Hauling Dirt

Five great big piles of dirt in our yard and we've been busy in this beautiful weather shoveling them by hand every chance we get. I put in another two hours tonight. I'm exhausted but feel like I'm getting something accomplished.

We load it into the wheelbarrow then fill in the low land that surrounds our yard. The lower land is filled with garbage, logs, stumps and pushed over trees. We even found a kid's Fisher Price bicycle with training wheels back there. Never would have seen it if wifey wasn't picking the garbage out of there. She put a free sign on it and put it out by the road. Within two minutes someone picked it up. I hope it makes some kid very happy this summer.

Anyway I try to put in at least two hours worth of dirt when I can because you can see the difference. It's fun to watch the land grow and the logs to disappear. I worked up to 7:30 tonight. The mosquitoes came out and it was getting darker so I called it a night.

I hear the peepers now. They came out on Thursday night. It was the exact same night the mosquitoes came out for the first time. I figured the frogs had to be waiting for their food to come out before they would.

We've grown more veggie plants but my first batch of lettuce isn't going to make it. It grew too tall too quickly and is beginning to die. We've started other lettuce, bell peppers and few other things. The tomatoes we started are doing great.

That's all for tonight. I've posted a picture of the piles of dirt covered with layers of grass and golden rod from who knows how many years they have sat in this yard.

One week after St. Paddy's Day

I can't believe it's been a week since last post already. Spring is still in the air here it's just been cooler and the rain has finally quit after two days. But enough of this New York weather, you're probably wanting to know about the pictures.

The picture with the two plants is the salad blend mix. Can you guess which one I put in the mini green house I made last week? Yes the mini green house plants grew taller and faster than the one out of the green house. I had sprouts on the green house one a day before the other.

The other plant shown is the Cherry Tomatoes also started in the mini green house. Wifey was so impressed with the mini green house she put saran wrap on her plants. I guess she thought of a quicker and easier way to create a mini green house!

Three days ago we finally uncovered the strawberry plants. Looks like the moles got into a few of them but the rest seem good and have begun rejuvenating.

Over the weekend we started shoveling dirt. We have large piles of dirt to fill in the lower landscape where we want to put our garden. Our garden will not be the conventional kind. The garbage that was left in the regular dirt of our lawn is a good deterrent. We are still pulling up insulation and buckets and who knows what else. I've included pictures of the area we are filling in. Not sure if you can really tell how much we've done through the picture. Anyway keep posted because we've got a lot more to do over the next several months. Somehow we're going to use the stumps and pushed over tree and branches in this garden. If we can bury it with dirt that is good but some will have to be used for decoration (maybe plant in the stumps).

Our garden plans: Have you ever heard of the Square Foot Garden? We have a book out of the library right now on how to do this. We plan on using cement blocks about 8 inches tall to make a raised Square Foot Garden. We'll have pictures every step of the way and explain our process too. We're kind of excited to give this a try. But before we can do that we must keep shoveling dirt and raising the land. So I'm going to get back out doors while the sun is out and get this done. Until next time...

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I love the color green. Today the sun is shinning, it's over 60 degrees outside and the snow is almost gone. It's hard to believe this is the snow belt of central NY. I hope the weather stays this way but I am leery as it doesn't seem right that it isn't snowing in March.

Anyway, back to green. On Sunday (3 days ago) wifey planted some herbs and I set them out in this beautiful weather today. Once outside I decided I should start some plants as well and opened up cherry tomatoes, beef steak tomatoes and a salad mix blend.

I even made a crazy little green house out of some boards and a plastic garbage bag. It's my little experiment with a greenhouse. I nailed 3 boards together and left the ends open. I placed 3 planters inside with the garbage bag covering it. The open end of the plastic I folded underneath the planter so I can pull the planters out to water them. I'll keep you informed along the way as to whether they grow better or not.

Ah the smell of green is in the air. First thing this morning I won 20 swagbucks for a search. Also the amazon cards were given out today on swagbucks and I got another $25 worth of gift cards. If you're not a member, join for free by clicking here and start earning your rewards today.

