Prep Genrl Weekly Prep Thread: October 11~17, 2020

'Mornin' All - hope you are all doing well today

I'm heading for bed as soon as I can pry my fanny off this barstool, but since that's liable to take a few minutes, I'll go ahead and mention some good stock up deals I got at the grocery store on my way home from work today:
Folger's coffee - $5.97/tub minus $1/2 coupons; I grabbed 6
Beef Arm roast - $2.49/lb; I bought 4 of them to can.
Peanut Butter - 2 large jars can't recall the price but it made me smile lol!
3 jugs laundry detergent for daughter at $1.79 each
6 bags frozen veggies (peas 'n carrots and mixed veggies) at 79 cents each
4 Barilla pasta - 16 oz for 79 cents each
12 Jiffy corn muffin mixes at 39 cents each
12 cans Brooks chili beans at 69 cents each
4 14.75 oz cans pink salmon at $1.49 each
I know there were a few other things, but Hubby has already toted them off to the pantry and I'm too darn tired to go look!!

They had a sale on vegetable oil and I was tempted to get a few jugs to put back though I know it doesn't last long in the plastic bottles. I didn't as I couldn't decide what type to get - we usually only use olive oil, coconut oil, butter or lard; the choices were vegetable, peanut, corn and canola. The sale doesn't end until Tuesday, so if I can make up my mind what kind I want, I'll send Hubby over after work as it's only a few blocks.

The grocery store in the pool town has a couple of things on sale for a decent price in a coupon flyer, but I'll wait until the ad comes out tomorrow to decide if I need to stop by as they aren't things I need, so much as they are things it wouldn't hurt to have on hand. I do plan to stop by CVS and pick up some of their brands of vitamins that are on sale BOGO - I can get the D3 5000 Iu I take cheaper there than anywhere. I also need to pick up more candy for the costumed peaceful protest that will be held in daughter's town in about 20 days I'm gonna check out Walgreen's ad (it's online only grrr...) to check for decently priced candy to throw at the protesters since I have about $20 in rewards to spend.

We had a pretty heavy fog this morning, so I'm going to go ahead and sleep 'til Hubby gets back from the motocross track, then will go out and do some work outside. Napping will give my zinnia seed heads time to dry so they can be picked and bagged then I can check for more persimmons on the ground, and gather up some black locust pods (and go read Kathy's story "Ettie" to figure out what it is I'm supposed to do with them once I gather them lol!) Hubby will finish mowing off the garden once he gets home from the track; then if we get the nice rain we are supposed to on Monday, I might be able to get the tiller far enough in the ground to work it up and put it to bed a day or two later.

I want to get over to the sale barn on Wednesday and Thursday to get a couple loads of composted manure to finish filling up the raised strawberry bed that's settled quite a bit over the summer; may pick up some boards if I can find 'em for a not totally unreasonable price and raise those compost beds out by the garden up a couple of feet so I can dump some manure in them as well in case it rains next year as much as it did this year. Wouldn't hurt to dump a couple of loads on the garden itself for that matter.... I also need to get the hummingbird feeders brought in, cleaned up, and packed away, start filling the other bird feeders, repot my porch plants so I can get ready to bring 'em inside, and, and, and....

Whew - now I really AM worn out!

Take care all; stay safe, and have a great week!

Up and over to Walgreens before the shelves were emptied. Picked up my meds, minus one--insurance said it couldn't be filled until next week. Sigh.

Then to the shopping--3 bottles laundry detergent, 4 little bottles of Dawn, box of generic immodium (can't seem to find the stocked ones), 9 pack of tp, 2 boxes of granola bars (for food pantry), 3 cans chunky soup (for food pantry), 3 jars Prego spaghetti sauce (favorite brand), 2 bags of Reeses peanut butter cups, and 4 full size payday bars. Total was $25.57 after my discount, and I had $20 in points, so $5.57 out of pocket. I thought that was pretty good. Not the best I've ever done, but I will take it any day

Have three boxes of food to take to Catholic Family Charities and will probably do that on Wednesday afternoon. Have a lot of appts this week and things to do before we disappear for a quick weekend away next weekend. Have to get out of town and do something different before I go crazy.

