The Electrical Filing Cabinet ... Most of Us Have One

So, in a powered down society, why would we want electricity anyway? Most of the things we'll be doing will be done by hand.

In Surviving the Apocalypse in the Suburbs, I explore different options for generating electricity in the event the power grid goes down. I'm, personally, interested in becoming energy self-sufficient - partially because I don't like some of the ways the electricity I use is generated (nuclear, coal, oil, natural gas), and I don't want to be dependent on those, but also because the company that supplies our electricity to us acts just like every other corporation in this country and that is they view me as a "consumer" and therefore, they can do whatever they wish, and I can't complain because they believe the service they provide is invaluable to me, and I'm willing to just let them have their way as long as they keep giving me what they think I need. Fact is, I don't need their service for my personal health and well-being, and the more we do by hand, the less energy we'll need to be able to generate and the closer we come to being able to make our own. I'm really looking forward to the day when I can thumb my nose at them, by giving them a call and demanding they take their smart meters off my house.

Right now, I want to generate my own, because I don't want to be a slave to a corporation that doesn't care about me as a living, breathing being, but I don't think I'd be allowed to live here without any power at all. Long term, the desire to generate my own electricity has to do with the hope that I can keep a couple of important appliances running, but also because there is, at least, one gadget that is just handy to have, and that is, my computer.

I've had a computer for just about half my life. My first computer was a Sanyo something*something. It had two 5 1/4" floppy drives - one for the program disk and one to save my files. My guess is that a lot of people reading this won't know what any of that means.

My second computer was an awesome, state-of-the-art desk top with a harddrive. I thought I had something pretty special. I joined the Army. My computer went into storage for a year while I was in Basic and at AIT, and a year later, when I was reunited with my computer, it was already obsolete. No one was even using 5 1/4" floppys. They'd been replaced by 3 1/2" floppys, and they were quickly being phased out, too, in favor of bigger hard-drives.

The advances in computer technology moved really fast during that time.

In the late 1990s, I bought my first, really top-of-the-line computer, because I needed it for my business. I could even connect up to the Internet via my dial-up connection. I think I had a 500mb hard drive. My daughter's DS has a bigger hard drive than that computer, but at the time, I was pretty psyched about how much computer power I had at my finger tips.

The thing is, back in those days, the Internet was brand new, computer games were, well, computer games and no one expected the animation to look real (anyone remember the ascii character computer games? Anyone even know what an ascii character is anymore?). There was no Facebook, and the equivalent was a forum or chatroom.

But we still managed to find all sorts of uses for computers. I used mine, primarily, for typing. I've operated a home business since 1998, and I've used a computer for all of my work-related tasks from typing the actual documents to keeping my business records.

I've also used my computer for other record-keeping tasks related to my children's homeschooling. I have pictures - both snapshots of them in our daily lives to scanned images of things they've drawn - journals, yearbook pages, worksheets and coloring pages I can print out for them to do, schedules, letters to the state ... you name it. If it's about homeschooling, it's probably on my computer.

Over the years, I've used my computer for other tasks, like storing music files, and at one point, a few years ago, we started phasing out CDs in favor of digital music players, and I started transferring all of my music onto my computer. I have hundreds of hours of music, including some pretty adorable recordings of my daughters singing when they were small.

Modern computers have an amazing storage capacity, especially when compared to what I had as a college student. In fact, I still have some of my college papers stored on my computer. The files have been transferred from 5 1/4" floppy to 3 1/2" floppy disk to hard drive and translated from one word processing program to the next many times over the years. In addition, I have downloaded, what could be very important, e-books, like Hesperian's Where There is No Dentist. While I store e-books, Deus Ex Machina has been storing "survival videos" on his computer.

Most of the stuff I have on my computer, and about half the stuff I do on my computer in an average day has nothing to do with the Internet.

Wait ... what? You mean you can use a computer without the Internet?!?!

Which brings me to the point of this post and how it relates to preparedness for a lower energy future.

No one needs a computer to survive. In fact, if the EMP people are correct, and TEOTWAWKI comes about suddenly as a result of an EMP attack, nothing electronic will work, anyway. If it didn't work, or if I had no way to keep it powered up, I'd tuck the computer into a drawer and forget about it.

That said, my overall preparedness plan includes some way to generate small amounts of electricity, not because I'm hoping to stay connected via the Internet. When the grid goes down, so too, will the Internet, and even as dim as I am, I know that. Keeping my laptop powered has nothing to do with any hope that I might be able to stay in contact with my blog readers or my Facebook friends, and everything to do with the vast amount of pretty important information that's available on this little machine.

