How to maintain cast iron on a regular basis - Quick Season method

 

In this Youtube video, I go over my regular maintenance method for taking care of cast iron cookware.  This is not the "deep" seasoning that may have to be done from time to time or if your cast iron is in poor shape.  I call this a "quick season" method.  I do this every 2 to 3 times I cook with an item.  It helps to maintain the regular "health" of my cast iron.  I hope you find this helpful.  Please help us out and give the video a "thumbs up" and then subscribe to our channel.  Thanks!

Daily Cast Iron Maintenance

#outdoorlife  #castiron

Deer hunting in Blackwater State Forest.

 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 to "thumbs up" for me and if you like my videos, please Subscribe and hit the notification bell.   Thanks!

Deer Hunting - Youtube

When the sun comes up on public hunting land.

 

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

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Timberwolf Outdoor Life Merch

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 3^rd 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

 

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:

USDA Plant Hardiness Zone

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

and provide a lot of light for many hours:

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

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:

Timberwolf Outdoor Life Merch

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:

Timberwolf Youtube

Until next time!  Take care!

#outdoorlife #direcklyonthecoals