# January 2009 Prep Journal



## Guest (Jan 2, 2009)

Well, here it is 2009 and a new year. How did everyone do in the way of giving or receiving prep related gifts? Any big plans for the coming year?

Most of my prep stuff has had to do with taking a week off to get stuff done around the house.

How's the prep month looking for you folks?

.....Alan.


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## jamala (May 4, 2007)

Alan, that is my plan for the next week also--to get stuff done around the house. I plan on re-organizing my pantry so that it works better for me. Canning some more carrots as I have found my kids love them. Money will be very tight around here for the next month and a half so I will not be buying much but using this time for organizing preps and working on projects.


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## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

I am trying to decide whether to get a food saver or a treadle sewing machine. 
Since we are moving in a couple of months, we are on a 'use' up the home canned stuff and freezer items kick. I hate to see it all go so quickly, but moving it would be very hard too. I plan on cutting my grocery budget by 2/3 this month and next - putting the money back to replace what we have used as soon as we land in the new spot!


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## Common Tator (Feb 19, 2008)

:bouncy: DH got me an All American canner, and I have already put up 2 turkeys! I am very happy! :banana02:


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## Murron (Oct 17, 2007)

Looks like I'm not alone in the "reorganizing" this month! The pantry has seen a lot of action between the ice storm, snow, and holidays. It's a bit messy, and there's a bunch of stuff to put down in the basement with the other preps.


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## Sherrynboo (Mar 19, 2005)

We recieved a 20 year old hydraulic wood splitter that still works like a champ! We also have plans in progress for a new and improved chicken coop and a new garage to store the tractor and other implements. So much to do with so little money, haha!

Sherry in GA


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## MoonshadowMom (Jan 26, 2008)

I went though the medical supplies on hand and rotated them. None expired and will use a few general OTC products before they do go out of date. January is good time to replace cough, cold and pain meds as they are on sale due to cold and flu season.


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## firegirl969 (Nov 3, 2008)

We got a wood shed built during the holidays with old scrap stuff we had laying around and got a cord of wood cut to go under it. I am only buying loss leaders now as my pantry looks good. I need to stock up on shampoo and hygeine products as we have 4 girls who go through alot. I still have part of a wallyworld girft card we got for Christmas and I am saving it to buy a solar shower with. I did find a bargain this week on beef bullion cubes. 25 for $1, so I got 4 pkgs =100. I am looking at water filters. We have an old well on the farm that we can use if SHTF. I was going to get something like a Britta pitcher type. They are less than $20. However, the one I looked at  only got rid of heavy metals. What about parasites, etc? Does anyone have an opinion on this matter? I may be better off saving to buy a quality one.


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## sgl42 (Jan 20, 2004)

firegirl969 said:


> I am looking at water filters. We have an old well on the farm that we can use if SHTF. I was going to get something like a Britta pitcher type. They are less than $20. However, the one I looked at only got rid of heavy metals. What about parasites, etc? Does anyone have an opinion on this matter? I may be better off saving to buy a quality one.


get a big berky (british berkefeld) water filter, which removes bacteria and cysts and such. the filters cost a little more, but filter far far more gallons, so on a per gallon basis are very cheap. (super sterysl do 10,000-30,000 gallons, depending on who you believe; black berkey filter's do 3,000 gallons, and remove volatile organic compounds. brita filters, as I understand, only do a few hundren gallons, and filter out far less stuff.) 

i got my big berkey at frugal squirrells. (http://www.frugalsquirrels.com/store/water_pur/big_berkey.html). 

I got the one BIG BERKEY with Two 7" Super Sterasyl Filter Elements
Frugal's Price: $163.00. effectively, i paid $100 for the stainless steel casing. i bought my black berkey filters at "thealertstore.com" which had the cheaper prices at the time, and probably now. if you don't have the money, you can buy the berkey filters, and mount them in a food grade 5-gal plastic bucket. 

seach this forum's archives for "berkey" and you can find various threads with recommendations, including a few people that have made their own from buckets.

--sgl


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## wvstuck (Sep 19, 2008)

January is going to be down time for us. My wife and I are going to finish a denim square quilt, make plans for the year and kinda take some good old fashioned winter time relaxation away from prepping. We did order our Big Berkey and are waiting for it to arrive, we are converting a front bedroom into a prep storage room, but that will not take long. I hope everyone has a wonderful year and gets a great start to it this month. February will be a kick off for a lot of projects here again.


