Prep Genrl Weekly Prep Thread; May18 ~ May 24, 2014

[ReneeT]

It's a new week!! How are y'all prepping this week??

Pep Talk!! Remember that prepping doesn't have to mean building a bunker and filing it with #10 cans - it can be as simple as picking up an extra can of food or box of ammo to put back, making sure you have sensible shoes in your vehicle in case you have to walk, working on your physical fitness, or just your state of mind!!

I picked up an extra partial shift at work on short notice last night, so didn't get off work until 3:30am; home a bit after 4 am. Slept until 10:30 am as I'd only caught a short nap after I got home from work Saturday morning; then got up and stuffed some laundry in - sheets, that will be hung on the line to dry as it is sunny and - wonder of wonders!! - not raining

Today in May, Hubby and I will continue to work on cleaning out one of the storerooms in the machine shed. Many of the items in this room haven't been touched since 1994 - and they weren't put in place to be stored nearly that long. It's sad to be throwing away items that could have been used by us or by others, or made over or donated; because they weren't stored well. I'm saving what I can that's usable or salvageable, but am half sick from the waste (and if I ever find out who left the store room door open so mice could get in, I'm going to raise some knots on their head!!)

Later this afternoon, I plan to clean up and run in to town to pick up a few more sale items -
Grocery Store:
*13-14 oz Eckrich smoked sausage @ $1.89 each (outrageous!!) - 55 cents/1 coupon = $1.34 each (better, but not fabulous) I will get as many as I have coupons for; probably 6
*Snack Pack pudding cups 4 pk @ 79 cents each - 4, for Hubby's lunch; he won't carry an ice pack so that I can send home made; gonna have to work on that!! I'm going to start by making sure that HE pays for these ones lol!
*Potatoes - 5# for $1.49; will get two bags as we are down to only seed potatoes from last year's crop and have been for a couple of months - need to plant more 'taters!!
*Scottie's tissues - 69 cents/box - will pick up 4
*Utility lighters - those long nose critters - 99 cents each - will get 2

Dollar General:
I have a coupon for $5/$25 purchase good today and tomorrow; so it will drop the prices on the items I'm looking at to where they are a decent price.
*Van Camp Pork 'n Beans - 2/$1 - I can my own but it won't hurt to have a case on hand - the cans are more totable than my glass jars and do better when set on the edge of the fire ring
*Gatorade - 85 cents/bottle. Good to keep on hand for use for hydration during GI issues; and also good to keep in the vehicle - I'll sometimes stop and load my work Buddy's truck with mulch from the yard waste site on my way home from work - hot 'n thirsty work; good to have a bottle readyto go in the car!

If there isn't enough stock on hand and I need to fill in, I'll pick up some paper plates to stick back, or some bags of charcoal - I want to play around with the Boy Scout cardboard box oven www.usscouts.org/scoutcraft/oven.asp

Looks like Hubby has lunch (my breakfast lol!) about ready - Chicken Biscuit Stew, made with home canned chicken and Sweet Cream Freezer Biscuits - Yum!! Just hope I don't want to lie down and take a nap after lunch...

 

[kilagal]

Friday I hit a couple yard sales. At one I got canning flats for 50 cents a box. There were 26 boxes. Also got 2 boxes of new britta filters for $4 a box can't remember if thetre are 4 or 5 a box. Then went another sale and got king sized flannel sheets for $5 for the set. Hit a thrift store that was closing and everything was 75% off. Then today hit a sale the guy was moving out of state. Got a large pile od stainless steel pans for $1. And hubby got a nice canves tarp for $2. As well as a trailer hitch for $2.
Needless to say it was a good week.

 

[moldy]

Worked three twelves over the weekend, so I need to get caught up at home. DH spent the weekend repairing and servicing equipment, and fixing the lane and chute the cows tore up on Wednesday. At work we had our first rattlesnake bite of the year - ya'll be careful out there!!

DH also picked up some bee equipment off Craigslist - about $1500 worth for $600. It was money well spent.

Today, I have to talk to a neighbor about swathing a field, call DH's work about benefits (could save us about $120) a month, and work on the garden

 

[anna43]

Spent the non-rainy days working outside. Got most of the garden planted and dug a lot of grass from the flower beds. Its raining again today so I'm cleaning. I continue to clean, sort, donate and throw away. Its so freeing getting unneeded stuff out of the house.

