Want to learn more about canning meat?

Granny Miller's blog has an awesome tutorial. If you've thought about canning meat but have been intimidated by it, check out her post here. It is very thorough and informative.

If you haven't read my posts on canning meat, you can find them here.

I've finished all my laundry from our vacation, so now would be a good time to fire up the ol' pressure canner...

Want Some Free Batteries?

Yeah, me, too! A girl can never store too many batteries!

Here's how:

Free Rayovac Batteries at Wal-Mart posted on The Krazy Coupon Lady site

Hurry and print this off because I'm sure this is a limited time offer.

Welcome New Readers! (And my Old Ones, Too)

I joined the SurvivalMom Blog Ring and I have enjoyed all the new visitors and comments my blog is getting. I would blog if no one else read my writing, but it certainly is more fun to get feedback and ideas from like-minded individuals.

To my fellow blog ring members: I look forward to visiting your blogs as well! My Google Reader is going to be getting a workout. :)

Check out the Survival Mom Blog Ring if you haven't already. Thanks for setting it up, Lisa (aka The SurvivalMom)!


Coming soon on the blog: My review of the FoodSaver. Oh. My. Land. My life will never be the same.

Pre-TEOTWAWKI Shopping List

Image from yourfamilymoney.wordpress.com

Do you follow The Survival Mom's blog? If so, you probably read her recent post called "Survival Shopping at Costco". She tested out James Wesley Rawles' contention that it is possible to do a last ditch, pre-TEOTWAWKI stock-up at Costco.

Now, we don't have a Costco anywhere near us and Sam's Club is pretty far away. Depending on what I think is about to go down, I may not be comfortable going or sending Hubby Dear on a shopping expedition an hour or two away. But we do have a couple of grocery stores, a farm supply store, and a mini version of Wal-Mart in our town and we can find a lot of useful items there. That's assuming, of course, that nobody else gets the same idea and strips the stores bare before I get there.

The problem is keeping a clear head in the chaos. I'd like to think that my preps will help me be cool, calm, and collected, but the truth of the matter is I tend to freak out. Not to mention the fact that I'll have four kids with me and shopping with my crew is always an adventure. And Hubby Dear? He's more likely to be cool and calm than me, but he's also pretty clueless. He did read One Second After, reads my blog, and listens to me blather on about preparedness, but it's just not his thing.

So what I did to combat these problems is make several copies of Lisa's Pre-TEOTWAWKI shopping list. I put a copy in my Preparedness Binder and one in the glove box of each of our vehicles. If Hubby Dear or I decide that something is about to go down, we'll use our secret codeword  (Read Alas, Babylon, anybody?) and be ready to do some guerilla shopping.

Of course the best thing to do would be to get completely prepared ahead of time so we don't have to fight the local yokels for the last package of Charmin. It's unlikely that we'll have a few days' notice before the End of the World, anyway.

 Download Lisa's shopping list here. It's a good tool to help you make sure you've got all the bases covered.

Tattler Canning Lid Giveaway

Kendra at New Life on a Homestead is giving away a bunch of Tattler reusable canning lids. Haven't heard about Tattler lids? Well, read this and this. Regular, one-use lids have always seemed wasteful to me, and if you are in a survival situation, you definitely won't be able to run to Wal-Mart and pick up some more canning lids.

I've been wanting to try these out and I'd love to win this giveaway. If I can't win it, I'd love one of my readers to! It's easy - head on over to Kendra's blog and leave a comment on the post about this giveaway. Good luck!