Being Stephanie

Last Post - Print what you want to keep

2012-02-18T10:41:00.000-08:00

Okay this is the last post for this blog. I am not writing this to garner support and try to get anyone to talk me out of shutting it down. It's merely to give you notice so that if there is an article or two that you want you have time to print it out - I will leave it up for a week then am deleting it. I used to blog to 'try' to make some extra money on the side with my pictures. That didn't work. I tried the amazon associate thing, that didn't work either. I also blogged as an outlet for my writing and to keep in touch with my friends, which has been why easier and more effective through Facebook and Pinterest. I might do another one someday who knows.

For me to keep doing something it needs to be rewarding for me to do it in some way. Blogging hasn't been rewarding for me lately, I do not look forward to it anymore. Sorry to Pinners that have pinned the Dog Food article - if you click on the link to "the Canning Granny" you can pin her Dog Food article instead, mine was based on hers. Also I need to spend my time focusing my efforts on earning some extra money to help make ends meet at our place. My photos will still be one Facebook if you'd like to see what I am up to - feel free to like my Facebook Page (link on your right).

Easy Jam and Jelly

2012-02-07T15:40:00.000-08:00

In the process of cleaning our freezer out I made some jam and jelly this fall out of fruit I had stashed away since this summer. Stuff we grew or that I went and picked.

They say you are not supposed to double the recipes because the pectin won't gel up. Well I didn't know that so I was tripling and quadrupling recipes. And you know what? They were wrong. Each and every one of these gelled up just fine.

I took all my berries and either mashed them or juiced them. I measured what I ended up with and multiplied the recipe accordingly to fit the amount of fruit I had. Worked like a charm, though I hear it doesn't always turn out that way.

This is 4 berry jam. Raspberries, Strawberries, Blueberries and Huckleberries. Jam is so easy. It actually helps the process for the fruit to be cleaned and frozen. You thaw it out - in a stock pot, mash it up real good, add you lemon juice, then if you are doing a classic jam recipe you heat it up to add your sugar first slowly and then when its dissolved in what they call a boil that cannot be stirred down (usually in the midst of adding the sugar I will add the butter - this just keeps the foam down, there is nothing wrong with the foam it just doesn't look as pretty), the pectin. You'll want to simmer it for about a minute longer till you are sure your pectin is absorbed. Click the heat off and skim any foam off the top - put it in a small bowl, it will gel up and you can eat it later.

Here is the original recipe. I can't even begin to tell you how good this stuff is. When i used to make jam and jelly with my grandma I can remember it being good but really, if it weren't so dang rude, I would've sat down and eaten a bowl of it with a spoon. As it is now I make biscuits as an excuse to eat jam.

5 Tbsp Ball Classic Pectin
1-1/2 cups sugar
1 cup crushed huckleberries
1 cup crushed blueberries
1 cup crushed raspberries
1 cup crushed strawberries
1 TBS Lemon Juice

1 Tsp of butter

At this point you can either stick it in containers to cool - for the freezer.

I water bathed canned all mine while it was still nice and warm in these really cool jam jars my mom found for me from a friend. Her mom had passed, she didn't can so she needed to give all the jars and lids to someone. My mom knew who might want them.... me! These are super old jars without food they have the blue tint to them.

You see we have beef and chicken in our freezer and don't want to clog it up with freezer jam. Water bath canning is so easy.

Ladle the warm jam into warm clean jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Wipe rim. Fish your lids out of boiling water and center lid on jar. Apply band until fit is fingertip tight.
Place your jar into the water bath canner and rack so that the water covers up the jars by at least an inch. PROCESS (boil) jars in a boiling water canner for 10 minutes (don't start your timer until the water has come to a full boil), adjusting for altitude (see the Ball Blue Book for an altitude chart). When your timer goes off, remove the canner from heat, remove the jars and allowed to cool to room temperature undisturbed. Check lids for seal after 24 hours. Lid should not flex up and down when center is pressed.

This was raspberry jelly. I first juiced my berried with my steam juicer. Therefore I cheated. I didn't mash them up and let them sit in a bag overnight - I just cleaned them, put them in the juicer for an hour and ended up with beautiful, effortless, clear red juice. The chickens cleaned up the berry pulp. I added the lemon juice directly to the berry juice.

I so LOVE this juicer. Perfect for jellies, juice, and wine. It works different than a centrifuge juicer as the juice you get out of it is super clear.

The lemon juice helps preserve the color, clarity, and helps activate the pectin with its citric acid. Lots of recipes don't call for it any more I sill like adding it anyways. This also gives your jam and jelly a good dose of vitamin C.

Then I basically reused the same process from above. Adding the sugar and butter, dissolving it in a boil you can't stir down, adding the pectin, boiling it for a minute or so longer,

6 Cups of Raspberry Juice
5 cups sugar

8 TBS of Ball Classic Pectin
1 TBS Lemon Juice

1 Tsp of butter

Next I did some no sugar blueberry jelly for Hubby who was feeling left out, not being able to partake in the other stuff cause he has to watch the sugar he eats. For this I used the Ball "no sugar" pectin. And some apple juice I made myself to sweeten it.

6 Cups of Blueberry Juice (from the steam juicer)
2 cups Apple Juice (also from the steam juicer)

7 TBS of Ball No Sugar Pectin
3 TBS Lemon Juice

1 Tsp of butter

Again I gave the berry pulp left over from the juicer to my chickens, no reason to throw it out. If you don't have chickens, cow, pigs, or goats to feed it to, then compost it.

Same process as the raspberry jelly and same process as the jam to water bath can it.

While I think this turned out ok (it certainly is pretty) next time I will do it with some Splenda to replace some of the apple juice as it is still rather tart.

Making and Canning Homemade Dog Food

2012-01-27T12:05:00.000-08:00

We had some extra meat this fall and didn't want it to go to waste. Also we had been toying around with the idea of canning some homemade dog food to see exactly how much of a pain it would be, because it is fairly cost efficient and much more healthy than the stuff you by at the store. As a nice side effect it also boosts our stock of dog food we keep at the house in case of an emergency.

We have made three batches of dog food so far. Once using venison, once using beef, and once using chicken parts (we save the less desirable parts from the chickens we butcher and turkeys we eat when we have enough of these random parts we grind them up and make a batch of dog food with them).

Pictured below is the venison batch. After a successful hunting season we took the parts of a deer that weren't used for steaks, sausage, or jerky and trimmed them up again. This include the liver and some other organ meats - we eat love venison heart so the dogs didn't get that. We cut all the tendon out, any bone, and any abnormally large chunks of fat. Anything eatable that was cut out of the dog food was fed to the dogs in small amounts as snacks, treats, or mixed in with their regular food. They even got the bone marrow from the bigger bones. The ONLY thing that was thrown out on this deer, was the rib cage, spine, and lower intestinal tact, all devoid of meat - everything else was used.

Since we wanted to can this batch of Dog Food was important to not have too much fat in the recipe - we know the dogs need fat as part of their diet but too much will go rancid even when canned. So we included some fat but not too much - I just eye balled this as we tossed the meat into a large stock pot with some water.

We cooked all the meat with water for just over an hour in a giant canning/dog food making session. This created a "meat stock" we used later.

The venison meat made roughly 20 quart sized jars of Dog Food.

I also cooked up some veggies. Carrots and spinach (the next time it was carrots and green beans) it is just stuff we had from the garden so it was all grown at home. I added those in for vitamins and minerals.

And added some hard boiled eggs from my chickens WITH the shells for calcium.

And I also cooked up some rice, as this is usually easy for dogs to process, and its dirt cheap.

We then added some cider vinegar - to keep the acidity level up (this discourages bacteria growth when canned) and because I have read it is good for their joints. Kaiser needs everything good for joints.

We also added a little bit of garlic - which in small amounts can improve palatability for the dogs and helps repeal insects. Yes I have heard it can be bad but I have done my own research have read several different studies and decided this small amount of garlic is harmless and may even be beneficial.

I also added a teeny tiny bit more cleaned and washed egg shell.

Then we mixed all that together.

Then we ran it through a meat grinder - on med - with a course grind blade.

Next

We prepared the jars and pressure canner for canning.

And we heated up the now ground up dog food again - and then added back in the "meat stock" which was also being kept warm on the stove. In retrospect - we found out the hard way that too much liquid causes the seals to fail. So all the jars we've done since on a tad on the dry side - but it doesn't hurt the dog food at all. Lots of meat is dry packed for canning, its perfectly safe.

I processed them at 10lbs for 90 minutes following the recommendation in our canning book for beef stew at our altitude. If I had been canning 'pint jars' instead of 'quart jars' it would've been for 75 minutes. I love hearing that ping of a successfully sealed jar!

This is the finished product.

And just incase you are wondering homemade dog food doesn't stink. In fact it smells like a roast cooking in the oven. It will make you hungry. AND it is perfectly safe for human consumption - i mean if you wanted to eat egg shells and all. Our dogs LOVE it - whenever we feed it every single dish is licked perfectly clean when they are done.

Here is the recipe - I got the original one from The Canning Granny Blog

And made a few modifications due to my preference for a higher meat ratio and needing less liquid.

This will do a single batch of pint jars - I multiplied everything on this by 4 I think, to do my 20 quart jars.

- 3.5 Cups of Meat

- 2 Cups of Rice

- 2-3 Large Cooked Carrots

- Half a bag of Cooked Spinach or a Handful of Cooked Green Beans

- One Boiled Egg still in the shell

- 2 TBS of Cider Vinegar

- 1 TBS of Garlic Powder

- 1 Cup of "Meat Stock"

If you want to forgo the pressure canning (which I would understand considering a jar of hot dog food exploded on us as there was some weakness in the glass and the ring was too tight) - you can partition out serving sizes, stick them into little freezer bags and freeze it. This recipe would even make good RAW meals for your dog if you aren't canning it. Each morning simply get a bag of food out and it will be thawed and ready to serve in the evening. No wheat, no corn, no preservatives, or other goofy crap that DF companies like to add into.

According to The Canning Granny one pint of this dog food will feed a 100lb dog for a day. Fed half in the morning and half in the evening. Of course this will vary from dog to dog as they have different energy needs so like any dog food you will have to keep an eye on your dogs weight.

***I would also like to add that I understand that USDA advises against canning rice. They recommend this because rice swells. However I cooked the crap out of the rice and it gave me no trouble. Also I am not canning straight rice. It's like a 1/3 rice. But I do know this - I really really really do. I choose to can it anyways. You will have to decide for yourself if you want to can with rice. ***

Lamar Valley and Hell Roaring Creek - Yellowstone National Park 3

2012-01-23T08:00:00.000-08:00

The Great Lamar Valley

Finally saw a bear this trip. It's an on going joke - if you don't want to see a bear in YS - go with me.

Some bison in Lamar Valley - the herds were gathering for their mating season, there were hundreds upon hundreds of bison in the valley. We pulled off the road hiked down to a large rock, and sat on the rock as look down on the valley and watched them for a good hour.

This was the suspension bridge that goes over the Yellowstone River on the Hell Roaring Creek Trail. I fell in love with this bridge!

It was very bouncy and fun to cross. Apparently a bear had been there before us earlier that morning as he left tracks when he used the bridge too.

Almost the full length of the bridge.

East Yellowstone is more High Desert than the rest of the park, but still beautiful in its own right.

This is Hell Roaring Creek - not real fitting to its name, but the Rangers assured me when I asked about it that it is much more active in the Spring.

Another picture of Lamar Valley and some bison from the road.

This is Petrified Tree - which I thought was pretty cool - until I found out that its a replica - there were original 3 of these here. Two were stolen - taken home by tourists. The last one I guess they removed for its own safety? SO I would think since this one is plastic - that they could take the darn fence down.

On our Hell Roaring Creek Hike we found plenty of evidence that Yellowstone's on going cycle of life continues. On this hike we were attacked relentlessly by mutant sized horse flies, the only way to keep them off was to move at a near run. So we covered the trail in record time.

This is a picture I took from the previously mentioned trestle of the Gardiner River below. It is so high up that it bounces when traffic drives across it. I got nearly halfway out on it before I realized this - and made a hasty but dignified retreat.

Sunset from our camp the final night.

It's always sad for me whenever I am camping anywhere to pack up and leave. I am usually fair quiet and a little moody. Especially Yellowstone.

Thank you to my friends who took the time read these last few posts and supported me and my photography efforts by leaving a comment. It means alot. Thanks.

Osprey Falls, Yellowstone National Park

2012-01-18T13:05:00.000-08:00

On the second day we hiked down to Osprey Falls - while this is technically in North Yellowstone its a hike I have been wanting to do for a while. Out and back it's about 8 miles but we (I) decided to do a loop following the canyon rim around Bunsen Peak on the way back. So it was more like 10.3 miles by the time we made it back to the trailhead.

Hikes like this are easy to do once you have spent some time seeing the other attractions like the geysers and the canyon. Then you can truly enjoy your time in the backcountry without feeling like your missing out on something. So my recommendation to everyone is to - go see the geysers, go see the Canyon and the falls, see Mammoth Hot Springs, then when you are tired of the crowds and lines - THEN head into the back country and see what Yellowstone really has to offer.

We headed out across Swan Lake Flats a little after 9 AM with Bunsen Peak at backs.

