July Prepping

There are raspberries in my garden to pick every morning. I also thought I would concentrate on things we eat a lot of so we would be less likely to get a stomach upset.

I was able to pick up a few bottles of new peroxide and some more bandaids and hand sanitizer.  Need to take inventory of all my cold meds, I know we have used some this past winter and I need to replenish those and get ready for fall.

Sorry, Annie, but.........."ew!"

jacksdad wrote:    Wow - they really make something called a hog skin scrapper? I live and learn...  Oink, opps , yes.     MEASURES: 5.7" TALL AND 4.1" CIRCULAR METAL SCRAPPER   ...It looks like one of the problems is the shed has settled since it was built and now the floor panels are contacting the wet soil underneath in a couple of places. I'll put heavy plastic sheeting down first and treat the new floor to try and stop the little buggers. Oh well   This happened to me and I used a jack to lift the corners up and place several concrete blocks under to relevel. Hope your project goes well.

Jacksdad, I hate to hear that....but I know what it feels to have set backs....I just paid $700.00 to get my car out of the shop...I had to get a timing belt, transmission service, oil change, water pump and 2 sensors replaced....my car was running bad and I was getting only 200 miles on a tank of gas...it was time to get it done before I had to pay any higher gas prices ...but man that took out of my savings!!!! It just killed me, but I was thankful I saved too!

Levygoddess wrote: Jacksdad, I hate to hear that....but I know what it feels to have set backs....I just paid $700.00 to get my car out of the shop...I had to get a timing belt, transmission service, oil change, water pump and 2 sensors replaced....my car was running bad and I was getting only 200 miles on a tank of gas...it was time to get it done before I had to pay any higher gas prices ...but man that took out of my savings!!!! It just killed me, but I was thankful I saved too!

Good to hear you had the savings to pull from. I talk to all of my new workers about saving. All, and I mean all are making more money than they had in the past. I advise them to take 25% into automatic deduction until they have enough in savings to live for a year (I figure most will stop at about three months). Several over the years have come back to me and thanked me when they have accidents, home emergencies, etc. My dad, over 35 yrs long passed, always instilled the importance of having emergency funds and plans. His wisdom has helped me and many other through the years. Good job Levygoddess.

   Glad you were able to get your car fixed - good gas mileage is such a big deal these days, isn't it? I recently put a rack and panniers on the back of my mountain bike so trips to the store don't mean automatically jumping in the car. It allows me to carry a decent amount of stuff and it places the weight low down so it doesn't unbalance the bike. Went to Albertsons yesterday and got the chance to test them - they had one last 20lb bag of rice at the back of the shelf at $8.99. I know I'm trying to stop buying rice, but I couldn't help it at that price so I squeezed it on the bike. My rice preps just got even bigger - when I started to clear out the shed to fix the floor I found yet another 25lbs in a bucket under some boxes of medical preps. I think that puts me at about 380 lbs!

  I know. It's quite a bit more than I'd planned on when I first started prepping. I think back then I was shooting for 150lbs. Apparently I've gone completely rice crazy  

If stored properly rice has an incredibly long shelf life. As noted, the prices are going to keep on rising so if you can afford it...store it! you can always use it for charity or barter. Those non-prepping family members who come to the door can get a bag of rice and beans and hit the road! My grandparents lived through the depression and I never understood how it affected them until I was older. As a child we spent every summer and fall working the garden and canning everything. Their basement was lined with shelves for hundreds of jars. They probably had 2-3 years of food in there. When we fell on hard times my mom went to grandmas many times and returned with boxes full of jars that fed us.

>>>mini ice age

I had a neighbor give me tons pf apricots so I made apricot jam,syrup and bbq sauce and canned it all.I am not a huge fan of apricots so I had to be inventive.

Good Buy!

  More clearance stuff at Albertsons. Half price Neosporin (two tubes), 2" rolled gauze dressings (3 boxes), and burn dressings (two boxes - 5 in each).

You're welcome Annie. And thank you for the contributions you've made here. As contentious as the forum gets at times, I think we sometimes forget that it's primary (if not it's only) role is to share knowledge and insights into prepping for a pandemic. In that vein, I wish we'd hear more from other members about how they're getting ready. Sometimes I wonder if some of the contributors are actually prepping, or just spending time trawling the internet to post links here. It would be a shame if that were the case, and not just for the obvious reason. I learn so much from others who are good enough to share their thoughts on prepping and I see it as a lost resource when others don't give us an insight into their personal prepping philosphy.

  Well guys I haven't posted much about prepping because I don't have to much more to do.  Been working on this for quite a while since y2k.  I moved from Chicago to Ms.  because of the problems I thought would occur.  We live on 6 acres with a lake that came with our house.  We have not regretted the move one bit.  I will have to pick up a few last minute items but nothing that I can't live with out.  Over the years we have installed two wells, wood burning stove and propane heaters, with 500gals. of proprane gas that we keep topped off.  We have also installed a tornado shelter.  So I still pick up a few things here and there.  Two weeks ago i bought 25lbs. of popcorn from Sam's Club the price has doubled.

