[appleseed]

A guy told me the other day he has a 2 week supply of food on hand. Problem is, it's frozen dinners in his freezer. I suppose if he loses power, he'll have that 2 week supply in one day.

[appleseed]

Self Reliant/Survivalist ping list

[ChocChipCookie]

LOL That’s funny. I have a new blog dedicated to preparedness from a mom’s perspective. When you get a chance, would you let me know what you think? www.thesurvivalmom.com

Thanks!

[NewJerseyJoe]

> Problem is, it's frozen dinners in his freezer

Actually, his problems are that he's telling people (A) that he's got supplies and (B) where he's keeping them.

[Abigail Adams]

A deer munched on our new apple trees last night. :-(

[Apple Pan Dowdy]

I’ve been listening to Jack Spirko’s podcast for sometime now. He has a great deal of practical sound advice. The refreshing thing is that he is NOT wearing a tinfoil hat, if you know what I mean. His motto is something like: “advice for living a better life if things get tough or even if they don’t”.

I happened to read a book called “One Second After”, the story of the after-effects of an electromagnetic-pulse (EMP) attack on the United States. An EMP wipes out all electric power instantly, anything with a circuit including modern cars, and communication devices, back up generators, everything. This book and its very likely scenario terrified me and made me get serious about preparing for emergencies.

[Cruz]

ping for later

[blueplum]

this year, 3 bales of straw (@$6.25 a bale from local feed store) and 3 yards of ‘gardeners gold’ ($99 delivered from local landscape materials company) served as the base for our ‘lasagna’ garden. Laid out 1” of newspaper on top of the hardpanclay soil we have, dumped 8” of straw, followed by 6-8” of the gardener's soil mix. Created total of 5 beds, 3 large, 2 small, for about 300sq ft of garden space. Height of beds after ageing one month about 10 inches. Sticks made from tree prunings and a ball or two of cheap twine outlined the plots. Crops harvested already are: collards, spinach, lettuce (5 varieties), radish, peas and mustard greens. I'd say about $40 worth already if storebought. Corn now coming up thru lettuce bed in time for final harvest of lettuce. Squash will replace the lettuce and should grow nicely among the tall corn. Watermelon, cantaloupe, tomatoes, japanese eggplant, cukes, swiss chard and several varieties of pole and bush beans all started from seed directly into mix are thriving and healthy; eggplant and tomatoes are already producing. Early heatwave hit the peas hard - will need to try replanting in very late summer for a fall crop.

topsoil dries out by evening from morning water, but straw underneath absorbs the water so am using less water overall, getting deeper roots, and seeing a lot less snails/slugs. No weeds to speak of except for the straw seedheads sprouting but easy enough to grab the area of straw, pull up the roots of the sprouted seedhead and then drop all of it back in place. We used left-over straw to mulch around the fruit trees' drip line.

This late in spring, a lot of places are putting their seeds on sale so we grab new varieties with an eye on heirlooms. We keep our seeds in plastic bags in a Tupperware container, sorted by planting time, in the back of the fridge, lower shelf. It's considered part of our bug-out gear. We also keep a garden diary/diagram and calendar of when we planted and where, and expected thin-out date, fruiting date and harvest date. In the diary we write down pest issues, if we had to replant because of seed failure or bug banquets, and what bugs and diseases (and their cures) we dealt with. We also write down what we wouldn't grow again, and why, as well as how many estimated pounds (or salads)yield per x-foot row was harvested. One section of the dairy is set aside for simple recipes - how to make plant fertilizer, or use soap to kill bugs, how to dry beans, how to cook beets or collards or green tomatoes, or how to make catsup or zucchini bread, just in case the cook doesn't survive the diary.

still left to experiment with is camouflaging the garden in event economy goes completely south and we shelter in place for a while before bugging out so we are also collecting flower/ornamentals seeds. Having some ornamental bushes, etc, in pots that may help disguise some plantings - the visibility/recognizability of corn, as opposed to say, swiss chard or potatoes or beets - or what nutrients one plant has than can be obtained from other less recognizable or more compact or faster growing plants. IMO Camouflage planting will useful both for sheltering in place, and for growing at the fallback property if it comes to that

Happy gardening!

[proud_2_B_texasgal]

pinging self