The-Atlantic-thefemalesurvivalist

I'm in the market for a small wood burning stove. I'd love something I could move, if needed, from my studio to the house if the time comes we can no longer get propane. We are surrounded by forests so the fuel is right at hand.

My studio is only 12 x 16, and insulated, so a small pot belly cast iron maybe? I've been researching some hunter's and military style stoves, but reviews seem sketchy, like maybe they don't draw well.

I've used a wood burning stove for years, cooking and heating a whole house up in Illinois, so am ready for another one.

Any suggestions?

I read an article last night where the author listed ten reasons why preppers were good for society. It listed Coat of Many Colors Bible Joseph as an example of a prepper who saved up supplies for 7 years. Then seven years of famine came and he saved the country.

This is all well and good, but not the whole story. The story starts in Genesis Chapter 37.

Lessons I learned from the Joseph in Egypt story:

Joseph was a smart guy and had a lot of dreams. He told his brothers the dreams, which they didn't like one bit because the interpretations sucked. So, his brothers sold him into slavery and faked his death. He did a good job for his masters down in Egypt and his master gained material wealth under his oversight. Even so, eventually Joe gets into trouble with the master's wife, and is thrown in prison. Again, he works hard, gets promoted, everyone prospers. One thing leads to another, and he is in charge of Pharaoh's household. Pharaoh has a bad dream, Joe tells him that  it means there's  SHTF coming. Pharaoh makes Joe take over.

Lesson one, don't tell everything you know, work for yourself, if possible.

Joe does, and for seven years he installs a 20% tax. Tons of food is stored up under Pharaoh's guard. The bible says Joe advised the Pharaoh "appoint officers over the land, and take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt in the seven plenteous years". Knowing that the EOTWAWKI is coming, they prep.

Then Chapter 41, verse 54 says"and the seven years of plenteousness were ended, and the seven years of dearth began to come, but in Egypt there was bread"  so
Joe opens the storehouses, and sold unto the Egyptians and all the countries came to buy corn.

Now I did shorten those verses somewhat, but notice Joe the prepper is selling back the corn, not giving it away.
Eventually his family, treacherous brothers and all make their way to Egypt to buy corn, not knowing their brother is in charge. He's disguised. He plays hardball with them, but we know they all make amends and migrate to Egypt from Cannan to live out the famine, and they get special treatment.

After the famine is over everything belongs to Pharaoh because our prepper didn't just hand out food for free, he bought their lands, cattle and even their bodies, "as as for the people he removed them to cities from one end of the borders of Egypt even to the other end thereof."
Doesn't sound like such a benevolent prepper now, does he.

Lesson: if you want to remain independent, don't rely on the government. Prep now, for yourself.

Once Joe dies, there comes a Pharaoh who doesn't remember him and isn't about to maintain the elite status of these immigrant people. Check out Exodus Chapter 1 verse 7 and start reading how these Israelites became enslaved. It took them 400 years, a bunch of plagues, and 40 years of wandering under religious mismanagement, in the desert until they finally got back home. And then, they had to fight like hell, wipe out whole nations, make treaties and compromise to get their homes back.

Now some folks say god didn't let them get to the promised land immediately because they would have been to weak or scared to fight (remember his family had traveled that desert before, when hearing there was bread in Egypt. In fact they'd made several journeys through there). 

Lesson: be strong, get strong, stay strong, and be willing to fight.

When they got back to Canaan, they found many other peoples who had stayed put during the famine.

We can take away a lot of information from this bible story.

Comments encouraged and welcomed.

It just made me ill to see the news tonight. Reporters suggesting, and showing clips of our military being told they may not get paid, but by god, they better still fight. Show up for work, lay your life and limb on the line. We'll pay you, if and when we can.

My solution? Shut down the offices of every congressman, and don't cut them any checks until we have a budget solution. 
I think Georgia could get by on one Senator. Send the other one home, along with all his staff. Give the money to the men and women putting their lives on the line in Afghanistan and Iraq.

