A blog about everything outdoors. Camping, Hiking, Fishing, Hunting, Gardening, Survival, Prepping, Outdoor Cooking, Campfire Cooking, Homesteading, Self-Reliance, Cast Iron Cooking, Bushcraft, Wilderness First Aid, Food Canning, Food Preservation, Country Cooking, Recipes, Outdoor Life, Exploring
Timberwolf
Saturday, January 23, 2021
Friday, December 25, 2020
Youtube channel Christmas Day 2020 update
Video on Youtube with Christmas Day 2020 updates. Similar to the previous blog post, but this is the video to accompany. Please Subscribe to my channel if you like my posts and hit the notification bell. Also, don't forget to "Thumbs Up" the videos. Thanks for all your support!
Christmas Day 2020 Update on Youtube
Help us to create more videos by donating directly via Paypal:
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/timberwolfoutdoors
Check out our Merch - Tshirts, Hoodies, Coffee Mugs:
Christmas Day 2020 Reflections
So, as I sit here on this Christmas Day of 2020, just reflecting on life and the past year, I wanted to send a very warm Merry Christmas to everyone out there. I'm also sharing a few pictures I have taken around the area. It’s been a tough year for many of us…certainly a crazy year. Still, I’m grateful for many things. I’m spending Christmas alone this year. For various reasons, my family are all off doing different things. And that’s ok. I’ve spent the last two days hunkering down from the strong cold front. Last night it got down to about 30 degrees and tonight it’s supposed to get down to about 26 degrees. That’s fairly cold for my area.
I live in Milton, Florida, which is in the Panhandle of Florida. This type of cold front is not unheard of, but it’s not typical either. We normally get about 2 or 3 of these cold fronts through the winter. We used to get a lot more of them. I remember back years ago it was common for ditches and small inlets to be frozen over. About 14 years ago we had 4 nights of upper teens in a row. On the 3rd day, the power grid overloaded, and everyone lost power for about a day or so.
So, I’m thinking about what a beautiful area I live in. From beaches to rivers to creeks, marshes to woodlands and all manner of creatures. I do wish we would get a little snow more often, but that’s okay too. I think we all need to be more thankful for what we do have. We don’t realize how much we have in this country. I’m not going to wade into politics, but I will say that if you think this is a bad country, you should see how
some people live overseas. We are very fortunate. I have an amazing daughter and a wonderful grandson. I don’t get to see them as much as I like, but we both have busy lives. My daughter is a firefighter, which is no surprise. I was a firefighter for many years and she basically grew up at the firehouse with me. I had no doubt that she would want to do the same. I’ve very proud of her for how strong she is.
Yes, that's my daughter in the picture to the right-->
At 48, I decided to go back to school. This term I took 4 classes which I just finished, but that finished off my Associate’s degree, so now I can transfer to a Bachelor’s program.
I’m just
reflecting on things here, life and such, but I also am pointing out that we
should be grateful for what we have. It
may never be exactly what we want, but it is still a blessing. I hope everyone has a wonderful
Christmas. If you’re not Christian, then
I also wish you Happy Holidays.
Regardless of religion or non-religion, I hope peace and love finds
you. And regardless of religion or
non-religion, I want to leave you with these words, the words of Our Lady, the
Theotokos (Mother of God):
“My soul
proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit
rejoices in God my Savior
for he
has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this
day all generations will call me blessed:
the
Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy
is his Name.
He has
mercy on those who fear him
in every
generation.
He has
shown the strength of his arm,
he has
scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has
cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has
lifted up the lowly.
He has
filled the hungry with good things,
and the
rich he has sent away empty.
He has
come to the help of his servant Israel
for he
remembered his promise of mercy,
the
promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham
and his children forever.”
I absolutely
love these words. It’s called the
Magnificat. My friends, I hope the Most
High brings you peace. And my final
words to you on this cold Christmas night:
We adore
you, O Christ, and we praise you
Because, by Your
Holy Cross, you have redeemed the world.
Our Lady,
Seat of Wisdom…Pray for us
St.
Joseph…Pray for us
St.
