from my military service, my time as a military contractor, and as my time as a facilities manager for a large corporation. I fully support that one must use the MSDS as part of understanding how to safely store, use, and dispose of chemicals. And I believe Clorox about the effective shelf life of their bleach products. See, believing actual experts is a thing with me. I tend to believe them.
You and Michael, on the other hand, tend to believe each other, Bob Villa, and I assume that the pattern probably goes all the way to Dr. Fauci for the two of you because if you believe fake science, made up science, then you must believe other fake scientists over actual experts.
Use dry ‘pool shock’ that has a high calcium hypochlorite content. Dry pool shock does not go bad as long as it is kept ‘dry’. You can make bleach as you need it. For use of pool shock, the ratio to purify water is around 1 part “chlorine solution” to 100 parts water.
First, take a heaping teaspoon, not tablespoon, of granular calcium hypochlorite and dissolve it in 2 gallons (8 liters) of water.
DO NOT DRINK THIS: this is the recipe for a “chlorine solution,” used at that ratio of 1 part chlorine solution to 100 parts water. This is your bleach. It can be used for cleaning or water purification. **Sorry to say that, but…there ‘are’ some who might…
Note: ‘Dry calcium hypochlorite’ is an oxidizer. Keep it in a sealed container and ‘dry’. If it gets wet it will start generating heat, so don’t seal it. If your calcium hypochlorite gets wet…toss it. Buy two or three 1lb bags so if one gets wet, accidentally, you’ve got a couple back-ups. Make sure to buy ‘shock’ that has a minimum of 60% calcium hypochlorite. One last thing…do not breath in any of the ‘dust’ from calcium hypochlorite…wear a mask, which I’m sure we all have lying around after the last couple years.
I don’t store liquid bleach because of its short shelf life. I’ve stocked up on Pool Shock instead and store in glass jars. It’s powder/crystalline form that you can mix with water to have the equivalent of household bleach. Just store it so moisture is blocked from it.
I agree with having books is a great idea; but, for a different reason. Do-it-yourself books on homesteading, electrical, plumbing, livestock, self-sufficiency, gardening, etc. would make life easier and could even become life saving.
FANTASTIC point!
It seems to make sense to have fiction books but, then, just how much could you let yourself buy into most fiction in the end of time. But the worst of times will pass in almost any scenario and having the distractions and even the ideas that come from good fiction will be a benefit.
I have whole a whole shelf of nothing but older ‘how to’ books; everything from sinking a well to foraging. (cooking, beer & wine making, distilling), animal husbandry, specifics on processing livestock, building a smoker, gardening, building a water filter, etc.
I’ve been trying to assemble a collection of such books from local thrift stores. The topics available have been limited to mostly home repair, carpentry, and such, but the price is right (usually under 2 bucks). The rest I’ll have to order from the used book sellers online.
Go drink some bleach chuck
So what site, in your opinion, sells the best heirloom seeds? And i don’t need 10 years worth.
I suggest buy local. I’m in Phoenix, AZ and found a local open pollination seed company to buy seeds from. They sell seeds that grow best in my climate and provide a great booklet that gives pointers on when to plant, ect. This is my first year at doing raised planter bed garden and doing quite well. Taking notes on what to do a little differently for next year.
The Great American Seed Up in Phoenix sells bulk vegetable seed for a great price. Seed is Non-GMO and regionally adapted. Most are open pollinated, some hybrids. I think some hybrid seed is good in case you have a virus or other disease that nonhybrids may be suspectible to. And you can grow seeds from F1 hybrids, you just may get something interesting!
You might not want 10 years worth but you may very well need 10 years worth. Seeds deteriorate while stored. Seeds that germinate at 80+ per cent today may only germinate at 20% in three years. Onion seeds will drop that in one to two years. Even if you freeze them, what happens if power goes out or the freezer quits? What if your preparation wasn’t perfect and the seeds just don’t keep?
What if your first year’s crop doesn’t do great and you don’t get to collect seeds? Many vegetables require two years to go to seed.
Bought in bulk, ten years of seeds costs no more than one year’s worth.
Much of our preparations should part of our way of life so we don’t think much about them; sort of like saving money rather than depending solely on life insurance. But most of us have, or should have, or wish we had, life insurance as well but we will likely never use it. For instance, I have close to a million dollars in life insurance through my job but that will cost me $8000 a month to keep when I retire; I won’t be keeping it.
So some of our preps are more like life insurance; we have them to make us feel better and secure, and even to use in an unexpected condition, but, mostly, it will expire and be tossed out unused – that’s a good thing. That’s what we want to happen, to never have to rely on our life insurance or our Mountain House foods (nah; I would never have them but they’re on the list for many preppers).
Buying ten years worth of seeds is partly like life insurance. It gives us the peace of mind that we can at least provide food for our family (assuming we’ve built the soil and skills in good times). That’s life insurance. Then, on the other hand, our seeds may fail or deteriorate (inflation) and we don’t have enough for next year’s garden. But we’ve put away extras to account for that (savings) and we don’t worry. We’ll plant enough each year to collect another two to three, perhaps even another ten, years worth of seeds.
You choose what amount of life insurance and seeds make you sleep well at night. For many, not keeping several years worth, even ten or more years, could very well be a false sense of security. Yes, you need ten years if growing food in the end of times to feed your family is in your plans.
Just an FYI about old onion seeds: I have several thousand Grano 1015Y onion seeds from having bought 4 oz in early 2019. Three of the four 1oz packages got divided into my 10 long-term storage packs but one was left out – I planted for 2019 out of it. So I just did a germination test from that batch of three-year-old seeds.
The common process for germination testing is to place a known quantity of seeds in a damp, folded, paper towel and then fold that over again to cover the seeds, followed by placing the damp towel of seeds in a zip-lock bag and wait an appropriate number of days for the seed type to check for germination. This is exactly what I did – except I got impatient and opened the seeds at 6 days; I could have waited a few more or put it all back in the bag for a few more days but I didn’t. As it was, I had 75% (15 out of 20 seeds) fully germinate with inch-long sprouts. Not bad for three-year-old onion seeds. Considering that the expected germination time is from 7 to 10 days for onion seeds, had I waited a few more days, the count might have been higher.
The value of this test is that I could use these seeds this year, saving newer seeds for future years. Even at 75% germination, I’d double-seed these just to be sure. In reality, since I have not been able to find fresh 1015Y seeds for 2 years, I bought starts at Lowes and they’re already in the ground for this year so there’s no need for me to start seeds. I’m hoping to get enough of those sets to go to seed next year for a few more years of seeds.
I CAN purchase at least some heirloom variety seeds (the most common ones) from my local Dollar General at 25 cents a package. I have bought them, grown them, and saved seeds from them. Many of the seeds are as good as or even better than the so called “survival seed vaults” I have also bought!
Cygnet,
I’ve mentioned how I created my own storage “vaults” – though they’re not really a vault nor are those retail packages. By making my own I know how they were prepared and packaged, exactly what’s in them, how many seeds are in them, I got to choose my own varieties, etc – and I spent far less per seed or per variety than any retail survival seeds pack.
