Prep Genrl Weekly Prep Thread: February 26 ~ 24, 2019

[ReneeT]

Good Morning, All!! It's another chilly but absolutely beautiful day here - and best of all, I saw a red-wing blackbird this morning; a sure sign of spring for this area!

A belated Happy Birthday to Miss Judy; and a Welcome! to Mad Max; thanks for joining us!

Moldy, sounds like you had a great day I'm going to have to alternate my work route to drive by the rendezvous site near us as to see if they have a sign up for their annual meet as I would love to take the grands to one this year!

Took the kids to the Evil Empire last night to pick out some craft paint - we are going to do a porch planter of flowers for daughter for Mother's Day, and they had each picked out a little birdhouse to paint to add to the planter - after they are painted, I will have Hubby drill a hole in the bottom and add a dowel. While at WM, we did a wander through the clearance section and picked up several kids shirts and a pair of pants for granddaughter for $1 each; can't argue much with those prices as Goodwill and the Sallie's are higher than that!

Late start this morning as the grandkids are here - sometimes getting through breakfast takes a while I have to run them home in a bit as granddaughter has a dinner to go to with her bio moms family; then I have to go to a funeral this afternoon for a long time neighbor - I remember helping her, my mother, and another neighbor lady plant 'ditch lillies' to help prevent erosion and beautify the area; I'm thinking that it was sometime during Lady Bird Johnson's 'Keep America Beautiful' period, but could be wrong about that. There are an awful lot of those ditch lillies growing in this area still

While I'm in town to drop off the grands, I will stop by CVS to scan my card and to pick up a card for the neighbor's family, but then will hurry home to get some work done before I go to the funeral. I won't do any other shopping today as I've not had enough time to peruse the ads - or maybe I should say focus on the ads - there is a 4 year old armed with a chainsaw and boom-whacker exterminating invisible ninjas behind me as I type

For some reason, I'm feeling led to stock up on vitamins and OTC pain meds this week. All the grands are past the age of requiring the liquid ibuprofen or acetominophen and I had donated all that I had left in stock; but, again, I feel an urgency to stock back up. No little ones currently or anticipated to be in the picture, but a bottle of each isn't going to break the bank - especially if I can find a sale

Off to clean up slain invisible ninjas... Take care, all; wishing you a happy week!

 

[nomifyle]

Since I have a large amount of canned and foil packaged foods from the commodities we get monthly, I've kind of agonized how I can use some of them. We have several foil packed beef stews (where's the beef), DH said it was too spicey for him, so I added a can each of corn, mixed veggies, potatoes, and beef in a big skilled first and them transfered it all to my large crockpot. I let it simmer for several hours and DH ate two big bowls. I didn't eat any because it has too many carbs for me. There were two large servings for the freezer. I have a recipe for cobbler, I mixed it up and added two cans of fruit cocktail. Its supposed to be cobbler so its a bit runny, DH was looking for cake, so it is not his favorite, but he said he would eat it.

I had let my commodities pile up for the last month or so, yesterday I got them all in the pantry. I swear we have a million cans of corn, DH likes it so it won't go to waste, I don't eat it because of the carbs.

If I eat a lot of carbs I would pile on the weight and be unhealthy.

Judy

 

[Barb]

Nomifyle, you might check out fruit cocktail cake. It was one of my husband's favorites and is very easy to make.

 

[LeafyForest]

That fruit cocktail cake sounds good. -- do you have a recipe for it?

 

[eXe]

Aside from rotating the usual canned goods when they were on sale this week, and updating my sleep system for the main bug out bag, I finally got around to building a nice back yard rocket stove. This thing works great. Comes in handy as a backup cooking method, even though we have many small propane stoves and a bbq grill. Dont mind the wind noise, it got windy in the middle of the video.

 

[ReneeT]

Very Nice, eXe!!

