Prepping on a budget, part 2 – book review

While scouring the internet looking for ways to be more self sufficient, I ran across a great (new to me) author, her name is Susan Gregersen. As I dug deeper about Susan, one of the things that really interested me was her very down to earth nature, she writes using everyday language, nothing pretentious here. If you have lots of money to prep with, then this book isn’t for you, but if you are on a tight to impossible budget, like most of us are, then this will be a great book for you.
 
Susan has written several books and sells them, at a super bargain price I might add, on Amazon. I contacted Susan and asked if I could do a review on one of her books, and possibly her daughter’s books too, like mother like daughter, they are both published authors. She replied and said she would be happy to let me review her books. She sent me a copy of Poverty Prepping, available right now on Amazon for 99 cents (free right now if you have a Kindle and have Amazon Prime, if you don’t one, you can still download this book to read on your computer). She also sent me a copy of a newly published book, Food Self-Sufficiency: Reality Check, both of them are real gems IMHO, and at 99 cents, well you just can’t beat that. But if you only get one of these books, I recommend Poverty Prepping.


Susan’s book, “Poverty Prepping: How to Stock up For Tomorrow When You Can’t Afford To Eat Today“, shows that even on the smallest paychecks, it is possible to prep, to help set up a buffer against even harder times, even if it’s only one or two extra items per paycheck, even if you have to sacrifice some other thing to do this, it’s worth sacrificing for a short period of time for the better good for you and your family. I wrote about this in part 1 of this series.

Susan gives some really good examples of how to prep even on the tightest of budgets, what to pick out, how to store it, what extra things to buy for bartering purposes, how to get things free (gardening, foraging, hunting, trading…), as well as non-food items… One thing Susan does not cover, and I would highly suggest adding later is about not going into debt to do any of these things, don’t use credit cards, don’t take out a loan, and for gosh sakes, stay away from those title loan places that seem to be on every street corner now, you will lose money as a result of the high interest charged by all of these methods.

I would say this book is well worth your time, and it’s such a major bargain, even if you only get one thing from this book, it’s well worth it. As of right now, this book has 46 reviews on Amazon and has 4.1 out of 5 stars.

Here are the links to the entire Prepping on a budget series
Prepping on a budget – part 1 – food
Prepping on a budget – part 2 – book review
Prepping on a budget – part 3 – food storage & security
Prepping on a budget – part 4 – water
Prepping on a budget – part 5 – first aid kit

All written text from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.

Wretha,

Thanks for visiting!

Chinese Home Remedies-book review

Part of being more self sufficient is being able to take care of minor medical issues yourself. It can become rather expensive to run to the doctor or hospital (or clinic) for every little sniffle or scratch. Like so many people, health insurance just isn’t an option, so I try to live in a healthy manner and I read up on how to take care of my own minor health issues.

One book I received last summer is called Chinese Home Remedies, Harnessing Ancient Wisdom for Self-Healing, by Lihua Wang, L.Ac., I am drawn to alternative medicine, but might have passed this book on the shelf, I would have thought from the cover that this book was full of strange sounding herbs and such that I would have little or no access to. There is so much more to this book, I am so glad I gave it a second chance, this book is laid out in a most helpful manner.

In the upper right hand corner of this book, it says “A to Z”, it is laid out in an alphabetical order of health issues, from acne to yeast infections (there doesn’t seem to be any health issues starting with the letter Z listed in this book). Under each health issue, it gives you some information about that health issue, what causes it, when you should go to a doctor (you shouldn’t ALWAYS try to treat yourself), what you should AND shouldn’t do if you have this particular health issue, then it comes to my favorite part, how you can treat said health issues. You should  be able to do most anything in this book along with any treatment you may receive from a doctor, I don’t recall reading anything that would conflict with any western medical treatment, of course if you aren’t sure, you can always talk to your doctor about it.

They give you several different ways to treat yourself for each health issue, first there are the “folk remedies”, these are tried and true traditional folk remedies that have been used down through the generations, I saw some that my family used when I was growing up, I’ll bet you will recognize some of them too. Next are the food therapies, what you should and shouldn’t eat to treat yourself, I expected to find some of those strange ingredients here, but most of what I read were normal everyday foods, like spinach and walnuts, there are more exotic foods listed there too, but you should be able to find these foods in most larger towns, especially if you go to the Asian markets that are more abundant now days.

It also explains about Chinese massage, and tells you exactly how to do it, you don’t have to find a Chinese masseuse, you can do this yourself or find a friend or partner to help if necessary. There are diagrams of where to rub, press or massage, this is like acupuncture without the needles, otherwise known as acupressure.

You will also learn about what Chinese herbs can help, now this is where things start sounding very foreign to me, but again, with the internet, and with most larger towns having an Asian population living somewhere within, meaning there will be Asian markets nearby, you should be able to find what you need.

I spent a couple of days thumbing through this book, stopping to read the ailments that most interested me, I found this book to be pretty complete, covering nearly everything you can take care of yourself, it’s an easy read, no complicated language here, and well laid out, you should be able to go to this book and quickly find what is bothering you (or someone else), you can pick the remedies you want to try, it’s not necessary to do all parts, you can choose to try the folk remedy and massage, but not the herbs.

I will be keeping this book handy and referring to it as needed. I recommend this, even if you don’t think you are interested in Chinese medicine, this book is so much more, and the remedies aren’t going to cost you an arm and a leg, you should be able to do part of the therapies in this book without having to spend any extra money, much of the other therapies are inexpensive.

Here is what is written on Amazon.com about this book:
Chinese Home Remedies is a book that offers an intriguing blend of traditional Chinese medicine-as practiced today-and a wide variety of ancient Chinese folk remedies. It contains more than 1,000 effective remedies, a treasure trove of information you can use every day. You’ll often be surprised how easily a problem that has lingered for weeks or months can be cured. Making moderate lifestyle changes and following the easy-to-use instructions on how to prepare home remedies, you will see how easy it is to end long-term suffering and experience healthier living.

This book is a distillation of Ms. Wang’s thirty years of clinical experiences, as both a physician in China and an acupuncturist and herbalist in the United States. It explains in simple-to-understand language how to treat yourself or a family member using a variety of techniques, including Chinese massage, Eastern food therapy, Chinese herbal formulas, as well as some heretofore unrevealed folk remedies, many of which have been passed down from generation to generation for thousands of years.

Did you know, for example, that: * Apple slices can ease itching skin? * Hooking your middle fingers together can stop a nosebleed? * Sunflower seeds can ease trigeminal pain? * Eating peanuts can lower your blood pressure? These are only a few of the more than 1,000 effective remedies that you will find in Chinese Home Remedies. By following just some of this book’s advice, you will find yourself on a healthier life path.

