The WE2's

Looks like everybody's got a full plate! Today we got an SOS call from my son...he was out of TP and couldn't order it online from WM...traded me a small bag of red potatoes. Could I have just given it to him..yeah...but after what I've been through with him and his hatred/lies I'm not opening myself up to that ever again. I gave him a 4-roll package of tp that we had bought several years ago at Aldi's when it was 65 cents for the package, and took a partial roll of paper towels and cut it in half. Stuck it all in a bag and delivered it. Hubby told him "you'd better be glad you got a momma to bail your fat out of the fire!" Hubby got a nice check for his work last week so we topped off the gas tank again in the truck and then went Amish shopping. They were packed! Did find some paper towels and napkins, but didn't hoard. Just took 6 rolls of the paper towels and 4 packs of the napkins. Also picked up a bulk bag of Winter White wheat berries. I have the winter red, but it doesn't make a good light loaf of bread and certainly not for cookies or cakes. Out of the whole store...only 2 packages of sugar. I DID take them both! Also picked some more green beans and some cases of #10 cans of fruit medley, carrots and ??? (can't remember the other). Another bag of dog food for our girl. Some ground turkey, some bologna, and a couple of butters. Then to another store for bulk seeds, and picked up 4 more boxes of Tattler lids. Been using them on the Hamburger Stew and the Chili that I jarred up. Pulled a large sleeve of the regular lids from the homestead and will use them for foods that I plan to use soon...or have to share. I won't give anybody my jars...but if they have their own container I "might" give them some soups...ie...son? He's got a girlfriend who is living with him??? so I'm not feeding them. He's got no excuse for not setting foods back. He's on food stamps, Medicare, Medicaid, has 2 pantry's that he gets food from, subsidized rent and I'm sure she has her income. Anyway...lots better off than we are financially. Thinking about what you said Jeepers about nosey neighbors. When we got the homestead to unload, the neighbor across the road, her teenage son and young daughter, her mother, and 2 or 3 other teenagers were all out on their tiny front porch and part of the yard. So...we only unloaded a few items and then came on back here and backed the truck in under the carport. We'll get up early in the morning and see if we can't get it into the house unseen. They're usually gone on Sundays to their grandmother's...and since the grandmother was there, they obviously aren't concerned about taking any virus to her. And...hubby bought the parts to hook up a kitchen sprayer to our toilet...our own Bidet! We're also going to put one on the new toilet at the homestead. Just sayin'....laugh if you want, but we like the idea. We have a regular Bidet "somewhere" in the shed at the Roost property, but it's very difficult to install and has a lot of metal hanging around on the toilet bowl. A handheld will work much better.

Ditto...

Still hanging around the house. Did pull out another pound of hamburger yesterday to thaw in frig, and put some beans on to soak last night. This morning jarred up 6 nice tasty quarts of chili. We'll enjoy that for sure. Normally I make our chili from scratch when we want it, but with gardening coming up and him working, it will be nice to dump our food into a pan, heat it up, and be done with it...mostly a one pot meal. When we went to the homestead yesterday to hook up the rain barrels, I told hubby "look at all those tree buds laying all over the sidewalks etc.!" Well this morning I found out I got myself a snoot full of pollen! Drug out the netti pot and gave myself a good nostril wash! Felt much better, but still have the "stuffy" feeling on that side of my face where I'm "clogged"! LOL I've taken a few sniffs of my oregano essential oil as well as my eucalyptus and it definitely makes things feel better. Talked to my friend last night that's moving out of state. Sure hate to see her go, but all her kids and grandkids are where she's moving so we all understand her moving. We had planned a going away party for her...but not now. She's been like a social butterfly getting all of her remaining things loaded into the moving trailer and taking an elderly friend who has vision problems to the market to help him stock up on some food...not to mention people coming to her place to help her load etc. So the party is off...and even if it weren't...we told them all we would not be attending. They all agreed...including her! Good thing we did get the rain barrels (the main 4) hooked up because it's rained enough to fill them 10x over! Didn't get the other 3 placed, but maybe this weekend we'll do that. They're free standing so we can move them anywhere we want them. Watched some full time RV'ers and they're having some serious issues about finding paper products and foods that they're used to eating.

I watched the news reports talking about it. I'm not sure who will get it...but figure it will go to those who have been directly impacted by the virus in some way or another. Guess we'll all just do a "wait and see"?

