Catching Crawdads

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     We were finishing up in the garden the other day, when Zoey decided she wanted to go walking with her dad. He always walks our property once or twice a day. I told her to go ahead while I dumped our buckets filled with garden weeds into the compost bin. I could hear them talking over by the creek, but, when I turned back around, Zoey was no where to be seen. Mike was pointing into the creek, and I could hear Zoey's excited squeal. What on Earth is she doing down in the creek? 

No it does not look like this anymore.
It is back to being a trickle with sides that are 6 foot high.

Like this... 

 
     This is what we are used to our creek looking like in spring. It is just a run off tributary that empties into the larger creek. Even it does not hold water all through out the summer months. 

     So what is Zoey doing down in the creek? Crawdad fishing! My hubby had spotted a few little ones while they were walking around. Zoey jumped in to see if she could catch a few. She called for me to come down. At first I said I would not come down into the creek and play in the mud! Then I thought about it.. Play in the mud for a bit? Why not? Off came my shoes, and I climbed down the embankment.      

She caught one with a bottle and another one with her hands. I actually grabbed the second crawdad up with my hands first. I have to admit, I freaked out a little and tried to sling it into the bucket. It missed and went floating down the creek back towards Zoey. She caught it and managed to make it into the bucket even though she was freaking out the whole time as well. :)

Can you see the crawdad?

Sitting on the bridge, talking about me freaking out when I touched it.
She admitted she was scared as well. 

No, Zoey, we can not keep them... 

Brother came home from work and walked down to see what all the fuss was about. 

He showed us there was nothing to be afraid of when holding it.

EEEKKKK! Get it away from me! 

See, it doesn't hurt. Just freaks you out at first! 

     Zoey and I got back in the creek to look for more. I'm sure us running around and splashing scared all the rest off. Did we eat them? NO! Not only were they too small, they are gross! (Okay, so I have never tried them, they just seem gross to me. Several of my friends say I am crazy and they are amazing, but I just... no... no thank you!) Our favorite Chinese restaurant serves them on their buffet. Alex loves them, I think Zoey has eaten them, but I just can not bring myself to try them.
     I guess in a survivalist situation, we at least know where another source of food is, right on our own property. Cool fact I read about is that they can not live in polluted water. If you see crawdads, you know the water is safer than most. Although, Wikipedia says there is a hardier species that can withstand more pollution than the others. You can read more about crawdads HERE. 




Crawdads? Crayfish? Crawfish? What do you call them? We love your comments!

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YOU ATE A WHAT?

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    As soon as I would tell someone, they would immediately make the sour pucker face, shake all over like a seizure and turn green. Some ran away screaming in fright. So of course I would have to tell them again, "We ate snake last night!" Same reaction, kinda funny. "You ate a what?" "Yes, we ate a snake." Complete and total freak out! Got to love it!
     Yes, we ate a snake. Yes, it was good. Yes, we will probably eat another if we can catch one again. "Who killed it?'
"My husband."
"Did you skin and gut it?"
"No, my son did. I didn't even realize what was going on till he brought it to me and asked how he could cook it."
"But, you ate it?"
"Well, yes of course I did!"
(Insert retching/gagging sound here!)

