# April 2011 Prep Journal



## AngieM2 (May 10, 2002)

Hi all - can you believe it's already April? I can't, but I'm ready for prettier weather.

Continue the Journaling...

Angie


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## jamala (May 4, 2007)

Garden growing wonderfully--corn, beans, taters and squash up and tomatoes have quarter sized maters on them! Got the canning jars out and organized. Stocked the medicine cabinet yesterday with cold/flu/allergy meds--I was really low on those as this winter was really bad on us for colds and such. Reorganized bath/personal care products and checked expiration dates on all of them. Making a SAMS run tomorrow for staples.


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## manygoatsnmore (Feb 12, 2005)

TDD, I hope your knee is better - sorry to hear you were in the hospital.  

I broke down and went to the doctor today myself. After being weak and feeling cruddy all week (I've slept a LOT and my black eye from passing out is getting better), I went in to make sure that it was just a virus. It is - they've been seeing a lot of folks with the same symptoms, and it should finish running its course in another 4-5 days. I'm off work for the weekend, though - just am not up to running for 12 hrs yet. I can handle about 2 hrs and then I need to go sit down...2 trips to town today and I am wiped out.

I have Abby on antibiotics for double ear infections, and she's feeling much better than she was yesterday. Pays to have antibiotics on hand - saved a co-pay and MD trip for her, at least.

On my way past the transfer station today I caught a glimpse of something interesting, so when I came back home to get my driver's license , I stopped to see what it was. I came home with 15 plastic crates. I think they may have been used to hold yogurt or sour cream..they are made like milk crates, but low and wide instead. They measure 24"x28" and are stamped Lucerne on the side. I think they will do a grand job of holding my pots of seedlings in my future greenhouse. Score! 

I potted up tomato plants to the big styrofoam coffee cups today. I can't believe how fast they are growing. I didn't get all of them done, but some of the biggest ones have their own cups - roots are right down in the bottom, and I buried the stems, so by the time I plant them out, they will have wonderful root systems.

I got my Kaito Voyager radio from EE a couple days ago. I am pleasantly surprised at what good reception it gets...we are in a poor reception zone for radio and TV, but the radio stations come in very clearly. I'm having fun figuring out the shortwave bands, what comes in where and when. I'm sure there is a chart somewhere, but for now, I'm just fiddling with the dial and listening.  

I sent for the 25 packs of seeds for 4.99 from www.seedsofchangefood.com, BEFORE seeing the warning from cindy_e about possible malware. I don't think I had any trouble with my order - it seemed to go through fine. I need to go check my credit card and make sure it was charged correctly. I also e-mailed Burpee about my dead honeyberries - need to check my e-mail and see if there is a response yet. I just got home a bit ago and haven't been able to get to everything yet. Then I think I'm going to lie down and go to sleep...I'm just exhausted. (What a wimp!)


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## radiofish (Mar 30, 2007)

Wow it sounds as if a few of us are on the 'walking wounded' list... I just finished with the ice packs on my knee, for the evening. 

TDD - Hope you get better soon.. I bet you just wanted to try out the delicious, nutritious, industrial style hospital food!! If it was anything like they serve at the VA Hospital, I feel for you.. That is why I have MRE's with me, when I go down there..

If the morphine doesn't work on you, then you will have a tough time doing the 'Homer Simpson' routine.. The opiate based medications do that to me, amongst other unpleasant side effects..

I made the trip down the hill today, and braved the 1st of the month crowds.. I had to go get my monthly bag of physician prescribed drugs, from the pharmacy.

Like Texican, I also talk to the store employees at the markets. It seems that with the Hwy 101 closure and the major detour, they just got in an major shipment of supplies up from the SF Bay Area. So the employees were stocking shelves in every aisle, and almost could not keep up with folks filling carts.. I don't know if it was just the 1st of the month shopping rush, or if folks out stocking up due to the recent events?? 

Well some of the college kiddies that were buying cases of beer and bags of chips, are not too concerned with either it would appear!!

I did go thrift store shopping - I found a couple more daypacks, and a couple of 'travel bags' with lots of zippered compartments for less than 9.00 dollars/ including tax.. So I'll wash them and figure out what to put in them.. I needed to find a bit larger one for keeping it in my little GMC S-15 Jimmy 4X4, since I am driving it most of the time now. It has a 2.8 L smaller V-6 engine, and regular unleaded gas was $4.25 per gallon at the pump today.

MGM - It sounds as if you have been trying to do much at one time.. I pace myself here, and just keep plugging away at my many chores. It may take much longer, but it does get done (eventually).. I am dreading when I have to get out the push mover and weed eater, and I'll start doing battle with the vegetation (lawn) soon!!

MGM - here are some links for the shortwave bands and what to find there.. I am not familiar with the model of your radio. 
Does it have digital tuning, or an older style analog dial?

I listen to Radio Havana Cuba, Radio Moscow, and Radio China International. Just to see what the 'Commies' have to say about the world.. They sure do give a different slant to the news, as compared to our outlets.

At night listen between 5.800 Mhz to 6.200 MHz and from 9.500 MHz to 10.000 MHz for foreign stations.. That is where I do a lot of my non ham radio listening, to foreign broadcasts. I can hear the signals out of the Pacific very well here.. Africa and Central Asia, are what I have a hard time hearing/ they are on the other side of the planet.


From the beginners guide to Short Wave Listening...

http://www.odxa.on.ca/beginnersguide/swwhen.html

http://www.monitoringtimes.com/html/mtswlprimer2.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20080607023330/www.castino.com/radio.htm


This link lets you click for programming in English at the current time..

http://www.naswa.net/swlguide/


Click on the SW schedules to the Americas for what is being broadcast. 

http://www.primetimeshortwave.com/radio.html


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## Texasdirtdigger (Jan 17, 2010)

Still just resting my knee, will get a shot in it, after they tap some of the fluid off, on Monday. I am so ready to feel better. This is affecting me, far more than just in the discomfort of my leg. 
Still extremely swollen and warm to the touch and PAINFUL!!
So far, Norcor, seems to be the only thing that even slightly, takes the edge off...but, it does not work for long. I guess I have a high tolerance to that stuff. 
I have never been this still in my life!!!!

We have had a couple of rainy ( misty), cool weather days here. Still nothing measurable.... The work crew did some inside stuff. This week was just kinda a bust for us......We will try again next week to get it all back on track.
If I can get past the constant pain amd swelling, I think I can sit on a stool and roll around the kitchen to get a few things done. I have 75lbs of peppers and beets to finish up. ( haha!! Maybe my Border Collie, that has been so worried about me, will push me around!!) He just could not understand why I could not walk.

RF =I did not eat a single bite of hospital food. Seems that they always had me out of the room for tests...... and they don't leave food out. I had 1/2 of a turkey sandwich 1/2 glass of iced tea and 1/2 cup of coffee ( I got the coffee as part of the nuclear stress test.... It (caffine) helps regulate your heatbeat. That is ALL they fed me... the whole time I was there. I don't think I missed much.

MGM - You passed out and blacked your eye??? OMG Hon!! Take care of yourself gf!! We cannot have that!!

Everyone have a good night and feel better....one and all!!


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## Ohio dreamer (Apr 6, 2006)

Spent much too long today converting our over sized tub that held our 72 hr kit into 3 large and 1 med ALICE packs (DD-8 gets the med). We did intensive inventory along the way and have a list of things we need to get. The down side is we now need to duplicate or quadruple some things that we only had one of before....just in case we get separated. But now we will actually be mobile.....took 2 adult to carry the tub, not too useful if we need to be on foot or if DH was at work when I needed to bug out with kids. We only had 2 knock down drag out fights in the process (I wish that were a joke)!

Ate some MRE's at lunch. We picked up a few entree's a while back to see if we could stand to eat them, and they seemed to fit the theme of the day. DH, DS and I were OK with them...DD didn't care for them at all. Opened a tin of potted meat, too, just to find out what it was. That was....um....unique tasting. I see it being useful on a hot summer day when you've been sweating a lot.....extremely salty. We are thinking that picking up a dozen MRE's might be a good idea for our packs, and dump some the canned stuff my mother gave us a while back when they made us our first kit (2004 maybe?). It would be less weight and more user friendly (and we liked the MRE's better then potted meat, spam and spaghetti in a can).


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## manygoatsnmore (Feb 12, 2005)

TDD, yeah, I feel like an idiot - I remember having stomach cramps, and the next thing I knew, I fell off the toilet seat and landed on my brow. I don't remember a lot about Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, truthfully...

Hope you are feeling better after the fluid is taken off and antibiotics injected into your knee. The pressure all that fluid is putting on the nerves is probably what is causing much of your pain. Try taking a full dose of Norco and then in a couple hours, take a half dose, then continue to take a half dose every couple hours. That way you don't have it all at once, then have it all wear off at once, too. It's easier to keep out of pain than to GET out of pain. Do you have the 10mg Hydrocodone with a bit of acetaminophen in it? Don't go over 4,000 mg of acetaminophen a day - it's bad for your liver! 

Radiofish, thanks for the links, I'll check them out.  This is an analog dial radio. Emergency Essentials carries it. It's about $50, so not a real expensive radio, and it has a crank and a solar panel. I was way beyond doing too much - I literally couldn't sit at the table and repot tomatoes for 2 hrs without needing to go lie down...and that was an improvement from the days prior, when all I did was wander out of my bedroom long enough to be semi-sociable, and then go collapse again. I've never slept so much in a week, ever. No fever, not much in the way of symptoms at all, just totally worn out...reminded me of having mono, but without the swollen lymph nodes and green pee.  

I am starting to feel much better - even got outside and worked for a while. I probably could have gone to work, but I'd rather get all the way better than get there and find out I wasn't up to the full out all night run. I finished potting up the rest of the tomato plants that were ready for it. I still have some later-planted babies that are just up, don't even have their first true leaves. I will have over 100 plants by the time I'm done...I just couldn't resist planting a few more with cool names. :shrug:  I just hope I get them ripe and can save seed from them. Outside, I spread straw on raised beds, did a little weeding in the garden and got Abby and Donavan to do a little stall cleaning...one broken manure fork and garden rake later, there was a load, one load, moved out to the corner of the yard I want to build a new edible landscaping bed. < sigh > I fixed the shelter in the buck pen so that it will drain to the water bucket, and we started building another pallet fence next to the buck pen. That will be for the milking does on sunny days. I got all goats penned again, now that my spring flowers have been eaten to the ground. :grumble: 

Finished up the watering and feeding, and found one of the tiniest doelings limping. It feels like she has a broken leg, up high near the hip socket. Not sure what happened to her, but I'm not sure I can fix it. If she broke her leg down further, I could splint it, but not this. As long as she doesn't appear to be in too much pain and she's eating well, I'll give her some pain meds and see if it'll heal on its own. Babies do heal very quickly, so it's worth a try. These kids (she and her brother) are from one of the young yearlings, and they don't look like they are getting enough milk. We bottled them and they chowed down. I guess we'll need to milk out momma in the morning and see how much she is really producing.

I checked my VISA card and it looks like my order for the free seeds went through correctly. 4.99 shipping and handling for 25 packs of seeds works out to about 20Â¢ a packet. I have no idea what kind of seeds they are sending - I hope they are OP vegies, but even hybrids or flowers would be okay at that price. I also checked my e-mail and Burpee is sending me replacement honeyberries. I hope these arrive in better shape!

Got the word that my clipper blade is being shipped, so I should be able to shear our alpaca after it gets here. I don't know exactly what I'm going to do with the fleece yet, but at least he won't be wearing 2 years worth of fiber anymore.


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## jamala (May 4, 2007)

Did inventory on the freezer today while I defrosted it. "Found" lots more corn than I thought I had so what I put up this year will be for us to eat next year. Planned to plant more beans and peas since I am low on those. Butterpeas are good for another year. Need to plant lots of peppers as I only have 5 bags left and plan on lots of okra this year.


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## Ann-NWIowa (Sep 28, 2002)

Made bean & ham soup and canned 5 quarts. Also canned 5 1/2 pints of diced ham. We had grilled ham & cheese sandwiches for supper and still have about 1/2 of the ham left. Scalloped potatoes with ham is in scheduled for near future. What remains will be sliced for the freezer and then the scraps and bone used for split pea soup to be canned next weekend.


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## manygoatsnmore (Feb 12, 2005)

I've been introducing Abby's bf to cooking from storage food while he's been here, as well as to drinking goat's milk. It's been a fun experiment. I've received a lot of teasing, but he was happy to try things like canned hamburger crumbles. I have potato soup in the crockpot now, but it won't be done until midnight, probably. Made it with dehydrated potato dices, frozen bacon crumbles, goat's milk, onion and garlic powder, plus salt and pepper. I carried the can of potato dices back to the pantry and he saw me with it (I wasn't planning on telling him until AFTER he asked for seconds). "That's not potatoes!" Ah, well, I think he'll like it anyway. Plan to make up a pan of cornbread to go with it and will thicken up the soup a little more with mashed potato flakes and butter if it needs it. I love being able to decide I want to make something and knowing I have all the ingredients on hand. Last night it was cinnamon rolls from scratch, tonight it's potato soup with cornbread. I'm also loving having fresh milk again - so glad the goats are fresh!

