Posted on 02/26/2018 12:12:20 PM PST by 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
Mostly a bee suit is not necessary if you are keeping a couple of hives.
About the only time bees are in danger of going hungry is in the spring. I planted the pasture (about two acres) with wild flowers and we have about a dozen sugar maples so the bees are well fed.
This is undoubtedly overkill on my part but I like flowers, Evangeline and Priscilla the cows like flowers (especially chickweed) and wildflower honey is yummy.
Where they have trouble is in mono-culture areas. If you are in the middle of wheat country you might have issues. Same if you are surrounded by pretty carefully tended lawns. One of the main source of food in the spring is dandelions.
The further your bees have to travel for nectar and water the less honey they will make.
Fill up a bird bath (daily) and plant some early blooming flowers and you will be fine. If you have a linden tree they will think they went to bee heaven.
...Evangeline and Priscilla...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Perfect cow names~
Yes, we have a melange of different language idioms.
Probably because we have been a 'melting pot' of several cultures and languages ever since colonial days.
I would add, if you can find a non-disposable option for some things, it might be good to have those on hand. Even if you stick with the disposables during “normal” times, having a backup plan gives you peace of mind.
Examples would be mooncups and cloth pads for women, to deal with that “monthly visitor”. Cloth diapers if you have small children, anticipate sheltering someone with small children, or if going without birth control might result in small children. Bidets (or spray bottles) and “family cloths” in case TP becomes hard to find. That sort of thing.
Even if you never end up using them, having an alternative in place can make everything just a bit less stressful.
Here it is. When DH was a vol firefighter, for some years I wrote a recipe column for the monthly newsletter. So I had to make recipes that were real with measurements etc. I have a lot more from the newsletters.
Good For You Granola
Makes 1 1/2 gallons - high protein, not very sweet
Mix together in a large bowl:
!/2 c oil (I use refined sesame)
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
1 T. vanilla
1 1/2 t. salt
1/2 cup water
Then add the ingredients below and stir very well until thoroughly mixed. To make gluten free, subsitute oat bran for wheat germ, and any other kind of whole grain flour for the whole wheat flour. Oats have no gluten, some people consider them not 100% gluten free since they are sometimes (but not necessarily) processed in plants which also process wheat.
10 cups regular oatmeal (ie not “minute”) - or 8 cups oatmeal and 2 cups triticale
2 cups raw wheat germ
1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 cups unsweetened coconut shreds or macaroon type (larger)
1 1/2 -2 cups raw sunflower seeds
1 1/2 cups raw almonds, chopped
1 1/2 cups raw walnuts, chopped (optional)
Spread evenly in four 9 by 13 inch baking pans - glass works since they heat well, and you can see what the bottom is doing! - but other pans will work - and bake at 300 to 325 stirring often. If your oven is not even in heat (most aren’t), moving the pans around as you bake may be helpful. The edges brown first, so watching and stirring often is essential for even crispiness and not burning.
When the granola is a light golden brown and crispy, pour the pans into a large bowl and stir. Let sit until cool and for best keeping store in glass jars. I don’t know how long it lasts because it gets eaten. Very good plain, or with milk, yogurt, added dried fruit like raisins and dates, bananas etc.
This granola is not very sweet and makes a good crunchy snack by itself; for myself if I eat it with milk I like a bit more sweetener added. When my children were small I used to mix it all with powdered milk, so when they wanted some, we would just add water and stir it up in a bowl.
Here’s a couple more don’t throw money down the drain tips.
Don’t discard the seeds from fresh or dried chilies when making Mexican dishes. Let them air dry on a saucer on the counter and put them in a jar labeled “Crushed Red Pepper Flakes”.
No need to buy lard when making tamales. Actually, no need to buy shortening either unless you need a refined fat for baking products. After cooking the pork butt, put the fat into a processor to break it down to use as the lard (which it basically is already, right?). Also, add any fats you have to a freezer container and over time there will be enough to do whatever.
OK, FRiends, this week should tell you what preps your lacking.
