First, we LOVE eggs! We've got 10 chickens (1 roo, 9 laying hens), and they provide us with more eggs than we could consume in a year. Second, why this post? I would like to inform anyone that doesn't know, how you can store eggs long term, not forever, but def for a few months.
Did you know that when a hen lays an egg, there is a film/protective coating over the egg that protects the porous calcium from absorbing anything in the air. Living on a farm, you are always aware that mom or grandma may have kept the eggs on the counter until ready to use. When I was little, I never really thought of why they were there, but I was a bit put off from the poopy ones and why they weren't washed. The reason? When you wash an egg, you remove the protective coating from it, thus, needing to store it in the fridge afterwards.
Before we got chickens, it was store bought eggs for us. Watching an episode of Doomsday Preppers (and a lot of google), I realized what I could do to store eggs longer without having to keep them all in the fridge. Being prepared is not only for survival in our home, it's a way of life.
Your typical cheap dozen eggs are ran through a wash and mild bleach to get them clean and looking like a perfect little white egg. Normally, these eggs are already a couple weeks old before they get to the store shelf, depending on where you live. They come from production hens. Which means that no rooster was involved, so they are not fertile.
So a trip to the store for a 5doz package of eggs, and down the medicine aisle for some mineral oil. I set all the eggs out on the counter to sweat. This is what eggs do when their stored in the cold, and then back to room temperature. Put on some vinyl gloves, poured a tablespoon of mineral oil in a bowl, and started coating the eggs with the oil. The mineral oil will plug the pores, while keeping out anything that the egg with absorb. I didn't need a lot of oil for each egg, and it went very quickly. I placed each egg upside down in the cartons. Then set them to store in the pantry (cool and dark). I waited a month before getting into them. Pulled a dozen out to refill the carton in the fridge. Upon eating, they were great! We did this for years, until we got chickens last year. Remember I placed the eggs upside down? Every month, I would turn them over. One, it helped me recognize which ones had been in the pantry the longest. Two, I wanted to make sure that everything was all ok with the eggs. I eventually started putting them into individual cartons and writing the dates on them so i didn't get them mixed up. I know they could have been kept longer if we weren't eating them all the time, but the longest that I stored a dozen was 5months, and they were delicious!
Now we have our chickens, and they lay 6-8 eggs everyday. I have an egg basket that I keep hanging under the counter where all the unwashed fresh eggs go. When it gets full, the eggs go into a carton and into the fridge. Why the fridge instead of storing them in the pantry? Well our eggs are fertilized. If we store them before refrigerating them, we get embryo in our egg. With chickens we don't have to store the eggs anymore, and we end up selling more than we eat too. If we wanted to store our fresh eggs, I would wash them, refrigerate them for 2 days, oil them, then place them in the pantry. I could get away from oiling them if I didn't wash them, but I prefer not to put any nesting box or poopy eggs in the pantry for that long. Luckily, our girls are very good on hygiene, and we don't get poopy eggs from the chicken house.
In short, when the power goes out, don't worry about using that water to wash your farm fresh eggs. :)
Here we go again. Just some ramblings of this summer.
Coming up again is that darn Preparedness month. September is soon around the corner. This year we are really happy with where we sit as far as homesteading and prepping. Our gardens did, and still are, very well. Our end of winter venture of starting a chicken flock was a bust when we put our first batch of 20 9 week old chicks outside. On night 4 a critter got in and killed them all. It was a horrid sight. Luckily, my DH couldn't bear having a house full of crying girls, and we were still able to get chicks from the feed store at the end of spring. With a much more updated wire heavy house, we haven't lost any. We also invested in a dog, Bandit. 75% Great Pyrenees, 25% Anatolian Shepard, his birthday was May 1st, 2015. Unfortunately with this bunch of 20 chickens, we ended up heavy on the roosters, 14 in fact. So we're looking forward to a full freezer soon. Their about breeding size, and I sure hate beaten up hens. My DH has also started dieting and, at this time, quit smoking. He's lowered his CARB intake, and has lost many pounds. Even with him not wanting to stop and grab food all the time, even I've lost weight. I've also moved on from my soap making and into using Essential Oils for ailments. We don't typically have much ailments in our home besides the regular cold and flu. They pass pretty quickly though. Even though we have a wide range of medicine, we try not to take anything unless absolutely needed. That's what I like most about the Essential Oils. If they lose their potency, I can make more. If I run out, I can make more. I should add that even as I haven't exactly done my own oil excretion, I did get many annual herbs into my side planters. Lemon Thyme, lavender, and oregano. They are doing so much better than I expected also. My strawberries took off like crazy. I got 2 barrels of asparagus in. So a few things that I wont get to see until next Spring, but I'm really looking forward to it.
Be Weather Ready
Here we go. It's that time again in Oklahoma, or at least the peak time. Severe storms and tornadoes!
Do you have your own routine that you do before bad weather sets in? You're here, so you can't possibly wait until the last minute to prepare your home and family. Do you have a plan that everyone knows, or is it just a big chore list the day before? Us, everyone is involved. We start to get weather ready two to three days in advance. One is because between work and school and normal home life, it just gets too busy to do it all at once. Also, here in Oklahoma, you never know when the weather will change unexpectedly. During tornado season last year I gave a small class of how to be more weather ready. It benefited me in having to actually make a list out of the things we do naturally. Normally we do the same things, but do tend to forget a task or two. We don't want to ever just survive, we want to luxurious. :) After I made the list, I couldn't help but post it up in each bedroom. In both rooms we have one wall dedicated to placing posters and whatnot permanently. So it was very easy to just mod podge it at eye level.
Anyways, making more people weather ready and aware is what I love to do. I love talking prepping for just about anything, and hearing about what other clever ideas are out there. So I thought that I would share our To Do Before A Storm checklist with you. Feel free to ask any questions on why I had something on the list.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2-3 DAYS BEFORE:
1. Fuel up vehicles and clean interior. Check oil, tires, wiper blades.
2. Check cellar. Bug bomb if needed.
3. Fill or check water jugs.
4. Fill or check oil lamps. Find places for them.
5. Check batteries in radio, tune in station.
6. Check BOBs. Set by door.
7. Find flashlights, check batteries, and make easy to find in each room.
8. Freeze gallon jugs of water for freezer and fridge. This helps keep your food cold longer when the power goes out.
9. Buy bottled water, quick foods, pet food, baby items, paper plates and utensils, toilet paper, paper towels, etc... Anything that will make life easier when power or water goes out.
10. How are we heating or cooling our home. Firewood, pellets, fans, ice, etc...
11. Are we restricting half of the house.
12. Check windows for drafts and so they open smoothly. Make sure they are locked.
DAY BEFORE:
10. Clean entire house. Trash, laundry, dishes, bathroom, fridge, bedding.
11. Everyone bathed.
12. Charge all electronic devices.
13. Cook big meal and refrigerate the rest for tomorrow.
14. Secure all outside items. This includes trampolines. Trampolines are a very big threat in high winds. Normally 3 anchors will keep them down.
JUST BEFORE or DURING THE STORM:
Fill up the fridge. Make extra tea and koolaid.
Make sure highly used electronics are at full charge.
Turn off unused lights, unplug any items rarely used.
Turn up the cool settings on fridge and freezers. Remember to turn back down after storm has passed.
Turn off the home computer and surge protector.
USE THE BATHROOM!!!
WHEN THE POWER GOES OUT:
Find the flashlight. Give everyone a flashlight.
Wait 30 minutes before calling the electric company.
Try to avoid opening the fridge as much as possible. Grab the tea and koolaid, and set on the counter. (This is to keep everyone from having to continuously opening and closing for a drink)
Turn off all light switches that were being used, except for one.
If you weren't watching or listening to the news, turn on a Weather radio to wait for news. If you were close to a tornado when the power went out, seek shelter. Take your BOB and portable radio.
If it's easily accessible, turn off gas valves and unused circuit breakers.
Lock the doors.
Turn off the hot water heater breaker. This keeps the heater from burning up if it empties when water is out.
DON'T run in to use the bathroom! Remember that the toilet has to be filled again for the next person. Use it wisely. Throw toilet paper in the trash can. Go outside if you can. Take the top lid off if you need a reminder to not flush.
Put snacks and drinks on the counter where everyone can find them.
Only light and place lamps and candles in rooms that will be heavily used. Don't overdue it and burn the place down.
Have a designated area in the house where everyone can gather and spend their time being bored. Keep everyone on the same page of what's going on. Get comfortable.
If you have phone or internet connection, let friends know that your power went out and how everyone is doing.
OTHER things to know:
Turn vehicles around for easy loading and escape. Cover windows with a blanket to keep from hail damage.
Think about what to eat first, and how to cook meals.
