April Prep Thread

[oceantoad]

Guess I will start one.

Had a hen hatch out 4 chicks on Easter. She is one of my black chickens and she was sitting on brown eggs. Two of the chicks are yellow and the other two are black. Who knows what sort of mix they are, Black sex Link, Australorp, Black jersey Giant, or my regular red fighting type chickens that stared out as feral chickens.

I have another black hen sitting on a huge clutch of brown eggs and one of my red hens sitting on about 8 eggs from the red chickens.

My tomato plants are realing growing like weeds.

My back yard is getting close to waist high in places with weeds and wild flowers. Time to bring the tractor in and do some shredding.

Had one of my year old nannies get caught in the stock fence. She went through one square with her head and then looped back through a second square. When I got her out she could not stand. I got her back to the barn and got some water in her and left her for the night. When I checked in the morning she still could not stand or even lay upright. I figured that it must have been nech damage and went ahead and put her down.

I still have over 20 goats that I will be taking to market in the near future.

More canned stuff from Wally World.

[AndreaCA]

My preps this month have been spring cleaning and going through my stored items. Just tossed the last of the ramen that I bought a few years back. I won't be replacing it either! Rice is cheaper, healthier, and stores for decades. I've also got about 8 canned hams that expired in February. We don't eat ham anymore because of health issues but I have several events coming up and I'll make use of it there! I have 24 more of them that aren't expired that I think I will be giving to the food bank. The sodium in those things is astronomical! And since I worked like a fiend to get myself off the high blood pressure meds (another prep recently accomplished), I'm not going to jeopardize my health by eating them! That's it for me. Just reorganizing and sorting. It's been a job and I'm glad I've only got one cabinet to go!

[blue gecko]

Max has been volunteering for the local food mission. Its amazing to see the amount of food that goes through that place. Some items that come from food distributers and grocery stores are in such large amounts that there's no way to give them away so they give them to the volunteers. A couple of weeks ago Max came home with a full case of habeneros which he made into atomic hot sauce (and nearly drove everyone out of the house with it ). This week he brought home 3 cases of those huge Tam Jalapenos (about 90 pounds worth) He gave a case to Mokuyi. We've got about 20 pounds in the dehydrator halved and seeded, several bags of whole ones in the freezer that will be made into salsa (it seems they expect LOTS of tomatoes and cilantro in the near future) and now we're pickling some halves and slices and will be candying some slices as well. Its a labor of love

Last week we gave a demo at the Earthday festival on bulk food buying and storing (and all the green things associated with doing that) and also grain milling. The folks had lots of questions about all sorts of related food processing things. It was fun.

Last night there was a potluck for all the participants. More fun! We had a great time talking to everyone about their passions. Its nice to have a chance to visit with other folks who want to minimize their impact and develop community leaning toward a more self sufficient lifestyle. They aren't exactly "preppers" but their attitude is refreshing.

[blue gecko]

So far (besides the ones already in the freezer) we've dehydrated what amounted to 3/4 gal worth of jalapeno halves, 4 - 1/2 gal jars of pickled halves, 14 quarts of pickled slices, and 4 gal of slices are being sugared. Some will be dehydrated slightly (like candied ginger) and some will be sweet pickled. This has been an interesting project.

A wheat deal came through and we are gathering buckets and lids to put 400# of wheat into storage. It looks like we have a busy week ahead of us

[stars01]

April preps~we put up a fifty foot cloths line that can handle four loads of laundry. I was going to buy a dryer because it's been about seven years since we've had one but I really don't miss it much.

Added two areas to the garden~one for pumpkin and butternut squash and one for corn and sunflowers.

I cleaned out the freezer and restocked it with some great sales on ground
turkey, beef and pork.

Had too much whole wheat flour here so I learned how to make bagels. They turned out great~no more $4 bagels for us.. Modified it for onion and garlic and cinnamon and raisin also <all purp flour for those>. That should save us some money..


paula

[blue gecko]

We pretty much gave up the dryer a few months ago. They are such energy wasters! We really haven't missed using it though on rare occaisions it gets used for "special" loads For the winter we strung line across the loft and the heat from the woodstove did double duty. The added moisture was a plus.

In the nice weather we've got lines across a side porch. Its wonderful not having to walk across the yard to hang clothes. Everything smells sooo fresh dried that way.

Stars, How 'bout that bagel recipe posted in the kitchen....I haven't made bagels in forever!

[stars01]

Blue gecko~I got the recipe from here...somewhere in the library. I'll have to go look for it~it's a good one



paula