Prep Genrl Weekly Prep Thread: March 12~18, 2023

Good Morning, All!

I'm grumbling a little at the time change, but the coffee that's slowly dripping in to the carafe will probably improve things in short order. I hope so, anyway. If it doesn't, I'll just have to grumble at myself as Hubby has escaped to work It's in the low 40's with temps predicted to drop throughout the day into the 20's, where they will stay until tomorrow afternoon. At least I didn't see any predictions for sleet or snow - so far - but the sky is that pale grey color that looks like it could bring in a little bit of weather. Only outside work I had planned besides feeding the cats was picking up stuff that has blown into the yard, and cleaning the van, but both of those can wait until it's warmer.

I spent Friday into Saturday at daughter's to watch the boys as she had plans; ended up with my two younger grandsons, plus 5 others who appeared out of the woodwork. Pre-teen boys. Loud, stinky, zany pre-teen boys. Apparently this is a thing - my daughter allows the boys to invite their friends over on the Friday nights - when she is home and the boys aren't here, but she didn't give me a heads up. I threw caution to the winds, ordered large quantities of pizza, told 5 of them to get in the van, stopped at the Dollar Store to let each one grab a 2 liter soda, then they followed me like ducklings into the pizza joint and each carried a pizza out for me and we booked it for home. Oldest grandson walked in to the melee; ate some pizza, and then said "Where's Mom?" He turned around and went to the Evil Empire to pick up donuts, juice and milk for the morning - gotta love that boy. I escaped home around 5 pm Saturday when daughter got home - had just enough energy left to hit Dollar General for some sale items and to pick up a couple of things at the small grocery store in town. I've got a pad of paper that I'm using to make a list of items to put in a "Friday Night at Daughter's" tote - name tags, loud whistle, paper plates, napkins, and cups, air freshener...

So as soon as I recover somewhat, I'm going to work on a plan for this week. I have no scheduled appointments, and the neighbor lady is on a trip so no pool this week, so it will be the perfect time to stay home and work around the house. I have one last tote of Buddy's clothing to carry to the thrift store in daughter's town, plus a tote of the grandsons' outgrown clothing I might as well take in as well. I'd like to lemon oil the woodwork; I might start on that Monday since I doubt I bother with going to the pool by myself (boring!), but will have to see what the humidity is - it doesn't seem to absorb as well and tends to gets a bit sticky if it's damp. We have another half inch or more of rain predicted for Thursday and Friday so I'll need to work on it before then.

Well, I've been back and forth to the computer several times, so I'm going to go ahead and post this before I forget I need to do so.

Take care all; wishing you all a safe and productive week!

It stormed all night long last night! We are under a flood warning, AGAIN! It's much colder, today, so Cary will be firing up the wood heater this afternoon. I don't know which I hate worse, cold weather or all this rain.

Home fellowship this morning, and I've been running around all morning getting everything set for that. Getting adjusted to the time change, too. Need more coffee!

Tomorrow, we have to go pick up our wills at attorney's office, and Cary wants him to make an adjustment to our property deed, so we'll have to make another run to pick that up, once it's completed.

Wednesday is grocery shopping day. I have a long list, so I'm not looking forward to the bill. There are several items on my list that will add to our overall prepping. Not just food. Also, this is our time for ordering from Sam's. We only do this once a month, now.

That's our plans for the week, unless God has other plans for us.

God Bless you all!

We, too, woke up to rain and cooler temps. Preps for this week are hauling gravel adding to our stockpile, topping off fuel tanks here on the farm, and I want to go fishing! Yesterday we dug up a redbud from the woods and collected flower bulbs and tubers from old home site. We hilled everything in til we can plant. Also planted 4 trees and put up an archway. I know. It has nothing to do with survival! But it creates a beautiful restful place for us to recharge…at least that’s how I justify it! Picked up 2 bantam hens for our bantam rooster. Better than a TV show!
Remember Who is really in control!

