Keep them critters out!!!

Over on my facebook page I've had many requests asking how to keep fur critters domestic and wild and also creepy crawlies out of the garden. I've been doing my research and have compiled a few ideas on how to keep them buggers out of your garden without using any chemicals!

Slugs:
Coffee- take old brewed coffee and put it in a spray bottle spray on your soil surrounding the garden and the  slugs will stay out.

Beer Can Trap- Take an old beer can and cut in half, bury it in the soil up to the rim and put some beer, sugar water, soda pop and the slugs will be attracted to it and fall in and drown. You can also use tuna cans for this. Remember to discard the can and contents and replace regularly!

Salt- My grandmother will swear by Hawaiian salt keeping them suckers out!! Line the garden bed with it and fear no slugs!! Note: DO NOT PUT IN YOUR GARDEN. If you have raised beds place around the outside of the bed to keep slugs out... salt can be fatal to your garden, you may not have slugs, but you also may not have a crop to harvest either.

Cats:
Chicken wire- used in many ways.. you can make a cage around your garden or if you want lay out our soil then add a layer of chicken wire to the top of your bed to keep cats from using your garden bed as a litter box.

Coffee Grounds- Keeping coffee grounds in with your soil also can deter cats.

Cayenne Pepper - Sprinkle some of that spice on the outer rim of your garden bed.. I have been told this can work, and it can fail.. some cats are just that stubborn. If you are willing to try it let me know how this one works out!!

Give it it's own space- If you have the room and time.. and if the cat is yours, give the cat it's own outdoor litter box, a small sandbox or even a dollar store litter box filled with litter or sand the cat may be up to using that more then your bountiful garden!.. If the cat isn't yours and you don't know who the cat belongs too I recommend getting a trap from your humane society and getting that cat a home. I know in my area there are more stay cats then owned cats and it is sad how many die on the streets, if each one of us can get a cat off the street to stop it from reproducing more feral kitties won't that help? Just a thought!

Birds:
Bird netting- I know bird netting can be hard to work with but using some pvc you can make a removable cage that is easy to work with!
Here is a link to some plans

Rocks - take a bunch of those garden rocks and paint them to look like lady bugs and strawberries, place them in your garden prior to your fruit coming in and by the time your fruit comes in the birds will be tired of trying!!

Wild Animals. (Deer, Moles, Voles, possums..etc):
Dogs- Having your furry pet around should keep them guys out of your yard, I have followers who swear by it!

Motion Sensors- Motion sensored lights, and/sprinklers. (this can work for them kitties too)

Traps- For possums/raccoon's trap em and remember to re locate at least a few miles away from your home so they don't come back.. I usually make a trip to the woods to get a little mud on my tires to relocate away from the city!

There are other inhumane ways of dealing with moles and voles which my dad has used because moles are such buggers and all our other methods of deterring them had failed.

Hair- yes you read that right.. human hair... deer don't like the smell of us human kind apparently we stink! Sprinkle some around your garden to keep them away!

Bacon- Line the outside of your garden with bacon grease.. them long eared friends don't like the smell, keep them out of your salad garden.

Cayenne- as well as your cats, this will deter coons away from your garden as well.


If you have a request for a certain critter you want to keep out of your garden please ask. I hope that this helps some of you who are looking for remedies to keep them critters away!!!

27 days till spring!!! Who else is itching to get some dirt under their nails? Have a great day y'all!!

Dehydrating Green Beans

Hey there friends!! I hope your monday wasn't too horrible, I am suffering from some major back spasms today, but I still have accomplished many things. I as able to add canned beef stew to my stockpile food storage, I did my monthly grocery shopping and snagged a few deals on meat and veggies. I also got the house picked up from our superbowl party!

This evening I am going to show you how to eliminate some of that precious freezer space!! I buy the bulk bags of frozen vegetables, corn, green beans, broccoli, peas, and even hashbrowns. 5lbs in each bag, with 3 little ones and two adults we go through LOTS of veggies and potatoes. I also have a tiny side freezer, so that space is very precious to me.

