Krystyna

Don't rely on bay leaves. They work on rice, but that's it. Fresh rosemary sprigs work better.

Alondra

It may make you feel better to know that the whole thing about the Mayan calendar coming to an end is a bunch of hooey. The calendar was set up with two intermeshing wheels, one a lunar calendar, one a solar calendar. So there were enough meshing grooves for the number of days in the solar months times the number of days in the lunar months. At the time the last day comes around, yes, the "time" on the calendar runs out, but that doesn't mean TIME runs out... it means that their calendar, in spite of being more accurate than ours, is not eternal. It simply starts over. So all the witches and warlocks can go back to sleep and leave the rest of us alone, instead of trying to make us crazy with worry and panic.

When I was a little girl, I spent a lot of time in the sumners with my DGM. I used to read her books while she napped, and one of them was a thick book by a prominent minister, published in 1923, about the eminent end of the world. I can only imagine what kind of panic that book caused when it was published, but at the time I read it, it was in the '50's, and the world still hadn't come to an end then, 27 years later. Check out Leviticus 19:26 & 19:31 and 1 John 4:1 for a Biblical take on the matter.

Krystyna

Alondra, I'm with you on that. We never know when our personal last day will be. Hit by a bus, a little blood clot lodged in the brain, whatever. It doesn't have to be the Mayan calendar or anything else major. I believe that God has alotted us each a certain number of breaths to take on this earth - just enough to get us to the point where we can hopefully meet him. In the meanwhile, it's good to be prepared to take care of ourselves and our neighbors in need.

Deb G

This is maybe getting alittle off track but growing up I remember learning about bomb shelters and how to build and stock them. We lived in SD in what some would call the boonies. There weren't any bombs being built within several hundred miles of where we lived and where it would've been the most likely bombs would have been dropped. But being on a farm we
Now, with the reactors in Japan leaking radiation and it showing up in the US it becomes alittle scary. Especially since we live approx 45 min. from a nuc plant. Never even thought to worry about it before but a lot of people are becoming aware that it could happen here and beginning to think about what they would need in an emergency such as that.
As for food anything canned, whether in glass or metal, is the safest way to keep food safe.
There are numerous things that can be done to ready ourselves for something catastrophic but we don't need to panic, just gain the knowledge needed to become prepared.

craftymatt2

If you don't mind me asking, how do you can chicken???

agoldencomet

It is fine to stock up anything you can, within reason. However, it is surprising how much good food is thrown away every day in North America. In our household we are careful not to waste. For example, we make our own chicken stock from cracked chicken bones; not only is it free (cooked on the wood stove) but it is also better for us than canned or "cubes". Small bits of left-over veggies are frozen in one cup containers until the day I make "clean out the freezer soup". Also, for environmental reasons, we have not used plastic wrap for over ten years. We use reusable containers instead. And no paper towels - clean-up rags or some other substitute. Just a few examples of easy ways to save money. Time to think like our grandmothers did.

irenecarter

tried this site, didn't work.

Aurora

There are several sites regarding canning. Here is just one:

http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/can_home.html

My mother tells me my grandmother use to can sausage. Also, more things you purchase from the grocery store are being sold in canning jars. Several pasta sauces and even Great Value Salsa are sold in canning jars. If you use these products, it is a great way to recycle to save canning jars. I purchase products mostly in glass jars and recycle. I try not to purchase items in plastic, but those jars/bottles go to the recycling center.

Canned properly, canned goods can have a much longer shelf live. The important thing is to have a rotation system.

I remember when I was 15 (back in the 60's) there were several predictions of the end of the world, but that was the middle of the cold war and the circucmstances were different. Even though people were afraid, they did very little to prepare.

Even my mother (84) is noticing the changes in the earth. More earthquakes, volcanos, weather pattern changes.

We have been mostly talking about food, don't forget about water, that is much more important than food.

Krystyna

Just try typing in the address. For some reason the link here isn't working. I just tried and it worked.

Krystyna

First of all, you MUST use a pressure canner. Essentially, you put the cut up chicken into quart or pint jars, cover with boiling water, sprinkle a little kosher salt if you wish, seal the sterilized jars and pressure can at 70 minutes for a pint, 90 for a quart. There is a yahoo group that I belong to that has zillions of files for preserving food. It's preserving-food. If you join, do daily digest or there can be toooo many messages.