Prep Genrl Weekly Prep Thread: August 11 ~ 17, 2019

[ReneeT]

Good Afternoon, Folks!

Sorry for the later start - I'm moving slow today for some reason - or scatterbrained, more likely!

It was so nice to see all the posts on the prep thread last week - sometimes I worry that there isn't much interaction, but then again, I also understand 'loose lips sink ships', soooo

I've been pretty much stuck at home babying my knee this week - I did go pick up the grandsons to bring them back home with me, and picked up some fresh food at the Farmer's Market between here and there. Daughter's SO had a set back and has been hospitalized since last Thursday; we are hopeful for discharge tomorrow, but nothing is set in stone. Maybe it's because I'm a nurse that I get so irritated when I hear about poor care about elsewhere, but I was on the phone with daughter early this morning for a solid 20 minutes letting her vent; and then another 20 giving her information on what she needed to do/who to talk to.

Back to ortho office tomorrow; don't think I'll be going back to work for at least another week the way I feel. I plan to stop on the way home to do a little stock up shopping - no real garden this year so I will have to settle for store bought goods. Store brand canned veggies are on sale for 49 cents/can; canned specialty veggies 3/$2, Manwich 10/$10 (I use less than called for, and freeze the rest), Knorr sides 10/$10 (will pick up alfredo noodles for quick chicken alfredo for the boys - they will eat home canned chicken well that way.

I am considering picking up a plastic cabinet for some of the medical stuff - particularly ortho items like walkers, canes, crutches, braces, etc... since they are bulky and hard to get in and out of the closet I have them stored in at the current time. Depending on what I find, I could still store my dressings, etc... in tubs - smaller ones - that would fit on the upper shelves. I will probably stop to look at them on my way home tomorrow, but will not buy until my September vacation when I will have more time - and more mobility for moving things around.

Dang, both boys fell asleep - think I'll take advantage of it and catch a nap myself!

Take care all - stay safe out there!

 

[SouthernBreeze]

Renee, I'm glad your knee is healing well. Before you know it, you'll be running circles around those two grandsons in no time!

I'm trying to curtail my spending on storage food for awhile. I have always had a budget, and here lately, I've been over spending. This month and next month, I'll only be buying what we need over a two week period, which is how often I get to town.

We've, pretty much, been stuck indoors for the past few day. We've been under a heat advisory for the past few days, and all next week. It's just too hot to move around outside, not to mention to breathe! It's 102 right now, and the hottest part of the day hasn't got here, yet. Usually, that's around 4 pm.

 

[prudentwatcher]

I put another mylar gallon bag of rice and one of pasta up today and also filled in some holes in the spice container.

I also got tired of having all of my office/school supplies just tossed on the shelves and I didn't really know what I had. I straightened up and sorted out a few things last week (mainly the crayons and colored pencils, and the spiral notebooks). Today it was all the writing instruments. I got a couple of smaller plastic containers--one for pens and one for markers and highlighters and opened all the packages and put them in the containers. Now the shelves are much neater and I can see what I actually have. I already had pencils in a container. I didn't buy pens this year as I didn't think the deals were that great, but I have more than enough.

I have also been getting more hobby/leisure materials--puzzles, coloring books, art projects and the like--things for all ages.

 

[Digger]

A bear got into two of my 3 bee hives. So tonight I am moving them close to the house. Maybe I can get a shot at it. I am certain one of the hives is plenty strong enough to be ok. The other hive was my split I made. The queen is ok but she lost a lot of bees and brood. I will feed them heavy and pray they can build up enough before winter to survive it. I will have to feed them a lot to get them through.

This week is going to be a major house cleaning. It is too hot outside for much else. I do have to mow. We are expecting company for dinner Saturday evening. Can't have the friends wading knee high grass. We have started doing dinner every Sat with two other couples. It is nice. The 2 husbands went to school with my husband. Both the wives can. We have a good time.

My bear issue means I need a bigger gun than my 22 rifle. Guess what? The safe won't open. Changed the battery; still won't open. Hubby is talking to the safe company now. I hate electronics on appliances.

 

[nomifyle]

I'm still organizing and rearranging my food. I've way overspent the last couple of months and need to give it a rest for awhile, but I must be addicted.

So much to do and so little energy to get it done.

