Prepsteading! Homesteading and Prepping for life's mishaps and inconvenient events, like going without power for weeks/months or losing a job.
I'm about living a life of self sufficiency without interference. On my channel you won't see a bunch of talk, you'll see action and active learning: How to make things from scratch, garden/small scale farming, food preservation (canning/drying/salting/freezing/smoking/dry storing), seed saving, growing chickens/pigs, food security and the like.
Prepping for life events/grid down: learn to cook without electricity or natural gas, grow food, find/forage food, water resources (locating/purifying/storage), tool/gadget reviews (the good and bad).
I have particular interest in teaching, my strongest areas are large scale gardening and food preservation. I live in Oregon grow Zone 8B.
Welcome and please let me know how I can help you become more self reliant.
Heads up - collecting seeds isn't that simple. The cucumbers are pollinated by insects so your crop would need to be completely isolated from any other crops in the cucumber family and you need at least 1 mile between various cuc crops. If you dont this will result in a cross pollination and Frankenstein fruit as they say in the collected seeds. 2nd point that should be made is you cannot collect seeds from a hybrid cucumber and expect true to type fruit the next season. Just not how genetics works. Not worth the risk and difficult to achieve - always start with fresh seed....Master Gardener SB
hi fellow Master Gardener (I am a Master Gardener (Oregon via OSU) as well as a Master Food Preservationist). yea I know all that, see the issue is that I already have no less than 50 vids in which I mention only collecting seeds from Heirloom, Heritage, OP and NOT hybrids...I also have done some planting experiments with hybrid seed in which I did grow some Frankenstein's monster fruit. (remember Frankenstein was the doctor not the monster). of course we also mention the spacing issue (you did forget tomatoes and other perfect fruits that only require 25 feet between specimens) The problem with your assumptions are You assume (from one video) that I don't know what i'm talking about, further you assume that I've never talked about this issue. Here I am now making some assumptions about you: that you do not create You tube vids (actually I checked first as you could have done to see if I had any real seed collection vids but that's beside the point) because then you'd see how one can simply not cover every issue in every single video. All the seeds I am currently growing are self collected (they all began as Heirloom/Heritage). Again one cannot mention every single issue especially when the point of this video is how to use up old cukes in a quick pickle...the point isn't about saving seeds, it was simply an aside. All That said, I can tell you know what you are talking about and would suggest making some of your own video's. Teach some folks from your own platform...that way you and I can reach twice as many people., maybe someone will plant a few things and that would be awesome... Then when someone comes to your video, critiques what you've done then you can educate them and then ask them to teach. someone too..."you tell two people and so on and so on (if you are Gen X or older you might get that reference) . I wish you luck and truly do hope you make some video's. It's a humbling experience.
I have never done this and have never seen them but have known they exist and can get into your food-also bug “parts” not whole bugs that are reproducing-because some likely fall in during processing-something fear-mongering-ish about this vid
the bugs don't fall in during processing, they are picked up during harvesting and some never die (many female weevils/beetles etc lay larvae inside grain). I'm guessing that since you've never seen them than you are fairly young and don't spend a ton around significant quantities of stored grain/flours. Some things that people attribute to mice are actually weevil/beetle damage. of course you should never trust some rando on YT so just give it a quick Google. I did just that and found 100's of articles on the topic. Here is one for your reading enjoyment: www.thespruce.com/what-is-a-weevil-2656439 or www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/weevils-what-to-know
@@OldSchoolPrepper oh so I am just too young to have had that life experience? Thanks didn’t know middle age wasn’t sufficient for a different perspective
Also I did say I have heard of them. But it just seems extreme. Perhaps people who are homesteading and buying in bulk. Idk I’ve also lived all over the US in varying climates.
I don't understand your statement, can you expand? from my understanding Mason Jars are canning jars...like by definition I even confirmed it by looking it up so i think i must have missed something you meant to say.
@@OldSchoolPrepper canning jars like the most companies use are thinner and designed to be used once. Mason jars are designed for repeated use they have thicker glass. Open pot boiling method probably doesn't matter much. My pressure canner can be rough on some of those thinner jars they sometimes break.
@@OldSchoolPrepper I'm not sure how old they are I've never tried to check. A few of those jars are made by Atlas and they stopped making jars in 1964.
I would disagree that it's tastier but that said I think I'll give making vegan yogurt a try. We don't drink milk in my house, only nut milks and I can make them from scratch too so post SHTF it's another thing to know how to do. Any tips? I think I can use a vegan probiotic capsule as a culture? thoughts? I did look at your vegan playlist (or rather Kitty's) but no yogurt yet!
I've made yogurt for some 30 years from cream to whatever grocery store milk to powdered milk. They've all worked. Have incubated with everything from dehydrators, to heating pads, to the oven. The best product has come from non-fat powdered milk and pepper stems as starter with oven incubation so I'm sticking to this method.
what? pepper stems, so you are capturing yeast and using it as a starter? that is very interesting...never considered that and that gives me some new thoughts, thanks for the post!
Super duper great for your gut. Great to bake with because you can use baking powder as a leavening agent and the acid in the yogurt will make the necessary leavening reaction..
I think it tastes great, it is smooth (not grainy as some cheaper yogurts can be) it does have a bit of a sour edge (but it is yogurt!) the sweetened condensed milk gives it the required sweet not too much. I find it less sour than regular plain yogurt because of the sweetness added. That said I think it's better and can be improved depending on the consumers tastes.
