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March prepping 2018

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Category: Main Forums
Forum Name: General Discussion
Forum Description: (General discussion regarding the coronavirus pandemic)
URL: http://www.avianflutalk.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=37070
Printed Date: March 29 2024 at 8:29am


Topic: March prepping 2018
Posted By: Penham
Subject: March prepping 2018
Date Posted: March 04 2018 at 8:42am
What's everyone working on this month? We are starting vegetables and plants by seed in the house. Cutting down trees in the yard that need to be cut. Redoing flower beds in the front yard and making raised beds in the backyard for the vegetables. So making a lot of changes on our property.



Replies:
Posted By: roni3470
Date Posted: March 06 2018 at 11:23am
My book club just finished reading Station Eleven.  After reading the book, I am wanting to prep again.  I had stopped stockpiling for awhile but now back at it again.  I am going to work on canned goods first.  Throwing out old an bringing in new!  Prep on!!

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NOW is the Season to Know

that Everything you Do

is Sacred


Posted By: KiwiMum
Date Posted: March 07 2018 at 7:49pm
So I have acted on my plan that I mentioned last month and have started stocking up on food that is tinned and can be eaten without cooking. I've only stocked items that we would eat anyway (so we don't waste them when they expire) so have bought corned beef, sardines, oysters and tuna. I'm going to buy another 6 tins every week (they are really expensive here), until I feel we have enough to last a flu pandemic where we are too sick to cook.

I've also been bottling tree fruits as they ripen, so far I've bottled all our peaches, and I've dried or bottled all our pears. Am now starting on the apples. 

I'm in the process of stripping out the summer veges and putting in winter crops, and have nearly finished this. We're still cropping well from the garden. 


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Those who got it wrong, for whatever reason, may feel defensive and retrench into a position that doesn’t accord with the facts.


Posted By: Penham
Date Posted: March 09 2018 at 5:16am
We got all the wood bought and cut for our raised beds this week and they are sitting in the backyard, in place, ready to be put together. We are going to do that tomorrow. Then in another area of the backyard we are going to plant onions, those are getting planted this weekend. I also bought some grape vines and rose bushes this week.


Posted By: KiwiMum
Date Posted: March 09 2018 at 11:11am
I garden on a clay soil and the problem I have is waterlogging in winter that lingers through to late spring. I find this makes the soil very cold and so shortens our growing seasons. I have some raised beds and the rest of garden I've divided up into huge beds, about 6m x 6m, and I've used cut down lengths of corrugated iron (because I can get it for $1 a sheet at the local dump) to make edges around the beds that are about 18 inches high. 

When ever I can be bothered, I get a load of graded top soil mixed with compost from a supplier in town and then I shovel and barrow it to a bed. My aim is to raise the soil level so it has some drainage and I can grow all year round in it. I've also dug out the paths between and last winter, one of those paths was continuously under 4 inches of water for the duration. I have plenty of cow poo to hand so I also keep adding that on top. Hopefully, I'll end up with the soil level almost to the top of beds. 

For this winter, I've put all my winter leeks and brassicas in the smaller raised beds that are good and high, and they should be fine. They have the opposite problem and dry out so those beds are irrigated. 


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Those who got it wrong, for whatever reason, may feel defensive and retrench into a position that doesn’t accord with the facts.


Posted By: arirish
Date Posted: March 10 2018 at 9:35pm
We planted sugar snap peas today and i worked on the seed starter green house so we can start tomato seeds soon! I'm already drooling for the first BLT made with a Mortgage Lifter! Heaven on earth!

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Buy more ammo!


Posted By: EdwinSm,
Date Posted: March 11 2018 at 4:32am
Nothing much yet, all my vegetable area is still under snow.


Posted By: Penham
Date Posted: March 12 2018 at 5:11am
We got the raised beds made and filled. This weekend we planted red, white, yellow and green onions, carrots, broccoli, spinach and lettuce. We have tomato, pepper, and okra plants started in the house that will go out next weekend. We got the grape vines planted. We had a busy weekend.


Posted By: Penham
Date Posted: March 17 2018 at 1:33pm
One of the onion plants is starting to come up. Both the plum trees we have are full of blossoms and the apple tree is starting to bud.

We had to get rid of our only peach tree last fall because it was too close to the house. But we think we found a new peach tree that started on it's own. We moved it and planted it in another spot and hoping it is a peach tree!!!


Posted By: Penham
Date Posted: March 19 2018 at 2:17pm
Got tomato cages yesterday and planted some tomato plants.


Posted By: arirish
Date Posted: March 19 2018 at 6:07pm
Sugar snaps popped out of the ground over night and we've started some tomato seeds. we'll plant 30-40 tomato plants again this year! We eat a lot of tomatoes year round and through the summer we peel, blanch and freeze any extras and make sauces and salsa all winter!

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Buy more ammo!


