The WE2's

After using the duct tape, run another "bead" around with the tape turned outside, so if any insects try to cross they get "stuck". Check often and replace the "barrier" tape. I would also consider setting glue pads around the basement area to arrest any mice or bugs.

Wednesday...dreary day. Even Abby is playing lazy-daizy! Hey...does anybody around here reside in the central 4 midwest states? Just curious.

Found several that I can identify with, but alot I don't. I don't:

You skip the headlines in the Sunday paper and head straight for the sales inserts.

There's a coupon organizer in your purse or car (extra credit if it includes a calculator).

You've washed (or seriously considered washing) tin foil to use it a second time.

The chocolate milk you were served as a kid was heavily diluted with regular milk.

Your family holds a contest to guess how much money is in the change jar every six months.

A little mold on bread or cheese doesn't cause you to immediately toss it.

You know the technique for properly canning food....because I don't know how...yet.

Negotiating the price of a used car inspires a sense of adventure and thrill.

You know the secret magic that's contained in every bottle of furniture scratch cover.

You can calculate any product's price-per-ounce in mere seconds.

Your dryer sheets have three times the life expectancy of other people's.

You cut open toothpaste tubes to get at the last bit of product.

The rest I am guilty as charged, at least partially! LOL

Soooooooo, hubby tells me the other day that I can pick what I get for Christmas thisyear. ......soooooo, I decided on a greenhouse!!! I have wanted one for a long time!! BUT. I don't know anything about them. I have decided to do a hoop house with the plastic for a roof due to our hail storms. (of course I would love a glass one, but it would be very impractical at this time). I figure this way, if a hail storm comes through,I can just put more plastic up, without having a huge expense of fixing glass. We have decided to build a couple of them (mainly because of where I want to put them, two or three small ones would fit much better than one large one)

 

Does anybody have one or know someone who does. ? Any advise??? Any dos and donts??? Any good books on the subject?? Any and all help is needed!!!

From Philbe...I want MM to build mine with hoops also, and using plastic milar, but I also want him to use something like chicken wire over the top of the plastic to help keep plastic from "ballooning" if any wind would get under it, and also to re-direct any hail somewhat. Don't know of anyone necessarily, or even books, but that's what I want. I'll be watching the answers here for sure!!!

Tuesday...with reluctance, told son we were going to have to reclaim our other pc ... I know he's got a long face, but we just can't keep using our little notebook like a desktop unit. it's only for emergencies & for when we're traveling. It's not for powering 4-1 printer, fax, copy & scan machines etc. Plus...this tiny keyboard and tiny screen make it really difficult for us who are amongst the "over the hill" gang! LOL He's got most of his business taken care of now, and what he needs to take care of he'll have to go the library...it's free. Or he can try to barter out his laptop for an up and running system. We offered to throw in an older fax machine and some hard drives Mountain Man kept when he did some scraping earlier this year. We're just not in a financial position to foot the pc bill for him. The "homestead" has been eating our lunch...we've got two occupants in two apartments, and neither are paying rent! Mom's in the lower apt., son's in the upper. How did we get into this fix? GOT TO get this antique we're liivng in SOLD!!! But...gotta get the "little house on the hill" finished before we can move into it! As I mentioned once here...ever feel like you're taking care of everybody but yourself!? Guess I'd better stop my whining...just sounding off where there's some people who understand...

I watched the video some time ago, it quite interesting.. Told Mountain Man about it, saying I'd like to try a patch this coming season. He seems to think it's only a covering around the plantings...but I didn't get that impression because he "struck the hard ground" in the video to illustrate the imposibility of it growing much if anything. Did I miss something? We have wood chips readily available in our area. Copied short cut and will go watch again! Again, very interesting!

How about hiding bills in a sanitary napkin box! LOL Maybe coins in a bag of beans? Just remember...every man's trash is another man's treasure! And a thief will always take the path of least resistence...meaning they won't really "hunt"...they'll just do a pitch and dump inside your property and see what comes to the surface, what's readily seen after turning things over, what's obviously perfect for hiding things. Just think...where would YOU look?

