April 8, 2017 · 7:00 am

Surviving Global economic collapse in La Yacata

 

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Mexican money looks a lot like Monopoly money and is about as valuable these days!

With the increased interdependence of formerly distinct countries and cultures, economic problems in one area will affect others which will effect still others in a giant domino tumble. Quite a few experts predicted 2016 as the beginning of the end in terms of economic collapse. (See also The risks for 2016 economic collapse, Global economy 2016, Will the US economy collapse in 2016?)

But what exactly is a global economic collapse and how will it affect life as we know it? Even Wikipedia had trouble coming up with a concrete definition. “The term has been used to describe a broad range of bad economic conditions, ranging from a severe, prolonged depression with high bankruptcy rates and high unemployment (such as the Great Depression of the 1930s), to a breakdown in normal commerce caused by hyperinflation (such as in Weimar Germany in the 1920s), or even an economically caused sharp rise in the death rate and perhaps even a decline in population (such as in countries of the former USSR in the 1990s) Often economic collapse is accompanied by social chaos, civil unrest and sometimes a breakdown of law and order.”

In Mexico, the value of the peso dropped substantially, and for a time was more than 20 pesos per dollar in 2016/2017. While quite a few Expat groups celebrated the high conversation rate, it really wasn’t a cause for joy in the everyday life of Mexicans or those that earn their livings in pesos. (See also Anxiety rises in Mexico as the peso tumbles, Mexican Peso surprising drop spurs speculation, The Struggling peso–Mexico for sale )

So it seems that global economic collapse just might be a world-changing event in the very near future for us. How have we prepared?

Keep Some Cash At Home. We have next to nothing in the bank. We keep our meager saving in cash. It’s not much, so we aren’t really worried about robbery.

Get Out Of Debt. We don’t owe anything on any of our vehicles or our house. All our construction projects are done as we can afford them. It does take a long time that way, but it keeps the debt down. (See Building a dream, Constructing a life)

Reduce Your Expenses. We live simply. (See Declaring Solvency)

Have a Place to Live that won’t be repossessed. We own our house in La Yacata. There aren’t escrituras (individual deeds) but all the lots are held in common in a sort of hacienda set-up. Hopefully, we will eventually be able to get individual deeds because this really does bother me. Of course, as the owner has said, nobody really wants La Yacata (there isn’t any water or minerals or petroleum to be found there) so we’re probably safe.

Start A Side Business. We’ve tried all sorts of business. We aren’t afraid to try and fail while we always hope for success. (See Failing at your Own Business)

Move Away From The Big Cities. La Yacata is outside Moroleon “city” limits.

Store Food. We store beans, rice and tea and other stuff. The stuff we store is often our emergency food between financial windfalls or financial trickles whichever comes our way. This is a temporary fix, though. Eventually, the food does run out. (Forcibly green, Obligatory Organic)

Grow Your Own Food. We grow a good selection of our own food currently and hope to grow even more in the future. (See Alternative Farming and Old MacDonald’s Farm) We keep animals which provide us with meat, milk, and eggs.  We also forage for food in our immediate area. (See Foraging)

Have a Clean Water Supply. We have amply water storage for about 2 months even with all our animals. We also catch rain water during the rainy season. (See Water Woes)

Have A Plan. Our ultimate goal is to be completely self-sufficient. We aren’t there yet.

Have Blankets And Appropriate Clothing On Hand. Without money, these things will become harder to come by. Of course with my nifty treadle sewing machine, we won’t run out of these things anytime soon! (See Dirty and Ragged)

Have a supply of Personal Hygiene Supplies, medication, and a first aid kit.  I do have a 5 or 6 month supply of my medication for hypothyroidism and use a Diva cup rather than disposable any feminine hygiene products. We also have a small first-aid kid. Toliet paper can be replaced with reusable cloths or leaves (provided they aren’t poisonous) in a pinch.  My husband insists we can use rocks if we haven’t any paper, but I’m sure something else would be better. Soap is easily made from natural ingredients.

Entertainment. Watching a movie on our rechargeable DVD player, listening to guitar music, playing board games, sewing, knitting, reading, horseback or bike riding are all activities that don’t cost an arm and a leg.

Know your Community. We know quite a number of people who are skilled at various survival trades. The butcher, the baker are accounted for. Still looking for the candle maker, though. In the event of economic collapse, it’s important to know people with skills that you can barter for.  It’s also important that you have skills people might be looking for.

Have a Supply of Survival Equipment. Matches, an ax or machete, good shoes, flashlight, radio, and such items are always a good idea. Who knows how long things will be tight and we’ll have to make due. We have all of that. If you’re looking for a good general list, check out my Useful Items page.

