2020 - JULY - Prepping Updates For The Month

Happy 4th of July!

I'm getting produce from the garden now so we've been busy. 2 pints of green beans, processed and frozen, tomatoes, and some potatoes. The cucumbers are spreading well, but no fruit yet. That's OK, the neighbor gave me 8 of hers! I made enchilada sauce and pizza sauce from the tomatoes. I put it in jars, but didn't can it, as we're eating it right away.

I had to defrost the upright freezer yesterday - I didn't shut the door properly the night before. Only lost the ice cream. A turkey breast and a pork loin had thawed some, so we took that out to cook in the next few days. We had the turkey for dinner. The good news is, I now know what we have...lots of meat bought on sale back before quarantine! It was at the back, so didn't even get close to thawing.

I finished a scrap quilt top this week, it will be a Christmas present for one of the kids. I still need to quilt it, but that won't be an issue. Last week, one of the quilt stores was having a sale, so I bought batting for the year - 30 yards of 90" wide, for $120. I should be able to make 10-15 quilts, depending on size. I also ordered fabric for another couple Christmas presents for various people.

While the non-sewers won't find this relevant, those who sew will. Our Walmart's fabric section is decimated. Part of it was because of people making masks. But Walmart is not replenishing the department. The fabric that is left is mostly upholstery and very little of that. They have no white thread spools except small ones. There is no plain muslin, when normally that area is stocked with 10 or more rolls. I'm not sure if they will be able to re-stock, as most of that comes from China. So we shall see.

The quilt stores I went to seem to be struggling. The boss at one mentioned they're not making enough sales to pay for new deliveries yet.

And with that comes another concern. A lot of clothing is made in China. If trade is curtailed, people will need to find other sources of clothing, and perhaps there'll be an upsurge in sewing, but supplies may remain scarce. If you don't sew, stock up on clothes, especially things people don't sew routinely - underwear, socks, and so on.

I made and quilted a table topper for the neighbor, she's having a 4th of July party we will be attending.

We have commenced going to town weekly and doing regular shopping. We keep distance and if the parking lot seems too full, we head to other stores until the crowd dies down. Seems to be working.

I'm still de-stashing the sewing area, I'm getting there!

Cinnamon wrote:Happy 4th of July!

While the non-sewers won't find this relevant, those who sew will. Our Walmart's fabric section is decimated. Part of it was because of people making masks. But Walmart is not replenishing the department. The fabric that is left is mostly upholstery and very little of that. They have no white thread spools except small ones. There is no plain muslin, when normally that area is stocked with 10 or more rolls. I'm not sure if they will be able to re-stock, as most of that comes from China. So we shall see.

The quilt stores I went to seem to be struggling. The boss at one mentioned they're not making enough sales to pay for new deliveries yet.

And with that comes another concern. A lot of clothing is made in China. If trade is curtailed, people will need to find other sources of clothing, and perhaps there'll be an upsurge in sewing, but supplies may remain scarce. If you don't sew, stock up on clothes, especially things people don't sew routinely - underwear, socks, and so on.  

It's the same at our Penna WalMart! I ran out of my 'cone' of  white thread from making over 200 masks! Need more and didn't want to go all the way to our local JoAnn Fabrics store. Dept is nearly bare. So are most of the crafting supplies.  

We also need a new printer. Hubby is working from home and probably is from now on. He's semi-retired, but still needs a printer/scanner. Ours is for 'home use' not the type of volume he's using. Went to Best Buy and their printers are depleted and they don't expect it resupplied anytime soon! We have to order on-line and get what they have left in distribution center.

I don't think a lot of missing shelf items are going to be replenished anytime soon. Much longer than most people thought.

Well Cin and ReadyMom, get used to it being bare, that all comes from CHINA.

rick1 wrote:Well Cin and ReadyMom, get used to it being bare, that all comes from CHINA.

The local hardware store is having trouble getting things like Hinges,eyebolts, hooks et..

A lot of the small stuff is starting to become unavailable..

Oh, Rick, I know it all comes from China. I've been stocking up on lots of little things in anticipation of them being scarce. Pens, notebooks, thread, command hooks, lightbulbs, just so much stuff we take for granted.

Got another pint of green beans out of the garden. The wild animals are taking over the garden - they're eating the green tomatoes off the vine, the leaves off the green beans, and they're nesting in the potatoes. The blackberries are being eaten even before they ripen. We're looking into fencing. We've talked for years, but the garden was more of a learning experience, so we never committed to really protecting it. In the coming months/years, we need to do more.

I'm the same way Cin, birds eating the blueberries while still green. Covered them up and they peck at the netting until they make a hole in it. Something is biting off the lower leaves of the pepper plants too.

Been at camp the last four days. Did some wood stacking, cooked a mess of food outside, too hot to cook inside.

The pollin down at camp is still bad, have to clean the solar panels everyday, ran the generators and gassed them up. Did some maintenance on the lawn mower, sharpened the blade and changed the oil, first time in 10 years, still runs good.

Pulled all the garlic and onions the last 2 or 3 days. Got them all cleaned up and either put away or given away.

