A day......

Add to that new starts of peppers and cucumbers... busy day!

March 21,2012

  Beautiful spring day with just the right amount of sunshine and showers. The peas and popping up, spinach , lettuce and cabbage  are taking off.. Onions are growing well.

 We recently had a problem with cabbage loopers but a good dose of cayenne powder sprinkled ont hem seemed to do the trick.

Our daughter and grand son came over for a weenie roast to celebrate the return of spring.  after the hotdogs were roasted Tiny Prepper turned his roasting stick into a spear complete with feathers from MeME's craft basket. Of course Pop had a target for him to practice on.

There was plenty of tree climbing, running, spear throwing and ice cream cone eating.  Relaxing evening , blessed with family..

Pressina nd Press on,
PrepMom

March 13th , 2012

 PrepDad delved right into a project he had wanted to try for some time and made a batch of charcoal.. The process was interesting and he will be expanding it in the future.

I made pancake mix for long term storage.

We had our first pour off from the kefir grains and used them in our pancakes last night. delicious!

Did some research on biocomposting that will produce grubbs for the chickens as a protein/ calcium source.

I finished crocheting the last of the afghans for give aways.

Pressin and Press on
PrepMom

March 12, 2012

 With the time change we both woke up  rather cranky. We had committed to 3 mystery shops about an hour away. It was a beautiful morning to drive the back-roads and our attitudes changed immensely.. We were before noon and set right to work outside, not stopping for lunch until 2:30.

I hoed the onion patch. Tomorrow we will mulch as the onions look like they are well settled and I planted in the chickweed patch.

I replanted spinach , both 68 and 45 day variety.

I planted 2 rows of sugar peas.  I think another 2 rows are in order.

Peat pellets got 39 Roma tomato seeds

Grocery shopping today, we stocked up on food for the week as . We were disappointed that grocery money seems to buy less and less.

Our junk silver came in the mail.

We were given  2 doz. ears of feed corn  that the chickens are enjoying!

Press in and Press on,
PrepMOm

Weekend Preps March 9-11

1. Received the book " Our Sun Heated Green House by Helen and Scott Nearing
2. started a batch of keifer grains ( milk)
3. Continued burning down a brush pile for ash for the garden
4. Made pizza in the outdoor pizza oven again
5. Bought seeds for this week's planting
6. Constructed a pvc hand pump for the well  to use in the event power goes out
7. Bought 2 bamboo fishing poles with bobbers , line and hooks
8. Placed the order for 6 lbs of homemade sausage to be delivered next week

Press and Press on,
Prep Mom

March 6,2012

Prepdad spread 20 bags of mulch in the garden today

Our cabbage is doing horrible...we will pull and replant

42 onions are up

we bought 20 lbs of rice at Walmart for 11.00

Took a meal to a neighbor who just got home from the hospital.

Worked on crocheting a blanket for my cousin who has breast cancer.

Press in and Prep on
Prepmom

march 5, 2012

So far today we threw an extra 80.oo on our land payment. This is for an additional lot we bought to be able to garden and have an additional woodlot.

We went and picked up our bulk order of evaporated cane juice ( 50lbs)

Stopped by the Sheriffs office to pick up our applications for pistol permits.

The mail brought coconut oil, a thermometer and a bulk lot of B complex vitamins

we put in our order for a half a dozen Americana chicks ( sexed)

Picked up 20 more bags of mulch and 9 more cabbage plants

Ordered some junk silver pre 1947 quarters

divided  80 cups of oats into mylar bags and sealed from a previous bulk oat order

Tonight I finished a 6 week sewing class at the local community college.

PrepDad spread mulch in one of the new vegetable beds.

 Press in and Press On
PrepMom

Goals UpDate/ New Goals Dec 8- 16

Time to update last weeks goals and set some new ones.... here we go

LAST WEEK

Finish up Christmas gifts 5 more small gifts... 2 more
2. Finish reading and review book read not reviewed
3. Make Car Bobs
4. repackage sugar
5. repackage oats
6. Draft dodgers for front room
7. scrub tub in spare bath
8. order pictures
9. decorate front room for Christmas
10. Eye appt.( made! next Tuesday)
11.CVS  ( I was very pleased after ECB's and coupons we payed 2.00 op and got 3 ECB's back. 1 contact solution. 3 big bags of doritos, great for the holidays, 2 bottles of Dawn dish shop)
12. Christmas cards ( bought)
13.Make Buddy Burners
14. call Nannie  I know this might seem trite but I have to block out time for Grams, she can talk for 2 hours straight!
15. research sewing machines ( bought!  I ended up scoring one of the top three I had my eye on at a Cyber Monday sale through Amazon.  This embroideries and sews... I am looking forward to it and am signing up for a sewing class at the community college)
16. research herbal classes I think I have found a good affordable on I will start in Jan.
17. List stereo on ebay
18. Chicken waterer  I hope I fixed this situation... some animal is sneaking in and drinking the water from the waterer...
19. Kale
20. garlic  dh decided on raised beds inside the fence because of the deer pop. so these are not going to happen this winter  


