How I Met The Challenge!
Here's what I did this month in each category (see category definitions near bottom of the post)...
• Food Storage: Our cow half arrived and my freezer is nice an full! This used up a lot of our food budget, but we're saving a LOT of money and eating great beef!
• Emergency Preparedness: I purchased three aloe vera plants for emergency medical needs such as burns. I plan to buy a few more so we have plenty on hand. I also signed up for the Family Herbalist Course through Vintage Remedies so I could learn to meet some of our health care needs at home.
• Sustainable Living: Finally got the raspberries and another fig tree planted! I just put in another couple of raised bed boxes and will be seeding those a.s.a.p. Made another batch of liquid soup and a couple of homemade cleaners from essential oils and vinegars, etc.
The Give-Away & Last Month's Winner!
Last month's give-away from USA Emergency Supply included an emergency response kit and Kurt King's "Herbs to the Rescue", an herbal first aid handbook. I'm pleased to announce the winner today...
Congratulations LINDA G!
This month the give-away item is a Aquamira Water Bottle and Filter, a great item to have with you for those summer hikes, camping trips, bike adventures, water rafting... whatever it is you do in the big outdoors. But it would also be great to keep in the car, at the office, or in a backpack... just in case! And now is a good time to remind everyone that staying hydrated during an emergency or crisis is critical! Your body needs all the resources possible when it's being taxed emotionally and physically.
Now it's your turn to join the Preparedness Challenge..
Join the Challenge & Enter The Give Away
To be entered in the drawing, leave a comment (with your email info) on something you did this week to be more prepared in terms of food storage, emergencies, or sustainable living (or all three areas!) OR link up your Preparedness Challenge blog post (you only need to comment or post, not both). Posts not related to at least one of the three areas of preparedness will not be counted toward the give-away. Please be sure to clearly state in your comment or post what you did this month to be more prepared (see my example above as one easy way to do this). Again, the three areas we are focusing on include:
• food storage for life's unexpected events whether related to long term effects from a disaster or a job loss and everything in between
• emergencies for times of power outages, natural disasters, and such
• sustainable living in order to be more independent, both physically and financially, and to live as close to the land as possible given each individual's situation
Please be respectful of our challenge and only add a post on one of these three preparedness topics ONLY in order to retain the integrity of the link up event. If your post is just a general homesteading post, please save it for the Monday Homestead Barn Hop.
NOTE: This challenge and give-away ends Friday, July 6th at 11:59 p.m. PST.
Be sure to take the Preparedness Challenge picture and add it to your blog so others know you're participating and hopefully they'll join up, too! THANK YOU!!
NOTE: This challenge and give-away ends Friday, July 6th at 11:59 p.m. PST.
Be sure to take the Preparedness Challenge picture and add it to your blog so others know you're participating and hopefully they'll join up, too! THANK YOU!!
This past month we purchased a couple of Kinder goats, a buckling and doeling. We desire that they be the starts of a little herd and ultimately we'll milk the doe.
ReplyDeleteWe have been searching for a 8000 (watt) generator with a specific engine, and this week we found one at a local farm supply store. The best part is it was on clearance to make room for some new models! So we were able to cross that off the list at a significant discount. God is good!
ReplyDeleteHi! Love your website. We've been making more and more moves towards self-sufficiency. I have the whole family on board as far as helping out.
ReplyDeleteFood Storage - Placed a coop order for bulk oats for storage.
Emergencies - I also bought some aloe plants this month. My son started his lifeguarding job and the aloe is very soothing for the skin with all of the sun that he is getting. Also, got our rainbarrel hooked up just this last weekend.
Sustainable Living - I guess the rainbarrel could fall under both categories but the real focus has been gardening this month. Also placed an order for supplies to extend our gardening season this year. My hubby created two more raised beds for me this year and a pvc frame with a cover to go over them to keep the greens going as long as possible into the winter. I've ordered seeds that are suppose to be hardy for the fall/winter growing season.
Thanks for a great website.
Joyce
jrachum@sbcglobal.net
Food Storage--This month I canned 9 jars of pears. I harvested 2 cups of my oregano and made pesto. I froze a bushel of foraged pink eye purple hull peas.
ReplyDeleteEmergencies--I have been thinking about how to prepare my family in case of a hurricane. This is a possibility where we live. (But I haven't actually taken any actions yet.)
Sustainable Living--I have been saving seed from my heirloom green beans. I planted 3 varieties this year and spent the summer counting every single bean and recording the total per type. I have decided that Ruth Bible beans are the definite winner in my garden. I harvested almost twice as many pods as I did from either of the other green beans.
I also pulled my spring garden and planted summer garden. I am in the process of preparing a fall garden. Juggling the three seasons has been a difficult thing for me to learn, but I am finally finding a rhythm with it, and it makes me happy.
I bought chickens for egg laying last week and planted pumpkins! Not only will we eat the eggs and pumpkins but also sell both to bring in some extra income!
