BHM Newsletter
Volume 10      Number 3

March 26, 2008
 

INSIDE BHM

A Special Preparedness Issue

Backwoods Home Magazine's May/June 2008 issue (No. 111) is about 2 weeks away from being delivered to subscribers' mail boxes, so I guess it's not too early to reveal that it is a Special Preparedness Issue intended to help readers weather what we see as a severe and prolonged economic slump in America. I think it is the best issue we've ever produced.

For only the second time in our 18 1/2-year history, the new issue will be 16 pages longer than our usual 100 pages. It is intended as a mini-guide to help readers cope with a recession coupled by inflation -- stagflation -- in which jobs are lost while prices for the basics in life, such as food, go up. We don't know how bad things will get, but we are not optimistic. This issue shows our pessimism and provides articles on how to prepare yourself to cope with this economic squeeze.

Even if you do not subscribe to the Backwoods Home Magazine print issue, I recommend you reserve a copy of this Special Preparedness Issue. We anticipate a lot of demand for it, so are printing an extra 15,000 copies. If you are not a subscriber to the print issue, you can order this Special Preparedness Issue for $5.95 by clicking here. If you'd like to get the issue and subscribe to the magazine, click here. This issue is as good as it gets for BHM.

Some of the articles:

John Silveira has an excellent piece explaining what is driving prices up and why there is a significant risk of a dangerously prolonged stagflation for America.

Mas Ayoob explains why you should buy extra ammo and guns now, before the November elections.

Jeff Yago has two articles: one on building a preparedness pantry that will keep you in food for a year, and the other on Energy Basics 101.

Jackie Clay has three articles: How to store protein, Planting a serious survival garden, and Building a home medical kit.

Claire Wolfe talks about the need to develop a circle of friends you can depend on in a prolonged emergency.

Sylvia Gist has a lengthy piece about the importance of including whole grain foods in our diet to stay healthy.

Ilene Duffy give some of her quick, healthy bread recipes.

Corey Gage explains the preparedness "Rule of Three."

Dorothy Ainsworth gives a primer on the art of salvaging materials to build your home or any other structure around the homestead.

Jim Dickie gives a lesson in building a custom kitchen out of salvaged materials.

Brewster Gillett gives food canning some historical perspective by explaining Napoleon's role in its discovery.

Joe Knight shows you how to avoid catching diseases from your pets and homestead animals.

The Irreverent Jokes Page has been expanded to two very funny pages.

And we've got a great Ask Jackie column.

The issue is just packed, and many of the articles are set off with Don Childers' original drawings and paintings.

Dave Duffy Blogging

Speaking of Don Childers' art, here's a brief pictorial on how we got this Special Preparedness Issue's cover. Readers of my blog will recall my March 8 post while we were preparing the issue. It showed me holding a partially crumpled paper bowl in my outstretched hand. What I was doing was modeling for the cover. Check out these photos that led to the cover:

Chicken book offer

As some of you may have noticed, we are currently offering our new 64-page book, Chickens: a beginners handbook, free with a two year subscription.

The guide is also available without subscribing for $6.95, postage and handing included in the USA, but as a special offer only for newsletter subscribers, we're offering a nearly 15% discount of $1.00 off.

If you're interested in acquiring this informative handbook, just click here for the order page. When you are ready to check out or viewing the contents of your shopping cart, enter this code — NLCB83 — where it says "Enter Coupon Code # here" and the cart will subtract $1.00 from your order.

This offer will expire with the next issue of the newsletter. The discount may not be applied to any other items.

SELF-RELIANCE TIPS

Rainwater Harvesting

With April showers about to fall, it seems a good time to talk about rainwater catchment systems (aka rainwater harvesting and domestic roof-water harvesting).

Rainwater harvesting is widely used in tropical areas, and has been studied and touted as a solution for people in poor countries who otherwise have no reliable access to clean drinking water. But you hardly need a tropical climate to utilize rainwater.

In the U.S., the state of Texas (most parts of which aren't known for abundant rainfall) is one of the biggest governmental promoters of rain-gathering technologies. And many "greens" have also adopted rain harvesting, both as a way to save resources and a way to be more independent of centralized government control. As more people adopt the technology, predictably, more objections and safety concerns are being raised, too.

Since rainwater harvesting is a large topic, and since it can be done simply or made big and complex, we thought we'd offer a series of links to great information rather than try to cram too much into one modest space. So without further ado ...