Per seed, dollar store packages are not always a great deal but per growing season, depending on the size of your garden, they can be a great deal. Most home gardeners don’t grow more than 20 of any tomato variety so 20 seeds for a quarter is plenty for a season. I’m an exception, as are many others. I grow as many as 40 to 50 plants of some varieties, twice that in corn and, of course, beans and peas take several hundred seeds per variety per season.
For me, in planning my seed storage to start, I considered what would I need to survive on – how many different types of vegetables or fruits. Then I added more for variety. But I also limited variety in many cases because I might end up with seeds that produce useless fruits or vegetables. For instance, beets, carrots, corn, squash, etc., are very susceptible to unplanned or undesired cross-pollination.
For corn and cucurbits, you can, if you time things right and do it right, you can reduce or eliminate cross pollination. For beets and others it is almost impossible to limit other than by space. For this reason, I grow just one variety of beet and one variety of carrot, etc. I could grow more of such items if I alternated years but I’m pretty happy with what I’ve doing with just limiting varieties on some vegetables.
Cygnet, totally agree, grow all you can, and save all the seeds from everything. I’ve been experimenting getting vege’s to start from cuttings and “kitchen scraps” with mixed results. The cuttings seem to be very productive, such as rooting slips from a sweet potato, but I am having problems getting the root sections of things like onions to start growing and producing roots without also starting to decompose, so I carefully removed the center green “sprout” from a red onion and placed it in about 1/4 inch of water for a week, changing the water every day or two, and the shoot started growing, but no roots, and the bottom part in the water got really soft and started to decompose, so I scraped off the soft material and planted it in a pot outside. If I don’t overwater causing more decomposition, I’m hoping it will continue to grow and produce some roots, which are required for it to grow another onion bulb for eating. If this works, I should be able to perpetually reproduce red onions by replanting the inner “sprout” from the interior of each bulb. Have you tried anything like this?
There is no upcoming great depression or recession. Where do you get the titles for these articles? Geez.
Economists all over the US are predicting a recession at the very least, and a possible depression. Inflation is at its highest in over 40 years and rising, we are on the brink of stagflation, and even the clown in the Whitehouse said yesterday to expect food shortages.
at least your welfare bloated self will be useful when the neigbors eat you.
Lisa,
It doesn’t matter whether there is or is not one coming. We don’t just prepare for the certain, we prepare for the uncertain.
Do you expect to get hit by a car and die? Do you have life insurance? I can tell you it was nice to not make a single extra trip to the store a year ago when there was no toilet paper on the shelf. When there’s an ice or snow storm that threatens the supply chain or power outages, I don’t go to the store for anything. If I get unemployed and it takes a bit to get a new job, I don’t worry one bit about feeding my family or meeting our needs.
To not learn to prepare and to create and follow a plan, according to your own needs and the needs of those for whom you are responsible or love (children, husband, family, perhaps others), is as irresponsible as it would be to spend all of your money and not save for a rainy day.
(My wife’s father was in construction. For their family, saving for a rainy day was a literal thing; construction workers don’t get paid when they can’t work.)
Kinda what most of us have been saying , right.
Responsible people prepare for emergencies of all kinds.
Lisa, you have been listening to leftist news. Please start reading and listening to other sites rather than CNN, CBS, NBC etc.
It’s only been 14 months. Some form of nastimess is happening. I am somewhat prepared, cant afford everything.. ha
It’s good for people to be aware of being self sufficient. And home grown produce has fantastic flavors!
Th information is for those who are interested in gardening.
To each his own.
Bleach expires in time, better get tablets which have a longer shelf life
White vinegar is also a good cleaning agent. Hydrogen Peroxide as well.
Vinegar has an indefinite shelf-life. It would be great if we could get 9 or 10 per cent vinegar but have never seen it in the US. Most is 5 per cent but Walmart does sell 6 per cent. That’s all I buy. It’s usually labeled “cleaning vinegar” but is food safe and the label says it is usable for consumption.
My wife has medical problems and equipment/supplies so I use an average of a quart of peroxide a day for cleaning. Peroxide shelf-life is something I have learned a lot about in the past ten years. Fresh, it is usually labeled with a three year shelf-life. By the time you get it on the grocery store shelf it might be down to two years. If you shop somewhere without high volume turnover, it might have even less than that.
I use a two-step cleaning process for many supplies. I have used peroxide outdated by as much as a year for the first stage and see all of the appropriate and expected levels of oxidation (bubbling) of living material that tells me it has some level of efficacy still. I only use within-date peroxide for the second stage; it’s too important.
Bleach sterilizes. There is no officially rated home use of peroxide that sterilizes; officially it just sanitizes. There are steam/heat processes to sterilize with peroxide but those cannot be replicated with normal home equipment.
I’ve read scientific studies from medical universities that claim to verify that 100% of germs, bacterial, viruses, and microorganisms are killed after 28 hours in peroxide. This is what I do for the second stage cleaning of medical supplies – submersion in peroxide for at least 28 hours. It’s worked without infection for 10 years.
That using peroxide this way has not killed my wife isn’t exactly science, that’s just our experience. Do your own research and come to your own conclusions.
Dale I actually have 30% vinegar, yes 30%. It is sold as a cleaning agent. I use it for rust removal in restoring old tools and for treating new steel.
Amazon has 30% vinegar by the gallon.
JPup, where do you get 30% vinegar? I’d like to stock up.
JPup, I should have searched first. I just checked WalMart.com, and it has lots of 30% vinegar listed.
https://www.walmart.com/search?q=30%25+vinegar
You can also get 30 or 45% agricultural vinegar at some hardware stores or nurseries. There used to be a 45% at Amazon. Diluted to 15-20% is all you need, so makes a better buy.
Dale,
I have 45 percent vinegar. Amazon. Use it for morning glory and blackberries to kill .
Both have hard to peneteate stem/stalks. This vinegar Penatrates and kills both..
Be suoer careful. It’s very caustic. Gloves and safety glasses a must!! I use a paint brush and just dab it on cause it kills indiscriminately.
Peace,
MadFab
Nice to hear from you Madfab, I am glad you mention the need to control the application of 45% Vinegar in weed control. Caustic is the correct word so protective gear is an excellent idea.
Missed hearing from you lately. Hope you’re doing well.
I remember the Blackberries in your area, tough thorny stuff we used to use the brush hog to cut an X through the larger patches as the middle tended to be mostly useless.
Michael,
Thanks, it sure has been a long haul back to feeling better!
Oh those dang blackberries are the bane of my existence!! Never ever think ya have the upper hand with them or the Morning Glory!! GRRRR. Lol.
You know your in the PNW when your neighbor is clearing the blackberries and finds a school bus buried in them. Lol
Hubby and the grandboys have been building me a few more raised containers for gardening this year. I am not very good at it, but I keep trying.
