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The Record Heat Waves

With the record heat waves and drought across the nation, the American Preppers Network hopes that you have been prepared.  Disasters of any type can and do happen anywhere, at anytime, and without warning.  We are now witnessing and will continue to witness a prime example of how one disaster can cause a chain reaction leading to other disasters.  Here are some potential disasters to be aware of as a result of the drought and heat waves.


1) Water shortages.  Water is the number 1 most important necessity to survival.  The average human can only survive 3 days without water, and even less in a heat wave.  I hope you've stored some.  If the water system shuts down or does not have enough, you could turn on the tap only to have a few drips.  If you run into a situation where there is not enough municipal water supply to your home, start looking for other sources of stored water.

• Your hot water tank may have 30 - 50 gallons of water stored. 
• The top supply tank to your toilette is typically clean water that you can use.
• Your plumbing in your house could have a few gallons.  Open a higher faucet in your house as in a shower, sink, or upstairs source to relieve pressure, then open a lower outside faucet to retrieve water from your plumbing system.

Don't short change yourself on water!  Make sure you have plenty for personal consumption.  If you stop sweating, that means you are dehydrated!   

Got Water?

2) Heat.  Heat poses many risks, including but not limited to:

• Heat Stroke.  Watch family members closely, especially the elderly, watch for slurred speech and disorientation.  When in doubt, call for help.  Time lost is brain lost.  Never leave pets or children in a vehicle, and keep them out of the direct sun.  Drink lots of water.
• Fire.  Fires are much more common in the heat.  Things dry out and become more flammable.  Keep dry brush and trash picked up.  Do not store fuel in or around your house, and keep well ventilated in a cool area out of the sun.  Keep grass cut short, especially if your city is rationing water and not allowing watering of lawns.  Do not store any flammables in the direct sun or in your attic.  
• Vehicle breakdowns. Avoid driving unless it's absolutely necessary, or drive at nite. Check your fluid levels and make sure your oil and coolant are topped off.  Bring extra oil and coolant with you in case you need it.  DO NOT top off your fuel tank!  Make sure your tires are property inflated and not over or under inflated.  Bring extra water with you in case you do break down.  Drive with the A/C off when going uphill.  Watch your vehicles tempature when climbing grades.  If your car starts to overheat when going uphill, pull over at a safe location to let it cool.  Check to make sure your thermostat is working before you make your trip.

3) Blackouts.   The nations grids are maxed out.  With everyone using A/C, expect rolling blackouts.  If you are in a blackout, you can wrap sleeping bags around your refrigerator or freezer to help insulate it.  To conserve power, only use what you absolutely need.  Keep lights turned off and keep your A/C set to the warmest temperature that you can safely stand.  Do you have a generator?  Be prepared to use it.  Do you have plenty of non-perishable food stored?  If there is an extended blackout, you may need it.  Stores and gas stations will be shut down in a blackout.  Do you have an emergency battery powered radio and flashlights?

4) Food Prices   Expect food prices to increase.  Especially meat.  Many ranchers are butchering all of there livestock as there is not enough food and water to care for them, this means shortages in the future.  Produce crops are drying up. Prices of corn, wheat and other grains will increase.  Even produce grown in unaffected areas may increase in price as well due to demand.  If the blackouts are too severe, stores, gas stations and truck stops may close down temporarily disrupting the supply chain and preventing food from making it to the stores.

Stay safe during this heat wave and dought.  This is a serious and potentially devastating national disaster.


If you have tips, ideas, news, videos or pictures that you wish to share regarding this heat wave you can submit your article to americanprepper@yahoo.com.  If your article is chosen we will post it on your states preppers network blog.  Top articles will get posted on APN.  The top article of the week will win a free flashlantern valued at $49.95 (made in the USA).  Articles must be submitted before 7/29.