And  the House of Representatives? I think our country could get rid of half of them. Instead of 435, 218 should do it. Just cut it in half, send the others home, along with  all their staffs. Then shut down the offices, the expense accounts, pensions, health care plans of those we won't be needing any more.
Make elections every 4 years for all of them. No more mid term elections. Consolidate the madness. Once every 4 years is enough turn over. Dealing with who is running for what, when, and where is just too much time wasted.

I'm serious. The more I think of it, the more I believe its the answer. We've all had to take on more work at our jobs. We've all had to give up things with this economy in the toilet. But by god, we make a decision and get on with business. I can't believe there was actually  one bill asking for another vote on raising the debt limit in 6 months! Even I know to pay a bill for a year at a time. I got too much to do to keep messing around with the same problem every few months.
Hell, even my Norton is a two year contract.

From Wikipedia:
As of January 2010^[update], the annual salary of each Representative is $174,000.^[17] The Speaker of the House and the Majority and Minority Leaders earn more: $223,500 for the Speaker and $193,400 for their party leaders (the same as Senate leaders). A cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA) increase takes effect annually unless Congress votes to not accept it. Congress sets members' salaries; however, the Twenty-seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits a change in salary (but not COLA^[18]) from taking effect until after the next general election. Representatives are eligible for lifetime benefits after serving for five years, including a pension, health benefits, and social security benefits.^[19]

Imagine how much each house representative costs in total expenditures, if you include staff, pensions, health care and etc. And for what? Lets cut them in half, and each remaining member can step up their game. They don't travel by horseback. They should still be able to get around to their whole district without much trouble.  Maybe they would quit messing around so much and get the business done.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_representatives_does_each_state_have_in_the_US_House_of_Representatives

I looked up how many representatives each state has, and found that some have odd numbers. Like Georgia has 13. I think we can get by with 6.  If a state only has one, they can have that one, full time. We'll be generous.

Now, California has 53. Nobody needs 53. I'd say they would be fine with just 25.

I know we need to deal with the deficit issues. Our country has been spending money like a drunken miner in a whore house.  I'm no economist, but I know the initial purchase of something is only the beginning of the true cost. A new house, a new car, a vacation has its initial outlay. But that is in no way the whole picture. That new house requires insurance, furniture, maintanence. So is it with governments. Wars that go on indefinitly, social programs, tax rebates for big corporations. The initial program is only the beginning of a larger ripple effect.

There's always two sides to every story. But on this story, paying our military personal should never even be questioned.

In my Web Travels I came across this link and found the blog to have a lot of good stuff. I expect to spend the next day just getting a taste of it! Of course, it will go in my  favorites, for future enjoyment and education.

http://troublesometimesarehere.blogspot.com

As we wait for our government to do its job, quit jerking us around,  just raise the debt ceiling cause it has to be done,(even if just a few billion dollars) it's important to enjoy life.

I was reading a treatsie http://www.economist.com/node/21524079
last night about the unemployed getting used to not having a boss. Even self employment emplies a boss, oneself. It further stated that having a boss sucked. I'm with you there.
The article was about Post Materialism. I found that word intriguing so went right on over to Wikipedia to see what it was.

A bunch of jargon later and I'm left with this simple idea: a life philosophy where Being is more important that Having. Its about being self determined and actuated.

I think Minimalism is a good synonym for Post Materialism. Those of us into minimalism don't plan on changing anytime soon. They say our national economy is about 60% consumer spending. Heads up: if you economists are waiting for us minimalists to step up to the plate and buy stuff, forget it now.

OK, so this article also dealt with the idea of the Threshold Earner: a person who had a specific economic bracket they wanted to fit into. They are content earning that amount. Once that amount is earned, they use their time to enjoy life with the idea that more "down time" or unemployed time was a good thing. A guy asked Thoreau's what on earth should he do with all his spare time during retirement?  Our hero, Henry David advised, " well, then just keep working until you can afford your free papers."

