David Kershner 12/28/17 David Kershner 12/28/17

Garden Assessment and Planning

Following my own advice from my most recent post regarding an end of year assessment, I started assessing my garden. To further this process, I looked at my offerings in the garden and determined what worked, and what didn’t. This year, I think it’s safe to say, I made many mistakes, some of which were largely of my own doing. The good news is that all of it can be easily corrected with minimal effort. Let’s see, there was:

Too much shade in the new garden plot (rectified with a chainsaw)
Too much water from the in-law’s irrigation system (rectified with controller changes)
Mislabeled plants (rectified with the re-implementation of popsicle stick labels)
Chipmunk and squirrel infestation destroyed anything directly sown resulting in a late replanting (rectified with bird netting until mature – approx. 2’ tall)

Item #1 was the result of setting the garden structure before foliage had returned. Several limbs and a few crap trees need to be removed for better sun exposure.

Item #2 was a foreseeable issue that wasn’t seen… if that makes sense. My father-in-law loves lush green grass and waters accordingly. That was far too much water for the garden and, thus, I had a lot of mold and disease problems. The garden is now on its own watering circuit with dedicated sprinkler heads that only I can control.

Item #3 was born out of vanity. I thought that because I’ve been growing pretty much the same things year in and year out I’d know what everything was as it sprouted. I was wrong. I didn’t bother labeling the pots as I started the seeds indoors and some serious head scratching took place as the plants matured and bore fruit. It was actually kind of funny, but needless to say I’ll be re-implementing my label practices.

Item #4 was the direct result of my in-laws and their panache for bird feeders. It seems that the chipmunks and squirrels have grown accustomed to having carte blanche on their property as they have no pets to speak of. As a result, they felt that the garden was in bounds and attacked my garden by either eating the tender sprouts or digging up all of the direct sown seeds. These were things like corn, bush beans, asparagus, Spanish onions, and potatoes. Oddly enough, they didn’t touch the carrots. This issue was resolved when I replanted and then draped those sections of the garden under bird netting. Unfortunately, these plants were re-seeded too late in the season. The corn only made it to about four feet tall by the end of the season.

As part of the assessment process, I also tend to review things I’ve previously written and/or researched looking for answers, explanations, or motivation. By looking to pieces I’ve already researched and written, it helps me stay focused on the task and reduces the amount of time it takes me to complete said assessment and planning tasks. In the case of the garden assessment and planning, I was looking at some of the research I did regarding orchards. In that white paper, which is available on the Resources/Research Downloads page, I stipulated that the Stark Bros website was my go-to resource for seedlings and general perfunctory knowledge for nut and fruit trees as well as berries. And for the record, I recommend both My Patriot Supply and Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds for non-GMO vegetable seeds.

Anyway, in addition to correcting the jackassery of my mistakes, I am going to try my hand at some berry bushes this coming year. This decision has me perusing the Stark Bros website once again. So far, I think I’ve decided on red raspberries and blue berries. I’d like to do blackberries, but there are several issues that need to be overcome before I can do those. Chief among them is the fact that they need to be planted > 75-100 yards away from the raspberries. Frankly speaking, I’m in an urban environment and the entirety of my lot isn’t that big. What I’m shooting for here with these berries is ease of maintenance and harvest. Thorns suck!

For the red raspberry, Stark Bros has a variety they are calling Bushel and Berry Raspberry Shortcake that seems like it checks all of the boxes in terms of maintenance and ease of harvest… I mean c’mon! It’s in a friggin’ pot!

As far as the blueberries go, I figured since I was going to implement a container raspberry I might as well try and do the same for the blueberry. And wouldn’t you know it… Stark Bros had one of those too. The variety I selected is called the Northblue Blueberry, but even though they said I didn't necessarily need one, they did recommend planting a pollinator called a Northcountry Blueberry. Unfortunately, their website didn’t have a nice picture to show you, but I did find this to serve my purposes here:

While I was searching for a good picture of a blueberry bush in a pot, I did come across a website called the Preparedness Mama that had a post relating to container blueberries. Here’s the link to that: 5 Tips to Grow Blueberries in Pots.

Planting, or growing, berries in general has now caused a ripple effect. Now I’ll have to deal with birds picking off my harvest as it ripens. I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t do something that resulted in the generation of a secondary or tertiary problem that required solving. How do you keep the birds off the berry plants once the fruit starts to ripen? Well, with bird netting of course!

