The first time I heard of biohackers, it sounded rather sinister to me. Apparently it is considered a benign, if not exciting and wonderful thing to the right people. Of course computer hackers tend to look at what they do in about the same light. I guess biohackers may be less bothersome to the rest of us for now at least.
Biohacking is a new movement to bring new biological tools to the common everday person like you and I. One of the mundane uses for it that I sort of liked was funny.
A man in a large city was incensed about a neighborhood dog pooping all over the neighborhood and leaving it. He went to his local biohacking place and used the equipment to test saliva samples.
He obtained samples from every dog in the neighborhood. He matched the genetic information from his samples to a sample of the offending poop. He was able to identify the culprit and his even more culpable owner and confront them with the local pooper scooper laws.
The people who run the biohacker labs all over the world are doing it for little, if any, pay. They do it as a public service to allow more people to learn and enjoy the benefits of using new discoveries in biology for themselves.
I never watched Jurassic Park, but it was not possible to avoid seeing trailers and shots from it all over the place. Those movies were so ubiquitous that actually watching them and even paying money to do so were not on my horizon of things I wanted to do.
What I did see, however, made me a little nervous that the neighborhood biohackers might be incubating a tyrannosaurus rex or even a more benign dinosaur. I gather that sort of thing is not likely to happen too soon. It might inspire a neighborhood kid to become a scientist with the facilities to do so someday.
I am not enthusiastic about bringing back dinosaurs, but I would not mind passenger pigeons or helping to keep polar bears around. Someone has managed to clone an ancient frog and an insect so far.
The humor of someone using a biological equivalent of sledgehammer to crack a pooper scooper violator appeals to me as a good use for biohacking. I don't yet understand what kinds of uses this stuff has, but that is the point of having it available. More people will now have access to equipment and be able to learn for themselves.
I have placed a few links below to get you started finding about this new movement that may change the world as much as the computer and cell phone already has. Who knows? You may become the biological equivalent of Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, or Steven Wozniak.
http://www.economist.com/node/14299634
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biohacking
http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/the_biohacking_hobbyist/
Showing posts with label cheap disaster preparedness supplies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cheap disaster preparedness supplies. Show all posts
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Friday, November 23, 2012
Holidays For Preparedness
For readers who are not familiar with the United States, this should be published on our Thanksgiving holiday. (I published my soy article instead.) Turkey is the most common main dish for the Thanksgiving meal.
Apologies for not publishing on time today. I am having trouble with the automatic scheduler. I don't usually believe it because it so seldom works, but last night it assured me that it published and I made the mistake of believing it. Sorry.
That doesn't work out for vegetarians like me. Some vegetarians buy or make a fake turkey called a, "tofurkey". Fake meat is unapealling to me, so I skip that too. I have different things to eat for the holiday. One that I have liked was vegetarian hot dogs with home made buns and home made mustard with tarragon in it. I have also had squash soup served in a scooped out squash half with creme' fraiche and peanut sauce.
One of my side dishes that I often make is, "Confetti Rice". I cook the most colorful combination of vegetables that I can find and mix it with rice. I add spicy brown sauce and usually include pineapple. Asians from all different countries like it and often tell me that their mother used to make it. I thought I invented it, "Who knew?"
Confetti Rice is a way to make almost any Asians happy for a special occasion. They often ask for the recipe and get tearful thinking about how Mom used to make it. This seems to include other ethnic groups like Pacific Islanders and some Africans and Europeans as well. It is nice to be able to make people happy with your cooking.
I used to make a cake for holidays as well, but may discontinue this since I have health problems that make eating it not such a good idea. I like to make a nice moist cake with fruit in it. I often top it with fruit slices and do a pour on fruity syrup sort of thing instead of frosting, that lets the fruit show.
I already posted my holiday cream puffs. Sometimes I do those for more than one holiday, but most often make the cream puffs around New Years. You can leave out the sweeteners and fill the shells with a main dish or side dish, as well as using them for a dessert. Egg substitutes do not work with these puff shells. You have to use real eggs. I have had years where this dish was the only time I used eggs during the entire year.
I ate a lot more eggs during the time I had my own chickens. I knew what they ate and that they were cared for well. That helped out with my health and ethical concerns for the chickens.
A dish that I often make is done with rye and it comes out bright pink in color. It has a nice tangy sweet taste. I got that recipe from the Rodale Press Basic Natural Foods Cookbook. You put the rye in a thermos with hot water overnight and that cooks it.
That book is out of print, but if enough people ask, they will probably reprint it. They already did that once when I got a lot of other people to ask them. The book is ideal for preparedness. It has nice tables for different cooking methods for foods. There is one for vegetables, one for grains, meats, etc. It has handy parts for each type of food that explain in depth about traditional healthy ways to cook those foods.
The cakes that I usually make come from another favorite cookbook, "Make-A-Mix Cookbook". This one is also a good prepper cookbook. You can make and store your own convenience foods with this cookbook. It is pretty comprehensive.
If you like it, you can take a look at the recipes and get the hang of how they are done, then start winging it and making your own recipe mixes. If you and your family have a favorite dish, for example, you can make a mix for that specific dish and cut down preparation time for making it. This makes it easier to, "Store what you eat and eat what you store". An extra benefit is that holiday cooking can be made much easier with this method.
Apologies for not publishing on time today. I am having trouble with the automatic scheduler. I don't usually believe it because it so seldom works, but last night it assured me that it published and I made the mistake of believing it. Sorry.
That doesn't work out for vegetarians like me. Some vegetarians buy or make a fake turkey called a, "tofurkey". Fake meat is unapealling to me, so I skip that too. I have different things to eat for the holiday. One that I have liked was vegetarian hot dogs with home made buns and home made mustard with tarragon in it. I have also had squash soup served in a scooped out squash half with creme' fraiche and peanut sauce.
One of my side dishes that I often make is, "Confetti Rice". I cook the most colorful combination of vegetables that I can find and mix it with rice. I add spicy brown sauce and usually include pineapple. Asians from all different countries like it and often tell me that their mother used to make it. I thought I invented it, "Who knew?"
Confetti Rice is a way to make almost any Asians happy for a special occasion. They often ask for the recipe and get tearful thinking about how Mom used to make it. This seems to include other ethnic groups like Pacific Islanders and some Africans and Europeans as well. It is nice to be able to make people happy with your cooking.
