Preparedness 8.0/ Independence Days Challenge

 

Dehydrating spinach

Preparedness 8.0-

Autumn is in the air! It was 45 degrees this morning, nice and cool. Days are getting quite a bit shorter. I'm ready for fall after the 100-degree record-setting days that we had this summer. I've been watching quite a few different social media platforms in different areas of the country. Most everybody is seeing slow but steady shortages of foods and rising gas prices. I'm doing a few things here and there steadily. As someone said before "there's no downside to preparedness". I did hear recently that there is probably gong to be a paper shortage (if there isn't already) due to wood pulp material prices, up 50% over the last year. If you need paper supplies you might want to stock up now when prices are lower. 

I've been looking at more simple recipes for in the future. It's good to have foods like beans and rice on hand, they store a long time, and easy to switch up the flavor. Cheap too! One of the things to think about with preparedness is seasonings! I decided to start a spice basket, since I had an empty one. While I have lots of spices in my kitchen I don't really have any extras. I'm really lucky we live right near a WinCo store and they have a huge bulk section. So I decided to start stocking up and it is so cheap it's crazy! I decided to reuse some recycle glass jars with some canning labels-

bulk-  peppercorns, dill, cinnamon and onion powder

Great for meat and fish! 

Big container

I started thinking about what spices I use a lot of and for me it's oregano, thyme, basil, garlic, onion powder, Dill, peppercorns, and salt of course. This will stay near my pantry in the extra bedroom. Buying bulk spices is a really great way to save a lot of money and they're usually fresher!!!

We bought two extra bags of feed for the chickens and two bales of pine shavings for the coop. That should last us for quite a few months ongoing. Luckily our feed is made locally but there's never any guarantee of what their production will be.

Independence Days Challenge-

Here's the recent doings....

1. Plant Something-

Wrong time of the year we are in harvest mode. Too warm for fall crops. I may start growing microgreens indoors this winter.

 

2. Harvest Something-

We've been getting a nice steady supply of tomatoes, several kinds, eggs, cucumbers, peppers. I also have tons of Basil I'll be making pesto soon to freeze. Ready to freeze more eggs! 

Lovely apples! 

3. Preserve/Store Something-

I have canned pears, we had a smaller harvest, we think someone stole some. I only canned six Qts, since we had to save some jars for the peaches. Luckily we have seven Qts from last year. We like them fresh too, super sweet and juicy-

Fresh on the dining table! 

Froze apples slices too for baking. Will be canning some of the frozen peaches soon. We have several one-gallon bags of frozen rhubarb, I will turn into rhubarb sauce and can. I've frozen extra meats recently, like chicken breasts on sale and breads. I'll be making some fermented Curtido slaw soon. I love that stuff! For dehydrating I bought frozen spinach, frozen broccoli and blueberries. I learned you can save a lot of labor (since I don't grow those) by buying frozen, thaw, then dry. Little to no prep!  

Spinach

I bought some Auguson Farms pancake mix, $8.00 right now, on Amazon. That will be for more long-term storage (freeze dried). I also bought some local pancake mix for using sooner. I'm hoping if the weather holds and the tomatoes ripen I may have enough to can, fingers crossed. I usually freeze them. 

 

4. Manage Reserves- Get a Good Deal/Barter/Stock Up/Prep-

I have been buying things I think may be in short supply in the not-too-distant future. I bought some holiday gifts. This is also where it's really good to do just an inventory of what's in your house that you might not be able to find later. What about dental floss? Toothpaste? Pet food? I bought some cheeses to freeze and a bag of Masa to make tortillas. Got to have cheese for the winter on top of soups and tacos. Also bought some mushrooms, dried and canned, those kinds of things are really good to flavor foods. They don't cost a lot of money, 50 cents a can and $4.00 for a bag of dehydrated (Natural Grocers).  Fresh mushrooms have a short shelf life. I had a yearly credit from REI, I bought some water purification tabs, just in case-

Got a big bag of Ricola cough drops at Costco, peanut butter powder, and smart wool socks for me!  I found two gallon buckets with lids (food grade) at Winco for $4.00, a rectangular one for $3.00, bought one of each. They are twice that at Amazon. Sugar will go into one of them-

has gasketed lid

 

5. Eat the Food- Try New Foods/Recipe-

I'm going to be trying some new bread recipes soon once all of the fruit is done being processed and I can catch my breath. I decided to get back into bread-making, some to save money, but also gain more expertise. Made my fave summer sandwich Sara Moulton Catfish BLT with home grown tomatoes! 

