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On Zombies, camping and making things from scratch

Don't worry, I will tie these things together. I do like to read zombie books...I like to think of them as metaphors for any emergency situation. I've recently relistened to "World War Z" on my i-pod it is the first book I ever downloaded from the net. I am a bit slow to take on newer technologies. We bring our i-pods camping with us and have a solar charging system to keep them powered up for the duration...it sucks if it is cloudy. The survival situations you could face could be as bizarre as any zombie invasion...perhaps worse. At least you know how to take care of a mindless zombie...if you've read any of the books that is. Using the zombie metaphor is good practice for things that could happen, camping is good practice for the practical things you may have to do to survive and thrive. We're going camping on our favorite island in the middle of the Adirondacks late this coming June. We will be bringing some things to practice honing and developing new skills.

Our meals will be the ones we will publish as recipes for the bug-out bags mentioned in an earlier blog. I try to teach my kid, Lisa (13) a new fire starting technique on each of these trips...this time it will be true flint and steel fire making. We do so much for ourselves that it is easy to forget that others don't can, or make bread from scratch, or grow any of their own food, but even we feel ill-prepared to face an uncertain future. We wonder if we've got enough of the simple things down to face the problems that could arrive without a moment's notice. We'll keep searching out the 'leaks' in our boat and trying to plug them with new skills.

On disposing of human waste

We take the flush toilet as the norm in our society. I ask myself how we would dispose of our waste if the electrically pumped water supply was cut off. We have and are using composting toilets here at Woodhenge. Our home has flush toilets, the rest of the buildings here have toilets designed after the models presented in Joe Jenkins' "The Humanure Handbook". I actually had cocktails with Joe several years back on a temporary escape from a natural builder's colloquium (just so much herbal tea and tofu we could stand...don't get me wrong the food at this particular seminar was restaurant
quality+, but the drumming and other things made a small group of us need a few hour break- it was a week long meeting).

Joe would rather be known for his books and work on slate roofs, but his humanure book is fantastic. The basics involve building a composter specifically designed for human waste. There are several different techniques described in his book. We chose a modified version that used recycled truck tires with the sidewalls partially removed (to ease emptying). You stack 4 or 5 tires on top of each other and the top tire doesn't have it's upper sidewall removed. You place one of the cut out sidewall pieces from one of the other tires upside down on top of the top tire and cover the hole with a garbage pail lid with a rock or concrete block on top to hold it in place.

Inside the home or outhouse you have a throne made as fancy as you'd like, but using a 5-gallon plastic pail to catch your 'business'. Start with a layer of organic material in the bottom- we use about 2" of peat moss, but have used saw dust, wood ashes, and other easily available absorbent materials. After making your deposit you cover it, paper and all, with another layer of material.
When the bucket is 3/4 full you swap it for a clean bucket and dump the full bucket into the composter. I tend to rotate the buckets; leaving the just emptied bucket outside next to the composter to air out, or wash out with rain water naturally...keeping 2 or three buckets in rotation will eliminate any odor that the polyethylene takes on from the urine.

If you have a higher female population in your home you might have to empty the bucket more often due to the build up of liquids in the bucket. Urea converts to ammonia and begins to stink after a couple of days. Gentlemen it is recommended to just use the nearest tree and this will reduce the amount of liquid going into the bucket.

I do a lecture about sustainability that describes the system...there is always a person in the crowd that gets the 'ugly' face on when I mention this topic. I ask them where their 'stuff' goes.
Most of the time the answer is "away" and they have no clue where. I then describe both the septic tan/leach field/drilled or dug well cycle and the municipal waste water treatment plant and water supply system and explain how fecal bacteria get into the drinking water supply and how they are toxically treated with chemicals and sometimes there is a glimmer of understanding.

What really clinches the usability of this system is in weather over 55*F the last added contents to one set of composter tires is reduced to soil and earth worms in about 10 days. We recommend 4 sets of composters be built for a small family. The resultant compost is odorless, or as odorless as any other well digested compost. It can be used anywhere...we're reluctant to use it directly on root vegetables and other things growing close to the ground, but don't hesitate to use it around fruit and nut trees and berry bushes.

Compared to whatever direct dumping I suspect will take place in urban and suburban localities this is an easy, safe and good use of a 'dangerous' material. I can't imagine the stench of a city that doesn't have a system like this in place prior to a water crisis.

e-mail me for more details at: jsjuczak@gisco.net

Help Wanted

I have several upcoming projects that are rather big. If anyone is interested in getting experience in installing photovoltaic panel sets, ETC's Evacuated Tube Collectors (for hot water) or a Listeroid
diesel generator set-up then please contact me at jsjuczak@gisco.net. We'll also be installing dense packed insulation, reroofing a building, installing a water tower and gardening/farming with a vengence! None of these are paid positions, but a stipend to cover travel costs and meals will be covered.

Bug Out Bag Seminar

Last Saturday (04/02/2010) We held a seminar here at Woodhenge on the things that should go into a personal bug-out bag. I have included the handout I gave to each of the 4 students that attended. It wasn't intended to give the participants an exact list of what they should pack, but a start on customizing a bag to their own particular situation. There were some 'door prizes' awarded to every participant: all got a chemical light stick, a cerium fire starting rod, an MRE style entree of their choice, a Swedish military alcohol stove and an East German mess kit. Most of these items were under $2 each and bought through a variety of surplus dealers (see the list in the handout) and I just happened to have 4 extra of everything. We're building 6 bug out bags; three are customized to fit the three members of our family and the other three are more generic in nature for tossing to a friend or relative caught unprepared and in need.

