Prep Genrl Weekly Prep Thread: January 7 - 13, 2024

[Meemur]

Ha ha, Philkar! See, I have this pile of books to read and DVDs to watch. It was sitting by the TV but the cat kept knocking it over, so it went into a box. People will give me their used books and DVDs, "Oh, you have to see this!" Yeah, I'll get to it . . . someday!

Sunny and 18 degrees. Everything is on a late start this morning due to the snow. I'm headed out in a minute.

Glad your eye is better, SB!

Best wishes to everyone for a good day.

 

[nomifyle]

I also thought we were going to have a mild winter, but it got down to 29 last night which is cold for us southerners living in older dwellings I got out my flannel lined satin pj last night, It has to be cold for me to wear them. It got down to 68 in the room where sleep, I just add an extra layer of cover and I'm good except when I have to pee during the night.

I know you folks that live in colder climates think we are woosies but the cold is brutal for those of us that just about live in the subtropics. I wouldn't live anywhere else though. There is no place like home.

The sun is shinning and I so appreciate that. The high is supposed to be 61 today and tomorrow but colder after that. We were supposed to have rain tomorrow and we have appointments at the VA, which is 70 miles away. But it changed and will be like today, warmer and sunny.

I'll eat more soup today, but DH is tired of it. I'm thinking cabbage and sausage for him.

 

[SouthernBreeze]

I also thought we were going to have a mild winter, but it got down to 29 last night which is cold for us southerners living in older dwellings I got out my flannel lined satin pj last night, It has to be cold for me to wear them. It got down to 68 in the room where sleep, I just add an extra layer of cover and I'm good except when I have to pee during the night.

I know you folks that live in colder climates think we are woosies but the cold is brutal for those of us that just about live in the subtropics. I wouldn't live anywhere else though. There is no place like home.

The sun is shinning and I so appreciate that. The high is supposed to be 61 today and tomorrow but colder after that. We were supposed to have rain tomorrow and we have appointments at the VA, which is 70 miles away. But it changed and will be like today, warmer and sunny.

I'll eat more soup today, but DH is tired of it. I'm thinking cabbage and sausage for him.

I know what you mean about us Southerners not tolerating the cold as well as Northern folks. It's forecast to be 3 degrees here Monday night. That's way too cold for me! Cary will be bringing extra firewood in the house for both the stove and heater. Lots of soups and stews will be made. Extra jugs of potable water to bring in, too, in case our community water freezes up again like it did last winter. I'm getting some extra for storage when I get to town, too.

Like you, I don't want to live anywhere else, either. I might move as far north as southern TN, but that's it. I have no plans to move anywhere.

 

[moldy]

Sunday night our low is to be -11. That's OK - some others are much colder, like Broken Arrow. Keeps out the riff-raff - or at least keeps them at home.

I'm waiting (not so patiently) for a neighbor to bring a check by. Then it's into town to run errands. I feel like i've got a ton to do, but am spinning my wheels today. I've managed to make chocolate syrup, do a little load of laundry, and list a couple items. Just wish the neighbor would hurry up.

 

[SouthernBreeze]

Well, I've got everything accomplished that I wanted to do, today. Bills are all paid for the rest of the month. It gets easier each time I do it. A little housekeeping done and sent off an order to Sam's. Their sale is still going on, so I took advantage, again, but didn't order as much this time. My shopping lists are in my purse and ready to go for tomorrow. Those lists are large, since I've not shopped in quite a while. I won't go again, until the first of February.

My Wuhan shoes finally arrived. Perfect fit, but I will not be ordering from them again, even though, the quality looks really good.

 

[briches]

Don't let Britches hear that you don't know what you have to read! Why she will probably call some sort of agency to check on you!

I don’t know what I have to read either. I use my kindle and have over 1000+ books on there. I don’t have them organized.

 

[philkar]

I don’t know what I have to read either. I use my kindle and have over 1000+ books on there. I don’t have them organized.

I love a self-actualized woman that is not afraid to say outloud that her books aren't are not color coded and collated! Nothing like freedom is there! Unfortunately I don't embrace freedom like I should! Working on it. Pantry is no longer alphabetized!

 

[Meemur]

Ha! My spices were never alphabetized. Disclaimer: I only have about eight - ten of them at any given time, so it's not that hard for me to keep track.

 

[Meemur]

I'm looking at the weather. It looks like Friday is going to be a "snow day" for us, so I might have a 3-day weekend, and I'm starting to get some energy back. Maybe I can finish the flooring in the last bedroom. Oh, the possibilities!

