Linda’s Bare Minimums Fishing Kit

I set up a Bare Minimums Kit that is so small I can easily carry it around.  It attaches to my belt. It has the absolute minimum essentials I might need for survival.  See my post on Bare Minimums Kit for details. 

I wanted to explain the details of my fishing kit, which is inside the Bare Minimums Kit.I felt it was important to bring along a few fishing supplies.  These supplies won’t catch a big whopper of a fish, but there are a lot more little fish around than big ones.

Fishhooks attached to leaders

I needed something to hold fishhooks so they wouldn’t get stuck on things. I took a magnetic needle case and put small fishhooks in it. it’s only about three inches long, so it’s ideal for a few hooks and leaders.

bare minimums kit/ BUG OUT BAGS 6

Fits inside a tiny zip bag

I wrapped about 100 yards of fishing line around a small plastic bobbin.  There are some small lures and weights stored with the line in a tiny one inch by two-inch zip bag.  Fishing line can be either hand cast or tied to a stick to make a fishing pole. 

One of the important things about fishing lures is that you can catch insects near the water for bait.  I already know how to make an efficient fish trap from a series of twigs, so although this is nice and might be handy, it isn’t my only option.

 

 

 

 

 

Bare Minimums Kit

Bare Minimums Kit 

I decided to set up a bare-minimums bag. The concept is that instead of lugging my bigger bag everywhere, we can have a bare-minimum survival kit.  I used a compact camera bag about six inches long. (Thrift store for $1.) This stays in the car at all times and can be attached to my belt. 

In the event of a bug out situation, this kit provides a few items not included in my main BOB. 

Not only that, but in the event that the car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, we can take care of a few needs until either help comes or we can walk to safety.  This can be an issue when you are eighty miles in any direction to the nearest civilization and you are on roads that are not well traveled.

Linda’s Note: a bug-out situation is very different from a temporary emergency. 

Bare Minimums Kit 

I tried to think in terms of the absolute minimum we might need for survival.  Here in the wilds of Wyoming, that includes some means of lighting a fire, some means of gathering food, some means of heating water.

·         fire striker

o       good for 1,000 strikes, much more reliable than matches (can be used even in wet weather)

o       includes a tiny packet of toilet paper to use as kindling

·         fishing tackle in tiny zip bag - the details on this will be posted as Linda’s Bare Minimums Fishing Kit. Watch for the post coming in a few days.

·         good knife

·         duct tape

o       Wrapped around a heavy awl.

o       Duct tape for attaching things to each other

o       Can be used as bandage

·         awl

o       wrapped in duct tape

o       Use for punching holes, etc.

·         magnifying glass

o       lighting fires

o       looking for splinters in fingers, etc.

·         a 9-hour candle and candle-lamp

o       see my BlogSpot on Linda’s Bug Out Bag for a picture.

·         first aid supplies

o       pain reliever pills

o       antibiotic ointment

·         aluminum foil

o       make reflector for signaling

o       make folded drinking cup or cooking pot

·         emergency blanket, etc.

o       reflective,  can be used to wrap up in

o       or stretched with duct tape to create a lean-to

·         heat pack

Folding Magnifying Glass

I found this great little magnifying glass. It has many uses. If someone gets a splinter, you can see well to get them out.  Also, by positioning it correctly, you can actually start a fire with it.  I especially like the fact that it has a tiny stand. Perfect when you need to see what you are doing and still dig a splinter out.

Folded

What makes it especially great is that it can fold flat and is only about a half an inch thick.  Perfect for packing in my bare minimums kit.

 

 

 

Linda's Bug Out Bag

 

After seeing what happened to people in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, I decided anywhere on the planet would be better than a FEMA camp.  For that reason, I set up a bug-out-bag to provide for our needs in the event that we must evacuate our home for whatever reason.

Backpacker's Coleslaw

 

So months ago, someone submitted this recipe to our Facebook group.  http://www.yummly.com/recipe/Backpacker_s-Coleslaw-Recipezaar?servings=12 

Storage Tip Canned Foods

Stock Up Now!

