Prep Genrl Weekly Prep Thread: March 1 to March 7, 2026

Meemur

Meemur

Voice on the Prairie
We're under a tornado watch. I stopped for gas, and I might run down to the church fish fry when it starts (5:00) and get dinner to go. It's not expensive and supports the local folks. Otherwise, it would be soup and a sandwich because I'm just whipped tonight.
 
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WanderLore

Veteran Member
We got the wood cook stove about 19 years ago from our friends who had bought an old house down the road from us. It was in there and they didn't want it. We had our Amish buddy help us get it. 550lbs.
I would just split some wood into kindling pieces and use that. You can use coal also.
I didn't see any difference cooking on it or using the oven, than using a campfire. It made the best ham and turkeys and bread and I taught my grandsons to cook on it.
I took the chimney in the kitchen down last year, and didn't hook that stove up, just the pipes for the coal stove.
I promised my oldest daughter she could have it if she ever buys a home. She used it a lot too.
 
patriotgal

patriotgal

Veteran Member
Moved more stuff today. Then made a quick trip to town for pizza. Have unplugged everything since we have nasty weather forecast starting at 9. Tornadoes in Oklahoma so we might see it if it doesn't go north of us. It would have to get pretty wild to keep me awake. I sleep so good when it is storming, lol.
 
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seraphima

Veteran Member
Nice to read that others like their oil lamps and cast iron- me too!

The amount of cleaning and painting and such in this thread makes me tired just thinking about it! I have been slowing down on cleaning: keep it tidy, clean one thing a day. Yesterday it was the top silverware drawer. Today the big effort was to go to Walmart and buy two more of the long open sweaters I found on sale for $9 each as they change over to spring clothes.

These days I have upped my exercises and added recommended ones to keep me mobile in future. Still not out walking much with all the slush and ice. Gardening season is weeks off, but I can feel the gardening 'sap' rising in me. My best to all!
 
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Wildwood

Veteran Member
seraphima said:
Nice to read that others like their oil lamps and cast iron- me too!

The amount of cleaning and painting and such in this thread makes me tired just thinking about it! I have been slowing down on cleaning: keep it tidy, clean one thing a day. Yesterday it was the top silverware drawer. Today the big effort was to go to Walmart and buy two more of the long open sweaters I found on sale for $9 each as they change over to spring clothes.

These days I have upped my exercises and added recommended ones to keep me mobile in future. Still not out walking much with all the slush and ice. Gardening season is weeks off, but I can feel the gardening 'sap' rising in me. My best to all!
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I can feel it rising in me too!

I just bought another piece of cast iron.

Mae inspired me:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqgTnAAV_iY


I absolutely love her shorts videos. She does my style of southern cooking but makes it look so effortless...so many good recipes and all simple country cooking. I've been thinking about something like this to serve dual purposes. I mentioned my DIL ended up with my tortilla press...well I'm going to try and make this take it's place. Would also work on fried pie dough too. I never hit my stride with that tortilla press but I'm sure practice would make perfect. I could use this in so many other ways...for grilled sandwiches, paninis and bacon. It could even be a makeshift lid. For under $20, I had to get it.
 
SouthernBreeze

SouthernBreeze

TB Fanatic
We are due to get some of those storms you all have been getting, today. Rather, late this afternoon. Our tornado threat remains low at this point. Severe thunderstorms are more likely. It's already 70 degrees outside at 8:26 am. Very humid.

Not really anything planned for today. I was going to bake bread, but after Mom gave me those ciabatta rolls, we're good on bread for a while. I still have one loaf of my own in the freezer, too.

I made meatballs with brown gravy and onions, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, and a salad for supper last night. I made enough for leftovers, tonight. If the storms get bad, and we lose power, I can reheat everything on my camp stove. I didn't want to be in the middle of trying to cook and have the power go out. That's why I made extra last night. A quick heat up on the camp stove and done.
 
SouthernBreeze

SouthernBreeze

TB Fanatic
Well, while Cary was out in his workshop messing around, he found 2 more sacks of fertilizer that we didn't know we had. I was looking for more in my mini barn. So, I finished fertilizing all my shrubs that didn't get any the other day. Everything is now fertilized and waiting on the rain to soak it in good. We use commercial fertilizer on everything in the yards, but only processed cow manure in the gardens.

