How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It

by James Wesley, Rawles

  Kerosene is a different matter. This fuel has insufficient lubricity to be used just by itself in a diesel engine. I have also read that it burns hotter than diesel, so it might harm injectors. However, this is largely a nonissue in all but exceptional circumstances, since kerosene typically sells for as much as one dollar more per gallon than diesel. But in an emergency, it is presumably safe to mix as much as 20 percent kerosene with your diesel and not cause excessive engine wear. The aforementioned road tax is also an issue for kerosene.

  It is even possible to burn a mixture containing used crankcase oil in your diesel engines, but keep in mind that used crankcase oil has been documented to be carcinogenic, because it contains polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). So use great care not to let any of it touch your skin when transporting, handling, filtering, and dispensing it.

  Start Buying Diesel or Flex Fuel Vehicles Now

  What will transportation be like in an era when gasoline is very scarce and precious and when ethanol and biodiesel are sporadically available but nearly as expensive as gas? To prevent yourself from being stranded, make sure every vehicle that you purchase from now runs on either diesel or a fuel blend that is an 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline “flex-fuel” variant. The latter are capable of running on 85 percent ethanol. It takes a bit of extra looking to find them, but someday you will be glad that you did. Enter “flex fuel” or “E85” as search variables. Here at the Rawles Ranch, our primary “goin’ into town” rig is an E85 fleet variant of the 2003 Ford Explorer 4WD. And when our little thirty-two-mpg run-about finally dies, it will be replaced by a flex-fuel compact of some sort. For maximum versatility, at least one vehicle at your retreat should be a diesel—perhaps your next crew-cab 4WD pickup, your next tractor, or your next quad ATV. See Chapter 12 for more vehicle details.

  Compact Solar-Powered Refrigerators for Insulin

  In most climates outside of the permafrost zone, a refrigerator is a must for insulin storage. The simplest solution is to buy a large propane tank and a propane-powered refrigerator. If you’d rather opt for photovoltaics, then I recommend the Engel brand twelve-VDC refrigerators sold by Safecastle. A modest-size photovoltaic power system, such as the 520-watt, four-panel packaged “cabin” system produced by Ready Made Resources, would provide plenty of power to run a compact Engel DC refrigerator plus a flashlight-battery-charging tray and a couple of small lights.

  Lighting

  It is important to think through your family’s lighting requirements for an extended period without grid power. What chores will you need to accomplish? How many family members (and others) will be staying with you? Will they be old enough to safely use candles and lanterns? How many batteries will you need to keep charged? Will you need to use night-vision gear? How will you handle blackout conditions?

  Candles and Lanterns

  The low-tech solution to lighting is to use candles or kerosene lanterns. You will of course need to take the usual safety precautions, especially with liquid fuels. When buying candles, be sure to stock up on ones that are specifically designed for long burning. These use a special paraffin formulation that is high in stearic acid. They are sold via mail order by companies such as Nitro-Pak. You can also often find inexpensive long-burning candles at discount stores: Catholic devotional candles in tall glass jars. Soak the jars in water for an hour and the paper labels will slip off easily.

  If you buy a kerosene lantern, store plenty of clean-burning grade K-1 (“water clear”) kerosene. Avoid commercial lamp oil (aka liquid paraffin), since it is grossly overpriced. You will of course need plenty of extra wick of the correct width, and a few spare glass chimneys. A good rule of thumb: The younger your children, the more spare chimneys you will need.

  Burning Alcohol in Kerosene Lamps and Engines?

  I’ve been asked about the possibility of burning fuels other than standard lamp oil or kerosene in lanterns and burning alcohol in gas or diesel engines. Given the flash point of alcohol, I see no reason why it could not be substituted for kerosene in a wick-type kerosene lantern. I suspect that due to the fear of lawsuits Dietz and the other wick-lantern makers disallow the use of anything except kerosene or lamp oil. For liability reasons, manufacturers make these strong disclaimers in anticipation that someone without common sense might inadvertently fill a lantern with gasoline, which could of course have tragic consequences. However, because of the disparities between alcohol and kerosene, alcohol should not be used in a mantle-type kerosene lantern, such as an Aladdin. Alcohol cannot be expected to “generate” and cause the mantle to properly incandesce.

