This one would be very hard for landlocked me.
1 Like
There is actually a bunch of mineable salt in North America. But I think even post apocalyptic will have a degree of trade (or regular travel to areas of salt production for a few weeks to make what is needed), as salt is critical to many accessible forms of food storage.
3 Likes
All true. Here we have easier access to mine saltpeter than edible salt though. Yay for gunpowder?
Assuming we keep bees for honey, we also could have wax for canning. It’s not ideal, I know, but it’s better than not trying (and didn’t kill me as a kid). But given my climate, drying food is the first choice.
Edit - thinking it through, if we can get canning jars, we can probably get salt. I have a lot of jars, but not a lifetime supply.
4 Likes
Have you ever read Kurlansky’s book Salt? In it he mentions that in certain areas of Roman Africa (iirc) that they would use combinations of salts beyond sodium chloride for food preservation.
And having access to saltpeter would be a great trading opportunity?
Also, on this topic you might enjoy Ryan North’s book How to Invent Everything, which is a book written for a person whose time travel machine has malfunctioned, and they want to move things forward a tad. it includes things like inventing non-sucky numbers, and how much other technology a kiln unlocks.
6 Likes
I’ve looked at Salt but not read it, thanks. I wonder how you could manage food preserves with other salts. Some would be unsafe, but not all, I’d guess. That’s interesting.
The potential downside to trading saltpeter is giving the other people access to gunpowder. That would have to be situation-dependent!
3 Likes
Question for my fellow animal lovers. I have some friends who would like to bring a kitten into their lives. As people who recognize my name here know, I have a rescue pup who I love and is a challenging little dude. We all know pets are a big responsibility no matter what, and one of these friends had a big loss recently, so I would love to set her up to be a pet parent on relatively easy mode.
My sense is that when it comes to cats, adopting from a rescue is a little less of a gamble than it is for dogs, since rescue cats tend to have fewer complex behavior issues than rescue dogs, right?
Obviously there are easy rescue dogs out there, especially if you live somewhere that doesn’t have to import dogs into shelters!
7 Likes
There are rescued cats that need a lot of resocialization, but a good shelter will usually work with those via foster parents before letting just anyone adopt them.
4 Likes
Cats can still have big behavioral issues (not using the litter box would be one of the worst, but our rescue cat eats chair legs and the bannister rail and has destroyed the bottom edges of some doors). BUT if you get a kitten that was properly weaned from its mom at the right time and socialized by the shelter you stand a pretty good chance of only run of the mill cat weirdness.
10 Likes
Also, trade routes even in the Stone Age were much longer than most people think. There are numerous valuable materials found by archaeologists and anthropologists hundreds if not thousands of miles away from where they were mined.
My only recommendation is that they work with rescue organization that will take back the animal no questions asked to rehome (and some in fact require it) if they no longer can care for it or it just doesn’t work out for whatever reason. That to me screams quality institution that really cares about the animals, and many do, especially the ones that don’t have a physical facility or primarily house their rescues in foster situations.
Cats can have issues for sure, same as dogs, young animals are a lot less likely to and can be more easily trained out of them due to their young age (though puppy training is a THING, y’all - I think a lot of problems in dogs stem from improper training and socialization as puppies as it is a lot of work). A lot of people will recommend when getting kittens, especially if it is the only animal in the house, to get two together, especially if the people work out of the house and the kitten(s) will be alone for long periods. I can attest that mine kept each other company and entertained each other tremendously when they were wee (and I mostly worked from home! and had a senior cat and senior dog already at the time), and though at the time I intended to only get one cat (and probably not a kitten) and am so so glad that I got them together.
12 Likes
Our rescue will only let you adopt kittens in pairs.
9 Likes
This is great advice that I already passed along. TWO KITTENS!
This is so real! I don’t think Louie is like, genetically set up for success as a pet, but someone clearly just tossed him in a crate during his formative windows, and we have dealt with the consequences. There are also some just not great trainers out there that give bad advice (and of course amazing ones too), and it’s hard to tell when you’re a new pet parent.
9 Likes
I think that it really depends on what the person thinks is acceptable behaviour. Like my cat has 2-3 behaviours on the list I had to sign off that I was okay with and discuss how I’d handle it. (door dashing, furniture destroying and love biting - but not mean bites or scratches which is different)
The biggest heartbreak I see in cat adoptions is that the cat never wants to cuddle or be bffs. And for me having a loving cat is high on my priority list.
Spraying or not using the litterbox… Different issues, both really hard. Not using the litterbox they often will know about ahead of time and the cat won’t be indoor adoptable.
If you adopt from a good cat shelter they usually know the pets well and help you know what you’re getting into. But there are always exceptions. Like a cat who feels safe and friendly in the shelter and never adapts to a new home
7 Likes
There is a book, somewhere in my library of noncanned food preservation ideas. I’ll see if I can find it sooner than later.
There’s Stillroom Cooking, which is mostly food too. By Grace Firth, I think?
2 Likes
Yeah, I wish we’d brought another kitten home when we got current cat.
3 Likes
We only had the physical space to properly accommodate one kitten and also we couldn’t meet him in the shelter, but Claude seems to be thriving as long as he gets tons of attention.
2 Likes
Ours is happy too but she gets lonely when we’re all not home for long periods.
1 Like
Salt is a great book!
2 Likes
Went looking - I can get it through the university, but only via ILL, which means I have to wait for the end of the holiday break. So maybe I’ll have time to read it in late spring! 
3 Likes
Question!
This might be one for the obscure knowledge and or theater kids??
Ya know the over-the-top-pantomime for “i’m swooning” where one throws the back of their hand to their forehead and leans back dramatically?
Where the fuck does that come from?
Why does that universally stand in for “I’m a fainting Victorian lady” when in fact people who are fainting absolutely do not slap the backs of their hands to their foreheads.
I’m just so curious how we got there!!
10 Likes