6. Build Community Food Systems-

We've been sharing eggs and pickles with our kids and haven't gone to the farmers market for a while. Might go again soon,  we'd love to get some pumpkins!

 

7. Recycle/Re-Use-

We use some of my glass jars I saved from some olives last year for my spice basket. Also using some small canning jars for those spices as well. We got several free ornamental grasses (1 gallon) from a local nursery. They were looking a little bit beat up, 75% off. When we decided to add a few more flowers to our front yard the sale person gifted us four grasses! Free, ka-ching! 

 

8. Skill Up-

Definitely learned a lot about food storage last few months, an interesting process. Do you use Mylar bags? Do you use oxygen absorbers? What do you never want to use oxygen absorbers on, like sugar? Thanks YouTube, now I know.

9. Regenerate What is Lost/Salvage Something-

Fixed up my semi-broken birdhouse I got from the thrift store, came out pretty cute! 

Love the prim stars on both sides

Cute tin roof

Fixed a part of our front driveway area that was pretty beat-up looking with some sick shrubs. More photos coming. 

Food Price Increases/Being Prepared, Independence Days Challenge!

Food Price Increases/Being Prepared- 

It's still hot and smoky, but we're hanging in there! Flowers are blooming, the pond is full of Water Lettuce! Makes me feel cooler hearing the water running-

Weeks and weeks of 100 degrees. We did actually get down to 58 the other morning which is almost like Autumn weather. We may have some possible rain on the horizon later this week just hope it won't spark any fires. Still smoky-

I thought these two different blog posts go together given the current state of food prices, etc. Like most people I've been seeing food prices going up over the last year. I was reading last night that food prices have increased by around 60% in the last 12 months. I certainly realize that may not be true for every area and every type of food stuff. It does really show them a very alarming trend that I think is not going to end anytime soon. Having watched the news you can see about the flooding in the Midwest, droughts in the West. I was hearing about droughts in China as well. When you have foreign countries that are buying up huge amounts of American commodities it does make you wonder where we are headed?  People sometimes take for granted that you just go to the grocery store and there's food there. I recently saw an article on the BBC about the shortage of truck drivers in the UK. The shortage of  drivers left some grocery stores with some empty shelves. Because they left the EU many of their foreign truck drivers left and went back to Europe. Driver shortage here too! Interesting article here China Buying Corn and Clogged Ports. I read there's a wheat shortage in China too, interesting article here and how Australia is responding ABC.NET.AU   Our breadbasket, California, farmers and growers are really struggling with the heat and drought there too. California 1000's of Farmers Losing Water Access  I heard this last night though that gave me a good reminder- 

There's no downside to being prepared

That's really true! What's the downside to getting good deals, storing extra foods, water, etc? After we went thru a tough time a few years back (Dave's layoff) we realized we did so much better than most other people. We had savings, a freezer and a pantry. We also think outside the box. I love eating out, but realized right now I need to do more creative cooking and invest the $ elsewhere. Like food! Better to be prepared than caught off guard. Just do a little every week, every pay check, then pat yourself on the back! 

 

Independence Days Challenge-

Here' what we've been up to! I have been re-reading Sharon's book, still very relevant to today! Great ideas! 

1. Plant Something-

We bought a few more peppers and tomatoes as some of ours died. I started some collard green seeds in a pot since many of mine in the ground died. Ironically I did notice yesterday I have about five or six little tiny collard green plants in the ground! I guess they survived the blistering heat after all. I am going to go ahead and transplant some of the seedlings into the garden when they get a little bit bigger-

Need to thin

2. Harvest Something-

Things growing...

Kale, nice and tender!

Kohlrabi, not sure if we'll get the heads?

Hens photo bombed

Tomatoes coming soon

Pickling cukes

"German Queen" heirloom tomato, bought for Dave's German Mom!

Peppers and strawberries soon

Last 3 strawberries, at least one heirloom survived! 

Tons of eggs! Pickling cucumbers, Basil, and blackberries are almost ready! 

Not much of a harvest this year for some reason, not sure why since they seem to like wet springs. I'm wondering if it's just the really brutal heat we've been having?

3. Preserve/Store Something-

I checked some of our pantry food supplies, didn't have a whole lot of protein on hand except for beans and rice. At Costco today I bought some wild-caught salmon to freeze, and some canned pulled pork. I have a pretty good supply of tuna which is good! Already some beef and pork in the freezer. Lots and lots of eggs, many of which I am starting to freeze. Will buy some canned Salmon soon to store, nice protein!

