Prep Genrl Weekly Prep Thread: April 22 ~ 28, 2018

[ReneeT]

Late again...

Busy weekend with the grandkids - loading mulch, buying flowers to plant, riding bicycles (no training wheels for the older grandson - I told him that if you go fast you wobble less; he thinks I'm a genius lol!), and doing some work in the yard. I was able to get most of one garden tilled one time yesterday, but it was wetter than I like, so I stopped - I'll get the plants put in the soil in plenty of time, no need to push the season and mess with the soil structure.

Hubby was able to get the yard mowed while the boys 'washed' my van with water squirters and I pulled the last of the fence posts out of the garden while keeping an eye on the fire pit where we were burning sticks, etc... from the yard clean up. We managed to get most of the winter detrius picked up from the yard proper; and I was able to get some more weeds out of the flower beds as well, but ran out of time (AND energy!) before I got the load of mulch put down.

The beekeeper came by and was pleased with the large box of no-name pint jars I had for him - I'd ran a couple of loads of pints from the stacks of boxes on the shed porch through the dishwasher as well as sorting out more of the no-name ones from the stash inside. I have canned - even pressure canned - in the no-name jars and have had no problems doing so, but since I have plenty of branded jars I decided I could help meet his need for honey jars by passing the plain ones on to him. And since I need to get the all the jars off the shed porch soon so that we can have the shed painted this summer, I'll have the space the plain ones were taking up in the store room to put the heavier jars.

Hubby and I have committed to trying to eat mostly from the pantry/freezer this week, so ham from the freezer was turned into ham salad sandwiches for lunch, and supper's main dish is an anacana (a can of this and a can of that) cassarole:

*1 box apple pecan stuffing mix made as directed and spooned around the sides of a medium cassarole dish
*1 pint jar of home canned cubed pork roast cut into bite size pieces in the center of the dish, topped with sliced onions and a bit of Old Bay Seasoning
*1 can cream of mushroom soup mixed with the broth from the jar of meat poured over the top.

I also used a bag of frozen apple slices from the freezer to make a batch of apple crisp, and since I had the oven going anyway, four baking potatoes were washed and wrapped in foil and added to the oven; I made mashed potatoes from two of the potatoes to serve with supper/leftovers; and will make twice baked potatoes from the other two. A pan of cornbread went in to the oven about 20 minutes before the rest of the grub came out, a bag of frozen beet greens went into the microwave, and a jar of home canned carrots were heated up, topped with a dab of butter and some maple syrup to finish off the meal. There are even plenty of leftovers to get us through the next two days at work

Looking at the weather, it's supposed to be clear on Wednesday and Thursday - doubt with the rain last night and today that I'll be able to get into the gardens to till, but I have other garden work to keep me occupied. I did lose two of my three gooseberry bushes over the winter, but they needed to be moved out of direct sun anyway - and with all the rain, they will at least be easy to pull out of the ground! I'll take cuttings of those, Mama's Eutin roses, lilacs, forsythia and some other shrubby plants on Thursday and see if I can't get them started (and then try to figure out where I'm going to plant them ) I was lucky that I noticed a bunch of elderberry sprouts coming up around the current thicket and was able to flag them before Hubby mowed the yard - love the scent of elder flowers in the spring time! I'm also going to see if the grandson's babysitter will let me take some cuttings of her double flowered Rose of Sharon - I need something to plant by the east corner of the porch, but the nearby black walnut trees limit my options - I could use the forsythia there but I wanted pink rather than yellow.

Well, I reckon I'd better go check my work bag and get my scrubs ready for work tomorrow; I have a feeling it's going to be an early to bed evening here...

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

 

[moldy]

Here's hoping it's productive for me, too! Worked Sunday, then off to school today. I saw my clinician (upperclassman - a requirement for both of us), but was finished early (thank goodness). Was about a mile from home when DH called and said the cow I was anticipating problems with had calved. We ran her in the chute to find that she wasnt' going to be able to nurse the calf (bad case of mastitis last year and a big wound to her udder earlier this spring). We pulled the calf off, fed it, then brought it up to the house and put it in a small pen. I'm hanging out waiting about another couple hours to go feed it again, then DH will about 4 am when he heads to work. I'll feed again at 0800, then our Godsent neighbor has agreed to feed in the afternoon. I''m debating about keeping her..... her mom is a great cow, and the 'lead' cow of the herd. If I can hand raise this one, it will help the next few years down the road..... just gotta find the time.

DH and I bought a hot-tub this weekend! Can't wait for it to be delivered in about 3 weeks, but I need to do a lot of cleaning between now and then. I'm mostly caught up on school work.... one paper due the 30th and my scholarship application.
'

 

[ReneeT]

So glad you found the time to join in, Moldy! I only know the very basics of herbal medicine - yarrow for bleeding, plantain for bites/stings, comfrey for wounds/swelling, mullein for breathing/asthma, etc... but did take the boys around the yard this weekend and point out those plants as well as edibles - the boys asked if Papaw was going to fry them more dandelion blossoms this year

I stopped at the local chain grocery store on the way home last night to pick up a few loss leaders as it was the last day of the sale - 24 oz bottles of catsup for 69 cents each (I go through a lot of it canning pork 'n beans - easier than opening cans of tomato sauce and mixing spices), juice boxes for after ju-jitsu class, cheese, coffee, etc...

Taking a quick break for 'brunch' I'm almost afraid to post it (Who, me? Superstitious?) but I got a very welcome call at 0500 this morning, so have been blessed to spend today at home - at least so far! The clutter for the boys spending the weekend here has been picked up and put away, the second load of laundry is out on the line, I've put one load of jars from the shed porch through the dishwasher and they are drying on towels on the counter; the second load is running now - so happy to find that there are more pints than I thought there were in those stacks of boxes! The boxes the jars were in were too yucky to re-use, so they have been stripped of tape and staples and are in the compost pile - good balance of brown to the green of the grass I raked up and tossed in the pile when Hubby mowed Saturday afternoon.

