How to Get the Most Food from Your Survival Garden

Written by R. Ann Parris on The Prepper Journal.

Boosting Our Garden Productivity

Our practices can affect our garden productivity hugely. Sometimes that’s as easy as changing our mindsets, so that the time and labor it takes to garden is lowered, which allows us to do more. Sometimes it’s embracing “Semper Gumby” and accepting the feedback our gardens and yards offer us, and sometimes it’s looking at our home and yard spaces differently. Sometimes it’s letting the Johnson’s be the Johnson’s and contenting ourselves with being us – with our needs and abilities the measuring standard we use. In some cases, the practices we apply might be hugely unconventional. In other cases, they’re tiny things only in our minds. They can all make a difference when it comes to successful growing. Here are a few ways we can cut down on the labor and time of gardening and increase our yields, whether we’re just getting started with some pots or whether we’re ready to expand our production in times of crisis when food production has stopped.

Pick the Right Plants

Sometimes if we’re after heirlooms and open-pollinated plants so we can collect seed, it can be tough, but whenever possible, selecting local or regional plants and seeds will boost our success. They’re adapted to if not developed specifically for our climate, so there’s a better chance of them performing for us than something that was produced across the country, even of the same cultivar.

If we can’t find our choices locally, we can do some research. There are some proven winners that work across multiple USDA growing zones for most types of veggies and even most of the field crops we’ll grow.

Most of our county extension, state Ag department, and the Master Gardener’s programs will have stock lists of varieties that perform well regionally within the state and county. Remember that the Big Ag guys are going to most likely be spraying and irrigating, so look for and ask about dryland farming varieties and varieties that are resistant to pests.

We can also improve our gardens by selecting disease-resistant varieties whenever possible. Not dealing with a crop illness at all is far easier on the labor, pocketbook, and productivity of a garden.

We also want to pick the right plants for us, and the right number of plants.

15,000 Non GMO Heirloom Vegetable Seeds Survival Garden 32 Variety Pack

Ten or twenty tomatoes take a lot of work, and a lot of resources. On the other hand, ten or twenty pea or bean plants is likely to only yield enough for a couple of meals at once. Four-square-feet of corn is nearly nothing – one, maybe two meals for 4-5. Four-square-feet of spinach could be salads and greens for a whole season, depending on family size.

Determinate plants dump the majority of their produce all at once, which can lead to a glut we have to deal with, and then they die. That can be good or bad.

If we want to go with determinates, for some things like squash and tomatoes, maybe we stagger two to four plants at a time for a small family or a beginner. It makes less to deal with at one time, and it lets us re-plant after them at a reasonable pace for busy people as well.

Alternatively, maybe we go with a longer-lived set of indeterminate plants that trickle in produce at a rate we can consume or process easily.

Proximity – Plan garden plots along paths we already take, and near the resources they’ll need.

Proximity

Location, location, location – we hear it all the time when finding property, but it’s just as important once we have our space to play with. The closer we can put our gardens to our homes, the more attention they’re going to get and the less time we’re going to spend crossing ground to go weed, water, fetch tools, and harvest.

Once we’re hitting about fifty-percent of our veggie consumption, it’s tough to keep the whole garden close at hand, but we can still keep rotations plants that require a lot of water, that get harvested from regularly, and our problem-prone plants near at hand.

The closer we can put our gardens to our homes, the more attention they’re going to get

We also want to be mindful of proximity to water. Since rooflines are going to be our most common rain catchment points (using our free salvaged buckets and totes), we can check both those boxes keeping at least some of our beds along our common walkways to and from the house and garage or sheds, or establishing beds near doorways and outdoor water faucets.

With our beds near the house, we’ll then also want to keep some of the maintenance basics like hand tools and maybe a watering can right there handy as well. The most regularly used items are fairly compact, so they should fit right in with our porch broom or a bucket or deck box near the door.

Eliminate Ego

Right up there with making our life easier by picking out plants that are proven winners and producers, is giving ourselves a break. The neighbors might have a bare earth garden without a speck of a weed. Martha Stewart and the Neeleys might have awesome, bountiful beds with expensive chipped mulch or thick mats of straw.

Good for them. They’re not us.

We can take advice from them if we want – and if their advice falls in line with our growing style, and the desire to be more self-sufficient, which means cutting some of the umbilical cords to Lowe’s and Tractor Supply. We can ask what varieties they use, maybe even trade some seeds. We need to not compare ourselves – or our gardens – to them and theirs.

Every person and family is different, and soil changes step by step. The extra time being cultivated, a reliance on outside fertilizers, different wind and sun patterns, and a devotion to watering can all have effects.

We also need to just be nice to ourselves. If the weeds aren’t big enough to bother the plants, they’re not hurting anything; take a few minutes to enjoy family or a book now and then. If we have to pick between having cardboard between rows and beds, or running a tiller or weed-eater or hoe, go with the time and fuel and labor-saving ugly.

All our garden should be about is our yield and our health and our abilities, compared only to our past.

The rest of it, that’s just ego. Hubris is how mere mortals take down the gods and giants in all the good stories. Stick with humble and happy.

Slow, Steady Solutions

This is actually a permaculture principle. What it means is that we add things at a pace where we can handle them, where they will thrive, and where we can accept feedback from them – and adjust accordingly. It goes hand-in-hand with that ego point above. But also, it’s about learning, and not getting overwhelmed.

Whether we’re just starting or expanding, it can be tempting to go for broke. And sometimes, we break. Then we get discouraged, either by a method and we write it off, or by this whole gardening thing in general.

We can also break the bank trying to do it all at once, either getting started or making changes or trying to keep up with others’ results.

Deciding on our pace should include a look at our financials. Sometimes it’s more economical to buy or rent a machine and get lots done in a few hours, but sometimes we’re better served with a shovel and a post-hole auger and working by inches over days and weeks.

We do need to get started with gardening, but make changes and expand at a pace we can maintain. In the end, we’ll have a better situation than if we rushed around and ended up unhappy or worn out later.

