Darlene

That’s because we’ve only just begun. Lol

I wanted to give everyone an update. We were down to $35 in our balance for the server fees for Mrs S. God always provides though, and 3 wonderful ladies sent some more money that added up to an additional $190 that I'll add to our "server fee purse". That'll bring up the total we have have in reserves for now to $225!!! Thank you to Mountain Rider, Ambergris and to one other special lady whose ID here at MrsS I don't know. I just saw the donation added to my paypal account, so I apologize that I can't formally acknowledge you Thanks to everyone for all their help. It really has made a huge difference!

I talked with Annarchy today about the forms. In my opinion, I'd really like to clean things up around here and freshen everything up so... We went through all the forums and merged some of them into other parent forums. We tried to keep the forums that are stand alone forums the way they've always been, but in an attempt to be more concise, I merged some forums as sub forums into others. Sheesh, as I type that I'm confusing myself trying to explain it, but just know that we're making some changes in the forums, to hopefully organize things a little bit better. Thanks!

Sorry, my paypal email addy is shadowwingsfarm@yahoo.com

I have a friend who used to be VP of the biggest pork producing company here in the States. About 2 weeks ago, he had texted me that some plants were starting to close down (pork, beef and chicken). Shortly after that, we all saw the news reports that talked about this. I asked him then, if I should stock up on more meat. He told me, "you'll probably have a week or 2". Today, he called me and said he had a list of 6 meat production plants that will be closing shortly (beef, pork and chicken). It hasn't hit the news yet, but he told me to call my parents to make sure they top off their freezers. One of the plants is the pork plant in NC that is the biggest in the world. They have 5000 employees and 25% didn't show up for work today. He said that they are trying to ramp up production for when the news hits but the concern becomes food safety. I asked him how long the meat in storage would last for the whole country...1 week? He said no where near that long...meats operate on just in time delivery, and we're close to running out of time. I wanted to share with everyone here what he said so that you can think about topping off your freezers too if you need.

I just wanted to give an update on our account balance. They took a payment out last week but with everyone's help, here is our current balance:

For those that may be stressing about not being able to find hand sanitizer, don't worry. Soap actually 'disinfects' better than the hand sanitizer: Outside the Box Deadly viruses are no match for plain, old soap — here’s the science behind it https://www.marketwatch.com/story/deadly-viruses-are-no-match-for-plain-old-soap-heres-the-science-behind-it-2020-03-08?fbclid=IwAR0Qw0m6XCJ_wTsSf1hT0pywsI3CgdP9GSDBlNmh2yoA5HFN66h5HML4hlU Published: March 9, 2020 at 8:15 a.m. ET By Palli Thordarson Soap works better than alcohol and disinfectants at destroying the structure of viruses This is how soap removes dirt, and bacteria, from the skin. Why does soap work so well on the new coronavirus and, indeed, most viruses? Because it is a self-assembled nanoparticle in which the weakest link is the lipid (fatty) bilayer. That sounds scientific. Let me explain. Soap dissolves the fat membrane, and the virus falls apart like a house of cards and “dies,” or rather, it becomes inactive as viruses aren’t really alive. Viruses can be active outside the body for hours, even days. Disinfectants, or liquids, wipes, gels and creams containing alcohol (and soap) have a similar effect but are not as good as regular soap. Apart from alcohol and soap, antibacterial agents in those products don’t affect the virus structure much. Consequently, many antibacterial products are basically just an expensive version of soap in how they act on viruses. Soap is the best, but alcohol wipes are good when soap is not practical or handy, for example in office reception areas. Soap outcompetes the interactions between the virus and the skin surface, and the virus gets detached and falls apart like a house of cards. Supramolecular chemistry But why, exactly, is soap so good? To explain that, I will take you through a journey of supramolecular chemistry, nanoscience and virology. I will try to explain this in generic terms, which means leaving out special chemistry terms. (I must point out that, while I am an expert in supramolecular chemistry and the assembly of nanoparticles, I am not a virologist.) I have always been fascinated by viruses, as I see them as one of them most spectacular examples of how supramolecular chemistry and nanoscience converge. Most viruses consist of three key building blocks: RNA, proteins and lipids.The RNA is the viral genetic material — it is similar to DNA. The proteins have several roles, including breaking into the target cell, assisting with virus replication and basically being a key building block (like a brick in a house) in the virus structure. The lipids then form a coat around the virus, both for protection and to assist with its spread and cellular invasion. The RNA, proteins and lipids self-assemble to form the virus. Critically, there are no strong “covalent” bonds holding these units together. Instead, the viral self-assembly is based on weak “non-covalent” interactions between the proteins, RNA and lipids. Together, these act together like Velcro, so it is hard to break up the self-assembled viral particle. Still, we can do it — with soap! Most viruses, including the coronavirus, are between 50-200 nanometers — so they truly are nanoparticles. Nanoparticles have complex interactions with surfaces they are on; it’s the same with viruses. Skin, steel, timber, fabric, paint and porcelain are very different surfaces. When a virus invades a cell, the RNA “hijacks” the cellular machinery like a computer virus and forces the cell to make fresh copies of its own RNA and the various proteins that make up the virus. These new RNA and protein molecules self-assemble with lipids (readily present in the cell) to form new copies of the virus. That is, the virus does not photocopy itself; it makes copies of the building blocks, which then self-assemble into new viruses. All those new viruses eventually overwhelm the cell, and it dies or explodes, releasing viruses that then go on to infect more cells. In the lungs, viruses end up in the airways and mucous membranes. When you cough, or especially when you sneeze, tiny droplets from the airways can fly up to 30 feet. The larger ones are thought to be main coronavirus carriers, and they can go at least 7 feet. So, cover your coughs and sneezes! Skin is an ideal surface for viruses These tiny droplets end up on surfaces and dry out quickly. But the viruses are still active. What happens next is all about supramolecular chemistry and how self-assembled nanoparticles (like the viruses) interact with their environment. Now it is time to introduce a powerful supramolecular chemistry concept that effectively says: Similar molecules appear to interact more strongly with each other than dissimilar ones. Wood, fabric and skin interact fairly strongly with viruses. Contrast this with steel, porcelain and at least some plastics, such as Teflon. The surface structure also matters. The flatter the surface, the less the virus will “stick” to the surface. Rougher surfaces can actually pull the virus apart. So why are surfaces different? The virus is held together by a combination of hydrogen bonds (like those in water) and hydrophilic, or “fat-like,” interactions. The surface of fibers or wood, for instance, can form a lot of hydrogen bonds with the virus. In contrast, steel, porcelain or Teflon do not form much of a hydrogen bond with the virus. So the virus is not strongly bound to those surfaces and is quite stable. For how long does the virus stay active? It depends. The novel coronavirus is thought to stay active on favorable surfaces for hours, possibly a day. What makes the virus less stable? Moisture (“dissolves”), sunlight (UV light) and heat (molecular motions). The skin is an ideal surface for a virus. It is organic, of course, and the proteins and fatty acids in the dead cells on the surface interact with the virus through both hydrogen bonds and the “fat-like” hydrophilic interactions. So when you touch a steel surface with a virus particle on it, it will stick to your skin and, hence, get transferred on to your hands. But you are not (yet) infected. If you touch your face, though, the virus can get transferred. And now the virus is dangerously close to the airways and the mucus-type membranes in and around your mouth and eyes. So the virus can get in and — voila! — you are infected. That is, unless your immune system kills the virus. If the virus is on your hands, you can pass it on by shaking someone’s else hand. Kisses, well, that’s pretty obvious. It goes without saying that if someone sneezes in your face, you’re stuck. So how often do you touch your face? It turns out most people touch the face once every two to five minutes. So you’re at high risk once the virus gets on your hands, unless you wash off the active virus. So let’s try washing it off with plain water. It might just work. But water “only” competes with the strong “glue-like” interactions between the skin and virus via hydrogen bonds. The virus is sticky and may not budge. Water isn’t enough. Soap dissolves a virus’ structure Soapy water is totally different. Soap contains fat-like substances known as amphiphiles, some structurally similar to the lipids in the virus membrane. The soap molecules “compete” with the lipids in the virus membrane. That is more or less how soap also removes normal dirt of the skin (see graphic at the top of this article). The soap molecules also compete with a lot other non-covalent bonds that help the proteins, RNA and the lipids to stick together. The soap is effectively “dissolving” the glue that holds the virus together. Add to that all the water. The soap also outcompetes the interactions between the virus and the skin surface. Soon the virus gets detached and falls apart like a house of cards due to the combined action of the soap and water. Boom, the virus is gone! The skin is rough and wrinkly, which is why you need a fair amount of rubbing and soaking to ensure the soap reaches every nook and cranny on the skin surface that could be hiding active viruses. Alcohol-based products include all “disinfectants” and “antibacterial” products that contain a high share of alcohol solution, typically 60%-80% ethanol, sometimes with a bit of isopropanol, water and a bit of soap. Ethanol and other types of alcohol do not only readily form hydrogen bonds with the virus material but, as a solvent, are more lipophilic than water. Hence, alcohol does dissolve the lipid membrane and disrupt other supramolecular interactions in the virus. However, you need a fairly high concentration (maybe 60%-plus) of the alcohol to get a rapid dissolution of the virus. Vodka or whiskey (usually 40% ethanol) won’t dissolve the virus as quickly. Overall, alcohol is not as good as soap at this task. Nearly all antibacterial products contain alcohol and some soap, and that does help kill viruses. But some also include “active” bacterial killing agents, such as triclosan. Those, however, do basically nothing to the virus. Alcohol works — to a degree To sum up, viruses are almost like grease-nanoparticles. They can stay active for many hours on surfaces and then get picked up by touch. Then they get to our face and infect us because most of us touch our face frequently. Water is not effective alone in washing the virus off our hands. Alcohol-based products work better. But nothing beats soap — the virus detaches from the skin and falls apart readily in soapy water. Supramolecular chemistry and nanoscience tell us not only a lot about how the virus self-assembles into a functional, active menace, but also how we can beat viruses with something as simple as soap. Palli Thordarson is a professor at the School of Chemistry at the University of New South Wales, Sydney. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

