Cold Times — How to Prepare for the Mini Ice Age

by Dr. Anita Bailey

  With multiple head that need to be shorn, you can use the traditional sheep shears. Some garden stores still carry them as grass trimmers. Plan to sharpen them many times during shearing. If you have electricity, an electric shear – a bigger version of the kind of trimmer used on dogs and in barber shops – is the quickest method. You can still cut a sheep badly with electric shears, so take your time. Try to pull the underlying skin fairly taut so there is less likelihood of a cut. Top sheep shearers can complete an entire sheep in a minute or less, holding the sheep on its bottom using the shearer’s knees, and moving it enough so that it can be shorn from different angles. It’s quite an art.

  The goal is to trim the sheep clean of the entire fleece, including the matted and dirty wool on its legs, back end, and face. The dirty wool can be added to your compost pile or used as mulch on the garden. If you’ve trimmed the sheep from the neck back to the tail, the fleece will “roll back”, almost intact. If not, that’s okay. When you’re done, gather all the clean wool up, and package it for storage in a large paper sack or cardboard box.

  The fleece will be greasy with lanolin, very good for your skin, and may have grass and other bits in it. Fleeces do not have to be washed before spinning, but some spinners prefer to do so. If you do, use NO agitation whatsoever or the fleece may “felt” or mat down too thickly to use. Use cold water and a gentle soap, like shampoo or even Dawn brand dish soap, to reduce the lanolin content. Rinse by carefully lifting the fleece and placing in cold clear water. Air dry on a screen or other porous flat surface. If you spin the fleece without washing, you’ll need to wash it after it is spun – that helps to set the fibers and relax the wool.

  Spinning Wool

  Spinning wool takes a short period of time and some determination to do – and you can spend a small fortune of $500-$800 buying a really nice spinning wheel with all the bells and whistles. There’s a learning curve and these are fun to use.

  You may be able to find used or antique ones at lower cost on eBay or Craig’s List. You’ll need extra spindles, so watch for ones that fit your wheel whenever they come up for sale.

  You can also spin very nice wool using a dowel with a round wood weight on one end, that you can put together for $6 or for free if you have stuff laying around.

  Tie a string onto the section below the round piece, and twirl it around the dowel above the round piece. Sit down and lay the dowel with the round beside your left thigh (reverse if left handed), with the long end of the dowel toward your right side. Attach a piece of “carded” or “picked” or “combed” (basically: fluffed) wool to the string, and start rolling the dowel away down your thigh. The wool will cling and twist. Now stand and hold the growing yarn and give the hanging dowel a spin. Feed the fluffed wool onto the twisted part, spinning the dowel as needed, then repeating. When your growing piece of yarn gets too long to handle easily, wrap it onto the dowel below the wood round.

  When the wrapped area gets so big it interferes with spinning the dowel, break the yarn and unroll it from the dowel over your arm. Use your elbow and crook of your thumb as the form. Your first yarn will be chunky and rough-looking – but it is STILL yarn, and can be knit into one-of-a-kind warm hats and scarves. With practice, your yarn will be as smooth as you want it to be.

  When all the yarn is on your arm, carefully slip it off as a hoop of multiple strands. Tie it in a few places to keep it organized. When you have made several of these “hanks”, fill TWO sinks or buckets with lukewarm water. Put a little bit of shampoo or Dawn dish soap into one of them. Put a tablespoon or so of apple cider vinegar into the other one for rinse water. The acid restores the wool’s natural resiliency.

  Drop the hanks into the soapy water and swirl GENTLY. Some people say to just let them sink of their own weight. After the wool has soaked for a few minutes, lift each hank out and squeeze, NOT WRING the excess water out, then drop into the vinegar water to rinse. Wash and rinse water need to be at nearly the same temperature so not to “shock” the wool and risk felting it. After a gentle rinse, take each out, squeeze, and hang to drip dry. When dry, start knitting!

