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.

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?

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.

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!

Who are you to tell me?

Seems to me that everyone lately wants 2 cents into my life. My question is Who are you to tell me what to do with my castle, my body, my life etc.

We live in what I thought was a free country at least last time I read the Constitution. Now a days it seems like the federal government, state governments and even the local governments are trying to tell us what to do.

Lately in the news I've been seeing articles from NYC trying to ban certain types of food, California is another big one on that. It's my body! If I wanna eat a double sized movie popcorn and finish it off with a Big Gulp Slurpee (though I could see no instance where I would want to do that) its my body! Who are you to tell me what to put into it!

However I have seen some outfits on some people that should be illegal in all 50 states!

Now I read about small towns trying to fine and even jail people for non comformist lawns? http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/06/14/property-maintenance-law-in-new-york-village-may-expand-mayor-says/?test=latestnews
Let's face facts, we are preppers. We are really big on the comformists front. We reuse, repurpose and think outside the box with our properties. My township ticks me off because they have deemed I'm not legally able to have chickens (even though you can have chickens in the city of chicago on a postage stamp lawn) because I don't have 8 acres. Tell me, even free ranging do 3 or 4 chickens really need 8 acres to roam and how the hell do you find them or keep them safe if they are roaming 8 acres?

We grew 200 sq feet of wheat last year. Just an experiment to see if we could and what kind of harvest we would get. To most people that's a eyesore on a suburban lawn. We usually have various projects going on around the farm including wood to spilt, barrels that are being fixed into something new, etc. My point is I bought the property, it's mine. It's MY CASTLE! Who is the town, state etc to tell me what it looks like. Out of respect for my neighbors and myself I try to keep it looking cleaned up and maintained, mowed etc, but there are times when it's not.

My neighbor has flipped out for 3 years because I have no plans to reseal my driveway. Can he report me for that under these new laws? (of course this the neighbor who mows every 2 days, we have a special name in this house rhymes with Rain all?)

I know big rant today, but seriously govt and people should keep their noses where they belong!

Raspberry Pecan Jam

Ambitious this morning after finally getting a night's sleep. Bear has developed this new habit of wanting to go lay down outside in the middle of the night. He barks when he wants to go out. Night before, I didn't get to sleep til close to 430 am and up with him again at 630 am. The training collar seems to be helping though I still have to get up to tell him No and to go back to sleep but less times last night.

Anyway, made Raspberry Pecan Jam this morning. This is the first year that our bushes have really produced and I am picking a little over a quart a day with no end in sight. Still plenty of green berries on the bushes.

Recipe is your basic jam recipe.

Raspberry Pecan Jam
4 quarts of Raspberries (roughly 6 1/2 cups)
2 cups of sugar
1/2 package of powdered pectin
scant tbsp of water
tbsp of lemon juice
1 cup of ground pecans

Combine everything but the pecans in a pot. Bring to boil and allow to boil for 20 min. (220 on candy thermometer). Last 5 minutes add the ground pecans.

Process in hot sterilized canning jars (pints) for 15 minutes at a rolling boil. Makes 4 pints.

It's like a peanut butter jelly sandwhich in a jar! Makes a impressive Christmas gift as well.

Doings at Farm

I know I've been quiet lately, just have been really really busy. Here's one of the reasons why.

I'm in the midst of painting the house this summer. I figure since we have no rain (haven't seen it in ages) I might as well paint.
Harvesting the raspberries has been a daily chore as well. The front center bed in the picture is our new Native garden. All plants that are native to this area including wild garlic, wild onion, wild ginger and the little tree that will get about 15 feet tall is a paw paw tree.

Last night we made the first of many purchases for our bug out truck, the M109a4.

I know what in the world? The large tank will hold 325 gallons of diesel fuel, and the smaller tank is a 35 gallon water tank.  These two tanks will be the base for a queen sized bed/storage area. A wooden frame will be built around them, making for a very tall bed =P. As you can see there will be 3 windows in the bedroom type area. More storage units will be built onto the walls. The Grey Knight is hoping to get a rare day off mid week to start working on the framing for this.

The heat has been oppressive but good training I quess if TSHTF. With no ac, anytime it gets over 90 here its uncomfortable. The house was a small lake/camp house and has itty bitty windows that don't allow for good circulation. Bear has been spending tons of time in the pool! Just really wish we would get some rain. Ground is like hard cement between waterings.

M109A3

 Or better titled Call us Crazy Preppers...

Here is the new beast....