I used to make a cake for holidays as well, but may discontinue this since I have health problems that make eating it not such a good idea. I like to make a nice moist cake with fruit in it. I often top it with fruit slices and do a pour on fruity syrup sort of thing instead of frosting, that lets the fruit show.
I already posted my holiday cream puffs. Sometimes I do those for more than one holiday, but most often make the cream puffs around New Years. You can leave out the sweeteners and fill the shells with a main dish or side dish, as well as using them for a dessert. Egg substitutes do not work with these puff shells. You have to use real eggs. I have had years where this dish was the only time I used eggs during the entire year.
I ate a lot more eggs during the time I had my own chickens. I knew what they ate and that they were cared for well. That helped out with my health and ethical concerns for the chickens.
A dish that I often make is done with rye and it comes out bright pink in color. It has a nice tangy sweet taste. I got that recipe from the Rodale Press Basic Natural Foods Cookbook. You put the rye in a thermos with hot water overnight and that cooks it.
That book is out of print, but if enough people ask, they will probably reprint it. They already did that once when I got a lot of other people to ask them. The book is ideal for preparedness. It has nice tables for different cooking methods for foods. There is one for vegetables, one for grains, meats, etc. It has handy parts for each type of food that explain in depth about traditional healthy ways to cook those foods.
The cakes that I usually make come from another favorite cookbook, "Make-A-Mix Cookbook". This one is also a good prepper cookbook. You can make and store your own convenience foods with this cookbook. It is pretty comprehensive.
If you like it, you can take a look at the recipes and get the hang of how they are done, then start winging it and making your own recipe mixes. If you and your family have a favorite dish, for example, you can make a mix for that specific dish and cut down preparation time for making it. This makes it easier to, "Store what you eat and eat what you store". An extra benefit is that holiday cooking can be made much easier with this method.
Friday, October 12, 2012
Remedies For Constipation That Comes From Taking Diatomaceous Earth
I am still getting searches about diatomaceous earth for constipation. My blog is rather unusual because I write my own stuff all the time. I may quote other sites and give you links, but what I have to say about it all comes from inside me. If you have searched much using search engines you have to know that one search may give you hundreds of results that are very much the same. This is probably true for sites stealing from my blog.
I posted an important update on the post about recalled foods. Please read it. The recall is about a very extensive food poisoning recall.
This seems to be inevitable and one has to accept it. If you are going to steal from me at least get it right. Diatomaceous earth usually CAUSES CONSTIPATION! When you post about diatomaceous earth, you need to make it very clear to your readers that they will most likely become constipated as a result of taking the diatomaceous earth and should have something ready to prevent this before they even start taking the diatomaceous earth.
This is also true when you use diatomaceous earth for your animals. You need to have something ready to prevent constipation before you give them diatomaceous earth.
The way to work this is to have the anti-constipation remedy ready before taking or giving the diatomaceous earth.
Next you take the diatomaceous earth.
Wait at least twenty minutes before eating or drinking anything except water. If you want water drink as much as you feel like drinking. Twenty minutes is the minimum.
Then use the anti-constipation remedy. When I need this, I eat prunes most of the time. I don't need it often because I am a vegetarian and eat so much fiber in my diet that constipation is seldom a problem for me. I understand that there are drinks available in drug stores that you just add water to and drink and you are no longer constipated. Metamucil is one that some family members have used. I have never used it myself.
Bran flakes types of cereals are supposed to be good for constipation. I make muffins with this in them. The muffins are called High Energy Muffins. They have lots of protein and fiber in them and fill you up well. I use them in place of a meal sometimes when I am busy.
I have given these muffins to friends who complained about constipation. They usually work.
Sprouts that you can grow yourself are also good for relieving constipation. I have posts on this blog about how to grow them. These posts are in my blog archive near the earliest posts. I think that would be around January 2012 or so.
I am going to give you the recipe for High Energy Muffins.
I posted an important update on the post about recalled foods. Please read it. The recall is about a very extensive food poisoning recall.
This seems to be inevitable and one has to accept it. If you are going to steal from me at least get it right. Diatomaceous earth usually CAUSES CONSTIPATION! When you post about diatomaceous earth, you need to make it very clear to your readers that they will most likely become constipated as a result of taking the diatomaceous earth and should have something ready to prevent this before they even start taking the diatomaceous earth.
This is also true when you use diatomaceous earth for your animals. You need to have something ready to prevent constipation before you give them diatomaceous earth.
The way to work this is to have the anti-constipation remedy ready before taking or giving the diatomaceous earth.
Next you take the diatomaceous earth.
Wait at least twenty minutes before eating or drinking anything except water. If you want water drink as much as you feel like drinking. Twenty minutes is the minimum.
Then use the anti-constipation remedy. When I need this, I eat prunes most of the time. I don't need it often because I am a vegetarian and eat so much fiber in my diet that constipation is seldom a problem for me. I understand that there are drinks available in drug stores that you just add water to and drink and you are no longer constipated. Metamucil is one that some family members have used. I have never used it myself.
Bran flakes types of cereals are supposed to be good for constipation. I make muffins with this in them. The muffins are called High Energy Muffins. They have lots of protein and fiber in them and fill you up well. I use them in place of a meal sometimes when I am busy.
I have given these muffins to friends who complained about constipation. They usually work.
Sprouts that you can grow yourself are also good for relieving constipation. I have posts on this blog about how to grow them. These posts are in my blog archive near the earliest posts. I think that would be around January 2012 or so.
I am going to give you the recipe for High Energy Muffins.
High
Energy Muffins makes 1 dozen muffins 375f
1 ½ c whole wheat flour
½ c soy flour
2 t baking powder
¼ c nonfat dry milk
3 T wheat germ
¼ c chopped
roasted peanuts
½ c finely chopped dates
2 eggs, beaten
¼ c safflower oil
¾ c milk
½ c grated or finely shredded carrots
2 T molasses
Preheat oven to 375F. Butter a 12-c
muffin tin.
Combine whole wheat flour, soy flour,
baking powder,
nonfat dry milk, 2 T
wheat germ, and peanuts in a medium-
size mixing bowl. Mix
well. Add dates
and mix with your fingers to separate
pieces.
In a small bowl stir together eggs, oil,
milk,
carrots, and molasses. Pour over
dry ingredients, and mix with a fork just
until moistened. Fill prepared muffin tin
wheat germ.
Bake for 20 minutes, or until a wooden
pick inserted
into center comes out
clean. Loosen with a small spatula.
Remove to a wire
rack. Serve warm.