The moon was setting so snapped a few pictures. Incase anyone is wondering this is done with a red filter - the same dark almost reversed photos that Ansel Adams did were also done with a red filter.

This is an unnamed lake on the flats - I loved the mountains and the reflection. The morning light was great so we each did a portrait here in addition to this shot.

In this little shady spot by a downed tree amongst a bunch of lodge poll pines, there were these little purple daisies - I just fell in love with them.

We met this little guy along the way - he was a yellow bellied marmot.

We also saw this cutie. Who was one of twin black tail deer with a momma doe that walked right near us wanted to cross the trail just before it dropped down into the canyon.

Osprey Falls lays within Sheepeater Canyon. Sheepeater Canyon is huge just barely a second to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. This was the edge. Kinda spooky how you're just going along and all the sudden it looks as if the trail drops off the edge of a cliff.

Sheepeater Canyon is a massive wedge cut into the earth. It's truly impressive when viewed from above. Just incase you're wondering we hiked down to the bottom...

When you get down to the bottom you can look up and see all these beautiful rock spires - they break up the light that comes into the canyon - makes it seem very primeval as you are making your way up the canyon.

Osprey Falls

This is the image I took home in my heart.

We craw down and checked out the caves to the right of the falls, but was very slick so we didn't dink around for to long. While I tried there was too much light to do a long exposure and blur the water.

The day was starting to get hot so after spending some time playing the pools down from the base of the falls we head back up.

We followed the rim of the Canyon on the way back. Hard to believe we were just all. the way. down. there.

On the way back we came across this ruffed grouse that was claiming the trail for his own.

Coming around Bunsen Peak we got a great view of the Gardiner River coming out of the Canyon (on your right), Mammoth Village on your left, and the old trestle that is now the same bridge walked out on....

Last photo of the day.

The back side of Bunsen Peak - we started on the other side of that thing!

Hitch hiking back to the trailhead was not one of my brightest ideas, but we got there and met a super nice family along the way.

The East Side of Yellowstone NP

2012-01-16T10:00:00.000-08:00

Most of you have already seen these but I am going to post them anyways. These are from my 2011 Photography / Hiking Trip in East Yellowstone.

East Yellowstone is different from the West side of the park. There is less thermal activity (geysers) and the climate is more high desert and dry, but there is more wildlife activity and it is in no way any less amazing than the rest of the park. In East Yellowstone one will find Lamar Valley - nicknamed "America's Serengeti" as well as several other natural wonders and breath taking scenery.

Home Sweet Home at Mammoth Campground (I was dismayed at the condition of Tower Campground - I am not sure if there was a fire or if they had to clear out some trees what, but all the trees were gone, there was no privacy and certainly nothing pretty to look at - so we stayed at Mammoth Campground, which worked out fine cause its near a swimming hole and its warmer).

I like to go to Yellowstone National in late August or early September - I find the crowds are way less and the weather is still good. We got lucky on weather for this trip. No wind, hot temps, and lots of sun! Although it did dip below freezing one night.

On the first day we hiked a section of the Yellowstone River Trail that follows the river on a rim above what they called the "Yellowstone River Narrows"

Trail along the rim of the Narrows

A bend in the Yellowstone River

not a stitch assist photo - wide angle lens on my Rebel

Tired Lawn Elk in Mammoth Village

Calcite Springs Over Look

"In wildness is the preservation of the world."

—Henry David Thoreau

To Continue Reading Click Below

Prong Horn we spotted on our first hike.

Another Prong Horn, same hike...

Came around the corner and we spotted the rest of them - please pardon my digital zoom.

Tower Falls

Near the base of Tower Falls - we stopped and waded in the river at that beach.

Impressive Basalt Columns along the Yellowstone River

The Yellowstone River

"And I was all alone...but I saw that I was in the presence of everything around me, so I was never alone..."

The Bear Tooth Mountains

Specimen Ridge (someday future hike)

The Narrows (all boulders you see were thrown all over the area by the last super volcano explosion over 67,000 years ago)

The rim trail was cover in butterflies - when we stopped to rest they'd land all over you. We tried to get a picture of that but whenever we'd move they'd fly off....

Calcite Springs Overlook Color

Garnet Hill

Gold Finch that followed us around while we were at the Calcite Springs Overlook

And that was just the first day...........

Breaking the Heart of a Patriot

2012-01-13T16:00:00.000-08:00

I cannot - not post about this anymore. And if you want to turn your head cause I am posting about politics then fine. Go ride your horse/s, take care of your kids, and keep pretending there is nothing wrong and there certainly nothing you can do...

Public Domain Image - Wikimedia

Surviving the Death of the Constitution
From Off the Grid News

It's a terrible thing to fear your government. For the past 65 years, we've deluded ourselves into thinking that our government is a benign entity which only has the best interests of its citizens at heart. After all, our government is all about freedom, civil liberties, justice, and constitutional rights... right?

We've turned a blind eye to Washington's increasing isolation from the rest of the governed. We've ignored Congresses that have enacted laws from which those very members were exempt. We've immersed ourselves in mindless games and Hollywood drivel while presidents have signed executive order after executive order, consolidating power within centralized bureaucracies in ways our forefathers never imagined.

And when our judicial branch issues verdicts and rulings so out of the mainstream of society and against the Constitution, we simply shrug our shoulders and cluck disapprovingly to ourselves. After all, what can we do?

That complacency has created a monster that has come back around, reared its ugly head, and has bitten us on our collective rear ends.

On December 31st, 2011, President Barack Obama "reluctantly" signed the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act into law. He said in the signing statement (that has no legal validity, but is just a statement of intent) that although the Act does give him the authority to detain American citizens indefinitely, without charge, his administration "will not authorize the indefinite military detention without trial of American citizens."

In essence, the Bill of Rights died on December 31st, 2011, and no one mourned its passing. The American citizenry, as a whole, are acting like dumb sheep, not even so much as bleating as we're led away to the slaughter.

Benjamin Franklin, responding to a woman who asked him what type government the Framers had devised, said, "A Republic, madam, if you are able to keep it."

I guess we weren't smart enough to hold onto the best civil government devised by man. The American people might as well get their Gitmo gear together because it's going to be a long train ride to Guantanamo Bay, especially if you're for limited government, limited taxation, believe in the Constitution, are an abortion opponent, a Christian, a Ron Paul supporter, or even a returning war veteran. After all, aren't those the people that Homeland Security has identified as terrorist threats instead of the actual perpetrators of terrorism? Let's not forget people who are missing a finger, make purchases with cash only, buy flashlights, water proof ammo, or store more than 7 days worth of food can also be considered terror suspects according to official documents.

For months now we've been being trained to respond obediently to any unconstitutional act by Big Brother through the auspices of the TSA as they expand their iron fist past airport security to actual traffic stops on state highways. Your state governments are inviting this federal thuggery in, and we the citizens sit with hands folded, unwilling to believe what is right before our eyes.

Can you read the signs of the times?

Public Domain Image - Wikimedia

So let's see - if you are "suspected" of being a terrorist, even an American Citizen on American soil can be held indefinitely without a formal charge or due process, and if the media makes a stink (which they won't they didn't care when this passed) they can just revoke your citizenship and therefore they are not detaining American Citizens... aaaaaaaaaand no one cares.

They just turn on another episode mindless episode of American Idol or play some dumb Facebook game and switch their minds off so they don't have to care - so they aren't responsible either way - well you know what? You are responsible. You most of all.

The Truth Matters.

(I may be going out on a limb here BUT I really like him. I think we could be looking at a future President here if he has the ambition)

ANY POLITICIAN WHO VOTED FOR THE NATION DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT IS NOT GETTING MY VOTE EVER AGAIN - DOESN'T MEAN I WILL SWITCH SIDES BUT I CERTAIN WON'T BE GIVING THAT PERSON MY VOTE. I ENCOURAGE EVERYONE OUT THERE TO DO THE SAME. ITS TOO LATE TO CALL THEM, TO WRITE THEM, THIS IS DONE - SIGNED - OVER. THE ONLY THING LEFT TO DO IS REMOVE THEM FROM OFFICE. WHAT CAN YOU DO? YOU CAN VOTE, YOU CAN GET OFF YOUR BUTT, GO REGISTER, AND GO VOTE OR SEND THAT BALLOT IN. FOR FOR YOU VALUES, NOT ADS ON TV. DON'T LET MASS MEDIA THINK FOR YOU - DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH AND THINK FOR YOURSELF.

Want to know who voted for the National Defense Authorization Act? Here you go - one click is all it takes:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=h2011-932 house
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=s2011-230 senate

Old Times Food We Still Eat - some of us anyways

2012-01-09T08:42:00.000-08:00

How many of you have eaten some of this stuff?? Anything to add to the list? This is mostly food that came out of the Great Depression and was based on money or lack of other food or both. I am pretty open to trying new foods and learning to like things - Hubby is not so much. We are working to learn to like some of this stuff again.

Eggs with runny yokes over grits (tried it - love it)

Eggs and grits by Pollinator - Wikimedia Commons

Butter and grits with sugar and milk (tried it - its ok)
Baked apples (tried it - love it)
Corn meal mush
Milk Toast (still one of my favorite breakfasts)
Whatever fish or game you could catch/hunt (tried it - love it)
Deep fried fish tails of small fish (tried it - love it, its like chips)
Tomato sandwiches
Hard boiled eggs in white sauce over toast (we called this Goldenrod Eggs - tried it - love it)
Spam and noodles with cream of mushroom soup
Spam sandwiches (tried it and shamefully love it)
Spam and potatoes baked with a white sauce (tried it - love it)
Beans and Lentils Soup with spinach
Popcorn with milk and sugar (tried it - its not bad, ate it like cereal cause I was out)
Chipped beef on toast
Cucumber and butter sandwiches (tried it - love it)
Mayonnaise sandwiches
Ketchup and cheese sandwiches (tried it - love it)
Hot milk and rice (tried it - love it, slightly different version of rice pudding)

Rice Pudding by Ross Berteig - wikimedia commons

Potato soup – water base, not milk (tried it with bacon - still love it with no milk)
Dandelion salad (tried it - love it, spring greens is a must later summer they get bitter)
Bacon grease sandwiches ( I have heard my paternal Grandfather ate these, he also died of a stroke)
Sugar and butter sandwiches (tried it as a kid - now it would probably make me sick)
Hot Dogs and Baked Beans (tried it - love it)
Road kill (yes, my Dad has stopped to scoop up random animals that he's hit and we have eaten them, mostly pheasants, grouse or turkey)
One eyed Sam – piece of bread with an easy over egg in the center (tried it with toast - love it)
Oatmeal mixed with lard
Fried potatoes and hot dogs (tried it - love it)
Onion sandwich – slices of onion between bread
Tomato gravy and biscuits
Deep fried chicken skin (tried it - love it, gotta be crunchy)
Fried Egg Sandwiches (tried it with mayo - love it)
Cornbread in milk (tried it - love it, also like cake in milk when the cake dries out)
Hamburger Gravy over bread/toast – as a main dish (tried it - love it)

The Cucumber Sandwich - by ProfDEH - Wikimedia commons

Toast with mashed potatoes on top with gravy (tried it - love it, add a egg with a runny yoke and you have a master piece)
Creamed corn on toast
Corn mush with milk for breakfast, fried corn mush for dinner
Rice with some butter, sugar and cinnamon on top (tried it - love it)
Cooked Beans (tried it - love almost all of them)
Fried potato peel - kinda like chips (tried it - love it)
Banana slices with powdered sugar and milk (tried it - love it, great breakfast)
Hamburger mixed with oatmeal
American grilled cheese sandwich, ‘American’ cheese was invented during the hard times because it was cheap to make, and didn’t require consistent refrigeration (tried it - love it)
Boiled Cabbage / Cabbage Soup
Potato pancakes for breakfast after mashed potatoes for dinner (tried it - love it)
Deep Fried Gizzards (tried it - love it)

Fried Gizzards by secretlondon123 - wikimedia commons

Fried bologna (tried it - love it)
Macaroni Noodles with Ketchup and Hamburger (tried it - love it)
Fried potato and bread cubes
Bean soup (tried it - love it, my Grandpa's "famous"bean soup recipe)
Soft Boiled Eggs and toast (tried it - love it, was one of my Grandpa's favorites)
Baked or Grilled Bone Marrow (tried it - love it)
Fried Beef Liver (tried it - love it)
Beef Tongue (tried it - love it)

Beef Tongue - Public Domain Image - Wikimedia Commons

Beef or Venison Heart (tried it - love it)
Corned Beef and Hash (tried it - love it)
Cream of Wheat (tried it - loved it when I could eat it)
Cream of Rice (tried it - love it, great baby food too, easy for upset tummies)
Rocky Mountain Oysters (tried them - still love them)
Popped Wheat Berries - like popcorn wheat can be popped and eaten as a snack or with milk like cereal
Cooked Spinach (tried it - love it)
Cooked Beets (tried them - nasty - pickled they are great)
Boiled Brussel Sprouts (tried them - like them grilled but not boiled)
Pickled Eggs (tried them and make them - love them)
Picked Sausage (tried it - love it)

Chipped Beef on Toast by Dpbsmith - wikimedia commons

If you enjoyed this you might also enjoy this really cool channel I found on YouTube - Depression Cooking with Clara she's a 96 year old grandma who turned her wealth of knowledge to the internet. She walks you through how to make many old time recipes and has a bunch of the old equipment too. Very cool - and she's just sweet as heck - image of every bodies grandma. Her book is in the ad below - along with another cool book by Timothy Egan about the families that lived through the dust bowl. I love historical books like that, its important that we don't lose that knowledge or forget about what they went through to provide us with the life we enjoy today.

