Amazing Plants (pt 1) Iboza Riparia

Male Flowers

The first post in this new series is about an amazing and mostly unknown plant that should be included in everyone's garden. Mrs Doom was ill with swollen glands, sore throat, headache, sore ears, blocked sinus, and was generally miserable.

I made a very simple concoction which was gargled, and then drank (I will detail the recipe and treatment later). Immediately the sore throat was soothed and the headache dulled, shortly after her sinuses cleared, about 30 minutes after treatment her headache was gone, not long after her glands went down, and finally her ears stopped hurting. She felt fantastic. This plant is magic.

Iboza Riparia

Aka: Wild Ginger, Ginger Bush, Nutmeg Bush

Latin name: Tetradenia riparia (formerly: Iboza riparia)

This plant is a highly aromatic shrubby semi-deciduous plant which blooms during Winter and possibly up to early Summer, depending on temperatures.

It is a member of the mint and salvia family and partially drought tollerant, but sensitive to both heat and cold. It will drop all of its leaves if the temperature drops below freezing, but will still bloom even if completely bare.

The growth rate is fairly fast becoming bushy quickly due to new shoots being constantly produced from the stems.

Care

Iboza can be grown in full sun except in areas of extreme heat in which case they will benefit from afternoon shade, or dappled sunlight during the day. It prefers light and well drained soil and will benefit from mulch and water during Summer, but should be not given much water during Winter.

It responds well to pruning which is best done after flowering and will encourage new growth. You can prune it back hard once it is well established.

Foliage

Propagation

Propagation is best done by cuttings because you will need both a male and female plant for pollination. Most Iboza plants that are bought from nurseries are male because they produce more flowers that its less flamboyant partner.

During Spring or Summer, woody branch cuttings will strike easily in a slightly-moist loose sandy mix. A single leafless stem can provide many cuttings.

Medicinal Use

In traditional medicine an infusion of the leaves were used mainly as a remedy against cold and flu symptoms.

Headache

Crushing and inhaling the scent of the aromatic leaves can relieve or dull a headache almost instantly, and clear the sinuses. I have woken up with a throbbing headache, and (sceptically) cupped a branch in my hand and took a few deep breaths. To my pleasant surprise, this actually worked. This plant is amazing.

Cold and Flu

Iboza's main traditional use is to alleviate cold and flu symptoms. An infusion of leaves or leaves and stems taken orally will relieve sore throat (gargle for best results), coughs, respiratory problems, stomach ache, diarrhoea, dropsy, fever and symptoms of malaria and dengue fever.

Emetic

An infusion of the leaves and roots can be used to induce vomiting. It is unknown what the dosage required is, but it's probably not a good idea to use Iboza as a general emetic.

Bacterial Ailments

Iboza has antibacterial and antiseptic qualities and is shown to be effective against: Escherichia coli (E-coli), Staphylococcus aureus, Candida albicans, Mycobacterium smegmatis, Microsporum canis, Trichophyton mentagrophytes and Bacillus subtilis.

This is by no means an exhaustive list.

Ethanol extractions (or a tincture) from the leaf and root have been shown to inhibit the growth of the above bacteria, and many others. This gives credence to the validity of traditional treatments against ailments such as food poisoning, urinary tract infections, meningitis, wound infections, throat problems and malaria.

Other Uses

• Stored grains and beans can be protected against insects and other pests by drying and crushing the leaves of the Iboza plant and storing them with the produce. Wash the plant matter before preparing the food.
• The stems of the plant were often chewed - presumably this helps with oral hygeine due to the antibacterial and antiseptic properties of the plant.

Recipe and Dosage

No information can be found about traditional dosage, but in practice I have found 1 gram of the fresh herb to be a safe and effective amount against cold and flu symptoms.

