Lazy People

I had this guy come in and whine that I wasn’t providing him with a shopping list that would let him build a cheap, foolproof survival kit.

I didn’t exactly yell at him, but I made it quite clear that thhe best I can do for him is provide him with the information and tools he needs to be able to create his own list for his own personalized survival kit.

Unless he happens to live next door to me and is an old deaf woman, my list will not be a good one for him.

A generic list will inevitably leave off important things because it’s generic, not specific to the disasters he may encounter in his home area or give him the things he specifically needs based on his health, preferences, and skills.

My blog tells you the things you need to do in specific survival situations, andit provides you with methods of doing survival things. It gives lists for those things in hi-tech, low-tech, and no-tech ways (my article on toilet paper is an excellent example of that) so people can be prepared regardless of the tech level they have after a disaster.

There is no single survival kit that can help peoplle survive in every situation – except the human brain. Teach your brain the methods and habits of survival and it will create the tools and such you will need when you face a survival situation. That’s what my blog is about – training your brain to survive.

So, if you wander over there and whine that you need a list of survival things that won’t cost you a lot of money or time or effort, you will be sorely disappointed.

People who live in the Florida swamps have a far different set of survival needs than someone who lives in the Rockies or the Plains.

There may be a few things that appear on all the lists, (rope, a knife, a way to make fire, a way to make drinking water) but that’s the barest, least you’ll need and none of that will work if you don’t know how to get the maximum use out of them.

I can survive without any of those things, but then, I’ve spent a lot of time and effort teaching myself how to survive with only my knowledge and hands. I’ve discovered I can still survive handily missing an important sense, and I’ve experimented surviving with fewer senses and body parts. In the end, lists are useless if you don’t have the knowledge and skills.

So, to this guy who thinks I should provide him with a list of things he can buy cheaply and then pack it away in case he needs it – no. I can’t do it. You have to do this for yourself and if you can’t, dude, you don’t have what it takes to survive. Not to be hard-hearted or anything, but if you were to seek me out in a true survival situation, if you couldn’t contribute something useful enough to cover the supplies you’d use, and you didn’t exhibit any of the important survival traits – I’d let you die. Id let you die because I couldn’t risk you draining resources from those with me who are contributing and working towards our survival.

You can’t buy your way to survival. You have to work your way there.

 

Surviving a Flood in a Car

f you are in a car that becomes submerged due to flood waters – a low spot in the road that is flooded by a creek, for example, like this woman was: http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/09/23/georgia.drowning.911/index.html, to survive: Get out of the car. It really is that simple.

911 Dispatch repeatedly asked the woman to get out of the car, and she chose instead to go to the back of her car, where she drowned. I’m sure she panicked, and panic is not your friend in a crisis situation. My deepest condolences to her family.

If you are ever in a similar situation where the road before you is washed out and you find yourself stranded in flood waters, roll you car window down. You’re going to get wet anyway and cars can be salvaged and cleaned up afterwards if necessary. Let the rain in so you can get out if you need to. If the water does become so high you are washed away, an open window can save your life. Staying inside a car filling up with water is a sure way to kill yourself.

With the window open, you have survival options. If your car stalls and stays in place, you can be rescued fairly easily and your car can probably be brought back to running order. Should your car stall and get swept away in the floodwaters, so long as the inside isn’t filled with water, stay with it. The body of the car will protect you from rushing debris and even a small car is more visible than a person, making you easier to find.

The open window will give you an escape option if the inside of the car fills with water. Once it’s obvious the inside will fill and the car will sink below the surface of the water, get out of the car. To optimize your survival chances, try to exit the car when it is up against something above the water level that will provide you with an anchor and give you some protection from rushing debris. If that isn’t handy, you still have a better chance outside the car when the inside fills with water than you will ever have inside it.

Once you leave the car, look for a safe haven – a building is good if the flood occurs in a city or residential area. Get as high as you can: door tops, windows, the roof. Street signs may be tall enough to afford you a good clinging space. If floating debris passes you that is sturdy enough to hold you above water, grab onto it. Trees are good, too; even if they become uprooted, they will float and the branches may trap debris and keep it from hitting you.

Your goal is to stay alive. Your car, the stuff in your car, and even your clothes are just things. They can be replaced or repaired. Don’t cling to the stuff. Cling to your life. Abandon the stuff if it’s going to kill you.

If you’ve got a cell phone, call for help. Don’t panic. If you have to get out of the car, tell the dispatcher you are getting out and if you can see any landmarks at all, give them to the dispatcher. Your cell phone will probably fritz once you are in the water. As soon as it stops working, toss it. That will free up both your hands for surviving and clinging to something that will keep your head above water.

Now, if you live in a flood-prone area (that’s all of us, ‘cause there are creeks, streams, ponds, lakes, rivers, and sewers practically everywhere – even deserts get flash floods), there are a few provisions you can keep handy in your car that can help you survive. One of those little window punch hammers and seat belt cutter should be kept in easy reach. They are marketed under “life hammer” and “ResQMe”. I have one secured with Velcro at each window of the car so I or my passengers always have one handy. Flotation devices are also Very Useful – you can keep a life vest under the front seat of the car. If you prefer a smaller option, inflatable float tubes, kickboards, even the inflatable travel pillows or those pool “noodles” can help if there’s nothing else available. Tuck a few glow sticks with your floatation device of choice to help with night visibility since you are more likely to drive into deep water in the dark than in daylight. A loud whistle or a marine air horn can also help rescuers find your location and get to you faster.

To summarize:

1. Be prepared to abandon the car in a flood situation

2. Keep a life hammer or ResQMe tool handy in the car

3. Keep a life vest or inflatables in the car

4. Keep a stock of fresh glow sticks handy

5. Have a marine air horn or loud whistle or other loud noisemaker handy

6. Keep a charged cell phone handy – by law they must all be able to call 911 for free

And that’s it. With those tools in your car, you’ll be able to survive flood waters when you’re driving a car.

 

Flu Survival

Itzl and Xoco in Bed

Originally uploaded by nodigio

Flu Survival

The first thing about flu survival is knowing the difference between the common cold and the flu.

Cold Symptoms:

A cold generally starts with a sore throat which goes away on its own after a day or two. This is accompanied or followed by clear nasal discharge that gradually thickens and darkens. Coughing accompanies this because part of the discharge is down the back of the throat. Sneezing is common in a cold and rare in the flu. There is rarely a fever with colds, and when a fever accompanies a cold, it’s usually low. Colds are contagious for the first three days and usually heals in 5 – 7 days.

Cold symptoms are often confused with hay fever and sinus infections. If it begins quickly and is improving by the 4th or 5th day, it’s not allergies and it’s not a sinus infection.

Flu Symptoms:

Regardless of the type of flu you get, they all follow the same general course. Like the cold, the flu comes on quickly. Unlike the cold, it slams you with sore throat, fever, headache, muscle aches, congestion, and coughing. It is accompanied by weakness, exhaustion, and may have severe cough and chest discomfort compared to the cold’s milder, yet hacking, cough.

Like the cold, the flu starts improving about 4 to 5 days after contracting it.

Unlike the cold, flu is contagious for much longer. New research indicates that you are contagious with the flu for as long as you are coughing, so take extra measures to contain and prevent the spread of germs through coughing – cough into your elbow or a disposable tissue, wash your hands often, avoid touching your face or other people, use tissues to touch common surfaces such as door knobs and handles.

Cold and Flu Containment Measures

For both the cold and the flu, avoid contact with others during your contagious period (the first three days for a cold and up to 2 weeks for the flu) and avoid those who exhibit symptoms if you are well. Frequent handwashing reduces the spread of the contagion for both cold and flu, so stay up on the handwashing – at least 20 seconds with hot water and soap both.

If you sneeze or cough, do so into your elbow – it will contain the germs in a place you are less likely to touch.