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## mamajohnson (Nov 27, 2002)

well, since I posted yesterday and it is gone, I will repost.

bought several turkeys during the holidays for .34 cents per pound, I cooked 2 so I still have 3 I think to can up. The bones/etc will be cooked down and canned for the dogs. I love having that handy.

I need to re-do about 5 batches of jelly that didn't jell.

I really really need to do an inventory and get things leveled out. I know I have too much of some stuff stored away from the house and not a good balance in the house. (like I am either seriously out of honey or it is all stored out yonder!)

After inventory I need to make a plan for restocking and getting things more organized.


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## manygoatsnmore (Feb 12, 2005)

I ordered a Victorio hand grain grinder the end of last month and just got a notice that it is at the post office! So Monday, I will be trekking to pick it up and can try it out. Looking forward to that. I understand that I can build some major muscles cranking it. 

Also went on line on New Years and ordered 2 Dickies Sanded Duck hooded jackets from the clearance listings at the Dickies site - 75% off, so only spent about $35 for good, sturdy coats for dd and myself.

Keeping track of all my spending so I can be more frugal and put some money aside for stocking up on loss leaders and filling holes in the pantry, as well as building an emergency fund.

I will put in a plug for the Berkey water filters. I got mine last month and I absolutely love them. I bought the filters only, not the housing, and made my own housing from 2 5 gallon buckets with lids. Works great, and much cheaper than buying the housing with the filters. I'm continuing to filter and store water, as I don't have a way to pump water if the power is out. I also have buckets and barrels lined up under the drip line along the barn - metal roof gives me a lot of fresh water in the winter for the animals, and is easier on the filters than our well water. I'm really wanting to find a 1000 gallon reservoir or 2 to run the rain water into, or a whole line of 55 gallon plastic drums.


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## unregistered29228 (Jan 9, 2008)

My post is gone too! I said that I'd canned some sauerkraut and had been busy brining pickles. Everyone likes the ones I brine better than those I canned with regular methods so that's what I'm going to continue doing. 

Also picked up 20 pounds of dried black eyed peas. Our Bi-Lo had them on sale for .69/pd which is almost half price, so I loaded up the cart.


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## Bruenor (Oct 2, 2008)

I'm getting prepared for my seed order. This year I'm planning a VERY large garden with my parents and older brother. I'm buying heirloom, open pollinated seeds so I can harvest the seeds for future years. This will be my first time trying to grow tomato plants from seeds. I usually get the plants from a nursery, so this should be an adventure.

For a Christmas gift, I got John Seymour's "The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It". I've checked this book out numerous times from my local library, and wanted my own copy. It's a pretty good book, and I would recommend it to any other beginners like myself.


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## radiofish (Mar 30, 2007)

Last Wednesday while in town, I wandered into a second hand shop in old town. There I found a huge well made older cast iron dutch oven with a mismatched lid. Since all items were 50% off, I got it for $25.00 dollars. Now to clean it up/ remove the surface rust, and re-season it..

I've been watching for the loss leaders at the markets, but my storage spaces are pretty well filled to the brim at the moment. 

I did get some more candle making supplies from Freecycle, and might make some more candles (pillars, and in glass containers) in the next week.


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## kully (Feb 19, 2008)

Today I bought some Christmas supplies at Walmart for next year. Some wrapping paper, gift bags, candles, tree lights and some cards. They were 75 % off , so I really spent very little. Now the hard part will be to find room for them, and be able to find them next year when I need them. 

I bought 5 hens on sale just before Christmas and canned them this week. I got 21 quarts for about $ 35 .They will make some good, quick meals, such as dressing, dumplings, chicken pot pie.

Now I have 4 large packages of chicken breast thawing in the fridge, to can for my daughter. 

Next thing I have to do is re-organize my storage and get a good inventory done. I hope to get that done next week.


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## Ann-NWIowa (Sep 28, 2002)

My big preps for this year are (1) saving as much money as possible in an account for house taxes and insurance to carry us thru several years. Not much point in having a mortgage free home if you can't pay the taxes. (2) getting a whole house generator installed. This is primarily to protect our basement i.e. keep the sump pump running. My dh's workshop/power tools etc., our food preps, freezer, water storage, and, of course, furnace and water heater. This was on our list for 2008 but due to floods in the Eastern part of the state all generators went that direction as did people who install them.


