Prepping Part #2 Foraging

Foraging for food

Over the last few weeks we have been foraging for food with friends and neighbours on road sides and down tracks and lanes.
Picking sweet plums and apples.
Most of what we picked was made into pies, cakes and slices and shared over a cuppa with friends, good conversations and lots of laughs.
The rest were made into oh so sweet jams.

This recipe is approved by Ball as a safe canning recipe.

Yellow Plum and Vanilla Jam

1.8 kg Plums pitted
1 1/2 cups Water
1/4 Lemon Juice
6 cups Sugar
1 Vanilla Bean Pod

Star Pickets

How to remove a star picket

I think of star pickets as temporary fencing, the reason being is they are so useful for soo many things its crazy to use them for anything permanent and at between $4 and $6 each they are way to expensive not to be a reusable item.

Out Door Loo

Dunny, Thunder Box, Shitter, Crapper, Bog, Out House, Shit house what ever you like to call it, it all means the same.
From using a bucket in the paddock to something with 3 and a bit walls, its the ultimate luxury in the Aussie Bush.

Prepping Why? Part #1

The Pantry and Freezer.

Being prepared is more than just surviving a disaster- like a tornado, a financial crisis, TEOTWAWKI (the end of the world as we know it) or a zombie apocalypse.

People who aren't preppers seem to think that people who are, are either a little bit nuts or a lot. Yes there are those who are quite extreme but who knows they may be the most enlightened people at the end of the day/world.

Prepping for me is about taking control of our life, if the something big happens or if it doesn't then either way i am looking after my family, friends and neighbours. I think that's worth being called nuts.

While you live week to week you are controlled by the whims of the supermarkets, as long as they control your food, you don't have control of your food security.

Solar set up part #2

So the time had come it was the new year and time to get the free sun power hooked up.
Oh not to have to make the decision, food or drinks.... you know, one or the other when you only have a small camp fridge and the weather is in the high 30's. Eat something out of the fridge so we can put in some water. Oh how we miss cold drinks.......

Well it all seems to good to be true, unpacked all the solar gear, go through the stuff, look on line and go through all the stuff again and well you guessed it half the order was missing, who are these people who pack orders for shipping, it's ridiculous. Now Andrew's calling the company and trying to work out what's missing as there is no sheet listing what items were sent there isn't even a guide as to how it all goes together. Well there is quite a lot missing and you guessed it too big of a package to go to the PO Box so another trip to Sydney when the missing items are sent.
Back home again and we think we are all set but no, still missing some of the battery connectors and still no instructions.
We feel like this is a bad joke.....

Solar Set up Part #1

We ordered our solar set up on line and it was a toss up between two companies, one was a bit cheaper and you had to wire the board yourself and the other came with a pre-wired board and was more expensive. 

We decided to go with the pre-wired and had 2 double power points added to the board.

4 x solar panels and 8 x Giant premium heavy duty sealed deep cycle batteries.