Power out again

I had taken a photo of my first Morning Glory bloom to post about it.  Normally my porch would be completely filled all over by this time of year and I'd have plenty of shade on the porch.  Not this year.  My vines have struggled to get started.  I was proud to see the first bloom.

Just a few minutes later a storm came through here and knocked it all down.  What you see still hanging won't last too long.  The remaining strings show signs they will fall at any minute.  I won't try re stringing the vines because it's already late in the season.  I'll clean them all up and prepare the beds for new vines next year.

This storm brought down lots more trees again knocking out power to many parts of the city.  I had been working on the computer and was preparing to write a post.  I turned the computer off at the first sound of thunder.  Just seconds later is when the storm happened and my power went out almost immediately.  The wind of this storm was reported to be around 60 to 75 miles an hour.

I got out my power outage supplies and settled down for an evening of reading.  I had something to munch on while I read.  My battery operated tv and radio were for getting updates on the weather every few minutes.

I read half the book before bedtime.  Still no power.  Thank goodness it wasn't terribly hot as it has been the last few weeks.   The power went out around 6 pm Saturday evening and came back on around noon today.  Today was supposed to be the first day of School here.  Instead, the kids got their first weather related out of school day.  Many of the schools did have power but with so many traffic lights not working it wasn't safe for traveling school buses.  Also, many neighborhood roads have trees down on them which would make it hard for school buses to get through and pick up kids.

A power outage sure does put a cramp in working out blog problems.  If your new to reading my blog you probably don't know that we have lots of problems with power outages here.  Sometimes it's days before power is restored.  I keep power outage related things handy.  More now than anytime I can remember in the past.

On more than one occasion I've lost all the food in my freezer due to power outages that lasted for many days.  This time I'm happy to say nothing was lost.   I want to say thank you to all those who commented the last couple of days.  Sorry I couldn't let you know what had happened.

How strange

Thank you everyone for letting me know my post showed up.  I find it a little strange that I wrote this post a few days ago then couldn't get it posted.  It's a follow up to the last post.  I usually write a post then leave it for a few hours before going back to proof read for errors.  When I came back to it, I couldn't sign in. 

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I've been corrected.  It wasn't a Y2K "virus" but was a problem with the calendars on computers that was the threat back then.  That's the problem with a senior memory.... we don't always remember the names of things correctly.  What I remember was the "idea" that we could all loose the internet as well as other things.  That was what my last post was really about.  The "what if" thought of loosing the internet that so many of us depend on today. 

When I was young, women in the city talked to each other over back yard fences as the laundry was hung out to dry or visited the neighbors over cups of coffee and tea.  Men talked to each other at the town square that surrounded the court house or as they helped each other with tasks.  People actually sat down with pen and paper to write letters to distant friends and relatives.  When the phone came along it meant people could talk with each other over long distances.

Women in the country shared recipes and planned events at quilting bees.  Men talked about the price of crops and planned barn risings while getting supplies at the seed store.  All of the communicating was done without the internet and the phone.  Families that did have phones most often used it only when it was necessary to reach someone really quickly.  Our family's first phone was one of those that required us to turn the crank in order to reach someone else with a phone.  We turned the crank to reach the operator and she would connect us to the person we wanted to talk with. 
When I heard about computers in the 1970s, I immediately became fascinated with them.  This was in the days when computer programming was done with "punch cards".   A few days ago, when I was telling my daughter about the punch cards, she didn't know what I was talking about.  Punch cards were about the thickness of a file card but wider.  We loaded them into a machine and typed our programming code on a machine which punched little square holes into the card.  The computer read the cards and performed the tasks we had designed.  We made stacks and stacks of these cards because each card was one bit of information.  Some cards were to run the programming and some were the data.  I learned computer programming which was called...... ?.... hmm, I can't seem to recall it's name right now. 

