Recent content by dzook

Today's canning is potatos!!! When they are 68cents for ten pounds I can up a bunch. They are so easy to make into mashed potatos or soup etc...

Hi all. Looks like a lot of people in CA. Barker, I'm just down the hill from you in Devore

hi Debiraymond. Apple Valley is close by. Climate is a lot different though I think. Welcome

We bought our All American on Ebay also. We use this and our steam canner pretty much year round. The county extension is a wonderful place to get a lot of information about canning. If you buy a used pressure canner they will test the lid of it to make sure that it is getting correct pressure...

All that snow is beautiful. I'm living in the wrong area of the country (for more than one reason). It's supposed to be 98 degrees today with winds blowing about 25 mph. Send a little of that chill this a-way.

Great Thread. One thing that hasn't really been mentioned is knowledge. Find a good book on how to use your food storage. Many people don't know that you can use your stored wheat and sprout it for greens. make wheat berries for cereal and even make a fake meat. Gluten burger!!

I buy dog food in 50lb bags and when I open one bag I buy another so I never have less than 50 lbs and usually about 75lbs. Chicken feed is the same but with a 25lb bag.

Hi all, In SoCal here it's earthquakes and wild fires that we have to worry about but it's the Santa Ana winds that usually contribute to the occasional power outages. We have a pop-up tent trailer that is prepped for us. We recently bought a Honda generator from a construction company that is...

Hi all. Lots of beautiful jars of food. I don't do a lot of freezeing. Not just because I don't have a large one but because we have power outages when the Santa Ana winds blow. I don't want all my hard work thawing out on me and getting thrown to the chickens or the dogs.

Hi Gina, The 1/2 inch hardware cloth (wire) that is buried in the ground goes up 30 inches. I think the critter came in over the top through the bird netting as there was a hole in it. Before this batch goes into the chicken run we'll replace it with chicken wire. I'm hoping that the weather...

Hi again. We thought that our coop was pretty tightly built. 5 foot high chain link with 1/2 inch hardware cloth buried in the ground and bird netting over the top. We think it was a raccoon that did the dirty deed. several of the girls were torn apart and two were missing not to be found. This...

Hi PotterWatch. It's nice to have a neighbor!!! We're new to the chicks. We have a predator problem and lost our first batch of 2 1/2 month old chickens. I have nine more brooding in a kids swimming pool in my dining room. That's fun. We homeschooled a couple of my daughters a few years ago but...

The mega malls are paving over acres of former orange groves in Redlands CA. I loved driving by them and smelling the orange blossoms. On our 1/2 acre property we have several fruit trees and also 2 orange, 1 tangerine and 2 lemon trees. The lemon trees are outside my bedroom window and I love...

I have a few different mags that I subscribe to. Countryside, Grit, Mother Earth News and Backwoods Home. My absolute favorite is Backwoods Home and any article by Jackie Clay. She has an amazing blog on their website also.

I'm here in Southern CA and working on becoming more self sufficient. For others shopping may be an olympic sport but we have better things to do. Being able to garden year-around is a real plus though.