After-Christmas thoughts

Well, Christmas is over. Hope everyone got lots of gifts, and practical ones at that. In our immediate family, we gave clothes, like socks and underwear, plus a few toys. The kids got toys, but the adults got all practical gifts from us. My Father-in-law and Mother-in-law have their heads buried in the sand about the coming economic diseaster. I hope I'm wrong, but I'm going to do what the Bible tells me: don't test the Lord, and always be prepared. Now, no, I can't find a specific verse for that, but I know it's there. I believe that people who don't do anything to prepare, and are resigned that it's "The Lord's Will, we'll be taken care of," are testing the Lord in his ability to take care of them. What if his way of taking care of you is to make you open your eyes, see what's going on around you, and put away extra provisions? Don't come knocking on my door, because I'll tell you the story of the ant and the grasshopper.

But, with that being said, I gave my in-laws a box of gifts, one for each of the Twelve Days of Christmas. I mentioned it in a previous post. He opened it, and kind of tossed it aside. I'm not sure he understood, or thought it was just food and gave it to his daughter. I don't know, but I did my part by trying to open his eyes. I'm not responsible for his decisions, just letting him know how I think it will be.

We gave mostly practical gifts to family, as well. Throughout the year, I had been shopping at thrift stores for little things I knew they would like. Most in my family are good with that. My mother-in-law thinks if you didn't spend a lot of money on her, you don't love her. She doesn't care if you only buy one gift, as long as you spent a lot of money. I didn't have a lot of money for her when I have 2 kids.

My sister-in-law and her husband are currently unemployed and living with his grandma (and his sister, her husband and daughter) in a 3 bedroom house. With 2 dogs and 2 cats. We all went together and got them a food box. She doesn't cook because she was forced to clean up after her mother (plus do all the housework), and being the "housewife" causes sort of a PTSD reaction. She makes convenience foods...like mac and cheese in a box, hamburger helper, suddenly salad, etc. I think that's fine. She sometimes just wants something with her and her husband, which I think is also fine. So we filled the box with box dinners mostly. I'm so glad Aldi's moved in to Texas. Our money went a lot further. I guess it makes up for not being able to get an Angle gift off the Angle tree. (Our church posts names of people who need toys for their kids, or clothes, etc. and you can support someone in the church that way.) We also filled their gas tank and my husband (the mechanic) put in all the fluids it needed. He said it needed 2 quarts of oil and power steering fluid. That's about the best we can do for them.

One tip that we have come to see as a tradition. We had to tell the new addition to the family about it. When you open a present in the Smith family, don't look at the box and say, "Oh, I got a (fill in the blank)." We reuse boxes all the time. We have a steak box that has been passed back and forth for about 5 years. If we buy something for ourselves, and think it's a good sized box, we'll keep it until Christmas.

I'm going to tell a little secret here: I usually shop for myself, tell my husband what he got me and if he has time he wraps it. I get what I want, and he's not rushed. It worked out well this year. I got a new blender that crushes ice. I had paid for half of a Vitamix, but when we moved out, my Mother-in-law refused to let me have it, and kept a lot of other things I paid half of. Now she uses it to chop nuts and that's it. Sunday morning, I made smoothies in it for breakfast, and it works great! Love it! I wonder if I could make applesauce with it? I'll have to check out different features some time.

Hope everyone's Christmas was good.

More re-using

I'm going to talk a bit about what I've done in the past few months on food storage.

I at first went out and bought a package of 10 "Banker's Boxes." You can find them at Walmart, which is where I got them. I'm not sure of where else you can get them. My husband says it's sort of self defeating to spend money on storage when you could have bought more food, but I think it makes it store nice and neat. We don't really have shelves. I have one shelf rack out in the garage and it has cooking things that I don't use very often, like the cake pans, roasting pan, etc. I didn't want to store the cans in the garage, because we live in Texas and it gets HOT. I'm not sure what the heat does to canned goods.

So, I bought Banker's boxes. I have 7 stacked in the bottom of my pantry. I mentioned in the previous post about the can rollers that I bought, and a couple I made, but they're too difficult to get right. I also took a soda 12-pack and turned it into a sort of roller. I first opened it the way they say to, at one end where the perforations are. Then at the other end I cut a hole large enough for whatever can I was putting in it. The first one, I put in the 29 oz cans of pinto beans. The next, I put in various cans of canned fruit. They're a little larger than my shelf, so I put them at the end near the wall.

Here, let me describe my pantry. It was originally a small reach in pantry with 2 bi-fold doors. We don't have a lot of room in the little nook it's in because the washer and dryer is there, too. So my husband removed the doors and I hung a curtain over that space. Currently the curtains are lace, but I plan to get some that aren't so sheer. This way, I can use the floor and come out into the space a bit if I need to.

I'm also saving ice cream buckets to put dried beans, rice, and my bread flour in. I used to be able to get my bread flour (a gluten free mix) in a 25 lb bag. I can no longer do that, but I have the recipe. It just doesn't come out as well. Gluten free baking is much more difficult. I froze the ice cream buckets for 48 hours, and then stored it. I have heard that it kills any "bugs" that may be in it. I guess we'll find out. I'm going to go ahead and rotate it through my regular use stuff, and if an emergency comes, oh well. I have the recipe. I'll stock the flours I need for the recipe.

Now that my Christmas tree is up, and the presents are under the tree and not in my bedroom closet, I can store more stuff in there.

I think I mentioned the site I found in the last post. It's www.foodstoragemadeeasy.net. On that site they have a "12 Days of Christmas" to introduce someone to food storage. We've been talking to my husband's parents, and they frankly aren't very interested in it. I decided to put all the 12 Days of Christmas items into one box and give it to my Father-in-law. I thought about giving it to my Mother-in-law, but she doesn't appreciate things like that from me. My FIL would be more receptive if he saw it all laid out. I may purchase the eBook for them, haven't decided.

So, more on food storage as I learn it.

Reusing

I've mentioned before that my husband scraps out things. Well, when we first moved into this house, his brother gave him one of those really big, big screen TV's. It was a 65 inch, but projection, so it was also about 2 foot thick. When we got it, his brother told us something was going out in it, and every now and then the picture would squish together, and you would have to pick up the top part and drop it. Well, it gave out a couple months ago and had been sitting on our back porch waiting to be scrapped.

Today he did it. Here's what we got from it that is going to be reused: 3 different Plexiglas pieces to be used as follows: one is under the computer chair because we have carpet. I can now move my chair without difficulty. One as a cutting mat that fits my whole table. I was cutting out a can roller and trying to do it on a little cutting board. And the third one is thick, so we used it as a cover for the table. I have a double gate-leg table, antique, but it looks used. I got it for about $12 at a thrift store. We keep the leaves up, so it's like 70"X 36" But food falls in the cracks, with kids. And I insisted they all use coaster so they didn't leave a ring. Now we don't have to.

He used the main body of the TV, after everything was taken out, as a compost/garden. He got 3 really big magnifying glasses. One he gave to my youngest to play with. One he's going to give to my oldest as a Christmas present. He has trouble reading his Pokemon cards, due to cataracts. He's Down Syndrome, and it's something that goes along with it. He also got 3 lenses, red, green and I think one was supposed to be slightly yellow, or else it's clear. He gave those to my youngest, because he's so into science. A molding strip became a marble run. He's also going to take out all the aluminum and metal and turn it in.

Today, I also made 2 can rollers from cardboard we had on hand, by tracing the one I bought. But, I decided it's too difficult to make the sharp bends that are needed. Then, as I was looking at a fruit snack box, I decided it could make one with a few cuts. I had to get a scrap piece of cardboard to cover the front, but it's now a 2 drop (instead of one) can roller so I have to put the new can in the back, and get the old one out of the bottom front. It holds small cans like mushrooms or small tomato sauce. So I have 7 can rollers in my pantry, and I can rotate my food. I would love to have the money to buy a ton of those rollers, and have a whole bookshelf full of them, and not have my food in boxes. But wish in one hand, and spit in the other, as my grandma used to say, and see which fills up quicker.

It's been a hard day of cutting cardboard, and my hands are sore, but I reused cardboard that would have otherwise been thrown out. And though my husband is tired, we have 2 plots for a garden this spring, instead of the one we had this past year.