Feel free to copy and repost this article in it's entirety.  Credit source as AmericanPreppersNetwork.com

Here are some free helpful pdf files to download

Fire and Heat Waves
- ARC - Are You Ready - Fire

- ARC - Are You Ready - Heat Wave

- ARC - Are You Ready - Wildfires

- Fact Sheet: Fires

- Fact Sheet: Fire Safe

- WildFires

Water
- ARC - Food and Water in Emergency

- Emergency Disinfection of Drinking Water 

- How To Make A Solar Still (Plastic Cover)

- Purification Of Water On A Small Scale 

- Simple Solar Still For The Production Of Distilled Water

- Slow Sand Filters

- Water Purification

- Water Treatment

Fire Safety 

- Fighting Fire 

- Fire Safety

Get More Free Downloads here:
http://preppers.info/Free_Downloads.html

PRAYER REQUEST FOR A FELLOW PREPPER

I hope you all are enjoying the warm weather and your gardens are growing beautifully. On a much sadder note, a fellow blogger, Gen, from the Illinois Preppers Site has come upon a serious illness. She has been hospitalized with a brain aneurism and I am requesting that we lift her and her family up in prayer.

According to her facebook page, she has successfully come out of surgery and has been placed in ICU, is still on a vent and recovery looks good. She will undergo more tests in the coming days. I will update on the Ohio site if anything changes.

Gen has shared her knowledge and homesteading skills for the novice and experienced preppers and/or homesteaders and is always there to give advice and answer questions.

Please remember Gen in your prayers that the Lord will restore her to good health and give strength to her husband and children during this difficult time.

Shelly
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A Most Interesting Conversation

I was at the local farm store this weekend to pick up a few plants when I stopped and talked to the owner.  Okay, he's my neighbor, and my cousin, but a farmer and the owner too.  We ended up having the most illuminating conversation. 

It all started out over a tray of sweet potato plants.

I was picking "D's" brain about raising sweet potatoes, specifically for keeping them through the winter, when sort of out of nowhere he says "Andie, don't believe what you're hearing on TV and reading in the paper.  There's not going to be a grain crop this year."

HUH?  

He said Ohio's grain is 7% planted and the cut-off date for planting is little more than a week away.  Only high grounds are planted and low lying fields are still too swampy to get large equipment into. 

He talked about the fact that there won't be a crop along the Mississippi for several years possibly, because the flooding washed away the topsoil and left behind a layer of thick mud and debris.  Tens of thousands of acres of prime farmland, perfect for growing wheat, soy, corn, cotton were washed away, along with the living of several dozen farm families.
 

The drought in the western states, Asia and Europe came up, and that much of the world would be doggedly looking to buy as much grain as possible and the impact it would have on the already rising food prices.  Limited grain crops are going to drive the price of EVERYTHING through the roof.  

And then he talked about the cheery reports he hears out of the media, specifically from government departments.  He said there's little to be cheery about and that this one bad season is going to affect grain prices for the next 2-3 years.  Or longer.

I can't fully explain the impact of this conversation because you all don't know "D".  He's very quiet.  Very reserved.  Slow to give his opinion.  Conversations with "D" are normally very short, kept to basic, polite "hey how are you, how are the kids?" type of talk.  Once in a while, we talk gardening, but that's the extent of exchanges with "D".  To hear him talk about what's coming around the bend, that was a real AHA moment for me; not because it's a lot of new information, but because someone else is seeing it for what it is.

We talked food storage for a few minutes and I told him that we'd been hitting the commodities hard; wheat, sugar, coffee and chocolate, at which he laughed and promised not to tell his wife where our chocolate stash is located.  

Then I bought a bunch of extra veggie plants.  If his plan was to increase garden plant sales, it worked on me!

I just can't emphasize enough the importance of a deep larder this year.  Everything is going to go up this year, everything.  We're not an oil-based economy, we're a grain-based economy and everything we eat is somehow tied to grain.  Our clothes are tied to crops.  Our fuel is tied to crops.  And when those crops aren't available, we're going to feel that impact hard and fast.    

