Recipe Blackberry Sauce

52 Unique Techniques for Stocking Food for Prepper
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This recipe on making blackberry sauce is a very easy way to use blackberries. I a couple years ago I planted several canes of blackberries along my fence, and they have been my biggest agricultural success. I later used this sauce as a base for some very good blackberry wine…

It does not matter if you use this recipe to make wine, or dump this over pancakes or ice cream this is a tasty way to use blackberries.  And if you plant them, you will end up with a lot of them because they turn difficult to control and spread everywhere…

Ingredients

  • Blackberries
  • Sugar
  • 2 tablespoons corn starch
  • 2 Tablespoons water

Recipe

  • Cover berries with sugar
  • Cook berries in a nonreactive pot on medium high heat until sugar melts
  • Mix cornstarch with water and mix into a slurry. This is a thickening agent.
  • Take pot off heat and mix in corn starch mixture
  • Put back on heat and cook until they reach the consistency you desire
  • Bottle and if storing for long term process in a water bath canner.

I like blackberries, but I really hate the seeds, which leads to the beauty of this blackberry sauce recipe.  If you use a strainer  you can get the sauce without the seeds.  And until someone is able to crack how to get seedless blackberries (which is harder than you’d think) this will have to do.

How to Make a Mason Jar Mini Hamburger Press

52 Unique Techniques for Stocking Food for Prepper
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I know some people in my life think I am crazy because they don’t get why I do the things I do, but I really have a master plan.  You see, while some of my little projects and experiments don’t always work out, or turn out to be inefficient – the process keeps my mind lubricated and trains it to see new solutions to problems.

The other day while looking for new things to try I came across a link to a technique of using mason jar lids as mini spring form tart pans (Yes I will share later), and my mind jumped to “that’s awesome, I would never have thought of that – I wonder if I could adapt this to something else…. HAMBURGER PRESS!) – As the comedic marriage counselor says men’s brains are waffles, women’s brains are spaghetti – my brain is a mess, so lets use our mason jar hamburger press

So anyway, I got out a wide mouth mason jar ring and two new lids.

I then balled up some hamburger, and tried to make patties.

I learned that by inserting the first lid outside up, placing the hamburger on it, and then topping with the other lid outside in, the process went better – by having the smooth outside touch the meat, it slid out much better.

While this made burger patties that are the size of sausage patties (….new idea…) it is very easy, and I think would be a great way to make sliders from dinner rolls.

Anyway, it was a quick thought I tried out my Mason Jar Hamburger Press and I liked it, hopefully it is useful to you.

PRN Episode #25 Interview Dr. Tom Cannon

PRN Episode #25 Interview Dr. Tom Cannon

PRN Episode #25 Interview Dr. Tom Cannon
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For today’s show David is interviewing an real-life rocket scientist, innovator, and Hall of Fame athlete Dr. Tom Cannon.

Dr. Cannon holds 21 different patents – from things such as the fiber optic connectors on the Patriot Missile system, to a bubble level device to help you perfect your golf swing – but today we talk about his ThriftyVac® invention.

Thirftyvac is a device that allows for the non-electric vacuum sealing of food using ordinary zip-lock type bags.

As with all innovators, Tom started with a problem, defined it, and then came up with a cost effective and sturdy solution.

The second I saw his video I knew I would back his project – Not because it is worth it (I think it is), but because it solves problems I have experienced and therefore makes my life easier.

Dr, Cannon‘s invention is currently being funded through Kickstarter.com, and for those not familiar Kickstarter is a way for innovators and producers to receive funds from actual consumers instead of venture capitalists – this way products either fail or succeed based upon what people actually want rather than how good a salesman you are.

The kickstarter project for the Thirftyvac is already successful, and Tom has raised enough to ensure his product will be produced.  So I am not having him on the show to help him, as much as to give you the opportunity to back the project so you can get the device and other backer rewards much sooner and at a lower cost than what will be available to the general public.