It's still too wet - rain on Monday, cloudy on Tuesday - to do anything in the gardens, but I'm hoping to finish weeding the flower beds in front of the house and get some mulch put down this afternoon. I should probably do a bit of housecleaning - dusting, vacuuming, and mopping as well, so that I can pretty much ignore the house on my other days off


Well, I said I was superstitious, but I was right - the phone just rang.... Time to drag on the scrubs and head to work!

Take care all; have a great day!

 

[moldy]

Aww, Renee - now, you know better than to mention being on call!! Busy day - we hauled 3 cows and a calf to the sale barn last night after DH got home. Thankfully, they all cooperated with loading. Our friends that were helping us mentioned that they can't find any kids that want to learn how to raise cows (he was specifically talking about preg-checking), even in our little rural area. The kids say it's just too hard of work to do.

Today, I had a windshield that was starred fixed, went to the mechanic's to pick up the transmission transfer case, took it to Denver (about 90 minutes one way). Drove back home, went to the library, turned in a scholarship application, fed the calf a couple times, did laundry. Checked the bees,and just as I was getting ready to go take care of a second hive, DH got home. He insisted we go to the sale barn to pick up our check, then he took me out to dinner. He's such a sweet guy!

 

[Kathy in FL]

Oh how I have missed these threads.

My "prepping" for the moment is for my brother's wedding which we are having here at the house ... day before Mother's Day the big ol' goof. May is going to make me slightly insane I predict. The 7th is our 30th anniversary, the 8th my parents will arrive to stay for about a week, the 11th we are expecting the tent to get here as well as the cake and the yada yada, the 12th is the wedding, the 13th is Mother's day, and the 14th is my mother's birthday. But added into the lunacy is that Hubby and I leave early on the 13th for a two-week 30th anniversary trip to Hawaii ... bucket list item. Did I say May is going to make me a little crazy? Try a lot crazy.

The difference is with adult children in the house ... 25, 22, and 19 ... to keep an eye on the 14 year old and get him to all of his activities is a relief especially as they are all independent and self sufficient. I know it may sound weird to have that many adult kids at home but it works for us. The 25 year old is starting his own business while working for us and working around our house so that's cool. He also contributes to the household groceries with his raised garden beds and fruit trees. The 22 and 19 year old are in college ... microbiology and nursing. The 22 year old works for us part time while she is setting up her volunteer hours that should lead into her internship. The 19 year old has four ... sometimes five ... jobs and will complete her CNA this summer and hopefully be able to replace at least some of the other part time jobs. I plan on the 14 year old finishing school b the end of April so at least I don't have to have school plans for while we are out of town.

From my canning and other supplies I am feeding my parents. Between their doctor bills and other bills their 70s aren't being very kind to my parents. We do what we can but can't take away their independence because we wouldn't want it done to us.

Giving groceries to them helps me to rotate out some of the larger bulk items that we have that in hindsight I wish I hadn't purchased so much of. Lucky for me my father really like multigrain hot cereal in the morning ... I don't even want to think about how many five-gallon buckets of that stuff I have. I've also had to change to a more "keto" diet because of the Type 2. Going through all of our supplies has been interesting ... not.

Other prep I am working on is one that involves saving space ... I'm going through my 20+ years of educational material and doing some major downsizing. I'm also doing similar with all of our DVDs and CDs ... getting rid of the cases and putting them in three-ring binders has saved a major amount of space and my sanity.

Ah well ... back to ye ol' bookkeeping. Thank the good lord that taxes are over for another year.

 

[ivantherussian03]

I spontaneously decided to buy groceries of lady behind me. Not sure why, I have known her a long time. Now, in retrospect, I figure it is karma points.

 

[Illini Warrior]

I spontaneously decided to buy groceries of lady behind me. Not sure why, I have known her a long time. Now, in retrospect, I figure it is karma points.

you know what - you'd think that there couldn't possibly be anything negative or wrong doing something like that - and you'd be wrong ... there's been cases of people getting all bent out of shape by doing something that or chipping in a few bucks to finish off the register balance - can't always figure that people will appreciate the generous intentions - it's just the world we live in now ....

if you're "in town" and dealing with local people you know - good deal most likely .... somewhere else and you just might find yourself confronting one of those Burger King coupon nutz that you see on the UTubes .... keep it to yourself isn't the worst rule anymore ...

 

[ReneeT]

I spontaneously decided to buy groceries of lady behind me. Not sure why, I have known her a long time. Now, in retrospect, I figure it is karma points.

I don't know how the lady behind you felt about your generous gesture, Ivan; but you just made MY day Thank you for your kindness!

 

[ReneeT]

So glad to see you back, Kathy! We've missed you!

 

[ivantherussian03]

I don't know how the lady behind you felt about your generous gesture, Ivan; but you just made MY day Thank you for your kindness!

She hugged me and said thank you! People are nice. More and more, I am just amazed at the number of people that completely and utterly over joyed to see a person have a rough time in life or criticize someone, while they sit in the cheap seats. I have accomplished a few things, despite having negative people ( family, friends, and others) think of countless reasons why I would not be successful.

It didn't change her life but it lifted her up. I am not sure which was more helpful. I bought her groceries, then I listened to her heavy burdens in life. I listened for 15 minutes and I said I would pray for her and her child in crisis.

I think the hug says it all. People don't hug each other, it not culturally acceptable here.What would the world be like if negative bs stopped...