Staying cool without electricity

My good, dear friend suggested I write another post on how to stay cool without electricity.  I thought that was an excellent idea, and so I said I'd do some research. Another very smart friend has taught me to work smarter, not harder. With that in mind, I found a great article already written. I'd like to repost it here, giving credit where it is due, to Howard at www.preparednessadvice.com, upon whose blog I found all the great info you could need.

Here we go!

With all the heat waves that have been occurring lately this post will give you some tips on how to stay cool when the power is shut down and there is no air conditioning.

Hopefully you have an older home.  New homes are designed for air conditioning; they fail to have good overhangs on the eves and do not have good airflow with the windows open.  If you are in a position to remodel, buy or build a new home, make sure that you have good airflow in your living areas.  By this I mean that with the windows open you will have a cross breeze.

I was in Arizona a while back and I noticed that in many of the new homes many of the windows could not even be opened.  Air conditioning is nice, but don’t depend on it.

The things to look for in a home that will help you stay cool are as follows

• Good airflow through the living areas.
• At least 3 foot overhangs on the eves.
• The home should be well insulated.
• There should be no air leaks around doors and windows; use caulking or weather stripping as necessary.
• Energy efficient windows.
• Louver blinds, cellular shades or lined curtains inside windows.
• Install sunscreens or awnings on outside of windows.
• Plant a tree or trees a safe distance from the house to provide shade on the home.
• A solar-powered attic fan helps home cooling by pulling hot air out of the attic from either a roof vent or gable vent.

Things you can do to help you and your home stay cool.

• Don’t cook or eat during the heat of the day, eat early or late.  Digesting food takes energy and generates heat.
• Do not cook inside, eat cold meals or use an outdoor grill or camping stove.  This is a great time to use your solar oven or wonder box.
• If you have good insulation open your windows at night to allow the house to cool off.  Then close your windows in the morning and the house should stay cooler during the day.
• Keep your blinds or curtains closed as long as the sun hits them.
• Limit your physical activities to early morning or late evening, the more you move the hotter you will get.
• Dress in light loose cotton clothes, perspiration in cotton clothes can create an evaporative cooler effect.
• Drink plenty of water.  Avoid caffeinated or alcoholic beverages.
• Get a solar powered fan.
• When outdoors keep your head covered, have a good wide brimmed hat.
• Wear a water soaked bandana on your head or neck.
• A friend who lives in the Sonora Desert said that prior to getting air conditioning; he often slept on a cot outside under a wet sheet.
• If you have a basement, you may want to consider sleeping in it, since they normally stay cooler.

While these are all good things to help you stay cool, the biggest factor will be to allow your body to acclimatize to the heat.  Remember many people lived happily before air conditioning.

Howard

In the comments, I also found this...from "Cooler"....

The textbooks say to open windows all night to let in cooler air and then to close them by day. But maybe you are not getting nighttime temp. reduction outside in your heatwave?.

I have also read of people keeping their pillow in the freezer by day and people mist-spraying the mattress sheet and top sheet and managing to fall asleep between the two sheets before the water evaporates.

You do not mention what curtains/blinds/shutters you have. And it is material outside the windows that blocks incoming heat to the glass. So I suppose you have none.

Using bubble wrap when you have no outside shutters:

http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Conservation/bubblewrap.htm
shows many good photos. Note that these photos are 6 years old, so what I am saying is tried and tested.

So a cheap experiment would be to buy bubble wrapping and, wetting the window glass, stick it to the inside of your windows after having cut the wrap to fit with a box cutter. This is shown in the link I placed above.

But I do not know how much heat is getting into your house through your roof either. There are retrofits for that problem too, but not as cheap and easy as bubble wrap.

Come to think of it, you might like to tape up the whole ceiling with a big piece, or big pieces, of bubble wrap as well, to see if it traps heat coming down from the attic. You would need probably two people and 2 ladders for this.

In my view, you have to keep taking thermometer measurements at all times to see what works for you.

