PETA as a domestic terrorist group

I don't know if you have seen this but apparently PETA is taking bets on when Sen. Grassley will die.

Peta takes bets on Sen. Grassley's death

Now how does this not qualify as inciting violence? If for a wild example, The NRA was taking bets on when the head of the U.N. would die (because of the UN Gun Law up for review today), people would be all up in arms (no pun intended) about this. The FBI would be looking into the NRA and charging them with inciting violence or dometstic terrorism.

Here is PETA's own words about this....PETA about Sen. Grassley

Now who is to say, one of their members won't bet on his death and then carry out actions to make sure they win the bet? How is this not inciting violence?

Me, my stance is firm.

I'm all for taking care of my animals, taking them to the vet. Bear as we all know is spoiled rotten. But I'm not above looking at him and telling him when TSHTF, I'm so gonna eat him. As a matter of fact, I asked Grey Knight last night if I could tazer the cat. (The cat will not stop lying on my neck and face at night, waking me up all night!)

Just saying, I'm tired of the double standard for groups around here. It's okay to say something if you are a liberal group and or a minority but most of us are supposed to keep our mouth shut!

Herbs as Medicine Week 1-Bee Balm

                                                        Stock photo of Bee Balm

This week I will be profiling Bee Balm, also known as horsemint, oswego tea and bergamont.
This plant does grow in the wild, so learn what it looks like and how to identify.

Background: The Blackfoot, Menominee, Ojibiwa and Winnebago tribes all used this plant to treat illness in their tribes.

Let's get the standard warnings out of the way: I'm not a doctor, nor do I play one on the Internet. Always ask your doctor before trying new herbal remedies, it's bound to get you a few odd looks. I have asked my doctor about the use of this herb and in my present physical condition, I got the green light to use it.  However if you are pregnant or nursing or using this on a small child, always be cautious with any herbal remedies.  If you are using this herb as a homemade essential oil or you purchase this herb as an oil, DO NOT expose area to direct sunlight. You will look as bright as a boiled lobster!

Now that the doom and gloom warnings are out of the way. Say the end of the world has hit, you managed to survive on your preps for the last 13 months. You've started a garden, your animals have been producing and breeding things are looking up but your medicine stock is way down or non existant. How are you going to replenish it?

Bee balm is one of those plants that can help you restock your medicine cabinet.

Bee balm has ANTI EMETIC action (from mint family most mints do)
Has a strong ANTISEPTIC action
Has a ANTI PURTIC AND ANAGLESIC action.
(So what do these fancy terms mean??)

----For fevers, pain and nausea----Crush dried or fresh leaves and make a hot tea (use 1 tbsp per 8 oz of water)
----For skin infections----Crush fresh leaves and put on top of affected area. Draws infection out.

Here is my #1 use for Bee Balm. Let's face it, after TOTW dentists will be few. Brush, floss daily but I can speak from experience, this is a LIFESAVER.

                                                            Bee Balm Tincture

This needs to be done ahead of time, takes 3-4 weeks. Gather bee balm flowers and leaves, wash, add to a mason jar and cover with vodka. Leave to sit on the counter where you will see it and shake daily. After 3-4 weeks, strain the bee balm leaves out. (Keep in a cool place after this)

Use this topically or as a mouth wash on gums where infection or affected tooth is. This gives temporary INSTANT pain relief and with its antiseptic effect helps with healing. I personally without giving too much personal info out have had this cut my healing time from 8 weeks to 4 weeks with dental surgery.

Just a side note here now--To save bee balm seeds, allow the flower heads to dry completely on the plant, cut them off and crumble the flower heads. The seeds will be small and oval shaped.

---If you are planning a herbal medicine chest in your preps, some items that I would suggest you get now are a mortar and pestle, a tea ball or press and seal tea bags, I would stock up on witch hazel and vodka as well for your bases for tinctures and such. Some use rum for tincures I prefer vodka since its clear and as a non drinker I tolerate it better.  A wooden drying rack from the hardware store and clothes pins help with the drying process when there is no power.

Mid week update

Things have settled into a strange routine here around the farm. Normally this time of year, I would be in a mad rush to preserve and can pretty much every day. Not so this year.

