2019 - DECEMBER - Prepping Updates

Sorry! I started the new thread a few days late.

Thanksgiving was quiet, just the parents, husband, and myself. I only put on a small spread this year. We enjoyed the smaller amount of leftovers, and I've been enjoying turkey noodle soup on these cold days. We did dehydrate some of the turkey for the future.

I've been busy with getting Christmas decorating done (it's almost done), some early Christmas gifts made, cleaning out the guest room, and all that goes with the holidays!

No more yard sales until spring, but we've been to a few estate sales, nothing I needed.

Grocery shopping:
Restocked what we used
Canned soup for quick meals

LTS:
Ordered and received dehydrated/freeze dried fruits and veggies
We are restocking our canned goods that are really winter goods - we tend to eat more canned stuff in winter.

I made 20 simmering potpourris out of my dehydrated oranges, apples and limes mixed with cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, whole allspice, and some cut up vanilla beans. They smell wonderful. These will be given out as gifts to several people.

Made some sugar cookie fudge for a couple people as gifts, also. (Melt 2 packages (4 cups) of white chocolate chips, 1 can of condensed milk, and 1 1/4 cup of sugar cookie baking mix in a sauce pan on low heat. Lightly stir in some non-pariels (cake sprinkles). Pour into a greased 8 X 8 pan and allow to cool. Cut into squares and package up, or just enjoy eating!

Husband has been clearing out ditches and burning leaves.

The power company road crews have been cutting the woods around the power lines all week. Some of the neighbors are harvesting the oak and hickory. There's not much of it, though.

Had to take the kitten to the vet - he may have walked across our fire put while it was still burning underneath, because all 4 of his paws are burned. He got a pain shot and antibiotics. I have more pain meds and antibiotics to feed him. He is on the mend and doing fine now. Just hope he never does it again!

Clearing ditches and keeping things drained is important (see the article on mosquitoes ReadyMom posted yesterday morning).

He is on the mend and doing fine now. Just hope he never does it again!

I suspect he will avoid anything that smells or looks like that area for a while, assuming he felt the pain immediately. I have only had a few simi-serious burns in my life, and I can remember most of them like it was an hour ago.

As for myself, my goal of bumping my food storage to a year by the end of this month isn't going to happen, but I will get close. The expansion I did on my system a few weeks ago still needed some tweaking, but is coming right along.

I don't have a true long term store, but I have stuff that will be good for a few years, and a plan to rotate some of it every few months, and the rest every two years. That will mean that about half of what we will be eating will be coming from the stores. (As opposed to the markets.)

Right now I have six months store of most stuff, twelve months of some stuff and still working on this and that, that isn't up to six months. Reality though, is that if the grid goes down, I don't expect it to last near that long, as I have others outside of my immediate household that I will be feeding, in trade for them doing things I can no longer do, myself.

Husband is working on the LTS - he wants it better organized. He's been sorting and cleaning for over about two weeks now. Good thing, too. He found some things I'd forgotten about, good tools I decided I can use right now instead of keeping them there. He's also doing food inventory and we're slowly filling in the gaps.

I'm in full-blown Christmas mode, now. The kids only want homemade stuff, they tell me they can buy what they need, but they can't buy unique!

I've been de-cluttering a little - seems a never ending task! Husband took 3 boxes of stuff to the thrift store.

I de-cluttered under the bathroom sink, so much stuff there I no longer used. Lots of tools - curling irons, etc. After I finished cleaning it out, Husband made a shelf under there and now everything I do keep is neatly organized.

As I was setting up for Christmas, I de-cluttered that, too. I had many decorations I no longer used (tons of garland!) and decided it was time for all of that to go.

Still working on the aftermath of the Great Garage Clean-out. Some stuff we decided to keep needs repairs, and I haven't finished those repairs yet. It's kids' stuff, so once I get it done, I cna pack it in their boxes for them to take.

Wife and I went to the Amish bulk food store and ordered Oats and great northern beans both were fairly cheap...

I bought some extra chicken feed...

I am going to try and finish trim around the inside of our windows.. When we bought the house it had been gutted and the trim had been cut off the windows so now each window has its own unique problems to replacing the trim..

We're in winter stock up/clean up mode right now.

Sam's Club:

3 packages of chicken stock
40 pounds of dry beans
1 large container chicken bouillon
Large container of oatmeal
2 gallons of dish soap
4 pack of Lysol spray
2 double packs of Airborne immune support tablets

Grocery shopping:
7 packs of frozen veggies (on sale)

Husband is revamping the go-bags:

2 small jars of instant coffee
2 tarps
2 camp cups

We've been walking sporadically - the weather has been especially cold so we no longer walk when it is below freezing. However, we manage to walk 2-3 times a week anyway.

Husband is clearing the last of the leaves out of the drainage ditches in front of our property. He is also starting clean up from the electric company cutting trees to clear the electric poles. They did some clean up, but it's never tidy, so we'll be doing a bit more.

I finished the preps for this year I had a large bone spur removed from my shoulder so now I get to set and wait for things to heal. Doc says it will take 3 months to get back to normal so that will put me around garden tilling time...

I told my wife its really kinda ironic I waited for cold weather to do this and its been in the 60s this week , there should have been snow on the ground..

Enjoy the new year folks it hard telling what its going to bring to us...

God Bless

Scored!!!! The bakers creek seed catalog came today