Weekly Prep Thread, Dec 25-Jan 1, 2006

[A.T.Hagan]

New week, folks. Time to shake off the Christmas daze!

With the holiday and all my prep activities have been pretty minimal this last week or so, but I did get a few gifts that could be viewed as prep related.

<i>The Florida Manual of Minor Vegetables, Poisonous Plants of the Southeastern United States,</i> and <i>Your Florida Dooryard Citrus Guide</i> being three of them. A cart for the riding mower so I can haul more mulch than I can with the wheelbarrow without having to resort to using the truck which I don't like to drive over certain parts of the property.

These are more homesteading type gifts, but then that's where I'm at in prep anyway.

New year coming up, folks. What sorts of preps did you get as Christmas gifts and what prep related activities are you doing for this week?

.....Alan.

 

[cooter]

been giving some thought to this,

coleman is now carrying a kerosene fueled mantel lantern, saw them at big R the other day,

thought about picking one up and trying, since I do have kero around,

anyone here used one yet?

other than that, time to reorganize, go over things, and essentially do a yr end inventory, and find what I thought was lost,

 

[pkchicken]

I spent my spare time the last few weeks cleaning up the almonds that I gathered last month. The iron nut cracker from lehmans arrived and it works great on the english walnuts and the almonds.

These almonds are not the usual kind ,they are very hard shelled and small. My DH told me that the trees were called "Hearty almonds". Now I find out that they are "bitter almonds". I looked them up on the net and apparently they carry a toxic poison.!!!!Wonderful !!! I guess I wont be sharing the cookies I made with them or giving the seedlings away.

Does anyone have experience with bitter almonds? I just wonder if there is a way to make them safe....like what you do with acorns.

Any help would be appreciated, these 2 trees are HUGE and gave me 4 five gallon buckets of almonds. It would be a shame to waste them .

Thanks

pk

 

[north runner]

Cyanide cookies

Baa baa have you any cookies.
Yes sir yes sir 3 bags full....
(could be useful) hmmmmmm


Walking prep week here. Spending 2 hours a day minimum. Except with the thaw all the snow is melting and turning to mush. Today I'm taking my small sherpa snowshoes. They have the anti-slip cletes on the bottom for traction.

 

[wasabell]

Tested the new countertop ice maker...it's a keeper. It will suit our needs.

Re-organized the pantry. I needed some more room, so I let DH "cook" yesterday.

He decided we needed a small rolling cart to be "stored" in the kitchen utility closet to hold the foil, Saran wrap, baggies, parchment and wax papers. So he made one! We had the castors, and some wire shelving left over. This freed up 1/2 cabinet...Woo Hoo! More space for canned goods etc....

My job is to fill it up. No problem. Just waiting for the sale papers so I can get a deal.
Tomorrow will be about 80 degrees. I will transplant a beautiful hibiscus from a pot near the back door to the yard, and find something useful to put near the back door.

I am also starting to look for a couple of bare-root fruit or nut trees to plant. I'm thinking pecan or maybe some blueberry bushes. I have a little time for research.

I found a wireless (battery operated) weather station (rain, temp, humidity) for 39.95. I can get it for 35.00. Since Dh is a weather nut, I was thinking of getting it for him. Might come in handy in severe weather.

This week is also the week to plant garlic. I plan to do so. Just about 20 cloves.

 

[rhughe13]

I ended up with a shaker light that got 4 useful hours of direct light and the last 2 hours were a small glow, sort of like a nightlight. Also got a nice lockblade from Duluth Trading.

This week I plan to get some late winter veggies started. Plus I want to try and get a potato started in the bottom of my mulch pile.

 

[prudentwatcher]

Well, the last couple of weeks have added 20 lbs of rice and 8 lbs of beans to the pantry. I will add 10 more lbs or rice and 4 more lbs of beans this week. That should get us to where I think we need to be. Mac and cheese is on sale and I have coupons, so they would be 10 cents a box. I'll get at least 10 more and will keep looking for coupons.

Christmas money and some wins on scratch off tickets that were gifts leave me with a chunk of change to go spend. I'll be getting some more vacuum sealer bags, some more trash bags, some more ammo, a couple of twin blankets, more pet food and who knows what else a trip to the store and the flea market will bring.

 

[A.T.Hagan]

Forgot to mention one other prep related book I got for Christmas, <i>Handy Farm Devices and How to Make Them</i>, a nice collection of nineteenth century labor saving farm devices.

Weather and circumstance <i>finally</i> came together for me today so that I could start building my new hoop house. I got it about two thirds done before darkness fell. Should be able to finish it this coming weekend. It'll be big enough to hold all of my potted citrus and peppers (wintertime vitamin A & C producers) and start the seeds for my spring garden. I've got everything crammed into the old, small one which really needs new plastic and is too cramped for me to work in or for the plants to grow. Been trying to get this thing built since early November but events seem to conspire to exasperate me with getting it done.

.....Alan.

