Profit of Doom
Dismember
On chickens, I would worry about availability of feed. How would they do on open pasture, grass and bugs?
It would have to be what they can find and what you can grow/spare. They will eat almost anything. One of ours went running by the door a couple days ago with a snake in its mouth.On chickens, I would worry about availability of feed. How would they do on open pasture, grass and bugs?
Yes prices going up but also the main thing is the way walmart pays their suppliers. Try 60-90 days to get paid. Not going to be real quick on restocking there at those termsThe wife is reporting that Walmart in our area is now putting up signs saying sorry for the price increases.
They are blaming vendors who are refusing to deliver without better pricing. Particularly regarding eggs.
Definitely add chickens if possible... rabbits are another good option... both will provide you with high quality fertilizer for your gardens, plus protein. Rabbits reproduce well (although where you are, you'll have to provide shade and probably have to skip breeding in the hottest 2-3 months). Chickens don't reproduce on their own as easily (you'd need an incubator or a bantam hen), but produce eggs pretty much year round.
Hunting... meh. Pretty low return on investment (of both money and time), although for most hunters, it doubles as a recreational activity, which makes it worth it to them. I once figured out that our Amish neighbors could buy prime beef at the store (and not just hamburger) for what their "free" venison costs them... hunting licenses and tags, ammo (although none of them do enough target practicing to suit me... I blew a gasket when I found out the 12 year old who was hunting with his father on "junior day" had NEVER shot the shotgun before... I guess the fact he blew both front lower legs off the deer was actually decent shooting, considering!), deer stands, etc, etc...
Not to mention the time away from their shops...
All for a deer that MIGHT give them 40# of boneless venison... I've seen many hanging up that barely produce half that.
And that's big game! When you talk about squirrels and rabbits... they are mostly flavoring for a vegetable stew.
Now, if you live somewhere where you can shoot an elk or moose... different story. But it's still a might expensive hobby for most, and results aren't guaranteed.
Summerthyme
We might not have meat, but we got TPI went to Fred Meyer yesterday morning in The Dalles, OR. They are a Kroger store.
Lots of fruit and veggies.
There was a lot less meat than usual; I got the last Tri-tip roast, and got some nice chicken breasts.
NO TP. At all....
One brand of paper towels (Viva) but only a few packages.
Hand sanitizer? Forget it.
Eggs normally priced and an OK stock, but way down from normal.
Milk and cream available.
Side note: the store wasn't terribly busy, but it took a full 30 minutes waiting in line to get checked out.
Only three checkers working, but there are 15 check out stands. I think the checkers are calling in sick.
About 70% of shoppers wearing masks.
There seemed to be a lot of uneasiness and tension among the shoppers.
My wife was SO happy I came home with everything on the list!
Another side note: I went to Home Depot. There was a big line to get in.
One person in, one person out.
I'm really glad it wasn't raining!
Summerthyme (or anyone else!), have you ever raised turkeys?
I've been thinking lately about getting about a dozen midget whites. I've read they need to be separated from chickens and we'd need housing built for them anyhow because we're pretty much at capacity for chickens now, but we eat a LOT of turkey. I load up the freezer every Thanksgiving with 'natural' or organic whole turkey breasts (bone-in) (when I can find it). They are pricey as the dickens anyhow, but we could easily do one a month. I don't look forward to the slaughter/butchering, but it's a trade-off for turkeys in the freezer....and I'm not sure how the turkey supply will be this fall.
It's one of those things I seriously am considering, along with adding more galvanized steel raised beds in the garden. They're sold out everywhere now, with luck they may be available for fall gardening.
Some do better than others, but it's amazing how much they find to eat (and thrive on) around a small farm or homestead. We have a flock of semi-feral chickens... they consist of a bantam hen, a few pullets she hatched last summer, and a couple of cockerels from last summer we, er... mistook for pullets when we butchered the extras last fall! We clipped wings and tried to put them in with the laying hens last fall (as the three full sized pullets she hatched were laying very well up in the big barn.). Nope... nothing doing! So, they're semi-wild, spend every night roosting in the big barn, and they're plump and shiny.On chickens, I would worry about availability of feed. How would they do on open pasture, grass and bugs?
