Surprises?

[mosquitomountainman]

This has actually been a pretty good test run for our preps and we've taken careful notes. Overall we've been doing great with no shortages of any concern.

What did surprise me is that the only thing we even came close to "needing" but not having was old newspapers for starting the fire in the stove in the mornings. I had used up my stock in the cabin and got some out of out Uhaul camper conversion (we still had more in the 5th wheel) before the newspapers began printing their weekly "free" editions again. We restocked quickly and I have other ways to get the fire going that would have been adequate for the long term but a couple of wadded up sheets of newspaper work about as good, easy and fast as anything else I've ever used.

Anyway, that was the only weak point we have found so far in our preps. We have purchased some things since this began but they are more for shoring up fourth level preps. (Muzzle loading rifle stuff mainly and a couple of new bullet molds and bullet lubes.)

I've made some changes on my inline muzzle loaders. I've switched two of them to cast Lee REAL 300 grain bullets but the third one is a real magnum tack driver and I left it set up for premium saboted bullets. Muzzle energy and effective range is close to that of my 338 Win. Mag.

I'm going to try my hand at making some black powder also. I'm waiting on the adjustable regulator to finish up my propane forge also. It should be here next week. It will be faster and easier to use than the charcoal forge.

 

[hiwall]

Early on I realized we had very little yeast but one online order later and we were fine.
But I freely admit we have continued to stock up on countless (mostly food) items and I fully plan on continuing the stocking as long as we can get things we can use. I am looking to have a much much larger supply on hand of everything. After almost 8 weeks of isolation we are still using food from our normal pantry and have not really touched our preps or the new items we had delivered.
While I have recipes for making black powder I cannot conceive of needing to make any. I have a lot of ammo, a lot of reloading components, and a lot of black powder in case I have to go that route.

 

[Amish Heart]

We were also running out of newspaper, and I use it to line the bottom of the chick brooders. But I have lots of boxing paper since we're moving. I assumed we would have to just eat our preps. The stores are open, and somewhat stocked, and now with husband doing the shopping (ha) and me picking up curbside, we haven't touched much. It is an awful lot to move, but don't care. The first few weeks in, though, we were drinking powdered and shelf milk mixed with cream. I could get cream, but no milk. And I have a lot of powdered and shelf milk. Was worried about cheese until I saw the 10 lbs chunks at the restaurant supply store, bought a couple, and we still have half or more of that. The time of year, being what it is now, the only fresh foods I had growing and still have is spinach and salad greens. A few months from now wouldn't be a problem. Was surprised at what we are finding in our greenhouse....a 5 ft whip snake the other day, and 2 drowned tarantulas. We have a small pond in the greenhouse for humidity.

 

[Morgan101]

The thing that really caught me by surprise was the Library closing. Not that we could have done anything about it. My wife and I are both voracious readers. Every Saturday morning I would go to the Library to return and get more. There is plenty in the house to read, and it would take several years to read everything I have, but losing the Library was quite a shock, and a disappointment.

I think everything else we were ready for.

 

[Cnsper]

The thing that really caught me by surprise was the Library closing. Not that we could have done anything about it. My wife and I are both voracious readers. Every Saturday morning I would go to the Library to return and get more. There is plenty in the house to read, and it would take several years to read everything I have, but losing the Library was quite a shock, and a disappointment.

I think everything else we were ready for.

My dad is the kinda guy that can read the same book over and over. Me, I pick up a book that I read 10 years ago and about three pages in I have already solved the mystery. It runs everything and is about as far as I get on a second reading because now it is boring.

 

[Morgan101]

Fortunately, most of my personal library is historical non-fiction, and has not been read. I even found some books I had completely forgotten about. There have been some nice finds.

I agree with picking up mysteries for the second time. I do that occasionally with authors who have a very large body of work. I am very bad about keeping track of what I have read. I would pick one up from the Library, and when I started it I realized I had already read it. At least with the Library there is no harm done. Just take it back, and get something else.

 

[havasu]

Daughter checked out a book from the local library just before the National Lock down. Now she is getting nasty emails saying her book is overdue, but the library is closed and they have removed the deposit bin?

 

[Weedygarden]

I had yeast from around 2000 that was good for more than a decade. Yeast that I bought in 2013 was dead. I am not baking like I used to, but want to be able to.

I also ended up with no flour. Since I use so little of it now, it goes rancid in a few years, so I now have 5 pounds of all purpose flour and 5 pounds of whole wheat flour. I keep asking my shoppers to pick up flour if they see it, and they keep coming up without it. I have a lot of red wheat, some white wheat, and realize I have messed up with something as basic as flour. If we end up with little no wheat or flour this year, this is going to get a lot of people. I could bake or make pasta with it.