First weekend of spring break, so using the time to my advantage. Did some work on some the shop equipment today, did a heavy grocery run earlier today. Went to the bank yesterday and took out some additional cash. Planning on running several batches of strawberries through the dehydrator this week. About to head to ACE to pick up a few odds and ends. Cutting down a large mulberry tree next to the house tomorrow. So plenty going on here. Have a great week and please stay safe.

Body told me to chill. I am handling dishes and laundry. Friend who is helping to get the kitchen back under control tackled the fridge today. Between the egg drawers I got and the bins I was already using, it looks soooo much better. I gave her a bunch of seasonings that I can't use anymore. And the backup wok.

The bins are on the top shelf. I stick everywhere in them so that nothing gets lost in the back. There's a small space between them for anything that can't fit in them.

I took out the built in drawer because the slide was busted. One of the egg drawers sits there and I can put stuff on top of it. I will be looking for a bin to fit that space. So that things tucked on top don't fall off the back and get lost.

The other egg drawers are on the next shelf down. And the big thing of spring mix greens now calls the top of that home.

I got the smaller cast iron wok last week and absolutely love it. It fits the space better and cooks like a dream.

I got everything in the freezer except the ground turkey. Other friend is dropping that in his freezer until I have space again.

And there was a pile of things that I just tossed. They were still in there, unused, since the last time I cleaned. That means it was time for them to go. So that's another batch or two of dishes as well. But then that's all cleaned up as well.

It was tough to get up this morning, I had a hard time going to sleep which often happens when I know I need to get up early the next morning. But I managed and we got to church on time. The pastor in training does the second sunday in the month, so today was his day, he is getting better and longer, LOL.

We went to the road kill cafe again, I did not go back for seconds. I loaded up on green beans and broccoli, two egg rolls and 4 of those puff things and orange chicken. The orange chicken is the most tender meat they have, not bad. They don't give fortune cookies any more, I never ate them anyway.

There is a small chain grocery next door to the restaurant so instead of going to walmart we went there. I only wanted salad lettuce, and they had heads of ice burg for 1.69 a head, the price sounded good and the heads were solid, but I got bagged lettuce instead. I want to get a few dollars cash back but the transaction did not offer me cash back. The cashier said grab a bag of chips and try again and I said no, I don't want to pay the price for a small bag of chips. Just wanted to add a little more to my stash. Since I use a credit union for my banking prayerfully it will still be in operation next week.

It was rainy this morning but not heavy and had stopped by the time we got out of church. I came home and took a nap. DH is watching wwII movies, mostly not to my taste, so I came back to my office and got on my computer.

I guess its a crap shoot as to what will happen with the banks next week. I'm a little worried about an insurance check we are supposed to get next week. I'd like to take part of that and add to my stash, my van needs some work, and issue with the electrical system. And DH wants to work on the damage to my camper. And some of the gas cans need to be refilled, he used some to fill up the truck before we went on our trip. Gas was a decent price when we went to the VA last week but he didn't take the cans with him.

Got a few things done - a load of laundry, a couple tinctures made, a few things put back in my apothecary. I really need to get that reorganized since SIL moved out and into her new house. I am doing a presentation at the local library on the 25th on herbs and I need to get my stuff all together. DH took me for a ride around the property - he found where we have a beaver that has showed up. Kinda cool, but he picked a bad tree to chew on - it's part of the fence. Oh well, we'll figure it out.

Got a few peppers repotted and a little housework done. Now just to get ready for the workweek - and its' so much later than it feels!

Bad Judy, I've let the laundry pile up and the dishes, now I have a mess to clean up. I started on folding a basket of laundry and got the one basket done and now on the second basket. The down side is it kills my back to fold clothes. Basically the only place to fold clothes is on the end of the bed and it kills my back to lean over for very long.

Its in the mid to low 60's and the sun is shinning. God is good all the time.

I've been listening to a couple of people about the banks failing. I keep cash but DH does not, at least he finally got a savings account instead of keeping everything in the checking account. My idea is only keeping enough in the bank to cover monthly bills, but not DH. Although he doesn't really spend foolishly We are not in the position to by gold or silver and I don't think this is a particularly good time to do that any way.