Economic Times

I believe what Glenn Beck says is coming down the pike. Not because Glenn Beck said it, but because I have eyes.

I went to Walmart yesterday (my kids wanted to spend their allowances), and a pair of men's pajama pants caught my eye. My oldest child is 20 (going on 6, but he wears men's sizes) and last year they would have cost $9.99. They were $12. I wouldn't buy them. That's outrageous. That's almost a 30% raise in price.

Since my garden is done now, I'm going to focus on stockpiling. I don't really know anything about it; I'm learning as I go. I'll be composting in the garden spot so I can raise a garden next spring. We tried to cut down the pompus grass, but it had a bee's nest in it. We're going to wait until it's cold. I got stung in my "bad" arm (the one where all the lymph nodes were removed when I had breast cancer surgery). Next time I deal with it, I need to have long sleeves on. I'll keep you posted on my progress with the composting, too.

So, Glenn says to have a 3 month supply of food on hand. I know the Mormon's are much better at this than I am, so I first went to their sight. I can't remember off hand which site it was, I just googled Mormon food storage. That got me started.

Here's what I learned, in a nut shell. Don't just start putting away cans of green beans and tuna. Sit down and make up menus of things you can eat without adding any fresh ingredients (or very little). The more you come up with, the greater variety you will have. I came up with 11. You also have to remember breakfast, lunch and snacks. You can put away condiments (like mayonnaise) for tuna fish sandwiches.

I believe an economic crisis is coming. I believe that food prices are going to go sky high and almost won't be able to be bought. My husband doesn't want me to raise a garden, because he believes we'll have to protect it. THAT'S why I'm storing food.

I was sort of stuck at this point. The Mormon site also lists everything that a family needs (per person) of staples, like wheat, oats, rice, etc. I and both my children have a gluten intolerance (celiac disease), so it wasn't much good for me. I found a great site that explains everything in detail. I am not affiliated with this site in anyway. It's called www.foodstoragemadeeasy.net. Remember it's NET and not COM. Com gets you to a different site.

So, I am almost to a 3 month supply of food. I actually believe I am, if you include the stuff that I put away before I decided to do menus. My husband wants to have a ton of sardines, oysters, canned meat on hand because you can survive on sardines and crackers. I told him, my crackers are expensive! I do, however have a cracker recipe, so I'll store the ingredients to make that recipe. That's if the power grid doesn't come down. We have a gas stove so I cook with the power off (I've done it before, just have to light it manually. HOWEVER, you can't use the oven because it's electronic on temperature control. I'm not sure how to bake bread without an oven. I guess in a dutch oven on a fire? Something I need to look into.

Another thing I happen to have on hand, and is good in an economic emergency, is a grain grinder. I had it for grinding my own rice flour. That way you can put away grains instead of flour and it lasts longer. I also picked up a cheap meat grinder at a local thrift store. They had 2, and I'm kicking myself for not getting them both. What would you use a meat grinder for? Well, if meat prices get beyond reach, which is possible if Cass Sustein has his way, you could catch and eat squirrels, rabbits, deer, etc. The grinder is to make ground meat. It just might be squirrel instead of beef. But you can substitute it in your recipes that call for beef, like hamburger noodle casserole. I haven't come up with a substitute for sour cream yet. I make my own cream of mushroom soup mix, mostly because every one on the market is either with wheat, or already too high. I also have a dehydrator, and I dehydrated my own mushrooms (bought from the store). If your bananas are getting a bit ripe and no one is eating them, throw them in the dehydrator and you have banana chips. I also do that with tomatoes that are about to go bad, as in getting a bit too soft for my husband. Then later, you can add them to stews.

Water. They say everyone needs 3 liters to 1 gallon of water a day. That's just for drinking/potting water. One idea for water conservation is to use the water that you cook noodles in to flush your toilet. If you don't have water service, any water you can save is useful.

But, I'll be keeping everyone posted on my personal progress. We have to buy water, and every time we go to the store we buy a bit extra food that I need for recipes. I said I have 11 recipes. I need to multiply that times 3 (at this point) to get a month's worth, than times 3 for 3 months. You also have to remember that power may fail, so don't count on refrigeration. I thought of buying a chest freezer, but changed my mind for that purpose. I found one on line (Ebay) for around $250, but thought the money would be better spent on food.

It's HOT in Texas

It's officially hot in Texas. I'm growing sun dried tomatoes. I pulled a grape tomato off the vine that was already sun dried!

I'm on my second harvest of tomatoes on my grape tomatoes. I think it was a bumper crop. Enough to keep my family of 4 in salad tomatoes from one plant. I also planted one Pink Lady in one of those Topsy Turvies. I wasn't impressed, but it did far better than my mom's. I read the full directions, and was surprised to get anything. It didn't sound like it would do well in Texas at all. It said not to let it get above 90 degrees. Yea, right. Where in Texas do you not let it get above 90 degrees? Inside? I hung it in a tree where it would get morning and evening sun and not noon. I watered it every day and put the best soil I could find. After a while the soil settled so I put in more compost. It has settled again and I need to put in more compost.

My cucumbers are going to be a bumper crop. I've pulled off 2 small ones already. I only had 3 plants come up out of the several I planted, but they are going wild. If I get cucumbers from all the flowers, I'll be making pickles. I picked them when they were 6 inches long, but only about an inch and a half around. There were very few seeds and I didn't even need to peel it. They were absolutely amazing in flavor. I have one more close to being able to be picked and a few more that I can see. The rest are still blooms.

I have one jalapeno that is about 2 inches long. Getting close. I may be able to make a batch of guacamole with my own jalapeno soon. I have a tiny green pepper and another volunteer pepper of some kind. I have some sort of plant that came up. I thought it was an avocado plant, but then I thought it was a pecan tree, but it's getting ready to bloom. I don't think a pecan tree would bloom at only 2 foot tall. I guess I'll have to wait and see.

The avocado tree I planted in the yard didn't take the heat and died. I planted the English walnut tree in the yard and it's doing well. We'll see how it winters. I've had 2 cherry trees take root and they're doing well in pots. My husband is upset with me, because he doesn't want them in the ground. He doesn't want to mow around them. I may have to put them in place of the Oleander bushes in the front yard. I'm allergic to Oleander anyway. One is already gone. It died out over the harsh winter we had. I want to replace decorative trees with trees that produce something. They will still bloom and be pretty. And you can eat the fruit. It would be so nice to have 2 cherry trees in the front yard. I still don't know if avocado trees winter, so I guess I need to get a bigger pot and leave it outside.

We still plan on tearing out the pompus grass along the fence as well as the Japanese Holly to make room for a bigger garden next year. I'm making more compost to go in a raised bed. We also have a flowering tree that I don't know what it is. It flowers in early spring. We have another one in the driveway. We have 2 Rose of Sharon bush/trees that I planned on replacing with avocados if they winter well.

Love that long term planning. I know it takes a long time for trees to grow. I guess it all depends on if our government doesn't destroy this nation. I may run out of money to do anything.

Lori Ann Smith

Camping News

I guess this is the forum for this type of post. We're getting ready to send my youngest to his first Boy Scout camp. They sent a list of things to send with him. One was a cot with mosquito netting. We have a lot of camping stuff, but it's stuff collected over the years. We also camp with air beds, not cots. My husband wanted to price several places and see what was the cheapest place to get a cot. I figured Walmart would be the cheapest, even though I'd have to settle for Made in China. I don't have it in front of me, but I think I found one made in Missouri. It was fairly cheap, being $33.88. I was shocked. My husband did have to alter it a little. The end pieces were too long for the mosquito netting that he bought at the Army/Navy store. So he took the end caps out, sawed 2 inches off each end and put the end caps back on. Normally when you buy the regular Army cots, they apparently are ready to accept the netting. My husband had to make a frame for this one.

It's a good thing I have a handy husband. He just happened to have a whole bunch of broom handles lying around. I guess it pays to be a pack-rat. He sawed them off to the proper height, and made a 3-legged frame that lays along the ground and pokes up through the cot to hold up the mosquito netting. There has to be one in the middle that's just zip-tied to the frame, and a second one that he puts up after he gets in bed, but he has a netting.

