FUN! Making "Free" Fruit Rollups

Excited to see how this turns out! An acquaintance on an eGroup mentioned you could make fruit "leather" in a dehydrator. Wow. I haven't made those homemade, well, since my mother made them in an oven. I wasn't overly impressed back then.

I have a Silpat mat which is too large for my dehydrator, but since I have an Excalibur, I can bend the front of the Silpat and close the lid/door and it works. So I tried turning some commercial applesauce (Motts) into fruit leather.

It worked! But since I only have one Silpat, spending 6 hours for 1 or 2 applesauce roll ups is not really time or energy efficient. 

I debated about buying some flexible sheets made for the Excalibur. Depending on whether you get brand name Excalibur sheets or generic flexible sheets, they can run anywhere from $6.95 to $14.98 and I would still have to cut them to fit my 11"x11" trays (evidently the newer trays are 14" long.)

Someone mentioned I should try the flexible cutting boards at Dollar Tree. Hmmm. I stopped by the Dollar Tree near me, and they had them!!

They come two mats to a pack. The blurry center is the actual cutting mat. They are very thin: honestly? for cutting I'm not so sure I'd use them, however they look perfect for my purposes. They cut easily: I just lined up the actual tray insert and cut slightly less than that. They are 11" wide, so no adjustment was needed at the width; 3 inches was trimmed from the length.

Video will be coming later. I made three trays worth, using individual serving sizes of applesauce (the kind you would put in a lunch bag.) I wanted to have uniform amounts on the trays. The top tray (this one) was intentionally a bit thick. I dumped out the sauce in the center, spread it out by shaking the tray around. 

The second tray I used an offset spatula to spread it thin. I did this before when I used Silpat. It tasted great, but it had the consistency of apple "paper" rather than a roll up. The third tray is not as thick or thin as the other two trays. Time will tell which one works best.

I'm really looking forward to posting the video and finding out if these trays work well. If they do, I just saved myself a ton of money (all four trays lined for $2.00!) At that rate, I could buy more than a year's worth (10 sets) for $20.

The World In Chains

I thought I'd take a moment and reflect on the huge issues on the US southern border, and the terrible war that is going on in Israel.

Lacking artistic ability, I have always wanted to draw a picture of this: "And he beheld Satan, and he had a great chain in his hand, and it veiled the whole earth in darkness; and he looked up and laughed, and his angels rejoiced." (Moses 7:26)

I've always envisioned a picture of the earth superimposed on the chest of Satan, with his head thrown back in open laughter. Hands on either side of the earth held heavy chains which stretched underneath and across, nestling the earth reminiscent as if in a hammock. 

I wonder if this is what God sees when He looks down from heaven on to the earth?

This is a picture of Gaza taken by Alexander Gerst from the International Space Station, on fire from all the rocket fire. I couldn't find an aerial picture of the masses of illegal aliens at the border, but I've worked in a refugee camp for a long period of time, so I know what it looks like.

I wondered: why is it that the earth is bound in chains? Surprisingly, the answer was found a few short verses away: 

"The Lord said unto Enoch: Behold these thy brethren; they are the workmanship of mine own hands, and I gave unto them their knowledge, in the day I created them; and in the Garden of Eden, gave I unto man his agency; 

"And unto thy brethren have I said and also given commandment that they should love one another,  and that they should choose me, their Father; but behold, they are without affection, and they hate their own blood."

Could it really be that simple? Could the majority of the earth's problems disappear if we would treat each other with kindness, civility and genuine warmth? 

In the past California primary, a person running for office was usually greeted at every stump by angry, truly angry, people who didn't like a letter he signed supporting immigration reform (as though our immigration policy does not need reform.) I mean, they were mad and screaming. I read comments from readers on The Blaze after Glenn Beck announced he was taking supplies and toys down to the border. Angry, screaming, resentful, acidic vitriolic. And those were the people who generally like Glenn Beck. The nastiness from the #FreePalestine, Hamas supporters is truly vile and scary.

I've lived and worked in life threatening danger zones. I am not saying one should not take a stand. But I am saying you can take a stand without anger, without hatred, without blood thirsty animosity. You can stand for the right, and stand for truth, and do the right thing without the bitterness, rancor, and enmity. A great example of that right now is Israel. They are doing what needs to be done to defend themselves and put an end to it, but they are doing it without joy. There is no joy that they are having to do this, no joy that Hamas chooses to use civilians as human shields. At each opportunity to have peace (cease fire) Israel stands quietly, ready to accept peace.

