Posts Tagged urban survival
Fruit trees and the urban survivalist
Fruit trees are the friend of the urban survivalist. Unlike a garden, you do not have to replant the fruit tree every year, during the spring your neighbors will be jealous of the beautiful blooms, dwarf fruit trees can be planted just about anywhere, and some types of fruit trees are high producers. Meaning, that with just 1 or 2 trees, your family should be able to put up plenty of preserves.
Some types of dwarfs may not get 8 feet tall and might be something good to plant in the corners of your fence. If you have a fence in your backyard, what do you have planted in the corners right now anyway? Planting the fruit tree across the back fence might provide it with more sun light, as compared to planting it between the houses.
Over the past few years I have made it a point to plant some fruit trees. Some of the types I have planted include peach, plum, apple, and a fig tree.
When picking the different types of trees that you want to plant, take into consideration when the fruit is ready to be picked. I like to plant different types of trees so that the fruit ripens at different times. One might ripen in July, another might ripen in August, and another might ripen in September. This gives me time to preserve the fruit. Even if I do not preserve the fruit, having the fruit ripen at different times spreads out my food supply.
While planting the peach trees, I used miracle grow organic potting soil and some miracle grow plant food. The plant food said it was 10-10-10 with a little extra sulfur mixed in.
I thought about throwing some nuts, bolts or nails in the hole before the tree is set in. That way the tree has a source of trace minerals will will take a long time to break down. This was not done during the 2007, 2008 0r 2009 planting season, but I might do it this year. There are some 3/4 inch round bar rods at the camp. I though about cutting some pieces off of those bars – say about 2 – 3 inches long – and putting the bar under the tree. It might take those bars decades to break down all the way where there is nothing left
In 2008 I spread some 13-13-13 fertilizer around a peach tree in the spring. We were “supposed” to get some rain to help was the fertilizer in. We did not get the rain and the tree died. I think I put too much fertilizer around the tree. So in the spring of 2010, I’am going easy with the fertilizer.
Post your comments in this forum thread about fruit trees.
Floods from nautral disasters
This is the intersection of HWY 87 and chemical road, which is between Orange and Bridge City, Texas. 2 major intersections which were blocked by debris and water from Hurricane Ike. Keep in mind, this intersection is about 20 inland from the Gulf of Mexico.
As far as anyone could remember, this part of Orange County, Texas had never flooded – at least not this bad anyway. When Hurricane Ike pushed the storm surge into the communities of Southeast Texas, a lot of people were caught unprepared. An unknown number of people did not have flood insurance, mainly because the area where they live had never flooded.
Some of the lessons learned:
You can not protect your house against something like a hurricane. What you do, is make sure you have plenty of insurance, both flood and home owners.
My mom and dad will be ok. They have home owners and flood insurance. For the most part they will recover.
My brother had flood insurance, but nothing on the contents. Meaning he lost everything in his house with 4 – 5 feet of water.
My buddy did not have any flood insurance. He got about 2 feet of water in his house and has lost almost everything.
To protect your family and your property, have a fall back position. My family used my house as such a location. They had a safe place to stay, instead of sleeping in hotels and spending a small fortune on rooms and food.
When the local authorities call for an evacuation, heed those warnings, pack up your stuff and leave. Property can be replaced, lives can not.
How fast things can break down
In February 2008, some thunderstorms rolled through the town I live in, knocking out power to thousands of the local residents. During the storm a bolt of lightening hit a transformer at the local Wal-mart. In a larger town this might not be a problem, but in Jasper, Texas there are only 2 grocery stores – Wal-mart and Brookshire brothers.
Within hours of the power going out, the wal-mart employees were throwing away meat and other products that can spoil. What gets me, why did the store throw the meat away? Why not give it to the community? I guess if they throw it away, its counted as a lose and insurance will cover it.
The store was closed and locked down. So 1/2 of the food in this town was cut off. Just one lightening strike did all of this.
This is a good example – when there is a disaster, companies will be looking at how to protect their profits, not how people can work together.
Post your comments in the how fast things can break down thread of the forums.
Urban survival and safe drinking water
Over the past few weeks I have been putting a lot of thought into the availability of safe drinking water in an urban survival situation. Its not enough to have access to “water”, when its not safe to drink.
Its common knowledge that people require food, water and shelter to live. From those three points it breaks down into sub categories. Such as what kind of food, what kind of shelter and what kind of water.
I have decided to break my water preps into 3 simple phases based on the amount of safe drinking water you have access to – short term, mid term, long term.
Short term – this is your bottled water. Regardless if its 1 pint plastic bottles, or 55 gallon drums, this is your short term solution.
Why is it short term? Because its in limited supply – sooner or later its going to run out.
Mid Term – This is something like a berkey water filter, something where you can take river, lake or pond water, filter it and make it safe to drink.
The mid term solution does not rely on stockpiling massive amounts of water. You keep a little water at your house, then use the filters to make water from outside sources safe to drink.
Filtration could be either a short or mid term solution – because the filters have a limited life. Even if the filter has a rating of 10,000 gallons, that is still a hard limit.
Long term – Something along the lines of a private well. You have your own private supply of safe drinking water. Wells have allowed mankind to have safe drinking water for thousands of years. There is no reason why they will not work today.
One of the problems faced in the urban jungle – some cities prohibit citizens from having a private well. If that is the case, then the laws need to be changed. People should have the right to access the water under their land.