     Truth be told, we as a family, have wanted to try snake for a while. That is what happens when your son is a survival show junkie. Since he was old enough to watch t.v. he loved animal documentaries and shows. His teachers would comment on how he was the only one that would watch a documentary when they were studying certain animals. He was glued! When shows like "Survivor Man' started popping up everywhere, he was hooked. What boy in the country wouldn't be? Now that he is older, he has boasted his adventures through the woods and down the creek. (Where he should not have been cause it was forbidden. Can't be mad, cause at his age, that is where I would have been as well!) Many a time has he asked me, "Mom, if i find a snake, will you cook it for me?" "Well, yes, as long as you don't mess with it and show us the snake first so we can make sure it is not venomous" "What if I get a squirrel?" "You skin and gut it, I'll cook it!" Since that day he has watched his shows, dreamed of being a survivalist, and kept a look out for snakes and other critters he could eat.
     Once, son and daughter brought me a tiny, thin snake. Rescued from the cat a moment too late, its head was the only thing damaged. "Mom! Let's cook it!" It looked way too small. "If you can skin and gut it, I will cook it!" Several frustrating minutes went by. Not a very easy clean nor a whole lot of meat from the wiggling dead snake. Their faces were priceless. The cat was happy to get his prize back.
    So when your 17 year old son, who has waited YEARS to try snake, comes in with it skinned and gutted perfectly and says, "Mom, show me how to cook it!" Well then, that's just what you do!
     A small fire was made on the grill. He seasoned it with some garlic salt. (Everything tastes good with garlic salt, right?) My son patiently flipped his snake until it appeared to be finished cooking. When he tried it, he was not impressed. "It doesn't really taste like anything. Can you cook it like you cook garlic chicken in the pan?" In went some butter and garlic into the cast iron. 15 minutes later we were gathered around the kitchen counter, devouring a snake and pulling the delicate meat from around the tiny bones!

I'm glad my son finally got to try snake, and also, that he was not disappointed! 

     Yes, we ate snake. Yes, we liked it. AND YES, we will do it again if we get a chance!

DISCLAIMER FOR ALL OF YOU FREAKING OUT CAUSE SNAKES ARE WONDERFUL FOR THE ECOSYSTEM: I agree! And if the snake had not been in a fight with my dog at the time, he might have been able to go along his merry way. My husband did not know if it was venomous or not. Nor did he care at the time. This death did serve a purpose, we ate the flesh for dinner, chickens and dogs ate the insides and my daughter preserved the skin! Waste not, Want not! 

Disclosure: This post contains no affiliate links, However, I am Amazon Affiliate and may receive a small compensation for including links on my blog. Buying through my links is not necessary, just appreciated. Amazon does not charge extra for linked items recommended by their affiliates.  I only recommend products that I use and trust OR plan on using in the future. Please buy responsibly and do your own product research before buying anything online.

Cooking On the Wood Burning Stove

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      When you are raising a well prepared child it is essential they know how to cook for themselves on a variety of cooking sources. One of our favorite winter activities is cooking on the wood burning stove.

     Taco meat on the stove was our actual inspiration for doing the Tuna Can Burner Experiment. To get the meat to cook, we had to get the fire nice and HOT! It had been cold all that afternoon, but by the time we started cooking, we were sweating by the fire. We brainstormed ideas on how to cook with out having to have a super hot fire. Our electricity goes out more in the summer than in the winter. 

     My daughter's wood burning stove specialty is 'Chicken Fajita Soup.' It is a recipe I came up with and she perfected. This is a great cold weather recipe. It is simple and easy. 

Chicken Fajita Soup

1 Can of Corn

2 Cans of Ranch Style Beans

1 large Can of Petite Diced Tomatoes

1 Can of Rotel Diced Tomatoes and Chilis

2-3 Large Chicken Breasts Boiled and Shredded to bite size pieces

1 Large Onion sauteed till tender

4 slices of American Cheese or a 1 in block of Velveeta

Fajita Seasoning to taste

(The affiliate links listed above are for example only. The prices at your local store are much better than the ones I found on Amazon.)

Open all cans and pour directly in to a large pot. Do not drain the cans! Add remaining ingredients. Use the Ranch Style Bean cans to fill with water and pour into the pot as well. Let simmer for 10-20 Minutes. 
Top with shredded cheddar cheese, fresh diced tomatoes, sour cream, onions, and/or tortilla chips. 

YUM!!