• Take 1 gram of fresh Iboza leaves
• (optional) Take 0.5 of fresh Toothache Plant leaves (this plant will be detailed in the next entry)
• Steep in 1 cup of boiling water for 30 minutes
• Gently simmer to reduce the concotion down to about 10-15% of the original volume. Do not boil vigoursly, but keep it just on the point of boiling.
• Let this cool and strain the tea, but do not discard the plant matter.
• If sore throat is part of your symptoms, then gargle the tea and swish it around as your would mouthwash and then drink the tea. Otherwise just drink it.
• The remaining plant matter can be reused a number of times in the same manner throughout the day for ongoing relief.

 This plant is a surprising and welcome addition to our arsenal and deserves a lot more popularity.

Update 2015

Hi fellow doomers. It's been a long time since posts and a lot has happened in the doomstead. I met a wonderful woman, married the hell out of her, and had a doomlet. On top of that my wife and I now run a plant nursery.

I have researched and am growing an array of interesting plants,  many that I consider essential to an off-the-grid lifestyle.

Here I will be detailing plants that will be useful and should be in everyone's survival garden. In addition they are being added to a new publication to go alongside the Doom Survival Guide, which will of course be available at no cost when finished.

As far as the Doom Survival Guide itself goes, editing and updates to the main document have not stopped since publication (although they have slowed down due to my new lifestyle). There are over 80 new pages of interesting and useful information and edits to existing material.

You can expect a new edition by the end of the year.

In the meantime, keep prepping, keep gardening, and never stop learning!

- DoomGuy

Homemade Chilli Sauce

Having an abundance of a variety of fresh chillies at our nursery, including tabasco chillies, we decided to try our hand at making Tabasco® Sauce. Deciding that we didn't want to wait 3 years for a small bottle, we modified the method a little bit, as well as the ingredients. The result was delicious.

We made an initial test sauce consisting of tabasco, habanero, sweet thai and possibly some birds eye chillies if I recall correctly. It turned out delicious and although it's very potent we devoured it quickly, so we decided to make a sweet version, and a hot version.

The process is described below.

Ingredients

Sweet sauce ingredients

The sweet sauce consisted of around 200 grams of sweet thai and cayenne chillies. In addition we added 2 tomatoes, an onion, some garlic, about a 1/4 of a cup of sugar and a teaspoon of salt.

Most sweet chilli sauce recipes call for a lot more sugar than this, but we weren't trying to make jam. We want some bite dammit and this sauce sure does have some.

Hot sauce ingredients

For the hot sauce, we amped it up a little, while still keeping it flavorsome because we aren't going for world records here - we want something we can enjoy.

But because we also want to hurt people, we used the three hottest chillies we grow - the ghost, the dorset naga, and 1 carrot chilli. The ghosts are the three on the top right, the carrot is the one that looks like a carrot, and the three dorset nagas are just under the ghosts and look similar, but smaller.

The fat ones are the habaneros and the rest are sweet thai and some birds eye. All up there was just shy of 150 grams of chillies. We also added some garlic, and a teaspoon of salt.

In our opinion sweet thai chillies are a must in any sauce we make because they are so flavorsome. They are very similar to a jalapeno in heat and flavor, but much more 'fruity'.

The carrot chilli is nasty. It doesn't really have much of a flavor but it has a lot of heat.

Vinegar

You will also need some vinegar. We used plain old distilled white vinegar, but almost anything will do. In our first test we used sushi vinegar, and we used a little of that in the hot sauce too.

Method

First thing you need to do is pulverize the ingredients. We did a rough chop first, and then threw it in the blender.

Something to be taken into consideration when blending it, is that it will throw a lot of fine particles into the air - try not to inhale it. This also happens when you wash the dishes used.

After blending into a pulp, put it into a pot and put enough vinegar in it to cover the pulp and then a little more to account for loss from boiling.

Bring the vinegar/pulp mix to a boil and simmer for about 10-20 minutes. The vinegary smell will be gone by this time.

Next pour the slush into a strainer with something to collect the goodness under. Push the juice through the strainer with a big spoon. It takes a little time to get all the juice from it.

All that remains now is to decanter the juice into a bottle or other container. But don't throw the left over pulp away! It's great in chilli con carne or anything like that.