Oh, and last week, when I hit Big Lots I bought some Krusteaz Pumpkin Bread mixes. We had never had it before and I made a loaf on Friday. Oh my goodness! So good! Not overly "spicy" and wonderful flavor. Went back to Big Lots on Saturday and some guy was doing an online shop and pulled 5 off the shelf just as I was getting there. He left 4 and I grabbed them all. At $2.15 a box they were a good deal and Publix doesn't carry them, or at least mine doesn't. I'm not a big pumpkin fan, but this was delicious.

I canned 8 pints of applesauce and 8 jars of applebutter. I have 8 trays of apples dehydrating. I will be working on my other half bushel this week. I bought 15 cans of pumpkin. (There was plenty. ) We eat 1 to 2 cans per week. Bought another gallon of lamp oil. Bought some winter socks and nice work jacket for dh.

Any tips on how to be sure fruit is completely dehydrated? I plan to vacuum seal them in a mason jar.

I am still in the working on the shed prep. The overall idea is to make myself more tolerant to the annual flooding we seem to get when the weather is normal. I am pouring concrete, installing electrical and air to my work shed.

This weekend's project was to dig a trench, line it with conduit for both the air and electrical. Then cover it back up.

Results...... it looks like it did before I started. That is not funny......

Pictures noted below.

Actually you can see the air with the yellowish orange and the electrical conduit if you look closely.

We made ten pizzas for the freezer. Other than studying up on viewing night sky to teach child. We are reading astronomy book. Plus regular studies.

Made a Walmart run and didn’t notice too many gaps in items except in cleaning products. I did notice an increase in prices. Continued to pick up a couple of extra things to put away just in case.

I’ve started on Christmas shopping but need to do more. I know it’s not a traditional prep but is important to me so want it done.

Slow and steady .....

Question - how much do canning jars and a box of lids go for? I came across a box of pint jars (plus a bag of more) plus some lids and then a new jar of lids.
I don’t can. Have no idea how.

But thought about listing them -

Never mind - hubby listed them already. Lol

I see Walmart had pint jars in stock (online) yesterday at $9. My wife had given away many of our pints jars to friends and family this year full of home-canned produce so I did order more yesterday.

Thinking about last minute things I could do to prep/get ready for holidays, I remembered some old gift cards I had. There was almost $90 in Bath and Body Works Gift Cards I had won in online auctions ages ago. They were still good. I had to make two orders as they would only accept two cards per order, but I used them all up. Lots of Christmas stuff taken care of LOL! Shower gel and hand soap mainly. Buy 2 shower gel, get 1 free. Get 4 hand soaps for $20 when they are normally $7.50 to $8.50 each. Stuff people like but not stuff I would spend money on right now, but if it is basically free with those old gift cards, why not? Think I ended up with 3 shower gel, 8 handsoaps, and 2 travel shower gels. I like eucalyptus and it is hard to find, so at least two of those handsoaps are for me. The travel shower gel was also eucalyptus, and it is for me too. The rest are gifts

I never get here early enough to actually participate in these threads. I've only been on TB forever but rarely post. lol
We have been sick here for the last week. No clue with what..shrug. Found a 23Qt Presto canner a couple of towns over so sent dh to pick it up for me. I now have that and the 16Qt so I can get some serious canning done. I have about 24 cases of jars to fill, now it is just time to get better. Tattlers and Harvest Guard lids to be ordered later in the week to give them a try.

I have decided that it is time to really start using my Sams Club Plus membership and have them ship me all the things. As I am 1.5 hours from my closest club it is going to start paying for itself. I have mylar bags and oxygen absorbers on order for more stuff. I have a serious need to just go grocery shopping (not prepping) and restock my regular pantry. Hopefully later in the week.

prudentwatcher said:

Thinking about last minute things I could do to prep/get ready for holidays, I remembered some old gift cards I had. There was almost $90 in Bath and Body Works Gift Cards I had won in online auctions ages ago. They were still good. I had to make two orders as they would only accept two cards per order, but I used them all up. Lots of Christmas stuff taken care of LOL! Shower gel and hand soap mainly. Buy 2 shower gel, get 1 free. Get 4 hand soaps for $20 when they are normally $7.50 to $8.50 each. Stuff people like but not stuff I would spend money on right now, but if it is basically free with those old gift cards, why not? Think I ended up with 3 shower gel, 8 handsoaps, and 2 travel shower gels. I like eucalyptus and it is hard to find, so at least two of those handsoaps are for me. The travel shower gel was also eucalyptus, and it is for me too. The rest are gifts

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I just placed a bath and body works order while the candles were $10 off. I’d like to say I had a gift card, I didn’t. I’d like to say they were gifts, they weren’t.
Lol.

