Weekly Prep Thread, May 14-20, 2006

[A.T.Hagan]

I did more actual prepping this weekend than I have in a while. Swapped two old-style LPG cylinders for the newer mandatory OPD tanks and picked up a third. Hoping to acquire three more before year's end.

Wasted a fair amount of time trying to find a replacement for some of the plant nutrients that I've been using the Lowes stopped carrying just as I'd decided to buy a bunch of it. Home Depot didn't have it either. We've got a hydroponics store in Gainesville but didn't have any luck there either. It's a small shop and when I went in there was just the fella behind the counter, a guy in front of the counter he was talking to and myself. I spent ten minutes reading labels looking for what I might want and he never even acknowledged my presence much less ask if he could help me find anything. Wal Mart can get away with that, but I don't have to take it from him so I left. Reckon I'll have to start looking down to Orlando at some of the nursery supply houses. Stockpiling fertilizers and minor nutrients is one of my major ramp ups this year.

Picked up some large terra cotta colored plastic pots to repot some of my container citrus into. They're putting on excellent growth and have set a lot of fruit so I want to move them up in pot size and do it in something that won't soak up heat as bad as the black plastic I'm using now. When the soil temperature goes over 90 the citrus roots shut down and at this time of year it's mighty easy to do with black plastic in full sun all day.

Picked up a little storage food to replace what I know we're short on. Need to do a full general inventory again, it's about that time to bring the whole program back up to speed before the hurricane season heats up about August.

Finally finished building the two new grape trellises. Sixty feet long each, double canopy (as in two wires), for six muscadine grape vines. Got the three largest vines moved off their temporary wires onto the permanent wire. Hope to have the remaining three done this week. This is freeing up my T-stakes to build the blackberry trellises that I should have gotten done last year.

Not so much a prep but vital to day to day life I dug up the lid and clean out port of my septic tank to have it pumped out tomorrow. I'm hoping we'll be able to get stuff cleaned out well enough that I want have to lay out the bucks for a new drain field, but I suspect I'm going to have to. Fortunately the toilet and sink in the workshop are on a different tank so it's not like we're completely out of business with the crapper, but it's nuisance to have to lug the kids down to the shop at night.

The chicks continue to do well. The garden is doing well, but the damage the blasted rabbits did. Lots of blossoms on the eggplants, the tomatos are fruiting well as are the peppers. Harvested the elephant garlic last week. Still have the Sweet Spanish onions, shallots, and multipliers to go from the winter garden.

Got a lot done this weekend even if I lost a lot of time not finding the stuff I wanted and doing things that simply had to be done rather than what I wanted to be doing.

How are you folks doing?

.....Alan.

 

[TerriHaute]

Did some prepping, too, this past weekend, but not much and as I'll be in Seattle for a training class most of the week, that's probably all that will get done until next week.

There were some good sales at Walgreen's this weekend, so I loaded up on canned meats: DAK ham, Hormel roast beef, and corned beef. Walgreen's also had cigarette lighters 3 for $1 and rubber flip-flops for a dollar a pair, so I bought several. When I was a kid in the late 50's-early 60's, my friends and I wore flip-flops as shoes most of the summer. I still wear them often, more than just for the beach, so it seemed like a good thing to stock up on.

Cleaned out the chicken coop, moved it to a fresh spot in the yard, and worked on making it even more predator-proof. I've not left the "girls" overnight before, so the trip to Seattle will be a test of the safety of the coop. DH thinks I am overly paranoid about losing any chickens to raccoons, etc. But I think each chicken will be precious later if the economy tanks into a major depression and don't want to risk losing even one. Later today I am making a run to Tractor Supply to load up on chicken feed.

Made hard copies of recipes on the Hillbilly Housewife website. Many of them use ingredients that I have stored in my preps.

Worked at getting as much of the garden planted that I could. It has been cool and rainy here every day for a week, but I worked at it between showers. I put out 25 tomato plants this year, mostly heirlooms from saved seeds, in hopes of a good bumper crop for sauces, etc. to can later in the summer.

