Preparedness for August 2012

One of three bags of cooked, ground beef/venison that I put up in the freezer.

It's been a doozy of a month around here! I haven't been able to get much of anything done in the way of emergency preparedness, but I have done quite a bit in the food storage, sustainable living and self reliance fronts. Through the blessings of friends and family, I have learned so much about food preservation and received some items to achieve my self reliance and culinary goals.

• For my birthday my Mom gave me a food dehydrator. So far I have dried some zucchini discs, and as I write this I have sage, catnip and sweet mint drying.
• I canned 7 quarts of green beans. I plan on buying more from a local farm stand. Actually, I'm thinking of asking to trade some of our eggs for the beans.
• A friend from church hosted a class on soaking and using whole grains and lacto-fermentation. Not only did I learn these techniques, but I also learned that I actually like hot oatmeal! I've made quinoa twice now and have 1 quart of sauerkraut fermenting now.
• Another friend from church invited me to her house to show me how to can tomatoes. I'm so thankful to her for this knowledge. In watching someone actually process and can, I was able to make a plan on how to set up my kitchen while I process my tomatoes. She also gave me a shopping bag full of tomatoes!
• Using my above knowledge (and gift of tomatoes!), Princess and I skinned, cut and seeded tomatoes for sauce which is simmering down right now.
• My DH and Wheels have set out 5 gallon buckets and some plastic totes outside under the eaves to collect rain water. This isn't as practical as a rain barrel, but this "system" has come in handy many times of the past few dry weeks. The garden has been watered without fear of draining the well.
• I processed 2 more large zucchini to freeze for zucchini bread. The zucchini can also be successfully hidden in meat sauce when it has bee shredded and sauteed before being added.
• We have been blessed by a friend that gave me a box of quart jars. We will also be getting another chest freezer from my tomato canning friend and her husband. My DH just has to have some time to clean up the cellar a bit!
• Though the garden is still yielding it's bounty, I have learned many lessons and started planning for next year! I had the boys lay down some old feed bags to prepare the ground for some new raspberry bushes next spring. They also weeded a patch of the garden so that I can plant some lettuce and spinach. Our pumpkin and zucchini yields were heartbreaking, so I will be clearing those plants to make room for carrots.

I think I maybe missing a thing or two, but I don't think that's bad! I'm hoping that with the kids heading back to school and the fact that I have been feeling so much better the last2 weeks, that I will be able to work on the emergency preparedness front some more, and keep adding to the food storage.

Hope you all have a wonderful day!
Many Blessings,
Kelly

*I'm linking up to Homestead Revival's Preparedness Challenge

Baking a Weeks Worth on Saturday Part 2

Breakfast cookies

Crusts for individual pizzas.

Chocolate chip cookies.

I honestly thought I would never get to this post! I may have bit of more than I could chew in the kitchen today, but it was well worth a sore back and feet. And I'll definitely sleep tonight!
Today I baked:

• a batch of choc. chip/M&M cookies for the kid's and Daddy's lunches.
• a batch of choc. chip/M&M cookies for Princess' class party on Monday
• breakfast cookie bars
• a batch of pizza dough that made 8 individual crusts- Wheels had one for dinner tonight, 5 will be used for dinner Thursday night
• a batch of white bread dough that made 24 dinner rolls and a 9 inch pie plate of sticky buns for tomorrow's breakfast.

I also had a whole chicken in the crock pot for our dinner tonight. It was a pretty big bird, so I had plenty of meat left for another nights dinner. After getting all of the meat of the carcass, I pulled a quart size freezer bag of veggie scraps to add to the crock pot along with some more water, then turned the crock back up to high. (Read here to learn how Heidi over at Frantically Simple makes a crock pot veggie stock.) I'll turn it down before bed and let it cook over night. Tomorrow after church I'll strain it out and save for Tuesday when I make chicken noodle soup for my lunches.

