2021 MARCH - What Did You Do To Prep This Week/Month?

The snow is gone, the temps are rising, and Spring is coming!

Started the new thread.

I helped a neighbor clean out her craft room and the spare bedroom. I inherited a lot of fabric, plus some stuff I will repair for her. Taking care of neighbors is a must out here. Now I have more sewing to do, too!

Husband cleaned up the wood pile and we burned the last of the wood on the last cold day.

I ordered some seeds. I'll try once again to grow mache. Last year I tried and they didn't even germinate. I found out they need a cold start - they won't germinate above 60 degrees. The seeds should be coming in any day and I can sow them as soon as they get here.

We also will begin walking in the mornings with the neighbor and her dog tomorrow.

Nice day today, cleaned out the cow poo and spread it in the fields today, I'll be tiling ground under in a couple of weeks. Going to plant field and sweet corn, soy beans, wheat, clover (for the deer) and oats this year.

Ran the generators and toped them off with gas. Rotated out 10 gallon of gas and 5 gallon of diesel.

Grandkids had Friday off, in service day, so I had a couple of the grandsons bring down a bunch of wood and stack it, they also had to split some of it. I helped split some, boy was I sore the next day, must be getting old.

Getting the 2nd covid shot on Thursday at the VA.

Cleaned out the chicken house.. Started building a new nest box that mounts on the outside of the chicken house. its so much easier to just lift a lid and grab eggs...

Going to plant some more blue berry bushes tomorrow..

Spring is coming so let the games begin...

We were housebound due to that cold front that dumped 8 inches of snow. Kept ourselves entertained with assorted hobbies and movies. The land line phone was out for most of the week. Can't use cell out here.

Husband flushed out the rainwater tanks (garden watering system). One had a cracked PVC pipe at the bottom outflow (they were winterized, so we're not sure if someone hit it by accident or the extreme cold snapped it). He repaired the pipe and will catch rainwater when it rains again.

The sickly cat has turned a corner. A few more shots, a change in food, and some TLC has resulted in him doing much better. He now has an outdoor "catio" cage set up on the porch for when the weather is warmer. He won't spend all day out there yet, but perhaps in the afternoon he can be out there a few hours. His hair is growing back very slowly and he's gaining weight. We'll probably never know what set off the allergy, but we're hoping he'll not have the issue again. Also hoping sunshine and fresh air will do some good in the "catio" until he's completely well.

Husband takes his second Moderna shot next week, despite having Covid already. So far no reaction. I'm not taking it, I'm under age (LOL).

On my endless quest to get rid of all that is of no use and clear space in the house, I went through my closet and got rid of 1/3 of the clothing, shoes, and purses. The good thing is, most of the stuff I winnowed out was stuff I'd bought at yard sales, anyway. So I didn't pay much for it, and a lot never got worn because they didn't fit right (which is probably why the ended up at the yard sales!). The stuff will go to the thrift store this coming week.

We canned more chili in the last two weeks, found out we'd eaten through it and needed to build up our stock.

Once the ground isn't a soggy swamp, Husband wants to work on re-planning the garden and building a shed for some garden tools and the lawn mowers (so he can have the whole garage for wood-working and building stuff). We shall see what transpires.

I'm still on the seemingly never-ending task of cleaning out my sewing space. However, there is light at the end of the tunnel. I finished a bunch of small projects I've had for 20+ years. Most had been in storage for so many years I'd forgotten them, but now they're out of storage, I finished them quickly. Some I passed on to others because they wanted them!

We have a couple new babies in the family, the twins were born early. Glad I got their baby quilts finished and sent! We still have 3 more babies coming in the next few months, I only have one baby quilt left to make. As the grand-kids are settling in, a couple have partnered/married with spouses who have children, so I'll be making a few quilts for them, too.

My wife and I built another nest box for the girls. We are attaching them to the outside of the chicken house so all i need to do is raise the lid and get the eggs. That's the plan anyway..

I started some more plants for the garden and my cherry tomato plants that i grew in the house now have tomatoes on them..

If it dries out enough I need to till up a spot for taters.. My grandpa always told me to plant them on Good Friday

Wife and I raked the yard and burned all that junk that comes from left over winter.

I TRIED to plant the onion sets, but the ground is still frozen about 2 inches down, the last of the ice finally melted off the bigger pond.

One of the younger granddaughters (10 y.o.) boarded up with us over the weekend, that girl just ties herself to the wife. So, the wife had me get out the sun oven and the two of them made a peach cobbler and a apple cobbler.

The granddaughter just loves to cook and cooking with the sun oven made it that more interesting for her and today she wants to cook burgers on it. At least I get to eat good.

P.S. The granddaughter wants a sun oven for X-mas this year, so Santa, if you read this, get her a sun oven.

rick1 wrote:

P.S. The granddaughter wants a sun oven for X-mas this year, so Santa, if you read this, get her a sun oven.