Well anyway, I spent hours and hours with a pencil, paper, and a template while writing programming.  The template had squares, triangles, arrows, hexagons, and other shapes used for writing the different programs.  Instead of drawing the shapes freehand we could take a shortcut by tracing the outline of the shapes.  The shapes represented tasks the computer would perform.   For example:  one line for one punch card might be represented by a diamond shape with an arrow coming from one point.  The question would read "If yes, then go to _____" which would be another punch card with another instruction.  The punch card behind that one would read "If no, then go to ____" which had another card of instructions.

I was pretty darned good at writing programming back then but I can barely remember the tools today.  Ok, I've gotten way off subject here.  Sorry, sometimes trips down memory lane take over my mind.  My point is that I've seen many changes to technology in my lifetime.

Today, the internet is our connection to each other.  It's not the only way but it sure is a very big part of many lives.  I can type-talk a question to someone in Australia or Ireland and get an answer in a matter of seconds.  The internet has become our "backyard fence" and the "town square" where we share with each other. 

Over the last couple of months I've seen many so called "glitches" on various sites I visit regularly.  I've seen many complaints on blogs and other types of journal sites about internet troubles.  I've had my own troubles sending and receiving emails which also seems to be reported as "glitches" and "issues".  I pay for two different photo holding sites.  Webshots and Picassa.  Yet, I'm listed as being only a "free" account and several of my photos are missing.  Now why would I continue to pay a fee if I'm not getting the services I pay for?  Why should I continue to pay for internet email if I can't send or receive email? 

As more and more technology and more and more internet services become available it means we become dependant on them.  We add them to our daily lives.  Many young people can't even imagine what it was like without phones and computers and tvs and video games.  These things are a part of their lives just as the early days of computers was of mine. 

So I ask you again to think of what it would be like if those things disappeared today.  How would we communicate?  How would our daily lives be changed?  What if some massive virus or glitch wiped out our internet?  True, this may not ever happen but something sure is going on.  There has to be a reason so many "glitches" and "issues" are showing up in so many places. 

Could it be "they" are not communicating with each other?  "They" meaning the writers of the programming that so many of us pay for.  Do the webshots owners talk with att about new stuff they are adding?  Does blogger talk with other computer related companies before making changes?  Do the owners of yahoo and the owners of google talk to each other before introducing beta stuff?  You get my meaning? 

OR....

Could there be other possibilities?  Here's a very scary thought  I heard about on the tv news the other day.  What if one really evil person, with a lot of computer knowledge, decided to wipe out all of the internet with a nasty virus?    Think about that for a minute.  It seems many of us are as dependant on the internet as we are on electricity.  Banks, security, hospitals, grocery stores, etc all depend on the internet to some degree.  So how do we do emergency preparedness for that situation?

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Ok, that's the post I had written a few days ago.  Then all of a sudden I couldn't use my internet.  I keep getting 404 errors and email messages from mailer daemon.  You see why I find it very strange? 

Emergency preparedness show

I saw that a special show about emergency preparedness is being shown tonight on CNBC at 9 pm.  It's about the "extremes" some people are going in their belief that the end of the world will happen December 2012.  Whether you believe in this or not, it might be interesting to see what others do for preparedness.

I do believe in being prepared for emergencies such as an economic downfall, major illness, or loss of a job and I believe in being prepared for natural disasters because I've been through several in my lifetime.  What I am NOT going to do is become an "extreme" preparedness person who thinks the world is going to end on a certain date. 

I have my faith.  I have my will to live life the best I can with honesty and value.  I do what I can, everyday, to leave this world a better place than when I came into it.  No one truly knows when things will end.  The end of the world for me (or anyone) can end with the next heartbeat.  A drunk driver coming out of no where to plow into a carload of people.... and someones world could end.   An earthquake can happen.... and someones world could end.  A tsunami can happen.... and someones world could end.  A sniper bullet can end the world for someone.  You see what I mean? 

It is always a good idea to prepare for some things.  I look at the news regularly and the troubled times do worry me.  But, I can't live my life in fear of the unknown.   Fear is a killer by itself. 

Ok, I've got to get back to work on a quilt.  I had not intended for this to become a full blog post.  I was supposed to be only passing along knowledge of an interesting show to be aired.  I thought some one might want to watch it.  Just remember the media like to show "extremes" for these shows.