Its so hot and I'm pretty much staying inside.

Years ago I gave up eating biscuits. I've probably not averaged 4-6 a year. I saw a can of Libby's sausage gravy at the store and bought a couple cans to try. So I felt I needed biscuits to go with it. First I bought a can of biscuits (the kind you have to bang on the edge of the counter). It was tasty and DH liked it. The other day I bought a bag of "Mary B's" frozen biscuits. A couple of country ladies around here said they were good. They were actually delicious, would have been good plane. For brunch I fixed biscuits, sausage gravy, hash browns and fried eggs. It was so good, but it didn't take me long before I was so sleepy that I could hardly hold my head up, had to lay down for a little while. A few hours later DH got diaahrea (he's been sensitive to dairy products in the past). So I guess sausage gravy and biscuits are not going to be a regular part of our diet. Its just as well it didn't work out very well because its just too many carbs. Maybe once in a blue moon. I quit eating biscuits for a reason because of the carb content.

I've got some cans of food that have rusted around the rimms, the food is perfectly good. I'm thinking about dehydrating some of it.

Judy

 

[moldy]

I've been working on cleaning out the freezers. A while back, we butchered some older turkeys that are .... ahem, a little tough. I finished cooking up the last 5 of those. I will grind them up tonight and put them in the freezedryer tomorrow. DH also wanted to get the rest of the poultry out of the freezer (and it's time), so I also cooked 10 chickens that I am deboning to can tomorrow. My hands are lovely and soft, but do smell like chicken!! I'm saving the chicken fat and will freeze in ice cube trays to use for cooking fat.

 

[Barb]

My mother in law always saved chicken fat for cookies.

 

[20Gauge]

My mother in law always saved chicken fat for cookies.

That is interesting.

 

[20Gauge]

Things were very hot this weekend. So I didn't get as much done as planned, but we did work some more on the Tabasco Planter. This is the one where we plant on the plant growing enough to be a small tree.

I have posted the plans before, but this is an ongoing review of how we are doing. Hopefully it will inspire some one else to do as well.

Additionally, I made some broth and we picked another 341 pepper this week and have reached a total of 2604 overall since the 1st of January.

At some point I will gather up the data on year to year, but it looks like with the small adjustments we have been making, regarding watering, planting, pruning, etc have resulted in an overall 20% improvement year to year for the last two years.

Here are the pictures.....

The pictures are of the installation of the water with stub outs for other items. The new framing, with more to come and the base ready for rubble. We use the rubble for drainage. This was one of the TB ideas we picked up over the years.

 

[paxsim2]

It's been awhile since I posted.

Picked up an order from Walmart the pantry is starting to look much better. I've been restocking for the last 3 months but I'm behind on non food items. The raised gardens are doing much better this year although the weather is still weird, my sister and I will have lots of tomatoes in the freezer for the winter.

Today I'll be dehydrating mushrooms and shredding zucchini for the freezer.

 

[moldy]

Got the chicken canned today, and made an important decision: we are going to ask our tenants to leave. It's somewhat like dealing with about 12 year old children - you tell them not to do something, and a month later it's 'Oh, we forgot.' Sigh. I am not looking forward to the extra worries and drama, but it needs to be done.

 

[TxGal]

20Gauge, that is a seriously impressive set-up!

 

[20Gauge]

20Gauge, that is a seriously impressive set-up!

We are working to break free from buying certain items without the need to put large amounts of effort in keeping them functional. Thus the set up you see. We can water the entire garden in just 10 minutes each day during the hot weather, the weeds simply don't exist, and fertilization is simple.

The bad parts are as follows: DEER are a pest, so we have to cover the gardens on all four sides. The amount of veggies we get is the hardest part. We have more than once found something that rotted that we should have picked, but simply missed due to the volume. The other issue we are now seeing that was unexpected is the actual size of the larger plants. We have one over 7 feet and another that is topping 8 feet. This is requiring a ladder to pick.

I guess these are good problems.

Overall, we won't or don't plan to grow things that are not economical to us. If it can't cover the cost of the planter, (approx $500), and ongoing costs, (dirt, fertilizer, etc), then we have no need for it. Our goal is to expand our food selection beyond what the grocery store can provide. Thus the concentration on peppers first. The stores, don't have the variety, flavor or heat that you would expect. Nothing like red jalepenos or spicy bell peppers in your salad. You can't buy such things these days. This enriches our lives and brings joy that you can not buy.