As far as our gardening this year, I think I'm only going to be growing tomatoes in our raised beds. I need more quarts of those canned this year. The farmer's market/stand in small town is where I think I'll buy most everything else. We have bought from him, before, and he always has great produce. All organic, too.
 
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hd5574

Veteran Member
Got going in the garden yesterday..planted snow peas, 3 kinds of lettuce, kale, more spinach, broccoli, cauliflower.....and the garden sage and mint are coming back..and starting scallions from roots...we regrow them...

We have suet cages on the fence...on the far end of the garden from where we working...the red birds were sitting in a tree over that way...just hollering... at us to leave so they could eat...

BIG heads up for anyone in central Virginia...DH pulled 2 micro dot ticks off himself....after working outside..very early for them..but I keep our tick kit on the ready all year long...with needle nose tweezers, drawing salve, bandaids, silver gel followed by olive leaf gel...and olive leaf extract caps..

We take everyday during tick season..and increase the number of caps we take we if we get a tick or three...I tend toward lower blood pressure.. so I watch my pressure carefully if I get a tick (olive leaf caps..will lower blood pressure and blood sugar)..so if you are on those meds..check your readings.

.olive leaf extract is another antimicrobial like colloidal silver and is very effective against lyme..but the brand matters ...just like olive oil they are not all equal...
Seems like most everyone here has had lyme...but in 27 years here we have never gotten it...and cured a rescue dog of lyme...25 years ago with Ameriden Olive Leaf Extract (name now changed to Ameriden Olive Factor) was the original olive leaf....vet was blown away as she tested him and high positive level and kept dropping with tests from high positive to zero.....even more important now because of alpha gal turning up here now...it is vital to get the saliva drawn out..

Was reading it takes from 24 to 36 hours for a tick to transfer a disease to a human..so I assume that is why the drawing salve if so effective..and the forceps...never squeeze one as they will inject more saliva trying to hang on.
 
Meemur

Meemur

Voice on the Prairie
I did "root cellar" inventory first thing (it's a basement, but I store a lot of the harvest down there). I have 1 acorn squash, 6 onions, and 14 potatoes left (to eat -- there's 3 trays of seed potatoes and another of onion sets). Next year, I'll be less generous with giving the harvest away. I was hopeful that I'd still have veggies until early May.

I bought more apples, in case we lose the crop. At some point, I'll dehydrate them and make several gallon bags of apple chips. That makes a good snack for me.

No rain, but it's overcast and in the upper 30s. I went to the "swamp trail" earlier. It was pretty muddy, but I got in my steps and heard a red-winged blackbird! So they are around. I saw several geese but no ducks. One of the DNR rangers was emptying trash. He said that he had seen one of the eagle pairs last week but none since then.

That's it for now. I have various house projects to do, but I'll probably take a nap. I'm really dragging today, but at least I got out and caught up the errands.
 
SouthernBreeze

SouthernBreeze

TB Fanatic
I lost all of the walking onions that I transplanted into raised beds last year. I'm thinking they froze. Those I left in the ground in rows are ok, but very sparse. I may have to buy more bulbs to plant. I do have garlic up that is already knee high to me!

I buy big bags of apples every two weeks. In case they get scarce, I'm planning to start buying more to dehydrate and some for the freezer for pies. Peaches, too. Just on the other side of our fence line in back, there is a pear tree that is absolutely loaded in blooms. I hope there are plenty of pears for us this year. Hopefully, we won't get a late frost.
 
feralferret

feralferret

Veteran Member
Got about an inch and a half total of rain. Lost power once for about a minute last night. I'm glad I have an uninterruptible power supply for my computer and another for the internet equipment.

Severe weather went both north and south of us. We caught the gap. I was shocked at the series of tornadoes in Michigan yesterday. That was unexpected. I miss the days when I storm chased. That went away when I moved to Missouri in 1996.
 
SouthernBreeze

SouthernBreeze

TB Fanatic
WanderLore said:
Yeah we lost power for an hour today I think. It was nuts yesterday. The one tornado that hit that did so much damage, was only a 2% chance and they didn't even have time to put out a warning.
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We've had that happen here, too. The tornado is already on us, before a warning is ever issued. It happens more often than I'd prefer.

Cary got us another weather radio and installed it, today. We aren't getting any severe weather at this time, but it's thundering all around us with light rain.
 
