Prep Genrl Weekly Prep Thread: July 30 ~ August 5, 2017

[ReneeT]

Good Morning, All!!

It is an absolutely beautiful morning here - cool and clear with what I consider a reasonable amount of humidity lol! Going outside this morning reminded me of going across the dew wet grass on playground as I walked to grade school - and my sneakers were just as wet from the morning dew as they were back then

I'll be spending the morning catching up on laundry, making peach jam and canning peaches. Once the dew has burned off, I need to pick green and wax beans, cukes, and tomatoes. I'm hoping to have enough beans for a canner load after we fix a big pot for lunch - and leftovers to carry in my work lunch!

If Hubby and Grandson can take time out of trying to catch a tadpole in the stock tank (to put into a jar for a few minutes to look at, then return to the tank), Hubby will snap the beans while I re-pot a BUNCH of plants - my aloe has multiplied like crazy, and I want to take some cuttings of herbs in hopes of keeping them going inside during the winter. Then I'll 'let' grandson use the hose to wash down the porch

Sounds like the boys are almost done in the kitchen - time to start working on those peaches!

Take care all; have a wonderful week!

 

[moldy]

Got sent home from work and put on-call; I am not complaining!! Ran a couple errands, and have been trying to get stuff ready for school tomorrow. I may do some baking in a bit - I'm just not sure if I want to heat up the house like that. I need to do some weeding, and I THINK I have everything ready for tomorrow. It's little nerve wracking to think about turning stuff in via email instead of just handing it in, but I'm sure I'll figure it out.

 

[ReneeT]

Hoping day one of school went well, Moldy!

I am one tired woman this evening, but don't feel like I did that much. Couple loads of laundry, aqua aerobics with the ladies, little bit of mowing, then tilled in both gardens plus one other area. I'm going to give the empty areas in the garden a week or so to see if I need to till again before planting the fall garden...

Supper tonight was pretty good - chicken bacon burgers (chicken and bacon ground together), green and wax beans from the garden cooked together with fresh 'taters, onion, and a lil' bit more bacon, fresh corn on the cob and sliced yellow tomatoes from the garden as well. Then I topped it off with a Heath Klondike bar - darn the grocery store and their good deals! They have some kind of new cash back program, so after I took youngest grandson school supply shopping last evening, I stopped by the store to pick up some sale items plus 3 of the cash back items:

3 - cans Hunts pasta sauce @ 79 cents each
3 - 15 oz jars Peter Pan peanut butter @ $1.49 each
3 - Kraft shredded cheese 8 oz @ $1.88 each
4 - pks Snack Pack pudding (Hubby's lunches; I humor him) @ 88 cents each
1 - jar of store brand pasta sauce on sale @ 99 cents; got $1 cash back (Free!)
1 - 4 pk store brand pudding on sale @ 99 cents; got $1 cash back (Free!)
2 - 6 ct Klondike bars on sale 2/$6; got $1 cash back

I will be watching for their mid-week sale ad to see if any of the other cash back offers will be free

Back to work the next two days; then two more off - have aqua aerobics Thursday morning, and need to get a haircut plus take older grandson to pick up his school supplies on one of those two days as well. Beans will be ready to pick again, and I really should put up more sweet corn... Day off? What day off?! LOL!

Take care all; wishing you a safe and happy week!

 

[moldy]

I lucked out yesterday, and DH got the night off. His first in 3 weeks. It was so nice to have him at home and awake for a bit. Friend picked up panels and posts for me today. I left the house at 8 am, and got back at 8 pm due to a nasty wreck on one of the roads. I followed a pickup down a dirt road to get around it, or I would still be on the interstate.

Point to prep: always know alternative routes! First day was interesting, covered a lot of stuff that I thought was pretty self-evident, like be on time, clean up after yourself, turn stuff in on time. It amazes me that some of these folks talked about moving cross country to go to this school, but hadn't even looked at the syllabus (which I got months ago) or even looked at the resource site (that we all got Thursday). The instructors are amazing, though.

 

[paxsim2]

It's coming up cucumbers around here so I've been busy pickling.
Still decluttering in order to get this house ready to sell. I go back to school/work the first of Sept., so I'll have a pay check again! Yay!
Sold a few things on the facebook market, not as much as I hoped so I see a garage sale in my future.

