My Preparedness Challenge Progress

How I Met The Challenge!

Here's what I did this month in each category Food Storage: 

Like Amy, I added bulk staples like oats, wheat, pinto beans, and brown rice to my pantry this month. My husband has been reading survival literature that espouses the long term potency and efficacy of freeze dried foods, so we ordered a few samples. I am not sold on this idea yet. I stocked up on a few specialty items like coconut oil, wheat bran and germ (which I add to many things). I dehydrated some favorite organic fruits that were on a BOGO sale.

 Emergency Preparedness: I made two more batches of Amy's homemade firestarters this month.  I love them.  They work better than the store bought ones, in my humble opinion.   (Amy's fire starter recipe)  I dip them after they dry from pouring the wax into them so mine are completely covered in wax.  

They sure start wood quickly.  We got a good snow this week, and temperatures have dropped.  This prompted us to buy an extra cord of firewood, just in case...  It will be delivered Sunday.

I re-organized my garage/sewing room and de-cluttered it.  My husband built me a wall full of new storage shelves and made doors to make the existing shelves tidy.  I believe that organization and cleanliness are an important part of being prepared.  Now, I know exactly what I have, what I do not have, and how much space I have available for more storage.
 
Sustainable Living: I spent most of my time this last month working on this area.  The weather was mild and cooperative.  I rejuvenated my raised garden beds.  I added a berry garden that includes two rows of berry fences and canes, and two new blueberry bushes.  I planted raspberry, blackberry, and boysenberry in the beds.  


I completed an updated garden plan.  I have determined to grow only the things Jerry and I love to eat and accompanying herbs.  I used to grow lots of things recommended by others that we didn't really use.  That's a waste of resources, time, and energy.  I am determined not to do that again.  


I started heirloom tomatoes and indoors.  I planted strawberries into new strawberry pots and 10 small clay pots.  I started red, yukon gold, and white potatoes indoors for transplant outdoors into bamboo and wire cages.  I plan to grow them upward in 18" diameter wire circles.  I am hopeful that this will work and save lots of space.  

I also planted 300 onions, three varieties in starter mix.  They will be transplanted within a few weeks outside.  I added new organic compost to my fruit orchard and started a new seedless table grape fenceline 25' long, with 5 varieties.  I am getting tired writing this.  I am so grateful for the hubby.  His help  gets everything done.  Thank you Jerry...


The last thing I have completed lately is something I have been anxious to do for months.  

I made my first 3 batches of homemade laundry detergent.  I used Amy's Zote recipe and a few others. I plan to compare them this month.  I have an HE front loading washer, and a water softener so I am curious how well these detergents will perform.


That's what I have been up to in my quest to try to become more prepared.  Have a great month ahead everyone.  

This post is being linked up to the Preparedness Challenge on Homestead Revival.

Preparedness Challenge #20- Progress This Week- it's actually week 3 for me...

http://homesteadrevival.blogspot.com/2011/08/preparedness-challenge-20.html

This week, my progress toward being "prepared" has mainly been spent finding useful things to help me process food.

Before I finally found the world of blog recently, I took years of agriculture classes in crop science, forestry, environmental resources, and animal science, but I had no real plan for how to put the ideas I learned into practice.  I had a small pantry of organic whole grains and beans, but I did not know how to properly store them.

  

In the short time that it has been since I started following and reading the weekly blog posts of members of the  Homestead Revival Preparedness Challenge, my understanding of the term preparedness has changed as I have been exposed to a wealth of information.  Each week I feel encouraged to try something new or expand on something else.  So, this week I have a few things to share (baby steps).

My dear husband allowed me to hand pick a few things for my upcoming birthday, so I decided on a pressure cooker/canner, a countertop yogurt maker, and some homesteading/homemaking skills books from Amazon.  Now, I am just waiting for their arrival, to dive in.

       

Then, as if my week couldn't get any better, we spent Saturday morning hunting yard sale treasures and I hit the jackpot at an estate sale.  I found a Harsch Gairtopf lactic-fermentation crock, a Champion juicer w/meat grinder attachment, and a Vita-Mix juicer.

  

I saw on the Champion Juicer website that they have an affordable grain mill attachment.  I have an old manual crank that is TOUGH.  I have been hoping to get a power grain mill for a long time, but good ones are so expensive.  That will be my next preparedness purchase.  So many great finds, it was as if someone was watching over me from above, Grandma maybe?  Somebody, pinch me, I must be dreaming.

Now, I realize that for some people, electric juicers and an electric yogurt maker may not seem like the greatest "preparedness" items, hence the word "electric", but we are working on that angle too.  My son recently finished his state power lineman/climber certification courses and is now half way through his wind turbine technician course at the college.  Mom and Dad will be seeking his expertise to help us set up a wind generator for limited backup, for now.

My garden is still growing.  I have been giving away more than we can eat so the crock and the canner will both come in handy.  My squash and zukes survived a bout with powdery mildew recently, thankfully.  I am harvesting potatoes and pulling some pea vines to make room for more winter veggies in my fall garden soon.  I did a few succession plantings and am still waiting on those tomatoes.  They're pretty as a picture, but GREEN.  My professor told me it was my fault, I baby them.  I have to "drought" them to get them to turn red at once, but I don't want to see them suffer.  Bleeding heart, right.

Anyway, the garden is good, now I'm thinking about the fall garden diagram, what goes where, and soon I will be calculating how productive certain plants were, to determine whether or not to plant them again next spring.  I am going to be trying to reconcile what I can grow (volume per season/crop) with how much food storage is recommended for a family of four (I will do this over winter, when it's too cold to go outside much).  I am hoping to find that it is reasonable to sustain ourselves from the limited raised beds I have planted (350 square feet).  I know it cannot sustain grain crops, but veggies, should be close.

Well, my Mother is coming for a visit and to shop my garden.  I look forward to visiting with her, we don't get too much time for eachother anymore.  Love you Mama.

Ta ta for now and thanks in advance to everyone else that participates in Homestead Revival's Preparedness Challenge.  You are helping us all learn how to be more prepared.  What a great joy it is to commune with like minds and share and learn such incredible gifts and talents.

THANK YOU ALL FOR SHARING!