My van is going to the repair place this week, I don't use it all the time and that may be part of the problem its having, but we do need a second mode of transportation besides the tractor or the lawn mowers.

Started work a little late for me. Dang daylight savings time. Not that boss cared. And then got news from boss that no more messes from the new client, for this week. I'll believe it when we make it to Friday with nothing. I was warned that I get to start cleaning up another mess on Monday. But the paycheck coming in for cleaning up the messes will be really nice.

Fridge looks amazing. I still need to get one more plastic bin to put raw meat in when defrosting it. That will help with mess and containing any leakage.

I am honestly debating hiring a lawn care service for mowing this year. But no decision made yet. I refuse to start mowing before 4/1.

I'm cleaning and doing laundry. That is the rest of today. Family members are coming this upcoming weekend and I need to have the living room presentable. And I have two pairs of pants that need repairs for friend. And I think I'm going to start on the pool area overhaul so we can get son's pool set back up.

The next prep areas are two fold. One is ammo for weapons. The other is the cash buffer for emergencies. A little bit each week until I reach my goals. The second one will take about a year probably. The first one, probably only a couple of months. I've been nipping away at that one and will keep doing so.

kyrsyan said:

The next prep areas are two fold. One is ammo for weapons. The other is the cash buffer for emergencies. A little bit each week until I reach my goals. The second one will take about a year probably. The first one, probably only a couple of months. I've been nipping away at that one and will keep doing so.

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A little at a time adds up, cash and ammo. DH is going to get some pvc pipe to bury some of the first thing.

nomifyle said:

A little at a time adds up, cash and ammo. DH is going to get some pvc pipe to bury some of the first thing.

Click to expand...

I've got to add fencing in some areas at some point. I will probably do the same.

I have other areas but they are mainly landscaping at this time. Moving the fruit trees, planting asparagus, adding more fruit trees and shrubs. And when that is done, starting the build on the chicken coop. Clearing out the small garden shed and turning it into rabbit and quail hutch. Pulling storm windows, cleaning and painting underneath, repairing each as needed. Pressure washing porch. Pressure washing siding. Repairing some siding. Etc, etc. And the roof repair this coming weekend.

I don't think the banking crisis will affect us, directly, anyway. Our little regional bank is in good shape at the moment, and I'm watching it closely for the next few days. We have always diversified all of our assets so as not to have everything in the banking system. PM's, Bank of Sealy, and another separate emergency fund here at home. We do have a substantial savings account and checking account with our bank, though, plus Cary's retirement holdings are with a brokerage firm that he's keeping a close eye on, too. ATM, it still seems to be in good shape. If smaller banks, such as ours, start to fail or have bank runs, we'll do what we can to get as much of our money out as we can at that time. Our bank wouldn't let us pull it all out at one time, though. There is a $3000 limit. We're not in panic mode, and neither of us have gotten any kind of nudge from God to pull anything out. Cary got that nudge back in 08. He acted on it, and it saved us a lot of heartache and loss.

We just got home from picking up our wills. That is done, and our attorney will be adding a clause to our property deed for us. His secretary will call when that is ready to be picked up. I'm glad we're finally getting all this legal prepping out of the way.

It's not raining, today. Sun is shining, but it's cold. 51 degrees right now, with freeze warnings tonight and tomorrow night. Upper 20's. No more rain, until Friday. Tomorrow, Cary will be cutting and hauling more firewood to our house. I think he said there was enough tree left for 2 more loaded down trailer loads. That will be enough to replace what we've used this winter. He still has 2 more trees to cut and start on, too, after he's finished with this. Same neighbor wants them cut down. Both are oaks as well.

nomifyle said:

A little at a time adds up, cash and ammo. DH is going to get some pvc pipe to bury some of the first thing.

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Be careful! Cash molds and rots *very* easily. If you are going to bury it, put it in a dehydrator or an oven set on very low, to thoroughly remove any moisture. It should only take 10 minutes or do if you spread the bills out.