Garden still hasn't produced much to actually put up. Pulled up the potato plants Sunday. Got probably 50 lbs of potatoes. Fried some up on Monday night after taking Bear swimming. If you have never grown your own potato, the taste is so much different from your store bought variety. This is gonna sound strange but it actually tastes like a potato.

Something has been into the melon patch and at my prize cantalopes. Eating perfect cup sized holes in them and sucking the insides out.

Have been hard at work inside the M109 working on cut work right now. Hopefully we will get the framing done inside of it this weekend.

Dried some partridge berry this weekend.

A mom to be best friend. Will make a dried tincture with it when needed.

Trying to work out a deal with the local Army/Navy store (who are prep minded). They teach a Israeli Combat class and I am trying to barter teaching a herb medicine chest class in exchange for training. While there this weekend, was able to pick up a sweet suturing kit. Check one thing off my medicine chest kit list!

Sign of the times hits close to home as well. Family across the street from us moved out this weekend to beat the foreclosure. Didn't even know they were in trouble. Didn't socialize with these folks much as they were more into your typical drinking/bbq parties on the weekends. Of course they left their yard a foot high. Neighbors are already pitching in to keep it mowed.

Well, I'm gonna try to beat the heat and storms today. Definitely an inside day for us with temperatures reaching 105 without the heat index. Forcasted to get some more rocking storms this evening. Area is just recovering from Monday mornings derecho.

M109A3 conversion

This is what has been keeping me busy over the last few days along with major construction plans this weekend.

Right now the front half is waiting for its 3rd coat of white paint. It has really soaked up the paint.
Trip to the lumber yard tonight to pick up the wood for the Bed/Fuel storage area and the built over cabinet.

The fuel tank will hold 325 gallons of fuel. Good for a bug out situation. The smaller tank is a water tank and will hold 70 gallons of water on board. This will all be enclosed into the bed area, hopefully with alot more storage options. I'm worried about Grey Knight's plans for this since it seems to me storage will be very limited. If all else fails bins can be piled on the bed area, I guess.

Thunderstorms

Pictures don't do it justice. This storm was so wierd. It was moving at us from west, with clouds moving northwest to southeast. It literally looked like it was swirling right on top of us. It's thundering and lightening like mad right over top of us right now and yes it is raining!!!

For the Love of Water

                      (Bison at Land Between the Lakes Recreation Area, Cadiz, KY)

--Bison is totally unrelated just a photo from our April vacation. This bison and I had some sort of connection.

Snippets from farm life
--We have gotten .05 inches of rain in the last 2 months.
--Bought 3 lbs of strawberries for $1 a lb yesterday, they are currently in the dehydrator for fruit breads later this year.
--Bee swarm has taken over my mint, which is flowering right now. Must be 100 bees out there. No clue where the hive is, but after reading Pioneer Preppy's posts about his bees, I'm glad they are finding some food.
--Cicada killer bees have taken over the area in front of the barn, all attempts to remove them have failed so far.

--Heat wave is back which temperatures in the triple digits this week. Bear is gearing up for it already by being extremely lazy (sleeping most of the time, in the room with AC) and refusing most food except people food. He does this everytime it gets hot, so I'm not too worried. He is a pain in the keister to get to go outside to potty though. Have to drag him out a intervals. Maybe take him down to the river tonight to swim.

On my bookstand right now..

Research book..

Fiction for night time reading is ..

Ordered the 2nd James Rawles book, Survivors and A Joe Nobody book, Without Rule of Law they will be here sometime next week. This was after going into Barnes and Noble and having them look at me like I'm clueless looking for these books.  Should have known better since they aren't mainstream reading.

Basically just trying to stay cool this week.

Beth

Yuppies and the Drought

Reading the local new sources sometimes causes me to turn the air blue in our home office.

Drought stories are popping up at a greater rate locally and restrictions on watering and burning are being mandated for most towns near me. While we are on well water and don't rely on the town or city to provide water for us, the yuppies believe I should not be watering our food.

