My accomplishment to becoming self sufficient

I've made a concerted effort over the 6 Months to lower my family's food budget, while expanding our food storage, or stockpile. It's difficult to accomplish both of these goals simultaneously, but I've developed some tips that have worked for us, and wanted to share them with you.

Use coupons. Stockpiling and couponing go hand in hand! Visit http://www.stockpilingmoms.com 

http://www.southernsavers.com/learn/and The Coupon Wizards and read up about sale cycles to see what I mean. They cover the subject quite well, and taught me how to use coupons in an effective way (not an extreme way). 

Buy a stand alone freezer. My preference is a standing freezer. We got ours at a garage sale & it’s been running perfectly for 6 years now (knock on wood) in our garage. I wouldn’t have been able to build our food storage properly without it. We can buy on sale & store it in the freezer. Even a chest freezer would be helpful, and they’re frequently found second hand. Ours has been such a worthwhile investment, and by having it, we've saved at least double what we paid for it. 

Learn what can be frozen & what can’t. Knowing that will determine how much of some items you should buy. Extending the expiration date by freezing items until you need them helps you stock up & it helps you be able to buy more when on sale. Saving money while building your food stores... perfect! I found great resources on freezable foods & I've found it very helpful.

I have learned to can and preserve our foods for long term storage. Along, with vacuum sealing and dehydrating.. Oh ,How I love these basic things ,in my life so much help

Eat what you have, not what you want. I know, this sounds harsh, but hear me out. I try my best to use what’s in my fridge, freezer & pantry to prepare meals. Stopping at the store for a missing ingredient is not an effective use of time or money. Buy things on sale, buy several to stock up, then don’t buy it again until it goes on sale again! If we run out of shrimp, I might say “I sure wish we had some shrimp, that sounds yummy.” But, we don’t go buy it. Because then I add “I sure hope it goes on sale again soon!” And when it does, I’m likely to buy more than last time since we ran out! It requires shifting your mindset a bit, but it's paid off for us.

Have enough options in your own home, so that if you run out of something, you don’t have to buy it right away! For example- we still eat ‘healthy’ breakfast cereal in our house. (And Rice Krispies, cuz I just couldn't pass up a recent deal!) Now, I'll admit- I’m learning more & more that there is no healthy breakfast cereal. And I’m coming to grips with that & slowly preparing my children for this harsh reality. But for now, we still eat it. And that stuff is expensive! We buy lots of it when it’s on sale & have a coupon to go with it. If we run out, we don’t go buy more cereal. It just happened last month. We were without cereal for 4 weeks. We used the oatmeal that I had gotten on sale & stocked up on. We had peanut butter & jelly sandwiches since we had bought peanut butter & bread on sale & stocked up. We would have had eggs but one of my three kiddos loathes eggs. Anyway, we made it through without buying more cereal. When it did go on sale last week, we stocked up again & the kids were extra excited to have it back.

Think outside the box. I used to be a by-the-book cook. If a recipe called for milk, I made it with milk. If I didn’t have milk, I didn’t make the recipe! Now, I have learned that I could use half & half, or heavy cream if I have it. Sometimes even sour cream will work. Not only does this cut down on store trips, it cuts down on buying things that aren’t on sale, and allows me to cook a wider variety of recipes! That's just one example. If you think outside the box & be a little creative, you can prepare a meal with what you have, just by adapting the recipe a bit.

If one store typically has an item you use at a good price, buy it there EVERY time you go in. We have one warehouse store that has organic sugar at a decent price in a large bag. We’ve tried finding it in bulk, and it’s not available locally. We’ve shopped around for prices & when we saw this store’s price we knew it was great. So we buy a bag of sugar every time we go in to that store, whether we ‘need’ sugar or not. Each store might have an item like this. Our grocery store brand egg noodles are a favorite for us. Not a name brand, the store brand. So each time we go to the grocery store we buy a bag. These examples don’t really go on sale, never have coupons, we always use them, and we know we’re getting the best price at that store. So, we keep those items in mind as we shop & slowly build our pantry by purchasing them as a habit.