 

[dirtdigger]

Prepping

I will be picking up pecans this week. Around Greenville, SC the pecans are everywhere and are they ever good this year. For a small fee I have them cracked at the Farmer's Market ( in a huge cracking machine) which makes them easier to shell out. I have my 94 year old mother-in-law finish shelling them out......which she loves to do. I keep in vaccumed sealed bags in the freezer. Free food.....just for the picking.

 

[NBCsurvivor]

Bought 3 toollogic tool lites from ebay. With shipping it was about 15.00 (used of course).

 

[Old Futz]

Weekly prep thread

I've just finished the seed inventory. Now it's time to check favorite catalogues for best prices for the amounts I need and to make certain there are open pollinated choices/backups when ever possible. Time to broadcast some lime whenever the heavy rains and wind take a break between incoming fronts. Once again we miss a December dormant spraying on the fruit trees: frozen/snow before, too much rain now. This also is a good time to look over the Christmas lists and see what folks might have requested and compare them with what actually they received for work/prep items. It's also a good time to start refurbishing hand tools for spring work and taking stock of the general situation now that the holiday rush is over.

 

[blueberry]

I will be hitting some of the grocery stores that I know will have good after Christmas specials. There is one chain of stores that will take all the holiday type foods and put them in bargain baskets right after Christmas.

Last year I got cans of pumpkin and cranberry sauce for 10¢ and bags of baking chips for 3/1.00 (I won't mention the holiday candy I got on sale too )

So this week I will be scouting bargains to add to my stash.

 

[seraphima]

Yes, this is a great time to get some comfort foods like candy on sale. Store in metal tins (get these at thrift stores) to keep fresh. I also buy candied citron and other candied fruits on sale now for next year's fruit cakes. They will keep for years. Canned good sales as mentioned in blueberry's post are a great way to extend the range and nutritional value of preps.

Canned hams are another item I look for at this time of year.

I always look for canning jars at this time of year- people get jam and such as presents, and then send jars to the thrift stores.

 

[Deena in GA]

As reported on another thread Christmas added to our lighting preps. Hubby gave me a Ray-o-vac 8-D Fluorescent Lantern and oldest son gave hubby a shake flashlight. Both give off really good light.

We'll be looking out for good after-Christmas sales also and adding to the stock from them. Also we're chopping down two of the fruit trees that have died and hope to get more either this week or next to plant.

A friend and I have decided to make up a unit study for our boys based around the Morse Code. We're looking for books and stuff to use for it this week. We want to include a lot of preparedness information in it. If you happen to know of a good, exciting book for boys that mentions or uses the Morse Code, please let me know.

 

[Simple Man]

Bought some more alkaline batteries (AA and D), converted a Mini-Mag lite to an LED flashlight (via the Nite Ize kit), and got in a little target shooting.

Most of the other prep items this week were Christmas gifts (wah hoo!). Gun cleaning kit, some .22 LR ammo, a Fieldline Pro-Guide fanny pack http://www.fieldline.com/proddetail.aspx?sku=QC67UBL , and a Coleman 4 D cell flourescent lantern.

Been cleaning out the back room too, and re-arranging the shelves so I can move all of the empty canning jars from the barn down to the house.

 

[prudentwatcher]

After a trip to get more vacuum sealer bags I sealed up my 30 lbs of rice and 12 lbs of beans as well as the 16 lbs of scotch broth I made earlier. Everything is now neatly packed away. I also got those 10 boxes of mac and cheese, 2 large boxes of trash bags (42 each), 6 bags of Christmas chocolate, 2 boxes of dog treats, 3 double boxes of tampons, some socks, and two blankets. Best part is that it is now all put away. Hoping for more good deals, but there haven't been many around lately.

 

[herbgarden]

I have been reading some of my Foxfire books. My husband found the entire series and gave them to me for Christmas.Also,starting the yearly check all the preps and see what I need more of. Try to do this the week after Christmas so I can start the New Year feeling confident.

 

[RC]

Note to self:

Later this week, I'll need to check out the Hickory Farms stand at the mall. This is the place that sells gifts for people for whom you can't think of anything else to buy--overpriced baskets of salami, cheese, etc.

After Christmas, obviously the demand drops way off, and they're trying to get rid of what they have left before they leave the mall for the year. On their last day there, I've seem the stuff marked down about 90% or so. When you get home and throw away the cardboard and plastic that makes a tiny little package of meat look like a huge box, you will find that you got a lot of meat, cheese, crackers, etc., for a pretty good price.

 

[eXe]

I re-organized my shelving in my store room, placed all MRE cases in milk crates and piled them up neatly so now they take no shelf space and I have everything grouped where its supposed to go and I have more room for MORE stuff.. so on either Friday or Thursday I will be doing a mini run.. guess its just part of coming into prepping during y2k but new years eve always makes me nervous

 

[ka5gtc]

I went to the local gun shop and bought 250 223 bullets and 100 44 mag bullets. Will load them soon . The cases are prepped and ready . Will have to go back to get 9mm bullets. I have about 1500 cases ready. A few extra rounds never hurts . Since hurricane Rita made her visit I have moved about 4000 rnds to a different location. I have heard reports that next year will be worse. I intend on moving more to the bugout after the first of the year, and also more supplies will go there. I hope to be better this time around. .

