Of White Lead and Dragon's Blood

I have become increasingly convinced that decent books from the nineteenth century will be more useful PSHTF than many recent ones. For starters, OHS and Rampant Lawyers were not worried about, and self-sufficiency was appreciated, so you're more likely to find information you will need on some chemical processes, how-to lists for many things - when it was assumed that you'd have to DIY from basic ingredients, rather than just press a couple of buttons over the internet.

Not to say that there aren't problems... Chemistry wasn't quite as advanced as today. In with the useful, you will also find the incredibly toxic - avoid any recipe that calls for White Lead, for example. You will find different measuring systems (particularly when they mix weight and volume measurements). You will find arcane names for things - Dragon's Blood refers to the sap of the tree Dracaena cinnabari.

A lot of modern books aren't as useful, especially when they assume you have ready access to parts you couldn't make by yourself.

I won't claim that books are replacements for all other preps... But if the difference between death by starvation, death by poisoning, and having plenty to eat is a small handbook on wild plants - what would you do?

Another quick update

Life continues. Plants are planted, fertilised, watered, and harvested. The day-to-day humdrum of driving, working, driving, then coming home continues. The world shows moments of beauty, moments of ugliness.

On a plus note, one of my suppliers has indicated that clove trees will soon be available, although I still need to replace the white willows.

I'm waiting on carob trees, but they shouldn't be far off.

I need water tanks, bore water, many things... Too many things, too little money.

That's interesting...

Those are the words that are spoken, rather than "Eureka", when a discovery is made.

I think I've found a relatively easy way to produce Ether.

Easy as in: doesn't take rare materials, doesn't use up chemicals, doesn't take obscenely complex equipment. In short, could be do-able, with a little bit of work, PSHTF.

Ether, as in Diethyl Ether, as in one of the early general anaesthetics. As in - if you don't think that they're essential, I invite you to have an appendectomy, or any significant operation, without anything to dull the pain.

It still needs a solid catalyst, but that should be readily available in quantity at the moment. I have to look up a few details, but it's a promising process.

I've been wanting to find a way to do it and, lo-and-behold in my personal library, I had a textbook which covered exactly the reaction I wanted to know about, and gives a couple of options. The important thing is that the process uses a solid catalyst - something that doesn't get used up during the reaction, or get poisoned (and no longer able to be used), and is easily reused. One process I had seen depended on sulfuric acid - not something I would want to have to deal with PSHTF.

The question is - how easy is it to do? I rather think that if I can do it in any reasonable quantity - even if it's tiny amounts... Well, I know it would be more in need than any amount of gold.

Convenience

Part of me really wants to see the lights to go out - to have electricity to several cities out for several days, ideally a few weeks. I suspect that most people, if they did adjust, would do so poorly.

People would struggle when they find that they can't use a vacuum cleaner, or a dishwasher... or suddenly discover that to wash clothes, they have to do so manually - no more set and forget. Drying clothes becomes a matter of hoping for a warm enough day, or hoping that they'll dry in front of a fire place if you have one - and the wood.

The twentieth century was notable for the labour-saving devices that were introduced, and the social upheavals caused by such introductions.

What would happen if they were suddenly taken away? I don't deny that I use them, and haven't made any substitutes anywhere as much as I would like.... Zeer pots are on my list, amongst many other things...

Forget Peak Oil, Peak Fresh Water, Plagues, CMEs...

The other day, I learnt something that has unsettled me more than anything else...

60 years.

That's how much topsoil the world has left, at current usage. Not allowing for population growth, climate change, anything else.

Sixty years that we can keep our level of industrial agriculture, and still be able to feed people.

Never mind humans have wiped out 50% of vertebrate life in the past 40 years, that fisheries around the world are in crisis.

Topsoil is what gives us food. Yes, hydroponics and aquaponics have promise, but how quickly could we adjust? Could we go on?

It won't be a sudden stop, just we'll notice the decline more. We'll squabble, then fight, over the few bits of arable land left...

Then... what?

