Beyond hoarding: What skills are you learning?

[pitw]

Butchering, knot tieing, welding, gardening, first aid, ammo reloading, tool fabricating, raising all our own food, plant identification and bartering horse trading.

[68Camaro]

Butchering, knot tieing, welding, gardening, first aid, ammo reloading, tool fabricating, raising all our own food, plant identification and bartering horse trading.

Good stuff!

[beauanderos]

thought this was fairly interesting... worth reading

http://www.silverdoctors.com/12-bad-strategies-that-will-get-preppers-killed/

[pitw]

Butchering, knot tieing, welding, gardening, first aid, ammo reloading, tool fabricating, raising all our own food, plant identification and bartering horse trading.

Good stuff!

Seems to me if a person can't depend on oneself then he shouldn't expect help.

[beauanderos]

Butchering, knot tieing, welding, gardening, first aid, ammo reloading, tool fabricating, raising all our own food, plant identification and bartering horse trading.

Good stuff!

Seems to me if a person can't depend on oneself then he shouldn't expect help.

it's certainly a great asset to have the skills you're learning... but groups of like-minded survivalists will last alot longer than individuals. Trouble is... I can't even find any local start-up groups in central California. I think
the apathy and ignorance that affects those who don't stash precious metals probably extends to preppers.

[pitw]

it's certainly a great asset to have the skills you're learning... but groups of like-minded survivalists will last alot longer than individuals. Trouble is... I can't even find any local start-up groups in central California. I think
the apathy and ignorance that affects those who stash precious metals probably extends to preppers.

I'm old and still learning but where I live my neighbors are like minded as it is a necessity. I've posted tutorials on how I live with just my knowledge and experience. Teaching my kids and others just helps me learn more. A person who can shoot an animal but has no idea what to do next is lost. If you want I'll copy and paste a few in a thead if there is any interest.

[beauanderos]

I'm sure there would be interest

[pitw]

I'm sure there would be interest

So can I do it in this section of the forum?

[beauanderos]

I'm sure there would be interest

So can I do it in this section of the forum?

post here... and if the Mods think it is better elsewhere they will move it.

probably create a new thread for it tho

[68Camaro]

Ok this thread hasn't seen use in 5 years so time to dust it off. Today I baked fresh bread from scratch for the first time in my life, and I just cut a piece and tried it - really nice! Smells great and tastes quite good. I could easily survive on this bread - would make a decent sandwich, toast, French toast, or as bread alone.

The next step was to break out the wondermill junior deluxe flour mill that I bought 8 years ago and get it ready for electric drive. It was a bear to get the pressed on manual handle off - the method they created didn't work, so out to the shop to put it in a vise and drive it off with a hammer and punch. I will open a can of wheat berries and run a break in pound through it to take the edges.off of the burrs and throw that pound away (and play with the adjustments to get the fineness needed) before I grind enough to make a whole wheat loaf, after I eat up what I just made.

[Recyclersteve]

Today I juggled watermelons while riding a unicycle backwards- under water...

[pitw]

Today I juggled watermelons while riding a unicycle backwards- under water...

15 years ago I bought a unicycle and it proved to be probably the dumbest purchase of my life . I never broke anything but my pride .

[shinnosuke]

Ok this thread hasn't seen use in 5 years so time to dust it off. Today I baked fresh bread from scratch for the first time in my life, and I just cut a piece and tried it - really nice! Smells great and tastes quite good. I could easily survive on this bread - would make a decent sandwich, toast, French toast, or as bread alone.

The next step was to break out the wondermill junior deluxe flour mill that I bought 8 years ago and get it ready for electric drive. It was a bear to get the pressed on manual handle off - the method they created didn't work, so out to the shop to put it in a vise and drive it off with a hammer and punch. I will open a can of wheat berries and run a break in pound through it to take the edges.off of the burrs and throw that pound away (and play with the adjustments to get the fineness needed) before I grind enough to make a whole wheat loaf, after I eat up what I just made.

We also made some Quarantine Bread a couple months ago. We ended up making about 15 variations on the very simple recipe we started with -- add nuts...add cinnamon...add raisins. Almost every loaf deserved two enthusiastic thumbs up. Ha. I can now say I know how to bake bread.

For any first-timers, yeast and flour was initially hard to find. I recommend stocking up now.

[sparechange]

[IdahoCopper]

Larger stores with bulk bins usually have wheat berries. Save those sealed cans for famine, it is way to soon to be opening them today.

I bought some plastic 35 gallon water barrels some years ago. I put a 1/4 pound of dry ice in the bottom of each, then poured 50 lbs of wheat in on top. I set the bung on the hole, then next morning, after the CO2 had displaced out all the air and O2, screwed in the bungs tight to seal. This keeps the insect eggs from hatching. Fifty pound sacks of wheat is the cheapest way to buy bread.

I have a Nutrimill to grind the wheat, and a breadmaker machine to do the hard work of kneading. I turn out the dough into standard bread pans, let it rise and bake it in the conventional oven.

The local store is now limiting yeast to one strip of 3 packets per customer. I buy one every visit, and store them in the refrigerator.

[68Camaro]

True that (on saving the cans of 30 year shelf life berries). I opened a couple to make sure they truly were none the worse for their age (now 8 years old for the oldest). But since the prior post of mine I moved to buying 25 lb bags directly from the single family organic wheat farm of eastern Oregon* (not far from you). Great wheat berries! Triple cleaned. They log the exact field each bag comes from (interesting). And free delivery. A bit over a buck a pound. And since the price of LDS cans went up - they are a competitive price. I have them on automatic reorder with about 100 lbs in stock. Two 2-lb loaves of cranberry orange nut loaf are in the oven as I type this. Tomorrow night is pizza night (homemade whole wheat crust) and Sat will be whole wheat bread baking day.

If you are still having problems sourcing small packs of yeast (they are starting to reappear on shelves) you can get yeast by the pound (2 year expiration - and if you are baking each week you'll use it up before then) on Amazon for good prices.

*sorry - I believe they are actually eastern Washington state, not Oregon. Though I'm sure the wheat farms cover that entire area.

[68Camaro]

I bought some plastic 35 gallon water barrels some years ago. I put a 1/4 pound of dry ice in the bottom of each, then poured 50 lbs of wheat in on top. I set the bung on the hole, then next morning, after the CO2 had displaced out all the air and O2, screwed in the bungs tight to seal. This keeps the insect eggs from hatching. Fifty pound sacks of wheat is the cheapest way to buy bread.

That's a good way to do it.

I did a intermediate length storage setup with 5 gal buckets (25 lb bags) using oxygen absorber packets. I wonder how long you can keep a bag of wheat without using o2 absorber or your co2 method before the intrinsic insects become a problem?

[IdahoCopper]

Without oxygen, the eggs will never hatch. I read that the CO2 method is good for 10 or more years. I packed mine in '08.