Hi Everyone,
It’s time for another disclaimer. I am NOT an “expert”. I have no “degree” or professional training. I’m just a mom who’s been canning and preparing since the 1970s when we put wheat and dry ice in paint buckets to store them. My pressure canner is harvest gold (a true 70’s color!). I experiment with gardening every year and get some things right and a lot of things wrong. Talk about a learning curve.
But I DO believe in being prepared – and the key is to go step by step. Just do a little EVERY week. Of course, it seems that time is speeding up, and who knows how many weeks are left. When President Woodruff (I think it was him) was asked about the Second Coming and how much time was left, he said he felt it was close but he was still going to plant fruit trees. Slow and steady. But I will tell you this, being prepared is ALWAYS on my mind, and there is hardly a week that goes by that I have not canned something, or dehydrated something, or bought something to store.
After the shelves emptied in 2020 in three days, we should all be very aware that this can happen again.
NOTES:
** Rolling Blackouts This Summer – Don’t know if you’ve seen this “scare” news yet. A Hot, Deadly Summer Is Coming With Frequent Blackouts
What could that mean for you??? Well, if you lose power for a day, you will most likely be okay. Try NOT to open your refrigerator or freezer.
No power — no lights (invest in some outdoor solar lights for the garden that you can bring indoors) —no power to charge phones or computers. Use your car to charge, or maybe some small solar chargers? I have a few of these:
Solar Power Bank, 10,000mAh External Battery Pack: Cell Phones & Accessories There are several brands to choose from.
I try to keep them charged because it takes about 15 hours of sun to fully charge one. But, they will charge your phone in about 2 hours with power left over. I love them when I am going to be out for several hours with no power (car shows with Craig, or an airplane trip).
Venture 35 + Nomad 10 Kit – Goal Zero Goal Zero has all types of solar kits, from small camping types to larger home types. These solar panels do NOT have batteries, so they will charge your phones directly. Of course, if you have the means, you should think about a generator. Goal Zero has some but also Lowes and Home Depot. ($350 – $2,000) Consider something that does NOT run on gasoline. Some run on propane, some are solar. — electric stove? You’ll need alternate cooking methods like a BBQ or hibachi — no TV/internet Pick up a couple of decks of cards or games or better yet – BOOKS!
What else? — no A/C? If there is no power, fans won’t even work (unless you have a generator). Find a friend with a pool, have the kids run through the sprinklers, take off for the beach, spend an hour or so at the mall, and try to stay cool. ** If you have freezers full of food, and an emergency of significant length occurs, you could lose all that food! Soooo… you have to diversify!!! Have canned goods – stew, soup, fruit, vegetables. Maybe enough canned goods to get you through a week – 10 days. Make it a family activity. Plan with your kids and let them get involved. Kids will not worry if they know there is a plan. What could you eat? What could you do for entertainment?
Blackouts are usually localized, so maybe you could make arrangements with another family to be partners and take hot showers at each other’s houses.
THE POINT IS TO TALK ABOUT IT NOW AND PLAN NOW.
GARDEN HAPPENINGS
It’s time to feed the garden again. Most of the vegetables that home gardeners grow are “heavy feeders.” This includes tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, broccoli, etc. They need food to produce food. My zucchini is looking anemic, but I’m going to hold off for another day or two and keep somewhat to my schedule. A good fertilizer and some compost will do the trick.
Let’s talk about carrots. They don’t get “diseases” like the tomatoes and don’t get aphids or worms. But you just
never know what you’re going to pull up. Sometimes I feel like alien seedlings have been growing. These are from carrots I planted last fall.
THIS WEEK’S PURCHASE: canned MREs
Ready to eat canned meals: ravioli, chili, stew. You can purchase these for about $2 per can. Get 10 cans at least – more if you are able. These canned meals can easily be stretched to feed more people. For example, you can use a can of chili, diced tomatoes, and cooked macaroni, and make chili mac. You can add a can of corn and a can of beans to some Dinty Moore stew and serve an entire family.