Alright , what's on tap

1. Finish last 2 Christmas gifts
2. Crochet and stuff Christmas stockings
3. Wrap and mail out of town gifts
4. Flyers for church service
5. cookie dough /bake /freeze 
6. Taylors Christmas play
7. Learn to use new sewing machine
8.  Lifeline drop off
9. Echinacea tincture
10. Get things ready for ds#4's gf visit
11. Lunch with mil
12. car bobs
14.buddy burner
15 finish spare bathroom
16 work on quarterly goals with Prep Dad

Hopefully on Sunday evening we will have a communications work shop to attend...

Press in and Press on,
Prep MOM

Goals follow up

 So, here it is on Friday evening... how have I done with the goals this week?

1. Finish up Christmas gifts 5 more small gifts...
2. Finish reading and review book
3. Make Car Bobs
4. repackage sugar
5. repackage oats
6. Draft dodgers for front room
7. scrub tub in spare bath
8. order pictures
9. decorate front room for Christmas
10. Eye appt.( made! next Tuesday)
11.CVS  ( I was very pleased after ECB's and coupons we payed 2.00 op and got 3 ECB's back. 1 contact solution. 3 big bags of doritos, great for the holidays, 2 bottles of Dawn dish shop)
12. Christmas cards ( bought)
13.Make Buddy Burners
14. call Nannie  I know this might seem trite but I have to block out time for Grams, she can talk for 2 hours straight!
15. research sewing machines ( bought!  I ended up scoring one of the top three I had my eye on at a Cyber Monday sale through Amazon.  This embroideries and sews... I am looking forward to it and am signing up for a sewing class at the community college)
16. research herbal classes I think I have found a good affordable on I will start in Jan.
17. List stereo on ebay
18. Chicken waterer  I hope I fixed this situation... some animal is sneaking in and drinking the water from the waterer...
19. Kale
20. garlic  dh decided on raised beds inside the fence because of the deer pop. so these are not going to happen this winter  


Press in and Press on,
PrepMOM

Mid Week Goal Updates..

... not so good... Yesterday PrepDad and I tooled around a small town about an hour away looking for some winter clothes for PrepDad.  We did score 3 brand new flannel shirts with tags and a book he had been looking for. I picked up a nice shirt and some jammies myself. We nibbled a bit of lunch and took the scenic ride home... ALSo crossing the border into the next state we were able to get gas 20 cents cheaper....

  Today it became apparent we needed to do our monthly grocery shopping so with list in hand I let Prepdad stay home and work on the business stuff while I tackled that myself.... never a pretty job... I really need to go into menu planning mode to keep our stock rotated and also we need to prepare meals at the shoppe .  We are in " feast" days for retail... followed by IRS refunds.... but May through Aug are famine so we need to pre plan those things.

 So, going into Wednesday.... where are we:
1. Finish up Christmas gifts 5 more small gifts...
2. Finish reading and review book
3. Make Car Bobs
4. repackage sugar
5. repackage oats
6. Draft dodgers for front room
7. scrub tub in spare bath
8. order pictures
9. decorate front room for Christmas
10. Eye appt.( made! next Tuesday)
11.CVS  ( I was very pleased after ECB's and coupons we payed 2.00 op and got 3 ECB's back. 1 contact solution. 3 big bags of doritos, great for the holidays, 2 bottles of Dawn dish shop)
12. Christmas cards ( bought)
13.Make Buddy Burners
14. call Nannie
15. research sewing machines ( bought!  I ended up scoring one of the top three I had my eye on at a Cyber Monday sale through Amazon.  This embroideries and sews... I am looking forward to it and am signing up for a sewing class at the community college)
16. research herbal classes
17. List stereo on ebay
18. Chicken waterer  I hope I fixed this situation... some animal is sneaking in and drinking the water from the waterer...
19. Kale
20. garlic

Hopefully tomorrow will be a strong work day with no distractions.....

Press ina dn Press on,
Prep MOM

Old Goals... New Goals

OK, the Holidays have seriously thrown me off game...\
Old goals
1. Finish up our daughters Christmas afghan. ( not going to happen...I should make this a longer term goal)
2. Make a batch of homemade laundry detergent  ( not happening either as the containers I was to store the detergent in will now go to a bulk lot of oats and turbindo we ordered)
3.Read and review a book sent to me for a bloggy review
4. Restock the Car B.O.B
5. Make Elderberry syrup and cough syrup DONE!!!!
6. Plant fruit trees... these are scheduled to arrive tomorrow ( Friday).. 3 apple  and a fig

I seriously lagged with tons of things coming up to make us stumble... so ... here is the new listI am going to try and break them down by days so I can make SURE I get somethings done..

