It's Never To Late To Be Prepared, Thrifting/Costco Scores

 

It's Never To Late To Be Prepared-

As I'm going to press (so to speak) the situation in the Ukraine is looking very ugly. If you want more information I do highly recommend the Canadian Prepper on Youtube, as he does a really good job with a-political world news and other topics. This war may be a game changer on an international level. 

I can't stress enough if you haven't started prepping now better that are late than never

Go out and buy canned/ dried foods, fuel, batteries, water, whatever you can afford and start a pantry.  Also have extra cash and coins stashed in case of Cyber attack and ATMs go down . Also get seeds to grow some of your own food, anything you can to be a little bit more self-sufficient if it all possible. If you're thinking about going shopping for new fun stuff put food on the list first. It's amazing how many bags of dried beans/rice, etc. you can buy for pretty low costs even now. Prices are really skyrocketing,  I'm seeing other bloggers seeing some major shortages in large grocery stores chains. This is only going to get much worse in my opinion. Best to do what you can now before things get even worse. And take care of yourself! I recently went to the dentist and got my regular cleaning done. I'm following up with my regular doctor on miscellaneous non-urgent stuff. Get OTC meds, buy anything you can, make a plan. There's no downside to preparedness. 

Thrifting/Costco Scores!

It was 15 degrees this morning, not spring yet that's for sure. We'll start indoor seeds soon for the veggie garden. We'll have our huge maple tree trimmed and add on to our garden space soon, more news to come on that! Last weekend I finally hit a thrift store. I haven't been hitting them much last several months for a variety of reasons. I stopped at a local store, walked in and found two really great like-new items. The French Country vase with gorgeous pale cream, white and green flowers. I love the bee design, and only $4.00. Next I found this large resin chicken with a shovel! For $5.00 it will go on the deck when it warms up, both items were like-new! 

Next we went to Costco to stock up on a few things. I was really happy to see the their canned pulled pork back in stock! Multiple big cans, less the $10..00. I found a huge jar of mixed olives which we love! Somebody else had this on their blog, sorry, I don't remember who. Much cheaper than "olive bars", and a nice mix. I got two jars, they will last almost indefinitely in the fridge once opened, I consider this a "comfort food"- 

We also stocked up on some of our miscellaneous things that we use, like like cat litter. We bought two totes this time, since we've got two cats right now! We also got a huge bag of cat food. 

When we went to Winco I had noticed they really had a lot of their large preparedness foods out. A LOT there. They used to have a certain amount of large bags of foods like rolled oats, rice, beans. We bought some more black beans, and a few other things. Now they're also selling large 10 lb boxes of granolas, made in Canada, in bulk boxes. All whole grains, very little ingredients. We bought one box. We opened up the 10 lb box which was lined with a big plastic bag and the granola was amazingly fresh! We split them up in large canning jars to keep fresh-

Almond honey granola

I noticed they had a fairly decent supply of canning jars in stock, but absolutely zero lids.  Glad I stocked up on some last year. I'm hoping to see some back of the store is at some point.  A little spring in the entry way-

September Is National Preparedness Month!!! Home Fire Extinguisher Warning, Harvest Time Continues!

September Is National Preparedness Month!!!
With hurricane Dorian and all the flooding, tornadoes, and fires on the West coast it's a good reminder that September is National Preparedness Month! In the last two days we've had lots of wind, thunder, lightning and rain here in Boise. While the rain is a blessing, the winds and lightning can always start fires. October usually brings our first big storms. One thing I'd thought of recently was buying sheets of heavy plywood to cover our large, west-facing windows and sliding door if they got hit by a storm. These take the brunt of the wind, and branches come down quite frequently-

Dining room slider

Living room picture window

Master bedroom window

Tarps won't cut it in 65 + mph winds, snow or rain! It could also be used on the roof in case of a storm downing of large branches. We're in high summer garden and harvest season, but soon I'll be prepping the coop and putting the garden to bed for the winter. WINTER, yes it's coming.  One of the things I did today was buy a new winter comforter for master bedroom bed.  I realized I only had one comforter in the entire house and ours was getting pretty worn. If we lost the furnace or power it could get pretty darn cold with just one comforter, now two is even better! I got a great deal at a local discount store for that. I'll keep the old one as a spare. As for preparedness I have several links below with really great information on what kinds of things you may want to have on hand. There's also a link below about how to save money while prepping. Don't forget one of the main things you need to have on hand is WATER as you may not have access to some depending on the emergency you might have. Extra food, fuel, pet foods, baby/child items, OTC and prescription medications are always a must. We stock up on canned goods, batteries and I am storing more water this time of year. While we have a 55 gallon rain barrel it would need to be filtered (we have a filter),  but we have to empty it for the winter. I buy a gallon jug of water for $1.00, so it's easy to buy a few at a time. I personally don't like reusing milk jugs for water storage. Some folks use alternative methods for heat, wood stove (still want one) or have a generator. We have a camping stove and several Kerosene heaters, but not for indoor use. We could use the stove in the garage for cooking in a vented area. Links here - Ready.gov  Budget Friendly Preparedness Kit   Don't forget your pets!

