Category Archives: home

TEOTAWKI preparations…why?

Posted by thetinfoilhatsociety in comedy, common sense, Economy, home, Independence Days, peak oil, preparedness, sustainability

For those of you not in the know, that stands for The End of the World As We Know It.  This blog was designed originally as a political commentary on topics close to my heart — TEOTAWKI among them.  Now, while the CDC did recently publish a preparedness memo for the Zombie Apocalypse,  I’ m sure it was more than a little tongue in cheek.  HOWEVER.  That does not eliminate the fact that their preparedness memos are designed for EVERY citizen, and it would behoove one to pay more than a passing bit of attention on their list of *must have* items in one’s storage.

Why?  You ask.  And well you might.  I have a good reason, from my own experience.  When I was growing up, we lived for a time in a cabin in the woods of Northern Michigan.  In the winter, we had no running water — the pipes froze from October until June.  We often had no electricity — snowstorms knocked out power lines. We were snowed in, sometimes for weeks at a time — we lived 6 miles from the main road.  We had no central heat — we had a wood stove (that kept the house pretty warm) and a fireplace (that was pretty to look at but mostly just sucked the heat out the chimney).  So:  we had a large store of canned goods, both those that my mom canned and those we purchased at the store.  My dad hunted and we fished from the river for our protein (meat) needs.  We had kerosene lamps, and gallons of kerosene for those nights we didn’t have electricity.  We had cords and cords of wood cut and stacked.  We heated snow on the stove and bathed as well as cooked and cleaned with melted snow.  All in all, other than the time that I broke my little sister’s collarbone by playing the overly rambunctious bucking bronco (she was 2, I was 7), it was a pretty good life.  Oh, and when my rabbit ate the feet off my barbie dolls wasn’t so great either….  But back to preparedness.  Now, this was a long time ago, and it was special circumstances, and maybe you think that would never ever happen to you.

So how about a more recent example or two?  Recently a storm knocked out the transformer that served our corner of the county.  Our community along with four others were without power for a day.  We were without power for most of the time, others were without power for part of it and intermittent for the rest.  For us, that meant we had no water -  the community pumping system has no generator backup.  We had no electricity — so no lights obviously; we also had no oven because our stove is electronic ignition and, while a lighter will start the burners, the oven has a safety backup and will not light if there is no power.  We also had no heat as we use space heaters to heat the rooms we’re in, and a heated mattress pad on the bed, and the central heating doesn’t work without power (not that we have used it in the last five years anyway).  It was wintertime, keep that in mind.  Even in Arizona, temps can get pretty low, especially when it snows where we live.

Or how about the time a friend of ours had a power outage when they lived in Yuma?  Two weeks without power, water, heat, etc.  They had to move into a hotel.

So what did we do without power?  Well, we had stored food — and we had a pressure cooker.  We have a camp oven that could have made bread (or cake) on the top of the stove.  We have kerosene lamps, which provide heat — and light — and we have gallons of kerosene stored.  We did NOT have enough water, even though we have a water filtration system, so we had to go to the store for water (and thankfully we thought far enough in advance that there was water at the local market).  We had rain barrel water storage for bathing (boil first, of course) and toilet flushing.  And we had solar power backup, which meant we could keep the cell phones charged (no land line, no power) and the computer running, as well as the HAM radio.  We also have clothing appropriate for the weather — wool sweaters, long underwear, and are familiar with the idea of layering.  I even wore a hat in the house to keep my head warm.  Our outage only lasted a day, but we would have been comfortable and well fed even if it had lasted for weeks — unlike 99% of our neighbors…who went to stay with friends or family for the duration if they could, or suffered in the cold and the dark if they couldn’t.

Why do I think *you* should do at least a little of the same?  Well, the reason is pretty simple.  The American Society of Civil Engineers (the ones who make sure the highway over passes, water systems, sewage systems, electric grids, etc — all the things that make modern life possible) say that American infrastructure is failing. 

The power outages are going to get more frequent, the water quality from the tap is going to get worse, gasoline is going to become unaffordable (even if prices drop — if you don’t have a job you can’t afford gas) and food INsecurity is becoming an increasing concern of our government regarding our citizens.  Do you want to end up having to impose on friends or family, or do you want to be the one being able to offer shelter (and really good food) for those who *need* shelter?  For me, the answer is simple.  I’m a hedonist, I want to be comfortable no matter what the circumstances — so I prepare.  I’d much rather be hospitable than impose.