Did you know that you can take those frozen veggies and dehydrate them to save space? OH, yes, yes you can!!!

 Fill your dehydrator trays and dry at 125 F until brittle.

Can you say space saver? I can! How easy!!

This is one of the shelves on my bakers rack, 5 lbs fills a quart jar, if I have some that doesn't fit I just vacuum seal it with my food saver and put it on the shelf.

 I love finding ways to preserve my food that is convenient and space saving.

These veggies rehydrate wonderfully, I make stew meal in a jar with my own dehydrated veggies and it is amazing!!!

Canned Beef Stew

Hey y'all!!! Today was my big grocery shopping day and I found 6lbs of stew meat on sale along with about 10lbs of chicken breast on sale!! So I'm canning beef stew today and I thought I would share with y'all!!!

Whatcha need:
12 quart mason jars with matching rings and lids
Jar lifter
Non-metalic Spatula
Canning funnel
Beef Stew Recipe

Beef Stew Recipe:
1 tbs oil
6lbs Stew Meat (when I bought mine it was already cut, but you could always buy your favorite cut and cut it into 1 inch cubes)
15 small carrots sliced
3 onions cubes
6 large potatoes or 12 small
4-5 celery stalks sliced (I didn't add this to my recipe today cause my non caffeinated brain forgot to pick it up)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1tbs garlic powder

Take your Stew meat and toss it in a frying pan and brown meat in the 1tbs of oil.

While your meat is browning chop peel and slice all your vegetables and place into a large stockpot

Drain off meat and toss it in with your vegetables, and cover with hot water or beef broth, I do a combo of both, bring to a boil.

While your stew is coming up to a boil sanitize your jars lids and rims. Place jars in a 200 degree oven to keep hot, use your jar lifter to remove them from the oven.

Once your stew is brought to a boil, laddle hot stew into jars leaving 1inch headspace.
Using your non-metalic spatula remove the air bubble from your jars and wipe rims of jars with a damp towel, I usually put a little vinegar on my towel to cut through the grease from the meat.

Process quarts for 1 hour and 30 min
Process pints for 1 hour 15 min

Wait 3-6 after removing your jars from the canner and be sure all have sealed properly, store and enjoy within 1 year :)

Canned Portugeuse Bean Soup

Hey y'all!!! Got one more recipe for y'all today! This recipe is per request of my dad! We love feel good food and what is better on a cold fall day then a hot bowl of soup?

What you will need:
12 quart jars with rims and lids
pressure canner
jar lifter
non metalic spatula
Saucepot

I got my recipe over at My Hawaiian Home this is the closest recipe I can find to my mom's original recipe! 

This is how my soup turned out.. .doesn't it look delicious!!

The only thing I do not add is the macaroni, they will not withstand being canned. I have not come across any recipe where noodles were a success being canned. They seem to go rancid within just a few months and break down alot during the process. 

Cook recipe and fill your sterilized canning jars leaving 1 inch headspace

Process quarts for 75 min and pints for 60 min at 10# of pressure

Once processing is finished remove and allow to cool and wait for the "pings" 

Aloha!! 

Canned Spaghetti Sauce

Afternoon friends!!! It's been a busy busy day already! We are getting close to 800 fans now on my facebook page! This is so exciting for me. When I started my facebook page I never thought in a million years that it would grow as much as it has! I love everyone on there, I spend more time on there then I do my personal fb page. Oh and when I hit 500 I posted a giveaway go check it out Prepper Nicki's Giveaway.


Okay so onto my recipe!! Canned Spaghetti Meat Sauce!! You get to control the ingredients, which is the best part!

What you will need:
12 quart jars with rims and lids
pressure canner
jar lifter
non metalic spatula
Saucepot

Sauce Recipe:
5lbs Ground turkey or Ground Beef ( I use ground turkey for almost everything but if I find a sale I will use ground beef)

1 1/2 cups chopped onion ( 2 medium onions )

8 cups cooked or canned tomatoes

2 cups tomato paste ( to thicken the sauce )

4 tbs italian seasoning

2tbs brown sugar



In a large saucepot brown your meat, don't worry about it cooking all the way through the processing will take care of that.