Know, or program phone, your electric company outage number.
Have cash on hand in small bills.
Have personal documents and medical info handy.
Know how to wash your hands with minimal water. Trickling a water bottle over vigorously rubbing hands together. No need to use half a gallon of water for a rinse.
Get a state map.
Have a weapon handy if possible. I would advise to keep it on you at all times, or at least if you have to go outside. Looters are getting very popular now during storms.
Darken windows so not to draw attention if you live in a well populated area.
Dust off the board games, or something to keep you from boredom.
Make sure fire alarms work.
Don't forget a long lighter for candles and lamps.
Take pictures of items if you have home insurance. Or if strapped for time, walk through the house taking video of rooms.
Make sure your first aid kit is stocked.
A headlight is very handy when cooking.
Put a BOB in your vehicle. Food, water, blankets, cash and coins.
Use mirrors to move candle lights. Unless you plan on going to sleep until power returns, know the sweet spots of the house on how to get the most from your temporary lighting.
Generators are noisy, and require fuel to run. On that same note: their like flashing signs to looters. Normally not necessary if plans are in place. Usually when used, they are only connected to a light and a tv. Make sure you have extension cords to reach. Chain them to something secure if possible.
A box of vinyl or latex gloves is very handy when handling items that get your hands dirty. When there's no running water, it's worth the $5 at Harbor Freight.
SHOPPING LIST OF FOOD IDEAS:
Crackers, goldfish or animal crackers, chips, rice cakes, granola or protein bars, mixed nuts, canned soups or pasta meals (heat and eat), canned or fresh fruits, juice, cookies, hard candy, bread, eggs, regular or boxed milk, Vienna sausages or other canned meats, fruit snacks, ramen noodles in the cups, water flavor packets, pop tarts, soda pop (but only as a treat).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I hoped you picked up some info you could use. Thanks for reading!
originally published 11/11/14
modified 4/3/15
Do you have your own routine that you do before bad weather sets in? You're here, so you can't possibly wait until the last minute to prepare your home and family. Do you have a plan that everyone knows, or is it just a big chore list the day before? Us, everyone is involved. We start to get weather ready two to three days in advance. One is because between work and school and normal home life, it just gets too busy to do it all at once. Also, here in Oklahoma, you never know when the weather will change unexpectedly. During tornado season last year I gave a small class of how to be more weather ready. It benefited me in having to actually make a list out of the things we do naturally. Normally we do the same things, but do tend to forget a task or two. We don't want to ever just survive, we want to luxurious. :) After I made the list, I couldn't help but post it up in each bedroom. In both rooms we have one wall dedicated to placing posters and whatnot permanently. So it was very easy to just mod podge it at eye level.
Anyways, making more people weather ready and aware is what I love to do. I love talking prepping for just about anything, and hearing about what other clever ideas are out there. So I thought that I would share our To Do Before A Storm checklist with you. Feel free to ask any questions on why I had something on the list.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2-3 DAYS BEFORE:
1. Fuel up vehicles and clean interior. Check oil, tires, wiper blades.
2. Check cellar. Bug bomb if needed.
3. Fill or check water jugs.
4. Fill or check oil lamps. Find places for them.
5. Check batteries in radio, tune in station.
6. Check BOBs. Set by door.
7. Find flashlights, check batteries, and make easy to find in each room.
8. Freeze gallon jugs of water for freezer and fridge. This helps keep your food cold longer when the power goes out.
9. Buy bottled water, quick foods, pet food, baby items, paper plates and utensils, toilet paper, paper towels, etc... Anything that will make life easier when power or water goes out.
10. How are we heating or cooling our home. Firewood, pellets, fans, ice, etc...
11. Are we restricting half of the house.
12. Check windows for drafts and so they open smoothly. Make sure they are locked.
DAY BEFORE:
10. Clean entire house. Trash, laundry, dishes, bathroom, fridge, bedding.
11. Everyone bathed.
12. Charge all electronic devices.
13. Cook big meal and refrigerate the rest for tomorrow.
14. Secure all outside items. This includes trampolines. Trampolines are a very big threat in high winds. Normally 3 anchors will keep them down.
JUST BEFORE or DURING THE STORM:
Fill up the fridge. Make extra tea and koolaid.
Make sure highly used electronics are at full charge.
Turn off unused lights, unplug any items rarely used.
Turn up the cool settings on fridge and freezers. Remember to turn back down after storm has passed.
Turn off the home computer and surge protector.
USE THE BATHROOM!!!
WHEN THE POWER GOES OUT:
Find the flashlight. Give everyone a flashlight.
Wait 30 minutes before calling the electric company.
Try to avoid opening the fridge as much as possible. Grab the tea and koolaid, and set on the counter. (This is to keep everyone from having to continuously opening and closing for a drink)
Turn off all light switches that were being used, except for one.
If you weren't watching or listening to the news, turn on a Weather radio to wait for news. If you were close to a tornado when the power went out, seek shelter. Take your BOB and portable radio.
If it's easily accessible, turn off gas valves and unused circuit breakers.
Lock the doors.
Turn off the hot water heater breaker. This keeps the heater from burning up if it empties when water is out.
DON'T run in to use the bathroom! Remember that the toilet has to be filled again for the next person. Use it wisely. Throw toilet paper in the trash can. Go outside if you can. Take the top lid off if you need a reminder to not flush.
Put snacks and drinks on the counter where everyone can find them.
Only light and place lamps and candles in rooms that will be heavily used. Don't overdue it and burn the place down.
Have a designated area in the house where everyone can gather and spend their time being bored. Keep everyone on the same page of what's going on. Get comfortable.
If you have phone or internet connection, let friends know that your power went out and how everyone is doing.
OTHER things to know:
Turn vehicles around for easy loading and escape. Cover windows with a blanket to keep from hail damage.
Think about what to eat first, and how to cook meals.
Know, or program phone, your electric company outage number.
Have cash on hand in small bills.
Have personal documents and medical info handy.
Know how to wash your hands with minimal water. Trickling a water bottle over vigorously rubbing hands together. No need to use half a gallon of water for a rinse.
Get a state map.
Have a weapon handy if possible. I would advise to keep it on you at all times, or at least if you have to go outside. Looters are getting very popular now during storms.
Darken windows so not to draw attention if you live in a well populated area.
Dust off the board games, or something to keep you from boredom.
Make sure fire alarms work.
Don't forget a long lighter for candles and lamps.
Take pictures of items if you have home insurance. Or if strapped for time, walk through the house taking video of rooms.
Make sure your first aid kit is stocked.
A headlight is very handy when cooking.
Put a BOB in your vehicle. Food, water, blankets, cash and coins.
Use mirrors to move candle lights. Unless you plan on going to sleep until power returns, know the sweet spots of the house on how to get the most from your temporary lighting.
Generators are noisy, and require fuel to run. On that same note: their like flashing signs to looters. Normally not necessary if plans are in place. Usually when used, they are only connected to a light and a tv. Make sure you have extension cords to reach. Chain them to something secure if possible.
A box of vinyl or latex gloves is very handy when handling items that get your hands dirty. When there's no running water, it's worth the $5 at Harbor Freight.
SHOPPING LIST OF FOOD IDEAS:
Crackers, goldfish or animal crackers, chips, rice cakes, granola or protein bars, mixed nuts, canned soups or pasta meals (heat and eat), canned or fresh fruits, juice, cookies, hard candy, bread, eggs, regular or boxed milk, Vienna sausages or other canned meats, fruit snacks, ramen noodles in the cups, water flavor packets, pop tarts, soda pop (but only as a treat).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I hoped you picked up some info you could use. Thanks for reading!
originally published 11/11/14
modified 4/3/15
Preparing for Winter
Here in Oklahoma, our winters are sporadic. Throughout the season it snows, freezes, gets hot, and sometimes it just rains a lot. We never pack up our summer and winter clothes since we use them all year long. The only thing that we do know, is that it never snows in the summer time here. On occasions we have those bursts of freezing temps for a few days, which causes power outages and frozen pipes.
Anyways, We all know what a normal winter should bring. Here's a list to help you get started if you haven't already. Be smart and stay Prepared.
Your vehicle. I always start off with your vehicle, because if you can't stay in your house for some reason, then you can always load up and go to a family members' house.
Please take note that this list is all optional. Everyone has a different setting and preference. This is my basic To Do list.
Check the necessities! You should do this at the start of every season.
--Brake fluid
--Transmission fluid
--Radiator fluid (know which kind you need!)
--Oil
--Window washer fluid (the kind for winter, or add a little bit rubbing alcohol to a full tank)
--Check your wiper blades. Just replace them if you live in OK. The heat already killed them. :)
--Check your exhaust for leaks (Most any local muffler shop wont have a problem checking your exhaust. If there is a problem, ask them if they will show it to you.)
