Month Four Preps: Long Term Storage

For our food storage this month, I decided to stock up on some of the most important things a prepper can store - staples. No, not the kind you use to attach paper together, but staples of your diet. My part of the country doesn't have places where you can buy bulk wheat or other such items, but I do have Sam's Club available to me. They stock a few items that I can package myself and thereby save some money.

I grabbed a flat-bed cart at the front of the store and awkwardly wheeled it over to the aisle with dry goods. I kid you not when I say that I nearly took out the jewelry counter with that runaway flat-bed. Next time I think I'll stick to a regular shopping cart. I loaded up with 50 lb pinto beans, 100 lb rice and 50 lb all-purpose flour.

You would think that you could avoid scrutiny when you buy items in bulk at Sam's, but I attracted several curious glances as I pushed my load up to the checkout counter. One lady asked me what I was going to make with all of this. Then the checkout girl asked Hubby Dear if all those kids were his. Not ours, his. Some people just don't have any home training! But at least I neatly avoided answering the first lady's question.

Anyway, back to the point. I bought a bunch of real-deal survival food and Hubby Dear and I spent last evening packing it for long-term storage.  

There are two main ways to store basics like these for long-term storage. 

1) #10 cans - Rodent and bug proof! As long as you keep them from rusting, they have awesome longevity. If you have access to an LDS cannery, you can put up beans, rice, wheat, etc. in these cans. The other option is to buy them from a food storage company. It's pretty pricey to get all of your food storage canned like that. 

 

2) Food-grade plastic buckets and/or mylar bags and oxygen absorbers - Some people feel that a plastic bucket is enough to store hardy items like wheat and rice. Others use only the mylar bags for storage since the bag is actually much less permeable to oxygen than the bucket. Oxygen = spoiled food.

The amounts and types of oxygen absorbers to add are also a matter of debate. James Wesley, Rawles, author of  How to Survive The End of the World As We Know It  and survival guru, even goes so far as to advocate using buckets, bags, oxygen absorbers, a dessicant, AND dry ice. I have no doubt that food packaged that way would last for a long time.

We took an approach somewhere in the middle. We obtained a bunch of 6-gallon food-grade plastic buckets and lined them with mylar bags. Then we filled each bucket  to within 1" of the top. There was still plenty of bag leftover, which was a good thing. 

We thought the flour would be the messiest item to transfer to the buckets, but surprisingly it was the rice. Oops!

Before I began sealing the bags, I made sure to label each bucket. I used these labels from Food Storage Made Easy.


It is essential that you move quickly during the next few steps. Once you open the package, your oxygen absorbers start working immediately. If you do not seal your bags stat, the absorbers can lose their mojo. I don't know much, but I do know that it's not good when O2 absorbers lose their mojo.

So, we quickly threw in the O2 absorbers

and sealed the bag up. It is helpful to have two people for this part.

You can use a fancy (and expensive!) sealer made for this purpose or just heat your iron to full blast. We placed Hubby Dear's metal level across the bucket, expressed as much air as possible from the bag, drew the sides of the bag up, and pulled it taut across the level.

I ironed the bag using the level as a stable surface to create a seal. Be careful! The mylar (and level) heats up quickly and stays surprisingly hot for a while afterwards.

I left one side of the seam open, Hubby Dear expressed more air out, and then we sealed the rest of the bag.

Check the bag to make sure it sealed all the way across, push it down in the bucket, place your lid on and seal tight. Over the next 24 hours, the O2 absorbers will get to work and remove the remaining air from your bag.

I bought three Gamma Seal lids to use on the buckets that I will be using immediately. The rest received standard lids. Gamma Lids snap on like a regular bucket lid, but then you can screw the lid on and off. Much easier than having to fiddle with a regular lid! I figure I should make things as easy as possible if I'm going to use my food storage for more than a dusty insurance policy.

So, now that I've gone to all of this trouble, how long will it last? The rice and beans could very well be good for 30 years if I keep them stored in a cool, dark place. The flour has a much shorter short shelf-life, but by packing it in mylar with oxygen absorbers, it should be good for at least two years.

Now these are some preps I can take pride in - we did it ourselves. And the Fed Ex man is pretty happy, too.

Financial Preparedness, Part III

In the previous installments of this series, I've covered Dave Ramsey's Baby Steps One and Two. Today I'll discuss budgeting.
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Budgeting. The dreaded "b word". Few words can cause simultaneous consternation and boredom like the word "budget" can.

Budgeting causes wailing and gnashing of teeth, but it's the only way you can take control of your money. And it's definitely the only way you're going to accomplish Baby Step One (saving $1,000) and Two (paying off your debt).