Maybe you could count the candles as preps, Briches?

I had the younger two grandsons yesterday as it was a school holiday; they'd fallen asleep in their play room after a hard day playing outside followed by a weenie roast, so the first thing I did after we got home was throw one in the tub and the other in the shower. They both needed haircuts, so we headed out to Great Clips and got that taken care of; then I treated them to the Chinese buffet before hitting Aldi for just a few things before heading home.

Once home, we spent the rest of the day outside - riding the dirt bikes (I stuck to the 4 wheeled buggy lol!), picking up persimmons, picking up the walnuts in the side yard, picking up hickory nuts (teaching them to avoid the ones with holes in them), some tree ID - how sassafrass has three different shape of leaves and what it can be used for, which trees were oaks and that acorns can be used for food for human consumption and that hogs like them as well, pointing out the bright red leaves on the sumac bushes and cutting some drupes to dry so we can try making 'lemonade' from them later on. There was a light rainstorm while we were in town, so gathering the zinnia seed heads was put off for another day or two to let them dry completely.

Today, I'll throw a load of laundry in the machine before heading up to the pool with the neighbor lady. Once home, I'll put the laundry in the machine (darned Asian ladybugs!), cut the roasts I bought on my way home from work Sunday morning into chunks and get them in the canner. I'll start carrying down the boxes of stuff that we've canned earlier this year and put them in the storeroom while the canner is doing it's thing. Hopefully, by the time the canner is done, it will be dry enough to pick the zinnia seed heads - the finches are already starting to hit them so I want to get that done asap.

The weather is supposed to cool off - another possible frost on Wednesday, so before then I need to make sure my porch plants are cleaned up and either brought inside or put in the basement stairwell . Most need re-potted, and I need to put my indoor plants shelves back together so I can get ready to bring the plants back in to our living area for the winter. I have a bunch of spider plant babies - the weird corkscrew ones - that I need to pot up; those I'll put in our sleeping areas as they are supposed to help cleanse the air. I guess I'd better pot up the side plants on the aloes, and then see if I can get Hubby to help me drag the two giant ones in to the house proper when he gets home from work tonight - I'd hate to lose them.

Sometime in the next few days, I need to get the persimmons worked up and the seeds from them planted in the half & half cartons I've been washing out and saving for that purpose - persimmons have a long tap root so the tall quart cartons will be good for growing them. The turkeys - and other critters - seem to really like the persimmons, we we are planting them in several places around the farm, using seed from the ones that are growing here as they are likely to be better adapted.

Well, Hubby needs the computer before he heads to work - he's been doing some cleaning in the shed and selling things online that he doesn't want to keep and wants to check his listings.

You folks take care out there; stay safe (and sane, if you can lol!)

Well, I canned up 28 quarts of pinto beans yesterday. I still need to do pints of black beans, but I'll hold off for cooler temperatures.

I've been experimenting with bucket bread all week. (The idea is to mix the dough for the week, then pull out just what you need for the day so that you have fresh bread each day.) The regular round artisan-type loaves are great. This recipe also works really well for making bread bowls for chili. I did 20 of those last week for the crew we had helping to put fencing up. I think I'll try hamburger buns with the dough tomorrow, maybe lowering the temperature a bit so the crust is a little softer.

DH and I are celebrating 32 years of marriage today. I probably ought to go clean up the house a bit.

Hunting season for Vets opens today so DH is heading over to the deer stand in an hour or so. He has his processing shed almost completely done and has already processed a pig and a road kill deer in there. He's been making a lot of jerky. He fried some venison steak last night to take with him to eat. Personally I can't imagine sitting in a deer stand for hours and hours, I'd probably go to sleep. I see no sport in it. But its food on the table.

Today is DH's 77th birthday and he's still going strong. Just like all of us with some age on us have good days and bad days.

God is good all the time

Judy

nomifyle said:

Hunting season for Vets opens today so DH is heading over to the deer stand in an hour or so. He has his processing shed almost completely done and has already processed a pig and a road kill deer in there. He's been making a lot of jerky. He fried some venison steak last night to take with him to eat. Personally I can't imagine sitting in a deer stand for hours and hours, I'd probably go to sleep. I see no sport in it. But its food on the table.

