Hard Core Truth About Prepping

When you are preparing, there is a HUGE difference between what you think you might use or what you are TOLD you need to buy & actually storing what you use. I am challenging you to face some hard core truths about prepping.

Almost three years ago I started simply sharing my journey. Those who have followed from the beginning can attest that I have really come a long way. The most exciting thing is during that short time we made the decision to buy new property for cash, sell the home we have lived in for twenty years and will be debt free when that happens. We have made unique decisions to divest ourselves of being dependent on the economy as much as possible at this point.
But with the move, I have learned some major lessons about prepping & the mistakes I made. I am planning to write more about this when we get better settled. Perky Prepping Gramma is about to get more hard core. I have always said I am just sharing my journey of a newbie prepper. Well this newbie prepper thought I was following sound advice, but I am singing a whole new tune. You see, I am actually throwing away money that I tied up in items what I now consider non-essential or worthless for our prepping. I am not going to make a list of things you need to buy to be prepared, but by sharing my continuing journey I hope you are able to discern what you and your family actually need to prepare for YOUR life.

Hardcore Truth About Prepping: The first thing I will share is if you aren't using what you are storing, I honestly feel that you are setting yourself up for some serious heartache and failure if the S were to really HTF. It's time to face the reality. Whether you are preparing for a financial crash of the economy or an EMP, it's time to be honest with yourself. Are you serious or a player?

I want to share a blog post from Just Plain Marie. This is her assessment of her food storage goals & the reality of her usage for this past year. Since she is living the life mostly off grid already, you will note the a completely different approach than what you hear being preached on most prepper websites. The further I prepare, the fewer people I actually follow, because I get bored with those that are simply writing stuff vs. those that actually are doing the work. Marie, is actually doing the work. You may have noted I reviewed her cookbook "A Cabin Full of Food" last month.

My commitment to you as always, I will share what & why I am doing things. Plus, I will only recommend books & tools that I and using.
Honestly, just following me on facebook isn't the best way to get the information. Trust me you are missing things if you passively wait for something to show up in our news feed. If you are committed to preparing for your family, I am highly recommending that you sign up to follow the blog posts, at the top right hand corner of this page.

But it is your choice.

Articles  to Read & Tools I Highly Recommend Owning:
These are tools that I strongly believe each serious prepper should work towards owning. If you are doing the work, these will be invaluable to your journey.

How To Use Your FoodSaver: Plus 4 Great Tips
Tips & Mistake to Avoid When Purchasing a Pressure Canner
Dehydrator: Big or Little?

I participate in the Amazon Associate program, where I receive a small % commission for linking products that I recommend. I only recommend products I personally used and like. Your support is very appreciated, anything you choose to purchase through my link, is helping me to be able to share more things that I do with you. Perky Gramma Teaches Amazon link.

“Home, Debt-Free, Home” Chapter 4 “The First BIG HONKING, SCARY STEP”

“Home, Debt-Free, Home”

Chapter 4 

“The First Big Honking, 

Scary Step”

This is the one step that was the absolute scariest, but it was based on the firm belief that we are riding another financial bubble that WILL burst sometime.

Do you remember the financial crash in 2008? Things got really tough in 2008. Thankfully we have never been without a job for more than a few weeks, so we managed to survive. Still like millions of people we lost heavily on our retirement accounts, my stock and the value of our house. This was a light bulb moment for us, the realization that the lie of a fiat financial system was not sustainable. After reading the book “Aftershock” by David Wiedemer & Robert A. Wiedemer, we started to make our plan. Again I need to state that while I appreciate this book's explanation of how and why the system isn't working, I don't think that their answer is a valid solution for us. Our decisions have been based on creating a self-sustainable home and lifestyle that is no longer dependent upon the economy.

The powers that be, do everything they can to control inflation by artificially bolstering the economy. But let me ask a couple questions. Do you feel financially secure at this time? Or do you feel you are still struggling to make ends meet?

This is where the rubber meets the road...in the first challenge I asked “What is it you really want and what are you willing to do to attain it?”

We took the financial and tax hit &

withdrew EVERYTHING 

from our retirement accounts.

We cashed the checks and took the cash out of our accounts. Now mind you, at this point we had our plan of action ready to find another home that was less expensive, in an area where the cost of living was far less expensive & we were prepared to downsize our life. We had talked extensively about our plan and I had prayed a lot about our decision. We decided that we firmly believe that the financial system is going to crash again, no matter what false stop-gap measures the government employs. If you have been watching what is going on around the world, there are states that are bankrupt and other governments that have collapsed. I am not trying to created fear, I am just sharing what I see happening.

