Making Winter Coats

Why am I talking about a winter coat in the summer? Because...

"Say what?"

If you've read our blog for any length of time, you know we're all geeks here.  It was only a matter of time before a Game of Thrones reference was made. But it's also relevant to this article because if you want to make a coat for winter you'd best start working on it now. 

I was initially going to show you how to crochet or knit a coat, but that would have made this post super-long. After the success of my apron post, I realized I don't have to break this down to such a level; there are a lot of resources out there that show how to make coats and can explain it far better than I can.

The Capote
A good example of a multi-purpose that is easy to make is the Capote (pronounced capo -- it's French), or blanket coat, of the North American frontier. These coats kept you warm but weren't fancy at all -- not unless you were fortunate enough to have a significant other who was a fair hand at embroidery or bead work.

The blanket coat is just that, a coat made out of a blanket, and I'm fairly certain quite a few people can immediately see the advantages to this:

• Your blanket is already right there, cutting down on the amount you have to carry otherwise.
• In summertime, it's your bed. 
• Remember way back when I published my first security articles? I made mention of the wardrobe changes you should consider for SHTF (for reasons such as "being less of a target"). Coats like this hide your chest and hips really well. 
• You can use a specific color pattern to identify yourselves, either individually or as a group, to each other when out and about in camp or in town. 

If you like how the capote looks, you can check The Matoska Trading Company.  They have several capote patterns based on the various geographical regions.  (Yes, there were differences in capote designs from area to area, but that's a historical subject and beyond the scope of this post.) There are also several capote patterns on Amazon.

Alternately, you can try your hand at making your own using these patterns I found on Pinterest:

Other Types of Coats
Back in the Middle Ages, the word "coat" referred to armor like chainmail. Outerwear was more like the cloaks and capes that many of us today think of as some kind of fantasy costume. What we would consider a modern coat didn't become the norm until roughly the mid-1800s.  Frequently used interchangeably with the word jacket by American English speakers, there's a huge catalog of the different types of both.

If you're going to make your own coat, there are things you must consider just as if you were buying one instead.

1. What's the activity I'm going to doing the most while wearing the coat? 
   This helps you decide on the material composition. For example, if you're going to be outside working with animals, it's going to need to be sturdy and not stain easily.
2. What is the most common kind of weather that I may be wearing this in? This determines how thick, water resistant, or breathable you'll need it to be, and helps you determine the materials. 
3. How much bending am I going to be doing? Do you need it to be fitted or can it a loose coat?
4. Can I find what I need already made? Probably, but you have to decide your financial and time budget first.

Once you've gotten that figured out, it's time to hit the web!

Recommendations:

1. If you can sew, check with your local fabric shops first and go through the outerwear patterns they have available. Start in mid-summer as well, so that you aren't fighting against the deadline of cold weather.
2. If you're making for kids, size it up a size or two, especially if they're in that 8-12 year range. Growth spurts are bad enough, and being cold during them is no fun.
3. Trawl YouTube for instructional videos. Making coats can be hard, so learn as many tips and tricks as you can!
4. If you commission someone else to make it, DON'T SHORT THEM ON PAYMENT. Coats take time and patience.

Once you decide on your coat, save those patterns. If they work, you'll want to make more of them. If they don't, take note of what did work and why, and then what didn't work and why -- the material, the construction, the cut, everything -- so you learn from the experience. 

Winter is coming. Stay warm!

Aprons and their Uses

We're going to be playing with shapes.

"Say what now?"

Well, that's technically what we're going to be doing, working with rectangles and a square. Depending on the need, maybe just rectangles. In other words, we're making a pattern for an apron.

Before we jump into that, let's go over the different jobs of aprons, a little bit of their history, and why I'm recommending you start using them and know how to make one.

History
We in the modern world haven't enjoyed mass produced clothing for all that long. At most, we've enjoyed clothing in its current form for only 60-70 years. Aprons, however, have existed for a very long time, with some of the earliest examples found with the Vikings. These are actually fairly accurate apron dresses, as some of the pieces from grave finds have been remarkably intact.

In some of the oldest professions in the world such at wood carving, leather working and blacksmithing, aprons are worn as means of protection for the person. (You can ask Firehand about that last one.) Made from leather or heavy duty fire-resistant fabrics, these are meant to protect you from sparks, a slipped carving knife, or accidentally gouging yourself with your awl.

In the simplest terms, the apron was created not long after clothing in order to keep said clothing clean for longer and protection it from damage and you from injury.

Types of Aprons
I think everyone still to this day has a fond memory of a grandmother and her apron.

• Waist Apron: Covers you from the waist down. Consists of a single piece (or multiple small pieces) shaped in a rectangle that cover the front of your legs and out to normally halfway across your hips.
• Bib Apron: If you work in retail or food service, this is the one that you will recognize. It covers you from the chest down. For most jobs, the basic bib apron is the pattern and style you're going to end up using the most. 
• Pinafore: An apron to keep the clothes of playing children clean back when the outdoors were our TVs and game systems. 
• Tabard: Another type of commonly found apron in today's world. 
• There are two or three others, however they're not relevant to this article. 

Who Wears Aprons?

• blacksmiths
• butchers
• armor and weapon makers
• cooks
• kitchen workers
• carvers
• welders
• furniture makers
• leather smiths 
• cobblers
• tailors
• jewelers
• metal forgers (not the same as blacksmiths)
• fishermen 
• clock makers
• homemakers
• tradesman
• most artisans 
• masons
• gardeners
• weavers
• spinners
• dyers

Have I made my point on this part? Aprons are useful tools.