*** UPDATE ***

I watched the show and I was not impressed with all the extreme people.  Millions of dollars spent on a theory?  Aw, come on now, use some common sense.  Well, some people have nothing better to do than spend money foolishly.  It's the believers and followers who are being duped into spending just like they were duped before Y2K.  People are giving up hard earned dollars to those who create the fear, with no guarantees of a refund if the world does not end.  Do any of the doomsayers offer full price refunds?

All the 2012 fear is based on a round stone ancient calendar.  Well heck, doesn't anyone realize a circle must end someplace?  Like a clock that goes from one to twelve and starts all over again at one.  Just because the clock goes past twelve it doesn't mean time will end.  A round calendar stops and begins again and should not be feared that the end of days is upon us anymore than a flip page calendar.

If you must spend money for preparedness.... at least spend it on practical preparedness.  Know which natural disaster may happen in your area and spend your money on things to help you through that disaster if it should happen.  Watch for signs of another economic down turn or a possible lay off from your job and stock up on groceries to see you through that time.  Watch for signs the price of gas or heating oil will be going up and set aside extra money for that.  What I am saying is..... Plan for real possible emergencies instead of imagined ones. 

Would I survive?

As the outside temperature warms up and as I read about people planning spring gardens; I am reminded of how spring used to be for me..... umm, about 35, 40, or 45 years ago.  Every spring, after about a week of above freezing temperatures, the utility company had what I called "field day" as a multitude of trucks rolled out to turn off utilities.  You could see the trucks going from house to house down streets turning off the utilities in the low income neighborhoods.  People's utilities would remain turned off until we managed to pay the high bill or cold weather arrived again.  People in low income neighborhoods know utilities are not a necessity; they are a luxury.  Since utilities today cost way more than they used to, I expect to see a field day in my neighborhood any time now.  The temperature has been above 50 for several days now.

I keep asking myself, would I survive through the summer if this happened to me today?  Could I survive a summer without utilities as I used to do?  Sure, I could probably get by for a couple of weeks as I did during the ice storm of 2009.

After the wind storm, not long after the ice storm, I did ok too.  Ladybug and I spent lots of time together by kerosene lamp light for three weeks that time.  She was too small to care about anything but warm milk, dry diapers, and plenty of cuddles.

I keep asking myself over and over again..... could I survive as I did back when I fully expected my utilities to be turned off for several months every year?  Could I survive if there were a major disaster here and things wouldn't get back to normal for several months?

Back then, I anticipated the spring event and started preparing for it in January.  I knew I had a couple of months to use up the food in the fridge and to wash then dry as many clothes as I could.  I would stock up on foods that could be cooked using my grill as a strange looking wood stove.  I would get out the cooler I made with triple insulation around it.  Back then there were lots of preparations I did in expectation of long months without utilities. 

Could I survive that way today?  Looking around my house today at first I didn't believe I could.  Too much of my life revolves around the use of electricity these days.  I have a freezer which I didn't have back then.  The freezer is full of food.  I could probably cook a lot of it during a temporary power outage because I have a gas stove.  But what if the gas was turned off too as it used to be done?  I no longer have a charcoal grill or a supply of wood branches to burn in it.  I don't own a pressure canner to can the meats in the freezer.  I'm saving for one but my change jar savings don't add up as quickly as they used to.  Even if I had the canner, my supply of canning jars is very limited.  I have 9 dozen pint jars and a meager supply of lids.

My income revolves around the use of electricity.  Without electricity a quilting machine won't sew.  Sure, I do have my much loved treadle machine.  I could use that for machine quilting if I needed to do it. 

I took a look at some of my non-electric kitchen appliances.  The food grinder is missing the wing nuts to hold it together.  My veggie slicer is ok though.  I still have my cast iron cookware which were and are very valuable for outdoor cooking.  I still have my percolator and some other non-electric kitchen items.