Again, I am not a financial adviser, we are just two simple people who are opting out of the bleak economy picture and establishing a debt-free lifestyle. Don't jump & make this particularly move now. You need to thoughtfully come up with a plan. But, I can tell you that this “big, honking scary step” enabled us to prepare to buy our new home for cold hard cash that we own, not the bank.

We just made the choice to do whatever it takes to be in control of our financial future & made a plan and followed the plan.

"Home, Debt-Free, Home"
Previous Chapters:

Chapter 1: You Must Be Rich

CHALLENGE: What is it you really want and what are you willing to do to attain it?.

LESSON: A Beanie Baby is Not A Need

Chapter 2: Soul Crushing Debt

Chapter 3: 4 Keys to Find Cash and Make Your Money Work for You.

Chapter 4: “The First BIG HONKING, SCARY STEP”

I participate in the Amazon Associate program, where I receive a small % commission for linking products that I recommend. I only recommend products I personally used and like. Your support is very appreciated, anything you choose to purchase through my link, is helping me to be able to share more things that I do with you. Perky Gramma Teaches Amazon link.

OMGoodness! The Very Best Blueberry Juice Ever!

My life has been changed! Seriously, the difference from how I was making blueberry juice before and using a juicer/steamer is like night & day. 
In July 2015 I got to make blueberry juice with a juicer/steamer for the first time. First, I am always looking at equipment that functions without electricity. A juicer/steamer may appear to be a fairly high priced piece of equipment but in my opinion the return value is very high.
This week I did blueberry juice, since I have a lot of blueberries. But basically you may use this to steam many fruit and vegetables, a much needed source of nutrition and a way to use excess produce at the end of the growing season. I think about those days when the S may HTF and seriously will be thankful I have this tool.
Also those who like to make jelly this is a highly efficient method of extracting various juices for making jellies. Mr. Perky may be doing this later this year.

Next the product description from Amazon: "With a 11-quart capacity, this juicer steamer offers plenty of room for high-volume juicing, Simply add fresh fruit in the top container, fill the bottom container with water, and bring to a boil on the stove top. The resulting steam gently extracts the juice, which drips into the center pan where it can be collected from the surgical-quality tube. Drink the vitamin-rich juice fresh, or save it for making jelly or syrup. Without the center pan and tube, the juicer steamer can also be used to steam vegetables on the stove top. Ruggedly built, the juicer steamer features gleaming stainless-steel construction with a bottom that consists of a layer of aluminum sandwiched between two layers of stainless steel for fast, even heat distribution. Side loop handles on each of the three vessels help ensure safe, secure transport, and its secure-fitting lid with a loop handle helps keep in heat, moisture, and nutrients. Instructions and a recipe book come included."
This is what it looks like:

     







Here is how simple it is: set the base on the stove, added water, placed the collection pan & strainer basket on top. Note the hose is clamped to the top part of the juicer. Then added 2 gallons (16 pints) of blueberries inside. Next we added to lid.

Then heat the steamer to a gentle boil. The book said to boil for 60 minutes.  

This part is a little tricky, but take your time and you will be fine. You unclamp the hose (using hotpads and a bowl, because the liquid is VERY hot) and allow the juice to pour into a canning jar. When the jar is full add a clean new lid and ring. 

Then we used a boiling water bath, with a rack (25 mins) to seal the canning jars.

TIP: There is not a lot of flavor in the leftover mush. I package it up for my chickens, it's one of their favorite treats. Also you could simply add it to your compost container. I have to tell this juice is amazing! It's perfect for getting great juice for making jelly. There is a lot of other things you are able to do with the juicer/steamer including blanching vegetables. I am so happy I found out how easy this was to do. 

            

I only recommend products I personally used and like. Your support is very appreciated, anything you choose to purchase through my link, is helping me to be able to share more things that I do with you. Perky Prepping Gramma's Amazon link.

Perky Prepping Gramma is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. 

What I do here is simply share our preparedness journey. We would love it if you joined our Perky Prepping Gramma community on Facebook.

Chatting and Pressure Canning Green Beens

A long time ago a dear friend told me that when women's hands are busy they share their hearts. I find that to be very true. One of my favorite things to do is go over to my friends house. This last weekend she had picked a boat load of green beans and we pressure canned them on Saturday.
Along with her teen aged daughter we spent the day snapping, canning and chatting.  
These days people are so wrapped up in their electronic devices & running to and fro that sometimes we forget to actually engage in life. That is just ones of the reasons I continue to do what I do...
Very few simply take the time to be with each other. 
It's actually kind of interesting because she is the person who taught me how to pressure can, I forced her to learn how to can meats and now she was asking me questions through out the process. 

