2020 - FEBRUARY - Prepping Updates

Started the new thread a few days late.

We've had some excitement. A hungry, wet, and cold little dog came up to our porch and nosed around looking for food. We have said since we lost our last dog that the right dog would come along when it was time. This is a smaller dog about 30 pounds, looks to be part Australian cattle dog. He's very mellow, cute as can be, and was happy to move in. We've been getting used to each other, he doesn't seem to know any commands. But we will teach him. It is nice to have a dog again. I just hope someone doesn't come to claim him.

Husband ordered some freeze-dried fruits and veggies from EE. If one ordered a certain amount, they got a free 72 hour food bucket. We got the order and the little bucket will go into the car.

Been concentrating on canned meats, poultry & fish. Found this brand, on line: https://keystonemeats.com/   ... Does anyone know anything about this brand? Also made a small order with EE, but didn't get anything free

Keystone meats is what we've been buying - its at Walmart. We tried one of them, it was OK. Not bad. In an emergency, it would be pretty tasty.

We get a flyer from EE, and it was a one day special, I think. You had to order a certain amount to get the free bucket. It's a tiny bucket, a little bigger than football if you made it square. Supposed to be enough food for 72 hours for 1 person, I think.

ReadyMom wrote:Been concentrating on canned meats, poultry & fish. Found this brand, on line: https://keystonemeats.com/   ... Does anyone know anything about this brand? Also made a small order with EE, but didn't get anything free

We buy keystone meats from walmart, I just picked up 6 cans each of chicken, ground beef and pork. I buy it off the shelf, I do not order it through walmart (get damaged cans). It's not bad tasting at all and the price/shelf life is good.

Did the normal monthly tasks, ran generators, cleaned solar panels, check battery maintenance, etc..

Also went to the outdoor show in Harrisburg the other day with 2 of the older grandsons, they had a good time, wanted to buy everything, but they had no money.

Found a video taste test on Keystone beef:

And this one shows how they make it:

ReadyMom wrote:And this one shows how they make it:

We use the Keystone Beef and Chicken , but at the end of the day it is so much cheaper to can the chicken ourselves .. We are going to give to try canning the beef and compare prices. I loved the keystone beef in chilli soup...

Today was grocery shopping day.

For the LTS we bought Keystone beef, Bumblebee tuna, and Swanson chicken. Stocked up on fruit cocktail, soups, and veggies, too. We can our own of all of this (except the fruit cocktail), but I like having it on hand just in case.

Bought a collar, harness, and leash for the new dog. He acted as if he preferred kibble (liked the cat food), so we bought a small bag of Blue Buffalo Puppy chicken and rice kibble...he adores it.

Stocked up on trash bags, bleach spray, dish soap, and cleaning gloves.

Stocked up on decongestants and aspirin, also some vitamin stuff.

Went to Uline online to see if one could order more masks of any type...out of stock on all the cheaper ones, and if you want the expensive ones, they will only sell to returning customers who've ordered them before.

Today was grocery shopping day.

I stocked up on what we've used.

Bought 3 bags of Blue Diamond Puppy kibble for storage and use.

LTS:

Several types canned fish (salmon, crab, sardines, etc.), canned chicken, and tuna.
Canned fruits

For the medicine cabinet:
2 bottles Caladryl
Bandages
Gauze squares with adhesive tabs

At ACE Hardware Husband found 6 fuel cartridges for the camp stove on sale. He bought all 6.

We each got a pair of sunglasses, mine broke and he's misplaced his pair.

On Wednesday, took the new dog in to be neutered and to get shots. We also micro-chipped him. The vet told us that he is a puppy, less than a year. He was limping, but the vet believes he may have a broken toe bone, as nothing was in his paw pads, and his leg bones were all OK. So we'll just let it heal on its own, as the vet says there's not much we can do.

Went to the grocery and found Chuck Roast for $2.99 lb ... I bought 3 today and brought them home and turned them into burger... I am going back tomorrow and get 3 or 4 more you just can't get ground chuck for 2.99 a lb anywhere

Grocery shopping day:

Stocked up on what we've used.

LTS:
Various canned meats, fish, tuna, chicken
Canned fruits
Toilet paper
Powdered goat milk
Kibble dog food

For the medical cabinet:
Clorox wipes
Airborne
Cold meds
Trash bags

I've been keeping busy archiving family letters and photos into page protectors and binders. It's a task I've been meaning to tackle for years, but never got around to. Since we have been staying home more to avoid infectious diseases, I needed something to do. It's actually been fun, reading letters from over 70 years ago and matching photos to the letters. Lots of previously unknown history. Kind of neat!

Took a ride down to camp to check on things, started the generator there and left it run for about half hour.

At the farm, cut some firewood from trees that had fallen during the high winds we've had, brought it down with the front end loader, now just have to split and stack it.

Rotated out 15 gallon of gas and 10 gallon of diesel. Picked up a couple cases of chunky soup, on sale for a buck a can. Also got 15 pound of flour and 10 pound of sugar, wife said we were running low.

Picked up a turkey breast, on sale for 89 cents/pound and smoked it last Thursday, smoked some fish too. All came out tasty.

We went to the Amish bulk food store.. Ordered 50 lb beans ,rice and wheat berries..

I went to pick up sugar and its went up about $1.00 this past 4 months

I ordered our seeds today from Annie's Heirloom Seeds..

They said they will ship with in a week..Pretty excited

Grocery shopping today.

Restocked what we used and got some extra for the LTS.

Of note: More people are paying attention to this virus issue than the news is reporting. We had a lot of empty shelves at our store, and it's a rural farm area where people prep naturally anyway. The farms are spread out, and as with us, there are people who only go to town once a week.

Empty shelves:

I got the last can of Lysol spray. There were a few cans of the scented off-brand still there, but all the name brands were gone.

Other cleaners - hardly any bleach sprays. Only the generics of regular bleach. The name brand was sold out.

The toilet paper aisle was not empty, but wasn't well stocked, either.

There was a whole end cap of the fancy wrapped Clorox wipes.  

Vitamins - the essential ones were not even in stock except small off sizes/brands. B, C, E were all hit hard.

Flu stuff - mostly off-brands, or packaged together stuff (generic dayquil/nyquil). Both places where Airborne is stocked had some beat-up packages. But there was plenty of elderberry type packages, both liquid and tablet.

Noodles/Rice/Beans aisle - some empty, a lot of generic.

The egg case was not well stocked. A lot of holes where various sizes were almost gone.

This is NOT normal for our store.