Back in those days I was much younger (of course) and physical labor wasn't an issue.  I could handle washing clothes by hand and carrying heavy loads of tree branches for fire with no trouble.  I'm not so strong these days.  Back then I walked long distances to find fallen branches and carry them home.  Today, I fear the roaming packs of neighborhood dogs so walking to find wood would be out of the question.  Back then I had a very small backyard garden to pick fresh veggies for daily meals.  Today, too many tree roots in the ground and too many overhead branches keeping out the sunlight, which prevent planting a garden.   

Am I a prepper or a survivalist?  Today's buzzwords define prepper and survivalist to refer to someone who believes there is an apocalypse about to happen.  Back when I knew for certain I would have to live a whole summer without utilities it felt like an apocalypse to me.   I thought of myself as a prepper because I got myself prepared for the event.  I thought of myself as a survivalist because I believed I would survive long hot days of summer without a fan or air conditioning while standing over a fire cooking our daily meals.

Could I survive a utility field day as I live right now?  At first I didn't think so but with only a few changes I'm sure I could.  It would take some thought on my part to remember what I used to do in preparation for utility field day but I know I could manage.   If I can find it, I still have my notebook of ideas I used back in those days. 

I would still need electricity to run my quilting machine.  Anybody know how to hook up a Gammill to a treadle?  I can live without a tv and hardly miss it but the internet I would miss a lot.  I like writing my blogs and visiting the blogs of others.   I have enough non-electric items that I could survive.  Finding those items is something else entirely.  Hmm..... maybe it's time I thought about locating these things and listing them on a "find it" list to put into my household manager notebook.  Now where did I put that notebook?  I know it's here someplace.

 

More discount bin bargains

Monday was shopping day.  It's different now that I shop once a month.  When I shopped every 3 to 6 months it would take me well over a week to preserve the bargains I found.  This time, I've been in the kitchen for 3 days with 1 more to go before I get back to the quilting work.

  Here's a few of the bargains I found.  This flour was one dollar a bag.  A lot less pricey than flour has been for quite awhile.  I bake my own bread and make my own scratch cakes.  Umm..... I use flour for lots of other things too.

I found these and bought them.  They are tomato bullion with chicken flavor.  I can use these in soups or as an ingredient in meatloaf.  Also in any food that a tomato flavor can be added.  I might even use this for making tomato soup.

These were a dollar and a quarter a bag.  I haven't seen that low price in several months.  Not a discount bin find but a good price anyway since I was out of cornmeal.

Grapes were on sale for 99 cents a pound but I found these on the discount table for 75 cents a pound.  I put these in the freezer first thing.  Grapes go bad very quickly and I didn't want to loose the money I spent on them.  Eating frozen grapes is sort of like eating a grape Popsicle.   Set some on a counter for awhile and they are just like fresh picked.

I found green peppers and onions on the discount table too.   I have enough of those in the freezer to use in my cooking so I decided to make pepper/onion relish.    I had just enough to make 6 pints.  It's used sort of like you would use pickle relish..... but there's no cucumbers in it.

I found a really good bargain on lemons and.....

tangerines and oranges.

I have more than enough of these in the freezer too.  I decided to make orange/tangerine jam with them.  I'm going to do a tutorial on this. 

I also found discounted ground pork and chicken thighs.  I'm going to make chicken/pork sausage today. 

I found a really good non-food bargain too.  This is a wind up radio and flashlight.  I bought one for me and one for my brother.   What's really neat about this is that it can charge up a cell phone too.  A few cranks of the handle is all that's needed...... IF it works like it says it does.   This will be great for when there's a power outage. 

For several months I've been searching for rennet tablets.  I was unable to find it anywhere.  Imagine my surprise when these showed up on the discount table at the store I had searched the most often.  It's used for making ice cream but that's not what I want them for.

I wanted rennet tablets because I thought maybe I would try making my own cheese.  I drink powdered milk but sometimes I find whole milk that's discounted.  I'm thinking it can't be very different to make an aged cheese.  Well, I had looked and looked for rennet.  I asked at several stores but no one seemed to know what rennet was.  When asked what I needed it for; I told them I planned to make cheese. 