Francis…Pray for us
Wednesday, December 23, 2020
What to Do Today to Become Self-Sustaining
So, you want to be self-sustaining? You have dreams of turning your home and yard
into a “preppers paradise?” Or perhaps
your goals include purchasing a tract of land and turning it into a
homestead? Whether you have desires to
create a self-reliant farm or just want to start down the road of learning how
to become more self-sustaining, I have a few tips for you here. Maybe you were convinced by my previous
article on the subject –
Why Everyone Should Learn “Prepping” Skills
Whatever the case, it’s important to realize that it
takes dedication to succeed in any of these areas. Generally speaking, there are 6 major areas
to consider being self-sustaining. Of
course, this isn’t all-inclusive, there are many, many things to learn beyond
this. But these 6 are the basics of getting
started. Now I don’t want to scare
anyone off. In fact, my hope is to help
everyone achieve some level of sustainability.
So, let’s look at these 6 areas:
1. Shelter
2. Electricity
3. Water
4. Meat
5. Fruits
and Vegetables
6. Staples
When we speak of shelter, there are going to be 2 avenues which I have already touched on. You either already own property with some type of shelter (a house, a mobile home) on it or you plan to purchase property with either shelter already on it or you plan to place a shelter
there. The first thing you need to do is figure out how you can live comfortably. Not how you dream about living. Yes, we all watch those “Alaska” shows where people thrive in -40 degree winters and 10 feet of snow. And we all (or those like me) think, “Heck yeah, I can do that.” Well, it takes a special kind of person to do that. So, what environment are you capable of living in? And what the heck does this have to do with the sudden shift away from shelters? Well, can you live in a canvas tent, or an RV, or a cabin built from free pallets? Or do you need to build a brick home just like any other brick home in any other subdivision? The choice is yours. So, decide on your land and your shelter, then you can move on from there.
Now, the two most difficult items to obtain from the
list above are Water and Staples. Yes,
some may disagree, but hear me out.
Unless you have a continuously running water source on your land or you
are able to build a water source (i.e., dig a well), you’re not going to have freshwater
resources. So, you need to plan that
into your check-off list. And then, there
are Staples. What do I mean by
that? These are things like Flour, Corn
Meal, Sugar, Coffee, Tea, Salt, Spices.
Items we use in everyday cooking that we buy in bulk but are extremely
difficult to produce on our own. I wouldn’t
be able to grow coffee on my property.
Or grow cane fields to produce sugar.
Or field of wheat to make flour.
So, we have to think about how to obtain these or substitutes. And this leads to the next category…Fruits
and Vegetables.
So, I was doing a lot of thinking the other day and
remarked to my mom, that there are 3 main carbohydrates in the world. Rice, Flour (Bread and Pasta), and
Potatoes. Wherever you go, different cultures
depend largely on one of these three staples as the basis of their diet. Now, in a situation where we had to “live off
the land,” we wouldn’t be growing rice.
Like I stated earlier, I couldn’t grow enough rice or wheat (flour) to
support myself. But we can grow
potatoes. And rather easily too. Potatoes, and to a lesser extent beans, would
be the main carb we could grow to sustain our diet.
So back to the main point of this article, what can you do today to get started in being self-sustaining? As I have argued before, start with a small backyard garden. First, learn what grows well in your area.
Check out your Agricultural Zone below:
Then, begin to plant fruits and vegetables that you
enjoy eating. Start with easy to care
for items that are staples of dishes like tomatoes, bell peppers, and sweet
peppers. And don’t forget the
potatoes! Growing potatoes is easy and a
great start to becoming self-sustaining.
And that leaves us with the next category of Meat!
Yep, good ole’ meat. I can go on and on about mean and sustainability, but that’s for another article. The purpose here is to get you started. For purposes of this article, I’m not referring to hunting or trapping to obtain mean, but becoming self-sustaining, as in a homestead. And the easiest and most rewarding animal to raise for beginners are chickens. They are so easy to care for and most municipalities do not have laws against raising a couple chickens in your
backyard. A decent size coop, fresh food and water, and some hay, and you can raise 2 or 3 chickens right in your own back yard. Some chickens lay an egg a day, some every other day. But you are learning how to raise animals and getting the benefit of fresh eggs. And from time to time, you could butcher one up for dinner if you like. More on that on another day. If you are really feeling the call of the homestead, you could also consider raising meat rabbits. These animals breed well. Yes, they are cute. You have to go into it with the mindset that these are for food.
Let There Be Light!
