All Things Prepping, Simple Living, Back to the Basics [Survival Today, an on going thread]

vanity | 2/26/18 | CottonBall

[CottonBall]

I’ve been missing the vast amount of information on prepping, survival, camping, simple cooking, the old ways of doing just about everything – all the things nw_arizona_granny knew so much about and shared with us, along with numerous other posters with a vast array of skills and knowledge.

We have our various related-threads here, a recipe thread, a gardening thread, and even a prepper thread. They are all great and I don’t mean to take anything away from those and the hard work their owners put in.

But I was missing a place to talk about ALL those things, to get the camaraderie that we used to have on granny’s thread.

I learned how to can on those threads! The pressure canner was not my friend, I thought, but I bought one and stared at it for a month, intimidated. Then I read the directions for another month. But with the help and encouragement of posters on granny’s threads, I jumped in and now have my very own food storage room in the basement with lovely jars of shelf-stable meats, vegetables, and fruit. When we moved, I fashioned my food storage room – and insisted upon having a basement – from what I learned on her threads. Getting started gardening was from her threads. Making my own cleaning products….the list is endless.

So I thought I would take the chance and start another comprehensive prepper thread and see how it goes. I used to have granny’s ping list since I made one of the threads for her, but alas, with numerous computer changes, I cannot find it. So please pass this onto any posters you think might be interested.

We’ll just keep it running until..whenever. Granny created a new thread at 10,000 posts or so. I do like the idea of having ONE thread to go to – because often I cannot find or keep track of the weekly threads. I won’t be posting lots of recipes or tidbits myself – to any mods concerned about the size of this thread. I’d just like a place to chat, post questions, post ideas, make new prepping friends.

Here are granny’s threads, if anyone wants to peruse them:

nw_arizona_granny’s Thread #1

nw_arizona_granny’s Thread #2

nw_arizona_granny’s Thread #3

[CottonBall]

“How long to you heat them in the oven and what temp to drive off the moisture?”

Here’s where I learned from the master on granny’s 2nd thread:
Delawhere was a source of much information - especially since he was living the simple life while I was just reading about it.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2181392/posts?page=2190#2190

NO, I didn’t read the entire thread to find it, LOL! But I cut and paste the advice of many into a Word file. This one happened to have a link attached!

But how nice to reference the old threads here. thanks for providing the opportunity!

I did this dry canning right off, before I had a pressure canner or vacuum sealer or even heard of oxygen absorbers. It made me feel successful enough to move onto the more expensive methods.

[CottonBall]

This is an OLD list I found - for supplies and reference. I haven’t checked to make sure the links are still valid yet. But I wanted to get us started with some reference material/websites for those new to thinking about prepping.

If you want to add to this, please do.

General/All Purpose

Walton Feed: http://waltonfeed.com/catalog.html

Emergency Essentials: http://beprepared.com/

Frugal Squirrel: http://www.frugalsquirrels.com/store/index.html

MRE Depot: http://www.mredepot.com/servlet/StoreFront

Survival Unlimited: www.survivalunlimited.com

Honeyville Grain: http://store.honeyvillegrain.com/

Happy Hovel: http://www.happyhovelfoods.com/index.htm

Safe Castle: http://www.safecastleroyal.com/index.html

Survival Acres: http://survivalacres.com/

Harvest Foodworks: http://www.harvestfoodworks.com/index.cfm

Mountain House: http://www.mountainhouse.com/index.cfm

Freeze Dry Foods: http://www.freeze-dry.com/index.htm

Just Tomatoes: http://www.justtomatoes.com/

USA Emergency Supply: https://www.usaemergencysupply.com/

Buckets:

Emergency Essentials: http://beprepared.com/search.asp?t=s...=22&image1.y=5

US Plastics: http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/pro...duct%5Fid=9746

Gamma Seal Lids: http://freckleface.com/shopsite_sc/s...ammaseals.html

Mylar bags:

Frugal Squirrel: http://www.frugalsquirrels.com/store/food_storage.html

Sorbent Systems: http://www.sorbentsystems.com/mylar.html

Emergency Essentials: http://beprepared.com/product.asp_Q_...er+for+Buckets

Survival Unlimited: http://www.survivalunlimited.com/buckets.htm

Oxygen Absorbers:

Sorbent Systems: http://www.sorbentsystems.com/order_O2.html

MRE Depot: http://www.mredepot.com/servlet/the-...l?sfs=f7d4e189

Honeyville Grain: http://store.honeyvillegrain.com/ind...ROD&ProdID=309

I would add the LDS store to this list for INEXPENSIVE supplies. They are awesome and where I get most of my items these days (since I found some wheat buckets from Emergency Essentials had gone rancid and EE was less than helpful). You don’t need to be a member of their church, shipping is $3 no matter how much you buy, and I’ve found all their grains/beans/milk etc to be cheaper per ounce than anywhere else. Sometimes cheaper than packing my own, depending on the item! And I’m guessing they’ll stand by their products better than some ‘other’ places that I’ve already mentioned.

https://store.lds.org/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Category3_715839595_10557_3074457345616706370_-1_N_image_0