Hubby Dear, being the sexy geek that he is, put our finances into Quicken for years. He'd categorize all of our expenses and enjoyed shocking me with some of the facts of our excessive lifestyle.

"Hey honey, did you know that we've spent $2,500 on dining so far this year?", he'd say. My hair would stand on end, we'd promise to do better next month, and then promptly forget all about it.

Then I started listening to Dave Ramsey. We've been following a budget for 16 months now and seen the power of writing out a budget ahead of time and sticking to it. Budgeting has allowed us to make sure we have extra money each month that we can put towards savings or debt.

So how do you make a budget? It's one of those things that can be intimidating to approach, but it's not really that hard. Sit down with your honey and decide how much money you will spend on each category of life during the next month.  Look back at what you have been spending, think of anything you can do to economize, and then write the resulting number down. Don't forget to keep some money in your budget for prepping. It's not officially part of the Dave Ramsey plan, but as I heard directly from the man himself, he's OK with that.

Here is a link to Dave's online budgeting forms:
http://www.daveramsey.com/tools/budget-forms/

This is a great place to start. Dave's book, The Total Money Makeover, also has a bunch of these forms and much more information on budgeting.

You might wonder what is a reasonable amount to be spending in each budget category. You can plug your monthly income into this calculator and get an idea of what your food allowance should look like, for example.

When Hubby Dear and I were first married, our goal was to spend about $75 dollars or less on food and toiletries per week. That was OK for a couple of childless twenty-somethings in the 90s, but that would definitely not work for us today! Sometimes people (usually men) think you can feed and clothe a family for pennies. If you can manage that, more power to you, but try to be reasonable in what you allow for each category in your budget.

The first month you try budgeting is going to be tough. You'll want to meet with your spouse frequently and review how things are going. It does get easier as you go along, I promise!

If you're not already budgeting, take the time to learn how. Then tighten up your spending and put your plan into action. It's the key to getting debt free and moving on down the road towards financial preparedness.

Read much more about the Baby Steps in The Total Money Makeover. You can buy it on amazon.com or daveramsey.com. You may also be able to listen to Dave on his syndicated radio show. I love me some Dave Ramsey!





Coming Soon: Financial Preparedness, Part IV: I'm debt free, so now what?

Using Your Food Storage: Bierocks

I was making one of our family favorites for dinner tonight when inspiration struck. This delectable specialty of Chez Harried Homemaker could be easily turned into a food storage recipe. My family will definitely be down with this whole food storage business if it can include bierocks.

What is a bierock? Unless you are from my part of the country, chances are you have no clue. A bierock, pronounced "beer rock", is a specialty here on the Plains. It was brought over by German immigrants and basically consists of meat and cabbage wrapped in bread dough and baked. It is absolutely delicious and total comfort food. What better type of food to serve than comfort food when you need to use your food storage?

I have to admit that I didn't really use many food storage items when I cooked these today, but I'm sure that you could easily substitute them in this recipe with fabulous results. This is not a fussy recipe! Next time I make bierocks, I'll definitely give it a whirl.

First you make the filling. You cook ground beef and onions together and then stir in some shredded cabbage. I'm a lazy bum and I actually used bagged coleslaw mix. I stirred in a couple of cups of the preshredded cabbage and carrots, let it wilt a bit, and then seasoned it with salt and pepper. Season it well! Add garlic powder or seasoning salt if that floats your boat. Then you set the mixture aside to cool in the fridge.

Then I made the bread dough. It is a simple yeast bread recipe. After an hour of rising time, it was doubled in size and ready for action. Now for the sort-of-but-not-really-tricky part: shaping the bierocks.

I divided the dough in half and rolled each part thin-ish. I scored the dough with a knife to make portions that are approximately 3 inches square.

You put about 1/4 c. of the filling in the center of each dough square.

Then you press two opposite corners of the square together like so.

Then repeat with the other two corners.

Seal all the edges carefully and PRESTO! You've made a bierock! Place your bierock (seam side down) on a greased baking sheet.

Repeat with all the remaining dough.

Bake for a mere 15 minutes and prepare for the lusciousness. The short baking time would be a boon if and when you need to conserve fuel.

I like to eat my bierocks with nothing more than a dab of mustard. Hubby Dear grew up eating them with mustard, ketchup, and mozzarella cheese sprinkled on top. (That's probably because his mother doesn't season her filling very well and you need all that extra mumbo jumbo. But you didn't hear that from me.)

So how could you convert this to a food storage recipe?





Instead of chopped onion, use dehydrated chopped onion, rehydrated.

Instead of ground turkey or beef, use home canned ground beef, rehydrated freeze-dried beef crumbles or TVP.