Currently, I believe you are in danger because you depend only on the grid for coolness. Tbe bubble wrap will take you off-grid, which is good.

Prepping Pillars Part Two

Hey - how's that for alliteration? Sorry about the delay, but I've been off the farm working so this is the first chance I've had to continue the blog post.

Soooo.....I'm covering the final six pillars today.  Let's begin!

Heating. This is a big one, especially in the northern tier of our country (the US, for those of you elsewhere - but it can affect you as well).  So, let's look at a scenario.  It's November, and the weather is starting to turn into winter.  You've just put the kids on the bus, or they're down doing their barn chores before starting homeschool work. You start doing your morning chores - and the power goes out. Drat! Change of plans - you can't run the dishwasher (no electric, no water), so you decide to sweep the floors. You get that done, and you're still feeling fairly comfy. You decide to finish your cup of tea and read the paper (can't check email - no electricity). As you sit at the table, you realize you feel a bit chilly. Hmmm. Put on a sweater. Go back to reading. You're still cold. Go check the thermostat. It's in the low 60s. You realize as the day goes on and you have no power that the house is getting more and more chilly. What can you do? If your house is run on electric, you've got to think outside the box (I know, it's a recurring theme here).  How can you keep your family comfortable? Do you have a fireplace? If yes, get a fire burning, try to keep everyone in that room, and set everyone up in front of the fireplace and build a "wall" behind them using whatever furniture, blankets, etc, you have to keep the warmth bouncing back toward the family rather than dissipating toward the ceiling. I get a lot of ideas such as that from watching those survival shows that are all the rage on TV these days - glean where you can, right? From a prepping standpoint, you should make sure you have down comforters, woolen socks and blankets, extra sweatshirts and "hoodies", gloves, knitted caps and balaclavas, and scarves put away and ready to go. If you have no heating for an extended period of time, depending on what time of year and how hard your winters are, you may not be able to shelter in place. You may have to leave and stay with friends or in a hotel that does have power. I just want to get you thinking and preparing.

Next pillar - Spiritual and Mental Prepping. Now, to me personally, these two areas must be number one! You may not feel the same, which is why they are just put amongst the others, because I want to meet people where they are.  First, Spiritual.  I'm Catholic, and my Faith is everything to me, so I firstly want to have my soul in a state of constant readiness to meet the Lord. I fail every day, but I keep trying. I can't take any of my preps with me, and they won't matter worth a hill of beans when I stand before the Throne of God for judgement, so I best keep my priorities straight. For me, that means frequent reception of the sacraments, going to daily Mass as I can, and having a strong and frequent daily prayer life. I need to get right with God, then everything else will fall into place.  As to the physical side of spiritual preparedness, I want to keep in my BOB (bug out bag) a rosary or rosaries, prayer book, small Bible, holy water, blessed salt, and any other sacramentals I feel may help me, my family, and others. OK, I've said my peace on that. For my readers, your spiritual preparedness may and probably will be different, depending on where you are in your faith walk.

The second tenet of this pillar is Mental Prepping. So much of what we do and how successful we are at it is based on our attitude toward it. I read an anonymous quote in high school that stuck with me all these years. "The older I get, the more I realize the impact of attitude." Think about those words for a minute or two. Let them sink in. Now - what kind of an attitude do you generally have? What kind of personality? Are you optimistic? Pessimistic? Melancholic? Phlegmatic? Sanguine? Choleric? Do you see problems, or do you see opportunities? Do you see failure, or one way your idea won't work? You see where I'm coming from now, don't you? People who survive disastrous happenings do so not necessarily because they are amazing survivalists, but because they had THE RIGHT ATTITUDE!! So - start cultivating a different attitude if you don't feel you have your head in the right space to survive difficulties. It will take a while, as it's like exercising an out-of-shape body. Baby steps will get you there. You CHOOSE how to react to things, so you can CHOOSE to change that. Now, I'm not talking about people who have to shoulder medical depression or bipolar disorder. I understand the difference there, and just wanted to make that clear. A vital part of this is to run scenarios in your head. Something along the lines of, "What would I do if x happened?"  Those mental exercises are vital in helping you adapt quickly and survive strongly.  So - start mentally shifting to a new paradigm!

