Recipe of the Week: Corn Pudding

Ingredients:

  • 3 slightly beaten eggs
  • 2 cups cooked or canned whole kernel corn, drained
  • 2 cups milk, scalded
  • 1 Tbsp instant minced onion
  • 1 Tbsp melted butter
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 1 tsp salt

Directions:

  1. Combine ingredients and pour into a greased 1½ qt baking dish (or any baking dish that fits into a 4½ quart or larger slow cooking pot).
  2. Cover with foil or a lid (but do not use plastic).
  3. Set a metal rack or trivet on the bottom of the slow cooking pot. Pour 4 cups of hot water in the pot.
  4. Set the baking dish on the rack in the hot water.
  5. Cover pot and cook on high for 2 to 2½ hours or until done.

Makes 6 servings.

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Do you have a favorite recipe that would be of interest to SurvivalBlog readers? Please send it via e-mail. Thanks!

Letter Re: How To Trim Your Horse’s Feet

Hugh,

There’s a lot of good information in the article on trimming horses’ feet. The old saw is “no hoof, no horse.” So you have to be able to provide good hoof care. I don’t have the education or breadth of experience that RB does, but I’ve been trimming my band of horses for more than 20 years. I’ve found some things over the years that make things easier that folks may want to consider.

I prefer to trim sitting down. I’ve never developed the skill that lets me trim comfortably standing the way a farrier does. I bought a mechanics stool on wheels. It’s low and has a place under the seat for tools. On the front feet I position the seat of the stool about even with the horse’s leg and then sit down. If I’m doing the left front, for example, my left leg will be a little behind the horses leg, and I’m sitting facing about 45 degrees to the rear When the horse lifts its leg, I put it under my left knee (which is bent at about a right angle at the knee) and then let it rest on top of my right thigh just behind my knee. I do all the cleaning, trimming, cutting, and rasping with the foot in this position. I ground tie my horses and they stand quietly for the trimming. A horse that’s not familiar with the procedure usually needs the help of a handler the first few times. A horse needs to be gentle and quiet to work with them this way. If they’re not that way, that’s the first thing they have to learn. Standing for trimming and shoeing are skills the horse needs to excel at.

On the rear feet, I use a hoof stand to support the hoof and the leg. Doing so lets me work either sitting or standing without having to support the leg. The stand I use is made by Equine Innovations and comes with a cradle for supporting the hoof and a hoof jack for the bottom of the foot to rest on when it’s being rasped from the top. There are other hoof stands as well. Find what works for you.

A good source for hoof stands and all the necessary farrier tools is NC Tool. If it has to do with maintaining horses’ feet, they have it. They carry a very good selection of high quality tools and supplies, ship quickly, and have always given good service. If you’re looking for hoof knives, nippers, rasps, or anything else, you won’t go wrong.

Horses can perform at high levels without the need for shoes. For them to do so requires the trimmer to know what he/she is doing and may require transitioning the horse to being barefoot. There’s a lot of information available on this. In my opinion, this is one of the best sites. This is Pete Ramey’s website, and it has a lot of useful information on barefoot trimming and hoof maintenance. – M.

Economics and Investing:

Something Stunning Is Taking Place Off The Coast Of Singapore – “I’ve been coming to Singapore once a year for the last 15 years, and flying in I have never seen the waters so full of idle tankers,” – B.B.

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JWR’s interview on the Kennedy Financial Podcast: Ep. 53-JAMES WESLEY, RAWLES, Capitalism, Gold, Silver & MORE!

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407,000 Workers Stunned As Pension Fund Proposes 60% Cuts, Treasury Says “Not Enough” – B.B.

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Preparing For Much Higher Gold And Silver Prices

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SurvivalBlog and its editors are not paid investment counselors or advisers. Please see our Provisos page for details.

Odds ‘n Sods:

Furniture firepower: Gun sales drive specialty ‘concealment’ craze Excerpt: “’Gun concealment furniture’ sales, once the province of solitary craftsmen making custom goods have gone mainstream, allowing firearms owners to maintain easy in-home access to hidden handguns and rifles.” – G.G.

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SurvivalBlog reader R.V. wrote in to suggest Greg Cote, LLC as a source for firearms magazines.

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Why – Krayton Kerns, DVM (The Conservative Cow Doctor) explains why King Obama recently decreed all American schools will accommodate any and all of the government endorsed 15 sexes into the same restroom or locker room.

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Several readers wrote in with the link to this article on the Washington Post: Primed to fight the government A fast-growing U.S. movement armed with guns and the Constitution sees a dire threat to liberty (Note: You may require a login to view the article, and it is written from the typical leftists view.)

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Hobbit Like House – Assemble Your Own And Bury It – DSV

Notes for Sunday – May 22, 2016

May 21st is the birthday of weapons designer John Douglas Pedersen (born 1881, died 1951).

