Hey, everyone! It’s been a productive week here at the homestead, and I wanted to share what I’ve done to keep moving forward with prepping. As you all know, prepping is about staying consistent, making small improvements, and thinking ahead. Here’s what I did this week:
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- Stockpiled More Canned Goods
I headed to the local grocery store and found a great deal on canned beans and vegetables. I picked up 24 cans of black beans, 12 cans of corn, and 10 cans of green beans. These are staples that I know I’ll use, and they have a long shelf life. I made sure to rotate them into my pantry using the FIFO (First In, First Out) method. - Ammo Restock
With everything going on, I decided to pick up some extra ammo while it’s still available. I added 200 rounds of 9mm and 100 rounds of .223 to my stockpile. Ammo prices seem to fluctuate a lot these days, so when I find a decent price, I grab it. - Coop Maintenance
The chickens are doing great, and this week I cleaned out their coop and added fresh wood-chips. I also stocked up on extra feed from the local feed store. Keeping the coop clean and the hens healthy is key to having fresh eggs, especially as the weather cools down. - Tested Emergency Gear
I made it a point to test and top off the batteries of all of my solar generators and portable power stations this week since winter is just around the corner and with winter comes the possibility of ice, snow, and resulting power outages. I several different units but my favorite is this one and it’s been a reliable source of power for backup needs. - Added to the Medical Kit
Lastly, I added some more supplies to my medical kit. I stocked up on extra gauze, bandages, and antiseptic ointment. I also grabbed a couple of new tourniquets from North American Rescue, because you never know when you might need them. - Raked Leaves Away from Woodshed
With fall here, the leaves have been piling up, and that can be a fire hazard. This week, I raked the leaves back away from my woodshed to prevent any chance of them catching fire and burning down the shed. It’s a simple task, but it’s crucial for keeping the woodshed—and the firewood I rely on should I love my natural gas heat—safe. - Replaced Gas Can Caps and Nozzles I’ve always been frustrated with the caps and nozzle systems that come with most gas cans. This week, I bought 8 Replacement Gas Can Caps to update and replace those awful stock caps. The new ones seem much easier to use. If you’re still struggling with those annoying stock nozzles, I highly recommend upgrading!
- Stockpiled More Canned Goods
That’s it for this week. Prepping is all about staying prepared without getting overwhelmed. What did you do to prep this week? Let me know in the comments!
Stay safe,
MD Creekmore
Freeze dried plums, carrots, mushrooms, peas and sweetcorn. Tidied 2 vegetable beds ready for planting garlic. Picked some peppers and chilli peppers and still getting a few tomatoes. Leeks prepped and frozen.
Apples still being harvested.
Bought extra pairs of trousers (both myself and husband) and boxes of cat food. Bought Celtic sea salt to test – liked and will get more.
Bought tinned fruit – all sorts and testing recipes with tinned meat. So far so good, so will buy more.
New duck house had some teething issues so we put extra roofing material on – guess what – torrential rain due overnight so we’ll see if there are any leaks now. If all well and good, bedding will go in and the ducks will have a new house instead of daily marches to and from the barn lean-to (nicely enclosed and that will be used for storing other stuff.
Gradually removing tomato plants and emptying containers.
More gas cannisters arrived this week for indoor cooking.
Husband chopped more wood for the pile and old pieces of wood offcuts and old pallets have been used for firewood rather than use the good logs – tidies up the mess by the barn too.
Husband has made a spread sheet (nerd!) of what we need and what we have plenty of.
Spread sheets are great. I need to get back to my administrative self and update ours also.
Getting strawberries ready for winter. Some can goods and just relaxing and taking in the fall weather clearing the mind. That’s it for me this week
First time commenting on here! I enjoy getting these emails from you, sir.
We have had a busy few weeks, on top of gardening coming to an end soon, and canning all of that, one of our stand up freezers decided to go out 😪 I spent 2 whole days canning all the meat, but I lost all the squash, okra, and green beans that we had blanched and frozen. (Fed to chickens, so not total waste, but dang) I was able to replace green beans and okra though, so I canned a bunch and froze some more. Thankfully, the 10 gallons of tomatoes I had frozen were still Popsicles so I was able to process those into spaghetti sauce and plain tomatoes. We also upgraded a few small kitchen appliances on prime day, so was happy for that! My husband made 6 pints of serrano cowboy candy relish yesterday 🔥! I plan on canning thru my dry storage beans this fall after garden is closed and be able to have those ready to go on the shelf and restock with more dry storage. My goal this year was to become proficient at pressure canning, and I’m proud to announce I have. Hubby pruned trees this morning and ran thru the wood chipper next to the compost pile so we can have for next year’s garden. We are turning some of the money in our savings account into items of value that we can actually use, while it is still worth something!
