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Prepping for biological disaster
- Thread starter m1west
- Start date
The longer we are on lockdown the better we learn how to make things last longer. one example is we used to go through a roll of paper towels almost every day. Now they last 3 days with one simple change to using dish towels to dry your hands after washing them. Another is around 6pm I have a bowl of granola as it keeps me regular, instead of a 3/4 full bowl I go with 2/3 full and get another bowl out of each bag. I haven't shaved in 3 weeks, it started off because of the last trip to the work cabin I burned the side of my face when I took the radiator cap off of the Suzuki to add coolant now, I call it the COVID beard. I hardly use any gasoline or diesel. The electrical bill may be increasing due to being home more. Maybe? The Wife has been collecting Dandelion for salad and to put on sandwich as my new rule is if you can't cook it don't get it from the store. The weather has improved to where no heat or cooling is required. The work I am doing are scheduled shutdowns that are on weekends and holidays in the field so more money is made doing less work and the shop is un affected. Prices are dropping on everything even food. Now if this shit will disappear soon so things can go back to normal and my house will not become worthless, its been a nice little vacation.
Agreed and very good point
My daughter would drink 4-5 bottles of water a day, despite the fact that we have a Reverse Osmosis water system. I'll admit that I would grab a few too. Now we both use the vacuum bottles that have been hiding in the back of the pantry for a few years. In fact we got to the point that we were draining the R.O. dry so we now are using a PUR pitcher in the refrigerator filled with well water.
I've got some ribeye steaks in the freezer but we are doing a lot more dinners with 99 cent a pound chicken thighs and $2.49/# pork. I think we've baked 4 or 5 loaves of fresh bread.
The neglected garden, is coming back together, and honestly if not for Covid would probably still be neglected because we probably would have just left it.
Paper towels last us about 3 days too! I'm surprise by that. We have a bunch of Clorox Wipes but even those are now lasting about 2 weeks per tub because we are being careful with their use. Amazing how much can be cleaned with a kitchen sponge and a kitchen towel!!!
And we are not just buying stuff because we are not going to the store
We are actually thinking about what we need, and buying what we need without getting other stuff. Safe bet that if I would have gone to Tractor Supply to pick up the fuel filter I just ordered from Amazon that I would have walked out of the Tractor Supply with some beef jerky, or red licorice, or some cheap tool from their sale bin (or all of those things + some dog toys). But because I just needed the fuel filter I just ordered that and nothing else.
And now meat prices will probably be going up 
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...8fnh5STd7gvYA0_fbE_FIBQhTX8KHgJxBde5fnh6Fp56c
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...8fnh5STd7gvYA0_fbE_FIBQhTX8KHgJxBde5fnh6Fp56c
tiredretired
The Old Salt
Agreed and very good point
My daughter would drink 4-5 bottles of water a day, despite the fact that we have a Reverse Osmosis water system. I'll admit that I would grab a few too. Now we both use the vacuum bottles that have been hiding in the back of the pantry for a few years. In fact we got to the point that we were draining the R.O. dry so we now are using a PUR pitcher in the refrigerator filled with well water.
I've got some ribeye steaks in the freezer but we are doing a lot more dinners with 99 cent a pound chicken thighs and $2.49/# pork. I think we've baked 4 or 5 loaves of fresh bread.
The neglected garden, is coming back together, and honestly if not for Covid would probably still be neglected because we probably would have just left it.
Paper towels last us about 3 days too! I'm surprise by that. We have a bunch of Clorox Wipes but even those are now lasting about 2 weeks per tub because we are being careful with their use. Amazing how much can be cleaned with a kitchen sponge and a kitchen towel!!!
And we are not just buying stuff because we are not going to the store
We are actually thinking about what we need, and buying what we need without getting other stuff. Safe bet that if I would have gone to Tractor Supply to pick up the fuel filter I just ordered from Amazon that I would have walked out of the Tractor Supply with some beef jerky, or red licorice, or some cheap tool from their sale bin (or all of those things + some dog toys). But because I just needed the fuel filter I just ordered that and nothing else.
We have noticed the exact same things. A roll of TP lasts us two weeks. We are hardly using our paper towels and really only use Clorox wipes when we clean down Amazon orders or groceries. Hand sanitizer is holding up well.
We are cooking bigger recipes and eating leftovers for 2,3 even 4 days in the case of a big batch of Beef Stew I made last week. Costs per meal drop correspondingly.
I told my wife the other day this is all good practice, but I am re-thinking that. This may be more than practice if those stories are true about food shortages.
I may need to make a meat run this week just because.
