The Great Paul Wheaton on Hugelkultur

Read all about Hugelkultur here. Mr. Wheaton seems tireless in his pursuit of good homesteading and permaculture information. I think there are few who know more about hugelkultur than he.

The Homestead

Having searched since mid summer, my husband and I just located and purchased a Middle Tennessee homestead. We've been spending as much time there as possible, learning everything we can of the place's history as well as trying to figure out the best way to contemplate and approach this piece of ground. We two have been urbanites our entire lives, so naturally we're awed and humbled. Regardless of the soil quality, the opportunity for cultivation is ours, I'll put it that way. Fossils and arrowheads abound in this place and there are lovely sycamores, poplars, hickories, buckeyes and oaks, along with deer, coyote and turkey. And here's my final rhapsody: owls and whippoorwills call of an evening.

I realize I've allowed this ongoing personal adventure to disrupt the already fairly loose Survival Messenger update schedule. Therefore, I am hereby resolving to a whole new level of commitment (for me, anyway) for blogitudinous blogadociousness delivered with established and faithful blogularity.

Just as soon as I get back to town.

LMR

Water Filtration

Survival Messenger appeared on Tim Ridley's Road Dog Trucking show this week to discuss emergency water filtration.

There are so many off-grid water filtration devices on the market--too many to cover in one show. All Tim and I could do was to touch on some well-known favorites: The British Berkefeld (Berkey) systems, AquaRain, Katadyn and Lifesaver.

I use (and love) the AquaRain gravity filter for daily processing of our home's tap water. This removes the chlorine taste and does not tax the filter elements at all.

For on-the-road emergencies, I keep some #4 Melitta coffee filters and a Sport Berkey in my road bag. The coffee filters can be used to strain the larger undesirables from "mud puddle" water. This pre-filtering helps preserve the life of the Sport Berkey's filter element which makes the yucky water truly potable. Additionally, I consider water purification tablets to be a must-have for travel, but I would use these as a last resort.

I'm really getting into DIY water filtration, thanks to cheaperthandirt.com. Here one can purchase an inexpensive filter element, combine it with two food-grade plastic buckets and a dispenser spigot, and voila'. Check out the video.

LMR

Today: Survival Messenger Discusses Water Filtration on The Tim Ridley Show - Road Dog Trucking - SiriusXM Channel 106

Notes on today's show will be posted shortly!

LMR

Survival Messenger on The Tim Ridley Show - Road Dog Trucking - SiriusXM Channel 106

The subject of Survival Messenger's guest appearance on yesterday's Tim Ridley Show was storable foods for truckers: military "Meals, Ready to Eat" and other foods which professional drivers can stow for emergencies. Tim told a great story about once having been stuck, for many hours, in a long line of traffic on a frozen rural highway. Because he had stocked his rig well, Tim was able to share his MREs and water with several ill-prepared motorists and their cold, hungry children. This is an excellent real-life example of how the reward of a little forethought-action can be, in the midst of a stressful situation, the material improvement of one's physical and mental well being -- yours, your family's or, as in Tim's case, that of strangers in need.

Tim Ridley possesses the survivalist mindset and he is also a Christian. This is a reliably solid combination. I can't help but wonder if his actions on the road that day influenced the thinking of some of his fellow travelers; if perhaps the beneficiaries of Tim's planning and kindness were inspired to adopt the habit of preparedness or maybe even the golden rule of Matthew 7:12. Perhaps they received a pivotal lesson in humanity and also took a first step toward understanding some of the attributes of modern survivalists -- attributes which I have attempted to describe on the "About" page of this blog:

...strengthening their positions of personal freedom quietly and calmly so that, come what may, they will be able to continue to survive--indeed, to thrive--with dignity and honor. These are people who intend never to have to be in a government water line, intelligent and observant people who understand that it is nearly impossible for a man to help others if he himself is struggling to survive. They know that, depending upon conditions, one's level of preparedness can be the difference between frustration and freedom...

Because our air time together is short, Tim and I are able only to scratch the surface of the topics we choose to discuss. Therefore, as a complement to my biweekly Road Dog appearances, I will expand on those topics here by providing my perspective plus as much information of value as I can.