This recipe comes from "Rodale Press
Basic Natural Foods Cookbook". This
book is currently out of print, which I
think is horrible, because it is an
excellent cookbook.+
There are two main kinds of
diatomaceous earth. One kind is for
swimming pool filters and is no good to
eat. They do bad things to it that make it
poison. The kind that you want is food
grade diatomaceous earth. The food
grade diatomaceous earth is okay to use
for medical purposes. If you pass this
blog post on, you need to explain this
along with the problem of constipation
that comes from taking diatomaceous
earth.
.
There are two main kinds of
diatomaceous earth. One kind is for
swimming pool filters and is no good to
eat. They do bad things to it that make it
poison. The kind that you want is food
grade diatomaceous earth. The food
grade diatomaceous earth is okay to use
for medical purposes. If you pass this
blog post on, you need to explain this
along with the problem of constipation
that comes from taking diatomaceous
earth.
.
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
What Do You Want A Survival Bracelet For?
I believe many of my readers are new to prepping and survival information. Because of that belief, I tend to keep my posts pretty simple so that newbies can understand them.
Since I am weird, I often have a very unusual take on emergency preparedness. This means that I often think of things that experienced preppers and survivalists never even thought of. Even if they did think of whatever it was, they may get ideas about it that are helpful.
Experienced preppers will know all about survival bracelets, but maybe newbies have never heard one and would not recognize one if it bit them. I would hate to see a new prepper savagely bitten by a survival bracelet, so I will tell you about it for disaster risk reduction purposes. :-)
Survival bracelets are made out of "paracord". This is extremely tough skinny rope that parachute strings used to be made out of. Parachutes may still be made out of paracord. I have not had occasion to examine a parachute lately, so I wouldn't know.
Military people have justly earned a reputation for resourceful use of available materials, (and making "midnight requisitions" - but that is another subject). Paracord became used for an infinite variety of purposes due to this military resourcefulness.
Since paracord became widely used for survival purposes by military survival experts, they often carried it with them. Sometimes the paracord was formed into items worn on one's person, like bracelets.
"Survival bracelets" were the result of all of this survivalist popularity. They moved into the general, non-military population, especially among preppers. Some ex-military people began to earn some money by making them and selling them.
Eventually every, "Tom, Dick, and Harry" was selling survival bracelets, either in person or online. They have many sites that tell you how to make your own survival bracelets, using fancy or plain knots, in any color you can imagine, and some that a military person could not imagine.
You can buy jigs to help you make your survival bracelets to the exact wrist measurements that you need. There are even sites that tell you how to make your own jigs for making survival bracelets.
You do not need a jig to make survival bracelets, but if you have a big family and want all of them to have survival bracelets, then you might want a jig.
I have a favorite site that I go to when I want to know how to make something. It is called, "Instructables". It usually has at least ten or twenty different ways to make just about anything, with a supplies list and step by step instructions for each one. I like it a lot. You probably will too.
Here is a link to it: http://www.instructables.com/tag/type-id/
Here is a short list of things that you can do with paracord for survival purposes:
You can hang your food over a high tree branch, out of reach of animals like bears. You can tie branches together to start a quick survival shelter to keep you warm. You can hang food over a fire to cook.
You can rescue someone from a hole or cliff with paracord. You can tie stuff to your backpack with it. You can make a backpack with it. You can make snares to catch animals to eat. You can make tripwires to let you know if someone is trying to sneak up on you while you are sleeping. You can do a lot more things with it.
It is not absolutely essential to have paracord with you at all times or even in your go bag. It just happens to be much easier than hunting down plant fibers and processing them into cordage during an emergency. You will have plenty of other things to think about instead, during most emergencies.
Since I am weird, I often have a very unusual take on emergency preparedness. This means that I often think of things that experienced preppers and survivalists never even thought of. Even if they did think of whatever it was, they may get ideas about it that are helpful.
Experienced preppers will know all about survival bracelets, but maybe newbies have never heard one and would not recognize one if it bit them. I would hate to see a new prepper savagely bitten by a survival bracelet, so I will tell you about it for disaster risk reduction purposes. :-)
Survival bracelets are made out of "paracord". This is extremely tough skinny rope that parachute strings used to be made out of. Parachutes may still be made out of paracord. I have not had occasion to examine a parachute lately, so I wouldn't know.
Military people have justly earned a reputation for resourceful use of available materials, (and making "midnight requisitions" - but that is another subject). Paracord became used for an infinite variety of purposes due to this military resourcefulness.
Since paracord became widely used for survival purposes by military survival experts, they often carried it with them. Sometimes the paracord was formed into items worn on one's person, like bracelets.
"Survival bracelets" were the result of all of this survivalist popularity. They moved into the general, non-military population, especially among preppers. Some ex-military people began to earn some money by making them and selling them.
Eventually every, "Tom, Dick, and Harry" was selling survival bracelets, either in person or online. They have many sites that tell you how to make your own survival bracelets, using fancy or plain knots, in any color you can imagine, and some that a military person could not imagine.
You can buy jigs to help you make your survival bracelets to the exact wrist measurements that you need. There are even sites that tell you how to make your own jigs for making survival bracelets.
You do not need a jig to make survival bracelets, but if you have a big family and want all of them to have survival bracelets, then you might want a jig.
I have a favorite site that I go to when I want to know how to make something. It is called, "Instructables". It usually has at least ten or twenty different ways to make just about anything, with a supplies list and step by step instructions for each one. I like it a lot. You probably will too.
Here is a link to it: http://www.instructables.com/tag/type-id/
Here is a short list of things that you can do with paracord for survival purposes:
You can hang your food over a high tree branch, out of reach of animals like bears. You can tie branches together to start a quick survival shelter to keep you warm. You can hang food over a fire to cook.
You can rescue someone from a hole or cliff with paracord. You can tie stuff to your backpack with it. You can make a backpack with it. You can make snares to catch animals to eat. You can make tripwires to let you know if someone is trying to sneak up on you while you are sleeping. You can do a lot more things with it.
It is not absolutely essential to have paracord with you at all times or even in your go bag. It just happens to be much easier than hunting down plant fibers and processing them into cordage during an emergency. You will have plenty of other things to think about instead, during most emergencies.
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Build On What You Have To Get Food Storage
Apologies for not posting yesterday. There was a power outage and I was not able to post. I decided to do the one for last night now.
It can be very discouraging when you have a big job to do and you don't have enough money to do it all. This applies to preparedness.
