Dan Vachon is a retired pastor, missionary and paramedic, and he is Action For Canada s Chapter Leader in Sydney, Nova Scotia, as well as the Chapter Team Leader for the Maritimes. He also leads Action for Canada s Pastoral Support Team. Dan wears many hats as part of the Co-leader of the Pastoral Team, and a chapter Leader in Nova Scotia. He is a man of faith and integrity, and we are so pleased that he can join us tonight.
00:00:00.000OK, so basically what they're suggesting is that there's too much misinformation and disinformation on on the Web, probably about everything we're talking about, like all the truth that we're talking about.
00:00:11.260So they want to clean it. So what they want to do is they want to disconnect the World Wide Web for one day.
00:00:17.800And then they're saying, well, probably to do that, what we should do is disconnect the entire power grid in certain countries also for that same day.
00:00:26.640And they're also saying, well, it's going to cost the world economy like it's in the billions of dollars.
00:00:32.920And then some are saying they're going to say, oh, look how greener the planet got today because we did this.
00:00:40.680And so it's all part of the climate change initiative. Right.
00:00:43.720So my suggestion was, well, if if all we do to preserve our food is is put things in the freezer, you know what it's like.
00:00:50.980I mean, we have hurricanes here on the East Coast or the tail ends of hurricanes and winter storms and sometimes the power goes off for, you know, a week and that.
00:00:59.400And so we have to be prepared. Right. So we don't want to put all of our eggs into the freezer, so to speak, or into one basket.
00:01:05.800So we have to be prepared. So having said that, some of the segments in the videos we're going to do is I'm going to teach you how to cook without an electric stove.
00:01:14.880So there are options. Right. And all you need is maybe a few tweaks, maybe a barbecue.
00:01:21.400And I'm not going to reveal all the secrets here. You'll have to stay tuned.
00:01:25.100But we want you to be prepared for disasters and all those things.
00:01:30.500I'm super pleased to introduce tonight's special guest, Dan Vachon.
00:01:38.000Dan is a retired pastor, missionary and paramedic, and he is Action for Canada's chapter leader in Sydney, Nova Scotia, as well as the chapter team leader for the Maritimes.
00:01:49.600He also co-leads Action for Canada's pastoral support team.
00:01:53.280Dan has a great love of nature and the outdoors, and he's here to share his knowledge of farming, gardening, and preserving the bounty of the harvest with us.
00:02:04.200Dan is a man of faith and integrity, and we are so pleased that he can join us tonight.
00:02:09.460Will you all help me welcome Dan Vachon?
00:02:12.080Dan, thank you for joining us and welcome to the Empower Hour.
00:02:15.700Thanks, Heather. So good to be here again.
00:03:19.480And so, here I am in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, at the eastern end of the country.
00:03:23.620We had 15 beautiful degrees here today, bright, sunny day, and I was in my greenhouse watering things there.
00:03:32.140And I think it said it was like 42 degrees in there.
00:03:35.640So, summer is definitely here, at least in part of where we were on the land.
00:03:40.620So, I'm just going to go right ahead and get into the PowerPoint here.
00:03:45.380Now, I got to tell you that I'm just going to kind of skim the surface here tonight, and I don't want to overload anybody with a lot of information,
00:03:54.700because I want to give you something practical to take home tonight while you are home, but something practical that you can do, okay?
00:04:02.580And I know and realize that some information is good, but I don't want it to be discouraging to you either.
00:04:11.260Things are kind of in our economy right now.
00:04:15.100Things are kind of rough, and I want to show you some things right from the government of Canada to kind of give you an example.
00:04:22.840So, I'm just going to go ahead and share screen here, and I'm going to get right to this PowerPoint here.
00:09:07.620Now, you may not be able to have a farm or a large farm.
00:09:12.640You may not have big barns like this that you can store a lot of produce and be able to, you know, quote, unquote, hoard things at this point.
00:09:40.820And, I mean, this is what the powers that be want, right?
00:09:43.320They want to move us all into 15-minute cities where, you know, you're kind of stuck in a 15-minute prison.
00:09:49.260But one of the things I want you to notice about this building, look at all the greeneries growing on these balconies.
00:09:56.000And so, that's kind of where I want to start with you tonight.
00:09:58.780Now, whether you live in one of these apartment buildings or a smaller apartment building or even a little bit like in the country, even like I do, this is a place you can start right here.