Not a prep, but my dryer is fixed! Other than whites, I can actually wash and dry clothes in the auto machines. What a novel concept. Donavan pulled the part off the old element (I was having trouble with it, but would have managed it eventually) and plugged it into the new one, and even put the dryer back together for me. I'm so used to having to do it all myself that it's kind of weird to have help!

With being sick and all the rain, we didn't get much done on outside jobs while Don's been here. I was hoping to finish my shed roof and frame up the greenhouse edition, but it's not gonna happen. He flies out early in the morning Wednesday. Abby's already moping about it.  She'd really like to fly back with him. I think eventually she will, but we need to sell goats before she does.


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## radiofish (Mar 30, 2007)

Well I hope that folks are on the road to recovery, with all of the physical injuries posted here!!

TDD - well MGM is a nurse, so I would have to agree about the Vicodin/ Norco medications. I get the 10/ 325 mg Norco, but at times they make me sweat like Mike Tyson on Jeopardy, make my scalp itch, and I am afraid of getting a DUI if I use them while driving a vehicle. If I have to use the stronger opiate based medications, then I am lucky to operate a remote control!!

MGM - Hopefully you will back to your full-tilt routine soon! I had a major adjustment going from working a full time government employment in fisheries and several part-time radio station jobs - to a much slower paced routine. But at least I still find some humor in everyday life, even if I am in extreme pain. Plus if I don't do things here, then they aren't gonna get finished! It just takes me much longer these days, and then I wonder where are my ice packs located!

Oh, have fun with your new radio.. You may be amazed at what can be heard, on those inexpensive simple radios/ as compared to the huge communications receivers with large external antennas that I use here.

MGM - well I bet you will miss your house guest also.. And not for the fact, that he has been doing some of the 'grunt'/ handyman work there! So you two women have been making him into a 'country boy', eh?

Today I took the 1969 Ford 1/2 ton truck without the camper shell down to town, and what a difference in gas mileage and navigating that monster thru traffic (or what we call traffic here). I did wince at the price when I filled the gas tank, and it hauled several items that would not fit in my smaller 4X4. Thanks to Freecycle, I acquired some additional building materials, for hopefully getting a greenhouse constructed (or at least started) this year.

I finally got the desktop computer out of the local repair shop, and I once again can scan, print, and feel like I am actually in control. I just don't like my laptop computer as much!! Now to get some more ink cartridges for my printer(s), a case or three of printer paper, and I can start making hard copies, of all of my downloaded .pdf files/ military manuals/ prep articles - that are stored on USB memory sticks and on CD-ROMs.. Some of the individual manuals such as the US Special Forces Medical Handbook, are 300+ pages each!!

Tomorrow after my Acupuncture Treatment for pain control (I become a human 'voodoo doll'), I am going to the dollar store to re-supply on several more boxes of gallon and quart sized 'heavy duty' freezer zip-loc style bags. Anything that I put into long-term storage here, has at least 3 layers of protection against the high humidity and salt-air environment. That and I will see if there is anything else there that catches my eye.. I'll look for some more of those 'glow sticks', in the pretty designer colors. I wonder if they have a long term shelf life of several years? 

I won't do much grocery shopping this month. I need to make room in the chest freezer, and the cabinets!! I will be also be cooking out of my prep items, except for fresh tortillas, and sour cream - for when I make pots of beans. I should look for several more dozens of the 1/2 pint and pint sized mason jars. Since I am single - the amount of food in quart jars can be a bit much, for one person.


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## Texasdirtdigger (Jan 17, 2010)

Hi there all....I am still MAJOR gimpy, went back to the Ortho Dr., more x-rays, 2 shots in knee....I can barely get around under my own power. My hip and low back are yelling "uncle". My big male BC, is still "helping" me... herding one leg than the other....Pretty cute and sweet....He just can't seem to understand, while I can't make my way thru the house.
MGM - It's the one with Tylenol in them. Yes. RF, I get the drenching sweats and itches, blurred vision.... and they really don't alleviate much of the pain!!! 
No way am I trying to drive for a few days. 
He gave me Tramadol yesterday...... that stuff makes me sick to my stomach....bad. Not gonna take it... I'm asking for something else, today.

In the ER, they gave me Morphine..... after 3 injections, I asked them not to give me that anymore. It made me feel JICKEY....and sickish....most of all.... did not seem to do a darn thing to offer me relief.
I don't usually even take an asprin.....this has been a new and humbling experience for me.
I have a whole new RESPECT for folks that are in chronic pain....I'm not sure how they( and you RF), stand the deep unrelenting pain. Unbelieveable.

We finally got a couple of inches of rain!!!! And, I had a tree get waay damaged during the storm. So, that will soon become firewood.

They guys have gotten the new wood shed built and the green wood in the back of it. Looks great! They are still working on the shop.. it's a major project and it will take a while. As, I said , we have had rain, so work on the dock is suspended for a while. Word made it back to me yesterday, the natives are restless....they have only had crock pot meals... or, sandwiches....all hubby can muster! I am going to throw one of those Turkey's I have, taking up space, in the oven for them for tomorow. Burgers again today.. they will just have to suffer!!
I am watching weeds starting to get a hold in my garden.....I will have to try to hire someone to take care of that.....I cannot manage it right now. ( Heavy sigh)

I have all that stuff waiting for me to finish re-packageing and goodness knows, chores are stacking up!!

Hubby cashed in another points rewards for ammo. We have notice, the CC'rd co is eliminating rewards and he is not losing any of them.


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## KellyHill (May 8, 2004)

I hav'nt posted in a while ......... Lots happening here!
Hubby lost his job about a year ago, he has another one with higher pay but the hours are not always good. Its one of those feast or famine kinda things. 

We had a family (that we have known for a long time) move in with us last fall. They are a real blessing to have here. The kids are hard workers and they all want to learn to prep! They have picked up on the " buy more when it's on sale" idea. We are expanding the size of the garden this year and I'll be teaching them how to can. They are learning all about the "Homesteading" way of life.

Now we almost always have someone at home, the utilities are being shared, the kids have taken over all my chores, and we have a plan to grow as much of our own vegies as we are able! 

Things are lookin up! :clap:


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## farmermom4 (Feb 17, 2007)

The new wood shed is coming along, we normally store our wood in our basement wood room, and that was great when we used the big furnace down there. A few years ago we installed a wood stove in the dining room and it uses way less wood, so now the logical place to have wood is next to the garage and not in the basement! The plus side, the wood room is going to be my new food storage room, no moisture, it stays cool, and I can put at least a years worth of food in there by this fall, woo hoo!!!!!!!!!
The negative note, got a call from my dr. after my blood work yesterday, I have thyroid issues I guess, I really don't have time for this, oh well will need to make the time I guess! The farmers market starts in a month and I need to get ready!!!!!!


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## Texasdirtdigger (Jan 17, 2010)

I am sightly better...I think....
Was able to get quite a few beets cooked and processed yesterday... I had to do it in shifts... and between pain meds....But, I managed to really tire myself out.
This morn, I vac sealed about 60 lbs flour.... and I'm already worn down. Turkey is in the oven..... whipped up a pineapple upside down cake.....smells heavenly.
My Bub came up yesterday, and took over the crew in the afternoon. Thankfully, he is going to be staying with us for a few days......My DH was really greatfull for the added help. Between nursemaiding me.....which..he has never had to do..... and keeping up with EVERYTHING on the farm.... which,.. he also has never had to do..... and the construction projects..... and the constant gardening......he was ready for a break.
This also will give me a chance to feel my bro out a bit more.. he is recently...seemingly...more interested in, at least dabbling with prepping. I don't pressure him, matter of fact, I don't even bring it up, but I sure wish he would climb on board... in some scale at least. He has been super interested in my larger scale gardening, we will see.
The guys are gonna take down the last damaged tree, and make it firewood today. I am thrilled to have this much wood cut and stacked already. I have a good bit of dry left.
The limbs, we have been stacking up, are going thru the shredder today. I use the mulch in the garden and compost piles. The lake bank is still too wet, to work on, but the shop is taking shape.
I am chomping at the bit, to get back into my all out routine....but, I'll settle for coupon clipping( they are stacking up), and whatever I can manage....without hurting myself more. (Sigh) My Farmers Market starts in a couple of weeks.....I really need to get well....NOW!! My hopes are that I can go to the commercial kitchen, tomorrow, and get several dozn jars of jelly, etc. canned up.

MGM - Time for you to check in....I know Don goes back today...but how are you and Abby doing? Feeling better?

Farmermom4 - What a great place for food storage, Yay!!
Kellyhill.. Sounds like things are looking waaay up for all of you guys. So glad to hear it.


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## tkrabec (Mar 12, 2003)

my GHB version 1 is underway, Ive got food for 4 meals (all tuna). I've got stuff on order from amazon & will possibly hit gander mtn for some other supplies in the next week. I plan to round out food for 3 days, as it will take me 26 hrs of walking to get from work to home in a total SHTF scenario. But more likely I will just have to suffer thru a few hrs of traffic jams & road closures during meal times, as 95 & the turnpike seem to get closed down on a regular basis due to accidents. 

My meager garden is coming along and expanding slowly. I need more dirt & more containers.

I need to finish putting up the hurricane panel rails. 

I will probably be replacing my well pump soon, as I fear it is approaching EOL.


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## manygoatsnmore (Feb 12, 2005)

Heh, my biggest prep is....we're keeping Donavan for a while! He was to fly out this morning, but yesterday, as we were getting packed to go spend the night in a hotel near the airport, his mom called and asked if I'd consider keeping him a while longer, like 6 weeks or so. I thought it over, talked to both Abby and Don, set some ground rules regarding work, Abby doing schoolwork again and getting ready to take her GED, studying for and getting driver's licenses (both of them), etc, and agreed to let him stay. The deal is that if Abby slacks off or it isn't working out for whatever reason, he has to go home, with his mom buying him the ticket. I hope I made the right decision...

So far, so good - they got about 1/3 of the first deep packed stall cleaned out between yesterday and today. I'm finally getting the raised mound in the front corner of the yard that I want for an edible landscaping bed! I should have enough bedding to spread about 4" across the entire lawn area so I can actually grow GRASS there. Makes good grazing for the goats, as well as a nicer place for the grands to play in summer. Also enough bedding to make lots of compost, and to spread the seedy bits all over the pastures and through the woods to improve the stand of grass (which is pretty sparse in some spots). I'm so looking forward to clean stalls and lush pastures. :happy:

I'm feeling much better, although I am off work again tonight...I have my energy pretty much back, but now it's progressed to the cough and hoarseness portion of the program.  I didn't figure my already sick patients needed this bug.

RF - ouch, I cannot imagine living with that kind of chronic pain, day in and day out, and the meds causing that kind of side effects...I don't know if I'm lucky or what, but even after using them for years for chronic migraines, a half of a Vicodin ES (7.5/500) usually kicks my pain while leaving me functional. If anything, it gives me insomnia...probably one of the effects of my ADD - stimulants calm me down and make me focus, and opiates wake me up. :stars: Weird, I know. I had thought about trying acupuncture for my headaches, but after surgical menopause, I don't have nearly the trouble with migraines as I used to. The occasional "power surge", yes, but I'd rather have hot flashes than headaches, lol! Okay, a little TMI.  Yeah, we are doing a fair job of turning Don into a "country boy", lol! He has totally taken over our bottle baby, Squawk (she does). He's saying, "Please, Mom, can I keep her?" She's on the possible keep list, depending on what we do with the rest of the herd. He's also amazed with the idea that I made cinnamon rolls from scratch and that canned and dehydrated food tastes GOOD!  Isn't Freecycle wonderful for building materials? I'm hoping to come up with enough to finish a greenhouse addition off the south end of the house, using CL, freecycle, glass shops, garage sales, etc...since I have help to build it, there is a good chance it will actually happen. 

TDD - Anne, glad to hear that you are feeling a bit better, but wishing you back to total health and your normal life soon! For someone as much on the go as you usually are, this must be about killing you (taking it easy). Wish the pain meds worked better for you. Have they tested the fluid they took off your knee (culture and sensitivity) to make sure you're getting the right antibiotic to kill the infection? Glad to hear that your db is there to help out with your projects, since you can't yet. Your poor dh probably has a whole new respect for how hard to work (if you are looking for a silver lining)!

KellyHill - good that you have a compatible family there with you and that things are looking up, jobwise.

tkrabed - you have a long walk if it comes to that...good that you are working on that GHB. I have about 30 miles to hike myself if I had to walk home. I just got an exterior frame backback a few weeks ago, and am still in the process of loading it up to keep in the rig. Need to add a lightweight tent to it, among other things.

farmermom4 - I envy anyone with a basement....I grew up in an old farmhouse with a wood room in the basement. My brother and sil have the place now. I'm in a manufactured home and really miss having the storage space and dry wood without having to trek outside. If I had a basement now, I'd be building in a fallout shelter, too. It can double as a root cellar, so no waste of space. Sigh...

It hailed here for about 20 minutes today - looked like it had snowed out! At least after it stopped we had a glimpse of the sun for a bit - that's been pretty rare here this Spring. I'm still working on seed starting here in the house - planted a few winter squash last night. The pie pumpkin I started a month ago is now trying to wrap tendrils around the baker's rack and has tiny buds on it. We're still over a month out from safely planting it in the garden!


