April 2011 Issue 1

Contents
What is a Doomer?..................................2 Thoughts on Food....................................3 Being Too Frugal? ..................................3 Safe Canning Methods.............................5 Food Security Defined ............................5 Optimal Food Storage..............................6 Fermented Banana Bread.........................6 Personalizing Food Storage.....................7 Bread Pudding.........................................8 Pickle Juice .............................................9 33 Ways to Keep Warm Without Heat or Electricity ................................................9 Pressure-Canning Meat..........................11 Dumplings Make It Better ....................12 My Five Year Plan ................................12 Donating Expired Food..........................13 26 Ways to Prepare for a Post-Collapse World ....................................................14 Homemade Canned Cranberry Fruit Sauce......................................................16 Rosy Meat..............................................17 Radical Frugality...................................17 Buddy Burner ........................................19 What Is Local? ......................................20 Lots of Turkey Broth ............................21 Frugal to the Max...................................21 Organic or Processed Junk? ..................22 Personalizing Food Storage: Sugar .......23 Salvaged Beans......................................24 Save Water and Energy ........................25 Twenty-Five Minute Stew from Food Storage...................................................25 Bug Out Bags for All Ages....................26 How to Make Oatmeal ..........................26 17 tons ...................................................27 Homemade Laundry Soap ....................28 Caramelized Onions ..............................30 Not really a Doomer! ............................31 Cornbread Two Versions....................32 A Doomer's Library ..............................32 What Can Money Buy? ........................33 Copyright?.............................................34

We are a married couple in our late thirties. On our blog, and in this ebook, we go by the names Canadian Doomer (or C.D.) and Mr D. We have two small children. Explosion (at the time I'm writing this) is a three-year-old who takes life at full throttle and has been doing so since birth, while Starvation is almost exactly two years younger, far more mellow in personality and eats like a hobbit (breakfast, second breakfast, elevensies, luncheon, etc ) We live in a major city in central Ontario, Canada. Due to some poor decisions regarding previous partners, we both found ourselves lacking the assets and financial backbone which we had built during our twenties. That's not a sob story that we intend to get into. I simply wish to establish that ... we're nearing forty, we have small children, and we're poor by almost anyone's standard. We do not own land. We do not own our own home. We do not have thousands packed away in savings.

us. Recycling will not save us. By the time our small children are grown, we believe that North Americans will be living in a world that is dramatically different than the world in which we now live. There are various ideas about how this will play out in reality, but we are personally preparing for a world in which electricity is unreliable at best, gasoline is reserved for the military and The Very Rich, food prices are terrifyingly high, and all of the resources that we take for granted are gone. Imagine a world in which the grocery store shelves are empty and those few items that come in are priced at ten times what they are now. Are we experts in survival and self-sufficiency?

Hardly. In fact, we're the people living next door to you, the one where the husband loves his Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games, the three year old knows how to work the DVD player and the wife's cookbook is on the computer. We're the couple that panics We are also Doomers. It's a when the internet goes down for depressing-sounding term. five minutes. One of us has Simply put, it means this - we always lived in major cities and believe that the era of cheap, wouldn't know what to do with a easy oil is over. It's gone. wood stove. The other has never Alternative energy will not save even seen a rabbit killed. We Page 1

are both completed addicted to coffee. We also live in a country where, for the most part, only criminals and law enforcement are armed. More than all of this, however, we plan to prepare our family and get ready for whatever happens when the ramifications of a lack of oil fully hit our society. And if we can do it - so can you. I hope you will enjoy this series of ebooks that I am putting out. Consider this one to be an Introduction to Prepping, Canadian Doomer Style. Later books will focus on frugal shopping and cooking, the unmentionables (like menstruation and childbirth), transportation in our changing world, shelter, energy use and conservation.

are also survivalists."

What is a Doomer?
Usually, when I tell people that we're Doomers, they look confused. Today, someone nodded and said, "Okay, I understand." Really?! She did, too. It was awesome. So what is a Doomer? Wiki says "A Doomer is a peakist (one who has peak oil related concerns that oil depletion will lead to a severe economic recession or another Great Depression) that also believes that a Malthusian Catastrophe will inevitably follow. Doomers attribute their beliefs to humanity's over reliance on petroleum for agricultural and industrial productivity. Many doomers Page 2

from petroleum or uses petroleum. If you can do it, and If you don't know what a Doomer especially if you're doing it and is, I expect that that just using the internet, please tell created more questions than it me how. We've been trying to answered. Let's see if I can eliminate plastics, just one small dismantle this, using us as an aspect of our petroleum overexample. reliance, from our home over the past few months, and it's Peakist - Peakists believe that almost impossible. we are approaching Peak Oil or have already reached it. We And the guy with the funny believe that Peak Oil Production name? A Malthusian Catastrophe has been achieved. This means basically means that we are that from now on, all of the oil going to use up all of our in the planet is going to be resources - namely petroleum increasingly expensive and and return to a subsistence level difficult to acquire. Expect of existence. I think the prices to soar. What prices? Reverend Malthus referred to it Well, petroleum (in other words, as a state of misery. We expect gasoline) and anything which is that climbing prices and made from petroleum, uses decreasing availibility of petroleum in its production or resources will lead to a needs petroleum to be breakdown of civilized transported. That leads directly infrastructure. to ... Survivalists - One could be a "humanity's over reliance on Doomer and do nothing. There petroleum for agricultural and are plenty of apathetic people industrial productivity". And who know that things are getting everything else. Seriously. bad, but they feel that nothing Petroleum touches every single can be done to prepare. Or aspect of most of our lives. Don't perhaps they feel as though they believe me? Try to go a day don't have the time, money, without using plastic, or buying resources or knowledge to food that has not traveled in a prepare. vehicle (good luck, unless you grow everything yourself), or Survivalists are not those using anything that was derived people. There are a range of survivalists. Some call This made me laugh, and I thought I'd themselves preppers. Some are share. religious, some are not. Some stockpile weapons and some do How do you keep squirrels out of your not. Some are, admittedly, shed in the winter? crazier than an outhouse rat. Most stockpile food, or work on Stop feeding your cat. developing useful (and usually (Oh, don't yell at me. I wouldn't do it. almost forgotten) skills. I don't have a shed.) Whatever the disaster, these Prepping in a City Apartment

are the people who are determined to make it through with intact skin, full bellies and a warm roof over their heads. There is an unfortunate air of competition among survivalists, as though only one type of skill is important.

It means looking into the (admittedly very small) fridgeless and heat-less (AKA Freeze Yer Buns) movement.

My reasons may not be the same, and I may not do everything they do (and I'll Her response was priceless. A explain why in other posts), but look of shock passed over her Thoughts on Food I do gain inspiration from a lot of face, and then utter confusion. We believe that we are facing a these people. She said, "So you CAN afford it. world where electricity and fuel You do have the money. You just will be in short supply, a world Everyone needs to eat, and it's ... choose not to spend it?" It that will locally-focused much as something that we need to do was like a foreign concept that our grandparents' world was. every day. In a world without people who live considerably What does this mean? fridges and freezers, blenders below the "low income cut off" and food processors, heaters and would choose money in the bank Well, it means embracing the air conditioners, could many of over "necessities" like cable and current locavore movement, and us manage? In a world without cell phones. I rarely tell people drastically decreasing the miles reliable grocery stores filled how much we save because most it takes to get our food to us. with a wide assortment of of the people we know have far This naturally leads to growing internationally-made foods, more income than we do and are food whenever and wherever what would we do? living paycheque to paycheque. possible and rethinking the idea that food production belongs Do we spend on non-necessities? only in urban areas. It means Sure - after all, define Being Too Frugal? pushing for small livestock in "necessity". Many would say cities, and community gardens A few months ago, I was coffee is not a necessity, others and farmer's markets within speaking with a close relative say meat is not a necessity, and walking distance of everyone. about something we don't spend many would agree that our old money on. It might have been car is not a necessity. I believe It means following the anticable TV, or it might have been that Amy Dacyczyn herself, microwave real food movement buying coffee and donuts at Tim known to many as one of the and eliminating artificial, Hortons. It could well have been most frugal people in North factory-made food. It means that she wanted us to join her America, received some slow food and soaked grain. and her family at a restaurant negative feedback because she for supper and I said "Look, we and her husband had six kids, It means taking part in the anti- just can't afford stuff like that." bought antiques and live in a plastic movement because we (Dinner out for the whole family very large house. Some people absolutely must learn to live would cost us at least $60!) will say that approved canning without petroleum-based tools and methods are an products. Whatever it was, she was quite expensive non-necessity. horrified that we couldn't afford It means jumping in on the such a basic necessity of life, I've admitted that we go to a recent canning and preserving and began ranting about how we local restaurant every Saturday fad so that food acquired during needed to bring in more money morning for a family breakfast. the local growing season can be so that we could afford to have We thoroughly enjoy it, the kids eaten all year. a little fun. I finally stated are learning how to behave in Page 3

"Look, we're doing fine. In fact, we're not only debt-free, but we have X amount of money IN the bank. Extra money would be nice because it would increase our savings, but it wouldn't change our spending."

such settings, and we always good read. She has lots of great bring home a container full of ideas about enjoying every leftovers which we fry up for simple pleasure without lunch. During the warmer spending a lot of money. weather, by the way, we will probably be having picnics in the "A man is rich in proportion to the park instead. number of things he can afford to let I have difficulty thinking about any other similar splurge in our lives, to be honest. And we have, as I said, amassed a small but growing nest egg. Even with the $84/month we spend on those breakfasts, considerably more than 10% of our money goes into the "black hole of savings." Of course, like everyone else, we justify and excuse the expenses that we feel are important!

always on the money, you will indeed feel deprived and miserable. We've chosen to not buy convenience foods because from-scratch cooking is so much tastier and healthier, especially with the children's allergies.

alone." Henry David Thoreau

Birthdays, Christmas, etc - Last year, Mr. D hunted the thrift stores to find a copy of A Clockwork Orange for me. I was thrilled. This year, I used Swagbucks to buy him two books he wanted and a wind-up clock/flashlight/radio. We do not get surprises for each other unless they cost little to no I made a comment on the Broke money. Professionals blog on Valentine's Day. Mrs. BP was concerned There seems to be a common idea that frugality - especially if about people's reaction to admitting that they can't afford one is "too frugal" - will cause burn-out. Amy Dacyczyn speaks to do anything except stay at home and exchange homemade about frugality as a fun game, gifts. She was perfectly right - if and that's the way I generally you tell people "We can't afford see it. Frugality should not be deprivation. There should not be to ..." they will respond with "Oh, I'm sorry" or something to a constant feeling that one is sacrificing and struggling or that that effect. Instead, make it clear that you have chosen to do one is going without fun and pleasure. Tracey McBride has a certain things because of their positive, family-affirming fabulous book called Frugal benefits. They're money-saving, Luxuries - I encourage you to buy it or borrow it and enjoy a of course, but if your focus is Page 4

If you feel deprived and have an We've chosen to forego the attitude of "We can't afford that," then you are going to have birthday/holiday gift grabs in order to focus on quiet, problems and you will not be able to sustain a frugal lifestyle. meaningful family time. This is especially important if We've chosen not to spend you're earning more than a minimal income, because those money on cable TV because all around you will enforce the idea studies show television to be harmful to growing minds. that you must spend more money. They will insist that you By sowing frugality we reap are being "too frugal". liberty, a golden harvest. Professionals frequently deal Agesilaus with this lifestyle creep which ensures that expenses always We've chosen not to buy certain match, or exceed, income. foods because we've chosen to However, even low income have a more local-based, people must deal with the frugality-destroying attitude of seasonal diet. In addition, our "I work hard, damn it. I deserve shopping and food storage is simplified. some pleasure in life!" Do you think that it is possible to be "too frugal"? And by that, I don't mean engaging in dangerous, harmful or criminal behaviour like stealing from restaurants. Are you frugal because you can't afford to spend money, or do you choose not to spend money because you're frugal? Do you consider it important to have regular luxuries in order to keep yourself motivated? I'll end with this - the Latin word "frugalis" meant 'virtuous, profitable'. It came from the root word "frux" or 'produce of Prepping in a City Apartment

the soil' and was closely related microorganism, and kill as much to Latin "frui" which meant 'to of it, as possible. enjoy'. From that base comes the English words "fruit" and Soaked Oatmeal "frugal" - both closely related. I soak 2 cups old-fashioned oats overnight in 4 cups of water that Frugality is not about being has 2 Tablespoon lemon juice, 1 stingy or a miser. It is about teaspoon sea salt, 2 Tablespoons wisely and carefully using all of molasses and 1/2 teaspoon your resources. cinnamon in it. In the morning, I

to use modern, up to date recipes, use the proper canning method and follow safety procedures carefully. Whatever foods you can, and whatever method you use, please use a tested, proven recipe!

