Monday, February 27, 2012

Preparedness: Treating Smallpox


In this part of my preparedness series, I will talk about different common and uncommon diseases, illnesses and other health inflictions that wouldn't be easily treated during a long term crisis. This is not a replacement for medical advice, it is just my notes on how to cope with the situation using herbs if no medical help was available due to a long term crisis or other disaster scenario. It is intended for educational purposes only. All cases of smallpox should be assessed and treated by a medical provider.

What is it?
It is an infectious disease caused by a virus. There are two variants of the virus, Variola major and Variola minor. V. major is the most common form of smallpox and is also the most severe. 
Infections are highest during the winter and spring in temperate climates. Tropical climates can see infections throughout the year with few seasonal variations.
Smallpox is considered a ‘filth’ disease so making sure your community keeps clean can help to reduce the chances of outbreaks. 
Smallpox looks similar to chickenpox and is often mistaken as chickenpox or vice versa. 
Why should it be feared?
Variola major has a mortality rate of 30% while V. minor has a mortality rate of 1%. It causes ulcerations of the cornea which can leave infected persons blind in one or both eyes. It can also leave severe scarring. There is no cure or conventional medication for smallpox. It can be spread by prolonged face-to-face contact as well as through direct contact with infected bodily fluids or contaminated items such as clothing and bedding linens.
What should be done?
During normal times, there is no treatment for the smallpox virus. Supportive care is given to control fever and pain. Fluids are also administered to prevent the patient from becoming dehydrated. 
The patient should be quarantined and all linens and clothing should be washed in hot, soapy water with bleach to kill the virus. All infected surfaces should be washed with a bleach water solution.
The caregiver should wear a face mask and wash their hands with hot, soapy water after any contact with the patient or patients belongings.
What are the stages?
Incubation Period: 7 - 17 days
During this time, infected people feel fine and do not show any symptoms. They are not contagious at this time. 
Stage 2/Initial Symptoms: 2 - 4 days
The first symptoms include general malaise, fever, headaches and backaches, and sometimes vomiting. The fever will range between 101° to 104° F. The patient is possibly contagious at this point.
Stage 3/Early Rash: 3 - 4 days
A rash will first be seen as small red spots in the mouth and on the tongue. These spots will develop into sores that break open and spread large amounts of the virus into the mouth and throat. This is the most contagious phase of the virus.
When the sores in the mouth break down, a rash appears on the skin, beginning on the face and spreading down the arms and legs then to the outer extremities. They will often be present on the palms and soles. The rash usually spreads to all parts of the body within 24 hours. The fever usually starts to fall when the rash appears and the patient will start to feel better.
On day 3 the rash becomes raised bumps or pustules. 
On day 4, the raised pustules fill with a thick, opaque fluid and the pustule will have a depression in the center, making the bumps look a bit like donuts. 
The location of the rash and the shape of the pustules are both major indicators that the patient has smallpox and not chickenpox. 
On day 4 the fever usually rises again and will remain high until the scabs for over the pustules.
The rash occurs at the same time during this period with the pustules on any part of the body remaining in the same stage of development.
Stage 4/Pustular Rash: 4 - 5 days
The pustules become sharply raised and round and often are described as feeling like there are bb pellets embedded in the skin. The patient is still contagious.
Stage 5/Scabbing: 4 - 5 days
The pustules begin to form a crust and then will scab over. About 14 days after the rash first appears most of the pustules will have scabbed over. The patient is still contagious. 
Stage 6/Scabs Heal: 5 - 6 days
The scabs begin to heal and fall off. Marks will remain on the skin that may eventually become pitted scars. Scabs typically fall off 14 - 28 days after the rash begins. Once the scabs have completely fallen off the patient is no longer contagious.
What are my options?
There are many herbal remedies which will be beneficial for treating smallpox. 
Keep the patient comfortable and avoid bright light since the eyes are weak at this time. 
Step 1: Diet
Keep the diet light and easy to digest so the body can concentrate on fighting the virus. Foods to feed the patient include:
Bone broth, vegetable broth
Miso
Oatmeal or barley water
Congee (12 parts water: 1 part rice)
Natural juices both vegetable and fruit
Ripe fruits, especially pears and apples to help cleanse the bowels
Yogurt
Step 2: Encourage the Fever and perspiration
Giving diaphoretic herbs and hot baths will encourage rash to break out quicker and encourage faster healing. Give teas made from any diaphoretic herb available. Store teas in a thermos after making to keep them warm for administering as the patient needs them. Offer a continuous cup of tea for sipping and encourage them to drink often. Alternate with rehydration fluids to keep the patient from becoming dehydrated.

