noted on Mon, 27 Oct 2003
noted on Thu, 23 Oct 2003
noted on Mon, 20 Oct 2003
noted on Thu, 16 Oct 2003
noted on Wed, 15 Oct 2003
noted on Wed, 08 Oct 2003
Making Fire
Pretend once again you’re lost in the woods. You’ve already secured your source of water, you’re built your shelter, so now what do you need? Likely, you’d want a fire for warmth, security, cooking, or any combination thereof.
So you brought waterproof matches, right? No? Ah well, we can work around that…
...
noted on Thu, 23 Oct 2003
Refrigerating With The Sun
Update: Added info about Zeolite-water ice makers and re-edited.
When your electricity fails, with it goes your ability to refrigerate. A well-insulated, full refrigerator will keep the perishable contents for perhaps 4 hours with the door kept shut. A full freezer should be fine for 48 hours. See Keeping Food Safe During An Emergency for further recommendations.
So, what can you do if power goes off for days or weeks? Well, you could use a propane refrigerator or if you would prefer to prepare ahead of time and like the notion of both independence and sustainability, you could try building a solar ice maker (pdf).
...
noted on Mon, 20 Oct 2003
Snow Shelters
A debris hut is good shelter when you can readily find dry leaves, branches, grasses, and other materials. What happens if all of that useful shelter-building material is hidden under a big pile of snow? Naturally, you build a snow shelter instead.
There are many different ways to build a snow shelter, but all of them share a few key features:
- Thick walls: Snow is a good insulator, but not exactly a stellar building material. Make sure you walls are good and thick to prevent collapse.
- Elevated sleep platform: Cold air sinks, so it’s a good idea to dig a trench beside your sleep or rest platform, or dig such a space above your ‘floor’.
- Ventilation: A good snow shelter can also be very airtight. Be sure you have a small hole in the top of your structure to provide you with some fresh air. Warm and cozy should not equal ‘suffocated’.
You can decide for yourself what kind of structure you want to build, but it will largely be dictated by the quantity and quality of snow around you. Just remember that snow insulates well but also melts, so you can surround yourself and keep warm, but try to also find a method to keep dry.
...
noted on Thu, 16 Oct 2003
Preserve Your Food With The Sun
So you’re tired of hauling ice every morning, but still need to preserve a lot of food. There are methods to preserve food other than freezing or refrigerating, which include canning (the subject of a future post) and dehydrating, otherwise known as drying. Properly dried, food enzymes are deactivated to prevent discolouration, vitamins are preserved, and the moisture content is too low for bacteria or mould to form. Additionally, food becomes much lighter and sees a reduction in volume, making it easier to store. The question is how to dry food effectively?
Electric food dehydrators are available, but their obvious downfall is their reliance on electricity. They are still quite useful in preparing emergency rations for short-term problems like power outages or being house bound due to inclement weather. However, for those looking for a longer-term solution, or a sustainable one, I would suggest a solar food dehydrator.
This particular (pdf) dehydrator has been extensively researched and tested in laboratory studies. With some creativity and common sense I’m sure you can find ways to improve the design for your own use as well. For starters, how about foregoing the expensive stainless steel mesh and simply using off-the-shelf cooling racks instead?
If you’re going to make your own solar dehydrator, just make sure it doesn’t turn into a solar oven instead.
...
How to Maintain and Repair a Bike.
This looks like an excellent resource.
Update: the link to the site has been updated.
...
Making An Overnight Shelter
Most of us will never find ourselves lost in the woods with night falling. Most of us would also not know what to do if we did end up in that situation. Luckily, there is an excellent article explaining how to build a debris hut out of materials easily found out in the bush.
A debris hut is nothing more than a pile of debris, like leaves, dry grasses, branches, and whatever else is lying around, with a spot for you to sleep and some protection from blowing away. Think of it as a tent within a tent. Build a tent skeleton from sticks, pile as much debris on as you can, add another tent of branches to keep your pile from blowing away, and you’ve got a cozy nest to sleep in.
This method could also be easily adapted for the urban environment. Paper, cardboard, and plastic wrap would replace debris, and posts, bars, lengths of wood or steel could be the structural elements. Of course, in an urban environment you’re more likely to find shelter of a more permanent and secure sort, but it’s good to have options.
...
noted on Wed, 15 Oct 2003
In this Site…
Archives:
  |
Total: 24 About: 4 equipment: 3 food: 9 animals: 1 farming: 1 farming: 2 nature: 1 preserving: 2 water: 2 reference: 3 shelter: 3 construction: 3 society: 1 transportation: 1 bicycle: 1 |
...
noted on Wed, 08 Oct 2003
Growing Grains?
You need to eat. No matter the situation, you need to eat, and in some cases it’s imperative that you do to keep your strength up. A large portion of our diet is (generally) made up of carbohydrates, so it’s obviously important to find a source of carbohydrates. If you’ll be doing a lot of manual labour, carbs are especially important to keep your energy up.
Let’s assume you have some land and some equipment. You even have some seeds to plant. How much do you plant to sustain yourself?
Going back to daily caloric requirements, you’ll see that one person will need about 370g of carbohydrates a day. If you’re in dire straights, you could eat nothing but grains, but that wouldn’t be good for you in the long run. Nevertheless, let’s assume you really like fresh bread, and round that 370g/day up to 400g, which translates into 1000g of actual grain products you need to eat.
So, 1kg/day. As you’ll likely only get one growing season, you’ll need to harvest your annual carb intake all in one season. That means 365kg per person per harvest. So, how much do you plant to get that kind of a harvest?
- Wheat Average yield: .31kg/m2, requiring 1180m2 per person, a circle 39m across
- Oats Average yield: .36kg/m2, 1010m2 per person, a circle 36m across
- Barley Average yield: .56kg/m2, 650m2 per person, a circle 29m across
[What’s with all the circles? A circle is the way to enclose the most area with the least perimeter. If you’re going to fence your crop, a circle will use the least amount of fence per area enclosed.]
Please note that despite my research, this may not be a good representation of what your yields will be. This data is from commercial farming, using big equipment, fertilizers, chemicals, the whole nine yards. You’ll likely be simply using yourself. Expect lower yields typically, although who knows what good effects the use of chicken manure will have on your crop, or the use of heartier natural grain varieties.
For a much more authoritative article on grains, look at Mother Earth News’ archives.
...