And I'm pretty sure that our bicycle generator - as long as we can keep it running - will be enough to power the laptop so that we can have access to what's stored on it.

100 Items - Making Power

My pet project for the last few years has been to lower our overall electricity usage. Over the years, I've given the evil-eye to every single electrical appliance in my house - many of which are no longer in my house ... like a television set (which, we estimate, used 40 kwh/month), and a clothes dryer (which uses a lot more than a television, but is no less unnecessary).

There are other appliances that are still in the house, but which we no longer use ... like the oil furnace that uses electricity to operate the blower that forces the oil-heated air through the ducts and the portable dishwasher, which is currently serving as a countertop and glorified dish drainer.

There are still others that are in use, but which I would love to find an alternative for ... like the refrigerator.

We could live completely without electricity. People did for thousands of years, and I don't think that the hundred or so years we've lived with electric lights have caused us to evolve into beings that would die-off without that little spark coming in the house.

That said, there are some things I'd like to have, that are useful, like this computer I'm typing on - although, without the Internet, for my purposes, the computer is little more than a fancy typewriter, and I could do the same thing, much cheaper, with a real typewriter - electric or not. I also like my washing machine, and the freezer is pretty important to us, right now.

In most preparedness discussions, there's always talk about how to keep the lights on - or rather, how to generate electricity independent of the grid. There are a lot of choices to choose from. Solar is very popular, but can be rather expensive, especially if one wishes to power all of the usual appliances in a typical American household.

Wind is another choice a lot of people opt for, and, in fact, anyone with a well that has an electric pump might want to consider getting a windmill - if only to pump the water in the event of a power outage.

In my book, I mention a few others. My favorite is a methane digester, but I also love the idea of making electricity using human power, and we do, actually, have a bicycle generator to power some small things, but it's important to point out that trying to power most things that use electricity with a bike generator would require a great deal of pedaling time and much more stamina that someone like me has. In short, I wouldn't want to have to power my entire house using just pedal power. In fact, at that point, we'd be doing away with everything that uses more than "watts" of power at a time, because about 70 watts would be my maximum daily output.

While I will, probably, continue to have some electricity in my house until it's just not available to me anymore (either self-generated or grid power, because I think my town would condemn my house if I didn't have something), I think - a lot - about ways to do things without having electricity, and even better, we've started implementing some of these ideas.

Like the clothes drying thing. We don't have a clothes dryer. All of our clothes are dried either on a line outside or in the house on a drying rack. I live in a very wet climate. It's not unheard of to have rain for a month at a time, and it usually coincides with a time of year when it's too warm for a fire in the woodstove). Yes, it's difficult to dry clothes when it's too warm for a fire and it's been raining outside for three weeks.

But it's not impossible, and anyone who believes a clothes dryer is "necessary" is addicted to the convenience.

I like having some electrically operated things, but I don't view any of them as "essential." They are nice to have conveniences, but there isn't one of them that I couldn't live without.

And I think that's the key.

If we hope to thrive into the future, and not just survive, we're going to need to change our attitudes, not just our actions. It's okay to enjoy having the convenience of a home computer or an electric washing machine, but it's very foolhardy to view this appliance as necessary to our health and well-being.

We believe we need these things, but we don't "need" them, we "want" them. We believe these things make our lives easier, and certainly, it's a lot easier to throw a load of laundry into the washer and allow the machine to do the work than it would be to heat up a pan of water and wash the clothes by hand (and, yes, I do have a wringer, and yes, it is a lot of work to wring out the clothes - even with the wringer), but when we consider the "work" we must do to pay for the electricity to operate the electric washing machine (not to mention the cost of the machine and/or the inevitable repairs), we have to start getting really, painfully, honest with ourselves about what's necessary and what's just something we want.

I like my washing machine, but if I had to choose between washing my clothes with electricity and feeding my family, I wouldn't have any trouble hauling the washing machine to the scrap yard for the few dollars they might give me.

In the Western world the idea that we might have to make such a decision seems outrageously farfetched, but there are people, right here, our neighbors, who are looking at similar kinds of decisions - trying to find ways to cut their expenses as the costs of food and fuel continue to rise. Unfotunately, many of their cuts are half-hearted and only done in the spirit of believing the changes are temporary ... until "things" get better.

But what if ... what if things don't get better?

I think we need to change our habits, but before we can change our habits, we need to change our attitudes.

It's just like lowering our electricity usage. Deus Ex Machina and I haven't made one change we've made out of duress or with the idea that this is a temporary solution until things get better. In fact, we started lowering our usage well before things started getting bad, and we've continued to cut wherever we could, because we desire to be independent of the electric companies.

