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
http://www.earthlypursuits.com/Food/Food.htm
Kitchen Tips
Here is a tip from an old New England family:
“If the vegetable grows above the ground, do not cover the pot when cooking them.”
(Vegetables such as cauliflower, broccoli, beans or peas.)
Conversely,
“If the vegetable grows under the ground, cover the pot when cooking them.”
(Potatoes, beets, parsnips or onions.)
Anyone know why?
Bacon:
When you buy bacon and only plan to use 2 or 3 slices at a time, roll them together and fasten with a tooth pick and put in Zip Lock bag in freezer, then you only take out one roll. We don’t use a whole lot of bacon, but this is nice when you need 2 or 3 slices to top baked beans or spinach.
Lettuce:
Lettuce will keep 3-4 times longer in the refrigerator if you will wrap it in paper towels and then put it into a plastic produce bag. If your grocer has paper towels available, wrap it at the grocery store. This also helps other vegetables such as green onions, cucumbers, etc.
Cheese:
Remove outer plastic wrapper. Wrap cheese completely in paper towel. Store in zip-lock type bag. Separating the cheese from the plastic helps keep it free of mold longer.
Corn:
After removing husk and as many silks as you can, twist cob gently in your hands under cold running water. This will remove almost all the remaining silk.
Onions:
If you are only going to use part of an onion, cut off what you want to use from the top stem portion and peel just this part. Leave the skin and root end attached to the piece you want to store. Store in zip-lock type bag or glass jar in refrigerator. This keeps the onion from drying out although you may need to remove a very thin slice from the cut surface before using if it is stored for several days.
Boiled Eggs:
When eggs are cooked, remove from hot water, crack and let them sit in cold water for a few minutes. Gently rub egg between your hands to finish cracking. Shell should come off easily. (I just dump the eggs out of the hot water into the sink then throw them back into the pan hard enough to crack them and run cold water over them.)
http://www.earthlypursuits.com/GardenTips/GardenTips.htm
old-fashioned garden tips/tricks INDEX
Index of tips
Vegetable Tips
Making Pumpkins Grow Fast - 1918
Early Cucumbers and Melons - 1888
Substitute for Bean Poles - 1888
Get a Second Growth of Cabbage - 1945
Organic Insect & Weed Control Tips
Potato Juice as an Insect Destroyer - 1888
Weeds on Gravel Walks - 1888
Tomato Leaves a Remedy for the Curculio - 1888
Eggshells for slugs, snails, caterpillars
Miscellaneous Tips
Driving Nails Into Hard Wood - 1888
To Clean an Old Roof - 1888
To Render Wood Uninflammable - 1888
HANDY DEVICES
Moving Large Tree 1919
Shade for Poultry Yard (Trellis)- 1919
Water Heater and Food Cooker - 1919
Window Stand for Seed Boxes - 1919
How To Plan A Garden Right - 2005
Old-fashioned tips, tricks, wisdom and lore from the 18th-20th centuries. Taken from books, magazines, pamphlets and other writings.
Have you tried any of these? Do they work? Do you have any new-fangled tips, tricks, wisdom or lore you would be willing to share?
Plant Care Articles at gardenplantcare.com
A collection of articles on different garden plants and how to take care of them.
Thank you for sharing the teachers letter.
I have shared it with my entire email list.
Thanks again as she has captured and expressed my feelings too.
Excellent email! I sent it along to all my contacts.
I’m another one that doesn’t like gloves. I own them, just end up shedding them shortly after putting them on. As I was cleaning up a patch near my garden gate, I found a pair of gloves that must have overwintered out there. I’m sure it was the dog that left them there ;) Thanks for posting the “garden hands” post. I copied it down. It takes a lot to get my hands clean, but I can’t seem to keep the gloves on.
“What happens is when the branch is pulled down by the weight of the apples, the tree produces a substance (hormone I believe he said) that increases yield. When the tree is young, there is not much fruit to weigh the branch down so they simulate the bending of the branch with these sticks.”
I remember reading something about horizontal branches bearing the fruit. This explains how that works. I will be more attentive to my new apple, which came with 2 horizontal branches. I may weight them to keep them horizontal. As for my older trees, I can try to weight them, but I don’t know if they will give any. I may have to prune the vertical branches this fall.
I think it's just the pulling on the branch that releases the hormones, so it may still work on the more vertical branches anyway. It's worth a shot.