Leave Room to Renovate

When we eke out our plots and expansions, we can benefit from leaving ourselves some elbow room through and around them. Especially if we’re new, we might also want to use a more temporary “build” for the first few rounds.

Container gardens, lasagna beds, using established flower and ornamental beds for veggies, expanding at the base of trees or hedges just a foot or two, and inexpensive beds made from things like shelving units can help with that. So can doing an unbounded, free-form bed instead of starting off with brick or timbers.

That way we have a chance to test out our water solutions, placement around our homes and placement of our tools, our composting systems, make sure it’s not too dry or too sodden or in a frost pocket or heavily shaded come June, exposed to winds, or affected by our livestock locations, and then actually apply the feedback that our plants themselves will give us.

Then we can go around and reinforce our beds with timbers and CMU if we’re happy, or reassemble them somewhere else if we’re not, or go whole-hog with our in-ground, tilled-out methods.

Having extra elbow room also allows us to try out new methods as we become aware of them, and have space to maneuver or change focus as we lose mobility due to injury or age, or as our family situation changes.

In the end, our gardens and our time in them will be far more productive if we leave ourselves room to adjust for better efficiency or economy down the line.

Bed Down Beds

Cover vegetable beds with leaves in the winter.

At the end of the season, cover garden soil with something, no matter what it is – tilled plots eked out of the yard, actual built raised beds, unbounded lasagna beds, pots and planters.

The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible

Maybe it’s newspaper you soak and then weigh down with loose sticks and rocks and the brick/CMU for a later project, or cardboard that gets screwed into timbers. Maybe it’s a tarp, some old shower curtains, or a patchwork of trash bags and duct tape. Maybe it’s a layer of mown leaves and pine needles. In some cases, you might actually plant a cover crop that will grow for a bit and then get killed off in winter’s cold, forming a mat.

Do whatever it takes, but cover gardens for the non-growing seasons.

It’ll reduce the amount of work necessary to start all over in spring, because it’ll prevent or limit weeds – especially from trees that have long, hard-to-kill roots and the most prolific annuals – and in some cases, it will deprive any that are already in the soil of light come spring.

In most cases, covers of all kinds will also help prevent compaction from winter and early spring rains, so it’ll take less work to loosen soil for planting again.

Even piles of unused mulch can benefit from being covered.

Mulch is there to help us prevent weeds on top of the benefits of reducing compaction and creating a slow-breakdown feed for our beds. If it sits open to the sky, weed seeds can blow in, and some of those weeds will get roots going all the way through the pile, a foot or more deep. We don’t really want to be moving weeds into our garden beds, especially not when there’s a fast, easy way to prevent it.

Garden Management Practices

How we manage our gardens, and even the mentalities we adopt as we plot them out and watch them over the season, has major effects on how much yield they return.

Siting and plant selection in particular is crucial, no more so than for busy people. It’s also crucial that we be realistic with ourselves and with our goals – because every style of gardening requires at least some labor and inputs from us to be successful.

Veggie gardening can be rewarding, but it can also be frustrating. Using practices that make it a little easier to get started now and that leave room for improvements in the future can limit some of the frustrations, and can let us work out the kinks while there are still grocery stores filled with cheap produce to cover our gaps.

The post How to Get the Most Food from Your Survival Garden appeared first on The Prepper Journal.

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Prep Blog Review: Follow These Tips To Maximize Your Harvest

Homegrown vegetables and herbs are more delicious, nutritious, and sustainable than store-bought food. But growing your own food can be challenging sometimes especially if you are limited by space, poor soil, limited budget, or all of them.

Keeping top-quality home-grown produce on your table all year round is not so difficult if you follow the steps I’ve gathered for you for this week’s Prep Blog Review. If you have any other comments or ideas, please share them in the comment section.

1. Succession Planting – How To Get The Most Of Your Garden This Year

“If there is one simple gardening method that can help feed your family consistently, its succession planting.

Succession planting is all about sowing the right amount of seed to have plants to feed your family for a specific period of time. As the growing season progresses, seed is planted again a few weeks later so that the harvest will be spread out accordingly.

With succession planting, you can keep fresh produce coming all season long

We have all been there. We plant a huge area of lettuce, beans or corn all at once. And then of course, it matures all at the same time. Before you know it, you become overrun by more produce than you can possibly consume. The result – a large part of the crop goes to waste.”

Read more on Old World Garden Farms.

2. Alternative Soil Conditioners For Organic Gardening

“The soil in your garden is a very complex structure of elements and it has both advantages and disadvantages. To improve the soil and keep a successful garden you need to apply soil conditioners. The ones described in this article are alternatives to compos and manure.

Over the years I’ve experienced with various types of soil conditioners since I had to work with poor soil in my garden.

I was surprised to discover that there are other organic materials that you can dig into your soil.

You can use these soil conditioners as mulch to help improve drainage or water-holding capacities.”

Read more on Prepper’s Will.

3. 7 Best Flowers For Your Vegetable Garden

“If you want a healthy garden, whether decorative, or an edible vegetable garden, you absolutely need to incorporate flowering plants. As a critical part of any healthy ecosystem, flowers provide food and/or habitat for beneficial insects (especially bees and butterflies), and humming birds, while adding natural aesthetic delight for children and adults alike.

The more nectar that your garden has available, the more balanced of an ecosystem you will have, since only a small number of insects are actually pests.

The more insects you have, the less chance your garden ecosystem has of getting out of balance and pests taking over.

Flowers have other benefits to the garden as well, including use as ground covers, nutrient accumulators, and aromatic pest deterrents, among other functions.

With this in mind, we’ll take a look at some of the best companion plant flowers for your vegetable garden.”

Read more on Homestead Survival Site.

4. 10 Common Herbs You Should Know And Use

“Using herbs in cooking – fresh or dried – increases the flavour and taste of your food and often improves the visual appeal. Most of us want our food to look good. Have you ever looked through those recipe cards from the 1970s?

Everyone’s mother had a set, I think.