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Today, we present another entry for Round 64 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A Tactical Self-Contained 2-Series Solar Power Generator system from Always Empowered. This compact starter power system is packaged in a wheeled O.D. green EMP-shielded Pelican hard case (a $1,700 value),
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate that is good for any one, two, or three day course (a $1,195 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper with a hammer forged, chrome-lined barrel and a hard case to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel, which can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools and a compact carry capability in a hard case or 3-day pack (an $1,100 value),
  5. Gun Mag Warehouse is providing 20 Magpul PMAG 30-rd Magazines (a value of $300) and a Gun Mag Warehouse T-Shirt; (an equivalent prize will be awarded for residents in states with magazine restrictions),
  6. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  7. The Ark Institute is donating a non-GMO, non-hybrid vegetable seed package (enough for two families of four) plus seed storage materials, a CD-ROM of Geri Guidetti’s book “Build Your Ark! How to Prepare for Self Reliance in Uncertain Times”, and two bottles of Potassium Iodate (a $325 retail value),
  8. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  9. KellyKettleUSA.com is donating an AquaBrick water filtration kit with a retail value of $250, and
  10. Two cases of meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Second Prize:

  1. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  2. A transferable certificate for a two-day Ultimate Bug Out Course from Florida Firearms Training (a $400 value),
  3. A Model 175 Series Solar Generator provided by Quantum Harvest LLC (a $439 value),
  4. A Trekker IV™ Four-Person Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $250 value),
  5. A $200 gift certificate good towards any books published by PrepperPress.com,
  6. A pre-selected assortment of military surplus gear from CJL Enterprize (a $300 value),
  7. RepackBox is providing a $300 gift certificate to their site, and
  8. Safecastle is providing a package of 10 LifeStraws (a $200 value)
  9. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Third Prize:

  1. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  2. A $245 gift certificate from custom knife-maker Jon Kelly Designs, of Eureka, Montana,
  3. A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard, and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206,
  4. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  5. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  6. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances,
  7. Montie Gear is donating a Precision Rest (a $249 value), and
  8. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).

Round 64 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

How To Trim Your Horse’s Feet- Part 2, by R.B.

Using the Hoof Knife

The next step is cutting away dead sole at the toe to find the white line. Dead sole is hard, flaky, and depending on the moisture of the foot may come out with little effort. If you live in a dry area, I recommend watering down an area about 10 feet in diameter around your horse’s water trough for about a week before you do your trimming. This way, every time they drink they will stand in water and mud, which will soak into the sole and make the trim a lot less work. After cutting away the dead sole at the toe down to the white line, you will want to cut away more of the dead sole to create a bowl like surface to the bottom of the foot. image-9 You can tell the difference between dead sole and live sole by using your thumb to press down on the sole. If it feels soft and spongy it is live, and you do not want to cut into live sole. Live sole is sensitive and has blood flow. It is known as the quick, and cutting into it will cause bleeding. If you accidentally cut into the quick, you should stop cutting; most likely, the horse will insist on it. You will need to treat the area with an iodine wash and seal it with something like pine tar. I should note also that if you see an area of light pink in the sole or even in the hoof but that area has no blood flow, it is most likely an old bruise and will not cause bleeding and can be cut out without damage. Bruises are common in horses with bare feet or in rocky areas. image-10

Once you have your bowl-like surface in the sole, you will also want to clean out the commisure. The commisure is the deep part of the foot that runs down both sides of the frog. Remember that the frog is the fleshy triangular pad in the center and back of the foot. The deepest parts of the commisure may have a condition known as thrush. Thrush is a bacterial infection on horses’ feet and is common around the frog. It is black and smells like dirty old socks. The condition can easily be treated holding the foot up, pouring in a little Clorox bleach, and holding it there for a few minutes. It is typical when feet do not get cleaned regularly, and it can clear up quickly from a trimmed and cleaned foot. If left untreated, it can get serious and even cause lameness. Once you have trimmed the sole and cleaned out the commisure, you can now move on to the bars.

The bars are like extended pieces of hoof wall that turn back up from the heel and angle toward the front of the frog. The bars should be trimmed smooth with the sole. image-11 If not trimmed, they can overgrow the sole and trap rock and debris between the bar and the sole. Compressed by the weight of the horse, that debris can puncture the soft tissue of the sole and cause an abscess. Abscesses are very painful for horses and though rare, in my experience, they are a nasty wound that are difficult and time consuming to treat. Keep the bars trimmed and the white line clean, and that will eliminate most of the potential for abscesses caused by improper trimming. Keeping the white line clean is important because it can cause a condition known as gravel. When debris, such as gravel or sand, gets stuck in the white line, it can become trapped as the foot continues to grow. With no where else to go, the debris will travel up the sensitive laminae of the foot and exit at the coronet band in a condition known as a blow out. It is very nasty looking, though treatable. It’s better to avoid the problem in the first place.