For the flu, you can take flu shots. Flu shots do not prevent you from getting the flu. Flu shots simply make the flu less severe if you do catch it.

Cold and Flu Management

If you do get a cold or flu, some of the treatments are similar. For both, antihistamines, decongestants, and anti-inflammatories can ease the symptoms. They are not cures, and you are still contagious even if you feel better, so practice containment measures.

For the flu, if you see the doctor for an antiviral drug within the first 48 hours of contracting symptoms, you can lessen the severity of the flu almost to cold levels. You still have to avoid contact with others during your contagious period.

When to Call the Doctor

Persistent fever – lasting more than 3 – 4 days
Painful swallowing – could have morphed into strep throat, better a swab test and know for sure than let it continue
Persistent coughing – it could have morphed into bronchitis, which can be treated with antibiotics. The cold may also have triggered asthma even in people who have never before had asthma.
Persistent congestion and headache – if nasal congestion remains thick and there is pain around the eyes after a week, you may have developed a sinus infection, which an be treated with antibiotics.

Urgent Signs to see a Doctor/go to the ER:

Severe chest pain, especially if it suddenly worsens
Severe headache, especially if it suddenly worsens
Shortness of breath
Dizziness
Confusion
Persistent vomiting
Bluish skin color (shows up first on lips and fingernails)
Dehydration
Improving symptoms that suddenly worsen
Persistent fever with a rash

Supplies for Surviving a Cold or Flu

2 weeks food and water: Since you’ll be sick and not interested in leaving home, make sure you have 2 week’s worth of invalid food and water on hand. Make up chicken stock and freeze it before hand so you don’t have to make it while you’re sick, just heat it up. Bananas can also be frozen to make into beverages or stir into hot baby cereals to boost your potassium levels. Baby cereal is more digestible than whole grain cereals – keep a couple of boxes on hand. If you don’t need them for flu season, they are excellent thickeners to add to stews and sauces. Applesauce is also good, full of fiber and nutrients. Soda crackers and white bread for toasting help settle and fill your stomach. I know, I know, what about whole wheat bread or full grain bread – truth is, your tummy is weak and not up to digesting those just yet. White bread was originally an invalid grain and used for “delicate” aristocrat tummies because it is more processed and therefore easier to digest. Once you’re well, you can go back to whole grains. White bread freezes and thaws well – keep a loaf in the freezer in case you get sick, and if not – thaw it for bread crumbs. Also stock your favorite comfort foods (most people like mashed potatoes or ice cream. Me, I like oatmeal, tea, and toast.)

Beverages. Water is good, essential even, but it doesn’t have a lot of nutrients in it. When you’re sick, you need extra fluids and extra nutrients, and don’t have a lot of appetite. Electrolyte powder can be added to water, juices, and herbal teas. I don’t recommend pre-made commercial sport drinks because they are really high in sugars and chemicals a sick body just doesn’t need but a healthy exercising body does – save the sport drinks for sporting events and use the unsweetened electrolyte powders when you’re sick. Herbal teas that help alleviate symptoms for colds and flu include: peppermint, chamomile, rose hip, and dill seed. Peppermint tea helps with sinuses and nausea, chamomile helps with stress, rose hips provide extra vitamin C, and dill seed calms an upset tummy.

Fever reducers for the flu. Acetaminophen or ibuprofen. Cough and cold medications containing chlorpheniramine, diphenhydramine, oxymetazoline, and pseudoephedrine and lozenges with dyclonine, glycerin, or honey can help ease the symptoms, too.

Tissues. Lots of tissues, as your nose will run and you’ll be coughing.

Soap. You’ll be doing lots of handwashing so lay in a good stock of soap. Plain soap is just fine. You don’t need fancy, expensive anti-bacterial soaps. Colds and flus are viruses and don’t care about bacteria. You probably also need laundry detergent to wash all those clothes, bed linens, and blankets you’ll be using.

Games, books, DVDs. After a day or two, while you’re still contagious, you’ll be feeling well enough to do something but not anything strenuous or demanding. Have a few books or movies you’ve saved aside for this time, old favorites or completely new ones. Simple games you can play alone or online are the best games to have on hand unless there’s more than one person in your household – in which case, games for as many players as there are residents might be nice.

Not So Good, But if it makes you feel better:

Surgical masks. They don’t actually stop the spread of cold and flu viruses because they do nothing to keep your hands virus-free. They do contain the germ spray when you cough or sneeze, but if you’re squicky like me, that means a new mask every time you cough or sneeze – so not worth it. Tissues are far better, cheaper and take up less landfill when disposed of. Wearing long sleeves and using your elbow as a sneeze and cough catcher is a good close second, while those surgical masks are a distant fourth. The top 4 containment methods: isolation (stay home!), elbows, tissues, then masks.

Anti-bacterial gels. They are antibacterial. Colds and flus are viral. See? The gels are good if you don’t have soap and water available, and are handy for between frequent hand washing, but they don’t kill viruses, just bacteria.

If you have pets:

Lay in a stock of pet foods in case you get sick so your pets have enough to last until you are well enough to go out an get more food for them. Flu generally doesn’t affect them other than in how you care for them. Make sure they are provided for while you are sick and all should be well for them.

Why lay in supplies before you get sick?

When you get sick, you aren’t going to feel like running to the store to get what you need, or cooking to make the food you’ll need to recover. If it’s already on hand, you’ll be much happier.

If a lot of people get sick in your area, already having what you need on hand will mean you don’t have to worry about the stores running out. Speaking of which:

Supplies in case of a Major Illness Outbreak

Food and Water – I prefer having a month’s supply of non-perishable, canned, and frozen goods – the power will most likely keep working unless the outbreak is so bad there’s no one to man the power stations. Water will likely be available unless the outbreak is so bad there’s no one to man the water treatment plants, but it still makes sense to have water on hand. Again, I prefer a minimum of a month’s supply and I actually have a year’s supply of food on hand simply because I grew up in a remote area and we stored a year’s worth of food each season and ate them down. Be sure to stock invalid, comfort, and food you like enough to eat a lot of as well as a few special treat foods.

Medicines – in additional to the usual fever reducers, anti-inflammatories, cough medicines, throat lozenges, and first aid kit, make sure you have plenty of your prescription medicines. I recommend a 2 month supply on the prescription meds so if the outbreak happens just before you refill, you have enough to tide you over. Before insurance, most doctors allowed you a 3 month supply of chronic medications, but insurance has now enforced one month supplies only, so you may have to pay for that spare month out of pocket. This is why I despise insurance companies – they set their profit above your health and safety.

Tissues
Soap
Pet food
Toilet paper
Toiletries
Games, books, movies, toys, hobby supplies – if you’re quarantined, you’ll be glad you have things to do. Old favorites and brand new ones are best. If you have internet access now, you’ll probably still have it during an outbreak, so there’s also that.

Don’t forget to keep a goodly stock of things stashed at work in case you get quarantined there. Can you imagine what life would be like if you couldn’t leave your office for 2 weeks???? I brought a hot plate, a stash of freeze-dried and canned goods, cheese, crackers, peanut butter, rice, oatmeal, teas, and dog food (I bring my dogs to work with me every day, one’s a signal dog and the other is a special needs dog).

If you have pets at home and get quarantined at work, have a plan in place to take care of your pets while you’re away and plenty of food and water set aside for them.