Lihua Wang began her career as a cardiologist in the China Academy of Traditional Medicine, in Bejing, China, where she practiced integrative medicine, combining both Western and Traditional Chinese medical techniques. In 1982 she was invited by Kaiser Permenante Research Center as a visiting scholar. She was later selected by the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine to teach acupuncture and Chinese herbology to American students for four years. She has been in private practice, specializing in traditional Chinese medicine, since 1992 in Portland, OR.

Read other book reviews here:
http://wretha.blogspot.com/search/label/book%20review

Legal stuff here, I am not a doctor, nor do I have any medical training, I am not giving medical advice, you must use your own common sense to decide if you need to go see a doctor, I am not responsible for anything you do or don’t do as a result of anything written here or anything you do or don’t do as a result of reading this book
I received a copy of this book for doing a review, my review is honest and as accurate as possible.



All written text from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.

Wretha,

Thanks for visiting!

The Ultimate Guide to Homesteading-Book Review

Homesteading, it’s a buzzword that means different things to different people, back in the day, it meant getting land for free as long as you lived on it and improved it for x number of years. It was a way to get people to move west (in the USA), back when travel was slow and painful, even dangerous.


Today it usually refers to someone who is living more like our ancestors did, in a more self sufficient manner, on a plot of land, often raising livestock, growing their own food, living more independently. Most of us are more than one generation removed from those who lived on a farm or homestead, so we don’t benefit from the knowledge of our family members who lived in a more self sufficient manner. I know in my family, it was my great grand parents who had lived on a farm, my grandparents and parents lived in suburban neighborhoods with small yards and animals no bigger than a dog.

Because of this, those of us who want to live closer to the land have to resort to alternative methods of obtaining  knowledge. I continually scour the internet for books about living off grid, gardening and such, I found this book The Ultimate Guide to Homesteading: An Encyclopedia of Independent Living (The Ultimate Guides), actually I didn’t find it, I was offered an opportunity to review it and I jumped at the chance, it was a book I had been looking at previously and was more than happy to review it.

I keep getting distracted from writing because I keep finding more and more interesting things in this book to read, I just read about growing cotton, then picking it, cleaning it, and spinning it. Since I crochet, this is especially appealing to me, and something I think I can do with little trouble. For now, I’m not set up to raise wool bearing animals, but I can grow cotton and process it.

This book has a lot to offer, it doesn’t go into extreme detail on any one subject, but gives you enough information so that you can decide if that particular thing is something you really want to try.  Nicole Faires (don’t you just love her name?) the author, has certainly lived the life, she is not just spouting theory, she grew up on a hobby farm raising chickens and growing her own food among other things.
While not an exhaustive list of homesteading subjects, I believe it covers the majority of them quite nicely, such as:

• land-buying, communities…
• water-getting it, purifying it and such
• food-finding it, growing it, preserving it…
• animals-livestock, domestic…
• shelter-various home styles, barns, fences…
• financial-making money from your skills…
• health-medicines, herbal medicines,
• and lots more

There is a great  dictionary in the back so you will at least sound like you know what you are talking about when chatting with the old timers at the feed store, LOL, seriously, I have had a good time reading the terminology and their meanings. Such as “butt-up”, before reading this book, I would have said that is how one lands when tripping over a rock and doing a face plant, now I know that is a type of roof ridge made in thatching which forces the straw together from both sides of the roof to form a peak. “Flying change”, I would think it’s what happens when you lose control of your change purse, but it really has to do with horses.

Near the back of the book, just before the index, the author’s bio and several blank pages (perfect for adding your own notes), there is a great bibliography with tons of resources, mostly in the form of internet links. These will send you to more detailed resources for the subjects found in this book. This alone is worth the price of the book.

The book is easy to read, well made, with lots of color photographs and diagrams, nice thick glossy pages ensure this book will last for a long time, that’s a good thing because once you have this book, you will be referring to it over and over again throughout the years.

PB (my hubby) has been trying to steal this book from me ever since I received it, his comment on it was that it is a good all over resource, not detailed on each thing, but a good book and he’s glad we have it, he has also been going on and on about how well this book is physically put together, the binding, the paper quality and the pictures. Now that I’m finished with this review, I can safely give the book to him, I’ll not see it again for a while. :)


See my other book reviews here:
http://wretha.blogspot.com/search/label/book review


Honesty disclaimer:
I did receive this book free from the publisher for the expressed intent of giving a review, that in no way influenced my review, all of my reviews are honest and from the heart.



All written text from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.

Wretha,

Thanks for visiting!

Things are starting to slow down a bit for me, sort of... now I am working on a book review, and it's well overdue, this book looks like it's going to be a good one. It's called The Ultimate Guide to Homesteading: An Encyclopedia of Independent Living (The Ultimate Guides), at first glance I can you that it contains a plethora of great information, thumbing through it there are chapters on basics, shelter, animals, comforts, health, gardening, and more. It's a substantial book with lots of info.



Right now I have to get ready to go to church, did I mention that I am now on the board of my church? Newly voted in. I'm also the secretary of the board, all that means is I take the minutes during the meeting and read them at the next. This is also first Sunday, we have a wonderful dinner after church, next week is second Sunday, we share in the dinner at the other church in our neighborhood (they come to ours too).


All written text from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.

Wretha,

Thanks for visiting!

Dirt-Cheap Survival Retreat Book Review

There are people who have seemingly unlimited funds to purchase whatever goodies they want. This book is not written for them, though they could glean some great ideas. It's really written for the rest of us, those who have limited incomes but still want to go off grid and live comfortably.

Dirt-Cheap Survival Retreat

Creekmore writes with a very down to earth style. He gets right to the point. He didn't fill this book with fluff -- this book is written from experience -- he actually lives the life and walks the walk. I live 100% off grid, and have done everything on the cheap, I've lived this way since Dec '07, I can tell you that this book has some useful ideas and info.

This book covers most all of the bases, I say most only because there is always something that could be added no matter how complete a book might be. You will learn about buying land cheaply, how to get shelter, how to power your place, this is something that can get expensive, but Creekmore tells you how to do it on the cheap. He also tells you how to deal with waste and sanitation, about security, food, water and more.

This isn't about being a hermit living in a cave, wearing skins and eating worms, Creekmore does use modern technology, lights, radio, computer... he just does it smarter, and he is sharing this info with the rest of the world in this book, hopefully so that the reader will have a head start on what to do and what not to do.

The part that I found very interesting is the security section, a couple of the ideas are the kind that make you slap yourself in the head and say "Why didn't I think of that???" I also like the section on how to find cheap land. Without that, you probably will not be able to even get started living anywhere on the cheap.