Pillar number nine - fuel. What do I mean by fuel? Well, what keeps your homes and cars going? What happens if you can't get that fuel? Can you substitute? Can you find other sources? Here is an example. I talked above about heating your home during an electrical outage. In our home, we have a propane furnace. Now, that runs by electricity, so it does me no good with an outage. So, we also have a wood and coal burning furnace. I can use either one, depending on what is going on in my life.  I have a redundant system, which I've told you is so very important. I may not be able to use the propane furnace, but I can surely go out in the woods, culling dead wood for my furnace, and only using sweat equity! While the furnace does use an electric blower, it's in the basement, and heat rises, so I can use the old vents that are in the floor of this 100+ year old farmhouse to spread that heat. All it takes is a little Dremel saw to open them up and reinsert the grates. I'd do it if an EMP hit or I knew we'd be powerless for a long period of time. Considering where it is located in the basement, I'd probably have the family set up shop in the room right above it and close off that room to conserve heat.  As for gasoline for your cars - do you always keep your tanks topped off? Our rule is never let it go below a half tank. This is especially important in the winter.  We also have jerry cans filled and kept in the barn.  Another fuel - lamp oil and kerosene. Make sure you have enough of those. Also, did you know that any cooking oil can be used for certain hurricane lamps? Don't throw out your old cooking oil - relabel it lamp fuel and use it! Get an extra propane tank for your bbq, or get briquettes and keep them dry and covered. Just think outside the box!

Pillar number ten - communications. This is rough. Many of us have cell or mobile phones. Some of us have even gotten rid of our landlines. So, in an EMP, grid-down situation, chances are cell phones and cordless home phones won't work. It won't even take something that big - any disaster causes the lines to be overwhelmed.  So - keep a simple, "old fashioned" phone that doesn't require electricity. If you got rid of your landline, that won't help you. You'll have to hope a neighbor still has one, and that the lines aren't down.  In a long term situation, how will you keep in touch with what's going on? There are a few options. I'll say right now that I'm not a comm expert at all, so I'm sure some of my readers will have scads more info than I do. I suggest a good set of walkie talkies to keep in contact with family members - we live on a farm and they are invaluable. What about a Ham radio? CB? I know, with a grid-down situation you might as well have two tin cans and a string, but if you're prepping, you need redundant systems (gee, there are those words again!). If your family is separated, have a family-specific code word that ONLY your family members know, so that if an outsider says they have info on your family, they have to have been given the code word for you to know the information is authentic (by the way, this works for stranger danger issues with your kids as well). The base word of communications is COMMUNICATE. You NEED to have a plan set out for your family in the case of a disaster so that, if they can't get home, they know where your meeting place is to be, and they need to know various ways to get there. Even if they aren't into the prepping things, the fact that you've gone to the trouble of having a plan for them will greatly help them.

Pillar number eleven - financial preparedness. Wow. Sigh. Ugh. OK, now that those are over with - let me just say that I feel it is VITAL to be debt-free as a tenet of preparedness. Have I done so? No, but I'm working on it. It is Scriptural to try very hard to not be in debt. Now, I'm not necessarily talking about a mortgage or a car loan, although Dave Ramsey and some of the other financial gurus may disagree. I'm talking consumer debt. Credit Cards. Home equity loans. So - do your best to get out of debt so that YOU have control of YOUR money. Once that debt is gone, you owe no one. You can make the best use of the money God has gifted you with, and please - ask Him to help you use it in the best way for your family and to help others.  Also, you can prep more when you aren't sending all that hard-earned cash to the financial institutions which are holding you over a financial barrel!  Secondly, I want to strongly suggest that you keep cash with  you at all times. We keep cash in certain places that we can access in case of a grid-down scenario. You aren't going to be able to get cash out of your accounts if the banks can't access the computers. There are no passbooks anymore! For those of you too young to understand what I mean, go look it up LOL. So, you don't have cash? Well, then, you won't be able to get anything from the grocery store, drug store, gas station. It just makes sense to have a *gasp* redundant system of cash-flow, right? Also, what if you need to barter? Have some junk silver - that's pre-1964 silver coins. They'll be worth some in trade. That brings us to barterable goods, which is another topic. Just something for you to think about. I'll perhaps cover that in a later blog post.