MISC PURCHASE: water!
We like to buy water at Cardenas. The water comes 32 in a package. They usually run 4 / $11-$12? We keep a stack in the garage and rotate them. When we get down to 1-2 packs, we buy 4 more. You might want to buy several gallons of water in the store ($1 each??) DON’T get the water that is in cheap plastic milk carton type containers. It WILL leak and I know this from experience. Yes, it can go in the garage, IF you rotate it. I see people taking their empty 5 gallon containers and filling them up at the store. Also fine. Because our city water is treated, you can just fill those from the sink. If you are thinking about LONG TERM storage, you might want to add a drop of bleach (Google this for the exact amount).
FOOD STORAGE RECIPES
Beef Biscuit Pie
(There is a very long recipe for the beef part, and basically, it’s beef stew meat along with carrots and potatoes. So, I’m thinking, why can’t you use 2-3 cans of Dinty Moore Beef Stew instead? Having just opened up some stew like this a few days ago in an effort to do some rotating, I found that I needed to add a pint of diced potatoes to even things out)
Dump the beef stew mix in a casserole dish or cast-iron skillet. Topping: 2 c. flour, 4 tsp baking powder, 3 TB shortening – cut in, 1 1/4 c. grated cheese. Mix and add 2/3 c. milk. Knead lightly and roll out over the stew. Cover and bake for 20 min at 400˚.
Hash
When was the last time you ate that??? If ever. This recipe is called Papa’s Favorite Beef Hash from the book Cookin’ with Home Storage by Peggy Layton
1 can of corned beef
2 c. dehydrated diced potatoes
1 c. dehydrated onions
1/4 c. powdered milk
1 TB flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
5 c. water
1/4 c. oil
Combine potatoes, onions, milk flour, salt, pepper, and water in a large saucepan. Boil for 10 min or until liquid is mostly absorbed. Heat oil in skillet. Add potato mixture and corned beef. Cook over low heat, turning frequently until potatoes are tender and brown – about 20 min.
Scones – Actually called Best Ever Scones from the same book
1 TB sugar, 6 c. flour, 1 TB yeast, 3/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp baking soda, 7 TB powdered buttermilk – mix in a large bowl.
1 beaten egg (or 1 1/2 TB egg mix), 2 c. hot water, 1 TB oil
( Add the egg to the hot water with about 1 c. of the dry ingredients. You don’t want cooked egg)
Add liquid to dry ingredients and knead into a soft dough. Let rise. Divide into two sections. Put out on floured board and cut into pieces about 4 X 4. Fry in hot oil.
Marti
You can also dehydrate A LOT of food. You want a dehydrator that blows from the back, NOT one that blows from the bottom up.
found 
Why do we care about Ukraine? It so happens that Ukraine is the world’s largest wheat producer. This war will decrease their output by about 1/3. Add to that bizarre weather patterns of drought and floods and a historic fertilizer crisis, and no wonder that even the government is predicting a food crisis. In 2020, it was soap products and toilet paper. Now it has begun with baby formula and diesel fuel. 
Pepsi), I may want to sweeten my water with some flavoring. I like the large containers that run $7 – $10. May get one or two Tang, for a little Vitamin C. 
The human body produces an average of almost 5-gallons of waste per week. Human waste can make you or others sick quite easily with only limited exposure. If sewage is non-operational, you could still flush it by pouring water into the toilet bowl, but this uses precious water resources. You have to have a plan for waste disposal. The first part of that plan involves knowing where your sewage backflow valve is. Most new construction has a backflow valve. If lines get clogged or back up, if you live in an apartment or in an area where flooding may occur, sewage could cause backflow up out of your toilet. This can instantly make your home base unlivable. If your home has one of these valves, it’s essential to clean it every year or every other year. Material can build up under the valve flap, which would cause it to stick and not function properly when sewage starts back flowing into your home.