As long as Mineola Packing keeps its retail sales open, we're ok on the meat front. It did close it for two weeks while it concentrated on servicing its commercial clients but once they caught up, they opened back up to the public.
Well, I may have to leave the homestead for the first time in a month to go to Tractor Supply. I don't really NEED to go but while there is the opportunity I may as well use it. They are operating a curb side service but not for all the things that I need. I can get the dog stuff but not the lawn weed killer and the "O" rings to fix the spray gun. I may just get a new spray gun and get in and out of there fast.
My wife went in to the Post Office and to CVS today and said that both places were empty of customers. She said that while she was in the PO car park a millennial drove in and got out wearing flip flops, shorts and a halter top, no mask and no gloves. God save us for these young idiots surely won't.
Oh, we have had 5 cases in our County for the past 4 days.
Well, I may have to leave the homestead for the first time in a month to go to Tractor Supply. I don't really NEED to go but while there is the opportunity I may as well use it. They are operating a curb side service but not for all the things that I need. I can get the dog stuff but not the lawn weed killer and the "O" rings to fix the spray gun. I may just get a new spray gun and get in and out of there fast.
My wife went in to the Post Office and to CVS today and said that both places were empty of customers. She said that while she was in the PO car park a millennial drove in and got out wearing flip flops, shorts and a halter top, no mask and no gloves. God save us for these young idiots surely won't.
Oh, we have had 5 cases in our County for the past 4 days.
We have 744 cases, 25 deaths (as of this morning) in my county. I believe all the deaths are from the north/urban areas and the vast majority of the cases are in the north part of the county.
We have noticed the exact same things. A roll of TP lasts us two weeks. We are hardly using our paper towels and really only use Clorox wipes when we clean down Amazon orders or groceries. Hand sanitizer is holding up well.
We are cooking bigger recipes and eating leftovers for 2,3 even 4 days in the case of a big batch of Beef Stew I made last week. Costs per meal drop correspondingly.
I told my wife the other day this is all good practice, but I am re-thinking that. This may be more than practice if those stories are true about food shortages.
I may need to make a meat run this week just because.
The longer it goes the chance for food shortages become real. When a bunch of truckers come down with it and die ( Truckers are known for there healthy lifestyle right ) they won't go to work either. That is when it really gets bad. Local delivery drivers don't always drive the same truck every day, a little like Russian roulette.
Well we are going to start dipping into the POWDERED MILK or perhaps switching to the small SHELF STABLE milk. Our fresh milk supply is down the last few ounces.
We can get it, its obviously available. We are simply making the choice not to go to the store because the county is reporting a lot of cases. It's obvious there are a lot of uncounted cases. So why go to the store if we don't have to.
The Indiana Covid reporting site stopped reporting cases in my county on Saturday. At that time my county had 744 cases confirmed, 25 deaths. 2nd hardest hit county in our state (thanks to our geographic proximity to Chicago). 42,489 tests Statewide, 7928 confirmed cases with 343 deaths. Most of the cases are in the greater Indianapolis area the my county in 2nd place (I hope we don't try harder) and then the area around Notre Dame/South Bend, IN coming in a distant 3rd, followed by Ft Wayne in 4th place. Many of our other counties have less than a couple dozen cases per county.
We should get the next update at NOON/Eastern today?
We can get it, its obviously available. We are simply making the choice not to go to the store because the county is reporting a lot of cases. It's obvious there are a lot of uncounted cases. So why go to the store if we don't have to.
The Indiana Covid reporting site stopped reporting cases in my county on Saturday. At that time my county had 744 cases confirmed, 25 deaths. 2nd hardest hit county in our state (thanks to our geographic proximity to Chicago). 42,489 tests Statewide, 7928 confirmed cases with 343 deaths. Most of the cases are in the greater Indianapolis area the my county in 2nd place (I hope we don't try harder) and then the area around Notre Dame/South Bend, IN coming in a distant 3rd, followed by Ft Wayne in 4th place. Many of our other counties have less than a couple dozen cases per county.
We should get the next update at NOON/Eastern today?
Attachments
I don't blame you, our county has 4 and I haven't been in a store up town in 2 weeks. We have a few more days of milk left before I have to make that decision myself. What is the population of your county? We are right at 40,000.
tiredretired
The Old Salt
Yeah, good point. I am trying to figure out the best route to take on the meats.
I'm thinking more ground beef is the best option to take. Very versatile. Throw in some ground pork as well for good measure.
Pretty much still good on everything except tomatoes and lettuce. I think that we can do without those for a while.