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## farmermom4 (Feb 17, 2007)

Wood shed is done!! Woo Hoo! Will paint it this summer when we paint the garage doors.
Got my hoophouse supplies delivered today, now just need to get the lumber needed to get them up, hoping to get some plants going early for market this year. Started transplanting the tomatoes into bigger pots but still have tons of plants to go... Taking care of my new nephew this week as his mom is back to work, will have him two days a week starting next week, babies are the best, just needed to rework my work schedule, lol...


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## Texasdirtdigger (Jan 17, 2010)

I was able to lumber around more yesterday..... It felt pretty good .. considering..... still a struggle.
Got an order for Granola yesterday... going to go to the kitchen today....had planned to make jelly... but, this comes first. I'll just have to take it easy.
There is a young man, I have used before, he is from a local college....he is going to help me out...I cannot carry the heavy stuff, right now.
I am going to see if he will consider working in the garden some... 'till I can get around better.
Vacpacked and Mylared 50 lbs. beans..
Dh pumped rain barrels into big holding tanks.
Db ran herd on the guys... they are really working hard... Trees are taken care of and they are back to work on the shop.
MGM - Your ground rules sound reasonable to me.....I know you are glad to have the help....hope you are back to kickin it hard, soon, too.


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## radiofish (Mar 30, 2007)

Well this morning I awoke to the commerical power being back on.. We lost power yesterday afternoon/ night for several hours, which occured when I was up at the neighbors..

http://www.times-standard.com/ci_17786953?source=most_viewed

Then it was thundering and lightening here last night, which scared the dickens out of my cat.. She was in hiding for a while, and no amount of coaxing could get her out of her hiding place/ kitty bunker.. 

At least I was not sitting here in the dark, with no heat, or not having anyway to cook a meal.. Oil lamps/ candles illuminated, the wood stove served double duty as heating the house, and allowed me to cook my dinner on it's top.

When I awoke this morning the (snow) evil white fluffy stuff was on the ground again - with about an inch and a half of accumilation. I had not been up long, when the cell phone rang with news of the latest 7.1 in magnitude Japan Earthquake. So off to the radio room, and the locals were once again on alert, until we received the 'All Clear', as far as a possible West Coast Tsunami Warning (again).

Today I need to scan some stuff on my desktop computer, which came home from the local repair shop the other day. I have my printers, scanner, etc. set up for use on my desktop and not on my laptop computer. The laptop computer can be run on 12 VDC on the ham radio room battery bank system, with it's external DC power supply. I did that last night when we got the land-line phones back, before the commerical power was restored.

Luckily I am home for the rest of the week, till next Monday. So at least I won't have to go farther than the front neighbor's - which I can walk up to. We were transplanting seedlings yesterday afternoon, when the power went out. So we need to finish that chore. I don't think that we will be turning the raised beds and adding chicken manure/ compost today with the snow on the ground. I don't think that the seedlings will go onto the raised beds for at least a month of so.. The neighbors have told me of in the past - it does snow up here as late as late April/ early May.

MGM - so you have your hired help for a few more weeks?? Just make sure those youngsters do accomplish, what they have told you that their goals are. Make sure to send that fella home with a good set of skills, by the time you are through with him!

Acupuncture treatment does relieve my pain levels for a few days, after each visit being a 'human voodo doll'. Or at least, I don't look at my bottles of pain meds quite so often.. Living with the pain is something that one must do... Some say I manage well since I was a Marine, and I have to disagree.. It has to do more with keeping a positive outlook, and one heck of a strange sense of humor.. Every day that I am six feet above ground (I'm 6'4" tall), is a good day!!!

My acupuncturist is married to one of my doctors, so I have been planting ideas of prepping with them. Apparently it is working, since they both have told me of their stocking up on items, and going thru their camping gear recently. Some of my other doctors with my conversations over time, have gone on to acquire their own State of California CCW Licenses. One of my doctor's son is coming home from his 2nd tour with the USMC over in Afghanistan, in about 3 weeks. There is talk that maybe several of us might be going to the local outdoor public firing range, and his dad (my doctor) is wanting to get a few pointers on firearms, from us Marines.

TDD - glad to hear that you are getting around a bit more!! I remember from when I had the full leg cast from the hip to my foot removed. I rejoiced when I could start doing some simple things again, such as sitting on a stool doing dishes, vacuuming the carpets from a sitting position, and being able to drive a vehicle for the 1st time in months. Sounds like your DH needs a raise or at least some extra 'brownie points', for his riding herd on all of those projects!


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## manygoatsnmore (Feb 12, 2005)

*Farmermom4*. congrats on getting the wood shed finished!

*TDD*, hiring the college student sounds like a really great idea. Glad you are starting to get around better, now just don't overdo it, missy! :nono: Have you received the seed train box yet? I hear it is headed your way! I'm wondering if I forgot to put in the Kuri squash seed for you...I found a little packet of it with your name on it today. I put in a big envelope of those seeds for general sharing, so hopefully you'll get some, one way or another. If not, let me know and I'll send you some.

*RF*, no, no more snow - it's springtime for goodness sake! It was bad enough to still see hail sliding off the tarp over the buck pen and into the water bucket today. At least it was mostly dry here today.

I agree, a positive attitude and a sense of humor (warped, wacky or otherwise) makes a huge difference in coping with adversity of any kind. I have often thought that it is not just the prepper with all the toys, but the one with a good outlook that is going to thrive in a SHTF situation. Whether it's dealing with constant pain, or a natural disaster unfolding around you, getting through it is a lot more mindset than anything.

Good on you, for converting your MD and acupuncturist couple to preppers - good to have them on your team if needed. Aee they invited to the "bunker"? If the SHTF, it would make a huge difference if you were able to continue the acupuncture pain relief. Better than the "Homer Simpson" doughnut drool, anyway. 

The kids worked pretty hard today - got more of the stall cleaned. Had to laugh at Donavan, though - he says the deep pack STINKS! He's right, but it's not as bad as chicken houses.  He also took all the string and bale twine off my tiller tines for me while I was digging in the garden - my little electric Mantis is back to full power and sounding good again. I used it to till up another small raised bed area, then built the bed and filled it. I found that a bunch of strawberry plants I'd dug last year and left in the tub were stubborn enough to survive the abuse and where sprouting new leaves, so I planted the new bed to strawberries. That gives me 6 raised beds of just strawberries. I LOVE them, so no problems there.  I also dug up the next walkway and turned those sods under around the plum tree rootstock and blueberries. Getting ready to make a couple long beds in that area, so I can plant vegies between the bushes and trees in the row. Gathered up all the extension cords I could find outside and brought them in to fix - Muttley Wonder damage.  I need to do some mending before I have enough cords to use the tiller in the further reaches of the garden patch.

Came in and made a quick dinner, then after the kids did the dishes (Donavan is GREAT for getting Abby to work on the dishes, which she hates with a passion), I made the first batch of the year of chocolate pudding from goat's milk. Don had never had cooked from scratch pudding. He said pudding wasn't supposed to thicken in the microwave, it was supposed to thicken in the fridge, lol. I thought I used too much cornstarch in this batch - it tasted a little grainy and over thick...I haven't made it for a while and went back to the original recipe in the old Joy of Cooking cookbook - I forgot that I've tweaked it over the years. Ah, well, they seemed to like it and I thought it was edible, just not as good as normal. Next batch will be better. It uses up a half gallon of milk per batch, so it's a GOOD thing to make for dessert. He also opened up a jar of cherry jelly and thought it was awesome. I wasn't about to tell him how old that jar of jelly was, lol. He's been teasing me already about some of the stuff I've fed him. Nice kid, and very polite, but you can tell he's getting used to being here and loosening up a lot. 

I planted a few more squash and pumpkin seeds today, and found still MORE tomato seedlings popping up. At this rate, I really will have 100% germination on the tomatoes.

Yesterday, I took apart all the Berkeys and scrubbed them down with a green scrubby pad. It's amazing how much more water is filtering through them with a layer of iron deposits removed.


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## Texasdirtdigger (Jan 17, 2010)

MGM- No, I have not seen the seed train.....was wondering where it was....
Went and made granola, yesterday 6 hrs....I made it thru the day...but, I was ready for a pain pill and an ice pack.....man....oh, man.
I am taking it easy today.....although, I don't want to.
RF- I cannot believe ya'll are still gettting snow.....you are right, it is evil stuff.
I'm moving around slightly better....but, not as much as, I had hoped.
This is really cramping my style....Oh well!!
My Dh needs to give ME a raise... I am the one, who usually rangles all this stuff around here.... for the most part! He just got an unwelcomed dose, of what I handle on a daily basis. lol!!


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## Ann-NWIowa (Sep 28, 2002)

I purchased two waxed cartons of dried potatoes. Hash browns and dices. I'm wondering if I should repackage in glass jars or if I can add them to my storeroom in the waxed paper cartons.


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## manygoatsnmore (Feb 12, 2005)

After taking the day off yesterday to play tourist (we took Don to see the volcano in our back yard), today was spent doing things like making laundry soap, planting asparagus seeds, weeding the raised beds (so nice that it only takes a few minutes to pull weeds out of the mulch), and sharpening the chainsaw so I could cut wood. Unfortunately, the saw tip was pinched in a log today and now it wants to throw off the chain. (I don't think I should share my saw with ANYONE anymore). Kind of put a crimp in cutting up the tree that fell across the way from the parking area. I think I can fix it without having to make a run to town. I did get quite a bit of small wood, branches and the like cut up, anyway. I also cleaned the ashes out of the woodstove and picked up all the trash the Muttley Wonder spread across the yard again. Abby and Don pitched more bedding out of the first goat stall, took care of milking, feeding bottle babies, and trimmed more hooves. 

Abby doctored our old Nubian doe who was off her feed and had diarrhea. I told her what to do, but had her do it. She needs to know and needs to actually practice it. By tonight, Ariel was up and eating again, so I think she has turned the corner. We'll see in the morning. I don't know what she ate, but something didn't agree.

I'm hoping that the weather will hold for another day...I have more planting I want to get done in the garden, and if I can get the chainsaw to work, I want to cut up a couple trees.


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## Explorer (Dec 2, 2003)

April 10, the day I like to start planting my garden (one month before last expected freeze). Will not happen today as we had about 6" of wet snow yesterday and it is still covering my garden area.


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## margo (May 29, 2002)

Ann NW Iowa, I believe I would repackage, especially larger quantities into bags of smaller portions. If it is for longer term storage especially. then place into container that is sealable against bugs and moisture.


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## Ohio dreamer (Apr 6, 2006)

The suns out, temps are up and the grass is turning green....in-spite of that (allergies are kicking in big time) we did get some things done. DH and I got 3 bales of peat and 3 wheelbarrow loads of compost into our new raised bed that will be strawberries and blue berries. That was about all we could muster, yesterday. Today we cleaned a messy area in the basement (DH's "zone", verses the mess in one of my "zones"), I sorted out a few tubs of homeschool books we are not going to use that DS took up to church with him this evening. Our church garage sale is this week, the youth are helping sort things as things are dropped off tonight. So that 2 more boxes of stuff out of the basement. Much of the rest will go to the homeschoool used book sale in June....they are too homeschool specific for a general garage sale.

The BIG thing is DH got 2 more shelves put up in the food storage room!! We have the wood for the other shelves, but need to put up more runners, first. One can only do so much with nasty headaches (the meds bring them down to only nasty). I re-potted 4 tomatoes. They are turning yellow and I'm not sure why. They may have maxed out the spot they are in, so I'm hoping re-potting so they have more soil to spread into will be the ticket. I started them in those tiny 72 spot greenhouses you get for $7...the little peat discs that swell when wet don't give too much growth space. Seedling spent the day outside, I hope they are liking the sun and warmth (as well as the breeze - some are getting a bit floppy)....I'm wondering if the basement is too cold.


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## manygoatsnmore (Feb 12, 2005)

Today we mended the rotten spots on both porches, cut up a lot more wood (got the chainsaw chain back on and working fine  ), did a little barn cleaning, mended nearly all the extension cords the Muttley Wonder chewed to pieces, mended one of the axes, cleaned the iron out of the filter to the washing machine, cleaned out the kitchen nook clutter, put together the "Luggable Loo", and planted kohlrabi and cabbage seedlings out in the garden. I have broccoli seedlings about ready to go out, too. Ariel is feeling much better, too, so it's been a good day all the way around. Now I'm waiting for Abby and Donavan to get the dishes finished so I can make more pudding.


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## Texasdirtdigger (Jan 17, 2010)

Still walking very guardedly....still lot's of pain. Trying not to take pain meds.
Seed train did arrive today..... looking thru....will send out tomorrow. MGM - Thanks for the care package! Much appreciated.
We had a storm cell come thru and re filled my rain barrels....we have already used what we had caught in the big storage tanks. We were under a wildfire warning yesterday, So, the rain was welcome.
Been kinda quiet on the prep front, since I went on injured reserved......seems strange. I am ready to get back into the groove! I am having withdrawal.
This just goes to show you......life can derail you.....when you least expect it..no matter how hard you try to follow your prep plans.


