Veg

A little bit of product from the Paranoid Disaster Garden Training Center. We're growing heirloom vegetables to gain experience, as neither one of us has much gardening experience. Generally, we've been getting good results given our low level of expertise. Can't remember the name of the corn at the moment, but it dates from the late 1800s, and this is the third year we've grown it, using seeds from the previous year.

White Mountaineer (all green) and Rattlesnake (purple/mottled coloration) beans we've just done this year. This climb, making them easier to harvest. We've canned over 12 pints, and will probably get another 24 before fall kills the plants (steamed within an hour of harvesting, the taste is incredible). We've enough seeds just from the beans we missed picking until they were dried to plant the whole back yard if we wished at this point.

Another new item are the Lemon Cucumbers. Usually round and yellowish, they grow fast and in large numbers. Taste is in line with other cucumbers, other than the fact that fresh from the garden, it is more intense. Cutting one of these in the kitchen, you can smell the delicious scent throughout the entire floor of the house.

The tomatoes, hybrids from the local greenhouse. But they taste fine, with several of them never making it back to the kitchen while we're picking.

Next year, we'll be attempting to get a little more volume on our output for canning.

"It's On You"

The post title is one of my current unit's cultural sayings. In context, it's generally used as a sham excuse by a select number of higher-ups who are sloughing tasks off to others below them. However, there are times and places where this literally becomes the truth, as much as people wish to believe otherwise.

Some quotes from news reports out of Japan:

"Millions of people spent a third night without water, food or heating in near-freezing temperatures along the devastated northeastern coast."

"People are surviving on little food and water. Things are simply not coming," said Hajime Sato, a government official in Iwate prefecture"

"We have repeatedly asked the government to help us, but the government is overwhelmed by the scale of damage and enormous demand for food and water"

"we simply don't have enough. We just did not expect such a thing to happen."

"I never imagined we would be in such a situation," Watanabe said. "I had a good life before. Now we have nothing"

All cringeworthy quotes. Which is why I have these personal rules:

1) Stockpile sealed food and water. Being foremost in the thoughts and prayers of other nations won't put food in your stomach for at least several days in the best of circumstances. Where I normally live, tsunamis aren't an issue, but flooding, tornadoes, and extreme winter conditions are. I will not survive the initial disaster only to starve in the aftermath. Furthermore, don't store it all in one place. Family, storage rental, or even a secret squirrel stash buried in the woods within a one day foot-travel distance can make the difference between between hoping someone feeds you before you starve versus being able to maintain your health and strength in an extreme situation. For these acute events, I'm a big fan of the lowly MRE, due to being able to consume it cold without added water if necessary (based on experience, hunger truly does make the best sauce). Having at least a week's worth of food and water for a household and extended local family is a must from my perspective.

"An emergency worker in white helmet came over and told him if the (gas) station opens at all, the gas may be allocated for emergency teams and essential government workers."

"large areas of the countryside remained surrounded by water and unreachable. Fuel stations were closed, though, at some, cars waited in lines hundreds of vehicles long"

2) I don't like to let my gas tanks fall below 50% full, and I keep enough fuel in my garage to top up that 50% if needed. Which is great, if you can actually leave the area to get to a relative's place that is agreed upon in advance. But otherwise, gasoline shouldn't be a priority. Why? Because if you run a generator in this situation, you're going to be a refugee and/or looter magnet. Which is why The Wife and I are focused on being able to live in an 1895 technology mode for an extended period of time. Modern fuels, such as Coleman fuel and propane, should absolutely be stocked for easier cooking and emergency short-term heating, because they are silent. But having plenty of aged wood on hand is good if things are going to be extended. Implied is having the means to use these fuels, and cookware (think iron) that is durable over open flame.

3) Even in advanced countries with benevolent governments, you can't count on them to get to you in a timely manner. Ever.

4) Japan is culturally homogeneous with a deep tradition of cooperation and group efforts. The US isn't. After an initial event, culturally diverse areas will experience what is essentially tribalism, with those outside of the local tribe being more at risk for violence of all types. Use resources discreetly, be helpful to your local area as much as safely possible, but be prepared physically (again, discretely, or depending on where you are, extremely discretely) and emotionally to use force in defense of your own and your local community's safety and resources.

5) The will to survive doesn't trump all, but it will take you further in an extreme situation than a passive mindset that waits for someone to take care of matters.

I strongly recommend checking out the Survival Blog website, especially his link "Getting Started" on the left side of the homepage.

Because in the end, we're responsible for ourselves.

