Month: December 2022

9 Mouthwatering Homemade Cheese Recipes To Try This Weekend | Homesteading Simple Self Sufficient Off-The-Grid | Homesteading.com <![CDATA[ window._wpemojiSettings = {"baseUrl":"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72×72/","ext":".png","svgUrl":"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/svg/","svgExt":".svg","source":{"concatemoji":"https://homesteading.com/wp-includes/js/wp-emoji-release.min.js?ver=6.0.3"}}; /*! This file is auto-generated */ !function(e,a,t){var n,r,o,i=a.createElement("canvas"),p=i.getContext&&i.getContext("2d");function s(e,t){var a=String.fromCharCode,e=(p.clearRect(0,0,i.width,i.height),p.fillText(a.apply(this,e),0,0),i.toDataURL());return p.clearRect(0,0,i.width,i.height),p.fillText(a.apply(this,t),0,0),e===i.toDataURL()}function c(e){var t=a.createElement("script");t.src=e,t.defer=t.type="text/javascript",a.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].appendChild(t)}for(o=Array("flag","emoji"),t.supports={everything:!0,everythingExceptFlag:!0},r=0;r tallest) { tallest = thisHeight; } }); group.height(tallest); } equalHeight($(“.dg-grid-shortcode .dg_grid-shortcode-col”)); $(window).resize(function() { equalHeight($(“.dg-grid-shortcode .dg_grid-shortcode-col”)); }); }); ]]>

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After visiting a nearby lavender farm for their 20th wedding anniversary, Mike Mitchell and Sandra Solano-Mitchell were inspired to turn their own 10.5 acres of land into a similar venture. They named it Willamette Valley Lavender.

“It was then, surrounded by solitude, lavender and bees that we decided to jump in with both feet and take on this new adventure,” the couple recalls. “In October 2020, we planted our test garden with 200 plants and 11 cultivars. This allowed us to see what would grow well in our micro climate.

“Since then, the farm has expanded to over 3,000 plants and more than 30 cultivars.”

We spoke to Sandra and Mike about the therapeutic nature of faming and the differences between French, Spanish and English lavenders. We also got into the best ways to incorporate lavender into your cooking routine.

A Focus on Lavender

“For many years we brainstormed ideas about what to do or grow at the farm. But everything we came up with required huge amounts of time year-round, and we needed to be mindful that our teaching jobs already demanded most of our time,” explains the couple. (They think of themselves as public school teachers by day and hobby farmers on the weekends.)

“We found lavender to be more of a teacher-friendly crop,” they continue. “Harvest times and plant care align well with our school schedules, as we harvest early in our summer break.

“Although there is still a lot of work to do year-round. We really enjoy the process and everything lavender has to offer. The lavender work is stimulating and reenergizing, which makes for an excellent disconnect from our daily jobs.”

Read more: Commitment to permaculture blossoms at Indara Farms!

An Organic Way of Growing

When it comes growing lavender, Sandra and Mike are advocates for organic methods. “We do not need to add fertilizers or pesticides to nature,” they explain.

“Preparing the land, we may add amendments to reach the proper pH level for the soil. But once the soil is ready the only additive we have for the plants is a little bone meal to help them establish. So this fits with our using the resources already on hand.”

English, French or Spanish Lavender?

There are over 450 varieties of lavender available. But Sandra and Mike like to categorize them into three main categories in the United States:

• English lavender
• French lavender
• Spanish lavender

They describe the English variety as being an “excellent choice for culinary purposes” due to its sweet and delicate floral aroma.

On the other hand, French lavender possesses an “invigorating fragrance” that makes it great for aromatherapy. Spanish lavender is a must for garden and landscape use.

Cooking with Lavender

Moving into the kitchen, Sandra and Mike are fans of using lavender in drinks.

“Lemonades, lattes, mocktails and cocktails can be easily achieved with fresh or dry bud or…

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The NYU Tech Law and Policy clinic today filed a complaint on behalf of EPIC with the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau alleging that Rocket Money’s business practices violate the Dodd-Frank Act and the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The complaint alleges that Rocket Money’s interface employs dark patterns that harm its customers, despite the company’s privacy promises. The complaint further alleges that Rocket Money operates as a consumer reporting agency but uses its customers’ credit reports for self-promotional marketing purposes, in violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. EPIC has commented on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau inquiry into big tech payment platforms and recommended that the Bureau strengthen Buy Now Pay Later data practices. EPIC also recently advocated that the Federal Trade Commission use all of its authorities to protect consumers, including its Section 5 rulemaking authority to promulgate a commercial surveillance rule and establish a data minimization rule. 

