My biggest frustration with prepping

Our friend, MD Creekmore over at www.thesurvivalistblog.net has posed the question "What is your biggest frustration with prepping?" Here is the answer I sent him:

"Like so many have already said, my biggest problem is lack of time. I work 9-10 hour days, including a weekend a month and one evening a week, and have a 45 minute to 1 hour commute each way. Just finding time to cut firewood is a challenge, much less gardening, putting up fence, exercising and all the other things I need to do to feel more prepared. My job also requires that I do a fair amount of outside reading to stay current. And I do have a family I need to spend time with.
I would very much like to take advantage of my county’s Volunteer Firefighter program, both to learn some much-needed EMT skills and to help out my neighbors, but know that I will never have the time. The same is true for the blacksmithing classes held at a local folk-arts school.
As Poe pointed out above, no matter how much food you have laid by, you will never be truly self-sustaining unless you have a working garden, and I have had to work hard to make this a priority. Maybe I can help out a few other readers by revealing some little tricks I have learned to making the most out of what little time we get to spend in the garden:
* Try no-till gardening for grains. I scalp the grass down as low as it will go, and cover the clippings with a tarp for a couple of weeks to kill whatever is left, then sow my grain crops directly into the debris. There is no time spent behind the tiller, and you’re going to have to mow the grass anyway, right? I have had good luck with this and have consistent good yields of buckwheat, millet and hard red winter wheat.
* Used raised beds/lasagna/Three sisters gardening for vegetables. Again, scalp the grass down with the lawnmower, cover the clippings with several sheets of newspaper, and cover this with a couple of inches of compost (buy bags at Home Depot, or if you can, fill 5 gallon buckets with leaf mold and topsoil from the woods, I do the latter from a nearby creekbottom). Double-digging is nice, but time consuming, and can be avoided with no decrease in soil quality. Let the beds “settle” for a couple of weeks and rake in seeds of corn, beans and squash, or the companionable plants of your choice.
I use these two methods exclusively, and grow food as good as any of my neighbors, who are dependent on tractors and tillers for garden soil preparation.
Lack of time is my greatest frustration, but lack of money and spousal nonsupport are close behind. I don’t need to explain the money part, but it causes me a lot of heartache that my wife plainly sees the writing on the wall, but won’t help me try to erase it."

What do you think your biggest frustration is with being prepared?

Pray for Israel,
Gallowglass

Hi folks,

Our friend, M.D. Creekmore over at www.thesurvivalistblog.net, in conjunction with his advertisor, www.luckygunner.com, are giving away 1,000 rounds of 9mm on July 4th.

Sounds like just the thing for some much-needed UZI practice.

So horse up and enter!

Look for a new post soon. I have had a million things going on, and no time to keep the blog up to date. Check back soon.

Pray for Israel,
Gallowglass

www.thesurvivalistblog.net contest

M.D. Creekmore over at the The Survivalist Blog – a survival blog dedicated to helping others prepare for and survive disaster, is giving away a The Tactical Advantage book and DVD set by Gabriel Suarez and a copy of Don’t Get Caught With Your Pantry Down by James Talmage Stevens! To enter, you just have to post about it on your blog. This is my entry. Visit The Survivalist Blog for more information.

I'm sorry, folks, that I haven't had more time for the blog lately. My job has just been crazy, and I have had a ton of stuff to take care of at the Freehold every evening. Check back soon for entries about:

• installing the new beehive
• spring planting in the survival garden
• (simulated) Bugout 2010 with Gallowglass and The Lion
• my first trespassers of the season at the Freehold
• book review of Survivors by Terry Nation
• Obamacare
• and much more!

Stay safe and pray for Israel,

Gallowglass

Final seed order for Spring

This is the last of the Spring planting seed I am buying from the Internet for this year:

Sugar Baby Watermelon, organic Item :VWA-6020 Price : $1.75
$3.50
Sunset Dwarf Grain Amaranth Item :GAM-7195 Price : $1.95
$1.95
Golden Giant Amaranth Item :VAM-2010 Price : $1.95
$1.95
Multi-hued Quinoa Item :GQU-7360 Price : $1.95
$1.95
Iroquois Melon Item :VME-4380 Price : $1.95
$3.90
Charentais Melon Item :VME-4350 Price : $1.95
$1.95
Ireland Creek Annie's Bean, Dry, Bushsorry, organic not available at this time Item :VBE-2186 Price : $2.50
$2.50

Subtotal:
$17.70

This is from www.bountifulgardens.org, who are a bunch of freaky, nutjob hippies, to judge by their catalog, but seem to know their stuff when it comes to offering and growing heirloom seeds in a sustainable manner. They are the best place I have found when searching for unusual seeds like quinoa and amaranth, which you won't be able to find at your local hardware store unless you live in San Francisco.