Sounds like they had to hold the birds an extra week, and the employees doing the cutting are either exhausted or trainees...Omaha Ne, 182 and center street, walmart, has been out of hamburger 3 days strait, but a change,
I have been buying there 10 pound bag of leg+thigh chicken parts for almost 20 years, always been 10 chunks.. but today I bought 2 bags, both bags only had 8 combos, in each bag, weighed them, 1 1/4 pound each combo. and where they usually have nice smooth cut, where they have been seperated, these look like they were sawed off . just something different
Why be scared? It was not like she was going to die that minute from the lack of meat. She has time to prepare for it.Masks were required to enter though. Crowd was pretty much normal too. I was very surprised. But the herd is aware of the looming meat shortage. One woman I spoke to was very aware and frightened about it.
Then things have gotten better with Walmart. 30 years ago, the buyer would hold up any and all payments until you agreed to a new lower price for the coming quarter.Yes prices going up but also the main thing is the way walmart pays their suppliers. Try 60-90 days to get paid. Not going to be real quick on restocking there at those terms
This is the crux of the whole problem....But her fear, multiplied 200 million times, is why the stores are stripped.
THIS!The even greater fear is now raised even higher almost to the point of panic.
Once it reaches PANIC levels with the populace, then the effect becomes self sustaining
Time to write her will?Why be scared? It was not like she was going to die that minute from the lack of meat. She has time to prepare for it.
Went to the grocery store (Hanna fords) yesterday and today in Vt.
Had to get prescriptions refilled yesterday and realized I want to get a some more foods and paper towels.
Yesterday I went to the much older and worn store that services everyone including the less affluent due to it’s location. Got my meds and everything else I was looking for, only forgot some items.
Figured today I’d go to the newly opened flagship model. Arrived at 0740. Wasn’t packed, but busy.
The place had a lot of holes and much less selection that when I was there 3 weeks ago and much less than the other store the day before.
Must say, for a Friday I was surprised to see the lack of stock. Maybe they’re replenishing during the day?
The thing that got to me are people seem psychologically broken. I was fairly upbeat and glad I was getting what I was getting. It’s impossible to interact with anyone. I asked a man if he was waiting in line. He snaps at me, ‘This is where we wait until he (points over toward a guy) calls us over.’ No problem for me, but then he moves away from like I’m too close. The guy was standing on the red dot and had his cart at arms length behind him, then there was my cart in between us also.
Oh yeah, second upscale store was totally out of eggs. Plenty in the other store day before.
Wonder what next week will look like.
Doubtful. I would expect someone who has advanced knowledge would do something to improve their situation, but how many times have we noted that people are simply Darwin Award winners just waiting to win.Time to write her will?
This might be a good time to look back at some of the older recipes for "meatless, wheatless, and sweetless" days from WW II. Granted, some of them weren't worth making, but it's good to think about some alternatives, especially with fruits and veggies that are in season and meat might be scarce or very expansive.
I know that some people are on special diets, but it still might be worth exploring some alternatives now while there are spices and other inventory somewhat available. One example: large portabella mushrooms can be grilled and are quite meaty, like a burger.
I noticed that Walmart online had many LTS foods now available (though it changes daily).Emergency Essentials (beprepared.com) appears to be recovering from the recent craze in buying. They have many more items available for shipping now:
Available for Order Today!
Helping families prepare for over 30 years, Emergency Essentials is the country's most trusted source of emergency food and supplies. To keep up with demand during the coronavirus/COVID-19 crisis, we are focusing production on the most important productsbeprepared.com
Also, the Church of Jesus Christ (LDS) online store has some items back in stock and available to order. If a price is showing, it can be ordered:
Tylenol/acetaminophen are the newest hard to find items in WI.
I noticed there were quite a few rices from Lousiana, is there something wrong with them?
