PREP THREAD 5/5-5/11

Well I went back to Lowes on Monday. And I got 6 more of the blackberry plants for $3 as well. CVK they grow here we just have to fight the wild birds for them. And I am hoping by putting these new ones closer to the house it will help. I didn't want to move the ones I have already till I got these going well. That way hopefully I will get some from them this year. Then maybe next year move those if I need to.
I got the plates for my new to me rig on Thursday. Cost me $l20 for a lifetime plate. And it will cost me $25 a month for insurance as I only put Lib on it. I have insurance with the company on 2 other rigs is why the price in case you were wondering.
Went to a yard sale close by yesterday and got sprinklers for the garden for 25 cents each. Good price they are the smaller sprinklers which work great in raised beds.
I also got the zippers for repairing dh's boat top this week. And will have to get it done this week. Contest at the lake will be on next week. So need it done maybe tomarrow morning while he is at work. I was thinking I had another week but guesse not.
Had a friend get me some building stuff at a yard sale on Friday. So now I can get busy on my greenhouse as well.
Not to many dull moments around here. What are all of you doing????????

What zone are you, kilagal? Also do you know the name of the berry? I grew them here but they never did bear any berries. The canes grew but being they fruited on 2nd year canes the canes winter froze every winter so there never were any 2 year old canes. I was too busy to ever bury them in the ground in fall. This Prime Jan fruits on first year canes so maybe that will work. I am zone 4 but probably right at the border of zone 3.

Planted some lemon grass in big pots on each side of my patio, it deters misquitoes and replaced my front door lock that was broken, and weeded around my crape mirtiles.

Judy

Most of last weeks 7" of heavy wet snow is gone and the temps have managed to climb to more normal range of 69º. Wonderful to see the sun again!! Spent some time picking up the larger limbs that came down with the snow. Still need to rake up the smaller stuff as the yard needs to be mowed before long. Its still too wet to rake today and I go into the office tomorrow and its supposed to start raining again Wed. so maybe it will all have to wait another week. I put my tomato, pepper and cabbage plants out on the front steps in the sun. I'll be bringing them back in as this weather is too crazy to trust.

I've finally gotten back into baking our bread. Dh is already spoiled, he'll no longer eat store bread! I'm still tweaking my whole wheat recipe and when I get it where I want it I'll try some different breads. I used to bake all our bread, but got out of the habit when I went to work full time. Now that I'm retired there is no excuse not to bake again.

Tripple Treat Thornless is the name of the blackberries that we raise. And we are in the same kind of zone that you are in. We are way up in the NW corner of our state. And no I do not lay my canes down in the winter. But I have heard that there are people that do it around here. I just never seem to have time in the fall to do stuff like that. So it either lives or not here.
I had to go to town today for some other stuff so picked up some plant starts. They were nice ones and I had a coupon to get a lot off of the price so I did it. I then came home and planted the red cabbage. Dh was so glad that I found some of it.
I also got a flat of pansys for his bees to enjoy. I need to get those planted tomarrow.

I've never seen that variety around here!!!!! Wonder if one of the seed catalogs carry it. Guess, I better be doing an internet search. Thornless would make my day!!! Thank you!

Edit-----can't find anything about it online anywhere.

lowes is where I got them

We have been harvesting strawberries and drying them. Not so many this year as last. Still transplanting tomatoes and had to replant the green beans.

Added 2 cases of chicken broth to my food preps and 2 super pails of rice and beans. Also a case of spaghetti sauce.

DH is going to pick 95 year old neighbors mulberries today in exchange for some and will have to fight the Ravens for them. He said there is enough for the whole block except nobody knows what they are and won't eat them. Go figure.

Bought a copy of Edible and Useful Plants of California and a copy of The Amazing Wheat Book.

That is about it for me this week. It is hard to keep the faith when you see so many articles on how great everything is but our eyes don't lie and we know everything is falling apart. Our American culture is dying. There may still be pockets of it left but I have lived long enough to know just how much we have lost. Kudos to all of you that are homeschooling your kids to survive what is coming. And God Bless all of you.

Despite temps in the 30's I went garage sailing on Saturday. I found an early 1940's "The American Woman Cook Book" for $1 and a blender for 50¢. Yesterday went to library book sale and found an 1955 "Good Housekeeping Cookbook". I also have a 1946 Joy of Cooking purchased several years ago. I've found for basic ingredient cooking these old books are the best. Plus where else will you find instructions on cooking opposum and raccoon? I also picked up "The Little House Cookbook" that features frontier foods from Laura Ingalls Wilder's stories. The VERY basic cooking methods and ingredients are interesting and I'm going to give some a try.

Besides having food storage I've made a special effort to collect interesting recipies using what I store. Food fatigue is often mentioned as a danger post-SHTF so I want to be able to present the basic storage ingredients in a variety of tasteful meals.

The Amazing Wheat Book is great. The gal that wrote it is the sister to the gal that wrote the first "Passport to Survival". And the aunt to the gal that wrote "Country Beans". All good books.
I have been busy putting out plants and moving dirt today. We had to spend the early morning in town getting stuff for dh. Wednesday and Thursdays are his days off and he works weekends. So I always just try and not plan anything for his days off.
we did get a case of Nalleys chili for 79 cents a can today on sale so that was great we got the one with the jalapeno peppers in it. It is dh's favorite and we can't always find it on sale with the others. We got the 24 cans but it is all they had. But 24 are better than nothing.

Kilagal, that is an interesting little tidbit on the books. I think I have Country Beans somewhere around here but lack of organizational ability is one of my downfalls.

anna43, your garage sailing sounds fun. Great finds on the cookbooks. They are highly collectible and might be worth much more than you paid.