Preparations Update

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I had to go to town to pick up something that hubby had fixed and was ready to be picked up. So, I decided to make a day of it and shop since this will probably be the last time before the election that I would get the chance.

I took 3 empty 20# propane tanks in and had them filled
Bought another big bag of dog food.
Stocked up on beer, even though it's more expensive now than last time I bought it. 😡
Got some clearanced cereal at .50 per box
Got some half priced halloween candy
Bought more plastic sheeting and tape
Got a few more cans of mushrooms and stewed tomatoes
Bought some granola and breakfast bars
Got a few other odds and ends.....mostly fresh produce, lunch meat, and such.
I made sure to fill up the tank before I came home b/c gas was 35 cents cheaper than in my home town.
Hubby also filled his portable diesel tank today.

I was actually surprised that the stores didn't seem very busy. I thought that with the rumors of the diesel shortage that people would be out scarfing up post-halloween bargains and filling their carts.....but that wasn't the case. The election has me on edge, again. I'm feeling the need to stock up and hunker down. After spending several hundred dollars today, I guess I'm as ready as I can be.
 
angie_nrs said:
I thought that with the rumors of the diesel shortage that people would be out scarfing up post-halloween bargains and filling their carts..
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Only 'our' people have even heard those rumors. It's not even on normal people's radar.

I topped off my diesel storage a couple weeks ago, I was only down about 50 gallons from full, but even I am not convinced this is going to be a crisis or just another 'just in time' shipping situation.
 
Just put a second heat pump in at Mom's. Three years ago we had 4 zones totally reliant on oil. Almost 3 years ago the indirect water heater went out so I replaced that with an electric water heater. I put in a heat pump for the downstairs a couple of years ago. Today we put in a heat pump for the main upstairs zone. That leaves the upstairs bedroom zone that is reliant on oil though we have resistant heaters that we can use there. The oil fired heating system is still in place for backup in case of breakdowns or an especially cold snap.

The primary source for electricity comes from three hydroelectric systems. The community does have diesel backup.
 
angie_nrs said:
I had to go to town to pick up something that hubby had fixed and was ready to be picked up. So, I decided to make a day of it and shop since this will probably be the last time before the election that I would get the chance.

I took 3 empty 20# propane tanks in and had them filled
Bought another big bag of dog food.
Stocked up on beer, even though it's more expensive now than last time I bought it. 😡
Got some clearanced cereal at .50 per box
Got some half priced halloween candy
Bought more plastic sheeting and tape
Got a few more cans of mushrooms and stewed tomatoes
Bought some granola and breakfast bars
Got a few other odds and ends.....mostly fresh produce, lunch meat, and such.
I made sure to fill up the tank before I came home b/c gas was 35 cents cheaper than in my home town.
Hubby also filled his portable diesel tank today.

I was actually surprised that the stores didn't seem very busy. I thought that with the rumors of the diesel shortage that people would be out scarfing up post-halloween bargains and filling their carts.....but that wasn't the case. The election has me on edge, again. I'm feeling the need to stock up and hunker down. After spending several hundred dollars today, I guess I'm as ready as I can be.
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Aerindel said:
Only 'our' people have even heard those rumors. It's not even on normal people's radar.

I topped off my diesel storage a couple weeks ago, I was only down about 50 gallons from full, but even I am not convinced this is going to be a crisis or just another 'just in time' shipping situation.
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I filled a tank a couple months ago when it was a skosh cheaper & have been keeping things pretty well topped off. I don't trust any of the bugers.
 
We went a little nuts on Friday. With the expected fuel issues nothing will get better soon. We had a list and went to at least 3 stores ending at WinCo. We got some bulk foods to fill some gaps. We saw a couple about our age with a baby. I assumed grandchild but you never know. They had 2 baskets with bulk food, oatmeal, flower, beans in 25 lb bags. They also had buckets, gamma lids and a lot of water. He saw me looking and said we are doomsday prepping. I just smiled and say yeah we call that Friday.

We also got a really big roll of thick clear plastic for greenhouses, windows or whatever.
 
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Hubby topped off his big diesel tank in the barn. I told him to please get it done before the election as I suspect fuel prices will soar shortly thereafter. I think all of our portable tanks are full now, both propane and gas. I will be double checking all of those cans today and will send any empties with him tomorrow to fill. I know a neighbor who just had over 300 gallons delivered to his house. He really doesn't use much now b/c he just retired, but apparently others are feeling the need to get ready for fuel shortages too.

I found and bought one of these. I didn't even know they existed. It would be a nice little phone or computer charger to use in the barn or blind. We typically have lots of those batteries around, so it seemed like a neat little thing to have.
1667833889822.png

1667833961822.png
 
angie_nrs said:
Hubby topped off his big diesel tank in the barn. I told him to please get it done before the election as I suspect fuel prices will soar shortly thereafter. I think all of our portable tanks are full now, both propane and gas. I will be double checking all of those cans today and will send any empties with him tomorrow to fill. I know a neighbor who just had over 300 gallons delivered to his house. He really doesn't use much now b/c he just retired, but apparently others are feeling the need to get ready for fuel shortages too.

I found and bought one of these. I didn't even know they existed. It would be a nice little phone or computer charger to use in the barn or blind. We typically have lots of those batteries around, so it seemed like a neat little thing to have.
View attachment 97574
View attachment 97575
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I haven't saw those before. Need to check them out
 
My S&S order has been shipped. This is my best deal.

dog food.jpg
I keep saying I have to stop buying dog and cat food, but I keep getting it so cheap I can't resist. I have an absolutely insane amount of cat and dog food accumulating. I'm going to start mixing it with the chicken food. Otherwise it will be rancid before I can use it up!
 
ladycat said:
My S&S order has been shipped. This is my best deal.

