I see them every year around this time lying in front of their houses, waiting for the trash man to come pick them up. While many of them are junk, there are quite a few whose engines just need a little tune up and can be used to convert into a generator.

Converting a lawn mower into a generator is not a complicated process. Here are the parts you’ll need:

1. Engine
2. Alternator
3. Electrical Wires
4. V-Belt
5. Pully
6. (optional) Mounting Bracket

How to Convert a Lawn Mower Into a Generator

There’s a number of great sites online that details this process. Here is a couple of the more notable ones:

• EpiCenter.com: These guys go into some good detail on how to convert a lawn mower into a generator, detailing setup, build, and wiring. What’s great is that they sell all the parts you need so you don’t have to go digging through the web to find the different parts.
• HomeDNS.org: Some good details into converting a lawn mower into a generator.

Lawn mower Generator Examples

For some inspiration, here are some videos on Youtube showing some different designs for homemade lawn mower generators:

Since I have quite a bit of wheat grain stored away, and given the fact that I don’t want to use the two-stone technique that my hunter/gatherer ancestors had used, I knew I would be needing a way of turning all that wheat into flour without an electric appliance.

Which brings us to today’s post. I thought I’d take a moment to share with you guys my review of two popular hand-powered wheat grinders that I purchased: the Back to Basics (also known as the Victorio) Grain Mill and the Wondermill Junior Grain Mill.

Back to Basics Grain Mill Review

Overall Construction and Setup

The quality of the Back to Basics grain mill is very good. The plastic hopper fits snugly into the metal housing, and the auger, handle, milling cone and shaft make for a solid working unit. Overall it is sturdy and well put together. Also, given it’s small size, it can easily fit into a kitchen drawer or be stored away without much trouble.

Setting up the mill is a simple process. It easily mounts to a counter top or table with the included clamp screw and I had no issues with it shifting or moving around as I turned the handle to grind up my wheat.

Function and Use

Although the quality is good and it has had no problems doing its job, after using it for some time the main beef I have with it is how long it takes to grind wheat. It’s small size — while good for storage — leads to slow (and low) milling output. For example, to grind a cup of wheat (which makes about 1 1/4 cups of flour) takes around 5 minutes (it took me 4:51 without rest and at a good pace)!

This is fine for an occasional loaf or two, but when you start making bread regularly it quickly becomes a hassle. Remember, an average loaf of bread is around 4-5 cups of flour. Multiply that by 5 minutes and you have more than 20 minutes of wheat grinding (probably longer since at some point you’ll need to take a break) — by hand, per loaf! Not something you want if your going to be living off of your long-term food storage.

Price

Since the Back to Basics Grain Mill was the first hand-powered grain mill that I purchased (around 2 years ago), the first thing that attracted me to it was the price; At around $60 it was cheaper than most other hand-powered grain mills out there and the reviews seemed fairly positive so I took a chance and bought it.

Wondermill Jr. Grain Mill Review

Overall Construction and Setup

If the Back to Basics mill is built strong then the Wondermill Jr. is built like a tank. The housing, hopper and body is a solid metal uni-body construction that has a thick powder coat finish that resists scratching and chipping.

The Wondermill Jr. also has a large hopper that holds slightly more than a quart. While that’s great and all, from my perspective hopper size is not that important in a hand-powered mill since you’re right there operating the thing and refilling as you’re going along is not an issue. This would be more important in an electric version where you’d leave it to let it do its thing.

The handle is around 10″ long giving you the leverage to easily and quickly grind most grains without too much exertion. It also comes with two stone heads for grinding hard dry seeds. If you purchase the Deluxe version it also comes with stainless-steel burr grinders which allow you to grind up oily nuts and seeds to make things like nut butter. Pretty cool I guess but not that practical for my purposes.

For the setup side of things, the Wondermill Jr. is more of a hassle than the Back to Basics mill. Since I didn’t buy the Wondermill Jr. Deluxe that comes with an adjustable mounting clamp (which would make it just as easy to set up as the Back to Basics mill) I will have to mount the base to a table with wood screws, making it a permanent fixture. As a temporary solution, you can see in my picture that I jury rigged it by using vice clamps. If you want more mobility, another option would be to mount it to a board which you could vice clamp to a number of platforms.

