Posted on 02/09/2009 12:36:11 AM PST by nw_arizona_granny
Yahoo ran an interesting article this morning indicating a rise in the number of survivalist communities cropping up around the country. I have been wondering myself how much of the recent energy crisis is causing people to do things like stockpile food and water, grow their own vegetables, etc. Could it be that there are many people out there stockpiling and their increased buying has caused food prices to increase? It’s an interesting theory, but I believe increased food prices have more to do with rising fuel prices as cost-to-market costs have increased and grocers are simply passing those increases along to the consumer. A recent stroll through the camping section of Wal-Mart did give me pause - what kinds of things are prudent to have on hand in the event of a worldwide shortage of food and/or fuel? Survivalist in Training
I’ve been interested in survival stories since I was a kid, which is funny considering I grew up in a city. Maybe that’s why the idea of living off the land appealed to me. My grandfather and I frequently took camping trips along the Blue Ridge Parkway and around the Smoky Mountains. Looking back, some of the best times we had were when we stayed at campgrounds without electricity hookups, because it forced us to use what we had to get by. My grandfather was well-prepared with a camp stove and lanterns (which ran off propane), and when the sun went to bed we usually did along with it. We played cards for entertainment, and in the absence of televisions, games, etc. we shared many great conversations. Survivalist in the Neighborhood
>>>‘process’ a batch of chickens<<<
LOL the processing I was doing today is the not so fun part... The killin, pickin & cleanin process...
Now they are all cleaned, washed, bagged and in the spare fridge for a while. I will start the canning Monday morning. I like them to chill for a couple of days before cooking or canning them.
>>>I keep forgetting to ask you what canned meat is like. I keep envisioning the canned meats in the grocery store - weird texture and nondescript taste! I imagine home canned meats are better? <<<
Well, it is a learning process. Venison chunks - plain are fantastic - with onion powder and beef bullion is great too. Ground is super in anything except meatballs and meatloaf (since you would have trouble forming it) I use a 3/8 inch plate on the grinder and it is fantastic for chili. Chicken is better than store canned - I do not like large pieces of chicken though. They tend to shred rather than maintain their shape. You can flavor it however you wish- I keep trying different seasoning to see what it is like. Sausage in casings is pretty good - I am not crazy about sausage patties - too soft. Bacon is excellent for flavoring - too soft for breakfast strips. Diced ham is excellent - sliced venison backstrap is terrific too.
You will notice some difference in texture from fresh. It is more like you would have in a well cooked stew. It is an excellent way to handle tough cuts of meat. Flank Steak turns out very tender and flavorful. Some do bone in, but I have not tried it.
So, those are the ones I can vouch for... The ones I have tried.
I hope you have a place to practice. Get used to the kick, and the noise. I know shotguns are better for home protection, but I’m a real sissy when it comes to shotguns!!
Even the little ones. I’ve been knocked backward a few times.
Congratulations to your grandson. My 17 y.o. grandson is still trying. Bless his heart, he gets up at the crack of dawn and bundles up and heads for the woods, and comes back frozen to death, but he never quits trying! He’ll get one someday, I just know it!!
It would take wits in either case, and you probably would be safer in the foraging situation. Someone posted a few hundred posts back about how other people who don’t prepare will be the enemy we have to contend with. I think he was right.
I’ve been using food grade hydrogen peroxide for over 20 years, medicinally, and as a mouthwash, foot bath, sore healer, keeping veggies fresh. There are multiple uses, and it’s not without its controversies, especially (as you can imagine) the FDA’s position for medicinal use, but I’m a believer.<<<
I have not used the the food grade, but do use the more common 3%, for many medical purposes and have for years.
I do not own any of the over the counter miracle cures that are advertised on tv....in fact if I know it is advertised on tv, I make a point to not buy it.
There are many folks who do use the food grade, as you do.
Thank you for the links, I want to check them out and made a note to myself to do so.
Thanks to all posters for a great compilation of interesting everything. :-)<<<
Freepers posting here are the “Pick of the litter”!!!
The best Free Republic has to offer and I for one am pleased to have them here and sharing their vast knowledge with us.
I’m glad you remember yours ;)<<<
I cheat and have it written down.
It was a machine generated one, so makes no sense at all.
I get mad, as it breaks my train of thought and I loose what little time that I have, doing something useless, like sign in.
I’m afraid all the ‘survival’ type issues are going to be part of more and more threads.<<<
Yes, every day I get a stronger “hurry up” message from the news and events.
Some canning jars are made to be can and freeze jars and are great for storing nuts, grains, and spices in the freezer without have to worry about freezer burn.<<<
Glass beats plastic, anytime.
I attempt to use it for all my storage and leftovers, and never got real hooked on plastic products.
Yes I use plastic, but never in the microwave and only when it does the job, better than something else.
I said for years that plastic should not be in the microwave, and at last heard Dr. Bill Wattenberg say”no plastic in the microwave, when it is heated, it releases some of its petrochemical ingredients in your food.” He also says “Never put a plastic baby bottle in the microwave”.
Dr. Bill is a scientist, not a medical doctor.
I have to fight my family when they come to visit, to keep them from throwing out my glass jars, they know that I will never can again and think they should go........I disagree.
They want to throw out CANNING jars?!?! Argh!
Good for you for holding your ground. Maybe they’ll see the sense in that some day.
You're not kidding. It's more of a mental boost than anything, because I know we still have some snow and stuff but it's encouraging because I know it's not going to last forever.