00:10:09.020Now, last summer when I did an Empower Hour, I shared a little bit about a tower guard.
00:10:16.280And the first time I planted some of my lettuces in something like this, we actually kept the same lettuces in the little containers in these for over a year until the roots were actually growing right down into the bottom water container.
00:10:29.860To the point where it plugged up all the holes and I had to take it out.
00:10:33.300So, we basically planted, I think, three or four different types of lettuces, some Swiss chard.
00:12:07.440They built these little containers there that are suspended on the other side of your balcony.
00:12:14.300And one thing I want to mention here, when you're planting seed, on your seed packet, it will say to plant your seed with certain spacing requirements.
00:12:24.560Now, you've got to kind of be careful of that if you're planting root crops, like your carrots and your parsnips and your beets and such.
00:12:31.640Because things growing in the ground, they kind of need to, you know, they need that space in the ground to grow.
00:12:39.200If you're planting leafy things like lettuces and that, you can plant them closer together because they can grow up and then they can grow up.
00:12:46.980So you can make really good use of your space.
00:12:50.320Now, if you look at the planter on the left, it's on wheels.
00:12:53.240So when it gets a little cold, you can actually bring it inside, put it next to a window.
00:18:14.000Now, these raised beds would cost you a fortune, mind you, because it's all galvanized and all really nice kind of pressure-treated lumber.
00:18:21.380And they're all stained, nice and neat.
00:18:25.200But those panels that you see that go up, those are called cattle panels.
00:18:28.940And those are actually fairly inexpensive.
00:18:31.540And you can get those at hardware stores.
00:18:33.620And I know around here, the 4x8 panels are probably about $14, $15 a piece.
00:21:49.540And again, you put some dirt in there.
00:21:51.600Now, this will extend your growing season in the spring maybe by as much as six weeks.
00:21:56.440You can actually just plant some seeds in there.
00:21:58.620And it's amazing how hot it will get in there.
00:22:02.900And then once your plants reach the height of the window there, you just simply take those off or prop them open.
00:22:08.940And you keep growing through the season.
00:22:10.980Now, what I do in my greenhouse, and I share this in the new video, I actually plant some root crops in there towards the third week of September.
00:22:20.000Once I've taken the tomatoes and the peppers out there in the fall, and stuff grows in my greenhouse all winter long.
00:23:14.680You just simply just slide them in there and fold them over and just wrap your plastic on top.
00:23:20.540I mean, you don't need to be a rocket scientist to build these.
00:23:23.820The photo on the bottom left, those are a little more elaborate.
00:23:27.160If you have some teenagers that are taking shop class, for example, and you want some help, build something a little more elaborate.
00:23:36.640And these frames, they look like they just maybe slide off and then you would stack them or put them away until the fall.
00:23:44.100But again, very aesthetically pleasing.
00:23:46.060So now that you have all of your produce at the end of summer or towards the middle of summer, what are you going to do with it?
00:23:54.100Now, let me take a quick pause here and just say something because I'm still researching something that may be happening this summer to a world near you.
00:24:03.740Now, back in October 2019, the World Economic Forum, in collaboration with the John Hopkins University, the Bill Gates Foundation, the World Economic Forum and the World Health Organization, did an exercise where they plant a worldwide catastrophe with a corona-type virus, a SARS-2 virus.
00:24:29.520And wouldn't you know it, a few weeks later, the world was hit with a corona-type virus.
00:26:04.840We're going to shut off your smart meter, or we're just going to power off the grid for a week just because it's good for the environment, right?
00:26:11.500So I'm not trying to discourage you from freezing your vegetables.
00:26:14.860But if you are going to freeze your vegetables, you need to know how to do it.
00:26:19.160So, again, we're not going to get into too much detail here.
00:26:21.740But we will have some follow-up videos on how to preserve in all of the ways I'm going to introduce to you right now.
00:26:31.580It's simple and it's easy to freeze things.
00:26:35.140But keep in mind that things may go awry and go sideways at some point if somebody at the World Economic Forum decides that they're going to do something to fare.
00:27:20.700But other than that, doesn't that look beautiful?
00:27:22.980And things that are preserved and canned this way will literally last you for years.
00:27:29.560The power grid can go off and this will keep for years.
