sassenach

I had a little whimsical fun for supper tonight. Lunch was a pretty good roast beef sandwich though, so I went lighter actually for my supper. I actually found a not so fatty hot dog brand at the store and they are not as big as regular size, so they seemed right for a serving for me and not as salty as regular ones? Plus the price was right. Its a new brand in my store and I decided to try them. I am glad I did. I wrestled with the idea of buying hotdog buns but the whole wheat ones were 3 $ a package. I had gotten some shredded cheese and I picked up some corn tortillas, which I have not tried to make on my own yet although I know I can make wheat flour tortillas ok... so I made a couple corn tortilla wraps with a hotdog and cheese sprinkled on them in the microwave on paper towels ..... easy supper with a bowl of sliced strawberries for desert. They taste pretty darn good too. It got me in the mood to even try plain filtered water.........lol. I am sooo behaving ...... I think I will have another glass! Have also decided to go pick up a few more packs of those hot dogs when I go buy cat stuff tomorrow.... if its not pouring rain ......storm should pass tonight? Mebbe??

Now that's great genetics! :wink (2):

I am curious about this very situation as well. so, you can just plant the babies ( right away ) in damp soil to root them? they don't need to be air hardened like cactus pieces often have to be before attempting to root them again?

its perfect, cat. thanks for sharing.

Study that picture a while, figure out how much , dimensions and materials you need and what color paint suits you, and make your own for about 20 % or less if you use recycled materials. ( of that outrageously priced coop. ) Because I looked, and its a nice simple design for 2 -4 hens. do you want me to see if I can copy and upload the pics of it for you to look at here? because you cant view them?

AH, my parents had a cat who was a tough mountain cat and loved to play in the melt water when it snowed, trying to get the pretty stones in their driveway gravel, dipping his paws right in for those pretty rocks. I can just see your cat wanting a snow bowl.... His name was Joe Catwright of the Konderosa.

* has my own tomato and strawberry with sewing stuff ** and I know what the strawberry is for! ( I am pretty sure. )

How about the old ice trays, where the divider had the lever you pull up to separate the icecubes? Anyone still have those? They certainly lasted and were more stable than the plastic ones!

bump, soda bottle garden on a wall, hangs.....

nope, this is only about food. and how to use it! ( Actually that is on your tab in your browser, not the title of the post)

bump. lots and lots of bulk mixes to make for your own usage. Very handy.

here it is in some instant tea bags too. http://www.amazon.com/Ginger-Honey-Crystals-Instant-Bags/dp/B0014ATS08/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS?ie=UTF8&coliid=I3B8V5UTC68PPF&colid=1OTLM8KKAN1MY sounds like it should be among my tea choices and this has no caffeine in it.

welcome aboard, horsehollow! Sounds like you have a great place for just this type of situation!

This looks like a decent website for making your own floor loom with pvc and easy to take apart and move it when needed. http://www.pvcloom.com/?page_id=16

How to make your own spindle for spinning yarn from wool or fibers. Make-An-Awesome-Drop-Spindle.pdf

Alot of folks get those Coleman ovens but the ones made more recently are cheaply made. One of the things one can do is use a large dutch oven and its lid. each coal in a campfire, or fire is 10 F. So you need 350 F degrees to bake bread. You would need to keep that consistent for the time of the baking once the dutch oven warms up. Use cornmeal in a layer on the bottom of the dutch oven . If you can heap more coals on the lid and around it, that would ensure baking. Another method if using a bread pan in the dutch oven would be to put the meat drip pan under the bread pan and rest the bread pan on top of it.. I can't think what they are really called. I do know I have seen them listed with cast iron pans on amazon.com. with the cornmeal method , once the bread is baked and cooled just brush the bottom to get rid of the loose cornmeal. It should keep the bottom from being burned if your temperature was right. If you were stationary and had access to clayey soil, you can make a bread oven for outside baking. You only have to build it, start a fire inside then scrape out the coals when its good and hot , put the loaf inside to bake and close up the entrance well to seal it shut. There is a chimney on top for it to vent usually. the other option is to make camp breads and wrap them around a green stick over the campfire or to make fry bread. There are posts already on all these methods. Maybe someone can bring up some links here for you to look at. if you are interested in clay oven construction check youtube or instructables.com outdoor section.

