New Year's Resolutions

I'm big on goal setting and making plans to acheive goals.  So I made a plan for 2012 and how I'm going to become Self Relient. 

Here it is:
Acquiring Self Reliance Skills Plan of 2012
To Survive I Must Have Food and Water
Preparing Food
Cooking With Amenities (CW/A)
Goal: By June 30th, 2012 I will have learned to make:
20 complete dinners that I enjoy and would continue to make and that are nutritionally balanced.
6 dessert recipes
6 basic breakfasts
To achieve this goal I will:
Make 1 CW/A dinner per week
Make 1 CW/A dessert per month
Make 1 CW/A breakfast per month
Scan the grocery ads to find the most fiscally responsible ingredients.
Pick a recipe based on those ingredients
Go shopping for the food beforehand
Consult mom about nutritionally balancing the meal.
Consult the food plate.
Cooking Without Amenities (CW/OA)
Goal: By June 30, 2012 I will have learned to make:
20 complete dinners that I enjoy and would continue to make and that are nutritionally balanced that are made with only non-perishable food storage ingredients so that if I ever had to rely on food storage I could.
6 dessert recipes with only food storage ingredients
6 basic breakfasts with only food storage ingredients.
Of those 20 dinners, 10 of them must be able to be made without power. So I'd have to use a Dutch oven, volcano stove, or some other means of cooking without gas or electricity.
Of the 6 desserts, 3 must be no power recipes.
Of the 6 breakfasts, 3 must be no power recipes.
To achieve this goal I will:
Make 1 food storage dinner per week
Make 2 CW/OA dinner per month
Make 1 CW/A dessert per month
Every other month will be no power desserts
Make 1 CW/A breakfast per month
Every other month will be no power breakfasts
Talk to Sister Purcell about the cannery
Scan the grocery ads to find the most fiscally responsible ingredients.
Search online for food storage recipes
Pick a recipe based on those ingredients
Go shopping for the food beforehand
Consult mom about nutritionally balancing the meal.
Consult the food plate.
Acquiring Food
Buying Food
Goal: Pay as little for food as possible.
How I will achieve this goal:
Consult dad and make a master spreadsheet on food prices.
There will be the average price for each item, a good price, and a stock your shelves price.
Scan ads weekly and buy foods according to ads.
If there are sales at many different stores, take ads to Walmart to price match.
Make and keep an updated list of what food is in the house.
Organize food based on age and expiration so it doesn't go to waste.
Growing my own food
Gardening
Goal: Grow my own fresh fruits and vegetables for the year of 2012
How I will achieve this goal:
Do gardening research
Research organic fertilizers that are not expensive
January:
Continue composting
Give Michelle a compost bucket
Drill 3 more compost bins
Stir and wet down compost daily as needed
Dig up garden area to loosen dirt
Build a dirt sifter
Sift rocks out of dirt
Research the best things to grow in Vegas and decide what trees and bushes to buy from the nursery eventually
February:
Start planting seeds in cups inside to develop sproutlings
Research the least expensive ways to do sproutlings
March:
Research the least expensive things I'll need to buy to grow a garden in Vegas
Till the ground
Prepare for planting
April:
Start planting?
May:
Maintain garden?
June:
Maintain garden?
Raising Animals
Goal: Discover what animals would be the most useful and least expensive
How I will achieve this goal:
Research cost of chicks, piglets, goat kids, fish, rabbits and horses and cost of housing, feeding, and maintaining them as well as what they would produce and what they would save me.
Storing Food
Goal: Learn the best ways to store food long term.
How I will achieve this goal: Research canning, milar bagging, and other ways of storing foods
Storing Water
Goal: Store enough water for six months.