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## machinist (Aug 3, 2010)

Yes, life can derail you! It has happened to me several times. So, I try hard to keep things in the best shape I can--not always successfully.

I did get the gardens plowed just ahead of 4+ inches of rain this week. Today I scrubbed out 3 dozen applesauce jars that a friend gave to us. At the moment, my wife has them in the dishwasher to finish cleaning them. These will get hot-packed with about 4 gallons of sorghum syrup later this week, bought from another friend. Just heat jars in a boiling water bath, heat the syrup in a kettle to 180* or more, fill the jars and screw the lids on tight. When they cool off, they seal and stay that way. 

I welded the handle back on my so-called stainless steel garden trowel from Wally World. It not only ain't stainless (it is magnetic, and it RUSTS), it broke, too. Really poor stuff. :flame:

We received 800 watts of solar panels yesterday. Already had some, so this makes enough to install the system now with 1,600 watts total. Lots of work to be done there. I have twelve volts DC wiring done for most of the house, and have the rest of the equipment on hand. This is supposed to run our fridge, freezer (840 watt-hrs./day), lights, and communications. It will make our home essentially off-grid. No water pumping on this, but we have a cistern just outside the kitchen door with a hand pump. Got a wood stove for heat, and small DC fans to circulate the heat. We used that system this winter and it worked very well. We will keep the grid power for the shop, although there is a lot I can do in the shop without it. There is just no way to run a 400 amp AC welder on solar power! At least, not on my budget. 

Lots more to do. We are retired, so we have more time to prep, but less energy. Oh well, it will get done when it gets done.


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## manygoatsnmore (Feb 12, 2005)

TDD, you are most welcome - enjoy!  Take the time to let that knee heal...that's an important prep, too. 

machinist, I'm slowly working my way toward solar, too. I'd love to have enough batteries and solar panels to run my well, and I just won an small inverter from the contest here on S&EP! :happy: Thanks, RadioFish! 

Monday was a good stock up day - took Abby, Donavan, and my other dd, Kait, as well as dgs Kadyn to the grocery store for a major stockup trip, then went to Bob's to get half gallon canning jars - they are up to 12.99 for a case of 12, plus tax. If I can get used jars for less than 2.35, I'll grab all I can get. We use the half gallons for milk. We also hit the .99 sale at Goodwill. I found a leather couch for 49.99, a lightweight "Hannah Montana" sleeping bag for $4 (the granddaughters can fight over who gets to use it), got Don outfitted with a belt, shoes and boots, found a half water barrel to go under the drip line, and found a lot more goodies, including buying Easter outfits for the grands. Got an extra 10% off on the whole order, too. 

I had a long list of errands to run this morning, including picking up the couch. I'd rather have gone home to bed, but I needed to keep my brain busy and not think, so I went to Lowe's...picked up an extra bar and chain for the Husquavarna, some wire nuts and electrical tape to finish fixing up the extension cords, and I totally scored on the markdown lumber. I took home 3 bundles that nearly filled the bed of the truck - 2x10x10's - 7 for $2 each, a big bundle of pressure treated 2x6s and 2x2s, and another huge bundle of 1bys...everything from 1x2 to 1x8s in up to 12' lengths. I think I have enough to finish the new porch steps, greenhouse frames, shelves and lots more raised beds. I laid out 4 more beds tonight, leveled, built and partially filled a U shaped bed about 3'4"x10'x10' with a 33" square 6 inches deep around one of my new fruit trees (don't want to bury the feeder roots too deeply, so I'll fill it slowly over several years) at the end and a matching big bed on the other side. My hips and stamina gave out before I could finish the 2nd frame...it's about 1/2 done. Donavan built a table for my band saw and got it going with a new band and a bit of tuning up, and fixed the cord on my skill saw (more Muttley Wonder damage), while Abby played gofer and took care of the milking and goat care. It would have been a great couple days if I could get my mind to turn off.

Tomorrow the kids have the place to themselves while I go on a bus trip with my bff to the tulip fields of Skagit Valley. I think it will do me good to get away and I always have a good time with my best friend.


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## Ohio dreamer (Apr 6, 2006)

I finally pulled another load of compost out of the pile and added it to one of the beds. I then set out 160 onions in it. Turned another bed to mix in the leaves we set on them last fall. So, it's starting to look like spring around here. Should hit 60's tomorrow (a one day wonder) so I'll have to get out and get another bed ready, then chop firewood for the weekend :sob:

25# of dried cranberries arrived today. The coordinator for the bulk buying needed to come to town so she just dropped it off, so not only did I get a great deal, but didn't have to drive the car to get it!

DH went out to lunch with work yesterday (work paid) and there were a stack of food grade 2 gallon buckets with a sign "Free to a good home" siting there! DH loaded them up and brought them home....16 buckets and 9 lids. I see dried cranberries in their future, lol.


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## jamala (May 4, 2007)

Expanded the grape arbor today to plant 3 new grapes. Got the kiwi an arbor made.


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## manygoatsnmore (Feb 12, 2005)

Even on a bus trip to Tulip Town, I managed to find a prep! We had some free time in LaConner, a small town in the Skagit Valley, and hit a thrift shop there. I found a cast iron, stovetop waffle iron. Not a marked piece, other than the numeral 8 on it, but well seasoned, like someone had used it lovingly and regularly. Being a cheapskate, I "waffled" a bit on paying the price, but finally decided that $25 was still a pretty good bargain, and bought it. Looking forward to trying it out. I'm going to go Google it and see if I can find a link to a pic of one like it. It has a ring that sits around the burner on a regular stove (or on top a woodstove), and 2 halves that fit together and make a little ball on one side and the handles on the other. You cook the waffle halfway, then lift up on the handle side, swivel the ball end to turn the waffle over and set it back down to cook the other side. Kind of like an early edition of one of the waffle makers at the hotels. I have a Belgian waffle maker that sits on a stove, too, but this one is "cooler", not to mention, it should last forever.

After getting off the bus at the W-M parking lot, my friend and I checked out the seed selection there - found .20 seed packets and bought 15 packs of carrot seed, 5 turnip and 3 oriental poppy, in case I ever have to resort to making our own pain meds.  These seeds will be bagged and frozen for future use, as I have plenty of seed for this year.


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## beaglebiz (Aug 5, 2008)

MGM...that might be a really old lodge. I was gifted with some nice cast iron recently and I think the 8 means it is an 8 inch waffle iron. These old cast iron are worth way more than money to me (and you), but the value is placed on the griswold (i think because of the quality, and its no longer made)
Good for you....
dont forget waffle sundaes, and chicken and waffles ...yum


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## radiofish (Mar 30, 2007)

Well it seems that I am on animal care duty at my neighbors for the next several days, since they are away.. This means that morning 'room service' will be up there by no later than 8 am every morning, and I will have a chorus of happy animal noises greeting my arrival every time.

At least their animals are glad to see me and don't try to hard to 'mug' me, when it is feeding time. The toughest ones are the huge black labs when they come running full-tilt-boogie at you, because they are happy to see someone they know/ trust. And they don't try to bite the tires on my vehicles, as I have seen them try to do with the mailman or other delivery drivers. I call those dogs the "thundering herd", and we do have doggie boot camp - with the owners permission. Since I patiently work with them on obedience training by using hand signals/ voice commands with lots of praise and treats for following my commands. The neighbor's are amazed at how well I have gotten their dogs to behave. At other times they can be like the average teenager - with selective hearing, to plain not doing anything they don't like!

When the rain slacks off today, I have to go down to town to mail off a package to MGM - the winner of the DC to AC Inverter. Then I'll go to fill my small GMC 4X4 and have a case of sticker shock at the gas pump, for the current price of fuel.

My main project this weekend will be to try and get to the buried treasure in the chest freezer on the back porch. I am gonna pull out a frozen turkey for meals next week, and that will give me a chance to rotate the stuff down on the bottom up towards the top. Along with defrosting that critter, it will be a huge accomplishment to see what has been hiding down there.

With lots of rain predicted for this weekend, I guess that any outside gardening or doing battle with the lawn, is out of the question.


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## Plainswalker (Sep 24, 2009)

I got a free pass in the mail for Sam's Club so I went there today with DW and stocked up more on food and toiletries. 

My collection of silver jewelry from thrift stores has been growing. I'm up to almost 7 oz. I usually can buy it for 25-50% of its melt value. I bought a small scale and a jeweler's loupe off of Amazon to help in my treasure hunting. 

I picked up a wool blanket and an 8-quart Presto pressure cooker/canner from the thrift shop for $10 total. The canner needed a new seal and weight but it will still be less than half price of new.

I repacked my BOB tonight and made a list of things that I need to add. Most of the stuff is relatively cheap but I am going to wait until next month to buy it because I've already overspent my prepping allowance. I am using a nice used assault pack that my brother gave me as my BOB but I may try to find a different one. It is digital camo so it sticks out in my suburban environment and my bro took off the waist strap that helps spread out the load. The fully loaded pack weighs under 30 lbs. and I am young, but it would be much easier to carry with the strap.

I hope to build some more shelves for storage and get parts of my garden in by the end of the month.


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## Texasdirtdigger (Jan 17, 2010)

Well ya'll.... We have been in sheer panic....We have been experiencing rageing Wildfires very close. Everything in our lives stopped last week... for the most part, except for moving our pastured stock and helping to evacuate a close friend and all his family and animals. 
The winds have been gusting 60 mph creating choaking thick smoke. Thousands of acres, many homes, and unfortunately, one courageous Firefighter have been lost.
The fires are still burning... winds are expected to increase again this afternoon....no rain in sight. More Firefighters are on their way.
We are all safe.
Keep your BOB updated and much water with you!
Wow.....just unbelieveable.


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## manygoatsnmore (Feb 12, 2005)

Oh, dear - stay safe, TDD.

Worked the last 3 nights - being full time now is going to be a big help with preps, especially paying off that mortgage.

Finished putting together another raised bed in the garden today, and worked on tilling up soil to fill it. Got chased inside by hail, and decided to call it a day (running on very little sleep over the last few days and I'm about ready to call it a night). Took the tarp off the shed and removed bracing and a few trusses (Don did this for me)...we will reinstall them and make sure everything is level and in alignment so the roof sheathing and roll roofing can finally be installed. :happy: 

Yesterday our final doe kidded for this year. Had a single doeling - as this was one of our "teen moms", I was just relieved that she delivered easily and had a healthy kid. We finally lost the little doeling with the broken leg, so it was nice to have another doeling born. One more little head to disbud...Put my name/phone # down at the feedstore so when people ask about goats for sale they can have them call me. 

One deep bedded stall is totally cleaned - one to go...loving the mostly composted bedding coming out of the barn.


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## Plainswalker (Sep 24, 2009)

Picked up another 25 lbs. of rice and 8 cans of soup today. Also priced materials for shelves for more storage.


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## farmermom4 (Feb 17, 2007)

My three does all kidded the same day, had 11 total, lost 2. My teenage doe had one live and one dead kid also. Picked up the steers, we will have meat in the freezer this fall!
Thyroid tests came back, just need to be monitored, nothing on the thyroid so that is great. Starting to stock back up with the sales. 
Tranplanting like crazy getting ready for our farmers market the first Sat. of May, got 504 tomatoes transplanted this last weekend. Tons more seedlings to go!!
You wouldn't know it is spring here, had snow flurries all day!!!


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## Texasdirtdigger (Jan 17, 2010)

Trying to get ourselves back on track.....pastures did subcumb to the fire - 2 out buildings......Thank God, that was all we lost. The fires still are out of control and super high winds and 100 degree temp, again today. Dh and crew are moving the stock we brought back to another range. Taking a deep breath and thanking our lucky stars!!
We really learned how important it is,to keep equipment in good shape-all trailers ready, tires aired up, gas in vehicles , etc- ready to go, BOB's on board.
I am going to the drug store today and re-stock with several large bottles of eye wash...I had really under-estimated this as a COMPLETELY NECESSARY prep item. We had to work our dogs in the round up and they were really suffering with the smoke, as did we. They all got checked at the Vet, yesterday.They gave them a little oxygen... to help clear their lungs and irritated air ways, feet checked, more eye wash, scrubbed, lots of treats for reward and the have all been resting for a solid 24 hrs. Poor things. (They are worth their weight in gold!!)

Horses being checked out today.

I really under estimated water consumption needs....I had 3/5 gals in my truck, and a couple of 24 cases in our truck.. other trucks had several gallon bottles and 6 cases. We blew thru that so fast... we had, of course,to stay hydrated (93F and 50-60mph winds), water dogs and keep our faces and eyes washed out ( dogs ,also), and cool down( dogs, also). It was zero visibility, at times, from the smoke.( we actually had to use our compass for navigation....on horse back!!! Never took that into consideration. Also, we used glow sticks hung on our saddles and dogs collars to keep visual tabs.... never thought about that either..... I will be adding more water to storage, for sure. Thinking about checking in to respirators.... paper - or whatever, masks and wet bandanas... were really worthless in this scenario. Goggles were miserable.