 

[macten_1]

Tested my econo-heater today. I bought a small unit, 275w. Supposed to heat 50 sq ft. I've got it in a bathroom to keep the pipes from freezing. The bathroom is 56 sq ft + shower stall. Outside temp is 35. Temp inside bathroom before plugging it in was 52.8. After leaving the econo-heater plugged in for 5 hours, temp was 54.8. What a joke!

 

[A.T.Hagan]

Picked up some more PVC fittings for the hoophouse I'm building, some plumbing tools, and another home-repair book tonight while I was out. I always have to wrestle myself out of hardware stores.

.....Alan.

 

[Chartreuse]

Well, other than reading When Technology Fails: A Manual for Self-Reliance and Planetary Survival, which I received as a gift (it has sections on everything from first aid and gardening to brewing one's own beer), I'll be investing my relatively healthy Christmas bonus in preps.

First priority is updating the bug-out bags, replacing anything of dubious age and also switching to larger bags than we have now. Second is adding to food preps (for us and dog) and water; hoping to find some good sales. Third will be anything else that I find a good deal on.

I'm pretty excited - I haven't had a lump sum of money to spend on this in some time, and it's hard to feel like I'm making progress when I can only pick up a few cans a week.

 

[okie medicvet]

I got my shoppin list ready for when I get my check this Friday..plan on being in and out of the city as soon as I can.

Also, already started working out to try and get back into shape.

 

[yellowsprings]

New year coming up, folks. What sorts of preps did you get as Christmas gifts and what prep related activities are you doing for this week?

.....Alan.

Well, since my birthday is five days before Christmas, I will lump all my "prep gifts" into one. I received the entire Foxfire Series books, a Back to Basics stainless steel steam juicer, a new hands free Tilia Foodsaver (no more holding the buttons!), two pizza stones (can be used as bread stones) and a set of 12 mile Motorola radios (from Sam's Club). Oh yea, there was a pocket knife in my stocking too!

Since my foot is broken, I have been in this house for three solid weeks so I have not added any food related preps. I plan on doing that next week. I am so glad that I did have plenty of preps! The only thing DH had to go to the store for was the spiral sliced ham for Christmas Dinner.

 

[A.T.Hagan]

Y'all give up prepping for the holidays or something?

.....Alan.

 

[Deena in GA]

We've been too sick around here to do much, but I did get 10 pounds of nutritional yeast put in a bucket today. It's delicious sprinkled on top of popcorn and is full of B vitamins so we consider it an essential prep.

We also made it to pick up some supplements we needed more of locally. Tomorrow I hope to encapsulate echinacea that I bought in bulk from Atlantic Spice Co. The kids don't care for the zinc/echinacea/C lozenges I've been trying to get them to take, so maybe capsules will be better.

 

[Dinghy]

I haven't given up. There just isn't anything good on sale this week. I bought some Christmas wrapping paper from the Dollar Store at half price, does that count? My husband got me a U.S. Army Survival book for Christmas and it just came in the mail yesterday. On Monday we're going to our first auction in years. It has a lot of old tools and cast iron listed. Since we're both layed off I don't know if we'll be able to buy much, but it's worth looking.
I have some ground turkey in the freezer and I'm thinking about taking it out and canning it tomorrow. My husband is going to be gone most of the day, so I'll have a lot of time on my hands!
I guess I have been doing some prepping without really thinking about it. I bought a bag of diapers on clearance, and I got a blanket and baby jacket at the thrift shop. We're going to have our 2nd grandkid, so I've started buying things for it already. I remember what it's like starting out with nothing, so I want to help out as much as I can. Our Goodwill is closing down tomorrow, so now I have even less places to shop!
For the next few weeks most of my prepping is going to consist of cleaning and reorganizing what I already have. We're going to be doing some minor house repairs too.

 

[Splicer205]

We really slacked off on prepping over the holidays. Geez. Whaddya think we are superpeople? We're back on track now though.

Today I made beef jerky. Saved the little bits to shred for pemmincan. Had some roast leftover from tonight, so I shredded it and it's drying now. Will shred the roast with the jerky bits, grind in some dried cherries, put a little fat in it and make pemmican. Then I'll have to locate a hiding place.

 

[macten_1]

I finally got my old Kelty D4 backpack filled up with 7 days of Mountain House Pro Paks. I can't tell you guys how light that food is. Wow!

 

[A.T.Hagan]

Saturday night and my last entry for this week and this year and it ain't much. Picked up a few canned goods and another box of dry milk to put by at Wally World. We're pretty broke from Christmas for another week or two so big preps have to wait a bit. Got further along on the new hoophouse, but couldn't finish today for needing to wait on the PVC glue to finish curing before I put the bows under stress.

Here's to a happy upcoming prepping year - as in not needing this stuff for the reasons we bought it - for everyone here at TB2K.

.....Alan.