Prep Genrl Weekly Prep Thread: September 22 ~ 28, 2019

[ReneeT]

Good Morning, All! Hope everyone is doing well today!

After a couple of weeks of the chaos of fall cleaning, house guests, and an impromptu road trip that was followed by having to go back into work the day after I got home - which is where I found out that all kinds of, ummm.... interesting.... Yeah, that's the word - interesting - things happened while I was off on vacation.... Well, let's just I am very much appreciating that I have this beautiful Sunday off work, and will be able to spend some fun time with my grandsons later in the day!

It seems that the seasons read the calendar - it is a crisp, clear morning that feels and smells like fall today. Since I picked up a two pound bag of Cinnamon Imperials - aka: Red Hots candies - at the Amish store the other day, I am thinking a trip to the nearby orchard to pick up a bushel of apples would be a good plan. I'll have Papaw get down the apple peeler/corer and the water bath canner, then will put the boys to work peeling apples - they are still young enough that it is a fun thing to do! We will use the red hots candies to make some cinnamon applesauce - so pretty in the jars, and so yummy!

I am dithering on whether or not to pick up a second bushel as I have Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday off this week so would have time to can more applesauce then; but also have three days off the following week; and, since I'm working a four day stretch to help out a co-worker, four more days in early October that I could do the same; reckon it will come down to what the weather is - rain, I'll can; clear, I'll work outside instead.

I do have a bunch of canning jars I need to move from the shed porch to inside the shed - I'll hire the neighbor girl to help after school. Hate to put them in the shed, but have ran out of room in the house - at least until we move a few things around. I have enough jar lids stored (vac sealed) to use all of the jars that I have at least 5 times over, plus some Tattler lids (that I'm not a fan of, but in a crisis....) There is also a decent sale on chicken breast going on, but we have plenty so I will probably pass on that.

Found some sales for cleaning and bath & body type stuff in the coming week's Dollar General ad that I might take advantage of, plus a 10 for $10 sale at the local grocery store that has a few items I'm thinking about stocking up on a year's worth of. My market gardener friend is also selling bushel baskets of tomatoes, so I might get one of those to make up some salsa to can.

Well, two little boys just showed up on my doorstep, so I reckon I'd better get off the computer and go have some fun!

Take care all; stay safe and stay happy!

 

[nomifyle]

I just stored a 5 gallon bucket of sugar in my long term stores. DH has complained about how much sugar I buy, but it does not deter me, I'll keep buying, especially if the price is good.

Judy

 

[SouthernBreeze]

If I buy boxes of tea bags, will they store on the shelf in plastic containers for a year without going stale? I have plenty of coffee stored, but haven't got even one tea bag in storage. DH drinks a lot of green tea, but I want to store regular tea if it's possible. He buys his green tea in bottles by the case at Sam's. If I can store tea bags without them going stale, I'll need to buy up lots more sugar than what I have, too. We drink out tea sweet, LOL.

 

[nomifyle]

If I buy boxes of tea bags, will they store on the shelf in plastic containers for a year without going stale? I have plenty of coffee stored, but haven't got even one tea bag in storage. DH drinks a lot of green tea, but I want to store regular tea if it's possible. He buys his green tea in bottles by the case at Sam's. If I can store tea bags without them going stale, I'll need to buy up lots more sugar than what I have, too. We drink out tea sweet, LOL.

I vacuum seal in mason jars for long term storage. But I think it keeps fine on the shelf for a year or so, in my experience though.

Judy

 

[prudentwatcher]

This has been mainly a week of putting things away. All the sugar and flour from the past month has been bagged up and put away. The extra clothes in larger sizes I ordered for the grandkids has been packed away.

Did a little shopping and got enough pasta and enough oatmeal packets to make up one more gallon mylar bag of each for storage. Will need to order some more bags and oxy absorbers soon. Also got in what I thought was going to be my little wood gasifier stove, but turns out I had misordered and just gotten the cooking set, not the stove. So I will have to reorder there. At least the cooking set is a nice sturdy stainless steel that folds down very compactly.

Pretty well broke for the rest of the month, so probably not going to do much else unless there is a fabulous sale that causes me to hit the emergency money.