Our plans are to turn it into a rv/bug out truck. Bought it at government auction and drove it home on Thrusday. Of course, par with military trucks, we broke down on the way home. The Grey Knight has lots of mechanical knowledge and is slowly teaching me. I even managed to change the tire on it today (which is no small feat considering the tires weigh 450 lbs each)

The trip was nice though. Bear was a stellar dog! So well behaved considering the long trip.
We stopped at a wayside (remember those?? hardly any states have them anymore!)

Here is the gratitious cute Bear photo...

Begging for the last piece of my lunch. Bear allows me to eat a little of my ...wait no his...food. Love the eyes..so soulful.

Later we stopped at another wayside and while The Grey Knight walked Bear, I used the lovely pit toilet. 2 Seconds later, he sees me running to the car chanting I need my camera, I need my camera..Grabbed it and raced back to take this picture for my fellow bloggers!

Well my p

hoto is as fuzzy as they are!

I called them Baby Round Beavers...they had tiny flat tails.

Huddled together for warmth, no mama in sight, just outside the bathroom door.

Needless to say traveling with us is always an adventure!

Try this one!

Fire in my Soul

I know that I haven't posted a update since we came back from vacation. We especially I came back from vacation with a fire in my soul when it comes to preparing.

I don't know if it was the sheer sense of accomplishment in being able to bring back 5 lbs of catfish fillets, and 3 nice healthy sized bass. Not to mention learning the skill of skinning and cleaning a fish.
I'm not sure if it was saving found seeds including paw paws, or putting up a nice mason jar full of file (sassafrass leaves used to season gumbo).

We came back and threw ourselves into preparing the garden and weeding and planting more veggies. Looked into several local classes to learn skills. Another thing that I realized when on vacation is that I need more range time on weapons. I'm not sure if just the sight of a 12 guage shot gun being held by a 100 lb woman is gonna scare them dead. I was proud of myself, I haven't fired a gun since I was probably 10. The 30-30 scared the hell out of me but I put on my big girl panties and fired it anyway. Hell of a recoil!

Bear came back much better trained from doggie boot camp but the grooming there was horrible! We had to cut alot of the large mats out of his fur. Is a shame since he's such a pretty dog normally.

One of the highlights of the trip for me (besides fishing every day and actually catching fish!) will sound strange. The campground hosts (federal employees) were a husband and wife team. They have a sweet deal. They camp there for free for 8 months of the year and the feds pay them plus provide a camper. The 2 of them were also preppers! In talking with them, the subject of trapping specically squirrel trapping came up. He told us how easy it was to trap them using number 1 traps and peanut butter. Simply nail the trap to a tree and bait with peanut butter.
So I'm now the proud owner of 6 number 1 traps and 2 number 3 traps. Can't use them in this backwards state , but I have them if the shit hits.

Meanwhile the gardens continue to grow and the herbs are in full harvest state. Put up a full tray of oregano yesterday, sage currently is in the dryer. Chamomile needs to be next.

It's Happened ....TSHTF

As I mentioned we will be leaving for ten days this week. We orginally were going to take Bear with us, but fortunes changed and we have decided to put him in doggie training camp for the 10 days to work on his manners. I think this will greatly reduce my stress level and allow me to get more done around here. So we dropped Bear off today and The Grey Knight just came in with a funny story!

(We have two rescue cats named Jethro and Horatio)

Jethro: OMG, it's happened!!
Horatio: What?
Jethro: First the dog disappeared! Then the humans disappeared!! The shit has hit the fan!!

Jethro: We need to load up our bug out bags! You grab the cat food! I will get the bottles of water!

Jethro: OMG! I just remembered we can't bug out!! OH NO!!
Horatio: Why not?

Jethro: We can't open the door! I have no thumbs!!!!

Candle Making .500 (or what not to do)

I don't like being outside in the dark. Don't like it one bit! Comes from being stalked by a big growlie thing (cougar) for an hour in Missouri once.

So WTSHTF I want light. Sure I've got oil lanterns, kerosene and lamp oil, even have emergency candles. What happens when that stuff runs out? Beth has to face the big growlie things lightless!! No way!

I've never experimented with candle making before and wanted to do it from the ground up so I started with making my own wicking (yes I have extra lantern wicks but ...see above)

You can get alot of candle wicks out of 420 ft of cotton twine. I braided these together 3 strands at a time to come up with this.

All the research I did said to soak the wicking for 12 hours in a mixture of 1 cup water, 1 tbsp salt and 2 tbsp boric acid..I don't know why but who I am to argue?

