All Preparedness is Local-Many, Many Resources You Can Use!

Poor Man Survival                                             

Self Reliance tools for independent minded people…

www.poormansurvivor.net

 

ISSN 2161-5543

A Digest of Urban Survival Resources

 

"A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring
one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own
pursuits of industry and improvement."
-- Thomas Jefferson

 

Something we no longer have!

 

Preparedness Is Local: 7 Simple Ways to Get Ready

A famous politician once said, "All politics is local." The same is essentially true for prepping. Let me show you how to get started on sizing up, and making arrangements for, your possible needs in an emergency.

In any social disruption or national crisis, you can expect diminished access to vital resources that come from national or large regional distribution systems – food, water, fuel, medicine. Whether it's a natural disaster, a terror attack, or social chaos, your access to key resources will become severely limited or cut off completely.

When that happens, you end up totally reliant on local resources.

Savvy preppers know it's important to get a feel for what's available locally before there's a disruption. Where does local food come from? What do you know about your local water supply? What resources exist nearby that you can use now to make you more prepared later?

Training Resources
You Should Take Advantage Of

SUGGESTION ONE: Your local Red Cross offers a number of low-fee workshops – some are even free. One of the classes many Red Cross branches offer is an Individual Preparedness Skills Workshop.

This workshop teaches basic skills intended to help you be self-reliant for an extended period of time. You'll learn basic preparedness, emergency response, and recovery skills that you can share with your family, neighbors, and colleagues and that you can fall back on in any number of difficult situations. While the workshop is truly basic, it gives you a framework you can build on for more advanced and personalized prepping. I would highly advise you get friends, neighbors, and family members to attend with you so you aren't shouldering the load alone.

Read more: http://www.independentlivingnews.com/zzDIY-for-placement/20444-7-ways-to-line-up-local-resources-in-a-pinch.stml?utm_source=150207ILNSLSUB&keycode=150207ILNSLSUB&u=bad84e30-ddc7-11e2-88f9-80ee731fd7a1#.VNf0By5uLTo#ixzz3RCSrI8mE

 

Preparedness Contest…although none of you ever entered ANY of the contests we held through the years, I thought we’d share this one with you.

http://www.instructables.com/contest/apocalypsepreparedness/

 

Secure communication for preppers »
Have you ever considered how you would communicate covertly and/or securely if the need were to arise? It could be for a number of reasons; maybe you simply don’t want someone to know what you are talking about or maybe it is more serious and electronic communications are not functioning because of an EMP. More »

 

Bio-gas from what? Yes, that’s right, human poop!
Human waste is often sieved, dried and used as manure in countryside locales, but in an increasing number of urban environments it’s now contributing to the local power grid.

Finding water in an emergency
You’ve done everything right. You set up a food storage system. You stored enough drinking water to last your household for a month. But what if something unexpected happens? What if your drinking water is contaminated? Or spilled? Or stolen? You and your family can’t live without clean water. So what do you do?

Preventing Septic Problems

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/are-you-ignoring-your-septic-tank-020615.html

 

Charcoal Powered Generator

 Ask any farmer, survival expert, Boy Scout, hippie or prepper and they will tell you the awesome uses for charcoal- from improving your garden to filtering water and field medicine. But did you know with a few scrap parts you can run an unmodified internal combustion engine?

http://www.instructables.com/id/Charcoal-Fire-Powered-Generator/

 

 

The Weekly Roundup of Useful Stuff

 

How to Find Truly Free Tax Software: You'd think "free" wouldn't be complicated. In the world of tax software, it is. This article published on Forbes covers what you need to know.

• The Disease of Being Busy (On Being):  "How did we create a world in which we have more and more and more to do with less time for leisure, less time for reflection, less time for community, less time to just… be?"

• The Big Lie: 5.6% Unemployment (Gallup): "There's no other way to say this. The official unemployment rate, which cruelly overlooks the suffering of the long-term and often permanently unemployed as well as the depressingly underemployed, amounts to a Big Lie."

• 17 Tools And Resources To Help You Pay Off Your Debt Faster (Wallet Impact): A very useful roundup of tools that can help you get out of debt.

How To Build A Tin Can WiFi Antenna That Gives You So Much Range You Will Kick Yourself For Not Doing It Sooner

 

·         How To Remove Skin Tags With One Simple Ingredient

 

·         19 Creative Small Space Food Storage Ideas

 

·         35 Unexpected Things To Add To Your Compost Pile

 

 

Yours for better living,

Bruce, the Poor Man

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Harvesting Heirloom Seeks-It's easier than you think

 

Poor Man Survival

Self Reliance tools for independent minded people…

http://PoorManSurvivor.net

 

ISSN 2161-5543

A Digest of Urban Survival Resources

Unemployment is capitalism's way of getting you to plant a garden.
- Orson Scott Card

 

 

Having your own garden is an important and valuable step in increasing your self-reliance.