For U.S. residents, the 88-page Texas Manual on Rainwater Harvesting (.pdf) is probably the chief guide to catchment systems. Its very comprehensive and you'll find it referenced by many builders and suppliers of systems. Texas is a perfect example of how a technology from tropical climes has uses in very un-tropical places. Texas promotes rainwater catchment as a potential aid against drought.

Accross the Big Pond, England's University of Warwick is engaged in practical development research on rainwater harvesting for poor countries. But you don't have to be poor to benefit from their information on technology and components

A global anti-poverty group, Practical Action, also publishes not just theory but practical information on building systems. (The link goes to an HTML page; from there you can download the .pdf file that contains both text and how-to diagrams.)

But what about real people in the real world? Here's a family that has built a large catchment system for its farm and shares both a diagram of their setup and its pros and cons. Their system, though substantial, was relatively inexpensive and can be expanded at need.

On the other hand, of course, you can stick to ultimate simplicity and merelycatch a bit of water for your garden in a rain barrel. (It's important to keep in mind that not every catchment system is going to produce potable water.)

Here's another way of keeping it simple: operating your toilet off harvested rainwater

But even the humble, old-fashioned rain barrel can play a part in more complex systems. you can do more complex things with barrels, too. Here's a person who admits to being "hooked on barrels." After beginning with one plain old barrel at the end of a household downspout, he expanded and now has seven linked barrels with a capacity of 350 gallons that supply all his garden-water needs -- not to mention a solar shower. (A helpful diagram and lots of helpful photos behind that link, too.)

Many parts of the U.S. have suffered drought for years. One Tennesee man, facing dry creeks, a dry pond, and realizing that his local government water system could be in danger of collapse,built this system, which is more complex than a rain-barrel array, yet not as costly or complex as some.

An Oregon family faced no shortage of rain, but wanted to make a greater commitment to conservation by using stored rain to water for drinking as well as gardening. Their suburban rainwater catchment system was the first in the area to be licensed by the city as a potable water source and was written up in the Portland Oregonian.

Political and environmental concerns also drove this M Street Eureka family system: Eureka, California family system. This area of California is known for its environmental activism, and the local university publishes a rainwater how-to manual that may be second only to the Texas manual in usefulness.

And of course Backwoods Home hasn't been idle in this regard. Dorothy Ainsworth gives instructions on how to build a concrete holding tank on a limited budget.

As rainwater-catchment systems have begun to become more popular, people have pointed out various concerns. First, rainwater itself may carry pollutants. More likely, it may pick pollutants up from somewhere within your harvesting system -- for instance, from the materials on your roof, via cracks in tanks or pipes, from critters that get into the system, or various "bugs" that might inhabit standing water. So good system design, thorough cleaning, and frequent inspections are very important if you plan to drink water you harvest.

And finally -- you knew the government had to get involved somewhere, didn't you? -- if you are served by a municipal water system, it may even be illegal for you to collect rainwater in a barrel, let alone a large storage cistern. Or you may need a permit. Check your state government laws on such things and check with your municipal or county government if you have any reason to believe they might interfere with your plans or come seeking to transfer fees, fines, or other "revenue enhancements" from your pockets to theirs.

COMMENTARY

By Oliver Del Signore

The following little economics lesson has been posted under various titles, in various forms, all over the Internet.

It has been attributed to at least two professors, both of whom denied authorship. According to Snopes.com, the original version was in the form of a 2001 letter to the The Chicago Tribune sent in by a Don Dodson. Follow the Snopes link to read the original and another version.

The version I received contained a small math error, which didn't affect the principle or lesson. The error and text have been corrected, and so, let's learn a little bit about how taxes work in a progressive society like ours.

Bar-Stool Economics
Original Author Unknown

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what they decided to do.

The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. "Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20."

Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men -- the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his "fair share"?

They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink their beer.

The bar owner suggested it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same percentage as he was paying before, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay. And so:

The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now paid $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth (the richest) now paid $50 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.

"I only got a dollar out of the $20," declared the sixth man, pointing to the tenth man," but he got $9!"

"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got nine times more than me!"

"That's true!!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $9 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!"

"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!"

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They had only enough money between all of them for half of the bill!

And that, ladies and gentlemen, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

"For those who understand, no explanation is needed. For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible." --Author Unknown

RECIPES

Bright and Early

This month's recipes all involve early-season vegetables or fruits or -- to brighten your day -- edible flowers.

