Thursday, January 30, 2014

Fabric Softener

This week I set out to make and use my own Fabric Softener, and I did!  This recipe costs pennies to make, and can be used to wash that pesky towel load.  A few precautions:  First you are working with baking soda and vinegar.  It is going to bubble.  Second if you do not like the smell of vinegar you are going to want to add some kind of Essential Oil.
 Fabric Softener
Ingredents:
6 c white vinegar
1 c baking soda
4 drops Essential Oil
(I used lemon)

Tools:
Funnel
Liquid Measuring Cup
Dry Measuring Cup
 Measure out 6 c of white vinegar into a container.
Add Essential Oil.

 S_L_O_W_L_Y add baking soda.
It took me about 15 minutes to get all of the baking soda into the vinegar, and I bubbled over once.  Make sure to let it stop bubbling before you start adding more baking soda. 
 Another note.  Make sure to lift the funnel or that the funnel is empty or you will loose some of the baking soda.  The gas you are creating has to escape.

After you are finished, and you have let the gases escape for a while.  Put the lid on, and lable your bottle!  Enjoy.

To wash towels add 1 cup to the wash cycle.

I have a HE washer so I just fill the softener bucket with softener.  I didn't measure. 

Friday, January 24, 2014

Wheat Bread~ Book Announcement

This wheat bread is heavenly on a cold winter day!  This bread uses part wheat and white flour to get that wonderful light texture.  The best part is that this recipe is going to be included in my new cookbook:
bread, Bread, BREAD!  I'm very excited to be publishing a second cookbook, and this one will be longer then the last.  So enjoy this sneak peak, and this wonderful recipe.


Wheat Bread
2 ½ c warm water
1 pkg yeast
3 Tab sugar
1 tsp salt
3 Tab oil
2 c flour
3-4 c wheat flour

Add yeast, sugar and water to glass bowl.
Let sit 10-20 minutes till foamy.

 Add salt, oil and flour.
 Let rise till doubled, then knead.
 Let rise again, knead, then from loafs.
 Put into loaf pans and let rise.
Bake in preheated oven at 350°F for 35 minutes.















Wheat Bread

2 ½ c warm water
1 pkg yeast
3 Tab sugar
1 tsp salt
3 Tab oil
2 c flour
3-4 c wheat flour


Add yeast, sugar and water to glass bowl.
Let sit 10-20 minutes till foamy.
Add salt, oil and flour.
Let rise till doubled, then knead.
Let rise again, knead, then from loafs.
Put into loaf pans and let rise.
Bake in preheated oven at 350°F for 35 minutes.

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Six Minute Caramels


I love this recipe!  I can not tell you how many times I've been asked for the recipe.  I've even been requested to make them for fundraisers!  This easy recipe will have guests oohing and ahhing over your baking skills.  This is one of the recipes in my new cookbook 20 Favorite Homesteading Recipes
although in the cookbook it is named Microwave Caramels. Enjoy~

Six Minute Caramels
¼ c butter
½ c white sugar
½ c brown sugar
½ c corn syrup
½ c sweetened condensed milk

Butter 9x9 inch pan.
Dump all ingredients in to a big casserole dish. Microwave for 2 minutes.
Stir till completely combined.


Microwave for 2 minutes.
   
Still till smooth.
Microwave for 2 minutes.












Still till smooth.
Pour into pan.
Let cool.
Cut wrap in waxed paper.
Store in airtight container for up to 1 week.









6 Minute Caramels

¼ c butter
½ c white sugar
½ c brown sugar
½ c corn syrup
½ c sweetened condensed milk

Butter 9x9 inch pan.
Dump all ingredients in to a big casserole dish.
Microwave for 2 minutes.
Stir till completely combined.
Microwave for 2 minutes.
Still till smooth.
Microwave for 2 minutes.
Still till smooth.
Pour into pan.
Let cool.
Cut wrap in waxed paper.
Store in airtight container for up to 1 week. 

Monday, January 20, 2014

Cookbook Launch!

When you buy from a mom or pop business, you are not helping a CEO buy a third vacation home. 

You are helping a little girl get dance lessons, a little boy get his team jersey, a mom or dad put food on the table, a family pay a mortgage, or a student pay for college. 