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Wildwood

Veteran Member
SouthernBreeze said:
I lost all of the walking onions that I transplanted into raised beds last year. I'm thinking they froze. Those I left in the ground in rows are ok, but very sparse. I may have to buy more bulbs to plant. I do have garlic up that is already knee high to me!

I buy big bags of apples every two weeks. In case they get scarce, I'm planning to start buying more to dehydrate and some for the freezer for pies. Peaches, too. Just on the other side of our fence line in back, there is a pear tree that is absolutely loaded in blooms. I hope there are plenty of pears for us this year. Hopefully, we won't get a late frost.
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I hope some of your original walking onions made it...it would a shame to lose those as long as you've had them.

Almost all the onions I ordered from Hoss died in that massive freeze that stayed on the ground so long. They were in one of my big raised beds and had a block of that snow/sleet stuff on them and there was no way to get it off without pulverizing them. There are a few stragglers left.

hd5574 said:
We only grow heirloom maters....the ones that taste like maters..
In fact every thing we grow is heirloom..when I think about it..
We can maters..both chopped and whole...
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I use to be the same until I was tempted with a couple hybrids that blew my mind. I know I can't seed save and get the same results but I'm still growing about a dozen heirloom varieties in the big garden.

I don't think I could make it without my little Fourth of July saladettes that are ready weeks before anything else and still going when the rest have given up. The sheer prolificness of the other hybrids I grew last year and the toughness was mind blowing. If I hadn't had them, it would have been a sad year because the heirlooms didn't do much at all around here. The aphids hit and I fought the good fight but they never really recovered. First time ever that I couldn't beat them back.

I had the hybrids in DH's little garden right next to mine and the aphids hit them too but I still picked two of the big rectangular laundry baskets full of tomatoes, off of seven plants, the evening before the first frost. I've never seen anything like them. I hope it wasn't beginners luck. They are also more resistant to nematodes, the bain of my existence.
 
SouthernBreeze

SouthernBreeze

TB Fanatic
Wildwood said:
I hope some of your original walking onions made it...it would a shame to lose those as long as you've had them.

Almost all the onions I ordered from Hoss died in that massive freeze that stayed on the ground so long. They were in one of my big raised beds and had a block of that snow/sleet stuff on them and there was no way to get it off without pulverizing them. There are a few stragglers left.
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I still have very few of the original ones left. All of the ones I transplanted to the raised beds died. They aren't up, and it's time to start digging them to eat, already. I'm thinking they froze. Maybe, they don't do as well in raised beds?
 
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anna43

Veteran Member
My nephew and his son live about 40 miles from Three Rivers. Nephew is deputy sheriff and his son is a fireman so both might be involved in helping with recovery.

I watched two of the girl's tournament games last night and have been watching this afternoon. Last game will start at 7 p.m. I always enjoy watching. I "tried" to play basketball my freshman year of high school, but asthma kept me from being to run and back then when it was half-court six on six it was still too much for me.
 
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WanderLore

Veteran Member
My walking onions are going on 12+ years I think. Same spot. I looked today and can see them starting to poke their little heads out. They make the best onions and chives. Friend gave me a bag of them years ago. Can't hardly believe they are still growing so well. I throw some horse poop on them in the fall.
 
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Wildwood

Veteran Member
SouthernBreeze said:
I still have very few of the original ones left. All of the ones I transplanted to the raised beds died. They aren't up, and it's time to start digging them to eat, already. I'm thinking they froze. Maybe, they don't do as well in raised beds?
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It makes sense. The raised beds probably get a little colder. I hope you end up with enough of the ones in the ground to start over. What made it so bad was the icy stuff stayed forever. Mostly, our snow and ice are melted in a day or two but this stuff stayed for weeks, even when it was warm outside.
 
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Wildwood

Veteran Member
I sat down today and did something I've been meaning to do for a good while. I made a comprehensive grocery list that I can glance at and write down what I need off the list. I did it years ago at the beginning of my prepping career lol. I still have that one and it's on a spreadsheet I created twenty years ago but it's no longer accurate. This one is for WM and I'm sure, nowhere near complete. We buy groceries once a week and if I forget something, I usually just do without until the next week...life in the country.

What led to that was the list of meal ideas I've been working on. It seems like every day I'm standing there staring at the pantry and trying to come up with something that sounds good for supper. I thought of a couple favorites we haven't had in a good while because they slipped my mind...that seems to happen more and more lol. I'm also working on a list of sides. There's no telling how many times I've cooked something new that we really like and it's really good. We'll have it fairly often at first, get a little burned out and shelve it for a while, only to never think of it again.