When you first realize that you want to be prepared for emergencies, the size of your task can overwhelm you. The beginning stage of preparedness usually means you find out about the expensive way to prepare for emergencies. There are usually cheaper ways to do just about anything. That is also true for preparedness. Finding ways to save money on preparedness does not mean inferior quality.
You can save a lot of money on preparedness by investing a little bit of your time. Your time investment can mean you will have a better quality item than is available at any price. This is not always true, but it often is.
It is possible to build up money for the purchase of more expensive preparedness items. An example of how I did this was with savings on my power bill. I bought compact fluorescent light bulbs to replace regular light bulbs as I could afford them. This lowered my power bill every month.
The money saved from lower power bills went to equipment to do laundry by hand. Doing my laundry by hand saved me more money which went to items to save even more money and so on.
You living costs will probably be different from what mine were back then. You will have to take a look at your living costs and find where you can pry some savings out of them to get started. You will also need to plan the best place to invest those savings for the next tier of money saving and the ones after those.
Food costs are a common expense that modern people often spend too much on. Many of the most costly items in a food budget are the least healthy or nutritious. Examples of this are soda pop, junk food, and take out foods. You will probably be shocked at how much healthy food you can buy for what you spend on the examples I just mentioned.
Other bad habits besides food cost many people a lot of money they could use in better ways. Cigarettes or other forms of tobacco, or other kinds of recreational drugs are a real drain on a budget.
Candy and other sweets are usually very expensive on a pound for pound comparison to regular, healthy food.
Entertainment can be a huge drain on many budgets. Chances are very low that you will actually die if you do not immediately buy the latest music of your favorite singer. This is also true for seeing the latest movie by your favorite movie star or director.
Some of the vices that might have to be reined in can be things that seem innocent, unless taken to extremes. Expensive shoes or clothes, tools, jewelry, books, collections or redecorating often, can all sink a budget and make emergency preparedness impossible.
Sometimes you have to hold off on getting what you want right now to have something better or more important. Preparedness for emergencies is something better and more important to do right now. It is possible that waiting for what you want will save your life during the next emergency.
It can be very discouraging when you have a big job to do and you don't have enough money to do it all. This applies to preparedness.
When you first realize that you want to be prepared for emergencies, the size of your task can overwhelm you. The beginning stage of preparedness usually means you find out about the expensive way to prepare for emergencies. There are usually cheaper ways to do just about anything. That is also true for preparedness. Finding ways to save money on preparedness does not mean inferior quality.
You can save a lot of money on preparedness by investing a little bit of your time. Your time investment can mean you will have a better quality item than is available at any price. This is not always true, but it often is.
It is possible to build up money for the purchase of more expensive preparedness items. An example of how I did this was with savings on my power bill. I bought compact fluorescent light bulbs to replace regular light bulbs as I could afford them. This lowered my power bill every month.
The money saved from lower power bills went to equipment to do laundry by hand. Doing my laundry by hand saved me more money which went to items to save even more money and so on.
You living costs will probably be different from what mine were back then. You will have to take a look at your living costs and find where you can pry some savings out of them to get started. You will also need to plan the best place to invest those savings for the next tier of money saving and the ones after those.
Food costs are a common expense that modern people often spend too much on. Many of the most costly items in a food budget are the least healthy or nutritious. Examples of this are soda pop, junk food, and take out foods. You will probably be shocked at how much healthy food you can buy for what you spend on the examples I just mentioned.
Other bad habits besides food cost many people a lot of money they could use in better ways. Cigarettes or other forms of tobacco, or other kinds of recreational drugs are a real drain on a budget.
Candy and other sweets are usually very expensive on a pound for pound comparison to regular, healthy food.
Entertainment can be a huge drain on many budgets. Chances are very low that you will actually die if you do not immediately buy the latest music of your favorite singer. This is also true for seeing the latest movie by your favorite movie star or director.
Some of the vices that might have to be reined in can be things that seem innocent, unless taken to extremes. Expensive shoes or clothes, tools, jewelry, books, collections or redecorating often, can all sink a budget and make emergency preparedness impossible.
Sometimes you have to hold off on getting what you want right now to have something better or more important. Preparedness for emergencies is something better and more important to do right now. It is possible that waiting for what you want will save your life during the next emergency.
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Make Your Own Water Cooling Bowl Covers
I mentioned making my own water cooling bowl covers in a previous post. First I am gong to tell you why you need them, then I am going to tell you how to make them.
The most common way to clean and sanitize water is through heating, either boiling it or distilling it. Either method leaves your water hot. This is fine if you want to make coffee right away and don't ever drink plain water. Most people will want to drink plain water some of the time. Hot or warm water is not great most of the time.
If you are using plastic containers to store your water, you may need to cool the water before placing it in your containers. I use plastic containers to store my water that I intend to drink for the next day or so. The bottles are tough enough not to completely melt with hot water in them, but they will warp and then leak.
I used to always boil my water before I filtered it through a fancy ceramic filter with silver in it. That was to make the filters last longer by not loading them up with extra contaminants. The idea of breaking that filter by putting hot water on it was not good. I cooled it first. I used large metal bowls to cool the water. Once the water was cooled, I poured it into the filter.
It was impossible to keep flies and gnats out of my home. There were a lot of them in the town I lived in. Before the water in my bowls cooled it would have insect bodies floating in it.
I tried putting tea towels over the bowls, but it was hard to keep them on the bowls tight enough to keep all insects out. I tried using giant rubber bands over the tea towels or tying strings around them. Since the bowls were round, curved, and slippery, getting strings or rubber bands over them plus a tea towel was a challenge.
It was too much of a challenge to tie down tea towels so often. I decided to make bowl covers that would slip easily over the bowls and that would fit tightly over them.
Elastic with a casing was my method for getting the bowl covers on and off easily. I traced around the bowls onto a piece of paper to make patterns for the bowl covers. I tripled the width of the elastic and added that to the width of the bowl covers. I did a pencil and string compass and got the exact measurements at first, but found it wasn't necessary.
It works fine to just look around the house for something a little bigger than the top of the bowl. It needs to be round, or the same shape as the bowl top and bigger than three times the width of the elastic plus the bowl width. The cover can go way down the side of the bowl and still work.
Smaller than three times the width of the top of the bowl is not a good idea. It can be done, but it is a lot of extra work. If you have to do that, you will need to do something to prevent the fabric from unravelling along the edge.