View attachment 97617I keep saying I have to stop buying dog and cat food, but I keep getting it so cheap I can't resist. I have an absolutely insane amount of cat and dog food accumulating. I'm going to start mixing it with the chicken food. Otherwise it will be rancid before I can use it up!
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Not meaning to derail the thread, but did you make out ok in the bad weather the other day ladycat?
 
I ordered 55 pounds of salt today. I have no idea what this stuff I ordered is used for. I did learn that different salt types are for different applications.
 
We got in some cases of canned milk, dehydrated potatoes, sugar, and flower. Now all I have to do is put them away.

The wife and son filled up the freezers with chicken, turkey, and lamb this weekend....

I also picked up a few deep cycle batteries... They were installed this morning.
 
ClemKadiddlehopper said:
I am going into town this morning to pick up two hundred lbs of apples. The fruit truck is giving me a three for one case sale.

Apples, apple pie, apple sauce, apple butter, dried apples.
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Too bad you can't find a apple juice maker. We used to live in the middle of apple orchards and made gallons and gallons with a old fashioned hand powered press.... It freezes wonderfully or you can do the hard cider thing.
 
I could make a press out of 2x4s and the truck jack, but there aren't enough apples for juice. A really good juicer I once saw was made out of a washing machine. They replaced the agitator with a board with screws pointing up. They used the spin cycle. It was truly impressive how well that worked. I don't do hard stuff of any variety.

The fruit truck was having to run the truck a lot to keep things from freezing so I also came home with 50 lbs of pears and four boxes of various squash for .50 A lb. It was all organic and really good quality.

I have been keeping my rec room at 10C which is a good thing, because it is fast turning into an impromptu above ground root cellar which will buy me time to process everything.
 
First day of real cold here, so brought in our wood boxes for the stove, filled them up, filled up kindling box and brought that in. That's ready to go. Had a Sams order come in and got that put away. 400 lbs of chicken feed bought, and unloaded into the milkhouse. I left the truck door open when I was unloading, and a barn cat (Todd) hopped in, and freaked when I went to move the truck. Pretty funny. Animal chores took a good while longer today with frozen water. Five rabbit cages cleaned, and their poop put in a big planter in the new greenhouse. Two dehydrators filled, one with mint and one with chopped tomatoes. Our feed store had in Zpacks $35, and Amox (30 tabs for $19), so got both, just in case.
 
Two sets of wire shelving 18"X48"X80" arrived today. Now I've got to buy enough stuff to make it worth my while to assemble it.

Our Carr's is having their Thanksgiving sales so, 48 cream of mushroom, 24 cans cream of chicken, 12 green beans, 14 qt. chicken stock, and enough other stuff to fill the cart to heaping.
 
Caribou said:
48 cream of mushroom, 24 cans cream of chicken, 12 green beans,
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That is the "TYPE" stuff I have been concentrating on. Canned stuff, peaches, pears, cut green beans, beef, chicken, soups, stews. etc.. Ramen Noodle stuff, that I smash and add too everything for fat calories and thickening of "pot" meals.

$00.87 for a can of "condensed" vegetable soup, add extra water, and a smashed pack of Ramen Noodle, hand full of instant rice, I have thick stew.
 
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Sourdough said:
This is the "TYPE" stuff I have been concentrating on. Canned stuff, peaches, pears, cut green beans, beef, chicken, soups, stews. etc.. Ramen Noodle stuff, that I smash and add too everything for fat calories and thickening of "pot" meals.
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to make your pack trips lighter look into nido whole milk. you can use it and dried mushrooms to make easy cream of mushroom soups instead of packing the canned version up the mtn. more calories with less effort. hit any meal with a tablespoon of olive oil to up fat calories. the mtn climbers i use to live with and around use to put slugs of oil in their nightly soup to stay warm and get extra calories in them on cold night at high altitude. be careful it will loosen the bowls too.

the nido whole milk is best powdered milk i have tried.

theres also a line of powdered cheese that rain country on youtube recommends and uses and i trust her judgement on it.

you might look into dried fruit as much of it has some type of oil added to it thereby increasing calories you just need to drink a bit of extra water.not sure if it can compete with fruit in syrup for calories but it will on just fat calories.
 
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montanabill said:
Too bad you can't find a apple juice maker. We used to live in the middle of apple orchards and made gallons and gallons with a old fashioned hand powered press.... It freezes wonderfully or you can do the hard cider thing.
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I have one @ClemKadiddlehopper - come on over we'll take care of 'em ☺️
 
LadyLocust said:
I have one @ClemKadiddlehopper - come on over we'll take care of 'em ☺️
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We used to live in Yakima washington and some really ripe apples would get close to a gallon a box (close to 50# ). This was with a old cideer press that ground the fruit to a fine pulp into a tub made of slats then we would slide it under the press and squeeze.

Too bad you are so far away we have 6 trees coming into bearing age.
 
montanabill said:
We used to live in Yakima washington and some really ripe apples would get close to a gallon a box (close to 50# ). This was with a old cideer press that ground the fruit to a fine pulp into a tub made of slats then we would slide it under the press and squeeze.

Too bad you are so far away we have 6 trees coming into bearing age.
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Yep, that's what we have. We don't really drink apple juice/cider but did a few. I made old fashioned ACV using the juice rather than water. Just bottled it yesterday so haven't used it yet. It's supposed to be better which I have no doubt. We had our cidering about 3-4 weeks ago, have a few families over and we all juice our apples, kids are welcome and have a good time too. This was our second year of doing it - fun times. It's also fun to sample the juice from the different kinds of apples each family brings.
 
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