Whether you already own raw land and just want to know how to get started living cheaply, or you are just thinking about doing this, I highly recommend this book. Thanks Creekmore for sharing your life and experiences with the rest of us.

Dirt-Cheap Survival Retreat

Read more book reviews here:

Book Reviews

All written text from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.

Wretha,

Thanks for visiting!

A Request...

I wrote my review of Nick Rosen's book Off the Grid: Inside the Movement for More Space, Less Government, and True Independence in Modern America, on Amazon.com. While reading the other reviews, I noticed that there seems to be a misconception about this book, some of the readers/reviewers are expecting a "how to" book, a sort of technical manual of how to go off grid. This book is less "how to" and more about the people, the who and the why. The reviewers who gave it a less than stellar review were expecting a "how to" manual, they didn't seem to get the idea once they read on that the book is about the people who are living the life, so because of the fact that they didn't "get it", didn't understand what this book is and what it isn't, they gave it a negative review, this is unfair (IMHO) to Nick and the people in the book.

Here is the link to my review, http://www.amazon.com/review/R2W0HIGF72JURF/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm  I am asking you, my great readers, to go there, read my review and if you would, I would appreciate it if you would vote my review up, where it says "Was this review helpful to you?", I'd love it if you would click on "yes".  If you are a registered Amazon.com user, and you have a copy of this book, how about writing your own review?

All written text and audio podcasts from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute (text or audio) without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message. Wretha, properly pronounced wreetha, (included for the text reader), Thanks for visiting!

We have a winner!

Congrats to Shay from http://shay-offthebeatenpath.blogspot.com/, you are the winner of Off the Grid: Inside the Movement for More Space, Less Government, and True Independence in Modern America book.


I want to thank everyone who entered, here they are, give 'em a visit:
http://the-mama-crow.blogspot.com/
http://mylifewelcometoit1.blogspot.com/
http://frannbro.blogspot.com/
http://hermitjim.blogspot.com/
http://patriotsagainstthenwo.blogspot.com/
http://musingsbythecreekside.blogspot.com/
http://craftycountrymomma.blogspot.com/
http://huskersynthetics.blogspot.com/
http://npolenews.blogspot.com/
http://bitmaps-misc.blogspot.com/
http://urbanprairieliving-gracie.blogspot.com/
http://acupofhot.blogspot.com/
http://baconandeggs-scifichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.survival-training.info/
http://shay-offthebeatenpath.blogspot.com/




All written text and audio podcasts from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute (text or audio) without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message. Wretha, properly pronounced wreetha, (included for the text reader), Thanks for visiting!

Off Grid Book-C2C Interview

I am so ticked, well not really, but I'm a bit disappointed, I found out today that the author of the book Off the Grid: Inside the Movement for More Space, Less Government, and True Independence in Modern America, (PB and I are chapter 9), Nick Rosen was on my favorite radio show, Coast to Coast am last night. Oh, I'm ecstatic about Nick being on the show, what I'm ticked about is I didn't get to listen live, or call in. I didn't know about it until today. The reason I didn't know about it is because I've been having internet troubles, it's been going on for a couple of weeks now, my internet company is scheduled to come out next Monday to exchange the outside equipment, it went bad during a storm, anyhoo, they are backlogged and it will be next Monday before they can get to me.

I was able to snag a copy of the last 2 hours of the show where Nick is being interviewed by George Noory, listen and enjoy.

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Part 1

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Part 2

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Hey, don't forget about the free off grid book giveaway, there's still time!

http://wretha.blogspot.com/2010/07/my-wonderful-guest-book-giveaway.html

All written text and audio podcasts from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute (text or audio) without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message. Wretha, properly pronounced wreetha, (included for the text reader), Thanks for visiting!

My Wonderful Guest - Book Giveaway Contest

Some time back, Feb 28, 09 to be exact, we had a special visitor, Nick Rosen, he is a published author, journalist and film maker. Nick was traveling around the USA interviewing off gridders for his newest book Off the Grid: Inside the Movement for More Space, Less Government, and True Independence in Modern America, well yours truly is in this book. Chapter 9. :)

 If you are a blogger living in the USA, be sure to enter the contest to win a copy of this book, see details at the end of this message.

I have known about the book since then, but I had to keep it quiet until the book came out, it's been a difficult task to be sure, but now with the book coming out July 27, 2010, it's time to talk about it. I must say that until I received the book (today), I was wondering what Nick had to say about us, what his take on our life would be, it's a bit disconcerting to know someone is about to publicly write about your life and not knowing what is going to be said until after the fact. I quickly scanned the book to find our part, I must say that I am happy with what was written.

Nick's off grid books are less about the technology and more about the people themselves, the who's and the why's about the people who choose to live off grid. It's fascinating to read about other people who are walking a similar path, some for similar reasons, some for very different reasons.

I wrote the following shortly after Nick visited:

Well, this was quite the fun weekend, I had a special visitor. Some time back, Nick Rosen found me through my blog and asked me to start writing on his web site. After asking a few questions, I agreed, I have been very happy doing this, I get a larger audience and a few other perks as well. :) Nick Rosen is a published author and a journalist. He has written several books, the one I'm most interested in is about living off grid. Nick traveled around the UK with his family and interviewed many people who live off grid. His book was less about the technology and more about the people living the life.

So now, Nick is doing the same thing for the off gridders in the USA. I knew for some time that he had planned on visiting me and including me in his book, I am quite pleased to have it be a reality now. I hadn't mentioned this before as I wanted to make sure this was going to actually happen, people will say that they are going to do something then never follow through, I am glad Nick is not one of those types.

Nick arrived early Saturday morning (Feb 28, 09). I had given him directions on how to find the entrance to the community where I live, that's the easy part, it's finding my property from there that is the hard part. Where I live has miles and miles of mountainous, rocky, rough, dirt roads that are poorly marked (if at all) roads, even with a map it's all too easy to take a wrong turn and end up on a road that your car cannot negotiate and what's worse, you might not be able to turn around. There are also some private driveways that look better than the road, leaving you to wonder which one to take... So I met him at the entrance and led him in.