From the bars, we move on to examine the frog. Excess frog should be trimmed away and should be trimmed from the front to the back. The bottom of the frog is usually hard and may even be peeling away on its own. Care again must be used on the frog, because under the dead tissue is live tissue with circulating blood. There is a bit of disagreement in the horse world about the amount of frog that should be trimmed. One camp trims the frog down to live tissue, making the frog actually set below the level of the hoof wall, while the other camp only trims the frog of dead tissue and may leave enough to actually extend slightly below the level of the hoof wall. I do not put forth the reasoning for either train of thought. Rather, I will just explain what has worked for me for the last 30 years. I was initially trained to trim to a natural angle [see image 2] and a natural foot. In my years of experience, I have found that only trimming dead frog and leaving just a little below the hoof wall, or even with a horse shoe, seems to work very well as excess frog tends to shed naturally on its own about twice a year.

Using the Nippers

The next part of the standard trim is nipping the hoof wall. Using your hoof nippers you start by making a straight and level cut right at the exposed white line in the center of the toe. image-12 A good rule of thumb for a straight and level cut is to keep the blade of the nippers level left to right with the sole that you just cleaned out, then keep the handles of your nippers at a 90 degree angle from the flat part at the front of the toe. Remember that you can always cut more, but you can’t put any back. The objective is to trim the excess hoof straight and level from front to back. The hoof wall is like a fingernail. Its thickest part is at the toe; it thins considerably along the quarters and thickens again at the heels. image-13 Try to make the cut as even and smooth as possible, as nipping is much easier work than rasping. Any uneven areas left with the nippers will have to be leveled with the rasp.

Using the Rasp

Rasping is like filing. Using the rough side of the rasp with your dominant hand on the handle and your other hand on the front of the rasp, you want to slide the rasp forward from the heel to the toe in a circular motion from the outside of the foot to the inside of the foot. Remember that the toe is the thickest part of the hoof so most of the pressure will be applied with the hand on the front of the rasp while the hand on the handle end is used mostly just to push the rasp forward. image-14 image-15 Be very careful not to put excess pressure on the handle end of the rasp as you move it over the quarters, as this thin area will file away very quickly, leaving a very uneven foot if you’re not careful. Repeat this motion from back to front on the right and left side of the foot. When you have the foot level from front to back, you now want to make sure it is level from side to side. This is done by examining the foot while looking down the back of the leg. Imagine a straight line going down the center of the back of the leg, and then imagine a perpendicular line going from heel to heel. Your horse’s heels should be perfectly level using this imaginary line. If they are out of level you can make small adjustments using the rough side of your rasp backwards by racking the rasp towards you. image-16 If you occasionally examine the heels while you are rasping, using the imaginary T-line technique, you can avoid the back rasping on the heels by increasing or decreasing downward pressure on the handle end of the rasp, but you should always finish your rasping at the bottom of the hoof wall by making sure the heels are level.

The final part of the rasping is called “rolling the toe”. This is done by taking the rough side of the rasp and making a downward cut at a 45 degree angle all the way across from the left side of the toe to the right side of the toe. Then, with the soft side of the rasp and working now on the outside of the foot, you want to smooth both the top side and the bottom side of the 45 degree cut you just made. The goal is to make the toe round so that it can roll over smoothly as the horse moves. If you leave the foot flat, as the horse moves it will chip and break the edges of the hoof wall. Imagine a round tire and how it rolls as opposed to trying to roll a triangle. If the triangle is heavy, it will break the points of the triangle as you roll it over. image-17

Lifting the Horse’s Back Foot

The rest of the trim is just repeating the process on each foot. Like I said before, I start with the front left foot and then move to the back left, followed by the back right, and finishing with the front right– all in a counter-clockwise rotation. Contrary to what you might think, the back feet are much easier than the front feet. The actual trim work is the same, aside from the shape of the foot. All horses have rounded front feet and more pointed back feet. The big difference is that when you lift up the back feet, you don’t have a horse body in your way. You can just lift the leg, put it in your lap, and go to work. The process of lifting the back leg is much like the front. You start by facing the leg and taking the hand that is closest to the horse’s head and putting it on the horses hip bone. It usually only takes a little pressure on that point to get the horse to shift his weight to his other leg. image-18 Then you take your other hand and start at the top of the horses leg and slide it downward to the hock. image-19 image-20 image-21 Now, move the hand from the hip, face the rear of the horse, and reach down and grab the foot by the toe. image-22 Hold that position for one to two seconds to allow the horse to get comfortable. Then, you just slowly pull the leg straight back while moving your leg that is closest to the horse under the leg until the horse’s foot is resting on your knee. image-23 Now with another half step forward, you bring your knees together and slide the horse’s foot securely into your lap.image-24 In this position you can comfortably work on the horse’s foot with your back straight and relaxed. image-25

The last thing I should tell you is that this article is just a guide. You can print off the outline, put it with your tools, and get as much practice as you can. Getting knowledgeable and comfortable with this work takes experience. Like shooting, if you want to stay proficient with your firearm, you have to go to the range and practice. The same is true of any other skill you collect; you have to practice using your tools to stay proficient. I recommend contacting a local farrier and asking if you can ride along with him/her once in a while, or you can look for an introductory course at a local college or trade school.