Pick up some extra food for long term storage.  Even if it's freakin' Ramen noodles and Spam.  Whatever.  Just get some food in your pantry while you can afford it.  If you've been thinking about buying wheat, corn, etc for storage, don't wait!  Do it now while grain is still available and affordable.  The local Walmart store carries 25# bags of white or red wheat for about $12-$13, so there's no excuses for putting it off!  And bear in mind, that shortages in wheat, soy and corn could lead to shortages in other grains as consumers turn to oats, barley, rye for substitutes.  If you start every morning with a bowl of oats, pick up an extra package (or 4) and put them away for darker days.     

Buy an extra pair of blue jeans while you can afford them.  If you need bedding, fabric, towels, look into it sooner than later!  If you have small children as I do, watch for sales on the next-size-up clothing.  They'll prove invaluable later on. 

If you need straw for your garden, buy it now.  No wheat crop = no straw.

Pick up extra seeds for next year.  Sounds like they may be necessary.

Safely store some fuel for cold weather.

Get ready to prove your mettle.

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Pasta Steal....Lost Post?

I'm not sure what happened, but blogger was down for the better part of 24 hours and now my last post is missing.  What the heck? 

Anyway, in case you didn't read it, go here  for coupons for Ronzoni pasta....$1.00 off 2 boxes.   Then get thee to the local Kroger store where they're on sale for $.49 a box.......and you can get them free with the coupon!  My store had a limited selection, but I still got out of there with 12 boxes of free pasta.  And free is the best way to stock that pantry,  yes?

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$6/Gallon Gas?

As I watched the early show this morning, the anchor did the obligatory "stocks are up, all is good with the world" segment, followed by something that really shocked me.  Apparently the dollar index is at a 3 year low and some experts are expecting $6/gal gas by summertime. 

I was speechless.

I'd heard suggestions that $5/gal gas was right around the corner, and felt begrudgingly resigned to paying that price.  Now hearing expectations of $6 gas, I long for the days of $5 gas! 

Maybe that's how this ploy works? 

Step 1.  Introduce a bad idea.

Step 2.  Introduce a WORSE idea.

Step 3.  Suddenly idea #1 isn't so bad.

I told a friend last week that I feel like we're at a tipping point, our economy and our country, that is.  That we're balanced at the apex of a pyramid built on false money, inflated stocks and misinformation. 

You can only balance for so long. 

Then you slip.

I'm truly afraid we're about to slip. 

As a wife, a mama, a neighbor, I hope that you're putting food away.  Paying off debt.  Planning your garden.  Brushing up on skills.  Taking baby steps toward a simpler life.  These are the things that will make the difference between surviving and thriving. 

Andrea   


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Off The Grid News

Hey there, Buckeyes!  Hope this post finds you well and enjoying the lovely spring weather.  We've been quite busy around the homestead lately, trying to get things ready for planting and assessing damage from a rough, rough winter.  Thankfully we came through mostly unscathed, with only a few downed branches and a patch of strawberries that didn't survive. 

I just wanted to share with you a cool website I found this morning...it may be old news to some of you, but it's new and fresh and exciting to me!   http://www.offthegridnews.com/   Off The Grid News is sort of Mother Earth News meets FoxNews, if that makes sense!  There are lots of very practical articles with useful information on topics like gardening, self-defense, education with a bit of tin-foil hat stuff thrown in for good measure!  Whether you enjoy the politics or not, there is much information to be gleaned from this site! 

I hope you find it as useful as I did...and make sure you sign up for the newsletter to get the free e-book download "Food Shock". 

Best,
Andrea 

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Survival Giveaway

I see so many great giveaways during my daily WWW browsing...if it's okay with you, I'll start posting them here so more people have the opportunity to win.  Heaven knows I rarely win ANYTHING LOL. 

Anyway, Pete at Patriots Against the NWO has been doing some marathon giveaways of late...and the prizes are wonderful...especially if you're a prepper.  This week he's giving away a book called "SURVIVE! The Disaster, Crisis and Emergency Handbook".  Here's the book description, straight from Pete's site:


"Book Description:
Disasters strike within a moment's notice. How do you protect your family and yourself? Surviving the first 72 hours following any disaster is critical to your family's safety and security. Jerry Ahern, best-selling author of the post apocalyptic series, The Survivalist, goes beyond science fiction and shows you how to survive any impending disaster.