Instead of milk, use dried Milk, reconstituted according to the package directions.
                                                           
Instead of plain vegetable oil, use whatever you you have. I used the extra virgin olive oil that I store. You could also melt shortening to use in this recipe if that's what you have on hand.
                                                           
Instead of fresh eggs, use dry powdered eggs, reconstituted.

Instead of bread flour, you could substitute all purpose flour. It will work OK, but will make the bread slightly less chewy. You could also add  1 t. of vital wheat gluten for every cup of all purpose flour. That would approximate bread flour. You probably could easily substitute freshly ground whole wheat flour for half of the regular flour without any issue.
                                                            
Instead of finely shredded cabbage, use home grown cabbage from your verdant  garden.  :)  OK, this is the tricky one. Lacking  said verdant garden, you could try dehydrated or freeze-dried shredded potatoes, reconstituted mashed potatoes, or whatever canned vegetables you have on hand. I bet sauerkraut would work if that's something you have on hand. Use whatever you think would taste good with bread and beef.
 
Give bierocks a whirl!  
                                                                                                             
                                                            

BIEROCKS, originally published in Cooking Light

Filling:

1/4 cup chopped onion
1/2 pound ground beef or turkey
2 cups finely shredded cabbage
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt

Dough:

1/4 cup sugar
1 package dry yeast (about 2 1/4 teaspoons)
1/2 cup warm water (100° to 110°)
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
4 cups bread flour, divided

To prepare filling, cook the onion and beef until meat is browned, stirring to crumble. Add cabbage; cook until cabbage wilts, stirring constantly. Stir in pepper and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Cover and chill.

To prepare dough, dissolve sugar and yeast in warm water in a large bowl; let stand 5 minutes. Stir in milk, oil, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and eggs. Add 3 1/2 cups flour to yeast mixture, and stir to form a soft dough. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic (about 8 minutes); add enough of the remaining flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, to prevent dough from sticking to hands (dough will feel tacky).
(I used my stand mixer with dough hook instead of doing this by hand.)

Place dough in a large bowl coated with cooking spray, turning to coat top. Cover and let rise in a warm place (85°), free from drafts, 1 hour or until doubled in size. Punch dough down; cover and let rest 5 minutes.

Divide dough in half. Roll each half into a 10 1/2 x 7-inch rectangle on a lightly floured surface. Cut each rectangle into 6 (3 1/2-inch) squares. Working with 1 portion at a time (cover remaining dough to keep from drying), spoon about 1/4 cup filling into center of each portion, and bring 2 opposite corners to center, pinching points to seal. Bring remaining 2 corners to center, pinching points to seal. Pinch 4 edges together to seal. Place the bierocks, seam sides down, on a large baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Cover and let rise for 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375°.

Uncover bierocks. Bake at 375° for 15 minutes or until bierocks are browned on the bottom and sound hollow when tapped. Remove bierocks from pan, and cool on wire racks. Yield: 12 servings (serving size: 1 bierock)

Note: To freeze, cool completely, and wrap individually in foil. Place wrapped bierocks in a heavy-duty zip-top plastic bag; freeze for up to 3 months. To reheat, thaw in the refrigerator. Place foil-wrapped bierocks in a preheated 350° oven for 15 minutes.

Hurricane Warning

I bet the unprepared people living around the projected path of Hurricane Earl are wishing they had stocked up on essentials ahead of time.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/09/02/hurricane.earl.people/

I lived through Hurricane Andrew in 1992. I was living in Louisiana at the time and so we did not experience the full force of the storm like Florida did. We didn't have much besides a loss of power for three days and downed tree limbs. I honestly don't remember if my parents prepared for Andrew ahead of time or not. I was a freshman in high school and I cared much more about my hair and my senior boyfriend than I did anything else! 

I don't live in hurricane country these days, but I do live in flash flood, ice storm, blizzard, and tornado country. I also live in unemployment, inflation, food supply disruption, and grid failure country. You do, too, if you live on planet earth.   

The people on the east coast are lucky that they have gotten several days warning for this particular crisis. That is not something you can count on having.

Disasters DO happen. They will happen to YOU. It's just a matter of WHEN and WHAT.

Let's make sure that we're not going to be among the rabble scrambling for last minute preparations. Think about the potential disasters that you are at risk for  - be they natural, economic or what have you - and get ready now.

I feel inspired to get cracking on my prepping plan, how about you?