And yet, we still insist on building suburbs. We still think people are weird for growing food in their gardens, rather than lawn. We stop the rain from getting into the ground, we flush it out to sea via the drains.

We do everything we can to make ourselves extinct.

Full of words and music, and signifying nothing.

One aspect of all of this has me... concerned.

OpSec.

Operational Security. AKA not making yourself stand out as a target.

There are the police/government/military/etc. - those with legal authority behind them who, because they are suspicious of people doing anything other than pulling their weight as consumers, want to take you away and have you prove you aren't doing anything suspicious. Part of the problem is confirmation bias - they suspect you, therefore you're doing something suspicious, otherwise they wouldn't suspect you.

The other side of the coin is the would-be raider - get an idea of who has what, and how easily it would be to take it  - because getting ready to steal it from someone else is easier than getting yourself prepared.


On a lighter note, I learnt last night that a plant that I was given, and have in a pot, that I assumed was Just-Another Typical Garden Plant has several uses. The leaves of cordylines can be used in craft, and the species I think I have can be harvested for sugar... I have a feeling that the process for doing so is rather involved, but I've resolved to actually cultivate it now.

Blowing hot and cold...

The two big tasks we use energy for - heating and cooling...

I had heard about Zeer pots a while ago - I just hadn't quite realised how easy they were to make - a couple of terracotta pots, some sand, water, and a place out of the sun that has a bit of breeze. If you haven't heard of them, look them up - a very low tech way of keeping things cool by evaporative cooling. The idea has been around for ages, but they've been picking up in the last few years. Keeping food cool is a game-changer for places where you can't get electricity or fuel to run a generator... PSHTF, for example.

Alright, you ideally need low humidity and a good breeze, but...

I've also been looking at rocket stoves, and whether I buy one or try making one. The obvious solution is to buy one, so that at least I have one working one, then try making. The problem with making is that you need to get the tools, hardware, and components to make one - which is why civilisation really took off when we could afford to support people spending their time doing one particular job.

I still have to solve my water supply problems, though.

On the other hand, this season has seen several trees being planted, some in pots, most in ground. A few new trees acquired - ones with a high tolerance for hardship. I also found out about a native tree, very hardy, that is an indigo - and can be easily used to dye. Depending on the process, it does a yellow/light-brown, apparently can also produce a very rich blue and a red, again depending on the process used. I've found a nice, low shrub, which produces edible berries, and can be used for craft purposes.

And, a lot of other plants on the grow. I'm trying growing sorghum, apparently it is has lower water requirements than a lot of other grains...

Much to do. How much time to do it in... I don't know.

Grouping together

I've been watching a few things about what sort of people you would want to be a part of your group, PSHTF... And the common thread is - here are a list of skills you need to have someone able to do.

Yet...

...

A thought spring to mind....

It's not just the skills you need.

You really need certain types of person.


As much as certain skills are required, there is more needed.

- Are they the sort of person who likes to learn new things?

- Do they have psychological or physical additions? For example - a gambling addiction isn't obvious, but if someone could risk your safety, are they worth the risk?

- Do they have any hobbies or pastimes? Particularly ones that could be used or adapted PSHTF.

- Do they do any physical activities? In moderation - a weightlifter isn't as useful as someone into orienteering.

- Are they violent when drunk or angry?

- Who would they bring with them? Do they have troublemaking friends? What about husbands/wives/boyfriends/girlfriends? Do they have children?

- Are they reasonably healthy? What about their mental health? Can you look after them when they have bouts of bad health?

- How do they handle hardships, crises, set-backs?

- Do they indulge in healthy or unhealthy escapism?

- Do they lead or follow? If they lead, are they going to make things more difficult? If they follow, do they follow good ideas, or just the herd?

- Will they fit in? Are they trouble makers, or does trouble "find" them?

- Are they there already? What would happen if you kicked them out?

Need to reset

I woke this morning jaded with the world; on my drive to work, I remembered that I wanted to discuss why some people want an apocalypse.

