Start here.
I’m very much interested in linking up with others in the Birmingham metropolitan area to start local organizing projects, encourage local governments, etc. The more people, the better. Anybody else in the area with similar thoughts?
Everyone I mention it too, gives me the H5 stare. You know that glazed look that says,”what the hell are you talking about”. But I keep plugging away. Im in the Ham too.
w: I’ve gotten used to that “H5 reaction” or whatever it might be called. Probably you have, too. It really doesn’t bother all that much. But I do want to try to do something so people like you and I can find and communicate with eachother and work together if any of our interests overlap. I don’t want to post my e-mail address here. Am thinking about posting a “distinctive ring” phone number here that I can easily change (or dump) if someone starts bugging me. What’s your thinking?
just bumping this
I’m with you here in Huntsville.
Any Fluwikians South of Birmingham? Say,Montevallo??? E-mail:Michael4935@aol.com
Bumping from Hywy 280 just south of 459…….hi Busy, K man, Ssal, & W-!!
Delurking for just a moment. Prepping here in St. Clair County. Watching FW news closely each day. Have been trying to get prepped for several months, and am making some headway. Funny thing, the local grocery stores are putting really good prep foods on sale, and I’m loading up. Have 6 cats, and am trying to get enough for them for a year, also. The chicken-from-China thing bothers me, as it will probably be in all the pet food. I’m retired, on a small pension, but I am getting ready. Eating canned foods is not new to me. Grew up eating a lot of things from cans. Staying at home is mostly what I do, so SIP is not going to be much different than what I already do. Just hate to not have (probably) no power and no internet. Have a shortwave radio, though. Picks up everything, CB, ham traffic, all of it. Get ready, and stay ready…you don’t know what may happen be it BF, or who knows what…
Same here….we rarely go anywhere…..don’t you wonder about what all those folks who live in the 280 restaurants night after night are going to do??
I’m ‘hidden’ but not rural, stocking both short & long term storage.
Hope we in AL can set up a ‘resource’ group so we can pool info on local sales, suppliers, etc.
BUMP!
Hi, lurker on this excellent site since last year. Just wanted to say that I’m with you other AL folks. I’m in East/Northeast AL. Galt
Better stock some of that famous Sand Mountain Sorgham Molasses—BEST in the world!!!
RE: I’m-workin’-on-it at 18:50. It’s good stuff that sorgham. Not as good as the plain old Golden Eagle Table Syrup (which dates me). Ha. I’m in Calhoun Co., not Sand Mt. though.
For any AL preppers that have not yet been to the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) website (www.adph.org), there is info there that might be of interest. Includes our state plan (pretty depressing) and a surprisingly good powerpoint pres on Panflu that includes info on 1918 panflu in AL and the current state of AL supplies (ventilators, personnel, hospital beds staffed/unstaffed, etc.). Interesting AL panflu historical trivia: 9/28/1918 1st panflu case of 1918 documented in Huntsville. By 10/05/1918 1,100 cases and all physicians and pharmacists in Huntsville but one were ill with the panflu.
Apologies to all if this is a second post of the same info. My first attempt somehow disappeared into the ether. Still trying to figure this posting thing out.
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I’m here in North West AL, Florence to be exact. Have been lurking since last fall. I appreciate all of you great folks & the information that you share.
Welcome DDT! Do you get any sense of people in your area of AL being concerned about the possiblility of AI? I’m in northeast AL (Calhoun Co.), and as far as I can tell, not much prepping occurring over in this area (individual or local gov).
Galt
No, Galt. Everyone that I mention this to brushes it off as something that “will never happen here”. However, the news bites and the movie have made some take a second look at BF as something a little more possible. Most stores are featuring prep items, but I don’t know if others realize what they are.
Hey, do any of the AL folks have a source for 55 gallon drums (foodgrade, new or used)? Would love to get one, but the shipping makes it cost prohibitive. Also, anyone have any good restaurant supply store sources in AL (anywhere from about an hour south of B’ham to the northern AL state line)? Again, lots of things I’d like to get that are double the price when you add in shipping. Thanks for any info. Galt
Galt, back during Y2k, we got barrels from Buffalo Rock (used Pepsi barrels or something like that) I don’t think we paid much if anything for them — maybe $5 a barrel if they weren’t free. Washed them out with Clorox really good and they were fine. Be sure & get a bung (is that spelled right) wrench also—what’s that preparedness place up in Florence?? They have the wrench at a really good price I think. Can’t remember the name of that store, but they HAD a ton of really good stuff around 1999 — bet they still do.
I had 2 of them one on either side of my buffet in my dining room and covered them with large white round banquet tablecloths, draped over them like they were veeeeery tall round occasional tables and then put a colorful table topper over the white cloth so it looked ‘dressed’, then set things on top of them like I would any other tabletop. I used a round piece of plywood under the white cloth to ensure I had a flat hard surface all the way around.
Kept them about 2 years and then got rid of them….but to save my life I can’t remember what I did with them — I was soooooooo short-sighted. They took up valuable room but I should have stored them SOMEwhere but I didn’t have anywhere other than just sitting them outside & I couldn’t do that due to our neighborhood restrictions. I now have some outside storage areas that we rent for a pentance so I may get at least one more & store there until needed.
Give them a call and inquire whether they still have barrels to offer the public….
Do you realize that we have our state sorta ‘covered’? NW & NE Alabama, a couple of us in Central AL & Mobile! We’re a start! :-)
I’m - workin’ -on-it:are you thinking of “Alabama Outdoors”? Phone # 256–764–1809, 468 North Court Street Florence, AL 35630. They have a great selection of camping gear, kind of expensive though.
No, it wasn’t them….it was more of a survival place where you could buy water barrels & tools & food, etc. I’m sure I’ve got the name in my Y2k notes — I’ll look for it. Maybe it was in Athens or somewhere else, I just remember it was north AL, near where I have relatives. Sorry!
There is a manufacturer close to Trussville that makes 55 gallon food grade drums - Self Industries, Google up “55 gallon food grade drums Birmingham” and it will be the first entry. I don’t know anything else about them, except their web entry. This might be of some help, won’t hurt to give it a look.
Thanks for the tips on the 55 gallon drums, guys. I’ll give both of those options a shot. I think that the survival supplies place mentioned above by I’m-workin’-on-it might be Wisemen Trading Company (www.wisementrading.com). They are located in the Rogersville, AL area (about 40 minutes from Athens, near the River). They don’t sell the drums, but they have some good stuff for prepping. Price is very competitive on some things, less so on others. Bought a solar/crank charger AM/FM/SW radio and some of the “shake” flashlights. Good customer service, nice folks.