Last but not least - pillar number twelve - security. Now, this can mean your personal security, or it can mean the security of your family, home, community, etc. I suggest we all get in better shape. What does that have to do with security? You can fight off attackers better when you aren't 50 pounds overweight and wheezing, right? It just makes sense. On an aside, if you're using shank's mare (that's walking to you neophytes), being in shape makes sense on that level as well.  Take self-defense classes. Carry on you some form of defense, whether that be bear spray, mace, a monkey fist, or a really heavy purse (ask me how I know!).  Please DO look up and obey your state's regulations with regards to any of these things.  As to guns - I'm not getting into detail in this post apart from saying if you choose to carry a firearm, please get TRAINED by an NRA instructor or someone equally qualified. Don't just go out and buy any old gun. Go to a range, have someone working there or your NRA instructor help you learn how to shoot, and try out a few guns to see what is comfortable for you to use. Be trained in your state's gun laws. Don't EVER carry a gun unless you are prepared to use it. Practice often. Pray hard about it.  I've alluded to what most of you think when security is concerned - shooting another human being. However, there have been times here on the farm where I have had to shoot a predator so as to protect my chickens. I've had a coyote walk not six feet away from me - coyote season is year-round here. That's another form of security - protecting your food source. Hunting is another reason to carry. OK, enough about that. Home security is important. Good doors and windows and working lock mechanisms. Only you know what will make you feel secure in and around your own home, so talk it over with your family and figure out what works for you.  Go back to working on those mental exercises...what would we do if x happened? That will help you decide what security measures are best for you and yours.

OK, ready for comments!!! What did you like best? Least? What did I leave out? Was there something else I should have covered? Can't wait to hear from you!

Prepping Pillars and Loss of Power

My friend, Wendy, and I wrote an e-book a while ago discussing the needs to be met when dealing with an emergency or disaster situation. We had twelve topics, so I'm going to list them for you here, in no hard and fast order.

1.   WATER
2.   FOOD
3.   SHELTER/CLOTHING
4.   LIGHTING
5.   FIRST AID/MEDS
6.   COOKING
7.   HEATING
8.   SPIRITUAL/MENTAL
9.   FUEL
10. COMMUNICATIONS
11. FINANCIAL
12. SECURITY

The reason why I don't have them in a specific, this-can-never-be-changed order is because life isn't specific. Disasters aren't specific. If you lose electricity in the summer, your needs will be different from losing it in the winter. If you're experiencing a flood, then you have a completely different set of parameters. The trick is to think practically. What, if any, disaster scenarios are MOST likely to happen to you where you are? California - earthquakes, of course. Midwest - tornados, blizzards, drought. New England - ice storms. You see my point. Give it some thought.

Today, though, I'd like to start addressing that which I started to discuss in my previous blog post - the loss of electricity. That can happen to anyone, any time, for any reason. It can be short-lived or it can be extended. It affects many if not all of our Prepping Pillars.  What we all need to do is prepare for that, because the effects can range from minor up to and including loss of life!

Let's go through each pillar to see how the loss of power can affect them.  First, water. Water, whether from the city pipes or a well, flows into our homes through electricity, which operates the pumps.  No electricity, no water. It is just that simple.  THIS is one reason why EVERYONE should store water. I'll get into the specifics of that in a later post.  If you're on city water, there isn't anything you can do to change things until the city restores the power. If you have a well, there is hope. There are a few hand pumps that can be installed alongside the motor casing of your own well pump, so you can have access to water even without power. Ask me how I know!