A zigzag machine stitch works if you have a sewing machine. If you don't have a sewing machine you can use a whip stitch or blanket stitch along the edge of the fabric.
I do not think you should use anything like Fray Check or other fabric glues on your bowl cover. I believe that could contaminate your water.
You can find out how much elastic you need for your bowl cover by tying a string around the top of your cooling bowl and then measuring the string. You need to add a little extra to allow for overlapping the edges of the elastic after you insert it in your casing.I think triple the width of the elastic is a good amount of overlap.
Your casing needs to be slightly wider than your elastic when it is folded over. You need to allow for the width of your seam as well. If you don't have tailor's chalk, regular chalk or a pencil will do to mark where to put your seam. Colored regular chalk may permanently stain your fabric. I would not use a pen, for fear of water contamination.
If you are not planning to machine sew the edges of your bowl cover fabric, you will need to hem it before you sew the casing. That is why it needs to be triple the width of the elastic, or wider.
You can make your own seam gauge if you don't have one. A piece of cardboard marked with the seam width will work. Mark your seam at frequent intervals all around the bowl cover edge. If you have not sewn much or are a perfectionist, you should mark a solid line for your seam all the way around the bowl cover. It is easier to keep your seam straighter that way. Mark it on the wrong side of your fabric so it won't show when you are done.
You can pin or baste your casing before you sew it. It is much easier to get it straight that way when you sew it.
Leave a small gap before you sew all the way around your elastic casing. You will need a gap to put the elastic in. Put a safety pin, that is about the size of the width of the elastic, through the end of the elastic. That makes it much easier to thread the elastic through the casing. You can also use a paper clip, if you don't have a safety pin. Pin the dangling end of the elastic to the fabric, before you begin threading the other end with the safety pin or paper clip in it. That keeps the non-threading end from being pulled inside the casing and getting lost.
After you thread the elastic through the casing, check to make sure there are no kinks in the elastic. If there are kinks, untwist them, so the elastic is flat all the way around. Once you have the elastic inside the casing you need to sew the two ends of the elastic closed so that it forms a continuous loop inside the casing. Next close the gap that you used to get the elastic into the casing. You can use a machine or do it by hand.
Once your gap is closed your casing is done. I like to wash a newly made bowl cover before I use it the first time. When your bowl cover is clean it is ready to use.
Once your bowl cover is ready, pick it up with both hands on opposite sides of the elastic. Place the part of the bowl cover that is in front of you and between your hands against the edge of the bowl and under the rim of the bowl. Stretch it away from you towards the side of the bowl away from you. Slip it over the rim on the other side of the bowl and release the elastic under the rim of the bowl.
You may want to practice putting on the bowl cover with the cooling bowl empty a few times before you do it with water in it. It won't matter if the cooling bowl cover gets wet when you put it over the water in the bowl. It will still keep out dust and insects even when it is wet.
I have made cooling bowl covers out of plastic for use in the refrigerator. I dislike "refrigerator taste" in my food, so the plastic covers help prevent that.
Cooling bowl covers are also good for picnics and potlucks. I prefer to make mine out of see through fabric. I know how much water is in the bowl that way, but they seem cleaner to me than solid ones. There is no particular reason it has to be that way though. You could use whatever you want or have handy.
I am going to add drawings of how to make cooling bowl covers to make it easier for those who are not used to sewing.
The most common way to clean and sanitize water is through heating, either boiling it or distilling it. Either method leaves your water hot. This is fine if you want to make coffee right away and don't ever drink plain water. Most people will want to drink plain water some of the time. Hot or warm water is not great most of the time.
If you are using plastic containers to store your water, you may need to cool the water before placing it in your containers. I use plastic containers to store my water that I intend to drink for the next day or so. The bottles are tough enough not to completely melt with hot water in them, but they will warp and then leak.
I used to always boil my water before I filtered it through a fancy ceramic filter with silver in it. That was to make the filters last longer by not loading them up with extra contaminants. The idea of breaking that filter by putting hot water on it was not good. I cooled it first. I used large metal bowls to cool the water. Once the water was cooled, I poured it into the filter.
It was impossible to keep flies and gnats out of my home. There were a lot of them in the town I lived in. Before the water in my bowls cooled it would have insect bodies floating in it.
I tried putting tea towels over the bowls, but it was hard to keep them on the bowls tight enough to keep all insects out. I tried using giant rubber bands over the tea towels or tying strings around them. Since the bowls were round, curved, and slippery, getting strings or rubber bands over them plus a tea towel was a challenge.
It was too much of a challenge to tie down tea towels so often. I decided to make bowl covers that would slip easily over the bowls and that would fit tightly over them.
Elastic with a casing was my method for getting the bowl covers on and off easily. I traced around the bowls onto a piece of paper to make patterns for the bowl covers. I tripled the width of the elastic and added that to the width of the bowl covers. I did a pencil and string compass and got the exact measurements at first, but found it wasn't necessary.
It works fine to just look around the house for something a little bigger than the top of the bowl. It needs to be round, or the same shape as the bowl top and bigger than three times the width of the elastic plus the bowl width. The cover can go way down the side of the bowl and still work.
Smaller than three times the width of the top of the bowl is not a good idea. It can be done, but it is a lot of extra work. If you have to do that, you will need to do something to prevent the fabric from unravelling along the edge.
A zigzag machine stitch works if you have a sewing machine. If you don't have a sewing machine you can use a whip stitch or blanket stitch along the edge of the fabric.
I do not think you should use anything like Fray Check or other fabric glues on your bowl cover. I believe that could contaminate your water.
You can find out how much elastic you need for your bowl cover by tying a string around the top of your cooling bowl and then measuring the string. You need to add a little extra to allow for overlapping the edges of the elastic after you insert it in your casing.I think triple the width of the elastic is a good amount of overlap.
Your casing needs to be slightly wider than your elastic when it is folded over. You need to allow for the width of your seam as well. If you don't have tailor's chalk, regular chalk or a pencil will do to mark where to put your seam. Colored regular chalk may permanently stain your fabric. I would not use a pen, for fear of water contamination.
If you are not planning to machine sew the edges of your bowl cover fabric, you will need to hem it before you sew the casing. That is why it needs to be triple the width of the elastic, or wider.
You can make your own seam gauge if you don't have one. A piece of cardboard marked with the seam width will work. Mark your seam at frequent intervals all around the bowl cover edge. If you have not sewn much or are a perfectionist, you should mark a solid line for your seam all the way around the bowl cover. It is easier to keep your seam straighter that way. Mark it on the wrong side of your fabric so it won't show when you are done.
