Mine Lick Creek Farm

01/27/2025

We've talked about it before, but having a good and regular relationship with your local farmers benefits you and them both. Don't wait until commercial source run dry.

Academy Farm is among the best in my opinion.

Plenty more Organic Eggs coming soon! From Day 1 chicks, to laying first eggs, only Organic Feed goes to these babies! We value the trust and support from you, our dear customers, above all!

01/23/2025

I'm only 69, but I've already figured out that if I bring the chickens water bucket in at night, I won't have to fool with ice in the morning.

01/16/2025

We would be glad to sponsor a few kids!

https://tiny.utk.edu/ChickChain2025

01/12/2025

Here's a link to the weather station here at the farm.

Weather Underground provides local & long-range weather forecasts, weather reports, maps & tropical weather conditions for locations worldwide.

01/10/2025

The snow just started at MLCF, and it's 30 degrees.

01/07/2025

Let's face it, many folks are reluctant to prepare because they're afraid of what others might think. But they won't care what YOU think when they come to "borrow" some, after being caught "a little" short.

We're talking about hoarding.

Let's say, you stocked up on some things while they were in abundance and prices were low. But a scary headline in the news has sent everyone in to panic buying. Many came home empty handed, or had to pay higher prices to get what they wanted. Not to mention the frustration that builds while standing in lines, for hours.

Even your best friends will let their minds wonder, in times like these, and look for someone to blame. "It's your fault! If people like you didn't hoard everything, there wouldn't be a shortage."

Truth is, what I bought months ago, while it was in abundance, and cheap, has nothing to do with your predicament today. That's not how the supply chain works.

By some peoples definition, if you shop at SAMS or Costco, you're a hoarder, because they mostly sell in bulk packaging.

Now, if everyone rushes out at once, to build their inventories, after the fear has set in, then that may be hoarding. But everyone pointing a finger at you is probably up to the same thing.

I've developed my OLPIL principle for this. One Less Person In Line. If I work my inventories when things are in abundance and prices are low, I'll be one less person in line and everyone gets to move up one space. You're welcome.

So, I benefit at least 4 ways, and you can too.

1. It was in abundance and there is variety to choose from.
2. Prices are usually lower than when there is a panic demand.
3. I don't waste time standing in lines, I work on more important matters.
4. I have what I need. Not maybe, I have it!

01/07/2025

https://www.nbcnews.com/weather/winter-weather/live-blog/winter-storm-live-updates-heavy-snow-ice-travel-hazards-rcna186339

What If! Chapter 4 (fiction, series started on Dec 3.)

It's been a while since I added to our fictional journey in preparedness but sometimes truth is stranger than fiction, so I've let the mainstream media do the story telling for a while.

The severe fictional weather I hinted at has come to fruition and people everywhere are having to deal with it, whether they were prepared or not.

So let's continue our journey with an update from here on the farm. Sensing the direction the weather was heading, I defaulted to some of my "get ready" routines, and started with fuels. (Please don't store bulk fuels in your garage if it's attached to your house!)

Here at the farm, we use a variety of fuels, for a variety of reasons, and keeping them topped off and rotated for freshness takes some planning and thought. Lets start by identifying those fuels;

Diesel: for tractors, general farm work, setting out hay, moving things around. Diesel has a long shelf life, compared to gasoline, but it can gel in the winter and mold year round. I buy my diesel 5 or 10 gallons at a time and pour it into a 55 gallon drum. I pump diesel from the drum to the tractor when needed. This keeps the diesel in the drum "refreshed" to prevent molding.

Gasoline: for generators, chainsaws, ATV / UTV, Vehicles, etc. The best gas, for long term storage, is regular unleaded, non-ethanol. It's more expensive, but stores much longer, without additives.

I line my cans up along a wall and use off the right end first and replenish on the left end, so the oldest fuel gets used next. with this simple rotation I've never needed a stabilizer and that helps offset the higher price of the non-ethanol. But keep in mind; with the volume I inventory and the rate of use, I doubt the fuel is ever more that two years old. Mowing the yard in the summer seems to keep it rotated just fine.

You can follow the same procedure with ethanol fuel, if all your equipment is okay with it. But it won't store as long and I wouldn't leave it in equipment that sets for very long. When I use it in my generator, I turn the fuel off first and let the generator die on it's own, to empty the carburetor. Then turn the switch off. In the spring, the remaining fuel will be drained and run through my lawnmower.

Kerosene; Lamps and lanterns. Stores almost indefinitely. I have a can that' over 10 years old and burns fine in lamps and lanterns. Put some thought into how much you might need. How long do you want light when there's no electricity.

Camp fuel (Coleman and others); Used for lanterns and camp stoves. Great backups for lighting and cooking when the power is down. I would set mine up in the garage, to be out of the wind, but probable wouldn't use in the house. Read the operators manual for safe use.

