It's Election Day!

What an historic day, regardless of outcome.

Today (likely) will see the election of the first woman as President of the United States. How I wish it was a different woman, but the ayes had it. I also would have preferred the first hispanic President of the United States compared to the possibility of the first citizen-candidate (non-governing/experienced person) to become elected to the Presidency since...oh say, the founding of the Republic. But the nays carried that one too.

It would have been wonderful to elect, the first black female as President of the USA (Condeleeza Rice) but we beat her up too bad previously for her to even have considered a run. And we were too bigoted last time around to elect the first non-scandal-ed President (Romney) since....yeah, basically the founding of the Republic or this one too (Santorum.)

Whether you are for or against the particular candidates, I hope the results of apathy have taught us all a huge lesson. Far too many stayed home during the primaries on all sides, thinking their vote wouldn't matter. Florida (Bush v Gore, 537 vote delta) should have taught us that it did. Far too many will stay home today thinking all is lost.

A little levity about voting here in Texas vs California. 

So in California, home of "regulate every aspect of your life", we get a booklet courtesy of the state government, of all the candidates: national, state, county, local. Plus the propositions (proposed laws). Plus arguments for and against each of the laws. Plus candidate statements (local anyway.) Since my Pandora account is still linked to my 92647 (soCal) zip code, I've been getting bombarded with Pandora ads about the bazillion propositions on the California ballot.

Assuming that every state operates similarly, I've been asking for a "voter's guide" in my county since like, September. Everyone has looked at me like I am completely crazy and don't know what I'm talking about. At best, I finally got in front of a live body at the county registrar's office and she said, "oh we don't do that here."

I wrote it off to "I live in small county Texas."

NOPE. That would be, "I live in SMART county Texas." 

I voted early. (We don't have Vote By Mail ballots here unless you are elderly, handicapped or infirm--that part IS small county Texas). I got a paper ballot because of all the fraud stuff that's going around. In California, a national election (= higher voter turnout) sends the proposition people into hyperdrive...there's a million more props than usual.

Yeah....I'm in Texas now.

Home of:

• No statewide Props (aka, we prefer you use Common Sense to run your life, not regulations)
• TWO county propositions (junior college tax, and a road bond issue),
• Presidential candidates with multiple party candidates (four parties BTW)
• Local county candidates (about a handful with multiple parties listed)
• And the vast majority of local candidates running unopposed.

It was hilarious. No wonder everyone acted like I was nuts. Oh, and that college tax? It's doomed to failure since the wrong tax rate was printed on the ballot, but it still was allowed to proceed anyway. Not the only reason it is doomed to fail, but in CA, candidates and Prop-masters have taken wording all the way to the California Supreme Court for spelling and minor typographical errors for crying out loud, and holding up the process to boot.

Here it's like: eh. Figure it out. Do your own research. Draw your own conclusions.

What a frigging concept.

Go vote.

Day 13: What We've Learned

Well, the challenge is over. Unlike the one woman who just kept going, we are ending our challenge at the official two week mark, mostly because I want to be able to add to our food and home stores. Here's what we've learned:

1. We are our own worst enemy. Our habits good and bad, do not have to define us. They are simply habits. We can change them if we want to, or we will change them because we have to. I asked DS16 what he has learned from these past two weeks. He said he's learned that he doesn't have to indulge in weakness, he can chose to forego something X, for something better Y. His example was eggs: at 3pm he would have a craving for eggs. He decided he would rather forego satisfying a 3pm craving for eggs in order to be able to have them every morning after his workout. 

Then he said, I realized it's not just physical. It's spiritual too, kind of like putting off the natural man. I can choose to not indulge in weakness or vice X in order to obtain a better Y. I may not make it every time, but I can make the right decision enough times to make a difference. That's my 16 year old, people! Yeah, I'm proud.