We think only of the short-term. We are happy to pollute, particularly if we don't see what we've dumped. We poison our land, water, and air. We refuse to see ourselves as part of the environment; some of us even refuse to see ourselves as part of a community. We entertain ourselves with movies that centre around torture, and don't see what's wrong with that.

And then, a bus passed in front of me with an advertisement for "Medical Aesthetics Education", which after a bit of searching turns out to mean "You're not pretty enough/You've gotten old and aren't as pretty as you were - let us tell you all the ways you are ugly, and how we can fix it."

I don't know which offended me more, the three words used or the sentiment...

All I do know that there is something quite wrong with our attitudes.

We poison the air,
we poison the water,
we poison the soil.

We claim to master the world,
we forget we are part of it.

We serve money,
we serve avarice,
we fill our souls with emptiness.

We see nature to be conquered,
we forget it gives us life.

Setting up for the long term

I have finally found somewhere that sells hand-cranked cotton gins, I'm now waiting for a price. There is a choice of two manual ones, small and large, not one in between. Obviously, I'm wanting to avoid any that need a power supply, engine, etc., even though manual is much more work.

It's another one of those examples where you get efficiencies of scale - when you might do a certain amount of work for a certain amount of product, but with only a little more work, you can do a lot more. In this case, the difference in 14 pounds weight in postage, whatever cost for the item itself, to be able to remove the seeds from three or four times the amount of picked cotton.

I'm in a climate that means that I can successfully grow cotton, five bushes are a couple of years old now, two more that I planted last season that have started to produce , and I'm learning a few things about growing them. Cotton isn't without its problems, though. You require about 35 square feet to produce a shirt worth each year. Not that I couldn't plant more and, let's face it, it's currently receiving the processed water out of my home sewage treatment plant.

So, the choice is also one of - will I plant and harvest more? Will I need the extra capability? What cost for the extra size and weight?

If and when SHTF, fabrics will still be available for quite a while - still on bolts, as scraps, as scavenged and repaired clothing. So short to medium term, not as useful as other crops. Why waste space on such if you can't eat it, and you are going to be able to scavenge it for a while? But, as I mentioned, it is receiving the outflow of treated sewage, so the ground that that is going shouldn't be used for food crops anyway, hence my using it for cotton, also some dye plants.

Again, dyes are going to be available if things don't go on too long... but it's nice to grow them anyway.

I think that ginning cotton may have the advantage of being a task that can be done to relax, much like some people sew or knit. Then, I guess, it's a matter of learning how to spin it... And looming...

Finding alternatives

I had a dream last night that the price petrol (gasoline/etc) doubled to about $15/gallon. In the dream, I was going to refill a 50cc scooter, doing small jobs around my relatively local urban area - which in real-life is about 15 miles from me - and realising that, unlike many others, I was in not as bad a position. In real life, my car does about 50 miles/gallon - I need efficiency and reliability, rather than horsepower; such a sizable rise would see me (under current travelling) put a large amount of my weekly pay packet into my fuel tank.

Of course, those whose fuel consumption isn't as efficient, or who travel further would be much harder hit. I doubt that wages would rise the same amount, let alone rise proportionally to cover such an expense.

Yes, it would encourage people to either not drive as much, as far, or in as big vehicles - but what knock-on effects would that have? Long distance freight would obviously be impacted, although that might be buffered somewhat by efficiencies of scale - a very large vehicle may be able transport more for a given amount of fuel. Say goodbye to small transport, though. And, perhaps, say goodbye to Just-In-Time transport.

As a crisis develops, there are obvious ways to adjust, given enough warning and wisdom. More postal depots, fewer deliveries. Encourage mass-transport. Reduce the distances things are transported. Fewer large distribution hubs, more smaller ones. Less out-of-season produce, transported large distances, or a much higher premium on doing so.

Of course, this relies on societies moving away from current systems.

Governments often dislike investing in a high quality public transport system. We like cities divided into residential, commercial, and industrial. Cars are a hard habit to break - I will admit to this, although if I was living in the city, I would go back to riding a 50cc scooter most of the time.