ReplyDeleteAnother great giveaway! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteFood Storage--This month I froze fruits, veggies, meats, breads and cheeses. Dried (from my garden) dill and chives. Harvested several lbs. of rhubarb from my neighbor's garden that she didn't want. Veggies from the garden are running late, but I'm ready!
Emergencies-- Stocked up on batteries, inventoried lamp oil, will be adding another rain barrel. We lost power twice in 3 weeks, luckily for hours instead of days. I can really use a water filter! The mice chewed ours up :(
Sustainable Living-- Planted more veggies (2 kinds of beans) in my "flower bed" strip, instead of flowers. Looking at tearing our some front yard shrubs and planting more fruit trees. Chickens are laying, when the younger 2 start we'll sell eggs. The composting is doing well. Making my first non-toxic laundry soap! We built a recycled wood "pie safe" on our back deck (pics on my blog), summer's busy!
I put up 13 quarts of corn to add to the 35 pints from last week and am freezing a lot of squash. Now I'm clearing out the corn stalks to plant a fall crop. Just a note onthe aloe, you can transplant the baby plants that eventually form on the side. Crystal
ReplyDeleteFirst, let me say, "I am in love with this blog!" I love seeing others post their ideas. It has encouraged me, as a 20-something, to really start learning to be a real woman! So here goes:
ReplyDeleteFood storage: Canned: 10 pints of corn (wholy cow, is corn a lot of work!), 6 quarts boiled peanuts ('cause you need something to enjoy when things are tough), 5 pints of green beans, 6 half pints of hot sauce, 5 pints of peaches, six pints of pickles, and six half pints of pickled peppers. I had a pretty busy week!
Emergencies: Discovered the $.88 bin at Wal-Mart. Stocking up on pain medicines, wet wipes, lotions, "girly" things, and other health related items
Sustainable living: Replaced our chickens (remember, I'm the one whose chickens all ran off while we on vacation!). We doubled our flock with 22 new babies! We've started saving seeds from plants that are doing well in the garden. AND, I'm not sure if this fits, but we've recently met a fellow homesteader and are giving away our extra little buck to establish a relationship.
I think that's about it!
I recently reviewed our first aid supplies and found them sorely lacking. We have a large family including a 2 small children and a semi-invalid great grandmother so emergencies tend to be a bit dicey. So I revamped our first aid/emergency medical kit with the help of the P.A. that lives next door to cover everything from scrapes and bumps to severe allergic reactions and bone fractures. We put it all in a very sturdy canvas backpack so it is as portable as possible in case we have to leave home for a tornado or something.
ReplyDeletelady_darkoshun@yahoo.com
I so wish we lived near each other. You are really moving right along...good job.
ReplyDeleteMe, too, Michelle!
DeleteI haven't done all of this in the past week, but these are the things I've been working on lately:
ReplyDeleteSustainability
We expanded the garden by four, 4x4 and, two, 4x8 raised beds this year. That's up from two, roughly 4x6 beds last year, plus we're still planting along one side of the back of the house and around the deck. We harvested a very good crop of garlic, which should last us most of the year, and we just finished harvesting a moderate crop of onions. It won't last the year, but it will help. We're also starting to harvest some of the herbs to dry for the year.
Emergency preparedness
My husband receives numerous medical supplies each month (he's an incomplete quadriplegic) and some of the supplies kind of overlap one another. For example, he receives boxes of gloves and antiseptic wipes, but one of the other supplies only comes as a complete, one-use package which also includes blotter pads, gloves and beta-dine swabs. He used to just throw out the extra, unused items, but I've started saving some of them to keep as back-up supplies, just in case.
Food storage
I've finally started using my pressure canner - had to work up the nerve since I have a glass top stove. I've already canned 14 quarts of chicken stock, some of which I passed on to my newly married daughter, and have plans to make some beef stock soon.
This week I bought a 50lb bag of rolled oats for $25. I filled 12half gallon jars and 12quart jars and oven canned them. I also filled a few ice cream buckets and stored them in the freezer and I have more left to use the next few weeks for baking, granola, and whatever.
ReplyDeleteI also made another batch of soap...we will be the cleanest family. And Made a few batches of my healing salve that I use for bruises and scrapes, but all the teens seem to be using for their acne!
Hubby is out right now putting up the solar electric fence in the field to pasture the goats and possibly a calf if we can get one for a good buy.
Shwew...it has been a busy week.
I have been busy with my garden and chickens. Heidi and Pat are teaching me how to milk and care for goats. Hopefully we will have some soon.
ReplyDeleteI have canned tomatoes and rotel style tomatoes from our garden this month. We have also eaten quite a bit of squash and zucchini from the garden too. We bought a large sack of corn and put it in the freezer too.
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to say THANK YOU! for selecting me as last month's winner. I really appreciate it. And thank you for your great blog, too. :o)
ReplyDeleteWe bought 2 bags of new potatoes for $1.39 each and made 15# of smashed, mashed and O'briens for the freezer. I made 3 different flavor batches of BBQ sauce out of our apricots and peaches. I divided my aloe vera into 7 new plants. Planted a pineapple guava for a fall fruit and summer blossoms for our bees. Growing sunflowers for our bees and using the seeds for our parrots. Made laundry soap, hand soap and your recipe for deodorant (absolutely love it)!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Julie
Congrats to Linda on winning the giveaway :) :)
ReplyDeleteAmy, thanks for hosting this link-up every week. It's fun to read the different blogs :)
Love and hugs from the ocean shores of California, Heather :)
Food Storage--I bought three cans of meat to store: tuna, chicken breast and a can of chili without beans. I dehydrated bananas.
