Survivalist Anthologies Volume 1

by George Shepherd

  Watch your prices though and make sure you are getting the best deal on a given product. Quite often, the store brand or generic version of an item tastes just as good as the name brand counterpart, so opt for that if the price is cheaper - even with coupons and stacking.

  Coupon packets are put in most newspapers every week. You can also get coupons from friends, co-workers, and family. Ask around at local coffee shops, restaurants, and libraries to see if you can get coupons from them as well. You can also contact the manufacturers directly through their websites and they will often send you coupons when you tell them you like their products. They may send you free samples as well.

  A good friend of mine made an agreement with her local grocery store where they will save bruised and just out of date produce for her. She buys these items for literally pennies on the dollar and uses this produce to supplement her animal feed around her homestead. The fruits and veggies that are still good end up either in her soup pot or canned up for later.

  Learn canning and preserving. This is cheaper in the long run and much healthier than buying canned goods in the store. Plus, this allows you to buy in bulk and save the food for when it is needed down the road, rather than going to waste.

  Freecycle (http://www.freecycle.org/) is an excellent source for just about anything you can imagine and it is totally free. The gist of the program is people banding together to try and keep usable items out of landfills. The way it works is; you go to the main site and look for groups in your area and join their online mailing lists. You’ll receive posts via email that are sent out to the group as a whole. You can offer up items you no longer need, request items you are seeking, and respond to other people’s offers. Just lurk in the groups for a day or two and you’ll quickly understand the process. Be forewarned, some groups are much more strict than others in terms of how posts are to be written. Just follow the rules they have set up and you’ll do fine. I’ve seen everything from vehicles to clothing, working appliances to garden equipment being given away on my local groups.

  Craigslist is another online source for free or cheap “stuff” but it can be so rife with scams and whack jobs, I hesitate to recommend it. Be very, very careful regarding this source for saving money. Remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is and you should just walk away. With all that said, there are deals to be had on Craigslist if you’re paying attention. They have a section just for items people are giving away for free.

  Don’t turn your nose up at dumpster diving. If you see someone has put old windows, lumber, furniture, or anything else that seems usable at the end of their driveway on garbage day, ask if you can have it. Do not - I repeat - DO NOT trespass onto private property or rummage through a business’ dumpster without permission. This is illegal.

  Related to this is visiting construction sites and asking about castoffs, their cut off bin, and old windows or doors they are tossing out. Even if the old lumber can’t be used for building projects around your home, it can still serve as fuel for the wood stove or fireplace. Just remember; NEVER take anything without asking for permission to do so.

  Rummage sales and flea markets are great places to find bargains. But, do your homework first and be able to recognize a good deal when you see it. Also, be sure to inspect the item thoroughly before buying. That $5 camp stove isn’t such a great deal if it has a leak and turns into a propane bomb when you fire it up. Don’t be afraid to haggle on prices, but don’t insult the seller either. Be fair in all transactions.

  Thrift stores like Goodwill or the Salvation Army can save you money if you know what you’re looking for and have the time to sift through the racks and shelves. Pay close attention to the prices though. My local Goodwill, for example, is all over the map with their pricing. I’ve seen used items priced higher than what it would cost new.

  Library used book sales can save you a ton of money on books and movies. We usually come home with a few bags full of great stuff. While most library sales are events that only occur once or twice a year, some libraries have them going year round.

  If you need work done around the homestead and it is beyond your level of expertise, ask around and try to barter for what you need to have done. Could be your neighbor’s son is a whiz with engine repair and they’d be happy to receive some of your home-baked banana nut bread in exchange for his time. Or perhaps your welding skills can be traded for help with wiring up your new chicken coop. It never hurts to ask, right?

  Before you toss something away, think for a bit on how you might re-purpose it. For example, as any parent of a young child today knows, toy manufacturers appear to own stock in these little wire ties. It seems every toy sold today is packaged with roughly half a million ties securing said toy to the box. We save them and use them around the house anywhere you might use a nylon zip tie. While zip ties aren’t all that expensive, we already paid for these wire ties so why toss them out?

  Remember, while it can be great to save a couple hundred bucks on a car repair or remodeling project, the nickels and dimes you save elsewhere add up too. Every dollar you can save at the grocery or hardware store is a dollar you can reinvest into your homestead.

  Jim Cobb is a freelance writer, survivalist and licensed private investigator residing in the Upper Midwest. He is also the owner and content manager of SurvivalWeekly.com. Jim can be contacted via email at: Jim@SurvivalWeekly.com.

  Dairy Goats: The Sustainable Food Supply

  by Lisa Barthuly

  If you are looking to go beyond the average ‘food storage’ and move into the ‘sustainable food supply’ realm, Goats may be just what you’re looking for!

  When we started down this path, we were looking for milk for one of our children who is allergic to cow’s milk (Goat milk most closely mirrors human milk, and is often a blessing for those with allergies), looking to get the entire family away from the unhealthy ‘extras’ in store bought cow’s milk; but also looking for a way to produce some of our own food without relying on the food supply chain of the modern day grocery store. Goats have given us that, and much more!

