What Did You Prep This Week

Here is a link to a post on my blog about canning tomatoes.
http://denobpprn.blogspot.com/2011/08/home-canning-tomatoes.html
And here is a link to my podcasts...find the one for canning tomatoes and have a listen.
http://prepperpodcast.com/The-Canadian-Preppers-Network.php

I've had a busy summer of prepping and not much time to post. I've canned for a few years but this year a neighbour offered to teach me how to make pickles, relish, chili sauce etc. - I took her up on her offer and my daughter and I spent 4 days in her kitchen making a mess and carted home 125 jars of canned items. We canned a bunch of other things ourselves so the tally so far is near 180. It was a lot of fun and we learned some new skills although some of her old school canning practises made my hair stand on end!

We've been cutting down trees and pruningand cutting it into firewood. The woodpile is looking fairly impressive.

My garden did better than I expected so we've been eating tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and potatoes - some things did really well and others not at all but overall I was pleased. We're going to start with raised beds this fall and see how many we can afford to put in - it's a really huge garden and I would love for most of it to be raised beds. I've never eaten so much home grown produce in a season in my life. One of my goals is to harvest 50% of our veggetables and fruit from our property - maybe next year if the beds work out as well as they are supposed to 🙂

Wow, you guys are so ambitious and industrious! Harvesting, Canning, and such! I've done a bit of reading about canning, even have a couple Ortho books on the subject, just too lazy to actually get into it. Good thing dehydrating is so easy or I'd starve. lol.

But I am still in the preparedness mind-set. Bought a power pack for cellphones, laptops, MP3s, etc. on sale. It's destined to become my daughter's as she's the one with all the gadgets, but I was drawn to get it. The word SALE had something to do with it. It's an Energizer Energi To Go XP4001 Originally a hundred dollars reduced to $30. London Drugs had a whole table of them in various sizes. I went for the middle size, but it wasn't an easy choice, probably stood at that table looking things over for 20 min., at least. After much contemplating about why they were reduced the reason that made most sense to me was that they are advertised 'ready to use -- comes pre-charged out of the box' and 'maintains a charge for up to 1 year'. They are probably due to be recharged. It comes with 6 tips and more can be got for just the cost of shipping and handling.

An other thing I've been doing, or trying to do, actually, getting my daughter to do, is downloading a free 99-page book called the Alpha Strategy (suggested by Daily Survival) to the Sony e-reader she gave me. As usual, me and technology are not cooperating. Seriously, if the grid goes down I'll be in the corner with my candle, and I'll be happy.

Yesterday I bought 4 more baby-proof latches for my cupboards doors from Wal-Mart. Already have a longer set on fridge and freezer.

Just in time, eh? 6.4 quake at 12:41 off the northwest corner of the coast of Vancouver Island. I didn't feel it, was probably on the bus at the time, but it was felt as far as the Fraser Valley on the Mainland.

So, I'm busy tidying up the kitchen, getting stuff secured in cupboards, in case that's just the first. Fingers crossed, tho. (The only time I get ambitious enough to tidy up the condo, either company is coming or I'm expecting an earthquake. lol.)

Meanwhile I was having the best day. I got some great second-hand store buys. 3 belts and 6 books. Belts are boring, but here is a list of the books:

Household Hints (have several of these type of books, but I read 2 hints at random and they were both I hadn't heard of before) $2
The New Nuclear Danger by Dr. Helen Caldicott (2002) $2 (I'll read anything by her)
The Coming Economic Collapse by Stephen Leeb (2006) $1.50
The Art of Soap Making (Harrowsmith Contemporary Primer) $1
World Made by Hand by James Howard Kunstler $4
What Every American Should Know About Who's Really Running The World by Melissa Rossi ( 2005) $3

WooHoo!!

Okay, the good news is the cat is completely relaxed.

The bad news is that I'm not. You could say that I'm quietly losing my mind. Just finished packing away my daughter glassware. Well, some of it, don't have boxes or stuffing for any more. Covered my ceramic topped stove with a couple layers of foam shelf liner, even tho' the cupboard doors are secured. Put my new Excalibur dehydrator back into its box and put it in the closet and put a chair in front to hold the bi-fold door closed. Washed all the dishes, put them away and secured the door, and drained the sink so that if the vitamin bottles fall they won't get wet. Yeah, and now I start charging up the new Energizer power pack... 😕 Oh, and I put the faraday box with the short-wave radio down on the floor so it won't fall off the 'sideboard' (an ironing board with a cloth thrown over it) 🙄

Paintergirl! I need a drink!

vanislemom, can you elaborate a bit on the earthquake? I would like to report on this on my podcast tonight.
Was there any damage?

Hi, Denob

As mentioned, I didn't feel the quake (initially reported on the radio as 6.8, then downgraded to 6.4), nor anyone I spoke to in Victoria, where I live. A friend's daughter actually heard it tho', she lives in Sooke, which is more on the outer coast of the island. But I read news reports that that not only nearby towns like Zebellos and Tahsis felt it, but also places on the other side of the island from the quake really felt it, like Campbell River, Courtenay. Vancouver is on the mainland, and they really felt it.

http://earthquakescanada.nrcan.gc.ca/recent_eq/2011/20110909.1941/index-eng.php

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/09/09/bc-earthquake-vancouver-island.html

We had a dinner date with my cousin the farmer this week to discuss ideas for our farm. Got me thinking about lots of things but no major decisions made.