I got some really strange looks from them.  None of the store personnel could believe I actually planned to go to the trouble to make my own cheese.  I'm sure those same people never think beyond what's for dinner after a long day at work.  I can always tell when someone is a "future planner" and someone who is not.  Someone who thinks ahead and plans for the future would be all ears and questions when I mention making my own cheese.  Or they might tell me they do the same thing.  Those who don't plan for rising prices and a worsening economy give me blank stares. 

It's the blank stare people who sadden me the most.  It reminds me how far away from the way life used to be that we've gone.  The life we had back when people were not living paycheck to paycheck.  A life when women and men did things at home.   The folks of my generation have failed to pass along our knowledge to our children.   Our children are no longer interested.  This is so sad. 

Well, I'm going to continue my move back to a simpler life.  Now that I'm no longer chasing the almighty dollar just to spend it acquiring more useless stuff.... I'm much happier.  I write this blog for the benefit of those who think like me and want a simpler life too.  I don't have all the answers but it makes me happy to know someone, somewhere cares enough to visit as I learn new skills or re-learn forgotten ones. 

To all my blog readers...... THANK YOU.

Perfect circles and DIY feminine pads

A few days ago I was talking to a neighbor about the economy.  She and her husband are a young couple.    They've been struggling with finances because she's now unemployed and he's on disability.  I've taken her under my wing and teaching her some of the things I do to save money.  We've been talking about alternative cleaning supplies and cooking from scratch.  She wants to learn to sew and how to can foods.  I'm very happy to teach her what I am able to do and at the same time she's teaching me a few things that only young people seem to know these days.  Things that my senior mind doesn't understand.... like how to get digital cable channels on my tv.     

I was explaining my thoughts to her about saving money.  If it can be bought, it can be made from scratch.  She would ask about something and I would explain the alternative DIY item.  Well, the subject of feminine pads came up and how expensive buying them has become.  After explaining how when I was young we didn't buy pads, we made pads from scraps of fabric, she decided to give that a try.  How did it work? 

Well, things are much different today than when I was as young.  We used safety pins to hold our pads in our bloomers.  I came up with an alternative she's happy to learn about and try.  I thought someone else might be interested too.  This has become my neighbor's first sewing lesson. 

I went through my sewing stuff and came up with what we needed.  We needed something that liquid would not soak through.  I had this curtain liner fabric.  It has a plastic side and a flannel side.  Other types of  fabrics to use could be old shower curtains or maybe the fabric from an old umbrella.  I cut two 7 1/2" squares which is all that's needed. 

I also had these t-shirt fabric scraps we could use.   I cut two 7 1/2" squares of this.

Ok, time to teach her how to sew a perfect circle.  This technique will work great for someone who doesn't know how to sew.  I got the duct tape and a single flat thumb tack. 

Push the thumb tack through a piece of the tape from the sticky side.

Go to the sewing machine.  Remove the presser foot.  Put a ruler next to the needle, measure out from the needle 3 1/2", and put a pencil mark there.

Take the thumb tack and place it on the pencil mark.

Stick it down like this and put the presser foot back on.

Get the t-shirt fabric square, fold it into quarters, put a small dot at the center point. 

Now pair the t-shirt fabric with the curtain fabric, flannel side in. 

Push the fabric squares onto the thumb tack at where we made the center dot.  Put the fabric under the presser foot and sew.

This makes a perfect circle of sewing.... but stop sewing leaving about a two inch gap.

Trim off the extra fabric leaving about 1/4".

Turn inside out, fold in the unsewn part, and sew about 1/8" from the edge all the way around.  The thumb tack won't help with this because the size has changed.  We could have moved the thumb tack but we didn't. 

Now fold this circle in half and make a mark on the fold at both sides.  This is where you can either sew a piece of velcro or place a snap.  We chose velcro.

 

Put one piece of velcro on the top side at one mark and the other piece on the under side at the other mark and sewed these on.

Fold it matching the velcro or snaps if you use those.  It should look like this.  Those are the wings.

Now make 4 marks on this at the folded edges.  About 1/2" from the outside edge.

The four marks should look like this.

