Dear Mr. Rawles,
I have an indelicate question that I'd like to ask you and your readers:  In a Schumer Hits the Fan (SHTF) situation, literally, what happens to the aforementioned waste products in our sewer?  If a sewer plant loses power, does it all back up and exit through all our residential toilets connected to that pipe?  Does it back up and enter nearby streams and rivers that we would be relying on for water?  Once trapped in a backed up sewer drain, could explosive methane gas be formed to further complicate the disposal of waste and even be a danger to city dwellers - particularly those in high rise apartments?  Your thought and advice in this matter would be appreciated.  Thank you, - Rod McG.

JWR Replies: I addressed that issue in my reply to a "hunker down in the city" letter from a reader, posted in 2007. Yes, there will be a public health crisis in the cities just few days, especially if the onset is during summer months. I strongly recommend getting out of urban areas as soon as possible, in a disaster.

Recently, due to financial considerations, we decided to end our garbage collection service. It wasn't a large expense, but our budget is tighter than ever these days and with some planning we realized that it was actually a luxury, not a necessity. Besides, those of us who are preparing for the likely future of a breakdown in society shouldn't really expect to have convenient curb waste disposal services, now should we? How were you planning on handling that day when it comes? You have 500 trash bags and you're just going to stack bags of trash in some out-of-the-way corner of the barn for vermin to sort through and spread health hazards? What about sanitation? When your water service cuts off and your toilet won't flush you can pump or haul water, or maybe you have plans to dig an outhouse. Let me propose some better solutions to you.

Now, I live in a rural area, in the unincorporated area of a county and not within any city limits, so much of what I propose is applicable to my situation here and will not apply to city dwellers. You need land to be sustainable in any real sense. Over years of living a preparedness lifestyle, I have realized that in the long run preparedness blends into sustainability. I have solar and wind power, a wood stove, a biofuel vehicle, a large garden, and now a composting toilet not because I'm an extreme environmentalist, but because the less I depend on the infrastructure of society, the less it matters to me whether it's there or not. If/when “something bad happens”, I don't have to do anything special. My fuel supplies stay stocked, my food supplies are rotated constantly as part of “normal life”. If the grid goes down suddenly the extent of my panic will be to turn on the shortwave and scanner to start collecting news. However, in this article I will try to contain myself to discussing the subject at hand, which is waste management.

The first step to dealing with “waste” is mental. You need to adjust your thinking to realize that hardly anything is truly “waste”. Almost everything can be reused or recycled, and then it's not “waste” any more, it's useful. Also, on the front end the less packaging and non-recyclable items you bring into your life to begin with the less you'll have to deal with on the back end. As our family lifestyle became more sustainable over time, I was amazed at the reduction in volume of “trash” that we had. I'll now cover each disposal method in turn.

First, there is burning. Let's say you just pulled out a frozen dinner to eat, or a new product from the package. Most likely the package was either paperboard or corrugated cardboard, perhaps wrapped in plastic (we'll get to the plastic). Let's start with the obvious: paper and cardboard burn very well and fairly completely if given sufficient oxygen. In our house we have a wood stove, and I use waste paper and cardboard as kindling to light it. Now that we're in the heating season I can dispose of quite a lot of paper waste this way. Several months before heating season starts I begin stockpiling all the paper, paperboard and corrugated containers, newspapers, and non-glossy sales circulars so we will have sufficient kindling all winter long. A note to stove owners: newer catalytic stoves are picky about what you feed them. Check your owner's manual for information about burning paper, because you don't want to poison the stove catalyst. My understanding is that if you stick to non-colored paper such as office paper this should be okay even in catalytic stoves. The rest of the paper and combustible waste I burn in the burn barrel. My wood stove ash gets used to make lye, and then lye soap with, so I try to only burn clean materials without brightly colored inks or glossy paper, as these could contain undesirable chemicals. The remaining depleted ash has less potassium content but is still a useful fertilizer, so I spread it on the lawn and around trees. A side note: I once calculated the fuel value of the paperboard container of a package of macaroni and cheese. It's easy enough to weigh the empty box with a kitchen scale, and the resulting weight is pure dry carbohydrate biomass, with an energy content of 4 Calories (that is, kilocalories or 4184 J) per gram. I discovered the box had about 200 Calories of energy! If you burn the box, that's less Calories of food energy you have to consume in winter to stay warm. Think of all the extra heat you're missing, just lurking in everyday “waste” products....

Now, the old familiar burn barrel has been well known ever since shortly after the introduction of steel 55 gallon drums. It suffers from low combustion temperatures and limited oxygen, leading to dirty and incomplete combustion. I have constructed a “turbo” burn barrel with a few simple modifications. I took an old rusty open-top drum and cut a 4-inch round hole in the side just above the bottom. This is easily accomplished with a power drill and jigsaw with a metal cutting blade. Even this one improvement will go a long way toward making the barrel burn better since air can now flow in the bottom, but this wasn't all I had in mind. I then attached a length of 4-inch aluminum flexible duct, the kind that's used on clothes dryers, and a small blower motor. I had a bathroom vent-type blower left over from another project, and it handily fits onto a 4 inch flex duct. Now what you have more closely resembles a blacksmith's forge than a regular burn barrel. Of course, for true off-grid use you'd need a DC blower instead, but I have about half a dozen different ways to generate AC. For 12 VDC, I'm sure a salvaged automotive ventilation blower could be modified to fit the bill, or perhaps even a computer-style axial fan, some of the larger ones can move quite a bit of air.

Regardless of the air source, you now have a burn barrel that breathes much better and will combust materials much more completely. It's perfect for disposing of any combustible waste materials including paper and yes, most plastics. If you look at the recycling symbol found on most plastic packaging you will learn what it's made from. Here's a quick guide:

1 - PETE (polyethylene terephtalate), combustible
2 - PE-HD (high density polyethylene), combustible
3 - PVC (polyvinyl chloride), non-combustible
4 - PE-LD (low density polyethylene), combustible
5 - PP (polypropylene), combustible
6 - PS (polystyrene), combustible
7 - Other (often polycarbonate or ABS), non-combustible

Remember that plastics are made from oil. Most forms of plastic, under proper high-temperature combustion with adequate oxygen, happily just melt and burn like oil. The problems with plastics are the ones containing chlorine in the formulation somehow. This includes plastics like PVC. If these are burned, hazardous chlorine compounds are formed. If no other means of disposal is available, these plastics will have to be given the second disposal method, burial or landfilling.

I am not technically qualified to offer advice on landfilling, but US Army Field Manual 21-10, “Field Hygiene and Sanitation” does offer some guidelines. Some items will have to be landfilled, such as the ash left over from the burn barrel, and those plastics which are not safely combustible. Currently, I am still able to drive to a nearby town and pay for disposal by the pound, so right now I am not having to landfill anything.

The next disposal method I will cover after burning and burying is composting. Any organic material can and should be composted. Composting is nature's own recycling mechanism, capable of turning waste back into useful materials and neutralize a wide variety of harmful substances! A properly built compost pile will heat up to sterilizing temperatures and not only kill bacteria and other harmful organisms but also neutralize many harmful chemicals too. All kitchen scraps, yard and garden waste, dead small animals, waste oil and grease, and other organic materials should go in the compost pile. Yes, many compost experts have long advocated the “don't” list of forbidden materials in the pile, normally including things like meat, fats, and pet and human wastes. At this point let me stop and strongly advocate that you go and read “The Humanure Handbook” by Joseph Jenkins. It's available free online, or you can buy a printed copy inexpensively from the usual sources. I can't recommend this book highly enough. In it the author does a thorough job of debunking many of the compost myths. He quotes a long list of sources and research studies to prove his points. In fact, most of the book is about composting in general, not just the title topic. Please do yourself and your family a favor and read this book.