I am still limping......market garden is being harvested....and replanted.
I still have not gotten around to making jelly...I will be playing catch up... as soon as, I catch my breath and clear my head. Sounds trival, right now... but, it has to be done.
We are letting my brothers crew off for a few days.....they helped us with the stock round-up... thank goodness... I am absolutly sure.....none of those guys thought they were signing on for something like that!! LOL!! None of them knew how to ride... or herd...but, they could sure drive the trucks and trailers!!

They have been great and are doing such a great job. I love how people pull together, when they REALLY need to.

I plan to spend today being quiet, reflective and GRATEFULL!!


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## GoldenCityMuse (Apr 15, 2009)

Bought 5 qts shelf stable milk from $ Tree. $5 in all.


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## Texasdirtdigger (Jan 17, 2010)

I did get out today and replace the water, we used.....plus more.
I took everyone's smoke and soot laden clothes to a commercial laundromat....We had left everything outdoors, they reeked so bad. I had to wash them twice.... even using baking soda!
I have not been in a laundromat since 1969!!! Prices sure have gone up since then!
Hubby got home... has been taking a long deserved sleep. I feel like I am moving in slow motion......It is still surreal.

Fire continues to rage..... Heaven help everyone involved and the brave souls trying to fight with no end in sight.


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## manygoatsnmore (Feb 12, 2005)

What a horrific experience, TDD. I'm so thankful that you are all right. Your experience is a definite lesson for the rest of us, or at least for me, anyway. I know my trailer is low on air in the tires, and has a few other things that need fixed up so it's ready for instant use...if we had a fire and had to leave with the animals ASAP, I'd be in trouble.

We've been working on the shed roof and building raised beds in the garden over the last few days. I'm slowly turning my garden into raised bed central...today I cleared and leveled the area right inside the front garden gate, and got the cardboard and wood chips down on it. I made it into a little sitting area with some plastic patio chairs so I can sit and admire my efforts occasionally. Also tilled up more ground and got more areas ready for the next beds to be built. Been freezing at night the last 3-4 nights, so all my tender plants are still inside. I'm sure looking forward to being able to plant them out.

After working on the garden for a while, we decided to take time to play - target practice time! We shot the .22 and the 20g shotgun...Abby is really liking the .22, but doesn't even want to try the 20g. Too noisy, she says! I like it, not too much kick, but I'm still more comfy with the .22, too.


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## Texasdirtdigger (Jan 17, 2010)

Yes, MGM, I KNOW how easy it is to think....that tire looks low.....but, I'm not going to be using it anytime soon. I have done that 1000 times or more, I am guilty.... In our case, our biggest, most relied on trailers....were overbuldging with building materials.....We had to unload them... which only added to the stress and MOST OF ALL, altered our window of safe oppurtunity. I already know I will be a neurotic lunitic, concerning being lax and assumptive from this point on....
I have always felt I was doing a good job on preps and stores and kept my wits sharpened.....Let me tell you.....I have been humbled greatly and my eyes are more wide open. I was NOT in control....no one was.....no one is..
Wildfires, Hurricanes, Tornado's, Earthquakes, Floods, etc......all happen on their own terms....we are just along for the ride.

My hired hand- college student- lol! - Is coming to work the garden today. He has just been a dream come true. He begged to help with the round up, but I would not allow him to be placed in danger. I told him, how much I needed him to stay here and how much I was depending on him. His heart was in the right place, but I just couldn't let him go along. He stayed and did a fantastic job. I wish I had a dozen just like him!
My BUB, stayed back here with him...he has COPD, and could not take the acrid smoke and high heat.
They managed the animals here, he worked in the garden and tried to keep us in the know.

On a upbeat note.... after a few errands today......I AM makeing Jelly for the Farmers Market. I have a Wedding to cater this weekend...... so, let the cooking begin!!

I am gonna let DH sleep as long as he wants.... He is congested.....smoke, dirt and pollen, no doubt. I am sneezing, more than usual, myself. No construction workers today. It should be quiet here.
All doggies are still worn out... smoke and heat was really hard on them. I am keeping them down, cool and hydrated.( Ever tried to keep a bunch of Border Collies still? lol!! They are not fighting me to much.....Lots of treats!!! Horses checked out fine.... They are getting prettied up today....they smell like smoke and sweat.

I am going to make some time to inventory BOBs and re access......I have now realized I need a "community" style bag, also. Remember all the guys we took with us... who had nothing?? 

Yes, my eyes have been opened and my boldness.... has been slapped down to size.

In the meanwhile.....The fires rage on...........


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## Texasdirtdigger (Jan 17, 2010)

Hubby spent the afternon, looking over the trailers and vehicles and stageing them.... We are ever aware... the fires are still a threat.....although, they are some miles away from where we actually live. We have come to terms,with the realization, if it closes in... we cannot save it and will just have to leave.

I was happily trying to get back to my usual, yesterday.... I got a call from my sister. She asked if we were safe and wanted to know our escape plans....She then.... matter of factly mentioned.... she had been diagioned with Breast Cancer.
WHAM!!!
She lives pretty far from me.... and of course....I want to go to her. She said not to come.
We have got to stay on point here and I don't feel I can leave DH.

I don't know which way to turn right now.

How the heck do you prep for all of this???


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## Ohio dreamer (Apr 6, 2006)

Day 4 of boiling turkey caucuses to make broth to can...YUCK! I really hate turkey, but our Range has a game dinner as a fund raiser every year. Being I'm cheap, I can't pass up "free food". So I had DH take in a bucket for them to toss all the bones in from the turkeys for me to cook up. Some of those caucuses were more meat then bones! I have the third batch of broth in the caner, the fouth batch of bone cooling from their first boil (second boil I crack the bones and add in a bit of vinegar). That batch will be caned up tomorrow.

Took the kids to see my grandma this week. We were driving by Sam's so I stopped for gas and went in and did some price updating so I could plan a shopping trip in the next few weeks. I was surprised how much the prices have gone up in the last 5 weeks! GFS (a food service store in our region) is now cheaper then some of the stuff we usually get at Sam's (I was at GFS last week checking prices). SO I will be canning up as much of the freezer as I can this weekend and run over and sock up before GFS's prices catch up to Sam's. I'd rather can up the "older" frozen food and have the "fresher" frozen food for summer grilling. I'll sock up on frozen veg, too, to bring home and run through the dryer. Some things we don't grow like sweet peas and corn, so I'll dry up a bunch for winter soups, stews and casseroles. I'll get carrots, too, as we don't have enough yard for all the carrots we'd like to grow.

Planted raspberries and a blackberry DH got from a co-worker. Too bad the blackberry wasn't marked or in a different bag so I could plant it in a different spot. Guess I'll just have to dig it back up once I know which start it was. For free I won't complain over a bit of extra digging and moving!


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## Texasdirtdigger (Jan 17, 2010)

DH and guys have spent the entire day , plowing/ discing fence lines dozing and burying scrub and brush. They placed the two big pumps at the ready on the lake. Maybe we can at least soak some things down, if need be.
He went and bought several more sets of bolt/ fence cutters.....we found 1 set was not enough in that scenario. We were almost fighting over them. I picked up 16 small fire estinguishers today, for each veh, tractor, trailer s and horse pack. It's not much, but when seconds count......He also bought a couple of mid size chain saws....the big ones we had were just to tiring and strength sapping.
We are still hanging tough.....If I just can get thru that wedding tomorrow! Maybe I can focus and be more beneficial to DH.
I feel so disconected and unprodroductive.
Bless everyone who is touched by these monsters. And, Bless my sister.


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## Horsefly (Sep 17, 2009)

TDD, honey you are in my prayers. Stay strong & safe


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## Texasdirtdigger (Jan 17, 2010)

Horsefly - Thank you.
HT has been my refuge, these last few days for sure.

Sadly, another Firefighter's life has been taken.

If anyone cares to pray......thousands being touched bt this, will be most grateful, I am sure. Including myself.

I have to ( reluctantly) cater a wedding today . I cannot be the one who ruins one of the most important days of their lives.( plus ,I have a contract to fulfill)

I hate that I have to leave dh to try to stratigize it all. He is exhausted and still horribly congested from the smoke, dirt and who knows what else. I feel like I am turning my back on him, when he needs me.

My DH,DB and the guys are all here... they stayed and worked all night on the field rows.
They are in bed for 3 hrs and then, back up and at it.

My dogs are doing better, their paws are healing and they are no longer limping. I, on the other hand,am still limping.
No rest for the weary.


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## radiofish (Mar 30, 2007)

TDD - Glad that you did not get singed with the fires close by!!!! Being Catholic, I'll light candles in a safe manner, for all of you in the fire zones.

In reading your posts about lack of water and your crew having no supplies, made me think of why I haul soooo much gear/ supplies when I am called out for emergencies. I don't want to be a burden on those with no supplies in a disaster area, and I always do figure on possibly handing out some supplies to those that are in true need that I may encounter in an emergency.

This week has been busy. Between caring for the neighbor's animals, which has given me even more respect for those that do that every day. I also had to do a 'Banzai' run on Monday and Tuesday going down to San Francisco (600+ miles R/T), in order to take my sweetie's dad to the VA Hospital for his follow up appointments. The neighbor's daughter came up to do animal care while I was gone..

So my injured leg/ knee has been very painful this week. I did get an acupuncture treatment on Thursday, but with the rains the metal pins in my leg have been painful!! Ice packs/ bags of frozen veggies have been used for pain control to the point, that I am afraid of getting frostbite!

I did go to the markets on Thursday, but did not find many deals or loss leaders this week. I am looking forward to Monday the day after Easter, for when Holiday chocolates go on marked down sales prices. I have a couple of large popcorn tins to fill with sealed zip-loc bags of goodies, since I have been sharing my stash with the neighbors. That way they don't mind me coming over to visit, even with an invitation.

I did some baking last night making five loaves of banana nut bread, which I will be delivering to the neighbors and such over the next couple of days. I had some bananas that were about to over to the 'dark side', and since I hate to throw away food I put them to good use.

I am hoping for nice weather sometime soon, so I can go to the far side of the property to fire off several of my weapons. That way I will have a compelling reason to field strip and clean/ lubricate them. 

It is still way to wet and cold to do any planting in the garden up here. So everything is still inside under lights, and I may need to transplant from 4 inch pots to 1 gallon pots soon to keep them from becoming root bound.

I am still waiting to find out what I will be doing for Easter.. It all depends on what I hear from phone calls that come in this evening..


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## Ohio dreamer (Apr 6, 2006)

Stay safe TDD, glad to hear the dogs are doing better. Hope your wedding went off without a hitch.

Got the last 14 Qt of turkey broth done. Took advantage of the discount code Tattler has this weekend for 10% off (EASTER) and ordered more lids and extra gaskets.

DH built fuel storage shelves in the shed. We can now get the jugs up off the floor and he's feeling more comfortable housing some fuel (He's been steadfast against it for years) if may only be 15 gallons or so of different fuels, but that's a BIG step forward for him. He's even bought Colman fuel for our stove in the past few weeks.....one jug has been his comfort level for years, just last fall I was able to convince him that having a second one would be a good idea in the event of an ice storm or such. Now we have 3 in the shed plus one in the house and he thinks we should get 1 or 2 more as there is room on the shelve for them....now I'm getting scared, DH is storing fuel, the Devil's home must have frozen over!

Moved some broccoli and cabbage plants outside. I read they were good companion plants for rhubarb, so I cleaned up an area in the rhubarb and put some in. I just need to make sure I keep an eye on them so the rhubarb doesn't grow too fast and smother them. Hope to get some more tender plants out in about 2 weeks.

Straitened up the freezer so I can make a stocking up run to Sam's and GFS. I want to get about 10# of green beans to can, some blackberries and cherries to add to my rhubarb to can into pie filling, and other such stuff I can can up. Now that DS is on a no fresh veg diet for his braces I need to can more "soft" stuff up. I find in summer it's always wiser not to have a "filled to the rim" freezer so one can take advantage of out of the blue sales. I always seem to find a crazy deal on something when I least expect it during grilling season.

Radiofish, I have a large number of bananas in the freezer. I use them to make smoothies and milkshakes for the kids for lunch. Why it's have never occurred to me to make banana bread with them I'll never know. I always buy then when I find them on the mark down, usually 8-10# for $1, so my freezer is always bursting at the seems with them. I think I know what I'll be teaching the kids to make on Monday....banana bread.


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## manygoatsnmore (Feb 12, 2005)

TDD - I'm so sorry to hear that your sister is fighting this battle, on top of all that is happening at home for you. This is a testing time for you...and I think you have so much to teach us as a result. Stay safe, my friend...remember "and it came to pass", not to stay!

RF - I was hoping to hear that your leg was easing up...ouch. Thank you again for both the invertor AND for the Cosby! The CDs are bringing back wonderful memories and I've been laughing myself silly.  Had to chuckle, too, at the idea of lighting tiny fires to pray for those dealing with fires.  Just kidding, really! I mean no disrespect...I just have a really weird sense of humor sometimes.

Jen, congrats on getting hubs on board storing some fuel. Sounds like a huge step for him.

