CRICKETS FOR SURVIVAL

Crickets live in shallow tunnels dug beneath stones or dirt or in clumps of plant matter. Males can often be heard calling females for mating at night when they are more active. Most species are found in grasslands and forest, but many others can also be found near seashores, in marches, trees and caves.

TELLING THE TEMPERATURE WITH A CRICKET
A cricket’s chirp can help you determine the temperature. Crickets won’t chirp if it is warmer than a hundred degrees or less than 55 degrees Fahrenheit. Count the number of chirps sounding in a 15 second span of time. To this total, add 40. Your result will be the temperature in Fahrenheit. To determine the temperature in Celsius, count the chirps heard within 25 seconds, divide by three, then add four.

LIVE BAIT
Using crickets as live bait, you can catch fresh fish. Cricket fishing is well suited to shoreline fishing as it is most effective within 15 feet of the banks of small lakes.

Secure your hook to the fishing line and then place the cricket onto the hook. Firmly grasp the cricket between your fingers and thumb while you insert the hook. I’ve found some instructions that recommend inserting the barb behind the cricket’s head, into the thorax, and then pushing the hook along the length of the body, exiting the barb just beneath the tail, at the rear of the abdomen. This is in contrast to experienced fishermen that state the hook should be inserted at the rear, threaded through the body and exit just behind the head, through the thorax. Fish will attempt to suck your bait off of your hook and this method helps prevent loss of the cricket without hooking a fish.

A discarded can will serve well as a fishing reel. Anchor the free end of your fishing line and cast the baited hook into the water. Wrap your line around the can to bring the hook back. Continue to cast and reel in your line until you have a fish.

A SOURCE OF FOOD
Crickets reproduce twenty times faster than cattle raised for food. Over the span of three or four weeks, over 1,000 eggs can be laid by a female. Crickets require a fraction of the space and food needed to raise other forms of meat. These insects are twice as efficient at meat production as pigs or chickens. They can supply meat at a rate that is four times that of sheep and six times that of cattle, after deductions for trimming and dressing.

The meat from crickets provide protein and other nutrients. One hundred grams of cricket meat contains 3% carbohydrate, 6% fat and 21% protein in addition to 21 mgs calcium. For each gram dry weight of cricket meat there is 63 to 122 milligrams of fatty acid (linoleic acid & a0linolenic acid), copper, magnesium and iron. All of this is available for the cost of vegetable table scraps.

HERDING CRICKETS
A series of large trenches would be dug by the Paiute people as a means of catching crickets. Dry straw would be placed over this. Then the crickets would be driven into the trenches. Next, the straw was set ablaze and the crickets were roasted. Bushels of the roasted crickets were then gathered to be ground into flour used to bake protein-rich bread.

FARMING CRICKETS
Raising your own crickets will ensure that you have a ready supply that hasn’t been sprayed with pesticides or chemicals. Put about two inches of soil in the bottom of a large aquarium. Egg cartons can be placed inside to serve as roosts. Provide water by placing wet cotton balls inside. Grated vegetables and scraps of grains should be left inside for food. Take the time to lightly mist the soil every few days. Secure the aquarium with a tight-fitting lid because crickets are escape artists and will try to get away whenever you open the lid.

PREPARING TO EAT
Place in a colander your selection of crickets. Use cheesecloth or wire screening to quickly cover this and keep the insects contained. Run water over the top to rinse them thoroughly. Shake the excess water from the container. Seal the crickets in a container and place this in the freezer for 15 minutes. While this length of time will be enough to kill the crickets, it will not be enough time to freeze them. Take them out of the freezer and rinse the crickets once more. Depending on your personal preference, the legs, wing cases and heads can be removed. The legs can be painful to swallow and will sometimes get stuck in the teeth. Crickets can be consumed raw, but they can also be dehydrated or roasted and incorporated into your recipes.

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TAKE PRECAUTIONS
Be careful when selecting crickets for food. Avoid those found near or in residential areas as these might have been exposed to chemical insecticides or herbicides.

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Below Ray Mears demonstrates using a can as a fishing reel.
It's towards the end of this short video:

SEEDS FOR SURVIVAL

Genesis 1:29
And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

 

Vigorous animal and plant life were created with the ability to generate similar offspring. Gardeners began to collect seeds and hold them in reserve for the next seedtime. Seed was harvested from the healthiest plants.