Again, thanks to all for the tips. Galt
www.longlifefood.com Kelly Bean Walton Feed 4 star military surplus - Hartselle, AL (Good People)
Sources for food. Y2k all overa again (with a vengeance)
Altoona Area - More Later
Welcome Hide in the Hills! Thanks for the tips on places to buy gear. Galt
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I’ve been kind of out of the survival loop since Y2K. I know we are in Phase 3 of this pandemic flu situation. What is the best estimate of how long we have until “full blown bad” in the U.S. once it becomes easily transmissible??? I still have a heck of a lot of Y2K stuff left that is edible, water drums, “pet” antibiotics (which probably won’t be of any use against avian flu), but might help with secondary infections, and, of course Y2k personal protection in a wide assortment of calibers. I, personally, think that MRE’s would be worth stocking up on. How many sick people are going to feel like getting up to cook running a fever, with chills, dehydrated, and hallucinating??? MRE’s can be eaten cold. The convienence would be a big payoff. The one time that I had the “Real” flu, I ran a fever, body aches, headache, and had a non-stop continuing saga type dream for about 3–5 days. The Indonesian family that died really jerked me into a high state of alertness. Bells started going off. Red Lights. What length of time frame are you preparing for??? six months, a year?? Is it going to be total isolation??? How many N95 masks do you need? In heavy dust they last a couple of hours. What kind of disinfectants are “Really” effective against a flu that kills you if it doesn’t work?? Sorry for the length of this post; I have my own ideas, but what to you who have been preparing so long REALLY BELIEVE!!!! Thanks for all comments and information……
www.waltonfeed.com - all kinds of supplies and food. www.jefferspet.com - antibiotics for “fish” www.cheaperthandirt.com - monthly specials, ammo,misc.supplies www.kellybean.com - beans and more beans (all kinds) www.longlifefood.com - major supplier of mre’s www.4starmilitarysurplus.com - mre’s & other supplies in Hartselle, AL
Hi Hide in the Hills. There is a long discussion going on re: how long til it hits/will it hit on a thread called something like “Chance for Pandemic 2.” There’s also an older survey on the wiki side of this site. My feeling is, I don’t know when or how fast, so I need to be generally prepared. Wish I did have better means of prediction—not just for when and if but also for how bad the event might be.
My overall prep goal is 6 months, but I’m not even close yet. Not sure on things like how many masks are needed, but there have been discussions (the threads of which may be closed now) that you might find using the “Search” function. I think opinions have varied widely about which kinds and how many. I got a fantatic deal on nitrile gloves from www.dontheglove.com and had good luck on masks from www.coopersafety.com (www.masksnmore.com is another good site for masks). But there are lots of good sites out there for these kinds of things.
Thanks for the suggestions on sites for purchasing. Good luck with your preps. Galt
Hide-in-the-Hills and wait, what part of AL are you in? North, South, East, West? I’m in the Birmingham area.
I am in the the Northeast - Altoona area (western Etowah County)rural area.
Hide-in-the-Hills (and wait) thanks for letting us know!
bump—LET’S HEAR FROM YOU GUYS!
I’ve been discussing preps and scenarios with a neighbor/friend all morning on our way to Trussville and back this morning. We visited Sam’s and found many, many things to purchase like 50 lb. bags of rice, #10 cans of cheese, and all kinds of tasty food. He is of the same opinion as me; isolation during the first wave will be the key to coming out the other end of this “event”. My employer is corporately discussing extended necessary absences for employees to handle the situation. However, it will be necessary for some to remain on the job. They will probably keep a skeleton crew during the first wave and then regroup after it is over. We manufacture and deliver an essential product statewide.
Well, gee, lets see. I built a shelf in a closet this morning and moved paper goods around. Does that count?
Bottled up a bunch more water—I’ve got about 200 liters put up. That’s just drinking/cooking water, flushing water I’ve got plenty of, too.
Where can I find one of those gizmos that hold the little propane cylinders when you’ve hooked it up to your camp stove? I’ve looked at WM in the camping stuff, where I got the cylinders. None there.
Haven’t been to KMart yet, its one of those places not on my regular shopping route.
One could be fabricated from some coat hangers, I guess, if I can’t find the real thing. I’m good at innovating.
AP, try Academy Sports…might help, not sure, and yes, every movement you make toward better prep, is good prep! We just finished putting an 8′tall bookcase together down in the shed, and I asked dh to bring home copy paper boxes so I can store my small propane tanks in there and them not be too noticeable, and my ‘canned water’ in glass jars, my plastic soda bottles of water, my cleaning supplies & some sick room things like buckets, and other things the bugs won’t eat. Gotta start having our pest control guy spray in there & me spray inbetween his visit!
I spent ALL day yesterday inventorying my stuff, in different bags, so that I can type up my final master list & know what’s where. I found some HUGE luggage tags in red, green and yellow at Academy Sports, over in their luggage department that loop through your luggage handle or zipper or whatever, & are waterproof, etc. They say “BIG TAG” on one side then your write what you want on the other! I’m marking my totes with those so they’ll be easy to read in the dark with a flashlight. I’m also using red for fuel storage items, green for ‘go’ bags, yellow for sick room stuff, etc. I’ve asked my brother to take us to Cosco or is it Costco(??) later today & get a few things….every day, a little more effort & progress is made!
We should get together sometime & pool ideas, share resources for supplies, teach me about guns :-), etc. Anyone interested?
We’re heading to Lowe’s right now, then the Farmer’s Market, just to reacquainte myself with it!
I still have my three Y2K 50 gallon water drums. I’ve got to refill them. But, I cannot remember how much chlorox per drum to use. I had to calculate it out last time. I did it three times before I was satisfied that it was right. Are you talking about the stand for the cylinder on a lantern? I did find one of those a Wal Mart. My camp stove doesn’t have a stand. It just sort of hangs from the screw-on connection.
Hey Alabama folks, I just got a super deal at Winn-Dixie. You might have the same going on in your respective areas. Close-out on gelled alcohol canned heat (in my store was located near cleaning supplies, way on the bottom of the shelves). 70% off. 2 cans (2hrs time each) for $1.49. Close-out special til gone.
Also went to Wally’s today and got my white food grade hose for filling up water containers (in RV section, 10ft length was about $5). Would be a bummer to survive panflu but end up with lead poisoning. Also picked up kerosene and gasoline fuel containers, siphon, funnels, 5-gall buckets with lids, “tap” lights, OTC meds, and all kinds of other goodies.
By the way, Wally’s in my area (Calhoun Co.) has been out of the UHT shelf-stable milk for over two weeks and asst. mgr. said they won’t have any more (anywhere in this area) for another 4–6 weeks. All stock of UHT milk had been “diverted.” Maybe for hurricane areas? Who knows. Winn-Dixie had only 2 boxes, and both were within a month of expiration dates.
Thanks for the roll-call I’m workin’ on it. I agree, it’s good to share local knowledge.
Galt
Galt: You’re just up I-20 from me..howdy neighbor!
WM sells two types of rubbing alcohol-70%, which is good to clean your hands with, and 91% which can be used to burn in a homemade tincan stove.
I think I saw some of the UHT milk at WM here. Have looked at so much lately, its all running together in my mind.
We have a W-D here, usually don’t go there, but will try to check things out.
If you have a Food World, take a look at their canned specials. I mentioned them back up in the thread. They always have unadvertised specials, too. I found the house brand roast beef and gravy on special for $1.69 the other day, and bought a bunch of it.
Side note: Ever come down to eat at the ARK in Riverside?
The Ark….that sounds like good eatin’!!….got catfish?? I don’t have to ask if it’s good — ALL catfish is good!
We went to eat at Golden Corral and then headed to Costco, only to find that they closed at 6pm so we may go back tomorrow.
Are you folks aware of any food pantries in your area or other agencies that might be stocking up?
We have our B’ham mission — Johnny Hale, but I haven’t talked to them….heck, I’m still trying to live down talking to family. I know you ALL know what I’m talking about there. Just 20 minutes ago, dh was saying to my brother and sil that it WAS Y2k, and “now it’s the BF”. At least my sil said that they really appreciated the bucket that they got from me for Y2k, and knew that it was all put together with love…..I haven’t bothered with buckets this time (they were in Fla when Y2k came around) I’m just going ahead and planning for them to either be here or for us to transport food back & forth to them at their apartment….if that’s possible. It’s funny when you start trying to prepare for other people, for instance, I noticed that my brother chose peaches from a fruit buffet & my sil eats pickles — need make certain that my pantry has pickles since we don’t usually keep them.
It’s more of a challenge, to add others, but I’d just die if I could have done something for them and didn’t and it ended up meaning life or death to them. sigh.
Alabama Prepper: Hey there neighbor! I’ve never been to the ARK. What do they serve, and where is it? Always up for a new good restaurant….