Sounds About Right

"Never, under any circumstances, ever become a refuge... Die if you must, but die on your home turf with your face to the wind, not in some stinking hellhole 2,000 kilometers away, among people you neither know nor care about." - Ragnar Benson

Once your away from your family, home, and community, you're at best a statistic, if not someone else's prey.

Courtesy of SurvivalBlog.

Dystopia

While cruising my links, I ran across this gentleman's site. His post is terribly depressing, negative, and probably spot on. There are certain economic realities that no amount of political theory will defeat. The Left, especially the element supposedly administering policy in our polity, seems to absolutely refuse recognition of this.

The older I get, the more the general population seems focused on bread and circuses, assuming that all will be well, as those smarter than the rest of us have things well in hand. Anyone with some exposure to history know where this eventually leads, and it's not where the complacent think it will be.

I'm looking long and hard at buying land with a ruined farmhouse on it. Privacy, distance, and arable land are looking better all the time.

Wieners O' Death

So, the experiment was undertaken. Can a ten year old MRE be eaten without ill effects? Especially one known as the "Four Fingers of Death"?

Let's open things up and find out!

First, the beans in tomato sauce:

Looks awful. Just like it did when it was freshly packaged. No odd scents......scratch that, no unexpected scents.

But what about the wieners (is that a great name for a film or what)?

True, they do look somewhat aged, but still no smell of decay. At least not similar to a deer in the ditch on a hot summer day, which is my personal reference standard.

So, into the pot (No, I didn't use the MRE heater; I just wanted to see if I'd get botulism, not torture myself).

End result?

It looked like Van Camp's Pork and Beans with Little Smokies cut up in them. But really, really salty. And you wouldn't have wanted to sleep in the same room with me. Draw your own conclusions there. But no stomach cramps, vomiting, or death. Again, much like when the pack was brand-new. So rest assured, if you have a decade-old Beef Frankfurter MRE in your basement, you can eat with a reasonable expectation that you may not become poisoned.

As long as you're not in an enclosed space without circulation.

Curtains for Criminals

One of the interns at the hospital recently had an early-morning home invasion. 5 AM on Black Friday, and someone came in through the back door uninvited. As he and his wife happened to be up, getting ready for shopping, the intruder was noticed, and ran as soon as he realized he had someone running down the stairs at him. He got away, and we now have a group of very nervous doctor's wives.

These walk-in attempted burglaries have become rather frequent in my town lately. We also have a large number of unemployed urban youth imported here from Illinois in the last year, which is a major change in our demographics. According to friends who circulate in law enforcement circles, a good number of them already have convictions and outstanding warrants, but Illinois won't spend the money to put them back in their system. Their our problem now. Just a coincidence, I'm sure.

So far, no one has been hurt; just missing cash, purses, and snatch-and-grab items. But what has been the response by the doc's wives to up security? New locks, and.....curtains. Apparently, if they can't see you, they won't bother you, is the current thinking. I'm thinking locks are good, as long as they don't want in very badly. It's a good start; but curtains? Curtains are good for making sure no one can see what's happening to you if something does happen, not for keeping burglars (or worse) away.

At least one of my docs has the right idea. A police-style shotgun is now on the shopping list, along with some buckshot practice to follow, which is more my idea of an appropriate dissuasion technique. At least there's one family around here that won't have to rely on wishful thinking for protection.

Canned

The canning experiment is completed. Among the things I learned:

Lay everything out before heating stuff up; having everything done and no lids sucks.

Canning uses a lot of water, and lots of water takes a long time to heat up.

Water heats up faster if you use a flat-bottomed pot on a glass-top stove instead of one designed for a gas stove.

Packing cucumbers into hot jars can be frustrating and uncomfortable.

The smell of pickling mix can flash one's memory back to Thanksgiving in your great-grandmother's dining room during the early '70s.

The random pings of canning lids sealing can make a pessimistic Wife all happy.

Getting Pickled

This year is the first time I've tried to grow anything other than various strains of refrigerator mold. One of the things that has gone well is the cucumbers; I have a 4x4 raised bed with a 6x6 mass of tangled vines growing in it (note to self, actually follow planting instructions next year). In the last four days I've probably taken out a dozen good-sized fruit, and there's a large number of smaller ones that should be ready to pick within the next week.

Given this, I'll be experimenting with canning tomorrow. Although I've purchased a pressure canner, I'll be starting the simpler water bath canner; less chance of making a explosive mistake my first time out. If it works, I'm probably going to have enough pickles to last me until next summer.......