Laid out another pound of hamburger. Tomorrow I plan to jar up some chili. I'll go into the kitchen shortly and get some beans started soaking. Won't do the no soak method because I'll be having the meat etc., and don't want a bunch of tough beans. Still jarring up quarts of water to keep the canner full when I put my food in it.

Fished out a pound of hamburger and made a hug pot of hamburger stew...and jarred up 4 quarts. It will be nice to have a ready meal when we're working at the homestead on the weekends, and need an EZ on cook meal. Hubby's still working at his customer's home. Will probably be there another week or so, then he'll work on the gents "toy collection" buildings. We took Abby-girl and made a trip to the homestead when hubby got home and got the rain barrels hooked up and ready to go. Let Abby-girl run in the garden area (which she normally isn't allowed in...it's fenced off from her yard) while we took care of that and roamed around the garden area discussing where we're planting this or that. We have plenty of containers but will need to go to our local city recycle yard for compost. We can get a truck load for 10$ if you're in the city limits...which we are. That will fill a lot of containers! Been saving my orange juice bottles to use (like Leon's) in the bottom them, and we had several rolls of weed mat. Won't invest in the heavy duty stuff yet. Need to get really serious about creating "hoops" to go over our containers to prevent those white butterflies from laying their devilish eggs! Will also help if we know there's a storm coming we can cover the crops up. I've got some organic russets that I'll be laying out tomorrow to wither and start some sprouts so I'll know where to cut...and plant when they're ready. I don't want to plant in a row this time. Too hard to keep them covered when they start sticking their pretty little green leaves out! Seriously thinking about using a couple of big plastic trash cans that I can cut drainage holes in...never know what this gardener might come up with!

All is well here. I am not going any place unless it's in our truck or our camper van to just "go someplace" and get out in the sun (when it's shining!). Got too many irons in the fire right now to even do that. I'll spend some time at the homestead this weekend, out in the garden area. I'm planning to pull out the two mini-green houses and get them ready to start some seeds. Also need to clean out some of the tubes in my two Mason Bee houses. Those wonderful little pollinators have just about filled every one of them!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYYBlU4gbCA

I'm still staying put. Hubby is still working for his customer but being very careful about washing his hands and using sanitizer. There are more and more positives popping up around our state...but so far still not closer than 60 miles from us. Did pull the beef out and got 24 half pints jarred up for the extended pantry, plus one nice size chunk for a pot roast in the freezer here. I just haven't done a lot of beef because of the prices, but really needed some more to prevent food fatigue if this thing continues on, or the prices get so high we can't afford to buy it. Supposed to get more rain sometime in the wee hours. This weekend hopefully we will get the rain barrels hooked up. With me staying here and him working, we don't have the time to get it done. He's tuckered out when he gets home and it would be dark before we got it done.

I keep several pints of the Elderberry Syrup, but I jarred up 7 quarts of just the juice. Why? Because I can make other things with the juice...jelly, tinctures or just add it to some water and drink it with some sweetener.

Well...I'll try this again! Hit the wrong button and off into lala land went my post! Has been raining off an on for last couple of days and supposed to start again tomorrow night...no...we didn't get our rain barrels hooked up. Just too many things going on. Fried up a nice big chicken for supper last night and put the carcass etc., into my slow cooker. This morning I got 2 quarts of beautiful stock and 4 quarts of water...LOL Got some more canning to do tomorrow, but the food is safe in our 5-day cooler...3 cuts of beef that I needed to get taken care of and it would take too long to try and do it this afternoon. I was up until 11:00 last night re-canning some frozen mixed vegetables. I use so much of those beautiful things! Soups, stews, pasta's with sauce, lots and lots of different dishes. It's just the two of us and if I take a whole pint of carrots, a pint of green beans, a pint of potatoes etc...it's just too much for us for one meal. This way we get all the goodies..in one pint...LOL Hubby's still working on his customer's family room but other than that, we're home bound. Just not worth taking a chance any more than necessary. Our state now had several popups of the "bad thing" that are less than 100 miles (several are more than that) from our county. We're just amazed at the amount of people still eating out in restaurants, hanging out in bars and other clubs etc. My sis is included in those. Her and her husband just don't see any issues. All of us here knew times would come...we just didn't think it would be a pandemic! At least we didn't. We thought it would be a slowly collapsing economy. Well...it may be both now.