Posted By: Satori
Date Posted: March 22 2018 at 11:02am
good article covering a variety of heat sources

Back-Up Heat Options for the Prepared Home

https://www.backdoorsurvival.com/back-up-heat-options-for-the-prepared-home/?utm_source=Backdoor+Survival+Subscribers&utm_campaign=b3d9c4c4a7-RSS_Daily_Summary&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8dab905704-b3d9c4c4a7-325122017



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“The point of modern propaganda isn’t only to misinform or push an agenda. It is to exhaust your critical thinking, to annihilate truth.” Gary Kasparov


Posted By: Penham
Date Posted: March 23 2018 at 5:17am
We installed natural gas open flame wall heaters as a secondary heat source after going without electricity for 8 days in the middle of winter a few years ago. We put one in the living room and one in the main bathroom.

I would like to have a wood burning stove though because we have a lot of wood.


Posted By: arirish
Date Posted: March 23 2018 at 4:29pm
Penham - Dis you put in the blue flame vent less type? We had an old warm morning gas stove and went through about 100 gallons of propane a month. With the blue flame wall heaters we cut that by almost 90%! If you decide to go with wood, check out the Blaze King stove. They're very efficient and will hold coals overnight!

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Buy more ammo!


Posted By: EdwinSm,
Date Posted: March 23 2018 at 11:50pm
We use a wood-burning kitchen stove as back up heat for power cuts or very cold days. 

Around the same time we installed a ground heat exchange pump for normal heating (instead of a 30+ year old oil furnace).  I still find it interesting that in prepping for possible energy problems I went for a mix of high tech and low tech (the stove is based on a design from the 1800s!).


Posted By: Penham
Date Posted: March 24 2018 at 8:13am
arirish-yes we have the blue flame ventless wall heaters. Our house was built in 1930 so the gas lines were still there because they originally heated the house with the old gas heaters (I found old heaters in the shed when I moved in). Somewhere along the way, someone had CHA put in, then I had a new system put in about 3 years ago. I had the gas lines checked and they were good. The original heater was still in the bathroom from the 1930's in the wall and we were still using that ans when we had the bathroom remodeled a couple of years ago had a new one put in.


Posted By: Penham
Date Posted: March 24 2018 at 8:17am
Sometimes I just turn on the heater in the living room if it is extremely cold, because that room is on the north side of the house and gets colder than the rest of the house, it helps keep it much warmer. With no other heat at all, the one heater will keep the living room and dining room at 68 degrees or so. Then the bathroom heater will keep the back part of the house in the low 40's, enough to keep pipes from freezing. My house is 1800 square feet.


Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: March 24 2018 at 8:34pm
Here is how I saved money on my electric bill. Got rid of my plasma TV! My electric bill went down $30.00 a month! That is $360.00 savings a year...go figure! Nothing else has changed so I know it was the TV!


Posted By: arirish
Date Posted: March 24 2018 at 11:02pm
We only use the gas if we're going to be gone for any length of time so the pipes don't freeze! My old joints love the dry heat of the wood stove !

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Buy more ammo!


Posted By: Penham
Date Posted: March 29 2018 at 5:12am
Our central heat is gas with electric blower, it's supposed to be cheaper than all electric. But I'm not so sure, lol.


Posted By: Penham
Date Posted: March 29 2018 at 5:16am
It's very exciting! Almost everything in the garden has started to come up, the onions, broccoli, carrots, spinach, lettuce are all growing. The green onions have not come up yet. We bought some strawberry and jalapeno pepper plants and two tomato plants. We still have some tomato plants and okra in the house growing in containers that will go out this weekend.


Posted By: Penham
Date Posted: March 29 2018 at 5:17am
Oh, and a cilantro plant, we bought a cilantro plant.


Posted By: EdwinSm,
Date Posted: March 29 2018 at 10:44pm
Tomato plants starting to come up from seed, but nights are still too cold to plant them in the unheated greenhouse.   10 degrees (C) of frost last night, and the coming night is going to be worse. 

The garden will have to wait until April before I get on with this year's "annual preps".


Posted By: Penham
Date Posted: March 30 2018 at 9:42am
Our days have been in the high 50's, 60's, 70's and even some 80's already. Our nights are in the 40's.


Posted By: arirish
Date Posted: March 30 2018 at 3:42pm
Asparagus is up! Ate a few spears last night with a creamy white wine, cheese sauce! Heavenly!

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Buy more ammo!


Posted By: Penham
Date Posted: March 31 2018 at 10:21am
arirish, sounds yummy!


Posted By: arirish
Date Posted: April 01 2018 at 12:55am
Penham - I love this time of year (except for my Allergies)! Lettuce, spinach, asparagus, sugar snaps, Kohlrabi and it's just the start! I feel sorry for those that don't know the joy of a garden! Too many people have only eaten a fast food tomato, they don't know the pleasure of an heirloom!    

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Buy more ammo!



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