The typical approach to emergency waste management is the two bucket approach. You want one 5-gallon bucket for liquid waste and one for solid waste. You want to keep them separated because the smell will be most extreme if mixed, and disposal is easier when separated. Mark each bucket to avoid confusion. One person will fill approximately half of one solid-waste bucket per week, including carbon material or toilet paper. A single person will be able to fill two bucket loads of solid waste, including toilet paper or carbon material, 4/5ths full in a month. Obviously, the more people in your unit, the faster the buckets will fill. One person can fill a bucket 4/5ths full in two weeks. Two people will fill it the same amount in a week. Four people will fill it within three days.
If sitting on a bucket is too tricky, a drained toilet can be used with a bag liner. It will not be as effective at odor reduction, and you will still need separate toilets– one for liquid and one for solid wastes. This will work with any standard toilet bowl. You can shut off the water and drain out the bowl. Then, you can put the bag inside it, drape it over the edges, and tape it around the bowl. Then you can do the same thing as with the buckets, use kitty litter for the solids bowl and a water and bleach combination for the liquids bowl. Take out the bags as they are filled up. While this is an option for less agile folks, the bucket approach is preferred by many, as the contents will stack and fill a single 5-gallon bucket for the purposes of storage.
The next option is just to go to the bathroom in your backyard. This is really only an option if you live in a suburban area with a private backyard or in a rural area. You will want to keep the trench as far away from your house as possible and as far away from water sources. You will need to dig down 2 to 3 feet and at least a foot or two wide. The deeper the hole, the more waste it will hold and the longer you can use it. Ensure that the hole is not below a hillside or an embankment where water might wash through it and toward your home.
They are on the pricier side, but a camping toilet is ideal for an emergency situation. It provides you with flushing capability and contains the waste into a special storage container. The design tries to contain the odors as much as possible, and you have some time before you need to separate the unit and dump the waste. The container can be carried away from your area and dumped.
When it comes to wiping materials, if you won’t eventually get rid of this solid waste in a toilet or septic system, we recommend baby wipes or some other typically-non-flushable wipe. Choose cotton-based wipes to increase their compostability. Traditional toilet paper or even leaves will work, but a non-flushable wipe will be most effective and take up less space in your receptacle. If you ever find yourself in a situation where you have neither toilet paper nor wipes, there are alternatives you can use. Any paper made softened and unsmooth by rubbing it briskly between your hands like a newspaper or magazine pages. In a dire situation, even a smooth rock can be used. A cloth you are willing to dispose of can be used. Most people turn to the leaves of plants. Known leaves traditionally used for this purpose are the sunflower, mullein, maple, cottonwood, or the husk of corn.
Keeping a lid on it will prevent attracting insects, but smell reduction can be accomplished in several ways. Adding sawdust and baking soda into your urine bucket will keep the smell down and have some absorptive qualities. Kitty litter often comes with odor capturing and reducing chemicals built into it. A bucket of hydrated lime, dolomite, garden lime, calcium carbonate, or calcium hydroxide–all variations of the same compound–can sit next to both buckets. Lime raises the pH higher than 12.4, so it will help to destroy pathogens. Sprinkling a one-ounce scoop of hydrated lime into either bucket will reduce odor and later speed the decomposition process of the waste material. You can also make a bleach and water solution with a few drops of scented oil and place this mixture in a spray bottle. Spraying it after using the toilets will reduce the signature profile of the waste.
The key to getting rid of your waste is to remove it from your living area and keep it at least 200 feet, about 70 adult paces, from any water source or trails. You will want a hole deep enough to allow at least 3-inches of soil on top. If you are using compostable bags, the waste material will decompose into CO2, H20, and soil-like material in about 90 days. If you are burying construction-grade plastic bags, leave the top only twisted and not sealed, and this process of biodegrading the solid materials will take much longer.
First, the plant “stretches”. This is referred to as “bolting”. This lettuce is starting to bolt.
