Prep Genrl Weekly Prep Thread: Feb 14-20

prudentwatcher

Veteran Member
My new chest freezer has arrived and I have begun filling it. My idea for this one is all protein--beef, chicken, pork. I bought 12 lbs of chicken tenderloins at Walmart today. I will rebag and vacuum seal them all into portion sizes that we use. I will also pick up a few more shoulder roasts at Winn Dixie tomorrow to vac seal as well. Then I will be transferring some vac sealed meat from the big freezer to the new freezer and will work on using the older meat in the big freezer first.
 

nomifyle

TB Fanatic
we had power until last night at 10:30, Dh could not get power to everything we had last time, he said we need a bigger generator. No light in my office, so no internet, just now we ran an extension cord to the modum and finally get wifi back, even my phone is out. Although with wifi I can at least text on my phone. No water either, although it did come back this afternoon for a little while, DH refilled jugs.

I have come to the conclusion that I need to get out more when this is all over. I feel like I'm in prison.

I've had a headache for at least 3 days and all of my teeth have been hurting badly, but I think that is because I've been clinching my teeth. I've been praying for God to help me with losing weight. And with my teeth hurting I cannot eat except for something soft and only a small amount of that. I've been dipping a few crackers in my potato soup and that does not hurt to eat. But only a small amount.

I use to just dislike snow but now I absolutely hate snow. There are idiots around here that have been praying for snow, I feel like bitch slapping them.

One good thing is I haven't been able to catch the news on line, we do have tv but I can't stand to listen to the news on tv.

God is good all the time

Judy
 

summerthyme

Administrator
_______________
Hang in there, Judy... the end is in sight! It sounds like you have a bit of cabin fever going on! If you clench or grind your teeth a lot, you might want to talk to your dentist about a mouth guard for sleep. You can cause headaches, joint damage, tooth damage...

But if it's just stress, maybe a cup of something like Sleepytime tea might relax you a bit... Maybe you can plan on taking hubby out to lunch when the weather moderates...

Summerthyme
 

patriotgal

Veteran Member
I am with you Judy. Just took my now nightly excedrin. We should be able to get out Saturday. Much as I hate my job, going back to work never looked so good.
 

Digger

Veteran Member
We ended up with 7-8 inches of snow all total from both storms. The worst went south and east of us. Our area is nothing like the TX disaster. But there have been rolling blackouts with some power companies. We did not have any on our co-OP. Some of the factories are closed because of natural gas restrictions. And there are problems with city water due to frozen and busted pipes. My friend said Walmart was out of a lot of food staples worse than during the spring pandemic run. But other stores such as Kroger had more items.

We fared well. No loss of power. The water from the well kept running. Our wood heat kept us toasty warm. I brought my outside dog in and the old cat. The cat is about 15 I think. I was afraid he would not make it at below 0 temps.

We bladed the road yesterday with the tractor. The highways are good. At least the state roads. We are going to town to pick up a light switch hubby ordered for the tractor. We will see how our Harps looks while we are in town.
 

SouthernBreeze

Has No Life - Lives on TB
I told Cary, yesterday, that I was going stir crazy, and had to go outside for a bit. I've been inside, since this whole thing started. I was also getting headaches. I think I just needed some fresh air. So, I helped him bring in more firewood. It was good to breathe the fresh air in even though it was soooo cold. We should begin the thawing process, today. 39 for our high, today.

Talked to DS this morning. He had to try, and go into work, yesterday. On his drive in, he stopped at Walmart. He said the parking lot was full, and people were packed inside. All those people there, and nothing on the shelves! Bare shelves at our Dollar General as well. Hopefully, the trucks will get to run soon. Lots of roads, highways, and the main interstate ( in sections) are still closed here. Our rural county road was finally graded, yesterday. Now, all that snow and ice is piled up against our driveway gate. Thankfully, our gate opens to the inside.

