Before we get started with this weeks “what did you do to prep this week? I’d like to thank everyone who sent emails and comments regarding my other site MDCeekmore.com. You all gave me some useful tips to improve the site that will make it even better for all users. So far the site is off to a great start and is not getting close to 2,000 subscribers, and a good number of comments on each post which isn’t bad because the site is less than one month old.
The site is a lot of work (about three hours a day, plus another three for this one if you count time for answer all the...
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Gardening and self-sufficiency go hand-in-hand and summer is my favorite time of the year when it comes gardening. From watering or dealing with the summer heat, to pest control and weeds, there are many things to do in the garden during the summer if you want to develop healthy, productive crops.
With these things in mind, for this week’s Prep Blog Review I’ve gathered five articles on this topic. If you have other gardening tips for summer, share them in the comment section below.
1. Start Gardening Differently
“Preparedness and self-sufficiency usually turns to food production at some point. Whether we’re old hats or just getting started, there are some set standards that tend to take place in the veggie garden. Sometimes they’re very well deserved. Sometimes, though, changing things up can make a difference in our ability to produce foods.
Small scale or large, when it comes to the veggies, doing things differently can buy us the time and space to get started or expand our harvests.”
Watering The Garden: How To Avoid The 3 Most Common Mistakes
“When it comes to watering the garden, how, when and how much you water makes all the difference! Although watering vegetable plants can seem like a trivial task, there really is a science behind proper watering techniques.
Bad watering habits can damage plants and reduce harvest levels dramatically.
Of course, watering needs vary based on location and the specific plants grown. But no matter where you live, there are a few simple rules of watering that can really help power a successful garden.
Here are 3 of the most common mistakes folks make when watering the garden, and how to avoid them!”
“As a gardener, you will learn the hard way that suitable irrigation is crucial for developing productive crops. As summer sets in it is important to water your garden regularly to keep you plants healthy. More importantly, you need to learn how to conserve water and make the best decision for your garden.
Keeping your plants well irrigated aids in healthy foliage growth and the production of large yields. During heat waves, it is crucial to water your garden following a precise schedule.”
5 Everyday Items You Can Use To Fertilize Your Garden
Your options for garden fertilizer are either Miracle Grow Plant Food (whose Amazon page includes a legal disclaimer that their phosphorus-containing fertilizer may cause harmful water runoff), or organic fertilizer. Easy choice.
If you’re reading this, then organic is probably very important to you. You aren’t okay with a little pesticide on your salad or using spinach picked from farms in China with questionable regulations. Instead, you want clean produce.
The Ultimate Guide To Natural Pest Control In The Garden
“Are you looking for natural pest control options for the garden? Like many home gardeners, I started growing my own fruits and vegetables in part to avoid the toxic chemicals used on most commercial produce. After all, why put in all that time and effort to eat poison? It didn’t make sense to me.
Just walking down the chemical isle in the hardware store, i.e., the “garden helper area” or whatever they call it, gives me a headache. Sometimes I purchase certain organic pest control products, but often you can get rid of garden pests with what you have on hand.”
This article has been written by Drew Stratton for Survivopedia.
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I want to ask folks a question. If today was the last day of the life we all know, one with everyday conveniences such as running water, electricity, a myriad of different foods a short drive and in some cases, walk away, and most importantly, laws and someone to enforce them. What do you wish you had done more of, stored more of, done differently? I’ve been sitting back feeling kind of smug and a little too proud of myself where it concerns my preps and position in life right now. This morning though, I took a somewhat reverse approach to thinking about...
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What would you say if I told you that the average suburban homeowner/renter can grow enough fish in the backyard to meet the protein needs of their family? Fish is one of the most nutritious forms of protein, assuming you raise the right fish under the right circumstances so today we’re going to talk about how to grow fish in tanks for food.
It takes much less space and resources to raise fish than it does to raise other farm animals such as cattle, so this is great for folks who don’t have the time or space to raise livestock. Growing fish in tanks is a great way to diversify your dietary choices and work toward food independence.
Knowing where to start seems to be the most intimidating part of any project, but the answer is always the same: you start at the beginning. Start reading about fish that do well in your area. Learn how quickly they grow and how much food they require; ideally, you want one that grows fast and requires little food. Also it’s a good idea to grow fish that are resistant to disease and parasites.
Study aquaponics because it’s a great way to develop an ecosystem that provides a diverse array of foods.
Study your climate. Fish don’t particularly like to be frozen, so if you live in an area that freezes, you’re going to have to take that into consideration. Also, study the nutrition of the fish that do well in your climate and research the growth requirements for the most nutritious.
How much space do you have? How much money do you want to invest and how many of the supplies can you build or get at a decent price from local sources? As a person seeking food independence, you’ve likely already learned many great ways to score materials for free, so take advantage of that.
You can’t just buy some random fish, throw them in the pool, and call it good. Just like every other undertaking, you’re going to have to do your homework. There is no exact guidebook because everybody’s circumstances are different, but over the next several paragraphs, you’ll have some great ideas and a better feel for where to start.
What Fish are Best to Grow?
There are several fish that are particularly well-suited for indoor aquaculture, which is definitely an option. Personally, I wouldn’t want to do this in the house large-scale because of the smell, but if you have space and are only growing enough to feed a couple of people once or twice a week, it’s certainly feasible in a relatively small indoor tank.
You could also use a greenhouse if you want to have your tanks outside but live in a climate that gets moderately cold in the winter. Here are some common fish that do well in a farm environment:
Tilapia
Trout (cold water)
Catfish
Bass (be careful – they eat smaller fish)
Carp
Koi
Salmon (cold water, and a great source of omega-3 fatty acids)
Perch (cold water)
Where are You Growing Them?
Are you growing them indoors or outdoors? In tanks or in ponds? If you’re doing it in tanks, then you need to consider how many fish you can grow per tank, and how big your tanks need to be in order to support the growth of your fish.
I strongly urge you to consider aquaponics because you’re getting twice the bang for your buck, or more. You’re getting the fish, and you’re also getting produce. It’s a practical utilization of space and resources and it’s a leap toward food independence instead of a step.
Cage Culture
Ponds are great if you live in the country because you can dig them deep and the fish will grow in a more natural, less labor-intensive environment. You can use the cage culture method and can probably get it ready to go for less than a hundred bucks if you already have the pond.
You build a cage from plastic pipe and rigid netting, then put it in a pond, lake, or stream, then stock it with fingerlings and feed them until you can eat them.
Flow-Through
This method is similar to cage culture but instead of using a still body of water, you use a stream so that the water flows through it. You can grow a lot of fish in a little bit of water this way. The flowing water is always oxygenated and you don’t have to worry about cleaning the tank.
