sassenach

Thanks, nice web page for this subject!

have only pennies left. not shopping til tomorrow payday this time, or Saturday since we due in a good foot of snow tomorrow..... lol...... will fish if I can on Saturday at pond if its not totally iced over still....added snow may require that chunk of limestone I have been saving for gosh knows what.. tossed from shore to break a spot open so I can toss in my hook and worm.... bundled up , snow boots...... I can see me now....... yep this is fishing to eat..... not sport fishing, for this year. Prices are getting really rugged already locally. If I catch a 21 inch trout maybe I will carry it in the store on the way home ? Pilaf and salad makings for the sides? LOL. ( the store clerks would crack up if I did that.) I'd just tell them dryly that there is no barcode ...... hehehe .... and go enjoy it for my supper and then some! If I am lucky I should pay myself back for the fishing license very quickly over mere days of fishing so I think that was a very wise investment since I can fish within walking distance here and there's plenty to go around . Hardly anyone fishes anymore. Trout season opens tomorrow, catfish and perch always.... bass this summer.

Thanks for bumping this up Cat! ANewMe was just asking me about how I make candles and I have used toilet paper rolls,but you really have to be sure you have either the stearic acid powdery stuff to add to soy wax if you want stand alone candles. I loved Amishway's post too, on dipping for taper candles. Love the explanation on setting it up for kids to do too, how neat! If you buy a slab of wax at michaels its likely not pillar wax and they rarely carry stearic acid. I had to order mine online. Also if you are not real careful as you insert wicks if they are not secured first center bottom like the shampoo bottle method, which is a great idea for some big candles, your wick can wobble and get too close to the side of the mold and you get a melt down with that too. I am going to use the soy up mostly with tuna and cat food cans and make 3 wick candles that way. I think my cat will respect those better with him getting up on the table surfaces if I do light one. He will likely notice it better. I have saved alot of these cans after carefully cleaning them and removing the labels and glue. So they are simply utilitarian but will fit in a day pack and such too for BOB's. I realized the used toilet paper rolls make a nice size stand up candle and with the right wick, the pillar wax should be great to use, but when you peel off the cardboard, sort of like the store bisquits you tear open diagonally they will often be rough textured so they are not 'pretty'. But its for emergency usage mostly, although some I do color and scent to use once in a while. I found putty around the bottom of any mold on a new clean cookie sheet from the dollar store helped hold in the wax better than masking tape. femo clay maybe if you have some laying around might even work. Discard after use. It would be nice to afford the molds, I only have one for a five inch pillar, not real big in diameter. I used it recently along with the paper rolls and some tuna cans, and put it in the freezer too soon and it came out shiny smooth but crackled, which I hear are something some folks really like and sell now. I don't know if it will hold together as I have not decided to use it. A cold water pot beside the dipping pot is a great idea. It is a long process no matter what methods you will use and requires infinite patience. I would not use the microwave however. Wax is combustible, and if it gets too hot it will catch on fire. Also any old candles or wicking can have metal in the wick or in the bottom of the candle and you might not realize it. If you need to clean out old votives and other candle glass containers, when you put them in an old pan, heat the water up, the wax will float up after it melts off the surfaces and you can salvage it.

Beef chunks in quarts.

Gee, yea, the edit button is gone! Wow..... we need that! Ok. thanks Mt Rider........ how far are we going? and yet, thinking more, you want at least enough food to get you through on basics as much as possible til First fruits from gardening will come in. Wow. Im not even there yet! Ok...... I admit. I will cheat, but thinking hard on quantities will be a good mind exercise. I am actually only beginning to really grasp that and how much I use say in a few days or a week depending on what I am fixing for myself out of homecanned or dried foods. Also since I have been baking some, I have a better idea how much flour and bakin powder and salt and sugar I need. ( I spent a long time renting only a bedroom and gettin back to cooking for myself and realizing how much it takes, and the screwed up schedule I have most months can make it difficult for me to get everything I really need, so its beena challenge, but now I am getting more keen on it and that will help. Be a good math exercise, lol. I will work on that , hopefully by sometime tomorrow. And I do think I will just consider certain 'thangs' in my environment , um, er, resources! lol... well its, um, innovation! And Im clearing out in the wagon anyway. ( Not that I am a stealer in real life at all. nope, not me! I hate thieves...) seriously, I will try and do enough math on several types of items and make a list to post. Good ideas about a medicine wagon. Does anyone have splints? I do have a snake bite kit, now that I dont need one for this scenario! ( But do for my region! ).