There's an attitude that you will see pop up in discussions about This is an attitude that tends to make me reach for the cast iron frying pan and wooden spoons.

We are all far too used to the mass availability of materials, and it's made us less careful and less appreciative of our things like our jeans and shirts. There's an attitude of "Why should I have to take care of my clothing, or know how to fix it, or make new clothes, when I can just get new ones?"

Even a non-Hollywood SHTF situation will devastate or force a change in your wardrobe:

1. Being stranded out of town
2. Escaping a bad relationship
3. Theft 
4. Pregnancy
5. Severe illness that makes your weight go up or down drastically
6. Loss of home and belongings due to
• Fire
• Flood
• Volcanic eruptions (don't look at me like that! Close to 50% of the world population have to be ready for it. Just look at recent eruptions in Guatemala, Hawaii and Indonesia)
• Tornadoes
7. General Evacuation

Aprons are a way to extend the life of your clothes. It's the simplest garment in the history of the world, second only to the loin cloth. 

I've taken to using one as frequently as I can remember. When I'm cooking, washing dishes, or doing outside things, I'm wearing one. Now that I'm hand-washing our clothing, I need the clothes to stay cleaner longer than before. Heck, my first apron was crocheted. I still have it and still use it.

I started out with just a waist apron and realized I needed to turn it into a bib apron. I also have a regular fabric apron that I made a few mistakes with, one of which being a little too wide on the waist-covering part, overlapping by a good couple of inches in the back. I'm dealing with that because I manged to make it, and even with the mistakes I'm rather proud of myself for it. 

Making Your Own

1. Decide on what the apron is for ahead of time. This determines your materials and how much you'll need.
2. Do the opposite of what I did and measure your waist and hip area first  You'll be making your own ties or adding your own snaps to it, so knowing the dimensions will make cutting it to form easier. 
3. Take your time making it. You might find halfway through it''' work better as a waist apron than a bib, or vice versa.
4. Don't be afraid to upcycle a shirt or use scraps for it. (Unless you're making one for use with fire related activities -- I'm not sure how you'd be able to make a scrap leather apron)
5. If you go really crazy and knit or crochet one and make a bib apron, leave the straps around the neck as ties. That's the best thing I've found to deal with the stretching.

The most basic of patterns for an apron is this:

....that's a little too basic, isn't it?  Never fear, the link monster is here:

• How to Make an Apron from Shirts. Don't be afraid to upcycle or recycle an old button up shirt that someone in the household isn't wearing anymore. This is a great to get to the most of out that chunk of fabric.
• A Patchwork scrap waist apron.
• BBQ Apron from an recycled canvas shopping bag.
• Gathering Apron. I have to be honest, this one reminds me a lot of aprons from the 1700s and 1800s.
• Mobius Apron. I'm including this one because it's a nice-looking apron, but the actual process she uses for printing the pattern isn't very economical.  It needs a lot of printing paper, so if you can eyeball the pattern, you might be better off.
• Cross Back Apron. This one is similar to the mobius above it, and both are not for beginners. For those of you who are more experienced sewers, this is up your alley.
• Garden Apron . A simple waist apron with pockets. 
• One version of a Viking Apron Dress. Just for hoots and giggles. 
• Sewn Egg Gathering Apron.
• Crocheted Egg Apron.

The number of cheap patterns from all pattern makers for under 5-6 bucks is rather large. If you decide to go with more of a tabard style, try looking for patterns under the secondary term of "Smock ".

Product Review: Washing Wand

Around January, my husband and I found out that we could finally buy our first home next year. I immediately went into "Where can we save money so that we can pay off everything possible between now and then?" mode.

One of those areas was laundry. We were spending upwards of $40 a month going to a laundromat. $40 plus the amount of time taken away from my husband's job because we only have one vehicle plus the extra miles on the vehicle equals me deciding I was going to do laundry the old-fashioned way (by hand) but with a modern twist.

The Washing Wand
Enter this doodad. It was an initial investment of $8 (I got it on sale) and the amount added to the water bill by doing laundry in the tub at home was $12. That's half of what we were spending per month at the laundromat, which means the Washing Wand has already paid for itself in the first month of use.

I know it looks like a toilet plunger, but it's better:

• I don't have to worry about someone forgetting there's one for the toilet and one specifically for laundry only. 
• It's designed to agitate water, not un-plug a toilet, so it agitates better than a plunger. 

Tips and Tricks

1. Let your laundry soak in the soapy water for five to ten minutes. 
2. Dump that water and replenish it with fresh, then agitate it for 40 motions (think 'churning butter') or two minutes, whichever is longer.
3. You may have to rinse twice, depending on how dirty the stuff was.

Q&A

Can it handle sheets and blankets? 
It can, if you have a large tub to let them soak in. You might have to work harder to get them clean, though. 

Has it proven to get the clothes clean?

Yes.

Would I trust it with the crocheted stuff I do for Jade Rose?

I haven't tried that yet, and am a little apprehensive about it.  Do you blame me?

My Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Pros:

• There's no "ick factor" of using a toilet plunger
• It gets things clean
• It breaks down easily for storage/transportation
• It's inexpensive

Cons:

• It's exhausting to use if you're out of shape.
• It's a bit hard on your hands if you're not used to gripping something for long periods of time.
• The cup could use a couple more holes added to it to aid in the agitation of the water.

I recommend this product.

Canning Roundup

While I'm sure Erin and others would love for me to actually film or or talk in detail about canning from my perspective, that is a very long term project and to be honest I would just end up re-hashing what has been said and written hundreds of times. A round up post is far more practical and a better use of my time.

That, and I live in Phoenix, AZ. Canning anything now that the summer temps are bearing down on us? Please, guys, I might be masochistic but I'm not stupid.