Quick review:

Colds
Sore throat
Coughing
Sneezing
Mild fever
Congestion
Mild headache (from sinuses and coughing and sneezing)
Mild chest pain (from coughing and sneezing)

Flu
Fever
Sore throat
Muscle and joint aches
Coughing
Congestion
Moderate to Strong headache
Mild to Moderate chest pain (from coughing)
Weakness
Fatigue

 

14 Important Survival Skills

Rune Rock

Originally uploaded by nodigio

14 Important Survival Skills

These aren’t your usual survivalist tips on guns and weapons and fighting skills, because while those can be useful, they’re meaningless unless you also have most, if not all, of the following skills:

1. Baby Steps – break down the events you are faced with into small, manageable tasks. And then do them, one little baby step at a time. Break them down to steps as small as you need them to be. Don’t be afraid to break them down into smaller steps if the first break down isn’t small enough. It’s easier to cope with a disaster or emergency or stressful event if you don’t have to face the whole thing all at once. Just deal with parts of it and before you know it, you’ve taken care of all of it.

2. Get a Motto – In a long and trying survival situation, most people need a motto. It can be as simple as “Survive” – a short form of saying to yourself – concentrate on survival, get through this moment and survive now, and then do it again for the next minute, one minute at a time. Ask yourself what one thing would keep you focused on getting home alive – your cat, your spouse, your job, your child, yourself… Make that your motto. Do this before you’re facing a crisis or survival situation. Whenever you face any difficulties, repeat it to yourself until it’s a habit. Remind yourself regularly about your motto – carve it into a sign, embroider it on a pillow, paint it, make it a part of your life so when you need it, it will be there for you. Mine is “suffer and survive.”

3. Believe it is so – Denial is almost universal, even among individuals with excellent training. Police, firefighters, EMTs, doctors, all receive extensive training for impossible situations and disasters and yet they, too, are subject to denial when something happens that they don’t expect. They get over it faster, but there’s still that moment when they’re going, “Huh?” Every one of us can experience denial – one of the most common ones is denying a fire alarm. Part of it is that we’re so acclimated to hearing it when it means just a drill and part of it is that moment of denial – that “Huh? Wha-?” moment. It’s a common phenomenon among lost hikers, who will continue to press on long after they know they’re lost because surely the road will be over that next hill, right? Believe what you see and act on it. Learn to recognize that your tendency is to see things not as they are but how you wish them to be and you’ll be better able to respond quicker in a crisis and to survive.

4. Accept Responsibility – Some people feel they have some control over the outcome of the good and the bad things that happen to them; they have an internal locus of control. Others believe that things are done to them by others or by outside forces, or happen to them randomly and they have little or no control over the outcomes; they have an external locus. Now, few people are completely one or the other. Most people combine the two – they have control over this but not that. Research and observation show that the people who have a stronger internal locus are less likely to find everyday activities stressful. They rarely complain, whine, or blame others and they take both compliments and criticism in stride. Some people carry their internal locus to an extreme and are overconfident (like the Rambo personality), and like the extreme external locus people (the perpetual victim), either extreme will get you killed in a survival situation. We need to learn to react to every day events with reasonable confidence. It is something that is both easily learned and easy to practice once learned. Make it a habit to take responsibility for how things happen in your life because how to behave everyday will help you predict how you will behave in a crisis.

5. Seek Growth – People with a “growth mindset”—those who think positively and who are not afraid to make or admit mistakes and carry on —are able to learn and adjust faster and more easily to overcome obstacles. It’s the ability to move on – not forget what happened, but to integrate it and reach out to life around them and to keep on living as if living mattered.

6. Patterning – Accidents are bound to happen. Even if you are aware of the patterns and do your best to avoid them, you may get caught up in someone else’s obliviousness. Take driving, for example. If you’re aware of the traffic patterns you can respond almost before you need to, slowing down or speeding up, and you’re aware of the bad drivers who could cause snarls and accidents and avoid the worst of it. If you know the terrain beyond the road you’re driving on, you also have exit options if traffic backs up. Or think of your retirement – if you invest heavily in stocks, your retirement fund depends on how well they do. A lot of people lost a large amount of their retirement because they weren’t paying attention to the financial patterns. Be aware of the patterns that build. There are points where you can change those patterns on a small or large scale to your survival benefit. Being aware of such patterns and systems and analyzing the forces involved can often reveal that we’re doing something much riskier than it seems – or much wiser.

7. Value – The more you feel you’ve sacrificed for something or the more you think you have invested in it, the less likely you are to change in the face of overwhelming evidence that it’s no longer worth it. Some things, it’s easy to give up – you’re renting a car to take a scenic drive, wearing your cool city clothes because it was warm when you left. Your survival gear is in your car, not this rental. As you wind up the mountains on unfamiliar streets, a cold front blasts through and it starts icing up. Do you push on for more pretty vistas, trusting strange car and strange roads, or do you return to familiar ground and warmth? Most people would turn back because they have so little invested in the venture. But what if it were something else? Could you evaluate it and make the right decision, cutting your losses and giving up your investment in it if things tanked? Would you hang on to “see it through” or would you abandon it and come back later? When you face a hazard, ask yourself: Is the final payoff worth the sacrifice and effort and risk I am now facing?

8. Challenge yourself regularly – If you’re stuck in a rut, you’ll be less able to survive because you aren’t flexible enough to cope with change and learning new things. If you learn new things or do old things in new ways. Living in a low-risk environment dulls you. When a survival situation comes up, you may be too slow to adapt to it. In survival, slowness can be fatal. Learn something new every month – chess or backgammon or gardening or skiing or tae kwon do or financial investing. Do crosswords or Sudoku. Take a new route home. Shop someplace new. By doing new things, you keep yourself flexible.

9. Plan B – always have a back-up or bail-out plan in place. Have several. Have them for everything – dinner plans, mountain climbing, road-tripping, fires, lay-offs, drought, The End Of The World As We Know It. Some obviously don’t have to be as well-thought out as others, while others need to be plotted in great detail well in advance. But have them. If the park where you planned a picnic is suddenly charging $10 per person to sit on the ground and eat food you brought, what will you do instead? If you know somewhere else you can go, you’ve got your Plan B and you’ve saved the picnic. It’s not “survival”, but the skill you use is certainly applicable to survival. By always having a Plan B, you will be accustomed to thinking of alternatives and flexible enough to follow through even when you are under stress – and that’s where you win.

10. Trust the Force – er – your instincts – We Americans were brought up mostly in a society that values reason and logic, and dismisses gut instincts and intuition. Truth is, these “instincts” aren’t really instincts, but a synergistic composite of data we collected, often unknowingly, composed of non-verbal communication, half-heard information, half-forgotten facts, and unconscious observation of our surroundings. If we not only pay attention to these bits and pieces but learned how to recognize them, we’ll have a much better survival chance. Hone your observation skills and memory and it won’t be “instincts” anymore, but our preferred reason and logic.

11. Chill Out – The aggressive Rambo types are usually the first to die in a survival situation. They get all hyped up and gung-ho and charge off to “git ‘er done” and are done in, instead. True survivors have a relaxed awareness and take time to evaluate the situation before formulating several possible plans. They almost immediately start figuring out the new reality, map out the new rules, and evaluate what to do now. They don’t get hysterical because they’ve already prepared themselves and now it’s just a matter of choosing which will be the most effective, no reason to get all hot and bothered. So remember your skills and preparations and chill. Your survival changes will improve.

12. Offer Help – If you reach out to help others, you transform yourself from victim to survivor. People who have tasks and responsibilities to do during a disaster have a higher survival rate than those who don’t. If you don’t have an assigned task, helping others, even in small ways, increases your survival chances. Just offering a stabilizing shoulder can be enough. Give yourself some small responsibility if there’s no one to help. That responsibility can help you survive in the face in amazingly bad odds.

13. Embrace Mortality – We are all going to die. That’s a given. Once you accept that fact, you are freer to act. If you are terrified of imminent death, you are much more vulnerable and will miss many opportunities for survival that would be obvious to you otherwise. That core part of you that wants to live will not be blocked by your fears. You’ll be able to do what has to be done. And when it’s all done and cleaned up, you can move on to #14:

14. Celebrate the Clean-Up – Most people celebrate too early and then are faced with the hardest part of survival. They celebrate having survived the flood only to give in when they are faced with the mold and mud and guck and rebuilding and restoration they now face. Wait to celebrate until the shine is back. Then celebrate big and hearty.

