The Preppers Diary: What did you do today to prepare...

[Gaz54au]

Thanks for the tip on the batteries... we are due to stock up on another batch.
Salt and sugar- Yup. We buy it by the 20 pound bag and store it in mylar. Don't use O2 absorbers in the sugar. It creates a chemical reaction that turns it hard as a rock Cannot even chip it with a hammer. We have a sugar boulder to prove it.

The Truth About Storing Sugar

LOL...

 

[Gaz54au]

Brown sugar is just white granulated sugar with molasses added.

Recipe:
1/2 lb. sugar
1.5 oz molasses

Blend it in a blender or food processor. The amount of molasses added determines whether it becomes light brown or dark brown sugar. Much better taste than store bought.

At our home...we love sweet soya sauce. We buy ABC brand, but you can make it your self by mixing golden syrup with soya sauce...

 

[Gaz54au]

A Happy and Blessed Fathers day to all our dads!!!

 

[Gaz54au]

Pulled out the EDC and BOB (every day carry bag and Bug out Bag) for our bi-monthly review and check.

My different/cheap gas camping bottle adapters turned up from ebay, allow us to use different configuration to use our backpacking stoves with. Handy to have back ups for your backups.

 

[SavedByGrace3]

In the leftovers of Irma here in Beaufort SC. Lots of rain(1 1/4 inch an hour) ..sustained wind at 43, 60 mph gusts. Tornado watch is in effect for the entire area. Storm surge does not really threaten us..we are on a high point on the island (20 feet). The barrier islands are under manditory evacuation. They may not be here tomorrow! High Tide occurs in about an hour. Timed perfectly for flooding. Most of the county is under 6 feet sea level. The Power went off a couple times. We have been eating out of the freezer in anticipation of power outages. We have finally made up our minds to get a good generator powerful enough to keep the freezer and refrigerator going. Stop fooling around here!!!

 

[MishaMarie]

I've been canning everything I can get my hands on. We are on food stamps, which is $100.00 per person per month so, everything I buy is in bulk and gets canned. When I make dinner I make enough for that night plus a canner load.

I also can for others because people are afraid of pressure canning. In doing this, they buy the food or the jars and I can it, keep half and give them the other half. This works great for buying huge amount at a local farm because the discounts are found in buying things in bushels. Yesterday I bought 25 ears of corn for $10.00.

I think I might be the queen of ground beef and potatoes too. I should write recipe booklet. I cook up 10-20 lb. of beef at a time and freeze it in 1 lb. packages. I'll be canning pints of it soon too. With potatoes, I buy them on sale and can them (not russet).

None of this works terribly well for bugging out but it's fills my pantry, hall, laundry room, and walk in closet!

 

[Gaz54au]

In the leftovers of Irma here in Beaufort SC. Lots of rain(1 1/4 inch an hour) ..sustained wind at 43, 60 mph gusts. Tornado watch is in effect for the entire area. Storm surge does not really threaten us..we are on a high point on the island (20 feet). The barrier islands are under manditory evacuation. They may not be here tomorrow! High Tide occurs in about an hour. Timed perfectly for flooding. Most of the county is under 6 feet sea level. The Power went off a couple times. We have been eating out of the freezer in anticipation of power outages. We have finally made up our minds to get a good generator powerful enough to keep the freezer and refrigerator going. Stop fooling around here!!!

Yep some times it takes real life disasters to make one aware of how fragile our lives are! I gave up a lot of things in our lives to make sure we had enough preps to get us through anything, including the Trib...
I make sure we have a good supply of rice, beans,buckwheat and hard wheat as these last 30-40 years if stored right! Pasta and pasta sauce, canned tuna and other meats and Campbell's soups/Heinz as they don't have a used by date. We have a Generator but only for the Solar backup!
Keep up the good work brother...

 

[Gaz54au]

Jinny decided to go through the panty....Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo...too late...lol.

Well we ended up filling a number of 20lt drums full of white and raw sugar, salt, flour and icing mix. Wow she said we can use it here, I said no, now the tops are sealed on we need to put the filled drums in cool storage!

She said we had a lot, I said it's because when I shop.."Yes ladies I do the shopping...lol" I always buy extra of what we use and as you can now see over two years we now have extra of our extra...lol just from our pantry with out our long-term food shops.

There has to be a parable here!

 

[MishaMarie]

My husband does the shopping too. He's just better at it.

 

[SavedByGrace3]

Finally moving. We moved our preps to the new house and put them into a sealed room. My son set up a portable AC to keep them cool til we can move in and get the air set up. Not much prepping during this period. Just preserving what we have.

 

[Gaz54au]

Did a emergency bug out Sunday to our back up spot. I cheated and used my day pack and I was knackered when I got there! but I did make it, seeing I am the weak link here at home! So have decided to put our large/full BOB in a water proof bin and cache it at our site along with other goodies.
2 is 1 and 1 is nothing....back up for your back ups...

