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

Started the new thread.

Still working on decluttering the sewing room. Things are looking good and more space means more preps.

Husband put motion sensor lights up on the back porch and the garage. We have lights on the back porch, but they're switch operated. We've found that the motion sensor light on the front porch is pretty useful for checking out night critters and deterring some.

I had almost completely recovered from the radial nerve entrapment, when it came back with a vengeance. Not really sure what I did, just regular chores, sitting at sewing machine and computer...

I found ice packs worked better than heat packs. However, I still wanted to be able to move around. So I "invented" a sash with a pocket to put the ice pack in, and now I can conveniently tie it like a sling around my back and shoulder. I can even adjust the position of the ice pack by sliding the sling up or down. It has helped greatly in stopping the pain from inflammation.

My sister had prepped some dehydrated food many years ago when I got her onto the bandwagon. She is now checking dates on some things she'd not rotated and found a bunch of veggies and grains that she's decided are too old to eat. Rather than waste it, she's been feeding it to a flock of about 30 wild turkeys on their property. They love it and are getting more tame, too. I told her, "good on getting some extra meat rations when the time comes!"

My bell pepper plant in the spare room is still producing bell peppers. I guess it likes it's sunny spot by the window. It only produces a few a month, because it's a little colder in that room, but it's enough for us to chop into salads and omelets. The other plants are doing well, too.

I had bought some sweet potatoes for Christmas dinner, but because of sickness, we didn't have Christmas until mid-January...and I forgot to prepare them. They have sprouted, so I guess I have a head start on sweet potatoes for the garden!

Been plowing and shoveling snow for the last week, we've gotten well over a foot last week and then a couple of inches here and there. Seems like having to clean off the solar panels every couple of hours throughout the day.

Picked up another ruger 10/22, the 50th anniversary model, stainless steel barrel, 3X9 scope, shoots very good, just like the other ones I got. The guy gave me 500 rounds of cci mini mag shells and 8 mags with it.

Did some maintenance on the battery bank in the garage, rotated out 10 gallon of gas and 15 gallon or diesel fuel.

Getting the covid shot next Thursday at the VA.

Normal stuff, shovel snow, plow snow, between 2 ice storms within a week and another 12 inches of snow, there's about 2 feet of snow on the ground.

Stacked the back porch with more firewood, shoveled snow, plowed snow, cleaned off the solar panels every couple of hours, started the generators and left them run for about 10 minutes, toped them off with fuel.

A LONG WALK: This morning the grandkids called and were going to hike over to our house (practice for if the SHTF). Well, I normally put one of the older ones in charge to get everyone over here. Well, today, I put the 10yo granddaughter in charge. I asked her if she had all the items in her pack and to check the others packs to see if they had everything. I asked her if she had her map which I drew to get through the woods, logging road and fields to get here, of course they all have it memorized, as they've done this at least a dozen times or more.

It's about 3 miles, through the woods, fields and logging roads, it took them about 3 1/2 hours to get here. They're tired but hungry and cold but they made it.

It took them a little longer because of the deep snow, but there was one smart grandkid, the leader of the pack, the 10yo granddaughter, she wore her snow shoes in the deep snow and pulled along a pan bottom sled that she rode on some of the hills. The other 3 grandkids struggled in the deep snow.

I told her that I should promote her to squad leader and she agreed. I can't be more proud of all 4 of those kids.

(Where's the 'Love' button?? We need one!)

Planted Peppers and Onions seed this week ... I'm really over this cold weather stuff....

O-well 1 day closer to spring

Rick, I want your granddaughter on my team! Awesome that she's learning to be a rugged individualist who can take care of herself!

We are officially out of wood for the wood stove. We let it go out today. We shaved it close with 3 cords, so next year, our plan is to order 4 cords (of course, the 3 cords were from the year before, as last winter we barely used the wood stove!).

The ice and snow kept us inside, but we had plenty of entertainment with books, TV, sewing, quilting, and in Husband's case, watching videos on gardening, building, some documentaries, and other interesting things.

Husband did have to brush snow off the solar panels and the decks several times the last two weeks. I'm glad to see the end of this winter.

Since we were housebound, I made some pacifier clips, and 4 small quilts for the babies, and got them mailed off. These were in addition to the burp cloths, bibs, and washcloths I made a few weeks ago. I also made a scrap quilt, trying to get that bag of scraps gone! I do have to make one more baby quilt, but I'm waiting until they know of the baby is a boy or girl.

I made my sister a patchwork tote bag, and a fabric bookmark. I made card stock and fabric Valentine cards for our grandniece, and mailed them to her each day. On the last day, I sent her 3 dresses I bought on sale, and a fabric heart envelope for her valentines.

I have gone through a bunch of my sewing stuff and got rid of about 1/3 of what I have. Most of it was stuff that was given to me, and I've hauled it around for years in various moves, but never used it. Decided it was time to pass it on to someone else.

Soon we'll be planting seeds...