Pressure canning green beans is really very simple. Sorry I didn't get a lot of pictures this time. This time we used hot pack (using hot water to fill the jars for canning).
1) First you snap the ends of the beans and break them into smaller pieces. Rinse the beans well. 
2) Have your clean jars, lids and rings ready.
3) We added the green beans, pushing them in well and added hot water, leaving about 1/2" head space (or room) at the top of the jar.
4) Wiped the top of the jar to make sure it was clean. Then added a new, clean
lid and ring to the jar.
Here we are mid-process. Note the clean jars up front ready to be filled. The filling station is towards the right. The filled jars (with hot water) are sitting ready to pop in the pressure canner. We were doing 7 quarts at a time. Oh and those are pickles fermenting on the right.

NOTE: You need to pressure can green beans if you are canning they from the garden because of the acidity level.
5) We pressure canned the beans at 11# of pressure for 25 minutes.
We were using this great Ball Canning magazine for our instructions and timing. Look at the quaint, retro pictures.

6) Afterwards we let the canner cool down and when the pressure was at zero, we opened the canner, pulled out the jars and listened to them "ping"! That is the favorite sound for a canner.
In the end we had 24 quarts of green beans done and had solved most of life's problem. I hope you have a canning friend like I do. Us being goofy!

BTW, the picture of the well isn't crooked, the old well is. Anyway that is one of things I did this last weekend. What did you do?
Things we used this weekend.

           

I participate in the Amazon Associate program, where I receive a small % commission for linking products that I recommend. I only recommend products I personally used and like. Your support is very appreciated, anything you choose to purchase through my link, is helping me to be able to share more things that I do with you. Perky Gramma Teaches Amazon link,

4 TIPS: Freezing Blueberries

I know that freezing blueberries seems very simplistic. Here a few nifty tips on freezing your blueberries.

Freezing Blueberries:

We love having blueberries all year, so we actually freeze a lot of them for our own use. Personally I find that freezing high quality blueberries is well worth it when they are in season instead of using blueberries from the grocery store.
TIP: Do not wash the blueberries before freezing this will cause them to freeze together. Remember the berries I get are grown without chemicals, pesticides or herbicides. If you are unsure about the growing conditions of your blueberries and feel that you need to wash them, then make sure you pat them dry before freezing. It you pack them dry, they will roll out easily from the freezer bags.

Place dry, unwashed, and unsweetened berries in freezing containers or plastic bags. Seal and freeze. The berries will freeze individually and pour out like marbles. Keep frozen until ready to use.
I am finally getting some to time to sit and tell you what I did last weekend. Last week I spent some time unpacking 120 pints of blueberries and repacking them in gallon zip-lock freezer bags. TIP: Eight pints will fit into a gallon bag.
Another great TIP: I had two large pots that I stuffed the freezer bags in when I was filling them. That way it had more of a flat bottom to allow me not to have to use my hands to hold the bag open as I poured and the few berries that missed went into the pot instead of rolling all over my porch. Though a few berries still escaped. 

This week I added 20 gallons of blueberries to my freezer!

Then you know me, I made up little packages with coffee and a pint of blueberries and a card from Gold Hill Blueberry Farm to give to my new neighbors and an electrician that came out to the farm to run electricity to our new garage. One, I do whatever I am able to do to promote my friend's business, in fact I admin on their page to help them out. 

Two, I have been a little surprised that the neighbors (well one has) haven't made the effort to introduce themselves. So, I am reaching out to them. I will do everything in my power to create community where I live!

One last TIP: Do not thaw your frozen blueberries when you are going to bake with them. Always add them frozen so they will not "bleed" in your baked goods.

Just a Word of Thanks:

I participate in the Amazon Associate program, where I receive a small % commission for linking products that i recommend. I only recommend products I personally used and like. Your support is very appreciated, Anything you choose to purchase through my link, is helping me to be able to share more things that I do with you. Perky Gramma Teaches Amazon link.

How to Freeze Blueberries...

Freezing Blueberries:

We love having blueberries all year, so we actually freeze a lot of them for our own use. Here a a few nifty tips on freezing your blueberries.
Do not wash the blueberries before freezing, otherwise they will freeze together.

