Preparations Update

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@Tank-Girl I have always had a similar approach as yourself if you need my equipment I operate it and you don't touch it :) . DH is ever generous to a fault but usually to the detriment of us but has learnt a valuable lesson on this one.

He has also learnt that his wife knows the sound of equipment not functioning properly before it blows up and to listen rather than keep using it until disaster strikes and that I do have a sound mechanical knowledge as well on the correct ratio of two stroke to use with each piece of equipment. Rather had to swallow his tongue and pride after I told him to check the website for the ratio of oil to use in the chainsaws and to check the back of the two stroke oil container too and he said reluctantly OK you are right and I am wrong.

All comes down to we live and learn and not always is the way any of us do things the correct way.
 
Wall tent successfully water treated and trees dropped at BOL and that's a big load off my mind. 4 of 6 were badly rotted and were quite large. It's fun to watch the pros at work and learn a bit. Only hiccup was an old guyline from the solar panel to one of the trees. In 12 years I've never seen that little bit of wire. Pulled down the panel but a quick repair and it was up and running. We were wondering how to get it down and put it on a pole anyways, so we're halfway there. Worked all nite burning brush and carrying wood up so I can split it later. I was exhausted. Had a new fuel flow problem on boat so we jury rigged it to get us downriver. Need to talk to the folks at the boat shop to see what's going on. Just spent 600$ on the fuel system. :( BOAT=Break Out Another Thousand. Don't own a boat, know somebody that owns a boat. Boat.....a hole in the water you throw money into. Well we couldn't have accomplished what we have up there without it so take the good with the bad.:confused:
 
Recently bought toilet paper, but I may go back for more due to prices for paper products going up...

According to... https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/31/price-of-pampers-charmin--puffs-is-going-up-as-pgs-profit-falls.html
Looks like "the cost of Pampers diapers, Bounty paper towels, Charmin toilet paper and Puffs tissues are going up as parent company Procter & Gamble's profit margins get squeezed between rising competition and increased costs."

Also... https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2018/07/31/paper-products-price-increase-china/
The "price of hardwood pulp used in paper towels and bathroom tissue has jumped nearly 60 percent in two years, while the softwood pulp used in diapers and feminine hygiene products is up over 20 percent.
In one word — it’s China! That country’s growing economy and 1.4 billion people means China is buying more pulp and paper products, driving up prices — even if Americans use more of these products per person."
 
Thanks @tiffanysgallery I have no doubt that that will also apply to Australia as a flow on effect. Not seen any good prices on toilet paper here since before or just after Christmas last year here. Paper towel I use so very little of and mainly for draining fried foods on but other than that I tend to use old flannelette rags I cut up from old sheets , , cotton rags from old clothing or old tea towels to clean around the home with.
 
Sewingcreations15 said:
...Message to all here is to never lend your equipment to anyone as most often it will come back wrecked which is what I told DH prior to him lending our chainsaw out in the first place :rolleyes: .
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I figure this way.

1. Don't loan anything that I'm not willing never to see again.
2. Never loan money to friends or family. If you do, think of it as a gift, expecting to never be repaid.
 
:woo hoo: both chainsaws arrived one yesterday and one the day before so of course we put them together and went out to our friends farm and tried them out and cut about 3/4's of a cubic metre of firewood to prep us for next winter and the rest of this winter. Last week we also cut another 1 cubic metre of firewood too. It is best to cut here in winter as it is much cooler as summer can reach anywhere from 30 - 45 oc.

We love our new chainsaws and they chew through hardwood Ironbark trees like butter :clapping: .
 
Every time you talk about using ironbark as firewood I'm amazed. We used it for the chines and other wear spots on wooden fishing boats. It is an expensive wood here. I imagine that it gives quite a bit of heat.
 
@Caribou yes Ironbark is a hugely robust wood to use in construction and great to hear they use it in boats too. Most of the farmers here use the Ironbark straighter sections of the trunk for fence posts and run 3 - 5 strands of wire through them for cattle and livestock fences which they electrify. Ironbark if you can get it reasonable priced is great for butchers blocks and decking which runs out at around $6.90 a lineal metre for 86 x 19mm boards here. The challenge is to try and nail or screw straight into it as you know you have to predrill before you do that. They don't have the word iron in the wood name for no reason :LOL:.

It is the best firewood indeed and gives out a lot and the best of heat. We can put in 2 large logs before bed into the fireplace and we have coals still left in the morning to carry on with.
 
Only firewood we will ever have again will be delivered or loaded up and brought here. We no longer able to chop wood for fires. Although we have plenty here in the forest that is closing in on us.
 
Years ago i had a young man answer an ad i placed about buying the extra fencing that was piled by the forest line. After he paid, he cut each piece to fit his truck. Before he left, he asked to come back and cut firewood for me. So we made a deal that he could take home some too in payment for his work.
 
Quick trip to cabin, finished bucking up wood on beach and carrying it up. Just in time lots of rain and river coming up. Picked some of our strawberries and saskattons. Saskatoons were put in a few years back and to start getting berries off them gladdens my heart. So many changes since I planted them, grandkids older, the loss of my 2 puppies and the gaining of our new one. Some of our friends who rarely make it up anymore but new ones who do. A lot of water under the bridge literally. Next weekend more brush burning. If the weather is nice I'll take the stump grinder and work on the apple orchard for next year. Apple orchard 2.0. Grow tower is putting out tomatoes here at house. Who knew after all these years of trying potting soils, fertilizers, planters, meticulous row plantings with no results all I needed was the grow tower and the juice for it?o_O Can't wait to see how it does indoors this winter.
 
Today we went shopping for the next couple of months for one supermarket anyway and topped up on 10 more tins of smoked chicken and topped our toilet paper by an additional 12 rolls.