ReplyDeleteEmergency--I stored shampoo, deodorant, soap, items from 88 cents bin at Walmart.
Sustainability--germinated rhubarb and basil, revived my asparagus that I thought had died.
This summer both our teenagers are away from home and my husband is working a lot. So, what did I do beyond the regular adding to the pantry, skill set and emergency stock? I decided not to waste...waste not, want not! Looking around, I realized that there was much food that was about to spoil with only me eating, so...I canned up the huge open container of salsa that was sure to go bad. I learned to dehydrate some left over potatoes into sortable and usable slices (and they look like the ones in the prepackaged mixes - success!). I made bread crumbs from all the left over bread and bits of bread in the freezer. I have been making "after school snack" jerky from the too long frozen meat.I used up the extra cereal in a frugal refrigerator bran muffin recipe.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, I weeded out the kids closets for clothing that was old and/or too small to add to my patchwork quilting project to recover some old blankets - and I saved buttons in the bottom jar and the zippers for another day. I have already made over 400.00 in extra money from taking on some tutoring on the side since there is extra time. I have biked everywhere I can instead of driving for both exercise and economy. I have read 2 long awaited books that are challenging and strengthening my faith. The corners are getting cleaned and the backlog cleared. My husband is teaching me golf (at his work) as well. And I thought I'd be lonesome. God is so good!
Trish G
We have been saving seed and learning more about tinctures, saves and oils.
ReplyDeleteWe are trying to eat from our garden more.
Food Storage: I canned 6 quart jars of chicken
ReplyDeleteSustainability: I added 12 more tomato plants, 2 watermelon, 5 pepper plants, a tomatillo, 3 cucumber,planted more green beans, and started a tray of edible flowers. Added homemade compost from one bin and started a new compost bin
Apricots harvested & made into fruit leather.
ReplyDeleteHello! I am a new reader and beginner homesteader. I just LOVE your blog and have learned SO much by reading it!! Thank you so much and I am so excited about my families homesteading adventures!
ReplyDeleteFood Storage: Learned to make my first batch of spelt sandwich bread and homemade pizza dough for the family! No more store bought bread!! Used basil from our garden and made and froze homemade pesto! Used squash from the garden and made homemade baby food. Buying blueberries today to put up. Also, I am doing research on canning to prepare for the tomato season!
Sustainability: Planted more basil in the garden. We are SO CLOSE to finishing our chicken coop! SO excited about fresh eggs! Planning the late summer/fall garden. Planting wildlife friendly/attracting fruit trees in my husbands hunting spots.
I ordered a 25 lb bag of lentils and one of red beans from the co-op. I picked wild blackberries from the back of our property this month and was able to make freezer jam from it and also to just freeze some of the berries.
ReplyDeleteI've been saving money to get a hand-powered grain mill and was able to purchase that this month. Not only will it be useful if we have no power, but now I can grind grains separately for our daughter who is going gluten free.
I was also able to purchase the Ball Complete Book of Home Canning, which was on my wish list.
Please enter me in your giveaway. This week was all about the bean. The dehydrator ran four days this week drying beans for food storage. It is interesting that you mentioned Vintage Remedies, I actually have their card sitting on my kitchen table. I really want to get their book for teens and use some of it as our science this year.
ReplyDeleteBlessings
Diane
I made organic granola -- big 4xs batch, and canned strawberry jam. Even though it will be hard to live on jam, it's the beginning of the season to fill the pantry. This week I'm canning all things tomatoes -- yum -- and freezing lots of beans and squash. I'm also converting a hall closet into a food supply area so I have room to store water.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the great tips -- especially the idea to update my first aid kit. Blessing on all for a great, productive summer.
I have been learning to pressure can. My mom and I have canned 21 pints and 7 quarts of green beans. I've also been freezing fresh peaches. Have about 7 quarts in the freezer so far. I'm not ready to start canning peaches. I'm taking baby steps with the canning.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for your blog posts! Lots of inspirations here!
My husband attended a preparedness seminar last weekend at our church and I am reading over his notes and forming a plan to be better prepared for emergencies. This week I shopped for flash lights and did an inventory of our pantry. I have made a list of items we need and he is working on our budget to ease things up so that I can stock up on items we are low on. I have a backpack ready in our shelter now with a first aid kits, cliff bars and water, along with a light blanket, flashlight, weather radio and matches. We had two huge storms go through our area Friday and Sunday and it felt good to have water and food on hand when the power went out.
ReplyDeleteWe are raising 24 chickens in a brooder in our garage and finishing up their coop! In the next few months we will have tons of eggs for our family and neighbors too.
ReplyDeleteI really like your blog, so helpful!