Using the Survival Still to Distill Salt Water

Gear Review: Survival Still for Salt Water
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When I did the first survival still review I heard two types of comments

  1. its neat, but too expensive
  2. its cool, but the commenter had a filter, and therefore had no need.

Those are both valid concerns, but – at least in my situation (and probably many of yours) they aren’t accurate.

I know $279 seems expensive, but when looking at durable goods you have to balance cost with benefits.  The price of the still is very competitive with filter systems like Berkeys – but unlike filters – they never clog, break, or need maintenance.

As a firearm instructor – I see students try to skimp on quality – and when they come to class with cheap guns trying to save a few dollars on guns and end up with malfunctions and problems – until they end up buying quality the second time.

I would not expect anyone to only have one piece of equipment for such a vital need.  At my house we have stored water, multiple chemical purification means, filters, and the materials to make filters.  But each has its own pros and cons.

Distillation takes energy, but it its 100% effective.  Filters can clog, chemicals don’t work on toxins, and sodis doesn’t work on chemicals.

In the video below we purify salt water- filters won’t work on chemicals in solution – so salt water will be a problem if filters are your only means of water purification.

Kefir for Clean Baby Bottles

Kefir for Clean Baby Bottles
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As with all parenting tips, take this as it is presented – something I learned that I think is useful – that I am sharing.

I have a friend that is trained in toxicology, that is also an awesome home brewer and creator of all manner of Charcuterie.  I will freely admit, that if I got this idea from Joe Snuffie on some anonymous internet page I would probably not try it, however I trust my source and he does it with his own baby.

So my friend and I were talking about kids and the conversation turned to how his child had started “hiding” baby bottles around the house, and how nasty an old bottle of milk could get. I could just see the rising expense of baby bottles, as my wife would never let me reuse a bottle that once held moldy rotted milk.

My friend sympathized and shared a Clean Baby Bottles tip he uses, which is to put a small kefir grain in with the formula.

Basically all he is doing is inoculating the milk to control the bacteria in it.  The baby drinks all he wants before the milk turns to kefir (which takes 30 days or so), and if the half drunk bottle disappears behind the couch the good bacteria in the kefir overpowers the nasty bacteria that makes the milk turn black and nasty.

Kefir is a pro-biotic, which is something a baby needs anyway, so the small amount in the milk could be argued as beneficial to baby, even though I posit that the small amount is relatively neutral.

Now, as a disclaimer – this isn’t for infants – this is for toddlers who are old enough to tolerate honey because of a more established bacterial culture in their intestines.  Also before you trust your baby’s health to some crazy internet guy – run this past their pediatrician.  I am not a doctor, I just think this is a neat idea that I plan on trying when the boy gets a little older.

How to Turn a Mason Jar Into a Cheese Shaker

 

52 Unique Techniques for Stocking Food for Prepper
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Just a really quick Mason Jar Lid Tip:

A normal Parmesan cheese lid will fit on a regular mason jar.  This will turn a mason jar into a cheese shaker jar at zero cost.

Hopefully you can find all sorts of uses for this, we now have a directive not to throw away the lids.

Not really what else I can say about this mason jar tip – but I do find all manner of uses for it.  Heck I find that you can even use it to help sprout wheat if needed.

I use this for my homemade garlic powder, and all manner of homemade spice mixes.  Especially my taco seasoning.

It works well for little bits of hardware like brads for my bee frames or tiny little nuts.

I use this quite a bit around the house.  This is a simple tip, the lid works better than two piece mason jar lids, I have lots of jars, and we use a bunch of Parmesan cheese.

Maybe this is just a weird melding of a bunch of unrelated things that makes this particular tip useful to me, but I would be willing to bet that there are some of you that could also get some use out of this.

This tip is a little more sturdy than some of the other jar lid tips I have shown in the past.  Like the one for the salt lids.

How to Make Brandied Fruit Topping

How to Make Brandied Fruit Topping

 

How to Make Brandied Fruit Topping
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Brandied Fruit is a great way to preserve fresh fruit without having to deal with the heat of canning, which makes it perfect for the summer.

We have brandied several fruits, from strawberries to apples. Our experience with apples is that even after a year the apples are just as crispy as they were when we first brandied them. However, the apples have absorbed the alcohol and tastes just like the alcohol we used to preserve it. Depending on your tastes and uses this can be a good or a bad thing.

For the apples we just mixed everything together.

The Strawberries are more like a strawberry shortcake sauce (and it tastes great on shortcake), and did not pick up as much of the alcohol flavor. However, when we did the strawberries, we cooked them a little on the stove first.

Ingredients

  • 1 c. brandy (we used white whiskey)
  • 1 c. sugar
  • 1 c. fruit (sliced)

Procedure

  • Mix brandy sugar and fruit
  • Place in airtight jar for at least 2 weeks

brandied fruit is an awesome gift, when I give some brandied strawberries to my friends, they all want more.  In the past this was to preserve food over the winter, but now it is a way to enjoy nature’s goodness.

Until you have had strawberry shortcake with a brandied strawberry topping, you have no idea what you are missing.

Strawberry Coring Tip

52 Unique Techniques for Stocking Food for Prepper
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So simple, not many words are needed. As a matter of fact, when I first saw this Strawberry Coring tip I thought it was the most innovative thing I had seen in a long time, but I was disappointed when my normally uniformed wife, very matter of factly told me that “everyone knows this…” I didn’t know it, so I am sharing it…

Take a straw and a whole strawberry and push straw up through the bottom of the strawberry and the core pops right out.

If you wonder why I shared I a tip that “everyone already knew” its simple – while I hope that this website helps people learn how to become more self reliant as well as to be a place people can visit for answers to questions they have – it is more a documentary of my journey from a guy that read about things to become a guy that does things.  I did not know how to use a strawberry as a strawberry coring aid, so when I did learn I shared it.

This strawberry coring tip worked pretty good.  I use it whenever I have to make something with strawberries.  It worked perfect with my brandied strawberries.