That is the bare bones of trimming your horses feet. Technically, there is not much to it. Physically, there are muscles you seldom use that take a beating at first. Mentally, it is like the famous words of Will Rogers: “There is nothing better for the inside of a man, than the outside of a horse.”

Tea for Two Hundred, This Year and Next- Part 1, by Sarah Latimer

I grew up watching old movies. Doris Day was one of my favorite actresses. I loved her girlish bounce, playfulness, and the wink of her eye. So, I’m frequently reminiscent of her movie “Tea for Two” when I ask various members of the household if they’d like to join me in sharing some tea by asking, “Tea for two?”. I don’t really remember much about the movie since it has been such a long time since I watched it, but it became a common saying in my household, and it still is. However, we don’t just consume tea in individual bags around here every once in awhile. We consume a lot! Plus, we save some for future pleasure and health benefits, too.

It’s garden time and we’re busy planting, but I thought I’d take the time to write about some of the wonderful teas and flavor ingredients our family and those who visit us enjoy regularly from our garden (or from our long-term store house). You might want to consider planting some of these in your annual or perennial gardens, too, or maybe this will encourage you to research your favorite tea ingredients to find how you might grow them where you live. Many of our teas are homegrown, but some of our tea ingredients are purchased and prepared for long-term storage; there are ways to do so economically, and I’ll share some of these ideas as well. As a bonus, many of these teas are also healthy and have dual uses or possibly many uses, making the plant even more attractive to grow.

The stores have wonderful boxes of loose or bagged teas for sale, but most of these are costly, ranging up to $0.45 a cup or more. It’s big business, and our family are not the only ones who like drinking tea for pleasure and health purposes. Tea is gaining in popularity. Ready-to-drink tea sales, according to statistica.com, increased to $6.6 billion in 2014, up from $6.2 billion in 2013. Loose leaf tea sales increased to $1.3 billion in 2015, with most tea imported from China, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Kenya. Some green and black tea is grown domestically, with Lipton, a few other international and regional tea companies, and boutique tea producers having tea farms in the southern half of U.S. states, since tea bushes can be grown in zones 7-11. Traditional green and black tea bushes can also be grown in green houses, of course, and it is possible to successfully grow tea in large pots indoors in sunny windows, from what I read, but that’s not optimal. The traditional tea bushes naturally live a long time and grow quite large, which is difficult to do in a container.

All in all, it’s a lucrative business. At the market rates, with the amount of hot and iced tea our household consumes, we could easily spend $1,000-2,000 a year or even more just on tea at our present consumption, and that doesn’t include our coffee or juice budget. In our on-going efforts at frugality, we have found that there are better ways for us to use our financial resources and still be able to enjoy our delicious, satisfying, and healthy teas with little cost.

We grow much of our own tea and tea flavors, and we buy the other in bulk. By growing our own and doing our research, we know what we are consuming, the condition in which it was grown, and the plant’s health benefits. For those things we grow ourselves, we can be confident they were not sprayed with pesticides or contaminated with dangerous fertilizers and unhealthy water.

Furthermore, we never know when the Schumer will hit the fan, whether for the nation, our region, or maybe just for our family in the form of a period without income or a major, unexpected expense. If we ever had a repeat of the Boston Tea Party, where all imports were rejected, I’d want my own indefinite supply! While I doubt we’ll experience this, I do wonder if the importation of tea will be able to continue indefinitely. Like many items our nation enjoys, most of our tea is imported, and war seems to be emininent as well as financial crisis, so only the Lord God knows for certain what our future holds and what resources we will be able to import in the months and years ahead. Having our own self-sustaining supply of the things that we need is very important and becoming more important to me each with each day’s news report.

You may think that it is silly for me to be concerned about having a tea supply when there are much more basic and critical supplies necessary for life. Certainly there are! Tea may not be a staple necessity, but it is important for our family’s emotional and physical health. Under normal conditions, we drink tea every day in some form or fashion. For me and other members of our family, tea is one of the simple pleasures of life, and we enjoy being able to share this pleasure with our guests also. When SHTF, having some sense of normalcy will help keep us level headed and focused. Tea is one of those things that I intend to continue providing to my family that they can look forward to in the troubled days. So, it is my goal for our family to not only have what we need on hand and within reach for the long term but to have many of the things that we enjoy available to us as well. Noah had family, food, shelter, work, and water. The clothes and shoes of the children of Israel didn’t wear out while they spent 40 years in the wilderness, and at times they had more than their fill of manna and quail as well as “the Rock”, who provided water to them as they traveled. Regardless of what is going on in the world in a crisis situation, I don’t want to just survive; I expect our family to thrive, and I’m getting started now.