Speaking of chicken noodle soup, I've been thinking of canning my own soup. It would save on time, money and my health if I had my own soups ready to heat for lunches or dinners. Here are some links about canning your own soups:

• The Family Homestead
• Pick Your Own. org

This past week I posted my dinner menu plan for Oct. 24 to Nov. 5. I had to change my plan for this coming Thursday because I'll be working, so I need something easy and quick. This is where those pizza crusts are coming into play! I have them on the freezer, so Thursday morning I'll just pull them out to thaw.

When I shared with my sister that I had my dinners planned for the next two weeks, she asked me how in the world I could know what I was going to have. I said it was easy, I know what is in my freezer and pantry. Keeping a stocked pantry and freezer, as well as knowing what they contain is key to planning your meals. Here are some helpful links for keeping a pantry and menu planning:

• Better Homes and Gardens: Kitchen Pantry Ideas
• Organized Home: Beginner Guide to Pantry Pride
• Hillbilly Housewife: Menu Planning

Well, I hope this was helpful! It's 8 p.m. right now, and I am one tired Mama. Have a blessed Sunday.
Blessings,
Kelly

Putting Together A Cold Season Kit

Just a few of the things I've pulled together for our kit.

Homemade rice bag I made yesterday.

As promised, I've pulled together some things from the medicine closet and first aid box to put together my own cold season kit. This is for all of the colds, viruses, bugs and maladies that are sure to strike in the colder months. I'm not sure if I'm going to actually include cold and cough meds in the kit or keep them out where I usually keep them. I am going to have a little "mini-kit" for in the linen closet in the upstairs hall, since that is where the kids' bedrooms are. This should help for when the kids wake up in the night not feeling well.

Yesterday I was able to make 2 rice bags just for the cold care kit. (We have quite a few of these that we keep in the freezer, but they tend to ...ummmm..., let's just say, wander away with the children!) These are very simple to make and you can use left over material. I filled mine with plain old rice, but I have added dried lavender and chamomile before. These are going to stay in the closet with the cold care kit. We use these for upset tummies, sore muscles, and sore throats. I've also found that when we've tried everything else to help ease a child's incessant cough, a warm pack on the chest works! Just a word of caution: NEVER put a warm pack on over Vick's Vapor Rub (or store brand equivalent) as burns can occur. Warm packs are also very soothing for earaches and sinus headaches.

Along with the rice bags I got out the Vicks Vapo Steam Inhaler. Sounds scary, but it's very useful when you are stuffy. I ran out out of the Vicks liquid that you use sometime last year, so I just added peppermint extract to the hot water and that worked just as well! For stuffiness overnight, I added the mentholated Breath Right strips. I've never used them on the children before, but I've used them myself, and they help with mild stuffiness. Saline nasal spray is also in the kit.

A thermometer is a must, as well as good ol' vapor rub. (our jar looks a little funny because I had to decorate it when the kids were little. We called it magic potion and pretended a fairy left it for them! It's time to get a new jar!) I never realized how well it works to quiet a cough and help with congestion. You can go here for a homemade version. I'm thinking of doing this!

This is all I have together for now, but there is much more to add and to get ready for the cold season. I have to get out the humidifiers/vaporizers and get them cleaned and ready for action. I also want to do some research on home/herbal remedies to help with illnesses. I have a feeling that I'll have another post on this topic soon, there is just so much learn and do! If you have any great remedies, recipes or ideas, please share! I'll include them in the next post on this topic. And don't forget to "Like" my page or friend me on face book. This is a great way to share, comment and check up on what I'm doing and sharing.

Have a great day!
Blessings,
Kelly

Baking a Week's Worth on Saturday

Eggs and butter warming up on top of the oven.

Quart canning jars with mixes ready to go for Saturday morning.

Welcome back, friends! Saturday means at least two things for this Mama: baking and the weekly Preparedness Challenge link up over at Homestead Revival. The next few weeks will also mean soccer practice for Wheels, so that is what inspired today's post. I know that I have a definite deadline for getting my baking done in the morning because I have to get to town with Wheels, so I've been working on preparing for my baking the day before.