Thomas Monson said something recently which was hard to for me to hear. He said "We cannot truly love God if we do not love our fellow travelers on this mortal journey." (April 6, 2014 LDS General Conference.)

WHAT? I cannot truly love God if I do not love that jerk down the road I can't stand? WHAT? I know what it means to truly love someone. It doesn't mean I let them walk all over me, but it means I care about their well being. I take action to bind up their wounds, and lift up the hands which hang down. That is a hard, hard thing to do. 

It's hard when there are 30,000 of them illegally crossing our borders. It's hard when you're living in a bomb shelter. It's hard when "yours" are going without medical care, homes, work but you see "theirs" being given all that.

But I can focus on a solution, rather than be part of the problem. I can teach a man to fish as it were, while sending him back to his own country. (I can take his fingerprints and photograph and put it into AFIS so I know who he is, too!)  I can demonstrate by my actions and set an example and instill the habit of kindness and self reliance, and hope that it spreads. After all, if one can spread hatred and resentment by example, can we not spread kindness and acceptance the same way? 

I remember two brothers, Palestinian from Jordan, whom I knew in college. One, set in his ways, angry, resentful that Israel existed, ready then (and now) to take up arms to destroy anything and anyone on the 'other side.' His brother came to have a different worldview, saw a path where two nations who were promised the same land, could live side by side, if they choose to live in peace and harmony, rather than fighting to the death over which of them was in the right.

Which is the harder path to follow: kindness or enmity? We stand at the fork in the road, with the fate of the world resting upon our decision. 

We should choose wisely.

Forced DeCluttering & Water Solutions

I am really hoping that all this forced decluttering means there is (1) a move to northeast Texas in my future, or (2) a huge increase in income resulting from a decrease in disposable time.

You already know about the forced "decluttering" aka getting rid of my prepper stuff in the backyard due to the stone wall. Well the wall is up, the yard looks worse due to the construction than it did with the prepper stuff, and irony of all ironies: California just passed a "water hog" bill, where they're going to fine you $500 a day for going over your water allotment, so I'm not going to be replanting and watering worthless grass any time soon. Of course, they haven't said what that water allotment will be...

I am so glad I am a prepper. I am glad we have lived in areas where frequently electricity gets shut off, water gets shut off, gas (heat) gets shut off. It makes you plan for, and accommodate the "what if?"

Did I mention the freezer died this week? Glad we've been living on freezer storage and were down to a turkey, a few large packages of chicken and a bunch of bagged fruit. If I'd had to start canning 24/7 this week, sigh, well it wouldn't have been pretty. Freezer went to the city dump today. At this rate, I'll be living inside bare walls.

I am glad we have water stored even though it is not nearly enough. Like...it would get us through 5 days, maybe. And that's without cooking anything.

So one starts to get creative:

1. Our main bathroom plumbing has developed a leak (OF COURSE IT HAS!!) So until I can get it fixed (it leaks 5 gallons every 8 hours) I put a 5 gallon bucket underneath it, run some through the Berkey filter for drinking (it's potable on its own, but still), water the vegetable plants with the rest of it. If I need to, I will do laundry with it, and/or bathing (just like camping, lol.)

2. Fill up the remaining water barrels while I can. Yeah, those water barrels the landlord wanted me to get rid of.

3. Get up on the roof, disconnect the non-working satellite dish and build my parabolic cooker. Not for cooking: for distilling sea water.

4. Get a gym membership for showering (and working out too, lol!) Can we get a privacy screen and shower at the beach?? Just wondering.

5. Do laundry (washing anyway) at the laundromat.

6. Buy large 5 gallon water containers and fill up at those .25 cents a gallon water refilling stations.

7. Stop throwing those PETE juice bottles away. Wash them out, then refill them with water. One of those 48 - 64 ounce bottles contain enough water to boil pasta, cook rice rehydrate food, or make up powdered milk. Storage wise it's not a long term solution, but for sure a week's worth at a time.

I have until July 31st to come up with a plan. By August 1, it's going to have to go into action.