 

US corporations now exist that specialize in marketing seeds to farmers. The farmer was relieved of the time he used to spend to manually secure seed while the corporations gained a profit. Concerned only with the collection, storage and sale of seeds, these corporations flourished.

 

With new developments in science, it became possible to modify seeds and increase profits. However, the farmers, consumers and food quality did not always benefit from these new methods. Hoping to eliminate other sources, seed corporations set into motion a plan to become the only suppliers of seeds for farmers. Seeds were altered so that the resulting plants produced flawed seeds that either did not germinate, or did so in an unpredictable manner.

 

Today, there are 3 commonly used methods to accomplish this: Terminator Technology, genetically modified (GM) seeds, and hybrid plants.

Because hybrid plants are a cross of differing varieties, their seeds aren't likely to produce a similar plant. Genetically modified seeds (GM seeds) are designed to withstand many chemical applications. These GM plants allow farmers to use stronger chemical treatments that affect the microbes and nutrient content in the soil which, in turn, affects the nutrient content of the crops. Plants grown from seeds that have Terminator Technology will produce seeds which are sterile and cannot produce crops the following season.

 

 

A seed bank is one way that an individual can insure fertile seeds are available in the future. Farmers aren't the only ones that can participate in this project. Find sources for your seeds that state they sell only NON GM seeds. Limit your purchases to unaltered, heirloom seeds. Choose from the foods and ingredients you normally find in your kitchen for cooking and medicinal uses.

Dry your seeds from vegetables, fruits, flowers and herbs at room temperature on stiff paper. Make a notation of the date and the variety of seed on the paper as a reminder. Place the dried seeds into a labeled paper envelope. The envelopes can be kept in a glass jar in the refrigerator for great lengths of time. For most purposes, seeds will store well in a cool, dry, dark place. Seed balls are a good choice for grasses and grains that will be used to plant large areas.

Is there a reason that a person would store seeds that he isn't planning to grow?

 

 

The United States Congress is currently considering a piece of legislation named H.R. 875 which could potentially make it impossible for you to get produce from organic farmers or backyard gardeners. So far it is unknown whether the bill will pass or how it will be enforced. With this in mind, it may be best to store seeds while it is still legal to do so.

While you may not grow them yourself, think about saving a variety of seeds. The botanical name and the common name should both be used on the label; you may have to do a little research. On the internet, people regularly trade seeds through the mail. By trading your surplus seeds, you could secure the seeds you do want in an equal exchange.

If heirloom seed companies shut their doors, the seeds they offer might no longer exist. Current politics and the economy make this an uncomfortably realistic possibility. Having your own source of heirloom seeds may be one way you can insure a steady source of good organic foods, whether you normally grow your own or purchase from the roadside stand.

A bi-monthly publication, No Greater Joy Magazine features articles on simple living and building strong families. Get your free subscription at Mike and Debi Pearl's web site www.nogreaterjoy.org.

 

 

How to Harvest & Dry Seeds -- powered by eHow.com

LIFE BENEATH THE SURFACE

If you ever visit Havre Montanna, you may think that there isn’t much to see other than Norman’s Ranch and Sportswear store. While Norman’s is a fine establishment, there’s much more to Havre than meets the eye. In addition to the railroad museum and other interesting sites, Havre boasts a unique attraction called ‘Beneath the Streets.’ A novelty today for tourists, this feature was once an underground business community. Over 100 years ago, it was a place that ranch-hands and cowboys descended to spend their money gambling, drinking, at the opium den and in the bordello.

 

 

 

 

While Havre may have been one of the first to have this idea, it hasn’t been the last. In Sweetwater, Tennessee an extensive cave system boasts a place called Craighead Caverns. During the 1930s and 40s, the horses at Fort Oglethorpe offered a ready supply of manure which was used to operate a mushroom farm in a spacious section of the cave. Not far from those mushroom beds, a dance floor was built for a nightclub known as the Cavern Tavern.

While uncommon, it isn’t THAT outlandish an idea to imagine that caves could be used to provide shelter. It’s been done before. The difficulty is to imagine that entire communities could not only be housed in caves, but that it would be possible to live there for extended time without returning to the surface for food, clean air or water.

