We had a day of cold damp and rainy weather move in today. It got cool and very damp as the rain moved in and it seems that I'm more sensitive to the cool damp weather this year. Almost any that has broken a bone, injured a joint or has arthritis suddenly becomes a human barometer and feels how the pressure changes when low or high pressure starts moving into your area. While it can be a bit uncomfortable during the weather change it can help you organize some jobs before the weather arrives. I got most of the leaves raked up before the rain arrived and threw out more grass seed before the rain arrived.  In my experience planting grass seed in the fall works much better than a Spring planting of grass seeds.  My uncle would throw grass seed on snow to seed his pasture.  That sounds a bit crazy, I have to say he always had a good amount of pasture grass to feed the 3-6 cattle he raised on a small acreage. 

I did good piling up the leaves and clearing the backyard lawn patch to add more grass seed. I threw out seed earlier this year but the leaves covered the ground so quickly I needed to add more grass seed after most of the leaves had dropped and were cleaned up and before a good rain to start getting the grass seed settle in the soil so it can sprout next spring. I need to fix my dependence on city water irrigation.  I have rain barrels but I need to add a solar pump and more water collection systems to become less reliant on city and store more water I have control over. 

I made a mistake raking up all the walnuts and the leaves together in a pile and not picking up the walnuts before raking.  Black walnut leaves makes a plant killer mulch and that is not the best leaf pile for nuts/seeds to be for a few days as you clean up leaves. Black walnut leaves make a great plant killing mulch that can be very useful in areas that you want to eliminate all plants but want some cover to protect the soil you are trying to build up.  Those leaves will kill nuts and seeds if left in a pile for a few days.  So I have a few walnuts in a bucket I have saved and a on a screen I tried for drying out the husks and nuts but I will miss out on a good harvest of walnuts. 

I'm a big fan of using animal fats and vegetable oil that have a long history of use.  Olive oil is a good example of a vegetable fat that has a long history but today the quality can be hit or miss.  I am a big fan of lard and butter for cooking depending on the heat of what you are cooking.  Lard has a much higher "smoke point" than olive oil and butter and is a natural fat. Before refrigeration Lard and suet was used to keep out air to preserve cooked meats in crocks in a root cellar or spring well that was cool but not freezing.  I think that was the original version of "potted meat". I'm not making potted meat but I do want to have a good oil/fat to cook with every day. 

Usually the biggest problem with storing land long term is any meat particles or other contamination from the rendering process. I'm not blaming folks that render lard it is difficult to eliminate all bits of meat  that bacteria want to much on so it is understandable that people would (can) rendered lard at high heat as removing all meat particles is very difficult and time consuming. 

Big advantage of using lard from a store is the manufacturer has already removed all the meat particles that could provide bacteria food to expand and become rot in the lard. I use wide mouth jars to store lard as it simple easier to dip a paper towel in the jar or scoop ot the amount of fat into the pan for cooking.  I use a large glass mixing bowl to melt the lard in 1 minute intervals and then pour the lard into clean caning jars and I can hear the jar lids "pop" indicating a seal and I did not try to seal the jars. I just wanted a safe way to have lard on hand that was better than some wax paper and a waxed box from the store. 

I don't make or can ghee or stored canned butter any more because butter stores very well in a freezer.  Ghee is supper easy to make you just melt butter and then skim off the floating bits and put the clarified butter in to a jar.  Ghee is simply clarified butter and anyone that cooks seafood knows how to make clarified butter. 

This has been a tough garden season for me.  I was so excited to start plants early and the plants were devastated by the hot summer. Now I have Tomatillos flowering and trying to put on fruit in late October. I did not plant those Tomatillos they reseeded themselves in the bed. It has been a very strange gardening season for me. Most of my early starting plant died when the heat hit my garden beds but I had a lot of volunteer plants that exploded with growth. I'm trying a new system of storing squash in a Styrofoam cooler with a bit of straw in my basement.  It isn't "Root cellar" cool but it's what I got.   

I made up the batch of stew and it did expand in volume that is normal for most of my cooking.  I roasted some beef bones in the oven before making the stew to make a bit of beef broth prior the making the stew. The bones had a lot of fat on them and while fat can add flavor I don't want a layer of fat on my stews.  Super easy to skim off the fat  and then share. Honestly I think most slow cooked soups taste better after sitting in the fridge for 24-48 hour and reheated. 

It is okay to mess up, it also okay to make a good if small thing.  You probably won't change the world if you learn to bake bread.  If you can keep your family alive, have trade/barter good and income.  You are ahead of 80% of people that have no idea about self reliance.   

I made buckets full of food that could sustain a person for a month and I could not give them away for free to my family. Just free food to live on in a disaster and no one in my family would take a small 3-5 gallon bucket to have a some food preps on hand. In my family preparing for a disaster/emergency mean you want a disaster to happen. 

I'll admit to admit to a little bit of I told you this was coming. But  I really prefer people surviving. because I don't want people getting crazy or dying that the must be buried in mass graves.  

I would suggest if you are not a long term prepper you focus on the basics and find local suppliers.  I think local suppliers are great for everyone. But we as preppers have built a stockpile and what we need  short term is not critical to our survival.  You are not going to die if you don't get Gatorade flavor you prefer or a soda you want. 

We Americans can be a "spoiled brat" at times. Not getting what we want and we want it right now.  That probably won't happen .  The next question is what will you do about it? 

 

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