Do not attempt to suppress the fever or stop the pustule eruptions. Only use herbs to bring them out faster, encourage perspiration to flush the body and support the body as it works through the process.
For best results try:


Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
Yarrow is specific for smallpox. May be combined with equal parts of Pleurisy root (Asclepias tuberosa) and Lady’s Slipper (Cypripedium acaule) for best results. If Lady’s slipper is not available, substitute Catnip (Nepeta cataria) or Valerian root (Valeriana officinalis). 

Red Sage (Salvia miltiorrhiza)
Regular Sage (Salvia officinalis) may be effective if Red Sage is not available. 
Do not give medications or herbs to suppress the rash and pustules from erupting, this is part of the body’s cleansing process. The larger the break out, the more toxins that will leave the body. 

Step 3: Alleviate Itching
To soothe itching, wash pustules with either full strength lemon juice or a mixture of 50/50 apple cider vinegar and water. 
Make a bath tea of Burdock root (Arctium spp.), Yellow Dock root (Rumex crispus) and/or Goldenseal root (Hydrastis canadensis) to relieve itching. 
Step 4: Reduce Pitting/Scarring
Jethro Kloss suggests using a sterile needle to pop the pustules 4 days after they come to a head and washing them thoroughly with hydrogen peroxide to prevent pitting. 
Goldenseal  (Hydrastis canadensis)
Goldenseal is a specific to reduce pitting. Washes of Goldenseal root may be used to cleanse pustules as they burst. A salve made from Goldenseal root, fat and beeswax or even an oil of Goldenseal root and fat can be applied several times a day over the pustules to avoid much pitting.
Step 5: General Herbal Treatment
In addition to the above mentioned herbs, the following are various herbal treatments that have been used for treating smallpox. Use what you have available in your region.

Bistort (Polygonurn bistorta)
Decoction of root is cleansing, astringent and toning.
Red Raspberry (Rubus idaeus)
Red Raspberry leaves can be mixed with Bistort for a toning and astringent tea.
European Pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium)
Do not confuse this with American Pennyroyal (Hedeoma pulegioides). European Pennyroyal has a warming influence for the stomach and is also diaphoretic and stimulating which is good for treating feverish conditions, bronchial congestion and eruptive diseases. Give 6 - 8 oz. infusion every 1 - 2 hours.

Chamomile (Matricaria recutita, M. discoidea)
Chamomile and Pineapple weed (also known as wild Chamomile, M. discoidea)  are very soothing to the eyes and can help ease pain and inflammation of the eyes. Make a strong tea, soak some flannel cloth in the tea and drape over the closed eyes. It may be warm or cool, whichever the patient finds most soothing. The tea may also be used a was over the eyes. Be sure to strain all Chamomile plant material out first. 

Catnip (Nepeta cataria)
Tea or tincture from this plant can be soothing to the nerves, helping to calm an anxious patient. Catnip is also good for treating fever and can be used as an enema to help bring on perspiration. Catnip will also help to overcome the discomforts of smallpox. 1 cup of tea several times a day or 1 dropperful of tincture as needed.
Sources
Back To Eden by Jethro Kloss pgs. 369, 538 

Friday, February 24, 2012

IDC: Week 3


By popular demand, the Independence Days Challenge is back! Every Friday from February - September we are challenged to work on our skill set. Anyone can join in!