  In regard to engines, converting an engine to run on alcohol is not a simple task. One difficultly is converting the fuel tank, lines, and filter assemblies. In most cases, stainless steel must be used for the fuel tank, and any rubber fuel lines must be replaced. I recommend sticking with diesel engines.

  Flashlights and Battery-Powered Lamps

  The advent of white light emitting diodes (LEDs) in the 1990s revolutionized flashlight technology. Up until a couple of years ago, I would not have recommended buying an electric camping lantern, since they were such battery hogs. But now, a new generation of white LED lanterns use remarkably little current, allowing batteries to last a surprisingly long time. For example, a Tuff Brite rechargeable LED lantern can operate for up to seventy hours on one charge. These are available from Northern Tool and Equipment and several other Internet vendors.

  7

  GARDENS AND LIVESTOCK

  While your larder will help you to get through the tough times, there is no substitute for fresh food and meat raised on your own land. This will be a large investment of time, money, and other resources, but it will pay off when you are able to pair a fresh salad, eggs, and a glass of milk with your cornmeal made from stored grain. This chapter will address basic techniques for starting a garden and raising livestock. My wife is the real expert here, so I’ve relied heavily upon her for the advice on these pages.

  Gardening

  Sizing a New Garden

  As a scant minimum, I’d recommend a twenty-five-foot-by-thirty-foot garden plot for a family of four. By using French Intensive (double-dug; snipurl.com/hrmgo) or biointensive Square Foot Gardening (snipurl.com/hrn4c) techniques, you can get a huge yield out of a small garden space, but if you have the acreage available and can afford the extra fencing material, then by all means make your fenced garden plot two or three times that size. This has several advantages. First, you will have room to maneuver a tractor. Using a tractor disk will save you a tremendous amount of labor, especially the first year that you develop the garden soil. Second, the additional garden space can be used to grow extra crops for barter and charity. You never know how many relatives will show up on your doorstep on TEOTWAWKI+1.

  Even if you don’t have the time or the inclination to build and fence now, at least buy the materials for fencing a big garden in the future—when such supplies may be difficult to obtain.

  Small-Scale Grain Growing, Harvesting, and Processing

  You will want to grow seasonal vegetables in your garden to keep your diet varied and delicious. Some of the hardiest, most nutritious, and easiest to grow are radishes, carrots, turnips, tomatoes, potatoes, green beans, summer squash, and Swiss chard. For detailed advice on how to grow these, I recommend the book Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times, by Steve Solomon. Since what you will grow will vary greatly by region and according to personal taste, we will focus on how to grow the most important part of your harvest: grain.

  SurvivalBlog reader Adam in Ohio provided a link to Cornell University’s Core Historical Literature of Agriculture (chla .library.cornell.edu), which includes thousands of antique farm references that could prove very useful. Keep in mind, however, that nineteenth-century safety standards were considerably more relaxed than today’s, so old formularies and farm-knowledge books often do not include any safety warnings. Use common sense around chemicals, flammables, unwarded gears
and cutting blades, heavy objects, and so forth. Stay safe.

  The book Small-Scale Grain Raising, by Gene Logsdon, is an invaluable reference that every prepared family should have on their bookshelf. Used copies can often be found at bargain prices on eBay or Amazon.

  When growing grain, you need non-hybrid (heirloom) varieties of seed stock, so that the seed you save from each harvest will breed true and continue to produce year after year. Hybrid varieties won’t. Heirloom seed is available from the Seed Savers Exchange, Seed for Security, Everlasting Seeds, and Ready Made Resources. Bulk quantities of grain seed should be stored in the proverbial cool, dark, dry place. They must be kept very, very dry to prevent mold or unintended sprouting. They must also be kept in sturdy, vermin-proof containers. Think steel, not plastic.

