Great and busy. I hit my first tag sales of the year and got a couple of things I was pretty happy with. I found a beautiful, brand-new wooden train with multi-colored shaped blocks on each car, a heavy metal wine rack, a 50′s pyrex baking pan with a glass lid and a bunch of really nice glass jars with metal bales. I plan to fill the jars with dried fruit or tea mixtures and give them out as Christmas gifts. The train will be a gift for my grandson. I got a couple of other little things; a gorgeous fruit bowl for $.50 and some books and DVDs. While I was out, I also picked up a corker for my wine making and a bag of 80 corks.
One of my best finds was a copy of Into The Forest. I’m sure it will come as no surprise that I’m a big fan of post-apocalyptic fiction. I have long wanted to read this book. It’s not your typical doomer porn. There are no MZB’s, no hero who knows how to do everything, no amazing find of a room full of food and preps. There is not even a big event or any real resolution. The reader never even really knows what happened. Still, it’s an amazing read.
I spent the rest of the weekend planting potatoes (nothing like a good doomer novel to put one in the mood to grow potatoes), setting out tomatoes and broccoli and getting a good start on my herb bed. I harvested a big bunch of rhurbarb too. The thing is that I’m not a big fan of the stuff. I still have a few quarts left from last year. I also had about a gallon of frozen raspberries to use up before the new crops is ready. I decided to cut up the rhurbarb and simmer it with the raspberries and a couple of jars of last year’s applesauce and some sugar. After putting the whole mess through a strainer, I boiled it down some more and now it’s in the Excalibur. By morning, I’ll have a nice fruit leather.
Anybody stopping by would be forgiven for wondering just what I have in the jar on my counter. I save all of the chicken eggs, bake them, then crush them into a powder. I add all of my leftover vege water and use the rather disgusting mess to water my plants. I hate to waste anything.
May 22, 2011 at 8:45 pm
Why do you bake the eggshells?
I crush them up and either add them to the pail going out to the compost pile, or mix them into my hen’s feed for extra calcium. Crush them really fine before doing the latter though, so the girls don’t get any big ideas about crushing (and eating) their OWN eggs.
May 22, 2011 at 9:47 pm
Hi: I found your book in the library and I plan to buy a copy to keep ASAP. I have a few other preparedness books but yours is my favorite so far since it is much more readable and real for my circumstances. I’m a mom/family manager living in hurricane prone Florida. While the winter advice doesn’t apply, everything else does. I also like the “customizable” aspect of the book. I’ve found one item I disagree with, however. (A trivial point that in no way lessens the information in the rest of the book.) You advise filling your washing machine with water as an extra storage container if a storm is threatening. NOOOO, don’t do it!!! My mom did this for Hurricane Andrew and it ruined her washer. The power was out for an extended period of time and she was unable to drain the washing machine; it rusted and she had to get a new one. Her house was damaged to the point that she couldn’t stay there so the extra water wasn’t needed anyway; she had to leave and live with relatives. Stock up on enough containers so that you don’t need to fill your washing machine. I have a few of the big 5 gallon water jugs with spigots at the bottom along with some smaller collapsible jugs. I fill them and put them by sinks for washing stations. I buy bottled water in the clear 5 gallon jugs from the grocery to drink; I purchased a ceramic dispenser for those. I also have a couple of unused garbage cans that go in showers and get filled when a storm is approaching for sponge baths and toilet flushing. Get round cans- the rectangular ones change shape when full of water so you can’t put the lid on. (Lids are important to keep out bugs and small children, who could easily drown in this quantity of water.)
Anyway, I’m so glad you have a blog. I love finding other people who are also into preparedness. I wish there were more of us!
May 22, 2011 at 10:05 pm
I hope I’m not just doing it becuase I’ve always done it. I hope it kills any errant bacteria that might infect my tomatoes. Is there anybody out there who knows for sure. Welcome Kim. I have a daughter in Florida and a brother as well. They keep me up-to-date on the hurricane stuff that we don’t really deal with around here. Thanks for the info on washing machines for water storage.
May 22, 2011 at 11:28 pm
We add veg. oil and dish detergent to the mess and it keeps the deer out of the garden. Love your blog! Thanks!
May 23, 2011 at 12:20 am
I like to use the crushed eggshells in the planting hole for my tomatoes – I thought it was for extra calcium. I usually just wash them with detergent and haven’t baked them – but the bacteria is a valid thought. I wonder if I could microwave them with a container of water?
My task is to remember to save the veg water BEFORE I’ve poured half of it away, :\ and to put it in the next soup.
Great water prep ideas Kim.
May 23, 2011 at 1:10 am
‘Into the Forest’ was a good read and I found myself taking notes (esp. re: acorns, and herbals). However, it took me a while to shake the depressive feeling it periodically engendered.
