California Preppers and Survival

i The California School of Hispanic Herbalism is happy to announce the return of the biennial High Sierra Herbfest and Primitive Skills Meet! Set your calendar for July 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th! Set up is Thursday the 8th and we could use help. We hope folks will show up on Friday or early Saturday.... For those interested in the 2021 Last Annual High Sierra Herbfest and Primitive Skills Meet: We are asking for a donation of $50 USD for our hard work and supplies we will have to purchase for this event. If you camp in our group site your camping fees are covered. (Yah!) If you want more privacy you must pay your own camp fees. Currently our hopes are to have it during the new moon time of June or July. (Reason, star gazing.) I'll be bringing my telescope. If you have one, bring it. If it crosses your mind bring something to trade. Dear friend Joe Schilling will be in charge of the trade blanket. Some of the planned activities will be making a capote (a coat sewn from a wool blanket) taught by Joe Schilling. Purchase a surplus blanket on line and bring it up with you. Wilderness First Aid taught by LVN, EMT, and First Aid instructor Linda Garcia. Take notes. This can save your life. Knife knowledge and sharpening. If our good friend Mark Steele is able to join us, prepare for a fascinating lecture on water purification. A cooking lesson or two on the use of cast iron pots. Meat, breads, veggies. Herb lectures on the use of Native American herbs, introduced European herbs, and medicine making. Bring some pint bottles, wax, and olive oil. Spinning and natural dyes taught by Ruth McConnell, Kristy Schilling, and Iris Weaver. Perhaps a dramatic reading of a chapter from FOREVER FAIRE one evening. A community sing. (Don't be embarrassed. It's fun to sing.) A lecture on trepanning. Volunteers might be needed. (Just joking.) A short herb walk and perhaps a bit of harvesting. This depends on the amount of plants available. Currently it appears Mullein will be in great supply. A possible lecture on knife self defense for women by Sarah Garcia. Fire making by Joe Schilling. Spoon making with hot embers. How to make great coffee. Preserving meat with spices. Pickling. (Bring vinegar and quart jars.) If there is time and interest...jamming. AND PERHAPS MORE! If you have a skill you'd like to share please consider doing so. Just let us know soon. from the Director: The Herbfest was inspired by the Mid Atlantic Primitive Skills gatherings in Virginia and Maryland where Lynn and I taught off and on for several years. I taught herbs and Lynn taught first aid for adults and kids. I started the Herbfest 20 years ago making it a semi annual event. Over the years the event took in many different skills....some primitive, some survival (like picking locks and handcuffs) and some esoteric like sun cooking, hands on healing, and drum meditation. This year's event will be dedicated to Ross Cox and all others we have said goodbye to in the past several years.

Well readers and friends, I haven't posted for awhile for various reasons. But none of them are germane to this topic. I'm sure all of you have seen the photos coming out of Texas of the Death Freeze that has practically paralyzed that state. The typical Texan pride (and arrogance) has gone face down in the snow and ice. What many people are asking is, "Why weren't they prepared?" This seems to a question they ask when disasters hit other states. But let me step up in defens...e of my father's home state. They weren't prepared because like most of us we don't believe such as (name your favorite catastrophe) would happen. We in California are prepped for earthquakes, floods/mudslides, wild fires...but a major cold snap? C'mon! Would never happen...right? Though there are a few of us who have lived in colder parts of the state, or in the mountains, and that possibility (due to global warming and Russian weather manipulation...ask QANON crazies) is in the back of our mind. Here in the San Francisco bay area we might get a cold snap a couple of times a year...a lovely dusting of snow on the higher peaks. But 98% of us have never considered the event that has hit Texas. So along with our 3 month plus of supplies we also have several cords of would stashed outside and inside out garage. The would burning stove surprisingly warms the house quite well. It helps to close the curtains to deep warmth in. And of course one of us must toss in a log or two at night. The top of the stove is hot enough to keep a cowboy coffeepot fill with water for a quick cup of tea of coffee. Instant lemonade is a cold weather boost also. My dad who was born in 1906 and raised in El Paso told me that as a child he remembered snow blanketing the area for several weeks. He was a mule wrangler and remembered vividly how the mules refused to come out of the barn. The home where he lived in with 19 other sibling (yep you read that right...one mother who survived 20 births) was warmed by a stove. The family had enough home canned foods and dried meats to last out the freeze. My hope is that the good folks of Texas take a page from our foremothers and forefathers and prepare. This won't be the last big freeze. It happen next year, or in a hundred years. But it will happen. M T See more

