August prepping

Dual laser guided slingshot with expanding razor-tipped arrows. Seriously! It is an amazingly silent and lethal weapon! Not at all my choice. Mine of course makes a ton of noise. But it was a survivalist gift for me and cool to have.

Been working on water and pet preps, this month mainly. Everything else is just cycling through old preps and rotating.

Seems like cost of everything is going through roof. Every week when I go to the grocery store the prices seem to just keep going up on just the basics...milk, eggs, OJ, bread, meats(we don't eat a lot but the little we do is a lot of $)Of course fruits and veggies too. I wish I had a green thumb. I kill everything I try to grow. We are in SW Florida now and the summer sun seems to burn everything. Our lemon and orange tree are not doing so well. We planted it when we moved here about 4 years ago. They seem to be stunted but not dead.

We've been canning like crazy! Mostly tomatoes and salsa. We bought a dehydrator this year and we're going to try dehydrating potatoes and different types of fruit. This fall I'll try making jerky.

Oh yes and we froze some cucumbers!!


How to Store Cucumbers


Cucumbers are available in stores year-round. In the home garden, they generally are harvested in late spring and the summer months. Cucumbers most available are the slicing variety and are eaten alone or added to salads. Cucumbers do not freeze well but can be kept in the refrigerator for short periods.

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Step 1

Brush off any dirt if harvesting cucumbers from your garden. If you are purchasing from the store, select cucumbers that are firm, deep green and not wrinkled on the ends. Do not wash. If left alone on a shelf at room temperature, cucumbers will start turning soft in one to two days.
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Step 2

Place the cucumbers in the refrigerator, in a low humidity drawer if possible. They will remain fresh and crisp for up to 10 days. They are still edible after this, but they will be soft.
Step 3

Wrap a partially used cucumber tightly in plastic wrap or place in a sealed bag or container. Cucumbers will keep this way for up to 10 days. You may have to cut off the end on the side that was previously cut since it may be soft.
Step 4

Pickle cucumbers. Certain varieties work best for pickling (e.g. gherkin), however, any kind can be pickled. There are many different recipes and methods to pickle cucumbers, but according to the University of Illinois Extension, an easy way to pickle cucumbers without special equipment is to first peel and thinly slice two quarts of cucumbers and one medium onion.
Step 5

Add the sliced cucumbers and onions with one tablespoon of salt (table, kosher or canning) in a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and wait two hours.Then, drain the excreted water from the cucumbers and onions in a colander and put them back in the bowl.
Step 6

Mix, in a separate bowl, exactly 1½ cups of sugar and ½ cup of white distilled vinegar. Pour over the cucumbers and stir together.
Step 7

Place the mixture in a freezer-safe bag (remove excess air) or in a freezer-safe container. Freeze immediately. You can eat your pickles in just three to four days. Use within a year.

Read more: How to Store Cucumbers | Garden Guides http://www.gardenguides.com/75873-store-cucumbers.html#ixzz39XCj8XHJ

I wish I could just go to the farm, to be honest, but the lengthy drive from there back into town to take my college courses would be a huge financial setback. At this point, I'll be keeping my eyes open for signs that I should just load up and go, but ultimately I'd like to have supplies laid in at both locations on the off chance that my husband and I wind up separated for some reason. If we do make it to the farm, I'll be easy enough to load up a lot of what is here to take with us and still leave a small stash for desperate neighbors. If we stay in place I think it would be optimal to have at least a 3 month supply of everything, and that is what I am working towards. 

Stop already! Our plums didn't make this year and we're out of the jelly and preserves we made last year! Store bought is just not the same!

RedTea- Great trout fishing over that way but too far for plums! Our little town has a farmers market and I keep looking there! I've never seen a wild plum before. Are they truly wild or left over from an old home place?

I google imaged them! They look great, wish I could find some. On a different note, our Elder berries are almost ripe! There aren't enough to make wine but we might get a quart of syrup!

In light of the Ebola scare, I am going to stock up on disinfectant later this week. I've a have a good amount in stock but there's no harm getting more. I'm also going to check on our face masks and goggles. I have enough for all of us but my children have a habit of walking off with the goggles.

KiwiMum said- "and then smoked them until completely dried"

Do you know what type of wood they used? I'd love to try this but when smoking the type of would is very important!

Arirish, he uses either apple or hickory, depending on what's available. The method is: slice zucchini into lengthwise strips as thick as your little finger. Peel one edge but leave the other edge to be the bacon rind. Soak in brine for an hour or so then string them up to dry. When dry but still bendy, smoke them. I guess the amount of smokiness / time in the smoker is a personal taste issue.

School is starting soon so I will be buying more freeze dry vegies and meats. I will have some room in my basement so I will start back in gathering more food.

I am also doing this because I think food is going to get really expensive in the next 10 years. So it pays to buy now.

With all due respect FluMom, it's already gotten expensive! Just a couple three years ago a big rack of country style spare ribs cost $4.00. Now it's like $15.00! Some things have held pretty well for a very long time but most has already gone way up. A couple years ago I was making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year and I'd get so mad I'd quit eating! Now I'm not making squat except savings and most everything has doubled in two years. Luckily I used to buy and store a lot of food. And I mean half of a big moving truck full. Only a lot of it is beginning to go bad. My dad has again as much only his is much older. At some point I think it becomes overkill. I now vehemently refuse to eat the oldest stuff. Though I suppose if Captain Tri... Captain Falls arives on schedule...

Canning meats,soups,and veggies, meals in jars. Dehydrating beans, meats etc. Working on getting a Life Straw Family 1.0 water filter,and purification tabs.

Make a cobbler, Penham :) Yum.

Penham, sliced and dried peaches are delicious and very versatile. I love them snipped up into muesli. If I can find them for sale here, they are usually very expensive so really worth doing your own. 

LOL, onefluover, I don't eat much because my son is in college. I do lots of salads and not too much meat.

I purchased 135 rolls of TP, 5 cases of water, batteries, 3 gal oil, Alcohol, Peroxide, paper plates bowls, Band-Aids, and more laundry detergent. I will be going over even more things I need this week and getting them.

Learned something new GREAT FACT: Had full 5 gallon water jugs that were not used for 7 years. Went to get them filled with fresh water. The guy there told me a man brought in 10 year old full water jugs and they tested the water...IT WAS STILL GOOD!

So I filled my jugs got new caps and plan on keeping them for at least 5 years before I fill again. My husband always used this water we have a cooler for these bottles. I am going to sanitize the cooler and cover it for future use if needed. I have a holder for these big jugs so it is not a storage problem.

I was given a jar of pear and ginger jam last year and it was delicious. There was just a hint of ginger - I think it would be really easy to overpower the pear. They must have used the soft pears for this as there were no real lumps of pear in the jam, just the hint of what once was a lump. It was really good. You could try to google the recipe. 

FluMom wrote: I purchased 135 rolls of TP

If you ever get low on toilet paper due to self isolation, then use a bunch of old wash cloths for TP. Save the paper for #2, and use the wash cloths for #1. The TP will last longer that way.

You might also save some of those pesky little phone books that we keep getting. Those pages are thin enough, but you shouldn't flush them.

Looks like people get it.

just a little useful info

Use-by, Best-by, and Sell-by Food Expiration Dates

http://modernsurvivalblog.com/survival-kitchen/use-by-and-sell-by-dates/#more-30065