Prep Genrl Weekly Prep Thread: July 9 ~ 15, 2017

[ReneeT]

Mornin', All!

I'm getting ready to head in to work early to pick up donuts for the crew - Full Moon Sunday on the psych ward What could possibly be more fun??? I just hope I still have a job at 1930 this evening....

Three days in a row off work once I make it through today, and, as usual, they will be busy ones. Aqua aerobics with the ladies on Monday and Tuesday mornings, neighbor girl coming over to work both those afternoons - what jobs she will do are to be determined by the weather as there is rain in the forecast for Monday and Tuesday. Picking up the grandkids Tuesday after aqua aerobics - need to get granddaughter set up for cheer camp next week (still trying to figure out how it got here so quick!) We found her a blanket on clearance and will pick up some sheets and a pillow at WM - I found references last year to problems with bed bugs in the dorms where she will be going, so all will be left behind - cheaper to spend $15-$20 on bedding than to possibly end up dealing with the disgusting creatures! All of her clothing will be bagged in zipper bags with each day's outfit bagged separately so only one bag opened at a time, plus a spare empty bag to put the soiled clothing in. She has a flashlight for emergencies that she can use to check out the mattress/bed frame. And that's the best I can do for that!

The grands will spend the night Tuesday and I will run them home Wednesday in time to go to the weekly library activity - last week it was reptiles and amphibians, so neat! Once they are dropped off at home, I will head to the orchard to get peaches - one of my friends told me to hold off as she'd been up there and the peaches were still pretty green. I have zucchini and cukes that need picked, plus lots and lots of weeding to do; and if the weather permits, I'd like to haul home another load of composted manure for a gooseberry patch I'm working on. I've also decided to expand the orchard but that will require taking up/moving some 4x8 raised beds - I may just stack them on top of some others to make taller beds...

There goes the alarm - time to hit the road! Take care all; stay safe!

 

[moldy]

I'm beat and it's only Sunday! Drove home from KS today (8 hour trip) with a side trip by an estate sale. Someone had put a sign along I-70!! Not sure if it was legal, but it got our attention. Not much, but a couple boxes of canning jars followed me home.

Hit Menards while in Ks - awesome store! Their prices on canning jars were cheaper than I can get them at home, and their price on Ball lids is cheaper than the Amish store I (used to) go to. I was really disappointed with it this trip - enough that I probably won't go back again. I can get spices cheaper thru Frontier coop or San Francisco herb company, and those companies have a bigger selection.

Got home, unloaded the car, then headed to the north pasture to bring home cows. There just isn't enough for them to eat. Sitting down for a few minutes before I go out and check a fence that I know needs more staples.

 

[paxsim2]

Well, the fruit buying plan fell through but I can go today or tomorrow and get the fruit that I need. My sister's cucumber plants are loaded so we may be making relish and pickles in the next couple of weeks. We also want to make some sweet onion and pepper jams.

We are continuing to downside, I've never seen so many shirts, tshirts and dress shirts in one man's closet! So I'll be taking the best ones to a resale shop and selling the rest in a garage sale. After we get the front room cleaned out we will be painting and putting down new floor. Our goal is to clean up and spruce up this house for the market or rent it out.

The sales are not great this week so I'm going to wait for the new sales ads. Hopefully there will be sales on the things I want.

It will be hotter here this week so I'm going to work outside early and inside the rest of the day. Have a great day everyone!

 

[ReneeT]

I'll have to check Menard's prices on lids, Moldy; thanks for the tip! I've been using Golden Harvest brand lids (made in the USA) from Dollar General that I stocked up on last year - they were between $1.50 and $1.75 per dozen; I'd buy $25 worth and use a $5 off $25 purchase receipt coupon; which would then net me another $5 off $25 coupon to use the next Saturday (the coupons were only good on Saturday); I kept it rolling long enough that I've still got about 50 dozen of those lids in the pantry. Dollar General has some pretty good school supply sales going on right now; with 3 grands going to school full time this fall plus promising my sister-in-law that I'd pick up some supplies for her church's school supply drive, I can probably rack up a few of those $5/$25 coupons and stock up a bit more.

We have definitely been in a good sale lull here, Paxsim2 - and it must have been going on for a while! I scanned my card at CVS last week and got my quarterly Extra Care Buck - the one that they give you back 2% of what you spend - I got a whole $1.... way low for me. Of course, we've been done with diapers for a while, and Aldi has protein powder cheaper than even a great sale at CVS, so maybe that's part of it... Men and clothing - don't get me started....