--Check all tires, even the spare. Make sure their at the right pressure. Replace tire if the tread is gone. Please don't put other people at risk by driving on sleds.
--Check that all lights are working.
--Check the belts, and replace if needed. I keep a spare serpentine belt in my VEDC.I do know how to install it. ;)
To have in your vehicle.
--Your emergency bag (Should have most of your needs already. Snacks, flashlight, firestarter, toilet paper, etc...Most things that you would like to have if you were stranded, or camping)
--Blanket (I like the cheap fleece blankets, and their easy to store)
--Ice scraper/De-icer (NEVER pour warm or hot water on your iced over windows. They will either break or you just poured water into every crevace that will now freeze)
--Gloves (Pretty much anything not fluffy will help)
--Bottled water (I keep a tote with bottles to drink, and then an Ozarka gal bottle for anything else)
--Add hand warmers and ice walkers to your emergency bag.
--Road salt (I keep a small coffee can)
--Shovel, if you can spare the room. I'm in search for a small compact shovel that isn't over $20. Also smaller than the ones that you pick up at Walmart. It has to fit into my rear door with my jack.
--A road map. Know the snow routes in your area. Snow routes are the first places that get cleared in bad weather. Usually roads that let emergency vehicles get anywhere around.
Preparing your Home for Winter
--Everyone hates to do it, but ya gotta clean them windows to let some sun in.
--If your using a fireplace or pellet stove, make sure to bring your fuel close to grab. I always hated going out to chisel ice and snow off the firewood at the back of the yard. Pellet stoves are neat, but rather than bring in a bag of pellets, buy a trash can and place it on the porch or in the laundry room. Pour the bags into the can and get you a scooper. It helps.
--If using any gas to heat your home, find out if they will do a free test to check for leaks. Most propane places will test before filling the tank.
--Make sure that you clear areas your heating source. Please watch those space heaters. We actually passed a housefire this morning in our local town. I hope everyone was safe.
--Cover your outside faucets and exposed pipes. I know this sounds like a no-brainer, but it is often overlooked because of the simplicity. Don't be the dumb person trying to repair a broken line in the freezing cold because you kept putting it off.
--If you have a wellhouse, the same goes for covering the pipes. Wrap anything exposed, make sure that you have appropriate room if you have to place a heater in the wellhouse.
--Clean off the porches. This may not be a big thing at the moment, but it will be to Mom/Wife. A clear area to knock the ice and snow off yourself before entering the house, will make Mom/Wife much happier to pick up your soggy wet clothing.
--On a windy day, check each room for drafts! Expandafoam or any sealers are good to invest in. Remember that you can get foam that doesn't expand, and then some that expands several inches. Baseboards and plumbing holes are usually the chill catchers.
--Change air filters, and check dryer and stove vent exits.
--Clean your gutters of whatever Fall brought you.
--Fill your outside water storage, if any.
--Roll up the waterhoses and make sure they are empty.
--Fill any holes dug by animals. This absolutely sucks when there's snow or ice on the ground.
--Rock salt for your walkway or driveway.
--Fill or check your water storage.
--Prep your preps. Stock up on items that you use a lot.
--Clean the ice chest out from the summer. If the power goes out, use the ice chest on the porch to keep your food in.
Anyways, We all know what a normal winter should bring. Here's a list to help you get started if you haven't already. Be smart and stay Prepared.
Your vehicle. I always start off with your vehicle, because if you can't stay in your house for some reason, then you can always load up and go to a family members' house.
Please take note that this list is all optional. Everyone has a different setting and preference. This is my basic To Do list.
Check the necessities! You should do this at the start of every season.
--Brake fluid
--Transmission fluid
--Radiator fluid (know which kind you need!)
--Oil
--Window washer fluid (the kind for winter, or add a little bit rubbing alcohol to a full tank)
--Check your wiper blades. Just replace them if you live in OK. The heat already killed them. :)
--Check your exhaust for leaks (Most any local muffler shop wont have a problem checking your exhaust. If there is a problem, ask them if they will show it to you.)
--Check all tires, even the spare. Make sure their at the right pressure. Replace tire if the tread is gone. Please don't put other people at risk by driving on sleds.
--Check that all lights are working.
--Check the belts, and replace if needed. I keep a spare serpentine belt in my VEDC.I do know how to install it. ;)
To have in your vehicle.
--Your emergency bag (Should have most of your needs already. Snacks, flashlight, firestarter, toilet paper, etc...Most things that you would like to have if you were stranded, or camping)
--Blanket (I like the cheap fleece blankets, and their easy to store)
--Ice scraper/De-icer (NEVER pour warm or hot water on your iced over windows. They will either break or you just poured water into every crevace that will now freeze)
--Gloves (Pretty much anything not fluffy will help)
--Bottled water (I keep a tote with bottles to drink, and then an Ozarka gal bottle for anything else)
--Add hand warmers and ice walkers to your emergency bag.
--Road salt (I keep a small coffee can)
--Shovel, if you can spare the room. I'm in search for a small compact shovel that isn't over $20. Also smaller than the ones that you pick up at Walmart. It has to fit into my rear door with my jack.
--A road map. Know the snow routes in your area. Snow routes are the first places that get cleared in bad weather. Usually roads that let emergency vehicles get anywhere around.
Preparing your Home for Winter
--Everyone hates to do it, but ya gotta clean them windows to let some sun in.
--If your using a fireplace or pellet stove, make sure to bring your fuel close to grab. I always hated going out to chisel ice and snow off the firewood at the back of the yard. Pellet stoves are neat, but rather than bring in a bag of pellets, buy a trash can and place it on the porch or in the laundry room. Pour the bags into the can and get you a scooper. It helps.
--If using any gas to heat your home, find out if they will do a free test to check for leaks. Most propane places will test before filling the tank.
--Make sure that you clear areas your heating source. Please watch those space heaters. We actually passed a housefire this morning in our local town. I hope everyone was safe.
--Cover your outside faucets and exposed pipes. I know this sounds like a no-brainer, but it is often overlooked because of the simplicity. Don't be the dumb person trying to repair a broken line in the freezing cold because you kept putting it off.
--If you have a wellhouse, the same goes for covering the pipes. Wrap anything exposed, make sure that you have appropriate room if you have to place a heater in the wellhouse.
--Clean off the porches. This may not be a big thing at the moment, but it will be to Mom/Wife. A clear area to knock the ice and snow off yourself before entering the house, will make Mom/Wife much happier to pick up your soggy wet clothing.
--On a windy day, check each room for drafts! Expandafoam or any sealers are good to invest in. Remember that you can get foam that doesn't expand, and then some that expands several inches. Baseboards and plumbing holes are usually the chill catchers.
--Change air filters, and check dryer and stove vent exits.
--Clean your gutters of whatever Fall brought you.
--Fill your outside water storage, if any.
--Roll up the waterhoses and make sure they are empty.
--Fill any holes dug by animals. This absolutely sucks when there's snow or ice on the ground.
--Rock salt for your walkway or driveway.
--Fill or check your water storage.
--Prep your preps. Stock up on items that you use a lot.
--Clean the ice chest out from the summer. If the power goes out, use the ice chest on the porch to keep your food in.
Start The New Year off right!
Anyone looking for New Years Resolutions or maybe yearly Challenges? Try these on.
Ready Nutrition has a 52 Weeks to Preparedness blog. It's awesome! Not overbearing if you've got some start up on your preps. Even for the experienced Prepper, it's a reminder of all those To Do things that we never got around to doing. I would advise to bookmark it. It's worth it.
http://readynutrition.com/resources/week-1-of-52-two-weeks-of-food-and-water_06042011/
Struggling to make ends meet at Christmas time, then get slammed with taxes right after? It seems that right at mid-November we start the reaching point for cash. Not to mention that all the good Want products come out about this time. Birthdays, Christmas, home renovations for company, taxes, birthdays, birthdays, and birthdays. "sigh" Well if you haven't seen it yet, here is the 52 Week Savings Challenge. This is a great system that we use...normally making it at least to Thanksgiving. :p It does still help, and that's the important part. I do use it a different way though. Rather than a dollar number for whatever week it is, I do $10 a week for each first 10 weeks. $20 a week for the next 10 weeks, $30 a week for the next 10 weeks, and so on. It comes up to $1600 at 50 weeks I believe. However you want to use it is your deal, but if you have a problem putting money aside, this could help.
http://thebudgetnistablog.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/52weekchallenge-lg.jpg
So do you have a favorite yearly challenge that you would like to share?
