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HomePosts Tagged "SHTF" (Page 13)

Just like responsibilities, laundry goes unattended to until absolutely necessary. Doing laundry comes from way back. We are not doing it just because the clothes are dirty and look bad, but also because we want to prevent infections from spreading around or other diseases.

In the 3rd world countries, because of the poor conditions of having proper hygiene, the people deal with ebola, cholera or some other viruses. Washing clothes is a sign of civilization.

There are many ways people can do laundry some of them are just below:

Powered Options

There are a number of options that use power, but use a little less or have a lower draw that most generators can provide (to include fuel-burning and mechanical like wind or hydro, or solar backup banks). There are also the small-space and high-capacity machines that have a pretty big draw, but they’ll use it efficiently. Those let us still do whole loads in 15-20 minutes or so, and walk away from loads that are washing ou clothes so we can go do something else.

Some of those options include:

  • Maytag Wringer Washers –  (the Amish favorite) and similar rebuilt antiques
  • Small RV, camper and tiny-living washers
  • Wonderwash – Non-electric Portable Compact Mini Washing Machine
  • Mini Mr. Heater RV-camper washer

Some of the electric options do require water hookups, or for you to be there to drain and refill when they’re ready. It’s something to be aware of while gathering information. Also, be aware of the power draw. As mentioned, some of the mini’s are only more efficient or smaller than standard washers and can have high power draws.

Some of the RV and camper or dormitory mini’s are all-in-one units that either convert to a dryer or have two chambers. You can also get separate low-power, highly efficient, or space-saving dryers like the EasyGo Wardrobe Dryer that works like an oversized dehydrator but for clothes (without the shrinkage) or dedicated spin dryers like the XtremepowerUS Stainless Steel Tumble Dryer.

Lehman’s Own hand

Lehman’s Own hand-washing and crank wringer laundry system

Commercial, non-powered laundry cleaning options

There are options for just picking up a hand-crank or foot-pedal washer as well, for those who aren’t DIYers. Most are going to be in the general build of a lettuce spinner or a tumbling “egg” washer. Some require hoses (or hassle) to drain, too. Some are a little easier on that aspect, but they all have to be rinsed somehow. Sometimes the little guys will wash the clothes, but then it’s up to us to better rinse the soap out and wring them dry.

Some of the commercially available hand-crank or manual-pump washers are:

  • Easy-Go Washing Machine  (and similar like the Eco-egg and many others)
  • Drumi – The Foot Powered Washing Machine
  • Scrubba laundry bag
  • Old-school, historic crank washers like those at Lehman’s and similar retailers

*Most of these are going to be pretty small and only do 1-2 pairs of jeans or a few shirts at a time.

DIY project to power a spinning-basket drum washer using a bike

DIY project to power a spinning-basket drum washer using a bike

Manual Clothes Washers

There are truly lots of options to go DIY or old-old school. You can buy some of the options for manual washing, but there are really easy DIYs for some of them that can save move or just keep you from spending it because by the time you need them, the power’s off and you can just salvage them.

Plunger + bucket = DIY Clothes Washer for your Laundry

Plunger + bucket = DIY Clothes Washer for your Laundry

Instead of buying the large head, consider just drilling some holes in a clean plunger so that it doesn’t stick to anything. You can use a 3-5 bucket system or a bathtub, storage tote, trough or small stock tank. No reason not to use an aquarium or planter or filing cabinet drawer if they’re available (for this one or any other).

Related – The vital self-sufficiency lessons our great grand-fathers left us

I like buckets and storage totes with lids I can drill a hole for the handle for because it’s less messy. Five or six waiting buckets makes the process fast for me. It only takes a couple of minutes per load. They go in the first with a few drops of dish detergent or a penny-sized pool of pine cleaner, get pumped 8-20 times, then they go in the first clean water bucket. It usually takes 3-4 buckets for me to be confident they’re well rinsed. Unless stuff is just black, I can use the soapy bucket 2-3 times without adding detergent. By then, the first rinse bucket or two is getting pretty soapy, I add a little more, and somebody takes the dirty wash bucket to dump. That bucket gets refilled and goes to the end of the line.

You can go even more advanced with it like these guys:

Simple DIY Washer

Mechanized bucket washer

*If you use Dawn or an eco-friendly detergent, that bucket can get dumped for well-established trees and shrubs, or into less-sensitive annuals beds. Dawn is still not great for compost, and it’ll shut down the microbe processing for red wiggler bins.

Washboards

You can spend money on a washboard. Or you can just plan to take the large A/C or heater intake vent cover off the wall and use that alone or along with the current bathtub brush(es). I don’t find any real difference in clothes results, but I’m not doing lacy finery or sweaters on them. You do need to pad the bottom edge with a dowel, bamboo, or section of hose before you stick it in your bathtub, though.

The nice thing about a board and a brush is that you can really work specific spot stains, and you can use bar soap and laundry powder as well as dish soap and liquid detergents like pine cleaner, which can be had in super condensed forms really inexpensively. I also don’t worry about soaps degrading my buckets or toilet plunger (or the $20 blue thing I bought before I knew better) or my potato/bathroom brush and grate. Some people are a little crazy sensitive about the types of soaps they’ll use on their “real” washboards.

Related – 4 Important Forgotten Skills used by our Ancestors that can help you in any crisis

The downside is that you’re going to be doing one piece of laundry at a time, two tops, and it takes me a lot longer than dunking a pair of jeans in the buckets and plunging, even if they’re oily and it takes me 2-3 sessions of 15 plunges to get them clean. It takes me way longer to do the weekly hand towels and wash cloths with a washboard.

Boiling your laundry

Finnish Immigrant Boiling Clothes for Wash, Near Bayou Cumbest, Mississippi. Around 1900

Finnish Immigrant Boiling Clothes for Wash, Near Bayou Cumbest, Mississippi. Around 1900

This method will lift some things, but anybody with two Xs and a learning curve for adulthood or wine on a shirt can attest that cold water is our friend when it comes to stains and appearance. Boiling clothing is really more about just killing germs. You can do as many clothes as you have a container to fit with room to stir them a bit – stock pot, maple syrup boiling cauldrons, big Dutch ovens. You want to boil in excess of 30 minutes and you want a hard, rolling boil. This is a good method if you’ve already got a fire going for something else and appearance doesn’t matter, but be aware that boiling alone will not kill all germs. Many bacteria will form resistant spores that “hatch” again as conditions return to tolerable. The addition of a soak in cool water and bleach for whites or pine cleaner for colors can help with both stains and germ reduction.

The nice thing about just boiling is that once it’s cool, the water can be dumped into any garden plot, creek, or pond without anything that wasn’t already in the dirt touching it.

Stones, brushes and boards at creeks

Stones, brushes and boards at creeks

*Please use Dawn detergent or a no-kill camping soap or detergent so we limit our impact on the microbes that are the base of the food systems in creeks and ponds.

This isn’t that different from a brush and washboard. It’s how I did a lot of laundry in my time as a through-packer and kayaker. You apply some sort of soap (or just water if you pre-boil clothes to kill germs) and then scrub with whatever’s handy – even if that’s just the friction of clothes against each other.

Mop wringers and presses

There are mechanical clothes wringers that can be purchased. Or you can pick up a mop wringer or press for a whole lot less most of the time. There’s also a crazy-expensive 5-gallon salad spinner on the market for restaurants that can replicate the washer’s spin cycle.

Quickfire considerations

Consider the expandable or rotary racks for indoor drying as well as lines inside and outside

  • Laundry matters for hygiene reasons, not just appearance.
  • Many of us are already going to be working pretty hard, so investing in a fast or low-labor option may appeal.
  • Small battery-powered fans and generator-run box fans can help drying immensely in campers, tents, and humidity or cold-rainy houses with limited airflow and high moisture (when dehydrating food, too).
  • Bleach is only a sanitizer in cool water. Boiling and hot-hot water break down that aspect and it becomes only a whitener.
  • With most hand-washing systems, bleach is going to be best used out on a tarp in the yard or in a bathroom (and in grubby clothes or birthday suits).
  • Laundry is a high-water-use process a lot of the times, so a good catchment system or backup system is important. They sell some powders and gels for water-free shampoos, body wash, laundry, and pet shampoos, but they tend to be pricey.
  • Consider the expandable or rotary racks for indoor drying as well as lines inside and outside. Getting clothes dried especially on cool, damp days can be a trial and there’s only so much space near a stove.
  • Nobody ever said a now-defunct extension cord, cargo straps, or dog tie-out line can’t be used as a clothesline or that you can’t string your line between your shed and a vehicle. Don’t spend money you don’t have to until you’re totally set to take care of yourself for at least 6 or 12 months.
  • We can take cues from our ancestors (and parents) who had/have “school” clothes and “play” clothes and through-packers who change undies and base layers, let those air dry, and re-wear outerwear. Work clothes get re-worn multiple times. (Ask service members how often they washed BDUs/ACUs/Cammies/Diggies).
  • Wearing farm boots or gaiters can protect clothing from picking up debris and muck.
  • Use two sets of sheets and pillowcases on beds and inside bags. Sheets function as the base layers for packers. They’re thinner to wash and faster to dry than blankets and quilts.
  • If pets get on furniture or beds, consider throwing another set of sheets over the comforter or quilt so that can get washed instead of the thicker covers.
  • The more hankies, towels, and sheets we have available, the longer we can go without needing to wash them, which can become an issue if the whole household gets a stomach flu or head colds when it’s cool and wet outside. We’re not overly inclined to be doing laundry even now, and without the ability to just press buttons, it’s going to be even harder to keep up with sickness, wet animals, and poorly trained humans. A pass-through pine sol or bleach can absolve Salvation Army rejects of all previous germs, and freebie rejects can be a great way to increase our storage of those items without paying a dime.