Why doesn't the grandfather & the granddaughter make one together, this summer and she gets a store-bought for Christmas? Think extra bonding time. (Although it sounds like you both get a lot of that from your grandchildren. LUCKY you!!!)

ReadyMom wrote:

rick1 wrote:

P.S. The granddaughter wants a sun oven for X-mas this year, so Santa, if you read this, get her a sun oven.

Why doesn't the grandfather & the granddaughter make one together, this summer and she gets a store-bought for Christmas? Think extra bonding time. (Although it sounds like you both get a lot of that from your grandchildren. LUCKY you!!!)

The wife and I discussed about making her a sun oven just yesterday, I think I will.

Ya, grandkids are special, they can never do anything wrong (most of the time). They love to go hunting/fishing and going to camp with me and I love it too. Just trying to teach them some survival skills and they catch on really fast.

Just last month that same 10 y.o. granddaughter led her brothers and sister from their house to our house through the woods and fields in the deep snow.

ReadyMom, your day of giving all those extra hugs and kisses to grandkids will come.

So yesterday, the power went out 15 minutes before I finished making dinner. The arriving guests (Mom and Pa) didn't suffer any, though. I finished cooking on the butane stove, made coffee with the emergency jug of water and instant coffee kept in the pantry, and we ate a hot meal by oil lamp lights that were filled and ready for that purpose.

The buckets for the bathrooms were filled via the rain water harvest Husband had not only repaired yesterday, but allowed to fill up.

The power came back on about an hour and half later, as I was finishing washing the dishes with water heated on the butane stove.

Just commenting because we had all the preps in place (not in the LTS) to seamlessly slide into our regular routine. It only took about 5 minutes to change our plans to continue on.

Always keep an alternate way to cook, get water, and have light on hand nearby in addition to having it all in the LTS. You never know when you might need it in a hurry.

Cinnamon wrote:So yesterday, the power went out 15 minutes before ...

Just commenting because we had all the preps in place (not in the LTS) to seamlessly slide into our regular routine. It only took about 5 minutes to change our plans to continue on.  
...

Awesome.

TRex2 wrote:

Cinnamon wrote:So yesterday, the power went out 15 minutes before ...

Just commenting because we had all the preps in place (not in the LTS) to seamlessly slide into our regular routine. It only took about 5 minutes to change our plans to continue on.  
...

Awesome.

I love it when the power goes out, I just go over to the power inverter and push the button, it takes me about 45 seconds.

After the massive ice storm many years ago that hit the Midwest, we were without power for 2 days. That's the longest we ever went without power. After that, the max in this area was 2 hours.

But since then, we've been upgrading our alternatives, because you never know.

We can also effectively live without power if our lives change that drastically. I've lived without water and power before. Of course, I was a lot younger then...

We do have a gennie correctly installed and hooked up, but we won't use it unless we go over a day without power, which hasn't happened in many, many years.

I bought two new apple trees - a Honeycrisp and a Red Delicious. The Honeycrisp can't pollinate on it's own, it needs another tree. Husband planted them and the wisteria stick that I also bought. The Red Delicious is taking off, the other two are a little slow. We have a frost warning tonight, so they're under wraps until the danger passes. Normally, I think they'd handle it, but being newly planted, I don't want to risk them.

I turned in all three of my main sewing machines for repair. Just having issue after issue due to not servicing for years. I also picked up two more good used machines, to hand out to some of the nieces who've expressed an interest in sewing. They were a good deal and I couldn't pass them up. The dude fixes treadles, too, so I'll finally be taking my treadle in for much needed repairs.

Husband and I de-cluttered some areas that needed de-cluttering and took a whole bunch of miscellaneous stuff to the thrift store today. Filled the whole back of the truck.

We finally bought a tonneau cover for the truck. Now we can haul groceries and other stuff without putting stuff in the cab.

I gave some of the sheets I've been collecting to another friend who does quilts for veterans. I've helped her make the patchwork tops, but she has a quilting machine to quilt them and uses sheets as the backs. I pick them up at yard sales, new and gently used. It certainly emptied out my sewing room - I hadn't realized I'd collected so many!

Husband is doing some kind of upgrade to the solar array, not sure what. Something to do with the portable unit. He's been testing it out on my computer - keeping it plugged in for so many hours and checking the load. I just keep typing...LOL

The consignment shop where I have my sewn items is remodeling, so they had all us crafters come pick up our stuff. I sold a little over half of what I'd made. I think if I re-supply them with things, I'll do something different. I'm thinking with the lockdown there's likely to be a baby boom and I might do some baby things for the store. Another store in a different town told me the baby stuff is selling really fast.

I planted the corn salad and have left it out in the cold weather, apparently, it doesn't germinate unless it's below 60 degrees. Nothing has happened yet. I check it every day. It's been a week. I really want this to be a viable grower, it is delicious.

That's our week.