Extra Gasoline. We might have a liter or two of gasoline about the house, but that’s about it. Our motorcycles are way more economical than either Myrtle the volcho (VW bug) or Butch the truck. When the gas runs out we can always use our bikes or walk.

Self-Defense Equipment. These are supposed to help keep your supplies safe from the hoards of people that haven’t prepared. We do have a machete or two, and a big scary looking but friendly guard dog, but that’s about it. Our windows have bars, but it’s far from burglar proof. Guess we’ll get to working on that.

Keep Your Prepping To Yourself. OOPS! Well, since you’re reading this, I guess I’m not following this tip so well.  However, just so you know, La Yacata is the place to be in the event of global economic collapse!

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April 7, 2017 · 7:00 am

Surviving Fire in La Yacata

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Some warn that the world will be destroyed in a massive fire based on the words recorded by the Apostle Peter at 2 Peter 3:4-14. Therefore, fire is a possible Apocalyptic event. In that case, the best place to survive a fire, in my humble opinion, is La Yacata.

Houses just aren’t built of wood here, so house fires are rare even with the inordinate use of candles in religious thingys. That’s really  good because most houses have bars on the windows which are supposed to keep people out, but would also keep people in, in the event of a house fire. Most buildings here are no higher than 2 stories either, which is good, as there aren’t a lot of fire escapes to well, escape fires. However, wildfires are pretty common.

Fire is a regular occurrence in La Yacata for a variety of reasons. The area is very dry 3/4 of the year and any little thing might set off a major fire. Police officers throwing a cigarette butt out the window, a trash fire gone wild, a fire set to rid the area of overgrown weeds or clearing a fallow field, an unattended campfire caught in the breeze, deliberate fire setting in revenge for supposed neighbor’s wrongs and so on. Well, you get the idea. (See Hate Thy Neighbor)

There is a fire department in Moroleon, with its own Facebook page even. It’s actually in the same building as the Red Cross directly in front of the school I work at. You can call them and they will come (perhaps) to fight the fire. However, I’ve seen their equipment. The last time they arrived in La Yacata, there were 4 firefighters. One had the fire hat, one had the fire boots, one had the fire coat and the last one had a wet mop. All righty then! Plus, there is a cost involved. The person that calls has to pay, so hardly anyone calls.

It’s also possible to call Proteccion Civil and they’ll come out and take a look at the fire. Their gear consists of a telephone and a fancy pickup, not even a wet mop, but they don’t charge for their visit.

So, you can see, in the event of fire, you’re on your own in La Yacata. Our fire safety procedure is pretty much “Circle the Wagons.” Once a fire has been sighted, we head to the roof to get a good look at where it is in relation to the house and which way it seems to be heading. Then we make sure everything and everyone are inside the walls of our little ranchito. All vehicles are parked in the garage, all animals are returned to their corrals, all family members are accounted for. Then we wait it out.

We have a “Defendable Fire Zone with Smart Landscaping” around our house. The front of the house is flush with the sidewalk/road area. There are no flammable items there once the vehicles are parked in. The right side of the house is flush with another brick building. The pigs at the neighbor’s will fry before the fire would reach us. The smell of burnt bacon should give us enough warning to evacuate in that case. The left of the house has an animal track that is wide enough to stop most blazes. There are no trees within 20 feet of the house either on the left side or behind the house. Our home and walls are brick. Our roof is cement. (See Up on the Roof that Nearly Wasn’t).

If the fire looks as if it can be controlled, we snap off some green leafy branches and start swatting away. After all, fire can do quite a bit of damage, not only to crops in the area, but also nopales (cactus) and tunas (prickly pears).

Once things have cooled down, the goats love to head out and eat the toasted vinas (seed pods) that fall from the mesquite trees. Yum! And soon enough, nature returns and the earth is covered yet again in sprouting vegetation.

So there you have it! Surviving a fire in La Yacata is not exactly a piece of cake, but completely doable, although I’m not completely sure that it would survive a firestorm like that which hit Sodom and Gomorrah back in the day.  Guess we’ll just hope La Yacata won’t incur the wrath of God while we’re living there.

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April 6, 2017 · 7:00 am

Surving an EMP Attack in La Yacata

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Up until recently, I was completely oblivious as to what an EMP attack was. (See Dirty and Ragged) So for starters, an EMP is an Electro Magnetic Pulse that could be caused by solar flares or by various weapons that have been developed by a variety of nations. The result of this pulse would be irreparable damage to electronic devices. Preppers predict the lack of electricity power will cause complete societal collapse. I’m not buying that. Societies have existed prior to electronics, so there is no reason why they could not continue to exist, just altered. But then, I’m not a full-fledged Prepper, so maybe there’s something they know that they aren’t sharing. Maybe.