PS--I keep buying sugar. Up to almost 300 lbs. My rationale is that it never goes bad, so why worry? It is unlikely to get any cheaper. I constantly add salt and sugar to the stash. Wish more stuff had an unlimited shelf life.

 

[20Gauge]

I need to do some canning today.

 

[SouthernBreeze]

I vacuum seal in mason jars for long term storage. But I think it keeps fine on the shelf for a year or so, in my experience though.

Judy

Thanks, Judy. I keep rice, dry beans, and pasta in these heavy duty plastic jugs for 2-3 years without them going stale. That's why I wanted to ask about the tea bags. These jugs are also stackable which makes organizing them easy. I'm gonna go ahead and do it, plus adding more sugar.

 

[SouthernBreeze]

I'm gonna be trying my hand at making homemade apple pie filling and canning it. Do any of you have a tried and true recipe? I'll be using store bought apples. Also, for making pies, should I use quart jars?

 

[moldy]

I would use quart jars. Use ClearJel for thickening. It is a safe option per the USDA guidelines (not that I'm not a rebel... smile!). I do find it works better than flour or regular cornstarch. there are several types - use the regular. SBCanning (website) has multiple recipes for pie filling.

I had such a wonderful weekend!! DD and DSIL came to visit. We picked plums (I'm making some asian pickled fermented salted plums for him and some plum jelly), went to the range, and had a bonfire with smores. Awesome time! And DSIL was reading "One Year After".

This week, I only have today and Friday off, so I"m trying to fit in as much as I can. Laundry started, house cleaned, freezedryer filled with tomatoes, and plums in the steam juicer. I also plan to cut some firewood and work on my porchswing. I need to work on some tinctures as well - we'll see if there is enough time.

 

[SouthernBreeze]

I would use quart jars. Use ClearJel for thickening. It is a safe option per the USDA guidelines (not that I'm not a rebel... smile!). I do find it works better than flour or regular cornstarch. there are several types - use the regular. SBCanning (website) has multiple recipes for pie filling.

Thanks, moldy!

 

[Digger]

We stopped at Kroger today. I needed organic coconut oil for some salve I want to make. But while in the cooking oil I noticed there were no 48 oz bottles of peanut oil. There were a few gallon bottles of peanut oil. What is the deal with no peanut oil?

We brought our beef home from the packing house. It is nice to have that much good meat on hand.

The rest of my day has been spent with my grandson. His parents are at work. I missed my play day last week because we were haying. He will be two in a few days. Not big enough to be in the field all day yet.

 

[nomifyle]

Today is commodities day for old poor folks. We got two different kinds of cheese (which is not very often), frozen blue berries (I need to dehydrate them), some seasoned chicken, one whole chicken, some pork sausage patties, one thing of mystery meat, can't figure that one out and some kind of flank steak and riced cauliflower. Plus the dry goods, including plums, pastasico nuts, canned fruit and veggies, dried beans and rice, peanut butter and raisins which we haven't gotten in a long long time. All in the dry goods category is times 2. The foods in this group vary greatly, some times a lot and sometimes not much, good haul this month.

On Thursday I pick up a different category of commodities which usually includes boxed milk, sometimes powdered milk, 4 cans of fruit and 4 cans of veggies, some kind of cereal, a can or two of meat, some times rice and beans. This is also times 2.

Really why would I hardly ever need to go to the grocery store, except that all the shelf stable stuff goes in food storage.

I stopped at Dollar Tree to look for one particular thing, which they were out of and spent $80. After that I skipped Walmart and Save a lot.

I got all the frozen stuff put away and most of the other stuff is still in the truck, I need to rest for awhile.

Judy

PS The Dollar Tree shelves were really bare, except the candy and cookies, those shelves were buldging (SP) and are always full, I'm thing they restock those daily as they are probably their best sellers. DH's sugar was up a bit and he told me not to buy him any more sweets.

 

[Freeholder]

The guy who bought my house in Oregon finally finished paying it off (he was way behind, and I was afraid I was going to have to foreclose, so I am very thankful to be DONE!). So I'm getting some stuff done that has been on my list forever.