And here is the final product, 2 bottles of sweet sauce and 1 little bottle of facemelter. This should last us a while... maybe.

ParaVival Paracord Bracelet Review

The good folk at ParaVival Gear kindly sent me Baby Black Cobra Survival Bracelet to review. This bracelet is made from 550 paracord - an excellent and versatile material that should be part of every survival kit.

I must admit that I received this item over a week ago, but have been wearing it instead of reviewing it, because sadly, reviewing it involves destroying it.

So let's begin

The bracelet features a side release buckle that is curved so it sits nicely on your wrist. There are other options, including a metal D-shackle which is a survival item in itself, so worth considering, although I don't know how comfortable it would be. Before they sent me the bracelet, I measured my wrist according to their instructions. It feels a little bit on the snug side, but my wrist does have a habit of changing size for some reason After wearing it for a week, it is quite comfortable and I forgot I had it on most of the time. As I said, I am reluctant to destroy it, but destroy it I shall.

Unravelling

On the inside of the bracelet there are two ends tucked under the final wrap. Pull these out to to begin. Unwrapping it takes a minute or so, yielding 2.25 metres (7'4") of cord, and the buckle. A couple of metres of cord is better than none, but you can take it even further. Inside the sheath is 7 inner yarns, giving a total of over 15 metres (almost 50ft) of strong twine. This twine can be used in traps, for fishing, rough sewing, part of a fire bow, ties for a shelter (to attach thatching battens for example). The uses are endless. The thin yarns will want to fray and unwind immediately, so put a flame to them to prevent this. It's best to move the flame in from the side rather than from below.

This still leaves you with the outer sheath to use as cord. Below I will list the strengths of each part of the cord.

The outer sheath is braided from 32 strands. It is technically possible to unbraid all these strands to give you even more string to play with, but you would have to be a masochist.

But wait, there's more!

Yes, these inner yarns can be separated further into 3 even smaller strands. Before you rush into this however, separating the strands over the entire length is extremely tedious. The strands want to twist back together immediately.

The easiest way to separate all the strands is to give the job to someone else. It will keep them busy for a while.

If you do need to use these strands, separate them immediately before you use them, rather than trying to store them for later, because you will end up with a birdsnest rather easily.

As you can see with the result of the separation of the strands, I ended up with a small amount of wastage due to the tangle that was created.

These strands would be suitable for such uses as sutures, fly fishing, fine sewing, and they work great as dental floss.

Breaking Strength of the Individual Components

Kg	Lb	Component
135	300	Outer sheath (1x)
16	35	Inner yarn (7x)
5.3	11.5	Inner yarn strand (21x)

In conclusion

It's pretty easy to get used to wearing something like this every day, and might just be that one thing you need one day.

Now all I have to do is put it back together...

Some Notes on Bartering

Barter will be the currency of the aftertime. The idea of exchanging something useful for something else useful is as old as humanity, yet it is a skill that is rather undeveloped in modern society. Generally the price of goods is an un-negotiable amount of fiat currency. You don't go to a supermarket and offer to exchange a hammer for a bag of apples, for example.

Most of us are used to working for someone else to acquire $, and then using those $ to provide the things we need and want. This indirect relationship between work and living will become much more direct in the future. You tend your garden and your animals, you have food. You purify your water, you don't have dysentery.

Therefore, bartering will be a skill that will need to be worked on and improved over time. It's important that both parties get a fair deal. Be wary of overly aggressive hagglers trying to one-up every deal. Knowing the value of one thing versus another can be difficult and many things must be taken into account.

Each side of the deal must be weighed in terms of how hard it is to produce the item or work you are gaining versus the item you are losing. Does losing the item put you at a disadvantage? If so, you probably should trade something else. Does the item you are receiving help you as much as the item you are giving helps them? If so, it's probably a good trade.

Ideally, each party will trade something of theirs which they either don't need, have a surplus of, or can produce, while the item that is being received is something that is truly needed and is difficult, impossible, or overly time consuming to acquire in any other way.