Much love to all! 🙏❤
Penelope,
Thank you. Appreciated.
This has been a very productive time since my last posting. I added close to 700rds of various calibers. Rotated several cases of food stores and doubled the replacements. I defrosted my freezers and added nearly a hundred pounds of pork, turkey, beef and fish. I rotated my gas cans and bought several 1lb propane tanks. I had routine maintenance completed on my generator, heat pump and furnace. I had some maintenance completed on my vehicles and put a new set of tires on one of them. I stocked up on paper goods and I processed three oak trees into firewood. Finally, I spent time at the range, gym and jujitsu class.
Where do we begin! After 11 days of no power, we did a lot of assessing. Thanks to you, M.D. and the discernment from the Good Lord, we were ready. We did redundancy for power backup with gas and solar generators to keep freezer and refrigerator operating. They also charged phones, portable chargers, lights and fans that were rechargeable. Gas generator charged the solar since there were a lot of cloudy days. We had food, water and shelter and small solar batteries. Our method of cooking was butane and propane stoves. We helped neighbors with camp stoves, solar batteries, propane and charging items. I ordered another one. It was a blessing to help them and get to know them better. We have been home all summer due to camper van wreck. All our stuff was in our storage. I guess the Good Lord had us ready.
I actually canned on our gas camp stove and taught our young neighbor how to can her chicken. I’ve had classes before but being with someone who was really interested blessed me. I had just purchased end of the season peaches and they had to be processes so I made peach preserves. So, getting the camp stove propane refilled or traded in is on our list.
After the outage, we ordered more rechargeable lights. They were so helpful. Fans were amazing with the high humidity and 80 degrees during the day. No air conditioning. So we got a couple extra. Just ordered the lantern battery lights from Harbor Freight at about $3.00 each. No store in our area has restocked. It amazes me that young people just use their phone for a flashlight. Lanterns like these will be a great barter when it really gets bad. We ordered extra rechargeable lights, solar cables, and heavy duty battery packs.
Restocked on the small tanks of propane. I mean what if had been cold instead of hot and get out that Buddy heater and cook you some soup or a freeze dried meal.
We were good on food. During the outage we went to the grocery maybe once and I think we came out with produce, milk and bread. It was the cheapest we ever came out.
Hygiene was maintained since we did have water. But no hot water. Cold showers work after working all day and sweating. After about 8 days we got out a portable show that holds a gallon of water. My dear husband heated up the water and that was the best quick shower I ever had.
We are still assessing tree damage. We lost about 12 trees and recently saw our old oak has a split going to the roots and will come down. Cut trees and firewood for winter. Only damage was our canoe got smashed. Our home is good.
We are blessed
Not a whole lot of prepping this week, but in storage locker finds, I came across a brand new air fryer that also dehydrates so I can dry some more food. Bought up a bunch of pocket knives for my BOBs that were also pulled out of storage. Been looking into a BOV lately, and eye-balling a bus.
Wolfpack (are we still the wolfpack?)…if there are auctions near you, especially storage units (a la Storage Wars), check them out for preps! I’ve found cases of MREs, solar power banks such as Bluetti and Jackery, and fully packed BOBs while picking up loads for my relative’s thrift/antique store.
M.D. you have sure been busy! I was off work for 9 days with a respiratory virus. Feeling better but not even close to 100% yet. I did manage to put away 4 #10 cans of potato shreds, 12 lbs peanut butter, 12 lbs pasta, 20 lbs various dry beans, 4 gallons cooking oil, 3 lg liquid tide detergent and 4 lg liquid Downey that were still in boxes since delivery 2 weeks ago. I have 20 lbs of rice in the freezer and 40 more to freeze before I can repackage it for long-term.
I bought another 2 burner propane stove for a back up to my back up.
I planted fall starts in my raised beds. Beets, kale, celery, spinach and cilantro. I have thyme, sage and oregano, to plant in containers, broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage starts for inground beds to plant still. This week I will get seeds sown for lettuces, carrots, parsley and peas.
It wasn’t a very productive week for prepping but I will make up for it when I’m feeling a little better.
Stay busy and stay safe everyone 🙏
I bought a Nesco electric pressure canner some months back and I’ve been having a ball with that thing. I love it. So this week I’ve been canning a few jars of meat. I am also going to can some butter I bought on sale.
Melt the sticks of butter in the pint jars by using a water bath. I find it takes 3 sticks although I suppose a person could use 4 sticks carefully inserted into the jar. Be sure to wipe the top of the jar clean.
Tighten down the lid by following the finger tight and then 1/4 turn more. Process for 75 minutes for pints.
As the jars cool, turn the jars over onto a cloth on a counter or something like that. Be sure to shake the jars, only hard enough to mix the butter contents. I find that about every 15 minutes does the trick. When the butter contents solidify, you can then leave to cool.