Preparations Update

[UrbanHunter]

Now that the wife has realized that we can transfer freezer stuff into canning jars she is all in, so now I am going to be canning for the next 4 weeks... just in time for hunting season to start. She did give me the okay to pickup some solar panels for an emergency power backup that I have been dreaming about (It's my birthday present )

I need to pick up a new BIG Tee shirt to make a camo pullover with (I made my own pattern a few years back and it worked like a charm, but now it is warn out so need to make a new one for this season)

I have been spinning the preppers wheel (think of the wheel of fortune just with prepper stuff to do) like crazy, food, water, fuel, power, hunting, security.... I have this feeling that I need to be maxed out before October... Don't know why but I have that gun at my back feeling...

 

[WVDragonlady]

Picked up last 2 cartridges of black ink for the printer that they had at the store. Have 2 of color.
Plan on getting 2 more to stock. I go through the black more than I do the color

 

[UrbanHunter]

Finished my Wmart run, no distilled water , but they "had" a flat of red grapefruit I was able to get almost everything on my list cooking oil, rice(s), oat meal, egg noodles...

I was not able to get:
Name brand olive oil (what they had looked like a forklift ran over it)
Distilled Water
Name brand Fettuccini pasta
They didn't have any of the Tee Shirts that I wanted

One thing I noticed was that the store appeared to be well stocked, but on close inspection when I would remove a product there was nothing behind it, so the cans may have been stacked 3 high (making the appearance of 3+ cases, they actually only had 9 cans..... On a number of items after I loaded my cart their shelves were empty. Sorry Charlie, you snooze you loose lil loser

Good news is while I was digging out venison from the freezer I found 6 whole chickens and a turkey, that should cover the stock requirements for our up coming canning marathon.... I will get to kill 2 birds with 1 stone, I make room in the freezer and I don't have to buy chicken to do the canning I also came to realize that I will not have to buy any beef. So for our canning event we will only need vegetables!!! Wife has expanded our list so we should be canning about 120 main course meals, but I will have to start canning sooner than I had planned to get it all done on my timeline.... (Have to save room for hunting season)

 

[LadyLocust]

Finished my Wmart run, no distilled water , but they "had" a flat of red grapefruit I was able to get almost everything on my list cooking oil, rice(s), oat meal, egg noodles...

I was not able to get:
Name brand olive oil (what they had looked like a forklift ran over it)
Distilled Water
Name brand Fettuccini pasta
They didn't have any of the Tee Shirts that I wanted

One thing I noticed was that the store appeared to be well stocked, but on close inspection when I would remove a product there was nothing behind it, so the cans may have been stacked 3 high (making the appearance of 3+ cases, they actually only had 9 cans..... On a number of items after I loaded my cart their shelves were empty. Sorry Charlie, you snooze you loose lil loser

Good news is while I was digging out venison from the freezer I found 6 whole chickens and a turkey, that should cover the stock requirements for our up coming canning marathon.... I will get to kill 2 birds with 1 stone, I make room in the freezer and I don't have to buy chicken to do the canning I also came to realize that I will not have to buy any beef. So for our canning event we will only need vegetables!!! Wife has expanded our list so we should be canning about 120 main course meals, but I will have to start canning sooner than I had planned to get it all done on my timeline.... (Have to save room for hunting season)

Have you seen the Hecs camo? Hubby loves it and has tested it when not hunting. He is actually due for another set.

https://hecsllc.com/

 

[UrbanHunter]

Have you seen the Hecs camo? Hubby loves it and has tested it when not hunting. He is actually due for another set.

https://hecsllc.com/

I hunt from a treestand and it is hot going in, I like to have gear that I can slip on at/in the tree, I had a pattern that I made about 6 years ago using a real cheap Tee shirt and I had a number of deer look directly at me and totally ignore me (even within 10 feet), so I was hoping to repeat that. Besides, I can mess up a lot of $5 Tees and not feel guilty, and I really like having something that is totally unique to me.... I tend to customize all my gear... I've been told it's an engineer thing...