I had a conversation with some coworkers this past weekend — they were talking about sources for rubber seals for their pressure canners and cookers.  I informed them that I own an All American Pressure Canner.  And that if the end of the world happened, I would still be happily canning away while they cursed their cookers and canners.

Why this one?  Well first of all, because it was given to me, before I realized the benefits.  Second of all, IT DOES NOT REQUIRE A RUBBER SEAL.  If TEOTAWKI happens, I can still can to preserve food — because my canner doesn’t rely on industry to provide rubber seals.  If seals quit being made tomorrow, I could still can.  And canning our excess is definitely a large part of our preparedness.  It’s cheaper — don’t believe anyone who tells you it isn’t — and the quality is much higher.  I KNOW what is in those cans, I grew it and canned it.

You should store water, at least the amount you drink in 48 hours — and you should rotate it monthly, and you should put either iodine or bleach into the storage container to prevent bacterial and fungal growth.  We have a 2. 5 gallon water jug but that wasn’t nearly enough for our needs for the amount of time we were without water — which is my mistake.  I had foolishly thought we would just use the rain barrel water — but when it came down to it we weren’t brave enough to run the water through the filtration system.  So, we now have several containers that I need to fill and store.  We use between 5 and 8 gallons of water daily, between drinking needs, coffee (this is *not* a luxury in our house) and cooking, as well as for the animals.  In the summer we use more, because it’s Arizona and it’s HOT.

You should store at least a week’s worth of food — peanut butter, rice, dried beans, canned veggies and meats.  Admittedly you can choose food you would NEVER eat if you didn’t have to, but why not choose foods you already eat and buy extra?  Then just rotate it through your normal stores. I believe the CDC recommends two weeks’ worth.   If we couldn’t get to a grocery store for six months, we would still eat like we always do.

You should have a lantern or two — or at least a bunch of candles.  Believe me, light makes the difference between depression and hope.  And candles put off a hella good amount of heat — maybe it won’t be 70, but it will be a little warmer, especially if you keep several in a smallish room.

For our further preparations, we have planned to install a wood stove.  It will allow us to heat without being dependent on electricity at all.  And we also plan to get solar powered lanterns.  Kerosene got *quite* expensive this last year, enough so that it justifies the cost of solar lanterns.  Unlike kerosene, though, we buy them once and they will last for many years (provided I remember to put them in the window to recharge…) – and they give off better light for knitting, reading, etc.  And are cleaner — no nasty smell.

In short, you should actually pay attention to at least some  of the recommendations of your government.  It could possibly save your life, your dignity, or your marriage.

No Power

Posted by thetinfoilhatsociety in common sense, Economy, home, Independence Days, peak oil, preparedness

We have no power, no telephone (but cell works) no water. A transformer went last night. DH is grateful for the solar power that is allowing me to make a new blog post; I’m grateful for the kerosene lanterns, the candles, the pressure cooker, the rain barrels (for flushing) and the Berkey filter system for drinking water, as well as for our food storage.

Lesson learned. We definitely still need a wood stove. It’s about 58 in here, and sure to drop lower tonight; we need lanterns with better light than the kerosene lanterns so rechargeable solar lanterns are definitely in our future; we need drinking water storage. And a toilet seat for the bucket that is in the bathroom so that we can just take the urine out to the garden on a daily basis.

All in all, not so bad. We’ll be playing guitar, I’ll be going to bed early (I work tomorrow anyway) and I have a propane camp heater for the bathroom so I can get around in more than 45 degree temps.

Supposedly they’ll have the power back up by tonight; I’m not holding my breath. We’ll be OK if it doesn’t come back right away.

After all, with a failing infrastructure it’s the wave of the future.

New Plantings

Posted by thetinfoilhatsociety in home, Independence Days, sustainability

This isn’t my comfrey plant, but I ordered seeds and plants this year.  From what I’ve researched, it is a good livestock feed with enough protein to keep animals healthy; I got Bocking 14 cultivars for plants, which are sterile and can be reproduced only by separating the roots and replanting.  I also got true comfrey seeds which I sincerely hope grow.  I have to make sure I follow the directions on that exactly and be patient.  This is for herbal purposes.  This site tells you all you ever wanted to know about comfrey.