Ready Nutrition has a 52 Weeks to Preparedness blog. It's awesome! Not overbearing if you've got some start up on your preps. Even for the experienced Prepper, it's a reminder of all those To Do things that we never got around to doing. I would advise to bookmark it. It's worth it.
http://readynutrition.com/resources/week-1-of-52-two-weeks-of-food-and-water_06042011/
Struggling to make ends meet at Christmas time, then get slammed with taxes right after? It seems that right at mid-November we start the reaching point for cash. Not to mention that all the good Want products come out about this time. Birthdays, Christmas, home renovations for company, taxes, birthdays, birthdays, and birthdays. "sigh" Well if you haven't seen it yet, here is the 52 Week Savings Challenge. This is a great system that we use...normally making it at least to Thanksgiving. :p It does still help, and that's the important part. I do use it a different way though. Rather than a dollar number for whatever week it is, I do $10 a week for each first 10 weeks. $20 a week for the next 10 weeks, $30 a week for the next 10 weeks, and so on. It comes up to $1600 at 50 weeks I believe. However you want to use it is your deal, but if you have a problem putting money aside, this could help.
http://thebudgetnistablog.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/52weekchallenge-lg.jpg
So do you have a favorite yearly challenge that you would like to share?
Gifting DIY Sprouts
I love sprouts! However, having to dish out more than a few bucks on some salad toppings that MAY get all the way eaten, is disheartening. Over DH and I's many married years, I've never purchased sprouts. My parents had them on occasions, and all I knew was that they go on salads. Boy was I wrong.
In a quest to be able to grow easy greens in sticky situations, I came across sprouting. I Googled it, Youtubed it, read up on it in my various homesteading books, and read Blog after Blog on it. It seemed a bit tricky, but worth trying it out. We have a thing about if you're interested in it, you should at least try it once. So that's what I planned to do. Got me some seeds at the Organic store. A fancy draining lid at The Faithful Prepper store (found out that cheesecloth works better and faster). Then designated a special area in the cabinet for the jar of seedlings to sit at. I soaked the seeds overnight, then drained, twice a day I then rinsed, then drained, then rinsed, repeat for 5 days. I couldn't believe how quick this process was. In fact, I put too much seed in the quart jar and ended up eating a bit early on some. Finding out that you can only eat certain kinds of sprouts, and then all the different kinds that are available was very easy. My family has grown to love them. We put them on sandwiches, eat them raw, have them in pork fried rice, and of course salads. It's so easy. They also store for quite a while. Even if you don't eat them and they go bad, you're out nothing to make another batch. I try to always have a jar in fridge.
Now if you're here looking for the process of how it's done, then you're on the wrong page. What I've got is a simple craft to make for a Newbie sprouter or a neat gift.
You'll need a Mason Quart jar
Ribbon or other decoration for it
A fancy draining lid or cut cheesecloth
The actual canning jar ring and lid (for storing it)
A selection of seedlings
and of course, my printout of directions.
You should be able to save and print the instructions off, then cut them apart.
Place seeds and Instructions inside of jar. If you're using the cheesecloth, put that in also. The instructions only cover using the drain lid, so if you are only gifting cheesecloth, it may need a demonstration. I wanted to get the instructions to fit onto one sheet. Sometimes I throw that in as an extra. Put the metal ring and lid on as normal. Take the ribbon and thread it through the fancy drain lid. Tie it around and to the neck of the jar. If you don't want to gift bag it, then you can cut a square out of cardstock, punch a hole in it, and hang your own little personalized card from the ribbon.
Picture coming soon...
In a quest to be able to grow easy greens in sticky situations, I came across sprouting. I Googled it, Youtubed it, read up on it in my various homesteading books, and read Blog after Blog on it. It seemed a bit tricky, but worth trying it out. We have a thing about if you're interested in it, you should at least try it once. So that's what I planned to do. Got me some seeds at the Organic store. A fancy draining lid at The Faithful Prepper store (found out that cheesecloth works better and faster). Then designated a special area in the cabinet for the jar of seedlings to sit at. I soaked the seeds overnight, then drained, twice a day I then rinsed, then drained, then rinsed, repeat for 5 days. I couldn't believe how quick this process was. In fact, I put too much seed in the quart jar and ended up eating a bit early on some. Finding out that you can only eat certain kinds of sprouts, and then all the different kinds that are available was very easy. My family has grown to love them. We put them on sandwiches, eat them raw, have them in pork fried rice, and of course salads. It's so easy. They also store for quite a while. Even if you don't eat them and they go bad, you're out nothing to make another batch. I try to always have a jar in fridge.
Now if you're here looking for the process of how it's done, then you're on the wrong page. What I've got is a simple craft to make for a Newbie sprouter or a neat gift.
You'll need a Mason Quart jar
Ribbon or other decoration for it
A fancy draining lid or cut cheesecloth
The actual canning jar ring and lid (for storing it)
A selection of seedlings
and of course, my printout of directions.
You should be able to save and print the instructions off, then cut them apart.
Place seeds and Instructions inside of jar. If you're using the cheesecloth, put that in also. The instructions only cover using the drain lid, so if you are only gifting cheesecloth, it may need a demonstration. I wanted to get the instructions to fit onto one sheet. Sometimes I throw that in as an extra. Put the metal ring and lid on as normal. Take the ribbon and thread it through the fancy drain lid. Tie it around and to the neck of the jar. If you don't want to gift bag it, then you can cut a square out of cardstock, punch a hole in it, and hang your own little personalized card from the ribbon.
Picture coming soon...
September is Preparedness Month
It's
time! September! September is Preparedness Month. Do you know why we
have this? It was created after September 11th, to honor our loved ones
lost on that day and to help us remember to always be prepared for
anything. Even though we do many things daily year round, this month
helps us get our priorities together. Those things that get put off, the
collection of recyclables that someday will be
made into something useful, water rotation, food rotation, de-cluttering
bags that have been used and stripped of supplies over the past months.
This month is our someday. Everyday I will try to do some sort of
preparedness around the house. Whether it be dehydrating, canning,
storing, or building something, I will strive to do one thing a day that
I've been needing to do for a while. So...Day 1 of Preparedness: Yesterday was supposed to be our
cleaning day, but since we were gone most of the day, it will be today.
Which is great since it's going to be so hot today.
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Home from work then off for the 2mi bike ride. I told DH that if they want me to ride w/them, I just can't go the 4mi they were going on. Not enough time to get the house in order and cook dinner and get everyone ready for tomorrow. It's hard. I hate the heat, but hopefully it'll get easier.
Anyways, for my Day 2 of Preparedness I chose to restock my vehicle EDC (every day carry) bag. It is a different bag from my vehicle tool bag. Has things like duct tape, snacks, small cook stove, fire starters, 1st aid kit, plastic ware, and a few bottles of water. A knife or two, small fishing kit, backpacking fishing pole, hammock, rope, can opener, etc. it's basically a small bug out bag. Comes in so handy all the time. Halloween is coming up, so inexpensive packs of Glosticks will be on the agenda for tomorrow.
All restocked. This is a roundabout view of the fillings. I keep everything in a duffel bag that I got from Backwoods as a birthday gift.
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Day 3 of Preparedness Month: Well since I've got all my restocking stuff out from last night, I might as well finish it off. So today I will be restocking our Individual Bug Out Bags. These are basically 72hr bags w a little extra. I think our youngest DD (4yro) is big enough that she can carry her own crayons and toilet paper. Swapping them over for cooler months is a big deal too. So make sure that you adjust yours as well. At this time our BOBs are more designed as INCH (im not coming home) bags, rather than get to a certain point. Their heavy. They need to be lighter w/more multi-use items. It's a long run to the cellar. We've also had a shortage on flashlights, and if you went to my Weather Ready class, you know we've got a lot of flashlights just around the house. I'm prob gonna need more batteries today.
All ready to go. I wasn't able to get oldest DD's bag done, as it's apparently in the cellar from the last time we went down there. I haven't bug bombed it since springtime. So her bag will have to wait for extra time.
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Day 4 for Preparedness: Part of doing the Preparedness I wanted to do all those little things that make life a bit better around our unfinished home. So today I finally put up the hooks for my cast iron pans. It's not a permanent home for them, but with hardly anyplace to store without the pantry finished, I thought this would be awesome.
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Day 5 of Preparedness: I finally got a new vacuum! I went for cheap, easy to store, and easy to use. For years we've used the Rainbow vacuum cleaner. It works nice but bulky and uses water. One of the reasons it's hard to maintain is because of the water, and it tends to sit a couple days before we remember to dump it out. Then it has to be rinsed out. Really a big hassle for small jobs. So I found the Eureka AirSpeed Turbo. I think it was about $60 at Walmart. I love it! In fact, it works so great that I have to turn it on the mid floor setting to keep from sticking to the hardwood floors. It actually sucks the dirt from outside of the sides! So when I got home, I put it through a small stress test. :p The only issue that I even came across was the attachment hose has so much bounce (which will eventually loosen up), that I had to have our youngest DD hold the body from falling over while I did the couches. Here's a picture of the vacuum, the picture is not mine, but that's what it looks like.