There used to be rail near where I lived. There is, in fact, a rail line that still exists in parts, that ran a mile or so (directly) from me. The line hasn't been used in years, is missing large sections, and is in disrepair generally. Whether the local government has any interest in getting it back into condition is another question. Giving warning, they might - the old line went a few dozen miles further on, to a small town that supplies local beef - slaughterhouse and all - as well as some other produce. If road transport became increasingly costly, would they have the time, inclination and resources to find alternatives?

I guess that is what prepping is, really - finding alternatives.

The Inevitable Bugging-Out vs. Bugging-In Opinion

I'm still amazed by the number of people who think that bugging-out is the primary option when it comes to dealing with a collapse. Yes, I am a believer in bugging-in, and I will admit that I have somewhere that bugging-in is a good option... I have some acreage, food trees growing, a low population density, and some gardening skills. I have some bushcraft skills - but would I want to try to rely on them solely PSHTF?

The common cries on the pro side: "Away from urban areas!" "It's easy to hide in the wilderness!" "Simple to pack up and leave" "Can live off the wilderness!"

Yes... you are away from urban areas. You're also going to be away from equipment, large stores of food (presuming you have more than a few days worth).

"It's easy to hide in the wilderness!" Well, yes, in some respects - the number of dead hikers who are found each year because they were taken there, or got lost, would attest to that. But it's not that easy if you want food, or if other people have the same idea.

"Simple to pack up and leave!" If you are reliant on a car, and it breaks down, not so much. If you're walking out - don't plan on carrying much with you.

"Can live off the wilderness!" This one bugs me the most - the people who often say that generally haven't tried to. Or people do try it on someone else's advice, and they have to be rescued - if they survive at all. Multiply those problems by the amount of people bugging-out. Multiply that by the fact that a lot of people are going to have the same ideas about where to go - it's not like everyone is going to disperse in an orderly manner, one person to five acres. Multiply that by the fact that most foods tend to be seasonal - if you're bugging out, and expecting to survive off the land, when there's nothing to be hunted or gathered, don't come and annoy me.

I dare say that the people who right such drivel haven't spent much time actually practising the skills needed for when their food runs out... They spend their time in their 4WD, or staying at campsites with toilets, showers, and clean running water. They haven't had to be evacuated by helicopter because someone has twisted their ankle.

Yes, I'm a big fan of bugging-in, especially when you are spending the time learning skills, gardening (food and other useful plants)... and living life... If you are going to bug-out, only bug-out to somewhere you have already readied for bug-in.

Prep to live, not live to prep...

Staff

I really need... call them retinue, call them staff... call them a couple of people helping me getting things done around the place, contributing...

Well, a few pressing matters have now passed - in a good way, but not anything directly tied with prepping. It means that I have a little more time free to paying better attention to my slowly growing orchard. I have more trees in pots than I have space to put them, but the problem is that they're not the ones I have specific spaces set aside for.

I have space for Melaleuca alternifolia - invaluable post-collapse for its anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties. I have space almost ready for a carob in between four Moringa saplings. I have two date palms to be planted near two already planted... And a lot of fruit trees that I'm not quite sure where to put - especially as I've germinated some coffee seedlings...

My thoughts are directed toward having three medium-term pshtf trading crops: coffee, carob, and melaleuca oil. All three need preparation before they are ready for use. Trade is much easier when you can control a supply of a product. All three need some sort of preparation before use...

Admittedly, those three rely on major supply chains breaking down. I have a few, longer term thoughts - cotton, various dye plants - but they would be needed only in the much longer term.

Logistics...

I cannot remember if I've mentioned it before, but I will (again if that is the case)... Logistics, logistics, logistics.

I've glanced through a few post-apocalypse films recently, whilst looking for something to amuse. I have been struck by the number of times a film production has sloppily used props or vehicles that seem to be straight from the supplier. No wear, no tear - and definitely no sign that the characters don't have access to fresh supplies. Or, to put it another way, post-collapse may provide quite a supply of gear for those willing to scavenge. This, however, assumes certain things, such as there being plenty of an item, having somewhere to keep that item unused - difficult to do, when you're a group of nomadic thugs looking for fuel/food/whatever.

