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Post by feather on Jun 30, 2023 21:36:00 GMT -6
What are you doing for preparing for the future, whether it is a possible weather event, earth quake, volcano, or just getting ready for the next seasons?
To do list: July
1. stay on top of the bee hives, keep learning about them. We need something more stable than tarps for shading the bee hives when the temperatures reach 90 deg F. We also need to put in a wind break on the north side of the hives for winter.
2. stay on top of the gardens 3. July-harvest garlic and tie up and cure 4. Grind up the dehydrated scapes, done, store the rest for winter
5. July 9, Azure Standard pick up day 6. put the air conditioner in 7. weather event, tornado, air quality, consider an air purifier/filter, make space in the basement for shelter (the bee stuff is taking up a lot of space right now). 8. save herbs and teas from the garden to have over winter. 9. canning greens for winter. 10. canning green beans. 11. consider canning corn if we need it 12. harvest raspberries as they ripen, freeze then can 13. plein air art event and maxwell street days July 15-16 14. undesirable raspberries get dug up, new raspberries put in
15. Consider fruit trees and vines/bushes for fall planting, order from Stark 16. Harvesting mixed items, consider canning soup for winter
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Post by susannah on Jul 9, 2023 11:03:30 GMT -6
We needed about half a cord of firewood for the winter season. We still have a lot of kiln dried firewood left from last winter but not as much as we'd like. So while money was spent for that, it was less than we usually need on account of all the firewood "leftovers" from last winter. We also have some of what my husband calls his "$450 firewood" - from a maple tree that under normal circumstances we would have cut ourselves, but this wasn't normal. The maple tree in question - whose top had broken off and hung up in branches, making it a widow maker as well as a tree in need of removal - was right next to our garden shed. And when I say "right next to" I mean inches away. If we miscalculated, it would have fallen on the garden shed. Plus like I said, the big top of that tree hung up in branches added to the danger. Making it more exciting than even we like. We figured - rightly so - that it would cost a lot more to build a new shed than it would to have our fully insured and fully-equipped-for-this-kind-of-situation tree guy remove it. The wood is fully seasoned now and ready to burn. So we're set...make that, probably more than set - for firewood. We don't use firewood as a sole heat source, just a supplemental one.
I've been freezing an absolute ton of basil. Unfortunately, it's one of the only things that are growing well this year. I will not have to buy any basil for spaghetti sauce for at least a year. We've been eating Caprese salad, Caprese salad skewers, Thai dishes that use basil...and I still can't keep up with it. I plan to check for more recipes using basil today.
We bought a flat of strawberries from a farmer we know who lives about an hour away and froze most of them for future use. And bought a few extra containers to eat now. Grocery store strawberries are pure yuck up here. The last ones I bought not only were tasteless, they grew mold after one day.
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Post by feather on Jul 9, 2023 21:34:55 GMT -6
susannah, what a good year for your basil! Ours are struggling along. I was trying to think of basil dishes but mostly I grind up basil and garlic, then keep it in one cup containers in the freezer. Later I would add walnuts to make a pesto or use the basil and garlic with pasta or rice. I also dry it at about 100 deg F (don't need a dehydrator for that), crumble it and keep in spice jars for putting on pizza or pasta. I have both electric roasters now, finally, just in the nick of time for canning season. With the new nescos they say to do a one hour smoke out on them. Remove the cover, take them outside, or in a garage or carport, plug them in, full heat for 1 hour, then cool down. Wash before using. We're getting them ready for canning season. It's late but the hoses need to be shut off at 10:30 pm anyways, so we're outside for that. We're up to 4 qts of raspberries so far, daily picking.
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Post by feather on Jul 10, 2023 9:07:01 GMT -6
This was surprising. I watched a video from Brenda Davis (dietician, author) that supports healthy vegan eating. She lives in Canada, and is about my age. The video is in winter so she is talking about her healthy breakfast choices. She says she freezes about 300 lbs of berries each year. WHAT! I know she raised kids and she is married last time I checked. That would be 150 lbs of berries per person and she isn't a homesteader type or prepper in that sense. She lives in an area where berries grow naturally/natively. I thought at times that I was crazy canning half that amount per person. Well the whole thing gives me a different perspective.
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Post by feather on Jul 16, 2023 12:03:39 GMT -6
Hello July, you know how much I hate lists but we're half way through the month, let's see how we're doing.
Some things got done, some still need to be done, the gardens aren't producing enough for most things.
We just ran out of softener salt, the one thing I like to stock pile for winter so mr feather isn't carrying in while it is cold, icy, and snowy because it is more dangerous. I'm looking for a sale and it's on my shopping list.
