2018 SEPTEMBER Update

Started the new thread...

Today's grocery stock up was mostly foods for traveling - we're taking a 10 day trip soon.

Crackers with peanut butter
Granola bars
Trail mix
Instant oatmeal
Jello cups
Juice boxes
small jar peanut butter
Container wet wipes
Coffee in a plastic container/and instant coffee

Taking the single burner butane stove and a coffee pot with us, just in case. The GHB will be with us, of course. And pillows, blankets,and whatever else I think is necessary...of course, where we're going there's civilization, but I like being prepared.

I spent the morning shredding old paperwork, and filing all the stuff that needs filed (for tax purposes). People will be dropping by while we are gone to feed animals, so I wanted all our personal stuff put away. I should've been doing it all along, but I got lazy.

I have the food cooler packed (non-perishable foods, but in a cooler for protection from varmints), the first aid kit updated, the utensils/appliances bag packed, and the car snacks packed.

Went to Walmart yesterday and they finally, finally, finally had CuddleDuds pants out! Every year, those items go so fast that I've never been able to get the pants, only the shirts. These are long underwear for winter. They are that special fabric for cold weather and fleece lined. I bought two pairs of pants. Rarely buy the undershirts as I wear layers in winter all the time as is.

Spent the morning printing out some sewing and quilting patterns for the notebook I started.

Husband has been going through his closet, getting rid of clothing he no longer wears or doesn't want.

Got my 3rd cutting of hay baled and stored. I'll sell these bales when others run short this winter. Rotated 15 more gallons of gas. Going to clean out the barn today and spread the cow pooh on one of the fields.

Wife and I are going to the mountain craft days in Centerville, Pa this Saturday.

We just got back from the mountain craft days in Centerville, Pa (Somerset Co.). Cold and wet all day. The wife went and looked about and picked up some kniting items and took in some of the classes that were offered.

I went and watched and listened for about 4 hours on blacksmithing, the guys that were doing it were pros. This is the second year we went to it and plan on it again next year.

It's all about crafting and skills during the 18th and 19th century. Take a look at the link below:

http://www.4fallfestivals.com/mountain-craft-days.aspx

Started cleaning out the garden, everything is about done. Got my garlic cleaned and peeled and ready to plant next month.

Over the weekend we got over 6 inches of ran, I'm sick and tired of this rain, it's been raining since mid April and we're 18 inches above normal of the year. Bring on winter and the snow.

Well, the garden is all cleaned up and ready for the garlic and for next years planting.

Got my book on PA edible plants, this one has pictures of the plants, the others I have don't.

Taking 2 of the grandkids to enter their garlic at the local grange fair. The grandson took 1st place last year. This is the granddaughter's 1st time, she finally made 8 YO to enter her garlic. The wife is entering her lemon/blue berry bun cake, she took 1st place last year and took her apple pie to Harrisburg for the states last year, she didn't win but had a good time doing it.

Started generators and left run/tested for about 30 minutes. I try doing this at least monthly.
Rotated 10 gallons of gas.
Changed the oil in the truck.
Mowed the grass.
Brought down another load of wood from the upper field.

Now we're getting ready to leave to watch the grandson play in his weekly school football game. I'm beat.

We are back from our vacation to Yellowstone. We had a grand time and really enjoyed seeing the park...on foot, mostly. I lost 3 pounds and gained some stamina! Took hundreds of photos, and some video, too.

The preps I took were great - food was expensive and Husband and I only ate out once a day. The rest of the time we ate in our room - the non-perishable food was palatable, and some of it we even liked! Mostly, though, we stuck with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and the packs of jello and pudding. Granola bars were good, too.

We are planning to go out again, probably next year. This time, we want to take the dog with us, so we are looking at alternatives to house him properly if there are restrictions on his movement in various places.

Yellowstone allowed dogs, but not on most of the trails. So we'd have to find a comfortable spot for the dog. I'm trying to convince Husband that we need to buy an old school bus and turn it into a skoolie.