How I will achieve this goal: Research water storage and buy a storage bin. Perhaps find something you can collect rain in, etc.
To Survive There Are Different Miscellaneous Things That Will Come In Handy
Goal: Acquire what is on this list:
Light:
100 hour candles
Hurricane lamps
Extra wicks
Extra lamp oil
Hand cranked lanterns
Hand cranked flashlights
Emphasis on LED
Glow sticks
Cooking
Volcano stove
Dutch oven
Extra charcoal
Plastic bucket to store charcoal
Extra propane
Lighter fluid
Lighters
Wind and waterproof matches
Gasoline
Gas can
Hand-operated can openers
Yeast
Toolkit
Hammer
Flat head screwdriver
Phillips screwdriver
Nails
Tacks
Screws
Pliers
Adjustable wrench
Utility knife
Ice pick
Ice scraper
Hoses
Clamps
Glues
Super
Wood
Fabric
Craft
Tapes
Duct
Electrical
Masking
Transparent
Scotch
Outdoor Tools
Hoe
Shovel
Ax
Wheelbarrow
Handsaw
Sleeping bags
Space blankets
Disposable dishes
Way to purify water
Storage bags
Plastic bags of various sizes
Aluminum foil
Pet supplies
Food
Pupperoni
Medications
Carriers
Cash with small bills
Health and Sanitation
Toilet paper
Soap
Shampoo
Conditioner
Tampons
Maxi pads
Over the counter medications:
Excedrin
Aspirin
Tylenol
Ibuprofen
Antibiotic e.g. Neosporin
Anti nausea
Benadryl
Claritin D
Multi vitamin
Bandaids
Tape
Gauze
Foile
Aloe Vera gel
Rubbing alcohol
1% cortisone cream
Small scissors
Safety pins
Tweezers
Disposable gloves
Cotton swabs
Elastic bandages
Hand cranked radio
Writing utensils
Pads of paper
Prepaid cell phone
Charger
Car charger
Distance walkie talkies
Extra batteries
Hand washing machine
Wash board
Laundry soap
Liquid dish soap
Important documents
Thumb drive of important stuff
Auto kit
Spare tire
Jack
Tire iron
Duct tape
Gallon of water
Hose clamps
Road flares
Ice scraper with brush
Oil
Air compressor
Windshield washer fluid
Engine coolant
Jumper cables
Fire extinguisher
Magnetic keyholder
Sack of kitty litter
Pry bar
Empty gas can
Siphon
Funnel
How I will achieve this goal:
I will look for items on sale, ask for them as holiday gifts, and buy them one by one. Items I don't know how to use, such as the autokit stuff I will acquire as I learn.
To Survive I Will Need to Learn How to Heal Myself and Others
Goal: I will graduate from Nursing School (I'm okay with the fact that I'm making a goal I've already completed. :)
Goal: I will become familiar with emergency medicine procedures
How I will attain this goal: I will study emergency medicine books once per week. I will make my way toward an emergency medicine job in my career
Goal: I will store emergency medical supplies
How I will attain this goal:
I will keep a first aid kit in my car.
I will store the items in the health supplies listed above.
To Survive I Will Need Shelter and Reliable Transportation
Keeping my Car in Good Working Order
Goal: I will learn how the engine works. I will learn how to fix any problems that arises
How I will achieve this goal: I will buy the Chilton book on my car and fix anything that needs fixing myself. I will look into taking an automotive course at CSN.
Repairing Things at Home
Goal: I will learn about keeping things in working order in my home
How I will achieve this goal: Anything that gets broken in the house, I will make every attempt to fix myself before having someone else fix it.
To Survive I Will Need To Be Able To Defend Myself
Physical Condition
Goal: By June 30, 2012 I will be able to run 5 miles straight, do 10 pushups, and do 100 sit-ups.
How I will achieve this goal: I will work out daily, or no less than 4 times per week, and keep track of my progress in my work out app on my phone.
Hand to Hand Combat
Goal: I will learn basic defensive moves to protect myself
How I will achieve this goal: I will practice daily the moves taught to me by dad or Chad.
Gun Use
Goal: By June 30, 2012 I will get a score of 96% or better on PQCs for each of my weapons and I will familiarize myself with my rifle.
How I will achieve this goal: I will go shooting with my father twice a month to practice and test my skills.