Repackage some items. Now, this doesn’t make sense for everything. For some foods & pantry staples you’re going to need to have the expiration date for reference. Many of my pantry items are in their original packaging for this reason. It also helps if, God forbid, there were a recall & I needed to find the batch number. But there are some things that we eat often enough, or have so much of, that it makes more sense to repackage. Cereal is like that in our home. We saved old organic brown rice containers with screw on lids and we transfer the cereal into them. It saves space, keeps the cereal fresher, and makes it easier to pour. I have many pretzel barrels with screw on lids saved for this as well. We store rice in those, and I'm about to pour my bags of sugar & flour into them as well. You could also purchase food grade buckets. I'm trying to spend as little as possible, so I'm using what I have.

Chop your meat for meals while it’s frozen. No, not solid, obviously, but still mostly frozen. It’s much easier to get a small dice on chicken, and it slices cleaner & straighter. I’ve done this for over a year, and now refuse to do it any other way. I can cut a boneless skinless chicken breast into pieces so small, that I can use 3 small breasts to feed 5 people, and everyone feels like they got enough. I know that it’s still the same amount of chicken, and it’s all in their head… But they’re more satisfied with their meal when they have 12 smaller bites of chicken served to them, instead of 4 larger bites. I think it would work for beef as well when making stew, or soups. I’ve stretched our meat & saved a lot of money with this simple trick. 

We’ve expanded our pantry using these tips & freed up money in our budget to add to our food storage. I’m always looking for more ways to improve & I’d love to hear your tried & true tricks! What would you add to this list? Please share your ideas & leave a comment!

Water Kefir

It's a healthy, delicious, fizzy drink. Full of probiotics & enzymes. It's also frugal & simple! I have 2 half gallon jars going at all times, so I got into the habit of making it daily, and we were able to stop buying soda for a while. I'm not able to do it daily now that the weather is cooling off. The grains seem to like it a little warm, and work slower when it's cooler. My children don't drink soda, but my husband & I are trying to break our soda habit. We like water kefir because not only does it help us break free from that, it's also very healthy! 

I thought you might like to see just how simple it is, so I'm going to take you through the process. Here you can see a half gallon canning jar with the water kefir grains in some sugar water. It's been sitting here for at least 24 hours. I received my grains from a friend, already hydrated. I've heard you can buy dehydrated grains via the internet. Apparently, if you go that route, it takes a time or two of going through this process to wake the little guys up. Mine was ready to go, as my friend sent them in sugar water, in 3 zip baggies, priority mail. So they weren't in there long, and nothing leaked. You can find sources for buying them online. Just do a quick search.

Basically, the water kefir grains live in sugar water, and eat the sugar. Then you strain them out, and use the liquid to make a fermented drink. You return the grains to more sugar water & repeat.

Water kefir grains do not like metal, so use all plastic utensils & tools for them! After some trial & error, I've found a few items that really help out. They make this simple process even quicker & easier! I had to purchase them through Amazon, as they were not available locally for me. I recently added an Amazon store to my blog, so I'll show which ones I use & link to them. At minimum, you need a plastic strainer, and something to catch the liquid & pour it into the jars. The half gallon jar and the strainer were the only things I purchased to start with, and I just used a bowl & small canning jars that I already had on hand. Then after a few weeks I got the canning jar funnel & a better bowl. The new items have helped a lot, but you can begin with just a plastic strainer & a glass jar!

Start with a half gallon canning jar, and put in 1/3 cup of sugar. I use organic sugar, but have read that any sort will work. Originally, I was using more than 1/3 cup of sugar (I used an amount I found on the internet) and my grains were sluggish, and my second ferment wasn't getting fizzy. I played around with it a bit & found through trial & error that I was using too much. I guess since these grains are alive, different grains need different amounts of sugar. So, just see what your grains like!

 Put the sugar in, then add 2 bottles of water.

Water kefir grains do not like chlorine or fluoride. I have a PUR filter for now, and until I get a better water purification system, I think my grains are better off with bottled water, even though it's not completely free from either. It's not ideal, but it's better than my filtered water for now. So, I put in 2 bottles, then stir vigorously to dissolve all the sugar. You wouldn't want your grains getting beat up during that process! 

After the sugar is dissolved, add your grains to the jar. The canning funnel is helpful in several steps, but THIS is the step I actually bought it for! So helpful. And I should have had this handy gadget on hand anyway. You probably already do!

