Had ball practice for my girls last night and I haven't been feeling too good lately, so after dropping them off I went to the store and bought some bread and a frozen pizza. This almost never happens.
My 5 year old is done with practice first and she gets in the car and sees the bread. We still have to wait another half hour for her sister to be done.
Her: Can I have some bread?
Me: Sure.
Her: Now?
Me: Yep.
Her: Can you slice it?
Me: It's already sliced.
Now she's confused.
Her: How did you slice it?
Now I can't even answer because I'm laughing.
She gets a big ol' grin and figures it out: OOOHHHH, you goed home!
She really did not understand how I produced bread in the car that was already sliced. Too funny. Really we do eat bread from the store occasionally, although apparently not very often. ;-)
Friday, May 28, 2010
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Food Grade Buckets on the Cheap
Sorry for the trouble, but this post has moved to our new blog address. Click here to go straight to Food Grade Buckets on the Cheap. Thanks!
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Will it Live?
After snow and cold on Monday, I planted about half my bedding plants outside in the garden on a sunny 67 degree Tuesday. Crazy, I know, but it really happened. Gotta love spring. I didn't have time to finish, so I took the rest inside. Once a week or so I babysit a little 15 month old boy for a friend who works over at the school for a few hours and he was over today and discovered the plants that were sitting on buckets at just his level by the sliding back door where they could get some sunshine. He only destroyed four pepper plants before I found him and scooted him out of the room where he proceeded to dump cheese-its on our piano while I repotted the scrawny baby peppers in a plastic cup. (The plastic cup planting method is only temporary--these are going out to the garden hopefully this week sometime--if it were long term you'd want to poke some drain holes in the bottom of the cup.)
I'm optimistic about the results of the repotting, but I'm not too sure about the one on the far left that the cute little guy plucked all the leaves off of. It still has roots--we'll see how badly it wants to live, but I'm not holding out too much hope.
I'm optimistic about the results of the repotting, but I'm not too sure about the one on the far left that the cute little guy plucked all the leaves off of. It still has roots--we'll see how badly it wants to live, but I'm not holding out too much hope.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Random Updates
The weather is almost getting warm here finally. It actually froze again about 10 days ago, hard enough to kill off most of the baby raspberry leaves, grape leaves, sage leaves, and most of the fruit tree blossoms. Thankfully, everything but the fruit blossoms appear to be coming back well.
The plants I grew from seed are ready to go outside in the dirt and the raised beds in the garden are ready to plant, but guess who was put in charge of ordering parts for the drip watering system and hasn't gotten it done yet? Yep, me. I've got the parts list almost completed, just need to figure out what parts I need for the strawberry bed and we're good to order. Really, I'm not good at watering, so the drip system makes it so much easier to keep things alive. I'm almost afraid to plant without having the water system at least close to complete because, really, I'm not very good at watering.
We got the three new trees planted and the two dead ones dug out yesterday. Not too bad a job. Sweet husband did all of the digging. That's probably why I don't think it was too bad of a job. ;-)
On another note entirely, every year our two county area has a preparedness fair. The counties take turns hosting it and this year it's our county's turn. So I called a couple of weeks ago to get some information on it and get a feel for what they had planned because, honestly, last year's prep fair was not very well planned or advertised or attended and as a preparedness junkie I was more than a little frustrated about it. I ended up giving a polite earful to the sweet lady from the sheriff's office about how I really hoped things would be better at this year's fair and threw out some ideas for them that I don't even remember now. It sounded like they were coming along well with their plans, so I figured I had done my duty and gotten the information I wanted. Well, yesterday morning the sheriff's office called and said they really liked my suggestions and invited me to be on the planning committee for the preparedness fair. Did I mention I have already forgotten what all I suggested? Really, I just wanted to call and complain. This seems to happen to me a lot. I really have to be careful what I complain about because before long I'm put in charge of it. So I've got my first meeting Friday morning even though they have most of it planned already. Should be interesting.
