THE WAY HOME

 The way home.

Lost this past week's post. The post opened in html. and I had no clue what to do. By the time I figured it out I saw that I had erased the post in the process of figuring out how to figure it out. A quick post then.

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FROM DAISY LUTHER

The Organic Prepper has a good review on being prepared this week. It covers much of what she promotes on being ready. One week before elections and being as self-sufficient as we all can be is paramount in my book. It also well covers what I have been harping on for the past years in getting ready for down times. 

My wife and I are planning on hitting a few main outlets and a few local markets this week to finalize some little things in our After closets. Trying to round out our one year preps for down times. 

Cream of Wheat (remember having when we were kids). Quick, tasty especially with a little sugar, butter and milk around the inside edge of the bowl. Also adding a few boxes of instant oatmeal. Hot water from the kettle and a meal is served. 

Peanut butter, honey and making sure we can bake bread and bisects more often than we do now.  Mixins for soups, stews and quick casseroles, too. 

After the election we plan/hope to continue living and store-going as we have since we arrived in Texas. Times will dictate how that unfolds and how we adapt.

I, too, suggest you get out this week and pick up extra items for your cupboards too. 

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WINTER IS COMING...

even in Texas. Days are noticeably cooler. Winter in the northern parts of Texas have snow and sleet now. Normal winter seasons returning around the nation. 

This is good news and should be used to everyone's advantage over these coming months. Common sense tells me that mother nature will again have her way with all of us and this will be a natural deterrent for folks running crazy in the big cities and suburbs. Not as much fun freezing their asses off in protesting. Will be much easier pissing and moaning from the net.  Take advantage of what winter offers. 

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LOCALS GATHER FOR....

parades, chili cook-offs, pie eating, car shows and old fashion outdoor activities. 

Very refreshing. A few pics from this past weekend in East Texas.

Big, beautiful, and huggable.

Very clean Ford 289 cu. V-8

Dodge Hemi works well in this old car

Nice old everyday driver

4 on the floor

Classic early 1960's Chevy Impala

Many older cars and trucks along the side streets too

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Thanks for visiting and have a good week.

"I WILL PUT YOU IN A TRUNK AND HELP PEOPLE LOOK FOR YOU" - - TWO WEEKS LEFT/LAST WEEKS OF FAMILIAR FREEDOMS

 

Social Distancing - Just Not Right!! 

Deer Passing Through

Wasting Time

Call it unwinding. 

I have never had a difficult time just sitting, watching, listening and thinking. More so these past few years. Wasting time by most standards.

My wife joins me now in the early evenings and we talk of worldly things from dribs and drabs. If we are lucky, we may get to whisper to each other to look at 3 o'clock for the deer passing through. 

We first talked of moments like this the day we visited this home for sale. We talked of sitting on this porch in our rocking chairs, visiting and surveying our kingdom. 

The faint sounds are far off animals, wind rustling and the sound birds make whooshing though the trees to the fields beyond. Train whistles can still be heard in the far distance and on the quietest of early evenings, there are sounds the earth gives off from the weight of those trains moving down the tracks.

Still no television. Been 6 months now. Trying to figure out hanging the tv on the wall, understand Roku and how Sling TV works. We need a twelve year old to spend some time with us. (Finally hung the TV on the wall yesterday.)

Rocking chairs serve us well.

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A Good Batch

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The Cub Cadet Tractor/Lawnmower puked, we borrowed a trailer, hauled it to Sulpher Springs CC Dealer and landed at Carl Jr's for a hamburger lunch. 

My wife spotted a gal in the restaurant wearing this shirt and asked if she minded if my wife took a photo. She did not. 

Another East Texas Point of View.

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25 YEAR SHELF LIFE 

Maybe more important short-term thinking and having stored in the back room now. If you are not into any of this, think investment. Double/triple your money in The After. Better yet, you will be able to help folks in need.

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C19 BIOWEAPON

Worth reading. 

2020 VOTERS GUIDE

WARNING LETTER

JUST TWO WEEKS LEFT!!

I could be wrong, hope I am. This coming week will be the last week I would expect to get what I want or need for the coming year.  Most likely, it is on the shelf somewhere in your circle of life. Even from the net, orders will be filled and shipped. (My wife just ordered wanted items for the garage/carport - free shipping and arrives Monday.)

Clean things up, put stuff in order, shore up plans and for goodness sake, do not be afraid or in panic. Stay a course. Work the course and no giving up. Be the person who is true to his/her family and friends. True to his/her God. True to his/her country. True to good vs evil. True to putting it all on the line if the moment comes. 

It is too late not to be ready.

Eighteen wheelers still rolling east/west-north/south delivering goods. Trains laden with containers same same. 

