Queen's Edge Farm: preparation

Thursday, September 25, 2008

I was up early this morning, 7 a.m.! That is almost 3 hours earlier than I normally get up. I am anxious to start a new routine this morning, so it worked out great that Rodney woke me up looking for the hairbrush. I sure don't know why he couldn't have found it UNDER THE COUCH.
The girls were fixing their hair yesterday, and of course it didn't get put back in the bathroom.
I have about six brushes in the house, but can never find them due to the girls dress up parties. Getting them their own brush didn't even solve the problem.

Completed my devotional for the morning out of a devotional book I received for my birthday. The scripture reference this morning was John 1:4-5.

"In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it."

The devotional also encouraged me to think and pray about being ready to "rally for Christ when tragedy comes." We all need each other, Christians, neighbors, family members.

This had my mind whirling again about how I try to "lightly" encourage friends and family members to prepare for a coming tragedy. I am not talking end of the world stuff here, but economic depression, job loss, home loss and such. Even Hannah at five will periodically tell me "if a tornado happens to our house, then we need food, water and shelter right Mommy?" Recently she did start adding me to the basic necessities, to which I am grateful.

I myself have gone from making ends meet, to having a windfall of money that enabled me to prepare, to back to making ends meet. I am truly thankful that I listened to God and stocked up on food, medicines, clothing and miscellaneous supplies. I am thankful I listened to God and read up on medical information, as well as, learning to be self sufficient in the area of farming, heating my home (wood stove), doctoring and more.

It is a very likely prospect that Rodney will lose his job in the near future. When that time comes I will of course worry about how to pay the house payment, but am fully aware it will be foreclosed on. Not much to do about that, so am trying not to worry too much, just preparing my alternative....the land.

With regards to shelter...we have toyed around with many ideas many out of our price range. We are limited by the fact that one of the only restrictions in purchasing the land was the 1200 sq foot housing requirement. At the time it didn't seem like a very restrictive restriction, but it is proving to be a very poor requirement. For cooking purposes we have an outdoor kitchen set up (minus the refrigerator). I currently have a propane grill, a wood/charcoal grill, a fire pit, and a camp stove. I have experience using all the methods, though of course the propane grill and camp stove are the easiest, but the fuel for those two are the most expensive. For sleeping purposes, I had thought of the car, at least for the kids. Take out the seats, put a matress in there and "wa la" a pretty comfortable sleeping place. But...after camping out in the car last weekend that idea sucks wind. I have moved on to setting up bunks in the storage container. I have even actually found some really good ideas for converting the storage container into a livable space for low cost. See this link http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/09/24/container.homes.ap/index.html
or this one
http://www.ocm.auburn.edu/newsmakers/container/photos.html

Now, on to food. I have a good supply (don't know how many months worth) of canned and dried food. I have a freezer full of meat, plus with Rodney hunting now, he has been bringing meat home every other day (dove and rattlesnake). We also have a stocked pond of catfish, perch and bass. Now, if we can just keep the cranes out of the pond and away from our fish.

Water: we have the well, but I am worried in the event of Rodney losing his job, and not finding another that we won't be able to afford the electric bill to run the well pump. I have come across a book on how to build your own windmill, so that is in option. The only other option would be to filter the pond water using a Berkey filter. Rodney's pretty smart when it comes to mechanical stuff, so I am sure he will figure someway to get the water out of the well. (I had wanted to purchase a Bison hand pump, but the price was $1500 and he thought it was too much, though I disagreed.)

In a way I am actually looking forward to something happening as retreating to the land would be good for us. I am the happiest when I am there, it is so peaceful, though a lot of hard work goes into maintaining the property (fence, grass cutting to keep snakes down, animal care, cooking, etc.)

Fuel is a big thing for us too..we use gasoline not just for the cars but for the generator, log splitter, chain saw, water pump to aerate pond, weedeater, and lawnmower. The tractor uses diesel. I don't have much gasoline stored, though this has been on my list, just not on Rodney's. I have two 80 lbs fuel tanks sitting EMPTY because it doesn't seem to be a priority, at this time. This is the one area that will more than likely come back to bite us. I have been trying to get the tanks filled since last December.

Kerosene and/or lamp oil for lamps, plus propane for the grill and stove. These are currently high dollar items, and are only going to go up. While I currently have a small supply, it's not enough, which is why I have the wood options.

I know all of this may seem like it's off topic from my devotional, but the devotional of being ready for tragedy and helping others has spurred me on again.

So once again, I put myself out on the limb with my friends and family to urge them to please take the warning signs serious, and my advice to heart. My preparations have already been proven worthy and useful to me recently, and I can't imagine how others who have no food stocked but a couple days worth are going to deal with the ever increasing food costs and threat of job loss. It boggles the mind.

Thanks again to God for reminding me of my priorities according to Proverbs 31.