I planted eggplant (long purple and white), sweet peppers,Aanaheim chiles, pomodoro tomatoes, and Thai hots earlier this month.  As usual, I got zero germination from the Thai hots, but since this is the third year I’ve had the seed and tried, I guess I didn’t expect anything so I’m not really terribly disappointed.  I did get heating mats though, so I was hoping my germination would be a little better. As usual, I have to give a salute with my trowel to Seeds from Italy because I had 100% germination with both the eggplant and the tomatoes.

Tragedy!!  I put the tray outside so they could get the breeze blowing on them and not get leggy — and I had the bunny poop tray in my hands and forgot it was on the step — and I STEPPED ON MY PLANTS!!!  I killed at least four eggplants from stepping on them….I’m glad I have more seed and it’s early in the season though!  Last year I couldn’t get any germination until rather late in the season, and I didn’t get the harvest I was hoping for with eggplant.

I planted peas out front; I planted sugar snap peas in one bed and Tohono O’Odham peas in another.  The Odham peas are old so I don’t know how well they’ll germinate; the snap peas are already sprouting I think.  Did you know that the first six inches of pea shoots are edible?  You can eat them like spinach or lettuce.  I can’t wait to try them.

I bought borage seed this year too, and hope it does well.    I am trying to expand my garden into more perennials and into herbs other than oregano, rosemary, and thyme; I love those and we use them a lot, but I also would like fenugreek, sage (I plant it every year and manage to kill it every year), more lavender, hyssop, calendula, chamomile, dill, and I can’t think of what else now…and I actually bought seeds for all of those.  So now, the front yard will be mostly herbs and perennials, and the back yard will be the veggies. Now to get the back yard into shape and situated for rotational gardening!

I am so excited!  I found a lilac that will grow in my climate!  I couldn’t get it this time at the nursery, but I will buy one next payday.  I love the smell of lilacs, and they have a bonus in that it is also a dye plant.  But not lavender colors; the leaves and flowers give a sagey green, and the bark and twigs give orange.  Surprising, huh?  I can’t wait to have a tree large enough to play with.

I actually want to end up with a living hedge around the front yard, so am playing with different ideas for temporary fences to keep the javelina out of the front yard and out of my plants.  The fence would only need to stay until the plants were established and tangled enough to keep them out, however long that might take. I told Mr. Tin Foil I was going to buy bright orange electric fencing tape to keep them out and he wasn’t pleased.  It’s still a possibility though…if the county tries to give me a hard time that’s what I’m going with — it’s temporary and they can’t fine me or make me pay a permit fee for a temporary fence.  They do make green though.  I only said bright orange because I knew he would both believe I would do it out of spite (I would) and to get his goat.

I bought more thyme and rosemary at the nursery today; the wacky winter weather we had along with some pretty hard freezes (26 degrees) killed my three year old rosemary bush as well as all my thyme plants; we use entirely too much of those herbs to be without so the purchase was needed.  Mr. Tin Foil helped me re-pot them into large pots tonight.  It made me so very happy to have my hands in loamy sweet smelling dirt.  He keeps telling me I’m a lady, but I think I’m just a peasant farmer at heart.

That’s my gardening progress so far; pictures will come when everything’s a little more organized.  Thank the Gods school is coming to a close for a while.  I need the time for the yard!

Ugh. I hate technology sometimes.

Posted by thetinfoilhatsociety in common sense, Economy, home, sustainability

We have two laptops; one is a gateway that’s nearly ten years old — Mr. Tin Foil bought it for me when I first went back to school. The other is a Vaio, which he bought to take with him to Hawaii when he worked there, as well as going with him all over the Western Hemisphere when he worked for a company that sent him out weekly. It’s about five years old.

Well, in the last probably six months or so, the Gateway (which is the backup laptop) and the Vaio both have been getting QUITE cranky. The poor gateway is just old and slow; the Vaio keeps doing things like refusing to recognize the printer, insisting we have no internet (which we do), refusing to recognize our home network, crashing in the middle of important things, and so on.

