Beauty

At first glance this may not seem like it's important to consider, or even prep for. However, as a woman I can tell you that it's a comfort. Comfort is often what we need in a stress filled situation. I'm not saying in order to be a fully functional human we have to look like we just stepped out of Sephora, but let me explain.

There was something posted on facebook recently, about how our body image affects how we function, day to day. A clean pair of socks, clean underwear, dear gods a clean bra can make someone feel like life is actually worth living.

In a bug out bag, I suggest at least the above but also include the light weight things that make you feel good about yourself. A favorite perfume may not be the best, because it will make you more noticeable to any prey you may want to eat and also make you conspicuous to people if you are attempting to evade them. Yet some lipstick with at least spf 15 can serve dual purpose. Some foundation can do the same thing.

But in an every day situation. We will take me for example.

At best we can describe my appearance as "walmart chic" . I throw my hair into a pony tail, and find the cleanest clothes I can find. Sometimes those are straight from the dryer. Sometimes it's not. The makeup I put on is at most , sometimes it is Chapstick , Sometimes it is much much more than just chapstick. Things like this matter. When I actually take the time to put the makeup on, I feel better. I can only imagine the difference in a survival situation.

This reminds me of a story actually.

I was maybe 10 or so and we were having a family reunion. My mom had never been into makeup, but some of my family members were. I was in my cousins RV and she was curling her hair, and doing her makeup. I asked her why she was bothering, we were just family no one important, and she replied "I'm doing it because Bud likes me to look pretty, and I feel better when I have makeup on."

That's always stuck with me. Little things we do, for men shaving your face, putting on clean underwear such as Hanes Men's boxer briefs will make a difference in your day to day well being. 

I've talked a bit about when I was in the 6th grade, and my step dad was having cancer treatments. It was terrible really,  i can remember going to my sisters and her pantry would be stocked just enormously full of things like  candy, or chips...or ramen noodles. She says I would just stare at the food she had stored like I had never seen food before. Comfort food makes a huge difference. I admit that. However...That winter was when I truly learned to love my baths.

Our food situation sucked, I was home alone a lot. We just didn't have anything really to even consider a luxury. But, at the time water wasn't metered. We were getting our propane partially donated by the local propane company to help us get through the winter, so I didn't have to even consider fuel costs. The smell of the shampoo, how awesome my legs felt after I shaved. (German ancestry folks...I'm the hairy beast woman from Calcutta if I don't shave, even at that age.)

If it was like that in that situation that wasn't hugely a survival situation I can only imagine how things like that would be when it really does get bad. Some of you know the saga of my bathroom ceiling.

 It's been leaking for a few months now and finally it got fixed. We were going to a friends to shower, so I did splurge and buy myself this spa kit, it made the situation so much better. It meant I felt good about myself. Nope, we really couldn't afford it. Which is one reason I'm doing the monetizing of this blog. With the inbox dollars, and these amazon links.

I still cannot explain how down right good it felt to have "Luxury" stuff, in a crappy situation.
What non essential, but vitally important preps do you do?

Entertainment, part deux.

Yesterday I blogged a bit about Oyster. I truly believe books are the best way to entertain oneself. However I do realize that people are sometimes not into reading. (This is beyond me, books are like traveling across time, space and everything with out leaving your home.) However, it's true that somewhere in 50% of households don't own even one book. Besides the bible.

I should get this out, sure the bible is a good book. I'm an atheist. I will NOT get into a religious debate about this, however if this is your only book please consider expanding into ANYTHING else. Hell I don't care if it's books about religion, books on daily prayer, I don't care. Invest in books to keep yourself occupied during a crisis. This can just be as small of a crisis as the grid going down during the winter and having zero power. Or as we found out with Hurricane Sandy, that type of crisis. Having nothing at all for your kids to do while you hunker down is just crazy. I mean...crazy talk people.

Games. Get to yard sales, thrift stores etc. Get some games. Card games, get the Hoyle book on card games (back to books again seriously).

My favorite memories growing up was when the power went out, some times it was as simple as someone breathing wrong on the power lines, but the power went out often. We lived very rurally, and yes we had horses and other animals to look after but seriously you can only feed the chickens so often before you run out of chores. We would light our antique kerosene lanterns, and play cards or read books by them. Often yes we would go to bed early, and wake up early, but it was my favorite times.

However the bonding that happened during that period in time was amazing, an it's something we should know and understand as someone who preps.

However, there are a few things that mean you can have power. Solar chargers mean you can charge a cell phone, or a nintendo ds, or something along those lines. All of this is good stuff man.

At the heart of this little missive though, is make sure you have things to occupy yourself. Boredom is every bit as much of a 'Killer' as any other threat. If you aren't sure why, think about it. Cabin fever is a serious thing. People start seeing and hearing things because they grow so bored, and insulated they can't see past their own situation.

Having TONS of things to occupy yourself can save your life, and sanity.

Learn to crochet, knit, embroider, sew, whittle wood, carve bone. LEARN a craft that you can do with out any power. this will help you in ways you definitely will not expect.

What ways have you prepped to keep you, and your families minds occupied in a crisis situation?