I don't know how the County is going to hold up after the storms of last night. Power lines are still down, downed trees are blocking roads, huge property damage all over the place. The news is reporting the storms in Louisiana and Mississippi but they started in East Texas and headed east. We lost power and I had to dig out the generators to keep the fridges and freezers working. Only one of the buggers would start. I'm going to have to take care of that. Oh how I regretted canceling that whole house generator installation back in the middle of March. When we get released from house arrest that will become a top priority.
I don't know how the County is going to hold up after the storms of last night. Power lines are still down, downed trees are blocking roads, huge property damage all over the place. The news is reporting the storms in Louisiana and Mississippi but they started in East Texas and headed east. We lost power and I had to dig out the generators to keep the fridges and freezers working. Only one of the buggers would start. I'm going to have to take care of that. Oh how I regretted canceling that whole house generator installation back in the middle of March. When we get released from house arrest that will become a top priority.
NorthernRedneck
Well-known member
We've barely left the yard in the past 3 weeks only going out for groceries. My decided that this morning was the day for another grocery run at our wholesale club. It's a smaller version of Costco. No line up. She was in and out in 40 minutes.
North of the county seat the population is probably 250,000
South of the county seat the population is approximately 30,000
So the north half and the south half are very very different. And you can pretty much draw a straight line across the county to divide URBAN from RURAL
Fresh stuff will be gone here quickly. We have some tomatoes, lots of potatoes and onions. Some apples. After that it's dehydrated, canned or freeze dried. And we are cooking with freeze dried onions, leeks, carrots, peppers. Plus snacking on dehydrated banana chips and other fruits.
The freezer is PACKED with beef, chicken and pork. We used the on-line grocery service to refill, they put it in our trunk. It is all vacuum sealed and organized by type of animal.
We are more creative with meals. Chicken noodle soup is made from canned chicken because we have plenty of that. We reserve the portioned chicken thighs for roasting, sautéing, etc. I have canned beef cubes, canned ground been and canned ground pork. Plus TVP taco and TVP beef. The TVP, if it gets used, will be mixed with some fresh before we get too low on the real cow or pig products to stretch those if necessary.
My sincere hope is that we get through this mess and can donate some of the excess to a food pantry. But I honestly see this lasting for a while.
Like when the vikings raided a small village and pillaged its food!
Just got our state update.
In my county alone, 1 new death, 52 new confirmed cases. Up to 796 confirmed cases in the county. Seems to be spreading around the county a bit more, as would be expected here since many who live in the rural south travel to the north to work. So we are expecting more and more cases in the south county as this progresses. Still, if you live in this county the south is by far the safest area to live, and folks like me who are outside of either of the two towns in the south county area are probably very safe ... until we venture into town.
My brother says there are still empty ICU and regular beds available at the local hospitals. The hospital group for which he is employed is reporting to be at less than 70% capacity. So the hospitals in the county are in good shape, regular beds, ICU beds and even ventilators are available. That seems to be true in every part of the state of Indiana, with the possible exception of the city of Indianapolis. I simply don't know their situation, but they have the largest outbreak.
In the next county south of me, which is all rural: 1 new confirmed case. 27 total cases.
In my county alone, 1 new death, 52 new confirmed cases. Up to 796 confirmed cases in the county. Seems to be spreading around the county a bit more, as would be expected here since many who live in the rural south travel to the north to work. So we are expecting more and more cases in the south county as this progresses. Still, if you live in this county the south is by far the safest area to live, and folks like me who are outside of either of the two towns in the south county area are probably very safe ... until we venture into town.
My brother says there are still empty ICU and regular beds available at the local hospitals. The hospital group for which he is employed is reporting to be at less than 70% capacity. So the hospitals in the county are in good shape, regular beds, ICU beds and even ventilators are available. That seems to be true in every part of the state of Indiana, with the possible exception of the city of Indianapolis. I simply don't know their situation, but they have the largest outbreak.
In the next county south of me, which is all rural: 1 new confirmed case. 27 total cases.
tiredretired
The Old Salt
You have more confirmed cases in your county alone than in the entire state of Vermont (barely). We currently have 728 confirmed with 28 deaths. Population 667,000 largely rural.
At one time we were supposed to be the first state to peak the curve. The way things change, I am not sure if that is even true anymore.
All temp overflow hospitals built are not being needed or used so far.
It doesn't seem to be spreading around in the county, the few we are getting came from outside county contact or an infected person visiting. Last time I was up town people seems to be getting complacent, I hope that doesn't bite us in the ass. Another theory is Ca. got it early like November 2019 and hospitalizations/deaths were classified as pneumonia or Flu?? Lots of Chinese in Ca. so who the hell knows. I think if they do antibody testing they could possibly tell.
