Preparing for the Future 03

ON FOOD STORAGE..

Food storage when living subsistence can be problematic.... There is a natural law, that if there is a supply of food, very soon, something will arrive to eat it......

What this means, is that the plastic bags, and paper cartons food comes in when you buy it, may not protect it from whatever comes to eat it.... home grown food hasn't the absurd packaging, but still has the eaters showing up....

Food storage is a critical issue, and if you are lax, you will suffer disappointment, and maybe have to go hungry some. People who are born and raised into the technocult, have acquired food storage habits, and give little thought to the issue, other than opening cans and jars and cartons, and putting unused portions back in the cupboard or fridge.....

In a subsistence situation, or a nomadic one, there may not be cupboards or refrigerators...
So now what do you do?? also there is a worse chance of problems with moisture, insects, rodents, etc., that people without experience will have a hard time believing until it happens to them..... One realization I made years ago, was that culture is more than we tend to think it is, and that its culture that allows humans to live in harsh environments.
Most people in modern times think culture is the language one speaks, the education one receives, the Architecture thats in style, and how much snobbery and ego one can acquire via economic means......

Culture originally had little to do with anything similar to what we have going now...
Yes there was language, but it was for communicating while co-operating, be it hunting, fishing, or gathering in the harvest.....
The Education one got came from one's parents, grandparents, and friends and neighbors...
and this culture was the school of how to survive in the local ambient.
Architecture was whatever it took to do the job in the local climate, and if the group was nomadic, so was the house....
Social status was dependent on one's value to the group.... grandparents were generally esteemed.... they'd seen a lot, learned much, and been who had nursed the newer generations through good times and bad......

People had value...... and their connections socially were very important..... survival and comfort depended on these social networks and systems.....

Modern life is a false parody of these customs..... similar, except money has allowed much ego to creep into the mix..... And people who rate value by money will soon learn different.

Food storage used to be something that was done well, and each generation passed the whatever really works systems on to the next. But now we have a generation of humans with little experience at anything practical, and who haven't a clue about the difficulties storing food when the refrigerator no longer functions, or when they cant go to the store for more of whatever it is they want at the moment....

One sees food storage systems in the countryside that have been traditional for generations, Silos for corn, drying towers for hops, barns full of hay, barrels and bins for grain on small farms, and grain elevators for the co-ops.....

Its an inter-networking food storage culture.....

And if the fossil fuel supply goes down for any reason, much of it will become instantly useless, other than to attract raiders...... No one will be able to fill a silo with corn by using muscle power, unless there are a crowd of workers ready to co-operate and bust butt to make it happen......

And I dont think people who have never co-operated in anything more serious than a meeting at the office, will get much corn in the silo.....

I also dont think people will co-operate naturally, until a while after the crash, humans will need time to realize that work is “the” survival skill, and that group co-operation gets the most results.... at first it will be a continuation of the billions of separate ego trips, i.e. The effect causing the collapse, and then after much suffering, people will slowly begin to realize the value of each other..... basically everyone is acting like an infinite number of two year old kids, add some technology, and economy to the mix, and its a fair description of what passes for reality....

So its probably a good idea to be prepared for the time when few are helping each other, and the real piggy types are helping themselves to what wasn't theirs......

Food storage for one person, or a small family is easier than building a silo or a cellar,
but it still requires “things”, mostly containers, but also sacks, and bags....
the old Boyscout field book calls a backpack a “bag of bags”, because one tends to bag food, clothing, etc., in small bags, and carry them in the big bag.....

Bags are great for carrying things, but bugs and rodents have no problem chewing holes in them to get at the food.... also some bags don't protect against moisture, and some bags dont last very long under the conditions back in the weeds......

The best universal container for survival use made to date, is the U.S. Military ammo-can,
especially the larger sizes.... rats and bugs? Sorry guys, no free lunch today....
moisture? Not if you take care to keep the moisture outside of the gasketed lid...
for salt water marine climate use they dont last long, and in the tropics, their life is limited by rust making holes in them, usually on the bottom where the paint gets worn off... they need undercoated, or some way to protect the bottoms....