 

[JasmineAndLace]

Ha! My spices were never alphabetized. Disclaimer: I only have about eight - ten of them at any given time, so it's not that hard for me to keep track.

My daughter is OCD. She came in about a year or so and alphabetizied all my spices. Now, though, they are back in their usual disarray because I tend to put the ones I use most in front of everything else.

 

[Taco Salad]

Last spring when I was getting firewood I just cut everything to length and stacked it, only splitting 4 face cord. Those 4 have just about run out now and the highs the next couple days are going to be a nice comfortable to work in mid to upper 20s so it's time to get out the log splitter before next week's seasonal weather.

I can't believe how little wood I've used this year, this is about how I do things normally except in a normal year I run the racks empty and have to start splitting in late November or early December. I think the water will be hard enough to fish on this weekend but I'm going to wait until after the cold snap to be sure before I get on it.

 

[kyrsyan]

My spices are vaguely organized. But I have so many different ones that they aren't all in the same location, much less organized in some way past being in their locations.

At the doctor's for testing. It's been a stressful morning already. I'm hoping for peace, calm, and good results.

 

[nomifyle]

I have a VA appointment today for regular check up, I go every three months. Nothing in particular to check though. No complaints that will doing anything about. Last night when we got home from church my body hurt all over, just taking a step was a challenge. Better today, thank God. Some days I have pain and some days no pain at all. Its a nice relief when I have the no pain days. I slept with a small pillow under my back and that helped. God is good all the time. Have a blessed day.

The sun is shinning and its going to be in the high 60's. But tomorrow back in the gray skys and lower temps, its called winter.

 

[Meemur]

Prayers for both of you! I hope that everything is fine.

 

[SouthernBreeze]

LOL. I'm a bit OCD about my organization, but not to the point of alphabetized spices. I got a laugh out of that! I have 2 open shelves in the kitchen that hold them all. The ones I use most are all in the front of the shelves. I finally finished converting all of them from plastic bottles to clear glass canning jars. They all look nice on the shelves. All uniform and brightly colored. Livens up the kitchen a bit.

I'm feeling back to my normal self this morning. I'm looking forward to getting out of the house, today. It'll be a long day. We have to drive into another small town to the meat market. I've got a good sized hole in the meat freezer that needs filling, today. Then, on to our normal small town for grocery shopping and a stop into the Wine Shop. Got to restock on all the alcohol for the upcoming winter freeze over, LOL! Still have snow and ice in our forecast for Monday, Monday night, and Tuesday. Up to 1 inch, now. I call that a light dusting. Single digits at night, and not out of the 20's for highs during the day. We're also under another strong wind advisory through Saturday night, with rain and thunderstorms coming in again tonight and tomorrow. A strong cold front coming through. It's supposed to be 62 for our high today, though.

Everyone have a nice day and safe travels to you and your DH, Judy.

 

[nomifyle]

We may get some snow around next Monday, with temps at night in the teens, with the high in the 30's. Good thing we have plenty of wood.

For as much pain that I was in last night its amazing how little I'm in today and come to think of it when I go to the VA I'm usually in no pain at all. Whatever, I'll take it.

 

[SouthernBreeze]

We may get some snow around next Monday, with temps at night in the teens, with the high in the 30's. Good thing we have plenty of wood.

For as much pain that I was in last night its amazing how little I'm in today and come to think of it when I go to the VA I'm usually in no pain at all. Whatever, I'll take it.

With 9 cords of firewood split and stacked under roof, and that huge pile of tree that we had cut still waiting to be worked on, we have plenty of firewood to last us a few years already. Our house will stay warm and cozy. Just have to keep the water pipes from freezing up. With all these horrendous winds, Cary has the gennies ready to go if need be.

I'm glad you're feeling much better this morning, Judy.

 

[hd5574]

The main of my spices are very organized...I have two of the large McCormick spice racks (24 bottles each)one over top of another and beside that yet another wooden wall rack that also holds those bottles....the bottles are not necessarily all filled with McCormick herbs and spices...I have saved my McCormick bottles for years and other glass spice bottles also..some of the contents are replaced with that item but by a different manufacturer....other bottles have a hand written label and filled with something totally different...
I also have a small Spice Island wooden rack that belonged to my Mother ...they have some wonderful spice blends...that I use for certain recipes....in another spot I have another couple of shelves...that contain other things that I with cook with some are blends ..some are in pint and quart canning jars...like my home made bread crumbs ..plain and Italian...dried celery leaves....panko bread crumbs, split peas and barley and dried sweet peppers and dried mushrooms...... various types of salts... a collection of Cajun spices....they really are different one to another...as are Italian spice blends.... also several herb blends that really add flavor without adding additional salt..they add a lot flavor and variety to recipes and will be invaluable to us if we are faced with only pantry meals. Which I fear may happen... I consider my spices and various teas (some black, some flavored,some green some white..others non caffeine ..others healing) huge prepping items...as they really change things up......