Life is Better With a Plan

In the space of 20 minutes, my son initiated a conversation that his girlfriend (19) is being told by her parents she needs to move out this Friday (not the first time she's been told this, but this time it sounds like they mean it), and my husband announced that he 'forgot' to get gas in the motorcycle he's using and the 'light came on' when he arrived at work (40 miles away.)

With truly no criticism intended for either party or anyone else, I have always been dumbfounded by people who fail to plan ahead and/or have a plan.

I am a planner. And a backup planner. And for decades (professionally) I devised computer disaster backup recovery plans for Fortune 500 companies. Stephen Covey and I are siblings from a different mother. I love checklists, long range planning, working my program. So I truly don't understand people who row their boat merrily down the stream without any idea of where they're going, let alone how they're going to get there.

I don't know if my planning orientation is nature or nurture. I often joke that the Chinese establish a plan for their children by age 2. My Asian friends wryly laugh and nod their heads in agreement...they complained about it as kids, but now that they have their own, they sheepishly admit to doing the same thing. I further joke (kind of) that since I'm only half-Chinese I got to live to age 5 before my plan was cast in concrete. I'm not kidding about that one, BTW. When I was 5 I did something (again) to tick my mother off, and she announced to both me and my father that when I was 18, I better have a plan because I'd be getting kicked out of her house the day of, with a suitcase and two months rent. 

It was a comment repeated frequently as I was growing up. So much so, that I started responding that I was going to hold her to it. By the time I was 16, I had graduated from high school and traded the rent money for a car (figuring, I could always sleep in a car, and at least I'd have debt-free transportation.)

Sure, one could take the victim mentality that my parent(s) were horrible, but I chose to take it for the blessing that it was: I knew that by the time I was 18, I better have a plan for my life. So of course, being an overachieving Asian, I sped up the time table by two years, LOL. I started working outside the home when I was 14, the summer I graduated high school I worked 3 jobs, the time equivalent of two full time positions. The day I turned 18, I moved out of state and never looked back.

I've raised my kids that they need to have a plan for their lives. Those who have listened have gone on to achieve great things with their lives--not necessarily fame and fortune. One listened and looked at the AirForce ROTC  while she was a freshman in college and found a match made in heaven. One has learned what it takes to raise and maintain a family and unlike many other kids his age, knows that a minimum wage job isn't going to cut it. It was funny to see this particular kid (his senior year of high school) query why his friends were "seniors in high school and didn't know what they were going to do out of high school; how come they don't have a plan?" One decided to develop a plan and at 17, is now a junior in college.

It's true the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry: my garden plans are a classic example; stay at home Moms know just because you have a plan at 7am, doesn't mean you're actually going to achieve that plan. Hopefully you've planned for that contingency, lol. But isn't life better with some direction? It's ironic that one will spend more time planning a vacation, or mapping out their drive to unfamiliar territory than they will spend deciding what they are going to do with their life, and how they are going to achieve it. Sure, life often throws us curve balls, but in life as in baseball, you can actually learn how to successfully hit a curve ball. 

Some look at debt and think they will never be debt free. I and many others know that if you develop a plan and work your plan, you can live debt free. Some in Step 1 look at sobriety and feel they will never experience sober living, but I know that if you work your program (your plan) one step at a time, you can have a rich and rewarding addiction free life. Some paid attention in Physic's class and internalized that a body in motion tends to remain in motion, and set their course accordingly. 

Life is better with a plan. If you find yourself adrift, realize that TODAY is the first day of the rest of your life. You are the master of your fate. You can decide to change, improve or establish a plan: personally, professionally, spiritually, financially. If you find your plan is not working, take a minute to reassess and adjust if necessary. 

Plan. It stands for:
Preparing
Life's
Actions
Now

Medical Emergencies

Every once in a while, I am reminded that growing up with a father who was a doctor was not necessarily a good thing. I haven't lived with, or around, my father (who is also deceased BTW), in over 40 years. Yet I still find myself lulled into complacency that somewhere, some one will handle medical emergencies when they arrive. I don't know many times I have to get it knocked in to my head that person is ME.

Heart attack? I gotcha. Compound fracture? You'd be amazed the things I can use to jerry-rig a splint (and I don't faint when pulling it and setting it together if I have to!) Sucking chest wound? Ok, now I'm wading in to first-aid-supply-light territory.