Propane; Like a lot of folks, we have an outdoor grill and can use it to prepare meals. My generator is a "duel fuel" and will also run on this, if I'm short on gas. Propane stores indefinitely!!!

Charcoal; Yep, its a fuel, and some may have to depend on it for a backup cooking solution. Always outdoors, always away from flammable surfaces.

Candles; Yes, wax is a fuel. candles are an important part of anyone's preparedness plan.

Matches / lighters; Many of these fuels are of little use if you can't light them!

I hope that all of you can put a check mark by fuel on your preparedness inventory. If not, make it your goal over the next few days. Starting from scratch, this could be an expensive endeavor, but once you get into a routine, it won't be anymore expensive than routine use. This is a dynamic inventory and needs regular attention.

If I've missed anything just drop a comment below and let's talk about it.

Now, what about tomorrow?

Winter storm live updates: Freezing rain, snow and ice create dire travel conditions for millions

12/19/2024

To be prepared! A decision you make well in advance of something going wrong.

To panic! A decision made on the spot, when something goes wrong, that you are not prepared for.

12/10/2024

What If! Chapter 3 (fiction, series started on Dec 3.)

December 10th. Not much going on in the weather except for the cold air pushing further south a little more every day. The rush on the grocery stores has passed and shelves are restocked, at least in the south where roads are clear for deliveries. Now, if everyone will just bring their inventories up incrementally over the next month or so, maybe we can avoid that Chinese fire drill the next time around. Worth noting, someone mentioned the jet stream again.

Last week the headlines were about martial law in South Korea and the anti Russian street riots in the Republic of Georgia. Today they're about the ousting of the French Prime Minister and the collapse of Syria. All this on top of existing conflicts and posturing for World War III. Historically, Americans have felt somewhat immune to the ravages of war since they tend to happen on foreign soils.

I don't know about you, but headlines like these wake up my preparedness hormone and I tend to get busy about things. All of these issues, even though they are largely on the other side of the world, can easily upset the supply chain. I, for one, haven't forgot the delivery debacles during and after the COVID “epidemic”. We never got a reasonable explanation for any of that; at least an explanation that I could accept. So since we tend to keep our inventories up to par, I'm busy playing catch up on equipment services and repairs, while parts and supplies are readily available.

The tractor and farm equipment are my highest priority right now. I learned last year that you can't schedule hay cutting around equipment availability, the equipment has to be ready before the season starts and setting on standby. Come to think about it, now might be a good time to buy ahead on bailing twine.

The cyber attacks continue, with the targeting of at least twelve countries now. It appears they are all either U.S. Allies or NATO Member Countries. The State Department and the Pentagon are working hastily to establish secure back channel communications with each of them and proactively doing the same all our allies. There are leaked but unconfirmed reports that the U.S, is also under an unprecedented level of cyber attack, but has so far been able to defend against it. Several of the smaller power companies have been disrupted, with a few being grid down for a number of days now. Why aren't we seeing more about this in the main stream media?

I know there's no need to panic, but I'm uneasy about things right now, and that moves me to action.

(fiction)

12/04/2024

What If! Chapter 2 (fiction, series started on Dec 3.)

December 4th. Well, if it did warm up, it wasn't much. Still have ice in the buckets and the mud is all frozen, but at least the snow is gone. They're still getting hammered up north, with lake effect snow and colder than normal temperatures. Interestingly, last night, one forecaster made a brief reference to a shift in the jet stream. Said she wasn't sure yet how it would affect our weather, but they should know more in a few days.

Over night, some of the Y'all Tube, self proclaimed weather experts ran with this brief mention of the jet stream shift and started a panic. For lack of other sources, local stations are referencing the Y'all Tube forecasts as nonsense and encouraging people not to panic. But human nature being what it is, seems like everyone that views the videos gets caught up in the frenzy and this morning a rush on the market place is full on.

Even small communities, like ours, are caught up in it. I've heard that some of our grocery stores have requested police to help with the traffic and crowd control. Store managers, in an effort to be fair and serve more people, have placed limits on how much you can buy. This has lead to altercations and the police have had to step in to keep the peace.

Of course, when you hear about something like this, you immediately start doing a mental inventory. While there are a few things I wish we had more of, I think we can get by with what we have. But for how long?

A friend just text me, said they needed some things and asked what they should do. For lack of better answer I suggested they stay away from the larger stores and shop the smaller, rural stores if they had what they needed. Sure, it might cost more, but it would probably be safer and take a lot less time. I asked them to pick me up some "C" size batteries if they decided to go.