Safe Canning Methods

There are two SAFE canning methods: Boiling Water Bath canning This is perfectly safe for many foods - tomatoes, fruit, jams, jellies, preserves and pickles. I BWB cranberry sauce, for example. This will get as hot as (drum roll, please) boiling water. 212F at sea level.

cook it (over three tealights in a covered fondue pot, usually, because it's so easy!), stirring in 1 cup of raisins when it's half done. I serve each bowl with a little bit of milk. It packs in a walloping 295 calories per serving, with only 3 grams of fat, 0 cholesterol and 487 mg of sodium. It has 573 g of potassium, 6 grams of dietary fiber, 8 grams of protein, 75 mg of calcium (more if you add some milk on top of each bowl), and a bit of several other nutrients. A bowl will supply 24% of your B1 needs and 18% of your iron needs for the day! A Year's Oatmeal for Four requires: 92 gallons of water 60 kilograms of rolled oats 1 1/2 gallons lemon juice or whey 2 kilograms sea salt 15 kilograms molasses 1 1/4 kilogram ground cinnamon 53 kilograms of raisins

Food Security Defined

Do you have it? At least three million Canadians don't*. Now, Americans with about 300 million people might not think that a million is a large amount, but we have 33 million people in Canada. Next time you're in a group of 11 people, realize that at least one of them worries about food.

Pressure Canning - A pressure canner (which is different than Okay, so what IS food security, a pressure cooker) opens up a since it's a word I've been tossing whole range of possibilities and, around a bunch? surprisingly, it's easier than BWB canning. You must PC all meats According to the USDA, food (including poultry and seafood) security is: and vegetables - these are Access by all people at all times known as low-acid foods. This to enough food for an active, When Clostridium botulinum will get as hot as 240F. healthy life. Food security grows, it turns into botulism, Now, why do we have to includes at a minimum: (1) the one of the deadliest neurotoxins pressure can low-acid foods? ready availability of nutritionally we know about. It occurs rarely, Well, there's this nasty adequate and safe foods, and (2) but when it does occur, it is microorganism called an assured ability to acquire frequently fatal. One pound of Clostridium botulinum that acceptable foods in socially this neurotoxin is enough to kill grows well under certain acceptable ways (e.g., without every person on the planet. And conditions. It needs a high resorting to emergency food did I mention that you cannot moisture, low oxygen, low acid, supplies, scavenging, stealing, or see it and it cause NO changes in low sodium, warm environment. other coping strategies). your food? There is no way of In other words, the inside of a telling a botulism-infected jar canning jar full of food. So when That sounds like a good from a safe jar unless you have a we can, we need to make sure definition to me. laboratory. This is why it is vital that we introduce as little of the Page 5

If you're struggling financially do deal with food allergies, or if you're accessing the food bank every few months to cover the gap, or if it's difficult for you to get to the nearest grocery store, or if you find yourself saying "we can't afford that" to foods that many North Americans take for granted, or if your town water supply is not safe to drink and use, then you do not have food security.

window and see our food growing and our friends working nearby.

1998/99, and I can't imagine the situation has improved!

Now that's a solution that I can Food storage, to me, must be: get behind. However ... how workable is that in our cities? How much food can we actually * sustainable without access to grow in backyards and balconies? the grid * as local as possible - backyard, neighbourhood, city, province, Of course, it brings up more country, world, in order of questions. When I speak with preference (and quantity) Major at the Salvation Army's It seems quite ironic to me that Family Services in our city, she * affordable for wealthy or poor * real food, without TVP or those who can most afford to says that many of their clients buy food in bulk (whether grains have no idea how to cook basic margarine or other things made or a whole pig carcass), are the foods. They avoid giving people in a factory ones who least need to do so. such things as flour, because far * stuff that a person can reasonably grow (depending on too much of it ends up in the laws and land availability) Now, Canada came out with garbage. If "potato" * preserved with simple, something called Canada's automatically translates to Action Plan for Food Security "french fries" in a person's mind, reproducible methods it does no good to provide them * in sufficient quantity to get a family (and guests) through a They set up three goals: with fresh, locally grown bad harvest, not 30 years in a potatoes. Zero hunger bunker A sustainable food system There are three things which I Healthy and safe food think are necessary for food While we take them for granted, security in cities: Fermented Banana food banks, community gardens, Easy, walkable access to Bread community kitchens, foodsufficient garden space While bananas are not local to buying clubs and school-based and qualified gardening us, they've been shipped by boat breakfast and lunch programs mentors for a long time and have become were, according to the Canada Affordable access to good a well-loved part of Canadian Action Plan, "never intended to food that can't be grown diets. I ferment my bananas to be long-term solutions." at home (meat, dairy, increase the flavour. In addition, grains) it makes use of old, black While the Canada Action Plan Fully-equipped community bananas. Like most of my has a lot of suggestions on how kitchens, with equipment, favourite recipes, it takes the government can support classes and people trained variations well! food security across the country, in nutrition, cooking and I think that the real solution is Dry ingredients: food preservation summed up by Bill Mollison, one 1 3/4 cups flour of the two founders of the Now I'll open this up to permaculture movement: discussion - maybe you guys can 2/3 cup sugar give me something to write for We're only truly 2 tsp. baking powder next Monday's post! :) secure when we can look out our kitchen * According to Stats Canada for 1/2 tsp. baking soda Page 6

Optimal Food Storage

Prepping in a City Apartment

1/4 tsp. salt

Banana bread takes an Personalizing Food incredibly long time to cook. It will take an hour, give or take a Storage Mix these. few minutes. When it's done, the Have you heard the saying "Store edges will have pulled away what you eat and eat what you from the side of the pan and a store"? Well, in our house it If you want it spiced, add: toothpick inserted into the would do no good to store nuts middle of the loaf will come out or powdered milk or cow's milk 1 tsp cinnamon clean. That's called the cheese. Since we're focusing on 1/2 tsp nutmeg toothpick test and it can also be eating foods that are capable of done with a broom straw. If your growing close to home, we don't 1/4 tsp ground cloves broom is made of straw and store rice or quinoa or other far 1 tsp vanilla you're fine with sticking that away foods, either. There are no into your food. Otherwise, you cans of pineapple in my Don't fret about it, and don't buy could get an Amish Broom Cake cupboard - although I have to Tester or the much less wasteful say that I love pineapple. While spices just for a recipe. I used metal Cake Tester . I'll be canola oil is a local product, it cinnamon and vanilla in this honest, though - I just use a requires far more processing loaf. Even without spices, it'll bread knife. than I could reproduce in a taste great. TEOTWAWKI situation. Same thing when it comes to When the loaf is cooked, place it dehydrated eggs or any of the Now measure the banana. If right side up on a cooling rack interesting items that American there's not enough to make 1 for ten minutes, and THEN preppers seem to store. (I've cup, add applesauce or any invert it on the cooling rack to never seen dehydrated eggs in other pureed fruit. Remember, remove. any store, and it's not something though, there will be a slight I could ever make at home). flavor from any variations. With 2011 prices, and buying food in bulk, a loaf of banana So what do we store anyway? I bread costs me $1. Mix together: just canned seven quarts of Bread bowls are a great way to sliced carrots and seven quarts 1 cup banana and fruit serve thick, inexpensive dishes like of potato chunks. Chicken legs 1/3 cup oil or fat of your choice chili or stew, and it makes them are slowly cooking away in my look fancy enough for company. (I used canola oil) crock-pot (the four whole They're nothing more than extra2 Tb milk or water (I used milk) large rolls (usually 1/3 the size of a chickens are now bones, broth loaf of bread or the size of two and a huge bowl of meat in the 2 eggs regular rolls, but they can be made fridge), and I'll be canning smaller) formed into rounds and chicken and broth tonight. My baked so that the sides don't touch. cupboards are full of canned Cool on a rack and then slice off Now add the dry ingredients to meatballs, ham in broth or in about 1/2 at the top. Pull out the the wet ingredients. Mix well. insides, leaving a thick shell of bbq sauce, pork in broth. If you like raisins or nuts or chocolate chips in your banana bread, you can add 1/4 cup of the addition now. I like my banana bread plain.
bread. Butter and toast these slightly before filling with stew or chili or even spinach dip. Don't forget to butter and toast the tops!

I save all of the fat. It is in mason jars in my fridge and I use it for everything. Depending on the flavor I want, I have beef tallow (wonderful when frying potatoes), chicken schmalz, bacon fat and lard. My lard Page 7

cooked a bit longer than it should have, so it's a bit "piggy" tasting, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. This evening, while the chicken is canning, we will be slicing up some apples to go into the dehydrator. Because of a lack of planning, I did not get any additional vegetables or fruits stored for this winter. In a survival situation, we'd be in a bad spot right now. We purchase and store vinegar, salt and white sugar. They're needed for preserving foods at home. Eventually we want to learn how to use honey (with some maple syrup) for everything. We also purchase and store cocoa and coffee. Spices are, in my opinion, a necessity. There is a reason why traders once traveled on foot, on horse and on camel with these little pots of wonderful. This is our first year of building up our food storage. By next year, we will have more variety. However, we will be constrained by: - No nuts and seeds because of allergies - No cow's milk products, including powdered milk - No foods that can only be made in a factory. - No foods that traveled more than 500 miles to get to us.

very frugal dessert or breakfast, because it uses up stale bread. But be creative and don't limit yourself to plain white bread. Stale croissants are delicious.

Bread Pudding
My bread pudding recipe is based off Paula Deen's. This is a Page 8

fridge overnight, put it on the counter for a little while so it's not too cold, and make sure not to turn on the oven until you put the dish in it. I don't know if I need to tell people that putting Bread Pudding a cold glass dish in a very hot 2 cups sugar oven makes bad things happen. 5 eggs Or so I've been told, because I've 2 cup milk never actually done it. 1 tablespoon vanilla Bake at 350F for about 30 4 cup bread in chunks minutes, or until crusty on top 1 cup sugar and cooked inside. 1 tablespoon molasses While it's cooking, mix sugar, 1/4 cup softened butter molasses, vanilla, egg and butter 1 egg in a small pot. Cook and stir 1/2 tablespoon vanilla together until butter melts. Pour over the pudding when serving Use a bread that would be tasty it. if someone hadn't let it get stale. Mix the sugar, eggs, We're not having the sauce vanilla and milk. Pour over the because all of the eggs went into bread in a large bowl and toss to the pudding. coat. Let it set for a few A few notes here. Use whatever minutes, toss it again, and then milk you normally use. We use press it into a greased casserole goat. I can see no reason why dish. soy "milk" or any of the other alternatives wouldn't work. What size dish? Why are you There might be some differences asking me? I can't see in your in taste, but if you already drink cupboard. If you have a deep, non-dairy alternatives, you're round dish (like I have), you'll used to those. I greased my get a small amount of crusty casserole with home-rendered outside, which kids seem to lard, because a little "piggy" love, and a lot of gooey insides, taste in the morning is a good which grownups in our house thing. Spraying the dish will prefer. But if you use a low, have the same effect, or coating wide dish, you'll get the it with butter. If you use opposite. margarine in the topping, it might not taste as good, but Because I don't like to wake up that's your call. Paula Deen and immediately start preparing specifies real vanilla extract. I food, and because I don't want used artificial. Again, what size cold bread pudding for eggs? If you're a normal person, breakfast, I made this up at you have standard large eggs in night, covered the casserole your fridge and that works just with its glass lid, and put it in fine. If you're a weirdo like me, the fridge. you have oddly sized farm fresh If you've put your dish in the eggs, and that works just fine, Prepping in a City Apartment

too.

Well, if you're impatient like me, you pick up the jar once a Basically, it comes down to this - day and flip it to move the it's bread pudding. It's a peasant spices around, but no one says dish designed to use up you absolutely have to. ingredients that the farmwife had in great quantities - stale And then you dig in and pull out bread, eggs, and milk. All of the a cucumber slice, musing that other is just prettying it up. they still LOOK like cucumber slices, not at all like proper pickles, not even like "Lazy Pickle", and you ... CRUNCH. Pickle Juice

- brine chicken breast before cooking - poach fish - perhaps pickle salmon overnight?

