Cold Times — How to Prepare for the Mini Ice Age

by Dr. Anita Bailey

  Always move in a group, and don’t stop for hitchhikers or the equivalent.

  Always send out an advance scout who can check out the terrain unobtrusively.

  Maintain an “outrider” who watches the main group and looks out for problems.

  If you are heading to a Bug Out Location (BOL) that you have set up in advance, don’t approach it directly. If you’re not there, someone else may have moved in, and it wouldn’t be prudent to walk up to the door and tell them to leave. Scope the place out from a distance -- plan good locations for viewing when you secure the arrangement -- and watch the site for a day or two before attempting to move in.

  Becoming Nomadic

  This is probably a low-likelihood situation, at least for the initial years of the Zen-slap. Depending on the severity of the coming Cold Times, it may become a lifestyle for a portion of the population at least.

  Effectively, nomads will be following the weather, animals, and the plant growth, moving along with wild game and harvesting fruits and wild crops as they go. Some may be nomadic from city to city, scavenging locations that are accessible in summer and leaving to sell their goods further south as the winter comes on. Much depends on whether this Cold resolves in a few generations, or if it progresses to a full-on Ice Age.

  Many groups of American Plains Indians migrated through their region with the seasons, camping beside rivers to fish, then following herds of animals, and finally to another area harvesting nuts and berries as they returned to their original campground. Some planted corn and other crops, then travelled to another area to hunt or fish, and returned in time to harvest the crops.

  We are not that distant from the nomadic lifestyle as we like to imagine. People routinely travel from the major northern cities down to warm southern locations as the seasons change right now – “snowbirds” who migrate in RVs to enjoy the warm weather. Some people still migrate from place to place following jobs, too.

  The nomadic lifestyle will require housing such as tents, RVs, “covered wagons”; transportation like horses or oxen, bicycles, motorbikes, RVs, cars or trucks; backup food sources including buckets or barrels of basics such as salt, sugar, flour, beans; backup water and water purification. If livestock will go with you, you’ll need cages for the smaller ones like chickens, rabbits, baby goats, and so on; or a means to herd, protect and corral the larger ones – sheep, goats, cattle.

  A nomadic lifestyle with large livestock will spend more time camped than it will actively moving, because the animals need time to eat and drink. If you stop for a while, make sure it’s not on private land – a landowner would be justified in running you off or holding some of your livestock in exchange for land use. Consider sending someone ahead to negotiate a stay-over and what the landowner would take in return? A calf? Two lambs? Labor?

  Nomads still need currency, that is whatever is being used for money or trade at the locations they frequent, good manners for dealing with established towns and cities, something to sell to the people who have currency, perhaps meat? Vegetables? Salvage? Skills? Ideally, one to several outriders move around the group and verify locations are safe to travel into. Security remains a concern, and the old cowboy concept of “circling the wagons” is a valuable consideration. All members of the group should be proficient with defensive firearms or other weapon use.

  Travelling Safely in Cold Times

  Travelling in the cold, particularly snowy and icy cold, requires a good deal of advance planning and extra care – because cold can kill you. It’s not just slippery roads and the risk of a wreck, it’s the fact that without the protection of shelter and the warmth required to keep your body temperature up, you simply can’t survive.

  Even if all you plan to do is hop in the car and buzz around to the nearest supermarket for a loaf of bread, you may be at risk. An accident that blocks your travel, another driver who is erratic, or an unexpected snowstorm could stop you right where you are – and stick you there for an unforeseen period of time. In the spring of 2017, drivers in Japan were buried – literally buried – in their cars during a sudden heavy snowfall. It came down so fast, they couldn’t even get out to walk to safety.

  Too many people are so expectant of “normal” conditions, that they leave their homes without jackets and cold weather clothing when they drive in the winter. They might do it a thousand times and never have need of any gear, but that one time is all it takes to become a statistic. When we are into the full-on effects of the coming little ice age, there won’t be any second chances. You’ll have to be ready every single time you go out.

  Ready in this case means: warm clothing suitable for walking a long distance in the cold, good boots, hat, emergency water; lightweight food like granola bars, peanut butter, sardines, dried pineapple for a day or two; matches and fire starter plus kindling; flashlight, firearm, and currency of whatever people will take at the time.

  That’s enough supplies that you’d be wise to get a sturdy but nondescript backpack. Make that a plain, non-tactical, everyday sort of thing, so that it doesn’t stand out as loaded with goodies. That will make it easier and more convenient to move your emergency pack from the house to the car each time you leave. Take it often enough, and it’s a habit. Refill the gas tank when it’s half-empty. Don’t wait until you are running on fumes; stations may not be open, have fuel, or have grid power to run the pumps.

