Harvest Time! September is National Preparedness Month, Warranty Success With A Twist

Harvest Time! 

It's been busy, busy busy!!! Harvest time is always great (and) way too much at once. Our Redhaven peach tree was delayed this year because of our wacky late spring early summer weather and started ripening around the same time as the pears. Usually our Red Haven peaches are ripe in July well ahead of the other fruit trees. We froze, baked and canned some, gave some to my kiddos. Froze these on a cookie sheet, then vacuum sealed in bags for later-

 

Apples are done now, gave away some to both my daughters and their in-laws. I put canning on hold this year as I just don't have the time and some medical stuff going on. Also working a lot of overtime at work. Since we have quite a bit left over from the last two years we're good. We have lots of fresh apples stashed in both of our refrigerators which will last for months. They are delish! As a twist we have pretty much decided to actually cut down our apple tree. It is way too big and is producing way too much fruit for us. It was a tough decision in some ways but the right thing to do. Dave has a friend who's going to take the tree down for the firewood and in the spring we'll find a nice dwarf apple tree to put in its place. I canned peaches, pears got to ripe too fast with the heat so I didn't can any. Did baking and we are ate lots fresh! Pear crisp-

 

Tomatoes are coming in like crazy, finally! Our favorite variety this summer is the Black Prince tomato, a Russian variety, sweet and really delicate flavor! Smaller but amazing, will plant again-

 

Lots and lots on the vine too. I frozen some, have eaten fresh and used some of our bumper of crop cherry tomatoes to roast and pack in olive oil. They will keep well in the fridge through the winter. Elliott Homestead has some really good videos on Youtube for food prepping. I used her recipe for the cherry tomatoes. She has another recipe for sun-dried tomatoes (in the oven) and again packed in olive oil. I made those too-

 

 

Roasting

 

Freezing, used vacuum bags after this part

 

Roma's "sun dried" in the oven

 

Packed in Olive oil

 

 

In the fridge for winter

 

Fresh with our Basil and cukes! 

Swiss chard grew really well in a in a box this summer! The chickens love it so I give them some as treats-

 

Kind of so-so on our new little garden bed with radishes, carrots, and green onions. I think it's just been the weather since they've been getting plenty of water-

 

I bought really fresh, nice pickling cucumbers at a local farmstead to ferment again this year. One jar went to each of my daughters and the rest for me-

Made my 1st Chimichurri, came out great with my stored frozen roast and local roasted potatoes!

  

 

 

Eggs are in good production since Luna started laying again!

 

 

 

We're ready for Autumn!

 

Bonnie enjoying the ending summer light-

 

 

 

 

September is National Preparedness Month-

Speaking of storing and preserving food! September is National Preparedness Month (again). I can't say strongly enough I think things are going to get much much worse over the next few years before they get better. If you or your loved ones, or someone you know, is the type to thank everything will be okay they will be in for a very rude awakening. I HOPE I AM WRONG. I'm not trying to be negative, just realistic, and for those who are able to listen- store up extra foods, water, cash, fuel you know the drill. You can look back on my preparedness posts here or Google September National Preparedness Month for all kinds of resources in your area. Don't forget your pets and don't forget over the counter supplements, syrups, pain relief, etc. What if you had a bad cough and couldn't find cough syrup anywhere? Not a good scenario, but if you have a couple of extra bottle stashed along with other kinds of first aid supplies your set. Winter is coming and we've already seen the bizarre international weather events. This is the new normal. Just a good reminder to not rely on anybody to help you, EVER.

 

Warranty Success With A Twist-

I blogged a while back about how I found a used Stanley travel mug with (it turned out) a broken lid-

 

 

I replaced the lid which wound up leaking sadly. I called the Stanley customer service number which was an overseas call center. That was pretty well a nightmare. I looked on their website and anything over 30 days was NOT covered by warranty, shocked! I had bought the lid and stored it for quite a few months before I used it. I started thinking about a work-around. I went on to Amazon's website looked up the Stanley flask/mug that was similar and posted a question, since I couldn't post a comment. Mentioned that they had terrible customer service and was there a local phone number? Within 24 hours I got an email from Stanley to go to their website and fill out a form, which I did. I got a response within about 2 days asking for a photo of the bottom of the cup and a video showing the leak, which I did. Within a few days I was told that the lid is out of stock, but that they were going to send me a replacement. Not a replacement LID, which was what I asked for, but a full replacement mug/flask. They let me choose which of two colors, I went with Rose Quartz (almost Copper), so now I have a brand new Stanley travel mug/flask and lid that works! Item here- Stanley1913 Mug I will save the old one, just won't use in a bag, etc. Pretty funny, I spent $3.00 for the thrifted item, $10 for a new lid and I wound up getting a free, more expensive new flask. Always pays to be creative and think about your options. 