33 Ways to Keep Warm Without Heat or Electricity

No power, no electricity, no wood heat ... you're stuck in a So let's say you've just finished OH, heavenly. city apartment, it's winter in a the last jar of your favourite northern climate and the grid bread and butter pickles, and And you wish you had saved the has gone down. What are you you're wishing the collective you pickle juice from all three jars. going to do? hadn't gobbled them up so fast? Let's say that, like me, you have chronic low blood pressure and so just hate the thought of tossing out so much delicious, spicy, salty goodness? And let's say you notice that Ontario greenhouse cucumbers are now available? I don't know if this can be repeated. But I'm saving my dill pickle juice for a pickle assortment later this summer! They're obviously not true pickles, but they're more than just a marinated cucumber. 1. Dress in layers. Underclothes, then long underclothes, then shirt and pants/long skirt, then a sweater. A pair of heavy tights can be worn under long underwear by both men and women. It's important to have a layer directly against your skin and then at least one layer that traps air over the first. There's nothing quite as jolting as frozen jeans against your inner thighs! 2. When you go outside, add a warm hat that covers your ears, a wool scarf (I've never found a non-wool scarf that was worth a damn), and your coat and boots. A ski mask can prevent frostbite if you're outside for a while. 3. Wear wool - wool socks, wool slacks/skirts, wool slippers. Keep your FEET and your HANDS warm. One pair of cotton socks plus slippers in the house. One pair of cotton socks plus wool socks inside your boots. Add Page 9

Other things to do with that yummy pickle juice: - Add hard-boiled eggs for a Well, what you do is pick up two week to pickle them, and then cucumbers, a small bunch of eat right away tomatoes-on-the-vine, and a - Add feta cheese to the juice! pound of bacon, and you come - Not just cucumbers - try carrot home and have sandwiches for slices, onions, or any hard lunch and then fill up the pickle vegetable (they might have to jar with sliced cucumber. That's marinade a while) all. Slice, slice, slice. (No, the - After Christmas (or any big) bacon and tomatoes have dinner, add leftover cooked, cut nothing to do with the pickles. up vegetables to pickle juice Although, you can cut off the and marinade for a day or two. stem and add a whole tomato to - Add a little to any recipe that a bottle of dill pickle juice. In a uses both vinegar and spices, week, you'll have a pickled like vinegar-based coleslaw. tomato, of which Mr D says I - sprinkle on french fries wouldn't make it on purpose. But - use it with Worcestershire I wouldn't refuse another.) sauce to marinade thinly sliced meat And then you wait three days. - cook brisket in the juice from a few jars of pickles

another pair of wool socks if you're still getting cold toes. And that means buying boots a size bigger than usual. Remember - you're not going out into a heated car or bus. 4. Keep your feet DRY. If you sweat, change your socks. If you're feeling cold, try changing your socks because you've probably been sweating (because you're wearing at least two pairs of socks, or socks and slippers, and now your feet are damp. 5. Speaking of slippers knitted wool slippers are the old faithful. If you have someone who loves you a lot, ask them to get you a pair of sheep shearling-lined suede slippers from Land's End. Heavenly warm. 6. Real fur and real leather. Or a heavy down comforter (even if fashion folks say they're outdated - they're warm). And sheepskin - a lambswool on a child's bed will keep them wonderfully warm. A heavy leather coat with a sheepskin lining over top of a wool sweater, and you're toasty. Sorry, PETA, but animal skins are sustainable and really, really warm. 7. Living animals are warm, too, although you can't really wear them on your head or feet. Cuddle with your cat or dog. 8. Wear a hat and fingerless gloves indoors. 9. Eat warm food and drink coffee and tea. If you can get a pot of hot water going, this can keep you warm. Or spiced hot cider, although again, Page 10

heating it will be an issue. Make sure you're using an insulated coffee mug so that you're not losing all that heat. It'll warm you twice your hands around the mug and then when you drink it. 10. Eat fatty food and stop worrying about a few extra pounds. They won't kill you. They will, however, keep you warmer through the winter and might keep you alive. People who thrive in cold climates expect to put on a bit of fat during the winter. Don't worry too much - you'll be burning off a lot of those calories. 11. Don't drink much alcohol. You'll actually lose heat even if you do feel warmer. 12. During the day, if it warms up at all, open curtains. At night, shut them. And by the way, that means heavy, heat-holding curtains, not silly frilly things. Think tapestries, or even heavy blankets, on your windows. 13. Make sure there are plenty of blankets on beds. The only place to store your "extra" blankets in the winter is on the beds. 14. A raggedy blanket can be quilted between two other blankets, making one blanket that traps heat well. 15. Do not sleep alone. Most definitely, children should not be sleeping in their own room. Small children kick off blankets in the night - keep them close enough that you'll notice. At any rate, if several beds are in one room, the room will be warmer. 16. Sex will also warm you

up, except you don't want to be doing that with kids in the room AND it'll make you sweaty, so you might want to consider this one carefully. 17. Use flannel sheets. If you can't find flannel pillowcases, make some. 18. Stuffed animals or a wall of pillows will insulate your bed. 19. During the day, make sure your pillow is UNDER the blankets. Put your nightclothes under there, too. 20. Do not EVER wear your day clothes in bed. Change everything, right down to socks and underwear. You sweat all day, and you want that sweat OFF you at night. Have separate socks for bed. 21. Wear pj's or a long flannel nightgown (or bedshirt for men!) to bed, with warm socks. If it's cold enough, consider a night cap - yes, a hat, not booze. Footsie pajamas are cool. When I was a teenager, I had a pair that even had a bum flap. 22. The very best bed, by the way, is a four poster with heavy curtains! Hack together a way to create the same effect - surrounding the family's small sleeping area with curtains to keep in the body heat. 23. A hot water bottle or two, can be slipped under the covers to warm up your bed. Put one at your feet and one near your middle. (Wrap them in a cloth so you don't get burned.) 24. When you stop moving, you cool off. Keep busy. Prepping in a City Apartment

Especially, keep your fingers moving. Knitting or crocheting is warmer than reading. 25. If you're not busy, wrap up in a blanket. All chairs and sofas should have a blanket NO bare floors - put a carpet down under the kitchen table and in front of the sink and stove. 26. If there are any drafts, use draftstoppers. Make sure all windows and doors are as draft-proof as possible. Check them - putty up any cracks, even ones as little as 1/8". Don't let ANY heat escape! In our apartment, I would hang heavy blankets to block off the tiny entry hall, so that cold air from the building's unheated hall won't suck out my precious heat. 27. Humid air feels warmer, so if you can, get moisture into the air. That's one benefit to washing clothes by hand, because you need to hang them to dry. Candles can go a long way toward warming up a small room. 28. Don't smoke. While it might make your chest feel warmer, it will cause the blood flow to your hands to almost shut off! One puff lowers the temperature of your fingertips by 1-3F in 3 minutes. 29. If you have a safe place to use a barbecue, this can be a way to heat water and cook food. Definitely this is something to plan for. Buddy burners are a good idea, too. Do NOT use a barbecue inside the house.

30. Party. The Scots have room warm, wash there. Our cilidhs, French-Canadians ancestors would use privacy have Fais do-do, and I'm sure screens, or a blanket over a every cold climate culture rope, so that Mom had has some form of kitchen privacy. party - it kept people busy and warm and entertained Pressure-Canning Meat during long winter months. When I tell people that I can Get a dozen or so of your meat, I'm often asked how. I tell neighbours over on a cold winter evening and spend the them that I usually simply coldpack the raw meat before night dancing, singing and processing. swapping stories. Just remember to have room for Frequently, people are people to sleep in case confused, thinking that this everyone gets snowed in. means I somehow preserve the 31. Small rooms and homes are easier to heat. If possible, meat raw, as in freezing. block off bedrooms and keep your activity, candles, etc. in Meat must ALWAYS be pressure one room so that you're only canned. There are no exceptions. People who tell you trying to heat a couple that you can oven-can or boiling hundred square feet (yes, your whole family can live in water can meat are trying to kill that). The blocked-off rooms you. Botulism is considered low frequency but high risk - people will act as an extra buffer rarely get it, but you don't want against the cold outdoors. to be the one who does. When you do go in those rooms, be prepared for a At any rate, I pack (usually raw) shock of cold. meat into clean jars and then 32. Kerosene space heaters process them in a pressure are one option, although canner. For pressure canning, remember that they're the jars don't need to be hot and considered dangerous and sterilized just clean and at the they're not exactly same temperature as the water sustainable. ANY form of heating requires ventilation. into which you're putting them. 33. Getting washed is going to be miserable. There are going to be a lot of stinky, stinky people. Not because water will be hard to find (it's piled just outside your door all winter!) but because we won't want to get naked and wet. Mastering the art of the sponge bath would be a good idea. If you can block off all At my altitude, that means I except one room and get that process them at 11 Pounds Per Page 11

Square Inch of pressure. (With to a Dumpling. I'm weird and I always flip my my wonderful three-part weight, dumplings over so that both I now use 10 pounds) That's a lot We eat a lot of dumplings in our sides are covered in soupy broth of pressure! The inside of my house, at least during the and stuff. Mr. D likes little pressure canner reaches an winter. dumplings dropped from incredible 240F, and I hold it teaspoons. I like big and puffy there for over an hour. (75 Do you want to know how EASY dumplings dropped from minutes for pints and 90 minutes dumplings are to make? tablespoons. for quarts). Seriously. I've now made dumplings in A quart of meat that cooks at chicken and beef soup/stew, as 240F, under 11 PSI pressure, for 1 cup flour well as meatball stew, and I've an hour and a half is completely 1 Tb baking powder made dumplings in a failed-jamcooked. In fact, it's falling apart, 1/2 tsp salt syrup. Is there anything else I tender, rich and delicious. The 1 cup milk (I just eyeball it) can do with dumplings, I only answer I can come up with wonder. is that all of the flavor stays in Some people cut some cold fat there and becomes superinto the dry ingredients, which concentrated. Have you ever would make it more resemble heard people complain about biscuit dough. In that case, form My Five Year Plan slow-cooked food lacking flavor? the dumplings into balls with Yea, well, not this stuff. your hands before dropping This is my five year plan, Pressure-canned meat is slow- them in. I don't do that. I do starting from land purchase. cooked tender but with infinitely sometimes add some onion more flavor - and it takes a powder or Italian seasoning. It's ambitious. When I think that fraction of the time. we are currently the parents of Mix it with a fork to combine. a toddler and a preschooler, Now, I said usually raw and I Let it set for a minute and it will quickly leaving our 30s, and we should explain. Ground beef puff. I find that that is JUST currently don't own any land, I needs to be cooked before enough batter to cover the wonder if it's too ambitious. But canning, or it turns into a solid surface of my large pot of stew. if you aim at the moon and miss, chunk in your jar. It can either you'll still land among the stars, be formed as meatballs or fried Drop by the spoonful into right? Yes, I KNOW it needs a lot and packed loosely into jars, simmering (not boiling) broth. of work. :) with broth poured on top. When Make sure there is a LOT of I pressure-can hot, cooked meat, broth! The dumplings will puff As a note - we want to use I bring the water in my canner and soak up as much liquid as "natural animal power" as much up to the same temperature as they can. The little bits of as possible, because we will not the meat, or I bring the meat to dumpling that fall off will be using petroleum power. Pigs room temperature before thicken the rest of the broth. If dig, chickens scratch, goats putting it in the water. If there there's not a lot of broth, you'll eat ... surely we can harness is a sudden change, jars can end up with bits of meat and that to clear land AND grow break. veggies stuck around dumplings meat/milk/eggs? Polyface Farm that are sitting in a tiny amount talks about it from the position of very thick gravy. (I'm not of an established farm - how saying that's a BAD thing ...) would one start when Dumplings Make It homesteading on new land? Better Let that simmer for about Were I poetic, I'd write an Ode fifteen minutes with the lid on. The modern idea of Page 12 Prepping in a City Apartment

homesteading is that you always have the city to fall back on, and all plans I read take that into account. What should one do if the city is NOT an option any longer?

