Thought it might be good to keep track of how she rode over the winter. Feel free to scroll through hero shots of greenhouse in big weather shown on the NOAA Weather Service reports. This is an El Nino year with warmer (for here) temperatures than normal. First photo below […]
Prepping for Strange Times
30 posts
Perspectives: As American historian Will Durant observed, at the end of the day civilization depends upon the food supply. As our food supply grows increasingly uncertain at every level, putting up food is the embodiment of, “Thinking globally acting locally.” For months during the COVID pandemic local stores around the […]
One of this year’s best headlines was, ‘Pantry porn’ trend rooted in racist, sexist behavior: Loyola Professor’ At first glance, being somewhat dyslexic, I read the title as ‘Panty Porn’. You can imagine my disappointment when it turned out to be ‘Pantry porn’. I read the article anyway, as I […]
First off: Forget DRY CANNING At large in the internet wasteland are those who purport to ‘teach’ us how to dry can wheat berries/beans/lentils/corn etc. Dry canning is packing bulk dry food in jars, heating the jars in the oven, screwing on a lid before it cools, forming a seal. […]
Dehydrators take the water out of food to prevent rot, mold, bacteria including dangerous organisms like botulism. Properly dried and stored food can last for years or even decades. Dried food saved ancient cities under siege as they waited out the enemy. Pemmican made of dried meat and tallow was […]
“We will pray with those old druids, ’cause they drink fermented fluids, waltzing naked through the woo-ids, and that’s good enough for me.” from Pete Seeger’s version of ‘Old Time Religion’ Fermentation, our most cultural preparation of foods, goes back over 12,000 years in the archaeological record. It’s been part […]
“Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, where’s the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?” Okay, I’ll ask. What’s a peck? And what’s a pickle? A peck in the American measuring system: most of us understand to be ‘a […]
September in America is National Preparedness Month culminating in National Preparedness Day on the 30th. We’ll get into particulars of this important holiday shortly but first a personal note. To my mind, some year it would be great for the government to call a spade a spade and put forth […]
As you get into this project and are watching the obligatory hundreds of do-it-yourself internet videos, you’ll see a lot of people filling up raised beds inside the wood frame before the greenhouse is done. You might think, as I did, ‘That’s a good idea. This way I don’t have […]
Picking the greenhouse up at the shipping dock: The 20 foot long Sungrow is designed for compact shipping. All fits comfortably in the back of a Tacoma pickup truck. As with most expensive things sent to Alaska, the company you buy it from wants you to inspect it before you […]
For connecting the greenhouse to the ground there are 3 options: T-shape metal feet you dig down a foot or so and back fill, or pour a concrete pad and bolt the greenhouse frame to it, or build a wooden base and secure the frame to that. I didn’t trust […]
This post and the rest of the series applies mostly to the Planta Sungrow Greenhouses since that’s the company I chose. Most Important Thing–Attitude: Be Cool. You can do this. Assembling components, like an arch for example, may take a while to figure out. That can be frustrating but once […]