WOW, gulfcoasttruth! What a wonderful experience and how kind the people along the way were. One of the things I want folks to think about, is that when these very heavy wagons are moving, no one steps down from them or tries to get up on them, because they can fall and get run over. This will lead to broken bones and internal injuries, and yes, you get a runaway wagon, and its going to be a mess, like what happened to that one wagon. You had some major assistance getting over certain difficult places along that trail but usually, they rigged ropes and tackle, pulley systems and used weight and strength to get over the really tough inclines on these western trails all over the West. When it rained, you had bad mud and by hand , the wagons had to be pushed, dug out and pulled by maybe a double team of mules or oxen as well, with every able bodied grown person helping out and getting massively muddy and dirty as well. One of the things in the military is that we are taught to take care of our feet. If your shoes get wet , using those burning tabs inside the boot actually helps if its so humid they wont dry, fresh spare socks, which you wash out at night and hang to dry overnite. If you have enough water between places to do any washing. We also have the benefit of the hygienic wipes now and that cuts actual water use down. In the military, you tend your feet, some of us may want to be checking them at each break, doctoring any soft or sore or blister areas properly and watching others. We mostly have soft feet because they are protected so much now by smooth surfaces and shoes that are very durable. Starting out walking all day long is rugged at first. But you do get used to it. I really enjoy the movement of walking and its glorious outside now so I enjoy my walk even more and I see how different it is outside. But I am still not able to walk all day, admittedly although I would like to get back to at least half that as a matter of course and am thinking of getting a foldable manual treadmill so I can get into walking when its too cold outside to keep building up my legs and feet again this winter. I consider exercise that is consistent extremely important right now because I know I am not capable of that at this point and there may well come a time when I have to do some extremely long travel if things keep going badly for us and get alot worse to get to where my son lives, several states away, in any kind of weather and conditions as it would be. My walk last weekend and the one before that of about 3-4 miles after being totally a computer chair potato for so long sure tells me how tender my feet are. Add fibro for effect, too. It takes me about two solid days right now to get over that pain, but on the journey, you would not have that and would have to keep walking. The real reasons most folks walked was that it took extra weight off the livestock hitched to the wagons to pull them over the terrain. As well as the discomfort of being knocked around going over rough territory on a daily basis. We are lucky that there are so many roads now. You might be able to take a few rides to give your feet a break as you adjust but it puts alot of strain on the mules or oxen. It would be really difficult to pack canned goods ( home canned in jars). The weight alone is difficult for the mules or oxen. Horses would only be good for individuals who would be scouting ahead, safety and hunting further off as needed. Or for disabled folks. Most folks don't even have horses anymore. Pulling the Conestoga is too much for horses on a long term basis and they will wither away, so mules and oxen are better and eat less particular feed. Back to jars, perhaps foam rubber from pillows or if you have some stored could be cut out to house jars in crates or boxes that would stand up to the lengthy travel. Something like bubble wrap would eventually lose its ability cause the bumps and such would cause it to pop too much, or extra linens or straw in the crates for them... but it limits the amount of room you have to store everything unless you have a couple extra wagons like Stephanie would have with so many in her family old enough to drive the wagons. Some in her party will be having to deal with the livestock on the ground and encouraging and controlling the teams on the ground. Children learned early how to drive wagons too, for the most part as it was an integral part of their lives from the start back in the pioneer days and on the farm. Me, I would have one wagon... and honestly wouldn't want one of the really long ones and I am thinking my dry supplies that I have been gathering that are condensed so well will be my best choice and a minimal amount of canned foods. I know I am still lacking in having a bunch of seed too and thats a big spot to fill still for me. For me, it would be difficult to choose which books to take, but I have several technical books and college algebra books that tell in great detail how to do the problems so it would be useful for teaching others algebra, which is useful in many things like constructing things on a practical basis. Just don't ask me to teach it, I have a hard time fathoming that kind of stuff and figure out what materials I may need by a simpler process I can understand. I have certain books on things that I am interested in that are helpful to others as well , although they are not something some folks even understand, but their purpose is good and useful as it deals with Eastern methods of healing and I would take those too, along with a good selection of other instructional books. I wish I had a collection of the emergency health care books like surgery in case of emergency and such and a much bigger supply of herbs and supplements to aid myself and others with, and a much bigger amount of antibiotics to treat different illnesses and infections. I wish I had some good anatomy and physiology books and such too... but I know I need to stock more food and utter basics right now. Inflation is just around the corner and I have a limited budget each month now. I would be doing alot of snaring of small game along the way and probably hurrying through chores and trying to fish any water ways we came across to supplement and if it was warm seasons, foraging during the day if I could share the driving of my wagon with someone else on the journey. I have paper and pens and pencils and some art supplies too and those would be brought along for journaling and education purposes, and drawing out plans for building projects once we get to the place we settle in. I would take sewing supplies and make extra towels and a bunch of hot pads for the camp cooking because cast iron and campfires are hot