As I expected, Nick is a very nice guy and a wonderful guest. He travels light, all I saw was a couple of cameras, a couple of cell phones (one for the UK and one for the USA) and a laptop computer. Oh and a bottle of wine, I'm not much on wine but it was not bad at all. :)

Nick, Bob and I sat outside in the sun while Nick interviewed both of us. He video taped the interview, it's a bit disconcerting to know you are on camera, but I tried my best to ignore the camera and just spoke what was in my heart. It was quite the pleasant interview, though I will say that Nick is a good journalist and he probed us, mainly about why we are living the off grid lifestyle. I was surprised at one admission he got from Bob, I'll not say what it is, you'll have to read the book to find out what that is (giggle). Nick didn't always take what we had to say at face value, he dug and probed (in a nice way of course) to get more information from us. I wonder though if Nick was satisfied with the answer as to why we are doing this, I felt like he maybe though there was more to the story than we were telling, I assure him and you that there is not more to the story, we are doing this because we WANT to do it, not because we have to or have some other, deep dark secrets that ran us out here. I know that juicy, deep dark secrets probably sell more books, sorry Nick. :)

Nick got to see some of the native wildlife, and even got to feed our resident deer named Notch, that was great fun. I took Nick on a tour of our neighborhood, I took him to the Country Store, I took him to the 2 churches and the cemetery. He also saw, in the distance, the observatory that is nearby. Nick got some pix of Bob and I, and in turn, I took some pix of Nick. I had gone in to town with a friend a few days earlier, I had purchased some fun foods, things that we haven't had since we moved out here. I asked Nick if he would rather have a typical meal like we usually eat, or would he like tilapia? He said he wanted to eat a typical meal (I'm glad of that, I figured he would probably be more interested in eating something that we normally eat rather than something non-typical). I fixed chicken and dumplings. The recipe is at the bottom of the message. Now, when I was making this, I tried to explain the meal to Nick, he is from England, we are 2 peoples separated by a common language. I tried to explain "dumplings" to him, he didn't know what they were. So I explained that dumplings were like biscuits, well in England, biscuits are cookies. Not too appetizing on top of a chicken soup. So I said they were like dinner rolls without yeast, at any rate, he ate the meal and seemed to like it, he asked for seconds, that's always a good sign. :)

Unfortunately Nick was only able to stay overnight, he had to leave out early the following morning. It's possible that he may come back through, I certainly hope he does, I think he has more questions to ask both of us. One thing is for certain, he got a taste of our style of living off grid, I hope he was comfortable and had a good time.

Wretha's Chicken and Dumplings
2 cans chicken stock
1 large can of chicken meat (or 2 small cans)
1 can green beans
1 can carrots
2 cups Bisquik
water
salt, pepper

Pour all of the canned goods in a large pan, do not drain the veggies, you want all of the juice, season with salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil then turn down the heat to a simmer. I didn't measure the Bisquik, I just dumped about 2 cups in a bowl, I added enough water to make a slightly stiff dough, like you are making biscuits, using a spoon dip out golf ball sized pieces of dough and drop them into the simmering broth, once you have used all of the dough, cover the pan and wait about 20 minutes. The dish is done when the dumplings are firm to the touch. If you make large dumplings, you will need to cook them for a longer period of time, smaller dumplings take less time. Don't crowd the pan too much, your dumplings will expand. The broth will thicken while cooking. You can use other veggies, I just used what I had on hand, peas would go good in this too.

Now that the book is out (July 27, 10), you can read about Nick's take on our off grid life, as well as all of the other people in this book who live off grid. If you are reading this before July 28, you can pre-order this book and get a great discount. This book qualifies for free shipping if you order other qualifying items at the same time and your order comes to $25.00 or more.

Contest:
 If you are a blogger (or own a website) and you have a mailing address in the USA, post a copy of the text below on your blog, you can add more to it if you want, then send me an email with a link to your blog/website post and that's all you have to do to be entered. This contest runs until July 31, I will pick one winner from all the entrants after that. Good luck!

Wretha and her husband have lived off grid full time since December 2007, there have been ups and downs, but all in all it's been a great adventure. Now Wretha and her husband have been immortalized in an off grid book, click here to learn more about it. http://wretha.blogspot.com/2010/07/my-wonderful-guest-book-giveaway.html

Just copy the above to your site, and shoot me an email, wretha@gmail.com, here are the rules:

• You must have a website or blog
• I will only mail to a USA address
• copy the text above or you can write your own blurb with the link provided
• send me an email with a link to your site with link to post
• your site must be an active site with real content, ie you cannot create a new blog/site just to enter the contest
• your blog/website does NOT have to be off grid or survival related
• one entry per person please 
• I will pick one winner from the entrants
• the final day of the contest is July 31, 2010

All written text and audio podcasts from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute (text or audio) without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.
Wretha, properly pronounced wreetha, (included for the text reader), Thanks for visiting!

Time To Grow Tobacco - Spring Is Here

Spring is here, while the nights are still rather on the cold side, 24 degrees F last night, the days are warming up nicely, it's a lovely 71 degrees F with a slight breeze and a high, thin overcast.

Click here to see all the pictures I took today.

The garden is calling, well OK, it's been calling all winter for some TLC, it's high time to get out there and get it ready for some spring planting.

I am about to start my tobacco seeds, I'm not worried about planting them in the protection of the garden, I don't think anything will mess with them after the first nibble. I saw a show on one of the history or nature channels that showed tribes of people living in high mountains, the only thing that they could grow well was potatoes and tobacco. They had to protect the potato plants from the pigs that ran around, they had lots of pigs. They only had to protect the potatoes, the pigs wouldn't touch the tobacco, I figure if pigs wouldn't eat it, then nothing else will either.

I'll start the tobacco seeds in plastic cups, one or two seeds per cup. I know the tobacco plants will grow well here, I have a neighbor up the road who grew some test plants last summer and they did very well.

I received a disturbing email a couple of days ago, it seems that TPTB, in their infinite wisdom have been trying their best to make it illegal to purchase cigarettes through the mail, this will hurt the Native Americans who raise tobacco and sell cigarettes, most of their business is done through the mail. This will make it impossible to get inexpensive cigarettes, and will ultimately hurt the poor folks of this country, they/we are the ones who will have to pay higher costs at the register. Apparently all this bill needs now is to be signed into law by our prez. Here is a copy of the email I received:

On March 17, 2010, S. 1147, The PACT Act, the bill designed by the Congress to prevent tobacco companies from sending low cost cigarettes through the mail, passed.  Now that it has been passed by both the Senate and the House of Representatives all the bill needs is a signature by President Obama before it becomes law. 

We urge all of our customers to contact President Obama today and ask him to veto the bill.  Not only will this bill be an excessive hardship on people with fixed incomes, it will also devastate Native American communities nationwide.  Many of these Native American communities are in remote locations.  Without the ability to get their products to market via the United States Post Office, they will have no opportunity to earn an income.  Does the government really want to return to the days of massive Native American poverty?

Please call and write President Obama today. Please forward this email to everyone you know and ask them to call too.

Let the President know that you are against this bill and all other bills that encroach on the freedom and liberties of Americans.

