Michael Janzen

I just ran across what seems like the best place to buy long-term food storage containers. I’ve not ordered from them yet though, so this is not a product endorsement of any kind (yet).

The sell BPA-free gamma lids and the prices are really low, at least lower than I’ve seen elsewhere. They also stock mylar bags, heat sealers, 5-gallon buckets, oxygen absorbers, rainwater collection barrels, and water storage tanks too. I kind of suspect many other preparedness retailers get their stuff wholesale from a place like this. Luckily they also sell direct to the public in small quantities.

Baytec Containers

Ran across this article on The Oil Drum today that summarizes how to get started with setting up an edible landscape. This is something I keep talking about doing so running across articles like this helps move me in the right direction.

Edible Landscape

I was doing a little research on long term food storage and found a couple good resources. The first is this very detailed resource on survival-center.com which catalogs many different types of food that are good for this kind of disaster preparedness. The other is a blog called the Bear Ridge Project. The blogger, Big Bear, explains a simple approach to food prep on a tight budget.

It sounds like a green house or an indoor grow set-up is required in most parts of the world to grow coffee. But it also looks like growing your own coffee plants is definitely doable, just not easy. Read about how to grow coffee plants at Sweet Maria’s.

Grow Coffee Plants at Home

I just ran across this incredible little list of edible items and when they are in season. This would be very useful to any freegan for sure, or a great knowledge prep for hard times. There are 12 PDF files to download, one for each month of the year.  Foraging Guide

A chicken tractor is a simple portable chicken coop designed to easily move your feathered egg laying friends around the yard while keeping them safe and sound from predators and visits to your not so understanding neighbors. Here’s an instructable on how to build a simple chicken tractor. I first learned of it on Make.

Chicken Tractor Instructable

This is an excellent article on how America in general got so fat and why we should never eat processed food loaded with salt, fat, and sugar. I also want to point out that there’s no conspiracy here; food manufacturers are simply trying to make us want to eat more and more of their food while reducing their costs. Unfortunately the methods they are using to make themselves more profitable are unethical and extremely dangerous to our health.

How We Became a Society of Gluttonous Junk Food Addicts

I want to make a tiny alcohol burning stove and space heater for Nine Tiny Feet and just came across this great tiny stove on Make. This example is so small if actually can be worn around the neck like a necklace. Weird but possibly useful. Stove Necklace. You can also see it for sale… very expensive… better to make one yourself out of copper tubing me thinks.

Why alcohol burning? My guess is that post peak-oil many of us will probably learn to distill spirits from local vegitation as an alternative fuel to petroleum and natural gas. Nine Tiny Feet will have a peak-oil prepper spin when I’m done; a teaching tool for simple and sustainable living without petroleum.

It seems some things havn’t changed much in a few thousand years. This is a link to a recreation of the oldest known olive oil press which ironically resembles modern equiptment. It makes me think I should be sure to plant some olive trees on my future sustsinable homestead and learn to make olive oil in the mean time.

Just spotted this on RowdyKittens, Growing Potatoes in Small Spaces. Looks like the perfect little thing to build out of pallets.