Prep Genrl Weekly Prep Thread: June 28 ~ July 4, 2020

ReneeT

Veteran Member
Good Morning, All! Hope today finds everyone doing well.

It's a cloudy day here so far; probably have more rain coming per the radar and by the way my knees are talking to me :lol: Of course, that ache could be from being silly enough to join Hubby in a nerf war against five 8 & 9 years old boys yesterday. (Boy birthday party - my ears are still ringing!) We put up a good battle in spite of being outnumbered AND only having single shot weapons when the aggressors had multiple shot ones. We had strategy and teamwork going for us and were able to hold the kitchen/dining room/side hall; and ran a sneak attack from the back stairwell. Hubby also covered me so I could run out and grab ammo; we piled it on the dining room table and waited for them to run out - took a while 'cause one of the short people brought a 200 count jug of nerf bullets as a birthday present to go along with all the ones already in house. Luckily, daughter had used some as a table decoration, so we had a stash to start out with!

We took off for home with older grandson in tow around 5 pm - luckily avoiding the water balloon battle that took place shortly thereafter (some evil grandma type person put packages of those easy to fill 'Bunch O Balloons' in the take home treat bags, and had a few extras that were left on the buffet by accident (uh-huh.... ) Daughter looked like she was about wiped out when she dropped off younger grandson a couple of hours later, but said she was going to find her an isolated piece of shoreline and throw a line in; she swiped a few hot dogs from the fridge to use for bait and got while the getting was good - we got a video of a darned nice bass about an hour later.

We've had a bunch of rain over the past few days - 3.5 inches a few days ago, followed by another 2.5 inches yesterday. No way I can get in the garden to hoe let alone till so there are some weeds coming up; the good news is that the late beans, beets, etc... I planted last week are also coming up so I reckon I'm a little bit ahead of the game at least. Squash and melons are blooming, small tomatoes are set on - I'm trying to decide if a couple of the tomatoes I bought were mislabeled, or if I've got a mineral imbalance going on in that area - the small 'maters on those two plants are purple-ish looking. The other tomatoes that are set on are all a normal light green, so if there is an issue, it's just in that one small area :shr:

Peaches are in at the local orchard; I'm going to call when they open around noon today and see if we can run up and pick up a bushel. If I get them today, then work Monday night and sleep Tuesday morning, they should be just about ready to can on my Tue/Wed/Thu off work. I'm going to have Hubby drag a pressure canner upstairs as well as I did detour to the store when I went up to the VFW to pick up a few of their fish dinners Friday afternoon; I came home with a dozen 24 oz bottles of catsup so will pull out some dry beans and get them prepped to can into pork 'n beans while I'm working up the peaches. I've got a three day work weekend coming up over the Independence Day holiday, so won't get anything useful done at home during that time. There are no fireworks or other gatherings scheduled anywhere in the area on the 4th; makes me sad, but I remember that it's about the sacrifices made, not about the celebration.

Well, my coffee cup is empty - and so is my belly from the way it is growling; everyone else has been fed so I guess I'd better find myself something to eat, and then put out some chicken breast to cut in to strips to feed these youngun's before we take them home this afternoon. You folks all stay safe out there...
 

prudentwatcher

Veteran Member
I did some rearranging of the various shelving units after I put those airtight (pet food) storage containers to use. I went back to Sam's and got 2 more, so I had three to work with. One holds bags of sugar, one holds the soft packages of baking mixes (cookies, muffins, cornbread), and one holds the knorrs rice and pasta sides and will also hold vacuum sealed bags of rice. That left room on the shelves to get rid of some rubbermaid containers and stack up more canned goods.

I did a trip to Publix and to Walmart in the last couple of days and was surprised at how empty the shelves are still. I live in Florida and we are spiking with the virus, so maybe people are panic buying again. Not sure.