Secondly, how is food affected by the loss of power? That's obvious, isn't it? You have a refrigerator and a freezer. Depending on when the power outage happens, they could be stocked full to the brim with tasty, costly foods that can be spoiled if the outage is long enough. What can you do about that? That's for another blog post, also.

Thirdly, shelter and clothing. These aren't terribly affected by a power loss, except that, in a cold season situation, it will be vital to keep warm, and these two can help or hinder you in that respect. Hopefully, you'll be someplace sheltering when without power, and hopefully you have enough clothing to be able to dress in layers to keep your body warmth up should the outage last for an uncomfortably long time.

Fourth, lighting. I already touched on this just a wee bit in my previous post because, from experience, all those things have happened to me. Missing flashlights from kids playing with them, dead batteries in said flashlights once found (see comment on kids), no fresh batteries (due to their usage in electronic devices of every description), and so on and so forth.  So, I suggest having a dedicated box and shelf where you can keep your flashlights, batteries, emergency candles (NOT the attic - ask me how I know), matches, lighters, aim-n-flames, etc. Also buy some hurricane lamps and lamp oil. I prefer an Aladdin Lamp as it gives the same candlepower as a 60-watt bulb. I also like olive oil lamps (a later post). Glowsticks for littles, as they love them and find them entrancing, which you'll need if you have kiddos afraid of the dark. The main thing to remember about lighting is that it psychologically helps a lot!

Fifth, first aid and meds. Many accidents happen in the darkness, and you want to be prepared with a proper and complete first aid kit, any medications that may be needed due to accidents or prolonged power outages, and a first aid manual. This can be a major area of concern if you have a family member who is on oxygen or other aids that require electricity. We will touch more deeply on that later.

Sixth, how are you going to cook your food? Are you living in an all-electric house? Well, then, that electric stove of yours is the world's biggest paperweight during a power outage! Think of your other options - do you have a grill out in your back garden? Is it running on propane? Is the propane tank full or empty? Do you even know how to tell? Do you have an "old fashioned" barbecue for charcoal briquettes? How about a fire pit? Do you know how to start a fire, or how to cook over an open fire? Do you have cast iron or enamel pans to use over a campfire? You see, we all do have options, we just have to start thinking outside the box!

OK, I've given you enough food for thought for now. Don't get overwhelmed! This is meant to be an exercise in thinking, to get you started.  Tomorrow - how a power outage affects the next 6 pillars!
Please comment when you can!

Starting again....

The Lord works in mysterious ways. I haven't touched this blog in a couple of years. Oh, I knew it was here. I also have another one on a homestead site, but I just couldn't/didn't find the time to post anything. Some people suggested I start a Prepper blog, and I had considered that, wondering what I would name it so it would catch people's eyes...but then a friend wrote an amazing post on her blog about the loss of her first husband, and when I went to comment, my blogger signature was an option. Well, golly - maybe I should check out my blog and start writing again LOL! So here I am!

A little update. We are blessed to live in the same place I have for the past 8 years, near some amazing Catholic families. We have an awesome parish, with two holy priests that constantly challenge me by their behavior to become a better Christian. On my blog,  my last two posts were about making vanilla extract and elderberry tincture. I hope you all check it out.

Now, about Prepping. Yes, I know, it shouldn't be capitalized (grammar nazi here), but I think Disaster Preparedness is SO necessary and yet SO ignored that I should probably start writing here about that along with self-sufficiency. Too many people make too many assumptions. They assume they'll always have a job, they assume they can put things on a credit card and pay it off later (guilty here), they assume food will always be available, water will always come from the tap, and the light switch will always work.

