BUCKHORN CLIFFSA preparedness field manual

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Garden and Livestock

Grow and protect your own food

Food you grow is the one supply line no one can cut. Keep seed you can save, the parts to keep water on it, and the means to protect the harvest and any animals.

Start with the full guide

Field guideStockpile Essentials Field GuideThe master checklist: 239 items across 16 categories, the shelf life class of each, and the 20 multi-use items that cover the most jobs. 39 pages.Open the field guide ReferenceGarden UsesA symptom-to-recipe chart, every garden task with its recipe, the key rates, the mistakes that ruin a crop, and what to do each season.Open the full page

Seed is the highest-leverage stock you can keep

A few jars of open-pollinated seed, saved and replanted, can feed a family for years. Store it cool and dry, and learn to save your own from each harvest.

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Formulas 19

Formula Animal Pen and Coop Cleaner (Vinegar) A diluted white vinegar cleaner for coops, pens, nest boxes, feeders and waterers that removes residue and ammonia odor without toxic residue. Formula Baking Soda Ant Barrier and Cockroach Bait Two uses of baking soda for insects: a dry line to disrupt ant trails and a 1 to 1 sugar or flour bait for cockroaches. Formula Boron Micronutrient Feed for Deficient Crops A pinch of borax corrects the specific starvation that shows up as hollow broccoli stems or brown-hearted beets, but boron is the one nutrient where too much is as damaging as too little, so this is a targeted rescue, never a routine feed. Handle with care Formula Chicken Coop Freshener Powder (Baking Soda and DE) Ammonia from poultry waste causes respiratory problems in birds and reduces egg production. Handle with care Formula Garden and Crop Fungicide Dust Sulfur has guarded crops from disease for more than 2,000 years: it coats the leaf, interferes with the fungus's respiration, and keeps new spores from taking hold. Hazardous Formula Garden Fertilizer for Magnesium-Deficient Plants When OLDER leaves yellow between the veins while the veins stay green, and a soil test confirms low magnesium, Epsom salt fixes what nitrogen and potassium cannot. On soils that already have enough magnesium, though, it does nothing and can even do harm. Handle with care Formula Garden Pest Control Using Diatomaceous Earth Diatomaceous earth kills insects mechanically rather than chemically, so pests do not build resistance to it the way they do to chemical sprays. Handle with care Formula Garden Sanitizing, Fungus Gnats, and What Not to Do for Root Rot Root rot is a disease, not just drowning, and there is nothing you can pour on top that reaches it. Peroxide earns its place in the garden on pots, tools, and fungus gnat larvae. Do not waste it on the soil of a dying plant. Handle with care Formula Insect Deterrent Spray (Vinegar) Ants find food by following invisible scent trails, and wiping those trails away, with soapy water or vinegar, is what actually sets them back, at least until they lay a fresh one. Handle with care Formula Limewash for Coops, Barns and Latrines (Hydrated Lime) Limewash has been used for centuries to whitewash barns, outhouses, and food storage areas because it simultaneously kills microbes, reduces odors, and may deter insects. Hazardous Formula Powdery Mildew and Black Spot Leaf Spray A spoonful of baking soda and a little oil in a gallon of water makes a cheap protective spray that keeps powdery mildew and rose black spot from taking hold, so long as you start early and keep at it. Handle with care Formula Raise Soil pH with Hydrated Lime (Calcium Hydroxide) Most vegetables, legumes, and fruit trees struggle in acidic soil because critical nutrients become chemically locked and unavailable to roots. Hazardous Formula Rodent Bait (Baking Soda) Mice and rats cannot vomit or burp, and a baking soda bait turns that against them: eaten in a sweet or fatty food, the powder fizzes into gas they have no way to release. Handle with care Formula Seed Soak to Wake Old or Slow Seed A dilute peroxide soak can nudge tired, dormant, or hard-coated seed into sprouting faster and more evenly. It wakes seed that is old but still alive; it cannot bring dead seed back, because nothing can. Handle with care Formula Soil Acidifier for Acid-Loving Plants When soil is too alkaline for acid-loving plants like blueberries, azaleas, and rhododendrons, elemental sulfur slowly lowers the pH into the range they need. Hazardous Formula Soil Fertilizer for Nitrogen-Deficient Gardens Because sodium nitrate is already in the nitrate form that roots take up directly, it feeds plants the moment it dissolves, with no wait for soil microbes to convert it, which makes it one of the fastest ways to green up a hungry, nitrogen-starved garden. Hazardous Formula Soil pH Quick Test with Baking Soda and Vinegar Sample: 2 tbsp, 4-6 in deep; Acid test: vinegar fizz; Alkaline test: wet soda fizz Handle with care Formula Stump Remover and Land Clearing Potassium nitrate is what commercial stump removers are: drilled into a stump and watered in, it slowly nudges the wood toward rot and, more reliably, soaks it with an oxidizer so a dried stump can later be burned out from within. Hazardous Formula Weed Killer for Paths and Driveways (Vinegar) Young weeds: 5% vinegar; Established: 20%+ vinegar; Best: hot, dry day Handle with care