A Month Four Prep: Me

She awakens early in the morning to the frantic cries of her offspring. Her babies are hungry and whine at their mother to feed them. To judge from the amount of blubber on her frame, winter must be swiftly approaching. Her hide bears the marks of having born numerous children. She lurches to her feet and waddles away to get breakfast for her babies.
.
.
.
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No, that's not a transcript from a nature program. That's a description of an average morning at the Harried Homemaker Acres.

Needless to say, one of my preps this month is to start exercising three times a week.

Five years ago, I was nine months pregnant with Mini Me and even so, I was able complete a rigorous aerobics class. Four years ago, I was extremely fit and the lightest I have ever been in my adult life. Since then, life has been hard on my body.

All the survival gear in the world is useless if you don't have the capability to use it. In my current state of fitness, a SHTF or even minor emergency situation could severely test me.

I have a dedicated exercise room that has been gathering dust. I'm going to hit the treadmill, do an exercise video or lift some weights at least three times a week. I'll increase my cardiovascular capacity, regain some of my lost strength and improve my overall health.

This is one prep I know won't go to waste.

Take the SurvivalMom's Report Card Challenge

One of the blogs I read reguarly is The SurvivalMom. A few days ago, she wrote this post, a report card on her current state of preparedness. It inspired me to rate our ability to survive during a crisis here at the Harried Homemaker Acres.

1) Water - C. I have 2 weeks of water stored for my family, four weeks if we use what is in our reverse-osmosis system, water heaters and random bottles stored here and there.

To turn this into an A: I need to buy a water filter and materials like bleach to sanitize additional water we would collect during a long-term emergency.



2) Sanitation - B. I've got about two months of toilet paper, a big bottle of hand sanitizer and a gallon of soap stored. I also have a large box of trash bags and a few 5-gallon buckets we could fashion into toilets if need be. 

To turn this into an A: More toilet paper! My goal is to have a year's worth on hand plus a large supply of paper towels. I would also like to have several more boxes of trash bags and perhaps a toilet seat we could affix to the aforementioned 5-gallon buckets. We used to have a burn barrel before we bribed convinced a mom and pop trash collection operation from a town 40 miles away to come and get our trash each week. We may need to get another barrel to use WSHTF or borrow our neighbor's barrel. (I live in a place without trash collection. I told you we live in the sticks!)



3) Laundry - D-. I have a bit of extra homemade laundry detergent and a large laundry room with a deep sink and racks that I could hang our clothes to dry in.

To turn this into an A: More laundry detergent, at least 6 months worth. I am also considering getting one of these or something similar that would make washing laundry by hand easier.


 

I wish this was my food storage! From UtahPreppers.com

4) Food Storage - D. If we ate some strange meals (peanut butter and green beans on pasta, anyone?), we could survive for at least a month, probably more. We would certainly be unhappy and probably constipated, though.

To turn this into an A: I need to keep storing a wide variety of foods. This needs to include all the food groups, plus some comfort foods to keep morale up. My goal is to have a minimum of 1 year of food stored. I'm working at it in 3 month increments (ie. get 3 months worth of all kinds of food before I store more of any one particular group). I need to have a selection of foods that are easy prep for those very busy days or if Hubby Dear has to make something on his own.


 
5) Knowledge and Skills - C. I'm continuing to read and research, buy items, and then test them out. In the past few months I've learned how to use a pressure canner and got some hands-on experience with wheat kernels. Our whole family is working toward becoming self-reliant through gardening. I've even bribed Hubby Dear to read Rawles' How to Survive TEOTWAWKI. Don't ask how I managed to accomplish that feat.

To turn this into an A: I need to continue what I'm doing but branch out into other areas far from my comfort zone. A major area we are lacking in is self-defense. We have always been against having firearms in our house but I'm beginning to see that this is an important part of preparedness. I need to get a ton of education and practice in this area before I make such a major commitment.


Compared to where we need to be, we score four raspberries on a five raspberry scale. Compared to where we were six months ago, however, we're definitely on the right track.

How do you rate?

What I've learned from those Chilean miners

If you don't know about the 33 men trapped in a mine in Chile, read this first:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1305894/So-Chilean-miners-survive-months-half-mile-underground.html

Now, what I've learned:

1. Miracles can happen. I sometimes need to be reminded of this. Who would have thought that all 33 men would still be alive after 17 days?
2. Prior planning and training makes a huge difference. Miners train for these kind of accidents. This enabled them to make it to their prearranged and supplied Safe Room. Once they made it there, the two days' worth of rations were carefully managed.  As preppers, we need to practice various emergency scenarios and have our supplies in place before we need them.
3. Leadership matters. The miners apparently have selected 54-year old Luis Urzua as a leader. In a leadership vacuum, chaos reigns. You need to have someone who take the reins. Urzua was someone all the miners knew and trusted ahead of time.
4. Sanitation is key. Prior to their discovery, the miners used an area outside of their safe room as a bathroom. The experts above ground are now instructing the miners on how to divide their safe room into different areas - for sanitation, eating, sleeping, etc. In order to survive the next few months, they've got to devise some solution to the sanitation problem. This is one area in which my prepping falls far short.
5. You'd better be fit. The miners' waists cannot measure over 35" to fit through the rescue tunnel they are drilling. Survival is very physically taxing. You better be in shape before a crisis starts.