Likewise, the prepper has to realise that once things have been used up - and they will - you have to make your own out of the available resources.

Forget lithium batteries. Lead-acid are slightly better. Nickel-Iron would be good - but getting them pre-collapse is an issue; post-collapse, you'd better have a chemist or engineer on hand who has researched them.

A nail, once they get in short supply, is going to be a luxury. If you can smelt, re-use old ones, good - but...

This is were doing your homework pre-collapse comes in very handy.

Japanese craftspeople have some incredible skills. Of particular note is their joinery, joining two pieces of wood, whether as a box or a building. Before the mid-19th Century, nails were not really used, as iron was rare and valuable enough that they had to come up with a better solution for their situation.

The world, currently, runs on an idea called Just-In-Time, which means that things are produced, or planned to be produced, just before they are needed. In principle, this is a good idea - you don't have stock sitting unused, you need less storage space. In practice, it has been adopted by so many, many companies that it is difficult to find anyone who doesn't. Post-collapse, it means trouble for anyone trying to get things restarted.

It's the old thought about survivalism/prepping - during a collapse, the food stores will empty very quickly. If the supply chain can't restock - people will get hungry. And very, very angry.

Back to the land.

I read someone else's thoughts about life post-collapse, and it had much less to agree with.

The writer's premise was that, PSHTF, we would have to not have pets (due to the amount of food required), and we would have to give up meat (due to feeding and transport energy requirements). Both thoughts seem to be wrong, primarily in that long-term hope would suggest that we turn to a more agricultural lifestyle - even if cities continue to have a large population. We would, by necessity, go back to many pre-industrial methods, assuming we can revive technologies and techniques long abandoned.

Cities may exist, but likely denser in the central areas, and with lower overall populations, quickly changing to agricultural rather than suburban.

A good couple of dogs will do more to protect and feed you than a limited supply of ammunition. Cats can and will hunt vermin - even small game... it's just getting them to bring it back to you. Horses, donkeys, goats, sheep, cows, chickens all are obviously good to have - while they're not pets, the writer of that particular piece seemed to regard any animal to not be worth the effort. I don't think that the writer has tried to plow a large area of ground without using a draught animal. Nor has considered that if things have to be transported distances, using a pack animal is better than not.

The author also did not consider that there are logistic reasons to having livestock. If you are living in the countryside, and producing food for a city, it's difficult to round up a couple of acres of soya beans and drive them into town.

Comments and opinions...

When choosing between learning new things, and just writing your current opinion - learn.

So, I've been learning, and reading. Learning new things, like basic veterinary medicine; reading things like other peoples' ideas regarding society collapse.

Of the first, about equines - horses and donkeys. I'm fortunate enough to live in an area with enough space that people do keep them. I, however, do not. Yet. Never hurts, though, to learn what you can, while you can. In fact, it makes more sense to learn it while you can, rather than when you need it.

I have always embraced the chance to learn new things, and I have finally understood something fundamental. Firstly, keeping up with learning gets you into good habits. Secondly, it gets to be second nature - read, observe, imitate, ask questions. Thirdly, you start to see a world more interconnected and colourful than you otherwise would.

Skills do need to be practised.

Turn off your television. Go dig in the garden.
Pick up a book, and learn to enjoy reading and learning. Encourage your children to do the same.
Stop watching football. Go out and play it.
Instead of fearing the end of civilisation, go out and learn - and practise - those skills you will need.
Create friendships with people who could make life, PSHTF, that bit less of a strain.

Case in point: I have at least one friend who is a decent archer, and who knows how to dress game - one less risk to long-term survival.
I have other friends who I can trust - I'd be handing one of them an axe, making sure that they have some idea about conservation and forestry, and then sending them out into the nearby forest. I would be getting the neighbours onside with that one, though - remember the question "What did the Easter Islanders say when they chopped down the last tree."

