Mariamne Ingalls wrote:Wow! Thanks, Devin!
Mariamne
Your welcome, and thanks for posting the article. This is an amazing story. Truly awe inspiring how this family was able to survive so long on their own.
As you mentioned without a
sustainable way to gain wild game. You would think they would have figured out how to hunt and trap, but they seemed not to have the knowledge and skills to achieve it. I know after the first year of not having meat and being in perpetual malnutrition, I would be working on how to trap and hunt. And I would keep working on it till I figured it out. Even if it took me a decade to get good at it.
Salt is a huge thing that many smart preppers suggest stocking up on, and/or learning how to mine it from the ground or process from sea
water. It is such a valuable resource if living a more primitive way that having a large supply and knowing how to resupply from nature is a very valuable skill. It is funny how much we take salt for granted in our society, but for most of human existence salt was one of the most valuable and useful commodities out there.
Not a lot you can do about metal, unless you have a decent knowledge about mining ore and have a decent blacksmith forge set up. And a lot of metal work has the necessity of already having metal. Oh that topic, I found this PDF on the topic A Long Term Survival Guide
Scrounging Metal and Survival Blacksmithing
http://blacksmithingtutorials.com/long-term-survival-guide-scrounging-metal-survival-blacksmithing/ to be a quite interesting and helpful guide to building up a forge and sourcing metal in a possible post collapse scenario.
As for hemp, it is such a useful plant for homesteading. I hope that the US legalizes industrial hemp use soon. I know there was some limited legal experimental Hemp farming the last couple years in several states, to see if it was something the government would allow on larger scale. I seriously hope it does get legal as it would be a wonderful plant to add into the
permaculture mix.