Seventy Two Hours

I grew up in a culture of emergency preparedness and self-reliance.  In many areas members of my church are known for their year supply of wheat.  I’ve recently become aware of groups of people who are preparedness hobbyists and devotees focusing on may areas of self-reliance and going by the name of “preppers”  or known as “prepping”.

It’s always been a subject I was interested in, but I didn’t realize there was a thriving subculture, maybe even rivaling backyard homesteaders.  (Although the two groups are highly interrelated–which is how I came across the term in the first place–on homesteading blogs. )

We recently rotated the supplies in our 72-hour kit–Basically a bag of supplies, that could sustain my family in emergencies, food being simple and needing no cooking.  My favorite alternative name for this bag is a “Bug Out Bag.”   This is the kind of bag you need for situations like the California wildfires where you are given five minutes notice by the fire dept. to evacuate you home to avoid danger.

I go with a really simple list of common food supplies meant to supply 2100 calories and essential nutrients per person.

72 hour kit food list:
Canned tuna fish or pork and beans(1/2 lb per person)
Nonfat dry milk (1/2 lb per person)
Graham Crackers (1 lb per person)
Dried Apricots (1 lb per person)
Canned orange or tomato juice (46 oz per person)
Peanut butter (1/2 lb per person)

Also include:
1 Gallon of water per person per day (We threw in a container of Tang for the stale water factor, plus vitamin C.)

I swapped out some of the apricots for raisins because they were a lot cheaper, and I switched out half the graham cracker poundage for granola bars, because there’s only so many graham crackers I think I could handle in a 72-hour period.

This backpack holds all the food for our whole family (and it is heavy). The pack also holds a first-aid kit, candles and matches, diapers and wet wipes. There’s an endless number of things others might include for their own family needs.  And our water is in a separate container.

Some other tips I’ve learned from rotating out supplies a number of times are that crunchy granola bars store for many months longer than chewy type granola bars.  Also, canned juices store longer than the ones in plastic bottles.

I like sticking with this very simple list.  Many people get pretty elaborate with meal-planning their 72-hour kits.  We don’t really eat a lot of processed foods, so I don’t want to buy a bunch of processed meal-goods that I have to rotate out every four months.  Also, a simpler list makes for way less hassle for rotating food.  “Three new boxes of graham crackers” is a lot more simple than “a box of this, and a box of that, and a box. . .”  I don’t know that we will ever use this bag of supplies in an emergency setting, but it does feel pretty good to know that it is sitting down in the basement. . . just in case.

Look at me–I’m a prepper, and I didn’t even know it.

Bring it on April Showers

We finally implemented our rainwater capture system.

We put the barrel next to our back door. The back landing is about a foot and a half off the ground. Our plan is to build a small wooden platform about that height to permanently set the rain barrel on. That way the water coming out of the spigot –the small red thing you can see down low in the honeysuckle (the long red hose from the top is the overflow)– will come out faster because it will both have the water pressure pushing down on it and also be gravity fed.

We opted to have our drain put right in the center of our rain barrel lid, hoping that –when the barrel is on a level surface–the water will pool in the middle and go into the drain.  When the barrel is lifted the flexible downspout we have should basically sit right over the drain.  It has a screened cover and pops out so we can unclog it when needed.

I’ve been very curious about getting a rain barrel. Our water bill is generally about $30 a month or a dollar a day. In the summer months our bill doubles to about $60 a month. Our single rain barrel with all the fittings was a $25 investment. We set it up under the downspout on the back side of the house which has the largest rain collection surface (total roof area).  I’m anxious to see how our water bills compare this summer to previous years.

We plan to use the water for irrigating our plants and garden.  Some people don’t recommend using the water for a vegetable garden because of things that might runoff from the roof into your water.  Well, considering things like how acidic rain water can be these days anyhow, and that the fact that the gutter runoff waters our yard anyway, we’re going to accept the small amount of risk that may or may not be involved.

We got the barrel set up just in time, We’ve been having showers and thunderstorms all week and it’s already filling up with water.

