Frugality and Prepping Tips

DIY Pill Dough for Dogs at My Revived YouTube Channel

2025-04-17T10:04:00.001-04:00

My girl, Bridget, when she was still a pup.

Hi, folks. It's been a minute. I've had my personal YouTube channel for over a decade. I used it for viewing and only posting a couple dog videos and one crochet video. I plan on updating more often with frugal and prepping tips and thoughts as well as some other quirky things like this public domain piece showcasing the turn-of-the-century sharpshooter Annie Oakley.

Here's a frugal tip for making pill dough for your pup's medicine. My girl is a senior and takes several meds. I found this dough to be relatively less expensive than the pill pockets sold in stores. It's very easy to make. Hope it helps.

Our Girl, German Shepherd Dog, Bridget

2023-02-01T13:57:00.007-05:00

A small Bridget at about 7 weeks old. Photo by me.

I just wanted to share some pics of our German Shepherd girl for fun. The first one above was taken on her trip home with us. Poor thing was scared and threw up. We grew on her though and the one below was taken after much playing.

Bridget a few weeks old and curious.

This one was taken when she was a little older and curious.


Bridget, a few weeks old.

In this one, she's got herself wrapped around a chair I was sitting in at my desk. She continues some variant of this concept now albeit in her own space in my home office.

Cally pets the puppy.

Bridget had a cat sister named Cally who passed away from cancer. It took some time for her to warm up to the dog, but as you can see, she eventually did.

The one below is much more recent while she's relaxing on one of her many mats that I crocheted for her.

Bridget around mid-2022

Here she is eating pork chops from a fork.

First Winter Sowing Attempt

2023-01-27T11:54:00.008-05:00

First attempt at winter sowing.
Photo taken by Trish Deneen

I started my first attempt at winter sowing a couple of weeks ago. I've heard of cold-frame gardening, but this is slightly different. Basically, you use milk/water jugs or a similar container, cut it at the halfway mark but leave a portion uncut so you have a flip-top jug. Also, put slits in the bottom for drainage.

Place moist soil in the bottom half and seeds on top and pat them down. tape the jug shut making sure the spout on top doesn't have its original cap on. You can also use zip ties or pipe cleaners instead of tape. Place the jugs outside and wait for spring germination.

The first photo shows five water jugs and one milk jug used for winter sowing with the following seeds: Parsley, arugula, salad lettuce, Brussels sprouts, Cherokee purple tomato, and pleurisy root. T

The photo to the left shows another jug with sweet Cicely seeds placed in the corner of the house I plan on planting the seedlings if they survive.

The photo to the right shows the jugs a couple of weeks later covered by snow. My dog was curious and dug up the parsley.

Four-Season Food Gardening
Available at Amazon
See my affiliate disclosure
statement on my About page

Prepper Potpourri on Fear-Mongering, Conspiracy-Oriented Preppers

2023-01-04T08:39:00.002-05:00

It's not the Illuminati ya'll. Relax.
Image: Michael Knoll/Pixabay.

I've never left prepping, but I've definitely left some YouTube preppers behind. From anti-vax nonsense to religious extremism and implied racism, i.e. urban vs. country, us vs. them, etc., I couldn't stomach much of the fear-mongering and conspiracies promoted as prepping.

As someone who worked in the alternative health field for ten years via massage therapy and energy work, don't even get me started on how much worse the conspiracies surrounding it have become than even back in the '90s and early aughts. I've always been and will always be pro-natural medicine, herbs, reiki, massage, homeopathy, etc., but I believe it's complementary to, not a replacement for, allopathic medicine. My physicians aren't part of the Illuminati. They're not out to get me. That's a long post for another day though.

Now, when I watch a channel, I look for red flags such as tacitly supporting or outright encouraging domestic terrorism in the name of patriotism as well as outrageous and/or unsafe health claims.

Prepper Potpourri has a good discussion on this with her video, "Do YT Preppers really believe this?!"

Let's continue to prep folks but let's not lose our minds.

Related info: COVID-19 vaccine FAQ

*Hat tip to Nightcat for mentioning this video in a mutual group. May she RIP.

Disclaimer: The writing here is my own. However, I sometimes embed videos from YouTube, which as far as I know is permissible. However, if you're a video creator and would like me to remove your video, please let me know by making a comment in the post with your video.