Now we needed some elastic.  Well, it need not necessarily be elastic.  It could be simply a piece of folded binding or even just a strip of fabric.   I just happen to have elastic handy so we used it.

We cut two pieces of elastic for each circle.  Just a smidgen larger than the distance of the marks.

She sewed these with a zig-zag stitch, going back and forth a couple of times.

Now it looks like this when the velcro is matched up.   This is the pad holder. 

The pad itself is whatever a person wants to use.  For her, we used some scrap cotton batting put through a wash and dry first to shrink it before cutting to size.  The pad can actually be any scrap fabrics.  Left over t-shirt fabric, ugly quilt fabrics, flannel, muslin, old sheets, old bath towels..... just give it some thought.  The fabric should be absorbant and soft. 

The pads we made from scrap batting were cut in different size pieces.  2" by 7" for light days.  Doubled to 4" by 7" for heavier days and 12" by 7" for the heaviest days.  This used up some of the smallest pieces of scrap batting that previously were hanging around doing nothing.  These can also be disposable if she doesn't want to wash them.  She plans to wash her pads even though I've assured her I always have an abudance of small strips of batting.  Everytime I trim a quilt to add binding I get more small strips.  Well, anyway, that's why I pre-washed the batting.  It needed to be pre-shrunk before cutting the pieces. 

If using other types of fabric you would need to think about the thickness and absorbancy for different types of flow.  Cut the fabric to the right sizes for folding.   Why folded instead of sewn into the shape?  For washing and drying convenience.  A thick folded and sewn fabric takes much longer to dry than one not folded.

 We made her two pad holders in case one should need to be washed during her cycle.  It can be hand washed or put into the next load of laundry.  It dries quickly. 

If anyone does emergency preparedness you might want to make some of these for your emergency kits.  I'm sure the women in disaster areas, like earthquakes or floods or hurricanes or wind storms, would love to have some of these when stores are no longer open.  Hmm... I wonder if anyone thinks of making these to send to disaster areas instead of just sending comfort quilts?  Do disaster teams take pads to hand out along with water and food?  Does anyone know?  Please tell me by leaving a comment.

As usual, this tutorial post is printable if you want to print it and share it with your friends.  Just click on the print button.

Getting prepared

A quick post to let you know the weather is expected to bring us snow and ice tonight into tomorrow.  I really expect to loose power for a few days if we get what is predicted.  If you could travel around my neighborhood and see the number of electric line poles that are leaning.... ready to fall at any time..... you would know how certain I am about loosing power.  Many of the leaning poles are at a 45 degree angle and held up only by wires attached to other fixtures like buildings or lamp posts that aren't leaning.   Traveling around the neighborhood there is at least one leaning pole on every block.  Add ice on the leaning poles and you get the potential for lots of power outage.

I've been doing things to be sure I'm prepared if this weather actually does happen as bad as they say.  I'm completing tasks that require electricity first then getting to the other stuff.  First priority is to put away the foods I bought yesterday on my shopping trip.  I started on that this moring. 

So, if you don't see me post for a few days you'll know why.  I believe I'm prepared and this will be a test of how well I've done my homework. 

Paper fire logs

I was asked if phone books could be turned into fire logs to take camping.  Absolutely!  Back in the 70s, when we lived in a house with a fireplace, I turned old newspapers and junk mail into fire logs to burn.  Back then, we considered it quite frugal to use up otherwise wasted items so it wouldn't end up in a landfill.  These days it's called green living or sustainable living.  Hmm.... I sure wish I had a fireplace now.   

 Lehman's Hardware actually sells a device for rolling newspapers into logs.  Go to their website and put newspaper log roller or paper log roller in the search box.  I had an older version of that device back then.  It's much prettier now.   Hmm... Lehman's also sells a newspaper brick maker that looks very interesting. 

If you don't want to go to the expense of buying a paper roller here's a miniature version of how the logs are rolled.  For camping logs..... you need a phone book, some twist ties with metal wire in them, a spray bottle with some water, and something to roll the paper on.  I used a chopstick for this demo but it could be a dowel or a couple of straws hooked together. 