DH just eats what I put in front of him and never says "we haven't had so and so for a while, how about cooking that". He seems to prefer not having to worry about the small stuff lol. Sometimes I put the pressure on him and he'll desperately try to remember what all our menu consists of.

I've actually triggered my memory of a few things we forgot all about.
 
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Wildwood

Veteran Member
@SouthernBreeze here is the Ritz cracker casserole I mentioned a good while back but couldn't find the recipe. We like it like this but sometimes I turn it into a dressing casserole if I have leftover cornbread. After I put down the layer of chicken, sour cream, etc. and before the crackers, I drain a can of french style green beans and sprinkle them on top of it and then I put down a light layer of crumbled cornbread and a sprinkle of poultry seasoning or sage and then carry on with the cracker layer.

It is surprisingly good turned into chicken and dressing and I serve cranberry sauce with it and maybe some corn or something you'd have for Thanksgiving. It would be great to have if there were just a few for Thanksgiving. It's just so easy.


I went back and edited my original post. The above directions are the correct way.
 
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summerthyme

Administrator
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Wildwood said:
It makes sense. The raised beds probably get a little colder. I hope you end up with enough of the ones in the ground to start over. What made it so bad was the icy stuff stayed forever. Mostly, our snow and ice are melted in a day or two but this stuff stayed for weeks, even when it was warm outside.
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This is going to sound like an odd suggestion, and be warned that I haven't tried it for this use! But we had a year where we had so much snow, it was mid April and the garden still have over 3 feet of ice, solid snow. We'd had quite a bit of warm weather by then, but there was just *so much* cold mass, it wasn't melting.

I grabbed a pail of wood ashes, and *lightly* covered the entire garden...just enough to darken the snow surface.

Within a week, it melted completely!

If your soil is neutral or basic pH, you don't want to use a lot of wood ash. But if it's acidic, the ash will actually help.

If I had a crop (like your onions) that were essentially being smothered by ice that refuses to melt, I'd definitely try the wood ash...

Summerthyme
 
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Wildwood

Veteran Member
summerthyme said:
This is going to sound like an odd suggestion, and be warned that I haven't tried it for this use! But we had a year where we had so much snow, it was mid April and the garden still have over 3 feet of ice, solid snow. We'd had quite a bit of warm weather by then, but there was just *so much* cold mass, it wasn't melting.

I grabbed a pail of wood ashes, and *lightly* covered the entire garden...just enough to darken the snow surface.

Within a week, it melted completely!

If your soil is neutral or basic pH, you don't want to use a lot of wood ash. But if it's acidic, thecask will actually help.

If I had a crop (like your onions) that were essentially being smothered by ice that refuses to melt, I'd definitely try the wood ash...

Summerthyme
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Thanks...I'll definitely try to remember that for next time. We don't normally get that here but the times, they are a changing.

It had it's advantages because my dirt all over my garden is a thing of beauty...just so soft and crumbly with hardly any weeds and what few there are are so easy to just pull right up. I did invest in some pricey Big Foot micorhiza for the garden last year so it may have contributed.
 
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WanderLore

Veteran Member
Dogs are running me ragged. The old pug wants to fight with all the other dogs except one. He will be 13 in September. Scot would never let me get him neutered.
I have to keep him separated from Scout and the other two dogs. He is very clingy too.
Territorial I know.
The two little dogs don't like Scout but they will tolerate him.
Scout is such a sweet dog. I trained him also to come to me wherever I'm at. Even in the stairs. I say "Help" and he comes right to me. Stands as close as he can and I use his collar to stand or steady myself. I ordered him a harness.
If I drop my keys or something, I'll tell him "Pick up" and he will get it and bring to me.
He doesn't beg. He will go in crate if I point.
When son is home he keeps pug in his room. Then I can have Scout with me.
 
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Wildwood

Veteran Member
We got back about an hour ago from our weekly McDonald's $5 value meals, Tractor Supply, Dollar Tree and then WM trip for the groceries and whatever else we needed there. I got a bag of blood meal and one of bone meal at TS, looked at the chicks and DGD and I headed next door to DT leaving DH and DGS to look at guy stuff and pay for everything.