Started some seeds in the green house and going to try to get some more going.
There is a never ending list of the things that need to get done and I am so far behind I think I am winning the race, Lol.
Hope all is well with you and yours. Keep on stacking and packing, and never stop trying!! This is what I keep telling all who will listen.
Peace my friend,
MadFab
Dale was once again “following the science” and posted “It would be great if we could get 9 or 10 per cent vinegar but have never seen it in the US” but was proven wrong by other posters posting several places to get 30% and higher vinegar right here in the US. imagine that, Dale was WRONG, and has yet to Man-Up and be honest enough to acknowledge that he was flat out Wrong and apologize to all those he offended by his dishonesty. Ther are plenty more examples, but let see if Dale will live up to his own standards – I doubt it, he’s to egotistically immature to admit when he is WRONG, as was proven by several valid links he could have easily researched himself, but preferred to follow the Libtard practice of pushing his agenda (his ego) over the facts.
dz, I said I have never seen it higher here. I didn’t say it doesn’t exist. That’s not a question of science. Tell me what thing I was wrong about? You’re just doing more attacks because you can’t back up your arguments with references or science. You post crap and when it’s proven wrong, you get pissed.
Mostly, I don’t care about people having a different opinion or viewpoint until you post things as fact that are not fact and could kill people if they believed you. Then that is something that must be challenged. But you get defensive and attack any time someone disagrees with you even on opinion, not just on provable facts and science.
Dale, you lie: “until you post things as fact that are not fact and could kill people if they believed you.” What have I posted as “fact” that could kill people? You have a bad habit of incorrectly applying what someone else’s posts, and even fantasies from your feeble imagination, to what I post. Get real, get honest.
dz, when you back them up, you own the fake science posts as much as the original poster, just as when CNN repeats Fauci fake science, they own it.
White vinegar and backing soda are my cleaning agents of choice.
Stock up on baking soda and corn starch; will make fresh backing powder for baking.
corn starch is great for babies and general chafe.. This is the cheap stuff that works.
You aren’t saying baking soda and corn starch make baking powder are you? It doesn’t. I do find both to be handy general items.
Baking soda and cream of tarter makes baking powder.
before our Demented Dale starts spouting his Libtard versions of “follow the Science” crap, I searched online for “what is the shelf life of 35% food-grade hydrogen peroxide?” and found this:
https://bulkperoxide.com/how-to-store-hydrogen-peroxide/
“A 3% hydrogen peroxide contained in a sealed bottle is likely to last around three years. A 3% hydrogen peroxide in an unsealed bottle should last around 6-12 months.
A 30- 35% hydrogen peroxide will last about 3 years in a sealed bottle. Once the seal is broken, it will last around 1-2 years.
Now keeping these figures in mind, assess whether your hydrogen peroxide has been decomposing faster than it should. If the answer is yes, you’re probably going wrong somewhere in how you store it.”
Good to know suff.?
In case folk who didn’t know, NEVER mix vinegar with hydrogen peroxide. They put off a deadly and toxic gas when combined. The combo is referred to as the “Dip” among the gun suppressor cleaning community. I make it for cleaning the carbon off of mine.
FFFPatriot:
Didn’t know about that. Did know that mixing bleach and ammonia creates a gas similar to the chlorine gas used in WWI. Knew someone who did that and passed out cleaning their tub – fortunately the window was open, so they didn’t get it too bad.
And the moral of the story, children, is to read the labels.
What does it smell like? I remember doing a mass weapon clean where solution smelled like kerosine & dried my hands out really bad. I was never told exactly what it was.
Christine, I agree with your list except for the bleach. As was stated in the comments above bleach has a limited shelf life. I had about a dozen gallons stored because of all the excellent uses for bleach. I ended up pouring out most of them when I found they went bad. I kept the bottles, dried them out and now store the correct amount of Calcium Hypochlorite in each. Calcium Hypochlorite is very corrosive so be careful if you use it. I put enough in each bleach bottle to create a 6% bleach solution when I add water. The ones I have list a 10-year shelf life for the chemical.
My recommendation is do not store bleach. Store either Sodium Hypochlorite or Calcium Hypochlorite. Should the SHTF, I plan on using some of them as barter items as well.
Where do you buy the Sodium or Calcium Hypochlorite?
I found both Calcium Hypochlorite and Sodium Hypochlorite on walmart.com also. Some looks liquid, some as crystals. I think the crystals would store better.
Pool supply store.
Shelby, My apologies for the delay. A few added points to the above info. Get the Hypochlorite in a dry form and store dry until needed. Then just add water. Try to get the Hypochlorite in a 99% pure product. I purchased mine online several years ago. Unfortunately, I don’t recall the source at this time. I just recommend you do your own research, and you should be able to find some.
It’s only been 14 months. Some form of nastimess is happening. I am somewhat prepared, cant afford everything.. ha
There is so much more that could and should be added to this list.
Garden tools, not just seeds, need to be well stocked. If we are going to be doing more work in our gardens, then a broken hoe or rake will be more than just a little inconvenience. Also, by having extras on hand, you can have more people working the soil. They will also be great bartering items.
Sterile bandages would be another nicety to have on hand. If we lose access to power and a consistent water source, the ability to keep material clean enough for wound dressing will be difficult. I would also add a very well stocked supply of honey to this list.
I’ve heard many stories about how people would save and reuse tin foil. A good stock may not be a bad thing.
Since we may not have access to our computers and smart phones, notebooks and pens/pencils will be useful for record keeping and communication.
There are other items that come to mind, but they don’t necessarily span the gap of what everyone may need/want. This is a good article, but falls short of referencing enough to keep on hand.
Learn to fix tools. Hoes (and rakes and shovels, etc.) are simple and where they brake is almost always the head coming off the pole, or the pole breaks. A disposable society has forgotten the basics. A skillset lasts longer than a replacement/duplicate.
A good hoe will be a good time but cost you a fortune
Valerama,
I agree that repairing a tool is a valuable skillset, but what if your hoe or rake breaks at the head and not the handle. Do you have a welder to repair those tools, or are you going to depend on JB Weld or Monkey glue to hold it together? I have a welder, but what if there is no power and no more fuel for my generator? Should I depend on solar?
Yes, a good skillset is necessary, but even the best skillset is worthless if you don’t have the tools necessary to implement it. You can fashion a new hoe or rake, but how durable will it be? Short of becoming a blacksmith, I think my best option would be to have a couple of spares handy, if for no other reason than to have bartering items.
I’m one of those people who washes aluminum foil and plastic zip lock bags. I also kept zip lock bass in the freezer that I reuse when storing veggies and meats. As soon as I empty the baggie I put it back in the freezer in the compartment that relates to what it is used for. Once it is no longer airtight it gets pitched.
Relearning my canning skills and how to use a pressure camber to can meats and non acid veggies. Acid veggies such as tomatoes and tomato sauce based cans can still be water bath canned. Working to re-establish my gardening skills too which as I’ve gotten old I’ve gotten away from for various health reasons, but with what is looming over us its time to get back to survival technics from childhood when money was scarce.