We have a gallon and a half of milk left out of the four we started with. Remember: DS and DH blew through two gallons the first three days of the challenge. So we had a family meeting where everyone got on the same page: when it's gone, it's gone and you'll either use a substitute, or you'll do without. I noticed after that DH modified his behavior. Heretofore he would pour 20 ounces of milk and drink maybe 2/3rds of it, and the rest would be wasted. During these past two weeks he'd pour about 8-10 ounces and drink it all. He didn't have to "do without" he simply had to change how much. DH said the same thing: that he chose to modify his behavior, and after a week, when he saw how much was left, the scarcity feelings went away and he was fine.

2. Start now. People look at all those who have been putting food and supplies by for years and think, I'm never going to be that person. I'll never have a stockpile like they do, why even try.

You're right. You may not be like "that person." Guess what? You don't have to be. Cheryl Driggs of Simplyprepared.com, has forgotten more about food and home storage than I'll ever learn in my lifetime. She and I have different views on what kinds of food to store, and that's ok. It's unlikely that I'll ever have the kinds of redundancies that my friend Richard King has (he's like, 4 of every type.) Or have a mini farm like my friend Wendi. 

So what? Does that mean I can't start now doing my own thing? Only my attitude can keep me from building up a food storage. And do not tell me lack of money is why one doesn't do it. It's a factor on how much how fast, yes. But it does not keep you from building up a storage....we were fortunate to be on food stamps for 9 months when DH was out of work for a year, and still built up a food storage by purchasing for example, 50# of rice at a time or 40# of chicken when it was on sale for .99/pound. Is that a year's supply? No, but it's at least a month's worth.

BTW, in case you don't follow me regularly: Classico pasta sauce jars with the green banded lids are the same mouth size as regular mouth canning jars. If you're spending $2-3 on pasta sauce anyway, you might want to get some canning jars out of the deal (especially if you're on food stamps and can't buy plain jars.) Would I can with them? Not sure. Would I dehydrate food and store dehydrated foods or rice in them? Yep, and do.

3. Our food storage needs to evolve. We started out like most people do: buying a bunch of wheat. Sat there for at least a decade unused. Then we bought a year's supply of food from Ready Reserve. Sat there for at least a decade also (it was mostly wheat, some rice, sugar, dehydrated corn, peas, carrots.) Then because I had access to an LDS cannery/home storage center, I added a lot of oatmeal in #10 cans. That actually got used. One reason was it was something we already knew how to use. I saved up and bought an electric wheat mill, the kind which actually makes real flour. In hindsight, I should have gotten the drawer model, but at least I have one that I use, and yes, it took me months to save up for it. 

I decided I'd rather store a bunch of rice which we actually eat, versus wheat which we don't, so we began buying rice. Learning from my father, I opted to not depend solely on a bowl of rice a day, so I added cans of "cream of's" and cans of vegetables for casseroles. Then I started couponing, and our food storage exploded. Couponing allowed me to add variety and non-food items at or near free.

It has been almost a decade since the LDS church switched gears and published All is Safely Gathered In: A guide to Family Home Storage and All is Safely Gathered In: A guide to Family Finances (Getting out of Debt.) Concurrent with that, I "met" people online who encouraged me to can chicken and were getting out of debt. It made me envision ways to expand my food storage and find ways to build a solid storage of things we normally eat vs "stuff to eat in an emergency."

Then last year my daughter had to go vegetarian for health reasons, and is now vegan. Changing to a food storage which is 100% plant based, non-animal products is a really big shift. Honestly, it's not something I can easily do on my own: I don't have the land to grow, so I am grateful for Thrive freeze dried foods which aids in building a long term plant based storage, and dehydrating (see Day 6: Meals in a Jar.) We've learned to grow Quinoa and Amaranth in containers and incorporated those into our diet. 

My point is: we store different things now than we did when I first started. When I first started, I had three kids in diapers. Trust that they eat different things than they did then. If I'd ended with what I stored then figuring "well I'm done," we'd have been in trouble these past two weeks.

4. The best food in life is free. I know I know. You live in an apartment so you can't grow a forest. You live in Texas where the soil sucks. You live in an HOA neighborhood in California that micromanages what angle you park your car, let alone what kinds of things you can grow in your own yard. There's a million reasons why you can't or haven't grown your own food.