Grandma's Yummy Cinnamon Rolls

2 pkgs active dry yeast or 5 tsps if using bulk yeast
1/2 cup warm water (not too hot)
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup shortening, butter, margarine
2 tsps salt
2 cups milk, scalded
1 1/2 cups cold water
10 to 12 cups flour (white or whole wheat)

Yield: 4 loaves

Soften yeast in warm water, springkle in a tsp of the sugar
In LARGE mixing bowl blend sugar, shortening, salt and milk until shortening is melted. Add cold water, cool to luke-warm. Stir in yeast. Gradually add flour to form a stiff dough. Knead on floured surface until smooth and satiny, 5 to 10 minutes. Place in greased bowl, turning dough to grease all sides. Cover with foil or damp towel. Let rise in warm place (85 to 90 deg) until light and doubled in volume about two hours. Punch dough down by plunging fist in center. Knead dough for about 5 minutes.

Roll out one fourth of dough to a 16 X 12 inch rectangle. Brush with 2 TBSP of melted butter. Combine 1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar, 1/3 cup sugar and 1 1/2 tsp of cinnamon (or more to taste). Sprinkle mixture over dough. Starting with 16 inch side, roll jellyroll fashion. Either cut into 16 1 inch slices or leave as a whole loaf. Place on a greased pan, cover and let rise in warm place until light, about 30 to 45 minutes. Bake at 375 degrees about 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Mix one box 10X sugar with 2 tbsps water. If too stiff, add more water until icing consistency, add a drop of vanilla too. Spread on baked bread while bread is still warm.

2010 Homestead Stats

Laundry Soap

Homemade Laundry Soap:
1/3 bar Fels Naptha or other type of soap, as listed above
½ cup washing soda
½ cup borax powder
~You will also need a small washpan or bowl that holds about 2 gallons.

Grate the soap and put it in a sauce pan. Add 6 cups water and heat it until the soap melts. Add the washing soda and the borax and stir until it is dissolved. Remove from heat. Pour 4 cups hot water into the washpan. Now add your soap mixture and stir. Now add 1 gallon plus 6 cups of water and stir. Transfer soap (using a funnel if necessary) into empty plastic laundry holders, milk containers (I use my empty glass milk bottles and old Fab containers) Let the soap sit for about 24 hours and it will gel. You use ½ cup per load.

Wild Mustang Grape Jelly

Wild Mustang Grape Jelly

5 cups grape juice (about 3 1/2 pounds of ripe grapes)1 (1 3/4 ounce) box of sure-jel pectin7 cups sugarBefore getting started it is best to clean the entire kitchen, making sure the sink is empty. Bleach the sink and all utensils used in making jelly (I do this as I sell my grape jelly as part of my homesteading business.)

Wash the canning jars in warm soapy water, and rinse well. Set off to side.

Place a large pan of water on the stove to heat. Once it starts steaming, place lids and rings in the bottom, and 2-3 jars (depending on if you use actual jelly jars or pints) to sterilize.

Next make the grape juice using clean washed grapes (make sure you use rubber gloves when picking or washing wild grapes)To 3 1/2 pounds of clean grapes (6 cups of grapes) add 1 1/2 cups water.Bring to a boil and simmer covered for 10 minutes.Strain and squeeze out all of the juice with cheese cloth (see paragraph below)
I didn't have cheese cloth, so I poured the grape mixture into a large spaghetti strainer with a large pan underneath. I had to stir it around some as the skins and seeds would sink to the bottom, and clog the colander up. Stirring allowed the liquid to drain out. I then used a large metal spoon and squished it some to get more of the juice out.

In a very big pan, put 5 cups of the juice (it’s okay to add no more than ½ cup water to even out amount)Add the fruit pectin to the juice.Mix well.On high heat, bring to a full rolling boil, and boil hard for 1 minute, stirring constantly.Stir in sugar all at once, and bring back to a full rolling boil, again boil hard for 1 minute stirring constantly.
Remove jelly from heat, skim off foam
Use a large spoon inserted inside the jar to lift CAREFULLY out of the water. DO NOT TOUCH THE INSIDE OF THE JAR OR THE RIM WITH YOUR HANDS.
Ladle jelly into hot jars, place a lid and ring onto jar (do not tighten yet).
Set jars to the side. After a while you should start hearing “pings” as the jar seals.
When jars are completely cool, tighten rings and store on pantry shelf.**SIDE NOTE: Wild Mustang Grapes are normally ready the end of June, so be prepared. Keep an eye open for vines on the side of the road, or any that friends and family may have growing in their yard. Many people just let them grow and don’t do anything with them, so it shouldn’t be hard to find a good supply. Also, the more you pick off the vine, the more the vine produces new grapes, so you probably won’t EVER run out of grapes to use until the vine dies or you get sick of making jelly. Good luck and feel free to contact me at queensedgefarm@yahoo.com for questions.