I also want to make sure our dry goods are stocked for winter before winter arrives, bean, grains, rice, oats, lentils, and those kinds of items.
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Post by midtnmama on Jul 18, 2023 7:39:47 GMT -6
July/August to do list:
Electrician
Roof Repair Company
Auto recall
pick/freeze blackberries
Make easy blackberry jelly
replant Okra
Plant cucumbers
Restring other dulcimer
Attend other local music jams
Make headband for gardening
Clean and organize laundry Room
Call Dryer Repairman
Post on Ebay
Plant Hostas
Finish Baby Quilt
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Post by feather on Jul 31, 2023 7:44:53 GMT -6
The power outage was a good exercise to find out what works and what doesn't and if we are ready for it.
We're prepared for needing food (canned or dehydrated or frozen) and I had enough meals for 2 days in the fridge. The possible use of the solar oven could have heated food to 190 deg f, and it was sunny, but we did have gas so heated things on the stove.
Power bank-I remembered we had bought a power bank a couple years ago, to charge up phones and the weather radio. It does up to 5 full charges (our 2 phones), and can be recharged with the truck while it is running (to get water). That simplified our charging needs.
The weather radio I charged up a month earlier ran for the whole time (almost 2 days) to keep us up on the weather or to use for AM and FM radio. EDIT: I found NPR on the FM dial, out of UWMilwaukee, and that was an interesting station to keep on during the nice weather.
We have gallon jugs and 5 gallon buckets Mr feather filled at the artesian well 5 miles from here. We had enough for dishes (1 gallon) 2x per day. Showers (by cup measure) 1 and 1/2- 3 gallons per person, water heated on the stove and brought upstairs in the bucket. 1.5 gallons to flush each toilet when it needed to get flushed. Plus drinking water and cooking water.
If we had had to wash clothing, there would be a need for much more water. Having some free 5 gallon pails is important for one thing or another even not during a power outage. We could have used more lids for those, which will go on our list of things to buy next.
We had serious concerns about the freezer thawing out and I was thinking about what I would be canning the next day and how we'd get all the fruit and veggies done in one day, which we didn't have to do thankfully. 44 hours and the temperature in the freezer went up to 28 deg F. Over 48 hours-would need to be canned or dehydrated.
After the power came back on, the neighbors next door were on vacation and she was worried the freezer had thawed in the garage, so I checked on it for her-a chest freezer, frozen solid (even colder and more solid than my upright freezer). She was so relieved. She worried they lost all the food in that freezer because it was in the garage but those chest freezers are amazingly well insulated. An excellent value.
The neighbors and ourselves, no trees down. The wind was strong during the storm but no major damage.
Light, it would have been nice to have a lantern for reading. I've looked at purchasing one but I don't know what kind I should get. We had 3 small powerful flashlights, 2 large powerful flashlights and adequate supplies of batteries. We will visit getting more batteries this fall in all the right sizes. I didn't enjoy trying to read by flashlight but the evenings were long without them.
The beeswax candles came in handy for a little ambient light in the room. The light went out a couple times. I'm not sure why, maybe the wicks aren't thick enough, though these are woven wick material. I stuck a wood toothpick in next to the wick and that seemed to work fine with the wick to keep it lit. It burned a long time, at least 20 hours and it's not even half used (1 cup square canning jar). It burned clean.
I realized we didn't have some of the passwords to accounts printed out so we could look things up on the internet though the phone, so I fixed that once the electric went back on. I will need to log into accounts once a month on the phone just to keep that updated. My hand written passwords were there, in a little notebook, but I wasn't clear in crossing out old ones. I don't have unlimited data on our inexpensive phone plans but there's more than enough for a few power outages a year.
The internet worked as soon as the electric worked. The freezer is back to 0 deg F, the fridge is up to temperature too (the ice cubes were more than half thawed).
That's all I can think of that we managed with the power outage.
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Post by midtnmama on Jul 31, 2023 8:29:55 GMT -6
feather, I have a solar lantern and I have dollar store solar lights (the kind you use to light up a walkway) They are cheap, esp. now at the end of the season (not really) but when they get the school stuff in and don't have room for them. You can keep a few upright in a wide mouth canning jar or a vase and then use them at night for reading or whatever. Ignore my question in the daily thread. Thanks for all the details that will help us all think about what to do to prepare for storms--which, by the way, are becoming worse and more often.
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Post by feather on Sept 5, 2023 19:55:28 GMT -6
I charged up the weather radio and the phone charger bank. In case of storms.
It's going to rain from 1 am to 6 am. We covered the tomatoes in boxes ripening. The buckets of seeds and peppers were brought into the garage so they don't collect water.
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