Seed Catalogs

It’s the middle of winter, cold, dreary, but something I start receiving in my mailbox makes me long for the warm days of spring, the seed catalogs. Those shiny, colorful pages full of picture of ripe fruit and veggies and herbs. I have already started buying some things, a week ago, while on one of my rare trips to town (it’s a 3+ hour drive to town), I was in a Sam’s Club store, I was about to start heading for the check out lanes when I spotted something green and leafy sticking out from an odd aisle.

It was boxes of blueberry plants, grapevines and other goodies. I will always bypass the flowers and such, I refuse to grow something that isn’t edible or medicinal or in some other way useful, a pretty face just doesn’t do it for me, it has to actually DO SOMETHING, it has to taste good or be useful in some other way.

I purchased a box that had 4 blueberry bushes growing, these are not the blueberry twigs I received in the mail last year, these actually had roots, stems and leaves, and at $16 for all four plants, I couldn’t go wrong. I still haven’t planted them though, right after coming home, I promptly developed a cold, or something, I’ve been down for a week. I did purchase a soil tester, the kind with the probe, you stick it in the dirt and it tells you the PH of the soil, something that is pretty handy when planting more persnickety plants.

I would guess that my soil is on the acidic side because of all the pines and oak trees in my area, but the only way to know for sure is to test it, I’ll be doing that either tomorrow or Monday, then I’ll either amend the soil or I’ll be planting those blueberries.

I also purchased a bag that contained four different kinds of onions, shallots, garlic and one horseradish root. I’m not crazy about horseradish, but since I have it, I’ll plant it and decide what to do with it later. The bag says it has 200 bulbs, so I’ll have lots of onions, garlic and shallots. While in the store, I also grabbed a head of elephant garlic, I’ve always wanted to grow those…

Last year, my garden really flopped, it was a combination of having not enough time to properly work it, I was working way too much and had so little time or energy left over, the other problem was a lack of moisture, we essentially didn’t have a rainy season, I rely heavily on captured rain water to water my garden and we just didn’t get it, not even one good rain, that would have filled my 1000 gallon rain barrel, but it just didn’t happen, and I didn’t have the time or energy to water my garden with 5 gallon buckets.

I have high hopes for my garden this year, with all the mulch I put down last season, I expect my garden soil to be pretty easy to work, I follow the Ruth Stout method of growing, it really does work, it’s basically laying down a mega-thick layer of mulch, straw or hay or whatever you have that will be at least 6 inches thick, 12 inches is better. It keeps down the weeds, it helps keep the soil moist and you don’t get all the splashing of mud onto your plants when it does rain. It really does keep your soil light too, it keeps it from compacting so you don’t have to dig or till each year. The book I have, The Ruth Stout No-Work Garden Book has been out of print for a long time, but it’s still available, if you have a chance to snag one, I highly recommend it. Here are some of her other books:
Gardening Without Work: For the Aging, the Busy & the Indolent
and
How to Have a Green Thumb Without an Aching Back: A New Method of Mulch Gardening
The second one is a bit pricey, again probably worth it if you can catch a used one at a decent price… I’ll be keeping my eye out for both of those.

Oh I almost forgot, when I purchased the soil tester, I purchased a bag of water crystals, you add these to your soil before planting, when you water the crystals soak up the water and slowly release the water over time. The trick is not to add too much, otherwise when they soak up the water, they will push your plants right up out of the ground (ask me how I know this…). You just dig down a bit, add the crystals, mix them with the soil and cover with more soil, you don’t want them at the surface, you want them below the soil line. Between the water crystals and the mulch, I have high hopes for my garden this year, if nothing else, I’ll have the blueberry plants to rely on for years to come.

I’ll be writing another article soon about the need to purchase heirloom seeds, and saving these seeds, not just for us now but for the generations to come, if we don’t take action now, we risk losing our ability to grow plants on our own terms, we will essentially become slaves to companies like Monsanto.

LaMar's off grid cabin

I just love learning how other people live off grid, especially when they are doing it in a very similar way to how I live. LaMar Alexander has done all of this and more, we may be in different places, but we both started out with small and simple systems, cobbling together this and that, building an independent life one piece at a time.

LaMar has graciously shared his life with the rest of us, in book and video format, here are some interesting and educational videos about how he is upgrading his solar systems. There are 4 videos in this series, you can view them here or click on the links to view at YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ajp0VkWZ9Jk

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrkyMKb73co

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EylS_Kt0gQ

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n7e9ttcmlM

 

 
LaMar has written a great book about how he built his off grid cabin and the systems that are part of his off grid cabin, this IS a “how to” book about building an off grid cabin, a great companion book to Nick’s book Off The Grid-Inside The Movement For More Space, Less Government, And True Independence In Modern America I own both books and found lots of great information in them.

Chinese Home Remedies

Part of being more self sufficient is being able to take care of minor medical issues yourself. It can become rather expensive to run to the doctor or hospital (or clinic) for every little sniffle or scratch. Like so many people, health insurance just isn’t an option, so I try to live in a healthy manner and I read up on how to take care of my own minor health issues.

One book I received last summer is called Chinese Home Remedies, Harnessing Ancient Wisdom for Self-Healing, by Lihua Wang, L.Ac., I am drawn to alternative medicine, but might have passed this book on the shelf, I would have thought from the cover that this book was full of strange sounding herbs and such that I would have little or no access to. There is so much more to this book, I am so glad I gave it a second chance, this book is laid out in a most helpful manner.

In the upper right hand corner of this book, it says “A to Z”, it is laid out in an alphabetical order of health issues, from acne to yeast infections (there doesn’t seem to be any health issues starting with the letter Z listed in this book). Under each health issue, it gives you some information about that health issue, what causes it, when you should go to a doctor (you shouldn’t ALWAYS try to treat yourself), what you should AND shouldn’t do if you have this particular health issue, then it comes to my favorite part, how you can treat said health issues. You should  be able to do most anything in this book along with any treatment you may receive from a doctor, I don’t recall reading anything that would conflict with any western medical treatment, of course if you aren’t sure, you can always talk to your doctor about it.

They give you several different ways to treat yourself for each health issue, first there are the “folk remedies”, these are tried and true traditional folk remedies that have been used down through the generations, I saw some that my family used when I was growing up, I’ll bet you will recognize some of them too. Next are the food therapies, what you should and shouldn’t eat to treat yourself, I expected to find some of those strange ingredients here, but most of what I read were normal everyday foods, like spinach and walnuts, there are more exotic foods listed there too, but you should be able to find these foods in most larger towns, especially if you go to the Asian markets that are more abundant now days.

