Why, pests of course. They love to get in to your food storage. Your food storage is an endless buffet for them. Be it bugs or mice they will live a life of heaven in your food storage as long as they can and even invite their friends along. Just think. One mouse gets into your food storage and he/she has found the largest buffet in the world to them. Are they going to keep it all to themselves? Surely not! They are going to invite their significant other to join them and maybe a few friends. And some where along the line they are going to have babies, who, when big enough are going to be shown to the buffet. Oh the wonderful life of a mouse or a bug when they find the worlds biggest buffet all for themselves. They will love you forever for providing so much wonderful food just for them.
Now, think of all the hard work and money you spent building that food storage. Add the fact that you did it to feed your own family and not some rodents or bugs. Ticks you off big time when they get to it first doesn't it? Brings you to tears when you see the damage they did to your food storage. So, you set out traps and catch a few mice. Now you think your food storage is safe once again. Wrong if you didn't store it right. They will continue to come back as long as they can smell the food and get to it with minimal effort. You need to make it a lot harder on them.
Take for instance this one prepper who filled tons of mylar bags with her own dehydrated foods and store bought dry goods and then lined them all up nice and pretty on a very high shelf in her garage. Sounds good right? Wrong! No matter how high she stores those bags, bugs and rodents are still going to get to them at some point in time.
And what about the people that store rice and beans in 2 liter pop bottles? Is their food storage safe? And what about foods that are packed in mylar bags and then into 5 gallon food grade buckets. Are they safe? Wrong! Mice and rats can chew through almost anything but metal and glass. So what can a person do to keep their food safe?
Well for me I rely on metal tins and glass jars. I collect metal tins from my family and buy them at thrift stores and yard sales cheap. I mainly look for popcorn tins. Even at Christmas time I will buy 4 of the tins of popcorn, bag up the popcorn to add to food basket gifts and then wash the tins out really good and make sure they are completely dry. Now I don't just put the food directly into the tins. You can but I choose not to. I place the food in gallon ziplock bags and then place in the tin. This helps keep moisture out of the tin and keeps me from having to wash them often. Of course the gallon bags only fit the popcorn tins. For the smaller tins I use quart or pint ziplock bags. Mylar bags would be better but I have not been able to afford any yet.
Another way to keep your food safe is to store it in half gallon canning jars. I use mostly wide mouth but I have some regular mouth ones I use too. I use the regular mouth jars to store dried beans, rice, popcorn and noodles. I just pour the food into a jar, add the lid and ring and tighten down then I use the food saver jar attachment to seal the jars tight. I use the wide mouth to store sugar, brown sugar, powdered sugar, flour, corn meal and other dry goods that are not easy to get out of a regular mouth jar.
Another good source to use for food storage is gallon pickle jars that you can get for free from restaurants and ice cream places. Some places do charge a small fee for these jars like 50 cents or a $1 but the price is well worth it when you get a gallon size jar to store your food in. I use them to store my own baking mixes. Once you get your food in them and tighten the lid you can add a layer of tape around the lids and jar to keep bugs out. Mice will not be a problem since they are not small enough to fit between the lid and the jar.
One other little trick I use to get gallon or even half gallon pickle jars is that when we are invited to a party or reunion I buy a big jar or two of pickles and make a pickle dish to take. That gives me one or two more jars for food storage and I have not wasted any money because 99% of the time I have very few pickles left to bring home and it is still not a waste of money since we finish up the pickles. :)
One word of caution about using metal tins in the south. I have been told that they will rust. Since I just moved south I have not had this happen to me yet, But I trust the person who told me this I so I am sure it will happen. Depending on how much my tins rust I will still use them if it is not to much since I always put my food in ziplock bags before putting them in tins. If the tins rust so much that bugs will be able to get in I will stop using them and rely only on glass jars.
Oh before I forget there is another way you can store your food and keep it safe from rodents and bugs. You can buy brand new metal trash cans with tight fitting lids to store bigger items like 25 lb bags of sugar, flour and so on. Just repack in mylar bags with a oxygen absorbers and place in the cans. Cover tightly with the lid and place a layer of tape around the lid and can. This will keep the bugs from getting under the lid.