He was so excited, he slept on the patio last night to try it out. Just the cot and netting with a blanket over it, no tent.

But it got me to thinking. At that price, we could all get one. The frame my husband made was easy to make; he made it in about an hour after work. I think the netting cost about $20, so together it would cost about $55 for each person to have the set up. It would all fit in a little bag, and in an emergency, you wouldn't NEED a tent if it was mild weather. My husband even mentioned if you had a poly tarp, it would keep the rain off. If we had to bug out, we could do it. It would transport with a big backpack. If you had more time, it packs less than the big double thick air bed with an air pump, and you don't have to worry about the air bed losing air. And I always hated that the air bed was cold in the winter time.

My grandparents camped that way.....OMGOSH...I've turned into my grandparents! Everything old is new again. What was it grandpa used to say? If it ain't broke, don't fix it. They had a tent, a couple cots, a Coleman stove a dining fly and coolers full of food and would run every day or two and get ice. They would camp for a whole month refilling supplies from the local store. Grandma cooked simple meals, just camping meals; Vienna sausage out of the can for lunch or sandwiches, eggs, bacon, toast for breakfast...to tell you the truth, I don't really remember dinner, but I know it was simple and filling. I would go with her a month at a time. They would come home, mow the lawn and get their check to put in the bank, drop me off and go back. Fun times. I have a feeling if it comes to camping that long this time around, it won't be that fun.

We have a trailer, but right now it's just a frame. It had a particle board bottom, and it was out in the weather and it deteriorated away. My husband wants to put a solid bottom or a better steal honey comb frame. I would like one of the boy scout grub boxes on it. You can probably google the plans from the boy scout site, they're great, if you've ever seen one. It's a storage unit and a cooking facility all in one. Our little trailer probably has enough room to do the grub box on one end and leave the end for a big Rubbermaid box for storing the tent and cots on the other end. We'll have to see.

My suggestion for everyone this time is to gather your camping gear or buy some. Get familiar with how to use it if you're not. Practice camping even if it's in your back yard or at a campground really close to you. Get it down to an art/science. We haven't camped in a really long time, and only go once a year now. That's not often enough to have it down. I may start asking my husband if we can have pretend drills where we have to load everything up and then camp in our yard and lock the doors as if we were gone. Or maybe trip the main power so the kids can't come in and use the facilities....why camp if the TV is available?

Lori Ann Smith

Still getting sermons in a garden patch

It's amazing how God speaks to me through my little garden. This time he used my husband, too, to remind me of a few things. I was out tending it. I'm finally able to get to the garden. My back was fixed! Amazing! We finally figured out what was wrong. I took a really bad tumble last year in my alley because my dog cut in front of me while I was running with her and she tripped me. I landed EYE first, then shoulder, with my hand tucked under me holding the leash. Apparently I knocked a couple ribs out of place. My insurance doesn't pay for a chiropractor, but they do pay for therapy. Luckily the therapist does something like chiropractic work. She popped it back in. I can do yard work again for the first time in about 4 months.

So, I was working in the garden. I have green beans, vining up a trellis, and cucumbers, doing the same thing. I realized that the cucumbers had vined outside the fence. We had taken down a Japanese holly berry tree next to the garden patch (or at least the lower branches of it - we plan to take it all the way down later), as well as clearing out a rotten stump. We left one stump that the tomato plant is resting on. It's a plumb cherry plant and is making me a bumper crop. Luckily it's coming in with a handful a day, instead of more. We're keeping up. Otherwise, I'll have to can them.

But I decided to try to get the cucumber vine out of the fence. My husband reminded me of the Bible verse where they talked about what falls on the ground is supposed to be left for the poor. It's called the gleanings. He said leave it for people who walk down the alley. Right now there are only 2 blooms on the alley side, so there will only be 2 cucumbers there. He said if no one picks the cucumbers, then we'll get them. But if someone picks the cucumbers off the plant, they needed it worse than we did. I said, "Honey, you're right." I hadn't looked at the beans yet, but they had done the same thing. So I'm leaving them, too. Gleanings for the neighborhood. If humans don't need them, the birds can have them. I have wind chimes to keep squirrels and birds away from my garden, but not in the alley. The wildlife or human life can have it.

Other than that, it's not going too badly. Because of being down with my back, the weeds totally took over the patch with the beets. I planted an English walnut in a bucket, and it's doing great. I took out dirt from the compost and it grew cucumbers. I transplanted 6, but only 2 didn't burn up. My avocado hasn't sprouted yet. We'll have to see how it goes. We plan on taking out the pom pus grass and the tree that I'm not sure what it is. It flowers in the spring, but we have another one just like it in the alley. We need the sunshine. We're also taking out the holly and the other shrub along the fence row. I can plant something that vines up, like beans or peas after the carport next year, but the carport shadows too much before that. We also cut the lower branches on the oak tree so the hanging tomato plant gets more sun.

So, we're leaving gleanings for the people who walk down the alley, but we're also dehydrating mushrooms for putting away in case times get tough. And, with Aldi's being in town, we're able to stock up on canned food. I'm keeping a list of what I have, and trying to figure out what meals I can make with what I have, not just storing canned goods willy, nilly.

Lori Ann Smith

Storing extras

I went to a Mormon site on storing food. I wasn't aware (not being Mormon) that they have been instructed to keep a year's extra food on hand at all times. Seems a bit extreme to me. Or it used to. If you told me a year ago that we should have a year's supply of food on hand, I would have called you crazy. Now, however, it doesn't seem so wrong.

So, I decided to read the article and I got some pretty good ideas from it. I had started buying individual items and putting them back but I really didn't have a plan. Now I do. They suggested a really good plan. They've been doing this a lot longer than me. Here, basically, is what they do.

Sit down and figure out some basic meals that your family eats. Now, if you're going to figure on a financial crisis that our nation is about to face, you'll have to figure that some ingredients are going to be hard to find. You'll have to figure meals that have ingredients that are mostly things you can put all the stuff away for, or have common ingredients that won't be hard to find, or can be substituted.

I'll give an example. I used Spanish Rice. My recipe calls for 1 pound of ground beef, but let's face it, in an emergency you could use wild game and grind up anything you hunt in a hand grinder. It also calls for 2 cups of rice, 1 large can of tomato sauce, 1 can tomato paste, 1 quart of stewed tomatoes (I stew my own), 2 tbsp of chili powder, and 2 tsp each of salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and celery seed. If you could only come up with 7 recipes, you would have 1 recipe a day, and eat it once a week, so you would multiply everything times 52 to get your quantities for a year's worth. The more recipes you can come up with, the more variety you have. So, that's 104 cups of rice (no, I don't know how many pounds that is), 52 cans of tomato sauce, 52 cans of tomato paste, 4-1/3 cups of chili powder, about 2.5 cups of the other spices, 52 quarts of stewed tomatoes.

It would make more sense to come up with more than one recipe a day for a week. I don't know about you, but I really don't want to put up 52 quarts of stewed tomatoes. Right now, I only have 5 recipes, but I'm working on it. You also need to come up with breakfast ideas. And you have to think about what stores well. If your family likes pizza, you have to remember, to substitute the eggs. I found a site that says you can 2 tbsp of cornstarch, arrowroot flour or potato starch for the eggs. You also have to remember that cheese may be hard to find.

Once you have everything listed, then you go and add up all that you need in ingredients. For me, I don't think I'll need a whole year's worth. I'm shooting for 6 month's worth. For one thing, I don't have the space in my 1500 and something square foot house to store that much food. Nor do I have the ability to buy that much food in the time I believe we have left. Nor do I believe this will last that long. And if it gets out that I have a year's supply of food in my neighborhood, I better have an arsenal to protect it. It will be bad enough if the economy hits bottom that I have a garden.

Which brings me to the second part. You can dehydrate vegetables and store those. As soon as I can, I'm going to start that. It's getting hotter here in Texas already. We'll be setting the dehydrator up in the garage so as not to make the AC run harder. I just printed a jerky recipe off the Internet. I'm wondering if I can rehydrate jerky into a stew if times got hard enough?