Despite what the recipe might actually have tasted like, we are turned off by mashed potatoes and steamed fish covered in white sauce or an Easter ham dressed up to look like the Easter bunny.”

Read more on Just Plain Living.

This article has been written by Drew Stratton for Survivopedia. 

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Choosing the Best Rifle Sling – Part 1

Written by John Hertig on The Prepper Journal.

Early long guns could be carried in two hands ready for instant use or in one hand for almost as quick use.  But you really could not do anything else with that hand or those hands.  It became quickly obvious that a hands-free way of carrying a long gun was needed, and probably the first sling was simply a piece of rope tied to each end of the gun. Times have changed and today this article will be begin with some history, but will also share how to choose the best rifle sling for your  use.

Introduction to Slings (Part 1)

In the late 17th century, as European militaries were arming more and more men with muskets, sling “swivels” started to appear on military firearms.  Generally this was a slotted ring on the bottom of the stock near the butt, and a matching ring on the underside of the forend.  A flat strap, usually of canvas, was then threaded through these rings.  There was generally some length adjustment ability.  In the 1870’s, a new U.S. military rifle was introduced which came with a fairly new concept: a sling made of leather.

As the experience with slings became more common, people found that besides allowing for hands-free carry, a properly set up and fitted sling could help achieve greater accuracy.  The model 1907 sling was the height of sling development as far as support while shooting goes, where the forward arm is inserted between the straps of the sling and “locked” in place with “keepers”.  Despite efforts to replace it, this model continued to be an official U.S. Military option until the days of the M16, which came with a simple adjustable nylon strap, returning the sling to a mere carrying device.

Note that even with a sling which is designed only for carrying, there is a technique of wrapping the sling around your forward arm which provides some of the stability of a M1907 style sling.  This technique is called “hasty sling” because it is pretty quick and doesn’t require a lot of adjustment.

Originally the sling attachment points, and thus the slings, were usually along the bottom of the gun.  This was not really a problem with early firearms, but as magazine fed guns started to appear, the sling and the magazine tended to interfere with each other a bit.  Slings along the side of the gun could fix this problem, but were by no means ambidextrous and did not work as well for shooting support.

Quick Disconnect Mounts

Civilian shooters preferred a sling which could be easily attached and detached, encouraging the development of quick detach sling attachments.  The strap is threaded through the QD attachments, which then can be easily attached to or removed from the matching mounts on the gun.  Nowadays there appear to be at least five possible true QD options to put on the end of your sling.

Which of these options can be used on a particular gun depends on what mounts are built-in or added to that gun.  It is optimal to have the same QD attachment on both ends of the sling, but it is not a requirement if having mismatched attachments is appropriate.  It is handy to have the same mount or set of mounts on similar guns, so you don’t necessarily have to have a separate sling for each one.

STUD Mount

One of the first choices was “studs” screwed into the wood or clamped around the barrel.  There was a hole through this stud and flat sides perpendicular to the hole, and the matching part had two flat flanges separated by the width of the stud, with a pin through them.  Attached, there was a flange on each side of the stud and the pin through the flanges and the stud.  Uncle Mikes has an extensive history with these swivels and still have a good selection.  They are pretty good on sporting arms, but for tactical use they are not optimal.  Early models could be “popped off” as the moving flange was merely spring-loaded.  Some later models have a threaded knob, which when screwed down to the flange, prevents it from unintentionally opening.

CUP or HOLE Mount

Another early option was a “cup” inlet into the stock with a groove around near the top.  The matching part had some small balls around the circumference, which clicked into these grooves.  A button in the center retracted the balls so the part could be removed.  An alternative mount to the cup is a hole in a piece of metal of the same thickness as the distance from the top of the cup to the groove.  This system is fairly heavy-duty and can rotate side to side, which can be both good and bad.  A few have built-in stops to prevent complete rotation, keeping the sling from getting twisted.

RING Mount

The M-LOK Paraclip Sling Mount is the M-LOK compatible variant of the older MSA – MOE Sling Attachment.

 

More recently, rings started appearing on tactical guns.  These can accept a quick connect hook, and there appears to be three common choices.  There is the Magpul Paraclip, slightly similar to a clothespin.  This is fairly bulky; on the one hand, it does not fit on smaller rings, but on the other hand, is very stable.  If it comes with a cross-bar lock (and you use it), it is highly resistant to unintentional release and even without using the lock I have not had a problem.  Next is the HK snap clip.  This is very versatile and flexible, but is a bit noisy and floppy, and if you twist it right, it can pop off by itself.  The third common option is the Mash Clip.  This has a structure similar to a split key ring, but rather than having to pry the layers apart, there is an area you squeeze to separate the layers.  Like the HK clip, it is a bit noisy and floppy, but is much more secure.

There are a few other hooks which might work and are available from some sling makers.  One is called a “trigger snap”.  There very well may be a version which is strong enough and secure enough for sling usage, but the ones I’ve used (on keychains and other non-sling items) release accidentally and even bend open.  Another is a freaky-looking hinged hook, which I don’t know the name of and have never seen in person.  Basically, before relying on any connector other than the common ones, investigate it thoroughly.  You want to make sure it won’t bend or break, won’t release accidentally, is acceptably easy to attach and detach, and does not get “tangled up” with the gun.

SLOT Mount

The slot mount, like the original slotted ring, is not a quick disconnect attachment.  Although it, like the original slotted ring, can approximate a QD attachment if you strap a quick connect buckle to the slot, and have the other part of the buckle on the end of the sling.

No Mount

Having no mount on your gun does not mean you must do without a sling or even without a QD sling.  One option is to have a strap wrapped around the stock or forend to which a sling can be attached.  Most often, this attachment point is a ring or a quick connect buckle.  If you have a picatinny rail on the gun, pretty much any kind of mount you want is available to be clamped on to the rail.

