More Preparedness Stuff

More preparedness stuff this week. We have been working on getting our food storage up. It was really hard to have one when we moved twice every year for the last 5 years. Every time we had a food storage we would have to eat it all because we needed to pack up and go. Now that we are in a spot that we can stay for awhile (at least that's the plan for now, but you never know...), we can actually start creating an actual food storage. Each week we go shopping we grab something to go into either our 72 hour kits or food storage. First week was bottled water, then a big bag of rice and I believe we also got granola bars for the 72 hour kits. I think next we are going for the canned meat.

It is going to feel nice to have a reserve of food and water. We made butter this week. That was awesome. We got some cream, a marble and a mason jar. Put the marble and cream in the mason jar and shook it till we had butter. It is quite delicious too, Haha, tastes like cream. We are going to figure out a way to make it taste more like butter. Maybe more salt. I have been having this desire to learn how to do things on my own. Making butter is one example, another is how to sharpen knives and axes. Making soaps is another one I think would be pretty fun. Not sure how time consuming it is but it will be cool to be able to say I made my own soap.

I think we rely too much on others to provide. I fear for it actually. What happens when the power goes out in your house for 1 day or 1 week. How do you keep your food cold? How do you cook with no stove?

Anyways, this has been on my mind a lot. Can you tell? Haha. Maybe it's part of my dad instinct kicking in, making sure my family is taken care of no matter what.

By the way, the youtube channel is up. No content yet, and I'm not sure how soon either. I want to have a schedule set up for frequency of videos and topics picked out. Just thought I would let you know that I am one more step closer to getting it up and running. Name and everything else will come later.

The point of it is going to be education. I want want to help other people learn how to do the things I am learning how to do. I find there are a lot of videos by "experts" but not to many by a rookie who is also learning how to do it. I figured why not film myself learning how to do it and show everyone else that it isn't (or is...) as scary as it looks.

Anyways, I need to go to bed.

Armorial Achievments

So apparently the official term is "Armorial Achievements" not coat of arms. Back in the day, a coat of arms was actually a coat worn that would have the Escutcheon (shield) on the back. The Armorial Achievement is the entire collection of emblems awarded. Back in the day, these Armorial Achievements were awarded to families or individuals. Everything from the shape of the escutcheon to colors, supporters (the animals/people on the side of the shield), crest, helm, etc. I think the motto would be the only thing left to the family to come up with on their own. Click here to see a pic of what I am talking about. 

Nowadays, we can make one up without needing the emblems awarded to us from the king or queen. I have been looking at making a couple. One for my family, and one for my youtube channel. I was trying to think of a good logo to use but couldn't really think of anything I liked. Then I had an idea of using a coat of arms as a logo. This will have everything to do with the topic of my vlog; preparedness. Now I just have to come up with ideas for what to put on it.

Maybe this is why we don't really call them Armorial Achievements anymore, because we didn't achieve them. We just make a coat of arms that we think looks good and use it. Wouldn't really make sense to call it an armorial achievement when we didn't have to fight in a war to earn it. I do like that it is a picture of the person represented. Kate Middleton just had hers done. I recommend you check it out. I like how simple it is.

I really love how every single detail on a coat of arms has meaning. Everything. The shape of the sheild, the color, the fur, the symbols placed on it and around it. It is incredible the layers of meaning on some of these coat of arms. They are just stuffed with meaning.

I encourage you, if you have not already, to look up some of your family names and see what family crests and armorial achievements come up. That could make for a good FHE activity or genealogy activity.

Distractions

I was thinking a lot this week about distractions. Man, we have a lot of them. How often do I come home and turn on the tv instead of preparing for a lesson or working on my to-do list? Too many times.

I heard a while ago somewhere that the way we view our spare time is different compared to years past. Now it is spent "vegging" in front of a tv or just sitting. How many of us come home and just want to sit and do nothing? I think we all do. Spare time in the past was used to pursue hobbies and interests. Men would come home from a long day at work and then head out to the shop and work on their cabinet making (if that was their hobby).

Everyone today thinks "I'm too busy". Are we? "I don't have time for that". Really? Yet we have time to watch our favorite shows the night they air, or play video games after work. We have time and arn't too busy but we have all these distractions that we give priority to.

"But what about me time?" That's when the pursuit of hobbies would take place. Today "me time" means time to turn my brain off for an hour or more. Why not pick up a new hobby and pursue that in your "me time." Apparently science is telling us that shutting our brains down in front of a tv is contributing to why we all feel so exhausted. They say if we fill that time with exercise or a hobby that we will actually feel energized and happier. What?? Come home after 8+ hours at work and then work out?? no way. Yeah way! This is science!