Note: Check local regulations to make sure that it’s legal to do either of the above, because it’s not in some places.
Greenhouse Aquaponics
This is the most complicated method because it involves using plants to maintain high water quality for the fish. The water is flushed through plants so that it’s re-oxygenated and the waste is filtered out of it. It’s also the most expensive to get started, but you get that cost back quickly in the form of food savings.
You’ll need tanks, a water pump and aerator, and, of course, water, fish, and plants. You can set the system up in a greenhouse or your garage, though it’s good to have sunlight.
You can grow some aquatic plants to help with the filtering and you can also build a filter using a 5-gallon bucket, so lava rocks, and a pump.
Home Recirculating
This is by far the easiest, and can be successfully done by anybody that can get an above-ground pool (size depends on your goals) and a water hose. The pools are durable and cost anywhere from $300-$1000 new (but who buys new, right?). You’ll likely need to replace the vinyl liner every few years, but that’s it.
If you want to grow more than 100 pounds of fish in a single season, a 12’x3’ pool will work as long as it’s temperature-controlled, oxygenated, and filtered. (If not, it will only grow 10-15 pounds, even with aeration). It will hold around 2000 gallons of water, even when you leave 8 inches or so at the top.
All of the species above grow well in a home recirculating system, but grow best at temperatures over 80 degrees. If you live in a climate that actually has a winter, your pool won’t reach that so you’ll need a solar dome. It’s like a giant shower cap for the pool and will keep the water warm enough to make this work.
A drum clarifier is probably the easiest way to filter all of the organic gunk from the water. You can set it up just using siphons, or you can use an air pump. The goal is to make the water flow from the pool through two 55-gallon drums that are filled with orchard netting to catch the waste. Then it flows back to the pool.
A bio-filter will remove the toxic ammonia from the water, and you need that to happen. You can make it from a piece of PVC pipe and some other items, or you can buy one. I recommend making it.
Always make sure that you have a back-up power supply because it won’t take long for the oxygen to leave the water, especially if you have several fish in there.
Now it’s time to stock your pool err … water garden with the fish that you’ve chosen from above. Non-meat-eater fish require less feed – 1 pound of pellets grows one pound of fish. The meat-eater fish will require up to 5 pounds of food to produce 1 pound of fish.
If you live in a climate that gets cold, it’s best to plan your growing season around winter in order to optimize your system. Tilapia is great for Florida and other warm climes because they really are a warm-water fish.
Once your fish are grown and you’re ready to eat, all you have to do is pull one out, clean it, and pop those delicious filets right in the pan. It doesn’t get any fresher than that!
There’s no way that I could have summed up every step from beginning to end, but I hope that this was enough information to get you started. If you have information on growing fish for food, please share it with us in the comments section below. We all benefit from shared info!
This article has been written by Theresa Crouse for Survivopedia.
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There is no doubt that physical conditioning is overlooked a lot of times. Human beings get older, and as they get older they have health conditions and they get lazy.
We’re not all in the same shape that we were in our prime, and some of us in our prime are not in the shape that we should be, so there’s no doubt that it affects your overall combat effectiveness.
Does it mean that a person that’s overweight or out of shape can’t shoot as well as somebody that is in great shape?
Not necessarily, when you’re talking just strictly shooting, but when you put the whole package together, then yes, because in order to survive you have to be able to do three things: shoot, move and communicate.
Why You Need Physical Conditioning for Gun Training
In order to shoot, yeah, it can be physically stressful, more so the ability to lower your heart rate and to be able to keep and have good enough cardio that your breathing doesn’t have an effect on your shot group, and that’s something that can happen.
Moving, of those three, is probably the biggest factor in why it’s important to stay in good shape. It just goes without question that the better shape that you’re in, the better you can move. You need to be able to go over obstacles, under obstacles, upstairs, down stairs, down ropes, to high points to see or gain a better shot, to run for cover, or to perform individual movement techniques.
Those things take energy, and the better shape you’re in, obviously the better you’re going to be to do those things. In a real-life situation, you may have to run towards the aggressor, or you may have to run away from the aggressor. Those actions take energy and at least a bit of agility. In order to expel that kind of energy you need to be in good shape, or at least in better shape than the person that’s shooting at you.
So yes, when you look at it as a full package of shoot, move and communicate, being in shape is very important. As far as shooting, I would say that it’s more about being able to control your involuntary physical reactions – those things that we do that physically affect our shot group.
When we aim at something and then we shoot, there are physical factors that are involved that can affect the shot group – your breathing can make that shot go too high or too low if you don’t have anything to support your weapon and you’re just using your body as support. Understanding your breathing and understanding how to shoot during that natural respiratory pause are very important factors in accurate gunfire and they can be affected by the type of physical conditioning that you have.
That is true about just shooting, but more so about everything else. I would say physical fitness affects movement, the ability to move from one covered and concealed position to another. The ability to move quickly under fire and still shoot accurately is all going to be dependent on the type of shape that you’re in. Being in good shape is always going to be a bonus, or it’s always going to be something that can give you that tactical edge that you need to become the victor in any gunfight.
Whether you’re in shape or not could also affect others around you. For instance, what if you get shot and somebody has to drag you? Is it better that they’re trying to pick up a regular sized guy or are they now trying to drag somebody that’s 350 pounds? Think about others around you that may be involved in a gunfight with you. It’s important that you don’t throw them under the bus by making them have to carry your big butt because you didn’t want to do any physical training.
If you get shot, your physical conditioning has a lot to do with your ability to stay alive – the better shape that you’re in, the better your chances of survival when your body goes through a traumatic situation; that’s a proven statement, so it’s very important to stay in shape for that reason, too.
Being in good shape helps yourself and others, because you can survive a traumatic gunshot wound or getting blown up or fragged or something like that, better if you’re in good shape. If you’re in decent shape, you’re not so heavy that it becomes a burden on others around you to have to carry you out of a bad situation, and also vice versa; your ability to carry other people if they get shot or to drag them to a covered and concealed location.
Those things are all dependent on how strong you are as well, so yes, it is always a good thing to stay in shape and be in the best shape that you can be, that’s why when you look at our elite forces, physical conditioning is such a big part of what they do. It’s for that very reason that they are able to endure hours and hours and hours of high-stress situations.