Snow Peas with Garlic

2 cups fresh snow peas, washed and trimmed
1-2 tablespoon sesame oil
3 minced garlic cloves
Salt & pepper to taste

Heat oil in a wok or skillet on medium-high heat. Toss in peas. Stir-fry for about 1 minute, then add garlic and seasoning. Quick fry until bright green and still crisp. (Do not overcook.) Serve hot.

Strawberry Pecan Creamy Salad

1/2 cup mayonnaise or Miracle Whip
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup white sugar
1/8 cup distilled white vinegar
1 tablespoon poppy seeds
1 head romaine lettuce, torn into bite-size pieces
1/2 red onion, sliced
1 cup sliced fresh strawberries
1/2 cup toasted pecans
1/4 cup red bell pepper, chopped

In a small bowl, mix together salad dressing, milk, sugar, vinegar, and poppy seeds. Refrigerate until ready to use. Combine lettuce, onion, strawberries, pecans, and red bell pepper in a salad bowl. Toss with dressing.

Strawberry and Spinach Salad

2 bunches spinach, rinsed and torn into bite-size pieces
4 cups sliced strawberries
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 teaspoon paprika
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
1 tablespoon poppy seeds

In a large bowl, toss together the spinach and strawberries. Set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together the oil, vinegar, sugar, paprika, sesame seeds, and poppy seeds. Pour over the spinach and strawberries, and toss to coat.

Roasted Kale

4 cups firmly-packed kale
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon sea salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. wash and trim the kale: Peel off the tough stems by folding the kale leaves in half stripping the stems off. Toss with olive oil. Roast for five minutes. Turn kale over. Roast another 7 to 10 minutes until kale turns brown and becomes paper thin and brittle. Remove from oven and sprinkle with sea salt. Serve immediately.

Serves 2.

Homemade Tortillas with Fresh Flowers

Mixing edible flowers into your homemade tortillas ads intriguing zest. Edible flowers include: violets, roses, nasturtiums, pansies, lilacs, carnations, cherry and apple blossoms, Johnny jump-ups, and herb flowers such as borage, lavender, rosemary. Experiment with their flavors before using; different flowers will work better with different fillings.

1 pound masa flour
4 teaspoons salt
Cold water
Edible flowers, petals only

Mix together flour and salt in medium mixing bowl. Slowly add water, as needed, and knead gently until a smooth dry masa is formed. Remove a small piece and roll it into a ball (about half size of a golf ball). Continue making balls until all masa is used. Next, take a tortilla press and between 2 pieces of plastic, place a masa ball and press half way. (Or you can do it the old-fashioned way, patting the tortilla between your hands.)

Open, remove plastic from show side of tortilla, lay edible flower petals on the half-pressed tortilla, re-cover with plastic, and finish pressing. Remove tortilla and place it between 2 pieces of wax paper.

Continue process until all masa balls have been pressed. Remove first piece of waxed paper and place a raw tortilla on a griddle. Cook on one side until golden brown, about 45 seconds, then turn over and cook for 1 more minute. Repeat with each tortilla & serve warm.

Makes about 20 tortillas

Swiss Chard and Beans on Toast

1 bunch swiss chard, washed and chopped
2 cloves of garlic - mashed, chopped or minced

Olive oil
1 can beans, drained and rinsed (navy, black beans or white kidney beans)
Bread with a good, firm crust
sea salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in pan. Saute garlic until golden. Add chard and saute over medium heat until tender (about 8 minutes.). Add beans and heat through. Toast two slices of bread. Pour the chard and beans on the toast and add salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

You can also use beans that you've soaked overnight and cooked. Canned beans simply make it possible to create a quick, but still healthy, lunch or snack.

Swiss Chard Pesto

An interesting sauce for pasta.

2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1 bunch Swiss chard
Handful pine nuts
Fresh grated parmesan cheese
Handful fresh coriander leaves

Wash the chard and shake dry. Melt the butter in a saucepan with the olive oil. Peel and chop the garlic and saute for 2 minutes. Chop the chard stems and add them to the pan. Stir briefly, then cook, covered for 5 minutes. Roughly chop the chard leaves and add them to the pan. Cook for another 3 minutes.

Toast the pine nuts for a couple of minutes (either under a pre-heated grill or in a dry pan)

Turn off the heat under the chard. Add the coriander leaves, pine nuts and parmesan. Puree the mixture until it looks like pesto and serve over noodles.