I hate auto correct… That should read zip lock baggies in freezer and pressure canner not chamber.
Babs, don’t worry about it, we all get the “auto-correct” errors in our posts. What’s important are the ideas, not the spelling, but sometimes it helps to clarify what you intended if the “auto-incorrect” feature changes the wording so much it distorts the context. Thanks for posting, please keep sharing.
Using Potassium Permanganate is a good back up water purification method. It comes in grainy powder form and kills harmful biological contaminants. The upside is that, properly stored, it lasts longer than bleach. Another upside (and downside) is it’s the poster child for “a little goes a long way.” It only takes a few grains to purify a quart of water – an upside for purchase, storage, and transportation. A pint of it could purify a supertanker full of water. Downside: it’s SUPER toxic. It can burn skin on contact. If you add too much to your water you’ll poison it. That’s why it’s my back up and I hope to get by with other methods/ tools first.
Potassium permanganate can also be used in explosives as it is a very aggressive oxidizer. It can also be used to help start a fire.
Once again, people are posting dangerous stuff based on random posters on the Internet and not bothering, apparently, with any scientific research.
Yes, your water company likely uses Potassium Permanganate to treat your water but your water doesn’t arrive purple, does it? Not even light purple or pink. The potassium permanganate is just one step and not the final step. Most is filtered back out. When Potassium Permanganate is equal to or above 7 milligrams per liter in your water supply, the supply must be flagged Do Not Consume. There are very serious risks to ingesting too much Potassium Permanganate, firstly from over-ingesting Manganese, that can kill you.
That you watched a video of someone doing it and they did not die, is not science. If you’ve drank it yourself and you did not die, that is not science. Just as I mentioned above about my off-label use of Hydrogen Peroxide, I stated that it is my experience and that it didn’t kill my wife is not science. The summary in the link below tells what you need to know; there’s a link to the full document paper as well if you want to dig deeply into actual science rather than fake science.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22893354/
Before you make the choice to drink purple (potassium is the purple part) water, research the science and the risks and understand what you’re risking. How are you going to measure or calculate 7 grams per liter? What color of purple is that in your water? What else is in your water that makes the tint different from internet prepper videos on you tube? Are you so sure that what you’re about to drink is safe that you’re going to risk your life or that of your family?
Is crossing a 6-lane super highway during rush hour traffic on foot safe? If I show you a video of someone crossing a highway and they don’t get killed does that make it safe? If I show you a video of me doing it, does that make it safe? If you do it and you don’t get killed, does that make it safe? So if it’s safe, would you have your child do it?
Having only dangerous alternatives to accomplish things that can be done safely just means that you failed to prepare. There are safe, documented and tested, options for sanitizing and making water safe to drink. If you’re prepping, prep to do it safely.
Develop a sense of humor.
diffuser/icebreaker.
dz, sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner. I believe I got mine at Menards. I did find Walmart carries it also.
JPup, I didn’t know about 30% vinegar until you posted, and I have never heard of Menards, so looked them up and the nearest store to Kalifornication is in Kansas. I’ll check the local hardware and feed stores to see what they carry. Thanks for sharing this option, we do use vinegar for cleaning, this will be even better for the stove top. I’ll try it on rusty tools also.
My pleasure dz.
It turns carbon steel dark grey to black. I use it on knives I make and restore.
I really dislike disagreeable people here and other places. It just turns my stomach. If you can’t say anything nice, please don’t comment. It does no one any good to be so negative. It just ruins a good article.
I know how you feel, Deborah… I guess it takes all sorts though, right? The good news is there are plenty of great folks on here to balance out the occasional negative comment. Stick around, you’ll see! 🙂 Glad you enjoyed the article!
Do you want Donald Trump tweets and world peace or Joe Biden nice tweets and world war III?
The problem is, do you want the truth or do you want made up crap that people post without having ever opened a web search engine? Posts from random websites with zero scientific or factual data to back it up. People can and will die from the fake information that many post here and other places. When people post crap just to pretend they are an expert in what they clearly are not, I will call them out. If that offends you, I suggest spending more time at JoeBiden.com and less time on sites where the wrong information might kill you or their family.
That’s why it’s always good to see both sides of the conversation, then do your own research.
But it’s so entertaining.
When I read some of the bickering I think to myself geesh, I’d like to lock them in the same room for a day and see who comes out alive.
I once asked a simple question here and got trashed for hours. I just sat back and enjoyed the ride.
CJ, do we get to use weapons? ?
I would not use hybrid seeds for anything in the world because you could be getting GMO seeds. They would be deadly in my family. We all have allergies that if we got something with GMO we would not know what they were mixed with.
I found a local seed company by searching for “heirloom seeds San Diego” and it came up with https://www.bing.com/search?q=heirloom+seeds+San+Diego&form=ANNTH1&refig=0f1aa1b0a9404bf38612cf9d49d205bc
But the first company listed is in Oregon, the second in Utah, the third in Indiana, and the fourth finally listed a seed company in the San Diego area, so please research carefully if you are looking for locally grown seeds. Last fall I bought five different varieties of tepary beans from Native Seeds in AZ to try since they are supposed to be drought and heat tolerant, and they have all germinated very well. This is my first time growing tepary beans so it’s a learning experience to see how they do in my climate.
DZ:
Could you send the ling for Native Seeds in AZ. I live in New Mexico so It would be great to get seeds that are drought and heat tolerant.
https://www.nativeseeds.org/
Jackiej: Read what they tell you of the seeds. Some do best during the monsoons, meaning they need cooler temps (90s instead of 100+) and most moisture. they are my go-to folks! 🙂 niio
this is a chart and advice from Native Seeds about growing seasons in AZ, good knowledge for southwest gardeners
https://www.nativeseeds.org/pages/gardening
It’s only been 14 months. Some form of nastimess is happening. I am somewhat prepared, cant afford everything. . ha
Skip, you’d be surprised what you can find if you shop around. What’s $1.25 at Dollar Tree might be.97 somewhere else.
If you are looking for a great seed vault check out Texas Ready. The seed vaults they carry ae Northern or Southern zone specific and non GMO. Great Company!! Hope this helps.
Another thing that many people don’t think of is epsom salt.
There are a lot of medical, cleaning, and gardening uses.
I keep about 100 pounds on hand.
https://www.farmersalmanac.com/epsom-salt-21601
dz, my local Home Depot carries 30% vinegar. I checked online before I headed over to get some. The sales associate who asked if I needed help grew rather snarky when I said vinegar and told me I should go to the nearest supermarket. I answered they don’t carry 30% vinegar, but according to the HD website, I should find it in HD.
The associate was surprised to see it on the shelf when he wked with me to the spot where they have cleaning supplies.
This back and forth comment nightmare is exactly the reason that Askaprepper.com is the laughing stock of the blogosphere.
Doesn’t anyone at HQ. care? With posts that have information
we need how is it that bat s**t crazy trolls can get away with
arguing non stop.