Today is DH's 77th birthday and he's still going strong. Just like all of us with some age on us have good days and bad days.

God is good all the time

Judy

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Our oldest DS and DIL are avid deer hunters. They practically live on our hunting club property during deer season. But, he kills more deer each year from their kitchen window than he does in the woods, LOL. They live very rural, too.

Happy Anniversary to School Marm and Hubby! And to Mr. Nomifyle!

tyndalelady said:

I have decided that it is time to really start using my Sams Club Plus membership and have them ship me all the things. As I am 1.5 hours from my closest club it is going to start paying for itself. I have mylar bags and oxygen absorbers on order for more stuff. I have a serious need to just go grocery shopping (not prepping) and restock my regular pantry. Hopefully later in the week.

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i had them ship 50 lbs of cornmeal. Delivered to my door! No shipping! Awesome! Definately use it.

school marm said:

Well, I canned up 28 quarts of pinto beans yesterday. I still need to do pints of black beans, but I'll hold off for cooler temperatures.

I've been experimenting with bucket bread all week. (The idea is to mix the dough for the week, then pull out just what you need for the day so that you have fresh bread each day.) The regular round artisan-type loaves are great. This recipe also works really well for making bread bowls for chili. I did 20 of those last week for the crew we had helping to put fencing up. I think I'll try hamburger buns with the dough tomorrow, maybe lowering the temperature a bit so the crust is a little softer.

DH and I are celebrating 32 years of marriage today. I probably ought to go clean up the house a bit.

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How long do you soak your beans before canning? I've seen everything from none to 24 hours. I'd like to do it. Very convenient. We eat beans several times per week.

amazon said:

How long do you soak your beans before canning? I've seen everything from none to 24 hours. I'd like to do it. Very convenient. We eat beans several times per week.

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I usually soak them overnight. I love having cans of beans ready to eat.

Today we made a shop at Dollar Tree in a town we don't usually go to. The last trip to DT I bought some Palmolive Essential Clean dish soap to try. It keep suds pretty well as well as cleaning so I bought several more bottles. When the power was out recently I used it when I was boiling water to wash dishes and it got the grease off.

I bought many bags of hard candies that are individually wrapped to vacuum seal, it keeps a long time that way. I bought another 12 packages of Bumble Bee chicken salad in a soft package, I find it tasty and fills up a tortilla nicely. I looked for regular tea bags, but they had none, I found 100 to a package of black tea at walmart, four boxes of that. They are going in vacuum sealed jars also. I also got 12 bottles of B12 energy shot. This DT has the boxed milk. I get 2% in commodities but I prefer whole milk, I got 6 boxes of it. 4 cans of Swanson Chicken a la King, that will be new to my pantry. A couple of small cans of condensed milk, this is something that I very rarely use, but figured it wouldn't hurt to have some on my shelf, along with evaporated milk. Many other things that I can't remember right now, I could not have gotten anything else on my cart and had to get a second cart to get all the stuff out to the truck.

I've been looking at cook books that I have on cooking from the pantry and I think I have just about anything needed.

I also placed an order from Amazon. One thing I've been wanting is a garden bench that also converts lower that you can kneel on and handles on each end to help me get up. I got some quarantine signs that I thought we could put up in a few places that might make people think twice about coming up here. Also a 4" silicone woopie pan to bake cornbread in without it sticking. And a couple of sets of long underwear for me just in case. DH already has some. A bottle of butter extract to use to make butter from powdered milk if I get a wild hair to do that. I've got a few thing in my shopping card at walmart that I will order tomorrow.

It will be interesting to see what we get in commodities next week.

God is good all the time

Judy

I knocked out a good bit of my Christmas shopping this week. Feels great. I need to get it all here and organized (shopped online) but love the fact it’s mostly done.

I know I can’t eat it, but I’ve worked on that as well. Balance.

Slow and steady.

We have been adding to our pantry a little each time we stop at the store. I need to get some more cornmeal. The stores have seemed pretty well stocked the last 2-3 weeks.

Thanksgiving meal and Christmas is canceled at my inlaws. She is doing chemo again at 87. She doesn't think her nerves could take the crowd and the smell of food makes her sick. The dr said without chemo she would only have 3-6 months left. But she is feeling better since starting chemo, so hopefully it will prolong her life. FIL has early dementia and really does not understand she is sick. They are able to stay home with the help of us kids and an aide for FIL.

