How to Be a Prepper on a Budget

 September is Be Prepared month. I just got this in under the wire. I'm going to start getting organized!

How to Be a Prepper on a Budget

Chocolate Moose

I had a craving for something sweet tonight. I'm getting down to the bare pantry, but someone had given me a box of instant hot chocolate. Now it has been way too hot to drink hot chocolate, but occasionally I had mixed it in milk just for something sweet. Now I'm hoarding my milk to have with my coffee in the morning. I may have 1/3 cup left. So I wondered what the mix would taste like with water. After all, it's the chocolate I was after.
I dumped two packages of the powder in a cup and slowly added water while stirring. I managed to get it all dissolved. It tasted a little like a runny chocolate mousse. Not too bad if you're desperate for something sweet.

The Good and the Bad About Camper Living

The Good and the Bad About Camper Living

Adopt a Dog Products on Zazzle

 Another article to go with Adopt a Shelter Dog month.
I really wish I could adopt a dog. There's just no room for another right now and I'm almost out of dog food as it is. The guys have been getting a lot of rice mixed in their food.

Adopt a Dog Products on Zazzle

Writing and Creating

I've been busy writing and creating new things for my Zazzle store. I just wrote about some great kid's books about llamas. Doesn't seem like too many people have kids or like llamas but I liked it.
I wrote another article on the fact that October is Adopt a Shelter Dog month. Then I got the idea to make things on Zazzle to promote it. So now you can read about it and wear a tee shirt or a button too! Spread the word. Those pups need homes!

Speaking of pups, I've created a new page called "buy the dog a bone." There's a link at the top of the page. Please stop in and see what it's about.

Things I Learned from my Lamas

I just published an article about my dear lamas. 

Things I Learned from my Lamas

Pizza and Zazzle. Too Many Zs

Today I am still waiting for my truck to be fixed. It has been a month now. I hope that's it for a while but I fear not.
I hitched a ride to the church food pantry today. My neighbor was given a pizza but she didn't like it so gave it to me. It was pretty bad. The crust was good, but the topping looked and tasted like it had been painted on. I cut a piece and put it in a frying pan and added some tomato sauce. I didn't have any cheese but had anchovies (of all things to get from a food pantry....) I happen to like anchoves so I threw some on. Not bad. At least it pretends to be a pizza. If I had more milk and some vinegar, I could have made cheese, but I'm down to my last four dollars. No money to squander on vinegar.
I've been working like crazy on my Zazzle store. If you haven't been by in a while, come by and take a look. I've been really cleaning it up and redoing the look as well as adding a ton of new stuff.

Paring Down or Sacrifice

So many people talk about how great it is to lighten your load and clean out your stuff. They're right, of course, but sometimes it goes beyond cleaning out and becomes a loss. I've lost plenty.

When I moved to the camper parked in a driveway in Canaan, NH, I gave up my house, not that I had much choice in the matter. Seven of my beloved dogs died during the 9 years that I lived there. I had to leave their little graves behind.

I left behind a woodstove, a studio, my rifle, tools and my garden. I had spent hours working on my garden. I had turned a rocky driveway into a lush bed for my perennials and vegetables. I was still waiting for some of my trees and bushes to bloom. I invited all my friends to come dig up whatever they wanted.

 I had to find homes for the livestock.

I gave the ducks to a friend of mine. I was sad to let them go, but she was into ducks and we had shared a few before. I knew she would pamper them.

I sent the pony on a free lease. I’d had him for almost 20 years. He was a wonderful little guy who loved to drive in the cart. We had made it our tradition to go out for a drive every Christmas when there wasn’t snow on the ground. I won’t be taking him back now.

I sold all but three of my sheep. I still miss my lovely, sweet tempered ram, Handy. He really was handsome with his silver grey merino fleece and huge curling horns. I hope he and his girls have a good home.

I sold my goats. The woman who took some of them came back to get a couple more. She seemed really nice and caring so I asked her if she wanted the Angora buck for free because he had such bad feet problems. I still cry when I think about loading him in the back of her car. Some animals are just too special. It just hurts too much.