Combination Mounts and Adapters

There are a few “combination” mounts available, which offer more than one type of connection.  Blackhawk has a nice one to attach to a picatinny rail which offers a cup, slot and ring.  This is another way that one sling can connect to multiple guns, or different slings can connect to the same gun.  Another rare option is various “adapters”, which connect to one type of mount and provide the connection for a different QD connector.  Finally, there is the “Universal Wire Loop” which can connect to anything the wire or cord can fit through.

Sling Types

Nowadays, the most common slings are nylon or equivalent.  A few are woven out of paracord, and ones made of leather, including the venerable M1907 style, are still available.

The classic sling is attached to the gun at two points, near the butt and near the front.  These are known as “two point” or “dual point” slings.  These are pretty good for carrying a long gun, but have some problems in getting the gun into action quickly.  One option is to put one arm through the sling and hang the gun on the same side.  This is fairly quick to get into action, but very insecure; the gun can easily slide off the shoulder and down the arm, resulting in dropping the gun.  On the other hand, if you put your arm and head through the sling so that the sling bears on the opposite shoulder, this is very secure, but slow to get into action.

In the 1980s, there were attempts to improve the tactical capabilities of the sling by developing the “three-point” or “triple point” sling concept.  This added more strap, so that the shooter’s body was enclosed by the strap.  Thus the “three points” were the two points on the gun and the third point was the person carrying the gun (since the sling was “attached” to the body).  One common characteristic of a three-point sling seems to be an additional length of strap which goes between the two attachment points on the gun.  Often the forward part of the sling which was to be attached to the wearer’s body was attached along this length of strap.  The problem with this concept was that the additional strap along the gun could interfere with the mechanical operation or use of the gun.  Furthermore, some of these designs used various mechanisms to extend the gun for use or retract it for carrying, and these mechanisms could be easy to miss under stress, or a pain to return for carrying.  These designs tended to focus on transitioning from carry to use, and not providing support.

One interesting sling variation which actually attaches to the gun at three points (but is not considered a “three point sling”) is the “Ching sling“.  This was intended to approximate the support of the M1907 sling but be much quicker to get your arm into.

The next major evolution in slings was the single (one) point sling.  As you might expect, this sling is attached to the gun at just one point, usually right behind the receiver and not near the butt as was common up to this point.  The “other end” of the sling was attached not to the gun, but to the sling itself, allowing a quite secure attachment to the body.  This is a very good option for quick access, allowing a free range of movement of the gun and easily switching from strong side to weak side shoulder as needed to get around obstacles.  And if you suddenly need your hands, you just drop the gun and it hangs in front of you.  The down side is that being attached at just one point; the gun can swing around, bumping you and everything around you.  This is not a good option for long-term carrying, but is hard to beat when quick access is important.

As a solution to the weakness of the single point sling, the “convertible” sling was developed.  This is a two point sling with a ring or buckle near one end, to which the forward end of the sling can be attached, turning it into a one point sling.  This gives you the best of both types of slings.  Other improvements were elastic elements in the sling which helped to absorb shock or chest expansion, an attachment point on the sling or your belt, allowing you to tie down the forward end of the gun when in single sling mode, and wide-range quick-adjustment options.  By the time you combine these features, you get a sling which makes the three point sling obsolete.

Tune in next time for some hints on choosing a sling and a look at a few tactical choices.

The post Choosing the Best Rifle Sling – Part 1 appeared first on The Prepper Journal.

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Carry firearms and why I recommend what I recommend

This is an article about how to choose a firearm for carry, why, how and when to carry as well as the opinions of several extremely solid shooters (well over 200+ years of experience in total shooting/ firearms instructors, 30+ year police veterans of large cities, former agents with federal agencies and contractors as well as lifetime military and at least two special forces people – they draw from life encounters and statistical information that with some searching is available) This article will take into consideration gender, caliber, reliability, longevity tests and user ability.

...

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Mark Zuckerberg, The Rock, Katy Perry And Oprah Winfrey Are All Thinking Of Running For President

by Michael Snyder – Economic Collapse Blog.

Donald Trump has proven that you don’t have to be a career politician to successfully run for president, and so now a number of top celebrities are actually seriously thinking about running against him in 2020.  Unless Hillary Clinton runs again, the Democrats really don’t have an obvious choice, and so this next election cycle presents a unique opportunity for outsider candidates that may want to test the political waters.  In politics, timing is everything, and for celebrities at the peak of their popularity the 2020 election may be...

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Watch: The Moment A Driver Shoots And Kills Gunman Who Randomly Attacked Him At Illinois Gas Station

by Mac Slavo – SHTF Plan

A man pumping gas in Illinois was randomly confronted by a gunman who approached his car, drew his weapon and attempted to kill him.

Police say a man dressed in the orange jacket in the video below is Ronald Morales. After apparently staring down the driver who was pumping gas, Morales hastily approached the man, gun drawn. He opened the passenger side door in what appears to be an attempt at exchanging words, but the driver had already seen Morales draw a weapon. In turn, he drew his own weapon and a shootout ensued.

Morales was shot, quickly turned and ran out...

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Prepper News Brief May 12, 2017

1. President Trump, Henry Kissinger Meet In Oval Office…

Draining the swamp…? Looks like Trump is bring the swamp in. Meet the new boss… same as the old boss. Funny how Trumps biggest cheerleader Alex Jones failed to mention this meet up on his show and Matt Drudge failed to mention it on his “link to other news” site aka the Drudge Report. Via White House Patch.

2. The REAL Reason Trump Fired Comey (Worse Than You Think)…

3. Argentina has it’s first transgender police chief on duty…

“I’m the first transgender police chief in...

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Are You Making These Steps to Resilience?

People strive for independence from big government for different reasons. Maybe you’re a “traditional” prepper who is worried about, and preparing for, a future disaster. Until then, you may be perfectly happy living with all of the modern conveniences. On the other hand, you may be seeking to be self-sufficient today and in the future.

Some people do this because they’re concerned about the planet. Others may do it in order to be able to feed themselves without depending on the government or grocery stores. Maybe you’re worried about all of the chemicals used in commercial farming. Or maybe it’s a combination of all of these.