It also explains about Chinese massage, and tells you exactly how to do it, you don’t have to find a Chinese masseuse, you can do this yourself or find a friend or partner to help if necessary. There are diagrams of where to rub, press or massage, this is like acupuncture without the needles, otherwise known as acupressure.

You will also learn about what Chinese herbs can help, now this is where things start sounding very foreign to me, but again, with the internet, and with most larger towns having an Asian population living somewhere within, meaning there will be Asian markets nearby, you should be able to find what you need.

I spent a couple of days thumbing through this book, stopping to read the ailments that most interested me, I found this book to be pretty complete, covering nearly everything you can take care of yourself, it’s an easy read, no complicated language here, and well laid out, you should be able to go to this book and quickly find what is bothering you (or someone else), you can pick the remedies you want to try, it’s not necessary to do all parts, you can choose to try the folk remedy and massage, but not the herbs.

I will be keeping this book handy and referring to it as needed. I recommend this, even if you don’t think you are interested in Chinese medicine, this book is so much more, and the remedies aren’t going to cost you an arm and a leg, you should be able to do part of the therapies in this book without having to spend any extra money, much of the other therapies are inexpensive.

Here is what is written on Amazon.com about this book:
Chinese Home Remedies is a book that offers an intriguing blend of traditional Chinese medicine-as practiced today-and a wide variety of ancient Chinese folk remedies. It contains more than 1,000 effective remedies, a treasure trove of information you can use every day. You’ll often be surprised how easily a problem that has lingered for weeks or months can be cured. Making moderate lifestyle changes and following the easy-to-use instructions on how to prepare home remedies, you will see how easy it is to end long-term suffering and experience healthier living.

This book is a distillation of Ms. Wang’s thirty years of clinical experiences, as both a physician in China and an acupuncturist and herbalist in the United States. It explains in simple-to-understand language how to treat yourself or a family member using a variety of techniques, including Chinese massage, Eastern food therapy, Chinese herbal formulas, as well as some heretofore unrevealed folk remedies, many of which have been passed down from generation to generation for thousands of years.

Did you know, for example, that: * Apple slices can ease itching skin? * Hooking your middle fingers together can stop a nosebleed? * Sunflower seeds can ease trigeminal pain? * Eating peanuts can lower your blood pressure? These are only a few of the more than 1,000 effective remedies that you will find in Chinese Home Remedies. By following just some of this book’s advice, you will find yourself on a healthier life path.

Lihua Wang began her career as a cardiologist in the China Academy of Traditional Medicine, in Bejing, China, where she practiced integrative medicine, combining both Western and Traditional Chinese medical techniques. In 1982 she was invited by Kaiser Permenante Research Center as a visiting scholar. She was later selected by the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine to teach acupuncture and Chinese herbology to American students for four years. She has been in private practice, specializing in traditional Chinese medicine, since 1992 in Portland, OR.

Read other book reviews here:
http://www.off-grid.net/tag/book-review/

Legal stuff here, I am not a doctor, nor do I have any medical training, I am not giving medical advice, you must use your own common sense to decide if you need to go see a doctor, I am not responsible for anything you do or don’t do as a result of anything written here or anything you do or don’t do as a result of reading this book. This also applies to the owner of this site and anyone else who is part of this site.

I received a copy of this book for doing a review, my review is honest and as accurate as possible.

Our pre-off-grid life was pretty much like most anyone else, we lived in a regular house, a mobile home actually, in a regular neighborhood in north central Texas. PB owned his own business, taking care of restaurant equipment for several big name companies and a smattering of smaller ones, he was a one-man-band, no employees. I worked 2 jobs, the first as a merchandiser and pricing coordinator for a big box electronics company and the other job was as a trainer in a semi-well known gym for women. We weren’t what you would call well off financially, but we were happy.

We were both empty nesters from previous marriages, in the beginning neither one of us knew the other had a secret desire to live off grid, when we began to explore the idea of actually doing this, it didn’t take us long to find our perfect plot of land in far west Texas, it was just under 6 acres of unimproved, rough, almost inaccessible land on the side of a mountain in the high desert.

I cashed in my stock from my job and had enough to buy the land and had a little left over to buy some building material for the start of the cabin (soon to be renamed the sky castle). In less than 2 weeks, PB had a minimal structure built, it was enough for us to move in. We were able to get some solar panels, a charge controller, a few deep cycle batteries and a few other things we needed to get started. We began to disassemble our current city lives, PB shut down his business, I quit both of my jobs, and on December 22, 2007 we moved all of our remaining belongings to our new life in west Texas.

The first few months were pretty rough, we lived in a most primitive manner, some might even say our first few years were pretty primitive, I suspect some might even say we still live very primitively, that’s OK, it’s quite wonderful to me. We met a great neighbor who gave us some help, it made life a bit easier, things like access to his water well instead of having to go to the community well, access to his washer and dryer instead of washing by hand and hanging to dry, access to his shower instead of taking spit baths… all things we were prepared to do on our own, but having such a great neighbor we were able to do many things a little easier, in return we do most of the maintenance on his house, we do other things for him too, so it’s a fair trade.

We quickly learned about the barter system and before long we had enough connections with the community that when anyone had some used, scrap or excess building materials, they would contact us first to see if we could use it. Most of the rest of the sky castle was built using this scrap material that would have otherwise gone to the landfill. PB would go and tear down a building at a friend’s property and we would get to take the material home. Please understand, we aren’t tree huggers, we aren’t doing any of this because it’s “green”, for us it was cheap and expedient, the fact that we were in fact being green was merely a bonus.

Little by little we built up our little place into a home, with running water, eventually installing on demand propane powered water heaters, water tanks for more water storage, we built another room, the first one was 16×16, the addition was 12×12, we built on decks and eventually, my favorite addition, the shower. We also began to work on other things, like the garden, putting up out buildings, sheds and such.

All of this has taken time and lots of sweat, we have spent very little money, mainly because we do everything ourselves, and a lot of experimentation, some of which worked great, some which failed miserably. We have been blessed by good health and only minor accidents, mostly scrapes and splinters. We have grown to really love our little community, I’d say that has been as important as anything we have done. No matter how perfect your place might be, if you aren’t happy with or welcome into your community, that will not end up in a good way.