Many years ago, when my husband and I had been married just a little over a year, I came home from work to discover our home had been broken into. Everything in the house was rifled thorugh, turned over, etc. All drawers were removed and dumped; they even upended things like the butter dish and other food.

 

At first, I thought someone had vandalized our home. Only later did I realize they were looking for hidden cash and were, literally, leaving no stone unturned.

 

Ironically, my husband had always had the habit of taking out cash for each pay period and keeping it in one of his dresser drawers. We discussed this quite often, as it didn't seem safe to me to keep our entire $60 (!!!!!) for each two-week period in a drawer, but he always assured me that's what he'd always done and it had always been fine. The thieves broke into our home the day before payday, and our ''cash drawer'' was empty. They did find the jar where we kept our stash of quarters which we used for exact change riding the bus to and from work every day.

 

Never underestimate the determination of someone who wants to rob you of your belongings---if you think of a hiding place, so can they. Also, they have no qualms about destroying your property, so they won't hesitate to pull apart everything they possibly in the hope of finding something of value.

From Philbe: You're absolutely right about not underestimating a thief! We had one of our properties broken into and they stole both of our metal detectors...after using them (I guess ) against us, inside the house looking for metal etc. And yes, they absolutely play havoc turning things inside out, upside down and every which way but loose! BUT...we had some vials of gold nuggets hidden in a "certain" place...would have been obvious if they hadn't been looking for things hidden! LOL Anyway...guess being in glass vials helped them escape the detectors...???

Monday...we're already into some near freeze nights, so all garden veggies are gone. Turned over the Mels Mix in our SQFT garden squares and will cover them with heavy black milar...to smother any future weeds that might be tempted, to encourage earth worms, and to keep birds etc. out of it. Mountain Man will return to some work projects for a couple of clients and I hear the laundry calling out to "wash whites!" By the way...I tried the laundry mix with Dawn and absolutely do NOT like it, especially for my whites. Guess I'll use it up on fragile washings (which I don't have much of) for sweaters or ??? Have a great Monday friends...and we're looking forward to our next "bug out" and especially our annual camp out for Thanksgiving. Still trying to find a solution for a new desktop pc.

Pulled the last handful of purpose onions and chopped them up into 2 small plastic container, one for the scallions and one for the greens...will do nicely with my hashbrowns for breakfast! Worked at our "little house" and took w/u air conditioners out of the windows, put silver bubble wrap insulation over the windows and set the furnace on 50. Took down dog panels and stored them...don't want to cause somebody to sin by taking them this winter when we can't get there as often. Had a break in once and they trashed the inside of the house & stole our 2 metal detectors. Keeping what we have IS pinching pennies!!! LOL

I hear you on buying some things already dehydrated. Oftentimes when you can buy them in bulk (I buy mine at Winco) it's cheaper when you consider the electricity costs and time it takes to do it yourself. I also do this with onions. We use sooo many onions and I can't seem to grow enough to meet our needs so I will often buy bulk dried onions. This year, I'm attempting to change this, I have onions and garlic squirreled away in the strangest parts of the yard!

 

I've enjoyed reading this thread, Thanks! Oh, and :rofl: at the powdered donuts joke!

From Philbe...how do you "squirrel away" onions and garlic? Like you we go through ALOT of potatoes and onions! And YES...the powdered suger donuts joke sent me on a laughing frenzy!!! When I first started reading the reply post, I have to admit...I thought she was going to suggest perhaps something was open! ROTFL!!!

Sunday...desktop is going to have to have either a new reinstall or a new hard drive...grrrr! Only purchased 5 months ago but not under warranty, bought a re-build w/new parts. Took Abby for her vet check to renew her flea/tick meds and heartworm meds. She's now a 10 month old, 70 pound lab/aussie! Headed out shortly to stop by "homestead" and pick up my last bucket of ripened tomatoes, then to the "little house" to do some more work to get it ready for us this spring (I hope) and get this "occupy" house sold. Yesterday stopped by area Dutch store and picked up 4 big bags of dehydrated sliced potatoes and 2 large bags of diced potatoes, then re-sealed them with food saver & oxygen absorbers and sealed them in my "little white buckets" ... a few in each bucket. Figured it's easier (right now) to just buy the potatoes already dehydrated. I boil alot of fresh potatoes for my freezers for everyday use. Everybody have a wonderful Sunday!