Evacuation Plans for Pets

2012-01-06T12:55:00.000-08:00

If you have a pet you need to have a plan for that pet.

If you have a pet you need to be able to keep track of them, care for them, feed them, and protect them during an emergency, even a LONG emergency. If you can't do that - you don't need a pet. This sounds harsh but it is way I feel. There is no excuse for abandoning your animals.

I have been beating this "emergency preparedness" drum to death on here but it doesn't stop at people - it extends to your pets too. This includes having an emergency supply of food for your animals and a plan for if or when you need to evacuate.

If you have horses or other livestock you should have enough hay or feed on hand to feed them CLEAR THROUGH THE WINTER TILL THE NEXT GROWING SEASON - this is the only way to completely protect them from anything that could effect the area's supply of hay. Don't buy a ton of hay, feed it, then buy another ton. Doing that is just setting yourself up for something bad to happen.

Other animals also need a back up food supply. Cats, dogs, birds - no one wants to run out of food right in the middle of a crisis so have at least a month if not more stored. In fact you may want to store it with some travel bowls and a pet first aid kit so that if you, your family, and your pets ever have to evacuate its all in one spot easy to grab.

Also have an evacuation plan for your horses, including, somewhere for them to stay until your home is safe again. Let me share my plan for Patrick.

If, say a wildfire is threatening our place, I would take Patrick to either my friends place 10 miles away or my parent's place 60 miles away. I have discussed this plan with both parties and have permission to deposit him at either place encase of emergency. My truck is running, my trailer is working condition, and Pat is now completely trailer broke and will load and unload for anyone (all "must haves" if you want the horses you own to be safe from disaster).

IF I am at work when this happens and too far away to get there in time, our neighbor has permission to scale our fence, access a couple of spare keys, and has agreed to throw Pat in the trailer and evacuate with him. The advantage for her, is that she can use the rest of the space in my truck to evacuate some of her stuff and she also can put her horse in the trailer with Pat, since she currently doesn't have a trailer this is ideal for her. She works from home so I feel confident with this arrangement that if something happens Patrick will be taken care of - we have prearranged someone else to swing by and grab the dogs.

Let's say - you live in the city with some dogs, and a hurricane is headed your way and evacuation is mandatory, disaster is imminent. Here is how you could plan, these plans may not work for you but I hope they give you some ideas and jump start your own planning process. Leaving your pets at home with extra food and water is NOT A PLAN.

Plan A - You have pre-scouted some "pet friendly hotels" in a small town several hours from you. Knowing that the hotels will fill up exceedingly fast - you call ahead and secure a room, you leave town WITH YOUR PETS as soon as possible so as not to get caught in grid lock risking the loss of your room. This doesn't take long since you keep their first-aid kit, stored with some extra food and travel bowls in your laundry room. You grab your own emergency kit (and your family's if you are evacuating with others) with your pet's kit (remembering to grab leashes and poop bags) - important documents, pile your family and your dogs (in their crates if they will fit), and hit the road with your tank nearly full of gas because you stopped letting it run empty a long time ago. You have a couple of routes to the small town in mind encase one is blocked. With emergency cash on hand to pay for a week up front you arrive at the hotel to check everybody in - if they are taking credit cards use one that you leave cleared off for "emergencies" instead, as you may need the cash for extra food or whatever you left behind. While you were planning you also wrote down the numbers of the local urgent care center, the local vet office, and a doggie day care center. This opinion gives you a "base of operations" where you can start planning your recovery or make other living arrangements.

Plan B - You have family 4 hours away from you and have cleared it with them ahead of time that you AND YOUR PETS can stay with them encase of an emergency. You grab their fist aid kit, their extra food, their travel bowls, crates if they will fit, leashes and poop bags. You grab your families emergency kits which includes a good amount of cash and all important documents and hit the road as soon as possible because you don't want to be trapped in a car stuck in traffic with kids and several dogs in the middle of a hurricane. You have plenty of fuel because your tank is almost full. You have several routes in mind that you could take to get here encase one route is blocked with traffic. While you were planning you also wrote down the number of the local urgent care center and vet office just incase any human or pet is in need of medical attention after the trip. This opinion also gives you a "base of operations" where you can start planning your recovery or make other living arrangements.

Plan C - You don't have any family nearby and can't afford a pet-friendly hotel. Ok, this plan will come down to trust. If you are the trusting sort - with a few hours of research and calling around (ASPCA, AHS, etc...) you can figure out in which town and where local rescue groups will be setting up temporary animal shelters for the disaster and you can pack up and head there with your pets. You will have armed yourself with vaccination certificates, photographs and any ownership papers to prove that you do in fact own these dogs when the disaster is over and you go to pick them up. After you drop your pets off at a shelter you and your family will go to a shelter that will take all of you - and you will hopefully pick your animals up at their shelter when you are allowed to return home.

If you are not the trusting sort - like me (and also without kids), you could pack up your animals AND some inexpensive camping equipment that you have acquired ahead of time and you would take your pets with you to a pet friendly campground or RV park you have located and gotten directions to ahead of time, that is several hours away in better weather to wait for the storm to pass the city. This essentially turns you into a refugee - but in my opinion its better than a shelter - if you have some food, cash, and access to water, and if you are in the clear weather wise. If there is a chance the storm you are fleeing will hit you in your tent - this is not a good plan. You have to get far enough away from the disaster area that the tent is safe to use. Not the best plan, and certainly it wouldn't be for everyone. I camp with my dogs all the time so its nothing new to them, they know how to behave in a campground, and if I were in that situation I know that would be a viable option for me........if I lived in the city and only had a couple of dogs.

Small Space Food Storage

2012-01-04T10:00:00.000-08:00

Storage per SG's request....

If you live in a small space you have to get cleaver with the space you have. I can list out a few basics here, then you'll have to take a look around and see what else you can do with the space what you have. Think outside the box.

First you have to move out of the mindset that everything has to be easily accessible and immediately available and you’ll discover you have a lot more space. Put items you rarely use in the very back, and items you always use up front. It is NOT CONVENIENT to have to take things out to get to what is hiding in the back, but it is well worth the extra space.

Second put everything that you can in boxes and leave them there. I know it's tempting to take the cans out and stack them up, you think you are maximizing the space but boxes make it much easier to relocate a larger quantity of stuff. Instead of moving 12 cans of dog food to get to the "not as frequently used" pinto beans - you have only a box to move. If you have to evacuate your residence for whatever reason - it will be much quicker and easier to grab larger quantities of people and/or pet food if they are all in boxes. Boxes provide a stable platform for stacking. And even on pantry shelves boxes keep food from being knocked over, off the shelf, makes them easier to stack and makes cleaning easy.

Third, maximize the storage space in your pantry. If you do NOT have a walk in pantry - you can use the floor. Line it with water bottles, cans of food all the same height, or pop cans. You can put cardboard over that layer and add another if you'd like. I would not try this if you have to stand or walk on your "false floor". Maximize shelf space by raising it up all the way if it is adjustable. Double or triple stack canned goods.

Make use of rotating can systems, like my homemade one here. I cut a little hole in the top of it that was just the size for a can - I add new cans in through the top and the older ones rotate out of the bottom. You can do two rows of Campbell soup cans because they are smaller or a single row of larger cans. They save space and keep you using the oldest cans first.

I set them on the shelf like this - maximizing space. You can purchase more expensive ones like in the ad at the bottom of this post that allow for rotating and stacking, saving you even more space.

Also stack boxed items on top of each other, instead of next to each other. This allows room to put additional items in front or behind. Lighter items (like cereal and cracker boxes) can hang over the shelf. Stack newer boxes behind them, largest side against the wall, and lay them flat on the bottom of the shelf. This still allows the same amount of boxes to be stacked side by side, with the longest side on the bottom and the heaviest part on the shelf, but uses all surrounding space. Use storage containers that maximize space, especially if you buy food in bulk - don't store it those stupid plastic stacks from the store, as soon as you get home them them in store container than seal completely. On that note the more miscellaneous sized containers you have, the harder it is to use all of your space so keep them as uniform as possible.

I love these containers - I use them for rice, flour, coffee, etc... keep them all the same size it makes it easier to maximize your space.

Behind the couch - you can store canned goods in boxes stacked on top of each other between the back of your couch and the wall, just pull it away from the wall a foot or so - no one will be the wiser and you'll be shocked at how much you can get back there. You can stack it up till it dang near reaches the top of your couch. If there is a heat vent back there close it - you don't want the hot air blowing on your food.

See, you can't tell there is anything back there.

When in reality there is ALOT back there.

Under the beds. I mean really, shoes can go somewhere else (get a shoe rack for your bedroom door) and what of any value is actually under there anyways? Clean it all out and put canned food under there. Or toilet paper. Or paper towels.

Inside coffee tables - (if you have one with inside storage space). Books can go on shelves - put magazines in these little things on bookshelves. No one uninvited will get in there and once again you'd be amazed at how much you can put in there.

Small flat cans, like tuna, can be stored under furniture with a low ground clearance. Look around you may have a set of book shelves, an entertainment center, or china cabinet with a couple of inches of storage space at the bottom underneath; full it up. Push the cans back from the front just a few inches and you can't see them at all while standing up. You can use a broom to push the cans out from even the back.

Under the stairs - if you have this space in your house, use it. You can fit a ton of food in there. Same as above, infrequently used items pushed clear to the back where you almost need to be a gymnast to get into, and more frequently used stuff towards the front. If its dark add a couple of cheap "Tap" lights with velcro so you can see.

In the attic - Most newer houses are fairly critter free, you can put overflow of paper towels or toilet paper up there. It's dry, the heat won't hurt it - it won't spontaneously combust, think of it like adding extra insulation to your house. Put it in a tote if you want to keep the existing insulation out of it - look for an access in tops of your closets.

Behind doors - You can store water bottles, or old pop bottles filled with sanitized water standing upright, behind doors no one really looks there anyways - unless you are in the room and have closed the door.

Reused Pop bottles filled with sanitized water can also be stacked like firewood - and shoved in the back of a closet floor somewhere. Don't forget to flush and refill that water every 6 months to a year. Chemicals will leach out from the plastic.

On top of Kitchen Cabinets - most people put decorative stuff up there. Crawl up on the counter (safely please have someone help you if needed). Move the decorative stuff out closer to the edge and put some canned or bottled food behind it. When viewed from below you'll won't know anything else is back there.

Shelving - anywhere where you can stick a shelf, do it. I know of a lady who added two storage shelves to her extra bed room for food storage, she installed floor length window curtains and covered the shelves with them. When you walk in that room you'd swear there was a window there.

In corners - by default its human nature to hide the corners in rooms. With chairs, furniture, TV's, or whatever. Look around your room, if you are hiding a corner - there is space back there in that corner for emergency food. If its a heavy thing then make sure the food you put back there is for use "only in emergencies" or food that you use just not real often. If you store food in 5 gallon buckets - these stack nicely in corners.

The point is to not only have extra food on hand - but to also keep it "out of sight, out of mind". If food becomes scarce for whatever reason, you aren't going to want the whole neighborhood (that didn't bother to think ahead) to come knocking at your door because they think you are "hoarding" food and have extra to spare. It's hard enough to explain to friends and family that say "Oh I know where I'm coming in an emergency" that you only have enough for yourself, hubby and animals. If you give it all away, and leave yourself unable to survive on your own, then what was the point in preparing anyways?

If someone happens to spot your storage just tell them that your house, apartment, condo....has very no storage space (this is very common with newer houses anyways) and you are doing the best with what little you have. This is usually an adequate explanation for most people.

Just In Time

2011-12-28T13:22:00.000-08:00

Lately, I have been doing alot of thinking, well I am always doing a lot of thinking, but I have been thinking alot lately about something I knew about but heard it put into terms on the senate floor lately by my new friend Rand Paul (friend, as in I like him, not that I know him).

He was speaking about our country's readiness for a catastrophe. He used the term "just in time society" and he is right. We are a "just in time society" its not just our stores, it has crept into the way we live. Stores do not stock items - they order them in when the shelf is nearly empty so the additional supplies arrive "just in time" and they don't have pay to store any additional items - this enables them to devote all of their real estate to retail space. In manufacturing machines aren't made in hopes of selling them anymore, since manufacturing time is so fast now, companies wait until the order is sold before purchasing materials and filling the order. This saves them from having to stock extra materials - this way they only need to store the materials for what they are currently manufacturing and no more.

The American public are the final leg to this series of "just in time" events, being at the longest two weeks away from needing to go get groceries. Consistently waiting until their tank is almost empty to fill it back up, wear out a majority of their socks before they go get new ones, and don't buy more dog till they are nearly out of what they have. Being this final link in our "just in time" society we will be the first and most severely impacted if the chain ever breaks.