Laundry

Laundry sometimes doesn’t get its due, even from people who’ve had the joy of showering in their clothes first or going weeks with just a couple of pairs of base layers and a set of outerwear. We can pre-plan a lot of ways to reduce the amount of laundry we have to do and take advantage of a number of DIY projects and household items to create low-cost alternatives to our stand washers. Super-condensed, powerful cleaners like commercial Pine Sol concentrate and liquid dish soap can be used just a few drops at a time and stored for upwards of 10 years without loss of potency, or we can research lye and germ-killing plant teas for our laundry purposes. For those who already have power systems in place, there are some low-power-draw options that can maintain some ease with the process.

For most of us, water is going to be a consideration – and it will be a consideration even before we run out of clothes in a lot of cases, unfortunately. Some methods are more and less water-friendly, and some of them allow more reuse of laundry water than others. That might influence us one way or another as we cruise through our options.

Here’s some other self-sufficiency and preparedness solutions recommended for you:

The Lost Ways (The vital self-sufficiency lessons our great grand-fathers left us)

Survival MD (Knowledge to survive any medical crisis situation)

Backyard Liberty (Liberal’s hidden agenda: more than just your guns…)

Alive After the Fall (Build yourself the only unlimited water source you’ll ever need)

The Lost ways II (4 Important Forgotten Skills used by our Ancestors that can help you in any crisis)

The Patriot Privacy Kit (Secure your privacy in just 10 simple steps)

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Some methods are more and less water friendly, and some of them allow more reuse of laundry water than others.

Why do people prep? No matter how you spin it, it’s probably going to boil down to taking care of themselves and those they love. Where the real variable comes into play is how people prep. Some stockpile and fortify, some may pack light and bug out, or others may have their own unique plans.

Ultimately there is no universal answer as to the “right way” to properly prepare for a massive disaster scenario due to the varying nature of personalities in individuals. There is, however, is a key aspect of how people prep that should be implemented to any prepper’s plan if they plan to survive: physical fitness.

Now before thinking this article is about having the best looking six-pack when things go south (trust me, it’s not), consider this question, “Am I in a condition where I feel confident to take care of loved ones and myself physically if disaster strikes?”. Apply this question to your scenario of choice, hell, apply it to your everyday life when things are going good. More than likely the answer to this question is “no”, and there is nothing wrong with that.

In all honesty, even if you are active, working out regularly, and eating healthy, there is room for improvement – it’s the nature of self-betterment and making your body best survival tool in a disaster.

How Prepper Fitness could help you in a Doomsday Scenario?

SHTF (who knows how). It’s code red and your rushing around too initiating your own variation on surviving this disaster. You’re sweating, adrenaline is pumping through you, and the only thing on your mind is getting to your checkpoint. As you’re running around, your blood pressure becomes dangerously high and you have a heart attack. Congrats, you just lost at doomsday.

Of course this scenario is a hypothetical and has no scientific analysis to back it up. But for a lot of people, a doomsday scenario could be as simple as the consequences of poor maintenance to their body in terms of diet and exercise. Physical fitness should be one of the essential building blocks of preparing, yet it seems that this foundation work on many prepper guides/plans is overlooked or simply glazed over.

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As you’re running around, your blood pressure becomes dangerously high and you have a heart attack. Congrats, you just lost at doomsday.

Prepper fitness doesn’t have to be something crazy like running a marathon through the desert without water or joining a gym. Fitness can be as simple as just getting out of your comfort zone for one hour of your day. Much like prepper plans, fitness plans can vary from person-to-person depending on goals, but ultimately doing fitness based activity that pushes the limits of your body consistently will make you a stronger and a physically more efficient survivalist.

So where should someone begin if they are not as fit as they would like to be? Much like learning a new skill or plan for prepping, go to the Internet for information and ideas. Honestly, you don’t even need a gym membership for a great cardio workout – or even weights to build muscle for that matter. Focusing on body weight exercises, light jogging/power walking, and functional lifts at first can make you healthier and stronger, but can also be fun to a degree.

A general introduction to Prepper Fitness

Depending on how serious you want to take this, I would suggest investing in a few things (although not necessary, can serve to be helpful): a heart monitor, pedometer, some of your prepping supplies, and a semi-truck/tractor tire.

Cardio – This does NOT mean running per se, cardio is simply training that gets your heart rate up. Ideally for fat loss/cardio training, you want your heart rate to be “in the zone” (Target Heart Rates by American Heart Association). Cardio training can be monitored with a heart rate monitor, which can also serve as a safety precaution while training, and can be accomplished in a number of ways such as: swimming, hiking, power walking, biking, jogging, or even HIIT workouts. The key to cardio training is consistency and always improving. It’s smart to keep a log of your workouts to monitor progress. Don’t get discouraged though, sometimes progress can come in the form of walking a mile faster than you ever have or sometimes progress can come in the form of showing up to exercise when your brain wants to make a million excuses not to.

push-ups-888024_640

Some of the best exercises you can do, can be done using only your body weight.

“Weight” Training – as mentioned earlier, you really don’t need iron based weights to lift. Some of the best exercises you can do, can be done using only your body weight. One preface that must be mentioned in this portion is always consider your form first whenever lifting something or exercising – improper form can lead to potential injury in the short and long-term. Here is a quick list of some great body weight exercises that can be easily added to your workout circuit:

  • Air Squats – excellent for your quads, glutes, and hamstrings
  • Lunges – builds stamina and quads as well as works the calves, glutes, and hamstrings
  • Pushups – works your chest as well as your shoulders and triceps with many variations available
  • Pullups – great for your lats, back, and biceps.
  • Side Leg Raises – works your hips/adductors
  • Dips – adaptable workout for your triceps that also works your chest and shoulders

 

 

Functional Training – of course we are preppers, so a lot of the training done should be survival themed right? Try adding these exercises to your workout that can easily add purpose to your workout:

  • Sledgehammer swings on a tire – think you might need to split a lot of wood?
  • Tire Flips – for anytime you think you might have to lift something heavy off the ground…
  • Bucket Carries – water is necessary, not light, and probably inconveniently located
  • Rope Climbs – wonder if you may need to get somewhere when you don’t have a ladder?
  • Log Carries – Get good at carrying awkward things… do you honestly think everything you need will fit conveniently in your rucksack?
  • Running – this may come in handy at some point in life!

WRAP-UP

Although this is not designed to be a complete guide to prepper fitness, it is meant to get preppers thinking and give basic considerations on where to begin their journey into becoming the best survival instrument in their tool box. The best advice one can take away from this is to try to make fitness a fun and enjoyable part of your day/life, it will not only help make it a consistent part of your routine, but you may even have fun doing something that is physically great for your body!

Two final notes: 1. Remember to stretch before and after exercising, there are too many benefits to stretching and flexibility to list here. 2. Material in this article is provided for educational purposes only, and is not to be used for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Not all exercises may be applicable to readers; always consult a physician before trying a new diet or exercise program. I am not responsible or liable for any injuries, damages, loss, or accidents.

On a different note, here’s some other self-sufficiency and preparedness solutions recommended for you:

The Lost Ways (The vital self-sufficiency lessons our great grand-fathers left us)
Survival MD (Knowledge to survive any medical crisis situation)
Backyard Liberty (Liberal’s hidden agenda: more than just your guns…)
Alive After the Fall (Build yourself the only unlimited water source you’ll ever need)
The Lost ways II (4 Important Forgotten Skills used by our Ancestors that can help you in any crisis)
The Patriot Privacy Kit (Secure your privacy in just 10 simple steps)

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Are you in a condition where you feel confident to take care of loved ones and yourself physically if disaster strikes?

Have you heard of the Grey Man concept?

The Grey Man concept simply means blending in and not sticking out. You want to dress, move and act in a way that is completely forgettable. This is done so that you do not draw unnecessary attention to yourself as you go about life and I think the initial focus was on people who were carrying concealed firearms. There are lots of examples of how this larger concept could work in your favor to keep you safe and many survival and prepper blogs bring this concept up as a way to live or a strategy for how to avoid becoming a target of people intend to do you harm.

I was thinking of this idea in a different context though as it related to life after a SHTF scenario. One of our readers contacted me with some questions after reading a post from Selco on the SHTF School blog. Selco is from the Balkans and lived through the Balkan war from 92 – 95. He has created an excellent online course titled “One Year in Hell” that offers training derived from his own experiences living surrounded in the real SHTF world of a war zone and without power for a year.

Did you ever hear of “survivor’s guilt”?

Feeling of being guilty because you survived but many others you know did not. There is something else that can “help” you to not feel that because it can kill you. It is what I call “survivalist hate” by people around you.

I often read how people want to help other folks when SHTF, and it is really good, but in reality, it works differently.

When SHTF, I mean real SHTF, most of the people will not like you because you are prepared, people will hate you, even if you help them. They will hate you because you are prepared and you have food, water, weapon, and shelter for you and your family, and they do not have anything like that.

I have seen how people robbed man, and his family, torching his house because he had lots of goods (he gave some of that stuff to some folks week before) and by that logic folks said that he knew that S. is going to hit the fan, and he was like guilty for them. People were angry that he prepared but did not tell them.

This is what you can call “survivalist hate”. Think about it, sentences like “he could have warned us” or “he must have stolen this from somewhere, otherwise he would have not that much”. Do not expect normal logical thinking. It does not happen much in normal times and is less in survival scenarios for most common folks.