Our customers are our shareholders and they are the ones we strive to make happy.  

Thank you for supporting small businesses! ~Annon.


I launched my first book 20 days ago!  This was the first New Year's Resolution that I made and kept.  I published it first on Smashwords then on Amazon.  My first book is a cookbook with 20 of our favorite recipes.  Simply titled 20 Favorite Homesteading Recipes.  It is a huge step forward for this lady.  I like to think things 100% through, and business is one of those things.  I have been toying with the idea of having a small online shop for the last 3 years.  I have always found a reason not to do it though.  2014 is going to be different!  I've set up my Pay Pal account, I've been working on products, and this lady is ready! 

20 Favorite Homesteading Recipes is the first cookbook that I've written, but I am already working on 2 more!  20 Favorite Homesteading Recipes (Amazon Link) is the spring board that will launch me into what I feel I should be doing. 

When you make a purchase from P.G. Farm you are helping me!  You are helping me to pay for my little's schooling.  You are helping me pay for seeds, hoses, fertilizer, and plants for my garden.   You are helping me buy Essential Oils to help my family stay healthy.  Thank you!  I can't wait to unveil the next leg of this journey and to share it with you! 

~Elizabeth


Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Game Plan: Alas, Babylon

Yesterday I wrote a post on the 27 things I learned from Alas, Babylon.  Today I'm going to share what I have done with that knowledge.  I understand everyone's position is different.  I also well know the burden of living paycheck to paycheck.  Even worse still, I know how it is to live with no paycheck.  So do what you can.  If you have nothing but a desire to start prepping and storing things away you are on the right track! 

So here we go! 

1. Even tho banks will fail, we still depend on Fiat Money(paper money).  So keep your bank account!  On the flip side, keep a nice stash of cash on hand.  Stores will take cash for a while.  As a back up keep bartering items on hand.  There are some great lists on Pintrest!  Some of my top bartering items:
Diapers (Just what my little never used.)
Extra clothes
Canned Food
These are going to be high priory items.  Other items to consider are coffee, achocal, and tobacco products.  We don't use any of these, but when those that are addicted run out of them you should be able to trade for what you need.

2. Have a year supply.  The book only goes for a year, but the end is written so that they stay longer.  Food supplies are amazing and can last for 30 years if well stored.  A few side notes from the book that I needed to add are:
More salt!
A way to hunt with out ammo
Not relying on the freezer
Making sure there is enough food for everyone for a year, and that everyone gets at least 1,500 calories a day

3. Stick to a routine!  I'm not a routine kinda gal. (You can tell right?)  So we are going to come up with a few routines that will be relaxing should anything ever happen.  That way should something happen there will be a relaxing, soothing, normalcy in a hectic time.

4. Stock up on Medicine and learn how to heal illness naturally.  This one kinda goes with having a year supply, but kinda doesn't.  Most medicines keep longer then the expiration date implies.  I've taken out of date medicine and have had no ill side affects.  Solid pills keep the longest.  If a liquid medicine seperates its time to throw it away.  How ever I've started looking into Essential Oils, Herbs and other natural remedies. 

5. Find your community.  Do you live amongst family or in the middle of strangers?  I know a few of our neighbors but not all of them.  Get to know your neighbors and make friends with them.  They are the ones that are either going to help you or kill you for your food.


Most of the other points were great reminders of what could happen.  These 5 points are what I know I need to work on, and I thought would be the most beneficial to bring up for others.  Happy Prepping~

Elizabeth 

Monday, January 13, 2014

27 Things I Learned from Alas, Babylon


With winter upon us I've taken up reading to fill my time.  The dark of night isn't as bad if you can imagine yourself somewhere else.  I've started reading survival books, prepping books, spiratual books, and fiction.

Alas, Babylon is a fictional book that was written in 1959 by Pat Frank(pen name).  The book is set in Florida, and follows a handful of characters.  The story line is very well written, and is an amazing book!  That was not my reason for reading the book tho.  I took a prepper standpoint to reading the book and wanted to learn what could happen and what I could prepare for if my town was completely shut off from the outside world. I understand that this is a piece of fiction, but feel in my heart and soul that there is real world applications to this book. 

