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Regular Jane for June 25th
Good Morning Joes and Janes;
After working almost all of the weekend the days are starting to blur a little, but I did realize that it was time to post one of “Regular Jane’s” stories. This one may give you second thoughts if you have been thinking about raising goats as a way of preparing. The neighbors have one that I pass by every morning and I must admit the thought has entered my mind once or twice. Now…..well, I will spend some more time thinking. If you live in a town or city where having a goat is out of the question, it is still a good read.
Watching a goats butt
So here I kneel on the couch, pressing my face to the window while watching a goat’s butt. It has been an hour and eighteen minutes since i first noticed tiny hooves peeking out of her rear end We have only had one other baby goat born here, and we lost it. A beautiful rust and black male that died because we didn’t know enough. We had been told by friends who have goats that labor can take up to two days and DON’T TOUCH. We weren’t told to watch the time after the water breaks.
Man ‘o man did I read everything I could get my hands on after that heartbreak! So as Buttercup has neared her time I’ve felt more confident. Until today – at one hour and twenty-three minutes after I noticed those hooves. She’s hunching again! Push, girl! Push! …… Nope. All the websites say don’t wait more than half an hour after the water breaks before you help. Our goat farming friend with experience says 1-2 hours is ok. Me, I’m wondering how long I can hold my breath … How long can that baby hold it’s breath? My cousins daughter (a 4H marvel) texted her best friend who lives on a goat farm. The teenager’s Dad also says 1-2 hours. Buttercup has laid down again.
Related articles
- Downloads How to Raise Goats book (ildayykz.typepad.com)
- The Health Benefits of Goat Cheese (lushtoblush.com)
- Cuter Than a Lawnmower: Would You Let a Goat Mow Your Lawn? (apartmenttherapy.com)
Regular Jane’s Wake Up Wednesday
Good Tuesday Morning Joes and Janes
This may confuse you; normally on Mondays I post one of “Regular Janes” posts from the blog Prepping2prep, however I missed it yesterday, so I am posting it on Tuesday and the title of it is part of her series called Wake Up Wednesday. Each week on Wednesday she writes an article on some aspect of preparedness that you can try to see how prepared you really are. This post covers your refrigerator. I encourage you to try it out.
Regular Joe
Wake up Wednesday : The Fridge
Situation: Power Outage, dealing with cold foods
The Fridge
What are your plans for all that food in the refrigerator in the case of a power outage? Or if your fridge stops working – which is usually about 4 days after the warranty wears out. Many people believe they can just put everything in a cooler – so how big IS your cooler?
This week we’re going to see how realistic our plans are for salvaging the food in the refrigerator.
Pull out your cooler and start loading it up. Do you have room for ice? What are your priorities? What really needs to be kept cool? What can you realistically eat before it goes bad?
Something to consider is having two coolers. One for your more critically cooled items like milk and mayonnaise, and one for items like brick cheese and ketchup. Another thing to consider is that the longer a cooler stays closed the better it retains it’s cooler temperature. With this in mind, it may be best to divide your items according to what will be needed often vs. items which are rarely needed.
This is a deceptively simple challenge. The whole point is to physically check your resources for weaknesses. Besides, this may be a good opportunity to clean out the back of the fridge! Good luck
Related articles
Zombie Attack in Florida
Zombies Invade San Francisco! (Photo credit: Scott Beale)
My post Zombie Apocalypse continues to be one of the top three all time viewed posts on my site. Not wanting to argue with success and finding the following news story on The Blaze yesterday I could not resist revisiting the Zombie topic in an unabashed use of real news twisted into another send up to Zombies and including gratuitous violence.
Miami Police Shoot and kill Naked Man ‘Eating’ Face of Another Man
- Posted on May 27, 2012 at 12:17pm by
Madeleine Morgenstern
Miami police shot and killed a naked man on Saturday whom witnesses said was eating the face of another man, the Miami Herald reported:
According to police sources, a road ranger saw a naked man chewing on another man’s face and shouted on his loud speaker for him to back away. Meanwhile, a woman also saw the incident and flagged down a police officer who was in the area.
The officer, who has not been identified, approached and, seeing what was happening, also ordered the naked man to back away. When he continued the assault, the officer shot him, police sources said. The attacker failed to stop after being shot, forcing the officer to continue firing. Witnesses said they heard at least a half dozen shots.