Then again, maybe it isn’t such an outlandish idea.

 

 

As long ago as the 1970s the USSR sponsored research into the nutrient value of several types of algae. Today, that research is the foundation for techniques that are being used to produce some brands of nutritional supplements. In order to have a large area that is climate controlled, some companies utilize underground caves. Additionally, several niche businesses have begun to spring up which produce both fish and vegetables in a self-sustaining system. These methods utilize the filtered water from the fish to provide nutrients to the vegetables which are grown in trays of irrigated pea gravel. Solar energy provides full spectrum growing lights for both the plants and fish, which are fed automatically. And, yes, it is conceivable that these techniques could be used to provide food, clean air and water within a cave environment.

The possibility that human and animal life could be sustained within a cave system isn’t the only surprise.

An imaginative writer from rural Tennessee managed to put all of these pieces together and use it as one of the elements in her new book, The Vision. Debi Pearl and her husband Michael Pearl reside in an area where many of these caves exist. Together, they operate a ministry known as No Greater Joy. Already an accomplished writer of books and magazine articles, this is Debi’s first venture into fiction. Rather than a wild, fanciful flight of imagination, Debi Pearl’s The Vision takes the reader along many dramatic twists and turns – much like the caves of Tennessee – which leave the reader gasping and wondering if this could really happen.

 

 

Debi delivers on her promise to both entertain and inform in The Vision, the first in a series. Order your copy of Debi Pearl’s The Vision today.

 

 

PINING FOR NOURISHMENT

It was winter 1535 . . . Canadian winter. The French expedition, led by Jacques Cartier, had reinforced their fort, stacked firewood and salted and packed the meat they had harvested. For six months, the river was frozen solid. The snow was 4 feet deep.

The men began to succumb to scurvy. Lacking vitamin C, they lay sick and dying. By mid-February, not even ten men were able-bodied enough to help care for the others. Spring was months away. Time was running out. They were dying. In a forest full of vitamin C, they were suffering.

Lacking knowledge some died. A chief’s son, Domagaya, visited the fort and told Cartier about a tea made from the trees surrounding the fort that would cure scurvy. With the help of that tea, 85 Frenchmen survived that winter.

PINE NEEDLES:
Pine needle tea is high in vitamins A and C. The needles, inner bark and sap are the most medicinal and nutrient dense parts of the tree. You would have to eat more than five lemons to consume the amount of vitamin C found in a single cup of pine needle tea.

O Tamiflu: Turning Christmas trees into flu drug -- Needles contain high concentration of key ingredient
By Marsha Walton, CNN 2006
The needles of pine, spruce and fir trees contain a fairly high concentration of shikimic acid, the main ingredient in Tamiflu. Countries all over the world are stockpiling the drug in anticipation of a bird flu pandemic.

~ * ~ WARNING: ~ * ~

PREGNANT WOMEN SHOULD NOT consume this tea! Do not consume if you think you may be pregnant. It has been known to cause the death of an unborn child within 24 hours! This also happens in pregnant cows that have eaten pine needles. They will drop a dead calf within a couple hours or days after consuming pine needles.

HOW TO MAKE PINE NEEDLE TEA

* Select pine needles that are nearest the end of a branch and light green in color. These are the newest (baby) pine needles.

* Finely chop the needles. You will need ¼ to ½ cup (about one handful or 1 ounce).

* Bring 1.5 pints of water to a rolling boil and add the chopped needles.

* Boil for 10 to 15 minutes. The liquid should be reduced by about 1/3.

* Allow this to steep, covered for 20 minutes (or overnight).

* This makes a reddish colored tea with a mild taste. A small amount of oil will rise to the top.

* Store in the refrigerator (or in cool storage).

TIPS:

* Don’t boil longer than 15 minutes. The longer you boil the mixture, the less vitamin C will be available.

* Honey and lemon can help improve the taste.

BENEFICIAL PROPERTIES OF PINE NEEDLE TEA
Continue to drink 1 pint (500ml) of Pine Needle Tea every day for one month.