Since he uses the desktop now that he doesn’t travel any more, and I use the laptop since I stand up and take it around the house with me frequently, this has been a huge issue — we’re both going to school, both our classes are on line, and we both need to have access to a computer to get our stuff done, often at the same time.

I gave up today when I could no longer download any podcasts, and it took restarting the computer three times to be able to access my online class, which ate up nearly an hour and a half. We broke down and bought a new laptop. I am NOT happy about the price, but I would be much more unhappy not to graduate in May.

I am pretty unhappy about the fact that laptops don’t last very long. I’m told that ours had a long life though, so maybe I just am expecting too much. I was pretty upset when my Ipod started crapping out too, but the people at the store were absolutely incredulous that it’s lasted me eight years. Guess it’s a matter of relativity.

I’m getting a wood stove for sure now, though. I gotta balance this out with a low tech option or it will make me crazy.

I loves me a man who will get in the shit.

Posted by thetinfoilhatsociety in home, Independence Days, sustainability

IMAG0020

Originally uploaded by susancoyotesfan

He’s so irritated that I want to take his picture. Even more irritated than he was when I asked him if he would help me; hauling horse manure in rubbermaid tubs and buckets from the local stables to our garden would have taken me all day without his help.

We made I think four loads of three rubbermaid tubs (the large ones) and five buckets in our Prius, and then we were both ready for lunch. I still don’t have enough, but we pretty well cleaned out the aged manure and I don’t want to burn any plants taking the newer.

I tried to talk him into peeing in the garden but no luck….still. Maybe if I tell him it’s a fertility rite and it’s sexy? (it is)

It was a good day. I’ll think of this day when we’re enjoying our luscious tomatoes this summer. And babaganoush.

My favorite kitchen tool

Posted by thetinfoilhatsociety in Economy, home, Independence Days, peak oil, preparedness, survivalist, sustainability

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Originally uploaded by susancoyotesfan

This is one of my favorite kitchen items. It is my Presto pressure cooker, circa sometime mid twentieth century. It belonged to my husband’s grandmother, and we inherited it when Oscar, my husband’s grandfather died at the ripe age of 97. Yes, it’s dirty on the top because it’s cooking our dinner.

This is a life saver for days like today, when we both were busy studying and taking tests for our on line classes. Neither of us came up for air or remembered about dinner until 6 pm; so, there’s a ham hock with veggies and rice in there cooking. In less than an hour we’ll have dinner (plus prep time, about 45 min).

Wow, you say. Nearly two hours to make dinner??? Well, it beats the hell out of a frozen meal, made with God only knows what for ingredient sources, and preservatives to boot. Everything came from our freezer or our storage. And it surely beats the hell out of spending money on a take out meal.

Believe it or not, a pressure cooker can use less power than a crockpot or regular cooking. That’s because the pressure makes the food cook faster. I could make it even more efficient by cooking on my rocket stove, or by bringing it to pressure and then putting it into my haybox cooker to finish coming back down to atmospheric pressure. In the summer this may well be cooking on my firepit outside, or on my campstove.

My haybox cooker is a wine case with styrofoam glued to the outside, and nested in a cardboard box.  I use an old felted wool blanket folded in it as the ‘hay’ because it’s neater and holds heat really well.

All in all, this has been a lifesaver for two college students trying to maintain honors gpa’s while still working. If only I could find a lifesaver that would help us out that much with laundry and housekeeping.

What’s up lately?

Posted by thetinfoilhatsociety in common sense, Crafts, Economy, home, Independence Days, peak oil, preparedness

My husband commented the other day that my blog isn’t devoted to much of the Tin Foil Hat stuff any more.  I realized he is right.  And there’s really a simple reason for that.  I can comment on whatever’s going on, but it doesn’t change anything.  Or.  I can talk about what I’m doing to make the best of our situation, to make sure we’re ahead of the curve with declining resources, and making due with less.  I can post a long diatribe about the price of food commodities, or I can post what works in our area and climate, and how best to preserve that harvest so others can make use of the information.  I can basically be a cynic, a Cassandra, or I can talk about what I’m doing to work around the obstacles.