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## organicfarmer (May 11, 2002)

I organized my loft/school room/studio/play room on Christmas Day and DH put up one 4 ft. light there yesterday. Two more to go. My Christmas gift was for him to put up lights on the third floor (which we had from our old farm) instead of putting in a new skylight (the cost was ridiculous). Now we can find our art supplies, sewing supplies and other things and work up there this winter. The children cheered when the light was turned on -- what a difference.

My plans for January include cleaning out the basement, organizing freezers, finishing organizing closets and do our seed order.

In the last week, DH and our hired man finished the winter bird quarters in the greenhouse and now they have access to outside during the day. Now we have to get our new heated shop finished and the grading station built. Also, we are thinking about solar panels to run the electrics on the outdoor wood furnace, which is now heating the house and the hot water tank. The greenhouse and the heated shop are next on the list to be hooked up.

Our laying hens gave us 60 eggs yesterday and my customers at market will be happy. I may end up going to market every week if the egg production keeps up.

Off the clean up the kitchen and make waffles for breakfast.


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## Henry (Mar 1, 2006)

Well we are snowed in until April or May it always "depends". No going to town for us but besides enjoying the winter , taking care of animals this is the time to do a little work on the interior of the different buildings on site. I spent yesterday feeling the walls of our storage buildings for leaks. When its -35 its fairly easy to find them. I didn't find any. I check every year just encase things change do not want to loose stores due to some overlooked issue. These storage buildings are really unheated basements with well insulated ceilings. They do not freeze but I have seen the gage read 36f when its -50 out. Luckily the weather is changing around here and we do not get as much deep cold. Hope everyone has a safe winter.


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## julieq (Oct 12, 2008)

We got way behind with traveling around Christmas, then got hit with pretty heavy snow (for this area at least) so we're behind on planning AND doing. The house and barn need cleaning and then after that we need to make some lists and get back on schedule. Garden seeds are pretty much all here, but we need to order a hand grinder for grain and I just noticed we gave our only hand mixer to our daughter so we need to get another one. Meat purchased cheap around the holidays and stuffed in the freezer probably needs to get canned. Oh, and prepare for goat kidding in February! Like I said, we need to make a list and get back on track...


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## laughaha (Mar 4, 2008)

Going to the Amish bulk store this morning and gonna stock up on basics- 50lbs flour, sugar, oatmeal. I am also going to get coco powder (SO much cheaper than at the store). Then will be swinging by the potato place for another 50lbs. Then we will be good for the next month (at least) on these items. I've given up on having food preps while taking care of MIL, I will begin food prepping when her chemo/surgery/radiation is done and we move out. We are still stocking up on other things, just given up on food. I can't afford to spend $800/month on food.....

I will be stocking up on OTC medications. Those stay hidden in my room. Also gonna stock up on animal feed as this stays locked in our shed.

Oh, got 19 eggs yesterday (the most ever) and my first white one!!


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## MountAiry (May 30, 2007)

Although itâs been âlong time, no postâ for me around here, I am still (and shall always be) working on being prepared. Just sent off a check for some long storage items (rice, salt, some hand and body warmers, etc) so will soon add that to my stockpile list.


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## ovsfarm (Jan 14, 2003)

I'm trying out a new inventory system for my food preps. My least favorite part is rotating supplies. I may start a Take From the Back rule around here! In general, I need to inventory and organize stuff. 

Also, dh and I had a Summit Meeting and he has decided that one of us needs to bring in more income. Either he will take a second job or I will take a part time one. He is concerned that either he will get a pay cut this year or that his pay will stay the same but that prices will rise dramatically. We are also actively working to find new habits to tighten up the proverbial belt another notch. IMO, money saved is even better than money earned due to no taxes on it (yet).


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## Trixters_muse (Jan 29, 2008)

I am still landscaping my lawn, reducing the grass and increasing the growing area for more veggies. Been looking through seed catalogs and basically planning my garden. 

I did a ton of decluttering this fall and plan to do more now that I have finished the shelves and storage area in the garage. I did my major inventory in the fall since I was moving and relocating items but I do need to inventory my medical supplies and DS has informed me we need some minor supplies in the workshop area like WD-40, saw blades and shop rags.