This is just one of a few diseases that tomatoes are susceptible to. (Ugh, I hate ending sentences in prepositions.) “It is Septoria leaf spot, a fungal disease that affects the leaves, typically toward the bottom of the plant.” The disease spreads from wind or splashing water. It is HIGHLY contagious!!! It can be prevented (oops, too late!) and somewhat controlled. 1. Pick off the affected leaves. This is what I’ve been doing because only a few plants are infected (that I can see). 2. Try to keep the leaves dry by watering at the bottom. Trickle irrigation is best (yeah, I don’t have that). 3. Avoid watering in the evening so the leaves will “go to bed” dry. 4. Make sure there is room between plants so air can move in the foliage. I am NOT good at this. I want to squeeze as many plants as I can into a certain space. Luckily I’ve planted in pots and bags, so I’ll go out and see what I can space apart. 
** I took my own advice and bought three 15-lb bags of potatoes. I did one bag in jars and got 18 jars, and had enough diced potatoes for another 3-4 jars. But my canner only holds nine jars, and I didn’t want to do another batch. So I decided to dehydrate the rest, along with the other two 15-pound bags.
We would only have to go a week or two without trash services, and we would be in trouble. I can’t begin to imagine how much trash a city produces a week. You can easily store a few hundred trash bags on a shelf in the garage. Start slow and get one extra-large box. Then another one next week. Also, think about getting some small trash bags (like you would put in the bathroom trash can). If you have no water, that means no sanitation. You might have to dispose of your sanitation necessities daily. Small trash bags will work. If you use kitty litter in them, you can get by using them several times before having to dispose of them. 
Russia launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. Before that and in anticipation of that, however, U.S. clandestine services well stocked the Ukrainian military with armaments. Before the invasion day of the 24th of February, the US had covertly supplied Ukraine with an unknown number of Javelins and Stingers. The Javelin is a shoulder-held anti-tank weapon that shoots heat-seeking rockets toward targets up to 2.5 miles away. 
There are several options for Putin right now that go from reasonable and spinnable to improbable and desperate. We’ll examine each. The first and most desirable at this point is for Russia to annex the contested conflict zones of the eastern region. Similar to Crimea, he can spin the annexation of these regions as a victory, claim that it was always his only objective in the special operations, and then retreat to Russia with his beat-up army and lick his wounds for another go at Kyiv in a few more years. Putin may have no option right now that is winnable, leaving him only this. The problem with this is that he already played this gambit in Crimea in 2014. It was unsavory to the rest of the world then when under the threat of rifle and rocket-propelled grenades, a Crimean parliament voted to become part of Russia. It only worked then because the Crimean invasion was unexpected and sufficiently confusing. After all, Russian troops wore no insignia, and the attack was so shockingly brazen to the rest of the world that they were slow to react with half-measures and what can now be considered light sanctions.
Putin’s own oligarchs and generals are increasingly dissatisfied with him, so they are likely a ripe source of information to covert western forces. Also, sanctions like never before seen have been implemented. Gas lines are being shut off. Oligarch assets are being seized and may be sold off to fund the Ukrainians. Import, export, travel restrictions, individual and financial sanctions have been implemented with great haste and with the blessing and support of most of the world’s countries.
When pushed into a corner and unable to make significant strides in Ukraine when so many opposition armaments and aid are being pumped into the country, Putin is likely to seek to refocus the world’s attention away from Ukraine so he can encourage a few victories, thereby broadening the front to threaten other countries. Building Russian forces on the border of Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, or through Belarus to Poland, or even towards Turkey, could result in the west being forced to turn its attention to these other possible fronts. Putin isn’t without significant complications here too. Before he could even turn his attention to the Baltic states, the US and NATO started sending massive amounts of additional military aid to these countries. Estonia, a small Baltic state bordering Russia, has also pledged €220 million in military assistance to war-torn Ukraine in recent months. The Baltic states and Poland have served as pass-through proxy entities to arm Ukraine. Bolstering them further would be easily accomplished, and they already are far superior to the Russian forces across the border.