Through straight-forward advice and compelling photos, Ahern takes you step-by-step and shows you what could possibly happen when terrorists attack, when hurricanes and tornado's hit ground, when floods and wildfires ravage the earth, and when the ever-growing threat of ecological hazards occur.

The need to prepare is real. Disasters affect power grids and disrupt emergency services forcing people to make their own decisions--decisions that could be a matter of life and death!

Survive teaches you everything you need to know in order to survive any disaster and prepare you for any emergency."
Make the time and get over there!  What a great prize!


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Thoughts On Heirloom Skills

This post could so easily turn into a rant.

That's not my intention, but it could.  Just saying...........

The past few days, the subject of heirloom skills has been a hot topic in my house.  You know, heirloom skills, plain old basic life skills that used to be passed down from one generation to the next, much like Great-Granny's English tea pot.  These skills were learned by little girls at the elbows of their mothers and grandmothers and when the little girl was grown, she could apply that skill in her own life and pass it down to her daughters.  (I say daughters, mothers, grandmothers, but you could just as easily replace those terms with sons, fathers, grandfathers.)  I remember doing that; learning plain old basic life skills by working next to my mom and grandmother and my favorite aunt Vickie. 

I remember springtimes spent in the garden, watering transplants with buckets of water brought up from the creek.  Summers were spent juicing, snapping, shucking, milling, canning and freezing in the cinder block summer kitchen.  The wild black raspberries ripened in mid- to late-summer and oh how thrilling it was when Papaw climbed over the farm fence and disappeared for an hour picking berries!  It seems like he'd always come back with gallons and gallons of fresh black raspberries that we'd turn into jellies, cobblers and freeze for winter.  At least the ones that made it to the kitchen.  A fair number of them never made it beyond the walk back from the orchard. 

In fall, there were gorgeous fruit harvests of apples and peaches followed by peeling, saucing, buttering and canning.  I remember one year having brown hands from all the peaches I helped Mom peel and turn into peach butter.  I was about 13 and I was so embarrassed of my brown hands and stained fingernails!  I wasn't so embarrassed when it came time to top mom's homemade biscuits with peach butter!  That was some good eating right there. 

Wintertime was the greatest because all our efforts came inside.  Thanksgiving was a huge affair, with a full spread of food, all homemade and much of it homegrown.  There was no instant this and just add water that.  It was full-fat, full-calorie, full-flavor and made in bulk to accommodate all the aunts, uncles, cousins and grandchildren.  I remember homemade gifts and Christmas cakes baked from scratch.  And homemade toffee candies made with black walnuts that we gathered from the tree next door in Mr. Adam's yard.  I remember homemade peach and apple pies every year for Mamaw's birthdays, made from homegrown peaches and locally grown apples.   I remember Mom crocheting baby blankets and Mamaw making quilts when her old ones wore through.  And when spring came around again, Easter was a huge celebration, with homemade cakes and candies.  Our lives revolved around the seasons and our time was spent close to home.  And with few exceptions, I cannot imagine a more idyllic childhood. 

Somewhere over the past couple generations, that's all changed.

Life is spent at a hurried pace, going from one activity to another.  From school to sports to community functions to take-out restaurant then back home again to hurriedly get a few scant hours of sleep in order to start all over again.  Not that there's anything inherently wrong with those activities, but home and the family unit have been neglected in the process.  Hours spent together in the kitchen learning to cook whole foods have been swapped for fast food in order to free up time for watching TV.  Hard work and sweat in the garden have been traded in exchange for manicures and shopping sprees.  We don't produce anything; we simply consume.  We rack up debt to free up our time and then poison ourselves with convenience foods because we're simply too tired to cook.  What the frig??????