1. Finish up Christmas gifts
2. Finish reading and review book
3. Make Car Bobs
4. repackage sugar
5. repackage oats
6. Draft dodgers for front room
7. scrub tub in spare bath
8. order pictures
9. decorate front room for Christmas
10. Eye appt.
11.CVS
12. Christmas cards 
13.Make Buddy Burners
14. call Nannie
15. research sewing machines
16. research herbal classes
17. List stereo on ebay
18. Chicken waterer
19. Kale
20. garlic

Homemade Bread and Goals update

I tried a new bread recipe today.  Prep Dad's heart health is important to me... so more oatmeal it is!  We do not own a new fangled bread kneading machine so I did everything by hand.  This bread is so good and hearty..
Thanks to Little Bean Food Storage for the recipe


Alrighty... how are we doing with this weeks goals

1. Finish up our daughters Christmas afghan. ( not going to happen...I should make this a longer term goal)
2. Make a batch of homemade laundry detergent  ( not happening either as the containers I was to store the detergent in will now go to a bulk lot of oats and turbindo we ordered)
3.Read and review a book sent to me for a bloggy review
4. Restock the Car B.O.B
5. Make Elderberry syrup and cough syrup DONE!!!!
6. Plant fruit trees... these are scheduled to arrive tomorrow ( Friday).. 3 apple  and a fig

My mother is coming to spend a week starting on Sunday so I am not sure what will get done between now and then.... might have to put her to work!

Press in and Press on,
PrepMOM

Elderberry Syrup

With cold and flu season approaching  making elderberry syrup was on the list of to-do's this week.  I must say the house smelled HEAVENLY while the syrup was reducing. 
We bought our elderberries at Mountain Rose Herbs We have bought several things from them and the service is great!
   After reading several books and articles on the anti viral properties of elderberry syrup we decided to follow this video step by step.  We strained ours through a jelly bag and have been on a tablespoon a day as a preventative.

HOW TO MAKE ELDERBERRY SYRUP

Info on Elderberries

Press in and Press on,
PrepeMOM

Quarterly Goals

Well, We finally had our monthly meeting tonight to address our quarterly homestead goals.  Here is where we stand.

Quarterly Goals

October, November, December 2011

1. Complete redo of Christopher's bath
2. Christopher's walls.
3. Vacation
4. Replace E.F. ( 400.00 more dollars to reach our Emergency fund goal)
5. Pay off Lea's credit card
6. Pay off Chris's credit card
7. Build to 3000.00 ( including silver) for baby Step 3
8. 200.00 for Christmas
9. front raised bed garden
10. plant spinach and kale
11. Lea's glasses
12. procure gun
13. plant 4 fruit trees( ordered)
14. Build 3 month food supply ( including pets)
15. winterize house including curtains for front window.
    
    
    Press in and Press on,
    Prep MOM

Upcoming to-do list Nov 14-20

Supposedly we have a week at home. Chris has a couple things to do ( an AR15 workshop for one) but my calender is clear... Here is what I am hoping to get done this week.

1. Finish up our daughters Christmas afghan.
2. Make a batch of homemade laundry detergent
3.Read and review a book sent to me for a bloggy review
4. Restock the Car B.O.B
5. Make Elderberry syrup and cough syrup
6. Plant 4 fruit trees
 THAT should keep me busy!

Press in and Press on,
PrepMOm

B.O.B. Meet up

Our local group of preppers decided to do a meet up to swap/trade/ show off our bug out bags. It gave everyone a great opportunity to see new products out there and discover holes in the preps. I know Prep Dad and I regrouped our whole idea of bug out to bug in.  Our car BOB is much more important since our goal is to hunker where we are currently.  I hope to finalize all that this month.
Here was a great article I found on car BOBs
http://foodstorageandsurvival.com/vehicle-emergency-kit/

Most of the stuff we have here already, it just needs to be organized for the car.

For the meet up I made my famous ( per pioneer woman) chili  a big hit..thought you might like a few pictures

Tell me what's in your BOB?

Press in and Press on,
PrepMOM

Prepping for a Diviticulitus Flare

  So , this week it hit me... I rarely have a flare up  but this week with all of our travel, I wasn't paying attention to what I ate or drank... and a tender abdomen, and slight fever was the price I paid.

Granted, I could  go to the doc and get my antibiotics which would mess up the old digestive track even more , OR I could try my hand at some research I had been doing if we were int he position where I had a flare and no doc was around.

Here goes:

I immediately went on a liquid diet of only herbal teas with honey.  I was not a bit particular on the type of herbal but mostly I stuck with ginger peach, chamomile and rose hips .