Pagan Preppers Post

2022-12-23T07:52:00.001-05:00

Pagans are preppers too.
Norse God, Heimdall from "Heimdallr stands by the bridge,
blowing into Gjallarhorn."
Credit: Emil Doepler, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Over at my Spirit Writer blog I posted a short roundup of Pagan prepper resources. From the post: "I've always thought there should be a marriage between elements of the more right-wing pro-gun and the left-wing herbal healing aspects of prepping culture. Both sides are interested in homesteading. I don't think I'm the only one who believes this, so prepping has become more quietly mainstream even with people who thought it was silly before." Find more info here.

Experimenting with Dog Treat Recipes

2022-12-22T07:44:00.003-05:00

Homemade dog biscuits. Photo was taken by me.

I made some apparently very tasty dog treats from this recipe on the War Eagle Mill site. The base recipe has only five ingredients, whole wheat flour, oats, flaxseed meal, peanut butter, and water. I added about one-quarter of a cup of carob chips to the base recipe as they're a safe alternative to chocolate chips for dogs. Our girl, Bridget, loves them.

Dog Owner Dealing with Mud During the Winter

2022-12-21T08:00:00.004-05:00

Our dog Bridget makes her feelings known.
Photo was taken by me on a snow day earlier this year.

In November, my husband and I made our annual trip to Tractor Supply for several bags of pine shavings. I play with our dog in the backyard through the winter, and pine shavings have helped a lot with the mud/ice cycle we get in Michigan.

An added bonus to the dog and I not breaking our necks is our backyard lawn isn't completely wiped out by spring like it would be before I started placing the shavings down. It's worn but not as bad as it would be without them. I can't remember where I read that little tip. I think it was on a forum for German Shepherd owners, but I think it would apply to owners of big, active dogs in general.

Oatmeal Sausage Patties

2022-12-20T07:36:00.001-05:00

Hearty, inexpensive oats. Credit: fotoblend/Pixabay

Oatmeal sausage is a thing, a very good thing actually. I combined elements from two recipes I found on YouTube and the sausage patties were delicious. I'm not vegan or vegetarian, but I like to try different recipes. One recipe is from Chef Ani which includes TVP, aka textured vegetable protein, which is a dehydrated soy product. The other is from Cookin Wiv Roy, which he calls his "Military Recipe Vegan Breakfast Sausage."

Essentially, I used Chef Ani's recipe as a base and used two ingredients from the military one, peanut butter and liquid smoke (I had apple flavor on hand). I didn't have unflavored TVP, so I used beef-flavored TVP that we bought for the pantry to add to ground beef dishes to stretch our meat budget. Chef Ani's tip for glaze to fry the patties in really brings out the flavor. I'm going to try Cookin Wiv Roy's base recipe next to see how I like them without the TVP since oats are an easy staple to find.

My next experiment with oats will probably be vegan haggis.

Cross-posted to Dreamwidth.

My Prepping and Frugality Articles at HubPages

2021-08-06T08:37:00.003-04:00

Penny pinching tips from grandparents links below.
Photo credit: makingmilly/Pixabay

I've been going through my older articles and blog posts to freshen them up a bit, and I came across two articles of interest to this blog's topics that I don't think I've shared here before. One is a list of 10 things I learned from my Depression-Era Grandparents and the other is some common misconceptions about preppers. These are a few years old, but they still apply. I think many preppers who don't fit into a stereotype can especially relate.

Come Back To Earth: For Q Believers, Inauguration Day 2021

2021-02-13T08:57:00.005-05:00

Shannon Foley Martinez is a former "violent white extremist" who has a lot more patience than I do with current Trump and Qanon supporters. I would have considered myself independent leaning conservative in 2015 until the Republican party lost its mind and allowed Trump to be taken seriously through their platform. The extremism of his cult-like following culminated on January 6, 2021, the day Trump and other Republicans incited them to riot and attack the U.S. Capitol.

Ms. Martinez works to help change the culture and bring white nationalists out of their bubble of hate. There's an obvious overlap between WN and Q (and unfortunately some preppers), and that's going to continue long after Trump. But I hope this heartfelt plea by Martinez to Q believers might convince a few of them to begin the process of leaving that way of life behind. She speaks as someone who understands the betrayal they might be feeling without condescension or malice. You can see more of her work at Patreon. I also want to personally add that you don't have to join the Democratic party in order to leave Q behind.