One of the things we always need to keep in mind is stocking up on groceries.  There was a time when grocery stores stocked anywhere from two weeks to a month of more everything they sold. Those times are gone.  Today  (from their point of view) it’s far more economical to have a delivery truck once a week. They order only what they think they can sell in that week’s time, and put most of it out on the shelves.

Hard Times a Commin’: Linda’s Take

Excerpt from NY Times:

“…On July 25, the United States government said it expected the record-breaking weather to drive up the price for groceries in 2013, including milk, beef, chicken and pork. The drought has affected 88 percent of the corn crop, a staple of processed foods and animal feed as well as the nation’s leading farm export.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/26/business/food-prices-to-rise-in-wake-of-severe-drought.html

Sprouting Basics

Seeds

When I first began thinking in terms of serious prepping, I considered my gardening options. Here in the wilds of Wyoming, we have a very short growing season. In my particular situation, I also live at 7,000 feet altitude. It can snow any day of the year.  Even though it is now early July, we can end up with nights in the high thirties or low forties.  It can literally snow any day of the year up here.

Linda’s Manual Equipment

12/04/07

Linda’s "Granny" Station

One of the important things about prepping is to always keep in mind that you should not be dependent on electricity, if at all possible.  Where I lived in Alabama, we often had power failure that lasted anywhere from a few hours to several days. Sometimes we were without for a couple of weeks.

Dehydrated Canned Black Beans

Watch for those sales on canned goods.

MRE Soup: Thermos Bottle Cookery

I needed to come up with a tasty soup to take tomorrow on my foraging class.  So I decided to use my dehydrated foods.

The Great Barley Experiment

Last night I did an extensive experiment with dehydrated cooked barley.  Once I had completed a series of photos (and eaten the results), I went to load it into the computer. To my disgust, I discovered my camera chip was still in the computer!  My SLR won’t take a pic if the chip is missing, but apparently the point-and-shoot will. Hmmm…

I fiddled around with the camera… don’t know why… and discovered it has an internal memory. My pics were there!  Yay!  Sooo…. I figured out how to transfer them to the chip and into the computer.

I wanted to find out about the cooked barley I had recently dehydrated.  I am quite fond of barley, but it takes a long time to cook.  Generally, I cook it in the crock-pot overnight.

I wondered if it would rehydrate like dehydrated cooked rice.  I started with ¼ cup of dehydrated barley and covered it with water.  It took about 30 minutes of simmering on very low heat before it was rehydrated, tender, and ready to eat. I decided that takes too long, although it is substantially less time than cooking it from the raw state.

Dehydrating Canned Green Beans

One way you can save money, time, and space is to dehydrate your canned green beans.  In fact, any vegetable or fruit that does not have all sorts of additives or high fructose corn syrup in it will dehydrate well.

• For an economic edge always buy canned goods on sale. Most stores have loss leaders. These are special sale items that are marked down significantly low. Their purpose is to draw customers into the store.
• When you find a loss leader on plain canned veggies, not seasoned or with sauces and such; buy as many as you can afford! Don’t buy the ones that are in some sort of sauce, just plain beans.
•  Mike and I purchased three cases of beans… green beans, black beans, and kidney beans for 49¢ per can!  Pretty good by today’s prices.
• You don’t need to make a big production of it, but when you have a few extra empty racks on your dehydrator, open a few cans of beans to top off the machine. It’ doesn’t cost any more to run a full machine than an empty machine.

Drain your beans. 

Herb and Spice Kits for the Survivalist

After setting up my bug-out bag with essentials for survival, I began to think a little further.  Yes, I have dehydrated food ready to go and a few seasoned meal kits.  But in reality, my physical limitations would prevent me from striking out into the woods for very long. 