Crossing fingers TX gets through this without losing the entire electrical grid. Honestly don’t understand why we haven’t hardened and improved the power structure. They are talking if we lose the grid, we will be looking at months and months without power. What?!? In our area, there is no way the permanent residents are using more electricity than during tourist season. In our neighborhood, there are only half a dozen or so residents compared to the locust swarm of tourists who leave their lights on and leave the doors open while running the a/c.
There are reports of food shortages. For us, food is fine (knock on wood) but everything else has pretty much gone south. I’d made some soups and pasta salads ahead of time for easy or no heating. Make sure you have a coffee pot and other cookery that can heat on a grill.
There are more than anyone’s fair share of electrical blackouts all over the state. Alternative heat (propane and kerosene) has been a pain in our backside but thankful for it. Keeping an eye on the alternate heat all night isn’t fun. Doing all the little chores like unplugging and replugging phones and checking water and timing your #1 and #2 when there is electricity (if you’re on an electric water pump and the septic uses electricity to move the you know what) and forgetting not to flush. Tie something on the toilet handle to remind you but make sure it doesn’t hang in the down position.
Then there are medical situations. Hubby was getting down to light the kerosene heater and fell breaking a few bones. Accidents can happen before you know it. He ended up in the ER and I think that was worse on him than the breaks because they didn’t have room and needed to kick him out when all the roads were closed and most people couldn’t get out their driveways much less onto the roads.
There are gas shortages so do you have enough for the extra long slow drives?
Do you have enough meds to last out an emergency situation? Do you have enough baby food and supplies? What about pet supplies? Is there someplace they can potty without going outside? Do they have enough litter and extra boxes because they tend to leave accidents when they can’t go out.
What about an alternate light source? Batteries and flashlight bulbs need to be at the ready. Did everything get charged? Our big fail was not replacing a wireless phone battery so only have seconds before it die.
Family plans for cell phones are great savers but if one service provider goes down, then every family member is without service. If you can afford it, have at least two difference companies. Our one cell phone has been out 99.9% of the time and for some reason tends to rely on electricity. Maybe the tower?
Perhaps it wasn’t such a great idea to dump your landline phone.
Don’t count on cable or internet for information or entertainment.
Good thing I’ve been a sort of nutcase for years. If things get really scarce/in a southerly direction for a long time, I won’t have stuff like fresh mile (CRY) but I’ll sort of manage.
Is your husband okay now? I hope he got his breaks treated and is heaing up, this sounds serious.
Do you have a ping list? Cause it seems as though I’m the only one in the “to” box.
I save seeds from butternut squash and collards, that’s as far as I’ve gotten. And herbs like catnip, lemon balm and prunella. DH can’t eat chilis so I don’t save. I like in moderation but no need to grow a bunch. I did a couple of years from saved seeds (I like jalapenos) but for just one of us - not worth it.
I need to proofread. Fresh MILK.
Start out with hot beverages and soup.
You will save on fuel by doing your cooking all at once and still being able to have something hot thorough out the day.
You can also cook in them but if nothing else being able to have a hot cup of coffee can make a cold day more bearable.
It also allows you to share wit people who may not be as prepared as you.
Large sports thermos allow you to give people the gift of hot water if you have it to spare.
We have a reservoir on the wood stove which means hot water for washing is always available.
In Austin, TX, people are standing outside of grocery stores for 3 hours waiting to get inside to buy whatever is on the shelves... if anything. The one grocery store here closed it's doors a couple days ago. This is proof there is only 3 days of food on grocery shelves. One would have thought through this past year of covid people would keep a full pantry.
Apparently not.
To quote Mr. Ron White, You cant fix stupid.
Was watching a youtube on being frugal and the couple were cooking fried chicken. Very popular site... The woman was all proud of herself for saving cereal bags and putting the flour on them for easy throw away later. People, don’t throw it in the garbage. Mix the flour and egg mixture together, nuke it and let the dog enjoy it. Or mix the two together for savory pancakes or corn fritters. Or freeze the flour for the next time you fry something. SMH.