 

[angie_nrs]

I had an unexpected run to town last week, so I sure as heck wasn't going to waste it. I gathered up my lists the night before and took off at 6:30am to avoid the crowds. I picked up a few things........

40# bag of sunflower seeds for the birds
3 emergency radios (on clearance for $10 each) - 2 for Christmas gifts and 1 for the camper
6 packs of large mouth lids
12 cans chili
8 cans of beef stew
6 cans of keystone chicken (1# cans)
6 cans of green chilis (on sale)
2 cans coffee (on clearance)
8 cans mushrooms
2 shelving units
1 pack vinyl gloves (mostly for painting projects)
10 pack of N-95 masks (was surprised to see them at Home Depot, so I just bought them)
2 packs para cord (to use as clothesline)
2 packs clothespins
4 jars peanuts
6 paks bacon
4 blocks cheese
4 boxes trail mix for lunches
and a few other items here and there......

I took delivery of a spinning clothesline from Lehmans. I haven't used it yet and likely won't this year, but it feels good to have it just in case the power goes out long term. The dryer takes up wayyyy too much power to be using it in a grid down situation. I'd much rather use our propane or gasoline on something more important like freezers.

ETA the link if anyone else might be interested:
https://www.lehmans.com/product/large-deluxe-spinning-clothes-dryer

 

[joel]

Anyone use Azure bulk foods?
https://www.azurestandard.com/shop/...te/rice-thai-jasmine-white/8606?package=GR103

 

[Sourdough]

Just (In the "HOT" Sun) prepped another 48 cans of delicious "Alaska Red Salmon" for direct burial in wilderness Alaska.

 

[UrbanHunter]

We got 2 different meals canned today, both using venison. I have jars in the dishwasher for my wife's next project...

 

[LadyLocust]

Anyone use Azure bulk foods?
https://www.azurestandard.com/shop/...te/rice-thai-jasmine-white/8606?package=GR103

Yep, all the time - get a shipment monthly. Love them.

 

[Caribou]

Anyone use Azure bulk foods?
https://www.azurestandard.com/shop/...te/rice-thai-jasmine-white/8606?package=GR103

Not for awhile but I was happy with them when I did.

 

[Tank-Girl]

I got my refurbished laptop delivered this morning. Awesome. It was sent via express air freight so it dodged the road freight backlog. Paying extra for the express air freight was worth it.
Still haven't heard about the patch job on my tank yet. I hope they can fix it because I want to get a few thousand litres stored before Summer. If we have another dry monsoon season we are going to be on water restrictions and I have to keep my garden alive.
I have to harvest some Lantana flowers and use them to make a mosquito spray. Mosquitoes hate Lantana. I have only learned about it's useful properties lately. I spent a great deal of my youth destroying acres of the plant because it's a declared pest species by the both the federal gov and my state gov.
I hate using insect spray in summer because I hate dousing myself in poison which seems to be just as bad as being eaten alive by the mozzies...plus the Lantana spray is free and uses a pest species. I have to see if the Landshark is allergic to it. I hope not because she gets eaten alive in Summer because she has a very short coat and very tender pink skin.

 

[LadyLocust]

I got my refurbished laptop delivered this morning. Awesome. It was sent via express air freight so it dodged the road freight backlog. Paying extra for the express air freight was worth it.
Still haven't heard about the patch job on my tank yet. I hope they can fix it because I want to get a few thousand litres stored before Summer. If we have another dry monsoon season we are going to be on water restrictions and I have to keep my garden alive.
I have to harvest some Lantana flowers and use them to make a mosquito spray. Mosquitoes hate Lantana. I have only learned about it's useful properties lately. I spent a great deal of my youth destroying acres of the plant because it's a declared pest species by the both the federal gov and my state gov.
I hate using insect spray in summer because I hate dousing myself in poison which seems to be just as bad as being eaten alive by the mozzies...plus the Lantana spray is free and uses a pest species. I have to see if the Landshark is allergic to it. I hope not because she gets eaten alive in Summer because she has a very short coat and very tender pink skin.

Mosquitos don't like basil either.

 

[Salekdarling]

Bought a fruit picking pole tonight. Bought a house in April with several fruit trees. I’m going to be busy next month canning pears.