And one more bit of green. The grass is beginning to become green and we had our first deer in the yard eating as much of it as she could! The cat and I watched it munching down some lunch about 3pm while other deer wandered just inside the woods. This is the first deer in the yard since we moved in about 7 months ago. So far we've had a fox, moles, deer and birds including turkeys! Oh and add to that a neighbors cat that comes over on the deck and watches our cat through the sliding glass doors. What an interesting mixture of wildlife.

Today I put a honey bee outside, released a fly from inside the screen door and searched the swampy wetlands beside the house looking for the frogs that will soon over run the yard. No croakers yet but they may be waiting for the mosquitoes that will soon be out. I also noticed that our strawberries plants are starting to push through the layer of leaves we had covering them for the winter.

That's a wrap for today. I hope everyone had a beautiful green day.

Spring is on the way!

This is the wifey. It's sunny outside and the ice is melting. Fifty degrees in March is a heat wave in our part of the country! It will be our first spring at the new house and we are really excited about having a garden. We bought a lot of our seeds already and are trying to figure out just how we will lay it out. We plan to make a raised bed garden because the soil in our area is not the best. Last year our son planted strawberry plants and I am eager to see if they come back this summer. I believe fruit trees are also in our future.

Gardening is a great way to stretch your food budget and free up more money to buy starch and protein items. Also with all the pesticides and waxes that get put on our produce, it is nice to eat something that you know isn't filled with chemicals. Even if you live in a little apartment or trailer park where you can't dig up the yard, container gardening can give you a surprising amount of food for very little money and can be kept on your patio or by a sunny window.

We will be using some of our free pickle buckets for container friendly plants like tomatoes, radishes and lettuce/greens. I also got sunflowers because I love the seeds and they are so pretty. I can't wait to eat produce that I grow myself and am excited about how much money we will save on produce. We plan to can and freeze some of what we don't eat for storage. I also plan to make weekly donations to our local food pantry to share the wealth. Below are some articles I found on About.com for building raised beds and container gardening; hope they inspire you to get your hands dirty!

http://organicgardening.about.com/od/startinganorganicgarden/a/raisedbed.htm

http://gardening.about.com/od/vegetablepatch/a/ContainerVeggie.htm

Tsunami Warnings & Spam

Today there were tsunami warnings for Honolulu after the 8.8 earthquake that hit Chile. Luckily nothing happened. At least no tsunami hit.

But something did happen. Chaos, panic, the mad rush to leave or to stock up on supplies. I read an article today from yahoo about Scientist defending themselves for making the tsunami predictions and I agree they did the correct thing in letting people know a tsunami may hit. It is better to be prepared than have it hit you square in the face when your not expecting it.

The thing about the article that got me was people going to the store and grabbing food and water. The store had to put a limit on the number of cans of Spam that were allowed to be bought by each customer because of the "panic buying".

Maybe I should reconsider adding Spam to my food storage. It could be a real barter item if the grid goes down for any amount of time. Do you really think people like this stuff or were these people just grabbing at any canned meat they could get their hands on?

If these people had been prepared (even mentally) they could have grabbed canned beef stew, ham, tuna, potted meat, chicken and many other varieties of meat in a can. I'm probably just reading too much into this. They were probably buying all the kinds of meat available. Heck, probably anything in a can.

I just can't help but think if I lived by the Ocean or on an Island I think I would stock up on food and water and probably a life raft and life preservers. It's situations like this that have to make a person stop and think: How will I survive if? What would I do if?

I can not emphasis enough how important it is to think ahead in case something might happen. Especially if you have children. It is up to you to take care of them. We can't plan for everything but having food and water may help ease the situation.

If you're interested, read the article here.

Then go get your cans of spam before the stores put a limit on the amount of cans you can buy.

This Year to Date

After looking at my picture of water storage, I realized we didn't have enough water so this week I added another 14 gallons of water to storage. I still have more to go but a little bit at a time is all I can do.

