2013 | Page 29 of 34 | Tennessee Gun

17 Mar 2013

PRN Episode #9 Paul Wheaton

In this episode David interviews Paul Wheaton the Bad Boy of Permiculture

As well as Permaculture, Paul discusses everything Homesteading related, from raising animals to how to save money on your monthly heating bill.

Paul on Facebook

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.

I am a fan of Paul Wheaton, now I have said before that I don’t enjoy his sense of humor much, but I totally respect what he has built and the knowledge he has acquired. As a matter of fact, when I have a sticky problem I normally start my search for a solution at the forum that Paul Wheaton runs – permies.com.

Permies is one of the best permiculture websites on the planet. The have threads on homestead building, plants, tools, and all manner of things related to homesteading. They have a strong culture in the forums, I have always gotten some help when I ask questions on the site.

His guys are pretty helpful and are definitely knowledgeable. I really admire the work he has done at permies.

14 Mar 2013

How to Make a DIY Baby Sling

11 Mar 2013

How to Make the Perfect Homemade Lip Balm

I started beekeeping for two reasons. I wanted honey to make mead, and I wanted beeswax. Beeswax has hundreds of uses, and one of those uses is cosmetics.

Now, homemade lip balm isn’t the main use for my beeswax, but when I do make some, it is in high demand because handmade beeswax lip balm where care has been taken in its manufacture has no comparison to commercial balms.

It does not take much time or equipment to make your own balms, and if you have your own bees, then the next big expense is the containers. You can easily purchase twist tubes, but small jars work just as well.

This worked so well, and was such a hit that I made a bunch of other cosmetics. When Genny was nursing she really liked my nipple balm (but she hates me talking about nipple balm)

Materials

Double boiler (we improvise by balancing a small pot on a mason jar ring sitting in a larger pot of water.)
Disposable stirring sticks
measuring spoons

Ingredients

beeswax
carrier oil (coconut, Shea butter, almond oil) we use a mix of almond oil and shea butter
Flavoring oil (peppermint works great)

Procedure

Melt 3 teaspoons of beeswax
add 5 teaspoons of carrier oil and let melt
add 5-7 drops of flavoring (start low and work up to what you like)
Mix
Pour into containers and let cool (it will take some time to harden)

This is a recipe you can experiment with, more wax makes a harder balm, more oil makes it glossier.

If your a guy that wants to keep bees, this is a great way to bring your wife on board. My wife loves giving this balm to her friends because they love it, and she likes being able to tell them she made it from beeswax from HER bees…

10 Mar 2013

PRN Episode #8 Interview Covert Prepper

In this episode of the Shepherd School, David talks with James Smith aka The Covert Prepper.

The Covert Prepper has an interesting background, he covertly raised chickens on a small lot gardens without people recognizing the food items, and does all manner of preparedness activities without drawing attention to himself.

While I don’t try to be covert in my prepping, I do see the attractiveness in doing so.

Actually If I had to do it over again I probably would have spent more time working at being anonymous in my work.

Listen to internet radio with Preparedness Radio Network on Blog Talk Radio with this link.

During this podcast We discuss covert gardening, caching, codes, and share some philosophy talk. You can visit him online at his YouTube Channel.

7 Mar 2013

How to Sew Sandbags for Flood Control

This post on How to Sew Sandbags in the military style. It came about because I wanted to learn how to use a sewing machine, and wanted something easy to make that was useful and cheap.

Sandbags are a great thing to have in storage, they have multiple uses, last a long time, and you can fit many of them in a small space. I have wanted some for a while, but they can be expensive unless you buy pallets worth at a time.

Here are the basic instructions:

All I did was to buy a couple yards of burlap
folded it in half on the long edge
Next I marked and cut it into 14 inch strips
I found that easiest way to go about constructing the bag was to take a piece of twine and sew in a drawstring channel first. I did this by folding over the short ends of the burlap strip and sewing the channels. For looks and strength the folded over ends of the channel should face the same direction.
Run a length of twine into the two channels.
Next sew down both long ends making a bag.
For storage, that’s all you need to do, but turn them inside out before you actually use them.

For $20 of burlap, and $3 worth of twine, I got 12 bags with a little burlap and a lot of twine left over. So the bags cost about $2 a piece. (not counting labor). It was not hard to figure out how to sew sandbags.

Yearly Archives: 2013