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Post by feather on Jun 1, 2022 7:58:42 GMT -6
Are you preparing for emergencies and long term storage avoiding the high prices?
I saw an interesting video talking about the real estate bubble in china and how china has 75% of their money tied up in this real estate. There is an expectation that the bubble will pop and they will see a big down turn in the ability to buy and lend and produce items. If this happens then inflation will have a down turn. I don't know if this will happen but I can hope inflation will turn around.
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Post by Ohio Dreamer on Jun 12, 2022 10:53:29 GMT -6
Harvest is beginning in our yard. Kale, spinach, and strawberries are coming in. So it's time for one of our favorite salads....kale, strawberries, feta, and walnuts! About the time strawberries wind down (June berries) we are ready for a change  I overplanted kale and spinach this year so we would have enough to freeze-dry and powder for later. Kale's nutrition content is high, so it's a great addition to anything. Especially in winter when fresh produce isn't so fresh.....and might not be affordable this winter Picked about 8# of strawberries yesterday. Hubby quartered them and put them in the freezer to pre-freeze  I like this "new" division of labor. He is being much more helpful with "my" chores this year. He isn't able to help much with picking and weeding. It's hard on my hips as well, but not having to add an hour or so of standing in the kitchen prepping everything after picking and weeding sure does help my hips! So if I pick produce first, he preps it while I weed a section. Yep, I like this new division of labor. |
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Post by feather on Jun 12, 2022 11:49:09 GMT -6
Ohio Dreamer, our kale is coming along well too! And having that green powder available in winter will be great to add nutrition and save money. The kale bunches at the store 99 cent now and it takes 2 to make a pound, get much smaller in winter. I wonder how it will be in the lentil lemon spinach soup/stew. So what is this new division of labor? Since retiring, Mr feather is helping with chopping vegetables with the slap chopper, and peeling pears and apples with the apple peeler/slicer/corer....so the mechanical sous chef? What about labeling and transferring jars to the basement? Packaging and handler and logistics? Sous-chef, or Executive Sous-chef....Your hubs sounds like he's doing a fabulous thing!
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Post by Ohio Dreamer on Jun 12, 2022 19:20:38 GMT -6
feather, Dh hasn't retired, yet. So he's just a weekend helper, maybe some evenings. He has a bad knee, so no jars down to the basement, I'm assuming. I haven't been canning this year, so he hasn't had the opportunity. He's helping with freeze drying. He has even done some of the cooking and meal planning this weekend!! He hasn't done that for well over 10 yrs. He's a good cook - not so good about balancing nutrition - but a good cook. But he's fine with me adding a little of this and that to round out the meal. He's a man....he thinks of protein and starch, lol.
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Post by midtnmama on Jun 16, 2022 6:55:59 GMT -6
Here's my 2021 Prep (I guess) list which I'm working to update:
Garden
Cut roses on trellis
Get Rain gauge
Plant Bamboo
Plant Rhubarb
Plant Mint under fruit trees
Grow mushrooms (step 1 done: Chip drop order)
Tap trees for syrup
Start organic bees for pollination, not honey
Minimize plant buying (start plants/save seed)
Build cold frame on south side of house
Replant rooted fig tree
Create potting bench for basement
Start more mums for under each tree
Plant marigolds under trees
Prune roses and propagate
Add bees
Root forsythia
Food/General Grocer
make more fermented food (sourkraut, pickles)
Make wine (blackberries, grapes)
Learn how to make more vegan Cheezes
Make Laundry soap
Tap Maple trees for syrup
Can Grape leaves
Energy Saving
Small solar energy unit - done
Solve turning off TV yet protection from surges
Use less electricity
dry clothes outdoors/indoors in the winter
Cheap fun
Obtain inexpensive/free fabric
Check into small engine repair courses
Play pickleball against retaining wall
Make laundry soap
solar oven
composting toilet done
chickens
get more banties
sell chicks
sell fertilized eggs
Buy nice incubator (turns eggs, air flow)
Frugal
Make Laundry soap
Energy Efficiency
Solar oven
Solar panel and battery (Need to use more)
Other
Put extension cord, surge protectors for phone charging.