Then make sure you put some silica gel packets inside the pipe with the money.

But the most important part is first making sure it is completely dry. Just don't forget it's in the oven and set it on fire when preheating it for supper!

Summerthyme (I've seen too many Mason jars containing cash... some on video, some personally... which held aback, moldering lump. Some were intact enough to get replacements from the Treasury... many weren't)

summerthyme said:

Be careful! Cash molds and rots *very* easily. If you are going to bury it, put it in a dehydrator or an oven set on very low, to thoroughly remove any moisture. It should only take 10 minutes or do if you spread the bills out.

Then make sure you put some silica gel packets inside the pipe with the money.

But the most important part is first making sure it is completely dry. Just don't forget it's in the oven and set it on fire when preheating it for supper!

Summerthyme (I've seen too many Mason jars containing cash... some on video, some personally... which held aback, moldering lump. Some were intact enough to get replacements from the Treasury... many weren't)

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Being afraid our cash will mold and rot is the reason we don't put it in the ground. We've taken other steps.

I wasn't considering cash in the ground. Honestly, if I was going to do that, it'd be coins. But not really at that point either. I hadn't thought about running it through the dehydrator. I do know that cash stored in fire safes can go moldy unless sealed well with a desiccant.

kyrsyan said:

I wasn't considering cash in the ground. Honestly, if I was going to do that, it'd be coins. But not really at that point either. I hadn't thought about running it through the dehydrator. I do know that cash stored in fire safes can go moldy unless sealed well with a desiccant.

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And, it's a good idea to take the cash out and check on it from time to time. Just as with any other prep item, you can't just put it back, forget about it, and never check on it.

I got a surprise medical bill. I called the hospital because I was on their "charity" plan at the time and had even called in advance to make sure that there wouldn't be surprise bills from other vendors. "Oops, we were wrong."

This is the one vendor, the only one, that I have outstanding bills with. And I have outstanding bills because when I called to make arrangements the billing person lied to me, accused me of not honoring past billing arrangements, and then just refused to speak with me about anything other than "When will you pay this?". They went to the bottom of my list and I honestly haven't thought about them since. I rarely ever use credit, and my one and only current credit account is paid on time, in full, and sometimes extra. So I honestly am not worried about their report to the credit agencies. And then a credit agency friend told me how to get them removed from my report so I was even less worried.

The person from the hospital convinced me to call them and give them one more chance. So I did. This went much better. I did tell her that I was more than willing to take care of the old bills if they could be re-evaluated based on my income at those times. She agreed that they would use my old tax returns to re-evaluate those bills. And then set up payment arrangements for those amounts.

And the problem person - she was fired.

This actually makes me happy. I hate having outstanding bills like that. I had been more than happy to take care of it, if they had worked with me.

There is a freedom in not using credit. There really is.

Eating mandarins tonight. One of the things my body craves this time of year.

For the first time in a very long time, I got one that had seeds. I know they likely won't grow true but I dropped them in water. Tomorrow night I'll plant them and add them to the seeds. Just to see what happens.

Even if they don't grow true, if they fruit and the fruit is good, I'll be happy.

kyrsyan said:

Eating mandarins tonight. One of the things my body craves this time of year.

For the first time in a very long time, I got one that had seeds. I know they likely won't grow true but I dropped them in water. Tomorrow night I'll plant them and add them to the seeds. Just to see what happens.

Even if they don't grow true, if they fruit and the fruit is good, I'll be happy.

Click to expand...

Cary's mom grew a lemon tree from a lemon she got at the grocery store. She just planted a seed. It grew into a small tree that she kept in her sunny dining room. It produced lots of lemons that tasted great, although, they were smaller than store bought lemons. The tree eventually got so large she had to cut it back. She cut it back too much, and that killed it.