 

[Weedygarden]

Daughter checked out a book from the local library just before the National Lock down. Now she is getting nasty emails saying her book is overdue, but the library is closed and they have removed the deposit bin?

I have a friend who used to work at Denver Public Library, Central library. Guess what her job was? Finding the unreturned books! In one case, a man would check out many books that he knew were high priced books, sell them online and pocket the money. She was able to successfully get him prosecuted and sent to prison! I doubt this will happen to your daughter, but it is possible that this is an auto reminder that they have not disarmed.

 

[Meerkat]

The thing that really caught me by surprise was the Library closing. Not that we could have done anything about it. My wife and I are both voracious readers. Every Saturday morning I would go to the Library to return and get more. There is plenty in the house to read, and it would take several years to read everything I have, but losing the Library was quite a shock, and a disappointment.

I think everything else we were ready for.

Other than trannies shaking their privates in little childrens faces librarys are closing all over the country now.Soon just another thing of the past.

 

[WVDragonlady]

The only surprise we had was hubby couldn't buy his beer during the senior shopping hour at walmart. You have to wait until 7am to buy it. Shopping hour was 6-7am. lol
Otherwise we were fine on everything we needed. I had an itch back in Feb to add more to the stockpile so I did

I've been saving the store sales paper after I'm finished at the store. I am also one of those people who save the brown paper that some deliveries come with lol I also have a large stockpile of brown paper bags that I saved years ago. I checked them and they're just fine on the floor in the back of the pantry.
I also save the plastic bags that the UPS guy puts over our deliveries. I use them to line those coco straw baskets so they hold the soil and water better

 

[Meerkat]

No bleach last time we looked for it,maybe this week it is back at stores.

 

[zoomzoom]

What did surprise me is that the only thing we even came close to "needing" but not having was old newspapers for starting the fire in the stove in the mornings.

Too bad you didn't live closer as I could hook you up. I have a ton (literally) of paper. What's pictured below is 1 of about 10 rolls of paper I have. It's 12" wide and the thickness of a paper grocery bag. Each roll is 5000' so if I laid it all out from end-to-end, I'd have over 9 miles of the stuff.

 

[MoBookworm1957]

Yeast.

 

[Sentry18]

My weak point is turning out to be ammo. Range ammo to be more specific. My son is so bored he keeps going shooting and has so far burned through about 1,700 rounds of some older 9mm FMJ. I had planned to shoot about 5,000 rounds of 9mm this year and purchased accordingly. Between him and me we are well over half way through the allotted 9mm ammo for 2020 and still 2 months away from being at the halfway mark. At this rate we will surpass 5,000 rounds in June. Now I am not saying we don't still have a massive amount of ammo, because we do. This is just the first year since 1992 that I am going to go over my estimates/purchases by more than a few hundred rounds. I haven't even inventoried 5.56mm yet, but he has been coming home fill ammo cans with that too!

Of course if we were in a TEOTWAWKI we would both be shooting far less than we are during the pandemic.

 

[zoomzoom]

We've been shooting more as well. Instead of larger calibers, we're doing mainly .22's and pellet guns. You get some plinking in but don't cringe thinking about the more expensive ammo you burned through. I haven't bought ammo since the Bush administration and hoping my cache is enough where I never have to buy again.

 

[mosquitomountainman]

We also ran short on yeast. The newer stuff seems to store poorly. Our backup plan was sourdough but even though I like it, it isn't a favorite of other family members. We have flour and probably a half ton of wheat and corn stockpiled along with the required grinders (electric and manual). Same with rice and beans.

Ammo is not a problem. I cast a lot of my own bullets for black powder inline and traditional rifles/shotguns/revolvers and .38/.357/9mm handguns and my 45/70's. I'm doing some modifications on my "range" to make it easier to recover the lead even though I have about 300 pounds on hand. Just ordered/received 2,000 more percussion caps. Will order another couple thousand next month. Well stocked with reloading supplies. A lot of our practice shooting is done with pellet rifles and pistols. My son-in-law gave me a big batch of CO2 cylinders for Christmas. I'm still going through them along with a bunch of pellets. I have a PCP .22 caliber pellet rifle that I use often for pest control until the survivors get smart. Then I switch to my bolt action .223.

I have a complete collection of Louis Lamour westerns and reread them about every 10 years. We have a good library as well although I don't read as much as I used to.