Spent some time on Pinterest yestersday looking at recipes. Added quite a few to my "board" and printed some out to try this week. We are not into "fancy" food, but after 3+ months of me doing more cooking than I ever have before, I think some things are getting boring, so I found recipes that used ingredients we liked and just "tweaked" them a little for some more taste.
 

nomifyle

TB Fanatic
Last month I gave away most of the things we got in commodities, I just felt overwhelmed with it. This month not so much, as I'm making a huge effort not to spend money so that I can pay back on my cc for what I spent earlier in the year, I'm making headway.

Instead of getting mylar type bagged potato flakes, this time we got it in a box. One box fills two quart jars, we got two boxes, so four jars used. I finally broke down and jarred a box of spaghetti, one 1# box of spaghetti fills one qt. jar. got six boxes, so that's another 6 jars. Two 2# bags of green split peas, that fills two qts and one pint. two @# bags of yellow split peas, 2 qts and 1 pint. two 2# bags of rice which will go in a mylar bag. As I've said before we don't eat rice, I would but DH refuses to eat even a grain of rice. Also, a variety of canned goods. Since our shelves are over flowing with canned food, most of these cans will go in a tote in the she shed, which does have ac, although its just keeps the temp down and not cold.

We did get fresh meat in one of the commodities, and fortunately I'd just gotten that 5 ct ft deep freezer so that meat can go in there, the other 4 freezers are full.

I've been gathering up all the butter that I've had in fridgs and freezers and putting it in the new freezer, there's a shelf under the basket that the butter fits on nicely.

DH has gone to town to buy more bagged top soil for the new raised beds. He started some cucumber seeds and yellow squash to put in one. My master gardener friend said we can plant those things up to August 1, here in zone 8b.

As you can see I've started counting jars in an effort to see how many jars different things use. I've got a large stash of jars, but I want to keep a count of what I need for this and that.

Judy
 

Rabbit

Has No Life - Lives on TB
I am now old and so are my preps. I have 5 years or older flour packed in mylar bags in 5 gal buckets. I also have an old jar of gluten. I can get new now if it will help.

I hesitate to throw this stuff out because I believe we will be at war before the end of the year and people will be scuffling for anything to eat.

My question is will fresh gluten mixed in old flour rejuvenate it?
 

nomifyle

TB Fanatic
I am now old and so are my preps. I have 5 years or older flour packed in mylar bags in 5 gal buckets. I also have an old jar of gluten. I can get new now if it will help.

I hesitate to throw this stuff out because I believe we will be at war before the end of the year and people will be scuffling for anything to eat.

My question is will fresh gluten mixed in old flour rejuvenate it?
I refuse to throw anything out unless its absolutely putrid. You can always make tortillas from older flour.

Judy
 

20Gauge

TB Fanatic
The wife and father and I have spent the last 4-5 weeks rewiring one of the rentals. It has wiring from the 50s? I will attached a picture of a switch later to see if we can date some of the wiring. We did everything. From breakers to outlets.

The good news is we are down to installing 4 lights and 1 outlet and we can then write off the job as done.

We figured since everything is down due to the virus, we might as well use the time to the best of our abilities.

The attic was a killer. I got the job as I was the more flexible so I crawled into the attic wearing a mask and had to lay on my belly pulling wire and throwing down old wire. Who thunk we used to have cloth covered wiring. I am writing this in pain from the dehydration and aches in general from crawling the length of a house 3 times today.

Next project is to redo the bathroom tub. It literally has a window in the middle of the tub / shower. Not sure what people were thinking putting a window visible from the street in a shower at waist height. LOL
 

Digger

Veteran Member
Not prep related, but my son in laws Covid-19 test came back positive yesterday. They said to expect our daughter's to be positive when it comes in this morning. They are much better and grandson was never very sick.

We bought some fireworks for all the grandkids. The one in quarantine is just under 3. So we just got little things. Only one bigger item for each family. The other family can buy whatever else they want.

We stopped by the store and did a little restocking. Dollar General was low on several shelves. I did not look at their groceries. The grocery store is developing holes on the shelves again. Soup, cereal, bleach, TP, flavored noodles, canning supplies, pickles, and plain noodles again low.
 