tiller and do it by human power Try different crops (ugh!) Consider getting a pair of Plant a full garden, try to grow draught ponies or mules and as much as possible and preserve learning how to work them like a madwoman Cut firewood Buy chickens Buy a couple of pregnant goats Year One Make sure that the area is Donating Expired Food Buy land, cash down. properly cleared and ready for There's a common piece of Start looking for a "good mouser" the permanent house stockpiling advice that I have cat. Build a cold cellar seen in many places Get a guardian dog. Plant hay (Newfoundland, maybe) Not sure Locate a farmer who will sell us Regularly go through of the benefits of pup vs. dog enough straw bales for the house the food in your Make sure that we have all the Cut firewood storage, find anything basic tools we need that has expired, and Get a Berkshire pig and set it to Year Three donate it to food do its thing tilling up land Start building the strawbale banks, a needy Get some land clear house family, etc. Put a yurt or cheap mobile home Plant a full garden, try to grow on the land and move in as much as possible and preserve Here's my version of this: Establish water systems for like a madwoman people, plants and animals Keep working on the garden and If it's not good enough Establish latrine system permanent pastures, including for your family to eat, If electricity will be used, fences why would you expect establish power system Keep working at something that another family to eat Designate and fence garden brings in money it? When in doubt, areas Cut firewood throw it out. Don't Plant any permanent trees and pass it along to crops in the fenced areas, using Year Four someone who just the most mature trees possible Finish the house if it's not might be desperate to get a head start finished enough to risk food Build up that compost heap Plant a full garden, try to grow poisoning. Establish a kitchen garden near as much as possible and preserve the site for the permanent house like a madwoman There have been times when I Build a chicken coop, goat shed Keep working on the garden and have had to access food banks, and firewood storage building to permanent pastures and I've certainly known a lot of get practice at building Keep working at something that people who have done so as Cut firewood and stack it for brings in money well. There's nothing quite like next year Cut firewood carefully carting home a precious pound of ground beef, Year Two Year Five or a bag of oranges, only to open Keep working on an outside Take a deep breath and be it and find that it's long past source of income and carefully amazed if we've actually done rotten. Here's a hint - the food watch finances all this banks don't actually want Build a barn/workshop with Add new animals *expired* food, because they sufficient hay storage Plant a full garden, try to grow won't be able to get it to Fence pasture into paddocks as much as possible and preserve someone in need before it goes Keep those pigs tilling, or get a like a madwoman bad. Page 13

to a food bank. For every $1 Now, I don't mean food that's that you donate to a food bank, close to expiry - as long as you they can buy - through deals know that it will get used or with grocery stores and other frozen quickly. Two days ago, I organizations - between $3 and bought 16 pounds of ground beef $10 worth of healthy, nonthat was about to expire. "About expired, nutritious food. to expire" isn't the same as Seriously! A food bank can buy "expired". But if the food was more for $1 than you can with "about to expire", you would use the same $1 - even from the it instead of giving it away, same grocery store. Save $10 by right? Expired food is not safe. eating your stockpiled food That's the reason why people are before it expires, donate $5 of it told to go through their food to your nearest food bank, and storage and remove it. Expired they can buy up to $50 worth of food can give you food food to provide to the hungry. poisoning. Health Canada recommends that we dispose of It's a win-win situation, folks. expired food for just that reason. Please - the poor tend to be less a healthy, in part because they have less food, less healthy food, and all too frequently, unsafe food. Poor health makes one even more susceptible to things like food poisoning. Do not donate expired food. In fact, here's a shocker - don't donate food at all! I'll explain why in a second. But the waste! Well, here's a tip - once a month, look through your food storage for food that will expire over the next month. Plan your menus around those items. Use them up. You'll save money. You'll learn how to rotate your inventory. You'll get used to wasting less food. Oh, yea, you'll save money, right? And one of the coolest things that you can do with that money you've saved? Donate it Page 14

26 Ways to Prepare for Post-Collapse World

1. Forget the car. PostCollapse, we are not going to be driving cars. I'm sure the answer will be different according to location, but hybrid and electric cars are not, I think, going to be the answer. Start walking. Get a bicycle. Learn to manage without going far outside your community. 2. Consider how your ancestors (if you live where they did) dealt with the seasons. In a northern climate, winter is a time for hunkering down and staying close to home (and the wood stove). 3. Make sure your family has a good supply of whatever long-lasting, well-made clothes are needed for your climate. Here in

Canada, that means (in my opinion) a lot of leather, wool and fur which are, incidentally, materials that can be acquired locally. (Flax, too, can be grown here and turned into linen.) 4. Get local with your food. Even if you're not currently buying from local suppliers, get used to eating foods that grow in your region. Figure out what exceptions you'll make, and why, and what you'll do if those items aren't available for long periods of time. Start figuring out who the local food suppliers are. The time to find these people is before the trucks stop running. 5. Get to know your community. Take walks and figure out what you can access without a vehicle. Talk to your neighbours, too, and get to know them. In a postCollapse world, the strength of your neighbourhood could make all the difference. 6. Learn to make something. Learn to bake bread. Sew practical clothes. Weave. Cobble shoes. Build something from wood without power tools. Make soap. Dip candles. Make music from classic instruments. Or learn to tell a really good yarn. We're going to need singers and musicians and entertainers in a big way. 7. Store food. Better yet, Prepping in a City Apartment

grow food organically and learn to store it in a sustainable way. (Here's a hint - if it requires electricity or petroleum, it's not sustainable.) The Mormons have the right idea when it comes to keeping a *rotating* year's worth of food and household goods. Personally, I think that commercially preserved foods have a place ONLY as you're learning to preserve food at home. 8. While you're at it, learn how to save seeds. (And I don't mean buying a sealed bucket "seed bank".) 9. Learn how to make the basics. Vinegar. Mead. Sourdough. Pasta. Get connected with your local Society for Creative Anachronism - they're packed full of people with these skills. How's this for a basic - can you start a fire without a lighter? Without commercial matches? (I can't, but I want to learn) 10. Get a good reference guide for the edible plants in your area. Better yet, take courses in foraging. 11. Learn to hunt and fish, preferably with tools and weapons that can be easily repaired. 12. Plan to go camping this summer, with the kids, and "rough it" as much as you can. 13. Raising animals may be harder or easier

than hunting them, but at least you know where to find them at slaughter time. Plus, they provide milk and eggs. 14. Start dumping the plastic. It's made from petroleum and it breaks down in nasty ways while we use it, but it doesn't break down enough to ever actually go away. 15. Homeschool. Stop relying on other people to educate your kids. Build up a library of books you believe are worthwhile. 16. If you are currently doing well financially, the sort of family that has stocks and bonds, get out of debt. However, if your income is more modest (ie., you're poor folk), this might be a lower priority than ensuring a supply of food and basic goods in your home. (In the event of a total collapse, I'm not convinced that personal debt is going to be very important.) 17. Rethink your definition of wealth. Land is wealth. Knowledge and practical skills are wealth. Paper money is not wealth in a post-collapse world. Work on diminishing your need for a steady income. 18. Establish housing that is as secure as possible. If you own 1/10 of your home and the bank owns the rest, it's not secure. An acre that you own outright is better than fifty acres that you

co-own with the bank and which requires a steady income for the monthly mortgage payments. By the same token, high property taxes are not sustainable without a steady income. (Will the government eliminate taxes in the event of an economic collapse? I can't see it happening!) 19. Stop buying stuff. When you do buy something, buy the best quality you can, buy for long-lasting value and take care of it. Reduce your need for new "stuff", and re-use everything that you can. 20. Build a comprehensive medical kit for your home, keeping in mind that our modern medical system may be in disarray and medication difficult to find. Learn how to use it, too. 21. If possible, get licensed to use firearms and take lessons. This will not be feasible for everyone, though, depending on location, legal barriers, finances and other variables. Don't expect to stockpile weapons and ammo and keep your hungry neighbours out, though. A better plan is to work on community survival and cooperate with those around you. 22. Mechanics - being able to repair bicycles Page 15

and other human-powered As Orlov Dimitri puts it 6 12-ounce bags of cranberries equipment is going to be a "Government is already 1 navel orange vital skill. useless. Commercial 4 Spartan apples 23. Stop considering sector will become 4-6 cup sugar (4 will be tart, 6 electricity and oil as vital useless quickly. Since they will be sweet) components of your life. will become useless to 2 Tb molasses Practice living without a you, you can start being freezer, then graduate to useless to them ahead of This is as simple as it gets. living without a fridge. time." Check the berries for soft, Unplug the tv. Turn off 26. Get in shape. This squishy or freaky-colored ones the lights whenever is hard for most of us, but and discard. possible. Consider if we had to start living candlelight dinners. Look today without electricity Zest the orange. Peel off the for manual tools instead and petroleum, most of us white pith and chop the pulp. of electric. would have heart attacks Core and chop the apples. 24. Remember what I and busted knees within a said about community? week. Start going for The fact is that none of us walks - it's a great way to Add everything to a very large pot. The little bit of molasses can master ALL of that get to know your will combine with the white stuff. Develop your own neighbourhood! sugar to create brown sugar. skill sets and group together with people who Simmer and stir until all of the have complementary Homemade Canned berries have popped. I've never skills. The other thing we can't do alone (or even in Cranberry Fruit Sauce timed it. The berries will start popping - that's what you're one nuclear family) is Once a year, when cranberries looking for. In fact, the sauce keep breeding ... when make their long-awaited isn't done until all of the berries choosing your community, appearance, I make cranberry have popped. remember that your sauce. The recipe is simple, but grandchildren will need it never fails to impress. Here's four biologically unrelated how I make mine. In order to have the space to grandparents ... boil everything, I cooked the 25. Something we CAN sauce in my large pressure all do - start limiting your canning pot, and sterilized my reliance on the jars in my water bath canning national/international pot I filled that pot with water, economy. We still have to brought it to a bubbling boil and live in the current then moved it off the stove, economy, but we can making sure that the jars were work on getting ourselves all underwater. on the fringe of it. If While the fruit is cooking, put you're cash-poor and the lids on to heat. Rings don't mostly self-reliant, you're going to weather an Homemade How do I cook old dry beans? economic and Canned The longer dry beans are stored, the longer they may take to cook. infrastructure collapse Cranberry First, sort and rinse the beans. For each cup of beans, bring 3 cups better than someone and Fruit of water to boil, add the beans to the boiling water, and boil for whose life is completely Sauce two minutes. Next, add 3/8 teaspoon of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) for each cup of beans, cover, and soak for 1 hour or dependent on the system. Page 16

more. More baking soda may be required for older beans. Next, drain and rinse the beans thoroughly, cover with water, bring to boil, then reduce heat and simmer 1-2 hours or until tender. Do not Prepping in a City Apartment add salt or other ingredients until the beans have softened adequately. - From the Mormon's Provident Living FAQ

need to be heated. Remember - and many of us thought that despite what your mom says they were to be finger-tight. about boiling the lids for five The manufacturers actually minutes, that is no longer recommend that you tight them recommended. But they do need up fairly well, but only as tightly to be NEW lids unless you're as you can reasonably do with using reusables (in which case, your hand. adjust your rings according to their directions.) Bring the water just to a boil and turn it Process in a boiling water bath off. Leave them in the hot water 15 minutes for half-pints and pints; 20 minutes for quarts. until ready to can. Remove to a towel on the When the sauce is cooked, move counter. After 12-24 hours, it off the stove, if you need to, check the seals, remove the in order to bring your pot of jars rings, label and store. back up to a boil.