Pro-Trump Mob: The People Preppers Prepped For - Audio of Capitol Police

2021-02-11T18:12:00.005-05:00

Trump, the narcissist. Credit: johnhain/Pixabay.

Preppers have a reputation of being made up mostly of right wingers, and from what I've seen online, that's possibly true. I still like to believe that the smart preppers have more of a gray man mindset and aren't likely to post YouTube rants about commies and Muslims taking over the US and other such nonsense. But I know extremist preppers exist, and probably some have gone down the Qanon rabbit hole.

In my mind, the far right was always as much of a danger than the far left, if not more. This is one of the things we've prepped for. A violent insurrection by the right was attempted on January 6, 2020, and many on that side of the political aisle are either "meh" or claiming it was an antifa hoax like the idiot senator from my home state, Mike Shirkey.

This is audio from the Capitol Police from that day. One of the scenarios preppers prep for is an attempt at violent insurrection. That day came and went, and we're dealing with the aftermath. Will preppers who thought it would be leftists instead recognize the domestic terrorists in their midst even though the traitors call themselves American patriots?

Canadian Prepper's Survivalist Caricatures

2020-12-28T10:00:00.053-05:00

Credit: E Pluribus Anthony/User:Mzajac, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Canadian Prepper is one of the more sane voices out there when it comes to prepping and survivalist culture. He's been around for years giving solid advice and doing reviews on all types of products of interest to preppers. I assume, since he seems rational, that he gets his fair share of hate from the far ends of the political spectrum. Some of my favorite videos of his are the parodies he does of common stereotypes within prepperdom. We can be known to take ourselves more than a wee bit too seriously. Check out his satirical take on the right, the left, the newbie, and the troll. It'll have you in stitches.

Wool Dryer Balls: Frugal and Environmentally Friendly

2020-12-27T12:00:00.003-05:00

My first set of wool dryer balls. Credit: P.J. Deneen

I was last-year years old when I found out about using wool dryer balls in place of dryer sheets. The way they work is to absorb moisture and decrease static by moving between the clothes during drying.

I bought the set pictured above from a seller on Etsy. Most of the sellers I've seen who carry them have small farms with sheep or alpaca. The ones I bought work exactly as most sellers describe without shedding. They are supposed to last for years, so you'll save money on dryer sheets or liquid fabric softener if you use that. Two to three balls are recommended for small loads and 4-6 for large loads. I think the prices are reasonable for something that will last for years.

Another benefit is that they don't aggravate my sensitive skin. Since alpaca don't produce lanolin, you can choose dryer balls made from that wool rather than sheep's wool if you're allergic to lanolin. You might even find a seller near you, so you'd be supporting a local business. You can check out what's available at Etsy.

© P.J. Deneen

Liberal Gun Club - Social Distance Learning Series

2020-12-26T10:25:00.000-05:00

Handgun. Credit: Brett_Hondow/Pixabay

The Liberal Gun Club has definitely stepped up its YouTube game during the pandemic. They have an excellent series called Social Distance Learning, and they cover a variety of topics.

The first one is on range safety presented by Mike Ross. It's the online version of a class he usually presents in person. I think he did a great job adapting it for this series.

Of further interest to you may be my post, Saving the 2A from the NRA.

Hoopla: Your Online Library

2020-12-25T08:41:00.036-05:00

E-books & Audiobooks. Credit: Mary1826/Pixabay

My local library has gone from no access to limited access during the pandemic and rightfully so for the safety of the community. But it's one of the many libraries across the country that offers another way to check out items such as ebooks and audiobooks. Hoopla offers streaming of some of your favorite titles. It's not as extensive as what might be available via inter-library loan, but I haven't been disappointed with what I've found. Besides books, TV shows, movies, and music are available.

All you need is your library card to sign up. You can access the site through your desktop computer or mobile apps. When I've checked out books online, they stayed in my queue for 21 days. Learn more at the Hoopla website.

Bookmarks From Recycled Cards and Wallpaper Swatches

2020-12-24T09:00:00.014-05:00

Bookmarks from recycled cards and paper. Credit: P.J. Deneen

I was looking for a quick gift to make from recycled Christmas cards for my mom, and I came across this excellent video below from yoyomax12. Her channel is a treat. It's mainly a cooking channel, and she describes it unabashedly as a diet-free zone. Her videos are very well put together and get to the recipes quickly. She gives her honest opinion along with her family's about how well they like the recipes.