Trivette my dear, Trivette!

I think the only real concern is that you only get one canning session from them...after that first canning you may face breakage etc. Old timers used mayo jars with much success ya know!?

They take a lot longer to bring up to temp and a lot longer to cool!

Can't remember where, but I watched a video of a woman who was "testing" this method. Her eggs didn't last very long at all. She was very disappointed. It may have been Bexar Prepper? Just can't remember, it's been several years ago. We store as many as we can in the refrigerator(s) and then we use baby bottle liners to put two whipped up eggs in, then in the freezer laying flat, then into a mylar bag and into our deep freezer(s). Shared some with a friend last year while visiting, and I asked her "how do you like eggs that are 6 years old"...she busted out laughing...absolutely could not believe it!

Rainy, chilly, cloudy day...so we ventured out and topped off both of our vehicles as well as several gas containers. It was really weird to see people all over everywhere! Sav-A-Lot...parking lot full and no carts in their corrals. WalMart...parking lot nearly full and very few carts in their corrals. Hubby went in to put dollars on his gift card to use for our gas (he goes to customer service...not the cashiers) so I watched. Lots of people coming out empty handed or just carrying one or two plastic bags. Restaurants...full. Just weird! FB notified our state that they had a patient that tested positive at a small hospital only about 60 miles from us, and less than that from my brother and SIL and my stepmum. Way too close to comfort people! They shut the hospital down to all incoming patients etc. They transferred the positive tested person someplace else. Not sure where, but probably one of the major hospitals in our state...there are many. We will probably try $Tree again for some more shelf stable milk...that's what I use to make our yogurt, and yogurt during this stressful time is probably very important to our diet. We're being extremely careful to practice hand sanitizing and hand washing. We keep a gallon plastic zip lock in the truck that has a package of baby wipes and a squirt bottle of sanitizer. There's also 2 small bottles of sanitizer in the glove box. Brought over 3 cases of quart jars so I can clean them up. Going to can water...yes, can water! I have tons of quart jars and lots of free water for right now. All you have to do is fill your waterbath pot or pressure canning pot with water and bring it to a boil. Submerge your clean jars into the water and fill them to 1" head space. Then bring them out, put your lids and rings on and then back into the pot. Make sure they're covered with at least an inch of water, bring to a boil, and boil for 20 minutes. There's probably not much bottled water in any of the stores at this rate, so I'm just making sure we're covered on that part of our pantry. Also did some pantry shopping to bring to this place to put back what I've used this past week for our meals. We have our rain catchment system but it's not hooked up yet (hopefully will tomorrow) and it's needing a first flush before we close the spikets and start collecting water. Even then, we'd have to run it through the Berkey. We have a lot of bottled water but not nearly enough if something really bad happens. It wouldn't be the first time that water might be rationed or contaminated. Surely not a fatalist but I don't trust the world we're living in ... especially right now. I know some of our leaders are trying their best but they're still human and can make mistakes or be deceived. Having shelter, water and food is always good no matter what tomorrow may hold. Hubby is making some real progress on running the plumbing lines in the basement. Making me feel a lot better as we face this storm of life. He's fully aware that we've got to have the bathroom up and running if we have to go the homestead. That's one thing comforting though. Even though we're "sheltering" we have 3 houses, a travel trailer and a motorhome that we can come and go to...breaking up the stress factor. As long as our camper van "Miss B", has gas we can also take a nice long ride into the national or state parks and just get out in the sunshine...avoiding everybody of course. Even at the homestead, we have about an acre and none of the neighbors are close, so we can sit on the covered wrap around front porch, or out in the back garden area with our patio set...and enjoy being outside without fear of being too close to people. Here...no. At our rental property (The Roost) ...nobody close, but one neighbor is "too friendly" for our liking and seems to always want to walk over and "chat". So we won't go there other than to do a drive by or something. Bottom line...not being cooped up is going to be very important when people are sheltering "someplace".

I have a small spray bottle with a mix of Lysol and water for my counters and stove top, another for dish soap and bleach that I spray my dishes with until I put them in my sink to wash.d

Exactly! I buy Amish gallons of dish soap and laundry soap. I just refill my pumps (until they break and I go to $Tree for another) from the dish soap. I also buy their fabric softener and just refill my Suavatel (?) because it has the measuring cap and spout right on it. Same with Laundry soap. I know how to make my own if I need to and have plenty of those ingredients set back.

