How to Safely Dehydrate Hamburger to Make Hamburger Rocks

 

Dehydrating Hamburger (AKA Hamburger Rocks)
Buy at Amazon

Today we are going to talk about dehydrated hamburger.  This is commonly called “hamburger rocks” online.  When you make some you will quickly learn how it got its name.  Once the hamburger is cooked and dried it resembles really small dark brown gravel.  The reason we make it is not to have small meat stones, but because when stored under a vacuum, and kept in a cool dry place, our hamburger rocks can last a couple years.

While nothing beats fresh meat, this ingredient works very well in any recipe that uses browned ground beef.  I use it quite often in making chili, tacos, or spaghetti.

While in my video I state that the recipe for rehydrating is subject to personal preference, and I like to use a 1:1 ration (since I use it mostly in chili and lasagnas), most people prefer to rehydrate with more water and usually use one cup rocks to 2 cups boiling water and let it rehydrate prior to using it their recipes.

Now, as the video shows, you may cry a little when your done, as 5 or 6 pounds of good ground meat will dehydrate away to a quart jar of rocks, and you may think you wasted a lot of good meat, but it is the decrease in size that is helpful for long term storage.

How to Make Hamburger Rocks

Instructions

  1. Cook Ground Beef
  2. Drain Fat
  3. Rinse Meat in a colander to remove all fat
  4. Recook to drive off water.  Cook until steam stops.
  5. Dehydrate
    1. I use a dehydrator with a temperature setting and cook it at 160 for 8 hours.
    2. You could use an oven by putting the beef on a roasting pan and putting in a 200 degree oven with the door open slightly and continually monitoring and stirring the beef until dry (its easier with a dehydrator)
  6. Once it is dry and cool, and hard to the touch, vacuum seal in mason jars or bags.
    1. Alternatively, while the rocks are still hot, you could “can” the hamburger rocks for long term storage, by preheating mason jars to 250 F, simmer the lids as usual, put the “rocks” into the jars while still hot, then seal the jars. After 15 minutes or so the jars will cool and you will hear the jar lids “pop” as they seal in place.  This is not my favorite method, but it is similar to a vacuum seal.

 

Simplest Way To Become a Firearm Instructor

 

So You Want to Be a Firearms Instructor
Buy at Amazon

So You Want to Be a Firearms Instructor?  I can tell you that of all the things that I have done to improve my life, becoming a firearm instructor was one of the best.  I have received much more in return than I put into learning the ropes and gaining the certifications.

The only caveat is, that a weekend NRA firearm instructor course may certify you, but you cannot stop learning if you want to a competent instructor.

It took me over a year of teaching to become comfortable, and I have spent many thousands of dollars on books and continuing education courses, and I think that is only a good start.  I have been an instructor for more than 15 years and I am still learning.

As far as becoming a firearm instructor, unless you are a law enforcement officer and can talk your way into a FBI or P.O.S.T. class, the simplest way is through the NRA training program.

If you are interested, and want to know more, please feel free to email me directly at dnash@tngun.com

There are a few ways of becoming a firearm instructor, some better than others.  While I don’t think a 17 hour course on the weekend will prepare you to be a firearm instructor if you don’t already posses the right knowledge, skills, and attitudes.  It is a good start if you are serious about the process.

 

How to Make Sprouted Grains and Beans at Home

How to Make Sprouted Grains and Beans at Home

Sprouting Wheat and Beans
Buy at Amazon

We all know that nothing is free, especially food storage, finding foods that are cost effective, and long storing generally means you have less of the two V’s – Variety and Vitamins.  Sprouting wheat and weans is a way to add both.  I used to associate sprouts with homeopathic medicine practitioners, vegans, and yuppie soccer moms, but once I got over my initial prejudice I have learned that it’s simple and cheap to add sprouts to my food tool-box.