It was these words that caused our reader to question how much they should volunteer to help their community in an emergency. Mark had been thinking about trying to organize resources in the community now, before any crisis, but reading Selco’s story above had him reconsidering going out on a limb, telegraphing he might have resources or skills and potentially becoming a victim like the man robbed for his supplies.

This is what led me to consider the Grey Man concept as it could be applied to your home and resources if the SHTF. It is one thing to control your appearance and actions in a crowd to avoid detection, but what about your supplies in your home?

Always invisible in plain sight

Depending on the crisis, I have to believe there is a timeline of phases that people go through. The crisis would dictate that timeline to a large degree in that an Earthquake, for example, would destroy everything relatively quickly and then you would be recovering for some time afterwards.

The initial violence would be upfront and then people would start dealing with problems after the shaking stopped. It would be similar to any other natural disasters I assume. Something like a regional war or an economic collapse or even pandemic would cause a different timeline. Regardless of how long it took people to start feeling the effects of any crisis eventually your neighbors could be dealing with illnesses or injury, disruptions in food, safety concerns from looters or approaching military forces.

Unless you were quarantined in your homes, invariably neighbors would be talking at some point, sharing information and learning how others were faring. It is at this time that the prepared individual could fall into that situation described above.

There are many aspects to this and realistically how you act toward your neighbors and the situations you could face after a crisis could be the subject of a dozen articles but I will focus on this one viewpoint in this post. There is something to be said for charity and something else for self-preservation. If we were faced with a situation like above, what could you do to keep your family safe and your supplies that you have been storing up in your hands and not the hands of an angry mob?

Never draws attention to himself

Two things come to mind when trying to think about the Grey Man concept and your home. The first is that before anything happens you want to be practicing OPSEC as much as feasible in your situation. The less people know about the supplies you have stored, what you may be preparing for, your political beliefs, etc. the less likely they are going to think of you if something happens.

  • I have said it before, but unless you live in an area where this is common (and there are lots of areas where it is) I wouldn’t be seen out at the Chili’s in your camouflage pants and army boots. Don’t get me wrong, I have these myself, but I save the camo for hunting season. Whenever I am hunting, there are thousands of other guys who look just like me and I blend in. Not necessarily at Chili’s but you get the point.
  • If you are getting supplies of food shipped in, make sure these are dealt with in a way that doesn’t draw attention. I wouldn’t stack boxes of MRE’s up in front of the shed while your neighbor is mowing their grass.
  • If you are loading guns into the car for a trip to the range, do this discretely. I normally do a quick visual check to make sure no one is outside first and back the car into the garage so I can get them loaded quickly.
  • Have a safe being delivered to the house? Try to do this during the day if most of your neighbors are at work.
  • Large purchases from Sams or Costco could be construed the same way. A bulk pack of toilet paper is one thing, but 5 – fifty-pound bags of rice or several 45 lbs. pails of freeze-dried food are another. Are you practicing open carry to make a statement?

The next part and probably the harder of the two to pull off would be after SHTF. How do you keep your supplies secret? How do you maintain OPSEC whenever everyone else is watching you simply because they have nothing else to do?

Grey man avoids confrontation

It would really depend on the scenario I think. For instance, if everyone was without power, I might not light my house up at night. Knowing that you have a power source, maybe solar panels could give it away that you have resources they don’t have. Of course, the situation will dictate how badly you are hated for having power if your neighbors don’t but I think eventually it could cause problems.

Let’s say there wasn’t an EMP but the grid was taken down by terrorists. Every appliance still works, but the power simply isn’t coming through the wires anymore. Your electricity could at a bare minimum provide conveniences like power for fans, ability to recharge batteries or enable entertainment devices. One of the prepper supplies I made sure I had was a giant roll of heavy black plastic. This has many uses, but one of them could be to blackout my windows. At night, I could run electric and not draw attention.

Food is another resource that will be tough to keep secret, especially if you are cooking outside. The smell of food to a hungry person is not something you can easily keep a lid on. You could heat water outside and use that for your freeze-dried foods as one way to keep the fact that your family is still eating somewhat under wraps. Eventually though people will notice that you aren’t getting slimmer.

What about weapons? This is one that I have considered because I have made preparations that would allow me certain tactical advantages over my unprepped neighbors. What if there was the threat of violence from people walking through and looting? Would I go walking down the street in my tactical holster, bulletproof vest and battle rifle on day one? Probably not, but eventually if things got bad enough that might be my daily outfit. I think if that were the case, my neighbors and I would have other things to worry about than what I had in my house. My hope is that if things ever get that bad, I will be able to help my neighbors and my contributions on that front will give me grace. Maybe that is foolish.

Even if you are completely secretive about your supplies or your neighbors are completely self-sufficient themselves you could face a time when someone is banging on your door demanding you to share what you have. Have you thought about what you would do if that happened?

Like I said, there are many aspects to this concept and the final, possible confrontation is for another post. Practicing the Grey Man concept for your home in a SHTF scenario might put that off for a little while longer though or prevent it entirely and I think that is the whole point.

On a different note, here’s some other self-sufficiency and preparedness solutions recommended for you:

The Lost Ways (The vital self-sufficiency lessons our great grand-fathers left us)
Survival MD (Knowledge to survive any medical crisis situation)
Backyard Liberty (Liberal’s hidden agenda: more than just your guns…)
Alive After the Fall (Build yourself the only unlimited water source you’ll ever need)
The Lost ways II (4 Important Forgotten Skills used by our Ancestors that can help you in any crisis)
The Patriot Privacy Kit (Secure your privacy in just 10 simple steps)

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Have you heard of the Grey Man concept? The Grey Man concept simply means blending in and not sticking out. You want to dress, move and act in a way that

Being the not-so-proud resident of a city that has more issues than a high-school teenager, electrical the most part, I was kinda forced to go full MacGyver on a lot of stuff. Sure, I don’t mind opening the tap only to see muddy water or realizing that I can’t take a shower before going to work because some neighhbor shut off the main line to install a new sink, but I really go berserk each time the power goes out. Never mind the fact that I can’t use my PC, but, apparently, I’m the only around here who has to remind the others about keeping their damned smartphones charged at all time. Anyway, seeing that the authorities aren’t lifting a finger to find a more permanent solution to these blackouts, I began searching for ways to power up and\or charge my electronics.

Of course, one doesn’t need a degree in physics to figure out that most of the tips you find online are not only BS, but dangerous as well. So, after snooping around for a bit, I came across this pretty ingenious and simple way of charging any kind of phone battery using stuff lying around the house. Tried on a couple of my electronics, and guess what – it worked like a charm. Sure, it’s not as efficient as the outlet charging method, but hey. , it works. We do live in troubling times – today, it’s a power outage (if that seems like a trifle, go and check out what happened in Venezuela at the beginning of the month). Tomorrow, it can be an EMP attack. So, having said that, here’s my caveman-style trick of charging any electronic gadget when the power goes out the window.

You will need:

  • One 9V Alkaline battery (go for Varta or Duracell if you want extra juice).
  • One spring (you can salvage one from an old ballpoint pen).
  • A car charger (make sure the car charger has a USB port).
  • Your phone’s power cable minus the dongle.
  • Tape.

To try this charging method, I’ve used my daughter’s Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016), which has a 3600 mAh battery. Already got the stuff? Good! Here’s what you’ll need to do next.

Assembling the charger

Step 1. Take apart the ballpoint and salvage the string. Don’t straighten it or anything. You’ll need it intact. Step 2.  Insert one end of the spring in the battery’s negative pole. FYI, it’s the big one. It’s always the big one. Step 3. While holding the spring end inserted into the battery’s negative terminal, connect the other end to car charger’s positive terminal – it’s the little metallic bar on the side. Step 4. Once the two terminals are connected, use plenty of tape to secure the battery to the charger. Step 5. Connect the charger’s metallic nub to the battery’s positive terminal. Again, tape the shit out of them to prevent them from falling apart. Step 6. Wrap some more tape around the thingamajig. Step 7. Connect your phone’s power cable to the car charger’s USB slot. Step 8. Plug in the phone. Step 9. Charge your phone like a boss!

More on makeshifts phone-charging methods

You know the saying: if it looks stupid, but it works, then it’s not stupid (just ugly).  One thing you need to understand is that you won’t get a full charge out of a single 9V battery. The Varta cell I’ve used put out 550 mAh. And considering that the phone has a 3,600 mAh battery, it means that you need around six or 7 batteries for a full charge. Wouldn’t recommend relying solely on bats to get a full charge because you will have to redo the entire process. This method’s great if you need just enough juice to power up your phone to call a family member or 9-1-1 in case of an emergency.

Still, you need to consider that there are different types of phone batteries out there on the market. For instance, my wife has an Apple iPhone 8, which has a 1,821 mAh battery. Obviously, it takes fewer 9Vs to juice up her phone compared to that of my daughter. Careful about these newer models, as some of them might not draw electricity from below-nominal sources. Another charging method which I’ve been trying to try out for months (I think I will use a tablet this time), involves D batteries, paperclips, and, of course, some tape.

Takes a little bit of tinkering though – compared to the method I just showed you, this one is a bit trickier because you will need to arrange the batts in a certain fashion.

To pull this off, you’ll need eight D batteries, paperclips (those without plastic covers), tape, your phone’s cable, and a car charger. Basically, you must arrange the batteries in such a fashion that the negative terminal from the one on top can be bridged with the positive terminal on the bottom battery with a paperclip. Do this on both sides and then use two paperclips and tape to secure the car charger’s positive and negative terminal. Don’t know for sure how efficient this method is, but considering that one D battery has an output of 1.5V, I don’t think it’s really that efficient.