Hopefully the sales will get better so I can stock up on some things for the pantry. The school sales are starting up so things like peanut butter are on sale, hopefully staples will go on sale soon, I know they will before Thanksgiving.

 

[ReneeT]

Yay for peanut butter on sale! Stopped at the store on my way home from work on Tuesday, and both to and from work on Wednesday - added 9 jars of peanut butter, 9 cans of spaghetti sauce, and 12 - 4 pks of pudding to the pantry for around $32 total; also had gotten a coupon mailer from the same store for a FREE 8 pk of 20 oz Gatorade bottles plus a FREE 12 ct pkg of Frigo string cheese sticks - the string cheese also added a dollar back to my 'wallet' in the store app.

Went to aqua aerobics this morning, then somehow managed to step on a loose rock in the asphalt parking lot on my way back to the truck and went down on one knee, giving it a good twist - make that a not-so-good twist! Popped an anti-inflammatory as soon as I got home, then wrapped the knee and spent the rest of the morning with it elevated and iced; it's feeling a lot better now. I'm going to go out and pick green beans again; then will likely mow the yard before it rains again overnight. I need to put up corn tomorrow but will be able to pick it then as long as it doesn't rain too much. Well, I could still pick it, but don't want to compact the soil if it is wet.

Knowing alternate routes is a really good idea, Moldy! We vary our route home from aqua aerobics town, I vary mine home from work frequently, and when I bring the grandkids home with me, we take different routes as well - it's good not only to know another route in case of traffic issues, but also in case you end up having to walk home in a bug out situation - where you could take shelter, what food sources might be available (right now elderberries are ripening), where there might be water sources, which houses have dogs that might alert people to your presence, which ones look like somewhere you wouldn't want to walk past , etc... The granddaughter and I have talked about which of our 3 normal routes would be best if we had to walk the 12 miles from their town to my house or vice versa; and why one route might be better than another - #2 route is .5 miles longer than #1, but the shorter route has 13 hills to go up and down (not counting our road), and some of them are steep (for around here lol!), plus you go past fewer houses on #2. Taking the #1 route that has the steep hills, gets you off the highway sooner; but then you have to go past a lot of houses where we don't know the owners... #3 route keeps you on the highway longer, but is nearly all flat and once we're about 4 miles out of town, we know and are known by most of the folks in the houses we pass, and are comfortable with them, but it does tend to flood in heavy rain...

Off to the garden... Take care all; have a great day!

 

[ReneeT]

How many days a week do you go to class, Moldy?

Someone wanted to keep me out of the garden yesterday - walking across the side yard to the garden, stepped on a green walnut hidden in the grass and down I went again. Same knee, grrrr. Settled for ibuprofen plus wrapping and icing it again, but all I managed to get done after that was cleaning out and defrosting one of the small freezers while reading through another ACLS book.

So far this morning, I've picked green and wax beans, half a row of sweet corn, and a bucket full of elderberries. I pulled the corn stalks as I picked the corn - sure wish I had some cows to throw the stalks over the fence to like we used to! I pulled the stalks because I'm wanting to get the weeds tilled down in the corn rows before they go to seed. The corn is iced down in a small stock tank that we usually use to hold bottled water and soda during family dinners; I'll work on it when I get back from town - I managed to finagle a sorely needed appointment for a hair cut at noon.

I'll put the elderberries in the steam juicer before I get started in on the corn; Hubby is going to be in charge of supper - the grocery store has a rib dinner special tonight and their ribs are pretty good Some of the beans I picked were getting fairly large - close to shelley bean stage - but I like them that way as long as the pods aren't tough - and we cook them in the pressure cooker so they rarely are. I'm guessing they might be higher in protein that way, but don't have anything scientific to back up that guess It's a beautiful cool day out, so there will be a pan of cornbread going in the oven to go along with the ribs, corn, sliced yellow tomatoes and green beans for supper.

Think I'm going to shower and head on in to town in a bit - need to pick up cat food before I go to my hair cut appointment. Wal-Mart on a first week of the month Friday - what could be better?! (First week of the month Saturday or Senior Day ) Wonder what the American Legion has on their lunch menu today?? I already know that the foo-foo bakery has turtle cheesecake on their menu

Take care folks, and here's hoping you all have a safe and happy weekend!

 

[moldy]

SChool is 3 days a week, work is 3 days a week, so I have one day at week to try to get stuff at home and homework done. So far, I"m getting my butt kicked!!