As for prep related gifts, my mother surprised me and showed up the weekend after Christmas with a box of camping goodies she picked up at a yard sale. Apparently the family used some of the items once or twice and didn't use them anymore and some small items were still new in the box. There are two lanterns, an inexpensive two person tent, complete cookware set, plastic dishes for two, solar shower (new) collapsable plastic cups (new), a multi-tool (new)two tarps, one new one used maybe once and a small mallet. I had most of these items already, but extras are always good and I was so impressed that mom bought them I just gave her a big hug and immediately cooked her breakfast 

Oh yeah... she paid $20 for the whole box!


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## vegascowgirl (Sep 19, 2004)

One of the best christmas gifts ever this year.. My dad got us a huge chest freezer in November, then on Christmas he had boxes full of hams, roasts, sausages, burger, and birds (chicken, game hen, etc.). Along with some kiddie comforts for the 2 DD's such as hot dogs and ice cream. That chest freezer is F.U.L.L. He also had a box full of other goods like crackers, organic muffin, bread and pancake mixes, ribbon candy, pickled beets, sourkraut (both from amish store) and assorted other goodies. Having a full pantry and freezer was just something my family always did. we never spoke about the importance of it though. So I guess dad figured the best gift he could give us was a full freezer and abundant pantry. 

these past couple of days weather wise have been roller coaster. 65 one day then 30's the next three, 74 one day and 30 the next. On the warm days I've been out getting the greenhouse ready to start seed in Feb and March. I had to replace a couple roof panels on the GH due to hail stone damage. Also traced out a couple places for two new raised beds. Cold days had me doing the indoor stuff, and sorting through seed catalogs.


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## Mutti (Sep 7, 2002)

Got all my seeds ordered and delivered by end of December; didn't want to miss out on certain varieties. Greenhouse is cleaned out and ready to go. Don't generally start anything before March; too expensive to heat. Plan this summer to put a line in from our Central Boiler to heat it which will save us alot. 

Doing an experiment with our two peach trees...pruned one last week in a mild spell and now going to prune the other by the best dates in our Biodynamic calendar and see if there really is a difference...inquiring minds want to know! The old timers swear by the moon signs. Will do a little experimenting in the greenhouse,too. Always room for new ideas.

Have been doing a bit of cooking in my new Presto pressure cooker...my mom's used to scare me to death as a child. The ladies liked to trade horror stories and I just knew it was gonna blow up! Not so. 

Pa went out and checked the bees; all 7 colonies hale and hearty. Will start some new ones this spring from his stronger hives. Pretty much sold out of last years crop plus some good barter deals made. DEE


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## tiffnzacsmom (Jan 26, 2006)

I got a 8qt pressure cooker and 6 hand warmers with my Chirstmas money. Two packs of warmers are going into my cars. I have a whole turkey in my freezer and may cook that up next week and try to can the meat and see how it goes.


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## tab (Aug 20, 2002)

vcg, does your dad want to adopt? That is a great father you have!

A beefer went on Sunday to the butcher. We will be getting half. That will go along with the whole hog and 28 chickens done. I hope to can some of the beef.

Looking to do an better inventory, the mind is just too overloaded to remember stuff anymore. I proved that when I cleaned the freezer out the last time !


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## coalroadcabin (Jun 16, 2004)

tab said:


> Looking to do an better inventory, the mind is just too overloaded to remember stuff anymore. I proved that when I cleaned the freezer out the last time !



I'm in the same boat. I defrosted my freezer the Saturday after Christmas and it was awful! I had a full 3 inches of frost on the shelves (it's amazing how long I can put off a job that I hate ) 

After I defrosted and tossed some way-over-the-hill stuff, I had almost nothing left in my freezer. And all along I thought we were okay on meat just because I couldn't stuff anything else in there. What I nincompoop I am!! I decided to organize and inventory my shelf storage too and on the plus side -I had way more home canned stuff on the shelf than I thought, so we're okay on that front until next canning season. So now I can concentrate on stocking the freezer. 

Well, I've learned my lesson, I now have an inventory of both my freezer and my shelf storage and I'm going to keep up with it this year........my New Year's resolution and I will stick to this one!!


