Prep Genrl Weekly Prep Thread: March 8 ~ 14, 2020

[ReneeT]

Oops! Late start to the thread this week; it's been so nice here that we've been outside most of the day. Didn't get much work done with two grandsons and a grand-dog underfoot, but we've been having a lot of fun, so it's all good

Minimal prepping got done last week other than a few stops on the way to and from work in order to pick up more laundry soap, and my usual Saturday Dollar General run for sale items; last weeks runs were tp and laundry detergent based, with a few other things from the 'Need' list on the fridge added in to round out the amount I needed to spend to use my coupons. There was a gentleman ahead of me in the check-out line Saturday evening who bought the last 10 little bottles of hand sanitizer they had; they were completely out of the larger ones. I told him that there was a recipe on line, but that washing your hands also worked. They did still have plenty of tp though

I've not had much of a chance to look at the ads this week; not much I really need, so I just plan to cherry-pick the ads for items to add to stock. Mac and cheese is pretty much a standard when the boys are here; Hubby said he couldn't make any because we were out of cheese - umm, no; I showed him the full shelf and he accused me of moving it.... had to explain that he'd been using from the overflow area for the past few months - oops!

My cousins were down this weekend to take down deer stands and do a few other chores; asked if they could plant sunflowers in part of the two acres where my gardens are and I was happy to say yes! They are going to till my gardens for me as soon as the ground dries up enough, so that will help me out as well. I'm so blessed to have family that will give a hand! True, they do hunt our ground, but they have always been good to help out.

Well, looks like I need to finish up and post this; Hubby has a stack of boxes of home canned stuff that need to be carried down to the store room and is indicating he'd like some help - I'd better hurry so I can grab the boxes of pints and let him do the quarts; not sure I can safely go downstairs with the quarts as heavy as they are.

You folks all take care; have a safe and happy week!

 

[prudentwatcher]

I've been away from home for the past two weeks, dealing with a father in quickly declining health. It has been driving me crazy to read all the news about the virus and not be able to go to the store. We were a thousand miles from home and couldn't stock up! Well, we got home yesterday, and I've hit Dollar Tree, Aldis, and Winn Dixie. Nothing major as far as stocking, just MORE. No hand sanitizer here, but plenty of everything else. So I am able to breathe a sigh of relief that I was able to get the last few things I wanted.

I also convinced my brother to do minimum preps! He lives closer to our dad and was there with us for a couple of days. I decided to bring it up from the angle of his company, which does a lot of business with China, and is apparently hurting right now to the point of layoffs. I convinced him to buy several cases of bottled water, a couple of extra bags of dog food, and at least enough canned stuff he could eat without heating (chef boy-r-dee, fruit, etc) and stuff like granola bars and nuts for at least a month. He finally did it this morning (I bugged him about it until he finally went to Walmart---he did promise me he would go and I held him to it). He texted back that they were out of tp (near Dallas). Maybe that will wake him up a bit, but at least he has something! I told him if he didn't eat it by Christmas he could donate it to a food pantry and I wouldn't complain.

Brought it up to a few other folks. Not sure if they took it to heart yet though.

 

[prudentwatcher]

I've been away from home for the past two weeks, dealing with a father in quickly declining health. It has been driving me crazy to read all the news about the virus and not be able to go to the store. We were a thousand miles from home and couldn't stock up! Well, we got home yesterday, and I've hit Dollar Tree, Aldis, and Winn Dixie. Nothing major as far as stocking, just MORE. No hand sanitizer here, but plenty of everything else. So I am able to breathe a sigh of relief that I was able to get the last few things I wanted.

I also convinced my brother to do minimum preps! He lives closer to our dad and was there with us for a couple of days. I decided to bring it up from the angle of his company, which does a lot of business with China, and is apparently hurting right now to the point of layoffs. I convinced him to buy several cases of bottled water, a couple of extra bags of dog food, and at least enough canned stuff he could eat without heating (chef boy-r-dee, fruit, etc) and stuff like granola bars and nuts for at least a month. He finally did it this morning (I bugged him about it until he finally went to Walmart---he did promise me he would go and I held him to it). He texted back that they were out of tp (near Dallas). Maybe that will wake him up a bit, but at least he has something! I told him if he didn't eat it by Christmas he could donate it to a food pantry and I wouldn't complain.

Brought it up to a few other folks. Not sure if they took it to heart yet though.

 

[nomifyle]

I thought I was stocked up enough, but oh no, I guess that will never happen. My youngest son and his family may come here if things are bad, so that's five more mouths to feed. Soooo I've added some kid friendly things. I have a good supply of powdered milk, but it tastes nasty so I've added bottles of chocolate syrup and a few bottles of the strawberry. I would never have given this stuff to my children, but we were never faced with dire circumstances. so if they come here and need something to make dry milk drinkable and if they don't then it can sit on my pantry shelves. Although I have the ingredients to make quite a few pans of homemade baked macaroni, Walmart had boxes of mac and cheese for 50 cents a box, so I bought a case. After awhile I can always vacuum seal it in mason jars and it will last for a long long time. We never eat saltine crackers but I bought four big boxes to vacuum seal. More cough drops, and hard candy, I'll vacuum seal all that. There are other things that I can't think of right now.

Everyone, including my sons think I'm nuts.

Judy

 

[SouthernBreeze]

It's gonna be another week, before I can get back to town. I just hope there is something left to buy! I'm just going to be adding to my basics. Flour, cornmeal, canned milk, yeast, rice, and pasta, and of course, more coffee, lol. I might throw in another bag or two of sugar. I wish we could go sooner!

