Food

Right now, before we need it is the time to think about survival food. I sincerely hope I am wrong but I believe that we will need a good supply of food for what is going to happen in this country.We are probably going to see one of two possibilities. Either we are going to see a hyper-inflation or we are going to see martial law. Either way, food is going to be a valuable commodity. If it is hyper-inflation, having a good supply of food on hand will save us a lot of money. If it is martial law, they will probably try to ration the food that is available. This brings us to the point of what type of food and how much.

First, I never recommend MREs or similar meals. I have a couple of days supply of MREs on hand and that is for a true emergency of short duration. I might also add that I got them free in a trade. There are currently too many meals in the supermarket to pay a premium for food that, to me, does not taste very good. One thing that you can do is to dehydrate your own food. I am just getting ready to do some apples. These are apples that I found on state land that were free for the picking. When I am done I will have very little invested in my dehydrated apples. I will soon be doing tomatoes which I grew in the garden. I will also do bananas and pineapple, but both of these I will have to purchase. Bananas and pineapples just do not grow well in central Wisconsin.

I own both a solar dehydrator and an electric dehydrator and I will probably use both as long as the weather allows me to. Later this year, after hunting season, I also hope to be making jerky. Now for just making enough to use right away, just storing your dehydrated foods in a jar works fine. However, when looking at long term storage, you cannot beat a good vacuum sealer. I have been using one for over ten years now and find it was well the money we paid for it. Actually I am on my second one and still no complaints. I have used mine, not only for food, but for ammo and many other things. I used it for seeds and if I had silver or gold for investment and survival, I would use it for that also.

When you think about food, think about what you can get for free. As I mentioned, I got my apples free this year. We now have about thirty jars of applesauce. We also have about twenty jars of elderberry jelly from elderberries we picked along roadsides. We also have blueberries, raspberries and blackberries in our freezer and they also were picked wild. Then there are the fish in the freezer and hopefully several different types of meat will join those fish. Now I know that fish and game do not come exactly free, but if you do your hunting and fishing close to home so that all you need to buy are your license and ammo or bait, it can still be reasonable. I paid seventy dollars for a shotgun forty years ago and I am still using it. That comes out to less than two dollars a year and that is not bad.

But back to the problem of food. I believe that everyone should have a two year supply of food on hand at all times. These should include cold cereal, instant hot cereal, rice, powdered milk, dry beans, macaroni, (or noodles or both), instant potatoes, sugar, salt and pepper, and many of the new ready to heat and eat packaged meals. Along with your dehydrated foods and any food from the wild you can have an excellent variety. There are many things that I could add and you may add them.

Now all you need is a safe place to store all of that food. It will not do you any good if martial law is declared and they set a maximum of a one or two week supply is all that is legal. You will not want them to find your food and confiscate it. There are many ways to secrete food and I do not have room to go into all of them. I do have a book out titled "Stash It" which sells for $8.50 plus $1.50 shipping and handling. This gives many good ways to secrete not only food but any other valuables, such as guns, that you may not want in plain view. Anyone interested in the book can leave a comment at the end of this blog and I will get back to you.

Until next time: SURVIVE and check out my other blog at:

http://www.therealamericanpolitics.blogspot. com

Herbal Medicine

I am going to be doing a few blogs on herbal medicines. I may not do them in a row but will be adding to your knowledge from time to time. The more I study Obamacare, the more worried I become. I hope that it does not pass, but if it does, we need to be prepared. This is especially true if your are a senior citizen or someone who is partially or completely disabled. If you fit into one of those categories, you will told to go sit in a corner and die peacefully. The VA is already counseling returning vets and other older veterans on allowing themselves to die or even how to obtain help with suicide. I never thought I would live to see the day in America when things like this would even be thought about. I am going to put about four or five herbs in each blog that I do on this subject. I am going to start with the most common plants and work out from there. If anyone has any questions, just leave them at the end of the latest blog entry and I will do my best to answer it. I learned some of what I know from my mother and have been using that knowledge for many years. Other things are things I have learned along the way.

These may sound like common weeds and they are. The different thing about them is that most of them were brought over from Europe and cultivated here in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, specifically as medical herbs. the first one I am going to talk about is DANDELIONS. That is correct, that common yellow flower that people do their best to get rid of. Everyone knows what a dandelion looks like so I will not describe it. For one thing the dandelion is a gentle laxitive. The young leaves eaten in early spring are considered to be a very good tonic. The root has been used in Europe for diabetes. In the spring the root contains levulose, a sugar easily assemilated by persons with diabetes. In the fall this sugar changes to insulin, which is the starch that is used in handling diabetes. The leaves are also considered good for building up the blood and curing anemia. You can also grind the root and add it to coffee to stretch the coffee grounds and it also is an antidote to some of coffees detrimental effects.

Next we have PLANTAIN. These are also a weed that most people with lawns try to get rid of. They are the ones with the wide flat leaves near the ground and later get a large spike which somewhat looks like a minature cattail. The tiny seeds from these spikes can be used as a laxitive. The leaves themselves have a healing way about them and draw out infection. When I was about ten years old I stepped on a rusty nail and drove it almost through my foot from the sole to the top of the foot. It went in so far that you could see the pimple of it on top of my foot. My mother pulled the nail out, went out and got a plantain leaf, put a little lard on it to keep the wound moist and put it over the hole in the bottom of my foot. She wrapped it with gauze to hold it on and that was all there was to it. No tetnus shots, no antibiotics, nothing except the plantain and lard. In a couple of days I was completely healed and had no sign of infection.

Next we will talk about CHAMOMILE. This is a low growing, lacy plant with tiny yellow flowers. This is the one that usually grows on the edge of driveways and heavily travled paths. The more you walk on it the more it seems to thrive. Even getting run over day after day by cars does not seem the hurt it. A tea is made from the flowers and is said to be very calming. At one time it was even used as a nervie against hysteria. These flowers need to be dried before using them. A poultice made from the dried, remoistened flowers will aid in healing inflammations and also earache. Washing your face and hands with an infusion from the flowers is said to keep bugs away from you. I do not know, I have not tried it.

The last herb for this entry is the WILLOW. This is a rather simple one. The inner bark from the willow contains the salicylic acid that was the forerunner of the asprin. Thereby, the inner bark of the willow tree is an excellent pain killer. It works in the same way as asprin but does not have the side effects. It does not thin the blood the way asprin with its artificial salicylic does. there are several other uses for willow but I will leave them for another time.

As for today, I am going to leave it there and let those of you who have never used herbs become acquainted with these four. When our pretendsident tells us to go away and die, we can all be ready to take care of ourselves. Remember SURVIVE!!!

Check out my other blog at: http://www.therealamericanpolitics.blogspot.com