Now we are living like kings, at least that is my opinion, of course by most people’s standards including the government, we live well under the poverty level, but I wouldn’t have it any other way, I love my life, I love living with the freedom I have, I love working hard for what we have, it really does make me appreciate each and every little thing we have. When we first started out, I was hauling 3 one gallon containers of water up the hill from my neighbor’s house every day, sometimes twice a day, I guarantee you that makes me appreciate my 1550 gallon poly plastic water container with all the plumbing involved, doing dishes and laundry by hand inside my sky castle, getting to shower with hot running water…

I look forward to many more years with PB, improving our lives and the sky castle. The last couple of days has been quite fun for PB, one of our friends and neighbors came by, he had been eyeballing the gravel in our creek bed, he offered a trade for a few trailer loads of gravel, he let us use his Bobcat tractor to do some dirt work, PB achieved in a few hours of work what would have taken him weeks if not months of hard manual work, it cost zero dollars, but was priceless for us. I have to say that life is good.

A big part of my happiness is because of my faith, I found a little church in the neighborhood (we are blessed with 2 of them close by), I joined and quickly became active in the church, now I’m on the board of trustees, working to make things better and better. I have been a Christian for many years, most of my life, but living out here and being part of this church and community has helped me grow in my faith and get closer to God. I’m not saying that is necessary for you, (though for me it is), it’s a choice you have to make, I am saying that going to church is a good way to get closer to your community, and hopefully to God too, I am blessed everyday and in every way, even in the bad times, there is always a lesson to learn, a period of growth, a strengthening. Getting to live in and near nature allows me to personally witness Divinity on a daily basis.

I have many people contact me to ask for my advice on how they should go about moving off grid, how to do it cheaply, how they should do it… it’s difficult to answer because everyone is different, everyone has different standards of how they want to live, everyone has different ideas and circumstances. My biggest advice is to have a dream and set goals, let nothing come between you and your goals, I have found that people will do what they really want to do, and unfortunately there are many who wish but don’t take the action necessary to make their wish a reality. I’m not judging, just stating the facts about what I see.

If you truly want to live off grid, then do it, you don’t have to do it all at once, but start taking the steps necessary to get you to the place where you want to be. Each step you take is a step closer to your dream, don’t let life get in the way, don’t let family, friends, a job, or anything else get in the way, do what is necessary to make yourself happy and the rest of everything will fall into place. I’m not advocating doing anything illegal, I’m assuming that most of my readers are reasonable, law abiding people. I am advocating living your life to the fullest extent, and if that includes living off grid, then do it.

If you want to learn more about our lives living off grid, you can read more of my stories here

http://www.off-grid.net/section/wretha/

you can also read about us in the book Off the Grid: Inside the Movement for More Space, Less Government, and True Independence in Modern America by Nick Rosen, we are chapter 9 in the book.

Homesteading, it’s a buzzword that means different things to different people, back in the day, it meant getting land for free as long as you lived on it and improved it for x number of years. It was a way to get people to move west (in the USA), back when travel was slow and painful, even dangerous.

Today it usually refers to someone who is living more like our ancestors did, in a more self sufficient manner, on a plot of land, often raising livestock, growing their own food, living more independently. Most of us are more than one generation removed from those who lived on a farm or homestead, so we don’t benefit from the knowledge of our family members who lived in a more self sufficient manner. I know in my family, it was my great grand parents who had lived on a farm, my grandparents and parents lived in suburban neighborhoods with small yards and animals no bigger than a dog.

Because of this, those of us who want to live closer to the land have to resort to alternative methods of obtaining  knowledge. I continually scour the internet for books about living off grid, gardening and such, I found this book The Ultimate Guide to Homesteading: An Encyclopedia of Independent Living (The Ultimate Guides), actually I didn’t find it, I was offered an opportunity to review it and I jumped at the chance, it was a book I had been looking at previously and was more than happy to review it.

I keep getting distracted from writing because I keep finding more and more interesting things in this book to read, I just read about growing cotton, then picking it, cleaning it, and spinning it. Since I crochet, this is especially appealing to me, and something I think I can do with little trouble. For now, I’m not set up to raise wool bearing animals, but I can grow cotton and process it.

This book has a lot to offer, it doesn’t go into extreme detail on any one subject, but gives you enough information so that you can decide if that particular thing is something you really want to try.  Nicole Faires (don’t you just love her name?) the author, has certainly lived the life, she is not just spouting theory, she grew up on a hobby farm raising chickens and growing her own food among other things.

While not an exhaustive list of homesteading subjects, I believe it covers the majority of them quite nicely, such as:

• land-buying, communities…
• water-getting it, purifying it and such
• food-finding it, growing it, preserving it…
• animals-livestock, domestic…
• shelter-various home styles, barns, fences…
• financial-making money from your skills…
• health-medicines, herbal medicines,
• and lots more

There is a great  dictionary in the back so you will at least sound like you know what you are talking about when chatting with the old timers at the feed store, LOL, seriously, I have had a good time reading the terminology and their meanings. Such as “butt-up”, before reading this book, I would have said that is how one lands when tripping over a rock and doing a face plant, now I know that is a type of roof ridge made in thatching which forces the straw together from both sides of the roof to form a peak. “Flying change”, I would think it’s what happens when you lose control of your change purse, but it really has to do with horses.

Near the back of the book, just before the index, the author’s bio and several blank pages (perfect for adding your own notes), there is a great bibliography with tons of resources, mostly in the form of internet links. These will send you to more detailed resources for the subjects found in this book. This alone is worth the price of the book.

The book is easy to read, well made, with lots of color photographs and diagrams, nice thick glossy pages ensure this book will last for a long time, that’s a good thing because once you have this book, you will be referring to it over and over again throughout the years.

PB (my hubby) has been trying to steal this book from me ever since I received it, his comment on it was that it is a good all over resource, not detailed on each thing, but a good book and he’s glad we have it, he has also been going on and on about how well this book is physically put together, the binding, the paper quality and the pictures. Now that I’m finished with this review, I can safely give the book to him, I’ll not see it again for a while. :)

See my other book reviews here:
http://www.off-grid.net/tag/book-review/

Honesty disclaimer:
I did receive this book free from the publisher for the expressed intent of giving a review, that in no way influenced my review, all of my reviews are honest and from the heart.