For info on the benefits of cooking with kids, please visit these websites...

http://www.portlandfamily.com/posts/kids-in-the-kitchen-10-benefits-of-cooking-with-children/

http://www.aicr.org/assets/docs/pdf/healthykids/powerful-plants-cooking-with-kids.pdf

http://kidshealth.org/parent/growth/learning/cooking_preschool.html

http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/features/cooking-with-your-children

Disclosure: I am Amazon Affiliate and may receive a small compensation for including links on my blog. Buying through my links is not necessary, just appreciated. Amazon does not charge extra for linked items recommended by their affiliates.  I only recommend products that I use and trust OR plan on using in the future. Please buy responsibly and do your own product research before buying anything online. 

Water Filtration

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     Every Survivalist/Prepper should know how to filter out muddy water to be drinkable! My daughter wanted to see if she could take water from the mud puddle and filter it. First we youtubed some videos and researched 'Water Filtration For Kids' and found lots of good info.  Then she went outside and got water from the mud puddle she had splashed in all day. This is what it looked like:

     Not a very pretty sight! I asked my daughter what she thought we should do next. She wanted to see what it would look like if we waited. Her theory was if our soil samples from the Soil Sample Project settled and cleared the water a little, than maybe the same thing would happen if we left the muddy water sit for a little while. So we waited. 

      After just one hour it settled quite a bit, but, we wanted to see if it would clear up on its own if we let it sit overnight.

     It did not completely clear. She saw a slight separation in the jar about mid way.  I asked her what she wanted to do next, and she decided to wait. 

      In 48 hours the super fine dirt had settled in the bottom of the jar on top of the other dirt. At this time, my daughter got out her science journal and documented what she observed. We decided we would wait to see what would happen next. Unfortunately, we had to make a sudden trip out of town and had to leave our project where it sat in the bathroom window.  My daughter had worried about her project the whole time, 'Momma, it was already starting to get green!' We came back 2 days later to this...

And that really does not look to bad until we got close up and really looked... 

 You really can't tell by this photo, but the film actually looked... FLUFFY....

and what the heck was this? 

She decided to filter it anyways. 

The first filtration she tried was to pour 

the water through coffee filters alone. 

This is what was removed.

This is what she ended up with. Not too bad! :)

     She looked at me and said, 'But can we drink it?' I didn't know! But I highly doubted it! So back to Google we went to do some research. We found out you need something to kill out the tiny micro organisms and bacteria that might be living in it. We decided to try the rock, sand, and activated charcoal method. She cut a 2 liter bottle in half and placed the top of the bottle upside down and into the lower half. Then she placed coffee filters into the bottom and layered the charcoal, rocks and sand. 

     It seemed the more we filtered it, the more yellow it became. The one on the left is our filtered water. The one on the right is water from our tap. HUGE difference in color. AND it smelled like pee! Why would it smell like pee? We consulted a group I am in on facebook and they asked what kind of charcoal we used. Well.... apparently all charcoals are not the same, and the charcoal we were supposed to use was activated charcoal, not Daddy's charcoal he makes us grilled pork chops with. Whoops! It was suggested we use bleach to kill out any microorganisms and bacteria. 

Now that is better! We did not try to drink it. The whole pee smell thing completely ruined it for us. (and honestly, I was not sure how safe it would be. Can't risk my baby's life in the pursuit of survival.) 

SIDE NOTES:   More research is being done to figure out how to be able to take puddle water and make it drinkable. That was the whole point in the first place! An observation my daughter made was we ended up with a fraction of the water we started with.  She was amazed at the amount of water that was lost in the process and came to the conclusion that the coffee filters soaked up too much of the water to be useful. Did you notice my daughter was not in the pictures doing the project? That is because she asked if she could 'document' the project on her own this time. :) My baby is a researcher and knows to document! 

Love this topic and want to see a little of what we researched? 

http://pbskids.org/zoom/activities/sci/waterfilter.html

Preppedandprepared.com is no longer available, but you can still find PK on her own You Tube channel. 

Disclosure: I am Amazon Affiliate and may receive a small compensation for including links on my blog. Buying through my links is not necessary, just appreciated. Amazon does not charge extra for linked items recommended by their affiliates.  I only recommend products that I use and trust OR plan on using in the future. Please buy responsibly and do your own product research before buying anything online.