Next, add some of the third bottle of water. Not all of it though, as you want some headspace in here. If you're not using bottled water, follow the same process, just fill the jar a little more than half-way after putting the sugar in, stir till dissolved, put the grains in, then add more water.

Now the grains are ready to eat most of the sugar from the water. Let them sit on the counter for a day or two. After a while, you'll see the grains zooming up to the top, and floating back down to the bottom. There are different schools of thought on tightening the lid. I think it depends on your grains. Experiment & see how they respond. Mine seem to like it tightened in the very beginning, but then loosened after a couple hours. A friend swears that hers only do well with the lid completely tightened throughout. Mine zing around the jar more when it's looser, so I think they like it that way! In the summer, mine are ready for the next step after 24 hours. Now that it's getting cooler, it's more like 48 hours. I haven't had my grains through a winter yet, but I expect them to slow down even more.

The jar on the right has been resting on the counter for a day or two & is ready to go through fermentation. The one on the left is about to sit for a day or two. It contains fresh sugar water & the grains haven't eaten the sugar yet.You can see how the water is clearer in the jar that's been sitting for 24 to 48 hours. The water kefir grains have eaten most of  the sugars! You can see a few of the grains have risen to the top, but I wasn't able to capture their movement on my camera. 

A note about my nifty red bowl: I tried several different kitchen items (bowls & measuring containers) around my house before finally purchasing my Pourfect bowls. I don't often spend a lot of money on kitchen items that do something simple. But since this became a daily thing for me, and my husband kept urging me to get them, I finally did. I really wish I hadn't waited so long, and he teases me daily about it, ha ha! I rarely give glowing reviews for kitchen items, or urge friends to purchase them. They're usually just not THAT big of a deal, and I like to be frugal about such things & encourage others to be as well. But these things are the bomb. They really do NOT drip, they have a non-slip ring on the bottom, and measuring marks along the inside. Since buying them, I use them several times every day! You don't hold the handle, you put your entire hand under it (see pouring pic below). Because you're using your arm, not your wrist, you have so much more control over holding the bowl and it saves your wrist from the weight & strain. Didn't sound like a big deal to me, but wow, is it ever! (Disclaimer: I signed up with Amazon as an associate, and I put this item in my store. So, yes, I suppose I could benefit from recommending it. But, I recommended it to people before signing up, and would honestly be recommending it even if I couldn't benefit). 

So back to the project at hand... Set up the strainer over the bowl & pour out the contents of the jar. 

Rinse the grains under purified cool water, and set them aside for now.

To the liquid in the bowl, add some fruit juice. We use coupons to build our food storage, and have gotten some great deals on non-organic 100% juice. So, we're using several flavors & brands of store-bought juice. I guess it makes my water kefir a little less healthy, but my budget currently requires it. Hey, I'm just keepin' it real! I have previsouly used fresh fruit juice, and I'm sure I will do that again someday. Do either, or both! Lemon juice alone is very good & creates a fizzy lemonade type drink. The kefir liquid you're using will impart a slightly sweet flavor to the end product, but it's not nearly as sweet as the sugar water that the grains started in. To the slightly-less-than a half gallon of liquid, I'd estimate that I add about a cup & a half of juice. You can add more, or less. The higher the sugar content (which is determined either by increasing the amount of fruit juice, or by using a sweeter fruit rather than acidic) the fizzier it seems to get.

Now pour it into very clean, airtight containers. We use various sized canning jars to ferment the water kefir during the second stage. They give a great seal, and they're a good serving size. Leave some headspace in the jars because they build up some carbonation while fermenting. These smaller jars are filled a little too much, since I was distracted with the camera.

Seal the containers, and set them aside for 24 to 48 hours. I can tell mine are ready because I'm not able to press down on the canning lid easily & hear it pop. In other words- you can tell it's building up pressure from the fermentation. I can also see tiny bubbles around the top of the liquid inside the jars. At that point, I put them in the fridge & they're ready to go. 

I'll be honest, I was intimidated by the whole process when I first heard about it. But trust me, it's so simple. I spent an afternoon searching Youtube & watched all the top rated videos. I suggest you do that as well, it really gave me the confidence to jump in. A few of those videos recommend adding raisins or lemon peel to the first step. It's up to you if you'd like to try that. Since I'm in a climate that stays hot & humid for about 8 months out of the year, I thought it best to avoid any issues so I decided to keep it simple. 

