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Yes...you should feel very satisfied with yourself! It was VERY intimidating for me to even go with Mountain Man, but I did. Then when I got there, I was even intimidated more because everybody but us had rifle experience. MM did pretty good, buy my rifle kept jamming and we had to take the scope off because it was sited in correctly, so they loaned me another one that the stock was too long, so they loaned me another youth-type rifle and by that time I was so frustrated I was exhausted. The heat was in the 100's and my contact lenses kept clouding up. It just was not a good day for Philbe! But...I went! And I definitely agree with you, I learned ALOT of safety issues! And ps...I also DID hit the targets now and then, just not as many times as everybody else did! LOL Congratulations to you girl!

Edited by Philbe
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Sunday...we went for a beautiful motorcycle ride today, and I'm always so amazed at the beautiful land God created and still maintains...with or without the help of mankind! Met some other's who were also enjoying the beautiful weather. Couldn't help but notice (took some pics) how much the river water was down. Levy's showing everywhere. Also watched a very long coal train go by...took a pic...wondering how long we'll be able to see these...? This is the time of year when we take advantage of every "biker day" we can! Pretty cheap recreation (we call it our day trips) for us. Just popped a bunch of popcorn and I've already eaten mine, now MM is enjoying his. Abby just doesn't know what she's missing! (and won't if we can help it...we don't give her people food that she sees us eating) Getting ready to go pj time and grab by book for my nightly read.

 

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Tuesday...had a very healthy rain last night and more supposed to arrive. Good for the lakes, ponds, rivers and streams! With all the lightening, thunder, wind & rain...Abby doesn't even flinch. A reward for taking her to puppy classes when she was only 4 months old and they taught us how to de-sensitize her to the elements of weather. Like most, she's not totally fond of going out into the rain, but she doesn't run and hide either. Told Mountain Main...remember when our neighbors thought you were crazy because every time it stormed you were out in the yard with Abby "playing" in the rain!? He'd don his rain cover and out they'd go...treats in hand, squeeky ball in hand, and lots of lovin' from her human daddy. Then we'd lay a towel down at the back entrance and let her "play" with her big thick scrubby towel (and actually dry her own feet!) before coming on into the house. Been watching one of my favorite tv channels...the food network. I get so many ideas! Also have begun stocking up on fruit-flavored bubble gums. They're terrific for heartburn...and quick...and fairly cheap as well as a sugary snack. Also probably good for raspy throats and coughs. Again...just thinking out loud!

Edited by Philbe
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On Saturday, I got our Thanksgiving turkey ordered. We order our turkey fresh from a local turkey farm. The price went up 20 cents/pound from last year. I assume that's their rising feed costs.

 

Luma, congratulations on taking the course!! I'm glad you enjoyed it!

 

Don't worry about the naysayers. I've dealt with that, too, from family. My carry handgun was purchased the day after we were notified by our local police dept. that a sexually violent predator was being released from state prison and moving to my neighborhood. [i was familiar with guns before that and even had my LTCF. We just didn't have the extra money for a handgun for me, but we ended up putting it on a credit card.] Even using that as an example of why I was carrying (and suggesting we move the neighborhood rapist out of my neighborhood and into theirs), I still got crap from a certain family member. :blink:

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I need some help! Just received a gift of about 6 bags of avacado's and I have no idea on how to preserve them! Got 10 bags of celery so I'll fire up the dehydrators. Got a bag of onions, but we'll eat them pretty quickly. AND...one HUGE head of cabbage. We're not big cabbage eaters so...how can it be sliced, diced or ??? and preserved? I hardly ever refuse free food...youtube here I come!

 

:unsure:

Edited by Philbe
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Philbe - chuck up the avocados with a fork and mix with lemon, lime, or vinegar and freeze in guacamole sized portions. When you're ready to use it, defrost the avocados in the fridge and then add all of the other guacamole ingredients. You can just add salsa for a quick guac! It works great on taco salads or just plain with dips! http://www.ehow.com/how_5753288_freeze-guacamole.html

 

Personally, I don't like dehydrated celery, but that would be an easy way to store it. For the celery leaves, I like to chop them up in my food processor with a bit of olive oil and make a paste out of them. I then freeze them in ice cube trays and whenever I'm making soup, I throw a couple of celery cubes in! I also do this with basil and cilantro.

 

Cabbage - works well dehydrated. I've never been a big fan of the stuff, but this past year I've been using it quite a bit. It's extremely nutritious and is a mild anti-inflammatory.