Overambitious

 

We came across this machine at the thrift store (a home meat grinder and sausage stuffer) and we really debated about getting it.  In the end we decided to go for it.

Then we went home and watched Good Eats which is one of our main go-to resources for adventurous kitchen projects.  We have the episode Sausage: A Beautiful Grind which demonstrates making breakfast sausage and Italian sausage.  Watching that episode was the catalyst to our being interested in home sausage making in the first place.

I remembered seeing casings at the “Farm Store” where we buy our chicken food.  So we stopped by there yesterday to pick them up.  And we purchased our pork shoulder and herbs for grinding.

Like everything else done homemade–one of the benefits of home sausage making is being able to control the ingredients.  I bought the pork for our first attempt at sausage making from the grocer.  But this summer, when the farmers’ market opens back up I will be able to buy local pastured pork.

Here’s to a new self-reliant kitchen project–we hope it won’t turn out to be a bit too overambitious.

The Value of Skills

 

Are skills more valuable for making money or saving money?

I’ve been considering this in light of many of the homesteading and homemaking skills I’ve picked up over the years. We’re often told to find a way to market our skills (to earn cash)–but I’ve been wondering if there is actually more value in saving money.

Because it’s Christmas time right now gifts are on my mind.  We will be buying a few things (some of them second-hand) but we will be making quite a few gifts as well.

I’ve been making homemade soap this fall.  I love using the soap–but it’s also a great gift to give away.  (Everyone uses soap.)  I’ll be sewing a little for my boys.  I’ve got a stained glass project I’m working on for my sister. In the past I’ve made dishtowels, sewn felt play-food and baby soft books, crocheted blankets, and made sugar scrubs.  These are all skills I’ve learned that help offset our family’s need for cash to purchase things for ourselves, but also the cost of small birthday gifts, or “thank you’s”, or service provided for friends, that can all use up a lot of cash–if I let them.

The alternative is choosing to use personal resources (my skills)  instead of cash.  Jeremy makes wonderful homemade breads.  Our family loves them; our friends love them.  We’re excited this year to be able to gift small jars of our backyard honey with the breads.  I’ve got kale growing out in my hoop house so I can take a bowl of zuppa Toscana to my friend whose baby is due in a week.  There is an initial investment, for ingredients and supplies, to give home produced gifts, but it’s often much lower than the cost of equivalent items when you consider market value of handmade, artisan, local or organic.

Another factor I can’t ignore is  how much I enjoy the experience of using my skills to create and give a unique appropriate gift to a friend.  I like my Etsy shop for earning a bit of cash–though mostly I enjoy the creative process of following new ideas that come to me.   (I’m not much of a mass-producer.)

But which is more valuable?  The ability to do one thing well and earn good money for doing it?  Or the ability to do a number of things–maybe none of them well enough to ever “make money” off of–but just well enough to not require paying someone else to do it for you?

Maybe one day my hand-making and self-reliance skill-set will make unnecessary the need for any extra cash.  Until then I’ll try and make a little money and use it wisely to buy quality supplies for producing many beautiful and useful things for my family and friends, along with learning new skills every year, and appreciating and supporting the skills of others who can provide the rest.

First Honey Harvest

We finally made it to honey harvest day.

We helped our friends harvest earlier in the summer. It was a good thing we got that experience, because they weren’t able to help us the night we harvested.  But they graciously lent us their equipment.

We got started in the evening after putting the boys to bed. Removing cappings.

Giving the frames a whirl in the extractor.  Jeremy’s stabilizing the stand as he turns the crank.  Our floor is covered in newspaper to catch sticky drips.

Out of the nylon mesh strainer drips the clear pure honey.

Our first honey harvest was just over 11 pounds.  (That’s my 7 quart pot filled about half way.)  To contrast that, our goal was to leave about 50 pounds of honey behind in the hive  for the bees.  We want to allow our bees to self feed over the winter, without much supplemental feeding of sugar water.  That just seems more natural to us.

Our honey harvest in the coming years will be larger since the colony will have grown in size and the bees will just be refilling the honeycomb they spent so much time building this year.

Though we are still pretty-much in awe of our “very own” 11 pounds of backyard honey.