At first, I drew this to try and explain my thought process as whatever I implement has to be able to be removed so I can get to the berries, but not the birds:

Pretty crude but you get the general idea. Then I figured there had to be something online where someone has already solved my berry thief problem. Sure enough, I found something in fairly short order:

Pretty creative options I think.

At the end of the day, I’ve assessed the 2017 garden and planned for the 2018 garden. Easy peesy! Now I can check those two tasks off my task list for January…

David Kershner 12/27/17 David Kershner 12/27/17

It's Assessment Time

With my last post of 2017, I thought I’d remind you to do your yearly assessment. Right now, you should be neck deep in trying out any of your cold weather/winter related gear, clothing, equipment, and plans. While you’re doing that however, you should take time to reflect on this past year. Hopefully, you’ve taken a few notes (mental, paper, or electronic) to assist you in this endeavor. For each and every task or project you attempted or completed or failed miserably at, you should be asking yourself:

What worked or didn’t work?
Why did it work?
Why didn’t work?
What can I do to make it work better, more efficient?
What can you change to improve upon ‘x’?

Also, even though everything is dormant right now, it doesn’t mean you can’t take what you learned from 2017 and apply it to 2018. This is accomplished through reflection, scheduling, and the occasional list. I’m a huge proponent of scheduling, and list making for that matter. I find that a detailed and robust list keeps me on task more often than not. And we all know my propensity for Excel so I placed a Sample Task List on my Resources/Research Downloads page for you to use. I’ve also put up a Microsoft Home Maintenance template I found and downloaded.

Both files can be found at, or near, the bottom of the page as I load new files in at the bottom (oldest downloads are at the top).

David Kershner 12/15/17 David Kershner 12/15/17

Solar - Quick Start

As my search for land continues, so does my knowledge base for just about everything else. I've pretty much got the hunting and gardening skills down pat. That doesn't mean I'm the master of all I survey, but I don't have any concerns with regard to putting food on the table if push came to shove.

That being said, my recent hunting adventures have me itching to build blinds and hides for my friend's boats. I even found some really cool ideas on Pinterest of all things. Who knew. I'd also like to work on the use of snares and a bow (compound or cross) as these methods are far quieter than any of my shotguns or rifles.

As for gardening, I've read about all things hydroponic and need to put that knowledge into action, but that's tough to do now that our basement is completely finished with the exception of a 12x12 mechanical room. Plus, I'm not a fan of staging that type of system at the in-laws. I want full unfettered access at all times. I need land in the worst way! There's always something else that can be learned.

Today is no exception.

As I checked my email this morning, I found a link to an article that some off-grid folks wrote regarding everything they knew about solar. It went into sizing, purpose, cost, and they provided numerous recommendations. Having just read through what they wrote, I'm here to tell you it was one of the best written, most comprehensive articles on the subject I've read in a really long time.

Here's the article info and link. The article was posted on the Pure Living for Life website and was titled: Stupid-Easy Portable Solar Panels for RV, Off Grid, Boondocking and Camping

David Kershner 12/8/17 David Kershner 12/8/17

December Duck Hunt and Pretty Pictures for Your Brain

Pretty wide ranging post... mostly pictures chronicling some of the beauty presented to me, and a minor rant on the frustrating aspects of hunting in general....

Duck Hunt

I just got back from another failed duck hunting trip in SE North Carolina... I got a couple, but by and large, we should count the ways that I was foiled in my attempts.

Reason #1 - Super Freakin' Moon!

No kidding, the moon was as close as it comes to Earth last weekend and as a result the ducks had PLENTY of light to see by. So, as a result, they just stayed in their little protected impoundments and gorged themselves like a bunch of drunken frat boys with a serious case of the munchies. This is the second time a full moon, or nearly full moon, has thwarted my endeavors to kill evil ducks.

Reason #2 - Blue Bird Days

On day one, the clouds were high and wispy, the winds were calm, and the temps made it to the mid-60's. This, my friends, is the very definition of a blue bird day and you don't ever want to see these when hunting waterfowl. Day two and three had an increase of cloud cover and wind, but given the Super freakin' Moon, the damn things wouldn't fly.

Reason #3 - Scheduling

When you have a bunch of guys with family lives, jobs, and active children you pretty much have to take what you can get for a few years until the schedule lightens up. We went a little earlier than normal this year. Unfortunately, there hadn't been enough of a sufficient cold snap up north to push the ducks south prior to the trip. So we pretty much knew that the pickings were going to be slim. Go figure, the week I get back we have an arctic blast and my inbox is being lit up by DU telling me about Migration Alerts.

