Prep Genrl Weekly Prep Thread: Feb 8-14, 2026

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My cousin that is a farmer said the same thing about not fruit this year. That's where canning comes in.

got up to mid 70's which is too warm for me. And it was warm in the VA too. While waiting for tests I had to strip down to my tank top. Doesn't bother me a bit that I have a flat chest, LOL. I can already see me just wearing tank tops in public. When I get hot I start to sting on my back.
 
moldy said:
@feralferret, some warm packs or even a heating pad to your arms will help decrease the swelling. @Meemur - growing poppies is not illegal, but 'processing' them is. That being said, they are a very pretty flower and useful in baking (and other things!)

I finally got back home about 5:30 (we left at 0600 this morning). It's been a really long day. So far, so good but I think I will not be going into work tomorrow, and i may ask DH to drive me to therapy. I'm hoping I am somewhat back to normal (boy is THAT a stretch!!) by Monday, although I will have to stick with a soft diet for much longer.

All things considered, maybe we should all stock up on fruit.
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I doubt we get any fruit this year due to warm weather. Muscadines don’t appear to be affected but everything else has budded and starting to bloom. We are at the beach and are sitting on the beach in shorts and are quite comfortable. Even the ocean is slightly warm! Thus hubs and I are discussing our gardening strategies for this year. Just trying to take advantage of the weather instead of it taking charge of us. This is a heavier than usual canning/drying year for us. We need that garden to produce!
 
Over the years, we have lost all of our fruit trees due to drought. I have one fig tree and one mulberry tree left, plus, a huge pecan tree. That's it. I still have the muscadine trellis, so we have muscadines. I have so much jelly stored up that it will be a while, before I need any of that fruit again. That's all I use it for is to make jelly. I eat the figs straight off the tree. Cary doesn't like them. We didn't get many pecans this year. I have enough of those to last a while in the freezer. I don't use them in sweets much anymore like I once did. 2 gals of chopped pecans in the freezer will do me for a long time. Any fruit we get this year will be from the farmers market stand in small town. We buy there almost year around depending on what he has available. We eat more fruit than sweets these days.

I gave myself a good hair trimming this morning, after I got out of the shower. Worked great, again. I trimmed off about 4 inches. I left one little tag right in back that I had to go back and trim off. I wanted to get this done, before our trip.

High will be 61, today, and 35, tonight. It's staying in the 60's for our highs for the foreseeable future. Possible storms this weekend, though. Possibly up to 2 inches of rain, too. Several days next week will be in the 70's. A good time to get out and work in the yard. I have trimming, cleaning, and fertilizing to get done. It's also grocery shopping week. It will be nice to be able to get out and do things without having to bundle up in a coat!

I've been faithfully doing my bursitis exercises and using an NSAID cream on my hip and thigh. Even without the new RX, it's beginning to feel better. The RX is still not ready to pick up at the pharmacy. They should call, today, letting me know it's ready. Another trip back into town for that.
 
Can't believe it but I got it done. Fixed the step in basement! Took half hour. Screwed pilot holes first, then deck screws. It's solid.
Son figured it that the little over a week during the worst cold and snow, that I hauled 1000 lbs of coal in the house. He did all of it when he was home not working. This doesn't count going to get it loading it unloading it which he always helped me with unless he wasn't home. And doesn't count dog food cat food peeling hay off the bale three times a day and totting 5 gal buckets water out there three times a day. In heavy snow and winds.
4 bags at a time of softener salt to basement.

Yep. Looking good for off grid and none of this to worry about.
 
WanderLore said:
Can't believe it but I got it done. Fixed the step in basement! Took half hour. Screwed pilot holes first, then deck screws. It's solid.
Son figured it that the little over a week during the worst cold and snow, that I hauled 1000 lbs of coal in the house. He did all of it when he was home not working. This doesn't count going to get it loading it unloading it which he always helped me with unless he wasn't home. And doesn't count dog food cat food peeling hay off the bale three times a day and totting 5 gal buckets water out there three times a day. In heavy snow and winds.
4 bags at a time of softener salt to basement.

Yep. Looking good for off grid and none of this to worry about.
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Just wondering. Will your DS be taking a leave of absence from work to come South with you next winter? Do you have a location in mind, yet?
 
His two best partners on the rig, both with over 40+ years on the job, are retiring this year. He has been doing this work over 7 years and burnt out a bit.
We're discussing him going to work at Yellowstone this spring and summer. I don't want him bog down taking care of me all the time. I am doing good. I want him to get out and do some things.
We've looked at many areas for sure. South for sure! GA, NC, TN. Just few acres, nothing fancy.
Plan so far is he joins me at the farm to ready up for going south for winter. Stays with me through that. But, if he finds something he loves, I am all for him following that!
It's hard to find a place just looking on the internet. Trying to find unrestricted off grid owner finance that I can afford.
 