Digger

Veteran Member
Daughter just got her test results- negative. She was short of breath but ran little fever. The nurse was surprised at her test results but said maybe they did not get a good sample. She is still quarantined since her husband was positive.
 

Marseydoats

Veteran Member
Last month I gave away most of the things we got in commodities, I just felt overwhelmed with it. This month not so much, as I'm making a huge effort not to spend money so that I can pay back on my cc for what I spent earlier in the year, I'm making headway.

Instead of getting mylar type bagged potato flakes, this time we got it in a box. One box fills two quart jars, we got two boxes, so four jars used. I finally broke down and jarred a box of spaghetti, one 1# box of spaghetti fills one qt. jar. got six boxes, so that's another 6 jars. Two 2# bags of green split peas, that fills two qts and one pint. two @# bags of yellow split peas, 2 qts and 1 pint. two 2# bags of rice which will go in a mylar bag. As I've said before we don't eat rice, I would but DH refuses to eat even a grain of rice. Also, a variety of canned goods. Since our shelves are over flowing with canned food, most of these cans will go in a tote in the she shed, which does have ac, although its just keeps the temp down and not cold.

We did get fresh meat in one of the commodities, and fortunately I'd just gotten that 5 ct ft deep freezer so that meat can go in there, the other 4 freezers are full.

I've been gathering up all the butter that I've had in fridgs and freezers and putting it in the new freezer, there's a shelf under the basket that the butter fits on nicely.

DH has gone to town to buy more bagged top soil for the new raised beds. He started some cucumber seeds and yellow squash to put in one. My master gardener friend said we can plant those things up to August 1, here in zone 8b.

As you can see I've started counting jars in an effort to see how many jars different things use. I've got a large stash of jars, but I want to keep a count of what I need for this and that.

Judy

Judy, you can cook the rice for the chickens or the dogs. All of mine love it.
 

SouthernBreeze

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Daughter just got her test results- negative. She was short of breath but ran little fever. The nurse was surprised at her test results but said maybe they did not get a good sample. She is still quarantined since her husband was positive.

One of my DIL's coworkers came into the office, and worked all day sick. When she left work that afternoon, she decided to go get tested for C-19. She was positive. So, now she has been fired, because she went against company policy they had set up for the office concerning strict C-19 awareness. Everyone in the office, including my DIL and son had to get tested. Both are in quarantine, until their tests come back. Because a lot of test come back negative the first time, they will continue to quarantine for 2 weeks. Both can work from home with pay. However, it does cancel our July 4th festivities.
 

20Gauge

TB Fanatic
One of my DIL's coworkers came into the office, and worked all day sick. When she left work that afternoon, she decided to go get tested for C-19. She was positive. So, now she has been fired, because she went against company policy they had set up for the office concerning strict C-19 awareness. Everyone in the office, including my DIL and son had to get tested. Both are in quarantine, until their tests come back. Because a lot of test come back negative the first time, they will continue to quarantine for 2 weeks. Both can work from home with pay. However, it does cancel our July 4th festivities.
People will do that. Selfish but true.
 

hiwall

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Yes, and if things get bad I'll cook rice for our dog, I have a plan for that. . Until then its packed away properly for human consumption, just in case.

Judy
for human consumption - this would be best. When people get hungry, I bet they would love to eat some rice. I would and that is why I have so much stored.
 

SouthernBreeze

Has No Life - Lives on TB
I have a ton of rice stored for human consumption, too. It's for us and our dog. We already eat a lot of rice, and dog loves it as well.
 

nomifyle

TB Fanatic
for human consumption - this would be best. When people get hungry, I bet they would love to eat some rice. I would and that is why I have so much stored.
A couple of months ago I added wild rice to my stores, in addition to other kinds of rice. I actually like wild rice.