I guess that the last thing I would say is that it’s also a proven fact that the better shape you’re in, the longer you’re able to endure high stress environments without them having an effect on your heart, on your mind, or on your body. Being in shape has a lot of benefits; enough so that the benefits far outnumber the drudgery of the time that you have to put in to staying in shape. It’s worth it when you do a risk versus reward analysis, so get out there and walk, run, do exercises, keep your cardio strong and maintain (or improve) your ability to lift weights.
I would say, one of the things about exercise that I took from my years in the Special Operations community is that just going through the motions of running or lifting weights can be boring and mundane, but when I got over to the Special Operations community, we did a lot of realistic training that was also very physical. I think that’s one great way to stay in shape.
If you can, set up a big range where you have to run and lift “guys” (aka full feed sacks) up and carry them to safety and then shoot your rifle and do things like that where you get your heart rate way up there. Then you’re incorporating shooting into it, so you’re putting shooting, moving and communicating all into one activity. Do that on a regular basis and you’ll be able to stay in shape. You’ll also be able to shoot, move and communicate which is incredibly important in any type of a situation.
Here’s an example of a drill that can help you get fit as well as prepared.
Run a couple of laps, and then get down into the prone or maybe the kneeling unsupported position. Take a couple of shots at a target, then run to a covered position. Get into the standing position, take a shot from either side of an obstacle or a wall, then put your weapon on safe. If you have a wall, climb it.
Once you get to the other side of the wall, take another shot then low-crawl under some wire that you’ve set up. When you get to the other side, take a shot from the prone unsupported position, then run 100 meters to another position and take a shot from the prone supported fire position where you have maybe a sandbag or something like that and you’re laying down.
Make it a competition; go against somebody else and see who gets the best time and the most accurate shot groups. Make it fun but make it realistic.
Incorporate shooting, moving, and communicating into one event and get out there, have a good time, stay in shape or get in shape and become a better shooter.
Why Breathing While Shooting is Part of the Training
How you breathe depends on the type of shooting we’re talking about. The more accurate and the more distance-related the shooting event is, the more breathing is going to be a factor. The further the distance a shot is, the more every little thing is going to influence it.
If you’re talking about a long-range shot, everything’s a factor. Your body position, stance, breathing, trigger control, trigger squeeze; all those things are going to have an effect on where that round impacts. Would you be able to keep them up if not being fit?
Now, is that true at short range or close-quarters combat? Sure, but it’s nowhere near as much of a factor as when you’re talking about long-range shooting, so I guess I would say that I’m going to break this up in two parts.
The first part is about close-quarters combat. When you’re talking about close-quarters combat, the biggest thing about breathing is just to breathe naturally and make sure you don’t forget to breathe when you’re under stress. I know that was an obstacle that I had to overcome in my early days of learning how to shoot in a close-quarter type situation. I tend to hold my breath when I’m under stress, and that’s not a good thing because now you’re cutting off oxygen to your body and to your brain.
It starts influencing cognitive thought and you physically cramp up; it does all kinds of things to you physiologically based off of the fact that you’re not breathing. It also helps you to relax when you breathe. When you relax, you are a better shooter, you make better decisions, and you can think clearly, so breathing is very important when you’re talking about close-quarters combat from that perspective.
When you start talking about the effect of breathing on point of aim/point of impact, we’re talking about those long-range shots, those technical shots, and shots in closer ranges also. When I say technical, I mean maybe there’s a hostage situation and you may not be that far away but you’re trying to take a shot 6 inches away from the person that’s being held hostage. A 6-inch difference in movement of that round could be the difference between the bad guy getting the bullet between the eyes and some innocent woman getting shot in the head.
Breathing is a factor in those types of situations. That and obviously long-range shots where everything that you do influences a round, I mean if you breathe in while you’re pulling the trigger the rounds tend to go low, if you breathe out when you’re pulling the trigger the rounds tend to go high, so that vertical point of impact is going to be affected seriously by your breathing in and out. Also, if you’re not breathing, you can shake and it can do all kinds of things to your composure that are going to influence pulling the trigger and on where that round goes.
When you fire your weapon, you pull. If you don’t breathe, it may cause you to jerk the trigger because you’re not thinking straight.
Be careful about the horizontal shifting left and right. If you are left-handed and you jerked the trigger, you tend to shoot to the right of the target, and if you’re right-handed and you jerk the trigger, you tend to shoot to the left of the target, so those things can all be affected by breathing as well. Mainly, though, when you’re talking about breathing, you’re talking about the vertical impact of the round.
Let’s talk about the natural respiratory pause. What is that? You hear that term a lot in shooting schools. When people are learning the fundamentals of marksmanship training, we’ll teach them about the natural respiratory pause; every 4 or 5 breaths, there’s a natural pause that you take where you’re not breathing but you’re calm and you have plenty of oxygen to the brain at that point. They, whoever they are, say that that’s a really good time to take a shot. But I think that “they” are not reflexive shooters, they are more talking about those long-range shots.
So if you’re talking about using natural respiratory pause to take a shot, my personal opinion is that it’s either for long-range shots or for very technical shots at closer ranges.
When you’re talking about reactive shooting where you’re reacting to something and then you’re using reflexive fire where you’re either putting that aim point of your long gun or the front sight-post of your pistol onto the target and pulling the trigger, I don’t think that breathing is as important as it is for those longer or more technical shots.
It takes practice and time to build the mindset of a warrior, but once you got it you ease your steps to survival.
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This content has been written by Brian Morris for Survivopedia.
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Editor’s Note: This post is another entry in the Prepper Writing Contest from Capt. Dennis. If you have information for Preppers that you would like to share and possibly win a $300 Amazon Gift Card to purchase your own prepping supplies, enter today.
One of the most fascinating subjects I had to study for a captain’s license was weather forecasting. Back in the late 70s there was no Weather Channel with satellite photos or live radar images to rely on. We had to learn to forecast weather by observing the sky, our surroundings, and recording the change in the barometric pressure. Wind speed is deduced by how it affects objects around us. Offshore, we could look at the wave tops to judge the wind velocity. On land we observe tree branches, weeds, or grass.
When I first started studying weather forecasting, I had several good books on the subject with a pocket weather guide the easiest reference to carry around. A guide helps with determining the different cloud formations and the type weather that would be associated them. Periodically logging, every ½ to 1 hour, the changing barometric pressure in association with the clouds added another layer to the forecast. Next was the direction and speed of the wind. Subsequently, by recording the rise or fall of the barometric pressure over time, the wind direction and speed, and the cloud formations, a forecast would come together. It is important to note that low pressure systems will produce much more wind with unstable weather conditions, where high pressure systems produce milder, more unchanging conditions.