[JWR Adds an Important Caveat Lector: While some of the advice given by Jenkins in his Humanure Handbook is good, I soundly reject his assertion that "humanure" can be used in vegetable gardens in all climates and at all times of the year. Outside of the tropics, in three seasons there is simply too much risk of disease transmission. Unless all of the waste from carnivores and omnivores gets above the viability temperature for bacteria, then it is a biohazard. If you must use "humanure", then use it only for flower beds and shrubbery. And for that, be sure to use a separate, dedicated set of spades and buckets that have their handles marked with red tape. Never use those tools in your vegetable garden!]

After reading the book, I constructed a three-bin compost system similar to the one shown in the book. Each bin is about 5'x5'x4'. You start constructing a pile by laying down a foot or more of absorbent organic material as a buffer. In my case, I had numerous cubic yards of wood chips left over from other projects, so that's what I used. Then on top of that you start building your compost pile, adding to it a little at a time as materials become available. The active materials stay covered with a thick blanket of dry high-carbon materials (think hay or straw) on top to retain heat. A long-stem compost thermometer is a useful tool to tell you how your pile is doing, and within days mine had heated up over 120 degrees. Most days it hovers between 120 and 140, and this is even with the arrival of fall weather and cooler temperatures. All known gastrointestinal pathogens die within 24 hours at temperatures of 120 degrees..

This ties in naturally with my next topic, sanitation. As part of my long-term sustainability plans I have a rainwater collection system and a large cistern, but if I lose my utility water supply my quantities of water will be very limited. Even with a modern efficient toilet, flushing water is still a major demand. I had been researching for a long time to find better alternatives when I learned about the humanure handbook and got an education in composting. However, my plans for a “plan B” got accelerated when my old gravity flow septic system started having problems. I won't describe all the details, but now we are at the point where it barely works and the choices are either to dig up and replace the drain field at huge expense or decommission it. Enter “plan B”, front and center. My old farm house already had a gray water drain connected to the clothes washer, but now I have rearranged the plumbing so the kitchen sink, dishwasher, and shower drain into it as well. Thank goodness for an old pier and beam farmhouse, and a generous crawl space, that makes retrofits like this possible.  For the toilet, I constructed the "lovable loo" according to the plans in the book.  You can also buy it pre-made online if you don't like woodworking.  It uses 5 gallon buckets as the collection receptacle, but all the composting happens in the large pile in the yard where it can be done efficiently at high temperatures.  It's amazing, but just adding some dry high-carbon material to the bucket to cover after each use keeps the contents aerobic and completely stops odor, flies, and other problems traditionally associated with portable toilets and outhouses.  Sawdust, leaves, straw, newspaper, finely shredded mulch, all work perfectly well.  It just needs to be relatively dry (to offset the moisture content of what's going in the toilet) and have a high carbon/nitrogen ratio (to offset the high nitrogen content of what's going in the toilet).  What else can I say?  It works.  Read the book.

Another aspect of sanitation is feminine hygiene. Instead of stockpiling large amounts of necessary products ahead of time, we found it made more sense to just go sustainable instead. Plans are available on the internet to make your own feminine pads, but for the time involved I think it just makes more sense to buy instead. Many thanks to the folks at Naturally Cozy, we can testify to the quality of their products. That's one less thing to have to worry about. For actual washing, we have a number of options but normally choose to use the spin-type pressure hand washer from Lehman's for small amounts of soiled articles like this that you might not want to mix with your regular loads of laundry. This works for future off grid use as well, since it's hand powered. More or less the same should apply to families with young children in diapers too. It doesn't make sense to stockpile the large quantities needed, and then to have a waste disposal problem on the other end. The best way to dispose of waste is not to have it in the first place.

For large-scale clothes washing in a grid down situation, we should still be able to use our electric washer (but not dryer) since we have several ways to generate electricity. We have two generators, one truck with a beefy inverter, and a large 120 Volt AC inverter on the solar power system. Any of these should run the washer at least occasionally. We have a significant stock of detergent and a very nice clothes line. For return on dollars invested on renewable energy improvements, you can't beat the good old fashioned clothes line.

Okay, we have dealt with the combustible trash and plastics, but what about metals and glass? Currently there are recycling centers close by, and some of these materials can even put a little money back in your pocket, but in the future these will need to be dealt with differently. For aluminum, probably the best “disposal” method is melting and casting. I am not currently equipped to do this, although it is one of the next areas of preparedness/sustainability I plan to tackle. A small furnace can easily reach aluminum melting temperatures. In fact, my turbo burn barrel can probably reach aluminum melting temperatures. Hmmm, use trash to dispose of trash? Now there's an idea...

I have not seen much in the way of glass melting and casting/blowing information, but I know that people do this for a hobby so information has to be available. Reusing existing glass bottles, jars, and containers as much as possible is probably the best interim solution, but what do you do with extras, or broken pieces? Being able to turn them back into useful goods would be much better than landfilling.

After all that has been dealt with, there is still hazardous waste. Broken electronics, batteries, chemicals, and other things we don't want to mess with. For now it usually possible to turn these in at special hazardous waste collection centers, or at special “collection drives” that our local governments sponsor a few times a year. When this is no longer possible, encapsulation and storage will probably be the only option. I should also note that any very old painted wood could possibly contain lead-based paint, which should not be burned. It probably shouldn't be landfilled anywhere except in a properly designed landfill either, so if you have some, get rid of it now or you may be stuck with a problem. Computers can be parted out into components and the remaining circuit boards take up much less space. There is nearly a pound of aluminum in an average hard drive, and one or two really useful rare earth magnets.

A disclaimer: we don't live completely off grid for electricity or water. We have a 600W photovoltaic array and small wind turbine that together run a 900 Ah battery bank and Sun Frost 12 Volt DC refrigerator and SunDanzer 12V freezer. The rest of the house is on utility power. If the utility goes down, the food stays cold even without me having to start the generator. I designed the system for 12 volts instead of 24 so I can recharge the battery bank from a vehicle if necessary, or even jump start a vehicle from the constantly-charged battery bank. Likewise, we use utility water but I can throw two valves and in a matter of minutes run the house plumbing from a 10,000 gallon cistern with rain water. The pumps (two, double redundant) can be run directly from the PV system, and the water goes through 5 micron filtration and a Sterilight UV sterilization system. In other words, the grid is still “Plan A”, but I can implement “Plan B” very rapidly and have tested it.

Living off grid doesn't have to be onerous. In most cases it's more work than the convenience of living on grid, but then what do you do when the grid goes down? Besides, the work is mostly good exercise and enjoyable. I like cutting and splitting wood. I love the warm radiant heat of the wood stove. I love the security of having my own power company, my own water utility, and my own gas station. Most people just rent their lifestyle month by month, but I own mine outright. Take away either the monthly income or the infrastructure, and “plan A” ceases to work rather rapidly.

