How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It - James Wesley Rawles [50]
HANDLING
Buy a large, aluminum-scoop grain shovel—the lighter, the better, so that it will be less tiring to use. For moving corn that is still on ears, you will want to have a corn drag (a rake with just three or four very long tines).
“BERRY” SOAKING
Whole-grain wheat can be soaked for twenty-four hours to make wheat berries. This makes a quite palatable and nutritious breakfast food when warmed and served with milk or cream and a dash of honey or molasses.
SPROUTING
To get the maximum nutrition from the grain that you raise, you should plan to sprout the majority of it. Lay in supplies and practice the art of sprouting before the balloon goes up!
PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!
As with any other newly acquired skill, grain raising, harvesting, storage, milling, and sprouting will take practice. Develop your expertise now, when any mistakes will be merely humorous blunders rather than potentially life-threatening disasters.
Hand Tools
In recent years, the U.S. consumer market has been flooded with low-quality, flimsy products. Sadly, this includes hand tools. These have become so ubiquitous that you have to search actively for quality gardening tools. The few American-made tools still available have had significant price increases, attributable to the recent spike in steel prices and substantially increased shipping costs.
I have found that it is now better to shop for used, American-made hand tools. Ironically, many tools being sold as “antiques” are more sturdy and a have longer potential service life than the “factory-new” tools that originate in China. For used tools, watch Craigslist and even eBay. If you can’t find a particular used tool, then one of the best mail-order sources for new American, Canadian, and European tools is Lehman’s.
Proper sharpening, oiling, and storage are crucial for giving your tools multigenerational longevity. This is particularly important in damp climates. Keep tools well oiled. Depending on your climate, you might need tool chests with tight-fitting lids and plenty of silica gel. If you have any tools that are rusty, evaluate their condition. Minor rust can be removed with a wire wheel. But if any tools are badly rusted, consider either paying to get them bead blasted or replacing them completely if need be. Why? Because leaving one rusty tool in contact with your other tools that are in good condition will encourage “sympathetic” rusting and eventually ruin many more. Bead blasting is potentially a good part-time home business, if you have a side yard available to dedicate to it. (It is a bit messy.) You could even carry on this business post-Schumer if you have a generator and/or a large alternative power system.
Varmints in the Garden
Garden pests are typically just a nuisance in good times, but post-TEOTWAWKI they can mean the difference between eating well and starvation. There is no single magic bullet that will eliminate all garden pests. Be prepared to take several approaches simultaneously:
• A sturdy fence that is tall enough to protect against deer and with a fine-mesh lower section that is tight enough to repel rabbits and ground squirrels
• A couple of cats who have been trained by their parents as effective mousers. Good mousers are usually also death on gophers. Or how about terrier dogs? Before the advent of modern poisons, small dogs were used to dispatch mice, moles, and gophers.
• Plenty of traps, including buried mole/gopher traps, as well as surface mouse and rat traps (victorpest.com)
• Lots of .22 rimfire ammo and patience. More than just protection from birds and squirrels, a scoped .22 can also be used to nail tunneling gophers when they come up to push out dirt. If you live inside city limits, you will also want a high-powered air rifle.
• Natural pest killers, such as ladybugs (for aphids), lace-wings, and praying mantises.