Scissor Blind

The camaraderie was great, but the blind was something to behold. We used something I'd never hunted in before called a scissor blind. It was really freakin' cool. Here's what it looked like:

These aren't my images mind you. I found them on Google for this post to give you an idea. In a nut shell, you take some juniper (floats exceptionally well and is highly rot resistant) and fashion it into a u-shape set to the approximate dimensions of the boat and insert some pins at key points for flexibility. Holes are drilled ever foot or so and then some pine boughs are inserted. Once it's dropped in the water, the whole rig is anchored to the bottom. After it's situated, you just drive the boat inside the u-shape. Then, with the aid of the pins, you close off the back end to surround the boat. No need to bring a dog as you just open up the back end, put the boat in reverse, wheel out and collect your ducks or geese, and then return to the anchored blind.

The juniper in the water does an excellent job of camouflaging the boat. To shield the hunters, the hand rail had more holes drilled for additional pine boughs. It was actually really cozy. Here's a link to an article I found that explains things further: Secrets of the Scissor Rig

You can see the juniper scissor blind resting on the handrail as we head out the first morning.

Pretty Pictures for Your Brain

Here's the sunrise the first morning... we kind of had an idea when we saw this that not much was going to be flying this day.

Not to be out done by the majesty of the sunrise, here's what we saw upon arriving at the coast the night before...

I swear, I take the pictures and I can't help feeling like Forrest Gump!

Oh, before I forget, here's the pin tail I picked to have mounted...

It's currently residing in a friends freezer until spring. Here's what it looks like in flight (Compliments of Google Images)...

Also, while I was down south I got some 'artistic' pictures of my friends farm. This is where I met my wife and it still has some sort of calming and centering affect on me whenever I visit.

Hurricane Matthew Aftermath

When the hurricane went through last year, the farm lost a lot of hardwoods. They've split a lot of it, but there's still a massive pile to be worked on. Here's what I found...

Another Garden Build

While I was at the farm I also staked out a garden for my friends mom. She's in her 70's and her back isn't what it used to be. I will have to build a high fence to protect it from the deer coming out of the nature preserve behind their house, but nevertheless, she was impressed with what I did for my mother-in-law so she asked me to build something along these lines in the spring...

In the words of Bubba, "I believe that's about it..."

David Kershner 11/18/17 David Kershner 11/18/17

Popular Ammo Calibers

Many years ago, I downloaded a spreadsheet titled listoflists from JWR's website, SurvivalBlog.com. It's not a bad place to start if you're starting to think along these lines. I always find it interesting to peek into the mind of someone that is hyper-focused on the security aspects of a post-SHTF society. Surprisingly, JWR's lists are broken down into a granular and easy to follow tab naming structure. There are many practical ideas contained in this document; some of which may or may not apply to you or me depending on location (urban vs. suburban vs. rural) and mindset when approaching this topic. There are some tabs that are a little over the top for me, but these are his lists so who am I to judge. He is former Army and I believe his first wife was a nurse, so that explains some of his information and thought processes.

Several of his topics stick out to me given my own proclivities and the current season, which are ammo and reloading. I've discussed reloading previously, but my brother dropped off his 12-gauge press so I'm starting to figure that out. It's also late fall, early winter and my first duck hunting trip is right around the corner. So, that leaves the topic of this post, popular ammo calibers.

Now, JWR mentions ammunition in passing on his Barter and Charity List tab, but doesn't specify calibers. He only says, 'Ammo of various calibers'. So, that got me to thinking, which calibers?

Cue the research... Here's what I found. The following images were found on the Knowledge Glue website. According to this site, the top five calibers are: 9mm, 223/5.56, 45 ACP, 12 gauge, and .22 LR. Here's their full top 20 list of calibers in the United States as of 2015:

Nothing really surprising there. Their article also contained a full list of 91 tracked calibers (by sales). However, the data set that was of the most interest to me was where they broke down each state's top five calibers. This is important information if you are planning on adding ammunition to your stores of barter and charity items as JWR suggests.

Because I'm a curious fellow, I clicked a link at the end of their article to find out the top manufacturers by state. This is also important information particularly if you plan on having spare parts available for barter and trade. Here's what Knowledge Glue had for this particular topic:

When they compiled their data, they did make note that what they were seeing for North and South Dakota was inconclusive so those states were not included. Here are the links so you can read the Knowledge Glue articles in their entirety. Also, take this information with a grain of salt as these articles were written in 2015. Granted, I don't think there's been some kind of massive shift in the data during the ensuring two years.