What you roll the paper on should be longer than the paper so you can easily remove it later.  Fold the paper over this and start rolling very tightly.

Roll about 2/3 of the way of the sheet and then

insert another sheet and keep rolling.  The  fire log should end up being about 3 or 4 inches in diameter.  Keep adding and rolling until you get a log about 2 1/2 inches in diameter.  Now start spritzing the paper as you add a new one.

Just a light little spray will do.  What are doing is making the paper stick to itself which is making a tighter roll.  The tighter the roll the better it burns.  It's more solid like regular wood logs.

Spritz each new sheet as you add it.  You don't have to soak it.  A light spritz will work fine.

When you get the log to the size you want, wrap it with the twisty ties and spritz the log one more time to make the last sheet stick to itself.

I actually removed the chopstick after I had four or five pages rolled together.  When rolling logs by hand it's easier to remove at that time than it is after the roll is finished. 

If you are rolling newspapers into fire logs for a fire place or a campfire it's best to use tuna cans or veggie cans as the holder instead of string or twist ties.  Remove both ends of the can.  Make the logs whatever size needed to be a tight fit inside the cans.  The cans hold the paper together much better while it's burning than string would.  The cans could be reusable.  One can in the center of the log will hold it.

For those who do preparedness planning and keep a rocket stove or charcoal grill as your emergency cooking device; the phone book paper logs would work in those too.  

Refrigeration without electricity

I talk about my Grandmother (Mama) all the time and the things she taught me.  One of the things we had on the farm was a cool house because we didn't have electricity.  There was a tiny stream running through a little channel in the center of the cool house.  We kept foods cold by placing them in the water in the channel.  The stream running through was cold so the foods stayed cold. 

When I was thinking of things to have just in case of an emergency during hot weather I thought about Mama's cool house.  Well, here in the city, it's not likely that I'll ever have a stream running across my back yard unless a water main breaks.  So I started thinking of an alternative for keeping foods cold and safe to eat even in the summer. 

I hear about black outs, or maybe it's brown outs, where electricity goes out because of overloads on the system.  So many new items are added in homes everyday which require electricity that a loss of power is a real possibility.  Especially in the summer when the demand is high to keep air conditioners running.  Our electric system is very old and is not designed for people to add and add and add more demands on it.  Homes that used to not have even one computer or tv now have several and so forth.  I'm doing what I can to use less while I can. 

I kept thinking what would I do about my refrigerated foods if the power went out again for several days and it was 100 degrees outside?  I've lost all my food one time too many.  I'm skittish about it even though I use my freezer a lot.  I kept thinking what if I had medications I needed to keep cold?  What would I do about having cold water to drink?  I was also remembering how I kept my daughter cool while sleeping during the summers when my utilities got cut off.  Then a tiny spark of a thought came to me.  Something I had read about in a magazine years ago.  I believe the magazine was Mother Earth News or something similar?  I can't remember exactly.  Anyway, I did some research and came up with a couple of ideas. 

Have you ever heard of a coolgardie safe?  If you haven't, this is what one looks like.  It works with evaporation of water to keep foods safe to eat in hot weather.  Water is kept in the top.  Burlap covers it with the ends of the burlap in the water at the top.  The water is wicked up by the burlap.  Eventually the whole burlap is wet.  The water starts to evaporate from the heat and air movement.  The evaporation draws the heat out from the inside of the safe so the inside stays cool.  There is a pan to hold water at the bottom too but this is to keep ants from getting to the food.  I guess those ants don't build ant bridges?  The coolguardie safe was invented in Australia in the 1800s. 





Ok, here's a modern version of the coolguardie safe.  This is called a pot in pot cooler.  I believe these are being given to people in Africa but I'm not sure.  It also works with evaporation.  Two large non-glazed pots are used.  There is sand between the two pots.  The sand part is filled with water to soak the sand.  The water from the sand wicks into the outside pot where it evaporates.  The evaporation draws the heat from inside the pot keeping the food inside cool.    The sand also acts as an insulation for the inside pot.  The top is to help keep it cool inside too. 