I managed to get several qt's of chicken broth and chicken canned up. Got more snow dumped on us and then yesterday temps went up and it's melting. Down to 3 feet in the yards. On Sat. morning dh plowed the driveway so that's down to ice and mud. But the ice is slowly going away. But a lot of the driveway gravel in in the grass in the side yard. LOts of raking to look forward to, NOT.
Picked up my mom's ashes yesterday afternoon. Her boy friend thinks he should have them and complained to the funeral home, but she never said anything to them about it or to me, so I am keeping them and he will not answer his phone to even talk and he has never said anything to me about it at all. So he is cutting himself off from everyone. But that also means I will never see any of my moms things. I think also it's because he had his name put on my mom's checking account as a signer but not as a joint account. I don't care about the money. He had his name put on her care as well. I think those are his problems. Sorry for the rant.

SouthernBreeze said:

Cary's mom grew a lemon tree from a lemon she got at the grocery store. She just planted a seed. It grew into a small tree that she kept in her sunny dining room. It produced lots of lemons that tasted great, although, they were smaller than store bought lemons. The tree eventually got so large she had to cut it back. She cut it back too much, and that killed it.

Click to expand...

I may try that! Thank you for the idea.

John Deere Girl said:

I may try that! Thank you for the idea.

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You're welcome!

I grew one, myself, and it did great, until I had to move it out of the laundry/sun room. They need lots of direct sunlight without any cold drafts. Mine got just large enough to produce tiny little lemons, before it died. I did the same with an orange. Same thing. Once it started producing little oranges, I had to move it to a shadier location, and it died, too.

Yesterday turned out to be a miserable day. I was feeling plugged up and it took many miserable hours to solve the problem. I took milkamagnesia twice and when it finally worked it worked in spades, off and on for hours. Some time in the middle of the night I had to go and unfortunately I had taken my sleeping meds plus a muscle relaxer. I woke DH up because I was about to fall down, which I did at the end of his bed on the floor. He tried to sit me up but because of the meds it was impossible so I just laid down on the rug and he got me a pillow and covered me up. After what seemed like a good while my legs were killing me. The meds had worn way down and I got myself in a sitting position, trying not to wake him up again.

And praise the Lord I got up off the floor and got myself to my chair and blissfully went to sleep.

He said this morning that he thought I was dead because he could not tell if I was breathing, but I mumbled something so he was satisfied that I was still breathing.

When I woke up this morning I felt okay, but I'm tired from the ordeal.

My take away from this is that I need to work harder to get myself up then I fall, instead of thinking I just can't do it. That is two times I've gotten myself up from a fall, its a good feeling and a blessing. I give it all to God.

I'm not a doctor, Judy, but do you think taking a sleeping med and a muscle relaxer is too much for you? I can't take both, or it will knock me completely out. I guess, though, it depends on what you're taking.

Having to think outside the box for son's birthday. So I found bracelet charms from a movie he likes. He has a titanium arm band made by a friend with some bells on it. I'm going to add a charm now and save the rest for later. I got the supplies to make jigsaw puzzles out of some of the case covers from his favorite movies. This is actually a long term hope. He's been so bored that I'm hoping I can move him up to more challenging puzzles as a way to keep his mind busy. When he moves up to larger ones, I'll get Staples or somewhere to make copies in the sizes I need. If they won't do it, then I'll deal with getting the printer back in order and doing it myself.

And I discovered that I can use the Cricut to cut things into jigsaw patterns. So I can get larger prints, adhere those to chip board, and then cut them into different jigsaw patterns.

And then I found someone who makes transfers for t-shirts. Yes, I can do it. If I want to order all the supplies and deal with the headache. I'd rather just order the transfers. I already found quite a few. And the person is willing to create others for some of his other favorite movies. I figure to get multiples and I can use them for a variety of things over time, but for the first I can use them on some of the t-shirts that he is willing to wear. I may tuck them on a night shirt or two. I'm thinking I'll put some on the shirts that are in the emergency kits.

And I decided that it's time to try a new pork roast recipe. So tomorrow I'm making a whiskey honey slow cooker pork roast. Pretty sure he'll devour it.