* Promotes heart health

* Relief of varicose veins

* Helps muscle fatigue

* Relief of Sclerosis

* Relief of Kidney Ailments

* Promotes strengthening of nerves in eye

* Relief for eye relate ailments that concern connective muscles in the eye

* Relief of Gangrene

* Reacts with smooth muscles that line blood vessels

VARIATION, TO MAKE AN EXTRACT:
Place the hot, boiled mixture into a thermos and let sit overnight (12 hours). Remove the needles the next day and drink the warm extract throughout the day.

Pine Tree Needle Extraction is a traditional remedy that may be used in the treatment of many human diseases. The remedy is effective for working with the smooth muscles that line the blood vessels and other muscular related diseases such as sclerosis. Sclerosis is a condition in which soft internal tissues (and sometimes organs) inside the body become unusually hard.
This extraction is a helpful preventative and a support in the treatment of cancer. Its benefit is greater when the cancer is in the earlier stages. Pine needles exhibit strong antioxidant, antimutagenic, and antiproliferative effects on cancer cells and also antitumor effects.

ALTERNATIVES TO TEA
You may choose to chew on several fresh pine needles. Swallow the juice produced and spit out the needle fiber. This remedy has been used to:

* fight fatigue and maintain one's youthful vigor

* promote the discharge of waste from the body

* stimulate brain activity

* strengthen the heart

* as effective for treating anemia (rich in iron)

* to satisfy thirst and relieve hunger pains.

* to prevents cold and flu

* to relieve dry cough

* rids you of heart burn

 

INTERESTING TIDBIT OF INFORMATION
I found these passages referring to the value of trees:

Deuteronomy 20:19
When thou shalt besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof by forcing an axe against them: for thou mayest eat of them, and thou shalt not cut them down (for the tree of the field is man's life) to employ them in the siege:

Isaiah 41:18-20
I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. 19 I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together: 20 That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the LORD hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it.

Revelation 7:3
Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.

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This blog presents ideas and information designed to enrich the life of the reader. These articles are NO substitute for personalized professional care. The opinions and ideas expressed are fallible and that of the author. Readers are encouraged to be well-informed and draw their own conclusions.

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No-Till Gardening Methods

After years of springtime digging and plowing and turning soil in her large garden, I have a friend that has just learned the benefits of no-till gardening. She shook her head, amazed at how well the plants produced without the benefit of the backbreaking labor. "To think, all those years . . . and we could have had this much food WITHOUT all that digging!"

RUTH STOUT’S NO-WORK GARDEN

 

No-till gardening is not a new concept. It’s a concept that was documented by Ruth Stout in 1953 as she began to write about her adventures in gardening in articles published by Organic Gardening and Farming magazine. Twenty years later, these articles would be published in a bound volume called The Ruth Stout No-Work Garden Book (©1971 by Ruth Stout and Richard Clemence, ISBN 0-87857-000-4).

 

Ruth had become dependent upon having a neighbor plow her 40 by 60 foot plot before she could begin her spring planting. She decided to experiment with means and methods that required little outside assistance.

 

Ruth has maintained that most of the work associated with gardening – especially organic gardening – is unnecessary except for one thing: mulch. Permanent year-round mulch, in Ruth’s eyes, is the permanent year-round answer to all the garden chores – and anything else you expend energy on is surplus effort or just “playing.” (from the preface)

 

Ruth’s first chapter is entitled ‘Throw Away Your Spade and Hoe!’ She noticed that her asparagus plants had been growing without plowing for over 10 years. Rather than wait for someone to plow her garden, she decided to pull back enough of the fall mulch to make a trench and plant some seeds. She secured some “spoiled hay” from a farmer and used it as mulch to keep down the weeds, laying it 8 to 10 inches thick (not on top of the seeds). When the seedlings sprouted, she thinned the plants and pulled the mulch close to the plants. Ruth tossed decaying leaves and kitchen scraps (vegetables) into the garden and covered with the hay.

 

The pages are filled with her blend of blunt no-nonsense humor. She refutes her critics with reports of her harvest.

 

LASAGNA GARDENING

Yet another variation of the no-dig method is a process called Lasagna Gardening. Patricia Lanza introduced this method in her book Lasagna Gardening (©1998 by Patricia Lanza, ISBN 0-87596-962-3 – You can review the book online here: Google Book Review).