Place dry, unwashed, and unsweetened berries in freezing containers or plastic bags. Seal and freeze. The berries will freeze individually and pour out like marbles. Keep frozen until ready to use.

Do not thaw your frozen blueberries when you are going to bake with them. Always add them frozen so they will not "bleed" in your baked goods.


I participate in the Amazon Associates program, where I receive a very small commission for products that I recommend. I only recommend products that I have personally used and like. Your support costs you nothing extra, in fact anything you purchase through my Perky Gramma Amazon Associates link helps me to be able to stay home and blog for you. Words can not begin to express how much I appreciate your help. Thank you!

How to BWB Beautiful Blueberries in Simple Syrup...

Mr. Perky brought home a flat & 1/2 of fresh blueberries home from "Gold Hill Blueberry Farm" on Friday. If you live in Virginia or (northern) North Carolina this is an awesome place to pick up fresh PYO blueberries & raspberries. You are able to find them on Facebook.

They don't use any chemicals or pesticides on their plants.

What is a girls to do with ALL these berries? 

Thankfully fellow blogger posted a recipe. Who sadly isn't posting any more. 

Strange as it may seems, I am less comfortable with water bathing. I have only done a few batches.  I BWB 8 pints of fresh blueberries in simple syrup on Sunday.

It was very easy! These are her instructions fro simple syrup: which are still available online: Berries are Beautiful.

First, make a light simple syrup with 5 3/4 cups water to 1 3/4 cups sugar

Simmer until the sugar is melted.

Add 1/2 cup of the simple syrup into each clean sterilized jar.

 Add berries (leaving 1/2" head space). Release the air bubbles. :)

Add more simple syrup to fill jars, maintaining 1/2 head space.

Wipe the rims...

Look how awesome they look!

Add sterilized lids & rings.

Place them in you canner. I used my pressure canner, BUT didn't pressure can them. you bring the water up to boiling then BWB pints for 15 minutes & quarts for 20 minutes.

 It was very simple! I was excited to see how beautiful they turned out.

After this I purchased a Boiling Water Bath Canner. I have been friends with Gold Hill Blueberry Farm for about 20 years. If you would like to learn more vintage skills like this, please feel free to join our community at Perky Prepping Gramma on Facebook.

    

I participate in the Amazon Associate program, where I receive a small % commission for linking products that I recommend. I only recommend products I personally used and like. Your support is very appreciated, anything you choose to purchase through my link, is helping me to be able to share more things that I do with you. Perky Gramma Teaches Amazon link.

"A Cabin Full of Food" Cookbook Review: 5 Stars

"A Cabin Full of Food" Cookbook Review: 5 Stars

Generally I don't buy cookbooks, because I am more of a cook with what I have on hand type of gal. There are just a few bloggers that I really like, my criteria is that they actually are living what that talk about. "Just Plain Marie" is one of these people.  What first drew me to Marie Beausoleil's cookbook was her “What to Expect” & “What Not to Expect” pages. 
Here is a picture I took of the "What Not to Expect" page, shared with Marie's express permission. 

She lives on an off-grid homestead and everything she says is simple & plain. Just reading these pages on the "Look At" feature on Amazon convinced me to order the cookbook.

Then the recipes. The recipes Marie shares focus “heavily on foods that can be grown, raised or made at home. Other recipes then refer to these basic ingredients.”

As she states “This is not a 'Go Shopping' cookbook.”

There are almost 1,000 recipes that are geared towards off-grid cooking scenarios that can be made without electric appliances. That cinched it for me.

The “A Cabin Full of Food” cookbook arrived on Friday and was sitting on or porch when we came home from the farm.

Just before we left Mr. Perky was cutting up some apricots we had on hand, vacuum sealed them and threw them in the freezer. His only venture into caning is jam & he was talking about making apricot jam. First thing I looked for when I opened the cookbook was an apricot jam recipe. Sure enough there it was on page 248 and the instructions were so simple.

These recipes were gleaned from many people who shared handwritten family treasures and old cookbooks with Marie's sweet comments embroidered about. There are also Old Order Mennonite recipes.

The categories are unique & simple:

• Make Your Own: things like Home Made Hot Chocolate
• Herb & Spices: such as Herb Vinegar Infusions
• Grains: two examples are Shoofly Pie & Four Types of Scones
• Vegetables: Mashed Potato Biscuits
• Dairy & Eggs: including Master Sauces.
• Dairy: I want to try the Baked Butterscotch Pudding
• Legumes: how about Canning Baked Beans
• Trees & Fruit: I know I will like the Blueberry Juice Concentrate. Blueberries are in season and I did this last year.
• Meat: I definitely want to try the Rabbit Casserole.

