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Growing amaranth– Lodging

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Posted 1 min ago

Reply to: Feeding catfish with an eagle watching Posted 3 days ago

No flooding. The excess water exits out the spillway which is over on the far right of the picture. Behind that line of trees in the background is a huge sand bottom ditch. You could dry a car in it and the banks are maybe 6-8 feet high. But even if it backed up, and I’ve never seen it do that, all that would happen is the bottom pasture would flood. The horse barn is further up on the hill in my middle pasture. The house is above that, maybe 50′ above the pond.

Reply to: Feeding catfish with an eagle watching Posted 4 days ago

Shows you the difference 4 days can make. You can no longer see the trees in the pond. We had a couple of nice rains and I’d say the water level has gone up around 2 feet.

Reply to: Feeding catfish with an eagle watching Posted 6 days ago

Typical of politicians, then & now, he chose to pick one way in which they procure food and then try to make you think that is their only way. He also attempts to make animals that eat carrion seem lowly. Yes, bald eagles will eat carrion and will steal from other animals, but my experience is they would rather catch fish any day of the week. It is not a matter of being lazy. That would be like saying buzzards are lazy because all they eat is carrion. Now that is just plain foolish and old Ben should have know better. Carrion eaters provide a great service in nature by removing dead bodies and by doing so, reduce the spread of disease. Any animal that can eat carrion without getting sick have found a great food supply and one you don’t have to work all that hard at. It is a great biological adaptation. Preppers know it is important to have multiple methods of finding food to eat. Having multiple methods of feeding themselves & their young is not lazy… it is a great survival strategy for their species. And yes, anyone who sees bald eagles up close would most certainly consider them majestic and noble. I too am proud they are our national symbol and bird.

Reply to: Giveaway: New survival guide book from Alone’s S9 Juan Pablo Quinonez Posted 6 days ago

I found myself wanting to scream at these folks when they did stupid things, at least IMO. I think it stupid & wasteful to roast meat over a fire. They should always make a soup or stew to capture 100% of the calories, fat & nutrition… as well as increasing fluid intake. Also I found several shelters to be really odd. Some were way to big. They spent too much time & calories on having roomy shelters. Other shelters seemed way too flimsy & not insulated properly. Heck, the roof on the winner’s shelter was a thin piece of tarp. No way he could have survived full winter temps in that. But maybe he was just being smart & realized this was not gonna last into full winter. I did consider him the smartest. Once he realized it was gonna be a starvation event, he went into starvation mode. He didn’t eat but also didn’t waste calories on trying to procure food that wasn’t readily available.

Reply to: Giveaway: New survival guide book from Alone’s S9 Juan Pablo Quinonez Posted 6 days ago

For me, it makes for a boring show… especially the last half of the episodes. I wish they were in an area where sustainable food could be procured if you had the proper skills & tools. Seemed to me these folks never even had a fighting chance. But I guess putting them in a place where they will starve no matter what, keeps the number of episodes down & lowers production costs. Agree 1000% on food storage. Hunting should be used to supplement what you have stored away. And I consider my thousands of pounds of catfish in my pond as stored food that replicates itself.

Reply to: Giveaway: New survival guide book from Alone’s S9 Juan Pablo Quinonez Posted 6 days ago

I haven’t seen any other episodes but this was a harsh environment. Even in the best of weather, early on, seems like no one could procure enough food to build up their bodies and or reserves to handle the coming winter. So ended up just being a starve fest and that doesn’t interest me.

Reply to: Giveaway: New survival guide book from Alone’s S9 Juan Pablo Quinonez Posted 6 days ago

I watched this season for the first time and I was completely underwhelmed. It seemed to me to be less about survival but more about who could handle starvation the best. I mean, no one would have survived. The winner stopped trying to procure food and just went into starvation mode to wait out his competitors. Very boring!

Reply to: Longer power outages – how will you adjust? Posted 7 days ago

For the heater, the tank was in the house about 4-5′ away.

Reply to: Longer power outages – how will you adjust? Posted 1 week ago

This generator has run perfectly except I had issues running it on LP gas when below freezing. I believe the problem is the LP gas sold down here… not the generator. It runs fine on LP gas when above freezing. No big deal, that is the advantage of a dual fuel model. I simply switched over to gasoline and never had another issue. In hind sight now, during cold weather, I think it best to run the generator on gasoline & to save the LP gas for the heater. No, I didn’t modify anything. A 40# tank works exactly the same as 20#. I prefer having the larger 40# tanks even though they are heavier. I am of the opinion every prepper should have one of these heaters. They are that good! Having some electricity during an outage is sure nice and makes a bad situation bearable. Little things like being able to use the coffee maker can make a surprising difference in your mood. A generator can save you lots of money by not having to throw out all the food in your refrigerators & freezers. That being said, during an outage in very cold weather, nothing is more important than staying warm. One of these heaters with a few tanks of LP gas is not overly expensive and can keep a large area warm 24 hours a day for an extended period. This is some figuring I did last winter when using the heater. A 30,000 BTU heater can run for around 3 hours on a gallon of LP gas. My 40 pound tanks holds 9.4 gallons of gas each. With the heater running nonstop, one of my 40 pound tanks should last a bit over a day. The heater doesn’t run nonstop… it has a thermostat. Let’s say the heater runs 15 minutes each hour but I think it was even less than that. That means this heater should run for over 4 days on a single tank.