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## manygoatsnmore (Feb 12, 2005)

Ordered a small pressure washing machine from Lehman's (the US made one) after reading a lot of reviews on them. I have a full size front loader pair, but our water is so full of iron that I can't wash clothes at home. Now that I can filter water, I figure I can do a little laundry every day and keep up on all but the blankets. It was 57.90 including the shipping, and uses very little soap, and only a gallon or two of water. I can turn off the water to the automatic washer and use the spin cycle before drying the clothes. Eventually I'll get a (new, clean) mop bucket with a wringer to remove the water if the power is out. In the mean time, if the power is out, I can hand wring, even if it's not really easy.

I need to defrost my freezers this month, too. I am pretty well stocked up on meats, veg and fruit, but I need to clean the freezer, organize it better and inventory it again.

I've budgeted $25 a week for grocery prepping, not buying anything else from the store other than dairy and produce, and as little of that as I can. Made a trip to Costco a few days ago and spent about 2 weeks worth of prep money - put by a couple cases of soup and chowder, a huge box of packeted instant oatmeal (yes, I know, but my dgd wants that for breakfast every time she stays with Gram, and there was a coupon, lol), plus more stores of creamer for my coffee, cocoa mix , Craisins and 8#(?) of bacon. Picked up a 2 gallon pack of milk there, too - hoping that will do us until the goats freshen later this month. Oh, and I bought 4# of garlic to plant out after the rain stops.

While we were in Portland, I also shopped our favorite Goodwill and found a brand new pair of jumper cables to keep in the SUV. Working on my emergency kit/BOB for the vehicles.

Cleaned out the fridge today and used up a lot of what I found in there - banana bread, smoothies using up "older" fruit and souring yogurt, and cooked up more turkey for soup tonight. I'm trying harder this year to use up all the food in the fridge - no science experiments, lol! Wasting food is like throwing money in the trash, and I don't have money to waste that way.


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## farmermom4 (Feb 17, 2007)

Went to Wally World yesterday and filled in the prep holes left after the holidays and my staying home for the last month with all the snow we've gotten. I felt really good about what I got done, I'm planning on concentrating on a certain area each month this year to fill in the holes. After awhile when you buy a little of this and that all the time you lose track of what you really need!! So this month is everyday food, next month will be toiletries/meds/batteries. I am talking from experience since after having over 20 tubes of toothpaste at one point last year, we ran out this last week, how did that happen?? So on to the new plan for the year!

Toni


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## Sonshine (Jul 27, 2007)

DH got me some dwarf citrus trees for Christmas. I've got orange, lemon and lime. I also got a knifty knitter. I'm looking forward to fresh citrus and will try to get more dwarf trees soon. We'll be ordering our garden seeds this payday, but already have some tomatoes and bell peppers in pots that are doing great. I also got more cast iron cookware.


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## shellrow (Feb 8, 2007)

Recently we had a bit of bad luck with money and we used up quite a bit of our preps. I am starting over again almost from the beginning. On the brighter side of things, we were fortunate to have what we did! Currently our ducks are doing great. Daisy produces and egg a day steadily and Donald keeps her company. We have an incubator on our list of "wants" (by the time the $ rolls around to get one hopefully our chickens will be old enough to go broody and sit on eggs for us). Out of the 16 chickens I ordered from Ideal 13 have survived. Three of the bantams are gone, two died shortly after arriving and the third we culled this weekend, it was having seizure like problems several times a day. Other than that is was eating normally and drinking fine. During the seizure episodes it would take a while to get back on its feet again. We decided that nothing should have to live that way and we dispatched it this weekend. All of the other chickens are growing like weeds and the hens should be laying by the spring! We were able to purchase a tiller off of Craigslist for $100, after a bit of a tune up and clearing out the gas lines and such my Fiance was able to get it running good. We will begin work on the large garden area this weekend. My lasagna garden experiment is going well. Things are composting wonderfully and the duck poop soup is helping on both gardens. I have finally talked the Fiance into getting meat rabbits. I think a good trip to the grocery store to see the prices of meat these days has swayed him a bit. I have been reading up on companion planting and making sure that our garden layout will work well. We are going to jump in and try to produce what we consume the most of. I have begun stocking back up on supplies slowly but surely. It is a much slower pace than what it was in the beginning. I am already dreaming of what we can do with our income tax return! This weekend we should get the larger garden area tilled up good and begin on the rabbit hutches. I want to have rabbits before January is over. We did add a cat to the list of animals that we have this past weekend. She is a little cutie that we got from one of the guys that my Fiance works with. I am thinking that she will be a good mouser and we will have her as an inside/outside cat after she is old enough to be fixed. That is it so far for January.


