Take a moment to look around your home. How many of the tools and appliances you use every day rely on electricity? And could you manage without them if the power went off? In a crisis you might have to do exactly that.
Many preppers have plans to generate their own electricity in a crisis, whether that’s by using wind turbines or firing up the trusty old generator, but realistically you’re unlikely to be producing as much electricity as we’re all used to using.
In a survival situation electricity will be a luxury, something that can only be used for the essentials. If you don’t want life to become a lot more difficult it’s good to have – and be able to use – alternatives to electrical devices.
Here are some of the electricity-free items every prepper should have.
Cooking Stove
Cooking is one of the biggest energy consumers in a modern home, and post-SHTF life will be a lot easier if you don’t have to keep your stove supplied with electricity. Luckily there are alternatives.
Related: How To Make Delicious Lard With 2 Years Shelf-Life
A propane stove doesn’t rely on power, and you can stockpile extra gas canisters for it, but once you run out of propane there’s no way to make more yourself.
The ultimate prepper stove is a wood burner. Fueled by a renewable resource you can harvest yourself, it’ll keep you cooking for life. If you want a kitchen that doesn’t rely on electricity, this is the way to go.
Crosscut Saw
Wood is a great resource for cooking and heating – but how are you going to cut it without power tools?
A gas-powered chainsaw is a great tool, but if society collapses gas supplies won’t last forever.
A good old-fashioned saw will, though.
Combined with an ax for felling, and some wedges for splitting logs, you’ll be able to turn trees into fuel for as long as you need to.
Meat Grinder
If your meat is coming from game or your own livestock, the butcher won’t be grinding it from you. If you want to turn your cow into hamburger you’re going to have to do it yourself. A hand-cranked meat grinder is an excellent investment.
Related: How to Slaughter and Field Dress a Cow for Year-Round Meat
Simple to use, sturdy enough to last several lifetimes and pretty versatile, too – with the right attachment you can drop chunks of meat in the top and crank them out straight into sausage casings.
Water Pump
Do you get your water from a well on your property?
That’s great – you’re secure from a disaster that takes out public utilities. Well, you’re secure as long as you can get the water out of the ground, and what will you do when your electric pump stops working?
An electric pump just makes sense. Water is heavy, lifting it out the ground isn’t a lot of fun, and if an electric motor can take care of it for you, why not? It’s good to have an old-fashioned hand pump as a backup, though. That way, if the electricity does go off you can still use your well.
Hand Drill
If you’re building or repairing anything the chances are that, pretty soon, you’ll need to drill a hole.
An electric drill is the easiest way to do that – but it’ll stop working as soon as the power goes off, and the battery in a cordless one won’t last long either. An old-fashioned hand drill will keep going forever, though.
In fact they’re a good tool to have anyway, because while they’re slower and take more effort than a power drill they’re also more precise. There are two options – an eggbeater-style drill or a brace and bit.
Hurricane Lamps
Our ancestors mostly went to bed early and got up at dawn. That’s because they had to; without proper lighting there isn’t a lot you can really do after the sun goes down. If you want to make the best use of your time in a crisis, you need to light up your home. A few good old-fashioned hurricane lanterns and a drum of kerosene will do that for you.
Look for lanterns that use a round wick – they’re three or four times as bright as ones with a flat wick. The light from a kerosene lantern is nothing like electric lighting, but it will let you get around the house, cook and even read perfectly well.
If you want really efficient non-electric lighting, look at Coleman-style pressure lamps. These burn naphtha or unleaded gasoline; they’re more expensive than hurricane lanterns but produce steady, bright light.
Field Telephones
The modern world is built on communications. We talk to people by email or text message. We do our shopping and banking on the internet. You’re even reading this article online.
Now imagine all those communications being shut down because there’s no power anymore.
Well, when the 21st century’s communications go down you can’t replace them – but you can set up a network that will let you talk from your house to the barn, to the house next door, even to other preppers a couple of miles away. All you need is some twin-core wire and old military field telephones – the older, the better.
Related: Quick and Easy Cheat Sheet to Learn How to Operate a Ham Radio
Modern field telephones are pretty sophisticated instruments, but some older ones are so simple they don’t even need a battery; just talking into them generates enough current to activate the circuit.
If you can get your hands on American TA-1 phones, or the British Telephone, Field, SP, or even the ex-Soviet TP-3, you can set up a simple but reliable and effective phone network that doesn’t need a power source.
And don’t worry if you end up with a mixed bag of military surplus phones; all those old sound-powered models are so simple they can talk to each other just fine.
If the power goes off, our lives are going to change. There’s no way to avoid that; we just use too much electricity, for too many things, to carry on the same way without it. We can survive without it, though – and collecting some of these electricity-free gadgets before the crisis hits will make that a lot easier.
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The wood stove is one of most critical things you can buy. It has a steep learning curve to master and it also will keep your house warm. The Kitchen Queen 480 is seriously a awesome buy. (it also requires you to have dry wood but wet wood works to just harder to light)
Lahmans is a decent store to check out and see everything setup. its an excellent trip for the entire family and plenty to do in the surrounding area as well. Its all Amish goods and supplies. The workers also are trained in how to operate everything as well.
one thing the article lacks is how to process food. (meat the grinder was nice but you better spend the coin on a good one.. Or that chinesiam die cast will flake off metal in your food. The Grain mill is critical and yes you have to drop big money on a good one. The country living is the standard for a manual mill.
High moisture in most woods leads to thick soot (creosote), a very flammable thing. Chimney fires are hard to put out, and the fumes toxic. Soot was once used in orchards to kill insect pests but too much and it killed the trees, as well.
Raven an excellent comment. There’s an old saying around homesteaders “I cannot afford Cheap Tools”.
A cheap meat grinder or a cheap grain grinder that falls apart too soon or is really hard to use due to poor to nonexistent bearings is not a long-term solution.
One that actually ADDS metal fragments into your food is a real hazard to you.
Quality tools like the Kitchen Queen stove was a HUGE part of a family’s personal wealth, an item passed on to the children and their children.
Despite the Myth of the Lone Homesteader folks SHARED many tools. One family might have the best meat processing setup and folks nearby would go there and share labor-time and the resulting processed meats. The Grain Mill was so important and expensive to build that the Family Name of Miller was a Honored One. Your family was the center of the area because of that grain mill.
