Preparedness and your health.

[GardenerGal]

Diet (what we eat... not "diet" as we use the word to refer to weight-loss regimens) is one factor in keeping our health good. Eating plenty of fresh, clean-sourced (i.e. no pesticides clinging to them) vegetables, some fruit and nuts, whole grains, occasional lean red meat, salmon/mackeral/other oily fish, olive oil, low-fat or non-fat dairy... and keeping the sodium low, avoiding artificial additives, etc.... it's commonsense diet.

Get adequate sleep. Let your body tell you how much sleep it needs, and try to listen to those rhythms of alertness and sleepiness.

Stay warm/cool enough. Dress for the weather and for the ambient temperature of your home.

Use good hygiene: Soap and water to wash your hands regularly... but don't obsess over this. Some exposure to the natural dirt and germs of our environment actually helps us by stimulating our body's immune system to create the antibodies necessary to fight infection. Being too "sterile" or taking antibiotics unnecessarily makes us MORE vulnerable to germ-caused illnesses.

Keep the air in your home clean and filtered. Change the furnace filters regularly. Open a window or two a crack even when it's cold out, to let in some fresh air.

Get off your can and walk or do some kind of movement to keep your body fit. Walk to do errands that are close enough to not need the car. Use the stairs, instead of an escalator or elevator at the mall. Ride a bike. Clean your house... great exercise. Even if you are mobility impaired, you can do isometric exercises while seated.

Brush and floss your teeth every day. Brush twice daily, floss at least once. Did you know that unhealthy gums and teeth can lead to heart disease and other serious ailments? Eat crunchy or fibrous foods that help clean plaque off your teeth as you chew... carrots, celery, etc.

Keep the noise down. Blasting the music can cause hearing loss over time. If you work in a noisy environment, such as a processing plant, wear earplugs or headset.

Have a fully stocked first-aid kit on hand in your home and car. Bandages, antiseptic wash, antibiotic ointment, a small scissors, bandaging tape, inflatable splint for sprains or fractures, etc.

If you live alone or in a remote area, give your town/city/township police department your contact info and let them know you're there. If you're elderly or disabled you can request wellness checks - the police or other official agency will phone or visit you from time to time to make sure all is well.

Whew. Those are just some things off the top of my head. So many other ways to be prepared and to take care of yourself!

 

[Spifflove]

A very good post @gardenergal and I would like to add its a good idea to get 20 minutes of full-skin sun exposure daily to improve happiness. It's free. Serious risk increase of skin cancer is related to serious sun burns, especially the type that causes blisters, not sun exposure per say. Aloe vera within 4 hours if you get any redness at all from sun exposure.

 

[GardenerGal]

Agreed, Spifflove. Good point. Older adults, particularly, don't absorb Vitamin D well. Also, the form of Vitamin D our bodies manufacture, is a bit different than the Vitamin D additives that are put in food and vitamin pills. The difference may affect calcium absorption slightly, though synthetic Vitamin D is certainly a good substitute if you can't get out in the sun. But, a little sun every day is a Good Thing!

I read an article recently that reported a connection between taking a daily baby aspirin (80 mg) and a greater resistance to skin cancer. Interesting, though not proven. Aspirin (not ibuprofin or acetominephen) in small amounts, daily, is considered an effective preventive measure against stroke and heart attacks - by reducing the risk of clots.

 

[Spifflove]

Identifying food by bar code. Food begining in 41 is produced in the U.S. Food begining with 69 on the bar code is produced in China. Since organic food produced in China is likely toxic due to their extreme level of air and water pollution, it should be avoided. Conventional apples produced in China contain arsenic in their pesticides and also should be avoided. For identifying produce refer to the following article:

http://www.snopes.com/food/prepare/produce.asp

 

[Ole and Lena]

Also along the food prepper vein, establish your skills, relations with your neighbors and barter partners while times are good. Learning how to do things the old way... from building and banking an outdoor fire for cooking with a dutch oven to baking your own bread and canning among many other things Americans used to do are fun hobbies and good learning experiences with the kids. It's a fun thing to do when you don't need to do it to survive. If those skills do once again become essential, you have a leg up already having practiced them. If nothing else, you'll sure impress the kids at the campground cooking a 4 course meal in 2 dutch ovens with an open fire.

Get to know your neighbors. That's a big part of what's wrong with our culture. We don't communicate, sort out our differences, find common ground or just socialize around a Sunday brunch or Friday evening 12 pack and campfire. Trade and barter with nearby folks. Those networks will be essential if things get weird, and might lead to your next career opportunity, some good hunting land or a good man to marry your daughter if they don't. City folks love to trade for country stuff and country folks love to trade for farm help.