This plan has also allowed us to expand our grocery budget beyond what the actual dollars can purchase.

Now if the fruit trees would begin to produce, we would have something going.

 

[20Gauge]

Additional,

Our biggest failure has been the small pots we placed at the end of each walkway. The pots themselves are solid and work, but we have found that June - August simply too hot to support a water intensive plant such as cucumbers. So we have begun to search for other items to plant. Next year we will attempt to plant tomatoes in the pots to see if that will work.

Herbs work great in the pots. Except the cats like to eat the Herbs and lay in the pots as they are cooler.

Not everything works.

 

[SouthernBreeze]

Additional,

Our biggest failure has been the small pots we placed at the end of each walkway. The pots themselves are solid and work, but we have found that June - August simply too hot to support a water intensive plant such as cucumbers. So we have begun to search for other items to plant. Next year we will attempt to plant tomatoes in the pots to see if that will work.

Herbs work great in the pots. Except the cats like to eat the Herbs and lay in the pots as they are cooler.

Not everything works.

With our temp approaching 115 today, I've never been able to have much success with growing things in pots. The heat just builds in those pots no matter how much water you put on them. What have you been able to grow in them with success?

 

[nomifyle]

With our temp approaching 115 today, I've never been able to have much success with growing things in pots. The heat just builds in those pots no matter how much water you put on them. What have you been able to grow in them with success?

I've have never had luck at all growing in pots, but then I just seem to have a black thumb, fortunately DH has a green thumb.

I discovered a new to me canned food "Chef Boyardee" Chicken alfredo, just needs a little salt.

Judy

 

[20Gauge]

With our temp approaching 115 today, I've never been able to have much success with growing things in pots. The heat just builds in those pots no matter how much water you put on them. What have you been able to grow in them with success?

chives mostly so far...... still working on other things to try.....

 

[20Gauge]

Posting early the week's harvest. We now have 3006 total peppers this year, (since January) on a total of 40 ft sq. At this point we are looking at a 20% improvement over last year,

We attribute this to several things.

a) improved skills
b) good weather, we did have 6 weeks of intense heat but it was overall good or better
c) mature plants that are up to 4 years old each. It is amazing how much a 4 year old plant can make. We are looking at 75+ larger peppers from a single plant once it hits the 3rd year.

Lastly, we are still seeing about 60% of the peppers are the small specialty version. This is also an improvement over previous years.

Thanks!!

 

[20Gauge]

Just for fun. I have included the map for the garden expansion. It includes an almost doubling of the pepper garden. We are also looking at an area for strawberries and asparagus, (not sure how that will work) and a lettuce garden.

We know the lettuce will be a loss no matter how we look at it, but the idea of continuing to buy lettuce from the store will all of the recalls for literally poop on the lettuce has brought us to the point of not buying it any longer. We want to change this. Thus we have set aside some area for that purpose.

 

[nomifyle]

Your garden diagram is great. We have two beds so far and the materials to build two more, DH is waiting for the tomato plants to finish. We have an area that is very successful for growing tomato plants, so we'll continue to plant them in the ground. As for the raised beds we haven't really figured out what to plant. Neither of us like peppers of any kind, including bell pepper, yuck. He did plant some radish seeds in one but nothing took, I think they were old seeds that had not been stored properly. I recently bought a variety of vegetable seeds that are in the freezer.

We have a peach tree that is about 4 years old that has produced several buckets of small white peaches, they are delicious.

Judy

 

[20Gauge]

Your garden diagram is great. We have two beds so far and the materials to build two more, DH is waiting for the tomato plants to finish. We have an area that is very successful for growing tomato plants, so we'll continue to plant them in the ground. As for the raised beds we haven't really figured out what to plant. Neither of us like peppers of any kind, including bell pepper, yuck. He did plant some radish seeds in one but nothing took, I think they were old seeds that had not been stored properly. I recently bought a variety of vegetable seeds that are in the freezer.

We have a peach tree that is about 4 years old that has produced several buckets of small white peaches, they are delicious.

Judy

Thanks.

3 of them are under construction now. I'll have an update next week