Plants We Grow For Tea

What do we grow on our property that is useful for tea? Well, the list is continuously changing. I am looking into adding tea plants (camellia sinensis), but I have not yet acquired these. (I understand that it is best to buy the plants rather than the seeds, because the germination rate of the seeds is slow, but I am no expert on this matter. Research this for yourself.) Collecting the leaves for green, black, or oolong tea look like quite a labor-intensive effort, but you know what goes into the plants that are nourishing you and you have a continued supply, as long as you are able to water and care for them. In doing my research, I understand that one must collect the new leaves with the best ones being produced in the springtime. The bushes can get quite large and I’d need several to meet our family’s tea demands, but I read that it is helpful to keep them pruned to encourage new growth (and leaves for tea). The leaves have to be hand picked, then bruised, and often rolled before being fully dried. Christine Parks, who writes for the American Camellia Society, provided a detailed pdf paper on how she grows and processes green/black tea in her backyard.

I don’t have tea bushes yet, but in writing this article and looking back at my information on growing green and black teas, I am more serious than ever about getting some bushes soon. These are nice bushes with beautiful camellia flowers on them. So, even if we don’t pick the leaves, they would look nice on the property! If and when SHTF, we will want black tea for sure, and I only have a few year’s worth stored away. I’ll tell you later how we store our teas and tea flavoring ingredients to retain long-term freshness. Let’s get right into what we grow on our property currently and what you can, too.

We grow (for tea):

  • Chamomile
  • Lemon Balm
  • Lemon Grass
  • Peppermint
  • Spearmint
  • Lavendar
  • Calendula
  • Strawberries
  • Blackberries
  • Blueberries
  • Peaches
  • Apples
  • Roses/rose hips
  • Borage flowers
  • Nasturtium flowers

Now, I’m not including the medicinal tea ingredients that we grow. Those are okay, but not really pleasant, in my opinion. Stinging nettle tea is actually not bad, but it is not a joy, like the ingredients I’m listing here. Echinacea is down right bitter, and there are many other medicinal plants we grow also that can be ingested as tea, but I’m not going to go into those specifically in this article. I’m focusing on what tastes good here, though there are health benefits, some of which I may mention.

Using the Plants We Grow

Let’s talk about the plants I grow and how I use each, specifically.

Tea by the Cup or Glass

What tool we use for infusing our tea has a lot to do with what ingredients we are using. If I am merely making a ginger root tea, then I can simply slice a thin piece of peeled ginger root and put it in a cup of hot water by itself to let it seep for five to ten minutes and remove it at the end of that time. However, if I am using chamomile or another tea/herb that has fine particles, I must use a very fine mesh infuser. Medium-sized or large particle tea, like black tea with coursely chopped leaves, can be put into a tea ball or a closed spoon with the holes to allow the infusing to occur. Alternatively, one can just dump everything into hot water and then pour through a fine mesh strainer after it has seeped. I use all of the above methods, depending upon what ingredients I have, how much I am making, and what is available to me at the time. Straining the tea and flavanoids out is important, because I don’t know anyone who enjoys drinking chunks of anything in their tea. If making iced tea, I seep a strong cup of tea in hot water and then slowly pour it over ice cubes, add a little chilled water and stir. Something new that we recently tried and found to work nicely for traveling, gift giving, or for carrying in your lunch box, brief case, or purse, are paper tea bags. They add a small expense but are very convenient. Because I was uable to find a supply of tea bags from a U.S. manufacturer, we ordered these drawstring tea bags from China through Amazon and found them to work rather well. The only drawback is that it takes several weeks for them to arrive, so be sure to allow that time in your planning and order a decent quantity if you want a long-term supply of these. It’s very easy to mix up a tea blend, put a heaping teaspoon inside one of these, tie it closed, and place several in a sandwich ziploc bag for convenient carry in my purse and use wherever I go.

Tea by the Pitcher or Teapot

Basically, I use the same tools as I do for the cup or glass but larger ones and have pitchers that can handle the hot water for seeping teas. If I am making iced tea, which is a staple in our home throughout most of the year (yes, I am a southerner and I’ve even been mocked publicly in a fine Boston restaurant for ordering iced tea in the winter but insisted upon a glass of ice and a cup of hot tea anyway!), I simply fill my infuser basket with tea and/or herbs and pour hot water into the pitcher to let it seep. Then, I let the infuser drain its yummy nectar and add ice water to fill the pitcher. I am especially fond of the Republic of Tea pitcher that allows for loose tea infusion as well as fruit infusion. In tea pots, I may use tea balls or baskets also.

Letter Re: Amazon Discussion

Hugh,

Another great Amazon tool isn’t really Amazon at all. To determine whether today’s price is the best price, copy the item’s URL and go to camelcamelcamel.com. There, you’ll be able to see a historical chart of the item’s price and set up a notification when the item reaches the price you’re comfortable with (not only on Amazon but with third party sellers as well, if you’re so inclined).

