Tag Archives: homestead az

Catahoula Manufacturing Tarred Bank – Item of the Day

Posted on July 16, 2018 by Modern Survival| 1 Comment

cmitwineEvery day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.

Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is one of my go to essentials for BOBs, Vehicle Kits and around the homestead, and frankly everywhere.  It is Catahoula Manufacturing #36 Tarred Bank Line.  Let me say that any size bank line by Catahoula Manufacturing Incorporated (aka CMI) is fine, if you want heavier or lighter stuff there are many options, check here.

I personally recommend that you get at least one 550 foot roll of #36 because it is such a good bang for the buck.  At 30 dollars with free shipping it isn’t just a monetary value either.  As a pack item you are talking about a spool that weighs only a pound and yet gives you 550 of 320 pound tensile strength line.  Tarred line is the best go to as a twine and binder for everything from “red neck repairs” to setting traps, building survival structures or fishing with limb lining or trot lines.

The key here is ONLY BUY Catahoula Manufacturing Line.  Most bank line is in a word, shit, it isn’t tarred line just because the label says so.  CMI is the only manufacturer I trust when buying this stuff online when I can’t inspect it by hand prior to purchase.

Look I know it sounds obvious but the entire point of tarred line, is that it is well, tarred.  Let me explain a bit further.  Tarred doesn’t mean it is black, or it has some trace bit of a tar like substance on it.  No it is supposed to mean that the twine is fully impregnated with tar.  It should be sticky, you should smell tar when you open it, get it tarred.

You know how they say you can’t push a string?  Well if it is a tarred string you should easily be able to push a foot or so of it.  Again, get it, tarred!

The point is that this twine doesn’t unravel and it holds both in knots and in wraps, the tar is what makes that happen.  That way the part you red neck reparied stays put till you fix it right, or you lean to doesn’t fall on your head, or that big catfish doesn’t yank it off the sapling you used for a limb line set.

Most so called bank line or tarred line has little if any tar on it.  CMI, is the real deal.  So consider adding some Catahoula Manufacturing #36 Tarred Bank Line or other sizes of it to your preps.  Again it is something I consider an absolute essential.

Remember you can always find the TSP Amazon Item of the day by just going to TspAz.com and by shopping at TspAz.com anytime you shop online you help support TSP and the work we do here no matter what you buy.

P.S. – Yes the prepper/survivalist/bushcraft world is enamored with parachute cord.  Yes I do think it has its uses, but it can’t come close to the versatility, usability and bang for the buck good tarred line gives you.

 

 

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Chard/Cary 9.5 quart Smart Pressure Canner and Cooker – Item of the Day

Posted on July 9, 2018 by Modern Survival| 60 Comments

canner

Special Notice – I am bringing this product around today for two reasons.  First it has gone out of stock many times and has currently come back into stock at good levels, where me running it won’t sell out all inventory in an hour, annoying people who can’t order one. 

Another reason is we are starting to hit the time of the year where garden surplus becomes over whelming and it is time to break out the canner.

Every day I will bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.

Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is the Chard/Cary 9.5 quart Smart Pressure Canner and Cooker

In the past I have recommended the PowerPressure Cooker XL, as it was the only electric canner guaranteed to be safe for pressure canning by the manufacture.

The Chard is better in so many ways, while also being guaranteed safe by the manufacturer for pressure canning, it has several additional features that make me want to exchange my PowerPressure Cooker, they are…

  1. The Chard allows you to can quart vs. pint jars.  In fact with it you have the ability to can, four quart jars, six pint jars, eight jelly jars or ten half-pint jars in one batch
  2. It also does a separate water bath or steam function for water bath canning
  3. It uses true petcocks and hence can be used at higher altitudes then the PowerPressure Cooker
  4. It has twenty built in safety features to ensure your safety.