I had, long ago, started writing a book on long-term prepping. A few weeks ago, I found a very interesting book, Beyond Collapse, available for download. Some very interesting ideas, a few things I might quibble about, but much worth reading. One of my quibbles has to do with giving up coffee, post-apocalypse. No, no - no way. Not, at least, while I can grow my own.

Fruits of the earth, gone to waste...

Literally.

I was driving through some outer suburbs, doing by many houses on large blocks of land, noting that the owners must be quite wealthy, compared with the large blocks of land where I live.

The telling difference is that all those houses I saw today had large, well manicured lawns. No sheep (or goats, cows, horses), no hobby farming, nothing other than "I have enough wealth that I can keep this large amount of grass mowed to a neat height."

A sight slightly more obscene than MMBS (Masses and Masses of Bloody Suburbia), with large houses covering tiny quarter-acre blocks.

I was at a large shopping centre a couple of months ago, and noticed that the date palms were dropping fruit, wasted straight on to the bitumen. At yet another place, lilly-pillys were in full fruit, yet that fruit would fall off eventually, otherwise unnoticed.

More Chemistry

Speaking of catalysts - I've been trying to find a suitable one for conversion of Ethanol (grain alcohol) to Diethyl Ether (as in anaesthetic ether). If I'm going to endure a post-apocalyptic future, I'm not going to do it without access to anaesthetics.

Of course, there are better ones available on the shelf, if the shelf is in a well-supplied hospital; I'm looking for one that can be produced as required when you don't have worldwide trade routes. I know it can be done with sulfuric acid and careful temperature control, but what I want is something that can be done with a solid catalyst, being easier to handle and recover, and preferably without tight reaction temperature constraints. Ideally, the catalyst would be very easy to make from raw materials; failing that, something that is easy to get and reasonably ubiquitous - that is the more difficult part. Almost as difficult is the reaction conditions. It looks like Alumina (Aluminium Oxide) will do it - at 300C/570F. Ether is gaseous well below this temperature and is highly flammable, so getting it to not explode when you're DIYing... I have some reading to do.... Time to dust off my chemistry textbooks...

If you are a prepper or survivalist, and you do appreciate the value of different people being able to bring different skills to the table, you really should adopt someone with some chemistry knowledge... Or, at least, encourage and assist them in experimenting.

Advanced Chemistry

I have finally found a source of ZSM-5.... But it is $300 a kilogram. I'm trying to decide how much I want it.
It is a compound with a very interesting ability - it will turn methanol and/or ethanol to a mixture of heptane and octane. Basically, you make alcohol, cook it with this, and it becomes gasoline.

Of course, it does need to be cooked at about 250-300 degrees Celcius, and requires a reactor to do that little bit of magic in; it's not out-and-out magic, but it's close.

If you're a raider or a right-wing survivalist, a hippy or a would-be technocrat, this is why you need science and engineering people. Even if you create a monastery for them, you need to protect them. We can do some magical things.

A little bit of research goes a long way...

A friend pointed me toward the tree Moringa oleifera a few months ago. The more I learn, the more I like. It is very edible, prolific, will handle more arid conditions...

The seed oil is edible, can be used as a base for soaps, as a lubricant - and for biodiesel.

All this means is that I'm going to have to get several hand-cranked grinders... Although being able to convert a larger one to wind power would be useful - don't want to waste fuel making fuel. And I want to find a good, easy-to-make-under-bad-conditions catalyst for biodiesel - I'm sorry, but Sodium Methoxide isn't - I can find no evidence that it can be called a catalyst, rather than a reactant. One of the defining characteristics of a catalyst is that they don't get used up in the reaction.

If I can get some more growing from seeds, all good, but apparently, it will shoot easily from cuttings - which makes life so much easier. I did give myself a proverbial kick the other day, however. The obvious problem is fertisiling. Potassium and Sulfur may be a problem, although on decent soil, hopefully not too bad, but Nitrogen is a definite limiter. The obvious solution is to put a Nitrogen-fixing plant in there, and a perennial at that - but what? After not thinking about it for ages, I realised that a Carob tree (would be my third) would be the way to go... I would want to go the expensive route, and get one that could self pollinate, but that would be a nice solution.