 

[Neb]

Bought a fruit picking pole tonight. Bought a house in April with several fruit trees. I’m going to be busy next month canning pears.

We used ours just last week to pick pears. The Princess said it is time to start eating them.

Ben

 

[UrbanHunter]

We have been canning every evening, mostly things that use chicken stock... Tonight, the wife informed me that we need another dozen chickens to make the stock to finish the planned canning.... Then she turned to beef stock..... I only work half a day tomorrow so I may go to cost co that place is always a zoo....

I expect to get some wires and a couple of solar panels by next Monday, then I can do a little experimentation.... I need to think of something to verify that my system can do some real work but not risk much.....

Well I think it's time to empty the canner....

 

[UrbanHunter]

I have a silly question. We just canned chicken something to be used with store bought egg noodles to make a chicken noodle soup. I would like to keep the egg noodles fresh but doing a seal-a-meal would crush them. So I am wondering what you think about placing dry egg noodles in quart canning jars and pulling a vacuum on them and then storing them with the liquid chicken soup stuff? My thinking would be that they would be together when it came time to use them. Any thoughts on the subject? What do you think would be the right proportions? Would a quart to a quart of canned soup be right or would you want more noodles or less noodles? If this doesn't sound logical I'm a little tired, been going strong from the time I got up this morning (04:00), just over 18 hours ago....

 

[LadyLocust]

I have a silly question. We just canned chicken something to be used with store bought egg noodles to make a chicken noodle soup. I would like to keep the egg noodles fresh but doing a seal-a-meal would crush them. So I am wondering what you think about placing dry egg noodles in quart canning jars and pulling a vacuum on them and then storing them with the liquid chicken soup stuff? My thinking would be that they would be together when it came time to use them. Any thoughts on the subject? What do you think would be the right proportions? Would a quart to a quart of canned soup be right or would you want more noodles or less noodles? If this doesn't sound logical I'm a little tired, been going strong from the time I got up this morning (04:00), just over 18 hours ago....

I vac. seal my pastas in canning jars. Not sure which type (shape) of pastas you have, but the box or bag should say how much per serving. If you are doing a pint maybe one serving and a quart maybe 2 - that's a total guess and might still be too much for a soup. I don't know that I have ever measured pasta. I just dump until it looks right. I do larger jars, use some, then put a band on the jar and it's the one in use until I need to open another one. I do the same with oatmeal, rice, quinoa, etc.
Side note: isn't it funny that Italians have 1 word for all squash (zucchini) and about 80 for different shapes of pasta?

 

[Amish Heart]

It should work sealing them in jars. Around here, amish chicken and noodles have alot, alot of eggnoodles and barely any broth, and little pieces of chicken. So you can go heavy on the noodles if that's what you like. I have done the seal a meal with egg noodles, but had to put them in a gallon ziplock first and then the sealing bag so they didn't crunch up

 

[Sourdough]

I ordered more cases of that canned Red Salmon........did I mention it taste good.

 

[UrbanHunter]

Thanks all! So I am now "Canning" my egg noodles and storing 6 qts of egg noodles with 6 qts of Chicken chunks n broth (don't know what else to call it). This is great as I store everything in full case lots.....

Today, I over slept and jumped up thinking I need to get the makings for beef broth... ran to the local store and they had the beef short ribs (at 1/2 the price of the "high quality" store my wife prefers) Score!!! I was able to buy 3 full bags of just meat (I did get a chicken) for $80. I can now make a bunch of Beef Stock...

 

[joel]

I ordered more cases of that canned Red Salmon........did I mention it taste good.

Where do you get it by the case?

 

[Salekdarling]

We used ours just last week to pick pears. The Princess said it is time to start eating them.

Ben

Hoping I’ll be able to get the pears off the trees before they start to rot. My pole isn’t supposed to be here until the 7th.

 

[Sourdough]

Where do you get it by the case?"