Lately we have been freezing cherry tomatoes and silver beet we have blanched and frozen picked from the gardens and also separated lots of dried lavender and thyme also picked from the gardens.
 
Hubs brought home a grocery bag full of green beans last night that someone gave to him.......so a good chunk of my morning went to washing, cutting, and bagging beans for the freezer. It wasn't really enough to can so I thought I'd throw them in the freezer and hope for the best. I've never frozen green beans from the garden before. Hopefully it works out fine. I didn't want them to go to waste, especially since someone took a lot of time to grow and pick them. I had some fresh ones while processing them and nothing beats fresh beans from the garden.
 
Did you blanch the beans before freezing? That kills off the ecol-i bacteria.
 
@angie_nrs you should blanch and freeze the beans - here is the instructions on how to do it - http://pickyourown.org/beansfreezing.htm .

As @SheepDog has said it both gets rid of the bacteria and stops the ripening process too. It is very quick to do and you could take them out of the freezer to do it now to preserve them better and use for dinners down the track.
 
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grow tower.jpg
@Amish Heart grow towers are usually made of PVC pipe with holes cut in them with a hole saw, and end caps at the ends filled with soil and plants planted in them. It is a good way to grow items upright so you are not bending to harvest.

We intend to make ones like this for our strawberries and herbs when we buy our property but horizontally and mounted on stands.

Here is a picture of one -
 
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we are getting organized and wound up with 4-5 gallon buckets of mre drink mixes. these were out of the ones hubby brought home several months ago[free].also added 2 more large cans of coffee and some filters and a lot of tea. the great grandsons want me to get them a bucket of koolade. i've got some but they have just about picked out the ones they like,so i'll have to watch the sales. all of this is long term storage.
 
Those look awesome, Sewing Creations. They would also do for people with small gardening areas. Just harvested to dry a second round of mints (for tea), sage, oregano, basil and chives. Those are favorites I use for cooking, and at Christmastime I give plenty away in gift baskets.
Timmie...I store kool aid mixes as well. I wait till our Kroger store has the plastic containers of Koolaid and Countrytime lemonade mixes on sale for 99 cents each and buy bunches. They usually sell these at 99 cents about 4 times a year. Then I dump the mix in a mylar 8x10, and seal it. Then I put them in plastic tubs. They come in handy when we have a houseful for supper. Just add a few lemon slices to the lemonade, or fruit slices to the fruity koolaid. And it's already sugared.
 
Sewingcreations15 said:
@angie_nrs you should blanch and freeze the beans - here is the instructions on how to do it - http://pickyourown.org/beansfreezing.htm .

As @SheepDog has said it both gets rid of the bacteria and stops the ripening process too. It is very quick to do and you could take them out of the freezer to do it now to preserve them better and use for dinners down the track.
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Nope - I didn't. I washed, clipped, cut, and bagged.....then put in the freezer. I wash them and eat them straight out of the garden, so if e-coli was a concern, it'd show it's ugly face then. Plus, I would think freezing would nip any e-coli, no? I wanted a fast and easy way to conserve beans (that I wasn't expecting so I was short on time) so I thought I'd give it a try. If it doesn't work (taste and texture wise), the beans will get cooked down and added to the dog food.
 
Amish Heart said:
Grow tower, musketjim?
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Yes we bought a used one from a friend for a couple hundred bucks including everything. I bought some seedlings from a friend instead of starting my own. This winter I will start my own. I planted to much lettuce, won't make that mistake this winter. I'll go with kale spinach tomatoes and cucumbers and see how it all works out. Just got back from BOL had daughter and grandkids. Bucked some wood and burned more brush. Kids took turn trying to split wood. Made sure to give them some logs without knots. Used new weedeater to help clear out
 
Sewingcreations15 said:
Hi angie_nrs had to look up whether freezing kills e-coli or not and apparently it doesn't but heating the food to 165 Fahrenheit does.

Here is a link for you to look at - https://www.foodworldnews.com/articles/3737/20130405/e-coli-outbreak-freezing-food-kill-bacter.htm .

I hope this helps :) .
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Thanks for looking that up. I'll either boil them up to eat or fry em up with some butter and almonds. Either way, I'm sure they'll be heated enough. I ate a boat load of them while processing and I'm still around to tell about it. LOL! One of these days it might come back to haunt me, but I like to wander through the garden and pick and eat. Most of the time I'll just do a cold water bath and eat fresh. I could be playing with fire, but then I think......is the fresh produce in the grocery store any better?
 
@angie_nrs yes I am a wander through the garden and pick and eat kind of girl too and like you never had any problems. I think the grocery store ones are worse than our home grown ones in a lot of ways as many people have pawed over the ones on the shelves too in my opinion there are far more germs on them and we don't know what is in theirs to be truthful. At least with our own produce we know what is in them and how we have cared for them.

Yes heating before eating for the frozen ones are fine and as you said you will be cooking them with other things anyway.
 
Sewingcreations15 said:
@angie_nrs yes I am a wander through the garden and pick and eat kind of girl too and like you never had any problems. I think the grocery store ones are worse than our home grown ones in a lot of ways as many people have pawed over the ones on the shelves too in my opinion there are far more germs on them and we don't know what is in theirs to be truthful. At least with our own produce we know what is in them and how we have cared for them.
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I totally agree. Bacteria that can make us sick lurk everywhere, but it's not going to stop me from doing what I've always done. Hopefully my stubbornness won't be my undoing.

Amish Heart said:
Good with butter, almonds and dried cranberries.
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Oooohhhh! Nice tip! I'll add some cranberries........dang, I'm getting hungry!
 
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