Terri in Indiana

 

[theoutlands]

Started work on overhauling my vehicle BOB. Will do more of that in the days to come.

Tended garden - put up fence-posts and tied off some tomato plants.

Went to dad's house and loaded up his cargo trailer and pickup w/ greenhouse parts (10x48'), 2 window-unit ac's, and some turkey cages I'll be converting to rabbit cages. He'll be dragging them up here Wednesday, if all goes as planned.

Need to get another orange ammo-can for my .22lr ammo and shotgun shells.

Dunno what else yet - we'll see.

 

[John H]

Picked up a cheapo small kettle-style Chinese tabletop charcoal BBQ and the first 20 lb bag of charcoal, which I will add to over the next couple of weeks. The idea is to stretch our propane for cooking from about 3-4 months to 5-6 months with charcoal. Too wasteful to use the large BBQ if TSHTF. Since it's a kettle BBQ, it's deep enough that I can burn wood in it, if we run out of charcoal, even if I have to modify it by sticking a perforated stainless steel mixing bowl in it to do so.

In the winter, we can cook on the wood fireplace insert upstairs by removing the front trim or the top of the wood stove downstairs, which we normally don't use.

Spent some time cutting firewood in half to use in the insert next winter. Once that is finished, I'll worry about getting wood to fill the other side of the wood shed for the winter after that. Probably will cut some downed trees (we have 25 acres of bush, but a lot is pine) and perhaps buy some.

Also bought a folding Coleman camp oven for the camp stove / small BBQ from Wally World. On the same trip picked up a couple of larger size containers of chlorine for the inground pool. Hopefully enough to keep it clean until winter to use it as a backup toilet flushing water source, even if power is not available or dependable for the pump.

I figure it's pretty important to buy heavy stuff now. If anything hits transportation (bird flu, gas prices double or terror attacks on infrastructure), heavy stuff will just not be available.

Didn't pick up anything significant in the way of food. We've already have enough on hand.

John H

 

[prudentwatcher]

OK, can someone tell me what is wrong with my cukes? I live in the same area as Hagen and my cukes just shriveled and turned yellow/brown. They had been healthy and growing well until yesterday. They weren't overwatered and had been sprayed for fungus, mildew and bugs. Any help appreciated.

Other than that, I got a big surprise from my sweetie. We were out to dinner on Saturday and I was mentioning the upcoming hurricane season and out of the blue, "we should get a generator to run the freezer and fridge in case something happens this year". I had never mentioned it before as I didn't think it would go over and I don't want to be overly dependent on a generator and fuel storage, but a small one would be okay. Doing some research now and plan to buy something during our hurricane sales tax holiday.

No major food preps as we are pretty well set, but did get more shampoo, feminine supplies, moisturizer, sinus meds and little stuff like that. Still have to make that trip to Walmart to gete a few more litttle things. Sweetie also mentioned getting another coleman stove as a back-up (lots of surprises lately, ).

Hope everyone is doing something for prepping instead of just bitching about illegal immigration, as that has taken over the board in the last month or so.

 

[A.T.Hagan]

Take a look here: http://vegdis.cas.psu.edu/VegDisases/Identification_files/cucurbits.html

I suspect cucumber mosaic virus, but it could be something else.

.....Alan.

 

[Seabird]

Our local Publix had Hibachi's on sale: $2.79 each. Bought three. (They are great for table top cooking in a pinch, like making a pot of coffee, or heating up soup for lunch.)

I also bought an 18" X 18" stone slab (meant for walkways) for $.89 to put under the hibachi's on my screened-in porch table.

 

[Guy_Incognito]

Bought 30 1oz silver kookaburra coins, shortly before the price of silver dropped.

As usual.

Experimented in the car to see what the max economy is - it's a long way to anywhere else from here. It's 500 miles to the next biggest town of about 150,000 people. So it'd be good to find the best point to run the car at for long distances, in case fuel becomes an issue.