to work with. Sewing and materials and buttons and notions to make more clothing by hand. The electric sewing machine would be carefully packed into a wooden crate and brought in hopes that we would have electricity again, one day. My knitting supplies and knitting books would be taken as well, they are easy to learn from and give great examples of how to work with it all to make it very nice and neat too. One could work on that skill sometimes on the journey as well. Also teach it to others. My knitting looms would go as they are simple to use and make things quickly. I would bring quite a few novels and such books too because books are big entertainment and help literacy stay alive when you have nothing electronic and the chores are done and they stimulate the mind and heart as well, certainly all my bibles and any thing Christian oriented in the way of literature. Still there would be alot of decisions have to be made about what are favorites or the best of the best when it comes to my bookshelves. I would carefully pack and waterproof my family photos and albums and I would pack away securely my flashdrives and discs holding pics and documents. I need to get a printer and make up notebooks of hardcopies of so many things from MrsS, still, for instruction and recipe books. There is such a variety of knowledge. I would have to make more bolts for the crossbow and be very careful with what arrows I have for the compound bow and try and make more arrows. I totally lack firearms but have more hand to hand type weapons and those would all be going and I need to make sheaths for some of them, like the machete and would get used to carrying that. I have my moms jewelry for bargaining purposes once we settle, or for supplies if possible on the way. There is alot I am still lacking, but there are also many things I would be able to take that are here already. I have enough cooking pans and such and utensils and table ware but I have no metal plates and wish I did. I would probably carve a plank for a durable plate and bowl. Like the old trencher set up , the bowl is in the middle and is deeper than the plate surface. I also do have metal cups at least and messkits that do provide somewhat durable eating ware and extra small pots and pans at least and those certainly would go. I have wire for snares and can remember how to set simple traps and snares and usually review them on youtube occasionally or with the help of someone who does remember more clearly if I have a blank brain about a certain part of snare building at the moment. I have a single burner coleman stove and some propane cannisters ( small) and those certainly would be good for inclement weather or no wood available for a campfire to cook on. I would bring all the plastic and tarps I have and rope and cord ( parachute cord, string , twine). I have a few games like checkers and cards and there would be a small game bag going in the wagon. I would bring enough well padded wine making supplies as you can use bread yeast for it if you must and I have that. Wine can be used in cleaning wounds and surgery if you have nothing else to use. All my tools and nails and screws would be packed up to go in a bin. Its not much but its better than nothing. I dont have gardening tools and know I am lacking in that and would have to borrow them to work a new garden as my back couldnt take just using the Army shovels as little as those are, when we settle somewhere, well, if I had to, I would use them. ( I live in a place I cant garden at, although I know I could swipe them from MHA, lol... but thats a twelve mile trip......but I do know where they are and there are full propane tanks for the gas grill there too.... can we swipe stuff???, LOL.... ) I have soy wax in a big block and I have tuna cans and wicking and would be making up all of them as 3 wick emergency candles. I have some other candles too that would be used and candle holders that are small enough to pack carefully and use and a couple oil lamps and several quarts of lamp oil that would all go. The linens and the blankets and sleeping bags and all the BOB and day packs I have would be utilized for BOB and for kits, like hunting and snaring gear and the first aid day pack, all stored and ready to grab out of the back of the wagon or by the seat in front to grab right away. I have one fire steel and wished I had a spare and a couple bic lighters right at the moment and matches, they all would go. I would keep the blankets in plastic bags to guard against dirt and the linens, one sheet would become a sleeping bag liner or bedroll liner as it will help keep the blankets from getting dirty and sweaty and smelly and can be washed in a stream or boiled in a pot over a fire. Bungee cords would be great! I have some and wish I had more. They would certainly be used for anything they can help with. Ive got a bigger french press now, that came in my amazon order and it supplies enough coffee for me for a morning breakfast fire. Im thinking the coffee grounds would be good for Wormguys worm bin along the way! After they are used up of course. Five gallon buckets would be great but you will want some padding under and around them because wagon hauling is a bumpy experience and you don't want the cracking to pieces and ruining the food supply, so my extra big zebra stripe blanket, fleecey stuff would be used for that and washed when I got to where I settle. A small innovation but seriously needed to secure the buckets. If i had rubber matting I would use that. Like the playground, garage flooring stuff, if any of you have that, would be terrific to line the bottom and sides of the wagon with. Or storing sacks of grain underneath might work if you have your small livestock and mule feed with you would help alot in that part of packing it. Cut grass would work in a pinch too. ( I just am trying to brainstorm some innovations with what there could be to work with. I've got plenty of grass hay fields around me to go cut some grass from or swipe some of a round bale for that purpose, feed for the mules ya know? Well I still have enough money to buy a bale too, so that would at least be more honest. ) LOL. If you had some mountain bikes those could be tied to the side of the wagon and used for scouting and hunting trips that were some distance away from the wagon train too. For herding the loose livestock too.. Also alleviate sore feet as people get used to walking or its just easier for them. I do not have one and would be responsible mostly for getting my wagon forward most of the time anyway, so this is just a thought for others. Ok, I better toss this out there , its plenty long anyhow! Good luck ! be creative !!!!

