A children's book about how to stay safe from predators isn't the first choice on most parent's shopping list. We want our children to remain innocent and not live in fear. Isn't part of protecting them shielding them from information about predators?
At first, it sounds reasonable to avoid unpleasant topics with our children. Then I recall how we learned fun rhymes and songs to reinforce safety lessons when I was a child. I can remember being taught how to cross a street LONG before I was ever allowed to cross by myself. Someone decided that knowing how to stop, drop and roll if my clothing caught fire was vital to my well-being . . . . just in case. We weren't allowed to play with matches, but a big talking bear reminded us that only WE could prevent forest fires. We didn't even live near a forest!
That's why I'm so glad to see a children's book that does this same thing. SARA SUE LEARNS TO YELL AND TELL promotes a positive message to children that there are things they can do to stay safe. Without being graphic or going into lurid details, this book encourages children that are approached to immediately alert someone. Debi Pearl's latest children's book gives little ones confidence that God is on their side and there IS something they can do. It's comforting to tell children that there IS a way to respond and they CAN tell someone who will listen.
SARA SUE LEARNS TO YELL AND TELL is a book that reinforces safety for children growing up in today's world. Decades ago, the dangers were different. Today, human trafficking and child predators are common. These hunters hide in plain sight, and they know how to target vulnerable children.
Debi's book helps me remind my children of the ways they can avoid looking like an easy target. Reading SARA SUE with them opens up a dialogue so that they know it's safe to come to me and talk about these issues. The rhyming verse and colorful images are both appealing and entertaining for children. The helps in the back of the book are an encouragement to parents that we needn't be afraid, just prepared.
I'm very grateful that this grandmother took the time to not just teach these lessons to her own family, but that she has reached out to help keep other children safe as well.
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SARA SUE LEARNS TO YELL AND TELL can be a lifeline to children that don't know how to respond to threats. Senator Scott Brown describes what happened to him as a child.
Readers of this blog will be glad to know that the publishers of THE VISION have partnered with 6 companies to help promote the new novel by best-selling author Debi Pearl. THE VISION has been on the Amazon’s Top 100 a total of 5 times since its release on 7/1/09 and has earned the right to be called an Amazon Best Seller. Now you can be part of the push to reach #1 on Barnes and Noble.
When you to order THE VISION from Barnes and Noble on 11/3 or 11/4, SIX companies will offer a 25% discount off of merchandise purchased from their web store (no other discounts apply). This is just in time for the Holidays!
As a thank you for your purchase of THE VISION, it is possible to save hundreds of dollars, depending on the products you decide to purchase. In addition to the savings, the purchase offer includes free downloadable EBooks. **
Now is the time to start your Holiday Savings! Follow the links to visit these fine merchants prior to receiving your coupon codes. REMEMBER: the purchase date must be 11/3 or 11/4 to qualify for 25% off savings and free EBooks. **
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Cooking over an open fire doesn’t mean you have to give up your favorite baked and roasted foods. You might even find that your old favorites are greatly enhanced when cooked in a Dutch oven. When cooking over an open fire, use a Dutch oven with a lipped lid and three feet on the bottom.
DON’T USE METAL UTENSILS Don’t use a metal utensil on a properly seasoned cast iron pot or pan. Use wooden utensils as metal will remove the nice coating you’ve worked so hard to put there.
THE FIRE For Dutch oven cooking, use hard wood to build a hot fire at least an hour earlier than your cooking start time. Don’t use ‘soft’ resinous wood or commercial charcoal. Soft, resinous woods (like pine) tend to burn cool and produce a lot of black soot. This is bad for your fireplace and it makes a mess on your cookery – and it’s not so great for the cook, either. Because commercial charcoal is often filled with chemicals and additives that bind them into uniform lumps and increase their flammability, I don’t use them for my cook fire. Learn to build a nice fire with hard wood and you won’t be bothered with either of these. Make sure a good bed of red coals has been laid. Use an oven mitt or cloth to protect your hands as well as a curved iron tool to lift the lid from your pot.
PRE-HEAT YOUR DUTCH OVEN If needed, wipe the inside of your pot (including the lid) with a paper towel and olive oil. While you prepare your ingredients, place the lid on your Dutch oven and set it near the fire to warm. This is similar to pre-heating your standard oven. Pre-heating your pot will allow the oil to penetrate as the iron warms and allows the food to properly cook. The lid keeps ashes from flying into the pot. If your recipe calls for peppers, onions, or carrots, I add them to the oven at this point to simmer a bit and to provide a cushion between the bottom of the pot and the rest of my ingredients. ADDING THE FOOD Prepare your ingredients to be added to the pot. Don’t forget your seasonings. Move your heated Dutch oven a comfortable distance from your fire. Use a curved piece of metal to remove the hot lid.