Long-term storage foods may be purchased at any of the following sites. While not cheap, these foods are infinitely keep-worthy/travel-worthy. The links are also available on my "Resources" page, above, along with an ever-growing list of other good sites:

     The Ready Store
     Survival Warehouse
     Ready Made Resources
     Emergency Essentials
     Camping Survival

By the way, my next appearance on Tim's show will be October 31 at 5:30 AM Central Time. We plan to discuss water filtration, so please join us at SiriusXM channel 106 (part of Dave Nemo Entertainment)!

LMR

Websites for Purchasing Your Preps

I just added a page called "Resources" on which I link to websites which offer some of the best survival foods and gear around. Please take a look, on the pages bar above.

Dr. Josh Axe

Dr. Josh Axe is a wellness coach based in Nashville, Tennessee. I always like to hear what he has to say. Here are links to an article and some videos:

Turmeric: The Antioxidant-Rich Indian Spice
Grecian Spinach
Detox Drink
Cauliflower "Mashed Faux-tatoes"
Vision Board

MD Creekmore: One of My Heroes

If you are unfamiliar with MD Creekmore's The Survivalist Blog, I urge you to check it out. You can read his "about" page here. Below are links to several homestead-themed posts (archived, I think) which may give you an idea of the breadth of this gentleman's experience and capability. And he's not afraid to rough it! There's a wealth of free information to be had, but his "tire garden" really captured my imagination.

http://www.thesurvivalistblog.net/for-sale-junk-land-1000-per-acre/
http://www.thesurvivalistblog.net/improving-junk-land/
http://www.thesurvivalistblog.net/living-life-in-10-x-26-travel-trailer/
http://www.thesurvivalistblog.net/build-refrigerator-root-cellar/
http://www.thesurvivalistblog.net/tire-garden/

Good Rice for Long-Term Storage

This is my current favorite. Store only white and basmati rice for long-term. Brown rice reportedly doesn't keep as long (too oily).

JWR's Survivalist Philosophy

Having recently re-read James Wesley Rawles' precepts page, I'm posting a link to it here. His opinions are so interesting, and the information he provides so valuable, that I heartily recommend his blog: www.survivalblog.com.

Expert Advice From The Great Massad Ayoob

Mr. Ayoob tells Mr. Gresham how it works when you're carrying.

View and view again.

In Case You Wondered, Always Take The Fifth.

I happened upon these videos at WRSA, one of my favorite sites.

Food Give-away by Emergency Essentials

Emergency Essentials is giving away one year's supply of canned, dehydrated and freeze-dried foods in the month of September. To register for a chance to win it, click here.

How To Use The Israeli Battle Dressing

I recommend keeping one of these bandages in each of your first aid kits--at home, at work, in the car. Available here.

Home-made Shampoo and Conditioner

I've just begun experimenting with these. They take a little getting used to. But so far, so good:


"Shampoo"

1 Tbsp Baking Soda

1 C Water

Mix well

"Conditioner"

2 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar

1 C Water

Keep in a spray bottle, shake before use.

Home-made Laundry Soap Powder

OK, this one is my new favorite. I made this recipe today (it took all of 15 minutes) and then did two loads of laundry. Very nice!

    http://oneacrehomestead.blogspot.com/2009/02/homemade-laundry-detergent.html

Also, I'm now an ardent fan of the One Acre Homestead blog.

Home-made Laundry Soap Gel

1/3 bar Fels Naptha or Zote soap

½ cup washing soda

½ cup borax powder 

~You will also need a small bucket, about 2 gallon size~

Grate the soap and put it in a sauce pan.  Add 6 cups water and heat it until the soap melts.

Add the washing soda and the borax and stir until it is dissolved.  Remove from heat.

Pour 4 cups hot water into the bucket.   Add your soap mixture and stir.

Now add 1 gallon plus 6 cups of water and stir.  Let the soap sit for about 24 hours and it will gel.

Use ½ cup per load. This soap does not generate suds.

Sam Nailed It

If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen."  --  Samuel Adams 

Home-made Cleansers and Toiletries

I've been getting into home-made cleansers and toiletries. Here are some good reasons to bother with this:

1) CHEAP

2) EASY

3) EFFECTIVE

4) known ingredients, fewer chemicals

5) insurance against bare grocery shelves

I should have started doing this 20 years ago. Here's the first recipe:

FRUIT & VEGETABLE WASH

Combine equal parts white vinegar and water. That's it.

Keep in a spray bottle, and dedicate a nylon scrubbing pad for cleaning hard-skinned fruits and veggies.

More recipes forthcoming.

