Make Your Own Dehydrator

You may have hesitated to make your own dehydrator because it seems difficult. It isn't. This is something that you can easily figure out yourself.


You only need four things to make a dehydrator:
1.) A container you can close up, but still ventilate.
2.) Shelves to put the food on that will let air circulate around the food.
3.) A heat source. (I am using a regular light bulb.)
4.) A way to circulate more air. A fan is good.


If you have warm, dry weather, you don't even need all of the above. People in many parts of the world just cut up the food to be dried and put it on their roofs for the sun to dry it.


If you don't like the idea of flies and other insects stomping all over your food as it dries, you need to find a way to keep them out.


I already have a small dehydrator and I use the top of my refrigerator as a drier. These are fine, but I need something larger so I can buy produce in bulk by the crate and dry all of it at once. It is too hard to keep the part that won't fit into my drying areas from spoiling. It can take several days for some things to dry.


I have been looking for something to use as a container to hold the food, shelves, heat source, and fan. I was looking for a defunct speaker cabinet, small shelves or a dresser that could be gutted.


Yesterday I found the container. It was a small set of shelves. They are just the right size to fit into a deep window recess so that I don't have to heat up my apartment during the hot summer weather. Yeah, I know. You think Alaska doesn't have hot weather. Alaskans think we are burning up when it hits 70. So we're heat wimps. We handle cold pretty well, though, so there!


All that I have to do to fix my dehydrator is take out the middle shelves and move one to the bottom. Then I have to put on a back and a door with hinges. Then I need some holes in the side and top for air, covered with screen for insects. Then the shelf supports and fan and light bulb for heat. 


Some people use refrigerator racks for holding the food to dry. Others have used screen stretched over something. I'm working on what I want, still.


You need to put your fan and light bulb on the bottom of the dehydrator, inside it. Don't get your bottom shelf for food too close to the bulb so it doesn't burn. 


My shelves are painted and I have no idea what kind of paint it is. I don't like the idea of that outgassing all over my food that is drying in there, but the price was right, so I'm risking it. Unpainted, untreated wood could be a better choice.


Ok. Now you know what is needed. Go make yourself a dehydrator.

Make Your Own Hard Tack For Long Term Food Storage

One of the basics of preparedness is food. Some of the companies that sell 
pre-packaged foods include pilot bread in their food. This is because it is very durable. It was used as food for soldiers and sailors for centuries, because of how well it lasted.


Another name for pilot bread is hard tack. It was usually soaked in some kind of liquid to soften it, since it is quite hard.


Sometimes hot liquid was used to cause bugs and maggots to float to the top where they could be skimmed off. 


If the pilot bread is kept dry and prepared right it will stay preserved for a year or more. It is still popular in Alaska. Hawaii still uses an updated version without the longevity of the traditional pilot bread.


When the pilot bread was intended to last for long periods, it was kiln dried or baked as many as four times. Getting it very dry is how to make it last longer. Pilot bread is supposed to have been used when it was as much as 50 years old.


You can make your own pilot bread to save money on your preparedness supplies. A nail can be used to make the holes in it. There is disagreement as to whether the holes should go all the way through it. Most traditional pilot bread was cut into squares or rectangles, although Alaskan pilot bread is round.


Here is a recipe for pilot bread or hard tack.

"Hardtack Recipe by Kathy Kleiman (MCHA Co. E)

6 parts flour

1 part water

Knead dough until thoroughly mixed. 

Roll out on a floured surface until about 

1/8 inch thick (or there abouts). Cut into 

squares about 2 3/4 by 3 

1/2 inches.

Pierce the hard tack 13 times with the

 tip of a knife, making sure hole goes all 

the way through the dough. The 

Tinsmiths sutler makes a hardtack 

"cookie" mold that is just great for this. 

They advertise in the CW News." (A nail 

can be used to make the holes in each 

square. They were placed in four rows of

 holes four high. They were about 1/2 

inch apart.)

"Bake at 325 for at least an hour, turning

 over the hard tack once. Check to see 

that it is cooked through completely. 

Take out & let cool overnight to get that 

real hard & dry feeling. Some people

bake at 300 for a couple of hours, just to

 get it real dry. The finished hard tack 

will still look pale."

