The Solitary Man’s Refuge (28 page)

Michael wasn’t too pleased either about having to
leave his house vacant and it also required moving his
preps to this more centralized location. All of Michael and
Amy’s food preps could easily fit in to his car and he and
Donald had decided that even though it would be nice not
to even unload the car for such a short period of time, they
were worried the hot Alabama sun would play hell on them
in a closed up car oven.

Donald was mildly pissed off that he had no control
over how much he showed of his food stores, let alone let
someone else decide the dinner menus and proportions
they were going to be partaking of his food, but it was an
all or none decision that had to be made. Giving someone
a crash course in how best to utilize the preps on hand
and telling someone that low calorie diets start now when
what looked like a stash of plenty was available was hard.

The specialty items for a few meager holiday
dinners and particularly the less plentiful expensive cans of
meats had to be rationed strictly. Donald explained to him
that the drink mixes and the Pilot crackers were the key to
even being able to live off the Mountain House dehydrated
foods. Two crackers equaled a 100 calories, one 8 ounce
glass of drink mix was about 110. Everyone was limited to
this once a day with a meal instead of twice because
Donald just did not have enough stored to support such a
large group. Vegetables from the garden and bread they
baked would make up the second meal along with some
rice and beans would have to do until he got back and
started running trap line. Michael knew a lot of the basics
already from his military training about how to survival
snare, but Donald wanted him to leave his commercial
traps snares alone until he had time to formally teach him
a trick or two. He also had visions of someone catching
their hand in a 220 conibear and in these days and times
that could be damn near fatal to get a broke hand and no
medical help to mend it.

Donald had checked out Amy on the two .22 rifles
he had and he and Michael had decided she should have
a Ruger 10/22 for her daily carry weapon. It was light, fast
and she was pretty accurate with it. Amy was often out by
the garden or just sitting outside doing some quasi guard
duty watching the neighborhood while Michael worked on
a project and she could take a pot shot at squirrels when
they decided to come out in the open and offer a target.
Michael had told her though to try to leave the ones in the
front yard alone and just concentrate on the orchard and
garden areas for collecting a squirrel dinner. The ones
living in the front yard were tamer and likely candidates for
a slingshot if the need arose and it saved ammo and
noise. This type of hunting intrigued her and she tried to
practice with one of the wrist rockets Donald had stowed
until much to his dismay the band broke from dry rot and
he couldn’t remember where he had stowed his
replacement bands. That’s the problems with preps, crap
deteriorates and is unknown until needed if you don’t try
out or check on your supplies regularly.

“Hey Man, hurry back, I want in that dehydrated gulf
shrimp you got.” Michael said jokingly.

“You stay out of my Shrimp! That stuff is a delicacy
we might not ever see again for sometime. If you are good,
I might give you some for your birthday,” Donald said
laughing.

“Ok then, gimme a can of that turkey flavored Spam
you got as a going away present for guarding your stuff.
You are the one that said we needed to watch how much
we are using the cook fire and that stuff tastes good cold.”
Michael said grinning.

“You got it! We only got a dozen cans of that
though. It’s going to put a new meaning to club
sandwiches when four or 5 of us have to divvy up a can. I
know you hate oatmeal but that shit is a lot better if I cube
up some spam or ham flavored TVP in it upon occasion.
That won’t be very often, we are down to having rolled
oats for breakfast or six grain cereals to start a day with if
we are working out on the farm. That’s the thing; we got to
think like we are living in a fallout shelter back in civil
defense cold war times. Do you know they only had you
eating 800 calories a day back then? The Government
stored a wheat based biscuit and cans of water back then
and that was it. The reasoning being they figured was that
if you were sitting on your ass in a shelter you were not
burning calories so it sufficed. We got to think about the
energy we expend from now on and do or not do things
based on calorie expenditures. That is going to be a bitch
when food gets low. Can you tell Amy she can’t have
breakfast because me and you gotta go cut firewood and
we need the calories more than her?” I certainly got a
problem telling my Mom that but I see it coming this
winter.” Donald said ominously.

