Weekly Prep Thread, January 8-14, 2006

[A.T.Hagan]

New week, folks. The new year is gonna run away with us if we're not careful.

Plans went somewhat awry for prep stuff today as we've had some sickness in the house but I managed to get a lick or two in where I could. Picked up some more OTC cold meds, with the new regulations about pseudoephedrine one can only buy this stuff in dribs and drabs now. Theres about an hour's worth of work to be done vacuum packing the new food storage, mostly replacing what has been used. The rest of my efforts in this regard were gardening related which I'll describe in the Homesteading & Gardening Journal in the Homesteading forum.

How did y'all fare over the weekend prep wise? What will you be doing during the week?

.....Alan.

 

[NBCsurvivor]

Have to go to post office and pick up my pro 95 from ebay.

After that, I am pretty much tapped this week for prep items, but will keep my eyes out for some freebies!!

 

[Cardinal]

Our finances seem to be in either feast or famine mode. We are feasting right now, so, I spent about $200 on canned goods for the prep pantry, covered my baby plants in the garden against this weekend's freeze, and DF went and bought an SKS for a rock bottom price.
Everything I bought was a loss leader, and I really stocked up on canned veges. (I am so proud of myself)
I am still practicing my bread making skills, so DF has to suffer through my experiments

I have decided I need to put in a pantry for real, as I have no good storage space, so that is next weekend's project.

 

[theoutlands]

Over the weekend:
Built a hay-rack for the boy-goats today.
Ran three rabbit does thru buck cages today and looks like a doe may have kindled overnight. Here's hoping!
Fixed loose clothesline.
Made feed-run for our "self-propelled meat sources."
Expanded our networking sources w/ another goat-person.
Planned orchard.

Upcoming this week:
Planning to work-over an 8x8 garden bed.
Prolly make first order of orchard trees.
Starting early tomato and pepper starts to set out in March.
Prolly do a bit of clearing towards new chicken coop/yard area.
Likely buying some new chicks by the end of the week or maybe setting some eggs in the incubator.
Maybe adding 2 more buckets of wheat.

Upcoming near-future:
Getting an LGD pup to protect the critters.
Filing income-tax return as quickly as my W2 and 1099 come in.
Buying a carport kit to use as a rabbit-house.
Move chickens to new area.
Stock up on kerosene - might end up getting a bbl from neighbor who no longer has kero heater.

 

[Dinghy]

Our BiLo is having triple coupon week for the very first time. You're only allowed to triple 4 coupons per trip with a $10 order, but I live close enough that I could go every day if I had enough good coupons. I got 2 jars of Jiff peanut butter for .49 each. I'll get 2 more tomorrow, plus two packs of TP. Unfortunately, I don't have coupons for the other stuff they have on sale or I'd really make out good. I'm still working on turning the extra bedroom into my sewing room. Hubby wants it scrubbed, spackled and painted, so it's going to take awhile! There is still a lot of the grandkid's stuff in there that needs to be taken to her house. Now that the Christmas decorations are down and those boxes are back up in the attic, I finally have room to move around in there to get started.

 

[okie medicvet]

on the 'famine' side here..

helped out a friend, so am more broke than I would like.

I clean out my storm cellar tuesday, and am continuing to work out. Don't have any money to get any more stores currently, dangit, but that will change by the 1st of feb tho.

in the meantime, trying to organize and get ready with what I do have.

 

[Simple Man]

Been the weekend of extra money making, saving up for a new wood stove for the living room. Took a truck load of old aluminum roofing, got $168, then worked a side job and made another $100. And then loaded the truck up with the aluminum cans to take to the scrap yard tomorrow. Will see what we get. Also been looking through our stuff to see what we can declutter and put on eBAY. WOW - do we got a pile!

Rotated out some of the gas stores, and started cleaning out the old chicken coop, getting ready for a new flock. Need to fix the door yet, and patch a whole in the chicken wire where one of MY dogs broke in, and I'll be ready to get me another couple dozen hens.

Picked up 100 pounds of dog food, and another 25 pounds of rabbit pellets while I was out and about. And am making the shopping list for our monthly shopping run.

---

Edited to add: got $45 today at the scrap yard for the aluminum cans. Not too bad.

 

[Charlie]

Ice Fishing and Firewood. See my thread on Freezing Fish.

 

[PilotFighter]

Lets see. For the low low cost of $1.50 I put around 300 pounds of fresh meat in the freezer. The cost of three 30-30 rounds. I nice fat wild hog that weighed in at 325 pounds, and 1 tender young buck, and 1 tender young doe. I should have been a sniper in life. 3 shots, 3 good kills. I was sure tired of skinning critters last night, but we'll be eating dang good.