  If you still have the ability to travel by motor vehicle, you will need chains for the tires. Outside of the northern parts of the US, the use of chains is unusual. Here in the Midwest, our local car-repair supplier would have to special order them. Perhaps that will change in a few years. Chains help the vehicle navigate on slick and snowy roads; it is asking for problems to drive on bad, unplowed roadways without chains. You might be a great driver, but the next guy coming at you head on may not be. Keep a folding shovel and some sand or ice-melter in the trunk. Always take your emergency backpack. Always.

  If you must go out in snow, consider snowshoes for any kind of cross-country trekking. These smaller size ones pictured are for young adults. Bigger folks need bigger snowshoes. The one on the right is where you’d strap your boot. The one on the left is upside down so you can see how it’s designed to grip snowy and icy ground. The front tips bend up slightly, and when you walk you drag your heels a little. Snow that’s more than a few inches deep will require snowshoes. Without them, you’ll sink and have a difficult time making any progress.

  You can make snowshoes by bending a sapling into a similar shape, something like a tear-drop, and lashing the ends together at the heel. The pointy end acts as a rudder. Cross and crisscross lacing over the foot bed. This will act as your grippers. Traditionally, snowshoes were made with leather strips, but you might try paracord or any other sturdy cording (except for nylon, which is too slippery). You’ll have to replace cordage over a season, but it’s not hard to do.

  In Nordic countries, the cross-country ski trek is a winter sport, plus a way to get around when the snow is deep. If you’ve already got skis and experience, hang on to them. If you don’t, you can generally find used pairs at thrift stores. You’ll need ski boots that fit the skis you have, or you can modify the skis so that your existing boot will fit. Basically, the ski will need a boot tip sized lip or strap to hold your boots in place as you push forward through the snow. Additionally, you’ll need a pair of ski poles to help with the forward effort. This is very physically demanding exercise, by the way, and uses muscles you don’t use the rest of the year. Carry your backpack with your emergency supplies when you go out on show shoes or skis, too.

  12 What if….? The big picture

  What if it doesn’t happen? What if it is worse?

  Throughout this book, we’ve looked at multiple ways to respond to a cooling and chaotic physical world. We’ve discussed where to live, what to live in, how to keep warm, storing and growing foods, adapting your water supply, adapting to lower power sources, staying healthy, managing your resources, and
providing a secure environment. Each of these elements is an essential human need; each is vital to your survival no matter what the future brings.

  Hopefully, by this point, you’ve put together how location works with how your home is built, the livestock that will feed you, the food you’re able to grow in your garden, how you’ll keep warm and dry, and how to set up defenses for all that. An extended family or like-minded group would be able to settle in to a situation like that, and prosper whether hard times come upon us, or not. You’re no more separated from the rest of the world than you choose to be at this time.

  Modern technology is likely to survive simple Cold Times – there is high technology already used in the extreme cold of both Polar regions and in Siberia, so technology won’t just disappear. Cold tolerant retrofits may be required, though, and that may put some tech offline during the transition.

  If an EMP or solar CME decimates the grid, high technology will go with it, but simple gasoline engines will continue to work as long as stored fuels last. Technology is a fragile master – better to be in a position where you don’t absolutely have to depend on it.

  Dropping overnight into the 18th century, or going full Mad Max is not a high-level risk…although we can’t discount it entirely. Our population has never been as dependent on the continuous flow of electricity, or food delivered by JIT, as it is now. We just don’t know what might take place in a worst-case situation...or even a moderate situation.

  We little people, we worker bees, do have reports that the wealthy and elite are building survival bunkers and super-hardened homes at a furious pace….but they are not telling us why. The rich may merely be responding to the same sense of urgency that affects the rest of us, and reacting in a grand style. Or they may be privy to information that isn’t shared with us wee folk. But they are preparing, and that tells us something.

  So, if the Cold Times don’t arrive with ferocity, or don’t come at all, are you worse off or better off for taking the steps to prepare for hard times and more self-sufficiency?

  That’s a question only you can answer.

  On the other hand, if the Cold Times are more intense – instead of a century of harsh winters, poor growing seasons, and stifling summers, the mini ice age converts to a full-on glaciation that lasts for a thousand years – you will have a running head start on readiness. You already know, ahead of the herd, that times will get more difficult, and you’ve made plans to make it easier on you and your family. That gives you an enormous advantage, one that will benefit your descendants into the far future.

  The Big Picture, here, is thinking ahead beyond your children’s children’s children – into a future we can perceive only dimly. We can say without hesitation that there are some things your descendants will absolutely need – the same things you do: shelter, food, water, defense.

  They will also need knowledge. The best way to pass knowledge along to people who are not yet born, is in the form of books. We don’t know what the future will bring, so if we want our descendants to have the mental skills and aptitude they might need but won’t be able to access from the internet or YouTube, we must keep books:

  how-to’s

  biography

  mathematics

  classical novels

  astronomy

  building

  cooking

  archeology

  religious

  cartography

  agriculture

  history

  art

  medical

  geology

  reference

  metallurgy

  geography

  music scores

  biology

  paleontology

  languages

  architecture

  physics

  ship building

  formularies

  encyclopedias

  – a thousand books would barely scratch the surface of what our descendants may need to know.

