What's everybody doing today?

Homesteading & Country Living Forum

Help Support Homesteading & Country Living Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Today I am putting things away. About 2 weeks ago I spent about a grand in on-line orders to top off the old supply store down stairs. It has been arriving and I have been stacking it in the living room. The day before the port strike started my wife asked me, "What's all those big boxes in the living room". Yesterday, she asked me, are we ready if the strike lasts a while.... and then she looks in the living room and says, never mind.. :)
 
Now, just tell her that you're ready for the election chaos.

Busy day today. Chimney sweep coming this morning. Hope to get some painting done after chores. Homecoming football game tonight in the school town (15 miles out) and little granddaughter is in band, so I have to get her there an hr before the game and she'll play at halftime.
 
Now, just tell her that you're ready for the election chaos.

Busy day today. Chimney sweep coming this morning. Hope to get some painting done after chores. Homecoming football game tonight in the school town (15 miles out) and little granddaughter is in band, so I have to get her there an hr before the game and she'll play at halftime.
What instrument does she play??
 
Percussion. Tonight is called Mass Band, a High School tradition at Homecoming. That means the middle school plays with the High School band. She's in 8th grade in middle school.
Big change this year because up till last year, she went to our town's small school. K thru 8 in our town had 40 students, and they shut it down. Now it's a head start preschool, state funded for the poor farmers. Ha. The amish don't use it, and that's most of the town.
So now she goes to the other town's middle school that is attached to their High School. I really don't know anyone there. None of the 40 students from our town went there...they either homeschooled or went to amish school or aged out of school at 8th grade.
 
I actually finished this project today even though I started it yesterday, so I am counting it as "What I am doing today?" I made a (second) batch) of Emergency Ration bars. The first batch turned out so well my wife confiscated it, and there won't be anything left for emrgencies. That's O.K. I'm glad she liked it, and it was such a big hit. Anyway, I finished the second batch; cut it up into individual bars; wrapped in parchment paper; put in sandwich bags; and they are in the freezer.

If you hunt or hike or like to spend time outdoors this would be ideal for your backpack. If you are still packing lunch for your school kids it would be an easy throw in dessert. Here is the recipe:

2 cups Maple Syrup
4 tablespoons raw Honey
2 tablespoons Peanut Butter
1 cup Frosted Flakes (I used regular Corn Flakes since we had them in the house)
3 cups Oatmeal
1 cup Protein Powder (I used powdered Peanut Butter, again, because we had it in the house)
1 cup sliced Almonds
1 cup raisins

Put the wet ingredients in a bowl (including the Peanut Butter) and microwave for two minutes. Stir thoroughly.
Put the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly.
Pour the heated wet ingredients into the dry mixture and mix thoroughly
Put the finished mixture into a baking dish and bake for 20 minutes @ 375 degrees.

I used a 9" x 9" glass baking dish and came out with 8 bars that are about 2" x 4". The entire process took about one hour from start to taking the dish out of the oven.

See what you think. My wife says I could make it once a month. She eats it for breakfast. :dunno:
 
Not going to the festival today, too tired. I'd use up most of today's energy getting there then be miserable after an hour. No point in that so... what to do now?

I could do some dry canning. Just heard about it from a friend so I bought 20lbs of cornmeal and flour yesterday. I have plenty of jars, rings and lids. I also have a pound of turmeric I need to do something with it. I actually have 2lbs, one is for a friend. I could go deliver it. Need a few things from the big town anyway but can't remember what they were. I ordered a pump, was supposed to arrive yesterday but didn't. I could try to track it down?

Guess I should set here until I get enough energy to think. Welcome to my world! 😁
 
Last edited:
My internet has been on and off for the last week. I started tracking it up for an hour, down for 5 minutes repeat... not good trying to telework. I have a wired connection and I am getting frustrated. I am thinking of adding a 5G router to my phone plan to provide a second gateway to the internet. Does anyone have experience with setting up this type of redundancy? If it's been discussed to death, please show me the thread. Thanks, signing off shortly, wither I want to or not.... :(
 
Sorry I need to catch up with you all plus do last weeks fridays fives..
The last few days have been busy busy busy..
I'm starting a Operation to help the relief effort..our gov response is pathetic and so I feel it will be up to volunteers to step like.
Plus it really bothers me to not being able to go out and help..I miss doing SAR operations..
It was always my happy place tromping through the woods looking for folks..
Anyways..copy my idea if you like..get some boxes going..
Spread the love..United we stand!
 

Attachments

  • 20241003_161132.jpg
    20241003_161132.jpg
    890.5 KB
  • 17280627915382055343449639213344.jpg
    17280627915382055343449639213344.jpg
    1.4 MB
I spent yesterday in college in the library and meeting supervisor etc. I was absolutely wrecked getting home; though I had done nothing psychical - not used to so many people, at least I only have to go occasionally. Today I did 'bits' paid bills, went to post office, got house insurance quotes and some cleaning all the while with the song 'Walkaway Joe' in my head for some reason. Finished processing a bucket of apples, all ready to make pies for the freezer.
 
Sorry I need to catch up with you all plus do last weeks fridays fives..
The last few days have been busy busy busy..
I'm starting a Operation to help the relief effort..our gov response is pathetic and so I feel it will be up to volunteers to step like.
Plus it really bothers me to not being able to go out and help..I miss doing SAR operations..
It was always my happy place tromping through the woods looking for folks..
Anyways..copy my idea if you like..get some boxes going..
Spread the love..United we stand!
This is a great idea. I think it's foolish to ever depend on the government for anything. And its even more foolish for anyone to sit around waiting for government to help. People generally do a good job of helping each other out in time of crisis. It's even more important for people to prepare for whatever type of disaster that is most likely to happen in their area.
 