I found a couple popcorn tins at a garage sale to use for storage. The tins are one storage container I'm 100% sure mice cannot access -- unless they figure how to remove the lid! Bought some pint jars on sale at Menards. Around here the thrift stores charge up to a $1 a jar and you seldom see them at garage sales. I did find 6 quarts for 50¢ each at a garage sale. I can mostly in pints for the two of us, but do like quarts for some things so try to keep a few dozen on-hand. I use a lot of quarts for dehydrated foods. Last year I bought a box of half gallon jars and I really love them for dehydrated storage. We've always had a mouse problem in this house so I want all my storage in mouse proof containers. Glass jars and popcorn tins are #1 choice, but I also use a lot of buckets in various sizes mostly free from various bakeries.

 

[moldy]

Picked up 175 chicks today, planted about 75 tomato plants over the last couple days, and need to do the second heat synching step on our cows tonight. DH and DDs fixed the chute and lanes very nicely, so hopefully I won't have cows coming over the top of the lane at me!! Only issue is that we're supposed to have storms tonight. I hope they come early or late and I can get my business done without fighting lightening and rain as well.

 

[Kathy in FL]

Had my parents down for a long weekend where the middle child graudated high school. Yikes. Three down, two to go. On Monday I finally made it to Webster Flea Market and I've been dealing with fruit and veggies ever since ... but I'm doing it up here at the BOL.

Started with a peck of fresh blueberries. Then dealing with the last of a bushel of peaches. Four watermelon. Half bushel of pears. a peck of mangoes and a peck of papayas. The three bunches of bananas barely made it here and are now gone ... all eaten fresh they were so good and sweet. Sigh. Best was the pineapples I got for a buck each. Some we are eating fresh but most I am canning. Bought my mother some okra, cantelope, and horticulture beans as I don't have the time to process them before they went bad.

Yesterday I mowed about 10 acres ... half of it the road back to our BOL. Had so much fun ... seriously. Hubby finally admitted that I was perfectly capable of using the zero turn mower and stopped worrying so much. Wowzer that puppy can book when you let it. LOL.

Flooding is still pretty bad up here. Several areas of standing water on our 40 but nothing near the house. Mostly the utility easement and then off in some oaks. Kinda hilarious to see the local water management office completely flooded.

Mosquitos and ticks are really bad so need to mix up some spray for around the house.

 

[moldy]

So jealous of all the fruit, Kathy. The only place somewhat locally (ha - about 4 hours away) is Palisade for peaches, and it's not economically feasible to go for berries or other fruit once a month. So far (!), we are going to have pears, crabapples, and apricots. My peaches didn't even bloom and I'm not sure if the apples are going to make. Strawberries are coming on nice and the rhubarb is going crazy. I managed to get everything watered, now I've got to head back into town. Sigh.

 

[SAPPHIRE]

Hi ya'll.........not so much going on but I am still plugging away.......found two flavors of dehydrated all natural entrees (bbq chicken/rice/beans and also French quarter chicken gumbo) and bought 12 packs, 6 each and each pouch feeds one. Not the best but a lot cheaper than Mountain House........Picked up some more dehydrated sliced potatoes and need to repack...picking up clearance/marked down tp..........and scrounging store markdowns.....not a lot to choose from.....

We have no land to garden or easy access to fruit trees...........suburbs ....MY RECENT SHOPPING TRIPS ARE VERY DEPRESSING.....everything is higher and now I buy whatever I can when I see it.......it'll be higher the next time 'round...my DH isn't happy about it at all...........but I do believe our $$$ are rapidly losing any value at all..........wouldn't be surprised to see some holiday celebrations sans the usual foods etc.

We don't have extra freezer space either..........bummer................ya'll are fortunate to have land/storage/opportunities........

 

[Barb]

Moldy, you might check around.I know they get peaches to sell into Beaver City and trucks come in here in August and Sept. with peaches and pears.

