PREPPING ... who was already doing it?

Yep. Have to have a drill. Most old houses here are from 1880-1900. My house was built in 1880. I’m sure the lumber in the old houses is from huge old growth forest trees probably hundreds of years old. New lumber is “farmed” fast growing and soft.

 

It’s a recycled old joke.

 

I'd like a cypress house, termites won't touch it.

 

Termites are possible here but pretty rare. I didn’t know that about cypress. How is cypress to work with? Is it a hardwood or more like pine?

 

I have never worked with it but I hear it is pretty hard. I believe it has a cedar like property that the termites don't like.

Now I have always heard these properties of Cypress but full disclosure I have not actually looked it up. But I do know some of the very oldest houses are Cypress and evidently they've escaped termites over the decades

 

The "heart pine" is a different species of tree. The newer lumber is Loblolly and yellow pine as opposed to Long leaf pine. Long leaf pine is the old lumber ....in this area. It takes at least 200 years to get a decent tree. It is very heavy and growth rings are close together.

 

Thanks. That’s interesting. Old lumber here was brought in on the Union Pacific Railroad (the transcontinental line was completed in 1869 so by 1880 we were getting lumber from the west coast as well as states to the east. In my part of the state there wasn’t any timber. Most of our “National Forest” wasn’t planted until 1902 and after. LOL

Since we got lumber from all over I wouldn’t be surprised if some is long leaf pine. I’m not great at identifying pine/fir/spruce species as living trees, let alone as 200 year old lumber.

 

The thing with disasters is that there are a variety of types. I mentioned Yellowstone, that would kill over 100 million, and the places where prepping is prob most popular, they'd be toast. Your best chance would be going in the direction the wind isn't headed. A prepper would be highly unlikely to get out in time.

The deplorable lack of access to medical care in rural America would be another risk. Covid, or any pandemic, hit urban areas first, but then attacked the rural areas savagely.

Nuclear war, depends a lot on where you are. And how the wind is blowing.

My impression is that preppers swap one set of risks for another set of risks. Personally, I like living where there are good restaurants, and hospitals, and hi speed internet, etc. But if you like the rural life, what the heck.

 

I like the rural life. But we do have a new hospital close by but not many good restaurants. I also have room! Room to breathe, room to build, and room to relax and watch nature. My favorite is the hummingbirds. Soon my friends the hummingbirds will return.

 

I know what you are saying. I normally get 3 kinds of wood with pallets. The 3 are oak, pine and poplar. Oak sometimes looks like maple and poplar resembles beach sometimes. And there is this white wood....sweetgum?

 

I tried salvaging pallets with a pry bar once. I couldn't keep the wood from splitting on account of the nails. My friend told me how he does it he simply takes a saw and cuts out what salvageable without worrying about the nails

 

There are many ways to break down a pallet and they are all hard work. The best method for me is 2 two by fours. One to pry and one as a fulcrum. Take a slow pry careful not to work against yourself and pry. If you pry slowly and carefully you can avoid some splitting but not all. Oak is worst for splitting and sometimes you can saw the nails off with a saw and back them out. That's is why I want a wood heater.....burn the waste and save money.

 

Shipping crates and wood make good recyclable material. And steel fabricators sometimes has long oak and pine boards for putting under steel. Those are 8 and 10ft long. Some steel pallets have longer boards.

 

I had hoped it would be obvious. We've been off grid and semi self-sufficient for decades. We become more independent with each passing year, in fact. We acquire more land, more skills, more infrastructure, and more people.

I suspect your views are a result of books & movies, and not real world (at all). What you think is wildly exotic and difficult, is my normal and completely comfortable. We've done it all, and so it's all just second nature now.

Weird that you asked about medical skills meantime .. it seems you're thinking of some kind of remote wilderness 'escape from society'? That's not us. We work part-time, and so does everyone in our collective (apart from those under 16 and over 70). We buy coffee, and cheese, and clothing, and shoes, and seeds, and gardening equipment, and cars, and bicycles, etc etc. We have computers, and phones, and nice espresso machines. But in answer to your question, around 50% of us are medical (both via qualification and current employment). We have far more than most, when it comes to 'supplies' and how to use them.

 

You can keep a family alive on a quarter acre. What you have is absolutely enough.

 

LOL

Ours is stored nowhere near the house. And yes, aged oregon (from old house frames) is superb.

 

It is pine

 

I would not bet 1/4 acre would feed us. Or garden is pretty good sized but it would take fantastic production to feed us year round. The soil here is poor. I live on top of a rock. But we have enough ground to feed 2 cows if we get rid of the goats.

 

Sounds like you might need to do soil improving. If you have good soil, and about ten months of growing, you can do it. Check the pic I attached early in this thread, showing an average surburban block of land densely planted. That's a HUGE amount of food. Would easily feed several families, year round.

 

My garden is rich. I covered a foot thick in horse manure one year. Covered it with pine straw several years in a row. I have grown corn 12 ft high and great watermelon. But support me for a year....no.

 

Are you planting like this, though? Because this is pretty much what you have to do to keep everyone fed all year. That's how we do it. Our backyard looks pretty much exactly like this.

 

News to me. I’m ignorant of things from the swamp. Thanks.

 

It's in the pine family, oddly enough.

 

Too much work. I do other things. Nice setup though.

 

It was the "semi" part I was talking about.

Sounds to me like you aren't prepping for the collapse of civilisation, which is what prepping is.