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

[oldfart]

Just happened to read your post while looking up a recipe for pickled asparagus. Please add me to the ping list.

[Ellendra]

I’ve been doing a lot of research lately into ways to improve soil fertility without having to haul loads of manure. (In addition to not having much livestock, my farm is mostly steep hillside. The less that needs hauled, the better!)

I also wanted to improve the soil long-term, so it would only need a little top-up every year instead of lots of topping up.

I found some very useful sources, although I haven’t had the chance to test them yet. The first is the book series by Jeff Lowenfels. “Teaming With Microbes”, “Teaming With Fungi”, and “Teaming With Nutrients”. In these books, Jeff describes the ways that different organisms in the soil interact, and how some of them will mine the rock particles or bind to things in the air and render them into forms that plants can make use of. He also goes into detail about which organisms certain plants will form symbiotic relationships with, strengthening the plant, and in some cases even giving them immunity to certain diseases!

The other source is the Skillcult blog: http://skillcult.com/

Among other things, that blog has some of the most detailed historical data I’ve ever seen on the use of biochar. It also has some easier ways to make large amounts of biochar, which I’m already planning to incorporate into my farm. I have loads of crop wastes every fall, things like sunflower stalks or corn cobs. Burning it into biochar would be the perfect way to use it. And the burner described in the blog would be fairly simple to set up right beside the field.

I think the information in those three books and the blog would be useful to any gardener.

[Texan5]

Thank you!

[Ellendra]

Please add me to the ping list, if you’re making one.

[Tilted Irish Kilt]

CottonBall :" here we are, TIK!
I don’t mean to take away from your prepper threads based on recent events.
This is more of a daily how to thread."

No worries ! The more the merrier !
I wish you success on daily prepping, since it is a "lifestyle" of choice.
Always prepare for the worst;.. and pray for the best !
The prepper ping just announced the "Beast from the East", which will affect Great Britain; however, most of the storms of the U.S. seem to coincide with British storms.
Climatologist Joe Bastardi of weatherbell.com suggests that the storms, starting around 3/5/18 will include high winds and high moisture snow, or what is called "Heart Attack Snow";
similar to what we experienced in '62 & '69, but with possible hurricane winds on the East coast (affecting as far west as Chicago).
If so,.. get battery heated socks, electric blanket,.. and candles !

[Ellendra]

How many is a bunch?

I’d use them for fence posts, but I’d mix them with the metal kind. The strongest wooden ones in the corners, then wooden ones next to the corners and at the gate. Then, 2-3 metal posts, a wooden one, 2-3 more metal ones, all along the sides. Don’t split them either. Leave them round.

The wooden posts I bought for fencing my corn patch are about the diameter of telephone poles.

[CottonBall]

Be happy to!

[Lurker]

That was interesting. Thanks.

L

[Lurker]

Please add me to your list.

Thanks.

L

[Lurker]

I’ve used Ball lids that were over 20 years old with no problems. As long as they’re properly stored I don’t worry about it.

L

[CottonBall]

done!

[CottonBall]

You’re added. We were just discussing side-effects of beans too...

[MomwithHope]

I’ve used Ball and the tattler lids and had much success with both. As far as storing, grain, nuts, dry goods in canning jars I use the attachment that comes th my foodsaver. Vacuum seals with no heat. Very handy

[Lurker]

We love our vacsealer. Really handy piece of equipment. We buy most of our meat bulk or primal, break it down ourselves, vac seal and freeze it. It works great to store jerky long term, too.

Not that jerky lasts around our house....

Best,

L

[tiki]

This summer I had a bumper crop of peaches that just seemed to ripen overnight. My DIL and GD were with me and I said we were just going to have to make jam. They were so excited because they’d never done anything like that before.

I was thinking prepping but they were thinking generosity and gave most of it away but that was nice too, it cements relationships with neighbors.

[Marmolade]

Thanks for starting this thread. I too miss Granny’s old threads and all the great info that was shared. My first experience with canning and dehydrating came after all the encouragement on those threads.
I’ve been mostly lurking the past many years, but decided to join the thread.

[CottonBall]

I remember you! Awesome to see you again :)

[CottonBall]

Here is my initial ping list for this thread.

(I just took the liberty of adding everyone that’s posted so far)

If I missed anyone, let me know and I’ll add you.

If you don’t want to be on the list, that’s just fine - let me know and I’ll take you off.

I’m thinking about pinging once a week or every 2 weeks, using the number of posts inbetween pings as a guide. Just so there is some new stuff to read when I ping you back. I won’t be bothering you an awful lot, I don’t think!

Now, I’m going to ping Kartographer’s old ping list - it’s a LONG one and if you are on there, you don’t need to do anything to stay on this one. I’m just letting those folks know about us here, and to let me know if they want on this list.

I’ll just ping Kart’s (and TIK’s) list once.

[MomwithHope]

We do the same too with meat. We like the Costco ground beef, good quality, and their stew meat. We seal them up in smaller packages. Diana from Wisconsin gave me a tip about vac sealing fresh fish. I love whole rainbow trout on the grill but the Costco packages just had too many. Now I vac seal one in a bag. In the winter I’ve been splitting them in half and putting them under the broiler. A couple of years ago I found a set of 3 foodsaver storage canisters on discount. A great find. Have my flour in one of them because I just don’t go through much flour. Just took out some broccoli from our garden which was just so sweet last summer, steamed for 2 minutes, let cool and vac seal. Tastes just as good as fresh picked. Nicest surprise was vac sealing fresh herbs from the garden. I had an abundance of oregano last year. It comes out wet when it thaws but the smell when you open the bag - amazing. Works great with chopped green onions, I do smaller bags to toss in soup or a rice dish. Not vac seal related - a great way to save fresh basil is to chiffonade it, stuff in a Ziploc, add olive oil to coat, squish around and press flat so no air is in the bag. just freeze, tastes so fresh in a pasta dish or when you want fresh basil.

[CottonBall]

I’m taking the liberty of borrowing Kartographer’s and Tilted Irish Kilt’s ping list.

I’m starting a new pepper thread, based on how nw_arizona_granny’s threads were. It’s not intended to replace - just to supplement - the existing prepper threads. It’s just an ongoing, daily thread about anything you want to ask or can contribute about.

I won’t be bothering you again, I’m just borrowing the list once. If you find this thread of interest and want to be on my list, let me know. If you don’t, you don’t have to do anything, I won’t be adding anybody without their permission.

I’ll probably be pinging the list maybe once a week, or once every two weeks, depending on the number of new posts. I will ping when there is enough new information to make it of interest.

thanks,
CB