Bad Choices of Things to Barter With

Most people understand that paper notes or stocks are backed by nothing and essentially worthless, the only way they carry value today is because every one agrees that it does.

Money used to be backed by gold, and then it was a fractional backing which eventually was whittled down to noting. Some people hold the belief that gold is "real" money and are hoarding as much as they can, hoping to buy themselves a living in the future.

Unfortunately for them, gold, like anything, will only be worth its intrinsic value. That is, its worth is based on how useful it will be to you. If someone wants to give you a 1 ounce gold coin in exchange for a months worth of food, would you make the trade?

For these, rather obvious reasons, there are many things you should not bother to acquire that are considered very valuable today.

Such as:

• Precious metals such as gold, silver, platinum, etc.
• Diamonds and gemstones
• Jewellery
• Paintings and sculptures
• Collectable crap like signed album covers

Surprisingly worthless

On a side note, as mentioned, precious metals will only be worth their intrinsic value to you in a basic living situation. You may consider trading for a small amount of pure (soft) gold if the opportunity arises due to its use in dentistry. A small piece of gold can be flattened out and formed into a strip, and then carefully worked into a tooth cavity (after routing) to provide a safe filling.

Silver has antibacterial properties and with a bit of knowledge can be turned into colloidal silver. A small amount of silver will last a long time if used like this.

Reasonable Choices of Things to Barter With

Discussed in this section are things that will certainly be useful, but generally won't be renewable in a basic living situation, unless you have the particular skill set and the resources to produce them.

Things like:

Immensely Valuable [source]

• Tools - this covers a huge range of items such as woodworking tools, metalworking tools, farming tools, repairing and stripping tools, consumables such as hacksaw blades and sandpaper. The list is endless.
• Firearms and ammunition
• Other weapons such as compound bows and their associated ammunition
• Clothing and bedding, fine netting like mosquito a net, needles and thread
• Steel cookware
• Oils (general lubrication oils, honing oils, engine oils, etc)
• Fuels (petroleum, diesel, LPG, kerosene, etc)
• Fastening items - wire, screws, nails, rope
• Medicines (although be aware of the shelf life)
• Books

This list could go on forever and are things you should certainly strive to acquire for you and your group. Their usefulness makes them excellent things to barter with, but unless you have a surplus of something, you may not be able to part with it. Even if you do have multiples of some items, things can break or wear out and you might want to keep spares for the future.

Some of you reading that list will look at some of the items and say "hey! I can make that". This is excellent. Anything you can produce that is useful and hard to make immediately becomes an excellent choice for bartering.

Good Choices for Things to Barter With

I would hazard a guess that things mentioned in this section will be the bulk of trade in the future. These things are reasonably easy to produce, and some are utterly essential. We are talking about -

• Food
• Labour

It is of course vital to your survival to be able to produce your own food and clean water indefinitely, and also to learn to preserve and store food and seeds safely for insurance in lean times. At times you will probably end up with an abundance of some foods, while other groups may have abundances of different foods. There will be a variety between successful groups and many a happy trade made.

Labour will also be a very useful trade, as it is today. The labour does not need to be skilled. Perhaps an aging farmer needs help pulling weeds or tilling ground. In exchange for this, he will give you food from his lovingly tended garden.

This guy is very popular

And, secondarily:

• Coffee
• Tea
• Cocoa
• Alcohol
• Tobacco
• Marijuana
• Opium

Many industrious survivors will be producing such treats. While not strictly essential, an otherwise dull day can be brightened. Opium is included in the list because it would certainly be advantageous if field dentistry or surgery needs to be performed. In most countries opium poppy seeds can legally be bought - you need the papaver somniferum strain. I have heard that the poppy seeds you buy in a supermarket are this same strain, and this article seems to confirm this. I recommend you read it for advice on how not to consume opium.

As far as tobacco goes, personally I think the apocalypse may be a good catalyst for giving up, but that's a blog for another day.