>>>about how this country could only be brought down from within. <<<
There is only one thing that can keep the country from being brought down - The solution can be found in just one single word.....
CONFIDENCE
If you do not have confidence that the bank will be secure and you can get your money back plus interest - you will not use that bank... If you do not have confidence that stocks are viable, you would shun them... and on and on...
If you did not have confidence that the Government was acting in your behalf, you would not support it...
Even money - the perceived value of money is what gives it value - and you have to have confidence in that. The same with goods and services.
So, what we have seen for the past 8 years has been a drumbeat of rhetoric such as ‘Bush Lied - People Died’ till people accepted it... There was the America’s Bad syndrome, the Anti-War groups, and on and on... So, finally we lost confidence...
I would love to be able to post positive, encouraging, uplifting things, but I have not seen anything that builds that confidence. Certainly nothing from the Øbama administration is.
Actually, I guess that loss of confidence goes back even further... We used to never lock the house, left the keys in the car, kids used to play anywhere without fear, neighbors looked out for each other..... Do you have the confidence for those today? I know I don’t...
I can remember one of my Grandfathers who laid the blame for confidence loss to Franklin D. Roosevelt. He contracted with farmers throughout the area to grow crops for Stetz & Ellis which was later bought out by Libby McNeil & Libby. He said that with the advent of the ‘New Deal’ people changed... For years and years - even through the Depression, if someone gave you their word, you could have confidence that they would do what they said. He said that it completely changed with the ‘New Deal’. You could shake hands with someone to buy 50 acres of tomatoes at a given price, and come harvest time, if someone offered a penny more a basket, your deal was out the window - it was everyman for himself...
I think G.W. Bush tried hard to keep that confidence alive - and if we had not had the Dimocrats clobbering him everytime he did, he might have succeeded in avoiding the path we are on today.
My thoughts always run to “what if we had absolutely nothing” and the way it looks, I may have to find out!!!<<<
When you suddenly move from a nice house, to a travel trailer in the middle of the desert, you learn a new way to do things.
With no bathrooms, water or electric, you discover that the roll of toilet paper slides right over the handle of the shovel and some sticks and a couple sheets work for privacy.
You don’t dream of Iced drinks, instead you wring out a towel in a bowl of water and drape it on your head or body and think you are cool.
LOL, and if you do go visit family, you tell them they can talk to you in the shower, for that is where you will be.
You simply don’t buy things that will spoil and cook and plan for no leftovers.
Until this moment, I never understood why Aunt Mo. cooked only enough for dinner and not extras, she is a fantastic cook and I would have loved to been served more.
When she married my Uncle, the dashing Army man in WW2, she came off a poor depression farm in Mississippi, and I bet she did not have electric and refrigerators then, as we did not in San Diego.
Smile, they did well in San Diego and she never went without again, which pleases me.
If you have to haul water, you will, in whatever will hold it, until as time goes by, you get containers that are large enough to make the job easier.
If you have real doubts, take what you think you would in a bugout bag, put it in the back yard, lock the doors and give someone the key, so you can’t get back in, until the set time you intended to get back.
Find out if you and the kids will survive, you can tell them it is a camping trip, or the truth.
It will give you a better idea of what you need, as in really need and not just think it would be useful.
For years I kept a duffle bag, ready to go, spam, beans, coffee, can opener, etc, enough for 2 for 2 days and all I had to do was grab and go, the coffee pot was always in the pick up.
But if I had time, I would pack so much that Bill was beginning to mumble that I had too much, leave something at home.
You do understand, he ate all that I had in the ice chest, and liked to have a bed, etc.
I once took a very old miner out in the desert, in my pickup, as he wanted me to take a look at some old claims of his.
He made a couple of smart remarks about all the stuff in the truck bed.
But when it was time to eat, he ate well...........went into deep thought, and then said in my 70 or more years of prospecting, this is the first time that out in the field, ...well...
that i have ever sat in a chair to eat, while in camp on a claim.
After a very long pause, he said “It isn’t bad at all, not nearly as sissy as I thought you would be, when I saw what you had in the truck...”
Try camping rough and you will know what is important and how to get it in the load.
Sometimes my potatoes do that, does that mean I can plant them?
Good for you for holding your ground. Maybe they’ll see the sense in that some day.<<<<<
I doubt it, I went through the depression in Texas, the hard way.
My sister was born in San Diego, after the war, in 1945, so she has never lived with out electric, running water or a roof over her head.
It leaves me split, as I am glad she was never hungry, but then I also fear that she will have learned what it takes to survive, in hard times.
Her heart is made of gold and she is kind and wonderful, LOL, when she isn’t talking about getting rid of my clutter.
The worst part of it is, there is much here that I want to get rid of, but I don’t feel like fighting for what I want to keep and am not strong enough to do it on my own.
So, I will laugh and toss pennies at them from whichever cloud that I am assigned to, when I am gone and they get their way.
There will be some happy Free Cyclers out there, for little that I have will interest my family.
It’s more of a mental boost than anything,<<<
I loved setting by the wood stove and planting seeds in cups, so many dreams go in every cup.
It does make you aware that there is a future.
Absolutely!!! Cut them in half or so and plant them about 6-8 inches deep.
In fact all potatoes will do it. But here is a hint: if you are storing potatoes and DON’T want it to happen, then add one thing in with them - an apple!
Apples give off a natural ethylene gas and will stop potatoes from sprouting.
Granny, thank you for the Kitty photos, very sweet, they made me laugh.
What happened to your terrorist thread?
A placemarker for later.
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