In some areas, such as around chemical plants, the ground water might not be safe to drink. Dumping and leaking of chemicals have contaminated the ground water in places like Port Arthur Texas and Houston Texas.
Over the years I have seen a lot of water storage solutions discussed. Some of those solutions include – cases of bottled water, 35 and 55 gallon drums, water beds, 500 gallon above ground storage tanks, swimming pools, fish tanks, rivers, streams, private wells.
Regardless of the solution, it all goes back to – is the water safe to drink – yes or no? If the answer is no, what is required to make the water safe to drink? Is that solution a permanent solution? Or will it run out, or wear out – like a filter will do?
The next question is – is the water supply a permanent solution? Yes or no?
Bleach or other chemicals – not a permanent solution
Man Made Filters – not a permanent solution
Mechanical Desalination – not a permanent solution
The final goal is to have a permanent solution for safe drinking water.
Please post your comments in the Urban Survival Water Solutions thread of the forum.
Good hot meal after a disaster
Never underestimate the power of a good hot meal during times of stress. After a disaster, and stress levels are up, food can be used as a comfort blanket.
When my family returned home after hurricane Rita, and Hurricane Ike in 2008, we found the yard covered with tree limbs. One tree in the back yard had blown down, but landed away from my house. Some of our group started cleaning up the yard, and piling the limbs up. While this cleaning up was going on I started cooking.
The pit was fired up, some sausage and steaks were cooked and we all had a feast right before dark.
It was of great comfort to have a good hot meal after a stressful event. The night before, it sounded like we had a train sitting on top of us for about 8 hours. The next morning everyone was stressed out, and edgy, but the hot meal was like a turning point for that day.
After a stressful event, plan on the group using a feast to comfort and reassure them that life will return back to normal. Then is not the time for powered eggs and freeze dried foods. Pull the steaks or ribs out of the freezer and cook them up.
The food in the freezer should be eaten before the packaged stuff anyway. So its a win win situation. The group gets a good hot meal and the perishable foods are eaten before they spoil.
Never underestimate the power of a good hot meal. It can really help with the morale of the group.
Post your comments in this thread of the urban survival forum.
Patio Gardening Project Finale and Review
This is the finale to our patio gardening project. So lets discuss how things went, the results and the types of seeds we should stockpile.
Overall, I was how the project went. Even though the box that the plants grew in was only about 6 inches tall, it seemed that the plants grew pretty good for the amount of sunlight, water and fertilizer they received.
Because the growth of the plants was stunted, lets not grow anything that takes a long time to mature – like watermelons, or squash.
Instead, lets focus on plants that can grow quick, do not require cooking and can be eaten at any time. A few examples of these include greens, radishes, and cabbage.
Patio Gardening Project – 2nd Update
This is the second update to the Urban Survival Patio Gardening series. In the first video, the 2 tubs were taken, filled with potting soil and were planted with radishes and spinach. The feetilizer that was used was stuff that you might use for flowers.
Episode 1 – the introduction
Episode 2 – the first update
The radish tops are about 1 inch – 1 1/2 inches across. I feel that their growth might be a little stunted due to the cool weather and lack of full sunlight.
The spinach has not done anything worth talking about. Just a few are sprouting and they are not really doing anything.
The green onions are coming along rather nicely with new shoots 1/4 inch – 3 inches tall. The green onions came from a local grocery store, the tops were cut off for a baked potato and the root ball was planted. Within a matter of days new shoots are starting to come out of the onion.
Urban Survival Patio Gardening – Episode 1
This is the first video in a series on Urban Survival Patio Gardening. The plans are to take a plastic tub and turn it into a small garden. The tubs were used to store canned goods and dried products under beds and out of sight of friends and family members.
Once the food is taken out of the tubs, they are just sitting there not doing anything. So lets take them fill em full of dirt, add some fertilizer, seeds and lets see what happens.
Generators and disaster preparedness
Picking the right generator to power your house during a power outage can be a tricky job. If your serious about getting the right generator for the job, then its time to call in a professional. For this video, Billy Williford of Doug Williford & Son AC and Heating was interviewed. Billy installs Generac generators in the Jasper, Texas area. So if you need a generator, and live in Southeast Texas, give Billy a call at 409-384-5458.
Instead of having to worry about storing gasoline, consider getting a generator that runs off of Propane or Natural Gas. During power outages, gas stations do not have a way to pump gas out of the underground storage tanks. After hurricanes, uprooted trees have the chance of pulling up buried natural gas lines. But with propane, it will stay stored for years.
Post your comments in this thread of the disaster preparedness forum.
Survival Garden Seeds
Survival Food
Every survivalist should have seeds stockpiled for a survival garden. The first questions is, why would anyone need a “survival garden?” During extended wide spread disasters, food production and shipments might get disrupted. Most grocery stores only have a few days worth of supplies in their warehouse. When the panic buying kicks in, those stocks could be wiped out in a matter of hours.
In the days before a hurricane makes landfall, local grocery stores are cleaned out. There is no reason to think the same thing will not happen if there is an outbreak of some kind of new disease, or some kind of other world wide event.
During outbreaks of the plague in the middle ages, starvation was a serious issue. As farmers were dying off, and the merchants died off, there was nobody to raise the food or ship it to the cities. People who live in an urban environment, and who depend on the grocery store for their food – they especially need to take home gardening very seriously.