So, as you are building your food storage make sure to store it right so you do not lose any of it and remember to rotate your stock. Place the new stock behind or underneath the old stock and always use the oldest stock first. You don't want to waste any of your money that you can use in other areas of prepping.
Prepping Granny
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Many people add peanut butter to their food storage because its packed with both protein and calories. Its a great food to have on hand because it stores easily and can be used in so many different ways. Its a daily staple in my home but it has become more and more expensive recently. Depending on which brand purchased it also has more then just peanuts in it. The first thing you need to do when making nut butters is to roast the nuts. (Some people prefer raw nut butters but I find them to be more grainy and dry.) Roasting helps to release the oils in the nuts. Simply place the nuts on a baking sheet (or improvise if there are no ovens) and place in a 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes. Stir them around occasionally to prevent them from burning and so that they toast on all sides. You'll begin to smell the nuts and they'll get a slightly oily sheen as the oils are released. Be sure not to let them burn. I made almond, sunflower and cashew butter today. Three jars nut butter When the nuts are finished roasting then allow them to cool and pour them into your food processor with the chopping blade. Turn the processor on and let it run. Roasted Sunflower Seeds The nuts will first look like a dry course meal. After five minutes or so just stop the processor and scrape down the sides.
Just beginning to release their oils form a butter.
A smooth shiny butter after about 10 minutes.
Then I pour it into jars and allow it to cool. Here is sunflower butter with the slightly greenish tint. The more buttery yellow one is cashew butter. Finally, there is the almond butter, darker brown from the outer skin on the almonds Recently, I was having a discussion with a friend of mine. We were talking about his food storage and what I recommended that he purchase. Of course, I recommended whole wheat berries as I always do when someone asks. My purchases for my personal food storage and any beginning food storage plan should always start with the basics. Whole wheat and other whole grains are nutrient rich, high in calories and good sources of protein. "But I don't eat much flour and I don't have a grinder" was his and most of the other responses I usually get. Well that discussion inspired this post because I'm going to tell you what you can actually DO with wheat and why it needs to be in your food storage whether you have a grinder or not. Of course, I do recommend that you get a grinder because without it, making flour will be very labor intensive. Remember that flour is used in pastas, breads, cakes, gravies, crackers and other things. A grinder also processes corn and other grains as well. So if you like cornmeal, grits, pasta or bread then its a good thing to get some kind of grinder to add to your preps. This post isn't about grain mills and grinding grain though. I want to talk about uses for wheat and other whole grains that don't require any grinding. 1. The most obvious use is as a hot cereal. Measure your wheat then add 2x that amount in hot water. Either cook it in a crock pot overnight, on the stove or even in a thermos. 2. Wheat can also be added to soups and stews just like rice or pasta. Just toss some into the pot with everything else. 3. Use it in casseroles just like you would use rice. A little cheese and brocolli or whatever vegetable you like makes a good side dish. 4. Make mixtures like tabouli with cooked wheat. 5. Pop it in a dry skillet like popcorn. 6. Use in place of rice in almost any dish. Think wheat pilaf or wheat a roni. 7. Soak it overnight and the bake it into muffins or bread or even bannock in the morning. 8. Use it for sprouting. (There's another blog post on how to sprout) Then use the sprouts in stir frys, breads, soups, sandwiches etc 9. Use cooked wheat in desserts like rice pudding type dishes. 10. Use it as a meat substitute on lean days. Think wheat burgers or wheat loaf. 11. What about wheat grass? Not my favorite but its packed with nutrients. 12. Use it for feeding animals. 