As a former soap company owner and operator, I enjoyed the article on soap making (How to Make Lye Soap, posted on November 30, 201.) However, for safety's sake, I would like to caution your readers regarding some of the statements made in the article:

1. The author’s instructions say to “Heat the water to 110° F. Add the lye to the water.” This is a dangerous suggestion. The chemical reaction caused when lye combines with water causes even room temperature water to heat up almost to the boiling point. Starting with overly-warm water could (and probably would, depending on room temperature) cause the lye solution to literally boil—a potentially catastrophic occurrence. I always use room temperature (or colder) distilled water then, after sprinkling and stirring in the lye, allow the water to cool down to between 100 and 110 before combining it with the warmed oils.

2. The author also says that the lye water can be combined with the warmed oils in a blender. Although, technically, this is true (and I’m sure there are many experienced soap makers who use a blender), the batch of soap would need to be very small to stay within the blender’s capacity while operating. Most of us have had a blender accident at one time or another by either overfilling the blender or realizing (too late) that the lid wasn’t security in place. It’s one thing to have applesauce or a milkshake sprayed around the room, but toxic and dangerous lye water spraying around your kitchen (and on you) would be a scary scene, indeed. Personally, I would never use a blender for making soap. Instead, I use a stainless steel pot and either a wooden spoon or a stick blender (make sure the blades are stainless steel) to combine the lye water and oils.

3. Your readers need to be aware that each oil requires a different amount of lye to be turned into soap (a process called saponification). Some oils require more lye than others. Too little lye for the type of oils used means that the mixture won’t turn into soap; too much lye and you’ve got a hot (overly alkaline) bar of soap that can potentially hurt the skin of the ultimate user. Here’s an example of what I mean: One pound of olive oil requires approximately 2 ounces of lye to properly saponify; however, one pound of coconut oil requires nearly 3 ounces (suggested amounts can vary depending on the amount of water used in the recipe). The problem is magnified if you are making a larger batch (and really, making soap is messy enough that you’ll want to make larger batches). When it comes to lye, one size does not fit all. Fortunately, free lye calculators are available online from a number of web sites, including Majestic Mountain Sage, Brambleberry, and SoapCalc.

Soap making can be a rewarding and creative skill to master, but I encourage anyone who is interested in making soap to learn the basics by reading a good soap making book, such as The Soapmakers Companion by Susan Miller Cavitch or Soap Maker’s Workshop: The Art and Craft of Natural Homemade Soap by Robert S. McDaniel and Katherine J. McDaniel. By the way, Robert McDaniel is a scientist who explains not only what to do when making soap, but why.

In JWR's book "How to Survive the End of the World as We Know It" , item number 11 on the Bartering and Charity List is "50 pound sacks of lime (for outhouses"). My first thought on reading this was, “Why would I barter away my precious lime?” More than just an odor eliminator, lime is a very helpful material used for countless applications in its various forms across various industries ranging from use in the production of glass to use as a calcium supplement in Tropicana brand orange juice.

My initial research was designed to discover which type of lime would be best to buy in bulk, based on its price and versatility in regard to survival needs. Ultimately my research has provided more questions than answers, more starting points for more research projects rather than full-fledged answers. However, I do believe that the common uses I have discovered at this point provide a comprehensive springboard which can serve as starting points for future research for all long-term preparation.

The most important thing to distinguish when acquiring lime is the type of lime and storage capacities based on your targeted use of the product. Besides the lime fruit, which will not be discussed in this article, “lime” generally refers to three types of limestone-derived materials: Limestone, Quicklime, and Hydrated Lime. It is important to explore the different uses of each type of lime and its availability in order to plan accordingly.

Furthermore, it is important to note that the chemicals come in different grades as recognized by the FDA: Pharmaceutical (Pharma), Food, Feed, and Industrial/Technical, with pharmaceutical and food grade being safe for human consumption.

Below are each of the common types of lime, their storage recommendations, and uses. What is not included: uses of lime (and there are many) that are outside of the normal scope of survival, such as using limestone to make glass or using hydrated lime in the petroleum refining process. If you are curious, there are abundant resources about the many uses of lime on The National Lime Association’s web site, as well as endless references throughout the Web.

I. Limestone. This is one of the cheapest forms of lime since it is generally made from crushed limestone. Calcium carbonate or calcite (CaCO3) is the primary component of limestone, though CaCO3 derived from limestone may contain pollutants and should not be used for human consumption unless specifically packaged and sold as food or pharma grade calcium carbonate, such as antacid tablets. Crushed limestone is also known as aglime or agricultural lime/limestone and garden lime and is available at most gardening centers and feed stores.
A. Dolomitic lime. Calcium magnesium carbonate: Dolomitic lime is usually also crushed limestone, but with more magnesium, so I group it here with limestone. Limestone generally has varying levels of magnesium carbonate in the form of dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2)—thus, the name Dolomitic lime or  magnesium limestone. Dolomite  has many of its own uses and could warrant its own article, though one must be careful using dolomitic lime as it is not pure dolomite and is often not food or pharma grade. Furthermore, the presence of lime may create separate complications when using dolomite for chemical reactions or consumption. Food grade dolomite can (and should) be purchased separately these purposes.
B. Storage: Aglime should be kept dry mainly because it is hard to use it when it is a sludge, and it can cake up when it dries, making it hard to use. Compositionally, water is not harmful to it, except for the fact that limestone is highly absorbent and can absorb hard metals and other substances into it. If you plan on using this lime for gardening or outhouses for an extended period, consider keeping it in a 5 gallon bucket with a lid.
C. Precautions: Limestone is generally considered chemically inert, but it is a chemical base. Aglime can cause skin irritation, redness and burning of eyes, and prolonged exposure can cause irritation of the respiratory tract. Can worsen asthma.
D. Uses: Many uses of aglime can also be mimicked by quicklime or hydrated lime, so its uses are listed under Interchangeable Uses below. As mentioned before, I am not including industrial uses for lime that may be too far out of the normal purview of survival.

II. Calcium oxide (CaO). This is a more volatile form of lime that reacts endothermically with water. It is formed by baking calcium carbonate in a kiln at temperatures between 900-1000°C (1652-1832°F). It is also known as quicklime, hot lime, or burnt lime.
            A. Storage: Quicklime needs to be stored away from all moisture in containers that themselves are moisture proof. Over time, a container may absorb some moisture, and this can cause the quicklime to either melt the container or even explode, depending on how much water has reached it. Calcium oxide is not a flammable material, but its reaction with water can cause high temperatures. It should not be stored near combustible materials.
            B. Precautions: Besides precautionary measures for storage, one should remember that quicklime is especially dangerous to animals because of its reaction with water, and it can cause chemical burns to the eyes, throat, lungs when it reacts with the body’s moisture. It has actually been used as a chemical weapon for this reason (see below).
III. Calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)2). This is also known as hydrated lime, slaked lime, cal, and pickling lime. Cal and pickling lime are both food grade. Hydrated lime has an impressive range of use across multiple industries, including the food industry, oil and gas, metallurgy, construction, and many others. It is formed by adding water to quicklime. Food grade is fairly expensive compared to industrial grade—a 1 lb bag of pickling lime is currently $4.69 on Amazon, whereas Tractor Supply Co. sells a 50 lb bag of [non food grade] hydrated lime for $7.99.