  Other Livestock

  Hogs and cattle are larger animals and generally require sturdier fencing, have higher feed or pasture requirements, and much stronger, more expensive equipment to move the animals around. There is a large financial investment involved before you get your first cow or piglet. Both are capable of injuring or killing you or your kids. Don’t attempt these until you have some experience raising smaller stock, and then, spend some time around the big animals before you acquire any. Ask among others you know, about what to look for and what to avoid.

  Some homesteaders start with Pot-bellied pigs or Guinea Hogs, which are smaller, gentler, and more easily handled than the big commercial hogs. They taste the same as the big pigs, and perform the same functions on the farm by eating leftovers, excess whey, and cleaning up the garden in the fall, but require less space, feed, and equipment.

  Not to be too graphic about it, but horses and donkeys have been considered food in historical times, as well. Jenny-milk, from the female donkey, makes good food, too. During the Venezuelan financial crash of 2016, reports filtered out about desperate folk breaking into the main zoo and “harvesting” zoo animals, including a prize stallion horse. Humans get much less particular about what we eat when we are hungry. If you 0pt for equines for transportation, get mares (females) so you can breed them if needed. Look for ones with gentle, friendly personalities, not fancy coat colors.

  Hunting

  It seems like quite a few part-time preppers imagine that they will head to the hills and live off the fat of the land, hunting and fishing the apocalypse away. Even those hard backwoods campers who can manage a weekend, week, or even a month out in the woods, come in with supplies, build visible fires, and sleep, all done during a time of relative peace and prosperity, when other campers aren’t scared and hungry, when the weather is predictable and warm. Hint: those people will die early.

  During Cold Times, game will disappear within the first year, if not earlier – just as it did during the Depression of the 1930s. Either everyone in the area will try to take as many deer, squirrel and turkey (opossum, ground hog, wild geese, wild hog, and raccoon will be next on the menu) as they can – hunger does that to a person – or the animals will become more adept at hiding. A few years ago, a hunting buddy and I strolled up to within 3 feet of a huge white-tailed buck, hiding in underbrush. If it hadn’t jumped up and run, we would have walked right past it without seeing it. That’s how good they are at hiding in normal times. The woodland survivors of the hunting pressure in the Cold will be even more cagey.

  If you plan to hunt, you need to start practicing at the first opportunity. You won’t suddenly know what you need to know just because you’re hungry. This is a learned skill. You won’t learn it by reading about it, only by doing it.

  At this writing, you’ll need a hunting license. Should things get really bad, that may be one more social amenity that goes the way of the dodo.

  Here’s some tips for the Cold Times:

  Set up feeders or minerals to attract game. It is not sportsman-like, but it will put food on the table.

  If there aren’t many other hunters, try to leave the female animals to rebreed next year. If there are lots of other hunters, someone will take them.

  Use quiet weaponry Bows (recurved, longbows, crossbows, compound bows); get at least 5 extra strings and hundreds of arrows, dozens of hunting arrow heads at a minimum. You don’t want to have to learn how to make arrows or chip arrowheads from rocks, so get more than you think you’ll need.

  Slingshots for small animal hunting, with extra elastic tubing and thousands of ball bearings.

  Air guns – good ones are high power, make a crisp soft popping sound, and cost $300-$400. If you plan to use CO2 powered ones, get a hundred canisters plus thousands of pellets. Pump air guns may last longer and are definitely cheaper at less than $100, but they are
accurate only for shorter distances. Pellets will eventually run out, too. Use on small animals and birds.

  Snares – ideal for rabbits and other small animals. A snare is just a noose made from wire or other strong material that will tighten down when pulled and not reverse and open. The end opposite the snare itself must be tightly secured to a solid object, such as a tree or fence post. Place these so that animals must walk through them along a narrow path or at a hole in a fence, ideally putting their heads through and then getting snared. Keep in mind that snares are non-specific, and will catch and choke anything that gets in them, including pets and skunks. Snares can be reused indefinitely.

  If you must use rifles, plan your shots so that you get a kill with a single shot. Do not shoot twice from the same place. That will give away your position to any unpleasant people that may be around.