Also I picked up some deals at the dollar store on cans of strawberries and mushroom soup (2 for $1). Into storage they went. And at Walmart believe it or not I actually found clearance on Freeze Dried Ice Cream Sandwiches. I bought out the last seven they had and the kids ate two of them and proclaimed them excellent. I looked up freeze dried ice cream sandwiches on line and I see there is a shelf life of 2 years. I'm hoping for a little more so we'll see.

Overall I think this has been a good week for storage. I know Wifey also stocked up on some of her vegan food too.

Food storage has been going well. Last month my in-laws gave my a large cooler full of pork and bacon from their last pig. We've been signed up for a New York State program (Anyone in NY can join) called food sense and for $15.50 you get 10-12 food items a month. And there are special packages you can buy too. This week we received fish, potatoes, pepper steaks, broccoli, carrots, polish sausage, rice, canned fruit, fresh grape tomatoes, chicken patties and more. This program helps extend our food budget and the food tastes great.

The wood is still holding out in the shed. At most there is a month's worth of wood left. That's not quite enough for the season. Next year I would say we need to add about 3 more cords to make it comfortable and definitely add more bundles of kindling. We'll run out of kindling this week or early next week for sure.

We've had problems with the roof leaking over the stove. We discovered this was because of ice build up on the edge of the roof. The wifey chopped it away with a clawed hammer one night. She climbed on the roof after dark with a head lamp (bought from the dollar store) and chipped away. The light and the wife worked well and the leak went away.

We've kept the thermostat at 62 degrees in the house this winter. It seems chilly a lot but if we sit by the fire and cover with blankets we keep warm. So far this winter propane has cost $500 and then $400. (This doesn't include the first filling of the tank.) We still have more winter left. Brrrr.

Next winter we will put in a wood stove. I'll be sad to change the fireplace for this but the house will be warmer, we'll save a lot of money on heating, and even if the power is out it'll be warm. The fireplace loses to much heat out of the pipe.

The electricity keeps going up about $5 a month, which is really annoying me since I unplug everything and often sit in the dark at night. This month I'll concentrate on unplugging my laptop more and see if that will make a difference.

At this point I'm really looking forward to spring. We have a supply of seeds to plant. We won't need to heat the house and our expenses should lower. Okay we'll get through about two more months of winter and spring should arrive. I'll keep my fingers crossed and maybe it'll be an early spring.

Swag Bucks: It's Real. Earn Free Supplies Now.

Last month I started using this new search engine that earns me points called swag bucks. They have a toolbar that is optional that you can put right up at the top of browser and whenever you need to look something up you can type it in there. Now I know many of you are Googlers but this search engine is better than google. It not only gives the same information back as google but it gives more!

My bookmarks are overflowing with information I want to get back to with the things I've found in this search engine.

This is how swag bucks works.

1.Click the link on the top left hand side of this page.

2. Sign up

3. Start using the search. Swag bucks are awarded randomly. I find I can get some every few hours. You don't have to search that long. Do a search in the morning, than in the afternoon and at night. That usually leads to about 3-5 swag bucks a day.

To earn extra swag bucks you can invite friends to join (you earn swag bucks every time they earn swag bucks) OR you can do some special offers OR shop. Some special offers are free and some you pay for. Basically I found that promotions with a few swag bucks aren't worth the trouble or hassle. After downloading something for free points i often do not get my bucks or they want me to keep downloading things. I'm staying away from that stuff. If they fix it I'll let you know. Stick with the bigger swag bucks award and make sure you go in through the site to earn your awards.

Last month I earned $25 in Amazon Gift certificates. I'm already up to $15 worth this month.

How am I earning swag bucks? So far I tried some of the free promotions. I've tried Netflix and Blockbuster. Hey they're a free trial. A month free of movies altogether. I also do a lot of searching because of my job. But I find no matter how much I search (most of my work is online) I only win swag bucks about every 4 or 5 hours in between. I have no referrals yet but once people start clicking the link and signing up I can earn more and it'll happen quickly.

My advice to you is sign up and refer as many people as you can. Do searches a few times a day. Try the promotions if you can, especially the large amount freebie ones and than cancel before you'd have to pay (unless you're keeping it of course).