 

[wasabell]

"Famine" here too.

Contacted a realtor about selling 3 acres of our property. All we do is mow it, and pay taxes on it, so we'd like to get rid of it. We had it re-surveyed, and did a partial-lot conveyance to get what we wanted.

We should get enough for it to get us out of debt (except for my truck note). We are keeping our fingers crossed.

I'm clearing out the medicine cabinets, and other "bathroom" storage, as well as the first-aid kit. Doing an inventory and replacing (or at least putting on a list) whatever is needed. I have some good coupons on eye wash, visene, nose spray, bandaids, and would like to use them up before they expire.

I will also be purchasing some seed packets (in case I get my raised beds soon). Otherwise, I will store them in an airtight jar in the refrigerator.

 

[yellowsprings]

I spent the weekend packing up the clearance meat I bought from Sam's Club. I go early in the morning (I have a business membership) and buy what I can afford. I declare my 20 CF upright freezer packed to the gills!

I also purchased an electric heating pad. I had never thought of even needing one as I thought I could get by on the instant heat or microwaveable bags. When I broke my foot several weeks ago, I got really tired of hobbling to the kitchen and reheating the bags. I thought I had my medical kit in order ...

DH and DS have been hauling my preps down the basement stairs for me and depositing them in front of my prep room. I finally have permission from DH to hobble down the basement stairs and put them away! (He is a worry wart) This has been driving me nuts for weeks! I will be working on organizing my prep room this week as it was a wreck before I broke my foot and now I have a mountain of new preps to add!

 

[Deena in GA]

The major project this past weekend and finishing up this week is the front porch. Hubby started on this weeks ago before we all go sick and now they're about finished. They (husband and sons) built a wall across the front porch and put up a storm door in the middle of it. This way the wood stacked on the front porch is totally enclosed, yet not really in the house. It also keeps the house warmer, quite a bit warmer. We just need to buy some insulation to put up in the wall and then finish off with the siding. The porch is totally stacked with maybe 2 weeks worth of wood and they've decided to just leave that sitting and stock the wood ring in the house from outside.

We also added even more toilet paper to the stock. There was a bogo sale on breakfast bars and hubby had some really good coupons so he bought about 15 boxes of them for $.09 apiece. Some of them are going in the bob's.

We'll be adding to the medical preps this week also. And I'm definitely going to buy some more fruit trees this week as I've been wanting to do.

Part of my prepping this week (and I've already begun) is to point out to friends and family the news that the federal government is encouraging everyone to stock up on food, water and medicines for an extended time because of the possiblity of bird flu. I've already convinced some to stock some more stuff. The more they do, the less people will be hurting if it does hit.

 

[Para36]

We were able to borrow a wood splitter last weekend and the weather being relatively good , we were able to split enough for two seasons out. I'm not at all comfortable with having just enough on hand for one season. The chain saw is one of the most work saving power tools out there and I wouldn't want to face a winter where we had to rely on cross cut saws and axes for firewood. And gasoline could become in short supply and chain saws do break down.
I was able to top off some rolled oats ( .49/lb in the bulk section ) and coffee ( 3.99/39 oz can for maxwell house ) at prices I wasn't sure I'd see again.

This week , having all the seed catalogs , I'll be checking our seed inventory and replenishing a few. I always keep enough on hand for several years out and assuming a much larger planting than current. Also will be planting ( inside of course ) the first onions.
Para.

 

[RiJoRi]

January on Long Island / NYC has usually been the time for sales on canned goods. (One store called it a "Can-Can" sale!) It's also been the time of little money for me! I'll stock up on what I can, however.

--Rich

 

[seraphima]

Found a sale on Cold-Eze, an over the counter virus remedy that cuts most colds and virus diseases both in intensity and length. (Note: bird flu is a virus)

Bought thermal synthetic long underwear for DH and myself, on sale, and hit a sale of good rain slickers at half price at the local college.

Talked with the HR person at work about bird flu, regarding thinking about work-arounds if we do get flu here...a lot of folks could do some or most of their jobs by email and online...it pointed out how important our tech dept would be to set up the needed connections, passwords, permissions, etc.

Anyone else thinking about what they would do for work if bird flu hits?

 

[Nuthatch]

Paid estimated taxes.

Discussed the pantry with SO, who thought we were overstocked. Then SO asked what the goal was....what length of time did people stock up for....and I said the average seems to be 6-9 months. A big ah-ha moment. So I went down and re-arranged and organized our stores to get a better idea of what we have.

Ordered some dried food for the BOB (3 days worth for 2 people).
Made and sent my seed order.