Going fridgless, to most people would be paramount to going topless, many people couldn’t imagine living their lives without having a 19+/- cubic foot energy eating, leftover storing, inefficient cold box sitting in their kitchen. Now days refrigerators do so much, in my old life, I worked for a big box electronics store, the one with the blue shirts and the little yellow price tag, they were starting to put computers in the door, not just electronics, but a real computer screen that could access the internet and help you with your shopping and let you watch TV on your fridge.

I haven’t had a refrigerator, at least not a full size one, in my house since we went off grid over 3 years ago. We do have a small dorm sized cube fridge in the house, but we so seldom use it, we mostly use it when family comes to visit during the summer months. Honestly, most foods that say they “require” refrigeration, actually do not. Things that have lots of vinegar in them, think of pickles, relish, mustard… vinegar is a preservative, also some hard cheeses, especially the ones that have a wax or plastic coating on them do just fine outside of the fridge, I buy Velveta processed cheese, it says it needs to be refrigerated after opening, but I don’t do that, I just keep it sealed up well, and keep it in the cooler part of the house, I use it up within a week of opening it and it has been just fine. Fresh eggs will keep for at least a week, especially if they are unwashed. Of course you have to be smart about things, you don’t want to make yourself sick (or worse), if your kitchen is hot, then don’t expect foods to last very long, even though many foods do not need refrigeration, they still need to be kept cool. I don’t buy Velveta in the summer unless I buy a small brick of it and I am going to use it quickly, the same thing goes for a lot of other foods, just use your brain and you should be OK.

When I did have a full sized fridge, living in town, most of what I kept in the fridge was leftovers, I kept them until I decided to toss them out. The money I spent keeping leftovers cold until I was ready to throw them away could have purchased lots more food. Now I’m more careful about how much food I prepare, we generally do not have leftovers, if there is some food left after we are full (and that would be only a tiny bit) we go ahead and throw away, that really means putting it outside for the critters to eat, it’s always gone the next morning.

I will not lie and say I don’t miss refrigerators and freezers completely, I do miss having a gallon of milk on hand, I also miss sour cream and ice cubes, though I don’t use ice as much as a lot of other people I know. In the summer, I miss having cold beverages at my fingertips.

So we are working on getting refrigeration for our foods, especially now that we have a good shelter over our heads and life has slowed down quite a bit.  Hubby and I have taken 2 different approaches toward setting up some refrigeration in the house now, I purchased an external thermostat, it will be used on a small chest freezer, you set it for refrigerator temps and once it reaches the set temp, it cuts off the power to the freezer. Chest freezers are much more efficient than refrigerators, they are better insulated, but more importantly, they open from the top, when you open a refrigerator, all of the cold air drops out of the box, right across your feet into the kitchen. With the chest design, the cold air stays inside the box. This is reported to be very good for off gridders with limited power.

Hubby is removing a propane powered fridge out of an old travel trailer, it needs to be cleaned up, and there is no guarantee that it still works, though we are pretty sure it will. We will see which one is the most efficient and least costly to us. It will also be nice to have 2 different options for refrigeration, we can use which ever one we have the most resources (power or propane) for.

But until we have one or both of those set up, we will continue to live essentially fridgless, using canned, dried and otherwise non-refrigerated foods, or when we do purchase things like fresh meat, we use it the same day.

Of course there are other ways to keep your foods cold, there is the zeer pot, ice, coolers (filled with ice), root cellars, I’m sure there are more ways too. I was inspired to write this because of another contributor here, Elnav, he started this thread in the forums here.

This series of articles will chronicle our journey into living off grid at the least cost, and as comfortably as possible. As with all things in life, the comfort level you enjoy will be directly proportionate to your available budget. This level can be raised massively using your knowledge and abilities. Our desire was to create a sustainable lifestyle using a minimum of investment. The wish now is to convey some of what we have learned along the way, and identify some of the mistakes that were made. I am not an expert in any field, nor do I hold a list of degrees. My sole qualification to write this is the fact that I am living it daily.

This story is not a how to guide. Off grid living is much more complex, as you will discover, and unique to each individual family. Every detail of one’s daily life, both current and future, must be given utmost consideration. I cannot stress enough that last statement. Actual cash outlay will also depend heavily on the exact amount of work you can do. Ninety percent of the work was performed by my two hands. We will not go into every detail, with the hope that you will come away with a clear understanding of what was done and why, what was successful and what was not. Our approach was far from common, but a lot of this information is quite adaptable.

A myriad of topics will be covered, including the purchase of land, obtaining materials, use of alternative energy, and utilization of alternative techniques. Standard construction methods were used, with few exceptions. Components will be critiqued. Certain products and procedures exceeded expectations, while others did not measure up. These are only our results. Yours may differ, and probably will.

Legalities and building codes vary widely with location. Please check with local officials before action is taken. Demolition and rebuilding are vastly more expensive. Do it right the first time, and only once. Since we were not connected to the grid, an electrical inspection was not required. This does not mean that electrical codes could be ignored. How sad it would be to build a structure, only to see it burn to the ground! Saving a few dollars to cut corners is not worth the result. Sustainable, remember?

Read the rest of the article here:
http://www.motherearthnews.com/the-happy-homesteader/living-offgrid-affordably-before-getting-started.aspx

Hanging to dry...

It’s funny how your perspectives change as you grow. When I was a kid, I used to be embarrassed because my mom hung our laundry out on the line to dry. I hated the smell of line dried clothes, sheets and towels, to me that meant we were poor, we couldn’t afford a dryer. All of my classmates had soft, fabric softener fresh smelling clothes, our clothes, towels and sheets were stiffer and to me were just second rate.

Now, 30 something years later, I relish the smell of line dried clothes, to me it means freedom, self sufficiency and the satisfaction of a job well done. I just brought in a set of sheets from the line, I couldn’t keep my face out of the sheets, the scent is heavenly, and no, my line dried clothes are not scratchy and stiff, fortunately there are better cleaners to use that do not leave fabric feeling so stiff like they did in the “old days”.

I have experimented with several recipes of homemade laundry soap, I still use them when I do laundry in a washing machine, but when I hand wash (which I prefer) I have found that no matter how finely I grate the bar soap, it just doesn’t dissolve well enough, I have even tried turning it into a liquid, I just don’t like how it turns out, I can’t seem to get it rinsed out well enough and it leaves whitish places on my laundry.