Function and Use

The Wondermill Jr. is a pleasure to use. It’s long handle and large stones make wheat grinding a cinch and it’s fast! Just to compare, I was able to make around 1 1/4 cup of flour in about a minute — 5 times faster than the Back to Basics mill.

Price

The cost of the Wondermill Jr. is around $165 dollars. The Deluxe version, which includes the adjustable clamp and stainless-steel heads, will cost you around $220. And by the way, you can always purchase the additional heads as well as the clamp at a future time if desired.

Back to Basics / Wondermill Jr. Summary and Comparison

Back to Basics Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Stainless steel cone-shaped burrs for grinding
• Small size as well as parts fit nicely together for ease of storage
• Good quality build
• Affordable Price
• Can be used when the power is out

Cons:

• On “Fine” setting, ground flour is still coarse.
• It’s slow as all get out…unless you’re looking for a good workout (1 1/4 cups of flour in 5 minutes)
• Although it appears to be built well, my gut feeling is that it is not designed to be a high-output grain mill and over time it will break down with much use (this is obviously not confirmed by testing, it’s just a general feeling)

Wondermill Jr. Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Built like a tank and built to last a life-time
• Mills flour extremely fine which makes for great bread as well as pastries
• With stainless steel heads, it can make nut butters if desired
• Powder coated for protection and easy clean up
• Mills flour pretty fast for a manual mill (about 1 1/4 cups in a minute)
• Can be used when the power is out

Cons

• Flour spews out the sides of the grinding stones requiring a fairly large receptacle (note: the latest models come with a flour guide that fixes this issue that can also be purchased for about $10 if your model is older).
• Cost is more expensive than the Back to Basics mill but worth it given the efficiency and quality.
• Non-deluxe model requires you to bolt the mill to a table since it doesn’t come with a clamp (this also can be purchased at a later time if desired)

Comparing the Two

Overall the Back to Basics mill will do the job, and if you’re only interested in a back up and price is an issue, then it’s a pretty good mill.

On the other hand, the Wondermill Jr. is leaps and bounds over the Back to Basics mill. But realize that the cost is substantially more (about $100+ more), so you’re paying for the upgrade. However, if I could go back in time, I would have not purchased the Back to Basics mill, although it’s nice to have the extra mill for redundancy or future trading reasons.

For me, one of the biggest reasons — besides the speed of output — is the quality and “fineness” of the flour. The Back to Basics mill makes a pretty coarse flour (even on its finest setting) whereas the Wonder Mill Jr. makes a very fine flour. The finer the flour, the better the bread (in my opinion) and you have the option of making things that require fine flour like pastries and pie crusts.

Here’s a photo showing the difference in consistency of the flour between the Wondermill Jr. (left) and the Back to Basics (right).

Since those early beginnings, technology may have changed how we dry foods but the principles behind process has not. In this article I want to share some methods of dehydrating foods that don’t require the need of a store-bought dehydrator.

Alternate Dehydrating Methods

Most everything that we eat contains some amount of moisture; and it is this moisture that causes food to go bad. Dehydrating is nothing more than removing water from food which inhibits decay and the growth of microorganisms. If you can remove the moisture from foods than you can extend their storage life way beyond their normal shelf life.

Here are some methods that you can use which don’t require the use of a dehydrator. These obviously aren’t the only methods (they are just the ways I like to do it).

The Sun

Place food on or between two screens (window screens work just fine) and place outside on a sunny day. It does not have to be necessarily warm outside (you can do this in the winter). Just be sure that it is not wet outside as this will defeat the purpose of drying.

An Oven

I would not recommend this method of drying if you have an electric oven (it’s too expensive). Here’s the process:

Set your oven temperature to very low (140 degrees F) and leave the fruit or vegetables in the oven until completely dry and nearly crisp (between 4 and 12 hours). It may be necessary to turn the cookie sheet(s) around in ovens with uneven heat distribution.

Fire Drying

This method is best used for drying meats. Basically you’ll want to hang strips of meat on a rack and place these in front of a fire. Vegetables and fruits can be placed on the ground near the fire, however be sure that you are protecting the food from nearby critters.

Wind Drying

Form a bag out of some netting (or use an existing netted bag) and place the food inside it. This is then hung from a clothes line or tree branch outside. This method also works inside the house in front of a fan.

