To Blog or not to Blog

With all the things going on in the world the droughts and plagues and viruses on a lot of our fruits and vegetables the threats of war from so many different places, and our economy I have been feeling an extra sense of urgency to get where I need to be. I have been very busy canning some extra food.

I read that bananas have a very bad virus and the type that we eat may go away it is that bad so I have been freezing and canning bananas, Milk has been on sale for 2.59 a gallon so I have been canning a bunch of it to use for cooking, I got butter and margarine on sale so I have been canning some of it. Strawberry were also on sale so I froze a bunch of them. Cheese was also on sale I bought block cheese and shredded the shredded I will put in the freezer and the block I will can. Oranges also have a virus so between that and the freezing oranges are going to go up so I bought some frozen oj and canned it. Have dried a lot of sour cream.

A friend gave me a bunch of day old bread so I toasted and ground it up for bread crumbs I have never oven canned so I thought I would try it on the bread crumbs didn’t have very good luck with it but I am going to try one more time since I really like the whole idea of it for dried stuff.

And we can’t forget about taxes we were to last minute this year have never been this late in getting them done I am also helping my dad with his but he got an extension so I have a little more time to work on them.

Trying to also get some mending done Andy is so hard on his pants and shirts I have several shirts that I need to cut the long sleeves down to short sleeves and pants to patch. Katies prom dress also need to be taken in a little.

We got half the calves branded a couple weekends ago and will try to do the rest in a couple weeks when we are all calved out.

And since I have been doing so much I have fallen behind on this blog.

So to blog or not to blog. I have been doing a lot of thinking about my blog as to whether to keep it up or stop I figure that if I am going to do it I need to stay current especially on the food storage challenge and the herbs that I said I would post once a week. The whole reason I started this was to share some of my knowledge and some of the things that I do that a lot of people may not know how to do. I am going to try and organize my schedule and make more of an effort to keep up on this. I really do enjoy doing this and I think it is more important ten ever to get information on how to do things as I think more people are going to have to start doing some of these thins. I don’t want it to seem like a job so I am going to go about things a little differently and see if that helps me stay a little more caught up.

Week 16 Food Storage Challenge

Week 16 Food Storage Challenge

500 aspirin/ Toiletries

500 aspirin or what ever pain reliever you prefer.

Toiletries Razors, shave cream, deodorants, tooth paste, tooth brushes, ect.

Kep in mind that you can make your own deodorant, toothpaste, and shave cream.

Add to the water and to the money stash.

Week 15 Food Storage Challenge

12 Boxes of Mac & Cheese/ Tomato products

12 boxes Mac & Cheese or if you have a cheese powder that you like use that and get extra macaroni.

Tomato Products Tomato sauce whole or crushed tomatoes what ever you use. I buy tomato sauce in the #10 cans ( cheaper that way) and recan it in to smaller jars you might want to grow extra tomato so you can can a bunch I can my own rotel, stewed, crushed and basil tomatoes and if I have very many tomatoes left I will can tomato sauce.

Add more water to your water supply

Put a few more dollars in to your money stash.

Week 14 Food Storage Challenge

5 Pounds Peanut Butter / Cheese

5 Pounds of Peanut butter If you have someone in your family you might want to get a different nut butter like nutela or almond butter.

Cheese you can freeze your cheese or you can can it I put the shredded in the freezer then can some block cheese. I will be showing how to do this in a couple weeks.

Add more to your money stash even if it is only a few dollars.

Keep putting back water.

How is the knitting or crocheting coming along?

Keep working on your car kits.

Plantain and its Medicinal Uses

 

 

Plantain is a lot like dandelions it is considered a weed, and they grow almost everywhere, there are two types a broad leaf and a narrow leaf both are good. You can use the Roots, leaves, and Flower spikes. As with dandelions you need to be careful where you harvest it make sure it hasn’t been sprayed with anything and don’t collect from the roadside. Plantain can be harvested from spring to fall.

Plantain is rich in magnesium, vitamin A, vitamin C, and vitamin K. Young leaves can be eaten raw in salads and sandwiches. The older leaves are tough and stringy so need to be cooked. The seeds can be dried and ground to make a flour, although it takes a lot of seeds.

Plantain can be used both internally and externally.

For external application, it can be made into a salve, lotion, oil or compress. Plantain's anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial properties make it one of the most effective herbal remedies for topical treatment of skin conditions such as rashes, wounds, ulcerations, cuts, swelling, sprains, bruises, burns, eczema, cracked lips, poison ivy, mosquito bites, diaper rash, boils, hemorrhoids, and blisters. You can make a poultice to draw out splinters or thorns . It can also reduce some of the scarring with more severe cuts and scrapes.

It is also draws out the poison of bee stings, snake bites, and spider bites, If stung immediately rub some crushed or slightly chewed leaf on the area and around the sting to prevent swelling and itching.

Internally you can use in tea ,tinctures or syrup. Plantain has demulcent properties, making it soothing to mucus membranes. It is used to treat conditions of the respiratory tract including sore throat, cough, bronchitis, asthma and emphysema. It also has expectorant properties which help to expel mucus from the lungs when the respiratory tract is congested due to colds or hay fever.

The demulcent properties of plantain are also beneficial in treating urinary tract infections including cystitis with blood in the urine, gastritis, irritable bowel syndrome, and diarrhea.

The seeds of plantain contain mucilage and can be used as a laxative to relieve constipation. They can also be dried and infused in water for a soothing eye lotion.

So next time you see this in your yard you may want to just harvest it instead of trying to get rid of it.

　



Week 13 Food Storage Challenge

1000 multi Vitamins/ Canned Vegetables

1000 Muliti Vitamins, You may not be able to eat as well as you should so a multi vitamin will help ensure you have all the nutrients that you need.

Canned Vegetables, Even if you can your own it would be good if you had a few extra cans or jars on hand (You can also have dried if you don’t want to have to try and store all the extra cans or jars) on hand just in case you have a year that your garden doesn’t produce as well as it should.

An easy way to dry vegetables is to buy the frozen at the store then all you have to do is put them on your dehydrator trays and dry. (No need to blanch or anything they are ready to go.)

The thing to get this month is seeds. Try to get heirloom if at all possible then you can harvest the seeds for next year. Get extra and keep in a cool place.

If you haven’t planned you garden yet now is the time. Even if you only have a small place you can plant a few things. There is a lot of info on the Internet on small space gardening. If at all possible grow extra so you can put back enough for winter.

If you don’t already have a car kit in each vehicle try to do that this month. Be sure to include extra food , water and blanket,

The skill for this month is to learn to crochet or knit. This way you can make blankets, socks, scarves, sweaters and baby things and many other things

Add some more to your money stash.

Put more water back.

Have a great week.