 

Surviving Dog Attacks

Puppy Hugs

Originally uploaded by nodigio

Friendly Dog with Owner:
1. Always ask the owner for permission to pet the dog.
2. Obey the owner’s answer.
a. No means No – don’t pet the dog or talk to it.
b. Yes means approach cautiously.
3. Hold out the back of your hand for the dog to sniff.
4. If the dog permits it, stroke the dog on the chest or shoulder or under the chin.
5. Never pet a strange dog on the top of the head.
6. Never try to pet a dog who’s sleeping, eating, behind a fence, or in a vehicle.
7. Never run up to a dog and try to pet it, especially from behind or above.
8. Never crowd a dog or make it feel cornered.
9. Teach these to your children early and often.

Stray dog that still has an owner but hasn’t gone feral:
1. Look to see if the dog has a collar and tags.
2. If the dog approaches you, stop and stand still, arms down by your sides.
3. Do not make eye contact.
4. If it sniffs you and seems friendly, you can command it to sit.
5. If it does, you can check its collar ad return it to its owner.
6. If it doesn’t, wait until the dog loses interest and leaves or
7. Start backing slowly away from the dog, hands down, head turned away from the dog.
8. If the dog appears aggressive, blink slowly and yawn.
9. Call for help once you are far enough away from the dog that it isn’t likely to jump on you or chase you.

Injured Dog
1. Assess the situation and respond accordingly
2. If the dog is in the middle of the street, check traffic before and see if you can direct traffic around the injured dog.
3. Call the local animal control officer, animal shelter, a veterinarian, or the police to take care of it.
4. If this is a remote location with no professional help to call, you have three choices:
a. Walk away
b. Contact a ranger or a local resident and walk away
c. Get the dog to help yourself
5. If you choose to help the dog, you will need to have a muzzle, heavy plastic sheets with you, thick gloves, and a thick jacket to avoid bites and being contaminated with toxic substances or blood and to protect you from being bitten.
6. Muzzle the dog first to prevent being bitten.
7. Wrap the dog in heavy plastic.
8. If you’re taking the dog in the car, I hope you have a crate large enough for it, or you could put it in the trunk or back of a pick up.
9. Get it to someone who can help it – a vet, usually.

Dog Attack, Single Dog:
1. If you are attacked by a single dog, your chances of survival are much higher than being attacked by a pack of dogs.
2. Slow down and stop, stand still, hands by your side.
3. Avoid eye contact.
4. Blink slowly and yawn.
5. Start backing or sidling slowly away.
6. Put a barricade between you and the dog – a fence or a door, or get in a closed car with the windows rolled up, or climb a tree if you are physically able.
7. If the dog bites you:
a. Try not to scream, this may provoke the dog into biting more and harder
b. Try not to jerk away, this triggers a chase mode in the dog, who will attack harder
c. Try to stay as still as possible, movement could trigger another attack
d. If you have a cell phone, slowly take it out and call for help
e. If the dog has backed off because you aren’t screaming or moving, try slowly backing away
8. Call for help as soon as you can.

Dog Attack, Pack:
1. Avoidance is your best survival strategy:
a. Don’t jog, walk, or run alone at down, dusk, or in the dark.
b. Don’t go down alleyways or places where trash is stored.
c. Don’t go out alone if you know there’s a pack of feral dogs around.
2. Avoid prey behaviors if you must go out:
a. Don’t go out alone.
b. Appear bigger than you are, particularly if you are small – wear a tall hat.
c. Avoid running if you see a pack of dogs running loose. Slow down and stop until they are past or have lost interest in you.
d. Avoid jerky motions, especially ones that look as if they are pulling away from the dogs or taking something away from them
e. Avoid screaming or talking in a high-pitched voice – prey squeals and this excites dogs.
f. Avoid loud noises like shouting – this can frighten dogs and some frightened dogs attack what they fear.
g. Don’t turn your back – dogs perceive this as running away and will chase and attack you.
h. Don’t show fear – blink slowly and yawn, dogs see this as a calming signal, speak softly in a monotone
3. Avoid aggressive behavior:
a. Avoid direct eye contact – this is a dog challenge.
b. Avoid raising your arms – this is perceived as the start of an attack.
c. Don’t move towards the dogs, especially not the alpha dog leading the attack.
d. Don’t make shooing motions towards them, again, this is seen as attacking.
e. Don’t throw things at them to scare them away – it may work for wild dogs, but for abandoned pet dogs gone feral, this is seen as an aggressive move and they’ll attack.
f. Don’t get between a pack and any food, they see this as a threat to them and their hungry tummies.
g. Avoid entering their territory if you can.
4. If you are attacked and bitten:
a. Don’t scream. No matter how bad it hurts, a scream is a prey behavior that will excite the dogs and make them more aggressive.
b. Don’t move fast, especially don’t jerk away. It’s prey behavior and they will attack more vigorously.
c. Keep calm and back slowly away to safety – behind a fence, inside a car or building, up a tree.
d. Do not look directly at any of the dogs, especially not the alpha. Turn your head away and sidle away from the dogs slowly.
e. Every instinct tells you to run. Don’t.
5. Report feral packs as soon as possible.

Feral Packs of Former Fighting Dogs:
1. Avoidance is your only survival strategy. These dogs are trained to attack and fight and to be aggressive.
2. If you can’t avoid them and are attacked, I hope you’re wearing thick, heavy clothes – heavier than biker leathers.
3. The tricks that work with pet dogs gone feral and wild dogs won’t work with fighting dogs as effectively, but try them anyway. You may get lucky.

How to recognize feral pet dogs and feral fighting dogs:
1. Feral pet dogs:
i. These dogs approach with a shy, hopeful demeanor.
ii. They often obey dog commands like “sit”.
iii. They will be dirty, thin, and may have a torn ear or mange.
iv. They will watch you for your lead.
v. They may ask for pets by rolling over or turning a shoulder to you.
2. Feral fighting dogs:
i. These dogs will have lots of scars and battered ears and often have bobbed tails.
ii. They will not obey any commands because you are not their handler.
iii. They will be cleaner than a feral pet dog, thin but muscular, and aggressive.
iv. Most often, there will only be one or two feral fighting dogs in a pack, they will be the alpha and beta dogs.
v. They will exhibit aggression immediately and often.
vi. They have never been pets, so they won’t trust people, only their handler – and you’re not him.
3. Bait Dogs:
i. These dogs were used as bait to train other dogs to fight. They will be frightened and aggressive
ii. They will have missing limbs, ears, tails, eyes, broken teeth.
iii. They will have wire and bite scars.
iv. They will be dirty, mangy, thin, and very protective of food and territory.
v. They have not only never been pets, they have been severely abused by people and other dogs.
vi. They will be aggressive towards larger dogs and any dog not in their pack.

If the dog is snarling with teeth exposed and hair standing up along its spine, if it’s staring intensely, if it lunges towards you with snapping teeth, this is an aggressive dog. Avoid it if you can.

If the dog is growling, the tail is tucked between its legs and the ears are either straight forward or laid back, you may be able to soothe it and escape without injury. Proceed with extreme caution.