What Are the Most Popular Calibers in the US?

What Are the Top Firearm Calibers and Manufacturers by State?

David Kershner 11/13/17 David Kershner 11/13/17

Garlic is in the Ground

Fall has definitely arrived here in central Ohio and who would I be if I didn't start planning for it before summer was even over! I found a vendor at the downtown farmer's market that was selling these massive garlic bulbs that he stated were German Hard Neck Garlic. I've done garlic in the past and determined that hard neck varieties work better than soft neck in my cold hardiness zone (6a). So what's the little urban farmer to do... buy six of these massive mothers of course!

Now, as a reward for the change of seasons, in addition to removing the last vestiges of plant matter from the raised garden plots, I also get to start prepping and planning for the next growing season. Well, technically, I removed the exhausted plants a few weeks ago, but who's counting. This weekend however, I got the garlic cloves planted. It didn't take long to do this. What actually took some time was getting all of the leaves from the crap scrub trees out of the bed and surrounding area.

Man I can't wait to cut those bastards down and turn them into some nice split firewood!

Any way, this year I planted German Hard Neck Garlic. Look at the size of these cloves!

Amazingly, there were only eight cloves in the bulb. WOW!

In the northern climes, garlic performs best when planted in the fall and is then covered with a nice bed of straw. I like to plant my cloves so that the root end is approximately 2-3" deep and each clove is about 6" - 8" apart.

Interestingly enough, I made my holes for the cloves before I realized there were only 8 cloves per bulb. Oh well. Anyway, I also chose this particular bed because it houses my asparagus crowns and they needed to be over wintered with straw as well. Two birds, one stone baby!

All that green leafy stuff is the first year asparagus

The trick with asparagus is basically you have to plant it and wait at least one growing season, possibly even two or three depending on a variety of factors. Things like drainage, heat, and sunlight all will determine how long it takes your crowns to mature. The family loves asparagus so I planted it this year in the hopes that it is ready next year. Once it's established though, you're ready to go. You just can harvest anything the first year.

Back to garlic...

As I was saying, I like to plant my garlic cloves with the root end 2" - 3" deep. These cloves were so massively huge that the pointy tips were almost above grade! Once they were in the ground, I covered them with more dirt and then unleashed the straw!

In the spring, I'll lay out some more newspaper over the grass path ways and fill that with about 2" of rock. No more weed eating in the garden for me! You'll also notice that I left the leaf matter in the remaining beds. It's basically free organic matter and it'll get chopped up and turned in to the beds by the tiller in the spring.

David Kershner 11/2/17 David Kershner 11/2/17

Vaccines and Other Controversial Opinions

Some time ago, I signed up for the Orthomolecular News Service. It comes out every couple of weeks and generally espouses healthy living and vitamin supplements. The doctors there will chronicle how certain patients were treated (niacin, vitamin C, etc.) and how the patient responded. Today's newsletter was on vaccines. This is a serious and controversial topic for many. Here's the link to their article:

Vaccine Adjuvants and Excipients

One of the reasons I wrote Part I of the series, and a reason I sought out and found this news service, is because I was disturbed by the high rates of incidence for all manner of neurological and gastrointestinal disorder. Here's what I was staring at at that time:

My father died of pancreatic cancer in 2005
My mother was declining due to dementia (eventually succumbing to colon cancer in 2015)
Neighbor across the street had twin sons (one developed autism (high functioning) and the other did not)
Neighbor down the street had a son with severe autism (non communicative at age 12 except via limited sign language)
Neighbor next door developed Celiac disease
Wife's mother died from Parkinson's

And on and on and on it went...

Now, you're certainly entitled to your opinion and you can believe what you like... but my opinion is that there is a connection between the foods we're eating, coupled with the manner in which the vaccines are concocted and administered, and the visible and tangible issues we're are seeing in the neurological and gastrointestinal medical spaces.

There... I said it.

David Kershner 10/19/17 David Kershner 10/19/17

Emergency Supplies

I've been reviewing my Preparing to Prepare piece (work in progress - non fiction) and thinking about the hurricanes that hit the United States and its territories (Puerto Rico) lately. Think about it... In a span of 45 days:

Hurricane Harvey hit Texas/Louisiana on August 26, 2017 (90 dead)
Hurricane Irma hit Florida on September 10, 2017 (134 dead)
Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico on September 20, 2017 (90 dead)
Hurricane Nate hit Louisiana/Mississippi on October 8, 2017 (40 dead)

Millions of families are/were without power, uprooted, and devastated. Their possessions were flooded, blown down, or washed away. Sadly, 354 people lost their lives to these storms. Now, most of these deaths were the result of failing to evacuate (where possible), shabby building standards, poor planning, and even worse decision making.