  Depending on your area and needs, there are a variety of breeds available. We chose Nubians (with their signature long floppy ears) for their rich milk with high butterfat content (Nubians are also a good meat goat, but these days are mostly known for their rich milk). They are great milkers and their lactation tends to last, on average, 9 to 10 months. Saanens are generally a pure white or cream colored, wonderful dairy breed, known for their calm and friendly personalities; as well as their very curious nature. Alpines are an excellent dairy breed, known for their long lactation cycle. Boers tend to be best known as great meat goats. Nigerian Dwarfs, an African breed, are small with rich milk; easier to fence and feed than the larger breeds. There are many crossbreeds out there as well, look for the breed with the qualities you wish develop in your herd that will best benefit your family.

  Once you’ve decided to add Goats to your homestead you will want to prepare for them and do your research. Decide on the breed you want, research via the internet (www.fiascofarms.com is a wealth of information) or your local library; if you know someone who already has goats, talk to them! We try to keep our expenses at a minimum, while providing the best natural care we can. You will want to create at minimum, a 3 sided shelter and good, sturdy fencing is a must! A milking stand is fairly easy to build with scrap lumber and makes milking so much easier on the back than crouching over and trying to hold your goats while milking. You can find plans to build your own milking stand here: http://fiascofarm.com/files/Milk_Stand_Plans.pdf . You will also want to round up large, sturdy containers for watering & feeding. We purchased one big, heavy-duty plastic container that will hold 25 gallons of water, that we use only after kidding season is over, (generally in early spring and until the first freeze in fall), to avoid cracking, breaking or birthing accidents. Not to mention, it’s great to have all that extra fresh water out for them in the hot summer months!

  However,
we also went the frugal route and picked up food-grade bakery buckets at our local supermarket’s bakery & deli departments for free (ask at your local stores) that we use for hauling warm water and grains to them in the winter. Old (or new) clean galvanized trashcans are great for grain storage and an easy spot to mix your own grain blends. We also built our own hay feeder out of scrap lumber—just a simple square design to keep hay clean and in one spot. I would also recommend buying only seamless, stainless steel milking pails. Stainless steel lasts forever, and seamless containers make cleanliness (which is paramount in handling milk) simple. A couple of other tools of the trade are a disbudding iron (burns horn buds off of kids at 3-10 days old) so your goats stay horn free (unless you want your goats to have horns), and a pair of hoof trimmers.

  Once you find the Goats you want, go out to the farm they are on now. Are they living in clean conditions? Look for healthy coats, friendly dispositions and stay away from runny noses, and odd respiratory ‘sounds’. You do not want to start out with problems. Ask the seller how they care for them, what they are feeding them, when they were born, how many times they’ve kidded, if they had any kidding (birthing) problems, when were they last wormed, do they give shots, if so what kind? The more knowledge you have on them, the better.

  We care for our animals naturally and rather simply; clean water, alfalfa hay, grass and grain mixture when they are on the milking stand. You can buy grain (for now) or make up a mixture of your own (introduce new feeds slowly). I’d suggest learning how to make up your own mixture; learning how to grow the bulk of that mixture and stocking up on what you can’t grow. We’ve also always kept baking soda and minced garlic out for them. The Baking Soda they lick at when they need it and it keeps a good mineral balance going for them, the minced garlic keeps parasites at bay and they eat it as they need it as well. They’ll also happily clean up our fruit and some vegetable peelings for us too! We find Goats to be a very low maintenance animal that give enormous benefits in return!

  How many freshened (in milk) Does will you need to supply your family’s needs? Your average dairy breed is going to produce between a ½ and 1 gallon, per day. Some will produce more in full lactation, and I wouldn’t accept any less. Take some time to determine your needs and weigh out the possibilities and realities here. In a grid-up situation, these things are a lot more easily addressed. However, planning ahead for the grid-down scenario is only prudent.

  Will you drink your milk raw or choose to heat pasteurize it? We use our Goat milk raw. The health benefits of pure, clean, raw Goats milk are unbeatable! Heat pasteurizing not only depletes your heating/fuel/cooking resources (a lot of them!) when you are pasteurizing 2x a day, but it also removes some of the excellent health benefits you would otherwise reap by using it raw.

  How will you keep your milk? Will you clabber some? Do you have a natural water source, such as a creek where you can keep your fresh milk chilled? Will you plan to use what you get each day as it comes in? Keep in mind too, in a ‘grid-down’ or “SHTF” situation, fresh milk will be a real treat and possible barter item too!

  We attempt to keep one Doe in milk at all times, staggering their kidding/freshening. We drink it fresh, make cheeses, yogurt and (right now in a ‘grid up’ situation) ice cream! You can also use ‘clabbered milk’ for cream cheese making, baking and much more. When we have an overabundance that doesn’t get put up into one of these other forms, it can also be fed to other animals on our homestead such as our dogs and chickens. We also make hand-crafted goats milk soap for personal use and selling. This will also be a good barter item in the future as well.