If you are in a car and see a pack of dogs attacking someone, don’t get out of the car. If you have a cell phone, call for back-up – the police are a good choice, the fire department or animal control will also do. In the meantime, don’t hesitate to run over any dogs that get far enough away for the person being attacked. Honk the car’s horn, this may startle them enough to break off the attack. Drive as close to the person as you can get and open the door for them to get in. If they are unconscious and there’s someone in the car with you, have them haul the person in. If you’re alone in the car, keep the engine idling and rev it if any dogs come close. Honk the horn if they don’t back off. Run over or hit any dog that gets too close. These are vicious strays, they’ve just attacked a person. Show them no mercy. Let the ones who run away go. Alert the neighbors and authorities about the vicious attacks dogs. If emergency services are on their way, wait for them. If you lack a cell phone and no emergency services people are coming, drive the victim to the nearest hospital. The second person in the car can bind bleeding wounds to slow the bleeding, or you can take a bit of time to pull over once you are away from the dogs to assess the victim’s condition and bind the bites and tears, then go to the hospital.

Report the stray dogs and dog packs as soon as possible.

 

Testing Strange Plants and Creatures for Edibility

Sometimes, in survival situations, you have breathable air, potable water, adequate shelter, and apparently no food.

I say “apparently” because as long as there are plants growing around, with insects and animals living among them, you have food. It’s just not recognizable to you as such especially if you are accustomed to hunting your food in the supermarket aisles. Take the time before a survival situation pops up to familiarize yourself with some of the local wild plants.

You could include a wild-crafter in your survival group as a short-cut to learning this yourself.

The problem with relying on an experienced wild foods expert with you who can show you what’s edible and how to prepare it is that person may not make it or be with you, so you will have to either learn how to find out what’s edible or starve. It will take a long time to starve – a month or more, plenty of time to find enough to survive on until you build up a knowledge base of edibles.

I recommend testing for edibility long before you get weak and desperate from hunger.

The process is time-consuming, and I highly recommend keeping notes on your findings, along with drawings and pressings of the various plant parts.

Here’s the process, taken partially from the US Army Survival Manual and partially from personal experience:

1. Water fast for 8 hours before testing. This means drinking only purified water and eating absolutely nothing, not even chewing on a grass stem or even a piece of plastic.

2. During that 8 hours, collect several samples of one plant and separate it into its component parts: roots, tubers/rhizomes (if any), stems, leaves, buds, seeds, fruits, blossoms, rinds, piths, pulp.

3. Test only 1 part of a potential food plant at a time.

4. Smell the part you’ve chosen to start with for strong, foul, or acid odors. Smell alone does not indicate edibility. And some foul-smelling foods are edible after all – the durian fruit springs to mind.

5. Test for contact poisons and allergy reactions by taping the part to the inside of your elbow or your wrist and leaving it there for 15 minutes.

6. Select a small portion of that part of the plant and prepare it the way you plan to eat it – boiled, steamed, baked, fried, roasted…

7. Before actually putting any of it in your mouth, touch a pinch of it to the outer part of your lip and leave it there 3 minutes. If there is no burning or itching, proceed.

8. Place a prepared pinch of the plant on your tongue and leave it there 15 minutes. Do not swallow. Spit any build-up of saliva out without spitting out the plant material.

9. If there are no adverse effects after 15 minutes, spit out the pinch and chew a fresh pinch thoroughly without swallowing. Hold the chewed plant material in your mouth 15 minutes. Do not swallow. Spit out any build-up of saliva without spitting out the plant material.

10. If there are no adverse effects – no burning, itching, tingling, swelling, numbing, or other evidence of irritation – after waiting 15 minutes, swallow it.

11. Wait 8 hours. If any ill effects arise during this time, induce vomiting and drink lots of water.

12. Do not assume that if one part is inedible that all other parts are. Wait 8 more hours of purified water fasting before testing another part of the plant.

13. If there were no ill effects, prepare another small portion of the exact same part of the plant in the exact same way and eat 1/2 cup of it.

14. Wait 8 hours. If no ill effects manifest, you may assume that part of the plant prepared in that way is edible.

15. Repeat each of the previous steps for each different part of the plant and for each different type of preparation for each part. Time-consuming, but better safe and hungry than dead. If you are very hungry, go ahead and eat some of the safe plant part you found, but fast 8 hours before starting any new testing.

16. Never presume a part that is edible cooked will also be edible raw.

17. Never presume all parts of a plant are edible if one part proves to be edible.

18. Keep detailed notes!

Discovering which insects, animals, fish, eggs, birds, reptiles, and amphibians are edible and how is a slightly different process, but the basic structure is the same: fasting, testing only one part prepared one way at a time, waiting, waiting, and waiting.

On animals, though, you are on firmer ground. We eat so many animals that most will already be known to you: cows, deer, raccoons, possums, squirrel, pigeon, bats, rats, mice, bears, horse, cats, dogs, frogs, snails, slugs, worms, fish eggs, alligator and crocodile, doves, grasshoppers, crickets, ants, flies, butterflies, moths, bees, and cockroaches. We may not like the thought of eating some of them, but they are edible. There are some species of snakes, frogs, beetles, spiders, and jellyfish that are also edible. There are also parts of animals we, in our affluent society, don’t normally eat that are not only edible, but nutritious: feet, ears, noses, tongues, hearts, livers, gizzards, lungs, gums, glands, genitalia, brains, and even eyes.

If you’re hungry enough and in a survival situation, you may not be as picky as you are now,comfortably ensconced before a computer. Keep these parts in mind as you hunt for edibles when survival matters.

Consider some of these parts even if you aren’t in a survival situation so you become acclimated to the taste. Make it a habit to eat one strange body part or wild crafted plant a month until you are confident of your ability to find your own food in a survival situation. You can probably start with your front yard or a vacant neighborhood lot. Check out the plants, collect a few for testing,and follow the testing procedures on a weekend. Celebrate by incorporating the new food into a meal on the last day of your weekend (which may not be a Sunday of you’re a shift worker).

Share your edible book with family and friends so they benefit from your knowledge, and encourage them to create their own edibles book.

 

Better Than a Dozen Ways to Save on Groceries

First Harvest

Originally uploaded by nodigio

1. Buy in bulk. It seems rather obvious, doesn’t it? When you buy in bulk, you often pay less per serving than if you bought smaller containers. This is not always true, so compare prices carefully if you choose to buy in bulk. A hidden cost of buying in bulk is the re-packaging of the item into smaller amounts. There’s also a hidden savings in buying in bulk: less disposable packaging means less in the landfill and less energy and pollution in creating the packaging. If you calculate the per serving price and factor in the hidden costs and savings, and it costs less, certainly buy in bulk! If it evens out, go ahead and buy in bulk so you can feel virtuous. If it costs more to buy in bulk – write the company and demand to know why.

2. Shop the sales, but only for items you are really going to use. It makes no sense to buy something on sale that you would never eat or use and never would have bought except that it was on sale. Save yourself money by not buying it at all if you don’t have immediate plans to use it. Check the prices at other stores through their sales fliers and use their frequent shopper cards.

3. Shop with friends – each of you goes to a different store with a pool of grocery money and a list from each of you on what to buy. Communicate via texting or cell phone on what’s on sale the cheapest and purchase for everyone in the group. Bulk buying rocks this way. Gather afterwards to divvy up the groceries and balance accounts with one another. Have a nutritious snack and coordinating session before you each head off to different grocery stores/markets so you don’t shop hungry.

4. Use coupons wisely. Your biggest savings will come from cleaning supplies and toiletries. Only use coupons for those food items you actually will eat. If you don’t eat Count Chocula cereal, don’t buy it just because you have a coupon. Instead of saving 50¢, you could be saving $3.00 by not buying it at all. Consider a coupon swap (maybe with your shopping buddies?) and use the various coupon printing websites such as thecouponclippers.com, thecouponmaster.com, couponmom.com, coupons.com, or smartsource.com (for more, just put “coupon clipping” in your search engine).

5. Buy store brands unless you know a specific brand is better and prefer it. Store brands are often made by name brand food manufacturers under labels for bulk purchasing stores. It’s the same food packaged differently. Store brands are often less expensive because the store pays for the packaging and marketing, not the food manufacturer. There are, however, some brands that are worth the extra, so splurge on them if you can afford it and want to. If you’re needing to save money, the store brands are good enough.