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## bee (May 12, 2002)

I went thru all my seed packets/saved seed and found out what I have long suspected...I never met a seed I did not like! Now starts a round of germination tests to see what needs replaced.

Yesterday at work the company put out a box of small duffel bags with a "take one" sign on it. I did, it was from 2001 promotion they had for their sales force....perfect for a complete change of clothes to keep in the vehicle! Could not beat the price!

Still trying to get thru the "RIF" in my poultry flocks...


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## Guest (Jan 13, 2009)

MountAiry said:


> Although itâs been âlong time, no postâ for me around here, I am still (and shall always be) working on being prepared.


 Howdy Airy! Welcome back!


Sonshine said:


> DH got me some dwarf citrus trees for Christmas. I've got orange, lemon and lime. I also got a knifty knitter. I'm looking forward to fresh citrus and will try to get more dwarf trees soon.


 Do you know what varieties of each that you have?

I haven't done much this month that I really think of as prepping other than buying a little of this and that when we go to Sam's. I've got a mighty mess of stuff waiting to be repacked and vac-sealed and nearly as much that already has been waiting for me to find some place to put it all. It's like this every winter. If I'm at home and it's not completely unfit to be outside I'm there getting work done. It's when the Torpid Season comes in about late June that I start looking for inside work.

The greenhouse is doing well. Had to buy a new heater the other day to replace the oldest one that finally packed it in. It was well used before being pressed into three years of greenhouse duty so I won't complain. All of the container citrus are putting on new flushes of leaves and starting to blossom so if I don't blow it next summer it ought to be another good year for fruit come the fall. The container tomatoes are doing well and needing a repotting. I should have put them in larger pots to begin with. All of the herbs were repotted and worked over with the pruning shears and are looking good now. The winter garden is approaching its peak. Next year is going to be more cabbage and less broccoli. As much as we like the stuff when we get the two weeks of near eighty degrees temps in December or January it wants to bolt. Cabbage and collards may be mundane, but they are reliable.

.....Alan.


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## mamajohnson (Nov 27, 2002)

Alan,
Can you tell me what type of heater you have in the green house? is it electric?
I don't have a greenhouse, but sure would like to, just so I could have citrus. Unless I can find some that are tolerant to about 20 degrees. (might be possible) and plant them on the south side of the hill.

Right now I have cabbage doing great in the garden, broccolli is coming on and lettuce is doing ok, not growing well, not sure what is up with that.

I have 25# of cocoa I need to get put up, scrounging for containers to get it done. Discovered I have been going through supplies and not replenishing enough. 

I need to take inventory!


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## Guest (Jan 13, 2009)

It's just one of those oil filled electrics such as are used for room heat. It's not a proper greenhouse heater as I can't afford those. Combined with the other heater and a small fan it gets the job done.

Twenty degrees is doable (for brief periods) for a couple of edible citrus varieties, but they're going to need protection for the first several years until they can get some size to them. Try investigating the Changsha tangerine (mandarin).

.....Alan.


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## vegascowgirl (Sep 19, 2004)

A friend of ours works for a place that makes gourmet caramel and candy apples. she always gives us a sack of their apples that arent up to par for "gourmet" treats. Well, this week we get a call to come get our apples....two big boxes worth in fact. About 50 pounds of apples that were "blemished" during shipping. Kept a few pounds out for fresh eating. Dried about five pounds worth, and the rest are becoming pie filling, apple sauce, and/or apple butter. 
Tree trimmers are in our area, trimming around the power lines. So we worked it out that they could dump any of their shredded stuff on our property. We use it for garden mulch, as well as in our horse stall. plus it makes great light kindling in the shed stove. 
I just love getting freebies.

Temps are dropping here, and so is the work. My hubby's job scheduled him for only about 25 hours this week. I was layed off right after Christmas. But, that is the fallbacks of working in Branson,MO. The town practically shuts down for winter. Hubby talked with the manager of the tree trimming co. and was told that they will be hiring a new crew in about two weeks. He plans on putting an app. in with them in the next few days. 

