Is that a Squirrel in the Next County?

So this weekend has definitely been an eventful one.

First off, its the weekend before Mother's Day (don't forget!) and I got to be off!

When working in a Florist, this is like, unheard of.  Seriously.

Also, we were recently chosen as a qualifier for a local outdoor giveaway.  Way exciting!  

I got all the way down to fifth place and came home with tons of paracord and a free rafting trip!

After all that excitement and almost passing out in front of a bunch of people with cameras, we decided to finally sight in the BB gun.  Yes, a BB gun because we unfortunately live in the city and can't play with our big boy toys.  It is still worth having it "zeroed," as my husband puts it, because it is more than capable of putting a little squirrel or rabbit meat in the pot.

Any who, being 12 year-old's at heart, my husband rigged up a poor man apparatus to make sighting in that much more serious.  I mean, he had to have this Perfect.  So he took this weird metal crate thing that is made to be a stepping stool but really has no practical use at all with some wood clamps he attached to it and clamped her down.

Now this is the Crossman Model 1077 12 Shot CO 2 Air gun ordered on ebay.  The sight was bought separately.  After laying a mat down on the grass next to the contraption 39 yards away, we then shot bb after bb and went through 3 CO 2 cartridges before finally calling it done.  Yes, it took forever.  And we still never got it in the center.  Even after everything was perfect and held in very still, no dead on shots were to be found.  

I guess you could say there was a possibility of human error, however we refuse to believe that.  No one else has gone to that much effort of sighting it perfectly that I've heard of.  So the results:  This BB gun is highly unlikely to be accurate from that far away.  Especially once the CO 2 starts running low.  If you want to use this to go squirrel hunting, keep in mind you will have to aim high after the first 12 shots or so.  At least we still have a somewhat tactical toy to play with when the urge strikes.

Stew for Storage

There are so many nutritional foods and ways to store them that it gets to be confusing sometimes on what to save first.

Do you go for vitamin c? Protein? Calories?  The list goes on and on.  And if you aren't lucky enough to have a garden some things are just not very affordable.  (Please try to have at least a small garden next season.  It is way worth it.)




We just recently started pressure canning and it is Way Awesome!  (I used to go with the oven method and that was anything but successful.)  So amidst my husband canning anything he can get his hands on, we recently realized a great couple of foods that cover the basics and are easy to come by.

Carrots & Potatoes!

Yeah, not what you would have said huh?
Well, let me explain our thinking.

First off, carrots and potatoes are both very easy to grow and tend to yield a lot.  They also save space and are easy to harvest.  Just about any gardener grows these plants for those very reasons.  They are also very easy to come by.

Potatoes. They are such a good staple.  Like rice, you can add it to anything to make a bigger meal and can be cooked in many ways.  And in case you didn't know, they are also nutritious!  There is as much fiber in a potato as there is in pasta or bread.  The skin of a potato even has Vitamin C.

Carrots.  There are so many nutrients in carrots, mainly B-Carotene which metabolizes into Vitamin A.  They are rich in antioxidants and minerals.  They naturally help with poor vision, the digestive system, constipation, and many more things.

Still thinking, why carrots and potatoes?
Well, if you for some reason ran out of food or couldn't afford to buy anything, most likely you will be out hunting (as long as you aren't a vegetarian or don't live in the middle of the city.)  So protein is already covered for the most part.

And instead of opting for straight meat, you're going to want to make something with it.  Hopefully you will be out finding wild herbs or whatever, but that's not enough.

So what can you do with it?  How can you make that meat stretch?  Make a Stew of course!
Just about any meat can go in a stew and will go perfect with carrots and potatoes.  The meat and veggies will both flavor each other and you already have most of what you need.

Having them on the side is just fine and dandy, but when you're down to the back up food, you want to have something a little different every now and then.  And by storing these two basics, you'll almost have everything needed for a stew.

Other veggies are also very important.  These are just the two we could easily access that made the most sense.  Have any more ideas of how to use carrots and potatoes?  Or possibly an even better food to store?

If so, please share.  We'd love to hear it. :)

Survival Camping (sort of) 2013

My hubby has been dead set to get out into the middle of nowhere and just stay there.  Yeah, sorry babe.  Aint happenin'.  Don't get me wrong, I love sleeping on the ground, huddling up to a campfire, and foraging for dinner and firewood.  But I have got to have a warm cozy little home to go to after a few days.  So, when my brother-in-law said, lets go camping in the middle of the woods, it was go time.  After much groaning, the hubby decided on a hammock instead of building a shelter out of sticks and leaves.


The shelter would have been awesome, however the weekend we all got off for the trip turned out to be the coldest weekend possible.  I'm talking in the 20's people.  But that didn't stop us!  We continued to plan out our backpacks and how in the hell to carry them.  Finally, the day came and we all grabbed our walking sticks, packs, water bottles, and just about everything but a kitchen sink and headed out!  It was great going in.  The packs were killing us, but adrenaline was surging through us.  We sang, we laughed, and stomped our way to a suitable camp site. 

