The Organic Prepper website has posted an interview with Selco — a survivor of the Balkan war, who has written extensively on survival topics — about staying warm in long term survival crises.
How did people stay warm?
We can say that first step was that people simply “shrunk“ their living space.
For example, if a family of people had a house with six rooms they simply stopped using four rooms, and they lived in two rooms only, because of a simple reason – it was easier to heat two rooms only.
To get wood for heating was a hard process and often dangerous, so how much fuel you spent in your home was a matter of staying alive.
Old style wood stove with a smoke-exhaust-pipe (that would be put through the hole in the wall to outside- if a chimney-exhaust system was not existing in that room.
Comfort was completely forgotten because of necessity.
Also people insulate their homes with what they had. A majority of windows were crushed (glass) because of detonations (shelling), so people blocked window openings with what they had.
Blanket, pillows, nylons, and tarps were used for that. Also, duct tape was a very useful item.
Homes were kinda rearranged in order to make it more energy efficient in very rudimenrtary ways. For example, if a house had smoke exhaust just in the kitchen but that kitchen was not good for having wood stove there, then simply stove was moved from that kitchen into the desired room. A hole was made in that room (for smoke exhaust) and the stove was put there.
You need to understand that homes (houses, apatments) when SHTF were very fast to deteriorate. There was no service to call, remember. Leaks from the roofs, freezing temperatures… all that makes your house quite problematic to live in. We were trying to fix what we could, but insulation was problematic very quickly. A lot of problems could have easily been solved with simple items like insulation foam (in spray containers) for example, but nobody was prepared for SHTF. (Yes, I have it now)…
Merry Christmas
On December 21, 1620 the first Pilgrim landing party arrived in Plymouth Harbor to found the settlement of Plymouth, after failing to secure a site at Provincetown. The Pilgrims were Puritan Separatists, who had fled England because of religious persecution. In the 1500s, the Anglican Church had been created by the English monarch; all citizens were required to belong to this church. Some members desired a simpler Christian faith within this structure, and were called Puritans. They wanted to purify the Anglican Church and return to a Christianity focused on the bible, without the affluent trappings of the Church of England. Some of these Puritans wanted to break away from the Church of England, feeling that it was beyond saving, and were called Separatists. The separatists were persecuted by other Puritans as well as by the Anglican Church and government.
On December 15, 1791, Virginia became the 10th of 14 states to approve 10 of the 12 amendments, thus giving the Bill of Rights the two-thirds majority of state ratification necessary to make it legal. The Bill of Rights consists of the first ten amendments to the Constitution. They were added at the request of several states who desired greater constitutional protection to individual liberties. Some, mainly Federalists, argued that a bill of rights was not necessary because the people and the states retained any rights and powers not delegated to the federal government. Others, mainly anti-federalists, argued that a list of protected rights was necessary to safeguard individual liberty.
The communications team has an amateur radio packet bulletin board system set up for member radio operator use. Operators who want to use the system should contact KW4MP or KC7QHE for help setting up your radio and computers to access the system.
Lower Valley Assembly 