It's got a instantaneous fuel consumption meter built in, so you get quick feedback. Around town, mostly flat in 5th gear at 60km/hr with the a/c running, the diesel ticking over at about 1300rpm, it gets around 4L/100km, or 1400-1500km out of a full tank. For you metric-challenged people, that's about 56 miles/gallon. or 900 miles to the tank.

There's a sweet spot in there somewhere for highway speeds - it seems to be about 90km/hr in 6th, but I haven't done much experimentation there yet.

Went looking around our small town for a fire safe today, but they seem to be a little bit on the expensive side. So, off I go for some internet shopping.

 

[nanajo]

Prep-question? What stuff is that in the heater meals that causes the heat reaction when water is added? It would be nice to have on hand and in your"bob bag". A big thank you to anyone that can help me here.

 

[A.T.Hagan]

Prep-question? What stuff is that in the heater meals that causes the heat reaction when water is added? It would be nice to have on hand and in your"bob bag". A big thank you to anyone that can help me here.

http://athagan.members.atlantic.net/PFSFAQ/PFSFAQ-3-3.html#MREs
<i><u>MRE Heaters</u>: These devices will either come with your MRE at the time of purchase or they can be bought separately. They contain a small amount of salt, magnesium, and iron and when you add a small amount of water they undergo a flameless chemical reaction that will heat an 8 oz MRE entrée by roughly 100° Fahrenheit (37°C) in about ten minutes. As water is what starts the reaction it is imperative the heaters be kept dry until used. If stored in an area of high humidity the heaters can undergo a slow reaction leading to degraded performance later or even complete failure over time. As a part of the chemical reaction the heaters release small amounts of hydrogen gas which is generally harmless but large numbers of heaters in a damp, sealed storage area could conceivably present a danger. This is unlikely unless you’re storing many cases of heaters. In such an event keep them in an air tight storage container with some desiccant.

While any MRE can be eaten cold these heaters can certainly improve the palatability of the food. Lacking a heater you can simply boil the individual retort pouches in water for a few minutes, lay them in the sun to warm, or tuck them in your shirt. The one thing you should not do is expose them to direct flame.</i>

.....Alan.

 

[barb43]

Painting my house . . . And doing basic spring cleaning stuff that needs doing. Caulking around windows and other minor repairs.

I've been slowly inventorying what's on hand, shelf by shelf, cupboard by cupboard. Also watching "who" and "what" usurps my time! (that's been ticking me off a lot lately so am working on saying, "no, i really can't help with that!" )

 

[vulcan]

I used recycled 2 X 4s from a renovation to build shelves in the basement for prep storage. It was getting messy with preps all over the place, the shelves are sized to fit large tupperware type storage boxes.

 

[nanajo]

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I have also located a supplier that sells just the heaters. 12 heaters for $10.49

http://militarysurplusdepot.com

It's good to know that the heaters are biodegradible.

 

[A.T.Hagan]

Thursday morning and this is all the way back to page six.

Pretty sad.

Our prepping has gone off in an unexpected direction lately. Had to have the septic tank pumped and discovered the drain field is about rooted in. This wasn't a surprise, but I'd hoped to stall it off for a few more years. Come this fall I'll have to put the new field in it looks like.

The the wife's car gives it up. I suppose I shouldn't complain as it has 255,000 miles on it, is on its second engine and that one has well over a hundred thousand miles on it. It's an Oldsmobile that has had virtually every moving part replaced over the years so it was tired. But now we've got to get another car.

You've got to survive the day to day stuff if you want to make it to TEOTWAWKI.

.....Alan.

 

[teadrinker]

Went to St. Vincent De Paul's...and found canning jars...WOO HOO.

.30 for qt. jars = $3.60 a dozen
.20 for pint jars = $2.40 a dozen

pretty cheap compared to store prices.....Amish store had lids for $1.19 a box...I bought 10 boxes....my friend went there a month later and the price jumped to $1.39 a box.

A store near me has a meat sale going on today...not really sure if the prices are so cheap or not....but I need to fill some of those jars so I think I will be canning meat this weekend.