But just this weekend I am starting to see blurbs on getting your Xmas shopping done NOW and health officials making national policy in the want for gathering restrictions at Thanksgiving. Repeating myself; use your familiar freedoms available next week wisely. 

Do you have your turkey in the freezer and the necessary fixins' for boats of gravy and dressing overload? Pumpkin pie filling? If turkeys dry up, think two large whole chickens. Go ahead, laugh, but ponder Thanksgiving day w/o a bird on the table. 

A test? Tell your family and friends that you already have your bird and your Xmas shopping is done. Do it face to face so you can see the look on their face. Smiley face, smiley face!!

Neither of these holidays this year need to be excessive or "too much." But they should be enough to accomplish the spirits of the season and fulfill some responsibilities. 

Thanks for the visit this week. 

HOME CANNING - EAST TEXAS HORSES ROAM FREE - RESOLVED TO THE FACT...

DAWN OF A NEW DAY

Joined the local morning commuters this past week. Early shopping trip to town. The horizon exploded in reds, yellows and oranges seconds before the sun broke through. Early morning fog wets the fields over night. 

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Local Weekend Market Sign

HOME CANNING OCTOBER 2020

Ten pounds Boneless Chicken Breast and ten pounds of Eye of Round beef canned. 

Large chicken breasts from the butcher. Must be a machine that removes the carcass, leaving the two breasts still attached. Very little trimming needed to remove fat. Bowl of trimmed chicken in upper left hand corner for chicken soup.

Chicken cut into strips, then cubed.

Jars filled, one teaspoon of salt and one tablespoon of water added. Our preference. 

Same process with beef. See remaining eye of round beef in the upper left hand corner. Very lean and good for canning. Zero waste.

Meat processed in pressure canners.

It has been four years since we have canned meat, so we used this go-round to relearn the whole process. Followed directions on canning meat and the directions that came with the pressure canners. 

In days of very very old, grandmother canned meats out of necessity. No way to store meat long term (one season). Grandfather brought bone in beef/chickens cleaned-plucked and grandma did the rest. Trimmed out meats landed in a pot for broths, soups and stews. 

Traditions and lessons from the past work as well today as it did then. And for similar reasons. To have some foods in the cupboards for the year ahead.

Canning pics and comments are not intended to be used for your home canning guidelines. You must do your own homework, learn the process and follow the directions for the foods you wish to can.  

One of our go-to references when home canning.

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FREEDOM HORSES IN EAST TEXAS
 

Apparently, the neighbors up the road let their horses out to roam from time to time, or the horses can get out easily on their own to roam, or some combination of both. We let our next door neighbors know but they already knew. 

We learned this is a normal occurrence.  If the horse owners did not find them that day, our close by neighbors would put the roaming horses in their fenced in land until the owners came looking for them.

The two horses sauntered about and then through our front yard in the photo above. They gave no appearance of being lost.

A land where horses can roam free.

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NOT A WELCOME SIGHT IN THE MORNING

Feral hogs had broken through a neighbor's fence and were about to tear up producing pasture land. Only one remedy to this problem and it is immediate and final. 

I have seen the damage done by a family of hogs and fully realize the destruction they cause when they set in to root through a section of pasture. The hogs completely destroy the land and its ability to produce.  

Hogs reproduce at an alarming rate and present on going problems for farmers to manage.

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MOUNTAIN RESCUE A very cool video.

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Our early mornings are filled with lots of conversations and a pot of coffee. My wife and I are resolved to the fact that waking up the morning of November 4th, 2020 will be the beginnings of difficult months ahead for this country. 

I see nor hear little hope for good things to come from the media and the net. Most all opinions, varying in degrees of the peoples of this country raging war on each other. Political, economic, personal, racial, religious and the list is long. 

No more sitting and talking of differences. No more visiting of shared good living in this great country. No more just getting along and living our individual lives together in a free land. I have been here 75 years now and have only read of times like this in history books. 

Worrying about having to go to Vietnam for two different tours of duty was a cake walk compared to my growing concerns for todays tomorrows. 

So our mornings are spent talking and planning. Not going down the rabbit hole planning, but tying up loose ends and using these last few days to our advantage as best as we can. More often than not, when the breakfast kitchen is cleaned, dishes put away and the official days starts, we have before us achievable tasks.  Other tasks are scheduled out several days. No more years, months or weeks of talking doing. Push is coming to shove. 

Possibility that panic purchasing is close on the horizon.  Clearing everything off of the shelves and re-supply will be a crap shoot.

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Apparently not the time/place to reconsider turning back. From the Daily Time Waster. 

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Trailing Western edge of Storm Delta Friday.