A Word of Caution about Home-made Jerky

Even though I’ve been making jerky outside for many years now without issue, I need to caution you that the USDA does not recommend drying meats at home. Given that in a survival/major-collapse type of situation, normal medical facilities may not be available, food-borne illnesses like Salmonella are a very real issue and it may be a good idea to follow their recommendations.

This warning also applies to many store-bought dehydrators. Since many of these can only heat up to 140 °F, it will not reach a high-enough temperature to kill the microorganisms. Here are the current recommendations per the usda.gov:

[The USDA's] current recommendation for making jerky safely is to heat meat to 160 °F and poultry to 165 °F before the dehydrating process. This step assures that any bacteria present will be destroyed by wet heat. But most dehydrator instructions do not include this step, and a dehydrator may not reach temperatures high enough to heat meat to 160 °F.

After heating, maintaining a constant dehydrator temperature of 130 to 140 °F during the drying process is important because:

• the process must be fast enough to dry food before it spoils; and
• it must remove enough water that microorganisms are unable to grow

Dryness Test Guidelines

Here are some guidelines on how to know if your dehydrated food is sufficiently dry.
Source: BackWoodsHome.com

Just as in stockpiling goods, in a long-term crisis the more knowledge and skills that you have about how to deal with a wide variety of situations and challenges the better off you’ll be. However, unlike stockpiling. knowledge cannot be purchased. It’s gained through study, learning, and practice.

You may be saying,”Well, I have a bunch of books on how to deal with every type of situation, and if I can read it, I can learn it”. Although I do highly recommend having a Survival Library, having only books on hand — while helpful — is not ideal. You don’t want your family to be dependent upon you learning a skill for the first time in the midst of a crisis and some skills take years to develop.

With that in mind, here’s a Bucket List of skills you may want to consider. This is in no way exhaustive or in order of importance but should get you started:

• Sewing, Clothes Making and Repair: Learn how to quilt, crochet, knit, sew, spin, weave, and how to make clothes from basic patterns. It might be a good idea to pick up an antique manual pedal driven sewing machine. Many of them sell for quite cheap through Craigslist.
• Auto Mechanics and Engine Repair: Learn how to change oil, fix brakes, tune up engines, repair common issues (replacing water pump, alternator, etc) and so on. Included in this subject is small-engine repair/tuneups like chainsaws, generators etc.
• Animal Husbandry: Learn how to raise rabbits, chickens, goats and other animals provided you have the space and your zoning laws allow.
• Soap and Candle Making: This includes homemade oil lamps as well.
• Butter, Cheese and Yogurt Making: Be sure any needed ingredients are part of your food storage.
• Martial Arts: This could be boxing, ground fighting, knife fighting, stick fighting, and other forms of armed and unarmed hand-to-hand combat skills.
• Marksmanship and Defensive Shooting: There are many excellent top-rate schools that teach marksmanship as well as personal and home defense with firearms. For excellent marksmanship training, I highly recommend The Appleseed Project events that are held nationwide.
• Wilderness Survival and Primitive Skills: This includes local plant identification and use (edible, medicinal, and utilitarian); shelter building; water collection, storage and purification; fire making (using primitive and modern methods); animal snares; fishing; and much more
• Outdoor Skills: Separate from wilderness survival (but related) is basic outdoor skills such as knot-tying, navigation, hunting, trapping, mountaineering, tracking and so on.
• Medical Training: This should really go beyond first aid. Ideally you’ll want to take EMT or paramedic courses.
• Radio Communication: This includes small-band, CB and other forms of radio communication. Ideally you’ll want to get your Ham operating license.
• Metal-Working Skills: Learn welding, casting, blacksmithing. Also included in this subject is machining and other fabrication methods.
• Food Preservation: Here’s where you’ll want to learn canning, smoking, pickling, dehydrating, and curing.
• Food Preparation: Learn how to use all that bulk-stored food you’ve got squirreled away. Also included in this subject is food preparation off the grid — using wood/charcoal stoves, fire pit cooking, solar ovens etc.
• Gardening: This is one of those skill you can’t simply pull a book off your shelf, read it, and expect to be very successful at. You’ll want to learn this now to fully understand how to work with your particular climate and soil type. It also takes a bit of time to work up your soil to be its most productive.
• Bartering: This will be a very useful skill in an extended crisis situation. There are many flea markets and other local venues where you can practice this skill.
• Entertainment: Learn to play an instrument, sing, or learn other performing art skills . During tough times, moral is low. Entertainment can otherwise lighten a heavy heart.
• Home Repair and Maintenance: Learn the basics of carpentry, electrical wiring, painting, plumbing, masonry and so on. If you live in a remote area then being able to drill wells, clear land, surveying, and home construction techniques are also ideal.

