Please forgive me for bringing this up, but-God forbid-if I have to dispose of the body of someone in my household who has died...

What I mean is, where in the world can one readily procure body bags?

Believe me, this is a part of my contingency planning that I have been LOATHE to come to terms with!

JJ

-- Jeremiah Jetson (laterthan@uthink.y2k), November 13, 1999

Answers

Sheets work well enough. The main thing is ....

Got lime?

(In these parts, even NOW, after about November, burials take place after things thaw the following spring).

-- BigDog (BigDog@duffer.com), November 13, 1999.

Get directions to build a funeral pyer (sp?).

Contact your local extension service and get his hand out on burning dead livestock. Just scale your fire down acordingly.

If there is disease and contagion, you may not want to bury the dead, could end up contaminating the ground water.

-- Justdoit (AshestoAshes@dust.dust), November 13, 1999.

Lime is $6 for a 50lb bad at Home Depot. Get some. If you don't have a dead body to worry about you may still want some for your outhouse.

-- anonymous (anonymous@anonymous.com), November 13, 1999.

JJ - There may be other ways to obtain these, but this is what I found out just by receiving an unsolicited catalog.

From www.majorsurplusnsurvival.com

Click on Go Shopping - look under Sanitation products

MILITARY BODY BAG US$ 19.95

Body bag - can be used as a stretcher. Mortality: it is a fact that we must all eventually die. We do not purpose to dwell on this fact, nor do we choose to ignore it. As unpleasant as it is, during a major disaster people, pets or other livestock may die. With these problems in mind, we are compelled to offer these high quality u.s. military green heavy duty body bags to our customers who are serious about all aspects of survival. These bags have a long heavy duty metal zipper and 6 web hand holds. . .turn the bag zipper side down and use it as a stretcher, or open it up and becomes an expedient emergency sleeping bag which you can add anything at hand to insulate it, such as leaves, feathers, shredded paper, clothing, etc. Measures 37'' x 88''.

Hope this helps. Better, I hope you never need it!

-- peg (peg@futureandahope.com), November 13, 1999.

Try the following url: www.medicalproducts.com/bodybags.htm

All sizes, all grades, all prices.

Best wishes,

Drew

-- Drew (Kolosky@Prodigy.net), November 13, 1999.

yup. Once the cold weather comes, you just put Grandma in the barn to wait til spring thaw.......(Or the snow bank on the North side of the house works o.k. too).

-- farmer (hillsidefarm@drbs.com), November 13, 1999.

As a "field expedient" substitute, look for fifty gallon drum liner bags. These are extra-extra large trash bags, if you will. Without having to spend the costs for a single-purpose items like body bags, you can actually use these for other purposes, hopefully for throwing out bunches of unneeded and unused Y2K supplies come July of 2001.

WW

-- Wildweasel (vtmldm@epix.net), November 13, 1999.

I asked my husband what he does with large animals (we have cattle and hogs) that die - he buries them. He says if they're diseased he burns them, but that it takes a lot of wood to keep the fire hot enough. Last time that had to be done it took his uncle nearly a whole day to keep the fire going.

This doesn't sound like a practical solution in an urban setting . . . .

-- peg (peg@futureandahope.com), November 14, 1999.

There is a medical FAQ on the Providence Cooperative site you might like to take a look at. He addresses just this sort of problem and has some good points to make.

.............Alan.

The Providence Cooperative

http://www.providenceco-op.com

-- A.T. Hagan (athagan@sprintmail.com), November 16, 1999.

Let me alert you all to a very useful book, The Pagan Book of Living and Dying by Starhawk and M. Macha Nightmare. Before you make any snap judgements about what value a book by witches would have for you, hear me out.

Many or most of you may have grown up in (or in the midst of)religious traditions that require professionals of one sort or another to take over the big life passages -- birth, marriage, death, and the smaller ones in between. While pagan clergy also recommend respect for professional involvement, we're spread out pretty thinly, and know that well-meaning intermediaries can sometimes sometimes get in the way of our relationship with the Divine, and in the way of our relationship with each other, and with the responsibilities that interweave through these areas. You may be called upon to take on some of these responsibilities if we are thrown into a survival situation, whether you feel ready or not. It's not just how to handle a body, but how to handle grieving friends and relatives. This book is an excellent guide for deathing as the counterpart of birthing. A lot of technical detail on dealing with your dead is in it as well, along with a wonderful account of running to the cookbook to see how long is needed to defrost a frozen turkey, as a guideline to thawing the body a group had frozen and were going to burn on a pyre.

An excerpt from a review: " ..This non-dogmatic approach makes it a handy source book for clergy of all denominations who need to arrange funeral and memorial presentations for audiences with diverse spiritual backgrounds. Some of the beautiful and comforting meditations on Nature could easily be integrated with liturgy from other spiritual traditions. Many of the passages give a clear, contemporary voice to the sometimes poorly defined spiritual feelings that people often have when faced by death. Special chapters deal with the dying process, working with the dying, the moment of death, caring for the dead, and funeral and memorial services. Specific issues associated with AIDS, children, violence, and sudden death are also noted. Practical approaches to grief and bereavement work are given"

The Providence co-op reference didn't seem to have the death information online -- anyone know if it is online elsewhere?

If things are not totally thrown back to a survival level, do consider enrolling in a local memorial society. For a nominal fee you are enrolled in what essentially is a co-op venture, and will get a substantial discount on the "off-the rack" funeral home/cremation etc fees.

-- Firemouse (firemouse@fcmail.com), November 17, 1999.

>The Providence co-op reference didn't seem to have the death >information online -- anyone know if it is online elsewhere?

The exact URL is http://www.p rovidenceco-op.com/medical/medfaq2.htm

and from there scroll down to Section 9.2 * Death

It's brief and to the point. You might read the read of the Medical FAQ while you're at it.

...........Alan.

The Prudent Food Storage FAQ, v3.5

http://www.providenceco-op.com

-- A.T. Hagan (athagan@sprintmail.com), November 17, 1999.