1,000 pounds is a lot of coal! My back would be very annoyed with me, plus all the pet food . . .

I'm working with light loads, under 4 pounds in my backpack during some of my walks. So far, so good, but I'm being very careful.

I've been walking around 2 miles each day. I'm trying to to increase that to 3 miles, but I'm running into a time problem since I don't walk that fast. That's why I need to be back on the bike. I can ride this week: it's in the 40s and 50s, with maybe a 60 degree day. There's zero ice on the trails. Oh, I just know we're gonna pay for this weather! But I'm enjoying it now.

I'm glad that your hip and thigh are doing better, SB! I hope the cream continues to help.
 
About 90% of swelling has gone away. Most of the remaining swelling is in the fingers with the blood clot issues. Still trying to get my digestive system used to solid food again. Weak but slowly gaining strength. Heart rhythm still doing weird things occasionally. I need to remove the recording heart monitor tonight and mail it in tomorrow. I had it on while I was having the serious arrhythmias while in the hospital so the cardiologist should get an interesting report. The nurses were getting such weird readings on the remote heart monitor that they kept coming in to check on me Sunday night.

Forecast is for about an inch and a half of rain this weekend. We could sure use it. Had a high of 61 degrees today.
 
Today was a shopping day for me. I hate to shop, but needs must. I went to Dollar Tree -- it was a mess, shelves empty and carts holding boxes to be shelved in the aisles. Walmart -- not busy but plenty of people around. Found everything on my list except squash. Onward to Aldi -- not overly busy and found everything on my list and a squash. Final stop was Fareway where AE yogurt was on sale for 58¢ and I found the Bigelow raspberry tea that no one else seems to carry. I was so tired by that time that I had to ask for assistance finding the tea which was exactly where it's always been. Everything is now put away, I'm in comfy clothes, shoes off and going to have a quick sandwich for supper and call it good.

It was a beautiful day after a questionable start with the white stuff falling from the sky. It was quickly gone as temps were above freezing. High today got to 51º. It's now 43º/feels like 35º and low forecast as 23º. Everyone was saying it feels like Spring, but Mother Nature is just teasing us. It's February and it's Iowa so no, it's not Spring!!

I don't recall where the conversation took place on the forum about small communities working together but an example happened yesterday. A bus carrying a junior college baseball team crashed yesterday. One killed and 32 injured. Response was two medical helicopters, ambulances from four counties, two town's fire departments, Iowa Highway Patrol, officers from three counties sheriff's departments, two town's police departments, Department of Transportation, County Emergency Management Agency plus a local community school bus to serve as support vehicle. Two injured were life flighted to Des Moines and the rest to local hospitals.
 
Yes, that's been all over the news down here. I'm so sorry that one of the young baseball players was killed in that accident!

That said, there's a strong culture of cooperation here, which is one of the reasons I chose Iowa. People and agencies do a good job of working together when there is an emergency. They don't wait for some government hot shot to tell them what to do.
 
Meemur said:
Yes, that's been all over the news down here. I'm so sorry that one of the young baseball players was killed in that accident!

That said, there's a strong culture of cooperation here, which is one of the reasons I chose Iowa. People and agencies do a good job of working together when there is an emergency. They don't wait for some government hot shot to tell them what to do.
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Actually, I'd say most don't want a .gov hot shot involved and wouldn't listen unless they liked what they were told.
 
Girls, please watch over yourselves. I got you all on the prayer list.

Getting coffee. Can't tell you how nice it's been to go to bed and actually sleep or rest all night. Knowing the stove, pipes and animals are ok.

Going to 41 or more today. Even warmer every day for at least a week.
Daughter bringing grandsons out this weekend.
Made fresh bread and rolls and took to my good neighbors that helped us. Going to make more this morning.
Have to do a coal run today. Son will go but I enjoy the drive when weather is good, and someone should be there. Maybe work on kitchen drain. Softener guys may be back today to fix that.
Cleaning! No I don't think it's spring yet, but hopefully the artic stuff is done.
 
It's been so good having a bit warmer temps for the past few days. High today of 67 degrees, but clouds moving in. Tomorrow and Sunday will be stormy days, but even warmer temps for a few days next week. I'm not going to be fooled by the warmer temps, though. Winter isn't over for us, unless, we have an unusually warm early Spring. Last year, we were still using our propane heater in May to keep the chill out of the house. I thought Summer was never going to get here.