World news is just as chilling as the arctic cold right now too! Martial Law in South Korea, Russia vs Ukraine, Russia vs NATO, China vs Taiwan, Israel vs Iran, Lebanon, and the US has a "Vested Interest" in all of these. Many experts are saying we're closer to World War III than we've ever been. The cyber attacks in Australia and France have put both countries on edge and even warranted a response from our own Pentagon.

12/03/2024

Greetings all! Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving and in fact, counted your blessings. To our loyal page followers, you may remember last winter's series on living grid down for a week. This may be a good time to scroll back and review some of the preparedness topics we covered.

I've debated doing another series this winter, but this is what I've come up with instead. I'd like to try my hand at story telling and post-by-post wonder through some "What If" scenarios to see how we might handle, or get through some challenging circumstances.

We'll call each post a chapter, no matter how long or short it is, so we can refer back to them for discussion. Chapter 1 will start with where we are today with weather, world events, geopolitical climate and the like. From there we'll take the so called "Literary License" and let our imagination do the rest. (There may be some regular farm posts between chapters, or they may be blended in to the chapters if they fit the narrative.)

I am no an expert on any of this! But, I am someone with a variety of life experiences, and someone who has put a lot more thought into this than the average person. For example, I've participated in many drills where we evacuated the White House, The Capitol, The Pentagon and classified sites, to some of those elusive underground bunkers you've probably heard about. Lesson learned? They have a plan for themselves, but they don't have a plan for us......

Chapter 1

Dec 3rd. The temperatures dropped faster than I expected, and we got a lite snow over night. Not much really, but enough to bring on the black ice we're accustomed to here in the south. So schools are closed for the day and I expect there was a run on bread, milk and toilet paper. I did see reports of major traffic issues along I-40, going up the mountain to Monterey and Crossville. I'm not sure if they put down salt brine for this one, but either way, it's a mess.

We generally keep what we need on hand, so we haven't had to venture out for anything. I've noticed traffic is slower than usual on our little road today, so it's got me wondering if we may have a little black ice in our neighborhood too!

Had to break out some of my winter wear to tend to the livestock this morning. When the ground is covered with snow or ice, you have to set out more hay and the like. Critters depend on burning calories to stay warm. Luckily, the tractor started right up and I let it warm up while I did some of the lesser chores. Sometime I don't run the tractor enough to keep the battery fully charged. so this helps.

They're calling for things to warm back up, so this is all just a temporary inconvenience I hope. But it's enough to make you appreciate reliable electricity and gas, and the warmth it brings to the holiday season.

Oh! Have you seen the reports of the blizzard like conditions sweeping across the northern states?

11/17/2024

Update! She's home and everybody's happy.

We have a visitor at MLCF, but she can't stay. Anyone recognize her?

11/11/2024

If you follow this page much, then you know that in addition to traditional homesteading, I like to cover issues of general preparedness. One topic, near and dear to me is communication. In particular, alternative communication.

I've had CB radios for over 50 years. Although they don't get used much anymore, they can still serve a vital role during an emergency where more modern technology has been disabled, for one reason or another.

Over the past several years I've started learning to work on them a little. There is still some test equipment I don't have, but I'm working on it.

On the bench is a Cobra 148gtl. Yesterday I replaced about a half dozen capacitors that showed signs of failure. Today I downloaded the service manual and will get it aligned as accurately as possible with the equipment I have. (If I can understand the manual)

11/01/2024

It's that time of year again, when I like to promote personal preparedness. Canning season is behind us, but maybe we didn't put up as much as we thought we would. My health issues this year really put a limit on what I was able to do and the garden suffered most.

But that doesn't mean we can't make it up somehow. It's still important to keep those inventories up, and although we might prefer home grown, there's nothing wrong with supplementing with store bought goods.

Let's pretend for a minute that there is no threat to normalcy associated with the election cycle, there's no threat of a World War III, already staged to start on at least four fronts. And let's pretend there no such thing as economic collapse. They'll never happen, right!

But here in the south, we can't pretend to be immune to Mother Nature and all that she can muster up. Most of us can recall numerous events that have led to power outages and road closure for weeks. These events often lead to empty shelves in the market place.

So, what wrong with being a little proactive? You can even beat the election, if you start today.

10/17/2024

After about 4 days in the hospital, I wanted to check on my cows first thing. As I went through the gate, this is the first thing I saw. You decide.

10/14/2024

Got fuel?

A typical homeowner may have a bottle like this sitting around for years, or even decades. But during an extended power outage it may only last a week or two if you use it conservatively.

10/14/2024

It's that time of year again, test that generator with a load on it!

10/11/2024

I'm sure most of you remember last winter's off grid drill and the nonsense I conjured up for a week. Well, I'm in the early phases of preparing for another drill this winter.

Like last time, I'll probably leave the water heater, freezers, and one small gas space heater running, but take everything else down. I do hope to add to the list of things I'm still able to do, by trying to do more with my small solar array.