# Post SHTF info binder.



## farmsteader6 (Dec 19, 2014)

If you were putting together a reference binder of important info that you either printed off the internet or were just writing stuff down. What would you put into your binder?


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## InTownForNow (Oct 16, 2008)

Ways to cook food without electricity
Different homemade water purifying methods
How tos- make a zeer pot, terra cotta space heater, shut off gas, charcoal ratio for dutch ovens, how to make a diy toilet


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## sisterpine (May 9, 2004)

how to preserve and can those foods you like and can grow, homemade medicines, first aid stuff, how to make soap, how to secure clean water just to start


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## gibbsgirl (May 1, 2013)

Not a binder, but home library with lots of books about doing things old school and modern books where it would help, medical, for example.

If it was a binder to go, I guess maps local and regional?


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

Get all the Forefox books and you won't need as big a binder.
There's little you could print that isn't already in books

A Boy Scout handbook and some Red Cross First Aid books are good, as are many Military Field Manuals on various topics.

Reader's Digest "how-to" books are great and simple to understand.

Before there was Google, people used Encyclopedias.
Even an old set will have useful information, since some things never change


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## farmsteader6 (Dec 19, 2014)

I have lots of books and keep lots of old magazines filled with useful articles. One thing i printed off was calendars for the next few years. Nothing fancy but something to keep track. Just odd ball info. The local maps were a great idea. The internet is loaded with free info. Just trying to take full advantage of a free source.


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## TnAndy (Sep 15, 2005)

We've kept a whole shelf of binders for years. How does anyone run a home/stead without these ?

1. One each for health records. WHO can remember when you had a tetnus shot last ? Or a graph of your blood work over the last decade ? All in those particular binders.

2. Garden binder. What we planted, what worked, what didn't, when the last time I spread a load of chicken manure, and so on.

3. The critter binder. Cows, chickens, pigs. With plastic inserts that hold feed receipts, etc. Dates we slaughtered, weights, amount of yield, etc.

4. The Book of Lists. Various prep items, where located, how much, when stored, etc

5. The financial binder. Tracking savings, performance, goals, etc.

6. Canning binder. What we canned, notes on ingredients if something like stew, chili, sauces, etc. How much we canned, etc. Was that 10lbs for 25 minutes or 15lbs for 30 ?

7. Several family recipe binders, holding ours, those passed down, those from various sources.

All that is kept in the kitchen bookshelves, along with a lot of other kitchen related books.










Upstairs, I built a set of bookshelves in a sorta hallway 12' long, 3 shelves high, that hold our collection of technical books on a whole range of subjects from home wiring/plumbing/building/solar to a range of home economic topics. We've been big readers long before the internet brought the world library to our door.


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## Vickie44 (Jul 27, 2010)

Digging a well , making a smokehouse , rootcellar plans ,any primitive tool and process info , self fermentation info , recipes with only local ingredients , animal medical info , herbal meds,


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## NEfarmgirl (Jan 27, 2009)

I have multiple binders and have purchased books with info.
1. family medical history, medical info on treating things, essential oil uses, plant uses etc.

2. Garden info with growing info, natural bug repellent/killer recipes

3. Critter info on incubation of eggs, feeding, vaccinations, info on pregnancies of different animals, illness and treatments, worming info.

4. Canning and preserving recipes, recipes for food in general, info on wild plants that are safe to eat/not eat, making mixes and spice blend.

5. Skills/ how tos. This pretty much covers about every skill you need to survive and we actually purchased a book that covers a lot of them. Butchering animals, making soap, sewing, vehicle repair, house repairs, finding water and purifying it, building items to make life easier when you don't have a store to rely on, the list is long.

I started a binder for my kids that are a little bit easier to understand in case they need a reference for things that are age appropriate for them too.


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

Best place to put info, is not in a binder, but in your brain.... then, reinforce that knowledge with experience. Information on paper or digital media can be lost.... what's in your head, not so easy.

got a fair size library.... not with just needful information, but thousands of books, magazines, and other media..... theoretically, there'd be some 'down time' at some point, and instead of staring at the walls, a good book would come in handy.

Having said that, I love love love USB thumb drives and micro SD cards.... I can put thousands of manuals, texts, and even dozens of movies, and thousands of hours of music, in a single drive.... a 64gb dual usb drive can be had for less than 20$ delivered.....

I have several folders full of survival books.... best one ever is at http://www.pssurvival.com/ Trust me, you DL the entire site, save it to several different pieces of media, keep a tablet or backup notebook in a faraday cage, and you'll have pretty much everything you'd ever need....


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## Harry Chickpea (Dec 19, 2008)

A sandwich and a bottle of good scotch.


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## NEfarmgirl (Jan 27, 2009)

Trust me, I have tried cramming as much knowledge into my brain as I possibly can and have an ability to pull things back out when needed in a pinch, but I did print copies for my families sake. If anything were to happen to me they could look and see how to do things. My hubby doesn't know how to make soap or other domestic type things so it would be handy for him. The kids could use it when they get older. I also know someone who is a little bit older than me that had a medical issue that almost cost her life and when she had to relearn everything. They have no idea what happened, but she relearned most things and has memory issues now. If anything happened to me I could fall back to the binders and books too. I have things stored to flash drives and sd cards, but realized that if we don't have power I have no way to retrieve the information.


