Cowgirl

Not sure where to post this, but I now mostly access forums via my Kindle (android powered version). Some forums are now mobile friendly. Some even have a tapatalk version, which allows reading and posting without constantly having to fiddle with the web screen, trying to see it. Is there a way to view this site on a mobile device easier?

Congratulations!!

I just go to Amazon and search for "0.00" to find free books. I have found quite a few good ones but some are worth the price!

We made it through the holidays! I just learned about a property that is promising - a little house on 3+ acres. I am trying to get in to see it this week. We had not planned to buy anything until our current place sold, but maybe we could swing this one. It is a foreclosure, and priced quite low. I have mixed feelings about buying a foreclosure. I have never been one to want to profit from another' s misfortune. But if this place could work for us, it could be a Godsend. Still, somebody lost the home and I imagine has shed many tears. I need to figure out if I can be OK with buying a foreclosure. Does that sound bizarre?

When I was a kid I got really sick. I had flu followed by a nasty cough that would not go away. I was sick for months. Our doctor ran tests and prescribed various medicines but nothing worked. Finally summer arrived and I was out in the sun all day every day. I got well. I know this is not the time of year for sun but maybe if the girls can get some fresh air and Sun it could help.

I have a bit of arthritis in my knees. DH has gout flareups on rare occasions, as well as regular arthritis in his hands. Black (sour) cherry juice works wonders for both of us. I grow sour cherries. But our trees are still young and don't produce as much as we really need yet. So I also buy sour cherry juice concentrate. We blend it in other juice, coffee, or tea to make it more palatable. It is amazing how much it helps!!! I highly recommend using it if you have joint problems, whether gout or osteoarthritis. Just a tablespoon per day does wonders for me - keeps my knees in pretty decent shape.

Personally, I'd go with wood heat and cooking. As noted above, dry hard wood isn't very smoky. If you have a road into your property, people will know it is there anyway. If you have a trail into your property off the road, people will know there is a cabin there. So go ahead and heat and cook with wood, which is plentiful, growing all around you - the perfectly sustainable way to live. People will know you are there. So realize that like any other place, you need defense. Hiding isn't enough.

Interesting! I have allergies pretty much year 'round. So I read this with great interest, given that my nose was stuffy. I buy herbs and spices in bulk, so I have a lot of ginger. I decided to make my own ginger tea today to see if it helped my allergies. I did a bit of Googling to see what recipes I could find. I tried 1-1/2 teaspoon ground ginger, 1 tablespoon honey, and about 2 cups boiling water in my big "soup" mug. I stirred til dissolved and let it steep for about 10 minutes. It is strong! But I notice that my nose feels much better! I think I'm going to start making ginger tea as a regular part of my routine! And, I think I better buy more ginger! Suddenly, a new use has come into my life! I think it would be tasty with milk too. Thanks for the inspiration!!!

Garlic is spectacular. We eat a lot of it. I use a full bulb of garlic on a pizza. In fact, almost any time I cook anything with garlic, I don't use just a clove, but at least a full bulb! It is a marvelous healing herb, delicious seasoning, and healthful food. I have also made garlic tinctures to treat skin infections, with great success.

WOOT!!! Thank you!!!!

I've had several homesteads over my life so far, and each one has been something of an evolution in my thinking about homesteading. Now my professional life has taken me to another place, and thus we must find a new homestead. It is a new transition, and a new opportunity to consider how we want to pursue homesteading in the next phase of our lives. The first order of business is to sell our current homestead. It is a work in progress, so we have to get some projects finished before it is really sale-able! So far, we have removed an old pool deck (there used to be an above ground pool in the yard), we have re-landscaped the back yard, we have painted, we have replaced the floor in one bathroom, and we have insulated and dry-walled the garage. I have been looking at prospective homesteads in the new area. But we can't make an offer until we get this one sold. It is discouraging at times, but I thought if I chronicle our progress here it would help me to track our progress. And possibly someone else might enjoy reading it (or not!).

Christmas goose with orange sauce (a butter and orange juice sauce seasoned with cinnamon, ginger, dry mustard and a bit of sage). Baked sweet potatoes. Rice - seasoned with garlic, ginger, cumin, turmeric, salt, pepper, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg & bay leaf (basically a curried rice). Green beans (with just butter and a dash of salt). Cranberry sauce. Homemade bread with butter and jam. Served with sparkling cider. For desert: Pumpkin pie. Ice cream. Served with hot Earl Grey tea.

