image by Faith Goble

When I first received a sample box of Rover’s Reserve Freeze Dried Beef Hearts for Cats and Dogs from my very good friends at Freeze Dry Guy, I was a little skeptical. Would our dogs turn up their noses at the stuff?  What about the cat?

Delcie, our tri-colored Basenji, found it difficult to review the food while gulping it down.  It was embarrassing to watch this mature female wolf down food so quickly that she was unable to speak.  A little self-control would have been in order.  I did manage to ask her to give it either a paws up or a paws down.  Briefly, she gave it a paws up but then went back to her meal.

The second pet in line for the test was Daisy.  “Give it to Daisy. She hates everything,” I think of of my kids said.  Well, Daisy loves to chew on mylar bags and my daughter’s Bible, so I thought Rover’s  Reserve would be a shoo-in.  Not quite.  She did drool a bit and pick at the food I offered, but it’s my belief that she wanted to maintain her dignity and pride, unlike Delcie.

Finally there was Mouse, named for the huge ears that she never quite grew in to.  I wasn’t able to offer the food to Mouse by hand because I almost lost a finger when she grabbed the first bite.  Again, no restraint, no decorum, just a full-on gorge.  I didn’t bother asking her for a review.

I can say with confidence that we’ll be buying more of Rover’s Reserve. Since it’s freeze dried, I don’t have to worry about it becoming rancid and since it’s packaged in small mylar bags, it would be very difficult for pests to chew their way in.  We’ve stored the packets of Rover’s Reserve in a bucket with a lid to further protect it from insects and rodents.

With this type of food it would be wise to mix in a tablespoon or two of fat, such as bacon grease or oil.  Our pets need fat in their diets just as we do.  Three varieties, Chicken Hearts, Duck Hearts, and Beef Hearts, contain only those ingredients, freeze-dried hearts.  If your dogs and cats are on a raw foods diet, Rover’s Reserve is a great back-up.

*Freeze Dry Guy has a special place in my heart because four years ago, its owner, Ron, spent two hours with a couple of beginning preppers, teaching  us about food storage, freeze dried food, and offering sound advice.  My husband and I were that couple, and we appreciate Ron’s help.  I am now an affiliate of Freeze Dry Guy, which means I get a small commission from purchases made from this site.

© 2012, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.

Last year's happy winners!

Contest is now closed.  The winners were Jill and Brea.

I strongly believe that camping is one of the most powerful ways to teach kids useful, lifelong skills that will go a long way to prepare them for the future.  Not only that, but a camping trip is a great way for families to bond.

America’s National Parks provide some of the best camping experiences in the world and Nature Valley is committed to promoting the park and raising funds for their continued preservation.  As part of this promotion, they are giving two lucky readers Nature Valley prize packages, containing t-shirts and Nature Valley products!

Here’s how you can enter to win:

1. Visit Nature Valley Trail View and check out the three featured National Parks.  It’s a, “first-ever street-view style look at our national parks, complete with information for trip planners, including key points of interest and historical information.”
2. Return to this blog post and let us know which park is either your favorite or the one you would most like to visit.

Last year's adult tee.

If you purchase any specially marked Nature Valley products, you can enter their UPC codes to participate in the fund-raiser.  For each UPC code entered through December 31, 2012, a $1 donation will be made to the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA).

From the Nature Valley press release:

This year, Nature Valley is continuing to help preserve America’s national parks while encouraging education, outdoor exploration and support. To get the 2012 Preserve the Parks program started, Nature Valley is making a $300,000 donation to the NPCA and is inviting consumers to help raise an additional $200,000 by entering the Universal Product Codes (UPC) from specially-marked packages of Nature Valley products at PreserveTheParks.com. This year, in celebration of National Park Week (April 21-29), consumers are invited to visit the Nature Valley Facebook page and “Like” designated posts during that week to help trigger additional donations to the NPCA – $1 per “Like,” up to $50,000.

