Category Archives: Misc. Tips

Preparing for a storm and losing electricity

I pressure can meats and an upcoming electricity loss is not such a big deal for me since my meats are in jars on my shelves and not in my freezer.

But, I don’t want to lose anything in my refrigerator or freezer.

I save my plastic juice containers and fill them with water.  My originsl thought was if I lose electricity, I can use this water to flush my toilet since I have a well and it is controlled by electricity.  No electricity, no water.

So, I took about 10 of those water jugs and put them in every spare area in.my freezer.  Frozen water will keep your food cold for a longer time.  The fuller your freezer is, the longer the food will stay frozen.

The hurricane was days away.  When I lost electricity, I took three of the frozen jugs of water out of the freezer and put one on each shelf of my refrigerator.

We were lucky to only lose our electricity for 30 hours so I never lost even a slice of sandwich meat.

This is part of being prepared for emergencies.  My grown children don’t have to worry about their mom.  In fact, if there is some kind of disaster, they said they are coming to my house.

 

 

Possum moved in

Living in the country means critters show up uninvited.  We live in a mobile home and had left our underpinning open because we were working on a plumbing problem.

So, we were awakened one morning by something crawling around on our metal duct work under the mobile home.  We figured a cat had gotten under there and would find it’s way out.

As we were watching tv that night, we again heard the sound of something crawling around on the duct work.  No worry, it left right?  Yes, but not for good.

We heard this noise on and off for a week or so.  We realized it was a nocturnal animal coming in around daylight and sleeping all day and then going out during the night looking for food.

We have chickens so I really wanted it gone plus the noise in the morning was annoying.

We couldn’t close up the underpinning in the morning because it was under the mobile home so we waited to hear it go out.   Then I got worried it was going after my baby chicks so we went to check on them.

We had flashlights and I saw something in the back of our two acres opposite the chicken yard.  We followed it and saw it was a big possum.  I won’t go into the details but we killed it to prevent it from eating our chickens.

I hate to kill animals.  In fact, we don’t even eat our chickens we raise.  He just made the mistake of coming back one too many times.

Plastic coffee containers used as watering cans

I accidentally came upon this idea today while caring for my chickens.  I always keep a coffee container in my barrels to scoop my chicken feed.  They are just the right size for refilling my feeders.  Well, I turn them upside down and hang them on top of my fence post at times and forget to put them back into the tub.  I have a lot of squirrels that i unintentionally feed because they love the corn I throw to my chickens as a treat.  The squirrel had chewed a hole in the coffee container while it was hanging on the fence post upside down.  Guess the little critter could smell the corn I had previously put in it.  And can I say right now, that squirrels are smart.  They have been trying to chew into my barrels where the corn is…..not the one that has the chicken pellets….nope, just the whole corn and the cracked corn.

So, when I noticed a plant that definitely needed water, I picked up that coffee can (the one the squirrel had chewed on near the top) and filled it with water and hurried to my plant.  While holding the handle part of the coffee container, I began to pour and the water made a very nice stream coming out of the hole the squirrel had chewed open (about the size of a quarter).

So, now I have another use for the coffee containers besides using as a scooper and storing things like matches that I don’t want to get wet and numerous other things.   I am always looking for ways to recycle anything I use.

I save all my plastic peanut butter jars and store nails and screws in them for my husbands tool shed.   We just add a 2×4 between the studs and make shelves.

If you have other ways to use the coffee containers, I would love to know.  We use about one a month so they add up quickly.

Vaseline keeps the ants away

I set up our Hummingbird feeder on one of those metal poles (Shepherd’s Staff, I think they are called) and was pleased to see the little birds sipping away at the sweet water.

When i went to clean the feeder and refill the liquid, I noticed there were tiny ants in the remaining water inside the bottle as well as all along the pole.

So I loaded the pole with Vaseline just before the curve started where the feeder hung.  I smeared about three inches up on the pole.  Worked like a charm!

Now if I could just figure out a way to get rid of those carpenter bees that keep making holes on our wooden deck.  They hover a lot so I just keep swatting them with a fly swatter and killing them.

Windex to get flies out of windows

Those sneaky flies get inside the house and automatically hide in the windows that have venetian blinds.  Trying to pull back the blinds and not let the fly escape is a problem.  Plus, it is easy to damage the blinds.