I went through my bee hives. Put in mite treatment and a new kind of hive beetle trap. One is in real good shape with stores, the other 2 are ok I think. I plan to feed them a little more before it gets cold to ensure they all have enough.

I think hubby is going to schedule a back injection. He is hurting more and more. I am praying one does it. They make his blood sugar and blood pressure rise a lot for a week or more.

We are still getting a little from the garden. But I have to really get busy cleaning it off. The leaves are falling and it is time to mow and vacuum them up to put on the garden. Hopefully we will get it all covered deep enough. We had a great garden this year and I put up a lot. I hope next year is as good.

Had a bit of a setback on the rabbit front. Our 2 sisters are a brother and a sister so we are on the hunt for another doe. Hopefully find one this weekend. Picking away at getting the garden cleaned up. This weekend is getting ready for deer season and more firewood. If it rains I need to sort my spare reloading equipment. Got a pile that needs to be cleaned up and sold.

Today is shopping day for us. The only prep items I plan to buy are more boxes of Hamburger Helper, another case of chili from Sam's, and egg noodles. Everything else will be just our regular groceries. I do plan to buy two new rugs for my kitchen and living room. They are very much needed. I'll get some canning lids if Walmart has any, just to be on the safe side. I have a lot put back in storage, but ya never know, right?

Since I'm trying to empty out one of my freezers, this will be the first shopping trip without buying any meat. I'm already getting nervous over it. While we're eating the meat out of the freezer, I'm planning to buy and stock more shelf stable meats. The case of chili from Sam's will be my buy today.

ETA....I'm also going to be looking around to see about buying a food dehydrator today.

ivantherussian03 said:

We made ten pizzas for the freezer. Other than studying up on viewing night sky to teach child. We are reading astronomy book. Plus regular studies.

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If you have a smart phone, look for the "Night Sky" app. It uses the camera on your phone. Point it up at a star/planet/etc and it tells you what it is and shows you what constellation it is part of. Pretty fun to play around with. You can even point it at the ground (below the horizon) and it will show what is currently not visible to you. There are others apps like it, but I've used that one to show Boy Scouts.

Thanks for that info, Slydersan!

I'm lollygagging this morning; yesterday was a pain in the butt day and I just want a mellow moment (or couple of hours lol!) to chill and plan my day/rest of the week; plus I'm waiting for the rain to stop. The neighbor lady texted me right as I was texting her to say I wasn't up for the pool today... which was the same message she was sending me - maybe there is something in the air lol!

Co-worker Buddy dropped off the mid week grocery ads yesterday - split chicken breasts are on sale for 99 cent/lb, so I will stop by while I am in town this afternoon running errands (maybe twice) and see how many they will let me have. I'm getting low on chicken broth in the pantry, so while I will either freeze or can the meat, I really want the broth I can make & can from what is left over - Hubby says the broth from the store has way too much salt in it so I will can some up to keep him happy. The sale runs through next Wednesday, but I want to work up apples next week, so I'd like to get the chicken taken care of this week. If the grocery store is out, I will check in at Aldi as they also have them on sale for that price - they are usually out of them though.

I need to stop by the locksmith and get some keys made - locked my keys in the car yesterday and haven't been able to find the 2nd set since I got back from my mini vacation in September, so Hubby wants me to get a couple of spares that I can put here or there that will at least get me IN to the car (the magnetic case that had a key like that apparently fell off I'ma duct tape one to the hitch, is what I'm gonna do!) He also wants me to start looking for a new car - I'll do a drive by at the car dealer to make it look good, but I'll probably delay buying as long as I can - I LIKE my minivan (although we are supposed to get lots of snow this winter and it kinda sucks driving in that.) I could care less about brands (except I'd love to have my 1986 Bronco II back lol!).... I just want something that will haul 2-3 grandkids, a large dog, a cooler, six bags of groceries, is good in snow and lightly flooded roads, doesn't take a step ladder for me to get inside, gets decent gas mileage - and that I can SEE out of. Almost everything I looked at on line last night has these little squished up windows and the side mirror takes up over half of it which makes for one heck of a blind spot for me - had a Jeep Compass that had that issue (until I took my truck away from Hubby and let HIM drive the Compass - he got rid of it PDQ!!) (Something about every other one he saw was being driven by teen age girls lol!) I think maybe he ought to put one of those covers over the truck bed so I can throw the cooler and groceries in there, then I'll drive it and he can go get something different....

