Sunday, September 21, 2008

Day 17 and counting

Some have mentioned being exhausted by the schedule and wanted a Sunday break. Tough getting ready for a disaster and keeping up the life as it's always been, isn't it? I know I am overwhelmed by the bounty of the harvest. Please take what ever day that you normally rest from your labors and do so. One especially needs to trust in God during the hard times.

If you take Sabbath on Sunday, you might want to look at a couple of videos. The first is about 40 minutes long and is Naomi Wolf, author of "The End of America"
describing her study of the stages of the collapse of societies pay particular attention about 30 minutes into the video and then watch the footage
that I picked up over at the Zahn Zone

Yesterday I picked up another bottle of propane. Since I do my canning outside on the camp chef, the one bottle of propane is always only partially full. I also picked up zip ties in 4", 6", 8", 14", and 36" lengths, dust masks, septic system bio-digester, 100 lbs chicken feed, and a battery charger for AA and AAA and extra D cell batteries. (I looked for a solar charger on line but didn't come up with anything so I covered my bases with batteries.) Chibi and I picked 2 bushels of apples and about 1/3 bushel of pears free from the neighbor's 4 old, large, unsprayed trees.

I was reading in the "Root Cellaring" book about the conditions for storing apples and found that they want a high humidity, low temp. storage. Well, it's not cold enough for that so I've pulled out the nicest apples and put them in the vegetable drawer of the extra fridge. I also put a load of those going in the dehydrator, will juice some, make apple butter, and pie filling to be frozen.

Unfortunately, the 100 lbs of grain is a regular thing with my birds. It is time to start harvesting roosters, but that has to wait until the garden is done. They're OK for now - just eating me out of house and home. I had picked some weeds that had a grain like head and fed them to the chickens to extend the grain. Of course they always get things like downed fruit and vegie peelings, plate scrapings...

9 comments:

Barbara Burnett said...

Hi, all

A good place for all kinds of solar stuff including solar battery chargers, rechargeable batteries, solar/windup radios and flashlights, etc., etc.:

www.SundanceSolar.com

Excellent quality; reasonable prices, friendly, knowedgeable service, prompt delivery. (I've bought several things from them a couple of times.)

Bob Waldrop on ROE2 (a yahoo group) and others also recommend

www.ccrane.com.

They have lots of radios, including SW and a very good and very inexpensive solar battery charger--I think it only does AA's and AAA's, but go check.
They also sell emergency equipment like solar/windup lanterns, radios, etc. Again, highly recommended for quality of products, excellent service and reasonable prices.
HTH

Barb Burnett
CO

Connie said...

Barb, ahh great sites, thanks!

Tara said...

Mmmm...roosters are delicious! How many birds do you have? We've got 13 and luckily are able to feed them almost entirely on kitchen scraps and forage. They get supplemental feed, but only a small amount. Not so for the rabbits, though. We have to keep them in raised cages in the barn both for predator protection and to keep them from mating whenever they feel like it (read: all the time). So no foraging for them. That's something I really want to find a solution for eventually. I do pull up handfuls of greens from all over the property and give to them, though, so that helps.

It's a good thing we're not vegetarians. Having a freezer full of chickens feels like money in the bank. :)

Connie said...

Tara, I have 26 chickens - light brahmas from McMurray hatchery. We live two blocks from the dead center of town and so while I know there are other birds in the neighborhood (heck some one has emmus down the street) I do keep them confined.

I'm too much of a sissy to keep rabbits for meat. I've had rabbits, I know they arn't the gentle creatures they look like but so far they fit into pet category for me.

ilex said...

Those are great vid links, Verde. I love both Naomis (Klein and Wolf) though they do tend to scare the stuffing out of me. We're in it but deep, that's for sure.

I dream of a Big Berkey, too- every time I look at my Lehman's catalog.

Love the 21-day challenge you got going on here. Of all of us, you'll no doubt be the safest.

Connie said...

ilex, glad you stopped by! I have to say, there are many, many others that are further ahead of me.

Tara said...

Wow - I'm impressed that you keep that many chickens in the middle of town. If I still lived in town, I'd have far fewer. :)

Peak Oil Hausfrau said...

If you are going to buy a solar charger, I would also check out the reviews of solar chargers on Amazon - that's where you find out if the item really works :).

Of course, I haven't purchased a charger yet - I'm still reading reviews!!!

Wendy said...

Oh, I'd forgotten about Naomi's speech! I watched that a while back ... very enlightening. It was actually her book, Misconceptions, that made me look for alternatives to a hospital birth ;).

I think I'm not going to watch the other video, though. I'm already teetering between being terrified and being confident that it won't happen to me ;).

There's a link to a DIY solar generator on my most recent post ;).