My Saturday baking days prepare me and my family for the coming week because that is when I make the kids' chocolate zuchinni bread and breakfast cookies. The last two Saturdays I have also made a batch of homemade bread dough so that I can make rolls for dinners and breadsticks for the kids' lunch. This week I'm also making snack mix and chocolate chip cookies for the my hubby's and the kids' lunch boxes. (And maybe Mama might sneak some of these treats!)

So, before I even start pulling the canisters out of the cupboards, I like to plan what I am going to be making ahead of time. And I write this down! If I don't, I could forget something. Then I head to the cupboard to start measuring out my dry ingreadients. Last night for my zuchinni bread, I put all of the dry ingredients into a half gallon canning jar, and for the breakfast cookies I put the flour and baking soda, salt, etc. into a quart jar. For my bread dough, I put the flour, sugar and salt into the bowl I used to mix it, stirred it around with a whisk. I then taped a sheet of wax paper (the sheet I had used as a funnel to get the dry ingredients into the jars!) over the bowl. I also measured out the sugars for a batch of cookies into another bowl. Looking back on it now, I could have measured my wet ingredients for the bread dough and put them into a quart jar in the fridge, and measure out the sugars for both cookie doughs, but I was whipped after subbing at the kids' school yesterday.

Breadsticks rising in the microwave on top of my heating pack!

Last Saturday I also thought of an ingenious (if I may say so myself!) way to have a warm place to raise my bread dough. I have used a car parked in a sunny location before to raise my dough. It works very well when it is the afternoon and the sun has heated up the car nicely. However, that isn't the case early in the morning. So, I stood in the kitchen debating about where to put the dough to rise, that was warm and draft free. The microwave is draft-free, but how to keep it warm in there? A light bulb went off: I'll use my large rice bag that I use for a heat (or cold) pack for my back. I'll just set it under the pan, then cover the pan the way I usually do. This worked out really well, and is time and energy conserving.

I've also learned that the best place to soften butter and bring your eggs to room temperature is on top of the stove. (This works on my stove anyway!) As soon as I get into the kitchen, I turn on the oven, then get out the butter and eggs, and put them in my enamel ware dishes, as they conduct the heat the best. (And the different coloroed eggs just look so pretty in the red and white enamel ware!)

Now, in other preparedness news, I've been reading The Woodchuck's Guide to Gardening by Ron Krupp and thumbing through Foraging New England by Tom Seymour. They have both been helpful; however, the Woodchuck's Guide is about more than gardening. It is also about "Foraging for wild plants in the Spring, Planting by the stars in summer, Putting food by in fall and gardening with chilldren all year round." These books belong to my local library, but I'm thinking of investing in the Woodchuck's Guide for my own library.

While taking these books out, I also took out a book about bees and beekeeping. While I'm not nessecarily interested in keeping bees now, it is something that I would like to look into. If I could replace our white sugar use by using honey and maple syrup, that would be great! We already sugar in the spring, which is not only fun, but really satisfying. I love to see all of our canning jars full of the dark amber sweetness! Waffles and pancakes are enjoyed by all in our house, plus with having fresh eggs from the chickens, we have breakfast for dinner once a week. I hate to think how costly it would be if we had to buy maple syrup. It would completely defeat the purpose of having a low budget meal for sure!

Well, that is all for now! If you have a face book account, please be sure to "like" my new Homespun Inspirations page. I plan on sharing news, recipes and tips on the page, especially when I may not have time to write a whole post. I also figured that it might be easier for all of my readers to respond and comment. I really love to get comments and questions from my readers!
Have a lovely weekend, Friends!
Blessings,
Kelly

Getting The Garden Ready for Fall

A new green bean plant poking up in the raised bed.

Our green peppers and green bush beans still growing strong!

Where the cukes, zukes and pumpkins were, and the compost pile in the corner.