On my quest of self sufficiency I have been trying to move away from those habits. I keep thinking back to the way my grandparents lived - and try to emulate that. While my grandparents technically didn't live through the depression, but they were raised by parents who did. They were born at the tail end of the depression - which lasted longer in poor states like North Dakota and Mississippi than it did in more affluent areas of the country. I can remember they saved everything, not only that, but they took extra steps not to waste, and never hesitated to stock up if an opportunity presented itself, storing at LEAST a seasons worth of food in the pantry. There was never a single instance that I can remember where my Grandma had to "run to the store" to pick something up for dinner, and if they could reuse something they would. I remember they never had real tupperware, they always reused margarine, sour cream and other other plastic containers as their "tupperware."

They were probably the original "green generation" - my mom can even remember growing up on farm eggs and raw milk they got from somewhere. At that time it didn't mean they were "green" it meant they were scrimping and saving. It wasn't until later generations that we became the "instant" "processed" "just in time" society that we are today.

Even though I am trying to rid myself of "just in time" habits its interesting how I will find myself doing things like waiting until my windshield wipers are worn out before I pick up a new pair or waiting till I am running low on chicken food before I run to the feed store to get more. Sometimes its overwhelming at how much one would have stock up on to not constantly be in "need" of something but I am taking it one step at a time.

The other day I filled up both of my galvanized trash cans with 300 lbs of chicken feed. Taking a que from another oldie I filled them up with 100lbs of feed and 50lbs of scratch in each can, carefully mixing both in. I did this when scratch was on sale for 9.95 for 50lbs (almost half of what crumbles cost me) thereby stretching my feed a little bit longer. If it had to, this food would last them all winter. Now I just have to stay caught up and rotate the cans so no food goes bad. I don't worry about their nutrition because they get all our veggie left overs and trimmings. Meat goes to the dogs - veggies to the chickens. They get all kinds of cool stuff, you should see them go nuts over old popcorn.

I challenge you ditch those "just in time" habits too. Industry, big cities, marketing agencies, and the government thrives off them. SO flip them the bird, and change the way you live.

1) Make "half a tank" your new empty, yeah maybe a little inconvenient but it won't cost you any more - you will still use the same amount of gas.

2) Don't wait till your meds are gone to refill them or get more, if you can, keep some on hand.

3) For heaven sakes keep more food than 2 weeks in your house - and NO, what you got in your freezer doesn't count. What if the power goes out and you loose all that food? Most people "think" they have about 3 months worth of food in their house and freezer - in reality, in a test group, when the food was counted and divided into possible meals they had 3 WEEKS worth.

3) Don't buy a ton of hay use it then buy another ton. I can't count how many people in our area do that. Buy however much hay you need to get yourself through a winter PLUS a month. If you can't afford that its time to down size horses or re-prioritize and no I am NOT sorry if I just hurt your feelings, it is the responsible thing to do.

4) Don't wait till you NEED new socks or underwear - have some on hand, when you get into the new pack THEN go buy more.

5) Absolutely do NOT wait till you are almost out of dog food before going to get more, I don't care how many dogs you have. I challenge all of you, to keep at LEAST as a bare minimum, 1 Month supply on hand.

Take yourself out of the dependency loop. Every time you catch yourself thinking "oh I am out of X I need to run to the store", stop, exam what it is your out of and realistically what would be a good "back up supply" then make extra, or buy extra to meet that requirement.

Protect yourself, become stronger, more self-reliant, and more able to help others.

Kids and Animal Violence (don't worry no pictures)

2011-12-19T10:53:00.000-08:00

As some of you may have noticed that I saw something on FB this weekend that greatly disturbed me. It wasn't done on purpose so I am not angry with the person at all, and while I wish I hadn't seen it I am going to use it to write an article on this uncomfortable subject, not just to my friends but also to anyone who may happen upon this article - so maybe, just maybe, that poor poor dog didn't die in vain.

I want to ask the parents out there - do your kids know that violence against animals is wrong? Really? Are you sure? Have you actually sat down and had a serious conversation with them? If the answer is no - then NO they don't.

My parents never had that conversation with me. We grew up on what you would call a farm. The animals there from chickens to horses to cows were under our careful care, they could see I loved animals, I gave them no reason for concern. They probably just assumed the conversation was unnecessary. THEY WERE WRONG. And maybe you are too - do me a favor tonight, don't put it off, sit down with your kids talk to them about animal violence - you don't have to scare them but this is what they need to know. Three things, make it simple, and answer questions.

1) It's wrong. Hurting or killing an animal (if your family hunts and/or fishes this may be tricky - but there is a difference between legally killing an animal humanely for food and hurting or killing an animal for amusement) is wrong. It's also illegal and you can go to jail.
Why?
A) Because animals, especially pets, are relatively defenseless compared to people. And because of that we have become stewards of those animals. They trust us - you are able to catch them and pet them because they believe you will not harm them. If we don't protect them and stand up for them NO ONE ELSE will. Even if they don't belong to you - it is your responsibility to not cause harm and help when you can. Throw out the Spiderman quote "with great power comes great responsibility" we have great power compared to animals - so they are everyone's responsibility.
What is "violence against animals"?
A) Anything that would hurt them, if it would hurt you, it will hurt them.

2) Even if you are with your friends and everyone else is doing it - IT'S STILL WRONG. If you don't say "no" - NO ONE ELSE WILL. If you stand by and watch it happen - it's still wrong.
What can I do?
Stand up for the animal, tell your friends it's wrong and to stop. Leave, and take the animal with you. If they are trying to hurt an animal they aren't good friends anyways. You can yell - in fact you can yell "fire!" and draw attention to the group. As soon as their cover is blown, the group will likely disperse. If you feel like your friends might hurt you - you need to runaway quickly and tell a grown up. Preferable your mom or dad - but if you can't find them tell ANY grown up, you can also call 911 and tell the police what is happening, tell them you're scared. Keep telling people until someone does something about it. This is a great weapon most kids already have - arm them with a "blessing" to go ahead and be annoying in this case. Draw attention to themselves.

Let your kids know that they can come to you with anything without fear of getting into trouble and you WILL do something to help. Be strong for your kids.

3) Even if you "hear" about someone hurting an animal you need to tell your mom and dad, or a teacher or the police. Keep telling people until someone does something about it. Even if you are not sure if the kid you "heard" it from was telling the truth, you still need to tell SOMEBODY. This could save the life of a future animal or person.
But they think it's funny?
It's not funny - its very mean, and very wrong. When someone thinks that another animals suffering is funny it can mean they are a dangerous person - dangerous to people and to animals. You need to tell an adult so that person doesn't hurt anyone in the future.
But they said it was a stray?
It's STILL NO OKAY - it is not their job get rid of stray animals, there are grown-ups who have jobs catching stray animals. Lots of pets become lost - someone somewhere may still love that dog wondering the streets and may be looking for it - to cause it pain or to kill it could break someone's heart.
But they said it was mean?
Even if the animal is mean - it does not deserved to be hurt or killed. If the animal was mean and bit you or scared you or your friend you need to tell a grown up about it. You can also call the police if a dog or other animal bites you. Grown ups will take care of the animal for you.
But they said their Mom (Dad, uncle, etc...) said it ok?
It's still not ok - you need to tell a grown-up about what you heard or saw. You need to tell them about it soon because some kids make up lies so they can do things that grown-ups don't want them to do. Also they may not be telling you the whole truth - if it doesn't sound right, it probably isn't right. Tell your mom or dad.

Again: Let your kids know that they can come to you with anything without fear of getting into trouble and you WILL do something to help. Be strong for your kids. Be their hero.

When I was little there was a boy who rode the bus with us that would brag about what he had done to stray cats he had caught. To this day I question his definition of "stray." It was mean, it was horrible - it made me sick. But I was a farm kid, I loved my cats and took good care of them, but I knew they were a dime a dozen and alot of them ended up as coyote snacks. My own Dad had shot stray tom cats that were beating up on our own cats on our property. How could I tattle on this kid? And even if I did - who would care? Stray cats were hated - I ALREADY knew that people did not go to jail then for killing a cat - in my mind there was nothing to be done. If my mom had sat down and had this conversation with me things might've turned out differently. Maybe at the very least the boy in question would've received some counseling and wouldn't right now be sitting in jail for nearly beating his wife to death....

Here is something else to think about as a parent. If you suspect your kid may be doing stuff to animals - you HAVE TO take action. Don't ignore it - for Christ Sake, I know you're busy! But do you really want to be the mom sitting there in court watching your son go to jail for beating someone else or killing someone else?? While they blame YOU for being a bad parent?? Do you really want to be "that" mom? Get your kid some help. If you're strapped for cash the state will likely pay for it. Talk to your doctor and DO SOMETHING. The phrase "boys will be boys" isn't a free ticket for them to harass and molest defenseless animals, doesn't matter if its frogs or dogs.

I don't make threats online but I can say this - I LOST it when i saw what happened to that dog this weekend on FB, if I would've been in the wrong place at the wrong time and seen it happen in real life I highly doubt I could've maintained any control at all. And I can tell you this - I would gladly go to prison for the rest of my life and be some other girl's bitch, if I could get my hands on the kids that maimed (maimed is really too light of a term) and ultimately killed that dog. I would do so with pride even though I know two wrongs don't make a right.

Protect your kids - talk to them about animal violence - if you suspect it in your own kid (and in most cases of animal violence, most parents say after the fact, that they did suspect it), address the problem now, before it gets out of control.

Go Ahead and Buy Extra of These Foods

2011-11-22T15:00:00.000-08:00

The original article I read was "10 cooking staples that can outlast you" by Laura Moss - a great little article I would add just a few extras to it (in blue).

While you are out shopping in during these "Baking Sales" for Thanksgiving and Christmas go ahead and buy some extra of the following foods. They won't go bad on you so you'll just be protecting yourself against inflation. Do food prices ever go down for the long term? No. They don't. So if you have the money go ahead - unleash your inner food hoarder.

Sugar

(Image: Public Domain: Wikimedia)

Regardless of whether your sugar is white, brown or powdered, it will never spoil because it doesn't support bacterial growth. The challenge with sugar is to keep it from hardening into chunks. To keep sugar fresh, store it in an airtight container or seal it in a plastic bag. If your brown sugar is more like a brown rock, you can revive it with just a minute in the microwave on low heat. Or by throwing a piece of bread in the bag with it. The next time you grab it - it will be good as new. Brown sugar costs a bit extra so if you want to skip it you can add a little molasses to your white sugar (one cup of sugar to one TBS of molasses) and make your own brown sugar. As you may know molasses is the by-product from making sugar white crystals so you are just adding that back in. Sugar can also be combined with iodine to make "Sugardine" - a homemade antiseptic commonly used on horses and livestock for abscesses and thrush but theoretically could also be used on people. The theory being that sugar doesn't support bacterial growth and neither does iodine - combine the two you have an antiseptic paste that lasts forever.

Molasses

Public Domain Photo: Wikimedia

And yes, I would add Molasses to the list of Foods that will out last you. GO FOR IT. Its good for you as it contains minerals like iron and magnesium, its appealing to livestock and good for them too, its a nice flavoring in recipes - you can't really go wrong with it, its not going to go bad on you - if you see it on sale grab a bunch of it. If you see some that says "sulfured" that just means that it was the by-product of immature sugar cane plants and they added a little bit of sulfur dioxide to it as a preservative - its perfectly safe. "Unsulfured" molasses doesn't need a preservative. Molasses can also be added to garden soil in small amounts to promote "good bacteria".

Blackstrap Molasses is made from the third and final boiling of sugar cane to get sugar crystals and is the least sweet and most bitter but contains the highest amount of minerals and vitamins - you can usually find it at health food stores. It's this form of molasses that is usually used in "sweet feeds" for livestock. It's also is used to make rum and ethanol alcohol (a fuel you that can be used for cooking or light or,.... if you have "kahunas" you can drink ethanol - the 190 proof Everclear is an example of ethanol alcohol).

Pure vanilla extract

Photo by Yardensachs: Wikimedia Creative Commons

If you have pure vanilla extract in the back of the cupboard, there's no need to throw it out because it lasts forever. It may be more expensive than its imitation counterpart, but its shelf life certainly outweighs the extra cost. Keep that vanilla flavor at its best by sealing the bottle after each use and storing it in a cool, dark place. Vanilla is affordable right now, besides the baking sales, which is a gold mine, try Sam's Club or Costco for nice bulk prices.

Rice

Photo by David.Monniaux: Wikimedia Creative Commons

White, wild, jasmine, arborio and basmati rice all keep forever so there's no need to throw them out. Brown rice is the one exception because it has a higher oil content so store it in the refrigerator or freeze it to maximize its shelf life. Once you've opened a bag or box of rice, move it to an airtight container or resealable freezer bag to keep it fresh. Rice is wonderful, it is a perfect emergency food to keep on hand, its still cheap right now you can pick up 25 lbs at Cash and Carry or Costco for around $10.95. It's an expander - it makes a bigger meal out of everything you put it in and you can even pop it like corn and make dessert with it. Most white rice is enriched with B vitamins in the US - so even if you have a diet rich in white rice you are not at risk for any deficiencies. Rice is a source of protein but it is not a complete protein so you should always be pairing it up with nuts, meat, fish and other sources of protein.