Add layers of your other ingredients. If you are cooking rice, this is when you would add your water/broth and the rice. Add any additional vegetables. The last ingredient I add is my meat as the juices from the meat will help season the vegetables/rice/potatoes beneath it. Be mindful of the depth of your pot at this point as you don’t want your food to touch the underside of your pot’s lid. If you are baking bread or a desert, place the batter/dough/ingredients into the pot just as you would before placing it into a regular kitchen oven. Replace the lid.
ADD THE COALS Use a shovel to move some hot coals to the edge of the fire into a small pile. I find that this makes things much more manageable than trying to place the Dutch oven into the fire. Set your Dutch oven on onto this small bed of coals and then begin to shovel hot coals onto the pot’s lid. Once you’ve evenly covered the lid with hot coals, and made sure there is a good bed beneath, shovel a bit of ash over the live coals. This is called banking your fire. It allows the coals to retain their heat as they burn slowly because they aren’t exposed to too much oxygen.
Allow your food to cook about the same time as you would in a conventional oven (assuming you have a good bed of coals), possibly 10 minutes more. Use your shovel to remove the live coals from the top when finished. A whisk broom can remove any ash dust. Using a pad, lift the pot by the handle, protecting your hand from the heat. Move the vessel off of the live coals and set it away from the fire. Lift the lid with a sturdy piece of curved metal and set it to the side. Check your food. If done, serve with a wooden serving spoon. If not, replace the lid, return the pot to the small bed of coals it sat on previously, replacing more coals onto the lid. Wait a few more minutes and check again.
If your first try results in a bit of burned crust, that’s fine. You will soon get the hang of it. The wonderful aroma of hot food will soon silence the critics that will gladly eat around the burnt edges. There aren’t often leftovers. They are ready to eat!
CLEAN UP & STORAGE For cleanup, gently remove any food residue from the pot with a soft sided scrub pad or wooden spoon. Eventually, you’ll likely find that a clean towel will easily do the job. If there is baked on residue, simply set the emptied pot next to your fire again and allow the remaining bits to cook to ash. Never put your Dutch oven through a dishwasher or immerse it in soapy water. This will strip it of its protective seasoning. Simply wipe the pan and recoat it with oil. You should be able to see your reflection in the bottom of your Dutch oven. Replace the lid for storage.
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The following video is a demonstration of bread-making using a Dutch oven. While the footage shows use in a conventional oven, the technique is the same -- except for the fact that you'd be using fire as your heat source as described above:
And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed,which is upon the face of all the earth,and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed;to you it shall be for meat.
Healthy plants and animals have been designed to reproduce after their own kind. As gardening practices developed, seeds were saved from the previous season for planting the following season. Farmers would select seeds from the plants that fared the best in their environment.
In recent history, major US corporations have been formed which retail seeds to farmers. This has been a beneficial relationship as it saved the farmer labor hours and allowed him to try new varieties of crops. The corporations were able to devote their resources exclusively to seed collection, storage and retail.
Scientific developments have made it possible to alter seeds in order to increase their profitability. Some of these newer methods have had dire consequences for farmers, food quality, and the consuming public. In the name of protecting standards, this new technology could create a world-wide dependency on seed corporations. This would be accomplished by retailing seeds that have been engineered to produce for one season and then yield seeds that are either sterile or very unpredictable in their ability to reproduce. Three popular methods currently used to accomplish this include hybrid plants, genetically modified (GM) seeds and Terminator Technology.
Hybrid plants can produce food and seeds, but their seeds don't produce after their own kind because the plants are a cross of two different varieties. Genetically modified (GM) seeds are designed to produce plants resistant to chemical poisons and sprays. This enables farmers to use more chemicals during the growing season which has a damaging effect on the soil and the microbial and micronutrient content available to the plants. Terminator Technology is a type of genetic modification that insures a seed will only produce plants for one season, rendering subsequent seeds sterile.
Individuals can act to help insure that a fertile source of seeds remain available to the general public by starting their own seed banks. You don’t have to be a farmer to harvest and store seeds for future use. When purchasing seeds, look for catalogs that state they do not retail GM seeds. Purchase only heirloom seeds, as these are unaltered. Look for fruits, vegetables, grains and various herbs that you would use for seasoning, spice and/or medicinal purposes.