You can pin or baste your casing before you sew it. It is much easier to get it straight that way when you sew it.
Leave a small gap before you sew all the way around your elastic casing. You will need a gap to put the elastic in. Put a safety pin, that is about the size of the width of the elastic, through the end of the elastic. That makes it much easier to thread the elastic through the casing. You can also use a paper clip, if you don't have a safety pin. Pin the dangling end of the elastic to the fabric, before you begin threading the other end with the safety pin or paper clip in it. That keeps the non-threading end from being pulled inside the casing and getting lost.
After you thread the elastic through the casing, check to make sure there are no kinks in the elastic. If there are kinks, untwist them, so the elastic is flat all the way around. Once you have the elastic inside the casing you need to sew the two ends of the elastic closed so that it forms a continuous loop inside the casing. Next close the gap that you used to get the elastic into the casing. You can use a machine or do it by hand.
Once your gap is closed your casing is done. I like to wash a newly made bowl cover before I use it the first time. When your bowl cover is clean it is ready to use.
Once your bowl cover is ready, pick it up with both hands on opposite sides of the elastic. Place the part of the bowl cover that is in front of you and between your hands against the edge of the bowl and under the rim of the bowl. Stretch it away from you towards the side of the bowl away from you. Slip it over the rim on the other side of the bowl and release the elastic under the rim of the bowl.
You may want to practice putting on the bowl cover with the cooling bowl empty a few times before you do it with water in it. It won't matter if the cooling bowl cover gets wet when you put it over the water in the bowl. It will still keep out dust and insects even when it is wet.
I have made cooling bowl covers out of plastic for use in the refrigerator. I dislike "refrigerator taste" in my food, so the plastic covers help prevent that.
Cooling bowl covers are also good for picnics and potlucks. I prefer to make mine out of see through fabric. I know how much water is in the bowl that way, but they seem cleaner to me than solid ones. There is no particular reason it has to be that way though. You could use whatever you want or have handy.
I am going to add drawings of how to make cooling bowl covers to make it easier for those who are not used to sewing.
Friday, August 10, 2012
Medicinal Uses Of Garlic For Emergencies
Garlic gets it's own post because it is easy to get, easy to keep handy, cheap, you can easily grow it yourself, it is gentle and safe enough to use it often, and it has a great many medicinal uses.
According to some American World War II veterans, during the war Russians were very short on supplies, especially medical. They used garlic so much for medicine, that American soldiers began calling garlic, "Russian Penicillin".
Yes, garlic does have antibiotic uses among many others.
The main active ingredient in garlic is called, "allicin". According to some things I read about it a long time ago, allicin is not automatically released when you eat it. There were two preparation methods I read about then, that were supposed to release allicin.
One of the methods to release allicin was by smashing a bulb of raw garlic. The suggested way to do this, using common kitchen items, was to slice a small flat place in the side of the garlic, lay it on a cutting board with the flat spot down. Then you lay the side of a large knife blade against the garlic bulb and hit it with something. It was suggested you use your fist. This is intended to totally mush the garlic so it is flattened.
Flattening the garlic this way is supposed to release the allicin. You can then use the garlic however you choose to apply it, or eat it.
Once I read that, I began preparing garlic that way whenever I used it.
The other raw way to release the allicin is to dice it VERY finely. Sometimes I dice it if I don't want to fish a smashed chunk or chunks, of garlic out of whatever I am cooking.
I occasionally use a bouquet garni and tie the smashed garlic with other spices into a small piece of cheesecloth, muslin or just stick it in a tea ball strainer. I have also let guests/victims deal with fishing smashed chunks of garlic out of their food. lol. Me too, of course. Or eat it. It usually tastes good.
I read that lightly sauteing on low heat will also release allicin. Some sources say that any heat wrecks the allicin release.
Here is a quote about some of the medicinal uses for garlic:
"Garlic appears to have anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties. The list is long when it comes to its uses as a remedy. This list includes wounds, ulcers, skin infections, flu, athlete's foot, some viruses, strep, worms, respiratory ailments, high blood pressure, blood thinning, cancer of the stomach, colic, colds, kidney problems, bladder problems, and ear aches, to name a few. It is believed to cure worms in both people and animals."
The quote above came from this site:
http://www.gardensablaze.com/HerbGarlicMed.htm
The author of the above mentions making a tincture of garlic and how to make it. This is for those who are concerned about the odor from eating garlic. You might want to try this out when you don't have to be in public for a few days.
I read a funny story about a guy who took tincture of garlic. He said it started coming out of the pores of his skin, especially when he perspired. He said he got unfavorable comments on his odor.
I never tried it myself, but in case you have someone so sick they can't eat garlic, you might consider it for your emergency first aid supplies.
You may already know that I like to have multipurpose items in my preparedness supplies. Garlic is a good multipurpose item. You can eat it and you can use it for medicine at the same time.
According to some American World War II veterans, during the war Russians were very short on supplies, especially medical. They used garlic so much for medicine, that American soldiers began calling garlic, "Russian Penicillin".
Yes, garlic does have antibiotic uses among many others.
The main active ingredient in garlic is called, "allicin". According to some things I read about it a long time ago, allicin is not automatically released when you eat it. There were two preparation methods I read about then, that were supposed to release allicin.
One of the methods to release allicin was by smashing a bulb of raw garlic. The suggested way to do this, using common kitchen items, was to slice a small flat place in the side of the garlic, lay it on a cutting board with the flat spot down. Then you lay the side of a large knife blade against the garlic bulb and hit it with something. It was suggested you use your fist. This is intended to totally mush the garlic so it is flattened.
Flattening the garlic this way is supposed to release the allicin. You can then use the garlic however you choose to apply it, or eat it.
Once I read that, I began preparing garlic that way whenever I used it.
The other raw way to release the allicin is to dice it VERY finely. Sometimes I dice it if I don't want to fish a smashed chunk or chunks, of garlic out of whatever I am cooking.
I occasionally use a bouquet garni and tie the smashed garlic with other spices into a small piece of cheesecloth, muslin or just stick it in a tea ball strainer. I have also let guests/victims deal with fishing smashed chunks of garlic out of their food. lol. Me too, of course. Or eat it. It usually tastes good.
I read that lightly sauteing on low heat will also release allicin. Some sources say that any heat wrecks the allicin release.