This year, the NPCA is working on these projects:

• Acadia National Park: Constructing a connector trail to provide better access to Acadia National Park.
• Everglades National Park: Improving public access to, and providing greater awareness about the Everglades and Everglades National Park.
• Grand Teton National Park: Protecting wildlife migration corridors near Grand Teton National Park.
• Great Smoky Mountains National Park: Restoring land and wildlife habitats to benefit Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
• Joshua Tree National Park: Ensuring healthy ecosystems to benefit the wildlife of Joshua Tree National Park.
• Yellowstone National Park: Restoring pronghorn migration routes around Yellowstone National Park.

Watch for additional blog posts and giveaways related to family camping trips!  Good luck on this one.

Giveaway ends: midnight on Friday, April 27.

© 2012, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.

image by Pink Sherbet Photography

Yesterday I spent more than 4 hours trying to transfer old voicemail messages to my computer.  These messages are as valuable to me as old family photos because they are the recorded voices of my children over the past 5 years.

My son’s first voice mail: “……(heavy breathing)…..press…..five……(heavy breathing)…..”

My daughter’s tiny, worried voice, “Mommy, when are you coming home?  I need you.”

Those voices, and memories, bring tears to my eyes, and I’m determined to preserve them.

It’s amazing what comforts us in times of crisis.  Following a house fire, tornado, or some other devastating disaster, I’ve seen women poking around the rubble of  her home suddenly break down in tears at finding a wedding album or an old school photo.

All this has me wondering about my other memories: photos, plaster handprints, my kids artwork, and all the other precious collectibles every mom and grandma has around the house.  In a worst case scenario, these will become more precious than we could ever imagine.  How can we keep them safe?

Here are a few suggestions for making sure you have these treasures to enjoy in the future and can pass them along to the next generation.

1. Think small.  Large photo albums and scrapbooks are wonderful to handle but heavy and bulky to pack.  Smaller albums, select treasures will be much easier to just grab and go.
2. Be picky.  Do you really need every photo taken at your wedding or could you single out just a dozen that capture the most special moments?  Likewise, can you sort through art projects, report cards, and other mementos and choose just a few that are most meaningful?
3. Utilize technology. My plan is to save my children’s voicemail messages on a CD and maybe even an mp3 player.  Unfortunately, when it comes to sound, that’s about all I can do.  I’ll be sure to save the mp3 player in a Tech Protect bag or some other type of Faraday container just in case an EMP ever occurs.  Storing photos on CDs, memory cards, flash drives…it’s all good.  However…
   

   Guilty of storing way too many "memories"!

4. A catastrophe that takes out our electric grid, long-term, would render anything stored electronically useless.  So, figure out how you might preserve the cream of the cream, so to speak, of your treasures.  Paper documents can be stored using a vacuum sealer, like a Food Saver.  Photos should be wrapped in chemical free paper before storing.
5. Have a plan for including your mementos in an evacuation.  We never think of throwing a few photos in a Bug Out Bag, but you could do worse.  Another option is to keep them stored in a water and fireproof container, stored near an exit door, ready to grab on your way out.
6. Consider storing duplicates with a friend or family member living at least 50 miles away and offer to return the favor.  If your neighborhood ends up under water, at least you’ll know where to find these special treasures.

Lest these suggestions give you the idea that I am some hard hearted shrew without any feelings of tenderness, take a look at my kids’, “memory filing cabinets.”  Yep, we started out with individual memory boxes holding their early drawings, school papers and mementos, but my sentimental nature quickly outgrew mere little boxes and we began filling up drawers in two empty filing cabinets we have out in the garage. I’ll be following my own advice in the very near future and weeding out what I can.

When we do let go of a physical memento, it’s important to remember that we aren’t letting go of the memory!

What have you done to preserve your own sentimental treasures?

© 2012, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.

image by lovelihood

A lot of us have seed packets left over from years gone by or we’ve saved seeds from our own gardens.  Have you ever wondered if those seeds are viable anymore?  What is their germination rate?  It truly would be disastrous to store seeds, only to find that, when planted, nothing sprouts.  Here is a simple way to find out just how viable your seeds are.