Now that you mention it, we have plenty here to gather together to sell. I have been thinking about it for a while, but will probably start going through it. I told Terry a while ago that we should try to sell some things while people might still be looking to buy.
He is a very handy person and has done a lot of our own repairs, etc. over the years. We were discussing that some of his other skills may be more valuable in making money than his computer/IT skills at this point. I know we will be OK, we just need to stay on top of our expenses and make do. We just paid off the house in Dec. and our college grad son (last year) is moving out in a month. Then there will just be 3 of us.
I’ll give it a try. One of the trees is starting to form fruit. I copied a recipe for killing fruit flies that you hang in the tree from a bit back on the thread. I have never sprayed the trees or anything, so need to find out quick about that, as I’d like to be able to eat the fruit from the trees this year.
Maybe I will do both. I can use the red thread to remind me what the red dot of nail polish is for - that’s about what my memory needs some times. LOL So far, I haven’t received a call about the jars. I will have to be patient and hope this works out. He may not have been able to bring them down this past weekend or may not have had time to sort them out.
Thanks for the grinder report. I’ve been waiting to hear how it worked. I’m thinking that’s my next big purchase come payday.
Glad to hear you made it safely and got the problem solved with your motorcycle.
Which pressure cooker did you decide on?
LOL, yes blame the dogs, but mine always ate mine. [gloves]
Washing dishes by hand, helps clean the hands after they get ugly from too much yard work.
In the good ole days, you might have soaked your hands in olive oil and worn soft cotton gloves to sleep in.
When I was a teen, I worked for a summer for a doctor’s family, maid, general helper, the doctor was a surgeon and the wall around his bed, had oily prints on the wall.
I was told that since he was a surgeon, he had to keep his hands flexable and would use some oil on them at night and I assume he threw his arms around and hit the wall.
LOL, it was the first time that I had ever seen a married couple that slept in twin beds, in our house, it was 4 or 5 to the bed.
“the peppermint I have was just pulled out of the woods and he said “ plant this , it will grow” and sure enough it looks like it was always there ..”
LOL I have mint growing wild in a few places around our place, not sure but I think it’s peppermint.
There you go, CB, just soak in some peppermint oil and you’re all set :)
Several years ago, I purchased 20 small surgical brushes at a discount store for 10 cents apiece. They are soft and gentle but take a lot of scrubbing to get all the grime from my hands but are better than any other hand brushes I have purchased. Will last me the rest of my life. (The children hate to hear me say that and I say it a lot lately about any big purchase.)
We were discussing that some of his other skills may be more valuable in making money than his computer/IT skills at this point. I know we will be OK, we just need to stay on top of our expenses and make do. We just paid off the house in Dec.<<<
Congratulations on paying off the house, for no matter how humble it might be, when you know it is all yours, you feel safer.
My suggestion for your next action, takes time and pays off in the long run.
Fix a nice dinner Saturday night, not fancy, just filling.
Send the kids out of the room and get a big stack of paper or a notebook, even better would be one of the kids 3 ring notebooks, as you want to save your notes.
Now, start thinking.
What can you do, for jobs...........write it down, a different page for each of you, for later you will take a good look and list what you want to do, and a separate list of what you will do if forced to do it.
Do a for sale list, if any of it is close to collectibles, get a price guide from the library and check for prices.
I suggest a Warman’s antique book and there is a couple that has written several books on collectibles, you will be amazed at what folks collect.......LOL, to me a used phone card collection is not exciting, but in the 1990’s there was a move on and fancy magazines about them.
LOL, I forget EBay, as I never go there, but there is a lot to be learned on what folks will pay extra for.
Old magazines, crochet pattern books...etc.
Some of the doll patterns that I ordered, were simply out of copywrite, toy patterns, photocopied.
My 1970’s dress and clothing patterns, are desirable, I sent some as trade for laces and fabric and folks went wild.
The toy patterns that I ordered, from a woman, who sells on ebay and yahoo, she sells thousands of them, both for bid and direct order and it seems like a wonderful idea to me, as she found/bought the original and a photocopy machine and can make copies forever, she has sold thousands of them, or had when I was interested in them.
The item that I run into today, is ebooks for sale on websites.
They appear simple enough to make, and we have the information in these 2 threads for several of them.
Can your husband write one on what he knows?
Can you?
Or will you put one out one survival, or homemaking, or cooking or?