The Absolute Best Thing to Barter With

Without a doubt, the best thing you can barter with is a good skill. Being able to help someone improve their garden with your knowledge of plants, knowing how to produce lumber from timber, knowing how to cook with mediocre or unusual ingredients, knowing how to help the wounded or someone who needs a tooth extracted, skills with building, skills with making tools. This list is endless.

Not only will you not lose your skill every time you trade with it, but it will most likely improve, and an astute observer will most likely learn something from you. All to the common good.

Simple Improvised Headlamp

This entry will show you how to improvise a headlamp from a small penlight. This idea came about from a happy accident. Initially I only intended to whip some strong cord around my flashlight because I was not satisfied with the thin string that was supplied, and was anticipating it breaking off at some point.

The flashlight I am using is a Fenix L1D. I love this little bugger. It takes a single standard AA battery, and works well with rechargeables. It throws out a lot of light, but also has options to decrease the brightness level via twisting the end, increasing battery life. It also has a strobe and SOS mode but whatever.

I use this flashlight all the time because of it's convenient size, efficiency, and light output, but of course often need the use of both my hands, leaving the only other option of mouthing it. Often dripping drool into it. This easy as pie mod will create a dual purpose device.

Getting Started

You don't need much. Just the flashlight and some cord. I used just shy of 1.8m (6ft) of 550 paracord. This is plenty for a light this size, and you probably don't want to have one much bigger hanging off the side of your head.

The whipping length was fairly short (10 turns) so the thread is kept clear. Thinner cord will need to be longer.

The exact length of cord is not critical as it will be made adjustable.

Whip It

<-- Double the cord along the flashlight, creating a loop. It is not folded exactly in half - one end is long - this is the line that is wrapped around the cylinder.

Hold at the point where the whipping will start and fold the long line over the short one, clamping it in place. -->

 Whip It Good

<-- Wrap around again and continue. Whipping needs to be TIGHT to work so pull that sucker HARD.

Continue until you almost reach the end, leaving a small area free. -->


If you whip it right up to the end, a loop may slip off which will loosen the whole works, leaving you with a lovely birdsnest. For this reason, stop wrapping at about 10mm from the edge.

Shape It Up

<- When you have wrapped enough loops, take the loose end and feed it through the loop.

Now pull on the short line that lays under the wraps, and pull it tight. -->

Get It Straight

Once you pull the loop tight - assuming every wrap was tight - the whole works will be secure. You can now release your grip because that cord is not going anywhere.

If you are not familiar with whipping, this is a pretty standard technique and can be used for many other purposes such as securing two or more poles together, or making comfortable handles for tools.

Go Forward

<-- Take one end of the cord and tie a knot in this fashion. This image shows the lay of the knot but you will want to tie it tighter than this before you try to sinch it up.

When tightened, it will slide along the other line and not slip under tension. Tie a knot on the other line to stop it from slipping. I used a figure-8 knot but a granny knot will do.

Move Ahead

This is how it works as a headlamp. Yeah you will look like a tool but what the hell. It works. It's easy to pull the line loose or taut around your head or hand, or hang it from your neck like a lanyard.

If you whipped it good, it will never come loose and you will never lose a valuable item such as a 90 fucking dollar flashlight ever.

Essential Fire Devices

A lot is written about fire in survival texts and I won't go into details about all the different ways of creating a fire, but rather the essential items you will want in your kit, and why.

Matches

Forget about matches. They are an outdated method for creating fire and are problematic. They take up a lot of space for relatively few "lights", and you may need to strike several matches to start a fire if the wind gets to them. They are prone to breakage. If standard matches get wet, they are useless. You can keep them in a waterproof baggy, with the striker, or you can buy or make waterproof matches, but as you will see, waterproof matches are not necessary.

The only benefit to matches is they come attached with a small amount of fuel (ie, the wood) but if you can't find a matchstick worth of fuel, you're not going to get a fire going anyway.