Judy
 

SouthernBreeze

Has No Life - Lives on TB
I use just plain white rice is many different ways. Spanish Rice, Cajun Rice, Rice Pilaf, Chicken and Rice, Yellow Rice, and in several different homemade Hamburger Helper type meals, and some casseroles. I use it in soups, too. Cary even likes Rice Pudding.

I have a cookbook just with rice recipes.
 

hiwall

Has No Life - Lives on TB
I often throw some rice in different things. Sometimes when I make chilli if it is too watery I throw in a handful of rice. I often add rice to soups to make it more filling. So many uses for rice.
When my wife asks how long we could last with all our food storage I tell her but add the menu will gradually change. Towards the end a typical day might be -
breakfast, oatmeal with a side of fried elk.
lunch, soup with plenty of elk meat and a little rice.
Supper, leftover soup thickened with added rice and elk meat.
 

SouthernBreeze

Has No Life - Lives on TB
I often throw some rice in different things. Sometimes when I make chilli if it is too watery I throw in a handful of rice. I often add rice to soups to make it more filling. So many uses for rice.
When my wife asks how long we could last with all our food storage I tell her but add the menu will gradually change. Towards the end a typical day might be -
breakfast, oatmeal with a side of fried elk.
lunch, soup with plenty of elk meat and a little rice.
Supper, leftover soup thickened with added rice and elk meat.

We like chili over rice, either homemade chili or canned. Add a scoop of shredded cheese over the top, with some toasted garlic bread, and you got a meal!
 

Illini Warrior

Illini Warrior
I am now old and so are my preps. I have 5 years or older flour packed in mylar bags in 5 gal buckets. I also have an old jar of gluten. I can get new now if it will help.

I hesitate to throw this stuff out because I believe we will be at war before the end of the year and people will be scuffling for anything to eat.

My question is will fresh gluten mixed in old flour rejuvenate it?

5 years is nothing for dry goods packed correctly for long term storage - for most dry foods mylar packing isn't even necessary for anything under 5 years - just protect from the elements & pests >>> that flour could eazily be good for another 10+ years without a problem ....

if a young person wants to go lifetime - wheat berries stored away and a grinder setup for flour making is the ticket ....
 

Rabbit

Has No Life - Lives on TB
5 years is nothing for dry goods packed correctly for long term storage - for most dry foods mylar packing isn't even necessary for anything under 5 years - just protect from the elements & pests >>> that flour could eazily be good for another 10+ years without a problem ....
Thank you. Relieves my mind.
 

Illini Warrior

Illini Warrior
The wife and father and I have spent the last 4-5 weeks rewiring one of the rentals. It has wiring from the 50s? I will attached a picture of a switch later to see if we can date some of the wiring. We did everything. From breakers to outlets.

The good news is we are down to installing 4 lights and 1 outlet and we can then write off the job as done.

We figured since everything is down due to the virus, we might as well use the time to the best of our abilities.

The attic was a killer. I got the job as I was the more flexible so I crawled into the attic wearing a mask and had to lay on my belly pulling wire and throwing down old wire. Who thunk we used to have cloth covered wiring. I am writing this in pain from the dehydration and aches in general from crawling the length of a house 3 times today.

Next project is to redo the bathroom tub. It literally has a window in the middle of the tub / shower. Not sure what people were thinking putting a window visible from the street in a shower at waist height. LOL

cloth cover single strand wire run in pairs with porcelain stand offs? - much much older than the 1950s - they were using asphalt paper wrapped type romex and metal BX in the 50s >>> bet those switches were old push buttons ....
 

20Gauge

TB Fanatic
cloth cover single strand wire run in pairs with porcelain stand offs? - much much older than the 1950s - they were using asphalt paper wrapped type romex and metal BX in the 50s >>> bet those switches were old push buttons ....
You could be right about asphalt paper wrapped .... if felt like cloth, but the place was build in WW2

I have a paid of old switches that I will post later.
 

school marm

Senior Member
We are preparing to move across the state, four hours away. DH started work there last month. The house lists today and I have some cleaning to do, but it's mostly ready to show.