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## JeepHammer (May 12, 2015)

It's so hard to get 'Preppers' to understand the most important thing you can have is...
A LIBRARY THAT SURVIVES!

Now, if you are thinking serious, long term 'Survival',
Then you need diagrams/recipes/directions to do most everything,
Filtering water should be a HUGE section, 
If you don't have an idea how to purify water in about every conceivable way,
(Alcohol Treatment, Charcoal/Sand Filters, Bleach Treatment, Iodine Treatment, Oxygenation/Ozone Treatment, Ect.)

Everyone *Thinks* they will run from the 'Hoards' and BOIL water.
Fire gives away your position, both day and night...
More than one time of the year boiling is not practical.

'Boiling' doesn't remove persistent toxins, chemical contamination, ect.
Just cooking parasites doesn't always remove their bodily toxins from the water,
Just kills the live parasites... 

Having spent time in a jungle, It always seems funny to me seeing these 'Survivalist' shows, people that can't get a fire started in the humidity,
Along beaches, in the jungle, cold arboreal rain forests, ect.
Doesn't matter how many lighters or matches you have, if you don't know what you are doing it's going to be a cold night!

An EXTENSIVE knowledge of what's edible, no only in your particular area, but where you might get shuffled off to trying to keep ahead of the 'Hoards'...
Eating fairly regularly is usually a 'Good' thing! Especially if you are burning calories in your flight from the 'Hoards'.

One thing about America, and any place there are humans, there is lots of 'Trash'...
Knowing how to make that 'Trash' into rocket heaters, construction materials, basic tools, ect. is always a good idea...
And knowing some basic mechanics/electronics might be a good thing if you don't want to walk every step, or do every single task by hand.
(Ever try to separate wheat from the stalk/husk by hand? There is a reason so many machines have been developed to do those difficult tasks...)

If you don't have basic knowledge of this stuff, it's probably a good idea to make yourself a 'Bible', laminate the pages, or seal them in vacuum kitchen freezer bags (An easy way to make weather proof sections you can update) and keep it safe...

I'm 'Sustainable', not 'Survivalist'...
I take wiring diagrams, mechanical information, like the owners manual with parts lists,
And what modifications I've made,
AND,
The Maintenance Schedules with directions,
And seal them up in vacuum kitchen bags,
Keep a master copy in the house,
Post a copy at the site of use.

Well pump info at the well head,
Solar system at the battery/solar shed,
Water filter has it's directions/parts lists/maintenance schedule posted right at the filters,
Furnace has it's information posted right at the boiler,
Same with Air Conditioner,
Every place I park a vehicle has the maintenance schedule posted right where I park it,
Marked with next service in grease pencil so I don't overlook the maintenance. 

Sealed freezer bags last for years, are 'See Through' so I don't have to open them most times, and are easy to seal back up if I do have to hunt through them for something.
Sealed with an external margin, you can punch them for three ring binders, hanging on pipes with a 'Zip' tie or twist tie so the copies are handy at the job site,
And the freezer bags are as tough as anything commercially available...


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## NEfarmgirl (Jan 27, 2009)

JeepHammer said:


> It's so hard to get 'Preppers' to understand the most important thing you can have is...
> A LIBRARY THAT SURVIVES!



So I am not the only one who laminates and vacuum seals papers, books and important documents? I will have to tell my family since they think I am weird for doing it.


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## susieneddy (Sep 2, 2011)

get a Kindle and you can have the books you want in one place. Plus it is easy to take with you if you have to leave.


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## farmsteader6 (Dec 19, 2014)

Kindles are hard to charge when your on the move!!


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## susieneddy (Sep 2, 2011)

solar charger works great on them. Plus if you have one of the newer crank radio's you can charge it on them.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/eton-am...-red/5064384.p?id=1218605826159&skuId=5064384


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## cfuhrer (Jun 11, 2013)

susieneddy said:


> get a Kindle and you can have the books you want in one place. Plus it is easy to take with you if you have to leave.


Is there external memory on something like the kindle or nook and will they work without a paid subscription?


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## farmsteader6 (Dec 19, 2014)

cfuhrer said:


> Is there external memory on something like the kindle or nook and will they work without a paid subscription?



Kindles do not have an external drive for a usb or an sd card. They dont require a subscription. But i dont want to rely on an electronic in an emergency situation.


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## TnAndy (Sep 15, 2005)

susieneddy said:


> get a Kindle and you can have the books you want in one place. Plus it is easy to take with you if you have to leave.


:umno:

Great advice.....until it quits. 

Dropped mine the other day on the concrete floor getting in the car with it. Went to a half screen, split vertically. Recharged it, and then it wouldn't come on at all. Dead as a doornail, got probably 100 books on it (all fiction, nothing I'll really miss).

Saving things on ANY kind of electronic media is a pure crap shoot. Anything we have that is really important goes on paper.


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## Oldshep (Mar 28, 2015)

Just off the top of my head I'd say a mathematical cosign chart. I find that when building things I have to refer to it quite often to get the angles for cuts.


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## TnAndy (Sep 15, 2005)

No batteries required.


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## Illini (Apr 13, 2009)

My father could work a slide rule faster than anyone else could work a calculator.


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