- with homemade cranberry sauce and commercial - in a crockpot with a bag of whole uncooked berries and an extra half cup of liquid and 1/2 cup of sugar added to the recipe - with plain tomato sauce, Italian-seasoned sauce, and primavera sauce - with raw meat (best for chicken breasts!) and cooked meat (best for meatballs) - In a crockpot, in the oven, and on the stovetop - Served on french fries, baked potatoes, rice and hamburger buns

Radical Frugality Use your can lifter to take jars Rosy Meat one at a time - out of the boiling Adapted from Peg Bracken's I What would you consider radical water. It is very easy to get Hate to Cook Book frugality? Is there anything we boiling water dripping down the do that you wouldn't do? lifter and onto your hand. Try to 1 pint Cranberry and Fruit Sauce 1. We are cash-only by avoid that. 1 pint plain tomato sauce choice. Sometimes we find it difficult to stick to 1 pound meat that, as people urge us to And if you do get boiling water This is so versatile! purchase online or on on yourself, try not to drop the Mix the two sauces. Pour over credit. We do have a bank jar. That will just make things any sort of meat drained account so that we can worse. canned meat, raw chicken pay bills and cash pieces, browned meatballs, cheques. It's quite funny, leftover beef chunks and heat actually, when we pay for I remove one jar, fill it and then on stovetop, in oven, or in large purchases in cash. return it to the pot of water. crockpot until the meat and No one expects that these sauce are hot. The time will days. Ladle into hot, sterilized jars, depend on the meat used and 2. We live in a small space. using a wide-mouthed funnel whether it's cooked or raw. (If Although we have never that's specially designed for you're doing this as a 100% food measured, the apartment filling jars. Use something non- storage recipe, it only needs to has a galley eat-in metal to poke down the sauce be warmed up.) kitchen, a narrow but long and remove any air bubbles. Add livingroom, a small I've played around with it so lids. bathroom, and two much over the years that most bedrooms. The rings (if you're using of the family considers it "That 3. We're taking the terrifying standard one-use lids) should be cranberry dish of yours". step of going car-free as put on HAND tight. There was I've made it: of this summer recently a discussion on the - with whole berry cranberry 4. I cook from scratch. Canning2 mailing list about it, sauce and jellied sauce
Page 17

Really, really from scratch. I put up meat, vegetables, broth and pickles in glass jars, using a boiling water canner and a pressure canner. I make sourdough bread. I have learned how to make bacon and corned beef. I make ghee from butter and render lard from pork fat. 5. We don't have air conditioning in the apartment. For about two weeks in the summer, we wish we had it but by the time we've decided that we simply must get it, the weather has cooled off. 6. We use a slow cooker (which we bought on sale at 50% off). I use it for slow-cooking things like ketchup and barbecue sauce for canning. 7. We do not buy "single use" items. I include not only disposable products like paper towel, but items like a popcorn popper, or a 'Smore maker. 8. We use Family Cloth. 9. I dumpster dive if I see something worth taking. I've noticed, though, that fewer good things are going curbside. Fifteen years ago, I swear I could have outfitted my home with what people threw out. 10. We're working with our church to get a Community Garden started. 11. We've been quite radical with eliminating things in the house that we don't Page 18

use. Less stuff equals more room for food storage. 12. We have fairly streamlined wardrobes and don't change with the seasons. If we do really need something (usually just for the kids), we shop at Value Village. 13. The kids have minimal toys and maximum books. The toys that they do have are usually classic items - Lego, wooden train and car sets, a few favorite stuffed toys. 14. We buy almost everything in bulk. And we're not shy about asking about further discounts for dented boxes, aboutto-expire meat, etc. 15. We love, love, love Freecycle. Baby clothes, car seats, books, movies, even our bed - we've found so many great things through Freecycle. When we are not using something any longer, we put it up on Freecyle, too. Yes, we could probably sell things, but I like getting some Freecycle karma. 16. I use Swagbucks as my search engine. I should be earning money for my searches, not Yahoo. 17. We do not buy cold cereal. Ever. 18. Breakfast is almost always old-fashioned oatmeal, soaked overnight and then cooked with cinnamon, molasses and raisins. 19. We do not have cable.

Actually, we don't even receive the public stations. 20. We don't have cell phones, and our phone/longdistance/internet is bundled, costing us less than $100/month. 21. We have no personal debt. 22. We have a practical gifts rule, and no surprise gifts except for kids. We're not wealthy enough for "Oh, gee, you shouldn't have. 23. We are selective about who we give gifts to outside of the immediate family, and all that we do give are creatively upcycled, carefully regifted, or hand-made. 24. We rarely eat out - when we do, we recognize that we're paying extra for someone else to shop, cook and clean. The food isn't any better than, and often it's not nearly as good as, what I make at home. We don't go out for coffee, nor do we go out and drink. Okay, we really don't drink. But if we did, we'd have a drink at home. 25. I save the whey from making Farmer's Cheese and use it as the liquid in my sourdough bread. 26. Oh, yes, I make Farmer's Cheese from goat's milk instead of incredibly expensive chevre. I did say I cook from scratch, right? I mean it. 27. We eat a lot of soup. And stew. In the winter, Prepping in a City Apartment

we pretty much live on Ever. We have metal coils by placing stew and dumplings. water bottles that we fill several burning 28. We don't eat a lot of and take in the summer. matches across the meat. We LIKE meat. 37. We are very picky about top. Buddy burners Okay, we love meat. And what we buy. We should be placed if we had our own farm frequently ask "Do we inside a can-stove, where we could raise need this? Really need it?" see below, or chickens, rabbits, goats Then we go away and ask between rocks so heat and pigs, we'd be eating ourselves that for a week. is directed up to a pan like decadent carnivorous If the answer is still yes, placed over the kings. Right now, though, and we could find no burner. meat is expensive. substitution, we buy it. A small outdoor can29. We have bought a whole I'm no Frugal Zealot, but I think stove can be made pig, cut only into the from a number-10 can we're doing pretty good. I primal cuts, and will be wonder if I've forgotten or a 46-ounce juice butchering and processing anything. can. On the open end, it ourselves. cut out a piece of 30. We buy farm fresh eggs metal about 3 inches Buddy Burner directly from a local high and 3 to 4 inches farmer, at a better price Do you know what this is? Maybe long. On the closed than I can get at the end of the can, use a you're an old-time boy scout. grocery store. punch can-opener to Anyway, I found this in one of 31. Because I put up food in my old cookbooks - Cooking With make holes around jars, I can portion meals Stored Foods . It's an interesting the side at about 3well in order to minimize book, worth finding just to see a inch intervals. waste. Through the large tin can that says "One WHOLE 32. We make coffee at home chicken". hole, insert a lighted and take it in travel mugs. Buddy Burner, or 33. We don't use napkins twisted paper and I'm tempted to go pick up some cloth or paper. After a sticks to make a fire. paraffin wax and try this. meal, people with messy Some foods such as faces go to the bathroom Buddy Burner bacon and eggs can be and wash, unless they're cooked directly on the "Cut corrugated too little. In that case, surface of the cancardboard as wide as they have their faces and stove. Pans or skillets the can is high, hands washed. can also be used on cutting across the 34. Most of my dishtowels the stove. corrugated strips. Coil have become rags and I'm Construct a simple the cardboard tightly still using them. Do they oven by placing inside the can. Pour really have to look pretty another slightly melted paraffin or in order to wash my smaller can on top of candle-wax over and dishes? your can-stove. between the coils 35. Oh, yea, among those Biscuits, cakes and until the can is full. appliances we don't have quick breads can be Use extreme caution a dishwasher. Not that we baked in these when handling hot could fit one in this makeshift ovens." paraffin or candleapartment. wax. After the wax or 36. We don't ever, ever, Now, personally, I think that's paraffin has ever buy bottled water. pretty cool. The only problem I hardened, light the Page 19

can see is that I don't use very you can reasonably bicycle - two chunks of Nova Scotia and New many commercially canned miles or less. I feel that postBrunswick). products and I'm working at Collapse, this will be the If you live in Ontario eliminating the ones I do use. I accepted definition of local. and want to envision can't imagine having enough 100 miles, it's the cans to make more than a few of 4 - Farmer's Reach - What else to distance from the these. Still, it's a cool idea, isn't call this? Farmers with horses Toronto Pearson it? and wagons post-Collapse will be Airport all the way to able to travel at a decadent 5-10 Muskoka Lake. Or the mph in order to bring their distance between goods to small markets. What Is Local? Vankleek Hill on the However, how will their far east of Ottawa to What is local? Is there one customers reach them? Arnprior. definitive definition? I'm going to define "local" on a sliding scale from 1 through 10 (from uber through not-at-all), and you can feel free to agree with me or disagree with me. (And of course, please comment either way) After writing this, and spending a couple of hours looking at maps, I realize that I'm redefining "local" for myself. 4 - City - I find it more and more difficult, with soaring gas prices, to justify a 10 mile (each way) trip across town, even if something closer is slightly more expensive. Most people would certainly consider "with the city limits" to be local, at least for now. Or, if you're in Nova Scotia, it's the distance from Windmill Road, Halifax to Ecum Secum, or the distance between Amherst and New Glasgow, or from the Cape Breton causeway all the way to New Waterford!

5 - Region or county - What about our regional municipality? 1 - Backyard - Really, it can't get Now we're entering the fuzzy much more local than that. If area, especially when we you're growing it on a windowsill consider the end of cheap oil. I Still feel local? It generally takes 2 to 2 1/2 hours to drive 100 or balcony, under a grow lamp, would love to consider the or in your backyard, this is about region "local", because it opens miles in a car, and almost 9 hours to travel by bicycle. as local as it is possible to be. up a lot. With cars/trucks and Walking? If you were in fabulous This is uber-local. Very few affordable gas, it certainly is shape, you could do 20-30 miles people can raise/grow/make local. The granary from which I a day, so that would be 3-5 everything they need in their will buy my next bulk order of days. home or backyard, though. wheat, barley and oats is 10 miles away from me. For now, I 7 - Province - Okay, if you live in 2 - Neighbourhood - I would can justify that, especially if I PEI, flip #5 and #4 around, okay? consider this to be walking find others to combine a large We live in Ontario, which is a distance or within 1/2 a mile. If quarterly order. massive province at over you can reasonably walk there 415,000 square miles. It has over (with children!), to work a 6 - 100 miles - Now, this must 250,000 freshwater lakes, a one Community Garden or barter have been picked arbitrarily. For and a half million square mile with/buy from a neighbour, you most of us, a 100 mile radius saltwater bay, and three fit most people's definition of covers quite a large distance, geographical regions. An extremely local. larger than a city or county, incredibly variety of crops grow smaller than a province (unless 3 - Extended neighbourhood - I you live in PEI, in which case it's in these three regions. would define this as the distance your entire island plus good An in-province trip from Page 20 Prepping in a City Apartment

Tillsonburg in southern Ontario to Cobalt in northern Ontario is almost 400 miles, and it crosses a ridiculously small part of the province. Focusing on "Ontario grown" is a wonderful way to introduce people to the idea of local eating, but can I really call something local when it drives a full day to get to me?

always going to be things that you will acquire from outside your area, however you define that.

at least trying. Eventually the ice melted and the bones started cooking and collapsing. They were browning as they did. My second shock was the sheer volume of meat on these "bones". Out of two carcasses, there were two entire, untouched legs, all four wings, and a considerable amount of breast meat - all completely freezer burnt and dehydrated. I'm a little confused about someone being concerned about not wasting the bones, but leaving that much meat on them. (I've said as much to her.)

Lots of Turkey Broth

8 - Country - Of course, we're clearly out of the "local" category now, by anyone's standards. Is there ever a good reason to buy, for example, kiwifruit from British Columbia That's one of those BIG turkey or Nova Scotia's Jost Ice Wine if roasting pans. It fits on two of At any rate, I made sure the you don't live there? (And I'm carcasses were covered in my burners when it's on the seriously asking) Should Glen water, added a couple of whole stove top. Breton, Canada's only single onions, and stuck it in the oven malt Scotch, be restricted to the When I first put the turkey at 200F, with the lid on. Then I Maritimes? What about scallops carcasses in, I should have taken went to bed. and lobster if you live inland? If a picture. A friend gave me two hard wheat does not grow in plastic shopping bags stuffed full In the morning, I took it out of your province, do you purchase of turkey bones from the oven, topped up the water it from the closest out-ofand let it simmer on the stove Thanksgiving. That's Canadian province source or do you adjust Thanksgiving in October, by the top until I had time to deal with your diet? it. I simply strained it, put it in way. quart jars, along with the little 9 - Continent - Florida oranges. meat I could salvage (I divided Molasses. Dried dates. Canadians The greatest fine art of the that among the jars) and have been importing these since future will be the making of a pressure canned them at 11 PSI steam engine days, long before comfortable living from a small for 90 minutes. I got exactly 7 refrigerated trucks and jet quarts - a full canner load - of piece of land. engines. turkey soup starter (or I can -Abraham Lincoln strain out the meat and use it 10 - World - Spices. Tea (except Now, you know and I know that separately) from that big pot of specific herbal teas). Coffee. bones. plastic shopping bags are not Cocoa. Rice. proper freezer storage, don't we? The amount of ice on these Now, with all of those on the Frugal to the Max bones was astounding. But I table, it's time to analyze where piled them into the roaster, 1) Re-use your coffee grounds. you sit on the local spectrum. added some water and stuck it Okay, the truly frugal don't It's not a competition, especially in the oven to thaw at 200F drink coffee, do they, so I since not everyone has access to because I couldn't bear the guess I'm not quite that good. the same resources. There are thought of tossing them without