Now what we have is a generation of Americans who aren't capable of survival.  I don't mean survival as in Bear Grylls and roughing in the wilderness with only a package of matches and a tarp.  I mean cooking foods in their most basic form and mending a pair of jeans to last through the winter.  I'm talking about nourishing our family's tummies and spirits with simple hearty fare that we grew through our own labors.  Scrapping together a thick, fluffy, warm blanket to snuggle under on a cold winter day.   The skills of 3-4 generations ago are long-forgotten and have been replaced by mind-numbing, budget-killing, body-sickening hobbies and habits.

We're now enslaved by convenience.  Do you realize that?  What was once pleasant and convenient has now become a necessity and big businesses are laughing all the way to the bank.  Processed, packaged foods have become a staple because we've forgotten basic cooking skills.  Manufactured clothing has become a necessity because we've forgotten the ability to sew.  We're reliant on goods shipped from overseas because we've outsourced our skills for convenience and leisure.  We don't know how to sew, quilt, cook, work leather, make soap, tap trees, heal ourselves with herbs,  raise livestock, brew ales, make yogurt, construct simple furniture.  We absolutely refuse to make do or do without...that would be beneath our dignity.  After all, we're Americans and we're entitled to a certain quality of life.  And so we're now slaves to big business and mass consumerism; oh and the debt that goes along with it.  In so many ways we're like children; reliant upon someone else to take care of our most basic needs. 

We make fun of folks on welfare and look down our noses at entitlements, but honestly, are we any different?  We are nearly 100% dependent on other people to feed us, cloth us, heal us and give us a warm place to sleep.  The question is, where does this all end?  At what point do we learn again to take care of ourselves?  At what point do we free ourselves from bondage and use the skills of our forefathers in order to provide for ourselves?

If you don't know these skills, honestly, I'm not picking on you.  Our generation is the product of a crazy environment and an ever-maddening culture, but that's no excuse not to move beyond what we know and develop skills that will enrich our lives and that of our family.  There are so many resources available now to people who only look for them.  County extension offices offer courses in gardening and canning.  Local hardware stores teach classes on basic plumbing and carpentry.  Family-run greenhouses and garden centers can teach you the basics of planting a garden or using herbs.  Craft and fabric stores often teach elementary sewing.  And if none of that pans out, there are surrogate grannies to be found everywhere who would love to trade their skills for an afternoon with a captive audience!  There is a wealth of information to be had online, you just have to take the time to find it.  And old books, they're the greatest at teaching basic skills.  Watch garage sales and auctions for old home economics books, pre-WWII 'receipt' books, Girl/Boy Scout manuals.  They can be bought for practically nothing but are full of essential information.

Our culture is so big on the acquisition of stuff, especially if it promises to make life easier, but now it's time to turn away from that and work on the acquisition of knowledge and relationships.  It's time to build a home and a family, to develop our minds and expand our culture beyond what pop-media tells us is trendy.  Can you think of a better time to start than right now? 

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Ohio Preppers Roll Call - All Preppers Please Check In

The American Preppers Network is conducting a network-wide roll call.  Whether you are a member or not please check in and let us know what you are doing to prepare.

This is a good opportunity to network with other preppers near you.

Ohio Preppers, to respond to the roll call please follow this link:
http://americanpreppersnetwork.net/viewtopic.php?f=401&t=9277

• Reply to the Roll Call and let us know what you have been doing to prepare.

If you are not yet a member of the forum you can register here for free:
http://americanpreppersnetwork.net/ucp.php?mode=register

C&E Gun Shows Responds to Columbus, Ohio Mayor Michael Coleman

Cam Edwards talks to Annette Elliott, who responds to Columbus, Ohio Mayor Michael Coleman, who called her gun shows out in his State of the City Address - NRA News - February 24, 2011 - http://www.NRANews.com



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Gardening and Firearms

I was browsing my favorite blogs this morning and found this post on Survival Mom (reprinted with permission from Backyard Food Production) and felt it crucial that everyone in the prepping/homesteading community read it. 