*The following blog post may ruin the book for you!  If you want to read the book then compare notes that may be the best idea!  I've included page numbers for your convenience.*

1. pg 117 Banks will fail fast.

2. pg 117 Small towns depend on daily deliveries.  Towns will become islands.  What is in town is what you have.  "...Its inhabitants would have to subsist on whatever was already within its boundaries, plus what they might scrounge from the country side."

3. pg 130 Ammo must be on hand.~Hidden if necessary.  ".. if economic chaos lasted for a long time, a meat shortage developed, and it became necessary to hunt small game."

4. pg 133 People will react to the changes and challenges in their own way.  You can't change that.  "Some nations and some people melt in the heat of crisis and come apart like fat in the pan.  Others meet the challenge and harden"

5. pg 135-136 Food will be contanimated if it happens to be a necualr accident.  Milk, green, will not be able to be eaten.

6. pg 137 Gun Safety and the understanding of keeping the family safe.  "Never point it at a man unless you intend to shoot him, and never shoot unless you mean to kill."

7. pg 151 The electricity will go out- Freezers will thaw.  When the power goes out eat out of the fridge and freezer, thaw and can everything!

8. pg 159 Addicts will be looking for their next fix.  Parents will be trying to feed their families.  Looting and killing will happen.  Hide your supplies!

9. pg 165 About 9 days after a Blackout those on refrigerated medicine will die.  ".. all diabetics in Fort Repose, dependent on insulin, died about the same period as the drug lost its potency."

10. pg 170 People will feel useless and depressed when their supplies run out, unless they have survival skills.  "I'm not much of a success, an I, in a crisis? I can't feed my daughter, or my self, or even bury my wife.  I wish I had enough guts to swim out into the channel and sink."

11. pg 173 Gas in cars will need to be conserved.  Funerals will happen in the families yard.

12. pg 185 Its better if everyone~family or community~ work together.  "If everybody worked as hard as they could until sun down every day, then everybody could eat, although not well."

13. pg 216 The Government will shut down with out man power or supplies.  "The other police men had abandoned unpaid public duty to scramble for their families.  The fire and sanitation departments, equipment immobilized, not longer existed."

14. pg 217 Someone has to be in charge.  "He had assumed leadership.""Command was a lonely state."

15. pg 224 Routine and traditions help stressful times.  "There was peace and continuity in the sound of the bell.  The bell announced that there was food on the table and a woman in the kitchen."

16. pg 227 Find your boundaries and keep them safe.  "He slept uneasily unless he knew all was well around his perimeter."

17. pg 235 Health can go downhill fast.  "Small pox, black plague, out of the middle ages, Not so."

18. pg 235 It is important to get over 1,500 calories a day.  "At day's end a mas was exhausted- phsically, mentally, emotionally.  Each sun herald in a new crisis and each night he bedded with old relentless fears.  He awoke thinking of food and fell into his couch at night still hungry, his head whirling with problems unsolved and dangers, unparried."

19. pg 241 Hid what you have!  "There were human jackles for every human disaster."

20. pg 243 Dogs, cats, ect. are going to turn wild after their owners die or let them go.

21. pg 253 Men and women in places of authority are going to change and shut out those they love.  "He had moved into a man's august world of battle and violence, from which she was barred."

22. pg 267 "Well when the rules are off you make your own." 
     Except God's Law is always available.  The rules and laws of man my fade, but God is forever.

23. pg 268 Marriages, babies, LIFE is still going to go on even though something has/is happening.

24. pg 288 Stock up on SALT.  Find natural ways to obtain it.  "Salt was a vital commodity....  They sweated their salt away, and they grew weak, and they grew ill."

25. pg 291 Book are a must!  Journaling is a must!  The only way we are going to survive is to have resources to learn from/refer to.

26. pg 300 School will be shut down.  "...that the responsibility for teaching must rest temporarily with the parents."

 27. pg 303 Old fashioned will be the best.  Hand tools, being able to do things with out electricity or stores. 



I have learned so much from this book.  I hope you will take the time to read it, and learn form it. 

Elizabeth~