Unless
you have a group that includes two doctors (a doctor cannot operate on
himself), two dentists (a dentist can’t fill his own teeth), a nurse, a
pharmacist, and a herbalist, as well as the teens to act as apprentices, you
will need to provide some things in the future for you and your family or
mutual aid group through the outside world of your homestead. Your paper
dollars will be worthless as will all of your bank accounts and paper
investments. It will be some time before silver and gold would become an
accepted method of trade and most non-preppers will not have silver or gold or
may be leery of accepting it. You and I will need a form of trade or bartering
to obtain the needed items or services or to increase your future silver and
gold holdings long term.
Below
are some of the items that I believe will be in high demand post SHTF. With a
little forethought and planning, you can decide on a single area or single item
or mutable areas or items that you and your family can and will want to produce
and start stocking the necessary equipment and supplies. You should also begin
gaining the necessary experience to produce these items now.
For
anything that requires a pattern, print out a minimum of two of the patterns on
good quality card stock. When you cut out the first pattern, trace it on a
blank piece of card stock. This way you always have an unused pattern with
complete directions and a second pattern ready for use. For high production
items, such as cloth diapers, you could easily go through 10 or 20 patterns a
year, so also stock a few reams of good quality card stock or some poster board
for future patterns.
This
list is in no way complete but is just from my observations and experience of
what I purchase and use everyday and what I see other shoppers purchase. For
example, how many people do not own a single cloth dish towel but waste their
money on paper towels every week at the grocery store. What is still on my wish
list to complete my homestead: a hand well pump and a long-term outdoor
cooking/canning/baking station and one of those lovely mean green washing
machines and wringer.
It
is my hope that every person who reads this will take a good look at their
interests and skills and come up with a minimum of two or more different items
for each family member that they could produce to provide for their family long
term.
I
have listed each craft by the major component needed, such as fabric or wood or
metal.
Salvage
I do
not have the money or space to store 300 plastic barrels to plan to run a rain
water harvesting business or build hand-powered washing machines. However I do
know where there is a local place they are sold, so if this was part of my post
SHTF business plan, I would try and make contact after things calmed down. If,
at that point there was no owner left, it can become salvage and may be
available to you.
Take
a good look around your town and through the local yellow pages. Make a list of
potential salvage. I am NOT talking about looting the local Walmart or
grocery store or pharmacy for drugs but true salvage, where there is no owner
left to claim the items, and they will be destroyed or lost.
If
you live in an area with heavy snow fall, any building with a flat roof could
see a roof collapse within two years of an unoccupied building and everything
inside would be destroyed. The building could be destroyed even sooner, if the
windows were broken out and snow or water was able to penetrate the building
interior. Do you want to see all of the sterile medical equipment and supplies
and medicines in a vet hospital go to waste or all of the packages of salt
& pepper from the local fast food restaurant lost or the warm hunting
clothes rotting on the shelves? The salvage can provide you with additional
materials that could not only assist your business but could be the difference
between life and death in the case of medications or fire-starting materials.
For me, salvage would be additional oil and bees wax and extracts to make
salves and grain alcohol for herbal medications and fabric and other sewing
items to make the fabric items I plan on producing.
Medicinal
Grain Alcohol (used for medical
disinfection and making tinctures and items such as hand sanitizer)
Grow Medicinal Herbs & Plants
Tooth Powder
Tooth Paste
Supplies
to Store:
Recipes,
bees wax, home distillation unit, aloe vera gel, extracts, essential oils
Food
Production
Open Pollinated Seeds
Composting Bins
Honey and Bees Wax Production
Butter Making
Bread Making, using an Outdoor Adobe
Oven (see “manual labor” below for the link)
Salt Distillation (if you live on the
coast)
Sourdough Bread Starter
Vinegar Production
Food Preservation (canning, dehydrating,
pickling, oil preservation)
Supplies
to Store:
Open
pollinated seeds, plastic barrels, butter churn, yeast, wheat berries, jars and
lids, vinegar, oil
Sanitation
Laundry Soap
Lye Soap
Homemade Shampoo
Supplies
to Store:
Recipes,
borax, washing soda, fels-naptha soap, 5-gallon buckets
Fabric
Quilts
Reusable Cloth Menstrual Pads
Reusable Cloth Diapers
Reusable Cloth Incontinence Products
Reusable Cloth Face Masks
Reusable Cloth Clothes Pin Bags
Toilet Paper (a.k.a. 4” X 6” cloth
squares with a small lidded bucket for soaking prior to washing)
Clothing Repairs
Clothing Re-purposing (turning a toddler
button down shirt into a cloths pin bag)
Dish Drying Towels
Pot Holders
Aprons
Draft Dodgers (fabric tubes made with
old towels filled with field corn to be placed at doors and windows to keep out
the draft)
Wonder Ovens (I would suggest adding a
fabric loop after filling and before final sewing (on both the top & bottom
piece) so it can be hung out to dry after washing) here
is the pattern
Supplies
to Store:
Sewing
machine, fabric, batting, needles, thread, patterns, elastic, velcro, diaper
pins. Janome manufacturers
and sells brand new Treadle Sewing Machines (just install on an existing
treadle base)
Yarn
Afghans
Scarves
Mittens
Hats
Hair Snoods (http://babycheriestyle.blogspot.com/2011/01/retro-hair-essentials-snood-mania.html) There will not
be any beauty salons post SHTF.