I'm also hoping this is all for naught. I'm sort of like Glenn Beck. I would love to be wrong. But, I don't think I am.

I'm still an American. I was raised on stories of the great Depression from my grandparents. We can huddle together and make it. We are a tough breed. We can make it.

Lori Ann Smith

Taking a Break

I'm taking a break from the political blog, so it may mean I have more time for this blog, or it may mean I have less time for any blogging. Just to warn everyone. I have some health issues that need attending to. Of course, gardening is relaxing to me, so there will probably be more gardening going on in this household...

Lori Ann Smith

God's Message in a Garden Patch

Here I am, weeding my vegetable patch, when it hits me. When I planted this patch, it was freshly turned soil. I had pulled a hedge out. The heavy snow had killed off the middle of the hedge, by splaying it out, because it was so heavy. So we pulled it up and it's right next to my raised bed, so I decided to plant it. It's really good soil, and it was already loose.

But, when I planted my seeds, all sorts of things started coming up. I had read that weeds wait until the soil is disturbed to germinate, sometimes years, to start growing. I hadn't actually experienced it, because my mom was always the one doing the planting and growing. I planted radishes, onions, and lettuce. I know what they look like, but not the first 2 leaves. So I had to wait until they got a bit bigger.

By the time they got a bit bigger, there were MASSES of weeds. I almost couldn't find the ones that I had planted. The weeds had taken over my garden patch. I decided I had to do something about it though. As I'm pulling, very gently, the tiny weeds out, the Holy Spirit taught me a few lessons.

1.) Sometimes there are too many weeds to pull up because they could disturb the real plants. Pulling them up would pull up the good plants. It's the same with disciplining the sinners in the world. God can't always deal with them because they're too close to those of His, His children, who are doing good in the world. So when you wonder why so and so isn't getting disciplined, and is prospering, maybe it's because they are too close to someone doing real good in the world and God doesn't want the good person to receive fall-out from the discipline. God is mercy. Maybe it's you he is saving the dirt around.

2.) All the weeds coming up did serve a purpose: they loosened the soil and made it easier for the good seeds to push up. It also made it easier for me to pull up the weeds.

3.) I had to pull each one individually, not as a group, because I had to look closely to see which was a weed and which was a plant that I planted. It was time consuming, but it will be worth it because the fruits of my labor will be enjoyed at the dinner table. God deals with us on an individual basis. He disciplines those he loves, or those who will never come to him He removes from our presence, I suppose. But we don't know the difference, just like my plants don't know the difference between what plant is next to them. The fruits of His labor will be enjoyed at the Bridal party, in the last days.

Amazing what a garden can teach you, huh?

Lori Ann Smith

Long time since I updated

It's been a really long time since I updated this blog. I have a new compost bin. My Father-in-law gave me a bin. He's really good at composting...I'm the beginner. I collected all the partially composted material from around my house after putting some clippings from the bushes in the bottom. I put it in the corner of the yard out of the way. He says I'll have good soil in about 6 weeks. The first weekend I had a good 12 inches all across the bottom of it. It's one of those really heavy duty cardboard boxes that Sears tool boxes come in. He says it will weather well for about 6 months before it needs to be thrown out. So I guess I'll get a couple rounds of compost from it.

I've planted a few things in my garden. I bought a topsy-turvy and hung it in the tree. I don't trust it for my only source of tomatoes, so I bought another tomato plant for my one raised bed. I also planted radishes, lettuce, carrots and tomato seeds. The birds got the lettuce, tomato seeds and carrots. But the radishes did real well. I've already pulled several out for salads. They're a bit hot, being red and white. We had a really bad snow one day last winter (actually late in the season) and it killed one of our bushes, laid it open with the weight of the snow. We had to cut it down. It was right next to my raised bed, so I planted that area with radishes, beets, lettuce and onions. I think the beets and onions are coming up. I have lettuce coming up, but slowly. I think I have cucumbers coming up. I also have beans coming up and I'll need to tie them to the trellis pretty soon.

I have tons of blooms on the grape tomato plant (the one in the bed) and several green tomatoes. The topsy turvy tomato plant has lots of blooms and several tomatoes as well, but not as many. It's not a grape, though. Forget which variety, but bigger. I planted 2 of my avocado pits. I don't know if Garland, Texas is far enough south to grow avocado trees or not. We'll see. That would be great. I could dig up some of my trees and replace them with fruit trees. Flowering trees are nice, but fruit bearing would be better.

I still have to get my sister-in-law's fiancee over here to cut down my pom pus grass. I know I didn't spell that right, but you know what it's called. I had to cut down the Oleander in the front yard this morning. I had to wear gloves and long pants...I'm allergic to it. We thought it had been killed by the big snow we got, but it did come back. Good thing we waited. We had planned on taking the whole thing out. We stalled so long, it came back. It's a white one. We have a red one up next to the house, but when we sell the other house that we bought with my in-laws, I'm giving it to them. My mother-in-law always wanted one. Or maybe I'll trade it for some tree they have.

It's fallen into a routine, taking care of the garden. It doesn't take much time. I water, trim my tomato plants, water the compost, all in about 15 minutes.

Pretty soon, all of my radishes will be picked, and I'll have to plant more radishes. To solve the bird problem, I put a spinning decoration up so it distracts the birds. I also put up a scarecrow that was left over from Halloween. I had a holder for potted plants, and I hung 2 wind chimes from it on the other side of the little patch that I planted for another distraction. The movement seems to be keeping the birds away.

We shall see as more matures in my garden.

As far as the stock pile goes, I'm putting away as space allows. I've pretty much run out of room above my washer and dryer. Unless I find more room, I'll have to stop. If I can plant enough to get a crop in, I may dehydrate and save in containers outside.

Lori Ann Smith

Update on can runs

I had a shocker...my in-laws took the kids camping during Spring Break. My husband took a look at the calendar, said, "Wait a minute: it's their anniversary! What do they want?" I'm glad he said it, and not me...he would have accused me of ascribing ulterior motives that weren't there....but anyway, with the kids away, I got to go on "can runs" with hubby.

Let me describe a can run for you. We get in our best mileage car...that would be our beater Metro. It's low to the ground, and gets 30 MPG. Wouldn't do much good to get in a car that burns gas. We go the streets that don't get much traffic and look for ANYTHING metal. Aluminum is the best, as in soda/beer cans. But tire weights bring good money, too. Appliances left for the garbage man can be scrapped out. We line the back seat with plastic bins and put a small one between my feet. We separate as we go. We wear gloves. We call cans that are already squashed street pizzas. Yes, we pick those up, too. My husband has a good eye for those, I'm not so good at that. If it's a big pile of trash at the curb, we go up and ask the house if we can have it.

This week, we got brass curtain rods, 2 vacuum cleaners, a plasma TV, a regular TV, construction brass fittings, a dust buster, and I don't even know how many cans. We try to map out where we're going, but sometimes opportunity knocks and changes our plans. When we come home, we scrap out what we found. You have to be real careful with TV's. My husband knows more about doing that because he's the electrician. I let him do that. I tweaked in the Navy (meaning I did screws and little things like that) so I take apart things that have no chance of doing any harm. You would be amazed what is inside a motor. Copper wire is the most money when you turn it in. He has buckets for the different metals. I'm not really up on all that. I hand it to him and he sorts it. If a magnet will cling to it, it goes in a different one. I know it takes a lot of scrap steel to make any money, but it adds up. We found a scrap piece of car at a wreck site. Apparently the police didn't feel like cleaning up the wreckage. We did. We're doing a service to the community, too. We also got a trashed bar-b-que pit....cast aluminum. Some kind of burner that was also cast aluminum. And a file cabinet that had brass fittings.

Once, while out, we found a pile of bullets. Scared my husband to death. He called it in. My son was with him. He waited for the police to show up. He knew they were simulated rounds, you can tell because they have plastic tips, but he was afraid someone was doing something they ought not to do. Being a good citizen, he wanted to report it. Turns out, they had a SWAT practice area there. The police gave us permission to pick up whatever we found in the area. Cool. Brass is brass.

I sometimes feel like people look on this as redneck, but in today's society, every little bit helps. This is sending my son to camp.