Read the rest of the story here
In the vein of thought that the moon landing was ‘faked’; what makes us think that the news media and police really want us to know what really happened? Sure, blame it on cocaine! The Herald printed that investigators believed it might be; “cocaine psychosis” — a “drug-induced craze that bakes the body internally and often leads the affected to strip naked and try to cool off.” Yah, right, I’ve seen the Zombie movies! You and I know what is really going on here.
In Madeleine Morgenstern‘s story she quotes; Larry Vega said he witnessed the attack, writing to Local 10, “I stopped a City of Miami police officer and informed him that a homeless man was killing another person by biting and ripping his face to death.”
Vega also said, “The police officer confronted the aggressor, and he was like a rabid dog and confronted the officer. Then the officer shot the person four times.”
Note to police; every Zombie hunter knows only a brain destroying head shot will stop a Zombie. Maybe Homeland Security needs to start Zombie Terrorist training program!
Then according to the reports they take the victim, in critical condition, to the hospital for treatment. Probably no isolation ward, no guards so when he wakes up he starts eating others! If you are in a Miami hospital ….. RUN!
Catching up on the New Zombie Nation rag
On a somewhat related thought; I was at the store the other day and my wife was looking at clothes. No… I was in the magazine section! I ran across a new magazine in the rack….had to buy it….Zombie Nation premiere issue. You should be able to find it at the news stand in the gun section. My wife says I’ve had my head buried in it since I got it. Ignore the picture she took.
If you are into Zombies definitely spend the $8.99 (U.S and Canada) There are some good articles on firearms and accessories and I had no idea so many serious manufacturers were jumping on the Zombie train with specialized products. I had no idea EOTECH had a new site out with a bio-hazard reticle. Several of the articles are definitely translatable to home defence and then there are some tongue in cheek pages on Zombie attacks.
Given the problems in Miami it should be required reading for the Miami Police Department!
The centerfold is a tear out Zombie Nation Target Poster that I thought would look really great on the office wall….my lovely wife had a different opinion, but then I don’t think she believes in Zombies either. I am thinking about putting it in the garage so I can scare the daylights out of myself if I go out there in the middle of the night.
Watch your back!
Regular Joe
Related articles
- Zombie Apocalypse (5gsandacupofjoe.net)
- Zombies in Miami? Naked Man Killed by Police After “Eating the Face Off” His Victim (dreadcentral.com)
- Humans Are Eating Humans (afteramerica.wordpress.com)
Regular Jane and Rabbit Dumplings
Good Monday Morning Joes and Janes;
Regular Joe
Rabbit Dumplings
Many of us have chosen to supplement our food storage with live animals. There are a few good small animals that can even be housed in suburbia which provide a variety of food sources. Chickens, for example, provide eggs on an (almost) daily basis, while also providing an obvious source of meat. Goats are not quite as welcome in “town”, but are another multi-purpose animal that gives a lot for a small space requirement. One of the best meat for space animals is the cute, fuzzy bunny. However, it is arguably the most likely to test your squeamishness when it comes to harvest time.
In the past week, we have finally started having baby bunnies from our California rabbits. Unfortunately, one of the mommies apparently didn’t know what to do and I was a bit heartbroken when we lost the whole litter. At this point, we’re not sure if the loss was due more to her inexperience or ours. We had some bad thunderstorms (which can apparently stress the momma), as well as the fact that her nest was placed where the kids could see the kits. They could not touch them, but it still may have been too close for her. We thought about moving it, but we weren’t sure if the movement of the nest would be just as upsetting.
As you can see, having rabbits is not a guarantee that you will have plenty of babies- at least, in the short term. We are learning fast, and I fully expect to have them in good “production” in the coming months.
For now, we have the advantage of living on property with resident wild rabbits. They may not be as plump as our domestic rabbits, but they take care of themselves and are a nearby renewable food source. My husband has brought a few home, and recently he shot another one. In the past, he has cleaned them. However, I decided it was time for me to step up. I am getting to be a better shot, and I feel it’s important that when I finally shoot one myself that I am knowledgeable on how to dress it out. My goal is to take one from forest to table by the end of this summer.
So, I did a YouTube search on how to clean a rabbit and got to work. It took about 10 minutes and I was done. I’d say the biggest thing I learned was that I need a better butcher knife. What I have does the job, but a good cleaver would have made certain things go faster.