You can call or write to the President at:

Phone Numbers:

Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461

Mailing Address:

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

TTY/TDD:

Comments: 202-456-6213
Visitors Office: 202-456-2121

If you really feel strongly about this issue, please call more than once.  

We thank you for your support!

Sincerely,

Black Hawk Tobacco, Inc.

So now more than ever, if you are a smoker, you should really consider growing your own tobacco, and processing it into your own smokes. If you aren't a smoker, then you shouldn't start, but for those who are addicted, or just plain enjoy it and don't like the gov reaching into every little part of your life, strike back, grow your own tobacco and roll your own smokes. Click here for the of a great book to teach you how to grow your own tobacco and how to process them into cigarettes.

Click here to go directly to Grow Your Own Tobacco-Grow-Roll-Smoke site!

Get your seeds from this guy. tell him Wretha sent you. :)






.All written text and audio podcasts from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute (text or audio) without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.


Wretha,
properly pronounced wreetha, (included for the text reader),


Thanks for visiting!



Disclaimer-
This article is promoting a book that I believe is a great book (otherwise I would not promote it), if any sales occur through the links on this article, I will make a small commission. Thank you for your support, all support goes toward the upkeep of this blog and life.

The Last Train from Hiroshima - Book Review

I have been listening to great audiobooks, the one I'm listening to now is called The Last Train from Hiroshima: The Survivors Look Back, I first heard about this book about a month ago while listening to Coast to Coast am, it was a weekend show LINK, I don't normally listen to the weekend shows because I prefer the host that does the show during the week, the weekend host isn't as appealing to me. So it takes a very interesting show to catch my attention on the weekend.

The C2C show was very interesting, it was an interview with the author, Dr Charles Pellegrino,  he spoke of the strange and horrific things that happened in the first second and beyond. While listening, I was interested in getting this book, but put that thought aside. Then a while later, I heard that Pellegrino was coming back on C2C (LINK) to explain his side of the story about why the publisher was not going to be printing or selling any more of this book. Well, that was interesting, it turns out the problem was one of his eye witnesses was not where he said he was and couldn't have seen what he claimed to see.

From Henry Holt and Company and Macmillan Books
It is with deep regret that Henry Holt and Company announces that we will no longer print, correct or ship copies of Charles Pellegrino's The Last Train from Hiroshima due to the discovery of a dishonest sources of information for the book. 

It is easy to understand how even the most diligent author could be duped by a source, but we also understand that opens that book to very detailed scrutiny. The author of any work of non-fiction must stand behind its content. We must rely on our authors to answer questions that may arise as to the accuracy of their work and reliability of their sources. Unfortunately, Mr. Pellegrino was not able to answer the additional questions that have arisen about his book to our satisfaction.

Mr. Pellegrino has a long history in the publishing world, and we were very proud and honored to publish his history of such

This from a New York Times article

Mr. Pellegrino said he had relied on information from a source, Joseph Fuoco, who claimed he was a last-minute substitute as a flight engineer on one of the escort planes for the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Late last month, scientists, historians and veterans denounced Mr. Fuoco as an impostor who did not ride on the mission.

Well, that really got my attention, I figured that yeah, even if one of the sources is being called a fraud, the rest of the book is still fascinating, the science, the details that are laid out, it is utterly fascinating.

I found the website of Dr Charles Pellegrino, and from the forum on that site, Pelligrino said that Fucoc said he was there and flew that mission, even though the records (which can be questionable in themselves,,, ever tried to get records from the government?), anyhoo, you can read it here if you want:
http://www.ibdof.com/viewtopic.php?f=60&t=118989&sid=e5360470e44942e995de7bc01bb91764. Apparently Pellegrino is researching the problem and is going to rewrite the questionable parts if necessary.

Drawing on the voices of atomic bomb survivors and the new science of forensic archaeology, Charles Pellegrino describes the events and aftermath of two days in August when nuclear devices detonated over Japan changed life on Earth forever.

I have found since the controversy, the book price has shot up to ridiculous amount, right now on Amazon.com it's running almost $100, the audiobook is still  reasonable though. Since I prefer audiobooks, it is just as well for me. If you are in a bookstore, you might want to look to see if this book is on the shelf and grab it up, it's a good read, and if nothing else, it might fetch a pretty price on the internet.

The author of this book, Charles Pellegrino has written a very fascinating tale of what happened, in detail at ground zero and the surrounding area in the first seconds of the blast. Believe it or not there were people who survived the blast who were right at ground zero.There were 2 ladies in a bank, right at ground zero, they were there early because during that time, the female tellers were expected to double as the cleaning staff.

Since they were there early, they were inside this building and more or less protected from the direct hit, they were protected in what Pellegrino calls a "shock cocoon", a protected place that was essentially in the center of the blast. They were exposed to radiation though, and one of the ladies had a severe back injury because she was thrown into a wall. Other than that, they survived in a place where most would consider survival an impossibility, and were able to walk out right after the blast and see where the other people had been outside. There were others who survived at ground zero as well.

Pellegrino talks about the "ant walkers", these were the still living, who were in shock, can you imagine... one would start walking aimlessly around, others would fall in behind them, creating lines of people walking aimlessly around, if one broke off for whatever reason, then the line would break into two lines with some following the original line, some following the new line.

It's interesting to read/hear about how two people might be standing close together, perhaps talking, one survived with little more than bumps and scrapes, while the other was instantly dead, the randomness of it was eerie.

Here is a YouTube video of part of the interview on C2C


Here is a link to the whole C2C show on YouTube
C2C Charles Pellegrino interview
and
C2C-Charles Pellegrino defends his book

Imagine going about your normal life, doing what you do everyday, and then in less than the blink of an eye, you are either instantly dead (I have to wonder if they weren't the lucky ones), or you are plucked from reality and thrown violently into a world that is so unreal, everything you know, probably most if not all of everyone you know is gone, your friends, your family, your home, your workplace, your town, everything flattened, gone, obliterated into something so unrecognizable that it defies explanation.

I am in the middle of this book, I am listening to it mainly at night when I go to bed, nice dream fodder huh? So, even with the controversy of the questionable sources, I am still really enjoying this book. Check it out if you can.

A political disclaimer, I am not saying we shouldn't have done what we did, even as terrible as it was, chances are the death toll on both sides would have been much higher and the war would have stretched on longer if we hadn't used the bomb. I only hope and pray that no one, including us, ever does this again.



All written text and audio podcasts from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment, but please do not distribute (text or audio) without written permission. You may post a portion of this (or any) message from this blog on another site as long as you include a link back to this site and the original message.


Wretha,
properly pronounced wreetha, (included for the text reader),


Thanks for visiting!