Looking at this list you’re probably thinking that even a few of these areas would take a lifetime to really learn well — and you’re right. Don’t be so concerned about learning them all yourself. That’s the importance of community. As my friend Kevin Reeve says, “Training trumps gear, but community trumps training”. The more knowledgeable people you can gather in your circle of close friends, the better off you’ll all be. 

As far as not having enough time, start now by turning off the television. Or quit waisting time golfing and get out there and practice some skills that can really be of benefit to you and others. Many of these skills can be practiced as a family. If it’s important to you, you’ll find the time. 

Well just recently a good friend of mine had reminded me of one that I had long since forgotten (having originally passed over it in a Mother Earth News article a few years back): Wood or Biomass Gasification.

What is Gasification?

In a nutshell, gasification is the process of using heat to transform solid biomass, or other carbonaceous solids, into a flammable fuel much like natural gas. Basically, you can take practically any solid dry organic matter (wood chips, walnut/cherry shells, agricultural waste etc) and convert it into a clean burning, carbon neutral, gaseous fuel.  And with this resultant fuel you can burn it in your internal combustion engine, power your generator, light up your cooking stove, and fuel your furnace — all from using the trees and waste lying around your property.

Sound too good to be true?

Well, not too long ago during WWII over one million vehicles in Europe ran onboard gasifiers to make fuel from wood and charcoal, since gasoline and diesel were severely rationed or sometimes altogether unavailable. This was all made possible using simple gasifiers about as complex as a traditional wood stove.

Fortunately for us preparedness-minded people, these small-scale gasifiers can be fairly easily manufactured using basic tools and readily available resources. Here are some

Online Resources

Here are some online resources that provide more information into gasifiers as well as how to make them:

• Plans to Build Your Own Gasifier: This was originally put out by FEMA (back when FEMA was cool). Since then many newer technologies have come out to make gasifiers more efficient.
• GEK Gasifier: an excellent open source resource into all things gasification. There’s a great community their who have a lot of expertise on making their own. Lots of newer as well as older plans to make your own.
• Gasifier Construction Plans: a good collection of different plans.
• FundamentalForm.com: Some alternative gasifier plans as well as all-around great ideas about alternate energy.

Gasifier Videos

And here are some videos that demonstrate different gasifiers:

My Goals

Over the next year, I will be experimenting with homemade gasifiers — beginning with very simple, small models and graduating to larger ones as I gain confidence. My ultimate goal is to build a homemade gasifier capable of fueling a generator that can power my home — and as always I’ll be  recording it all for your benefit. So stay posted!

Be certain to consult a professional (or a really good field guide) in order to positively identify this plant before trying this for yourself. The owners of this site will not be held responsible for any lapses in judgment or stupidity when handling or consuming wild plants.

With the summer coming to a close here in New England, one of my favorite wild edibles that I seek out in the late Summer and early Fall is the Common Elderberry (Sambucus nigra). In this article I’ll be showing you how to properly identify the Common Elderberry, where to find it, and how to process it into a delicious jelly.

How to Identify Common Elderberry

Here are the main things you’ll want to look out for in order to properly identify the Common Elderberry:

	Compound leaves: Common Elderberry leaves grow opposite each other and are divided into 5-11 coarsely toothed, elliptical, pointed leaflets (each around 3-4 inches long).
	Corky bumpy branches: Besides the bumpy “pimples” on the branches, if you crack open the branches or the twigs you’ll find a spongy, white pith.
	Late spring/Early summer — white, lacy flower clusters: The flower clusters spread over 6 inches across and are flat-topped to slightly rounded.
	Late summer/Early fall — purple-black to black berry clusters: Similar to the flowers they grow in clusters. Each juicy berry is about the size of an airsoft BB (1/4″ across) and the clusters are large and heavy enough to weigh down the branches causing them to droop. A note of caution: Stay away from the red elderberries (a different species of elderberry), these are toxic and will make you sick

Where to Find Common Elderberry

Common Elderberry can be found growing in large thicks stands. They seem to prefer moist places with a good amount of sunlight. You’ll want to look for it along roadsides and riverbanks, in marshes and in moist woods, and thickets in the eastern part of North America.