C. Crane CC Pocket AM FM and NOAA Weather Radio with Clock and Sleep Timer
When I first started watching the Weather Channel, in the mid-90s, they focused totally on reporting the weather. If and when some storm or weather event was happening, then they sent people out into the field to cover it. Back in the studio, a meteorologist would analyze the conditions as the weather progressed. That was great for me, because I seeing what I had been studying for the past 20 years and witnessing just how far weather forecasting had advanced.
Today, as I begin my studies on prepping, I realize the importance of knowing some basic weather forecasting. After all, the worst natural disasters in America are weather related. Therefore, understanding what effects weather will have on most any disaster is of a primary concern.
Observing a wildfire, we predict how the wind and humidity affects the speed at which the fire spreads. When a chemical spill or explosion occurs, the weather will determine areas in danger from the fallout. Understanding basic weather principles helps when considering how heavy rainfall may affect a local dam or roadways. Other factors help us predict foggy conditions, hail, ice, or snow. A summer stable high pressure area tends to produce heat waves, which are the number one cause of weather related fatalities in the U.S. Here in Texas, we know all about heatwaves and droughts.
The worst disasters in America are weather related.
Predicting the effects of the changing weather around us, gives us the ability to prepare for it. Once the SHTF and we are left to our own instincts, the weather will be a major factor affecting our survival. Subsequently, here are some questions to think about.
The Weather Channel will be able help until the electricity goes out, then what?
Do you have an emergency weather radio; one with a hand crank or solar cells?
What about weather (wx) broadcast on Short Wave, AM, or HAM radio?
Where do you find the frequencies that broadcast weather info and at what time they transmit?
What about a small handheld anemometer that also displays barometric pressure?
A pocket guide to weather forecasting stored in your prepping gear?
All these questions are easily solvable.
As an example of local awareness, here along the Gulf Coast of Texas, we get tropical fronts in the Spring and Summer. The warm, humid Gulf air is drawn inland to the mid-Atlantic states. Cool fronts descend on this area as the jet stream comes south and the cool dry air meets the warm humid air and a front develops. Low pressure systems have a counter-clockwise rotation and high pressure rotate clockwise. Low pressure systems tend to move rapidly where high pressure will remain stationary for some extended period of time. High pressure tends to steer low pressure. Lifelong residents on the Gulf Coast know all about hurricanes and flooding and they both are associated with high and low pressure systems.
Topography also plays a huge part in how weather will affect a geographic location. Learn the local weather patterns for the different seasons of the year where you live or plan on heading when bugging out. Knowing the local weather patterns and having a basic understanding of the weather, you will be surprised at how easy you can forecast the weather. Discerning the wind speed and direction, cloud formations, and barometric pressure, you will have all the data you need at your figure tips. The data is not that difficult to collect.
Use your field guide to classify the clouds and for a reference. Purchase a small, portable, digital weather station to obtain wind speed and pressure data called an anemometer, which are readily available at a nominal price. Also, a compass to record wind direction, a good mechanical pencil, and a waterproof note pad to log readings every hour or 1/2 hour, depending on the situation. Thus, for a small investment, you can have the tools for forecasting the weather in your bug out bag. What I use cost less than a good hunting knife and takes up about the same space. I carry them when I go out shooting pictures or go to the beach just to practice. If you fish, a small weather station would be an excellent tool to forecast the quality of fishing and a good excuse to buy one.
Having some basic weather forecasting knowledge could be the difference in knowing when to seek shelter from a rapidly approaching front, or getting caught off guard trying to shelter after it hits. Weather related incidents cause the worst disasters in the U.S. Many times, just by having a basic understanding of the weather, how it is going to affect your community, and what you need to do for shelter, could save a lot of lives. Make the investment in inexpensive, easy to understanding weather forecasting tools and learn how to use them. It is an enjoyable way to gain one more step toward being better prepared when the grid goes down.
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Throughout history, the wealthy have had options available to them, that the common people couldn’t afford. They were able to buy products, go places and own homes which the rest of the population couldn’t afford; and you can be sure that they took advantage of it. While some say that the advantages of wealth are “unfair” and “oppressive to the masses” there has never been a time in history where there weren’t some people who were better off than others.
Through most of history, those who had it better off were known as kings and nobles. They took control of an area and its population and levied taxes upon the common folk, taking from their earnings to pay for governance and protection. In the process, those who levied those taxes had better things and finer houses that they built from the sweat of the brows of those who were taxed.
It wasn’t until the Renaissance that this really began to change. Traders, especially traveling traders, began to amass wealth, with some of the best of them reaching and even surpassing the wealth of the nobles who were their erstwhile masters.
This gave these wealthy traders the ability to own fine possessions and palatial homes, which they of course took advantage of. Being by and large smarter than the nobles they were gradually replacing, they fixed their sights on the novel, looking for new things from art and science, thereby giving a huge boost to the development of technology and the arts.
Today is no different. It is the rich amongst us who support invention, innovation and the arts, in many cases reaping the benefit of that support. One way they reap that benefit is in owning finer things, with better features than what the middle class have.
But the things that are luxuries of the affluent eventually trickle down to become commonplace. The cell phone is a prime example of this. A generation ago, installing a mobile phone in one’s car cost more than the car did. I know, because my granddad had one. But then, what was considered luxuries in the cars of a generation ago, has become commonplace in today’s cars.
Options like power windows and door locks were an expensive option, only seen in luxury cars or as a purchased option in mid-range cars. Yet today, there is hardly a car sold in America, which doesn’t come with power windows and door locks standard. Sound systems are the same. Fourty years ago, a tape deck (CDs didn’t yet exist) was a high-dollar upgrade or an aftermarket installation. Today, it is rare to see a car leave the dealership with only an AM or AM/FM radio installed.
Prepping Options for the Rich
One of the dreams that most preppers aspire towards is having a survival retreat. To own that proverbial cabin in the woods and have it all set up for survival is the ultimate level of preparedness that most of us can think of. Besides making an ideal vacation spot, it also provides us with a safe heaven to escape to, avoiding the zombies on the streets or the mobs of hungry people looking for a meal.
Yet few preppers can actually afford such a luxury. The cost of mountain land starts out north of $25,000 per acre and can reach up into the hundreds of thousands of dollars per acre; and that’s if you’re buying large swaths of land. Buying just a single acre is considerably more expensive.
Of course, building costs in the mountains are higher too, especially in remote areas. Not only do you have to pay to get everything trucked in, you may have the added cost of providing lodging for the construction crew, if they are not local.
This limits the building of such getaway retreats to those who have inherited land or to the wealthy who can afford it. Apparently there are enough of them around, that prices don’t have to drop in order to find buyers. Otherwise, you and I might actually be able to afford that cabin in the woods that we’ve always dreamed about.