I consider myself to be resilient. The old analogy “watch your pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves” applies here. I’m taking care of myself and my family today in ways that will insure that we will be able to take care of ourselves in the future, even when fragile food systems may fail. Survival is built into everything I do – I just call it being self-sufficient, present, and forward-thinking.

There are many reasons you may want to be self-sufficient, or resilient, but many of the basic tools and knowledge that you need will be the same regardless of your reason. And I’m here to tell you that as long as you have a little space, you can grow enough food to survive.

Entire communities are developing around this principle. That may seem counterproductive, but it’s really not because every household is practicing home food production and is moving away from dependence on outside manufactured products.

The entire community will be relatively unaffected should commercial foods become unavailable due to cost or disaster because they’re already growing everything they need. They may even profit because at that point, they’ll basically command the market. Of course, profit is only a side benefit, not the reason that people choose to live resiliently, but it’s there.

Learn from our ancestors the old lessons of growing your own food!

Three common resilient goals

Gardening without chemicals

Find gardening methods that don’t require commercial fertilizers or chemical insecticides/pesticides. These include composting, permaculture, and growing your own food.

Growing meat at home

You’re going to need protein, as well as (possibly) furs to keep you warm and leather to make shoes, etc. One resilient solution to raising cattle, sheep, etcetera, is to raise animals that are more efficient such as rabbits and chickens.

Finding renewable energy solutions

Dependence on the power grid is probably the single most way that the government has most of us hamstrung. Finding ways to use renewable energy from the sun, wind, and water to power our homes is a clean solution to the energy crisis that we’re facing even as I write this. It’s also the one step that you’ll have to take if you’re shooting for total self-sufficiency.

Skills that you’ll need to be resilient

Just the definition of “resilient” pretty much sums up the skills that you’ll need to become self-sufficient. You’ll need to be able to adapt and find solutions to both immediate and long-term problems.

Roll with the punches and find a way to fix things over the long haul. Other synonyms, or words closely related to resiliency, include flexibility and adaptability, and they certainly apply. I’ll throw patience and consciousness in for good measure.

You also need to shift your strategy to the long game, if you haven’t already. This simply means that you’re looking to make changes today that will leave you relatively unaffected by outside changes, and self-sufficient to the greatest degree that your situation will allow.

Finally, you need to be able to recognize, and admit, that you’ve failed. This isn’t so that you can give up; you need to know so that you can start over without wasting valuable time and resources.

Those are the basic personality traits you’ll need, so now let’s talk about technical skills. This part is the easy oane because there is very little about becoming self-sufficient that you can’t learn, either from personal experience or from the experience of others. It’s not possible to know too much.

Gardening skills:

• Learn everything you can about your plants before you even buy the seeds.
• Make a list of plants that you’d like to grow, then find out if they grow in your zone.
• Learn the size of the plants that you want to grow and choose wisely according to the space that you have available.
• Know the sunlight needs of your plants. This is important, because photosynthesis is a critical part of growth.
• If you’re planting in the ground, know at least the basics about your soil, and match that to the needs of your plants.

You can pretty much apply these rules to raising animals, too.

Start Your Resilience with Growing Food

Resiliency isn’t about just gardening, but that’s a good place to start because you can do it from anywhere and with next to no money.

Gardening is relatively simple as long as you know the needs of your plants, and can be done for next to nothing with relatively little space. If you’re growing a container garden or even a vertical garden, you can do so in small containers, or in 5-gallon buckets. There are many different articles that I’ve written about this topic and I’d recommend that you read some of them, and even print what you think may be useful to you.

Now that you’ve studied the plants and made sure that you have the space to grow them, it’s time to get started.

It’s always best to use heirloom seeds, because those are the ones that are going to give you the same plant every season. In other words, if you plant a beefsteak tomato plant from the seeds of last year’s beefsteak tomato plant, you’re going to get the same fruits. Open pollinated plants would be next choice. Hybrid plants aren’t reliable from one season to the next, so just skip them.

The next thing you’ll need is containers. You can buy 5-gallon buckets at Home Depot, but you can get them for free from restaurants and bakeries. They buy their food in bulk, then throw away their buckets. If you’re growing tomatoes or other vining plants, you’ll need stakes or trellises.

Finally, you just need your seeds and soil. The soil, of course, depends on what you’re growing, but should consist of a combination of compost and soil. Sand is often good to mix in, too, especially if you live in an area that has a clay-based soil.

These are extremely general tools, but if you have these basic components available to you, you can grow your own food.

As always, knowledge is power and when you’re working to feed yourself, it’s much better to learn from the mistakes of others than to have to learn from your own.

In summary, there are many techniques that resilient people utilize and work into their daily lives in order to be self-sufficient today, and in the future.

The goal is to live in pretty much the same manner after the disaster as we did before it, because we remain unaffected. Back in the days, our ancestors knew how to do it. It’s time to go back to our roots and uncover their secrets that helped them survive harsh times.

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Are you making these steps to self-sufficiency? Why did you chose to be resilient?

If you live a resilient, self-sufficient lifestyle, or are trying to, tell us about some of your efforts in the comment section below. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask those, too!

This article has been written by Theresa Crouse for Survivopedia. 

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Are You Really Prepared for the Real World?

Written by R. Ann Parris on The Prepper Journal.

I happen to cruise the same prepper forum as this child’s father . He’s all the time popping up with updates of what he’s ordered in or purchased on the “What Did You Prep Today” thread – parts for his expanding power system, tons of first-aid supplies, another hunting blind, potassium iodide and more gas masks, more MOPP suits, replacing his fifth wheel with a pop-up camper, endless survival books.

He’s not really doing anything hundreds if not thousands aren’t. He’s worried about a game-changing Z-event – doesn’t matter what it is. His wife somewhat supports him, and ignores chunks of the rest. When the power goes out, he flips some switches and keeps them going. When his son first got sick, he identified some gaps in their preps – namely, ways to control nausea and ways to combat low oxygen in patients.

Then the real world kicked the door in, and so did the “uh oh”.