Additionally while I brought this product to you first almost two years ago it was constantly sold out and would go up in price as quantity dropped.  Cary now seems to have supply side worked out and they are readily available for under 120 dollars with free shipping.

Remember you can always see the TSP Amazon Item of the day by just going to TspAz.com and by shopping at TspAz.com anytime you shop on Amazon you help support TSP and the work we do here.

P.S. – The PowerPressure Cooker XL is available in sizes like 6 and 10 quart but that is all about capacity, none of them are tall enough for the lid to go on with quart sized jars inside of them.  I really don’t recommend it.

P.P.S. – I  have changed the item name here to the “Chard/Cary 9.5 quart Smart Pressure Canner and Cooker – Item of the Day” because the same product has been marketed under both names.  This is because Chard was founded Richard Carey, or as the brand came from riCHARD Carey, you can read about that here on the chard website.  Just know if the product says Carey or Chard it is the exact same product, I have verified this with the manufacturer.

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Monoprice Releasable Cable Ties – Item of the Day

Posted on May 17, 2018 by Modern Survival| 7 Comments

cabeltiesEvery day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.

Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is something I feel no one should be without.  They just do too much, for too little cost to not have some.  They are Monoprice Releasable Cable Ties and at only seven bucks and some change for 100 pieces they are a steal.

Get a few bags and do the following.  Make up bundles of about 20-30 a bundle.  Just use one tie to hold the rest together.  Put a bundle in your BOBs, put one in every glove box of your vehicles, put some in your garage where you can see them and just grab them, etc.  Heck I keep half a dozen as part of my EDC, you don’t even notice them in a cargo pocket until you need them.

The key is the releasable part!  We even use these for keeping gates closed on our low fences for our ducks.  I keep a few tied on top of various fences all over the property, so if you need one there is always one close by.   They are very strong and stay flexible a long time.  They tend to last about 1.5-2 years if in direct sun before becoming brittle.  Otherwise they seem to last forever.

I use them for many other things as well.  I use them to tie up new seedling trees for say a month until they stiffen up.  Since you can remove and reuse them it is cheaper than plant tape.  I use them to tie 4 large hog panels into a square and make an on the fly animal pen.  There is no limit to how useful these things are.

Sure they are kind of small at 6 inches, but you want 18 inches?  Put three together and when you don’t need that any more take them apart.

So just how versatile are cable ties in general, okay I am going to tell you a story, I am NOT SUGGESTING THAT you do it, it is just what happened.  Many years ago when I was in the Army I had two friends, Brad and Dean.  Dean was the one that owned a truck and he was a “character” to say the least.

Dean would just toss Brad or I the keys anytime we needed his truck.  One day we wanted to run to the PX, so Dean tosses Brad the keys.  In we jump and to the PX and back we go, beer run of course.  Brad is a typical guy from Southern Louisiana so he bends speed limits till they break.  We get back an Dean says, “oh yea, I should of told y’all to take it easy until the new tie rod gets here”.

Brad and I get down and look and see that fricken Dean had used 4 tie wraps to hold a broken tie rod together.  As in it had broken in two and he tie wrapped it back together.   For those that don’t know, the tie rod holds the front searing brackets to the frame so you can turn.   Kind of an important function!  So Brad almost kills Dean but later we laughed about it, because when you are 20 you are stupid!

That has always stuck with me and while I would not replicate it as a “temporary repair”, I would replicate it with great care and driving very slowly to get a vehicle to safety in a similar situation.   Trust me and if you don’t keep cable ties in your preps, start doing so and the best ones for flexibility and usefulness are Monoprice Releasable Cable Ties.

Remember you can always find the TSP Amazon Item of the day by just going to TspAz.com and by shopping at TspAz.com anytime you shop on Amazon you help support TSP and the work we do here no matter what you buy.

P.S. – I have brought this item back a many times, the reason is simple, if I made a list of the top 5 most useful things on my homestead, I am sure it would change over time, but these would never fail to make the list.

