Littlesister

I saw some rocks on Pinterest where they painted vegetables on the rocks and put them in garden to show what was planted there. I am thinking of trying that if my hands will hold out. Miki, I know what you mean about the hands, mine have been giving me a fit these past 2 days. Right hand at knuckles is swollen. But I keep trying to keep on getting things done. I have been using my compression gloves a lot lately.

I got an article about the fake meat in e mail from Dr. Mercola, he talked about the chemical lased meat and that it is highly processed in a lab. Tried to bring it over but it wouldn't work. From what he said they are going to do away with all real meat by the end of 2024. Makes me wonder about the bird flu as now they say it is in the turkeys as well. Bill Gates is behind this and he wants to depopulate the world. I am not going to eat that mess, so working on canning as much meat as I can over the next year as long as I can afford to do so.

They are working on house but very slow getting things done. Still waiting for the fireplace to be done and the backsplash tiles for kitchen to come in. Plus, they still haven't started the main bathroom nor finished the new floor. But at least I now have a shower door. They did put that in today. But I don't know when they will be back. Sometimes they don't come for a week. I think it makes me madder that they don't tell me they will not be here for a few days. So, I am stuck home waiting on them. Now I call the owner to find out each night if they are coming. But sometimes he doesn't text back so I just text and or call the next morning demanding to know what day they are coming that my life is on hold with not knowing when or if anyone is coming from day to day. He's still forgetful about letting me know, but he's getting a bit better about it. I have started to get the store-bought canned foods together in one place. This one cabinet on den side of kitchen works great for that. Still have some canned goods to move from bedroom to den. So tomorrow will be a busy day. I am determined to get this house and my supplies organized in a way I can find something around here. I want the construction to end so I can get my pantry set up in small bedroom. I want to get all the store-bought canned food off of those shelves and into cabinet in den and kitchen so I can use those shelfs for all the food I have canned. My kitchen cabinets will not hold that.

Bumping this for any new combers. Something we all need to know how to do. OOTO's post has info there. Good stuff to know.

First time reading this. Seems that the filthy rich want to put we the people in the poor house eating chemical lased foods. The fake meat that will be replacing the real meat is from my understanding being reproduced in a lab and will be full of chemicals. Seems going veggie will be safer if this is true.

I have been doing scrapbooking for the kids, need to get that finished as soon as I have a place to do it again. Sewing, making baby blankets and want to make cloth diapers for trade purposes. Trying to get back into making clothes again. Been a long time since I did that. Want to learn to crochet. I make potholders with the loom. I used to do a lot of needlework, but my hands won't let me do that now, but would love to start back into embroidery again. Also make quilts. Going to start making a couple of jean quilts after the house is back together. I kept all of DH's clothes and he had a lot of jeans, so going to make jean quilts with them some of the shirts I am going to make a memory quilt with those. Hoping to have enough of his favorite shirts to make at least 3 or 4 of them. One for me and then one for each of the kids. Yes, he had his star war shirts, and other ones that he liked, not to mention the grinch. He loved that Christmas show and we got him a grinch shirt. He loved it. So, memory quilts for sure. Will keep me busy for a while. Mother what is a toothbrush rug? Never heard of that. My hands have limited me on a lot of things, but also want to get back into macrame again. I loved doing that. Hope my hands will let me do it again.

Hope it all goes well and that he is still in trailer with trailer still in tack in the morning. you are going to need it.