13. Finally, remember that whole grains can be used to grow more food. There are very few foods that will multiply like whole grains (and beans) Just try planting flour and see what grows! I hope that this helps show that grains should be a part of any Preppers food storage. Yes, I think you need a grinder of some sort but if you can't afford one don't just assume you can't use the grains if you need to. There ARE other ways to grind grain which need to be learned but always remember that there are also other ways to use them without grinding as well. Southern Wood Elf No herbal medicine chest would be complete without elderberries. They are hands down one of the best defenses against sickness. While the entire plant can be used in various herbal remedies the most commonly used part is undoubtedly the ripe berries. Because of that I will focus on just using the berries. The berries are usually made into a syrup or a rob and taken daily. Both the syrup and the rob can be used for boosting the immune system. They are also used for respiratory illnesses like bronchitis , asthma, colds, coughs and flu. Taking a dose daily helps prevent and control the ailments but if you do become sick then increasing the dose will help to shorten the length of the illness. So, now you know what this miracle syrup does. Lets learn how to make it. The first thing to do is properly identify what elderberries aren't! There is usually only one plant that is confused with the elder tree or shrub and that is the common poke weed. Here is a picture of unripe berries on a poke weed. Notice that they grow in a downward, drooping cone shape and encircle the branch. When they ripen they will turn dark purple. You DO NOT want to confuse these with elderberries. Poke Berries Unripen Elderberries Now here is a head of elderberries ripening. Notice that the berries grow upright in a flat topped round bouquet shape. The tree has a harder bark covering then poke and can grow much taller then the poke weed. Ripening Elderberries Ripe Elderberries Now here is a head of elderberries ripening. Notice that the berries grow upright in a flat topped round bouquet shape. The tree has a harder bark covering then poke and can grow much taller then the poke weed. As the berries ripen they do begin to droop like the poke berries but you can see that they are not conical in shape and present a much larger head of berries. To harvest the berries simply clip the entire head of berries from the shrub and take it with you. It is time consuming to remove the berries and you do not want to spend the afternoon picking tiny berries one by one. Elderberries ripen over time and it is nearly impossible to find a head without a few unripe berries. Simply remove and discard those few green berries and stems as you remove the ripe berries into a bowl. You do not want to include the unripe berries or stems in your syrup because they will form a green foam which will not taste good and will have to be removed. To remove the berries simply roll them off of the stems with your fingers. It is a simple task that will take a bit of time. Here are some berries that still need a bit of cleaning to remove some stems and unripe berries. After they are cleaned you are ready to preserve the berries or make your syrup. To preserve them you can dehydrate them and store them in a jar. Dried berries can be reconstituted to make a perfectly good syrup at any time. You can also freeze the berries to make syrup whenever you get ready and have time. If you don't have access to fresh berries then it is possible to buy already dried berries at the health food store or online. Just use a bit more water then you would with fresh berries. Elderberries simmering with spices. There is very little difference in Elder Rob and Elderberry syrup. For the most part they can be used interchangeably. A rob is simply a fruit juice that is sweetened with sugar and reduced to make it thick. The syrup has the addition of spices (for added medicinal punch) and isn't reduced as thickly as the rob. I tend to combine the two into one and call it elder rob or syrup either way. To begin you will want to cover your cleaned berries with water. I don't use measurements because I don't know how many berries I will have each time. I usually cover to about two inches above the berries. Then I go ahead and add my spices in the pot with the berries and water. I use cinnamon sticks, whole cloves and grated fresh ginger. I add one or two cinnamon sticks, 1/2 ounce of ginger and about 20 cloves for each gallon of juice. If you don't have whole spices then it is ok to use ground spices. Simmer the berries in the water with the spices for about twenty minutes. Straining the juice. Strain the juice from the solids through a cloth lined sieve. Return the juice to the pot and add your sweetener. The sweetener thickens the juice as it reduces so don't leave it out. Since I can the syrup I use sugar because honey would lose most of its beneficial properties if it is heated to boiling. I generally add the honey after opening if I use the syrup in a hot tea. Traditionally elder rob is made with "loaf sugar" or unrefined sugar so that is what I use. You can buy it in cones or discs in many of the ethnic stores and some grocery stores. You can just use regular sugar or brown sugar if you prefer. The loaf sugar will need to be grated if you choose to use it. The