They worked soooo hard to make their meals taste so good! Sure glad we don't have to worry about all those ashes. They'd probably play havoc on sinus' or for people with upper resperitory (?) problems. My mom had to stop using fireplace because of allergy, COPD, and asthma. Still...love to read and look! Thanks!!!

Boiled down another 5 lbs. of potatoes ... had some for supper (fries) with our Swai fish with corn-ochra-tomatoes. Continuing to use notebook pc until we decide what to do about our desktop's crash. Son is using our older pc...really feel selfish to ask him for it. Guess we'll make do with notebook for awhile...pinch!

I love that song of praise! I love to open my Bible, and just "sing" the verses...whatever they may be. Brings such peace. Don't be surprised if the "world" hates you...they hated our Savior too! But...you've got some mighty loving friends around here!

Just about as peaceful picture as one could want! I love those kinds of "shots" ... WONDERFUL!

How many of you keep Cous Cous and cook it? How about sharing some recipes with me! I've cooked it several ways but would like other recipes too. It's just so quick!

Thursday...woke up to what started as a wonderful day...then desktop pc crashed. PC gal just left and needs to create a re-boot disk. Too many pc's are sold without them. NEVER again! If we have to buy another pc, it will have an install disk or we're not buying it! Operating on my travel notebook for the time being. Sooo tiny and soooo slow. Better than nothing though. Tomorrow's another day.

You're gonna be soooo blessed! My grand-daughter has graduated from HS and is enrolled in nursing college and working part-time in a nursing home. Grand-son is in HS and wants to be a fire fighter. He was a volunteer at their local fire station. BUT....pink is beautiful! (but so is blue!) LOL

Today is a 'wifey" day...the rugs need vacuming, bed clothes need changing, bath linens need laundering...just regular weekly-daily stuff that just won't get done by osmosis!

Wednesday...really had a "spook" this morning. Anti-virus software wouldn't launch, update or even acces . After much worry (and most of morning doing diagnostics) decided to just un-install the whole thing and re-install. It launch, scanned and now is working like it should...PTL! Can't afford a new PC. Mountain Man is finishing off repairing iron steps for a client. They lead to an upper apartment and they repaired four this spring and now are repairing the last four. MM got a tiny little burn on his cheek while cutting out the old wrought iron part of the step (they're replacing the risers with treated wood) but just a little dot. Aloe made it feel fine. Then he's headed off for another landlord's project to put on a 3rd coat of mud to cure until tomorrow, and then to another client's project to hang mini-blinds, ceiling fans, repair roof leak, and a few other things landlord's enjoy having him do. PTL for the consistent work! Trying to get back on our "semi-retirement" schedule of working Mon-Thurs. and then working on our 2nd house on Fri & Sat. so we can move into it and get this antique we're living in sold! LOL Not doing any prepping today. Need to get caught up on some "wifey" things!

Sounds like tons of fun (and work) and wish we could be amongst ya's...but we've only been around this forum for a bit, and Mountain Man is taking work any time he can get it. I'll enjoy reading (hopefully with some pictures!) about everything going on and sharing with MM. Perhaps next time we'll be in a better position to hitch up and join every body! We're in the midwest and don't have any idea where you all are gathering. Hugs...

Looks like we all love them! But as I've cautioned...I lost some tomato ones to bugs. So mine are stored via my food saver attachment, in jars. Just a caution to my friends who may want to stock up on some.

Don't know if you have seen these in your local grocery store but they are wonderful.

 

one cube is one clove of garlic

 

I have seen garlic, onion and cilantro.

From Philbe: Be sure to vacume seal them in jars...or little critters will try to get to them (bugs). I lost a whole bag full once, so mine are sealed in jars by my food saver jar attachment.

I will have to look for these! Do they have a long shelf life?

From Philbe: Be sure to vacume seal them in jars...or little critters will try to get to them (bugs). I lost a whole bag full once, so mine are sealed in jars by my food saver jar attachment.