Survival Messenger on SiriusXM 106

I had the honor of being Tim Ridley's guest today on the Road Dog Trucking show. Professional drivers are some of the most prepared, self-reliant people around, and I get the feeling that I'll be learning a lot about survival from a trucker's point of view. Looking forward to more dialogue with Tim and his listeners when I return on September 5 at 05:30 CT!

If you're a trucker or an otherwise early riser, catch Tim's show on weekdays beginning at 04:00 CT, SiriusXM 106.

Olive Oil Lamp from Lehman's

As promised, here is a brief, narration-less demo of an olive oil lamp in operation. I've assembled some components and accoutrements: olive oil (the cheap kind will do), a package of wicks, a lighter, and a pair of hemostat forceps-pliers. Those pliers, which may be found with the fishing tackle in most any sporting goods store, are great for positioning the wick.

This lamp is relatively safe, but the glass does get hot, so it's best placed on a trivet. (Lehman's sells a jar with a handle which I like even better.) The jar is stable and functions as a hurricane glass. Unlike more volatile fuels, the olive oil, if spilled, will not spread the flame. You can purchase the complete lamp or elect to buy only the nickel element and wick--and come up with your own jar. Either way, the goods are here.

Advice & Beans

I recently ordered some long-term food storage supplies from a source called Advice & Beans, located here in the Nashville area. The mylar bags I bought were of superb quality, and my transaction experience was excellent. I've now become a fan of their blog, as well. I highly recommend checking them out:
www.adviceandbeans.com.

Survival Messenger

--Been Busy, But I'm Back!

I LOVE the olive oil lamps from Lehman's which you can see here. I will post a demonstration video as soon as I can. Check back soon, won't you?

TTFN.
Survival Messenger

More Beauty...

The Great Bill Evans.

With Larry Bunker and Chuck Israels.

Edward Elgar and The Wipeouts

Jon Frank's "The Glide" (multimedia). Waimea footage cut to Sospiri op. 70. Richard Tognetti and the Australian Chamber Orchestra. It's just so beautiful.

"Bug Out Bag" List

I wanted a "Bug Out Bag" list and found a good one at M.D. Creekmore's blog: http://www.thesurvivalistblog.net/bug-out-bag/. I took the list to Dick's Sporting Goods on Charlotte Avenue in West Nashville to see how many of the items could be found under one roof. I found 17 of 19, however M.D.'s favored brands were not necessarily represented. Below is the list, modified somewhat. The checkmarks indicate that Dick's had the item, and the brands listed are the ones that I found there (all widely known and of excellent reputation). I should point out that I have not yet tested these but hope to in the near future!

Bug Out Bag Contents

√  1. The Pack – Field & Stream, Kelty, Jansport, Marmot, and Outdoor Products.

√  2. Water – Canteen with cup & cover, water bottle, and water filter (MSR Miniworks Microfilter).

√  3. Fire – Waterproof matches, a magnesium fire starter and tinder.

√  4. Food – (Enough to last 5-7 days.) Mountain House brand Beef Stew, Stroganoff, Lasagna, Chicken Teriyaki w/Rice.

√  5. Stove – Small stove. Dick's carries the MSR Pocket Rocket and Coughlan's Folding Stove.

√  6. Sleeping bag – the warmest I found was the Field & Stream Hydro-Dri, rated to -15 degrees.

√  7. Shelter – Rain poncho and tarp or compact tent.

√  8. Cooking – Tex Sport Stainless Steel 5-Piece Mess Kit.

√  9. First Aid Kit

√  10. Light – Dick's carries the Energizer LED Pen Light, Dorcy 3-cell AAA LED, and many others.

√  11. Tools – A folding saw, multi tool, and fixed blade knife. Also, light weight shovel and Machete, if you can afford the extra weight.

√  12. Clothing – At least one extra pair of socks, underwear and other items important to you.

√  13. Fishing – Line, hooks and sinkers and a few small lures. A small gill net for catching fish.

√  14. Parachute cord

   15. Plastic bags

√  16. Small Binoculars

   17. Sewing kit

√  18. This n’ that – Head net, electrical tape, gloves, sharpening stone etc.

√  19. Firearms

For Survival, Read Great Poetry!

The first rule of survival is to think ahead. This may seem so obvious and natural that it could go without saying. However, evidence abounds that thinking for survival sometimes doesn't happen at all. While it's possible for freak hazards to befall us for which we could never prepare, many of life's perils can be avoided altogether with just a little prudent forethought.