While we were out, someone had thrown out a box of glasses and mugs. It's amazing what people throw out. We took it in. I'm not going to resell it, though, I'm keeping them. I collect Fire King, and really any other ovenware. It had 2 Glassbake mugs in it, one white and one pink. If the person who put it on the curb would happen to read this blog by chance, thank you. You made someone very happy. It had a Navy mug, from the USS Chicago....we're both Navy....though it has a name on it. It had 2 steins with ships on it. It had 2 Dallas Cowboy steins...those will be birthday presents for my Father in law...regifting is great. It also had a couple juice glasses....you can never have enough juice glasses with kids. And lastly a root beer mug that matches a couple I already have. What a treasure find. Sometimes God leads you down just the right street.

Now the scrapping out begins. We're gonna try to get everything scrapped out by Friday so he can take it down to recycle and see what we got in cash for our haul.

Supplies to have on hand - From Red Cross

This is from another site I was on, and they got it from the Red Cross site (www.redcross.org):

These are basic things to keep on hand in case of a disaster. These should be kept on hand in an easy to carry emergency preparedness kit that you can use at home, or take with you in case of an emergency in case you need to evacuate. We haven't done it yet, but we plan to pack a grab 'n go kit for each family member, preferably in a back pack, and another pack that is carryable. Not all items would go in a grab and go kit, use your own judgement.

- Water - one gallon per person, per day (3 day supply for evacuation, 2 week supply for home)
- Flashlight
- Battery powered or hand crank radio (NOAA Weather Radio, if possible)
- Extra batteries
- First Aid kit
- Medications (7 day supply) and medical items
- Multipurpose tool
- Sanitation and personal hygiene items
- Copies of personal documents (medication list and pertinent medical information, proof of address, deed/lease to home, passports, birth certificates, insurance policies)
- Cell phone with chargers
- Family and emergency contact numbers
- Extra cash (or gold and silver coins - my addition)
- Emergency blanket
- Map(s) of the area

Consider the needs of all family members and add supplies to your kit. Suggested items to help meet additional needs are:

- Medical supplies (hearing aids with extra batteries, glasses, contact lenses, syringes, cane)
- Baby supplies (bottles, formula, baby food, diapers)
- Games and activities for children
- Pet supplies (collar, leash, ID, food, carrier, bowl [a collapsible one would be best])
- Two-way radios
- Extra set of car keys and house keys
- Manual can opener

Additional supplies to keep at home or in your kit based on types of disasters common to your area are:

- Whistle
- N95 or Surgical masks
- Matches
- Rain gear
- Towels
- Work gloves
- Tools/supplies for securing your home
- Extra clothing, hat and sturdy shoes
- Plastic sheeting
- Duct tape
- Scissors
- Household bleach
- Entertainment items
- Blankets or sleeping bags
- If you live in a hot climate, allow more water

Also in your house, you should stock extra food. Buy when it's buy one get one free, or when it goes on sale. I've heard not to buy the pull top. If you aren't using it, as in no emergency comes along, and you buy new stuff, rotate out your stock and use it up. That way it doesn't sit on the shelf for 5 years, or 20, but gets used, and you're constantly using the older stuff and putting the newer stuff away. It also keeps it fresh in your mind to replenish your stock.

Update on garden, recycling, slightly political

I posted my Cheer leader plaque on Ebay. I made $4.99. Not bad for a dumpster dive find. Only one of them sold. I guess because it had the H on it, the other one was turned and didn't have the H and didn't get bid on. I mailed it to someone who's home town started with an "H."

I cleaned out my closet, finding a set of sheets for a size bed I no longer use. I have the headboard/foot board, but no mattresses. I decided to keep them, in case we need material. One is a high thread count, the other is microfiber. We're in the beginnings of a depression....don't throw anything away.

My husband took the louver doors down from my sons' closets. He was going to scrap them out. I stopped him. Compost bins. He's going to take the brass fixtures off of them, take them apart and use them as the borders for my compost bins. I compost for a season, lasagna style, and then it's ready to plant the next season. I did this last season and now I have one plot ready to plant. I haven't gardened in a while, and it's a nice way to break in to doing it again. You don't want to jump in to doing a lot of gardening. You'll burn out and your garden will turn into an untended jungle of unproduction. We just moved into this house last year (in April) and the previous owners left a lot of stuff behind. There was some kind of what looks like a shelving unit, but we can't figure out how it goes together and don't think it's all there. We're going to use parts of it as a trellis for the climbing plants, you know, cucumbers, peas, things like that. I'm not sure what I have room for in my little plot. I have priorities and we'll see when I start plotting it out. It's still a little cold.

But it's warming up here in Texas, and I'm getting that spring fever. I may start turning the leaves under. They didn't really rot like I'd hoped they would over the winter. I put a layer of leaves over the top of the compost to keep the worms warm over the winter. Now with the weather in the 40's and higher, it may get too warm. I'm not real sure what I'm doing here, playing it by ear. My husband says my plot is not big enough, but he's a city boy, what does he know? He didn't even know to pull the suckers off the tomato plants. I may find time today to turn the leaves and measure the plot.

So, our plans include stripping down the louver doors. When it warms up, we're going to hire my husband's sister's fiance to pull out the pom pus grass. That will give us an area to put the new compost bin in. Then I can start putting compost out in. We also picked up an old drawer off the side of the road. We have to pull the drawer pull off of it (brass) and knock out the bottom, and it's a ready made compost bin. It would hold a couple pepper plants. He also picked up a couple drawers that someone had already destroyed, so it's just the sides and ends. The hardware is usually brass or some metal that's able to be turned in.

Right now, most of the money that is being turned in is going towards my son's summer camp. We've already collected about $50. I'm donating $10 a week of my allowance (I get $15 a week). My son is donating his whole $3 allowance. He gets $3 as a set allowance, at the age of 10, and if he does any extra chores, it's 25 cents a chore. At this point, he's not really motivated to do extra chores. I don't know why, he's trying to earn money to go to camp. But, he's going on can runs with his dad. His dad is letting him keep what they collect in cans. They pick up aluminum cans and any other scrap metal they can turn in. They pick up tire weights, broken electronics, anything, then on Saturday take it to the recycle center. Every little bit counts.

My husband says I shouldn't be writing about this. The more people who know, the less will be there for him to pick up. But, I look at the number of people reading my blog, and figure he's safe.

I had a thought that goes with politics a bit. With the economy edging towards collapse, I was thinking how bad things could get. There are a lot of people who see the worst possible scenarios coming down. They see terrorists running in the streets, targeting conservatives, Christians, anyone who they think could have "caused" this to happen. Of course, it could go the other way, and they could blame the Obama administration. But, if they decide it's the fault of the capitalists, it might not be a bad idea to buy (at a thrift store) a few liberal-slanted t shirts so you could pose as a liberal. Don't attack me, I claimed to be a capitalist up front. And if you're on this site and a liberal, sorry. Guess you won't know who you're friends are. Welcome to the crowd. I just got attacked by a mole in a conservative blog. We'll adopt your tactics.

I guess that's what gave me the idea. Liberals have infiltrated our blogs. They pose as us, and live among us, but they can't hide their ideals, and eventually attack because they can't have calm discussions. They can't discuss with facts, they have to attack the person, and name call. It always comes out. So, we as conservatives will have to learn to fight like a liberal to hide among you. I can name-call. I can fight with emotion and pretend to be a liberal. I can have a bunch of liberal clothes and go among the liberals and fit in. I can be a chameleon and you would never know I was a conservative. I just hope it doesn't come to that, because I would feel like I sold my soul.

Lori Ann Smith

Latest Adventure

I thought I'd write about our latest adventure in recycling/reusing. Here it's not against the law to dumpster dive. I hear it is in some states. If it's in the trash, it's free game. If you don't want it, you can put it on the curb out in front of your house, and someone will pick it up, or behind your house where the trash is picked up and someone will pick it up before the trash man goes by.