I know exactly how you feel Dan. I also have stacked containers.  I did like Mississippi Mama and moved before Y2K, then my job relocated me to Texas. I watched Y2K roll by. Relieved, embarrassed, yet , I had learned so much.

   Mississippi Mama - I'm seriously impressed.

   The more I think about the world and the way it seems to be running headlong into all kinds of problems (principally - in my opinion - overpopulation, and the whole can of worms that's opening up for all of us), the more I think about getting away from the city. Unfortunately, at the moment I'm the lone prepper in my family and it would take a lot of work just to change my wife's mindset. I live in hope that she'll start to see things the way I do and we can get ourselves better able to deal with whatever may come our way. Thanks so much for posting - it's good to hear from others about their preps

My husband called me an alarmist the other night.Maybe true but I so rather would have a freezer full,pantry full,and cupboards upstairs full that were empty anyway.I stopped rotating the canned foods as I see no reason to.I bought several 2.5 gallon containers of water that ended up leaking but did no damage as I was keeping a close eye on them.Moths taught me to freeze everything for a week before bringing it into the house.I have battled them for a year now. I am perfectly comfortable with being an alarmist!!!

  Hi everyone, I haved enjoyed reading each of the posting.  As I said I prepared for y2k so we moved a lot of our preps to Ms.  including a porrtable generator.  My husband was really upset when I srtongly suggesed we buy the generator.  We had owned the generator for 6 years before  we needed to use it.  .Well it proved to be a life saver for us.  We were hit hard by hurrican Katrinia no power for 3 weeks,no water fro 3 weeks.  Guess who doesn't bother me at all about what I buy for preps or suggest we buy.  So the well and generator was  worth every penny we spent.  I prepared for hurrican season 8 months before Katrina hit  We lacked for nothing during that time.  It didn't matter how much money you had it was no good.  The stores were closed from being damaged.  the trucks were not running, the banks were closed, the rich and poor stood in long hot lines to get hand out.  Even though prepping is a hassel and takes up lots of space.  I plan to always keep some level of preps.  Katrinia was a big eye opener.   Guys just keep prepping it felt great not to stand in 105 degree heat for hand outs for hours at a time, not knowing wether they would run out of food by the time you got up there to get yours.

  We realized we needed portable tools drills  and ect.  and equipment that ran by gas.  because the electricity was off.  I had stored 75 gal. of gasoline that my husband didn't know we had.  When he found out he jumped for joy.  I have sense bought a portable ice maker that can sit on the kitchen counter it's electric and makes 30 pounds of ice in 24 hrs.  Cost was about $200.  It would have been great to have some ready meals I think they are called MRE's.  You are usually in such disblief when and emegency hits. It's hard to pull your thought together and all the equipmet  together to put a meal together.  A few days of MRE's would have given us a few days to adjust and made things a lot eaiser.  We had medical supplies but didn't have to use any.  Most of the neighbors were great we all sat around at each other's houses out side and visited most of the day.  There was no where to go and nothing to do. It took all day to do your chores and cooking, and washing.  I Have a wash board.  We have since bought portable campimg showers.  No one knew we were as prepared as we were.  We loaned one neighbor a tent becasue it was to hot to sleep in his house.   We shared food and cooked together somtimes.  Even  neighbors that had refused to speak to us for years became friendly.  We are still friends now.  An old man had told me years ago to always keep 1or2 marine battieries around.  To be honest i don't remember why he said that but i had bought 2 for our preps and my husband didn't know it.  During katrina we loaned one to a neighbor and they some how hooked a window fan up to it.  We didn't have any major security problem but people were stealing gas out of your tanks.  So we parked our cars on the back of the house near our bedroom.  I remember during Katrina we sat down everyday and made a list of things that we thought would make our life easier during a diaster.  After the stores open back up we started buying.  I really can't remember all the stuff we bought.  I did buy outside security lights that need no battery or electricy for the house.  As i think of stuff i will post it.

  Solar security lights - I like that. I'll have to look into those.

I've had a busy July! I've been canning or freezing something from the garden everyday this month.I've put up beans, corn, peas, squash. Several different types of pickles. I just can't beleive how much food you can produce in a small backyard garden. My neighbor has a fig tree and I made 25 jars of fig preserves. I had never had them before, but my goodness they are great on biscuts.

Mississippi Mama ... I know what you mean about being prepared, All my prepping really saved us during Katrina as well. Now my family while not realy believing in the bird flu, at least prep for any disaster now. We also keep marine batteries in our storm shelter. When the power goes out they power lights, tv, fan and even a laptop. We keep them trickle charged with a small solar panel.

I've learned alot from this site and the links placed in it. Thank you everyone!