 

[GardenerGal]

This is a great thread!
Bartering used to be how everyone got by. Now, the IRS expects us to report our barters and pay the appropriate "sales" tax on them. Can you believe it? Do you think anyone actually does that?! It's absolutely crazy...
Back to the topic, though, getting to know one's neighbors is so important, and that was an excellent point, Ole-and-Lena. In hard times and emergencies, if your family is not nearby it's your neighbors who will come to the rescue -- and vice versa when they need an assist. Always good to have an open gate and a friendly welcome to everyone who lives around us, the whole neighborhood.

 

[maggierose]

Great new thread! Thanks!

 

[GardenerGal]

BTW, the outdoor cooking tips were wonderful, Ole-and-Lena. A lot of suburban families have gas BBQ grills, but knowing how to make, bank and maintain a long lasting wood fire is a survival skill. I have a copper "fire bowl" with a grill out back. Great for cooking hamburgers, hotdogs and toasting marshmallows.
One thing I discovered - many communities BAN fire pits, fire bowls and chimeneas (those clay "woodstove" things that go on the patio) if they are used just for atmosphere or outdoor warmth. Only devices used for cooking are permitted. So, if you have a fire pit, bowl or whatever, toast marshmallows with it every so often, to keep it "legal."

I gather the twigs and small branches that the maple and birch trees shed in my yard, and put them in containers to dry and use later as kindling for the woodstove. Good kindling shouldn't go to waste. Also, if I see discarded wood on the roadsides I throw it in my truck. Only if it's really being thrown out, though. This week, the city tree department took down a diseased maple on my street, and I asked if I could have the wood. They left the big chunks of trunk for me, and it's now curing in my firewood stack. I'll have to chainsaw and split it, but that's fun.

 

[Ole and Lena]

" I'll have to chainsaw and split it, but that's fun." Try making enough wood to heat through a MN winter and cook down 8 gallons of maple syrup in the spring. I use a lot of words about cutting wood, fun isn't one of them

. Keeps me in shape though and that's the topic today. Hand tools/manual labor.

We've replaced far too many tools with electro-gas-compressor powered doo dads. Great if you're a professional contractor, but why spend the money on making your outdoor chores and projects go so much faster, then spend your leisure time jogging around the block to burn calories and stay in shape. I'm not saying give up the chainsaw or mower...I mow 2 acres and cut 8 cords of wood per year... need to burn gas for that. What I'm getting at is using the hand clippers instead of the electric hedge clippers, splitting your wood with a maul instead of a log splitter, pounding nails instead of air-nailing them, raking instead of the leaf blower etc etc. For me my yardwork is my daily exercise, especially in the winter when I'm making wood. Sometimes the hard way is the best way. Spend your leisure time being leisurely, not jogging.

And make sure to score the bark on that diseased wood and leave it in some open sun to kill off the disease organisms so it doesn't make your trees sick. A quick seam down the bark lengthwise will let in the moisture and air to slough off the bark quickly.

 

[GardenerGal]

I agree. Use hand tools and save gas. I garden/do horticultural work as a livelihood, and I use only hand tools, particularly good quality Japanese horticultural tools. Invest in the best tools and take care of them, and they'll last several lifetimes.

To me splitting wood and using the saw is fun because when I am cutting wood I don't think much... it's like meditation you just do and get into a rhythm. It clears my head even though I'm sweating buckets.
I use a wedge and sledgehammer, or maul, to split my firewood. The chainsaw is only for logs that are too long to fit in the woodstove. My house is only about 1,250 square feet or so, and the woodstove can keep the entire place at 60 or 62 degrees F if I stoke it up. But we have a gas furnace and use the woodstove to supplement it so we don't have to run the furnace as much. Our coastal Massachusetts winters are not as cold as Minnesota's. This winter the coldest nights were 5 or 6 above 0! When I was a kid, it was colder but now the global warming is really being felt here in New England.

Maple sugaring is the best part about late winter-early spring. Our season is over, in my area. Too warm at night now, in the upper 30s lower 40s. But it wasn't a bad tapping season. I only have red swamp maples on my property... the worst, wateriest sap...60 gallons to make one gallon of syrup, so I don't bother. But the lucky ones with sugar maples had a good harvest this spring.

Anyone with sugar maples or black birch/yellow birch should try sugaring. It's another homesteading skill that can add to self-sufficiency.