FUBAR for sure
Other household items I would suggest would be:
Drawing salve – a homeopathic remedy for boils, slivers, and other skin issues. Good on small cuts and abrasions, too .
Super Glue in single use tubes. So useful, and unless the tube is punctured will stay good for several years.
Sewing notions like buttons, snaps, hook and eye sets, hand sewing needles, and good quality thread. I recently read that cotton thread can get dried out and brittle, which leaves it prone to breaking, so you might want to get synthetic if you are keeping it for long term storage. You can still get most of these fairly cheaply, and I have found good quality at thrift stores. Also a good needle emery, beeswax for coating thread, and safety pins are good to have. Old clothes can be used for fabric and made over into many things.
Plastic pot scrubber pads are useful and if you cook over an open flame copper pads are good to have. If you want more earth friendly scrubbers, buy luffa gourd seeds and grow your own.
Rechargeable batteries and a tester.
Maybe an oil lamp and the accessories. Depends on your circumstances and the shelf life of the oil. I don’t know how long it stays good.
Finally, if you can afford it, a good quality water filter and replacement cartridges that filter both chemicals and biohazards (microbes). Those are super expensive, but may eliminate the need for chemically treating drinking water if you have to depend on an open water source.
My father went through the Great Depression as a midwestern farm boy and from what he told me, the most important things to have are FOOD and warmth. His family nearly starved and he would wake up on winter mornings with a snow drift on his bed (their house had gaps in the boards). After hearing all of his stories, I am convinced that the best things you can do to prep for the next Great Depression is to have lots of stored dry goods like beans and rice, a wood burning cook stove (with a good source of wood), a source of fresh water, and plenty of blankets/comforters.
He supplemented the family’s needs by hunting, so a rifle and shot gun came in handy but much of the meat came from a good dog that would chase down rabbits he would flush out.
To be honest, they didn’t have or need bleach, trash bags, or duct tape. Books and candles are nice but don’t help much if your stomach is empty. Seeds and gardens are great but things like drought (see: Dust Bowl), pestilence, hail, and unseasonable frost happen so you need a backup plan. Mason jars are excellent for storing dry goods as well as fruits and vegetables that you can preserve.
Stay positive but prepare for the worst. ?
If you haven’t bought seeds for farm and garden, get them NOW. We’re looking at another seed shortage. Many seed companies saw dems take control and made large orders, but a lot couldn’t.
Canning jars and lids–I like the forever lids. the lids are supposed to be good for 27 cannings, and the rings good for 3-4 uses. If you have bail jars, they’re good for juice but we don’t use them otherwise. https://canninglids.com/ is a good, reliable site. Veteran owned, at times they need a gentle sergeant-like reminder about things–than a trip to the hospital to get your boot removed from their anatomy. Right now they’re about the least expensive to buy reusable lids from.
Aquaponics: If you never did this, use the Krasky Method. Krasky based his research on nature, not electronics. Basics are, a heavy duty tote, water, fertilizer, net pots (open mesh works) a lid, gravel, and holes the right size. YouTube now has entire sites dedicated to this. As long as plants get enough light, they should do well. While I get along OK with the pipe unit, it still needs a pump and electric to work.
Like the majority of aqua’units, it’s all in, all out, then clean the unit. And, mind green slime algae. It coats plant roots and kills the plant. Only good thing, it has to have a lot of light to survive. That’s why all openings in any unit have to be closed by plug or plant.
Open gravel beds use earthworms to keep the algae rare, and feed the unit, as well. My problems with that are, hungry, tough birds (thrashers can chip thru dried adobe), millipedes (ours get 6 inches long and are right purty, and have a kiss that toxic), and the dog, of course, who’s nick-name is the (garden) terminator.
And, got to git. It’s summer here and there’s a lot of fun to do. I mean work (cough 🙂 The sorghum that survived winter is up. Peanuts and corn are in flats and growing. Gotta check the tomatoes already in the garden and water seedbeds. niio and happy spring to all you folks up near the North Pole like DC and Denver, New York…
red, I have four eggplants and six tomatoes that survived through winter, so I pruned them back and now some are flowering. Two tomatoes flowered and produced through “winter”, so we have been getting a few fresh tomatoes from those. The grapes and Moringa are flowering also, and I did see a couple hummingbirds this spring, but the bees aren’t out yet, which seems odd since it’s been in the 70’s for several weeks with a few days hitting 80’s. I planted peas, long beans, kale, Bak choi, and spinach a few weeks late, but they are all germinating so hopefully we get a good harvest before they bolt or die off from the heat.
dz: Same here with honey bees. Some yellow jacket wasps, though, and only 1 lizard. Plenty of packrats to keep cats happy, though. Before heading back to Montana, the neighbors dropped some herbicide on all those frickin frackin morning glory vines rodents love to eat. one side of their place (next to mine) was covered in them, though they sprayed them last spring. Now I do my turn and take the saw to those Lady Banks roses that grew over the garage. Birds dropped plenty of seed in there and it has to be gone. ya, the roots are eatable, but i already have sweet potatoes, LOL.
A packrat wiped out most of the chimayo seedlings and the onions, too. Plenty of scallions, to, so they can be chopped and dried. but, apparently, packrats do not like the taste of tomato plants. if you lived closer, I’d give you a few dozen along with a few dozen rooted cuttings from the mulberry, figs, and, I hope a local peach.
Most of the pistachio seedlings are up, over 100 peanuts are sprouting and looking fair. We’re not grain eaters but like peanuts. All that volunteer wheat from the half-ton bales is gone fer the birds. A lot of sorghum survived the freezes and is coming on. Plenty of dwarf maize virus in it, too, so that’s being dosed with zinc to kill the virus. The corn looks good, yet, no sign of DMV. A scant half-teaspoon of powdered zinc in a gallon of water. Shake well, dose each plant. I’m using some Epsom salts, as well, for the magnesium sulfate. niio
Don’t forget stuff to light the candles – matches, lighters, even flint/steel devices.
I want to add a comment about potassium permanganate, we used it in the water treatment plant but didn’t consider it as a disinfectant. We used it as a pretreatment to oxidize some of the bad stuff without creating chlorinated organics. We were very aware of the possibility of creating trihalomethane and related compounds (stuff like ether that you shouldn’t be drinking). Disinfection was a whole separate step that was done with chlorine. I would agree with Dale, its probably beyond the average persons limits to mess with it. Just keep some hi test hypochlorite on hand.
wow! some of these people sure like to argue. may need a new theme for the Jerry Springer show
What’s the deal with bleach? Filter pond water through cloth and bring it to a rolling boil, boiling time relative to altitude, of course. Buy or build a rocket stove big enough to heat a 20 qt stock pot so you don’t waste a lot of fuel. Inorganic contaminants like petroleum, pesticides, birth control pills, or anti-depressants are not removed by chlorine or boiling.