We also had 15 meat chickens butchered at the abbatoir this week - this was a first time for us. Average size about 7lbs and quite a learning experience. Making plans for next year so that we're a little more organized about it.

My son just came in to tell me we had baby duckies - er I mean ducklings! I am so excited 🙂 Our chickens have failed miserably to hatch out any eggs on their own and this is the ducks third try - success...finally!

More canning planned for this week - carrots.

Sat. Canadian Tire had tarps on sale - my goodness all sold out in a day! But I did get 1 extra to add to my collection. I was raised in the 60's and remember coming home with letters telling us how to stock and build a "bomb shelter." I think this has carried over - anyway - found a great pack of bungee cords - and I have promised never to be caught without toilet paper. Well - now these new baby wipes are amazing - and could be used for body cleansing if water was scarce.
Wal-mart has huge sized Chef boyardee on for $2.00 - great for a family meal. Discount store has crank flashlite for $3. - that's a great deal. Appreciate all the comments.

I've decided that one night a week, I'm going to prepare a meal entirely from food storage. Nothing that requires fridged or frozen foods, nothing with short 'best by' dates, everything from items that can live in the food storage for six months or longer. When i responded to the shtf recipe post, I realized most of my recipe knowledge came down to either 'throw it in a casserole' or 'eat it straight out of the can' and that can get boring awfully quickly.

So, starting today I get to go through my cupboards and put together a nice (healthy!) meal from what I have available. After about a months practice, I'll expand that out that whatever meal I cook on Tuesday nights will have to stretch to cover Wednesday lunch as well, but for now, I'm not going to push my luck.

So, starting today I get to go through my cupboards and put together a nice (healthy!) meal from what I have available. After about a months practice, I'll expand that out that whatever meal I cook on Tuesday nights will have to stretch to cover Wednesday lunch as well, but for now, I'm not going to push my luck.

Good idea! This also helps to rotate through things that you store but really don't eat up on a regular basis as well.

My plan for the next few weeks is to empty one of my smaller freezers and eat what's in there 😆 Sometimes I feel like a squirrel - I keep putting things in there but someday we actually have to eat it!

I've been canning tomato sauce this week - all from free tomatoes. I organized all my canning stuff and did inventory on my jars - filling them all will require considerably more effort than what I've put forth this year so far. By the end of today I will have canned 70lbs fo tomatoes and it only fills 15 quart-size jars. That's a fair bit of tomatoes...I think.

Well, it's been a week since the 6.4 shaker off the Island. With no noticeable aftershocks, swarms, or the big one, I dug out my dehydrator and dried a couple bags of Broccoli Cole Slaw that I got on sale at Safeway for 99 cents ea. (reg. 2.69 !) The idea is to use the Broccoli Slaw in instant soups, it is so finely grated it will only take a few minutes to cook. Speaking of soups, I bought a couple more pkgs of Alphabet Soup Mix (green & yellow split peas with pot barley and ABC pasta and some split red lentils) It is 500g (2cups) for 1.79, it's about the only thing at Safeway that hasn't gone up in price.

I salvaged 3 more food storage containers from the recycle bin at work. I really like the 1 gallon size, with wide mouth. Oh, and a one gallon glass jug with the finger carry and narrow mouth. Perfect for counter-top wine. (Have to remember to go to the wine shop and pick up a couple more air-locks.)

Yesterday was a trip to Costco (Club Price).

Purchased:
12 cans corn
12 cans cream style corn
12 cans meat sauce
12 cans tomato paste
12 cans diced tomato
10kg flour

Then went to Maxi, where Clark's baked beans in maple syrup were $0.79 a can. So bought 6.

I'm pooped. We planted 6 fruit trees this weekend and today I have been cleaning out the garden and rottertilling (how DO you spell that word!) The big garden is 40 feet wide and 100 feet long. It kinda got away from me this summer so there are LOTS of weeds to pull. I picked the squash and some jerusalem artichokes which will go in the cold cellar basement plus a few other leftover veggies that we'll eat tomorrow.

We bought a wagon for our garden tractor a few weeks ago - a wonderful invention! So is the rottertiller! Mercy - life without gas (or other) powered equipment would be very difficult!! I will definately need a few more teenagers around!

Sorted out my food storage room and checked expiry dates and very much feeling the urge to get everything ready before winter. I may not be perfectly ready but this year I am more ready than I have ever been and that feels pretty good. I dreamed of living this lifestyle for a very long time and it's finally here 🙂 If you've only just begun keep on going that's how I got to where I am today. One step at a time!

rototilling.

🙂

What kind of fruit trees did you plant? Next year I'm helping my parents put in Rasberry bushes and Saskatoons.