This is a great idea. I think it's foolish to ever depend on the government for anything. And its even more foolish for anyone to sit around waiting for government to help. People generally do a good job of helping each other out in time of crisis. It's even more important for people to prepare for whatever type of disaster that is most likely to happen in their area.
I agree..unfortunately even those folks that prepared got wiped out..I can't imagine..
 
I agree..unfortunately even those folks that prepared got wiped out..I can't imagine..
I feel for anyone that loses everything in any kind of disaster. Prepping starts long before the disaster hits. Even before buying the property or building on it. When we lived up north we had a storm that dropped 7 feet of snow in one day, on top of the several feet of snow already on the ground. Then we had 3 inches of freezing rain on top of that. Lots of buildings, homes and some school building collapsed. When it melted we had a lot of flooding, with massive ice jams. When it was all over FEMA was going around writting checks to everyone that had any damage. Of course we didn't get any FEMA handouts. Even though our property flooded we didn't have any damage, except to fences and timber. I built our house, barn and other buildings on high ground, our driveway was an old logging road that was built 100 years ago on high ground. All of the trees that came down was either cut for fire wood, was sold to area mills, or went through my saw mill. A few years ago a fire burned about 300,000 acres. We had a property right in the middle of that fire. Every tree, stick and blade of grass was burned. Never saw FEMA. We lost a lot of valuable timber in that fire.
I hope after this flood is over the people give some serious thought about rebuilding in flood prone areas.
 
Took Merlin to the vet for a dental visit, they extracted 18 bad teeth. No wonder the poor guy had trouble with dry food.

Finished a short write up for a Snub Revolver group, sent that to the editor.

Star had her vet visit , she did great, teeth in fabulous shape.
 
I feel for anyone that loses everything in any kind of disaster. Prepping starts long before the disaster hits. Even before buying the property or building on it. When we lived up north we had a storm that dropped 7 feet of snow in one day, on top of the several feet of snow already on the ground. Then we had 3 inches of freezing rain on top of that. Lots of buildings, homes and some school building collapsed. When it melted we had a lot of flooding, with massive ice jams. When it was all over FEMA was going around writting checks to everyone that had any damage. Of course we didn't get any FEMA handouts. Even though our property flooded we didn't have any damage, except to fences and timber. I built our house, barn and other buildings on high ground, our driveway was an old logging road that was built 100 years ago on high ground. All of the trees that came down was either cut for fire wood, was sold to area mills, or went through my saw mill. A few years ago a fire burned about 300,000 acres. We had a property right in the middle of that fire. Every tree, stick and blade of grass was burned. Never saw FEMA. We lost a lot of valuable timber in that fire.
I hope after this flood is over the people give some serious thought about rebuilding in flood prone areas.
I don't think many folks will be able to rebuild in many places and while these areas haven't flooded like this in a few hundred years, I do hope folks anywhere rethinks about where they rebuild.
Flooding, was one of the reasons why I moved from my place. Although I was high up on a cliff..if the west coast gets the big one, I couldn't count on being dry even though I was up high..that area will get wiped out by a wave or secondary floods..hasent happened in hundreds of years..but it is overdue..plus I wanted out of cali.
Many of us know residing in a flood plane isn't a good plan, but most normal folks don't even consider stuff like that or prep .
Just today I watched a video of a family who woke up in the am to water lapping on their porch a good 200 feet up n away from a small creek around in NC I think.
Another guy said he saw a 20 ft wall of water in a flash flood wipe out his town..People, pets, livestock, cars n homes ..gone . Folks didn't even have time to get out of their houses..
Being close to water for fun is great..living next to it isn't going to be a thing much longer I'm thinking..
 
Got up, worked out, ran out to my car and got to see my best friend again. This time he had a woman with him. I didn't like her at all. She was holding a cardboard box and she set it on top of his car! I know right, directly on the paint. Yikes. He looked at me and I tried to convey my best "dump her man, she's not the one" head nod. He threw back a nod that said "I hear you, but I work for her dad" or possibly "we're staying together for the kids". Why do these people refuse to think of the damage their relationships cause to the innocent, like that poor Challenger. Anyway I did other stuff too but I am too upset to talk about it.
 
I hope after this flood is over the people give some serious thought about rebuilding in flood prone areas.
have you ever been to NC? It rains there all the time, that's whey they call it Smokey Mountains, because of the fog and clouds. People got wiped out that lived somewhat near little creeks, not even rivers. A lot of them did not live anywhere near flood prone areas. The floods wiped out interstates. The rain caused mudslides in the mountains
this isn't like building a house on the beach of the gulf coast, there aren't even FEMA flood maps for that area
 
have you ever been to NC? It rains there all the time, that's whey they call it Smokey Mountains, because of the fog and clouds. People got wiped out that lived somewhat near little creeks, not even rivers. A lot of them did not live anywhere near flood prone areas. The floods wiped out interstates. The rain caused mudslides in the mountains
this isn't like building a house on the beach of the gulf coast, there aren't even FEMA flood maps for that area
Of course I've been to NC. My ancestors are from that part of the country. Floods happen, some every year, some on a 100 - 500 year cycle. Yes, it's impossible to predict these big floods, but everyone knows they will happen, just a matter of time. Same with our big fires out here, fires happen every year, and some are massive. They hit different areas at different times. When they burn through a person's property and destroy everything they own, it's no less devastating than a flood. A few years ago I lost a large chunk of timber land to fire.
 
Back
Top