Page 21

I make one or two cups in my French Press, as needed, so no coffee is wasted. Two scoops of coffee will half-fill the Press and fill my travel mug. Sometimes, especially in the evening when I want a coffee that isn't incredibly strong, I'll remove the plunger, add one scoop of grounds, and refresh it with boiling water. The coffee still tastes better than I've had in a lot of restaurants. Now, if you're a coffee connoisseur, you're going to turn your nose up at this, and that's fine with me. If you and I have coffee together, you're buying. (Mr. D reminded me that he uses the same teabag all day. I despise tea, so I had forgotten about that.) 2) No more paper down the toilet. I've been thinking about this for more than a year, and the Challenge is my incentive. We have some TP in our storage closet, and I'd like it to to last the rest of the year. So what do we do? Family Cloth! No, no, no, it's not a cloth hanging in the bathroom for everyone to use. What I am going to do is this: 1) A small pitcher in the bathroom to hold water so that we can easily rinse off, Middle Eastern style, 2) A stack of small pieces of cloth (cut up receiving blankets) for wiping *after* rinsing, 3) A lidded bucket beside the toilet to hold cloths until they're washed. 3) Ladies Only - I have hesitated to use cloth Page 22

menstrual pads because the pre-made ones are very expensive, and my sewing skills are nonexistent. Hillbilly Housewife has a few patterns and instructions on her site, so it's likely I can find something within my price and skill range. 4) Beautiful bones - I buy meat with bones in, cook it with the bones in, and then I make broth. Lots and lots of broth. "Garbage bones" plus water = nutritious broth. 5) Fashion Smashion - What, you say fashions change each year? Keep your clothing simple and classic and wear it until it falls apart. Take advantage of all those people who do buy new every year a lot of them are happy to just give the "out of fashion" stuff away. (Yea, blows my mind, too. I haven't bought new clothes, other than underwear, in years.)

available online anyway. 8) Drink tap water. I know there are a few places where the water is undrinkable, but are any of those places actually in North America? Most cities spend a lot of money to make sure that the tap water is clean, safe and drinkable. I don't filter our tap water either, although I would in some cities. 9) Learn to love second hand. And not just purchased second-hand, either. I think that every city and town in North America has some version of Freecycle, where people can give and receive items for free. Put out the word that you need maternity wear, canning jars, blankets, a winter coat, and quite often someone has one sitting around with which they'd like to part.

6) No More Yeast - Get a Junk? sourdough starter going and use it every day. Yeast is pretty expensive, especially On Kathy Harrison's blog, a when you consider what it is. comment was made that grabbed my attention: Make sure you serve some form of sourdough bread at How do you (or any of every meal - it's less us?) convert those expensive than anything else who look at their on the table. Time limited food dollars consuming? Then make and face the hard dumplings. choice between a tiny 7) Ditch the TV. Really disconnect the cable/satellite/whatever, and immediately save $60-150 a month. Most things are

Organic or Processed

amount of organic produce and lots of processed glop? Who dont let their children get any exercise by walking to Prepping in a City Apartment

nearest Sobeys (certainly not it is here in Canada. But the known for their low prices!) is solution is simple - stop telling only about five minutes away - if people that they have to ditch you have a car, which few of my the commercial crap for organic, neighbours do. To get to a 100-mile produce, and start discount grocery store requires getting them cooking. Just one much more traveling, and thing. Bake a potato instead of they're all so spread apart that opening a bag of fries. If it's shopping at multiple stores local, that's great, but don't fret wipes out any savings. I'm not about it. Fry up a hamburger sure what a Whole Foods is, but patty at home and serve it on a store bought bun. Just one It's not black and white! There is we have two local Farmer's such a huge spectrum between Markets - one is twenty minutes thing. "tiny amount of organic produce" (by highway, no less) to the I'm not kidding. If a person and "lots of processed glop". A south of me and one is ten potato is still a potato, even if minutes to the north. However, thinks hamburgers come the prices at both are wrapped in waxed paper at it's non-organic, and a nonastonishingly high. Growing our McDonald's, they're not ready for organic potato is far less expensive than a bag of french own food isn't an option at this buying organic, local meat and fries. Flour, cornmeal, oats and time (although I hope to have a produce, preserving the harvest community plot or two this or making their own pickles, other grains are still healthy, cheese, bread or ketchup. They A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, just need to learn how to cook. butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance Discussion Follow-up: Farmgal: Well, I don't know about your stores but as a small farmer, you will be amazed at the amount of folks I know that even if they don't come in fancy, spring). make deals to take all the "end over-priced paper bags. Factoryof day reduced items" to help farmed meat, while definitely And yet - we eat very well, and off-set feed costs on there not ideal, will still nourish and we're saving money. It's possible. critters. I work with my local feed your children. Home cooked food is so much apple orchard, they have an less expensive than processed amazing deal on win-fall apples Saying that people must choose stuff. The problem is that so few for the farm critters, you pick between a tiny bit of organic people know how to cook even them up and get a bushel for produce or tons of processed the most basic things. I have a just a few dollars. We love our junk is about the same as saying sister-in-law who considers apple flavor pork. Either I successfully run a herself a good cook because she marathon or I'm a fat couch can put a roast in the crockpot potato. The journey between and turn it on. It's an Personalizing Food couch potato and marathon improvement - her mother's best Storage: Sugar runner consists of many, many "recipe" involved a telephone small steps. and 11 secret herbs and spices. I'm going to say this a lot - you I live in the "ghetto" of our city. I suspect from what I read on can't depend on someone else's There is no grocery store in the other blogs that the problem is list when deciding what food to immediate community. The worse in the United States than store. Here is a really good Page 23
accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. - Robert A. Heinlein - "Time Enough For Love"

school or playing outdoors because their neighborhoods arent safe? Who live in nutritional deserts because a wholefoods grocery or farm market wont move into their lowerincome community?

example -- Sugar!

sugar products! Why store so much sugar? Well, in addition to I found an official looking list jam-making and meat-curing, that laid out the recommended Don't throw up your hands and sugar is necessary for our amount of sugar to store: think that you can't make this health. Ideally, we would be White granulated sugar = 40-50 work, though. Look through and using all honey and molasses and lbs. per person decide what your family actually almost no white sugar, but that's Powdered sugar = 6 lbs. per needs. not practical for us. person Brown sugar = 6 lbs. per person White granulated sugar = 50 If we store these in quart Honey = 6 lbs. per person pounds per person would be 200 canning jars, we need 192 of Molasses = 1 jar per person pounds for us. During most of them. However, I actually prefer Jam = 2-3 jars per person the year, that would be enough, to store honey and molasses in Syrup = 2-3 jars per person but jam-making and meat-curing pint jars to prevent Puddings and jellos = 3 lbs. per eats up sugar like crazy. We will contaminating all of it with dirty person plan on eventually storing 75 spoons and the like, and sugar Corn syrup = 1 jar per person pounds (150 cups/19 gallon jars) could more easily be stored in Hot cocoa mix or fruit drink mix of white sugar per person. gallon jars if I could only find = 1-2 lbs. per person Currently, we have 90 pounds on them. Therefore 76 gallon jars hand and, during the winter, use and 80 pint jars would safely As a start, it's good. In our less than a kilogram per month. hold our sugar for the year. house, let's see ... I've had Powdered sugar = None powdered sugar in my cupboard Brown sugar = None for ages. I finally used it up to Honey = 15 pounds (about 20 Salvaged Beans make some Potato Candy, cups/10 pint jars) per person because it was never going to be with the aim of slowly increasing Or: What To Do With Those Cheap Cans of Beans? used otherwise. I have no idea this and decreasing the white why I ever bought it - what do sugar. Maybe they don't show up in people use it for? I don't buy your pantry like they seem to in brown sugar because it's easily Molasses = We use a lot of this. mine, but this is how I salvage made from molasses and white 15 pounds (about 20 cups/10 those bland cans of baked sugar. Honey? That would be 24 pint jars) per person. beans. pounds for our family, and it Jam = None 2 can beans might be enough, but only four Syrup = The only syrup I really jars of molasses? That wouldn't want is maple. Unfortunately, it 4 Tb molasses last us two months. Jam? That is incredibly expensive does not 1 cup sugar shouldn't be in this list - that's a store well. For now, we have 1 cup ketchup homemade item. Syrup? That's one monster-sized jug of vague, so I'm not sure what's pancake syrup in the fridge. One 1 tsp mustard powder meant. Puddings and Jello? We jug lasts us a year or more. 1 tsp onion powder just don't use Jello, and pudding Puddings and jellos = None is a homemade item. Mr. D Corn syrup = 1 jar total, kept 1 tsp garlic powder found a large, unopened bottle sealed in the cupboard in case I of corn syrup in the pantry a few ever actually need it. days ago - I think I bought it Hot cocoa mix or fruit drink mix Don't do this with "Bush's Baked Beans" or any of the really good about 3 years ago for some = None kinds of baked beans because recipe that didn't get made. Hot cocoa mix is, again, a That totals 105 pounds of sugar they already contain a decent homemade item, and we do not per person, and that's a LOT of sauce. Do this with the cheap Page 24 Prepping in a City Apartment

- and will not - use powdered drink mixes.

"beans in tomato sauce".

The basic idea behind stew is this: Meat that's been cooked in I used no-name beans, its own juices and tenderized, homemade ketchup, mustard plus lots of vegetables, plus seeds that I ground to powder in There's a bit of an art to switching places as one washes some sort of tasty liquid, plus my mortar and pestle, along with regular white sugar, onion and the other rinses, but we've spices) If the meat and powder and garlic powder. If you managed to do it even when I've vegetables have been pressurebeen nine months pregnant, and canned, 99% of the cooking has wanted to make this fancier, already been done. you could use 1/2 onion sliced or even when juggling a small baby. (Not literally juggling, of chopped, and a minced garlic course ... although that's a funny Dump all of the stew ingredients clove ... but that's only "from mental image.) I can find no in a big pot and put it on food storage" for part of the hard numbers on water and medium-high heat. Add spices if year, isn't it? (Definitely do that when you have fresh garlic and electricity savings when shower- you have/like them. I've been pooling. However, what I've adding a bit of Italian seasoning onion, though!) found is that our doubled-up to use it up. Thyme would be You could also use a bit of showers take no longer than good, as would be rosemary and prepared mustard, if that's what when showering alone, and garlic. Taste it to see if it needs you have. And every single sometimes less! This means that salt or pepper. As it gets hot, variation will change your food, we're using half the water (hot mix up the dumpling batter. but it'll all be pretty good. and not) that we'd usually use. Definitely, it'll be better than Plus it's more enjoyable. Drop the batter by tablespoons No-Name baked beans! And if on top of the stew and then put you wanted to try it with a can Of course, you could also install the lid on. Cook for ten minutes, of kidney beans, well, I wouldn't a device on your shower that remove the lid and cook another tell you not to. shuts the water off while you're ten minutes. The dumpling lathering up, but how much fun batter will thicken the stew. All you have to do is mix that is that? together and let it simmer on Sprinkle flour on your face the stove until thick and bubbly. before serving this, and smile The sugar will caramelize just a because you did all of the hard Twenty-Five Minute little, the way it does with work when you canned your proper baked beans. Putting it in Stew from Food meat and vegetables. the oven works at 350F works, Storage too. Next time I make this, I think I'll 1 pint stewed beef add a handful of dried apple 1 quart potatoes bits. For every half cup of dried Save Water and Energy 1 quart carrots fruit/vegetable, make sure to 1 - 2 cans corn or whatever Shower with a friend. have an extra cup of liquid. It other vegetable you have/like 1 - 2 cups beef broth (or tomato may need longer simmering Oh, it's clichd advice, but we've juice or V-8 or beer) before the dumplings are added. found that it's true. Mr D and I Dumplings - 1 cup flour, 1 Tb started doing it in our early days baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt, This recipe, while definitely together when we were food storage and adaptable, milk to make a dough passionately in love and hated requires access to a reliable every minute apart and ... well, Vegetables - onions, or green heating source as well as since we're two children later beans, or turnip, or mushrooms, refrigeration or cold storage and still passionately in love and whatever. unless you're feeding a crowd. hate every minute apart, we've Page 25

continued showering together whenever possible.

One bottle of age-appropriate Tylenol One complete baby bottle + One In an evacuation situation, you can powdered baby formula + might have one minute to leave Bottled water -- Even for a your house. Can you do it? I read breastfed baby! For a baby over 6 months, plan once about a woman running back into her house in order to for 72 hours worth of nongrab milk and bottles for her one refrigerated food (easy for babies!) year old twins - while her husband stood at the minivan Child BOB and screamed for her to get For smaller children, keep a back. She survived and her backpack carrier near the door family evacuated, but what if and the bag(s). she had taken just a few Complete change of clothes, minutes longer? including seasonal hat Thermal blanket & Rain poncho Anyway, different ages have different needs. We actually had Compass and whistle to evacuate our apartment a few Toothbrush, toothpaste, washcloth, small comb months ago because pipes exploded and flooded the place. Age-appropriate Tylenol It took me about 20 minutes to Sippy cup to which child is stuff what I needed into a bag, already accustomed, or water which is about 19 minutes longer bottle for older child 72 hours worth of small, than it should have. packaged, non-refrigerated food Now, I'm learning as I go here - - applesauce, tuna and crackers, so no yelling at me if you think trail mix, fortified baby crackers and meals (lots of nutrition in this list isn't right. Like food small amounts of food) storage, I doubt there's a "perfect bug out bug" that would Small hand-cranked flashlight Two Person Survival Blanket suit everyone.