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Philbe - chuck up the avocados with a fork and mix with lemon, lime, or vinegar and freeze in guacamole sized portions. When you're ready to use it, defrost the avocados in the fridge and then add all of the other guacamole ingredients. You can just add salsa for a quick guac! It works great on taco salads or just plain with dips! http://www.ehow.com/...-guacamole.html

 

Personally, I don't like dehydrated celery, but that would be an easy way to store it. For the celery leaves, I like to chop them up in my food processor with a bit of olive oil and make a paste out of them. I then freeze them in ice cube trays and whenever I'm making soup, I throw a couple of celery cubes in! I also do this with basil and cilantro.

 

Cabbage - works well dehydrated. I've never been a big fan of the stuff, but this past year I've been using it quite a bit. It's extremely nutritious and is a mild anti-inflammatory.

 

Thanks Andrea...because avacado's are so volatile in their life span, and we don't eat alot of them outside of guacamole...I just didn't know if they could be frozen or not. Philbe's gonna be a busy beaver!

 

:runcirclsmiley2:

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Worked like my tail was on fire...but I now have 10 neat little bags of avacado's in my frig freezer in the quick freeze section, and then they'll be headed for the deep freeze. They are sooooo messy to work with! My prep island and mixer looked like a disaster hit them! LOL Put them in baggies, removed the red zip, and then vacume sealed the baggies into the vacume seal bags. Should stay pretty good! Saved a couple in my crisper for use immediately. Now...I'm faced with all that celery! I think I'll enlist Mountain Man's assistance. He's very good at helping me by using the chopper and is fascinated with the vacume sealer! LOL

 

Edited by Philbe
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My oh my...what would we do without our foodsavers! We accidently found out that we could use ours to re-seal the milar-type potatoe chip bags! Boy does that work for us...so often we just don't (and shouldn't) eat a whole bag when we open it. Also figure we can pop some corn and seal it for future snacks when we're on our motorcycle, hiking, kayaking or camping. Ours is the "gamesaver" so don't know if that makes a difference or not...but very pleased to find out it seals milar!

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Wednesday...guess what I've been doing all morning! My hands were so stiff from prepping the avacado's that last night I had to get MM to open a jar of strawberries...and I've given them a good exercising this morning cutting all the celery up. Didn't use my chopper because I wanted my chunks a bit larger for stews etc. My french fry cutter cuts them too large. Anyway, they're in the dehydrator right now...five trays full. Put a container full in the frig for snacks...we love celery and peanut butter! Abby loves the "head" of the celery. I don't throw them out, I can't hardly bear to throw out any edible part of a food that can be a snack for Abby or boiled for broth. The only we don't give her is bones...of any kind. She's got her nylabone and balls for chewing! LOL Had to stop giving her the antler's because she swallowed the last one that was just a bit smaller than a golf ball, she had whittled it down to that size. Don't know where it's at...it has either been digested or ??? She doesn't seem to be suffering from it, but she won't get anything like that again. Still got some cabbage to prep for the other dehydrator but my hands & feet need a rest...and MM will be home for lunch break before too much longer. I'll have this afternoon to get the cabbage in. Took a couple avacado's and one vacume sealed bag of mashed avacado's to our camping friend. She loves avacado's and couldn't hardly wait for us to drive to her house! Told her about the recipe I saw of using a sliced avacado "ring" and putting an egg in the center of the hole and frying it, flipping it over and doing the same on the other side. She said she was going to try that this morning for breakfast! I'd drizzle some EVOO over mine with some parmesan I think! Maybe even put a sliced tomato on it at some point! Yum, yum!

Edited by Philbe
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We take the roll out of toilet tissue and seal it up to have in our vehicle bags. It keeps wipes fresh and moist longer also. Small food packets for the vehicles are kept clean and dry this way. We use it too for dog food for the camper/van, and their travel bags, that stuff is so smelly. I just wish the rolls weren't so expensive, I'm thinking Costco has them on sale here this week though.

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Boiled a stock pot full of cabbage in vegetable broth with lots of salt, drained it and now it's in 4 trays dehydrating...I had to take a nibble...oh my what a treat! Also have 3 bags of finely chopped cabbage in deep freeze, and 2 more chopped in the frig for slaw tonight! Hands are yelling at me! Gotta go to the homestead after MM gets home to dig out some more jars to put these goodies in! My camping friend that we gave some of the avacado's to told me that in a day or two, she's going to have apples and maybe pears to share. Yum, yum! Funny how when people know you dehydrate (or can?) they "hand off" their "cast offs"! LOL

 