Sprouted Grains and Legumes are Healthy

Studies show that sprouts have 3 to 5 times the vitamin content of the seed they sprouted from. And as for Vitamin C, sprouts have over 30 times the vitamin C content of the original seed. Wheat grain sprouts have a lot of vitamins and also have a good amount of protein and enzymes.  The great thing about wheat is that due to the enzyme actions in the seed as it sprouts, your body is much able to use the nutrients inside.

There are all sorts of recipes online for sprouts, and I would suggest you try a couple now and see how easy it is to incorporate sprouts into your everyday food.  Personally, I like adding them to my salad, but my favorite way of using them is feeding them to my chickens and eating the eggs they produce…. 

How to use Sprouted Wheat

  • Add either chopped or whole to  homemade bread
  • Add to oatmeal or other whole grain cereal
  • Stir into cooked rice
  • Added to rice pilaf.
  • Kneaded into pizza dough.
  • Chopped and added to cookies.
  • Add to muffins, pancakes, waffles (Like our whole wheat pancakes)
  • Mix in to casseroles, stuffed peppers, meatloaf, meatballs, pasta sauce, mushroom and sprout sauce.
  • Add to sandwiches
  • Sprinkled on yogurt.
  • Sprinkled in salads.
  • Stir fried

How to Make Sprouted Grains

Equipment:

  • Wide Mouth Jar (or something similar)
  • Nylon Net or Cheesecloth + Rubber band (to cover the jar & keep the cover in place)

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup wheat berries
  • Water

Directions:

  1. Rinse ½ cup of wheat berries.
  2. Put the wheat berries in a wide-mouth quart jar.

*Don’t put too many berries in the jar – no more than ½ cup per wide-mouth jar.

  1. Add 2 cups of room temperature water.
  2. Place nylon net or cheesecloth over the jar opening.
  3. Use a heavy rubber band or the metal jar ring to hold the nylon or cheesecloth in place.
  4. Soak 12 hours, then drain.
  5. Thoroughly drain the water – shake a bit to remove most of the water.
  6. Keep the jar out of direct sunlight.
  7. It needs the air, so keep cheesecloth as a lid.
  8. Each morning and night rinse the wheat berries with room temperature water, drain again.  Taste after each soaking, Some keep the liquid drained off and drink it, I have done this, but I don’t very often, I don’t like the taste.
  9. 36 to 48 hours after the first soaking, Walla! You have germinated wheat or if you continue the process for a day or two more you have sprouted wheat.

Storing Wheat Sprouts

Replace the nylon net or cheesecloth with plastic wrap or the metal jar lid to help keep it moist but not wet.  Store in cool place for no more than 5 days

How to Make an Easy Tin Can Stove

How to Make an Easy Tin Can Stove

 

How to Make an Easy Tin Can Stove
Buy at Amazon

Today we are going to show you how to make a tin can stove, this type of stove has been around about as long as tin cans have been created, but it reached its peak of popularity during the great depression.  Now its popularity is mostly with frugal backpackers and girl scouts, as a matter of fact, the majority of comments I have gotten were from former scouts telling me how hot this stove can get…

I first learned about this stove at a vacation bible school camp at the Tennessee Baptist Children’s home in the 80’s, and while this was a fun project, I never thought much about it until I began chronicling my journey to learn how to improvise, adapt, and overcome in a catastrophic disaster situation.

Personally, I feel that this stove has some pretty severe limitations, its extremely hot, has little in the way of regulating heat, and its heating surface is small.  However, as a way to begin to find new ways of using old things, up-cycling, or making a MacGyverism, this stove is a good way of exercising your mind.

That being said, here’s How to Make a Tin Can Stove

Materials:

  • #10 can (empty of course)
  • Multiple tuna cans (also empty)
  • Cardboard (lots of strips as wide as the tuna can is tall, you’ll need a lot more strips than you think.)
  • Paraffin Wax blocks
  • Wick (I did not include this in my video, but it makes lighting the tuna cans a lot easier.)

