Cold Times — How to Prepare for the Mini Ice Age
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Remove the hides from the rinse water. They will be very heavy. Let them hang over a board or the back of a chair or other firm surface to drain. If the pelt has tears or holes, you can mend them at this point. Use waxed thread (run a wax candle along the thread after it is in your needle) and a whip stitch (the kind you see on moccasins) to make a secure and relatively invisible mend. If the hole is large, you can cut a piece of the leg ends and sew it in place.
Now, using a sponge, rag, paper towels, or a paintbrush, swab the still damp skin-side of the hide with about an ounce of Neat’s Foot oil. It should be absorbed fairly quickly, leaving only a little oily residue. That’s okay.
Drying: Tack the hide up, skin side down, to your “stretcher”… we use salvaged wood pallets. Gently pull the hide as you tack it so that there is some tension in the skin – no need to exert excess pressure or over-stretch. Try to put your tacks around the edges so that the marks won’t show later.
Cleanup: Your tanning solution can be neutralized for disposal by adding a couple boxes of baking soda to it. It will froth and bubble vigorously and release a potentially toxic or irritating gas, so give it plenty of ventilation and get away from the bucket while this is happening. When all the bubbling has stopped, about five minutes later, you can pour the mix out. Your town may have ordinances preventing you from pouring it down the drain – and all that salt would be hard on metal pipes and septic systems. I’ve heard of people putting this salty mix on driveways and paths where they wanted to stop weeds from growing.
Final Steps: Check the hide every day. When the skin-side feels dry to the touch in the center, but still flexible and somewhat soft (before the skin is crispy-dry), take it down from the rack. Lay the hide fur-side-down and go over the skin with a wire bristle brush. This softens the skin and lightens the color. Don’t brush heavily or excessively in one spot – just enough to whiten it and give it a suede-like appearance. After this, set the skin where it can fully dry, a day or so longer. When fully dry, the skin is finished. Lay it on a chair; fit it onto your car seat. Doesn’t that look and feel great?
Care: Skins processed by this method can’t be washed without some loss of quality. Washed skins get very crisp and uneven when dried. However, you can thoroughly brush the fur side, shake out the skin, vacuum it, or wire-brush the skin side to touch up any very dirty spots. Depending on how well you rinsed the hide after tanning, there may be some residual salt in the fur – this can be drying to human skin, and may leave little white flecks around, and might even absorb moisture from the air if your weather is humid. Other than being uncomfortable or making a mess, this shouldn’t be a problem – the salt eventually works out of the hide.
A Gentle Caution: Once your friends know you can tan hides, be prepared for them to bring around THEIR hunting trophies and livestock hides for treatment. If you decide to do this, take my advice: don’t do it for free. Commercial tanners get $50+ to tan a single hide, and you should price your work accordingly – even if your return is just a case of good beer. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself left with no time for anything else.
FRUIT JUICE
The original recipe came from Helen and Scott Nearing, the “first back-to-the-landers”. You can use any fruit, or any combination of fruit. Try plain grapes or just blackberries – or combinations such as peaches and strawberries. If you use grapes with seeds, you may wish to remove the seeds first, but it’s not necessary.
1 cup fruit, crushed or uncrushed
½ to 1 cup sugar or honey to taste
Boiling water to fill a clean quart jar
Put the fruit in the jar, add the sweetener, pour the boiling water over it and cap immediately. When the lids have popped down and the jars are cool enough to handle, give them a good shake to dissolve the sweetener.
Set the jars aside for several weeks to let the flavors develop. If you like clear juice, filter it through cheese cloth or a sieve before drinking. If you like your juice to have some body, you can shake before using and mix it all up, or run through in a blender or use an egg beater to whip it well.
GENERIC WINE RECIPE
Adapted from How to Develop a Low-Cost Family Food-Storage System
Wines are shrouded in mystery – and there is a kind of charming element to grape wines that taste as though they are actually blackberry, or oak-aged, or loaded with sweet cherries. That's “the magic of the grape.” Although wines produced from specialty grape varieties and grown in grape-enhancing soil can be delightful, there's more to wine than just grapes. Historically, wine has been made from almost every vegetable substance known to humans – it's an alternative method of storing the harvest, a pleasant relaxing drink that can be enjoyed with a meal or by itself, and an outstanding barter item.
Grape wine connoisseurs shudder at the thought of using any yeast but one made specifically for wines, and there are a dazzling array available for home use. Unless you have specific wine variety preferences, a Montrachet (pronounced: mon tre shay) yeast makes a good all-purpose beverage – many health-food stores carry this type of yeast. Even so, a perfectly acceptable vegetable or fruit wine can be made with ordinary cooking (bread) yeast from the supermarket.
One tool you will need for home wine-making is an air-lock. Air-locks can be found at beer and wine-making supply shops, or you can construct an air-lock container fairly simply. The idea is to exclude outside air from the fermenting wine liquid, while allowing the beverage to expel excess carbon dioxide and other fermentation gasses. Some home vintners have used a glass gallon juice jar, fitted a cork tightly in the top, and punched a narrow hole through the cork from top to bottom. Through the cork, a two-food section of aquarium tubing is carefully inserted so that a couple of inches extend below the cork bottom, and the top edge of the cork is then sealed melted with wax around the tubing.