We don’t have a Food World in my area (only Food Max, which has the same specials a lot of times—same/similar circulars). I’ll check them out. Thanks for the tip on the alcohol. Have you actually tried the canned roast beef and gravy? How would you rate it (e.g., “not bad, if I were in a hurry or tired; I’d eat it for dinner” or “this is only to keep me from starving during a disaster situation”)? Galt
I’m workin’ on it—good points on food pantries. There is one (at least) in Calhoun Co, but I think that they are always on the verge of running out even under normal circumstances. I don’t think there’s a lot of stocking up going on in my area by individuals or agencies. I hope I’m wrong, but I just don’t see any real signs of it.
I agree so much with what you said about talking with family/friends. I have pretty much given up with the exception of my parents. I simply am taking boxes of non-perishables with me when I go to visit them. They think I’m being alarmist. I’ve gotten to the point of smiling and saying “probably so, but I’m still going to leave this stuff in your guest room.” It’s sort of like you said, “if I could have done something for them and didn’t…” I’ve decided that I can live with potentially wasting money on canned goods, pasta, etc. that they might never eat, but I could not live with them being out of food and my not being able to get to them (they live a couple of hours away).
Your relatives are lucky to have you thinking of them!
Galt
I am from Tennesse but I contacted TVA to get info on pandemic planning and thought y’all might be interested. TVA services Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia. For a map, please see their website at http://www.tva.com/sites/sites_ie2.htm.
I looked up TVA and learned the following from their web site:
They get 30% of their power from nuclear power plants they own. They have some hydro power plants. Most of their electricity comes from 11 coal burning plants. One plant uses burns about 14,000 tons of coal a day, an amount that would fill 140 railroad cars.
There is an article on the TVA site that refers to a problem in “purchased power costs.” While this is not explained, it appears to me that TVA is purchasing power from other power companies. Remember, power generated can not be stored for long and must be used almost immediately. My worry is this may be from the fragile grid system we have spoken about in other threads.
I contacted TVA by e-mail and asked I live in Memphis and my local utility informs me they get all their power from TVA. 1. How many days supply of coal does TVA keep at it’s power plants in case of an interuption in coal supplies/delivery due to a pandemic? 2.What percentage of employees must work in order for a plant to keep functioning in case of a pandemic? 3.Does TVA have a pandemic plan? 4.When TVA refers to “purchased power costs” does tht mean form time to time TVA purchases power from other places/plants? If so, where does the purchased power come from usually and how frequently on average does TVA purchase power?
I got this response:
TVA is committed to ensuring the safety of the public and our employees and to providing a safe and reliable supply of electric power. TVA maintains a Continuity of Operations Plan to address various emergencies. In addition, like many other government agencies and private companies, TVA has established a team that is updating our emergency operations plan to address the possibility of a flu epidemic. The team is developing an agency-wide plan to enable TVA to continue to operate during and after a possible pandemic. This includes identifying critical functions, employees, and suppliers necessary to maintain business operations.
The TVA region covers an 80,000-square-mile area that includes Tennessee and parts of six adjoining states — Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia. For a map, please see our website at http://www.tva.com/sites/sites_ie2.htm
In response to your question about purchased power costs, TVA does buy some electrical power from other power suppliers. That’s because buying power is sometimes more economical than generating electricity, and sometimes additional power is needed to meet customers’ high demands for power. The power we would buy usually comes from areas within or adjacent to the TVA region. The cost of the power varies greatly with market conditions — supply and demand. Prices are influenced by several factors, including the cost of fuel, such as natural gas, the time of year, and even the time of day. For example, a very hot summer afternoon would increase the need for electricity to power air-conditioning and meet other needs, thus driving up the price for potential buyers. TVA purchased about 9 percent of our power needs in Fiscal Year 2005.
We hope you find this information helpful. If you would like more information on TVA, we invite you to visit our Web site at www.tva.com. Thank you.
I am from Tennesse but I contacted TVA to get info on pandemic planning and thought y’all might be interested. TVA services Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia. For a map, please see their website at http://www.tva.com/sites/sites_ie2.htm.
I looked up TVA and learned the following from their web site:
They get 30% of their power from nuclear power plants they own. They have some hydro power plants. Most of their electricity comes from 11 coal burning plants. One plant uses burns about 14,000 tons of coal a day, an amount that would fill 140 railroad cars.
There is an article on the TVA site that refers to a problem in “purchased power costs.” While this is not explained, it appears to me that TVA is purchasing power from other power companies. Remember, power generated can not be stored for long and must be used almost immediately. My worry is this may be from the fragile grid system we have spoken about in other threads.
I contacted TVA by e-mail and asked I live in Memphis and my local utility informs me they get all their power from TVA. 1. How many days supply of coal does TVA keep at it’s power plants in case of an interuption in coal supplies/delivery due to a pandemic? 2.What percentage of employees must work in order for a plant to keep functioning in case of a pandemic? 3.Does TVA have a pandemic plan? 4.When TVA refers to “purchased power costs” does tht mean form time to time TVA purchases power from other places/plants? If so, where does the purchased power come from usually and how frequently on average does TVA purchase power?
I got this response:
TVA is committed to ensuring the safety of the public and our employees and to providing a safe and reliable supply of electric power. TVA maintains a Continuity of Operations Plan to address various emergencies. In addition, like many other government agencies and private companies, TVA has established a team that is updating our emergency operations plan to address the possibility of a flu epidemic. The team is developing an agency-wide plan to enable TVA to continue to operate during and after a possible pandemic. This includes identifying critical functions, employees, and suppliers necessary to maintain business operations.
The TVA region covers an 80,000-square-mile area that includes Tennessee and parts of six adjoining states — Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia. For a map, please see our website at http://www.tva.com/sites/sites_ie2.htm
In response to your question about purchased power costs, TVA does buy some electrical power from other power suppliers. That’s because buying power is sometimes more economical than generating electricity, and sometimes additional power is needed to meet customers’ high demands for power. The power we would buy usually comes from areas within or adjacent to the TVA region. The cost of the power varies greatly with market conditions — supply and demand. Prices are influenced by several factors, including the cost of fuel, such as natural gas, the time of year, and even the time of day. For example, a very hot summer afternoon would increase the need for electricity to power air-conditioning and meet other needs, thus driving up the price for potential buyers. TVA purchased about 9 percent of our power needs in Fiscal Year 2005.
We hope you find this information helpful. If you would like more information on TVA, we invite you to visit our Web site at www.tva.com. Thank you.
Bump
I’m-workin’-on-it and Galt — The Ark serves catfish and seafood, along with my favorite, frog legs. Years ago, when St. Clair County was dry, they would float the restaurant out into the middle of the river, to be able to serve beer and alcohol. It was on a barge, way back then.
Modern times came, and the laws changed, so they are in a building on solid ground now, and serve adult beverages along with some mighty good eating. You’ll catch your favorite NASCAR drivers eating there on race weekend.
The canned roast beef and gravy used to be a regular item for me to eat. A can of that over some rice and throw a can of green beans over it, and it was mighty good. Haven’t eaten any in a while, as I’ve gone to eating more fresh meats and vegs.
It was pretty good, though when I did eat it. Now, whether the manufacturer has compromised the quality of it since then, who knows. But, it was tasty.
Worried in the city — I am retired from Alabama Power Company, the main electric utility for Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, and the Gulf Coast. I have many years experience working in a coal fired generating plant, in many positions, and departments.
APC ties in with TVA up in north Alabama, as well as with Duke Power to the east of Georgia, and the various utilities out west from Mississippi, and south toward Florida. All the electric utilities in the USA are tied together, as they buy and sell power to each other.