My solution:  spray Windex on the fly between the blinds.  It doesn’t kill the fly but it stuns it and it often falls to the bottom of the window.   Then I take a paper towel and squash it.  Sometimes you have to chase the fly around in the window with a couple shots of spray.

 

Disaster Prepping or Hurricane Season

Well, hurricane season is upon us and remembering the rule ” a gallon of water per person per day” got me thinking.

I am a frugal person in a lot of areas in my life and buying a gallon of water for each person for three days was about $9.00.  That is for drinking.  And to be safe, I want to buy enough for a week…thus, $21 more or less.  Store in a dark, cool place. You could refrigerate one and then after using three, purchase more.  It is good to rotate your food and water.

But that isn’t water for washing dishes, brushing teeth and bathing.  In a real emergency, we might need that on hand, just in case.

I started saving my juice bottles and filled them with water and stored them away, too.  My mother drinks a lot of prune juice, I love orange juice and my husband is a big fan of tomato juice.  That is at least three containers a week.  You could also save your two liter soda bottles or recycle your gallon water bottles.

I also store 2 one gallon containers of chlorine bleach with my (juice) water bottles.  I read that  16 drops of bleach will kill germs in water and I think I would do that as a precaution even if I were washing dishes or brushing my teeth with the bottled water I filled myself.

I have also ordered some long term storage food that keeps for 25 years….enough to last for a week or so.  It is dehydrated/freeze dried so it needs water, too.

I was given a butane cooking stove (like for camping) that I can use on my kitchen counter for making a pot of coffee with my glass percolator and even heat a can of soup, etc.

A gas grill with a burner on the side would be great, too but I haven’t purchased one of them, yet.  I plan to make that purchase at the end of the summer when the grills go on sale.  We aren’t much for grilling out so it isn’t a priority for us.

But, the best thing to do, since long term storage foods can be costly is to get a plastic tub and fill with emergency foods.  That way it will be easy to move with you if you have to relocate.

The most important part of your emergency food/water storage is to rotate the items.  Make sure you put foods in the tub that you and your family eat on a regular basis so you can rotate it out.

I would suggest cereal/oatmeal, dried fruit or canned fruit  for breakfast.  I have the long term storage milk which by the way, Augason’s Morning Moo is very tasty.  Canned hams that keep for years are about 3.29 for a pound at Walmart.  Also, a good breakfast food if you are fortunate enough to have eggs to go with them.  You can also buy dehydrated eggs.  Who knew?

As far as drinks go:  powdered milk, coffee, kool-aid with sugar for the kids, lemonade packets that you add to a bottle of water is great.

Soups are handy for lunches and even ramen noodles though I haven’t eaten them myself.  A can of soup (like sirloin tips with vegetables) over a bowl of rice makes a filling meal.

Canned potatoes and vegetables are easy to rotate out.  I love the candied yams so I keep a good supply of them.

As far as meats go, just look down the isle at the grocery store and look for as many meats that your family will eat.  Variety is great. We like the ham and the roast beef in gravy.

ALWAYS check expiration dates.  I write on top of the can the month and year with a marker so it is easily readable.

It may seem like a lot of trouble but if you have an emergency, you will be glad you took the time to prepare.  Running to the grocery store at the last minute may mean you will forget important items as well as the cupboards may be bare at the grocery store right before a hurricane.  We couldn’t find the small butane bottles for our stove before hurricane Arthur came our way this year.

I remember the horrible pictures of the disaster when Katrina hit Biloxi/New Orleans.  I can only imagine how awful it would feel to lose your home and then to not even know how you were going to get food for your family.

One last suggestion, add some comfort foods to your emergency food storage.  Hot chocolate, hard candy, chocolate and perhaps gum will add a little joy to your lives.

One last thing: flashlights, batteries, matches and a first aid kit are essential to feeling really prepared.

Good luck and be prepared.

 

Favorite Small Appliances

I was previously married and my ex-husband loved to buy gadgets.  He loved to cook so most of them related to the kitchen which is good.

My best buy ever is my Salad Master pots and pans.  I bought them in 1980 after some persuasion from my ex-husband.  The thought of spending $800 for them was one reason I was fighting his desire to have them.  But they have been great.  I got all sizes of pots and pans as well as an electric skillet and grater with a lot of attachments.

