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Food storage ideas…

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Preppers are always trying to get everyone else to at least begin stocking up on some short and long term food storage, honestly the biggest reason is because the more of you who prep, the fewer of you we have to worry about showing up on our doorsteps if/when the SHTF… of course we ALL hope that none of this is ever needed, I wouldn’t be a bit upset if 20, 30, or more years from now I get a big “I told you so…” from those who never prep… but the reality is, it’s better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.

So with that said, here are a few videos showing the sorts of things that are relatively inexpensive and easy to stock up on. Things like protein, it’s something we all need in our diet, the good thing about these sources of protein is they don’t require refrigeration and most of them are relatively easy to open, they have pop-tabs or come in pouches that don’t require anything but your fingers to open.…

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Meatless sausage

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I’m not a vegan, a vegetarian or anything remotely like that, I have nothing against anyone who chooses not to eat meat, they have more willpower than I do :)
That being said, in the past, I have tried some of the meatless burger and sausage patties, honestly they tasted OK, just OK, but each time I tried them I ended up with stomach issues, quite frankly it was bad enough that NO ONE would want to be around me for the rest of that day into the next… most of those meatless products are made with soy, something I avoid like the plague, most soy is GMO now, plus the fact that soy mimics estrogen so for most of us, that is not a good thing.

I’ve seen recipes for meatless burgers, often made with TVP (which is soy based), beans, rice, various other grains, quite frankly none of them looked very interesting or good, not enough to get me to try to make them, I’m just not that on board for substituting for meat products……

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Kissing bugs

kissing-bugTriatominae, also known as kissing bugs, conenose bugs, assassin bugs, whatever you call them, these are nasty creatures, they are about the size of the end of your thumb, have a huge biting snout, fly around at night and suck blood. If that isn’t bad enough, they spread a parasite that causes Chagas disease. I’ve heard it referred to as the “AIDS of the Americas”.…

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Freezer-fridge conversion update

Had to clean out my fridge today, while that’s not such a big deal to most, to me it’s (almost) a pleasure to do because of the kind of fridge I have. Living off-grid, using solar panels and batteries, on limited power, one looks for ways to use as little power as possible, one of the things I found that really ate up my power was my little, tiny dorm sized cube refrigerator, the kind that opened in front, had a tiny tiny tiny freezer, in fact I couldn’t even put a full size ice tray inside it, they make micro-ice cube trays.

Most of the time I didn’t even plug in that cube fridge, we just learned to live without refrigeration for the most part, honestly it just sucked up too much precious photon juice from my system. So on the odd occasion when I brought home a gallon of milk, or some meat that didn’t get used up quickly, I would plug in the darned thing and wonder how much time it was taking from my surfing the internet…

With the cube fridge, it ran 15+ minutes at a time, a couple of times an hour, more if I actually opened the door, think about it, when you open the door on a standard fridge, all the cold air drops out of the box onto your feet, feels good for the moment but the compressor kicks in immediately to compensate for all that lost cold air.

I’ll not go into detail about this because I’ve written about it (in detail) in previous posts here… this is really just a follow up on how well I like (love) my chest freezer-fridge conversion. :)…

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Another Post-SHTF Worry

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From regular contributor Corey Naughton

This article will start with a story. I had a little incident this weekend that brought about this realization and I’d like to share it with you all.

I took Friday off work in order to make sure I had some extra time this weekend to build a barn. Of course we had high winds all weekend so that plan went to … poop. So on Friday I was sitting around with little to do and decided to take the dog for a long walk. We got a new puppy recently and she needed a work out.…

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Phone app unlocks access to Malibu Beach

There are 27 miles of beach in Malibu, California, but the largely wealthy property owners have blocked off access to 20 miles of it.

Now a journalist has launched an iPhone app to help people enjoy the beaches which are open to the public by law. The app gives you pinpointed directions and expert tips so you can enjoy the 20 miles of gorgeous beaches in Malibu that are lined with private developments owned by the likes of Piers Brosnan, Michael Eisner and Dave Geffen.…

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A Peek into an Organic Prepper’s Pantry

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Having extra food put aside is something I have talked about quite a lot here, it’s a very important insurance policy for you and your family. Most lists and suggestions for what foods to store tend to be less than nutritious, of course having that is better than nothing. Here are ways to have some more nutritious foods in your pantry and in your stockpile of foods.…

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Pictures of the neighborhood

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A few weeks ago, I grabbed the camera on my way over to a friend’s house, I get to live in and drive through some very pretty country, we have been here a little over 5 years now, one of the first things I thought when we first moved here was that I hope I never get used to the views out here, I’m still awed by them. This is the high desert, in the mountains of far western Texas.…

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Keep your cool with warm weather cooking methods

thermometer-11029029I live in the high desert mountains of far western Texas, the summer days are hot, fortunately the evenings and nights tend to be cooler, I would like to have an outdoor kitchen, cooking during the day in the heat of summer is miserable at best, a kitchen out on the covered deck would make summer cooking so much better… until I get that outdoor kitchen set up, I found this article all about keeping your cool when cooking in the summer:

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As the mercury in the thermometer starts to climb, you may be looking for different ways to keep your home a bit cooler without an exponential increase in your electric bill. That battle starts in the kitchen.

The one thing that adds the most ambient heat is cooking.  Your choice of cooking methods can greatly increase the warmth that your air conditioner must then overcome.  And if you have no air conditioner, it can make your home humid, muggy and miserable.…

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Kosher Certification Program Bans All GMO Ingredients

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As always, I’m on the lookout for non-GMO foods, when I read this article I jumped for joy, finally a mainstream (at least as far as I’m concerned) food industry is going non-GMO, I am thrilled beyond words! Here is what I found on this:…

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Eggs Benedict on a mountain

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I read just the other day about some study “they” did that says people who take pictures of their food and post the pictures on social media MAY have a mental problem… well I am about to prove that I MAY have this problem, dinner tonight was special, something I haven’t made since we moved off-grid over 5 years ago now. Eggs Benedict. I used to make this at least once a month. I wondered if the altitude might be a problem, it sometimes works against me, and sometimes a dish does not work out at all.…

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