6. Ditch convenience foods. Most of them really aren’t convenient and few of them are healthy. Buy the ingredients instead and use those ingredients to make a variety of your own “convenience foods” that you make yourself. You can make them up fresh (a salad dressing comes together in just a few shakes) , make them in advance and can or freeze them (home made pesto freezes in ice cube trays wonderfully for pennies). Swap out the individual juice and milk cartons for a thermos and buy your beverages in bulk. Buy yogurt, dried fruit, apple sauce, canned fruits, pudding, and other individually packaged items in bulk and re-package them yourself in re-usable containers. Make your own popsicles, granola, cookies, salad dressings, sauces, and more. Do your own prep work – buy whole chickens and cut them up, buy whole vegetables and fruits and peel and chop them yourself. Buy roasts and cut them into steaks, stew meats, shish kabob cuts, and even grind your own ground meats. Buy bones and make your own soup stocks.

7. Shop the ethnic markets for staples. Chinese and Middle-eastern grocery stores often sell rice for far less than chain grocery stores (including Wal-Mart!). You can get fresh produce at them, too. Bulk herbs and spices are cheaper at ethnic grocery stores. Mexican grocery stores sell beans and rice for less, too as well as juices. Apricot, mango, pear, and strawberry juices can be as little as 18¢ a 12 ounce can.

8. Use less meat. Instead of making meat the star of the meal use it as a side dish or even as a flavoring or condiment in your meal. Add more vegetables or grains to fill the empty spot. Use beans to replace the bulk of the meat protein. A puddle of pasta topped with a chunky vegetable sauce that has shreds of meat in it will be tastier than a serving of spaghetti topped with a couple of meat balls and a drizzle of marinara sauce – and healthier. A bed of rice can soak up the sauce of a meat-flavored veggie “stew”. A quarter pound of meat can feed a family of 4 easily this way. Consider serving 1 or 2 meatless meals a week or a day (for the hardcore carnivores). We eat far too much meat, but there’s no reason to give it up entirely.

9. Doctor up cheap cuts of meat with marinades, brines, and sauces. Slow cook tougher cuts of meat. Drain the fat off cheap ground beef and use it in place of butter when sautéing a mire poix ( a mix of vegetables such as onions, peppers, and carrots to use in sauces, stews, stocks, or as the base for other dishes – it adds a taste of meat without the need to add meat to the dish) or making a roux or sauce. Bulk up ground beef patties, meatballs, or meatloaf with mashed beans, shredded zucchini, cooked rice, or oats.

10. Consider canned meats for pasta salads, rice salads, casseroles, sandwiches, and soups. Canned clams are as tasty as fresh in a clam chowder. Canned chicken, tuna, and salmon do well in other dishes. If fresh meat gets too pricey, a single can of meat can feed up to 8 people in a soup or casserole, and it’s often cheaper than fresh cut meats.

11. Use frozen fruits and vegetables. Frozen is often less expensive than canned and just as tasty as fresh. On the plus side, you can measure out how much you will use and return the rest to the freezer instead of opening an entire can of vegetables for a quarter cups’ worth. You can mix and match vegetables in casseroles, soups, and salads in ways canned vegetables would never let you. Ditto for frozen fruits – you can use them for smoothies, slushies, cake and yogurt toppings, or to puree into sauces or as the base for a cold summer soup.

12. Eat more soups – home made, not store-bought cans. Soup fills you up better than the individual components served separately. Soups keep you full and satisfied longer so you eat less. If you judiciously use a small amount of meat to add body and flavor to the vegetables, you’ll save money and eat well. Soups come in an astonishing variety both hot and cold. You could eat soup every day and not sample every kind there is.

13. Reinvent leftovers. You don’t have to merely reheat last night’s dinner. You can use it to create an entirely new dish. We all know about using left-over boiled or steamed potatoes as mashed potatoes, but you can also make those left over potatoes into potato pancakes served with applesauce, or slice and layer the potatoes with a cheese sauce and top with crushed potato chips and crumbled bacon, or turn them into a creamy potato soup, or tossing them in a vinaigrette for a salad. Left over sauces can be added to soups to boost the flavor and give them depth and complexity. Steamed vegetable medley takes on new life as a stir fry, then as soup, then as a pot pie or a quiche. Each time you use up left-overs, add some new ingredients to refresh it. A pie crust does amazing things to make left-overs seem completely different and fresh.

14. Avoid “eatertainment” – don’t make eating out your night’s entertainment. Plan other activities and eat at home or bring the meal with you. There are times when food is an important part of an event – family re-unions, rites-of-passage celebrations, religious rituals or ceremonies – all the rest of the time, it’s a side-liner in entertainment. When you plan a night out, have it be something other than a meal – consider a movie, a performance, a sporting event (where you’re a player), a gaming event, a crafts night, a class, or something that focuses on doing instead of eating. Let the food be in a supporting role and not the main event.

15. Grow your own. Food you grow yourself is often tastier. It’s not always cheaper. That depends entirely upon what you grow. If you can get it inexpensively at the farmer’s market or an ethnic market, don’t spend your time, money, and effort growing it at home. There are a few exceptions to this: cut-and-come again lettuces, leaf lettuces, radishes, and cherry tomatoes are exceptionally easy to grow and the cost parses out about the same as what you’d spend at the store. What makes these worth growing is the convenience of having them right there, growing indoors under a grow-light year round, or on your patio, or in a door-side garden so you can harvest them at need. A bit of water, some fertilizer or compost, and a re-seeding every 2 weeks will keep you in a steady supply of salad. Otherwise, grow things you consider luxuries: strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, herbs, heirloom vegetable varieties you love, and varieties not available locally – if you love German butter potatoes but can never find them in the market, they’re easy enough to grow.

16. Shop less often. Don’t go to the store just to pick up one item, and don’t add things to pick up to justify going. Have a set shopping day and only shop on that day. If you’re short an ingredient, eat something else and add that ingredient to your shopping list for next time. If it’s for a party, ask a guest (who already has it or will be passing the market) to bring it. Return the favor when you visit. Before leaving to a party, call the host/ess and ask if they’re short anything or if you can bring anything or pick something up along the way.

17. Brown bag it. Bring your own breakfasts, lunches, and/or dinners to work (depending on your shift). Don’t always use left-overs for your “brown-bags” and make them fun. Take a hint from the Japanese and play with your food. Add interesting containers, shape or cut your food decoratively, use “grass” –ornamental and useful plastic dividers in your containers to pack in several dishes together. Use the scrapbooking punches to punch interesting shapes from nori, cheese (well chilled and firm!), peppers, and carrot slices to decorate your food. Keep a box of containers, scrapbooking punches, cutting tools, tiny sauce bottles, decorative “grass” and food picks, food dyes, and food molds so you can transform new ingredients and left-overs into enticing take-away meals.

18. Plan. Spend a couple of hours while watching a DVD to plan out your meals for a month. Make a list of ingredients you’ll need and when you’ll need them (this is critical for fresh ingredients). Compare that list to what you already have on hand. Use it to replace depleted food stocks and to buy what you’ll need for your meals. Shop for non-perishable items once a month, or things you can freeze or can. Perishables can be purchased weekly, and if you plan your meals right, you may only need to food shop twice a month – saving you lots of time and money on food. As part of the planning, consider the “once a month cooking” method, where you spend one day a month cooking a variety of your monthly meals and freezing them to reheat later. A stash of these can be very useful for busy nights, when you’re sick, or when you have unexpected guests.

 

Surviving Lightning

Storm Clouds

Originally uploaded by nodigio

Facts first. This is what you are up against when you encounter lightning. I know the statistics say 1 in 700,000 people gets hit by lightning. About 400 people a year get hit. Some of those people have been hit more than once. If you’re one of the ones who gets hit, it doesn’t matter what the general odds are. For you, it’s just become a 1 in 1 chance of being hit.