Grinding Dehydrated Herbs and Spices

 

Basically, herbs are the leaves and stems of certain plants that retain their flavor and add to the taste of food. Generally, fresh herbs are preferable to dried herbs, but we do not live in an ideal world and often need to resort to the dried version.

This is Really Important

OK folks, I’m going to ask you to step out of your comfort zone for a few minutes.

By now we all know and understand the economic advantages of dehydrating foods. We’ve said plenty about that, so I won’t elaborate here.  We also understand the nutritional advantages. Newbies, go to my blogspot and click on ‘economy’ and ‘nutrition’ if you need this info.

But there is an even more important reason to dehydrate foods. If you are wise and prudent, you will be thinking in terms of disaster preparedness.

Right now I’m thinking about evacuation situations.  I understand that most people do not believe anything terrible will happen to them. But folks, if it hasn’t happened to you yet, it’s only by God’s grace. 



Alabama Star Photography Blog

Making the Best of Basics

This is an excellent book. If you can only afford one book, this is the one to buy.  I keep my copy of

Making the Best of Basics Family Preparedness Handbook  by James Talmage Stevens on hand at all times..  This is probably the first survivalist book I ever purchased.

Global Buckets

Three years ago I found this link and started making my own global buckets.  For those of you who have limited gardening space or live in a harsh climate, this is the ideal set-up. 

These are especially important if you live in an arid climate. They use 50% to 80% less water!

http://www.globalbuckets.org/

Where I live it can snow any day of the year.  But lugging 5 gallon buckets of dirt and plants into the house is not possible for me. This mint is grown in a double-kitty litter bucket.  The pipe is where you pour the water in.

If you live in a situation where you need to be on the go, traveling or  bug-out, then these containers enable you to take your garden with you.

Patriot Nurse Suburban Container Gardening

Several years ago I stumbled across a series of youtubes by the Patriot Nurse.

Here is her youtube on container gardening. I think it’s especially important because many of us either live in the city or in an area where we do not have land for gardening. This is an excellent example of container gardening. Notice you don’t need fancy containers.

She practices companion planting and intensive gardening. She also has an interesting composting system.

Why Do You Dehydreate?

Here is an opportunity for everyone who is dehydrating to talk about how they got started and what motivated them to "go dry". <grin>  Please share with us your reasons. 

For those of you who are new to dehydrating, this is a great opportunity to find out what the point of all this is.

Originally, I began dehydrating some fifteen years ago just for the fun of it. I've always enjoyed unusual things.

But after becoming widowed, I stopped for a few years.  Couldn't see the point of all that for just one person. 

However, when my finances really  got bad ... and especially our government's finances. I realized that I probably could not depend on the government to continue paying my disability check.  That's when I really got serious about it.

We Feel Your Pain

Hi Folks,
This is quite long post.  And clearly, based on the firestorm of comments, I agree that it is a really importan issue.  You can find key words for this under economy, money matters, & preppers.

It has always been my intention to provide a forum for this type of discussion. I am hopeful that you will use this area for commenting and discussion. Please do share your feelings. 

I will be posting all sorts of pertinent information and I am hopeful that you will share what you know as well.

Linda

Marcia Steranka

Wanted to send out a "WE FEEL YOUR PAIN" to all my fb family and friends. It's seems that gas, food, clothing, and just about everything is going up up up with no end in site. I pray that we all band together and encourage each other. Share our ideas on making our dollars go further. My gut is we are in for some hard/difficult times that is going to require each of us to evaluate where we are spending our dollars. I pray my gut is 100% wrong but I wouldn't bet/count on it. Love you all.

Susan Haymon, Beth Vitto Hunter, Vickilynn Haycraft and 36 others like this.

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    Heather Mahon Estey totally agree with you Marcia Steranka. A couple months ago I wrote a series about Making Do Without Missing a Thing, and people kept saying the exact same thing over and over, or sending me messages asking how to do things starting NOW. I wanted to cry, it was so sad, but I am glad more people are waking up.
    

    April 5 at 7:30pm ·  · 11
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