Happy. The stamina is coming back. Slowly, but it's coming back. Got done some things that have been on the to do list for a bit.

And hunted down the things needed for fixing the roof. I looks like, between Dad and I, we have everything needed except one exterior grade 2x4x12. And a paint brush or trowel for putting on roofing asphalt.

My seedling are weedy, yet still growing. I'm inclined to leave them alone until it warms up next week. And then I've got to get planting. It just has to happen. I've got asparagus roots in the fridge. I've got blueberries, blackberries, and aronia berries that need to get in the ground. I have a black plum that need to get in the ground.

SouthernBreeze said:

I'm not a doctor, Judy, but do you think taking a sleeping med and a muscle relaxer is too much for you? I can't take both, or it will knock me completely out. I guess, though, it depends on what you're taking.

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Trazadone will do that to me too, I took the muscle relaxer because my back had been giving me a lot of grief. I would have been okay with both if I had not had to get up to go to the bath room again. I have a hard time turning my head off. I'm not taking the maximum dose of trazadone though.

Hubby and I have the opportunity to buy a quarter cow. We are debating. I know the family that raised it (very high quality meat). Last time we were able to purchase was two years ago.
We still have burger from it. Our freezers are pretty full right now, but I know we won’t have another opportunity for awhile (if ever). Decisions decisions….
It will be between $750-800 for 125-150 pounds of meat. (Last time was $600).
What would you do?

nomifyle said:

Trazadone will do that to me too, I took the muscle relaxer because my back had been giving me a lot of grief. I would have been okay with both if I had not had to get up to go to the bath room again. I have a hard time turning my head off. I'm not taking the maximum dose of trazadone though.

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I take 75mg of Trazadone every night. If I think I'm going to also need something for pain, I take 220mg of Aleve. If I took a sleeping med of any kind along with the Trazadone, I would probably stumble around at night or either pass out if I had to get up. I tried that, once, and Cary had to pick me up and take me to bed. I don't even remember him doing it. I never did that again. It scared me and him, both.

briches said:

Hubby and I have the opportunity to buy a quarter cow. We are debating. I know the family that raised it (very high quality meat). Last time we were able to purchase was two years ago.
We still have burger from it. Our freezers are pretty full right now, but I know we won’t have another opportunity for awhile (if ever). Decisions decisions….
It will be between $750-800 for 125-150 pounds of meat. (Last time was $600).
What would you do?

Click to expand...

You're right on the decisions. Things to consider:

Do you have a place for it? If not, buying another freezer puts the price of the meat even higher. If not, do you have time to can as much as you can? Not to mention canner and the purchase of more jars.

2nd is the breakdown of meat cost effective? IE: that's about 5.33 per lb. if my figure is correct. which is cheap for roast, but high for hamburger. So are you getting as much or more of cut meat, than you are, hamburger?

Even if you don't mind an off set in cost effectiveness, because of the quantity of meat, it still comes down to room. This is not something you can store in the garage until you have money/room for a freezer or time to can it.

One idea is the purchase of a small freezer, specifically for this meat. It's a cost you can spread out over more purchases later. And when empty unplug. So long as you have a place to put it. Even so the outlay at this time will be around 1000.00 instead of 800.00. Do you have that?

These are just considerations, hope they help.

Off to do grocery shopping, today. Before we can do that, we got the call that our property deed is ready to pick up. We'll have to go to one town to do that, then drive on to another small town where we always shop. Will stop at our bank to withdraw more cash, first.

DDIL works for a large regional bank's home office in Big town. She is keeping up with all the financial mess going on as it comes in to her. Just have some cash on hand is what she's being told right now. How much cash is left up to each individual.

I have been working on getting the garden electric fence back up and turned on. I had taken the front part down so we could get the tractor in to move some limbs that fell. I am also changing the set up and adding a gate. I did have a walk through like farmers used to use for cattle. Humans could go through but cattle couldn't. It was wide enough for my equipment too. But a couple of my old hens figured it out and would just stroll down and into the garden. So this year I will have to open the gate but it should keep the chicken girls out.