Here is a quote about some of the medicinal uses for garlic:
"Garlic appears to have anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties. The list is long when it comes to its uses as a remedy. This list includes wounds, ulcers, skin infections, flu, athlete's foot, some viruses, strep, worms, respiratory ailments, high blood pressure, blood thinning, cancer of the stomach, colic, colds, kidney problems, bladder problems, and ear aches, to name a few. It is believed to cure worms in both people and animals."
The quote above came from this site:
http://www.gardensablaze.com/HerbGarlicMed.htm
The author of the above mentions making a tincture of garlic and how to make it. This is for those who are concerned about the odor from eating garlic. You might want to try this out when you don't have to be in public for a few days.
I read a funny story about a guy who took tincture of garlic. He said it started coming out of the pores of his skin, especially when he perspired. He said he got unfavorable comments on his odor.
I never tried it myself, but in case you have someone so sick they can't eat garlic, you might consider it for your emergency first aid supplies.
You may already know that I like to have multipurpose items in my preparedness supplies. Garlic is a good multipurpose item. You can eat it and you can use it for medicine at the same time.
Saturday, June 2, 2012
A Cheap Way To Prepare Food For Long Term Storage
One of the reasons for the high cost of food, that is meant to last during long term storage, is spoilage. It costs more to package the food to keep it from spoiling while it is stored for years.
The two main problems that must be dealt with for long term food storage are oxygen and bugs. If you can get all of the oxygen out of the food, and keep it out, that will usually also eliminate the bug problem.
It will save you a lot of money to package your own food instead of buying food that someone else has already packaged for you.
This is going to be a lot of work and you may decide that you need special and perhaps expensive, equipment to prepare your food for storage.
I have watched videos where people have done their own food storage without a lot of expensive equipment. The main equipment they used were a clothing iron and a bicycle pump.
They also used some supplies. These were large plastic buckets with tight fitting lids, mylar bags, and oxygen absorbers.
I have sealed some of my dried foods that I dehydrated myself, using even less supplies and equipment. I kept some of it in storage for as long as three years and it was still good.
The equipment I used was a clothing iron. I used recycled plastic bags for supplies. I did not even use a bicycle pump to get the air out. I simply squeezed the air out of the plastic as best I could.
I cut the plastic bags to the approximate size of the food to be stored. One side of the plastic was folded over, leaving only three sides to seal. I sealed two of the remaining sides of plastic before putting the food in it. Then I squeezed the air out of the bag as well as I could manage and sealed the remaining side.
I suggest that if you want to do this, you practice a few times on pieces of plastic, before you involve any food. It takes a little practice to know how hot to get your iron and how long to hold it on the plastic.
This post is getting too long, so I will continue it.
The two main problems that must be dealt with for long term food storage are oxygen and bugs. If you can get all of the oxygen out of the food, and keep it out, that will usually also eliminate the bug problem.
It will save you a lot of money to package your own food instead of buying food that someone else has already packaged for you.
This is going to be a lot of work and you may decide that you need special and perhaps expensive, equipment to prepare your food for storage.
I have watched videos where people have done their own food storage without a lot of expensive equipment. The main equipment they used were a clothing iron and a bicycle pump.
They also used some supplies. These were large plastic buckets with tight fitting lids, mylar bags, and oxygen absorbers.
I have sealed some of my dried foods that I dehydrated myself, using even less supplies and equipment. I kept some of it in storage for as long as three years and it was still good.
The equipment I used was a clothing iron. I used recycled plastic bags for supplies. I did not even use a bicycle pump to get the air out. I simply squeezed the air out of the plastic as best I could.
I cut the plastic bags to the approximate size of the food to be stored. One side of the plastic was folded over, leaving only three sides to seal. I sealed two of the remaining sides of plastic before putting the food in it. Then I squeezed the air out of the bag as well as I could manage and sealed the remaining side.
I suggest that if you want to do this, you practice a few times on pieces of plastic, before you involve any food. It takes a little practice to know how hot to get your iron and how long to hold it on the plastic.
This post is getting too long, so I will continue it.
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Save Money - Make Your Own Sandwich Patties For Emergency Food Storage
I make my own veggie burger patties for my emergency food storage and freeze them. They are not hard to make. They are much cheaper than getting them already made from the store. I think people who want to have meat patties or hamburgers could use my pattern/recipe for their emergency food storage with little change to it.
Protein is the basis for my choice of what to use for my veggie burger patties. For me that is usually some sort of beans or other legumes which are high in protein. Lentils, and peas are legumes too.
For people who want meat patties, you can use meat as the main part of your patties. You can add some beans or some of the other items that I put in my veggie burgers to stretch your meat to save money and get better nutrition.
I like some sort of complex carbohydrate in my veggie burgers, because they hold together better and I try to get a full meal of balanced nutrition all in one patty. Whole wheat, brown rice, and potatoes are some of the complex carbohydrates I use.
Some kind of vegetables round out the nutrition in my veggie burgers and make them more tasty and satisfying as well. That will usually be a seasonal vegetable or vegetables or whatever is handy and cheap.
I put liquids in my veggie burgers and what they are depends on what is handy and cheap. If I am using potatoes in my veggie burgers I use the liquid from cooking the potatoes in the veggie burgers. The potato liquids are sticky and gooey and help hold the veggie burgers together.
I pick some things especially to help hold the veggie burgers together. Eggs are my favorite. I am not a vegan, so I do eat eggs. Vegans might want to figure out what they want to eat that is sticky enough to hold their veggie burgers together besides eggs. Molasses and honey are sticky, but I know some vegans don't like to eat honey.
You don't need much egg to hold a lot of veggie burgers together. I sometimes only need one egg for as many as 60 veggie burgers.
I use a food processor to grind up the ingredients for my veggie burgers and mix them together as well. I put in the protein first and add the complex carbohydrates next. I usually have everything in bowls or on big plates so I can easily keep adding more ingredients as the food processor mixes and grinds.
I use vegetable oil in a large skillet to fry the veggie burger patties. I lightly brown them, mostly for taste and appearance, since everything is already cooked before I start grinding the ingredients for the veggie burgers.
I usually have a lot of patties shaped on big plates so I can add them to the large skillet as I remove the cooked ones onto clean plates. I usually let them cool on the plates, because I don't have enough racks to cool that many veggie burgers.
Once the veggie burgers are cool, they can be packaged in plastic bags. I like to put several burgers in small zipper bags and then put several small zipper bags full into a larger zipper bag. They don't get freezer burn as easily that way and are easier to find and less of a mess in the freezer that way.