  For the best milk, make sure your Does have plenty of fresh clean water and they stay away from strong weeds (if they forage/free range). Also, make sure you are using only clean containers (canning jars are seamless and work GREAT!) and if you keep a buck, keep him in his own separate area - especially during rut! All of these things can give your milk an “off” flavor or in the case of unclean equipment, even make you sick!

  Speaking of Bucks…in order to keep in milk, you need to keep freshening your Does. Most Does have a 9-10 month lactation cycle - some longer - and some I’ve read about can go on for years! However on average you can expect to want to breed your Does once or twice a year. Many folks choose to take their Does to others farms that keep a Buck for breeding, we didn’t want to deal with that and decided it was best for us to just keep a Buck on site. However, in a SHTF world, you will want your own buck at your homestead. Now, Bucks can be a bit more challenging, however over the years we’ve learned a few things from our experiences. We’ve had a few Bucks at our place and by far the worst situation was one we purchased as an adult…with horns. His aggressive and destructive behavior wielded via his horns was not going to work for us. Our best situation to date was with a de-horned Nubian, raised with us since a month old, who was friendly and wonderful! We will never have a Goat on our property with horns again, period.

  We recently purchased a new Buck for our herd-sire, ‘Scape’ is an Alpine-Saanen cross, de-horned, with a great temperament and perfect for our quest in looking to increase milk production and longer lactations. We went with Scape for a variety of reasons, one of which was he was only 3 weeks old when we got him, so he would be family friendly, too!

  When it does HTF, having a sustainable food source will be invaluable! Goats are an asset to anyone with the desire to be more self sufficient, and provide more of their own (very healthy) food; the perfect addition to any survival plan!

  Lisa Barthuly owns and operates www.HomesteadOriginals.com with her husband and children! Lisa lives in the mountains of the rural western U.S.—where she enjoys a simple, home-centered life, built on God’s foundations; studying scripture, scratch baking & cooking, canning, making soap, candles, gardening organically, raising dairy goats & chickens, she’s the family herbalist and loves a round of competitive target practice! Stop by and visit at http://www.homesteadoriginals.com/blog

  Making Your Water Safe to Drink

  by Ed Corcoran

  Whether you’re in an emergency survival situation in the wilderness, in an urban area after a disaster, or if you plan on setting up a homestead or retreat for long-term self-sufficiency, water is your most valuable resource. There are various methods for procuring water for drinking and/or irrigating your crops and livestock. Which method is best for you will largely depend on your individual situation, what region of the country you live in, climactic conditions, expenses involved and local and state regulations. But regardless of how you acquire your water, it will always have to be filtered and sanitized before it’s safe for consumption.

  First, I’d like to dispel a few common misconceptions when it comes to processing water for drinking, which are:

  “Filtering water sanitizes it.”

  This is a commonly held myth. Water filtration is only the first step in the process of making water potable. The main purpose of filtration is to remove turbidity (sediment and particulate matter suspended in the water) and chemical contaminants. The next step after that is to sanitize or disinfect the water. That is; to kill all the microorganisms (Cryptosporidium, Giardia, E coli, etc.) that can and will make you sick if you ingest them.

  While there are some excellent commercial filters on the market that are designed for the survivalist or prepper that can remove almost all pathogens, no filter can remove 100% of biological and chemical contaminants.

  In any self-reliance or survival situation, you should adopt a policy of zero tolerance and redundancy. When your health (and possibly your life) are at risk, expressions like “probably” and “most likely” should be removed from your vocabulary. Filtration alone will probably make the water safe to drink, but that just means it probably won’t. Unless your filtration system utilizes some form of anti-microbial measure (like a UV light, as is found with some water filters and systems) you’re still going to have to sanitize the water.

  “The nearby water source is crystal cle
ar, so I trust it’s safe.”

  While your lake/stream/river may look pristine and free of pollutants, it could still contain microscopic pathogens. Maybe there’s a rotting animal carcass upstream, or someone is using the water source as a toilet or dump. There are many conditions in nature that can promote the growth of pathogens in water. It’s what you can’t see that you need to be concerned about.

  Many experienced outdoors-men (myself included at one time) would dismiss this concern as overly cautious. I’ve seen old-timers drink brackish ditch water from a stagnant pool without suffering any consequences. And there have been many times during my travels in the back-country when I drank my fill, straight from a clear mountain stream or river without getting sick, but the truth is; I was lucky. It’s also possible to build up a tolerance to these organisms from many years of drinking untreated water, but for most of us, it’s best to play it safe.

  “If it’s good enough for the animals, it’s good enough for me.”

  I used to believe this one too and it can be a general rule of thumb for identifying unpolluted water, as animals generally won’t drink water that is fouled with chemicals or other pollutants, but you still have to be concerned about pathogens. Just because the woodland creatures can drink water straight from a natural source without getting sick doesn’t mean you don’t have to disinfect it. Their systems can tolerate the microorganisms, yours cannot. For example; your dog can happily drink water from the toilet, but if you try it, you’re in for a world of hurt!