The categories and my responses:


Plant something: A lot of us were trained to think of planting as done once a year, but if you start seeds, do season extension and succession plant, you’ll get much, much more out of your garden, so I try and plant something every day from February into September.
Plant something:

-got green house re-wrapped with plastic (its original shell disintegrated a few years ago)
-started soil blocks
-transplanted tulips from under walnut tree 
Harvest something: Everything counts – from the milk and eggs you get from your animals to the first dandelions from your yard to 50 bushels of tomatoes – it all counts.
Harvest something: 
Eggs
Milk
Sunchokes (these things are the perfect survival food!)

Preserve something: Again, I find preserving is most productive if I try and do a little every day that there is anything, from the first dried raspberry leaves and jarred rhubarb to the last squashes at the end of the season.
Preserve something:

Waste not: Reducing food waste, composting everything or feeding it to animals, reducing your use of disposables and creation of garbage, reusing things that would otherwise go to waste, making sure your preserved and stored foods are kept in good shape – all of these count.
Waste Not: 
Fed chickens, dog and cats scraps; composted unfeedable scraps
Want Not: Adding to your food storage or stash of goods for emergencies, building up resources that will be useful in the long term.
Want Not:

-2 round hay bales and 1 straw bale were delivered for animal feed and garden mulch
Eat the Food: Making full and good use of what you have, making sure that you are getting everything you can from your food, trying new recipes and new cooking ideas, eating out of your storage!
Eat the Food: 
-working on a new naan type bread but used some cornmeal to make corn muffin type naan. still needs lots of work but it still tasted pretty good
Build community food systems: What have you done to help other people have better food access or to make your local food system more resilient?
Build Community Food Systems: 
-alerted my customers to the availability of our farm products
And a new one: Skill up:  What did you learn this week that will help you in the future – could be as simple as fixing the faucet or as hard as building a shed, as simple as a new way of keeping records or as complicated as making shoes.  Whatever you are learning, you get a merit badge for it – this is important stuff.
Skill Up: 
-still studying up on common and uncommon, infectious and non-infectious diseases and what herbal medicines would best be suited for them

Friday, February 17, 2012

IDC: Week 2


By popular demand, the Independence Days Challenge is back! Every Friday from February - September we are challenged to work on our skill set. Anyone can join in!

The categories and my responses:


Plant something: A lot of us were trained to think of planting as done once a year, but if you start seeds, do season extension and succession plant, you’ll get much, much more out of your garden, so I try and plant something every day from February into September.
Plant something: 
Started more sweet potatoes and continued to nurse along 1 remaining potato from last year plus 3 vines that are ready to plant out
Harvest something: Everything counts – from the milk and eggs you get from your animals to the first dandelions from your yard to 50 bushels of tomatoes – it all counts.
Harvest something: 
Eggs.

Started back up on our raw cream coop. Since it's hard to get the cream off our goat's milk, I buy 1 gallon raw cream every 2 weeks to make butter, ice cream and half & half with. 
Preserve something: Again, I find preserving is most productive if I try and do a little every day that there is anything, from the first dried raspberry leaves and jarred rhubarb to the last squashes at the end of the season.
Preserve something:

Made 10# butter from cream and will be turning some into ghee for cooking.
Dehydrating cranberries left over from Thanksgiving....way past time to do this!
Waste not: Reducing food waste, composting everything or feeding it to animals, reducing your use of disposables and creation of garbage, reusing things that would otherwise go to waste, making sure your preserved and stored foods are kept in good shape – all of these count.
Waste Not: 
Fed chickens, dog and cats scraps; composted unfeedable scraps
Want Not: Adding to your food storage or stash of goods for emergencies, building up resources that will be useful in the long term.
Want Not: 
Ordered a few straggler seeds that I previously forgot: wild rice, asian rice, gindelia, sweet annie/wormwood, horehound, yerba mansa (hoping to boost the existing plants I have already), licorice, cotton (white, green and brown), peppercorn.