Standard Cigarette Lighters

For roughly the same volumetric space as a standard packet of matches, you can carry a lighter. Carry 5 what the hell.
I have only ever bought Bic lighters for as long as I remember and for good reason - they are safe and reliable. Every time you need a new lighter, buy 3 and stash 2 away.

A quote from their site:

Every BIC® lighter undergoes more than 50 separate, automatic quality checks during the manufacturing process. This includes testing of each and every finished BIC® lighter by lighting and extinguishing it to ensure the lighter performs properly before it ever leaves BIC’s factory.
[source]

They boast around 2000 "lights" each* - far more than the 50 you will get from matches (unless you do that splitting the matchhead thing which is just stupid).

*unless you smoke bongs

And one of the biggest benefits of a cigarette lighter: they are WATERPROOF. Well, not entirely, if you get it wet it might not spark immediately, but it takes very little to get it dry enough to spark and sustain a flame - even if it has been fully submerged.

1. Remove the child proof strip. This is easily done by levering it out with a small screwdriver or the tip if a knife. I do this anyway because I hate them. Leaving these strips on will provide some protection against getting the flint wet in the first place however.
2. Put the lighter to your lips and suck air through the striker.
3. Strike the flint without pressing the gas if you can avoid it.

Repeat steps 2 and 3 until you get a spark, at which point you will get a flame which will dry the flint completely in short order.

The entire process will take less than 30 seconds to get a flame from a lighter that has been completely submerged.

Fire-Lighters

You don't need a fire-lighter every time you start a fire, but they are worth carrying for when materials are wet, or a little green, or you just need a little boost. I prefer to carry the fibrous kind, they are made from wood pulp and some sort of fuel. The ones I have are made from 45% wood fibre and 55% wax.

The reason I like the fibrous kind is that they are very easy to slice up into small sections. You do not need a whole fire-lighter every time you start a fire.

If materials are wet, circle them around the initially small fire and let them dry without smothering the delicate flame. Start with the smaller kindling on the outside surrounding the central fire, and the larger fuel surrounding that. Bring the outer material in as it dries and feed the fire, gradually building it up and providing more heat for the larger wet material surrounding it.

If it has been pouring with rain, fuel on the ground will be initially too wet to start a fire (while trying to conserve precious luxuries such as liquid or solid fuel). Don't look on the ground for your kindling, but rather look to the trees. Almost every tree or bush will have dead twigs attached. Snap these off as they will be far more dry than material that is laying on the ground, and much easier to get burning.

Larger sticks and logs on the ground that have been sitting in standing water will be wet on the outside, but will still be dry in the core unless they have been soaking in water for a long long time. Dry the surface of such materials next to your fire, with the smaller materials closer to the centre.

By following this logical process you will always be able to get a fire going in the wild no matter how long it has been raining.

Notes on Other Fire-Lighting Devices

Firesteel is a compact and convenient device. If you are skilled with it, you will get even more fires from it that from a cigarette lighter. While these tools don't last forever, they will last a LONG time, and are essentially waterproof and will produce a spark easily when wet. I definitely recommend stocking one or two of these in your kit.

Fire-Pistons are an ancient device for creating an ember with which to kindle a fire. If treated properly, a good fire piston will last a lifetime. While not completely waterproof, by design they are sealed tight when not in use, making it very hard for water to penetrate, even if totally submerged for long periods.

Zippo-style lighters are robust and will last a lifetime if properly cared for, providing you have spare flints and can find fuel for it. Substitute fuel includes:

• Alcohol: works well, but evaporates quickly
• Lantern fuel: hard to light, but will burn admirably when ignited
• Kerosine: works well.
• Camp stove lantern fuel: essentially the same as lighter fluid (naphthalene) 
• Nail polish remover: probably would work

You may be tempted to try diesel or petrol (gasoline). Don't. Diesel won't ignite from a spark, and petrol will puncture your face with exploding lighter parts. If you have petrol and a sparking lighter, soak something with a SMALL amount, and ignite that.