It’s still worth a shot if you have a lot of Ds lying around and no other way to charge your phone. Anyway, I hope you’ve enjoyed my take on going full MacGyver on dying phones. Word of caution though: I wouldn’t try this method to power up a laptop or any device bigger than a small phone or tablet. You can end up damaging the power supply and losing everything inside if you tinker with supplies other than those specified in the manual.

You should also keep an eye out on the device while it’s charging. If you hear a strange, buzz-like sound, disconnect the device immediately. Let me know in the comment section how the method worked out for you.

Other Self-sufficiency and Preparedness solutions recommended for you:

The Lost Ways (The vital self-sufficiency lessons our great grand-fathers left us)
Survival MD (Knowledge to survive any medical crisis situation)
Backyard Liberty (Liberal’s hidden agenda: more than just your guns…)
Alive After the Fall (Build yourself the only unlimited water source you’ll ever need)
The Lost ways II (4 Important Forgotten Skills used by our Ancestors that can help you in any crisis)
The Patriot Privacy Kit (Secure your privacy in just 10 simple steps)

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We do live in troubling times – today, it’s a power outage. Tomorrow, it can be an EMP attack.

Oh, how I love food! Let me count the ways.

Actually, I don’t like food-food, but the homemade variety. And nothing beats a meal cooked during an SHTF situation.

Yes, I know how that sounds, but admit it that the best meal you’ve ever eaten was back when your can was on the line. Even spam taste better when it’s eating from tin plate set beside a romantic 24-hours emergency candle.

Which brings us to the topic du jour – how to make spam at home.

I know most of you people have enough cans in your emergency supplies pantry to make it through WWIII, but wouldn’t it be neat to learn how to make some yourself instead of buying? Sure it would, and I am going to show you how easy it is to make this stuff. What can I say about spam? The dish is so popular that it inspired songs and even phrases like the one we use each day: “for when the spam hits the fan.”

Now, as for the recipe, I have to warn you that it takes a little bit of muscle to pull this through because everything will have to chop, diced, and ground. So, without further ado, here’s how to prepare emergency spam. Ingredients:

  • Pork shoulder (about two-and-a-half pounds). You can use other pork cuts as well. Just be sure that your cut of choice has enough fat on it.
  • Good-quality ham (about three ounces).
  • Tender Quick Meat Cure (bought mine from Amazon. Aim from one tablespoon at first and then half a tablespoon later.
  • Garlic (two cloves are more than enough for this recipe).

Already gathered your ingredients? Great! Then it’s time for phase two of our spam cookery.

How to prepare homemade spam

Step 1.

Get your oven ready. Pre-heat to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.

Step 2.

Tend to the meat. Take your pork shoulder or cut of choice and cut it into small cubes.

Step 3.

Set up your grinder. After you finish installing the thingy, grind the pork shoulder cubes. If you prefer your mixture to be less chunky, grind the meat one more time.

Step 4.

Ham and garlic. Take your ham and mince it. Place it afterward in a food processor. Now mince your garlic and add it to the ham.

Step 5.

Finely mince the ham and garlic. Don’t make it into a paste, though.

Step 6.

Grab a large bowl and wash your hands. Place the ground pork meat, ham, and garlic in a large bowl. Add one tablespoon of Tender Quick Meat Cure and use your hands to mix the ingredients. If the mix seems too loose, add half of spoon of Tender Quick Meat Cure.

Step 7.

It’s time to shape your ham. Grab a baking tray from the pantry. For this recipe, I used a small ceramic terrine tray my wife got from her mother. Put the mixture inside the tray and use your hands to spread the mixture over the entire surface.

 

Step 8.

It’s oven time! By now, your oven should have reached the desired temp. Cover you spam tray with an aluminum foil. Make sure it’s wrapped around nice and tight, especially around the handles. Now, take a large baking tray from the pantry and place the spam tray smack in the middle. Fill the larger with water (should be ¾ full). Place in the oven for three to four hours. Check the larger tray every half an hour and make sure that there’s still water there.

Step 9.

Time’s up! Let’s pop the lid. This is the most important part of making ham. Remove the tray from the oven and allow it to cool for a bit. After that, use some gloves or something to get the spam tray out of the bigger tray. Have to warn you that this part’s a little bit disgusting. Take the aluminum foil off the spam tray. That yellowish goo on top of your meat is pure fat. Take a ladle or a large spoon and remove the excess fat. Temporarily place it in a plate or bowl. After it cools down, throw it in the garbage because it cannot be reused. Don’t forget to leave a thin layer on fat on top of your spam.

Step 10.

Bag and tag. Grab yourself a lid from the pantry and place it on top of the spam tray. All you need to do know is to find some sort of weight to put on top of the lid. This prevents the blob inside from expanding and from drawing too much moisture from the air. I used two small bricks to weigh down the lid, but you can use anything you have on hand as long as it’s heavy and keep the lid shut.

Step 11.

The ice-man cometh! Place the tray with the weight on top inside the fridge. You can also turn this into full-blackout recipe by swapping the fridge with a cool and dry place. Don’t worry about the meat turning bad because it’s packed with enough salt.

 

That’s it!

If you’ve gone through every step, you should have fresh, homemade spam in 24 hours or less. Now, bear in mind that this is not the canned spam variety which means that it doesn’t have a very long shelf life. However, if you know a little bit about canning, you can go for the kill.

I haven’t gotten around to canning my span mostly because I don’t know a thing about how to seal those blasted things. My mother told me that there’s a special tool for that job, but I’ve yet to discover it. Anyway, it’s not like there’s enough spam to can – my family made quick work of it.

Like my recipe? Let me know your thoughts in the comment section. Also, if you know of any canning method, I’ll be grateful if you would care to share it.

Other Self-sufficiency and Preparedness solutions recommended for you:

The Lost Ways (The vital self-sufficiency lessons our great grand-fathers left us)
Survival MD (Knowledge to survive any medical crisis situation)
Backyard Liberty (Liberal’s hidden agenda: more than just your guns…)
Alive After the Fall (Build yourself the only unlimited water source you’ll ever need)
The Lost ways II (4 Important Forgotten Skills used by our Ancestors that can help you in any crisis)
The Patriot Privacy Kit (Secure your privacy in just 10 simple steps)

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Nothing beats a cooked meal during a SHTF situation. You have no idea how easy it is to make this stuff.

If I could, I would write an ode to the bug out bag.

A couple of days ago, I was wondering what the H would I do if that B.O.B would go missing or worse, gets damaged beyond repair? Well, in the world of prepping, a broken backpack means nothing as long as you have a couple of materials at the ready.

In today’s article, I’m going to show you a quick easy way to craft your own backpack. Apparently, this type of carrier is called a horseshoe rucksack although I cannot see any resemblance between this thing and the metal hoop that goes around the horse’s hoof.

Anyway, from a historical perspective, the horseshoe backpack was, let’s say, invented around the time of Napoleon’s military campaigns. This kind of rucksack was used by foot soldiers to carry stuff like toiletries, spare ammo, paintings or valuables.

Well, I have to admit that given its aspect, the horseshoe rucksack goes above and beyond the call of duty – it’s incredibly light, can be used to store any number of objects and, most importantly, it’s incredibly resilient.

So, without further ado, here’s how you can craft your own horseshoe rucksack.

Materials required

For this project you will need the following items:

  • Cordage (works with anything from 550 paracords to string and dental floss).
  • Heavy poncho (you can replace with light rain poncho or a rectangular piece of the tarp).
  • Everything that goes inside your B.O.B or scavenged items.

Yup, it’s that simple. Soldiers didn’t like this type of rucksack for nothing. Imagine having to spend hours crafting an intricate backpack knowing that the sarge could give the “move out” order at any moment. All done gathering all the necessary gear? Great! Find yourself a quiet spot to piece together your horseshoe backpack and get to work.

How to assemble a horseshoe backpack

Step 1. Take out your heavy rain poncho\light rain poncho\tarp and set it on the ground.

Step 2. Fold it in the middle two times. You should end up with a rectangular piece. Don’t forget to tuck away the hood.

Step 3. Place your items on one side of the backpack. Arrange them in a straight line. If you have sharp or objects with jagged edges, wrap them in pieces of cloth to protect your tarp or poncho. Keep in mind that you’ll still need to use that for other purposes like water collection or shelter-crafting.

Step 4. When you’re done arranging the objects on the tarp\poncho, grab one side and start rolling it. Remember when you were little, and your mother asked you to roll the carpet? It’s the same thing. Be careful not to let any of the objects slip.

Step 5. After rolling the tarp\poncho, take some cordage, cut a small piece, and tie one of the ends. Don’t forget to make a tight knot. You wouldn’t want to lose the stuff inside the rucksack.

Step 6. Tie the other end of the poncho\tarp roll using a small piece of cordage.

Step 7. Cut two more pieces of string and make knots along the length. Now it’s time for the strap.

Step 8. Measure a piece of string and cut it with your survival knife or sharp rock. Take one end and tie it to the string attached to the upper part of your rucksack. Finally, tie the other end to the lower part, and you’re done. It’s adventure time!

Additional considerations on the horseshoe rucksack

Technically speaking, you can craft one of these backpacks from, well, anything you have on hand – a T-Shirt, a long piece of sterile gauze, a bedsheet or whatever. However, there is a good reason behind the use of a heavy rain poncho.

First of all, by default, ponchos are waterproof or, at least, it should be if it doesn’t have any holes in it. Second, ponchos, especially army-grade ones are resistant to tearing, breaking, and warping. So, you can be sure that everything inside will be dry and very well protected.

