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Salt for Food Preservation, by Chef N.D.

From SurvivalBlog.com

One survival item that I rarely see listed in any blogs or survival articles is salt. I know that many survival web sites and forums concentrate on the immediate survival needs of individuals and families, but what would a person do if there really was a long term necessity for survival? How would a father feed his family over an extended period of time? MRE’s last forever, but let’s face it, they are expensive and eventually will all be consumed. How will a mother feed her children when all of the canned goods and stores are finished? When you plant those seeds you stored and produce an amazing garden, how do you preserve the fruits of your labor? In assuming the worst, how do you keep your fresh vegetables edible without refrigeration or freezing? How will you feed your families in the winter when game is scarce and can mean using costly energy to try and hunt in the snow? Even if you are fortunate enough to have a secluded farm where you can raise livestock, how do you preserve the meat before it goes to waste?  My solution is salt.

I am an executive chef at a fine dining establishment in the Northwest. Though I enjoy applying the finer techniques to food, my real hobby and passion is trying to cook like people did 100 to even 200 years ago.  My family and friends consist of a lot of avid hunters and fisherman…

So many chores, so little help

From What if IT is today? – A Survivalist’s Blog

Since it was a three day weekend two of the older grandsons came to work on their truck.  This truck was a pile of junk when it was given to me a couple of years ago but they are diligently working on it. The boys are going to turn 15 and 16 in the next month.  The truck won’t be ready to drive although their mechanic dad said that he’s going to help once summer comes and by the end of summer they will have a running truck.  No more riding their bikes to school if they have their way.  

I did tell the older boy that if he fixed the mess of fruit trees that the oldest grandson “trimmed” I’d pay him. He could earn money to buy more parts for his truck.  No.  He’d rather work on the truck and do yard work for neighbors where he lives.  Those neighbors pay the boys about $ 20 per hour to do yard work.  I pay much less…but I feed them well!  Of course they know they get fed well when they are here anyway. 

Adding two more mouths to the table, especially teenage boys, was only a slight challenge.  I decided I wasn’t going to use any more meat than I would have for the three of us.  That meant the meals would be stretched by vegetables, rice, or pasta.  Last night’s dinner was almost completely home grown and what…

What to do with all these eggs?

From The Survival Mom™

Guest post by Justin Doody who blogs at Emergency Homesteader.

When you have chickens, you soon realize you can have eggs coming out the wazoo. Once you figure out you can’t give away any more eggs and you’re still sitting on an overwhelming amount, you need a way to use or preserve them. Preserving them is easier than you think, and people have been doing just that in other countries for a millennia. My mother has had this problem for a while until she learned this trick.

When a chicken lays an egg, it has a natural coating on it known as the bloom. This bloom is a layer of protection for the egg which keeps out oxygen as well as harmful bacteria and germs. It’s very, very common for those who raise chickens for their eggs to collect them and then keep them on the counter until they are ready to use—not put them in the refrigerator.  In fact, the majority of the grocery stores in the world don’t put their eggs in a refrigerated environment. When they’re ready to use the eggs, they either wash them, which eliminates the bloom and any bacteria or germs, or they crack them open, as is, but take care not to do so over food that they are going to eat. Instead, they crack them into a separate dish or into a clean hand, but never over the food. Also, in order to not…

SHTF “Go To” Gun photo contest: Entry #47, #48, #49 and #50

From ModernSurvivalOnline.com

The exquisite display of armageddon armament continues………..

The legendary Mr. Choate sent the following…….

Its a Sun Devil AR, the receiver and upper are machined out of solid Billet Al. It has an ACOG TA33-8 scope on it with Diamondhead flip sights, ERGO grip and Choate Telescoping stock. The selector says SAFE and ZOMBIES which I thought was cool. I have shot this rifle in several rifle and 3 gun matches including the Arkansas Section Multi Gun Championship. I have run a couple thousand rounds through it with out any malfunctions, its one of the few guns I would trust the life of my family to. Its setting on my B.O.B, I carry both the bag and rifle in my truck all the time and if I ride with someone else I take them with me. It is very seldom that I am more than 100 yard away from them at any given time.

 Guy sent the following……

 Dean is prepared with……..

…

More yard work and the ebb and flow of prepping

From What if IT is today? – A Survivalist’s Blog

Of course yard work never ends.  It doesn’t end for people with postage stamp sized lots, I don’t know why I’d think it would ever end here!  We got 1/3 inch of rain last night which gave everything a really good soaking.  Maybe the lawn seed that I threw out last week will grow.  I hadn’t watered it I just spread it around the yard.  I also hope some of the oats and wheat grow.  Again, I didn’t plant them the proper way which would have meant disking the soil prior to throwing the seed out or using a plug to plant the seed into the ground.  No, I just threw out the seed and hoped for the best. 

