To be prepared for a crisis, every Prepper must establish goals and make long-term and short-term plans. In this column, the SurvivalBlog editors review their week’s prep activities and planned prep activities for the coming week. These range from healthcare and gear purchases to gardening, ranch improvements, bug out bag fine-tuning, and food storage. This is something akin to our Retreat Owner Profiles, but written incrementally and in detail, throughout the year. We always welcome you to share your own successes and wisdom in the Comments. Let’s keep busy and be ready!
Jim Reports:
Most of last week was dominated by hay hauling, and hay stacking. I also acquired another electric chest freezer. Bringing it home necessitated some cleaning and reorganizing our garage, to clear the requisite footprint, against one wall. This is now our fourth freezer, and it will probably be dedicated to beef. The other three are increasingly filled up with garden produce, some wild game, fish, wild huckleberries, some store-bought blueberries, broth bones, and some plastic bags of frozen broth. I wish that we had more than our one propane chest freezer, but that is not within our budget.
I’ve also been quite busy writing and editing. I also spent some time downloading and formatting photos from a recent road trip. (For example, see the photo at the top of this column.) My dear wife Avalanche Lily took some amazing photos. And I snapped a few, too.
Avalanche Lily Reports:
Dear Readers,
Wow, the weeks are going by really fast. We’ve had some amazingly sunny weather here, some days a little bit cooler, and now the days are getting warmer. Our nighttime temperatures for the past week have been in the low forties.
The migratory birds that come every April-June to raise their young in the northern hemisphere are now gone silent, having finished raising their young, and have begun their return flights back to southern climes. It is profoundly silent, here once again, in the early morning and at twilight hours. Summer has begun to wane.
This week in the garden, the girls and I, picked green beans, washed them and snapped them, and canned them. Our first batch was seven quarts with one lid fail, which we ate the next day, yum. It was the very first time for me to pressure can anything, on my own. I was very excited about the accomplishment and feel as though I may now have the pressure canning bug. We’re eagerly awaiting the next bean picking session and to pressure can those.
I did pressure can chicken breasts, once, with our good friend, Patrice Lewis (of the Rural Revolution blog) about four years ago. And I have water bath-canned jams and tomato products many times in the past.
In the early years of our marriage and living on the ranch, I just wasn’t in the right frame of mind/place in my life to be present and attentive to the pressure canner, as I am now. There is a new sense of confidence, calmness and patience that I have entered into during the past year and half or so which lends itself to performing more longer-timed frame projects.
Well, let’s just say in the early years of our marriage, I was most interested in learning about farm animals, and homeschooling all of our kids, and getting the gardens established. Now the kids are mostly grown up, not so needing constant attention, and are becoming partners in our endeavors. Freezing and dehydrating foods in my eyes was much less time-consuming, than canning. But now, I am interested in pressure canning and am ready to move into that mode of preserving even more of our produce. I am very interested in pressure canning soups and stews, in the very near future.
I dehydrated another large amount of Zucchini, which when completed came to be another quart and a half. I froze another several gallons worth, and gave away around ten Zuchs, to visiting friends. I have frozen five pounds of mixed berries and they’re still coming on strong!
I purchased a fermenting kit (Masontops Complete Fermentation Kit) which arrived this week, to be used with Mason jars. I will be giving that method of preserving food a trial run. In recent years fermented foods have not agreed with my digestive system. But I’m thinking of giving it another try, since, I feel that my system is now on the mend and may now be able to handle them.
The girls and I, scrubbed all (a few hundred) of the small planter pots and seedling trays from this past spring’s seedling starts. We still have to wash all of the large planters and pots that I have not yet washed from previous years’ use. They’ve just been sitting in the greenhouse awaiting their turn.