We are currently in negotiations.

Husband and I went out today to do a teeny grocery run because I emptied the fridge before we left for vacation. Just some fruit and eggs. We'll do our normal run on Friday.

I also went to the consignment shop - made a whole $11.25 this month...sigh. If things don't pick up, it's not worth the effort to make. Either that, or I need to find things people will like. I currently have table runners, placemats/napkins, embellished towels, bowl cozies, aprons, and crayon caddies for kids (with crayons and notebook inside) in the store.

Went to camp on Sunday and stoped at the outdoor flea market. Didn't get too much only 10 lb of roofing nails and some different size drill bits for my auger.

Have a chicken and all the fixin's in my thermal cooker, should be done in about 15 minutes. Seems everything I cook in this cooker tastes better and more tender.

Rotated out 10 gallon of gas and 5 gallon of diesel.

Cleaned the barn and spred the cow dodo on one of the lower fields. Cut the grass (AGAIN), I'm tired of cutting grass.

Going over to get the grandson after supper and taking him groundhog hunting. I'll see if he's up to handling my 22.250 tonight or if he wants to take the baby gun (.22 hornet).

Grandson and I went groundhog hunting last night, I got one and G-man got 2.

The wife, daughter and two grandkids went to the grange fair to check out how everyone in our family did on their entries.

Wife - 1st place for lemon blueberry pound cake
         2nd place for her cookies
Daughter - 2nd place for garlic (adult) (I beat her out)
               1st place apple pie
Grandson - 1st place garlic (children)
Grandaughter #1 - 2nd place garlic (children)
Grandaughter #2 - 1st place pencile sketch
                            2nd place beets (children)
Me - 1st place garlic (adult)
       2nd place potatoes

The grandkids always do pretty good with their entries, as long as they lisen on how to plant.
Tonight is the tractor pulls, so we're all going out to watch them.

Congrats on all the wins at the fair. Rick! That's awesome.

I want to get a thermal cooker - do you have any advice?

We did garage sales today. Mom scored big, some woman emptied her closet, I think. Mom got pants and shirts for 50 cents each, and she bought almost all of it!

Also went to the thrift store because we were in the area. Husband got a shirt for $1 and I found 4 PYREX bowls for $7. These are the old ones, made with tempered glass that won't shatter going from heat to cold.

Cin, the thermal cooker I got is a 5 lt, Tayama, model TXM-50CF. A little big for just me and the wife, but I fill it up and the daughter, son in law and kids reap the profits too. When it's ready to put the lid on, I also put in the box that it was shipped in because the box is insulated also. Here's the one I got:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Tayama-Thermal-Cooker-5-Liter-Model-TXM-50CF/221963605446?epid=20005755535&hash=item33ae0fd5c6:g:S30AAOSw44BYQfnt

Cleaned up the PYREX dishes with my glasstop conduction stovetop cleaner. The foggy residue was just that...residue! The PYREX is sparkling.

Husband really wants more room in our garage (AKA the dumping ground) to work and to store the new lawn tractor.

I decided doing a massive garage purge over a few days will not work. I have too much to do and cannot devote the time to it. So my plan is to retrieve one or two boxes at a time, decide to either burn it, send it along, or if it must be kept, it has to have a permanent home. We've been storing kids' stuff for 12+ years. Sadly, the mice have gotten into some of the stuff, so we really need to take care of the issue.

I handled three boxes on the first day of Purge. One box held papers which were just shredded for nesting material - burn pile. Another box had a quilt I'd made and some other stuff in it (totally untouched by the mice, thank heavens) - cleaned and put on the extra bedding shelf. The last box was a bunch of clothes I thought had been taken to the thrift shop months ago...oops! I washed them all and they will go in a bag to the thrift shop.

And so, the Purge begins.