I turned to Dr Bronner’s liquid soaps, being a liquid it dissolves readily in the water, it is low sudsing which is good, suds aren’t what cleans your clothes anyhow. Because of all of this, rinsing is so much quicker and easier. One of the reasons that line dried clothes tend to be stiffer and scratchier is because typical laundry detergent isn’t completely rinsed out of your clothes, even if you wash in a washing machine. Just look at the rinse water after a few minutes of agitation, you will see soapy bubbles, at best you can do a second rinse to try to get the residual detergent out, but even then it’s just about impossible, these detergents are designed to leave behind residues that contain optical brighteners, fragrances and such.

Now to the rinsing, I have tried all of the methods I’ve read about on line to help get all the soap residue rinsed out and help make the fabric softer, I have tried adding vinegar to the rinse water, I’ve tried adding baking soda, I still had stiffy scratchy laundry at the end when I line dried them. So I fell back on good old fabric softener, I use an unscented one by Downy, I don’t want chemical scents saturating the things that closest to my body and where I sleep. The fabric softener is extra concentrated so I don’t have to use much, and it has made all the difference in the world. Now even my terry towels are a pleasure to feel.

I have family coming out for a visit this weekend, so today I’m hand washing the sheets, along with a load of t-shirts. The first set of sheets were dry by the time I got the second set of sheets and the t-shirts washed, after hanging the wet laundry, as I brought in the dry sheets, I couldn’t keep my face out of the sheets, they smell so fresh, so good and they are soft, not stiff at all.

Another trick I use, this is a real shortcut, my shirts, especially my t-shirts (which I live in) I hang them on a plastic hanger to dry, to keep the shoulders from getting that weird hump from the ends of the hangers, I pull the neck of the shirt up toward the hook part of the hanger, just until the shoulder transitions to the sleeve is even with the end of the hanger, I use a couple of clothes pins to keep the shirt in place on the hanger.

Click to see full size image

I also use clothes pins between the hung shirts on the line to keep them from being blown together, this means the dry quicker. Since they are already hung up, when it’s time to collect the shirts from the line, all I have to do is remove the clothes pins from the shoulders, take them in the house and put them on the clothes rack. Some of my shirts I take off of the hanger, fold and put up, mainly the ratty ones, the good ones I keep on the hanger.

I am going to be ordering some Sal Suds (also by Dr Bronner) for general cleaning and doing laundry, it’s cheaper and I have read good things about it, it’s really an all purpose cleaner, from floor to ceiling, from dishes to laundry, and it’s biodegradable. I really love Dr Bronner’s cleaners and have used them for years. If you can get this in a local store, great, unfortunately it’s not available to me locally, if you are in the same boat, you can get them online here: Dr. Bronner Sal-Suds Biodegradable Cleaner, 32 fl oz liquid or the Dr Bronner’s Sal Suds Liquid Cleanser 128 Ounces. As of the time of writing this, both had free shipping.

It doesn’t take all that much time either, I do a little at a time, mostly doing it in my sink, I separate out my clothes, doing the whites and lighter colors first, brights then darks and blacks last. Often I’ll do one or two sets a day, so the whites and lights I’ll tackle one day, the others I’ll do another day. I fill my vessel with water, add some soap, then add the clothes, I swish the clothes in the soapy water, concentrating on any stains or especially dirty spots. When I’m tired of doing that, I’ll go do something else, then come back, swish some more, then wring out the clothes, if the water isn’t too dirty, I’ll wash more clothes. When I have everything washed that I want washed, I drain the water then fill the vessel back up with water and rinse the clothes, I almost always do 2 rinses. The second rinse I add fabric softener and if I’m doing whites or lights, I’ll add some Mrs Smith Bluing. That helps make the whites whiter and even helps with the light colored clothes. Again, I stop between swishing the clothes to do other things, it really doesn’t matter how long the clothes sit there.

Oh I almost forgot, my newest laundry aide, if you remember reading my previous DIY laundry article (this one has the most comments on this site to date!), I was using a plunger with holes in it to wash clothes, it worked pretty well, but I wanted something better. I remembered when I was a teenager, I worked in a Mexican fast food restaurant, we used an industrial sized potato masher while cooking the meat, I thought that might work for laundry, and does it ever! It’s not the round kind, it’s a thick wire that runs back and forth, it’s mounted on a long handle. Since it’s stainless steel, no worries about rust. It works great. This is what it looks like:

Be sure to get the one with the longer handle, you’ll appreciate it much better, so will your back. The handle on this one is 24 inches long, and the head is a little better than 5 inches wide, it gets those clothes really clean and doesn’t make a lot of splashes or suds.

Once they are fully rinsed and wrung out, I put them in a laundry basket and head outside to hang them. Where I live, the laundry dries really fast, we have very low humidity. If I really want them to dry faster, I pull out my wringer, that thing is worth its weight in gold! I don’t use it every time because I don’t have a proper washing area yet, it will be used every time once I get set up with a proper wash station outside, it’s one of those “works in progress”. I just had a gust of wind blow through, I ran outside to see if any of the laundry hit the ground, and yes, one shirt did bite the dust, fortunately it was already dry and I was able to brush the shirt off. If you have winds where you live, and you want to hand your shirts on hangers to dry, you might want to use clothes pins to secure the hangers so your clothes do not come off in the event of a gust of wind.

Life is good when you have the fresh scent of line dried laundry that is soft and so wonderful!

Not saying that everyone needs to live like this, BUT it’s nice to have the skills to be able to do these things.

easy no-knead bread

I love making and baking bread, who doesn’t enjoy eating fresh, homemade bread hot from the oven? The problem is the time it takes to make, the mixing, the kneading, the rising, the kneading again, the shaping, the rising again… it just takes too much time and attention.

About a year ago, I started seeing books and recipes for no-knead breads, it looks almost too good to be true, this method makes what is often referred to as “artisan breads”, the kind that cost a small fortune in the specialty bakeries, who knew how easy these breads were to make?

no knead bread

I searched YouTube and found a few videos that look very easy to follow, the great thing is they don’t require lots of work, these can be started one day and finished the next.

So far the recipes look very simple, flour, salt and yeast. I have a bread machine, but since I’m off grid (solar powered) I don’t use it. at least not at my place, my bread machine doesn’t like my inverter (it needs a pure sine wave inverter because of the digital timer), so this method is tailor made for me since it doesn’t require refrigeration or lots of power or a more expensive inverter. Watch and enjoy!