For the quality and price, I particularly like their :

mylar bags - gallon size, 7 ml thick!
https://store.lds.org/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product3_715839595_10557_3074457345616706370_-1__3074457345617048237

oxygen absorbers - 300cc, just right for their gallon bags. But they don’t have any other sizes.
https://store.lds.org/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product3_715839595_10557_3074457345616706370_-1__195877

dry milk - it’s in mylar pouches and is crazy cheap as of this posting. You have to mix it with warm/hot water as it is not ‘instant’ but the flavor is better IMO than the instant varieties.
https://store.lds.org/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product3_715839595_10557_3074457345616706370_-1__3074457345616963719

wheat - it’s in handly #10 cans vs a huge superpail. And is cheaper per pound than most SPs out there.
https://store.lds.org/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product3_715839595_10557_3074457345616706370_-1__195792
https://store.lds.org/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product3_715839595_10557_3074457345616706370_-1__3074457345616897722

dehydrated onions - great price!
https://store.lds.org/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product3_715839595_10557_3074457345616706370_-1__3074457345616985231

[CottonBall]

Honeyville Grains seems to have moved from store.Honeyville to shop.Honeyville.

They are a great resource - good prices and lots of info about each product on their website:
https://shop.honeyville.com

[CottonBall]

“I find it amusing that some poeple are so anti-prepper and yet less than a hundred years ago, if people weren’t prepped for bad weather or whatever, they were considered fools.”

I don’t get why anyone would be anti-prepper. It’s nobody else’s business what I do with my money and time.

I suppose the liberals don’t want to see anyone self-sufficient and not needing the government. Pretty sick!

[CottonBall]

We made the Great Escape from Mexifornia to rural East Tennessee just about 3 years ago.

Before then, I was stuck in a city with a country heart. And worse, the city was full of illegals and liberals! So, reading about prepping on granny's thread was just a dream that I didn't know I could ever realize. But after hubby had experiences with an unethical boss AND I showed him how he was getting ripped off paying into social security (he always said he would retire when he had paid the max in - but the calculations showed he would never get even a small percentage of that back, but was subsidizing others instead) - we decided to Go Galt and roll the dice. So we moved, no jobs, no family or friends in the area, just hope and optimism!

(Side note - then the Trump economy started roaring and we decided to jump in and help it along!)

Anyway, we each wanted 2 things when we moved - hubby got a boat and I got a pizza oven! With my mother being from northern Italy, I LOVE VPN pizza (authentic Neapolitan). Plus, being able to cook solely with wood ties into my goal in moving here. Especially since we decided not to put a wood cookstove in the house :(

So here's my baby! Click on any pic to make it bigger.

Thank goodness for friendly manly neighbors with tractors

Because of all the hills here, the WFO (wood fired oven) had to be transported across the property to the backyard

It's home, but still wrapped up like a Christmas present!

Home and ready to be cured!

Success! (sort of....that'll be another post)

[CottonBall]

This is an ONGOING thread, meaning drop in when you want and chat. There is no one topic or story, but ongoing sharing with prepper friends. I figured I’d see how granny’s thread scenario worked out, if anyone was interested in an ongoing thread vs. a weekly one – it’s up to the group to keep it going, since I run out of things to say (eventually)!

[Augie]

I’d like to be added to your ping list. TIA

[Ellendra]

Sometime in the next few years, there will be a new type of bean making its way into the market. It looks like a slightly smaller kidney bean, but it tastes exactly like beef!

Something to add a little variety into those storage meals :)

[CottonBall]

sure thing!

[metmom]

Thanks for the link and advice.

[CottonBall]

Now that sounds perfect! We can all be vegetarians!

[CottonBall]

Is this what you mean?

https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=A0LEVytY2pVaNeAA1KRXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEyYmVkZHBwBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDQjU0MzdfMQRzZWMDc2M-?qid=20070808103237AA6d9Op

Doesn’t quite sound like it since you said it was new...

[Ellendra]

Nope. But this is one of them: http://www.sherckseeds.com/pages/seeds/legumes/dry-beans/beefy-resilient-grex/

What it doesn’t say in that description is that the flavor is so beefy, you’d swear it was bean-shaped hamburger.

I’m also working on some varieties of my own. As well as selecting some lines out of Carol Deppe’s creation that are better suited to large scale production.

[CottonBall]

And they’re available already! Beefy, weather tolerant, and disease resistant-awesome. I have to order some!

Do you cross-breed seeds?

[Ellendra]

Do you cross-breed seeds?

Sometimes. With beef-flavored beans, they have to start with a cross, but then I select until they're consistent from one generation to the next.

[FlossieBuzz]

I save all the lint from the dryer. Easy fire starter if needed.

[kanawa]

Here's my contribution...stored peanut butter will after time go skunky.

If there is a ping list please put me on.

[Shadowstrike]

color change is just it’s way of saying...”I’ve seen other jars”.

[CottonBall]

Yes, it Does! I just recently discovered that the hard way. At first I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with it, it had no flavor and it was like eating plastic. The texture was thoroughly disgusting. So weird. It was about 3 years past the expiration date... I guess that’s the cut off.

got you on the list, thanks!

[CottonBall]

I’ve heard that before somewhere Flossie. It may have been on one of granny’s old threads.

I seem to create a lot of lint, I’m going to start collecting at now. I guess that means maybe my clothing is deteriorating huh?