Legal disclaimer. While I am promoting this book because I believe it is an interesting read, I have links to Amazon.com for the book and will get a commission if there is a purchase made through that link.

Tough Times Survival Guide vol 1 – book review

Reading, learning, it’s what I enjoy doing. Before the internet, I would go to the three local libraries in my hometown, I would check out as many books as each on would allow, take them all home, read-read-read until I had gotten through all of them, then I return the books to their respective homes and start all over again. I tended to read non-fiction, I preferred them over fiction most of the time. With the exception of a few notable authors such as Stephen King, Jean M. Auel, and such…

With the advent of the internet and ebooks, I mostly read what I can get in digital format, including audiobooks. So these last couple of books I’ve read, I have held in my hand, turned pages, it was quite old-school for me. J I love it. Now, on to the book review.


Tough Times Survival Guide Vol. 1


Have you ever listened to a compilation music CD? You know the kind that has multiple artists on it; they usually take the best or favorites from each artist from a similar genre and put all on one CD. With compilation CDs, they give you the chance to listen to a variety of different artists in the same genre, this exposes you to artists you may have never heard of before, chances are you probably wouldn’t have picked up their work unless you had heard the song on that compilation CD first.

Well that is what this book is like, instead of being written by a single author, Paladin Publishing took the best from a multitude of authors and combined it to make the book Tough Times Survival Guide Vol. 1. Just like compilation music CDs, getting this book will allow you to read the works of many different authors and you just may find a few that you are very interested in, you really like what they have to say and now you can find more works by this author.

Tough Times Survival Guide Vol 1 is a compilation of 25 different authors who write about making do, finding work, staying safe and becoming more self-reliant. This book focuses on money related/financial subjects. But it’s not what you might think. You will not find stock tips in this book, instead you will learn different ways to stretch your money, how to live on very little money, how to survive in these perilous times.

One of my favorite chapters is the first one, it’s about fixing things instead of replacing them. Mr. Romney gives some very good tips about repair trade secrets; I especially like the epoxy tips, such as fixing engine motors and such, the formulas and exact products are listed making it easy for you to find exactly what you need to make these repairs, and much more. Who knew you could do so much with epoxy?

Gleaning and scrounging are other subjects discussed in this book, I got some ideas that I might not have come up with on my own. Of course another favorite was the author of Rancho Costa Nada: The Dirt Cheap Desert Homestead, that was right up my alley.

If you are willing to roll up your sleeves and swallow your pride, you can find lots of useful stuff in dumpsters, much more than trash. You’d be shocked to see what people throw away, perfectly good electronics, foods that have gone out of date (but are still good), clothes…  With the tips and tricks in this book, you will learn the ins and outs of dumpster diving, which ones to look in first and which ones to stay away from.  You can not only furnish your own place, you can find and repair items (electronics, gadgets and such) and sell the refurbished items for cash, or trade or barter with it.

Another good chapter is written by one of my favorite DIY authors, James Ballou, I did a review of one of his books Makeshift Workshop Skills for Survival and Self-Reliance. His chapter in this book is about homemade drills, a very handy thing to have around.  I highly recommend  James Ballou’s books, read my review of one of his book here: http://www.off-grid.net/2009/10/03/makeshift-workshop-skills-for-survival-and-self-reliance-book-review/

How would you like to learn how to build your own computer, or better yet be able to find free computers?  You can learn about tent living and how and where to get free firewood & other fuels. There’s even a chapter on how to live on the streets, something I hope I don’t have to do but it’s still good knowledge to have. It may even make you look at street people with a new eye.

Ever heard of the “underground economy”? Learn about alternative employment, from self-employment to the tax-free underground economy. There are many ways of making money besides the regular 9-5 job.  You’ll find tips on how to get a job, what industries to look at when looking for quick employment…  You’ll learn some banking tips that will help you keep more of your money instead of lining the pocket of the bankers.

In this book you’ll find:

1. The fine art of gleaning food
2. Full-time tent living
3. Secrets of haggling
4. Bill collector psychology
5. Free fuel for cold times
6. Where to find free computers
7. How to get a job in a war zone
8. The lucky 7 dumpster diving spots
9. What to do before you’re fired
10. The top 10 websites for getting by in tough times
Plus 15 more essays written by top Paladin-Press authors or specially commissioned for this book.

If you are a survivalist, homeless (or about to be), living on the edge, unemployed or underemployed (and who isn’t?), this book is for you, it contains useful, easy to implement ways to save and keep more of your hard earned money, and who doesn’t want to do that?

You can find this book, as well as the next version of this book here:
http://paladinpress.com/product/1192/79

or buy it here TOUGH TIMES SURVIVAL GUIDE, VOLUME 1

Click here to listen to a podcast interview with some of the authors of this book.

Read my other book reviews here:
Click here to see my other book reviews

Click here to read my book review process. 



All written text and audio podcast from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment., but please do not distribute (text or audio) without written permission.

Wretha,
properly pronounced wreetha (included for the text reader),

Thanks for visiting!

Makeshift Workshop Skills for Survival and Self-Reliance - book review

 I typically do reviews on eBooks, but a while back I was contacted by James Ballou to do a review of a hard copy, Makeshift Workshop Skills for Survival and Self-Reliance, published by Paladin Press. Of course I was thrilled to review his book; honestly I had seen it previously and had been interested in reading it, so I jumped at the chance. It turns out that my instincts were correct, this is a great and useful book!

I contacted Paladin Publishing and they not only sent me James Ballou’s book, but a couple of others as well, I will be posting those reviews soon.

It’s been a while since I’ve read a hard copy book, with the advent of the internet and the digital age, I have long since converted to eBooks and audio books. It’s good to have hard copies of books; digital copies can be lost, corrupted or otherwise unreachable, if you don’t have your computer or mp3 player handy AND charged up, then you are out of luck. It’s nice to take book in hand, turn the pages and read, no batteries required.

When I received James Ballou’s book, the first thing I noticed was the quality, this book is big and the print is easy on the eyes. It is a paperback, but a very well done paperback book. There are lots of illustrations and pictures for those of us who enjoy visuals (I am included in that group).  There are 208 pages, 9 chapters and lots of reference materials and sources. James is not afraid to give credit where credit is due.

This book is essentially a set of instructions that show you how to create tools, how to repair and construct many useful items using little more than salvaged materials that you probably have laying around. The following will give you an idea of what this book contains, it merely hits the highlights of each chapter, James explains things in detail, but in a manner that most of can understand, this book was written for the common man (and woman), you don’t need to be a rocket scientist or have a degree with an string of letters following your name to understand this book.