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Thursday...cleaned off dehydrators. 1 qt and 1 pt from 6 trays of boiled cabbage (smile) not counting the 3 shedded bags of raw cabbage in deep freeze and the 2 in frig (now 1 1/2 'cause we had slaw last night. Then 10 heads of celery = 1 qt. Already have worked up a heat wave in my body and glad the a/c is on! MM had a difficult day yesterday. Was trying to get a flow from a "stored" tub of foam insulation that his client had provided...it exploded all over his hands, the cabinetry of the apt., the appliances...everywhere. He's at a loss to how to get the stuff off! Told client storing tubes of stuff isn't good, but ... he'll work at removing the stuff ON OUR DIME...(frown). Says he should have insisted on a new tube. He scrubbed his hands with my pumice stone, tried acetone, then finally just applied petroleum jelly on his hands and put on a pair of plastic gloves for an hour or so. No real results. Maybe he can hand wash the laundry and get it off? (LOL) Somehow I don't see him thinking that is a good trade off, and will just live with "funny looking" hands for awhile! Abby's so good at peeling labels off water bottles (in a split second!) maybe we can get her to peel it off? Nope...might poison my dog! I'm rambling...need to head for the shower and get my kitchen in some sort of order.

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FrIday...brrrrrrr! Who ran off the sunshine!? Turned the furnace on and set thermostat to 60, heard it kick on about 2 this morning so knew it was pretty cold outside. When Abby woke us up to go outside, didn't take me long to grab by pj bottoms! Temp was under 40 (brrrrrr!) A local donor parked a truck full of freezer-type foods and had announced it for seniors and some others to come pick up a few items. Wasn't much...but it was free! A package of 2 steaks, a huge bag of all beef hot dogs, free breads & a bag of taters. What really astounded me was the number of seniors that stood in line behind us...and were really "mean mouthed". Told MM, can you image how mean these people would be if they were "really" hungry and "really" cold!? One elderly lady was using a cane, so we brought her up in front of us (we stood first in line...LOL) and made sure she didn't get trampled if they decided to start shoving. Another man grabbed a grocery cart and helped her put her stuff in with his and wheeled it to her car for her. Again...a very distinct difference in some people's attitudes. Some talked like they were "ready to fight" if anybody got in front of them. Got my little apple peeler out so I'm gonna give it a try sometime today. A month or so ago we had a festival here in town and we saw them use an apple peeler to make these wonderful potato "lai's" and am wondering if I can do it too! They were deep friend (one potato per lai) and tasted wonderful!

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Saturday...up REAL early to drive the 100 miles to meet some fellow thinkers for breakfast and then another short drive to a major gun show expo. Long drive there and long drive home. MM will be drinking Dr.Pepper like crazy coming home and I'll have some Mountain Dew...jazz us up and keep us awake! Abby will spend the day in her kennel outside...better than hunkered down in the van (even though she's got the whole back end of it to herself!). Don't want her to get so bored she chews the vehicle up! You know these Lab Brats and how mouthy they can be...

 

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Filled buckets with water (30 gallons in all), charged up the battery packs, have the coolers cleaned out and in kitchen in case they're needed, filled containers with water and popped in the freezer so we'll have thick ice packs for the coolers, apartment is clean, laundry done, food planned for if the power goes out and we can't use the stove/oven. New batteries in flashlights, crank radio at the ready, pepper spray tested out (likely won't need that but it makes me feel better).

 

It's not supposed to be that cold so heat isn't a worry, we can put on sweaters if need be.

 

Still need to make sure my husband gets the car gas tank filled (he often forgets).

 

I think we're set for the storm.

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We filled nine, five gallon, jugs with our drinking water today, and my friend thinks we are silly because it will get stale!!!!!! It will make the coffee taste funny she says. :groooansmileyf: At least there will BE coffee, I think to myself. :whistling:

 

It was a busy Saturday for me. I made ahead, 14 lbs of hamburger into taco meat and meatballs, grilled two large packages of chicken breasts, bagged a package of pork chops, and (Philbe made hungry for) guacamoli.(?) All put away for some easy eating.

 

Halloween treat bags for my bus kids are completed, and a baby gift was wrapped and taken to a shower this evening. I had to go into town about half an hour away to get the darn gift, because I forgot the shower was tonight, and then drive the same distance, the other way, for the baby shower.

 

The pots, pans, dishes, wrap scrap, and leftover Halloween monsters, are waiting around til tomorrow, this momma is ready for bed.

 

Dh told me to turn the bbq on high to burn off the chickens dregs, problem is he didn't tell me to turn it off afterwards! OOOOPPPPS! At least there was enough propane left to bbq a chop and potato for his supper.