But I was at the natural foods store a few weeks ago, and you know what I saw? An indoor mini mushroom 'farm.' Basil and a bunch of other herbs you can grow in a #5 can (soup can size.) Sprouters and lettuce/micro greens containers. Cherry tomatoes can be easily grown indoors or on a balcony. You know what you get when you put microgreens/lettuce and cherry tomatoes together? Dinner. Or lunch. And I hate lettuce, but it's way better than boiled wheat 365 days a year. And it's free. You don't have to be like my grandfather who grew 99% of everything they ate. But you can start to grow something....something that will provide food for your family and something the government can't control. First on our list this week is buying some compost and getting some seeds planted and starting some sprouts.

5. Establish a network. We saw early on that it will be helpful to have a group of barter-ees, and that we would be wise to include people outside our gene pool. 

6. Create a plan for "when I run out of X, then what?" DD19 is vegan largely for health, but mostly by choice. My go-to for sugar substitute is honey. Eventually I want to have a hive or two. My question to her is: what is your go-to for sugar if you are not going to modify your anti-honey stance (it's an "animal product" in the vegan world) ? That I know of (and I'm open to learning different) there's no great substitute which you can grow (stevia) in scale or if you can grow it in scale (sugar beets) how do you process it? We don't have an answer for her yet, but it's reflective of the core question: when you run out of X, then what?

7. Store comfort foods. Face it, we live in a junk food society. For us, not having on hand (or the ability to make) things like potato chips made a difference. Not a "we'll die if we don't have it", but being able to make cakes, chocolate chip cookies, no bake oatmeal peanut butter cookies, popcorn, Kraft mac & cheese, noodle ramen, was a big deal. It's the difference between feeling comfort-able and feeling deprived. There's probably a reason the Candy Bomber was such a big hero during WW2.

8. Get Organized!!! Seriously, I cannot emphasize this enough. Not being organized threw a spanner in the works Day 1 and we never really recovered from it. If we were living solely on food storage for real, hunting every day for something would really be a stressor. 

9. You can never have enough canning jars, but empty doesn't help you. I was really fortunate to buy a bunch of quart size wide mouth canning jars a few months ago for $5 a case. I am truly grateful I have them (I bought 20 cases.) But I've come to the same epiphany with canning jars that I did with toothpaste. I used to have like a five year supply of toothpaste. One day I looked at all that toothpaste and realized I could be doing something better with the space: something we needed more, like toilet paper, or canned vegetables. I look at canning jars the same way: an empty jar isn't going to feed my family. So I need to start a concerted effort to do more canning. Small whine here: I miss my Turkish farmer's market in Huntington Beach where produce was routinely .33/pound. 

10. Find someone who does what you can't. I met someone Saturday who bakes her own bread and sells it. I don't need her for bread. But you know what else she does? She raises her own cows and lambs and sells them once a year for slaughter. Hello! I'm making arrangements to buy half a cow...I may not be able to make it this year, but I can sure start saving up for next. And who knows, maybe someday I'll be able to have my own.


Miley Cyrus made famous a song entitled "The Climb." Really a great song, part of the lyrics are:

 "I can almost see it, that dream I'm dreaming, but there's a voice inside my head saying, 'you'll never reach it'....ain't about how fast I get there, 

ain't about what's waiting on the other side, it's about the climb."

It is about the climb. The journey of a thousand food storage miles starts with a single step.

Vaya con Dios.

Day 12: Canning Chicken, Homemade Bread

My son had already gone through 10 pints of chicken since the last time I put up chicken, so I brought his jars home and canned up another 10 pints. I'm canning another 10 pints tomorrow. I learned a long time ago that I'm not one of those mega canner people who are able to can can can can for 48 hours straight, I have to do it in spurts.

We ran out of store bought bread two days ago: DD19 has been doing tortillas because I didn't get far enough to do homemade bread then. Two loaves of homemade bread yesterday. I'm going to try using my Pampered Chef stoneware round bread crocks next time. There are two of them at my son's, and two here with us, so once I get the recipe and timing nailed down, I'll post it here. I need to heavily dose them with vegetable shortening until they season up, and I was out of that this time around.