After SHTF one thing you will have in abundance is wood ash. Easy to learn how to make lye water out of wood ash, lye water is useful for preserving foods, Nixtamalizing corn to free up its nutrition, of course for making lye soap, which is very similar to making candy. I don’t want to be all talk, after two years being too busy as caregiver to garden I’m finally growing my 1st 3 Sisters garden this year, and a big part of it is going to be soaking the corn in home produced lye water. So making lye water will lead to soap making, too, I’m retired and idle hands are the Devil’s playground so I got to keep busy.
Judge: Small distilleries aren’t that expensive. Solar can be made, as well. niio
Judge, if someone ran out of fuel to boil water, then what?
Wood is readily available in most parts of the country. If you don’t have any, remember the old saying; “The best time to plant a tree is 30 years ago. The second best time is today”. ?
Dan, depends on the climate. I grew up in Oregon, heavy woodlands, lived in the south pacific tropics, jungles and 80 degree seas, and now live in Southern Kalifornication, desert conditions because of low precipitation and there is not very much woodland out here.
Dan: LOL, true, but while I live in the middle of a forest well over 50 years old, most trees are barely 9 feet tall. In the event of SHTF, all deadwood would be gone, and no one is going to cut a live mesquite. When they bloomed a year ago, they had gone thru 2 years of drought that killed a lot of cactus, and still made plenty of pods. The beans are 35% protein, and the pods themselves are high power, 25% sugar. Leaves are eatable, and as high in digestible protein as clover but without the estrogen. In the areas dz and I live, one cow can give you the equivalent of a half-cord of good hardwood every week or so. It doesn’t burn, but glowers like coal. niio
Well, what if a person ran out of chlorine? Lack of fuel is a huge problem in the poorest parts of the world, no doubt. The Texas deserts are rich in resources, if you see a single small mesquite tree you can be sure that it is sitting on top of a couple of cords of root mass grown over hundreds of years, people here have always dug for firewood. If you live near a water source there has to be some supply of wood there. The rocket stove is a great machine, the most economical way to burn carbon for cooking. Dung, cardboard, paper, braided grasses, your Mom’s antiques. Wood for fuel is a huge problem, it takes a tremendous amount of labor to cut and cure it if it’s available. I stacked a half cord of good seasoned oak on my back porch in case Texas had another bad winter, we never lost power, the winter was mild, we easily burned that half cord just for fun. Hate to think about being up north and having to heat and cook all winter with firewood. Dang, I’ve cut firewood with axe and buck saw, hope Biden doesn’t let the Media force him into WW3 over a bunch of worthless Ukrainians, I like my easy life of paying somebody else to chop wood. By my math one thousand Ukrainians are worth maybe one tenth of one American life, maybe.
If someone ran out of water, then what? There’s always something that can go wrong with a plan; that doesn’t mean the plan is bad or that we should not plan.
Ravin:
“Shut your little mouth up and go make a sandwich?”
Really?
?????
Did I strike a nerve? Or do you just need to be the stereotype Yahoo that people are believing you to be based on your wanting to fight with everyone?
The sad thing is that you do have some good information and experience, and that’s why I’ve taken you side in some of these kerfuffles, but you always degenerate into a knuckle-dragging Neanderthal who wants to club everyone.
That’s how I KNOW you drink.
Seriously, you need to get treatment, or all the prepping in the world won’t do you any good. A few days after the booze runs out and you’re going to be seeing snakes crawling out of your pores. People have died from the DT’s.
Get help NOW.
dz look to the other assets you have. Trees and firewood can be thought of as simply accumulated sunshine.
Have you good solar access? Have you looked into the many solar cookers out there to build?
I’ve converted a small tv dish into a parabolic solar cooker that I can boil a old style coffee pot full of coffee in about 10 minutes depending on the cloud cover and Ambiant temperatures. Be careful with the higher powered solar just like you’d be careful of a red hot iron woodstove. In addition be careful of your eyes. My parabolic I have a section removed as to cook from behind it and I use good quality sunglasses to avoid glare. Before putting on or removing the pot I rotate it away from the sun. I call it the solar frying pan. I keep it tarped when not in use to keep dirt and bird poop from marring the reflectors and not “Flashing” aircraft.
A lower powered version uses a half barrel style collector and I find it much nicer to use. Still will bring water to boil in about a half hour. Much safer for me to use.
Even lower powered are the hot water collectors and solar box ovens. That plus a straw box retain heat cooker can make dinner if you have decent sunshine today.
I have all the above scattered around my homestead as we speak. Do be careful in areas like mine that freezing weather will destroy your solar hot water system unless you drain them (like I do) or build a two stage collector with antifreeze heat collector piped through a insulated water tank. Maybe this summers project?
Michael, I bought a small portable camping type solar cooker, and a larger parabolic solar cooker and have to test them to see how hot and fast they work. I’ll be starting with just water before trying to cook anything else. I don’t know what the half barrel style collector is, but sounds like a good idea, do you have any links or sources I can check?
dz theres a lot of sites out there, must recycling the pizza box solar oven stuff AND AD’s. Most sadly give solar cooking a bad name.
Best one I like is
http://solarcooking.org/plans/
The Barrel version is using the curve of an existing half barrel to create a lineal focal point instead of a parabolic single focal point. Allowing a wider cooking area.
Be careful with a good parabolic as I’ve melted a hole into an aluminum fry pan before.
Protect your eyes as a good reflector is a lot like looking AT the Sun.
Michael, I was going try using my recently purchased camping version metal percolator coffee pot to test, but it’s not marked what material it is or where it was made, not even a “made in China”, so it may be subject to melting like your aluminum pan. We have some old Corning ware and Pyrex cookware, do you think those would hold up for testing with the parabolic solar cooker? I’d hate for it to shatter and throw shards all over the back yard where the dogs and me hang out, and yes, I am going to set it on a platform of concrete blocks high enough so the dogs can’t get to it or would get zapped in the eyes, but I can’t stop the birds from flying near it, hope they don’t get blinded.
dz I don’t know how older corning ware, and such will do in a parabolic solar cooker.
Sorry this reply took a day as I had to contact friends who use parabolic’s for advice,
If you place the cooking surface neat but not at the focal point, I expect just fine. Depends on the size of the parabolic as sunlight is diffuse energy and you’re gathering it into a concentrated area for cooking. Not like your building the solar furnaces they have in Israel.
Do be careful of your eyes. In surgery we use darkened surgical tools when using medical lasers and so I also use dark colored cooking pans in my solar cooker.
A shiny or bright white cooking pans is not recommended. Eye glare hazard.
dz: Solar stills. They were popular in SE AZ till some wiseass revenuer started to look for shiny stuff back in the canyons 🙂 Nah, they were only to distill water, I’m sure 😉 niio
raven, just because you live in a ‘rural’ housing development, doesn’t mean we all do. Miz Kitty is right about you. Aside from that, the areas where dz and I live, most trees produce food. You do know what the laws of Moses say about that, I hope. Few people here bother to raise potatoes because sweet potatoes is treated right are a perennial, and yucca root tastes like chestnuts when boiled. Though a ‘tree’ that produces fruit (datil) the top can be planted and it grows new roots. dz and I live in areas that are very close to what Israel has. Him, like the Med, mine is like the Judean Hills.