Take ten seeds of the same variety and lay them on a moistened paper towel.  Fold the towel in half so the seeds are covered.  Check on the seeds each day and keep the paper towel moist.  If, after several days, five seeds have sprouted, you can assume that the seed packet has a germination rate of about 50%.  If 2 seeds have sprouted, it’s 20%, and so on.

It will be up to you to decide when a germination rate is too low to bother with.

Keep in mind that heat and moisture are the enemies of seeds.  It’s important to keep seeds in a cool, dry place if you’re storing them for the future.

© 2012, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.

Marjory Wildcraft is one of my favorite gardening gurus.  You can learn more about her at Grow Your Own Groceries.  Last month I had a chance to meet up with her, and we recorded this video.

© 2012, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.

image by Eric Begin.

My suburban neighbors consider rabbits cute, fuzzy pets. I consider them hasenpfeffer that will be a continuous source of meat if needed. I can even easily move the huts into my garage to prevent theft. Hubby wants a Giant Flemish Rabbit but he hasn’t talked me into that yet, though that is a nice chunk of meat!

image by Stuck in Customs

Reptiles are still on my no-no list. My son loved his Green Anole and I admit it was cool to see him eat crickets. My problem is reptiles can carry bacteria. You can’t use them to help the homestead unless you let them go to kill insects. The big problem with that is you then have no control over their population growth, and again, you are back to having a pest control problem.

© 2012, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.

“This is the third time I’ve told you to take out the trash!”

“How many times do I have to tell you??”

“If I have to tell you one more time…”

image from graph-jam,

I always swore I’d never make statements like that as a mom, but of course I have.  However, I’ve realized that in a crisis, I will need their immediate and focused attention and obedience.  Here are two strategies I’ve used to train them to do this

1. I noticed that the tone of my voice is pivotal to quick obedience.  I generally have a very soft voice, and if you’ve heard any of my radio shows, you know that!  I sometimes wonder if that makes it easier for my kids to ignore my directions and requests.  So, what I’ve done is train them to recognize the difference in my everyday tone of voice and the one I would use in an emergency.  I did this by demonstrating different tones of voice from, “Please empty the dishwasher,” to “Get out of the road NOW!”  The key is instantaneous obedience. Rising flood waters just isn’t a good time for a kid to yawn and say, “Yeah, yeah.  In a minute, MOM!”
2. If a situation ever arises when a gun may be fired in our home, say in the event of a home invasion, I don’t want to worry about my kids being in the line of fire.  If I’m the one armed and ready to protect my brood, hesitating just for a second could mean the difference between life and death for all of us.  My kids know all about gun safety, so what I did was to sit down with them and explain how important it was for them to be out of the line of fire if an armed and dangerous person is ever in or near our home.  Here’s what the are to do: drop to the ground immediately and without question. To rehearse this, on occasion I’ll yell, “Kids!  Drop to the floor!”  or just, “Kids!  Drop!”  Then, I check to make sure that wherever they are, they’ve dropped!  I know, I know.  It  might sound crazy, but what’s crazier?  Having innocent kids wandering around in a lethal situation or training them ahead of time to avoid danger?

By the way, I started teaching this to my kids when they were 8 and 10 years-old.  The only reason I didn’t teach it earlier, is because I didn’t think of it!

Here’s what some people on the Survival Mom Facebook page have to say about this topic:

From Prudent Pantry: I am blessed with 5 kids, 4 of them have autism. I herd cats for a living BUT I have a special mommy voice that I use ONLY in emergencies that everyone attends to. I draw a clear line between hurry up we need to go to church and the house is burning down get out.

From Andrea Lynch: This is weird, but we have a sort of code word for our kids that means “this is for real, listen up.” Thought it might come in handy.