Mt. Rider, is this just stuff you have now or can you just say what you estimate you need if you are short of what the supplies would really be as some of us are on a shoestring and things come slower to us? or havent been prepping that long yet to have accumilated all that much? I like this scenario and I agree, no snakes, although that certainly is realistic as a danger and PCS has been personally stricken and I pray she is recovering better and better each day! We probably would not have antivenom in our own first aid kits generally anyway.

I will blanch and do some blueberries and do up some jerky this weekend. If the blueberries turn out good I will be going to an organic farm and getting blueberries later this month. Everything is ripening very slowly, with the cold damp weather here, so its all about a month or more late. Down in the forties tonight too. I think Fall will be early this year. I hope the farmers can get their corn in !

You will want to get the cannister set for sealing jars with the food saver. This attaches to the foodsaver. In average room temps, sealing the jars this way, say with flour or dry milk or dehydrated food you put into the jars you want to seal will extend the food life up to twice as long, generally. The cannister set has various sizes for certain sized jars to be sealed.

HappyCamper. I am in upstate NY and I believe our local apple orchards only grow Cortlands? I can get them easily for about a dollar a pound so applesauce and apple butter are July's sweet canning I think, along with other fruit jam I hope. Whatever these apples are, they are soft and yellowish inside and make superb applesauce so would be good for the apple butter. I love apple butter!

Well since its only me, me. As to that kind of thing.....its why its a fire safe choice. has some time before it burns..... But I may rethink the bolt set up. Its a very small place, would be about two steps to the nearest window from where it would be in the bedroom and would be out the window... and down on the dirt and me following it likely. If I am not home and the place caught fire, the firesafe is set up not to burn for 30 mins, minimum. Its still better than an envelope or money inside a wall.. besides, imp papers and other small valuable items will be in that safe too. Certainly I can stash small amounts ready to grab for temporary bugout situations that can be grabbed in a couple mins, but out of sight of visitors. Its simply a matter of securing it well enough from the majority of threat levels, no one will be perfect about it, and it can certainly be figured out if some cretan has the time to look, most of these methods. But it keeps it close to grab, not in a bank, where when electricity fails or the ATM is empty by the time you can reach one..... and the fire safe doesnt have to be a big one.

I have an envelope on the front of my frig that reads 'lunch and egg money' ...... thats all they get! The other cash is hidden away and am considering burying it vaccuum sealed in pvc pipe sealed shut on the ends with caps, in the woods because of potential fire in this structure at any time if I had large amounts set aside for emergencies. The problem is retrieval in the winter time. The snow and hard ground are solid as ice at that point of the year. Thinking a true fire safe is a good investment and bolting it down in my closet for large amounts of cash I couldn't really afford to lose as money is precious to me anyway these days. Around here if they cant carry it off, it ain't going, usually.