Sun Oven group buy is happening! Exciting times! When the Excalibur dehydrator broke, DD19 asked if we will be able to dehydrate in the sun oven. Yes is the answer (since I'm buying the DPAP, see Day 11 post) but ironically she was asking when it happened to be pouring rain. I wish I had the money to buy two sun ovens, that way I could "cook" in one while the other was dehydrating. Oh well. One is better than zero.

DS20 was making homemade ramen the other day, and the "recipe" (is there a recipe for homemade ramen?) called for sprouts. He was like, "Mom, where can I get sprouts?" I said, "well, the natural foods store (come on, we live in Texas. It's not like a 'regular' store carries them) OR you could have your mother bring her sprouter and seeds down. I have two sprouters." He laughed and said "of course you do." I've never actually used them, but I do happen to know where they are ironically enough.

Other than bread, we haven't run out of anything, even dish soap and milk. I was really surprised, especially the milk, so it just shows me how much is wasted or used carelessly. I'm glad I'm blogging because I look back over these two weeks and can't figure out why it didn't feel any different than normal, especially since I tend to head into a grocery store daily. Somewhere along the line I missed a day of blogging too. Today is actually day 13 and the end of the challenge, but we're going to continue it through Sunday (which will be "Day 13's" post.

Oh and I found my stash of dish soap. And my heirloom hull-less oats, edamame seeds, adzuki bean seeds, spinach seeds. I think I'm going to have to put up my greenhouse. I am kind of freaking out about having a garden because we have snakes here in Texas~!!! Not okay with me, I can barely handle bugs in my garden. During the reorganizing I also found another box of bug traps! HALLELUJAH! I put them out immediately. There were several days when I almost broke the ban and went to the store to buy some.

Life Lesson for Day 12: Gather what you can, modify your behavior to stretch your supplies, and trust that it will all work out.

Vaya con Dios.

Day 11: Prepping Doctrine-Two is One, One is None

Really bummed. I planned on dehydrating almond milk and doing a whole video on (a) how to make a container so you can dehydrate liquids, (b) dehydrate almond milk, (c) figure out the ratio of powder to water so that it reconstitutes with the same taste as regular.

Brought all my equipment and ingredients to my son's so I can keep an eye on it....got my dehydrator out....and...it didn't turn on. I am very very unhappy. In the prepping world, they say "two is one, one is none," meaning, have two of something because when one breaks at least you have one. If you only have one then when that one breaks, you have none.

Do I have two dehydrators? Yes I do. Are they both Excalibur dehydrators (which is the one that broke?) No, they are not. I have an ED and a round one. Did I bring both with me? Of course not, seriously why would I do that? Grrr...

So instead, you get a video for Part A: how to make a container so you can dehydrate liquids. It's pretty ingenious if I do say so myself :)  Enjoy!

Days 9 and 10: Sharing from Strength

We are on the downhill slide of this challenge. We have been really blessed that we have been prepared enough, and frugal enough with what we have, that we can share with others. 

Small things, like gifting shaving razors; gifting time- DD19 was asked to take someone shopping who was trying to prepare a week long vegetarian menu. I've been surprised at how long things have lasted: just now I used up the last of my liquid dish soap, tomorrow we start using the dish soap I obtained by barter, so we almost made it. Last night we took out the 2nd of 3 gallons of milk from the freezer, I honestly thought after DS and DH blew through two gallons in 3 days last week that we would be at powdered by now, but we still have a gallon left. We made more cake and shared some. DD19 has noticed that being wise and operating from a place of gratitude really calms feelings of anxiety and scarcity; in some ways it is really true that "if you are prepared, you shall not fear." I think it is more accurate to say that if you are prepared, you will be able to tap into coping skills to alleviate your fear.

Tomorrow is a big day: the long awaited dehydration of almond milk happens!! We were hoping to get to it today, but plans changed, and tomorrow is the last real day that we have to get it done during daylight hours. We will make a video, but don't expect to see it for a while, because we also need to figure out what the ratio of powdered almond milk to water will be, and tie it in to the video so what is produced is a start to finish episode. Exciting!