Camelcamelcamel.com is a great tool, if you don’t need to buy it today, for those items that may be more costly and in your budget at a lower price. – Dayzymom

Economics and Investing:

Balance Due: Credit-Card Debt Nears $1 Trillion as Banks Push Plastic – G.G.

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Swift Banking Network Struggles With Wave of Cyberattacks – It would be prudent to have cash, even when traveling around. Local banks might take an outage if the Swift network goes down. – P.S.

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Crony Capitalism And The Feudal America Of Trump And Clinton – J.B.

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Two-Thirds Of Americans Would Struggle To Cover $1,000 Emergency – G.G.

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The Biggest Winner Of The Oil Bust: Interview With Aeromexico – Airlines have thrived throughout the oil bust as fuel costs fell rapidly, but now that oil prices are slowing turning around airlines are trying to hedge the best price for the years ahead.

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SurvivalBlog and its editors are not paid investment counselors or advisers. Please see our Provisos page for details.

Odds ‘n Sods:

Wonderful idea and program on urban farming. An All-Volunteer Squad Of Farmers Is Turning Florida Lawns Into Food – DMS

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New Surveillance System May Let Cops Use All of the Cameras – Note: All of these systems that allow the police or public to access private video cameras depend on users not configuring their cameras appropriately. Always change the password on any camera, even if you don’t think that it has access to the Internet. – B.B.

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Schumer to Introduce Further Gun Control Legislation – RBS

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Two from Mike Williamson, SurvivalBlog’s Editor at Large:

US Immigration map

Useful site for tracking local crime

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An interesting article on the intrusive methods of policing: The Problem With Smart Policing – T.Z.

Hugh’s Quote of the Day:

“But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light: which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.” – 1 Peter 2:9-10 (KJV)

Notes for Saturday – May 21, 2016

Just three days after Hessian mercenary forces assaulted the local New Jersey militia at Quinton’s Bridge, the same contingent surprised the colonial militia at Hancock’s Bridge five miles from Salem. In what became known as the Massacre at Hancock’s Bridge, at least 20 members of the militia lost their lives, some after attempting to surrender. The Loyalists reputedly exclaimed “Spare no one! Give no quarter!” as they stormed the occupied house. Judge Hancock and his brother (both Loyalists) were bayoneted in the melee by the attackers even though they were both staunch supporters of the crown and were themselves non-violent Quakers.

o o o

Today, we present another entry for Round 64 of the SurvivalBlog non-fiction writing contest. The nearly $12,000 worth of prizes for this round include:

First Prize:

  1. A Tactical Self-Contained 2-Series Solar Power Generator system from Always Empowered. This compact starter power system is packaged in a wheeled O.D. green EMP-shielded Pelican hard case (a $1,700 value),
  2. A Gunsite Academy Three Day Course Certificate that is good for any one, two, or three day course (a $1,195 value),
  3. A course certificate from onPoint Tactical for the prize winner’s choice of three-day civilian courses, excluding those restricted for military or government teams. Three day onPoint courses normally cost $795,
  4. DRD Tactical is providing a 5.56 NATO QD Billet upper with a hammer forged, chrome-lined barrel and a hard case to go with your own AR lower. It will allow any standard AR-type rifle to have a quick change barrel, which can be assembled in less than one minute without the use of any tools and a compact carry capability in a hard case or 3-day pack (an $1,100 value),
  5. Gun Mag Warehouse is providing 20 Magpul PMAG 30-rd Magazines (a value of $300) and a Gun Mag Warehouse T-Shirt; (an equivalent prize will be awarded for residents in states with magazine restrictions),
  6. Two cases of Mountain House freeze-dried assorted entrees in #10 cans, courtesy of Ready Made Resources (a $350 value),
  7. The Ark Institute is donating a non-GMO, non-hybrid vegetable seed package (enough for two families of four) plus seed storage materials, a CD-ROM of Geri Guidetti’s book “Build Your Ark! How to Prepare for Self Reliance in Uncertain Times”, and two bottles of Potassium Iodate (a $325 retail value),
  8. A $250 gift certificate good for any product from Sunflower Ammo,
  9. KellyKettleUSA.com is donating an AquaBrick water filtration kit with a retail value of $250, and
  10. Two cases of meals, Ready to Eat (MREs), courtesy of CampingSurvival.com (a $180 value).