Are you thinking of trying it? I encourage you to go for it! Have you already tried water kefir yourself? What health benefits have you noticed? Please comment & share any tips that have worked for you!

HOME CANNING CHILI

HOME CANNING CHILI
Here's a recipe along with the detailed instructions for canning Chili, No Beans, adapted from the newest Ball Blue Book, which is a nice reference to have on hand if you plan to do any canning.You'll need a pressure canner (12 quart capacity or more), canning jars and new lids and rings, a jar lifter (for removing hot jars after processing) and a canning funnel. 5 lbs ground beef 2 cups chopped onions 1 clove minced garlic 6 cups canned tomatoes and juice 1/2 cup chili powder 1 1/2 tablespoons salt 1 hot red pepper, finely chopped 1 teaspoon ground cumin seed I modify the recipe somewhat by adding a few extra cloves of garlic and another hot pepper (depending upon how hot the peppers are). I also sometimes add 1/4 cup cider vinegar and several tablespoons of ketchup and use 2 teaspoons cumin instead. That spices things up a bit! Extra Instructions for using fresh tomatoes (skip if using canned): In the Summer, use fresh tomatoes instead of canned. Wash and peel the tomatoes by dipping briefly in a boiling water bath until the skins begin to break. Dunk quickly into cold water and set aside til cool. Use only ripe, blemish-free tomatoes. Cut off the top and bottom ends of the tomato, then remove seeds from the "pockets" using a baby spoon. Chop and simmer. I have an Italian tomato squeezer which looks a little like a hand crank meat grinder. You put the tomatoes in the top (unpeeled), turn the crank and peeled, seeded puree comes out. This makes things easier when doing large batches. (I once planted and canned from 200 tomato plants!)In the bottom of a large stockpot, brown the ground beef, onions and garlic. Drain well any excess fat. This is an important step as high fat content foods don't keep as well canned; additionally the fat has a tendency to cause a higher proportion of jar seals to fail during processing. Add the remaining ingredients and reduce heat to a simmer. Continue to cook about 20 minutes. Skim off any excess fat. Meanwhile, prepare a pressure canner with several inches of simmering water. Place clean jars in the simmering water (may be washed in a dishwasher - if your dishwasher has a sani-cycle, all the better). Place the jar caps in hot water to sit until ready to use. Fill hot jars, one at a time, with hot chili, leaving 1 inch of headspace. Headspace is the amount of space between the lid and the chili. Remove air bubbles from the mixture, if any exist, using a plastic knife or a straw (or a plastic bubbler available from Ball). Wipe the rims of the jars with a damp paper towel so that they're perfectly clean which allows them to seal effectively. Put the lid on and tighten the ring just until the point of resistance is met. Place the jar into the simmering water in the canner, and continue to fill the remaining jars until all are used. Place the lid on the canner but leave the petcock open or if you're using a weighted gauge canner, don't place the weight on for 10 minutes. It's necessary to vent a pressure canner so that there are no air pockets in the canner during processing. After 10 minutes of venting close the petcock or position the weighted gauge. Don't begin timing until the gauge begins to rock 2-3 times a minute, or if using a dial gauge canner, when the pressure comes up to 10 pounds. Begin timing. Process pint jars for 1 hour 15 minutes, or quart jars for 1 hour 30 minutes. If you're at a higher elevation than 2000 ft, check with your USDA extension service about adjusting processing times for your elevation. After the processing time has completed, allow the pressure canner to cool for 30 minutes and remove the weight gauge. After pressure is at 0 lbs psi (on dial gauge, or not steam escapes after weight is removed), then you can safely remove the lid. Face the lid away from you as it is removed, being careful of the steam. Allow jars to sit 5 minutes in the canner, then remove using the jar lifter to a draft-free place to cool. Allow to sit 24 hours, then carefully remove rings and wash jars. Test lids by tapping gently with a metal spoon - you will hear a ringing sound. If you hear a dull thud from a jar that doesn't sound like the rest, break the seal and put this jar in the refrigerator and use within a few days or reprocess within 24 hours using a new lid. Yields 6 pints or 3 quarts. You may double or triple this recipe if you have a larger canner. A 21 quart capacity pressure cooker allows you to process 18-19 pints at a time. Serve chili with cooked or canned kidney, pinto beans, elbow macaroni or wide egg noodles if desired.