Had an appointment at the VA today, blood work, Pneumonia booster in my left arm and flu shot in my right arm. Both arms are hurting like heck. I was supposed to get a tetanus booster but they wouldn't give it since they had given me 2 shots already.

Wife did some shopping while I went to tractor supply and harbor freight and then we went to Pizza Hut and pigged out, at least I did.

Wife finished picking the garden we shared the left overs with the neighbors.

We have been going to the auctions quite a bit and picking up hand tools and a lot of sewing supplies we scored on a singer treadle sewing machine about a month ago , but I have to be honest its a struggle trying to use my hands and feet and make a decent stitch on it.

Joined EHP.
Got the snowblower ready for the season ahead of most folks just in case it needed repairs (it didn't thankfully!) Am waiting till mid October to fill the gas cans so I'm sure I'm getting fall/winter blend and not summer blend.
Bought 30 packages of wood chips for the smoker on clearance and two metal trash cans to keep them dry and safe over the winter,
Continued topping off items used from pantry.
Otherwise a mellow month for prepping...been trying to let our budget recover after a few splurges earlier in the year (bought 125 pounds of lentils and various dry beans and then put them in mylar bags and stored in buckets and had bought 12 #10 cans of various FD meats and sauce powders.) Brought us up to enough stuff to keep my wife and I fed for about 3 years now, or if all the family shows up we're good for a year without restocking.

Christmas prepping - I am testing out recipes for Christmas give aways - the neighbors, family, and other friends around here whom I gift things to. I try to gift different things each year.

Today I tried Pecan Pie muffins. Yeah, nice muffin, but it doesn't taste anything like pecan pie. It's a muffin with nuts in it. Don't believe everything you read on the internet! LOL

It has been removed from my Christmas list.

Just got back from 3 days at camp. Received my 12 pack of eneloop AAA batteries, thanks to dmwalsh568 for recommending them.

Ran the generator down at camp and cleaned/serviced my battery bank there. Cut the grass in between the raindrops.

Today is 9-28 and for the last 28 days, it has rained 24 of them. I am sick and tired of this rain, it's about time for snow.

I forgot to add that I stopped at harbor freight on the way home for camp to pick up a couple of items. They now carry a 250 lumen pop up lantern, they like the ones you see advertised on TV for $19.99. Harbor freight has them of $6.99, I picked up 4 of them and they are bright.

https://www.harborfreight.com/250-lumen-compact-pop-up-lantern-64110.html

rick1 wrote:I forgot to add that I stopped at harbor freight on the way home for camp to pick up a couple of items. They now carry a 250 lumen pop up lantern, they like the ones you see advertised on TV for $19.99. Harbor freight has them of $6.99, I picked up 4 of them and they are bright.

https://www.harborfreight.com/250-lumen-compact-pop-up-lantern-64110.html

Great price! I paid about $10 for a virtually identical looking unit at BJs Wholesale Club earlier this summer. Definitely a LOT brighter than I was expecting from such a little lantern. Although my unit has a magnetic base and I didn't see anything about that in the writeup on Harbor Freight.

I have holidays on the mind as we will be having different guests for the rest of the year, starting next week.

I bought a dowel rod for husband to cut up into 3 inch pieces. This is to make a cookie called a cream horn - roll special dough on the rod to create the "horn", then fill it with cream filling. If he likes it, it will go in the neighbors' Christmas cookie gift box.

I also bought some new Pyrex storage dishes, the smaller ones. I've been cooking for a lot of people for so many years, but it's getting monotonous to eat the same things for a few days to get rid of leftovers. I used to just store it, and we'd eat it again at a later date, but it still means we eat the same things, just different weeks. So I decided to change my cooking habits. My plan is to make more variety and less "leftovers". You'd think I'd have learned this after Husband retired, but we've been so busy building and improving the property for the past few years, I've not paid attention. My goal is start introducing some new, smaller recipes into the repertoire.