My mom use to buy a new set of pots and pans every couple years spending around $100 each time.  I know she spent way more than 800 dollars during the same 30 years.

So, one of my favorite small appliances is my electric skillet.  I love to put the meat in the skillet on low and let it cook for hours and make it so tender.   My Salad Master electric skillet is great because it is actually submersible so it is easy to wash.

I think my second favorite small appliance is my griddle.  Great for cooking big meals especially.  You can cook a bunch of bacon or sausage and then wipe it off with a paper towel and cook your pancakes or french toast.  It is really great for cooking a bunch of pork chops or you can cook your steaks on it.  I have a gas stove and I put my steaks in there but I have used the griddle.  I don’t use my griddle every day but I thoroughly enjoy it whenever I do use it.

I love my Hamilton Brew Station coffee machine, too.  The coffee doesn’t seem to get as strong when sitting.  You don’t have a coffee pot that you remove and pour.   You just put your cup under the ledge and push and fill your cup.  The pot turns itself off after two hours, too.   I believe you can get these coffee pots for about $30 bucks though there are some more expensive ones, too.

My microwave is also a much needed part of my kitchen though I don’t really cook with it.  I use it as a bread keeper most of the time.  I make popcorn, heat items and melt butter in it on a fairly regular basis.  Warming up meat in a microwave tends to make it tough.

Some people are afraid of gas stoves but I LOVE mine.   If the electricity goes out, you can always light the top burners with a match and still be able to cook.  I also like that I can tell if it is on low, medium or high easily and you can switch from one to the other faster than electric.  When you turn the gas off, it is off quickly.

I have never gotten into using a crock pot though I have had a couple of them during my homemaking years.  I don’t like the smell of meat cooking in it.  Silly, I know.  But I have been told cooking beans in a crock pot is great.  I recently starting cooking beans for my husband and actually learned that I like them, too.  Well, some of them anyway.  When you take all that time cooking beans and then forget about them and burn them, it really sucks.  I have only done that once and don’t intend to let it happen again.  I heard a crock pot will keep that from happening.

Well, these are my favorites that have been with me over my past 45 years of homemaking.  I have tried many others but they are either stored away or given away or sold at yard sales.  These small appliances have proven to be the most valuable for my everyday life.

Stocking Up for Disasters

My background in restaurant management tends to make me be a bit of a “stocker upper” just because it is such a nuisance to be out of something …. especially if you need the item to prepare a meal to put on the table right now.

Flipping through the channels, I found a Doomsday Prepper show so I just had to watch some of it.  My goodness, some of these people are living in fear.  Being prepared is one thing but some of what they do is just crazy.  One guy was building a castle out in the woods, high on a mountain so he could see in all directions and was teaching his kids to be prepared to defend the castle.  That all seems crazy and I hope and pray he never needs his fortress.

But it did make me think more about my own preparedness for problems that can occur in my part of the world.  Hurricanes certainly take the electricity out in some areas for days and even weeks.

Some people are in a position where they could lose their job and it could take them weeks or months to find another job and from what I understand, you don’t just walk in the door and get food stamps that day.  Unless you have a lot of friends and family, you may find yourself without food in your cupboards and refrigerator.

My husband got the flu a couple years ago and he was out of work for three weeks.  He had sick leave that he used so it was no loss of income for us but what about the hourly employees out there that don’t get sick leave?  A lot of people live paycheck to paycheck.

So, I would like to suggest that you start a food pantry (larder).  There are a lot of websites dedicated to help you figure out what to buy.  You can take 10 dollars a week and buy a little at a time.  Especially when things go on sale.  Those low prices on sugar or those buy-one-get-one-free (BOGO, as it is called around here) tea bags are a great way to start.  You may think it is hard to fit into your tight budget but try buying a couple things when you can catch them on sale.  Like toilet paper and dish detergent or laundry detergent.  But as you use it, catch it on sale again and buy more.  I don’t even remember the last time I bought any of those three items unless they were on sale.

Some of my first items to buy were Ragu spaghetti sauce and boxes of pasta.  Since we eat it once or twice a month, I can easily rotate it in and out of my pantry.  Don’t buy a lot of something that you won’t eat on a regular basis because it will expire and you will have wasted money.  I figured we use 2 jars of Ragu a month and one box of the seashell pasta noodles make two meals so I bought 6 jars of Ragu and three of the pastas.  That is enough for three months.