Honey pretty much is good for everything... do a Google search and see what I mean.  A great article for the novice is at  Natural News


I then began taking 2000mg of freeze dried garlic gel caps 3 times a day.  I took Vitamin B and Papaya Enzymes also.

Garlic is nature's natural antibiotic.. With what we have done with synthetic antibiotics super bugs have been created.  Fortunately garlic attacks the bacteria naturally.

Live Strong article on garlic 

The papin in papaya  is wonderful and soothing for any digestive problem.  I chew a couple at meals to enable digestion.  We use whole Foods brand but they can be found anywhere.

  So, what was my verdict.  I am at the end of day three  and I feel good. Usually at the end of day three with the antibiotics my divi symptoms are gone but I then battle with the antibiotics.  I DID eat a cup of live culture yogurt this evening and I do believe my recovery will be a tad better using natures medicine cabinet.
 
  Let me just say if I felt I was in anyway in a crisis I would have gone to the ER or at least the doctor.  but as a prepper, I felt the need to test my preps and see if this was going to be my go to in the event  medical care was not an option.  I am very pleased that it is.

Stock up on your garlic and honey

Press in and Press on,
PrepMOM!

The Week in Review

.. Ok, 75% of the weekly goals got tossed.. We ended up doing a bunch of traveling and then Sat. after work I had pistol training and PrepDad played with big boy toys at the shooting range with some friends...

So....

This week found us in Fayetteville, NC where we took a moment and visited the famous Hay Street Market. This is where slaves were auctioned after making the journey from the coast up the Cape Fear.  Very humbling... it FEELS sad when you enter it.

Thursday we headed north up into VA. Southern VA is one of our favorite places on the plant... here are a few fun shots I took in Roanoke.

  Friday we had dinner with PrepSon1 and PrepDaughterin law. PrepSon1 is the primary cook and let me tell you... it makes this mama proud of the feast he prepared. ( recipes coming this week)

and Sat... whoa Honey!  I had my first pistol class while PrepDad played with his friends and the big boy toys

We had a blast ( no pun intended!)


Press in and Press On
PrepMom

Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

So Tuesday Taylor and Kristy came over for a good old fashioned carving party

 I guess puking pumpkins are all the rage this year

So.... what to do with pumpkin guts?

Rinse off the yuck and soak in salted water over night.

Place on a cookie sheet and spray with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and chili pepper seasoning..

 Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 30 minutes ..allow to cool a bit... and enjoy

These are so goo... they are an awesome source of vitamins, fiber ... we'll be doing a bunch more batches while the pumpkins are still coming in...

How are the goals coming along???..............ummm... not well, almost everyone of them is getting tossed .  The biggest of the goals, the bathroom floor has been extended for quite some time what started as a tiny bathroom redo turned major when we found rot and mold... so far we are down to the studs in two rooms and the hall looks like the floor will be next.... ~sigh~

Press in and Press on,
PrepMom

Barn Hop Weekly Goals Oct 17-23

 That time again... how did I do last week? what's up for this week? 

   First up before I post the goals, let me show you what we will be working on for a couple Christmas gifts this year...  I love this so much.. there will ahve to be a few in our garden too..
Tea cup Birdfeeder

Here are last weeks goals:

1. Transplant aloe I have not gone to get the pots to divide this little beauty, but the plants did move inside for the winter
2. Check and treat water storage
3. Make another batch of applesauce. Excuse #322 It requires Apple juice and the boy keep drinking it
4. Put in Bathroom floor( this is turning out to be much bigger then we thought, we are ahving to replace the floor joist)
5. Annual "b usiness" meeting with PrepDad to discuss the next years projects and goals Chris and I DID have a meeting. Lists are not Prepdad's forte he is an implements.. so we went over a few things that needed to be accomplished and since I love list I was given the task of writing them up and organizing
6. Begin working on handmade Christmas gifts ( getting a few free moments to do some sewing and crochet)
7. order elderberries ( we don't have any in our area)
8. Finish reading and review the Army Field Guide to Wild Plants
9. Purchase ammo for our upcoming range day  We decided we would just pay some of the folks at the range to shoot their guns to get a feel for the gun we are looking to buy int he near future.
10. Continue decluttering  ( BIG strides today, 3 contractors bags of trash and 2 boxes for goodwill)
Goals Oct 17-23

1. make Applesauce
2. Make apple cakes for  range day
3. repot aloe
4. plant beets
5.Range Day
6. Order bulk sugar
7. write up goals for the next 12 months
8. Roast pumpkin seeds and freeze pumpkin
9. can pickled jalepenos
10. salsa
11.  lay the floor for spare bathroom
12. add one day water strorage
13. List a few things on ebay and use money for fire pit purchase
14. Read and review Independence Days by sharon Astyk
15. Check on the Black Walnut trees for nuts and quality this year

Press in and Press on,
PrepMom