2020 - MAY - Prepping Updates

Started the new thread a little late.

We finished sewing all the planned face masks, finally! If we make anymore it will be on an individual basis only. We made over 1000 and donated them all to 2 nursing homes and a hospital, plus neighbors, family and friends. We were able to make so many because several people donated fabric and supplies. The leftover sheets will be made into adult bibs for one of the nursing homes.

It has been raining off and on for days - good for the garden which is really growing fast, a little dreary for the humans, but we're keeping busy.

Started an exercise program with one kid and the niece - we do it over video chat! It's actually been kind of fun...except for burpees and planks!

After 30 days in the hospital, 21 of those days in a medically induced coma, 17 of those days on a ventilator, and the last 5 days with a trachotomy, my niece has "recovered" from CoVid-19 and was allowed to go home. She will be doing rehab for a few weeks to learn to breathe again. The doctors do not know if the lung damage is permanent. It is a case of wait-and-see.
I am currently using the last of the bed sheets that were donated for masks to make adult bib/aprons for one of the nursing homes, since they now have enough handmade masks.

We are also experiencing a cold front and rain that is to last 5 days. So far, the garden doesn't seem to have suffered. A little bit of wilting, but the plants themselves are sturdy. I am babying the two lime trees I have left, covering them with plastic juice bottles I cut to fit and uncovering during the day.

Weather is crazy here, in the last 4 days, we had snow on two of them, today I mowed the grass.

Today, mowed the grass, cleaned the solar panels, did maintenance on the battery banks. Ran the generators for about 15 minutes and gased them up.

Washed my wifes SUV and changed the oil.

I've been going since 5 a.m., I'm done, I'm tired and I'm hungry, think I'll have a chopped venison steak and cheese sandwich with some fried onions and green peppers, topped off with a beer

Stay safe everybody.

Still raining and dreary here. Good for the garden, but we're feeling a little house-bound.

On that note - the tomatoes are flourishing, each plant has little green tomatoes on them. The potatoes are twice their size as last week, it seems. The beans are popping out, too. The other stuff is merely a glimmer, if at all, which is fine for them, they're warmer weather growers, anyway.

We put new tires on both vehicles, been planning to do it for some time, but since the lockdown, we just developed a wait-and-see attitude. Now that things are opening up, thought we'd best be getting things like that done.

Finishing up the last of the masks and adult bibs for donation.

I'm ready to work on other projects now!

We are getting new additions to the homestead today or at least 3 so far.. Eggs are hatching its really cool its the first time we have hatched eggs

That's awesome, Dave!

I am still working on the scraps of donated fabric to make masks and adult bibs. Hoping to finish up today and send them off to a children's home and a local hospital.

My peach tree didn't lose it blooms in the freeze 2 weeks ago...but I guess it affected it in some way. There aren't any tiny peaches where the flowers were that dropped off last week. When this happened 2 years ago, it bloomed again, and made peaches. Don't know if it will do that now this late in the season.

My orange tree put out a few blooms in the cabin, but then the 3-4 flowers withered away. No tiny oranges, either. I have it outside now, re-potted it in a larger pot, with lots of extra citrus-specific potting soil. I hope it blooms again (which it has done in the past, too).

We had new tires put on the vehicles. They've needed it for a while, but with lockdown, we put it off. Now that the state is opening again, we decided to get it done.

Other than that, we've not done much prep-wise, although there's not much to be done because we're well set up.

I have been working on a few hobby things, getting everything set up to start playing once I get all the sewing done. Looking forward to other crafts!

Husband decided we needed an excursion to the local orchard. Social distancing because it's open air, and we'd wear masks. So out we went.

We bought 2 flats of tomatoes and some honey.

We decided to make tomato sauce and ketchup with the tomatoes.

7 pints of tomato sauce, 4 pints of ketchup. We are in the process of canning it right now.

Well, now I'm on a canning kick. I took one of the chunky tomato sauce pints that I canned last night, and made fresh ranchero sauce. Canned 3 pints!

Spent the last couple of days down at camp. Mowed the grass, cleaned up around camp, ran the generator, put out the solar panels and cleaned them up. Did the battery maintenance and hooked them up to the solar panels.

The bears are very active, had a close encounter with two of them on two different occasions down at camp.

Oh, and drank some

Ricky! Scary bear thing! Glad nothing came of it.

We had a little trouble yesterday. The water suddenly cut off and we were worried that the well pump died. Other things started going bonkers, too. Husband went out to hit the kill switch at the pole and the house power wouldn't go out. He had to turn it off via the gennie panel. Called our electric company and they sent a tech out. The inside of the meter box had caught fire and melted wires. Tech did a temporary fix and a crew returned today to replace everything. No clue why it happened, but its all fixed now.