I have no idea what sort of pandemic plans they have made, if any, since I have no contact with anyone there anymore. If it is getting national attention, I’m sure their lawyers have told them to do something.
On previous posts, I’ve related how the IRS penalizes utilities now for inventory, it is taxed, so they do not store much more than 30 days of coal. Neither is there a replacement for “every” piece of machinery in the plant, as carrying it for years in the warehouse would cost them a lot over time.
The miners have to show up at the mine, load the train, and there has to be a train crew to run the train from there to the plant. All this has to happen and if people are too sick to go out, or unwilling to expose themselves to sickness, it won’t happen. Unless, of course, the military steps in and runs the trains. They can do this, they have the knowledge and skills to do so, and if a General Emergency is declared, it may happen.
A power plant is one of the most complicated, detailed, and involved processes devised by man, and needs constant attention and adjusting. We who have worked there know we are tasked with a job and responsibility above and beyond.
Civilization and life as we know it today cannot exist without electricity. Everything begins with the generation of electric power. Otherwise, go back in time to 1870 and life without it and see how difficult and inconvenient existance is.
I hope that things don’t get so bad that the guys can’t get in to work, or won’t go in, and the plants go down.
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Hey AlabamaPrepper - Did you work at Gad or Gas? Know it can’t be West Jeff if you live in St.Clair. Used to know a really smart turbine operator who lived in St. Clair. Very interesting to talk to on night shift. He was interested in building hydro power assets for himself. Got to go now. 4:00 comes early.
Hide: Wilsonville. Good grief, are you somebody I know? WOW.
I’ve got some buddies at Gadsden, and at Miller.
Small world isn’t it…bump!
AlaPrep: Probably. Been @ Gast. since ‘89.
Bump to keep out of the closed/closing threads.
Hope all you guys have a good weekend! Great Winn-Dixie special on Rayovac batteries (BOGO, exp. 2012) through Tuesday.
Food World’s home page has a hurricane preparedness list, which is useful for almost any emergency prep. Find it at thelowpriceplace.com. No link, put it into a search engine.
I got my Rayovacs, the other day — a whole big bag of ‘em! Our Food World closed so we don’t get their flyer in our newspaper so thanks for the link to their stuff — I’ll keep checking it — much easier than driving all the way to the next closest Food World in Chelsea just to see what’s on special & find I could have gotten the same thing at Bruno’s.
bump-enjoy this pretty weekend Alabamians! Happy Father’s Day to the males in the group!
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Hello AL folks! Just checking in. Hope we are all still around after the storms last night! Actually, we got a lot of thunder and wind here but not enough rain to help my poor container gardens and my little raised bed experiment with cucumbers and squash (I’m watering 3x daily but they just look distressed). You know, I grew up working on the farm, but I clearly have lost any talent I ever had for agriculture….
On a different note, have any of you given any thought to contingency plans for if this hits the fan during summer months? I bought one of the battery operated fans at Wal-mart (am **very** pleased with it and plan to get another one this weekend) but they draw so much battery energy that it isn’t a solution for more than a couple of days. I’m sure this sounds like an obvious question that could be answered as “drink lots of liquid and sit in the shade” but does anyone have any other ideas for staying cool without power in a high heat very high humidity situation? I know some pretty creative suggestions were made on other threads re: staying warm.
Hope everyone has a good weekend.
Galt
Hey Galt - Guess if it comes down to it we’ll just have to grit our teeth and bear with it. No A/C, no fans. Grew up that way, but now we have the ability to change things and have cold air in the house.
It would be insufferable, indeed, to be without Air. I hate the heat with a passion. It makes me nauseous and very, very grouchy.
Those with basements could build a little “retreat” downstairs to retire to in the worst part of the day. Put a wet towel around your neck, or a baggie of ice on your head.
I’d rather this horrid thing would wait until cooler weather, if I had to have a preference. Being sick in this heat will be a killer, literally.
Hey there…Been out of touch for a few days. My hard drive is fried. Hope to get going again in a day or so. Still trying to read at least what comes up every day or so… Keep writing… we are out there reading…
Hey everybody—Just staying in the house under the air conditioner — too hot to be outside. Reading yall’s posts and passing the time.
Hide, hope everyone at ECG is doing ok.
Everyone have a good Independence Day. Eat, and relax. :’)
Hey folks, hope everyone had a great 4th! I’ve put together 2 notebooks of prep recipes, and purchased some Amazon cookbooks: canned soup cookbook, man, can & …whatever *4 of ‘em), Bisquick cookbooks, etc. to look through for additional recipes & then sell on eBay!
I got my canning jars within easy reach and will start on putting up dried mixes, & some other perishables.
Also, put up 25 lbs of flour in liner & bucket, & ordered some North Carolina BBQ for the 4th! Just for fun.
So I’m feeling a little more organized.
As far as the heat, isn’t this weather strange…..I’m sitting here today with the doors & windows open (thanks to some big shade trees), but it was “cooking eggs hot” just the other day!
To keep cool, 3 things, 2 found at WalMart — one is a little bandana type scarf that actually has some gel stuff stitched into it. You dip it into water & wrap around your neck & the water activates the gel & you’re cool for quite awhile….get several, especially if you sweat while you’re working and here who doesn’t? The other thing is a mister — again WalMart has several kinds - those battery operated hand-held fans, but there’s also a thing called Cool Blast, a canvas covered container with a mist line. You can hook it to your belt or strap over your shoulder, & mist yourself as needed. It’s $13 I think — if you want a cheaper version, the dollar stores sell, mist bottles (you need those to put Clorox in to spray & wipe down counters, etc.) and you can just fill it with water. Even warm water, when misted onto your face feels cool.
The last thing I bought on eBay, but there’s a website for it too, just don’t remember what the site is — CHILLOW PILLOW. I couln’t get through the night without mine sometimes. I really didn’t think the thing would work but boy was I WRONG-the material it’s made from sort of wicks the heat away from your head and neck & it stays constantly cool. You fill it up with (if I remember correctly) 10 cups of water & plug it shut, so it’s heavy, and you can lay directly on it or put it in a pillow case, but once you lay down on it, it feels freezing cold, well, at least it feels cold enough that you can actually get a chill — like having a huge ice pack to lay your head on. The trick is that it lasts and lasts and lasts……I’ve only filled mine up one time, and every night — ALL night, yep ALL night it’s cool. I figured I’d pick up a couple more over time, to help with keeping fever down, if sick. Meantime, it prevents nightsweats for us older ladies!
I’m working on it—Hey that cool pillow sounds cool! Pun intended. I run through some hot flashes that would severely test it, wonder if I could make it boil?
This heat has been just terrible-I don’t even go outside.
I’ve used the misting bottles to spray my face and arms, feels good.
Continuing to buy preps and watch the reports.
Hello Alabamians, Hope all are managing in the heat. Good ideas on the cool pillow. I think I might get one. Just wanted to check in, and also thought this was of some interest value: over here in Calhoun County, the Anniston Star (only newspaper for the co.) had a front page story on bird flu. Title: “Alabama seeks flu drug help.” The story was pretty long and the basics were that Alabama has put in an order for enough tamiflu to treat 476,000 people (according to the state health officer). This is the full amount that the federal government has allocated for the state to purchase. The state can buy more and might do so but will need federal help to defray purchase price. Story had nothing at all about likelihood of pandemic, need for personal prepping (other than to say that feds have told states that states are on own). So, good and bad. Good to get some info on the front page. Bad that a chance to mention prepping was missed.
Hope all have a good weekend.
Galt
Galt,
Got a link?
476,000? Is that about one-tenth of the population?