To think for survival is to be alert, to look around, to listen, to practice situational awareness, to be attentive to instinct and discriminating in choice, to process new information through the filters of your own knowledge and imagination; to simply, as my father would say, "use your head". Examples--actual and fictional--of survival successes and failures are everywhere. I'm talking about the education available in the news, a good yarn, fable or old wives' tale, a pivotal historic military strategy or deed, a painting or sculpture by one of the masters, etc. We should recognize these as gifts, because we usually can gain incredibly valuable lessons at no cost (to us) of any kind. Consider the short story, "To Build A Fire" by Jack London. It is indeed a gift to learn a survival-failure lesson vicariously! Therefore, in the spirit of art-and-literature-are-indispensable-for-survival-thinking, I offer this brilliant and richly dramatic old favorite:

The Wreck of the Hesperus by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

It was the schooner Hesperus,

      That sailed the wintry sea;

And the skipper had taken his little daughtèr,

      To bear him company.

Blue were her eyes as the fairy-flax,

      Her cheeks like the dawn of day,

And her bosom white as the hawthorn buds,

      That ope in the month of May.

The skipper he stood beside the helm,

      His pipe was in his mouth,

And he watched how the veering flaw did blow

      The smoke now West, now South.

Then up and spake an old Sailòr,

      Had sailed to the Spanish Main,

"I pray thee, put into yonder port,

      For I fear a hurricane.

"Last night, the moon had a golden ring,

      And to-night no moon we see!"

The skipper, he blew a whiff from his pipe,

      And a scornful laugh laughed he.

Colder and louder blew the wind,

      A gale from the Northeast,

The snow fell hissing in the brine,

      And the billows frothed like yeast.

Down came the storm, and smote amain

      The vessel in its strength;

She shuddered and paused, like a frighted steed,

      Then leaped her cable's length.

"Come hither! come hither! my little daughtèr,

      And do not tremble so;

For I can weather the roughest gale

      That ever wind did blow."

He wrapped her warm in his seaman's coat

      Against the stinging blast;

He cut a rope from a broken spar,

      And bound her to the mast.

"O father! I hear the church-bells ring,

      Oh say, what may it be?"

"'Tis a fog-bell on a rock-bound coast!" —

      And he steered for the open sea.

"O father! I hear the sound of guns,

      Oh say, what may it be?"

"Some ship in distress, that cannot live

      In such an angry sea!"

"O father! I see a gleaming light,

      Oh say, what may it be?"

But the father answered never a word,

      A frozen corpse was he.

Lashed to the helm, all stiff and stark,

      With his face turned to the skies,

The lantern gleamed through the gleaming snow

      On his fixed and glassy eyes.

Then the maiden clasped her hands and prayed

      That savèd she might be;

And she thought of Christ, who stilled the wave

      On the Lake of Galilee.

And fast through the midnight dark and drear,

      Through the whistling sleet and snow,

Like a sheeted ghost, the vessel swept

      Tow'rds the reef of Norman's Woe.

And ever the fitful gusts between

      A sound came from the land;

It was the sound of the trampling surf

      On the rocks and the hard sea-sand.

The breakers were right beneath her bows,

      She drifted a dreary wreck,

And a whooping billow swept the crew

      Like icicles from her deck.

She struck where the white and fleecy waves

      Looked soft as carded wool,

But the cruel rocks, they gored her side

      Like the horns of an angry bull.

Her rattling shrouds, all sheathed in ice,

      With the masts went by the board;

Like a vessel of glass, she stove and sank,

      Ho! ho! the breakers roared!

At daybreak, on the bleak sea-beach,

      A fisherman stood aghast,

To see the form of a maiden fair,

      Lashed close to a drifting mast.

The salt sea was frozen on her breast,

      The salt tears in her eyes;

And he saw her hair, like the brown sea-weed,

      On the billows fall and rise.

Such was the wreck of the Hesperus,

      In the midnight and the snow!

Christ save us all from a death like this,

      On the reef of Norman's Woe!

The Great Paul Wheaton (my hero for all things permaculture and homesteading)

Paul Wheaton displays 12 rocket mass heaters:

Good Reading for Starters

OUTDOOR SAFETY AND SURVIVAL by Paul H. Risk

ECONOMICS IN ONE LESSON by Henry Hazlitt

AMERICA ALONE by Mark Steyn