We're going to be keeping it simple with four videos today from channels on YouTube that got it right.







This video is the first of three. I recommend watching the rest of the series.

The Simplest Shepard's Pie Recipe Ever!

In news related to Rhi and Evie's ride, we aren't able to go for medical reasons, so we're obviously disappointed that life decided to become complicated. We were looking forward to a month of hanging out, practicing prepper skills like deadfall traps and cast iron dutch oven cookery... but that doesn't mean I'm not going to have some fun with the preps I had gathered.

One of the things I planned to try while on the trip was a "bastard shepherd's pie". I say bastard because the meat was either going to be smashed spam or tuna instead of ground beef. (Oh quite cringing, it wouldn't have been that bad.)

This recipe is something that I came up with on the fly to see if those packs of mashed potatoes with the little extra seasonings that I mentioned last time would work for said food dish.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lbs of ground meat. I recommend not very lean ground beef; you'll read why later.
• 1 small onion, chopped (any onions will do, if you want to extra color try red onions)
• 3 stalks of celery
• 2 carrots (size matters not)
• 1 jalepeno, seeded and chopped, about the same size as the onions and celery
• Additional seasonings can be added but they aren't needed. I used some rosemary, sage and chives from my little container garden.
• About 1/2 cup of instant mashed potatoes. I used the Applewood smoked bacon mashed potato pack for this, and the bacon flavor really blended well with the rest of the flavors. 
• If you decide to make the mashed potatoes from scratch, you'll need about a cup and a half of boiled finely diced potatoes. Contrary to popular beliefs, mashed potatoes don't need milk or butter, just salt and black pepper. 
• Salt & black pepper
• A thickening agent. Many people use regular white flour, but one of the things that Rhi and I were going to be playing around with were alternative flours like buckwheat, tapioca and white rice flours. I used white rice flour in this instance; coconut and almond flours would not work for this recipe as they have a stronger flavor than rice or tapioca.

Directions

1. While your beef is cooking down, chop up your veggies and set them aside.
2. Your beef is ready to throw into a mixing bowl or the cooking dish once it's cooked almost all the way through. DON'T THROW THAT FAT AWAY! Leave it in the pan. That's what you're cooking your veggies in.
3. Put your onions and celery in first. Keep an eye on your veggies because you're going to be adding the jalepeno to the mix once the onions have started to turn translucent. You'll toss your carrots in once the celery is tender and mix everything together in the frying pan really well.
4. Once you have everything in the pan mixed, sprinkle some of your thickening agent into the pan and mix well again, reducing heat but keep stirring. You'll probably use at most a tablespoon depending on what you've chosen.
5. Preheat your oven to 350.
6. Turn the water on for your instant mashed potatoes (or if you went with potatoes from scratch, you can have them on a medium boil on the side while cooking everything else).
7. Mix your meat and veggies well. Put them into your baking dish and make sure your layers is flat as possible. 
8. Once you've gotten your potatoes mixed up/mashed up, spoon them on your mixture in the baking dish and carefully spread them with the back of the large spoon. Once you have an even layer, pop into the oven for 30 minutes or until the potatoes have a bit of a crust to them.

When ready, let sit for about 5-10 minutes if possible to let everything settle down a little bit. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Bon appetite! 

Great Bowls of Oatmeal!

Me on the corner of Winslow AZ.
Neat little town.

Hooboy, it's been a while since I popped up here. Well, that's life, and despite this blog's tenacity in producing content, our lives tend to get the better of us from time to time and we find ourselves letting go of projects. Then there are the times when life is just a series of drudgery and WTFs, and we consume our stocks in whiskey and rum while needing a change. Which leads to the main point of this post: Rhi and Evie are riding again!

Yes, OkiRhio and I are once again camping for an entire month, this time in my adopted home state of Arizona. (If you just got a mental image of me rubbing my hands together going "OH BOY OH BOY OH BOY!" you're not too far off the mark.) And if you guys are really lucky, we might even do some videos. I'd actually really like to be able to, but with my husband's PI business taking off here in Arizona, he's got the monopoly on the video camera, so I am probably not going to have the camera by that time (unless people are feeling generous and Erin doesn't roll her eyes TOO hard at me shamelessly plugging the Jade Rose Zen etsy shop).

(Nah, that's fine. -- Erin)

One of my goals for the trip was dehydrating a bunch of food. Unfortunately, I don't have a dehydrator anymore, because the wiring burnt out on the one I had and I haven't been able to replace it. So, I've had to make some sacrifices in terms of type of food.

Then it occurred to me that I could make a case for "bugging out" with many of the more common foods that one can find in an American pantry or cupboard. So I pulled together a decent cross-section of such food stocks.

The tuna is from the StarKist brand, which in addition to the normal cans also comes in these convenient packs which depending on where you can find them range in 98 cents to a $1.15. The flavors are Ranch, Lemon Pepper and Hickory Smoked, as well as the standard non-seasoned tuna. The advantage of these packs is that they are foil, which means they are lighter than the tin cans and take up much less space in a pack.

And what camping trip is complete with the traditional Spam Offering? Yep, you are seeing Hickory Smoke, Bacon, Jalapeno and Black Pepper spam there.  (It's a toss up between the black pepper and hickory smoke as to which is my favorite.)

Unfortunately, I'm still a bit sensitive to gluten, so those three flours are going to be seeing some interesting recipe experiments come the trip. And that's instant potatoes in the big container. Speaking of potatoes...