Allegedly, Russia launched one of its hypersonic missiles on a target in Ukraine. We use the word allegedly because there is some questionable proof that this happened. It’s also highly doubtful whether Russia even has any hypersonic missiles at the moment. They have a history of releasing information and claims of military might that has, thus far, been revealed just to be a lot of talk. The reality being exposed to the world is that Russia’s military is poorly maintained and antiquated. The question on everyone’s mind is whether they will be so desperate to use a nuclear weapon. The question then would be the target. Attacking any western ally would result in a reciprocal attack that would reduce Russia to ashes, so there’s no winner.
These are merely the most prominent four variations when it comes to possibilities for the next chapter of this conflict. We suppose anything is possible, and Putin has proven himself to be unpredictable. If you were to prepare for one or all of these options, you should be doing the same basic things. First, you can expect global inflation to continue and for economies to stagnate, and trade to remain slow. We have recently highlighted on this channel how the lockdowns in China will impact inflation. We have covered how natural gas, oil, and coal are all increasing in price and why. We have covered why fertilizer will be in short supply, and harvest yields will be significantly lower this year. The bigger picture is more than just Russian and Ukrainian wheat and Sunflower Oil. It’s more than just the valves of Gazprom being shut off. We have also covered the global grain shortages and the grain hoarding activities of Russia and China. These individual problems combine to be larger than any one party or person– even more considerable than any government or collection of governments. These unique problems combine into one grand global predicament for which there isn’t an easy solution. There is one guarantee, though. You are guaranteed that prices will increase. The combined impact of the China lockdowns and the ongoing removal of Russia from the global markets will be felt far into this winter, even if they were entirely resolved today. Winter, by the way, favors Russia because it makes European nations desperate for heating fuels.
I found two earwigs on two different plants, so I sprinkled everything with Sluggo Plus. (It’s good for slugs, earwigs, and roly-polies).
dehydrated hash browns in little milk carton containers from Costco. Each little container had a 2-3 person serving. We took them camping and they worked perfectly! 
I decided to take my own advice and just bought potatoes at Costco. 15 lb. for $10
For years, when I set out to make dehydrated meat, I ended up with jerky. It was far removed from its fresh cooked taste, so I settled for making jerky out of my meats whenever I pulled out the dehydrator. I was thrilled when I started freeze-drying it because the texture was perfect; the rehydrated chicken was indistinguishable from its freshly cooked counterpart when rehydrated. Plus, I was able to get a 10-15 year shelf life from freeze-dried chicken versus just a couple of weeks for dehydrated chicken that hasn’t also been jerked. Shelf-life aside, the biggest problem for me was getting that fresh, non-jerky taste from my dehydrated chicken. After years of trial and error and several pounds of jerky and dog and cat treats, I finally developed a recipe for chicken in the dehydrator that was as good as the freeze-dried chicken.
want this dehydrated chicken recipe. Of course, it won’t have the shelf-life of its freeze-dried counterpart, but it will rehydrate easily and retains its fresh chicken taste.
The canned chicken process is simple. First, drain as much of the liquid from the can as possible. I then give the chicken a quick hot rinse to wash away any fats which may have congealed on the surface. Getting the fat off prevents it from going rancid, allows you to get the meat drier, and will increase your shelf life. I then put the chicken on the dehydrator tray. You will want to break apart any larger chunks, so all pieces are no bigger than a 1/2 inch. This will ensure even and faster dehydration.
they are much more efficient. You end up with a better product with better nutrition and better rehydration. Freeze-dryers are expensive, though, so if you go the dehydrator route and want to use rotisserie chicken, don’t skip rinsing the fat off and cube the chicken into smaller pieces or shred it. You will get better results. For my freeze-dryer run, I also freeze-dried rotisserie chicken and some seasoned and cooked taco meat.