6. You've got to keep your head in the game. The miners didn't give up hope during those 17 days when  rescue was slow in coming. Now they have been found but it may be Christmas before they can get out. Can you even imagine? You've got to be both physically and mentally tough to survive that. It will be interesting to see how this plays out over the next few months.

Financial Preparedness, Part II

Previously, I discussed the first Baby Step towards financial freedom: a starter emergency fund of $1,000. Today I'll pick up with Baby Step Two: Paying off all your debt except your mortgage.
-----------------------------------------------------------

Debt will drown you.

In America we have this idea that debt is OK and a natural part of life. This attitude has only been around for the last 60 years or so. Credit cards as we know them did not exist until 1950 when Diners Club was introduced.

Credit cards may be convenient, but I think having real money in my pocket is even better! Some people try and play the system. They will charge up a low interest rate card and use OPM (Other People's Money) to invest and hopefully turn a profit. Others use credit cards for frequent flyer miles or rewards points and promise they will pay off their card faithfully every month.

I was one of those people, too. That was until I realized that until you are debt free, you cannot truly have financial freedom. Dave Ramsey often quotes Proverbs 22:7: "The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave of the lender." This is very true and the more debt you have, the more true it will become for you.

What if you lost your job? What if that monthly payment got lost in the mail and all of a sudden your cushy interest rate gets jacked up sky high? What if you decide to have a mid-life career change and you have to go back to school? What if you get tempted at Pottery Barn and charge up way too many useless knick-knacks? Debt puts far too many "what ifs" in your life. Preparedness is about getting rid of as many "what ifs" as you can and debt has no place in the equation.

So what is the best way to pay down your debt? There are several schools of thought about this, but I subscribe to Dave Ramsey's plan. Baby Step Two is paying off all your debts, in order, from smallest to largest. Once you have paid off your smallest debt, you add the amount you were paying for the first debt to the minimum payment of your next highest debt. This is called building a debt snowball. Over time, the amount of money you will have available to attack each successive debt will grow, enabling you to pay off those big debts like vehicles and student loans.

Some people object to this plan and say you should pay off the debt with the highest interest rate first, regardless of how much it is. This does make sense in that you will save money in interest if you follow that plan all the way through. The problem with that isn't the math, it is you (and me and every other person out there who thinks it's more fun to spend money than pay down debt). If you pay off your debts smallest to largest, you will build momentum. You get quick gratification as you swiftly move through your debt snowball. If you start with the debt at the highest interest rate, you may stagnate if it happens to be one of your larger bills. It's like going on a diet and not seeing any change in the scale for 2 months. I'm much more likely to stick to my diet if I'm consistently losing a little bit every week rather than losing a big chunk all at once at the end of the two months.

This is the Baby Step Hubby Dear and I are currently on. We've been working our debt snowball for the last 18 months and we'll be done by the end of this year, having paid off nearly $80,000. Gulp. Momma knows how to shop.

Although we are not yet done with this Baby Step, we are already starting to have a greater sense of peace and control over our income. We have gotten rid of all of our credit cards and only use cash and debt cards.

Get rid of your debt! Pay off those bills permanently and don't get back into debt again.

Read much more about the Baby Steps in The Total Money Makeover. You can buy it on amazon.com or daveramsey.com. You may also be able to listen to Dave on his syndicated radio show. Dave's the man!


Coming Soon: Financial Preparedness, Part III: The Dreaded "B" word.

Month Four Preps

I keep going back and forth on what I want to buy in the next month. All the economic indicators point to a very long road before we get to real recovery. I'm worried about inflation, which means that I want to buy as much food as I can. It's almost feeling like a Sophie's Choice deciding which items to buy! (Yes, I can be overly dramatic. Why do you ask?)

These are the preps I have lined up for month four of my prepping plan:

1. More $ for BOBs. Add $ to our vehicle kits.
2. The items I postponed buying from Month Three: butane refills for my Zippo lighter, the remainder of the items for my van's vehicle kit.
3. Buckets, mylar bags, oxygen absorbers, etc. so that I can package bulk amounts of flour, beans and rice.