The propane tanks for barbeques with a turkey fryer pot support work ok , you just want it very level, do it outside of course with ventilation and to monitor it so it stays consistent. I trust the weighted gauges far more than the pressure guage set up.

I was reading through the UGA canning instructions again as a review and to copy them off the site to my new computer and was glad to see the fruits and veggies canning because I really need to expand that part of my preps..... some of it was so simple and basic and would take care of the amount of fresh fruit I would love to buy and have last me instead of go bad cause I cannot eat it fast enough any way. Its been bad for my health to NOT buy fruits and as long as I do portion conscious eating, I can handle canned up fruits. Seems like it will suit me just fine for every day and for stocking more. ( also figured out why my jam for plum awhile back was syrupy, as I read the information. ) I need a meat thermometer and candy thermometer still for canning and some other stuff to do with preserving meats. I also am seeing the town grocery store is having a five for 24.99 meat sale , most of the time. Alot of that meat is sold for more than 7.99lb here, so getting it like that is like bulk buys. I can can that meat up and its not ground meats. After the pink slime concerns being so public, I don't trust their hamburger. It is not filling or satisfying anyhow to me so I was rarely buying it but one gets real tired of beans and soy tvp and chicken. The chicken in more naturally raised but I don't know the facts on the beef they get and will be asking questions, but meat sliced up or cut up and not ground is going to be my choice and I know I ran across a meat grinder that was manual that also does spaghetti noodles, so that would be nice for me to have. So I could grind my own when I do want a burger, once I get that grinder. I could also make my own sausage and freeze it. So, getting the brain more in gear and trying to do the right thing for me when it comes to a snug budget. canning seems to be the answer for my needs, partly. I worked with chores and kneading some bread dough today and using my shoulder and upper arm , left side as much as I could today, hopefully in a few more days I will know if I can lift the canner on the stove and such things again. Shoulder and upper arm on the left are often excruciating with pain and am not able to lift it very high but if I can manage some simple canning, it would go a long ways in generally caring for myself. I can't afford a freezer for now. I need to save for a car and do medical stuff and that all takes money.

I am sorry this is happening but I also see that you and your sister have a good relationship and I can also see you cherish that.

Springhouse instructions. If you don't have a way to refrigerate in a crisis, a springhouse at a convenient creek may be a choice you would like to consider. http://www.brighthub.com/environment/green-living/articles/116158.aspx

I know Violet, thats why I said Guerilla type food preps on these items.

with what I have been reading about cheesemaking today, is that you can store wax sealed cheeses 2 yrs and eat them. Originally cheese often was made and wasn't covered while it dried and cured on shelves and it would form molds on it, this was part of what was preferred. I am talking the middle ages and pre refrigeration techniques here. We have been brought up today to buy generically , aesthetically looking cheeses today, in other words but also would probably have less tolerance , and the practices today in preparation probably keep our weakened bodies, which have resulted from this over the generations of regulatory treatments.... require us to take much greater care. I imagine you might have some cheese makers with waxed cheeses in their cheese cellars and deep caves that might be 30 yrs old and considered a real delicacy right now but I wouldn't eat them past 2 years or so at best myself for every day usage. Bleu Cheeses and some others use certain molds of course. Caves tend to be about 55 degrees year round temp, but humidity varies also depending on whether there is water inside the cave. I saw that show too. I thought she said 2 to 4 yrs, not 30-40 yrs but I could have that wrong! Cheese making books suggest 2 yrs from what I can see. Even the large rounds of cheeses that were made and sold would be eaten within a year if not sooner most of the time to anyone in the past, the majority of the time anyway. As for the eggs, using mineral oil, yes it replaces the natural coating that commercial eggs are washed to get rid of in cleaning them. But regarding guidelines that may be considered more guerilla technique rather than USDA regs these days. I buy powdered eggs. I eat more oatmeal for breakfast or other proteins than eggs are just as easy as far as fixing something with protein for breakfast. I use the powdered eggs in my baking. It would be the only way to have eggs where I am, considering I have no chickens and don't think anyone does in this town anymore. What is in the stores would be quickly cleaned out in a crisis here. I might consider a flat of eggs fixed this way but those will only last so long. I recommend having the dehydrated eggs in the number 10 cans for baking needs. I tried making scrambled and omelettes with them. They were worse than anything I ate in bootcamp years ago, although some eat them that way , here from what I have observed on posts. I just prefer to use them for baking instead. Some folks here do freeze them, after breaking them out of the shell, putting the eggs in to ziploc freezer bags and freezing them flat. But that only lasts if they can keep that stack of eggs frozen.