Second Prize:

  1. A Glock form factor SIRT laser training pistol and a SIRT AR-15/M4 Laser Training Bolt, courtesy of Next Level Training, which have a combined retail value of $589,
  2. A transferable certificate for a two-day Ultimate Bug Out Course from Florida Firearms Training (a $400 value),
  3. A Model 175 Series Solar Generator provided by Quantum Harvest LLC (a $439 value),
  4. A Trekker IV™ Four-Person Emergency Kit from Emergency Essentials (a $250 value),
  5. A $200 gift certificate good towards any books published by PrepperPress.com,
  6. A pre-selected assortment of military surplus gear from CJL Enterprize (a $300 value),
  7. RepackBox is providing a $300 gift certificate to their site, and
  8. Safecastle is providing a package of 10 LifeStraws (a $200 value)
  9. American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) is providing a $300 certificate good towards any of their DVD training courses.

Third Prize:

  1. A Royal Berkey water filter, courtesy of Directive 21 (a $275 value),
  2. A $245 gift certificate from custom knife-maker Jon Kelly Designs, of Eureka, Montana,
  3. A large handmade clothes drying rack, a washboard, and a Homesteading for Beginners DVD, all courtesy of The Homestead Store, with a combined value of $206,
  4. Expanded sets of both washable feminine pads and liners, donated by Naturally Cozy (a $185 retail value),
  5. Two Super Survival Pack seed collections, a $150 value, courtesy of Seed for Security, LLC,
  6. Mayflower Trading is donating a $200 gift certificate for homesteading appliances,
  7. Montie Gear is donating a Precision Rest (a $249 value), and
  8. Two 1,000-foot spools of full mil-spec U.S.-made 750 paracord (in-stock colors only) from www.TOUGHGRID.com (a $240 value).

Round 64 ends on May 31st, so get busy writing and e-mail us your entry. Remember that there is a 1,500-word minimum, and that articles on practical “how to” skills for survival have an advantage in the judging.

How To Trim Your Horse’s Feet- Part 1, by R.B.

For starters I should let you know that I was school trained as a farrier at the Oklahoma Horse Shoeing School in Purcell, Oklahoma. I went there right after two tours in the U.S. Army. I worked full time as a shoer for about 10 years, then part time for another 10 years, and now I just shoe my own horses. In short, I have about 30 years and thousands of horses under my belt. I suspect the readers of this blog have already read JWR’s Patriots, which was the inspiration for this article.

The purpose of this article is to give you a usable reference to help you maintain the health of your horse’s feet, should you find yourself in a TEOTWAWKI situation where transportation via horseback is essential. I should also point out that all the information relative to shoeing, choosing sound horses for purchase, correcting traveling problems, forging corrective shoes, and identifying and treating ailments would take an entire book, which is likely a little too lengthy for this format. The aim of this article is to familiarize you with trimming horses feet and hopefully start you on a path of confidence and skill so that you can not only maintain your own stock but use this information as a barter skill to add to your TEOTWAWKI preparation toolbox.

Preparations

First, I think it’s best to give you a quick outline from start to finish of a basic trim. Later, we will go into detail on all the anatomy, tools, and procedures. (You can print, laminate, and keep this with your emergency horse trimming tool kit.)

200-27

Outline

Trimming horses feet:

  1. Starting with the front left foot, lift the foot and grasp securely and comfortably.
  2. Clean debris with dull side of knife.
  3. Check the foot for any sign of disease or injury.
  4. Use hoof knife to find the white line at the toe of the sole.
  5. Use hoof knife to concave the sole to the commisures, leaving enough dead sole to protect the foot.
  6. Use the hoof knife to trim the bars and frog.
  7. Use the nippers at the toe of the hoof wall to start a straight and level cut.
  8. Continue trimming the hoof wall along the left and right sides level with the initial cut.
  9. Check the alignment of the heels, using imaginary T line.
  10. Use the coarse side of the rasp to smooth and level the hoof wall from the heels to the toe.
  11. Check the alignment of the heels again, using imaginary T line and rasp to level.
  12. Use the coarse side of the rasp to cut a 45 degree angle across the front half of the hoof wall.
  13. Use the fine side of the rasp to “round” the 45 degree cut angle.
  14. Check again for any sign of disease of injuries and treat accordingly.
  15. Continue this process around the back feet and back to the opposite front foot.

Sounds simple enough, right?

Anatomy

It is important that you familiarize yourself with the anatomy of a horse’s foot. image-2 The outside shell that you see when the horse is standing is called the hoof wall. The hoof wall is named for the toe at the front, the sides are called the quarters, and the farthest back points are called the heels. Between and above the heels is a fleshy area, called the bulbs. At the top of the hoof wall, at the hair line, is an area called the coronet band. Inside the hoof the bone in the bottom of the foot is called the coffin bone. Just above that is the short pastern bone, with the long pastern bone above that and the navicular bone to the rear of the short pastern and coffin bone joint. If you lift up the foot and look at the bottom, just inside the hoof wall is a thin line called the white line.image-3 The white line is the laminae that adheres the hoof wall to the sole. After the white line is the sole. The sole comprises most of the area under the foot. The large leathery triangular pad at the rear of the foot is called the frog. On each side of the frog, there is a trough called a commisure, and just outside that, running from the heel to the front of the frog, is a line of wall tissue called the bars.