© 2012, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.

image by Dharmuti

I love this idea from the GardenGirl, whose videos you can find on YouTube.  Start saving toilet paper tubes, get some potting soil or use what she uses, coco fibers.  Toilet paper rolls are probably the cheapest potting pots I’ve ever heard of.

© 2012, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.

Guest post by Liz Long

image by Liz Long

Wabi Sabi is a Japanese concept that just may help you get through life with a little more joy and a little less stress. This isn’t about buying things or learning a skill you can show others. It’s about a mindset.

I learned a little about it when I bought the children’s book, Wabi Sabi. The idea interested me, so I bought the grown up book Living Wabi Sabi.  It doesn’t translate exactly but it is about appreciating the beauty in imperfection. If you can manage to live wabi sabi, it is easier (not necessarily easy, but easier) to accept when things go wrong, or fall apart completely.

How does this relate to prepping? I find that if you accept imperfection, it is much easier to try new things. No one is perfect the first time you try something. It takes practice, and patience. I will never be a gourmet cook but that doesn’t mean I can’t make any foods well. To my shock (and my husband’s – we aren’t newlyweds), my tortillas aren’t bad. An elderly Mexican woman would probably look at me pityingly, but my family isn’t that picky.  We had lumpy ebelskiver (pancake puffs, As Seen On TV) with the filling barely inside the second time I made them – no need to discuss the first try. They tasted good, but looked weird. Next time, they’ll be even better. I could have left my worry that I would suck keep me from even trying anything more than box mixes, but I decided to try something new, no matter what the results.

image by Liz Long

Not being perfect, or even within shouting distance of it, is no reason to avoid trying something. You can love doing something you suck at, and you can hate doing something you’re great at. Don’t let your fear of failure or lack of skill keep you from trying! Just because I sing so badly that my cat has left the room in disgust doesn’t mean I should stop singing. (It does, however, mean I should sing very quietly in public and never, ever join a choir.) My general ignorance has not kept me from starting to garden. I just took classes, read books, and went online to learn about it.

Wabi sabi means appreciating that your chipped tooth (or your child’s) is a reminder of falling out of a tree. There is no reason to rush out to get it ground down to “perfect.” It means enjoying the wildflowers that grew where you didn’t expect them to, a dead tree lying across a stream, and the site of the snow melt running down a hillside. It also means savoring the imperfections that come from handmade items, whether it’s the rough texture of a clay tea pot, the bubbles in blown glass, or the unevenness of something hand knit.

image by Liz Long

A dead tree covered in fungus lying across a tiny stream sounds, well, kind of gross, but if you look at it, it is really a lovely part of the scenery. The fungus is oddly beautiful in its own right and the light color contrasts with the dark bark. It is far from perfect, and yet that is what makes it worth looking at. Would a perfectly plain, perfectly round, perfectly clean concrete pipe in the same location be worth looking at? I don’t think it would be half as interesting.

Does it matter if your herbs and vegetables get all mixed up and aren’t in neat rows? Does it matter if your “tortillas” look more like pancakes because they’re so thick? Does it matter if your loved one gets a small stack of presents, or even just one, on their birthday if they get what they really want?

Does it matter if your kids plant the garden seeds and they are all mixed up instead of being in neat rows? Does it really need to be perfect, or is good enough really good enough?

To be clear, wabi sabi definitely is not an excuse for slovenliness, but it is a much more relaxed world-view. Some things do need to be perfect or darn close to it. Can you imagine if the plumber almost finished your whole-house re-pipe or the doctor read half your chart? But for the rest of it, can’t we all use a little less to worry about, and a little more to enjoy?

© 2012, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.

Guest post by reader Kay C.

You don’t have to spend a lot of money at the nursery buying seedlings for your spring garden.  With some advance planning, you can sprout your own seedlings at home, which is cheaper and will provide the greatest variety.  Here are some of Kay’s best tips.

Do a bit of research to find seeds of plants you’ll love. I go with heritage seeds but if you want to use hybrid and just stock their heritage seeds that works too.