Seeds harvested from flowers, fruits, vegetables and herbs can be placed onto waxed or parchment paper to air dry at room temperature. Use a marker to label the paper, so you won't forget the date and the variety. When dry, move the seeds to a labeled paper envelope. This can be kept in a glass jar in your refrigerator for long term storage. If you have dark, cool, dry area, seeds are generally known to store well in such an environment. For grass and grain seeds that would be broadcast over a large area, you may want to make some seed balls for convenience in storage and later planting.
But why store seeds if you don’t plan to grow them?
Currently, there is a bill before Congress (H.R. 875) that threatens to so regulate sources of food that it has the potential to put a stop to roadside stands, backyard gardens and organic farming practices. Whether this will become law and how it will be enforced remains to be seen. Yet, it may be wise to begin saving seeds now, while the practice is still unregulated.
Consider harvesting and storing seeds that you may not be interested in growing. Do your research and label the seeds with both their botanical and common names. There are internet sites devoted to trading seeds. You may be able to get the seeds you want for free by trading your unwanted surplus.
Without heirloom seed companies, these seeds could cease to exist. In the current economic and political climate, this is a possibility. Individuals that enjoy the freedom of growing their own foods -- or even purchasing foods grown without chemicals -- would do well to take the time to secure their source of heirloom seeds.
The number one weather-related killer in the United States each year is flooding. On average, 140 deaths are caused annually due to flood conditions. Of that number, three quarters die in vehicles.
The best way to survive a flood is to understand that nature is not the enemy. Flooding occurs often enough to give us lots of information on how best to deal with these conditions.
The primary type of flooding is river flooding. This can occur even if there has been no rainfall in your immediate area. A heavy rain event far upstream can cause river levels to rise even though you haven’t seen storm clouds. These conditions can have a cumulative effect over days or weeks. It is important to know the topography of the land around you and whether or not you are at risk for flooding.
Some precautions that you can take include keeping pets restrained or on a leash and indoors. Secure livestock on high ground. Listen to your local weather station. When a flood warning is issued – ESPECIALLY a flash flood warning, understand that there isn’t much time to move. You may only have seconds to escape. Remember that the water will seek low lying areas. Streets, streams and creeks will fill rapidly. Rather than attempting to outrun the waters, seek higher ground. Never attempt to outdrive a flash flood. Flash floods move faster than a car could travel.
If there IS time to prepare, then move your furnishings and valuables to an upper level. Stock up on clean water, filling various containers, including bathtubs. Implement your family disaster plan.
NEVER DRIVE in flood waters. Water covering the road could be covering hidden dangers. Just because you are familiar with the ground surface, doesn’t mean it is safe. The lay of the land may well have been changed by the swirling water. The waters may contain runoff toxic chemicals, downed power lines or other debris. Stop, turn around and go another way.
Avoid walking in floodwaters. The currents in floodwaters are strong. As little as 6 inches of water can sweep an adult or a child off their feet and carry them away. Listen to public health warnings regarding boiling water advisories. Take time to become aware of the entry points of your home. Neighbor’s pets or other wildlife such as snakes or rats may try to take refuge in your house.
If you return home after a flood, examine the exterior of your home, checking for damage and places where critters may have entered. If the foundation appears damaged, hire a professional to inspect the residence to see if it’s safe to enter. Wear protective clothing – dust mask, rubber gloves, long pants, boots, and long-sleeved shirts – as you clean your property. Floods cause a lot of mud, silt and other debris to enter your home. Be prepared to change garments as they become soiled. The soil contains bacteria that could make you ill.
Earlier this year, the Cane Creek community in Tennessee experienced localized flooding. The July-August 2009 issue of No Greater Joy Magazine includes two personal accounts of the event. Impressive photos are included along with an article by bestselling author Debi Pearl entitled: "The Biggest Cane Creek Flood on Record.” Her son, Gabriel Pearl wrote of his adventures in the article entitled: “Cane Creek Flood.” You can read both articles free online or sign up for a free subscription to No Greater Joy Magazine and have it delivered to your home.
a perpetual student of things I find interesting and (I hope) helpful to others. Feel free to use and apply all information with a healthy dose of common sense. :-)
A children's book about how to stay safe from predators isn't the first choice on most parent's shopping list. We want our children to remain innocent and not live in fear. Isn't part of protecting them shielding them from information about predators?