September National Preparedness Month/Is This Redundant? Autumn's Almost Here

 

September National Preparedness Month/Is This Redundant?

On some level I almost don't feel like even posting this. But since it is National Preparedness Month I thought I'd add just a good few reminders and links... Ready.gov Be Informed   Redcross.org Emergency Preparedness Checklist  You can check out my previous posts on this topic under the "topics" tab on the right side. Don't forget to prep for your pets!!! Ready.gov Pets

If you've been watching the national and international news you know that there have been major catastrophic crop failures, livestock failures, floods, fires, fuel shut offs, war, it's the perfect storm. Everyone should be really preparing for food shortages, exorbitant fuel charges and/or shortages. This news is from this week, time to stock up and maybe buy a turkey for the holidays-

Ohio Egg Farm Euthanizes 3 Million Chickens

 I recently came into a small amount of money and instead of putting it into my retirement account I cashed it out to buy hard goods. I bought about 6 months worth of chicken feed (now $25 a bag up from $12.99 a while back) to get us all the way through the winter and more pine shavings for the coop. Ditto for the cat food. I also bought more things to stash like OTC meds.  I saw a really great deal for a Food Saver vacuum system at Costco for only $75! It came with a starter kit of bags, a really great deal! My old pressure bag system was on its way out, not a surprise since it was pretty cheap. It's good to invest in those kind of food preservation items. I have had ZERO freezer burn with those bags!!! I felt it was a better $ investment than sitting gathering little to no interest for a while. In some ways I feel like cashing it all out and doing something different but I am hopeful that I will still be able to retire someday. If you've seen anything lately about people's thermostats getting locked up by the utilities- I think this is a preview of things to come. I know our local power company asked us to voluntarily sign up to have our power lowered during the hottest part of the summer days. In return they would give us a little bit of money at the end of the summer. We passed. We try to be conscious of our energy and water use. We do a lot of mulching, planting trees on our lot, but we still use/need the AC.  Having said that fuel charges are looking really gruesome in Europe. I think this is also a preview of things to come in the states. I bought some flannel sheets to stash and we have tons of bedding, kerosene and propane heaters. Some people still think that nothing will change, they may have something called normalcy bias. Everything will be fine because it always has been. 

From Wiki- Normalcy bias, or normality bias, is a cognitive bias which leads people to disbelieve or minimize threat warnings. Consequently, individuals underestimate the likelihood of a disaster, when it might affect them, and its potential adverse effects. The normalcy bias causes many people to not adequately prepare for natural disasters, market crashes, and calamities caused by human error. About 70% of people reportedly display normalcy bias during a disaster. The normalcy bias can manifest in response to warnings about disasters and actual catastrophes. Such disasters include market crashes, motor vehicle accidents, natural disasters like a tsunami, and war. Normalcy bias has also been called analysis paralysis, the ostrich effect, and by first responders, the negative panic. The opposite of normalcy bias is overreaction, or worst-case scenario bias, in which small deviations from normality are dealt with as signals of an impending catastrophe.

A classic example was Ukraine. People were warned to leave, Russia was surrounding the country for months and months, and most stayed. They really never thought Russia would invade, despite the obvious signs. The very wealthy never worry either. I heard this quote two days ago and it really stuck with me-

People of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage. Intellectual myopia, often called stupidity, is no doubt a reason. But the privileged also feel that their privileges, however egregious they may seem to others, are a solemn, basic, God-given right- John Kenneth Galbraith, Canadian Economist.