Bug Out Bags for All Ages

tent with this Fishing lure and line 72 hours worth of portable food Hand-cranked radio Bottle of multi-vitamins - As a note, these DO expire, and they'll mold! Bug repellant and sunscreen Provincial map Folding axe and shovel Small package of facecloths Deck of cards and set of dice Is the idea of a Bug-Out Bag perfect? Well, the biggest argument against them is that, if you have to walk a long distance, they will become heavy. It is not wise to assume that you will have transportation. Therefore, if you pack Bug-Out Bags for your family, practice carrying them in low-stress situations. Can you do it?

How to Make Oatmeal

"Oats. A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people." - Samuel Johnson

Baby BOB - adjust sizes for age Adult BOB You know it's frugal, right? remember that an adult will A complete, seasonal change of Downright cheap, in fact. have to carry the baby bag as clothes, including thermal They're a whole grain, awfully well as their own. underclothes good for you, barely processed Diapers - 12 plain cloth diapers + Firestarter at all, and have been sustaining 3 covers + 12 washcloths + 3 Metal water bottle horses and Scots for centuries. 1 diaper pins Small First Aid Kit serving (which is 1/2 cup quick Clothing - one simple, complete, Swiss Army Knife + Small knife oats or rolled oats) is only 150 seasonally appropriate outfit, sharpener calories, with 3 g of fat, 27 g including seasonal hat Thermal Blanket and Rain carbs, 4 g fiber, 1 g sugar, and 5 Zinc ointment for rashes, Poncho g protein. They're low on the scratches, etc. Hand-cranked flashlight glycemic index, and they're Wrap-style baby carrier Compass + whistle cheap. (Did I say that already? It One large receiving blanket 6' x 8' Plastic Tarp, Twine and 4 - bears repeating. Cheap, cheap, One travel-sized sanitizing gel 10" steel tent pegs - can make a Page 26 Prepping in a City Apartment

cheap.) They also stick with you can easily be incorporated into a for a long time. Oats are the Sometime the day before (after new batch of bread so there's no perfect breakfast. breakfast or even after supper), waste. put oats, water and whey (or an Instant oatmeal isn't cheap, equal amount of lemon juice) though, nor is it particularly into a bowl or Mason jar and 17 tons good for you. It's quite cover. Leave it on the counter expensive, highly processed, and it won't spoil, I promise - until Do you know what that number represents? they pile it up with tons of sugar the next morning. It can set It's the amount of oil, or oil and flavorings and other weird there 12-24 hours. (I added equivalent, that is used in North stuff to make it taste almost some cinnamon.) America. Between Canada and edible. I've been guilty of buying the United States, we use those flavored oatmeals. Since In the morning, pour it into a I've stopped, my little ones want pot, add the other two cups of seventeen tons of energy per person per day. oatmeal every morning. water and the salt. Also add anything you want for seasoning. 17 American tons. I should admit, too, that steel We often grate in an apple or cut oats aren't terribly cheap, two, and/or a handful of raisins Per person. which is a shame. I actually like and add a teaspoon of them better than rolled oats, cinnamon. Or drizzle in some and a serving is only 1/4 cup. honey. The sky's the limit here. Per day. They're practically unprocessed, so I don't understand the high Nourishing Gourmet says that a Are you grokking this? Because if you're reading this and just price. Ah, well. little ghee and honey, added after it's cooked, will taste like casually nodding, then I know you're not grokking this. Have you heard about soaking caramel. grains? The way I understand it, we're not really set up for Now just heat it up until it's hot 17 American tons daily, for all the more than 520 million digesting whole grains. and the water is absorbed. It people who live in North only takes a few minutes. America. Let's try and wrap our The Nourishing Gourmet's recipe for Soaked Oats is great, except Some people add a spoonful of heads around that. that we don't use chia or flax peanut butter to each bowl. seeds and I've never put flour in Others use apple cider vinegar 9 billion tons a day for 520 my oatmeal. Otherwise, that's instead of the lemon or whey, or million people essentially how I do it. I try to replace 1/2 the initial water I think I broke my computer's use whey when I have it, with apple cider. calculator ... what's a number because we're working on using with thirteen digits called? foods that grow locally, and A spoonful of cooked pumpkin That's how much energy we use lemons don't grow in Canada. would be nice in this, with a per year. Just in North America. sprinkle of pumpkin pie spice, Soaked Oatmeal - 4 servings but then what do you do with Okay, I'm not having a lot of luck adapted from The Nourishing the rest of the pumpkin? grokking numbers that big. 17 Gourmet 2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats It's good. It's easy enough that I American tons per person per 2 cup water can do it in the morning with my day. I'm having enough trouble imagining that. I've checked that 2 Tablespoon whey eyes half-closed. It can be 2 cup water varied in a thousand ways. And number over and over again all 2 pinch sea salt it's cheap. Oh, yes, and leftovers day, and I can't find anything Page 27

saying otherwise.

almost forgot that because, you know, they're spending like Could some of you more they've actually got money IN experienced preppers check the bank. And of course, they're your storage closet - surely, incurring more debt to try and you've got an extra planet (or deal with the global economic six) tucked away in there? That crisis and food crisis going on. would be an easy way to deal with our problem. (On a related side note, Canada's finance minister gave A lot of people think that us a $56 billion deficit in 2009 alternative energy is going to and crows about how all get us out of the fix we're in, countries should be following because I don't see how it can our frugal example. Let me take even touch this. a quote from my favorite singing groups, The Arrogant Worms, 17 American tons of energy is and their song Proud to be used DAILY by EVERY person in Canadian: "We won't say that North America. In the US, 86% of we're better. It's just that we're that is from fossil fuels, and in less worse." We're doing less Canada 67% is from fossil fuels. worse than the US and less worse than the UK and hella less And someone is going to figure worse than Greece. But we're all out how to replace all of that broke and heavily in debt.) with renewable resources before ... yesterday. The fact is, we're using FOUR times as much energy as the Right? national average. Four times. And 3/4 of that comes from Right. fossil fuels. And we've known for decades that this was a That's what I thought. problem.

have instant hot water without work. Lights at all hours. Fridges - oh, I'm going to miss my fridge. Cars. Airplanes. Trucks that take our food from hundreds or thousands of miles away. To grab a fabulous phrase from Life After Oil Crash, we gobble up oil like two-legged SUVs. More than that ... fertilizers for our food. Gasoline to transport food thousands of miles to our door. Pantyhose. Shampoo. Aspirin. I wonder what would have happened if, after M. King Hubbert first predicted the peak, everyone had started to power down? What if our parents' and grandparents' generations had worked on building a modern era that used minimal petroleum? What if they had looked at Tupperware and said, "Oh, as IF!" What if petroleum-based food products had died a natural death because everyone avoided them? What if people had refused to buy disposable products? Don't conserve energy and gasoline because you think you can save anything, because you're scooping water from the ocean in a child's bucket. Start living with less and less petroleum products in order to diminish the shock when it's over.

If the Canadian and American Barley makes a wonderful, governments decided right this healthy, low-cost substitute for very moment to invest all of rice. A cup of barley in two cups their spare money into switching of water will cook up just like us over to solar, wind, hydro and rice, except that it won't get soggy and overcooked, and it can geo-thermal in our homes and be used in any recipe calling for getting electric - not hybrid long-grain rice. Leftover cooked vehicles on the road (even for barley added to your bread dough will make it moist and delicious. those of us who are barely Homemade Laundry managing to keep our paid-for Soap old cars), then we could possibly What are we using all of this I have noticed a lot of interest .... energy and petroleum on? lately in making "Homemade Washers and dryers. Air Laundry Soap". One blogger was Oh, yea. They don't have any conditioners and heaters spare money, do they? They're in they're the biggest, actually. Hot excited about avoiding commercial products. I've seen hock up to their eyeballs. I water heaters so that we can Page 28 Prepping in a City Apartment

others thrilled that they are not though, here's where I get dependant on the stores. growly. Okay, rein in that pony, folks. Making laundry soap from a bar of pure soap (Fels Naptha in the US, Ivory in Canada), 1 cup washing soda and 1 cup borax is NOT new. Frugal freaks like me were making this stuff years ago. It was at least ten years ago that I made up my first batch, and I was certainly considered a weirdo for doing so! Back then, we were mixing this stuff up for one reason - it's incredibly cheap! That's why people like Michelle Duggar use it, because it's cheap. It has the added benefit of being phosphate-free, but I didn't know that then and I'm still not sure what phosphates are. I can't unequivocably say it's wonderful. (I feel like such a traitor for admitting that, because really, I've always wanted it to work better than it does.) If you have soft water, I think it probably works well. With hard water, your clothes will becoming progressively dingier, even when you're using twice the usual amount (which doubles the cost) AND adding a scoop of Oxyclean (which increases the cost even more). Unfortunately, soap and hard water just don't mix well. Still, there are many truly frugal people who don't care if their whites are truly, truly white. The other big problem is that the stuff is bulky and messy. When it comes to a selfsufficiency point-of-view,

to scrub out stains that I thought were in there for good. It has worked amazingly well - better You're NOT "making homemade than the liquid gel made with soap"! You're diluting a bar of Ivory and borax and washing soap and adding a whitener and soda. Perhaps it's because using a freshener. That's all. The first it directly on the clothes means step in making this stuff is going a more concentrated amount of to the store and BUYING Ivory soap. (or whatever) bar soap, and BUYING borax and BUYING Before you jump on the washing soda. And maybe bandwagon of "homemade BUYING Oxyclean. This isn't laundry soap", consider why quite like using baking soda and you're doing it. vinegar for washing stuff, because I don't tend to have If you believe we're at the brink washing soda and borax just of a Collapse that will make lying around. Do you? electrical appliances an infrequent luxury, then make To be self-sufficient, to avoid sure you have an ample supply "commercial products", you're of a good bar soap like Ivory - it going to want to learn how to can wash your clothes, your make lye soap. That would dishes, your body and probably actually be home-made laundry your kitchen floor, too. You're (and everything else) soap. going to be doing it by hand, but you knew that. The bar soap Historically, this was used to works great when applied scrub clothes by hand - no directly to dirty clothes. washing soda or borax needed. And you know what? We're going If frugality's your thing, but to have to get used to washing you're still using the clothes by hand again, so convenience of a washing perhaps old-fashioned lye soap machine (what can I say, so am in a bar (whether it's Fels I!), AND you have soft water and Naptha or a homemade bar) is space to store a 5 gallon bucket exactly what we need. of gloppy goop, the gel detergent is wonderfully cheap. May I add that I'm not crazy Pennies compared to Tide and about returning to hand-washing the like. everything. Hand washing jeans? Sheets? Ugh. The very thought If you want to be as selfmakes me want to cry. sufficient as possible, you probably want to learn how to Or another option is accepting make lye soap, which you'll use that complete self-sufficiency is directly on your clothes. Lye highly unlikely and just buying comes from wood ash and the the laundry bar soap. Sunlight fat comes from animals. Lye makes it here in Canada. I've soap can be a completely selfsuccessfully used Ivory bar soap sufficient item. Page 29

Oh, if you're interested - here's the recipe. Gelled Laundry Soap 1 bar bar soap - must be real soap, no Irish spring or Olay 4 cup water 3 gallons water in a 5 gallon bucket (with a lid) 1 cup washing soda (not baking soda) 1 cup borax

put vinegar in a Downy ball for the rinse cycle.

- maybe a teaspoon per pound? I didn't, and everyone is gobbling these up.