I go to many sites, that offer a few recipes and a list of self published ebooks.
I always planned to write and publish simple booklets and sell them in the magazines, back in the days before the internet.
From years of watching the market, there are several simple ones, that have been always in the magazine classified ads and still sell, LOL, 45 years ago, they were a dollar each and later they were $10. each...same ad, same address.
I flagged Vickie to this post, as I have sent and pinged her to many writers links, they are mixed in the threads, but I did not note them, as I will not be able to write anything.
I have even seen a collection of 500 soap and cosmetic formulas on the internet and websites, when it was collected about 9 years ago, some were unhappy, to find their formulas in it, or in one that had been posted, then they were charging $5.00 for the ebook.
From what I see/read on the internet, folks are still selling at the craft fairs in some areas, so if you are near a ‘money’ area, there may be a market for crafts and on this I am out of date, but homemade soap, if it is good and made right, will always sell.
Credit card users, appear to buy anything, I am constantly amazed at the users of them.
I once joined a brand new list/group of soap makers, I wanted to learn and I did, they were credit card users and I was shocked at how, one would order something and so would everyone else, the entire list devolved into a “I can charge more than you” and nothing was ever made, just supplies bought........and they were more or less useless supplies.........such as fancy baskets to display the soaps, but LOL, they never made the soap.
Real soap makers, hunt for baskets that are 10 cents each at the garage sale and second hand stores.
They save Pringles round chip cans for soap molds and don’t buy every mold made...LOL, Velveeta boxes also make good molds.
Your market may be rich or poor, but all still need soap.
Good and simple garden books will sell, many want to know how to grow food.
How to store food. And use what you have stored.
I look at my bookcase and realize how many subjects that I have bought books on over the years.
Have several, that are simple hand drawn maps, showing where pretty rocks have been found. These have been published for about 50 years and LOL, yes, I followed them in the beginning.
I have been known to stop and hunt a rock, that I did not even know what it was, but it was on the list/map and I knew that if I saw something that I liked, I would ‘collect’ it.
Real life is that simple and not everyone is on the internet.
Make many lists, put it all down on paper and keep adding for a few days........you will be amazed at what you put down.
And then when you go to pick the winners from the lists , you will be on the way to solutions.
In the beginning, it is wild idea’s and in the end, it is separate sheets, for the real subjects that will work for you.
These pages will grow, to show how and what steps to take, to make it work.
Also do a garage sale page, for it is amazing what we could and should sell, if we really wanted the money and the sooner you start, the more money you will have to hoard for later.
People buy clothes, so clean out the closets and remember that some like out of date clothes.
I would love to find the double knit slacks with the stitched seams in front, that we wore in the 1980’s and I would still.
The stuff they make today, I am never sure if I am wearing the latest style, or a pair of pajamas.
LOL, I found out that the black set my sister sent me and I liked so well, with the pretty pink roses printed on them, but when I wore them to the doctor’s office, folks kept looking at them, LOL, really were pajamas, for when I got home, I called Diana and she said they were.
But she said it was ok, for in Arizona, you can wear anything, it is not like Seattle........or so she thinks.
I would prefer, pressed seam slacks or long skirts, have no need for all the other stuff.
Think, you may be surprised at what is salable.
Good luck.
My favorite brush is a nail brush from Fuller Brush. I’ve had it for many years and it still works well. I’d actually like to buy another, but haven’t looked to see where I can purchase. Somewhere around here, I might have an old catalog or mailing label. I hope they are still in business.
No problem, JDoutrider!
It sounds like some work, but it really isn’t. Mixing up the dough and letting it hang around in the frig is easy. And really gives it some flavor. I kinda like doing it in steps anyway - mixing it one day and baking the loafs another.
Thank you, granny, for the advice. Dinner and a pad of paper is a great place to start brainstorming and not a lot of pressure. And I’m good at lists ;) I really do need to figure out the ebay thing. I have a cookie jar collection that got started on a trip when I was in high school. I now have about 45 or so. Most are on display over my kitchen cabinets, but the last few years, I’ve been seeing them more as dust collectors and have seriously been thinking it might be time to move on. A few are older, one or two I’ve never seen anywhere in books or online. If people are buying, I think it would be a good place to start.
I often think that challenges and changes in life are just the nudges we need for some new beginnings and adventures that we wouldn’t necessarily move to when life is status quo.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.