Husband switched the internet modem over to the new solar array so kid who is working from home could continue to work. I was able to surf the net, too. This was the first test with the solar as Husband only finished installation last week.

We finished the last of the masks with the donated fabric and mailed them off today. Glad that is done. Will make more as needed, but since our state is one of the ones that opened up, not sure how it will go.

Success well kinda... I put 20 eggs in the incubator and hatched 5. I was hoping for at least 50% hatch rate so I am trying it again...

The hardest thing about hatching chicks is not trying to help when you see their beaks poking out of the egg...

The next hardest is talking my wife into moving them into a large brooder box in the barn

I've been a slug lately. Rainy days means being stuck inside watching the rain fall. Been reading the days away.

I did make a dress for a little niece, though. Turned out cute. I just hope she likes it.

Husband is making a small manual for our new meter box/kill switch array. When we have power outages, we switch to the gennie, but there's a protocol for it so we don't cause line feedback and kill a lineman, as has happened in some cases in this state. So he's making a new list/manual to shut power down properly and switch to the gennie and from there to turn on house power again should the need arise.

Hey Dave, let nature takes it course, it'll out work out in the end.

Spent memorial day at camp with the grandsons. Cut the grass, did a lot of fishing and did real good. Trying to teach the youngest (8 YO) grandson how to fly fish, he's learning, but I'm tired of getting his fly out of the tree limbs. The other grandsons do very well, for their age, when it comes to fly fishing.

Did all our cooking outside over the fire or in the sun oven. The people down there just don't understand how the sun oven works. I've tried to explain it to them, but they are just too educated to understand, you know PhD's and masters and everything else, just no street knowledge.

Cooked a stuffed whole chicken, corn on the cob and baked potatoes in the sun oven, turned out real good.

Oh and drank some while sitting around the fire at night.

Last summer we finally did something about our garage - loaded with stuff from when we moved here 14 years ago. 75% of the stuff out there went to the burn pile or dump.

I did salvage some of ours and the kids' keepsake stuff (baby keepsakes, artwork, sentimental school stuff, a few toys, and porcelain dolls), which I sorted through, cleaned up, repaired, labeled, and then packed in plastic footlockers with their names on them. I kept the footlockers in our cabin room until I finished repairing the stuff that I still hadn't repaired.

Yesterday, Husband and I moved 8 of the footlockers back out to the garage. We have a 7 foot up in the air shelf in the garage that is 4 feet wide and about 6 feet to the roof, and we stored it all up there. I still have a few of the footlockers in the cabin, as I still have some repairs of things that go in those boxes.

Now all our sentimental keepsakes are labeled and stored in one place out of general reach.

Now to de-clutter the cabin some more...

And, Husband plugged the modem into the solar batteries permanently, so now we don't have to worry about power fluctuations with our computers/wifi.

I forgot to add to yesterdays post:

Took some dried chicory down to camp for the city folk to try, they said it was different and some did like it. I mixed it very light for them.

There were two guys from West Virginia at their camp and they liked it a lot but did say it was a little weak, so the next morning I made some more just for them. They said it's the way they make in down in the hills. These guys are totally from DELIVERANCE, they even brought their own moonshine.

The grandsons, the hill people and myself picked about 30 pounds (wet) of chicory that day, the place is loaded with it, but it is here at home too.

Today's Sunday, I remember these days were a day of rest, almost nobody worked on Sunday's, not even around the house.

Well, just got done mowing the grass, waiting on the son in law and the older grandson to come over so we can run all three tractors to cut about 25 acres of hay, 1st cutting. Hope we don't run over any fawns this year, got two last year.

I put this on my peddle bike a couple of weeks ago, just got tired of peddling. I have it down at camp to run around in and to get me home in case of an EMP. Good investment, glad I did buy it. It gets between 100 and 150 mile to the gallon:


https://www.ebay.com/itm/Full-Set-24-26-80cc-2-Stroke-Bike-Gas-Motor-Engine-Kit-Cycle-Motorized-Bicycle/142903619427?hash=item2145b82f63:g:Yh0AAOSwDM9egYn-

Rick,

We have chicory growing on the road sides around here, but it blooms later in the season. I've thought about harvesting and dehydrating some for the LTS.

I've been really working hard on de-cluttering the sewing area. I have a feeling with the precarious future I'll need the space for people. I sorted out all the stuff I really don't want to finish, or even keep. That's going to the thrift shop. Several fancy types of fabric that were given to me, I passed on to others. There were several small projects I'd planned for other people and put aside. I finished them and have set them aside to give to the recipients.