I'm finally seeing progress on the 2nd stall, but my shed has taken a step backwards, it seems. We needed to take off the trusses that need adjusting, and Donavan is not the gentlest at doing so...I'll have to rebuild some of them before we reinstall them. We also got caught by the rain, so the shed I kept dry all winter with tarps, is wet. Not really very happy about that. He's just too heavy to be up on that loft floor - it wasn't built for a lot of concentrated weight in one spot. My plan was to store extra rabbit carry cages and other lightweight, but bulky items up in the loft, clearing out space in the tack/feed room in the barn.

I have managed to get more garden tilled and a couple more raised beds nailed together. I spent yesterday sleeping, planning to go to work for an extra shift last night. Got a call that the census was down, and they wouldn't need me after all, so I wasted the nicest day we've had in 6 months, sleeping. Aargh! Now it's raining again.

The goats are pumping out milk like there is no tomorrow...time to decide whether I need piglets or calves, or to sell the herd.


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## machinist (Aug 3, 2010)

Rain here for several days. They whole area is under flash flood advisory, the Louisville Metro area, and New Albany/Clarksville/Jeffersonville area is all flooded streets. Downed trees from severe winds last week. And, we are predicted to have another 3" to 6" in the next 3-4 days. The ground is soaked and sinkholes are flooded in our area of southern Indiana. Small lakes are everywhere. 

We live on a hillside, near the top of the hill, so no worries for us about flooding, but our terraced gardens are mud bogs. I plowed and sided them a couple weeks ago and all the rain has melted it all down flat and smooth. The adjacent farmer's fields are eroding some. There is a sinkhole about 100 yards from our property line in a big field and that was a lake yesterday. Today it drain ed down, but with more rain it will flood again. (That is 30 feet lower than us, no problem.)

We have one small garden near the kitchen that is sloping and drains well, but we have to watch out for erosion there. I'm pulling weeds and making dikes out of them. Actually, the retaining wall at the bottom of this patch catches the soil and I just move it back up the hill later. 

I'm doing inside work this week. Bummer. 

I did get 15 Concord grapes set out a couple days ago, having the holes already prepared. We have a bunch more grapes starts in pots that will go in when they get properly rooted later in the summer. Some of those are for our kids, and some for us. We hope to have about two dozen total at our place. I put in 3 green peppers and a dozen cabbage plants this week, and have a bunch of stuff started in flats on our sunporch. 

The gardens were manured, plowed, disced and had the new crop of rocks picked up about two weeks ago, but now i see a fresh crop of rocks sprouting out there. When the mud dries up that will be the first item of business. crawling around on my knees picking up rocks is not my favorite thing to do, but at least we are gaining on it. The rocks we find now are a lot smaller than what were there the first few years.


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## Texasdirtdigger (Jan 17, 2010)

We have had some 68- mph winds, and rocky weather the last two days.....with little rain. I hear there is hopes of makeing headway on the fires this week. Some folks were allowed back in Fri.....most witnessed sheer heartbreak and distress.

I made it thru the wedding I catered..... Thru a sideways driving rain at that local.
I sure was dissapointed, when dh said we did not get any rain.

Spent yesterday with MIL and took her to brunch. She had a giant tree come down in her yard and she was freaking out!! Poor thing, scared her. So, that is now on our schedule , to clean up. :0

I straighted up her house, did laundry and changed her bed... it was a nice distraction,for me. She has really been worried about this disaster. I assured her, we are fine, just a bit rattled and tired.

RF- I am sorry, you are still hurting. I hope you find some ease soon.

I am supposed to go back to the Ortho Dr. in about a week. ggplant
I am sill limping and fighting pain... I cannot imagine what you must endure.

My first big Market Garden crop, was given away, for the most part....I just couldn't be in all places. It felt pretty good and I saw lots of smiles. Now, I need to regroup and get it sold.

First thing, we will be re-walking and picking up all limbs, that came down during the high winds. They had just scoured the land a couple of days of go..... but there are limbs everwhere again.

Guys will be back today.. they have been a wonder. So, willing to do ANYTHING for us, tirelessly.

I have some Biz to take care of today, but, I hope to get back to my usual days, soon. I am gonna be out re- tieing Tomato. Pepper, Eggplant and cukes, Then assessing the rest. The winds have reeked havoc.
Ohhhhh , I hear thunder......PLEASE RAIN!!

I am respecting my sister's wishes, and I holding off running to her....she needs time to digest it all and get her treatment lined out.

In our conversation Saturday, she was fretting about getting her garden in and being able to do the canning.

MGM - You are right. This is a test. Call it SHTF or whatever you will...... as, I said ... I have been slapped down to size.


OH!! FOR THE LOVE OF PETE!!!!.... It just started hailing like crazy!!!


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## machinist (Aug 3, 2010)

Texasdirtdigger,

Wish I could send you some rain!

The TV said that here in southern Indiana we've had 10.48" so far this month, and predict 5" to 7" more the next couple days. This is starting to be an erosion problem in some places, but we are okay so far. I dumped my rain gauge day before yesterday and it has well over 4" in it. 

I had the gutter man out today to look at running the difficult side of the shop into the irrigation tank, and running the front of the house back to the house cistern. Both jobs involve climbing on tall ladders, which would be a dumb thing for me to do, since I get more awkward as I age. I'd do it if I had to, but..... I don't HAVE to. 

Went shopping for truck parts tonight. Nothing is broken down, this is preventative maintenance. We are planning to keep these old S-10 pickups forever, a '95 and a '00. They both have 130K miles, so they are getting rebuilt from stem to stern. The list tonight for one truck was:
-alternator
-water pump
-radiator hoses
-belt tensioner
-flex coupling for the exhaust manifold (it leaks a little now)
-thermostat
-radiator cap
-sparkplugs
-clutch master cylinder (slave cylinder has been replaced when we did a new clutch/pressure plate/throwout bearing)
My thinking is that all those parts already have lots of miles on them, and the price of those parts will NOT come down. Also, I wll keep the old parts. I can replace bearings in the alternator and belt tensioner and make them like new again, for spares. The water pump is still serviceable, and will be saved for a spare, along with lots of other parts. So, I get a more reliable ride, and still have spare parts. 

I already rebuilt the rear end (a Posi-trac, not cheap) due to the last owner putting the wrong oil in it. Also did a fuel pump ($400+), all new fuel lines, brakes--rotors/drums, lines, master cylinder, and a lot of other stuff. Tires are good for another 30K miles and I kept the old ones. Got tubes, patches, valve stems, a manual tire changer, and a bubble balancer, so I think I could go about 40K miles with the tires I have on hand, and fix 'em myself if they need it. 

The older truck has had a similiar amount of work and runs like new, too. I don't plan on buying a vehicle for a very long time. These old ones get twenty five MPG+ on the 15% ethanol they call gas in Indiana, and near 30 MPG on good gas. And they are paid for, which is the cheapest thing you can drive--something without a payment attached to it! They cost less to license and insure, too. I will NEVER buy another new vehicle. 

Just one more place to insure against rising prices.


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## radiofish (Mar 30, 2007)

TDD - well after having been injured and using a cane for many years, the pain in my leg and knee I have tried to live with. Most of the time it is something I can tolerate with pain medications, but there are moments that I have to cry 'Uncle'..










It does help to have a warped sense of humor also - as MGM stated..

Oh MGM - If I knew you liked Bill Cosby's routines on driving in SF and such - I would have put a copy in your package (if I had not done so all ready). You only received a portion of his comedy that I have here. I bet you enjoy the CD with the Doctors/ Dentist comedy routines on it.

Machinist - when I replaced the hydraulic clutch master and secondary (slave) cylinders on my 1986 GMC S-15 Jimmy 4X4. I had one heck of a time bleeding the air out of the hydraulic lines. - I did the clutch and pressure plates/ throw-out bearing replacements, when I swapped out the 2.8L V-6 engines.. I wound up having to dismount the secondary (slave) cylinder - placing it level, and then removing the air, thru the bleeder valve. Re-attaching the secondary cylinder and it finally worked. It was frustrating though, till I learned that secret!!

During my trip down the hill today (in the GMC) I went by Walgreens, and did the day after Easter chocolate stock up. It was marked down to only 50% off with a smaller selection of left overs, but I did get enough to fill the two large popcorn tins. That should last the neighbor's and myself, until the next big chocolate sales holiday - Halloween..

It has been raining here all weekend, so the ground is very saturated. I am hesitant to drive to the far side of the property, due to not wanting to leave huge ruts in the old logging roads. So it looks as if I might not be doing any shooting up here in the next week or two. I want to grab several .30 caliber/ 7.62mm rifles and a few pistols, an ammo can or three, and go perforate some metal targets.










I can usually get leaker beer kegs from the local breweries by just asking, and they stand up to many uses as a target.. 

With these a .22 would bounce off. Same with a .25 a.c.p. and a .380 a.c.p. pistol cartridge/ they do leave a small dent though.. A 9mm parabellum (9X19mm) round sometimes will penetrate one of the stainless steel walls. My 7.62X25mm Tokarev pistol cartridges will go thru and thru, just like my .357 magnum, or the larger rifle cartridges will do.

In watching an Indiana Jones movie this last weekend, and seeing how the natives were using 'shrunken heads' as a visual deterrent. I may get some cables and hang a few of these from the trees up near my gate - to warn trespassers away..

Now if only the rain would stop, and let us see that mythical thing in the sky called the sun!!!


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## Texasdirtdigger (Jan 17, 2010)

LOL!! Radiofish... That is the first thing that has made me smile in weeks!!!!

I think Texican uses those " visual deterrents"...... of some sort!! At least, that is what I would expect to run into....if I was unfortunate enough to stumble across his place!! YIKES!!

Mothernature threw hailstones at us a couple of times yesterday.... My poor garden is taking a lickin. Flickering elect. But, no real damage.... I don't think.
Hey, just another day in paradise!!!!

I got a couple of bags of marked down Easter candy.... dh is already gnawing happily thru......quickly, I might add. He say's it's " nerves".....ummmhummmm, any excuse is a good one!!!
Best news......they are telling us... fire is 83% contained this morning. We are not letting our guard down ......it could all flare again....very easily. But, at least, this morning..... I don't feel like a complete-flippin basket case!!

Out of the ashes.........I looked out my kitchen window yesterday evening and counted 24 baby ducklings . I also ran into a baby snake


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## manygoatsnmore (Feb 12, 2005)

RF - you did add in Driving in SF - loved it! I got a great chuckle out of doctors and dentists...I love the "rinse" command - brings back such memories of early dental visits. I used to listen to the LPs over and over when I was a kid. LOL at the "bum" knee comic. Warped sense of humor indeed! 

TDD - good grief, HAIL, too. Is this a twist on the 7 plagues?  But, baby duckies - that's cool. 

This week's check will be my first full-time payday - I think I'll need it for a new alternator or battery. My Sport isn't charging like it should be - I left a door cracked open, I guess, and my battery was low...had to jumpstart it. After driving 30 miles, youd think it would be charged up...nope! I barely got it started after work this morning and passed up stopping for post Easter candy or the adaptors needed for my kitchen sink plumbing. It was drive straight home and hope I made it. I did, but couldn't start it up when I got here.

Had another long handle break off a pitch fork (Don isn't the gentlest on tools - he and Abby have killed 2 manure forks and a garden rake so far  ), so we are learning how to get them fixed. I have handles, but the directions I read are for tools with rivets through them, and what I have are a bit different (old as the hills). I'll get it figured out AND I'll treat the rest of the handles with linseed oil in hopes I can keep the rest of them in one piece!

In between rain storms, I'm planting more potatoes, peas, and cole crop seedlings today. Have a long list of things I'd like to do, but a short list of must-do's today. Off to get busy on them.


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## farmermom4 (Feb 17, 2007)

Got peas, carrots and beets and lettuce starts planted last Saturday, of course we had snow today! Getting really tired of the snow flurries and cold, but nothing like everyone is experiencing around the country! Heading to the big city 30k people, haha! Going thrifting, will see what I can find...


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## Texasdirtdigger (Jan 17, 2010)

Fingers crossed....but, I think we are making it thru a couple of the 7 Plagues part. ( although, I did see a bunch of stink bugs out there) Hahahahha!!!

Fires are looking much more manageable.... we are breathing easier.

Gosh... So many people dealing with Floods. Tornado's, etc. this spring....everytime I turn on the news..... Geeeesh, my heart goes out to them.

Today is going to be cool for us.... in the 70's, but windy. Nice gardening weather....but, I have a million other things to do.

I saw a canned good sale yesterday..... 49cents a can.....trying to fight off the urge to go load up on all I can bring home......I really don't think I can pass them up. They have all gone up to $1.49 a can... other places and things are only gettin worse out there!


Dh thinks they can get back to the workshop reno and my young man is coming after class today.. he will be head down in the garden , trying to pick up and tie up, what the weather has beat down!!
I have spent a couple of hours out in the "green house", area early this morn... felt GREAT!!
We so want to get back to what's normal for us....

I have a smallish wedding to cater Fri. so,off to the kitchen I go.

My sister goes to the cardiologist today. Trying to think happy thoughts for her.


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## radiofish (Mar 30, 2007)

TDD - I can relate about your sister.. 

Last week was when I took my sweetie's father (he is not my F-I-L yet) down to the VA in San Francisco, to go see his Cardiologist. He is 85 years old, and I volunteered to go with him as his escort/ driver. Yet he had a very good follow-up report, after his recent treatment a month ago! 