Then I caught the canned vegetables on sale for 50 cents each and I bought 50 which we eat this item twice a week normally.  So that’s enough for 25 weeks which is almost 6 months.  The expiration date is very important and you must check each one.  They didn’t expire for 15 months so I knew I was safe to buy that many.

So my pantry has 6 containers of coffee, 5 pancake syrups, 6 peanut butters, 6 jars of blackberry jam, 4 vegetable oils, 5 bags of sugar, tea, kool-aid, soups, spices and so on.  Basically, I buy when things are on a really good sale, not just pennies off.  I buy only what I know we will eat and use in the allotted expiration date and things that store well.

The freezer/meat department is a lot harder to stock up on.  Since we don’t normally eat canned meat, I have bought dry beans and rice (both long shelf lives) and nuts in a can for protein.  Again, I love Winn Dixie’s BOGO sales in the meat department and my freezer is almost always full to the brim.  Knowing if the electricity went out, I could lose all that stuff but I guess I would start cooking on my gas stove right away to save as much as I could.  Cooked food keeps a lot longer than raw food.

The most important thing to have is water.  We have a well but it runs on electricity.  We have talked about getting a hand pump for it but so far its is just talk.  In the meantime, I would suggest getting some of those 88 cent gallon jugs from Walmart.  I believe you need a gallon per person per day so I am thinking we need fourteen for a week.  Plus, we want to get maybe four of those individual 24 packs of water for drinking.   Those would easily be rotated out because we keep bottles of water in our refrigerator all the time.  Well water doesn’t taste bad but it tastes different so I keep bottled water on hand.

We have a gas stove so we have extra propane bottles enough to last a year actually so we will always be able to cook on our gas stove even if we have to light it with matches.  So we have a couple of those long multi-purpose lighters put away.

We also have a kersosene heater and kerosene for emergencies, too.  Actually, the kersosene heater takes the chill out of a house rather quickly especially in our single wide mobile home.  It is like having a fireplace except the heat doesn’t go up the chimney. They are amazing now, too.  No strong odor except when you turn it off there is some odor but we sit it on the back porch when we turn it off.

So to sum up:  food, a way to cook the food including propane, water and other drinks with sugar,  a heat supply, and paper products an extra five gallons of gas in the shed.  And remember, first in first out for rotating.  I write with a magic marker on the top on my containers what the expiration date.  It makes it easier to see when I do my monthly check to see if there is something I must use before it expires.

Also, as a reminder, you won’t be able to flush your toilet or shower.  If a storm is coming, fill up your bath tub with water to use to flush your toilet.  In our case, we save our old milk jugs and fill them with water and store them outside.  We have chickens so we have about fifty milk jugs filled with water and use it to fill our water containers for the chickens so it serves a dual purpose.  Push comes to shove, I would drink that water because I thoroughly wash and bleach the containers before I put the water in it.  Also, bleach can be used to sanitize unclean drinking water.  I think I saw on Dual Survival, you put 16 drops to a gallon of water but I am not sure so look it up if you are interested.

So, family and friend, please do not think I am going off the deep end thinking Doomsday is around the corner.  I just want to be prepared for storms that could come my way.  In the meantime, stocking up has saved me money, too. The only thing I have thrown away is mayonnaise and it was a buy-one-get-one free item.   I know as a mother, I would not want to tell my children or grandchildren that I didn’t have any food for them.  Which is another reason I want to stock up some extra items.  I have relatives living close by and I know I would need to share with them if they were out of food.

In closing I would like to add, fear is not from God so don’t fear what the future will bring.  It is in His hands.  But God gave me a brain and being prepared for what I can handle myself, just makes sense.

My Bio

I am a baby boomer.  I was born in South Carolina and have lived in Germany, Hawaii, Texas, Arizona, Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama, Missouri, and Massachusett and Florida.  I have managed restaurants, owned and operated a dairy farm, worked in dr/psychologists offices, self-employed as a Mary Kay consultant, worked civil service as a secretary/stenographer for a Lt/Col, have had my real estate license as well as my life and health insurance license, been a Sunday school teacher (with my husband) for teenagers , taught my kids at home for a year or so AND most importantly raised three wonderful kids.