Can you guess what's been added onto my wish list?

Update November 6, 2010:  I completely forgot to put a link to the sites where I found these photos.  I can't remember exactly where I found the photo of the 1800s coolguardie safe.  If I remember right it was a museum site or antique site or something like that.  I'll post that link if I can find it again.

The pot n pot photo came from a really interesting site called Under the choko tree.  A site written by a couple in Australia who have tried to live simply for many years and now they are writing about it.  Linda and Nev Sweeney.  If you get a chance you should go visit their site.  In my wanderings around the internet I find some very intersting people living in Australia.  From quilters to homesteaders and everything in between. 

Freezing greens

I've figured out that one bunch of greens is just enough for one person (me).  I can cook one bunch and have it for three meals.  Once for a supper meal, once in a leftovers lunch, and one meal ready to heat and eat stored in the freezer.  I got two bushels of greens from the farmer's market the other day courtesy of the commodity program's fresh food coupons.

Preserving the bounty is priority so into the freezer they must go.  Canning is not an option because I don't have a pressure canner.  I gave mine away several years ago in a fit of decluttering.  I regret that decision.  Dehydrating is not an option either. 

First, I pick off any tiny worms and rinse the greens really well.  Greens have tiny little worms that like to eat the leaf, lay some eggs, then build a cocoon for sleeping.  I saw only a dozen or so worms and the little things were really unhappy about being disturbed from their cocoon.  Heavens!  I do believe they would have liked to bite me when I saw them rearing up on their tail.  After that they seemed to say awww the heck with it, I'm going back to sleep without the cocoon.

Worms and bugs are an annoying part of organic foods.  Everyone has a choice of either worms on farm produce or pesticide chemicals on grocery produce.  At least I can see the worms to get rid of them but  I can't see pesticide chemicals and don't know if they can be washed away.  When I see worms or bugs on organic foods I know that chemicals have not been used.

So after cleaning really well, I take each bunch, cut out the tough stems, roll a stack of leaves together into a log, then slice through it with a knife to get smaller pieces.  Sometimes I save the stems for making stock.  One bunch of greens go into each bowl.  This step is important for me because if I simply process all the greens together it's hard for me to measure out a portion size of wilted greens.  I have 10 bowls even though you only see 9.   My intake table makes a great place for holding foods as I process them.

I start a pot of water to boiling.  When it's boiling I start blanching my greens.

I use a strainer to hold the greens in the pot.  It's aluminum so I can handle the rim even when it's setting in boiling water.  I like using the strainer so I don't have to fish out the small bits of greens from the boiling water.  I can reuse the water for the other batches.  One bowl of greens go into the strainer inside the pot.  I let the water come back to a boil and time it for two minutes.  A little longer won't hurt them.  I stir the greens a couple of times to keep them from matting down.  That way all of the greens get blanched.  After two minutes, I lift out the strainer and let the water drip back into the pot.

I place the strainer of greens into really cold water.  I had some ice in this water but it melted before I took the picture.  The water is really cold.  It stops the cooking process.   Stir the greens to cool even the inside ones.  Lift the strainer to let all the water drip out. 

Now I take all the greens from the strainer and squeeze out as much water as I can.  I wring them like wringing a dish rag.  I won't be able to get all the water out but most is what I want.  I smooch my greens into what look like green patties.  I flash freeze them like this. 

The green patties get covered with plastic freezer wrap then put into a numbered freezer inventory bag.

I write the item on my freezer inventory sheet.  See #37?  I put ten bunches of greens in the freezer on October 15th.  When I'm looking for what to have for dinner I always look at the inventory sheet for the oldest dates first.  If I were to plan on using greens for dinner I would cross out the 10 and write 9 there. 

Once a week I update my freezer list with the computer and print out two new ones. One for on the freezer  door and one for my household binder.  If I must evacuate my house for any reason the binder goes with me.  Hmm... I hope it would go with me.  It would depend on the emergency and how long I've got to grab stuff.  The freezer inventory would be used for insurance purposes if I must file a claim after evacuation.