I soooo want one of those Danish Dough Whisks he uses in that one! I’ll either buy one, or have PB make one for me.

I like rocket stoves, these are usually small, usually portable, mini-cooking-heating devices that are very efficient. You can use twigs instead of larger pieces of wood, these tend to be safer since you aren’t using a lot of fuel (twigs) and it goes out if you aren’t there to feed the wood into the stove. I have seen a lot of different methods of building a rocket stove, from simple bricks without mortar to very elaborate and expensive rigs.

I recently ran across an interesting and easy to do method of making a rocket stove from materials that most of us have laying around the house. This was designed and created by an internet friend, Kent Ivey, who is a major tinkerer, he is always coming up with interesting and useful items made with scrap or what most  would consider junk, those of us who follow him on Face Book are always eager to see what he comes up with next.

Here is a photo montage of Kent making a rocket stove, enjoy!

You’ll need a 5 gallon bucket (make it one you are willing to give up for this purpose)
2-2 liter plastic cola bottles (full of cola or water)
A marker that will mark on plastic
Dirt, straw or hay or grass, water
A sharp utility knife, duct tape, something to mix the cob in and scoop the cob into the bucket (wheelbarrow and shovel)
Something to smooth the adobe/cob (a trowel of some sort)
A piece of expanded metal lath, or something similar, that will fit in the middle of the lower hole and stick out at least 6 inches, longer would be better (make sure it can take heat)
Rocks or something to set your pan on the top, you’ll need a space between the top of the rocket stove and the pan

After you get all of your parts together, set the bucket on its side, draw a circle on your bucket toward the bottom, about 3-4 inches from the bottom, use the cola bottle as a template.

Next, using a sharp utility knife, cut out the circle, be careful.

Make sure the bottle fits, it’s OK for the hole to be a little bigger than the bottle.

Now using duct tape, tape the two bottles together in an “L” shape as shown. Tape them well, be sure to cover every part of the bottles between the bottles, make it as smooth as possible.

Now make your adobe/cob using the dirt, grass (or hay or straw) and water, if you are unfamiliar with making adobe/cob, just look it up online, there are lots of resources to teach you how to make adobe/cob.

Put some of the adobe/cob in the bottom of the bucket, just until it reaches the bottom of the bottom hole, place the taped bottles in the bucket, then continue filling the bucket with the adobe/cob mixture.

Make sure the “boss” is watching.

Be sure to fill all of the voids, do not leave any holes or voids in the bucket.

Yeah, it’s messy, you’d better do this outside. :)

Using a trowel, smooth off the top of the adobe/cob, Kent piled the cob up a couple of inches over the top, he smoothed the top and the sides.

Clean up any adobe/cob that oozes out the hole in the side.

Now allow this several days to dry, if you live in a very humid area, leave it a few days longer.

When the adobe/cob feels dry, open the bottle lids and pour out the liquid.

Using a sharp utility knife, cut the bottle tops and remove.

Carefully reach in and cut the sides of the bottles, remove the bottles and tape as best you can.

Chances are, your adobe/cob will not be completely dry inside, allow it to dry for a few more days.

Using some small twigs and paper, set a small fire inside the rocket stove to help dry it the rest of the way and start to cure the adobe/cob.

Now take a piece of expanded metal lath, or something similar that will fit in the bottom hole, this is used to hold the fuel as it’s being fed into the rocket stove. Notice the rocks on top, Kent uses this to hold up the cooking pan, you can use whatever heat proof item you have to set the pan on.

Now, stuff some paper inside the bottom hole, place some twigs or other wood on the top of the screen, light it and wait for the fire to catch.

Once the fire is going good, you can cook on your rocket stove, you can also boil water.

Notice how the pan is not sitting directly on the top of the rocket stove, there needs to be a gap between the pan and the stove. Keep pushing the twigs into the stove to keep the fire going.

Looks like Kent had a great breakfast right after this. :) I think the boss got some breakfast too.

I know someone will ask this question, will the plastic bucket melt? According to Kent, it will not melt.

Visit Kent on Face Book

A great rocket stove book.

Another rocket stove

Dirt-Cheap Survival Retreat

There are people who have seemingly unlimited funds to purchase whatever goodies they want. This book is not written for them, though they could glean some great ideas. It’s really written for the rest of us, those who have limited incomes but still want to go off grid and live comfortably.

Dirt-Cheap Survival Retreat

Creekmore writes with a very down to earth style. He gets right to the point. He didn’t fill this book with fluff — this book is written from experience — he actually lives the life and walks the walk. I live 100% off grid, and have done everything on the cheap, I’ve lived this way since Dec ’07, I can tell you that this book has some useful ideas and info.

This book covers most all of the bases, I say most only because there is always something that could be added no matter how complete a book might be. You will learn about buying land cheaply, how to get shelter, how to power your place, this is something that can get expensive, but Creekmore tells you how to do it on the cheap. He also tells you how to deal with waste and sanitation, about security, food, water and more.

This isn’t about being a hermit living in a cave, wearing skins and eating worms, Creekmore does use modern technology, lights, radio, computer… he just does it smarter, and he is sharing this info with the rest of the world in this book, hopefully so that the reader will have a head start on what to do and what not to do.

The part that I found very interesting is the security section, a couple of the ideas are the kind that make you slap yourself in the head and say “Why didn’t I think of that???” I also like the section on how to find cheap land. Without that, you probably will not be able to even get started living anywhere on the cheap.

Whether you already own raw land and just want to know how to get started living cheaply, or you are just thinking about doing this, I highly recommend this book.

Dirt-Cheap Survival Retreat

Read more book reviews here:
http://www.off-grid.net/tag/book-review/

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With food prices going up and up with no end in sight, some of us have already started buying extra food to put away for hard times, and believe me, hard times can come at any time for many reasons, from weather incidents to terrorist (domestic and foreign) attacks. It can be something as simple as losing your income because of being fired, laid off, cut hours, downsizing and such. Wouldn’t it be nice to have one less worry, one less thing competing for your hard earned money? Well if you have a store of food, then you can spend your money on fuel, mortgage or rent, insurance and such instead of worrying about where your next meal will come from or having to choose between buying groceries or paying for other things. Food is expensive, buying in bulk is usually less expensive, but you have to have the money to pay upfront for your bulk purchase. I have learned of a place where you can buy foods in bulk and in #10 cans on the cheap.