The California School of Traditional Hispanic Herbalism Returns to Online Courses February 16 & 18 The Poison Path: Poison Plants that Heal Sometime morbid, sometime scary, and always interesting the Poison Path was once the sobriquet of herbal teachings for centuries. In two classes students will learn the history of toxic plants from ages past and how they were used to cure, deal with pain, improve beauty (for the time), and eliminate political rivals (a skill still used i...n some nations). These plants were also used in religious ceremonies to heal the psyche and the soul. Due to the breath of the topic a third class might be added for free. Classes will start Tuesday February 16th at 4 p.m. Pacific Time. The afternoon hour is for those on the east coast who might join us. Cost of the course is $75 ($95 Canadian) Please contact Charles Garcia curandero50@gmail to register. Payment is through paypal.me/curandero50 Mountain Man Protocols with Herbs For a little more than a generation the mountain man of legend were the true survivors of the wilderness. Men like Hugh Glass, Jim Bridger, Kit Carson, Jeremiah Johnston (yes he was real) opened paths to the west. How they lived are still studied by historians and bushcraft enthusiasts. Using these protocols for survival a new way to study herbs has been developed. Fire, water, food, shelter were the primary rules for survival. What herbs can be used to match these necessities? What can bring you warmth? What can help your thirst? What will sustain you for long periods of time? This type of course has NEVER been taught before. Be the first class to enjoy this novel way of learning basic and advanced herbs. Starting Thursday February 18th 4 p.m. Pacific Time. This will be three classes. Cost if the course is $85. Payment will be through paypal.me/curandero50 Anticipated course for March. Hispanic and California Native Herbs I unique course focusing primarily on the herbs and herbal methods used by Hispanic settlers and Native Californians. This will briefly cover our Asian brethren who added their knowledge and wisdom to the Hispanic lexicon of herbs. This story has seldom if ever been addressed. Estimated to be a 4 to 5 week course. Anticipated cost $110. The Urban Wars In several works of fiction 2021 is the start of the Urban Wars. These wars begin due to the widening gap of rich and poor. If you want to enjoy novels of the post Urban War period read the Eve Dallas police procedurals. Great mysteries. I have long wondered what herbs would have been used by the insurrectionists from America to Ireland to South America. I’m going to allow my imagination to explore that question by using experiences from people who actually lived through war and collapsing societies. Can it happen here? Estimated to be a 4 week course. Anticipated cost $125

To my friends known and unknown, seen and unseen, I'm asking do you have your loved or hated 72 hour kit ready? Since I live in moderate weather California I don't making many changes to mine but those of you who deal with arctic cold what's in your? Are tire chains in your vehicles? Extra protein? Chemical warmers? (Those are mandatory in my bags.) Ruth McConnell I know you have an RV to roll in but those things get cold. What about you? Karen Roberts old friend, would you l...eave your beautiful mountain hideaway, grab your medical bag (hey where can I get one of those? My hundred plus year old bag is showing some wear.) and head down to SLO? Lou Falank, you folks in Maine are pretty tough. I picture you and the boys building ice tunnels and dragging your supplies in sledges. Because California has such a wide range weathers, blizzards in the Sierra and northeast, floods in SoCal, even wildfires in the winter, our packs vary due to area . So I am really am curious. What's in your bag? (This time of year I add more socks and handwarmers.) See more

DATE AND TIME CORRECTION FOR POST APOCALYPTIC HERBALISM CLASS: A one evening class on Post Apocalyptic Herbalism. THURSDAY October 29th 4pm Pacific Time. A webinar on ZOOM. Donation suggestion $30 Paypal.me/curandero50 A two plus hour lecture covering what herbs to process, the most effective and common ones, and what to take you with in a bug out bag. Please register at [email protected] ASAP. ZOOM CODE WILL BE POSTED BY 3 PM

