PREP THREAD 5/12-5/18

Well the biggest thing I have been working on this week is garden stuff. Got 2 of the raised beds planted. Which was nice as I put out plants in them. Got part of my tomatoes planted. Need more pepper plants and will take care of it this week. If the weather is nice enough this week I need to get more garden stuff done as well. Did get all the herb beds cleaned which is nice also.
Yesterday got dh another boat. this one folds up though to go on the outside of a camper. Which we don't have the camper yet but will within the year. And the boat was really cheap and we don't see them here very often.
Dh has vacation this week for the fishing contest. Hopefully he will be at the lake catching fish making money. If he did really well we could get the camper sooner even. One guy caught a fish that was worth $l,ooo this week already.
Hope you all have a Happy Mothers Day. I am off to water the trees. What are you all doing?

Also working in the garden here. I planted my peppers this a.m. plus green beans, chard, and zucchini. It started raining so I quit but I think I can go back out soon to plant tomatoes, carrots, beets and flower seed.

I planted geraniums, sweet potato vine and Joseph's coat that I'd overwintered. Its very windy so I hope the wind doesn't beat them to death. They are too big for covers.

I'm repurposing an old metal night stand that dh picked up when the nursing home was discarding. Its on wheels and I'm making it over to be a stand for my KitchenAide mixer. I'll be able to roll it out of the way when I don't need it plus the cabinet drawer will hold beaters and attachments. The door section will hold my grain mill and a gallon jar of wheat. I love free -- except for the work and spray paint.

We're continuing to sort out, eliminate and donate to clean up the house. Saturday was the town trash pickup day so we put a bunch of stuff on the curb. Half was scavanged before the pickup time! Yesterday I gave another bunch of stuff to our Pastor's kids (they have 12 soon to be 13). I no longer have a twin bed so the sheets I had will be better used there than in a box in my house. My m-i-l passed away 18 months ago and we keep going thru her stuff. The first time dh didn't want to get rid of anything, but now most has been donated or tossed.

We are also working in the garden here. We have most of it in, but it has been quite cool so nothing much is growing right now. Hard to believe that on Math 13th it barely made it to 60 here. The chickens are growing well. Looks like we have a couple of roosters that will need to be culled. While chickens aren't "illegal" here, having roosters will make it harder to hide and might bring the local authorities out. I would like to avoid that if possible.

We have also been sorting and purging. We had my mother and my MIL pass away within a month of each other, so we have been dealing with items from both of them, plus our own accumulation of stuff. I am down to the last 2 rooms of the house and it is looking great. I have a place in the garage for my less used kitchen appliances.

I have also purchased a grain mill finally so I can begin grinding my own grains. I am just waiting my order to arrive.

Next up my list to purchase is a pressure canner. I want to get it ASAP since I think they are going to become a regulated item soon. DH has purchased a couple of items that will help with home security. We should be able to get them soon. Things are running behind because of the recent law changes here.

I feel like we are progressing along nicely in our preps. Each month, we are crossing more off the list.

With the wind we have been having, it has been a battle to keep everything from being damaged too bad.
I had to start picking the cherries a few days earlier than I would normally because the Ravens are having a party with them.
Picked about 5 lbs. Also picked a lot of radishes, garlic and onions.
My big order this week was everything to do with first aid and personal supplies. Drugstore.com loves me. I swear though, the big thing I hate about prepping is once you have years invested and nothing ever happens you have to throw out so much stuff and replace it. What do the rest of you do with everything like MRE's and aspirin and such? I just noticed that even toothpaste has an expiration date on it. What? Hard to keep up with it all.

Well, for one thing, I IGNORE ALL EXPIRATION dates!! Good grief... I couldn't possibly afford to dump stuff just because the date is past!!

Aspirin does have a shorter shelf life than most OTC pain relievers... but it also has a built in "too old" detector- if it smells like vinegar, and is getting crumbly, it's too old. I've found that it keeps about 3 years past it's "use by" date, but not a lot longer.

But I just ignore dates on pretty much everything else. Almost all OTC stuff has preservatives... including shampoos, etc. ONCE OPENED, they won't last forever, but most stuff will be just fine for *at least* several years past whatever date they stamp on it. And if stuff does get stale, you can almost always tell by smelling it.

As far as first aid supplies, the only thing I've ever noticed gets old and eventually useless are bandaids- especially the cheap ones. They lose their stickiness after awhile.

I depend on my own senses and common sense to tell me if something needs to be tossed. "use by" dates are mostly revenue enhancements for the producing companies.

Summerthyme

I have the date that my half beef will be delivered. That is a load off of my mind. Additionally, one of the grocery stores is having a fantastic strawberry sale - 2 pounds for 2.98. I am freezing strawberries to use in smoothies when the price goes up. Heck at this price, it is way cheaper than what I pay for frozen strawberries.

I may need to invest in another freezer, as the one I have is getting full.

It is finally warming up here enough to start planting the tomato and pepper plants we started from seed in February. We lost some of the peppers due to being in containers - so will need to start more. We have turned most of our raised beds into wicking beds - and so far from what I have seen I am impressed. We do have some other beds that are ground level. I have planted a couple of those and hopefully will get more planted before the weekend is out.

summerthyme said:

Well, for one thing, I IGNORE ALL EXPIRATION dates!! Good grief... I couldn't possibly afford to dump stuff just because the date is past!!

Aspirin does have a shorter shelf life than most OTC pain relievers... but it also has a built in "too old" detector- if it smells like vinegar, and is getting crumbly, it's too old. I've found that it keeps about 3 years past it's "use by" date, but not a lot longer.

But I just ignore dates on pretty much everything else. Almost all OTC stuff has preservatives... including shampoos, etc. ONCE OPENED, they won't last forever, but most stuff will be just fine for *at least* several years past whatever date they stamp on it. And if stuff does get stale, you can almost always tell by smelling it.

As far as first aid supplies, the only thing I've ever noticed gets old and eventually useless are bandaids- especially the cheap ones. They lose their stickiness after awhile.

I depend on my own senses and common sense to tell me if something needs to be tossed. "use by" dates are mostly revenue enhancements for the producing companies.

Summerthyme

Click to expand...

LOL, I don't even throw out the bandaids, when the sticky stuff doesn't work, I use first aid tape to hold it down. The gauze portion is still fine.

Judy

Foods with oil content will go rancid but otherwise unless something is obviously questionable, it doesn't get tossed. Common sense needs to be applied not expiration dates.

I've only ever found cans of acid type foods leaking i.e. tomato based products or acid fruits like pineapple. Some older cans especially fruits will begin to taste "tinny" but are still edible as long as the can remains intact.