Supplies
to Store:
Yarn,
knitting needles, crochet hooks, patterns
Wax
Candles
Fire starters
Supplies
to Store:
Empty
glass jars, empty 28oz food cans, gulf wax, wicks, empty toilet paper tubes
Wood
Outhouse. (I would design and build a
2-seater– one seat going into a 5-gallon bucket for liquids that will be
diluted and used in the garden and spread around the house to repel animals,
and a second seat for solids that will compost into the ground. I would make
sure that the “solids” hole was a minimum of 6′ deep.)
Indoor composting toilets (see above for
use during cold weather). Here are links to two homemade indoor composting
toilets that I like. http://sustainable-solutions.info/blog/?p=579 and http://tinyhouseblog.com/tiny-house/composting-toilet/
Solar Food Dehydrators
Smoke Houses
Hand Carts (suitable for
carrying/holding/displaying items at trading days or at your farm stand)
Clothes Pins
Clothes Drying Lines (outdoor)
Clothes Drying Racks (indoor)
Carved Wooden Hair Combs (https://www.etsy.com/listing/97107824/women-comb-wooden-comb-wood-comb-wood?ref=market)
Chicken Coops
Rabbit Hutches
Sewing Baskets
Butter Churns
Wood Shaving and Sawdust for Composting
Toilets
Wood Door Braces to Prevent Intrusion
Supplies
to Store:
Wood
lumber, nails, screws, hand saws, rope, paracord, toilet seats
Metal
Fireplace Tools
Wood Stoves
Supplies
to Store:
Metal
tubing, sheet metal, fire brick,
Glass
Oil
Lamps (This is not a true DIY project. However, oil lamps I feel will be in
high demand. Here
is the link
scroll down to P/N BR3273& 7BR3273for the burner caps and here is the link
for the chimney. Use old mason
jars that may have a chip on the rim and can no longer be used for canning. The
wire clothes hangers can be used to add a bail or hanging handle. This site has
a lot of different oil lamp type products that can be purchased. Cooking oil
that has gone rancid can be used in these types of lamps.
Supplies
to Store:
Burner
caps, old pint-size mason jars, wicks, wire clothes hangers
Plastic
Rain water harvesting system
Supplies
to store:
Plastic
barrels, metal tubing, downspout diverters
Leather
Craft
Shoes
Moccasins
Bags
Gloves
Hide Tanning
Supplies
to store: Leather, books, patterns
Bush
Craft
Cordage made from wild plants, such as
stinging nettles
Hand Woven Baskets
Local Wild Edible Plants
Supplies
to store:
Books,
patterns
Oil
Extraction and/or Lard Making
Oil,
lard, and other fats are required to maintain your health. There is lard from
pigs and bears and oils from sunflowers, soybeans, and olives. Do a google
search for extracting the oil crops that grow in your area or rendering lard
for instructions and equipment.
Supplies
to Store:
Instructions,
oil press, seeds of oil producing crops
Broom
Making
This
is an old time craft that is being kept alive at Berea College in Berea,
Kentucky. Here is a link to view the brooms the students make and sell. (https://bereacollegecrafts.com/shop/broom-making)
Manual
Labor
Firewood Supplier
Root Cellars
Burn Boxes
Knife Sharpening
Laundry Service
Supplies
to Store:
Saws,
mauls, splitting axes, concrete blocks, rebar, knife sharpening tools, metal
screening, oven racks, 15 or 20 gallon tubs or plastic barrels
Education
and Library
Homemade chalkboards
Homemade chalk
Printed Materials and Books Created
During the 1800′s & 1900′s on homesteading, farming, farm tools, homemade
remedies (remember that major SHTF will include no electricity or Internet).
Never ever let the books leave your possession. You can charge for the use of
the books and the paper to make notes and drawings.
Supplies
to Store:
Plywood,
chalk, chalkboard paint, instructions for making chalk, paper, instructions for
making paper, instructions for making ink, instructions for making dip/quill
type pens
Who
knows, in 10 years, you could be running the local one-room school house.
Rodent
Control
Bugs
and other rodents will be a major problem, post SHTF, and will be a major
health issue. Do you know how to make fly paper and other rodent control items
to protect your family from contracting a disease?
Supplies
to Store:
Recipes,
brown paper bags, honey, sugar, borax
In
closing, I would love to hear your ideas and suggestions for SHTF products that
you and your family can and will produce.
From the Survival Blog
1 comment:
AMAZING SIMPLY AMAZING!!
Flush door Manufacturer in India, Veneer manufacturer in Idnia
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