Prep Genrl Weekly Prep Thread: October 23 ~ 30, 2016

[ReneeT]

Another week snuck up on me!! I've gotten into the bad habit of staying up until Hubby leaves for work; and then I'm awake until 1 in the morning or so. If I don't have my alarm set to go to work, I wake up briefly when he comes home at 8 am, then doze back off until 8:30 or 9 - wasting daylight!! Gonna just have to learn to say goodnight and head to bed, I reckon!

I've been working outside most of the day - got a lot of garden clearing and mulching done; then came in for a drink and rest break - and to think about what I want to fix for supper (okay, to think about what Hubby should fix for supper ) Unstuffed cabbage rolls and corn bread sounds good to me; hope he goes along with the idea!!

Nothing in the drug store ads that piqued my interest on first glance, and I won't see the other ads until tomorrow when I stop by Buddy's house to pick them up. I'm feeling more in the mood to clean and organize this week than I am to stock up, but I may make a quick trip up to the Amish grocery store tomorrow for a few things.

Think I'll run out and see how much lawn I can get mowed before suppertime - this should be the last time this year that we have to do it.

Take care all; have a fabulous week!!

 

[moldy]

Slept in today (I needed it!), then hung out with my girls. DD #1 wanted to see the bee hives and learn about them, so we did that. DD#2 wanted to see the cows, so we took some pumpkins up to them at the north pasture. Ended up singing veggietale songs along the way. We did a lot of walking and talking. Now DD#1 took DD#2 into town to see friends. DD#3 has been hanging out just enjoying time with her sisters.

Working on making some cabbage pockets (bierocks, whatever) and peach crisp for dinner. Lots to get done this week - we'll see how it goes. I also need to start saving for the herbal fundamentals and botany classes I want to take.

 

[prudentwatcher]

I finally got around to cleaning out the old meds from the first aid closet. I had prepped really hard in 2008 as I was really worried about a financial meltdown, so a lot of stuff had expired in 2010. I had three large paper sacks of stuff to toss. Most things were replaced already with stuff I got last week and a few things I already had purchased in the last year or two. Now everything is within date and out to 2019. I do need to get some Pepto/Mylanta and some cough syrup (I threw a ton of that away). Everything else we are good on. Since my better half is a nurse, I have it planned to cover more than just us--more like a small field hospital is the idea.

I'm going out of town for the next few days. Time for some R&R. Will focus on topping off preps in the two weeks before the election when I get back. Just need a little time to recharge.

 

[Journey]

ReneeT, we haven't had to cut grass in over a month now - that's about the only benefit of being in a drought situation.

moldy, glad you are enjoying the time with your girls!

prudentwatcher, thanks for the reminder about cleaning out the first aid/meds closet. There's no telling what has expired in mine plus I need to take inventory of what we might need this coming cold & flu season.

When I go to CVS to pick up Hub's RX I may do the Angel Soft/Quilted Northern/Brawny deal of 3/$15 and get $5 Extra bucks IF I can find two more $1 Angel Soft coupons. That makes it 3/$7 after q's and EB's and I have $5 in EB's to sweeten the deal. They also have Colgate Max Fresh toothpaste for 2.99 with $2 in EB's, limit 2 so I'll look on Swagbucks and see if there are any Colgate coupons.

Looked at the calendar just a bit ago and realized it's a little over four weeks until Thanksgiving! I knew there had to be a reason for the gentle mental nudging to start fall cleaning.

 

[nomifyle]

Going to pick up a box of commodities this afternoon and we get another on Thursday. Never know what will be in them. We get two a month. There is always a couple of 2# bags of beans.

Judy

 

[ReneeT]

What insert are the Angel Soft QA in, Journey? I can mail them to you on my way to work tomorrow if I have them.

 

[Journey]

The angel soft q's that were in inserts expired earlier this month. I printed one for $1 but couldn't find another to print so I'm guessing it's no longer available. Thanks for the offer though.

 

[nomifyle]

My first box of commodities for the month, we get two, included 8#s of pasta, 8#s of beans (all great northerns, DHs favorite), 8#s of grits, two packages of frozen chicken legs, four bottles of grape juice and four bags of rice. We used to get cans of fruit but none in the last year in these boxes. Although last month or so ago we got 4 good size bags of dried cherries and the month before that we got frozen bags of blueberries. If I could just figure out what to do with these fruits.

When I picked up the commodities I stopped buy the Dollar Tree and picked up 4 cans of chicken tamales, 4 cans of mini ravolis, 4 cans of chunky chicken soup, 4 cans of chunky beef soup. 2 cans of pumpkin, 2 cans of apple pie filling and a few other things I can't remember right now, all for $1 each.

The second box comes tomorrow, actually we each get one box two times, so four boxes altogether.

ETA two jars of instant coffee

Judy

 

[Barb]

Those aren't anything like the commodities that we get.

 

[moldy]

I"m beat. Worked cows today (rounded them up in to the corral at the north pasture - of course, some were stubborn, sigh. We threw a bunch of pumpkins from the garden into the corrals to tempt them - it worked pretty well. The bull really likes pumpkins. We hired a little help (best idea ever!), hauled them home (took 4 trailer loads).

Working cows consists of castrating the male calves, branding them (we've had a big uptick in rustling), giving shots (for rhinovirus and tetanus for the boys), backpouring (deworming), giving probiotics. To do this, we run them up a lane into a squeeze chute. Their head is caught in the headgate, all the chores are done, then they are let go. When they are all done, they go back with their mamas for a couple weeks. Weaning them at this time (which some people do), we feel stresses them too much. A stressed calf can easily become a sick calf, and they don't gain weight.