Tools

The next bit of necessary background reference is the tools. As a bare minimum to trim a foot, you will need a hoof knife, nippers, and a rasp. image-4 Hoof knives are hand specific; so, if you are right handed, you will need a right hand knife. I am right handed, but I also keep a left hand knife because it is much easier to trim the left side of the frog with a left-handed knife for a right-handed person. They also make a double-bladed hoof knife so you can have both knives in one tool. The knife should be kept sharp including the hook end, which is used to clean out hard to get to areas, like the commisure. Your nippers are for cutting the hoof wall. I recommend buying the best pair of nippers you can find. I went through three pairs of Diamond brand nippers before I finally broke down and purchased a pair of 15” GE nippers. The diamond nippers are fine for general purpose, but I have busted two pair on really hard mustang feet. The next tool on the list is a hoof rasp and rasp handle. Rasps are very sharp but also very brittle. When used for the intended purpose, they are like a hot knife through butter. However, if you accidentally drop or step on a rasp, they can snap like peanut brittle. So, for TEOTWAWKI, I recommend having at least one spare. The rasp has four cutting surfaces. The rough side is used for the bottom of the foot. The smooth side is used for the outside of the foot, and the edges are only used when shoeing. The last critical piece of equipment is an apron. I use custom-made chinks with a pocket and a magnet sewn onto the right outside of the knee. image-5 The apron will protect your legs from sharp edges of the hoof wall and provide a place to hold your tools, so you can use both hands to lift and position the horse’s feet.

The Details and Explanation

Now, let’s get to the detail and explanation that I promised you earlier. I like to start with the front left foot, because the left side of the horse is the most used and, hence, most familiar to the horse. It is important to keep the horse comfortable and relaxed as much as possible, as it makes your job a lot easier if the horse is not moving around trying to get comfortable. The whole job is about the horse, so keep that in mind; be considerate of the horse, and the whole job will be much faster. Pat Parrelli once said, “A horse doesn’t care how much you know, until he knows how much you care.”

Lifting a Horse’s Front Foot

Always start with your hand on the horse’s body just above the leg and run your other hand down the leg to the foot so the horse can follow what you are doing. When you get to the foot, if the horse is already broke to shoeing, it is likely he will just lift the foot for you. If he does not, you just grab hold of the hair at the back of the hock and give it a tug upward. If that doesn’t work, you can slide your hand above the hock and feel for a soft spot between the bone and the tendon. If you give that area a little squeeze, most horses will automatically give to this pressure and lift the foot. However you get them to give the foot to you, be prepared to take a good hold on the foot just above the hoof wall until you can get it high enough to grab it by the toe. When you have the foot raised, make a mental note of where the foot is. On a horse with straight legs, the foot will rise straight up and should be directly behind his elbow. The less you move the foot from that position the easier the job will be. If you try to pull the foot out toward you, it will be uncomfortable for the horse and he will likely be moving around trying to get comfortable while you are trying to work. So keep him comfortable and make your job easier. I keep my body as close to the horse as possible, raise the foot with my hand closest to the horse, then slide the foot between my knees, and switch to my outside hand in front of my knees to position the foot and get a good comfortable stance for both me and the horse. On the front feet, this position is very much more uncomfortable for you, but that bit of discomfort will pay off in the end with a happier more tolerant horse.

Cleaning the Foot

Once positioned, I start the trim by using the dull side of my hoof knife to clean out the foot. image-6 Keeping your knife sharp is critical for efficient trimming, and using the dull side of the knife means you don’t have to carry an extra tool to clean the foot. Plus, it protects the sharp side of your knife from rocks and gravel packed in the dirty foot. image-7 image-8

Letter Re: Shopping on Amazon

Hugh,

In addition to the information in this article I would like to mention that there are many free Kindle books at Amazon as well at archive.org that are in the public domain. You do not need a Kindle (or Amazon Prime account) to download and read these books, you can read them on your laptop/desktop computer with the free downloadable Kindle PC reading app from Amazon. If you use the shipping option that gives you a 99 cent credit usable on Kindle books or digital audio products it has been my experience that the length of time between ordering and arrival has not been any different than the fastest free option, and you can use that credit on Kindle books.

Another Amazon feature that I use numerous times daily, is the Send-to-Kindle app. This particular article in fact, like many on Survival Blog, I view on my Safari web browser and use the reader view and on the pull-down ‘file’ option I “save as PDF” to a folder on my computer. Once there I “Send-to-Kindle” to my portable Kindle Fire on which I’ve got an encyclopedia of knowledge. Saved as PDF files also makes them easy to print out and placed in that binder we all have.

Lastly, and most importantly, the section on Amazon reviews In Sarah Latimers’ article is very excellent and perhaps the most valuable information of all. In fact, I often read one-star ratings just for entertainment: “I rated this one-star because I got it as a gift and I already have one”. – Mr. T