A couple of days ago we had a wind warning. The utilities companies (PG&E) planned emergency shutdowns of power to avoid wildfires. We were lucky in this part of the bay area as the wind only took off part of the roof of our back garage. We didn't lose power. But we were prepared just in case. I have two sets of batteries for my CPAP machine charged and ready to go. We have light bulbs that are charged by just using them on a daily basis and have roughly a five to six hours o...f power without electricity. Then come the battery lanterns in almost every room. Most use D cells but some of the brighter ones run on double As. We have three wind up radios one of which is a lantern. Our kitchen unfortunately is all electric so we have the old three burner Coleman ready to light up. To keep the house warm we have a half cord of season wood, red maple, oak, eucalyptus and some pine for our small wood burning stove. Give it a couple of hours and it will warm up the entire house. They don't make them like that anymore. Last but no least we have oil lanterns and large candles. Yeah yeah I know....too dangerous, you'll burn your house down. Ummm....hasn't happened yet. Get a good quality oil lamp (even those ones you find in antique stores) and candles in glass jars and you won't find yourself in conflagration. Just be careful. There may be more wind storms coming. Hope note. But if so we are ready. To my friends facing ice storms back east my prayers and hopes are with you. Mark D. Steele Ruth McConnell Steven Boway Lee Mimi Prunella Hernandez Judith Millar Maya Brown Iris P. Weaver Nancy Klein Lou Falank Michael Douglas

A few years back when I was growing a lot of veggies I heard about a device used in desert areas and hot climates in Africa. It is called a Zeer Pot, It keeps vegetables cool without refrigeration. Let me post a description from Wikipedia. A pot-in-pot refrigerator, clay pot cooler[1] or zeer (Arabic: ) is an evaporative cooling refrigeration device which does not use electricity. It uses a porous outer clay pot (lined with wet sand) containing an inner pot (which can be... glazed to prevent penetration by the liquid) within which the food is placed. The evaporation of the outer liquid draws heat from the inner pot. The device can cool any substance, and requires only a flow of relatively dry air and a source of water. Several key considerations are important for determining if an evaporative cooling device will provide effective cooling and storage. ECCs and clay pot coolers provide the most benefits when they are used in low humidity climates (less than 40% relative humidity), the temperature is relatively high (maximum daily temperature higher than 25 C), water is available to add to the device between one and three times per day, and the device can be located in a shady and well-ventilated area. If any of these key criteria cannot be met at the time when improved vegetable storage is needed, then ECCs or clay pot coolers may not provide sufficient benefits to justify their use. If the vegetables can fit into a clay pot with a capacity of 150 liters or less, then a clay pot cooler is suitable. Storing larger amounts of vegetables requires a larger ECC. Now please understand these handy little devices won't work everywhere. It worked in Richmond only because we hand an unusually hot summer and autumn. But if the power grid goes down and I would need to keep my insulin cool this would be very handy. Insulin does not have to be ice cold or even chilly to maintain efficacy. Keep it at seventy-five degrees and lower and it will last for months. I didn't realize that a variation of the zeer pot was used when I was a child to keep water cold. The water was kept in clay pot and covered with a wet cloth...just as the zeer pot should be. We would dip our cups in and the water seemed icy cold. We called it a bojito. From Wikipedia...A botijo, also called búcaro in Spanish, is a traditional Spanish porous clay container designed to contain water. The botijo has the property that once filled, it cools the water that it contains, acting as an evaporative cooler. The botijo has a wide belly and one or more mouths where it is filled and one or more outputs called pitón or pitorro to drink from. The botijo is a typical element of Spanish culture and may vary in shape, color and material. If you decide to make one of these be certain the clay is pure clay! And it must not be glazed. To keep veggies, medicines. or water even cooler you can use alcohol in the sand for a more rapid evaporation process. Try it someday. It's a fun project.

NEW INFORMATION. THE DATE HAS BEEN SET FOR JULY 8, 9, 10 AND 11 TO COINCIDE WITH THE NEW MOON! Dear FB friends, herbalists, bushcrafters, preppers, survivalists and crackpots I've learned to love: For the past three years Lynn and I have hoped to have another (Last Annual) High Sierra Herbfest and Primitive Skills Gathering. Two years ago we had too much snow (in the summer), last year we had fire, this year we have COVID. Next year if the world still exists we are making pla...Continue reading