Cut some of the spices, tied them and hung them in the shed to dry.

Hot as almighty h_ll the last week and getting hotter. Have the last venison roast in the sun oven along with peppers, potatoes and onions, will be done in about an hour.

Some of the grandkids are over, swimming in the big pond to stay cool.

We went grocery shopping today, didn't have much to get. Walmart still has Roma tomatoes on sale for $1.28 a pound, so I bought another 4 pounds to make ranchero sauce and pizza sauce.

Since we actually started paying attention and eating out of the regular pantry during quarantine, seems we simply don't need as much from the store. Over time, I had stocked it very well. Didn't quite realize how well. We haven't even touched the stuff in LTS. And there's plenty there, too.

Husband has been maintaining the yard, but we think the garden may be a write-off. There are raccoons, possum, and at least one ferret or weasel roaming around, and they're eating everything, except the green beans and potatoes.

We pulled the trigger and ordered a Berkey Water filter system today as part of our preps..

Has anybody here used one before ???

We have one, but we've not used it yet. However, if you go on any of the skoolie/van dweller groups, a lot of those folks use and love them.

Cinnamon wrote:We have one, but we've not used it yet. However, if you go on any of the skoolie/van dweller groups, a lot of those folks use and love them.

We haven't received ours yet... We have a well and still use a lot of bottled water. I am hoping to use the Berkey and cut down on bottled water....

Cinnamon wrote:We have one, but we've not used it yet. However, if you go on any of the skoolie/van dweller groups, a lot of those folks use and love them.

Same here, have had a Berkey for a few years waiting for a crisis to pull it out (have the prime bulb so I can get the filters ready without the pressure from the tap.)

During normal times we just rely on the whole house filter and the fridge filter. That water tastes the same as bottled, so I only use bottled water to rotate the supply I like to keep on hand (for trips, or for workers at the house, or for a quick emergency supply while I get the Berkey ready.)

On an unrelated note, I've noticed store shelves are a bit more sparse than a month or so ago...so this weekend's shopping will be to top up on everything I can in preparation for things to continue to get worse. Covid seems to be reasonably under control around here, but with so many states seeing a surge, I'm sure the supply chain will continue to be affected. Sigh.

Be careful out there folks, things are getting ugly.

Wife and I left early this morning for Adams county (PA), for her family reunion. We stopped at 2 flea markets on the way down and picked up a few items:

Got 2-500 rounds of remington .22 hollow point shells 12.00 per 500 rounds
Various packages of 100/pack of drywall screws, 1.00/pack
4 globes for kerosene lamps, 1.00 each
12 kerosene lamp wicks, .50 each
1-5 gallon gas container, 1.50
3-1 pound cans of #4F gunpowder, 3.00 each


The wife got various cloth material, thread, needles, and other wife things.

Hey ReadyMom, I'm in your southern backyard, ain't I, near Gettysburg (Fairfield, PA)

Was able to pick up 6 jars of spaghetti sauce, some pasta to match and a case of ramen cups. Was also able to get 6 pounds of steaks and an extra package of lamb chops. Meats have been vacuum sealed and frozen for our mid-term supplies. Otherwise just restocked items that had been used in the last week.

Tried to get more paper towels, but they only had cheap brand that falls apart, so I'm waiting till the next shipment of the good brands. Well, that and I have 3-4 months supply at my current rate of use, so it's not critical yet. Note I consider paper towels a prep for pandemic so I can dry my hands on a clean sheet after coming back in from the outside world and not worry about cross contamination.

We are stocking up the kitchen pantry at this time. The shelves at the stores ARE getting sparse, once again, I had to order cat food online. In these woods, we need the cats for mousing. During summer we cut back on their food, and they take care of the mouse problem. During winter, we feed them, as hibernating small things are more scarce.

We've also been canning and dehydrating. Spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce, and ranchero sauce with tomatoes and bell peppers from the neighbor's garden. I dehydrate the skins t make tomato powder for soups and stews.

Our garden is kaput - the deer demolished everything. Plans for a fence and some noise and light deterrents are in the works. The deck garden is doing much better, the bell peppers and jalepenos are growing steadily. Orange and lemon trees have no fruit due to an early frost, but the plants themselves are healthy. The herbs are robust and I've been using them in cooking. Perhaps next year, if I can get the greenhouse built.

I've lined up some more Christmas sewing projects, hope to get them done soon.

Husband and I have been sticking close to home as we've had a slight rise in Co-Vid cases in our area. He is in the "underlying issues" class, as are my parents, so we're staying home.

That said, I have to go out today for an eye appointment, I scratched my glasses and haven't renewed the prescription for 2 years, so they won't even buff it out without an appointment! GRRR. In this tiny town, there are few choices for medical, and I do not want to go to the city because both large ones nearby are experiencing some domestic terrorist activity.

Other than that, we are keeping busy just doing routine maintenance/housekeeping on the homestead and pursing our various hobbies.

Grocery shopping this weekend. Went to the regular store and just stocked up pantry items.