.. why yes, those are five flavors of instant mashed potatoes there. I was looking over the potatoes and thought of "How about a little variety? They are only about a buck each, and they'll feed at least two people if not three." A healthy pantry filler gets some variety, and I don't know about you, but some of those would make for some great experimental shepherds' pie toppings.

Now if you look at the canned goods, you'll see a good cross-section of what my parents' pantry looked like while I was growing up. (We canned our own green beans and tomatoes, so you can ignore those.)  Note that those, plus beef and chicken bullion, are all meal components. I only have around three weeks before the camping trip, and homemade bullion recipes take time that I don't necessarily have.

You'll also note there are the cheap boxes of instant rice that have different flavors, and four bags of the Knorr meal sides bags. Those are fairly cheap (about a buck each) additions that you can find at any grocery store, and the mashed potato bags and Knorr side bags are extremely lightweight.

And yes, my dear cheapskates, there are indeed Ramen and Thai Rice noodles. The rice there on the bottom right are a bit more expensive - 88 cents per pack -but they are gluten-free and safe for most people who have grain problems to eat.

Not pictured is the couple of jars of triple citrus marmalade and canned ground turkey.

You can probably guess by now that there will be a lot of combination cooking experimentation that will come out of this trip, and this blog is going to be flooded with recipes for a while. (Seriously guys, we may need to make a cookbook!) It's all going to be based on playing around with common household foods and the cheap stuff.

We're also going to be keeping track of our water consumption for this month of camping. It occurred to me that this could potentially be an incredibly valuable point of data, because much of what we're eating needs water to prepare, and of course we'll be drinking. Plus there's sanitation and its water use to consider!

This time, I have the experience from my last trip to help me. It will be easy to to stack firewood on top of this spare tub at night to keep critters out. Plus, instead of a suitcase (that had to have been really well made to withstand being squished by a horse), the clothes are all going to be in a tub as well so that if I need to wash anything, I have a tub to wash them in.
I have a much bigger tent this time, and a cot too. The cot was a must as sleeping on the ground for that many nights in a row made my back and hips hurt, and we hadn't even started on the trip on yet.

Next time I'm around, I'll be showing you the tent and campsite set-up, along with some of the other additions to the food regime including dried goats milk and cows milk. Yes, fortunately for me my dairy allergy has let up! I can eat cow dairy again, which gives me more camping options.

And this is just my side of the preps. Rhi has her stuff she's doing, too.


FCC Disclaimer: BCP would like to point out that Evie is NOT sponsored by Winco foods, Maruchan, Knorr, Seakist or Spam. These products were all bought by her and her husband, and are being presented to you on this site because they are inexpensive options. Thank you for understanding.

Short Circuiting a Seizure

Over two years ago, I was getting geared up for a month of camping with OkieRhio out in Oklahoma. During one of our trips out to Knight's Rest, we were talking about family and our experiences with epilepsy, and I opened up to her about a member of my family that had been dealing with it since before I was born.

I told her about how, when I was eight, I watched my mom collapse from a seizure in church. I charged down the stairs to the kitchen, soaked a washcloth in cold water, and charged back up to where they were to drop it on their face.

A seizure is your brain trying to fry itself. It's a highly unpleasant thing to experience; I've had two that I can remember, and they were mild ones. A cold rag over the face of someone with a seizure short circuits the brain and blood vessels in their head.

It needs to be wet, it needs to be as cold as possible, and after you drop one on their forehead and over their eyes, go get a second one ready because by the time you get back with the second one, the first one will hot in comparison... but the person should have at least stopped seizing up, if not back to being coherent.

Rhi gave me a stare.

"Doesn't everyone know that?" I asked her, confused and a bit afraid.

"No dear."

Now more people know.

Number One with a Bullet: Keeping It All Straight with Bullet Journals

There's been a bit of discussion among members of our Facebook group about keeping things organized and in rotation with preps. There are countless apps to help you "organize your life and up your productivity."

Well that's great, but when was the last time you used whichever ones you have? And no, using them right now just because I reminded you that you have them most certainly doesn't count.

I hate to tell you this, but if you aren't using these apps to keep your non-prep stuff straight as well, then they aren't going to work for your preps.

I've been experimenting with a system called bullet journaling for use with keeping track of my preps. It's an old-fashioned, hand-written, pen/pencil and paper analog system. There are a couple of reasons for this.

Hand-Written Notes are Better
Don't believe me? Check out these links:

1. A Learning Secret: Don't Take Notes with a Laptop
2. Take Notes By Hand for Better Long Term Comprehension

"But Evie, those are for college kids. We're adults." Yes, adults that are getting older. And what happens with our memories as we get older, ladies and gents?

I do horribly with trying to keep track of things on anything electronic. I forget what I named my notes, where I put them, and even which electronic devices they're on. Some of our preppers in the Facebook group use Excel; more power to you, guys. This is for those of us trying to reduce our headaches.

They're SHTF-Proof
How many of you have complained about yourself, your loved ones, or your kids being too attached to technology? Hmm? Ah ah, no fibbing!

They're Easy
Once you get the hang of the system, you literally spend ten minutes while drinking your preferred hot beverage of civilized behavior inducement.

I've been doing this since December, and have decided that I will be bullet journaling for a long time.
However, the spreads for keeping track of preps are still an ongoing process of experimentation -- I still haven't found a method that I like best. I'll keep plugging away on it, though, as I do think it's worth the time and effort.

For those of you curious about the bullet journal and would like to learn more:

• BulletJournal.com
• Tiny Ray of Sunshine
• BoHo Berry
• A bullet journal board hosted by OverZealous Mom

Book Review: The Little House Cookbook

Hey all, it's Evie and I'm recovering from a cold -- a nasty little strain that waylaid both myself and my fiancé. DR, being the lovely chap that he is, decided to surprise me with this book after it was clear that I had indeed caught the cold from him. I've had it on my wishlist a for a long time now, and I ended up reading it cover to cover in less than a day.