Would be wise I think to look at the Amish for lifestyle thoughts. They WORK Together to get crops planted, harvested, processed and stored for next year AND more as crops fail from time to time. They know to work together to build homes and barns. They share the “services” of their Boars, Stallions and even roosters as even chicken flocks NEED new blood lines as not to become inbred and poor producers.
I noticed when I visited some Amish Farms, they use Solar Panels and Solar Electric Lights. I asked why as they had lamps and such. Cheaper than good lamp oil over the years, no fire hazard, BETTER Light for the reading. they see nothing wrong with Lithium-Ion Batteries, Sealed Lead Acid and any other storage batteries to ease their daily lives.
Teamwork is the Amish way; they are very successful even against diesel powered farmers. A lesson to ponder there.
Everyone hear sounds knowledgeable, and I admire this. Is anyone here possibly aware of any classes or teachers in southern California. I want to learn as much as I can while things are still relatively calm. I know this window of time is narrowing rapidly, and I have been compelled to make the subject of prepping (in general) my priority. I do realize this is an incredibly large subject, but I learn fast. I welcome any suggestions or advice. Thank you, Sam
Get out of California.
Sarah: Away from the coasts, away from the Great Lakes. As far from any interstate as possible. I like cattle country because Bossy loves football. she’s an expert at the forward pass, tackle, and knows how to kneel on the ball–or hiker if he’s a liberal who thinks moo-cows all respond to his love and respect 🙂 niio
Sammy J: I have many books on prepping. While all had some tidbit of helpful knowledge to the extent that I didn’t feel the book was a complete wastes of money, several of the books had information that for my situation was inapplicable.
For instance, how to survive in a jungle. Being located in SoCal, and strongly disinclined to travel to the Amazon region the chapters on jungle survival contained little useful information.
Same with arctic survival. While it is possible that I might be trapped in a blizzard in the high Sierras, with my present situation, not likely.
I will go through my list and publish it for you here. It won’t be tomorrow or the next day as I have domestic responsibilities that take that take presidency over posting here. Check back periodically.
One general piece of advice: read everything critically. Discard written in stone declarations. There is no single correct solutions for every possible situation that might occur. For instance a well know survival expert ( see my definition of experts a couple of posts ago) has postulated that in bugging out one should use a grocery shopping trolley as that is what vagrants use and they should know. He also postulates that one should be able to do 50 miles a day pushing a shopping cart. Think about that. The military marching pace is 120 30 inch paces per minute. Most people unfamiliar with marching find that pace strenuous and cannot maintain it very long, yet that only moves you approximately 3.5 miles an hour. You will hear some ex-military talk about hiking with a full pack 30 miles in a morning.
When I was in the Marine Corps, Leatherneck magazine, an official magazine of the USMC reported on a battalion that had set a new record of cross country marching with field packs of 100 miles In three days. They weren’t preparing their own meals nor digging cat holes to relieve themselves. Ports-potties were set up at intervals and they were served hot breakfasts and dinners, so there was no prep time for meals. Now our expert ( a guy from out of town with a Cross pen) is having you push a loaded grocery trolley 50 miles a day for three straight days. Tell me, does your common sense tell you that is even remotely possible? Yes, if you are a ultra marathoner and regularly run 200 mile ultra marathons and you are pushing the grocery cart during normal times it might be physically possible but in a bug out situation if you can make 10-12 miles a day in the direction you intend to go, I would say that is good mileage. Some days you might have to detour a considerable distance away from your direction of travel to avoid trouble spots.
So, Cricket, there is your first survival lesson: Read critically and analyze what you are being told against your life experience. Go back through the archives. There is so much real life, hands on experience in the comments after each article that this is the first place I would search for info.
Again if someone just makes a statement and doesn’t explain how he arrived at the “knowledge” he is imparting, judge it for yourself. For example someone wrote that sealing cartridges with a vacuum sealer would pull the bullets from the cases. Well, he obviously heard that around the bull shop and didn’t have any experience with ammunition worth repeating. I don’t know what the least amount of chamber pressure is necessary to start like a .22 short down the barrel but it is most likely in the thousands of pounds per square inch. I guarantee that you don’t have a vacuum sealer that generates any kind of suction like that. It would so quickly rip the plastic baggie to shreds you would never get to seal anything. That’s what I mean by critical reading. Does that sound reasonable? What do I know about cartridges and the pressures involved? I know sometimes a mistakes will blow up the high tensile steel in a modern rifle. Can my vacuum sealer do that? I think not. This guy gives no life experience to back his statement, just a flat statement that a vacuum sealer will suck bullets from cartridges. End of lecture.
There are pockets of old school wealth around SoCal. Working museums, such as Gas and Steam Engine Museum in Vista, CA. Blacksmithing, agriculture textiles, food preservation, steam and gas engines, ect. A wealth of knowledge is there among its members.
Sammy: One book that I can recommend is “Practical Prepping (No Apocalypse Required) by Steven Konkoly and R.S. Powers. It is a book with good solid advice. I recommend it. But the book so you have it for reference when the lights go out.
Have you started reading the back articles on Ask A Prepper? If not, why not? If you read an especially useful article, print it out. I use the print button at the top of the page but before I hit the final print function, I copy it and paste it into a text edit program and delete all the verbiage I consider superfluous.
I might add that if you are looking for the magic button that will miraculously bring you effortlessly up to speed, let me disabuse you of that thought. There is no such button to amass the knowledge that some of us have. It is necessary to have lived a significant number of years paying close attention in the hardest school of all the School of Experience.
You can learn a lot by reading but you actually have to read the whole book. There are no Cliff Notes in learning about prepping and survival. No single book or class or instructor is going to teach you all you need to know. No pile of prepper goodies is going to make you into Super Prepper. What is between your ears is the most important part of prepping.
If you haven’t started, why not? There is no better time than right now. Keep a list of which articles on Ask A Prepper you have read.
LCC, that’s a great intro for Cricket. Though I had some of that instinctively because I’ve been prepping for 50+ years, it’s great to read and think about those things. I would have benefited from that talk decades ago and will benefit from it now.
Sammy, the key to preparedness is to start. What keeps you awake at night? What things are the most likely to cause you or your family harm? You will never be prepared for every possible emergency so make a list of things that you think are the most likely problems and start by doing something.