Melanie @ 22:51--I was looking at the hard copy of the newspaper for the story details. The title of the story is referenced on the Anniston Star website (www.annistonstar.com), however, access to stories is password protected for subscribers/electronic subscribers. Turns out, on closer look, it is an AP story, so I’ll bet some other papers in AL ran it as well (perhaps some that have free web access to their stories?).
Dennis in Colorado @ 22:55--pretty close. Sad that I wasn’t sure without checking. US Census 2005 estimated population for entire state of AL was approximately 4.56 M. Alabama is in pretty heavy growth mode, so a current pop of 4.76 M is probably believable.
Galt
ALIVE AN WELL IN T’VILLE just outside of the HAM. Glad to see the Al. traffic picking up over the last few months. The word is trickling out slowly but surely.
Hi there w/spider, greetings from Calhoun Co!
Galt
bump for BB.
bump
Bump Hello Alabamians (and others…).
bump
Hey guys and gals. I’m back up. This crash was the one with the hardest landing. Ouch!!
Hey Hide in the hils, did you actually have a computer crash? Hope all is better. Glad to see you back.
Galt
Yes I did. Dell replaced power supply, modem, on/off switch, motherboard, and, finally, (the problem) the hard drive. I lost all favorites, files, etc. I am trying to rebuild now. This is the second time in six months. First time I had to do a Restore (back to factory loading). It is a good thing to have hard copies of lists, addresses, etc. Backups. Alternative plans. Don’t get so locked into one way of thinking that you can’t choose another direction. Move ahead, but keep your options open.
Glad you’re back up and going! I hear you on the backup. I have hard copies of most things and I also have started using a jump drive for electronic backup. It’s much easier to use (to me), and so I find I’m more likely to actually use it.
By the way, to all of the Alabamians, have you guys looked at our pandemic flu plan? Available at www.adph.org (look under pandemic influenza on the A to Z index)? It has not been updated since early Oct. 2005 and says it won’t be updated until there is a federal plan (which of course now exists). Folks listed as contacts at the ADPH for the plan won’t respond to requests for information. Very off-putting. Anyone have any suggestions on how to get information on current planning status in AL?
Hide-in-the-Hills, you and me both. Puter problems here, too, but mine was the keyboard going bad and causing problems. New keyboard, so far so good.
Have yall set a new generation record yet? I’m running the air as hard as it will go and am still uncomfortable. Don’t go outside, any more at all. Just too hot, and can’t take it.
Galt, that’s not surprising, I’d not depend on the State getting their info straight. Except the vast masses of uninformed out there won’t have up to date info when this PF kicks off. But then, how many of them will even know to research info on it?
Lots of canned items on sale at the grocery stores, continuing to stock. Need to focus on getting more paper towels, seems like they go so fast. TP is in good shape, at least a years worth put up.
Whats going to affect me personally is not being able to have my diet sodas. They don’t have but a 3 month shelf life, the “sweetened” kind last way longer, but I can’t stand them. Too sweet. I’ve got kool aid mix, but you have to use sugar in it. Nutrasweet doesn’t keep well, and goes “off” after a few months.
I think we should all be prepared for some bad things to happen from now on out, not just PF. Other posters have made the same statement, more or less. Lots of things happening in the world right now that can affect us in many ways.
I, for one, am more than ready to stay home and lock the doors. :^/
Wanted to post this website address for everyone’s info. It is a long list of sources of supplies, equipment, stuff you may not have thought about. I think you find several sources of food supplies and maybe get a few new ideas. Here it is. www.joelskousen.com/Secure/recommended.html
Hide: That is quite an extensive list! Thanks for posting it.
AlaPrep - No record yet, but it’s coming. This weather is something else!! Got my printer working now.
Hi folks, popped in to check on everyone after this weekend’s bad weather….we have a small leak in the roof, where our unit joins the one next to us, but it only acts up a tiny bit when there’s a hard ‘driving’ rain.
I’ve been busy rearranging things in the house making room for more stuff, & hanging some racks to keep my canning jars in….I’ve not done any of the ‘pick your own’ farms like I’d wanted to this year, due to other issues happening. I was in South Pittsburg Tenn this past weekend for a funeral & went to the Lodge Outlet store (Lodge=the cast iron skillet company). In their ‘blemish’ room, they had 17″ skillets for $23 with no recognizeable blemish whatsoever! I really enjoyed browsing the shop & picking up all the dutch ovens, lids, corn pone/corn bread pans, etc. Something very comforting about good cast iron — it just screams that it will cook wonderful meals for you!
I’ve still not done anything about renewing my gun permits or buying ammo, but I have rearranged the pantry & opened up an under the stairs area for more storage! It seems I’m overly prepared in some areas & barely prepared in others and I can never seem to get an appropriate balance.
I got tickled after the funeral when, at age 50, I suddenly learned that my last uncle on my mother’s side is Morman! My sister in law had recently said I’d make a good Morman because of all the prepping I do, and now I wish I’d known about his background a little more (we always focused on his great military career instead) so I could have asked him and his wife about their preps if they did any. We’ll see them in 2 weeks for an annual family reunion (can you believe every year having a family reunion in AUGUST in the South??) and it may be the last time they ever come South again from Utah because of their age & infirmaties, so I doubt I’ll spend any of this short time talking preps! But I thought it was sort of funny that I was unaware that in their mid-eighties, they might be the MOST prepared people in our entire family!
Shopping the deals, clipping coupons to save cash, shopping gasoline prices (it was $2.74 in Moody about 8:30am today & by lunch it was $2.79, while across the stree it was $2.83 and $2.85) trying to grow the most scraggly garden ever seen in partial shade just to get the hang of it, just keeping my ear to the ground as they say. My ‘prep’ purchase was to buy some Watkins cinnamon at Calloways on 119 South of Bham today — got 2 small cannisters! Sometimes prepping just sort of gets muddled up with the rest of life & you can’t sort it all out clearly, you just have to keep stirring the pot till you’re done.
Enjoy some sweet tea, some cooler breezes & the songs of the crickets,
Rose
bump
Galt, you and I must have been thinking the same thing at the same time — we wrote within 2 minutes of each other!
Hey, I’m workin’ on it. Where ya’ been lately?
Hey yall, just going to throw in a few comments here.
Re: Spices - Had a remarkable find at the local Dollar Tree a while back. Extensive assortment of Colonial Kitchen brand spices, from Canada. They were well within the use by date. Large containers of cinnamon, cloves, chili powder, and much more. A surprise was finding one labeled “soul seasoning”. I bought one to try it out, it was delicious on a pot of beans, so I went back and bought the rest.
Along with this find, sitting right there in the aisle was a display of Durkee Grill Creations Italian Herb seasoning. Large cannister, got several of them, as all these things are only a dollar. Gave a few to a friend who does a lot of cooking.
Point is, the Dollar Tree is a good spot to check out every week. They get overruns and closeouts from the big stores. You never know what will be there, and when you find it, go ahead and buy it, ‘cause when its gone, there won’t be another shipment.
Even things like paper plates and plastic ware are prep items, and only cost a dollar all the time. Aluminum foil. Those aluminum baking pans, I know there should be a use for them as preps, cooking in them on the grill maybe?
I can’t go in one of these dollar stores without spending something, I mean what’s a dollar?
Hey, ya’ll have been lurking here for about 2 months, I’m from Wilmer(small community outside Mobile). I also have found some great deals at our local dollar tree. Got cambells select gold label italian tomato w/basil and garlic soup 3/100. Great price on already cooked rice and butter in easy open containers. Bought all that they had of both products. I check out big lots about once a week and have also found lots of spices and tarps(all sizes) under 5.00. Hope there is someone else around my neck of the woods, feels kinda lonley not being able to discuss this with anyone, have tried and have gotten the STARE. DH is very supportive and helps whenever he has a day off. I have been checking all over Mobile for a pressure/canner cooker-quart size with not luck so far. If anyone knows of a hardware or store that could possibly have this please let me know. Have a great day fellow alabama preppers.