I grew up with the Little House on the Prairie book series, so having the cookbook in my hands was a huge treat because I was relieving parts of my childhood. If you're a fan of the series like I am, there are bits and pieces of information in this book that will leave you giggling and having "OH!" moments, and the two alternate pretty regularly. Many of the sketches from the original series appear in this book.

http://amzn.to/2iuk5z6

Memories aside, though, this is a great cookbook in of itself. There are recipes in here from the late 1800s that were made during sparse times, and these recipes can be tailored easily for preppers and our pantries.

However, some of the recipes you will most likely never try. Case in point: blackbird pie. None of the North American corvid family may be hunted freely and without season, so you'd likely need to hunt starlings instead, and it takes 12 of them to make this pie. Now while I might be stubborn enough to try that endeavor (remember the duck plucking incident?), most folks are not going to be that hungry, let alone that bored.

Other recipes include homemade sausage, baked spareribs, roasted pig and a recipe for oxtails soup. There are also tips and recipes for fruit drying, fruit jams and jellies, cakes, and even a recipe for ginger water.

So whether you decide to get this cookbook for the sake of a series you grew up reading, are a fan of cookbooks from an era when food had to go further, or just want a good base for starting to build your own recipes, I highly recommend The Little House Cookbook ($15.32 with Prime shipping) -- as well as the rest of the Little House on the Prairie series!

Adventures in Oklahoma

If you will recall, OkieRhio has been talking about our adventure together in Oklahoma. Well, there is at least one story that she can't tell you because she wasn't there for it.

Rhi had gone back to OKC and I was chilling at our campsite by myself for a few days. I decided to go over to the pond and toss a line in for a while, just to relax and pass the time as I had all the camp chores done If I caught something, it was going into the stew pot that day.

After about an hour, I decided to call it quits and head back to grab some delicious, wonderful well water water from the hose. As I was walking back up to the house, I happened to glance over at the calf pen,  and I noticed that Little Red was out and bucking around.

They had four calves at that point in the pen, and I did a head count. Three.

Something was wrong. I charged into the field towards the pen only to find a calf, Erika the Red, was in big trouble.

Somehow she had managed to wedge her head into the gate. Her head was under it, and the full weight of her body was twisted around and sitting on top of the gate. She also wasn't visibly breathing.

My only thought at this point was "Shit. I'm going to have to explain to Jen and Craig why their prize calf has a .45 in the back of her head."

I started tugging on her legs, trying to get her untwisted. When I got her weight off of the gate, she heaved a huge breath and looked at me as if to ask, "All right, human. What now?" 

I was crying at this point, just straight up bawling and talking to her. This was a situation where if she panicked again, she could snap her neck or kick me in the head.

After tugging her into a position where she could breathe easier, I started looking at the gate for where it connected to the fence. Thank the Gods, the owners had only used bailing wire.

Moments later, I was able to disconnect the gate and quickly began sizing up how I needed to move it. I started hauling it up on its side and adjusting Erika's head as I went, trying to untwist her neck enough to where she could slip out.

However, once the pressure from the gate let up, she began bucking and spinning herself in a 360, which caused me to lose my grip on the gate. Then I tucked down and caught the gate with my back
as Erika came crashing down beside me.

She looked at me again. "Now what, genius?"

I extracted myself out from under the gate, and went back to trying to haul it up to where she would be able to work her head out. I got it standing again, and she got to bucking again, but at this point the two of us had managed to get her into a position where she could twist herself free.

One turn, two turns, three turns, and on the fourth turn she managed to get free... and then came down straight onto my left foot. She weighed about 200 - 350 lbs. at that point.

I managed to keep hold of the gate as she got herself clear, and then shoved it over with no small amount of disdain. Then I turned and looked at her. She took several steps away and kept giving me "I meant to get my head stuck." looks. 

"Are you going to let me check you over?"

"Hell no." Ericka the Red became Ericka the Dumb.

I limped my way back over to the ranch house -- maybe 30, 40 yards -- and plopped into a chair with relief. I had managed to keep a prize calf from suffocating to death. Honestly, that's the second worst kind of death after drowning in my book. I didn't have to shoot her to put her out of misery and I would have not felt good about that.

Now, saving Ericka was crucial for the Masseys (the people who own Knight's Rest). This is a $4,500 dollar calf! She is a back-breeding of a Viking Red sire out of a Jersey Dame. and this is a rare breed -- though I'm not entirely sure why,  as they are super milkers. Ericka's sister is 15+ years old and still milking strong on a farm out in California. Assuming Ericka doesn't do anything else stupid, she will be a boon and blessing for the Masseys in about a year.

And my foot? After Craig Massey returns and I explained what happened to him, he invited me in to chill on the couch and ice it. The next day I had no bruises and no broken bones. Ericka had come straight down on me, and if she had been an inch in any other direction, I'd have been calling Renee to come get me and we'd have been sitting in a hospital for a few hours.

And the only scolding I got?

Was for giving myself a hard time over it taking me a minute and a half to figure out how to save Erika.

Yeah, you read that right. I'm still pissed at myself at how long it took.

My story here is an example of how quickly things can go wrong on a farm, and that you have to be willing to get dirty and hurt to save your livestock sometimes. They are your life, and they are your keys to a good future.

Just be sure they don't have half the personality Ericka does.

Knightly Bees and Peckish Perch

This will be my final entry about the camping trip from back in October 2015 that Evelyn and I took out to Knight's Rest here in Oklahoma.

