#10. Back to the Grind.

I'd forgotten how much working can interfere with "real life".  My current schedule is 9:00 to 5:30, Monday to Friday while I go through training for a new project at work.  I have been accustomed to working in the afternoons and evenings for the last 10 years, and this schedule is playing hob with my sleep schedule.  Plus, I have no time to do anything!  Used to be, I could wake up at 8:00 or so (no alarm clock, thank you very much), and do errands, clean, cook and whatever in the morning before going to work.  Now, just getting up an hour earlier (to the raucous holler of the alarm clock), rushing around and leaving for work an hour or so later, and the day is spoiled before it gets started.

Hubby is grumbling and growling because his back hurts.  His sister got in a load of wood, and asked him to help stack it.  Turns out she's been thinking in terms of "just in case" too, and got her fireplace fitted out for heating (an insert).  Hubby declares that if the SHTF, he doesn't expect to live too long, so he sees no point in preparing.  Sis pointed out that was pretty selfish on his part, and they had an argument, which he proceeded to tell me all about when I got home from work.  Guess whose side I was on!

I still haven't had a chance to get a replacement weight set for the pressure canner I found second-hand at the Salvation Army store.  I found that they have them at the hardware store, but it will cost more than I paid for the canner.  I am undecided at the moment, but I think I might just wait a bit until I have been back at work a spell, and save for a new canner.  I have been eyeing up the Mirro 22-Quart Aluminum Pressure Cooker/Canner.  It's just like the one my sister-in-law loaned away into the nether.  I like that you don't have to worry about calibrating the dial every year.  After all, there might come a time when there is no place to get that calibration done.

We had a week of rain, during which a new crop came up in the garden: mushrooms.  I have tentatively identified it as Shaggy Inkcap (Coprinus comatus).  Apparently, it's supposed to be edible when young.

More research is required.

#9 - Back to Work

I've been back to work all week, and it's been no fun at all getting back into the swing of things, setting the alarm clock, going to bed at a decent hour, and so on.  But I'm glad to be back to work in spite of the loss of personal time.  After reading Jack Spigarelli's book, and doing some other reading, I'm beginning to see that it's going to be a big job getting back even to the space I was at when we lived out in the country.

Hubby has absolutely no interest in a wood stove.  He had never mastered the intricacies of cooking on the beast we had, and he's become attached to "his" kitchen, so I'm looking at quietly acquiring a camp stove and storing it in the office.  I checked out the flyers and I wished I hadn't.  That KitchenAid stand mixer hubby's been drooling over is on sale.  Hubby is all excited over that.  He doesn't realize that you can get it for a better price elsewhere, sigh! Just because it's "on sale" doesn't mean it's the best price.

I think a visit to the second shop is in order.  A new Coleman Perfect Flow 2 burner cookstove is available for $69.99 Cdn.so if I can find a second-hand one in good shape for less, it's worth taking a look at.  My next purchase of major proportions, though, is going to be a replacement pressure canner.  This exact one as it is a weighted gauge canner.  In my experience, it's a lot easier to manage pressure when you have a constant audio cue as to whether the pressure is staying high enough or not.  With the dial gauge, you have to keep going right over to the stove to look at it, which is a pain when you are prepping the next batch of edibles for canning.

I found an old Presto pressure cooker at the Salvation Army Store, and all it needs is the weight for the lid.  The rack and the gasket are present and in good shape.  You can do really small batches in one of those, but it only does 15 pounds pressure.  My mom has one that's a little newer, and it works fine if you only have 3-4 quart jars or 4-5 pint jars.  They're not really suitable for large batches at all.

I was also able to pick up a vacuum sealer for half-price at the drug store.  I am really pleased with it.  We re-packaged all the meat in the freezer (and did an inventory while we were at it), and hubby is enchanted with "his" new kitchen toy.  I figure I can slip some non-powered items into the kitchen for Christmas.  Like this Progressive International Egg Beater.  Or maybe an Oxo Good Grips Chopper.  Or a Back to Basics Food Strainer.  Or an Adjustable Slider Food Slicer.  Hubby is way too addicted to power tools for the kitchen.