 

 

 

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Litom 8 LED Solar Wireless Security Light – Item of the Day

Posted on May 14, 2018 by Modern Survival| 13 Comments

Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.

Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is Litom 8 LED Solar Wireless Security Lights.   I previously reviewed the 20 LED version and promised a follow up of its little brother.  Well here it is, these are excellent and very much a half sized version of the larger light, with one big difference.

The key difference is where as the 20 LED version is powered by a single 18650 Lithium Ion Battery the 8 LED version is powered by a single 14500 Lithium Ion Battery which has a capacity of 800mAh 3.7V.  Clearly running less light requires less battery so this makes sense.  In any even with the super efficiency of LEDs this is plenty of light.

Fully charged I got 8 hours out of them in steady on high mode.  They got though the night fully on low power mode and frankly I use them on motion sensor mode only, and that is the main thing I want out of them anyway and it makes the most sense to me.

As previously mentioned I ordered 4 of them and put them around my duck pen on the fence on the western side where we had most issues with predators approaching.  The entire east side is covered by the 20 LED version for our benefit during evening and night visits.

I have now had them working for about two weeks and no issues.  They will definitely deter predators as none like light suddenly on them.  They also paid off a few days ago when my young farm hand screwed up one of his tasks (yet again) and grounded out our electric fence wires.  The lights made the fault easy to find and even easier to correct.

Since the first time I reviewed these lights I have installed 4 more of them around my garden pond, I have them set to full power mode and always on once darkness comes.  They do a fantastic job of setting a great mood at the pond and attract bugs for the fish to eat.  I have been outside as late as 4am and noticed they were still on.  So far with 12 deployed only one has had its battery go bad, which is impressive for no name batteries.

The other difference is the price, as they are smaller they cost less.  Where as the 20 LED ones are 34.99 for a two pack the smaller 8 LED model is 46.99 for a four pack, just a bit over half the price.  They are also available in units of one if you only need one or two.

They both work exactly the same with three modes…

  1.  Steady On Dim – The lights come on at dark at about half power (200ish lumens), they will last 6-8 hours of steady on before draining the batteries.  Of course as a solar light that will be based on how well they charge the day before.  In this setting they are plenty bright to see where you are going.  They also switch to bight mode when they sense motion.
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  2. Steady On Bright – The lights come on at dark at full power (440 lumens), they will last 4-6 hours of steady on before draining the batteries.  Of course once again as a solar light that will be based on how well they charge the day before.  In this setting they are very bright for a solar powered light.
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  3. Motion Sensor Mode – The lights will charge during the day and come on at night when they detect motion.  The manufacturer says they will detect motion up to 26 feet away.  My testing confirms this, of course how high you mount them, what is in the way, etc. will effect this distance.  This is my preferred mode and with the power the batteries hold you will never have a dead light unless the batteries have given up the ghost and need replacing.

So which is right for your needs.  Well the little ones are damn bright but the light only carries so far.  They are best for areas where you just need to see what is going on, or for use as security and predator protection devices.

The 20 LED models are as you would expect twice as bright, so I have one at our front gate to the property, and one at the front of the house.  And two by the pool to light that area and the area at the main gate to the duck pen.  The 8 LEDs would be fine in the second area but for our gate and where we unload our vehicles I would stick to the 20s.

Litom also makes a huge 54 LED Model that I am sure is very bright and based on their other products I am sure it works well, it just seems a bit of an eyesore in the day time to me?  But if you need a lot of light check it out.

Otherwise if you just want to light up some areas with motion lights and want maximum bang for your buck with out sacrificing quality check out the Litom 8 LED Solar Wireless Security Lights today.

Remember you can always find the TSP Amazon Item of the day by just going to TspAz.com and by shopping at TspAz.com anytime you shop on Amazon you help support TSP and the work we do here no matter what you buy.