Not much going on here, today. I still haven't got the call letting me know that my RX is ready. Cary is making a run into town to see what the hold up is. We haven't even been able to reach them by phone. Hopefully, he'll be able to get it while he's there. I was in pain last night, so what I've been doing isn't going to be enough without the RX. It's a constant battle between my body and inflammation.
 
Meemur said:
Yes, it's nice to have break in the weather!

I've got to run errands and do some paying work today. I'm going to try to spend as much time outside as I can so I can soak in some Vitamin D. (I'm taking it, too).
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I can hardly wait for our weather to warm up enough to begin sitting out on the deck with my coffee watching the sunrise! I so miss that during the winter months. Early morning sun is all my body can handle, though. I take lots of Vitamin D.
 
Cary is back with my RX med, finally. 7.5 mg Meloxicam once a day with food. Hopefully, this will knock it out, because I don't want a steroid injection or prednisone if I can help it.

Other good news while Cary was out and about. We have a man in our community who cuts firewood for the public. He sells 10 cords a year. Cary stopped in, and ask him if he would cut us 3 cords of that 10 he cuts every year. He agreed to it at $200/cord already split. All oak. That solves the firewood issue for us. Also, come to find out, this same man raises chickens. He sells fresh eggs, too. Now, I have a place to buy fresh, large, organic, brown eggs at $3/doz. I'm sure they will taste a lot better than what I get at Walmart. If I talk to him just right, he might butcher a few hens for me, too, for the freezer. We're glad to know this man! Cary knew him even before we got married. Ya never know what you might learn when you get out and about more in the community. Cary and I live like hermits most of the time, but getting out more might be a big plus for us. We know everyone, but don't associate very much with them.

ps.....Now if I can just find a couple in the community who are willing to sell garden fresh veggies. I have my eye on our nearest neighbor. He has 2 huge gardens every year. He's black, but has the most beautiful garden of any I've seen in a long time around here. He has never advertised anything for sell, but it might not hurt to ask..
 
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SouthernBreeze said:
ps.....Now if I can just find a couple in the community who are willing to sell garden fresh veggies. I have my eye on our nearest neighbor. He has 2 huge gardens every year. He's black, but has the most beautiful garden of any I've seen in a long time around here.
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Maybe have a chat with him now and offer to buy him seed or . . . ?

I'm going to do that with chickens this summer. I will help pay for feed and also "chicken sit" them while the owner goes out-of-state to a wedding. They are farther out of town, so there's zero problems with having them. My neighborhood is still "in transition." I could probably get away with three hens, but I'd rather not be on anyone's radar, and yes -- I'm looking at moving a little farther out (not a lot!) There are two homes in particular I'm watching. I wouldn't mind buying either one, if they come on the market.
 
Meemur said:
Maybe have a chat with him now and offer to buy him seed or . . . ?

I'm going to do that with chickens this summer. I will help pay for feed and also "chicken sit" them while the owner goes out-of-state to a wedding. They are farther out of town, so there's zero problems with having them. My neighborhood is still "in transition." I could probably get away with three hens, but I'd rather not be on anyone's radar, and yes -- I'm looking at moving a little farther out (not a lot!) There are two homes in particular I'm watching. I wouldn't mind buying either one, if they come on the market.
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The neighbor who is cutting firewood for us from now on only lives about 1/2 mile from us. Our nearest neighbor with the gardens lives just right down the road a bit. Once the weather turns nice, I'm sure he'll begin his gardening work. Cary and I take walks when the weather is warm enough. We can stop in and ask him if he's willing to sell some of his produce. The man practically lives in his gardens, LOL. They are right on the side of the road, but he has a chain-linked fence all around his property. I know he and his wife can't put up and eat all that he produces, but he may already be growing for members of his family, too.
 
SouthernBreeze said:
Does anyone eat canned cream style corn from the store? What to do when you open a can, and it's mostly soup? Will adding a bit of cornstarch work to thicken it up some? I don't know why I buy this stuff. It's not worth it.
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I only use creamed corn to make scalloped corn, so runniness is okay.

Another beautiful day here. Currently 57º/feels like 64º which is a nice change that is feels like is higher than actual!! Low tonight 31º with high of 61º for Sat. and 64º for Sun. I will enjoy it while it lasts.