Step Two: Stick in a movie or something and start peeling and Super-easy, delicious, slicing onions. Slice one, dump it convenient, and everyone loves on your melting butter, put the it as a gift! lid back on. Repeat until the pot is full. Sprinkle with a bit of I found local onions on sale salt, and leave it alone, with the several months ago at $6.99 for lid on. 50 pounds. Mr. D asked me if I could preserve them and I said, Step Three: Whenever you Dissolve the soap in four cups of "Yes!" even though I had no idea happen to think about it, use how. water. Most people grate it. your biggest spoon and stir the onions, bringing the bottom ones Since doing this, I've found that to the top. There are three Put 3 gallons of hot tap water lots of people say not to can into the bucket. times at which you could take onions, because they're yucky. them out and can them: 12 Put the dissolved soap into the These ones are NOT yucky. hours (cooked, but pale), 18 They're buttery and sweet and hours (golden), 24 hours (dark bucket. they almost-but-not-quite brown and fully caramelized). dissolve into homemade Stir it up until it turns into soap Don't add liquid. Onions have ketchup, or stew, and I'm told soup. plenty. they're incredible on crackers and cheese! Add the washing soda. Step Four: Strain out the juice. Add the borax. Add liquid bluing, or essential oils, or 1 cup of Oxyclean, or anything else that makes your cheap soap not so cheap. After a bunch of research, I figured out what to do: Pack the onions into half-pint or pint jars and then fill, with 1" headspace, with the juice. Add water if necessary.

Caramelized Onions

Step One: Put some butter in your biggest crock pot. (A Step Five: Process them in a covered pot in the oven at 200F PRESSURE canner. Do half-pints would likely work just as well) and pints for 40 minutes at 10 How much? Well, I figured out Stir, stir, stir. pounds pressure. You can not that 1/2 pound was good for my safely can onions in a water bath monster crock, which holds Put it aside overnight. Come canner. about 10 pounds of onions. 1 back in the morning and be amazed that your soap soup has pound was TASTY, which is what As a frugal note - the skins and I did in my first batch, but too ends can be made into a "broth", gelled up. much butter leaked out during simmered long and slow, and Give it a stir with a big wooden processing, so it wasted butter then used to darken beef soups! and endangered the jar seal. spoon. Scoop out 1/2 to 1 cup I processed that in half-pints Three or four jars didn't seal and with the onions - so 40 minutes and add to your washing that's unacceptably high for me. at 10 PSI. machine and run the load as Put in the butter and put the usual. It won't sud. heat on low. You COULD Oh, and you'll probably want to probably add a bit of sugar to it Page 30 Prepping in a City Apartment

Not really a Doomer!

"Are you upset by that?" Mr Doom asked me this afternoon. "No! That'd be a silly thing to be upset about." I stared into my coffee. "I am, too, a Doomer," I mutter.

At the blog Adapting in Place, in her introductory post, Robyn says she's "not a "zombies are coming to eat my brains tomorrow, get the guns!" doomer." Me, neither. Although some of you might be amused to know that Mr. D and I have spent Please do not misunderstand my often light-hearted, silly tone in many, many hours recently this blog. What is happening in discussing zombies, the likelihood of their appearance, our world, what is going to what could cause them and how happen over the next twenty to we could best defend ourselves fifty years, is scaring the hell out of me. I look at my small against them. And for such children and wonder what their bizarre subject matter, these conversations were conducted lives will be like when they are my age. Like Robyn, I am trying with straight faces. to prepare my family now so that we don't face Collapse and Wiki says that a doomer is: adjustment to a new way of life a peakist (check!) at the same time. Stored foods, that also believes a long walks, family cloth, wooden Malthusian Catastrophe toys, low-key Christmas, no will follow (check!). TV ... I want these to feel Doomers believe that we normal and natural to my are overly reliant on children. petroleum and technology (double check!). So many things are coming to a Doomers are usually head during our generation. survivalists, defined as 1. The climate is changing. those "who are actively Can any of us truly deny preparing for future that now? Whether we possible disruptions in ... want to call it global social or political order". warming or global cooling (check!) or going to hell in a Wiki says that a doomer handbasket, our climate is thinks campaigning for changing. It has happened societal change and before. Dry areas become awareness is a waste of moist while moist areas time (check!) became dry. Incredible and concentrates on

preparing family and local community for collapse (check!) A Doomer is focused on creating a permaculture village (check! Wanna help?) instead of trying to change government policies (check!) No where does it says I have to stockpile guns, worry about Romero-type zombies, or wear a tinfoil hat

die-offs have happened, with 90% of animal life ceasing to exist. People in Florida are complaining about temperatures approaching freezing, while we in Ontario ran around in t-shirts on New Year's Day. We're going to be learning how to garden and support ourselves in a vastly changed environment, where old plants no longer grow and old calendars no longer fit the current climate. 2. There are huge economic issues going on that I can't even begin to understand. What I do know is that we're in a global financial crisis. Canada's been weathering it incredibly well so far. 3. We're also being hit by a global food crisis, for a number of reasons. These things are all inter-related like a giant spider web. 4. Oil is ... not running out. No, it's simply becoming more and more difficult and expensive to acquire. Well, for all intents and purposes, that's the same as running out. Prices are going up. When oil prices go up, the cost of everything will go up. Wages won't, though. Businesses will go under. More people will be hungry. Alternative energy sources simply cannot replace oil. Besides - petroleum is used for far more than just powering our vehicles! Petroleum - a Page 31

non-renewable resource 1/2 teaspoon baking powder that has peaked in 1/2 cup milk production - is thoroughly interwoven into our lives. Cream the butter and sugar. If we had plenty of cheap oil, we Cream in the honey. Beat in the eggs, then add the dry could weather the other problems, I think. But we don't. ingredients. While mixing those in, add the milk (I eyeballed it The age of cheap oil is over. Just when we really, really need to get a thick but wet batter). it, we're hitting an energy crisis Pour into a 9x13" pan that has been lightly greased/buttered that should be keeping you awake at night. It does me. We and sprinkled with a little cornmeal. Bake at 350F until toss around terms like TSHTF done in the middle. and post-Collapse and post-oil world and I wonder how many of us truly grasp what we're talking about. I know that I'm not entirely grokking it, but what I am getting terrifies me. When I was talking recently to an elderly woman woman we know, I described what I feel is going to happen. She looked surprised and said, "But that sounds like ... Armaggedon. It would be the end of our civilization." After a while, she gave me a sad smile and said, "I think I'm glad that I won't be alive to see that." Sugar Rationing Cornbread 1/4 cup butter 1/2 cup sugar 2 eggs 1/2 teaspoon sea salt 1 cup cornmeal 1 cup flour 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 cup orange juice

A Doomer's Library
Do you have a prepper's library? You know, books on homesteading, surviving in the woods, carpentry, repair, stuff like that? Many of us do. Mr D and I certainly have plenty of practical, useful reference books. I have one wonderful cookbook - Mrs. Restino's Country Kitchen - with a subtitle of "The Complete Wood Stove Cookbook". We have Five Acres and Independence , Ten Acres Enough, and many others.

I treasure these books and the knowledge that is safely stored within their pages. I do not need to worry about power outages or computer reliability. As long as I Cream the butter and sugar. have working eyes and a bit of Beat in the eggs, then add the light, I can access this dry ingredients. While mixing information. I'm sure that many those in, add the orange juice (I of you who are reading this have eyeballed it to get a thick but your own valuable reference wet batter). Pour into a 9x13" libraries. pan that has been lightly If you can keep your head when greased/buttered and sprinkled all about you are losing theirs ... with a little cornmeal. Bake at And yet ... I also have Carrie 350F until done in the middle. and Firestarter by Stephen King. perhaps you don't really understand the situation.

Cornbread Two Versions

Sweet Cornbread 1/4 cup butter 2/3 cup sugar 1/4 cup honey 2 eggs 1/2 teaspoon sea salt 1 cup cornmeal 1 1/4 cup flour Page 32

I have Why I Hate Canadians by There was a change in texture Will Ferguson, Tolkien's Lord of between sugar and honey but it the Rings and The Silmarillion was minimal, so it's not vital to and The Hobbit , but also several the recipe. So if you have honey, of Agatha Christie's timeless use that instead. I bet it would mysteries, many fantasy novels, work with corn syrup, too, which The Chronicles of Narnia , almost stores well. I can only imagine all of Piers Anthony's Xanth *maple* cornbread, made with novels and his incredible maple syrup! Incarnations of Immortality series (although we're still missing Under a Velvet Cloak). We have Jean M. Auel's Earth's Children series with its

Prepping in a City Apartment

improbable main characters and tuck it away. When you're buying Money can not buy you security, copy/pasted sex scenes (sorry, bandages and acetaminophen for belonging or self-esteem. but they are - from book three your medical supplies, add a Clichd as it may be, money can on, just skip the sex). We have copy of War and Peace. (It's not buy us love. Money can help most of the Harry Potter books, been badly maligned - a good us meet our basic needs. After and much discussion ensues translation is a very good read.) that, though, it is time to start between Mr. D (who likes them) When you're checking to make looking at the other things for and I (who does not). We have sure that your candle supply is which we exchange money. James Patterson's Big Bad Wolf sufficient, finish buying a series and Kiss the Girls , Divine Secrets you enjoyed. You'll have time on Services. There are some of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood , and your hands when the snow is services that most of us would The Time-Traveler's Wife (which flying and the roads are consider basic needs. In our oilI've tried twice to read and just impassable. based economy, electricity and can't get into). We have Dune phone service are necessary. and Atlas Shrugged , lengthy Child care for those who work is As a society, we will be reading necessary. Taxes (which is an tomes that require solitude and concentration. We've just picked again, once the oil stops exchange of money for services) flowing. Make sure that your up a sizable portion of Raymond is a necessity, unless we want survival library includes pleasure some free room and board Feist's Driftwar books, and we reading. have a Dungeon Master's courtesy of the government. complete reference library, Insurance is frequently second and third editions. necessary. Are all services a What Can Money Buy? necessity? There are times when paying for restaurant service is If a day comes, as I truly believe There are only four things that necessary. There are times - for it will, when gasoline stops money can buy. example, when paying $100 per flowing and most vehicles stop Money, as I think we all realize, plate at an exclusive restaurant moving, there will be little has no value in and of itself. - when you are not paying for a mobility in the depth of winter, Money can not feed you, shelter possession (food) or a service at least up here in Canada. you or clothe you. Unless you (cooking & cleaning up), you are While it will be of incredible burn it in a fire, it won't keep buying, or attempting to buy, a importance to know how to you warm, and I doubt it burns feeling. Again, there are people identify edible plants, repair well. who hire housekeepers because tools and grow food, little of they are paying for a service that happens in January. We exchange money for other (cleaning), and there are others things. There are only four who are perfectly capable of things that money can buy -cleaning their own homes but Our ancestors knew that winter possessions, services, are attempting to buy a feeling. was a time of cocooning, of experiences and feelings. staying close to home and fire, Experiences. Money can buy of reading and talking and Possessions. Money can buy cars, experiences. Vacations, good playing games. I believe that we clothes, homes and food. It can food, quality time with friends. will be returning to that. buy all of the "stuff" that These can be a good use of modern society tells us we need money. Many people overpay, - iPhones and game systems, though, by not clearly And so, here's my bit of Doomer SUVs and McMansions. However, identifying their purpose. There advice. When you're building up it can also buy the necessities of is no guarantee that the your deep pantry, pick up a life - and shelter, clothing and experience is worth the money enjoyable piece of fiction and food are certainly necessities. spent. Are you truly looking for Page 33

an experience, or are you actually looking for the feelings With that said, this is the that you will attach to that internet, and that means experience? information sharing with or without the author's permission. Feelings. In the end, the first So here's the deal. If you three come back to feelings. download this document from Belonging, love, security somewhere, whether my blog or money does not buy these anywhere else, and you enjoy directly. By buying possessions, the information in it, pop over services and experiences, we to the blog --generate feelings. It is possible http://doomerincanada.blogspot to spend a little and get lots of .com (and if I've got my own good feelings and memories or domain by then, just search for spend a lot without getting Canadian Doomer and you'll find them. me!), and donate something. $1, $5, $10. Not because I'm forcing When you spend money, identify you, but because you're a cool the possessions, services and person. experiences that you are acquiring, and decide whether And then pass it along to or not the feelings generated by someone else. these are worth the price that you are paying. Sometimes the answer will be yes, and sometimes it will be no, but that answer will be different for every one of us. Maximize feelings and minimize spending.

Copyright?
Yes, this entire ebook, which uses a lot of information from my blog, is Copyright Canadian Doomer, and my email is canadiandoomer@gmail.com But you already know that it's copyrighted. Please don't steal my writing and call it your own. Read a bunch and re-write it in your own words, or quote me, or email me and ask permission to use something. I'm nice and friendly like that. Page 34 Prepping in a City Apartment