I'm so glad that storms like this one only hit Mississippi occasionally! I hate it! A few snowflakes from time to time is enough for me.
 

patriotgal

Veteran Member
I love snow days and had asked God for one. As a hermit, I don't get cabin fever. But being on call 24/7 makes it impossible to hermit. Our 10 to 12 inches should be melted by Sunday. Many of our side roads are packed still. Friends tell me shelves are bare at stores but trucks starting to roll in. We have been blessed to keep power.
 

Meemur

Voice on the Prairie / FJB!
I don't like to be out when it's below zero, unless I have a very good reason, but it's back into the 20s, and I've been taking short walks over the noon hour so I get at least some daylight on my skin. It helps with my mood and weight. If we do get some fresh powder, I'm going x-country skiing.
 

aviax2

Veteran Member
Our temp is at 29 and is supposed to be up to 33 today, yay! I can’t imagine how long it will take for all of this to melt off. We‘ve been very fortunate in not losing electricity and only have (so far) one frozen water issue that took DH most of one day to resolve. And after all that was done to fix the problem, it just needed a couple of teakettles of hot water to do the trick and the heifers had fresh water.

I texted my single daughter to see if she needed anything and she texted back that “Someone taught me to keep well stocked”. Made me happy and relieved.

One of the Walmart stores around here put out yesterday that they were only letting 50 people in and that they hadn’t received any trucks since last Sat. so they were out of dairy, meats, breads, fruits, veggies, etc. and that many of the departments ie fabric, automotive, deli, etc were closed. Makes no sense that they were even open.

We’re still okay with dairy, have apples, grapes and a few fresh veggies left but I’ll be glad to restock some of those things hopefully next week.
 

nomifyle

TB Fanatic
I told Cary, yesterday, that I was going stir crazy, and had to go outside for a bit. I've been inside, since this whole thing started. I was also getting headaches. I think I just needed some fresh air. So, I helped him bring in more firewood. It was good to breathe the fresh air in even though it was soooo cold. We should begin the thawing process, today. 39 for our high, today.

I've had a headache for days and all of my teeth were hurting, my teeth have calmed down until I eat something and it starts all over again. My head has been hurting for days, I go out on the front stoop to breathe the fresh air. I know that I have overdone taking tylenol. Normally, I rarely take it so maybe this time it won't kill my kidneys. I had a headache in my neck when I got up this morning but tylenol has calmed that down. If I sit still and quiet I don't have much pain. When DH wakes me up he has been up for hours and as soon as I come in the room he starts chattering, makes me want to hit him upside the head, but of course I won't.

We are supposed to get up to 43 today but 17 again tonight. Tonight is supposed to be the last night of below freezing.

I'm a prepper but DH is mostly not. He ran out of corn today. He dug his truck out of the snow and has gone to the small town near us to try to find corn. At least he bought 2 bags of chicken scratch last week.

I need to remind myself of all the blessings I have and quit complaining, although its hard to do when you are in pain.

God is good all the time

Judy
 

SouthernBreeze

Has No Life - Lives on TB
I told Cary, yesterday, that I was going stir crazy, and had to go outside for a bit. I've been inside, since this whole thing started. I was also getting headaches. I think I just needed some fresh air. So, I helped him bring in more firewood. It was good to breathe the fresh air in even though it was soooo cold. We should begin the thawing process, today. 39 for our high, today.

I've had a headache for days and all of my teeth were hurting, my teeth have calmed down until I eat something and it starts all over again. My head has been hurting for days, I go out on the front stoop to breathe the fresh air. I know that I have overdone taking tylenol. Normally, I rarely take it so maybe this time it won't kill my kidneys. I had a headache in my neck when I got up this morning but tylenol has calmed that down. If I sit still and quiet I don't have much pain. When DH wakes me up he has been up for hours and as soon as I come in the room he starts chattering, makes me want to hit him upside the head, but of course I won't.