My husband goes by the day before trash days to scrounge for copper, steel and other recyclable metals. We collect cans to be turned in. Right now we're saving everything we can for my son's camping trip with his school. They're going to Sky Ranch sometime after school is out. I have to have $210 by April 1st. I just had to buy a hot water heater ($610) that I didn't have. I hate to tell him I can't send him when all the other kids in his Math and Science Institute of a school are going. One little girl said her mother is making home made tortillas and selling them in order to send her. This is all I know to do. No one buys home made knitted products anymore. My sister-in-law tried that. It didn't do well. They want to buy it for made in China prices, and you just can't make money that way. It doesn't even pay for your materials, let alone give you any profit.

So, with the snow softly falling over the Dallas/Ft. Worth area on this February day, my husband went out to look for materials. He took a vacation day to clean out his garage, but now it's too cold. It actually turned out to be quite a profitable day. He found a house that was either an eviction, or someone died and they cleaned it out. I'm wearing, as I type, a slanket. It's a blanket with sleeves in it. Already washed and dried. There were 4 pairs of shoes, in various sizes, one to fit my husband, one to fit his dad, and a few that will go to the cub scout garage sale. There were clothes that fit my oldest son, clothes for me, and a couple work shirts for my husband. He found a TV that doesn't work. You'd be amazed how much copper is in a broken TV. He scraps it out. He also found some jewelry. Most was cheap, but he found a pair of silver angel earrings, and 2 angel pins that may be gold, what appears to be bakelite ear rings and possibly a gold chain. Also some Christmas pins that have marks on them. We also found a set of metal wall plaques that appear to be from the 1950's. I tried to look them up. I found the manufacturer, but not that exact piece. It appears to be worth about $15 each. Not bad for finding it in the trash. If I can find a buyer....I'll hold on to it for a while, maybe put it on Ebay.

In these times, I'm not ashamed to say we dumpster dive. You'd be amazed what gets thrown out. Whatever we find and don't personally need, we donate to the cub scout garage sale. It benefits our boys, since my husband is a leader, and someone will get the use of it. It also saved space in the dump. It's getting used again. This was all going to be collected and thrown in the trash. It's all perfectly good stuff, being thrown out. It still has life in it. The TV doesn't, but it's being broken down into smaller components and recycled better. I don't know if the trash man takes a whole TV. As to getting paid for his time? Well, he's getting vacation pay today, so whatever he gets from it is icing.

So, the husband is off to the recycling center, and I'm pulling the 2nd load of wash out of the dryer.

Green Living 101: Things You Can Reuse To Save Money

I don't know if I'm doing this the right way or not, but here's the article I found...I'm supposed to "linkback" but I'm not sure how to do that. I posted her link to her article at the bottom of the article. There are a lot of neat ways to save money. It's not "true" recycling, as one of the comments noted, but hey, this is saving money, not the liberal version of recycling. We aren't in it to turn a bottle into a bottle. We're about saving money.

__________________


Green Living 101: Things You Can Reuse To Save Money
by heather on December 6, 2008

If you’re looking for ways to save money and go green, then this is the perfect list for you. I love it when things can do double-duty, and “Reuse” is second on the Holy Trio of green living (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle).

I think many people have gotten really good at #3. After all, recycling is at an all time high. But, there’s a reason why it’s last on the list. Reducing consumption is, by and large, the best way to go green.

After that comes Reuse, which is what I’m focusing on today. Reusing things not only helps the environment, but it’s also a great way to save money.

The Magic Go Green List

1. Reuse Egg Cartons

Egg cartons make great seed starters in the spring.
If they’re styrofoam, you can break off each little egg cup and use them to cushion items when you have to ship something through the mail.
2. Reuse Your Blue Jeans

This idea came from one of our readers here at The Greenest Dollar. His idea? Use the leg of old jeans as door draft stoppers. Cut off a leg (a blue jean leg, that is), stuff it with old fabric or other filling like plastic bags, and sew up both ends. They work great for keeping doorway drafts at bay.
3. Reuse Your Coffee Grounds

Coffee Grounds (after you’ve made coffee, of course) make a great exfoliator. Use them to wash your hands after you’ve been digging in the dirt. Just mix a tablespoon of regular coffee grounds in your hand with one pump of your regular hand soap and you’re good to go!
Coffee grounds also work great in your yard. Sprinkle them in your flower beds or vegetable garden to add nutrients to the soil.
4. Reuse Wet Wipe Containers

If you have kids, then you have wet wipes. The empty containers are great for storing string and ribbon. Stick a piece of each ribbon out the hole and all you have to do is pull and cut. No tangles!
Wet wipe containers also work great for holding puzzle pieces or game pieces.
These containers are also perfect for storing Kleenex, especially in a bathroom that gets pretty wet or dusty.
5. Reuse Your Coffee Can

If you’re interested in composting, you don’t have to drop $30 on a ceramic “composting crock” for your kitchen. Just use your old coffee can. It’s airtight, so you won’t get any smell, and very easy to wash.
6. Reuse Old Maps

Old, dated maps make the best wrapping paper! Especially this time of year…
Old maps can also make interesting posters, especially if you have a bunch and can do a large section of wall.
7. Reuse Your Old Pens

Some households have absolutely no pens, ever. Others have so many pens they don’t know what to do with them all. If you have a ton of pens floating around, here are some ideas:

Donate them to your local school, library, women’s center, senior center, hospice home, or animal shelter.
Take them to work and put them in a jar by the copying machine for people to take with them.
8. Reuse Your Electronics

Go to Gazelle.com to sell your electronics to others who really need them. Gazelle focuses on everything electric: cell phones, camcorders, video game consoles, computers, PDAs, cameras, movies, MP3 players…everything gets an offer, and they’ll even send you a box to ship it out for free. If you have anything electric you want to get rid of, check out their site. You’ll help the environment, and earn money at the same time. Gazelle has been featured on the Today Show and CNN Money.
9. Reuse Old Envelopes

I use the envelopes from the mail I get everyday as shopping list paper. They’re the perfect size, and when I’m done with the list I toss it into the recycle bin. I never buy new paper for scribbling notes or To Do lists!
10. Reuse Roll-On Deodorant Sticks

Once the deodorant is used up wash out the base and then fill it with paint for your kids to play with. Stick the roller ball back in, and they’re good to go.
If you have a cat, the roller ball itself will make a fun toy for her to bat around.
If you’re into ping pong, then use the ball for your next game. Fun!
Additional Resources

I stumbled onto a fantastic site while doing research for this article.

How Can I Recycle This? is a site fully devoted to reusing things you normally have around the house. Some of her suggestions were sheer genius, so if you’re interested in learning more about how to reuse the common “stuff” you have around the house, please check out her site.

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Tagged as: green living, Recycling

http://www.thegreenestdollar.com/2008/12/green-living-101-things-you-can-reuse-to-save-money/

Introduction

I'm setting this blog up for the purpose of preparing everyone for what's ahead. I've posted 2 blogs that I've written in the past on the subject, but I plan on writing more original works, and collecting information from the Internet and posting it here. That will be the main point of this blog, to gather information all in one place, with my comments to supplement it.

I'll also be keeping everyone up to date on my own Freedom Patch exploits. I plan on planting a square foot garden this spring. We just moved into a new house last April. I live in Texas, not sun! We are strapped financially, paying 2 mortgages. No, that doesn't mean we have a vacation home. We left a bad situation, which I won't go into on this forum. We still owe a mortgage on that house, while my in-laws are living in it, and we're trying to sell that house. They own their half, but can't move until it sells, because all the equity is tied up in the house. We have no choice but to save. So I want to share my experiences of how we're doing it.

I have to admit, I'm a capitalist. But, I'm also an American. Any information I can gather on how to do this, I am willing to share, freely. Now, that said, I have a political blog that is not monetized. I will be monetizing this blog. I will also be placing a disclaimer on this blog, as I have no idea what they will advertise on this blog. I'm not responsible if they put liberal clap trap stuff on here. I am very conservative in my political views. I recycle, I try to eat healthy, but I am very conservative politically. Live with it. My political views will leak through this blog. It's who I am. I live, eat, breathe and poop politics as of the last year or so. I have fire proof panties, and I can take criticism, so fire away if you feel you must. I will try to stick to the subject, but no promises.

