Prep Genrl Weekly Prep Thread: August 2 ~8, 2020

nomifyle

TB Fanatic
Clutter clutter clutter, I'm drowning in it. I do work on it every day, but at some point I get overwhelmed and stop. I've been vacuum sealing a lot of my boxed food, but I've been thinking I should save my new jars in case I have to can meat that is in my freezer. I do have a supply of mylar bags though and 02s. I'm tired.

God is good all the time,

Judy
 

ivantherussian03

Veteran Member
I cleaned and organized the freezer. It was thick with frost. I filled totes full of water to store under the kitchen table. I expect water problems this winter so I am going store 300 gallons.
 

Marseydoats

Veteran Member
My amazon order went to the parcel locker. I had never done that before. Really easy, only a mile from work. beats the heck out of driving 60 miles round trip to the PO to pick up a parcel. My shoes are nice, even if they did cost too much.
Added another month of canned dog food.
 

hiwall

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Ordered more storage totes today from Walmart. I looked over the available space in the storage room and I think I can use 6 more totes in there.
 

nomifyle

TB Fanatic
I wanted more 3 1/2 gallon buckets but they are out, so I ordered 2 gallon and 5 gallon. I also ordered more extra large bandaids. Recently Dh had a bobo on his knuckle and this larger bandaids really did cover his wound. I'd gotten a couple of large boxes last year but I ordered that many more.

I also ordered couple more small battery chargers for my cell phone, although the phone really needs to be replaced. I have some other things that are USB that these battery chargers will power. One of which are LED lights, these little suckers are bright when its dark.

Since I've gained weight my bras are miserably too tight, so I ordered a couple in a larger size. At the rate I'm going I'm just not getting any of the weight off any time soon.

God is good, all the time

Judy
 

moldy

Veteran Member
Making more smudge sticks for the girls at work that wanted some. Cooked up the last of the chicken I intend to can, and will can it tomorrow. Got a few other things done - went to town to shop and hit the bank. Everyone seems very on edge. Two older guys got in an argument over who had taken DH's order for hoses... cussing at each other and acting like idiots. I think I'll just spend the rest of my days off at home!!
 

Digger

Veteran Member
I bought 2 queen bees for my queen less hives. My third hive appears queenless too. Not sure what is going on, but many bee keepers in our area are having the same problem. The store gets 10 queens each Friday if they can get them. They had already sold 4 before I got there yesterday. I bought 2 and another customer arrived to get one while we were checking out. That leaves only 3 till next Friday. Even the commercial bee keepers are finding lots of queenless hives so it is not just our inexperience. I will just combine the third hive with one of the other hives if it is in fact queenless.

I picked my elderberries. I am going to make Summerthymes antiviral recipe. I still have to make a run to the liquor store. We are in a dry county. Hubby has a dr appointment out of town next week and we can stop on our way home.

We have gotten almost 3 inches of rain in the last week and a half. Kind of rare for this time of year in Arkansas. But the garden has done well. I still want to can a few more tomatoes and tomatoes with okra and onion.

I caught a big opossum in my trap. The wild animals have really been destructive. They destroyed most of the peaches on the last two trees before they were even ripe. All the pears and apples are gone too. I did find out that my new neighbor is also trying to thin the neusence animals. They are Trump supporters too. Even our liberal neighbor took a shot at a coyote.

We went to 10 Box in Russellville Arkansas to get sugar to feed the bees. While there we stocked some more pantry stuff. They get a truck every day, but they were very low on lots of stuff in the canned foods. We still got all we wanted and then some. They even had 2 of the small hickory smoked hams that we wanted. We got both. The had lots of honey ham, which is good too, but we prefer just smoked. Still no canning lids and only a part of a box of Mrs Wages sweet pickle mix was on the shelf. Are there even any canning lids being made now? I am thinking of ordering some more Tattler lids. I am a bit concerned about next year lid availability.
 

prudentwatcher

Veteran Member
Went to Petsmart yesterday and spent $107 on cat food. Thankfully $100 was from a gift card from using our Discover cash back. Back up to a firm three months in canned cat food, probably a little more in dry (didn't buy any dry this time). After the 20th (next cycle on credit card-pay off every month) will make an order at Chewy's and get more kitty litter and should be good for a while for the kitties. Always wish we could have more for them, but with our stuff, we don't have any more room. If I felt like a collapse or something was imminent (like the next couple of days) I would hit the emergency cash and hit the pet stores for more pet food. That is number one on the list.
 