Had a great time at aqua aerobics with the girls this morning, but managed to do something to my foot on the way out the door - the heel area started getting pretty swollen by the time I got home so I was hobbling around the house this afternoon. Hubby got tired of watching me hobble, and told me to 'take a darn Ibuprofen and put yer foot up for Pete's sake!' I've finally decided to take his advice....at least for a few minutes since he's not here to see that I'm doing so because I sent him to town to the thrift store to drop off a big box of toys and clothes that I weeded out of the boys' room. I feel bad sitting down as I have the neighbor girl over working - she's out in the heat weeding flower beds so I told her I wanted her to take a break, and then she could use the hose to clean the porch and water the porch plants before heading home. She's planning an earlier start tomorrow I'm hoping the swelling in my foot goes down as I've got more pork 'n beans to can this afternoon, plus I'd like to get outside and weed the raspberry bed later this evening as well. I bumped up my pork 'n bean goal a bit so I'm still working on getting them done before I get elbow deep in peaches later this week...

Lunch was fabulous today - ham 'n cheese sandwiches, fresh picked green beans cooked with new potatoes, onions, and bacon; then a salad made from chunks of cucumber and onion, cherry tomatoes cut in half, feta cheese - all doused with Italian dressing. Supper tonight will be baked steak made with onions and peppers from the garden, sweet corn from the neighbor kid's stand, leftover green beans, fried green tomatoes and zucchini; all washed down with fresh squeezed lemonade. Can you tell that I surely do love me some summertime cookin'?!

Y'all have a great rest of the day...

 

[moldy]

Cows are home and happy. Ran by the mechanic's today (his phone's been out for a while) and was thrilled to see him working again. It's so hard to find a mechanic you can really trust. DH started his 2 week rotation of night shift, so I need to get a couple casseroles fixed up that he can just nuke when he's hungry.

 

[ReneeT]

If those cassaroles were being made here, they would have zucchini in them, I'm just sayin'...

6 - 2 cup bags of shredded zucchini put in the freezer today, plus we baked a loaf of chocolate zucchini bread and a dozen muffins of the same I had some applesauce that had darkened a bit on the pantry shelf, so used a half cup of it in place of 1/2 cup of the oil called for in the recipe - couldn't tell a bit of difference.

Kids and canning today, plus a trip to the weekly Farmer's Market in a nearby town. 10 booths - and every single one of them either had an American flag displayed, or the seller was wearing a shirt or hat with an American flag on it! I felt like the Grinch - like my heart grew three sizes today I bought at least one thing from every booth as a way of saying thanks; and let the folks know I appreciated seeing Old Glory. The boys and I got home with 5 - 1 gallon bags of green beans (mine are running late), multicolor cherry tomatoes, yellow tomatoes, green tomatoes, a watermelon, new yellow 'taters, new red 'taters, an acorn squash, 3 dozen brown eggs, a small bag with 4 of those green transparent summer apples for my sour apple loving son-in-law, 6 ears of sweet corn (ours is just starting to tassel), a loaf of bread, a pan of cinnamon rolls, a small bouquet of wildflowers tied with baler twine (an 8 year old girl's stand - teach 'em early!) and enough peaches to slice, top with a butter/brown sugar/flour mix and bake - we served it over vanilla bean ice cream for dessert after supper - which included green beans with new 'taters, sweet corn, sliced tomatoes and fresh bread with butter - YUM!!

 

[moldy]

i makea killer chicken-zucchini casserole. i'll have to post the recipe later. late getting home tonight....we lost one of our regulars today.

 

[paxsim2]

We've been pickling, relish to start then we'll move on to dills and sweet pickles. Then fermented dills and so on. LOL My sister's garden is over producing tomatoes so for the first time in a long time we're doing tomatoes. Canned tomatoes have almost doubled in price and even on sale they are expensive so we're upping the canning.

My husband is set for oatmeal and cereal, one of the smaller groceries has cleared out some of our favorites marking it down below 1/2 so I stocked up, it's still in date. It's his go to late night snack and it's lower sugar and high in fiber. Win win.

Batteries are on the list along with battery operated fans that are on clearance at Walgreens.

Got the asparagus planted in a big pot until we can get the bed set-up. Hopefully that will happen this weekend along with getting a couple of other beds.

 

[moldy]

Well, it's a good thing I wasnt' planning on doing much canning this year. My tomatoes look like a Charlie Brown Christmas tree, I've had to replant most of my row crops (and they're not coming up all that great), and tonight I found squash bugs on my zucchini. I pulled off the eggs with duct tape, and squashed the adults I found, then dusted all the plants with diatomaceous earth. Sigh.

A friend came over and helped me do a lot of weeding, so the garden - what there is of it - actually looks pretty good. Now I just have to keep it that way. The pigs are running low on feed, so I am feeding the weeds I pull to them along with the rest of the winter squash from last year.