#2 Adventures in Tilling

The next step in my gardening plan is to till the land.  Technically, I was supposed to do the tilling starting the fall before planting, but I hadn't realized I wanted to do a garden then, so here I am in winter.  I could start in the spring instead, but I feel like this endevour is more likely to be successful if I give myself plenty of time to work on it little by little day by day, especially since I always underestimate the time and effort a project will take.

Two nights ago we went out to the area that is going to be my garden and Kevin and I decided to go to the end and divide off a section to attempt to dig at and till up.  It wasn't a very big section about 3'x6' maybe, but the dirt there is rock hard.  I can't even get the shovel in father than an 1".  My dad didn't have a rake so Kevin and I decided to go to the home depot to find some more tools.

These are the tools I found and decided to buy:

Unfortunately they didn't help all that much with the problem of super hard dirt.  The only solution I've come up with thus far is just to pick at it in a more layer by layer fashion, chipping dirt off the top.  This is painstaking, but until I find another way to do it it's the only way I've got.

Yesterday I got out of class to late to try and work at all, but today I came home at 2:00 pm and found that Kevin had raked the entire area for me, which was super sweet and it looks much better.  No more weeds.

We've discovered that because there used to be grass there before my dad killed it, there's about 2 inches of sod dirt that is easy to till.  Under the sod dirt however, the rock hard dirt still exists. 

The other problem I've run into is that about 50% or so of the dirt is little tiny pebbles.  This is not good.  My produce plants will not have a lot of luck growing in pebble dirt.  So I have to come up with a way to sift the dirt.  I found this link on How to Make a Sifter.  My dad says he'll help me build it.

#1 Adventures in Composting

To get to the part of the story where I can tell you how I got to the decision of starting a compost bin requires a lot of twists and turns in my crazy brain, but here goes: I'm sitting in church thinking about how I'm finally graduating from nursing school.  I'm thinking this is going to free up more time for other adventures.  Plus, every semester I make a list of goals that I want to accomplish.  On top of that, New Year's is around the corner so 2012's goals are in need of drafting.  As I'm pondering this I think about how I really want to create an organized system for food storage, but that's a whole other post for later.  This thought leads to me to thoughts of dutch ovening.  Finally I come to the conclusion that it would be really cool to start my own garden, so that I can learn how to grow things for myself, possibly save money on produce, and hopefully grow extra delicious produce compared to store bought.

The only problem?  I know very little about gardening.  Especially here in Las Vegas.  After doing some research I come to realize that this endevour may not save me any money if I have to buy expensive nutrient enriched soil and other things to grow anything.  After picking my dad's brain he mentions off hand that my granny buries all her organic kitchen waste and that makes the dirt much better for growing.

With that little seed planted in my brain, I go back to my computer for research.  Composting is the perfect solution!  It takes 3 months to years to make a good compost pile.  This is the perfect time span, since right now it's winter and I can't plant anything anyway so I can begin making special nutrient rich soil! 

It's actually a really cool process, and I'll give you a run down since I knew almost nothing before researching.  Basically you throw all your yard clippings (grass, leaves, etc.), organic kitchen waste (orange peels, coffee grounds, eggshells, rotten produce, pretty much anything besides meat and grease), and things like shredded paper and sawdust into a compost bin (which I'll get into in a second) and bacteria breaks everything down over time and produces all this nutrient rich stuff you can spread in your garden to make things grow better. You can learn more at this link: Composting 101

I don't want to spend a lot of money doing this so even though specially designed, expensive compost bins are available I wanted a lower tech option.  You can do it like my granny and simply bury the stuff, or create a general heap somewhere in your backyard, but I wanted a way to monitor the progress so I opted for some sort of bin.  After doing a little googling I came upon this site: http://organicgardening.about.com/od/compost/ht/storagecompost.htm

Kevin assisted me in creating my compost bin out of a plastic storage bin.  I found an old, beaten-up bin in the garage AFTER buying one at Wal-Mart (I blame my dad for not telling me). So we decided to use that one instead of the new one.  It's pretty simple, you just have to drill holes about 1 inch apart on every side of the bin including the lid so that the compost can get some oxygen. 

As we were driving away from Kevin's neighborhood, we looked over and discovered this abandoned burlap sack of leaves. Jack. Pot. 

This is the beginning of the organic kitchen waste I'm going to add to it.  According the the Composting 101 site it's better to add a large chunk of material because the bigger the amount the faster the breakdown process happens.

After the bin was completed, we set it outside on top of an intact lid to catch drainage to add back into the compost as needed.  We lined the bottom with the leaves, then poured some water in the bin to jumpstart the process and followed it up with the organic kitchen waste.

 This is what the final product looked like. 

From here I plan to add waste, shredded paper and other things that can be composted. This is a list of 163 Things That Can be Composted. I will also have to go out every 1-2 days to agitate and mix up the contents to speed up the composting process. Hopefully by April I'll have the start of some enriched material for my garden!