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How to Start Seedlings using the Pre-sprout Method

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Everyone knows the drill - put the seed in the ground, cover it with dirt, keep it watered, and eventually you see that little sprout poking it's way up out of the soil.  Hopefully.  As many folks know, this doesn't always happen. Rookie and seasoned gardeners alike can attest to the fact that many seeds are sown, never to be seen or heard from again.  A seed can fail to sprout for a variety of reasons. First, most seeds fall within a range of 50% to 85% germination rate. That means at least 15 out of every 100 seeds are duds, sometimes up to 50 out of 100.  After you weed out the duds (puns are grand, right?) the remaining seeds need exactly the right temperature, moisture, and light (or lack thereof) to initiate the sprouting process. It's been done this way for centuries, but honestly, it's highly inefficient. And frankly, leaves too much up to chance for me. I like to be in control!  This is where pre-sprouting comes in, and it will change your life, just like it c
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5 Events We All Need to Prepare For

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5 Events We All Need to Prepare For In January of 2020, all was relatively normal in Maine, the most northeastern state in the United States. It was a typical winter, with a typical amount of snow, a typical amount of cold temperatures, and everyone was living their typical lives with hopes that spring temperatures would arrive soon.  Wicked Prepared had not been born quite yet, although we were in the early stages of planning 'something' because we knew we wanted to be prepared in case the world were to change. It didn't seem like anything was going to happen, but having lived through 9/11, several highs and lows of the economy, and even the Ice Storm of '98 here in Maine, we've become accustomed to expecting life to change when everything seems to be going smoothly.  It seems like we tended only to think about being prepared after the electricity went out, or after our water was shutoff while the town repaired our road. I can clearly remember returning home after
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Choosing Seeds to Plant

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Choosing Seeds to Plant If you're looking to be Wicked Prepared like we are, a huge part of your focus is going to be on food. There's no way around it. It doesn't matter if there's a storm that knocks out electricity, or an enemy nation pinching off our supply chain, our bodies run on calories and if we're going to survive, we need food.  In an effort to keep from putting all of our eggs in one basket (that pun was definitely intended) we look to multiple sources for our food. That way, if one source is limited or not available, we've got a backup plan, or two, or three. With that being said, growing a garden is as important of a food source as you can get. At our home, do we grow enough crops to feed our family from the garden alone? Absolutely not. We just don't have the time to take care of a garden that large. Not to mention, in Maine, our growing season is a very small window which certainly makes it tough.  Growing enough vegetables in a 3-4 month ti
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3 Days - How long you can survive without this

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3 days. The human body can survive, on average, 3 days without drinking water. After that short amount of time, a human's flesh begins to turn gray, organs begin to fail and brain function begins to shut down. You can stock up on all the food you could ever need, all the supplies required to start fire, and tools and equipment to build shelter; but if you don't have a stockpile of drinking water or a reliable source to get it from, you have 3 days to live.   Water is the single most important item needed for survival, and yet the most forgotten and most overlooked by many. Whether you're preparing for a few days with electricity or bracing for the apocalypse, put water right at the very top of your list.  But how much? It is recommended to store one gallon of water for every person in your house, per day. Now you just have to decide, how many days do you want to prepare for? A good goal to aim for is 2 weeks. So for a family of 4, that's only 56 gallons. Drums like thes
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