00:27:33.480Now, we do some of this and we actually do some of our vegetables like this that are pickled.
00:27:38.620And they will also last you for a lot of years.
00:27:40.880So one of the things we're going to do with our Prepper Dan videos is do step-by-step videos on how to pickle and how to can and how to preserve.
00:27:49.680Did you know that your products can look as beautiful as that?
00:28:15.260But we will go through some videos with you on that, on how to do that.
00:28:19.320But did you also know that you can can your own meats?
00:28:22.960Now, we don't really eat lamb here, but I am a hunter.
00:28:26.260And, you know, we do preserve a lot of our meats this way.
00:28:29.600The nice thing is when you go to the store and you buy your beef, well, it doesn't, you know, they are playing around with our meats and stuff.
00:28:38.540And I did have some slides and some articles, but I didn't want to discourage you too much tonight.
00:29:10.940You can add, you know, as you see there, some onions and some, a few other things.
00:29:14.680And we also do some of our pasta sauces like this too.
00:29:18.440And that's a good way of doing it as well.
00:29:21.260Another way of preserving your meats as well, or not your meats, sorry, but your other produce, things that you can grow in your garden, is by dehydrating it.
00:29:29.780You can dehydrate some of your meats as well.
00:29:33.880I am going to recommend one thing to you, though.
00:29:35.720You can buy those cheap dehydrators that are round and they just simply have a fan.
00:29:39.900Again, my recommendation to you is if you are going to get a dehydrator, get a decent one that has a timer on it and also has a temperature control.
00:29:52.400And we have we have a couple of dehydrators, but particularly the one on the far right.
00:29:58.800And I'm hoping that when I say right, it's also right on your screen, but the taller looking one over there with all the nice looking stuff on there with the stainless steel trays.
00:30:08.720I think ours has 12 or 14 trays on there and we can pack it on there.
00:30:13.340I'll tell you, one of the things that we really like is sweet potatoes.
00:30:16.400We have we have three dogs and we dry them up as treats for the dogs.
00:30:20.660And I take one of these like mandolin slicers and I I put a little bit of olive oil on mine and I put some spices on there like Montreal steak spice and a few other Lowry spice and a few others.
00:30:33.100And I mix it all up and I put them on it.
00:30:35.080And I love that as a snack and I'll eat like five or six of those little chippy things and the craving goes off.
00:30:41.440And anyhow, I'm not going to give you all my recipes tonight, but stay tuned for a video coming up on that.
00:30:46.560So just before we wrap up on this, do you remember those days?
00:30:53.180Come on now, a couple of couple of years ago.
00:30:55.740Remember the big the big to do with this?
00:30:59.120Well, I'm thinking that we may be coming to one of those days at some point soon.
00:31:04.960Now, at this point, I'm going to share something with you and some of you will say, well, I'm not going to kind of believe where you're going with this, but I have to just give you a disclaimer and share this with you.
00:31:16.560Tanya shared a scripture verse just a few moments ago.
00:31:23.600And I really want to encourage you to prepare as much as you can to get out there because everything that we do out in our gardens and you can do you can do a lot.
00:32:24.820I can't read all of this here, but God tells us in Genesis chapter five that God saw, and I've just highlighted a few words here, that God saw that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.
00:32:40.300And the Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.
00:32:46.820So the Lord said, I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race that I've created.
00:32:53.040And with them, the animals, the birds, and the creatures that move along the ground, for I regret that I've made them.
00:32:59.420Now, the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and it was full of violence.
00:33:03.680And God saw how corrupt the earth had become for all the people on the earth had corrupted their ways.
00:33:08.340Now, one version says, but Noah, thank God for, but Noah.
00:33:15.060So God said to Noah, I'm going to put an end to all the people of the earth, for the earth is filled with violence because of them.
00:33:21.980I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.
00:33:26.280That's at the very beginning of the Bible.
00:33:28.400God had just made everything, and just a few chapters later, God said there's so much evil in the world that mankind can't even think of doing good.
00:33:38.720And everything Tanya was sharing at the beginning of this webinar, it seems that mankind is creating new ways of becoming evil today.
00:33:47.840And if you can't see it, I mean, you need to step outside your house.
00:33:52.440And so 2,000 years ago, Jesus was with his disciples, and they knew that the end was coming.
00:34:45.480And I got to tell you something absolutely for certain, for sure.