Finally, we arrive at electricity. You will have to decide how much or how
little electricity you can live with (or without). Just remember, if you want to truly be
off-grid, or in a total SHTF situation, there may not be any external electrical
resources. We don’t realize how much we
depend on it, until it’s not there. My
suggestion to you is to try and rely on as little electricity as possible from
time to time to get an idea of just how much is used. And it’s not the lights! Lighting is one of the smaller consumption
items. Think about the things we forget about. The refrigerator, the deep freezer, the HVAC
(Air Conditioning and Heating), the washer and dryer, the TV, the Wi-Fi modem,
the aquarium, the stove, the computer, shall I go on?
There are several options out there, solar, wind, water, but only solar is accessible for most people. So, obviously, it is possible to go totally solar, many are doing it. It is expensive though. Do some research on the matter. Now I said this was about what you can do today, right? Well, dip your toes into the river of solar power. Start with solar power packs that have small solar panels that you can use to recharge cell phones and small electrical items.
Purchase lights like these on Amazon that are cheap, but recharge with small solar panels
Get inexpensive solar panels and solar batteries that
can charge higher consumption items like fans and computers. By the way, these and the solar pack and lights
I mentioned are great for camping!
Start building your way up to more and more solar
power and then spend time using only these items. This will help you get used to the idea of
relying on solar power.
So, I hope this article was helpful for you. I want to help individuals understand how to
become more self-reliant and take the small steps towards that goal. I believe that if we start small, we learn
invaluable skills and knowledge to help us for when we have to make the big plunge. That’s all for today, folks, wish you all
well and Stay Safe!
#outdoorlife #selfreliance #sustainability #homestead #offgrid
Sunday, December 13, 2020
Two New Pages to Check Out
Hey, everyone. Hope all of you are doing well. This is just a quick post to let you know about two new pages I have created in relation to Timberwolf Outdoor Life. The first is a Facebook page. Primarily, you'll see content there that I have created here, along with my Youtube channel. But, I may also be sharing posts that I find interesting. You can link to my Facebook page here:
Facebook - Timberwolf Outdoor Life
The second page is where you can find Timberwolf Outdoor Life Merch! That's right, I said it. And I did it. Right now, I'm only offering short sleeve T-shirts, long sleeve T-shirts, Hoodies, and coffee mugs. But, I may expand that down the road. All the merch has our logo on the front with our "motto" (chuckle) on the back. These are some good quality items and it will help us out as well.
If you want to order some items, the link is below:
Thanks for all your support. It means a lot. Please comment to let me know your thoughts and ideas. I value everyone's input. As usual, my primary endeavor is producing Youtube videos that hopefully will both entertain and, maybe, educate a little. That link is here:
Until next time! Take care!
#outdoorlife #direcklyonthecoals
Tuesday, December 8, 2020
Why Everyone Should Learn “Prepping” Skills
These days, the term “prepping” is tossed around without
really an understanding behind the meaning.
I, personally, rarely use the word preferring terms like “self-reliance”
or “homesteading.”
As a matter of fact! - we’ve already experienced it this year. Remember our initial reaction to COVID-19? I don’t know about your neighborhood, but the grocery stores here in my town were wiped out. Not just of toilet paper, but all paper products, canned goods, dried foods, meats, you name it. And it lasted for weeks.
So, it wasn’t a super extreme version of a SHTF scenario (for you non-preppers, that means a Shit-Hit-The-Fan scenario, a large incident that causes all of society to crash), but it certainly brought to the forefront how easily we could find ourselves in one. No, my friends, it is not just for the whacko’s to contemplate what might happen in the event of a societal crash or even partial crash.
Epidemic?
War? Alien Invasion? Asteroid Crash? Government Takeover?
Yeah, a lot of possibilities. And don’t forget the very real possibility of a Zombie Apocalypse! So, do you know some basic survival skills? What if there were no grocery stores? What if there was no electricity? What if other people were trying to take what you have by force? To understand where we need to go, we have to understand where we came from. My personal belief is that it is a very pitiful situation that people have become so disconnected from the land and from their food. And I don’t just mean meat, but yes that’s a big one. Plants too. So many people don’t have any idea how to grow a garden. It is so important that everyone learns how to grow a small garden. You can raise your favorite crops! And it’s more than just popping a seed in some dirt and watering it. Much more! Do you know what crops grow in your location? Do you know your agricultural zone? Do you know what kind of dirt to use? How to fertilize and with what type of fertilizer and when? How much to water? How much sun? Every plant is different. You can pretty much pop any seed in any dirt, add some water, and it will start to grow. But the real test is, will grow to adulthood and flower and produce fruit? What conditions do you need for the flower to produce fruit? Do you need two of the same plant to cross-pollinate?