The watermelon and cantaloupe are for sale at the roadside stand I am going to try this Summer in a desperate attempt to generate some income (I am buying Hallowe'en pumpkin seed from another supplier to sell also). The rest is for the use of my family. I would love to get some of bountiful garden's open-pollinated alfalfa seed, but I am having to cut every corner I can find economically, and I will just have to rely on the clover and buckwheat I already have for green manuring.

The only other seed I really need for this year is corn, and I am waiting to find out what variety my buddy RL is planting in the market garden so that I can be sure to plant the same kind. I don't want to screw up the marketability of our corn and the non-hybrid status of my family's future crops all at the same time. I also need potato sets (Yukon Gold and Pontiac Red), but those I can find locally for cheaper than internet prices.

I am taking two weeks off in March to get the garden ready. I'm sure there will be plenty posted here once I get started.

In other food production news, I am having a problem finding bees at prices I can afford. I really would prefer to start with nucs, but can't find any for less than $125, which is just out of the question this year. Packages seem to be sold out everywhere I look. I will be calling a local beekeeper tomorrow, to see what he has and to offer him sites for his hives on my land, if he wants them.

An e-mail newsletter I get about beekeeping had the news today that losses this year of hives due to CCD and other causes equal about 30%. I have not heard this from other sources, but it would explain the prices I am seeing.

A feedstore near the Freehold is advertising baby chicks for sale for Easter, and I am seriously tempted to buy a couple and try to get them to thrive in my largest Havahart trap until I can get something else built for them. I am going to stop in and see what variety the chicks are and what they want for them.

Pray for Israel,
Gallowglass

And one I forgot...

Sorry to have been absent for so long...

I left off an item from the list of things to buy from the grocery store:

Don't forget to stock up on those three- and five-packs of cigarette lighters! For what you would spend on one of those Swedish firesteels you could buy your bodyweight in el cheapo cigarette lighters.

No, they won't last forever, eventually they will rust out, but in the meantime you can have something that any idiot can use to start a fire. They would make for excellent trade items. Paladin Press used to sell a book on how to make a grenade out of one. If this book isn't available any longer, I'm sure somebody has figured out how on their own and the information is available on the Internet (and, no, I'm not encouraging anybody to go out and make hand grenades in their garage, which could have dire consequences, I'm sure, on your insurance rates, freedom from burns, and your marriage, I'm just saying it is possible).

Pray for Israel,
Gallowglass

The Nine Things You Should Be Buying at the Grocery Store

We've all heard a million times about going to Sam's Club or Costco and buying a 50lb. sack of rice. If you have the money, and your back is strong enough, this might well be the best way to stock your larder.



I'm not a member of Sam's Club and am not likely to be able to afford to be for quite some time. I have had to development my preparations a little at a time over years. I work for a county government and only get paid once a month, so spending money just a little bit periodically is something that I have had to get used to. Not making much of a paycheck to start with makes it a necessity.



So, with little money only available at intervals, Costco was never an option for me. So I developed a list of things that I could buy a little bit at a time at my regular grocery store while shopping for our monthly grocery needs. Only one or two items from the list would be bought at any one time. The list probably looks familiar. The top four are the traditional LSD Big Four, with a little tweak. I would be glad to see any inclusions to this list that anyone would be willing to suggest.



The 9 Things You Should be Buying at the Grocery Store:



Salt-This is an easy number 1 choice. Unless you live near the ocean or a salt mine you are not going to have this for a while if TSHTF. Not only does it make food taste better, but it is a required mineral for living. You can use it to brush your teeth, sterilise a wound or tan a hide. And it is cheap; even upscale grocery stores will often have salt for sale for as little as $.98 for the smallish cylinder. I try to alternate buying the iodized variety with the regular. I figure I'll use the iodized for the people food as long as it will last to supplement our need for idodine. (don't forget that your livestock will need salt too, more on this in a later post). Many have suggested salt as a barter item, but I won't be trading anything I can't make for myself. My wife enjoys a good laugh at my expense about the "salt cabinet" but she may be glad one day I have provisioned it.



Beans and Rice- Since Ingle's doesn't sell Hard Red Winter Wheat, I buy rice and beans in the plastic bags. Rice sometimes also comes in a screw-top plastic jar and I buy this when I see it as I assume it might be less likely to split open. I buy the Zataran's name brand flavored rice once in a while just to mix other items with and spice up the bagged rice, but I remove it from the cardboard outer container so that the corners won't puncture any of the other bags. After I get my rice and beans home I put them in the freezer for three days or so to kill any bugs that the processing plant might have missed.

Powdered Milk- Again, remove the inner pouch from the cardboard box. Reseal in a plastic freezer bag.

Honey-This I hope to provide for myself soon. It can be stored at room temperature and never goes bad.