I am in the middle of a week full of industrial doctor appointments, myself. But I look at them as a chance to go to town everyday with my mileage paid. Yesterday was my acupuncture treatment for pain control, and then afterwards the vampires drew blood down at the local VA Clinic. So I really felt like a human pincushion last night!

MGM - yes one must have a weird/ warped sense of humor at times, in order to deal with life's setbacks. Otherwise what good does it do to be bummed out, when things go bad!!
Sorry to hear about your vehicles electrical charging system - it sounds like it may be the alternator or the voltage regulator has issues.

It is still raining here off and on. The ground is still so wet, that any attempts at outside gardening would be futile at the moment. I was looking at the raised beds inside the fenced area up at the neighbors and when water is seeping out at the bases of them, I would venture to say it may be sometime in May before we start putting plants in the ground. Well at least the last of the winter carrots are looking healthy. Plus the strawberries are starting to get small fruit on them. I share a garden with them, since the deer down here would once again decimate any attempts of gardening that I have tried here. They have a huge fence and several dogs that keep the deer at bay - but the deer are at their pond further out on the property quite a bit. Plus many hands make the chores so much easier - it makes me glad that I have such good neighbors!

I did go back to a different Walgreens yesterday, and got some more packages of those discounted chocolate bunnies. Then I went to check on my desktop computer which is back in the repair shop once again. Apparently I am going to get a new hard drive installed, but it will be upgraded to 160 GB/ compared to the 20 GB hard drive that went bad. Yes I always back up the stuff on my hard drive on a regular basis. It may get to come back home later this week! Hopefully my insurance will cover it, since it is probably due to the 'incident' that happened here last August. Thank goodness for full coverage insurance/ and yes I even paid extra to have 'Earthquake Insurance Coverage' here.

This weeks sales items start today at the local markets/ they run from Wednesday to Tuesday each week. I saw canned veggies advertised at 2 cans for 1 dollar, but my problem is - where would I put them?? Every cabinet here is full, I have half a dozen rubbermaid totes full of dry goods stacked in my front room, and even my chest freezer is filled to the brim with food. But as some folks here think, one can never have enough food on hand with this economy and the weird weather that is happening. 

Now is when I miss where I used to live at - which was a 13 room 2 story 115 year old Victorian house with the 115 year old old plumbing and almost as old electrical wiring that ran in conduit on the outside of the walls which required lots of maintenance.. But it was located along the shores/ mud flats of Humboldt Bay and next to a small coastal stream. Which made it very scary when we had Tsunami Warnings or small stream flooding, in the past!! But I did have lots more storage spaces there for prep items.

Well it's time to start getting ready for today's trip to town. I'll find out today if my one doctor's son has made it home, from his 2nd tour in Afghanistan with the Marine Corps. I know that his parents will be relieved, we he gets back to the States.


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## Mutti (Sep 7, 2002)

No prepping...only prep plans. #1--we must get a trencher and dig a drainage line from cellar down to lower point on the hill....not good when you open outdoor cellar doors and the water is to the top step!! Got the siphon hoses going and can see the bottom step now. Good thing we thought to look as water heater was partially submerged. Got that breaker off fast! Guess that's what happens when you've already had 12" of rain in past 6 days....and mind you we live on top of a steep hill or we would have long since floated away. Our cow pasture is a lake...ducks have actually found it! The fishing pond is across the road which my neighbors really appreciate.

Greenhouse bursting with plants that need putting out; tired of pinching all the blossoms off my Early Girl tomatoes. We gave up and between deluges planted out all the cabbage,broccoli,cauliflowers and must say they love this cool rainy weather. I expected to see them pounded into the ground or just plain blown over but they look right perky. Peas and beets look fine,too and those crazy bachelor button volunteers are blooming. DEE

Made a quickie pen for the half grown pullets; they were so crowded. They are finding they have wings.

Put in a new cedar post and got the wires back up on our grapevines. They get so heavy as they are very old vines. Mulched the long row heavily with wood chips andalso did all the younger fruit trees. Got the JD mower tuned up and did a quick mow job before the next rain comes. Noted how quickly the lemon balm is taking over so picked alot and stuck in dehydrator. Also picking rhubarb for when the strawberries come ripe...assuming the sun every comes out again.


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## Texasdirtdigger (Jan 17, 2010)

Ohhhh! Mutti... I am sorry. Be careful!! Is it still raining?
It is a fact, that just cause you live on a hill....does not mean it won't flood! Been there...done that. What a mess.....I don't envy you...... Be sure to watch for snakes!!!
We had a pretty good regular ol day here.... for a change.
Young man worked in the fields re -staking Tomato Plants, I did some work in the Pepper field. He will pick all day tomorrow.

I did go back to the store for those canned goods.....they told me they were no longer on sale....You don't want to hear what I said. I left my basket and walked out.
After I simmered all day , I called the store mgr. He said come get all ya want.... so, I will.

RF - I had to rework some storage .....but, I can squeeze, a bit more around. I know what ya mean on running out of space........but, I just can't make myself ignore those sales with the conditions of the universe right now.....

I vac packed & mylar'd a 5 gal bucket full of coffee, I had bought from Amazon., So it is in it's resting place.
I still need to do some work on the stuff I bought before my knee went out on me.
I got a 5 gal bucket of Honey..... Yikes, pricey!!!!!!!!!
Veggies staring to come in, so canning season is knocking on my door.
Still gotta make more jelly.... worked a smidge on that today- prep wise- at least.
Cleaned fridge in out bldg. 
Pretty good day.


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## manygoatsnmore (Feb 12, 2005)

Goodness, TDD - you have vegies ready to can and some of us are just dreaming of getting the garden planted! I hope you get a good report from the ortho doc, and I'm keeping your sister in my thoughts and prayers, too. Fingers crossed that the fires will be out soon and that you get some good, soaking-in rains (not gullywashers) to keep the fire risk low.

RF - I'd rather be on a hill with less storage, than at sea level with. You can always build more storage!  Yeah, I'm thinking alternator or regulator, too. The battery isn't that old, and it charged with the battery charger, so it's got to be in the charging system. I just need to have it charged up and take a run to town to have the system tested. Hopefully, the repair place will have the parts in stock. I think I'll take a leaf from machinist's book and have both replaced, keeping whichever part is still good as a spare. My Sport (Montero) is a 2000 with about 189K miles on it, and has been trouble free for me for the 7 years I've owned it. It's paid for and worth putting money into keeping it runnng well.

Mutti, how deep was the water in your cellar?  I just can't imagine how much rain that is, to flood your cellar when you're up on a hill! Wow...just, wow. I hope you didn't have any preps ruined...

It's absolutely *pouring* rain right now, which is perfect, as I just emptied and scrubbed out most of my barrels and totes under the dripline at the barn. The water was starting to grow green stuff...ugh. I have my white sheets in the wringer washer at the moment, and will have plenty of nice, clean rinse water for them. Once the water barrels are full again, though, it can quit raining any time - this Spring is shaping up to be as cool and wet as last year's, which was the wettest on record here.

Donavan fitted new handles to 2 manure forks yesterday (since he broke them, it's only right that he fixed them  ). We figured out that we just needed to drill out a bit of a hole in the end of the shaft so that the head fit into it properly. He's going to put together one more for me, and then we'll need to start reworking old handles into new, slightly shorter ones - most of them need some sanding and soaking with linseed oil before I can use them. Shorter handles aren't really a problem for me, since I'm only 5'4". I also have some tools with broken in the middle handles that I am going to Gorilla Glue, wire/clamp and screw together. Good jobs for rainy days along with fixing up the rest of the extension cords.

The barn cleaning is coming along - the kids have put a dent in the 2nd stall, and most of my lawn is covered with bedding about 3" deep. I'd like to have it about 4" all across, as there is very little topsoil (in some spots, none) across that area. Looking forward to seeing lots of green grass growing out of the seeds in the bedding!

In between rain showers yesterday, I built another 3 1/2' x 12' raised bed, tilled up the dirt in and around it, and filled it up. It has a plum tree and 4 blueberry bushes growing in it, so I will only be planting a few vegies around what's already there. I accidently broke off a couple small branches from the blueberries, so I stuck them in the ground in hopes that they will root. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. I wanted to get the potatoes planted, but ran out of day and energy. After not sleeping much in the last few days, I needed rest more than potatoes planted. If the rain ever quits, I'll try to get some planting done this evening.

I'm discovering that my preps/pantry would not be adequate to feeding all 3 of us for a full year...at least not in the style Don is used to eating. There would have to be some instant rationing put in place, especially of meat and cheese. I'm used to eating a good number of no-meat or limited meat meals and so is Abby. He is used to big servings of meat at every meal. I've tried to compromise at this point, but if TSHTF today, I'd be planning out meals very carefully, and he'd be eating less meat - less in general. He's packing some extra lbs, so it would be as good for him as for me (as I'm also packing a few extra lbs.  ) Abby still has the metabolism I USED to have, lucky girl. Anyway, I'm looking at what more I need to add to my food storage in order to make sure I have enough for any family that may end up stranded with me in a long-term emergency.


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## michelleIL (Aug 29, 2004)

Put a cage around my tomato plant and will be planting bush beans when the weather warms up a bit in a couple or three weeks!


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## Texasdirtdigger (Jan 17, 2010)

MGM - Sounds like Don needs to be introduced to... some big ol Texas sized portions of beans and rice..... complete protein and filling!!! We are big meat eaters, but sometimes, we just have.....other protein.
It is amazing, how just one thing, out of the ordinary, can really make you look hard at your preps. I sure have been "looking thru a new pair of eyes", as my DH would say.

I have been up for a long time getting the wedding dinner..ready to launch.

We have a tree guy coming to MIL to get rid of that lousey tree... it has broken and fallen three times now.... it's history. It's a soft wood non bearing Pear....we don't want it...... and we don't have the time to do it ourselves.

I had to partake in one of my pain pills last night.... knee swelling again....now I have the itches.....I hate that stuff!

I am going back to get the canned goods and coming back and doing a little bit of canning and some book work.
My " Garden Guy", as I have been calling him, is coming after his early class. I do not know what I would have done with out him the last few weeks!! I showed him how to wash and bundle... he has a nice touch and is so eager to do a good job. I just have to be careful, of prepping to hard..... with all the extra folks around. Just in case. Keeping it on the down low.... out of sight....You know what I mean.
Although, DH came home with 50 cases of water yesterday...... he said he got a deal...????
We are both awakened to our use of water.. especially in an emergency......plan for a heck of a lot more than you think you use.

Crew is full steam ahead on workshop... WOO HOO!! Fajita's on the menu today!

All my Border Collies are recovering well. No more limping, coughing, tearing. Although, I do have one female that seems a bit nervous.....not Border Colllie nervous...jumpie. Poor baby, she can still sense the smoke... I think. She is clinging to me as I type. She often lies close to me... but now, she has a paw on me at all times.
If she does not snap out of it, I'll run her back to the Vet.
This is not the one I consider my shadow..... now .....I have two shadows.... I've stepped back on her several times....

I have not spoken to my sister, yet. She had a Nuclear Stress Test..... and she has had a reaction to the chemicals in the past... so, I was trying to let her rest a bit.
My DB and I are both anxious for them to start her treatment. 

Thanks everyone for your good thoughts, prayers and all. It's is GREATLY appreciated.

We lost our oldest sister May 1 last year and we lost my loving Son, May 3rd..... two days later. It was quite a shock. May they Rest In Peace. We are soooo praying for this to have a better outcome.


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## Mutti (Sep 7, 2002)

Water was 2-1/2 feet deep in the cellar! Several dead mice, ugh. We have our water heater up a foot off floor but not high enough. But yay, the hose siphon has brought water down to under a foot and I have hot water again. Wouldn't mind drowning some snakes though. With all this rain our logger can't start so we haven't gotten paid yet...the money was to put new steel roof and house and gutters which we obviously need desperately! Also gutter on pole barn so we can catch rainwater for stock and garden. We really can't complain though when so many have died in these storms and others lost everything they own. It has been a terrible month. DEE


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## Texasdirtdigger (Jan 17, 2010)

DEE - You are so right.... so many have lost everything... including their lives.
Horrible month..... on the news just now....there are storms reeking more havoc.
Our fires are still burning, but have reached a more manageable state. Thankfully.

We are putting a metal roof on the workshop, guttering to large holding tanks we had set. But is is just about impossible to catch the amount of rain you guys have been receiving. 
That is going to be so yucky to clean up. 

Seriously, watch out for snakes!!

I just got back form my canned good shop.... 24 more cases. And. yeah,I got the "she must be a Kook", stares.

Now, I gotta get myself outside and help with pickin the garden.


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## manygoatsnmore (Feb 12, 2005)

Hearing that over 260 folks were killed in the tornados yesterday...how do you prep for something like that, other than having a storm cellar and insurance? Scary. Don is from TN, not too far from Nashville...I was relieved to see that his area was not in the tornado paths. He's already homesick...worrying about his family would about be the icing on the cake.