 

4. Manage Reserves- Get a Good Deal/Barter/Stock Up/Prep-

Bought half price tomatoes and pepper plants. We do have lots of peaches coming up fairly soon for canning and freezing. Looking forward to that! Dave spotted lots of unsalted butter 1/2 price and bought 5, I am freezing in vacuum sealed bags. 

My neighbor always gives us her rhubarb and it looks like some of it will be right soon. It freezes so well! Nothing like a rhubarb strawberry cobbler.  I must say I really love having my little vacuum sealer, great for freezing! I also bought some extra nuts (pecans) as well as has a large 20 Lb bag of sugar (canning soon).  I decided I'm going to stock up on some whole wheat pastry flour while prices are what they are. There's a lot you can do if you can bake basic things from scratch. 

 

5. Eat the Food- Try New Foods/Recipe-

I'm switching back to more whole grain recently, cleaning up our eating. I had left over chicken breast and modified this recipe Fried Catfish BLTs -

I used chicken and cherry tomatoes on ciabatta rolls, fabulous! I also tried this Shrimp sandwich, lovely! Shrimp Salad Sandwich w/ Lime Aioli I used Dave's Killer Bread WW hamburger buns (on sale)-

Great on a hot day, no cooking! I added diced celery, home grown cuke and red onion. Tried some Keto ice cream bars at Costco, not bad! I'm buying some herbal teas with no caffeine, easy to use too much. I also found new Kodiak products, we love their pancake mix! 

Will try these then maybe make my own

6. Build Community Food Systems-

Went to our local farmers market out in Caldwell the week or two ago. Bought some amazing fresh garlic, cream, some breads and a pie. Will go out again soon. 

 

7. Recycle/Re-Use-

I have upcycled a thrifted hose reel. Dave cut off the fleur-de-lis so I could reattach it in another spot. He removed the hose reel part too. Nice rusted patina, but I painted it flat brown since it was a bit scraped. I tried construction adhesive that didn't work too well so Dave screwed it together for me and I touched up the paint-

I donated some nice wools sweaters, shoes and extra planters recently. Found some nice, low cost tops on eBay. Low prices, high-end brands. I love things that last! Used my 3 year old collard seeds and they sprouted! 

 

8. Skill Up-

Learning all kinds of new things about my new job and benefits! Reading up a lot more about commodities the last few days. I am re-reading my book 

 

9. Regenerate What is Lost/Salvage Something-

I thought I might have to buy a new desk for my new job at home, but realized I needed to just reconfigure it. Since we may be going back into the office this fall I really didn't want to spend the money for any desk anyway. I'm working my and cooking more since we just got into some really bad habits the last 6 months. More whole grains, high proteins, lower carbs and more fruits and veggies. 

And now some flowers!

First Snow! Independence Days Challenge

 

First Snow! 

We sure did hit our record low! It warmed back up, with 67 Friday, then the wind kicked in yesterday, Saturday. Rain started late afternoon, then snow I noticed around 10 p.m. At 5:50 am today I saw about 2 " of SNOW was on the ground, with more coming!  

It's 32, still snowing and melting on the ground.  Forecast is more snow this week off and on, cold, 22 degrees tonite. Lots of snow in the mountains, it's a big storm!

Independence Days Challenge-

We've been busy, and yet the days are shorter, with garden put to bed for the winter. Friday, with the storm coming in, I covered my garden bench with plastic and took down the last of the garden decor to move inside. The patio table and chairs are now stored as well. We're doing a BIG project right now, that will be a separate post! So here's what we've been up to! 

1. Plant Something-

Not this time of year, garden has been put to bed. 
 
2. Harvest Something-

We got an egg yesterday, our first in about 5 months! Either one of our young hens has started laying or one of the older ones started again. Time will tell, but very excited! Looking forward to having our own fresh eggs again, that was always one of my goals. With 3 new hens we should have a good supply of eggs this winter, although it varies with the shorter days-

I harvested the last of my Thyme, Oregano and Collard greens-

3. Preserve/Store Something-

I bought a new Nutrichef freezer bag vacuum machine. I did quite a bit of research before I bought one. Ironically the $55 version I bought at Amazon was a better deal than the same price at Costco. The Costco brand was only 8" wide on the bags, which isn't very large. This machine goes up to 11"". So far I've mostly done fresh produce but we'll start doing meats, etc. when I get a good deals. I hope this will prevent a lot of freezer burn I've had in the past and the reviews were great! Link on left sidebar. For some reason Blogger won't let me put an Amazon link here, just a photo with link, go figure. It's noisy and does take a little getting use to. Took me a couple of tries, but Youtube helped, and it worked great after that. The only thing I had trouble with was trying to bag quartered, dead ripe tomatoes. So much juice came out of the bag it wouldn't seal! Next time, I'd do them whole, that worked fine. It's been working great for storing garden produce! I did a lot of fresh garden tomatoes mixed with sweet peppers and Italian frying peppers- 

Italian peppers to stuff

I made a big batch of pasta sauce with our own organic tomatoes, added sausage and froze half. Good for more dinners. 