We picked up four wheelbarrow’s worth of large rocks from around the hen house yard and cow corrals. I dislike tripping over rocks in our glacial river bottom ranch, while doing chores. We’ve also cleaned up manure droppings from around the parking lots/loafing areas and parts of our meadow. Manure was transported down to the Annex Garden, which is standing fallow this year. We just ran out of time to plant it. So have decided to just build up its soil this summer, for next year.
I also mowed the orchard and garden paths this week.
We ordered some Pecan trees and another Dark Sweet Cherry tree to be a cross-pollinator for my Bing Cherry this week. The other Cherry tree that we had bought for the cross-pollinator role had died, so this will be its replacement. With this purchase, our orchard is just about completed. Although we want also some grafted walnut trees on hardy English Walnut root stock–most likely next spring. We now just need a few more years for all the trees to grow to producing large quantities of fruit and nuts for us.
We also reorganized a pantry hallway in our home and are again culling out unneeded items that can go to the thrift store.
The girls and I are currently reading aloud to each other the book: Cheaper by the Dozen by Ernestine Gilbreth Carey and her brother Frank B. Gilbreth Jr.. It is a hysterically funny account of their growing-up years with their parents and a total of a dozen siblings during the early 1900s. Their father was a Motion Economist/Efficiency Expert and studied ways to save motion in all chores and thus save time to do other important things. He was a fun-loving, curious, and energetic man who loved learning and teaching his children and others. It is a very heart-warming educational story that we highly recommend all to read.
May you all have a very blessed and safe week.
– Avalanche Lily, Rawles
o o o
As always, please share your own successes and hard-earned wisdom in the Comments.
I would be most interested in hearing all about your new pecan trees. Here in Ohio in the past I tried pecan trees and had no luck.
There is a sequel to Cheaper By The Dozen, titled Belles On Their Toes. It was written by the same authors.
“Cheaper by the Dozen”, a great movie filmed in 1950. Sticks close to the true story, and enjoyable for ALL ages. Along with “I Remember Mama” with Irene Dunn, one of the all time best family movies. We had the first TV in the rural neighborhood in CT, 1948, and though we all read, I loved the old movies from the 30’s, 40’s and then the 50’s. Still do. Most of today’s movies are drivel, corrupt, loud, useless dialogue.
Ordered some hunting supplies that were on special. Also ordered a few extra mags as politicians are bound and determined to implement more gun control. Inventoried and checked dryness of can interiors, replaced some of the silicon pearls and wiped the rubber seals with coconut oil to keep them from cracking. Picked up some small batteries for UTV and lawn mower and got 5% off (every little discount helps!).
While bush hogging the lower meadows my son found an underground stream, which is both good and bad. We could dig it out a bit for another water source (good) or mark it off and hope it doesn’t turn into a sink hole (bad).
Commercial hatchery chicks are up to about $5.50 per chick with specialty chicks going for around $7/ea. This year we have been using an incubator to hatch our chicks. So far we are about 50% on incubator eggs. Last month’s batch of 6 buff eggs, we had 3 healthy chicks and one which didn’t make it. This month’s batch of silkie eggs (at 2 weeks in of the 3 week period), we have 3 healthy chicks so far and 4 more to go.
Had to order a new heavy duty clippers for my livestock guard dogs and some of my thick haired animals. Amazon now has free prime 1-day delivery on some (expensive) items and the box actually got to my country farm in 24 hours!! I have gone thru 4 dog clippers in a year, so I’ve moved up to livestock (horse, goat, cattle, sheep and dog) clippers.
Well, big brother is attacking us on all sides. My long time bank (USAA) forced me to answer “Federal Law requires members to answer the questionnaire” and locked me out of my accounts forcing me to respond to questions. When I asked for a copy of the federal law being quoted, I got the run around and no one seemed to have a copy. BS!! Then I find out they sold their investment division to Charles Schwab; don’t know if that is good or bad.