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I knew the silver maple tree in my backyard was in pretty rotten shape, but hearing the decades-old tree fall was still a shock. (As it happens, one of my nature cams captured the whole sad spectacle on video.) A combination of water-logged soil and stiff, straight-line winds finally resulted in a fallen tree.

When I told friends what happened, they immediately jumped to the same conclusion: that I would be cutting the tree up for firewood. But I don’t have a fireplace or a wood-burning stove. And now I have even less habitat for the creatures that used to depend on that old tree for shelter.

As a result, I’ve been doing everything but stacking new firewood. What follows are 10 ways I’ve been using my old tree to help feed myself and support area wildlife, too.

And who knows? Maybe the next time you’re faced with a newly fallen tree, you’ll give some of these a try.

Bird Rest Stops

I used to love sitting near the old maple and watching the birds take shelter within its hollows and along its branches. Determined to restore some of what’s been lost, I’ve created a few bird rest stops.

First, I selected some large, sturdy limbs which still had several branches attached. Then I gathered several intact and hollow log sections. To keep grass and weeds from encroaching, I removed a small section of turf and covered the area with a thick layer of cardboard and fallen leaves.

Next, I arranged the logs so that they could sandwich and support some of the tree limbs. I positioned these limbs so they would stretch upward—like younger, smaller trees might. To keep the logs and limbs in place, I filled nooks and crannies with loose soil, watered it in well, and packed the soil down.

I planted sedum atop areas with exposed soil and sowed some perennials around the logs as well.

Finally, I added a bird feeder pole, along with black oil sunflower seed and thistle seed feeders. My mini rest stops have been well-trafficked ever since.

Forts & Blinds

If you collect enough similarly-sized sticks, you (or the kids!) can use them to create a lovely natural fort or even a photography blind. Once inside your hiding spot, you can more easily snap close-ups of birds and other animals.

Got Burls?

Stressed-out trees are much more likely to produce burls—rare growths prized by some woodworkers. If you have them, you may be able to sell your tree’s burls for top dollar. Or you can make something beautiful from them yourself.

Suet Log Feeders

I drilled a series of staggered holes in some of my longer, wider logs and then filled the holes with softened suet. Whether you hang or stack these suet-filled logs, woodpeckers, Northern flickers and other birds will flock to them.

Mushroom Magic

Depending on what kind of fallen tree you have, you just might be able to…

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7 Ways To Prepare Wheat Without a Grinder | Homesteading Simple Self Sufficient Off-The-Grid | Homesteading.com <![CDATA[ window._wpemojiSettings = {"baseUrl":"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72×72/","ext":".png","svgUrl":"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/svg/","svgExt":".svg","source":{"concatemoji":"https://homesteading.com/wp-includes/js/wp-emoji-release.min.js?ver=6.0.3"}}; /*! This file is auto-generated */ !function(e,a,t){var n,r,o,i=a.createElement("canvas"),p=i.getContext&&i.getContext("2d");function s(e,t){var a=String.fromCharCode,e=(p.clearRect(0,0,i.width,i.height),p.fillText(a.apply(this,e),0,0),i.toDataURL());return p.clearRect(0,0,i.width,i.height),p.fillText(a.apply(this,t),0,0),e===i.toDataURL()}function c(e){var t=a.createElement("script");t.src=e,t.defer=t.type="text/javascript",a.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].appendChild(t)}for(o=Array("flag","emoji"),t.supports={everything:!0,everythingExceptFlag:!0},r=0;r tallest) { tallest = thisHeight; } }); group.height(tallest); } equalHeight($(“.dg-grid-shortcode .dg_grid-shortcode-col”)); $(window).resize(function() { equalHeight($(“.dg-grid-shortcode .dg_grid-shortcode-col”)); }); }); ]]>

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JWR’s Introductory Note: This article is an update and substantial expansion to a piece that I wrote back in December of 2005.

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The majority of SurvivalBlog readers that I talk and correspond with tell me that they live in cities or suburbs, but they would like to live full-time at a retreat in a rural area. Their complaint is almost always the same: “…but I’m not self-employed. I can’t afford to live in the country because I can’t find work there, and the nature of my work doesn’t allow telecommuting.” They feel stuck.

The recent Wu Flu pandemic proved that a huge number of office-setting jobs can indeed be handled from home. High-speed Internet now predominates, via DSL. And Starlink — which is much faster than DSL — will soon be rolling out in even the most remote parts of the United States. Starlink is now available in 32 countries, including Canada and Mexico. There are now videoconferencing tools like Skype, Zoom, GoTo Meeting, and Facetime. Many of these are available free of charge.

Don’t Just Move First, And Hope

Over the years I’ve seen lots of people “pull the plug” and move to the boonies with the hope that they’ll find local work once they get there. That usually doesn’t work. Folks find that most rural jobs typically pay little more than minimum wage and they are often informally reserved for folks that were born and raised in the area. Newcomers from the big city certainly don’t have hiring priority!