As prepared people our larders should have basics spices and ingredients by now. This book caters to the type of cooking we should be practicing, from scratch, with our fresh and stored foods.

Bonus: Marie also added a seasonal calendar of things to be preparing for and doing on a homestead.

You can also take a peek through the link below, at the huge list of recipes with the “Look At” feature on Amazon. 

I am already turning down page corners of recipes I want to try. This is a book that I highly recommend and I believe it will fast become a classic must-have prepping cookbook.

I hope you enjoyed this post and I encourage you to join our growing community at Perky Pepping Gramma on Facebook. Also, if you would like to follow Marie on Facebook, her page is Just Plain Marie (2307). I participate in the Amazon Associate program, where I receive a small referral commission for products that I recommend. But, I will tell you I only recommend items that I own and use. Below are just a few more products that I use that work well for grid-down living. Thank you for our support!

      

A Gal is Able to Dream, Right?

There is always so much going on in my mind & heart that doesn't get said because I am working or writing. But, today I thought I would share some dreams that our conversations center around during our down time. 
I was a youth counselor for middle school aged kids for over 18 years. Youth group, camp counselor and camp director. I adore middle school aged youth. They are so cool & full of life. Sure they bounce, but so do I. Mr. Perky and I have talked about adopting or fostering an older child. I have always had a heart for older children in the system, for it's rare for people to want an older child.
Most importantly it bothers me when these young people age out of the system and don't have a home to call their own. I have a home, a good home that needs to be shared.

I know there are all sorts of issues that can arise, but I believe we are thoughtful enough to deal with even those complicated cases

I don't know if we could even qualify to adopt or foster because of our age, but it is something we want to investigate.

The other thing that has been rumbling around in my brain is wanting to have the farm become a small business & my capability to do the work. The heart is willing, but I have to be realistic. So I started thinking about being able to maybe provide gainful employment for people, but specifically for those with special capabilities.

Then I heard about Cape Abilities Farm.

“We are proud that through our services, people with disabilities to live meaningful and active lives in their own towns across Cape Cod.”

What an awesome idea! Fits right in with what I was thinking.
I honestly don't know if all this will happen, I don't know it's leading, but it's something 

I really want to investigate. A gal can dream right? 

Picanha and blueberries...

Being Prepared has Helped.
The new place is not unpacked, yet most of our stuff is there. Our dogs are adapting to our makeshift living room. Here they are kicking it with the footstool make from a packed box & blanket.

We had friends over for our first dinner at our house for the 4th of July. They arrived on their hog. 

First we got settled in and then went blueberry picking on some other friends farm. We got about 4 lbs. 

They cooked picanha on the grill. Picanha is a cut of meat that is prized in Brazil and I have to tell you that picanha is absolutely my favorite cut of meat.  I was going to take pictures. But I forgot, because by then I had a caipirinha. They friends are Brazilian, in case you haven't figured that out.

This is where the fun began, because we forgot to pack some need items to make dinner and utensils to eat with. Thankful most of our preps are at the new house so I was able to find, salt, sugar, back up utensils, plates and each of us had a knife on hand.
Also I had the FoodSaver there to vacuum seal up the extras. 

Settlement for selling our old house is getting closer. Probably the beginning of August. Then I am taking a month off from work to start putting our homestead in order, write, share and decide if I am going back to being a barista. We will be thirty minutes from a good sized town. While we will be out of debt, we will still need some additional income coming. We are hoping to get a hoop house set up & a chicken coop. Next year we want to be able to start selling some produce & eggs. 

Most know I have started Perky Gramma Teaches; another blog and Perky Gramma Teaches Facebook page. This will focus more on self-sufficiency and the farm. I started writing a series of posts entitled "Home, Debt-Free Home", which I am sharing how we achieved our goal of getting out of debt. I want to be able to explain this concept to people who don't get the concept of preparing.
I will sometimes post from my teaching site to my pepping site, but not the other way around.

Perky Prepping Gramma will continue. There are still too many people that need to learn the basics of preparing.  

I participate in the Amazon Associates program with Perky Prepping Gramma's Store. I receive a small commission when people purchase items I suggest or shop through my link on Amazon. This is just a way you are able to help me be able to continue to blog for you from home. As always, I only recommend products that I like and use.