There is a reclamation yard across from Hubby's work (sounds so much nicer than 'That pile of crap across the road' as the guys at the shop refer to it) where I have been eyeballing some concrete blocks - I thought that they must be flue liners, but can't find a photo of flue liners that looks like they do. They look like a rectangular block with a U shaped opening down the center - http://tse2.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.nbM3HG4IjcKwq2G7rm5m0AEsDI&pid=15.1&P=0&w=292&h=195 is an image of one. I keep thinking there should be a way to make a rocket stove from them - it's occupied me on my drive home several times Of course, first I'd have to talk the owner into parting with a few - not an easy task

 

[eXe]

Very Nice, eXe!!

There is a reclamation yard across from Hubby's work (sounds so much nicer than 'That pile of crap across the road' as the guys at the shop refer to it) where I have been eyeballing some concrete blocks - I thought that they must be flue liners, but can't find a photo of flue liners that looks like they do. They look like a rectangular block with a U shaped opening down the center - http://tse2.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.nbM3HG4IjcKwq2G7rm5m0AEsDI&pid=15.1&P=0&w=292&h=195 is an image of one. I keep thinking there should be a way to make a rocket stove from them - it's occupied me on my drive home several times Of course, first I'd have to talk the owner into parting with a few - not an easy task

Check on Youtube.. people make rocket stoves from them all the time. I was going to go that route, but I found the bricks to be more sturdy and since I am setting up a little area to do outdoor stuff for my youtube channel as well as for our own enjoyment here (Like an outoor bushcraft patio lol) I chose this one.. but the blocks you are talking about can be used too. Its funny, I have had this back yard for nearly 13 years and have not done much with it.. now that I am doing youtube vids I finally have a use for all this open space

 

[Illini Warrior]

Very Nice, eXe!!

There is a reclamation yard across from Hubby's work (sounds so much nicer than 'That pile of crap across the road' as the guys at the shop refer to it) where I have been eyeballing some concrete blocks - I thought that they must be flue liners, but can't find a photo of flue liners that looks like they do. They look like a rectangular block with a U shaped opening down the center - http://tse2.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.nbM3HG4IjcKwq2G7rm5m0AEsDI&pid=15.1&P=0&w=292&h=195 is an image of one. I keep thinking there should be a way to make a rocket stove from them - it's occupied me on my drive home several times Of course, first I'd have to talk the owner into parting with a few - not an easy task

it's a bond beam block and not for a chimney .... regular concrete block works OK for a rocket stove and are a $1/pc ....

 

[nomifyle]

Nomifyle, you might check out fruit cocktail cake. It was one of my husband's favorites and is very easy to make.

Actually I made the fruit cocktail cake a couple of weeks ago and DH liked it. The cobbler recipe I used is so quick, now if I had put cherry pie filling in it he would have loved it. I think I searched for the recipe and came up with something.

Judy

 

[Barb]

Just google fruit cocktail cake. There are all kinds of recipes.

 

[BinWa]

Well I added about $50 worth of products to the food stockpile this week.
$5 to the emergency envelope
Started another tray of seeds inside.

For Feb. I concentrated on finances...got my taxes done, money sitting at an old employer moved, ect...
March... I am going to concentrate on finding new ways/products/ to save money.

 

[ReneeT]

Worked an extra 1.5 hours last night, plus a 4 hour class today; up past 30 hours for this week, with another 12 hour shift to go (if I'm smart enough not to answer my phone the next two days lol!), so will be looking at a little extra on the paycheck next week; every extra hour helps, especially since I went in on another group buy for preps at work! One of my wonderful co-workers watches for sales on items on our preparedness group's 'wanted' list, then alerts us when there is a good price, collects the $$, orders the items, and then distributes them.

After my class, I hit Aldi for a few current use items - eggs 45 cents/dozen, 1/2 gallon whole milk 68 cents, gallon 2% milk 75 cents, 24 ct of 16 oz bottles of water $1.99 were the top items on my list, plus I snagged some fresh and frozen veggies and sliced co-jack cheese for my lunches. Headed on over to the pool to meet up with my friend; the exercises are helping as I can now swim two full laps without stopping - and without my heart rate going over 130 lol! Getting some upper body flexibility back as well - that's very welcome.