Reply to: Longer power outages – how will you adjust? Posted 1 week ago

I have adapted my preps not only because of the reliability of the power grid but also because of the extreme weather patterns that we now see. I built my house with two wood burning fireplaces and a large whole house generator that runs on natural gas. Sounds good but it gives me little flexibility. Case in point, this past winter my 100 year old mother in law, who still lives in her home in Memphis (with 24 hour care givers), experienced 3 multi day power outages. Luckily I had already adjusted my preps to help her. I had just recently purchased a 7500 watt, somewhat portable, dual fuel generator and all the associated power cords & gear to provide critical power to her house. I say somewhat portable in that you can relatively easily roll it around but it is too heavy for one person to lift into my pickup. I solved that issue by using straps on the loader bucket on my tractor to load it into the back of my pickup & just backed my truck into her garage and ran the generator from there. She has gas logs in her den, so we stayed in there. The generator powered refrigerator/freezer, some appliances, some lights and some electric heaters. After the first outage, I quickly noticed a problem. I prefer not to run a generator 24 hours a day and like to shut it down at night. Problem was, the gas logs couldn’t keep the room warm by themselves. So right after that event, I purchased the portable version of your Mr. Heater LP gas heater plus six 40 gallon LP tanks. The next outage, a few weeks later, went much better. We shut off her gas logs & ran the portable heater 24 hours a day. What an amazing heater. Even at a medium heat setting, it only ran maybe 20 minutes out of every hour and keep us very warm. Somehow the heat was very uniform throughout the whole den & dining room. What an amazing product. With all that LP gas, I could run that heater for weeks. So I suggest preppers add as much flexibility into your preps & plans because you just might need your resources elsewhere.

Reply to: Feeding catfish with an eagle watching Posted 1 week ago

I’ve never seen them take a bath. It is very common for me to find them on the water’s edge though.

Reply to: Feeding catfish with an eagle watching Posted 1 week ago

Until an eagle grabs hold of it. 🙂 And they ain’t as little as you might think.

Feeding catfish with an eagle watching

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Posted 1 week ago

Reply to: Off-grid cabin/land purchase Posted 2 weeks ago

I always suggest folks visit a community prior to purchase of land… and not just once or twice. I think visiting local churches is the best way to meet locals. They are more than glad you stopped by. They will want to talk to you so just let them know you are looking to move to the area and are interested in finding just the right piece of property. What you might find is that someone will sell you some property that is not listed but would do so for the “right” people. They also might help in your search or at least get you in touch with the right people. Besides churches, the next best folks to chat with are the folks at the local farm supply or coop. They know all the land owners & are very connected. In my case, the owner of our local farm supply invited me to his church & we later joined. Very quickly we met all sorts of people. We ended up being neighbors & good friends before he passed. You note I don’t list realtors. They have a vested interest in selling you whatever they have, no matter if it really fits your needs. In our search, we only used the realtor company once we had chosen our land. Thank you for the exceedingly kind words!

Reply to: Climate change & gardening Posted 2 weeks ago

As of now, my plans are to put in collard greens, broccoli & filet bush beans. My Seminole pumpkins are already growing & setting fruit. They originate from Florida and love the heat

Reply to: Climate change & gardening Posted 2 weeks ago

Thanks & will do.

Reply to: Off-grid cabin/land purchase Posted 2 weeks ago

IMO, you evaluate the land based upon your wants & needs… not some else’s. For example, how remote do you want to be? Do you have health concerns that require you to be somewhat close to medical care? How far away from stores do you want to be? Might you ever have horses, cows or other farm animals? If so you will need pasture lands. Is the water table at a depth that you can put in a well? What are the local rules regarding what type of septic tank you can put in? Do you need a pond or lake access? Etc. etc.

Reply to: Survival Gardening … Make your own seed vault Posted 2 weeks ago

I use garden rakes & leaf rakes, typically for cleanup… nothing special. Only tools I use for harvesting would be hand pruners and assorted baskets & buckets used for putting the goods in.

Reply to: Some chores are better than others Posted 2 weeks ago

I am blessed to have a nice bat population to handle eating insects, especially mosquitos at night. I am even more blessed to have a huge population of barn swallows that do the same all day long. Some crazy folks knock down their mud nests when they see them under a porch or overhang. Crazy people! I do all in my power to encourage these birds to build nests & I have them on all outdoor structures. I can’t tell you the last time I got bitten by a mosquito on the farm. I live out in the country surrounded by fields, woods & ponds/lakes. Often I’m outside many hours a day. Every day a bit before dusk, I am down at the pond feeding catfish & watching eagles… and never get bit. When I sit out at night with the dogs, I never get bit. Years ago, when we lived in a small town, you would get swarmed by mosquitos, especially at dusk or night.

Growing amaranth– Lodging

Feeding catfish with an eagle watching

Growing amaranth– Lodging

Feeding catfish with an eagle watching

Some chores are better than others

Bald eagle photobombs my horses.

Climate change & gardening

Ever seen a Blue Heron ?

Chicken Pot Pie

Survival Gardening … Make your own seed vault

Dinner from the freezer

It is critical you prune your muscadines