Archive | June, 2012

Mountain House Sale

It is the last week for the 20-25% off sale of Mountain House canned foods at Emergency Essentials. Storing of dehydrated and freeze-dried foods such as Mountain House is an outstanding way to prep and have foods on hand should you not be able to go to the store and buy it.

These cans are ideal for use in home storage or emergency preparedness. Did you know that they can have a shelf life of up to 25 years? So why not buy some today while they are still on sale and put up a few extra items in your long-term home food pantry. Remember you never know when you may be faced with a situation where you will have to rely on your pantry to feed you and your family. It’s always wise to be prepared.

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Dryer Lint Makes Great Firestarters

Using dryer lint for firestarters isn’t a new idea but I just wanted to share a quick post in case you haven’t tried it yourself. I used to just throw my dryer lint out but then I found it has many handy uses one of which is that it burns easily. Just throw the little chunks of lint and into your woodstove or fireplace as you build your fire. I like to place a small ball of lint at the bottom of the wood stove with my newspaper and then place the kindling on top. Then put the match to the lint to light the fire and you will have a blazing fire soon.

One other useful tip is to save your lint in toilet or paper towel rolls. You shove the lint into the tubes after you clean out your dryer vent. I started doing this recently and it works great to just throw the paper tubes into my woodstove when I make my fire. The lint really is a great firestarter and plus it’s free. Oh and one last idea, if you are out in the woods and need a quick firestarter, check your pockets and get the lint out from the bottom of your pants pockets. Pocket lint works great to start a fire in a pinch.

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Cayenne Pepper Keeps Pests Away

I read that cayenne pepper can be helpful at keeping pests away. Apparently mice, squirrels and other pests don’t like the smell of cayenne pepper. I have been having a problem with mice getting in my greenhouse and eating my tender seedling plants so I wanted to give this idea a try.

I have also read that ants and some other bugs don’t like cayenne pepper either so this may be a good solution to deter them too. I bought a 50 cent bottle of cayenne pepper and have sprinkled it generously all around the greenhouse as shown above. So far it appears to be working. My seedlings haven’t been getting eaten overnight like they had been but lets give it some time to see if this really works.

It’s been about a week now since I first spread some cayenne pepper around in my greenhouse. The plants have been left alone and it doesn’t appear that anything has been getting in and eating them. So if you have been having problems with mice or other such pests, you might try this useful idea of applying cayenne pepper around the area to repel them.

Application: Sprinkle the cayenne pepper all around areas where you want to keep the pests away. Especially apply cayenne pepper in holes and openings where the pests are entering. Re-apply every few weeks to keep the strong smell present for the best results.

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