Christians and conservatives are being attacked on all sides, so y’all better be prepared because the warnings of the scriptures, especially the Book of Revelations, are happening now, and not just in America. Read the international news and you will find the beginning of the woes all over the globe. Interesting that Louisiana Senator Kelly coined the term “the four horsewomen of the apocalypse” with regard to the four socialist congress women. Get your stuff in order now as one morning we will wake up and what you have in your home is all that you will have.
That Senator is John Kenndy R-LA and has a way with down-home
phrases.
Yes, you are correct. Back in the day, an actor or actress had to be a tripple threat (act, sing, dance) just to get an audition. Now it’s just a pretty face. Think about, La La Land, or Mama Mia. Not one of those so called stars could sing or dance. Some couldn’t even act. And they still nominated them for Oscars, nothing like patting you self on the back.
Picked up a garden Seed planter at the flea market for $15. It only came with one disc for corn so I’m looking for replacement disc.
Cut back bushes around the home. Will be pulling the roots out and then using the space for an herb garden.
Installed a keyless entry on one of the doors into the pole barn.
Made a clamp holder for all my “C” clamps and other clamps.
Re-arranged and added some stuff on the peg board.
Had 3 Windows replaced in the house. This should cut down on fuel bill and keep it cooler in the summer. Built a compost bin out of pallets. Cleaned out barn loft of old hay that has been there for years. The loft is huge and will be used for some hay but will be more for storage of other materials/items.
Took another truck load of “stuff” to the auction. The last truck load we made about $400 off of. I highly recommend selling your “junk” and then buying something useful!
Here is an excellent article about the transition of Hollywood from what it was decades ago to what it is now.
https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/war-films-hollywood-and-popular-culture/
One of the major points is that Hollywood is not necessarily making movies for Americans anymore. Increasingly their revenue comes from overseas which colors the stories they tell.
Of course, considerable attention has been focused in the past week on the “Top Gun” sequel, “Top Gun: Maverick,” whose trailer was just released. In the trailer, on the back of Tom Cruise’s flight jacket, the flags of Taiwan and Japan, that were shown in the original movie, have been replaced with generic symbols. This was done so as not to offend China, thereby eliminating any chance that the Chinese government would permit the movie to be released in China. Only 34 movies made outside China are allowed to be shown to the Chinese population each year, and the American movie industry doesn’t want to lose a chance to compete in that market.
Of course, the fact that a Chinese media company was a major partner in financing “Top Gun: Maverick” was no doubt important, as well. (Chinese financing a “Top Gun” movie? Jeez. Times have changed. Notice every time you see a no-name Chinese actor popping up in a major studio production, you can be sure that there is Chinese money behind the project. It is happening more and more. When you find yourself asking,”Why is this character Chinese?” just follow the money.
As they say in Hollywood, it’s called “show business,” “not show art.”
I just thought of another example of Chinese influence in the American movie industry. In the re-make of “Red Dawn,” a not very good movie that sat on Hollywood shelves for maybe three years before it was released, the invaders were originally depicted as being Chinese.
When the movie was finally released, the uniform insignias of the Chinese were digitally altered so as to make the invaders appear to be North Korean. Sure, North Koreans invade the US. That seems perfectly likely, doesn’t it? I suppose at the end of the credits, the producers could have proudly proclaimed, “No Chinese were offended in the making of this motion picture.:
So stolen Valour is Right if it´s done by americans to others?
The truth is bad, when it Shows american wrongdoings?
btw North Korea invading the US isn´t more unrealistic than China doing it
There is a fine line between a nation (or an individual) learning from mistakes and progressing or continuously navel gazing and destroying ones confidence and progress. I think Hollywood has us in continuous navel gazing mode.
I have no interest in other people’s navel gazing either. If I am going to watch something about Russia, honestly I prefer the heroic over the barbaric. I would rather watch something about China’s successes than failures. I want the sweeping history of India over an Indian slum.