Fishing
The Masseys, who own Knight's Rest, maintain a really nice fishing pond on the property, and it's stocked with perch, bluegill, and various other pan fish and sunfish. This little pond is chronically under-fished, and that's both good and bad:

It's good because it means that the fish who live in that water will bite on practically any lure you happen to toss out -- which means you'll almost always have a big pile of fish to cook up for dinner when you toss in a line.

It's bad because some of those fish think they're starving, and will swallow your entire lure rather than simply hooking themselves! I had to put a fresh hook on my line a couple of times due to over-eager perch swallowing the hook sufficiently that it couldn't be retrieved until we started cleaning them for dinner. This isn't a problem if you have spare hooks and lures (we both had plenty) but potentially a problem for someone in a survival situation where they need more than one fish, and taking the time to gut and clean the first in order to retrieve their only hook could be an issue.

While many of us have fishing gear of various qualities (and quantities!) I was putting the test on a mini rod & reel that I had purchased specifically as part of my survival/prep gear. I wanted something small enough to pack out easily, but sturdy enough I wasn't going to be in constant fear of it breaking at a critical moment, like when I was depending on it for eating vs. going hungry.

What I settled on was this little gem: the Zebco Dock Demon Spincast Combo

http://amzn.to/1WlAJ2w

• Available through Amazon for $16.80, but I picked mine up at Wal-Mart for less than $10.
• Very light, with less than 11 ounces total weight to worry about carrying. 
• Small enough to be easily handled by anyone, even a small child, but not so small that full-sized adults can't use it.
• Sturdy enough that in the several months since I got it, I've managed to land catfish and bass that had a whole lot more fight to them than the perch we were pulling out of the pond.

If you're looking for a really light weight, easy to pack fishing set, this is definitely one to consider.

Cooking them up was a bit of trial and error to top off the adventure of extracting eaten lures. Evelyn decided that roasting sounded like a great idea, and set about building a green limb roasting spit arrangement similar to those used in the 1600s and 1700s by various Native tribes.

It managed to stay together just long enough to finish roasting some of the fish.  The rest went into a stew pot, as being the easier route to take for dinner!

Seasoning
Now Evelyn and I are fairly passable cooks, both in the home kitchen and using a grill or campfire set up. One of the reasons that we manage to eat well is because we both maintain a good selection of herbs, spices, and spice blends to use in our camp cooking, even when what we're eating is fresh fish or a duck we took 2 hours to pluck.

A little bit of seasoning can go a long way towards staving off food boredom, and its resultant lack of desire to eat anything at all. In the field, especially when situations become critical, making sure that you eat enough to keep your strength up -- and that you actually enjoy that food sufficiently that eating doesn't become a chore to be avoided -- is critically important. Good nutrition can mean the difference between seeing tomorrow's sunset and your tribe having to take time out of their survival to bury you.

There are dozens of easy methods of storing small amounts of spices and seasonings in airtight packaging to stash in your gear. Even a 29 cent packet of Ramen is a lot more palatable with a bit of extra spices tossed into the mix while it's boiling. And that plain beef or chicken broth from a cube and hot water actually becomes a passable soup when you throw in a little bit of something other than salt.

Bees! BEEEEEEES!
We were at Knight's Rest just before winter truly set in, and the Bees were busy gathering as much as they could during those final warm days. In the early mornings we could hear the huge wild hive come awake as things began to warm up for the day.

The ever-productive girls from that wild hive were frequent visitors to our camp. Yes, girls; honeybees are female, except for perhaps 6-10 males produced once a year for the sole purpose of mating with the hive queen. They are also surprisingly docile as long as they don't perceive you as a threat to themselves or their hive. Stinging you isn't on the agenda -- it's a death sentence for them -- so simply leaving them alone to do their thing is the best way to deal with them coming into your camp.

Bees are just easy-going working girls, wanting nothing more than to go about their job. I keep telling myself this, because even though I know that it's the case, I'm still rather paranoid about getting stung. That paranoia cost me a bit of pain towards the end of our time at KR.

One poor little bee decided to land and rest. Unfortunately for me, where she wanted to rest was on my face. And then in my hair. And then back to my face. And of course, I made the mistake of trying to brush her away, which knocked her down the back of my shirt - trapping her and agitating her at the same time. The results were not pretty: one dead bee, one panic stricken Rhi, one highly amused Evelyn, and a chuckling Jen Massey, who provided us with a surprisingly effective remedy for the sting.

While most folks consider it a wives' tale, meat tenderizer actually works to take the pain out of a bee sting. A paste made of meat tenderizer and just enough water to turn it into a slightly sticky clump, when applied directly to the area where the sting happened, will feel like a miracle worker within a couple of minutes.

While you might not keep meat tenderizer in your kit for cooking, keeping a small sealed jar of it in your first aid kit as a cheap, effective means of dealing with stings isn't a bad idea.

The Takeaways From Our Adventure
Personally, I learned a lot during that month we spent in the field. I learned just why we in the community seem to harp so often on actually using and maintaining the various skills you have.

Keeping a fire going for days or even weeks at a time isn't easy. Keeping a fire going in adverse weather conditions can be a serious trial of patience, but is even more important than keeping it going while the weather is nice and cooperative. If you don't practice starting and maintaining a fire in all sorts of conditions, along with any other potentially critical skills, you might just find that you've forgotten something important when your life is depending on your knowledge base.

I have a deep-seated appreciation of those who actively choose to raise and grow our food, and I learned that while I "can" live off the land, I like my creature comforts too much to ever actually look forward to a situation where I have no choice but to do so.