You might find a better price. But for me getting it delivered (FREE) to the bottom of my mountain, in "nowhere" Alaska, this is a fair price...... Amazon.com: Rubinstein's Red Salmon (Case of 24) : Grocery & Gourmet Food

 

[angie_nrs]

I'm seeing more holes in the shelves at WM. As others have stated, there's some product at the front of the shelves but nothing behind them. It's getting a bit creepy. I think they are trying to subside the panic by stocking shelves so that the lack of choices aren't readily apparent, so that when people just walk by, they may not notice. I just looked down the toy isle and there were huge gaping holes there. Apparently I'm not the only one buying Christmas gifts early.

We went this weekend with the truck b/c there were 2 items I wanted to get that wouldn't fit in the car. I was there a couple of weeks ago and they had a stack of freezers (probably 12 or so) and a stack of smokers (probably 8 or so). When we went this weekend, I bought the last smoker (of the size I wanted) and there were only 2 freezers left. I'm glad we didn't wait any longer.... So, I picked up a few things while I was there.

Small (5 cubic foot) chest freezer......just to have in reserve in case one of our other freezers fail.
Small smoker
2 bags of smoker pellets
beer
patriotic pillows (for Christmas gifts) that were on clearance
6 cans of Keystone ground beef
4 cans of Keystone pork
2 cans of Keystone chicken
4 bottles laundry detergent
4 bottles charcoal starter fluid
60 various seed packets for .20 each

 

[LadyLocust]

Hoping I’ll be able to get the pears off the trees before they start to rot. My pole isn’t supposed to be here until the 7th.

Do you have a rake or broom and an empty half gal bleach jug or water jug? Just cut the bottom off the jug, put the nonusable end of the broomstick in the poor-spout and you have a makeshift fruit picker. Might need to secure at spout with duct tape for high class finish

 

[LadyLocust]

I'm seeing more holes in the shelves at WM. As others have stated, there's some product at the front of the shelves but nothing behind them. It's getting a bit creepy. I think they are trying to subside the panic by stocking shelves so that the lack of choices aren't readily apparent, so that when people just walk by, they may not notice. I just looked down the toy isle and there were huge gaping holes there. Apparently I'm not the only one buying Christmas gifts early.

We went this weekend with the truck b/c there were 2 items I wanted to get that wouldn't fit in the car. I was there a couple of weeks ago and they had a stack of freezers (probably 12 or so) and a stack of smokers (probably 8 or so). When we went this weekend, I bought the last smoker (of the size I wanted) and there were only 2 freezers left. I'm glad we didn't wait any longer.... So, I picked up a few things while I was there.

Small (5 cubic foot) chest freezer......just to have in reserve in case one of our other freezers fail.
Small smoker
2 bags of smoker pellets
beer
patriotic pillows (for Christmas gifts) that were on clearance
6 cans of Keystone ground beef
4 cans of Keystone pork
2 cans of Keystone chicken
4 bottles laundry detergent
4 bottles charcoal starter fluid
60 various seed packets for .20 each

I popped in this morning to get a couple things and there were quite a few holes for the first time since last spring. They had butter though which is what I was after

 

[Caribou]

All of Mom's side of the family was in the food business, mostly meat markets but one aunt and uncle owned a grocery store. They all knew how to run a grocery store. You always keep the shelves full. If you can't get the product that is supposed to be in a certain spot you widen the other items out so the shelves look full. If you can't fill the shelves you bring the products all forward so that the shelves look full. Throughout the day you keep moving product forward. Anything else is poor management.

When I see these big empty holes all around the stores it tells me that the back room is empty.

 

[Aerindel]

All of Mom's side of the family was in the food business, mostly meat markets but one aunt and uncle owned a grocery store. They all knew how to run a grocery store. You always keep the shelves full. If you can't get the product that is supposed to be in a certain spot you widen the other items out so the shelves look full. If you can't fill the shelves you bring the products all forward so that the shelves look full. Throughout the day you keep moving product forward. Anything else is poor management.

This explains why in my LGS all the shelves in the reloading section are filled with masks for sale.

 

[lilmissy]

Nieces husband said at the Wm he works at made an order with Frito Lay for $27k, they received $9 worth of the product and FL said thats all they have???
the local tv station the other day had a business segment and they said hold on, Christmas shopping will be slim pickins this winter??.