PrepperMoms Return

I just wanted to let everyone know I am back after an unexpected absence. Sorry I just up an disappeared , PrepperMom is Now a Single PrepperMom LOL
But I was was prepared so The damage was minimal. LOL

I am no longer in IA and do not feel right about being the IA mod. I am temporarily located in MO now and rebuilding again.
Just wanted to update and apologize to everyone that I disappeared so long.

Pepper

12 Things Live You Will Need to Live Comfortably While Houseless

Having lived in the woods , and houseless for quite a few years before I had offspring I know about what you DO need , and what you DON't need to live happily in an offgrid houseless situation.

Here is what you NEED -

• Bandannas (Washcloth , napkin , snot rag , TP , Easy Bag for berries or herbs , a quick shirt (two knotted together) , loincloth , head cover , mask , to tie things together , slingshot.
• Para cord / Rope - Because there is never a lacking of uses
•  Mid-Sized Pocket Knife - Food Prep , Splinter removal , Fishing , Making fishing lures (from twigs) balance , boredom relief.
• Tarp - Blanket , shelter , cover , rug , backpack (roll up all your gear in it) , water collection.
• Wide Mouth Metal Water bottle/ cup / bowl (Preferably w/ sealable top)  - obviously water , herb/fruit gathering , holding bait , transporting small animals , Food Prep
• Sewing Kit - Clothing , tent , tarp , or human repair. A Few peices of Duck Tape wrapped around the case can come in handy as well.
• Magnesium Carbide fire starter - with this and your pocket knife you will always have a fire source.
• 6 Combiners - The real ones not the pocket ones. These are invaluable and will handle rough usage , air cacheing , dog leashing , shelter construction. You could do with 5 , but 6 is better. Also cab be used for fishing (hold line) and creating handing bed from tarp & rope / cord.
• Tea Tree Oil - Stinks to High Heaven , but it keeps critters away. Mosquito's  , parasites , disinfects etc. 
• A Sturdy hand sized candle - Because you never know when you will need to go answer natures call.
• A pouch of tobacco - you would be amazed how much a person is willing to trade for a cigarette. Even if you dont smoke , this is valuable.
• A Salt shaker / Bottle of Hot Sauce - You never know what your gonna have to eat , bit be prepared for it. Also of great barter value.

Things I learned from Long Term Camping

Things I learned from Long Term Camping

• Snails can CEMENT themselves to nearly anything , and Often they will do it in the least expected places.
• You MUST make peace with the giant spiders , They eat mosquito's.
• Raccoons have no respect for personal property.
• If you fall asleep in in the open don't be surprised if you wake up with wildlife curled up w/ you.
• Nothing Shiny is ever safe in the open if from raccoons.
• Armadillos like to lick plastic & exposed toes.
• Make peace with skunks or your life will stink. (litterally)
• Always look where your taking a squat (answering natures call) at least 3 times before going.
• Make sure you know what bull thistle look like.
• Dont allow people to throw cigarettes in the latrines.
• Cedars smoke may be hard to live with , but mosquitos are much harder to deal with.
• Dont Camp by a still waters.
• Clear the Area where you put your tent well , rocks , briars and twigs just dont dissapear because you put a tarp over it.
• Racoons will chew through things they can not open easily.
• Its easier to appease the racoon than keep buying new things.
• Shake your clothes well before putting them on.
• Don't trust itchy headed travelers to stay in your tent.
• Wet Tobacco makes fire ant stings stop hurting
• You may not react to the first , second or 100th fire ant bite , but someday YOU will and get huge welts from it.
• Dont camp anywhere near fire ants.
• No matter how awesome that spot in a valley looks , and no matter how much your significant other likes it , dont camp there , water ALWAYS goes to the valley.
• Do not attempt to burn American literature books  , it wont work.
• Raccoons can  chew through  sterilite containers.
• You can not protect your valuable from raccoons unless you half bury a box on the ground and set a small boulder boulder over it.
• Dont piss off Blue Jays , they remember and have no inhibition in attacking you.
• ALWAYS I reapeat ALWAYS Check your shoes before putting them on.

My Garden Experience / Style

                                  

     I wanted to tell you about my experience gardening. First and foremost, my garden is the front of my major prepping. It really is. I know tons of people buy survival seeds, but do they really even know how to grow them if their life depended on it?

     I was more of an Art person, and what little experience I had with plants wasn’t exactly successful (being houseplants). Growing up my grandmother had raised me and my brother outta the ground. We depended on a garden and on the chickens for all of our food. I had seen plants, I had seen how they grew and how to tend them, but I had avoided it for years because I did not want to responsible for the massive plant massacres that I thought would occur. Then one year when all I had was a tent in the woods a friend brought me some seeds he had scavenged out of a rubbish bin. There was nothing wrong with them, they were from the season before, and I guess someone just threw them away, he asked me if I would grow them, seeing he said, that I was a nature child. I said I didn’t know how to grow anything, so he said, you just rake the soil spread the seed, water every once in a while and wait. 