I’m talking about LDS canneries. For the most part, you do not need to be a member of this church to participate in this valuable service, I have heard that some canneries will not allow non-members, but I think that is rare, most will allow non-members to participate. I understand that it helps to know a LDS member but it’s not necessary. As you may or may not know, LDS members are encouraged to have at least a year’s worth of food put up for their families, the church organizes to make that possible, their prices are fantastic, they are non-profit. They do not pressure you to join their church, everything I have heard about this has been positive with no pressure. Here are some examples of what they carry and the prices, the prices are subject to change.

Click to see full size image

You can buy in bulk, or can in #10 cans or put the food in mylar bags, if you can or bag the food, you get an oxygen absorber for each package included in the price. This isn’t junk food, it’s real food, things like wheat, beans, oats, rice, dried fruit, dry milk, powdered juice drink mix and such.

Here are some videos of the process:

You can find locations here: http://www.providentliving.org/location/map/0,12566,2026-1-4,00.html

Here is a link to the most current price lists, understand that prices are subject to change at any time: http://www.providentliving.org/content/display/0,11666,8133-1-4352-1,00.html

Be sure to call first, before going, you will most likely have to set up an appointment, the more people you can get to go with you the better, from what I have seen on the videos, 4-6 people would be optimal, that way different people can be working at each station.

You can also go to this page http://store.lds.org/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Category3_10705_10551_21158_-1_N_image_0 and order direct through mail, they only carry wheat, rice, pinto beans, oats, a starter kit with everything previously listed, the food comes in #10 cans, 6 to a case (you must order a case) but the prices are so inexpensive that it’s easy to afford a case. They also have free shipping in the USA. Prices and shipping charges are subject to change. From this site, you can also order mylar bags, oxygen absorbers, bag sealers and water filtration. If you don’t live near a cannery or the cannery you are close to doesn’t service non-members, then this is your next best deal.

I have the opportunity to talk to people about storing foods from time to time, especially since we are off grid and do not use refrigeration very often, we have a couple of small dorm sized fridges but rarely plug them up, I also have access to my neighbor’s refrigerator. I have heard more than one conversation where people confuse dehydrated food with freeze dried foods. They are in fact, two different things.

dehydrated strawberries

freeze dried strawberries

What they do have in common is the food has had most of the moisture removed, where they differ is the methods that are used to dry the food, and the texture and weight of the finished product. Wikipedia says:

“Drying is a method of food preservation that works by removing water from the food, which inhibits the growth of microorganisms and hinders quality decay. Drying food using sun and wind to prevent spoilage has been practiced since ancient times. Water is usually removed by evaporation (air drying, sun drying, smoking or wind drying) but, in the case of freeze-drying, food is first frozen and then the water is removed by sublimation.”

Typically food that is dehydrated shrinks and becomes more dense, though lighter because of the water weight being removed. Foods that are freeze dried will look more like the original food, there is less shrinkage, the main difference is the texture, the freeze dried food will be lighter (in weight), less dense, and will have a light crunch if you eat it in its dehydrated state. It also returns to a more natural/original form when rehydrated.

Dehydrated food is simply food that has had its moisture reduced, period. This is something that anyone can do. Freeze dried food requires much more high end equipment. The food is frozen in the presence of a vacuum. This process causes the moisture in the food to go from a liquid state to a gaseous state, skipping the frozen state, this is called sublimation. I am simplifying this quite a bit, needless to say that most of us, the ordinary public, will not be able to freeze dry foods at home.

People, it’s time to stock up on what you can now, things aren’t getting any better, and our money is losing value every day. The best way to maintain the value of the money you have now is to go ahead and buy the things you need now, you can just about guarantee that what you buy now will be going up in price in the near future.

A couple of things I have stocked up on is food and medicine. These are things you will be using no matter what. One that I buy in bulk (and it’s pretty good for you as well as tasty) is dehydrated refried beans, Emergency Food Supply Precooked Dehydrated Pinto Beans, of course if you are looking for a smaller quantity try this Fantastic Foods Instant Refried Beans Bulk Mix, 3.33-Pound Bags (pack of 3) or this Leonard Mountain Precooked And Freeze Dried Pinto Beans, 6-Ounce Bags (Pack of 6). What I like about the dehydrated refried beans, they are already cooked, saving alot of time and fuel, all you do is pour the amount you want to eat into a pan, add an equal amount of water, heat and eat, there are many ways you can enjoy refried beans, add some rice and you have a complete protein as well as a tasty, healthy meal.

If you want to add some meat to that, try this Canned Boneless Ground Beef, I have personally eaten this and it is very good, good taste and texture. Don’t forget about cheese, you can store these on the shelf with no worries, Bega Canned Autralian Processed Cheese 10 cans and 5 Kraft Cheese in can Cheddar Cheese.

All of these foods are shelf stable, they don’t need refrigeration, the meat and cheese of course do need refrigeration AFTER you open them if you don’t eat all of it, the nice thing about the cheese and meat is chances are you will eat the whole can and will not have any leftovers to worry about.

The other thing I mentioned is medicine, specifically antibiotics. These are a little more tricky to obtain. If you can get your doctor to prescribe some for you, then go for it. Chances are you will have to obtain your antibiotics another way. Be sure to EDUCATE yourself before taking any medicine, if you are allergic to anything listed below, then DON’T do this, know beforehand if you can safely take these. Do not abuse antibiotics, that is to say, don’t take them at the drop of a hat or the first sniffle, know if you really have a bacterial infection, don’t take it if you only have a virus, antibiotics will not have any affect on viruses. Also, if you do determine that you have a bacterial infection, be sure to take a full course of the antibiotics, don’t stop halfway through just because you feel better, this will cause more harm than good. Taking antibiotics too often, or not taking the full course when you do need them will cause the bacteria to become stronger, you are killing the weaker bacteria and allowing the stronger ones to survive and multiply, potentially creating super bugs that require stronger antibiotics to deal with it.

If you can’t get an extra prescription from your doctor, dentist or friendly vet, then you can get antibiotics for fish tanks. These are the same pills you would be getting from your pharmacy, without the doctor bill and prescription, do a Google search for this, you will find that many people use fish antibiotics with no ill effects. I have some for my own use, I hope to never use them, but like good insurance, if I ever need them, I’ll have them. Here are a few that you might consider:

Fish Mox Forte 500 (Amoxocillin)
Fish Flex Forte (Keflex Cephalexin)
Fish Pen Forte (Penicillin).
There are other antibiotics for fish that humans can take but these should cover most infections you may get.