MOST IMPORTANT: Use swag bucks to help your family be prepared in any emergency. It doesn't cost you anything only a little bit of time! Check out all the rewards you can win. There's even an REI gift card for camping stuff. You can get items or gift cards from swagbucks. I prefer Amazon gift cards because Amazon has items I need for food, water storage, heat, light and shelter. Click Here

Our Food & Water Storage So Far...

Here's a sampling of our food storage to date. Remember just put a little food away each week, replace the items you use and only stock what you will eat. We don't have nearly enough yet but were working at it slow and steady. This method seems to be working for us.

The 10th Grade Science Project

My son brought home a science project that he has two months to complete. The subject? Preparing for a disaster!

Finally the public school is teaching something that could possibly save lives. Unfortunately, the teacher modified the assignment half way through. If people can not get the supplies they may need for a 72 hour period then they may draw a picture or cut out pictures from a magazine. The teacher was probably contacted by people who thought they could not afford (money wise) any special supplies.

That's too bad. Too bad the teacher didn't modify the assignment in a different way. For instance, forget a backpack and use a plastic garbage bag. Throw in a blanket and pillow from your bed. Use two litter soda bottles for water storage or some other containers from the kitchen. If they can't have a couple dollar tarp for shelter how about learning to get out of the elements by going under a pine tree in the woods (this is rural area) or using the garbage bag to stay dry. Make the kids think- what can I do to put this stuff together? What would I do to survive? Make them think of necessities: water, food, shelter, light and heat (it's cold here 6 months of the year at least).

What will these kids do with drawn pictures if a disaster occurs?

The project was to have enough supplies for 72 hours for 3 people. The kids put together emergency plans for in the home and away, learned what disasters may happen, took pictures of their families and identifying marks and gathered important paperwork together.

My son was luckier than most. Over the years he has been given everything he would need to survive. And our own food storage helped him to fill out his backpack with the food and water. (A used backpack we paid a few dollars for at lawn sale.) The only thing we had to go to the store for was the photographs he needed to show his supplies and pictures of his family if we ever got separated. In doing this assignment, we as a family, became more prepared. We know what roads to take from school or from his dad's house if anything happens. We know where to meet outside if there is a fire. Blizzards, tornadoes, floods and the nuclear plant where all discussed.

Every family should go through this assignment. Learning to survive a disaster before it happens could save so much grief later. In a way I think my son thought I was a little crazy before with the food storage but now I think he respects us just a little bit more because we have it.

A New Year

Goals:

MORE food storage. Prices have gone up on lots of food this season. I'm noticing this on many of my regular items. I will have to pack away more, faster because these prices aren't going to drop (unless I find a sale or clearance).

More water storage. Start spending a dollar a week on a gallon of water at least or maybe 3 dollars at Walmart and get 3 jugs in a stackable box.

Learn how to can and start canning.

Build a cabin.

Start gardening.

To be continued...

A Good Christmas

Well Christmas was good for our household. We got another 7 gallon water jug, a solar lantern and a wind up lantern. In the area of food storage we got a used canner that will need to be fixed, part of a pig (for me not the wifey vegan) and the wifey learned to make vegan cheese. It's not too bad. It has a smoked flavored taste. Now once we get the pressure canner fixed we can store a lot of that vegan cheese. No need to go without cheese if you don't have to.

We spent a lot of time with family this Christmas. Wifey's parents seem to get what we're doing as they are the ones who gave us light in case darkness should ever come and the canner to store food. Sometimes I wish my family could get it but not because I want them to get me presents but because if something happens at the end their plan of coming here will only cut down on our storage. I try to explain we don't have enough for everyone, not that I would turn any one away (I least I hope I wouldn't) but they have a family of 6. Our storage won't last long with that many people.

I guess we'll have to set a bigger goal for more people. I would want family around if anything happened and we do have the fireplace for heat. I guess it makes sense for this to be the place to come. I should just get used to the idea now.

Oh yes, did I mention we have one more thing we got for Christmas that we put in food storage? A big bottle of Vodka! Thanks mom.