My plans? A garden to grow mostly salad stuff. I tried last year to grow tomatoes up close, but my patio shaded the spot I picked to well. That, and I made an organic bug killer that worked too well. It killed ALL the bugs and they didn't get on the plant to germinate the flowers, which didn't turn into tomatoes. Lots of flowers, no tomatoes. Live and learn. Now I'll spray the bug killer only after the tomatoes come on. And I'm moving my tomato patch out to the fence row. I don't have a camera yet. Can't afford it. So I can't post pictures.

My brother in law and his wife, both) has a job with AT&T. My only birthday present wish is that everyone in my family pool their money and get me a digital camera.....for whatever gift giving occasion they choose. I would be happy if, for Christmas, that was the only gift I opened. I nice camera. I would be playing with it while everyone else in the family continued to open presents. I always wanted to be a photo-journalist. I only went to 1 year of college before dropping out and joining the Navy as a sub-hunter.

So, I composted all last summer, a patch out by my fence....it's got really nice soil by now for a patch of vegetables. My husband ran out of materials to give me another patch to work on. He has an adopted sister who has a fiancee, who we're going to hire to get rid of our Pampas grass and add another raised bed for composting over the spring/summer. He just has to get more scrap lumber.

In the current one, I'll grow tomatoes, cucumbers (up a trellis), peppers, and whatever else I can squeeze in. I haven't mapped it out by how big it is...it's still cold here in Texas. It's 27 degrees today. Eventually, we want to clear the whole back fence because it gets good sunshine. Up by where I planted the tomatoes last year, we'll plant the herbs like I did last year. They did good. I planted basil, dill and rosemary. The rosemary is still there. I planted cilantro by my roses, but I think the soil was too poor for it to grow well. I need to put more compost around the roses. I read that cilantro will keep your roses healthy. I'll buy more and plant it more freely. Maybe I spread it out too thinly.

I'm also stocking up on food whenever I can. We may be trying to build a series of shelves in the garage for the canned goods. Right now I have them above my dryer. I don't have much money to stock up. Whenever they have a buy one get one free, I do. I buy the big cans at Wal-Mart or Sam's. That's not the best thing to do, but it's better than nothing. One big can of green beans with potatoes and sausage will make a meal.

As a quick note, it's winter, is everyone venting their dryers into the house? You can stick a knee high on the end of the hose, or you can stick it into the end of a can of water and duct tape it around the top of the lid. Or they make special holders just for you to do that. We bought one when it was on sale for something like $7. I do a load a day, to help with the heating bills. Wash, dry, fold and put away. Better than spending a whole day doing laundry, any way.

Lori Ann Smith

Survival List

Survival List

I've been going down the list on the main site for 100 items likely to disappear in an Emergency(posted on Asamom.org). I went through the list the first time with the mind of what do I have now? I checked items off the list. My family camps, so we had quite a few items. I craft, so there were more to check off. I've begun stock-piling essentials like toilet paper and paper towels, only because I'm brand concious and when mine goes on sale, I buy it whether I need it or not. I've always done that. Then I started at the top again with the mind-set to research what I could do home-made.

I found an article on line, and don't know if this is a double post or not, on how to make your own filtration system for drinking water. I'm wondering how many more I can compile in one site, so here goes:

Portable Water Filters

One other type of homemade water filter is far more portable and personal. The materials for this style of water filter are readily available and can be found easily in most households.

A two-liter plastic water bottle with the lid will serve as the housing for the filtration system. An ordinary plastic straw will serve as the spout. The filtration system will consist of cotton batting, fine and large grain gravel, fine and large grain sand, and a coffee filter. Activated charcoal granules may be added for an extra level of filtration. The filtered water can be captured in a mug or jar.

To create this style of homemade water filter, cut off the bottom of the two-liter water bottle. Create a hole in the lid of the bottle so that a straw may fit snugly. The straw must sit half way through the opening in the lid. This housing configuration will sit on the jar or mug with the straw end of the housing inside the jar.

Place the cotton batting at the bottom of the two-liter bottle, this will serve as the lining for your filtration system. Start with a layer of activated charcoal granules.

Next, place a layer of fine grain sand followed by a layer of large grain sand. Follow the layers of sand with a layer of fine grain gravel then larger grain gravel.

Alternate these layers until you reach the top of the bottle.

Top the filtration system with the coffee filter. Once the filtration system is in place, pour in the unfiltered water through the coffee filter. The untreated water will work through the layers of sediment to wick away the impurities in the water. The cotton batting catches particulates from the sediment and acts as a final buffer. The filtered water will flow through the straw spout into the jar for drinking. Adding a couple of drops of chlorine can add another level of filtration to the process.

How to Make Homemade Soap

Contributor
By eHow Contributing Writer

This soap is a pleasure to give - and to receive.



Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You'll Need:

Soap Coloring
Soap Fragrance
Soap Molds
Colored Crayons
Thick Bath Towels
Coconut Oil
Distilled Waters
Non-virgin Olive (not Virgin) Oil
Vegetable Oils
Vinegar
Vinegar
Fragrant Essential Oils
Lye
Rubber Gloves
Rubber Gloves
Crisco Shortenings
Candy Thermometer
Measuring Cups And Spoons
Mixing Spoons
Plastic Bowls
Rubber Spatulas
Stainless Steel Stockpots
Stirring Spoons
Mitre Boxes
Safety Goggles
Safety Goggles
Rubber spatulas

Soap Making 101

Step 1Dissolve 12 oz. lye in 32 oz. softened water in a plastic or glass bowl. If at all possible, do this outside or under an exhaust fan.

Step 2Add the lye to the water, not vice versa. Pour the lye slowly and in a steady stream, and stir constantly with a plastic spoon.

Step 3Set the mixture aside to cool. The mixture will heat up considerably due to the lye reacting with fats in the oils. This is called saponification.

Step 4Melt 24 oz. coconut oil and 38 oz. solid vegetable shortening in a stainless steel pot.

Step 5Add 25 oz. olive oil (not virgin) and any fragrance oils you want to use.

Step 6Allow the oils to cool.

Step 7Grease the soap mold with Crisco.

Step 8When both the oil and lye mixtures have cooled to room temperature, slowly combine them, adding the lye to the oils.

Step 9Stir slowly and constantly. If you see bubbles, stir more slowly.

Step 10Drizzle the soap into the pot once in a while. When it keeps its shape momentarily before sinking into the rest of the mix (tracing), it's time to add whatever extras you want.

Step 11Stir your botanicals, grains and coloring into a cup of soap taken from the mix.

Step 12Combine that back into the original mixture.

Step 13Pour the soap into the mold.

Step 14Wrap the mold in a towel and leave it undisturbed for 18 hours. The soap mixture will heat up and then cool down. Avoid uncovering it until it's cooled.

Step 15Allow the soap to sit in the uncovered mold for another 12 hours.

Step 16Loosen the sides by wiggling the mold a little.

Step 17Turn the mold over onto a clean counter.

Step 18Cut the soap into bars with a knife. Some people use a miter box to make square corners.

Step 19Allow the bars to cure for three to four weeks before using. Smaller bars cure faster than larger ones.

Additives
Step 1Mix candle coloring into the oil solution. If it's wax-based, melt it first in a couple of tablespoons of oil and then add it to the rest of the oil mix.

Step 2Realize that you can also use crayons for coloring. Experiment with colors. Note that purples are very difficult to keep true.

Step 3Use 1 tsp. per pound of soap of the following ingredients: cocoa powder for brown, cayenne pepper for pink-peach, liquid chlorophyll for light green, turmeric for yellow, paprika for peach and titanium dioxide for white.

Step 4Use 1 oz. essential oil to scent a 4-lb. batch of soap.

Step 5Know that 2 tsp. ground cloves makes a great-smelling soap. Try grated orange or lemon peel or ginger, too.

Step 6Use rose water instead of regular water for rose soap.

Step 7Oatmeal makes a great complexion soap. Use 8 oz.

Step 8Add 4 oz. cornmeal for a gritty texture.

Step 9Make soap with 1/2 oz. geranium oil for dry skin.

Step 10Use tea tree oil - 1/2 oz. - for problem skin.