Hubby has a 6-7 mm kidney stone. The Urologist is going to break it. But it may take 3 weeks to get him in. He is feeling bad and has not been able to do the projects he wants to get done. My tiller is still not together. He has not felt like doing anything on it for 2 weeks. But we are still getting below freezing weather at night and will off and on till the end of the month.

Hubby and I went and did my job yesterday. He mostly drove. He did get out at the larger areas and help pick up. I did all the picking up on the roadsides. My hips were tired when we got done from climbing in and out of the truck so much. Today we will be home and I am glad. I have some things to do here before we get the grandkids on Thursday.

Over the weekend I went through part of my kitchen cabinets. I had not been able to get down in the floor and back up again at times, so there was some cans of soup and a couple of other things that I just gave to the chickens. But I am glad to be rid of it. I put some rarely used cast iron in that empty space. We also sent 2 pieces home with our son.

Our pond we thought we fixed still won't hold water. It is leaking out the levee. The previous 2 owners let trees grow up on it and it is leaking at one of those trees. We will have to work on that when things are dryer.

CaryC said:

You're right on the decisions. Things to consider:

Do you have a place for it? If not, buying another freezer puts the price of the meat even higher. If not, do you have time to can as much as you can? Not to mention canner and the purchase of more jars.

2nd is the breakdown of meat cost effective? IE: that's about 5.33 per lb. if my figure is correct. which is cheap for roast, but high for hamburger. So are you getting as much or more of cut meat, than you are, hamburger?

Even if you don't mind an off set in cost effectiveness, because of the quantity of meat, it still comes down to room. This is not something you can store in the garage until you have money/room for a freezer or time to can it.

One idea is the purchase of a small freezer, specifically for this meat. It's a cost you can spread out over more purchases later. And when empty unplug. So long as you have a place to put it. Even so the outlay at this time will be around 1000.00 instead of 800.00. Do you have that?

These are just considerations, hope they help.

Click to expand...

Those are really good points. I'd just like to add a couple.

Risk: Do you have the ability to keep it frozen in a 7-10 day power outage? If not will you be able to can it all without power? If both answers are no I would pass since you already have other freezers that are pretty full.

Rotation: You don't mention how it's packaged so I will assume saran wrap with freezer paper over it as it's done here. How long will it keep before freezer burn and you're feeding it to the dogs? I don't know the answer but you already have meat in your freezer that is two years old. We keep a list on the fridge for each freezer of both what's in it and when it was put there, two years is about as long as anything stays in. You may be comfortable with longer, but will want to at least consider the amount of time it will be kept frozen while making your decision.

Taco Salad said:

Those are really good points. I'd just like to add a couple.

Risk: Do you have the ability to keep it frozen in a 7-10 day power outage? If not will you be able to can it all without power? If both answers are no I would pass since you already have other freezers that are pretty full.

Rotation: You don't mention how it's packaged so I will assume saran wrap with freezer paper over it as it's done here. How long will it keep before freezer burn and you're feeding it to the dogs? I don't know the answer but you already have meat in your freezer that is two years old. We keep a list on the fridge for each freezer of both what's in it and when it was put there, two years is about as long as anything stays in. You may be comfortable with longer, but will want to at least consider the amount of time it will be kept frozen while making your decision.

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That is very true.

And I would even suggest that if anyone on this board doesn't have a genie at the 2000 watt or better (depending on make and model runs between 800.00 to 3000.00)or an DC/AC inverter for your car at the 2000 watt or better starting at 140.00 I would suggest for the time being dropping the meat and prioritizing to the genie.

Just saying.

briches said:

Hubby and I have the opportunity to buy a quarter cow. We are debating. I know the family that raised it (very high quality meat). Last time we were able to purchase was two years ago.
We still have burger from it. Our freezers are pretty full right now, but I know we won’t have another opportunity for awhile (if ever). Decisions decisions….
It will be between $750-800 for 125-150 pounds of meat. (Last time was $600).
What would you do?