Autumn's Almost Here-

We have been under a Heat Dome like a lot of the West the last few months, with many many weeks and weeks of over 100° weather. It's been very smoky here the last week with multiple fires in Eastern Oregon and here in Idaho. We definitely had a much smaller crop of tomatoes, but green ones are still on the vine. Tomatoes won't set fruit when it's over 80 or 85°. I don't have enough to can this year but will freeze some. I already made some wonderful salsa. Not many apples at all, luckily I canned a lot and froze some last year! Lots of pears on the tree, probably ready to can next weekend. We hit our 43° morning yesterday! Finally getting down into the 80s this week and the 70s late next week. May be some rain, which we desperately need. We're fortunate we had plenty of water for crops and our animals, some are not so lucky. We'll be stashing some mulch and other gardening needs for next year. Those things are easy to store. I'm packing up the summer decor and almost ready to put out pumpkins! 

Preparedness 10.0 / What If ? , Canning Rhubarb Sauce

 

Payette Lake

Preparedness 10.0 / What Ifs?

Autumn is here, cooling down, leaves starting to fall, got some rain! We decided to take a short day trip up to McCall for a change of scenery and a mental health break. Great weather, saw six deer, clear skies and 70 degrees! Random shots-

saw tons of these on the ground, not sure what they are

Water is low

We hit our favorite thrift store! I found a really nice expensive-looking ceramic garlic holder for fresh garlic-

$2.00

The store was just putting out a cast iron pot with a lid. As the worker was taking a photo I asked her how much it was? She said "well what do you want to offer me"? I looked at the bottom and said "made in Taiwan",  looked in pretty good shape. I offered her $12, she said yes and I bought it! It needs a good scrubbing but it was already seasoned which was good. Not sure how old it is. I had read lately a lot of people bake round loaves of bread in round cast iron pots. Always good to have an extra pot anyway since sometimes we have company and need the extra cooking containers-

We stopped at the Ace Hardware store since I had a funny feeling they might have some canning lids. And boy did they! I bought some Pur brand wide-mouth canning jars. I think Pur bought out part of the Mason company.  After I did some digging I think that the lids are made in Colorado. I was really happy that the price, 12 lids for $5 so I bought five boxes. Who knows what next year will bring? Good to plan ahead-

I took a day of work for projects, that was much more relaxed! I did a little fall baking, using the last of my canned apples slices from several years ago. Lots of cinnamon and an oat/crumble topping, yummy! 

On the preparedness side I heard Costco is not only limiting items but will be hiring their own cargo freighters, just like Home Depot. Our grocery store, Winco, seems to be pretty well stocked for now. The Dollar Store is on the national news, now their prices going up. I just keep looking for gaps I can fill now inexpensively. I bought some soy sauce, pork chops (to freeze), ketchup, Bronner's apple cider vinegar. We use vinegar in the chickens water, great for probiotics and shell strength. I bought some nice bell peppers, .50 cents each, to freeze-

Went to our fave farmstead, bought pumpkins and fresh local fruit, gypsy peppers, squash, peaches and plums-

fun pumpkins! 

squashs

More bulk spices, chives and parsley

I just froze two dozen eggs since the production is slowing down a little bit. Will freeze another dozen.I finally found some dried small red beans to make red band and rice, recipe here Authentic Louisiana Red Beans and Rice  This is a recipe you can really play around with. I had a frozen pork shank so I used that for flavor, much better than overly-salty ham hocks! Served with biscuits, and lemon cukes, love those beans-

Nice haul from the garden, will freeze some-

I had to turn off Youtube and take a break from all the prepping info last week. I was on information overload. I can see the writing on the wall (to a certain extent) of how the next year (or two) might roll out.  I will say frankly it's looking pretty bad. I just read that natural gas is skyrocketing and that could be really tough for a lot of people this winter. At least we do have several oil-filled radiant heaters. They don't use a lot of power and a great to heat up individual rooms. The UK is running out of fuel and calling in the military to help. Ships stuck on the coast, droughts, etc. I think for some people who don't know how to cook from scratch, garden, preserve foods or fix things life might get pretty ugly. Sometimes you have to make SACRIFICES. My family did that during the depression. You adjust and keep going. I'm hoping I'm wrong, but we'll see. After watching a YouTube video the other I thought about some "what ifs"??? 

What If ? 

