Weekly Prep Thread, June 25 - July 01, 2006

A.T.Hagan

A.T.Hagan

Inactive
<center><big><strong>Visit the new TB2K Prep Room!
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Been a slow prep week for me so far. Brought my gas storage up to goal, but other than that I haven't gotten much done along those lines.

My chickens laid their first pullet eggs over the weekend. Got about half the electric fence around the hen yard installed. The fence charger and battery will be kept in a feed storage shelter that I'm building. Not quite finished with it. Still have to hang the doors and put on the tin.

How is going for the rest of you folks?

.....Alan.
 
Dinghy

Dinghy

Veteran Member
Between Saturday and Sunday I canned 13 pints of chicken, 12 quarts of broth, and 6 jars of scraps for the dogs. I have found that I can use spaghetti sauce jars to can the dog food. The lids seal tight just like regular canning jars. I have some that I did for y2k, and other than starting to show a little rust, the lids are still tight! I won't use them for people food, and I check them regularly, but it sure saves from having to use my good canning jars! I have never had any break in the pressure canner either.
The sales absolutely stink any more!! Every few weeks there might be one thing that I can stock up on, and that is it! I have to go to several different stores to really get anything, and that means a lot of gas!
It's been raining so much that we can't even get out to work in the garden. I weeded last week, but I'm afraid all this rain is going to make them really grow again.
On the up side, I'm managing to save a lot of the rain water! I put open coolers on the deck when it rains and they fill right up. I water my garlic bed with it because it's only a few steps away, and that way I don't have to drag the hose the whole way around the house! So far the garlic looks really nice and I have high hopes for it this year.
The blackberry bushes are loaded with berries again this year. Last year a lot of them dried up and were a huge disappointment. This year I'm going to make sure that they get plenty of water. I've never had to water them before, but I'm going to now and see if it makes any difference, or find out if something else caused the puny berries.
 
B

Burbsteader

Inactive
Just came in from watering the garden. Going to be a scorcher today.
Harvesting lettuce, kohlrabi, cilantro, kale, and pea pods. The spinach is done already.
I think I just harvested our entire broccoli crop. It consisted of one flowerhead the diameter of a coffee cup! Too much nitrogen, so we had big beautiful plants, but hardly any flowers.
But all that nitrogen is giving us bumper crops of greens, so there is some trade off.

Had our first camping trip of the season. I had way too much bedding, but no mixing bowl. :p

Swim lessons for the two boys starting today.

DH repaired the fence. The supports are rotting, but we simply cannot afford to pay for a fence, or even split the costs with our neighbor. So DH anchored the old fence to new columns. This should buy us a few more years.
 
L

Landrover

Inactive
Working on the bigger plan...

It's not very often I can contribute due to my work internet rules. I can read but I am not allowed to post. Since most days I "check in" there I have to read only. However I do value the contributions and have been working at my preps. I attended a Ham radio weekend at Seaside Oregon. I purchased a handheld radio so now I can keep it with me in my Backpack/Bugout bag at work. This travels with me containing some food, now communications. Water, matches gloves, hat, whistler, knife, and a space blanket.
I also attended "field day" where the local Ham's set up under emergency power etc, and have a contest to make contacts. This certainly pushes me towards Solar Power for back-up as generators make so much noise and will be very obvious in a prolonged outage.

I have also rotated my gas storage into the cars, and refilled by back-up gas with fresh. Since I use it more over the summer it doesn't get stabilizer until the fall when it is again rotated for the Winter.

The gardens are getting low flow hoses put throughout tomorrow.

The biggest on going project is my person files. Since I read the Post "What would you take if you only had 20 minutes" I have been concerned about our files. Loading the kids just to go anywhere takes over 20 minutes. A presentation at the Ham Fest about the devestation of Katrina reinforced this. My wife is also onboard. I have been removing all old papers and trying to get it to 1 small file box, plastic with a lid that will have all the important documents, insurance, birth certificates etc. We are also photographing the house and will send a CD to family in another area for back-up.
Another box will contain the photos.

Lastly I purchased a rope/pulley system to hang my roof top box above the car in the garage. This will have a BOB bag of each family member with jackets boots hats etc. This should allow me to drop it on the roof and know I have the basics for the family.

Thanks for all your hints This is a great Web Forum.
 
idelphic

idelphic

Inactive
Landrover said:
Lastly I purchased a rope/pulley system to hang my roof top box above the car in the garage. This will have a BOB bag of each family member with jackets boots hats etc. This should allow me to drop it on the roof and know I have the basics for the family.
Click to expand...

Landrover - Awesome idea. I hadn't thought of this. I had considered something similar,.. a box loaded and ready to load into the truck. Similar to the 'Ammo crates' used in Matrix III,..

Also a trailer hitch basket 'cart' loaded as well.
 
B

BREWER

Veteran Member
Getting Friends prepped

I can't contain myself. I actually got two friends that I've been encouraging for years to 'get prepped'. We sat down last weekend and ordered some grains from http://honeyvillegrain.com which got us a 10% discount with shipping of only $4.49, and an order from http://waltonfoods.com which was more grains, morning-moo, and beans, etc....shipping was >US$200.00. Different products for certain; however, I am very relieved that they FINALLY made a move in the right direction. Now, if I can get them to realize that a grain grinder needs to be purchased, too, I'll say "mission accomplished"! Here in the mid-Atlantic we're finally getting some much needed rain for our gardens. I know some folks would say too much water; however, my garden was getting mighty parched and most of the rivers in Virginia from the mountains to the sea have been VERY LOW. Thank you Lord...prayers were definitely answered.

Hey Alan:"My chickens laid their first pullet eggs over the weekend". Congratulation, my friend!:chg:
 
A.T.Hagan

A.T.Hagan

Inactive
theoutlands said:
Hey - this thread is in the wrong forum!!