Of all the things, At DT, I found a big fake straw hat just perfect for the garden and it fits my head well too, a few bags of cough drops to replenish our stash and a half dozen plastic trays I like to put all the plastic cups of starts in for the garden. I usually use about two dozen of the trays but I have to replace a few every year. Each tray will hold a dozen red solo cups. I use a few different sizes of cups and the tray will hold two dozen of my smallest cups. There's just enough of a lip coming up the side to hold about 1/2" water on the bottom. These are the ones I use.


I decided my only winter squash this year will be acorn squash and north Georgia candy roasters. I couldn't find a single packet of acorn squash at TS, DT or WM. What is this world coming to? There was a packet of seeds at TS that looked somewhat like it but shorter and squatter...that is not what I want.

It looks like DH might be coming down with the virus DGD had a couple weeks ago but he has such good resistance, he usually has a very mild case of whatever. He started coughing a little while back while we were in town. Of course he's around young guys with kids all week long and they don't hesitate to expose everyone to what they've got...praying DGS and I don't get it from him. It seems like I struggle with all the respiratory stuff since I got COVID. We sent DGD home immediately when she came down with it and kept DGS here so he wouldn't get it. I guess I could call DS and tell him to come get his father lol.
 
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ReneeT

Veteran Member
Meemur said:
I am. Central Iowa.

Good to "see" you, ReneeT! (Welcoming you back with a garden cake!)

images
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Thank You Meemur!
 
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hd5574

Veteran Member
Wildwood said:
Thanks...I'll definitely try to remember that for next time. We don't normally get that here but the times, they are a changing.

It had it's advantages because my dirt all over my garden is a thing of beauty...just so soft and crumbly with hardly any weeds and what few there are are so easy to just pull right up. I did invest in some pricey Big Foot micorhiza for the garden last year so it may have contributed.
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Ashes are great...not just as Summer said....if you are in an area...with lots of ice and snow...keep a large container in your car or truck....they work wonders under tires to give traction...
We have used them on paths...that we have shoveled that have tall snow sides..and keep refreezing
once that turns ice bust your butt ice...you can walk without fear of falling...and in our long driveway that gets icy
Only be careful... not near a door where you will track them in the house..they too messy..for that area
We had that heavy ice snow freezing rain stuff..about 5 or 6 inches deep...every where..we finally had it melt....took forever and longer...DH dug some of my mint up put in a pot last fall...we have an unheated glass porch off the back..so it gets sun...but been bringing it in the house on the most brutal nights...I have lost mine several winters..but it seems to be getting colder nights...we never lost our mint here until recently.....
I think there is a mail order place near me that sells walking onions...will look in their catalog..and if so will get back with info...
My parents never grew a garden...both worked and most around us ..was still so rural near us..that we bought..fresh from several with large gardens near us

But later when I was married to my ex...back in the early 1970s..I lived across the road from an old couple...old enough to be my grandparents..we became close..she had Parkinson's and the palsy in her hands...
Her husband farmed a 5 acre garden...the basics...tomatoes, cukes,
butterbeans, green peppers, corn, okra and watermelons....they had a table in their yard..and picked fresh everyday and sold...people came from a distance for their veggies..I became an "adopted" granddaughter....and would go out in the field and help her pick...and help her anyway I could..esp with knives and cutting things up

they had farmed all their lives..on a large farm in NC...and moved to southern VA..during WWII....he worked in the ship yards..in Portsmouth..and at that time grew on twenty acres...his cows and barn were where I lived.. he had built a house on that spot..he build 4 houses on his land and a huge garage with an apartment over it...all with a fulltime job and finally was down to a garden "patch"....5 acre patch
The long and the short was..they started teaching me about growing veggies and saving seed...they saved all their seed..and lots of other stuff...they never wasted anything..they were grown with kids when the depression hit...and were in their 70s when I knew them and could work me into the ground ..

one of their neighbors taught me how to can..and some mornings after a rain...I would wake up to a pile of split dead ripe tomatoes on my front porch..and begin canning...they never sold splits...only perfect veggies..
I am grateful to have had them in my life...since I save seed...I tend to just grow one variety of most things..so they don't cross.. except lettuce..and follow their ways...I looked at a package of blue lake green been seed at Walmart the other day...because people have been talking about how expensive it is..and couldn't believe the price for so few seeds.. I save mine..but wow just wow...totally crazy prices...
 
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