SATURDAY CATCHING UP

HUMANURE

I have been reading about Humanure this morning. Not a thing you normally read but pertinent to human survival. The practice is very old in China and Japan and Korea. They have been doing their fertilizing with human manure for 4000 years and their soil ain't wore out yet. Most likely it isn't going to be either. You can Google it and study it yourself and find out a lot of facts. The Asians can use raw human shit on their crops and it doesn't bother them. Westerners have a hard time with the smell though. But the word is that if you compost it the bad smell is gone. And it is pretty rich as a fertilizer. The paper I read on the subject said that the average person produces about 40 ounces of shit per day. For the sake of easy numbers let us say that the average is two pounds per day. That is a pretty substantial figure for even a small group of people.

The Pathogens, that's the mean little organisms that exist in human shit, are supposedly killed off by composting. You have to do it right but then you are rewarded with good soil amendment. I know a guy who lives about 10 miles from me and he is doing this. Grows an excellent garden every year and buys no fertilizer or commercial compost.

I must confess that my Hoosier up-bringing leaves me kinda stand-offish from Humanure. But the thought in itself is very intriguing. Looking ahead at the coming hard times I can see two problems arising. One is disposal. We have over 300 million people who are accustomed to the old "flush and forget it" routine. If the power goes out then the flush is going out with it. We can build outhouses and we have done that before and they work. So if you have the materials to build an outhouse you can take care of the disposal problem.

The next problem is what to use for fertilizers. If we need 10 acres of corn for feed for our chickens and cattle and horses and whatever, how are we going to fertilize the stuff? You won't be able to buy anymore commercial fertilizer. And it's petroleum based anyhow. And that little pile of stuff you so proudly put around your tomato plants every year ain't even gonna come close to taking care of a small field of corn, and I mean a small field. For corn you need TONS per acre. About 10 tons per acre would be about right for corn, maybe a little more. Your mileage may vary but that is where I would start.

To bring yourself up to speed on this issue I would suggest a little study be done and I would suggest you go to http://www.weblife.org/humanure/ for starters. You can't live without food and you gotta put back to the soil what you take out or you will deplete your ground and then you are screwed. This is not a pleasant subject to people raised in a Western culture but it might be a big item in your survival story. I am pondering this issue very carefully.

KNIVES

I took my buddy Zak to town with me this morning. He was just out taking a walk with his 22 Mag pistol and I asked him if he wanted to go. He did and off we flew or rather off we drove. I showed him my new $7 knife and he had to stop at the store and get one for himslf. He is an outdoor kinda guy and he thinks the $7 Schrade is a great deal for the money. I thought so myself.

A good blade just sort of inspires a man to head outside. Ain't any deer to skin in the house! Ain't no fish to clean in there either! You just want to get outside and be more natural carrying a blade on your belt. Feels good.

So after I got home I called the Handmaiden and asked her where she was. She runs on a very long leash because she is an honorable and decent woman, but I like to call her and bug her a little bit anyhow. She belongs to me and I can act like I please. And that pisses a lot of women's lib people off. Especially when I say she belongs to me. They raise hell when I say that. But I just look at them and ask, "Don't you belong to somebody? Doesn't anybody claim you?" I know that no man owns a soul except Him who made it but I don't tell that to the dummies. They might become enlightened and then I would have to deal with 'em. PDP's

But anyhow, the woman was just getting out of Starbucks when I called her. She was out doing Amishland with Old Fred this morning and he is a coffee addict and loves Starbucks. But she said she was going next to the Big Lots store and buy a couple more knives. She said we might be able to use them for barter if things got tough. I said that was true but I said that we will have one for my son when he visits the next time. That young man likes a good knife.

So the cheap knives at Big Lots are really popular and we owe it all to Dragon at http://circleoftheoroborous-dragon.blogspot.com/. He gave us the word and we acted upon it. Sure do appreciate the word, Dragon.

FRIENDS

This is from a little observation I had the other day. Somebody commented on a guys blog and made reference to his survivalist buddies who wrote about the same stuff, more or less. The commentator acted like that was sort of demeaning or second class or whatever. Well screw him. There ain't very many serious survivalists around, and who don't like to talk to their friends and maybe get a few ideas? If the commmentator doesn't believe in survivalism, that's fine. I ain't holding a gun to anyones head and forcing them to prepare for hard times. It's all a matter of choice as far as I am concerned.

But my friend Dragon gave me that tip about the cheap knives and I don't have a lot of money for preps and so I feel it is a damn good idea to listen to people of like mind. I'll listen to a survivalist long before I'll go for what CNN or MSNBC has to tell me about life in the year 2008.

I was thinking this morning that TV and newspapers and magazines are having a hard time making any money these days. The Internet catches a lot of flack for that. And I say that is A CROCK OF SHIT! The media has lost all the trust that people once put into it. Hell, back in the 60's you get take Time Magazine and watch Walter Cronkite on TV and you would get a decent portion of truth in the reporting. But not anymore. We found out from Matt Drudge that the Monica Lewinsky/Bill Clinton story was being held back from the news because Michael Isikoff's masters didn't want to print it. I think the head honchos at Newsweek were behind that little deal. And the news from Ruby Ridge and Waco was all screwed up. And other things in the news didn't add up any too well.

So who should I believe? Should I believe the corporate media which is provably run by spinmeisters? Do I believe what the Dept. of Agriculture says about the food their buddies grow with Frankenseed? Do I believe what the Defense Dept. says is going on with the war in Iraq? Do I believe what the Dept. of Homeland Security says about possible terrorist attacks on this continent? The answer is simple. I believe my friends and I disbelieve all those bastards on the other side. And while my friends may not have pinpoint accuracy on all they say, I know they are not getting paid to blow a lot of smoke up my ass. And all those political donations people give to our candidates is mostly spent on the media for advertising. Do we see any connection between the media and the politicians? Can we call a pig's ass pork?

Trust your friends and keep a close eye on the rest. And stay alive!

Michael

mboone@rtccom.net