Athens Alabama here. Still lots to prep on yet.
frankiew - Walmart has them on their web page, they should be in the store. Price was $79.94.
If you are able to order over the ‘net, try Amazon.
Ace Hardware is also listed as carrying the Presto canner.
Hope this helps!
AlabamaPrepper-thanks already tried at 2 wal-marts, none just the pressure cooker, small. And the ace hardware on springhill ave. could order me one on their order next week. I am really not computer savy, so have never ordered anything over the net. Will leave here and go to wal-mart web page. Thanks alot
Wow. A whole bunch of talkin’ goin’ on. Sorry I missed it. I read about (and constructed) a cooker that is like a wooden box in a box with styrofoam insulation (1 or 2 inches) bottom, top, all sides. Even the lid is insulated and sits down into the box. Mine is built to hold my biggest cooking pot inside it. The trick is you heat the pot to boiling and set it into the box, cover with lid and wait. Sort of like a crock pot with no electricity. IT DOES WORK. I used it once on pinto beans. Also wanted to send out a website everyone needs to check out. If you follow all the links, you might get them all checked out in a couple of days. Here it is. www.survivalist.info/preplists/ HAVE FUN!!!!! I’ll check back later and see if there is any feedback!!
Hey, I took a dive into grief….guess some things caught up with me and I just didn’t give a rip about doing anything except sleeping, and just as I was digging out my uncle died, so another funeral.
You know, all that has me really concerned about my own ability to stay ‘positive’ if suddenly those I love start dying around me. At least the deaths I’ve dealt with have been spread out a little bit, but if I prep for my husband, my brother and SIL (sister in law in case someone doesn’t understand computer shorthand) and then they and my cats die, you might as well just shoot me because I wouldn’t b worth anything to anybody or myself. sigh.
Anyway, besides hunkering down & trying to heal my emotions, I’ve been in my attic, rearranging. You wouldn’t believe my attic……ebay sales stuff, Christmas stuff, husband’s tool cabinets, etc. We practically already live in our attic even though it’s not finished out, just subfloored. My climate controlled pantry is there, and my goal is to make an area underneath our entry stairs into a sort of root cellar, although it’s not outside, it could be closed off so that the household heat & light couldn’t get to it.
In order to get ready to do that I had to clear out a full filing cabinet and move all the paperwork & notebooks either to a bookshelf or up to the attic, take apart the wooden file cabinet & get it to the attic also, then I could get to the door to the crawlspace under the stairs.
I plan on using my 5 gal icing buckets from the bakery at Winn Dixie to hold various produce, an put the buckets on little plant trays with wheels so I can move them around easily. The area is just padded with standard insulation, so I’ll have to line that with some sort of covering to sort of give it that ‘finished’ look, then I can move some of my buckets in.
It’s not an area that you can stand up in, it’s only about 3–1/2 feet tall, and our old hot water heater is also under there (and may still have water in it) so I guess I’ll take a hammer to it and see if I can dismantle it somehow, when they rerouted the water line they couldn’t get it to drain so I may have to dip water out, & get it out of the way. It was a little 30 gal unit & we now have a 50 — guess where — up in our attic! So the little one could go away, but it might not be easy.
The point I’m trying to make is that I’ve been caught up in dominoes! It’s an organizing term that references circumstances where in order to do this you have to move something else first, and to move that, you have to move yet another thing and so on. In a small house, that happens a lot.
Today I sat on the attic floor for 2 hours & sorted through old paperwork deciding what to keep and toss, and the space I gained let me get some stuff off the floor and up onto the shelf where the paperwork had been, so our little walkway to the pantry is a little wider now! Such trival stuff, but it’s all these little things that keep me from being ‘more finished’ with my preps than I am. I feel like I’ve been in a Spring Cleaning time warp for months, trying to better organize things so that I can get to preps efficiently.
By the way, Frankview, I had THOUGH that there was someone who had posted here from the Mobile area & even made a comment about having the state ‘covered’ in one of the beginning posts on this thread, but now I don’t see who posted anything that made me think they were in Mobile. I must be going crazy, but we’re glad you’ve found us here. And don’t worry about being computer savvy, ask a question if you don’t know how to do stuff & we’ll help you out if we can.
If you’ll check the Prep lists here on this site you’ll find one I posted. I think some of the unique things on my list are things like a baby monitor for your sick room, gift cards for places like WalMart or calling cards is cell service is down.
Well, I’ve rambled on for too long, let’s hear from some of you others! What deals are you finding out there??
Rose
Hi neighbors…wow busy thread. Thank you posting the TVA info.
Just finished baking 2 Meatloafs as part of preps. One of them is a mexican meat loaf. I figure with the use of a generator I can limit the amount of powerd used to cook the meat and less messy pans that need cleaning since is already cooked and frozen. The mexican meatloaf will make a great filling for tacos and enchilads. Just add taco mix packet, 1 can enchilada sauce, 2 eggs, 1 small can of chopped green chilis and bread crumbs. Should be good!
Hey AL preppers, guess what? Turns out that each Alabama county is supposed to be working on its individual pandemic plan right now (and they’re all to be completed by the end of August). Interesting that there’s been no announcement about that, no invitations to the public, etc. to be a part of the process. After 6 to 8 e-mails, I finally got someone at the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) (www.adph.org) to acknowledge my e-mail regarding, when will the Alabama state pandemic plan be updated (for the record, ADPH will not answer any questions regarding pandemic flu issues. They simply ignore them in e-mails, even the folks who are listed on the “have questions?” portion of the ADPH pandemic flu site). Anyway, here was the general response that I got to my question about the status of the plan: “Alabama’s state plan will be updated in the near future, but to update our state plan we are concentrating on the local plans. All emergency are local and we feel asking the local stakeholders to plan would be more beneficial at this time. Therefore, ADPH has charged each county health department to form a pandemic influenza planning committee, conduct a summit, participate in an exercise, submit an after-action report, and began answering HHS 72 State and Local Government Checklist, all by 8/30/06. If you would like to participate in planning for your county of residence, please let me know what county and I will send you the local contact and phone number. After 9/1/06, we plan are posting each counties’ response to the checklist for all citizens to review and comment locally. I hope this answer yours questions, if not let me know. Thanks.” It really did not answer all of my questions, which I restated in my responding e-mail, to which she basically replied, “thanks for your interest.”
Anyway, my interpretation is: the Feds tell the states, you’re own your own. ADPH says, we have no plan and we aren’t going to have a plan, so counties, you’re own your own. The counties have no resources or time to plan, so they will go through the motions of working on a checklist, and they will put on a website somewhere, generally unannounced, “individuals need to plan, you’re really on your own.”
Really, this is a lot of work to be completed in the next four weeks. Has anyone out there heard anything about this? It really seems to me that public input is NOT wanted. The whole thing seems a bit clandestine.
She sent me the contact number for my county’s planning coordinator. I think I may give him a call.
The lack of responsiveness and information from ADPH, compared to some states really verges on the unbelievable.
Galt—The cynic in me says they haven’t figured out how to make money off this preparation business yet, OR, some way to make political hay off of it.
No fame, fortune, or pictures in the B’ham News equals no interest in co-operation, co-ordination, communication.
In the words of Foghorn Leghorn: “Go ‘way boy, ya bother me!”
Wow, what a great AL turn out for the day!
Ima-prepper @ 23:06--hey, glad you’re posting. Also, that sounds like a super meatloaf recipe. I plan to give it a try.