At sea and in the tropics, one tends to use plastic for storage containers, the keep bugs, rodents and moisture out, and are cheap, readily available, etc., I dislike plastic as food containers, but its what I can get for now.... On land, one can use stainless, without the pitting common at sea.... Few realize that during extended times at sea, you must use sea water for cleaning, and it will eat holes in the best stainless, unless you at least rinse with fresh water... Better to go with cheap porcelain coated steel cookware for the boat on crossings, and use the stainless in port, or when you have plenty of fresh water.....

Lately I've been coming across some nice stainless round cans, at kitchen stores, like canisters for wheat flour, sugar, etc. these are my number one choice for food storage containers, but are still fairly spendy for me on my third world budget.... they can generally be taped or gasketed, and the lids should go down over the sides a ways, for rain etc.
They stop roaches, rats, and moisture.... I even use them for matches, which are problematic in the tropics due to the high humidity.......

I'm in process on building some simple wooden boxes for storage also... this was the traditional woodsman's answer to rats a century ago..... and also traditional for sailors.....
In the western states, its still fairly common for habitual campers to have a “kitchen box” stored up in the attic with the tent.... I've made many boxes, and moved many times, and the biggest problem is that one tends to make the boxes too big to move comfortably......
so my latest box project is for several smaller boxes....

Another Nomadic realization I've had is concerning food drying, Here in Panarica, done on a tarp in the yard.... corn, beans, cacao, all seen in people's front yards, drying in the sun like the California raisins in mobile home parks.... I use the tarps too, but also am buying some fairly cheap Chinese and Indian stainless trays, as I've discovered that a big pizza pan holds a lot of corn etc., and they can be moved in out of the afternoon rains easier than stuff on a tarp..... and they are fairly nomadic, and stack nice for storage, but always seem to be all in use doing something......

For the lone backpack refugee, storage is a problem, and if you make it out in time, and begin growing food, my best advice is take the storage problem very very seriously, or you may have to look under rocks for food until you can harvest again.... Rodents, Insects etc., will arrive, and what food you have, they will soon ruin.... its a personal survival issue, and a constant war for thousands of years..... And I have learned this all the hard way.....

Drying seems to be the best way to store food for a nomadic situation, grocery store cans and jars are too heavy, and you dont want to carry all that water around, nicer to get it on site, and add it later..... food drying is a fun hobby, from Jerky, to dried fruit, its all good, and all worth doing. There are many food drying systems on the market..... most seem to require a power outlet..... I decided it was wiser to relocate a few thousand miles farther south to where the sun comes out...... 'best place to dry anything is on the roof if you have one....
I've built drying racks, solar dryers, you name it, but a good roof still works best....

For our noble refugee type, he can use his truck tarp to dry foods...... and if he or she was wise enough to evolve an Organic/Nomadic lifestyle ahead of time, they may have things a bit better.... Perhaps a Gypsy trailer with a roof and a wood stove......


GYPSYS.......

And by Gypsy trailer, I dont mean a Camper.... Campers fall apart very fast, the roofs leak, the frame rots out, and the mice and rats come to live in the walls....
Much better to build something smaller, simpler, and better built. And if possible pulled by horses.... When I was a kid I lived in Europe, and saw the Roma People in various countries, and was always enchanted by the idea of a mobile life... at the time they had already mostly switched to pulling their wagons with Pick-up trucks, and the wagons had evolved into something on a trailer axle instead of wagon wheels, but they still were built with the rounded roofs, door in the back with steps, and windows on the sides etc., And I saw them as something that added to the ambient.... For someone wishing a re-birth of this type of life, I advise getting away from the motor vehicle first, unless you wish to end up living next to a closed gas station after the collapse.... And horses have their limits, and what the Gypsys in Europe had for wagons would have taken a minimum of two horses to pull on the flats, and at least four in any hills, and thats a lot of horses to have to feed. I've thought for years on it, and often think of designs for a micro-wagon, built more as a cart for a single horse, and still have a bed, a stove, countertop, windows, doors, and a driving seat under the roof.