Prioritize across two planes: highest risk, and easiest solutions. In other words, don’t skip easy solutions for low risk, and don’t put off doing something more complicated for high risk… But start small and do something. A can or two of food. A few gallons of bottled water. A three-day bag that you can get out quick in case of fire or other environmental emergency. Keep your gas tank over half full. There are easy things to do but make sure you find something that makes the most sense for your own plans and worries; these are just meant to provoke thought.
Keep in mind one thing. There’s no wrong or right way to prepare. I prepare for what concerns me; you should prepare for your own concerns. How much you prepare is also your own choice; how deeply are you concerne?. All the people and resources around you are just places to get ideas but, in the end, you do it your way.
That you’re doing it at all is a giant step ahead of the masses. Good job.
Dale: Your advice about the gas tank is spot on. I have made no lower than 1/2 full a real mania. Typically I fill up somewhere between 3/4 and 1/2. Never ever go below 1/2.
In addition I make sure to carry $500 in cash with me every time I travel. I have two either first hand or a close relative experience to reinforce the practicality of that. The first is the Northridge earthquake.
A close relative was hunting in the rice fields off I-5 about 100 miles north of Sacramento. He pulled into a gas station and noticed an unusual number of cars and folks milking around. Upon entering the shop the clerk said, “Cash only.” My relative hunts in some remote areas where Uncle Jerry’s Bait & Bullets isn’t set up for credit cards and so he always carries $500!cash with him on his hunting forays.
When he inquired about the cash only edict he was told about the earthquake some 500 miles away and that the credit card processing equipment and the ATMs were all down because the processing centers were in LA. Electricity was still available but alas, not the financial terminals. They still were “on” they just couldn’t talk to the dead mainframe. Whodda thunk? Earthquake 500 miles away and “No Cash For You and You and You!”
First example.
Second: As the wildfire swept through our town four years ago, I decided that I would evacuate to NorCal where both of our children live. Pulled into a gas station in town and discovered the same situation. Gas pumps working, folks milking around and lots of vehicles jockeying around the pumps. Some angry voices.
Going inside to pay I was greeted with the same admonition. Not a problem. After my relative recounted his tale I began carrying at least $500 cash whenever I traveled.
You may wonder why so much. You may have heard that sometimes in an emergency situation prices somehow rise to impressive levels. Unless you are willing to pull a gun on the clerk you are going to have to pay what he or she demands.
You can complain to the main company or officialdom after the emergency is over but arguing with the clerk is like arguing with the traffic cop who pulls you over. Arguing guarantees a ticket. A soft answer turneth away wrath. Is so the Bible says.
Then there is the question of overnight accommodations. Did you ever read the sign on the inside of the door at every hotel and motel you ever stayed in? Did you ever notice that the “regular” rate for the room you are in is at least 2x higher than what you actually paid? That is called the rack rate. It is what you get charged in Las Vegas when you show up at 1600 on New Year’s Eve without a reservation. I guarantee if you stomp the snow off your dress shoes because you had to walk the last mile and a half after your car get high-bridged in the snow and you noticed lots and lots of other cars similarly stuck, I guarantee that you are going to pay rack rate for a night’s stay even if there is a room to be had.
If the motel is full up and there is an empty chair in the lobby, a tip to the night desk clerk may get you permission to spend the night in a chair or on the lobby floor rather than trudging back through the night to sleep in your car.
I always carry 2- $100 bills, 10 -$20 bills, 15 – $5 bills and $25 -$1.00 bills. I don’t bother with $10s. Taking a tip from stores, $10 bills are superfluous. I carry $1s just in case my gas bill comes to $51 and the clerk just doesn’t have change and he can’t let me walk out without paying the whole amount. I can avoid that little bit of extortion by having change. I don’t mind writing off less than a dollar but I won’t submit to petty extortion for more than that.
So there is lesson #2, Sam. Again a lesson I have never read in any prepper manual, but gleaned from real life. I have heard about the sleazy tactics happening at motels and gas stations in emergency situations and I know sometimes with a little cash transaction between you and the night clerk, sometimes accommodations suddenly open up or some accommodation that was against company regulations suddenly becomes okay with the appearance of a $20 bill that just happened.
LCC makes a good point. Wife and I always carry cash as well. We have had a couple of those types of experiences LCC speaks of. We pretty much carry what he does but I carry a couple of 10’s.
we are amazed at how few people carry cash these days. Does not seem smart to us!
LCC: do you use Lucas in the gas? I do, a few ounces per tank, and the 8-cylander gets up to 23 MPG on the highway, not 17. Plugs and so on are always clean and not burned. niio
Sammy, you can start on youtube… lots of valuable information there: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=preppers
I have two 6- plate wood cook stoves in quite good shape that I’d be willing to part with for another prepper. They’re in Reno, Nevada, I could arrange shipping via freight truck.
they’re for sale, not free
20 if you pay shipping
How much are they& could you send photos? Does either of them have water jacket? I am in Elko Nv. & could come to Reno to P/U.
@ Craig PM me on facebook. Hugh Ezzell
In the area lighting the Dynamo Crank Lanterns have worked very well for us.They charge by solar or manual crank or AA
batteries.All have LED bulbs and three brightness settings.
Ron: What brand dynamo lamps?
A major category you missed is gardening tools particularly a shovel. You will need it not just for gardening but also for digging your latrine or even burying the dead.
There are so many hand tools that we will need in an EOTW situation that it is hard to know where to start. In addition to drill bits and a hand drill that can use them, you will need replacement bits, especially in the smaller sizes.
You will need a set of wood drilling bits. Don’t get spade bits. Yes, they are cheaper than what I call real wood bits but they don’t last. Get the bits with a starter screw and the fluted shafts. There is an official name for them but as I write this I cannot dredge it up from my older memory banks.
You might also consider a set of hole-drilling saw bits to cut larger holes in thinner wood.
While an axe is essential, so too is a hatchet for speedy cuts on smaller and/shorter lengths of wood.
I suspect as we get along further into the end of the world we will see all the more recent screw heads vanish as making a slotted screw is far easier than making a Phillips head or a torx head or a hex head screw.
A couple of pipe wrenches will prove very useful.
The list goes on. I am sure readers have other suggestions as to tools that will prove most useful. Almost anything in the way of woodworking tools.
LCC
One more thing we agree on. Tools. I have a lot of old auger bits already sharpened. A barn beam boring machine, braces and bits (a lot of them that were NOS). Hand planes. Every type of hammer known to man. Axes and hatchets all razor sharp. Every type and size of file. Watchmakers tools. Anvils, vices, saw sets.