Dehydration renders food to about 60% of its original nutrient levels. It also is gentler on the proteins and cell walls of the food, which allows it to take up water in the rehydration process better and doesn’t result in the cooked food like what sometimes comes out of a dehydrator. It takes about 30-hours for the meat to completely freeze dry.
add some boiling water and seal to allow the rehydration process for this quick meal. If your water temperature brings the food to above 165 degrees, you will also be killing foodborne pathogens that may have found a home in your stored food, despite your best efforts to stop them. You can also dump the dried chicken or meal into a boiling pot of water and rehydrate it that way.
Here I rehydrated some freeze-dried rotisserie chicken and made a quick chicken enchilada. Having freeze-dried or dehydrated meat and vegetables in the kitchen saves you hours of prep time and allows you to throw together meals quickly. Having freeze-dried or dehydrated food on hand is also a considerable saving. I freeze-dried this chicken well before this recent avian flu and the inflation and price increases. I’m saving probably $2 per pound because I freeze-dried it when the prices were significantly lower.
people consumed was either fresh, which wasn’t likely in an urban environment, slightly rancid, so it was cooked for an extended period with lots of spices, or treated in some way to reduce foodborne pathogens. So meat was often packed in salt, smoked, pickled, jerked, preserved in fat, or some combination of those methods. 
The pressure-cooked chicken provides maximum flavors and kills almost all of the possible pathogens. That’s why we use it here, and that’s why it is less likely to retain any foodborne pathogens. Cooking under pressure provides the tenderizing effect of a slow cooker in a fraction of the time. The protein fibers on chicken that is cooked in this way remain looser than on chicken that is cooked in an oven. Because of this, they take up moisture in the rehydration process better than their baked or broiled counterparts. 
Let us start off by saying that these items we’re about to recommend are what we consider the bare minimum. Maybe you have a different list of critical items and we would love to get your feedback as to what those are in the comments below, but if we knew we had a very limited amount of time, let’s say 5 to 10 minutes, these are the items we would recommend. 
Let me start off by addressing the most common question: what is the best bug-out vehicle? The simple answer is: the one you have. For most people, there are 3 primary options. 
There are a few main considerations when it comes to storing your gear:
It’s important that you define this in advance. If you bug out with no defined place to go, you’re a refugee. The most likely situation is that if you’re forced to flee, you’ll go to a friend or family member’s house. We would encourage you to have these items already defined on either a map or an app on your phone. When panic sets in and you’re fleeing a situation, you will very likely forget things that you once could rattle off the top of your head. 
When it comes to navigation, let’s be honest, most of us are used to pulling up an app on our phone. There’s nothing wrong with this and we’ll discuss a few important apps in a moment, but remember, our phone and other devices rely upon satellites to power our GPS devices. A solar flare, coronal mass ejection, EMP, or some other type of event could render these useless. 
Timing is everything. It’s very likely that unless you have some way to determine an incident before it happens, you will be unable to beat traffic and there’s a strong possibility you might get stuck in heavy traffic depending on your location, especially if you live in an urban or suburban area. Having said that, by having your gear ready to go on a moment’s notice, you do give yourself an advantage of heading out while the masses are trying to get their stuff together. So being prepared not only ensures you’re not caught unaware, but it also allows you to move faster before everyone else. When every second counts, being prepared makes a big difference.
* People are always talking about 
We are a divided household. Craig likes smooth. For me, the more nuts the better. So, I store both. But because nuts have oil, they WILL go rancid. Try to keep in a cool location, and ROTATE!!! I just bought two jars last week. I think I have 1-2 additional jars. We don’t go through it fast, although Craig likes PB on his pancakes and waffles. I have had to throw it away in the past when I waited too long to use it. 
store. If the seeds are in a gooey part of the vegetable (tomatoes), then just soak them in water for 2-3 days, drain them, and dry them on paper towels. Tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and many other seeds can be saved this way.