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Wisdom Panel 3.0 Breed Identification DNA Test Kit – Item of the Day

Posted on April 18, 2018 by Modern Survival| 2 Comments

Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.

Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is the Wisdom Panel 3.0 Breed Identification DNA Test Kit.  I used this kit on Charlie and learned that he was a Pitbull (no surprise there) crossed with a Pointer (big surprise there) and that has gone a long way into knowing how to work with and train him on the farm.

I have misplaced Charlie’s results and my old account at Wisdom Panel doesn’t seem to work so I can’t share his report but I just did Lucy’s DNA test and once again I am really surprised at the results, yet now I see the traits in her as I know what to look for.

First up here is our rescued little gal, Lucy Lu Spirko, what do you think she is?

The most common guesses we have heard are Shepard mix and also Kelpie.  Now Kelpie’s are expensive dogs and a truly Australian breed, so I had my doubts but when I looked up the breed, it did seem plausible, look at this Kelpie here, looks a lot like Lucy Lu doesn’t it?

As to Shepard, sure some of the pattern matches but she is so light bodied and so damn fast, I mean the last dog I had that was this fast was Lakota, a Siberian husky, can’t be though right?

Um, well here is a PDF of Lucy’s breed certificate and a more detailed report of the full test.  She is fricken half Husky, in fact here is what Lucy Lu is made of…

  • 50% Siberian Husky
  • 37.5% American Stafford Terrier
  • 12.5% Dalmatian

I just got the results today and have been waiting for them to make this product my item of the day.  I have to say at first I was dumbfounded, but now it makes sense.  The speed this dog has and her agility are fitting with all the breeds but her light body weight really makes sense with husky blood.

Huskies typically look a lot bigger than they are due to all that fluff, but mix in two short hair breeds like Dalmatian and Stafford and you get a short haired Husky dog.  Take another look at my girl there, imagine she has blue eyes and longer hair.  Take that tail she always carries up and fluff it out, you have a dark colored husky.

It all makes sense now!  The stubborn attitude, the vocal objections to not being given a treat, the vocal greetings, the ru rur ru ru rrrrr rr ruh, when ever she wants anything including attention.  It is Lakota all over again.

So what does all this mean?  Well it means I have a stubborn dog when it comes to training her and I need to accept that and use my knowledge of dealing with Huskies in the past in dealing with her training.  It means on some things she is gonna be really smart and others a bit of a dim bulb, that is true of Huskies and Dalmatian’s as well.  It means she is going to be what we already knew about her, absolutely in love with children and protective of them.

Also now that I know she has Stafford in her, I will work harder to bring out more of her courage, it is in there.  She is the beta of the group, she was abandoned, not well cared for when we found her and quite timid but I have seen the courage come out.   She is so docile with everyone but when my bee mentor Jason had his half bee suit on and dared walk through the back yard I saw a different dog in her, I now know what it was.

Now I know what to encourage, what to discourage and what to simply accept.  She is always going to be a digger, she is always going to be vocal and her attention span will always be short.  She is never going to be a dog that I can trust to move birds only one I can train to not attack them.  There is just too much high strung in the Husky breed, you can turn them on or off to something but when it is on, it is on full bore all the way on.

The real thing though is it is just good and fun to know exactly what you have.  The added bonus is the Wisdom Panel 3.0 Breed Identification DNA Test Kit also tests for the MDR1 Gene which makes certain medications potentially deadly to dogs.  Lucy is luckily free of this gene but it should be tested for before dogs go on a variety of medications including heart worm medications containing ivermectin.

This is something no vet ever told me about, it means that I risked every dog’s life I ever owned by just testing them for heat worm and putting them on the medication.  My vet and I are going to discuss this in depth next visit.  It annoys me that they want to annually test for heart worms which is totally unnecessary for a dog that has never been off treatment, yet won’t do this simple test to see if the medication itself may kill your dog.