IV. Uses (In no particular order):

1. Blacksmithing. Quicklime is commonly used as a flux for removing impurities from steel. Hydrated lime is used to whitewash steel products to provide corrosion protection as well as lubrication.
2. Smelting. Quicklime and hydrated lime are both used in the recovery of nonferrous ores from various other materials.
3. Construction. Aglime is often used as an aggregate, and quicklime is a binding agent in mortars, cements, concretes, plasters, and stuccos. The type of lime required varies with the product, but each type of lime has some use in construction. Using lime goes back to ancient times of combining lime, sand, and water to make primitive masonry.
4. Construction. Hydrated and quicklime may be used as a firming agent for wet soil to expedite construction. Quicklime in pebble form is preferred over hydrated lime, though both do work.
5. Gardening. Use aglime as a soil sweetener to raise PH levels of soil in gardens. Some gardeners prefer dolomitic lime to regular ag lime because it also adds magnesium to the soil. Hydrated lime is more effective at raising pH levels, though it may contain less magnesium, and is generally more expensive. My dad limed a single field years ago, and it is still the greenest field and best producer on his land.
6. Livestock. To control flies in barn areas, spread aglime on the barn floor. Hydrated lime works, too. This will also control unwanted odors. Be careful if you are using manure to fertilize your garden as the lime can make it more alkaline, though many gardens actually need it. The latent benefit is that one can both fertilize and sweeten the soil with manure that has lime mixed in already.
7. Outhouse. To control odors in outhouses, sprinkle aglime over waste. Any of the other types work, too, though one should probably avoid combining quicklime with water needlessly. Any other offensive odors can be treated similarly.
8. Fishing. “Liming” a pond is common in the southeastern U.S. where soil tends to be more acidic. This greatly increases the availability of nutrients and production of phytoplankton (the base of the food chain in a pond), increases the pH levels of the water and helps to stabilize fluctuations in pH levels. Hydrated lime achieves the same results, but it can kill the fish because it raises the pH levels quickly, so its use is reserved for sterilization between crops at hatcheries.
9. Water treatment. In water purification and treatment, hydrated lime is used to adjust pH levels, as a softener, as a coagulate and flocculate, as a disinfectant, and in purification. Dolomitic lime is effective in removing silica from water in water treatment processes. The Coca Cola company is among Mississippi Lime’s clients, where it is used in the manufacturing of Coke (processing of water), although it may have other uses there, too.
10. Instruction. Limestone was once the core component in making chalk for use on a blackboard. I am still looking for an exact recipe here, but previously chalk was made from ground limestone, whereas today it is mainly made from gypsum. In traditional chalk-making, the limestone was mixed with pigments and baked, but I have not experimented with this yet. Adding clays and oils creates pastels, which are air-dried. Chalk provides a long-term solution for brainstorming, schooling, and other instruction without having to worry about ink or graphite supplies.
11. Heating. Quicklime is useful as a heating element in self-heating cans or foods when mixed with water. You may have seen the internet video of the hillbilly hot tub, which uses quicklime and water to heat. Calcium oxide can be used on a much larger scale if needed as emergency heating, and the byproduct is hydrated lime, which has its own uses. Smokeless/fireless heat can be very important if one is on needs to remain undetected, although there is some amount of “smoke” from the chemical reaction, which quickly dissipates. Avoid using quicklime in enclosed areas.
12. Lighting. Quicklime may be used as a non-electric source of bright lighting. The limelight (or calcium light) was used to light stages for quite some time before electrical lighting took over. Simply put, limelight was calcium oxide heated with a hydrogen torch, which emits a bright glow. The lowest temperature required for the glow is around 1000°C or 1832°F, which can be easily achieved by a propane torch, stove, or heater.  Although not as efficient as other forms of lighting necessarily, it is at least another option to file away, especially if you already plan on using propane to cook or heat and want to set up a limelight. Calcium oxide melts at around 2572°C or 4661°F, so you have a lot of leeway between making it glow and actually melting it.
13. Weapons. Because calcium oxide reacts endothermically with water, it can be particularly dangerous to the skin, eyes, lungs, and digestive tract. It can cause chemical burns in the throat, lungs, nose, stomach, etc. The MSDS for quicklime does not list it as a fire hazard, but it does note that its reaction with water can be hot enough to ignite combustible materials, which is one of the theories of why it may have been a key ingredient for Greek Fire. Author David Hume’s 1688 work The History of England claims quicklime was used by the English to win a critical battle against the French by positioning themselves upwind and throwing quicklime in the French’s faces. Ouch.
14. Tanning. Hydrated lime is used for removing the hair from hides in the tanning process. It is also a key ingredient in human hair removal lotions, such as Nair. It is also used as a hair relaxer.
15. Cooking. Cal (hydrated lime) is a critical ingredient in in making masa (corn dough) and hominy. Masa is the basis for corn tortillas and tamale dough. The process of making masa (called nixtamalizing) actually does make the corn more digestible and, therefore, more nutritious (not to mention the added calcium). As an added bonus, because of hydrated lime’s preservative properties, corn tortillas tend to keep much longer than flour tortillas.
16. Dietary supplement. Small amounts of food grade hydrated lime are added to Tropicana orange juice to fortify it with calcium, and it is also used in baby formula. The Poison Control Center tells me that you would have to eat huge amounts of this before it would do you lethal harm. Remember, however, that it is a base, which is why it works well in orange juice to counteract the acidity of the citrus, but by itself it may cause irritation in the throat or stomach.
17. Whitewash. Hydrated or aglime are combined with water and salt to make whitewash or lime-wash. Besides aesthetically pleasing, some claim whitewashing a roof with lime-wash for collection of rainwater helps to pre-treat it, which makes sense since lime is antimicrobial and helps in water purification. This is done in countries like Bermuda, which have no natural fresh water reservoirs and rely on rainwater for consumption.
18. Food preservation. Hydrated lime is also called pickling lime because it can be used in pickling. Furthermore, hydrated lime has great antimicrobial/antifungal and preservative properties, which is an added reason to use it. My mother, who lives in a swampy area, is unable to use a root cellar, so she sprinkles aglime on her potatoes through the winter and has no problem with them going bad. If you utilize this method, wash the potatoes thoroughly. Hydrated lime is the active ingredient in a compound called Polikar, which is used for preserving vegetables. See more below on lime’s antimicrobial properties.
19. Gardening. Hydrated lime is effective against many different types of insects, often killing them through contact, and it is an active ingredient in some insecticides on the market, which is why it is so effective at treating excess flies in a barnyard. Hydrated lime is an active ingredient in the Bordeaux mixture used by vineyards to fight fungus.
20. Antimicrobial/antifungal. Lime’s antimicrobial properties can (in theory) help fight certain types of blight, although I have not found reliable documentation for this. It is boiled with sulfur to make a mange dip. A more powerful pharmaceutical grade calcium hydroxide (pH 13 instead of 12ish) is used in dentistry as a paste to treat microbes when dealing with root canals. These antimicrobial properties are one of the primary reasons why lime is effective at controlling odors.

After reviewing my own list, it is difficult to determine exactly which type of lime one should concentrate on, and I believe that stocking up on any one type should be governed by your intended use. I do believe that food grade hydrated lime is possibly the most useful of all of the types of lime since it can be consumed and still has the critical properties needed for all of its other uses, not to mention the fact that it can fulfill many of the same functions as the other types of lime. Additionally, heating hydrated lime to around 512°C (954°F) evaporates the water from it and forms calcium oxide (quicklime), so one can easily create his/her own calcium oxide if needed.

Of course, following that philosophy, one could theoretically stock up solely on aglime, bake it to create quicklime, and then combine the quicklime with water to create hydrated lime, although that whole process requires an investment in a lime kiln and other materials, and the hydrated lime would not be edible.