“Shit, I ain`t thought about that. I sure hope that
wheat we are planting makes a good crop. She could be
real understanding about something like that right now, but
later on it might not be so easy to bring that fact up. Could
be we just share our food equal anyway, Donald?” Michael
asked hating to contemplate such a scenario of denying
food to his lover for any reason.

“Brother, I hate it also but me and you can’t be
getting starvation stupid and swinging an axe while
burning twice or three times the calories of our loved ones
because we are trying to keep them warm next season.
We are going to be getting weak enough in mind and body
to do the task anyway. With no fat reserves the body burns
muscle. That’s why some hunter gathers let the men
adults eat first, then the women, then the children. It
seems cruel but it was based on starvation survival. Men
had to hike to hunt. Women could eat while they gathered
roots and herbs and also put aside food for the men folk to
carry with them on hunting and trapping trips. Young
children that were not useful for tasks of food gathering or
raising unfortunately had the hardest burden or suffering
when it came to sharing food in hard times. A sentient
lifestyle of only working about 4 hours a day and having
lots of leisure time for other pursuits was how we both
became civilized as well as survived in prehistoric times.
The more meat the body takes in the smarter a human
brain becomes. When we domesticated animals and
became more agriculture oriented we became smarter and
burned fewer calories to obtain meat for proteins. More
time on our hands and smarter brains created the arts and
philosophy, etc.” Donald said, laying out a bit of history to
contemplate.

“Well as hot as it is and it will be getting a lot worse,
I can’t see us even wanting to do more than water the
garden let alone be cutting timber for winter. However, just
daily living of hauling water, getting wood to cook with,
washing clothes, etc., is a chore in itself that is time
consuming. That reminds me, that creek is too shallow to
do more than take a wash cloth bath in and I don’t see
Bernie letting everyone jump in his fish pond for a bath
when ever we like. That solar shower we got is 5 gallons
so that’s 35lbs or so of water to tote every time and excuse
me if we are going hunting before you take off, we are both
getting kind of smelly.” Michael said stating the obvious
about their hygiene.

“I got a couple cans of that rock crystal based 30
day deodorant the Russians come up with for their troops
but it won’t last long amongst this group. Telling the girls to
quit using regular deodorant didn’t work no matter how
much I explained that shit closes your pores off and if you
quit it you stink less. That’s homeless knowledge 101. We
get in tight quarters this winter is going to get funky
anyway. We cant get enough tallow to make soap so I add
that to my list of to find stuff but if we’re hunting a lot, they
going to have to get used to a wood smoked animal scent
for everyone and no perfumes unless it’s a long holiday
and the larder is full. That’s another thing, if you ain’t
noticed your sniffer has gone back to war sense mode.
The Vietnamese could smell that Aqua Velva or American
cigarettes and we could smell that damn fish sauce they
put on everything in their rice bowl. Talk to the women and
explain it is like a dog smelling a stranger if some different
human sweat comes to their noses as well as frigging
snakes. I don’t care what anyone says, I usually smell a
rattler before I see one.” Donald responded and offered to
split a last cigarette he tripped over when checking out his
prep cabinet in the house.

“No thanks, Ah hell, I might as well. Weird how even
if you quit smoking you still get tempted to want one of
those damn things.” Michael said taking a couple drags off
the proffered cigarette.

“I haven’t thought about the sights and smells of
things in years. You know that A-1 steak sauce has
anchovies in it?” Donald asked, retrieving his cancer stick.

“Yea, I read the label one day, but it doesn’t stink
like that fermented Vietnamese Moc sauce. I noticed you
got a bunch of hot sauce prepped in your stores. Tabasco
is the soldier’s cure all too bland or repetitive food, huh?”
Donald said grinning.