Seemed simple enough to me. So that’s what I did, and less than half a season I was pulling in food left and right. It was good, so I did that for years afterwards, sometimes hiding vegetable plants where I didn’t think anyone would notice them. Onions in the park, a pepper plant at the arboretum, arugala by the library. No one would know, and the world would be my buffet. 

I only had one landscaper ever notice my addition, and a I soon found that he chose kale for the winter season and ornamental cabbages, he was also nice enough to tell me before they would be ripped out, so that I might take them home and eat them. 

It was quirky, but it worked for me. Latter on after I had come in from the wild, and settled, I grew herbs and salads in my apartment in hanging baskets, and I set up a micro farm in my 110 Square foot yard. Using Tupperware storage boxes for tomatoes peppers and onions and such. 

My neighbors were a bit wary at first, but then everyone admires the plants, the truly colorful addition in a mostly barren landscape. 

Then we got our house, we didn’t move in till July, so we were a bit late in the season, I had seed started late, and we waited. We had 4 acres, but we only planned to use a bit of it. We actually cut up the sod by hand, clearing the ground, and we set the plants in. 

About PrepperMom

So I thought I should probably tell you a bit about myself.
I am a 28 year old mother of 2  young toddlers and wife of 1 wonderful educator.
Before I had my first child I lived "in-the-wild" in the heart of central texas for quite a few years.

I loved camping , and having been raised in a backwoods of appalachia , I did it well.
When I had my first child my inner prepper just kicked in  , I was bringing a child into the world I needed to know how to be self sufficient. Not just everyday disaster preparedness  , but also the self sufficiency skills in a large scale event. Being a single - self employed  mother of a very small child I had many hours to read and study and put in practice everything that lay ahead of me. 2 weeks after I gave birth to my son , I experienced my first unplanned scenario. Texas experienced a minor Ice storm , and my apartment complex lost all electricity.

Having a newborn baby in an unheated apartment was panic inducing. I wound up moving us into the bathroom and ran the shower every hour or so  , because the gas and water still worked , just not electricity. I was capable of doing that for 2 nights till the electricity was restored, so that I did not have to go to a shelter and expose my newborn to way to many germs.

About 8 months later I met my the man who would become my husband and we clicked over a wonderful discussion about firearms. A year latter we moved to Iowa with one more child and found a small homestead. We currently have 4 acres of land. We started a garden late in the season last year and harvest over 800 lb of produce , and that was off maybe  of 1/2 and acre , we plan on using all 4 acers this year and dehydrating and canning.

The entire transition to back to basics / being self sufficient has not been as hard for me as my husband because i grew up without electricity and such. My husband  , well he stockpiles ammo , and me I stockpile books and knowledge. LOL

I am also a frugalista  , I'm always on the trail of sales , increasing my stockpile and making most things from scratch. I don't buy do-hikkies so much as go out and learn how to make them myself.

So well thats me. PrepperMom.
NIce to meet you  :)

10 - Winter Weather / Ice Related Saftey Tips

Seeing that Most of Iowa and a few other states are covered with a rather uneven but definably solid layer of Ice I thought I might as well give a few safety tips:

1. Assume EVERYTHING is Icy , Better Safe than Sorry
2. Test your path , salt/gravel , shovel or break ice before attempting to take a small child to the car
3. If you start to fall carrying a child fall backwards so they land on YOU.
4. Make sure you shoes have traction of some sort.
5. You can use , Salt , Bird-food and corn meal or kitty litter to create traction over icy walkways
6. Hit / Break Ice to Create Traction
7. You can use a cane / Pole or Brook Stick to help keep you balanced by Shoving it through ice
8. Sometimes it better to walk through snow than ON ice
9. Don't be afraid to shuffle if need be , better funny looking than injured
10. Remember to keep an extra blanket or 3 in your car

Image Provided Through Apeture / Flicker Freely Liscenced

Madwoman or Genius ?

So , It started out simple enough.

I decided I was going to check the mail.

Simple dosnt it ?

Well I thought so too.

Till I got out there and discovered the entire yard was covered in ice.

First I tried to walk on the ice , even the cat yelled at me as he slid down the drive and desperately attempted to make his way back up the hill , but the ice was so thick his poor little paws couldn't do it and he bawled like a lost calf.

So I took off my scarf and threw it towards him , he latched on and I pulled him back to safety.

He promptly let himself in the plant room and looked at me like I was crazy. I was not to be deterred. Getting the mail is my Job , and I will not let the ice get me.

So I went inside.

I put on a second pair of socks.

And a plastic grocery sack on each foot , and put on my moccasins.

I tucked in my head scarf.

I grabbed my trusty broom , and I set out again.

This time I was determined , I decided to take the drifts over the driveway. I knew the snow was thick. I held my broom upside down , and I smashed the handle through the ice.

Then Step by Step I I broke the ice and let myself sink. Leaving deep but not so slippery prints.

It took a bit longer than the normal 3 minuet walk to the mail box , and my ankles are a bit sore from being cut open by the ice , but I somehow feel accomplished.

Who knew checking the mail could be so exciting ?

I keep wandering what my neighbors must think of the crazy lady with her bright yellow broomstick trudging through snowdrifts ?