Home Fire Extinguisher Warning-
We found out some information recently I thought I'd share, from my husband's business Fire Safety inspector. He told Dave that most home fire extinguishers have a six year life span. The plastic handle will also break a lot, as the solution will turn to sludge. If yours is 20 plus years old it might fail when you most need it. We bought a industrial version from for $55.00. Check yours, better safe than sorry! Any welding supply company has them and they'll recharge every six years for half the price. Here's our new one-

Harvest Time Continues!

It's the land of plenty! Nothing like freezing lots of famous San Marzano plum tomatoes, dead ripe!!!

 Little babies too-

Lots of apples, froze about 15 gallons or more of apple slices for baking-

Pears are starting, we bake or eat fresh, since it's a semi-dwarf tree-

And then there's apple crumble-

Natural Pain Remedies For Injured Chickens, 'Prepper's Survival Retreats' Book Giveaway!

Natural Pain Remedies For Injured Chickens-
Poor Gwynne, she gets picked on, gets sick, and now appears to have either a fractured pelvis or hip issue. This week I saw her in the garden run limping terribly. I picked her up and checked her. No wounds that I could see, bleeding, etc. Dave said a night or so ago he saw her fall off the coop perch, probably pushed off by another hen.  I left her outside for another day, then realized how much pain she was in. She would walk around a little, then collapse on the cold, damp ground. With 32 in the forecast I brought her in. She was hungry and thirsty. I think she hadn't been going in the coop much to eat or drink. She warmed up and rested in the kitchen chicken hospital, large laundry basket-

She can stand up pretty comfortably but starts breathing hard when she sits down. I think she may have a fractured hip or pelvis? Best guess. After doing some research I bought some Boiron Arnica pellets-

                                                               

Very small-

 After doing some research it appeared I could give her a "dose", so I decided to just start with one pellet. I also put her in a larger space to observe, a tarp under our chick outdoor enclosure (thrifted) in the kitchen-

I dosed her twice with no seeming effect. She appears to be really hurting laying down, breathing hard. More comfortable standing up. So I mashed up a full dose of 5 pellets into applesauce, but she wouldn't eat it. I use the small amount of water in a cup and put in 10 pellets, a double dose. After dissolved I added a pinch of sugar and loaded that into a small pet's oral syringe. Dave had to hold her and I gave her 1 dose. Waiting to see how it goes, time will tell. I didn't see much effect, so gave  her a 2nd dose tonight. Here are some good resources to start with if interested in more chicken treatment ideas-   Arnica and Calendula For Poultry    Pain Meds for Chickens  Petremedycharts.com
Chat.allotment-garden.org  If you have any other suggestions, please post a comment! Sadly can't do a Vet visit.

Prepper's Survival Retreats Book Giveaway-
When I was approached by Molly at Ulysses's Press to review a book I was excited! What kind of info would it have? The title certainly sounded interesting. She sent me a copy and it's really pretty fascinating! One of the things I've learned about the Depression in the last century the people survived reasonably comfortably because they were prepared and have a certain skill set. They also had a home/property that was set up to grow, preserve foods and be more self-sufficient. I don't know, however, if those people were also concerned about security issues? I gave the book a look , lots of great info, and here are the chapter titles, in order-

A brief history of collapse, What do you need to survive, The big questions, Purchasing an existing home, Can you make it here? Building or renovating your survival retreat, Survival groups and your new retreat relocation, Whittling down a short list of properties. 

There are some graphics and photos scattered throughout the book and lots of interesting questions like- timing is everything, how soon do you want to make this happen? So if you're interested in winning this book all you need to do is leave a comment below and follow me on Facebook. It's that simple! I will do the drawing at the end of this next week, post the winner and then ask you to email me your shipping info. I've already seen lots of other great reviews, what I've seen so far I really like, is very relevant and very practical.

"The Coldest War" Documentary on HBO- Russia Wants The Arctic

"The Coldest War" Documentary on HBO: Russia Wants The Arctic-
Last night I watched an excellent episode on HBO's Vice- The Coldest War and the battle over the Arctic resources. With the rapid melting in the Arctic some are lined up for a land, or ice, grab. When you start talking huge amounts of oil and gas, not to mention new trade routes, that's a lot of $$$$. Putin in sinking a LOT of money into re-opening old northern Russian military bases long the Arctic, and having them available. This is making Norway and the UN very nervous. There are already hundreds of American Marines in Norway training with the Norwegian troops. One young Marine they interviewed said a little too much :) An interview they showed with a top Norwegian military commander revealed they are NOT going to take any action from the Russians laying down, they'll call in the UN. This leaves a LOT of unanswered questions- what would happen to fuel prices, and what kind of war would this wind up being??? You might see if it's on Netflix soon if you have it. This could be the next big war. Vice The Coldest War- Preview