Add your onion and cook till just tender and drain off excess fat

Add remaining ingredients and simmer till it has reached your desired thickness

Ladle hot sauce into quart jars remembering to leave 1inch headspace

Run your non metalic spatula and remove air bubbles

Put your lids and rims on and Process

Quarts for 1hr 15min, Pints for 1 hour at 10# of pressure!!

After processing pull your jars out and put them in a place to cool for 6-12 hours and then check to make sure all have sealed correctly ( I usually don't wait this long, I check them after about 3 hours, I don't like waiting for the next day then have my food go spoiled overnight!
"Pinging" can begin as soon as the jars are removed! :)

Enjoy folks!!

Canned Potatoes

Evening everyone, I am really trying to get caught up on my blog posts tonight, I have taken way too much time off from this, I must start getting on this on a daily basis!!

We are coming upon grocery day and I almost always buy the big 20lb bag of potatoes, but this month we just didn't go through them like we usually do, so I decided I would can them! 

I used about 10lbs of potatoes here and ended up with 12
Canned Potatoes Recipe

Peel and quarter potatoes.
Boil for 10 min
Pack hot jars with potatoes and cover with boiling water (I used the water that I boiled my taters in)
1/2 tsp of salt per jar
Process for 40 min at 10# pressure for quarts and 35 min for pints

Let sit for 12 hours and make sure all jars have sealed. tada!!

for daily updates visit Prepper Nicki's Nook

Garlic Parmesan Biscuits

Evening y'all! So this past weekend I spent a good amount of time with my new pressure canner.
20lbs of tomatoes later I have a cupboard filled with turkey meat sauce, ground beef meat sauce and chili (a few less chili cause my daddy took some with him when he came to visit last night.)

So if you read the previous blogs you will know that I have now posted 3 seperate blogs today and intend on doing one more before bed. I am whooped! Work was a breeze, I actually spent most of my time with the chickens and the dog. It was a nice relaxing day, it seemed fitting with how gloomy it was. I'm getting off track, so.. for dinner tonight I wanted something FAST cause I did not want to stand over a hot stove/oven all evening, spaghetti it was, not much too that just pop open a jar of the meat sauce and heat it up and boil your noodles.

The most yummy part of the meal was my garlic/parm biscuits. They really are just so super delicious.

Garlic/Parmesan Biscuits:
2 cups bisquick (homemade)
3/4 milk
1/4 Parmesan cheese
1 Tbs butter melted
2 Tbs garlic powder or 2 cloves finely minced garlic 


Preheat oven to 400
Mix it all together and roll into small balls and put onto a your baking sheet, you can oil your sheet if you want but I never have an issue with these sticking, all depends on your baking sheet I suppose. 

Brush tops of your biscuits with butter and bake for 15-20 min.

Dinner is served!!

If you like my posts here don't forget to go like me on facebook at Prepper Nicki's Nook

Homemade Better Bisquick Recipe

Ok, so since I did my mini pancake bites in my previous blog post, I figured I should probably give you the recipe for the homemade bisquick I make here and never have to run out of and always have on hand. (without the added stuff inside that you don't know what it is.)

Bisquick is so versatile, you can make numerous things with it... from pancakes, to biscuits to chicken and dumplins to fried chicken. It's expensive! So lets save you some money and make it at home!!!

Ingredients:
6 cups of flour
3 TBS baking powder
1 TBS salt
1 cup vegetable shortening

Take all your dry ingredients and mix together
take your 1 cup of shortening and cut this into your dry ingredients until it looks almost like a cornmeal.

I always make a double batch because I use it constantly with 3 little ones around.

Store in an airtight container in the fridge, and use as you would the regular old bisquick.
( I do not know the original source of this recipe but I know it is floating around all over the interwebs )


WARNING: With this recipe you will never buy bisquick again!!! :)