The North Texas Preparedness Group is doing a group buy for the All American Sun Oven: $215 vs $369 (if you're reading this blog before October 22 and want one, email me here for more info; they will get direct shipped to you. I'm not the group coordinator, nor do I get any kickback, but I've wanted solar oven for a while, and in the event it's been on your bucket list too.... 

Oh, and I found my package of heirloom hull-less oats. Really looking forward to getting them into containers and start the growing season (not like tomorrow or anything, but still will be fun.)

Life Lesson Days 9 and 10: Preparation is the key to survival; and the difference between peace or not.

Days 7 and 8: Back on Track

It's been a full week living solely on home storage. The bumps have smoothed out, and it has been smooth sailing.

DD19 was able to attend the women's group meeting where the challenge was issued. It was really interesting to hear how everyone is doing. One woman thought the challenge started at the last challenge (making something creative out of your food supplies) so she's been doing it for three weeks! WOW! No one has dropped out yet, but I think on average, people can survive one week, especially if they have running water, electric, sanitation etc. It's this next week which will be telling.

This woman's family ran out of milk, so they went to their powdered milk storage, which her husband refused to drink. So she responded that he was doing without. Oddly enough, his skin issues he has always had have cleared up by not drinking pasteurized milk. Hmmm...

DD19 has learned this week that certain items will be staples in her food storage. For example, one of her favorites is lemon orzo soup. We had all the ingredients and it is a hearty meal which can be eaten vegan (normally what we do) or you can throw in a pint of chicken if you've got it. Orzo (a pasta which looks like rice) is not on anyone's "staple list", but this experiment has taught DD19 that home storage needs to be customized to your needs, not someone else's. She was also craving sweets really badly. We had run out of sugar in the kitchen, and she was desperately debating whether she should break the ban or live without. She had the thought to look in the garage--perhaps we had a #10 can of sugar? And surprise, we did! The day was saved, and DD19 saw the importance of having a stockpile.

I continue to organize our storage and jettison household items we no longer need. During the re-org we uncovered 12 cans of kidney beans, 24 cans of diced tomatoes, and wonder of wonders: my Tattler reusable canning lids and seals! So excited! So now we will be able to can up some pinto beans for DD19, and once the ban is lifted, buy a bunch of chickpeas and can those up as well. Chickpeas are fast becoming a pantry staple for us: high in protein, good flavor, add a lot of heft to a meal.

Lemon Orzo Soup (the original recipe)

2 T olive oil, divided

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper (obviously regular table will do)

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 onion, diced

3 carrots, peeled and diced

2 stalks celery, diced

1/2 teas dried thyme

5 cups vegetable stock

2 bay leaves

3/4 cup uncooked orzo pasta

1 sprig rosemary

juice of 1 lemon

2 T chopped fresh parsley leaves

optional: 1 can chickpeas, 1 pint/small can cooked chicken

Instructions: Add 1 T oil to stockpot, add garlic, onion, carrots, celery. Cook stirring occasionally until tender about 3-4 minutes. Stir in thyme until fragrant about 1 minute.

Whisk in vegetable stock, bay leaves and 1 cup water bring to a boil. Stir in orzo, rosemary, (chicken and/or chickpeas) reduce heat and simmer until orzo is tender, about 10-12 minutes. Stir in lemon juice and parsley, season with salt and pepper to taste. **Can also pressure cook 1-2 minutes after coming to pressure in lieu of stovetop cooking.

---------

What we changed: We substituted THRIVE FD celery and carrots about a half cup of each, and a 1/3 cup of FD onion. I have a #10 can of dehydrated carrots (a whole case in fact) but I've used them before and I'm not a fan of the taste; I don't know if it's the dehydrating process they use or that it has absorbed that tin can smell, but I'm not a fan. DD19 pressure cooked it rather than stovetop simmer; we've found we get more consistent results that way.

