Tuesday, January 31, 2023

As you know...

 if you have followed along here for a while, I am easily distracted.  Sort of like a dog when it spots a squirrel.  :)

While digging through some boxes and baskets, I came across a partially finished granny square afghan that I had completely forgotten about.  How a person can forget about a green and purple afghan is beyond me, yet there it is!  And because the weather here has been bitterly cold, it occurred to me that an extra blanket might be a good idea.

I have been working to finish the afghan to the exclusion of everything else.  Partly because I wanted another warm blanket and partly because I was feeling a bit of burn out concerning my food storage.  Sometimes, we just need a break.

The afghan will be finished today, for all I have left to do is to crochet one row around the edge for a border.  After that, it is back to stacking food and supplies to the rafters, starting with several quart bags of strawberries in my freezer that need to go into jars before freezer burn finds them.

So far I have not heard of empty grocery store shelves here in my neck of the woods.  But I am noticing that substitutions as far as brand names or types of some goods are becoming more frequent.  For instance, my grocery order last week included 4 rolls of parchment paper.  I got 2 rolls because that was all that was on the shelf.  I also ordered 4 large bags of shredded hash browns to dehydrate.  What I got was 4 bags of potato dices, marked 'hash browns' on the bag.  We preppers are nothing if not flexible, so the diced potatoes went into the dehydrator anyway.  I know I will find a use for them. 

Keep stacking it, my friends.  We are going to need every crumb.

12 comments:

  1. Sorry if this is a duplicate - had problems posting.
    Isn't retirement grand? Setting your own schedule and work 'load'.

    Last week I was in the local grocery store twice and not an egg to be found. The entire cooler was bare of any cartons. They did have the cartons of liquid egg whites.. A friend went to Costco and found eggs for me. Yea for a great network of people who will share their finds.

    And I finally got my seeds at DollarTree. And still priced at 4 packets for $1. I got a nice selection and hopefully will get those started inside this week. Since I'm a one person household, the number of seeds in these packets is perfect for me.

    Yes, keep stacking and praying.
    SJ now in California

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  2. Yes, SJ...retirement is wonderful!!

    I can still find eggs here, but the prices are insane. I just paid $7.99 for a carton of 18 eggs. I don't look for prices to drop any time soon. I am really glad I dehydrated a bunch of them before the prices got so outrageous.

    Glad you found seeds and more happy that you have a place for a garden since your move. The more that can be home grown, the better. Rumors of empty store shelves abound, but many with pictures to prove it. As long as I can't garden, my grocery orders are full of as much food as possible, for whatever I buy now is sure to cost more next week!

    Stacking and praying. Absolutely!

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    1. the eggs were $17 for 5 dozen last week at our Costco.
      SJ now in California

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    2. I did the math, SJ...You are paying $3.40 per dozen. I am paying $5.33 per dozen. Both numbers stink!!

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  3. We continue stacking and praying here as well. There are rarely any good sales listed in the grocery store ads anymore here, but I am fortunate to find a great price on clearance items most every week. It's always a surprise. Last week I got about 35 lbs of boneless skinless chicken breast for $1.25/lb. Today my daughter-in-law called and asked if I wanted any Nestle semi-sweet chocolate chips for 99 cents/12 oz bag. The store had a grocery cart full of them. So we got a 2-3 years supply. We're so grateful to already have a good supply of food so that all we really have to buy each week are the perishables and then we can just take advantage of the clearance items.

    And you are absolutely right. We will need every crumb.

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    1. Jennifer...Good sales here are pretty much nonexistent. I am finding there are sales on all sorts of 'junk' groceries - stuff that I never buy, but rarely on anything useful. Good for you in finding something useful on sale!!

      Like you, I have a good supply of food put away, but fear that will not be enough. So even with the high prices, I just add to the supply as much as possible. Sad that so many fail to see what is happening right before their eyes. Pray and keep stacking.

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  4. Vicki~ I was able to point a few friends in the right direction with stocking up. One has some picky eaters that are into the latest crazes aka virtue signalling. She was at wits end with them. I merely reminded her your bring home the bacon they need to eat what is on the table or starve. Make menus and stick to them. Show them the cost of food vs fancy food. You can get this much which will feed us for a week. Or, the fancy stuff which will feed us for 3 days. None of them can cook except to push the microwave button. Red

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    1. Red...It is a good thing when we find someone who actually listens and then begins to build up their own food storage. So many are oblivious and refuse to see what is happening. The picky eaters are in for a rude awakening. Most of us with food storage, stock items we can use to make meals, and that does not include the expensive, fancy stuff. Seems to me that the picky ones might come to an understanding if they bought their own groceries and cooked their own meals.

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  5. During my last visit to town, we could not find borax, and we had to go to two stores to find ground pork. I'm noticing bare shelves in most stores right now. Glad you found your afghan to finish. I'm working on a ripple stitch for an order, and started one for us too. Winter is a great time to work on blankets too. It's pretty cold here right now.

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    1. anon...It seems like the empty shelves haven't hit us as hard as they have in other parts of the country. My grocery delivery guy keeps me updated, and so far he has noticed that mushrooms are missing from the shelves of the store they use for the service. He tells me that shelves aren't full as they once were, but the main thing is the prices going sky high.

      I have no idea how I could forget about a green and purple granny square afghan, but there it is. I am in the process of putting on a one row border and it will be finished. Take care and try to stay warm. I have +2 degrees today.

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  6. Vicki, I wonder if the chains are holding back supply, waiting for the price to increase or is there a stocking/staffing issue? The other notice is that the isles seem to be getting wider.

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    1. anon...Taking into consideration that bird flu - real or made up - is costing millions of chickens, that shortages of fertilizers - real or made up - is costing less food to be grown, the fact that food processing plants are burning to the ground at an unprecedented rate, I might conclude that the goal is starving us into submission.

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