We are supposed to get up to 43 today but 17 again tonight. Tonight is supposed to be the last night of below freezing.

I'm a prepper but DH is mostly not. He ran out of corn today. He dug his truck out of the snow and has gone to the small town near us to try to find corn. At least he bought 2 bags of chicken scratch last week.

I need to remind myself of all the blessings I have and quit complaining, although its hard to do when you are in pain.

God is good all the time

Judy

Cary is going to have to dig out tomorrow, because we are out of cat food. Don't know where we might find any right now. All the shelves are bare at our local Dollar General, and there is no way he is going to try and drive all the way to Tractor Supply or Walmart in town. With everything covered in snow and ice, we felt sorry for all the birds. Cary has been feeding them the cat food. That's why we're out.

I have to take 2 Aleve every night when I go to bed, or I won't sleep for the pain I have in some of my joints. I, too, worry about what damage it might do. I ask my doctor about it, and he said it shouldn't cause a problem as long as I take it as directed. Plus, I have a full blood work up done every time I see him so, he would catch any damage, before it got out of control.
 

aviax2

Veteran Member
I told Cary, yesterday, that I was going stir crazy, and had to go outside for a bit. I've been inside, since this whole thing started. I was also getting headaches. I think I just needed some fresh air. So, I helped him bring in more firewood. It was good to breathe the fresh air in even though it was soooo cold. We should begin the thawing process, today. 39 for our high, today.

I've had a headache for days and all of my teeth were hurting, my teeth have calmed down until I eat something and it starts all over again. My head has been hurting for days, I go out on the front stoop to breathe the fresh air. I know that I have overdone taking tylenol. Normally, I rarely take it so maybe this time it won't kill my kidneys. I had a headache in my neck when I got up this morning but tylenol has calmed that down. If I sit still and quiet I don't have much pain. When DH wakes me up he has been up for hours and as soon as I come in the room he starts chattering, makes me want to hit him upside the head, but of course I won't.

We are supposed to get up to 43 today but 17 again tonight. Tonight is supposed to be the last night of below freezing.

I'm a prepper but DH is mostly not. He ran out of corn today. He dug his truck out of the snow and has gone to the small town near us to try to find corn. At least he bought 2 bags of chicken scratch last week.

I need to remind myself of all the blessings I have and quit complaining, although its hard to do when you are in pain.

God is good all the time

Judy
Judy, sounds like you could have a bad sinus infection. I’ve gotten them bad enough that it makes my teeth ache too. The drier air inside and if you’re using wood heat can definitely irritate your sinuses.
 

aviax2

Veteran Member
Cary is going to have to dig out tomorrow, because we are out of cat food. Don't know where we might find any right now. All the shelves are bare at our local Dollar General, and there is no way he is going to try and drive all the way to Tractor Supply or Walmart in town. With everything covered in snow and ice, we felt sorry for all the birds. Cary has been feeding them the cat food. That's why we're out.

I have to take 2 Aleve every night when I go to bed, or I won't sleep for the pain I have in some of my joints. I, too, worry about what damage it might do. I ask my doctor about it, and he said it shouldn't cause a problem as long as I take it as directed. Plus, I have a full blood work up done every time I see him so, he would catch any damage, before it got out of control.
Haha, about feeding the birds the cat food. I just told DH we should check into seeing if we can claim the birds as dependents on our taxes as we spent so much feeding them! We’ve had a feral cat down around our barns the past few years that hubby has been feeding since he helped keep the rodent population down. He hasn’t been seen for a few weeks now so I told DH he might as well throw some of the cat food out for our chickens and the birds for a little extra protein and fat with this crazy weather. I hope Cary can find some food quickly.
 

SouthernBreeze

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Haha, about feeding the birds the cat food. I just told DH we should check into seeing if we can claim the birds as dependents on our taxes as we spent so much feeding them! We’ve had a feral cat down around our barns the past few years that hubby has been feeding since he helped keep the rodent population down. He hasn’t been seen for a few weeks now so I told DH he might as well throw some of the cat food out for our chickens and the birds for a little extra protein and fat with this crazy weather. I hope Cary can find some food quickly.