ReneeT

Veteran Member
Got off work yesterday morning, hit Rural King for 4 more bags of sugar (49 cents/pound) and a bag of dog food; then took the back roads to avoid other humans until I had to cut across and pick up the (rural) highway to get to daughter's house to pick up the grand-dog. He stood guard in the van while I hit Dollar Tree for a few things to donate at work - hair elastics, crayons, markers, playing cards, etc... Then we ran through McDonalds for sausage/egg/cheese biscuits - went to the park to eat them, and luckily I had a clean baggie in my lunch bag so I could bring his biscuit home - no grain for the pup. We both plopped down on the couch for a nap; he gave me a good three hours before he woke me up wanting attention. Work was chaos and mayhem the past two days and I really needed to push it out of my head so I just spent the afternoon chilling in the glider rocker on the porch, watching the hummingbirds and reading some of Kathy's stories on fictionpress.com - though I did have to get up long enough to go out and find a bee creep feeder as the honey bees were swarming the feeders pretty bad.

Hubby finally figured out why my big water tank wasn't filling and got that fixed; then we got a 5" rain that completely filled it, so I am set for rain water to use in my canners for quite a while! And speaking of canning, I need to run up to the orchard today to get another 1/2 bushel of peaches so that I can get them canned up next week on my days off. While I'm out, I'll stop by the local farm market garden if they are open to see if they have any green beans I can fix for supper. I picked up a couple of ham loaves at the Amish butcher shop the other day; put one in the fridge to thaw. I think I'll make half of it in to BBQ sauce topped meatballs, and then cook the other half as a meatloaf. Fresh sliced peaches and sweet cream freezer biscuits should finish it out okay, but I think there is still some ice cream lurking in the freezer if anyone needs something more.

Yes, I'm buying fresh green beans. The garden is finally dried up enough that I can walk lightly between the rows - still ended up with muddy feet, but at least I could get in and see how things were doing - answer: not good. Only things that seem happy are the zucchini and zinnias in the main garden, and the muskmelons and watermelon in the raised beds. I'm going to pull out the green and yellow pole beans and replant them as they were yellowed and icky - but won't replant until after next week as we have 5 days of rain forecast; only a couple inches total in the forecast, but I'm not chancing it. First frost usually isn't until mid October, so they should make at least a small crop.

I need to do some weeding in the garden, but it is still too wet for that; I might be able to get in to the flower beds but am waiting on a call back from my neighbor who has a farm market, so have been puttering around inside the house a bit - tidying up things, restocking the upstairs pantry and making a shopping list - how the heck did I run out of sandwich size baggies??! (Answer: Daughter shops my pantry lol!) On the plus side, while I was wobbling on tiptoe on the step stool, I grabbed at a box that I thought might be in front of some baggies, and when it tipped over, I found a mylar bag full of other mylar bags and 2 unopened packages of oxygen absorbers! I'd picked up 4 gallon jars and a box of 6 half gallon canning jars when I went to the Amish market a couple weeks ago, so now I don't need to worry about getting the oxygen absorbers to go along with them.

I need to get around to separating and bagging up the school supplies that I've gotten so far - yes, daughter did register them for school; though I'm betting that they are back out by October. I did order a pretty cool homeschool physics package in grade 1-3 - maybe I'll learn something along with the boys! I found out that a local used bookstore also carries homeschool materials, so may run up there tomorrow afternoon or next Thursday.

And speaking of boys and separating stuff, I need to go through their closets and fill up some bags to donate now that the thrift stores are re-opening - older grandson's stuff is still a little big for the younger one but likely won't be in a couple of months - he's losing his baby face and that means a growth spurt isn't far off.