 

[Meemur]

I'm glad that both of you are feeling better!

Yes, spices are a prep! I should get more and learn to use them.

I do use the standard herbs for flavoring: parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme. (I know you sang that! LOL). I grow those and dry them in the fall. They are kept in plastic containers. I also grow mint and chives.

Otherwise, it's things like salt, pepper, white pepper, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice (that's its name), Chinese spice blend (also its name), nutmeg, and pickle spice blend. That's what I actually use over the course of a year. I had more, but I ended up either tossing it or giving it away. It just didn't get used.

It looks like I'm going to have a 4-day weekend. The meetings for MLK Day all got canceled due to "illness." (I doubt anyone is that sick, but I do think others are like me and badly need a few more days off for personal projects.) Otherwise, our Friday snow totals keep getting revised upwards: the center of the low is over St. Louis, which tends to bring us a lot of snow up here in Central Iowa. I will prepare for being home for the next few days.

So I'm home for lunch, and I'm taking a quick inventory of anything I'll need. I'll go pick that up in a bit. I ran the dishwasher this morning, and now I've got laundry going. I'll run the mop over the kitchen floor on my way out so it will be dry when I get back. I'm not ready to bike for hours, but it's nice to have some energy back!

 

[philkar]

All right y’all all slow down. You’re getting ahead of me! Woke up with shingles everywhere but they are weird looking so ran to doc who verified they are weird looking shingles! Don’t feel terrible but a little sluggish. So I slowed my roll just a bit. Working on pantry. Summerthyme have I ever said thanks for the bucket shelving idea? Well if not Thank You! Stay warm and safe everyone!

 

[Meemur]

Feel better soon! Wow, that sounds nasty.

 

[hd5574]

All right y’all all slow down. You’re getting ahead of me! Woke up with shingles everywhere but they are weird looking so ran to doc who verified they are weird looking shingles! Don’t feel terrible but a little sluggish. So I slowed my roll just a bit. Working on pantry. Summerthyme have I ever said thanks for the bucket shelving idea? Well if not Thank You! Stay warm and safe everyone!

If you are itching or burning or stinging....spray them with colloidal silver...it dries them up..and stops them doing the above...

 

[Meemur]

For Briches

 

[SouthernBreeze]

We made it back from our shopping trip in one piece. Town was very crowded. Crazy driver slammed into a car right in front of us, and we almost got hit ourselves. That sure rattled my nerves! Cary's, too. We were on our way home.

Got home and unloaded the SUV. I'm just now getting everything put up. Time for a break. Both freezers are filled to the brim, and my pantry is fully stocked again. I was getting really low on some items, so I bought extra of those. Extra meat for the freezer, too, since there were such good prices on everything. One more item would not have fit in either freezer. 2 more 40 bottle cases of water, too. I even found 2 sets of the kind of salt and pepper shakers I wanted. They'll be used for garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and paprika. They are glass, too, and will fit nicely with all the other canning jar spices. Wine cabinet is fully stocked, and I stocked up on extra doggie treats for Frisco. Heaven forbid, he ever runs out! It was all a big haul, but I'm done, until next month.

I'm cheating on our supper, tonight. I bought a 40 count box of frozen beef and cheese flour taquitos to stick in the oven. I have plenty of salsa to serve with them. Oh, the Horror! Such bad food! LOL.....

 

[Meemur]

What time is dinner? I'll bring the chips and salsa!

 

[kyrsyan]

We're home. My body is exhausted. My BP was absolutely through the roof when I got there. But then back down into what used to be my old normals by the time they did the PET test. But oh that test wiped out my energy in one way. I had to go walk it off. Dropped another load at thrift. Got replacement beanie hats. Chilled with a friend for a bit and then came home.

The test results are already up. Unless I'm misreading them, everything is the same except this time they did not find an aortic dilation/aneurysm. But that will be confirmed with the doctor on the 25th. Everything else reported is exactly the same as the old report. No changes that I could see.

What I do know is that I need to find my BP cuff and start taking my BP daily. If my daily BP has dropped to my before rates, we may need to look at starting to lower the BP dose. But not until after the surgery. It just helps to have the documentation when I go see my doc again.

I ended up walking of the medication side effects in Costco. I was going in to get dinner. I found slippers. And brazil nuts. And a few other things, like apples and salad. And a 1TB SSD drive for son that was $35 less than I had been watching it on Amazon for.