Beyond which, my oldest is drug allergic to many anesthetics and sulpha based antibiotics, my middle son has asthma, severe airborne allergies and is deathly allergic to pecans, and we just found out last night the hard way, that my youngest has a strong allergy to shellfish, such as shrimp.

Preventive medicine is often the best cure, and following a juicing regimen to build up your immune system, feed and nourish your body, but western medicine is often best at treating acute episodes. Still, we have been lax at building up supplies of needed emergency items: things which are not easily remedied in the natural world.

Like, oh, epinephrine. Heck, you can hardly find it in a pharmacy (over the counter) anymore thanks to all the druggies making smack or whatever it is they use Ephedrine in order to get high. Add to that DS14 broke out in hives and other classic signs of shellfish allergy when we were stuck in the middle of 50,000 people with little to no traffic movement, and you have a real problem. We were able to stem the worst of it with two Benadryl, an inhaler and lots of liquids, but we could have been in a boat load of trouble. I was able to find Primatene tablets which has Ephedrine HCL and picked up some Wal-Phed (generic of Sudafed) which is Pseudoephedrine HCL, but by then DS14 was under control. OK, I give. It's time to take DS18 in to get an epi-pen, and now DS14 in to be tested.

I've added mini-bug out bags to each of the cars (food, water), but it never occurred to me to stock a decent first aid kit, and I mean a really good one not the practically worthless ones. Sigh. The Adventure Medical Sportsman Kit is decent, but I still think (know) I should have something more. Wilderness Medical Associates, (http://www.wildmed.com) did a great article entitled "Building a Wilderness First Aid Kit". Its list of "ingredients" gets closer to what I'm wanting.

This blogpost is not meant to be medical advice or advise you on a choice of kit, but I can't stress training enough, and really think through the kinds of meds you need. DH just resists getting a 90 day supply of the meds he needs...Great. But that attitude pretty much ensures he will be the first to drop dead when SHTF. 

Last night showed me how foolish, and potentially deadly, putting off a well stocked kit and keeping current on training could be. Fortunately, we get a second chance. It's one I plan on taking full advantage.

Would LOVE to hear your thoughts on what you're doing, what you've done. 

UPDATE: The Israeli Bandages mentioned in the second video following are pretty inexpensive. 

This video on building an advanced medical kit :




and a great one on what an Israeli bandage is, and why you'd want to have one in your kit:

Preparedness University

(Homeschooling Page has been updated.)

My BFF lives in New Jersey. Every summer she packs up and heads down to Amish Country in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and comes back with tons of really great stuff. I have often joked (threatened?) that I should send/lend out my kids to Amish Country for the summer to learn how to work on a farm.

So imagine my surprise to find out there really IS such a place! It's called Preparedness University and it is run by Jim Kennard, who runs the Food For Everyone Foundation, based on the principles and techniques of Jacob Mittleider. 

I am so envious. I've been toying with the idea of using their weekly feed in my garden. If you go to Growfood.com and go to their "shop" tab, there's a Mittleider gardening book update you can get for free, and you know how I love free.

I was surprised to see that you can use the Mittleider method in regular row and dirt gardens. That was news. I thought it always had to be sand and sawdust boxes; so that's pretty cool to find out otherwise. I'm a little more comfortable using the weekly feed now that I see it can be used to actually build up the soil along with the compost and Back to Eden wood chips I'm already doing. The Natural Mineral Fertilizers-Micro Nutrient Mix is only $13.95. That's pretty inexpensive. You combine it with 25 pounds 13-13-13 fertilizer you can get at a big box store, and 4 lbs of Epsom Salts (a grocery store), both of which are also pretty inexpensive. 



I've been impressed by the healthiness of the plants I've seen grown using that weekly feed. I asked one person how he's been handling bug issues, and he said he hasn't had any. Now, I'm not saying I'm going to be bug-free if I do it, but at this point: I'll try anything. If I can just get rid of the freaking aphids, I'll consider myself blessed beyond belief.

In the next couple of days I'm going to be stocking up on strawberry plants and a bunch of other vegetable plants, and I've started growing my potato slips. I'll order some of this Micro Nutrient Mix as well and maybe, just maybe, I'll be successful.

Next summer: Preparedness U !