:lkick:
:lol:
:rolleyes:
Click to expand...
When the week is up I'll move it to the prep forum. So there! Thhppbbtttt!!!!!! :lol:

Thanks, Brewer. It was a real surprise when I found the first egg Saturday. Back when I got the chicks in February I added the months up in my head to come up with an expected start-to-lay time in July. I realized after I picked it up that I had miscalcuated and they were right on time, about five and a half-months. Fortunately it only took about a half-hour to quickly refurbish the old nest house and get it moved in and filled with nest material.

No more yucky store bought eggs for us!

.....Alan.
 
B

blueberry

Inactive
I feel like I made a major prepping accomplishment, even though it was not at my house. I talked with my mother, a little bit, about prepping..... and she listened!!! I think the kicker was when I told her about a storm that knocked out my electricity for 4-5 hours about a week ago. She said the thought of not having power for several hours was a real fear for her. So I took the opportunity to tell how I got out my battery tv and my battery fans - and that opened to door to talk about bad weather and and always keeping non-perishable foods on hand.

So, I drove to Dallas yesterday and took her some battery operated fans and several packages of batteries. I stayed with my dad (who is recovering from a broken hip and then a broken leg) while she made a major shopping trip to Sam's. She bought a car load of things, from TP to canned soups. Not a lot, but I hope it is a start.
 
Simple Man

Simple Man

Inactive
Been a rough week already... got whammied with medical bills (braces for oldest son) and vet bills (the puppy ran in front of the tire as the wife was backing out :shkr: - cracked a few bones, but doc says she's gonna be AOK if we give her TLC and keep her from running / jumping / etc for 3 or 4 weeks). And since $pare money is non existant until Friday, and I'm not gonna dip into the reserves if I don't have to, preps have been / are going to be limited to what I can physically do for the next week or two, although I did sneak in a tube of triple antiobiotic ointment for the first aid kit, (2) 50# bags of chicken feed, and a bunch of seed packets that were on clearance.

Otherwise, we've been picking lettuce, cukes, peppers, squash, and blackberries - we gots lots and lots of blackberries this year.

Also been changing our diet and getting the kids used to a more simple menu. No more soda, less juice, less milk. More water or tea. Meals that have been meatless, and only food stuffs we've grown and just picked, and/or food stuffs we've canned. They aren't complaining too loudly yet...
 
P

prudentwatcher

Veteran Member
Not too much so far. Did add another three months of canned cat food to the stash, bringing the total up to at least 10 months. Bought another 12 pack of tp, 2 bottles of oil. Will get some chicken to can tomorrow, as well as some roasts for the freezer. Made some money from my consulting work and put some away for emergency savings to build it back up a bit. No really good sales, but I'm keeping my eyes open for good deals.
 
D

Deena in GA

Administrator
_______________
Canned 11 more quarts of squash tonight for a grand total of exactly 100. I refuse to do any more squash this year! Also cooked up some applesauce to can and picked our first corn. Had some for supper and also bagged up 56 ears for the freezer.

Tomorrow we'll be doing heavy duty picking of corn and blueberries. Both of which will go into the freezer. We really need to figure out some way to supply the freezer with solar power. Also will be canning pears in some form.

We bought more oil and oil filters to put up. Put more butter in the freezer too.
 
W

wasabell

Inactive
This was "toiletries" month for shopping. Stocked up on shaving cream for DH. I had some coupons and with a sale, I got 4 cans for free! Already have about 6 months worth of razors too. I also increased our iinventory of toothpaste, a couple extra toothbrushes, deodorants, shampoo, soap, and mouthwash.

And....we got an offer on our land! If it goes through, we will be able to pay off all credit cards, and the homestead will be paid off (free and clear!).

We should also be able to stash some cash (not much) and build the new generator shed (20 x 18). Probably should call it a car-less garage.

We wont know for awhile, since the guy wants to close in 6 weeks.
 
Dinghy

Dinghy

Veteran Member
I got old Ball quart canning jars at a Goodwill, for $2.99 a dozen!!! They have the nice wide rims that I figure lids might stick to better. There were a few Kerr brand too. I never heard of jars of that brand. The next time I go I'm taking boxes with me. They only had one box, so I just got one dozen jars. I should have gotten more and made them wrap them good before bagging them. They might not be there the next time!
 
A.T.Hagan

A.T.Hagan

Inactive
Kerr jars are as good as Ball and in fact are made by the same company now. The Kerr lids with the gray sealing compound I did not care for, but these last several years they seem to be using the same sealing compound as they use with the Ball jars.

Shot a coon off the top of my hen yard fence last night. Finally got one of my own against those masked bandits.

.....Alan.
 
A.T.Hagan

A.T.Hagan

Inactive
Last entry before the end of the week.

Today I <i>finally</i> got the electric fence system up and running around my henyard. I finished up the feed storage/fence charger shelter this morning after a trip to the farm supply after discovering I didn't have enough of the right sort of hinges. Man, anything made of metal seems to get more expensive by the week!

Spent the rest of the day getting the ground system installed, the hot wire run, and then hooking it all up and testing it. Curiosity got the better of me so I cautiosly touched the back of my hand to the hot wire. It gave me a mild jolt, but not nearly what I was expecting. I started looking for leaks when I realized it was likely because I was wearing rubber soled boots standing on dry ground. So I put one hand on the fence then touched the back of my hand to the hot wire again. !@#$!!@#!#!$! Yep, it's hot alright. No doubts about it any more and I know that fence tester works too.

I spread peanut butter on a piece of lunch meat and tied it to the hot wire in several places as a snack for ol' Brer Coon tonight. I wish him the joy of it! :lol:

.....Alan.
 
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