While some of the wealthy build or buy homes in these isolated areas just as vacation getaway retreats, more and more of them are buying them as a different sort of retreat. It seems that prepping has reached the hearts and minds of the wealthy, and like everything else they do, they are doing it with style, spending big money in order to have security.
Many of these people are counted amongst the nouveau rich of Silicon Valley. Having made their pile, they are now looking to other needs of their family; most notably, security. As with many of the rest of us, they are recognizing the many risks that we face today and spending at least a part of their fortune to make sure that their family will survive.
But prepping wealthy style is much different than prepping for the rest of us. First of all, few of them are preparing to shelter in place in their homes. Of those that are, most are having expensive, lavishly furnished bunkers built beneath them. But this is only a minority. The rest are planning on bugging out at the first sign of trouble. What’s interesting is the types of places that they are planning on bugging out to and the amount of money they are spending to make that possible.
So, what are these high-dollar survival retreats? They are actually quite varied. But there are some common themes which we see happening today; such as:
mountain homes in remote valleys, in some cases, only accessible by helicopter
buying a private island and turning it into a retreat
New Zeeland
converted missile silos, which have been turned into luxury survival bunkers
The beautiful country of New Zeeland has become such a popular survival destination for these people, especially those in Silicon Valley, that the name “New Zeeland” has become a secret password amongst them. Mentioning it means that you’re part of the club or at least thinking about joining. The entry fee? Buying an upscale house on the island nation.
If you’ve seen The Lord of the Rings series of movies, you can understand the attraction of New Zeeland as a destination. The country is beautiful and largely unspoiled. It is difficult to get there from here, but that difficulty is apparently part of the attractiveness. The thinking is that any problem which plagues the United States is unlikely to make it to a country on the other side of the world.
The business in New Zeeland survival retreats is good enough, that there are real estate companies over there, which specialize in selling home to wealthy American preppers. Their business has paid off too, with the sale of land to those Americans quadrupling in the last six years.
Missile silos, leftovers from the days of the Cold War, have been being gradually sold off by the government. A few imaginative investors have bought some of those silos and are in the process of converting them into luxury survival condos. These condos, which are typically only half of a 55 foot diameter floor, generally sell for upwards of a million dollars.
These getaway bunkers are well thought out, with amenities like a theatre, an exercise room and an indoor pool. Security is well thought out and makes extensive use of high tech. They even have underground hydroponic gardens, to provide fresh produce to the residents.
So, Why are the Rich Becoming Preppers?
When the rich start putting their money into something, you need to pay attention. Typically, they have access to sources of information that the rest of us normally can’t or don’t access. You also have to take into account that these are uniformly bright people. You don’t get to be a millionaire or billionaire without being extremely intelligent, no matter what the disgruntled say.
More than anything, these people are concerned about social unrest and a breakdown of society. Current social trends pit the majority of the population against the wealthy, Washington insiders, and those who have influence in the highest places. They are seen as the enemy of the people, both by people on the political right and the political left.
The left’s problem with these people is pure class warfare, with Democrat politicians, celebrities and the media complaining about the “one percenters” and how unfair it is that they have more than the rest. In their eyes, those who are wealthy have stolen from the working masses and especially from the poor. In their zeal for the socialist utopia, they want to take what the wealthy have and redistribute it to the poor, lining their own pockets along the way.
The funny thing is, many of these public figures who are decrying the wealthy are themselves amongst the one percent that they badmouth. But in their eyes, they are the “good” one percents, while business tycoons and especially Wall Street bankers are the “bad” one percenters.
The right’s issues with those in power are totally different. First of all, they don’t have issue with the wealthy, always hoping a little if it will rub off on them. With a greater understanding of economics, they realize that the free-market capitalist system that we have is what allows our society to be as wealthy as it is, which translates into more of the population not being poor. More than anything, it creates and sustains the middle class.
What they do have issues with is crony capitalism. With politicians in Washington focusing on helping themselves, rather than helping the country as a whole. With their tax dollars being wasted by the government to fund liberal pet projects and win votes for liberals, rather than being spent for the protection of the nation, upkeep of our infrastructure and betterment of our nation. They resent their hard-earned wages going to pay for people’s abortions, birth-control pills and transgender operations. More than anything, they resent big government meddling in every area of their lives.
So, while both ends of the political spectrum are fed up with the way things are, they are clearly fed up for different reasons. We can see their level of frustration by looking at the last presidential elections. A lot of the reason that Donald Trump won, was because he was an outsider. Those who are fed up saw him as a much better option than any establishment candidate.
Yet the differences between the political left and right are big enough to cause considerable concern. Talk about a second civil war, which started during Obama’s reign, have increased since Donald Trump was inaugurated. Most of this talk is now coming out of the left, who are still enraged that their candidate didn’t win.
The anger on the left is a palatable thing. It has reached a much higher level than angry rhetoric. Paid leftist protestors are showing up at any Republican event, working to disrupt it. These protesters incite the grassroots people to violence, leading to violent confrontations with the police and with conservatives who merely want to hear what the speaker has to say.
This reached a head recently, with the shooting of a congressman and some staffers by a Bernie Sanders supporter. The victims in the shooting were at a practice for a charity baseball game, when the shooter started picking his targets. Had it not been for the courage of two of the Capital Police Department who were there fulfilling their duty, the casualty count would have been much higher.
These nouveau rich preppers see all this happening and are counting the days until a nationwide meltdown. In their eyes, the years following will be some of the most dangerous in our country’s history, especially for them.
So they are making plans to bug out and spend the next decade running their businesses from remote locations or even abandoning their businesses in the name of survival. Either way, they are preparing now, so that their families will be safe when that day comes.
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This article has been written by Bill White for Survivopedia.
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Editor’s Note: This post is another entry in the Prepper Writing Contest from Kirk Reynolds. If you have information for Preppers that you would like to share and possibly win a $300 Amazon Gift Card to purchase your own prepping supplies, enter today.
Looking around I couldn’t find an important piece of information – how one should fight in a SHTF situation. I think this is an important topic to cover because it has several special circumstances that need to be considered.
Ammo will need to be conserved – I don’t care how many rounds you have saved up, it won’t be enough and the long-term of a complete collapse of society (potentially 40+ years) means that from the get go every single shot will be precious.
Due to limited manpower and the fact that any attrition will be felt heavily, patrols, night combat, and outposts will be nigh impossible to field with regularity.
Expanding on the above, most medication has a limited shelf life and even minor wounds will start to become quite threatening (increased risk of disease and infection) – Medication will run out fast.