Tools:

  • Tin Snips
  • Can opener
  • Double boiler
  • Matches
  • Razor or study scissors for culling cardboard
  • Gloves and other appropriate safety equipment

Procedure for stove:

  1. Using your can opener, punch air holes around closed end of can.  (a tip from MM in Jackson – don’t punch any air holes in the side you will have toward you, so that smoke doesn’t blow toward you)
  2. Using tin snips cut a rectangle opening at open end of can, large enough to allow a burning tuna can to be pushed into, and pulled out of the stove.

Optional: use a metal coat hanger to fashion a damper on the stove opening using the scrap metal from cutting your opening

Procedure for tuna can burner:

  1. Cut cardboard long cardboard strips as wide as your tuna can in tall.
  2. Tightly roll the strips into a small spiral.
    1. A piece of cotton wick inserted into the center of the cardboard helps in lighting the burner later.
    2. If you need to add more strips, overlap the end of the strip coming off the spiral with a new piece of cardboard so that it stays together on the roll.
  3. Insert the spiral into the tuna can.  This works best if the spiral is slightly larger than the can so that you must force it to fit.  The more corrugated cardboard you can force into the can, the less wax you will need, and the fire will burn longer and hotter.
    1. If needed, you can force additional cardboard strips between the can and the spiral of cardboard.  This is not easy, but it makes everything work better later.
  4. Once you have made as many burners as your hands can stand (I can make about 6 before my arthritis makes me stop), melt the wax using a double boiler.
    1. You should never heat wax over a direct source of heat, as it may flame up.  If you do not have a double boiler, use a large pot of water, with a smaller pot nested inside.  The wax is placed in the small pot and is melted by the regulated heat of the water instead of the heat from the stove eye.  This is much safer.
  5. Once the wax is melted, line the tuna cans up side by side and carefully fill them with wax.  It takes a surprising amount of wax to fill the cans, especially if you did not fully pack the cans with cardboard.
  6. Let wax cool.

Procedure for using stove:

  1. Only use this stove outdoors, it is burns hot and with a lot of smoke.
  2. Place the stove on site that will not burn or be damaged by high heat.
  3. Light the tuna can burner and as soon as it flames place it inside the stove.
  4. It will only take a few seconds for the closed end of the can to reach cooking temperature, so don’t touch it once the burner is inside (I learned this the hard way).
  5. Using a skillet is best, but you can cook things like hamburgers directly on the stove.  It is too hot to cook things like eggs.
  6. Once cooking is complete, you can remove the stove and extinguish the burner.
  7. I flip the burner upside down and smother the flame so I can reuse the can, but you could smother it with dirt.  Don’t douse it with water, or the hot wax may explode with some force and spray you with hot wax.

 

Best Survival Firearms: How to Choose a Firearm for Catastrophic Disasters

Best Survival Firearms: How to Choose Firearms for Catastrophic Disasters

 

Best Survival Firearms: How to Choose a Firearm for Catastrophic Disasters
Buy At Amazon

I want to talk about selecting firearms for catastrophic disasters because the Shepherd School, and the Dave’s Homestead website were originally designed strictly for firearm training.  I did it that way on purpose.  At that time, I felt it was my calling to help train citizen to be able to protect themselves and their families from predators (mostly the two legged kind).

When I started I was still working in the prison and the reality that evil exists was constantly being shown to me.  When I began working in emergency management, I grew a softened approach.  I have seen the other side of people working together to help each other also exists.  I also find that people have the capacity to deal with hardship in either generous and positive ways or negative violent ways depending on the situation and the resources they have available.

Prepping, and living the prepper lifestyle is now starting to become more popular, just like the old “back to the land movements”, but survivalism and survivalists still carry negative connotations.  I don’t understand this as they are basically the same thing.  People that take extra time to build additional resources and skills as a safety blanket or insurance policy.  This idea was recently discussed on an email group I belong to.  Basically they said that a “prepper” WAS a “survivalist without the guns”.   I tend to agree with that, since to me I don’t care as much WHY I’m stuck in a disaster and to the fact THAT I’m stuck in a disaster.