I’m workin’ on it @ 21:05--I hope you are feeling better. Sometimes it’s the right thing just to give in to it for awhile and take the time to rest and get some perspective. Your attic plan sounds great. Wish I had attic storage. Can’t believe you can get 5gallon buckets at your Winn-Dixie, mine only has 3-gallon. I’m finding no deals on canned goods these days. Maybe canned goods deals are a fall/spring thing? Anyway, hang in there. So glad to see you back posting. Oh, only big prepping news here is that I am going to learn to can. So if you never see another post, probably I have inadvertently blown myself up or poisoned self (LOL).
Hide in the hills—didn’t the styrofoam melt? How long did it take for the beans to fully cook?
Frankiew—welcome!!!
Alabama Prepper—thanks for dollar store tips. I just read your diet coke post, and I feel the same way. I have stocked coffee. Finally gave up smoking a few years ago but I may be real, real unpleasant if this ever happens and no diet coke!
Oops, what I was trying to say was Alabama Prepper @ 00:37, I think our posts crossed “in the air.” But I agree with what you’re saying, it was very much like that.
Galt and all Ala folks, Good Mornin’.
Sunday’s paper will have some really good coupons in it, and both Winn Dixie and Food World are having some good specials to go with them.
T.P. (toilet paper) both Cottonelle and Scott, paper towels, in particular.
You can go to WD’s home page and put in your ZIP and it will bring up your local store. Same with Food World, on the net they are thelowpriceplace.com. Upcoming coupons can be checked on at Taylortown.com, and you can get the ones you want for a small fee.
Prices are creeping up. Cokes and sodas are getting more expensive, undiscounted price now is around $5.00 a twelve pack. A dime here, a quarter or more there, and soon we aren’t going to be able to eat like we need to.
The wheat crop was not good this year, so that means for a while, the price of flour and everything that uses it will be higher. Cattle farmers around here have had only one cutting of hay to put by for winter feed, due to the lack of rain.
If things don’t improve, beef will have to go to market this fall, as they won’t be able to feed the cattle. Prices may drop for a bit, then go back up next spring, as has happened before in this situation.
Situations like this demand preparation, to have a fall back supply of foodstuffs to get through the lean, expensive times. A wise person prepares for all sort of calamities, natural, manmade, and economic.
Hide in the hills - Good on you! That’s called innovation.
I’m workin’ on it - Glad things are going better. When you are in emotional turmoil, doing something with your hands helps you work through the feelings. You can sort of disengage the brain and let the physical work take over and clear your mind.
All right everyone, good night and see you all later on!
Well, another morning of planning and work! I’m running a very slight fever & sinuses are stopped up, so if not better by afternoon, I’m setting an appointment with the Doc to, in the words of Barney Fife, ‘nip it in the bud’.
Guys and gals, we’re not as ‘active’ here as other states are and I hope that picks up, so I was wondering if it would help us to have another group set up for emergency purposes, should something happen to fluwikie? I’m an avid user of Yahoo groups and it seems that you can set one up easily, and it will stay up for almost forever, with or without constant use, but I know absolutely nothing about how to monitor a group setup, screen new members, do something to counteract SPAM, etc. Does anyone else? I just feel you are all valuable contacts and I don’t want to lose contact just as a crisis unfolds. The fluwikie is of course the best location for us all to use daily or however often we can get here, but do we need a plan B?
Ima-Prepper I do the exact same thing — I never put raw meat into the big freezer & rarely keep meat in the fridge/freezer either. I rely on my meat being cooked in case of a power outage so that I don’t have to burn so much fuel cooking up stuff before it will spoil.
Galt, I have canned before — I canned chili!! I worked and worked and worked & my husband said it tasted funny so I poured it all out! sigh.
I’m planning on ‘relearning’ again since I just freed my canner from a shelf I couldn’t get to in my attic before yesterday, and try again — I already bought pantry shelves and hung a couple in the kitchen on the wall to hold my cans, I just haven’t filled them with anything! Can you imagine someone coming in and seeing THAT and thinking I was prepared? I want to do some jelly, and fruit and I’ll also do some dry mixes to have on hand.
Well, it’s to the guest room/dumping ground today and under the stairs!! Clean up, organize, make better, it’s all gotta happen!
Rose
Good morning ya’ll. Hope everyone is doing ok in our hot state. I know what you mean about messes., last thurs,fri, and sat. I spent cleaning out our storage closet because the apt. above us (100 yr. old house with apt upstairs) did not clean out their drainage line from the ac. o quess where it all drained. The only reason I had noticed it, we came home thurs. night, prepping at wallyworld, and I took my tennis shoes off to store some can goods on the shelves. Stepped in water and saw it had been coming down the wall, behiing my shelves and onto the carpet. Had to move everything out, throw away boxes of hamburger helper (good sale .99 cents) a box of compressed rice. I had already suggested to my DH that we needed to move it and repackage in plastic zip lock bags, but noooo. Anyway, after ripping up carpet, spraying bleach on walls, blowing industrail strength fan to dry out carpet, lay down more carpet in place and move everything back into place, I finally slowed down Monday afternoon. So now I am off to my local goodwill, check on prepping items they may have this week, good bargains. Oh, thank you I am ordering the preston canner from Wal-mart, it should be here in 7–10 working days. Ya’ll have a blessed day.
Don’t you just love Goodwill or Salvation Army or America’s Thrift Store!!??? I did some more stuff in the attic this AM, while it’s been cool…..not too awfully hot out today-yet!!
I relocated 5 of those 2 drawer per case holders for VHS — now I can get to my Dancing to the Oldies tapes better. whoopie.
But it was a start for the guest-room-clearing process. Frankview, what a MESS you had on your hands — love your little heart! Don’t you just hate it when you think you’ve made progress & suddenly you see you’re actually going backwards?
I’m off to Bruno’s to pick up the 7 cases of catfood they are supposed to be saving for me — that will put my 3 month cat food preps just up to 4–1/2 months! I actually think I have about 5 −1/2 months, but I’ve ‘used down’ so without inventorying again, I’m not sure. All I know is that more is better — no matter how hard you try, you just can’t explain economics to a cat — or explain that there’s no food! So off I go!
Rose
Hey, just got back from goodwill and found some good buys. They had board games marked down to $1.50–2.00 each. I got risk, battleship, racko, jeapordy,a Bible trivia game and a complete puzzle (never opened) for 50 cents. Put it with our other board games and yes you are right American thrift store is the best!!!! We don’t have any animals at this time, our family dauschand passed away a few years ago, hard to replace right now, but maybe soon. I try to go to goodwill on wednesday each week and american thrift on fridays, but as soon as school starts I am going to have to reschedule, I home-school and will have to run all errands on Saturday morn. Ya’ll have a great day today, going to do some housework, enough prepping for the now will start up again Friday.
Hey all—Just went through a morning of blazing domestistity (no such word, but you know what I mean!).
Among other doings I cooked up a delicious dish using preps, and will tell you about it.
Penne pasta, sliced black olives, Oscar Meyer real bacon bits (in the yellow bag - they are a wonderful substitute for cooking bacon and all the mess), Kraft Italian shredded cheese, little green peas and mushrooms, and baked chicken tenders. Poured a dab of Ken’s Italian Dressing with Aged Romano over it, just enough to moisten and flavor it.
It is really, really good. Could be made with canned chicken in place of fresh, and canned Parmesan/Romano. Added no salt, as there was enough in the bacon and dressing for me.
The only other thing I wish I could have added would have been some shrimp, but I can’t afford them right now.
Bake the chicken tenders, and just throw all the other stuff into a big bowl and mix up. When the chicken is done, cut it up and add to the mix. Drizzle the Italian dressing over all of it.