The long and short of the article is that a local shopkeeper declared he would never need to grow his own food and slammed a handgun down on the counter to prove it.  In a Schumer-esque situation, he'll just take what he needs from those of us who do grow food. 

Oh that's original. 

I know his line of thinking isn't new or different.  It's no real surprise.  There may even be some among you who think the same way.

What does surprise me is that this shopkeeper hasn't connected the dots and figured out that we gardeners didn't have to trade in our firearms in order to afford a tiller.  I'm surprised that in his compartamentalized little mind he thinks that you can EITHER own a gun OR grow a garden, but you can't do BOTH. 

I mean really.

Does he think that we're going to spend all spring and summer working our fingers to the bone and then stand by and watch this lazy lump raid our garden?

Does he think we only keep our great-granddaddy's Brown Bess around for dispatching rodents?

Please. 

I have 3 thoughts on this topic: 

-If you think you're going to steal from my garden, you'd better carry something larger than a handgun.

-I know exactly how far it is from the back bedroom window to the edge of the garden...and I know it for a reason.

-That sign in the garden that reads "IF YOU CAN READ THIS, YOU'RE IN RANGE" isn't there for decoration.  Consider it a warning shot.

I'm trying not to get worked up about this article, but it just sickens me.  I don't know if it's just the nature of mankind to take what one wants or if it's a by-product of our entitlement culture....either way, it infuriates me. 

Care to share your thoughts?     


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Preparing for the Family

Posts have been sort of scant and far between lately, and for that, I apologize.  A beloved family member  is in failing health, nearing the end of her journey, and needless to say, I've been distracted.

But as I've said before, anything can be a learning experience; an opportunity to gain wisdom, to unite and love each other the way our Creator intended.  The dying experience is no different.  It's a chance to reflect, reevaluate your situation and your intent, to see where you can make changes, improvements, new goals.

Here's what I've learned.

What has become blatantly obvious to me in the past weeks is how unprepared I am to deal with crowds, especially of the related variety.  I remember once in AP Senior English class, my teacher wrote an evaluation of me that stated:

"Nice girl.  Kind to her mother.  Comes unglued in crowds."

I thought he was joking, but nearly 20 years later, I can see the truth in his words.  I do come unglued in crowds.  I'd like to think that I'm calmer, more secure and more adaptable than the 17 year old girl he wrote that about, but I can't honestly say that's true.  Crowds still unhinge me.  Even if I know them.  Even if I love them. 

Recently, while preparing meals for my father-in-law in a less-than-full, only slighted-crowded house, I could feel my stress levels rising.  In addition to the normal busy-ness of preparing a filling meal, there were people looking over my shoulder, asking what I was doing and what I was making.  In a desire to help, they were behind me, in front of me, next to me, between me and the sink, me and the fridge, me and the prep area.  Bumping into me.  Trying to help with dirty dishes.  As much as I appreciated their offers to help,  it drove me insane.  I was stressed mentally from the onset, and the physical closeness and constant activity around me only added to that stress. 

Mr. "A" was right. 

I am a nice girl, kind to my mother, but I come unglued in crowds. 

As Americans, we like our space.  We need our space.  We feel entitled to our space.  And just the thought of a bunch of people crowded into my house in a post-SHTF situation causes me to break out in hives.  I'm completely unprepared emotionally/mentally to handle a bunch of people invading my space.  That is obviously something I need to work on as the likelihood of the family piling into one home for an extended period of time is great.

I've also come to realize how unprepared I am to handle family and crowds in terms of real estate.  I have a nice home; a modest 1970's ranch with a partial basement that's partially finished.  It's not fancy, but it's comfortable with good bones and updated utilities...and believe it or not, it's worth what we paid for it.  (There's one for the record book!)  I have food socked away, along with water and backup sources of light and heat.  We have enough room to be comfortable yet cozy.  I'm prepared to take care of my husband and children.