Entertainment

ok...if the end of the world happens this will not help you.

But when money's tight you cannot beat books for entertainment.

My website of choice for subscription books is Oyster, for many reasons. But my favorite is the amount of DIY, cookbooks, and general prepping type selection they have. It far outstrips the free books Amazon has, although I sometimes get those books also.


I will say that the link does refer you to my referral page, and I do get a bonus for you signing up. But your first month is free, and we all love that price right?

Blue Berry Pie!

So I've said before that blueberries are my favorite berry. Hands down. When we lived in England we weren't that far away from a pyo bluberry patch. We would go and feast, and pick 8-10lbs a day or so, go home and I'd can. Sometimes I felt like the only person in England canning, since everyone looked at me so very oddly. It was worth it however.

This year, King Soopers and Safeway both have had blueberries cheap, so I've stocked up.
I didn't take pictures of me canning the blueberries, but one jar sadly didn't seal. Darn.

I guess that means I had to use it.

I took ready made pie crust from safeway, rolled it out and used little tart cutters to make the crusts, slapped those in silicon muffin tins and put them in regular muffin pans.

Silly me I didn't take photos of THAT. But here is the results.

Here they are fresh out of the oven. I wish the photo captured how lovely and bubbly they were.

 Here they are out of the muffin tin. See the crust around the outside? It means we each have individual pies! I'm so excited with how it came out!

I firmly believe you should can what you eat, and use what you can. I believe in prepping what you eat as well. This is part of it. Isn't it delightful when a plan comes together?

Planning

Yesterday I got a steroid injection into my spine. I had such great plans for today. I had intended on getting my lemon/lime/grapefruit curd on to canning. I was going to make some chicken soup and can that up. Then make beef fajita's for the girl since she loves them so much.

Then. Well the shot didn't do as well as the last one did. For a week after that shot I was up and about and running like crazy. This week? Well...not so much. Just standing made me want to curl up in a ball and cry. So I popped two of my pain killers, which is above the recommended dose but damnit I needed to get stuff done. I go back to school August 11th for crying out loud. Times getting short.

So instead I'm doing research. Things I should be stocking up on right now. Like paper, pencils, other back to school items. Not just for the upcoming school year, but in the "just in case" type scenario.

I spend time watching shows like Doomsday Preppers. Each of them seem to be prepping for just one catastrophic event. I don't view it like that. I think of things like "well...we could have a financial collapse, or an emp pulse, or...etc" but in reality I prep for "Crap we have extra bills this month and can't afford to go buy food." well then I have a huge storage of food that I can just tap into. 

This to me is vitally important. In ways I cannot begin to explain. 

My 6th grade year, my step dad was in Denver having cancer treatments. We were so unbelievably broke. Mom had happened to kill an elk that was easily 10 or so years old. His meat was tough as old boot leather. Somehow we ate it down. We ate eggs. I hate eggs, I've hated them since I was little. But when that's all you have to eat. Then that's what you eat. I always ate breakfast and lunch at school and then I would barely eat at home, just because I knew mom who was working two jobs desperately needed to be able to eat and sustain herself. Weekends were the worst. 

I made myself a promise that winter, that I would never...ever, be in that situation with my own kid. I have no idea why my mom didn't get on food stamps that year. Or why she didn't seek out the help I know we would have qualified for. It might have been because she just flat didn't have the time to do that. I admit. I am on food stamps, so my odds of not being able to afford food is minimal.  But I still obsessively prep. I can. For every item we eat, I attempt to put back two. It doesn't always work out. Thankfully with the help of several apps on my phone, such as checkout 51, receipt hog, Ibotta, grocery smarts.  as well as inbox dollars,   I end up being able to buy much more value than the dollar value of my food stamps. I do buy name brand items, mainly because with my food stamps and my coupons I'm able to buy those and save money. I easily get at least 1/3-1/2 more than the amount I'm given. This means I'm able to put food up. To store it for the future. 

Strategic planning is essential. Several months back I wasn't paying attention and ran out of toilet paper. I had a week left before I got my pension check from the death of my husband, and we had less than $5 to run us. With coupons I managed to get us enough toilet paper to run us for less than $1.50. It was Quilted Northern at that. It was cheaper, much cheaper than the store brand. For the same size it was $2.50 of the store brand. Seriously, coupon like you have no option. 

I realize this post has no pretty pictures. But I hope it does give some valuable information. 

Oh! I should explain the inbox dollars. 

you get $5 just for signing up. Then go to the "deals" section. In there is coupons, they print from coupons.com BUT inboxdollars pays you $0.10 for each coupon you use. It's not a lot extra but I average at least $2.50 or so a month extra. It adds up. A lot.

  

Sun dried tomatoes

Phew it's been a crazy busy week. Still recovering from the surgery, and that has left me sleeping much of the time. Then my card reader for my camera decided to die, so I've been sitting on a few blog posts until I could upload the pictures. I do apologize for this weeks pictures. I just didn't want to wait any longer before I uploaded them.

I adore the leathery texture of sun dried tomatoes, I take them to school with me and eat them as snacks.  I love how they do taste like summer in my mouth, with delicious bursts of flavor.

