202 - MARCH - Prepping Updates

Started the new thread.

Husband and I have been out and about filling holes in our LTS since the big reorganization.

50 pounds of oatmeal
50 pounds rice
Dehydrated banana chips
Tomato products
Vitamins
Tea
Coffee
Juices
More buckets and gamma seal lids for dog food/cat food

Most of these aren't technically holes...we're giving some stuff away, and we have a reciprocal agreement with neighbors - we trade Husband's famous spaghetti for fresh caught fish.

I don't really know if this is a prep item , but My wife had a check up yesterday and the doc mentioned A t-Dap vac. its for titnus and whooping cough.. I thought it couldn't hurt

Dave58 wrote:I don't really know if this is a prep item , but My wife had a check up yesterday and the doc mentioned A t-Dap vac. its for titnus and whooping cough.. I thought it couldn't hurt

Ugh! My brother is STILL getting over whooping cough and it's been nearly 3 months!! He still has difficulty speaking, at length. He still coughs easily (not the whooping cough, but coughs). He passed out over half dozen times from the severe coughing fits he had. Now, I just saw him, this past weekend and I noticed his VOICE has changed. He thinks the violent coughs damaged his vocal cords!  With his new respiratory condition, he said that if he gets the CV19 .. he's a 'dead man walking'  .  Whooping cough/pertussis is nothing to mess around with!

ReadyMom wrote:

Dave58 wrote:I don't really know if this is a prep item , but My wife had a check up yesterday and the doc mentioned A t-Dap vac. its for tetanus and whooping cough.. I thought it couldn't hurt

Ugh! My brother is STILL getting over whooping cough and it's been nearly 3 months!! He still has difficulty speaking, at length. He still coughs easily (not the whooping cough, but coughs). He passed out over half dozen times from the severe coughing fits he had. Now, I just saw him, this past weekend and I noticed his VOICE has changed. He thinks the violent coughs damaged his vocal cords!  With his new respiratory condition, he said that if he gets the CV19 .. he's a 'dead man walking'  .  Whooping cough/pertussis is nothing to mess around with!

Sorry to her about your brother RM.. My wife and I both got our shots. I got mine this morning at our local CVS.... With everything that is going on it wouldn't hurt to get it...

One other thing you should share what happened to your brother it might help others.....

Sorry to hear about your brother, RM. Hope he gets well.

I took a bucket of beans, oatmeal, and rice to my sister and niece.

As of Saturday, we are voluntarily quarantined. One kid is with us, too. She's quarantined away from us for 2 weeks.

Forgot to mention we plan to work on getting the garden as big as possible since some of us need to be occupied in the coming weeks.

Topping off for CV19. Getting our son prepped, in VA, now that he's on his own (... oke ... he has roommates, but he's not with us).

Distant kid is well-prepped and helping friends get there, too.

We are keeping occupied with work-from-home chores, movies, playing with the dogs, and reading. When the in-house kid is out of quarantine from us, we have some activities planned, including getting the garden in shape. She wants to do some pots in the deck, too.

I visited my sister last week, she is giving me a banana tree, and 4 pineapple plants. Not sure if I'll ever get any produce from them, but they're huge, so maybe in a future greenhouse they might produce.

We ordered solar panels and batteries. Just a small set up - Husband has been wanting to dip into it for a while and it was lower on the priority list. However, since the trip to Germany is now postponed indefinitely, we're using the money to upgrade the property.

So, Husband went to the lumber store today. He stayed away from people and had his mask just in case. Had hand sanitizer in the car, too. He needed wood for mounting the solar panels and for the garden layout, too.

Adult kid quarantined with us (AKQWU) is helping me make face masks, but we may also join an effort to be seamstresses for an outfit trying to make masks, haz-mat suits, and gowns. It will be an all volunteer force, there's apparently a go-fund-me for supplies.

Good thing the foot pedal arrived for the workhorse sewing machine. The new puppy chewed up the old one while I was gone.

I've been making masks on my Singer 401A and the Featherweight. Both are solid machines, but the 401A really needs servicing. Only I can use it, I know it's idiosyncracies.

We're keeping busy with pre-Spring projects, more plans are in the works.

Husband tilled both raised beds (4' x 16') and got the potatoes in. While tilling, he found about 40 pounds of potatoes that had wintered over! So we have a lot of potatoes to eat, now.

Today he'll be planting the rest of the stuff we want to eat.

Kid and I are still making masks.

FYI - Ready Mom - apparently TIEKS, the shoe company, is asking people to make masks. They will give gift cards, I think for their store, in return. Here's the press release:

Tieks offer

So whats everybody planting in their gardens ???

I'm going to try canning and paste tomato's.
Lettuce
Potatoes ( maybe the blue ones)
Green Beans ( Roma )
Corn
Pea's

We planted or are about to plant:

Potatoes
Sweet potatoes
Bush beans
Tomatoes
Cucumbers
Squash
Lettuce
Radishes

Might get some peppers in, too.

I have a peach tree blooming a lot - should get a good crop this year if the raccoons don't get it first. Hoping we can get the cage built over it this Spring.

The blackberry bush is taking off. The birds usually get those before me - they strip it bare in one day. I think I'll try that netting this year to see if I can get them for us.

Just an aside. We live in a rural community by a tourist lake. A lot of folks live in the big cities north and south of us, but have a patch of dirt near our lake to camp on. Some of the places are raw land. But some people have built small houses, some have camp trailers on their land, or bring a camp trailer when they summer down here.

Of the 30 or so plots of land around us...only 8 families live here full time and we're all retirement age except one family.

We were told the city people are fleeing, heading to their vacation spots to weather the lockdown.

We're seeing a huge influx of newer vehicles, ATVs, and four-wheelers in the last few weeks on our dirt road. Have not seen anyone new specifically in our "sub-division." They must be at the area further down the road, closer to the lake.

A few nights ago, someone was walking on the road around 2 AM with a flashlight.

We're taking precautions.

Just a thought

Has anybody ever tried to grow potatoes in a 5 gal bucket ??

Dave58 wrote:Just a thought

Has anybody ever tried to grow potatoes in a 5 gal bucket ??

Yes, last year, they didn't do very good, too small.

rick1 wrote:

Dave58 wrote:Just a thought

Has anybody ever tried to grow potatoes in a 5 gal bucket ??

Yes, last year, they didn't do very good, too small.

Thanks for the heads up.

Husband worked on creating the 3rd bed in the garden. Soil is better than we thought, but he has a pile of good soil and compost to mix in, too.

We are still making masks, getting requests from friends and relatives now.