The most practical recommendation would be to stock up on a proportionate amount of each type relative to your intended use. Quicklime is a little harder to find these days, as it either comes in very small amounts (such as 400g) or very large amounts (several tons). You may be lucky enough to have a building materials vendor that sales it in your area, but you will probably have to make a few phone calls. The National Lime Association lists companies in each state that produce lime, and they will either sell it to you directly or point you to one of their distributors. Hydrated lime, dolomitic lime, and regular aglime can all be found easily and are fairly cheap (if not food grade)—all of them can be found for around $10/50lbs at most gardening or feed stores.

General Warnings:
For complete details on lime, its health risks, and precautionary measures, please visit the manufacturer’s site for MSDS information. I used Mississippi Lime’s MSDS for my information, as well as interviews with scientists at the FDA and in the labs at various limestone companies.

All forms of lime can cause irritation to the skin, eyes, throat, and lungs. One should take precautionary measures with all lime.

Consuming different grades of lime can have hazardous effects. There are many different potential contaminants in limestone, which realistically can vary from quarry to quarry even in the same region. These can vary greatly, but possible contaminants include lead, copper, fluoride, arsenic, cadmium, and petroleum distillates among others. Quarries near mines or areas that use hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") are also at higher risk for contaminated limestone. Remember that limestone (from which most quicklime and hydrated lime also derive) is sedimentary rock and therefore vulnerable to outside contaminants. For example, the EPA permits industrial sewage sludge to spread over farms, which could potentially leech through the soil down into the limestone, introducing cadmium as a contaminant.

That said, Mississippi Lime, which, from my own research as well as information from the National Lime Association and the company itself, is possibly the only company in the United States that produces food grade calcium hydroxide, explained to me that most lime is naturally fairly compliant with FDA regulations except one major element. In the case of the limestone they quarry, the limestone naturally conforms to all FDA requirements for traces of lead, copper, iron, and other pollutants except for fluoride, which may be present in over 100 PPM (the standard is 50 PPM). Basically, besides cleaning it better, the only difference between their agricultural grade calcium hydroxide and their food grade pickling lime is that they have removed some of the fluoride. With other quarries, the amount of pollutants is difficult to determine since they do not perform tests that measure all human toxins, although, depending on the company, they may remove heavy metals even in the agricultural grade aglime or hydrated lime. Agricultural grade does remove lead and arsenic to accepted levels.

Sources:
The National Lime Association’s web site is a great starting point for any research involving lime. They were also a valuable resource for pointing me to the proper people to whom I could pose my questions.

The people at Mississippi Lime were extremely patient and helpful to me in answering specific questions about the processing of food grade lime and many of its various, diverse uses. I also spoke with various other company representatives of other lime companies, but I mainly reference my conversations with Mississippi Lime employees.

The kind scientists at the FDA were also surprisingly helpful about hazards, potential contaminants, and diseases associated with lime and answered all of my questions with expertise and competency.

The Poison Control Center provides 24/7 free information about the toxicity and dangers of the various types of lime. You can call them for all non-
emergency questions, too, so feel free to do so with any questions you may have about lime or any other product. Their answers tend to be less substantiated and scientific than the FDA, but they are easier to contact.

Brazilian Dental Journal and my brother, who is a dentist s helped me with specific uses of lime in dentistry.

WARNING: Lye is highly caustic and will degrade organic tissue. Do not allow lye to touch your skin, breathe in the fumes or be taken internally in any way. It will cause chemical burns, permanent scarring or blindness. Do not ever combine lye with aluminum, magnesium, zinc, tin, chromium, brass or bronze. When using or making lye, always wear protective equipment including safety glasses and chemical resistant gloves, and have adequate ventilation.
 
 
Basic homemade lye soap is useful for so much more than cleaning up the language of wayward children. Grandma used to rub it on dirty stains before washing. It is very soothing to sensitive skin, since the glycerin contained in homemade soap helps to clear acne, eczema and psoriasis. It eliminates the “human scent” on hunters. When rubbed on a poison oak, ivy or sumac reaction it will cool the itching when allowed to dry. Grandma used to tie a bar in an old sock and hang it on the porch as a bug repellent, and spread the scrapings around the base of the house to repel ants, termites, snakes, spiders and roaches. It was often used as a lubricant on machinery, drawers, and hinges.
 
Soap was discovered in Ancient Babylon as early as 2800 BC. It is thought to have been made for the first time when grease from the cooking pot boiled over and combined with the ashes from the camp fire. Our forefathers picked up the resulting soap and found that it was a good tool to keep themselves clean. Modern soap was made in regular practice as early as 300 AD in Germany .
 
The Saponification process
In its simplest form, soap is made from oil or fat, water and lye. Now, we buy concentrated lye and dissolve it in water before combining it with oil, but before modern lye could be bought at the store, people would take the hardwood ashes from their cookstove, store it in an old carved out tree or wooden barrel, and then pour rainwater through it to make the lye. They would test the strength of the lye by floating an egg in it. Then they would pour the lye into the warmed fat and stir it. When the fat and lye are combined, a chemical reaction takes place. There is no lye or fat left—they are combined to make something called soap.
 
Store bought lye is known as Sodium Hydroxide since it has more salt than does homemade lye, which is called Potassium Hydroxide. Sodium Hydroxide makes a much harder soap than Potassium Hydroxide. To make a harder soap out of homemade lye, add ½ tsp. of table salt for each pound of fat.
 
Tallow (beef fat), lard (pork fat) or vegetable oils can be used as the base for soap. These fats are called triglycerides. When the triglyceride is treated with lye, it rapidly forms the ester bond and releases glycerol (glycerin), the natural byproduct of saponification. Most homemade soap contains glycerin, which is why it’s so good for the skin; many commercial operations remove it for other applications.
 
 
Making the Lye
Lye making requires hardwood ash. Hardwoods include any fruit or nut trees and any of the following:  Alder, Apple, Ash, Aspen , Beech, Birch, Cherry, Cottonwood, Dogwood, Elm, Gum, Hickory , Locust, Maple, Oak, Olive, Pear, Poplar, Rosewood, Walnut, or Willow . Softwoods are to be avoided for this function: Cedar, Spruce, Pine, Fir, Hemlock, or Cypress .
 
In a wooden barrel or hollow tree, drill some holes in the very bottom, then set it up on a stand to allow room below for a pot to catch the lye water. Some people make a barrel with a removable plug which they remove after letting the water sit in the ash.  Under the stand, set a wooden or glass pot to catch the drip.
 
In the barrel, put first a layer of gravel, then a layer of straw or dried grass. Fill up the barrel with hardwood ash. When you are ready to make the lye, pour rainwater or other soft water through the ash. The minerals in hard water will interfere with the chemical reaction between the lye and the fat. The water may take up to a few days to drain through. The spent ashes can be composted or added to the garden.
 
In a specified purpose soap-making pot such as cast iron, boil the lye until a fresh, in-shell egg will float on top, with about half of the egg still above the surface of the lye. If it’s too high, add more water, if it won’t float, it needs to cook down a lot more or else be poured through a new batch of ashes. The egg will need to be destroyed after use. Another test of the lye strength is to dip a bird feather in it, and if it dissolves, the lye is strong enough. Don’t test it with your finger; if it’s strong enough, it will eat off the skin.
 
Rendering The Fat
After the animal (beef or pork) is butchered, take the fat and skin that you set aside and fill a heavy bottomed pot. Pork is the preferred fat for soapmaking. It’s best to render it outside so as to not stink up the house. We have used a homemade propane burner on legs, with a funnel to channel the air to make the flame hotter. Something similar could be made to use with wood heat. Simmer the fat in the pot, then ladle the liquid fat out of the cooking pot. We killed a 400 lb. hog and got about 10 gallons of rendered fat.
 