I just read this on one of the Facebook groups I'm on: Amol Kumawat *Informative* I am writing to you from Bergamo, Italy, at the heart of the coronavirus crisis. The news media in the US has not captured the severity of what is happening here. I am writing this post because each of you, today, not the government, not the school district, not the mayor, each individual citizen has the chance, today to take actions that will deter the Italian situation from becoming your own country’s reality. The only way to stop this virus is to limit contagion. And the only way to limit contagion is for millions of people to change their behavior today. If you are in Europe or the US you are weeks away from where we are today in Italy. I can hear you now. “It’s just a flu. It only affects old people with preconditions” There are 2 reasons why Coronavirus has brought Italy to it’s knees. First it is a flu is devastating when people get really sick they need weeks of ICU – and, second, because of how fast and effectively it spreads. There is 2 week incubation period and many who have it never show symptoms. When Prime Minister Conte announced last night that the entire country, 60 million people, would go on lock down, the line that struck me most was “there is no more time.” Because to be clear, this national lock down, is a hail mary. What he means is that if the numbers of contagion do not start to go down, the system, Italy, will collapse. Why? Today the ICUs in Lombardy are at capacity – more than capacity. They have begun to put ICU units in the hallways. If the numbers do not go down, the growth rate of contagion tells us that there will be thousands of people who in a matter of a week? two weeks? who will need care. What will happen when there are 100, or a 1000 people who need the hospital and only a few ICU places left? On Monday a doctor wrote in the paper that they have begun to have to decide who lives and who dies when the patients show up in the emergency room, like what is done in war. This will only get worse. There are a finite number of drs, nurses, medical staff and they are getting the virus. They have also been working non-stop, non-stop for days and days. What happens when the drs, nurses and medical staff are simply not able to care for the patients, when they are not there? And finally for those who say that this is just something that happens to old people, starting yesterday the hospitals are reporting that younger and younger patients – 40, 45, 18, are coming in for treatment. You have a chance to make a difference and stop the spread in your country. Push for the entire office to work at home today, cancel birthday parties, and other gatherings, stay home as much as you can. If you have a fever, any fever, stay home. Push for school closures, now. Anything you can do to stop the spread, because it is spreading in your communities – there is a two week incubation period – and if you do these things now you can buy your medical system time. And for those who say it is not possible to close the schools, and do all these other things, locking down Italy was beyond anyone’s imagination a week ago. Soon you will not have a choice, so do what you can now. Please share.

Littlesister, I received your check also. I'll deposit into our account when I do Homey's. Thank you so much ((((LS))))

Homey, I received your check and will put it into our account this week. Thank you so much for your help. They just took this months charge out on Friday so it was a huge blessing to have the money in our account to pay it.

Yes I did Jeepers. Thank you so much...we now have 3 months taken care of:

Lol@jeepers. It’s ok

Yayyyyy! I was just able to put $100 into our account balance because of a generous donation from a beloved member.