Each year I mix up a few new varieties. I love the Black Krim Tomato it has an awesome sweet flavor. It’s pretty hardy weather wise but it’s really susceptible to blight.

I live in North East Massachusetts so I usually start my seed starting process in Mid February. I use the peat moss pellet trays by Jiffy. You can get them at Home Depot or Lowe’s for about 8.00 each.

Just wet the pellets down according to directions. Let each pellet absorb water for a few minutes then take a spoon and open the mesh on each pellet.

Sort out the seeds you plan on planting by how long they take to sprout. This will determine which plants you will put together.

I then label the trays so I know which row has what plant in it. Then I will poke a hole in each pellet ( the seed packs will tell you how deep) . Depending on the seed I will either put 2 or 3 seeds in each pellet. 3 for smaller seeds 2 for larger (cucumber or pumpkin)

When the whole tray is full place the clear dome back on top and tape in place then put in a warm dark place. I have a hallway on my top floor that is dark and has a corner of baseboard heat my seeds love it.

I then stack the trays on top of each other. My garden is decent in size and I gift plants so I usually have about 5 trays of seeds.

I then keep an eye on the seedlings. The peat pellets should always be damp, but the taped on plastic greenhouse domes should keep the moisture in. When the majority of the tray is sprouted, uncover the tray and put it in direct sunlight. I use a TV table and put it right up to a window this will hold 2 trays this way. Every other day rotate which tray is closest to the window pane.

Keep the trays like this, watering them carefully every other day. You want them only slightly moist not wet. Don’t let the peat moss get dry. I just take the tray to the sink and turn the water pressure on a little and use the water sprayer. It’s easy and fast.

image by derrickpubliclibrary

Once the plants have 2 sets of real leaves (besides the leaves that sprouted) you can transplant the seedlings. For Tomatoes, zucchini and pumpkins I go to the dollar store and get one gallon pots, all my other plants go in the large party cups you can get at any party store, target, or grab the leftovers from family parties. I think they are 20 oz or so. They are the perfect size for all the other plants.

This is where you have to pick your plant. Where you planted 2-3 seeds earlier you may have 2 -3 plants. Oh no. Well pick your champion. Pick the biggest leaves, greenest plant or just go with your gut but pinch the others off. The 2 plants will not be happy together.

Some plants may be “stemmy”. Say you have a tomato with a really long thin stem. When I transplant it I will put a tiny scoop of dirt in the cup then I put the pod in the cup then I will fill the cup to the top. Don’t try to bend the stem it will most likely snap. (I’ve learned this the hard way)

This year I splurged on growing lights. Don’t bother. The cups I put on the window sills grew better. So I literally line every window sill in my home with cups of plants. The cups I use fit perfectly. By the time the fear of frost is over your plants will be huge! You will be the envy of the neighborhood.

The important part is getting your plants use to the outdoors (hardening). Day 1 take the plants outdoors and put in the shade and in a less windy area of your yard for a 2-3 hours. Day 2 another shady spot out of the wind increase to 6 hours. Day 3 -7 the same. Then slowly start allowing them to be exposed to more direct sunlight.

Some suggest the hardening process should take up to 2 weeks some say a week. I usually go towards the 2 week limit; watching the plants and weather. If it’s really warm or cold adjust how long the plant is outdoors.

If the plant starts to look white don’t worry just take it back indoors. It’s usually either windburn or sunburn and the plant can easily heal itself. It just means that the plant was not ready to be exposed directly to the elements yet.

I would say on a whole from a pack of seeds I usually see a success rate of 70%. Every once in awhile I will see a whole pack of seeds do nothing so you can get a “dud” as I would say. That’s why when picking a veggy I usually get a few varieties.

Also always keep the envelops your seeds come in,when you go to plant them follow the planting guide. It’s tempting to fit more plants in but you will regret it when you are in peak season and trying to squish in between your plants.

© 2012, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.