I noticed in the seventies, observing the Hippy movement, that house trucks were very popular, also buses, converted into living devices, These had problems, foremost being requiring licenses, insurance, fuel, and a job to pay for all that. The inability of the counter culture to let go of motors is part of what led to its demise.... If they had gone to horse power, or camel power like Mad Max, they may have been able to permanently separate themselves from the system...... The other problem is the Women had kids, and then women insisted that little Johny go in for proper Mental Programming in town at the public brainwash station for kids, i.e. School... They might have as well fed their kids into a sausage machine.....

Now little Johny has kids, wouldn't know an organic turnip from a chemical beet, and thinks the 60's and 70's was about tie-dyed t-shirts.....

If you like to read fiction, and the horse cart/ wagon idea strikes you, Read Andre Norton's “Moon of three rings”, an enchanting account of a nomadic culture.....Another is her “Starman's son” Probably “the” future survival classic.............

The difference between now and the 70's, is that its too late baby..... too late for Bio-diesel, or Alcohol fuels, or Fuel cell cars etc., and we are getting hit with proof on the nightly news..... One who is the least bit intelligent is starting to look for the exit sign, and sniffing smoke in The Great Theater Of the Mind, that we consider reality.... Do you really believe it will take 50 years for things to get really bad??? I think 5 years will see a doubling of the problems, and the serious stuff 10 to 15 years out at most.... Its 'gonna get YOU!

Most have the Hippy-head problem; 'cant let go of their motor............. No doubt plenty of survivalist types planning to haul the camper out of town, and homestead some turn-out on a back road..... That should really please the people already living near there, eh? Especially when millions of them do it.... not to mention the even less prepared showing up, and filling in where-ever possible.... Post collapse should see the highway system become a virtual strip city.....Or a strip war zone.....

I think I'd rather be able to pull out my pliers, cut the fence, fill the ditch, and pull my horse cart out into the open space, where one can take off in most any direction at any time and so get away from the insanity along the roads..... Roads are funny things, your friends can come to visit on them... so can other people..... say the type who dont bother to prepare because they are used to getting what ever they want with a gun.......... Campers, trucks, cars, dont make it far off the improved roads, even four wheel drives.... But a small horse cart could...... And hopefully the raider types will run out of fuel for their quads, or else they have plenty of fat victims along the roads systems..... And Just never go off in search of the few that made it across the ditch and through the wire to freedom, the ones who prepared, evolved a new culture, and became free.......




If we make it past the next few years, and We get enough stuff up in space, perhaps the collapse can be turned into a recession, kind of like the government talking heads do with economic depressions that don't affect the people making over six digits on their pay checks....

GOVERNMENTS are OBSOLETE....
I think that Government itself is obsolete now due to Internet, If you think about the American form of government, it was designed for the reality in horse powered transport days, and pre-telephone era....

Everybody didn't have time to go legislate, so they elected representatives, who rode to the capital, and did what farmers do there.... Nobody seems to have noticed, that we have instant communications now, and that more people believe what NGO's say, than that believe what say the talking heads on boob-tube that have the government jobs.... I'd much rather Amnesty International was working for my release, than the local embassy.....

My point is, we dont need government anymore, the public is watch-dogging the corporations via the web, and we vote with our purchases...... we could also have better luck with our democracy, if voting was not with the black boxes, but with websites open to all...... When there was fraud, the people would be able to find it......... the Era of the Internet Referendum is already here, why should we all pay half of our earnings, for some sick liars, with jowls that would grace blue ribbon swine, to go represent us? (read; stab us in the back and take the money and run.)