Anyways, I am stuck in this same boat. I know what I need to be doing or should be doing, but I would rather watch my show or browse the internet looking for the next pinterest fad. It's hard to break these habits of vegging. Vegging is nice, maybe we should call it a hobby and then we will feel better about it and get energized from it. Haha.

Take time to look at what you do in your day and see if there is 1, just 1, distraction you can get rid of. Maybe it's a game on your phone, or maybe it's facebook. Either way, find just 1 this week and get rid of it for 7 days. See how you feel after that. I would put money on it that you won't even miss it.

Bushcraft 2.0

So this is more of a heads up post. I have talked this over with a few people and have decided this is a good idea. I am going to add a video blog to this not video blog. YAY!!

This video blog will be about survival/preparedness/bushcraft. I think it will be fun. I am not to sure as to a time frame on how soon the first video will be up or how frequently they will be posted. I would like to say weekly but I may be leaning to monthly to start off with. No promises though. This is mostly thoughts in my head. It will really depend on how frequently I can get out and film something. I will be starting a youtube channel. Ill let you know when that's up. I have a few other ideas up my sleeve that I will leave as a surprise. Really I just don't have all the details worked out yet for all the ideas I have. The first step is going to be this vlog.

I have seen a lot of video's and read a bunch of blogs from professional bushcrafters and preppers. You can get a ton of awesome information from them. The idea behind my video blog is to do this bushcrafting/prepping from a "rookie" point of view. I want to document my "journey" as I learn how to become self reliant and prepared for what ever catastrophe may strike. I do want to point out that I am a chief scout ( Canada's version of an eagle scout for you american readers out there ), but it has been way too long since I completed my badges. I have forgotten most of my knots, never really knew anything about plants and trees, and the last time I went camping was...I can't remember. I went on one after my mission in 2006. I'm sure there is one sooner than that but I can't think of it. Scratch that, I went winter camping with my father-in-law and brother-in-law 2 christmases ago. That was awesome.

So we will be learning together. I will be learning different skills, how to identify different plants and what they are good for, trying different methods of fire starting and shelter making, and filming it while I do it.

As of right now I am just waiting on some more equipment so I can actually have something to camp with. I'm not quite ready to head out with just the shirt on my back ( and pants ) just yet.

I have been feeling a pull to do this for a while. I love being out in the woods. I love sitting at the top of a sky slope and just staring at the valley below, and while camping hearing nothing but the river rushing and the wind through the trees. Really the only things holding me back are lack of equipment and I wasn't taking my thoughts about it seriously. I just passed them off as wishful thinking or just random thoughts. I would often think, "man, I really want to go camping. I need to get out in the woods, oh well". I would be reminded of it when I go to Vancouver Island and hike through the trees. I love it out there. I'm not sure why it has taken me so long to find this passion of mine...but here I am. Better late then never I suppose.

Tartans

I had family dinner today with my parents and brothers to celebrate my wife's birthday. While there my brother Dan and I talked about tartans. We have talked about getting a family tartan for a while now, almost a year. We had attended a Robbie Burns dinner last January and that is what sparked the idea in the first place.

A Little Back Story

My dads dad changed his last name from Greenwood to Sinclaire. I heard it was because of his belief in numerology. What ever the reason, we have a unique opportunity. My dad is first generation with the new last name, making my brothers and I second generation.

I have tried to find a tartan somewhere in our family history. Nothing. I know, seems odd. I tried again tonight with my parents giving me family names to try. Nothing. We are all from southern England. They don't have tartans in Southern England.

The Result

So I was thinking it would be a great idea and a wonderful opportunity for our family to create our own tartan and coat of arms. Tartans tell a nice story of where the family came from or important things to that clan/family. Often clan tartans would have yellow for the wheat they grew, green for the grassy hills of Scotland, or blue for the endless sky. Coat of arms show strengths and more images of where the family comes from. So now I want to create one that can tell our families story. Apparently I can actually create a tartan and register it so it will be an official tartan. I definitely want to get some kilts made from it. That would be so sweet.

This is going to take some time. I have 4 brothers and we will have to agree on what colours to use and what it should look like. I laugh at the thought because my brothers and I are very different. Each one of us is completely different from the rest, so this will be interesting. But from the discussion tonight at family dinner, it sounds like everyone is on board. I'm excited to help create an image of who our family is.

Now let the compromises begin!