Happy Saturday all! I'm joining up with Homestead Revival for the weekly Preparedness Challenge. I was going to write about what I learned from going through Hurricane Irene, however, I'm just not feeling up to it. I'm feeling rather guilty about having come through unscathed while just 3 miles up the road from us my fellow Vermonters are stranded, some having lost their homes. I will share some of the photos that I took from last Sunday, as well as some important things that I learned about emergency preparedness. For today I will be talking (writing!) about getting the garden ready for fall/winter.

I hadn't been out in the garden this past week except to pick a couple of pumpkin and zucchinis. Last Saturday evening my darling hubby and I picked everything we could out of the garden. We had some cukes, zukes, pumpkins and lots of green peppers. That was my last big trip to the garden! So last night I took a good look at the garden and discovered that all but 1 of our "squash" vines had been eaten by grubs. So I harvested what I could and started yanking vines out of their hills. Princess helped by picking up the newspapers that been used for mulch.

We piled all of the weeds, vines and newspapers into one corner of the garden. This is going to be our compost pile for the fall and winter. It was also the night to clean out the coop, so I pulled the wheel barrow up to the coop door and shoveled everything in. I wheeled it up to the garden and shoveled it onto our pile. Then I went over to where our rain buckets are (5 gallon pails that we set under the eaves to catch the rain water!) and filled my watering can a couple of times and watered our pile. I'm truly hoping that we have a good start on our compost so that it will break down over the cold months.
Here are some sites/articles on the basics of composting and how to start:

• Mother Earth News: Compost  an 8 page article, but well worth the time to read!
• Earth Easy: Composting another good read, with a chart for carbon and nitrogen materials
• Earth Easy: Autumn Composting Tips a timely read!

O.k., after reading these, I'm beginning to think I need to re-start my pile! This is one of those times where enthusiasm has trumped knowledge. I just started in without really knowing what I was doing, but luckily, it is easily remedied.

For our fall gardening, I also planted some green bush beans in one of our raised beds that is currently only holding 2 perennial herbs. (For more on my raised beds read here!) I soaked them for about 36 hours before planting them. They've started coming up, so hopefully they will be ready for harvest before it gets too cold. If worse comes to worse, I can always cover them to keep the frost off. (I read this article in Mother Earth News before I planted. (Yes, I have a subscription!) It's on fall gardening.)
I would really like to be able to can some more green beans, but I'm not sure how much more I'm going to get out of my current crop. They currently have blossoms on them, but we have a forecast that includes heavy rain, so we could lose them. Even if I only get 1 harvest off of them, I'd be happy!

It's my plan to clean out the chicken run before we get snow. All of the debris will be added to the compost pile. There will be hay, manure and food bits that the chickens didn't eat. In a way, there is some compost in the run already because they've broken down some grass, hay, wood shavings and fruit/veggie scraps. When I clean out the coop, I usually toss it into the run, where the girls can scratch and break it up for us. And all of our grass clippings go into the run, so the girls can have a snack and it helps keep the smell down. One of Teddy Bear's favorite things to do is to pull the long grass out of Grandma & Grampa's manure pile and feed it to the chickens! I'd also like to let the chickens roam around in the garden after everything has played out. I figure they can help to aerate and fertilize the soil!

While we're on the topic of gardens, I've also began plans for next year's garden. (I can't remember if I shared these or not, but if I have, please forgive me!) We are going to add more raised beds up next to our current garden, and veggies will go in here. Before it gets too late into fall, I plan on moving 2 of my perennial herbs over to the other raised bed, and dedicate their current home to annual herbs and perhaps some lettuce. The "squash" crops will be grown in our fenced in garden plot, with sunflowers in the back. Pole beans will be grown in the front, with the fence for support. In the beds will be our bush beans, peppers, etc. I'm going to save some money in the garden budget for marigolds to plant at the edges to act as insect control. This past spring I tried twice to start them from seed, with no luck. So, this coming spring I'll bite the bullet and just buy a few.



Many Blessings,

Kelly