Hand saws.
Yankee screw drivers, screw driver sets. Bits galore for multi tool types of screw drivers. Fortunately my wife also loves tools. She has every kind of hoe and rake known to man from short handled to regular. Shovels of all shapes and sizes.
We have old very high end manual dental equipment and medical equipment like bone saws of various sizes and yes even a very old cranial drill.
Axe, hammer and hatchet handles for every shape and size of those tools
I have a 1919 Westinghouse electric motor that can run my wife’s really cool treadle sewing machine as well as my 1840’s made band saw.
I have a 20’s small electric motor that can run my watch makers lathe from the 1850’s.
Our cook stove is a 1915 Glenwood model C wood cook stove with a gas side car. That baby is 63 inches wide. It was completely rebuilt by a father and son team in Rhode Island from the stove hospital. They know their stuff.
Point is here to people is to start now. This weekend go to estate sales, farm auctions, garage sales, craigslist, eBay, your local hardware or specialty store and start. Don’t wait. Buy high quality as it will pay you back.
Listen to people like Left coast Chuck and Clergy Lady and more.
Get what you need for your situation. Don’t worry about mine. I have acres and am off grid with my own sawmill. If you are in town get what suits your life. Clergy Lady has a ton of good ideas and stuff she has jury rigged that works perfectly.
Wife and I have taken her suggestions many times. LCC seems to know a lot about everything! The advantages of making to 80 with open eyes and ears and a healthy dose of curiosity!
Just start now, today!
so in other words, you have home depot next door. watch out for the tommy knockers
Add The Restore to your list of sources for hand tools. It’s run as a financial source for habitat for humanity. I was just at ours today and they had a hand drill, auger bits, and a hurricane lamp. It’s a source I’ve not seen referenced on this site. I picked up several door hinges for 75 cents each.
Wow, Consco, I am impressed.
Are you trying to remember “auger bits”?
Yes. You win the cigar. Thank you.
Good advice. We already have most as I prefer hand tools. We had two-man saws, but gave them to family back east where they have logs. We don’t, just brush. Stoves, one small parlor heater, but we’re still looking for parts. The cook stove is an old gas that can be used for methane. Methane should be dewatered (run thru an airtight barrel loaded with glass and a tap on the bottom–the water is 5% acid) and put thru iron filings–again, airtight, and I want to see if old barbwire works as well.
In case of a loss of gas, a Hopi stove works well. It’s adobe clay and retains most heat. To cook on it, an iron grill will work, as well as other things. niio
I made a little rocket style stove for an experiment out of mud n grass on a sheet of steel for moving around for wind direction. Not fancy, basically a J shaped thing that had the tunnel part supported by sticks and covered with mud. The cook top fitted a single saucepan and even 10 years later it’s still useable although the tin has mostly rusted away and it has been out in the weather all this time. A coat of adobe would patch it fine but as is it still works. Go build your Hopi stove, it will work a treat and last for ages without weather protection. Use lots of grass or straw and make the mix as thick as you can but still pliable for less shrinkage. People tend to forget how well mud brick, adobe and other Earth structures survive weather extremes. I’d love a rammed earth house but do fine in my little mud brick cottage. ??
Ginny
Only in a dry climate. In rainy areas it will dissolve unless the brick is fired.
Laugh Out Loud don’t ask me how I learned that one in WA state!
As Ginney knows a mud brick cottage as long as it has a good foundation and roof with good overhang will last a very long time. In Cob building lingo they say Good Hat and Boots.
Same with cob ovens, you cannot build them on the ground as wicking ground moisture will destroy them pretty soon, also a good roof keeps them from rain damage.
I helped build a Cob Pizza Oven for a camp in NH some years ago, they still use it, but it has “A Good Hat and Boots”.
All cob style structures can be easily repaired with some clay slip and for larger issues a small batch of chopped straw-grass mixed well with clay and you have COB.
Wattle and Daub structures in England, Ireland and Scotland built centuries ago are still being lived in today. Worth research.
I cannot make Plywood but I can dig about seeking “Slippery Dirt” AKA Clay and create cob. I can assemble a large sapling framework and fill it in with wattle as in a basket weave of small sticks, split branches and such. The Daub Cob into the weave for a home.
Ginny: the horno/oven is for outside, and communally used. The stove/fireplace is inside for heating and cooking. Rammed earth is cool, but adobe ‘cob’ is better. The old-timers made grids of lathes (the thornier, the better) and plastered over them. There are supposed to be buildings in France, rammed earth, that date back to Rome.
Next time I make adobe block, I’m stabilizing them with 10% cement and coating them with something. If not, then they need to be kilned. There’s too much sand in what adobe I dug up, and during the monsoon storms, the blocks were damaged. niio
Consco,
you’re right, it depends on you climate. Our 22 inches of rain falls from May to October but summers are dry and hot so the adobe does last well even exposed to winter rains.
Red,
cob is much easier to manage but I find it hard to get the right consistency. Maybe the tarp with clay and straw and mix with my bare feet is what I should try. That way I can turn it better, too hard with a shovel these days. Our clay is very dense so I need to add a little sand.
Micheal,
my cottage is nearly 150 years old, built when this land was first farmed. One of the out buildings fell down and some of the original bricks had dog paw prints across the top and gum leaves sticking out. Our kids were little then so the rubble was buried but I wish I’d kept some of those bricks for posterity.
The sound powered phones are a great idea. I used plenty of them in the service but haven’t thought about them since. A quick search on the Internets didn’t yield any surplus systems for sale but it’s something to look for.
Another great idea from askaprepper.com articles.
Rather than just search DDG, I went straight to ebay and found them readily available for anywhere from about 80 bucks shipped to 350 shipped. They’re available.
There are some new manufactured ones I see on the sites of the manufacturers but I don’t see them priced or offered for sale anywhere. I guess unless you’re a navy or shipbuilder they don’t want to talk to you.
LLC = The only letters on the lantern are”Made in China.”
The one that we go to first has a small solar panel on top.
LCC= Try AGPtech or Whetstone
Ron: Well , made in China narrows it down a little.
Thanks for the other two suggestions.
Actually I am surprised that you are satisfied with them. That is out of the normal report. I think you got lucky though.
Great topic and great comments!