Lightning is the electrical discharge between the positive and negative regions of a cloud formation or between clouds and ground.

On average, each flash of lightning carries 300 million volts, with currents ranging up to 20,000 amps. That’s just average range. Lightning can reach more than a billion volts and exceed 200,000 amps. It can reach temperatures as high as 54,000ºF. Water boils at a mere 212ºF and that’s plenty hot enough to cause serious burns.

There are about 25 million cloud-to-ground lightning strikes in the US each year, but it’s not evenly spread out. Florida has the most lightning strikes and Washington State the least. Even people in Washington state can be struck by lightning because all it takes is one flash and one person in the right place and the right time.

There are things you can do to reduce your chances of being hit by lightning. There are things you do that can increase your chance of being hit by lightning – you need to stop doing those. And if you or someone near you gets hit by lightning, there are things you can do to survive or help the other person survive. If you are in the process of being struck by lightning, there’s not a lot you can do except wait it out – it’s fast, so you won’t have to wait long. Surviving lightning is a matter of prevention and after care.

If lightning is visible, it can strike you, so take precautions even if it’s not raining. You can be hit by lightning before and after the rain passes by. All you need to be struck by lightning is to have lightning happen when you are in a place where it can strike you. That’s pretty much anywhere outdoors and a few places indoors.

So, prevention first.

Things to do when lightning is visible:

Get indoors. The only safe place from lightning is inside a sturdy shelter, away from anything the lightning can reach through, like windows, doors, wiring, and plumbing.

Get under thick cover if you can’t get indoors – a large wooden pavilion, a cave, a deep overhang. Make sure it’s dry where you’re standing. A nearby lightning strike can travel through water to shock you. As powerful as lightning is, this may be enough to kill you.

Stay away from edges, doors, windows, water, plumbing, ungrounded appliances, and electrical cords or lines. I know a man who was struck twice by lightning while on the toilet. He holds it now, no matter how badly he must go. He bought into the whole “lightning only strikes once” myth until he got hit the second time. He says he’s not a fool; he won’t get hit a third time.

If you can’t get indoors, get into a car with the windows rolled up and the vents closed. The tires don’t offer protection; the metal in the car conducts the current along the outside of it, away from the interior so long as the windows are rolled up and there are no drafts.

If you can’t get to good shelter or a car, run. Discard the umbrella, which makes you taller and thus could make you a target, and run. Movement may be the safest thing you can do in a lightning storm if you have no shelter.

Parents, make sure your child’s coach has a plan for lightning. If you’re at the meet or game with your child, insist on a time out and pull your child out of the game, field, or pool as soon as lightning is visible or at the hint of a thunderstorm.

Most outdoor fairs and festivals now have lightning plans. If volunteers and staff at the fairs start telling you the fair or festival is over or they start herding you to buildings, believe them and get to someplace safe. The building they are directing you to, a car, a bus, or someplace substantial has already been pre-determined to help save your life. Listen to them.

Things to not do:

Don’t lie flat on the ground. Ground-running lightning just gets a bigger and better target. There is no safe place or position in the open during lightning.

Don’t do the “lightning crouch” – squat balanced on the balls of your feet, ears covered, head down. You’re still a target for lightning if you are outdoors. If you stay in one place, you make yourself a better target.

Don’t stand under a tree. Trees get struck by lightning all the time, and if your tree gets struck, so will you. Secondary and associative lightning strikes are just as dangerous as primary ones.

Don’t stay outside at all if lightning is visible. If you’re outdoors, you’re a target for lightning. This includes sports games, swimming, playing in the playground or park, picnics, family reunions, or any other outdoor activity. Several golf players have been struck by lightning because they believed the myths about it – doing the “lightning crouch”, wanting to finish the hole they were on, sheltering under a tree. If there’s lightning visible, don’t be complacent about it. Lightning can strike without rain.

Things not to worry about:

Wearing metal. Metal will not attract lightning. It will make things worse if you get struck because metal will heat up quickly and burn you – remember lightning can reach up to 54,000ºF of heat; water boils at a mere 212ºF, but it will not make you a more likely target.

Touching people struck by lightning. Unless they are lying on a live electric cable, it’s perfectly safe to touch people after they’ve been struck by lightning. The human body is an excellent conductor of electricity, but it doesn’t store it at all. By the time the lightning strike is over, all the electricity is already out of their body. They are often in need of urgent medical care to restart their breathing or heart or to treat burns and should be tended immediately. Even if they weren’t visibly wounded, they will be in shock. They will need to be escorted or carried quickly to safety so you and they aren’t struck again. Touch them, reassure them, and help them. You won’t be hurt by helping them unless you stay out in the open.

Afterwards:

If you are hit by lightning, there’s not a lot you can do during the strike to minimize the effects. You’ll just have to endure it and hope you live through it. Only 10% of the people struck by lightning die from it, so your chances of surviving are pretty good. If you are among the 90% who live, and you’re conscious and mobile at all, seek shelter. You certainly don’t want to be hit again. If you were indoors when you were hit, move away from plumbing, cords, ungrounded appliances, doors and windows. If you’re breathing, you should recover.

Seek medical help as soon as possible. Lightning can damage lots of different parts of you. It can leave little black spots on your brain where it fried bits, and you can lose some functionality as a result of the brain damage. It can sear nerve channels, leaving you with chronic pain.

If you’re not conscious or breathing, you’ll have to rely on others to help you. If it’s a companion who was struck by lightning and is unconscious or not breathing, this is what you do:

If you have a cell phone, call 911.

If you’re in the open, get to shelter. Drive your car to the injured person and get them inside. Roll up the windows and shut the vents.

If they’re breathing, get them to medical care as soon as possible or wait for help to arrive.

If they’re not breathing and/or their heart’s not beating – you took CPR classes, right? Then get to it. Keep it up until either they start breathing on their own or help arrives.

Many lightning victims suffer serious burns from the strike. They may have broken bones. Once they are breathing and their heart started again, you can worry about these things. Get them to professional medical care as soon as possible.

If you’ve been struck by lightning, you may face a long road to recovery. Perhaps you were only “splashed” by a near-by lightning strike and suffered shock. A complete recovery is possible. Or you could be facing months of burn treatments, paralysis, nerve damage, eye damage, hearing loss, brain injury, memory lapses, concentration lapses, chronic pain, hypersensitivity, or impaired thinking – or any combination of these.

Your best bet is to avoid being struck by lightning. The odds are with you on this, and you can increase those odds by taking precautions. Don’t get cocky and think you can harvest one more row of beans or throw one more cast or score one more goal. If you see lightning and you can’t count all the way to 30 before you hear it, seek shelter. Better yet, if you see lightning, seek shelter anyway. Lightning can strike 10 miles or more away from its point of origin. Heat lightning is as dangerous as rain-accompanied lightning.

And if you can’t get to shelter, keep moving and hope lightning misses you.

 

Stewed Tomato on the Vine

Stewed Whopper Tomato

Originally uploaded by nodigio

The heat here has been nearly unbearable.For nigh onto 2 weeks, the temperatures have exceeded 105 degrees, with more than a few days hitting above 110. Hot.

I put up burlap shade screens over the tomatoes and placed circulating tubes of cold water at their bases to cool things a bit. I pruned them, mulched heavily, and on those days when we had no wind (!), I ran a fan for them.

They still scalded, and many of the tomatoes stewed on the vines. Here’s a picture of a stewed green tomato. On other such tomatoes, touching them causes the skin to slip off as if I’d blanched them, and the tomato inside is soft and tender. I photographed this one before picking it.