The old horseshoe backpack has only a single caveat: it’s not suitable for carrying heavier items. If you bug out back contains stuff like AM\FM radio, personal emergency buoy, extra smartphones or whatever, you will need to find other ways to carry them with you – I would recommend a pouch made from a piece of cordage and a piece of cloth.

There’s a big difference between hiking with a regular backpack and using the horseshoe – in the first case, the overall design distributes weight equally. The same thing cannot be said about our horseshoe backpack. I should also mention the fact that hiking with that thing on for more than four hours is totally unadvisable.

If the lack of weight balance is not a major turnoff, then the strap tearing into your shoulder is. Still, I wouldn’t consider this a caveat since you can easily fix it by adding some kind of padding to the string segment resting on your shoulder.  If you still have your old backpack, use your knife to cut a piece of strap. Aim for the one with extra padding. Place it over your shoulder, and that’s it!

When tying the horseshoe rucksack, I would advise you to be extra careful around the dangling end. For extra safety, tie another piece of cordage around it.

Other Options?

In case you have to hike for a longer amount of time, the horseshoe backpack’s not exactly the best option.

For this, I would recommend building a so-called cage backpack. Instead of using your heavy poncho, construct a cage-like frame by stacking small pieces of wood. Secure them using your cordage of choice. Mount two string straps and that’s it. In addition, this type of backpack is quite useful, especially if you’re forced to hunt – you can’t really fit the game, no matter how small, inside the horseshow.

Congrats! You now know how to make a simple backpack. What’s your take on this? Hit the comments section and let me know.

Other Self-sufficiency and Preparedness solutions recommended for you:

The Lost Ways (The vital self-sufficiency lessons our great grand-fathers left us)
Survival MD (Knowledge to survive any medical crisis situation)
Backyard Liberty (Liberal’s hidden agenda: more than just your guns…)
Alive After the Fall (Build yourself the only unlimited water source you’ll ever need)
The Lost ways II (4 Important Forgotten Skills used by our Ancestors that can help you in any crisis)
The Patriot Privacy Kit (Secure your privacy in just 10 simple steps)

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Well, in the world of prepping, a broken backpack means nothing as long as you have a couple of materials at the ready.

In modern war, you would die like a dog, for no good reason.

Hemingway said it. And he was not far from today’s reality.

We are already at war. We are at constant war. If not with another nation, then we are at war with something else. Since we’re fighting in 7 different countries in this very moment, would you be surprised to find out that the number of fanatics hating us grows exponentially?  

So then it is logic that we will be hit when we least expect it. And where we least expect it. For we are too busy planting our seeds of democracy someplace else, while our own country turns into a demo-crazy.  

Fighting terrorism with real weapons begins to sound a little outdated right? It’s like we discovered solar power but we continue to dig for coal. We could maybe end terrorism online if we really paid attention to how things evolve outside the US. Instead of financing useless wars trying to change people that maybe don’t want to change, maybe we should invest in new technologies. Cyber terrorism is the real threat.

When we used the military, they used some planes. When we used drones, they used busses and trucks. When we close the borders they use the internet.

This is not about Putin. Or the dictator in Syria. This is about the rage of the common radicals. And you should fear people who have nothing else to lose.

We fight them abroad. But they are already here. Remember where the 9/11 hijackers trained? On US soil. Remember what airplanes they used? American. Who’s grid is going down if they succeed? Ours. We are not the only ones taking advantage of technology..

And with the help of our own technology, what they’re planning now is going to destroy our infrastructure, our power supply, and the quality of our water. Imagine how easy would be to kill an entire city if you get access to the grid. And it’s all online now.. So everything that is connected won’t start anymore. Because a blackout interrupts more than the grid.

[See: What to do when there are no doctors around.]

Hard to imagine? You better. For time is running out for all of us.

War is something people used to engage in back in the days, when they didn’t know better. When they were still burning people for not believing in God. Did anything change? How come we ask for maturity and understanding and empathy when we have none?

Do you at least care for yourself and your family?

The time has come! This is not a drill.

Want to stay alive? You need to make an effort.

[ See: How to survive a blackout on your own.]

Truth is, a blackout could happen anyways.

Our grid is older than all of us. Remember the March Venezuelan blackouts? It was like living in the Apocalypse.  And it all started because of the Guri hydroelectric plant, which serves 70% of the country. So you do the math. Three major blackouts in one month. Venezuela was crumbling.

For days and nights, unruly crowds sacked 523 stores in Maracaibo as residents stood on their porches wielding weapons to guard against looters. Dozens died in hospitals. Bodies decomposed in the morgue. And what little food remained in refrigerators rotted away as the nation went hungry.

Should we even dare to imagine what if it was us? Are you ready for such a scenario?

Prepping is not about running to the store in the day disaster starts. On the contrary. Prepping is making sure we have a Plan B, C, etc.

Learn here how to become the household healer when a simple blackout disrupts your life.

There are always solutions for the ones who chose life. 

What are you going to do about it? How prepared are you? Let me know in the comments. We can only do this thing together.

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Prepping is not about running to the store in the day disaster starts. On the contrary. Prepping is making sure we have a Plan B, C, etc.

I never imagined that there’s anything better to start a fire than char cloth. Well, times have changed, and so have I. At least about the fire-starting bit.

Ever heard about steel wool? Yes, I know it sounds rather contradictory, but this thing which, by the way, our grandparents used to scrub clean all those pots and pans, is everything a prepper may expect to find when reading our articles.

Apart from the fact that steel wool goes up in flame like its gasoline or something, it has tons of other uses around the house and, of course, in survival-type situations.

Fascinated by this – I don’t know how to call it – a byproduct of the metalworking industry, I spend a couple of hours searching for ways preppers utilize this stuff. What can I say, other than the fact that I struck gold? So, without further ado, here are 6 ways to use steel wool in a shit hits the fan situation, both in and out of the house.

Prevent drain clogging

I’ve always hated the idea of playing repairmen around the house (at least in rooms that have nothing to do with the bedroom). You want to know why? Because everything can be avoided if everyone around the house would exercise a quint little thing called common-sense. Recently, I had to unclog the bathtub’s drain two times because my wife has this thing about washing the dogs more often than necessary.

Anyway, I found out that a great way to prevent these mishaps would be to put some still wool around the drain before taking a bath. That thing sucks up every lock of hair like it were a sponge or something. You should also try using it in your kitchen’s sink, especially if you don’t have a garbage disposer.

No more loose screws

You probably know how frustrating it can be to try and drive a screw through a piece of wood when the hole’s too big. Well, you can try your luck finding a screw to fit the hole (pun intended), or you can use this simple prepper’s trick – wrap some steel wool around the screw and give it one more twist. If you don’t have any, take rip a small piece from a match, and stick it in the hole.

No more mice around the house

If you’re having critter trouble, snoop around a bit to see where they’re coming from. Once you find the mouse hole, cover it with a big piece of steel wool. Don’t worry about the mouse chewing through it – never going to happen!

Keep things sharp

If you ever run out of sharpening stones (true story here), you can use a wad of steel wool to keep your tools in working conditions. Works great on knives, but steel wool really works wonders on blunt scissors. Just take a big piece and snip it a couple of times with your scissors. You’ll get that thing sharpened in no time.

No more critters in the exhaust pipes

Winter comes, many people allow their cars and motorcycles to take a breather until spring. Nothing odd about this. However, what about them critters which tend to crawl into the exhaust pipes and air intakes? Apart from the fact that you end up gassing them to death once you start the engine, the stuff they bring along with them can clog the exhaust, resulting in engine damage and, possible, carbon monoxide poisoning.

Plugging the exhaust is the most obvious. Still, you don’t need to buy something very expensive to get the job done. Take a wad of steel cloth and shove it inside the air intake and the exhaust. You can wrap a bright-colored cloth or take around the pipes which you’ve stuffed with steel wool to serve you as a reminder to take them up before using the car.

Make rusty tools shine again

While searching for some stuff around the attic, I stumbled upon a small toolbox with several rusty tools inside. Asked my dad about them, and apparently, they belonged to my grandfather. Seeing the state they were in made my heart bleed, which meant I had to do something about it. Luckily, I had a pack of steel wool in my garage which made my job a lot easier. If you have rusty tools, try giving them a good scrub with a wad of steel wool. Works like a charm.

Now, if you really want to restore them to their former glory, you can try this trick – fill a tub with Coca-Cola and put every rusty tool inside. Let them soak overnight. Early in the morning, take them out and use a towel or cloth to remove the excess liquid. After drying them, scrub them with steel wool. You won’t find shinier tools anywhere. By the way, this method works on chrome surface as well.

Remove persistent wood stains

I’ve never seen true Hell until my wife put her coffee mug on the small living room table I just bought. You know those rings on the bottom of the mug that usually form when the coffee goes over the edges? They never go away. And, no matter how hard you scrub that wood surface, you won’t be able to remove it.

Well, least I thought before using steel wool. Encouraged by the kickass results I had with restoring grandpa’s rusty tool, I attempted to apply the same method on the wood table. Wouldn’t you know it? It worked! I had my share of doubts about using something as abrasive as steel wool on a fine surface, but, apparently, it didn’t leave any scratches. If you’re having the same issues, try a wad of steel wool.

Well, that’s about it for my uses of steel wool around the house. Sorry for not writing a word or two about its fire-starting abilities, but it seemed like self-implied. Anyway, hope you liked my article. As always, for comments, additions, rants or all three of them, hit the comments section.

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Apart from the fact that steel wool goes up in flame like its gasoline or something, it has tons of other uses around the house and, of course, in survival-type

Sometimes in the preparedness folds, we really get wrapped around axles. We have so much that we’re learning and trying to do, and we’re regularly doing it on a budget – which is just one more thing that circles around our heads and beats us up.