We have a freeze warning tonight, so I will need to carry my porch plants in to the outside basement stairwell later this afternoon. I want to go out and plant some more beet seed - the last I planted didn't come up, but it turned off miserably hot after I planted it so I'll give it another shot.

Once I'm back home, I need to get some more beef veggie soup canned for Hubby's lunches, prep the chicken for freezing/canning if I'm able to get some, maybe can some chicken veggie soup, and do some minor housekeeping while stuff is in the canners - I keep reminding myself that I'm on vacation, so I don't want to carry the housework too far

Well dang, rain has stopped so no more lollygagging. Take care, All - have a great weekend!

Renee- I would love to have energy like you!

My biggest prep this week (at least to me) was going to early voting yesterday, I’m happy and relieved to have that taken care of. Also went and got a flu shot while we were out.

I’m also working on getting Christmas taken care of, not finished but closer!

Aviax2 - what energy?? I'm toast! I've been home 20 minutes, got everything drug in, cold stuff put away, and ice poured over the chicken in the cooler; now I'm sitting on my butt drinking coffee, reading the 'net, and looking at the pile 'o groceries on the kitchen island that I need to put away in order to even think about canning. Luckily, the chicken at both places was partially frozen (got 37.8#), so I'm good to keep it in the cooler until tomorrow or even longer since I added ice (those RTIC coolers are good, I'm telling you!) If I can get the island cleared enough, I'll start with beef veggie soup tonight, then start on the chicken/chicken broth/chicken veggie soup tomorrow - Hubby needs to sharpen my boning knife first anyway.

I think shopping wears me out more than anything else - even grandkids
Bank #1.
Bank #2.
Drive to the 'big' town (17K vs closest town of 1100)
Catholic Charities - not accepting donations.
Locksmith - the one that could do the keys with chips was out on a call, come back later.
Salvation Army - short staffed, no donations today; try again Monday.
Grocery store - chicken, plus soda pop for daughter's weenie roast.
Goodwill - staff was rude to the people in front of me, so I didn't even ask about donating.
Penney's - I have a gift card and need a new purse that will work for concealed carry as the strap ripped on the one I've been using, but didn't like any of 'em - no adjustable straps. The one I have now can be a shoulder bag, crossbody bag, or fanny pack type bag.
Ditto Marshalls, and the other mall stores - what few there are left.
Called Locksmith - not back yet.
Aldi - from the size of the crowd, I thought it was Friday! I was really surprised that they had any of the sale chicken breasts.
Evil Empire - Aldi didn't have frozen mixed soup veggies for Hubby's soup. EE just had the peas/carrots/corn/bean mix so I got a bag of frozen limas and one of okra, a bag of 'taters, and a small stalk of celery to round it out.
Sonic - someone was getting grumpy 'cause they didn't eat any breakfast and the coffee was wearing off...
Called Locksmith - woo hoo!! He was there. He was a little cranky to begin with but I fussed over him a little bit in front of the other guy, telling him again how much I appreciated him coming to the rescue yesterday and he mellowed out some - even got a smile out of him
Gas station - good to go for the weekend!
Car wash - probably a waste of time since there are still some beans to cut on one of the routes I frequently take, but oh well...
Local grocery store - ice for the cooler 'cause I forgot it at the gas station

I need a nap

I cleaned windows, screens and vent of dryer. Carpet is next. Filled my gas cans. Happy wife happy life.

My prep is too secret to announce.

Wow. Just reading the posts in the rest of the thread made me tired.

Hit Wallyworld today. Picked up another can opener, more fishing gear, some dried peas, beans and lentils. Inflation is definitely a thing.

I vacuumed sealed over a case of hard candies to go in the pantry. I've been meaning to do this for a while.

God is good all the time

Judy

Grocery run yesterday to pick up what we needed but got some extras to tuck away as well.
Each trip makes me feel a bit better.

Slow and steady. The clock ticks.

nomifyle said:

I vacuumed sealed over a case of hard candies to go in the pantry. I've been meaning to do this for a while.