Well today, our state declared a state of emergency (like so many others) and the Prez declared a national emergency. So peeps...guess it's time to take a serious look at what "may" be coming next...curfews...national guards...? Remember the holocaust? It snuck up on the people very quietly and very quickly. But, we all know there's nothing we can do but "prep" and pray. Hubby's being very careful on the work site of his customer. The wife is staying upstairs and the hubby is in the family room watching his tv, quite some distance from where hubby is working and doing some drywall work. Tomorrow we'll work on the homestead project...but...will go fill up some "cheap" jugs of gas to put back. The price is VERY low right now and we've got a few dollars left from his last pay...so this is probably a very good time to get them filled back up. Wish we didn't feel like we "had" to but we do. Sis in law posted on FB that she was taking my brother to the VA hospital for a CT scan to see if the chemo was working...??? Anyway, she says they were stopping everyone at the door and checking them, and that she had a mask for my brother. Haven't heard anything since. I'll just have to wait to see if she "volunteers" anything on FB. I have been checking on several of my friends to make sure they're aware of what's going on in our state. My youngest brother and his wife both work in the metro area. He's with a LARGE insurance corporation and she's with a large hospital. Wonder how long before they have to take some serious steps since the state is now in a state of emergency? They live in a remote area...that's good. They both have the capacity to work from home....that's good. Do they know how to garden? Probably not. Do they have a pantry? A small one...and she's not much of a cook. My sister and her husband? Both have serious underlying health conditions but they're out and about just as usual. They are heavily involved with the local Moose and eat there most of the time. They live in a remote area and she "should" have some stuff set back. They gave up gardening, but they know how and have the equipment to do so. Our friend in the far south of our state is becoming more and more attuned to what's happening. My other friend is putting food etc., back as much as she can. Her son works at WM nights, her other son is a government official and her daughter is a hairdresser. Not sure any of them have anything set back. Really wish people would have relinquished the world's hold on their lives and spent some of their "entertainment" dollars on food. Saw where one of our local urgent care providers is accepting donations for baby food, baby wipes, baby formula, baby otc's etc...expecting an influx of parents with little ones who can't find these things in the stores and couldn't buy them if they could find them. Sad...

I have chocolate squares that I vacuum sealed 3 years ago...just for fun, I opened one and other than having some whitish on it, it tasted just fine!

Just spoke with a friend of mine who just got home yesterday from having some neck surgery. She's doing fine but still a bit groggy from pain meds. So glad she got this taken care of now before anything in our state goes really haywire! She said another friend of ours who lives in a senior housing complex is on lock down. No body can come in...not sure if they can leave but she lives across the road from a WM super center so she can walk. She's in the early stages of Alzheimer's so driving is no longer something she's supposed to do because she sometimes gets lost. Communicated with my sister-in-law (who's married to my brother who is going through chemo for inoperable state 4 lung cancer and also throat cancer)...she's not very well prepared but she's a control freak so I can't talk to her...her usual response is "I got this under control" . She said she wasn't feeling well today so was staying in bed. When I asked "Feeling overwhelmed"...her response of course was "No...just exhausted". She rejects anything I suggest or say...so...it's just gotta be left alone. I'm still concerned about my prodigal son. He's diabetic along with PTSD and lives in an subsidized housing complex...so he's very much at risk. With his aid coming in to clean etc., and take him for shopping and doctor visits, I'm wondering if and when they'll lock that complex down and he'll have to remain inside his small one bedroom apartment...? But...we're astranged and not speaking, so I just pray.

Put my pressure cooker on the stove on low, and cooked up a nice pot of hamburger stew. Then made some "cornbread" waffles to go along with it. Yummy!

The pudding...I just followed Noreen's Kitchen recipe... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ibp0x4UWDM

On the sanitary wipes (baby wipes) I use distilled water 4 cups, 2 Tablespoons of liquid coconut oil (or melt some in your water), 2 Tablespoons of Aloe gel, 1 teaspoon of liquid baby shampoo, about a Tablespoon of the Vit. E gel...but less if you're using the liquid?...and then I added a few drops of lavender essential oil. You'll need a pretty deep container, a long one if you're using both rolls of paper towel. If only using one, then you'll need to cut the ingredients in half. Hope this helps ya!