Buying cold medicine, etc. on each visit to a store. Realized that my anti-diarhea medicine is outdated (we never use it).

Sent the US gov't. article to at least 12 people, got one reply that they will look around the house and get a few things (brother) and one that said the bird flu was overblown (aunt).

 

[Dinghy]

I re-arranged my pantry cupboards tonight to make more room. I had cans of vegetables that I had stashed in the one upstairs bedroom that never got rotated, so I brought them down and put them in the pantry. I'm cleaning out another cupboard that is full of my cookbooks. I have more than I'll ever use so I may as well get rid of some and use that space for something better. Maybe I can sell some of them to get a little cash to buy more stuff!

 

[ARMY RANGER]

Got my guns and ammo finally arranged in one spot then I went to a gun show on Sunday in Rochester NYand picked up another 500 rounds of 223's.It was almost over when I got the ammo so the guy gave it to me for 38 bucks ,the best deal I Have ever gotten for wolf ammo.Next the food in the shelter is getting rotated.

 

[Splicer205]

I re-arranged my pantry cupboards tonight to make more room. I had cans of vegetables that I had stashed in the one upstairs bedroom that never got rotated, so I brought them down and put them in the pantry. I'm cleaning out another cupboard that is full of my cookbooks. I have more than I'll ever use so I may as well get rid of some and use that space for something better. Maybe I can sell some of them to get a little cash to buy more stuff!

If you sell cookbooks, you could advertise them here in swaps and sales.

 

[Coleslilwitch]

No money this week, but we're starting to work on getting our bodies in better shape. When the kids got home from school yesterday, we went on an eight mile hike. OUCH!!! I'm hobbling around today, but I'll be ready to go out again in a day or two. We use to hike all the time, then I got ill. Now I'm doing better, so it's time to get back into some shape other than that of a Pillsbury Doughboy.

Having all the other preps would be wonderful, but if we can't get around, it won't do a whole lot.

 

[A.T.Hagan]

Made the first seed order of the year from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. They've got some tomato varieties that I want to trial.

Also put in my order for two types of bamboo from our local botanical garden which is having it's annual bamboo sale. One is a big timber type bamboo and the other is an arrow bamboo. Mostly for visual screening, but can also provide bamboo for various uses as well as edible shoots.

.....Alan.

 

[pkchicken]

Another beautiful day out there. I was doing more compost work and making some changes in the shape of the garden patch. The front porch is loaded with fire wood just waiting for those nasty cold days.

Yesterday after reading some threads I went to the library and checked out the book Survival Garden. Read the whole thing last night. I think I have read it before. Another book I'd like to re read is "Making the most of Basics" by Stevens. Last time I got it from the library they had to do an inter library loan.

The chickens are laying again, DH put in a light on a timer in the coop.

Oh yeah, and I turned 50.....what a week~!

pk

 

[TerriHaute]

I've been letting the preps slip lately due to family crises and company for the holidays, so I'm trying to get back on track this week:

- Replenished the canned goods we've used recently and added a few

- Made and packaged another batch of scotch broth

- Studied all the seed catalogs and worked on a list of seeds to order. I want to increase the number of heirloom/open pollinated veggies I plant this year.

- Resumed hunting for a homestead. I think we are finally going to get serious about getting out of the suburbs this year. It was practically rural when I moved here 7 years ago, but now we are surrounded by beige subdivisions.

- After reading the scary farming thread, ordered more wheat in #10 cans. I read an interesting posting on another forum by a long-time prepper/homesteader (27 years) who claims that #10 cans store the best, even better than mylar-lined pails.

- Searched the internet for chicken coop and chicken tractor ideas. I want to get a few chickens this year for the eggs and to eat bugs in the garden.

Still plan to make a Sam's run after payday this week.

Terri in Indiana

 

[eXe]

Well lets see, this weekend I finished my camper shell for my truck (It needed to be cleaned, repainted, window replaced and lock replaced along with minor fitting issues.. all done by me) so now I have a place to sleep or store things in bug out mode. Open beds stink for bugging out in the rain

More ammo stored, picked up about 50 bucks more of canned goods, rotated out some older out of the store room and into the pantry.

Have to place a #10 can order soon (A few days) and pick up a few extras but thats about it so far.

BTW here is the camper shell.. I think it came out pretty nice.

 

[Rams82]

Picked up some canned goods and about 30 or 40 packs of ramen noodles yesterday. Also picked up 2 of the 5 gallon collapsible water carriers for a little over $5 a piece at Wal-Mart. I think I am gonna try to buy one of these every two weeks. I used to spend $3 a day on ciggerettes when I smoked, so $5 or even $10 every two weeks won't hurt for the most important prep you can have. (Water and a way to store it)