2022-04 April Prep Journal and To-Do Lists

Ohio Dreamer, freeze dryer duties, that will keep you busy, with your job. Yikes.

My point of view on protein powders. No. If you don't already use them, then don't start. Too much protein is hard on the kidneys. Most meat and dairy eating people get way over the amount needed according to the RDA. (45 mg for women 57 mg for men) Plant based diets give the recommended amount of proteins.

Ohio Dreamer, Cool stuff! I was really surprised how much I liked hummus with salsa, the beans thickened the sauce and it was easier to scoop with a tortilla chip. Baby food is such a good idea.

There is also besan-chickpea flour, though besan is not cooked, somehow with chickpeas, eating the besan only slightly cooked is not a problem, gut health/anti-nutrients. (red beans or kidney beans are extremely bad to eat raw). If I'm making something I'm not cooking with besan, I'll bake it in the oven for 20 minutes at 350 deg F just to be on the safe side, 'toasted chick pea flour'. We've made snack 'crackers' and flat bread with a highly seasoned besan batter.

Adding legume powder to chili, is not that different than the traditional cornmeal/masa mixed with water and added to chili for thickening.

I found that squash that is dried, I keep in chunks in jars, is easy to reconstitute, I put it in water, let it sit, then into the blender, blend it, and it gets thicker after that. I can use that in the crustless pumpkin pie I like. I use squash in oat cookies and bread almost always, almost always use fresh cooked, it seems to hold moisture better than just oats or wheat, so the oat cookies or bread is moister.

Beet powder-can be used for coloring things, like baked goods at valentines day or christmas, or in the vinegar brine for pickling eggs.
Carrots-coloring things too (orange carrots, purple carrots, yellow carrots)

We can brainstorm more ideas whenever you want. From what I've read, sprouting barley, wheats, rye, then baking them, THEN grinding them, makes a sweeter more nutritious (malt type flavor) flour to add to baking. Instead, you could sprout, then freeze, then freeze dry, then bake at 180 deg F for 3 hours, then grind for malted grains. Use beer brewing instructions for malting grains.

I've used the sprouted grains without drying/baking, just grinding them into an oatmeal kind of consistency and adding to bread. I usually sprout 8 cups or so of grain in a bucket at one time, then freeze the oatmeal like stuff in 2 cup measures in the freezer for baking. It takes up room in the freezer-not ideal, powder would be ideal.

We had a 20-hour power outage yesterday, thanks to a surprise April snowstorm with heavy, wet snow. I suppose I could have powered up the generator, but the only thing I really missed was the internet for news and entertainment. I decided to use the time instead for grid-down practice. I have tons of candles, so I got out the tall glass cylinder candles that are safer around curious cats and set them in various rooms, tacking them down with poster putty for safety. That gave us enough light to move around once the daylight waned. I have a lot of puzzle books and used some tap lights to provide better lighting for working fill-in puzzles. I listened to an audiobook downloaded on my phone for quite a while - luckily my phone battery holds a charge for quite a while, and it was completely charged before the power went out.

We heat with wood all the time anyway, so there was nothing different there. I had just filled the hearth the day before, and there was plenty more seasoned wood in the shed. I added a (filled from stored water) tea kettle to the top of the stove, and once the kettle whistled, added a round metal trivet(?) originally from a gas stovetop, to keep the water hot without overheating and boiling away. That provided hot water for tea, coffee, cocoa and instant soup, all of which we had on hand. I could have cooked pretty much anything in a cast-iron skillet on the top of the woodstove.

The chicks are pretty well feathered out now, so just the heat from the stove was enough for them, without their light for added heat.

My little fridge in my bedroom has a tendency to ice up the tiny freezer compartment, so it was a good opportunity to defrost, while the ice build-up also kept the contents cooler, longer. We could have added snow to the fridges for more cooling. The freezers were just kept closed. We might have lost the ice cream, but I'm not even sure of that.

Our neighbors stopped by in the afternoon to make sure everything was okay with us, which it was. Cell service was knocked out, so no calls or texting was available. I'm glad they did stop by and check on us, even though they know me well and figured we were fine. They were also taking the opportunity to share what news they had heard about the outage.