TDD, I was really hoping to hear that the fires were finally out...I don't think I'll stop worrying about you until they are! Itching when you take pain meds isn't a good sign - sounds like you are allergic, and it can go from itching to your throat closing so you can't breathe (anaphylactic shock) without warning (that happened to me with walnuts). Please talk to your MD about a non-narcotic pain reliever like Tramadol? Can you take NSAIDS like ibuprofen or naproxyn? They aren't as strong as narcotic pain meds, but they do have the added effect of reducing inflammation and swelling. You may be able to alternate tylenol and NSAIDS to get better relief, too. Feel better soon, hun. 

Mutti - that's a lot of water!  Maybe the silver lining is the mice are all dead? Seems you can't have an old house in the country without the occasional mouse problem. Heck, mine isn't even an old house, and we still get invaded once in a while. Now that I've kicked the cats outside, they are spending time under the house, and I think that will keep the meesers at bay. Um....I have to ask...can snakes swim? Please be careful!

Still raining buckets here - I really want to go out and work on my shed, my garden, my woods, ANYTHING! Of course, it's supposed to rain until tomorrow night and then be nice on the weekend...I have to work Friday, Sat and Sunday nights.  Probably be raining again on Monday...:grump: It's not really a load of fun to wash whites in the wringer washer when you have to stand in the rain to do it. Oh, well, it beats not being able to wash them at all. The rain has totally filled all the barrels, etc that I cleaned yesterday, so now I can empty the rest of them and clean them out, too. 

I had a minor brain storm about my gutters for the barn...I was having trouble figuring out how to attach them with the way the metal roofing overhangs the eaves. Well, who says I have to attach them there at all. Why not just put them down further, just above the point where I need to direct the water into my water storage? I'm still debating the relative merits of a series of water barrels vs going all out and getting a couple of the big black plastic reservoirs vs filling an above-ground pool (or a combo of all of the above). Whatever I chose, I have to keep them up off the ground so worms can't crawl in...every tote I dumped yesterday had a bunch of soggy, drowned worms in the bottom. Why are worms suicidal? It seems such a waste to let all this rain get away when I know I'm going to need it during our late summer drought (yes, we get a drought here in the rainy PNW)!

Since I can't do much outside, I guess I'd better get back to tending the fire to burn the old wood out of the pitchfork handles (it's cold in here today), and work on mending more tools. I'm hoping Don can get my linseed oil open - the cap is stuck too tightly for me to get it off. I have handles to soak.


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## Ohio dreamer (Apr 6, 2006)

Dr's office made an appointment for me to get some testing done which took me over to the "shopping district" part of the county. Since I was there anyways I hit every store I could and stocked up on everything I didn't have an over abundance of already.

I bought 12# of frozen green beans to can up into dilly beans (we ran out and the kids the having fits, lol). Never canned frozen veg before, but since I find canned green beans mush (I like them to snap) I thought it'd be worth a try. I can't even put beans in the ground for another week or two. I've tripled the ground space given to beans so we don't run out next year.

Picked up another 10# or more of other frozen veg to dry. Prices were good, we have the money and the moment and I doubt prices will be going down anytime soon.

Acquired some more buckets, so the bags of rice and bread flour we picked up today won't have to sit in the living room in the sacks for too long.

Came home to a tub full of raspberries on my front porch. A friend dug up a dozen plants for us (I passed along lilacs and rhubarb to her). She said she had more if I can use them. I'll have to look around for another spot. I hope mixing yellow, purple and red raspberries isn't a problem....as I put them all in the same bed (I love friends that share - I didn't buy a one!). Since I was dirty (yep, I put them in already) I planted the two blackberry sticks we have. These I put out back....raspberries are up front along the house. Tomorrow I get the kids to help me put in the strawberries. We should be well stocked with jam by the end of next year (fruit trees should start producing next year, too)! I'm looking forward to home grown fruit, that will be a new thing for us.....maybe last years blueberry bushes will produce more then 2 berries this year.


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## Texasdirtdigger (Jan 17, 2010)

MGM - My Sister lives outside of Memphis...... they got trapped in flood waters, for a time, but thankfully, found safety. She was on her way to the Cardiologist and was distressed because she was going to be late. She made it thru her Stress Test with flying colors!! YAY!! Now on to the Radiologist.

We can't buy a raindrop here! UGH! Winds are going to be 35+ today and tomprrow.
Fires are still being stubborn... but, they are making progress snuffing them. With our winds, the embers are so dangerous.

The problem we are starting to see is..... all the lookieloos, curiousity seekers and worst of all...Gypsy types of "contractors" and clean up folks. The scrap metal guys are running around like locusts. Yep, the guns are loaded and we are looking over our shoulders. No Trespass signs are posted. ( That was Hubby's prep for yesterday!)
Mary, you can't prep for all things.... you just can't. There is always a threat to us and our stores...whether natural or at the hand of man.
As I keep saying, this breakout of fires has really humbled me.....I mean, it really has. We were in harms way, but we were able to save our cattle and things, and go on to tell the story......but, it could all be gone in an instant, and I won't be able to stop it.
There have been sooooo many peoples lives torn apart, by the weather, fires and natural causes, in the last couple of months.....un real......just a shame.
Hurricane season is just around the corner......Sigh. That means Tropical rains for us and flooding.
I will be doing my small Wedding today, so the garden will be in my crosshairs, after that.
Workshop is lookin good... guys are getting "sack" lunches out of me today... ha ha!! They are really GOOD sack lunches!
Got my canned goods I bought yesterday, stored away last night. 
And a bit if vacuum sealing sealing done.
I decided I have a few things I can donate to the fire victims, that will free up some more space and help them out, as well.

I am between a rock and a hard spot with the meds...Tramadol really upsets my tummy......NSAIDS are a BIG no no, due to ulcers. Tylenol is really all I can take for anything, and it should be in a liquid form...... WAH!!! 
The Dr. just kinda rolled his eyes, when I said I was itching.... said I was NOT allergic.... just having a mild reaction. I also, get drenching sweats......Therefore, I don't take them, unless I just can't stand the pain. Not to mention the JICKY feeling they give me.
Ice packs will be in order ... all day, today. Woke up with pain and swelling.
Depending on what sells this weekend.....I am going to have a lot of Beets to can.... bumper crop!
BTW - Yep, Snakes CAN swim.


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## manygoatsnmore (Feb 12, 2005)

You really ARE in a pickle for pain relief, TDD. Can you take an anti-nausea med for your tummy with the Tramadol? Zofran or Phenergan? Phenergan can make you sleepy, though, which is a good thing at night, but not so much when you have weddings to cater and other work to do. My patients don't comment about Zofran having any sleepy side effects. Maybe use some OTC prilosec with the NSAIDS for just when you can't get relief with tylenol, but don't want to take the narcotic meds. 

Do you itch with ALL narcotic pain meds? Have you asked about trying a different one to see if you tolerate it better? Taking benadryl with the med that causes the itch may help, btw - as an anti-histamine, it soothes that allergic reaction (histamine production). Of course, it also causes drowsiness. And for your dear MD - a mild reaction is a mild ALLERGIC reaction, and it CAN become more serious over time, sometimes suddenly. Sometimes it NEVER becomes any worse, and sometimes it even goes away, but a worsening reaction is still something to watch for. I'm not an MD, don't play one on TV, either, but I've done pretty extensive studying on the subject in nearly 30 years of nursing.  

Maybe you need to find an acupuncturist in your area - seems to do well by RF. I just hate to see people hurtin'!

I had a sneaking suspicion I'd seen snakes swim on Animal Planet. Luckily, the only snakes here are Garter Snakes - mild mannered little snakes and not poisonous.


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## radiofish (Mar 30, 2007)

TDD - in reading of your having to put up "No Trespassing" signs due to the scavengers after the fires reminds me of folks that take advantage following a disaster. I have no sympathy for them! 

We are beginning to get folks from town trespassing and messing around up here, by their dumping trash along the road and in fields. Plus the townies wandering about looking out for remote places, to have their marijuana gardens on other folks posted property.

I am also going thru being a guinea pig with medications - first when the FDA pulled 'Darvocet' off the market which was my mildest pain medication. Now I am trying out 'Fioricet' which is usually a headache medication, and a suggested replacement which is not the same. I tired the med without Codeine for over a month, and yesterday my main worker's comp/ long time family physician wants me to now try the codeine variety.Then my VA Neurologist is trying me on a series of non-narcotic meds, to try and calm the damaged sympathetic nerves in my leg. They control the autonomous functions such as skin temp, nail and hair growth, blood pressure, etc.. So I am on the lookout for adverse reactions with my other prescribed medications..

When I take 'Norco' (10/325 mg - extra strength Vicodin) I also have an itchy scalp, sweat/ perspire like Mike Tyson on Jeopardy, and feel the heebie jeebies in my skin. But they do lessen the pain, yet I am afraid of getting a DUI for when driving while taking them. Yet they don't ding-a-ling me out to a Homer Simpson state, like the Oxycontin and Dilaudid opiate based medications do. Acupuncture does lower my pain levels a bit, for 2 to 3 days following each weekly treatment.

MGM - so your house guest is consuming a lot of meat protein/ you are going thru your preps faster than anticipated?? 

I can relate - I can't send a stash of chocolate to my neighbors, since they have no self control. At the start of winter I took them a paper grocery bag full of sealed packages, and it lasted just a few days up there!! I guess that I will get to be the rationing officer up here, during emergencies.

As TDD posted - introduce him to beans and rice. 
I do the pinto beans, rice, cornbread, and fried potatoes. 
Or the black beans, rice, tortillas, cheese, sour cream, and salsa meals. 
I have to choose between long or short grain/ white or brown rice!!! 
That or introduce him to the concept of killin' and grillin' wild game or fish. But he is an out of state person (higher hunting/ fishing license fees), and I am not sure what is in season in your area..

Also MGM your comments about living up here, as compared to life down on the mud flats of Humboldt Bay are valid. The old house was next to a small coastal stream, and when you open your door and see this - it is not a good sign!!










With lots of rain and during high tides, the water has no where to go!!

Today the sun is out up here for once, with high winds. I went for a walk to see what trees are down on the ground - looking for future firewood. I saw lots of wildlife out today, enjoying the sun also - plenty of quail, rabbits, gray squirrels, deer, and saw some bear tracks way down below the house. No I didn't shoot at any of them, though I did tell some of the deer "that you are the dumbest deer that I have ever encountered", as they stood there when I walked/ limped right past them while holding a loaded rifle.. My chest freezer is full, so they just get verbally harassed - for now.

In watching the news from the tornado damaged areas, I feel for those folks that lost everything and even loved ones. As TDD posted, sometimes no matter how well we prep and store items, things can happen. I tried to diversify my stash of supplies between the house and several outbuildings. I don't have a basement, storm cellar, or shelter, but then I wouldn't want to be underground during an Earthquake again either..

For my end of the month prepping, I may try to get many of the seedlings into the makeshift greenhouse. That is if it doesn't at night keep getting down to freezing. It is currently made from sliding patio glass doors, placed over a fiberglass boat hull - the neighbor's and myself call it the 'good ship lollipop'. Yet it gets the job done for the time being..


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## Texasdirtdigger (Jan 17, 2010)

Radiofish.... Quite the view...... I have a similar one... off of the side of my house, occasionaly....... and I am on a hill!!

MGM - Yep we have tried all that stuff.... It's lower tract .
Thanks for caring and the advice... it is all spot on!!

Yesterday was a good day......Today very busy...... Everyone have a bountiful Prepping day!!


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## manygoatsnmore (Feb 12, 2005)

Just got the opportunity to really spend more than a minute here and there on the computer, and even though we started a new month's thread already, I didn't want anyone to think I was ignoring them. 

RF, that is quite the view from your old front door. I think I'd be a little worried if I had that much water running through the yard and all that water so close, too. I've been a hillbilly all my life, always lived well above water level. Even here on my flat acreage, I'm still well above river level, even at the level of the mud flows that came down the valley after Mt St Helens erupted in 1980.

Yeppers, I think we're gonna be doing more beans and rice...not MY favorite thing (like rice okay, don't like bean texture at ALL), but I can't afford to keep shoveling the meat into him.  He does love to fish, and I am looking at getting him an in-state ID so he can get a fishing license. It would be worth the cost of the ID, license and equipment, as we have great fishing up here (Toutle River and Silver Lake). WA says if you are here more than 30 days, you have to switch your car tags, driver's license, etc (although how they would know for sure you were residing and not visiting, I'm not sure), so getting him a driver's permit/license and fishing license shouldn't be a problem. I'm finding out I have more in common with his mom all the time. I pulled out my S&W Sigma 9mm yesterday and he said his mom had one just like it, lol!  He's a country boy, just not a FARM boy. Likes to fish, likes to target shoot and hunt. Just doesn't like to clean barns so well.  He's still wanting to take our bottle baby goat home with him when it's time to return to TN.

I love the "Good Ship Lollipop"! I have a truck canopy and a few patio doors, but I think I'm going for the full greenhouse. That's on the to-do list for May - get a greenhouse of some sort finished.

TDD - sounds like you've tried just about everything I can think of. You have my greatest sympathy, hun. When do you go back to the ortho? Are you still on antibiotics (and taking probiotics or live culture yogurt with them)? Are they still thinking infection or something else? Keep us updated.

See you on the new thread, both of you.


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