Country Living With Emma

This morning, the temperature was 22, and the wind chill was 10. That's pretty cold for Texas! In this episode, I discuss prepping for cold weather and the possibility of winter precipitation later in the week. How are you fairing in the first Polar Vortex of the year? countrylivingwithemma@protonmail.com

MSN recently published an article listing skills needed to survive a food shortage. Baking bread is their first skill. Baking bread became highly popular during COVID. I bake a couple of loaves of sourdough sandwich bread every 2 weeks. Learning to bake various types of bread is fun and produces a far superior product to the baked goods in the grocery store.  countrylivingwithemma@protonmail.com

How did 2024 turn out? Like all years there was good and bad. In this episode, I cover storms, the garden, infrastructure improvements, the big power outage, and the election. What's on tap for 2025? Stay tuned and see! I have set up an email address for the podcast. If you would like to give me feedback, please contact me at countrylivingwithemma@protonmail.com.

This is an accountability of what I hope to get done while I'm off for Christmas. 

This is a review of an article at CNN about people stockpiling goods because they're afraid tariffs will cause prices to rise? What is your opinion? https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/16/economy/stockpiling-fear-higher-tariffs/index.html

I have clutter in my DNA. Fighting clutter is a never ending battle. How do you deal with clutter?

What makes a home? I am a "nester" and I have to make a nest wherever I am. In this episode, I talk about what aspects of home are necessary for me.

The holidays can be stressful for a multitude of reasons. We have a lot of expectations, many times unrealistic, at this time of year. It's tempting to expect our holidays to look like a Hallmark movie. This episode is a discussion of actions we can take to make the holidays easier especially if we don't have a lot of family.

So you have more projects going on than you can possibly ever complete? I'm talking about how I finally learned that "finished is better than perfect". 

I went down the risk assessment rabbit hole recently and here are some resources I found. FEMA Risk Assessment Map: https://hazards.fema.gov/nri/map Kentucky Sustainable Living YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzV7U3F3UkA Mind4Survival website: https://mind4survival.com/risk-management/

How did the old-timers decide when to plant and do different projects on the farm? Many believed in something called "planting by the signs", which involved using the signs of the zodiac to choose planting dates. My parents planted by the signs, but I have not tried that. After I finished this episode, I watched an episode on the Harmon Homestead Ranch channel, and she did a deep dive into this su...

What we think will happen and what actually happens are rarely the same. My experience, for what that's worth, is that every catastrophic event has come totally unexpected. How can we prepare if we don't know what we're preparing for?

Do you feel as if you are trying to balance between two different worlds with prepping/homesteading versus living in the "normal" world? It's a dilemma we all face. Keeping a foot in both worlds is important, but it can be a challenge to accomplish.  Added bonus! The great chicken salad recipe I found online! https://www.theendlessmeal.com/cranberry-chicken-salad/ 

This is the third episode in a series about permaculture zones and how I am applying that concept to my own property. Gardening is a learning experience and well worth the effort to learn!

I'm working my way through the permaculture zones. Here's a discussion of what I have done and would like to do in Zone 1, the high-traffic area outside the house. 

Proverbs 24:27 says, "Prepare your outside work, Make it fit for yourself in the  field ; And afterward build your  house ." Biblically, the outside work should come first. How does that work when there is just as much to do inside as there is outside?

This is the beginning of the discussion about permaculture and design zones, starting with Zone 0, which is the home. How can I make my home run more efficiently so that I can free up time to do more outside for prepping and self-sufficiency?

I'm off work for the whole week. In this episode I give an update on what I've gotten done so far. 

How my garden did this year and plans for next year. Why I'm thankful for laundry. 

Thanksgiving Week Plans: Harvest peanuts and potatoes Prune tomatoes Cooking Recreational stuff (hopefully) In this episode, I reference a cookbook that can be found here. Evidently, my memory is really faulty. I thought we ordered this cookbook when I was early elementary school, but the publication date is 1968. That means I was in Junior High! The Kansas City Star quilt pattern I referenced is...

This episode is something of a throwback to my review of the book, The Fourth Turning is Here . I think we have hard times coming and I think that involves a major war like we have not seen since WWII.   

I am beginning to research zones on my property relating to permaculture. Doing a Google search returns some interesting images relating to how to divide a property into various zones. In a small property like mine, I don't even have all the zones. However, I want to improve my use of the areas adjacent to the house. 

What kinds of things do you do to prep for winter? Texas can have all the weather, sometimes in the same week! I still have crops growing, but it's going to get a little colder this week. I'm talking about what I'll be doing to get ready for winter.

In the midst of Y2K, I had a personal SHTF event that took our well, which serves two households, out of commission. No one knew how to solve this problem and I was truly On My Own to figure it out. Find out what happened and how the problem was resolved.

Caring for elderly family members is a learn-by-doing experience. What can we do to be more prepared to care for family members or be cared for ourselves?