Once the power came back on, I was able to look at the local news and see how widespread the outages were. It looks like most of Western WA and OR had outages due to heavy snow on limbs that are leafing out. I know I lost some limbs out of my Santa Rosa plum tree, and the neighbors said I had some limbs down in my woods, which I pretty much figured.

You know, while the power, internet and cell phones were out and there was no news available, I started thinking. I knew that this outage was likely weather-related. But, there was always the chance that Russia was trying an attack on our grid. I suspect that they will try something like this at some point. It makes me more resolved than ever to fine-tune our preparations for potential longer-term outages.

Although I had a charged cell phone, I have an extra power pack around here somewhere. I need to find it and make sure it's charged and accessible. We can charge phones in the trucks, too, but it's nice not to need to go out if the weather is iffy. I need to download more audiobooks that will play on my tablet when there is no internet connection. I need to check out the flash drives my bff downloaded for me, and make sure I have the platforms to support them on my tablet and phone. I have a hard time falling asleep in a totally quiet environment, after so many years on the night shift, falling asleep to TV in the daytime. I either need ways to listen to books or start training myself to sleep without noise.

I need to strain the rest of the diesel and retreat it with Pri-D and fill the fuel and oil in the generator. I need to build a generator shed. I need to run the monthly generator checks recommended. If I had it ready to go when the power went out, I probably would use it more often. If the power went down long-term, I would need it to run the fridge and freezers until I could can up the contents.

I have several solar lights that do not work properly. One quit working shortly after we got it and one never did work. I need to reach out to the manufacturers to see if they will replace them NOW, not when I really need them.

I still need to replace my roof...that is a biggie, and then the floor that got wet from the water heater leak will need to be replaced. The damage to it was more widespread than I first thought. That means contacting the insurance and also applying for a $2K grant for seniors that will help with what the insurance doesn't cover.

What else am I missing? Thoughts? What do YOU need to do to be ready to live without grid electricity?

AAAand, it's snowing AGAIN. Sigh.

I know, right?  I don't want to live a paranoid life, but we are talking about a mad man here.  Putin is so focused on restoring the old USSR that I think he is capable of doing just about anything.  If he thinks it will cause disruption here in the USA, hampering our ability to assist Ukraine, I can totally see him targeting our power grid, our banking institutions, or any other part of normal life here. 


We live in a pretty isolated spot, and it's hard to get even AM/FM radio reception.  My late buddy, Tom, was a ham radio operator, as well as being gifted in so many other areas.  If he was still alive, he would be talking to other hams to learn what was causing the outage and how long it was expected to last.  Then he'd be letting the rest of us in the neighborhood know what was going on, probably while he was plowing out the road!  My other neighbors are trying hard to fill his shoes, but it's just not the same.  Lord, I miss that man...

feather, yep. KE8OWC at your service. Honestly, I don't do the radio, though - LOL. Hubby is on the radio and I know how to do it, sort of. It would take me a bit of time to get it all turned on and ready to go. So in the event of an emergency, I can do it, but I just don't have time to at this point.

Breather day!! We got everything planted yesterday (IE caught up), so got off work early (only a half-day). Now I don't go back until they text me, likely next week. They are waiting for an order of plants, but the place doesn't have drivers! They could be 2 weeks late!! Tomatoes and something else....forget what.

Morning is rainy here so doing a bit of this and that. Come afternoon I'm going to go check the garden and see if anything is dry enough to till. I would REALLY love to get my greens planted today If dry enough to till potato bed #1 I'll do that too....then come in and chit potatoes. Yesterday was in the 70s...today will be 50s. Would have been great to do it yesterday, but I just couldn't wrap my head around it. Kind of when you let a caged animal out of the cage....they don't know what to do with the freedom. Might snow again this weekend (add your favorite disgruntled words here ). Either way, I have my earbuds in listening to music that feeds my soul....I so miss this!

midtnmama, I'm a good influence then, I hope, lol. 😉 I am amazed how many times I found those huge triple wick candles, burned a few times and then put in their next garage sale for .50-1.00. I know why...those candles really don't burn all that well. BUT, they have a LOT of wax in them that can be melted down and reused. If any of you have priced wax in craft stores, it's easy to see that those garage sale triple wick candles are a real bargain!