Corn starch

Photo by Kalaya - Wikipedia Creative Commons

You can thicken gravies and sauces for years with just one box of corn starch because it keeps indefinitely. Store this kitchen staple in a cool, dry area and be sure to reseal it tightly after each use. Sealing it well keeps critters out of it too. Any flour or starch you choose to buy extra of and store should be stuck in your freezer for a minimum of 3 days to kill any insect eggs that are most likely hiding inside (gross - but its legal because the eggs don't hurt you any, they are just annoying when they hatch and eat your food). Corn starch can be added to gluten free flours to help make gluten free bread, as a powder to sooth irritated skin, as a paste to help draw out the pain of a sting or bite, and as a binder in many crafts. It's also used make the white markings on a horse sparkle and is the grooming secret of many professional riders.

Honey

Photo by Akarlovic: Wikimedia Creative Commons

Whether you use it in your tea, on your toast or as an alternative sweetener, that jar of pure honey is good forever. It may get grainy or change color, but it's still safe to eat — and delicious — because its antibiotic and anti-viral properties keep it from spoiling. You can help keep it fresh by storing it in a cool area, and you can improve the quality of crystallized honey by placing the jar in warm water and stirring it until the grainy parts dissolve. Honey will only have those "antibacterial and anti-viral" properties that are so useful for when we are sick, if it is "raw" honey and has not been pasteurized. Raw honey should not be fed to children under the age of 2. Honey does NOT require stirring to de-crystalize just let it sit there - it will happen on its own, if the water cools and the honey is still hard - warm the water back up again and repeat until clear and liquid. You can also stick a honey jar in an oven over night with the oven light on - and in the morning your honey will be good as new. This low heat will not ruin your raw honey, but high heat will.

Hard liquor

Photo by Ralf Roletschek: Wikimedia Creative Commons

Mixing drinks at your holiday party? There's no need to replace those decades-old bottles of gin and whiskey. Distilled spirits like vodka, rum, whiskey, tequila and gin don't ever spoil — even after opening. The taste, color or aroma may fade over time, but it'll hardly be noticeable. Keep the bottles tightly closed and store them in a cool area away from direct heat or sunlight. High proof booze can be used to disinfect wounds or surgical tools, add flavor to recipes, vodka can fluff up pie crusts, and can be used as house hold cleaner. It can also be used in moderation as a stress reliever and mild sedative. Ethanol alcohol, such as the 190 proof Everclear is also fuel you that can be used for cooking in alcohol stoves (these can be homemade and pop can and a soup can) or,.... if you have "kahunas" you can drink it. And historically booze has ALWAYS been an item of barter.

Salt

Photo by Tricia Simpson Wikimedia Creative Commons

The contents of your salt shaker will never spoil, regardless of whether it's basic table salt or sea salt. Simply store it in a cool, dry place and salt will keep indefinitely. With water, salt and sugar you also have homemade gatorade to administer in conditions of high heat, fever, or dehydration (6 tsp sugar, 1 to 1/2 tsp salt to one liter of water). Twice daily salt water rinses are helpful to for sores in the mouth, bitten tongues, and tooth aches. Saline rinse for the eyes can remove debris and other irritants. Iodine deficiency commonly leads to thyroid gland problems, is the leading preventable cause of mental retardation, specifically endemic goiter, a disease characterized by a swelling of the thyroid gland, usually resulting in a bulbous protrusion on the neck. Iodized table salt has significantly reduced disorders of iodine deficiency in countries where it is used. That being said *today* the average person gets more than enough iodine in their diet so iodized salt is not required in a healthy diet - however if you are storing salt for emergencies (5 lbs per person in your family is the MINIMUM recommendation) iodized salt is a GOOD thing.

Syrup

Public Domain Image - Wikimedia Creative Commons

If you come across a years-old bottle of corn syrup in your pantry, don't throw it out. This sweetener keeps indefinitely as long as you keep it sealed and store it in a cool, dry area. You can also make your own.

What good are pancakes or waffles without maple syrup? Luckily, this flavorful syrup will never spoil if you refrigerate it or freeze it. For long-term storage, seal it in an airtight plastic container and freeze it. Even if Maple Syrup does crystalize, as I have never heard of it "spoiling" - you can heat it back up to a liquid form much like honey so I would forgo freezing. If you are looking to make your own, you will need a couple of mature sugar maple trees but you can also make syrup from other maple trees - sugar maples have the highest concentration of sugar which is why they are used, but if you had to you could boil almost any sap down to make syrup - its just going to take ALOT longer and you're going to need alot more sap. Let me put it this way, for sugar maples you need 20-50 liters of sap to make ONE. liter. of syrup, and you have to boil it for a couple of days. That's why other trees usually aren't mentioned.

Same goes for Agave Syrup. Which has a lower glycemic index than corn, maple, or sugar and it a good choice for those keeping tabs on their sugar. Plus Tequila is made out of it, so how bad can it really be?

Distilled White vinegar

This wonder product can be used for everything, from making marinades and salad dressings to cleaning house and doing laundry. But the best thing about distilled white vinegar is that it lasts for years. Simply close it tightly after each use and store the bottle in a cool, dark place. If you use vinegar for canning like I do you may want to have as much of it as you can. My household cleanser recipe is one part water, one part vinegar, with a good dose of lemon juice thrown in for scent and extra cleaning power.

Baking Soda

Baking Soda is pure "sodium bicarbonate", it is primarily used in cooking (baking), as a leavening agent. It contains NO aluminum. Baking soda is one of the most useful things you can stock up on and it will last forever as long as it is stored properly in a cool dry place, preferable vacuum sealed and doesn't come in contact with anything acidic or damp. The uses of it are too many to list. It is a miracle in the absence of yeast. It can be used with cream of tartar and corn starch to make Baking Powder (1 tsp. baking powder = 1/4 tsp. baking soda + 1/2 tsp. cream tartar + 1/4 tsp. cornstarch) and when you make it yourself there is no aluminum in it. In most brands of commercial Baking Powder there is aluminum, which as been linked to Alzheimer's disease and other disorders. Baking powder only lasts a year two - so when we last ran out, I switched to making my own and I am actually more happy with the homemade stuff.

Baking soda can be used as a household cleanser with scrubbing power, bubble power, and odor absorption power. It can also be used in first aid as paste to draw the pain out of bites, stings, to sooth itching. It can be used in baths to soften and sooth skin. It can be taken orally to ease heartburn, used as a mouth rinse, made into a paste with hydrogen peroxide to use as a tooth paste, and it can be used as a first line treatment for burns.

Baking soda is also a proven weapon against grease fires and it can balance the water in your pool - just go ahead and fill up a shed with the stuff, its amazing!

Other Items that Store Well

-Macaroni Noodles (vacuum packed)

-Wheat Berries (vacuum packed)

-Dried Beans (vacuum packed)

-Dried Corn (vacuum packed)

-Popcorn Seeds (vacuum packed)

-Mustard (in a cool dark place)

-Super Dehydrated fruits and vegetable (vacuum packed)

I'm the One in Old Jeans and Tennis Shoes

2011-11-15T11:53:00.001-08:00

You know the girl pushing the cart ahead of you? The one in old jeans and older looking plain tennis shoes? Yeah, that's me.

And those jeans I'm wearing? Aren't old - I live out in the country so I work in them (work at home, is when you have chores to do inside the house and outside that are fairly physically exerting and if YOU don't do them, no one else is going to do them, and if they don't get done either something gets damaged or something dies) so my jeans get worn out, stained and sad looking pretty fast. I don't have the time, money, nor really the inclination to go buy a new pair of jeans other people consider 'nice' (I consider useless and a slight waste of money) just to go shopping in them, therefore all of my jeans are work jeans. When I leave here I am going home to do some more 'work' (see definition above) so I am wearing my work jeans today.

The shoes I am wearing - the worn out tennis shoes? Those are the most comfortable shoes I own. I am wearing them because, since I am in town, I am going to be doing alot of walking. When you live "out of town" (at least 30 miles away if not more from the closest mall or Starbucks, okay sweetie) and you have to drive into town you're going to get everything you need in one trip. I am going to be moving at a good pace without my cell phone being glued to my head so I am not wearing anything with a heel, or anything that would rub a blister - in fact if you'll notice I will be out of here with more "useful stuff' (things one might actually use to make food from scratch and cook it at home, us country folk also call it 'real food' or things we might need to repair our own homes or cars or to feed to our own animals) than you think is necessary for one person to buy, fast enough to make your head spin; that is, if it weren't attached to your phone or busy chattin with girl friend.

I have many stops to make today not just one and then a 'pedi' with the 'girls' after lunch. I will visit 4 stores to get the best prices on certain items and use coupons (little pieces of paper you can print off the internet or clip out of the newspaper with scissors that make what you are already buying cost less) then head home as fast as I can to feed hungry animals, do chores, and feed a hungry husband (since we have no instant food at our house one of us has to actually make dinner - not just thaw it and we can't afford take out or pizza - so it's usually me that makes dinner because I believe that's what real wives do). My version of a 'pedi' is simply called "me time" and it is done at home for free. If I want to spend time with the 'girls' I will invite my other country friends over if they have time, and we will all have some "me time" with some homemade wine for free.

You will see me darting quickly around various stores with a concerned look on face. That's because I am not having fun (not having fun means, you don't enjoy what you are currently doing, it brings you little to no joy), I do not enjoy spending money, and I really don't like spending the day in town trying to get around people like you. So if you see that little eye roll out of the corner of your eye, my attitude is not based in envy of you - its based in pity then drowned in irritation at having to get around you at every turn because you're parked in the middle of the aisle texting on your cell phone, in front of me at check out with your chart full of what I consider to be useless crap (stuff that is instant to make, full of preservatives and chemicals, stuff that you cannot store for any length of time or stuff that serves little to no purpose other than to look pretty) or in front of me in your Lexus blocking the entire lot while you wait patiently with your blinker on for that parking spot up front. The next time you're shopping if you even notice me at all - don't think I am the next great candidate for TLC's what not to wear, just think of other people for a few seconds and get your pretty little dainty butt out of my way.

The Truth about Couponers

2011-11-09T10:26:00.000-08:00

(public domain image)

I am sure you all have seen TLC's Extreme Couponers - I have too and while I have always couponed it encouraged me to kick it up a notch, it also has been responsible for a fairly negative view of couponing, so I want to clear things up a bit if I can without insulting anyone.

a) Couponers usually have a "stock" like the ones featured on the show, NOT because they are hoarders, but because coupons come out in cycles, usually in quarterly type cycles - one quarter all things Ziplock and Reynolds will have coupons out, the next breakfast goods, the next toiletries - see what I mean. If you miss a cycle you usually have to wait a year for it come around again, SO if you can't afford to pay full price on these goods on a regular bases you get as many coupons as you can and buy as much of that product as you can while you can. Hopefully enough to last you a year - that's right, until those coupons are offered again. That's alot of stuff for one person - a crazy amount for a family, so while this isn't the case for everyone featured on the show it is the case for a lot of them.

b) If they want to exceed that amount to be prepared for some sort of emergency or a sharp increase in food prices - all the more power to them. If Joe Blow has a two year supply of food and toiletries and something bad happens I know at least he is not going to be knocking at my door wanting a hand out. Good for him. But I do wish - when I watch these shows and see people stock up on things they have absolutely no need for, that the would donate some of the Always Pads with Wings owned by a single guy to a women's shelter - or how about the people who have pet supplies but no pets. Donate to the Humane Society! That's all I'm saying. I don't think anyone has a right limit what or how much you take - but gosh there are alot of groups out there that could use the help if you have the time to coupon like that.

c) While it is considered impolite to clear a shelf - many couponers do it anyways, its aggravating especially for people like me who work a 7-4 job and can't get to the store till later after the coupon hawks that don't work, or are stay at home mom's, have already been there and picked the shelf clean, but it the nature of couponing and if you can figure out when the store restocks and go shopping then, you can save yourself a bunch of time. The reason couponers will focus on a specific product and size is the item. They are always shooting for maximum savings for that item. They aren't applying the coupon to a larger size to get the lowest "price per pill or per ounce" they are applying the coupon to usually the smallest size available trying to the item for free or close to it. If they can get the item free or close to it - they will make up for small size by purchasing as many as they possible can, limited only by the number of coupons. And so when the Coupon Hawks hit - there isn't much left on the shelf. Still irritating, yes, but at least it makes sense.

d) There ARE worthwhile coupons out there (there is you name it I have found a coupon for it) - if you do it right you do NOT spend more money (if you do it wrong yes, you can spend a ton more money) - a good couponing rule of thumb is that whenever you use a coupon, it has to make the item cheaper than the store brand, cheaper than you've ever seen it on sale for and cheaper than a buck if you can get it at the dollar store. Yes it does take time, yes you do sometimes have to shop at different stores, and no it is not for everyone - but I don't think people who coupon need to be looked down upon.

Here is my suggestion - give it a try, if you flat out don't have the time, don't worry about it, when you spot someone in line in front of you whip out a bunch of coupons, go to another checkout lane. If you do have time, go ahead and give it an honest try, track you're spending, if you save enough money to make it worth the effort I doubt you'll quit.

Here is some places to start:
www.coupons.com
www.smartsource.com
www.redplum.com
www.couponnetwork.com

Here are some places to learn how:
www.couponmom.com
www.krazycouponlady.com

What Do You Guys Think of This?

2011-08-04T08:07:00.000-07:00

The idea of posting this was started by Mikey - who posted an online version of a Documentary on a group of people living off the grid.

This is a little different and I want to know what you guys think about it. Towards the end of June - NGC aired a 1 hour special called Doomsday Preppers. It features 4 different groups of preppers (short for preparers) and lightly covers what they are doing. It's around 45 min, and no commercials.