But one of her playlists doesn't include food at all. It's all about recycled Christmas cards. She's done ornaments, baskets, and adorable Christmas village buildings from used cards. Here she shows us how to make what can be used as bookmarks or gift tags. If you like to make your own art journals, they can also be used as inserts. I used cards for the ones pictured above but also a wallpaper swatch on the right. You could also use cardstock or thick scrapbooking paper. This is a great last-minute gift you can make tonight before the holiday for stocking stuffers.

Mental Health Resources

2020-12-23T10:00:00.072-05:00

You don't have to go it alone. Credit: RhemzART/Pixabay

What if you're a prepper who doesn't have a full bunker during a pandemic to feed your family? Do you feel like a failure? Or what if you're simply one of the many who suffer some form of mental illness in your life regardless of whose fault you're being told it is?

I admit to being both. I also know what it's like to watch a loved one suffer serious mental illness and not feel equipped to help. The organization Mental Health First Aid has a long list of resources on their website including national hotlines for depression and suicide as well as for specific disorders such as anxiety, psychosis, and substance abuse.

The group's motto is, "Let's make mental health first aid as common as CPR." I regret not being able to better help my relative. MHFA will be offering a virtual version of their mental health first aid training soon due to the COVID pandemic. I plan on signing up when it's available. Another resource for family members of mentally ill loved ones is the National Alliance on Mental Illness. They offer local groups for families to meet and learn from each other along with the NAMI National Resource Directory.

Please remember that prepping isn't about perfection. Sometimes, pulling yourself up by your bootstraps means asking for help when you need it.

RELATED HOTLINE NUMBERS TO GET HELP:

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: (800) 273-8255
National Domestic Violence Hotline: (800) 799-7233
RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network): (800) 656-4673
SAMHSA's (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) National Helpline: 1-800-662-HELP (4357)

How To Stretch Your Ground Beef Budget

2020-12-22T08:23:00.000-05:00

Meatloaf with sauce. Credit: Renee Comet (photographer),
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Quality Family Meals on a Budget

Quality meat can be expensive. Even lower quality meat is more expensive than a can of beans. Are you trying to stretch your grocery budget but don't want to give up ground beef? Do you have a family full of beef eaters?

You can still eat ground beef and save money without sacrificing taste. There are tricks that will help you do that. Many of them not only have the benefit of lowering the cost of your grocery bill, but they are good for you and your family's health as well. But don't worry, you don't have to tell them that.

Some of the common recipes you can use meat extenders and substitutions with are stuffed peppers, chili, spaghetti, Mexican favorites such as tacos and burritos, meatloaf, Hamburger Helper, stuffed cabbage, and soups. If you have parents or grandparents who grew up during the era of the Great Depression, many of these tips may be familiar to you as using meat extenders was one way people stretched their food budget.

Oatmeal: The Cholesterol Fighter

According to the Mayo Clinic staff, oatmeal is a good source of soluble fiber which helps reduce the bad cholesterol in your body which in turn helps prevent heart disease. This is a great reason to substitute part of your ground beef in recipes with oats.

You can easily adapt your own recipes. Your average meatloaf recipe calls for 2 pounds of meat, so just start out by substituting 25% of that (or 1/2 cup) with uncooked quick or old-fashioned oats and use it in your favorite meatloaf recipe but remove the bread crumbs.

Try this substitution with hamburgers and see what you think. You probably won't be able to tell a difference especially if you use seasoning such as onion soup packets to spice up your burgers. If you think full-on oats will be too noticeable, then try oat flour in smaller amounts to start. See my Oatsville post for more info on oats as a prep.

*Quick tip: You can certainly buy oat flour, but you can also make your own quickly by putting oats in a food processor or coffee grinder.

Beans: A Cheap, Delicious Protein Source

Beans are low in cholesterol and calories but also high in fiber, protein, and minerals including calcium and iron. They're cheap and easy to prepare and an excellent substitute for meat in your favorite ground beef dishes. You can substitute the meat completely in recipes such as stuffed cabbage and peppers or use them with beef in whatever ratio you want. Here are some of my favorite tips:

Cook lentils and mix 50/50 with beef in stuffed peppers or cabbage. For vegetarians just skip the meat and use beans and rice.

Make up a batch of red beans or pinto beans and make beef and bean burritos.

Beans make great veggie burgers or you can substitute some for just a portion of your beef as a burger meat extender.