00:34:51.080In my 30 years as a paramedic, I have met too many people who got up in the morning, had a shower, got dressed, and were on their way to someplace but never made it there because death came.
00:35:50.960I can't wait till we can put that on the page because I'm sure that our viewers are going to want to share that with others or watch it again, right?
00:35:59.260So that they can absorb more of the information.
00:36:02.360And I just kind of love it that we're going back to the basics.
00:36:06.540I remember when my kids were small, I would grow a small garden with them.
00:36:10.500And it was just so rewarding, just the way that new life just naturally grows on its own.
00:36:16.340And I look forward to not being so busy one day.
00:36:19.960I'm hoping my neighbors will share because I just don't have time to plant a garden.
00:37:06.060Anybody, if you're not familiar with Zoom, if you hover down at the bottom, there's a little symbol says Q&A.
00:37:12.000If you pop your question in there, we'll ask Dan.
00:37:15.620And I've got a couple of questions that are ready to go.
00:37:18.520So somebody has asked, I have five feet wide by 40 feet long spot options, question mark.
00:37:26.420I am an urbanite and clueless, sadly, on growing anything.
00:37:31.540So I guess they're looking for a little direction on where's the best place to start.
00:37:34.980Well, I would say if you're close to an Action for Canada chapter, we connect very well with our chapter people.
00:37:46.620And I would love for you to connect with somebody with one of our chapters because, you know, we've got some information that we'll be posting on our website.
00:37:54.280And there'll be more information on there.
00:37:57.880And in my last presentation that we did, I think it was last, I'm going to say July.
00:38:03.100There is a section I do on there where, I mean, that's a good space, five by 40.
00:38:07.960That's, you can, you can, you can feed a neighbor with that.
00:38:11.400And if Tanya is close, maybe you can feed Tanya as well.
00:38:13.860But I would say, you know, doing a garden like that with, with a friend or with a neighbor or, you know, finding somebody and say, I've got this space.
00:38:23.480And if you know anything about it, will you work with me?
00:39:20.920So I'm assuming that this person can access the garden from both sides.
00:39:25.720So depending on your orientation of this space as well, typically you would want a garden that's lengthwise like this to face east and west so that, you know, they would get full southern exposure.
00:39:37.720So certain, certain crops like lettuces, they like a cooler weather.
00:39:41.740So they would do well in more of a shady area as well.
00:39:46.980Tomatoes like full sun, you know, and certain.
00:39:49.760And look at your seed packages as well to see what likes full sun.
00:39:54.540So you can plant, again, some shorter crops toward the front, like some bush beans toward the front.
00:40:02.260And if you have some taller things, you can put tomatoes towards the back if that's how you're going to do it.
00:40:06.980And even, you know, if you want, you can plant some corn if you have, if your access is limited, put your corn towards the back.
00:40:15.460And what some people do, as a matter of fact, is they plant some corn and then they'll put some climbing beans, companion plant them right next to the corn.
00:40:25.180And so the beans will actually go up the corn stalks.
00:40:32.640I'm sure that, well, these are really good tips, right?
00:40:35.180I like even having conversation about them because as we talk about things, those ideas come up because you said the preference was plant your garden east to west.
00:40:43.840But if you only have north to south, then you would have to think what side would be best on the shady and what side needs the most sun, like the tomatoes.
00:52:27.420Because you can easily go through, like, 20 liters of gasoline a day if you're running them.
00:52:34.240Keep in mind, too, you know, your deep freezers are very well insulated, like the newer ones.
00:52:39.320And don't think that as soon as the power goes off, you have to plug them into a generator.
00:52:44.500They can actually go a couple of days without you having to do anything if you keep the lid down.
00:52:50.740And what I do with mine is as soon as I have some free space in my deep freezers, I have, like, orange juice bottles, like the thicker plastic bottles.
00:53:00.480And I fill them up, like, 80% full of water.
00:53:04.280And as soon as I have space in my freezers, I stick them in my freezer.
00:53:07.860So, they act like big, giant ice cubes in there.
00:53:11.040So, if the power does go off, I've got extra ice in there.
00:53:14.440And I can drink that water if I have to, you know, as they thaw out.
00:53:18.560But that way, it keeps the freezer cooler even longer.
00:53:22.020And you can also use, throw a few big blankets on top of the freezer to keep them cool even longer as well.