I can see where they are coming from, but a few things concern me. One is that some of them them to have a fixation on a particular event, and what does that do their metal well being when the "event" doesn't happen or worse what if something totally different happens, something they really didn't have on their radar cause they were too worried about 2012? And two is the way National Geographic Channel portrays them.

There is a LARGE movement in society today doing this, people who "prep" inevitably cross paths with people who are working to get off the gird, or just be fore self sufficient or into homesteading, which is how I was introduced to the concept. Now, I have nothing against people who are prepared, I think its a great idea to have food, water and an alternative power source ready incase something bad happens. SO I am not posting this video to make fun of these people in anyway.

I am just wondering what you guys think about these folks and the whole concept....let me know.

Reading Reviews While Shopping Online

2011-08-02T10:35:00.000-07:00

One of the things I have learned is that while online shopping simply reading the product reviews can prevent you from making a purchase you would otherwise regret. I am a huge review fan and can even spot the fake reviews and ignore them they are usually close to the top and way too enthusiastic about the company and product. Wise man says, "Always read the reviews silly!"

So this morning I was looking online for a wind-up clock, just as part of my back to basics movement - I had one as a kid so I was looking for one like that. I can remember spending the night with my grandparents either at their house or camping and falling asleep at night to the sound of my grandpa winding his bedside clock - when I little I also loved to help wind the house grandmother clock (the smaller version of a grandfather clock?) at my parents house.

So while on Amazon.com I came across this review and HAD to share it. It made me laugh and left a smile on my face, even though the things that bothered this consumer so much are very common to all wind-up bell clocks. In fact I seem to remember the reason why I got rid of mine was the alarm that made you wish that you would die in your sleep rather than be woken up by that sound again.

Actual Clock and Link to Product

"OK, it looks great - good thing. It is loud, so it wakes you up, functions well - good thing. But, the winding/turn keys on the back of the clock are placed within .000001 mm of each other and of the setting posts; it is impossible to wind the clock without jamming the tips of your fingers against the setting posts. The clock winder is worse than the alarm winder, but they both stink. YOU WILL WIND THIS CLOCK (and likely the alarm) EVERY NIGHT!! So if you completely enjoy jamming and twisting your fingers into stationary metal at a high rate of speed, and occasionally cracking the corner of your fingernails, this clock is for you! Or you can opt for buying a meat grinder and stick your fingers into that each night, but those are a bit more expensive, so the clock is a cheaper option for those seeking a POW-like torture experience. If you just want a wind-up alarm clock, one that doesn't make you regret - no, FEAR - your nightly wind-up ritual, buy something else.

Still reading? (You pain seeker!) OK, one more thing, this is not a "baby ben" size clock. Its about 6.5 inches in diameter, then add the height for the bell handle. It is about 2 inches deep, too. Its BIG. So if you have a night stand with drop leafs, put them up; or maybe you have a pool table next to your bed; then this clock is for you! But if you have a normal size night stand, forget it!

OK, still reading? (you big furniture person, you!) About the loud alarm - the "shut off mechanism" was designed by Omar the knitting cook - yes, I mean someone who has no idea how to design a mechanism to turn OFF a LOUD ringing bell! I have found that wrestling the clock to the ground (which is easy, see the next paragraph), placing a two-handed "strangle hold" onto the bells, performing an overhead "slam and jam" into the carpet, and then eventually finding the incredibly midget-sized thin metal slide and jamming it into the bells with my thumbs sometimes works. Very enjoyable and enlivening when you are waking up from a dead sleep. I have found a better, much more effective alternative for turning off the alarm on this clock: wake up before the alarm goes off; then let my wife fight it to the ground (I hear she's filing papers for divorce; she gets to keep the clock). However, waking up before the alarm goes off sorta defeats the whole purpose of the clock, doesn't it?

Ok, still reading? (What is with you!?!) Final bonus: the placement, shape, and size of the legs on this thing are engineered by Omar's cousin. Incredibly thin, tiny, wide placed spindley legs sitting under the "thunder dome" monstrosity of a clock - like lollipop sticks holding up a basketball. These were designed specifically to cause the clock to flop, spiral, spin, do a pirouette, and then double back flip off of your nightstand at the slightest motion of your hand towards the clock, like WHEN YOU WANT TO SHUT OFF THE 85dB ALARM AT 5:30am! But a good thing - the protruding handle on top does NOT prevent its otherwise round shape from allowing the clock to roll effortlessly on the floor. Yes, the clock is free and certain to take a trip around the bottom of your bed after doing its 1.5 pike dive from the nightstand. So maybe you'll enjoy hunting for a loud, annoying, nimble, screaming finger eater scrambling under your mattress at the crack of dawn. If so, this clock is for you!!

Still reading? Forget it - buy it.

Bahahahaaaa! If only I had the time to be so creative with my own reviews...

We Show RESPECT in Small Towns

2011-07-30T08:47:00.000-07:00

Fallen Soldier Wyatt Goldsmith Returns Home to Colville, WA

They said the procession was almost two miles long - we followed for awhile, it started at the Spokane Airport and went clear to Colville where services were to be held later. SPD and Several Spokane Fire Departments followed till the city limits. We picked up there, to follow him home. This wasn't even hardly mentioned on the news, the media disgusts me.

I am quite certain if anyone would've dared to protest this procession in Colville they would've disappeared never to be heard from again. And that's the way it outta be.

Well I suppose - there is a chance they would've awoken to find themselves beaten and naked on top of Rattlesnake Mt with a fun 12 mile barefoot walk to the nearest road. Have actually heard of that happening once or twice. Most of the time no charges are pressed - they move away and change their names... not kidding, really..

Goodbye Wyatt - thank you for your service. You're a Hero.

The State of Things Now - What's Your Plan?

2011-07-28T09:00:00.000-07:00

Public Domain Image

I am only going to do this once (at least for now). I am going to go there, and while this not the main focus of my blog it has been effecting me, AND recognizing the threat and reacting to it, is all part of rural living, so I writing this post regardless of who it offends.

Things are not cool in the good old US of A. If you think the economy is improving you are in denial, and I am not debating that fact with anyone. The only reason why unemployment dropped this Spring was because people had been on it so long the system was kicking them off. NOT because people actually went back to work. It's not going to get any better right away because our administration doesn't think there is a problem and if they do nothing is being done to fix it. It's easier to sit back, let happen, and then blame others.

Library of Congress - Public Domain Image

Lower is before the Great Depression. Above is same street after the Great Depression.

So for that reason and many others I really really think its important for people to get back to the basics, and store up some food. The other day I had a friend over who saw our pantry and asked why we all the food (the stuff we canned). I explained we can our the produce out of our garden with the goal of always having a season or two worth of food in the pantry, but it was evident she thought it was odd. She thought we were paranoid.

Excuse Me?

Public Domain Image

Since when did storing your own food become "weird"? Seriously, when did this happen? I can't really pinpoint it....... I can remember growing up that EVERYBODY canned and EVERYBODY had a basement or pantry or root cellar they keep their stuff in. My mom did, my grandma did, my aunts did, and my mom's friends did. When got to go over to our friend's house in the summer it was because my mom got together with her friend to do a day of canning - and they kicked all of us kids outside or put us to work. And now its "weird"?

Public Domain - Library of Congress Image

How much food do you have at your place? 2 weeks worth? Enough till the next grocery trip? What's gonna happen if the grocery stores were closed? Or out of food when you needed more? Don't think it can happen? Look at Greece. The heat is doing a number on the nations wheat crops this year, and our beef supply. With food prices already rising what do you think that's going to do them? How much of a gas price increase and food price increase can your budget handle? What if there was a hurricane, tornado, flood or earthquake that wrecks havoc in your area for an extended period of time? Are you going to feed your family on two weeks worth of food? I know you won't be eating out of the freezer if there no power so what exactly is your plan?

A FEMA camp incase of disaster? (and not going to argue about FEMA right now either) Going to depend on Uncle Sam to save your ass? Uncle Sam is BROKE. That's not a great plan. If they have somewhere for you to go, before you get in they will search your things, take away anything that can be used for protection and cram you and your kids in right next to guy that in line in front of you (with whatever history he may or may not have), they will flat out turn you away if you have a pet, even a well behaved, potty broke one. So I ask again, what exact is your plan??

Public Domain Image

Grow your own food. Can. Dehydrate. Buy extra every time you're at the store, stock up. Do the things your grandparents did. It's not paranoid. It's not silly and its not an overkill. Don't forget your pets if you were to stock up a supply (say 3 months if you can afford to go longer do) of dog or cat food and rotate it so it never expired and went bad that would be ideal. Same with hay. Have flashlights and batteries, a generator, extra fuel, candles, MEDICATIONS, and WATER.

At some point in time storing up food might be more important than some of our other more luxurious pursuits. Those trophies on the wall aren't going to look so cool when you wish you had something better eat than the rice you just picked up in town. I am thinking of it this way. I care enough about my family and my animals to temporarily sacrifice some things I want to do - to make sure in the future we have enough.

And for my friends living in town or in high crime suburban areas - please find a way to change your life and leave. Get out of the city and be safer.

Love me.

Two Weeks Ago

2011-07-27T11:45:00.000-07:00

This is what was going on....

When we came inside from working on the fence we watched a doe walk into our pasture and march straight over to the tall grass between cross sections.

Evidently that little new born fawn had been hiding there all day and was hungry. I have no idea how I didn't step on it.

She is still hanging out in the woods out there - I see her every evening sometime with the fawn sometimes without...

But I know its out there. Another reason why the dogs aren't allowed out in the pasture this time of year...

My fence is still not done - I discovered that my polywire was removed incorrectly (by an unmentioned party who meant well) and 990 FEET OF IT was bundled in two of the neatest biggest knots I have ever seen. I spent two hours in tic infested grass trying to untangle it before I got my knife out. So now the knots are sitting on the back deck where I have been working on them in my free time that I have so much of. I came back in the house and packed 5 tics in, 4 of which I found on my pants one I fished out of my hair later that night. YUCK. We've experienced a boom the tic population here. Usually the summer heat kills them off, HA, not this year. You look out into my pasture and you can see them sitting on the grass, thousands upon thousands of them. YUCK, YUCK, YUCK. So I am waiting a week or so. All we need is one good heat wave.... and I'll head back out there.

Also our field never got baled - so I bet 10 ton of hay is ruined from the rain now. I hate depending on others, I so wish we had our own equipment. Next year hopefully I will be able to pay to get it done - that should work out a little better than hoping the neighbor gets around to it.

Also my buckwheat idea never worked out. I couldn't get anyone to come out and cultivate or till the area for me. So I guess I will try again next year. Too bad though it is a good season for buckwheat, not much else, but buckwheat would've loved this weather.

My flowers that survived.

Tire planter progress (as of 2.5 weeks ago). Squash LOVE the tire planters. The wind storm yesterday killed that big squash plant you see, that was my only Hubert Squash. :-( Just snapped it right off. It was the only variety that would've matured fast enough to give us a squash. Figures.

Potatoes LOVE them too. Cantaloupe are doing well in them but not pictured and the broccoli don't like them so much....

The new girls, being chased by one of the older hens.

My Bernie Hen. All Barred Rock.

The gang. It's sooooo noticeable that they are the young ones right now - even though they have grown some since this picture and now more closely match the older hens in size. Everywhere they go they run or flutter, very quick, very full of energy. I think they make the older hens tired just watching them...

Poor slow growing garden - looks a little better now but not by much.

Added another clothes line. We are actually noticing a nice drop in our electric bill from not running the dryer and not having to run the AC.....cause everywhere else in the WHOLE FREAKIN NATION its summer except for here. Since I have also stopped running my hair dryer - and that is helping too I think.

We found some warmer temps a little south east of us again the other weekend though.

And enjoyed a warm day out on the river.

We found this little cute cove - which sooo much fun for the doggies, it was sheltered from the wind and the water in coves on the river are always a little bit warmer so this was a little slice of heaven.

Tired beach shedder.

These two are never tired as long as there is water around.

It was a lovely day. I just wish it would've lasted.

Got mad at Big R & Got a Dutch Oven!

2011-07-12T15:54:00.000-07:00

Stage one of moving and extending the pasture fence is complete, stage two of "re-instaling my electric fence" will proceed on Thursday and Friday, as they look to be about the coolest days of the week. I am pillaging poly wire from different areas like the yard, to extend what was my existing fence. I will most likely get all that pulled up tonight, the goal being to not have to buy any additional poly wire.

Note to self, pick up splicers on the home from Big R - sigh....

Big R in the Spokane Area made me so mad this last week. AHHHHH!

My chicken waterer started leaking and by leaking I mean it flooded the coop twice. Hubby said there was an air leak somewhere, so I returned it - after all it was $30 for a 3 gallon. They didn't want to take it back but they did, only instead of cash they issued a gift card. OH but didn't have any at that store I had to go to the other store and get one (no big deal its on my way home).

Second waterer did the EXACT SAME THING. My chickens ran out of water while we where camping - I was pissed. I took that one back. They were out of freakin waterers OUT, O-U-T, OUT of Chicken waterers in middle of July. NONE. They had one gallon waters but no bottoms to them. They had no quart waters. In TWO BIG R stores servicing all of the SPOKANE AREA they absolutely no chicken waterers. And here's the icing on the cake they "didn't know for sure when more would be in, but it wouldn't be longer than two weeks" Stephanie was MAD.