Disaster Preparedness is More Than Just Buying Guns

One thing I am adamant about in the disaster prep world is that anyone that has all guns and no food is setting themselves up for murder…  I will say that again.  Anyone that believes that a large scale disaster is possible and takes time to prepare for it, and does so solely by buying firearms and ammunition is either consciously or unconsciously stating that if the manure ever flies they are going to use their guns to take food from people without guns.  Those people are the reason people like me spend money on weapon preps.

Personally, I love guns, but at this stage I would rather buy a $500 country living grain mill, or a $600 honey extractor than another AR-15 upper.

But that’s because its our households theory to prepare in depth and balanced.  We don’t have top of the line anything until we have quality everything…  Meaning, you first have to have 72 hours of gear, food, light, heat, first aid, and defense – Get the bare basics.  Then get a month of gear – better quality.   I’m not going to spend 4 or 5 grand on a Generation 4 night vision scope to sit on a $3000 dollar M-14 rifle if the only food I have is two cases of Ramen noodles.  However, I am not going to try to protect a year supply of freeze dried food with a whistle and a rubber slingshot either.

Weapons Do Have a Vital Role in Disaster Preparedness

That being said, weapons – especially firearms, do have a place in a prepper’s lifestyle.  But these firearms need to be chosen with the same care we spend on making sure we get the best quality storage food for our money.  We have to compare quality, price, our needs, our wants, and all the added costs to get a firearm that works in our program.

A Gun Needs to Always Go Bang When Needed

To me the most important aspect of a gun is reliability.  I know that if I have to use my firearm in a emergency it’s a BAD DAY, and since the statistical probability of a BAD DAY is low, I don’t want to tempt Murphy with a firearm that cannot shoot 3 rounds in a row on the range without a malfunction.  Get a gun that goes bang every time with NO exceptions.  Cool guns with neat little stories or exotic ammunition is cool to show your buddies, but a disaster gun needs to be practical and reliable.

A Survival Guns Needs to Be Fed Common Ammo

The next is that it needs to shoot ammunition that is common.  That means something you can get at the local hardware store or Wal-Mart.  Adoption by our military or police is also a good sign that it is a common round.  That means 22lr, .38 spl, 9mm, .40, or .45 acp, 12 gauge, .223, .308, 30-06 and the like.  We can debate all day long that 10mm or .38 super is the best round for handguns, or that nothing beats a .35 whelen for hunting big game , but if you cannot find any ammunition then your firearm is a unwieldy club.

The Best Survival Gun Is Big Enough to do the Job

It needs to be big enough to do the job, that means at least .38 in a handgun, and .223 in a rifle, and some would consider these to be marginal.  While it is true that nobody likes to bleed, and a .22 can kill, I don’t want to have to face off a desperate and starving biker gang with a .22 pistol.

It needs to be cheap enough that you can afford to fit it in your budget, along with ammunition, needed accessories, and training.  While I pine over a Barrett M98, it costs more than my last two cars, rounds cost about $2 a shot, and I don’t have a single place to fire it.  I don’t own any truck or any gun I am afraid to get muddy and scratched.  I don’t beat up my tools, but I bought them for work.  If your gun is too pretty, or too costly to use, then lock it up and buy something else that you will use.

Few items in a prepper’s kit is as personal as their choice in (or even to have) firearms.  Its worse than ham radio guys and their gear.  I am not going to tell you what to get, but if you buy something you can afford, that you will train with, and that you have put some thought into, I am sure you will be fine.

But, just in case you are wondering.  We went with common guns that most “gun-people” have, and instead of buying different brands, we have stuck with buying multiples of the same make/models for redundancy.  Of course, once you have one of each, guns go back on the bottom of the list until you are buying multiples of the wheat grinders and radios…

Our Picks For the Best Firearms for Catastrophic Disasters

  • .223 AR-15 with many magazines
  • 12 gauge Remington 870
  • 9mm Glock 19 with many magazines

Of course we do have some revolvers, 1911’s and a odd WWII bolt gun here and there…

And for the true gun guys and gals….