So this morning after soaking and drying the wicks out, I got out my supplies. Everyone on the net recommends toilet paper or paper towel tubes as inexpensive molds..DON'T DO IT!! What a mess!



I wanted to scent my candle with some calming traditional Native American scents. So I added about 1 cup of combined chopped sweetgrass and white desert sage that I was lucky enough to wildcraft on our trip out west last year. (Mental pic of Beth drying sweetgrass on a unlit bbq grill in a campground in the sun)

After the fiasco with the toilet paper tubes (leaks out from the bottom) I mad dashed all over the house trying to find suitable glass containers.  Here is what I ended up with.

2 candles scented with sweetgrass and desert white sage and while I was at it I made 10 containers of lip balm flavored with hazelnut extract (because I'm wierd like that) The directions for the lip balm are hereLip Balm from PatarusFamilia Blog

The chopsticks I used to keep the wicks upright while drying. I will trim the wicks up later.

Anyone have suggestions on how to do it better?
Beth

So you wanna buy a Gun?

So you wanna buy a gun do you?

This weekend the Grey Knight decided that we needed to purchase another gun for our home defense. After much looking around and comparing and of course a quick question and answer session with our good friend BMCD in Montana, He decided on a Remington 870 12 guage.

Cabela's happened to have this on sale but yet is a 2 hour drive from us.
We get there and encounter the biggest wall of red tape I've ever seen.
After showing his FOID card, which he had to fill out a 4 page questionaire for and paying for this purchase, he then had to answer another questionarie for the government.

Questions included...
height..weight (told him to put 3'4 and 450 lbs just for giggles)
had he ever been convicted of anything...(convicted no...)
Had he ever been declared mentally incapicated..(well depends on who did the declaring, his ex wife thinks he's insane)
had you ever renounced your citizenship to the U.s ..seriously?

As you can see, both of us are bit of smart asses...but here are the questions that we both feel really should be on the federal questionarie.

Have you ever screamed cuss words at the tv while the President or any member of congress is speaking?

Has your picture appeared MORE THAN ONCE in the Post Office?

Are you on a first name basis with a secret service agent?

Do you or have you ever been a member of a militia? (does a milita of 2 count?) Have you ever been or are you now a member of any domestic terrorist organizations such as the NRA, the National Republication Party or The Church of Jesus Christ of the Later Day Saints?

Have you ever used the terms CME, SHTF, BUG OUT, PULSE in a conversation?

Have you ever accused anyone of being a zombie? (The Grey Knight qualfies daily on this one!)

Do you believe the nation is headed for a hyper inflation caused economic collapse with a pandemic brought on by a coronal mass ejection following a nuclear pulse which brings on a tsunumi followed by global warming? (yes we have been watching too much Doomsday preppers)

Just saying at least this would be a true depiction of who the government doesn't want to have guns...

Free Cheese Press Plans Online

Cheese Press Plans

Picked up the new copy of Hobby Farm Home at Farm and Fleet today, and they have the plans for a cheese press in it. The online plans aren't as detailed but still work for someone with basic woodworking skills.

Thought I would share this resource.

Temps Rise-Maintence Time

With the summer like temperatures this early in spring, it has become a high drive to get maintence done early around the farm.

Right now, I look like I have a bad case of the measles with red paint speckling my arms. The last side of the gargage is getting done as well as the Bear Mansion Dog house (ever wonder what a dog house for a 200 lb dog looks like, you could park a car in it!), well not really but i can sit comfortably in it.

I have such a good man! Grey Knight before he left at o dark thirty in the morning went out and tipped the dog house up on its side so I could fully paint the bottom. All it took was a mention in passing that one evening when he got home, we needed to tip it.

Aldi run tonight (Aldi for those that don't have them) is a discount warehouse type grocery store. They have a ton of produce picks on sale, onions for 49 cents a lb, peppers for 99 a 3 pack, mushrooms for 49c a half lb, red potatoes for 1.29 a 5 lb bag. All of which will be thrown into the dehydrators for veggie flakes to add to soup mixes. Of course, I need to finish drying the 2 dozen eggs left in the frig too. I was impressed by the ease of drying them. 6 fit nicely on my fruit roll sheets and after drying simply grind them up (being careful not to breathe the egg powder in as it is still raw egg) and putting them into a canning jar with a couple 02 absorbers. To use them after simply substitue 1 tbsp for 1 egg in baking mixtures adding additional water to the recipe for liquid.
From what I have seen on survival food sites, unopened will last for 5 years, opened and stored in a cool place (like refrig or root cellar) will last 1-2 years.

Off to finish the painting! Just call me SPECKLED!