Got a few of my garden seeds in this week. Snow peas, bush beans, and peppers. These are added to my heirloom pole beans, lemon cucumbers, and yellow pear tomatoes that I saved from this last season. I also have a bunch of other seeds saved from the hybrids I grew last season. I know I won't get the same product, but in many cases you get something just as edible. Along with those I have odered quite a few other seed varieties, and am happily planning my garden.


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## firegirl969 (Nov 3, 2008)

I have been using the list from the LDS prepardness manual, and I have been taking inventory. I just ordered from United and got my stash last Friday, so the list is looking better. We need to stock up on some fruit juices now. Other than that, it looks pretty good. We need to restock on body wash. The girls use more than I realized. I have washed 150+ canning jars that DH's grandma had in the barn. I have about 80 to go. I am getting the canning stuff ready. I need to buy more lids. Will work on that with tax refund. I ahve 90 lbs wheat berries coming from Breadbecks co-op I am in, along with some yeast and gamma lids. I hope we are able to save to buy 50 lb of Moo milk soon and more ammo. The root cellar is still in the works as well. The list seems to get longer. I have started various berries in the greenhouse and moneymaker tomatoes. The berries and tomatoes are up, so that was super for me. I never started my own before.


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## Freeholder (Jun 19, 2004)

I've been doing some re-organizing; working on my seed order to Fedco (won't be able to send that out for a couple of weeks yet); and have ordered some chicks from Privett. I'm getting ten Golden-laced Wyandotte pullets and fifteen Buff Wyandotte straight-run. I'm working on some more rabbit cages, and will be working on our new greenhouse, which will also house some of the rabbits in the back. I had hoped to start on that today, but we had ice fog all day -- it didn't get above thirty-nine degrees, and the hoar frost never melted. So I mostly stayed indoors! Looking forward to spring and warmer weather!

Kathleen


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## ai731 (Sep 11, 2007)

Yesterday I ordered 6 apple trees to plant a small orchard on our new homestead. Considering the state of the economy, I'm trying to get all the ordering/purchassing from small or family businesses done ASAP, as finances permit. I've got most of our seeds already and have ordered seed potatoes from our local mill. I'll be ordering a scythe from http://www.scythesupply.com/ as soon as next month's pay comes in. The only thing left after that will be the chickens - I'll be ordering 25 Chantecler chicks. I will feel a *lot* better in the spring once the trees are planted, the chicken is coop built, and the chicks are here!

Jan


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## sgl42 (Jan 20, 2004)

finally got a decent rise in my home-ground whole wheat bread! 

found some good info about the theory behind breadmaking, and troubleshooting tips at a sourdough site (altho I'm using yeast now. might experiment in the future with sourdough tho.) I think I had too little water, didn't knead it enough after the first rise, and might have waited too long on the second rise such that it over-rose and then collapsed when I baked.

for those interested, the site is www.sourdoughhome.com. In particular, I found troubleshooting, tips, and "baking as balancing act" to be useful. If you're interested in sourdough, read sourdough primer.

--sgl


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## vegascowgirl (Sep 19, 2004)

went through our first aid kits and took out anything that was about to expire. Replaced the anti itch/poison ivy ointment, antibiotic ointment, and a bottle of tylenol. need to also replace the sunscreen, but had a brain burp and forgot it when at the store, so will pick it up my next trip. 
Did the same with our equine/animal first aid as well. most of that is good. just needed to replace some muscle ointment.
I don't throw the replaced things out, they are just placed on our shelves for emediate use if/when needed. 

The middle of this week is supposed to be fairly mild, so will use the time to transplant my blackberries. Hubby keeps expanding our horse paddock and it's beginning to encroach on my berry patch. Have a few more berries ordered in case the transplant goes badly. It is just a couple of plants and still young, so hoping it will go ok.

saw an add in the local paper. our dented freight store is advertising that all their brands of rice are $.30 a pound. so, might go and check out what they have. I like the store, but sometimes you have to really be watchfull and picky.

My oldest DD is suddenly interested in "survival" techniques, after inquiring about a book I was reading. An older short Novel by Louis L'amour called Down the Long Mountain. Where two young children (a boy and girl who just happen to be 7 and 3 and a half like my girls). They are left alone to survive with their horse after their wagon train is attacked. It doesn't go into great detail, but my daughter thought it was pretty cool that someone her age (7) knew how to set snares and make little shelters.


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