Goats: First, we took Rachel to the Vet and, despite his being a bit less-than-enthusiastic about lancing her lump, we stood there and did it anyway. Same stuff in there we've had in each one. Let's see what it shows. I'm hoping not CL, but with all I've been reading (I'm plum cross-eyed with CL talk!) I'm just leaning that direction. Either way, it was not embedded in the lymph system, which was good. Took her a very long time, even with Recovery, to come back out of the anesthesia, but that's how goats work, os it's ok. She's fit to be tied, living in a separated pen in the barn, not being able to run about with her buddies. I think she cusses us out when we're out there...in goat speak. She is not happy.
Dewey: doctor's visit went well...and quick. No more sling, enjoy the freedom but don't take too much advantage of it :o) LOL...he can lay on the floor and make snow-angels...well, I guess that would be 'carpet-angels' wouldn't it? No strength work with that shoulder yet at all, just movement without gravity. Next week he will see the physical therapist and start 3 times a week for the next month at least. Things are looking good for a speedy recovery to full use...although in his mind, this is nothing like speedy. Today he's just enjoying holding his coffee cup in his left hand.
Around the Homestead: We are reworking the pantry area, adding in a set of free-standing shelving I have here, and doing a full inventory (yes, again...) and organizing better. We are pulling the upper shelf out of the lower cupboard in the island, too. I want to store the 5 gallon buckets we use daily in the cupboard, and the only thing really stored in there are my baking pans/bread pans. No great loss with storage there.
We made some purchases and are planning the rest right now. Spent about $280 at the butcher (Donna, it's Rickman's Meat Market in Corinth MS...ground was $2.39/lb, stewing chunk $2.69/lb and chuck roast was $2.49/lb...I'll get other prices next week when we work on the full order) We only started with 20# stewing chunks, 20# ground, 36 back bone chops (that was all Dewey...they were cutting some for an order and he was hungry!) 4 12# chuck roasts, 2 large whole hams with hocks sliced. We will get more after I get this canned up, then in a couple weeks finish the full order. We are planning on 200# ground and 200# stewing chunks to can up, and some more roasts and a couple more whole hams for the freezer. Their sausage is delicious, but it doesn't can up well with the seasonings in it. I will get some, but we will make patties and freeze them. Bacon will be canned, with just a few pounds in the freezer.
At Sam's we plunked out about $275 on large canned goods...corn, peas, green beans, whole potatoes, peaches, tomato sauce...8 each of the #10 cans. I picked up some bread flour (100#), and sugar (25#), baking powder (4 containers), yeast (8#) and raisins...about 15# of them :o) The packages had gotten wet...the raisins are in plastic sleeves inside the boxes, so I bought what they had marked out and spent $3 per box (instead of $5). Also picked up a few bags of macaroni noodles. And, of course, the much-needed TP (just can't convince anyone here of the money-saving advantages of cloth wipes...go figure.).
We will start making up egg noodles and spaghetti here, drying it and storing it in my buckets. It is well worth the effort and time to make your own pasta, it just takes a lot of spaghetti here, so I need to do some up and sort of stay ahead of the need. I can easily do egg noodles and lasagna by hand, and with the pasta roller, I can do spaghetti, ravioli sheets and such.
If you've never made your own pasta, try it! Everyday Food Storage has a great tutorial...and a delicious recipe.
We have to get animal feed yet...I have half a barrel of dog and goat, and a full barrel of chicken. I need to stay ahead of those needs as much as I can. If I had better land grazing here, I'd take the goats off the grains and just feed the nursing momma's a ration, but I don't think we'd do too well. Something else to look into. Can't always plan on having feed available.
Here's where I've been browsing lately -- don't send me notes on the LDS sites I'm sharing. You won't find a better group planning ahead and stocking up and using that stock.
Prepared LDS Family -- she has a great site! Just take some time to browse her many lists for pantry planning, menu shopping, stocking up, etc. It is worth the time. I will be working this weekend on putting together our own complete grocery and food storage planner! She has a Seasonal Stock Up list, a great menu plan for 3 months (I may tweak a few things, but it's a great list!), she shares some PDFs as well...emergency storage monthly plan sheets, a nice tackle box medical kit, and just tons of stuff!
MrsKitty has several pages of things worth checking out. I was looking through her newsletter pages at milk storage and such, but there are recipes and more.
Deals To Meals blog ahs some goodies
The Food Storage Shopper has some great baby steps to starting food storage.
Food Storage Made Easy planning sheets...the whole site it WELL WORTH a look!
Better Times newsletter listing...so many great ideas and recipes and storage planning information.
That should keep you busy for a while :o) It has me...printing and gathering, inventory listing and getting ready to put together the Shopping and Pantry Notebook! Time to get off here and start reworking that pantry and making those lists instead of just planning it!
1 comment:
Deanna, You're doing great on your preparedness. If you haven't already, I would love to see photos of your food storage areas. I can't figure out where in our smallish home we'd put all of that.
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