Here’s the range map indicating where Common Elderberry has officially been found:

How to Make Elderberry Jam

This recipe will make 3 pints (6 cups) of Elderberry jelly.

What You’ll Need

• pectin
• 4 cups sugar
• 6 cups of elderberries

How to Make Elderberry Jelly

	Step 1: Remove the elderberries from the clusters with a fork doing your best to make sure not to include any of stems or other plant materials. Wash these in cold water.
	Step 2: With the heat set to medium/medium-high cook the elderberries in a pot crushing the berries with a potato masher until the natural juices are released. I’ll sometimes add a little water to this recipe (1 cup of water for every 6 cups of berries). Bring to a boil allowing it to cook for around 15 minutes.
	Step 3: Pour cooked berries and juice In a colander lined with a cloth (t-shirt, multiple cheese cloths etc) allowing the juice to collect into a bowl. Since this will be very hot, let it sit for an hour to drain through and cool off.
	Step 4: Once it has cooled off, begin squeezing any left-over juices through the cloth filter.
	Step 5: Pour elderberry juice in a cooking pot, add sugar and pectin (for the proper amount of pectin, see instructions indicated on your packet) and bring to a rolling boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Let it boil only about 1 minute.
	Step 6: At this point it’s a good idea to test a small amount of the liquid to ensure that it’s setting properly (thickening into jelly). To do this, take a spoonful of the liquid and pour it into a bowl or a small plate and place it in the freezer. After a few minutes, if there is enough pectin, the liquid will have jelled up into the consistency you desire. If not, add some more and bring to a quick boil and test again. If all is well, pour the liquid into canning jars and process those canning jars in a hot-water bath or as desired in order to make an airtight seal. Properly sealed jars of elderberry jelly will store for at least a year without issue. You’ll want to finish open jars within 2 weeks since there are no preservatives.

Elderberry Nutrition Information

Elderberries are very nutritious. They are particularly known for their immune boosting capabilities and can be made into an effective cold medicine (more on that in a future article). Here is a comparison chart with other fruits:

To make cheese from powdered milk is an easy process (unexpected since I never had any experience making cheese before this). Here’s how it works:

What You’ll Need

• Powdered Milk
• Water
• Cooking Pot
• White Vinegar or Lemon Juice
• Cheesecloth or Clean Cotton T-Shirt

How to Make Cheese from Powdered Milk

I used a small amount of ingredients so I could test it out first before using the full recipe. The full recipe calls for:

• 3 cups powdered milk
• 6 cups water
• 1/2 cup plain white vinegar

In my instructions I quartered this recipe as follows:

	Step 1: Mix together 3/4 cups of powdered milk with 1 1/2 cups of cold water in a cooking pot. Stir until dissolved.
	Step 2: Stir milk over a medium-low to medium temperature until it becomes hot to the touch but not scalding (this should be around 140º if you’ve got a cooking thermometer)
	Step 3: Maintaining the same temperature, stir in 1 tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice. You should immediately begin to see the curds separating from the whey.
	Step 4: Continue cooking to allow the curds to separate from the whey. After a few minutes there should be large globs (if that’s a real word ) of curds in an amber pool of whey. If it’s still too milky, add another tablespoon of vinegar, stir and cook it on medium to medium-low heat until the curds completely separate from the whey.
	Step 5: Pour the curds and whey into a colander lined with a clean cloth, cotton t-shirt or cheesecloth to drain off the whey (this sweet liquid can be used in the place of water in other baking recipes so drain it into a bowl if desired).
	Step 6: Taking the cloth or cheesecloth (a t-shirt in my example) squeeze the curds to press out any remaining whey.
	Step 7: Rinse the curds — which is essentially ricotta cheese (I’ve been informed that this is more a paneer style cheese and not ricotta. Ricotta is made by further processing the poured-off whey. For more instructions into this, check out the links in some of the comments below) at this point — under cool water and eat fresh or store in the fridge.

Conclusion

What you should be left with is about the same amount of curds as you measured out in powdered milk.

Since I used 3/4 cup of powdered milk in the above recipe, it resulted in about 3/4 cup of curds — so plan your recipes accordingly.