His project will close on July 10th at 10:56am CDT, after that you will have to wait for the Thirftyvac to be sold commercially – (early 2014) – backers are scheduled to get theirs before Christmas 2013.

Besides talking about the Thriftyvac, Tom also discusses his booklet “How to be an Innovator” which explains how to go from a problem to an idea, to a product – and then a business.

I approached Dr. Cannon because I believe that a non-electric vacuum sealer than is non-destructive to the bags (ziplock can be reused) is something the prepper community could use.  I have not received anything in return for my endorsement.

You can find more about the Thriftyvac here:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1066541019/thriftyvac

Watch Videos about it on Youtube:

The show is scheduled for Monday at 10pm central time at this link.

If you cannot listen on Monday, you can always download the podcast for listening at your own leisure.

How to Replace A Glock Trigger to Make it Smooth

 

Glock Smooth Trigger Replacement
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I do not believe in modifying carry guns outside of factory specifications. A small part of this is because of liability, but mostly it is because of the unknown consequences to reliability.

A firearm is a machine, and the weight of the parts of the gun are factored in with drag, inertia, spring weight, type of ammunition, and hundreds of other factors to create a gun that functions with the desired ratio or accuracy and reliability.

Every part has to work together and when you replace a part you are piddling with the whole. Tiny tolerances add up – and when you replace many parts you may end up with an unreliable gun. Since the most important factor in choosing a defensive handgun is reliability I don’t risk compounding tolerances.

The Smooth Trigger Was What Glock Designed

However, the modification in todays post is actually bringing the gun back to manufacturer’s specifications. When Gaston Glock created his pistol he built it with a smooth faced trigger, but due to some unfathomable reason the ATF has import points and for a gun to able to be imported it has to have enough points. The ATF considers a smooth trigger to be a combat trigger, and a ridged trigger to be a target trigger.

A full sized Glock has enough points to be imported with the original trigger, but the compact and sub-compact guns were one point short. Therefore Glock has to make a target trigger to meet the red tape.

Luckily, many (if not most) of Glock parts are interchangeable, and if you want a smooth trigger for your compact or sub compact all you need to do (in most cases) is to order the trigger from the full size gun in your caliber.

I have a Glock 19, so to get a smooth trigger I just ordered the Glock 17 trigger and swapped them.  It only cost me a few dollars and a couple minutes to change the feel of my trigger pull.

Now this does nothing to change the weight, take up, or break of the action.

If only changes the feel of the trigger on your finger. However if you are going to a high round count school where you will spend 8 hours a day on the range shooting hundreds or thousands of rounds you will feel a difference, and you will be thankful you made the switch. Other than that it is really a personal preference thing and just something nice to know.

The specifics of how to do this can be found here.

Organize Fishing Hooks With Safety Pins

Organize Fishing Hooks With Safety Pins

Organize Fishing Hooks With Safety Pins
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This simple project of learning to organize fishing hooks with safety pins takes less than a minute, and can make your fishing trips much less stressful.

Simply sort your fishhooks by type, and then run a safety pin through the hook’s eye.

This not only keeps your fishhooks sorted, keeps them in place, and it gives you a reason to have one of the greatest prepper tools (the safety pin) in your tackle box.

This has saved my tackle box from turning into a rats nest of mixed junk.  It is a simple little thing, but its the little things that help.  Besides, with all the safety pins now in your fishing gear you have “survival gear” also – you never know how useful a safety pin is until you need one and don’t have it.

As a bonus tip for reading how to organize fishing hooks with safety pins, I will tell you that for years I was highly unsuccessful at catching fish and then I was told I use too big of a hook.  The smaller the hook the more fish you will catch.  Sounds simple right….

Now I am just a moderately unsuccessful fisherman, but that is because I keep loosing lures to the trees above me…

I keep trying to learn more about fishing, as my son really likes it, I look up information on fishing all the time, I just found this post on types of fishing poles.