And something a bit different:

   4.   Exercise at least 3 times per week.

This last one may be the toughest one of all. Ack!

Does Prepping = Homeschooling? And vice versa?

I was a homeschooler long before I was a prepper. Our family chooses to homeschool our children mainly for academic reasons. We seek to provide our children with an excellent, individualized education. Our desire for family togetherness and flexibility follows in close second. We also seek to develop our children's relationship with the Lord. I've never seen a formal poll, but it seems to me that a lot of preppers/survivalists homeschool their children. I know at least three of the blogs that I read regularly are headed up by homeschoolin' mamas.

If you prep, does that automatically mean you should homeschool?

Reasons to homeschool if you're a prepper:

1. Preppers are independent by nature. 

Preppers know that they cannot rely on others for the essentials of life. They have found that anything the government is involved in is going to get messed up. Most parents can do a much better job teaching their children than any brick and mortar school. Keep in mind that I used to teach at one of the top high schools in the country, so I'm not slamming those educators out there that are doing their best with a tough job. It is honestly a lot easier to teach your own children, catering to their own abilities and learning styles than it is to pound education into the heads of a class of 39 hormonal teenagers. Or so I've found.

   2.  You can design your family's curriculum to teach your children the skills
        you deem essential.

The SurvivalMom takes advantage of her flexible homeschooling schedule to fit in   target practice with her youngsters. Organized Prepper's family engages in "Family Fun" activities like building a box oven. My own darling offspring are learning how to cook and garden. These are not only essential survival and life skills but they also have the side benefit of teaching math and science. As our lifestyle becomes more self-reliant, our children will learn many new skills at our side. If you are always at the beck and call of the school schedule, you may find your children's lives are more filled with homework than homesteading.

  3.   Your children more likely to be near you during an emergency.

This is probably not a super important reason to homeschool, but it is a benefit. As a preparedness-minded person, you are much more likely to be able to keep your children safe in an emergency than some poor overworked soul in a run-down school building. Contrary to popular opinion, homeschooled children aren't cloistered at home with mom all day, every day, but you do have a higher likelihood with being with your children than most parents of school-age children.

Reasons to NOT homeschool:

 1. You need two incomes to support your family.

Some people manage to both work full time and homeschool. All it takes is a little ingenuity and flexibility. Others think the sacrifice of one income is well worth the benefits of homeschooling. But perhaps you are barely making ends meet. Or maybe you're a single parent already spread too thin. Those are cases where it would be most challenging to introduce homeschooling into the mix.

2. You don't want to spend time with your children.

OK, so I could have worded that better. The truth is that homeschooling parents are no better or worse than other parents. We all have days when we fantasize about putting our children on the big yellow bus and merrily waving goodbye. I often lack every single one of the nine fruits of the spirit, particularly patience and self-control. I always manage to pull it back together some how, though. When it comes down to it, I am always glad I homeschool.

And if you do homeschool, how should prepping affect it?

Things to think about:

• Consider buying your curriculum ahead of time. If TEOTWAWKI  happens, obtaining curriculum will be the least of your worries, but if you already have it on hand your children will be able to get an education. An education will always be worthwhile.
• You might also think about the kind of curriculum you invest in. We use Sonlight for our primary curriculum needs. The vast majority of it is non-consumable, which means it can be used for multiple children. We have shelves of wonderful literature that all of my children will get to enjoy as they go through their education.

• A lot of homeschoolers use computerized curriculums. If you have no power, you will be unable to do school. That's something to think about. The Thinker's math curriculum is computerized and if we were without power for a long time, we'd have to come up with an alternative.
• Approach electives with preparedness in mind. We encourage our children to pursue things that are of special interest to them. In addition to the sports and music they are already involved in, we are going to join 4-H. This will give them valuable skills in many preparedness-related areas.
• Think about life insurance. The current recommendation is that you have 10x your annual salary in life insurance. Would you have enough money to continue homeschooling and maintain your current standard of living if your spouse should pass away? 

Obviously, homeschooling, like prepping, is not "normal" or "average". Both, however, are getting to be a bit more mainstream. For our family, both are part of our way of life.

Adventures in Whole Wheat: Cracked Wheat Cereal

Since my waffle experiment went swimmingly, I was eager to try out another application for whole wheat sans grain mill. I opened up Emergency Food Storage and Survival Handbook and found a recipe for Cracked Wheat Cereal and gave it a try.

First I measured out 1 cup of whole wheat kernels. Then I attempted to crack the kernels by pulsing them in my blender. They did not crack well at all. Some kernels remained whole, others cracked a bit while still more was turned completely into flour.