I have sorted the projects I planned for myself/my household, and am now working on getting them done. Most were never started because I was too busy working on other people's stuff. Now that I've stopped doing that (except for charitable sewing like face masks), I have time to do my own things. I've emptied out baskets and plastic totes of stuff...which means I no longer need the baskets and plastic totes taking up space, either! I did save the better ones for future storage needs, however. My future plan is to stock up on utility fabrics and repair equipment. I'm looking into perhaps an industrial machine for sewing leather, awls, and punches. Not sure if I want to go that direction, but no harm in looking. Still need to get patterns and notions in order, but it's looking much better.

The kid quarantined with us was called back to work and left Saturday. Work is being cautious, they only have to come in one day a week, the rest of the time can be remote until future events are settled.

We got our security cameras set up. Husband did research and found the Eufy 3 camera wi-fi setup would suit our needs best. The cameras are programmed to our cell phones, so they post an alert. The cats don't set it off...the dog does. .

The garden is coming along nicely - tomatoes, potatoes, bell peppers are already on plants. The lemon tree is growing like a weed, the lime trees are having to be nurtured and spot checked daily (cat likes to eat them). I have plastic jugs to put over them when the cat is outside. The beans are getting large, but no sprouts yet. All the herbs are growing fine. I thought I'd lost the mint, but with all the rain, it found some sustenance and what was a blackened, dead stick is now growing again!

I finally got to plant some sweet corn yesterday and we visited the local farm supply store and scored on some new chicks... They are Buff Orpington's I have been wanting that breed for a couple of years because they go broody quite a bit and tolerate the cold really well....

I am going to plant beans this afternoon.

Its a strange thing, with the way things are going we decided to buy some more Roma bush beans and I don't think their are any left in the state... These are some strange days we live in

Stay safe folks

I got interrupted and had to leave. There were a couple other things we did because of uncertain times.

I finally broke down and bought an Excalibur dehydrator. I've had a Nesco Snack Master for years, and it's a work horse, very pleased with it. However, I wanted something bigger, so we could do more. Now the Nesco can be used for the onions/garlic and other smelly dehydrated stuff outdoors, and the Excalibur can be used for all else.

I also bought an Ooni Karu portable wood/lump charcoal fired pizza oven. I've wanted a brick-lined, wood fired pizza oven for years, but we never got around to building one. After the recommendation from a friend who had one, and reading countless reviews/watching You Tube videos, we bought one. There's a learning curve, but the best pizza I ever ate was from a wood fired oven, and I've wanted to duplicate it for years. This model is portable, too, so we can take it with us on trips. It isn't here yet, but we are waiting patiently for it to come in.

I had to re-start the sourdough once again...sigh. I was neglectful for only a few days, and it died! So, I took out my refrigerated starter and began once more. It's been going for about 2 weeks now, still not quite ripened to that yeasty, beery, sourdough smell, but it's getting close. Hope it's done by the time the pizza oven gets here, can't wait for a good, sourdough crust.

Yesterday Husband and I went to visit friends and also to exchange some goods/services with them. We were doing projects for each other and the lock down interrupted that. We enjoyed our visit, exchanged our goods, and went on our way. Had early dinner at the local Mom 'n Pop place.

While each place we visited in the last few days had employees wearing masks, no customers were. However, the restaurants do have social distancing by removing or blocking off tables/booths.

On the way there, a neighbor was having a garage sale. I picked up PYREX and Fire King pie plates, some specialty bake pans, a cast iron skillet, 4 sheets, 2 pillow cases, and a velvet dress for $18.

Still working on the sewing projects, finished a table runner for one kid last night.

Tomatoes and peppers are planted.. I still have Rhubarb to plant tomorrow...

We got a pleasant surprise are eggs are supposed to go into lock down today and not supposed to hatch for 3 more days and surprise they are starting to hatch now.. I hope we get more than 25% hatch rate this time...

Power went out yesterday, twice, high winds, 60 mph gusts, no problem, started the generator.

Having to checkup on the granddaughter, one of her teachers tested positive for covid. She just turned 11 y.o. and doesn't want to be checked up on, very independent kid. She's the one that led her brothers and sister over to our house this past winter, a practice run.

Now, have to clean up the yard, again.

Took a ride to camp the other day and cleaned up the yard down there.

Planted the onion sets at home and at camp.

Picked a mess of leeks to have for Easter, fried ham and leeks, can't wait.

Getting ready for next Saturday, 1st day of trout season. Just got to take some of the grandkids and make the day of it, can't wait.