…If you want to turn your cow into hamburger you’re going to have to do it yourself…
I see this a lot. What is wrong with using meat that isn’t ground? Ok we all like ground beef or mince meat as we call it but it is fine to go without. All the meat and trimmings that go into it are waste bits that make a perfectly fine casserole or stew without all the time and energy that grinding entails. And yes, I have minced meat by hand and to me it isn’t worth the extra work. YMMV
And in a grid down most of that meat will need to be salted, canned or jerkied within a few days of killing to preserve it if there is no freezer. We’ll, at least here in the hot climate. Obviously not a problem in the northern winter lol
Ginny: If making jerky, you’re halfway to sausage. You know how to prep meat for pemmican. Pemmican is a sausage. niio
Beef mostly. We have a small herd of Angus and a few Droughtmaster cows which we breed and sell weaners. 1 or 2 go in the freezer each year. Now we have sheep a few of those will vary the diet and my daughter works in a piggery so we get pork every now and then. Our local kangaroo tastes off to me so we don’t eat that – there is a local shrub which contains 1080 poison which native animals can tolerate and I blame that for tainting the roo meat.
Dale: Beef mostly. We have a small herd of Angus and a few Droughtmaster cows which we breed and sell weaners. 1 or 2 go in the freezer each year. Now we have sheep a few of those will vary the diet and my daughter works in a piggery so we get pork every now and then. Our local kangaroo tastes off to me so we don’t eat that – there is a local shrub which contains 1080 poison which native animals can tolerate and I blame that for tainting the roo meat.
Totally agree! Making a kettle of stew will be easier than grinding n making meatloaf or hamburgers.
Hard to make chili without grinding meat.
Or a hamburger (easier for people with dental issues to eat).
Or meat loaf.
Pounding meat is an option. Grinding by hand is a lot of work for old folks.
Traditional chili is shredded, roasted meat. Cut into thin slabs, hang on a hook (doing 10 lbs or more at once) and hang it by a fire. Turn slowly and as it cooks, shave it off into a bucket. This is used or dried for later use. niio
well grinding meat isn’t that bad the kitchen queen is setup to run by hand or you run it by a pulley setup…. and just run it to a bike.
Since we don’t eat chili, not my problem lol, but a good casserole/stew should have the meat so tender it doesn’t matter what cut you’re using. Since we kill our own, the shin meat I cook is fall-of-the-bone tender. Restaurants call it Osso bucco and it has to be cooked long n slow. Ideal in a solar oven and def not a problem for aged teeth. ?
Also forgot to add that it is much easier to grind cooked meat than raw so things like cottage or shepherds pie are ideal for leftover roasts, steak or chops. Mentioning chops I have a couple of sheep ready for the freezer which I am really looking forward to. Alas my freezer is full of beef n pork atm and I just don’t have time to process all of it. Summer is so hot, a week of 40+C days is wearing me out I have no energy.
Hope everyone is having a great start to the year.
Ginny, what kind of meat do you kill when you kill your own? I’m sure I’m showing my ignorance but kangaroo is what comes to mid.
Ginny: True. But it’s something to keep in mind. Mexicans like meat as fresh as possible and from older animals. They only age it if serving Europeans. From childhood, the teeth get a good workout on it 🙂
One of our favorite foods is chili cream cheese. 1 pound cream cheese, one quart pickled peppers (sweet or hot), garlic to taste. clean peppers (stem and seed), warm cheese to room temperature in food processor. Add peppers and garlic, blend till smooth, eat. this is popular, tho if it’s bought already made it costs several dollars for a few ounces. niio
Might I suggest a good bow saw rather than a traditional crosscut saw. Not the poorly made pruning saws that you find in hardware stores these days, but a 36” saw, or better yet a 42” saw. Unless you are cutting something really large these will generally outperform. 42” blades are not that easy to find these days.
Spike: Some really fine saws are being imported from Japan where quality tools are still in great demand. Woodworking tools are especially high quality as woodworking is still a craft on that country. They are expensive however. As my grandmother never said , if you want a Mercedes, you have to pay Mercedes prices. When you pay Yugo prices invariably that’s what you get. The best places for low prices on quality tools is at garage sales of old farts like me. I know my kids will sell my Sandvik saw for a couple of bucks. I’ve has it had it probably it since 1960. Still cuts great. I don’t think anyone is making a 30” Cross-cut saw anymore. They are all selling the el cheapo Japanese saws with throw away blades.
Look for Silky Boy saws made in Japan. That’s one I have and am highly satisfied.
As I heard it: “If you want good oats, you have to pay a good price. If you’re satisfied with oats that have already been through the horse, that comes cheaper.”
Good advice. I have a Silky pole saw and it’s well made. I’d have confidence in their products.
Didn’t see a hand mixer in the list.
Manual iron?
Something to weave thread and cloth?
Scissors?
Great ideas, crazysquirrel; they don’t call you crazy for nothin’. But why would you iron? Though it’s interesting as a potential weapon. I don’t iron now; that’s what I pay the cleaners for. EOTWAWKI and I no longer need to pay them.
Scissors are a great idea but I assume everyone has them now – in other words that need didn’t change because of an EMP.
Hand mixer is a great idea. I never use one but I did buy two (in preparedness, 1=0, 2=1, and 3=2) just a couple months ago just to have and used it once just to test it.
Weaving equipment is a thing I would like to be so prepared as to use. I don’t know where I’d get fibers for weaving, though, so I just keep plenty of clothes, blankets, etc. but I do keep plenty of sewing supplies and a new model pedal machine. I also keep tarp and sail needles along with heavy threads for sewing whatever heavy thing might need sewed for whatever reason.
An iron is great for dry sterilisation of fabric.
As for looms I have 2 working and 2 in pieces ???
Fibre arts are my passion though, that’s my excuse anyway. I spin and weave, not as much as I would like though. It’s that time thing again
If you plan to sew/repair cloths or quilts you’ll need an iron. And I assume even in a SHTF world eventually we will continue to do things like weddings…it will be nice to have ironed clothes.
cast iron irons are pretty cheap
Good point, Hazel. You’re thinking farther out than I was when I questioned it.
crazy: Yes! but, that’s all bug out at home stuff. Definitely all come in handy. You can make a Navajo loom easy enough.
https://www.ehow.com/how_6153617_build-navajo-looms.html
For thread, you need a drop spindle. For me, thread is ready-made by yucca plants (along with soaproot, fruit, and so on). If you have room, a small patch of linseed plants are good. A hidden garden plant, they’re considered ornamental. niio
All your saws, drills etc. will blunted so make sure to accessorise with files, stones and setting tools.