Deus Ex Machina and I may never be completely independent. We may never find a better alternative to storing bulk meat than our freezer, and we may never be in a position to generate all of the electricity we need to keep that meat frozen, but with reducing what we "need", and more importantly, with imagining the possibilities (e.g. using alternative methods of preservation, like drying or canning the meat instead of freezing it), we give ourselves a little peace of mind ... and even better, when the power does go out, because it does, we know that we'll be a little more comfortable than the average person, because we know that we don't need electricity.

Of the items listed on the list of 100 Items to disappear first, generators are first item, and of those items listed, probably the least important.

A "Rabid" Outdoorsman's Review

Ever wonder what a hard-core-survivalist-doomer would think of the Pollyanna future depicted/suggested in Surviving the Apocalypse in the Suburbs: The Thrivalist's Guide to Life Without Oil?

Wonder no more.

Steve Vose, The Rabid Outdoorsman, read the book and has written and published a review on his blog.

Thanks, Steve :).

Homes and Hearts and Where Things Are

I opened up my Yahoo home page this morning. It has a bunch of different news feeds - mostly corporate-owned newspapers from around the world (like the Wall Street Journal) - and it's one of the first things I do when I get online. I read down through the headlines, and sometimes I'll click on a link.

The one that grabbed my attention today was a video link with the headline The $300 House. The synopsis under the video window explains that Professor Vijay Govindarajan issued a challenge for participants to design a house that would cost no more than $300.

His thoughts, which I echo here on my blog and also in my book, are that with a house, with that very basic need of shelter satisfied, even the most destitute in our world - the poorest of the poor - can lift themselves, at least a little, out of the mire of their circumstances.

Shelter. It's one of the most fundamental of needs, and too many around the world suffer for want of an adequate place to live.

I know I've said it, probably ad nauseum, that shelter is the first, most important, of the three (or four, depending on how one feels about "love" :) basic human needs. From a survival standpoint, the elements kill a lot faster than dehydration or hunger, also, as I say in my book: the bottom line is that if one has shelter, everything else comes a little more easily.

If we have a space - even a very small space - that we can use as a place to get warm and stay dry; a, kind of, home-base, where we can leave our stuff while we go out and get the other things we need; and best case, a place where we can begin to cultivate, we will substantially increase our chances for survival.

In the video, one of the concerns voiced by the interviewer was that Professor Govindarajan might be building these homes in places where there wasn't already adequate water or sanitation facilities, and the Professor tried to assure the interviewer that those things would be in place before the $300 homes were put into place, but I think that would be going about things backwards.

Yes, we need a supply of clean water.

Yes, it is paramount to our health that we have a way to dispose of our own wastes so as not to contaminate our living spaces with potentially hazardous microorganisms, and this is especially problematic in the densely populated, poverty-stricken areas of the world. There are dozens of options available for dealing with the problem of "waste" (and this great discussion on SHTF Blog discusses but a few of the options).

But, first ... first, we need to have a place to live, and then, we can start building from there.

Shelter is the foundation on which survival is built. Professor Govindarajan knows this, and he is trying to make a difference.

I applaud his efforts, and I hope to see more stories of this sort.

Barn Rope Baskets

This is a basket in progress. It will be the bottom of the basket. I'd like to make a "Farmer's Market basket", but it would be a lot of work to make a basket that big ... or I may continue weaving to the ends of the "spokes", never pulling the sides up, and make it a little bath mat instead of a basket.

I haven't decided.



We've made several baskets of different sizes. The one that looks like an "Easter" basket is the newest. I think I like it with the handle like that, and I think it will make a nice egg-collecting basket.

Relearning the Old Ways

My family and I have been studying primitive/colonial skills for quite some time. What's great about these skills is that they are easily transferrable to our lives today. In fact, it's my belief that some perfect marrying of colonial life with modern conveniences could be exactly what we need to do to survive hard times.

A few weeks ago, my girls and I went on a field trip to the Old York Museum. Let's just say it was a pretty awesome experience. I had a blast and learned a lot.

Among other things we learned/witnessed on that day was an explanation of Colonial, open-hearth cooking. I have a woodstove, and so it's unlikely that I'll need to cook over an fireplace, but it was really neat to see the process.

What most intrigued me, though, was the chat about a typical Colonial breakfast.

The presenter held up this board-hard piece of fish and explained how, during colonial times, they would salt-dry the fish, and then, it would hang in the kitchen to be used a little at a time. Without refrigeration, their options for preserving food were somewhat more limited than ours.

