Pioneer Methods

A US candidate for president once promised 40 acres and a mule. I always said that the only way I would have possibly made it through the first winter was to eat the mule. The pioneers were survivalists and had survival skills beyond any that we can imagine.

In addition to not having the "toughness", work habits and skills of the early pioneers - we do not have their resources. There are no buffalo herds and there is nowhere near that the deer and antelope play in sufficient number to support most survivors. Those who have taken survival courses that have taught them to go out into the woods and survive will be sorely disappointed. Such animals that have survived the radiation will be in very short supply relative to the survivors that would be in competition for them.

One will not have the horses, wagons or other implements that were necessary to pioneer survival. There will be a far larger population survive than there were pioneers a few centuries ago and there will be far fewer resources of the kind that sustained them. The early settlers of our village were confidant in their ability to find in a few minutes enough fish in the stream to make supper. Even in my early days in the village a person could promise the night before that they would go out on the bridge out our back door and get fresh fish for breakfast - and make good their promise. But those days are gone. Fished out and poisoned out by salt on the roads and pesticide run-off from the farmer's fields. At this writing fish no longer come safe even from the farmer's markets without warnings that they are hazardous to expectant mothers.

No, we can't return to the old days - even if we want to. But fortunately we have many, many other advantages. We don't have to cut the forests to gain agricultural ground. We know many things the pioneers did not. Childbirth was a great hazard to pioneer women - simply because people did not know to wash their hands. We have a great advantage in modern knowledege - but we may well need to supplement that, at least for a while, with some of the pioneer knowledge and skills that we have forgotten about. That is the purpose of this page.

This page does not stand by itself, anymore than do any of the others. There may be some duplication on some items that will be found in the pages on simplified machinery and small farming but all that information will probably be just as important to know - if not more so.

The files on this page are all locked until after the nuclear war. Those who have to wisdom to gather the information ahead of time will have to go to other sources but all these pages can be thought of as a checklist of types of information one may wish to gather together.

Table of Contents:

This is a SEALED 188 page .pdf file that won't be opened until after The Great Catastrophe. This 1975 book is by James Talmadge Stevens. It covers sprouting, food drying, game cleaning, recipes for different home products and a variety of similar subjects.

This is a SEALED 126 page .pdf file that won't be opened until after The Great Catastrophe. The book is edited by Vic Marks and is Published in the US by: Cloudburst Press of America, Inc. 2116 Wetern Avenue, Seattle, Washington 98121 and in Canada by: Cloudburst Pres Ltd., Mayne Island British Columbia V0N 2J0 - The book covers a variety of technologies including overshot and undershot waterwheels, juice presses, beehive management, cheese making, a hand operated washing machine, a solar drier, and many other things.

This is a SEALED 128 page .pdf file that won't be opened until after The Great Catastrophe. This is a second volume of the above book and is also edited by Vic Marks and is Published in the US by: Cloudburst Press of America, Inc. 2116 Wetern Avenue, Seattle, Washington 98121 and in Canada by: Cloudburst Pres Ltd., Mayne Island British Columbia V0N 2J0 - This volume covers a many, many additional technologies including various forms of construction, hand and foot operated machinery, kilns, hydraulic rams, spinning wheels, looms and associated machinery, and many, many other pioneer subjects.

This is a SEALED 388 page .pdf file that won't be opened until after The Great Catastrophe. This series of books is edited by Eliot Wigginton and is published by Anchor Press | Doubleday 501 Franklin Avenue - Garden City, NY 11530. Volume One covers many subjects from hog dressing to cabin building.

This is a SEALED 410 page .pdf file that won't be opened until after The Great Catastrophe. This series of books is edited by Eliot Wigginton and is published by Anchor Press | Doubleday 501 Franklin Avenue - Garden City, NY 11530. Volume Two covers many subjects from midwifery to burial.

This is a SEALED 512 page .pdf file that won't be opened until after The Great Catastrophe. This series of books is edited by Eliot Wigginton and is published by Anchor Press | Doubleday 501 Franklin Avenue - Garden City, NY 11530. Volume Three covers many subjects from animal care to hide tanning and making musical instruments.

This is a SEALED 480 page .pdf file that won't be opened until after The Great Catastrophe. This series of books is edited by Eliot Wigginton and is published by Anchor Press | Doubleday 501 Franklin Avenue - Garden City, NY 11530. Volume Four covers many subjects from gardening to traps to knife making and horse trading.

This is a SEALED 515 page .pdf file that won't be opened until after The Great Catastrophe. This series of books is edited by Eliot Wigginton and is published by Anchor Press | Doubleday 501 Franklin Avenue - Garden City, NY 11530. Volume Five covers many subjects from iron making and blacksmithing to gun making and hunting.

This is a SEALED 513 page .pdf file that won't be opened until after The Great Catastrophe. This series of books is edited by Eliot Wigginton and is published by Anchor Press | Doubleday 501 Franklin Avenue - Garden City, NY 11530. Volume Six covers many subjects from shoe making to wooden locks and toy making.