Make Your Own Liquid Herbal Extract While paying for the convenience of a manufactured herbal  extract can be nice, we have found that the best medicines  are those we make ourselves. Not only that, but for those of  us that incorporate extracts into our daily diet the costs  really begins to add up. Making your own extracts will  save you hundreds and possibly thousands of dollars. This recipe is the simplest way to make your own liquid  herbal extracts in your own home. Start with a clean  jar that has a tight fitting lid and the herbs of  your choice. If you can use fresh herbs, then fabulous!  Fresh material is always preferred but availability is  determined by your local bio-region, climate, etc and  many quality herbs may not be available. If you  cannot locate fresh materials, be sure to get good  quality, organic herbs from a reputable supplier.  Note: Try not to use powdered herbs; they will be  difficult to filter out in the end and the debris will  settle in your final product. If using fresh material, chop the herbs finely. Then  put in the glass jar. Next, pour a good, strong grain  alcohol or Vodka over the herbs, completely  covering the herbal material. If you are using dried  herbs you will need to add more alcohol over the  next day or two as the dried herbs absorb and expand.  A good ratio for dried material is about 1 part herb to  5 parts alcohol and with fresh material 1 part  herb to 3 parts alcohol. After you have done this, cover with tight fitting lid  and be sure to place a plastic bag sandwiched  between the lid and the jar. This will prevent rust  contamination from spoiling your extract. Shake well and place the jar in a dark place &  allow the herbs to soak or macerate for 4 to 6 weeks.  Shake every few days. The alcohol will siphon and  extract the active constituents from the herbs.  After 4 to 6 weeks strain the herbs. Use a large  sieve, strainer, press or potato ricer lined with  fine mesh cloth or cheesecloth. Then pour  into another large bowl or container. After you  have done this grab the soggy herbal material  and place in muslin, cheese or another fine  cloth and tightly squeeze the material to extract  every last drop from the cloth. The herbal material left  over that is saturated, is the strongest in terms of active  medicinal constituents. Now funnel  the material from your larger container into smaller  bottles, preferably amber bottles and store your  tinctures in a cool dark place. Voila! You have now  made your own remarkable medicinal herbal extract  for a fraction of the price you would have paid at the  store. By now you have probably noticed that your pantry  is stored with some 16-20 ounces of liquid herbal extract… …this will last you for some time. (It will keep for 3-5 years)  Enjoy!

How to can potatoes

• How to can potatoes

  By Voicefor Theunheardcry in Lady Preppers USA · Edit Doc · Delete

  How to can potatoes

  By Voicefor Theunheardcry in Cheap & Frugal ·  Edit Doc · Delete

  Preparation of Potatoes

  Wash the potatoes and scrub or peel off skins. Wash them again. Leave small potatoes whole and quarter larger potatoes or cut into uniform cubes. Place in a stainless steel pot or bowl of cold water after cutting to prevent browning. If you’re going to hot-pack them, go ahead an put them in a large pot so you don’t have to switch them to something else before boiling them.

  You need 2-3 pounds (around a kilo) of potatoes for each quart/liter jar that you can. That’s about 15 medium sized potatoes…or several dozen tiny ones like we had. I started peeling them initially but the potatoes were so small that it became too tedious. So I just started scrubbing them down really well (still kinda tedious but it goes faster) and canned them that way. I used a pot scrubbing sponge with a course pad on it to clean the taters. If you go this route, I suggest wearing gloves because your fingers, nails and cuticles will begin to suffer before long.

  Canning Potatoes

  Potatoes, like many other vegetables, can be hot- or raw-packed. The process for canning potatoes with raw- and hot-pack methods is not all that different and both require a pressure canner because of the low acidity of potatoes. In general, the hot-pack method is recommended because the vegetables will be more pliable and you can get more vegetables packed into each jars But when you’re doing many, many jars of them and your pressure cooker only holds 3 jars at a time (going to have to get my hands on an American canning pressure cooker one day), you decide that the raw-pack method will do just fine. Just keep in mind that when you raw pack, the vegetables may shrink or soften and the jar may not end up as full as you initially intended. You may also end up with a much lower water level in the jars because the potatoes absorb it, but this is no cause for concern. And the white sediment in the bottom of some of the jars? That’s just starch from the potatoes–absolutely harmless.