We can limit some of the pains of preparedness by changing how we look at things, but also how we do things. Gardening and larger-scale growing is routinely on our to-do list. It’s something that’s going to come as a shock for those who don’t practice ahead of time, no matter how many tricks get applied. However, we can save some time and stress on our bodies with a few low-cost and low-skill tricks and tools, and see increased yields. Bigger yields means lower dinner costs and potentially some increased food storage, letting us expand our preparedness in other ways.

Here are a handful of quickie, usually highly inexpensive – easy garden hacks to save time, money and labor. As you read them, don’t forget: paper products are compostable.

Mulch

Mulch makes life easier.

In some forms of mulch gardening, the mulch stays right there year-round. Some styles use a mulch that in hot, damp climates rots enough during the off-season and is tilled in that winter or early in spring. In others, we scoot aside just enough to drop seeds or transplants in during succession plantings, add amendments like cured manure or compost or pH-raising pine by raking it just into or over the surface, and add mulch more slowly.

Mulch can be straw or wood chips, lightly soiled animal litter, mown or whole leaves, the tips of branches we’re pruning, or shredded white paper. Shredded paper will settle into a mat that makes it tough for weeds, but “loose” mulch routinely does better with a weed suppression barrier down first.

We can use newsprint, cardboard, or phone book pages as a weed suppressor and to keep small plants free of dirt kicked up by rain. We won’t get the same moisture-holding and soil aeration improvements, we will still have to weed some, especially if we already have beds that are weed prone, but it lessens our time spent sitting or crouched and bent over.

Mulch lessens the pains of gardening. We don’t weed as much, our plants do better, and we don’t have to water as much.

Plastic bottles

olla-drip-irrigators-easiest-way-to-do-it-plantcaretoday_com

Sub-irrigated planters for buckets and storage tubs and conventional planters can be made using bottles for the tubes instead of aquarium or garden hoses or PVC.

We don’t store water or foods in milk jugs because they’re porous and can leach previous content out slowly, but they have their place among soda and juice bottles in the garden.

Various bottles can be used to make mini-greenhouses, cloches, scoops, and seed spreaders, as well as mouse and rat traps (2Ls can work for small squirrels and chipmunks, too, or slow them down enough for the garden terriers to get there). They’re great for vertical strawberry and herb and lettuce towers. We can use them to keep cord from tangling, and punch various holes to use for spreading amendments and treatments. Whack them in half, use sourdough starter and water or beer, and they catch horrific numbers of slugs.

For time savers and back savers, though, bottles really excel at helping us water.

Sub-irrigated planters for buckets and storage tubs and conventional planters can be made using bottles for the tubes instead of aquarium or garden hoses or PVC.

Whether we grow in raised beds or tilled rows, mulched beds or lasagna beds, we can use bottles as a spin on irrigation, too. We can drill holes all over, bury it near our plants, and use a hose to fill it quickly.

A similar version plants the bottle cap-down, with holes drilled in the cap and the sloping neck, and the inverted bottom cut entirely or with just enough remaining to make a flap. Those are even easier and faster to fill, with less aim needed.

The water from those will then sink out slowly, watering deep at the roots and watering our plants, not the weeds or walkways. Less water is lost to evaporation, and we don’t have to deal with timers or hose connections, or PVC to avoid standing out there forever to slowly sink in water. We pour it in, fill it up, and move to the next. If it’s really hot and dry, we might need to repeat, but it’s a low-tech, low-expense way to work faster than standing there with a hose or moving hoses back and forth so we can mow.

Maybe that means less time on our feet overall, or maybe that lets us progress to our weeding and suckering or the next round of planting.

Seeding time – The Dibble

A dibble is basically just something that makes a hole for us. Usually, it’s a somewhat shallow hole and it’s usually intended for seeds but we can work with that. There are two general types, rolling or boards, although with leek dibbles (which work with any transplant), you walk around with a rake or double-handle tool poking your holes. Boards are typically set up with dowels that will poke holes, or come as cutouts and we use something to poke holes to our desired depths. Rolling dibbles tend to be drum or wheel style.

drum-or-rolling-dibbler-and-dibble-board-www_ncat_org

There are two general types, rolling or boards.

Plans are out there for dibblers that can run from almost nothing if you salvage parts or make minis out of coffee cans and 12” PVC or make a single, double- or triple row dibble wheel out of bikes from Craigslist. Drum styles can cost as much as $100-200 to make at home if you’re inclined to go that route instead. Some of the really fancy board dibblers even get marked in colors so one board can be used for spacings from 1” to 6”.

In no-till schemes where you drag a pointed hoe to clear a spot for seeds, dibble wheels tend to be handy. In tall raised beds and window boxes or trays, a board dibbler may be more beneficial.

Using dibbles at whatever scale we choose to lets us quickly mark the space for seeds and transplants. Even if we have to go back with a post hole digger for some of those transplants, time spent upright instead of crouched tends to make for happier backs.

Seeding time – Furrowing rake

A furrowing rake is the simple DIY result of adding tight, relatively stiff hose or PVC to an ordinary hay or garden rake, and using it to drag lines along a prepared bed. It’s typically done so that the extensions are movable, letting us go as tight as the 1-1.5” gaps of the rake tines out to the full 1-2’ width of that rake.

We can get as complex as we like, adding marker lines to tell us how deep we’re aiming, or using multiple depths so we can plant cutting salad greens in the shallowest grooves and have deeper grooves for our peas. We can drag it both down and across a bed to create a grid, with seeds going at the cross points.

rake-with-hose-for-seed-spacing-1-themarthablog-dot-com

A furrowing rake is the simple DIY result of adding tight, relatively stiff hose or PVC to an ordinary hay or garden rake, and using it to drag lines along a prepared bed.

Taking a few minutes to prep some moveable rods or pipes and lay out our grid – while standing – limits how much measuring we do while we’re bent or crouched, saving time and pain with a very quick and low-cost trick.

Seeding tubes or pipes

Dibbles and furrowing aren’t the only way to limit how much time we spend crouched over during seeding time. Even a congestion-planting scheme that calls for under-seeding doesn’t have to be done from a stool or our knees.

All you really need is a pipe smooth enough for seeds to roll through cleanly and sturdy enough to stand up straight.

If you want to work with tiny seeds as well as larger ones, maybe you lay on skinnier aquarium tubing to attach to a tool handle or yardstick (with rubber bands, even), and make yourself a pasteboard, tin-can or paper funnel and tape it in place. Use the back-end of a teaspoon or the little measuring spoon from somebody’s aquarium chemicals to fish out 2-5 seeds at a time.

knowledgeweighsnothing-com-pvc-seed-hack

Seed tapes and mats

If we’re not digging the various seeding tubes, we can also use our rainy days or blistering hot days to make seed tapes out of strips of paper, or larger seed mats out of unfolded paper napkins and paper towels. We don’t have to mix up some kind of funky glue like with some of the DIY-ers show. The toothpick dab of white Elmer’s the first site shows is water-soluble and works just fine.

When we’re ready to plant, we just zoom along exposing our soil or following her mix, lay out our mats, and cover them again. We can work in fair-sized lengths that we roll up around an empty tube and then just nudge along using a broom or hoe, or use a square or two at a time that lets us stagger our planting for a staggered harvest or interspersed companion flowers.

Seed mats and strips can also be made out of a single thickness of newspaper pages for larger seeds like peas and beans as well, although we’ll want to make a small 1/8” slit or poke a pencil-tip hole through to give our seeds a head start on busting through the heavier paper.

Since we’re planting 3-6” or as much as 8-12” apart in those cases, whether we do rows or congestion beds, working with a larger paper size makes sense. The newspaper sheet will decay over the season, but being thicker, it does offer a nice head start for our seeds over the weed seeds that may be lurking below. Being thicker, it also does better if the seed gets that head start of a slit.

No more removing gloves. No more exposing seed packets to dirt and moisture, or unfolding and refolding and sticking them in a pocket as we try to keep track of where exactly the tiny black seeds landed in our bed. And since they’re evenly spaced instead of scattered in lines and areas, it’s minutely easier to tell which tiny baby dicot we should be plucking when the weeds start – at least we can work quickly in some of the gaps.

In the garden – Avoid the crouch-ouch

So why the focus on things that improve soils without hauling lots of bales, limiting all the bending, limiting the bending and time we spend watering (or pumping water), collecting trash to make all kinds of weird contraptions in the garden?

Especially for seniors and those with nagging pains and injuries, the ability to work standing upright or from a chair without leaning over or reaching far can not only increase the joy of gardening, but in some cases go as far as making gardening possible again.

Arthritic hands, shaking from an injury or age, and loss of full motor function from an accident can make it frustrating and painful even to fetch out and drop a lima or pea, let alone broccoli and spinach, and unless they’re willing to just punch some holes in a baggy and shake, just forget about iceberg and romaine and strawberry spinach.

The ability to work slowly over winter or summer to prepare for spring and autumn leaf and root crops, the ability to use a tube and funnel, then shake or scoop seeds using something they can actually grip is enormous.

Reexamine how you garden

Even for those in good health or who just like to be out there, some simple and inexpensive DIY projects and some trash collection and reuse can save a lot of time.

That might make a difference in garden size now, while we’re working and balancing families. It will definitely make a difference later, when we’re depending on those gardens to feed us or add a little forkability and crunch to our starvation-staving diet.

Saving backs and creating easy-to-use tools can also let us involve our parents and kids a little more in some cases, giving them independence and sharing the satisfaction that comes from a meal we procured for ourselves. There’s little better in life than seeing that pride returned to your parents and grandparents, or watching it bloom in your children.