In chapter 1, James starts out with the basics, from rocks and clay, animal products (horn, antler, hoof, bone, leather, sinew…), wood, plastics and metal. Talk about the Stone Age, Fred Flintstone would have been proud!  James even gives a recipe how to make your own plastic out of milk of all things.

Chapter 2 contains information about rope and cord. The different types of rope and cord, how to make your own from various materials. He discusses knots and their uses; I especially enjoyed the section about net making.

Chapter 3 is all about makeshift metal work. James explains how to create a forge, it looks fairly straightforward to make one, and James is a master at making something that could be complicated look easy to make. Metalsmithing is one of those things that we typically send out to someone else to do, with the knowledge in this book, and a bit of skill and a willingness to learn, this is something that many of us can do.

Chapter 4 is the chapter that I enjoyed greatly; it is all about improvised tools. You will find no power tools, cords or batteries here, just straight forward, simple yet extremely useful hand tools that you can make yourself.  Need a rasp, a saw or drill? No problem, make them yourself! How many times have you used all of your clamps to hold a particularly complex wood project together and you needed just one or two more? No problem, just make another, it’s very likely that you already have the materials to make all the clamps you need.

Chapter 5, expedient repair methods. Nothing lasts forever, that is especially of a tool or other gadget that you need to use right now! Sometimes it’s not convenient or possible to run to the store to buy a replacement; James shows how to repair many things using what you already have around your home. He explains the different methods and materials to do the various repairs you may run into on a daily basis. Glues, tape, cord, wire and more, James explains each material and gives examples of how each of these materials can be used to repair the various things that can and do break.

Chapter 6 is all about soldering, brazing and welding. This is another set of skills that most people don’t think they can do, it’s usually considered easier to send your broken items out to be fixed, usually at a premium price.  If you are willing to learn, it is possible to do this yourself, especially soldering and brazing. Though honestly, unless you have the proper equipment for welding, this may be one area that is best left to the experts. But after reading this chapter, at least you will be familiar with the different types of welding, techniques and such, it is good knowledge to have, and it may be something that you are willing to tackle yourself, it would certainly be a valuable skill set to have.

Chapter 7, things you can make out of other things. After reading this chapter, you will see your environment with new eyes; you will see the potential in everyday, ordinary objects that surround you, the potential to make something else out of what is already there.  Breaking things down to their component parts and using those parts to make or repair other things. Wire coat hangers and metal coffee cans can be repurposed to make dozens if not hundreds of useful items.  Wooden dowels, broken steel files, nails and a multitude of other things can be remade into more useful items, tools and such. You can even make a set of sandals made from an old tire. James gives a very good list of makeshift items that can substitute for other items.

Chapter 8, practical tips for the craftsman or handyman. This chapter shows you the tips and tricks of the trade, things that the experts already know but you might not necessarily be privy to. Some of these you might already know, but there are a lot of tips & tricks that will save you time, save your fingers, tools, and sanity. You will hit yourself in the head and say, why didn’t I think of that before?  Such as how to drill or cut in a straight line (it’s not as easy as it first appears), the proper way to pull out a nail (how to get more leverage and not damage your walls), an ingenious way to remove rust from metal (hint, it doesn’t require much elbow grease at all), and much, much more.

Chapter 9, theorems and formulas for inventors and builders.  This is a very good chapter for me; it contains mathematical formulas for many handy things. Temperature conversions, determining the mechanical advantage of pulleys, block and tackle, incline planes, gear ratios, calculating dimensions and more, you will find it in this chapter.

The final section contains a comprehensive list of resources and reference materials compiled over the years, books as well as websites are listed here.

All in all, I give this book 2 thumbs up, it contains very useful information that will save you time, money and headaches. Mountain Man Bob was also very impressed with this book, and that means a lot! It’s difficult to impress Bob, who is the ultimate do it yourselfer, James managed to do it and he did it with style! In fact, the reason it took me longer than usual to write this review was because I had to pry the book away from Bob!

Another thing that is clear to me is it appears that James has actually DONE all of these things, he isn’t just spouting theory or repeating what someone else has done.

So whether you are a survivalist or a weekend warrior, you will enjoy this book, and you will learn a great deal, I highly recommend this book.

You can purchase this book from Paladin Press, don’t forget to check out the other books they publish as well, including James Ballou’s first book, Long Term Survival in the Coming Dark Age.

James was kind enough to answer a few questions, enjoy!

Mini interview


First I want to thank you for allowing me the opportunity to review your book, it’s been a real pleasure to read and I know we will be using the info contained in this book.

Thanks, Wretha! I am honored and grateful that you’ve taken the time to review this book, and for your overall positive take on it.

What made you decide to write this book? What was your inspiration?

Years of camping, hiking, experimenting with things, searching for creative ideas, and contemplating all sorts of survival scenarios more or less channeled this kind of “make-shifter” mind set I’ve acquired, and at some point I envisioned a kind of niche for a book like this. So I began gathering ideas, researching certain related topics, and experimenting with projects and techniques until it all more or less came together in the form of this book. I will admit that I have never seen another book quite like this one in so many ways.

How long did it take to put this book together?

This project took more than a year to finish. I tend to approach these things slowly and methodically, but every part of this book was enormously fun for me.

Is there going to be a part two to this book?

Yes! The second Makeshift book is somewhere close to being halfway complete right now. Isn’t it amazing how sometimes you think you’ve jammed every idea you’ve ever thought of for a particular topic or category into a list, but the list still never stops growing? That’s how it is with this subject matter – it really is endless.

I know this will be like asking which child is your favorite, but humor me… For you personally, what would you say is the most useful thing you have in this book?

Believe it or not, that little cord wrap trick I attempted to illustrate on page 115 is one that I use routinely, perhaps more than anything else described in this whole book. I realize it’s sort of common knowledge, but it is an incredibly handy (and easy to apply) technique for things like whipping the ends of rope with small cord, attaching wire eyes to a fishing rod with strong thread, binding all sorts of different things together and so on. With a tight wrap of cord, it creates a very strong and enduring, neat wrap that requires no bulky knots.

Did you grow up with tools and the knowledge of how to use them or was this something you learned as an adult or later in life?

My Dad always had some tools and a workbench all the time I was growing up, and he encouraged my brother and me to use them safely. Even with all of his emphasis on safety I still managed to clobber my fingers with hammers and run sharp chisels and gouges into my hands fairly often. We would get really creative sometimes, making our toy guns out of wood and things like that. I never perfected any special skills with tools, but I experimented a lot.

What books are you working on now?

As I indicated, the second Makeshift book is a work currently in progress. I am really excited about it, and I tend to let myself become consumed by it at times – developing ideas, attempting to build weird projects, researching different creative how-to subjects and skills, and then putting everything into some kind of order so that others can pick it up more easily. We’ll see how it turns out.