The plants I grew from seed are ready to go outside in the dirt and the raised beds in the garden are ready to plant, but guess who was put in charge of ordering parts for the drip watering system and hasn't gotten it done yet? Yep, me. I've got the parts list almost completed, just need to figure out what parts I need for the strawberry bed and we're good to order. Really, I'm not good at watering, so the drip system makes it so much easier to keep things alive. I'm almost afraid to plant without having the water system at least close to complete because, really, I'm not very good at watering.
We got the three new trees planted and the two dead ones dug out yesterday. Not too bad a job. Sweet husband did all of the digging. That's probably why I don't think it was too bad of a job. ;-)
On another note entirely, every year our two county area has a preparedness fair. The counties take turns hosting it and this year it's our county's turn. So I called a couple of weeks ago to get some information on it and get a feel for what they had planned because, honestly, last year's prep fair was not very well planned or advertised or attended and as a preparedness junkie I was more than a little frustrated about it. I ended up giving a polite earful to the sweet lady from the sheriff's office about how I really hoped things would be better at this year's fair and threw out some ideas for them that I don't even remember now. It sounded like they were coming along well with their plans, so I figured I had done my duty and gotten the information I wanted. Well, yesterday morning the sheriff's office called and said they really liked my suggestions and invited me to be on the planning committee for the preparedness fair. Did I mention I have already forgotten what all I suggested? Really, I just wanted to call and complain. This seems to happen to me a lot. I really have to be careful what I complain about because before long I'm put in charge of it. So I've got my first meeting Friday morning even though they have most of it planned already. Should be interesting.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Dinner Pack Giveaway from Augason Farms Plus Super Sale
The sweet folks over at Augason Farms have a couple of fun things going on. First, for the next couple of weeks they are having an online sale. Some of their products are marked down quite a bit, including the new breakfast and dinner packs, so get on over and see if you can't pick up a bargain!
Augason Farms is also sponsoring another giveaway on this here blog. Remember the Breakfast Pack? They've also got a Dinner Pack. This six pack of #10 cans includes one can each of: Creamy Potato Soup Mix, Vegetarian Meat Substitute Beef (flavored), Potato Gems, Honey White Bread & Roll Mix, Freeze Dried Sweet Corn, and Vegetable Stew Blend. These are designed to mix and match like the breakfast pack for a variety of meals from the 6 cans. Seriously good thinking.
Augason Farms will send one of my readers one of their Dinner Packs. How cool is that? Easy jump start on your food storage or fantastic quick fix addition if you've already got some food stored.
So here's the instructions to sign up for this giveaway. You are welcome to leave a comment on this post, but it won't count toward the giveaway. :) To enter, you'll need to fill out the form.
For your first entry, put your name and email in the form. This is required for entry in the giveaway. If you don't want to put your real name in the name slot, I guess that's okay, put whatever you like to be called in that space. I need your email to contact you if you win. Your email won't go anywhere else. Promise.
Additional entries are available for the following:
1. Become a follower of Adventures in Self Reliance (you know my posts are worth reading!)
2. Follow Adventures in Self Reliance in a feed reader (or by email feed subscription)
3. Share this giveaway via a post on your blog (make sure to link to the giveaway and leave the link to your post in the form)
4. Twitter a link to this giveaway (include @momof3angels in your tweet and put your twitter username in the form)
5. "Like" Adventures in Self Reliance on Facebook (it used to be called "become a fan")
6. Share this giveaway by some other method like facebook or post it in a forum or email your friends--whatever you want to do works here.
The giveaway will end on Thursday, May 27th at 11:59 pm and the winner will be contacted for their shipping information. If the winner does not respond within 3 days, we will choose another winner. Good luck!
Augason Farms is also sponsoring another giveaway on this here blog. Remember the Breakfast Pack? They've also got a Dinner Pack. This six pack of #10 cans includes one can each of: Creamy Potato Soup Mix, Vegetarian Meat Substitute Beef (flavored), Potato Gems, Honey White Bread & Roll Mix, Freeze Dried Sweet Corn, and Vegetable Stew Blend. These are designed to mix and match like the breakfast pack for a variety of meals from the 6 cans. Seriously good thinking.