Well, the farm market just messaged me back so I'd better get on the road to get get my grub so I can get back home before daughter gets here to drop off the boys. You folks all take care out there this weekend - the crazy seems to be in the air out there!
 

briches

Veteran Member
Today I got eight more pounds of bacon for the fridge, a few frozen pizzas (never underestimate comfort food, four pounds of hamburger, and four family-size packs of chicken thighs. I also added some cooking spray, cookies, and paper products.
Slow and steady. Day by day.
 

ReneeT

Veteran Member
Best laid plans of mice and men.....

I'm gonna stop planning :lol: Went to the farm market and got my green beans and a few other things, then went to the orchard and got a half bushel of peaches. So far, so good, right? And then I got home and found the upright freezer's door standing open just a bit. Don't think it had been like that for very long as some things were still frozen solid; and some were thawed but still fridge temperature cold. Had to toss some things - the stuff in the door was toast, and a few things up close to the front. At least it's a small freezer - heck, it's not much taller than I am!!

A dozen bags of meatloaf mix were rough crumbled into a roaster pan and put in the oven; I just took it out and we are having meatloaf chunks for supper, along with corn and peaches from the freezer. I'll probably make a large batch of Manwich with some of it for either lunch or supper tomorrow; and may try to freeze the rest.

A dozen bags of ground beef were dumped in a pot and browned on the stove. There are 9 jars of ground beef veggie soup ready to go in a canner shortly; Hubby is going to make a giant pot of ground beef veggie soup tomorrow to freeze for his lunches (guess that 5# bag of frozen veggies is gonna come in handy lol!) If there is any left, I'll probably just freeze it for fried rice or spaghetti or something.

One canner load of chicken and one of chicken veggie soup are currently processing in on the stove, but the rest of the chicken got tossed way down in the gully - I just didn't trust it as it was close to the front of the freezer. I have a pot of chicken broth that I'm not sure what I'm going to do with - maybe just can it as is.

There are 3 bags of ground beef and one of meatloaf mix in the fridge that I'm not sure what I'm going to do with yet - may dump it on daughter to use; she can fix something for her brother and step-son; those boys can chow down lol!!

The hamloaf that had been in the freezer went into the oven; the one I had thawing in the fridge to fix for supper tonight was shoved into daughter's hands when she came by to drop the boys off. Some of the one in the oven will be served for either lunch or supper tomorrow, some will go in my work lunches; the rest might go back in the freezer for heat 'n eat meals.

There are still a few bags of peaches - ones we had jut put in the freezer. I may just turn those into jam and be done with them since I can fix up more for the freezer from the ones I just bought. The bags of unpitted cherries could just be tossed; they would be mush by the time I got them pitted in the pitter; and I'm not doing it by hand. Maybe I'll have Hubby get my steam juicer off the top shelf in the pantry and run them through there; bet I can find a recipe for cherry jelly somewhere; or maybe he can turn it in to wine...

There are also some mostly still frozen crappie fillets; those might be supper tomorrow. I'm trying to decide what to do with the two chuck roasts - grind 'em for burger? Cut 'em up and use 'em in soup? Got too many things ready to eat to make anything for the table from them so they will likely be canned in soup.

I think the chicken broth has cooled enough to decant it in to half gallon jars and put it in the fridge - not taking the scraps out to the compost pile tonight 'cause I'm not in the mood to hear the coyotes and raccoons fighting over them - my bedroom window is on the same side of the house so I would hear them for sure!

Well, dang - I just went to check the coolers to see how the ice was holding out and and found 3 bags of chicken cut in to strips - guess I'll be making one more canner load of chicken veggies soup. But not tonight; Hubby has a shoot tomorrow and he doesn't need to try to go to sleep by the hiss of the canner. I'll get it going first thing in the morning.

Gotta go run a couple of boys through the tub and get 'em headed toward bed. You folks take care; stay safe out there!
 
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