I checked into it and a test for MDR1 is usually 35-45 dollars, half the price of the Wisdom Panel test that includes MDR1 and a complete breed ancestry.  You can learn more about the MDR1 mutation here.

In any event the Wisdom Panel 3.0 Breed Identification DNA Test Kit to me represents a great value at 80 bucks with same day free shipping on Amazon Prime.  The process takes about 3 weeks once you send your sample in.  The test is easy to administer, both when I did Charlie and Lucy I was worried about how they would react.  You take two swabs and put them inside their cheek and turn them back in forth.

I was sure both dogs would go berserk and would have to be held down by one person and swabbed by the other, in both situations they just sat there like what is this all about.  I can’t promise your dog will do the same I am just saying it was easier than I expected.

So if you have a mixed breed dog of unknown origins check out the Wisdom Panel 3.0 Breed Identification DNA Test Kit, I personally feel it will give you a much better handle on dealing with your dog, it will include the important MDR1 test and frankly it is just fun to know your dog’s actual breed make up.

Remember you can always find the TSP Amazon Item of the day by just going to TspAz.com and by shopping at TspAz.com anytime you shop online you help support TSP and the work we do here no matter what you buy.

 

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Kingbo Reflector 45W LED Grow Light – Item of the Day

Posted on April 9, 2018 by Modern Survival| 29 Comments

Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.

Note – This is an encore item and one I am bringing around for the second time this year the reason is they just dropped the price to under 29 bucks.  Since I first reviewed this item over 700 of them have been purchased by TSP members and I have only had 100% positive feedback on them.  At the time in my view they are the best deal on grow lights you can find.  It is getting later in the season for indoor plant starting but I am still getting questions about it.  After using these for two years for starts I still think they are the best deal on the market.

We are also headed into the fall and winter gardening season, time to get those greens, broccoli, etc plants started before it is too late.

Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is the Kingbo Reflector 45W LED Grow Light.  I just discussed this item yesterday on the show but I am so impressed with the value of it I am featuring it for the TspAz item of the day.

To grow well plants need full spectrum lighting and as LED technology has advanced it has become the go to choice of professionals in the indoor farming market.  Not only does it grow plants with greater vigor than florescent lighting it has a massive cost savings in electrical use and LEDs last a long longer so the longer equipment life cycle further drives down total cost.

Still the cost of quality LED grow lights has been quite high and it has held back the small time and hobby gardener for quite a while.  Recently some low cost lights have come along and worked okay but were made so cheaply that they would often fail in 90-180 days for many users.  And with that any savings was gone.

Over the past two years a company called Kingbo began producing some smaller LED grow lights and developed a good reputation with them, but they were two small to be useful to me for starting flats of seeds.  When they came out with the Kingbo Reflector 45W LED Grow Light I was pretty happy but figured I would wait a while and let others try it out and see what kind of reputation it had after some use by the market.

It has now been around about 9 months and seems to have maintained a good reputation.  I also like that they offer a full 12 month warranty and a 30 day money back satisfaction guarantee.

The big thing I like is how well it works, see the video below of one youtuber who tested his on basil and watermelon.  When you hear me talk about healthy and stocky seedlings this is what I am talking about.  I like this light so much that I recently ordered 4 of them for my own seed starting this year.  I’ll be putting together my system and sharing it with you soon.

In any event if you are looking for a great grow light to start your own plants indoors, of do indoor farming with a grow tent, check this one out, at 29 dollars with 4.6 stars with over 160 reviews it is hard to beat on the current market.   I do expect over the years for this technology to continue to improve and become more affordable, but at present time the Kingbo Reflector 45W LED Grow Light is my current top choice of what is available.  I have waited long enough to adopt LED grow light technology.

Remember you can always find the TSP Amazon Item of the day by just going to TspAz.com and by shopping at TspAz.com anytime you shop on Amazon you help support TSP and the work we do here no matter what you buy.

P.S. Check out these videos testing testing the Kingbo Reflector 45W LED Grow Light.