The amount that was not covered by their insurance was a sucker punch, on top of lost wages and normal bills, and the additional expenditures for traveling and staying with an in-hospital patient.

That kind of thing happens. All the time.

It’s the kind of thing in between our normal, everyday life and an actual major disaster that just doesn’t get prepared for all that often.

The World We Live In

We live in a highly unpredictable world. You’d think, as “preppers”, we’d accept that, and prepare for it.

We commonly don’t though.

We prepare for the worst case and a short-term storm or a flat tire, and with frightening regularity, we skip the vast number of things that can happen in between. In some or many cases, we live paycheck to paycheck or via debt to get our supplies for that worst and that storm, without actually being able to readily and more easily weather life’s mid-range crises.

Most of us don’t have to practice much actual triage in our daily lives. Man, am I grateful not to be in those fields, or living in a world that does require it. At some point in the future, we may have to make those hard calls, or watch people fade away from us, helpless to do anything at all because resources just don’t exist.

Right now, though, it’s unlikely that we’re going to watch our children, spouses, or parents slowly fade away in bed without getting them every medical advantage we can beg, steal and borrow against, and then waiting for the bills to roll in. So we need to get ready for them.

Our “bunker” (really, it’s food and hygiene supplies), our generator and fuel supplies, and our cached medical supplies may help us defray our living expenses while we shovel out of a financial hole, whatever the cause of that hole. For those starting out and with less than three, six or twelve months of really well-rounded supplies, however, it may be a minuscule fraction of the $8K the prepper above is trying to raise.

In other cases, such as vehicle or roof repairs, we may need that money now and find ourselves maxing out cards or taking out a loan – in some cases, a personal loan with a higher interest rate than a vehicle loan – which then leaves us even more vulnerable.

The Things That Go Wrong

Predicting just how much a common, no-frills surgery or dental procedure is going to end up costing out of pocket is a little bit like throwing darts blindfolded, even with major insurance coverage. It’s one of the many flaws in our healthcare system, and it can lead to some painful surprises, just as it did for the family above with their unexpected and uncommon situation.

There are minor disasters like a leak that means an out-of-this-world water bill, discovering that bees now inhabit 85% of an outer wall, and vet bills.

There are somewhat less-minor disasters such as cut hours or other loss of wages, or injury or circumstances that limit how much we can hunt or garden or forage and thus require making that up out of pocket.

Seasonal trends in the greater financial world can mean our income and costs can vary greatly. Some types of self-employment come in ebbs and flows that are hard to predict. Workers comp and unemployment are fractions of what regular wages are in some cases.

Can you take the hit on water, repair, and field losses from a broken irrigation line?

 

Then there are the disasters like farm-ag insurance that doesn’t actually cover our loss of stock to a dog or illness, or weather conditions leading to feed and hay prices going through the roof.

There are heart-breakers like loss of spouse – either divorce or death or debilitating injury that leave a big gap between former wages and real-work “income” and their social security disability.

All kinds of things go wrong, all the time.

Armageddon-ELE and a snowstorm are only the extreme ends of the spectrum. There’s a lot of middle ground we need to cover if we want to call ourselves prepared.

We need a plan for things in between a night spent in the cold because our kayak went downriver without us, and our plan to batten down the hatches of the bunker, board our ark, or shoulder our bag and go eat bugs and roots in the forest.

So what do we do about it? Especially those just starting out, or who have hit that ugly hump where they thought they were prepared, then discovered the world of sustainability and self-reliance that entails even more purchases and education?

We do have options. We have one more hurdle to leap first, though.

Stuff is the same as cash

Most preppers agree Ammo would be highly valuable in a SHTF Event.

I hate to see the belief that firearms and ammo, and our hardware like generators, are going to bail us out.

I’ve seen the theory that firearms hold value well. Depending on how you define value, maybe. Depending on how long you can wait, they also might hold more value. Run a test, though.

There are books, just like for vehicles, that define value of firearms based on a percent of their condition. That’s the top dollar somebody’s going to pay, unless you can find a sympathy buy, nostalgia buy, or somebody willing to pay for specialty etching.

Most of the time, if you need cash relatively quickly, you’re not going to get that top dollar, even if you did accurately gauge whether your shotgun, revolver, and rifle are at 75% or at 85%. You’re going to a gun store or a pawn store.

In some cases, they’ll take a percentage of the price you want and stick it on a shelf to see if it sells, but you won’t get paid until it does. If you have other money forthcoming, there’s the pawn option – which lets you buy it back for basically what they gave you upfront, but with a time limit.

Most of the time, you’re going to take a hard hit on that best-case value. See, that’s the most they’re going to be able to get. So off the top, they’re going to cut the price by the overhead – the costs of running and manning a storefront and-or internet presence.

There are definitely guns out there that are investments. Man, how many of us wish we’d snagged a few more of those K98’s, 91/30’s, or those .22LR German training pistols while they were under $100, now that they’re sitting at $200+?

Those are the exception.

Your bog standard 870-500, AR, and Glock, even purchased used, is not going to return the same money it was purchased for. In some cases, it’s not going to return 2/3 and may only hit half what it cost.

The same for ammo, unless you’re in the middle of a shortage. Especially if you’re looking to offload fast, chances are good you’re going to get less than 75% what you paid.

Sometimes hardware like chainsaws and generators, reloading presses, and tow-behind attachments will fetch decent returns back, but if you purchased new and are selling used, or if you need to sell fast, you may be in for a nasty surprise there, too. Same goes for selling off some of those canning, long-storage food, and equine supplies.

Please, don’t take my word for it, or anybody else’s.

Pretend you’re there, with a sick kid and $8K you can’t cover, out of space on credit cards and unable to wait 7-14 days for a loan. Haul some of the examples in to a shop. Call around.

Better to find out now than later.

Fire insurance may or may not cover outbuildings like barns and sheds, and their contents to include livestock, let alone feeding & getting livestock out of the cold afterward.