Eurphrasyne, I pray for your surgery to go well and a quick recovery. I know you didn't need this right after getting over that other fall. I am also going to print out your suggestions on using the other hand. I need knuckle replacement somewhere down the line and trying hard to hold off. Those suggestions will so come in handy when that time comes. Need to start trying to do things with my left hand now for practice. though I am also starting to have issues with stiff fingers on left hand. Friend called me this morning and told me to get down to Dollar Tree, they had just stocked the store. So, I got things together and went. They had the Gossner milk, So I bought some of the whole milk as the last time they only had 1% which I have just about finished up. Canned goods were very low but was able to get 12 cans of the mixed veggies. That is the back up as having trouble finding the frozen ones now. They had a few egg noodles so got a couple of those as well. They also had something I had not seen before. Roasted ground coffee in mylar bags. It is the breakfast blend and makes 40 cups. I got 6 of them and going to put those up for trade. They do have a best by date of 2/23. But I am going to fix them up for long term. They will make good for trade. Picked up a few other things to put in my low areas and then came home. So, I am thinking that they get their stock in on Tuesday as no one was stocking today when I went. Also got some snack pack brand pudding in the cups. Sometimes I am just too lazy to make pudding. So, these are not the ones you refrigerate, so I just keep them in fridge for those lazy days that I want a snack without making it. Don't know if anyone has tried this or not but got a couple of cans to try of Celebrity Luncheon loaf. They also make the canned hams. These have a best by date of 12/25. Going to try one out and if good will buy more. Would make for barter as well. They also had the small bottles of laundry detergent, so got more of those to add to my barter box. Later Grandson called and wanted another Bible lesson. He has been trying to study the Bible and wants me to help him with questions. I try but I am no Sunday school teacher. Though he seems to understand. He is 20 years old, so glad he has taken an interest in studying his Bible. No contractors today or tomorrow, so I am moving the store-bought canned goods from small bedroom and getting them into the cabinet that is on den side of kitchen counter next to dishwasher. We had that done that way because having a cabinet in corner like that, you can't use that wasted space. So now it is usable space. So tomorrow I will try to finish getting the food moved to that cabinet giving me room on the shelves for the food I will be canning this summer. Contractors will be here on Friday so will get as much as I can done tomorrow. Working hard on organizing everything as I can till the contractors are done and out of here. Contract date is to finish on April 17th. I don't think they will meet that deadline as they have not started the main bathroom and still have some small things to get done and finish putting the new floor down the hallway which he doesn't want to do till the demo on main bath is done. I'm just ready for it to be over with. It's been 3 months of this already.

A colander would have been so much easier and faster. I am so going to try this as soon as I can get things going again. Midnightmom, I have a lot of the bacon spam and turkey spam as well as some regular spam. Bacon spam is not bad at all. Dehydrated water, HA HA. But I do boil my water and then can it. It will last forever that way as long as the jars stay sealed.

Well again no one is coming to work on house. He said the backsplash tile is still not in. So, what about the rest of it. electrical, shoe molding on floor, new outlets in kitchen that needs to be put in before the tile, painting. All I got was that will all be done at same time. It is never done at one time as they are here between 9 and 9:30 am and an hour for lunch and leaving at 2:30. So I am doing good if I get 2 things done in one day and then another 3 or 4 days of nothing. I am over it. I am holding him to the contract as the job is supposed to be done by April 17th. There is no way they will meet that deadline. The main bathroom has not been started and they are just now starting the plans for the fireplace. Today I am redoing the kitchen cabinets and moving the store-bought canned food to a cabinet that opens to the den side of the kitchen bar. It will hold a few hundred cans of food. So will work out great and give me more room for what I can and other things. Need a home for my 5 gal. buckets. They are in closets, corner of 2 bedrooms, etc. So, this will get them all in one place. As I said before. Planning my organization situation to make more room for the non-food items as well. I think this plan is going to work out much better now that I will also have 2 new linen closets for soap, shampoos, etc. That will free up closet room. Will be working on OTC meds for a special place for storing that as well. Don't want that in a bathroom because of moisture. Need a good dry, dark place for that.

ANewMe, the Ova easy eggs are the whole egg that has no additives. They taste more like real egg. They are longer term up to I want to say 7 years, but maybe longer. They are great for scrambled eggs and taste like eggs when scrambled. Just follow for the amount of water on directions. Also great for baking bread and cakes, etc. I have the powered eggs as well which are a bit cheaper and will last up to 25 years, but don't taste as good as the ova easy eggs. So, what I do is use the powered eggs for baking and save the ova easy for breakfast. I will scramble them and also scramble them to make egg salad for sandwiches. I need to start making my own mixes again. Haven't done that in a long while. If there is a section here for making the mixes, I would love to find out where it is.

I am trying to catch up on reading a lot of post as I can. So many of you are returning and I am loving that. Though I think most all of you were here long before me. But I have read post from the past where I have seen a lot of these names. So just want to say welcome back everyone.

Just to say I am glad to see all the return of so many coming back. We can all have fun learning more from everyone on prepping and how everyone is doing it. Lots of fresh ideas are much needed now that things may be heating up in the near future. Welcome back everyone.

Huge tree and yes oak burns great in a fireplace. That will be a lot of firewood when cut up.

Themartianchick, that is a great idea, but right now my freezers are all overflowing with meat and some veggies waiting to be dehydrated. I am going to try that as soon as I can get the canning going again and get the freezers emptied. Thank you for that info.

Have a great day Virginia. Happy Birthday

Dee, you are amazing. I can't wait to hear more. Looking forward to more. Thank you for sharing.