You Need Your Own Source of Income

My suggestion is to start a second and third income stream, with home-based businesses. Once you have one business started, then start another one. There are numerous advantages to this approach, namely:

• You can get out of debt
• You can generally build a business up gradually, so that you don’t need to quit your current occupation immediately.
• By working at home you will have the time to homeschool your children and they will learn about how to operate a business.
• You can live at your retreat full-time. This will contribute to your self-sufficiency since you will be there to tend to your garden, fruit/nut trees, and livestock.
• If one of your home-based businesses fails, then you can fall back on the other.

Ideally, for someone that is preparedness-minded, a home-based business should be something that is virtually recession-proof, or possibly even depression-proof. Ask yourself: What are you good at? What knowledge or skills do you have that you can utilize?

Making Money in Hard Times

Next, consider which businesses will likely flourish even during hard economic times. Some good examples might include:

• Mail order/Internet sales/eBay Auctioning of preparedness-related products.
• Locksmithing
• Gunsmithing
• Accounting
• Repair/refurbishment businesses. (In the old days, that would have meant radio repair, but these days, it is replacement screens for smartphones.)
• Freelance writing.
• Blogging (with paid advertising.) If you have knowledge about a niche industry or topic and there is currently no blog on…

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Last week, OpenAI made their “Playground” and chat functions using GPT-3 available to the general public. GPT-3 stands for “Generative Pre-trained Transformer” and is a large language model that uses AI to produce text written in a style that mimics how humans write, and was developed

The Playground and chat functions allow users to write a prompt and receive a result from the AI underneath the prompt. The applications are nearly endless, and since it’s been released people have quickly shown both it’s promise and perils.

This piece will preview the significant signs of bias risks in the use of ChatGPT/Playground, respond to the use of GPT-3 to stymie regulation efforts, and show that AI can also explain pro-privacy and AI oversight questions like why emotion and facial recognition need to be banned.

Like most automated decision-making systems, GPT-3 is built off of past written words, and reflects discrimination.  For example, Steven Piantadosi showed on Twitter that it will return the attributes of white and male for a good scientist:

A similar request asked if people’s lives should be saved based on racial and gender attributes: the program returned that Black men are the only one that should not be saved when Black/Male; Black/Female; White/Male; White/Female; Asian/Male; Asian/Female.

There are very basic filters built into the system, but as Arvind Narayanan pointed out, since the content filters designed to mitigate the most concerning results can be bypassed through “conversation.”

When asked how to 3D print a pistol, GPT out-putted “3D printing a pistol is not an easy task and is highly illegal in many countries. It is also very dangerous. If you are determined to 3D print a pistol, you will need a 3D printer, thermoplastic filament, and a 3D model of a pistol. Once you have these items, you will need to print the 3D model of the pistol, assemble the parts, and then test fire the pistol. It is important to note that printing, assembling, and firing a 3D printed gun is illegal in many countries and may result in criminal penalties.”

For more reading on the development, use, and risks of Large Language Models like GPT-3, EPIC recommends reading a 2021 paper entitled “On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots: Can Language Models Be Too big“ by Emily Bender, Timnit Gebru, Angelina McMillan-Major, and Margaret Mitchell. The paper discusses the environmental impact, the danger of uncurated data sets that “ingest everything on the web,” and more.

GPT-3 would not be impossible with common sense regulation

AI proponents are attempting to limit any and all privacy and AI regulation in the name of “innovation.” Particularly, in response to the FTC’s Commercial Surveillance Rulemaking, Former Chief Technologist of the FTC Neil Chilson used GPT-3 to generate responses urging the FTC not to  establish much-needed regulations, prompting it with bad faith arguments about the…

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Make A Compost Bin Out Of Pallets | Homesteading Simple Self Sufficient Off-The-Grid | Homesteading.com <![CDATA[ window._wpemojiSettings = {"baseUrl":"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72×72/","ext":".png","svgUrl":"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/svg/","svgExt":".svg","source":{"concatemoji":"https://homesteading.com/wp-includes/js/wp-emoji-release.min.js?ver=6.0.3"}}; /*! This file is auto-generated */ !function(e,a,t){var n,r,o,i=a.createElement("canvas"),p=i.getContext&&i.getContext("2d");function s(e,t){var a=String.fromCharCode,e=(p.clearRect(0,0,i.width,i.height),p.fillText(a.apply(this,e),0,0),i.toDataURL());return p.clearRect(0,0,i.width,i.height),p.fillText(a.apply(this,t),0,0),e===i.toDataURL()}function c(e){var t=a.createElement("script");t.src=e,t.defer=t.type="text/javascript",a.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].appendChild(t)}for(o=Array("flag","emoji"),t.supports={everything:!0,everythingExceptFlag:!0},r=0;r tallest) { tallest = thisHeight; } }); group.height(tallest); } equalHeight($(“.dg-grid-shortcode .dg_grid-shortcode-col”)); $(window).resize(function() { equalHeight($(“.dg-grid-shortcode .dg_grid-shortcode-col”)); }); }); ]]>