If you’ve taking that a step further, as we’ve suggested, and begun using heirloom seeds in your garden, that's even better. Now, as your first harvests are beginning to come in, is the time to begin saving seeds for the next season.

That’s one of the beautiful things about heirloom seeds. A single heirloom plant now can grow your garden for years—or even generations—to come.

Seed harvesting is easy … as long as you know what to do with each of your heirloom plants.

For the most part, seeds fall into three categories: wet, dry, and flowering. If you know how to harvest seeds from each category, you’ll be pretty well set to make the very most of your heirloom garden year over year.

Harvesting Heirloom Seeds: Step-by-Step

So, let’s get started.

First there are wet seeds. These come from some of the most popular plants like tomatoes and cucumbers. In these plants, the seeds grow inside the fruit or vegetable. Often, you eat the seeds (though not always). And when you remove the seeds, you get a lot of pulp with them.

To harvest wet seeds:

1. Pick a healthy, ripe specimen of the fruit or vegetable.
2. Slice it in half. (For tomatoes, slice in half at the equator.) Gently squeeze or scoop out the seeds. Leave as much of the heartiest part of the vegetable behind as possible.
3. Put what you scoop out into a glass jar, and add water to cover the seeds.
4. Cover the jar, but not with an airtight seal.
5. Place the jar in a warm location. You want it to be between 60 and 70 degrees.
6. Stir the contents once a day. You may notice a fungus growing in the jar. Don’t worry. This is a good thing. It helps make your seeds more disease resistant.
7. Allow the seeds to sit for a while—three days for tomatoes, two days for eggplant and cumbers, a day and half for squash. Then, fill the jar with warm water and swirl it gently.

That’s one of the beautiful things about heirloom seeds. A single heirloom plant now can grow your garden for years—or even generations—to come.

Seed harvesting is easy … as long as you know what to do with each of your heirloom plants.

For the most part, seeds fall into three categories: wet, dry, and flowering. If you know how to harvest seeds from each category, you’ll be pretty well set to make the very most of your heirloom garden year over year.

1. Allow it to rest for a moment. Viable seeds will sink to the bottom.
2. Carefully pour off the water, pulp bits and seeds that have floated to the top.
3. Rinse the viable seeds so they are clean. Place them on a paper towel and allow them to dry completely.
4. Store the seeds in a plastic bag for the next year. (Don’t forget to label it!)

This process works for tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, most melons, and many types of squash.

Many other types of plants produce dry seeds. These seeds are often within pods, like peas and beans. But for other plants, the seeds grow within the vegetable--the difference from wet seeds is that they are easy to separate from the plant without getting a bunch of pulp in the process.

To harvest dry seeds if they grow in pods:

1. Allow several pods to continue growing on the plants until they dry out and become husks … usually about six weeks after the actual harvest is complete.
2. Pick the dried pods.
3. Gently crumble the husks from the seeds.
4. Store the seeds in labeled, plastic bags.

To harvest dry seeds from vegetables like peppers:

1. Select a healthy, mature specimen.
2. Cut it open and gently remove the seeds.
3. Put the seeds into a bowl of water.
4. Skim off the seeds that float and discard—they are bad seeds.
5. Gently pour away the water. Save the seeds that sank to the bottom.
6. Allow the saved seeds to dry completely on paper towels.
7. Store them in labeled, plastic bags for the following season.

Some plants, like lettuce don’t produce seeds within the edible parts of the plants. Instead, these plants have to flower and go to seed. This is true for lettuces, carrots, and radishes, just to name a few.

To harvest seeds from flowers:

1. Select two or three plants to save for seed harvesting rather than eating.
2. Allow those plants to bolt and flower. The flowers will form a seed head.
3. Cut the seed head from the plant, preserving as much stem as possible.
4. Hang seed heads to dry upside down over a container to catch seeds as they drop.
5. Allow the seed heads to dry for two or three weeks
6. Gently shake any remaining seeds from dried heads into containers.
7. Place the seeds in plastic bags, label, and store for the coming season.

Harvesting your own seeds is a rewarding and smart way to ensure that you have some insulation from our fragile food supply system. Seeds you save will actually remain viable for up to eight years when stored in a cool, dark place.

Seed saving is also a great way to add healthy, nutritious and tasty food to you diet for years and years to come!

Source: http://www.independentlivingnews.com

 

 

Other useful gems for living…

Making composting easy
read more here

 

How To Get Free Plants (Genius Idea!)

 

10 Weird Intensive Gardening Methods That Really Work

 

What To Plant Now For A Fall Harvest

 

Find DIY and Homemade ideas here:

http://www.poormansurvival.com/Pages/Homemade.aspx                                           

 

 

 

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Yours in freedom,

Bruce ‘the Poor Man’

 

 

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