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As I mentioned earlier, something else that we've started doing this month is bike riding, accommodating weight loss. My DH decided to step on the scale last month and is determined to lose 30lbs by the end of the month. He has been cycling since the end of last month (about 4 days ahead of my start), I got a bike a few days ago was able to join in. A very expensive start up, but I haven't been on a bike since I was a teen, and even then not much when you live in the country. Mom and Dad never let us ride on the road. Riding in sand around the farm was a disappointment. With our Outdoor Adventurers group we haven't had many backpacking or hiking trips in a while. I thought that this would help strengthen my legs and ankles. As we don't have any other health issues, other than being a little overweight, we thought this could turn out to be very beneficial. It's hard! Kudos to anyone that rides a bike. As I mentioned we do live in the country, and a country block is much harder than a city block. We're determined, and that's what counts. Exercise is very important to being prepared also.
Day 6 of Preparedness: Didn't have much time to plan anything. We rode our bikes up to the corner, then backtracked back and to the next corner. It was 2 miles. I'll tell you now, I ain't ashamed of walking. As long as I'm still out there, it's good. My DH and DD's make sure to encourage me when I'm pumping up those last few feet to the top of the hills too. It also didn't take us as long as we thought either. I'm exhausted, not really in pain, but exhausted.
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Day 7 of Preparedness: I put away trying to do anything for preparing on Sundays. Sunday is Church for us, cleaning the house day, and get ready for school and work time. It already gets pretty crazy. However, we decided to bike around Purcell Lake today after church. Also inviting several people to tag along with us. It was very fun. It's 3 miles easy ride around the Lake. We think that we may make an activity of it after church every Sunday. I should add that myself, our oldest DD, and DH are on bikes. Our youngest DD is too little to ride so far yet, and she is pulled in cart by DH. He really liked riding the lake. Also, we changed 3 tires on friends' bikes that rode with us. We will now remember that a flat tire might not be a bad tire. :)
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Day 8 of Preparedness: Well after our experience of changing tires in the parking lot at the Lake yesterday, I couldn't help but notice that my vehicle tool bag is missing a few key components. This evening I dumped it out and went through it. Added many things, and tracked down several items that ended up in DH truck. I'm not currently thinking about winter, but I don't want to be short tooled. It took me about 45 minutes to do this task.
My list of contents for vehicle tool bag: pliers (regular and needle), screwdrivers phillips and flat, crescent wrench, zip ties, Slime tire patch and plug kit, small hammer, 4 diff sized hose clamps, serpentine belt, steel wool, small can WD-40, electrical tape, 2 ft of 6 line electrical wire, then some other small ends and bits.
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Day 9 of Preparedness: Well since I had the tools out and about yesterday evening, it made it really easy to organize the home toolbox back out. Organization is really key in any emergency. Even with my organization skills, I counted count the times that I've just went in and had to start throwing things out of the way, then turned around and stuffed them back in horribly fitting. lol! Since our toolbox is in the living room at the moment, it has been on my To Do list for a while. This evening I spent an hour taking everything out and carefully fitting it back in. I found several things that I'd been looking for also. Win win! :)
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Day 10 of Preparedness: DD had a Cross Country meet today. We all went and cheered her on. When we finally got home, it was just light enough to ride. After that I was too beat to get anything done. Maybe I can double up on a day. :p
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Day 11 of Preparedness: The day that started it all. Did you know that it only took 19 people (terrorists) to do something that will mark our history books forever. 19 people that killed almost 3000 others, injuring hundreds. The day that you could say, Woke us up. I've got some information to gather today for Preparedness projects, that's the only thing that I'll be doing today. Never forget, Always Remember. Preparing to Prepare.
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Day 12 of Preparedness: The refrigerator! Ours is not at it's finest right now. That is something that is often overlooked. Koolaid, tea, something that used to be food, stuck and dripped down the sides and front catch. If your power goes out for a while, and food seeps all over, it's nice to only clean up the current mess rather than a caked on mess. Organizing and cleanliness play a big role in prepping, even if it's something small. Even got the vacuum and got the dust walls over the vents. Maintenance on large appliances helps in the long run...unless you have money on hand to make large purchases at random times.
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Day 13 of Preparedness: We were out running around town and decided to go ride at the lake just us. We did 8.5miles! That's the longest I've done since riding. My shins hurt...but in a good way? lol! Since we were out and about most of today, I didn't get anything planned for prepping. So project for today was Exercise.
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Day 14 of Preparedness: Church, then the lake for another easy ride and off to get some stuff done. More de-cluttering my collection habits. I've been putting off making a silverware holder that I found on Pinterest. It requires veggi cans, and I am tired of moving them around. So I got that started. Their painted and ready to be put together. Now just to get DH to cut the wood for them, and all done.
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Day 15 of Preparedness: I really like Monday evenings. I can get quite a bit of things done. We don't watch many television shows, but when Under The Dome came back on, we do tend to gather in front of the telly. The best part is that it's on late. So we can get lots of things done and have a reason to settle down. Anyways, since the refrigerator was clean now, it looked so empty. Everyone loves the Ready To Eat Meals in a Jar that I conjure up occasionally. My project this evening was fill the fridge back up. I made spaghetti, salads, and fruit jars. These are great for the girls after school, mostly because it keeps them from making a huge mess in the kitchen. The bonus is that they stay fresh for weeks!
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Day 16 of Preparedness: For today I didn't really have anything planned, but I was thinking of my Inlaws today. They have many animals, many different kinds also. It was a pretty nice day to be outside today too. We don't have any animals at our house, inside or out. Since having our first DD, I tend to be on the itchy side when I come in contact with them. Living on a family farm, we're the only ones without pets. That won't keep me from prepping for them anyways. I picked up a large bag of dogfood, catfood, and birdseed today. Gonna fill up some 5gal buckets. This could come in handy in bad weather storms when no one can get out that didn't prepare. Something else, if you have animals, take pictures of them if you will miss them.
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Day 17 of Preparedness: Well I knew this day would come shortly. Every other Wednesday we have an Outdoor Adventurer meeting. I miss a day of bike riding, and maybe without a project to do. This meeting was good for Prep though. We have an upcoming backpacking trip where we will be carrying our own selection of food, and several new hikers will be joining us. It will be a short overnight trek to see who can handle it. Sometimes even the weight of a pack is too much for the kids. I guess I should mention that Outdoor Adventurers is our own spinoff from Boy Scouts of America. We wanted to do more Life Skill building, things that give them knowledge in preparedness and survival. It is also still a Church group. We live in a very small and poor community, finding kids to take part and attend are very few to rare. When signed with the BSA, you have to have a certain amount of boys to be in. Also, the girls have to be in a different branch of Scouting (Heritage Girls). We also didn't have enough to qualify for this either. So we made our own group that all can join and learn new things. We actually have more freedom to do more things that relate to life skills too. For our meeting this evening we went over different kinds of multi-use equipment, and lightweight easy to cook foods.
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Day 18 of Preparedness: Not much I did this evening, but I do need to get my Dehydrated Dinner meals back up to stock. I made a list of things to get from the store. Some I vacuum seal, and some I put in mason jars. It's basically a homemade hamburger helper. Just add water and meat. Here's an old picture that I took of some I did a few years ago.
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Day 19 of Preparedness: All this bike riding requires tools for emergency maintenance on the road. We've slowly acquired most of the important tools that we need on the road, and at home. However, it's just kind of a jumble that we toss in DD's bike cart. I've went through everything twice and have picked out the must haves to add to the vehicle tool bag. Now to get in the attic and find an appropriate bag to store them in.
Also, I've been really trying to get into Geocaching. I've signed up for it and we've found a couple before, but I'd like to go more, and more often. Kinda gearing up on coordinates for traveling to the Wichitas in a few days. I also told DH that if he wanted to do a long bike ride, I would go if we could Geocache on the way. We will see how this pans out. :)
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Day 20 of Preparedness: This weekend is our annual tribal dance. I am Native American, Ft. Sill Apache Indian. I love my heritage, and also try to involve myself whenever possible. Living 2 hours away from our grounds, plays a big part in it. I am a member on our Election Committee board. We are a very small Tribe, but have come very far in the past 100 years. Anyways, our oldest DD had a Cross Country meet this morning. She didn't get back in time for us to make it to the dance, so I got mostly cleaning done today. We got the front porch all cleaned off from the summer build up, and ready for sittin and relaxin this Fall. Plus, I've got some Pinterest projects that I'd like to finally put together for the front.