I'm still working on the chicken jail - I made good progress on it today before the rain cut loose again. I remembered that I had a 6' tall walkthrough gate from a collection of cyclone fencing parts. I still need to build a taller gate into the orchard once I increase the height of that fence, but using the cyclone fence gate saved me time and effort on the chicken pen. I got the 1st layer of chicken wire put on the stock panel next to the gate, but Abby was out riding, and I need her help to put up the top row of wire. Once that's done, I can open the pophole from their house to their new pen. I'll still need to put up the netting, but at least they'll be able to free-range a little without becoming coyote snacks.

More preps today:

I got my cortisone injections in both knees and started the ball rolling to move forward with gel injections in my right knee. Hopefully, that will work well enough to avoid a knee replacement.

I took Abby in to reapply for SNAP benefits. We still aren't sure why her food stamps were stopped, but at least they're restarted. We stopped at Winco today for a few things, but since she won't have her food money on her EBT card until tomorrow, I had to keep reminding her that she would be spending cash today, so if she didn't absolutely have a have it before Tuesday (the next time we'll be in town), she should wait. Her idea of essential is a bit different from mine! 🙄

I'm still working on organization at home. I've cleared, cleaned and rearranged most of the kitchen cabinets, more of the pantry shelves and my bedroom closet. Having preps doesn't count if you can't find them when you need them.

Okay, have I mentioned that it's not really safe for me to enter a feed store during chick season? Sigh...4 more new chickies followed us home today. Wilco had a bunch of chicks ("Copper Dominant", a cross between Black Copper Marans/Barred Rock?, so a hybrid) 50% off, so we brought home 4 more. I was planning to put them under our little banty hen who is desperately trying to hatch the eggs laid each day, but I'm not sure. I might still go out tonight to move her to a rabbit condo and put at least some of the youngest chicks under her.

We also bought a total of 35 packets of veg, herb and melon seeds with Abby's FS, but couldn't find any lemon cucumber seeds anywhere. So, while I was at Wilco, I asked if they would honor the price on 4" veggie starts (reg 1.99 each, B2G1Free) today, even though the sale didn't officially start until tomorrow. They were kind enough to agree to that, so I picked out 8 tomatoes and one....drum roll...LEMON CUCUMBER! That pot actually has 5 seedlings in it, so a whole hill of cukes. Then they couldn't figure out how to get the register to accept 3 for 2, so they ended up charging me for 4 and giving me 5, which is less than half-price. So, I paid $8 for 9 pots. Needless to say, I'm happy with that! As usual, I never did get my tomato seeds planted, so buying starts at a great price was the next best thing.

We have caught a couple of the escapee hens and clipped the wing feathers on one side...seems to have worked, so I think we will try to figure out which ones are still getting out and give them a snip, too.

I bought 2 rolls (6'x300') of white garden trellis netting from the 247Garden site midtnmama linked us to. I can use them overhead to protect hens from hawks, or just use them in the garden, as intended.

I had to go to the doctor's office to sign a new med agreement and pee in a cup today. That counts as a prep, because I needed to do it before I could fill my pain med in 2 weeks. I'm still having pain in my right knee, so if I want to cut down on the amount of pain I have and get things done, it was necessary. I'm continuing to slowly lose weight, which I hope will take some of the pressure off my knees and decrease the pain, too. Bonus is that I can fit into a pair of jeans and several more pairs of leggings.

manygoatsnomore, CONGRATS on losing weight. It almost always helps with the lower body's joints.
I would really like to see some sunny pictures of your chickens!

Why do you need to pee in a cup? Are they looking for other drugs or high levels of drugs or ? Is this to protect the doctor or to protect you, or both? (sorry for the questions)

Our azure standard order comes next week, 9 grain flakes and brown rice.

We haven't decided on having someone weld the mower bed in places or replace it. $ a few hundred or $600.