DO YOUR HOMEWORK, this isn’t rocket science, but you do need to know the proper dosage for your body weight, and how long to take them. This is not meant to replace your doctor, if you are sick, and either have insurance or can afford to see a doctor and get prescription medicine, then by all means do that. This is meant to be a backup, or for those who can’t afford to go to the doctor, and especially if/when TSHTF and there are no doctors to be seen. For me, this is a case of I can’t afford to go to the doctor for minor things, and it’s also meant as a backup in the SHTF situation. I don’t intend on using it unless I have to, in fact I was very sick during the month of December, I was down for 3 weeks. I considered using my amoxicillin, but I knew that what I had was a virus, plain and simple, the antibiotic would have not done anything for me, I didn’t have an infection nor did I develop one, so I didn’t use it.

If you aren’t sure about using medicine that doesn’t come from your local pharmacy, then you have two choices, research it until you are comfortable with it, or don’t do it at all. For what it’s worth, my neighbors are both in the medical field (one is a registered nurse and the other is an X-ray tech), and they approved what I am doing, I showed them the links above and asked questions, the answers I received assured me that I am doing the right thing.

It goes without saying that you need to keep these and all medicines put away out of reach of children. This is not meant to replace a doctors advice, I am not a doctor or medical professional, this is not meant as or to replace medical advice, this is not meant to diagnose or treat anything,  neither I nor the owners of this site nor anyone affiliated with this site are responsible for anything that may happen as a result of you reading and/or implementing the information in this article. This is strictly for educational purposes only, any action you take as a result of reading this article and/or clicking on the links above is your responsibility.

This was an incredibly hard, yet interesting topic to research. Because milk (in it’s many forms) is so important to us, there is a LOT of info on the internet about it. History fact: the first person to use powdered milk (that we know of) was Marco Polo for his trips around the world. Amazing to think how far we have come since his first trials of a home dried paste like substance. Imagine how that must have tasted after a year at sea!

“Milk! It does a body good!” That’s what they say, but all I know is that it contains many vitamins and nutrients that your body requires to remain in good working condition. It’s important that children get at least 3-5 servings per day, and I use milk in many of my recipes for daily living.

What if I couldn’t get to the stores? How can I store milk of use at a later time?

The answer that is the easiest is: powdered milk. Most of us have tried it at one time or another and most of us didn’t care much for it. I urge you all to give it another try. The new powdered milk is almost indistinguishable from the stuff you buy in the store with all the new advances that have been made. If you want to try it, I have several suggestions: keep it cold! Keep it stirred well. When cooking with powdered milk, I can absolutely promise that there is no difference in taste or outcome of the recipe.

Powdered milk is readily available in most stores as well as from all long term food storage vendors. Tip: get non fat dried/powdered milk. NOT milk replacement products. I recommend the non fat type simply because it stores better, I like a little fat in my milk. Your powdered milk, properly packaged (NOT in the box it came in) should last up to 5 years. Of course you hear stories that people have kept it for 10 years and it’s been fine, but in general, the recommendation is to keep it from 2-5 years. I prefer to take my milk out of the box and pack it in a Mylar bag with o2 absorbers. I then pack the bags in either buckets or tubs. I also have a selection of #10 cans of powdered milk, which are supposed to be good for 10 years, but many of these are “milk replacement” products that are good, but when it comes to recipes containing milk, they aren’t supposed to be substituted (though I haven’t found out precisely WHY yet). Keep the stored product in a cool dry place.

Apparently, the vitamin A and D that milks is so valuable for have limited shelf lives and are easily destroyed by sun light. Packing the dried milk in Mylar takes care of the light issue. You CAN use it just like regular milk including using it to make soft cheese and margarine (I did not care for the margarine, but it’s worth a try and worth knowing you can do it). I am told that you can also make yogurt with the powdered milk and infant formula.

Other suggestions for milk storage are varieties of shelf stable liquid milk such as Borden sells, which is a regular container of milk that can sit on the shelf for several months (unopened). This milk has been processed using new technology that keeps micro organisms from entering it during packaging. Traditionally, canned condensed milk and sweetened condensed milk were staple in Depression Era pantries. The canned condensed milk will last 3-5 years easily, but be sure to check the cans for signs of rust every 6 months or so.

For those of you who are hoping for something that you can stash in your food preps and forget for 10 years, milk isn’t going to do that for you. Eventually, if there is a really long term disaster, you will run out of your powdered milk supply and have to find a cow or a goat. However, having a stock of powdered milk is a great thing for emergencies, home budget crisis and for general preparedness reasons.

Odd Recipes Using Powdered Milk

Infant Formula

1 can evaporated milk

18 ounces water

2 tablespoons white sugar OR 2 T karo syrup OR 2T black strap molasses

3 mil Baby Vitamins

Bring the water to a boil, remove from the heat.

Add the sugar and stir to dissolve.

Mix in the evaporated milk and stir or shake

Be sure to make a fresh batch daily!

Pancake Mix for short term storage:

Keep this in a sealed container for 6-9 months. One of our group members, camps a lot and makes up vacuum sealed or mylar bags of this to take with them.

6 cups flour (whole wheat is fine)

½ c. baking powder

5 cups powdered milk

2 T salt

2 cups shortening

Mix together ingredients, cutting the shortening in after all other ingredients have been well blended. When done, the mix should resemble corn meal.

Healthy Peanut Butter Balls

1/3 cup crunchy or creamy peanut butter

½ cup nonfat dry milk powder

2 TBSP wheat germ

1 TBSP honey

Mix together and shape into little bite size balls. Refrigerate any uneaten ones :)

Margarine from Powdered milk

1/2 cup milk powder

1 1/2 cups safflower oil (You can use other oils if you like, I prefer olive oil.)

2/3 cup water

a little yellow coloring (I don’t even bother with this)

Reconstitute the milk powder by adding it to the water. Whisk in an electric blender at a slow speed adding the oil a little at a time (important) if the mixture is still too soft add more skim milk powder a little at a time till it thickens. Some practice may be needed to get it right.

We are looking to be more self sufficient and live a more “green” life. We are preparing for whatever comes along…bad weather, bad economy, bad government.

Be sure to visit her blog to read about more hints and tips about living lighter on the earth and being prepared for whatever may happen. If you have any questions about this article, please contact Herbalpagan through her blog.