  During the ammunition squeeze shortage 2014-15, one round was consistently available even when shelves were otherwise bare – the .270. Two-seventies are excellent hunting rounds with good penetration and sufficient power to bring down deer; the rifles and rounds are fairly inexpensive, too. It’s not a glamor caliber, and it’s not a high-tech rifle, but it does the job. You can hunt with almost any caliber or style of long gun (your AR-15, too) if you are an accurate shooter and can place your bullet in a vital organ.

  8 KEEPING WARM

  There are three principal ways to maintain warmth: warm yourself, warm objects, and warm the space around you.

  This illustration shows the typical rural wear from about 1890 in Russia where it has historically been very cold. The outfit is made from sheepskin with the wool turned to the inside. It reaches down to the knees, with an outer jacket to the hips, belted at the waist. The hat is fur lined, and so are the boots and leggings. The mittens are thick and bulky, probably removed if the person had to use his hands. Instead of a scarf, the collar is turned up around his neck, another way of retaining warmth.

  Today’s artic nomads, the ones who follow reindeer herds, still dress the same way. That tells us something important: this method of dressing against the cold works.

  This is serious “self-warming”, proven over centuries, highly effective, and still the absolute best way to keep warm – wear wool. Wool and many other natural animal fibers, retain body heat even when wet; animals live in the weather, after all. Other natural fibers that are super warm include alpaca, camel, musk ox, bear, elk, and canid – that is, coyote, dog, fox, and wolf. If you look at old photos of arctic explorers, the fur around their hoods was typically coyote or dog. Big fluffy dogs shed out copious amounts of undercoat in the spring, which can be spun and knitted into super warm scarves and mittens. The only downside of dog hair is that when it gets wet, it has a doggy odor, no matter how it is treated.

  Rabbit is generally fairly warm, but it doesn’t retain warmth when wet. Rabbit skins are thin, and tear easily. So, when it is used, it needs a lining to support it. It does make a comfortable, light vest that can be worn under an outer coat, or trim on collars and wrists.

  Most people who live in cold regions have a good understanding of how to keep warm. Skiers have special lightweight clothing that is pretty good, as long as the wearer is active. Here’s some basics that should form the foundation of keeping yourself warm:

  Avoid cotton, except for underwear and as summer clothes. Cotton wicks moisture and heat AWAY from the wearer. This means, cotton will let you get cold, no matter how many layers you wear. People who teach wilderness survival put it this way: cotton kills. The only time to use cotton clothing during winter is panties, boxers, briefs, and bras. Never socks. Read labels.

  Layers work. Start with underwear and wool-based socks. Consider OmniWool or SmartWool brands. Put on thermals. Polypropylene or nylon is better than cotton (which is useless), wool blend is better than both. Silk is a good next-to-the-skin material when it is heavy weight silk, but you still need wool over it because damp silk loses heat. Hunting stores like Bass Pro and sporting goods stores such as Dick’s or Academy carry good brands; they are fairly pricy but worth it because they can last for decades.

  Over that, a wool-based shirt and pants (not jeans or sweat pants or flannel, which are cotton). Over that, a thick jacket that is water resistant but breathable, not canvas or corduroy which are cotton. Boiled wool makes a strong, water resistant, warm, and relatively lightweight jacket material. You can’t beat a genuine “shearling” (that is, sheep skin with the wool on the inside) jacket for warmth and wind resistance. Ideally, your jacket should cover your thighs down to your knees – just like in the old illustration.

  For your feet, over your wool socks, wear boots that are lined with wool or that can have a wool foot bed insert (check the UGGs wool inserts), and are waterproof. An outstanding brand are Muck Boots with neoprene tops. They are not really designed for extreme cold weather, but with extra wool socks and wool foot bed inserts, they perform as good as more expensive hiking and hunting boots.