Visit 12 new state/national/regional/local parks this year (2 done)
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Post by Ohio Dreamer on Jun 17, 2022 8:07:35 GMT -6
Storms this past week didn't touch us but touched our property south of here. House, buildings and driveway are fine (which is good as we had realtors coming to interview in order to pick one to get the place on the market) But it's in the woods.....we have about 8 big trees down that have to be cleaned up. Upside, we will have wood for the 23-24 winter (it was all VERY alive Monday morning, so it will need a year or so)....downside. I have bad hips, hubby just had knee surgery and a this land is on the side of a hill....nothing is flat. But we will get it done! Son, his girlfriend and 2 of her brothers are coming to help Saturday afternoon  We have never met her family....so this is HUGE! I did go to their shop yesterday (lawn and garden shop on the other side of the county) to buy a chainsaw, so I now have met her dad professionally. Nice guy, but I didn't doubt it knowing his daughter  Our other place is an hour+ away - so there goes our gas budget!! So preps....keep harvesting garden, freeze dry any extra, chop wood. |
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Post by manygoatsnomore on Jun 27, 2022 14:31:22 GMT -6
With gas prices here hovering around $5.50/gallon, I am turning back into a hermit! Driving an old truck that gets about 13 mpg, living 60 miles roundtrip to the main city in my area, doing the math...when it takes $25 just to get to town and back, I have to make every trip count. It isn't quite as bad to drive to my hometown, where a lot of my activities demand my attendance, but it's still roughly $15 in gas costs for every trip there. The small grocery store 4 miles from my home burned down a few months ago, and while they have the gas pumps back up and running, they are still working on a temporary store, a double-wide that will have the basics until the main store is rebuilt, bigger and better. It used to be handy when all we needed was a gallon of milk. Even the slightly higher cost of the milk was a lot cheaper than a drive to town. That's not an option right now. I ride along with other members of the Honor Guard when we do ceremonies at veteran funerals, but I can't very well ask them to stop all over town so I can do my shopping! Johnny was kind enough to pull into a minimart so I could buy a gallon of milk and a snack for both of us after Saturday's funeral. He usually won't even take gas money and wants to buy anyone riding with him a meal, so I took this as a win, lol. With grocery prices so much higher, even Abby is figuring out that cooking from scratch (or at least from jars of ingredients) is saving a lot over buying ready to eat frozen meals. Her food stamps are going a lot further since she stopped buying as many of them. Now if I could get her to understand that $4 for a 16 oz can of Starbucks coffee drink or a Pom fruit drink is not a good use of her funds...sigh. I guess you could say that one of my prep goals is to help her to budget better. I'm trying hard to grow a more productive garden and to preserve as much of that produce as possible. The weather hasn't been helpful, with a horribly cold and wet Spring. Then it was like someone flipped the weather switch on the first day of Summer and now it's in the 90s. The plants are looking pretty shocked, and I have to admit, I am, too! I'm having trouble getting myself up and outside at sunrise, so that I can get in some work before I am a candidate for heat stroke. I turned on the AC window unit for the first time yesterday. It helps, but I'm not getting much done outside. At least it looks like today is the last day of 90s for the week. Whew! My whole goal over the last couple of months has been reclaiming my garden, and I'm getting there. Now I need to shift my focus a bit and split my time between the garden, the swimming pool and building more hay storage so I can buy my hay right out of the field - cheaper that way, although it's up a lot since last year. The price of diesel, baling twine and parts - they all cost so much more this year that we absolutely MUST sell horses. Abby's put up ads for Gabe and Fly, but we really need to sell all 4 of the horses we have and just buy 2 younger, sound riding horses without any of the chronic conditions our herd has. Trying to convince Abby to part with Bear, her Thoroughbred stallion isn't going well. He's a wonderful horse, but has some health issues that aren't going to improve much without expensive care that we just can't afford. I guess that is a prep goal, too...not just to buy enough hay to get through the entire year, but completely reworking the horse choices we have. My goal for today is to take advantage of the high temps to mend garden hoses. Hot weather means the hoses are soft and easier to get the hose menders into the hoses. I also need to take apart a few sprinklers and figure out why they aren't working properly. The sandy ground I garden in means the soil dries out very quickly. I use black plastic and straw to cover as much ground as possible between plants, but I still need to water when it's so hot. Every one of my impulse sprinklers seems to have some kind of issue this year. Well, I've stalled long enough. Time to get busy!  |
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Post by feather on Jun 27, 2022 21:27:02 GMT -6
manygoatsnomore, that sounds really hard, to sell off yours and abby's horses.  We have similar sprinkler issues. I've opened them up and cleaned them out, and soaked them in a mild vinegar solution (we have hard water), but they don't work really well. It doesn't matter if I spend $30 on a sprinkler or $10 on a sprinkler. 
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Post by Ohio Dreamer on Jun 28, 2022 9:27:15 GMT -6
After 5 days of working on cleaning up the fallen trees we have one section is done (almost). So far 7 truckloads of wood home to dry With the wood we had already that should get us through the next 2 winters. A mixed blessing....wood but SO MUCH hard work! This weekend we will start the next section. These are smaller trees and not in the "middle of the yard". We cleaned up the biggest mess first...and the one that was the ugliest for potential home buyers. The Realtor doesn't want to put the house on the market till the driveway is fixed. It really is in BAD shape. One guy said he won't be able to get to it till Aug! Another estimator is coming tomorrow to see it. BUT he wants someone there. SO I'm going down to meet him ($40 round trip in gas, unless I can find a gas deal...more on that later). I'll pick up the little bit of split wood we didn't get in the truck over the weekend and a few smaller logs that rolled into the driveway. Won't be a full load, but since I'm going down why come back empty. I'll check the Rural King ad and see if there is anything we need since I'll be down there. manygoatsnomore , thanks for planting THAT thought in my head GAS DEAL!! In case anyone has a Meijer's near them, the news said they will drop their prices to $3.99/gallon for the July 4th weekend!! They said all Meijer's, so check your local one and fill up what you can (I'm expecting long lines....) Getting dry here, no rain in weeks. I'm having to water the garden  I can't haul enough water for my potatoes. So if the next rain chances fizzle out like the last ones, I'm going to have to hook up hoses and get water to them. That is SO HARD on the well pump, I really hate to do it. Rain barrels are down to half, so I'm going to be stuck shortly for everything else if it doesn't rain. Just been watering the "near garden". |
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I like this "new" division of labor. He is being much more helpful with "my" chores this year. He isn't able to help much with picking and weeding. It's hard on my hips as well, but not having to add an hour or so of standing in the kitchen prepping everything after picking and weeding sure does help my hips! So if I pick produce first, he preps it while I weed a section. Yep, I like this new division of labor.
We have never met her family....so this is HUGE! I did go to their shop yesterday (lawn and garden shop on the other side of the county) to buy a chainsaw, so I now have met her dad professionally. Nice guy, but I didn't doubt it knowing his daughter 
Our other place is an hour+ away - so there goes our gas budget!!
I can't haul enough water for my potatoes. So if the next rain chances fizzle out like the last ones, I'm going to have to hook up hoses and get water to them. That is SO HARD on the well pump, I really hate to do it. Rain barrels are down to half, so I'm going to be stuck shortly for everything else if it doesn't rain. Just been watering the "near garden".