This is what it looked like when I gave up and decided to proceed with the recipe. After I was finished, I went back and read

the instructions for cracking wheat in a blender and you are supposed to only crack 1/4 to 1/3 c. at a time. Oops. Maybe that was the problem...

I added water, salt and a pat of butter to my improperly cracked wheat and cooked it for the 20 minutes it calls for in the recipe. When the time was up, it was still soupy and the wheat was extremely chewy.

I then increased the heat and stirred the mixture until the water had evaporated and the kernels were tender-ish.

The recipe made two large servings. Following the suggestions in the recipe, I added some milk to each bowl. Hubby Dear requested that I top his with cinnamon and brown sugar. I put honey and cinnamon on mine.

We dug in and chewed. And chewed some more. By cracky, that cracked wheat was chewy! The overall taste was okay, but the texture made it hard to enjoy. Neither of us finished our bowls.

The Verdict: This tastes like you expect "survival food" to taste. I'll pass on this one unless we're truly in a survival situation.

If you give this recipe a shot, let me know if you get it to come out better than I did.

Cracked Whole Wheat Cereal, from Emergency Food Storage and Survival Handbook by Peggy Layton

1 c. freshly cracked wheat
3 c. water
1/2 t. salt
1 T butter (or 1 T butter powder reconstituted with a few drops water)

Combine all ingredients in a pan. Bring to a full boil and reduce the heat. Simmer 20 minutes. Serve with honey, raisins, and milk. This cereal is also delicious with chopped apples, berries, nuts such as almonds or cashews, sunflower seeds, or cinnamon. Makes 2 servings.

A Review: Emergency Food Storage and Survival Handbook by Peggy Layton

I’ve never been dissatisfied with living in the Midwest until I started getting into prepping. Materials for prepping are so much more easily available in the West. I’ve heard that regular ol’ Wal-Mart carries #10 cans of dehydrated foods and big buckets of wheat in certain areas! I’m sure many libraries in the West also carry a variety of food storage and preparedness books. I’ve not had much luck finding any at our local libraries.

I did, however, stumble upon a copy of Emergency Food Storage & Survival Handbook by Peggy Layton at a big city library. I was so excited I did the moonwalk down the aisle. The reason I embarrassed my darling children with my dance moves is that Peggy Layton is one of the big names in food storage literature. She has written about eight different food storage cookbooks that are highly recommended.

The subtitle of this book is “Everything You Need to Know to Keep Your Family Safe in a Crisis”. I tend to disagree with that since this book really doesn’t touch many of the key survivalist topics in detail. It does, however, cover food storage extensively as well as 72-hour kits and water storage to a lesser extent.

The chapters of the book are entitled:

Preparing for Short-Term Emergencies

Storing Water for Emergency Use

The Economics of Long-Term Emergency Storage

The Logistics of Long-Term Emergency Storage

Building Your Stockpile of Food and Other Necessities

Obtaining Food for Storage

Implementing Your Food Storage Plan

Recipes Using Stored Foods

One of the strengths of this book is the many checklists Layton includes. Want to know what should be in your car kit or canning equipment? She’s got a checklist for that. She also includes many pages of inventory planning charts that you could photocopy and use for your own family.

There are many different types of recipes included in this book. They use commonly stored items like beans, dried eggs, powdered milk, etc. I have only tried one of them - Cracked Whole Wheat Cereal - and it turned out to be a failure. That may be more my fault than the recipe's fault, though, and I'll discuss that next week. The recipes do seem a little basic, but they would be a good starting place to design a meal that caters to your family’s taste. I’m kind of scared to try the “pinto bean punch”, though. I don’t think beans combined with 7-Up would ever agree with my family’s palate!

This book was obviously written with a wide audience in mind. She has taken this notion as far as not even bringing up the LDS food storage guidelines (ie. 150 lb of wheat per adult per year, etc.). These guidelines are accepted by preppers far and wide, so I’m not entirely sure why she omitted them in her book.

In fact Layton never gives you an idea of how much of anything you should be storing. She suggests listing some recipes and then figuring out how much it would take to make three months of those meals. Multiply by 2, 3, or 4 and you will know how much to purchase for 6, 9 or 12 months of meals. That’s all well and good, but I think it’s important to give food storage newbies an idea of just how much this will be. This is not to overwhelm anyone, but it is important to be realistic. The 202 lb of wheat I just ordered sounds huge, but because I have an idea of the amounts you are supposed to store I know that is only about 3 months worth of wheat for my family.

I’m being nitpicky. Overall, this is a great book that you can learn a lot from. I do not feel compelled to buy my own copy of the book because I a) have a lot of this information from other sources, namely Food Storage Made Easy and b) I’m going to photocopy the relevant pages to add to my food storage recipe or preparedness binders.