I kept three ewes for fleece and for my dogs to work. My landlady took two pygora wethers. I was given a llama and an alpaca. I only had them for one summer, but I fell in love with the llama. He was just beautiful and so gentle. I still have some of his fleece.

While I lived in Canaan, three more of my dogs died. I had to leave their little graves behind when we left for Texas. I gave my sheep to the woman who had given me the lamas and returned them to her as well. I miss the oldest ewe the most. She had a wonderful fleece, was great for the dogs to practice herding with and easy for me to deal with.

I still miss the llama terribly. I never even got a good picture of him.

I sold two of my weaving looms. I gave away more stuff and sold anything I couldn’t carry in the truck and camper. I lost another studio full of materials that made it possible for me to do what I love.

I left behind all my friends.

I’m down to two dogs now. One is getting old. I was given a pup just about a year ago. I didn’t want to take on another dog, but realized I won’t have the older one that much longer. I can’t be without a dog. I’d be too lonely

I’ve sacrificed plenty. I can’t see that it has made my life any better.

Not a Crock Pot

I bought what I thought was a tiny crock pot at a yard sale. It had never been used, but didn't come with a box or instructions. I only paid a couple of dollars for it and thought it was a great deal.

I finally decided to try it out. My neighbor cooks beans in her crock pot, so I thought I'd give that a try. I have bags of dried beans in the cupboard. I put the beans in, added water and turned it on overnight. I didn't expect them to be completely cooked in the morning, and they weren't. I kept the pot on low since it seemed to boil over if I turned it on high. As the day went on, they still were crunchy. At the end of 24 hours, they were edible, but just barely.

Next I tried baking bread in it. I read that it works as well as a bread machine. I whipped up the dough and set it on a piece of foil and turned in on high. After several hours, I realized the pot kept shutting itself down to low. I thought this was a bit peculiar. And the bread was not baking.

I decided to go online and see what was up with this little crock pot. I soon found out what my problem was. It wasn't a crock pot at all. It's a RICE COOKER!!! I've never had a rice cooker before so I read some online directions, put in some clean rice and water and tried again. This time it worked like a charm! Within 10 minutes, or so it seemed, I had a pot full of perfectly cooked rice. I added butter, salt and a can of onion soup. It was delicious. Now I can make rice to go with those beans.

How to Cure a Wound in a Duck

How to Cure a Wound in a Duck

It Sits

The truck was delivered home last night. It is sitting in its parking place but I can't drive it.

It has been at my neighbor's son's house so he could fix the transmission fluid leak. He said he had trouble because it was so rusty. Apparently, he didn't stop to think that the truck was from New Hampshire where any old car will be rusty.

He put the seals in and it still leaked. He found that it was leaking from a line. He fixed that and discovered he couldn't shift gears. Now it seems there was a wire that was burning out that controls the brake and the shifting. 
He got it here at 10 pm last night. I rode with his mom to take him home and we got back around 11:30  so I couldn't get to sleep until almost 1. I'm wiped out.

Her son, and a real mechanic friend of his are coming tomorrow morning to see about fixing that wire.

Truck Homecoming...I hope

The truck is supposed to be on its way back as I write. It's 8:30 at night, but if we wait until tomorrow, it'll be too hot to leave the dogs in the camper. Even with the ac and three fans, it gets over 100 degrees in here. I know he's going to want more money, but I just don't have much to give him. I don't believe that he really knew what he was doing and that's partly why it took three weeks to get the job done. I'll just be happy to get it back. There's a young man in the park that said he worked on cars. At least he could do it here and not worry about having a go-between. We will see, we will see.

Chili

Another cheap recipe. Since my truck has been gone, I've been rushing through the store while my neighbor waits in her car, for me to grab a few items. Tonight I bought canned chili and oyster crackers. I was feeling peckish yesterday and had a craving for soup and crackers. I bought some and some canned chili. It's a good thing I did because the chile was just a wee bit hotter than I like. The crackers made it Oh So Good. This is my idea of fast food!!! And it cost about $2.50. A treat!