Augason Farms will send one of my readers one of their Dinner Packs. How cool is that? Easy jump start on your food storage or fantastic quick fix addition if you've already got some food stored.
So here's the instructions to sign up for this giveaway. You are welcome to leave a comment on this post, but it won't count toward the giveaway. :) To enter, you'll need to fill out the form.
For your first entry, put your name and email in the form. This is required for entry in the giveaway. If you don't want to put your real name in the name slot, I guess that's okay, put whatever you like to be called in that space. I need your email to contact you if you win. Your email won't go anywhere else. Promise.
Additional entries are available for the following:
1. Become a follower of Adventures in Self Reliance (you know my posts are worth reading!)
2. Follow Adventures in Self Reliance in a feed reader (or by email feed subscription)
3. Share this giveaway via a post on your blog (make sure to link to the giveaway and leave the link to your post in the form)
4. Twitter a link to this giveaway (include @momof3angels in your tweet and put your twitter username in the form)
5. "Like" Adventures in Self Reliance on Facebook (it used to be called "become a fan")
6. Share this giveaway by some other method like facebook or post it in a forum or email your friends--whatever you want to do works here.
The giveaway will end on Thursday, May 27th at 11:59 pm and the winner will be contacted for their shipping information. If the winner does not respond within 3 days, we will choose another winner. Good luck!
Blog Contest at the Survivalist Blog
I love contests, and M.D. Creekmore over at the The Survivalist Blog – a survival blog dedicated to helping others prepare for and survive disaster – with articles on bug out bag contents, survival knife choices and a wealth of other survival information is giving away a Go Berky Water Filter System (a $139.00 value)! To enter, you just have to post about it on your blog. This is my entry. Visit The Survivalist Blog for the details.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Liberty Bell Knitted Dish Cloth
Here's another fancy dish rag I've knitted up in all my spare time. (Okay, it wasn't recently--there hasn't been any spare time recently.)
The Liberty Bell Knitted Dish Cloth. This one hasn't made it to the table yet--Maybe I'm just weird, but it seems a bit disrespectful to be wiping the table with this symbol of our liberties and the founding of our nation. I'd frame it, but it was one of the first projects I tried after learning to knit, so the stitches aren't all pretty. Oh well. If you want to make one anyway, here's the pattern. Then you can figure out what to do with it. :)
The Liberty Bell Knitted Dish Cloth. This one hasn't made it to the table yet--Maybe I'm just weird, but it seems a bit disrespectful to be wiping the table with this symbol of our liberties and the founding of our nation. I'd frame it, but it was one of the first projects I tried after learning to knit, so the stitches aren't all pretty. Oh well. If you want to make one anyway, here's the pattern. Then you can figure out what to do with it. :)
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
High Mortality Rate Among the Fruit Trees This Spring
We've got some baby fruit trees we've had in the mini orchard for three years now. Last year we did a good pruning and staked some of the branches to get the trees to grow a little more balanced. The apricot tree that had always looked a little sickly really thrived last year after the pruning. It put on tons of new growth and we were so pleased with ourselves. Well, this spring it is dead. So is one of the peach trees. That's two out of our 6 trees. Actually the two better shaped of the 6 trees (of course). The dead apricot tree on the right, happy plum tree on the left:
I called my extension agent to find out why they might have died and he said there was a lot of winter kill this year because of the exceptionally cold, long winter we had. Older trees didn't have as much trouble as younger trees because the cold didn't get all the way to the core of the trunk. He had a peach tree die also.
If you don't know your extension agent, they are a fabulous resource! Ours is the USU Extension office, other states will be something else. The horticulture agent is the go to guy for questions on all things gardening. And the other gal, she's there for cooking, canning, food preservation techniques and whatever else. They specialize in your area, so can give you local advice. I also asked about good varieties of trees, grapes, berries, etc. as we're looking to add to our fruit collection and got some good suggestions. The plants I almost bought at the store the other day are not the best varieties for our area. Good thing the store was closed before I picked anything out.