Aussie: Very good advice. A while back I picked up an old stone wheel sharpener, 2-1/2 feet across by 2 inches wide. It’s on an angle iron frame with pedals. Fifty bucks, USD, but needs a water trough. I told the kid I felt like a thief paying that and he laughed, and said, then I know you’ll take care of it. niio
That’s a great find. I’ve searched for years for a wheel sharpener and can’t find one. Can’t find new stones to make one either.
Dake: I find them on FB marketplace and other sites. We had over a dozen on the farm, each one had it’s own use. niio
Add in solar ovens and the newer solar water heaters, approx
quart size. Solar / hand crank radio, ETON makes a good one. Scythe for forage (and good exercise).
philip: Good stuff! If in a stable area, then a steel barrel is a good solar heater, but one neighbor threw a 100 ft hose over his roof and that worked for a while. I picked up a hand crank radio via Muslims in the family. No idea what the name it, but it’s a popular model in the Middle East. No scythes anymore, but sickles are easy to make even for a beginner at smithing. Once someone gets the hang of smithing, even iron scissors are easy, and sell well. niio
I bought a scythe a few years ago with a weeding blade and a harvesting blade. It was expensive but I use it to weed round trees. It is hard work for very long so I do short stints and stop when my arms start aching lol. Would hate to have to harvest a field of grain
Ginny: Cutting brush? You should have a brush hook, a short, heavy blade. Cutting grain, there’s a cradle (long fingers) that attach to the handle. I much prefer a scythe for grain and hay than a sickle. Best way, turn the cows in the grain and harvest the cows 🙂 niio
Red:
I’ve been after a bill hook for a while but they are rare here it seems. More common in cane growing regions it seems. The weed blade on the scythe is short and goes nicely between the tree trunk and the long grass. Trying to reduce snake hiding places lol.
Looked at the grain cradles but again haven’t found one available plus I’m not that strong anymore for the added weight. I am still mastering the step and swing pattern that doesn’t strain the back or muscles. Still learning how to peen the blade but I have mastered the stone sharpening so that’s a plus.
Ginny: No ‘hook? Sounds like a great opportunity to pick up some blacksmithing skills 🙂 Dad used to make Japanese swords out of car springs.
The grain cradle on my old scythe were made of chestnut, the lightest wood there is, but with the strength of oak. I want to get a few trees but it’s too dry here for them. niio
I have had jobs in my life that required me to use a shovel all day, and still do all my gardening with hand tools. The part of the shovel you put your boot on to force it into the ground is called the step. You absolutely have to be sure when buying shovels to buy ones with an extra wide step, most shovels have a narrow step and if you use it a lot it will cut through the sole of even the best boots. Boots are going to be hard to find after SHTF, you got to love your boots. Ames is a brand of shovel with oversize step, sure there are others.
The article states, you will need an axe for felling trees. Go ahead and buy an axe now and fell a tree, see what you’re in for. Wear a good pair of gloves, nothing beats an axe handle for ripping the skin out of the middle of your palms. Trim the branches off the log with the axe, then grab your handsaw and buck it into manageable lengths. Life is unimaginably hard without machines.
In a subsistence situation you want a hand meat grinder to make sausage, grinding the less desirable parts of the critter and stuffing it into its intestines to be smoked is a great way to preserve meat and waste nothing.
Thanks Judge. Bought 3 of their US made shovels today on your recommendation!
When my husband’s parents came to the US. They built a house (his Dad physically poured cement and cut wood…). After he poured the basement floor, they hauled in this big, black, metal stove (my guess is iron, right?). So two houses down from us, there is a beautiful, huge, (did I mention it was a big stove) cooking stove. It has not been used in 50+ years. When family lived in that house, my husband would go there every year and clean and oil the stove. Now its been a few years. We are trying to figure out how to get the stove from the neighbors. Moving it would be colossal.
Did they burn coal in it or wood? Coal stoves are better than wood stoves. Coal generates more heat than a like amount of wood and the coal stove costs more when new than a wood stove. In my mind, today, coal stoves are more valuable than wood stoves. You can burn coal and wood in a coal stove. Wood stoves can only burn wood. Coal buns too hot for a wood stove. I don’t know what damage it would do as I have never heard of someone burning coal in a wood stove. I suspect that it would crack the stove first and eventually the metal would fail.
So how come I know what I know about coal stoves and wood stoves? Long, long ago and far far away everybody in town that I knew had at least a coal furnace and some had a smaller coal stove that was utilized in the summer just for hot water. It was my job as a lad to keep the bucket-a-day ( bucket of pea coal a day) going to provide hot water for our family and the tenants who rented the second floor. Everybody had a chute into the basement for the coal man to dump the coal into the coal bin. The furnace used egg sized coal which is what it was called. There were several different sizes but alas at this late date I only remember the 2 sizes we used. It was anthracite coal, hard coal which burned cleaner than soft coal. I believe it burned hotter once you got it going, but am not positive about the hotter.
P.A. and WV had large deposits of anthracite. They still have but most folks along the eastern seaboard switched to fuel oil by the time I had reached high school age.
LCC, It is a wood stove I believe. But I could be wrong.
Our stove came from the East coast and was originally coal and gas. Now the gas ports are for propane. Our stove and firebrick will burn coal but sine we are surrounded by 2.4M acres of natl forest we will use wood.
TEE: As far as I know, all kitchen ranges were wood and coal. You can take it apart by cutting the bolts. They’re all fused, anyway. The fireproof cordage should still be in it, so save that. For the most part, once taken apart, one person should be able to haul it up to your place. One piece at a time, as Johnny Cash sang 🙂 niio
Consco: Now that we got talking about wood/coal stoves, I remember an aunt of mine, living somewhere on Staten Island, NY had a coal stove in her kitchen that heated the apartment and which she used to cook on. I think it used pea coal. Pea coal in my 70+ y.o. Memory was larger than peas. My recollection is that it was about the size of cherry tomatoes. Bear in mind that recollection is almost a century old.