All in all, it started as a rough day. And it was definitely tiring. But I'm hoping for a calm evening. And a calm day tomorrow.

 

[nomifyle]

The visit to the VA was as I expected it to be, nothing changed and the doc said just keep doing what I'm doing. I'm very careful what I say to her, she's okay, but I don't trust her. The nurse on the other and I are on the same wave link and I can be somewhat straight up for the most part. Question everything. I'll be 77 next month and I've been around the block a time or too and spent all my working life out in the world.

 

[philkar]

I picked up another 40 gallons of black walnuts this afternoon and have about that many more at least. I think I have already picked 40 gallons. Also found a hickory nut tree but did not gather those. Next time I will! Picked a dish pan of usnea and found mullein! A great scavenger day!

 

[nomifyle]

Tomorrow will be helping with deer processing. DH killed a nice size one this time, this is three so probably the last for the season.

 

[Meemur]

Snow day tomorrow!

It's going to be another day where pretty much everything is shut down, as it should be. Blizzards out here are nothing to mess with, plus the storm will be followed by -21 wind chills (something like that).

In any case, I'm prepared to stay home for the next few days.

 

[moldy]

Tonight went to a retirement dinner for a co-worker. She is trying to go on disability as she is only 60, but has multiple health issues. We talked quite a bit.

Tomorrow is a meeting I am dreading, but very needed. I would appreciate prayers. then this weekend, we are supposed to get hammered with snow,wind, and cold. I can handle that - I will just stay home!

 

[feralferret]

Forecast for snow had been downgraded to a much smaller amount here. Still windy with bitterly cold temperatures. On Sunday our forecast HIGH is only 3 degrees. They had been forecasting -1 for the high that day.

Daughter is out of the hospital and home. Her youngest brother (who already lives with her) will be taking care of her. She probably should have stayed another day or two in the hospital, but she is stubborn. As a nurse, she should have known better, but I really can't blame her for wanting to be home. Wife and I will be headed down there Sunday for a few days.

When I had a toe amputated around 15 years ago, I was already up, walking, and pretty much rehabilitated by the time that the PT showed up to start my rehabilitation. I walked up and down the hall then up and down a flight of stairs for her. She said that it looks like her services weren't needed and signed off on me.

My daughter (step-daughter technically) has a similar mind set.

 

[SouthernBreeze]

We're under a tornado watch until 11 am, and we're in the middle of a thunderstorm right now. Heavy rain. With the high winds and boomers, the house is shaking and rattling. Forecast has us now in the 1-3 inch snow range, plus an ice mix for Monday.

I'm doing all of my laundry today and tomorrow to get that out of the way. I found those spider glue traps, yesterday, at Walmart, so I've put those down all around the house. Glad to get that done! I bought 4 packs with 4 each in them. I didn't use them all at once, though. I put 2 underneath the bed, 2 underneath the sofa, 2 around the firewood box, and 2 in the laundry room. I have yet to see a single spider in the house. I also bought 2 more cans of spider spray.

Bites are still healing. One more day on the Keflex. The bites are still red and puffy. I still have stinging pain and horrible deep itch over the marks. It got quite bad while out and about in town, yesterday. I hope I'm not messing up, but I started using an antibiotic salve on them this morning, instead of the charcoal.

Everyone please stay safe in all this nasty weather!

eta. Fed Ex just delivered my Sam's order in the middle of a hailstorm! Cary got soooo wet running out to the gate to bring it all in.

 

[Marseydoats]

We're under a tornado watch until 11 am, and we're in the middle of a thunderstorm right now. Heavy rain. With the high winds and boomers, the house is shaking and rattling. Forecast has us now in the 1-3 inch snow range, plus an ice mix for Monday.

I'm doing all of my laundry today and tomorrow to get that out of the way. I found those spider glue traps, yesterday, at Walmart, so I've put those down all around the house. Glad to get that done! I bought 4 packs with 4 each in them. I didn't use them all at once, though. I put 2 underneath the bed, 2 underneath the sofa, 2 around the firewood box, and 2 in the laundry room. I have yet to see a single spider in the house. I also bought 2 more cans of spider spray.

Bites are still healing. One more day on the Keflex. The bites are still red and puffy. I still have stinging pain and horrible deep itch over the marks. It got quite bad while out and about in town, yesterday. I hope I'm not messing up, but I started using an antibiotic salve on them this morning, instead of the charcoal.

Everyone please stay safe in all this nasty weather!

eta. Fed Ex just delivered my Sam's order in the middle of a hailstorm! Cary got soooo wet running out to the gate to bring it all in.