With that in mind, let us analyse why tactical considerations are always important and what style of fighting we will have to adopt. Due to the fact that ammo will always be a luxury, modern tactics which rely on the idea of expending more ammo in a gunfight at the foe over men or positioning is obviously not possible.
Now – every weapon you should use should focus on stopping power, the smallest cartridge in your arsenal should be 6.5mm (handguns excluded). Whilst 5.56 has good aerodynamics and is plentiful it simply is designed to suppress whilst a mortar, grenade, or artillery piece does the killing – it simply isn’t designed with taking down man-sized targets with minimal rounds (I have heard anecdotes of anywhere between 5-15 torso shots on an adrenalized up foe before they go down).
With that out-of-the-way – let us look at the overall thought process and things to identify before you engage in any situation.
Manpower: Who has more bodies at their disposal – do they look weak and ill-trained or are their movements/positions well thought out and the men (and women!) well fed? Are they all moving armed or do they have the luxury of people dedicated to guard duties?
Armament: What weapons are they using – are they rusted and in ill repair? Can you identify if they are carrying enough ammo for everyone to fight adequately?
Maneuver: Who is in the better position? – do they have a path of pursuit and escape, do they have a height advantage? Importantly are they defending something valuable (like a base or stash)? If so you may have the luxury of being able to attack at will, the same thing goes if you are on the defensive.
From these 3 guidelines a threat level can be deduced, obviously there will be some situation where one advantage is so great that it will offset disadvantages – this is a rough guideline. If they check off none, then you are probably in a position to utilize a diplomatic approach and join groups. If they check off one of 3 then you should approach with caution, maybe attempt to surround them at night and make your intentions clear – again diplomacy may be the best decision here. If they check two of three than combat should be avoided until you are in a position to use your advantage to overwhelm them (attacking at night, in an ambush, etc). Do not attempt diplomacy at this threat level as you will not be in a position to make a fair deal and all emphasis should be placed on evening the odds or avoiding the threat. Finally if they check off all three do not engage at all, the goal is survival not heroic death and if worst comes to worst retreating completely or surrendering goods is preferable to a bullet in the brain. They still are people and unless you are absolutely sure that they are completely hostile they may be willing to work with you.
Now with the overall threat assessment done we may now talk about the five stages of combat (Recce, Skirmish, Combat, Push/Withdraw, Decisive Blow/Total Withdrawal).
RECCE
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.” – Sun Tzu
Recce is often the most overlooked stage of combat but it is BY FAR the most important. Recce is the mode of thought that you should be on at all times, dispatching a scout if possible and identifying incoming threats. The more focus you place on recce the more forewarning you will have as to inbound threats, and more time to prepare/evacuate. Obviously you will be unable to have a complete recon net due to limited supplies but any extra hands should be trained for recce and dispatched when possible.
This is where you will identify your enemies capabilities on your threat checklist and decide whether to choose engagement/diplomacy/retreat. Just to outline how vital this is, 90% of a good tactician’s skill is how the deploy and utilize information from recce, with the other 10% being a good leader with good interpersonal skills and the ability to keep cool under pressure.
SKIRMISH
This is where you action your initial decision on engaging the enemy, it is the period where hostilities have begun but you are not locked into a fight. This will be the period where you harry the enemy with traps and marksman to attempt to pick off men before you attack or they reach your designated point of defense (usually your fortifications).
Some skirmishes may only last a minute or two and some may be the entire fight, note that your main focus should be leaders and sensitive targets (heavily armed fighters and if possible, medics). The goal of this will be to break your enemies organisation and morale when combat begins – that being said…
COMBAT
This will be the time when individual training counts. Communication will be close to impossible in this brief period and this is where the most casualties will be sustained – though despite this being the most calamitous point of a fight it will be the least important for you as the person in command. Your main role will be encouraging your men and stopping any obvious screw-ups.
What you should be watching closely is the movement of combat, are you making good progress towards your goal or are you sustaining casualties – are there hostile elements that you were unaware of?
Before I make my next point the thing to keep in mind is that in a ‘battle’ there may be multiple combats, intensive fighting between periods of skirmish, pushing, and retreat.
PUSH/WITHDRAW
This is as much a phase of combat as it is its own separate action, and the commands will have to be executed well and especially in the case of a withdrawal you need pre-planned points to ensure cohesiveness.
Really the most that can be said of pushing is that your enemy has begun to break or have thinned enough that they can no longer maintain the area their position demands, as I would expect almost all combatants to be ill-trained this will almost certainly result in a decisive victory as the enemy breaks completely.
However, keeping your men together in the case of a withdrawal is another issue. The things to watch out for: can you retreat to your designated point safely (if you have one – keep in mind most defense should take a multi layered approach), do you have enough manpower left to pursue another attack, is the enemy willing to pursue or are they holding position. If it is the latter the combat may switch to a skirmishing stance again.
TOTAL WITHDRAWAL/ DECISIVE BLOW
Decisive blow: Your enemy has completely shattered, this is the period encompassing cleaning up resistance before taking stock of supplies and beginning the process of recce again – re-assessing.
Total Withdrawal: This comes about one of two ways – Your force has broken and are fleeing in a blind panic, or it is (hopefully) an organised retreat to put some distance between yourselves and the enemy combatants and re-asses. You will again need to survey the situation and determine the next point of action for your group.
Something to note – Overall your group should always be prepared for a total retreat, even an easy fight could be a ruse and you always need to be prepared to move and maintain as many supplies as possible.
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When it rains, it pours. You’ve had a terrible week and now it is time to do some problem solving. At some time during the night someone raided your garden. They must have been scouting your property, you realize, because they stripped your fruit trees right as the fruit began to ripen. They also got away with a significant amount of cabbage, potatoes and other high value vegetables.
You look for your dog, but you have no luck . . . until you happen upon her body. There is some half eaten meat by her body. You realize she has been poisoned.
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I’m excited to announce that my other site MDCreekmore.com has already amassed over 1,000 super awesome subscribers and 64,498 + page views – and it’s less than three weeks old! And I’ve had lots of emails from readers letting me know how much that they are enjoying the site. So, we are off to a great start. But I need your help and feedback… Please let me know in the comments below this post or over on MDCreekmore.com what you like and don’t like about this site and what you would like to see to make it better and more useful to you. Thank you for your help… It’s...
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In this conversation, we’re discussing pistol safes for use in a defensive situation where everything’s on the line.