So, if you find weaving, spinning, canning, etc boring, I apologize.  They’re simply my answers to thorny problems with no simple solutions.  And I’m finding that with spinning, weaving, and the rest of the fiber arts/home maker arts that the quality is simply so superior to what I can buy (except from other fiber artists of course) that I would rather spend my time making towels, washcloths, clothing, rugs, yarn, and so on.  If the choice is that or spend my money, I’ll spend the time ninety nine times out of one hundred.

Am I as prepared as I would like to be?  Hell no.  But, we won’t starve and we won’t go without proper clothing.  Hopefully we won’t live in a tent but that’s one of those eventualities I simply can’t plan for.  So I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about it.  After all, there are literally hundreds of homes with more land than I have I can move into with little or no rent.  So why worry?

Turkey Day debrief

Posted by thetinfoilhatsociety in common sense, home, Independence Days, sustainability

What a strange holiday this year.  I worked on the actual day, was lucky enough to get sent home about an hour and a half early, but then I had to work on a paper.  Fun.

We had Mr. TF’s dad, two of the three sons, the all-but-daughter in law, the grand baby, and a friend. Our holiday was Friday, because I worked.  Everyone (except Mr. TF) spent the holiday with friends elsewhere.

We had a Diestel Farms turkey as usual; this has become a new tradition for us and this makes the fourth year (?) we’ve gotten a pasture fed small farm turkey.  Delicious as usual.

For the first time, we had home grown yams.  I didn’t  make nearly enough — the entire casserole dish was eaten at the feast, with no leftovers at all.

We also had home grown potatoes for the first time, mixed in with a couple of organic potatoes.  I didn’t have good luck with my potato plants this year; they died before August was over so there was a small harvest.  I still got about a 10 to one ratio of potatoes though.  Not bad.

I made a pumpkin pie from pie pumpkins as usual; the major problem this year was I used a new recipe.  Which omitted sugar as one of the ingredients.  Yes, I made a wonderful pie that had no sugar.  I figured out after about my third bite; I spent the first two trying to figure out why it didn’t taste right.  I rechecked the recipe to see if I had missed it or it really wasn’t there…nope, no sugar listed.  Won’t be making that one again!

Every year I learn more about growing root vegetables, as well as the rest of what we grow.  Every year I get better, and refine my technique.  I’m definitely going back to container growing for potatoes and yams; the soil is deeper and the soil stays moister.  I just won’t do any more of the tower type growing; I have decided that the plants expend so much energy making more green growth that they don’t make any tuber growth.  I didn’t do any of that this year, and even though the plants died prematurely, I still got quite a few decent sized potatoes from 5 plants. And a fairly decent harvest of yams from four plants.  More manure!  I need more manure!

I hadn’t planned on making green bean casserole, since my beans did so poorly, but DH insisted (as did the kids when they learned I wasn’t going to make it) so I had my FIL stop at the store on the way to buy fresh green beans.  He of course had no problem doing it, but he’s used to my weirdness after all.  Then I had a ‘fight’ between DIL and DH over who gets the (very small amount of)  leftovers.  Kind of weird that the dish that gets the most requests, after stuffing, is a 50′s dish cooked up by Campbell’s kitchen cooks as a marketing tool for cream of mushroom soup.

I vary from what I assume is the standard recipe by using fresh green beans.  I chop finely a half onion, about six slices bacon (which in our case came from Windy View Acres, my friend’s farm) cut into small pieces, and saute the onion and bacon until the bacon is browned and the onions are transluscent.  Then I add the green beans and saute until bright green and a little tender.  This all gets a couple cans of cream of mushroom soup mixed in, a couple of splashes of Worcestershire sauce, some chopped mushrooms, and gets topped with deep fried onions (the ones from a can).  Bake for 30 min or so, then take the cover off and let the onions brown.  Whenever I learn to make my own cream of mushroom soup, I’ll use that instead, but I’m not going to ever make deep fried onions I’m afraid.

The best part of the holiday was when our friend, my FIL, and DH were watching grand daughter’s TV program (some weird cartoon one) with the sound turned off, listening to Arlo Guthrie sing Alice’s Restaurant.  They were mesmerized.  Crazy.  DIL says that program is like that, you get hypnotized by the colors…not sure if that’s a good thing for anyone to be watching, you know?