After the jar is filled, the cork-and-tubing is fitted firmly in place, and the long end of tubing is submerged in a jar filled with water. As the wine ferments, gasses will escape through the tubing, and bubble up through the water – but no air will be able to enter and contaminate the jar.
I've had good results using plastic gallon vinegar jugs, punching a hole through the plastic screw-on cap with a leather punch, and inserting aquarium air-line tubing. It fits so snugly that wax isn't needed. As a plus, the cap is easy to attach and remove from the jug.
The Process
Wine-making from flowers, herbs, fruits and vegetables is not complicated. Like all fermentation-based food, such as cheese or bread, it requires adherence to cleanliness and attention to detail. In each of the recipes that follow, the steps are the same:
Wash the vegetable thoroughly. “Garden Dirt” wine is not appetizing. Chop or cook and mash as directed.
Add veg/fruit/etc to the water; put in dissolved sugar and other chopped ingredients, except yeast.
Cool or warm the water and added ingredients to room temperature, or even a shade warmer. Add the dissolved yeast and mix thoroughly. Cover container with lid or clean towel held in place to keep out gnats.
Set in room-temperature spot for about 2 days.
Strain off the liquid into an air-lock container(s). You can still consume the remaining “soup”-- chickens and pigs enjoy it as a treat. Close and set up the air-lock in a room-temperature location.
Let continue fermenting for one to two months, until all bubbling ceases.
Transfer the liquid to a clean holding container by siphoning – that keeps the clean upper liquid free of the “dregs” that have settled to the bottom. Use aquarium tubing, or special winemaker's tubing, moving it as little as possible. Leave sediments at the bottom of air-lock as much as possible, but don't agonize over it. Taste the wine while siphoning – it will be quite strong, probably have a terrible astringent quality. Don't despair! Once the wine has aged and matured, the flavor will be completely different.
Add clean eggshells (wash them before cracking the eggs), and leave some egg white clinging to the shells. This sill draw any remain
ing sediments to the eggshells, so that the wine clears naturally over several hours or days. Cover this container tightly with cotton wool or several layers of cheesecloth.
When the wine has cleared, siphon into the final storage bottled and cork them (don't use canning jars, although commercial “screw cap” wine bottles are fine). Leave behind the eggs shells and sediment. If you taste the wine now, you'll notice that the flavor has already changed a little. It will continue to improve. Label each bottle with the date of bottling, type of wine, and winemaker.
Store in a dark, cool place. Don't bother to try the tomato or pea pod wines for at least a year – they are nasty until they've aged. Begin sampling the other wines after 2 months. Set a few of each type back and try them after 5 years, then after 10. Surprises are in store for you!
Recipes Can be doubled, tripled, or more.
Carrot Wine
(Sweet, potent, and a dark orange shade – like a sherry.)
1 gallon and 2 cups water
5-7 pounds fresh carrots cooked and mashed
4 pounds white sugar or 1 quart honey
2 whole sliced oranges
1 lemon rind, plus all the juice (leave out the white pith)
½ pound raisins, chopped
1 package yeast
Onion Wine
(Delightful, pale golden and intense – but no oniony taste.)
1 gallon water
½ pound peeled, sliced onions
1 potato, washed and sliced thinly
2 pounds sugar
1 pound raisins, chopped
1 package yeast
Pea Pod Wine
(Use the empty pods, after harvesting your peas. Makes a bright, white, earthy wine.)
1 gallon water
3 pounds of pea pods, boiled until soft in some of the water
3 pounds sugar or quart honey
1-1/2 cups lemon juice
1 package yeast
Tomato Wine
(Let the mashed tomatoes rest in the liquid during the entire period of fermentation, about 21 days. Stir every second day. Results in a blushing golden wine, with a complex, distinctive flavor – no hint of tomatoes.)
10 pounds of chopped, mashed tomatoes
1 gallon water, poured boiling over tomatoes
4 pounds of sugar
3 slices fresh ginger root or ¼ tsp powdered ginger
1 tablespoon salt
1 package yeast
Zucchini or other Squash Wine
(White, sweet, mild wine.)
3-4 pounds peeled/unpeeled, diced squash
1 gallon water, poured boiling over the squash
1 cup lemon juice
3 pounds sugar or 1 quart honey
Spices to taste: cinnamon sticks, ginger slices, a few whole cloves
Fruit Wine
(Any fruit or combinations, makes a sweet, fruity dessert type wine.)
1 gallon water
4 pounds crushed fruit, more or less
2 pounds sugar or 2 cups honey
spices to taste: ginger, stick cinnamon, lemon juice, raisins as desired
1 package yeast
MAKE AN HERBAL SALVE
These directions are specific for comfrey salve, but can be used with any skin-healing herbs or combinations. Typically, I'll add a teaspoon of menthol or camphor or even bergamot essential oils, to give a little extra oomph to the salve. This is made from oil so it will be greasy, and most herbs will discolor clothing and sometimes skin....which is normal.