Yet....what if any or all of those stopped? As in right now, as you're reading this - BOOM! The computer shuts off, the lights, TV, etc. Quick - where are your flashlights? Do they have working batteries? Can you get to where you store the batteries? DO you store batteries? Are they in the deep, dark basement? How can you see down there without breaking your neck? Ahhhh.....so here is the first thing to learn. Store a WORKING flashlight on every floor, hopefully in every room. If you have little kids, store some chemsticks - they get entranced by the colorful stick lights and don't freak over the darkness. What if the power is going to be off longer than a few hours? How will you get water? Do you have water stored? How will you cook? What will happen to the food in the fridge/freezer?

It's amazing how one loss causes a cascade of effects. I'm hoping to address these and more topics over the next few weeks. Pray I continue to do this. I figure if the government is telling us to be ready with at least 3 days of food and water (and I believe they've stretched it to two weeks), then it seems prudent to do so. It doesn't mean we don't trust God. It means He trusts us to use our God-given intelligence to realize that we have to prepare for a rainy day.

Have a happy Sunday!

Vanilla Tutorial

Good afternoon!

After a few interesting days and a bad back, I'm able to pop in here and write up the vanilla tutorial. It makes SO much sense to make your own vanilla. The taste is incomparable, you save so much money in comparison, and it's so very easy.

Why not give it a try? I order my vanilla beans online. There are various sources. I got a great deal from Olive Nation, but there are many other places online. If you want organic, just put "organic vanilla beans" in your search engine.

OK, ready?

I get all my bits and bobs ready. You can see in the picture below that I have my vanilla beans (no, I didn't use them all LOL...I've planned ahead to make BUCKETS of vanilla!). I have a sharp knife, and a cutting board, and 100 proof vodka

.

Take six vanilla beans, and, leaving the first inch intact, split them right down the middle. No scraping necessary, just split them. I've shown you the first one done. No need to be perfectionist about it, it doesn't have to be precise.

The last step is to put all the split vanilla beans into a canning jar, cover with vodka, put the lid on and let it sit in a dark cupboard for about 6 weeks, giving it a shake every now and again. If you look carefully, you can see small brown bits of vanilla floating around. At the end of the "brewing" time, you'll have the darkest, richest vanilla you could ever wish for! Also, as a gift idea, you can buy small brown bottles and share your vanilla with your friends. Don't forget to make some lovely homemade labels!

I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial. As with the last one, please comment when you've tried it and let me know how it went!

God bless!

Fiona

Elderberry Tutorial

J.M.J.

I know I'm a day late and a dollar short, but I'm now trying to put my money where my mouth is and put up tutorials/pictures to help all of us in our homesteading adventure!

Here is my first attempt - I hope it works out ok!

I have elderberry bushes that I planted 5 years ago, and I had frozen some of the berries. I make a tincture that I use for a flu remedy and the jar was getting low, so thought it was time to make more. Don't fret if you don't have the bushes, you can order dried elderberries online (I did that my first year).

Here you can see I have my frozen elderberries, a canning jar, some 100-proof vodka (and please, make sure you use 100-proof if possible), and a funnel and measuring cup.

Because I froze them , branches and all, I had to gently remove the berries from the stems. I then rinsed them with cold water to melt any ice still present in the bag.

The next step is to place the elderberries into the canning jar, and just cover with the vodka. I might have covered a bit more, but it's all good LOL! See below....

Nicely covered with the vodka!

Here you have the closed jar of the new tincture, brewing. I'll leave it in a cupboard or pantry, and In about 6 weeks, I'll strain the elderberries out through cheesecloth, and then I'll have a fresh batch of elderberry tincture! If you've ever heard of Sambucol, which is now available here in the U.S., this is basically the same thing and made at a fraction of the cost, with no preservatives necessary!

I hope this helps you all in your homesteading adventure. Please let me know if you try this!

Blessings, Fiona

Starting anew

I've been remiss in blogging yet again, so I decided I'd try one more time to get better at it, in terms of homesteading accountability. I'm not cutting off more than I can chew, but I'll work on it. This is a good start!