I was really excited when learning this, since I love lasagna. Pasta as well as tomato sauce — in the form of canned tomatoes (or powdered tomatoes) — stores very well, but fresh cheese doesn’t. Now that I know how to make fresh cheese easily from my stored powdered milk, even lasagna can be enjoyed during the end of the world.

Despite the at-times negative media attention (we all know how reliable the main-stream media is nowadays) eggs are a very nutritious source of food that is one of the cornerstones in baking. With it’s low-cost but high-quality source of protein, if it weren’t for its short shelf life and fragility, it would be a great addition to your survival store if only you could store it.

Well, unbeknownst to many people, eggs can in fact be stored (up to 10 years if stored correctly) in the form of dehydrated egg powder — perfect for bug-out bags, camping trips and long-term food storage.

They can be used in baked goods just like normal eggs or reconstituted and made into fluffy scrambled eggs.

Here’s how you can do it at home:

What You’ll Need

• A food dehydrator (I use a cheap Walmart version)
• Eggs
• Something to store the powder in when complete

How to Make Powdered Eggs

The process for making powdered eggs is fairly simple. However there are two ways (one which creates a far superior product but more on that later), let me explain the process for both:

(In these examples, I used a half-dozen eggs for the cook-dry method and another half-dozen eggs for the wet-dry method)

The Cook-Dry Method

	Step 1: Whip up a half-dozen eggs using a blender (for a more complete mixture). And then then in a non-stick frying pan, cook the egg solution like you would when making scrambled eggs.
	Step 2: Place cooked eggs onto a drying rack in your dehydrator and set the temperature to about 145 degrees Fahrenheit.
	Step 3: Let dry for around 4 hours until completely brittle throughout.
	Step 4: Chop dried chunks in a blender or food processor (or coffee grinder) until it has a fine powdery constancy. Bag it and store it away.

The Wet-Dry Method

	Step 1: Lightly grease a fruit roll sheet (it comes with the dehydrator) with a paper towel.
	Step 2: Whip up a half-dozen eggs using a blender (not necessary but it does make for a a more uniform mixture). Pour the egg slurry into the fruit-roll sheet and set the temperature to about 145 degrees Fahrenheit.
	Step 3: Let dry for around 16 hours until completely brittle throughout.
	Step 4: Place dried chunks in a blender or food processor (or coffee grinder) until it has a fine powdery constancy. Bag it and store it away.

My Results

When comparing the two methods there is most definitely a clear winner — the wet dry method.

This is surprising since most of the information found online and in books explains that you should use the cook-dry method. Their main reasoning is that by cooking them it will kill any potential salmonella bacteria. I find this point irrelevant since after reconstituting them you will be cooking with them anyways (as you would with the original eggs) which will kill the salmonella.

The only advantage I found with the cook-dry method is the quickness of the drying time (four hours compared to 16 with the wet-dry method). Beyond that, when reconstituting the cook-dried eggs and cooking them like scrambled eggs, they have a grainy texture, and they taste dry and stale. They also do not fluff up like normal eggs when cooked in a pan. I assume this lack of “rising” would not work to well in baked goods that require this “leavening” property.

The wet-dry method produces a much better product. Although the powder turns initially orange, when reconstituted and cooked like scrambled eggs, the orange turns to yellow and they taste, look, and feel just like non-dehydrated egss. They also maintain the “leavening” property and fluff up which is important for baking.

Here’s a picture of the two in powder form with their resultant reconstituted and cooked product:

How to Use Powdered Eggs

Uses of Powdered Eggs

Powdered eggs can be used in the same exact manner as regular eggs. The only thing you’ll not be able to do is create things like poached eggs, or sunny-side-up eggs etc. But for all other needs like baking, french toast, scrambled eggs and so on, you’ll have the same results — but in a much more compact and storage-friendly form.

How to Reconstitute Powdered Eggs

Reconstituting powdered eggs is a simple process. To make the equivalent of one average sized egg mix 1 heaping tablespoon of egg powder together with 2 tablespoons of water. Stir it up, let it sit for 5 min and use as you would normal eggs.