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Day 21 of Preparedness: Church, then ride at the lake. It's turning into quite a turnout on our Sunday rides. We've invited all people that we know, just to get outside. People do so much moaning and groaning when exercise is mentioned nowadays, that we forget how easy it is. The best part is that we head over to Subway afterwards for a healthy meal to tie it off. The Subway is in Walmart, it's a plus for anyone that needs a few things before heading out of town. Anyways, after we ate lunch, we browsed through the camping section. It actually hadn't dawned on me that camping was going out of season, until I seen that Coleman Camping Fuel (white fuel) was less than $10 a can. This brought up that I still haven't reached my goal of having an emergency supply of fuel. I've got 2 Coleman stoves, 2 lanterns, and 2 heaters that all use this. Always having an extra source is on my mind. I hate having to be limited on just burning firewood for all needs. So I talked DH into picking up 4 gallons. :)
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I forgot to mention that our television has been broke for nearly a week. The light went out in it. While we wait for the replacement, our bikes have taken up residency in the livingroom. lol! I hope it comes in soon, my butt can't take the bike AND barstool in the kitchen (we have a 12" telly in there. :p I should mention before you see the pic, that even though we are frugal, we do love our expense. We have very little debt. Yes our livingroom television is an 82". That's the benefits of being prepared.
Day 22 of Preparedness: Water rotation! Didn't have much time this evening, but I really wanted to get something done. The shower needed cleaning, and I figured that since my clothes were already wet, why not splash around a bit. So outside with all the water. I always could use the water in the yard or in the garden. Def don't want to waste water here in Oklahoma. You never know when you'll get it again. :p We keep just over 60 gallons of water stored in the house at all times. I rinsed them all out with a bit of bleach, and refilled them with cold water. I also taste the water that comes out of them just to make sure that they were stored well.Got everything all done and some dinner cooked up, all in time for the final season episode of Under The Dome. :)
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Day 23 of Preparedness: BATTERIES TOO?! Been so caught up with what's going on in the world, plus cycling, I didn't realize we were on our last bit of batteries. I had to get into the Faraday Box for a refill on the game controllers. Hey, just because I'm a prepper doesn't mean I don't know how to play video games (actually I'm addicted to Minecraft). Anyways...I usually buy the cheapo Harbor Freight batteries for our regular use, and then store the good brands in the Faraday Box. Our luck hasn't been good on the cheap ones, especially with both of the Nintendo Wiis working in both bedrooms. So we dumped a chunk of cash on good batteries. I keep 2 dozen of almost each battery in the Faraday Box, then I also have a battery rack that tests and holds almost a dozen of each too. The Faraday Box does not get opened unless absolutely necessary (calming 2 fighting girls down with video games is necessary). Plus, the battery rack doesn't hold that many, so I keep the extras in a drawer. $80 on batteries. :/ I needed to do this anyways and while I was replacing cheap batteries, I went ahead and changed all the flashlight batteries too.
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Day 24 of Preparedness: Didn't prep anything. Got to get ready for an all day trip with my FIL tomorrow. Came home, rode 2.5 miles on bike. Then went outside to fire some shots off at our range. Since we live on a farm, and the canyon runs right beside the house, we cleared straight through it. I love it. I don't shoot as much anymore since all I see are little dollar signs flying out of the guns. lol! Here's an old video of right after I got it up and running. It was really windy, and I apologize as it was like my 5th video made. :p ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day 25 of Preparedness: Today I went with my FIL and other Assistant Leader (Joe) to the Wichita Mountains to scout out some info on where we will be backpacking come December. We hiked part of the trail to get a feel for it, and whether all the Outdoor Adventurers could do it. This was a very beautiful day for cruising around. I'm actually very familiar with this area, as my Grandmother used to bring us up there all the time for picnics and playing. I was impressed to get some nifty monument coins at the gift shop. These will make great Geocache Swag for this weekend. While driving through the refuge we also came as close to one of the buffalo as I have ever been before. He just moseyed on across the road. I was able to convince my FIL to stop at 3 cache locations. I found 2 of the 3. It was fun.
I will have to plan a full day adventure with the family. DH is always talking about wanting to go places. I hadn't realized that he hasn't been in this area before. I've taken the girls several times while visiting my Mother and her side of the family.
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Day 26 of Preparedness: Did some organizing on our Faraday Box. It's really kind of turned into a junk box over the past few months. Things that we would bug out with, but not items that need protected from solar flares or EMPS. I also had a couple of things to add to it anyways. Got to get some rest for tomorrow. Oh, we finally got the part in for the television and they installed it very quickly! YAY!
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Day 27 of Preparedness: Exercise. Just get it out of the way now. The day we've been anxious for. We will embark on a 20 mile country road trip...on bicycles. We will stop at 3 Geocaches and my Aunts house along the way. If we have enough time, we will stop at 5 geocaches. Me and the girls had to wait for DH to get home, so I did get a couple of things done this morning.
A place to hang our helmets, finally.
I got my map I'd been working on for a few days laminated and ready. It's 2 maps that I edited together, then redrew the roads for which ones were gravel and paved. It also has the Geocache locations on it, along with some small swag I was able to come across. It has our route planned out on it.
This is 2 Geocaches down, almost to Aunt and Uncles' house. We stopped there for about 15 minutes for cold drinks and snacks. The dog down the road nearly got me. That's the first time any dog has come so close.
We made it! We had a small detour while looking for geocaches. 20 miles on country roads. Had to do the last 2 miles in the dark. Luckily we've got lights on the bikes. It was HARD. Never be ashamed of walking your bike up the hill...well that's what they tell me. Even our youngest DD is tired from the trip, and all she did was ride! Our bikes are in a pile in the front yard. It's barely 8pm...time for bed.
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Day 28 of Preparedness: SUNDAY! Church then the Lake. Our riding group was very small today. It seems to be getting smaller by the week. I can't believe how hard it is to get people to ride, that want to! I'm disappointed that so many people want to get in better shape, but don't want to do the effort for it. Several also think that riding a bike is seriously hard, but it's not...unless you ride with us on weekdays down country roads. :p We got home and I went ahead sliced and dehydrated some onions. It was hard on the noses, but at least I got it done. 5 trays worth of onions will turn into about 1/2 of a gallon dehydrated.The fans are going strong and the windows are all open.
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Day 29 of Preparedness: Today was just blah. I didn't feel like doing anything, anywhere. Just gonna cook supper and watch some television. :)
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Day 30 of Preparedness: Well it's the last day and I've gotten a lot of things accomplished that I wanted to do. I've still got several unfinished things around the house that needs done, but the weather just hasn't cooperated much this month. October is soon to bring much cooler weather. Being able to open all the windows while cooking or cleaning, sure makes it a lot easier to sit in the kitchen using the canner for a couple of hours. Over the course of the month I did many other things. Things that I don't really classify as Preparedness tasks, mostly because we do them all year long. This month was more focused on the To Do list. I made some coffee soap for my Aunt, and another 5 gal batch of liquid laundry soap, sorted and stored my canning jars, labeled the ceiling joists in the attic to say what is stored in the totes under them then cleaned the attic. Our Church also had a Garage Sale to help raise money for the kids for Falls Creek next year. I've had that pile of stuff in the corner for months now, and was very happy to finally see it go. Refilled several buckets of food (sugar, macaroni noodles, flour) and then my quart jars of spices were a bit low. These are things that we do throughout the year. Making prepping a part of your everyday life is very key. It's not just a once a year, or once a month thing. You got to do it all the time. We actually don't consider ourselves as Preppers anymore, rather we go more for Modern Homesteaders. :p----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well I hope that you enjoyed my Preparedness tasks. I hope that you stopped and spent some time today getting prepared too. Learn it. Live it. Love it.
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Home from work then off for the 2mi bike ride. I told DH that if they want me to ride w/them, I just can't go the 4mi they were going on. Not enough time to get the house in order and cook dinner and get everyone ready for tomorrow. It's hard. I hate the heat, but hopefully it'll get easier.
Anyways, for my Day 2 of Preparedness I chose to restock my vehicle EDC (every day carry) bag. It is a different bag from my vehicle tool bag. Has things like duct tape, snacks, small cook stove, fire starters, 1st aid kit, plastic ware, and a few bottles of water. A knife or two, small fishing kit, backpacking fishing pole, hammock, rope, can opener, etc. it's basically a small bug out bag. Comes in so handy all the time. Halloween is coming up, so inexpensive packs of Glosticks will be on the agenda for tomorrow.
All restocked. This is a roundabout view of the fillings. I keep everything in a duffel bag that I got from Backwoods as a birthday gift.