I imagine myself in a scenario where I’m woken up by a bump in the night. Likely taking place in the wee hours of the morning. An uninvited guest decides to bless me with their presence and take what they please. When my life is threatened, I’d confidently respond with a Glock® 17 and the necessary amount of Speer +P Gold Dots. Now, to get this out of the way. I have a love for all things Glock®, and think the Glock® 19 is the pinnacle of well-rounded self-defense weaponry in pistol form, and this is my scenario, so we’re sticking with the Glock®. To that end, I choose the 17 for my bedside defense out of a healthy respect for the benefits of increased sight radius. Also, I’m not confined by space for concealed carry, nor do I care about printing. Insert your firearm of preference for use with your imagination.
Obviously, in nearly any circumstance I’d always choose a rifle given the option, but remember, this conversation is about a bedside pistol safe for defensive use, that are accessible quickly. If we wanted to get into it, we could discuss benefits of room clearing, and reduced penetration through drywall of some pistol rounds in comparison to rifles. We’ll save this for another discussion, however.
RFID
I move towards my pistol safe and realize my RFID bracelet is in the kitchen next to my wallet. I don’t sleep in my kitchen. I don’t sleep wearing a Live Strong bracelet, and never will. No Bueno.
Digital
Adrenaline flowing, I roll towards my pistol safe and enter the super-secret passcode. I expect a loud Bleep, Bleep, Bloop, followed by a holy presentation of my Glock®. Only this time, the batteries are dead… Also, I left the override key near my wallet, in the kitchen, with my RFID bracelet from above…
Fingerprint
You know where this is going. My IPhone 7 only works a third of the time when trying to unlock it in perfect conditions. My SpeedVault pistol safe set me back $180. No chance this is an improvement over the IPhone. I’m not even going to risk it. This is something I’d never consider as a defensive and readily available gun storage container with its challenging, at best, unlock mechanism. Not ideal for reliably dispensing my Glock® on demand.
Mechanical
Now we’re talking. Through muscle memory and repetition, I effortlessly enter my code. Feeling the quiet yet audible tactile clicks of each button, followed by a quarter turn of the release knock. I know what comes next. The safe opens via spring hydraulic lifts with a perfect presentation of my Glock®. It’s reliable, predictable, and highly resistant to failure – unlike many things in life. There are many good mechanical safe options on the market but look at www.Fas1safe.com for bed side or floor mounted placement.
Why a pistol safe?
In a perfect world, I’d have my rifle sitting bedside. One problem. In my perfect world, there are other people. Some of these people make it not so perfect. For my safety (i.e. unwanted access), and theirs, particularly with children in mind, a safe is the responsible option for me. The best I can do is apply the most effective tool for the job, and for me, that’s a mechanical pistol safe. Failure of deployment is unacceptable; it must be mechanical.
Mechanical safes are where I put my trust. I refuse to rely on electrical opening mechanisms, finger print scanners, and RFID bracelets to stand between me and my firearm. With that said, I’m a millennial, I love polymer guns, and 1911’s equally, and I have children, so I train for and prep with their safety in mind.
Soon, we talk large gun safes, mechanical vs. electrical.
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It is no secret that anything from EMP blast and natural phenomena to outright sabotage from inside the country can lead to large scale disruptions in the power grid.
You have at least a few electronic devices that you’ll need to operate until you have made a full adjustment to living without electricity. Regardless of whether you need to access data on the memory chip for your smart phone, health monitoring tools, or even a battery powered radio, you should know how to generate electricity using as many methods as possible.
Overall, generating electricity or other sources of power from mud may be a viable option.
How Does Generating Power From Mud Differ From Earth Batteries?
How is this type of generator different from other devices made from similar materials? How a mud based electricity generator differs from an earth battery? Here are the main things to remember:
An Earth battery does not require salt or any other electrolyte. You can add salt to increase the amount of electricity produced. On the other hand, generating electricity with mud always requires the addition of salt.
To use an earth battery, you can take the soil from any location and it will still work. If you want to generate electricity using mud, you must make use of mud from areas rich in bacteria that do not rely on oxygen. Most people use mud found at the bottom of ponds or other areas that have been under fresh water for some time.
When generating electricity from mud, the bacteria responsible for making the electricity must have food. While waste or sewage can be used for this purpose, some bacteria may also require the addition of glucose or sugar. An earth battery does not require living organisms to generate or store electricity, so there is never a need to add food. At most, you will only need to add regular water from time to time in order to keep the soil slightly moist.
How Does Generating Power From Mud Differ From Using Electrolytes?
Even though generating power from mud requires salt, it does not work quite the same way as an electrolyte battery. The bacteria themselves charge up one side of the fuel cell as a part of their biological function.
On the other hand, an electrolyte battery works because molecules break down into ions when mixed with water. These ions gravitate to the different metals at different rates, which produces an electrical charge.
Over the years, many different methods have been used to generate electricity from electrolytes. If you are near the ocean, you won’t need much more than access to salt water and two different metal types that will serve as electrodes. With a few minor modifications, you can also make wet capacitors using similar materials.
If you are going to work with higher voltages, you might need to make this kind of capacitor both for storing electricity and making sure you can create and even discharge once the power is gathered in one location.
Alternatively, if you have pennies made 1983 or later, you will already have two perfectly good metals in the same coin for making an electrolyte battery. All you will need to do is sand off some of the copper from one side of each penny in order to expose the zinc.
Next, make a sandwich of cardboard disks dipped in salt water and add pennies between each set of disks. You can make approximately one volt of electricity for every penny you combine with the salt water and cardboard disks.
Should I Use the Mud Cell to Generate Electricity?
Overall, you will find that a mud cell generates relatively small amounts of electricity when compared to the size of the device. Something is better than nothing, so it will still take a lot of work to multiply that electricity and be able to use it even to produce the same voltage as you would get from a AAA battery.
You can most certainly try building a mud cell power generator to see how it works, and then try to adapt it to produce more power.
Here’s what you need to achieve to produce more electricity:
Find some way to get existing bacteria to boost their metabolism 200 – 300 times the current rate.
Get the bacteria to multiply faster.
To generate electricity, the bacteria actually form networks of conductive “bridges” or “wires” in the growing medium. At this time, it is not known if the bacteria themselves are producing the most optimal pattern for conducting electricity from one place to another. Changing the pattern may improve efficiency and it may also boost the amount of current produced by the generator.
Find a way to make the cells smaller: see if you can use a more liquefied mud cell, and then irrigate it with a steady flow of nutrient rich water. Provide some kind of growing film for the bacteria so they aren’t washed away each time the mud cell is bathed in water. Even though nanotechnologies may be outside of your available list of materials, they may one day be useful for making an optimized structure for the bacteria to live in and generate electricity across. This leads to a smaller footprint for each cell, as well as higher levels of efficiency.