  Don’t count on public libraries to do this. They are rapidly moving to electronic media. Even the truly great works of the past, Descartes, Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Jefferson, Shakespeare, are all but lost already. It is the rare person today who has read any of Western Civilization’s finest thinkers…and there will be few to no readers in the future, if someone doesn’t value, save, and pass along their works.

  New books are often prohibitively expensive, but used books aren’t. Do not store your books in one location – you could lose all of them if something happened to the site. Spread your repository among families, so that each household becomes a Keeper of Books.

  Then, share and pass around volumes.

  Stay Informed

  Although existing trends indicate that the Cold will be obvious in just a few years, we simply cannot be sure what additional effects may accompany the weather changes.

  Major institutions have damaged their credibility with the public so efficiently, that little trust remains – mainstream media, insurance companies, the word of politicians, all cratering in a pit of their own digging. Will governments admit that they have misled their citizens? Will the media trade their bias for factual reporting? Will insurers be able to cover hundreds of thousands of new damage claims – especially after paying out for the hurricanes, fires, and floods of 2017?

  On the personal safety level, there are questions as well. Are there enough FEMA and local agency supplies and cold-weather equipment stored up to handle emergencies on a wide scale? What backups exist for sudden grid-compromising events? How will oil and energy and food cross the Mississippi to take care of the Eastern Seaboard if the New Madrid fault lets loose and destroys roads, bridges, and barge traffic? What recourse do the citizens of Seattle and Portland have, if the overdue Cascadia quake levels the entire coastal Pacific Northwest region?

  Finally, what happens to a national financial system that is suddenly thrust into that kind of pressure – one in which the average citizen cannot raise $400 in cash for an emergency? That is a financial system that is already teetering, with major retail chains failing weekly.

  We won’t know what happens, until it happens. In the meantime, we must watch the signs that we can find, locate media that is trustworthy (it’s not on the mainstream), and then take action. That’s the only way you and yours will live through these times.

  Recipes

  This is the way that I cook, and recipes that I routinely use. There’s nothing magical about them – the good cook modifies recipes to suit their taste and that of their family. Use your own preferred recipes, and be sure to store extras that are unique to your tastes (specific spices, for example).

  STARTER

  This can be used for raising bread. Everything made with a starter is a living, creative effort – you will have failures, but if your starter is healthy, it will all be perfectly edible.

  Simple Starter

  1 tsp active dry yeast, more or less

  1 cup clean water

  1 cup flour

  Mix all together, more or less of water to flour so that you end up with a slurry like pancake batter. Set in a clean bowl or mason jar, covered with cheesecloth to keep out gnats. Leave at room temperature overnight or perhaps a bit longer. It will get bubbly and develop a tangy aroma. Stir it a couple times if desired and let it bubble up again. It’s ready to use.

  Hold back a half-cup of this, add 1 cup of water and 1 cup of flour, mix well, and ferment as before. You can keep your starter going indefinitely (literally for years), and the flavor will just keep getting better and better.

  Natural Starter

  This can be made with juniper berries (I’ve used cedar berries), or even fresh organic grape skins that still have the white powdery residue on them. That white powder is actually naturally occurring yeast organisms.

  2 or 3 tablespoons of fresh juniper berries

  1 cup flour

  1 cup clean water

  Soak the berries in the water for an hour or two, then remove and dispos
e of the berries. Add the water to the flour until it is like a batter, then culture as Simple Starter. It will take this one several days to begin to ferment and bubble up, and it raises bread a little more slowly. The flavor is a little bolder and perhaps with a slightly stronger undercurrent. Keep the starter going the same way.

  Beer Starter

  This is ideally done with a homemade beer, or a Trappist ale that has yeast residue at the bottom of the bottle. If you make beer or even wine at home, you can use the fresh dregs (yeast) at the bottom of the fermenting vessel.

  1 cup beer or fermenting dregs

  1 cup flour

  Water sufficient to make a batter

  Culture as Simple Starter. This has a nice nutty tang, and just gets better with aging. Keep it going using just water and flour.

  Potato Starter

  1 small potato, boiled in the skin until fork-tender

  1 cup water from the boiled potato

  1 cup flour

  When the potato is partially cooked, mash it slightly in the water. Finish cooking. Let cool a bit. Pour about a cup of the water, more or less, into the flour – it’s okay if there’s some potato bits in it, but I like to remove the skin. Mix with the flour to a batter consistency, then continue as Simple Starter. This starter raises bread slowly, but to me it has a smoother tang. May continue the starter to future batches.