2024 SEPTEMBER - What Did You Do To Prep This Week/Month?

It's seems as if the start of every month blows up on me with family stuff and neighbor stuff, and general crisis stuff - nothing life-threatening or bad, just stuff to take care of right now! So late start again to this month.

My eldest moved states and I went off for two weeks to help out. Boy, I got quite the workout, even though movers were hired to get the big stuff! Preps leftover from the lock down were discovered and some is being given to me as there is no need at this time for them. One whole cupboard in the new place is dedicated to enough preps to last 6 months. Water is an issue, but we came up with creative ways to store the water, but it is limited to about 2 months worth. Still working on it, but it'll get done.

Came home in time to harvest the last of the garden - tomatoes, cucumbers, and green beans. We do have a bed of potatoes, but we're not ready to harvest them yet. Not sure how they did with all the rain, either. The ones we planted in buckets root-rotted.

Now we're working on winter preps - getting all the outside maintenance done. Husband is mowing, clearing brush, and we put the little shed together to store the pool stuff. I haven't done it yet, but soon I'll close down the stock tank pool, too.

I cleared off the front porch, and then pressure washed it to get rid of dirt, dust, and cobwebs. All the furniture got hosed down, too. We're having cool mornings and even though we're down to 2 of our own cats, we have 3 of the neighbor's cats who like to hang out here. So I plugged in the outdoor cat house heaters.

Company is coming next week and I've been washing all the house linens, dog bedding, outdoor rugs, and patio chair cushions. My washer and dryer are getting quite the workout! I'm also sewing new covers for the chair cushions as they've faded over time and don't look so good, even though the cushions themselves are fine.

OK - I'm off to find a recipe for fried green tomatoes...

Company came and went. We had a great time with my cousins I've not seen in many years.

I prepped and cleaned so much that I actually get to take a break...well, except a new little grandnephew was born 2 days ago and I have to get his quilt done!

As for preps - Husband and I have been making our respective specialty dishes and storing extra in the freezer for ourselves and for trade.

We've been having some minor power outages, not sure what's going on because this has rarely happened in this area. So Husband tested and did maintenance on the gennie in case we need it in the future.

My wife canned some potatoes over the weekend. I am going to pull the rest of the cattle panels out of the garden today. Not a lot going on right. Quite a bit of taking parents to doctor appointments.

Keep doing the things

Cinnamon wrote:It's seems as if the start of every month blows up on me with family stuff and neighbor stuff, and general crisis stuff - nothing life-threatening or bad, just stuff to take care of right now! So late start again to this month.
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Kinda like my life. Part of the reason I think this thread might be better as a quarterly, rather than monthly, thread. We could still post every week, if we wan't to...

As for me, over the past few years, two issues have grown up, around my preps. One is that my wife isn't really on board with this, and the other is that our tastes have changed over the years.

So, "eating what you store" may be part of the mantra, but we haven't been doing it.

At this point, I am doing a "forced rotation."

In the past, I would take some of our canned goods to our offspring, as it reached two years old, and leave the rest in our stores. (The kids are more of living paycheck, than prepping for the future.)

We now have enough canned and boxed goods that are over 2 years old to keep us for several months, "at the rate we consume them in good times."

Normally, I assume, in good times, we will consume one quarter of our food from stores and three quarters from recently bought foods. This has worked, mostly, with siphoning off some at the two year old point. But siphoning has slowed, somewhat, as we have been seeing them a little less often.

But I don't think any non prepper  wants canned or boxed goods, more than two years old (most of my family knows my date coding system), so, in the next couple of months, I am cleaning out as much of the "bought in 2022" stuff as I am able to.

T-Rex,

I hear ya. We are doing this too. Our tastes have definitely changed and we are re-evaluating long term storage. We will still keep it, of course, but we're adjusting a lot, not just rotating, but actually not buying some of the stuff we ate in the past (and no longer eat).

I prepped and froze a bunch of the harvested veggies, including tomatoes.

With the talk of a possible port strike, Husband and I are grabbing some extras that may be in short supply later. Batteries, and animal food (canned/treats) are at the top of that list. We really don't need much in the way of food, but little extras might go a long way.  

And, now that the slew of trips/company has past for the moment, I've begun my never-ending decluttering/downsizing tasks again. Purged my closet - nearly 1/3 of the things in there I neither wear nor use. Most will get passed on to family members, but some will go to the thrift store.

I now have space for more preps, especially the shoe shelf. LTS canned goods fit perfectly!

I also purged the fridge - I know we should do this weekly, but since I've been gone/had company, it was getting out of hand. Discarded old condiments, and have had a small revelation. I'm still buying supersize and then we end up throwing half away...time to start buying smaller sizes so we use it up. I know it's more expensive in the long run...or is it, when you end up throwing half away? I've also considered making some of my own...but I'm not there yet.

My goal in the coming week is to can some soups for those fall and winter days when I don't feel like cooking.