I have not done this yet, but I believe 

that a food dehydrator would substitute 

for a kiln to help remove the excess 

moisture that could cause spoilage.

Poor People's Disaster Preparedness

You would probably not be reading this if you feel good about how things are going in the country, economy and the world. We have all noticed that there have been a few glitches in the financial sector for a while and Mother Nature has been on a rampage too. I am against a lot of pointless worry. If I am going to worry it needs to do some good. I intend to get ready for disasters.


Most disasters have a certain generic quality. If you are ready for one disaster, you are ready for most other disasters, with a little tweaking for specifics. We all need water, food, clothing, shelter, warmth, a way to eliminate body wastes, safety, etc. That still applies in a disaster, any disaster.


My first step is to figure out how to survive long enough to find out what is going on and have an idea what to do about it. That is the first day or 24 hours. If you are on a tight budget that is a good place to start to avoid being overwhelmed with the cost of it all. Every time you go shopping think of one small item you could use to eat for a meal without too much preparation, especially cooking. If you can't manage a whole meal, get part of a meal at a time.


Water is something you can probably do something about for free. I am sorry for getting ahead of some people here. Lots of people do not know why you might want water in a disaster. You just turn on the tap and water comes out, right? Nope. Lots of disasters can stop water from coming out of the tap when you turn it on. An earthquake, for example, can break the water lines. Cold weather disasters can do the same thing. A radioactive disaster can make it so you won't want to turn on the tap and drink what comes out, depending on where the water comes from. Ok, I'm not here to explain every possible disaster to you. youtube does that. :-p


If you ever drink soda pop, bottled water, juice, or milk and other things besides, you sometimes have nice plastic bottles that they came in. Wash out the bottle and you now have a water container for you to store water for disasters. Free water storage for disaster preparedness is good.


Smaller bottles of water may not feel as satisfying and secure as a 50 gallon container, but they sure are a lot easier to find a way to store. You can put them under the couch, or bed or in the closet or behind the books. Find some nooks and crannies to put them in. You will need more water than you drink because you have to wash your hands and dishes, etc. A gallon a day per person is conservative. You can use less if you are careful. Experts stress that trying to ration water for drinking is a bad idea, but you can save on the cleaning water.


The next problem is what to do if you tap water is not great. I do not like drinking the water that comes out of my tap and I do not want to lug a lot of heavy water bottles around all the time, or pay for them. I like my Mr.Coffee coffee maker. It has a permanent filter that you can get to filter your water. I do not drink coffee, so it is easy for me to dedicate my coffee maker to water filtering only. If you use yours for coffee, you need to decide whether you are going to clean it out in between coffee and water filtering use or get another one. Not every Mr. Coffee coffeemaker will hold the permanent filters. My local Costco has the right kind on sale now. Unfortunately I found that out after I had already paid more somewhere else. It may not be too late for you. They say on the side of the box that a permanent coffee filter is included.


Your hot water heater may be a water source for disasters. It depends on what kind of hot water heater you have. The newer ones do not have a spigot on the bottom, but on the top. That means you will have to have a pump to get water out of them. You must know how to shut off the water going in and out of the hot water heater so it won't go down the drain, literally. If you have a disaster, keeping the clean water in your hot water heater for drinking later needs to be a priority. As soon as you get up off the floor or whatever, go take care of the hot water heater. You need either a wrench that will turn a thing that closes in the water in the tank or a special tool made only for that purpose. The special tool is less likely to walk off, so I favor it, taped to the hot water heater with instructions for use. If the heater runs on gas, you may want to turn it off if the gas is not working, to avoid an explosion.


If you live in an apartment building, you will have to talk to the manager about the water in the hot water heater, and using it in a disaster.


Toilet tanks can be considered a water source for emergencies. I gather they need to be considered contaminated. Even contaminated, they can be purified for emergencies. It is water you don't have to go out and bring home. That can be pretty valuable.


I am not going to cover purifying water for emergency use yet, because that is kind of advanced.  I am starting with the easy stuff for a few days of preparedness first.


Next post will have ideas for places to find non-consumable disaster preparedness items, and links.