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Bloody Dock – “Blood Veined Sorrel” – Item of the Day

Posted on April 6, 2018 by Modern Survival| Comments Off on Bloody Dock – “Blood Veined Sorrel” – Item of the Day

Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.

Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is two sources to get growing a plant called Bloody Dock, also known as “Blood Veined Sorrel”.  I first learned about this plant in doing research for pond plants that are edible.  While sold as a pond plant it is more accurate to say that Bloody Dock needs fertile and moist soil and can be grown in a pond on the edges as well.

Your choices to get started with this plant amount to slow and cheap or fast and expensive.  I went the expensive route but I am now  going to also go the cheap route with seed and try to make a ton of plants that way too.

Side Note – You may really want to check out Ohio Heirloom Seeds full line up of stuff, they have some really cool hard to get things.  And check out the other offerings from Florida Aquatic Nursery as well, again cool stuff you just don’t find everyday.

Okay so back to Bloody Dock and why I love this plant, well because it hits my big four.

  1. Hard to Kill
  2. Tastes Good
  3. Perennial
  4. Looks Good

What else can you ask for?  So when I got my 4 plants they looked great, I planted them and by that evening I was pretty angry, they all looked dead.  The leaves just went flat.  The next day a few perked back up, I cut the other leaves off, kept them moist and in shade.  By the end of that week they were going full on again.  Today about a month later, this is what they look like!

That one plant will produce well over a dozen divisions in early fall making the 20 dollar price tag easier to swallow.  But I like this stuff so much I am going to get some seeds and see how they go, because I would like to plant a ton of this stuff in the margins around my ponds.  Mind you ducks and geese (and I am betting chickens) think this stuff is wonderful, so make sure to provide critter protection for it.

So should you go with seeds or plants?  The choice is yours really, my understanding is propagation from seed is about as easy as seep propagation gets.  I am thinking at 20 bucks a plant I may end up with a nice little cash flow from digging them up around my pond and selling them to our egg customers at half price, 10 bucks a pop!

Using this plant as food is easy as well.  You can use it raw in salads or gently sauteed like spinach or any other green.  While this stuff is good eating like many greens it is a bit sharp on its own, but blend it with a few others and it is just amazing.

It is a spreading perennial so making more plants is easy, dig up a well established plant, separate it into smaller parts (divisions) and replant.  Even if it looks bad, new growth will soon pop up.   Note that this is best done in spring or early fall after the high heat is done for the year.  But you can do this in summer too, the key is do it in pots, and keep it in shade until the shock passes.

Again this stuff is tough to kill, what it needs though is constant moisture, which is why it is so great as a pond plant but it will do great in a well watered garden, on a shady edge that gets morning sun, etc.

So consider picking up some seeds or plants today and again check out both Ohio Heirloom Seeds and Florida Aquatic Nursery as well. I have ordered from both sellers with great results.

Remember you can always find the TSP Item of the day by just going to TspAz.com and by shopping at TspAz.com anytime you shop online you help support TSP and the work we do here no matter what you buy.

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Dr. Earth Premium Gold Organic Fertilizer – Item of the Day

Posted on April 3, 2018 by Modern Survival| Comments Off on Dr. Earth Premium Gold Organic Fertilizer – Item of the Day

Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.

Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is Dr. Earth Premium Gold Organic Fertilizer.  This is part of my 4 core item regime for producing healthy and heavy bearing plants.   I have written about this before but my four core items are, GS Plant Foods Liquid Kelp Fertilizer, Garrett Juice Plus, Endo Mycorrhizae Fungal Inoculation and of course Dr. Earth Premium Gold Organic Fertilizer.  You can find them all under the tag “fertility” in one place.

So given there are many fine quality organic solid fertilizers, why have I settled on Dr. Earth Premium Gold?  First is that it is a balanced fertilizer, with an NPK ratio of 4-4-4 and what that means is that you are always giving your plants a good boost of all three primary nutrients.