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A lot of canning so that there is space in the freezer. For me, there would be no extra expense there because I have plenty of jars and canners.

As far as meat costs, around here ground starts at $6/lb. So that price is absolutely good here.

And I don't know about you, but I don't leave any meat in paper alone. If it is tightly, well wrapped freezer paper, I just tuck the whole thing in a food sealer bag. If it's not well wrapped, I pull it out of the wrap and use the food sealer bag. I purchased pre-made bags in two sizes and have found them to be very helpful and good. And they weren't super pricey either. The only thing that I've run into problems with in the freezer, long term, is sausages and pepperonis. I don't know why but both of them get freezer burn badly regardless of what I do. So now I make sure those get used up quickly.

kyrsyan said:

As far as meat costs, around here ground starts at $6/lb. So that price is absolutely good here.

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Here, ground beef is $3 and some change for 1 lb. That's why I'm buying more now and canning it.

MAN, is anyone else’s birds going haywire? My guineas met me at the door this morning screaming that I’m late, my quail were taking turns sprinting up and down their run. Y’all simmer down!

I’m slowly trying to make my way through no less than 4 freezers (two bottom fridge freezers two smaller chest freezers) and use up things that have probably been sitting for almost two years. Last count, I have 3 full turkeys here, and hubby still had 3 or 4 more at work. I’m wondering if this is the year I finally buy a pressure canner. Maybe I can find someplace to donate them for Easter.

Between the time change, everything blooming, and *ahem* some lady health issues, I feel absolutely awful. And grumpy. Definitely very grumpy. Husband took time off work today to finish building an extension on his shop because his new boat (that’s supposed to be smaller than the last one) is TALLER. Of course it is. *side eye* he beat feet outside immediately after breakfast.

Hope everyone is having a *much* more productive week, and if you’re not, give yourself an adjustment period while spring kicks it into high gear.

For people that have occasional bathroom issues. If you can't go number 2, try 2 prunes or a small glass of prune juice followed by a cup of hot coffee. This was the advice given to my great aunt more than 40 years ago by her dr. It worked for her.

Disclaimer. I am not a dr. This is not medical advice. For information only.

Thanks for the inout. We do have room in the freezer (if we reorganize and defrost) and also have the means to keep it for 7-10 days if we lost power.

I am pleasantly surprised you all are not saying “but it”!

SouthernBreeze said:

I take 75mg of Trazadone every night. If I think I'm going to also need something for pain, I take 220mg of Aleve. If I took a sleeping med of any kind along with the Trazadone, I would probably stumble around at night or either pass out if I had to get up. I tried that, once, and Cary had to pick me up and take me to bed. I don't even remember him doing it. I never did that again. It scared me and him, both.

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My sleeping meds are the trazadone, nothing else. I've been taking it for years and I'd never ever take a "sleeping pill". Most of the time the trazadone works just fine and sometimes it doesn't and when it doesn't I take a muscle relaxer. It was a few months ago that I slid out of my lift chair and could not get up and couldn't even sit up. DH had to call 911. DH tried to sit me up and I'd fall over, I thought it was funny, DH did not. I'm careful not to slide out of my chair ever since then.

briches said:

Hubby and I have the opportunity to buy a quarter cow. We are debating. I know the family that raised it (very high quality meat). Last time we were able to purchase was two years ago.
We still have burger from it. Our freezers are pretty full right now, but I know we won’t have another opportunity for awhile (if ever). Decisions decisions….
It will be between $750-800 for 125-150 pounds of meat. (Last time was $600).
What would you do?

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Home grown meat is much healthier than any thing you buy in the grocery store. If I had the bucks I'd do it. for me there is plenty I can clean out in some of our freezers. DH has a 5 cu ft in his processing shed and we have others that we could move things around in. Then again we have three generators, two that are dual fuel and one of those is hooked up to a 250 gallon propane tank.

I have canning equipment and jars, but have never canned meat. I have, however, dehydrated ground meat and vacuumed sealed it in jars. Works well.