This might be a good time to look back at some of the older recipes for "meatless, wheatless, and sweetless" days from WW II. Granted, some of them weren't worth making, but it's good to think about some alternatives, especially with fruits and veggies that are in season and meat might be scarce or very expansive.
I know that some people are on special diets, but it still might be worth exploring some alternatives now while there are spices and other inventory somewhat available. One example: large portabella mushrooms can be grilled and are quite meaty, like a burger.
They should be fine. The manager probably had to source warehouses farther afield. We're getting some N. MN pickles and such for that reason at the local HyVee, per my neighbor.
There are many useful cookbooks available... years ago, I bought the entire "Farmer's Wife Cookbook" series (edited by Lela Nargi), as well as one titled "Stories and Recipes From the Great Depression"
They are wonderful... basic recipes, stories about how the coped, etc.
I also highly recommend the cookbooks put out by The Farm Journal... out of print now, but I completely wore out my copy of the Farm Journal Country Cookbook as a clueless young bride. I had learned the basics of cooking from 4-H, and my Mom was a fantastic cook... she *loved* to cook, and liked nothing better than to singlehandedly cook a breakfast for 100 at church! Well, I don't like it that much, but feeding a hardworking farmer and then active, hardworking growing kids, I sure needed to learn. And, on a very tight budget!
What I loved about the Farm Journal cookbooks is they didn't call for a lot of "exotic" (read: imported) ingredients... most used foods I could produce myself (and their canning and freezing cookbook is a classic for that necessary part of the food cycle)
Aside from that, stock up on as many basic spices (it's hard to have too much black pepper, for example, and the whole peppercorns keep forever vacuum packed in glass or heavy mylar, and stay useful just in canning jars in a cool spot for years) as you can reasonably afford. The supply chain for most spices is nearly as complex as the old Silk Road days!
One last thought... while fresh fruits are wonderful, they are also either seasonal or imported from (often) a long way away. And they are *very* weather sensitive. I'm already concerned about the supply this year, with this cold snap extending so far south.
Consider buying alternatives... canned and dried keep for years, and frozen in syrup will be fine at least 2 years after freezing. (We're just using up the sliced strawberries in syrup I froze when we got over 200 quarts from our strawberry patch in 2018)
Something I read years ago really made an impact on me... post WWII, the European peoples were literally starving. Americans, as is their wont, got together and had food drives in local communities to send overseas. One church group had quite an argument about whether to even send one donation... a notorious skinflint woman had included a bag of OLD dried fruit... so old (and, apparently, poorly stored), it was almost black. They finally decided to include it, rather reluctantly. And they were shocked when, in a letter of heartfelt thanks the recipients sent, the *only* item singled out for especial gratitude was that old, black dried fruit. They actually said women cried upon seeing it, and were so thankful to be able to give some fruit to their children.
Very few of us have any idea what REAL hard times are like.
Summerthyme
I’ll third! My mother had the Country Cookbook, it flat out fell apart. I found a mint copy at a garage sale for fifty cents and snatched it up for my daughterI'll second the Farm Journal cookbooks! About 30 yrs ago I borrowed one from our local library, then searched for them at thrift stores and library book sales. Finally got some on Ebay. I think I have them all, and started building a set for our DD, too. They're priceless!
I'll second the Farm Journal cookbooks! About 30 yrs ago I borrowed one from our local library, then searched for them at thrift stores and library book sales. Finally got some on Ebay. I think I have them all, and started building a set for our DD, too. They're priceless!
Are the prices higher in each case?Emergency Essentials (beprepared.com) appears to be recovering from the recent craze in buying. They have many more items available for shipping now:
Available for Order Today!
Helping families prepare for over 30 years, Emergency Essentials is the country's most trusted source of emergency food and supplies. To keep up with demand during the coronavirus/COVID-19 crisis, we are focusing production on the most important productsbeprepared.com
Also, the Church of Jesus Christ (LDS) online store has some items back in stock and available to order. If a price is showing, it can be ordered:
Are the prices higher in each case?