They comment on these drought stories with comments like prison terms for those wasting water on their gardens  (in my mind's eye, they are commenting as they drink their Double Lg extra Grande double shot something or other from Starbucks- who draws off the local water well) and sit in their corporate offices who are still watering their lawns (that don't grow food with town water).

Went out and about tonight (paying the insurance) and went by 3 golf courses who were actively watering at the time. I'm growing food for the winter and to put up for tough times. Last winter there were times we would have gone hungry if it hadn't been for my garden, but their 18 hole recreation time is more important!

We only water for an hour a day after dark and even that isn't keeping the veggies alive. I will be lucky if i pull a few melons this year. The pumpkins are baseball size and already turning orange. Corn is knee high and putting out tassels, definitely not a good yield sign. Beans are drying up. Taters are about dead, might be able to pull 20 lbs or so with what was grown earlier this season. Sure, I've harvested a bushel of onions and a nice container of garlic, but that's not going feed me for a year.
Can't tell what the salisfy is doing under the ground but the broccoli has yet to flower.

Meanwhile Mother Nature keeps teasing me. Out with Bear dog this afternoon and could see the storm clouds to the south of us and hear the thunder even. Rushed in to look at the radar. Was a pretty picture..

 But of course it stayed to the south of us and we didn't even see a drop. That will the news that next week we will be seeing triple digit heat again, the news just keeps getting better!

Do It yourself MRE Drink Mix and more!

This post was inspired by K over at http://planningandforesight.blogspot.com/  Every week it seems, he reviews MRE's  and I was paging thru his back posts today about them. I noticed the price tag on the MRE drink mixes and then got thinking about how the Grey Knight likes these little Wylers packets to mix into his water at work.

 Now last time we bought these several months ago I was shocked at the price. Was roughly 3.50 for a box of 8 of these, which makes 16 8 oz servings. However at Aldi, I got this container of drink mix for less than 2.00 for 60 8 oz servings.

So quick math just to give myself a headache...
 .21 a serving for the Wylers
 .03 a serving for the cheap Aldi brand

Now we all know, carrying around a container of drink mix while hiking, camping, bugging out, etc takes up alot of room in any pack. How about a easy way to tote these around?

The bright yellow package with all the fancy labeling is of course the Wylers package.

The other one is mine. Here's how you do it. It's very simple and can be adapted to hold instant coffee, powdered creamers, any dried beverage mix.

First off you get ahold of some clear straws. One straw gets cut in half. This half will hold your individual serving.

You will need a candle, any one will do and a pair of needle nose pliers. Pinch the straw between the pliers at the end leaving a small tail to it. Hold this tail over your candle to heat seal the plastic from the straw... like so...

 Pour 3/4 tsp of the drink mix in (may need all of the straw for things like coffee etc.) This is a tedious job, something to do while watching tv or a movie or such.  Heat seal the other end and you are good to rock. You could probably fit 50 of these or more in a qt ziplock bag. Just throw in a pair of nail clippers to open the end of your homemade drink straw and add to your water.

Prepper Overload?

Anyone else experience this? We have realized that we are severely disorganized in our preps. In a bug out situation, we would most likely end up leaving essentials behind simply because we couldn't find them.
The Grey Knight works from 5 am to 7pm 5 days a week, and we had been trying to get things done on the weekends along with prepping tasks as well as running the farm. I've kinda woken up and realized that since I'm home 7 days a week with just me and the dog during the week, I need to light a fire under my butt and take this organization on myself.
Of course, this also comes with my household chores, farm chores and all the drying, canning and weeding that comes with that. I'm not having a pity party just feeling a tad overwhelmed.
Right now I'm attempting to work at least a corner in the back shed clean and organized making lists of things we need to repair and/or get while cleaning and organizing that area. I'm also trying to locate indoor preps by category in one spot as well. One indoor, one outdoor project a day plus chores.

Of course, the type A in me feels this isn't going fast enough or that I'm not doing enough, anyone else get this kind of prepper depression?

Survival Blog down again

Thanks to Orange Jeep Dad for the info


Find the info here ....http://orangejeepdad.blogspot.com/

Even the dotted IP address isn't working for me as of 10:30 CST time.