syrup needs to have enough sugar to thicken the syrup but mostly it is sweetened to taste. I make large batches so I have added up to two of the large discs of loaf sugar. Finished Syrup When your syrup is as thick as you like it or about the consistency of honey then it is ready to pour into jars and can it. I use pint jars. Ladle the syrup into the jars leaving a 1/4 inch head space. Wipe rims and place lids and rings on jars. Then process in a hot water bath for 15 minutes. To use the syrup take two teaspoons of syrup daily to boost your immunity. If you become sick then increase the amount to two tablespoons per day to shorten the illness. If you have a cough, cold or a bronchial problem then add two tablespoons to hot water. Add some honey to the warm drink and sip the hot elderberry tea to help break up congestion in the chest and sooth coughs. Store opened syrup in the refrigerator. Again, this is a must have for any Preppers medicine chest. Whether you harvest wild elderberries, cultivate your own as I have done or buy them already dried, I believe that this is one of the best ways to maintain good health and ward off illnesses both now and wtshtf. Southern Wood Elf Have you ever thought about how much water you and your family use daily? Chances are you use at least a hundred gallons or more a day by the time you shower, wash dishes 2 or 3 times, wash a load of clothes or more or water the garden even if it is a small one. I spent many hours the last couple of months looking at my new garden area. It is over three times the size of the area I had in Michigan. There is no way I could keep up with a in ground garden of that size by myself. Not with my health. And my little tiller will not be able to handle the hard packed ground here. So I have no choice but to find other ways to grow the amount of produce I want to have.
I have made several searches on the net for container gardening, vertical gardening and raised bed gardening. While I like the idea of raised beds the best there is just no way I can buy or even find enough free wood to build as many raised beds as I would need so the only solution is for me to do a little of all three. I have 6 big tubs that I will be using to plant tomato plants in. I figure I can get 3 plants to a tub. Eighteen paste tomatoes will be enough for us since I am the only one that eats fresh tomatoes. Of course I will use another tub to plant 2 beefsteak tomato plants as they are my favorite tomato for fresh eating. Since we live in an area that has high winds at times I will be putting those green metal fence poles along each side of the tubs and running string to help keep the tomato plants supported and the tubs from tipping over. I have at least 30 tubs of various sizes from small to large. I am going to use them for planting beans, beets, bell peppers, chili peppers, snow peas, cabbage, brussel sprouts, sweet potatoes, red potatoes and more in. I will use various metal poles to support the tubs from the strong winds tipping them over. I do plan on making 3 raised beds. I want to grow two types of corn so I will need a bed for each type and then another one for pumpkins, acorn squash and hubbard squash. I will be using containers to plant spinach, lettuce, radishes and mustard. I may plant collards in a tub but not sure yet. Same for celery. I plan on using a tub for the celery and leeks. You might be thinking that is is going to cost a lot for bags of soil to fill all these tubs and you are right it would if I did not plan on getting a load of top soil delivered. My nephew in law drives for a company that delivers top soil and he is going to get me a load for just the cost of the use of the truck so that will save me money and I will buy manure to add to it. I will also be adding a layer of gravel in the bottoms of the tubs to help with drainage so the plants don't sit in water all the time. Of course I will be drilling a few holes in the bottoms of each tub to also help with drainage. Well my first month here did not turn out quite like I hoped. The house we rented was not ready when we got here like it was supposed to be. It was a filthy mess but I have to give the owner credit. When he found out that the guys he hired to clean it didn't do it he gave us our first month's rent free plus knocked off a $100 a month on our rent there after. Thanks to hubby's family I got plenty of help the clean the house before any of our stuff was moved in. We left our home in Michigan at 6 am on the 15th of Aug and arrived at our new home in Mississippi at around 3:30 am on the 16th of Aug. To say that the move was accomplished with out errors or events would be a lie as we had a few problems. First off was the truck my husband rented. I kept telling him it would be to small to hold all the stuff with us but between him and his brother my thoughts were over ruled and pushed aside.