I admit to having an unnaturally strong work ethic. I'm trying to funnel that into creative endeavors, all of which do not have to produce tangible goods. 

I'm reading the April 16, 2011 edition of The Economist, a magazine that deals with world wide politics and economics. You can find the magazine online at
http://economist.com

I find that almost all the articles are of interest and deal with stuff our media never tells us like news of illegal immigrants in Italy. Turns out they have a surge of people coming up from Africa trying to avoid violence and poverty.

The Iceland defaulting on its loans from Britain and Ireland. Who knew, and they are voting no on the referendum to repay at this point.

One article is particularly interesting , called The Economics of Violence. Read it at
http://www.economist.com/node/18558041
The whole thesis put forth, and the author does a very good job, too, is that violence causes poverty, not the other way around. There's a lot of examples and statistics to support this theory.
I'm left thinking that if indeed this is true, and it does make sense, then if a wealthy country turns violent and corrupt, poverty is the end result.
Government corruption is a key factor here. The article states that "countries with good governance are much less likely than their peers to have suffered from civil conflict or high murder rates in 2000-2005." They point to the severe problems in Libya, Egypt and other Arab countries as examples.

What does it mean for us here in America? If conditions worsen both in governance and violence, we can only expect economics to worsen.
Poverty is growing. It's a vicious cycle that spirals downward.
Citizens must be prepared to defend themselves, help others and practice humanity.
Preventing violence by providing justice and security, preventing destruction of property and building a responsible government lead to wealth and well being.

Check out the online Economist. In depth news from around the globe that we miss out on because CNN or Fox wants to tell us about the Royal Wedding or Tiger Wood's marital problems.

Yeast can do a lot of good things. When settlers headed west, they left the conveniences behind, but they still brought yeast. How? In the form of sour dough starters. Here is a photo of mine in the mason jar. You take one teaspoon of yeast, one and a half cup of warm water and two cups of four. Mix well, and place in jar. Let set overnight to work, then put it in the frig. When you take some to use for leavening (yeast breads) replace with flour and water. This way you keep the yeast working. You can double this recipe if your family is larger. There's only two here, so this was enough for us.

Its been mighty hot and I wanted pizza. I make my own dough, but didn't want to fire up the oven. Just too much heat. So, taking my dough, I oiled the cast iron skillet, pressed the dough into it, and topped it with the normal stuff.


I like to use spaghetti sauce to speed up the pizza process. Then some chopped green onions, mushrooms, black olives. Put a decent lid on this, and set on a low flame. It takes very little heat to cook this deep dish pizza.


We only ate half because its pretty filling. A side of salad, a cold beer, and you have a good meal.


I love cooking with this cast iron skillet because it is so cost effective, holds the heat well and evenly.

Skills like utilizing yeast are worth learning as a survivalist. If things get bad, we won't have store bought bread, or baking powder. Yeast is something we can keep on hand by utilizing this sourdough starter.

I've got some wine brewing. My process is so simple a child could handle it. I buy one bottle of juice from Walmart, like Apple Juice. Using a clean, empty bottle, I split the juice between them and add a quarter teaspoon of baking yeast to each one. I swish it around to mix it. You can see in this photo that I also added raisins, about half a cup, to each bottle. This gives it flavor and extra sugar to ferment. I then place a balloon over the openings. They will inflate as the yeast ferments.

In this photo you can see one jug is nearly finished fermenting because the balloon is starting to deflate. At this point, a person can decide to add a bit of sugar, cap it and store it in the frig. It will continue to work a little more. Strain it for clarity before serving.
Or, like me, a person can add more juice, and if they really want some extra fermentation, a few tablespoons of sugar. I chose brown sugar because it will have more flavor.


I then replaced the balloon, and its back fermenting again. Be very careful if you plan to re-charge the wine by adding more sugar and juice. If you tear the balloon, you'll need a new one.
Some people don't use balloons to cover the wine while its working. I like to do it because it keeps all critters out of it and its fun to watch the balloon grow and shrink.

The stuff smelled fabulous, by the way.