You can buy Emergency Food Storage & Survival Handbook at amazon.com or www.peggylayton.com.

Adventures in Whole Wheat: Blender Waffles

Today I opened one of the #10 cans of wheat that I recently bought and cooked with whole wheat kernels for the first time.

Since I don't have a grain mill, I am limited in what I can do with wheat. The first recipe I selected was Blender Waffles, which is a recipe I downloaded from Everydayfoodstorage.net.

Here are the ingredients. You'll notice that I'm using fresh milk and eggs. I don't have any powdered milk or eggs yet, but if you do, feel free to use them in this recipe.

This could be a completely shelf-stable recipe other than the bananas. Unless you live in Costa Rica on a banana plantation, you'd have to adapt the recipe in an emergency situation. Just leave out the bananas and subtract one tablespoon of wheat from the recipe below, and you're golden.

I opened the can of wheat and took a gander at the contents. Here's a small amount of it in Mini-Me's hand. I was surprised at how dry and unoily the kernels were. I guess that's what makes their shelf life so long.

Being the homeschooling mommy that I am, I proceeded to ruthlessly quiz the children about whether wheat is a monocot or dicot. We covered that in The Thinker's science lesson today. I told the children that I wouldn't give them any waffles unless they got the answer right.

The Thinker said, "Yeah right, Mom", rolled her eyes and left the kitchen. I've lost her to tweenage cynicism already. Mini-Me just looked up at me sweetly. She knows the power her brown eyes have to get her out of many a situation. Not to mention the fact that no one in my house is anything less than well-fed. So much for my threat.  

Anyway, the first step of the recipe is to blend the wheat with the milk for 4-5 minutes on high speed.

I was afraid my blender would either combust or do a lousy job, but it actually came out OK. The texture was kind of like a thick oatmeal when it was finished.

After the wheat and milk was blended, it was very easy to add the other ingredients, mix briefly, and then make the waffles.

 

As the waffles cooked, they smelled faintly like banana bread. I also made the caramel sauce to go along with the waffles.

When they were done, the family dug in with gusto. The Thinker, who is the pickiest eater I know, happily ate two of them. The caramel sauce tasted lovely with the waffles.

The whole wheat in the waffles made them extremely filling. The recipe made nine waffles, which ordinarily wouldn't go very far since my husband does a remarkable vacuum-cleaner imitation. We ended up having two waffles left over, which will make a fine breakfast for someone tomorrow.   

The Verdict: DELICIOUS! I'll definitely make these again.

Up next: Cracked Wheat Cereal

Blender Waffles, recipe from Everyday Food Storage

1 Cup Milk (3 T. Powdered Milk and 1 C. Water)

1 Cup + 2 Tbs Wheat Kernels, whole & uncooked
2 bananas
2 Eggs (2 T. Powdered Eggs and 1/4 C. Water)
2 tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/4 Cup Oil
2 Tbs. Sugar

Put milk and wheat kernels in blender. Blend on highest speed for 4 or 5 minutes or until batter is smooth.

Add bananas, eggs, oil, baking powder, salt and honey or sugar to above batter. Blend on low.

Pour batter into hot prepared waffle iron from the actual blender jar (only one thing to wash!). Cook and serve.


Hot Caramel Sauce - makes enough sauce for 2 recipes of waffles–good on many desserts too!

1/2 Cup buttermilk or 1/2 Cup milk with 1/2 tsp. vinegar or lemon juice
2 Cups Sugar
1/2 Cup Butter
2 Tbs. Corn Syrup (not essential but it will help your syrup keep longer with out going grainy)
2 t. baking soda
1 tsp. Vanilla

Mix ingredients in a pot and boil for 3 minutes, the sauce will turn to the carmel color towards the end of boiling. Stir in vanilla when syrup is finished cooking.

Month Three in Review

The third month of my prepping plan is complete.

What I accomplished:

• I added more cash to our BOBs
• I bought plastic sheeting and duct tape to prepare for sheltering-in-place
• I also got a box of trash bags for sanitation and other SHTF purposes
• I acquired local/regional maps and placed them in our vehicles and BOBs.
• I bought a lot of items for food storage.

What didn't happen:

• I have my duct tape and sheeting, but I haven't cut it to size. Having pre-cut pieces could save so much valuable time.
• I didn't get bottles of butane to refill my favorite Zippo MPL or the rest of my van's vehicle kit either. I decided to hedge against rising prices and bought 200 lb of wheat instead.

I'm still trying to prioritize my purchases for Month Four. So much to buy, so little money!