How wide do they get? If one wanted to create a barrier of thorns, as a hedge, how close would you suggest planting?

This is intriguing. I had been pondering what to plant along one edge of our property along a fence line. I wanted something THORNY and fruiting. I'd been thinking about more blackberries, but they don't get as tall as I'd like for this particular area. These sea buckthorns might just be the plant I've been searching for! Thank you so much for sharing!

I know, Shurleen! Frozen PBJ sandwiches? I about fell over when everyone seemed to know about these horrors! I don't spend much time in the frozen foods sections of large supermarkets. Actually, I rarely GO to large supermarkets in the city and when I have, I've found myself getting hopelessly lost in them - where, oh where would I find __________? My big stock up runs are to a restaurant supply business in the city - just bare bones stuff in bulk packages, so they don't have the individually wrapped taters and such. Those are an interesting phenomenon also, the taters. The little grocery store in town doesn't have any of those things. But yes, the concept of an electric tweezer gadget is probably the strangest of all so far. That one gets my vote too!

"Baby carrots" in the produce section. Those are just regular carrots that have been machined down in size, producing lots of carrot slivers to put in ready to eat salad mixes. Although you can grow small carrots, that is NOT what the bags of "baby carrots" are. They don't taste any different from regular carrots, because they aren't any different. They just cost a LOT more per pound.

Well, I can't help you. I have never tried to grind wet corn. I grind dry corn just fine, though.

I don't know if I am understanding your correctly. "Masa" is Spanish for "dough". Usually it refers to cornmeal dough, I think. Although I didn't study much Spanish (dummy that I was I studied German for SIX YEARS and I never have had occasion to need it!!!!!). Do you mean cornmeal? It can take three trips through the grinder to get cornmeal of a size I like, more if you want it really fine. Start really coarse the first run through. Get finer each time you go through. Not all grain mills are created equal, so whether yours will grind it as fine as you would like is an unknown. What brand did you get? It will also grind easier if you "parch" it first. There's a thread around here on parching corn somewhere. Heck, maybe this thread - the thing has taken on a life of its own! LOL! As for water needs, that is why you need to have lots of water stored, and a plan on how to get more.

Organic is lovely. Non-GMO is lovely. But EVERYTHING YOU BUY AT THE STORE IS GMO, unless you shop organic (and some of that probably is too, as pollen has a way of traveling on the wind a very long way sometimes). And so panic about GMO in a feed sack (and not buying it because it has ... gasp ... GMO grain) is rather pointless. You are eating GMO unless you are eating completely organic food now. I think the point of this thread is that one can SURVIVE with a smaller investment than buying all organic grain prepackaged in lovely 5 gallon buckets lined with mylar and with oxygen absorbers, etc. Not everyone has the money to lay in a one year supply of organic grain in nifty 100-year storage. For CHEAP grain that might keep you from pushing up daisies, this is a very sane investment. If you can afford better, GREAT! That's super! Do it! But let's not sidetrack the concept of basic survival with GMO concerns. All the cr@p food at the grocery store is also GMO and has pesticide residues. Many people still shop at grocery stores and are at least for the moment, alive. This thread is about survival preps at its cheapest and most basic, not at the absolute most pristine, organic, ideal.

I don't know. Nana hasn't been active since I really started getting active here, I don't think. Her contributions to this site are priceless. Hope she realizes that!

I have yet to be able to eat escargot, and that may have cost my ex a job offer - we were taken to eat at a very fancy restaurant as part of a two-day job interview. When they brought the snails to the table, I turned a little green, tried to manage a wan smile, and said as politely as I could "no thank you". His potential boss was not pleased and urged me to try them. I tried to beg off, but he would not take a polite no for an answer, so I tried humor, and said that I've seen what snails eat. He was not amused. Perhaps under starvation conditions I'd feel differently, but ... there's an awful lot of deer in these woods, wild turkeys, etc. so I think snails and slugs would be WAY down my list! Though I was traveling in the Pacific Northwest once, and hiking down a trail, and there was this HUGE slug right in the middle of the trail - I'll bet it was 8 inches long!!! That might actually feed someone. Slugs around here don't come quite so large!

I had a real poverty meal tonight, as it was just me here at home. I had left over smashed potatoes mixed with left over corn. I melted some home made goat cheese over that, so it amounted to a casserole for one. I also had a left over drop biscuit and some butter. Had all of that with some hot tea. I know I should have included a green in there for completeness, but I was feeling lazy. To me, a lot of the foods in this thread are comfort foods - it's the way I grew up too!!