Purchased more food for storage (beans, dried fruit, nuts, beef jerky) from Trader Joe's, mostly for 72 hour supply

Pricing chicks, ducklings, baby turkeys and piglets.

Cooked up 2# ground beef with Taco seasoning then put 1# into the freezer for a future meal
Eat the Food: Making full and good use of what you have, making sure that you are getting everything you can from your food, trying new recipes and new cooking ideas, eating out of your storage!
Eat the Food: 
Using up cracked eggs
Build community food systems: What have you done to help other people have better food access or to make your local food system more resilient?
Build Community Food Systems: 
Let local customers know we now have fresh eggs again!
And a new one: Skill up:  What did you learn this week that will help you in the future – could be as simple as fixing the faucet or as hard as building a shed, as simple as a new way of keeping records or as complicated as making shoes.  Whatever you are learning, you get a merit badge for it – this is important stuff.
Skill Up: 
Continuing to learn about infectious and non-infectious diseases and herbal remedies for them. My notes are turning into a book and becoming quite in depth. I am fascinated by all I've learned so far. 

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Preparedness: Wild Edibles

jelly ear fungi, found at a local conservation area about 10 miles away from me

As I do not like to keep all my eggs in 1 basket, I like to practice a variety of food storage methods in my prepping. I do store some bulk foods but also I save seeds, garden and wildcraft/forage for our food. I like having food stored away in case something happened in the dead of winter when not much is growing, we'd have enough food to tide us over until spring arrived along with fresh greens, lambs, kids, and gardening could commence.
elderberries, great for making syrup and jelly plus medicine


My kids are starting to get into foraging for food so I've started compiling a list of wild plants that grow on our property that are edible. My 14 year old is organizing a survival night/day for herself, some friends and the older kids here to participate in. They are allowed to take a few items with them but have to forage for all their food. She has been studying up. I've been helping out by cooking wild foods for them to try and get used to.
nettles, ready for steaming


The following grow wild on our property or in our gardens:

Daylilies - flowers, shoots, tubers
Spiderwort - I believe all parts are edible, know for sure leaves and flowers are
Burdock - roots, leaf and flower stalks, sprouts, seeds
Dock - roots, leaves, seeds
Cattails - all parts, shoots, tubers, pollen
Reeds - shoots, seeds, tubers
Wild Grapes - leaves, fruits, thick vines can be cut and drained for water
Roses - flowers, hips
Amaranth - seeds, leaves
Lamb's Quarters - leaves, sprouts, seeds
Violets - flowers, leaves, sprouts
Dandelion - leaves, roots, flowers
Chicory - leaves, flowers, roots
Nettles - leaves, tops, seeds
Wild Onions/Garlic - bulbs, greens
Mulberries - berries
Hackberries - berries
Blackberries - shoots, berries
Wild Cherry - berries
Chickweed - all parts
Ox-eye daisy - leaves, flowers
Asian Daylily - flowers, seed pods, leaves
Elderberries - flowers, berries
Morels
False Turkey Tails
True Turkey Tails
Poke - shoots
Purslane - aerial parts
Thistles - stalks
Garlic mustard - aerial parts
Autumn Olive - berries
Evening Primrose - roots, leaves
Wild Carrot - roots
Asparagus - shoots
Walnut - nuts, sap
Silver maples - sap, seeds
Milkweed - shoots, flower buds, pods

Each year I discover more and more wild edibles. If you are interested in finding edibles in your area, here is a list of some great books to get you started:

The Forager's Harvest by Samuel Thayer
Nature's Garden by Samuel Thayer
Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants by "Wildman" Steve Brill
Stalking the Healthful Herbs by Euell Gibbons
Stalking the Wild Asparagus by Euell Gibbons
The Essential Wild Food Survival Guide by Linda Runyon

Not sure what to do with them once you have them? There are lots of great wild food cook books out there too. Here is a list of a few:

Free for the Eating by Bradford Angier
The Wild, Wild Cook Book by Jean Craighead George
The Edible Wild by Berndt Berglund

There are also a few zines on the subject:

Edible, Medicinal & Utilitarian Plants by Rowan Walking Wolf, PhD.
Feral Forager
Plants Gone Wild

Do you forage for wild foods on your land? What types of plants do you like to harvest from the wild? Do you have some favorite wild plant books or cook books that I haven't mentioned?

Friday, February 10, 2012

IDC: Week 1


By popular demand, the Independence Days Challenge is back! Every Friday from February - September we are challenged to work on our skill set. Anyone can join in!

The categories and my responses:


Plant something: A lot of us were trained to think of planting as done once a year, but if you start seeds, do season extension and succession plant, you’ll get much, much more out of your garden, so I try and plant something every day from February into September.
Plant something: 
Placed my seed order for all my veggie and herb seeds for the year. 
Prepping last years' leftover crop of onions for this years' sets.
Harvest something: Everything counts – from the milk and eggs you get from your animals to the first dandelions from your yard to 50 bushels of tomatoes – it all counts.
Harvest something: 
Eggs. 
First 2 kids of the year were born this week so the count down to fresh milk is on!
Preserve something: Again, I find preserving is most productive if I try and do a little every day that there is anything, from the first dried raspberry leaves and jarred rhubarb to the last squashes at the end of the season.
Preserve something:

Nothing preserved this week but I have been updating our emergency water bottles with fresh water (some were dated as far back as 04/06, yikes!)
Waste not: Reducing food waste, composting everything or feeding it to animals, reducing your use of disposables and creation of garbage, reusing things that would otherwise go to waste, making sure your preserved and stored foods are kept in good shape – all of these count.
Waste Not: 
Fed chickens, dog and cats scraps; composted unfeedable scraps
Preparing onions with green tops for planting out
Want Not: Adding to your food storage or stash of goods for emergencies, building up resources that will be useful in the long term.
Want Not: 
Ordered several packets of Frontier Soups mixes. I hope to come up with my own blends to package for our storage in the future but wanted a few on hand to get us started. 
I've also been adding to our medical supplies and rebuilding our 72 hour kits.

Added more water filters for our Berkey water filter and misc. other items for our 72 hour kits.
Eat the Food: Making full and good use of what you have, making sure that you are getting everything you can from your food, trying new recipes and new cooking ideas, eating out of your storage!
Eat the Food: 
We've recently started a new diet including gluten-free so I've been trying out lots of new recipes, rebuilding my recipe book arsenal with recipes we can use. 
Also, getting down to the last bits of our side of beef so I made heart and tongue for dinner which freaked out the family but they were game and all but 1 tried it out and were surprised to find they LIKED it. :)

Digging up Sunchokes to eat
Build community food systems: What have you done to help other people have better food access or to make your local food system more resilient?
Build Community Food Systems: 
A friend of mine whom I've been talking food storage/prep with for quite awhile finally started storing food!
And a new one: Skill up:  What did you learn this week that will help you in the future – could be as simple as fixing the faucet or as hard as building a shed, as simple as a new way of keeping records or as complicated as making shoes.  Whatever you are learning, you get a merit badge for it – this is important stuff.
Skill Up: 
Studying up on uncommon diseases and making notes for herbal remedies (book mostly lists conventional meds which may not be available in a 'TEOTWAWKI' scenario). I like this book for the basic information but was sad to see they were narrow minded in their treatment offerings ie. no herbal remedies when antibiotics were warranted. The book would have been 10 times better if they had included that information.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Preparedness: Fire Making Kit

I've put together some Fire Making kits for our 72 hour kits. When it gets a bit warmer, we will take our kits outside and practice making fires.