  Always wash and clean your jars and lids before using them and keep them warm in a pot of boiling water until you are ready to pack them.

  To hot-pack potatoes, place potatoes in a large pot and cover with water (if you didn’t do this already after washing them). Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Boil small cubes for 2 minutes and small whole potatoes or quartered potatoes for 10 minutes, until heated through but not soft. Drain, discarding cooking liquid. Pack hot potatoes into hot jars, leaving 1 inch (2.5cm) headspace, and pressure can as instructed below.

  To raw-pack potatoes, firmly pack cleaned potatoes into hot jars, leaving 1 inch (2.5cm) headspace, and proceed as follows for pressure canning.

  To pressure can potatoes:

  1. First add 1 teaspoon of salt to quart/liter jars or 1/2 teaspoon salt to pint/500mL jars. Ladle boiling water over potatoes, still leaving 1 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace if necessary by adding more hot water. Put a lid on the jar and secure it.
  2. Place jars in the pressure canner. Adjust water level, lock lid and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Vent steam for 10 minutes, then close the vent. Continue heating to achieve 10 lbs (69kPa) pressure and maintain pressure to process. Pint (500mL) jars require 35 minutes and quart (1 L) jars 40 minutes. (Consult your pressure canner manual if you have a dial-guage canner or if you’re canning at higher altitudes.)
  3. Turn off the heatn and let the pressure return to zero naturally. Wait 2 minutes longer, then open the vent. Now you can remove the canner lid. Wait another 10 minutes, then remove the jars, let them cool and store in a cool, dark placeeaaaa.

  We ended up with 17 liter jars of potatoes. We will use them for mashed potatoes when we have no fresh taters at home, and they are also fantastic as home fries for breakfast or roasted potatoes with a little onion, bacon, salt & pepper. I used to make my home fries with potatoes I’d pre-cooked in the microwave, but this route is even faster because the potatoes are already cooked due to being canned in the pressure cooker.

  If you’d like to learn more about canning, get yourself a copy of the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. 

Many Home remedies for dry skin and other parts

Dry Skin home remedies can relieve your skin problems to a great extent. Dry skin face appears dull, flaky and rough. A person having severe dry skin also suffers from dry skin patches, which looks very odd. Market is loaded with tons of dry skin products from mild to extremely cracked dry skin; but unfortunately they do not give expected result despite of having huge price tags. However, you can treat dry skin and get rid of it with the help of home remedies for dry skin. Continuous and consistence use of dry skin remedies can cure itchy dry skin on face.

Home Remedies for Dry skin

Homemade Facial mask for dry skin helps to retain moisture and get rid of dry skin problems.

• Dry skin is the result of lack of water in the body. Start drinking lots of water when you observe your skin is beginning to get dry as this will keep the body hydrated. You can treat dry skin with this simple home remedy.

• Hot water reduces the natural skin oils. Avoid washing your dry skin face with hot and soapy water. Instead use lukewarm water to clean your dry skin followed by an emollient or moisturizer. This way your face skin will be less likely to become dry and cracked. This is the best remedy for dry skin.

• Dry fruits especially almonds help to retain moisture in the skin. Consume dry fruits regularly; continuous intake can help in treating extremely dry skin.

• Few drops of Almond oil added in warm milk at the time of sleeping is an effective home remedies for dry skin.

• Rubbing sesame oil on the affected area after your shower is one of the best home remedies for dry skin.

• Severe cases of dry skin can be treated with the help of avocado oil. You can also apply a paste of avocados on your dry skin face to nourish the skin.

• Glycerin also works very well on dry skin and dry lips. This dry skin home remedy can be combined with rose water to have better results. You can also read more home remedies for dryer cracked lips• Avoid the intake of alcohol and drinks high in content of caffeine, if you are suffering from very dry skin because this can worse the condition• This may surprise you but milk bath once in a month can help you to get rid of dry skin.

• A gentle massage of lukewarm olive oil can do wonder to cure the dry skin. Leave it overnight and wash off the face with warm water. This is an excellent natural remedy for dry skin.

• What you put in is what comes out, so be conscious what you are eating. A diet rich in Vitamin A, B and E is also a dry skin remedy as deficiency of these vitamins lead to dry skin.