I refuse outright to pay $4.99 a jar for like three halves of a tomato.

I own a cheap pesto dehydrator, it is in no way shape or form as accurate as some of the better ones, for example I cannot control the heat, I have on...or off.

This is a problem when making jerky for example.  But for sun dried tomatoes? It's perfect.  

I use cheap $0.99 a lb Roma tomatoes, I buy them when they are this price, or below never when they are more expensive.  Today while at Safeway I bought five lbs, as with the Safeway u program I got the, for $0.79 a lb.  Time to get processing.

I hate the idea of any waste at all, so even though I scoop out the seeds I don't throw them out. Some I can dry out and use for planting next year, or for seed storage ( I should note that this doesn't always produce viable plants you are better off using an heirloom if you want to save the seeds). The rest, with the yummy stuff inside I make a paste out of, that is then dehydrated like a fruit roll up. I then run it through the food processor and put this in a jar. I add this to soup, or ice cream, some times I just add it to hot water and drink it when I feel like I need a vitamin c boost.  I can't give you exact amounts of Vitamin c you get in a cup of this, but mid winter when it's cloudy and I need to taste summer this helps.

Tomato Puree

First step. Cut all your tomatoes into 1/3rds. Some tell you 1/2s are the way forward, but I seem to get a more consistent dehydration from thirds.

Second, scoop all the seeds out, reserving for later.

Third, arrange with plenty of air room around each slice on your dehydrator shelves till your stacks are full.

Turn dehydrator on, and walk away.  I like to rotate my shelves ever two- three hours to get a more consistent dry. This is one way to combat a cheaper dehydrator.  Which is great, any chance of combating something that is cheap and difficult to use means that it can hold out longer until you save up for the amazing one you really want. 

Dehydrating milk

When my daughter was little we used to joke that we needed a herd of cows to keep her in milk. She would often drink over a half a gallon a day, interspersed with her favorite thing, chamomile tea. The child was a walking drinker. Always with a bottle or sippy cup in her hand, until when she hit 4 she suddenly decided that that wasn't the way forward, and began drinking other things.

Now that she is older we don't go through as much, and since I'm cheap I typically only buy the milk that is $1.99, when it's on sale...and I'll search grocery store ads until I find the one that has it for that price. Sometimes I will do the walmart price matching thing, but I do try to avoid them as much as possible. Mainly because they do not double coupons.

So that brings me to the point at hand. We often don't use all of our milk before it goes bad. Now sometimes I make a soft cheese, which I will write about at a later date. But I recently came across a Pin, on my favorite place in the world Pinterest that tells me how to dehydrate milk.
(Follow me  there at My Pinterest)

WHAT? Okay so I do a ton of baking when I have the time, and I use dehydrated milk. Yet it is expensive. Seriously expensive. Which makes me think  that there has to be a way to do it at home. Suddenly here comes along this pin. And et voila!
I have a way to use the milk that will often go bad before we get it all used, and I can still have my fabulous dehydrated milk for when I'm baking at events. SQUEE. Okay I'm excited now.

The pin links me to Perky Prepping Gramma tight here on blogspot. Seriously read her stuff, I spent a good hour there while I was discovering all the amazingness that is her page.

Back to the dehydrating milk, I admit I had to wait a while before I could actually do this. I've just had gall bladder surgery, but that hasn't stopped me from putting up several pints of blueberries, some jalapeno jam, and some pickled jalapenos. Never the less, I did have to behave myself since this meant dragging out the dehydrator and moving several things off my swivel shelf. which is where I plug in the dehydrator.

I have that to deal with, plus I just bought milk this stuff isn't set to go off for several weeks. I'm going to have to press pause, and get back with the results.

(Saved at this point 7/12/2015)

Just had to share this little note before I forgot, will edit with results as soon as milk is set to go off.

Apartment Style Prepping

I suppose as this is my first blog post I should introduce myself. I am a single mother, with a 13 year old daughter. I was raised by parents who grew up, or were born during the great depression. Prepping has always been part of my life.

I currently am a biology major. We home school for several reasons. One, I was tired of my daughter being bullied because we are atheists, and because the public school system was failing her.

I don't believe that the world will end in a firey crash of Yellowstone ash, or that God will destroy those who don't believe in him. I do however, believe that one should never underestimate our government.

I belong to a society that recreates the middle ages. We are students of history. It has repeated many times that governments are over thrown and those citizens left helpless. Therefore, in my small apartment I prep. I can, I preserve meats, and stockpile books.

I doubt that this will ever be anything more than that. I do some quirky things and hope to chronicle this more for my own use than anyone else. However if someone can gain some info from this, I am glad.

A bit more, We have two dogs. Some cats. All of this is part of what I prep for.

I just expect that some day we may have to fend for ourselves, and I want to be prepared for that. That includes couponing to keep a well stocked pantry. As well as making, or at least knowing how to make most of our clothing.

This blog will feature things like medieval recipes that we can use today to store our food, specifically on keeping food for long periods of time. Of course this will mean adapting it to be done in my apartment. I can smoke food, I can can...while canning is not what we consider "period" they had a wide variety of ways to store food for winter.

I will showcase this as I go along.