Veggie bean burger.
Credit: Muscat_Coach/Pixabay

Dry beans are cheaper than canned, but if you aren't sure about these substitutions and want to make it easier on yourself, start off with canned beans. One can of black beans drained, slightly mashed and mixed with one pound of ground beef with taco seasoning and cooked like burgers is a great way to introduce your family to this way of cooking. Use your imagination and cater to your tastes.

Textured Vegetable Protein

Textured vegetable protein, also known as TVP, is a soy-based product used as a meat substitute. One of the traits of soy is that it is generally tasteless and takes on the flavor of the food your cooking it with. It's come a long way over the years. Nowadays, you can buy beef-flavored TVP or use the usual unflavored.

It also has the advantage of being relatively inexpensive compared to ground beef, especially if you buy it in bulk. Some health food stores have bulk sections where you can buy TVP or you can get the prepackaged product. Some mainstream supermarkets sell it as well or you can order it online. I've found Bob's Red Mill brand in my local market.

TVP comes in small chips.
Credit: Wikimedia Commons/Public domain

TVP is dried and needs to be soaked in water to rehydrate it for use. Brands differ but here are some general guidelines for TVP conversion:

1/2 cup dried TVP granules to 1/2 boiling water yields the equivalent of 1 cup meat.

2 cups ground beef equals approximately a pound.

Therefore, if you wanted to cut the beef 50/50 with TVP, you would use the half-cup amount as above.

Let the TVP rehydrate for about 15 minutes stirring occasionally. Be sure to check the package directions for the specifics of the brand you buy. Once it's reconstituted, you can use it as you would beef. I've substituted both plain and beef-flavored TVP for 50% ground beef in chili, tacos, and meatloaf and they all were delicious.

TVP is also excellent to have on hand if you have a vegetarian in the family but you don't want to cook two separate meals. For instance, if you're making tacos, you can make one batch for the meat-eaters only substituting part of the meat with TVP and make a separate portion for the vegetarian by substituting the meat completely with TVP and mixing it with taco seasoning, then cook as usual.

More Cooking Tips

Once you start cooking with meat extenders, you may have to adjust the temperatures and cooking times in your recipes to accommodate for lower fat content. I've noticed that meatloaf is done about 15 minutes earlier than the recipe calls for. While this way of cooking may take some getting used to, it's worth it once you see the results in the health of your family and lower grocery bills.

Sources not mentioned above:

Bean Nutrition Overview, The Bean Institute. Date accessed 12/19/2020

*This post is from my article originally published on HubPages.

Good Yule, Merry Christmas, and Happy Holidays

2020-12-21T08:10:00.001-05:00

Tomten from Scandinavian lore. Credit: Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain

Good Yule and/or Winter Solstice to pagans and heathens who celebrate. Merry Christmas to Christian readers. Happy Holidays to everyone. Remember, preppers come from all racial, religious, and political backgrounds.

Happy Holidays isn't a term that's meant to be offensive. It's simply meant to be inclusive of everyone. It's my hope that we as preppers can come from a place of tolerance and rationality rather than fear and extremism.

*If you like the image above, you might be interested in Mike Smith's/Vinterulf's video explaining past and modern Yule/Jol traditions involving tomten.

Instant Pot Yogurt With UHT Milk

2020-12-20T12:00:00.014-05:00

Yogurt, oats, and fruit. Credit: RitaE/Pixabay

One of my favorite sitcoms from the 90s, Father Ted, had a memorable line about UHT milk when Dougal has to be a milkman for a day:

"You better get going actually. Milk gets sour you know. Unless it's UHT milk, but there's no demand for that because it's shite."

I love the idea of shelf stable milk, but I'll choose almond milk over UHT milk on my cereal any day. One thing I've found it great for is yogurt. It has a thick consistency possibly because of the ultra-high temp processing it goes through. Whatever the reason, I've been happy with results.

Even better is that I can make it easily with no fuss in an Instant Pot cooker. I have an off-brand pressure cooker, and it works just the same.

Here's my easy recipe and process.

INGREDIENTS:

2 quarts UHT milk
Yogurt starter (i.e. 4 tablespoons plain yogurt or freeze-dried yogurt starter - I've used both, see note below)

PROCESS:

Pour milk into cooker. Stir in yogurt starter. Place lid on cooker and set pressure valve to venting position. Cook on the yogurt setting for 8-12 hours.