We have 5 outdoor cats, and they keep the rodent and snake population at bay. We usually have plenty of food for them in storage, but Cary hasn't bought any lately to replace what we've used. I knew the supply was getting low, but he wanted to wait about buying anymore to put back in storage. Now, this weather has caught us somewhat by surprise, and feeding it to the birds has caused our supply to run out. It will be Tuesday, before we try to make a grocery run so, he's having to dig out, and hopefully find some before then. Lesson learned for him.
 

nomifyle

TB Fanatic
Judy, sounds like you could have a bad sinus infection. I’ve gotten them bad enough that it makes my teeth ache too. The drier air inside and if you’re using wood heat can definitely irritate your sinuses.
Sinuses are not bothering me, just some pressure, I've never had a sinus infection. I'm starting to think the headache may have something to do with me not being able to takie care of bathroom business for at least 3 days, but I've also had almost nothing to eat for 3 days. Fasting can make one constapated. I'm taking extra magnesium which usually takes care of that issue,. Maybe today.

God is good all the time

Judy
 

coloradohermit

Veteran Member
"Lesson learned for him. "

Years ago when we lived off road and off grid, DH used to complain about how much I spent on groceries. He never said anything about how much he spent on guns, ammo and reloading stuff. Then, one winter, we were snowed in for 2 months with barely an inconvenience, and he never complained again. ;-)




"
 

SouthernBreeze

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Judy, I hope that your headache issue resolves itself soon. I'm a bit concerned. I've never heard of constipation causing headaches, and it doesn't sound like a sinus infection from what you've said. Hopefully, it's just stress related.
 

moldy

Veteran Member
For you that are taking NSAIDs for inflammation and pain, I would encourage you to get some turmeric capsules. The ones that have black pepper or pipperine in them will be better used by your body. Fewer side effects, easier on your kidneys, and work incredibly well. I have been on a HIGH dose prednisone taper, and have had no problems - due to the turmeric I'm taking.

Today has been a good day = clean house, talked to mom, cousin, and daughter. DH's ankle is better - it's a good day.
 

SouthernBreeze

Has No Life - Lives on TB
"Lesson learned for him. "

Years ago when we lived off road and off grid, DH used to complain about how much I spent on groceries. He never said anything about how much he spent on guns, ammo and reloading stuff. Then, one winter, we were snowed in for 2 months with barely an inconvenience, and he never complained again. ;-)




"
"Lesson learned for him. "

Years ago when we lived off road and off grid, DH used to complain about how much I spent on groceries. He never said anything about how much he spent on guns, ammo and reloading stuff. Then, one winter, we were snowed in for 2 months with barely an inconvenience, and he never complained again. ;-)




"

LOL! That's one thing I love about Cary. He has never complained about how much I spend on groceries. I never have complained about how much he spends on guns, reloading stuff, or ammo. It's a win win for the both of us.
 

Marseydoats

Veteran Member
We have 5 outdoor cats, and they keep the rodent and snake population at bay. We usually have plenty of food for them in storage, but Cary hasn't bought any lately to replace what we've used. I knew the supply was getting low, but he wanted to wait about buying anymore to put back in storage. Now, this weather has caught us somewhat by surprise, and feeding it to the birds has caused our supply to run out. It will be Tuesday, before we try to make a grocery run so, he's having to dig out, and hopefully find some before then. Lesson learned for him.

Sherree, if you can't find any cat food, all of mine love grits. You could mix in a little bacon grease or meat scraps if you have it.
 

SouthernBreeze

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Sherree, if you can't find any cat food, all of mine love grits. You could mix in a little bacon grease or meat scraps if you have it.