Scott keeps us kinda busy at times. We home school and I'm the teacher (he doesn't like school and can be a hand full!). We played UNO for about an hour yesterday. He won three games, I won two. He helped out with the wood cutting and stacking also. He's a great little helper. No whining and pulls his share of the load without being told to.

 

[Spikedriver]

Iowa never fully closed down so we had more things available here, and the bad panic buying appears to be over. You can find buttwipe at every store, although it may not be the brand you wanted. We didn't see the severe food shortages in my area either, things like flour might be a bit thin on the shelf but it's available. I didn't ever run short of anything, however with the large amount of meatpackers being closed down in Iowa I'm keeping a sharp eye on meat. The packing plants have been a major source of Corona infections here and the Tyson plant 20 miles from me was shut down after 86 infections were confirmed. My preferred store cuts its own, but still needs the sides of beef and the swine and poultry carcasses to cut.

 

[zoomzoom]

If you're in the west or mid-west, I've seen articles/ads where they're selling hogs and beef that was going to a meat packer really cheap.
Here's one that was closer to me that's selling hogs for 50-cents per pound. The thing is you need to buy 10 at a time so you may need some friends to go in with you.

 

[Sentry18]

If you're in the west or mid-west, I've seen articles/ads where they're selling hogs and beef that was going to a meat packer really cheap.
Here's one that was closer to me that's selling hogs for 50-cents per pound. The thing is you need to buy 10 at a time so you may need some friends to go in with you.

We just bought a side of grass-fed beef from a local producer who is part of a cooperative processing locker, final price was $3.49/lb processed. We won't receive it until July, so we will be working to clear out some freezer space.

 

[zoomzoom]

We just bought a side of grass-fed beef from a local producer who is part of a cooperative processing locker, final price was $3.49/lb processed. We won't receive it until July, so we will be working to clear out some freezer space.

I buy grain fed beef. I like it better than grass fed. Not as lean or tough. I picked up a side in February so we're good for awhile. Have you bought a side in the past? A good size half will be 300-350# hanging weight which will be about 220# that'll go in the freezer. That'll easily fit in a large (at least 17 cu/ft) freezer. Myself, I only store my meats in a deep freezer (as opposed to a frost-free). A frost free will freezer-burn your meat a LOT faster than a deep freezer.

 

[Sentry18]

I buy grain fed beef. I like it better than grass fed. Not as lean or tough. I picked up a side in February so we're good for awhile. Have you bought a side in the past? A good size half will be 300-350# hanging weight which will be about 220# that'll go in the freezer. That'll easily fit in a large (at least 17 cu/ft) freezer. Myself, I only store my meats in a deep freezer (as opposed to a frost-free). A frost free will freezer-burn your meat a LOT faster than a deep freezer.

We usually buy a "half of a half", which is a quarter with more varied/premium cuts. We usually get about 115-120lbs. They are telling us the half should be approx. 230-240lb. We have two chest style deep freezers and an upright freezer. Space would not be an issue if we didn't just buy half a hog a month or so back as well as a dozen chickens, 30lbs of bacon, and 50lbs of ground beef. Not to mention the stuff that was already in there (like 40-50lbs of butter because my wife does not skimp when butter goes on sale).

 

[zoomzoom]

Yea, you may need to do some freezer organizing.
I'd start saving a few cardboard boxes that would fit nicely in the freezer. The boxes will help keep things organized, especially with the ground beef and other small packages.
I'd say the side of beef, the bacon and 50# of ground beef would fit nicely in the upright assuming 17-20 cu/ft size.
When you get your beef, if they gave you things like soup bones, put those in the freezer(s) last. If there's no space for them, you could use up all the packages in one meal/day.
You used to get 1/4. Around here, you get the "standard cut". They're not going to custom cut (4) 1/4's. If you get a half, you should be able to have it "custom cut". You can pick the size of your roasts (in pounds), how thick for the steaks and what percentage and thickness they make hamburger patties (if your butcher does patties). I have a good "cut sheet" I can give you as a starter point if you want. It's a list of how I want the side cut up. BTW, our butcher doesn't charge anything extra for the "custom cut".
Oh, and as to where to put what you have in each freezer (and assuming your upright is not a frost-free freezer), I find it's best to put the things you aren't going to use for awhile or you use rarely in the upright. When you open an upright, the cold air escapes very quickly as it heads for the floor and creates more frost. A chest opens from the top so the cold air has no place to escape. I put what we use frequently in the chest and the uprights only get opened 1-2 times/month.

 

[hiwall]

We have never bought 1/2 a beef. The closest we came to that was when I shot a moose I split it with my brother so we each got half.