I also tried a new sourdough recipe - no need for starter! Apparently, this is how stores make sourdough bread. I altered the recipe already because I didn't make it in an instant pot. Husband loved it and we ate the loaf in a few days! So I plan to continue making it and I will be trying it out as a pizza bread, too.

Sourdough Bread Without Starter
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon yeast
¼ cup hot water
1 ½ cups yogurt (more may be needed)
In a bowl, mix the flour and salt until well blended.
In ¼ cup hot water, add yeast and allow to proof about 10 minutes until bubbly foam forms on top.
Add the yeast and yogurt to the flour and mix with floured hands until a dough is formed. If the mixture is too dry add 1 or 2 tablespoons more of the yogurt.
Form into a ball. Place dough in a bowl and allow to rise for 4 hours or until double.
Remove the dough and lay on a floured surface. With floured hands knead and shape into a ball. Cover with a tea towel or set on a floured proofer basket and cover.
Lightly oil a cast iron dutch oven pan and preheat the pan in the oven at 400 F. for 30 minutes while the dough is rising. When you remove the pan, If there is melted oil in the bottom, wipe it out with a paper towel.
Carefully place the dough ball in the dutch pan and put the lid on. I only had a 5 quart dutch oven, and was afraid the lid would prevent it from rising, so I used a sheet of aluminum foil instead, loosely placed over the top.
Bake covered for 25 minutes. Remove cover and bake for 8-10 more minutes or until browned.
Remove from oven and cool on a rack. Slice when cool.

Last day of September.

Cut up (deboned) the little doe the grandson shot last night.
Cut the grass
Rotated out 5 gallon of gas
Heading to Camp in the morning to cut grass and do some archery hunting.

Looking back on September-

• Made up laminated maps for get home walking/biking routes
  
• Had the more needed truck repairs completed
  
• Attended the PA Mother Earth News Fair- good classes, met up with some like-minded folks, picked up more books.
  
• Made a prepping contact at the local flea market
  
• Found some good things at flea markets and local auctions- mostly books, but added another cross-cut saw, another metal gas can, some tools, and some medical supplies.
  
• About done with the container garden for the season, aside from the herbs.  
  

ReadyMom wrote:
[*]Did you photocopy the maps from somewhere?

I have two route maps, one for a work location 25 miles from home, another for 13 miles from home. I used Google Maps directions in Satellite View for both walking and biking. The shorter distance route has 3 alternative ways just by nature of back road options. On paper, with optimal pedaling/walking, it would take 1.5 to 8.5 hours to get home if I found myself at work in a situation without powered transportation (e.g.- EMP). I expect the trip to take longer of course, but it gives me a baseline.

On the design/construction, I used a high level view with major roads and added an inset zoom in picture where a path change may be confusing. Below or next to each color map is the list of step by step turns and distances. Each map is double-sided, walking on one side and biking on the other, and laminated to be waterproof. I keep copies in my work bag and in my vehicle's bag. Directions are not door to door for obvious reasons.

These are Version 1.0, as I'd like to work on something a bit more detailed when time allows, with more route annotating. A multiple flip page spiral bound at a smaller map scale would be the eventual goal. I do keep other street maps, but wanted something that I could quickly follow without having to stop and unfold a formal map.

My container gardens performed sadly this year, too, Ready Mom. WE did have a hot summer and little rain, but I kept them watered very well.

I will say, the orange tree and the lemon tree thrived. Put the lemon tree out when it was about 8 inches tall - it is now about 3 feet tall! Had to re-pot it!

Husband has done something similar with some maps of our area, not sure if he printed them out, but he does have them saved to files on the computer for off-line use.

Right now, Husband is working on learning about ham radio. Not sure if he'll get into it for reals, but for now, he is enjoying the learning process.

I'm not really prepping much, I'm going into the sewing Christmas season, so trolling online for good ideas of stuff to make - my kids want homemade, not store bought stuff.