After the pool, I popped in to CVS - snagged 6 cans of Chunky soup at $2.89 each; buy one get one free (which brought them in line with WM's price) 2 of the Chunky soup bowls at $3.59 each, buy one get one free; and an 8 oz bag of Pistachios (Granddaughter's Easter basket ) @ $2.99 and one Reese's Easter egg (it was a rough class lol!)(I bought girly beer on the way home from last weeks class - not on sale and without a coupon; talk about stressed ) Total: $16.24.
Used:
1 - $1/3 cans of soup CVS scanner coupon
2 - 45 cents/3 cans of Chunky soup coupons
1 - 74 cent off Hershey's single CVS scanner coupon
1 - $2 home mailer CVS Extra Care Buck
1 - $5 Extra Care Buck from previous purchase
4 - $1 Extra Care Bucks from buying milk
Total: $13.64
Handed over 3 dollar bills and a quarter, got a little change back plus a $5 Extra Care Buck from a 'Spend $15 on groceries/Get $5 ECB deal. Worked for me

Minimal plans for this evening beyond making a batch of tapioca pudding, washing dishes, and running a load of laundry. Tomorrow's plans include going to the pool with the neighbor ladies, then running to daughter's town to pay youngest grandson's pre-school tuition. If the wind has settled down, I may see if my handyman can come over and do a few hours work around the place afterward. Friday will be pool again, then a quiet afternoon of working around the house/farm - I hope - before heading back in to work the weekend...

Wishing you all a safe and happy week!

 

[BinWa]

Did anyone notice the thread title is Feb. 26 - 24 2019
I'm guessing it was before ReneeT had her first cup of coffee lol

 

[ReneeT]

Well, I started the coffee before I fed the kids - but I'm not sure that I'd had time to drink any of it! Did I mention the ninja slaying pre-schooler armed with a chainsaw...

Off to aqua aerobics with the neighbor ladies... Have a great day, folks!

 

[Old Gray Mare]

Progresso Soup was still about a dollar a can. It is usually on sale in January or February but that sale has never lasted this long. It is not staying in the pantry long enough to call a prep item.

 

[SAPPHIRE]

We bought some of the soup too........our local King Sooper (Kroger) had a buy 8 and each can = 88 cents.........good buy plus I had two coupons at $2 off four cans of soup.....so I bought 8 cans for $3.04...

We just had brake work this morning on our vehicle (!) unexpectedly larger bill.........so no prepping unless pennies worth for rest of month!!! Bad timing........

 

[ReneeT]

Good morning, folks I think I'm just typing to see if my fingers still work lol! Spent yesterday morning catching up on laundry, then went to digging up and putting in tubs some lemon balm that needed relocated at least for the moment so that we could seal the bottom boards on the shed as soon as it warms up some. Got about 15' of that done and needed to stand up straight, so went to pruning Mama's Eutin rosebush instead - got a small trailer load of prunings and took them to the burn pile before heading to town to pick up my handyman. Got to town early so snagged us a couple of double cheeseburgers and shakes at the locally owned burger joint, then rested in my car for 10 minutes and ate my cheeseburger until he finished up the job he was doing and came out. Got back to the farm and got to work - and I'm here to tell you, it's a wonder I survived!

My husband is very allergic to poison ivy and won't come near it, so needless to say (which has never stopped me yet ), there were some overgrown areas that needed attacked. We started down by the windmill, him with the chainsaw, me with the loppers and dragging brush... 4 hours and 3 big trailer loads to the brush pile later, I was begging for mercy. Thank goodness the chain saw needed sharpened before we start on hedge again!! We still have a pile of logs to haul up to add to the fire pit stash, 2 more smallish trees to come down, some barbed wire to pull out, and two new well covers to frame and pour (I know there are three wells down there, but I haven't found the third one yet.) And 5 more poison ivy infested areas to clean up, including a short fence row. I sure hope I'm recovered by Wednesday when he comes back out - though I don't have much hope because I'm planning to mow on Monday and till on Tuesday... This gettin' old thing ain't easy - but it sure does beat the alternative

Off to pull on some scrubs so I can head to work - you folks all stay safe out there!