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EMP
Topic Started: Nov 6 2010, 10:58 PM (1,057 Views)
Raven
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You could try building soil with green manures. Broadcast seed some buckwheat or clover and when it gets growing good, plow it under and plant another seed the same way and over the same ground. If I remember correctly you plant for what the soil is missing, in your case if you can't grow corn, you are probably missing organic/nitrogen rich material. I would try the buckwheat first, maybe two crops of that, then go to field peas or something along that line. Keep this up in between the rows of crops and plow (till) them under when the get a good start. Use manure in between the plantings. Make sure that you manure isn't fresh though, it needs to be aged. If you raise rabbits, their manure doesn't burn and you can use it right from the rabbit to the garden. Till in the manure before planting the next green manure crop. This should slowly build your soil.
The truth is not for all men, but only for those that seek it. Ayn Rand
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Grizzly
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The no tiller thing is exactally what I've been trying to tell my wife. So far I've been plowing and disking with the tractor. A brush hog in the fall to chop everything up. That will all have to stop with raised beds. We do have a highly praised, light weight tiller called a Mantis that really works great if your ground is already loosened up. If you don't already have one I would highly recomend it. Of course the new ones are well over $300. we got a used one for $60. at our local auction house.(second home) Another idea I've been thinking about for raised beds are old power line poles. We have a stack of them that were to be used for a pole shed but with prices of material I don't see that happening.
Our ancestors left Europe to get away from this crap...as seen on a bumpersticker fns
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Mommacat
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I would agree with Grizzly on the raised beds - if you're planning a vegetable garden to feed a family, the most efficient and least labor intense would be a flat garden that you can get into with bigger equipment, and gives you enough space to work between rows and room for vines to sprawl. Raised beds work best for perenniels - herbs, asperagus, rhubarb, etc. - plants that don't like to be distrubed and they will, over time, choke out weeds and grass on their own.

Here are things that I've learned from my own experiences with raised beds. In planning a rasied bed, make it only as wide as you can reach the center from the sides - you don't want to have to be climbing up into the thing! Also, layer the soil to offer optimum drainage and water retention. After you make your walls, fill with several inches of crushed rock or gravel, next add rich black dirt and finish it off with a nice loamy, light top soil. Once the plants are up give the bed a heavy mulch. In place of mulch, I used black landscaping fabric (its seems like quite an expense, but it lasts for years and is a good investment, IMO) and I covered it with wood or bark chips. If you build it right, its really a minimal maintenance style of gardening. However, every few years, you should remove the mulch and work some sort of fertilizer in several inches deep. Once you've replenished the soil, remulch and you're good for a couple more years.

Raven brought up an excellent point in mentioning rabbit droppings as fertilzer - she's correct in saying it won't "burn" plants - you don't have to age it before using it. Which brings up one of those useful little things to know - if you're aging manure for fertilizer, how can you tell when its "old enough"? Its really easy - smell it. If it has any kind of an ammonia smell, its not ready.

I think old power/telephone line poles would be okay to use. I don't know what was used as a preservative on them, but I know it wasn't anything that kills plants - just look at how weeds grow up around them.
Edited by Mommacat, Nov 20 2010, 04:48 PM.
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Raven
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Now that North Korea is rearing it's ugly head, and China is about the only ones that can rein them in without a full blown war (and I am not so sure that war would end with the result that we want) I am reconsidering the priority of a faraday cage for some of our electronically sensitive stuff. Do I think that we will ever need it, the odds are that we will not but then it is just added insurance and peace of mind. One site that was reading about it, said that if you layer bubble wrap and heavy duty aluminum foil over the item, using three layers of each, it should be enough to take care of all but the most direct hit. I have no idea if it will actually work or not but then the only way that I can think of to test it doesn't sound like a viable option. Small items should be fine in a ammo can but they recommended that the items in the can also be wrapped in foil and bubble wrap before they are put in the can. I wish that I could remember the site that I was reading it in, but I get to reading and clicking and then I lose all track of where I am. I realize that Minnesota wouldbn't be a first target BUT you never know. That kid in Oregon picked his location solely with the idea that it would never happen there and they would be least prepared. Thank God that he was wrong!
The truth is not for all men, but only for those that seek it. Ayn Rand
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Mommacat
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Actually, on another site we are members of there was a very good convo thread about EMP and the group posted some links with good information about how to protect equipment. But, even if you can protect your electronics from the initial surge, its widely believed that electricity will not be readily available and it will take a very long time for some rural areas to get it back. So, I suppose batteries, and lots of them, will have to be considered. And, if a person has another power source, wind, solar, water, etc. I don't know how you'd go about protecting its components. Thoughts?
Edited by Mommacat, Nov 29 2010, 09:07 PM.
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Grizzly
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I did talk to some other preppers, this past summer, about EMP. They are very well equiped with solar power units so I asked the guy that installed all them if they could withstand EMP. Sorry to say, he had no idea if the units could hold out. If they don't, he said, they'll be in deep trouble just like everyone else.
Many batteries are a good plan or rechargeables and some way to charge them. Maybe a small solar panel that is put away to protect it. I don't think anyone really knows what to expect or the possible damage that may occur since we've never gone through it.
Our ancestors left Europe to get away from this crap...as seen on a bumpersticker fns
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Bullmoose
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You guys seem to often bounce around from subject to subject within threads. I have no problem with this, I just state it so I don't get yelled at for doing what I am about to do.... Oregon was brought up. I was watching Fox and Friends this morning before work and it got my blood boiling. Here are the Portland facts as I understand them: Portland declined to join an FBI joint task force under the patriot act because A) thet feared it would impose on the peoples civil liberties (very constitutional) and B) because local law enforcement was not going to be in charge of it in their own jurisdiction (again abiding by what the constitution states). So, to show them how wrong they were for their decision, the FBI spoon-fed this teenage boy a plan. Again, not knowing all the facts, it sounds like what this young man did was to dial a number on a phone (supplied by an undercover) which he believed would detonate a van full of explosives (he was told had been parked at the cities Christmas tree lighting ceromony). Fox portrayed this as an extreme close call. I think this was the FBI teaching Portland a lesson for following the Constitution rather that the FBI. I was talking to some guys at work about this (who probably think I'm a nut), and said, it would be like the FBI approaching me undercover, and saying here is a red button. If you push it, the president will die, and then arresting me for pushing the button (IF I did!). Kinda like news of the Hutaree dropping off the map.... FBI...
It does not take a majority to prevail... but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.
Samuel Adams
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Mommacat
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We'd never, ever yell at you for any reason, Bullmoose! You know, I kind of agree with you about the whole bombing attempt being a set up. I don't know enough about it to really have any details, but I do know that some gov't agencies will create "opportunities" with the sole intent of arresting whomever they lure into commiting a crime. I thought we had some entrapment laws on the books, or did those go by the wayside like everything else?
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Grizzly
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Funny thing is I was thinking the same thing about that Oregon bomber but didn't want to say anything. In fact I never believe any of the high profile crime stories we hear on the news any more. Seems like every wild criminal act is too fishy to even believe any more. As for subject change on the same thread, I've noticed it too but oh well, it keeps things interesting.
Our ancestors left Europe to get away from this crap...as seen on a bumpersticker fns
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Mommacat
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Know what you mean 'bout the subject changes. This particular thread started with EMPs, then pony express, windmills, hand pumps, HAM radios, think there were a couple other things in between, then back to EMPs.....So, as some famous person, who's name I can't recall just now, once said, "A wandering mind is a working mind." LOL Must mean all of ours in great working order, huh!?
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