Get equipment that will help you find out the answers to several questions: a microscope and access to white papers on nanotechnology, conductive material molecular structures, and other materials may be of use to you.
Basic Steps for Building a Mud Cell Energy Generator
To make a microbial fuel cell, start off by gathering the right kind of mud. Dig around in the bottom of a pond that has been around for a few years, and pull up some of the black mud at the bottom. This mud will be rich in the kind of bacteria that can be used to generate electricity.
Next, you will need some salt, water, agar, and PVC pipe. Mix the salt, water, and agar together, and then fill the pipe with them. Once the agar cools, it should be hard enough so that it will not spill out of the tube.
The agar acts as a repository for salt, which restores the ionic balance as electricity is drawn from the cell. You can also try cardboard dipped in salt water or other methods for making the salt bridge.
The microbial fuel cell requires two chambers that are connected by the agar filled PVC pipe. Make sure the seals connecting the chambers are waterproof, and that you can easily replace the salt bridge, so that you can refill or make changes to the ingredients in the other chambers as needed.
After you connect the containers with the salt bridge, fill one container part of the way with mud and insert an electrode. Since the electrode will need a fairly wide surface area, make one from regular wire, and then attach an aluminum mesh to it. Finish filling up the container.
Your next step will be to fill the remaining chamber with distilled water and salt. As with the first chamber, install an electrode and some wire.
You can also insert some air tubing that will be used to run an air pump that will aerate the solution in the water chamber.
If you want to increase the amount of air going into the chamber and ensure more stays in the water, try using an aquarium air stone. If you do not aerate the water in the second chamber, it will produce hydrogen gas.
Depending on the activity levels of the bacteria, you may notice a small amount of voltage immediately. It may still take days, or even weeks for the bacteria to rebuild their transport structure and produce more electricity.
Many inner city areas are soon to become areas where gas mains will explode and skyscrapers will tumble to the ground. Land with clean water and soil is rapidly becoming something that simply cannot be bought in an area with good weather conditions.
Aside from pointing to inevitable massive depopulation, it also means that if you want a homestead, you may have to settle for land that isn’t as clean or as safe as you would want it to be. This, in return, means that you will need some way to clean the soil. While mud batteries may not do much to generate electricity, they can do a great deal to increase the rate at which other bacteria remove toxins from the soil.
Therefore, if you are interested in owning a homestead, or know that you are already dealing with contaminated soil, you may want to experiment with these batteries to see if they will be of use to you.
Like many others, over the years, I have tossed around the idea of living completely free of electricity and electronic devices. While I have arrived at the sad conclusion these devices may be necessary for years to decades after a major crash, I still give a lot of thought to using as little electricity as possible. Since electricity is used for everything from cooking to home heating/cooling, this also means other fuel types must be considered.
Mud batteries can be used to generate hydrogen and biofuels. Typically, this process only requires carbon dioxide and sunlight. There is a good bit of research going on at this time to determine if this means of making butanol, a biofuel, can replace corn, beets, and other crops normally used for food.
Many people prefer cooking with electric stoves because they are safer, but just about everyone agrees that gas stoves produce better tasting food. You can build a gas stove to run on natural gas or methane, so don’t be surprised that this fuel is of immense interest to off gridders and preppers.
The bacteria that generate methane and natural gas also form similar structures within the growing medium that allow for the transport of electricity. As a result, even if you decide the mud battery is not a feasible option, you could check if the best bacteria for this method will also produce larger amounts of natural gas.
Aside from saving on soil depletion, this method may even be used one day to produce sugars suitable for addition in foods. In fact, bacteria are being used to make omega fatty acids that are added into organic milk. The bacteria strain may be different from the ones used to generate electricity, but never underestimate what mud and different methods for getting bacteria to produce various chemicals can do.
Right now, mainstream media continues to avoid covering topics like the Fukushima disaster, and other issues related to the leaking of nuclear materials into rivers and oceans. Virtually everyone points to other factors and blames them for the rises in cancer rates and other diseases that may well have an origin in hidden exposure to ionized radiation in the groundwater.
The same strains of bacteria used to generate electricity are also capable of removing uranium from ground water. If you are building a homestead near an area exposed to nuclear waste or materials, these bacteria may help. There may even be a way to develop a strain of bacteria that can be used to remove tritium from potable water supplies.
Once you begin exploring how electrically active bacteria work, it seems entirely possible this property can be used to remove tritium from non-radioactive water molecules.
In the case of making electricity from mud, the hydrogen generated by this process may be of more use as a fuel to power some other device that will deliver more electricity or some other useful form of power.
When it comes to generating electricity, cost, availability, and ease of assembly must always be your primary focus points. If you cannot generate enough electricity directly from any given application, see what else you can obtain that may be useful.
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This article has been written by Carmela Tyrell for Survivopedia.
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“Preparedness and self-sufficiency usually turns to food production at some point. Whether we’re old hats or just getting started, there are some set standards that tend to take place in the veggie garden. Sometimes they’re very well deserved. Sometimes, though, changing things up can make a difference in our ability to produce foods.
like a trivial task, there really is a science behind proper watering techniques.
“As a gardener, you will learn the hard way that suitable irrigation is crucial for developing productive crops. As summer sets in it is important to water your garden regularly to keep you plants healthy. More importantly, you need to learn how to conserve water and make the best decision for your garden.
containing fertilizer may cause harmful water runoff), or organic fertilizer. Easy choice.
“Are you looking for natural pest control options for the garden? Like many home gardeners, I started growing my own fruits and vegetables in part to avoid the toxic chemicals used on most commercial produce. After all, why put in all that time and effort to eat poison? It didn’t make sense to me.
What would you say if I told you that the average suburban homeowner/renter can grow enough fish in the backyard to meet the protein needs of their family? Fish is one of the most nutritious forms of protein, assuming you raise the right fish under the right circumstances so today we’re going to talk about how to grow fish in tanks for food.
There is no doubt that physical conditioning is overlooked a lot of times. Human beings get older, and as they get older they have health conditions and they get lazy.
Throughout history, the wealthy have had options available to them, that the common people couldn’t afford. They were able to buy products, go places and own homes which the rest of the population couldn’t afford; and you can be sure that they took advantage of it. While some say that the advantages of wealth are “unfair” and “oppressive to the masses” there has never been a time in history where there weren’t some people who were better off than others.
It is no secret that anything from EMP blast and natural phenomena to outright sabotage from inside the country can lead to large scale disruptions in the power grid.
