Cowgirl

Someone asked me in shout to post about how to make soap. There are so many good sites out there that there's no point in re-inventing the wheel. Here's a pretty good explanation of how to make soap, for your first try: http://www.the-sage.com/recipes/recipes.ph...splay&id=15 This is a very good lye calculator, from the same site, for making up your own recipes, once you get a little practice: http://www.the-sage.com/calcs/index.html Hope that is helpful!

Unless you buy organic grain, or raise it yourself, ALL grain has been farmed using chemicals, so yes, there may be some chemical residues in it. But that is true of all the grain products you buy at the grocery store, cornmeal, bread, flour, etc. If it isn't organic, you are getting some farming chemicals in your diet. It probably won't kill you soon, anyway, and having some food, even non-organic, is probably better than starvation. The grain you buy at the feed store will not have been treated like non-organic seed corn, however, as it is assumed that it will be consumed by critters rather than being planted. Non-organic seed corn (corn you buy specifically as seed) has been treated to help prevent disease issues when planting, particularly with early planting in cool, damp soil which is the modern preference. It comes in feed sacks, which are something like dog food bags if you are familiar with those. Sacks like that are susceptible to rodents, of course. And sacks like that are not for really long term storage, as they are not impervious to oxygen. So, if you want to store this away long term, put it in buckets, and deal with it as you would wheat - the bags and oxygen absorbers, etc. would be helpful to extend its storage life. If you intend to start using it immediately and to convert your diet to eat out of storage (at least in part), and if you are able to store it somewhere where there are no rodent issues, then you don't have to get so extreme in your storage method.

You get whole field corn from the feed store, generally in 50 pound bags. At least, it is sold at feed stores in the Midwest - cannot speak to what is available on the coasts.

One wants whole FIELD corn, not pop corn. Pop corn is much costlier than field corn. Also, if you get whole corn as opposed to cracked corn, you could plant it if you had to. So it will store better, AND it will be potentially useful to grow more corn if you need to. It will be a hybrid, if you buy it from the feed store. And so it won't grow uniformly when planted like the hybrid (F-1) seed would - once grown out, the seed from the hybrid will not grow "true" to type - that takes many generations of carefully selecting seed to save, which is how a new variety is created. But it WILL grow corn, and that may make all the difference.

OMG! This is priceless! I'm glad this post has resurfaced! I sure needed the laugh today (at home, sick with a nasty sinus infection). I'll bet nowadays Darlene would wring its neck and have it for supper! Quack, quack, quack!

Interesting. I note in the update that Mr. Saxon had not actually gardened in tires prior to writing the first article, and he discovered some problems in his initial suggestions. Too, he had problems mixing the soil (not a surprise). Perhaps if I am ever disabled, I will appreciate the concept of raised bed gardens. And then, I'm not sure I would really want to salvage tires, cut them up, deal with disposal of the sidewalls (I wonder how much you'd have to pay a dump to take them), and deal with painting the tires (and repainting every couple of years). But in my present state of being, I find it easier and cheaper to amend the soil I have. It is already soil - I don't need to pay anyone to haul it in for me. I can add composted manure and leaves for free. If it is like my last garden, and I live here long enough, over time it will "raise" anyway. All the amendments I tend to add to the soil will mean that over the years there will be more soil here than what I start with!

It's that time of year. Time to put away the garden tools for the winter. The shovels, the spades, the rakes, etc. Take a bit of used motor oil and rub it on the tools after you clean and sharpen. It will help to rust proof them so they will last for many, many years. Yes, there's a little bit of heavy metal in used motor oil. But not enough to hurt anything using the oil in this manner. It is a good way to recycle the oil, and heavy metals are, after all, those same micro nutrients that are also found in organic soil amendments such as kelp meal, so don't fret over much about using it on tools that go into your food garden.

We use a horse as our livestock guardian. I've had him 11 years (he's 13), and he's never allowed a coyote or stray dog to nab a lamb or kid. He will run down coyotes and dogs who enter the pasture, attacking them if they are not smart enough to run. But he's the only horse I've ever owned who will guard - I believe it is because he is a "proud cut" gelding (has stallion characteristics), and he has always viewed the sheep and goats under his care as HIS herd to be protected. So, I would not tell other people that they should get a horse to protect smaller livestock. Also, if I lived where there are lions or bears, I doubt he'd be so effective. A dear friend had great luck with an anatolian livestock guardian dog, until he died at a young age from a severe seizure. Prior to his illness he kept the herd safe from a very active coyote population. She is getting more of the dogs for her homestead. They are big, beautiful, and very intimidating.

In the year since I first found this site, I have moved TWICE. Needless to say, my prep plans faltered! Today I am home sick, with a severe cold or perhaps flu. Now that my fever has finally broken, after four days, I've been pondering the implications of a flu pandemic. It is daunting. I have a rural home I just purchased this year. The bank owns more of it than I do! Needless to say, the financial implications of a pandemic are terrifying to me also, as I could easily end up homeless. If I manage the finances, I have made a good start on food: I have dairy goats! I've learned to make some simpler cheeses, yogurt, sour cream butter, etc. Extra kids will provide a good source of meat. Barring catastrophe between now and then, next spring I hope to get chickens again, for eggs and meat. This year's garden was not much, as the soil was not improved (pure sand). However, we have been spreading manure on the site of next year's garden, and, again barring major catastrophe between now and then, I have high hopes for the garden. The pantry isn't packed with provisions yet, but I have a start on that. I've got some of the needed items for the medicine cabinet. I'm looking for a second job in order to stash money for emergency mortgage payments. I'm hoping that job will involve at-home editing or writing, but I've only had a few nibbles so far. I agree with the original poster to this thread: the financial aspects of such a catastrophe are what I find most troubling. If I had 10 years to pay off my mortgage before TSHTF, that would be lovely, but I don't think I can count on that much time.