Speaking of irons, my mother had two flat irons which she had used in her younger days. One always had a pair. That way one could be heating on the stove while using the other. One used a wet cloth between the iron and the clothing item being ironed so as not to scorch the clothing. You also had to use a cloth on the handle to keep from branding your hand.
In addition to flat irons which were solid iron, there were irons that were hollow and one inserted coals into them to iron clothes. I think those may have pre-dated the flat irons. Probably from days of an open hearth for cooking.
We also have 2 sad irons. One is “newer”than the other and the handle stays cool. It also has its own stand. Apparently this was one that was used in upper class households. Sometimes you get lucky and get to live a little how the other half lives.
The people we got the stove from in RI use 1 ton and 1 shovel load of coal per year for heat. They obviously have it dialed in.
Your almost “century old memory” seems more aware and better educated than most. I would feel blessed if I knew what you have forgotten. You have been blessed with a full and rich life. I wish we were neighbors other than I could not take the PDRK!
EHCO battery powered chain saws will charge off of a standard
Genset or Solar generator.With the bar removed the engine and
charger store easily in a galvanized can that is lined with cardboard and metallic tape acting as a Faraday cage.Oil and an extra chain or two is a good idea.
I hope it works.
LCC: The only problem with coal is that it’s labor intensive and hard to access. Unless you have a large stockpile or live in coal country, you’re going to run into problems.
You do have a good point about coal stoves being built to take higher temperatures, so you can burn both without damaging the stove.
Has anyone here considered a rocket stove? They’re supposed to be great for fuel efficiency, and you can build one fairly easily if you have your own place..
Miss Kitty,
Our group did a rocket stove project. The rules were simple. You had to build a rocket stove out of materials you had laying around and the stove had to boil water (the same pot was used on all the stoves). One of the younger guys made a stove out of an air compressor tank that no longer worked. My husband used a metal bucket. His cousin used tin cans. We had a lot of fun and now we take the stoves when we camp.
Tee:
I’ve seen directions on making a portable rocket stove online at a bunch of sites. Tin cans and other materials. These obviously work well for your family.
There are also permanently built ones, some very large called dragon stoves, that utilize cob/adobe to build a large bench like smoke chamber to absorb as much heat as possible before the smoke is finally vented through a stove pipe. I would think those would be similar to the Chinese Kang stove beds that I first read about in Pearl S. Buck’s book The Good Earth.
Something like that would be great to have in place for the colder winters we seem to be getting.
Tee, kang stove beds are still used in the Mountain Temples in Korea.
When your using manpower and searching over a mountain area that has been picked over for centuries Efficiency is the Game.
You’re providing some heat for just a bed not the whole bedroom or the home.
But then again, the temples didn’t have running water so no pipes to freeze.
For a large room, small cabin version of a Kang stove you look to the roman Hypocaust or the earthen version the Crimean Oven.
Without the grid living in our “Normal Homes” will be like living in those nearly frozen castles. Smaller hobbit style earth sheltered seem wise.
Ever hear the phrase a “3 Dog Night”? Rich folks used to have their dogs sleep with them for warmth. A 3 dog night was fiercely cold. Like this morning’s -4 Before windchill.
There was a reason in colonial times so many folks slept in the same small room and the Master of the house had an enclosed bed to in effect make themselves a smaller area for their body heat to keep warm.
Miss Kitty, the key to a rocket stove is to understand the principle. Once you have that down, you can make one out of about anything, everything from in the ground (Dakota stove), tin cans, metal tubing, concrete blocks, fire blocks, even a green log.
The tin-can versions, and anything similarly made out of trash or junk are best for those situations where you’re improvising. You might consider having a quality rocket stove on had for emergencies because of the small amount of fuel required to use one. My favorite is a metal square tube model. You can buy assembled versions on Amazon or even fancier, insulated models of rocket stoves.
Hi my name is Ada and I just wanted to let you know that I received only half my order which came up to almost $200. I only received the lost ways book but not the wild foods book please contact me to get this right.
Hand powered items are underrated and often overlooked. Brace and bits, egg-beater hand drills, speed handles, push handle screw drivers, pruner saws, even hand-mixers in the kitchen. When the power goes out, the kerosene lamps come out… Keep it simple
Michael: the four poster bed with bed chamber curtains was for that very purpose, a smaller enclosure to retain body heat.
When I first got to Japan in the mid fifties, Japan was still trying to overcome the deprivation that 14 years of war brought upon them. For Japan , WWII started in China in 1931. Japanese homes did not have central heat. Only the wealthy had small kerosene space heaters. The typical Japanese family went to the sento, the public bath house and took a very hot bath. I can attest that after a hot Japanese bath house soak you can walk back home with very light clothing on. One of my pleasure while living with my wife’s parents after we were married was stopping at either the roasted chestnut cart, ducking under the curtains into the fragrant heat from the roasting pan and the smell of the roasted chestnuts, getting a sack of roasted chestnuts to take back to have with a cup of hot tea while sitting around the kotatsu, or stopping at the noodle vendor and enjoying a bowl of hot noodles.
The kotatsu was a frame with a heavy quilt over it and in the middle of the frame was a charcoal brazier charcoal brazier under the quilt. The brazier held a compressed charcoal cylinder with a myriad of draft hole formed in it to aid combustion. It was called money. The family sat around the kotatsu and exchanged gossip and news This is the right time of year. Fond memories of those times.
At bedtime, we slept on tatami, about two inch thick rice straw mats. Two futon, heavily padded quilts underneath and two on top and at the foot of the bed a yutampo, a hot water bottle to keep your feet warm, enclosed in thick socks so as not to burn your feet on the yutampo. Lots of drunk GIs suffered severe burns because they crashed or passed out either in their bare feet or in thin GI dress socks and woke up sometime in the middle of the night with serious burns from the yutampo.
During the day the average Japanese house was quite chilly and everyone wore heavy clothing and thick sweaters. Most housewives had chapped hands from using ice cold water to wash food and dishes and even clothing. Charcoal was too expensive to use for anything other than cooking and warming up the last thing at night before retiring. Always reminded me of my boyhood when the furnace would sometimes go out because my father forgot to bank it before retiring or other reasons that I don’t recall now. See you breath in the cold air in the house. Always left your clothes beside the bed in case on the morning the furnace had gone out. Reach out and grab your ice cold clothes and drag them under the covers to warm up and get dressed under the covers so that you didn’t have to get naked in the freezing air getting dressed.