Loading day comes and hubby picks up the truck. Half way into the loading oh my. hubby realizes that the truck was much to small and so the scramble was on to rent another truck and tow bar for a car. Nope that is not happening. Hubby was smart and reserved the first truck before the height of the moving season so he locked in the price at half of it's normal rate. To rent a second truck was going to cost $1400 and we did not have that much so he rents a 12 ft trailer for me to tow behind the van. Now there was two things wrong with this idea. One was that I have never towed anything in my life before and was scared to death to tow the trailer. The second was he didn't ask me before renting it and I freaked out over the thought of driving with that trailer following behind me. I seen to many accidents involving those trailers and people losing control of them. After freaking out I calmed down and had to take a good hard look at what all I really wanted to take with me because there was no way all our stuff was going to fit even with the addition of the trailer. After going back and sorting through all the stuff we had left to load I finally made the choices I need to make and we got the trailer loaded with out an inch of space left to spare. By the time the truck, trailer, back of my van and our son's friend's car filled to over flowing it was 10 pm so we decided to lay down on the floor and sleep for a few hours before leaving out. Of course an old wore out woman like Once tme can not sleep on a bare hardwood floor like the young guys can so I sat up all night. At 4 am the guys all woke up, grabbed quick showers, caught the cat and got him in his kitty crate and we were off. First stop was the Shell station in our home town to fill up the van and the car. The truck was already filled with gas. The price of gas had jumped 15 cents over night and was now $3.89 a gallon. OUCH! While there we each grabbed a drink and a small package of donuts to eat. We would not be stopping again till lunch time. We made it to the state line when we had to stop. The straps holding hubby's lift chair on top of the Jimmy had come lose and the chair was starting to slide off the Jimmy. We got it strapped back on tight and ran the straps through the windows and ran the windows up tight to help keep the straps from coming undone. Then off we went again. About 15 miles down the road the straps holding the Jimmy on the towing trailer came off the wheels so we had to stop again and redo those. Off we went again and for awhile it looked like the rest of the trip would be uneventful. Yeah Right!!! After about two hours I suddenly heard a semi driver blowing his horn and coming up along side of me. I looked over at him and he was pointing up at the sky. I knew what he meant. He was letting me know that the beds were sliding off the top of the van so my son radioed my hubby and let him know what was going on and we pulled off the side of the road to get the beds back on to the van. Once the boys got the beds tied back on we started off again only to go about a mile when all of a sudden I heard a loud thumb. I look back in time to see the beds and something else landing on the side of the road. By then the traffic was so heavy I could not stop to go back to get them. When I told my son I swore I saw something else fall off with them he looked and me with a sheepish look on his face and told me that he and his friend and slid one of my folding chairs and one of my folding tv trays between the beds because there was no room in the trailer for them. So not only were the beds now lost but so was my folding chair and tv tray. Oh well at least them can be replaced pretty easy. We made it the rest of the way to Tenn and was about half way through it when hubby decided that we needed sleep so he pulled into some rest stop. By this time I was completely lost and just wanted to get to the new house but no he said he needed rest. I kept telling him there was no way I would be able to sleep when I was pushed into the steering wheel by all the stuff packed in to the back of the van. By this time it was 9 pm and I knew there was no way I would be getting any sleep so I sat there is that van until midnight when I finally had enough and woke him up and told him I was going on with out him and if I got lost it was all his fault since he did not write down the directions for me. I had been up since 4 am Thursday morning and here it was midnight Friday night and I was not in a good mood at all. I was dead tired, hot and cranky and could be. He know from the tone of my voice I had made up my mind and if he was not ready to go I was going to leave with out him. We finally made the last leg of the trip and was met by his cousin who showed up the way to the house since it was right down the road from him. The owner had left the house unlocked for us but the power was not on. At first we thought that the power company had not turned the power on then hubby's cousin remembered that they always have you turn off the breakers before they will turn the power on so he found the break box, flipped the breakers and low and behold we had power. That is when the sight that met my eyes was the last straw that broke the camel's back. The house was a filthy mess. I won't go into details but I will tell you I would rather have lived in the city dump then the house at that point. I was so heartbroken that