If you are not proud of your country, whether you are American, Russian, Vietnamese, Chinese, Martian, whatever, I basically think you have a significant character flaw.
re:
fermented foods
To establish a healthy colony of gut bacteria, start by eating less than a forkful. Yes, fermented pickles or living sauerkraut is crunchy fun… the ‘mouth-feel’ of real food is head-n-shoulders above the artificial stuff soured with vinegar.
However, introducing a different set of bacteria can upset your gut. Cramps and ‘disaster-pants’ can be off-putting. Start slow, build up.
Then, add sauerkraut to your lettuce-wrap sandwiches. Living sauerkraut quickly becomes a required necessity for many meals such as a topper for salads. And ‘yes’, a salad makes a wonderful meal… dice some smoked salmon over it, and it’s instantly consumed, as in “what happened to my yuge tub of salad fixin’s!” Satisfying to the max!
Living fermented pickles, asparagus, carrots. Yum!
Like the plague it is, avoid the bottled grocery stuff unless it is in the cold-case. The stuff sitting warm is probably soured with vinegar. Unfortunately, vinegar kills helpful bacteria, so that ‘shelf-stable’ stuff is worthless for health, and can disrupt your healthy gut biome.
It’s the difference between fresh organic herbs you picked from your garden just before heading into the kitchen… and that dried stuff sitting on the grocery shelf for years. [looking at you, McCormick]
A warning:
After you build a healthy gut and discover the benefits of a healthy vagus nerve, you’ll never go back to the Standard American Diet aka ‘S.A.D.’!
(And you risk becoming an out-spoken advocate on prep forums…)
Under doctors orders (high inflammation markers indicating potential for heart issues, as well as bordering on pre-diabetic, yikes), I recently changed to a healthier diet and started to feel better immediately. No sugar, no dairy except small amounts of goat cheese, eat only organic food, lots of green leafy vegetables and fruits, low carb/high protein mostly from plant sources, small amounts organic chicken and wild caught fish, good quality fats like olive oil and use only avocado oil to pan fry, high protein smoothie to start my day. Pounds melting off (12 pounds in first month), strength and energy returning, feeling a lot more mental clarity. The stunning results make it easy to continue.
Good health is fundamental to prepping. Do whatever you can to keep yourself in good shape, even if you have to start with baby steps.
Hi LargeMarge,
How does the Vagus Nerve play into this? I don’t understand. Please explain.
Information of the Vagus nerve was brought to my attention during the past few weeks while researching something.
Please do explain more.
Lily
Madam Avalanche,
As I understand our vagus nerve, while fetal material, our brain and digestive system are next to each other. Some say they are ‘one and the same’.
As the fetal material evolves, the spine stretches that community. Our brain moves to the top of the spine, our digestive system moves to the other end of our spine.
For some peculiar reason, a direct connection remains during fetal development, and on into adulthood. Regardless of reason(s), the connection between digestive health and the health of your brains is the vagus nerve.
Diet is 100% correlated to digestive health. As I discovered after I heard the name for the way I was raised == ‘free-range and ‘pastured’ on a farm with a broad variety of fresh foods but very limited carbohydrates == my ‘Paleo choices’ maintain my gut health by:
a == eating the opposite of The Official Government© Food Pyramid®, and
b == eating the opposite of S.A.D aka ‘Standard American Diet’.
Calming an inflamed vagus nerve takes work. You must avoid grains, RoundUp, and the tons of other petroleum-based chemicals our species dumps on crops.
In my case, Dad and I shared a love for canned smoked oysters… in ‘oil’. Tragically, as I realized just a decade ago, that ‘oil’ added to most canned oysters is cottonseed oil, from The Most Sprayed Crop™ on this particular planet. The oils in the applied poisons concentrates in the oils of the seed. Processing the seed into oil further concentrates the petroleum-based chemicals. Then, that is added to smoked oysters (for some unknown reason).
Further clouding the cottonseed problem:
At the feedlot, for cattle to gain weight and that delicious marbling, they intentionally receive a highly inflammatory diet, including cottonseed and grains, especially grains high in Omega 6.