• Plucking a bird is time consuming, frustrating, and messy. I'd rather spend $18 on a bird at my local grocery store, buying one that's ready to cook, than spend $10 (or the time to trap/hunt) on a live bird and then 2 hours getting it ready just to begin the cooking. 
• Gardening may sound like a fun hobby, but its also time consuming and labor intensive to grow all your own food, and greatly restricts what is available in your diet to things that will grow in your area. 

Don't ever forget to be thankful for global transportation, groceries that carry produce year round, and the convenience of not having to carefully hoard every spare scrap of food to make it through non growing seasons!

I learned that sometimes an old remedy (meat tenderizer on bee stings) continues to get passed down for generations because it actually works.The science backs it up, and so does empirical data!.

I learned that a determined enough animal will find a way into your supplies, even when you think those supplies are secure. Large enough animals can do a considerable amount of damage, even when they're not "predatory" in nature. So never make the assumption that you've covered all the contingencies.

I learned that a rattlesnake will keep moving after you shoot it, even after its been blown into two pieces. And that I never, ever want to make Evelyn decide that I'm a valid target!

Practice your skills, folks. Even the minor ones you don't think you'll ever need should be practiced regularly. Its no joke -- we weren't in a life or death situation, and we were camped where we had plenty of backup and leeway close to hand if it was needed, but that won't always be the case.

Whatever you happen to do... just make sure to bee prepared!

Crocheting a Basic Brim-Up Hat

"Uh, Evie... you live in Arizona now... a hat pattern? Really?"

Yes, really. Let me tell you something: when you go from May to October, with days averaging 102 degrees in those six months, and then it drops (quite suddenly sometimes) to fifty something degrees... yeah, it's cold in the desert.

Materials

• 1 crochet hook*
• yarn
• a cold head

* You don't need a particular size hook (though I wouldn't recommend anything smaller than an F5 or 3.75 mm hook), but be sure your yarn is a size that works with whatever hook size you do use.  For this particular post, you'll see me using a size G9 (4.00mm) and Caron Super Saver.

Directions

Step 1
Measure the head that this hat is meant for. (Should you wish to use the pattern for for charitable donation or homeless populations, as a general rule of thumb a size small is roughly 22", medium 24", large 26", etc.) For this particular hat we'll go with my head, which is 21 and one-half inches around.

Yes, I have a small head.  Shush.

You can chain stitch the foundation row, but I've found that using something called a single crochet foundation (see this how-to video for more information) works really well. Stitch until you get the length you need, then slip stitch join your row. Double check to make sure you haven't twisted it.

So in crochet speak, row 1 ended up being 85 stitches. Slip stitch to join, do not turn.

3 inches wide.

Step 2 (aka Row 2)
Use a piece of scrap yarn or a stitch marker to mark three stitches to the left of your join. This will make the brim process much easier later in this pattern.

I want to make my brim about 3" wide, so I will single crochet around until I have this width.

In crochet speak, this translates to rows 2 through 10.

Step 3/Row 11

Step 3/Row 11
Move your stitch marker to the top of your piece. At this point you are switching to a half double crochet stitch. For this row only, you are doing the stitch in the back loop only of the previous row.

Step 4/Rows 12- 17
Go back to crocheting through both loops, half double crochet. Don't slip stitch join when you come around to your stitch marker, just keep cruising on through until you are at the end of row 17.

Step 5, row 18

Step 5/Row 18
At this row, you are going to fold the piece in half, with the row where you crocheted into the back loop only being your seam at the bottom. You move that stitch marker up every row completed now. You're still doing half double crochet, but at this row, you're forming the brim. Crochet through your previous row and the edge, so four loops, two sets of edges. Crochet all around until the end of row 18.

Step 6
Try the hat on and pull it down to where you want it to sit on your ears. Measure from the top of what is done so far to the crown (top) of your head. In this particular instance with my head as the example, that's 5 inches.

Step 7/Rows 19- 24
These are the rows you do until it's time to start decreasing, which when measured will be 3 inches.

Start of Row 25, step 7

Step 8/Row 25
This is where you start decreasing. At 85 stitches, you are going to be decreasing every 5th stitch.

Step 9/Row 26
Decrease every 4th stitch.

Step 10/Row 27
Decrease every 3rd stitch.

Step 11/Row 28
Decrease every second stitch.

Step 12/Row 29
Decrease every third stitch again.

Step 13/Row 30
Decrease every second stitch.

Step 14/Row 31
Decrease every stitch.

Step 15, finishing off
Slip stitch into the next stitch. Chain 2, cut thread, pull tight. Thread a large needle or yarn needle and weave through the stitches. Pull the needle through to the inside of the hat and pull tight. Lace the tail through an inside loop and tie into a square note. Cut the excess.

Step 15, Finishing off. 

Step 16 
Plant hat on head it was made for.

And yes, I was typing this post up as I made this hat, to make sure I was getting my step counts right.

Stay toasty, my friends.

Horses and Cattle and Snakes, Oh My!

During the month of October 2015, Evelyn and I had a bit of a sabbatical out at Knights Rest here in central Oklahoma. This is a continuation of some of the things we learned during that month long camping trip and prepping hide away.

We talk a lot in preparedness circles about Situational Awareness. We talk about how important it is to be aware of our surroundings, and what things within our area can potentially damage us. However, we don't spend much time and effort discussing situational awareness in the context of something bad happening to our gear, or what our plans are if Something Bad happens and leaves us whole and hale, but destroys something critical to our continued comfort or well-being.