Ingredients
3-4 fresh large comfrey leaves, or a fist-sized chunk of root
OR 1-1/2 cups dried leaf and root
2 cups virgin olive oil, or home-rendered lard, or beef suet (don't use store variety, unless free of preservatives)
1-2 ounces shredded or chopped bees wax
Directions
Place the oil in a pot, and bring to a gentle boil. Add the herb carefully to avoid splashing. Turn the heat down low, and let the mix simmer until the herb is blackened – perhaps 20 minutes or so. Let it cool so it is easy to handle but still warm. Strain the oil mix carefully through a cheesecloth in a sieve, saving the oil in a clean pot. Now, add the beeswax and mix thoroughly – if it doesn't melt readily, you can gently heat the oil until it does.
Once the beeswax has melted, you can add any essentials oils you plan to use. Now, test the texture of the mix by dipping a clean teaspoon in it, then letting the mix cool on the spoon. Feel the salve texture – it should be firm but not hard. If it's not firm enough, add a little more beeswax to the mix. If it's too hard, add a little oil/fat. Test again.
When the texture is right, poor the liquid oil into clean 4 oz canning jars or smaller containers. Cover and let cool with the lids off. When cool, put on lids, label with date and contents, and it's ready for use.
RESOURCES
Food and Supplies
Check local sources first. There are many, many internet sites; this is a sampling.
Amazon (Amazon.com): everything, books, food, DVDs, supplies
Baker Seeds (rareseeds.com): One of the best sources for non GMO open pollinated heirloom seeds. Their annual beautiful full color big catalog includes an outstanding section on growing plants and saving seeds, as well.
Emergency Essentials (beprepared.com): #10 cans of storage foods. Good quality, shipping has taken weeks to months if there is a “run” on.
Food Storage Planner (https://www.foodstorageplanner .com/five): useful software to keep record of home food storage. Online download or CD version.
LDS Self-Reliance (https://store.lds.org): Home -> Home and Family -> Self-Reliance -> Food Storage. Good quality, excellent prices, shipping in a few days. Box clearly marked storage food.
MREDepot (MREDepot.com): storage foods, good MREs, #10 and #2.5 cans, first aid kits, other goods. Prices are typical, ships next business day, plain brown box. Outstanding service.
Painted Mountain Corn Alpine Varietal (Rockymountaincorn.com). Outstanding hardy variety that can stand some cold and comes to harvest quickly. Non GMO, organic source.
Med-Vet Supply (shopmedvetsupply.com). Medical supplies, some pharmaceuticals (must have state license for prescription meds), equipment.
Southern Exposure Seed Exchange (Southernexposure.com) Source for Gourdseed corn which grows in humid hot environments.
Thrive Life (www.thrivelife.com): freeze dried foods, excellent quality, pull-top cans, organic and some GMO-free and gluten-free; can storage shelves of variable sizes. Online shopping list and delivery setup. Prices are a bit higher than average.
INFORMATION RESOURCES
Atomic Corn
The World’s Worst Corn Crop
http://calteches.library.caltech.edu/1235/1/Corn.pdf
Corn
Taking Genetic Stock
https://agresearchmag.ars.usda.gov/2000/jan/corn/
Castration
Very good info on 3 methods for sheep and goats, prepared for Third World use. Download this now for later reference. http://www.esgpip.org/PDF/Technical%20bulletin%20No.%2018.pdf
Cold Climate Greenhouse Resource: A Guidebook for Designing and Building a Cold Climate Greenhouse available at: http://www.extension.umn.edu/rsdp/community-and-local-food/production-resources/docs/cold-climate-greenhouse-resource.pdf
Night Fighting 101 – Matt Bracken
https://westernrifleshooters.wordpress.com/2012/08/19/bracken-night-fighting-101/
YouTube.com
Adapt 2030 – outstanding site with info on the coming solar minimum
Ice Age Farmer – innovative, low and high tech, low cost solutions, lots of useful hands-on material and links
Oppenheimer Ranch Project – wonderful resource with frequent updates
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Anita Bailey has a diverse and unique background – starting with arts and literature, then to alternative health care such as reflexology and herbal remedies, through commercial livestock raising sheep and goats, then organic hom
esteading, and now to a cow-calf operation. Along the way, her family lived without electricity for two years. She became a registered nurse, then a Master’s level nurse practitioner working in primary care and urgent care, and earned her Doctorate in the field. Between canning and preserving the various foods grown in a large garden and earning her SCUBA card, she trained and utilized dogs of different breeds for search and rescue operations, and completed a second Master’s degree in Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management. She’s the author of hundreds of articles on small farming, peer-reviewed scholarly works in Alzheimer’s and nursing research, and popular how-to books. She is married and living the dream in the rural Ozarks. This is her fourteenth book.