When done, remove lid and take 4 tablespoons out to freeze as starter for your next batch. Sweeten to taste if you like. I use 4 packets of stevia sweetener for this amount. You can place it in jars in the fridge at this point, but I like to strain mine through a thin sack dishtowel for a couple hours to make it thicker. You can leave the sweetener out if you want to use it as a sour cream substitute. I sometimes divide mine in two and have one sweet and one sour. That's it! Enjoy your homemade yogurt.

Notes: You can use 2 quarts of regular milk, low-fat or whole. I add 1/3 cup of Nido milk powder to low-fat milk to get the consistency I want. I've used regular and Greek yogurt as starter. The brand of freeze dried starter I use is Yo Gourmet. The instructions say to use 5 g per 1 quart. I've been able to save starter from batches up to three times. I haven't tried it beyond that, though I've read comments online from people who've kept their starter going for several months.

Pimento Cheese Made From USDA Senior Box Cheese

2020-12-19T12:00:00.041-05:00

Homemade pimento cheese.
Credit: jeffreyw, CC by 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

I love pimento cheese, and I understand if you turned up your nose a bit at the title of the post. I have a relative who qualifies for food assistance, several actually, and I'm not one of those preppers that looks down on this (don't get me started). I do what I can to help. I also found this DIY video from a frugal Youtuber, Anita Estes, on how to make pimento cheese from what we used to call "government cheese."

My relative let me make her some with the cheese she receives, and it was tasty. I could see using the different types of mayo out now (i.e. avocado oil, olive oil), to make it more to your liking. My relative also qualifies for Meals On Wheels. If you're feeling generous, consider going to the national website to find your local program to help.

How To Make Flavored Butter

2020-12-19T09:56:00.001-05:00

Herb butter. Credit: EME/Pixabay

Flavored Butters Add Spice to a Meal

Flavored butter is an excellent way to enhance a meal. They can be adapted for roast meats and fish. They also taste great on bread, especially if it's homemade and fresh from the oven. Below are some ideas to get you started in making your own.

Rosemary Garlic Butter

One of my favorite ways to use herb butter is with roast chicken and turkey. I whip up a small batch and rub it inside and outside the bird as well as under the skin. I then cook the poultry just like I usually do, and it turns out juicy and full of flavor.

I honestly don't usually follow a recipe but throw in what spices I'm in the mood for. Here's a quick recipe for rosemary garlic butter for a small roasting chicken (about 3 to 4 pounds):

3 tablespoons softened butter
1 large head of roasted garlic or 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (or to taste)
1 teaspoon crushed rosemary

Blend ingredients and rub on chicken or turkey, then cook as usual. You can adjust the spices to taste and use your own combination. Sage is another one that tastes excellent with roast birds.

Cinnamon Honey Butter

My husband and I once ate at a Texas Roadhouse restaurant. They had very tasty cinnamon honey butter to go with their warm bread. I decided to make my own to go with some breakfast biscuits. Here is my simplified version (variation suggestions below):

1/2 stick of butter (salted or unsalted)
1 tablespoon honey
Scant 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Whisk butter in a bowl until fluffy. Add honey and cinnamon and stir. Spread on fresh bread or toast. I love cinnamon so can be heavy-handed with it. You might want to start with less and then add more to taste.

I've seen other recipes online that try to come closer to the Texas Roadhouse recipe that include ingredients like sweetened condensed milk, confectioner's sugar, brown sugar, and corn syrup. You can visit Thrifty Fun and Recipes Discovered for discussions of other variations on this delicious spread.

Try Your Hand at Flavored Butters

The combinations to use in flavored butter are practically endless. Baked fish with lemon zest and dill butter, a touch of molasses or real maple syrup, or cajun spice butter are just a few that I can think of off the top of my head.

What about you? Go ahead and let out your creative cook and enjoy your next meal with a dollop of flavored butter (cholesterol levels permitting, of course).

*This post is from my article originally published on Hubpages.

Kroger Still Offering Free Pickup

2020-12-18T20:06:00.008-05:00

Homemade COVID mask. Credit P.J. Deneen

Kroger is still offering free grocery pickup. I'm extremely grateful for this during the pandemic due to it being one of two grocery stores in my immediate area. I do the shopping for my mom, a boomer-age woman prone to pneumonia who is housebound. Before the pandemic, we would shop together, but now in order to do our best to protect her from COVID, I order from Kroger on her behalf (she doesn't do the internet).