Omega 6 oils are in seed oils == safflower, sunflower, rape aka ‘canola’, soy, cottonseed, rice, wheat, and the nut oils such as walnut. Those oils rancid quickly, so they are factory-manufactured for a nearly-infinite shelf-life through hydrogenation. The only other purpose of trans-fats seems to be causing inflammation. Coincidence?
If you want your golden years to be something other than strapped to a gurney with just enough tubes to keep your moldy corpse AboveRoomTemperature® through the next ‘healthcare’ billing cycle, maybe it’s best to cut down on Omega 6 oils.
Grains are also high in Omega 6. Although our Paleolithic ancestors evolved to use some Omega 6 oils, research shows they balanced that with an abundance of Omega 3 oils from pelagic fish, and a lesser extent from inattentive herbivores.
Does an unhealthy vagus nerve result in a whole host of goofy ‘dis-eases’ == depression, hallucinating voices, dementia, and other clinically-psychotic behaviors? Does it seem likely?
Does injecting cyanide into your little toe spare the rest of your body from a twitching drooling quick death?
Since 2003, my bet is on the safe money. My every act and every prayer maintains my vagus nerve == exercise, stretching, climbing trees, playing with dogs. And diet is a part of that.
But if the safe money crashes, if I croak-the-bucket tonight toes-up, I rest easy knowing I probably caused no end of raving-rants, sign-waving, sternly-worded letters-to-the-editors, and ‘steering committee’ marches by the always-anxious crowd. And I think we can all agree, that’s always worth the price of admission.
Or, sometimes, you end up with non-hodgkins lymphoma no matter how chemical free and healthy you. My doctor said, “bad luck.” However, going in healthy with a good attitude (and “young”) is a real benifit.
Madam Avalanche,
Coincidentally, today’s == July 29th == weekly newsletter from my chiropractor in Sacramento discusses vagus and gut health… for probably the five-hundredth time, along with several supportive studies for reference.
How do I forward his e-mail to you?
Please use this e-mail address: james@rawles.to
Whew! The summer is zipping by. I spent a month playing Gramma while my youngest daughter had her third baby. Cleaning and cooking and chasing toddlers was much easier when I was 40 years younger! But, as soon as I returned to my beloved Idaho, I got busy stocking up for the winter. I just finished canning about 20 pints of pickled cucumbers. Cleared the land (fire break) around the cabin with the help of a neighbor boy who is saving up for his first car. And while flowers aren’t exactly a prep, I purchased 100 bulbs for fall planting and created garden beds. Flowers make me smile. I also replanted the “deck garden” (felt pots) since many veggies died while I was gone. The tomatoes are just not producing like I thought they would. The potato plants are thriving. I also stocked up on quilting supplies and am plotting out winter productivity. But the best thing EVER, is we decided to build a permanent greenhouse on a larger piece of family property. We might even be ready for fall planting if all goes well. I heard the cherry and apple trees are producing finally. Ooooh, and I made Huckleberry ice cream this past week. To die for! Stocked up on Ammo and additional mags, new fishing gear, and am purchasing an additional freezer (used). Lots of California family have been visiting this year. LOL. They really want OUT of California. I’ve seen local news reports of Southern California and I’m astonished at the level and violence of the crime there. I was born there and it was mostly agricultural, beautiful orange tree groves as far as you could see, etc. Sad what has happened to a once beautiful state the past 50 years. I consider the state uninhabitable, but I still have family there. Many of my neighbors are expats of the state. I haven’t run into anyone who “hates Californians” and I haven’t run into expats who are trying to change things here in Idaho. They, in fact, welcome the fresh air, the quiet, the gorgeous scenery, and are anxious to get their hands dirty with satisfying manual labor. Who knew?
