Gromit commented on an earlier post:
The lifestyle of Pavlo's parents is rooted in the fall of the Soviet Untion, not the Ukraine / Russia war. They've farmed that area, like they do now, for years. The content that shows his grandmothers a and neighbors places show well over 40 years of rough rural living. Pavlo's girlfriend fishing for perch is much as you describe, simple rig, simple location, fill the basket with fish then watch as half the catch is preserved and stored.
A minor correction, the girl who fishes for perch and Crucian Carp is not Pavlo's girlfriend. The perch fisher is about fifteen years-old and as far as I know is not related to Pavlo in any way. Pavlo's girlfriend/wife(?) is Luba and she is a blonde who usually braids her hair.
The adaptation to "technology" in subsistence cultures is a curious thing
On this channel the main character comments "I can double or triple my harvest of potatoes and cabbage with two gallons of gas. That is a pretty good deal." (Note: Units changed to something most of my readers can identify with and he is talking about enough cabbage, beets and potatoes to feed fifteen people for a year). He was talking about using an inexpensive, gasoline-powered pump to irrigate his family's fields of staple-vegetable crops.
Another technology that pops up in many videos are "hoop-houses". Suppose you lived in a place like Iron Mountain, Michigan and you could count on a 60 day growing season. Furthermore, you don't know if that will be from June first until August first or from July first until September first. Being able to guarantee SOME production from May 1 until November 1 triples your growing season. It won't triple your production of calories but it will armor you against scurvy and rickets.
Your lucky day
I am a bit of an idiot-savant about being able to look at a stick and determine what species of tree it came from. Images from this video:
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| Running a gasoline powered tiller inside of a hoop-house with limited ventilation. Not so smart. |
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| Vertical supports and ridgepoles are Black Locust and the hoops and diagonal braces are Filbert (aka Hazelnut bush) shoots, probably three-years-old. They cut the shoots green and warmed them up before bending. |
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| I am always astounded by how dry the soil is. |
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| (Smiling), girls-be-girls. She made sure her hair was beautiful and her clothing was flattering before recording video. That is not mandatory in SHTF scenarios. |
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| After watching this sequence a few times, I guestimate the width of the hoop-house to be between 10' and 12', the height to be about 7' and the length to be about 30'. The ends are opened-and-closed to control temperature |
They plant tomatoes and cucumbers in the house in this video which was recorded in mid-April. In Michigan (pre-SHTF), I will be planting those crops outside in late-May and early-June rather than mid-April. They will be picking cucumbers (a 55 day crop) less than a week after I plant my seeds in the garden.
What tickles me about this video is that somebody executed a hoop-house that effectively doubles their growing season with very little money out-of-pocket. The Black Locust posts and poles and the filbert shoots were probably local. The plastic film might last three seasons (more likely two) if they don't peel it off the frame and stow it out of the sunlight (UV damage) after the risk of frost is over.
The thought-process also intrigues me. "I am trading 7 liters of petrol to gain 2000 kilos of potatoes" or "I am trading two handfuls of cornmeal which will attract minnows and then allow me to catch seven perch".
This would be a fine cottage industry after the SHTF; throwing up hoop-houses made of (mostly) indigenous materials.
Right now we are having wind gusts here on the Keweenaw Peninsula in the mid 30s mph. I wonder if a hoop house could be made to handle that. The fields are approx 75% clear of snow and still over a foot in the woods and the lakes less than 1/2 clear of ice. It's a slow spring. ---ken
ReplyDeletehttps://sharingideas.me/how-and-why-to-build-an-underground-greenhouse-walipini/#google_vignette
DeleteA walipini is better that the hoop house.
Adding a Crimean oven adds even more capability.
https://www.notechmagazine.com/2014/03/crimean-ovens.html
The Chinese near Mongolia don't bother with glazing on the northern side.
https://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/chinese-greenhouses-for-winter-gardening-zm0z17amzmul/
A Harbor Freight greenhouse would provide quite a decent amount of framing and plexiglass for such a project.
After SHTF I don't want to have to replace clear sheet plastic.
Good info, thanks Michael. ---ken
DeleteAs ERJ noted earlier, weather is driving the bus. Yesterday we had 80 degrees with 60+ mph gusts; tonight and tomorrow night, frost and freeze warnings.
ReplyDeleteA commercial greenhouse was destroyed. Forget that plant-by-the-moon stuff, we have to plant between tornados.
@Coyoteken, I don't know about a hoop house, but standard greenhouses will handle that wind. As long as the tunnel structure is sound and the plastic is taut the wind will flow over it and around it. And keep the wall bottoms well sealed. If the wind gets inside the greenhouse it can destroy it quickly with pressure differential. If you want to use it very early or late in the season or maybe over winter with a heater, use two layers of plastic. Allow the first layer to lay on the frame loosely and droop between the ribs and make the other layer taut. The layer of trapped air will provide insulation. A professional horticulturalist taught me that trick.
ReplyDeleteGood advice Fred. Two layers is a good idea. I know some guys that lost their hoop houses the past two days and that's a lot of work Gone With The Wind. --ken
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