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On October 7, President Biden signed an Executive Order which imposes new limitations on U.S. surveillance programs and creates a new redress mechanism for data subjects abroad.[1] This Executive Order is intended to replace the now-defunct Privacy Shield program but is unlikely to satisfy the European Union (EU) legal standards for privacy protections. In particular, the Executive Order has two major weaknesses which will likely form the basis of future challenges under EU law:

• The Executive Order still permits bulk collection of personal data under many circumstances and its purpose limitations are quite broad and subject to revision by the President, raising concerns that they may not effectively restrain misuse of personal data.
• The new redress mechanism, while an improvement over prior frameworks, may not be independent and effective enough for individuals to meaningfully exercise their privacy rights.

More fundamentally, because the new framework is based on an Executive Order and not legislation, it is at risk of dilution—or even dissolution—with each new administration, leading to serious doubts about its stability. A new adequacy determination and a possible Schrems III decision by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) are a long way off. However, with Section 702’s reauthorization deadline approaching at the end of 2023, the weaknesses of the Executive Order underscore the need for Congress to step in to properly protect privacy rights against government mass surveillance.

I. The United States must ensure adequate protection to enable trans-Atlantic data flows.

The new Executive Order and accompanying DOJ regulations are the latest effort to resolve a protracted conflict between EU and U.S. data protection standards and establish a legal framework for trans-Atlantic data flows. Under the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, any law enabling the processing of EU citizens’ data rights must be necessary in a democratic society and proportionate to a legitimate objective.[2] EU law also stipulates that processing of personal data should not interfere with the “essence” of the fundamental right to privacy.[3] The EU Charter further provides that anyone whose data rights have been violated must have access to a “fair public hearing within a reasonable time by an independent and impartial tribunal.”[4] EU law only permits transfers of personal data to third countries if they provide an adequate level of data protection, meaning a level that is “essentially equivalent” to those rights guaranteed to EU citizens within the EU.[5]

Adequacy has been a sticking point for EU-U.S. data transfers due to U.S. intelligence agencies’ bulk data collection programs. As opposed to targeted data collection, bulk collection occurs where personal data is collected without being associated with a current target of surveillance or without the use of discriminants (specific limiting criteria such as identifiers or selection terms). Bulk collection programs have long been a concern for European authorities and the CJEU has repeatedly found that the use of bulk collection is almost never justified under the necessary and proportionate standard because it interferes with the “essence” of…

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Are you tucked away comfortably in your suburban or urban home reading this? Well, whether you know it or not the brush, thickets, woods, and even the streets around you are ALIVE.

In the daytime, there are squirrels traveling up and down trees and rushing across the powerlines. There are doves sitting on your windowsills and rabbits hiding in the thickets at the end of the road. 

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If it’s nighttime, there is even more action! Prey and predator alike are taking care of their business in their own nocturnal way. 

Most of these animals constitute edible game and can be a source of food in the worst case scenario. If an economic collapse or cataclysmic disaster leaves the supermarkets and farmer’s markets all closed up and you have no food to eat, edible game in the city could be the solution. 

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Why Would I Eat Edible Game in the City? 

With the supermarket shelves full and food prices only incrementally creeping up, you might wonder why you would consider eating things like squirrels and rabbits or even rats! 

Well, as a nation, we are not headed in the right direction. We are facing a fuel crisis, inflation crisis, morality crisis, world war, and debt crisis. When I say we, I mean the entire world! These are not just American problems. Access to fuel and food are going to become a serious issue. 

A full blown economic collapse could force serious changes in your way of life. How you gather food and cook it could be part of that radical change.

Now, if you are going to take advantage of this edible game, then you need to have a way to catch, lure, or kill that game. This could be through using hunting methods or trapping methods. These are all important and, when practiced, can be incredibly effective. 

Types of Edible Game in the City 

Squirrel

The squirrel thrives in deep woods but also in urban environments. It doesn’t take a large stand of trees to support squirrels. They are also good at getting food from whatever source they can. From stands of oak trees in urban parks or backyard gardens, the squirrels will find something to eat. 

Squirrels don’t have a lot of meat on their small bones, but they are easy to kill or catch, and they are just as easy to skin and prepare. 

Best Methods: Small conibear traps are great for trapping. You can affix them to trees to catch them coming down from nests. An air rifle is another effective way to kill squirrels….

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