At this point, my biggest concern is killing the rabbits we raise. Admittedly, I do have a heart, and although I’ve harvested chickens, they aren’t as cute and cuddly as a rabbit you’ve watched grow from a baby. It is not the issue of turning fuzzy sweetie into dinner. It is the issue that I don’t want to cause any “unnecessary” pain/stress. Between hand and shoulder damage I am concerned that I may not have the requisite strength or technique to dispatch them with one swift movement.
For now, I’ll just keep gathering recipes on how to fix them and counting weeks for when Jezebel can be re-presented for mating. Hopefully, Juliet will turn out to be a good momma and I will have new pictures of cute cuddlies that I can post. No matter what, I have a couple of months before I find out how I do with the harvesting phase.
Easy Rabbit Dumplings
Clean and quarter 1 rabbit
Place in pressure cooker with about 3 quarts of water and:
Salt
Pepper
Poultry Seasoning
Cook for about an hour
Debone meat and put it back in the pot
Add a Knor chicken broth packet
Mix 2 Cups Bisquick with enough water to make a sticky dough
Drop dough by spoonfuls into boiling soup
Add 1 cup milk
Keep at medium boil for about 20 minutes
Related articles
- Rabbit Wrapped in Fennel & Bacon (smcwrites.wordpress.com)
Bible Verses Regarding Preparedness and Defense
Good Morning Regular Joes and Janes;
Well it’s hump day – half way through the week! Some weeks can be a struggle for any Regular Joe or Jane, and this seems likes one of those valleys for me. It is times like this that I like to turn to Proverbs or Psalms and just start reading. I also find that taking a break and looking at God’s creation can help. Last night not long before Sunset I stepped into the kitchen, glanced out the window and knew it was time to stop what I was doing and go watch the view to the East of our house. The photos below don’t do justice to the view I had. You might notice our horses in the ‘back pasture’. There are probably more horses in Montana than people; but horses are expensive to keep around. Ours are always there for the grand kids but don’t need feeding and watering every day.
A shining light on a cloudy evening
A fleeting few moments as the sun sets over the Bitterroot range casting a pool of golden light on the valley floor
Last rays of evening sun.
Here are a few verses that jumped out at me today
Proverbs 15
18 A hot-tempered man stirs up dissension, but a patient man calms a quarrel.
Lesson: A patient man can diffuse a quarrel. Whether you carry a weapon or not it is important to be able to de-escalate a potential threat to you or your family. Knowing when to retreat, stand your ground or have the right words to diffuse a potentially violent situation will increase your chances of survival and staying out of court.
19 The way of the sluggard is blocked with thorns, but the path of the upright is a highway.
When we are being slothful or if we have chosen slothfulness as a life style then the path looks like it is impassable. Everything looks too hard to accomplish when we are sluggards. But the path forward looks like a highway for the upright. When we are walking in the path that the Lord directs then the possibilities are endless.
22 Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.
When making plans, whether where to go on vacation or preparedness plans for your family, getting advice or council from many advisers will help you to succeed. Plans that you make totally on your own are bound to fail.
25 The LORD tears down the proud man’s house but he keeps the widow’s boundaries intact.
God hates the proud man. A proud man views himself to be self-sufficient, not needing God; but a widow has no defense, no man to protect her boundaries, but God will protect the widow. It is important we being a ‘prepper’ or ‘survivalist’ to remember that God is in control. We need to keep our lives in balance and look to the Lord for our strength, for without him we will surely fail.
31 He who listens to a life-giving rebuke will be at home among the wise. 32 He who ignores discipline despises himself, but whoever heeds correction gains understanding. 33 The fear of the LORD teaches a man wisdom, and humility comes before honor.
When we are rebuked, (to criticize sharply, reprimand), we should listen and learn the lesson from our mistakes. Rebukes can come from fellow men or from God. Ignoring discipline shows that we have a lack of concern for our own wellbeing. The more we learn from our mistakes the more we will gain wisdom.
The fear of the LORD teaches a man wisdom, and humility comes before honor. I can’t really add much to that!
Go out and do battle with the Lord on your side today!
Regular Joe
Related articles
- What Does it Mean to Fear the Lord? (seanwhitenack.wordpress.com)
- Fear the Lord (stocktonbiblechapel.wordpress.com)
- Receiving Correction (myheartsmission.com)
- The Fear of the Lord (codybateman.org)