Conclusion

After trying out this process, I’m not sure if it’s entirely worth it to spend 16 hours to make a dozen powdered eggs. I assume if I had a better dehydrator with more than two fruit-roll sheets it would be an easier process, but given what I got it would take 120 hours to fill a #10 can (it fits about 7 1/2 dozen eggs) if I used the wet-dry method (the cooked dry egg taste so bad I wouldn’t even consider it).

Also, since you can purchase really cheap powdered eggs online, equivalent to what you would pay for fresh eggs in the store, makes it even less appealing.

For example, from HoneyVilleGrain.com (where I get my powdered eggs from) you can purchase a six-pack case of #10 cans of powdered eggs for $89.99. This is equivalent to 45 dozen eggs (each can fits about 7.5 dozen eggs) – enough for a year’s supply for a small family.

At $89.99 that’s around $2 a dozen. Not too bad.

Where this whole process would definitely be worth it is if you had chickens that produced more eggs than you typically consume. This would help to store up a good amount of eggs when the chickens go through their down phase.

Dervaes's BackYard - photo © pathtofreedom.com

They make their own biodiesel and electricity (through solar means) and their 1/10th of an acre garden produces over 6,000 pounds of fruit and vegetables annually! This is more than enough food for four adults. They also sell the surplus to nearby restaurants making about $20,000 a year on the food alone.

Here are a couple of videos featuring the Dervaes family and their home (for my email subscribers you’ll have to view it on the site since the video doesn’t embed in most email servers):

Resources

Be sure to check out the Dervaes website, Path to Freedom: Urban Homestead for details into how they accomplished this as well as tips in creating your own homestead.

Consider this story taken from the October 1950 issue of Reader’s Digest:

Gullible Gulls

“In our friendly neighbor city of St. Augustine great flocks of sea gulls are starving amid plenty. Fishing is still good, but the gulls don’t know how to fish. For generations they have depended on the shrimp fleet to toss them scraps from the nets. Now the fleet has moved…

“The shrimpers had created a Welfare State for the…sea gulls. The big birds never bothered to learn how to fish for themselves and they never taught their children to fish. Instead they led their little ones to the shrimp nets.

“Now the sea gulls, the fine free birds that almost symbolize liberty itself, are starving to death because they gave in to the ’something for nothing’ lure! They sacrificed their independence for a handout.

“A lot of people are like that too. They see nothing wrong in picking delectable scraps from the tax nets of the U.S. Government’s ’shrimp fleet.’ But what will happen when the Government runs out of goods? What about our children of generations to come?

“Let’s not be gullible gulls. We…must preserve our talents of self-sufficiency, our genius for creating things for ourselves, our sense of thrift and our true love of independence.”

It’s hard to believe that article was written over 60 years ago! Yet, this story’s message is as relevant today as ever.

Wealth Without Work

Mahatma Ghandi wisely said that one of the seven deadly sins is “wealth without work”. This practice of desiring and receiving benefits which haven’t been earned has become so prevalent in our society that even the wealthiest expect the government to give them a handout (does Bank of America, Citi, AIG and GM come to mind?). This practice, if allowed to become universally accepted in a society, will force its citizens into slavery.

The problem of entitlements and handouts isn’t exclusively a government problem. Many well-meaning parents dole out resources and keep their kids on the “family udder” well beyond what is necessary. This in many ways is worse than a government handout because it teaches that dependency is acceptable.

Some key questions that should come to the minds of any responsible parent are, “Am I teaching my children self-reliance?” or “Am I leading them to be independent?”. Of course, you can only teach what you know yourself so remember that achieving self-reliance yourself should be your first priority.

Becoming Self-Reliant

Self-reliance is not so much the gaining of a particular skill-set (although that is part of it), rather it’s a mindset.

To become self-reliant requires a conscious effort of replacing an “I need help” attitude with an “I can do it myself” attitude. And the best part of becoming self-reliant is that it rewards you along the way. As you achieve even a small portion of it, you feel really good about yourself.

Self-reliance and Liberty

Developing self-reliance is what leads to independence and independence is at the core of liberty. Liberty and self-reliance are so closely intertwined that a nation whose citizens lose their self-reliance will eventually lose their liberty — a sad truth we are witnessing today.

For this reason it’s so important that each of us take an honest look at ourselves and our families and ask whether we are striving to be self-reliant or looking for a handout. With that said, don’t be a “gullible gull”. Look for areas in your own life where you can become more self-reliant and less dependent upon the government or others. Our nation depends on it…