Sep 2012 Personal Preps

[Watchman]

What have you accomplished - that may be of benefit to someone else? Outline it here. Weapons actions are verboten here; they are private within your own zone.

[Watchman]

My wife and I have re-dedicated ourselves to the concept of preparedness. I can base it on "Doomsday Preppers", a garbage television show that outlined all the things people should NOT do. I sent a copy of the series to our son and his family in the 'Peoples Republic of Maryland' and told them to watch it without fail - then separate the wheat from the chaff. There are some real idiots in the series but also some gems shine through the darkness.

Today we enhanced 'Joseph's Storehouse' with four cases of easily-stored chow mein dinners, a case of peanut butter and another case of chopped green chiles (can;'t get along without the chiles). Wife is putting the finishing touches on a batch (10 jars) of crabapple jelly. We got the crab apples for free from some stray trees.

We went to a large raspberry farm and purchased four pounds of locally-grown raspberries for jam.

We're formulating our Thanksgiving plans to be an all-local dinner. Making arrangements for two roasts - pork and lamb. Have canned green beans and potatoes from our garden, Local canned pumpkin and dried apples and apricots from our trees for pies, along with our own rhubarb. Found a winery where we can get wine from local grapes and wild plums.

Things are looking good for local agriculture here in Free Wyoming.

Tomorrow we continue cutting up pallets for firewood. We will have our winter's supply within a month.

Have decided to forgo growing grass in our side and back yards. It is all going to be converted to raised beds and open-pollinated heirloom vegetables in the Spring.

Working on accumulating about a six-month supply of cash for expenses, as well as increasing our silver holdings. Although we have been saving up coffee to be used as a barter item, JWR's article today on alcohol and tobacco fascinated me so I think we are going to supplement our barter ability with those two items.

[acet7]

I just planted some tomatoes last weekend from seeds and I have some that have already sprouted (I live in FL and that’s why I can still plant now). I’m going to try and can some if I get enough to grow. I have been working/tweaking my “get home bags” for both cars. Keep getting new ideas from other you-tubers on stuff that might be helpful. I’m thinking of doing a private video sometime of what I have in my bags to share w/ you and some friends, just have to find the time.

[Watchman]

Yesterday we purchased a 5-gallon pail of local honey - 66 pounds. It worked out to about $1.27 a pound. We have been saving glass jars and will transfer it all to jars. You do NOT have to process them in a canner. Just make sure that the jars are clean and sterilized won't hurt - although honey is anti-bacterial in nature. This is our second pail in about ten years. The honey stores forever in your pantry. It may turn solid but all you do is place it in a pan of hot water or by a heating vent and it will turn liquid again. Don't let anyone kid you, honey is the best sweetener! It can be used to sweeten your tea or to dress wounds.

[Watchman]

Since I run a grocery distribution business I have a little insight as to prices - how and for what reasons do they rise. After reading the article a few days ago about Spain's olive crop failing, we decided to hedge some of our storeroom things. Most olive oil products come from Italy and Spain. Though California has a large olive crop they are mostly in canned whole olives. The olive oil industry in CA is not up to the volume that we get from overseas. The failure of the Spanish crop lead me to believe that in the next few years, olive oil will increase drastically in prices. We use olive oil almost exclusively for cooking and additionally it can be used in health and wound-related matters. We went to Dollar Tree and were able to find $1 cans and jars of black (California) and green manzanilla (Spain) olives - which we stocked up on. We then went to China Mart and found 101-oz bottles of extra-virgin olive oil (very good quality) for $19 each. I have been actively storing olive oil for about 15 years in our pantry and have NEVER known it to go rancid; in fact most that I read about storing it says the same.

We store NO solid animal fat in the pantry except canned storable butter. You might want to consider increasing your olive and olive oil stock.

[Toepopper]

Great minds think alike ! Yesterday we picked up 12 quarts of extra virgin olive oil and put it in the pantry for future use. Best to get it while the gettings good.