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Day 3 of Preparedness Month: Well since I've got all my restocking stuff out from last night, I might as well finish it off. So today I will be restocking our Individual Bug Out Bags. These are basically 72hr bags w a little extra. I think our youngest DD (4yro) is big enough that she can carry her own crayons and toilet paper. Swapping them over for cooler months is a big deal too. So make sure that you adjust yours as well. At this time our BOBs are more designed as INCH (im not coming home) bags, rather than get to a certain point. Their heavy. They need to be lighter w/more multi-use items. It's a long run to the cellar. We've also had a shortage on flashlights, and if you went to my Weather Ready class, you know we've got a lot of flashlights just around the house. I'm prob gonna need more batteries today.
All ready to go. I wasn't able to get oldest DD's bag done, as it's apparently in the cellar from the last time we went down there. I haven't bug bombed it since springtime. So her bag will have to wait for extra time.
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Day 4 for Preparedness: Part of doing the Preparedness I wanted to do all those little things that make life a bit better around our unfinished home. So today I finally put up the hooks for my cast iron pans. It's not a permanent home for them, but with hardly anyplace to store without the pantry finished, I thought this would be awesome.
Day 5 of Preparedness: I finally got a new vacuum! I went for cheap, easy to store, and easy to use. For years we've used the Rainbow vacuum cleaner. It works nice but bulky and uses water. One of the reasons it's hard to maintain is because of the water, and it tends to sit a couple days before we remember to dump it out. Then it has to be rinsed out. Really a big hassle for small jobs. So I found the Eureka AirSpeed Turbo. I think it was about $60 at Walmart. I love it! In fact, it works so great that I have to turn it on the mid floor setting to keep from sticking to the hardwood floors. It actually sucks the dirt from outside of the sides! So when I got home, I put it through a small stress test. :p The only issue that I even came across was the attachment hose has so much bounce (which will eventually loosen up), that I had to have our youngest DD hold the body from falling over while I did the couches. Here's a picture of the vacuum, the picture is not mine, but that's what it looks like.
As I mentioned earlier, something else that we've started doing this month is bike riding, accommodating weight loss. My DH decided to step on the scale last month and is determined to lose 30lbs by the end of the month. He has been cycling since the end of last month (about 4 days ahead of my start), I got a bike a few days ago was able to join in. A very expensive start up, but I haven't been on a bike since I was a teen, and even then not much when you live in the country. Mom and Dad never let us ride on the road. Riding in sand around the farm was a disappointment. With our Outdoor Adventurers group we haven't had many backpacking or hiking trips in a while. I thought that this would help strengthen my legs and ankles. As we don't have any other health issues, other than being a little overweight, we thought this could turn out to be very beneficial. It's hard! Kudos to anyone that rides a bike. As I mentioned we do live in the country, and a country block is much harder than a city block. We're determined, and that's what counts. Exercise is very important to being prepared also.
Day 6 of Preparedness: Didn't have much time to plan anything. We rode our bikes up to the corner, then backtracked back and to the next corner. It was 2 miles. I'll tell you now, I ain't ashamed of walking. As long as I'm still out there, it's good. My DH and DD's make sure to encourage me when I'm pumping up those last few feet to the top of the hills too. It also didn't take us as long as we thought either. I'm exhausted, not really in pain, but exhausted.
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Day 7 of Preparedness: I put away trying to do anything for preparing on Sundays. Sunday is Church for us, cleaning the house day, and get ready for school and work time. It already gets pretty crazy. However, we decided to bike around Purcell Lake today after church. Also inviting several people to tag along with us. It was very fun. It's 3 miles easy ride around the Lake. We think that we may make an activity of it after church every Sunday. I should add that myself, our oldest DD, and DH are on bikes. Our youngest DD is too little to ride so far yet, and she is pulled in cart by DH. He really liked riding the lake. Also, we changed 3 tires on friends' bikes that rode with us. We will now remember that a flat tire might not be a bad tire. :)
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Day 8 of Preparedness: Well after our experience of changing tires in the parking lot at the Lake yesterday, I couldn't help but notice that my vehicle tool bag is missing a few key components. This evening I dumped it out and went through it. Added many things, and tracked down several items that ended up in DH truck. I'm not currently thinking about winter, but I don't want to be short tooled. It took me about 45 minutes to do this task.
My list of contents for vehicle tool bag: pliers (regular and needle), screwdrivers phillips and flat, crescent wrench, zip ties, Slime tire patch and plug kit, small hammer, 4 diff sized hose clamps, serpentine belt, steel wool, small can WD-40, electrical tape, 2 ft of 6 line electrical wire, then some other small ends and bits.
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Day 9 of Preparedness: Well since I had the tools out and about yesterday evening, it made it really easy to organize the home toolbox back out. Organization is really key in any emergency. Even with my organization skills, I counted count the times that I've just went in and had to start throwing things out of the way, then turned around and stuffed them back in horribly fitting. lol! Since our toolbox is in the living room at the moment, it has been on my To Do list for a while. This evening I spent an hour taking everything out and carefully fitting it back in. I found several things that I'd been looking for also. Win win! :)
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Day 10 of Preparedness: DD had a Cross Country meet today. We all went and cheered her on. When we finally got home, it was just light enough to ride. After that I was too beat to get anything done. Maybe I can double up on a day. :p
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Day 11 of Preparedness: The day that started it all. Did you know that it only took 19 people (terrorists) to do something that will mark our history books forever. 19 people that killed almost 3000 others, injuring hundreds. The day that you could say, Woke us up. I've got some information to gather today for Preparedness projects, that's the only thing that I'll be doing today. Never forget, Always Remember. Preparing to Prepare.
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Day 12 of Preparedness: The refrigerator! Ours is not at it's finest right now. That is something that is often overlooked. Koolaid, tea, something that used to be food, stuck and dripped down the sides and front catch. If your power goes out for a while, and food seeps all over, it's nice to only clean up the current mess rather than a caked on mess. Organizing and cleanliness play a big role in prepping, even if it's something small. Even got the vacuum and got the dust walls over the vents. Maintenance on large appliances helps in the long run...unless you have money on hand to make large purchases at random times.
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Day 13 of Preparedness: We were out running around town and decided to go ride at the lake just us. We did 8.5miles! That's the longest I've done since riding. My shins hurt...but in a good way? lol! Since we were out and about most of today, I didn't get anything planned for prepping. So project for today was Exercise.
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Day 14 of Preparedness: Church, then the lake for another easy ride and off to get some stuff done. More de-cluttering my collection habits. I've been putting off making a silverware holder that I found on Pinterest. It requires veggi cans, and I am tired of moving them around. So I got that started. Their painted and ready to be put together. Now just to get DH to cut the wood for them, and all done.
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Day 15 of Preparedness: I really like Monday evenings. I can get quite a bit of things done. We don't watch many television shows, but when Under The Dome came back on, we do tend to gather in front of the telly. The best part is that it's on late. So we can get lots of things done and have a reason to settle down. Anyways, since the refrigerator was clean now, it looked so empty. Everyone loves the Ready To Eat Meals in a Jar that I conjure up occasionally. My project this evening was fill the fridge back up. I made spaghetti, salads, and fruit jars. These are great for the girls after school, mostly because it keeps them from making a huge mess in the kitchen. The bonus is that they stay fresh for weeks!
Day 16 of Preparedness: For today I didn't really have anything planned, but I was thinking of my Inlaws today. They have many animals, many different kinds also. It was a pretty nice day to be outside today too. We don't have any animals at our house, inside or out. Since having our first DD, I tend to be on the itchy side when I come in contact with them. Living on a family farm, we're the only ones without pets. That won't keep me from prepping for them anyways. I picked up a large bag of dogfood, catfood, and birdseed today. Gonna fill up some 5gal buckets. This could come in handy in bad weather storms when no one can get out that didn't prepare. Something else, if you have animals, take pictures of them if you will miss them.
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Day 17 of Preparedness: Well I knew this day would come shortly. Every other Wednesday we have an Outdoor Adventurer meeting. I miss a day of bike riding, and maybe without a project to do. This meeting was good for Prep though. We have an upcoming backpacking trip where we will be carrying our own selection of food, and several new hikers will be joining us. It will be a short overnight trek to see who can handle it. Sometimes even the weight of a pack is too much for the kids. I guess I should mention that Outdoor Adventurers is our own spinoff from Boy Scouts of America. We wanted to do more Life Skill building, things that give them knowledge in preparedness and survival. It is also still a Church group. We live in a very small and poor community, finding kids to take part and attend are very few to rare. When signed with the BSA, you have to have a certain amount of boys to be in. Also, the girls have to be in a different branch of Scouting (Heritage Girls). We also didn't have enough to qualify for this either. So we made our own group that all can join and learn new things. We actually have more freedom to do more things that relate to life skills too. For our meeting this evening we went over different kinds of multi-use equipment, and lightweight easy to cook foods.