It's just a pity, then, that my normal supplier is out of the the particular variety I want. I suppose I could wait a year (or whenever they are next available), or try to grow from seed if and when my two actually start to bear (could be a couple of years)...

Oh well, I will see if TEOTWAWKI or next planting season comes first, I suppose... *tongue firmly lodged in teeth*

Revisiting the ancients

The more I read, the more I appreciate that ancient technologies may lead the way to recovery PSHTF. Little or no international trade, even only limited trade longer than local, means that you have to make do with what little you have. For example, Japan showed major innovations, both technological and social, throughout its history, out of necessity, due to its insular culture.

PSHTF, you aren't going to have all the materials you would want - you will have to make do with what you have. And, yes, socially... It might take centuries for society to recover, if at all... Revisiting how ancient societies organised themselves may help smooth the way.

All this means that much work to not only find potential technologies, but refine them as much as possible, preserve, and spread them.

I have found out some interesting things about how some villages manage their water, and how they de-seeded cotton traditionally... it's... There's so much that could be adapted, and allow a PSHTF-society to survive and thrive...


This would be so much easier if I had some help.... I suppose I can hardly ask for a Great Architect to come down and oversee all these ideas... Truth be known, however, I would prefer a Great Engineer. After all, architects design things, but it's the engineers who take the plans and make them work.

There's always something...

I realised yesterday that I'd completely forgotten about something...

Pyrethrums...

I need to plant some pyrtherums.

I bought a small pot with a seedling in it from a hardware store last week, thinking "Oh yes, one of these would be good to get", while I was stocking up on native ginger, plus getting a few other plants. I had forgotten about the usefulness of pyrethrums.... And the fact that they're annual, so they are not a set-and-forget plant... You need to make sure you have heirloom seed, rather than hybrid - PSHTF, you aren't going to be able to wander done to the local hardware store to get new plants. Hybrid seed is alright if you're not worried about propagating but, for prepping, you should only really deal with heirloom seed - seed that is going to grow you something that will give you seed that will grow next year's crop.

If you can't plant next year's crop from this years harvest, you better hope you won't need to.

Really.... Prepping is about more than making sure you have a year's worth of food stored away.

Pyrtherums are the source of pyrethroids - a very nice insecticide. Very low toxicity to vertebrates, although I wouldn't drink it.


This is why community is important... A well balanced prepper community can have hippies and survivalists - if they can base themselves on the skills they bring, rather than the philosophies that drive them.

Trade and barter - addendum

I will also add that I'm trying to grow cinnamon, vanilla, pepper, ginger, and a few other herb/spice types.

Additionally - I live next to (well, very close to next to) a state forest... I don't have time to go out chopping wood - by default, I would be trading food (or anything else, really) for someone else to spend the day out chopping - especially if they had a modicum of understanding of land management, not chopping down every single tree, allowing regrowth, and making sure that others using the same resource understood that very important principle. We would not want to copy Easter Island, after all.

Let's face it - potash would be profitable for those who know how to extract and purify it, and what it's good for.

If and when the lights go out, such knowledge, when applied, can give you ideas of what you can trade.

Trade and barter

I've read and seen a few commentaries of survivalists/preppers/etc. turning their noses up at the idea of barter. There stance is that the only things that people have are the baubles of a consumer society that would be useless PSHTF. Their stated belief is that the only things that you (for example) will have to trade are things that would no longer be useful, or that everyone would have, and vice versa, and so there's no point trying.

A few will raise the problem of exchange rate; whilst Currency and Money are abstract ideas - they don't mean anything in and of themselves, they represent a common way to trade and exchange goods. One of the reasons that we are heading towards a major financial crisis is that Money has become a goal in and of itself, rather than remembering that simple point.