Boneless skinless chicken breasts $4.99 for 3 lbs
Boneless pork ribs $1.29 a lb.
Boneless beef chuck roast for $1.89 lb.

We have a Sysco company near us, it is a co. that sells food to rest. and hospitals etc. called for some prices but not really any real deal.

dehydrated hashbrowns....$40.00 for 6 cans at 37.5 oz each can.
rice - $14.00 for 50 lb bag
popcorn seed - $16.25 for 50 lb bag

teadrinker

 

[wasabell]

I hit a good sale this week, and stocked up on deodorant, shampoo,conditioner, and bandaids. I have about a years worth of each.

DH mentioned that I need to check the medicine cabinets (again ) for expired. He mentioned that some eyedrops he found were expired. I thought I caught everything when I did this about 6 months ago. Time to do it again, I guess.

 

[xtreme_right]

getting rid of roots in septic line...

Alan,

A few years back we had the same problem with roots getting into the lines. My DH called every septic service in the county and none were interested in doing repairs, they all tried to sell us a new aerobic system, which we didn't want. He finally got a hold of an older gentleman that told him how to fix it. He went out a few feet from the last tank and dug straight down to the pipe and tee'd into it. He then poured root killer into the pipe which drained out and killed the roots that had grown into the lines. This kept the actual tanks safe from the root killer, which would of course trash the floura of the tanks. He capped it off and is able to get back into it easily if he ever needs to add any more. The problem was a cottonwood growing nearby. We also cut the tree down and drilled holes in the stump and poured the root killer in it. The large roots that were on top of the ground dried up nicely. It seems to have worked on the roots in the lines also since we've had no problems since.

xr

 

[A.T.Hagan]

This weekend I'll be doing something similar. My tank has external baffles, a design apparently not used here any longer. It hasn't refilled yet from being pumped out but this weekend I expect it will. When it does I'll turn the water on in the tub, take the cap off the outlet baffle and when I see a positive flow of water coming out of the tank I'll pour in a couple of pounds of salt directly into the leach lines. This ought to kill the roots that are actually in the lines, but it won't physically remove them so they are still going to drain slowly. It should be enough to get us by until this Fall when I can replace them.

The fella who came out to do the pump out detailed how to replace the lines myself and suggested the salt as a make-do until we can get the money together. Can't remove the tree though, it's the only shade on the house at all before late afternoon.

.....Alan.

 

[Jmurman]

I am behind in my long term food stores and with all of the rotten news from the past two weeks, I need to get back on track.

I have tomorrow off and i need to inventory my stores and see EXACTLY what I have, then plan to fill in the gaps.

I've also made the decision to purchase and learn to reload my own ammunition.

 

[prudentwatcher]

Got that generator today. It is for running the freezer and fridge for a few hours a day if we lose power. Also got 3 cases of pint canning jars and cleaned out the freezer a little bit. Got a bunch more razors for free (coupons from a few weeks ago) and some more shampoo for six cents a bottle. Reinventoried my medical cabinet--have almost everything on my list now, so I'm pleased.

We will be getting another camp stove and a bunch of batteries next week and I'll make another pet food run. Not a lot of great sales (except on coke products), but we don't really need anything. Amazing what I found in the back of the freezer

Doing some extra outside consulting type work that should bring in a nice chunk of change next month. That's for the savings account.

 

[The Freeholder]

Just a thought on the roots in the septic lines...

Many, many moons ago, when I was working my way through college in a plumbing supply warehouse, we sold drain cleaning machines--sort of like Roto-router uses. They have a cable that is so many feet long, and on the end is a connector for attachments. One of those attachments was a root cutter.

What about renting one, getting the root cutter, then digging up each end of the leech line? Run it through and get the roots. Then cut every tree and bush within 75' of the lines to keep the problem from recurring.

 

[A.T.Hagan]

I may go the root cutter route if what I'm about to try doesn't suffice.

Can't cut the tree though. I think I can deter it from growing yet more roots into the lines however. We'll see.

.....Alan.