Zombie Food or figuring out how much food I will need and how to get it.

Day three of NaBloPoMo.  Today I am exploring Food.  Ways to acquire and preserve it, whether I am growing it, hunting it, fishing for it or gathering it out of my hen house.

Here are a few ideas I have:

• Aquaponics
• Hydroponics
• Gardening
• Animal husbandry
• hunting
• fishing
• preserving the harvest

Aquaponics ~ basically , this is raising fish in a container, ideally with plants at the same time so that the fish poop feeds the plants and the plants feed the fish.  Definitely  something to look into, I could see myself doing this.

Hydroponics ~ Basically this is raising plants indoors with grow lamps, and no soil.  This is widely used to grow marijuana but I want to use it to turn my garage into a place to grow food for my family and animals.  If I can grow food for my chickens I can save money on chicken feed.

Gardening ~ I need to learn how to garden the right way.  I have started a garden a few times but never very successfully; in fact my family rolls their eyes when I say I am starting a new garden, BUT I know I need to learn how to do this now, rather than later.  I do have two orange trees, one grapefruit, lemon and avocado.  I would love to find a way to preserve the fruit somehow.  I know I have seen jarred orange and grapefruit segments.

Animal Husbandry ~ I have chickens, 12 hens, one rooster and seven month old chicks.  I keep them in a shed at night and they free range in my yard all day. I currently get about 8-12 eggs per day, but I must hunt for them.  In order to plant the garden I must first build an enclosure for the chickens which also means I must find a way to increase their food supply, since they will not be able to have the full run of the yard.  I am thinking of compost for worms and hydroponics.

Hunting~ Not going to happen right now or any time soon.  I have no weapons and dont know how to shoot.  I must learn though.  Just in case I had to, then figure out how to preserve it.

Fishing ~  Basically I know how to fish, but there are no wild steams nearby, just a very dirty ocean, and I only know how to fish with worms and hooks.  I can probably find a few worms, but have no poles or hooks.  What I really need to learn is how to fish with nets. Alas I have no nets.  Reminder to self: Look into aquaponics.

Preserving the Harvest~  There are so many ways to preserve food.  Drying, salting, canning, jarring , not to mention pickling or brining.  I would love to see my kitchen pantry full of jars of goodness from the garden.  Would love to see this:

Until tomorrow my friends, when I dig into my water supply.  Dont for get to check out my facebook page:  www.facebook.com/areyoureadyforzombiesnow  Until then Watch out for Zombies!

 

Zombie Ready Assessment or exactly how unprepared am I for the Zombie Apocalypse

 

So my first step is to organize myself and figure out exactly what I do have and what i will need.  last night I lay in bed wide awake and thinking. That is the best time to think, right before you go to sleep, that way your subconscious mind will work on your ideas or problems while you sleep and when you wake up you will ideas popping in your head all day.

I came up with a few categories.  Some are obvious, while others are things I think I will need, others are subcategories.

• Food
• shelter
• transportation
• water
• Protection
• Animal husbandry
• preserving the harvest
• communication
• supplies
• health and first aid
• knowledge

Briefly, this is where I stand in each category:

• Food ~ three days worth of canned goods
• shelter ~ rental house costing $1600 per month, in an bad situation coming up with that would be difficult
• transportation~ two cars, one needs brakes and is parked and one is a gas guzzler.  Also have a 17 foot box truck that needs a new transmission and does not run.  But I do have bicycles. Several.
• water~ I have six one gallon jugs of water.  Definately not enough.
• Protection~ I have two dogs.  One a Great Dane, the other an Australian shepherd mix.
• Animal husbandry ~ I have 12 hens, one rooster and seven month old chicks.  Also a male rabbit.
• preserving the harvest ~ I know absolutely nothing about this.
• communication ~one smartphone
• supplies  ~ um. I have a can opener
• health and first aid ~ I know basic first aid, however I am diabetic, my daughter is high functioning autistic with ADHD, and my husband has a blown out knee as well as a bone chip in the elbow.  Hubs and I are both very overweight and have high blood pressure.
• Knowledge~ I know a little bit about a lot of things and I usually have good common sense.

Tomorrow  and on following days I will break down each category and make a plan.  And dont forget to like my facebook page.  This is day two and so far I am the only one to like it.  Thanks!   www.facebook.com/areyoureadyforzombiesnow