I did the same thing in Japan as I had to be up quite early in order to be back at the base by 0730 to check in with squadron headquarters before reporting for work at 0800. My wife’s family lived in Yokohama, about an hour’s commute to the base, NAS Atsugi, home of the famous U-2. The Marines didn’t fly them. They were all handled at a top secret section of the base with entry restricted to a select few. The only time we saw them was on take off and landing. Lots of times that was done at night for security so glimpses of the U-2s was sporadic.
I have lived in interesting times. Ranging from gathering around the radio so the whole family could hear Fibber McGee and Molly or Amos and Andy which would not be on the air in this p.c. world to the whole family sitting glued to their personal electronic device not uttering a word to each other.
For those who are wondering why the Japanese called the compressed charcoal “money”, the word is konryo. Predictive struck once again. I am certain when I proofread konryo was still in the text with a red iunderline but somehow between proofreading and hitting “post” konryo got changed to “money”.
Sorry, this is going to be a crazy-long post:
@red,
The Johnny Cash reference made the husband and I both laugh. Wouldn’t cutting the bolts ruin the stove? I guess we would replace them with new bolts right? I am not very mechanical. I can build with wood and splice and re-thread wires, but mechanical things baffle me.
@Miss Kitty,
The stoves you mention sound like a GREAT group project. One of our team members lives in a 600ish square foot contemporary. The only room that is closed off is the bathroom. It is really nice. It is one large, room. A stove like the ones you all are discussing sounds perfect for his house. We had to lend him our kerosene heater for this cold spell. He puts it in the basement heats the pump and the pipes around it from freezing. He moved up here last year from NYC, like 12,000 of his city friends. They have no idea how to live here.
We locals are making new friends and a lot of money (the self employed locals who plumb, paint, build, smith, etc). The New Yorkers ALL need help. My husband is booking jobs 12 months out. And these people all have more money than I thought. It is funny when one of them comes to my house to pick up some work from my husband. They arrive in their $120,000 Mercedes. My favorite is the couple on the river who bought a house with a steep, up angle at the bottom of their driveway. Their matching, different color Ferraris cannot drive up the driveway. So they are paying my brother-in-law $100 bucks a month to let the cars sit in his detached garage. My nephew goes out and starts the cars and makes sure they are free of cob webs. Now that the owners are at their winter home, my nephew MAY take the cars out for a bit. My nephew has had us “help” him with the cars. A cousin is going to fix their driveway in the sping. He told them he could not schedule until July and they offered a signifigant increase in the estimate if he got to their job first.
Our state, now has a 1.5 billion dollar surplus. Thank You NEW YORK!!!!!!
@Michael,
Thanks for that infomation. We really have to assist our new teammate with heating his house (he calls it a cabin).
Tee:
Sounds like you’ve got your hands full in a good way! Always nice to be able to make a little extra $$ this time of year.
I’ll see if I can find the links on the stove project so you can pass it on to your friend, but I think the video was on YouTube, so if he looks up rocket or dragon stove it may still pop up.
I found it, Miss Kitty. Thanks so much! It looks like an exciting project. This is going to be great. Thank you, thank you!!!!!
Tee: Not if you cut off the heads (or nuts). Just be careful to not crack the iron. keep the bolts so you know what size and how many to buy. I’ve helped move a few and it’s a dirty job but worth it. niio
red, thanks for the GREAT idea. I talked to my husband and then I went and knocked on the new neighbor’s door. They said to come over tomorrow. They would be more than pleased to get rid of the monolith. And we would be more than pleased to get it. I cleared a spot in the basement this afternoon. My husband is thrilled to get it. I LOVE this website!!!!!!!!!
Tee: The only problem with those fugitive Neuwv Yawkers is like the Kallifornicators, having ruined the Golden State, proceeded to move first into Oregon and then into Washington, bringing their distorted politics to those states making them into the same cesspools they left behind. You are going to find they will drive up prices so that the locals can no longer afford goods or services. You mentioned a prime example. The NYC scum offered a bonus if they could get to the head of the line and your acquaintance sold his soul for 30 pieces of silver. He will raise his prices as his services become more and more in demand and suddenly the original folks will find they just can’t afford to live in your town
Next they will start showing up at your town council meetings demanding in loud voices that such things as backyard chicken coops be outlawed because the rooster wakes them up on weekends. That sidewalks and street lights be installed. The first time one of them forgets to pump his septic tank and it overflows they will demand a bond issue to install a wastewater treatment plant and sewer lines. Then the first time someone’s artesian well goes dry because they are accustomed to letting the water run constantly while they shave or brush their teeth or want a glass of cold or hot water they will once again be down at the town council meeting demanding a a municipal water district with the concomitant bond issue and increased taxes.
Please don’t tell me it will never happen. It has already started with your friend who accepted extra money to move the monied folk to the head of the line instead of tellin them they had to wait their turn.
I saw it in Oregon. I saw it in Washington. I see it happening in Arizona. I saw it happen in Nevada. It is happening in Idaho and Montana.
I realize turning down the extra money is very difficult, especially with the goobermint at all levels making life extremely difficult for Joe Workingman but instead of welcoming those scum you really should try to warn your friends and neighbors of the vicious disease of New Yorkodomy. It is just as bad as Kallyfornication.
We suffered a similar problem when Detroit and Chicago were in a deep recession family’s with money flocked to Minnesota. They brought there gangster kids with them. And the politics. And a disdain for Minnesotans.
Tee:
You’re welcome!?
Dale:
Only wish I could do that, but living in an apartment, I need to concentrate on non-flammable options for extra warmth if we lose the power.
I do have some thermal emergency blankets, and a couple of options for heating water/food. I also have some empty soda bottles that make dandy makeshift hot water bottles for warming cold feet – as long as water isn’t hot enough to melt the plastic, it works fine and with little chance of leaking.
One thing I want to try is a candle oven. I did some reading up on these and they sound extremely useful for heating as well as cooking. They’re also called HERC ovens.
Here’s a link:
https://titanreadyusa.com/herc-ovens/
As you can see, they’re kind of expensive, but I’ve seen some directions for making your own.
Here’s a link to an article about diy tea light ovens.
https://rethinksurvival.com/how-to-makeshift-a-tea-light-oven/
And another that gives a sort of overview:
https://www.backdoorsurvival.com/off-grid-cooking-herc-tea-light-oven/
Hope these are useful to someone.