Natural Repellents (For Mosquitoes)

It's very easy to make your own natural mosquito repellent. These natural products will effectively repel mosquitoes, but they require more frequent reapplication (at least every 2 hours) and higher concentrations than DEET. Because of the differences between types of mosquitoes, products that contain multiple repellents tend to be more effective than those containing a single ingredient. As you can see, natural repellents tend to be volatile plant oils.

•Citronella Oil
•Lemon Eucalyptus Oil
•Cinnamon Oil
•Castor Oil
•Rosemary Oil
•Lemongrass Oil
•Cedar Oil
•Peppermint Oil
•Clove Oil
•Geranium Oil
•Possibly Oils from Verbena, Pennyroyal, Lavender, Pine, Cajeput, Basil, Thyme, Allspice, Soybean, and Garlic
Another plant-derived substance, pyrethrum, is an insecticide. Pyrethrum comes from the flowers of the daisy Chrysanthemum cinerariifolium.

Things that Lower Repellent Effectiveness


•Many Sunscreens
•Dilution from Rain, Perspiration, or Swimming
•Absorption into the Skin
•Evaporation from Wind or High Temperatures

Keep in mind that 'natural' does not automatically imply 'safe'. Many people are sensitive to plant oils. Some natural insect repellents are actually toxic. Therefore, although natural repellents provide an alternative to synthetic chemicals, please remember to follow the manufacturer's instructions when using these products.
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There are also books out on natural remedies. I have one called Green Pharmacy. I am checking into natural remedies for the major maladies of my family. It's funny because we had considered this a few years back because we didn't want the chemicals in our bodies and now we can't afford to go all vegetarian. At one time our family was 70-80% raw, with the rest vegan (and it was a diet, we weren't a green nut), and we gave up most families meds. My husband and I didn't need our blood pressure meds, my youngest didn't need his adhd meds... but we had to go off the diet because I developed Cancer, and then we moved to a different state, long story. Now we can't afford it. Buying all vegetables is expensive. The liberal left has a racket. Don't let them tell you they're looking out for your health, and aren't capitolists. They're totally in it for the money.

Are You Ready for the Economic Collapse?

Are You Ready for the Economic Collapse?

Are you ready for the worst case scenario? Are you ready if the dollar falls and our economy collapses? There have been predictions that just that could happen and we could be headed for another depression. I’m not really worried because I was raised on stories from my grandpa. I’m only 45, but my dad was fairly old when he started his family. My dad was 33 when I was born. My grandpa was born in 1907. My dad was born in 1932, so the depression had been going on for 3 years already. Grandpa had to borrow money for the wedding ring that cost $15 when he married grandma. And he married her 17 days before my dad was born. But that’s neither here nor there.

If times get tough, America will have to live like the stories I grew up on. Grandma taught me to crochet. She made a lot of things with crochet. She seldom used patterns. She made all kinds of things. Her sister taught my dad how to knit, and he taught me. Grandma said she didn’t have enough fingers to knit. I throw my thread, but my aunt must have tried to teach her the continental method. Grandma also sewed all her clothes. I’m sure it started out with mending. She didn’t make grandpa’s clothes, but she made most of her clothes way up into the time frame that I knew her. She didn’t make her “dress clothes,” but she still made her everyday clothes. She made all my Barbie’s clothes, too .

My other grandma taught me how to quilt. Both my grandmas could make quilts. Grandma Waldo made tie quilts that where hand made and hand sewn. Grandma Robinson used a sewing machine (when I knew them). I don’t know how they did it during the depression era. Grandma Robinson crocheted a lot of blankets, too.

Grandma Waldo also did a lot of canning. That’s something I’m new to. My mother-in-law has always put up stewed tomatoes, and the past three years I’ve helped, so I know how. This year is the first summer that I actually did it all by myself. If tomatoes go down to 29 cents a pound again at Fiesta, I’ll do it again. I know now that it takes about 8 pounds for four quarts of stewed tomatoes, along with a half of a green pepper, a couple stalks of celery and a half of an onion and the spices. I would also suggest that you get an older Betty Crocker CookBook. I have one from the 1980’s. They have canning recipes in the back. When fruit goes on sale, you can put up jars of fruit, too. A dozen canning jars only cost about $12 at Wal-Mart.

Now, fall is coming so you can’t plant a garden, but it’s the perfect time to start a compost pile for the garden you want next spring. I have a patch laid out in my back yard. You can do it a couple ways. I’m not real good at this, so I’m doing this on my father in law’s advice. I’ll let you know how it goes. He suggested one of two ways. Either you put yard waste (leaves, etc.) and let it rot, which is the long way, or you put dirt and food scraps, but you can’t do both. He said the yard waste would cook the earthworms that come to the food scraps. So I have a patch for my food scraps that I constantly bury. I’ll be doing that all winter, so that come spring, I’ll have great dirt to plant my little patch of vegetables in. I have a patch up close that I discovered is not good for vegetables (new house) but great for herbs. A good book for this is Lasagna Gardening. By Patricia Lanza, if you can still get it. I got my copy from a library sale. In Texas, it's really too hot for lettuce, so I'll probably grow some lettuce in this patch, too.

So, when spring gets here, plant a garden of what vegetables you think your family will eat, and you think you can grow. If you don’t have enough land on your property, or don’t think you do, another good book is Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew. I believe he even goes into container growing. He tells you how much space is needed to grow what vegetables. If nothing else, grow a “salad garden.” That’s what I always did. Then I only had to buy the lettuce. I had everything else to go in the salad. That alone will save you money. And if you have left over tomatoes, stew them at the end of the season.

Invest in a dehydrator. Get one with an adjustable thermostat. The lower the temperature that you can dehydrate, the better. At least that’s what the health nuts will tell you. I set mine outside during the summer, but bring it inside during the winter. Might as well, because I could use the extra heat INSIDE. I just dehydrated my basil leaves. I was afraid the plant would go to waste, getting close to the temperature dropping. Now I have my own dehydrated basil leaves. Also if you buy bananas, and they are getting too close to going bad, you can slice them and dehydrate them into banana chips.

And speaking of heat, during the winter months, use one of those dryer vent things so that your dryer air is used to heat your house. It hooks to your dryer, and then goes into a little square box that you put water in. It not only allows your dryer to supplement your heater; it puts humidity into your house every time you do a load of clothes. I got mine from one of the catalogues I get in the mail all the time. You could make one with a coffee can duct tape if you were creative. Just make sure the thing is ventilated.

Learn to recycle as much as you can. Remember all the crafts we did with our kids? Keep that mentality. Think of the things you throw out all the time and try to think what you could use it for before you throw it out. The plastic things that strawberries come in? Could you use them to organize your junk drawer instead of buying a drawer organizer? Hand clothes down to younger kids, or relatives. You might be surprised that they hand things down to you. I don’t worry too much about trying to find ways to MAKE money anymore. I worry about how to make what I have last. How to use what I have for other things. There are other people out there trying to make money, too. Unless you can come up with something extremely unique, there’s going to come a time when there just won’t be people with money to spend. My husband collects soda cans off the road, because aluminum can still be turned in to recycling centers. It’s amazing how much scrap aluminum and copper is just laying on the side of the road.

If you don’t use the reusable bags, and you bring home those plastic store bags, use them in your wastebaskets. Use them when you walk the dog. I remember my grandma crocheting bags out of them to make store bags that were water proof. She also cut up juice bags and made me a purse way back in the 70's. I saw one the other day and it's back in style. If you start to make quilts, use clothes that you would have thrown out instead of buying new material. I once made a quilt with old jeans cut up. I made a purse out of a pair of jeans…came out really cute, pockets and all. I used the front zipper as a phone pocket by lining it. You can use a fuzzy blanket as the “batting” and a sheet as the back side. Be creative. If the idea of all that stitching to put it together scares you, do a tied one. If doing a full size quilt scares you, do it one square at a time, and then sew the squares together. That's called lap quilting.

The greatest gift my dad taught me was how to read directions. He told me that if you can read directions, you can teach yourself how to do anything. There's going to come a time when we may all need to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and go on. My worry is that this younger generation, the Me generation, will become the Take generation. Except for those who were taught better by those like us. We need to educate ourselves now on how to take care of ourselves.