Making Soap—The Cold Process
If using commercially produced lye, it’s possible to use a cold process, where you warm the fat and dissolve the lye in water, then add the lye water to the fat and put in a blender and mix it, then pour into a mold. The emulsification starts when it “traces” with a spoon dragged over the rippled mixture.  It has to set for 6 weeks in the mold to be properly mixed.
 
1 lb. Commercial Lye soap recipe
¼ c. commercially produced lye
¾ c. soft water
2 c. (1 lb.) fat
 
6 lb. Commercial Lye soap recipe
13 oz commercially produced lye
1 ½ pt. soft water
12 c. (6 lb.) fat
 
Instructions: Suit up in safety goggles, gloves and long sleeves. Start with room temperature or cooler water. [Correction by JWR.] Add the lye to the water. This will warm the water substantially. Stir well, making sure you don’t breathe in the fumes. Set the mixture aside to cool, preferably outside or in a well ventilated area.
 
Melt all the oils together in a lye-tolerant pan. Allow them to cool to approximately 110°F or within 5° of the lye water.
 
Add the lye water to the melted oils, never the oil to the lye water. Stir vigorously until “trace” occurs. This can be done in a blender if you so desire. If you are stirring by hand, it may take an hour or more for it to trace.
 
Pour the traced soap mixture into your molds. Cover. Cut after 3-7 days. Allow to sit for a full 6 weeks to cure and finish the saponification process.
 
 
Making Soap—The Cooked Process
It isn’t recommended to use homemade lye with the cold process. The cooked-down lye water is added to the fat and then mixed as it cooks. The reactive time is shorter, since the mixing is done in the pot instead of setting in the mold. It still needs to set for four weeks or so to harden.
 
1 lb. Homemade Lye soap recipe
¾ c. lye water
½ tsp. salt
2 c. fat
 
6 lb. Homemade Lye soap recipe
4 ½ c. lye water
1 Tbsp. salt
12 c. (6 lb.) fat
 
The amount of lye will vary, depending on its strength. This is a starting measurement. The old timers would mix it up and see how well it set. If it was still watery, they’d add more lye and cook it some more. If it set up too hard, they’d add more water, because they didn’t want the soap to crack.
 
Mix the lye water, salt and fat in the pot. They need to be about the same temperature. The mixture is then heated and stirred until the emulsification (trace) happens. The heating and stirring enables adjustment of the amount of fat or lye, but nothing should be added until it is well heated. Pour into the mold. Cover. Cut after 3-7 days. Allow to harden 4-6 weeks.
 
Additives
Essential oils can be added to the fats before the lye is added. You can choose your own combination. The amount of essential oils needs to be part of the total amount of fat, so the soap isn’t made soft from too much oil. Botanicals, herbs, oatmeal, citrus peels, or any other desired additives can be added after the soap traces, and then it can be poured into the mold.
 
Molds
No metal should be used as a soap mold. It’s best to use a flexible material such as plastic, for ease of removal. I mostly search thrift stores for old plastic storage boxes. The old-timers made wooden molds with removable bottoms. Or you can line a glass mold with plastic wrap before pouring in the soap.  
 
Once you’ve used homemade lye soap, you’ll never go back to the store bought stuff. It sounds like a lot of work, but it’s so much better than anything found on a store shelf.

Mr. Rawles,

I wanted to stress for G.R. in Texas that refugee camp living is far worse than anything experienced at Occupy Wall Street. Those were comparatively small encampments of comparatively wealthy people (in a global perspective, I work with populations who make less than $1 a day), with largely similar ideological frameworks, in cities that provided a fair number of basic services.

I've visited several refugee camps supported by tens of millions of dollars in foreign aid and I can say that when you have more than 10,000 people together aid money is barely enough to get basic supplies out to people. Logistics break down in disheartening ways. Even in supported camps in Haiti rape by gangs of men is endemic, rats are out of control, sanitation is completely inadequate. People in these camps are hopeless and stuck without work, completely dependent on ever decreasing handouts from NGOs or money from relatives. Some of these people had good work before the quake and just lost everything, pharmacists, accountants, nurses.

I know plenty of people who hiked out of Port Au Prince after the earthquake to get to buses to other cities, largely they did better than the people who stayed. But of the roughly 500,000 that left the city in the two weeks after the quake about 200,000 returned to live in the camps when they had nowhere to go and no options for food.

I honestly suggest people make global networks of friends now that they know can rely on in times of crises to help them get back on their feet. Making these agreements reciprocal helps. I would rather take my chances starting a new life from scratch in another town or country not affected by a disaster with the help of a friend than spend a day in a true refugee camp. In a refugee camp it doesn't matter if you are skilled or trained, you are not in control of your destiny. I hope all people who plan to bug out of a location have several friendly destinations in mind to get to. Sincerely, - Peter H.

Having worked as a counselor in various positions, I have had the opportunity to view the system from many angles. What I am seeing scares me and should scare you too, not the type of fear that freezes you or drops you into a strong state of denial but the fear that motivates you to take close inventory of what is important in your life and causes you to initiate a plan to protect yourself and those you love.
I must have looked like an odd duck when I worked as a drug and alcohol counselor. My co-workers were left wing liberals and I am very conservative. While they ate their tofu products for lunch, I ate deer, rabbit, squirrel, or something I grew or collected myself (much to their horror). When I ate the eggs from my chickens, one of my co-workers exclaimed she would never eat an egg from a chicken as all her eggs come from the store; the same woman was working on an education degree to become an elementary school teacher with full intention of working in a public school setting.
I am seeing people from all walks of life fearing 2012.… as if the doctor diagnosed them with a terminal disease with a set number of months left to live. I see various types of reactions:
*Individuals in complete denial - asserting our system could never fail - believing there are too many programs to help people that are having difficulty. These individuals view the government as a parent with an endless bank account that can continually bail out its delinquent dependent children.
*Individuals trusting their pastors who tell them preparation is equivalent to a lack of faith because God is going to rapture the believers up right before anything bad happens.
*Individuals who realize that they should prepare but don’t want to make sacrifices with their current financial budget so they ignore what they see and write it all off as a y2k scare.
*Individuals at various levels of preparing and many that believe totally preparation is not necessary as imagining a world without electronics and electricity is beyond their comprehension.
*And there are those who are living their lives the way they want to now with the intention of taking by force what they need from those who have been diligent in preparing.
 
The best advice I could give is sit down with your loved ones and make sure that you completely understand each other and are on the same page. After a 4 year courtship with a man who claimed he wanted us to become self-sufficient, I found myself single again when he left after a series of tropical storms hit our area leaving much devastation. My property held - just had the minor inconvenience of no electricity which I saw as a time to test our resources. He left after the power came back on - with the belief he was running to a world that would never change… would always have the lights on… would always have stocked grocery stores and convenient marts full of gas. He ran to a place he felt he could live it up and experience all the things he was not going to willingly ever give up. He ran to his friends that call us “preppers” loony like those who called Noah nuts for building an ark in the dessert. The rain is coming folks. In fact… pun intended… it never really has stopped where I am at.
I have had some time to contemplate what happened to my failed relationship and it made me realize that he will not be the only one of us who runs. Some will run right into the arms of the enemy and gladly share what they know and where they came from. Some will jump off the cliff with the others when the SHTF. Some times we won’t be surprised at this and sometimes we will.
Make sure you are on the same page as your loved ones. Everyone has a special talent or ability that they can bring to the survival package. If things are not working now before anything catastrophic happens, then you can pretty much count on them not working at all if something happens. Change … dramatic changes… have the potential to bring out the worst in people. Panicked people can’t think and often do stupid things.
Also make a plan for how you are going to deal with all those who will not be in your immediate family/group but show up after the collapse. If you are a survivalist or prepper, you are noticed no matter how inconspicuous you try to be. We are noticed because we are different and there is nothing wrong with that. But that difference will be why they will be headed our way and not to their buddies who didn’t do anything to “weather the storm”. What is your plan to protect your own? How far will you go to accomplish that? Is everyone in your family and group on the same page with this? Figure this out now - because during a collapse, there are too many other pressing things you will be faced with you may not have anticipated.

