Prep Genrl Weekly Prep Thread: February 19 ~ 25, 2017

[ReneeT]

Good Morning, All!

It's looking to be a lovely week here - temps in the high 60's/low 70's; couple days that we're to get rain, but warm and sunny otherwise!

Last week was a fairly slow week for preps - added some ammo and Hubby picked up a new handgun but other than that, there wasn't much that tripped my 'BUY!' switch! CVS has switched to a every 2 week format on their ads and there wasn't much in the ad that came out last week that I wanted or needed, so this week will likely be slow as well. No coupons in this weeks newspapers that I can find, so I'll save a bit of money by only purchasing one Sunday paper. My co-workers have informed me that just because there are no coupon inserts does not mean that there are no donuts, so I guess that means I still need to leave for work early enough to pop into the store

It's a work weekend - and, surprisingly, it's been a reasonably decent one so far - that means I got to take a lunch break Okay - it was at 2 pm and I got interrupted once, but I did get enough time to eat, and even to take a quick walk around the campus, out in the sunshine and fresh air.

Today, Hubby is planning to put the charger on the lawn tractor and tiller, air up tires as needed on trailers and tractors, and generally have things ready to go by the time I get home from aqua aerobics on Monday. I've got three areas that are dry enough to till - and with rain forecast for Tuesday morning and Thursday, I need to get them done before weeds start sprouting and I can't get in there. I've got extra 4 hour shifts for classes for our new computer program every week, plus a 4 hour Heart Code class I have to slip in there somewhere so I am going to want to hit the ground running on the days I am able to be home and mostly uninterrupted Goal #1 on Monday is to get a raised bed cleaned out and a salad bed planted: lettuce, spinach, beets for greens, golden beets for eating, snap peas, onion sets, baby carrots, etc...

Drat - there's the alarm; time to drag on some scrubs and be headed out the door in 15....

Take care all, stay safe, and stay as happy as you can!

 

[prudentwatcher]

I agree, there is nothing worth buying on sale at the moment. And no coupons makes it even worse. I'm just glad I have a really deep stockpile.

I used some gift cards and got 2 more pair of jeans. I've been working a ton of overtime, so it seems that all I do is sleep and work. I guess it doesn't leave me with any time to spend money! Another 7 weeks and it will be back to somewhat manageable as tax season will be over. Until then, I sleep when I can.

 

[BinWa]

Ive added a few more things this week to the food stockpile. Trying to play catchup for the months I was distracted with other issues going on is hard. Really need to work on finding space for stockpiling water. Also need to replenish the non-food stock, but waiting until I can get at least a 3 month minimum built back up on the food/water.
Started seeds indoors 3 weeks ago and going to start another round by this weekend.
Added another $5 to my home envelope.

 

[anna43]

Prepping has slowed to a crawl and barely that. Had to have the house re-piped last month and the bill to pay this month plus car tags and then property taxes in March. So I've cut all spending to the bone. I'm using preps which is good because I'd prepped for two then dh passed away 16 months ago. That means stuff in the pantry is getting old before its used so eating from preps is a good thing.

I've been sewing clothing to revive my sewing skills which I consider a good prep. Also, made 4 rice bags and two walker bags and 20 or so quilt squares needed to finish a quilt I pieced last year and decided it needed to be larger. Today I finished a flannel nightgown and started a lightweight fleece jacket. The jacket requires a zipper which is definitely something that I've not done for a long while so good learning project.

Planning my garden remains on my to do list, but I've plenty of time before I need to plant despite it being in the 70's! Snow forecast for Friday. Crazy weather patterns this winter. I do have two sweet potatoes in water rooting for starts for the garden. I need to go to the basement and see if I have everything I need to start seeds and then need to order some seeds. My hip has been very painful lately and that may curtail my garden plans if it doesn't improve.

 

[BinWa]

anna43...sorry about the loss of your husband.

I wish I could sew, but Home Ec sewing in high school was as far as I got Lol.
I'm having a heck of a time the last 2 years trying to get potatoes to grow. I get about 3 off of a seed potato or that and several real tiny ones. Not even close to a good harvest. Planted about 9 seed potatoes last year and they all came out in about similar size and quantity.

 

[ReneeT]

Miss Anna, I am sorry for the loss of your husband.