Each veggie burger patty has all the foods necessary for a balanced meal in it. That means you don't need to cook anything else with it to have a healthy diet during an emergency. If you have bread to make a sandwich of your veggie burger patty, that is not necessary, but it might make you feel better to eat it that way instead of by itself.
I eat my veggie burgers on a bed of rice or pasta or with a baked potato and a vegetable or two for regular meals. You could do the same during an emergency as well. (They would not have to be heated if defrosted ahead of time.) They are also nice with a salad and some type of bread and or soup.
When I plan ahead enough for regular meals I take the veggie burgers out of the freezer and defrost them. A meal after that can be as simple as a couple of slices of bread or buns and some lettuce or sprouts and condiments. This is nice to do when I am really busy. It would work fine for emergencies too.
Protein is the basis for my choice of what to use for my veggie burger patties. For me that is usually some sort of beans or other legumes which are high in protein. Lentils, and peas are legumes too.
For people who want meat patties, you can use meat as the main part of your patties. You can add some beans or some of the other items that I put in my veggie burgers to stretch your meat to save money and get better nutrition.
I like some sort of complex carbohydrate in my veggie burgers, because they hold together better and I try to get a full meal of balanced nutrition all in one patty. Whole wheat, brown rice, and potatoes are some of the complex carbohydrates I use.
Some kind of vegetables round out the nutrition in my veggie burgers and make them more tasty and satisfying as well. That will usually be a seasonal vegetable or vegetables or whatever is handy and cheap.
I put liquids in my veggie burgers and what they are depends on what is handy and cheap. If I am using potatoes in my veggie burgers I use the liquid from cooking the potatoes in the veggie burgers. The potato liquids are sticky and gooey and help hold the veggie burgers together.
I pick some things especially to help hold the veggie burgers together. Eggs are my favorite. I am not a vegan, so I do eat eggs. Vegans might want to figure out what they want to eat that is sticky enough to hold their veggie burgers together besides eggs. Molasses and honey are sticky, but I know some vegans don't like to eat honey.
You don't need much egg to hold a lot of veggie burgers together. I sometimes only need one egg for as many as 60 veggie burgers.
I use a food processor to grind up the ingredients for my veggie burgers and mix them together as well. I put in the protein first and add the complex carbohydrates next. I usually have everything in bowls or on big plates so I can easily keep adding more ingredients as the food processor mixes and grinds.
I use vegetable oil in a large skillet to fry the veggie burger patties. I lightly brown them, mostly for taste and appearance, since everything is already cooked before I start grinding the ingredients for the veggie burgers.
I usually have a lot of patties shaped on big plates so I can add them to the large skillet as I remove the cooked ones onto clean plates. I usually let them cool on the plates, because I don't have enough racks to cool that many veggie burgers.
Once the veggie burgers are cool, they can be packaged in plastic bags. I like to put several burgers in small zipper bags and then put several small zipper bags full into a larger zipper bag. They don't get freezer burn as easily that way and are easier to find and less of a mess in the freezer that way.
Each veggie burger patty has all the foods necessary for a balanced meal in it. That means you don't need to cook anything else with it to have a healthy diet during an emergency. If you have bread to make a sandwich of your veggie burger patty, that is not necessary, but it might make you feel better to eat it that way instead of by itself.
I eat my veggie burgers on a bed of rice or pasta or with a baked potato and a vegetable or two for regular meals. You could do the same during an emergency as well. (They would not have to be heated if defrosted ahead of time.) They are also nice with a salad and some type of bread and or soup.
When I plan ahead enough for regular meals I take the veggie burgers out of the freezer and defrost them. A meal after that can be as simple as a couple of slices of bread or buns and some lettuce or sprouts and condiments. This is nice to do when I am really busy. It would work fine for emergencies too.
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Herbal Recipes Kits Giveaway
Now is your chance to get a nice free thing. Mountain Rose Herbs is giving away a kit to make natural home cleaning supplies. I think it sounds great so I wanted to share with my readers.
Just go to the Mountain Rose site here:
Mountain Rose Contest Entry Site
Leave a comment and you are entered to win the prize. Scroll down to the bottom of the article telling you about the contest and find the small comment. Click it and comment to enter.
They explain the prize on the site, but I will tell you a little about it here, in case you don't have time to read their whole post.
You get the ingredients and containers to put natural home cleaning supplies. They send everything you need to make them in a nice kit. One of the items is a soft scrub for cleaning sinks and tubs, etc. Another is a carpet deodorizer. You can use that one on mattresses too. There is floor cleaner for wood and for tile/linoleum. There is a disinfectant and a plain cleaner for most surfaces and furniture polish. They include essential oils so it will make your whole home smell nice.
I have been learning to make my own natural personal care items like lotions, creams, etc. I wish to include these in my disaster preparedness supplies, so that is why I found this site. It is a very nice site and has lots of free recipes. This can save a lot of money for disaster preparedness. You have to refrigerate some of the natural personal care recipes. If you put natural preservatives, they last longer and may not need refrigeration. You will have to replace these longer than the same thing from a store.
That is because the store ones are full of chemicals. I would rather make my own, more often, than get all of those chemicals in me and my loved ones.
Just go to the Mountain Rose site here:
Mountain Rose Contest Entry Site
Leave a comment and you are entered to win the prize. Scroll down to the bottom of the article telling you about the contest and find the small comment. Click it and comment to enter.
They explain the prize on the site, but I will tell you a little about it here, in case you don't have time to read their whole post.
You get the ingredients and containers to put natural home cleaning supplies. They send everything you need to make them in a nice kit. One of the items is a soft scrub for cleaning sinks and tubs, etc. Another is a carpet deodorizer. You can use that one on mattresses too. There is floor cleaner for wood and for tile/linoleum. There is a disinfectant and a plain cleaner for most surfaces and furniture polish. They include essential oils so it will make your whole home smell nice.
I have been learning to make my own natural personal care items like lotions, creams, etc. I wish to include these in my disaster preparedness supplies, so that is why I found this site. It is a very nice site and has lots of free recipes. This can save a lot of money for disaster preparedness. You have to refrigerate some of the natural personal care recipes. If you put natural preservatives, they last longer and may not need refrigeration. You will have to replace these longer than the same thing from a store.
That is because the store ones are full of chemicals. I would rather make my own, more often, than get all of those chemicals in me and my loved ones.
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