@@OldSchoolPrepper Spot on for sure, and I dont think 7>bil peoples daily nitrogen dump will be in the oceans forever, cant be good to the circle of life to do that and use oil from the ocean to make fertalizer for the land.
I bought this for regular canning.. I just found out a few days ago it's a steamer canner😅. The only bummer is after 1 Use it pitted 😢 I was hoping to use it for cooking. It said it was stainless..ugh. Thanks for posting this , very helpful. Oh..boy 😂 I used it today totally wrong.. since I lost the directions last time using. I used the wrack like a regular canner. 🤭
bummer it pitted, mine is stainless steel and pretty heavy...I do use is as a WB canner too I like it better than my old WB canner since this is deeper and I use it like a stock pot too
this is really good but sure doesn't last long. I have to hide the candy bars and each night we both get half a bar (so it only lasts 2 nights) I had a couple bonbons and Mr OSP snarfed up the rest of them in less than an hour.
Our warranty is 2 years on all products, except battery cells (power banks) which is 1 year. If you ever experience any issues, just reach out to us and we'll do our best to resolve the issue.
In regards to charging a solar generator, this solar panel can do the job, but is obviously limited by it's size (rated at peak 40 watts, but in realistic conditions 30-35 watts from the DC output). If you need greater output, we also offer a 60W, 120W and 400W folding/portable solar panel.
hi Anthony, I see Sunjack answered just an FYI that I did send them a few questions during my review period and they got back to me in about 1 business day each time...with a real answer from a real tech.
Living in Fla I am a fan of solar after hurricanes to charge usb devices. Not portable but I have solar panels from as small as 12watts to 40, 100, and 4 350watt panels.
I don't use portable panels anymore, but I still use the Sunjack battery charger, I charge eneloop AA batteries and it works great, those chargers are old and still work, so agreed they make good stuff.
cool Luis! how are you? I have to check your channel and get caught up, i bet you're sharing power with the neighborhood! that said I have the same batteries but a different charger, i definetly need to look at Sunjack's battery charger too. You reminded me that they do have a whole line of products.
Love Solar for emergency. I try to keep my Buletti charged and ready to go in case of a power outage. Nice review of these products I do like having a size to backpack with or take camping.THANK YOU!
Very informative review. I'm glad to hear about this product. I have some older Goal Zero "Boulder 30" and "Nomad 7" panels but the SunJack panels look very practical, and much easier to carry than the Boulder 30s.
I have the Goal Zero Nomad 7 and 15...the 7 is pretty much useless except for AAA and AA batter charging...it's just such old tech...plus it's about the same weight as my Sunjack 25 Watt....I do keep the 15 around for loaning to folks on the beach (in Mexico mostly) when they see my panels up and come over with their phone or Ipod or speaker or whatever asking if they can borrow some power.....Of course they are both 15 years old or more (i'm dating myself) the new tech is so much better but the old still keeps plugging away. As you can see i'm a lover of solar, too bad it'snot sunny here year around.
@@OldSchoolPrepper Some of the Nomad 7s I have are first generation but I also have some Nomad 7 Plus panels. I believe the Plus panels can be daisy chained. Perhaps that would boost the power they generate so they'd be a bit more useful. Haven't tried that yet though. I have a few Boulder 15's also (in addition to 4 Boulder 30s). Yup, got them all many years ago but they've hardly ever been used so are still in good shape - but bulky! Will have to save up and get some of the lighter weight, newer tech panels.
hey Gil, what do you have as far as portable solar and just solar? i'll have to check out your channel and see. Good for us who live the life, to compare notes from time to time. :)
@@OldSchoolPrepper I have 21 one hundred watt panels waiting to be installed. 18 fifteen watt panels as well. If I am going camping I will take one or two of the one hundred watt panels along. (depending if there is someone else with a CPAP) That way I can fully recharge my portable power stations every day.
A couple thoughts. I wonder if i can make a pill "snapper" that utilizes this technique instead of a knife edge. That would help with the arthritis and getting the medication on your fingers (without wearing gloves.)
you could do that or just buy a pill cutter, they are really cheap and available at any drug store, grocery or online. I use that when I do my weeks worth of pills at a time, this video is intended for those days when you can't find the cutter or on vacation etc. as a back up.
you can do either. This last time I empty'd a 25 pound bag into the bucket and tossed the bag. If I can fit the bag in easily i'll just put the bag and all in, but if that's a struggle I just dump. So I do either and both ;)
Fascinating as always. The battle against the deer feels neverending. We finally built a tall feeder stand at the far edge of our property to keep them on that side of things and have our raised bed gardens right up against the house. Can't beat the squirrels though. The raccoons like the feeder stand too and I try to keep a variety of rando foods for them back there. The coyotes really liked the bag of dog food I tossed out there the other day. Unfortunately they're getting hit with mange so we have to keep our dogs far far away (not like we wouldn't otherwise but I don't need them rolling in mangy stuff). My Boston Terrier once tried to befriend a possum before I knew what she was up to. Poor little possum gal was fetal'd as expected but ran off as soon as I caught up to the blossoming (possuming?) friendship!
Good warning video. I'll have to get more paper bags for storage now thanks to Huples tips below as well. Your community is always so informative and helpful!