Apricot Mango Radish Salsa

1 large ripe mango
2 to 3 ripe apricots
1 bunch large red or white radishes, diced
Juice of 1 lime or lemon
1 to 2 small red chillies of your choice, seeds removed and finely chopped
2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil
Salt to taste
2 to 3 tablespoons chopped cilantro

Slice along center pit of mango, removing flesh from both sides. Cut each half in half again. Remove skin by sliding knife between skin and flesh, trimming any stray pieces of skin. Chop into 1/2 inch pieces. Put chopped mango and any juices into large bowl.

Halve apricots, remove pits and chop into 1/4 inch pieces. Add to mango with radishes, lime or lemon juice, chillies, olive oil, salt and cilantro. Stir well to blend. Cover and refrigerate about two hours.

If the chillies you use are hot, remember to wear gloves when chopping and do not touch your eyes or the skin around them.

Curried Lamb Patties with Radish Raita

For Raita

1/3 cup Plain yogurt
2 tablespoons diced radish
1 teaspoon diced red onion
1 teaspoon fresh lime juice
Salt and pepper to taste

For Lamb Patties

3/4 pound ground lamb
3 tablespoons chopped red onion
1-1/2 tablespoons Major Grey's or homemade mango chutney
3 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander seeds
1/8 teaspoon paprika
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

For Raita: In a small bowl stir together all raita ingredients and season with salt and pepper.

For patties: In a large bowl mix together all patty ingredients except oil until well-mixed and season with salt and pepper. Form mixture into 4 patties about 1-inch thick. In a large heavy skillet heat oil over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking. Cook patties until just cooked through, about 31/2 minutes per side. Serve lamb patties with raita.

Serves 2.

Dandelion Honey

Great on biscuits, breads, muffins, or pancakes. Be sure to pick your dandelion flowers during daylight hours when in full bloom. Remove the petals completely from their stems before measuring and using.

4 cups dandelion petals
4 cups water
3 (1/4-inch) slices lemon
1/2 vanilla bean, split in half
2-1/8 cups granulated white sugar

Place petals in a heavy saucepan along with the water, lemon slices, and vanilla bean. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and let steep for 6 hours. This creates a dandelion tea.

Strain dandelion tea through cheesecloth and discard solids. Place in a heavy saucepan and bring to a low boil. Gradually add sugar while stirring until sugar is dissolved. Lower heat and let simmer to desired syrupy thickness (may take up to 4 hours). Check and stir as needed.

Sugar-Frosted Blossoms

Our Victorian ancestors used real flowers from their gardens to decorate cakes, cupcakes, and ice-cream dishes. These treats are not only beautiful; they're tasty. And you can make them yourself, with a little time and care.

Be sure to begin with an edible type of flower that has not been sprayed with any chemicals. Edible flowers include: violets, roses, nasturtiums, pansies, lilacs, carnations, cherry and apple blossoms, and herb flowers such as borage, lavender, rosemary and mint. Experiment with their flavors before you use them.

Edible flower blossoms
2 or 3 egg whites (or substitute)
1/2 to 1 cup granulated white sugar
Tiny, clean, artist's brush
Cup of cool water
Wax or parchment paper for drying the flowers
Paper or cotton towels

Cut the prettiest blossoms you can find at their peak of bloom, keeping enough stem to allow you to hold them easily (3 to 4 inches). Gently wash them in cool water to remove every single speck of dirt, dust, or bug. Dry gently with absorbent paper or cotton towels and place each stem in a glass of cool water until ready for use.

Beat the egg whites with a whisk or fork until slightly frothy. Place sugar in a soup bowl.

One flower at a time, brush the entire flower blossom with egg white. DO NOT DIP, as the flower will absorb too much egg.

Dip the egg-brushed blossom into the sugar, taking care to get the sugar onto each petal. Gently shake off any excess sugar. Place the blossom on wax or parchment paper and snip the flower blossom off its stem-holder. Allow the blossom to completely dry and harden. Store in an airtight container for up to three weeks.

HUMOR

The Tax Squeeze

A dad walks into a market followed by his ten-year-old son. The kid is spinning a quarter in the air and catching it between his teeth. As they walk through the market someone bumps into the boy at just the wrong moment and the coin goes straight into his mouth and lodges in his throat. He immediately starts choking and going blue in the face and Dad starts panicking, shouting and screaming for help.

A middle-aged, fairly unnoticeable man in a gray suit is sitting at a coffee bar in the market reading his newspaper and sipping a cup of coffee.