But what about the survivors... the millions without power and the utterly helpless?

Many of the companies I frequent for my various supplies and interests sent long haul trucks and cargo containers full of supplies to the devastated regions to help with the relief effort. As a result, this has left the rest of us facing shortages when it comes to new purchases and the replenishment of exhausted consumable resources. Seeing an item online tagged with an 'Out of Stock' message has become a common occurrence for me.

In the non-fiction book, I take the concept of general preparedness and break it down into three distinct duration's; minor (1-week or less), moderate (1-3 weeks), and major (4-weeks or more). Each of these hurricanes reached a 'Moderate' rating at different stages of its lifecycle in certain parts of the Caribbean, Central America, and North America. Several of these storms, given my duration classification, are 'Major' disturbances.

So what do you do if presented with this scenario?

Here's what I put in the book:

I point to this weather related issue because this puts Hurricane Matthew in the ‘moderate disruption’ category. Knowing what they are experiencing, it begs some of the following questions. Do you have enough of the following to last two solid weeks for a family of four?

Food and Water
Fuel
- For a vehicle to go 50-100 miles (one-way) to get supplies?
- For the portable generator (assuming you have one)
- For the house generator (e.g. Generac, assuming you have one that is not on a city feed)
- For cooking meals and boiling water (propane, white, or charcoal - assuming you don’t have a gas stove being fed by the house generator)
Consumable supplies (batteries, candles, toilet paper, feminine supplies, etc.)
Medications

Two things to consider with a whole house generator (should you be thinking about procuring one):

If the city is without power and you are hooked into a city fed gas line, you will be without gas due to the pumping station lacking power.
A week is just about enough time for people to start panicking and doing things they never would have thought themselves capable of doing. Two weeks without reliable food, water, and electricity and you’re bound to have a run in or two with someone more desperate than you.

I tell you these things because a home lit up like Christmas against a backdrop of sheer darkness is a tempting target… but we’ll get to the concept of discretion and security a little later.

Additionally, if you flesh out the last item on the previous list, Consumable Supplies, you might have a list that looks something like:

Batteries (varying sizes)
Candles (long burning)
Toilet Paper
Feminine supplies
Spare toothbrushes/toothpaste
Soap and shampoo
Deodorant
Dishwashing soap
Laundry detergent
A method for washing/drying clothes
Pots/pans
Paper plates, cups
Plastic cutlery
Matches/tinder

Granted, food and water are consumable products too, but I’ve made those separate line item categories for the simple fact that you need those two items to actually live and survive. These items are just for comfort.

For me, the preliminary questions and various scenarios present in this Introduction alone are enough of a reason to begin seriously thinking about preparing to prepare. What do you think?

Perhaps, the millions without power wouldn't be nearly as helpless, and most aren't, if they had planned accordingly for just such an event. I know, that seems harsh and a tad bit like Monday Morning Quarterbacking, but it's true. I cannot understand why people still believe some omnipotent government apparatus is going to save them. I see videos of people boarding up the beach house windows and then sitting inside as a massive hurricane closes in. My only thought is, "Great, you saved your windows. Got any food or water in there?"

Sadly, the answer is usually, 'We ran out', 'We thought they'd get here sooner', 'We didn't think it would be that bad', and 'I'll never do that again'.

FEMA says every American should have a 3-day supply of food and water in case of an emergency. I say screw that! 3-days isn't enough for the people affected in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, or Puerto Rico.

After reviewing that piece of my Introduction some weeks ago, I started a new reinvigorated effort to procure some things. Where did I turn... to my handy JWR inspired LISTS of course! The image below has been cobbled together from multiple lists actually (certain personal data removed of course). I'm providing it here as context given the previous write-up concerning duration's.

The center column labeled as 'Procured' has conditional formatting applied to it. If the cell for the row contains a value, a 'Y' for example, then the entire row is shaded in green indicating I no longer require that item and have achieved that goal.

Given the current state of affairs nationally and globally, can you really afford not to start acquiring even the most basic emergency supplies?

David Kershner 10/17/17 David Kershner 10/17/17

Continued NK Threat of EMP

As part of my research for the book series, I read through the entirety of the Report of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack, as well as the shorter Executive Report. The manner in which an EMP works, what the after effects would be, as well as estimates on the casualties are all detailed in those two documents. Some time ago I placed both of these documents on my Research Downloads page for everyone to access.