The participants were wonderful. They all contributed to the quality of the 2-hour course- with diversified backgrounds they were all able to add to the list of potential disaster scenarios as well as what they thought was important to have ready to go at an instant's notice. We finished up with trying an old favorite of mine for quick and easy backpacking (or emergency) meals; Dave McLean Stew. This is a dish that makes my wife retch, but is filling and quick for me and others that have tried it. One cup of Minute rice, two packages of Lipton Cream of Chicken Cup of Soup mix and a small (4 to 5 oz.) can of boned chicken. You boil one cup of water and add the ingredients all at once continue to simmer for around 2 minutes and then let it sit for a few minutes. An almost instant meal that will fill you up and not waste a lot of fuel in preparation. Please feel free to send me your ideas for a fast, tasty & somewhat nutritious meal that can be vacuum bagged and tossed into a bug out bag. My wife is already experimenting with things like cous cous, instant refried beans and stuff like that for her own bug out pack.

The handout:

There are certain images that stick in my mind. One of them is of a short section of the television evening news. It showed a short clip of a family that lived somewhere in California being hustled out of their home in the middle of the night in nothing but their pajamas. They were placed into a vehicle and rushed away from the wildfire that soon engulfed their home. There were a husband wife and a few kids who literally had nothing but the clothes on their backs. I looked at them and imagined myself in the same situation…I couldn’t. I can not imagine my family being so oblivious to a local danger that we would have to be awakened and told to leave, take nothing, just get out of your home.

Whether it was a wild fire, flood from levees breaking, hurricane, storm surge, tsunami, nuclear power plant leak or whatever I’d like to think that we’d have some warning and preparation time. When I brought up the idea of being able to leave our home for several days at a moment’s notice to my wife she was surprisingly agreeable to help with the preparations. In fact, quite a few people that I know and asked the question: What would you bring? had great insight..

And so we started the bug-out packing list. I wanted to do this project without seriously impacting our budget. The goal was a pack that weighed less than 45 pounds that came equipped with enough stuff to live relatively comfortably for up to four days. The kit should contain pretty much everything that a person would need to live on a friend’s living room floor or set up a temporary campsite on the side of the road. Three of the backpacks would be customized to the members of my immediate family the other three would be a sort of generic, one-size-fits-all collection.

What did we need? First a pack to hold things- I found, in one of my military surplus catalogs, former Swedish military framed back packs for $8 each. Then the listing started:

*A Swiss military poncho for each pack

*Two one liter canteens (former East German Army)

*A 10’ x 12’ poly tarp

*A double layer sleeping bag

*A Knit wool crew hat

*A pair of wool socks

*A pair of wool blend gloves

*A combination compass & thermometer on a keychain

*Small hunting knife

*Fire starting materials (water-proofed strike anywhere matches, a butane lighter and a magnesium fire starter.

*An LED flashlight (actually two…one is a small keychain sized unit and the other is slightly bigger)

*A small candle lantern

*A couple of chemical light sticks

*A first aid kit with band aids, burn ointment, insect repellant, antiseptic ointment, sun screen, first aid tape, pain medications, …

*A hygiene kit that included: Shampoo, body soap, nail trimmers, tweezers, small towel, comb, stainless steel mirror, q-tips, dental floss, tooth brush with cover and tooth paste…

*Chemical hand warmers

*200’ of parachute cord

*Water purification tablets

*A water filter

*1qt cook kit with an alcohol burner and a pint of fuel

*Combination knife fork and spoon

*Rescue whistle

*Local map

*A personal papers kit that included photocopies of all important family and individual documents and a stick drive with digital copies of the same thing

*$100 to $1000 in cash (and gold or silver coins?).

*A deck of cards

*A small fishing kit

*A pocket sized bible

*A pair of sun glasses

*A pair of cheap 2x reading glasses

*A Tin of hard candy

*Instant cocoa, tea bags and coffee with creamers and sugar

*A brightly colored bandana

*12 vacuum bagged meals (stuff you will eat!)

*Paper and pen/pencil

*A small radio/FRS two-way radio

*Plastic bags (an assortment of zip lock and garbage bag size)

*A sling shot and steel ball bearings

*A mylar emergency blanket

*A signal flare pen/gun

Personalized items in a separate pack able to be stuffed into the main pack:

*Prescription Medications

*OTC medications

*Hand Lotion

*Cell phone with solar charger

*Cigarettes (if you’re a smoker or want to have a great barter item)

We tried to imagine what could happen and envisioned everything from a home fire to an evacuation for god-knows-what. We also tried to imagine leaving ahead of the golden hoard and not being refugees. Refugees are directed by others- travelers direct themselves. You don’t want to be directed by others, unless you can’t help it. The bug out bag might be just the tool you need to make that distinction.

Sources of supplies:

*Sportsman’s Guide

www.SportsmansGuide.com

*Major Surplus

www.majorsurplus.com

*Coleman’s Surplus

www.colemans.com

*Sams’s Club (or any other big box store)

*Local Army/Navy Surplus stores

*Herb Phillipson’s (or any other store that sells camping supplies)

www.herbphillipsons.com

*US Knife Maker Supply -Knives, fire, making supplies, other misc. cheap!
507-947-3760

www.usakms.com

*Aim Surplus -Guns, flare guns and related supplies

www.aimsurplus.com

*Keep Shooting -guns, flare guns and related supplies

www.keepshooting.com

Books and websites

www.SurvivalBlog.com (a daily updated site on survival after “TEOTWAWKI” (the end of the world as we know it)

www.frugalsquirrels.com books and forums on various survival topics

*Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse by James Wesley, Rawles

*How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It: Tactics, Techniques, and Technologies for Uncertain Times by James Wesley Rawles

*The Complete Walker (any version) by Colin Fletcher

*Survival With Style by Bradford Angier (or any other book by him)

*Survival, Evasion and Escape US Department of the Army Field Manual

*The Boy Scout Handbook by the US Boy Scouts