Thanks everyone

I emailed our hosting company and asked them if they have 6mos or yearly payments. This was their response: Andy Millne (Invision Community) Mar 3, 5:51 AM EST Hello Darlene, We don't have any 6 month or yearly payment plans but it is possible to add credit to your account if you do not wish to be billed monthly. Monthly renewal fees will then be taken from this account credit automatically when renewals fall due. You can add account credit from the client area at https://invisioncommunity.com/clientarea/ under "My Details" > Account Credit. I hope that helps but please let us know if we can be any further assistance. Kind Regards Andy Millne Darlene Kelley Mar 2, 6:01 PM EST We currently have our site hosted with you and wanted to know if, instead of monthly payments, you offer a 6 month or yearly payment option? I find it interesting that they don't have at least yearly payment options. I've never hosted a site with a company that didn't. Anyway, whatever we can put together, I'll put in the account credit area for our account. Ya'll can either paypal it to me *Friends and Family* or mail it to me. Feel free to send me a PM and I'll give you the information. Thanks for your help.

I wanted to ask if anyone would be interested in helping me pay for the monthly hosting fee for MrsSurvival. Annarchy paid for it for a while, and I've been paying for it for a while but it's getting difficult to afford the $45/month hosting fee. So, I wanted to ask if anyone is able to help, feel free to contact me. I talked to Annarchy the other day and she said that she thought they offer monthly and bi-annual payments. If we were able to collect enough, I'd like to pay 6 months at a time, instead of the monthly overhead. Anyway, I just wanted to ask. If anyone has any questions let me know. Thanks.

The corona virus is very susceptible to cleaning products, so antibacterial cleaners is a plus. Optivida's Silver Sol, when sprayed on hard surfaces, lasts indefinitely. Their gel, when used on the hands, will last 4 hours. These facts have been proven through testing around the world. As you said, a fine mist spray of the Silver Sol is what I plan to do on the masks. I would re-use the masks under certain conditions, but that's just me.

((((mt rider))))

Silver...colloidal silver to be exact. Fine mist spray them. I like Optivida's silver the best. Their silver gel lasts for 4 hours on the hand. Their silver liquid sprayed on hard surfaces lasts indefinitely. I plan on using a fine mist spray over the mask and perhaps even on the inside, haven't figured it out yet. BTW, 3M's N95 masks that people use for woodworking, etc are no different than the surgical masks: https://multimedia.3m.com/mws/media/1798135O/possible-alternatives-to-surgical-n95-respirators-in-the-us-healthcare-technical-bulletin.pdf For now though, I'm focusing on doing the colloidal silver as much as I can.

Thankfully, it appears that this may be a non-event for our area and thank God Flowy reduced from a Cat 4 to Cat 1. That's still catastrophic for many on the east coast but I'm grateful it wasn't even worse.

Yeah, it's been shocking at how expensive the actual beans are. I've used them to make homemade vanilla for years, which even with the bean price hike, is far cheaper than buying vanilla at the store.

Kewl Kappy! I'm up in north Georgia in the Blue Ridge mountains Flowy has slowed down and downgraded its intensity. We're still in the cone for rains and I'm sure lower winds, which is fine. Not worried about flooding so I'm feeling optimistic.

Thanks everyone...I just looked at the news and Flowy is down to 110mph which is a good thing! Kappy, where in GA are you? It's exciting to know that there's another MrsS here in GA! Trim trees MtRider? Which ones? lol j/k...my son trimmed some around the house a few weeks ago but they are a very brittle variety that needs to be totally taken out. As I write this I just realized that water will be my concern...not for me, as much as for all the animals. Sheesh, need to figure out how to hook generator up to well pump that keeps all the automatic waterers going. Hopefully the downgrade in Flowy will be a good sign to all.

11 years ago I moved from Miami to a little farm in the Blue Ridge mountains. I was happiest about leaving hurricane season behind me, far far away. While I'm no longer on the coast, it appears that Hurricane Florence wants to visit, albeit a much downgraded hurricane by that point. I no longer live in concrete block housing and I have a ton of trees that could mess alot of things up so if you think about it, keep us in your prayers. Sheesh, it's aggravating to think about losing electricity, but there's no better way to prep than living through things like that in the past lol. And maybe, the Lord will place His hand to direct it in another direction (not that I want anyone to go through that kind of thing). THAT would be awesome

I use the antibiotics alot with the animals here, as well as the family if needed. They've been a life and money saver many times.