Three of us in hammocks and the other in an army tent, we positioned ourselves in a circle around the campfire.  In hindsight, we should have been a bit closer tot he fire, so we could put our tarps up behind us and absorb the heat, but alas, we can't move the trees wherever we wish.  Also, sleeping right beside the creek like we did is not exactly ideal, but this was just a short adventure.  Each of our hammocks were layered like crazy to keep warm.  First, the traditional sleeping pad (the heaviest to carry besides the sleeping bag.)  Then we each got a one of those car sunshades and put it face up on top of that.  Those work great!  The reflective side works just like an emergency blanket.  On top of that went the sleeping bags.  Above the hammocks we hung tarps teepee style and staked them to the ground.  I tell you what, I stayed warm and cozy all night!

During the whole day we gathered firewood (not nearly enough though!) and the hubby and I gathered up some edible wild herbs.  Unfortunately, this place was not abundant.  We mainly found lady's thumb & clover.  Also, one of our peers caught a crawdad before the night was over so we had our wild dish ready.
My man got to work digging up a "Dakota Firepit."  The video on how he did this is on our blog in the 'Survival Tools' label.  This was probably the neatest and also simple project we had.  A word of advice
 though: bring some sort of back up stove.  Boiling water over a fire in 20 degree weather is extremely difficult.  Also, we dug a hole for the fireplace and it may have been easier to cook our other food if we could have pushed some coals to the side.  My meals consisted of ramen noodles (which got cold in 1 minute) and instant potatoes.  Do NOT buy the loaded baked potato kind.  I thought it would be awesome, but noooooo!
Besides my lovely dinner, I loved the trip!  I stayed warm in my hammock, got to hunt for firewood, and stare at the fire for hours before bed.  Sadly for my husband though, he did not have the most fantastic time ever.  Apparently, in the middle of the night his hammock fell to the ground and he ended up sleeping on top of cold rocks because it was impossible to fix when it is pitch dark and freezing.  Plus the paracord had stretched a good bit.  At least he was all layered up.  If he didn't have 5 shirts, 2 pants, and several socks on, he may have turned into a popsicle.


 Actually all of our hammocks stretched down a lot and we used 550 paracord so I'm not sure what we did wrong.  Anyways, we learned a great deal from the trip.  Plan it when its warmer, bring a back up stove, either bring a tent or build a shelter, and pack lighter.  The hike back to the car was the worst.  We were all freezing and hungry since we left in the morning and those heavy backpacks were not ideal!  It is way worth the money to buy the lightweight fancy stuff.  Anyways, that was our Camping Adventure and I can't wait to go again!

The Homestead Add-Ons

So after you've found your land and built the home, you're going to want to create a sustainable landscape.  When you begin designing the gardens, leave room for the add-ons.  Below are a few ideas for a sustainable way to add to the land.

Don't forget the Greenhouse:

 

 

For the Beekeeper:

The Trellis:

We previously built our own grape trellis out of logs.  Here is how it turned out.  The only problem we had was with the carpenter bees.  This is a temporary example of greener building.

 

 

Chicken Coop:
Now most homesteaders and minimalists are going to raise an animal or two.  The most sustainable and low maintenance animal to raise is a chicken.  They need their food and nutrients and a warm hen house to sleep at night.  We have previously built a chicken coop of our own that turned out very sturdy and desirable.  Mainly because it was tall enough to walk inside and had all the necessities.  A warm place to lay with an accessible door to gather eggs and plenty of space to roam inside the fenced in building.  Here are some photos.  It wasn't quite as inexpensive as we hoped, but it was worth every penny.  The photos are before it was completely finished.

 

 

Rain Barrel:
For the sustainable gardener you're going to need some way to collect water.  If you have a shed or, in our case, a chicken coop you should definitely consider adding a rain barrel.  We used an old raison barrel with an attached water spicket.  To collect the water, we put a gutter on the back side of the chicken coop and attached a pipe at the end which was put into the top of the barrel.  We had to cut a hole into the top of the barrel lid, so to keep mosquitoes out we added a screen underneath the lid.  We had no running water here, so it was a big help to take care of our gardens.

If there's anything else I should add, feel free to share.  We are still coming up with new and exciting ways to maximize the homestead.

The Dancer

Greener Homes

So our journey so far has been a lot of ups and downs. Its all been aimed for the "back to the land" lifestyle. You know, the one everyone thinks should be so simple.  Organic gardening, raising chickens and goats, beekeeping; we're going for it all.  However, its not so simple as one would think.  The main obstacle in our way has been land.  You've got to have land.  Even if its not a lot, you still need enough to grow your family's food and your living along with privacy if at all possible.  We've been to the moon and back chasing a way to find ours.

In all this time searching for land, we've been coming up with several ideas to build an inexpensive, sturdy, and eco-friendly home.  Some were found from the web, others are creations we're still brainstorming on.  Personally, we lean towards underground building.  One of our greatest mistakes with moving above ground as far as heating and cooling goes along with the way the world is going, its not a bad idea to have a few feet of dirt above your head. However it all comes down to our budget and needs in the end.  Here are a few we found that deserve a thumbs up.

The Earthbag Dome:
This one is my favorite!

Straw Bale and Clay Home:

The Pallet House:

Recycled Railroad Tie Structure:
To build a house with recycled railroad ties we found an idea from an episode on mythbusters.  You can use them as you do with bricks by laying them flat and nailing together to form walls.  This makes for a very secure structure.  Haven't found a video for it yet though.

Plastic Bag Home:

Tiny House:

That's a pretty good list for now.  We may add more as time goes on.  I'll keep you updated when we are finally able to start the move.  For now, that's all.  Feel free to share ideas and comments.

The Dancer & The Digger