And then there was meat!
…and don’t even get me started on meat. Sorry, this is a pet-peeve of mine (pardon
the pun). Society has become so
disconnected from where they get their meat.
We go to McDonald’s and order or a burger. Sometimes, for those that can actually cook,
they buy a piece of steak from the grocery store. But that meat came from a living animal. A lot of people view hunters with hatred, but
that hunter loves animals just as much as anyone else. That hunter also has the conviction to pull
the trigger and kill that animal, gut it and clean it, and chop It up for his
family to have food. While you may
detest hunting, it is a much more noble means of providing meat on your
table. I’d also like to add that a large
percentage of funds from hunting licenses goes towards environmental
stabilization.
So, you can grow your veggies and you can kill and clean a
rabbit. Now what?? Well, you’ve eaten meat for a day, but what
about the next day? So, you kill and
clean a deer. Now what?? What do you do with the extra meat and veggies
that you don’t eat today?
Canning and Preserving.
That’s right. One of
the main skills to learn in prepping is how to can and preserve food. It’s the only way to make it through the year. You can’t grow plants year-round, at least
not most and not with a lot of fruit production. You probably (maybe?) can’t hunt year-round. Or at least you wouldn’t be able to kill large
animals on a regular basis. So, you have
to learn how to preserve the excess food that you have. And trust me, this is a science all to
itself. It takes a lot of knowledge and
math to know how to properly do these things.
Unless you don’t care about killing yourself and your family with some
bacteria.
Then there’s all the other things: building a fire, cooking, building shelter if you need to, living without electricity, making and repairing clothes, raising animals (chickens are the best to start with), and on an on.
You can start now!
That’s right! No matter where
you live, you can start learning with a small backyard or patio garden and some
backyard chickens. Chickens are great
because it teaches you how to raise animals (there’s a lot of science for that too)
and you get the benefit of daily fresh eggs.
Just think, if you raised 2 chickens who lay one egg a day each and had
a few bell pepper and tomato plants, you could, if nothing else, survive off a
southwest style omelet every day. You
wouldn’t be eating a lot, but you could survive!
So, I think I’ve made my point. These are important skills to learn. The good news is you can learn them. There are many resources out there to help
you with gaining the knowledge you need to survive if things get bad. Don’t think that it can’t happen. It can and likely will. Only you can take the steps necessary to
ensure that your family will be able to face the undesirable consequences.
The blog you are reading right now was designed to help you
take those first steps: Read More. Click on the “Follow” button to make sure you
get notified of future posts.
And this accompanying YouTube channel will provide you with
videos of living outdoors: See More. Be sure to “Thumbs Up” the video,
then click on the Subscribe button below the video and hit the notification
bell so you get notified of future videos.
Thanks, and I hope this was useful information for you!
#outdoorlife #direcklyonthecoals
Friday, December 4, 2020
My History Blog
Good evening, everyone! I wanted to introduce you to another blog that I have recently started. It's not so much a blog as it is a collection of my college papers that I have written in the areas of History, Anthropology, Archaeology, and Religion. I also plan to post any independent research papers that I write here as well.
For those that don't know, I am currently working on a Bachelor of Arts in History with a Minor in Judaic Studies through the University of Central Florida. I am also working on an Undergraduate Certificate in Catholic Theology through St. Joseph's College of Maine. I currently have an Associate of Arts in History from Pensacola State College and a Certificate in Eastern Christian Traditions from Newman Theological College.
Link here: John Haynes History Blog
Tarkiln Bayou Preserve State Park - Hiking and Trail Maintenance - Nov 24, 2021
A short video of Tarkiln Bayou Preserve and State Park in Pensacola, Florida. I am hiking the main trail and doing some trail maintenance ...
-
Deer hunting in Blackwater State Forest near Milton, FL. It was a cold and windy day. Check out the Youtube video here: Don't forget...
-
I've been trying to record this Whipporwhill who every night perches in the trees above my house. Finally got him and then got a bonu...
-
The family and I camping on private property just outside of Milton, Florida. This was from October 2020. Wonderful cool evening and chil...