Grocery employees are reasonably considered essential. As of this writing, I believe Kroger has reinstituted hazard pay per TDU for their workers. I hope so as I don't want to change where I go. My mom is on a fixed income, and I'm also trying not to travel too much due to my husband working around healthcare workers at times. I can even modify the order when she inevitably calls me later and needs to add something (up to a certain window of time).

It's been very convenient to place her order online and pick it up at the designated time. To find out more, visit How Pickup Works on the Kroger website.

About Us - The Story of The Sewing Machine Project

2020-12-18T18:28:00.003-05:00

Credit: jackmac34/Pixabay

The Sewing Machine Project was started to help people who lost their machines during a tsunami. It has grown to help people nationally in the US and internationally with acquiring machines and learning to sew, an activity that can mean a lifeline to them. If you have a used machine that's in working order, you can learn about donating it here. See the vid below to learn about their story.

Saving the 2A from the NRA

2019-05-22T16:21:00.008-04:00

Image credit: P.J. Deneen

The last three years have been exhausting. This post is a release of some of the pent-up frustration I have with the NRA and the Republican Party, one I voted with in large part for almost the last 20 years.

*******

Are you looking for a gun club that claims it's all about guns and gun rights but does the following?

Hires a spokesperson who puts KKK hoods* on British kids' show cartoon characters while screeching about her personal issues with diversity not just through her own social media BUT ON NRA TV! Update 6/26/2019: NRA cancels NRA TV and Dana is out, but keeping #1 here as a reminder to NRA to not be stupid by staying on the hate route.
Has a board member in the form of a certain older rocker who encourages people to shoot Democrats.
Forgets that gun owners cross the racial, political, religious, gender identity, sexuality, age, appearance, able body/disability spectrum.
Promotes armchair warrior blaming the victims of rape because, "Well, if she would have just had a gun..." or worse, go along with RWNJ and pretend most rape accusations are false and she should've "just kept her legs closed."
Seems to forget that said rape is most likely to occur from someone the victim knows and sometimes lives with but continues to promote toxic male culture instead of addressing issues of domestic violence through a realistic lens.
Promotes culture division instead of gun owner unity which must include gun owners with different political and social views if the second amendment is to survive.
Endorsed Trump for president who's the most obvious con perpetrated on us in our history with no record of being pro-gun, who in fact said, "Take the guns first, go through due process second" and bans bump stocks WHICH PRESIDENT OBAMA DIDN'T EVEN DO!
Allowed itself to be infiltrated by at least one person who pled guilty to acting as a Russian agent.
Hires a president with a highly questionable past. Fires that president when the NRA turns out to be even too corrupt for him.
Gives lip service to being pro mental health in regards to mass shootings, but that usually means blaming the Dems for the state of affairs instead of looking at their part in cultural issues surrounding mental illness.
Pretends they care about diversity as long as you don't have a socially progressive opinion which is when all of a sudden we should just stick to talking about guns because "We don't bring politics into this."
Philando Castile FFS.
Fosters an attitude that everyone else is a soy boy, snowflake, what have you, but seriously appear along with President Trump, his family, and most of the Rs in Congress to be some of the biggest snowflakes in the country.

Source: imgflip

Focuses on sending negative messages to perceived enemies (social liberals and minorities) instead of positive messages to the members they've chased away and potential members they've kept away.
Supports the Republican party which stokes anti-immigration fears against people south of the US border who if Republicans would stop and think about it may be inclined to be pro-2A and pro-social conservatism IF THE NRA AND REPUBLICAN PARTY WEREN'T FULL OF SUCH F%@#ING RACISTS! No amount of "but Colion Noir" negates this.
Also fosters another Republican talking point of fearing the Al Qaeda but not Y'all Qaeda, incels, or white nationalists even though they make up the majority of mass shooting perpetrators at least since Trump took office. A terrorist is a terrorist whether foreign or domestic, a person of color or white.
Spends millions on executive salaries, trips, advertising, and lobbying instead of spending more than just what's needed for appearance's sake on fostering a love of guns and hunting in urban areas where it's truly needed to unite gun owners.
Really should just be collectively thrown in the dustbin of history.