I cannot stress this enough, you need to read these documents. Not everyone will fully understand all of it as they can be quite technical at times, but you should read them all the same. Readers need to make their own determinations as to how to they wanted to incorporate that knowledge into their daily lives.

That being said, it seems, that two of the reports' authors were recently on Capitol Hill to discuss the original assessment contained in the report and breathe new life into this potential cataclysmic problem given the rhetoric coming from North Korea. Here's the article that discusses their testimony and what we as a nation are potentially facing: Congress Receives Bone-Chilling Warning About the Results of a North Korean EMP Attack.

For additional information (Cliff Notes style), scroll down and read my post from August 13, 2017, A Note from the Author Regarding EMP. In that post I explain my need to include a disclaimer regarding the true effects of an EMP in Part IV of the series. After reading that, continue to scroll down to my March 6, 2017 post, EMP Related Information. In this post, I quite literally copied and pasted the text from Part III where I breakdown the science of exactly how an EMP works to shut down electrical devices, cars, the grid, etc.

The more information and knowledge you have, the better off you and your family will be.

David Kershner 10/14/17 David Kershner 10/14/17

Mini Meadows, Switchgrass, & Hugelkultur

Kind of a wide-ranging post today. In a nut shell, I've been doing some reading and research in an effort to pack Part IV of the series with some additional concepts and useful ideas. On tap today, we have Mini Meadows, Switchgrass, and Hugelkultur.

Spoiler Alert: The bulk of the characters in Part IV pretty much spend the entirety of the book on a journey that sees them leave the farm in McArthur, Ohio and head west toward the far end of the central plains and back again. Fear not though, the home fires are kept burning with a nice complement of characters too. I tell you this so you'll understand how and why these three ideas are related. Given the locations of scenes and the interactions the characters have, each of these concepts has a degree of validity as it pertains to beneficial knowledge transfer to locals struggling to survive 20 years after an EMP.

Mini Meadows:

What is a mini meadow? Pretty much what it sounds like actually. The concept is pretty easy and straight forward... take some open space and plant native plants/grasses in an effort to maintain and/or increase your local population of pollinators. The general precept being the restoration of native prairie in little way stations for local populations of insects and some migratory species.

Anyhoo, I found this article some time ago and forwarded it to a friend that has some land outside of the city. The next weekend he started incorporating some of the concepts to maintain his bee hives. When I last checked in with him, his hives responded well and he attracted more butterflies than he knew what to do with. So, that's good. Here's the link:

The Garden Trend Worth Keeping - Mini Meadows

Switchgrass:

The concept of biomass produced ethanol has been kicking around in the back of my mind ever since I took an interest in biofuels as a means to produce fuel for vehicles in an off grid, self-sufficiency type of way. Well, to be fair, I've been interested in switchgrass biofuels and gasifiers, but since I covered gasifiers in Part III, I figured I'd try and include switchgrasses in Part IV.

Once upon a time, the American plains were covered with these tall grasses. The Bison that inhabited the land used the tall grasses to evade predators, birth their calves, and as shelter from nature's fury. Switchgrass is extremely hardy and one of its hallmarks is its deep root system.

Just look at the image below! With a root structure like that it's no wonder the grasses can survive severe drought and fire!

Now, to get to an end product, that being liquid fuel, you might need a better than average understanding of chemistry. Here's a couple of links to give you some background on switchgrass:

Wikipedia: Panicum Vigatum
eXtension: Switchgrass for Biofuel Production
Scientific America: Grass Makes Better Ethanol Than Corn Does

Hugelkultur:

This is a 'no dig' type of gardening and translates as 'hill culture' or 'hill mound'. In a nut shell, it represents one of the many forms and concepts of permaculture gardening. The idea behind hugelkultur is so simple it's almost laughable. Basically, dig a hole, place some timber in the hole, cover the timber with additional compost like material, cover that again with good soil, then seed the hell out of it.

My friends over at The Prepared Homestead have a YouTube channel where they discuss what they did and you can see one that is starting to produce. Here's the link for that: Prepared Homestead Channel.

Here is some additional information on hugelkultur as well:

The concept of hugelkultur appeals to me greatly both personally and for my fiction because it's an easy concept to grasp, implement, and write about plus it can be done just about anywhere... even say in southwest Oregon where a character happens to be travelling through.