We are missing one of the two chickens that I put out in the front pasture.  I have a feeling that it got carried away by a hawk or something.  Yip-yip can’t get in.  There are no feathers showing evidence of a struggle by some other creature.  It’s not walking around the neighbor’s yards.  It just disappeared.  The other chicken is lonely. We are going to get some new chickens this year in addition to what’s in the coop.  I was thinking about putting the older chickens out front and keeping the younger ones in the coop as my new layers.  Can chickens survive ok if they’ve lived their lives in a coop and then you let them go?  Will they know…

Guest Post: Can I Keep Chickens in My Backyard?

From ModernSurvivalOnline.com

If you have made the decision that you would like to try your hand at keeping some chickens in your backyard, there are a few considerations that you might want to make first, and although you have probably thought of some of these, there just might be a few that might come as a surprise.

Legality of Raising Backyard Chickens

Probably the very first question you should ask yourself about raising chickens is, can I raise chickens in my backyard?’ You know, legally. I know, I know. If you are slightly stubborn like I tend to be you are probably saying to yourself, ‘this is my property, so surely I can do whatever I want on it’! Am I right? If that thought crossed your mind, or anything at all along those lines, trust me, I know where you’re coming from. Here’s the deal.

If you live within the boundaries of a city as most (but not all) of us do, you will want to start out by getting info on whether or not you can even keep chickens in your backyard while staying within the confines of the law. The last thing you want to do is to build or buy a chicken coop, purchase a few starter hens, buy some food, get the entire family excited about the adventure that lies ahead, only to have a bureaucrat pay you a visit and let you know (kindly or otherwise), that…

Making lemonade but getting nothing else done

From What if IT is today? – A Survivalist’s Blog

We were invited to a birthday party and that took up most of the day.  It rained for a little bit today so before we left for the party I took the 8 raspberry plants that I haven’t yet planted and put their pots right at the edge of the eave of the house.  That way the rain could come off the roof and land in their buckets.  Then I wouldn’t have to worry about watering them. 

Once we got home I checked on the chickens and also the sheep.  We had one ewe up at the barn with her new baby.  It was still wobbly; she had it while we were at the party.  That makes 6 lambs, although one didn’t make it so five lambs that all appear healthy.  One more ewe is pregnant.  She should pop that one out any day now. 

I checked on the transplanted blueberries.  They looked good.  I took a look at the broccoli plants and one had been dug up by something.  I dug another hole and placed the plant back into the ground.  The onions have grown a little since I put them into the ground.  I went into the barn and got an on/off valve that goes on the drip hose.  It’s still attached to an old piece of hose but I cut it into a small size and brought it into the house.  I’ll cut off…

Fixing Garden Mistakes

From What if IT is today? – A Survivalist’s Blog

Have you ever planted something and after a year or so realized that it’s not in the right place?  When I first moved here 15 years ago I immediately put in a garden.  I put it in the back part of the backyard lawn.  It was an ugly lawn so I figured it would be a good spot.  It was for a year or so.  Then I redid the area a little further back and moved the garden there.

Originally the house was owned by someone with a lot of horses.  The barn is set up with four separate horse stalls and outside runs.  In front of the barn was a fenced in area, although the fencing was pretty bad.  It was wood and the horses did a great job eating most of the 2x6s.  In front of the barn was a fenced in area that was wired for a hot-walker.  That’s one of those machines that you tie the horse to and it spins around in circles, walking the horse.  The electric line was cut and the hot-walker was not there, there was, and still is, a triangular cement pad. 

I decided that this area would be great for the garden.  First I had to move my animals, since I had put them there.  The rest of the property fencing was in such disrepair that no animal would be able to be kept in. …

How Much Bleach to Store

From SHTF blog

I’m a numbers sort of gal, and this week I was pondering how much bleach I should really be storing for an emergency.

Water purification -  As always, I should mention that boiling is best. But, boiling takes time, it takes fuel and sometimes that might not be available or prudent. Yes, you can get chlorine designed for pools and use that, but I don’t have a pool, and finding cheap pool supplies isn’t as easy out here in rural Iowa as it might be for some of you. Bleach however is widely available, in large, strong, storage ready containers.

Numbers -  3 gallons of water per person per day.  I store for 5 now (4 humans, 1 cat). That works out to 15 gallons of water per day.  Yes, yes, most sites tell you to store 1 gallon per person per day, but really, have you ever tried to stay hydrated and clean with only 1 gallon of water for a day? It’s really hard. And after a disaster, cleanliness becomes more important, not less, 3 is as low as I’ll go for my estimates.

One gallon of Clorox bleach will, on average, sanitize 3000 gallons of water (less if the water is particularly dirty). So, 3000/15 gives me 200 days of water for each gallon of bleach.  That’s not bad.  That’s actually a lot better than I thought.  Of course, it helps that I’m not watering livestock and my family size is…

Solar-powered chickens

From Rural Revolution

This is our chicken coop door after dark. Notice the warm and welcoming light inside for the chickens.

Normally chickens will wander toward their coop as dusk falls, and cozy up on their perches.

But as night falls, I always find these two ladies huddled in some random spot outside. We always count heads before buttoning the birds up for the night, and almost invariably these girls are outside. Tonight Older Daughter said, “It’s like they’re solar-powered. The moment the sun sets, they shut down and just stay in place.”

Methinks they need some solar-powered batteries…