My children’s father died in 1980 when they were only 10, 3, and 1 year old. He was active duty and the military did a terric job taking care of us after his death.

I am married to a man who never married because I was the “love of his life” though we dated at l5 years old.  We have been married for l0 years now and every day I realize more and more I should have married him one of the three times he asked me to marry him in 1972, 1980, and l987.  I asked him to marry me in 1996.  It took that time.

I presently live in North Florida on two acres of land and have three dogs and 6 chickens.  My neighbor, Gale has a horse, a Billy goat, chickens and a garden so it is country living. It is a peaceful, wonderful life.

So, basically, I have lived an exciting, interesting life and have learned so much that I want to share my experiences and knowledge with others.

I am a firm believer that when women “HAD” to go to work due to the economy, there were some things that our children did not learn.  I personally know I didn’t get my children into the kitchen as often as I should in order to teach them to cook and clean.  Instead of delegating work, I often chose to do it myself because it was faster.  During conversations with my daughters, they have expressed their surprize that their girlfriends don’t know how to cook.  They often ask me cleaning and cooking questions themselves.

I hope you enjoy the information and stories I share about my family and friends.  I think most people feel like they could write a book.  I know I do. All three of my children have websites and have careers that involve the computer so they have encouraged me to do this.  So far it has been fun.  Thanks kids.

UPDATE:  Feb 9, 2012

My husband retired December 3, 2011 and we are so happy that we get to be together 24/7.  Some of my husband’s friends started having marital problems when the husband retired and at least one of them got a divorce after probably 30 plus years of marriage.  He was concerned that he was going to get on my last nerve being around all the time and it has been an adjustment, but no divorce is on the horizon.

We are planning to travel and do some rock hound hunting.  The Diamond Crater in Arkansas is one of the stops we want to make as well as trips to NC and Georgia.  I found a website that you can join and go on rock hound hunting digs so I am looking into that right now.  It would be fun to meet up with a group of friends at different locations and socialize.  I will update you if we find any gold, emeralds, rubies, or such.  Waiting for the weather to get nicer before we head out.

raised three children (one a valedictorian of her high school, one a

Probiotics Believer

I am not a doctor or nurse.  But I know my body and at 61, it has definitely slowed down.  I am not as active and I have never been a person who eats all the things on that food pyramid.

I have had pain in my lower abdomen for years on and off.  I have been to my doctors office many times with no solution.  I knew I was often constipated and figured that had to be part of the tummy problems.

My niece, Kathi, had given her son  probiotics (7 years old, with loose stools) for his stomach problems and kept telling me what a difference it has made for him.  Then I heard a doctor on PBS talking about probiotics and the benefits.

Well, I am one of those people that believes nothing is a coincidence.   So I listened carefully as she explained how our bodies stop producing as much “friendly bacteria” as we get past 50 years of age.  Also, antibiotics that kill off the bad bacteria also kill off the friendly bacteria (at any age).   She said a lot more but I don’t want to misquote her or try to explain things I am not qualified to explain.  I wish I could remember her name.

Anyway, this doctor said get a probiotic that has at least 10 strains of bacteria, the ones that start with B’s and L’s.  She also said it should have at least 15 billion cells and be enteric (means it won’t be destroyed in the stomach by the acids but will actually get to the gut to do it’s job).

I went online and bought a 16 strain, 32 billion cell, vegetarian enteric probiotic and started taking two a day.  It has been well over month, more like six weeks, and my stomach problems no longer exist and I have not been constipated one time.  In fact, my digestive tract is working so well that I seldom ever miss a day.

I know that is rather personal information but gosh, getting older is tough.  The aches and pains, the medical problems that creep up on you (I will be having a hip replacement in the near future), and just not feeling the strength to do all that you want to do.   I just wanted to share with anyone that wants to listen, probiotics has made my life better.  I actually think I have more energy.

This is my testimony and I am not a doctor.  I did not see anywhere any precautions or warnings about taking probiotics.  I saw no side effects written anywhere either.   I hate taking pills and I have never been good at making myself even take vitamins.  But, I NEVER forget to take the probiotics because it has made a dramatic change in my life.  One less pain in my life…it rocks.