Is there anything you would like to add, this is the place to do it.

I would just like to encourage readers to adopt this make-shifter’s mind set and go out there and get creative. What could possibly ever be more fun?

Click here for James Ballou’s book Makeshift Workshop Skills for Survival snd Self-Reliance

Click here to listen to a podcast interview with the author.



All written text and audio podcast from this blog are copyrighted and owned by Wretha unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved, You may download or copy for your own personal enjoyment., but please do not distribute (text or audio) without written permission.

Wretha,
properly pronounced wreetha (included for the text reader),

Thanks for visiting!

Grow Your Own Tobacco – Book Review

A while back, I had some trouble with the government about buying cigarettes from outside the country (USA), it is perfectly legal to order cigarettes for import into the USA for personal use. I assure you that the cigarettes I ordered WERE for personal use, I did not trade, sell, barter or in any other way distribute these cigarettes. After receiving a threatening letter from the Dept of Homeland Security, a very scary thing to find in your mailbox, especially for a law abiding citizen! I decided that I needed to find a better way to get smokes without having to pay an arm and a leg, or having the threat of the government over my head. I found an alternative way, it’s legal and it should be doable by nearly anyone.
Another note of interest, in the USA, the government is trying to make it illegal to buy cigarettes through the mail, so no matter what your source, whether you are buying overseas or buying domestically or from Native American reservations, if the powers that be have their way, this way of buying cigarettes is about to become illegal. So what can you do about this?

You can grow your own tobacco plants. I immediately started a search for information on how to grow your own, as well as how to process it to make a smokable product. It turns  out that there are not many sources with good info readily available on the internet. Fortunately I was able to find this source, it not only teaches you how to grow your own tobacco plants, but how and when to harvest, how to dry and cure your tobacco, and much, much more. Here is my review on this book. I hope to have a follow up interview with the author, when I have it, I’ll post a part 2 to this article. The link to the book can be found at the bottom of this article.


Growing Tobacco in the Home Garden
The Little Handbook
Review
As a smoker, you go out, you buy a carton or pack of cigarettes, (after you get over the sticker shock!), you open the cellophane, tear off the foil, you tap out a cigarette, you put it to your lips, you light it and inhale deeply. You fill your lungs with smoke and it’s good… or is it? What are you getting besides the nicotine your body craves? There is a whole laundry list of chemicals and toxins that you are also inhaling, what’s worse, these chemicals and toxins are not naturally found in the tobacco, these things are ADDED to the cigarettes by the cigarette companies. Why is that?

What if there was a better way? If you grow a vegetable garden or grow plants in containers, then you are already half way to a better and healthier way to smoke tobacco.  If you have been following my cigarette saga, then you already know the troubles I have had with the government about buying cigarettes overseas, so in an attempt to work around the problems, I investigated growing my own tobacco. It turns out that it is perfectly legal to grow your own as long as you are not selling, trading or bartering with the tobacco.

I found a seller on eBay who sells tobacco seeds and promptly ordered a set of 3 different types. I still didn’t know how to grow tobacco, how difficult (or easy) is it to grow? What are the best conditions to grow tobacco? How long do you allow it to grow, when do you harvest it? What do you do after that?

It turns out that the tobacco plant is fairly easy to grow, it is related to tomatoes, peppers and potatoes, it’s in the nightshade family, if your local conditions permit you to grow these plants, then you should be able to grow tobacco as well. But there are some steps that need to be taken to grow the best plants and know when to harvest them, and most importantly, to know how to dry and cure the leaves to get the most out of your tobacco plants.

I searched the internet and I found only one source that gives you step by step information on growing tobacco, everything from where to get your tobacco seeds, how to choose the varieties of tobacco plants to best suit what you want in a smoke and your growing zone, how to get the seeds started, how to transplant them, how to care for the plants (fertilizing, pest control…), when and how to harvest the leaves, how to dry and cure the leaves for the best quality in the finished tobacco.

This information is not a big dark secret, nor is it impossible to do, the hard part is just FINDING the information, the big cigarette companies don’t want you to know how this works. They have huge farms with proprietary processes, not to mention all the chemicals and garbage they add to the tobacco. Wouldn’t it just be better to grow tobacco in your own backyard or on your patio? Yes, you can grow tobacco in containers. It is a pretty, tropical plant with showy flowers and large leaves; many people grow it for purely decorative reasons. Another reason besides smoking to grow your own tobacco, it is used for natural, organic insect repellent in gardening.

I found a great illustrated eBook that explains all you need to know about growing your own tobacco plants.

Where to get your seeds
How  to start your tobacco plants
How to transplant them
The best conditions for them to grow
How and when to fertilize
Pest control
How and when to harvest the leaves
How, when and IF to prune
How to dry and cure the leaves for the best flavor
You will learn how to choose from the different varieties of tobacco
You will learn about the different blends of tobacco for flavor
What to do differently if you want to harvest the seeds for next year’s plants
How to troubleshoot common problems and issues

One question that many people ask is how many cigarettes or cartons worth of cigarettes will I get from one plant? This is a good question to ask as you will want to determine how many plants you need to grow to accommodate your personal smoking needs. You will learn the answer to this all important question within this eBook.

In this eBook you will find (table of contents)

1. Introduction to Tobacco
2. Different Types of Tobacco
3. Choosing Good Tobacco Seeds
4. Germinating Tobacco Seeds
5. Soil Types for Growing Tobacco
6. Planting Tobacco
7. Maintenance and Fertilization
8. Harvesting Tobacco
9. Drying and Curing Tobacco
10. Different Tobacco Uses
11. Interesting Facts about Tobacco

Thanks so much to Benjamin for sharing this invaluable information with us, I have searched high and low for the info contained in this eBook and so far, this is the only place where I have everything needed to grow your own tobacco plants and everything else involved in the process. With this information, you will save a lot of money by growing your own tobacco, not to mention the fact that the tobacco you grow is free of additives.

Disclaimer
I do not condone smoking or tobacco use in any form, if you are not a smoker or tobacco user, DO NOT START! I can’t emphasize that enough, there is no such thing as healthy tobacco use. If you are already a smoker or tobacco user, of legal age, then please consider growing your own, it is “healthier” for you in the fact that it will not contain additives or extra chemicals, you KNOW what is in the tobacco that you grow yourself.

I almost forgot to add, the author of this book is also including a free book on homebrewing your own alcohol, it’s an infomative book all about the ins and outs of homebrewing.
If you smoke cigarettes, you need the information in this book.

Click here to get your copy of this informative book.


Wretha

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