I don't have any grits in my house. Cary hates them so, I don't buy them. I always have bacon grease on hand, though. I guess I could make them a big pan of cornbread, and mix with bacon grease. I haven't thought of that. Thanks for the idea!
 

nomifyle

TB Fanatic
[/QUOTE]
Judy, I hope that your headache issue resolves itself soon. I'm a bit concerned. I've never heard of constipation causing headaches, and it doesn't sound like a sinus infection from what you've said. Hopefully, it's just stress related.

I assure you that constipation does cause headaches, headaches from hell. Right now I'm almost pain free.

God is good all the time.

Judy
 

SouthernBreeze

Has No Life - Lives on TB


I assure you that constipation does cause headaches, headaches from hell. Right now I'm almost pain free.

God is good all the time.

Judy
[/QUOTE]

I'm so glad you're feeling better. I didn't know that about headaches and constipation. Good to know.
 

nomifyle

TB Fanatic
For you that are taking NSAIDs for inflammation and pain, I would encourage you to get some turmeric capsules. The ones that have black pepper or pipperine in them will be better used by your body. Fewer side effects, easier on your kidneys, and work incredibly well. I have been on a HIGH dose prednisone taper, and have had no problems - due to the turmeric I'm taking.

Today has been a good day = clean house, talked to mom, cousin, and daughter. DH's ankle is better - it's a good day.
I forgot about turmeric, I've got that and the pipperine. Shame of me for forgetting this. It works wonders.

God is good all the time

Judy
 

Cag3db1rd

Paranoid Pagan
I just assumed my quail were eating more feed because of the cold. I was wrong. Yesterday when I went to take thawed water to my birbies, there?were about a half dozen starlings in my aviary and poop everywhere. Not the little pebbles like quail make but the smears and sticks of nasty wild birds. When the thaw comes, I'm going to have to disinfect all of my equipment for my quail. Let's hope they didn't pass on any kinds of game bird related illnesses. I added more chicken wire over the 2"x4" fencing to hopefully stop them from getting in again. Hubby has not considered my quail important enough to give them a roof, so I tarped it, nor important enough to protect from wild birds, so, I have been cobbling together bits of materials to keep them out.
 

Marseydoats

Veteran Member
I don't have any grits in my house. Cary hates them so, I don't buy them. I always have bacon grease on hand, though. I guess I could make them a big pan of cornbread, and mix with bacon grease. I haven't thought of that. Thanks for the idea!

I just can't fathom somebody not liking grits!
Hope you found something to feed your kitties. If I was close enough, I would give you a bag of cat food.
 

SouthernBreeze

Has No Life - Lives on TB
I just can't fathom somebody not liking grits!
Hope you found something to feed your kitties. If I was close enough, I would give you a bag of cat food.

LOL, ain't that the truth! I love grits, but Cary is an oatmeal guy. For storage, I only buy what both of us will eat. From time to time, I do pick me up a box of instant grits, though.

Our kitties still had enough of food to get fed good this morning, but Cary will be going out today to buy more. If he can't find any, I will make cornbread for them, until we go into town, Tuesday. They will also get any table scraps I can round up.

Thanks for the offer of sharing your kitty's food! :hugs:
 

ReneeT

Veteran Member
I will admit to not caring much for grits :lol: Maybe I just haven't had them cooked right?

Judy, get outside and get some fresh air and see if that helps your headache - you may not be getting enough oxygen exchange with the house buttoned up. If you can find a sheltered spot with some sunshine, all the better!

