I have worked up a letter to give to each of my 13 neighbors and here it is
Hello Neighbors
Well strange things are happening, as of now I have no power and I don't expect it to come on in the next few days or even weeks.
This letter is my attempt at organizing our community so that everyone has basic needs met and to make enduring this problem with as little stress as possible. I have prepared this letter in advance and printed it out in anticipation of this exact problem occurring. My Christian beliefs make it clear to me that I am to love my neighbor as myself, and to this end I am motivated to do so for all of you. Together we can make this ordeal a lot more bearable.
I would like to have a neighborhood meeting and dinner at my home at this time:
During the meeting we can discuss the immediate needs of our community which will include but not be limited to:
Security
Waste Disposal
Water and food
Communications
This first meeting is for information purposes only, you will not be required to join anything or commit the resources you have. My feeling is we can get a lot further and be a lot safer as a community over a bunch of individual homes and people fighting over the resources we have.
For instance I have a year round water source on my property and want to make that available for anyone that needs it. You can use this water for washing, flushing and if boiled drinking (the people that home steaded my property drank it without treatment) We can work out access points for you to get this water if you need it. If anyone has easily accessible drinking water I am hoping we can establish a system for people that do not have it to get it. Hauling water is heavy and several access points are better than one.
Also I have planted several acres of wheat and barley on my property, depending on the time of year this may be a next years crop or something we can harvest soon. My irrigation system is gravity fed so we can expect this crop to be available for the community if we can get it to maturity and harvest it. This will take a community effort to protect it and harvest it by hand and I intend on sharing this with all who help. Depending on the time of year we can also take some land to plant gardens and use the same irrigation system to water it.
Things you can do NOW:
1. Disease is a big threat, create a system to dispose of waste while you have the time and freedom to move around.
Toilets: you can dig an outhouse or haul water and flush your toilets manually. To flush just pull the lid off the back of the toilet and fill with water, you can now flush as before but need to refill the reservoir each time. If you choose to dig an outhouse make sure it is at least 3 feet deep and 50 feet away from your water well. Please keep your neighbors in mind and not put it upwind from them as much as possible.
Garbage, make plans now to dispose of garbage. Do NOT stack it outside your house or on the road!! This will only attract vermin, smell terrible, make a mess and spread disease. Get a burning barrel or set up a fire pit to burn paper. Use the fire to also burn the unused food in cans and jars. Dig a pit and dispose of solid waste that cannot be burned like cans, bottles, etc. You may want to recycle as much of these items by washing them and saving them for future use. Uneaten food can be fed to chickens, dogs, cats or composted.
This is a very serious issue, don't threaten the health of your family or your community by being a slob, the garbage man isn't coming so plan accordingly.
Water: you can only live for 3 days without water and you will need a clean source. If you are using creek water or open source water make sure you treat it before drinking. You can add bleach to water, about 10 drops per gallon and let it sit for 30 minutes. If the water does not smell like bleach after 30 minutes, RETREAT the water. If after 2 treatments it does not smell like bleach find a different source. If you let it sit overnight the bleach will evaporate and remove the taste. 10 drops per gallon will not be dangerous if consumed. You can boil water for 6 minutes at 160 degrees to kill bacteria, this is not a full boil so don't waste fuel. Work with your neighbors that have clean sources of water, I know of 1 artisan well and one person with a spring, we have a lot of it around and no sense wasting wood or fuel cooking water if we can prevent it.
I will have an example of a "rocket stove" which is easily the most efficient wood heater you can build. It is easy to start, burns hot with very little fuel (and smoke). I will show people how to construct one if they want. There is a picture of the concept at the end of this booklet.
Also I show a Dakota Fire Hole drawing which takes no special tools to construct and uses the same basic concept. Both of these ideas are to give you maximum heat for a minimum amount of wood and smoke.
Food:
With the electricity gone you need to eat or preserve the food you have frozen or refrigerated. Save your canned food for later and consume anything that will spoil first. There are a lot of different ways to preserve the food you have frozen and I will mention a few.
1. A LOT of food you currently have in your refrigerator does not need to be there. Even if the label recommends it you can store catsup, mustard, anything pickled, sauces like soy, teriyaki, lemon juice, pickles, etc in a cool place for weeks.
2. Don't open the freezer door any more than you have to, the food in there will keep for a few days if you don't waste the cold by checking on it.
3. Move your freezer to a cooler spot, in the winter move it outside, in the summer into the basement. You can increase the hold time by insulating the outside of the freezer in warm weather (Cover with additional blankets etc.) or opening and spreading out the food in cold weather.
4. Preserve what you can as rapidly as possible. You "can" meat in glass jars easily by fully cooking it, putting it in jars, filling with broth and pressure cooking it. It takes about 3 hours to pressure cook so plan accordingly for fuel. Of course you need canning supplies which you may not have.
Dry Curing:
Another way to preserve meat by curing it with salt and nitrates (curing salt). This has been done for hundreds of years before refrigerators, bacon and ham are dry cured meats. Take the meat and hand rub in liberal amounts of salt, Pack the meat into a food grade 5 gallon bucket with some holes in the bottom for the water to leak out put it somewhere cool where it can cure. The curing process removes the water from the meat and the lack of water inhibits the growth of microorganisms. Meat cured this way will keep for months without refrigeration. I have some curing salt available at the meeting for those that do not have any. It is critical that we don't have meat wasted so take some time and get this done.