4. Manage Reserves- Get a Good Deal/Barter/Stock Up/Prep-

Went to the farmstead again, loaded up on local produce, with great prices and supports local farmers. Will freeze some of it. Froze some other french breads from a local store for later. I always make more soups in the winter and love a chunk of hot fresh bread with it! 

I bought some seed-saving envelopes, to start saving my own seeds. I've been lazy about that! We save some of my left over veggie and herb seeds. I got a set of 100 (link on left sidebar) for $8.00 and have started with some flowers I had and a gorgeous purple, tall ornamental grass down the street-

Bought new flatware, ours was really pretty beat up. I've been working quite a bit of overtime, with more coming, so I decided to replace it. I looked a lot online and did research. I got a great deal on Overstock.com for a 12 service setting set instead of an 8 service setting for the same price elsewhere. I also had a 15% off coupon, so it was about $110.00. Nice weight, should last the next 20 years, simple and pretty. I kept coming back to this pattern and loved it when I opened the box.  It's Mikasa French Countryside flatware-  

Also came with a nice hostess/serving set , basically 2 large spoons, large fork and butter knife, great for the holidays coming up!  

Hostess set

I wanted to sort and reorganize the silverware drawer, when I bought the flatware, what a mess! 

Before-

I bought a Erden Bamboo Expandable Drawer Organizer for Utensils, $25.00 on Amazon, fits perfect! I also moved some things to the china cabinet and donated some. Holds everything and the width is expandable. I measured carefully the inside edges of drawer. Fits great, with about 3" extra in the back. Dave cut a piece of scrap wood in back so it's doesn't slide back. I put little-used items back there. Perfect, may buy another for my "junk drawer. I liked the bamboo divider a lot! 

5. Eat the Food- Try New Foods/Recipe- 

I made the new beef roast recipe in my last post which was great! A good use of some of the leftovers was to make a Philly Style French dip. I split two pieces of French bread, put thin slices of beef topped with Swiss cheese, sautéed bell peppers, a little pepperoncini then broiled. I made Au Jus to go with it and it was great on a work night. Sorry no photos! I found some new baking recipes I may try. This is on my list for the holidays, Rosie is an amazing baker!

From Everythinglooksrosie.com Chelsea Bun

6. Build Community Food Systems-

We went to The Lakeview Fruit farmstead this weekend, they're closing soon. We bought some local apples (amazing), pears, huge bells peppers (.50 cents each!), local bread and 2 organic roasting chickens, will roast the chicken tonight- 

I bought enough apples to fill up our crisper in the fridge. Other than home-grown these are the best apples I've ever eaten! 

7. Recycle/Re-Use-

I made some donations to the local thrift store after cleaning more things out of the kitchen. Flatware and storage containers mostly. I found some really great deals on eBay for some used children's books for our grandson for Christmas. I know some people wouldn't do that, but if it's like new as an ex-Librarian, I know they will be fine. We're all thrifty in my family! I also scored a plush but I won't say which one in case one of my kiddos is reading this.
 
8. Skill Up-

I learned all about stainless steel flatware when I started doing some research about buying a new set. It's mostly the weights of the steel which affects the durability, there's 18/10 (best) and 18/0 (less durable) as a rough guide. Then there's the styles, basically American (smaller) and European larger. I went with the larger, similar to the bistro type sizes I've used and liked. Interesting info here- NY Times Guides To Buying Flatware

I'm also learning about hot water heaters, more later! 

 

9. Regenerate What is Lost/Salvage Something-

Our TV signal died Friday. We had Roku so the internet worked, but lost all the other channels. We have an antenna on the roof, which has done a great job. We ditched cable quite a few years ago, talk about saving $$$! We have about 45+ free channels, the Roku channel (ton there)  and Netflix.  Dave checked the coax cable on the roof and it was toast. Luckily we had spare cable! For no cost Dave was able to re-install new cable, and fit it all back together. Only thing to do is paint it in the spring when it warms up.

I got my new oil lamp burner from Lehman's, took about 3 weeks. Works great, looks nice and shiny! $5.00 fix-