The corporations also cant like paying the government for controlling them, as taxes, and also be expected to shell out millions for re-election campaigns, to keep the drones off their backs.... So I envision Public/Private partnerships that exclude the existence of government, i.e. The public part be really public, and not filtered though the hog trough of politics.....”Liberation Fascism?” The people and the companies? Instead of the government and the companies? Think about it, the companies need consumers, the companies need workers, the consumers need food and other goods, and they need jobs to pay for it..... its all the same people..... Where does either side really need government? A lot more paycheck, a lot more profit...... and with modern trends of worker buy-in's into companies, its already starting, and if it lasts long enough, will naturally evolve into people who make up different areas of production, doing real free trade..... I hear a lot on radio about free trade this and free trade that.... Bullshit! I'll believe in free trade's existence when I can grow a load of spuds, put them in my boat, and sail them to the next country and sell them without having any one so much as notice me.... do you 'spose free trade means no bureaucracy? Or no patrol boats, or no fees, or no import or export licenses? No! what Free trade really means is; “we'll let you take our worthless fiat currency for your dwindling resources, and convince you were doing you a favor.”


These days the average worker is being forced to pay taxes that make the Romans look very kind......
So I see the potential for a deal, whereby group B, and group C, eliminate group A, and split the proceeds......
Besides, world government isn't going to save us, its just the same thieves united.... the solution is not more concentration of power, its to decentralize everyone and everything, so that use of fosil fuels aren't required to convert resources into dinners.... And also so any disaster doesn't have a concentration of victims... The only reason anyone lives in the city is the money game....

Neither group has much use for group A................Government is the original protection racket, as stated by Bucky Fuller, and other than sticking guns in peoples faces and extorting money, What real good do they do? They Obviously aren't helping the people in this country, nor controlling the borders, Instead they have our collective nose in the mid-east, where its getting burnt off..... I suggest that we respectfully let the Muslims fix their own problems, and that we adopt a trade policy that mirrors responsibility, I.E. Countries with human rights, workers rights, and pollution issues dont get to import, no matter what they have, or who they know.... Ditto for corporations.......

How to make it happen? Vote with you wallet, the companies will do anything for money, even build Gypsy carts, if they are hot sellers, its government that is the problem, its only product is waste...... Why do 60% of all American workers spend their days in cubicals in front of computers doing forms? It ain't because thats necessary for production of anything... The way to eliminate government, is to quit feeding it, you know; dont feed the bears, and they have to work too..... And I'm not saying become a tax resistor, which is mostly a ticket to the federal prison system, I'm saying work your way clear, to a life that doesn't require money... Jesus said it in the parable of Caesar's coin, his concept had two sides just like the coin, that if you use Caesar's coin you will end up paying taxes, but the other side of the balance was that if you dont use the system, you dont pay taxes either...
And he went on with the parable of the birds and animals not holding down jobs..... amazing that he suggested the same things I'm suggesting, and even after 2000 years, everyone is still supporting the Roman army thats brutalizing and enslaving them..... Money is such addictive stuff..... and most people are so lazy, that few slaves of any color ever try to escape into self-sufficiency............

Like King Solomon stated, “The lazy will surely pay tribute” Tribute is a pre-politically correct word for taxes, the conquered pay tribute, whether conquered by an army, or conquered by a TV they themselves bought on credit...... Well, soon the lazy wont eat, and a little while after that, they wont have houses, or water to drink, Nor fuel for their campers, Nor jobs to hate for 40 hours a week.... its just a matter of time now, and the only question, is how many will survive, and who will survive?

Increase your odds, now................. by working towards a more natural life, and by putting your investment money into opening the door to the universe.... the Space Elevators......
i.e. Use your income to change things on both ends..... in your own life, and for your children's children....... Humanity, is going to seed into space, or maybe go extinct, and its the mobile self-sufficient type who will go...... people who know how to grow food, how to fix and make things, and how to live in balance with an environment.....

THE ONLY THING WORTH BUYING, IS YOUR FREEDOM.