  Always wear a hat outdoors, wool naturally. Knitted acrylic caps are suitable, but there is nothing warmer than wool, especially thick and heavy wool caps. You’ll lose more heat from the top of your head in cold weather than anywhere else on your body. If you need a brim to provide shade, wear a ball cap over your knitted cap. It’ll look funny, but you’ll be warm, and that’s what counts. Or consider an old-fashioned style wool-felt fedora-type hat. In extreme cold, wear a baklava – a knitted hat that folds down to your neck leaving holes for eyes and mouth. In worst-case cold, there are few warmer hats than a rabbit-fur lined “mad bomber” hat with the side flaps down over your ears and the flaps tied under your chin. You need to keep your ears warm, too. Frost bite will cause you to lose part of your ears, otherwise.

  For your hands, fully lined gloves especially if they are leather. Unlined leather alone is too cold and provides no warmth at all. Knitted mittens are great, too. Old wool sweaters can be cut and sewed into excellent, attractive mittens with a little ingenuity. Indoors, wear “half gloves,” knitted like mittens but without fingers, to keep your palms toasty but allow you to use your fingers comfortably. Knitting directions for “half mittens” are available in many books and online.

  Wrists and ankles – major blood vessels run through here, and these are sites of heat loss. That’s why sweaters and socks have knitted cuffs right at those locations, providing flexibility while keeping warmth on them. When wool socks are worn out, cut the cuffs off and hem them, then wear them on your wrists or over your ankles. These are good locations to wear a “bracelet” or “anklet” made of rabbit fur, too.

  For your neck, wear scarves or neck warmers. Scarves should be long enough to go around your neck twice, be tucked into your jacket, and be able to pull a portion up over your nose and mouth to protect your breathing during very cold weather. Wool is the only thing that works for this, since the outside of the scarf will form ice from condensation as you are breathing. The wool will prevent cold air passing through, even when it is wet with icy condensation. Neck warmers cover from your chin to upper chest, and can be tucked into a shirt or jacket. Ideally, a neck warmer could be pulled up over mouth and nose, as well. A turtleneck sweater can work here, if it’s wool, of course.

  So far, mostly everything we’ve discussed has been wool. Some people think they are allergic to wool. Odds are good that most of them are not. They’re actually reacting to the chemicals used in dying the wool, not the wool itself. Most modern wools no longer use the harsh chemicals that were common in the past. If wool still bothers you, wear silk undergarments to keep the wool off your skin.

  Good wool clothing is ridiculously expensive when it’s new. Let me encourage you to visit thrift stores soon and check out both men’s and women’s sweaters. Read labels; avoid anything except 100% wool. Buy all you can find. You can always cut them up for gloves, vests, and making different warm items from them.

  The best wool garments are made from Merino wool, a fiber from the very fine yarn produced by Merino breed
sheep. Sweaters made from Merino can be worn right next to even the most sensitive skin, it’s that soft. Cashmere goat wool is even softer, and even though it is usually a thin garment, it can be used as underwear. Cashmere is made from exceptionally fine goat undercoat, is very expensive new, and moderately expensive at thrift stores, too.

  While you are at the thrift stores, look for wool jackets. Pea coats are usually all wool or high percentage wool. Don’t ignore men’s long dress coats, either. My son found a beautiful extra-large men’s knee-length camel hair coat for $3, and gave it to me. I’m turning it into two vests, mittens, shoe liners, slippers, a hood, and assorted other small projects. Camel hair is as warm and durable as wool. Real camel hair fabric runs anywhere from $30 to $70 per yard at this writing, so that was a real deal. Consider any wool blankets you can find, as well. It’s pure wool fabric that can be repurposed in dozens of ways, including as filling for quilts. There are similar deals at a thrift store near you today.

  For the long term, the most consistent way of acquiring wool is to raise wool-breeds of sheep. Raise them, shear them, eat the lambs and save their wooly skins to make into clothing (see a hide-tanning guide in the Recipes section). Spinning wool isn’t hard, but there is a learning curve – children often learn this very fast and enjoy the process of developing the skill. Once it’s spun, it can be knit or crocheted into warm and long-lasting garments.