 

[ReneeT]

Went in a bit early for a meeting before my Monday night shift; then worked Tuesday night as well. Got off work yesterday morning, stopped only to pick up a 4pk of pepper plants, then headed home. The cleaning lady (God Bless her!!) was already busy when I got home at 8:30, so I snuck in and changed into garden clothes, grabbed a bottle of Gatorade, and headed outside. Staggered back to the house about 1:30, stripped off on the porch, and washed off the loose dirt with a bucket of water I'd left on the porch for the purpose before I dared step foot in the house - you don't dare mess up Miss Mary's clean floors right after she's done them; no, you don't!!

Don't feel like I managed to get much done out in the gardens, but did get the other 6 tomato plants put in, cages put on and tied to the T-posts. Put in 4, 40' rows of corn after that - ground is still too wet to till after our 7" of rain so it was a bit rough yet after hoing the rows open; hope it does okay. Noticed that one row of my bush beans is sprouting; the other row doesn't show any sign of doing so - same seed, put in on the same day, 40" apart; weird!!

After I finished up with the corn, I cleaned out one of the 4x8 raised beds, then planted 11 peppers and 5 broccoli plants in it - do you believe I could NOT find the pepper plants I bought on the way home from work?? I remembered carrying them up to the porch... double checked the car to make sure; nope, the receipt I'd set them on to keep dirt off the floor mats was still right there, but there were no plants there, on the porch, out by the shed where I'd gone to get the tractor and little trailer, in the flower beds where they might have fallen off the porch, etc... Vanishing pepper plants - what next lol?!?!

After I gave up searching, I cleared another 4x8 bed and declared myself done for the day - and plain old done for Got cleaned up, decided I was too tired to look for food, and headed for bed around 2:30. Woke up when Hubby got home at 6pm, but all I managed to get done was to run a couple of loads of laundry before I headed back to bed at 9pm. Had to give in and turn on the window a/c upstairs last night; just couldn't get cool enough to sleep with the ceiling fan.

Today's plans are still a bit up in the air as I'm waiting to hear back from two people - one a co-worker about working the last half of her shift tonight; the other to let me know when I can get an appointment to get my hair cut - it's driving me bats!! That'll let me know which direction I'm heading this morning as I want to go pick up some more plants for the gardens and get them put in today. I've got to get my hanging baskets planted for the porch - I place them in between the hummingbird feeders; it keeps the hummingbirds from fighting quite so much since they can't see the next feeder with the baskets in the way lol!! I also need to see if I can dig a couple of holes around my bird bath - it's sitting on an old tree stump so I'm not sure if I can find enough space clear from roots but I'd like to transplant some asters to that area, so that I can move a peony and some bee balm to the area where the asters are now. I also need to clear out a couple more of the 4x8 beds to get them ready for planting late season stuff; and get the area for the pole beans flagged so Hubby and I can put in the poles and get the trellises up tonight - maybe it'll be dry enough to till tonight or tomorrow morning...

Well, looks like I'm heading east this morning; west this afternoon - guess I'd better get moving!!

 

[silent watcher]

Last weekend I went to an Estate Sale and they had a green house that had been purchased from Harbor Freight a few years ago that was never put together. They sold it to me for $20!!! I know what I'm doing this 3 day weekend!

 

[moldy]

We AI'd 19 cows yesterday and planted about 40 pepper plants. I am exhausted today, but up to plant more.

 

[Deena in GA]

Haven't checked in here in quite a while, so its nice to see this thread continuing and even nicer to see ReneeT posting! The reminder she started this thread with is a good one and needs to be remembered from time to time.

Over the past couple of weeks we've finally gotten most of the garden put in and its doing well so far. We bought some tomato plants at a local store and they had a bunch of onion sets that they had just written off. The guy offered them to us for free. Its very late to be planting them, but they were free, so we thought we'd give it a try. At church today a lady offered me more pepper plants, so I hope to go pick those up either later today or tomorrow and get them planted. I'm hoping to be able to dehydrate or freeze lots of peppers.

A friend traded me a bunch of organic yarn and hemp (that I can make into washclothes and soap bags) for finishing a crocheted tablecloth for her mother. It was a great trade for me and she was very happy too!

We also picked up some great buys a week or two ago at a thrift store that recently opened. Found a brand-new looking pair of Adidas tennis shoes for me for $2.50 and a great winter jacket for our teen for only $4.99. The jacket is leather and lined with fur-looking stuff. He loves it! We didn't need either of those at this time, but its great prepping to think ahead.