With the tragedy of the bombing in Boston, this is just one more reminder that we need to be prepared for as many different situations as possible. First I want to say how saddened I am by the actions of whoever is responsible, this is an unspeakable tragedy to those who were injured, killed and traumatized by this bombing, to all their friends and families.…
Food is so important, unless you were raised on a working farm, most of us have no idea where our food comes from, during the last Great Depression many people survived because they were less than one generation out from the farm, many had gardens, chickens, a milk cow… now people live crammed into cities with postage stamp sized yards with HOA’s and city ordinances that keep them from growing anything but grass, and Heaven forbid they have more than a dog or cat…
There is a lost art, the art of cooking, specifically from scratch, given a kitchen from our grandmother’s time, how many of us would be able to whip up a meal? Without microwaves, without box mixes, without the frozen conveniences in pre-packaged plastic… Fortunately I’m not the only person who thinks this way, who wonders about these things.…
MOM, aka milk of magnesia, it’s incredible stuff! I wrote about using it as a deodorant, it works very well for that… now we will talk about the other good things this miraculous white liquid does. Would you ever think of putting what is essentially a laxative on your face? I do it, why you might ask? Read on!…
Spread Peace Radio featured renowned philanthropist and leader in the industrial hemp industry, Bruce Perlowin, CEO of Hemp, Inc. (OTC: HEMP), has announced his plans to fund and build a 500-acre Kins Domain in Arizona.
During the talk radio interview, broadcasted last week, Perlowin enlightened listeners on what initially inspired him to create self-sustainable communities and the social-economic benefits Kins Domains provide. Inspired by the book series “The Ringing Cedars Of Russia,” this 500-acre Kins Domain “Project” encompasses one 2 1/2 acre (one hectare) lot, surrounded by a living fence, trees (2/3), a pond, organic gardens and fruit trees, a natural beehive, a family tree that stays on the Kins Domain for future generations and an all-green home to create a high frequency, natural energy microclimate.…
It would seem that I’m not the only blogger/prepper who is also worried about getting family on board for prepping. I can’t impress upon you just how important this is, the more people around you who are also ready for whatever may be coming down the pike, the better off YOU will be, the fewer people you will either have to share with (meaning less food and supplies for YOU and YOUR household) or the fewer you will have to turn away in an emergency situation, neither scenario is a good one. Daisy Luther recently wrote about how to get your loved ones to get ready, to be prepared, to be more responsible for taking care of themselves and their households……
Stephen Marx, lives off the grid in Vermont and he’s angry.
Thirty-two years ago, Marx moved out of New York City to the end of a long dirt road, beyond the reach of power lines. The retired literacy teacher and gardener bought a couple of modest-sized, 20-year-old solar panels and times his use of appliances to coincide with topped-up batteries.
Yet he says he’s only recently become anything like an environmental activist. The 2010 U.S. Supreme Court decision in favor of “corporate personhood” (in Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission) tipped the scales.
“It was really bothering me. I was getting angrier and angrier,” Marx remembers. “I tend to shut down when I’m angry, so I walked up the hill with May (his dog). I said to myself, ‘Wait a second — corporations have rights. We gave them rights; I gave them rights’ — I mean, I vote; I accept responsibility. It means that corporations can do whatever they want, but the Earth can’t. And that was it.
Everyone had been saying ‘We can change this,'” Marx continued. “And then it came to me: We can’t change this — no one’s going to change multinational corporations. But maybe we can make it an even playing field. It became something positive, instead of a negative.”…
There are 3 main ways of preserving meat, freezing, drying and canning, I’m sure there are a few more ways but those are the main ways we do it. Freezing meat is probably the most common method, the problems with freezing meats are if you leave it in your freezer for too long, especially if it’s not property packaged, you will find a nasty case of freezer burn when you open the package. There is also the risk of losing what is in your freezer if there is a power outage or your freezer fails. Today we will talk about preserving one of the cheapest meats, ground beef.…
There are many ways of preserving foods, dehydrating, freezing and canning. Today we will discuss canning. There are many foods that can be canned, meats, vegetables, fruits and such… but did you know you can can other foods as well? How about crackers? Breads?…
Look around you, how many grey and white heads are nearby? If you are lucky, you will have at least one, if you are very lucky you will have multiple to choose from. Why is it so fortunate to have older folk around? Simple, beneath all that gray and white hair is a plethora of knowledge and experience. This is a valuable resource, and one that is dwindling each and every day. Often the biggest feat is to find those who lived through the great depression and still have their mental faculties and are willing to sit down and talk about their lives, that’s the trifecta!
These folk grew up during a time when most things were done by hand, black and white TV was something for the wealthy, that’s if they had electricity. Lighting was often candles and kerosene lanterns. Some lived on farms and had to get up before dawn to take care of farm animals before eating breakfast and heading off to school. These folks grew up in circumstances that most of us can’t even imagine.…
Last Sunday afternoon, I went to a gardening roundtable discussion in my community. I live on a mountain side in the high desert of far west Texas (yes, Texas does have mountains, the Davis Mountains to be exact). It was quite interesting talking to the various gardeners out here. Some were just starting out, some were experienced gardeners but not in this location, and some had gardened out here for many years.
I have been really itching to get out and garden this year, I haven’t gardened much for the last 2 years because of water issues, we didn’t have much of a rainy season those two years. Our rainy season usually starts in July(ish) and ends in September(ish), during those few months we get most of our yearly amount of rainfall. It’s hard to wait for the rainy season to start, typically I would start in spring and hand water.…
Food, it’s something I really REALLY love, I love cooking and eating. As a young child, while my little sister was busy playing with her dolls and tea sets, I was in the kitchen watching my mom cook and bake. My mom was great in the kitchen, she could take a few basics and whip up a grand meal, fortunately that rubbed off on me. :)
I have a few old standbys, one is a tuna casserole, this recipe always makes me think of my mother in law, she makes a similar one and is quite the good cook herself! …
Its International Women’s Day tomorrow, so a good time to highlight the off-the-grid, female-only colonies which have sprung up over the past decade.
Across America, there are around 100 off-grid communities where anybody saddled with a Y chromosome is forbidden. Welcome to America’s Womyn’s Lands. These largely lesbian communities started life in the 1970s when a cluster of revolutionary women founded a camp on the beach in St Augustine, Florida. Today, one of the largest Womyn’s Lands is found in rural Alabama, in a camp called Alapine Village. …