Twice during our trip, lack of situational awareness got the better of us. The first time, it cost us convenience and gear, and in the long run it cost Evelyn money replacing that gear. The second time, it could easily have cost one of us our life if we hadn't been lucky.

Animals
The horses, dairy cattle, and sheep that are part of Knight's Rest have free roam of the entire 166 acres that it rests on. This is only fair, since it's their home, and grazing is a much more economical means of feeding ruminants than supplying endless amounts of hay. They don't typically wander into camp, preferring to stay in the "unoccupied" areas of the farm. At least, they don't usually wander into camp while people are there. This doesn't mean that they can't, or that they won't -- just that they usually don't.

The Anatolian Shepherd farm dogs are a completely different story: they'll stick around camp if you're there, because you might give them treats! Or if you forget to put away the pound of bacon that you intended to cook for breakfast, and leave it laying on top of your camp kitchen table like a doofus (don't ask).

Animal Incident #1

So just what happens when you leave camp for a couple of days, thinking everything is secure? Well, if you're lucky, nothing at all happens, and you arrive back at camp two days later and everything is just how you left it.

If you are not so lucky, you come back to camp to find that a 2500 pound horse with feet the size of a dinner plate has decided to walk through the middle of your camp -- and the middle of your tent! KR's horses are beautiful Shires and Shire/Arabian blends, which means they're draft animals. They're only slightly smaller than the Budweiser Clydesdales, in fact, and can easily stand as much as 6 1/2 feet tall at the shoulder -- and those are the dainty examples.

This was the resulting damage to the tent poles: a 90 degree bend in a place that isn't supposed to bend at all!

Both poles for Evelyn's original tent had a bend like that in it. While it was a nice little tent, and set up easy, and didn't weigh her down much, it could not withstand having a full size draft horse decide to walk across the space where it had been set up. Needless to say, that was one completely trashed tent.

We were fortunate because nothing inside the tent was seriously damaged. A lot of it (practically everything, in fact) was soaking wet, because it had rained after the tent got stepped on, but otherwise everything inside was undamaged.

Lesson Learned: Don't think that the relatively domesticated animals in your vicinity won't suddenly decide to come investigate you and your stuff. They probably will. Be aware of the relative sizes of those animals, and how much unintentional damage they can do in their fits of curiosity about this newcomer to their domain.

Animal Incident #2
October is one of those times of year in Oklahoma when the weather isn't cold enough to be considered "winter" yet (but it's closing in) and it's no longer really hot enough to still be considered "summer" (even though the temperatures can still reach the mid 80s on any given afternoon).

One thing is certain about what passes for Autumn in this area: many animals are looking for a warm place to hole up in and sleep through til spring. And when I say animals, I also mean the slithery kind, like snakes and frogs and lizards.

While we don't have many snakes here that are envenomed in a manner that is dangerous to humanity, we do have a few, most notably rattlesnakes of several sub-species. This includes pygmy rattlesnakes, which seem to have a Napoleon Complex, territorial aggressiveness, and the bad attitude you would expect from a grizzly bear with a toothache.

Rattlesnakes love warmth. They don't move well when it starts getting colder, and will look for places to curl up where it's sunny and warm and comfortable. The piles of collected pine duff -- the fallen needles, etc that are scattered around in any given pine grove -- seem to be just the sort of thing that they're looking for, because of their high insulation value.

Our camp was in a clearing of a pine grove. Originally planted as a potential Christmas Tree farm project, it was allowed to grow wild when the project was scrapped, and natural clearings and glades were allowed to develop. One of these natural clearings is where I've chosen to make the Valeda's Grove (Wise Woman's Grove, for those unfamiliar with Viking and Norse usage) that is "my" permanent camping spot out at Knight's Rest.

One of those sunny, warm, and comfortably-insulated spots created by fallen pine needles is about two feet off the path into camp. The trees form a bit of a natural arch leading into the clearing, and naturally funnel the flow of traffic in the area. One afternoon while we were out and about, one of those pygmy rattlesnakes decided to take up residence in the pine duff at the entrance to camp, two feet away from where we walked several times a day.

Neither of us initially noticed the pygmy rattlesnake when we got back to camp. That's right, neither of the two women -- both armed, both relatively well-trained in looking after themselves, both familiar with camping and the various potential dangers that it can encompass -- noticed the venomous snake lying curled up and napping two feet from where they were walking.

What alerted us to the danger (and pygmies ARE dangerous!) was one of the farm dogs alerting to the snake and us wandering over to investigate what had caught the dog's attention.

Lesson learned: I learned several valuable lessons that day.

• I am still utterly terrified of snakes, even if I am armed, unless they are safely ensconced behind inch-thick glass at the Zoo.
• A .45 caliber bullet, placed correctly, will effectively rip a pygmy rattlesnake in half -- and it's rather satisfying in a strange, visceral way, to watch that happen.
• Even when it has been ripped in half by a .45 round, a rattlesnake will continue to move for a while, and will look like it's still attempting to strike. 
• When in doubt about whether the snake is dead yet, beating it repeatedly with a BIG stick makes a satisfying thunk. 
• A rattlesnake can only strike at things within a distance of approximately half its body length. 
• I'm too much of a coward to get close enough to figure out how long a snake is in order to determine a safe distance. 
• Always make sure you check the sides of the trail that you're walking, even (or perhaps especially) the trail into camp, to make certain you aren't missing something critical that could kill you. 
• Evelyn is a good shot, and it's not wise to piss her off! She can hit a pygmy rattlesnake that's moving and attempting to strike (even though we were out of range) without flinching.

(Editor's Note: My mother was bitten by a pygmy rattlesnake in 2013. If you want to see pictures of the snake and the bite, go here.)