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Day 18 of Preparedness: Not much I did this evening, but I do need to get my Dehydrated Dinner meals back up to stock. I made a list of things to get from the store. Some I vacuum seal, and some I put in mason jars. It's basically a homemade hamburger helper. Just add water and meat. Here's an old picture that I took of some I did a few years ago.
Day 19 of Preparedness: All this bike riding requires tools for emergency maintenance on the road. We've slowly acquired most of the important tools that we need on the road, and at home. However, it's just kind of a jumble that we toss in DD's bike cart. I've went through everything twice and have picked out the must haves to add to the vehicle tool bag. Now to get in the attic and find an appropriate bag to store them in.
Also, I've been really trying to get into Geocaching. I've signed up for it and we've found a couple before, but I'd like to go more, and more often. Kinda gearing up on coordinates for traveling to the Wichitas in a few days. I also told DH that if he wanted to do a long bike ride, I would go if we could Geocache on the way. We will see how this pans out. :)
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Day 20 of Preparedness: This weekend is our annual tribal dance. I am Native American, Ft. Sill Apache Indian. I love my heritage, and also try to involve myself whenever possible. Living 2 hours away from our grounds, plays a big part in it. I am a member on our Election Committee board. We are a very small Tribe, but have come very far in the past 100 years. Anyways, our oldest DD had a Cross Country meet this morning. She didn't get back in time for us to make it to the dance, so I got mostly cleaning done today. We got the front porch all cleaned off from the summer build up, and ready for sittin and relaxin this Fall. Plus, I've got some Pinterest projects that I'd like to finally put together for the front.
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Day 21 of Preparedness: Church, then ride at the lake. It's turning into quite a turnout on our Sunday rides. We've invited all people that we know, just to get outside. People do so much moaning and groaning when exercise is mentioned nowadays, that we forget how easy it is. The best part is that we head over to Subway afterwards for a healthy meal to tie it off. The Subway is in Walmart, it's a plus for anyone that needs a few things before heading out of town. Anyways, after we ate lunch, we browsed through the camping section. It actually hadn't dawned on me that camping was going out of season, until I seen that Coleman Camping Fuel (white fuel) was less than $10 a can. This brought up that I still haven't reached my goal of having an emergency supply of fuel. I've got 2 Coleman stoves, 2 lanterns, and 2 heaters that all use this. Always having an extra source is on my mind. I hate having to be limited on just burning firewood for all needs. So I talked DH into picking up 4 gallons. :)
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I forgot to mention that our television has been broke for nearly a week. The light went out in it. While we wait for the replacement, our bikes have taken up residency in the livingroom. lol! I hope it comes in soon, my butt can't take the bike AND barstool in the kitchen (we have a 12" telly in there. :p I should mention before you see the pic, that even though we are frugal, we do love our expense. We have very little debt. Yes our livingroom television is an 82". That's the benefits of being prepared.
Day 22 of Preparedness: Water rotation! Didn't have much time this evening, but I really wanted to get something done. The shower needed cleaning, and I figured that since my clothes were already wet, why not splash around a bit. So outside with all the water. I always could use the water in the yard or in the garden. Def don't want to waste water here in Oklahoma. You never know when you'll get it again. :p We keep just over 60 gallons of water stored in the house at all times. I rinsed them all out with a bit of bleach, and refilled them with cold water. I also taste the water that comes out of them just to make sure that they were stored well.Got everything all done and some dinner cooked up, all in time for the final season episode of Under The Dome. :)
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Day 23 of Preparedness: BATTERIES TOO?! Been so caught up with what's going on in the world, plus cycling, I didn't realize we were on our last bit of batteries. I had to get into the Faraday Box for a refill on the game controllers. Hey, just because I'm a prepper doesn't mean I don't know how to play video games (actually I'm addicted to Minecraft). Anyways...I usually buy the cheapo Harbor Freight batteries for our regular use, and then store the good brands in the Faraday Box. Our luck hasn't been good on the cheap ones, especially with both of the Nintendo Wiis working in both bedrooms. So we dumped a chunk of cash on good batteries. I keep 2 dozen of almost each battery in the Faraday Box, then I also have a battery rack that tests and holds almost a dozen of each too. The Faraday Box does not get opened unless absolutely necessary (calming 2 fighting girls down with video games is necessary). Plus, the battery rack doesn't hold that many, so I keep the extras in a drawer. $80 on batteries. :/ I needed to do this anyways and while I was replacing cheap batteries, I went ahead and changed all the flashlight batteries too.
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Day 24 of Preparedness: Didn't prep anything. Got to get ready for an all day trip with my FIL tomorrow. Came home, rode 2.5 miles on bike. Then went outside to fire some shots off at our range. Since we live on a farm, and the canyon runs right beside the house, we cleared straight through it. I love it. I don't shoot as much anymore since all I see are little dollar signs flying out of the guns. lol! Here's an old video of right after I got it up and running. It was really windy, and I apologize as it was like my 5th video made. :p ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day 25 of Preparedness: Today I went with my FIL and other Assistant Leader (Joe) to the Wichita Mountains to scout out some info on where we will be backpacking come December. We hiked part of the trail to get a feel for it, and whether all the Outdoor Adventurers could do it. This was a very beautiful day for cruising around. I'm actually very familiar with this area, as my Grandmother used to bring us up there all the time for picnics and playing. I was impressed to get some nifty monument coins at the gift shop. These will make great Geocache Swag for this weekend. While driving through the refuge we also came as close to one of the buffalo as I have ever been before. He just moseyed on across the road. I was able to convince my FIL to stop at 3 cache locations. I found 2 of the 3. It was fun.
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Day 26 of Preparedness: Did some organizing on our Faraday Box. It's really kind of turned into a junk box over the past few months. Things that we would bug out with, but not items that need protected from solar flares or EMPS. I also had a couple of things to add to it anyways. Got to get some rest for tomorrow. Oh, we finally got the part in for the television and they installed it very quickly! YAY!
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Day 27 of Preparedness: Exercise. Just get it out of the way now. The day we've been anxious for. We will embark on a 20 mile country road trip...on bicycles. We will stop at 3 Geocaches and my Aunts house along the way. If we have enough time, we will stop at 5 geocaches. Me and the girls had to wait for DH to get home, so I did get a couple of things done this morning.
We made it! We had a small detour while looking for geocaches. 20 miles on country roads. Had to do the last 2 miles in the dark. Luckily we've got lights on the bikes. It was HARD. Never be ashamed of walking your bike up the hill...well that's what they tell me. Even our youngest DD is tired from the trip, and all she did was ride! Our bikes are in a pile in the front yard. It's barely 8pm...time for bed.
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Day 28 of Preparedness: SUNDAY! Church then the Lake. Our riding group was very small today. It seems to be getting smaller by the week. I can't believe how hard it is to get people to ride, that want to! I'm disappointed that so many people want to get in better shape, but don't want to do the effort for it. Several also think that riding a bike is seriously hard, but it's not...unless you ride with us on weekdays down country roads. :p We got home and I went ahead sliced and dehydrated some onions. It was hard on the noses, but at least I got it done. 5 trays worth of onions will turn into about 1/2 of a gallon dehydrated.The fans are going strong and the windows are all open.
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Day 29 of Preparedness: Today was just blah. I didn't feel like doing anything, anywhere. Just gonna cook supper and watch some television. :)
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Day 30 of Preparedness: Well it's the last day and I've gotten a lot of things accomplished that I wanted to do. I've still got several unfinished things around the house that needs done, but the weather just hasn't cooperated much this month. October is soon to bring much cooler weather. Being able to open all the windows while cooking or cleaning, sure makes it a lot easier to sit in the kitchen using the canner for a couple of hours. Over the course of the month I did many other things. Things that I don't really classify as Preparedness tasks, mostly because we do them all year long. This month was more focused on the To Do list. I made some coffee soap for my Aunt, and another 5 gal batch of liquid laundry soap, sorted and stored my canning jars, labeled the ceiling joists in the attic to say what is stored in the totes under them then cleaned the attic. Our Church also had a Garage Sale to help raise money for the kids for Falls Creek next year. I've had that pile of stuff in the corner for months now, and was very happy to finally see it go. Refilled several buckets of food (sugar, macaroni noodles, flour) and then my quart jars of spices were a bit low. These are things that we do throughout the year. Making prepping a part of your everyday life is very key. It's not just a once a year, or once a month thing. You got to do it all the time. We actually don't consider ourselves as Preppers anymore, rather we go more for Modern Homesteaders. :p----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well I hope that you enjoyed my Preparedness tasks. I hope that you stopped and spent some time today getting prepared too. Learn it. Live it. Love it.
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