Guides 7

Guide American Wild Plum Tree (Colorado Wild Plums) Fruit flesh and skin are safe; pits, leaves, and stems release hydrogen cyanide when chewed or crushed Guide Colorado High-Elevation Vegetable Gardening Front Range last frost: first half of May. Foothills and mountains: late May into June Guide DIY Garden Fence Gate (Wood and Welded Wire) Lower end of the diagonal cross brace goes on the hinge side of the gate Guide DIY Garden Fence to Keep Deer and Rabbits Out Drop dry concrete in the post hole, spray with water, mix with a digging bar Guide Highland Cow Horns (Purpose, Growth and Differences by Sex) Mature horn spread reaches 3-4 feet tip-to-tip; growth is fastest in the first 3 years Guide Prefab Metal Barn Kit: Build Experience and Costs 20x30 steel barn installed cost $15,828; prep plus shell total $23,796 (2020) Guide Straw vs Hay: What Each One Is, What a Bale Weighs, and What to Do with It Hay is feed (dried grass and legumes); straw is the hollow stem left after grain harvest, for bedding and mulch, not food

Spare parts lists 3

Parts list Spare Parts: Fencing, Gates & Land Fences and gates fail at the moving parts and the connections. Keep wire, posts, and gate hardware to repair a run or hang a gate. Parts list Spare Parts: Garden, Seed & Irrigation Food you grow is the one supply line no one can cut. Keep seed you can save and the parts that keep water on the garden with little effort. Parts list Spare Parts: Pest & Rodent Control Rodents ruin a lot of stored food, chew wiring, and spread disease. Protecting the stores is part of keeping them.

Reference charts 1

Reference Garden Uses: The Right Recipe for Soil, Plants, Pests, and Harvest A symptom-to-recipe chart, every garden task with its recipe, the key rates pulled from each one, the mistakes that ruin a crop, and what to do in each season.

The checklist

Tick what you already have. Checks are saved on this device.

Garden, Seed and Livestock The food supply chain no one can cut

Grow it

Protect it

Preserve & livestock

Audit questions

From the walk-around audit. Tap a question for what a good answer looks like.

How many days of feed are stored?

A few days of feed is a red flag; a storm closes the feed store for a week. Good is several weeks for every animal, bought ahead and rotated, with the calculation done per head per day. The grain storage protectant keeps it sound.

Is it protected from moisture and pests?

Feed in the paper bag on the barn floor is mouse food and mold in a month. Good means sealed metal cans or drums off the floor, a dry building, and a check for weevils and damp at every top-up. Mold control for fodder covers the sprouted side.

Is water accessible in freezing conditions?

A frozen trough at minus ten is a daily emergency. Good means a tank heater on backup power, an insulated or below-frost source, or a hand-carried plan with the buckets and the time to do it twice a day for a week.

Does delivery rely on electricity?

Automatic waterers, heated buckets and the well pump all stop with the grid. Good means you know how the animals get water with the power off: a gravity tank, a hand pump, a stored reserve near the pens. Animals scale every number on the water page.

Score this in the audit

Common mistake

Buying hybrid seed you cannot save, or storing it warm and damp.

Skills to learn

save open-pollinated seed · water-glass eggs · can the harvest safely

When it matters

Rising Prices and Shortages