I’m workin’ on it, have you seen the new Fancy Feast catfood? Its almost people food—descripton: grilled chicken with whipped eggs and garden greens. Almost a dollar a can. I looked at it in the store the other day and just had to shake my head.
Mine love Fancy Feast, but I can’t buy it all the time. Once I do, they don’t want to go back to Friskies.
Gonna sit here and think up some more prep cooking recipes, if Kathy from Fla hasn’t already thought of them all!
AlabamaPrepper – at 14:07
You GO Sweetie!! That sounds like a great recipe & I’m going to take notes and try it!
I decided on frozen meatballs & marinara sauce tonight and got that ready, then realized I’d forgotten any noodles……so we’re having it over macaroni since that was what was at hand! Oh well, can’t do everything right….I did find so much of the guestroom that I might set up the bed again!! We use an inflatable in there but I liked it when we left it up.
Hubby is off work till Mon so we can get some more stuff done on along, as the old folks say! There’s always somethin’.
Tomorrow I head out to Sally’s to look for waterless shampoo. During the ice storm in the 1990′s we were without power for 1 week (1 week sounds silly in comparison to Katrina) and dirty hair is one of my biggest peeves. Cant imagine how those who survived Katrina did it!
If they dont have the waterless shampoo I may have to order it online http://tinyurl.com/lw6l5 but it may be cheaper elsewhere. Upon searching for it I came across this product too http://tinyurl.com/447fz. May need to get me some of that too ;)
I love that — ‘just soak & sigh’….and did you see the Hippie one down at the bottom of the page (the more recommendations)? Leave it to Vermont Country Store to carry something like that! Thanks for the laugh this morning!
I fasted last night after a hefty plate of meatballs & noodles to see if I qualify for a research test at 8am this morning at my doctor’s, then it’s off to WalMart for a couple of plant dolleys if they still have them for my heaviest prep buckets — the more mobile they are the better on my back!
This morning will be a shuffling of things (that domino effect thing again) but then, some things will start to shape up I think. I may even take some pics and post them on the “pics of preps” thread!
I’m cleaning out rooms this weekend. Yard sale to clear out space to store “necessities”. I have to sell stuff to clear out room to store stuff, so we have room for our B.F. supplies. Got to fill three blue 50 gallon drums. How much bleach per drum?? Need to make a “Things to Do” list. Was all set for Y2K. Fear that I am short on time for BF. Just a fast thought - Isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol is cheap. Would it work as disinfectant instead of expensive hand wash sanitizer?? Would probably dry out your hands though. Read somewhere —**spray bottle with bleach solution outside door to spray on bottom of shoes when coming inside**
Galt - sorry, just realized I didn’t answer your question about the cooker that I made. Can’t remember where I got the plan. No, the styrofoam didn’t melt. The chip board that I used shielded it enough because the styrofoam was layered in between the chip board. Heat to boiling, put ‘em in, and forget about ‘em. It seems like I left them in there cooking for 2–4 hours. They were still steaming hot when I opened them up though!!
Hide in the hills—Walmart carries both kinds of isopropyl alcohol, the 60 per cent and the 90 per cent.
The 60 can be used to disinfect your hands, and it will probably dry them out, so I guess a good hand moisturizer a few times a day will be needed.
The 90 per cent should NOT be used on skin, but for sterilizing things. It would probably eat your skin up.
Someone with medical knowledge will probably know more about what to tell you.
Hand moisturizers-Avon makes a good one, Moisture Therapy Intensive. It comes in a tube and stays on. Its not greasy. The best thing you can do for your hands, though, and its real cheap, is to work some Vaseline into them real good before you go to bed. Put a pair of gloves on, or a pair of socks over your hands so the grease won’t get all over the sheets. Do this for a few nights, and you will be amazed at how nice your hands start to look.
A spray bottle with clorox in it is good for lots of disinfecting. Put a bit of dish washing soap in it, if you like, and you have a great all purpose cleaner/disinfectant.
The cleaning service I work for has some good chemicals, and if the situation develops that we are thinking about, I will round up all of it and bring ‘em to the house. Industrial strength disinfectants and deodorizers. Strong stuff.
Anyone here have a root cellar of sorts? We got our under the stairs area cleared out & besides storing my buckets in that area, I’m thinking that I could use it as a ‘closet root cellar’. When we removed the insulation between the studs, I realized that the space between the studs must go all the way up to the attic — I haven’t shown the flashlight up there, but it stands to reason that it would, except for the header at the top of the studs.
What I’m thinking is that I could drill holes in the top of that header so air could move up from the area under the stairs and rise to the attic. That would allow any gasses from fruits and veggies to rise out of the area so potatoes don’t sprout early, etc.
It has a concrete floor which means less humidity, so crops like potatoes, squash, etc would store well which is great for me — I’m not into the chards and cabbages and stuff like that.
I might need to drill a hole at the bottom of the little pass-through door to allow enough air flow in.
Right now that’s all I know. Do any of you keep baskets or boxes of veggies or fruits stashed somewhere other than your fridge? How does it work out for you?
I might forego the root cellar and just use it for non-perishable storage, but I thought I’d ask….I’m going to put out a thread to see if others have some ideas as well.
The big ‘CHEER’ for the day is that we got the hot water heater OUT of that area, we removed the insulation, vacuumed up the debris, dust, picked up the rusty nails, etc. and have a pretty decent storage area with much less effort than I thought it would be…..we just dragged the hot water heater out through the pass-through door. Last time we tried to move it, it still had water in it apparently. Now it’s all evaporated (after 2 years of being disconnected) I guess because it moved very easily. I was envisioning us both under the stairs with sledge hammers beating the thing apart and then mopping up any leakage! It went much much better than that!
Hope you’re all having a great weekend!
Rose
BUMP!
BUMP BUMP!!!
We live in Birmingham and are interested in possibly finding (renting/leasing?) a fairly rural location within, say 50 to 100 miles, as an alternative site to ride out the pandemic. Well-water or spring water is almost a must. Thoughts, information?
Good morning ya’ll. I got my pressure canner Wednesday and so far have put up 6 qts. spaghetti w/hamburger sauce. 6 qts. of boneless skinless chicken breasts in chicken stock. Today I will put up bbq. short ribs, steak diane w/cheap cuts of round steak and more hamburger in boullion juice. Sure am glad that CHRIS is diminishing and one less worry around here, but hey this is the first time I would not have to go to the store for water, tuna, batteries, etc. YEA!!! SSAL look into Prattvile, my son lives there and says it is really nice with alot of surrounding farm land. Don’t know anything specific, but seen if you can get the Montgomery advisor and check it out, not to far away from Birmingham. Talk to ya’ll later, I am off to my local American Thrift store and back home to fininsh canning for today.
SSAL - Western Etowah County. Lots of acreage. In particular, Goggle “Brasher Springs”. There are some places within 1/2 mile for sale. House for sale on Randall Road 1/4 mile from Brasher Springs. It is the site of an Old Methodist Camp, which still operates. The spring water there is good. Very beautiful in the autumn. Land is also undervalued in the western part of Etowah County. Hour’s drive from Bham. Altoona and Oneonta are also possibilities. Rural areas. Wild life is making a come back in this part of the state.
I was going to suggest the Oneonta area too…..mountain streams, backwoods, etc.
Well, my prep for today was to buy 1.9oz bottles of Texas Pete Hot Sauce at BRUNO’S for 2/$1.00!! Great for my bug-out bag — gotta have something spicey on those MRE’s if I ever have to use ‘em. I posted somewhere else that it was Winn Dixie, but it was Bruno’s.
They have big cardboard bins in a couple of places in their store with these little plastic bottles tossed in them — if the bins were originally full, then they’ve been selling fast!!
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