For this kit, I used empty Trader Joe's Green Tea Mints tins since I had an overabundance of them. Altoid tins work great too and most people use those, some prefer the tiny ones since they are more compact. This tin is under 1/2 size of the regular Altoid sized tins to give you an idea of size.

Items from left: TJ Green Tea Mints tin, nature cotton tinder, char cloth, mini compass (not for fire starting per say but it's tiny and this is a good place to stash it so it doesn't get lost in the back pack), sandpaper and waterproof matches (made by dipping in waterproofing), firesteel (to use by striking with a pocket knife), fat wood slivers for kindling/tinder, aluminum foil for using as windbreak if needed.

I made the char cloth in our wood stove by using a nail to poke a hole in the side of an altoid tin, cutting up strips of denim to fit the can (about business card size), closed the lid then put on top of hot coals. The tin smokes and flames shoot out the hole and sides like crazy for a minute or so then the smoke returns. Once the smoke stops, I removed it from the flame using fire proof gloves and let it sit on the hearth until cooled. Viola! Char cloth to catch sparks for starting a fire.

Do you have a fire starting kit? What items to you keep in your fire starting kit? If you had to start a fire could you do it with something other than matches or a lighter? Practice your fire building skills now, not only outside but if you have a fire place or wood stove, inside as well. Also practice on the bar-b-que grill. What if you didn't have charcoal? Could you make your own? Create other types of fire in your grill? 

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Preparedness: Survival Books for Kids


The best way to prepare your kids for any disaster is to read to them. Choose books that are kid friendly, fun, enticing and educational. These will introduce survival scenarios without sounding scary and ominous.

As a child, I remember reading and re-reading My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George and wishing I could run away to the mountains like Sam and live in a hollowed out tree. I couldn't imagine a tree big enough to live in. I loved all the pictures and ideas discussed in the book and often spent hours in the woods behind my farm trying out the things I learned from the book.

My own kids are pretty imaginative and enjoy creating their own survival outings around our farm. They have plans to go out during the summer and spend the night in the woods (the older kids, the younger kids would not make it past dusk). The younger kids enjoy playing in the woods and hearing stories about kids who have survived wilderness situations. I try to share a variety of survival style stories with them to spark their curiosity.

Some great books we enjoy are:

Hatchet
My Side of the Mountain Series
The Sign of the Beaver
Little House on the Prairie Series
Survive the Desert!
Survive the Jungle!
Survive the Sea!
Trial by Wilderness
Julie of the Woods
The Swiss Family Robinson

The older teen set might enjoy these series/books:

Life As We Knew It series by Susan Pfeffer
The Tomorrow Series
The Hunger Games


Do you have any kids book suggestions to add to this list? Do you read these types of books to your kids or do your kids enjoy reading these types of books? What other ways do you prepare your kids?

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Alternative Cooling

It seems funny to think about cooling my house right now with it being the beginning of February, even though temperatures are more like April or May but a friend gave me an idea the other day and I wanted to throw it out for others to ruminate on with me.

She mentioned when she read the technical paperwork that came with her wood stove years ago, it mentioned that since the stove has a blower ice could be put into the wood stove during the summer with the blower running to cool the house.

Her concern was that this would 1. waste a lot of water and 2. would put a lot of humidity in the air when we are already in such a humid climate. My thought was to take half gallon glass jars (I imagine even gallon vinegar bottles would work), fill them up about 3/4 and freeze them. Then, place a few into the wood stove and turn on the blower. The coolness from the jars would be sucked out into the room by the blower.

Granted, w/o electricity this won't work unless we have a solar panel but it's worth trying out. I normally keep the house fairly comfortable during the summer but on those extreme 100+ days, it might make it even more comfortable.

Any thoughts on this?
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