Speaking of canning, I discovered that the University of Alaska did a nice bunch of videos on pressure canning that explains a lot of the little stuff that is not in the books.  Check it out!  Some of the videos covering canning in cans, and how to assemble a can sealer.  Good stuff! 

You know, of all the things I would find it really difficult to do without, it's the internet.  There's a fellow who has some videos up on preparedness, and he touches on that.  rickvanman has a channel on YouTube.  Check out Prepared #3 - Storing Knowledge (Preparedness series).  In fact, many of his videos are really useful.

#8. Finished the Book

I had a hellacious week, which I won't bore myself by writing about.  I made some Green Bean Pickles, just a little batch as I didn't have a lot of beans because Someone ate half of them.  He also used my canning funnel in the garage for something disgusting, and I had to improvise, grrrr!

Anyway, I finally finished the book "Crisis Preparedness", and it has given me lots of food for thought, and I took a lot of notes so I can refer back to them.  I'm in the process of revamping my food storage shopping list using ideas from Wendy DeWitt's booklet.  Shopping for complete meals and recipes is a great idea, but I need to get some recipes geared for two.  Cooking up a meal for 4 can lead to waste, or waist, in hubby's case.  He hates to waste food, but he also hates leftovers.  Bad combination.

I found a number of book lists that people have put together in order to know how to use food storage.  As Jack Spigarelli and Wendy Dewitt both mentioned, people buy and store all this stuff with no idea of how to use it, and whether they will be able to survive on it.  Another issue both mentioned is that a lot of people will not eat something new/strange or that they don't like in survival situations, and this has lead to their deaths.  (I guess they didn't grow up with my parents.  I had to sit at the table until I ate whatever was put in front of me regardless of whether I liked it or not.  Good training for all the kitchen failures I've eaten over the years, lol.)

One product that I can see the merit in storing, but about which few people stop to consider the feasibility of, is wheat kernels.  Properly packaged, it can have a storage life of 30 years, but what do you do with it?  I've nibbled a few wheat kernels in my time, and it was fun for a few grains, but hard on the jaws.  You need to have a grinder, and then grind it, in order to use it.

In our society, we are so spoiled.  It's hard to fathom how much work people had to go through in order to eat before mills were available.  If electricity is available, an electric mill would make it a lot easier to utilize the grain; but one of the uncomfortable parts of emergencies is that there is often no power.  No power to grind grain, no power to run the electric over, no power to start the furnace and run the blower, no power for the lights; power outages are hideously inconvenient.  That was one of the reasons I so happily moved to town.

One possibility is to learn how to make Essene Bread which is made from ground sprouted wheat.  This seems like it might be easier to grind.  There's a book called How to Live on Wheat that tells you how to do it.  I also found a few web sites of folks who used ground sprouted wheat to make bread that I saw on one list. 

Some folks use sprouted grain, but not the Essene way.  Apparently, the secret is drying the sprouted grains before grinding, which still seems like a lengthy process.  It's from an article by Tammy Rodriguez on the Healthy Banquet website.  On the Fresh Loaf website, Joel posted that he uses his meat grinder to process the sprouted wheat after grinding.  Some folks use only sprouted wheat, which is the method used for Essene Bread, and others add the sprouted wheat to flour to make a more nutritious bread.

Another cool book that was recommended, and I would love to read/have is The Amazing Wheat Book - Info on: gluten (wheat meat), grains, breads, cookies, seasonings, sauces, breakfast cereals, vegetarian dishes, and more! Details ... and hundreds of healthy nutritious recipes.  Phew, what a long title, but it's chock full of uses for wheat I've never heard of before (well except for the making of "wheat meat").  There's a lot of great information on the 'net too.  Check out Jill Nussinow's artlcle "Seitan - The Vegetarian Wheat Meat".

Darn it!  Now how do I figure out which indispensable item I need to buy first?  Just getting prepared to prepare is overwhelming!

More whining later....

Update, October 15, here's a pic of the pickle overflow in the living room:

I'd forgotten that I'd taken a picture.