****What if you couldn't find any clothing/shoes/household goods for a year? What if groceries and other supplies become more and more limited? What if you couldn't get basic medical care? What if your main source of heat for the winter quit working? What if you had trouble getting water? What if you lost power for an extended period of time? What if you didn't have internet access? ****

Some of those questions get your wheels spinning. So what kind of backups might you be able to have? Can you barter? Can you make things? And how can you modify your home/life to be more resilient? For urban folks I HIGHLY recommend the Retrosuburbia book, see left sidebar for more info.  Full of amazing ideas! Here's my fave new Youtube channels, tons of great info there Melissa Norris Modern Homesteading and this too Simple Living Alaska, check them out! Gives me helpful tips and tricks and something positive to focus on if I get bummed out. Hit the thrift stores, for instance and buy tools, etc. Tools would be a great barter item. Think outside the box. 

I know, it's not red

Canning Rhubarb Sauce-

Every year our neighbor (who hates rhubarb), lets us harvest hers, we give her eggs. This year we got about 10 lbs. I froze it in vacuum bags back in July, then thawed this weekend-

Here's what I used, was a little too sweet so I added a little bottled lemon juice  Canning Rhubarb Sauce. The 10 Lbs came out to 13 jars. I did adjust the sugar a little bit lower and it was still pretty sweet so I was just a tablespoon of lemon juice. Nice to have more homemade food! It came out a bit green, that rhubarb isn't the really red version, and I don't like food coloring. It's tasty! Good on top on ice cream, cereal, yogurt or plain. 

Preparedness 9.0 / Dehydrating Frozen Foods, Autumn Decor!

 

Preparedness 9.0/ Dehydrating Frozen Foods -

I wanted to start doing more of a variety of food preparedness so I decided to bring out my food dehydrator! I bought it probably 15 to 20 years ago and didn't use it that often, but it works great. I have the Nesco/American Harvest brand.  I started reading articles about how some people bought frozen foods (already chopped, etc.). Once thawed you can then just put them on the food dehydrator. I started off with some chopped spinach which work great! I wanted something to add to soups, scrambled eggs, etc. Fresh spinach is very perishable so I thought drying some would be a good option. The first batch of spinach came out great! I did two medium sized bags of spinach which converted to one medium sized jar, see above.

I also bought a bag of blueberries and will also be working on some cubed carrots and peas. One nice thing about food dehydrators is you can turn it on and walk away. One of my rules however is I never run it over night while I'm sleeping. To me it's just not worth the fire hazard. I dried one bag of blueberries, definitely took a lot longer since there was more liquid in them. Those converted to a smaller jar. I'll probably do a few more bags of blueberries since those are really great in cookies, muffins, oatmeal, etc. 

blueberries

Off to the pantry! 

I did realize after the fact I should have sprayed a little Pam or oil on the food dehydrator trays as the berries were pretty sticky. You could also use parchment paper. So if you want to do some food dehydrating just buy some frozen veggies already prepped and throw them on the tray! Needless to say you can also do your own or store-bought fresh vegetables and do the prep yourself. We getting more tomatoes so I think I'm a dry some, slice them really thin and dry 'em up! You can dry in your oven on low heat too, just use a cookie sheet. I may try some jerky too.

What I bought this week- 

Some canned foods from the Dollar Store. Goya red beans, some Halloween candy (hoping for trick or treaters), two totes of shelf stable 2% milk, two bags of lentils, Himalayan salt, two tins of Mackerel in tomato sauce, barbeque sauce, two cans of coconut milk to make some curry or smoothies. They had lots of canned meats, but some are way too salty for me. I bought a small amount of some mylar bags and oxygen absorbers to package up smaller amounts. I don't want to preserve huge bags of grains, etc for just two people. Easier to do smaller bags, open as you need them. Got a few fun Halloween things for my home office, not going back to the office any time soon.  And a fun Autumn sign for the deck herb box-

speaking of autumn....

Autumn Decor!

I never liked putting up Autumn decor when it's hot. Now that it's cooled off I was in the mood for putting up some Autumn goodies! I got out my seasonal items and bought a couple bags of small pumpkins. I put all my generic stuff away, now I'm feeling ready for some ginger cake! My mom always made boxed ginger cake in the fall, I still occasionally make that, but I had a handful or two of raisins or chopped nuts. Quick dessert on a busy weekend, top with whipped cream and that's fall to me. Ironically I'm not much on all of the pumpkin flavored stuff. The only reason I even made pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving let's because everybody else liked it. To me it's just squash! Here's a peak around the house, we'll get cornstalks soon for the front entrance and a few larger pumpkins-

Dining room

Living room

My Etsy faves! Toot and Lil' Toot!

From my library days, Starbucks reading owl