At the sound of the commotion, he looks up, puts his coffee cup down on the saucer, neatly folds his newspaper and places it on the counter. He gets up from his seat and makes his unhurried way across the market. Reaching the boy, the man reaches between the boy's legs and firmly squeezes a certain sensitive part of his anatomy.

The boy convulses violently and coughs up the quarter, which the man catches in his free hand. Releasing the boy, the man hands the coin to the father and walks back to his seat in the coffee bar without saying a word.

As soon as he is sure that his son has suffered no lasting ill-effects, the father rushes over to the man and starts effusively thanking him saying "I've never seen anybody do anything like that before. It was fantastic! Are you a doctor?"

"Oh, good heavens, no," the man replies, "I work for the Internal Revenue Service."

"The Bostonians Paying the Exise-Man"

A little glimpse of how our forebears "paid" the tax-man ...

In Lieu of Cash

A man computed his taxes and found that he owed $3407. He packaged up his payment and included this letter:

Dear IRS:

Enclosed is my tax return & payment. Please note the attached article from USA Today. It says that the Pentagon is paying $171.50 for hammers and NASA has paid $600.00 for a toilet seat.

Please find enclosed four toilet seats (value $2400) and six hammers (value $1029).

This brings my total payment to $3429.00. Please note the overpayment of $22.00 and apply it to the Presidential Election Fund, as noted on my return. Might I suggest you the send the above mentioned fund a 1.5-inch screw. (See attached article - HUD paid $22.00 for a 1.5 inch Phillips head screw.)

It has been a pleasure to pay my tax bill this year, and I look forward to paying it again next year. I'm planning a trip to the hardware store to arrange my payment in advance; I just saw an article about the Pentagon and screwdrivers.

Sincerely,

I. Getscrewed Everyear

Subject: Fraud Warning

Fraud Warning!

WARNING! PLEASE READ IMMEDIATELY!

THIS IS SERIOUS!

If you get an envelope from a company called the Internal Revenue Service, DO NOT OPEN IT! This group operates a scam around this time every year. Their letter claims that you owe them money, which they will take and use to pay for the operation of essential functions of the United States government. This is untrue! The money the IRS collects is used to fund various corporations which depend on subsidies to stay in business and to pay interest on mega-trillion debts, mostly to foreign governments.

This organization has ties to another shady outfit called the Social Security Administration, who claim to take money from your regular paychecks and save it for your retirement. In truth, the SSA uses the money to pay for the same misguided corporate nanny state the IRS helps mastermind.

These scam artists have bilked honest, hard working Americans out of billions of dollars. Don't be among them!

FORWARD THIS MESSAGE TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW!

Your Burden and Mine

Another glimpse into tax history. The caption reads: "Says Plutocracy: It's no use growling. Your burden is no heavier than mine. Look at all the taxes I am carrying."

Taxing One-Liners

America is the land of opportunity. Everybody can become a taxpayer.

It's hard to believe America was founded to avoid high taxation.

Americans are now in a daze from intaxication.

There is no tax on brains; the take would be too small.

Ambition in America is still rewarded . . . with high taxes.

If my business gets much worse, I won't have to lie on my next tax return.

Capital Punishment: Congress comes up with a new tax.

Children may be deductible, but they are still taxing.

There is no child so bad that he/she can't be used as an income tax deduction.

If Congress can pay farmers not to raise crops, why can't we pay Congress not to raise taxes?

The attitude of Congress toward hidden taxes is not to do away with them, but to hide them better.

Congress has the unsolved problem of how to get the people to pay taxes they can't afford for services they don't need.

One of the great blessings about living in a democracy is that we have complete control over how we pay our taxes . . . cash, check or money order.

When filling out your income-tax forms, be sure you don't overlook your most expensive dependent -- the federal government.

Stress Relief

Feeling stressed out before your audit? Relax and enjoy this new stress relief method...

Picture yourself near a stream.

Birds are softly chirping in the crisp cool mountain air.

Nothing can bother you here. No one knows this secret place.

You are in total seclusion from that place called "the world."

The soothing sound of a gentle waterfall fills the air with a cascade of serenity.

The water is clear.

You can easily make out the face of the person whose head you're holding under the water.

Look. It's the IRS agent who caused you all this stress in the first place.

What a pleasant surprise. You let them up...just for a quick breath...then ploop!...back under they go...

You allow yourself as many deep breaths as you want.

You are relaxed and at peace.
 

OTHER STUFF

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Contact Info:

Editor/Letters - Dave Duffy, editor@backwoodshome.com
Web Site - Oliver Del Signore, webmaster@backwoodshome.com