Alternative Cooking demonstrations

Here’s what I heard at our Provident Living Group meeting today (June 10, 2009):

To combat the rats, mice, moles, rabbits that destroy gardens, fruit on the fruit trees and get in your homes -  

.When planting fruit trees place “Gopher Cages” in the bottom of the hole before you put the tree in and backfill. This will take care of gopher problems.

.Place “hardware cloth” 2’ high in a circle around the trees.  This will take care of bunny problems.  

.Place “hardware cloth” in the bottom of raised beds stapling up the inside of the beds (or outside) before you add your soil.  This takes care of gophers for 5-7 years.  (After that you need to empty your beds and do it again.) 

.Ace hardware sells a product called “The exterminator” (Nancy will verify this).  It is a fitting for your car exhaust pipe that attaches to a hose up to 300’.  Place the other end of the hose into a mole hole (If the hole is exposed it is actually an abandoned hole – you must find a lump of dirt and dig around to find where the currently used hole is).  Run the car for about 30 min.  This will gas out all the tunnels and kill the moles and their young. 

.A rat skull can compress to about an inch in diameter.  To keep them from climbing into your house through small openings, plug up the entry with steel wool. 

.To rid your garden of rats/mice build a tube with 3” in diameter PVC pipe.  Fit two sides together on either end of a “clean-out” center (it is essentially a hole to allow you to pour the poison pellets into).  You then fill the pipes with about two cups of PCQ (purchase a 12 lb. bag at Grandjettos in Encinitas).  You will need to check the pellets every day to see if you need to refill.  This poison causes internal bleeding and takes about 7 days of continuous feeding for the rodents to die. 

.Rabbit problems?  If anyone has any suggestions on how to eliminate rabbits, I would personally love to know!  We have tried every thing any website has suggested and nothing takes care of the amount of rabbits we have on our lawn each day.  (Human hair will be drug off for some birds nest.  Human, coyote, and bobcat urine gets washed away with sprinklers or rain.  We’ve also tried pepper, chili powder and paprika.)  I know not having any bushes where they can hide all day is your best bet.

Now on to our demonstrations –

Thanks to Mickey Cross for demonstrating solar oven cooking and dehydrating.  Thanks to Jan Smoot for demonstrating dutch oven cooking.  The best thing for me was to realize all those things are fairly easily done, giving me courage to put my own hand to all those things.  All the food was fabulous!  

I have some hand-outs on using your solar oven, dutch ovens and a dehydrator.  I will be glad to share with anyone who wants a copy.  These particular cooking alternatives come with their own directions which will educate you on how to use them correctly. 

Here is a great source for emergency preparedness items:  Emergency Essentials www.BePrepared.com/store (I’m going to get some 72-hour kits for my kids that live away for Christmas.  They are currently on sale.) 

Nancy brought up the subject of CERT training.  (I think that stands for Certified Emergency Response Team).  The City of San Diego is providing free training.  She will let you know that information. 

Sherrie Wall is leading the way and has purchased a great 8’ X 8’ raised garden.  She’s researched the best price for this great garden system with a gate and it’s really attractive as well. She found it at Leisure Time Products Inc. for under $600.  Call 800-765-4138 for more information.  (It took me $500 to form my own beds which aren’t anywhere near as nice looking or as practical.)