  One of our preferred grains for growing on small acreage is barley. As a general rule, you should plant winter barley in regions where winter wheat is grown, and spring barley where spring wheat is grown. If you live in deer country, you will probably find their depredations on your grain fields unacceptable, so you will need to erect some substantial fences. If you can’t afford to install tall fences around your grain fields, one alternative is to plant bearded varieties of barley. Deer generally won’t eat the awns of bearded barley.

  If you have any ground that is swampy from spring to fall on your property, consider planting domesticated wild rice in those areas. Technically, wild rice isn’t really rice at all, since it is in the grass genus (Zizania) rather than the rice genus (Oryza). As with other grain growing, planting wild rice will attract waterfowl and other birds, which can be a mixed blessing. So consider a shotgun and beaucoup shotgun shells to be part of your assortment grain-growing essential tools.

  TOOLS AND EQUIPMENT

  Raising grain takes not only seed stock but also the proper tools and equipment. Buy the best quality equipment that you can find. Concentrate on nineteenth-century technology. This is low-tech and easy to maintain. It is amazing what you can find on eBay if you check the site consistently. Unfortunately, however, some practical items such as scythes and hand mills are now sold as “decorator” antiques. Yuppies and retirees who merely want to adorn their homes have driven up prices—but keep searching, since these tools are worth owning.

  PLANTING

  A seed broadcaster is a must. Get an adjustable hand-crank seed broadcaster that you can strap around your waist. For really big fields, you might need a wheeled (push) row seeder. Even on a small scale, a one-wheel “dial-a-seed” planter is a huge laborsaver. These are all available through Lehmans.com. One a large scale, horse-drawn or tractor-pulled equipment is called for. (That goes beyond the scope of what I’m writing here, but it is described fairly well in Logsdon’s book.) When to plant varies depending on the last frost-free day in your region. Look at standard references for planting depths, frequency, and crop rotation.

  HARVESTING AND PROCESSING

  For corn, you will need a couple of corn knives and some husking pegs (to strap to your palm). For wheat and other small grains, you will need at least a hand scythe for reaping, but for any decent scale of production, you will need a large, cradle-type scythe. There are plans for building a small grain-threshing machine in Logsdon’s book. In a pinch, you can thresh grain by hand on a large, clean, concrete barn floor.

  There are a variety of hand-cranked machines made specifically for hulling (“pearling”) rice and barley, pressing oil, and shelling corn, peas, and so forth. If you grow sorghum or cane sugar, you will need yet another type of hand-crank press. Finding these machines may take some searching, because small hand-cranked machines are now essentially obsolete outside of the Third World, but they are eminently practical for folks like us, who are preparing for TEOTWAWKI. Used machines that are still in good working order can sometimes be found on the Internet, but if you don’t mind paying a premium price for brand-new machines, I recommend Lehmans.com. See Chapter 5 for more details on mills.

  STORAGE

  Whether for human consumption or for livestock feed, your harvested grain will need to be properly stored for protection from spoilage and vermin. If the moisture content is low enough to prevent mold, then plain galvanized trash barrels (bought brand-new) will suffice for small-scale grain storage. On a larger scale, a prefabricated storage shed, such as those made by Butler, is ideal. Corn still on the cob should be stored in a traditional slat-ted wooden corn crib or a well-ventilated Butler building. See Chapter 5 for more details on how to store grain.

  HANDLING

  Buy a large, aluminum-scoop grain shovel—the lighter, the better, so that it will be less tiring to use. For moving corn that is still on ears, you will want to have a corn drag (a rake with just three or four very long tines).

  “BERRY” SOAKING

  Whole-grain wheat can be soaked for twenty-four hours to make wheat berries. This makes a quite palatable and nutritious breakfast food when warmed and served with milk or cream and a dash of honey or molasses.

  SPROUTING

  To get the maximum nutrition from the grain that you raise, you should plan to sprout the majority of it. Lay in supplies and practice the art of sprouting before the balloon goes up!

  PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!