Found an electrician today; I have to call him tomorrow to set up a time for him to come out and see the house so he can give me an estimate.

Then we went to Walmart and put new tires on the truck. It isn't preps, exactly, but I've been needing to replace the old tires for almost a year. Thankfully, we aren't doing a lot of driving anymore, and didn't have to worry about driving on icy roads last winter, so we got by, but it's a relief to have the new tires on.

Next, is getting the propane heater installed and propane out here. Once all of that is finished -- the whole house rewired, and the heat in and working, then there are other things that are on the list, and hopefully there will be enough money left to get most of that done, too.

I did add some canned food to our preps today, too. Not a lot, but it feels good to be adding to our stocks, rather than eating them up. My granddaughter kind of complained when we were packing in Oregon, and suggested that I could give all that canned food away before we left. Sure glad we brought it with us -- we've eaten probably half of what we brought, maybe more than that.

Kathleen

 

[summerthyme]

I'm so glad it worked out for you, Kathleen! That must be a huge relief...

Summerthyme

 

[prudentwatcher]

Just had a friend give us a one week supply of an antibiotic that she had filled (for free) but then the doctor decided she didn't need to take. Fourteen brand new little pills sitting in the medical supply cabinet gives me a smile. Many of my antibiotics are starting to get old.

 

[20Gauge]

The guy who bought my house in Oregon finally finished paying it off (he was way behind, and I was afraid I was going to have to foreclose, so I am very thankful to be DONE!). So I'm getting some stuff done that has been on my list forever.

Found an electrician today; I have to call him tomorrow to set up a time for him to come out and see the house so he can give me an estimate.

Then we went to Walmart and put new tires on the truck. It isn't preps, exactly, but I've been needing to replace the old tires for almost a year. Thankfully, we aren't doing a lot of driving anymore, and didn't have to worry about driving on icy roads last winter, so we got by, but it's a relief to have the new tires on.

Next, is getting the propane heater installed and propane out here. Once all of that is finished -- the whole house rewired, and the heat in and working, then there are other things that are on the list, and hopefully there will be enough money left to get most of that done, too.

I did add some canned food to our preps today, too. Not a lot, but it feels good to be adding to our stocks, rather than eating them up. My granddaughter kind of complained when we were packing in Oregon, and suggested that I could give all that canned food away before we left. Sure glad we brought it with us -- we've eaten probably half of what we brought, maybe more than that.

Kathleen

We have one we sold and 8 months before the end, he started with....l didn't agree to xxx. Such as property taxes, insurance, interest on the loan. Finally convinced him I would love to evict him and resell the place. I would have. No good deed goes unpunished

 

[Digger]

We stopped at Harps after finishing my contract job. That one 48 ounce bottle of peanut oil was still on the shelf all by its lone some. I brought it home with me. I also bought extra black pepper and some other spice mixes we like.

 

[Freeholder]

We have one we sold and 8 months before the end, he started with....l didn't agree to xxx. Such as property taxes, insurance, interest on the loan. Finally convinced him I would love to evict him and resell the place. I would have. No good deed goes unpunished

This was more a case of an irregular income and a brain on drugs (he's a pot grower and user). Nice guy, good intentions, poor follow-through. I hope it will be a long time before I have to sell this place, and I don't want to do owner-carry again, for sure!

Kathleen

 

[20Gauge]

This was more a case of an irregular income and a brain on drugs (he's a pot grower and user). Nice guy, good intentions, poor follow-through. I hope it will be a long time before I have to sell this place, and I don't want to do owner-carry again, for sure!

Kathleen

I for sure won't. We did the "rent to own" where he only had to pay 2% interest, cover the insurance and taxes and he got it for cost. It ended up being an extra $85 per month and in 4 years he would own the place. It was a fantastic deal. We covered our costs, he got a place for a great price and all should have been happy. Not him!

I swear there are people in this world for whom no matter what they get, it isn't good enough and they have been screwed somehow.

I lost all respect for him. I keep smiling, but once we are clear, all bets are off.

 

[SAPPHIRE]

wow, what a deal you offered, 20Gauge...…..sure wish we could find someone as generous along front range...….rentals are outrageous and eating up most of our SS...…...sigh