Live Peach tree:
Dead Peach tree:
I did find a replacement apricot tree and two cherry trees to add to the orchard, but no replacement peach yet. The ones at the store hadn't started leafing out yet, so I'm waiting until I can make sure they're alive before I buy one.
There are a few things to consider when purchasing baby fruit trees. First is the size. There are standard trees, semi-dwarf trees, and dwarf trees. It should say on the tag. If it doesn't say, you can assume they're standard size trees. Generally you don't need to plant dwarf trees unless you've got a really small lot. Standard trees can easily get so large that you won't be able to reach the fruit at the top when it's ripe even with a very tall ladder. We've settled on Semi-Dwarf trees that get about 12-15 feet high and 12-15 feet wide depending on the variety. That way we can get a number of different varieties in our somewhat limited space and still get a good production of fruit on each tree.
Another thing to consider that I didn't realize when we first bought our trees, but did realize after sweet husband took a pruning class last year, is the shape of the tree. For fruit like apricot, cherry, peach, you want about four strong side branches evenly spaced around the tree. A strong central leader is not necessary. You don't want all four strong branches on one half of the tree like our peach tree that survived has. We're trying to train some of the branches to come to the other side of the tree with ropes and stakes. But a naturally balanced tree is better. Apple trees want a strong central leader. Why, I don't know. That's what our pruning packet says. What you don't want is a tree that looks like a stick with no branches or one that is obviously lopsided. If you're buying your tree from a greenhouse, nursery, or similar store you can pick through and get a nice, healthy looking tree. If you order from a catalog or online shop, you get what you get as far as shape, but sometimes can find a particular variety or size that isn't available elsewhere.
So there's what I've learned for fruit trees. Next time we have a hard winter, I'm making them some sweaters.
I called my extension agent to find out why they might have died and he said there was a lot of winter kill this year because of the exceptionally cold, long winter we had. Older trees didn't have as much trouble as younger trees because the cold didn't get all the way to the core of the trunk. He had a peach tree die also.
If you don't know your extension agent, they are a fabulous resource! Ours is the USU Extension office, other states will be something else. The horticulture agent is the go to guy for questions on all things gardening. And the other gal, she's there for cooking, canning, food preservation techniques and whatever else. They specialize in your area, so can give you local advice. I also asked about good varieties of trees, grapes, berries, etc. as we're looking to add to our fruit collection and got some good suggestions. The plants I almost bought at the store the other day are not the best varieties for our area. Good thing the store was closed before I picked anything out.
Live Peach tree:
Dead Peach tree:
I did find a replacement apricot tree and two cherry trees to add to the orchard, but no replacement peach yet. The ones at the store hadn't started leafing out yet, so I'm waiting until I can make sure they're alive before I buy one.
There are a few things to consider when purchasing baby fruit trees. First is the size. There are standard trees, semi-dwarf trees, and dwarf trees. It should say on the tag. If it doesn't say, you can assume they're standard size trees. Generally you don't need to plant dwarf trees unless you've got a really small lot. Standard trees can easily get so large that you won't be able to reach the fruit at the top when it's ripe even with a very tall ladder. We've settled on Semi-Dwarf trees that get about 12-15 feet high and 12-15 feet wide depending on the variety. That way we can get a number of different varieties in our somewhat limited space and still get a good production of fruit on each tree.
Another thing to consider that I didn't realize when we first bought our trees, but did realize after sweet husband took a pruning class last year, is the shape of the tree. For fruit like apricot, cherry, peach, you want about four strong side branches evenly spaced around the tree. A strong central leader is not necessary. You don't want all four strong branches on one half of the tree like our peach tree that survived has. We're trying to train some of the branches to come to the other side of the tree with ropes and stakes. But a naturally balanced tree is better. Apple trees want a strong central leader. Why, I don't know. That's what our pruning packet says. What you don't want is a tree that looks like a stick with no branches or one that is obviously lopsided. If you're buying your tree from a greenhouse, nursery, or similar store you can pick through and get a nice, healthy looking tree. If you order from a catalog or online shop, you get what you get as far as shape, but sometimes can find a particular variety or size that isn't available elsewhere.