wanted to add that stuff like jerky meat would maybe take 14 or so hours. Frozen veggies will dry much faster. If its temperature controlled.

I dehydrate frozen veggies all the time. Just be sure to break up any clumps and check once in awhile to make sure they are spread out well. It depends on the size of the pieces , the bigger ones like cut green beans may take a little longer. I use a nesco with a temperature setting for veggies. Its been a while but at least several hours 5 -14 usually. I just keep checking . Once they are brittle clear through, they are dry usually. I do put mine in spare jars to use daily and you would want to vaccuum pack them to last longer. Vaccuum packed jars will usually last about 18 months. If you live in a humid climate you will need to use them fairly fast because they do absorb moisture again if you only put them in jars. Still . I get about 3 months so far no problems from dehydration and putting in jars to use rather than long term storage, safely. It is better to vacuum seal them if you can of course. ( I am going to try and get a foodsaver and cannister set for jars so I can do that along with bags if my son will get me the foodsaver for moms day.) If you use bags to vacuum seal you want to make sure the veggies don't pierce the bag. I use those generic walmart mixed nut containers after they are empty of nuts alot of the time as they are handy. The plastic containers, not cardboard types. Not sure what weight that would carry of frozen weight, but can put about 4 lbs of dried frozen veggies in a quart jar? ( fuzzy on this . ) It could be a pint canning jar that holds that much , but you get the idea? I was planning on doing a lot of frozen veggies dehydrating next month after I get paid the 2nd. I need more! With prices as they are, and going up again..... I have to do a bunch up. At this point whatever I can do helps me out and its easier to transport dried stuff than canned wet stuff for me. Also , dried food is more dense and takes up less space and it works great in my small kitchen and apartment regarding how many servings in a space. I make soups and stews and spaghetti type sauces with them and rehydrate and cook for sides as well. Green beans, as an example, look awful dried up but rehydrate pretty well if you try them. (You need to blanch fresh vegetables and peel some before blanching btw) before drying however. It may not look like what the folks are used to, but its nutritious and one can learn to use them easily. I think we need to change our picky mentality somewhat about some things. But humans have always adapted! I also slice and dehydrate apples and peaches if I can get decent peaches. Bananas too because I can't eat them fast enough. The peach slices taste like candy , like a slip of sweet paper when you put it on your tongue. Banana chips you make at home are softer and chewier and very much like very sweet candy, rather than crisp. They fry them first for commercially made banana chips, which gives them the crispness. if you have people with sweet-tooths in the household, guard the dehydrating and storage of banana chips! lol. Or they end up eating them up before you know it! Five pounds of bananas fit in the average large Peanut Butter jars, minimum . It could be more? Dried as chips. Maybe someone else can estimate better

I just bought Dark Grid and downloaded it on kindle just now. It was 2.99 without Prime acct . Free with the Prime.