Life Lesson Days 7 and 8: At the end of the day, someone else's list is a guideline, not the gospel. You have to store what is right for your family, not someone else's. We have good friends of ours whose son has Celiac disease and is gluten intolerant. What's the point of them solely storing 1000 pounds of wheat vs 1000 pounds of corn and rice? We found out through personal experience our family needs a 1000ct roll of toilet paper a day; no one's list could tell us that. 

Most importantly: do something now. Find the meals which your family likes and start gathering those ingredients now.

Vaya con Dios.

Day 6: Planning Meals in a Jar

Millions and millions of meals in a jar recipes. My plan is to have on hand a quart of each of the ingredients listed in the Ultimate Dehydrator Cookbook by Tammy Gangloff. Her book, which I have and love, has 398 recipes (really, you couldn't come up with two more?) so my thought process was, if I dehydrated all of the ingredients (96 of them btw), then I would have everything at my fingertips when I went to go make the recipe. I started dehydrating the ingredients when I was in California, when whatever ingredient was on sale or free (for example, oranges--free in my backyard.) I may or may not go the route of putting up "meals in a jar" for the dehydrated ingredients.

I do plan to make meals in a jar with Thrive though. Not for me so much, as for the rest of my family. Visually, I think it is easier for them to look at "regular looking ingredients" and add water, than it is for the "rehydrate mental barrier" which is a byproduct of dehydrating as the dehydrated product looks so vastly different than freeze dried. I learned when we spent last summer living in a tent: easy, one and done; that's the way to go. What, some of you didn't know my kids and I spent all summer living in a tent when the house we were buying fell out of escrow? Yeah, living two weeks solely on homestorage with air and electric and running water is a cake walk after that! (http://andmyfamilydweltinatent.blogspot.com/)

So this is the first meals in a jar I plan to make: Ziti casserole. Ingredients are:

1/3 c. THRIVE freeze dried sausage**
2/3 c. THRIVE freeze dried ground beef**
2/3 c. THRIVE tomato powder
1 t. italian seasoning herb
1/3 c. THRIVE freeze dried onions
1 c. noodles (macaroni, penne, bow tie. by weight- 3 oz)
1/3 c. THRIVE freeze dried mushrooms
2/3 c. THRIVE freeze dried shredded mozzarella cheese*

*Cheese is placed in a baggie at the top of a wide mouth jar, as it is rehydrated and added at the end when all the rest of the ingredients have cooked. Also, only DH and the DSs eat cheese, so I might cut this back to 1/3 cup, just enough to cover "their half." Store in a wide mouth mason jar with an oxygen absorber (you can buy OA here.) I know OAs work because I store this way, but I'm wondering (comments welcome!) if just using my food saver will work as well?

Rehydrating/cooking instructions: 

Add 5 cups of water and simmer in a large covered skillet for 15-20 minutes. This is where freeze dried Thrive wins out over dehydrated, IMO. I actually have all those ingredients dehydrated (well, not sausage and my cheese is freeze dried) and I know I would have to rehydrate the ground beef first for a long time before cooking, I couldn't just throw it in and cook it all at once. Lightly mist the cheese, repeating as often as necessary to rehydrate the cheese to the point it can go on top of casserole and melt down (don't drown it in water. I've made that mistake before too.)

I plan on making at least 8 meals at a time, that way DH or DS can just throw stuff in water and be done. I'm really looking forward to making a bunch of vegan meals in a jar with Thrive ingredients for DD. And then publishing a book :)  Note ** I could make this vegan by eliminating the cheese and substituting a cup of Thrive Beef TVP for the freeze dried sausage and beef. It's not freeze dried, so I'm not sure how much it would alter the cooking time...

Life Lesson for Day 6: Plan ahead by making meals in a jar. In the same 20 minutes it takes to drive through for fast food you could have a nutritious, home made meal for a lot less than the $30 you're going to spend driving through some place. And take it from someone who has lived in "flexible" housing for weeks on end--the luxury of not having to think about what to make for dinner is really a blessing...it's just one stressor which can be eliminated by meals in a jar.

Vaya con Dios.