So there's what I've learned for fruit trees. Next time we have a hard winter, I'm making them some sweaters.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Winners
We have some winners! The winner in the Augason Farms Breakfast Pack Giveaway is Angela (great name, by the way) in Utah (really it's not me, there's another Angela in Utah--crazy, I know) and the winner of the SOL pack for getting a kit in her trunk is Cecily from California. Congratulations to you both and thanks to you all for participating!
By the way, Augason Farms now has the Breakfast Packs available on their website, so if you didn't win, you can pick one up anyway. :)
By the way, Augason Farms now has the Breakfast Packs available on their website, so if you didn't win, you can pick one up anyway. :)
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
New Car, New Car Kit
We recently added a second vehicle to our family. This is a good thing. I'm seeing some substantial fuel savings over driving the suburban everywhere we go. This car has been in the plans for a few weeks, so I started gathering gear for a vehicle emergency kit before we even bought it. Who wants to drive around in a naked car? Get some gear in your trunk!
Here's the contents. It's not perfect, and wouldn't make a very good bug out kit for longer than a day or two, but it's got most everything I need in it for the emergencies I am most likely to face.
Water
Emergency Food brick (the other one is still in the suburban)
Hard candy
Basic first aid--bandaids, tylenol, excedrin, kid tylenol, etc.
Hand crank flashlight with charger I can plug my phone into
Hand crank radio
Hand sanitizer
Toilet paper
Baby wipes (they're actually in the front of the car where they're more accessible)
Assortment of feminine hygeine
Pullups--we still have a bed wetter and an emergency stay overnight somewhere will be so much less stressful with these already on hand
Emergency blanket
A couple of cheapo rain ponchos
Fire starting kit (in the cookie tin)
Light sticks
Bug spray
Long sleeves for everyone
Jumper cables I've already used twice.
Seriously, there isn't much in here you can't just gather from around your house. I had to go buy the ponchos, emergency blanket, hard candy, and the box it's stored in. You might need to buy a flashlight or jumper cables or something, but in the meantime, get what you can together and get it in your car. Half a kit is better than no kit. You can put it in a cardboard box. I've had a car kit challenge going on the facebook page and today I'm upping the ante. Get a picture of your kit in your trunk and post it on the facebook page by this Saturday night, May 8th, and I'll enter you in a drawing for a SOL Survival Pak by Adventure Medical Kits. This little kit takes the critical survival items and packages them in an ultralight, waterproof dry bag. Includes compass, mini rescue flash signal mirror, slim rescue howler whistle, waterproof and windproof survival matches, waterproof tinder quik, heatsheets survival blanket, survival fishing kit and duct tape. Add that to your kit. Nobody's sponsoring this, it's just me. I want you to get some preparedness gear in your trunk!
As a side note, if you drive a van or SUV where your kit will be visible to the passengers (ie. NOT locked in the trunk), you probably want an opaque container. This will help keep your food/water from exposure to light and small children. ;) It will also make it so everybody and their brother dosn't see the gear in the back of your vehicle. Might save your gear from theft as well depending on where you live. Really, the most theft I worry about is the kids sneaking the candy when I'm not looking!
Now, for at least the third time, get some gear together and outfit your vehicle! You'll be glad you did.
Here's the contents. It's not perfect, and wouldn't make a very good bug out kit for longer than a day or two, but it's got most everything I need in it for the emergencies I am most likely to face.
Water
Emergency Food brick (the other one is still in the suburban)
Hard candy
Basic first aid--bandaids, tylenol, excedrin, kid tylenol, etc.
Hand crank flashlight with charger I can plug my phone into
Hand crank radio
Hand sanitizer
Toilet paper
Baby wipes (they're actually in the front of the car where they're more accessible)
Assortment of feminine hygeine
Pullups--we still have a bed wetter and an emergency stay overnight somewhere will be so much less stressful with these already on hand
Emergency blanket
A couple of cheapo rain ponchos
Fire starting kit (in the cookie tin)
Light sticks
Bug spray
Long sleeves for everyone
Jumper cables I've already used twice.