Jerky is another way to preserve meat. Cut meat into strips, lay out flat and sprinkle a meat seasoning on it not heavy but not lightly (I like to use Lawry's chicken rub on my wild game but have also used other steak seasonings). You can also do wet brines with curing salt or by adding soy, teriyaki, steak sauce about 1/2 and 1/2 with water. Allow to sit for 8 hours in the coolest place you can find, then dry it. You can dry it by hanging it over a fire, setting it in the sun on a hot day (put pepper on the meat to repel insects if needed). The meat is "cooked" by the salt in the seasonings and the drying takes the water out of it. 50 lbs of meat can be reduced to 5-8 lbs of jerky saving the nutritional value for weeks. I use a variety of meat seasonings that you would usually cook with as well as simple table salt and pepper if you have nothing else. Store in a cool dry place for maximum life.
Get your food preservation going even if you had the foresight to have a generator and plan on keeping your food frozen. It will take about 30 gallons of gas a week to keep a generator going enough to keep food frozen depending on the time of year.
If you don't have any food in your house, or have a small supply:
This section is for you and don't feel bad, a majority of people only have about 3 days of food in their home. The purpose of the planned meeting is to find out how we stand and how we can help. If you do not have food resources we need to get moving very fast and come up with a barter system to trade skills-for-food. If someone has extra food they can trade for something they do not have and need. Obvious examples is firewood, water or water hauling labor, help in gardens or in defense, waste disposal etc.
If transportation is available, you should already be out to the local stores getting everything you can afford. Check out the grocery stores, the gas stations, the fast food places in the area. Don't waste money on perishable items unless that is all that is left. Obviously salt, curing salt like "Tender quick", sugar, pickling salt, spices, bleach, matches or lighters, gas, propane, canned food, canning supplies, batteries, camping supplies, are some ideas besides food. Toilet paper, sanitary napkins, soap, pet food, etc. Bring a flashlight as you will probably need it to get around the stores.
Also there are a lot of food sources in our area that can be used including wild game, edible plants such as cattails and dandelions, domestic animals, chicken eggs, etc. The point I want to stress is I am willing to help but I'm not willing to create dependency. Everyone has a skill they can give back to the community even if that is simple labor in trade for what you need. If you want to wait for FEMA be my guest, but until then God helps those that help themselves. This means be ready to pitch in and help out where ever needed.
Pets:
Pets may be a luxury you cannot afford. Unless you have several bags of food stocked away, your cute little companion may very easily become a overwhelming burden. Lewis and Clark on their way across the country found dog to be a preferred meal and often traded with the natives for dogs to eat. You don't have to eat "fluffy" but if you don't have much food, get rid of him or her. Stray dogs will kill livestock and get into garbage and spread disease. On my place stray animals will be quickly put down and probably butchered. Tie them up or lose them, any roaming dogs weather they are hurting anything or not are now open season. The old adage good fences make good neighbors applies here.
Rule of Law
This is a subject we need to discuss now.
Without electricity we need to realize there is no fire department or police department and we are on our own. This isn't the old west but we are not far from it and we are sure to be confronted with people that think that no police means no law. I propose that we organize into a town, with a simple charter and some simple easy to understand laws that everyone agrees to abide by.
Here is a proposed list. I am putting them here for you to ponder before the meeting.
1. Respect Private Property. There will be no stealing of private property, this includes people inside the community and outside as well. We need to set a moral code for how we will treat and respect other peoples property. Keep in mind the house you loot may have its owners arriving the next day. If you steal their property you could be killing them indirectly by denying them the resources they need to live.
2. All movement in the neighborhood will be done in the daylight, anyone moving around in the dark will be considered a hostile. During the daytime if you use force or deadly force against another person you will be held accountable. The purpose for this law is simple, at night you don't have the ability to take the time to learn the intentions of another person, during the daytime you can usually see if they are a threat. We need to be able to move around in the light to do our chores, it is expected people will be active in the daylight hours so don't start shooting before asking questions.
3. Everyone has the right to keep and bear arms anytime, anywhere, and if you are smart you will.
4. We need a ruling council to oversee disputes, negotiate with outside parties and organize community projects like harvesting and foraging parties.
5. We need to organize a defense and agree what that looks like. Obviously I have some thoughts on this but it will take a consensus for it to be effective. I will suggest that we close road access to our area and take steps to enforce that security. Looting and riots will start very soon in the city and that will spread into the rural areas once people realize there is no longer any law.
6. We need a means of communicating with each other, I have stored some GMRS 2 way radios with rechargeable batteries. For those that join the town, we will use them to establish a system for secure communications.
You may be thinking this is really extreme and I am over reacting, that is fine but you should attend the meeting anyway. I have a lot of information available and it didn't take a lot of mental work on my part to understand that our country spending 40% more than it was taking in on taxes was going to end badly.
When you combine that with all the presidential orders that have been signed to establish marshal law in America then 2+2=4 and I'm going to put some thought into this.
I would rather sit down with my neighbors and make sure we are all safe and cared for. I don't have near the supplies it would take to support a tenth of the population in our neighborhood but WE do have the resources to work together and survive.
If this whole thing blows over, then you can laugh at me and we all got to know each other a little better. If it does not blow over, it never hurts to plan, what else have you got to do?