Jim, your picture looks like the rail bridge at Lethbridge Canada…
It is actually on the Camas Prairie, north of Grangeville, in north-central Idaho.
The woods are getting dry so we laid out all of the hoses from the well head.The rain gutters were installed above the back porch and water collection barrels put in place.
Picked up a new generator at Cabelas to power grannies oxygen concentrator,in case of a power outage.I also found a great deal on a DPMS Oracle with a Sig Romeo 5. Who could resist?
The humming bird feeders will be refilled one last time. Our little friends need to head south soon. What is the old saying? A long way to go and a short time to get there.
Stay Strong! Stay Vigilant! God Bless and Long Live The Republic!
Dear Readers,
This morning I listened to David Dubyne’s Adapt 2030 interview with James White
from the Northwest Liberty News Broadcast, Titled: “Why Are We Being Kept So Unprepared For Massive Societal Changes” (859) It was a powerful warning.
Please go and listen to it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsjOYWgExTg
Lily
Thank you for sharing the link! I was unfamiliar with that site and speaker. I just watched it and believe there are grave concerns indeed. This is why I recently went back to school to become a nurse. And, I just want to say how much I appreciate the lessons you share on what you have learned at the ranch. God bless you and your husband for helping others prepare. Pray hard and keep your powder dry, Krissy
We feed the hummingbirds year round. There were not as many this year. That could be due to the fact that I’ve had to leave twice for a week at a time this summer but not as many returned this year either. I leave 4 quarts out for them in various feeders but they’ve been empty when i returned. That’s the first thing I do when I get home – feed the hummers. For years I have had a single male stay for the winter. For the last 4 years there has been a pair that stays all winter. The rest return mid-April. My daughter is working hard on the second property I bought on the California coast. My sister and I have helped a little. All cabins have been scrubbed and painted. One has the new vinyl plank flooring down. Son-in-law has gotten the beautiful 6 burner – huge griddle propane stove with two large ovens cleaned and running wonderfully. It truly is a thing of beauty. He cleaned all the many ports of the burners, griddle and ovens. Mouse nests under the ovens also had to be cleaned. Not a fun task. Insulation and tongue and groove pine ceilings getting done this week-end and next I hope. We are hiring help for that because we don’t know how to attach the ceiling boards around the rafters where the roof meets the wall. We are following the pitch of the roof with the planking to keep the height in the cabins. I really want to move ( I live on my 48 acre almond ranch) but way too much to do yet. All the animals need housing before I go and the fruit trees and nursery stock all has to be moved. We are in a three week 100 degree stretch. I’ve been dehydrating dinosaur kale and harvesting the one huge cabbage that made it from seed. Also preserving and eating fresh tomatoes. My daughter is sun drying them. I have lots frozen from last year and at least 35 pints left from last year’s canning. Lots of cucumbers and summer squash. Butternut squash getting ready to harvest and more to come. The luffa sponges are producing fruit. Basically free Christmas gifts. Potted up 36 or so moringa trees I started from seed today and planted 25 more seeds. Have 100 more I will plant once it cools down a bit in September. Put these in pots to start with since the cats seem to have a real affinity for the tubs I started the last batch in . “oh mommy gave us a litter box so we don’t have to scrape hard dirt in the yard” Potted up English laurel I started from my dad’s hedge in February when we sold his house. I am holding out a lot of hope for those two little cuttings as they are all that made it through the winter. If these make it these will be stock plants to do the first row of hedging along the road at the new 18 acres.
Ahhh, the pressure canning bug! Once you try it, on your own, you’re hooked. Green beans are clearly our favorite, but also add to the menagerie, potatoes (all varieties), chicken (lots of chicken!), bacon (yes, bacon), peas, carrots, peas and carrots, ground turkey, ground pork sausage and, well you get the idea.
We thought at one point we would replicate freezers but then we said, “What if the power goes out?” Our off-grid solar system is insufficient to run big freezers. So what little we do have in our one small chest freezer would result in a “canning party” to save everything.