Medical Supplies- You won't find sutures or IV drips at Piggly Wiggly, but you might be surprised at what there is to be found. Don't just buy band-aids, either; mix it up a little. I used to buy a fair amount of isopropyl alchohol, but a recent article on www.survivalblog.com changed my mind and from now on I will be buying Betadyne. Look for sales, and don't forget stuff like cotton balls and Q-tips that might not seem important now, but might be necessary later. Hint-Lice eradication kits like Rid-X only cost a few bucks for easily stored small boxes and will be worth their weight in gold for someone in the future who needs one and can't find it. I consider soap, especially an antibacterial soap like Dial, to be a medical supply.

Dental Floss- I could include this under "Medical Supplies" but I think it is important enough to deserve its own mention. You can brush your teeth with well-chewed twig (try one from a sweet gum tree), but you can't floss with it. A dentist will tell you that if you can only brush or can only floss and have to choose between the two, then pick flossing. Incidentally, dental floss never goes bad. Fishing line will work in a pinch, but makes your fingers hurt like hell, and floss is cheap enough that even a life-time supply won't break you.

Canned Goods- A no-brainer, and a food you can use now and in any near-future power outage. I'm including bouillon and spices in this category, and don't forget canned dog food. Save the cans: a Spaghettio's can inside a Progresso can makes a great double boiler for small jobs, like making pitch for gluing wood or melting spent wax from old candles to make new ones.

A Bottle of Wine- Antiseptic and morale-booster all in one! Save the bottles, whether screw-top or cork. Remember: Napoleon's first experiments with canning used wine bottles as cans, and by all accounts were a success.

Clothing/Shoe repair- Last but most certainly not least. You would be hard pressed to save too much needle and thread. And don't forget to get plenty of mink oil/neat's foot oil/leather preservative of your choice and Shoo-Goo (can be kept in a freezer bag in the fridge to prolong its life span). You don't want your soles flapping free or your pants to rip in half when you might need them most.

In a future post I'll be telling you how I store all this stuff.

Pray for Israel,
Gallowglass

More Seed for Spring

I found my 2010 copy of the Bountiful Gardens catalog today (it was delivered to an old address). This is a great place to find heirloom seeds, many of which can't be found anywhere else, like quinoa. If you can look past the endemic hippy-dippy Green zealotry in the catalog and the website, then I recommend you look to them for things you can't find elsewhere.

Due to budget considerations at the Freehold, my ever-understanding wife and I probably aren't going to be able to buy any more seed for the garden until we get paid again at the end of the month. But if I had the money to spend, here are a few things I would get from Bountiful Gardens as soon as possible:

• I mentioned quinoa above. This grain is frequently touted as the "supergrain of the Andes." A staple of aboriginal Americans for centuries, quinoa is high in protein and can prosper in harsh conditions. Interestingly, I noticed today that BG has the grain labeled with an "H," their in-house designation for a plant that requires warm weather to grow, whereas I had always heard that quinoa requires cool weather. The seed is cooked or made into flour, but first has to be rinsed to remove the soapy coating, which is poisonous and protects the plant from predators. This rinse water supposedly is good for cleaning wounds and makes a good laundry soap.
• BG offers flax. The culinary type, not suitably for clothmaking, which is too bad. Flaxseed is highly nutritious, but I would like to get some for its oil.
• Amaranth. This is the anchor grain for my proposed system. I plan to grow quite a bit of it, if I can. I will someday devote an entire post to the topic of amaranth.
• Hulless barley. For beer and bread, and no threshing required.
• Good King Henry. A perennial green with qualities like spinach.
• Strawberry Spinach. Another green, but this one also grows an edible berry. I have never seen it outside of the internet, but would like to have some in my garden.
• Iron Age wheat. Hard to find, expensive, and hard to process. A vanity purchase on my part, and I should probably leave this off the list.
• BG also offers Atlas cotton. This would be worth growing for future economic reasons.
• And a million more.

Does it show that I really like looking at seed catalogs? Bad times are coming, I really believe that and every seed that I buy today may save my family's lives tomorrow. I only wish I had a little more liquid cash to work with.

In other garden developments, I got my second order from Brushy Mountain Bee Farm Tuesday. Due to the aforementioned cash shortage, this box contained only two disassembled dovetail hive bodies and a smoker. The only things I lack to truly get started are a veil, something to feed sugar water with (I am fairly confident I can figure out an inexpensive alternative to what the catalogs offer) and probably some pollen patties, just for insurance. I can get honey supers and the frames for them after the season starts.

And of course I still lack bees. I have been in contact with beekeepers in three different local areas who sell nucleus hives. It looks like they will cost around $80 each, and I will need two to start. I will make final arrangements at the end of the month before I can blow my voluminous county paycheck on luxuries like groceries or the mortgage.

I encourage readers almost everyday to garden. I know it is hard to pass up purchasing something fun like ammo or a cool sight, but this really is something everyone should be doing. It can only help.

Thought for the day:
"We don't let them have ideas, why would we let them have guns?"
-Josef Stalin

Pray for Israel,
Gallowglass