It also sucks to fail, especially when we have a lot of time invested in something.

Water reservoirs, reduced weed competition, proper seeding coverage, and workload-friendly seeding methods can help increase our rate of success, which encourages us to do it again.

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Saving backs and creating easy-to-use tools can also let us involve our parents and kids a little more in some cases, giving them independence.

There’s nothing aspirin can’t solve. Headache? Take an aspirin. Fever? Take an aspirin. For everything else, there’s MasterCard. Joke aside, this little pharmacological jewel is not only a great remedy for all sorts of pains and pangs but also a great helper around the house. Last I heard, some people use common aspirin to make pot plants stay green for a long amount of time.

And, quite recently, I’ve discovered that this wonder pill can really do amazing thing around the veggie garden. Not only that, but it also works on life stock (my father-in-law uses aspirin to treat whooping cough in cows and sheet).

Anyway, getting back to the subject at hand, aspirin’s really great for your veggie and flower gardens. Wouldn’t have believed that the same thing used to cure anything from fevers to hangovers could do them plants so much good. So, after getting some kickass results with my cabbage patch, I thought that the most sensible thing to do would be to share some of the reasons why I’ve decided to use the stuff in the first place.

So, without further ado, here are 4 reasons why you should stockpile and use aspirin in your veggie garden.

  1. No more fungus

No, I was talking about foot or nail fungus, but about that greenish stuff that chokes plants and makes gardeners cry. I’ve literally tried every damned anti-fungal solution on the market, but nothing seemed to work. That’s when a good friend of mine, who’s also a pharmacist, told me that I should add one or two aspirin tablets to the watering can. Apparently, salicylic acid is fungi’s number one enemy (has something to do with how the acid disrupts cells inside the fungal growth).

Anywho, if you want to get rid of all the fungus from your veggie garden, use aspirin in conjunction with water. Do keep in mind that the results are not instantaneous – in my case, I had to wait around two and a half weeks to see the results.

  1. Cut flowers will last even longer

I have to admit that I have a thing for freshly-picked flowers. Ever since I can remember, our family always had at least one vase with pretty flowers around the house – mom likes roses, just like my grandma. Still, the only trouble with cut flowers is that whatever you do, they will eventually wilt and day. And this happens faster than most of us realize.

Even that Valentine’s Day bouquet doesn’t last longer that one, maybe two days, provided that you don’t drown it. I read somewhere that flower dealers (yes, I know exactly how it sounds), use a sugar and salt combo to prevent wildflowers from wilting too fast.

I think that’s a load of crap – I’ve tried on many different types of flowers: roses, orchids, tulips, lilies. It doesn’t work. And no, it’s not about balancing the ingredients. Sure, among other things plants take from the soil is salt and glucose. But they also need plenty of other stuff to survive and thrive.

In searching for a better alternative, I tried adding a tablet of aspirin to a vase halfway filled with water. This time, my flowers of choice were Carson roses.  One week later, lo and behold, the roses were still clinging to life, more alive and greener and red than ever before.

  1. More veggies in the garden

In my opinion, starting your own garden is a gamble – you’ll never know what that land will yield or if anything will grow at all. Yes, I know that there are some veggies like potatoes or onions that can be grown anywhere, but this is not always the case.

After harvesting my very first crop, I’ve discovered, much to my dissatisfaction, that I ended up with a basket filled to the brim with nice and round onions, and another with some things that looked like Area 51 experiments. However, the thing that puzzled me the most is that the crops were two weeks late, although I followed the instructions to the letter.

The main issue was, of course, the soil. It needed a little bit of help to yield a better crop. After doing a little bit of online research, I’ve discovered that a surefire way to turn any kind of soil into a veggie-making mean machine was to add some aspirin. So, if you’re having the same problems, try this nifty little trick: dissolve four aspirin tablets in approximately four gallons of water.

Use this mixture to water your plants daily for at least two weeks. It may strike you as a little odd, but apparently, aspirin has a way of encouraging plant growth better than any chemical or organic fertilizer. According to the big and scary book of science, salicylic acids stimulate the soil to generate more vitamin C. And, wouldn’t you know it, even plants like a vitamin C infusion, not only human bones.

  1. Makes for stronger roots

Roots are everything to plants – strong and long one means that the plant will go to get all moisture and nutrients it needs in order to survive and thrive. Unfortunately, with all the chemicals used to stimulate plant growth, roots have become brittle, weak, and unable to properly feed the plant. And that’s bad news for you if decided to ditch supermarket veggies.

Apart from using only organic stuff, you can try and give those roots a little nudge. Yup, you’ve guessed it – aspirin is that swift kick in the keister each plant needs to develop stronger roots. Here’s what you will need to do. Head to the drug store and get some uncoated aspirin (the variety that doesn’t offer gastric protection). Before planting the seeds, dissolve one tablet in one gallon of water and pour the mixture into the hole. Allow the soil to absorb the mix. After that, you can plant whatever your heart desires.

So, what are your thoughts on using aspirin in the garden? Hit the comments section and let me know.

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There’s nothing aspirin can’t solve. Headache? Take an aspirin. Fever? Take an aspirin. For everything else, there’s aspirin.

During the last couple of days I came to realize that I’m kind of hooked on technology – if I want to search for anything like a recipe or the answer to any kind of question, I usually end up using my smartphone or laptop.

Sure, there’s nothing wrong about taking full advantage of modern tech. I mean, without my PC and Internet I wouldn’t be able to share my thoughts with you people. Still, the idea of being surrounded by too much tech should be a reason for concern considering that it takes one blackout to witness firsthand what life B.E. (before electricity) felt like.

In one of my articles (can’t remember exactly which one), I talked about how awesome it is to have powerless tools around the house. Of course, you can always use a manual food processor when the power’s out or a manual drill over an electric one, but some things just cannot be replaced. However upsetting this though may be, we kind of need out smartphones for a lot of things, not just taking pictures or playing Candy Crush while riding the subway.

Okay, so we established that mobile tech is one of those things that we can’t do without. The question at hand here is what in the Hell are we going to do when there are a power outage and our phone’s close to dying? In a previous article, I’ve shown you a clever way of charging your phone using a 9V battery and a car charger. That is, indeed, a neat trick, but hardly the only way to juice up your phone without using the outlet.

Well, after doing a bit of research, I’ve stumbled upon more flaky ways to recharge that smartphone of yours. Think the 9V battery hack was weird? Get of a load of these.

Harnessing the power of…cranks!

A hand-cranked flashlight is, without a doubt, one of the most useful items to be had in case shit hits the fan. Still, a flashlight is not enough. In general, those gadgets come with all sort of wicked options: AM\FM radio, music player, photovoltaic cells, USB ports, all of them sucking up that precious juice generated by the owner who has nothing better to do than to spin that lever.

Yes, I know that this might come off as a no-brainer, but many who own a hand-cranked gizmo overlook this option for some reason.

So, is the power out? Not a problem if you’re phone on the brink of death. Just plug your USB cable into your hand-cranked gizmo and start, well, cranking. It’s possible to use such a device to fully charge your phone’s battery, but I don’t see how you’ll be able to reach 50 percent without your arms going numb.

There’s another trick you can trick to boost the efficiency of your hand-cranked device. As many of these gizmos pack solar cells and capacitors, it would be wise to leave it in the sun before attempting to use the crank. Sure, it won’t fully charge your phone, but at least it will spare you a couple of hours of cranking.

Hack your landlines!

If prepping was a patient with OCD, I would say that he had a thing for landlines. Don’t get me wrong; landlines are a great way of staying in contact with the outside in case of a natural or man-made disaster. In case of a power outage, landlines will still have some juice inside. Why not take advantage of this?

Here’s a clever trick of how to get some of those amps inside your dying phone. Keep in mind that this project requires a bit of tinkering. However, when you’re done, that phone box of yours will double up as an emergency phone charger. Now, for this project you will need:

  • Phone cord.
  • USB cable.
  • 5V voltage regulator. There are usually 52V inside that phone box, so you will need this regulator in order to make the outlet compatible with your smartphone’s battery. Otherwise, you’ll end up frying your phone. Voltage regulator looks, more or less, like TV or computer chips, only a lot bigger. They have three prongs for input, output, and grounding. You can probably find them at your local hardware store, in the electronics section (the one you need is labeled ‘7805’).
  • Knife.
  • Soldering iron.
  • Electrical tape (optional).

 

Here’s what to do in order to hack your phone box

Step 1. Start by exposing the cables of your phone cord. Leave a plug on the other end, because that one will go in the phone box. There should be two wires: red one (this will be your input) and a green one (grounding).

Step 2. Next, expose the wires of your USB cable using the knife. You’ll see four cables: red, blue, green, and black.

Step 3. Put the voltage regulator on your work table. To ensure that you solder the wires to the correct prongs, flip the chip (the ‘7805’ should be facing you).

Step 4.  Solder the phone cord’s red wire to the first prong (that’s the left one).

Step 5. Solder the phone cord’s green wire to the regulator’s grounding prong (that’s the middle one). You’re doing great! Halfway there.

Step 6. Solder the USB cable’s black wire to the regulator’s middle prong. Yes, you can solder it on top of the phone cord’s green wire.

Step 7. Solder the USB cable’s red wire to the regulator’s output prong (that would be the one on your right).

(Optional) Use some electrical tape to cover the soldering points on the regular.

Step 8. Plug the phone cord into the box and the USB cable in your smartphone. Congrats! You now have an emergency phone charger outlet.

When life gives you lemons, make electricity.

Lemonade is not the only thing that you can make out of lemons. In case of a major emergency – say you want to send out of short message or call the authorities, it may be possible to reboot your phone using fruit-generated electricity.