Regardless, I recommend La Yacata as the place to be for surviving an EMP attack. After all, we don’t have electricity and have been managing just fine so far.

Just looking at the list of recommendations from a variety of sites will show how perfect La Yacata is for surviving this event:

Buy a bike and learn to use it. There here is a no brainer. Each of us in La Yacata not only has a bike but know how to ride it.

Get a horse but don’t try to ride a horse without proper training. Since the expected result of an EMP is the return to the pre-industrial age, horses will again become a major means of transportation. We have horses in La Yacata (See A horse is a horse). Our neighbors also have horses in La Yacata (See Hate thy neighbor). The Lienzo Charro (See Jaripeo) is right across the street from La Yacata. I think we’ve got this one covered.

Assemble a survival group. Not all of our neighbors are rateros (thieves) (See Good Fences Make good neighbors–unless your neighbor steals it) We have several neighbors that have skills that would come in useful after the EMP attack. There are the plomero (plumber), the herrero (metal worker), the carpintero (carpenter), and my husband the albañil (bricklayer). There’s also Super Prez who is a constructor (builder), several campesinos (farmers) and even a few puerqueros (pig keepers), chiveros (goatherds) and polleros (chicken keepers).

Avoid large cities. La Yacata doesn’t even qualify as a village, so it’s not on anyone’s first attack list. While we aren’t so very far from Moroleon, which has delusions of grandeur and believes itself to be a city, we’re far enough outside the boundaries that we have no public utilities, hence, not a place where people would think to flee. We’re good with that.

Don’t wait for the government to save you. We’ve already experienced first-hand the mechanisms of local government here. (See Pleading in the Presidencia and Justice for All?) There’s no reason to expect that anything would change in the event of an EMP attack. It’s every man, woman, and child for himself or herself these days.

Use up all your cash. We do have some cash but don’t have it stashed away in a bank account, which in the event of an EMP attack would be zapped anyway. Cash will not hold its value very long after the EMP thingy, so knowing how to barter is a far better currency. This we can do. We have traded a horse for wood rental for construction (See Up on the Roof that nearly wasn’t), traded goats for pacas (alfalfa bales), traded chickens for harnesses, traded classes for a bicycle, and so on.

Move away from nuclear reactors. The only nuclear power plant in Mexico is in Veracruz, far, far away from La Yacata. In the event of electronic discompuesto (breaking down), radioactive contamination should be minimum in La Yacata.

Farm at home. We do this. (See Sharecropping and Container Gardening). We’ve even won an honorable mention from Mother Earth News for Star Modern Homesteaders in 2014. No worries here.

Do laundry off the grid.We can hand wash in our laundry room or go to the arroyo (stream) and wash there. (See After Ecstasy, the Laundry and Water Woes) We are in a better position not to become dirty and ragged as so many will do after their washing machines go caput.

Go low tech.The more electronic devices you are dependent upon, the more you will end up losing after the EMP attack. Our kitchen is completely electricity free. (See No Spark–All Sizzle). Our hand tools are just that, hand tools. We like to watch a movie or two but are perfectly capable of creating our own fun if needed. My son has been learning the guitar, non-electric good times there! I even have a treadle sewing machine that provides me with hours of creative entertainment.

Make the decision to survive and keep your spirits up.Yes, this is an actual tip. Attitude is everything. Despite the hardship, tragedy, and heartbreak that we’ve experienced in Mexico, we always try to look for the positive. It’s really our default family dynamic.

With all these things going for us in La Yacata, I think we’d survive an EMP attack and not take up cannibalism as society collapses around us.

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April 5, 2017 · 7:00 am

Surviving Drought in La Yacata

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This is what La Yacata looks like most of the year.

Mexico is prone to droughts. Many areas are desert, but that doesn’t mean they are uninhabited. (See Also Chihuahuan Desert, Sonoran Desert, Indigenous Desert People)

Mexico experienced severe droughts in 2012 and 2014, not so very long ago, and it’s likely to happen again.

Lake Chapala, one of the primary sources of freshwater for Mexico City, is drying up. Rivers have been known to just disappear as well.

As a result, Mexicans overall are very water conscious. We, in La Yacata, hold water as sacred as it takes such effort to get it to our house. (see Water Woes) After I read some articles about how to conserve water, I realized how much I have changed as regards to water consumption from when I lived in the U.S. Most of the suggestions in these lists were second nature to me now. (See also Emergency Preparedness, 100 Ways to Conserve Water, Drought Tips)

So here’s how we conserve water in the kitchen:

We don’t have a dishwasher since we have no electricity. That means everything is washed by hand in a very precise manner. I soap up a sponge and then use it on the pile of dirty dishes, stacking them to the side of the sink. Once I have a pile, usually of the same type of dish, I move them back into the sink and rinse, sometimes with the tap, or if water is really low, with a scoop from a bucket of water. Then I put them on the drying rack to dry. I only do as much as can be stacked. The rest can wait. Anything crusted on gets another pass with the sponge and might be left to soak. Pots and pans are also sprinkled with water and left to soak, sometimes until the next load is done which might not be until the next day. Any food particles are caught in the mesh strainer and thrown out to the chickens for a bit of a treat.