I shouldn't have done this. I really shouldn't have. But a local food manufacturer stopped making one of their pastries, supposedly due to COVID. They are selling 40 lb boxes of frozen, pitted, sweet cherries for $8 each. I bought 4. Now I have to can, dehydrate, and make jam and fruit leather from them. I guess I could also drain the ones that are going to be dehydrated and reserve the juice to make jelly. Any other thoughts on what to do with all these cherries?
 

Digger

Veteran Member
We took the quarantine kids their grocery pick up order. Our little grandson stood at the door waving and yelling bye as we left. I miss him so much. I don't know what all they ordered, but it was a big order. We also took them peaches off our tree. It has been a good fruit year.

I have put blueberries, peaches, and plums in the freezer. Some I made into mixed fruit bags. We eat that with dinner a lot. I still have 4 more peach trees to ripen. My purple hull peas are blooming so it won't be long on them. I need to break and can green beans today. There is so much to do this time of year. Hubby sprayed the hay field to kill the horse nettles. In 30 days we can cut it again.

We went in Neighborhood Market to get some things. There were noticable holes on the shelves again. We got the few things we needed with the exception of sure jel. I think I have enough, but wanted a few more boxes for next year. But I have made jelly without it, it just takes longer. I had not planned to can much this year, but now we are putting it all up. Times are too uncertain.
 

SouthernBreeze

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Yesterday was our every two weeks shopping day. Since giving up on Walmart for groceries, we tried a family owned grocery store. It was very nice, and had everything in stock. No empty shelves, and the ground beef was unlimited. I stocked back up with several family packs at $1.98 lb. I was surprised when I checked out that my purchase was cheaper than what I had been spending at Walmart. I was expecting things to be more expensive. I'm sold on continuing to buy my groceries there. Bye-Bye Walmart.
 

mecoastie

Veteran Member
Putting eggs under another broody hen tonight. Tomorrow I have to pull supers and extract honey. Have a number of orders so it will go quick and the extra cash will come in handy. After that it is firewood for the rest of the weekend. have to consolidate all the stacks for this year and get all the bucked stuff split for next year. If I have a chance I will drop the 22/23 trees. I usually wait until winter or early spring but I want to at least have then on the ground now.
 

nomifyle

TB Fanatic
Since DH has been clearing fence row he has a lot of wood that needs to be split, We already have more than enough for the coming winter split and stacked. Its a job to get that done.

Judy
 

hiwall

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Got a two boxes of jar lids at the local drug store. The thrift store had some jars and I got a dozen pint jars.
 

prudentwatcher

Veteran Member
Hit up a bargain store that was having a 15% off sale. Not too much in the way of food, but I did get a lot of candy :) Also got some first aid stuff, a tarp, and several bags of potting soil to stash in the garage for container gardening next season if needed.
 

Digger

Veteran Member
A bear visited my bee hives last night. Only one hive damaged. I will move them to the house after dark if I can beat the bear to them. But at least my hubby has agreed to let me get a livestock guardian dog to guard the homestead. Now I have to talk to people and figure out what breed to get.

We bought corn yesterday so I have that to put up today. I have canned beans, pickles, jalapeno rings, and peach jam this week. We got 2 and 3/4 inches of rain the last couple of days. Good for the garden.
 

summerthyme

Administrator
_______________
Can you set up an electric fence around the hives? They sell battery powered fence chargers, and really nice solar powered ones... we have a 12 volt "25 mile" solar fencer I bought back in 1999... I've used it to power various fences that weren't convenient to connect to the main fencer. We had to replace the battery 2 years ago, but it has been a really useful tool.

Summerthyme
 

hiwall

Has No Life - Lives on TB
Our youngest son is here visiting . This morning early we left and climbed the cliff above our house. 6 mile hike with a 1500 foot elevation gain(topped out a 8900 feet). This is now a tired old man.
 
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