One tip we got early on about pressure canning was, “don’t do anything from memory.” Always refer to a good canning resource, like the book that might come with your pressure canning equipment.
Concur with Lily, freezing and other forms of preservation are faster but we stand by our pressure canning.
This week we finally took the plunge & got rid of that stinky electric water heater & installed a propane tankless water heater. https://www.rinnai.us/tankless-water-heater
Apples are coming on, so will continue to can those (water bath). Peaches did not do well this year, mainly a fungal rot with all the early rain. Onions are ready to harvest, and potatoes are ready, we will pressure can those. (Lily: pressure canning opens a lot more that you can do; we just test the gauge at the extension office every year, just have to watch it and be patient, not as easy and fast as water bath canning). Garden has been some hit’s and misses this year; green beans are doing well, about to do my 3rd planting, while zucchini did not do so well. Other years we had to give it away. Some tomatoes did well, others did not, berries have done well. We did get another dozen chicks, this is their 2nd week. We paid $2.91/chick (vaccinated), which I guess is good according to Animal House. Killing off the old hens, trying to determine the few layers that are left. Getting ready to disc the fields for planting winter wheat and planting some more lettuce and spinach for fall. Cows are coming along; I got a butcher date set for Oct. Grass is good, and hay is up. Stocked up on ammo and mags per JWR. Stay safe.
Getting done with dinner very late, but was the second of my totally homemade food, fresh beets, with beet greens, potatoes, and canned trout. Simple, yet tasty. Cost, only canning lid, and the gas to can the trout. Yesterday, it was home grown turnip, turnip greens, potatoes with canned elk. Feel like an accomplishment for this noobie gardener. This is proof of concept, sustainable living. Once the beets and turnips are out of the garden, more goes back in, that will be kale, rutabaga, and more beets from pots that will grow into the late fall. This is another way to efficiently use limited garden space that also becomes an expedient green house to due a limited amount of good soil here in the mountains. It is call the Rocky Mountains for a reason. Lots of rocks.
This summer with lots of rain and cool summer temps reminds me of Montana in 1970’s. If we get this again next summer, it will be confirmation that the Grand Solar Minimum is real. The You Tube channel, Adapt 2030 has some thought provoking videos. Fortunately everything planted was cold weather, short season, and is growing like crazy despite the unseasonable cold nights, and cool rainy days. It thrives in this weather. I can graze on chard almost every day. Expect to bag more elk with an early tag. Will keep it in the big propane fridge, and can that ASAP. Doubt I’ll have enough jars to do bone both, but already have plenty of bear bone broth. Bone broth has nutrition that is not found elsewhere, and it thickens and adds a smooth rich texture to stews, soups and even my chili, the old fashioned way. Add flour, and it really get thick. Add beef or chicken bullion to taste, if necessary.
To make bone broth, I use a D-saw with a type-51 blade, or fine tooth hand saw for wood, and cut the long bones just a few inches long, if possible, to cook out the marrow, or to a size that will fit a shoulder or large joints into the large pressure canner, or pressure cooker, and cook an hour or three. If the wood stove is going, leave on as long as is convenient. Lots of meat can be left on the shoulder, or other parts of the animal, and none of it will be wasted. Then put the juice in quart jar, and can it, using times and pressures for meat. Of course a pressure cooker is not necessary, but it greatly speeds up the process, and amount of the material that becomes the broth. With chicken, it is possible to cook it so that there is no bone left, but only broth. No waste, and good to extend meals with, not to mention the obvious nutrition, minerals and such.
Fermentation…who’s up for writing an article to help the rest of us learn the gentle art of fermentation?
Carry on
beautiful pic. Can’t wait to retire from the Army and move into my next life. My dream area, but likely won’t make it there as i have to earn a certain amount to get the kids thru college. Never realized the financial sacrifice associated with service (not a gripe, just a recent realized fact)