Updates from the Garden

I know I have been doing vacation posts for the last few weeks, so I figured I would catch all of you up on what's happening on the farm.

As of this morning, the weeding is finally done in the main gardens. The heat hampered us alot in getting out and weeding but plugged at it a few hours in the morning a day.
So far it looks like it isn't a totally loss.  The carnival peppers are coming into colors, the jalepenos are there though not abundant. The cherokee beans seem to be loving this weather and the onions are flopping over giving sign they are ready to be pulled and cured.

The potatoes are looking like they will be ready to harvest soon. Think I messed up and got a early variety this year. The amish paste tomatoes are looking amazing. It's hard to believe I grew them from seed this year. Usually I have no luck growing them from seed. The radishes are putting up flowers and I've been saving them for seed along with saving seed from the Egyptian Walking onions and the chives. The salisfy is doing its thing underground (first year for this). The corn is in the same state as the rest of the corn in the state, though I do have a few tassels showing. The dill is thin and hopefully will go to seed and fill out the patch next year and the sunflowers are slowly pushing their way skyward.

The broccoli should have flowers by now but doesn't. The ghost pumpkins (white ones) are very sad with only one bitty one trying to survive. 1 of 4 of the sun and moon watermelons is alive still. 3 of the 4 cantalope (this amazing orange and red striped one) are thriving. The sugar pie pumpkins are taking over the rest of the plot. Looks like a few of the basket gourds and dipper gourds will make it.

This heat wave is supposed to break tonight for us, but of course no rain in sight at least in the 10 day forecast. Hopefully this will allow me to get out more next week and work on harvesting in the herb gardens and getting the dehydrators going. House needs to be finished painting and we have been slowly working on putting tires on the M109 at night. Just changing one of those tires is a chore at 400 lbs a piece.

Of course there is still the wood to split, should have at least a cord when it is all done. Now to get the woodstove! Going to work on my fire pit later in the month, I believe for cooking more outside with the dutch oven and of course dying yarns and fabrics and such.

More Vacation Photos

More vacation photos...

Flowers for Kymber

More flowers

Strange animal track...Wait I know this one!...It's a beth handprint! I was frogging by hand, then showing them to Bear. (He ate his share of deerflies and horseflies this trip and loved chasing the toads out of the campsite)  On the last night of camping, we had 3 ruffled grouse get startled by something and land directly 2 ft in front of Bear then roost on top of the tent.

North view from our campsite

also from our campsite, that bright area in the picture is the lake. Fishing gods didn't smile on us. Think we brought home 4 bluegills and 1 nice bass.

More tomorrow...

Happy 4th Now Pay up!

All over we celebrate freedom today on the 4th of July, that freedom won by men and women in the military.

Soon pardon me if I'm steamed by this!

President wants soldiers to pay up!

This affects many of the bloggers in our circles, including me. When we got in, we were promised free health care for LIFE if we did our 20 years. Now thanks to our present president, that is being yanked out from under us.

Frankly, I don't know how I'm going to pay for this.

Campfire Biscuits/Vacation

Yes, we are back but while I catch up around here, I will be doing short posts about our vacation.

While we were at Black Hawk Memorial Park, I cooked for the first time with my Lodge dutch oven.

While I can cook with propane while camping I have been concerned if we can't or don't have propane about putting meals on the table.

So this was my first attempt.

Biscuits ready to go on. 8 coals under the oven. 16 on top. In hind sight, I would have tried to elevate the pan more from the bottom of the oven perhaps inverting another pan under the biscuit pan

Cooking away. Took about 12 minutes for these to cook. Rather simple recipe as well.

1 tbsp yeast
1/4 cup warm water (dissolve these 2 together)

add
3/4 cup reconstitued powdered milk
1/4 cup sugar
1tsp salt
1/4 cup oil
3 cups flour
(I would add an egg to this recipe as well to make it better)

Allow to rise for a couple hours in a warm sunny place, covered.
Makes 10 -12 biscuits.

The bottoms were a tad over done, but they were tasty with some sausage gravy over them.

And now for the gratitous cute Bear photo.

His first swimming experience!

He loves swimming now! The leash is because he doesn't really come well yet but loves being in the water!