 

Rather than tilling up your garden area, the author recommends that you lay out several layers of wet newspaper or a sheet of damp cardboard over the area you wish to plant. On top of this, you lay several layers of organic material alternating with peat moss. She advocates having a compost pile to supply some of the layers of organic matter. You can also use mulched leaves, grass clippings barn litter, etc. You finish with a layer of peat moss and follow this with wood ash. This is left to ‘cook’ over the winter months.

 

The expense of the peat moss is one drawback to this method. If you already have an established garden site with enriched soil, you will likely find it unnecessary to do much more than lay down several layers of newspaper, some organic matter and a layer of wood ash.

 

“The great thing about lasagna gardening, though is that you don’t have to wait to plant – you can build the garden and plant it all in the same day. To make a planting hole in a new bed, simply pull the layers apart with your hands. Set the plant in the hole, pull the mulch back and around the roots, and water it thoroughly. To sow seeds in a newly built lasagna garden, spread fine compost or damp peat moss where the seeds are to go, then set the seeds on the surface. Sift more fine material to cover the seeds and press down. When the plants have two true leaves (the leaves that form after the first pair of “seed leaves”), pull some of the coarser mulch material around them to keep the soil moist and weed-free.”

 

Click below to view this video of Debi Pearl's lasagna garden.

 

Video courtesy of Pearl Outdoors

HAY BALE GARDENING

 

Another life-long gardener lives near me. He is determined to stay productive, even though he is in his mid-80s – although he has cut back to working only 55 hours per week at the local grocery.

 

The ground he gardens is hard-packed clay and rock – not my first choice for a garden plot. Undaunted, he decided that hay bale gardening was the way to go. Today, he has a thriving organic tomato garden that brings in a nice secondary income . . . all without digging or hoeing!

 

He told us that he starts with 8 layers of newspaper on bare ground. On top of the newspaper, he places the bales of hay. He has the rows two bales deep. He watches the trade papers and looks for bales of hay on sale. He prefers alfalfa bales. Lately, though, the price has been very high (more than $4 per bale).

 

An irrigation drip line is placed on top of the hay bales (where they butt together in the row) to water the plants.

 

To support the leggy tomato plants as they grow, he uses some old wire fencing that he places around the bales (they used to have horses and goats). The fencing is made up of grids about 4 inches square. The openings are large enough that it makes it easy to reach inside and tend the plants. If you were trying to protect your plants from squirrels or deer (as in corn), this open fencing wouldn't do the trick. The fencing is secured with the plastic cable zip ties that are used to hold electronic cords. These can be found cheaply at any hardware store.

 

Then he mixes up his special soil -- mushroom compost, Black Kow compost, organic potting soil and sphagnum moss and cricket poop as a fertilizer. He mixes his potting soil blend and places it into a large garbage container, closes the lid and lets it sit until he’s ready to use it.

It is interesting to note that the cricket poop was sent to the local extension service and analyzed. The results found it to be the perfect plant food. You can read about how Cricket Poo came to be used here: http://www.cricketpoo.com/cricket_poo_story.cfm

When it's time to plant, he uses a keyhole or wallboard saw (a small saw with one blade) and cuts an opening about the size of a quart jar into the bales. He his potting mixture into the hole and adds the tiny tomato plant.

For fertilizer, he makes a tea out of the cricket droppings, pouring about a cupful on each plant once or twice a week.

Apart from the initial setup, there is little expense. I would say that if you were growing low, bushy plants (as opposed to tomatoes, or climbing vines) the setup would be even less as you wouldn't need the wire support/fencing. . . . unless you needed a way to keep out critters.

When the garden is ready to be put to bed, the cable ties are cut and discarded, the bales opened and the ground is mulched with the decaying hay.

Maintaining the garden is a matter of looking over the rows each evening and picking the near-ripe tomatoes. He picks them when they aren't completely red; they pick up color as they mature. "Just don't ever put a tomato in the refrigerator," he said.

The advantages of no-till gardening are many. In this video Dr. Milton Ganyard, of Ganyard Hill Farm, shares with us the many advantages of no-till gardening and describes his own method.

If you are thinking that you haven't enough room or enough good soil to grow food for your family, watch this video about the Dervaes family from California. Little Homestead in the City