Garden’s pretty well done except for collard greens for the chickens.  I’m shocked that they are doing so amazingly well even with nightly frosts!  I thought they were a cold weather vegetable.  Apparently not.  Also doing well is the swiss chard.  And the basil, believe it or not.

On my next days off it will be time to start hauling manure home from the local stables to put into the garden beds and mulch with straw, in preparation for spring.  No winter gardening for me this year, I’m too tired from the toll school is taking.  Five more classes.  Twenty five weeks.  I feel like I’m pregnant, counting the weeks til I’m done.  I’m on  a time pressure to get it done and not take any more breaks if I want to get into a nurse practitioner program before they make it a doctoral level program in 2012 though.  So this fall is my last chance to get in.  Unless financial collapse hits before then.  Happy thought.

We woke up to a dead chicken yesterday morning.  Murdered and half eaten, actually.  My neighbor thinks it was a fox; I think it may have been a skunk, since I surprised one at the doorway to their cage in front of the coop last night when I went to shut them in.  We have gotten lax about making sure they’re safely shut in at night since we’ve never had any problems.  So now I feel guilty that my biggest, gentlest girl paid the price for her trust in us and our laxness in ensuring their safety.  Next project along with manuring the garden beds:  more stones along the fence line.  Big ones.

My husband doesn’t buy me flowers.

Posted by thetinfoilhatsociety in common sense, home, sustainability

Which is one of the things I really appreciate about him.  You see, he is a hopeless romantic and would happily waste hundreds of hard earned dollars buying me flowers monthly, weekly, daily if he thought it would make me happy for him to do so.  I, however, think the cost versus benefit ratio is too small for extravagances like that.  They last, at most, 10 days and don’t look very good for the last three or four anyway.  So way back when we first got together, I explained to him that I am not a flowers person.  It was very hard for him to understand, and it took a few instances of disappointments and hard feelings on both our parts for him to truly understand my position.

I am a very practical person.  When I see something, I look at it in terms of usefulness.  Does it save time?  Does it use minimal, or no, energy compared to its usefulness?  Is it something I will actually use often enough to justify the purchase?  Or, in the case of many of my seasonal gadgets, is it something that saves so very much time and energy on the occasions it IS used that it justifies the purchase?  Or is it just a space hogger, a dust collector?  Is it just one more thing to clean and take care of?  I know this sounds very narrow, but these are the questions burned into my mind over a lifetime of being ummm…not middle class.  Poor.  And the child of parents who also asked these questions of us when we wanted things as children.

One of my quirks is that I actually value things like good cookware, linens, and furniture.  So one of the most romantic things my husband has ever given me, in my opinion, is a dryer.  When we first got together, we had a washer but no dryer and as we were living in a rental we had nowhere to put up a line even were I willing at that point to hang our undies out along a main thoroughfare.  And with three smallish children to keep clothed, it was important to have that dryer.  It meant a lot to me, and I thought of his generosity every time I used it.

We inherited a house worth of items when my husband’s grandfather died; much of what we inherited is furniture, cookware, and various gadgets/appliances built before 1960 and in some cases before 1940.  I loved Oscar but I never met Ursula, who died in the early 80′s yet I use many of her pots and pans daily, and treasure the hand operated appliances/gadgets she had collected.  I think of her every time I use them and I’m grateful she and I obviously shared the desire to have reliable, quality tools.  I think she and I would have gotten along well, even though since Mr. TF is my second husband, it would have violated her Catholic and conservative views. One of the things I treasure the most is the mantel clock Oscar and Ursula were given when they married in 1929.  It’s electric, and no longer keeps proper time, but it’s a thing of beauty.  I plan to take it to the local clockmaker to see if it can be repaired.  If not, we will still keep it for the simple reason that it’s a family heirloom.  I know, if it’s broken and no longer useful it’s a space hog and a dust catcher….nobody can be perfectly consistent all the time.  Besides.  It really is a beautiful clock; it’s classic Craftsman type workmanship with clean lines and wonderful details.  Sometimes beauty is useful in itself.  Sometimes.

These are the things I value.  I like the sense of continuity in using things handed down.  I like and appreciate the quality apparent in things that are well over 50 years old and still fully functional.  And I love that my husband respects this in me, even though he’s still willing to waste his hard earned money to buy me frippery.