Seriously, there isn't much in here you can't just gather from around your house. I had to go buy the ponchos, emergency blanket, hard candy, and the box it's stored in. You might need to buy a flashlight or jumper cables or something, but in the meantime, get what you can together and get it in your car. Half a kit is better than no kit. You can put it in a cardboard box. I've had a car kit challenge going on the facebook page and today I'm upping the ante. Get a picture of your kit in your trunk and post it on the facebook page by this Saturday night, May 8th, and I'll enter you in a drawing for a SOL Survival Pak by Adventure Medical Kits. This little kit takes the critical survival items and packages them in an ultralight, waterproof dry bag. Includes compass, mini rescue flash signal mirror, slim rescue howler whistle, waterproof and windproof survival matches, waterproof tinder quik, heatsheets survival blanket, survival fishing kit and duct tape. Add that to your kit. Nobody's sponsoring this, it's just me. I want you to get some preparedness gear in your trunk!
As a side note, if you drive a van or SUV where your kit will be visible to the passengers (ie. NOT locked in the trunk), you probably want an opaque container. This will help keep your food/water from exposure to light and small children. ;) It will also make it so everybody and their brother dosn't see the gear in the back of your vehicle. Might save your gear from theft as well depending on where you live. Really, the most theft I worry about is the kids sneaking the candy when I'm not looking!
Now, for at least the third time, get some gear together and outfit your vehicle! You'll be glad you did.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Making Banana Chips by Dehydrating Bananas
Sorry for the trouble, but this post has moved to our new blog location. Click here to go straight to Dehydrating Bananas. Thanks!
Monday, May 3, 2010
Dehydrating Frozen Broccoli
Frozen vegetables are perfect for dehydrating. They've already been blanched prior to being frozen and you can usually just dump them out on your dehydrator tray frozen and start drying. Super easy. This weekend I dried some broccoli. Broccoli is kind of large and thick straight out of the bag, so I let it sit on the counter and thaw a bit, then cut each larger chunk into 2-4 smaller pieces. You'd want it smaller anyway when you're going to eat it, and exposing the center of the stalk makes it dry faster.
I loaded them on the dehydrator trays. One big 56 oz (3 lb. 8 oz.) bag of broccoli florets filled three dehydrator trays. Then I put the trays in the dehydrator. Because of the bulk of the floret heads, I loaded the trays every other slot in my Excalibur dehydrator. This is one of the benefits of this particular design of dehydrator--you can stick your trays in wherever you need to to accommodate whatever it is you're wanting to dry.
Then I ran the dehydrator overnight. I didn't count the hours, but I wanted the broccoli good and dry. They should be crispy, not leathery. Here they are when they're done. That empty spot is where hubby snitched one. He likes to try out the dehydrated goods right off the tray. These were "tasty, but the stem is pretty tough" in case you were wondering.
There you have it. Super easy. That whole giant bag filled three pint jars once it was dried.
And another shameless plug--I'm a dealer for the Excalibur dehydrators. Let me know if you're interested in one. I'll have a page up to order at some point, but in the meantime, just send me an email and I'll get you pricing.
I loaded them on the dehydrator trays. One big 56 oz (3 lb. 8 oz.) bag of broccoli florets filled three dehydrator trays. Then I put the trays in the dehydrator. Because of the bulk of the floret heads, I loaded the trays every other slot in my Excalibur dehydrator. This is one of the benefits of this particular design of dehydrator--you can stick your trays in wherever you need to to accommodate whatever it is you're wanting to dry.
Then I ran the dehydrator overnight. I didn't count the hours, but I wanted the broccoli good and dry. They should be crispy, not leathery. Here they are when they're done. That empty spot is where hubby snitched one. He likes to try out the dehydrated goods right off the tray. These were "tasty, but the stem is pretty tough" in case you were wondering.
There you have it. Super easy. That whole giant bag filled three pint jars once it was dried.
And another shameless plug--I'm a dealer for the Excalibur dehydrators. Let me know if you're interested in one. I'll have a page up to order at some point, but in the meantime, just send me an email and I'll get you pricing.
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