But when an out-of-town family member needed a place to stay during a weekend visit, I was sent scrambling to make provisions for him.  I had no extra bedrooms.  No extra beds.  No air-mattresses.  A couple extra blankets, but not much in the way of pillows.  I didn't have a plan for combining rooms.  The prospect of one extra person in our home sent me reeling.  Had this been a true, excrement-hit-the-ventilation situation, in which my brother and his young family or my husband's aging parents needed a safe place to stay, I can't honestly say I would have been prepared to take them in.  In a short-term emergency, a pallet on the living room floor would work.  But in a long-term situation, that would get tiresome and stressfull very quickly.

I know that I'm thinking about these situations, perhaps, in incorrect terms.  I'm thinking about them in comfortable, safe, entitled American terms.  In post-apocalyptic, 'survival-by-any-means' terms, a pallet on the floor and bumping into a cousin while cooking would be nothing.  It would be a very pleasant inconvenience when faced with the alternatives.  But here and now, while times are reasonably good and fairly stable, this is the time to prepare for family members and worst case scenarios.  A little forethought now may save a lot of time, grief and stress later on.

In order to be better prepared for an emergency, I'm giving thought to dealing with crowds of family.  I'm talking to my kids about sharing rooms.  (I know.  Gasp.  Spoiled American kids sharing a room.  Oh the hardship.)  I've discussed with my husband the logistics of bunking our family into one bedroom, both for space and for security.  We've added a queen-size air bed to our preps, which in a pinch could easily sleep 2 adults and a kid or two.  We've talked about alternative sleeping arrangements, such as using the window seat for a child's bed.   The possibility of sleeping and eating in shifts came up.  And I'm also tossing around the addition of a sofa-bed to the basement family room, for both sleeping and waking comfort.  All these plans could help take care of the 'real estate' aspect of family preparedness.

But how does one prep mentally for a family invasion?  What can you do to prepare yourself for the 'new normal' that would involve combining households and giving up your precious elbow room?  Believe it or not, I found only one article on the entire world-wide-web that in some means deals with close-quarter living.  One. Article.

So I ask the pros:  How have you prepared, both mentally and spatially, to deal with crowds, extended family and close living quarters? 

In His Service,
Andrea 





          

        

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Canning Beans

This lull between the seasons is about to kill me.  I think wintertime is absolutely the worst, most difficult time of the year for preppers and homesteaders like me. 

At first it's pleasant.

You spend spring starting seeds and planting plants and getting the yard into shape after a long, cold winter.

You spend summer tilling and weeding and otherwise keeping the yard and garden tidy, awaiting your first fruits of the year.  And there's the lovely family stuff, like summer vacations and homemade ice cream and fire works and fireflies.  Ahhhh summer.

You spend fall pickling and dehydrating and freezing and jellying and canning anything that you can lay hands on, in addition to winterizing the yard and garden in preparation for cold weather.  And then there's the push to get ready for the holidays.

So yeah, those first lazy weeks of winter are pleasant.  A chance to rest mind and body after a busy year.  A chance to hibernate and enjoy the fruit of your labors.  And then the boredom sets in.  The restlessness.  The listlessness.  The never-ending days of snow-ice-thaw-snow-ice-thaw where the only respite for the soul is the occasional seed catalog that lets you daydream about spring.  I feel so very unproductive during the wintertime.  As I said last week, you can only bake so much bread and cook so many casseroles before you want to throw yourself off a bridge...don't worry...I'm not going to throw myself off a bridge.  All the bridges in my area are so slick with ice, they're closed to foot traffic :)

So this week, I've decided I NEED to do something, both for sanity and prepping purposes...and canning beans seems to be the logical choice.  I have lots of beans, I have lots of empty jars and lots of free time on my hands.  Beans it is.

I try to keep a few cans of beans on hand at all times.  A can or two of black beans, a can of baked beans and a few cans of pork and beans are normally enough to sustain us.  Baked beans are a fast side dish or even a filling main dish.  Black beans make for great/quick wraps, burritos, enchiladas.  And pork and beans make a great baked beans and franks dish for cold, winter nights.   But recently the prices have really gone up.  Plain old, off-brand pork and beans are approaching a dollar a can and baked beans can easily run 2 bucks.  That's insane!  Time to can my own! 