This morning, I got all my shopping from yesterday packed for the freezer. So thankful for the freezer and the vacuum sealer which makes it possible for me to shop only once a month. I bought a new to me product from Aldi -- marbled cinnamon bread. It's good but very sweet. I had it for breakfast, but in the future, it will be a snack or treat because it's just too sweet for a meal. I'll put individual slices into baggies, put all back into the bread bag and freeze then I can take out one slice at a time. I bought a whole chicken from Aldi and it leaked liquid all over the place. The 6# weight must have been a good portion water. I really don't like paying for water in my purchases unless I'm buying actual water. There is always at least one purchase that causes regret! Usually it's empty calories -- :lkick:.

I know today is Friday, but it seems like it should be Saturday. It's the same every week for some odd reason. A friend tells me she's the same always thinking it's Saturday. I guess that means I have two Saturdays each week.

I have a basket next to my shredder where I put things that need shredded. It was overflowing so I shredded enough to bring it slightly below the rim of the basket. I will probably do more later after the shredder cools off. When it gets too warm it just stops working which is good rather than burning itself out. So many appliances seem bent on self-destruct.
 
Got out and grabbed breakfast before picking up wife N3eedles for her insulin pens at Walgreens. Also stopped in real quick at the supermarket to check for marked down ground beef. All of the markdown was 80%, no 93% lean so I didn't get any. My wife won't use anything less than 90% lean because so much grease cooks out of it. She is real finicky. I did get a couple of items so I could get the $10 off $50 or more receipt coupon that is good on Saturday. I will place my online order tonight for pickup after church service tomorrow.

I got a pint of one of the newer Blue Bell ice cream flavors that looked interesting, Bridal Cake. I wasn't favorably impressed. I'm glad I didn't get a half gallon.

I used an electric shopping cart. I despise using one but I am still way to weak not to.

Nice sunny day outside. Our high temperature was 69 degrees. Around an inch and a half of rain expected tonight and tomorrow. Just waiting for the other shoe to drop and winter to blast back in once we are used to the warmth.
 
I was prescribed meloxicam for my arthritis by ortho. It works well. Does make my hctz less effective according to pharmacist warning. I don't know if the stroke / heart attack risk is greater than Aleve. My NP said she had patients who take it daily. Some days I just need to be able to walk without pain and get things done.
 
connie said:
I was prescribed meloxicam for my arthritis by ortho. It works well. Does make my hctz less effective according to pharmacist warning. I don't know if the stroke / heart attack risk is greater than Aleve. My NP said she had patients who take it daily. Some days I just need to be able to walk without pain and get things done.
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Be careful to never take on an empty stomach. I took it for a while but had to stop because it was causing stomach issues. I've never found an arthritis med that I can take so have to depend on OTC stuff.
 
What a day. Yesterday we were getting ready to move stuff out of inlaws house. I headed back to the truck to get something and a porch board broke under my right foot. I went down hard. My left foot is broken right behind the toes. Have broken it enough to know. Spent the day getting x-rays on my right leg. It is swollen, the knee is tight and huge. Went to urgent care. The doc is gonna call me tomorrow re x-rays. They had finished with my knee before I realized if I turned my head a bit I could see the screen. I did see the break in the foot. I have a boot, a big knee brace and crutches if needed. Doc and I agreed that I need to avoid the brace right now because we don't want it locking up.

Going to spend the weekend staying off my feet.
 
I'm so sorry, Patriotgal! That's awful. Prayers said for relief and rapid healing!

Re: creamed corn . . . it has been maybe 15(?) years since I had any. I think the last time I served it was at a Christmas open house. Perhaps my boyfriend's mom requested it. Or one of the neighbors. It's normally not something I buy.

I generally blanch corn on the cob in the late summer, cut off the kernels, and freeze them.
 
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Still feeling a little off today. The dentist ended up pulling only 9 teeth, leaving 2 for my obturator (think upper denture) to hook onto. Still doing hyperbaric therapy, but with a couple other meds added. I'm glad he ordered something stronger than just tylenol/ibu for me.

Talked with a friend's kiddo tonight. She lost a tooth today. She said, "Boy, you ought to get a LOT of money from the tooth fairy!!"
 
Prayers for everyone.

Tired. Exhausting week and it only got worse with work. It's end of year and both audits found that problem employee had made some really big errors that are going to take hours for myself and another employee to fix. And taxes can't be filed until these are fixed.

Doctor's appointment for son yesterday. He liked his new doc. He let them do a blood draw without a pile of people holding him. And even forgave me for it before bedtime! When I asked him if he liked her, he gave kisses.

Contract on house is signed. And I don't know why but that just has my nerves going off. But at least that is done.

I spoiled myself with flowers and chocolate covered strawberries. OMG - those strawberries are the sweetest and largest ever! I'm sacrificing one for seed. I don't know if it'll work but I've got to try.

Anyways, hoping for a good, peaceful night of sleep.
 
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