I’ve been busy harvesting and putting up this crop of tomatoes. The plants are dying from the heat – the small cold front came too late for them. That’s OK – I’ve gotten plenty of salad tomatoes, green tomato pie filling, red and green tomato sauces, and canned tomatoes enough to last half a year.

Next month, I’ll start my fall crop of tomatoes. They do better here in fall and early winter anyway. With row covers and mulch and care, I can harvest tomatoes until February. If we don’t get an ice storm this year, I can probably keep these tomatoes growing and producing until next summer’s heat wave hits again.

My potatoes are doing well. Some of the foliage burned in the heat (we don’t usually get blight here – far too hot!), but since it’s nearly time for the potatoes to bloom and die, this isn’t a disaster. I’ll get a full crop of taters.

The herbs are bolting from the heat. That’s normal I’ve harvested enough herbs to last me all year and plenty of surplus to sell. Now, I’ll get seeds to sell and plant next year.

The rest of the garden looks as if it will recover from the heat. In fact, my strawberries are producing new blooms and the blueberries are ripening now. The peas and beans were already harvested before the heat hit. The peppers were a victim of heat bolt, so I’ll have to rely on fall crops. They don’t winter well at all.

Everything else is staggered planting and this last planting struggled with the heat. They’ll produce smaller crops, but the next planting should be up to speed.

If you suffer from excess heat, there area few things you can do to help your plants. Shade tents to shelter them from the hottest sun of the day while giving them plenty of morning and cooler evening sun can help,as can mulching, morning deep watering (before sunrise so the foliage is dry before the sun uses the moisture to magnify its heat and burn the plants), fans to circulate air around them, and pruning so there’s less interior foliage all help.

If you are handy that way – build some tubes that circulate cool water just under the soil surface to keep the roots cool. A pool pump does a good job of keeping the water circulating. It works like the floor hypocausts,except instead of forcing hot water through the tubes, we cool things with circulating cold water.

Hopefully, you get a decent harvest before the heat hits and plan out a fall garden for another harvest.

 

Surviving Potato Blight

Potatoes

Originally uploaded by nodigio

Something a lot of home-growers don’t realize they have to look for is potato blight, the same blight that caused the Irish Potato Famine. There’s a resurgence of the fungus along the eastern side of the US, but as this fungus us airborne and because some sellers of seed potatoes may not know they are selling diseased seed potatoes, it could pop up anywhere.

This blight is officially called Phytophthora infestans. It’s also called late blight, tomato blight, and potato rot. It affects tomatoes and potatoes, but is not transmissible via tomato seeds, only established plants. This fungus is known as an obligate parasite, which means it survives only in a living host. This is important to know.

It flourishes in high humidity, heavy dew, and/or wet weather coupled with moderate to cool temperatures: 50ºF – 80ºF ( around 20ºC or less). This, too, is important to know.

The blight starts as small, irregularly shaped light green to gray lesions on leaf tips. It spreads rapidly to form large black rot spots on the leaves, leaf stems, and the stems themselves. It will kill the plant if left untreated. If you see the early blight, the disease is already 2 – 3 weeks old and may affect neighboring plants, in an area as wide as 100 feet. For home-growers, if immediate action isn’t taken, you can lose your entire crop to the blight. It is carried and spread through tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, eggplant, and hairy nightshade. You’ll need to check all of these.

The fruits of the potato and tomato are also affected. The potato tubers will develop sunken areas that are a darker brown or purple color. If the potatoes are harvested and stored, the affected tubers will have dry, sunken, light brown spots that are not otherwise distinguishable from unaffected potatoes. This is how blighted seed potatoes can still be sold – it’s very hard to tell when the blight only lightly affects the tubers. Badly blighted potatoes will develop purplish flesh and be the consistency of cork and those are easy to spot.

There are ways to reduce and even prevent blight from affecting your home crops. The best way is to ensure your plants are dry or will be dry before sunset. The fungus loves moisture. Plant your potatoes where they will get wind to dry them, use drip irrigation methods or water them only in the mornings on sunny days and not at all on highly humid days. Hill the potatoes high and make sure the soil drains well. If you are growing your potatoes in bags (as I do), make sure you punch drainage holes along the bottom so water doesn’t accumulate to rot the tubers. Set your bags in a sunny, windy location so prevailing winds will dry them during the day. If you need, to, use fans to help move air around them to dry the leaves by sunset.

Tomatoes planted in high tunnels with drip irrigation are less affected by blight. Ventilation in greenhouses is important. Good air movement and a reduction of wetness are important – and far easier for home-growers than for large commercial crops. Staking and pruning tomatoes will also reduce susceptibility to blight.

Keeping foliage off the ground helps a lot, so planting in very high hills, domes, and ridges helps a lot.

Keep susceptible plants away from host plants that can carry the blight without being affected (eggplant, peppers, hairy nightshade, volunteer tomatoes and potatoes), in shaded areas under trees or near buildings that cast a shadow over them, or near the cull piles of tomato and potato plants, especially of the culled plants are blighted.

Do not oversupply the tomatoes and potatoes with nitrogen via fertilizers or nitrogen fixing interplantings. Both potatoes and tomatoes need nitrogen, but they don’t need an excess of it.

If a blight starts anyway, action depends on the point during the harvest cycle. Early in the growing season and very early in the blight (when only 1 or 2 plants may show early signs of blight), you can spray with a fungicide or a copper sulfate solution. Pick and destroy affected leaves after the dew has completely dried. You’ll need to spray the copper sulfate solution frequently so new foliage is protected. My potato plants can grow several inches a day, so I’d recommend daily spraying when potatoes are at their fastest growing and no less than weekly once the potato plants appear until 2 weeks before harvest.

If it’s mid-season, and the infestation is just starting, you can try the picking infected leaves after they are completely dry and spraying with fungicide. Copper sulfate won’t work as well at this point.

Late in the season, if it’s near harvest anyway, go ahead and kill back the potato foliage to allow the tubers to ripen. You can do this in several ways: flail the plants, spray out with approved herbicides, or burn the living foliage. Burning is effective for large crops when there is no interplanting, not so good for patio potatoes. Flailing works best for small-croppers and home-growers.

Store diseased potato tubers separately from healthy ones. Potatoes should be stored dry and as cool as possible without freezing to discourage spore growth. Waste potatoes from culls can be fed to animals, buried 2 or more feet deep, composted after freezing, or, if they aren’t badly blighted, peeled, the blighted parts cut off, and eaten by people. Just don’t use blighted potatoes as seed potatoes.

For tomatoes, never cull or harvest when the plants are wet. The fungus sporulates during periods of dampness and can spread on people, tools, clothing, gloves, and other equipment. When you cull blighted fruits or leaves, carry them far from the plants to destroy. Do not eat blighted tomato fruits or store them with healthy tomatoes – the blight can spread during storage. Unblighted tomatoes from a blighted foliage plant can still be eaten, but I’d eat them fresh and not process them for storage.

If you have a serious infestation, sprays of metalaxyl and carbamate compounds or Cymoxanil and Mancozeb combinations or fungicides containing chlorothalonil work weel – not organic, but effective if you have a sudden serious infestation and you are relying on those potatoes and tomatoes to feed you.

Here are some pictures of blight to help you identify it:

http://tinyurl.com/ksftlx – photo of blight

http://www.extension.org/article/18361

Peppers, eggplants, squashes, pumpkins, and melons are also affected by this blight. For peppers, it can attack any part of the pepper plant at any time. The first sign is usually a wilting of the plant just as it reaches fruiting stage. Stem lesions occur at the soil line. Stems discolor, collapse and become woody. Infected fruits develop dark watery patches with white mold on it. Pepper seeds will carry the blight.

For the squash family – the fruit will develop tan or brown banding lesions or circular spots. They may develop white moldy spots, and are susceptible to rotting from other causes faster than the blight.

Treatment is the same as for tomatoes and potatoes.