Judge, situations will very and each person will have planned properly for some of them and will come up short on others. I feel like fuel will be an item I may not have enough of. Safe potable water is at the top of my list and I store a limited amount. My plans include getting river water, filtering it thru a milk filter disc, then a finer filter. then thru my Berky, then chlorinate it. After an hour or so I could dechlorinate if needed. Some would say this is over kill but to each there own, my background in water treatment and my experiences overseas in the Army make me feel like this is right for me and mine.
Dome, I agree, better to filter than gamble, but even if you currently have woodlands for fuel to boil your water, cook, and for heating, how long will it be before the woodlands are depleted as was done in Europe? Start mining coal? Thats what the Europeans ended up depending on until petroleum became dominant.
Domeliving, if you don’t have property or trees enough to have short-term fuel storage, consider a butane stove – just a few bucks from Sam’s Club but you can get a higher BTUH from Amazon or others. Canisters are about $1.50 each. I can cook 8 oz of pasta twice out of one canister and still have enough to cook eggs in the morning.
There are NFPA codes limiting how many canisters you can store in a residence or in a commercial building. I don’t remember the numbers for either and can’t find them again after a short search online; those considering butane should research it for themselves and keep in mind that their state or community may have their own, separate, limits.
Another idea for those who do not have land or trees, consider buying several 2x4s just to store for fuel. As dimensional lumber, they stack better and take less space. Cut into one-inch pieces of appropriate length when you need them. Get a rocket stove or learn to build dakota stoves. It’s amazing how much water you can boil off just a few pieces of wood.
And, of course, a good solar oven/stove will operate almost anywhere in the right conditions and requires no other fuel
Guys, guys no need to worry about trees for fuel.. what do you think the neighbors house is made of…?
Dale are you serious about buying lumber to burn for firewood?
Have you taken a look at the price for 2X4’s Sir?
I can buy a seasoned cord of firewood for less that 5% of the going price of the same amount of firewood in cut up 2X4’s as you suggest. Green firewood to stack up for next year is about half that cost.
J: In my ‘hood? imitation adobe block, means solid concrete. Even window frames are steel. But, for most, I can see it 🙂 You have a good night and thanks for the post. BTW, raven lives in a frame house… niio
dz, Thanks for acknowledging that I have limitations and my own mindset because of my past. I now live about 1/2 mile from the Platte river north of Denver, but I was born and raised on a farm were I could count the visible trees with out taking off my shoes. At 73 years I don’t tend to think about just going out and cutting down a tree.
Dome, me too, I grew up in woodlands in Oregon and know what is has to offer, but currently live in in Souther Kalifornication hills and the trees are very limited, and slow growing, so I do not include them in my prepper plans to use as fuel. I am exploring using reflective solar cookers but have yet to test them to see if they get hot enough to disinfect water.
Dz,
I live in east county San Diego too. I have been heating my house exclusively with wood for 35 years. I also cook with wood about 30 percent of that time. I have never run out of wood. I have also planted many trees over the years. BTW eucalyptus is an excellent firewood and it is naturalized here. No need to water it much if at all. Just cut it and season it for a year or so. It will usually grow back from the stump. Best of luck. ?
Coppicing is cutting a tree and letting side shoots come up. With several side shoots you can get a lot of fire-sized shoots in just a few years per tree. Harvests are far greater than just growing trees to usable size.
Dale what species of trees and how many years have you been coppicing them?
Over the past 10 years I have been gradually turning a portion of my woodlot into standards (full sized trees) and coppicing, mostly beech trees. Don’t want to turn my sugar maples into firewood.
Yield for firewood seems to be better with coppicing but I’ve not kept true written records to check that.
What’s your real world results with coppicing, Sir?
Dan: Like mesquite, cut and come again. niio
Good stuff red, I understand as I’ve not personally burned it, that mesquite burns hot and long.
Unlike processed 2X4’s someone was advocating that are mostly white wood aka Pine types.
Are you using solar cookers and solar hot water out your way?
Dan, I would have to move farther into the mountains to be in woodlands, areas like Ramona up to Julian (then my apples and pears would produce fruit!), maybe parts of Descanso, and that is getting much more expensive as time goes on. Right now, I would have to buy wood from guys like you or locate and travel to areas where I could obtain enough wood to use as fuel. That might be worth the effort after SHTF, but under current conditions, for me it’s not worth the costs. If I move again (for the seventh time) it will be to another state.
Cottonwood burns real hot and burns down to ashes. Put some in when ready to go to bed and it will cover the coals, helps keep them going until you get up, stir the coals and add wood.
dz, you’re such a child, taking time to dislike all of my posts like that matters to me at all. What a child you are.
Let them stack all the liquid bleach they want, as high as they want. Maybe they can make a video about it and get sponsored by a manufacturer. “Today’s’ upload ‘Getting 20k gallons of bleach delivered today!!!’ brought to you by Bleach-O Corporation!”
Dale, thanks for your concern for me and your ideas, I have a rocket stove and probably 1 1/2 cord of 2x6s that were free (shipping crates of some kind). Also propane grill and stove and a ultra lite one person backpacking stove. Its just that if trouble hit in the dead of winter, of the three, fuel, food, water, fuel would be my limiting factor. Its not that I haven’t prepared, its just being realistic about the weakest link. Thanks everybody and keep supporting each other.
Domeliving please take time to look over that free firewood you got. Some shipping crate wood is treated to prevent rot and or termites. Some of those treatments are not healthy to burn or cook food over. You could google any markings you find for the international codes.
Yes they use to use Chromium, Copper, Arsenic, CCA. I don’t believe they use it now in the US but I’m sure it’s used elsewhere and you do not want to burn it.
Michael, Jpup, Good points and yes i have checked it. Some has the same markings for #2&better that’s at Lowes and HD. Some has no marks and is culls from the mill, lots of bark and less than full dimension. No sign of it being treated.
Microplastics found in human blood for first time, new study
https://www.emergencyemail.org/newsemergency/anmviewer.asp?a=28277&z=58
red, I do not have any Red Onion seeds so tried your advice to use the “sprout” from the center of the onion. My first attempt started growing more of the green tip, but didn’t root and started to rot at the root end, so I scraped off the softer material and planted it in a pot with about an inch of the green part above the soil to see if it will survive, and a week later the green growing tip is still green and solid, which is a good sign. My wife wanted to use another Red Onion so I paid a lot more attention to getting to the center “sprout” without damaging it by cutting vertically about 1/2 inch off-center, and discovered it had two sprouts, so carefully removed them and separated the two sprouts, resulting in about a 1/2 inch square of the root area on the bottoms, put them in about 1/4 inch of water, and in two days they have both started rooting and the green tips are growing, even dividing into several green tips. So do I try to separate the additional green growing sprouts into even more starts, or is it better to plant them with three, four, or five green sprout tips per section?