 

Getting Right

A lot of the middle-ground disasters revolve around finances, either losing our income or having to shell out. It’s not fun and in many cases, income is one of the fixed facts of our lives. There are a few things we can do to help build resilience, though.

Insurance: Go over your policies – all of them. Flood coverage is almost always separate. Wildfire and house-fire coverage can vary wildly. Don’t play the odds on health coverage for big disasters and cancer treatments; plan for that disaster, too. Make sure you check on things like preexisting conditions, such as diabetes or world travel that may make you an exception to coverage.

The biggest is to make sure insurance actually covers your losses.

Make sure life insurance and disability coverage actually covers your mortgage, or rent for enough time for your family to get up on its feet. Make sure vehicle coverage and theft coverage actually pays for the gear inside the vehicle, too.

In some/many cases, firearms are severely limited in coverage without additional or separate policies, and so are precious metals.

We can increase our deductibles to lower our monthly bills, but to do so, we need to make sure we actually have the deductibles on hand to pay out – all of them, in case a tree falls across all the vehicles and a roof, and then there’s a house fire while we’re staying in a hotel/campground.

That’s where honest self-assessment comes into play. If we’re not going to keep that payout on hand, we need to stick to the lower deductibles and just pay the higher monthly rates.

Have an emergency credit card with zero balance.

Emergency Credit Card: Have a card with nothing on it, enough to cover those insurance deductibles above and for that hotel room and the unexpected expenses that crop up. Cash is great, and I endorse keeping plenty on hand, but insurance doesn’t cover or severely limits paper money replacement and it’s bulky. If it can get tucked somewhere accessible in the middle of the night that won’t be affected by the “it” crisis facing the family, go for it, but keep a card handy, too.

Companies like to send cards to even people with bad credit and no jobs. If you’re not actually using it until a disaster occurs, the obnoxious interest rate doesn’t matter. But again, that’s about individual willpower.

Stop Spending: That can be harder than it sounds for some people. “It’s only” and “it’s on sale” and the eye-catchers at stores can wind up adding a fair bit to totals. Lack of organization and counts means I’ve seen people with six or seven of the same thing that doesn’t actually wear out all that often or 47 cheap flashlights, which is money that could have been spent far differently or tucked in a jar for a rainy day.

If impulse purchases are a problem write on the inside of your dominant hand “do I need this – how much of an hourly wage equivalent is this?”. Framing things into that last question has actually helped others, really and truly. Is that $8 fast-food combo or gadget really worth an hour or a half-hour of your daily income?

To combat internet impulse buys, take the card information off your accounts after every purchase, and make it a habit to keep cards in another room from computers. Stick the same question on those cards or on a slip in the wallet.

Cut Expenses: Every situation is different. Chances are good though, that most of us have something we can cut.

Whether it’s $90/year for Amazon Prime for our TV and movies, $8/month for Hulu, and whatever internet costs versus a cable package, gong to VoIP instead of a landline (you can plug in a phone to dial 911 even without phone service), or really deciding if we need those smart phones – or the major carrier contracts instead of reloadables, electronics are a main source.

Tally up what we spend and where, every penny; from the candy added to carts to the brand clothes and shoes, those $1 coffees instead of a thermos and lunches/snacks out instead of packing them. Consider what we cook, and what we could save by cooking differently.

Where we shop, and how much we spend on a DIY project (to include cooking) versus waiting or just buying something, are big contributors to what we spend.

We may also seriously consider downsizing if we rent, assessing the vehicle we drive for its maintenance and fuel costs versus something more economical, or getting out of a house that’s a money suck.

Communicate Goals: When it comes to the expenses and to the spending mentioned above, we’re going to have to talk to our families in many cases, and that’s going to be a headache, because what we prioritize is different.

You have to leave in at least some of the sanity savers, and it’s going to have to be transparently balanced, especially if you’re the only or the primary prepper. Cutting data, internet, subscriptions, and TV while you still buy a tacticool hatchet-prybar-tent stake and 500 rounds of ammo is likely to go down like ground glass.

In fact, forget the word “prepper” and all the world of gear and goodies while you’re working the financials. Every bank, credit union and investment agency is going to have mail-outs they’re happy to send you about budgeting and financial security. Get them. Print the example prepper’s story. Sit down with the goal to simply get out of a rut or become more financially stable.

Stay calm, stay open, be understanding, be non-aggressive, and walk in with some ideas but also asking about their solutions, too, and willing to compromise.

Write out the anticipated costs – roofs, tires, replacement appliances, vet bills, medical and dental bills, vehicles, graduation and college, annual shopping binges (holidays, back-to-school, vacations/trips, garden supplies). Come up with a “now” plan, and 1-2, 5, and 10-year plans and goals.

Involve everybody, and remember that their priorities are as prized to them as yours are to you, and what’s “obvious” is not going to be so for everyone else.

Piggy Bank vs. Zero-Balance: There’s going to always be a balancing act between paying off debt and sticking money in a kitty for another time. It’s another one that’s going to be deeply personal and individual. Have some money available, instead of immediately dumping every penny against a debt. Build up or keep enough on hand to go ahead and pay deductibles and for the credit cards that get so many people in trouble.

Just as we slowly build up food storage a few days, then a week, then a month, then 3 months, build financial backups that prevent late fees or huge interest rates.

Once we have it, pick the things that cost us the most (highest interest) and-or that we can eliminate pretty quickly, and focus on those.

 

House floods – It does not take Katrina or Sandy to rack up tens of thousands of dollars in un-covered damages.

Preparing for the Middle Ground

Our food storage and some of our other prepping supplies absolutely helps with some of those disasters, lessening our expenditures, but it can take some time for the savings to equal what we really need to pay out, and sometimes we need to pay that now. Too, if our supplies are things we will not actually use while the rest of the world is chugging around like normal (beans and rice 5-7x a week, scrubbing board, NBC or surgical suite) they’re not going to help us dig out of a hole.