• Dry patch of skin on chin, mouth, nose, hands and dry skin around lips can be treated by peanut butter. Application of peanut butter will moist these areas for long time. Peanut butter really works on dry skin areas and patches.

• A tablespoon of yogurt applied on dry skin areas is one of the greatest home remedies for the dry skin.

• Poppy seeds is an natural remedy to treat itchy and rough skin. Soak poppy seeds) for overnight. Grind it with milk to prepare a paste. Apply the paste on your face.

• Dry cracked, flaky skin can be treated well with the application of honey. Spread honey on the dry skin patches and wash off after half an hour. You can also add few drops of rose water in honey as a natural remedy for dry skin.

•Apple cider vinegar on dry skin areas can cure dry itchy skin.

• Cold weather causes dry skin and banana on face can treat dry skin. Mash banana and add few drops of honey in it. Mix well and spread on your dry skin face. Massage it for 10 minutes and leave it to dry. Rinse off and feel the result. This is a good home remedy for dry skin.

• Dry skin products with high content of aloe vera can help to get rid of dry skin. You can also apply aloe vera pulp for 10 to 20 minutes on your dry skin face to treat dry skin.

• Coconut oil is an easily available home remedy for dry skin.

• Take one teaspoon of milk cream, a pinch of turmeric and four to five drops of olive oil. Spread the paste on your dry skin and leave it to dry. Wash after 15 minutes.

• Beeswax can be used for curing dry scaly and cracked skin. This will reduce your dry skin symptoms, giving you soft and smoother skin.

• Dry and cracked heels is a skin problem which hurts a lot. A very effective home remedy is rubbing of the inside part of a banana peel on the heels.

• Papaya is a fruit, which is used in facial mask for dry skin. You can also massage mashed papaya on your face. It will exfoliate your dry skin, removing the dead cells making it glow and soft.

• The natural oil found in peanuts assists to moisturize the dry skin. Make a paste of peanuts and mix it with milk and honey. Apply on your dry skin face. Leave it to dry. Then rinse off the water and pat dry.

Place an air humidifier in your home to moist your surrounding. Avoid soaps with strong chemicals instead switch to natural soaps. You can also use a baby lotion as your moisturizing dry skin lotion as it contains lesser chemicals. You can try any natural remedy from the above list of home remedies for dry skin. Stick to the one, which you feel is the best to treat your dry skin problems.

How to get Gum out of clothing

I did a little research and here are the top 3 ways to get gum out of clothes using normal everyday items you should already have around your house.

1. Stick the gum in a freezer for about an hour or until hard.  Use a butter knife and pry the gum off and scrape the residue off.  Wash normally.  Note: may not work for clothes that are thin because it may cause holes to form from the scraping.
2. Warm up some vinegar  and soak the gum in it for a bit. After the gum is soft, it should come right off with a little scrubbing.  Wash normally.  Note: this can get quite strong smelling so have good ventilation.

3. Take some creamy peanut butter and rub it on the gum.  The oils in it should loosen the gum allowing it to be scraped off.  Wash normally.  Note: don’t use on clothing that you don’t want peanut butter or potential oil stains to get on (though the oil stains should wash off).

Canning milk

Now, fill the jars, leaving 1/2" of headspace at the top of each container. (Because I like to be sure that no uninvited particles have a chance to stumble into the milk, I filter the harvest a second time during this step.) After wiping the rims with a clean, damp cloth, cap the jars with the sterilized lids and rings. When that's done, gently set the flasks on the rack of your pressure canner, add the appropriate amount of water (check the instructions that came with your cooker), and place the whole shebang over the hottest part of the stove.

Next, following the manufacturer's instructions, bring the canner to 10 pounds of pressure and process the milk for 25 minutes if you're using quarts and 20 minutes for pint-size containers. It's imperative that you pay close attention at this point: If the pressure falls below 10 pounds while the milk is being processed, you'll have to start timing all over again.

Once the jars have been boiled for the allotted period, remove the canner from the heat and let it sit untouched until all pressure has left the chamber (this usually takes an hour or so). Then set the jars in a draft-free spot on a rack, a towel, or several sheets of newspaper . . . shroud the bottles with a towel . . . and leave them "tucked in" overnight. Check the seals for leakage the next morning and store the milk on a cool, dark shelf.