How to make soap from ashes and fat.

          In a SHTF scenario, especially those of extended duration, keeping up your personal hygiene can mean the difference between life and death. If you are not keep you and your gear clean, then you are more susceptible to sickness, disease, and infection. In these scenarios you will be lucky to find some of the soap products in local stores as other will be needing them too.
           So why compete with others over the last few bars on the store shelves, when you can manufacture your own bulk supply as easy as you can make dinner for your family. Another plus of making your own  soap over store bought is, you can know exactly what is in the product that you will be using on you and your family. Home made soap is also customizable, in color, shape, and scent.The process I will be going into can be done in not just a kitchen, but out in most wildernesses as well.
             So, how do you make your own soap? The easiest way, and from complete scrap, is with hard wood and animal fat. The animal fat can be gathered from whatever scraps of meat and meat drippings you happen to have on hand. And it is the ashes of hard wood actually, as soft woods are too resinous to mix with fat. The lye within the ashes is the key ingredient taken from the hard wood ash. This is a technique that some of you may be familiar with, if you are frequent campers, as an old camping trick for cleaning cooking pans and pots is to throw some of your fires white ashes mixed with some of the cooking fat byproduct into a crude soap, good for ruff washing cook ware.
             The process I will be going over is an improvement to this "hard soap" technique, and will be a lesson on the making of "soft soap" bars, meant to be used for the cleaning of people and clothing.

Step One: Making Lye

 
            The above diagram is a very basic way to filter and procure lye, however, I am going to focus on how to make both lye and soap in a kitchen environment.
             First, you want to boil the hard wood ashes in a little soft water, rain water is usually best, for about thirty minutes. Next, allow the ashes to settle to the bottom of the pan. Next, you want to skim the liquid lye off of the top. This can be done daily until you have gathered enough of the weak solution, then start the soap making process by boiling the liquid down until it can float an egg.

WARNING: You do not want to use any aluminum pots, pans, or dishes for this process, as the lye will eat through and destroy them.

Step Two: Rendering Tallow or Lard

          You now want to place the meat fat, leftover cooking tallow/lard and vegetable oil, into a kettle, not to exceed the half full point, then heat it all until all of the liquid had been rendered out of the solid pieces. Then strain out the pieces, leaving only clean liquid.

Step Three: Bringing it all Together

             
         While the meat tallow/lard is still hot, you want to add it to the bubbling lye, and continue to boil the mixture, stirring it at regular intervals, until it reaches a thick mush.
          At this point you then can choose to either pour the mushy mixture into separate molds, or into one large dish, which you can cut up after it cools. You will want to cover the bottom of the dish or wooden box with either wax paper or grease, to prevent the soap from sticking.

        So this is how you make the most basic soft soap. Recipe amounts can vary on preference and resources. I would recommend that you tryout a few different mixture ratios until you find one to your liking.


Stay prepared, stay safe!

Ebola Signs, Symptoms, and Prevention

      With the growing fear of the spreading Ebola virus, I wanted to do a post that will provide signs, symptoms, and tips to prevent Ebola infection. Most of these tips are good information that can apply to most biological threats. Most of the information I will be presenting in this post was obtained primarily from the WebMD website.
     
Signs and Symptoms of Ebola

        Ebola causes bleeding inside and outside of the body. As it spreads through a body, it begins to destroy the immune system and internal organs, and causes blood-clotting cells to drop, which leads to uncontrollable bleeding. The most common symptoms of Ebola are:

-High Fever
-Headache
-Joint and Muscle Aches
-Sore Throat
-Weakness
-Stomach Pain
-Lack of Appetite

            These symptoms can show anywhere from 2 to 21 days after infection. Having such a long incubation time is one of the ways that it is able to spread so fast across large distances, as someone not knowing that they are infected could easily spread the infection while traveling. It is very difficult to determine if a person has Ebola from these symptoms alone, and doctors will usually  test for other diseases first, like cholera or malaria.

            One good thing to be aware of is that Ebola is not as contagious as more common viruses like colds, influenza, or measles. Additionally, you cannot contract Ebola from air, water, or food, and a person who has Ebola but has no symptoms can't spread the virus.
            Ebola can spread through skin contact, or by contact with bodily fluids, and this can happen from either humans or animals.
           
Treatment for Ebola
            Currently, there is no known cure for Ebola. The current treatment includes an experimental serum that destroys infected cells. The following is also a list of common ways doctors help manage Ebola symptoms:

-Fluids and Electrolytes
-Oxygen
-Blood Pressure Medication
-Blood Transfusions
-Treatment for Other Infections


Ebola Prevention Tips
         

           With no known cure, and with a 90% fatality rate, the best way to survive an Ebola infection is to prevent yourself from ever contracting it.
           The most powerful prevention tip is personal hygiene. There really is no better way to protect you, your family, and your pets. Wash your hands regularly, and before meals, and do not always trust the personal cleanliness of other people. I have seen well dressed and successful lawyers skip washing their hands after using the bathroom, and a drum circle hippy using hand sanitizer and refusing others the chance to use his drums. The point is that you never know.
           A simple thing you can do to improve your hygiene habits, is to by a few bottles of hand sanitizer, and spread them out throughout your house, car, and work. I carry some with me in my car and at work. Prior to and after meeting with my clients, I squirt a little in my hands and continue on with my day. I also like to use it after encountering well used surfaces in public places, like gas station card machines, store and restaurant counters, and gas pumps.
           Another simple thing you can do to better protect your home, is to regularly clean the various surfaces throughout your home with proper cleaning supplies. You also want to avoid using old sponges and rags.

            Now if you are in a situation where you are more likely to come into contact or close proximity to others infected with Ebola, then medical professionals recommend that, first, you do not travel to areas where it can be found. But, again, if you are unable to avoid being in close proximity to those infected with Ebola, then you should make sure that you are wearing masks, gloves, and goggles whenever you are around people or animals who may have Ebola.

Stay Prepared, stay safe!