I've spent the last three days staying at my work buddy's house in work town so I could get to work for my shifts - last one was almost 14 hours due to a mandated education meeting. I took buddy out to breakfast after he picked me up Friday morning as a thank you. I didn't even have to wait until Hubby got off work to go home; buddy was kind enough to offer to bring me home - after taking me grocery shopping even! (He's a guy with a 4WD - I really think he just wanted to get out on the country roads so he could play lol!) He took me to Aldi so I could stock up on 1/2 &1/2 and lemonade, plus a few treats. I found some yummy looking frozen veggie options - potatoes and green beans with rosemary, and potatoes, snap peas, red peppers with garlic herbs - I plan to fix one of them along with grilled Italian seasoned chicken breast and peach dumplings for supper tonight. And a pan of cornbread since someone just had to go and mention it and it sounded good :lol:

If things get worse financially - which I fully expect them to with Democrats in office - we shouldn't go too hungry, at least for meat. I went out to fill the birdfeeders and there were deer tracks everywhere in the snow in my yard. Most were coming in from the south, but they were coming in from all 4 directions. Lots of rabbit and squirrel tracks - even a few raccoon tracks.

Daughter just called to see if I wanted the grandsons this weekend; told her sure - IF she borrowed oldest grandson's 4WD truck and brought 'em out since Hubby took ours to work today and won't be home until evening. The roads are plowed about 1.5 truck width wide and have a lot of frozen ruts (temps still in the teens) so I'm not risking my boys on them in the van. Sadly, the battery died in grandson's truck the morning the snow began; he has been out on calls and hasn't had time to replace it; and the places that will come to your house to do it have been swamped with emergency calls. He's hoping to go off call this weekend and get it taken care of - but I don't see that happening with the current temps and the wind blowing the way it is.

We changed insurance at work this year - and all of my co-workers are complaining about it, so I'm going to try to get on to the site while I'm off on vacation this week and see if I need to change anything. Also need to get on our new wellness site (you get a break on insurance if you jump through some wellness hoops) and figure out what I need to do for that. I'm also going to try to get some mandated education taken care of while I'm off work.

I'm not going to spend my whole vacation dealing with dreary work things though - the pool opened back up so I plan to be up there every day during the week, and I am going to get the last of my seed & plant orders in. Somehow, my seed starting shelf migrated to the machine shed and is holding motorcycle stuff, so a trip to the Evil Empire is on my list for a replacement one. I also need to figure out where I hid my flip-chart sized graph paper from youngest grandson so that I can get the gardens plotted out - gotta make sure to keep the raspberries far enough away from the clothesline...

Well, I've taken three phone calls and made a trip outside to fill the birdfeeders (a woodpecker was trying to drill a hole in my porch siding) since I started this, so I reckon I should just get it posted and get to work on some housekeeping chores. You folks all take care; stay safe out there!
 

nomifyle

TB Fanatic
Since I'm a hardcore prepper or I must be because I have run out of nothing. DH on the other hand has a hard head and did not prep for corn, he's scratching around for something to feed the chickens. Local store has been cleaned out. I've suggested to him in the past to never get down to the last of the corn before you get more and he just won't listen.

I've always kept at least of 6 week supply of dog food on hand.

I think the chickens have cut back on their laying, but we still have 4 one gallon buckets of eggs, three of them are going to others as soon as the roads are clear enough.

God is good all the time

Judy
 

SouthernBreeze

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Cary just got back home from his adventure out and about. Roads are looking a lot better, but still icy in spots.

He went to the Dollar General about 5 miles from us. It had everything he wanted to get, especially cat food. He couldn't pass up more snack food, so he went overboard on that stuff! He also bought a big bag of bird seed so he won't be feeding the birds all of our cat food!

We keep a 4 month supply of dog food on hand all the time, but the cat food, only about 2 months worth. The cats like to catch some of their own food to go along with what we feed them. I found feathers from a cardinal, yesterday, on my front porch. I assumed one of the cats caught, killed, and ate it. There was blood.

The only addition we need to add to our preps after this is over is to buy Frisco a big dog house for outside. He stays indoors with us, and goes in and out when he wants to. He has no outside dog house in the event we have to leave in an emergency when the temps drop to this extreme, and I will not leave him out with no protection if or when it does again. Fortunately, we haven't had reason to leave him out this go around.
 
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