“I ain’t one for hot stuff but it damn sure changes up
the palate or lets you choke something down easier. That
rosemary bush needs trimming by the way if you can get
Amy to see to it while I am gone. I ain’t keen on the taste
of wild food and anything I can do to disguise the taste is
fine by me and the spice rack will get depleted sooner than
I would care to contemplate. By the way force yourself to
eat some of that Wheat. You have to get yourself and your
stomach to tolerate it if you are not used to it in your diet.
There is a book on cooking it in there. Did you know you
can make it taste like meat?” Donald said, wistfully
stubbing out the last cigarette he might ever see but not
necessarily ever want.

“No, I never heard of that. Does it actually resemble
meat?” Michael asked.

 

Wheat Meat Patties

These wheat meat patties are vegetarian burgers.
Try using a meat substitute. It’s a delicious, inexpensive
way to use your food storage.

By Dean Wilding

 

Ingredients:

•
butter
•
2 medium diced onions
•
1 clove garlic or garlic salt
•
1 tablespoon parsley
•
½ teaspoon basil
•
½ teaspoon marjoram
•
¼ teaspoon thyme
•
½ teaspoon salt
•
black pepper to taste
•
2 teaspoons soy sauce
•
¾ cup whole wheat
•
½ cup whole wheat bread crumbs
•
6 eggs
•
1 cup of grated zucchini (optional)

Preparing the Wheat:

 

The night before you make the wheat patties start
preparing the wheat.

Put ¾ cup of wheat in the bottom of a thermos. Fill
the rest of the thermos with boiling water. Put the lid on the
thermos and let the wheat cook overnight. These are also
known as wheat berries or flask wheat.

Cooking the wheat this way gives it a chewy, meat
texture.

Note: You'll need a thermos that's about 32 oz (1
quart). If you have a large family, you might want to get a
larger thermos so you can make a double batch.

Making the Patties

 

Sauté onions in a little bit of butter and add herbs,
salt, and pepper.

 

Add cooked wheat, breadcrumbs, eggs, and
zucchini.

 

Form into patties and fry in a pan. Brown well.

 

Enjoy!

“Hey man, anything fried is count to me, lol I am a
southern boy. It beats hot water and wheat berries for
cereal, learn to do it while we got some cooking oil and get
your innards used to it, some folks are allergic to wheat but
even the best of us got to get our guts used to digesting it
if it’s not a regular staple in our diet.” Donald told him
knowing that sharp changes in diet would bring on some
peculiar results in digestion that lack of a normal toilet
would complicate most likely.

“I got it, start eating a bit here and there of it, thanks
for the advice. I assume we got plenty of salt and sugar or
do you have any holes in your preps I need to consider?”
Michael said getting on the bandwagon of mixing iron
rations with normal food as an extender.

“I probably got lots but let me think for a second…
Peanut butter, I got a few jars of ready made and have one
can of dehydrated and no oil to add to that to make it more
like store bought. That’s my also my universal animal bait
so don’t eat it all up, wait for me to catch something with it
instead. Do you know what’s nasty? Cleaning a damn
animal without free access to wash water is pretty
gruesome. Be careful about your fingernails, Man. You can
poison yourself handling food and if you think about getting
intimate with your wife, don’t go there unless you scrubbed
up real good. Be exceedingly careful what you touch and
might cook on some not so clean surfaces, diarrhea can
dehydrate you quicker than anything else and lord forbid if
anyone gets contagious dysentery.” Donald said, thinking
of the myriad of things he knew but had not related in his
many short preparedness discussions. He had several
pairs of those big rubber chemical suit gloves from an
online military surplus store to do the task with but they get
nasty quick also and need to be cleaned.

“Old man, you have always said that you were a
wealth of useless or useful information, but I had not
thought of that one before. What do you do for that
anyway? Dysentery disease, I mean.” Michael asked,
regarding Don going to one of his prep cabinets to get
several bottles of hand sanitizer to distribute to the house
guests.

“I am not sure, but Janice can tell you if she makes
it up here. Me, I say depend on the universal dehydration
sickness cure all because that diarrhea will dehydrate you.
Rehydration of the body is the key to many illnesses.