It was the weekend all the other feed stores were closed. I had at home a one gallon waterer and two quart sized waterers to last 6 chickens in 90 degree weather all weekend with me filling them up twice a day. I demanded cash in return this time, clearly stating waiting two weeks for a waterer to come in, in the middle of the summer was unacceptable I was taking my business else where, so I did in fact get cash back.

So the other day I went to the local feed store and paid more for the same brand of waterer (there were no other choices) and it seems to be working perfectly.....sigh.... Chicken drama? That's what I heard Hubby say under his breath in passing after my latest rant... Ha! At least you don't work for Big R. If I have the time I might even write a letter to management pointing out the poor planning of whoever is in charge of purchasing. Chicken keeping is growing in leaps and bounds in my area, I suspect I am not the only irritated customer.

But I digress - aside from the fence there is also the issue of a gate on the loafing shed - which is now full of slightly old hay (but still good hay). I need a gate on it or it will slowly disappear as Pat snacks on it, when he gets here.... I might actually have one that will work, hidden under a pile of (I just might use it someday crap) I will have to dig through the mice and spiders and see if its big enough - just a cheap aluminum one, but it would work if its big enough.

This is a must as we did finally get the pasture cut and its almost ready to be bailed. If only it wouldn't rain for another couple days. The grass in our field has never been so tall - taller than me easily and I'm 5ft 8 - I wouldn't be surprised if we get 8 ton of grass hay out it or more. Course I will only get a third of it but its better than nothing.

Before our yearly 4th of July river trip I bought this!

It's a Dutch Oven! I love it! It was only $30 and its a fairly good quality one.

I seasoned it the weekend before we left which was HARD WORK!

But worth it after one smashed finger and a burn mark on my arm.

I used briquets to cook with it and choose an easy first ever dish.

A certain number of briquets for a certain size of Dutch Oven will give you a certain temperature.

I am starting out this way before I decide to wing it and use actual coals from a fire.

Cheesy Potato Wedges topped with chives!

It's was sooooo good! And I didn't have to heat up the camper to do it.

Because I seasoned it correctly the food didn't stick at all and the Oven, once cooled off some what was super easy to clean.

You don't want to let it cool all the way. If you add water while its still warm (not hot, you could crack it) its much easier to clean and when you're done while its still warm you add another coat of protective vegetable oil.

Sunset on the 4th of July

Beautiful weather - it was the first time for 2011 that our weather broke the 80 degree mark and 90 degree mark in one weekend - we loved it, but the sudden heat was harsh.

Days End - View from our campsite.

Tree Beach - one of our favorite beaches.

IT'S OFFICIAL! WE HAVE A WATER DOG!!

People ask - well can he jump too? Can he? The dog in a fit of puppy rudeness, jumped up to get a ball I was holding up high (so supposedly he couldn't get it) and used my shoulders as a spring board with his HIND feet. I still have the scratches on my shoulder to prove it....

He swam and swam and swam. Matching Roper pace for pace.

Kaiser and Roper plumb tuckered out.

The Ferry

A little house and shop by the River that I would die for! This is pretty much the norm up here. We all have flags in our yard - we don't need a 9/11 to put them up, they are always up.

Pretty wildflower - not sure which one it is....

Came back with my first sunburn of the year! Not on purpose I assure you, I am careful about that. Just got busy and forgot to get my back one day.

Can't wait to go again.

I am Solar Powered.

Being Prepared in Your Vehicle

2011-06-29T09:26:00.000-07:00

Inspired by a few fellow bloggers lately on how to not let yourself become a victim I have decided to do a series on how keep yourself from becoming a statistic.

I come by this easy enough - 1st as I have mentioned before I served on the local Country Search and Rescue Team for the Sheriffs Dept in the past, and I grew up out in the mountains miles outside of a small rural town so I come by survivalism naturally. Alot of this stuff, which some folks might classify as over kill or survivalist in nature isn't special or unique to anyone where I live, not only is it common sense its expected.

Did you read the story this year about that poor woman who survived 7 weeks in the Nevada wilderness in a car all alone waiting for someone to come rescue her? Her husband tried to walk for help and died trying. Could you do that? Could you even wait it out a few days?

Lets start with your car. There is a lot of inexpensive things you can stash in your car that take up very little noticeable space that could save your life. Now in my area most of that stuff is gear toward heat cause its freakin cold here in the winter time which lasts about 8 MONTHS. But if you lived in say Arizona or the South you may want to gear your supplies more toward water and staying cool.

Some folks have a "get home bag" packed in their vehicle that would also cover most emergencies, however, in this case I mainly focusing on stuff you can keep in your vehicle to allow you to survive till help arrives or get help yourself. Unless shit has really hit the fan there is no reason to abandon you vehicle and try to make home on foot.

In my car I always have the following:

2 PrePackaged high calorie meals or MREs (they contain gluten so I have had to toss them and replace them with AlpineAire's Food packets, they are one of the few companies that makes a gluten free dehydrated meal, but they may work for you, you can get them at outdoor stores or army surplus stores) something you don't have to cook to eat and make sure you would like to eat it - it makes a difference and helps to keep you from going bonkers if you have something you actually like to eat with you.
Random high calorie snacks (trail mix, cookies, cliff bars if you are dipping into this food you are surviving not dieting you need the fat and carbs, vacuum seal them up and toss them in the trunk so you're not tempted to snack on them).
At least a 6 pack of water bottles
A way or two to start a fire (matches or a the ever dependable BIC Lighter or hey how about both)
At least 2 emergency candles (when lit in your car, those candles can put off enough heat to keep you alive in the winter time).
A wool blanket
A pair of wool gloves
Two flares (these just come in handy all the time I always end up using mine before they go bad - they are great warning of a accident ahead so if you've stopped to pull someone out of the ditch someone else doesn't run the heck into you, they can also start fires and signal for help).
An LED flash light (duh - with spare batteries, if don't at least pack this there is no help for you).
A knife (Locking blade - small enough to fit in your hand kept with in arms reach. But a good friend of mine taught me how much damage one could inflict with a knife, for women this is handy - if a creep has otherwise disarmed you and they tend to like to grab you and pull you close if you can open that knife with one hand you do alot of damage if someone has pulled you close, enough that they aren't going to be trying to shoot you as you run away).
Extra shoes (I commute to and from work everyday and if I have to walk to get gas or for help I am going to be pretty darn pissed off if I have to do that in my stupid work shoes or God forbid my flip flops in the winter it's snow boots in the summer its just shoes).
Yes usually I also have firearm if not on me within arms reach.

In the winter I will always have the above PLUS

An extra coat and hat (the dress coats I wear for work just won't do the job in a blizzard when its 0°F outside, that's why).
Mini shovel (to dig yourself out if you can, so that you don't have to pay for a tow or to rescue yourself, or to build a snow cave with if you have to leave your car - which is usually not recommended to anyone except Bear Grylls, also technically, I have this giant window scraper that is a scraper, snow brush, and has a mini shovel on the end. It's also heavy enough that if I were to clock someone over the head with it, it would do serious damage.)
A can of commercial de-icer spray
A bottle of windsheild wiper fluid
No, I don't have sand or chains in my car. I have studded snow tires and front wheel drive if the weather is too bad for that I will be driving my truck.

The permanent stuff I store in the middle of my spare tire, under the floor in the trunk. The temporary seasonal stuff I will just throw in the trunk. Either way it doesn't take up muck space, no one can see it.

I have the same stuff stashed in my Truck
Minus the snow boots (if I am in my truck in the winter I am wearing boots), everything is stored under and behind the back seat, in the back seat pockets, in the side door pockets and in the jockey box I want most of my supplies in the vehicle with me. I do carry chains for my truck and sand for weight in the back as I don't put studded snow tires on my truck each year and its nice not to have to run the 4 wheel drive all winter.

Here is a word about help. Please, don't get out of your car if you don't know the person. If your own phone doesn't work, ask them to call the police for you (if they can't tell them to call when they reach the nearest working phone and to have a nice day). It's not alot but your locked door and window is layer of protection between you and someone else. Be VERY WARY of anyone who tries to convince you to get out of your car. I have slid off into the ditch before and called the State Patrol while waiting for a tow just so someone else was there. And you know what? They didn't mind at all and didn't write me a ticket either.

If its 118 degrees, yes, you're going to have to get out of the car - but be on the defensive. DO NOT accept rides from anyone and insist they call the police don't take their phone. I usually like that better because if they are handing you their phone you are now within arms reach. Paranoid? Maybe. But I don't want to be in the paper the next day as a missing person either - as it goes - I'd rather die in the parking lot.

Other suggestions welcome!

Coming Along

2011-06-21T09:10:00.000-07:00

- Projects in Progress -
When we started on these projects we made cost effectiveness and time consumption a priority. All of these stuff we are doing when it is finished will take up very little time. Even my buckwheat idea is low maintenance - buckwheat requires no fertilizer, no weed control (as it out competes weeds) and no irrigation. The work will comes when we plant and when you harvest (a whole two days). And the seed for the area I want to cover will be under $20.

So if you are thinking "that'd be nice but I can't do that with the horses" think again.

My Chicks - are out in the big Chicken Pen. Bernie is the Barred Rock Hen (black and white one) the other two are Red, and Astro (self explanatory) sorry did not get creative with chicken names. When these girls stop laying they will end up in my freezer as chicken stock or soup or both so while I like them very much I don't get too attached to them.

The whole time I have had these girls I kept them in an old stock tank and only had to clean it out twice. I would check their food and water daily but only had to refill those things about once a week. They haven't been a hassle at all.

A Fiddlehead Martini! (and trust me I needed on Friday night...)

Remember the fiddle head ferns I picked and then pickled a while back? They make for great martinis.

Our tire planters (there is a trick to this, cut the side wall out of the tire and then fill with dirt). The newest three are planted with broccoli just to try it. I think the tires will be too warm for the broccoli - but Hubby wanted to try it anyways. My fire pit and chicken pen is in the background. We killed the crab grass around this area - it just too invasive to let go.

Our raised beds and tires - Hubby installed a timed drip system for all of this, so it requires very little time or effort on our part now that its put in. If you want to grow your own food but don't think you have the time to do it with horses.... YOU CAN with a set-up like this, and everything including the dirt, beds and drip system cost under $500.

This is just a picture of how the hoops work in the summer. They work for netting so to protect the berries from the birds or earlier this spring before we planted the garden, it was protecting young vegetable shoots from the chickens when they get to range the yard (with the dogs inside of course). Now that's pretty much done till I can get them out into the pasture - they LOVE to pick through horse poop. LOL! But its good for them and for the pasture that way. I am planning on not letting them out for a week or so after worming Patrick though...

Our real garden, finally planted.

My cute little McIntosh Apple tree I got from Costco for $10 made it. Yes that is a tomato cage its in. This tree is still "go ahead run over me" sized to the dogs so I use the cage to help remind them its there.

The slightly more expensive Jonathan Apple Tree I got for my Birthday is also doing well.

My $10 Pie Cherry Tree is also doing great. It's a self pollinating one, so it doesn't need a buddy.

And we paid $11 for both of these blue berry bushes (both rated for our zone) and they are also doing great. They were just starts when we got them but have been growing well. Blue Berry bushes need a buddy to produce berries. They are fenced for the same reason - dog barrier.

My Irises - the thing I love about my flowers is that they are all perennials (except the potted petunias on the decks). I don't have to do ANYTHING - the keep coming back year after year. Very low maintenance. One of my Lavender plants is below... another nice perennial.

My Columbines. These are prolific little suckers we have found them in the yard, under the deck, by the side of the house, all over really but again an nice pretty low maintenance flower.

My planter - some Rosemary, a sickly looking basil plant and a wee egg plant.

Muahahaaa! I picked these up for $12 each - they hold 55 gallons and I am going to try to pick up some more. We have a sump pump under the house that runs nearly non-stop in the spring pumping gallon after gallon of water out off the side of the house that just goes to waste, I have always wanted to try to save some of that water to use on the yard later in the summer. So this is how I'm going to try it.

Last week I caught this rainbow while I was out and about by the neighbors place.

There is just something about rainbows always makes me stop and stare.

Ugh - sick

2011-06-10T11:27:00.000-07:00

Again! Freck! I thought I had everything there was to have out there already this year. Guess I was wrong.

Sorry for the lack of posts lately I have basically felt like crap for the past two weeks. It started out like a cold with a really sore throat and I threw everything I had at it, but it hung on. The plugged up ears, runny nose and fever went away - but the sore throat and tiredness have not. A visit to the Doc revealed they did not know what I had - oh and how odd that its hung on this long - so since we're not sure we'll phone in some antibiotics for you. Sigh..... I'll pass for now thanks. So I haven't felt like doing anything let alone blogging.

Today is the first day i actually feel a little bit better. So here's what I've up to in more pics and less words.

The Apple Trees are blooming.

And when I bent over to get the last pic I heard this above me.

Raised beds are in, filled with dirt and planted, along with 6 truck tires.

They contain squash, potatoes, asparagus, garlic, rhubarb, a special breed of cantalope that will actually mature and ripen in our growing season, strawberries and cucumbers.

There are yellow and red raspberries behind the raised beds.

There is also now a roof on the chicken pen.