HI Judy. I have sjogrens, fibro, lupus, CFS, no, its not fun. I believe sjogrens is the culprit also for the anti-cardio lipin antibodies, also for causing me three miscarriages, early and mid gestation. Believe me, I know how you feel. Fibro causes depression and anxiety and along with chronic pain and weakness and magnifies sprains badly, from the rheumatalogical stuff for 30 yrs now, all the meds make the mouth drier. I have been weaning myself off of things, and I think its helping me with the moisture factor. In fact my salivary glands work overtime when I drink a berry vitamin drink in the afternoons, and other foods are also making them work more. I know how all this goes. I have had to try and find things to deal with arthritis inflammation that won't chew my stomach and IT tract up, and I've been lucky. I definitely understand the frustration and anger issue. Have been working on it, but also am getting so cut and dried about certain things in life, that I know I am still very stern, at times. So, I do know. I wish you the best, Judy. I am tired of being a guinea pig for the docs, I am going to try to do the best I can with much less interference. Some of the alternatives I found, which do work for me, are just fine. Little other affect too, and that bothers me about many of the scrips for these types of disorders lately. But everyone is different and if you find things that do work for you, all the more power to you. The problem with dry eyes, is that eventually, it can ruin the cornea, and it makes you blind without a cornea transplant. Its not something that someone else can readily see either, and there are many other things that can happen from sjogrens and similarly grouped disorders. But its hard for others to understand, because its not obvious. I can deal with losing my teeth, but my eyes? Add the other stuff and its flares and tis a three ringed circus. Not having the energy to do things or the strength is a true challenge. It is also hard to get others to understand that, they just dont, for the most part, but it is debilitating.

Bump

BUMP This is the recommended way to isolate patients in the home and remedial treatments one can choose to use. Equipment and medical supply lists here in this thread.

bump

I received my book today to help with the study as it goes. Looking forward to it!

Hi Stephanie and your scientific kids! Try a little salt in the mix. Salt enhances flavor in its own way. Most commercial peanut butters have salt. The label ingredients on the generic peanut butter I have has salt and molasses in it... so I gave you another hint!

Westie, ya know , minus the rabbit food , those treats would be good for human consumption! If the links dont work, try searching with keywords in the search button link.

I like the way you explained it and how you are breaking it down. Keep up the good blogging! We look forward to this one!

Dear Procrastination, I am so glad I have this tool, of writing to you, it will allow me to express my feelings about you and the role you are playing in my life. Procrastination, you have really jumbled up my life. When I realized how helpless you make me feel, the lies you tell me, how much of the devil is in you, it certainly ticked me off. I do hate the grip you have had on me in the past, and the insiduous way you still, so subtly, sneak into my every day life still, despite the actual fact that I am working to get rid of you. Despite my low energy, my chronic fatigue and fibro affecting me and my back getting painful periodically. My place is small and still cluttered, and it is distracting and frustrating that it takes me so long to organize it, partly because of the above factors, but mostly because of you Procrastination, as the physical stuff is improving. Having to wait constantly to be able to go get things just to organize my place is a sore point, I admit, with lack of money and transportation at hand. The clutter is a distraction and you use that as a weapon with me. Make it seem overwhelming in my mind. But, Procrastination, you can take ANY issue, any concern or worry, and you make me feel absolutely rotten all the way through me if you can. ( You can be quite successful with this, especially when I see how much others do get done from day to day. ) Well, Dear Procrastination", I have been and will continue to take steps, babysteps some days, bigger steps on other days, when I feel true, clear, strong motivation or need to do a chore, a projec, hem up some second hand pants, tear up and throw out cardboard, a tedious task here since I cannot recycle from where I reside, move that pile of books, clean my kitchen or my bedroom, simply to make that little effort that truly overcomes you and I know I am now winning battles more and more with you. Arby P.S. BTW, The Lord is on my side in this matter! He can do anything! You, Procrastination, are nothing compared to Him. As long as I remember this and remind myself, I will win the war against you, Procrastination.

Welcome Karelle, what everyone above has posted is absolutely true, even though I admit some things do make me put on my 'tinfoil' hat and freak for about 30 minutes, then I do the research! We ARE getting better at determining who on the Internet is a font of good information, and those who are not. Thankyou for every second it took for you to raise up such a wonderful, faithful, intelligent and compassionate, wise daughter, Darlene. Yes, we will now be working on a Queen smilie, because that has to be you because Darlene is the Princess!

Cat thats a good idea about forum site passwords. That guy at Flu Talk is a jerk! Well I just won't bother with that site. There is enough info out there elsewhere and on our threads if they are coming up. Thanks for bumping this thread up.