"Alas, Brave New Babylon"
https://askmarion.wordpress.com/2013/09/02/alas-brave-new-babylon/
~ EXCERPTS ~
"Woke up to no power, the TV dead, everything dead that didn’t run on batteries. Anything that depended on the internet, cell service, wireless anything,
that was all dead too. My smart phone was brain dead. It could show me some of my old pictures and texts, but it couldn’t make a connection.
Same deal in the motel lobby: no power, no wireless connections, no credit cards."
"It had to happen sooner or later, and it happened sooner. We couldn’t even pump clean drinking water without electricity.
Electricity was the oxygen we breathed, and without our technology, we died like stranded astronauts on an abandoned space station.
Ground control to Major Tom, your circuit’s dead."
"In the crisis that befell us, metrosexual males who recently obsessed over their own appearances couldn’t even protect themselves,
much less any stray women, orphaned children, or the lost elderly of their extended clans.
These pitiful Peter Pans perished outright, or they were captured and enslaved, abused without mercy, and finally consumed for food."
"And no disappearing digits loomed larger during the Rupture than those on 50 million “Electronic Benefit Transfer” food-stamp cards.
The wisdom of a thousand generations of hard reality teaching stern frugality had been wiped out, encouraging generations of near imbeciles
to reproduce without limit—as long as those warm bodies could be rendered into votes for the Big-Government Party (left and right versions).
“It’s free, swipe your EBT” became a mantra of the age. It was racist to protest."
"And finally, the last old-guard bunker to fall: the Boy Scouts, completing the cycle of government-approved sodomite corruption.
For a century the Scouts were morally straight? According to whose definition of straight?
So why shouldn’t adult homosexual Scout leaders share tents with teenagers in our brave new world?
Don’t be a homophobe, we were told. Each child can make his or her own free choice about their gender identity,
but now with helpful adult mentors to guide them along the formerly forbidden paths."
"But not even the mass-murdering Soviet rulers were foolish enough to attempt to outlaw sexual differences and mandate a New Genderless Person
in the name of perfect political correctness. What sane person in the United States could possibly have thought that our own vastly more ambitious
experiment in social re-engineering would turn out any better than the simpler economic revolution attempted by the USSR?"
Kurt Schlichter Dystopian Fiction
This series provides a powerful warning about the dark future the anti-constitutional and law defying conduct and trends of today could bring to America.
PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC (2016) Kelly Turnbull Book-1
Political and cultural divisions split the United States apart into two separate nations: red states and blue states.
As the former blue states begin to collapse under the dead weight of their politically correct tyranny former US Army Special Forces agent Kelly Turnbull infiltrates and seeks his target in the nightmarish city of Los Angeles, deep in the heart of the People’s Republic of North America.
INDIAN COUNTRY (2017) Kelly Turnbull Book-2
Kelly Turnbull returns to the blue states to help those trapped there resist the politically correct police state.
As the progressive government ratchets up the violence he works to mold regular Americans into a fighting force capable of resisting the People’s Republic Army.WILDFIRE (2018) Kelly Turnbull Book-3
Blue America teeters on the edge of chaos and collapse when Kelly Turnbull is called out of retirement for a crucial job that turns out to be a deadly trap. Then he must go deep undercover inside the crumbling People’s Republic’s secret police force to stop a jihadi threat that could kill millions in both red and blue America.COLLAPSE (2019) Kelly Turnbull Book-4
The socialist People’s Republic is falling apart, held together only by the murderous thugs of the blue states’ government. They ally themselves with the communist Chinese who begin to carve out a colony in the blue states. The United States red states mobilize for war to stop the Chinese and attempt to reunify the country split apart a decade before.CRISIS (2020) Kelly Turnbull Book-5
Prequell; The story of how the United States reaches the point where it separates into two countries.
The remaining United States is comprised of the conservative red states and the new People's Republic of North America is comprised of the coastal
and mid-western blue states.
I hadn’t heard of those. Thanks for the very colorful descriptions. They sound very hopeful, much better than re-reading 1984.
WARNING! The Following Books Present Politically Conservative Themes And Christianity In A Positive Light
Please add me to the ping list, CB, thank you!
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