Thank you Bob.
As you know, I've been procrastinating about a whole house generator for years, making all kinds of excuses to myself for not doing it. This time I made all the arrangements and it was supposed to be in and running within the first two weeks of March. Well, with this pandemic thing and the stock market going up and down 2,000 points in a day, I decided to cancel and wait for things to settle back down so I could see where everything was going. That turned out to be not the best decision of my life but you make decisions based on the information that you have at the time and at the time that seemed like the best decision.
I WILL be joining you in the emergency generator owners club soon though.
As Melensdad alluded to, we are all locked up at home to prevent the spread of COVOD-19 and to stop our medical facilities from being overwhelmed. We have 5 cases in our county and even our little regional hospital isn't overwhelmed by that. The hotspot in East Texas is Tyler, in Smith County, just 30 miles to the south of us. Last time I looked, they said that they had 79 cases and 1500 beds available for virus patients. That doesn't sound as if it is being overwhelmed either. Now, I admit that other places in Texas have bigger problems with it but certainly not around here. So why am I locked up and my community shut down?
It's got to the point that I don't know what to think. I certainly don't trust the media for information and I've always been skeptical of "experts". Dr. Fauci seems to be making the most of his "15 minutes of fame". Someone needs to tell "the gnome" just to shut up now and again. I know that Trump can't do it at this point but I would be sorely tempted to fire his ass.
It's got to the point that I don't know what to think. I certainly don't trust the media for information and I've always been skeptical of "experts". Dr. Fauci seems to be making the most of his "15 minutes of fame". Someone needs to tell "the gnome" just to shut up now and again. I know that Trump can't do it at this point but I would be sorely tempted to fire his ass.
Things are starting to get a little wonkey, I get that Fauci is an expert on viruses but he has been wrong on a few things. Also President Trump was elected and Fauci was appointed. His opinion is valued but he is not the President and needs to stop acting like he is. At this point he should be briefing Pence or Trump for them to deliver the message, then sit down and be quiet. When I have hired experts to help me out with tasks we normally do not do, They don't try taking over my company or circumventing me and go directly to the customer.
tiredretired
The Old Salt
A few? The son of a bitch has been on a roll since the start of all this. Nothing to worry about he says back in January, right before our POTUS shut down traveling to China and Europe.
DO NOT WEAR MASKS OF ANY KIND, THEY DO NOT WORK, he says while 330.000.000 Americans are wondering why in hell do health care workers wear them if they do not work. WTF???
Trump did not act quickly enough he says on his favorite channel, China News Network forgetting Trump was the first in the world to shut down these countries while the rest of them were partying in Spain, kissing Chinaman in Italy and listening to the stupid Dems chant Russia, Russia, Russia.
Look it up, it all fucking true.
So I guess we agree Fauci needs go.:th_lmao:
tiredretired
The Old Salt
Yeah, but Trump just said he is not firing him. All about the optics I guess.
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pirate_girl
legendary ⚓
I don't trust either one of those doctors, period.
And now meat prices will probably be going up
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...8fnh5STd7gvYA0_fbE_FIBQhTX8KHgJxBde5fnh6Fp56c
Now its not just Smithfield foods, Many beef, chicken and pork processors are having problems with workers walking off the job. Workers and unions are siting safety concerns and a lack of PPE as the woking conditions are elbow to elbow and there have been positive tests and at least one dead worker. Now another question besides the obvious where we gong to get meat from, is can corona virus live on the meat and if so how long? Cooking should kill it but what temperature?
He's a tool of the Democrats and stands to make money of this pandemic:
https://nationalfile.com/president-...fauci-has-a-100-million-conflict-of-interest/
#FireFauci
Bannedjoe
Well-known member
I know that in the days of old, beef was cut and sliced up and dried/cured in a number of ways to preserve it.
Also, nowadays, beef is hung refrigerated for around ten days to age before processing.
What if a guy slaughtered some beef, and immediately ground it all up into burger?
Would it be edible/pallatible?
Just asking for a friend.
Also, nowadays, beef is hung refrigerated for around ten days to age before processing.
What if a guy slaughtered some beef, and immediately ground it all up into burger?
Would it be edible/pallatible?
Just asking for a friend.
What he said.
My only question would be, "What would you do with 500 pounds of hamburger?".
Bannedjoe
Well-known member
What he said.
My only question would be, "What would you do with 500 pounds of hamburger?".
I think if I were my friend and I was really hungry, I might take a calf so as not to have to worry about having to store and process so much.
It's just that I've read that beef that isn't given at least a week to hang doesn't have the flavor we'd all like, and is tough.