I found out how panicked a community can become when the power went out for almost a week during tropical storm Irene. Panicked people have difficulty thinking as it is hard for the average person to imagine a world without electricity. Some basic things got my neighbors through the week once I explained how to use some basic items most people have around their homes already.

1. Garbage pails cleaned with some dish detergent or bleach can become great rain collectors to collector house water that runs from a gutter. This water can be used for bathing, cleaning, flushing toilets, and when filtered - using a coffee filter set in a strainer can be used for consumption. This water can also be boiled for those concerned with drinking filtered rain water.
2. Those cute solar lights that outline people’s driveways, walkways, gardens, etc make great indoor lanterns at night. They can be placed in a Mason jar or plastic bottle (stake down) and carried around the house or set on a table or shelf. The more sunlight available that day - the longer they will be lit at night. This not only saves batteries and candles but is a safe alternative that many people already own.
3. Use items thawed items in your freezer first. If food seems questionable it is still probably safe enough to be used as feed for dogs or cats if used right away. At my house - the saying is - nothing goes to waste. If we can’t eat it, either the cats, dogs, goats, ducks, or chickens can. The very little that is left over after that ends up in the composting bin for use as my medium for starting seeds in late winter for spring planting.
3. Restless adults, teenagers, or children can find entertainment in board games, cards, or story telling. Devastating storms don’t have to be devastating to families. This can be used as a bonding time without having to fight distractions from electronics, television, phones, etc.
4. Humor… humor…humor… Use it generously… Laugh. Depression is contagious …. But fortunately so is a positive attitude which is what you are going to need to recognize resources you already have around the house if you get caught with your pants down and did not prepare.
5. Toilets do not need to be flushed every time you use them. Flush them if someone has a bowel movement - all other times keep the lid down until the smell tells you it needs a flushing. This conserves a tremendous amount of water. Placed any used toilet paper in a lined garbage can to be burned later - clogged pipes or overflowed septic tanks can only make matter worse at this point.
6. Your hot water heater is a good source of water along with your pipes in your house when you run out of rain water you collected in a storm.
7. Bathing - collected rain water can be heated up with a gas stove, wood stove, or even a pot on your grill. What is really nice is the grills that have the burner attachment to them. Do NOT bring your grill into your home. That is dangerous. At our house we heated up enough water on our gas stove for each person to get cleaned up by a modified sponge bath accomplished by placing the heated water in a bucket in our bath tub. With a cup, we would scoop out just enough water to get our bodies wet and pour it on ourselves, then lather up, and use the rest of the water to rinse - if you use a cup you will use less water which means less waste and less time to heat up the amount of water needed. Since we were in the bath tub while accomplishing this the water and soap suds stayed where they belong.

I found that the things that concerned my neighbors the most (ones who had no survivalist prepping mindset) was eating, bathing, lighting at night, and ability to use toilets all of which I showed them can be accomplished with a few simple items they already have around their house.

Good luck with your prepping. Make it fun. Maintain your humor. Hug your loved ones frequently - well not so frequently they think you are completely nuts. If you are reading this blog then you are already concerned about what you see in the world and see that some changes need to be made to ensure long term survival. Give yourself a pat on the back for it - you are already ahead of the masses--even if you feel you have a long way to go in your preparations.

I was just rereading the original posting about "beans, bullets and hygiene". The author wrote to be sure to check out the discount bins for after season sales on holiday soaps. He wrote that while the soaps may be strongly scented "nobody will care after TEOTWAWKI what they smell like". But actually, it may matter. 
 
We live in the country. We're not daily assaulted by the highly aromatic city folks wearing their cologne, perfume and scented body washes. So when we do happen to come in contact with them, we can smell them coming from quite a distance.
 
Its sorta' the same as noise. Today's world is so full of the noise of cars passing by, planes overhead, radios and television playing (not to mention those things people stick in their ears) that you don't even notice some neighbor pounding a nail or running a chainsaw.
 
But after all goes quiet, and after daily showers become much less common, folks' hearing and smelling will become much more sensitive. You'll hear saws running and know "someone" has heat and gas. If a neighbor appears cleaner than anyone else, and especially if they smell "fresher" (that is, perfumey/smelly/soapy) than the usual, you'll guess that they have more water, more soap, and therefore maybe more "other stuff". This is not good OPSEC.
 
We believe that when going out to community meetings, or on other occasions of contact outside your immediate group, it may be well to wear older, dirtier clothes so you don't attract notice. It may also be well to keep in mind that the person who smells 21st Century will be extraordinarily noticeable when everyone else is living 19th Century.
 
Our suggestion is that in a dark world, don't show your lights. In a world of no gas, don't be the only one to advertise having fuel for generators and saws. And in a world without instant hot and cold water, don't smell like Paris Hilton. - Jim in N. Ohio

Mr. Rawles,

I wanted to call to your reader's attention to the use of soap nuts in place of traditional laundry soap.  We first discovered them when looking for a chemical and fragrance free alternative for cloth diapers and baby clothes.  We now use them for all of our laundry and for many other cleaning jobs around the house.  They are all natural, economical, versatile, and easy to store - taking up much less room than traditional laundry detergent.   They can be reused several times and then composted.  They also work as a natural fabric softener. which is great for line drying.  Soap nuts are fine for septic and gray water systems. 

Other uses include:

• Hand soap
• Dishwasher soap
• Window cleaner
• All purpose cleaner
• Shampoo
• Pest and mosquito repellant
• Carpet cleaner
• Pet shampoo
• Jewelry cleaner
  

Soap nuts are already very economical.  To get even more for your money, I recommend:

• Buy in bulk and split the order with friends and family 
• Don't buy the "whole" soap nuts.  I prefer breaking them anyway to better release the cleaning agent -  The suppliers don't always list the pieces on their web site, but if you call them they often times will sell the "broken" soap nuts at a largely discounted price, especially if you are buying in bulk. 
• Grind your own powder and make your own liquid.  It's easy to learn and there are many instructions and recipes to be found on the Internet. 