DZ:
Yes, I read that article about the microplastics – very disturbing, but I can’t do thing one about it except for trying to avoid things packaged in plastic. Which is mostly everything, and even stuff that comes into the house not in plastic was probably made with ingredients packaged in plastic for the manufacturer, so we can additionally try to avoid highly processed foods.
I wonder if the increased levels of microplastics is one of the reasons why we’ve seen increases in cancer, heart disease, neurological disorders, psychiatric illness, etc. It would make sense.
Miss Kitty, I don’t know if there is much anyone can do singularly, but it looks similar to the worldwide heavy metal/mercury poisons in our seafood caused by industrial waste dumping into the waterways and oceans, the majority by foreign countries like China and India. I am not advocating stopping industry, but I do think cleaner methods of production, and waste disposal need to be developed and utilized, and “going green” is not it, that’s just another propaganda campaign designed to promote power and wealth for the elites by pushing their bogus agendas at our expense. Pollution of our oceans, not climate change, is the serious threat to the overall health of the Earth, and is why our current administrations intentional hindering of US fuel production, which is the cleanest in the world, and promoting fuel production in foreign countries that are much dirtier, and importing from them instead of supporting US production, is so despicable.
dz: One son-in-law, from Bangladesh, showed me stuff in Dakar Times about the rapid rise of cancer and genetic problems after India industrialized. The Ganges River empties in Bangladesh, and the river is so polluted people in India are dying from the toxins. Folks from the Miss Delta call it Cancer Ally from all the pollution there, and that dems allowed chemical dumping for years before the feds made them pump them deep into the bedrock. And then there’s the HIV dolphins of Kali. The toxic cattle in Wisconsin and poisonous fish in MN. there is no place safe from it. niio
Red et al;
I read a good article today from the Rural Sprout about amending your soil simply by adding worms to your garden. The writer had very good luck with that, and it only cost her about $35 for ten packages bought at her local bait shop.
I don’t know if that’s practical for you where it’s dry, but if you want to check it out, here’s the link.
https://www.ruralsprout.com/add-worms-to-soil/
Miss Kitty, I regularly water my container garden so nothing dries out completely unless by choice, and have plenty of the smaller redworm “wrigglers” (often used as bait for crappie) that showed up naturally, so whenever I move a pot or anything else like a garbage can and see worms underneath, or see any worms while doing “clean up” on containers and the soil, I always gather them up, find another container with actively producing plants, dig down an inch or two, put them in, cover them up, and make sure that pot is moist. I find more and more redworms every year, and I think it helps a lot with keeping the soil aeriated and naturally fertilized.
Miss Kitty, I replied first and then read the article you linked and I’m glad to see I’ve been doing it right with the red wrigglers. I saved that website and their home page to my gardening favorites. Please post more of these, that’s how people like me learn about new tips and techniques, thanks for sharing, please post more.
DZ:
“Red Wrigglers….the Cadillac of worms!” ?
DZ:
Of course I will – there’s not much I can bring to the table as far as gardening goes – I kill plastic flowers! – but if I come across anything else of interest I’ll post it.
Miz Kitty: thanks for sharing that. I’ve been no dig bio-drilling with earthworms for 40 years now. There’s truth to the old adage, if you build it, they will come.
With a lot of high carbon material buried in the beds, like coffee grounds by the truckload, heavy mulch, plenty of water, yep, reds showed up. A few blues, as well, but they work.
What I need now is nightcrawlers. Reds and blues are surface feeders. Nightcrawlers will take mulch into the depths as far as they can tunnel and make a store of moldy crud. They plug their borrows, so predators can’t get to them. They like cool, damp weather, so summers will be spent away down deep. Worm farms there are in plenty down here.
And, I have two active worm beds and one ready to use, and one that was just emptied. Sit a potted plant on the ground and in a few weeks, there’s redworms in it. 🙂 niio
Red:
It might be too hot in your area now, but you might want to try getting some nightcrawlers at a sporting goods store near you going into the fall and putting them in.
What do you think the right ratio of red wigglers to night crawlers should be, and do you think they can cope with your caleche dirt?
Miz Kitty: There are so many earthworms around if I do have to dig, I’m killing them. I need nightcrawlers simply because they tunnel deep to get away from the heat.
1 sister bought a place up neat the Pocono Mtns, PA. The family that owed it had a nice little ‘farm’ going but used chemicals. By the time she got the place, the garden was packed clay. Even grass didn’t want to grow there. then years of raising a pack of sports jock kids made it worse. when she tried to garden, she nearly broke a good shovel and barely scratched the surface.
She asked me to help and I was happy to. Each year, power companies trim back trees and need a place to get rid of it. She took tons of it. I put it down a foot deep in beds. After a few rains, managed to scratch some dirt out from under it to plant tomatoes and sweet peppers. By fall, you could dig in the soil with bare hands. But, no worms!
We all like to fish, so I told her kids, if you buy earthworms, bring some down for Mom’s garden. They did and by spring most of the woody pieces were buried in dirt. A small row of blue potatoes fed her all winter, and volunteered for several years after. Blueberries planted along the edge of the woods grew wild and she was giving them away. Apples, also even with deer raiding the trees. But, the deer were as good as livestock. She had no problems with bugs in the apples after that. Like I was taught, there’s not an apple worm alive that can survive a cow’s belly. And no brown heart after I added a touch of boron to the root zone. What was old, is new. niio
Somebody mentioned diatomaceous earth for potted plants.. Great stuff on here. I just wish I could afford more..( got 6-8 months )?
skip: Farm supply houses have food grade and it’s not expensive. niio
a few years ago, I bought a large box, maybe 40LB’s, of food grade diatomaceous earth from walmart.com for a good price per LB, but the supplier is not listed now, so I searched the internet and the best price per LB I found for food grade diatomaceous earth was from Tractor Supply, a 25LB bag for $26.93 (includes sales tax), and it’s in stock.
https://www.tractorsupply.com/TSCShoppingCartView?storeId=10151&catalogId=10051&langId=-1
and no, sorry to any “gotcha” sleuths but I don’t live in Jamul, I cheated and selected this store on purpose, although it is within reasonable driving distance.
dz: My brand 🙂 niio
The absolute #1 item to stock up more than anything is SKILLS!! You can get lots more places with skills than anything else. You can barter with skills in order to provide for your family or even get help in areas where you lack in skills. Another item that we stock up on that goes along with your books item is books on homesteading skills & survival. In a depression/recession you may not have internet in order to look up a recipe or to get more information on a skill that you forgot part of. Another item is first aid & prescription medications. Lots of our medical industry is dependent on the internet which will make it next to impossible to get the first aid items that we need.
I don’t want digital books I want physical ones. If they have those available I will buy them.
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Jenny I’m with you on wanting actual books to work from. This old lady doesn’t have a computer, only a refurbished iPhone8. No way to print anything, either. I could carry a book wherever I need it if there is no power available.