I walked out and went to his cousins house and just sat for about an hour not talking to any one. I sat there just silently fuming. After and hour I decided to pull myself up by the boot straps go back the house and take it from a dump to a home so I had the boys unload all my cleaning supplies and equipment from the back of the van and I started cleaning. in the mean time hubby stayed at his cousins and made some phone calls. First he called his sister and let her know what was going on and she called in the army (her daughters) and they were here by 9am and helped my clean the house from top to bottom. There was not a spot in the house that was not cleaned and disenfected by the time we were done. Her daughters were not the only ones that showed up. One of her sons and several of her grandsons and other family members showed up as well and by 3 pm everything was unloaded and put in their spots inside the house. All that was left was the unpacking and I wanted to take my time doing that. Earlier that morning Johnny had gotten a hold of the owner and told him that we were not happy with the conditition of the house and was not sure we even wanted to rent it any more. The owner apoligized and made us an offer we could not refuse he gave us the first month rent free and knocked a $100 of the rent for one year if we were willing to stay here. He also told me to make a list of what all I found wrong with the house and he would have his guys fix it. He had hired two men to fix it and clean it before we got here and they had told him they had done it. I had taken pictured of what the house looked like before I started cleaning it and Johnny took them and showed them to the owner. He was so made about what we had walked into that he fired the guys who said they had cleaned it. And he has been real good about sending guys into fix what all I have found wrong with it. So now it is becoming a real home. All I can say about the last people who lived here is that they must like living in a city dump. I am now happy with our new home and am making progress every day at getting everything unpacked and put away. We have also been working on the outside which was all a dump when we got here but not any more. The boys have done a fine job of cleaning it out. Next up is cleaning out the storm cellar. Apparently the people who lived here before thought it was one big trash can and now we have to get all the trash out of it before it can be used in the event of a tornado. On a side note I was worried about how much I would miss living in Michigan but the funny thing is I don't miss it at all. I really don't feel much different here than I did there. And that is a good thing. :) Prepping Nana Remember all those old cartoons that show a woman standing on a chair screaming when she sees a mouse run across the floor? Well that is me! I am absolutely terrified of those little creatures. I would rather see a snake or huge spider crawling across the floor then a tiny little mouse. I know it sounds childish to be that afraid of a tiny little creature who is supposedly more afraid of me that I am of it but for me it is the other way around. I freak out big time at the sight of a mouse alive or dead and I have good reasons for being that way. Let's start with what caused my phobia in the first place and then we will go from there. I am not going to get into all the damage that mice and rats can do to your home but I will address what they can do to your food and prep supplies. These rodents can chew through almost anything. They will get into almost any food packaging except for metal and glass. That is why most of my food storage is always kept in glass canning jars or metal popcorn, cookie and candy tins.
Where to look for gaps or holes outside your home
Fill small holes with steel wool. Put caulk around the steel wool to keep it in place. Use lath screen or lath metal, cement, hardware cloth, or metal sheeting to fix large holes. These materials can be found at your local hardware store. Fix gaps in trailer skirtings and use flashing around the base of the house. If you do not remember to seal up entry holes in your home, rodents will continue to get inside. Outbuildings and garages should also be sealed to prevent the entrance of rodents.
If storing trash and food waste inside the home, do so in rodent-proof containers, and frequently clean the containers with soap and water. Dispose of trash and garbage on a frequent and regular basis, and pick up or eliminate clutter.
Next, clean and disinfect the whole area
Lastly, remove gloves, and thoroughly wash hands with soap and water (or use a waterless alcohol-based hand rub when soap is not available and hands are not visibly soiled).
Remove gloves, and thoroughly wash hands with soap and water (or use a waterless alcohol-based hand rub when soap is not available and hands are not visibly soiled).
Attics, basements, crawlspaces, and other storage areas, Recommended methods of textile decontamination Clothing, Bedding, Stuffed Animals. Launder potentially contaminated bedding, clothing, or stuffed animals with hot water and detergent. Use rubber, latex, vinyl, or nitrile gloves when handling contaminated laundry. Machine-dry laundry on a high setting or hang it to air dry in the sun.
While I do not want to make this into a political issue, I do want to weigh the facts and protect myself and my family the best I can. |