There are various ways to can and preserve the soap nuts liquid, so you can store it in quantity and have it readily available.  We store our soap nuts in a five gallon bucket with a lid, and this lasts our family of four a very long time.   Soap nuts make a great barter item to keep on hand, since they store easily, take up so little space, and have multiple uses. - WoodsyMama

James,
I wanted to add something to the recent hygiene article and responses that I have read and that is dental floss.  Dental floss is one of the single best tools for not only healthy teeth but, just as importantly, healthy gums.  Gum disease and tooth decay has been shown to affect overall health and contributes to heart disease and possible brain trauma due to infection.  Dental floss is compact and easy to store and it lasts forever (you might need to check that regarding the 'flavored' varieties), there is no reason not to pick up a couple extra packs every time you replace toothbrushes and toothpaste because it could be the difference between saving your teeth and having to learn to survive on broth.
  I also wanted to add a hearty endorsement for using a safety razor, as per the article posted on learning to shave like grandpa.  I started using a safety razor a year ago and I will never go back.  The shave is smoother and easier on the skin, the razor is cleaner because there is less tendency for a single blade to get 'clogged', and the blades are indeed cheaper as well as lasting longer since they are double sided.  I don't have an abundance of facial hair so I have only gone through one pack of double sided razors since started shaving this way.  Its better for your face, less expensive, and more durable - the perfect set of features for a prepper\-friendly shaving kit. Regards, - Doug W.

Mr. Rawles,
 Another comment on home made laundry soap. There is a difference between Sodium Carbonate and Sodium Bicarbonate and using the wrong one will make a difference in the quality/effectiveness of your product. If you are having difficulty locating Sodium Carbonate you may want to consider checking with your local swimming pool supply store. Soda Ash (sodium carbonate) is a commonly used chemical to raise the pH in swimming pools. - W.V. Willard

Mr. Rawles:
There are several easy solutions, and a few economical difficult ones. I make my laundry soap out of grated Ivory bars, Borax, generic Oxy-Clean, and baking soda. My laundry soap works way better than the store bought detergent, is cheaper, and takes less per load. There will come a day when those ingredients are not available. I'll probably then just use homemade lye soap and boil the clothes after scrubbing them on my passed down washboard.
 
The solution to toilet paper is to use fabric rags and re-wash them (in my homemade laundry soap). It's a fairly easy solution. I have a dispenser in my bathroom where I have big rags and little rags in two separate compartments. I have a little canister with a lid, into which I put the soiled rags. I like it better than toilet paper.
 
Instead of paper towels, I use fabric towels. Again, these solutions are boringly old fashioned, but amazingly foreign to our present culture.
 
For soap, I use old fashioned lye soap, made my yours truly. I use store bought lye at this point in time, but later, when we will be heating with wood, I will take the ashes and run rain water over them to make lye. I use the lye soap to wash my skin and my hair.
 
For shampoo, I use this mixture right now:
Step 1: Wet hair. Use a tiny amount of dandruff shampoo, scrub into scalp. Wash out.
Step 2: In an empty shampoo bottle, fill it up with water, and squeeze some (only 2 squeezes) of your favorite shampoo into bottle. I use generic Pantene moisturizing shampoo. Shake up. Squeeze a little bit onto your hair. Lather. Rinse.
Step 3: Take a bar of lye soap. Rub in hair. Lather. Rinse.
Step 4: In an empty conditioner bottle, fill it up with water, and squeeze some (I'm talking 2 squeezes) of your favorite conditioner into bottle. I use generic Pantene moisturizing conditioner. Shake up. Squeeze a little bit onto your hair. Lather. Rinse.
Step 5. In an empty spray bottle, put about 1/4 of bottle in vinegar, fill up with water. Spray all over your hair.
 
I have long, thick hair to my waist, but I use very little shampoo or conditioner. The key is to use a lot of water. The shampoo is actually damaging to your hair. All shampoos contain several strippers; that's what makes hair tangly and dry. The lye soap contains glycerine, a natural by product of the chemical change that happens in the soap making process. Glycerine is very good for hair and skin. Few store-bought soaps that I know of contain the glycerine. The vinegar is also very good for the hair. Someday I will make some vinegar. From what I read, it's fairly easy to make if you have the apples.
 
It is very confusing to me to understand the thinking behind the large stores of stuff (paper, etc) that people talk about having. What will happen when they run out of those stores? Why not learn to cope without them now? Is it really self-sufficiency to just go buy everything in large quantity? I don't know, maybe it works for some people, it just doesn't make sense to me. I understand that I will probably still have to buy some things, but I want to be producing or have non-perishable things for most of what I need. - Mrs. A.L.

Mr. Rawles,
 
I read the article regarding "Beans, Bullets, Band-Aids, and Hygiene" by Jason L. I thought I would contribute our family's method of making laundry detergent. In stead of paying an exorbitant price for laundry soap, we make our own using Borax, Washing Soda, Fels-Naptha soap and hot water. This is the Duggar Family laundry soap recipe. I give proper credit to that family for the recipe, and it works great. Our clothes have a light clean scent and the monetary savings is tremendous. The simple and cheap ingredients make it very easy to store supplies to make literally thousands of gallons of laundry soap. Thanks for the great blog, as I visit it every day. - J.W. in Missouri 


Mr. Rawles:
My family’s initial solution to the toilet paper problem was simply to buy two cases every time we needed one case. This was an easy way to stock extra paper.
 
The house we live in now is partly constructed of poured in place fiberglass entrained concrete with # 6 rebar on 12 inch centers. Because every previous house I have ever lived in eventually became short of space, this time I constructed a separate 15 x 30 x 10 foot concrete building (walls and roof) with high security, outward opening steel doors. An internal concrete wall divides this building. Half of it houses a generator and large diesel tank. The generator portion has baffled electrically actuated steel shutters for cooling/ventilation when the generator is running and the exhaust flows through a hospital muffler exiting through the roof. The other half of this building is for storage and contains shelves, two freezers one stopping time on freeze dried food, a large refrigerator, microwave, and washer/dryer.
 
But back to the toilet paper. Our surplus was stacked on top of the freezers and refrigerator and by the time it reached the ceiling, we had a nice reserve. Because all things eventually reach the end (a pun of course), this nice supply of TP was deemed inadequate to meet our long term requirements. So I cast about for a better alternative to the left hand.
 
We stocked the following:
 
Product: Toilet Tissue, 1 ply, jumbo roll, 2000’/roll, 12 rolls/carton KC107223 by Kimberly Clark. Amazon price $ 65.72 from the Factory Depot
 
(2,000 foot/roll) x 12 rolls = 24,000 feet;
 
24,000 feet / (2 feet/average wipe) = 12,000 wipes;
 
12,000 wipes/ (1 wipe/average bowel movement every two days) = 24,000 days;
 
24,000 days/(365 days/year) = 65 years 8 months.
 
If the dedicated prepper would stock a carton of 12 of these rolls per family member, all should have happy bottoms for a nice long time.
 
Sincerely, - Panhandle Rancher

James,
I'd like to comment on the article "Beans, Bullets, Band-Aids and Hygiene, by Jason L" specifically on his plans to get a Wonder Washer.  Having owned one of these for more than ten years now I'd like to point out a few things about it people need to keep in mind.  First, the Wonder Washer is small compared to most washing machines we are used to using today.  I've used it on extended camping trips in our trailer and it works well enough for small items like socks and underwear.  I have yet to be able to fit a pair of heavy pants into it though nor would I be able to clean sheets from a Queen sized bed.  It works well enough for twin or single sheets or those lightweight sleeping bag liners that are sold.  I'd suggest getting a couple of water tubs and a laundry plunger and a washboard for larger items.  If you want to have your heavy clothes dry in less than a week during the most humid times of the year (here in Colorado we get a "monsoon flow" during parts of the summer and line drying becomes close to impossible) you also want to get a wringer.

I'd also add that the small size of the Wonder Washer makes it great for infrequent washing for one or two people, but with a family of seven at this point there is no way we'd be able to keep up with any laundry other than underwear and socks anyway.  Now, just imagine having an infant and all those diapers to wash as well. - Hugh D.