God is good all the time

Judy

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most of those hard candies are sugar - don't need much of anything for long term storage - just protect them from the elements & pests >>> finding individual wrapped candies these days is the problem - otherwise you'll have a giant ball of fused candies to smash apart ....

I always try to cash in on the Xmas candy canes in the post season - get them less than a penny apiece .....

nomifyle said:

Hunting season for Vets opens today so DH is heading over to the deer stand in an hour or so. He has his processing shed almost completely done and has already processed a pig and a road kill deer in there. He's been making a lot of jerky. He fried some venison steak last night to take with him to eat. Personally I can't imagine sitting in a deer stand for hours and hours, I'd probably go to sleep. I see no sport in it. But its food on the table.

Today is DH's 77th birthday and he's still going strong. Just like all of us with some age on us have good days and bad days.

God is good all the time

Judy

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Nothing beats well made deer steak. Hubby filled our freezer each fall but with the loss of his left leg in below knee amputation Aug 2019 the hunting for a stand is pretty much over.

We made our shopping run, yesterday. Shopped for regular two weeks worth of groceries, and replacing what I had used in the pantry. I also bought 10 boxes of Hamburger Helper and 4 large bags of egg noodles to add to the pantry at Food Giant. No shortages on anything. Came back home and put all that away. Then we went to larger city to finish our shopping.

Stopped in at Walmart. Bought two camisoles and doggie treats. No canning lids or jars. Everything else was fully stocked from what I saw. I didn't go through the whole store.

Went to book store, and bought books. Two for Cary, and one for me. We're continuing to build our book library.

Went to Academy to see if they had any ammo. NO.

Then, on to Sam's. Lots of empty spaces there. I wanted to get a case of chili, but there was none. I substituted with more canned chicken breasts. No spaghetti noodles, so I substituted with elbow macaroni. Picked up two more cartons of hash browns. Bought two thick pull over sweaters for myself. Everything else I bought there was for my regular two week supply.

Since Cary and I have our 44th wedding anniversary coming up, we went out to eat, since we won't be back in town, before it gets here. I got steak, but it will be the last time for me trying to eat steak, until I have my teeth worked on. Without any molars, I could hardly chew it, and it was tender.

We came home, afterwards, and both of us just fell into and on the recliner and sofa. Yeah, we were that tired. So, I got up this morning, and have been trying to find space to store everything. I need to order more buckets! I've still got a few O2 absorbers, but will order more of those, too.

Food Giant, Walmart, and Sam's, all had chest freezers for sale. I was sooooo tempted!

Illini Warrior said:

most of those hard candies are sugar - don't need much of anything for long term storage - just protect them from the elements & pests >>> finding individual wrapped candies these days is the problem - otherwise you'll have a giant ball of fused candies to smash apart ....

I always try to cash in on the Xmas candy canes in the post season - get them less than a penny apiece .....

Click to expand...

They are individually wrapped, all from the Dollar Tree. We don't eat much of it but I thought having some put back would be appreciated if there are severe shortages. I never buy Christmas or Halloween candy so I have no clue what the offerings are.

I looked up storing hard candy and it was recommended to be sealed.

God is good all the time

Judy

SouthernBreeze said:

We made our shopping run, yesterday. Shopped for regular two weeks worth of groceries, and replacing what I had used in the pantry. I also bought 10 boxes of Hamburger Helper and 4 large bags of egg noodles to add to the pantry at Food Giant. No shortages on anything. Came back home and put all that away. Then we went to larger city to finish our shopping.

Stopped in at Walmart. Bought two camisoles and doggie treats. No canning lids or jars. Everything else was fully stocked from what I saw. I didn't go through the whole store.

Went to book store, and bought books. Two for Cary, and one for me. We're continuing to build our book library.

Went to Academy to see if they had any ammo. NO.

Then, on to Sam's. Lots of empty spaces there. I wanted to get a case of chili, but there was none. I substituted with more canned chicken breasts. No spaghetti noodles, so I substituted with elbow macaroni. Picked up two more cartons of hash browns. Bought two thick pull over sweaters for myself. Everything else I bought there was for my regular two week supply.

Since Cary and I have our 44th wedding anniversary coming up, we went out to eat, since we won't be back in town, before it gets here. I got steak, but it will be the last time for me trying to eat steak, until I have my teeth worked on. Without any molars, I could hardly chew it, and it was tender.