The only thing less-sexy and less-interesting than getting right financially is going to be making up those disks and binders of our important information. Do it anyway. Make a chart or a graduated pie graph that can be colored in, weekly or monthly, so that we have a nice, physical tangible and can look at something to see what we’ve accomplished. It’ll help keep us on track.

Getting on track and staying on track financially is probably harder than any other aspect of preparedness. Try. There’s a lot that goes wrong in our world that does not involve ARs, survival gardens, INCH-BO bags, and making our own charcoal.

The post Are You Really Prepared for the Real World? appeared first on The Prepper Journal.

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What Do You Really Know about the Shelf Life of Meds?

Nowadays, more people are falling victim to a range of illnesses that require supervision and medication from a doctor.

From asthma, diabetes, and hypertension to anxiety disorders and cancer, just about every ailment also has a range of medications that can be used to treat it or alleviate the symptoms.

You probably have your own drug reserve. And there are times when you don’t finish up a bottle of medicine, but still keep it for uncertain times. Do you know how to use them safely after a long time storage in case you need them?

Here are 5 questions answered on the shelf life of meds. Did we miss anything? Keep reading and complete your knowledge with our special report.

What the Date on the Bottle Really Means?

If you could take a look at the bottle the pharmacist removes your medication from, you’d be surprised to see that the recommended discard date does not match the one on the manufacturer’s packaging. Why? The pharmacists store medications in ideal settings, and also because manufacturer packages have features not found in consumer bottles.

For example, the manufacturer may add a desiccant/oxygen absorbent to the package or it may have a more airtight seal. Are you doing this at home? No, you’re not, for sure!

Once the medication is transferred to another container, it’s expected that ideal storage conditions no longer exist. Even though the shelf life of pharmaceutical supplies also drops each time a bottle is opened, the shelf life is expected to reduce much faster once the drug is in consumer hands.

Many people will tell you that individual drug molecules and stabilizers don’t have an alarm clock that suddenly goes off once the date stamped on the bottle is reached. While this may be true in a literary sense, there is no avoiding the fact that some molecules in the bottle begin changing as soon as the manufacturer forms each dose.

Get this lifesaving information about surviving when hospitals are shut down!

Can Medications Expire Before The Date Listed on the Bottle?

Even though manufacturers guarantee that drugs remain at a stable level of potency up until the expiration date, some things can cause them to expire sooner. And here are just a few common things you may be doing that shorten the shelf life of medications more than expected:

Storing medications in a medicine cabinet above a sink

Moisture from the sink can and will find its way into the medicine chest. If the medicine bottles aren’t airtight or not sealed properly, then all that moisture can seriously alter the potency levels of the drugs. Aside from that, if you store medications on beside a kitchen sink or even on a nearby counter, all that moisture can wreak havoc.

This is also true for herbal and dietary supplements. You have only to see how these medications will clump together in the bottle after just a week or so of sitting on a sink. Even if you don’t open the bottles very often, moisture will still seep in.

Storing medications over a stove or other source of heat

No matter whether you store medications over the kitchen stove or near a heating vent, all that extra heat can have a destabilizing effect.

Sunlight or artificial light reach the meds for prolonged periods of time

While you don’t necessarily have to treat all medications like camera film, avoiding light is still very important.

Storing medications in a refrigerator or freezer

If you are going to put them in cold places, pay attention to ideal storage content and moisture build up in these appliances, to keep their potency.

Liquid vs. Pill Based Drugs. Which One is Better?

If you have ever stored foods away for a longer period of time, then you already know that dehydrated foods last longer. In a similar fashion, pill based drugs also have a longer shelf life than liquid versions.

You will also find that drugs suspended in an ointment may have a shorter shelf life. For example, the active ingredient in liquid and ointment based eye treatments may have a shorter life span than the exact same active agent dispensed in pill form.

Click here to subscribe to Survivopedia’s newsletter and get this month’s report to discover more facts about the shelf life of meds. 

What Does the Army Know about the Shelf Life of Meds?

Over the years, the military and others have been wondering if properly stored, unopened drugs are actually potent after the listed discard date.

Studies done conclude that many drugs are still perfectly good 2 – 5 years after the listed discard date.

While these studies can be used to find out about some drugs, they may or may not tell the whole story. In particular, if the study is based on a name brand drug from the developing manufacturer, that does not mean the generics have the same storage characteristics.

Does Oxygen Absorbents and Desiccants Help?

Many oxygen absorbents used for food actually wind up emitting moisture, and makes them virtually useless for storing medications. Today, you can buy a single product such as Pharmakeep that combines a desiccant and an oxygen absorbent. It is made just for medication and can help extend the shelf life of many different drugs.

When it comes to the shelf life of any given medication, it’s difficult to know how safe the drug actually is. The manufacturer will guarantee the drug up until a certain date, but that does not mean it won’t do any good afterward.

If you choose to play it on the safe side and never take a medication past the discard date listed on the bottle, you should still make sure that you store the drug properly within that time frame.

What to Worry about When Using Expired Medications

No matter how hard you try, there may be times when you have to choose between taking a chance on using outdated drugs or having no medication at all. When in this situation, avoid any drugs that show the following characteristics:

• The tablets or gel capsules are stuck together, brittle, or show signs of becoming malformed.
• The medication has an unusual (for the drug) or foul odor
• Liquids that separate out into different layers to do not recombine easily when shaken.
• Insulin, other injectables, or inhaled drugs have a cloudy appearance or they are separated into discernible layers
• The original seal on the medicine bottle has been broken for more than a year. In some cases, such as insulin, the lifetime for an opened vial or pen may be as little as 30 days.
• The drug is in a class or family that is known for having a shortened or reduced shelf life.

Learn more about shelf life and how it works so that you can choose the best methods for each drug in your cabinet.

Aside from helping you save money, good medicine storage practices will also increase the chance your health will not be endangered by taking a medicine that no longer does what it is supposed to do.

If you are going to thrive in a situation were medicines may not be available, knowledge is the only doctor that can save you when there is no medical help around you.

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This article has been written by Carmela Tyrell for Survivopedia.

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