I have another doctor's appt. March 31, and I'm already scared to go. My Rheumatologist is sending me to another specialist, and I may have to have treatments on my bladder once a week for 9 weeks! Yeah, it's a Lupus thing. Sigh. Here I am thinking we're almost ready to self isolate, and now this happens! What I've been thinking was just a UTI turned out to be something else, entirely.

 

[nomifyle]

There are three towns 28 to 30 miles in three different directions from me. A cousin told me she went to walmart in one of the towns and there is no toilet paper to be found there. I have about a four year supply but no one knows that. There are only a couple of people around here that I would share with.

Judy

 

[nomifyle]

It looks like I lit a fire under my youngest son, he has been stocking up. My oldest is in denial, said he has a food delivery service. Youngest asked me if I thought they would close the grocery stores, I told him I didn't think so, my concern is the availability of food to stock in the stores.

Judy

 

[SouthernBreeze]

I told Cary this morning that we would make another run to Walmart on Monday, and skip going to Sam's. We plan to make this our last run into town for the foreseeable future. If I absolutely have to have something, I will order online. I'm even thinking seriously about canceling my dr's. apt. for March 31st.

 

[Digger]

It is getting crazy in AR. Big holes on the store shelves. My niece in the northwest corner of the state went to 5 stores before she found toilet paper. She bought one 12 pack. I have not told her we have been buying a pack every time we go to the store since January.

Yesterday we filled another 55 gallon barrel with off road diesel. We picked up some odds and ends at the store and some chicks at Tractor Supply. I have 100 pounds of chick starter for them. I also set eggs in my incubator.

We had to go to Conway to a dr appointment for hubby. While there I went to Khols and bought 4 bras off the clearance rack. While there I noticed there was still a lot of winter sleep wear and very little lighter weight stuff. I did not look at anything else in the store. But if sleepwear is any indication, they are not getting spring shipments in.

But daughter in law and son in law woke up this week. I have been telling son and daughter for over a month to get ready, but spouses were holding them back. I just hope it is not to late. Both kids keep some extra ahead. Probably more than most their age. They don't know, but we have prepped some for them too.

 

[nomifyle]

We had to go to Ruston to get feed today, I finally talked DH into getting it now rather than next week. I bought 50 pounds of birdseed/sunflower seeds. I'm hoping to plant some of that to feed the plants to the chickens and goats.

I went to Walmart more to see what was going on, although I needed some more bags of top soil. The store was packed and people had full baskets. Right before we went there the governor closed all the schools in the state for 30 days. He also suspended the primary on April 4. No one was rude or pushed and shoved. The pain relieve isle was just about empty although I picked up a two bottle pack of Ibuprophen for almost $15, which I thought was high. We never take the stuff but I figured it would be good to have in the house.

Since we have an over supply of chicken eggs Dh and I talked about pickleing some. So I bought almost the last two gallons of white vinegar and the last two cases of 1/2 canning jars. I added more butter to my cart and some snacky food that will be nice to have. I did get 5#s of mixed shredded cheese (I break those big bags up into smaller bags and freeze them. Just take a bag out when I need it. I added some other things that will be nice to have.

We went to Lowes and I looked at a small upright freezer, the cheapest was $600 so I passed that up. I did buy a grow light for my mini greenhouse that I'm thinking about setting up on our screened in porch. I'm considering growing lettuce in this greenhouse.

I absolutely skipped stopping at the Dollar Tree, it looked busy and I was already tired from going back and forth at walmart.

I was talking to my brother and he said it sounded like I have enough food for a month or so, I laughed and said more like up to two years. I've been telling him and my two sons to buy food. It looks like my youngest paid attention, and my oldest is completely in denial. Oldest said, "we have a delivery service". haha I even checked on my ex and he said he was stocked up. He lived with me for 35 years and should have a clue about what being stocked up is, if not, God bless.

Judy

 

[ivantherussian03]

It is getting real now. I am wondering how much my business will be effected.

 

[anna43]

I did not go shopping. I shop monthly and when this virus mess started to heat up I did my monthly shopping early two weeks ago. So glad I did because the whole point of prepping is not to have to go into the stores when people are panic buying. I went to church today (small church maybe 40 people there) and think I will not be going anywhere again until this mess settles down. Of course, there's always the "we make plans and the Lord laughs", but barring such occurrence, I'm home for the duration.

My d-i-l lives in an senior/handicapped independent living apartment complex that is on lock down. We had talked awhile back about making sure she had food and supplies were on-hand in case the lock down occurred so she's okay. My mom is in an assisted living facility and assures me she is fine since one of my sisters supplied her with a month's worth of tp and the other sister brought her five library books. All of her meals are provided and residents have been assured that they have a month's supply of food in-house. Both facilities are still allowing residents freedom of the building which will help prevent cabin fever.

 

[Dinghy]

Liquor stores in Pa. are starting to close. I didn’t think they were in my area, but I found out the one in the next town is closing tomorrow.

There was a druggie flipping out in Dollar General yesterday because he couldn’t by any toilet paper. I can only imagine what’s going to happen when the drunks can only get beer and wine at the grocery store, if they even still have it available.

 

[SouthernBreeze]

We just got back from our shopping trip in a small rural town. It's barely big enough to have a Walmart super center. I was afraid the Walmart would already be cleaned out so, I stopped at a Dollar General closer to my house, and picked up a few items. The store was badly picked over, but I did manage to get what I needed. Went on to Walmart, and I have never seen anything like it! Almost everything in the store was cleaned out! I still got most of what was on my shopping list, though. I had to stop at another grocery store in town to see if they still had what was lacking on my list. They did. YAY! So, we are set for the duration, and will now be locking down.

As we were inside Walmart, our DS called, and told us there was a confirmed case in the county!!!!