Next day, went to Sam's Club in the big city to get a few things for the pantry and the LTS. Mostly dry goods. In an interesting aside - Sam's was FILLED with junk food aisles. Much of the middle portion where books and clothes and outdoor stuff was...is now aisle after aisle of various junk foods - chips, cookies, candy, crackers, snack-packs, etc. There were granola bars and nuts, too. Is it because of lockdown and people not knowing how to cook?

I am currently testing out some herbal remedies - we have plaintain growing all around the edges of the yard, so I made a tincture that has to age a few weeks, and am currently steeping plaintain, comfrey, and calendula in some coconut oil to make into a salve. I've decided to start herb crafting a bit more. We'll see how it goes.

The neighbor gave us more tomatoes and cucumbers, plus some squash. I made and canned 12 pints of ranchero sauce and 3 pints of pizza sauce.

Cinnamon wrote:Next day, went to Sam's Club in the big city to get a few things for the pantry and the LTS. Mostly dry goods. In an interesting aside - Sam's was FILLED with junk food aisles. Much of the middle portion where books and clothes and outdoor stuff was...is now aisle after aisle of various junk foods - chips, cookies, candy, crackers, snack-packs, etc. There were granola bars and nuts, too. Is it because of lockdown and people not knowing how to cook?

I'm sure it's mostly from inability to cook, but some of it will be that folks just need some comfort foods when they are limited in choices for places to eat out.

I've bought a lot more nuts than usual because we've been trying to vary our cooking more. A few recipes call for cashews and my wife and I found that we really enjoy adding cashews to our fried rice recipe. That and they are yummy for snacking.

This week we also bought two more cases of energy drinks since they seem to be getting harder to find, and I managed to get the brand of paper towels that I prefer, but they aren't individually wrapped like they used to be. Not sure if that's a temporary thing or not. That gives me less flexibility in where I store them since a small hole in the outer wrapper now can mess up the product rather than just getting things dirty. Oh well.

I got really lucky. I went to the local Amish bulk store and found sleeves of canning lids... 26dz to a sleeve..

I bought 2 of the reg and 2 large mouth....

There are not any lids or jars in our little town. I am glad we planned ahead

Cinnamon wrote:Grocery shopping this weekend. Went to the regular store and just stocked up pantry items.

Next day, went to Sam's Club in the big city to get a few things for the pantry and the LTS. Mostly dry goods. In an interesting aside - Sam's was FILLED with junk food aisles. Much of the middle portion where books and clothes and outdoor stuff was...is now aisle after aisle of various junk foods - chips, cookies, candy, crackers, snack-packs, etc. There were granola bars and nuts, too. Is it because of lockdown and people not knowing how to cook?

I am currently testing out some herbal remedies - we have plaintain growing all around the edges of the yard, so I made a tincture that has to age a few weeks, and am currently steeping plaintain, comfrey, and calendula in some coconut oil to make into a salve. I've decided to start herb crafting a bit more. We'll see how it goes.

The neighbor gave us more tomatoes and cucumbers, plus some squash. I made and canned 12 pints of ranchero sauce and 3 pints of pizza sauce.

Sam's gets most of their items from China and they may be running out of inventory to put out..
Our local hardware store is struggling to get small items in nuts,bolts and believe or not concrete. I guess the bags are made in China

Chatted with a coworker this morning who shops Sam's and she said bare areas everywhere. Items pushed toward the center of the store. I don't shop Sams but this is her account.

They no longer have furniture items like mattresses and outdoor/patio furniture. No longer selling cigarettes. No plastic wrap or food storage containers. Pet food in short supply.

I bought Saran Wrap at a farm & fleet store back in April. Looked today, no plastic wrap and most items, they no longer ship. In store purchase only. Ball canning jars can be found here at a higher price but lids are becoming scarce.

Lumber prices are sky high again and there's a shortage of 1/2" OSB.

ETA: searching for a new sewing machine, WM is completely sold out. JoAnn is sold out as well but for 1 low end Singer with poor reviews.

We received our Berkey Water Filter... It works very well and the water taste great..

I wish I would have bought one a long time ago

We got lucky and found 7 cases of canning jars this past week end.. They may be the last jars in the county...People have become quite desperate....

Stay Safe folks

Daughter is in Maryland, says that canning supplies are sold out. Every last thing, no matter the size of jars or lids. She went to order a canner, and they are back-ordered until November! She found one on Amazon and bought that instead.

The plantain salve is a big hit. I've made more and Husband mentioned I should collect some more and start dehydrating it for future use. Didn't think of that, so tomorrow, I'll probably start harvesting for that.

I messed up on the day of my eye appointment, it was actually today. Afterwards, we shopped a little. Found some clothing on sale, so we bought some shirts for both of us. Got a few other small items and holy moly! The big spools of thread were back in stock, so I got some! YAY! I also bought some half-pint canning jars to put the plantain salve in. I could put them in plastic, but I feel it'll last better in glass, and we can reuse the jars when needed.

I've been commissioned to make a baby quilt, I have it about 1/4 done. Rather than money, the recipient has bees and will be exchanging honey, beeswax and candles for the quilt.