And prices are still climbing. That is way too high of a price to pay. But it was the thought that counts. But yes, those could be made from scratch so much cheaper. I have been watching about the chicken (bird flu) as it is going to affect the price of everything that uses eggs as well. I have ordered more of the ova crystals eggs for baking and for breakfast as well. I can have scrambled eggs or make egg salad with the scrambled eggs. I have some already but decided best to get more added to my preps as I do use a lot of eggs. I will continue to buy fresh eggs and hold these for when it starts getting too hard to find eggs or the price gets way to high. Here at Christmas, we had a shortage of eggs last year. At least the 2 stores I usually go to didn't have any at all. But right now, it is better, but the price has gone up. One thing I would miss is having deviled eggs. I am going to start pickling some for canning as soon as they finish up with the kitchen, so I can get things done.

Themartianchick, that is great to be able to get family on board and realize how bad things are getting and that need to prepare. Wish I could get that through my daughter's head. Still has head in the sand. Just hope SIL is working on it. I do have 2 granddaughters that are preparing and know what is going on and what will happen. GS is still trying to get on his feet and still living with one GD and is moving out in July. He really needs to find a better job and is working on that. I will help him as best I can after he moves to get stocked. He is on west coast, and I am on east coast. So will send him gift cards for the stores around there as well as us Amazon to send him things he will need. Though I am sure he will only have a one-bedroom apt, so he will have to just get creative in storing things. Plus, he will need furniture. I am still waiting for my dressers, and they have 5 more weeks to get it here and then I will cancel the order. They have called me and said it was in several times and then sold it out from under me. Now I am getting aggressive with them. Never again will I buy from Haynes furniture. They were never like this before. Guess Corvid got the best of them. euphraysne, I do hope your hand and wrist is doing better with that pain. Praying for you to get this taken care of soon and for a fast recovery. I have been trying to clean up thick dust as much as possible before the main bathroom gets demoed. That will cause more dust, but at least getting up the dust from the small bathroom will not make it as thick. I can write my grocery list on the tables in living room. Dust is everywhere.

Euphraysne, I am sorry to hear you are really having such a hard time with that hand. Hope and pray that changing the cast and the meds help with pain. And yes, Bons Secure Harborview is good. I am 5 minutes away from Bell Harbor which is Sentara, but they were very good with DH and helped us a lot on stuff. But the hospital was horrible. I am about 10 minutes from Harborview and have gone there a couple times myself. No contractors at all this week. His reason is the kitchen tiles didn't come in. So still no electric being done and wires hanging out of ceiling, no painting being finished up, fireplace hasn't been started. Lots to do and all I get is they will do that when they tile the kitchen. Problem with that is they show up after 9 am and leave at 2:30, so if I get one thing done, I am lucky. This job is supposed to be finished by April 17th. They haven't demoed the main bathroom yet and this is under contract. They do good work but the owner I think is stretching his workers on too many projects at one time.

I hit something I shouldn't have I think. But anyway I was going to say that my chest freezer said I can use dry ice to keep things cold for 7 days in a power outage.

Jeepers I forgot about putting the water in freezer. That is a great idea. And for sure don't leave out the ice cream. I have had the self-defrost freezers and always had a problem with them. So now I only have the ones I have to defrost. I have the largest chest freezer you could get. Had it for a long time. Got it from Sears before they went out of business. I also have one that has the bottom freezer and the one in kitchen is a top freezer that can be flipped over to become an extra fridge. All three are packed full. That is why I want them to hurry up and finish the work or at least the kitchen. So, they did nothing all this week. He said the kitchen tile did not come in yet. But they still have a lot of electrical, fans, and has to move the kitchen light as they blocked half the air condition duck with it. I told them it would block it, but what do I know, I'm just a woman. I win. It did cover half the air condition duck and they now have to move it down about 6 inches and repair and paint the ceiling after it is moved. They could have been here this week doing that stuff while waiting on the tiles. This is getting old.

You could go to stores and look at the different ones and get an idea of the sizes. There is a difference, but not a lot. If you are not going to use it for long term foods, then I would think the smaller one would be fine. But if you feel you might want to use it somewhere down the line as food starts to get more scarce, then I would go with a larger one. They say that a half empty freezer does cost a bit more to run, but you could fill that extra space with store bought flour, rice and other things to help fill it up and would give you a little bit of long term foods.

I was going to start the second phase of painting the rest of house and replace outside lights after all this part was done. But now I am going to hold off a couple of years. I have a lot to get done and I am going to need a long break when this is done. It will take me a long while just to get all the meat from 3 freezers all canned as some of it will be used to make soup and things to can as well. So, a long summer of canning and dehydrating when this is over. And then I am working on more garden space in yard and figuring out where to plant fruit trees without shading the garden area. Need the sun for the garden. The second phase of repairs won't be as bad as all the demo, but just going to hold off.