We also have the one-glass rule. We only use one glass for the three of us to drink water from. It sits under the tap of the garafon (water cooler) to catch any drips. It may sound unhygienic and we don’t hold to that rule when anyone is sick, but it sure does save on dishes.

When we boil something that needs the water dumped out, we often use that water on our plants once it’s cool. Waste not, want not!

Conservating water in the laundry room:

We have a hand pump which brings the water from the aljibe (dry well) to the second floor. Our wash water is reused with most of it heading back down to the back yard for the fruit trees. Water left in the bucket is used to water the indoor plants or as mop water then used on the plants. (See After Ecstasy, the laundry)

Conserving water in the bathroom:

We have a shower instead of a tub. Our showers are short, less than 10 minutes typically. Days that the hot water heater is out of commission, they are even shorter. Brrr! We make sure there are no leaks from the shower head, faucet or toilet, ever. A drip left all day could be the difference between having water tomorrow and not. We always turn the water off when brushing our teeth–who leaves it on anyway? We have a fingernail brush to scrub our hands before we turn the water back on to rinse. We use our towels, one per family member, for a week unless they are super dirty. That keeps the laundry amount down and isn’t the idea that you use a towel AFTER you’re already clean to dry off?

One suggestion on the water conservation list that we do because it’s customary here in Mexico is to throw the toilet paper into the wastepaper can rather than into the toilet. The reason that’s done here is to prevent clogged pipes. Most of the water pipes (our house included) are embedded in the cement floor. There isn’t any floor space underneath. So in the event of a super clog, a plumber could not get under the house and open the pipes. Another suggestion on several conservations lists is flush less often. Our house rule is “If it’s yellow, let it mellow. If it’s brown, flush it down.” That’s probably more than you really want to know about our hygiene habits, though!

Other conservation habits:

We don’t have toy water guns or a pool. We collect rain water in barricas (barrels). When we change the animals’ water, we use the old water on the fruit trees. We monitor the amount of drinking water our animals have. For the horses, we don’t leave a bucket of water in the stall because it’s likely to get spilled and spilled water is wasted water. We don’t wash our vehicles. Yes, that means sometimes they are pretty dirty, but it will eventually rain. We don’t have a lawn. Anything that grows in our backyard is already pretty much drought resistant, other than the fruit trees. We have cactus, feverfew, klip dagga, aloe and a few other native plants that grow whether or not we water them. We don’t irrigate our crops which means we don’t plant until the rainy season starts. In the event of drought, we won’t have too many crops, but that’s the risk we take.

Of all our off-grid accommodations, I’ve always felt that our water system has been our weakest aspect.  La Yacata has no natural running water, like a stream or underground spring.  There is no connection to the main town water line either.  (See Water Woes)  Therefore, we have to pay for a water truck to make deliveries or go and get it ourselves from nearby towns that do have natural water supplies. Those nearby communities also have areas where we sometimes go to wash our clothes, thereby saving our own precious water. We also are able to fill our tinacos (water storage containers) and garafones (water cooler bottles)and bring them back to our house.

This past winter, we decided to upgrade.  First, we removed the portable water storage container from the back porch.  We gave this to my father-in-law to add to his overall water storage capacity.  He has quite a number of goats that need water daily.  This required an up and over approach.  My husband, his brother B and my son lifted it up to the roof, then lowered it into the back of the truck.

Now that there was a bit more space, we purchased 2 new 1100 liter tinacos (water storage containers).  My husband made bases for them with bits of brick.  He connected them to the copper pipes that lead to our downstairs bathroom.  Then, he connected a pipe from the roof to catch falling rainwater in the rainy season.

This added 2200 liters to our overall water storage capacity bringing our total to about 8000 liters with the first tinaco (water storage container) and aljibe (dry well).  A full order of water is 10,000 liters.  So now we can order a full truck and share with my father-in-law or with B to complete the order.

As you can see, we do just fine in La Yacata in regards to water conservation and would be able to survive longer in the event of a drought because of that, even with water  hard to come by. Amazingly enough, drought allows for some interesting phenomenon here in Mexico. In 2015, drought caused the water level to drop 82 feet in the Nezahualcoyotl reservoir, revealing the ruins of a 16th century colonial church, Temple of Santiago. Who knows what other things might be found?

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