Next is the make up, here are the ingredients: Fish meal, fish bone meal, mined potassium sulfate, soft rock phosphate, kelp meal, seaweed extract, and earthworm castings. Also contains humic acid (5%), aloe vera (2%), and yucca extract (1%), and prebiotic microbial food – soluble sugars (7%). In other words it doesn’t rely on any single source and hence you get a much more balanced source of nutrients for plants.   Also note the humic acid included here, this goes beyond just fertilizer, it helps build soil and make all nutrients easier for the plants to absorb.

Of course you know that I am big on building soil as well, which is one reason I recommend a fungal inoculation in addition to fertilizers and foliar sprays.  Well Dr. Earth Fertilizer builds upon that, because it contains seven strains of beneficial soil microbes plus ecto and endo mycorrhizae to build up even more soil biology.

To really dive home how well this combination works take a look at one of my wicking beds.  These beds were planted with small plants about 5 weeks ago.  On planting the roots were dusted with fungal inoculation, I put a small pinch of Dr. Earth Premium Gold Organic Fertilizer into the hole with them and they have been twice sprayed with a mix of Garrett Juice and Liquid Kelp.  I think you will agree the vigor, growth and health are all very evident.

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So give Dr. Earth Premium Gold Organic Fertilizer a shot on your garden today.  FWIW if you need a large supply there is an option for twelve bags that are each 4 pounds, at $120.05 it will save you about $64.00 over buying them at $15.00 a piece.  That said a 4 pound bag or perhaps two will serve most vegetable gardeners well over a season. Again I just drop a small amount into the hole when I plant and about once a season I pull back mulch, add a pinch around my plants and water it in after replacing the mulch.

When I establish a new bed I also scatter a small amount across the entire surface before adding the mulch layer.  If you want to really push things into super high biological activity, sprinkle a small amount of dry molasses on the soil at that time as well.   Due to shipping costs I recommend  you source dry molasses locally, most garden and landscape shops will have it.

Remember you can always find the TSP Amazon Item of the day by just going to TspAz.com and by shopping at TspAz.com anytime you shop on Amazon you help support TSP and the work we do here no matter what you buy.

 

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Gilmour PRO Commercial Hose – Item of the Day

Posted on March 9, 2018 by Modern Survival| 17 Comments

Every day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.

Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is the Gilmour PRO Commercial Hose.  As you may know I always say with somethings always buy the best you can afford.  When I do I often use a garden hose as an example, because when you cheap out on a hose, you always regret it.

Up till now I have always said just go to Home Depot and get the red contractor grade hoses.  Well that was until I recently took my own advice and did that.  In a hurry I simply grabbed the hose that looked right, instead of a Gilmour it was made by a company called “Contractor Farm”. (this POS here)  It sure looked good and it damn sure was expensive enough, it also sucks.

Unrolling it alone I knew I had been had, stiff, not pliable and kinks like mad!  Great over built fittings but the hose just sucks.  So I went and looked at the three I had that I loved, all were Gilmour.  Frankly they are now the only thing I will buy.

What makes them so great?  First diameter, the flow you get though them is impressive, given I fill 8 kiddie pools or more a day that is important to me.  Next is the rubber, it is thick and very pliable, what that means is it simply doesn’t kink.  I mean you can kink it if you try hard enough but with normal use I never kink mine.

Lastly the hardware is just top notch, very sturdy and no spray by at the connections.  I personally like the 75 length, but when I got mine initially they didn’t make a 100 footer.  They are now available in lengths of…

It is a bit strange to me that the 25 and 50 are almost the same price and the 100 is so much more than the 75, but in the end pick what works best for you needs.

That said to me a few things are clear.  One the 75 is the best value, and two 75s would cost only 2.70 more than the 100, so I can’t see buying a 100 footer.  Get 2 75s, now you can go 150 feet or have two hoses for less than 3 bucks more.

