Mothers Day Gifts - Plants

In my Mothers Day Series I will continue with the suggestion of living green things.

For the non-prepper of course there is the option of buying flowers or a potted plant.
If you're looking to turn the heart perhaps something like an Aloe plant in a nice pot would be just the thing.

With the pots for these plants you can also order a personalized one OR you can do what I did last year and paint the kids hands with outdoor paint and press them onto a terra cotta plant. That way Grandma has the grandkids (or Aunty has the nieces and nephews or Mom has the kids) AND a useful plant!

I also like the idea of a windowsill herb pot or even a larger pot with kitchen herbs for use. Consider what herbs the woman is most likely to use, assuming she cooks, and plant some of those and accompanying herbs. Recently at my local grocery store I saw pots of herbs for Italian cooking that included Basil, Oregano and Sage just to name the ones I remember.

You can also give the special mom in your life a container bush. Certain varieties of blueberry do quite well in peat moss and a pot rather than in the ground. This might be just the thing to get the gears turning about what other kinds of edibles could be grown in pots.

Finally one of my last suggestions is growing an heirloom plant from seed. There is a lot of time and energy that goes into growing heirlooms from seed and when you present the half grown seedling you can explain the reason WHY the heirloom is superior than that of the nursery plant (if you think that it is) or why you chose that particular plant to grow and give to that special "mom".

I personally am toying with the idea of giving my Mother in law one of my Amish Paste tomato babies. I've spent all sorts of time telling her why I prefer to grow them over the "regular" hybrids I can buy at the nursery but perhaps giving her one to complete and taste would bring home what I'm talking about when she thinks I'm crazy.

Mothers Day Ideas - Building the library

Mothers Day is over a week away and I thought I'd throw out a couple of posts with some gift ideas.

Todays gift ideas are: Books

Whether you are buying for a special "mom" in your life or hinting to your loved ones what you would like I think books are a fantastic gift.

For people who aren't "into" prepping but you're hoping to open their hearts and minds might I suggest:

In a perfect world by Laura Kasischke.
It's an apocalypse but just barely. Really it's a woman's grace and beauty book and oh by the way the world as we know it ends. It's actually the first "End of the World" book I ever read and I truly feel like it opened by heart to questions about self sufficiency.

Other good ideas for not yet preppers include Just In Case by Kathy Harrison. After all, it's just for "in case".

For those who do have an eye towards self sufficency might I suggest any of the "standard" TEOTWAWKI fiction such as World Made by Hand by James Kunstler or One Second After by William Forstchen. If that doesn't convert them I don't know what will.

For those who are beginning to open their hearts, in addition to the above fiction might I also suggest The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery or any book about wild edibles for their region of the world.

For those who are already "prepping" I suggest reading Surviving the Apocalypse in the Suburbs by Wendy Brown. Sometimes prepping can be overwhelming but Wendy really lays it out in doable "chunks".

Also good books for those knee deep are any books about gardening (I don't have a favorite, sorry) or meal prep/recipes/cooking from food storage. I have a dutch oven cook book (or two) that I love and find it pretty valuable for today and the possible tomorrow.

What are your Mother's Day library wishes?

Goals List

This is my list for the next two weeks:

1. Completely clean the storage under the stairs. Currently residing under there are a number of cans of paint, at least 1 cooler, some pictures of my ex husband and I and 1 half of a closet door, the bi-fold kind. I don't know where the other half is. I need to learn how to dispose of paint.

2. Store 15 gallons of water based on the calculation of 1 gallon per person per day for minimum of 3 days. This means I need approximately 28 2 liters of water if I go that route.

3. Store 1 bottle of bleach. Can be a small bottle but it is for water purification. My whites are white enough, thankyouverymuch.

4. Store at least 2 items to flavor the water. Initially I said containers of either Tang or Kool Aid but upon reflection, I have a bunch of Crystal light containers of flavoring that can do a gallon at a time I believe. So I will store of of those to handle some of the water flavoring. I just need to figure out how to keep that organized.

This should be completed by 6/18/10 and I will post pictures and updates for accountability.

Goals

I may have mentioned I'm a planner. I like lists. I need them to keep me on track. That's the general purpose of this blog is to keep me on track and focused.

The other night my husband and I were having a talk and he said he felt like I didn't have a specific, attainable goal in mind with all the prep talk. (Also, this stuff is such a downer)

So I really thought about achievable goals and I am going to list them here.

1. Organize pantry - be brutal.
No more cake mix that I might make some day. No more cans of food that someone gave me when they were moving and I have just held on to them. No more stocking up on stuff with a quickly approaching expiration date.

I want to have 6-12 months of storage on hand but I want to rotate it out so it doesn't get stale. This means gutting what I currently have and organizing it in a way that will make rotation easier. Husband says he will help.

2. Learn to cook.
Okay, I already KNOW how to cook. On a stove. With electricity and a can opener. I don't always know how to make things from scratch. In the event of prolonged electricity loss I need to know how to create things from scratch over an alternative fuel source.

This means I will learn how to boil water and cook food at a minimum on our outdoor grill and preferable over an open fire. I made need a camping Dutch Oven. (Psst -makes a great post Mother's Day gift)

Also this little item would make a great wedding anniversary gift sweetie. Just sayin'.

3. Learn to grow
I do not have any worries about my onions. It looks like we will have 6 good sized ones when the garden is done. And I have 3 pinkish looking strawberries so far and 1 sugar snap pea pod. My cucumbers however, are suffering and I still haven't planted my tomatoes. I tried to harden them off and they started to turn yellowy brown.

I would like to work more on my herb garden as well. To that end we are pulling out (or having pulled out) the massive Juniper bushes in my front yard and putting in a butterfly/herb garden. And maybe some lettuce.

4. Learn to save.
Even if my garden does NOT produce huge quantities of food this year I plan to learn how to save what we like to eat so that when it DOES get going I can save it all.

To this end I'm getting canning supplies and am determined to learn how to can tomato sauce this year as well as some of of fruit preserving. And applesauce although truthfully, I've canned applesauce before. That wasn't so bad.

5. Relax.
I need to make a massage appointment. You know, for my health.