And that's just the stuff I could come up with off the top of my head. What's that? No, you don't want to belong to such a club? Neither do I. I did belong, however, as I thought pro-gun meant we were on the same page. Around 2007, I attended a promotional event for the NRA at Cabela's where the topic was mainly how we have to protect our rights from the leftist gun grabbers. During the presentation, there was a Q&A period where a Michigan Militia member asked if he could hand out flyers. The presenter stated that the NRA doesn't get involved in politics other than the 2nd amendment and would rather he didn't (he did though, and this isn't a jab at militia members but the hypocrisy of that NRA presenter).

They. Don't. Do. Politics. She. Said.

Source: Reaction GIFs.

The world knows that's crap. I saw the direction they were heading before Trump was the Republican nominee, but his NRA endorsement solidified their hypocrisy, racism, and misogyny, and I haven't rejoined. I've been guilty of falling for the NRA's nonsense and regret any part I played in spreading their division. I had a positive experience with the Women on Target program. I'm sure others have had good experiences with local programs, but nothing makes how the NRA behaves nationally okay. I believe all of the 18 points mentioned above spell destruction and demonstrate leadership that only gives a damn about itself and keeping up a tough guy appearance.

What's the alternative? There are other gun groups if you're so inclined. I'm cautious to recommend some as I don't know enough about their ideology. Please do your own research before you join, especially on their social media just to get a feel for how the leadership behaves or better yet local events if they have something going on near you.

There are some that are left-leaning and/or more socially inclusive. The Liberal Gun Club, LGC, seems just as pro-gun as the NRA without ignoring the realities of domestic violence or catering mainly to a dying demographic. Despite their name, they do seem open to people of different political persuasions, but they are honest about who they are politically up front. I agree with the stances they take on the issues, especially root cause mitigation which they explain as meaning:

"...that we believe solutions should be based on addressing the root causes of violence rather than looking at the symptoms of violence, which are targeted for treatment by some through blanket bans or other window dressings." ~ Liberal Gun Club

For a detailed explanation of root cause mitigation, please see the entry on the LGC website. It's well worth a read.

Update January 2023 to put in list form and add more groups (yay!):

I don't know how active the LBGTQ geared group, Pink Pistols, is but you can look for a local chapter near you here or
Check out the newer group Operation Blazing Sword
Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JFPO)
Black Gun Owners Association
National African-American Gun Association
Second Amendment Foundation
Firearms Policy Coalition
Latino Rifle Association
Huey P. Newton Gun Club (named after the co-founder of the Black Panthers)
I don't know of a Muslim gun owners group, but of interest is This is What It's Like to be a Muslim-American Gun Owner and Armed and Muslim in America.
Again, the Liberal Gun Club
Socialist Rifle Association
Native American Gun Rights Organization (Note that this is a description of the organization. I can't find an actual website. Please post in comments if you know of one.)

I don't know the politics of all of these groups or how much they interact with the NRA. Some people may feel it's a necessary evil. Others don't want to have anything to do with a group that supports the GOP or NRA, so do your own due diligence. I even found one reference to a former (?) member of Pink Pistols speaking at an alt-right rally.

A note to the incredulous about that last sentence. You can be pro-gun and not pro alt-right. You can be pro-America, pro-gun and a Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative, or any other political persuasion. You can also be a hateful jackass and fall under any combination of labels. This isn't hard. Why do people make this hard by trying to put people into boxes?

I used to think the GOA was far to the right of the NRA on gun issues but normal otherwise. Nowadays, they seem on the social same track pushing a mix of guns, the Christian Bible, white nationalism, and the militia as the only true American way much like their dominionist founder.

The very public argument between North and LaPeirre isn't the first sign of trouble in gun paradise. There have been rumblings from within for years as to the direction the organization has taken. I wish we weren't this divided on every issue as a country including guns. It's completely unnecessary, and the NRA is hugely responsible for bringing us to this point. I believe the NRA's peak time is over due to their own blindness and greed. Some of us would say it's long overdue. Maybe you think I'm one of the many who want to burn the NRA to the ground. My answer is I'm not the one holding the matches. The folks with the matches yelling, "What matches? There are no matches!" are. They're also the ones who've been dousing themselves and the rest of us in gas for years.

Image credit: P.J. Deneen

*Regarding #1, this is, of course, a reference to the fact that the KKK was originally formed by Democrats in the South yet conveniently leaving out the history of the last 150 years of a party switch on civil rights issues since then.

© P.J. Deneen