Well, there are many bartering schemes around (look up LETS) - a person (or group) would do themselves good to start looking into such schemes. Exchange rates, yes, can be difficult, but not impossible - humans made do for thousands of years without money, although money made transactions easier. Of course, you have to remember to work out how much effort and energy the items you trade are worth to you...

I have found a couple of trade goods worth considering...

A couple of years ago, I got myself a couple of coffee trees... Actually, until recently, it was two dwarf trees, two regular. Off one of the dwarf trees, I planted a bean, and found that it grew after several months. Early this season, I planted several of the beans from one of the regular trees... Well, it's taken several months, but I know have five seedlings on the go (plus one already given away), and possibly a few more to come up, although maybe not until next season.

Coffee has great potential as a trade good... A single tree will give a good crop - several trees will provide tradeable amounts, but it's not something you can easily scrump. The beans need processing before they can be used - and if your pre-trade processing includes roasting beans, someone can't use the beans to grow their own trees. What else... My Melaleuca are similar - except you extract the essential oil and sell that, so not even seeds get sold. Cotton has potential - but is a pain to harvest - once raw supplies, clothes, and rags are no longer available, although that might take a while. Dyes would be good... Pepper might be.

Basically - anything you can grow in suitable quantities, aren't readily usable if stolen.

As for what I'd want... Other foods are always good, furs, leather - anything I wouldn't have time to go and get by myself... But also books (non-fiction, primarily science, engineering), and if someone was offering a washing machine with a motor usable as a generator, I'd be jumping right on that.

I had this thought, too, that books with scripts for theatrical plays and the like might be worth effort, if a few people I know were to come up... Although that would depend on film and television not being readily available, which is a possibility.

One a plus note, a friend who is into archery has told me that, yes, he does know how to hunt, skin, and prepare game... He knows, if things go down the tubes, that he can come up here...

Thirst for the undrinkable...

Increasingly, it looks like the end is going to be caused ultimately by a fuel crisis. A fuel crisis, which triggers large scale war, economic destabilisation, and ultimately a return to pre-industrial life.

Meaning that a lot of people will die.

The green revolution has been a boon - and a curse. The massive growth in population has been supported by large scale farming, global transportation, fossil-fuel derived fertilisers. And once the wells stop producing, or it takes more than one barrel of oil to get a barrel's worth out of the ground, all bets are off.

Russia is pressuring Ukraine, China is pressuring its regional neighbours. East Timor has a big, largely untapped gas field - what happens when either Australia, Indonesia, or even China decide that those fields are strategically important? Australia has significant coal reserves, but would they be enough to keep things going?

Why do we not build the infrastructure to help lessen those shocks when they happen? Why don't we build so that we aren't reliant solely on one, finite resource?

The future will be owned by those preparing now for it.

The gift that keeps on giving

I'm sure I've expressed this sentiment before, but it's worth doing so again...

I've found that the most satisfying gift to give someone is a living plant - when you give someone a useful one. Likewise for receiving.

Getting some random plant that's not edible, or has no useful, exploitable properties leaves me numb. Getting me something that has some use is another matter entirely. A friend is visiting next weekend. No doubt, by the time she leaves, I will have given her lemon grass, a coffee tree seedling, catmint, perhaps some chocolate mint, cotton seeds... who knows what else.

I find that doing this has two effects. Firstly, there is the level of a personal gift - something you've taken care of.... And there's also the element of getting someone at least thinking about self-sufficiency.

Although I've been disliking the term "self-sufficiency" lately... I'm increasingly of the opinion that it can never be "self", but that you need a local community. Survival is not an individual option. It has to be done as part of a group. An accident or illness will kill a lone person (or small family group), where a member of a mid or larger group would survive. A lone person is vulnerable, a group has strength in the many.

The Cancer...

For several months while on the way to work, I have passed by scrub land that has been cleared, obviously for a new housing subdivision.

Soon to be populated by identical looking houses, desperately trying to keep what little lawn they will have green, with a few token decorative plants to show the home-owners' green thumbs...

They're like an insidious cancer.