I was hooked.

But then, she went on to describe how they'd make their fish chowder breakfast. A piece of the dried fish would be broken off, and it would be soaked in water to take out some of the saltiness. Then, it would be combined with some boiled potatoes and added to milk and warmed up. If the potatoes were left over from the previous nights' meal, it could be considered the original fast food :).

For the next three weeks, all I could think about was dried fish chowder. I had to have some dried fish.

As I theorized with Deus Ex Machina after the class, we could put a couple of foil-wrapped potatoes (foil is optional) in the woodstove, they'd be cooked by morning, and then, we could put a pan of milk on the woodstove, add the cooked potatoes and fish, and have a meal in ten minutes ... or however long it took the milk to heat up.

A couple of days ago, we went to the library. The librarian asked, "So, what did you guys do today?"

I said, "I dried fish."

She asked, "Why?"

I said, "To preserve it."

She said, "For what?"

I said, "To eat."

Today, I made my first, ever, New England Fish Chowder using my salt-dried fish and loosely based on this recipe.

Oh, it's yummy!

Combined with some fresh baked French bread, it will be tonight's dinner, and because we have refrigeration, and I made a lot, it might be tomorrow's breakfast ... or ....

... if we eat it all, because it's very good, maybe we'll throw a couple of potatoes in the woodstove to cook overnight, while we sleep, and then, tomorrow morning, Deus Ex Machina can break off a chunk of the dried fish I didn't use for this chowder, add it to some milk and the cooked potato, and have a hearty, Colonial breakfast.



How I Dried My Fish

1 lb of wild-caught-in-the-Gulf-of-Maine haddock** (or whatever fish you have :)
2 lbs of salt
3 tbs cracked pepper

1. Layer salt, pepper and fish in a shallow container. Salt should completely cover the fish. Leave overnight (you could probably leave it a lot longer. The salt actually leaches the water out of the fish, and next time, I will let it stay in the salt longer, as it was starting to get pretty dry when I pulled it out, but still had a lot of moisture in it). I put mine in the refrigerator, but I don' think it's necessary.

2. Remove fish from salt and brush off excess.

3. Place fish on a cookie sheet in the oven set at the lowest temperature. Mine was set on 170°. After an hour, I flipped the fish, and I noted that it was really moist. I tipped the pan so that the water would collect at the bottom of the pan and the fish would get drier. I flipped the fish every hour, for about three hours, and then, when it was stiff, I took it out of the oven, and put it in the dehydrator. I left it in the dehydrator overnight. I didn't put it in the dehydrator right away, because I anticipated that there would be some moisture, and I didn't want fish juice dripping all over the dehydrator. The fish was mostly dried when I put it in the dehydrator, and it was pretty brittle the next morning when I took it out. Based on the fish at the museum, I think that's the consistency we want it to be.

4. I stored mine in a cheese cloth hanging in the kitchen.

**Make sure the fish is super fresh, or it will have that fishy odor - not pleasant :).

I'll do this again, because, as I said, the chowder is awesome. It might be a bit salty for some people, but soaking the fish before adding it to the chowder, adding more milk, or not using salted butter would decrease the saltiness. Personally, I like it salty.

Let me know if you try to dry fish, too. It seems like a pretty cool way to store fish without having to resort to refrigeration or freezing, and as fish is one of those things we don't get nearly enough of in our diet here at my house, this way of preserving it seems a pretty quick and easy way to get more of it into our bodies :).

Repurposing With a Purpose

I'm making baskets.

There's a monthly "Swap Meet" through our permaculture group, and I've never had anything I thought others might want to swap with me. So, I've never gone. I don't swap food, for the most part, because it's ... well, it's food, and I can't see spending so much of my time planting, harvesting and processing our food and then giving it away - even in a one-to-one trade for food someone else has made - mostly, because my girls like certain foods, and those are the foods I preserve. If I swapped for something new, they might not eat it. So, even though I have lots of home-canned goodies, it's not something I felt I could take to the Swap Meet.

But baskets ... now that can be a fun gift to give and a neat thing to offer at the monthly swap meet. My plan is to make several to bring to the swap meet in January.

We get "barn rope", which is, essentially, a hemp cord used to tie up bales of hay, from a local dairy farmer. He keeps telling us to "take as much as you want. Otherwise, I have to figure out how to dispose of it." So, we do. Every time we're there (at least once a week), we try to remember to grab a handful.

I make baskets, and other than the fact that the baskets smell like barn, they're nice to look at and pretty durable.

Mr. Pumpkin has found another use for the rope ;).