I worked a bit outside yesterday; got three of my 4x8 garden beds mostly cleaned out - I left some mullein rosettes in one bed as this is the year they will send up stalks/set seed. Tomorrow, I plan to go to aqua aerobics with the neighbor lady, then come home and plant some salad greens, radishes, baby carrots, and beets in one of the cleaned out raised beds, clean out the herb bed, work on the flower beds in front and down the west side of the house, possibly mow off the asparagus area if it's not too wet from the showers today, then clean out a few more garden beds. I'm sure glad I've got lots of leftovers in the fridge because I'm pretty sure I'll still be recovering on the couch come suppertime

There will be a few extra hours on my next paycheck - an extra hour of work Sunday plus no lunch, then four hours of training today on our new computer charting program at work and another 4 hours to come next week of the same. I'm betting there will be a few more late shifts/missed lunches that will pad the check a bit more. Moldy, if you are out there, please please please tell me that Cerner isn't going to be as horrible as it seems!! Tiny little writing and too many things stacked on top of others and having to click this to expand that; and for Heaven's sake DON'T use your scroll wheel or you'll lock up the whole system!!! - what a miserable mess!!

 

[moldy]

Depends on what you used to, Renee. I went from Meditech (awful!) to Quantitative Sentinel (OK, but needed more room for free text), to Cerner. I use mostly First Net (the ED application) rather than Millennium, but they have a lot in common. Most charting is done on flow sheets rather than forms - I understand why (so you can more easily see trends), but it's harder for me to read to review, and harder to find information (we won't talk about trying to find or input a pt's tetanus status!!). The thing is that when you get really used to it, they will change a little something to make it more compliant for reimbursement - and that tends to throw me a little. They do changes about 4 times a year.

Not sure even what I"m doing this week. I told DH I wanted a smaller garden this year --not sure that will happen as that spot needs leveling, and gets pretty wet from being under the neighbors pivot sprinkler. He started 80 bell pepper plants yesterday (just bells, not including jalapenos, cayennes, bananas, ghost, anaheims.....) sigh. Even if only half of them come up, it's still way too many! We'll see - maybe I can sell the extras. I really want to get taxes done, but haven't had time to work on them.

 

[BinWa]

delete..should have thought about it better before asking

carry on...

 

[moldy]

Going thru receipts for taxes. Double sigh.... it's ugly. One thing I did find was paperwork that DH can get money that was put in a retirement account since he wasn't fully vested when he was let go. It's not much, but every penny helps.

Cooking pumpkin on the woodstove, then will dry into pumpkin powder. It's so much easier to store (and since TPTB think you shouldn't can pureed pumpkin), and you pretty much use pumpkin in a pureed form anyway. Thinking about making some bread as well - it's snowing (after it was sleeting) here, and I don't want to get out.

I did get my bees checked yesterday - they all seem to be doing well, but running low on feed stores, so I fed them (managed to get stung four times in the process. I don't know how those little buggers found a way in to my suit, but they did). DH spread manure on the garden areas yesterday after cleaning the corrals. Also found that my ginger is starting to sprout. I wasn't sure I could get it growing here, even inside.

 

[nomifyle]

Anna so sorry for you loss.

Yesterday was my 70th birthday, seems so weird, I don't really feel all that old, I do have my aches and pains, but they are nothing new. I see my self slowing down a bit. But my health is good and I have good genes in the not looking old department.

That said, I had slowed down on my decluttering a bit, but I've kept up what I've done. The front room, which is DH's room, catches all the sand that comes in the house. The floor was deep in sand, but I've swept and mopped it several times and sweep everyday now. I had a sisil rug in there that we put out on the fence to clean, I let it rain on both sides a couple of times to get the sand out and now its time to bring it back in.

Most of the stuff that I've decluttered has gone in a back room that DH built on last year, can barely get through the door. Last night I got in there and started working on it, wow, what a mess. I'm drowning in canned food from the commodities we get, so I'm not adding anything else to my preps.

It looks like spring is here in Louisiana, weather is much warmer, 70-80s, than usual for this time of year. I hope it doesn't mean a hot hot summer.

Judy

 

[moldy]

Absolutely wonderful day today! Went to a mountain man rendezvous today - DH and I had never been to one. Very interesting and fun. Toured the local fort (we like historical museums), then to the discount grocery. Went to the shooting range, so DH could get some shotgun empties to reload (can't remember what he called them). Came home, made a really great dinner (salisbury steak, mashed taters, green beans).

And most everything was free!

 

[MadMax]

Working on getting the mower and tractor ready for the spring, need to get a battery for the mower and will be done with that. Also working on rotating preps from the pantry, don't mind the beans and cornbread mix but have to eat a few bowls of rice and noodles as well. Hope to get by the thrift store this week just to see, and the sales at food stores have been lacking here lately.