I found James Howard Kunstler’s ‘World Made By Hand’ and it’s sequel ‘The Witch of Hebron’ less depressing, perhaps because it involved people in a community who were functioning – both those left in the town, and those employed by the local ‘godfather’ who was still enjoying all the modern conveniences that he and his employees were able to duplicate – by honest means or foul.
I wonder which is more realistic.
May 23, 2011 at 1:11 am
‘Into the Forest’ was a good read and I found myself taking notes (esp. regarding acorns, and herbals). However, it took me a while to shake the depressive feeling it periodically engendered.
I found James Howard Kunstler’s ‘World Made By Hand’ and it’s sequel ‘The Witch of Hebron’ less depressing, perhaps because it involved people in a community who were functioning – both those left in the town, and those employed by the local ‘godfather’ who was still enjoying all the modern conveniences that he and his employees were able to duplicate – by honest means or foul.
I wonder which will be more realistic?
May 23, 2011 at 7:37 am
I save the eggshells and sprinkle them on the ground around my tomato plants. But I do this as a slug preventative. They don’t like to squirm, wriggle, ooze (?) over the rough surface of the eggs.
May 23, 2011 at 8:27 am
I just toss my eggshells right in the compost pile and have never had a problem. One less thing to do.
May 23, 2011 at 9:21 am
I have a 5lb margarine tub that I put veggie tops, eggshells, teabags and coffee grounds in. I keep it in the freezer to reduce fruit flies. When it gets full I dump it into my worm bin and cover with dry mulch.
I’ve recently begun using food grade diatomaceous earth to control roaches, ants, and fleas. Will it kill my worms?
May 23, 2011 at 9:36 am
When I had a gas oven with pilot light I put eggshells & peanut shells in there to dry out to make them easier to crush. Now I just put the eggshells on the counter to dry overnight to dry out, then bury them in the garden.
You’re yard sale finds are great. Here in SW FL our yard sale season is on its last legs – it’s getting too hot. Same for gardening. Now it’s almost hurricane season so we are always on the lookout for survival items, esp camping type items – water containers, camp stoves, flashlights – not for us particularly but so we have extras for the neighbors who have a ‘we did OK thru Charley 7 years ago’ attitude.
Hurricane Expo this weekend emphasized the ‘you must be prepared’ theme. We are all too complacent in our prepping – whether for hurricanes, floods, blizzards.
May 23, 2011 at 11:21 am
You can also lightly toast and powder the eggshells and put them in breads for extra calcium. If they’re truly at a powdered state, you’ll never notice the difference!
May 23, 2011 at 12:18 pm
I am still waiting for my potatoes to emerge. I planted them two weeks ago and am hoping for success. They are in the front yard to the dismay of my older daughter. “Why did you have to plant them in the front???” Cuz it was unused space.
May 23, 2011 at 2:30 pm
Kathy, I’d love to hear what herbs you’re planting in your garden. This is a medicinal garden, yes?
Baking or otherwise drying the eggshells would make them easier to crush, I should think.
Ok, thinking like a prepper long-term – once they’re baked & ground, could they go into human food as a calcium source if need be?
May 23, 2011 at 2:31 pm
Oops – one more thing: I’m not fond of rhubarb either, but we added a bit of almond extract to our rhubarb sauce last year, thanks to Sharon Astyk’s tip. It was lovely, and made a nice porridge topping on winter mornings.
May 23, 2011 at 2:32 pm
Aaand…Dea-chan’s post appeared while I was scribing mine. Never mind, I withdraw the eggshell-as-calcium-source-for-humans question.
May 24, 2011 at 6:05 am
Count me among those who puts crushed eggshells in the planting holes for tomato plants. I mix it into compost with a little greensand, and put a big scoop of the mixture into the hole below the transplant.
As for natural sprays to deter plant diseases, I’m experimenting with horsetail tea this year, and will probably also try a foliar feed augmented with some of the garlic scapes when they appear. The scapes will be for disease/pest deterrence. It’s tough though, because they’re delicious. Only the fact that I planted more than 300 garlic plants allows me to contemplate using some scapes as part of a foliar feed. Also included in the feed will be comfrey and nettles. By that time the nettles will be past optimal eating quality anyway.
May 27, 2011 at 1:41 am
This year I’m trying ground egg shell and dried ground banana peel as a feed for tomatoes etc.
I work part time in the local primary school, and the younger children get free fruit as part of a government scheme. I’d read a suggestion that a banana skin be planted under each tomato, but it was too late to do that when my class had a banana each and the children were commenting on how full of peel the bin was.
Dried, ground and mixed with pulverized egg shell. I can add it to nettle or comfrey tea for added nutrition.