In the past, we have banded our calves (using a tight rubber band around the testicle to castrate them). Some livestock sellers don't like this, because as DH puts it "some people can't count to 2". So this year, our help cut the boys. We saved the testicles (Rocky Mountain oysters). W was kind enough to teach me how to clean them (really easy), so they are now in the freezer, and I plan on frying them up when we get together with family at THanksgiving.

Tips for today:
1) A friend wanted to come help, so he could learn. Never turn down free help!! He brought us some wood (it will have to age before it can be burned) and some boiled cider.
2) Use what you have. The cows would have killed me for apples, but I didn't have any. They liked pumpkins well enough.
3) Never turn down instructions on anything! Now I know how to 'harvest' RM oysters, and how to cut cows (if I had to in an emergency!)

 

[nomifyle]

Those aren't anything like the commodities that we get.

What sort of things do you get, I'm not overly impressed with ours but don't want to look a gift horse in the mouth, so to speak. We do get another type of box tomorrow, I'll list what is in that one.

Judy

 

[SAPPHIRE]

Your commodities sound pretty good........here front range CO the commodities are pitiful unless greatly changed from a few years ago...almost nothing for the elderly.....a few cans at best...old bread, stuff which isn't very nutritious....

The dried cherries are long term storage if done properly and can be used for desserts or even sauces etc...frz. blueberries are great smoothie fruits or you could make a jam/pie/sauces/etc...

When I was in my teens (!) commodities in MO were varied and generous.........don't think our gummitup really gives a flip now...

 

[Old Gray Mare]

Squirreled away a few cans of store bought soup. It's not much but something. Did get some fire wood stacked. I tell you there is something to that global warming thingy. It is effecting the gravity. I can prove it. No way was fire wood this heavy last year!

 

[Barb]

Our commodities for July were canned mixed vegetables, orange juice, pears, peanut butter, diced tomatoes, dried cranberries, elbow macaroni, walnut pieces and canned pork.

 

[nomifyle]

Our commodities for July were canned mixed vegetables, orange juice, pears, peanut butter, diced tomatoes, dried cranberries, elbow macaroni, walnut pieces and canned pork.

Our, what they call a 40# box, is much like yours. Although we've never had any canned pork, I'd love that. Just picked that box up, and it included a can of beef stew, two cans of pears, 4 cans of carrots, two boxes of milk, a package of dried milk, two bottles of apple juice, velvetta type cheese, and two boxes of cereal (my goats love this).

We got commodities for a little while back in the 80's and the cheese back then was wonderful chedder.

Judy

 

[Just a Nurse 2]

Put up a canner load of cinnamon applesauce this week, n shredded n bagged zucchini for the freezer. It disappears in spaghetti sauce

 

[nomifyle]

In an effort to find something to season beans with in the case that I'm short on meat, I ordered a ham seasoning boullion kind of thing. The brand is Badia. Now all if have to do is try it. LOL It was cheaper to order 3 bottles on Amazon.

Judy

 

[moldy]

Finished doing what we needed to do to put the garden to bed. We pulled up the tomato cages, unpinned and rolled up landscaping fabric, and rolled up hoses and the bigger drip lines. The actual drip tape is pretty flimsy - we will just pitch that. The cows are are now out in the garden, munching on all the leftovers.

 

[nomifyle]

I've been looking in m y stores at what I have left of certain things. I know I have a good stock of bar soap, both ivory, and some Amish soap I've gotten at the auction. DH uses body wash, but I like bar soap, both ivory and the Amish soap last a good long time. I stocked up on another package of 10 Ivory soap. I've been pricing Fels Naptha, on line it is 3 and 4 dollars, sometimes more, Walmart has it for 97 cents a bar, I got 6 bars. Zote is even more expensive, but I found some on Ebay for less than $2.00 a bar, had to buy 6 to get that price, free shipping. I was low on hair conditioner, so I bought 4 bottles of that, will last a good long time, I add water to it to make it go even further. I've been looking at body lotion, but its all too expensive and unknown ingredients for me, so I settled on extra coconut oil, and I have some containers that I can use like lotion squeeze bottles. I've decided to change my brand of tooth paste, I have been using Colgate for years, but have seen info on cancer causing ingredients so, after many I've gone back to Crest, although I also use a homemade tooth powder, and if necessary I can and have used ivory soap.

I found sardines in olive oil, so I got 3 cans of that, what I have stored is either in water or mustard, the mustard is for DH. I wanted them in olive oil for the oil content, when oils might be scarce, they last for years and years.

Also I got some Chef Boyardee mac and cheese, to add to my short term stores, along with cans of Chili Mac and Pasta Beef, It won't take long to get a good amount by picking up a couple of cans whenever I go to Walmart. I have recently changed my mind about not storing things like that, I've decided they have a place in my stores, just not a steady diet of them. I also got my two bags of lentils, one gray and one red that I pick up frequently.

Got some more extra shaving creme for DH, he only shaves a couple of times of week, so that will go a long way. I added more Benadryl (have not been able to find that great price on it that Aldi's has, but this price was okay) and some sinus/allergy meds. While I try not to take these things very often, some times I just have to because of headache pain, take a couple and the headache goes away. More Pepto too, although the Equate brand, which works fine.

Our garden has been put to be for several weeks due to no rain, everything just dried up, this time last year we were still getting tomatoes and now they have been long gone. However we have some onions going. DH has been draining our water barrels to water them. Time to drain and clean out the water barrels and refill with treated water.

Judy

 

[ReneeT]

Nomifyle, if you have Dollar General in your area, price Benadryl (generic name: Diphenhydramine) there - it's the cheapest I've found.