And two beautiful blueberry bushes planted out front.

And 10 tomato plants in the ground. 8 reds, 2 yellows, 2 grape tomato plants, one cherry tomato plant.

Oh and one wee little egg plant.

I got all the humming bird feeders out and filled. They are loving them as always.

At my place you have to be careful of what you swat at. It might be a humming bird or it might be a honey bee just trying to get warm.

My Goldfinch guy

My herb garden, surrounded by hot tape. There is more than one way to keep the dogs out.

We have peppermint, spearmint, chocolate mint, ginger mint, lemon balm, silver thyme, sage, chamomile (which may have died already I'm not sure), oregano, chives, basil and rosemary.

Some lilacs. I love them. The fragrance has an addictive quality to it...

Last weekend we sacrificed a couple of hours of potential work time to take a break and maybe score some trout for dinner. No such luck, but I did have fun.

The valley where Horseshoe Lake sits.

It was a great day to be out on the lake.

We floated by the little set of waterfalls that we like to play in when it gets warmer.

Elexie Falls - this is a fun fun spot in the summer heat when the water is slight lower and slower.

There are these cliffs that surround the lake, they make for good rock climbing and cliff jumping (haven't tried the later but lots of guys do every summer).

Even spotted some wildflowers growing up on the cliff...

Sigh.... this peaceful moment lasted only long enough for us to realize how much work we still had to do at home...oh well by the time we are done will should be able to enjoy the summer...

Chasing My Tail...

2011-05-31T13:18:00.000-07:00

(A small note about my pictures: I am not so vain that I think I need to sign them all, I am signing all of them that I can, because of a few snotty comments I have gotten about the pictures I use on past posts. When i use a picture that is not mine it usually comes from "Wikimedia Creative Commons" a virtual online warehouse of public domain images (images that are free for anyone to use anytime anywhere) and I always credit the source regardless, if not, then its a picture that is licensed to share and when I use one of those I always credit the photographer. Either way I don't take credit for what I don't shoot and I don't steal pictures.) Now usually I don't even give those kinds of comments a second thought but I wanted to explain my sudden need to sign all my pics - that way at least it will be more clear as to who took the photo.

BTW if you are posting snotty comments on people's blogs, TRUST ME, you are spending far more time typing up your lovely comment than we spend actually caring about it.

______________________________________________________

Annnnnnndddd I'm back -

You know its Spring around here when the Goldfinches are back!

Literally I feel like I am, running around in circles and getting no where. Every time I feel like I am getting caught up, four other things get tossed out in front of me. For the past month we've been darting outside between rain storms trying to get things planted, repaired, and built. Progress has been slow. BUT at least I am enjoying it! Most of it anyways.

3 out of 4 stars goes to Bob's Red Mill's Gluten Free Cinnamon Raisin Bread. Used my FANTASTIC bread machine! It smelled awesome and tasted even better - but in two days was too dry to eat so the chickens enjoyed the rest. 4 out 4 stars goes to Pamela's Gluten Free Bread Mix - cooked up wonderfully, lasted till I ate it all, and never went dry. By far the BEST GF bread mix I have tried. Thank You Guys!!! It was in the multi-pack Christmas present, I think, ... it is my new fav - now I have to try to find it online somewhere cheap - cause its like $6 a bag here in town...(ouch).

Raw Hometown Honey - I scored some from my neighbor...who also is going to try to hook me up with two bee boxes to start my own hives with next year! I just have to make sure to clean and sanitize them real well, everyone is real nervous about this whole bee mite/colony collapse thing and they say if you get used boxes that's what you have to do.

After getting into the habit of spurring people (which hurts like hell BTW) as they came into the pen or reached into the coop AND really over using one poor hen - Zorro met his end "farm style" on the chopping block. It was a swift death and no I don't feel sorry for him.

Every time he'd come after one of us, our German Shepherds would just about crawl through the fence to get him. Since he's been gone, they've had zero interest in the chickens (except for Kaiser who still tries to herd them LOL).

Relying on skills I haven't used since I was a kid. We dispatched him, plucked him, and dismembered him faster than you could get one out of the freezer. I will tell you I even enjoyed plucking him, yes, I am that kind of person. Don't piss me off! I think the dogs enjoyed watching too.

But hey, he made great chicken stock - I even had a little bit of it in some homemade chicken soup this weekend.

Then I decided to make some tallow. It took a TAD longer than I thought and next time I do it - it will be in the garage as the smell is....well....it makes your kitchen smell like ass. If only I had thought to take a picture of the Beef Fat cooking, yummy...

Flittering the resulting oil takes a while. I ran it through a small strainer, then a paper towel twice BEFORE I could run it through a coffee filter...sigh...

Final product! Clean white tallow - ready for soap making, cooking, or for use on auto parts (for real I looked it up) it's actually not to bad for you either. No chemicals, no hydrolyzed oil, no trans fats PLUS all the vitamins and minerals are still intact.

I have heard that nicer restaurants all use tallow to fry their french fries in because of the nicer rich flavor it departs.

I killed a bottle waiting for all the fat to render in the crockpot - took FOREVER.

Along with all of this I have been exercising - swimsuit season here is 3 weeks away and I will be ready! I love going for walks/runs where I live - I just love my neighborhood.

It's a farm community - different from the mountains which is where I grew up - but I have fallen in love with it... The sound the wind makes when it pushes around a field of wheat, the smell of alfalfa blooming, and hearing tractor baling in the distance - I love it all.

The place up the road from us. How could I not take this picture?!

Earlier that day I scored some free Hay - which is AWESOME I have about two tons in my shed right now, my brother in-law showed up to lend me a hand with the 80lb + bales. A horse show buddy of mine that was moving out of the area called me up and told me to come and get it as she didn't have time to move it before the new buyers took possession of their house. Thanks Tracy!!!

That night our neighbors threw a bonfire (this was last weekend) - it was nice to stop working for a little bit and have some fun! Even the kids had a great time! Most of the boys were trucking around in cowboy hats (so stinking cute) and that is the norm for my area, the kids wear boots and hats and everyone rides around on horses or four-wheelers cause not only is completely legal, they both have the "right away"where I live.

When it was nice and late and the kids were in bed we kicked it up a notch! Fire, music, beer, and stars - honestly it was perfect, who needs to go clubbing?

My little chicks - every time I get them cleaned out, I come back 20 minutes later and it looks like they have been partying like rock stars in there. Food is tipped over, water is full of shavings, and their roost is in a different spot. LOL

And now I'm sick. I started getting sick on about Friday - ya, the first 3 day weekend for me since January. Nice. Stuffy head, sore throat, blah... and here I thought I had caught everything there was to catch out there, thought I was in the clear for the rest of the year. Stomach flu, cold, bronchitis, I figured I was covered. I was wrong.

So i worked my fool ass off all weekend while sick, cause there was just no way I was going waste all the extra time in bed.

Harvested and dried chives and some mint.

Managed to work in a walk with Roper. Ain't he cute!?

Wild Lupine

I was taking some pictures of the flowers when he parked his lab dog butt right in the way - but it worked out cause he was just so dang cute in all those flowers....

Then I spotted some fresh fiddleheads! And of course I had to go back and pick some.

I ended up pickling them. I haven't tried pickled fiddlehead ferns yet but I have heard they are really good. Usually I fry them up and eat them - they are similar to asparagus...

Then I did all the work I could to Patrick's fence, its about 65% put back up now. We still need to re-run some wire on the South side and the East side of the fence before I can finish and there are like 1 or 2 T-posts that need to go back in. What a pain - I still can't believe we had to redo that entire fence....so frustrating because he could be here by now if we could get that fence done.

Then I got the herb garden cleaned out and re-planted.

And the big coop cleaned out.

And the little chicken pen cleaned out.

Then I planted some strawberries starts I had bought to replace bare root starts that didn't grow.

Then I cleaned the entire house.

And then I finished the weekend by making GF angle food cake from scratch.

Now I am still sick and kinda crabby. I wish I could've gone fishing or camping but I am glad we got alot of work done too - which means more beach time this summer or at least it had better mean more river beach time or you're gonna see one cranky Stephanie and more stock tank swimming.

Soap and Buckwheat - but not together, exactly

2011-05-13T14:14:00.000-07:00

Soap!

You have Aunt Krissy to thank for this...her marvelous soaps that Oregon Sunshine got for me for Christmas - they were awesome. This whole idea came from those soaps - I wanted to know how to make soaps as nice as those - that left my skin feeling awesome, no residue, smelled great and I even liked just looking at. You guys have no idea how much enjoyment I got out of just looking at those soaps setting in my soap dish they were so pretty ("were" cause I used them!).

Just starting to cook...

Even though I knew it would irritate Hubby with all the other stuff we have going on around here I went ahead and snuck off to that soap making class last weekend. It was wonderful! I learned so much! I had done alot of research on soap making before going but it was so helpful to talk to someone who had been doing it for years and years. We made one small batch each in class from scratch - and then split it so we could have two different soaps each. I did one that was unscented (no scents were added) but I did add rose petals and oatmeal (certified gluten free of course or I would not be able to use it) to which the rose petals imparted an ever so slight rose scent. I did another with oats for exfoliation and oatmeal and scented it with Cedarwood and Sandalwood essential oils.

Just thinking about trace.

Homemade soap is so much better for your skin than store bought stuff. Store bought soap along with being infused with dozens of questionable at best chemical scents, preservatives and colorings - is a detergent bar, not real soap. Your Blue, of Gold, or White colored department store soap is closer to laundry detergent than it is soap. They run it through a process which removes the glycerin from the bars - and they use that for other products. But glycerin is important that would make soap good! So that's why my current brick of Dove will be my last.

Our "soap molds" for class. LOL - I have already made myself better ones for use at home.

I had some questions and concerns about soap which I completely resolved in the class. Such as about the use of fat and Lye - Sodium Hydroxide - which I know is a dangerous compound. I learned that one: You CANNOT make soap without lye - there is no such thing as lye free soap if you have seen that somewhere, it is clever wording on labeling not actual lye free soap. Secondly: If soap is made correctly a chemical reaction takes place in which the fat and the lye combine to make soap, a completely new compound, there should be neither fat nor lye in the end product. Just soap.

Both my beginner soaps "curing" at home a process that can take cold processed soap 2-6 weeks. Though my instructor insured us this recipe would be ready in 10 days. The longer you wait the milder you're soap is - but you wait too long and the scent will fade...

I also learned how to make lye from scratch (you don't have to do this to make soap - in fact its not recommended I just think its neat I know how to - my lye I buy at Big R), which isn't ideal for soap making but it can work. Lye can be made from the ash of wood. Not just any ash - the "white" ash and hardwood works best for lye making the problem is you can't control its strength - so making soap with homemade lye can be a little touchy. LOL! The second thing I learned - but need to practice a bit, is how to render fat. I remember when I was little my mom always had a can of bacon in the kitchen - well now I do too.

My 12 bars of soap I cut after the soap had hardened enough to cut - plus one soap ball i made from the cutting scraps. The cutting part was also surprisingly fun.

I found the process of soap making very creative - and calming. I enjoyed it a ton. I learned about adding oils and butters for skin benefit, herbs, scents and colors. There are literally endless combinations that can be made the process is very artistic and not nearly as hard as I thought it would be, though it is alot of work. I can't believe how many times I have walked by homemade soap at craft fairs and not given them a second glance - NOT ANY MORE. I know the work that went into those bars of soap and I am going to at least acknowledge that in the future.

Some bath crystals we also made in class - I did lavender/chamomile • sandalwood/vanilla with oatmeal • and rose/chamomile

I plan on making another larger batch of both at home soon!

Buckwheat! Yes, I am going to try to grow it.

After doing some extensive online research I think I can successfully grow and harvest buckwheat at my place. Why am I doing this you may ask? To see if I can, and I like laying in bed at night on a heat pad doped up with pain killers HA! Its another thing that would help make us a little more self sustainable. We can make bread and noodles from buckwheat flour, kasha and porridge from the groats, beer from buckwheat mash, and pillows from buckwheat husks and it stores just fine when dried. You can also use the groat for livestock feed if need be, the flowers for tea, the tops of the greens in salad and/or tea, the sprouted seeds in salad AND it just happens to make really good honey bee food HINT HINT. And if at some point in time we HAVE to grow our own food - we can. While i am not 100% sure I can do it this I am going to try.

Wikimedia Public Domain Image

Field of Buckwheat

I am planning a 45x45 patch of it and steal a section of Patrick's pasture that he didn't eat anyways. I am to plant it towards the end of June or so is my best guess according to how it grows which means i should have an August harvest. Buckwheat is a very fast growing grass and you have to harvest it before the plants fall over from the seed load. I will need to acquire some grass shears for cutting (though I wonder why a personal field grass swather wouldn't work??) and some screens for sorting the kernels but it's a very minor expense. I will only need to retain 4 lbs of seeds to replant next year and buckwheat is cheap so to plant this year will only cost me about $13.

A rainbow graced us last weekend while we were working. It was huge.

It's going to go - out there on the left where I can effectively lock Patrick out of.

If this little adventure of mine turns out to be a pain in the butt I will save some seeds for just incase and not worry about it next year. If its not too bad it will be something I will continue to do. Buckwheat is fast growing, disease AND weed resistant, perfect for our climate, and improves the soil as it grows. So it seems like a good fit.