Probably want to check with Summerthyme first, but I'd put local honey on your bites before I used anything else.
Stay safe in this nasty weather!
We're supposed to have round 3 starting this afternoon, freezing rain. Haven't recovered from round 2 yet, the flooding tore down 1/4 mile of fencing and left us with no power for 16 hours. Nobody in our county died, but it washed out roads and bridges, and a lot of folks still don't have any power.
Chewy has been taking like 2 weeks to send my Autoship, and they sent this one early. I hope it gets here before the bad weather hits and that the neighbors dogs don't eat the box...

 

[SouthernBreeze]

I'm using Neosporin, since it has a mild pain relief effect. I have local raw honey, too, and lots of raw garlic juice. I was hoping to kill the pain and itch, or at least calm it down.

 

[nomifyle]

It rained last night but the temps stayed in the 60's over night. Sun is shinning but the temps are dropping, will be cold tonight.

Our power is out. DH turned the generator on so he could process the deer. I have my smallest Jackery by my chair and I can reach over to un plug the chair from electric and plug it in the Jackery. Duh, silly me I figured out not to leave the Jackery turned on so the chair won't drain the battery, its easy to turn the battery off and on.

DH could not get the generator to run on propane, so right now its running on gas. When he turned on the gen I rushed to make a pot of coffee, got to take care of important things.

Oops, the gen just cut off, DH is out trying to get it running on propane, and now it came back on, the real power, praise the Lord.

 

[nomifyle]

I did a partial grocery shop this past Sunday after church. It was a different wm than usual and I couldn't find everything. This was my first grocery shop in a month. I've started my on going list again, which includes what I couldn't find Sunday.

It was in the 60's this morning and now its 46 outside. The wood stove really had it very warm earlier, DH let it die down to cool things down a bit.

I've only got a couple of loads of clothes, so I need to get them done. We wear our outer clothes several times before they go in the laundry, unless they get really dirty.

I've bagged up 7 packages of 2# ground venison so far and I think that was just one leg. DH said this is the largest deer he's processed.

 

[philkar]

Congrats on the deer Judy! It is nasty here. Raining buckets and is in the low 40's. Ice and snow for us forecasted for Monday or Tues. We are working on the pantry and picking cabbages in between downpours to store in the root cellar. The root cellar is working really well so far. Temps are to be in the single digits next week. We are using square haybales to insulate the door of the root cellar just to be on the safe side. Getting ready to plant wheat and spring bulbs in 10 days or so. Planted more blueberries and blackberries yesterday. Hubs can't resist new varieties! Dreaming of planting watermelons and cantaloupes! And maybe a honeydew or two! See what garden porn does to you??! We are trying the Alabama black eyed limas or butterbeans as we called them. They are pole beans. We found them 2 seasons ago? a local gardener who has saved seed for years. We grew just to increase seed and to eat a few fresh but this year it is on! Very prolific and low maintenance. But we have also found an old local winter squash that we are going to try. I will let you know how it goes!

 

[Meemur]

It's been snowing all morning, near white-out conditions at times. I think about six inches have fallen, but with the blowing and drifting, it's really hard to tell. Schools and non-essential businesses are shut down. Basically, only the gas stations (mini-marts) and grocery stores are open, plus a few coffee places and fast food restaurants, per Facebook. I haven't been outside, yet. I will go out later and shovel the snow around the garage door.

Our sheriff is asking people to stay off the roads, unless it's an emergency (or they are an essential worker). I saw a plow go through when I first got up, but you wouldn't know it now: the street has drifted in. And, yes, I have plenty to eat and do inside. Let it snow! The water tables need the moisture.

Stay safe! It looks like lots of areas have wild weather today.

Added: If I disappear, I'm fine. Sometimes I lose the Internet during storms. FWIW, it's been stable this morning.

Addition 2: per the noon news: parts of I-80 are shut down. Truckers are sheltering at rest stops. (They are reporting 6 - 8 foot drifts!)

 

[nomifyle]

The two deer legs netted us 24 pounds of ground meat and a few more pounds of steak. DH is frying some of the steak to see if its tender enough to chew. Our tenderizer is a piece of crap so he didn't even use it, so far anyway, its really does not tenderize the meat. Dh still has the front legs and some other pieces to process. Good healthy meat except for the little bit of corn he ate, the corn is all GMO.

Dh just brought in some steak for me to try, too tough, so no go for me. Tough steak is the only down side to not taking it to a processor. The tender steak is really tasty, but its not something I actually miss. ground is my favorite cut of meat. My 77 year old teeth just can not handle tough meat. He is going to grind the meat he had set aside for steak.