Thanks for the visit this week, heads up, knees bent and be active in getting you and yours ready to be self-sufficient well into the new year. 

 

 

EARLY OCT 2020 TEXAS MONTH 5

PUMPKINS MEAN OCTOBER

I think this October is going to catch on fire. Hope I am wrong. Given the current crazy, seems it is time to start ramping up all the hate and hurt the Left can sum up against anything, good, happy, traditional or normal living. A gut feeling. 

The new Texas home is now set in stone. Life and living is happening. Guest bedrooms are fully furnished but being used as staging area for the rest of the house. Kitchen full function among some mess and items finding their final drawer or cupboard. TV unpacked and resting on the couch. A dozen pictures hung and others set close by. 

Two more truck trips to the storage unit and will close that down. Most all small boxes marked, "Garage."

Our go to cooking tools have been the small Dutch oven and the cast iron frying pan. Meats, seasoning, sliced onions and sliced potatoes. She always forgets adding the carrots. A gentle smile and "oh I completely forgot. Sorry." Blinky eye, blinky eye. She is not a fan of cooked carrots.  I will only be concerned when she forgets to add the cube steaks, chicken or pork chops. 

The smell of food on the simmer, no mess dinner serving and double the flavors of the left overs are reminders of both our early years growing up in families who cooked for larger families. There is a sense of warmth, homjeness, security, safety and well being within the smell of activity in the kitchen. I talk about this, damn near every post. Part of making this new house a home. 

The smaller size of the new home mandates throwing things away. I pick it up put it down. Pick it up, put it down. The third time I try heading to the garbage bin. This has to become a new habit. 

Most all of the outside construction and add-on's complete. Her found 20 (twenty year old) boxwood trees on Facebook. Dug up and delivered. She had them planted the next day and has gone out to visit with them everyday since. So far, so good.

We love East Texas. Our back woods home. Local small towns. Weather. Thunderstorms. The promise of good years ahead. Quiet. Just being her and me. The satisfaction of work of  small accomplishments. Exceptional nearby restaurants. New friends/neighbors. Everyday politeness. A good night's sleep. The adventure. Not the poison ivy! 

We are also learning how to become part of the community. Saturday morning market gets us out of the house early and walking through local farms' products. Finding out how to keep in touch with some of the vendors after the market closes at the end of this month. 

We are getting a dozen fresh eggs every week now.

This October brings barrel-racing, parades, flea markets, swap meets, car shows and other activities that bring folks to town. These have been on going for years and years and a few minutes spent with locals tells of stories of how big it use to be. Parades of 500 hundred horse and riders now (no stallions) used to be thousands. 

Found this on Ace of Spades last week.

Corn Dogs

JUNK YARD DOG?

We have been under surveillance these past weeks from JYD (Junk Yard Dog). First from the woods, then from the far yard and recently, laying next to the far tree pictured here. 

My wife and I have talked to the dog while out side. Friendly talk, a whistle to make her ears perk up. We have been able to go about our chores, but advancing towards JYD sets her moving to distance. 

It appears she has a routine through our yard. Also appears to always return towards a small group of neighbors south of us. Yet there is something about her visits. She has spent hours just laying near by. Baby steps. NO!! we are not giving JYD a name. No we are not feeding her. No we are not looking for a pet. We will not be adopted! No, No, No!!! I do like that floppy ear.

PLAYING WITH DOUGH

 

Neighbor called Tuesday night and said her husband had made a batch of his famous East Texas Chicken Stew. She was sharing.

My wife hopped in the car to pick up and was able to drop two small fresh home made loaves of bread off as a thank you. That worked better than planning. "Yes," very good with some spice heat. Our last loaf of bread married with the chicken stew like they were made for each other.

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FIRST CHILL  IS IN THE AIR

Morning sunrise drills though the woods.

Colder! Brisk morning wind brought with it the first noticeable East Texas chill.  Sign of changing seasons. I have been told that there is summer in Texas and then there is February! I fear that I may be back to wearing long pants and waffle shirts soon.

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THANKSGIVING 2020

Her and I wonder out loud if there will be traditional Thanksgivings this year. We have worried about securing a turkey but her did that Thursday with a local butcher. 

We are now on the list for a late October 20 lb. fresh turkey. Also fresh turkey necks for dressing and gravy. Recently picked up pumpkin pie mix, filling and canned cranberries.  

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0 DARK THIRTY CAPE COD. LINEMAN HEADED TO HIS OFFICE

POTUS now at Walter Reed Hospital for Covid19 treatments. We worry about this and pray for his recovery and protection. Apparently back at the WH and working today.

Appreciate the visit this week. Live each day, keep your heads up, knees bent and tell a member of your family that you love them.