  As with any other newly acquired skill, grain raising, harvesting, storage, milling, and sprouting will take practice. Develop your expertise now, when any mistakes will be merely humorous blunders rather than potentially life-threatening disasters.

  Hand Tools

  In recent years, the U.S. consumer market has been flooded with low-quality, flimsy products. Sadly, this includes hand tools. These have become so ubiquitous that you have to search actively for quality gardening tools. The few American-made tools still available have had significant price increases, attributable to the recent spike in steel prices and substantially increased shipping costs.

  I have found that it is now better to shop for used, American-made hand tools. Ironically, many tools being sold as “antiques” are more sturdy and a have longer potential service life than the “factory-new” tools that originate in China. For used tools, watch Craigslist and even eBay. If you can’t find a particular used tool, then one of the best mail-order sources for new American, Canadian, and European tools is Lehman’s.

  Proper sharpening, oiling, and storage are crucial for giving your tools multigenerational longevity. This is particularly important in damp climates. Keep tools well oiled. Depending on your climate, you might need tool chests with tight-fitting lids and plenty of silica gel. If you have any tools that are rusty, evaluate their condition. Minor rust can be removed with a wire wheel. But if any tools are badly rusted, consider either paying to get them bead blasted or replacing them completely if need be. Why? Because leaving one rusty tool in contact with your other tools that are in good condition will encourage “sympathetic” rusting and eventually ruin many more. Bead blasting is potentially a good part-time home business, if you have a side yard available to dedicate to it. (It is a bit messy.) You could even carry on this business post-Schumer if you have a generator and/or a large alternative power system.

  Varmints in the Garden

  Garden pests are typically just a nuisance in good times, but post-TEOTWAWKI they can mean the difference between eating well and starvation. There is no single magic bullet that will eliminate all garden pests. Be prepared to take several approaches simultaneously:

  • A sturdy fence that is tall enough to protect against deer and with a fine-mesh lower section that is tight enough to repel rabbits and ground squirrels

  • A couple of cats who have been trained by their parents as effective mousers. Good mousers are usually also death on gophers. Or how about terrier dogs? Before the advent of modern poisons, small dogs were used to dispatch mice, moles, and gophers.

  • Plenty of traps, including buried mole/gopher traps, as well as surface mouse and rat traps (victorpest.com)

  • Lots of .22 rimfire ammo and patience. More than
just protection from birds and squirrels, a scoped .22 can also be used to nail tunneling gophers when they come up to push out dirt. If you live inside city limits, you will also want a high-powered air rifle.

  • Natural pest killers, such as ladybugs (for aphids), lace-wings, and praying mantises. These are available seasonally from Buglogical Control Systems (buglogical.com) and Home Harvest (snipurl.com/hrm2a).

  • Depending on your personal beliefs, pesticides to control insects. Unfortunately, these will also kill beneficial insects.

  • To repel birds, get a couple of big plastic owls to perch on your fence posts, lots of reflective (Mylar) strips (cut up used Mylar party balloons), and throwaway compact disks (strung on monofilament fishing line and positioned so that they will spin in the wind). Anti-bird netting is also available from the larger mail-order gardening suppliers.

  • As a last resort for large numbers of moles or pocket gophers, you can use a probe-bait strychnine dispenser (such as an RCO probe), along with a large supply of RCO Omega bait (snipurl.com/hrm2t) or Gopher Getter bait (snipurl .com/hrm3b). (Typically, this is strychnine .5 percent.) In some states, such as California, these supplies are difficult to obtain locally unless you are a commercial grower, so consult your state, county, and local ordinances before mail-ordering this bait. Beware that this poison could lead to the untimely demise of your pets if they actually eat their prey, because they will also indirectly ingest the poison. There is a trick to using these dispensers: As you insert the probe, when you feel a sudden lack of soil resistance, that means you have penetrated a “runway” tunnel. That is when you press the trigger to dispense the grain bait. You will have a valuable post-TEOTWAWKI barterable skill if you have the ability (and supplies) to poison moles and gophers.