The Ball Blue Book I won last fall  from Angela at Food Storage and Survival has a couple great recipes for home-canning beans.  There's a recipe for pork and beans, one for baked beans as well as instructions for canning plain old beans such as black and chickpeas.  The directions seem fairly straight-forward.  You sort your beans.  You soak your beans.  You boil/bake them for a certain amount of time.  You transfer them to a canning jar leaving an inch of head space.  You season them accordingly.  You cap them and  process them: generally 1hour 15 for pints and 1hour 30 for quarts (of course this varies depending on the recipe.  Follow the recipe!)  Yes, that's a long time to run the old pressure canner, but if the canner is full and I can come away with 8-9 quarts of beans, then I'm way ahead and I save a LOT of money in the long run.

What I love about the idea of canning dried beans is the ability to add/substitute the seasonings of my choice.  Garlic, onions and peppers go a long way towards spicing up a rather bland protein like beans.  Plus I don't have to worry about what various companies are adding to the beans, like HFCS, e. coli and mouse droppings.

Another reason to can beans is to encourage rotation of food stores.  While dried beans DO have a long shelf life, from what I read, after a few years the beans won't rehydrate.  So no matter how long you soak 'em, no matter how long you cook 'em, they simply won't soften up.  Canning is a great way to rotate dried beans out of your storage and into your daily meals.  Just replace what you home-can with a fresh supply of dried beans!


And lastly, home-canned beans are a great quick meal option.  If you live out in the boonies, home-canned meals like baked beans are a great 'fast food' option.  Let's face it...40 minutes to an hour for a round-trip to get a take out meal is NOT fast food.  And even with the addition of meats, brown sugar and sauces, home-canned beans are far more healthy than any deli meal you might pick up from the grocery.  But the best reason to can your own beans: it's a quick, filling meal when the power goes out and you can't spend hours cooking those dried, stored beans.  They can be eaten cold straight from the can or warmed over a chaffing dish or a camp stove.   

Pretty compelling reasons to can your own beans, wouldn't you say?  So I reiterate: beans it is!

Have you tried home-canning beans?

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Working Through The Storm

We're on day 2 of the mother of all Ohio ice storms...at least that's what the meteorologist said this morning.  Although today it's not so much the ice as the 30 mph sustained winds and the 50 mph gusts.  Ah sheesh, I love Ohio living.  In true prepper form, we had some quick-fix meals, a full kerosene stove and plenty of clean clothes in case of a power outage, but so far we've managed to stay powered up.  

Keeping occupied has been the most difficult task as our usual quiet routines have been thrown into chaos.  We normally don't make trips into town mid-week, but just knowing that we CAN'T go anywhere because of the near inch-thick coating of ice, that's making me crazy. 

So we're all feeling just a little cabin-feverish today.   To keep hands and minds busy, I've spent the past 2 days making soup, baking bread and sowing seeds.  The kids slept in, played arts and crafts and have enjoyed Wii time whenever possible.  But you can only bake so much bread and play so much Wii.  All this leads me to wonder what would happen if there truly was a SHTF scenario and we were quarantined or under curfew or whatever. 

How would I occupy the kids?

How would I occupy myself? 

How could I keep myself from going stark-raving mad and taking everyone in the house with me~?~

I'm feeling compelled to stock up on more activity books, age appropriate games, puzzles and educational toys that only come out on special occasions, such as blizzards and epidemics.  I've also been giving thought to some beginner-skills activities that would keep the kids engaged during a long winter storm.  My 5 year old daughter wants to learn to sew, so maybe some plastic canvas and yarn, just to learn the general idea?  And my 6 year old son wants to learn how to cook, so possibly a child's cookbook with simple recipes and instructions?

What plans do you have in place to entertain and educate the kids when you're snowbound?

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