 

[drjean]

I sorted all my legal papers, made copies, cds and stored one set in a waterproof case that has a flashing light when activated. (shredded the old stuff) One thing you learn about disaster zones, you need 2 proofs of address to get in it.... so if you evacuate your home area then want back in... you need utility bills and the like....and photo IDs.

 

[SavedByGrace3]

We are elbow and knee deep into our Spring garden!
Bought a pretty cheap little yard/garden tiller/cultivator. Not for deep digging... just to break up the top 6 inches or so.
Bought 20 or so packs of seeds. Everything from tomatoes to Moss roses (my favorite).
Barbara put in some bulbs and I put in a few Elephant Ear plants.
Going into the back to do some tilling tomorrow.

 

[Southernscotty]

We are elbow and knee deep into our Spring garden!
Bought a pretty cheap little yard/garden tiller/cultivator. Not for deep digging... just to break up the top 6 inches or so.
Bought 20 or so packs of seeds. Everything from tomatoes to Moss roses (my favorite).
Barbara put in some bulbs and I put in a few Elephant Ear plants.
Going into the back to do some tilling tomorrow.

Mine is way to wet right now. I have water standing. I can't wait to play in the dirt

 

[SavedByGrace3]

Mine is way to wet right now. I have water standing. I can't wait to play in the dirt

Water is a slight problem here. Rained last night for a few minutes. Could not till today because... well... you know. Making mud clods.

 

[drjean]

I decided upon a better recipe of meat and veggies for dog food to dehydrate! Less celery for one thing. And I'm going to keep the meat separate until meal time---since meat doesn't last but a few weeks and veggies can last years.

 

[SavedByGrace3]

A couple big days in the yard and the garden.
Tilled 4 "patches," which is my preferred method.
1 patch (5x5) has 8 Jerusalem Artichokes... returns yearly.
1 patch (6x6) has 9 asparagus... returns yearly.
1 patch (8x2) has 3 blueberry bushes... permanent.
1 patch (6x12) has varied tomato, pepper, and squash.
Will likely double this in the next week.
Virgin soil back here... about 8 inches of "yard" dirt before you hit hard clay. Going to take some work!
We have added about 18 bags of "Black Kow," "Garden Soil," "Mushroom Compost," and "Raised Bed Soil" to the ground.
In the front we have lots of flowers and bulbs.
I have a fig tree we will plant.. just trying to figure out where. Front yard left side probably.
We have a couple trays of 100 potting soil planters full of more tomatoes and peppers.
We also have a "compose heap" in the works... about 25 feet long, 8 feet wide, and 4 feet deep. mostly leaves. We keep adding kitchen scraps, yard scraps, coffee grounds, and occasionally straight nitrogen fertilizer. In a few months it may be usable.
We be gardening.

 

[SavedByGrace3]

Macaroni is a great thing to prep. You can get 5 pounds of macaroni pasta at Wally Mart for $2.42. That is about 50 cents a pound which will make a LOT of pasta. You can mix pasta into just about anything to add protein, carbs, and calories to your food. We add it to soup, chili, and casseroles. We love it with powdered cheese, powdered butter, and powdered milk. I like it with just butter and salt. Of course you can add any sort of marinara sauce. Barbara makes a great macaroni, sour cream, and cucumber salad. Add a little celery salt... mmmmmm.
Anyway. We get the 5 pound bags of macaroni and split them up into 2 and 3 pound vacuum sealed bags... adding an oxygen absorber just for luck. Put up about 20 pounds today. I don't know how many hundreds of pounds we have. But it will be invaluable when hungry people with kids come to the door looking for something... anything to eat.
Don't stop prepping peeps. Now is the time to double down and get ready for anything.
Faithful to prepare!

 

[SavedByGrace3]

Looking for a good place to plant our fig tree. Needs some good sun..about 6 or more hours. The tree is a Brown Turkey, and is said to be very prolific and has a very good growing season. We have about 6-8 inches of topsoil before we hit clay... so I am going to have to build up the ground around the location. I think we will dig down a foot, and then pile up another foot over that giving us at least 2 feet of soil for rooting. This is our first tree so.. thank the Lord for blessing. Anything we put our hands to will prosper. Amen.

 

[SavedByGrace3]

We put out 15 asparagus roots last week. 8 have come up so far ranging from 1 inch to 6 inches. Gave them and the rest of the garden a good drink.
No sign of the Sun Chokes we planted at the same time as the asparagus roots.
Tilled up another 15 X 5 foot patch of yard. We will likely put carrots and something else in there.
Bought and put together 2 rocking chairs for the front porch.
Met the new neighbor today. Name is Tia.
Now that I have watered... looks like it might rain.