Also if you need 25 foot hoses for some reason there is no way I’d personally buy one.  I would buy one 50, then get some hose end repair parts like these made by Nelson, and make 2 hoses both 25 feet long with them.  now you have a 50 footer or 2 25s.  I just ordered a 50 footer to do this with as I need a 25 inside my aviary and given it is 50 feet long and the hose bib is in the center anything longer is just bulk in the way.

So consider this I bought the 50 foot hose for 27.83, the two fittings cost me a total of $11.43.  So my total cost was $39.26 making the cost per hose $19.63 vs $29.39.  Just an example of thinking smart about total cost of things.  By the way every homesteader should have a few of those Nelson repair fittings on hand at all times anyway.

You know for like when your wife be running over one of your good hoses with a lawn tractor and what not. (true story)

Again I have to say that until I find something better I won’t buy anything but these in the future.  So check out the Gilmour PRO Commercial Hose and stop dealing with crappy garden hoses, life is too short to deal with a kink in your hose!

Remember you can always find the TSP Amazon Item of the day by just going to TspAz.com and by shopping at TspAz.com anytime you shop on online you help support TSP and the work we do here no matter what you buy.

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IncuView All-In-One Automatic Egg Incubator – Item of the Day

Posted on March 5, 2018 by Modern Survival| 6 Comments

incuviewEvery day I bring you an item on Amazon that I personally use or has been purchased by many members of the audience and I have researched enough to recommend.

Today’s TSP Amazon Item of the day is IncuView All-In-One Automatic Egg Incubator.  This is the absolute best incubator I have found without spending a fortune.  We have used it for hatching both chickens and ducks, with chickens our results were outstanding.  How about three batches of 26 eggs with a total number of hatched eggs of 76, that is 76 out of 78!

What I love about this incubator is everything is automated.  All you really need to do is keep an eye on humidity and add a bit of water when necessary.  You program the duration of incubation and the machine knows when to stop turning, you can also set how many times a day the machine turns the eggs.  And don’t let the word “program” scare you if you if you are a techniphobe, I hate programming “gadgets” but this thing is really easy.  The instructions are on one page front and back.

We have successfully incubated goose eggs in it and others have told us they use if for quail with great success.  Due to how the turner works, one turner works for everything.  It has a digitally controlled thermostat, so when you set it for say 99.5, that is what you get all the time.

There are cheaper incubators but then don’t have all these features.  They certainly do not hold temperature as well.  In my reptile breeding days I hatched literally hundreds of eggs in the well known Hova-Bator Incubator, yes it works, and it costs less, but is is a fiddly pain in the ass.  In fact since I got my IncuView, the only thing I use my Hova-Bator Incubator for is starting seeds in cold weather.

If I wanted to hatch say 75 – 100 eggs a batch, I would honestly buy three of these before I would buy an expensive large commercial incubator.   Like most products I settle on, this one just works, it always works and that is what wins my endorsement.

I would also like to suggest the following, this thing is kind of light weight, it is durable and ships well.  It is not something most people would use all year long.  So some of you may form groups and do a share with this item, either locally or by shipping it back and forth as needed.  I personally sent mine to Nicholas Ferguson, he hatched duck and chickens with it and then shipped it back USPS Priority Mail for like 10 bucks.  Just a thought.

In any event if you are looking to incubate eggs check out the, IncuViewTM All-In-One Automatic Egg Incubator, by the way this is actually a great time to do this.  Say you put eggs in on August, 1st.  You will have babies on August 21 or 28 depending on say ducks or chickens.    These birds will be 6 months old and start laying in mid February, right when most people are waiting another month to get brand new chicks.  Just a final thought.

Remember you can always find the TSP Amazon Item of the day by just going to TspAz.com and by shopping at TspAz.com anytime you shop online you help support TSP and the work we do here no matter what you buy.

 

 

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