We came home, afterwards, and both of us just fell into and on the recliner and sofa. Yeah, we were that tired. So, I got up this morning, and have been trying to find space to store everything. I need to order more buckets! I've still got a few O2 absorbers, but will order more of those, too.

Food Giant, Walmart, and Sam's, all had chest freezers for sale. I was sooooo tempted!

Click to expand...

Since you are concerned about one of your freezers why don't you buy a new one and transfer all the food in that one to the new one and defrost the old one to use for other things. I did that with one of mine and the old one is still going strong, its full now too.

God is good all the time

Judy

nomifyle said:

Since you are concerned about one of your freezers why don't you buy a new one and transfer all the food in that one to the new one and defrost the old one to use for other things. I did that with one of mine and the old one is still going strong, its full now too.

God is good all the time

Judy

Click to expand...

I wish I could do that, but I don't have the room for 3 freezers. I didn't buy any meat this time around, and we've doing our best to eat out of that freezer, so I can get it defrosted. Once it's defrosted and cleaned, I may try to talk Cary into buying a new one instead of filling this one back up. As old as it is, I'm afraid it will go out on me at the most inconvenient time, like during a SHTF event. I could still keep the old one, but it would have to go into my storage barn to use as a plain chest for storage items. I don't have electricity out there.

SouthernBreeze said:

We made our shopping run, yesterday. Shopped for regular two weeks worth of groceries, and replacing what I had used in the pantry. I also bought 10 boxes of Hamburger Helper and 4 large bags of egg noodles to add to the pantry at Food Giant. No shortages on anything. Came back home and put all that away. Then we went to larger city to finish our shopping.

Stopped in at Walmart. Bought two camisoles and doggie treats. No canning lids or jars. Everything else was fully stocked from what I saw. I didn't go through the whole store.

Went to book store, and bought books. Two for Cary, and one for me. We're continuing to build our book library.

Went to Academy to see if they had any ammo. NO.

Then, on to Sam's. Lots of empty spaces there. I wanted to get a case of chili, but there was none. I substituted with more canned chicken breasts. No spaghetti noodles, so I substituted with elbow macaroni. Picked up two more cartons of hash browns. Bought two thick pull over sweaters for myself. Everything else I bought there was for my regular two week supply.

Since Cary and I have our 44th wedding anniversary coming up, we went out to eat, since we won't be back in town, before it gets here. I got steak, but it will be the last time for me trying to eat steak, until I have my teeth worked on. Without any molars, I could hardly chew it, and it was tender.

We came home, afterwards, and both of us just fell into and on the recliner and sofa. Yeah, we were that tired. So, I got up this morning, and have been trying to find space to store everything. I need to order more buckets! I've still got a few O2 absorbers, but will order more of those, too.

Food Giant, Walmart, and Sam's, all had chest freezers for sale. I was sooooo tempted!

Click to expand...

Our refrigerator blew it a month ago.

We still don’t have a new one yet, Bern living out of the extra tiny one in the basement. I’m so bummed! I’m ready to charge in and prep more but the huge extra freezer is already jammed worth what I had to salvage from the main frig.

We just went through refinancing our mortgage and got approved but we don’t want to use any money or the credit card until the house thing is settled.
Will check these places for the frig.

Last year I had a goal of having 52 cans of certain foods. Basically I lost track of counting because I couldn't store them all in one place, although I did keep buying them.

The front room of our house is kind of a mud room, computer room for DH, we have our wood stove and our kitchen table in that room. DH built two rows of 4' shelves behind his computer desk. Last year he let me store canned foods on those shelves and there is about 4 more feet of shelving in from of his desk. Most of this is visible when someone comes in the front door. I have several wooden book shelves in the back room (quickly becoming a pantry room. I've decided to move a large portion of the canned goods on the shelves in this room to the back room. This way if or when some one comes in that room they won't see floor to ceiling can foods stored.

The books from the back room book shelves are going to go on the shelves behind the desk and the cans on the book shelves. Moving all this stuff around will give me a better space to keep like things together. Prayerfully I will be better organized this way.

The back room also has our second bath room and my actual pantry in it, plus it was used as a guest room with a double bed. The bed is now surrounded by boxes and buckets and jars filled with food, plus more stuff on the bed.

My greatest wish is to have all this organized before God calls me home.

God is good all the time

Judy