fishing in the wild waters of PHX

I need to learn how to fish.  Because if you teach a man to fish he can fish in the canals. I know fishing in the canals sounds disgusting, but fish make for good and cheap fertilizer, especially for corn. Here and here is the info I have found about fishing in the canals. Short [...]

Local library video and desert survival

I checked out the video Stay alive! a guide to survival in mountainous areas from my local library. Random comments after watching: According to the host, Preston Westmoreland, if you have ever heard the idea that you could add whiskey to water to clean the water than that is not true.  Ummmmm, I have never heard [...]

Surviving Survivor School

This last weekend I took the Complete Survivor Class from Ancient Pathways.  I picked up a whole series of skills to practice. Notice I said “practice” because, good lord, just cause I did these things once doesn’t mean I am actually competent at any of them.   We set traps, snares, tracked, snacked on plants, [...]

Book review for “Gardening when it counts”

I been reading Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times by Steve Solomon and frankly it just overwhelms me.  After reading the watering section I am not sure if he is telling me to water more or water less.  I suppose one needs a little bit of a mathematical mind to follow his recommendations,  maybe [...]

Survival Mom and why I am sick of beans

One of the rules or expressions among the preppers is “eat what you store and store what you eat.”  Another sentiment is “practice is better than just reading,” which I totally agree with.  With those two sentiments in mind the Survival Mom is challenging her readers this month to cook rice and beans seven days [...]

Grocery shopping for Armageddon and how NYC would be the worst place to be

One of the sacred rules of the preppers is “Store what you eat, eat what you store.”  My fridge is currently empty on purpose.  I am going to see if I can buy exactly what would last me two weeks.  In two weeks I go to New York City (NYC) for four days and two days [...]

Update on the edible cactus

Above:  A recent shot taken of the hedgehog. The hedgehog cactus I ate about a month ago seems to be doing fine.  However, several people have told me the cactus I ate had yellow needles not because it was the wrong cactus, but because I ate one covered in coyote pee.

Salted oranges

I got about 30 oranges on my tree in the backyard this year. It is my understanding that it is about the 6th or 7th year that one actually starts to get fruit from a citrus tree. I think I am now at that point. Last year I got three oranges, and they were sweet [...]

Scurvy

Anybody know anything about canning oranges? Got a lot of oranges and want to can them for the end times. Below:  My orange tree in the backyard gave out 20 oranges this year.  Last year three.  All the years before, none.   Update:  My friends over at facebook made a couple of good suggestions for [...]

What I have learned about Mesquite trees

I been studying desert trees because The Arizona Desert Botanical Garden is going to have their spring sale on March 18 and 19th, and I want to know what I should get to add to the backyard. The Velvet Mesquite is the best type of mesquite tree to plant. Pick the bean (or pod) from [...]