Yes, I know exactly how it sounds, but it works. Don’t expect to get a full charge on a single lemon (you’ll need at least 1,000 of them to get your phone’s power cell to 100 percent). Anyway, here’s how to boot up your phone by harnessing the power of electrochemical reaction. Start by gathering your materials. For this project you will need:

  • Zinc or galvanized nails.
  • Copper nails (you can replace them with coin or paper clips).
  • Copper wires.
  • Mini-USB cable.
  • Six lemons.

Here’s how to piece together your lemony phone charger

Step 1. Expose the USB cable’s wires using a knife. Leave the mini-USB plug on the other end. You should see a red and a black wire with orange strips.

Step 2. Arrange your lemons in a circle.

Step 3. Insert zinc nail on the left side of the lemon.

Step 4. Insert a copper nail\paper clip\coin on the right side of the lemon.

Step 5. Connect or solder the USB cable’s red wire to the zinc nail inserted in the lemon on the left side.

Step 6. Connect or solder the USB cable’s black wire with orange strips to the zinc nail inserted in the lemon on the right side.

Step 7. Connect or solder the copper wire of the left lemon with zinc nail inserted in the lemon behind it. Repeat this operation to close the circuit.

Step 8. Plug the mini-USB into your phone and wait for the magic to happen.

(Advice) If you don’t have lemons around the house, you can try with oranges or other acidic fruits.

Onions make me cry, but at least I have a full battery

Because I’m madly in love with these strange science projects, I found another way to charge my phone using stuff found in the fridge. In this case, the one giving away its life so your phone might live to tell the tale is the onion. Don’t cry for me, Duracell. As in the case of the lemon charger, the onion one relies on electrochemistry. Here’s what you’ll need to whip up an onion-based electricity generator:

  • One onion (the bigger, the better).
  • Any kind of beverage containing electrolytes (I used a bottle of Gatorade for this project, but you can use anything you like or have around the house).
  • One large bowl.
  • One phone charger.

Sounds delightful, doesn’t it? Here’s how to make your first onion charger.

Step 1. Using a Philips screwdriver or an awl, poke two holes on either side of the onion.

Step 2. Fill your bowl with Gatorade or your favorite electrolytic beverage.

Step 3. Place the onion in the bowl and allow it to soak for at least 15 minutes. The holes you’ve just poked will allow the Gatorade to get inside that onion fast.

Step 4. Once the time has passed, take the onion out of the bowl and place it on a clean towel.

Step 5. Use the towel to dry your onion.

Step 6. Stick the USB end of your charging cable into the onion. Doesn’t matter where you insert it.

Step 7. Connect the mini-USB end to your phone and let the magic happen. If you’re still not convinced, drain your battery completely and connect to the Gatorade-soaked onion to see what happens.

Wrap Up

I feel compelled to stress out once more that these should not be, under any circumstances, considered permanent solutions. The only thing that comes close to an outlet is one of those portable batteries.  If you don’t have one, you should consider making a small investment. Check out your local auto stores for those jumper packs – great for starting your car when the battery’s dead, but can also help you charge other devices such as laptops, smartphones, radios or tablets.

I strongly advise you to exercise extra caution when crafting those onion or lemon-based generators. Technically speaking, they should work. However, don’t be surprised if your phone suddenly goes up in flames. If you don’t have other means of charging your smartphone, better get a meter in there to see if the voltage is fine.

Another thing to keep in mind is that phone box chargers are very tricky. Well, you don’t need a Ph.D. in astrophysics to solder a couple of wires, but it is rather difficult to get ahold of that voltage regulator.

Sure, there are plenty of websites that sell them by the dozen, yet in case of a blackout, this is not really a viable option. If you can’t find any at your local store, it may be possible to salvage one or two working ones from an old VCR or a tape recorder. I wouldn’t go tinkering around TVs because they use entirely different regulators. You can also try your luck with an electrical-powered short-wave radio.

That’s about it on alternative ways to juice up your smartphones during a blackout. What’s your take on this? Hit the comments section and let me know.

On a different note, here’s some other self-sufficiency and preparedness solutions recommended for you:

The Lost Ways (The vital self-sufficiency lessons our great grand-fathers left us)
Survival MD (Knowledge to survive any medical crisis situation)
Backyard Liberty (Liberal’s hidden agenda: more than just your guns…)
Alive After the Fall (Build yourself the only unlimited water source you’ll ever need)
The Lost ways II (4 Important Forgotten Skills used by our Ancestors that can help you in any crisis)
The Patriot Privacy Kit (Secure your privacy in just 10 simple steps)

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Being surrounded by too much tech should be a reason for concern considering that it takes one blackout to witness firsthand what life B.E. (before electricity) felt like.

Everybody has his guilty pleasure – mine is powdered eggs. Yes, I know that nothing beats fresh-laid chicken eggs, because they’re packed with calcium, albumin, and so on and so forth. But what can you do? The heart asks pleasure first, as the saying goes, and I wouldn’t even consider coming down for breakfast if I’m all out of powdered eggs for my killer omelet.

There are very good reasons why I chose this instead of regular eggs, apart from the fact that they tout more or less the same nutritional values as their ‘living’ counterparts – they can be stockpiled for months if not years; can fit into any B.O.B, no matter how big or small it is and, most importantly, powdered eggs will be worth their weight in gold during an SHTF situation when all supermarkets will run out of the fresh variety.

Now, before showing you how I managed to make my first few jars of powdered eggs, I should warn you that this recipe will require a small investment because you’ll need a contraption called a dehydrator.

Wait! Don’t close this article yet. I was talking about a maybe a few tens (bought mine from Costco for $30). That’s about it as far as the financial part is concerned. Trust me when I say that this investment will pay off – imagine not having to hunt online discounts on survival foods such as powdered eggs. And, most importantly, if you know how to cook ‘em, you won’t notice any difference in taste.

Anyway, here’s what you will need to do in order to obtain a near-endless supply of powdered eggs.

Gathering your ingredients and kitchen supplies

To pull this off, you will need the following:

  • Eggs (I used two dozen for my first batch).
  • A teaspoon of vegetable cooking oil or butter.
  • The dehydrator.
  • A food processor.
  • A blender or fork for whipping up the eggs.
  • Canning jars.
  • Skillet.

Done gathering the ingredients? Great! Here’s what you’ll need to do next.

How to prepare powdered eggs

Step 1. Start by cracking open the eggs in a large bowl.

Step 2. Whip up the eggs using a mixer or a fork. I would advise you to use a blender since it’s quite tricky to whip up that many eggs using a simple fork and takes less time.

Step 3. Put the skillet on the cooking machine and add a little bit of veggie oil or butter. If you don’t have a non-stick pan, use both or stick to butter.

Step 4. Set the heat to medium-low and wait for the oil to heat up. If you’re using butter, you should put the whipped eggs inside when the butter’s all melted.

Step 5. Add the whipped eggs.

Step 6. Wait until the eggs begin to bind, then use a wooden spoon or spatula to sort of shred the omelet mass. Keep stirring and separating the eggs. It takes about 10 minutes or so. Yup, basically it’s like doing scrambled eggs. Now, if you want your eggs to be extra puffy, you can add a splash of milk to the bowl while you’re whisking them.

Step 6. Move the scrambled eggs to a clean plate with a bit of paper tissue underneath and allow them to cool.

Step 7. Once the eggs have cooled down, transfer them to your food processor and set it on “pulse.” Give your scrambled eggs a couple of spins. After a couple of seconds, you should have a puffy mass of diced eggs.

Step 8. Turn on your dehydrator and set it to 125 degrees Fahrenheit. Wait for it to reach the desired temperature (mine has a green LED bulb in the front which sort of lights up when the device reaches the right temp). Don’t forget to remove the dehydrator’s lid before heating it up.

Step 9. Transfer the eggs from your food processor to the dehydrator. Put on the lid and wait. It takes about four or five hours for the machinery to remove all the moisture from the eggs. Once they’re done, the eggs will have a brittle aspect.

Step 10.  Put the eggs back into the food processor and give them a spin or two to turn them into powder. Enjoy!

There’s another way of making powdered eggs. Works great if you’re on the run or not in the mood of going through all the steps. As you will see, the dehydrator you’re just bought comes with a fruit roll sheet (yup, you can use it to get the moisture out of fruits and make your own trail mix).

Now, get half a dozen eggs and whisk them. Put the fruit roll sheet on top of your dehydrator and set it to 145 degrees Fahrenheit. When the thing’s beginning to heat you, dip a paper towel in some veggie oil and grease the surface of your fruit roll sheet.

Add the whisked eggs (careful not to spill your mix inside the device). You don’t need to put the lid on. Leave it like this for 14 to 16 hours. Swing by from time to time to see if everything’s okay. When they’re done, they’ll have the same brittle texture as in the steps described above. All you need to do now is to transfer them to your food processor (don’t bother waiting for them to cool down), give them a good shake, and that’s it.

As for storing, you can use regular canning jars or zip-lock bags. If you want to make survival packs for your bug out bag or household survival kit, you can try using a vacuum sealer.

For the cooking part, all you’ll need to do would be to rehydrate them – I personally like to add them to a small pan with boiled water and sort of make poached, scrambled eggs. Yes, I know it sounds unappetizing, but nothing a little bit of salt, pepper, and a slice of homemade spam can’t fix.

Hope you’ve liked my article on how to make powdered eggs at home. If there’s anything more to add, be sure to hit me up in the comments section.

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Powdered eggs will be worth their weight in gold during an SHTF situation when all supermarkets will run out of the fresh variety.