what are y'all saving from the wild to deal with coming crisis?

[Eggcentric One]

I save mine and put them in little plastic bags and store them in the fridge. Sometimes I'll put all of the little bags in a plastic container with some silica gel to keep things dry.

Mylar bags and oxygen absorbers are good to. If you put them in the freezer, they will typically last up to 3 years.

 

[Thyme4Chickens]

Does anyone save their own seeds?
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This is on my bucket list I'd check with your University Extension Office - they would likely have info specific to your area, and if you have master gardener volunteers there, they may have classes/workshops.

 

[HenOnAJuneBug]

Pros of quail in survival setting: super efficient, both feed and space wise

Cons: can't free range, and can't feed the little bastards without farming bugs

Can you raise quail and chickens together? By that I mean on the same property. I read that it's not a good idea for some reason.

 

[ocap]

if you are blessed and have a small stream nearby.... walk upstream until you get to the source to have cleaner water. flowing streams are cleaner than ponds or lakes. Maybe you will be near enough to carry water to your chicks. Tapeworm eggs in lake water need to be filtered out.

 

[Henriettamom919]

Storing a year's worth of food back is just good sense regardless of why people might be concerned. Might lose the breadwinner or a breadwinner in the family, someone laid off, slow business if self employed, and yes the flooding we saw this spring is going to raise feed prices and thus food prices. I remember back in the late eighties feed prices soared for some reason and the chicken farms were advertising on the radio to come pick up your free chickens, from chick size to nearly half grown. I got an 18' long flat bed trailer full of the darned things for free. Standing room only. LOL

And learning about what wild foods might be used is a great idea even in good times if you have more time than money. I always thought fishing for trash fish like gar and carp would be a great idea for both chicken feed and dog feed, pressure can it, bones ought to be nearly jelly.

But this so called "climate change" was pushed on us in the eighties but society had enough since to call it quackery while they called it "global cooling". Then it became "global warming" and the science didn't back up their claims so they re branded it as "climate change".

The reality is that it is all propaganda designed to stampede people into supporting radical agendas, eliminating the raising of animals for food, forcing Agenda 21 type population clearances by forcing people off the rural land and back into cities. I used to run a volunteer fire department in Arkansas and we were trained at the state fire academy to save every building we could. These days the rural fire departments in my state are told not to fight the fire for safety reasons and just prevent the fire from spreading. I have literally been told this by folks who lost a home over a small kitchen fire that could have been put out.

So I wouldn't worry about what the mainstream media is saying. They are just pushing an agenda and are not trustworthy at all. There are people that believe this with all their heart because they have been terrified into thinking a disaster is sure to come. Same thing with Y2K, someone could make money or make hay politically so they helped push the panic while industry and government made the changes to the software to prevent problems.

So calm people, calm. Prepare is good, panic is silly, giving away your child's birthright to a thriving society, the ability to raise some backyard chickens, and to live in the country is not a smart idea.

I totally get where you're coming from and do agree mainstream media and for that matter our very government have their own agenda but we have an entire, centuries old orca pod dying of starvation and giving birth to dead calves because of the onslaught of new bacterium in their regional waters. Bacteria that can only survive now because those waters have warmed enough to allow them to thrive.

I don't think climate change is all myth but I'm not convinced it isn't part of some larger, natural cycle, either. But there's no way having the world's population double in under 200-250 years isn't affecting us on an environmental level.

 

[Mimi13]

I'm collecting,and drying redbud leaves for emergency fodder.
The trees grow fast and all parts are edible. They seem to be fairly unaffected by the wild weather too.

What?!? Tell me more about this redbud deal. Our farm name is Redbud Ridge Farm so, needless to say, we have a multitude of redbuds. This is very interesting.

 

[Ra_]

...there's no way having the world's population double in under 200-250 years isn't affecting us on an environmental level.

Population has doubled in less than 50 years.

 

[ShannonR]

Population has doubled in less than 50 years.

And in the United States, birth rates have plummeted.

 

[Maugwa]

Well I'm not too much of a climatogist, but I know a few things about farming and ranching. We've had a lot if rain this year so far in Wyoming too. The cattle, grass, and crops here are doing better than I've seen in many years.

I know that when I drive along the edge of many corn fields and see a series of little signs with a seed company and a number on them, I know what that means. Those are different hybrids being developed and tested constantly. They are also marked like that so other farmers in the area can look them over and decide which they'd like to try. I have a very good friend who was a agronomics professor for years at Kansas State, and I grew up knowing a big family who went to Iowa every summer to cut tassles from some corn fields and pollinate other corn fields by hand to make hybrids back in the 60s and 70s for good cash money. Back when it was still an ice age that was going to get us.

What works on one farm site may not work the best on the next. Not only are the breeds that have been bred to do the best in Texas far different from those bred for Wisconsin, but there are varieties for everything in between, down to where a guy over on a slight hill side with a slightly different soil will have better luck with this variety, while another guy within hollering distance, in a slight valley may have better luck with another. I don't know how many kinds of corn there are or have been through the years, but I'm certain it's in the millions. They not only have it down to the micro climates, but they have many companies with many varieties competing for all those micro climates and developing more types constantly.

This was just an example of corn, but this is done with every crop. Did you know that not only are there all those kinds of tomatoes in all your garden books, but there are hundreds more that are bred for shelf life, green houses, trucking, climates, and on and on. Hunts has it's own breeds for katsup, tomato sauce, canned tomatoes, etc. So does Hienz, DelMonty, etc. In my younger years we grew some sugar beets at two different farms about 10 miles apart for Holly Sugar. You have to make a contract with them before you plant. They will send their local biologist out to test your soil, then they will supply you with their seed you must grow. They had us growing different hybrids on each place. And they improve these hybrids each year.

The point of all of this long story is not to worry, even if there were a rapid temperature increase, it might come down to growing Oklahoma crops in Kansas, Kansas crops in Nebraska, and Nebraska crops in South Dakota. Or if it takes a few years longer to warm up, breeders will be selecting to it as it happens.

Historically, humans have thrived in warm periods, and we are much better at selective breeding and other technologies that would help us cope now than past peoples ever had. But I also know that since Al Gore first warned us, there is more ice in the ice caps, more Polar Bears, and the seas haven't rose at all -- that's good news considering how London was supposed to be under water more than ten years ago. The way I see it, "Climate Deniers," are those who ignore these facts. But on the other hand, it might be fun if I ever could start growing avocados, pineapples, and bananas in Wyoming too

 

[Ra_]

Did you know that not only are there all those kinds of tomatoes in all your garden books, but there are hundreds more that are bred for shelf life, green houses, trucking, climates, and on and on

When people ask if they can plant the seeds from the vegetables they buy at the store, the conventional wisdom is Oh NO, they will not breed true!
That's right, you may get all kinds of genetic throwbacks, including unusual varieties that you have zero access to. Plants that the agri-giants used for their hybrids. It may be a tomato that is incredibly juicy and flavorful but it doesn't ship well, so agribusiness keeps it to themselves and only uses it to develop their hybrids.