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Sunday...it's so encouraging to me to know that there are people in the area of this coming storm, that have their heads on straight and did their preps a long time ago. All they'll have to do is wait things out (somewhere) and then replenish the preps they've had to use. We went to a an awesome gun show yesterday, over 1,000 vendors! Replaced some things we needed to replace, and also bought a Berkey bottle (we'll buy another this next weekend at the Preppers Expo we're traveling to), an awesome hand-carried knife sharpener, a couple of really neat T-shirts for $1 each that proclaim our love for our country, and lots of other "things" we needed. I'm not sure how this storm Sandy will effect us, but it's sort of freaky to think our area might be caught right smack dab in the middle of the forces of both the storm and the cold front! Going to the rifle range today, even though it's going to be quite cool. Taking Abby with us, she hasn't been around gun fire for several months. It will be good to meet up with some of our leaders there and share a meal....way back in the boonies (smile). We didn't schedule ourselves for the whole weekend because we wanted to go to the gun show, which was 100+ miles in the totally opposite direction of the firing range, which is about the same distance in the other direction! But...we'll be ready for the next one!

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Monday...setting here at pc checking on the storm sandy, drinking a cup of coffee, and praying that all my blogger friends are tucked in & safe...through it all. It's pretty cold here right now, in the 30's but is supposed to warm up and then dive down again tonight. Abby's curled up on her kong bed sleeping away. She's not fond of this cold weather either! LOL This will be her first real winter since she turned 10 months old 10-5-12 and the first winter we brought her home we kept her pretty much inside during the snow, and just let her experiment in the drifts. This year, we'll let her dive into winter, especially if we go snow shoeing. Went to the rifle range yesterday for a nice drive, but it was so crowded we didn't stay. We'll need to site in our scopes another day and a closer place to home than this one. Also we'll be joining our local rod & gun club since they have a rifle range, community building, swimming pool, and fishing lake etc. It's really a very nice place and the caretaker lives on site so it's kept in good repair. And, if we HAD TO...I imagine we could drag our trailer there in an emergency and do a few days of dry camping if we needed to. Son's apt. got a bit cool so we took him a cube heater before we left yesterday. Guess somebody (through the years?) and clamped off the gas line (maybe that's why we had the leak a week or so ago?) so MM will have to check it out...or, we may invest in another Edenpure. We have a small one that we use here (turning the house thermostat down to 60) to keep the livingroom warmer than the rest of the house. If we have to buy another, we'll probably buy a larger one for here and put the smaller unit in his apartment. Will be going to a very large preppers expo this weekend, a couple of hours away from here. Looking forward to it, we went last year also. We'd like to find some more like-minded thinkers in our immediate area but so far haven't been able to...or they're staying so low profile (like us) that none of us know each other. I think alot of our local churches are prepping amongst themselves though, and since we don't attend, we're "out of the loop"? Oh well, they might find they have more takers than givers...if stuff hits the fan. Learned that stuff the HARD WAY! Y2K...you ladies wouldn't believe the CRAP people brought to store up or give to the "less fortunate". Personally, if I'm giving to somebody, I want it to be at least as good as I'd eat or wear myself! Oh well, let's get Philbe off her rant...LOL

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Wednesday...feeling so sympathetic to the people on the east coast. Watching the news sometimes gets very depressing...just have to turn it to another channel. MM and I did some pillow talk for about an hour after we slipped into bed, and talked about how the repercussions of this storm would continue to surface for some time. People out of work. Restaurants unable to find foods etc. Gas stations not able to pump as usual. Shelters becoming stressed with people who have no way to wash their clothes or ??? People who didn't withdraw they money from the banks and now can't get to whatever funds they had to buy the things they're needing now. Sort of like a pebble you throw in a still pond...and the rings go out and out and outward...rippling until it disappears. We agreed that those who will hurt the most are the ones that made no preparation past a day or two and the ones who did, but had to evacuate...and lost it all. How does one prepare for total loss...of everything...unless you can pack it all up and leave? We discussed the need for us to be able to literally "throw everything" into the van, the truck, the travel trailer, the small work trailer and the big trailer and go...go...go...to a safe place. Son has a pickup also and we have an old cap that we could put on it in an emergency to keep things dry and needed to stay dry. Mom's car could also be packed down. But...we'd have to have advance notice. The people in the Joplin Missouri devastation didn't have hardly any time if any, and the destruction was so widespread that they'd have had to drive for miles to get out of the path of that monster tornado. I'm soooo glad to hear that all the friends here are safe and sound! Just finished putting up a tiny bit of applesauce from some tiny little apples that were given to me. Used my little peeler that MM got for me and it sure makes peeling, coring and slicing alot faster! Didn't mess with water bath for such a small amount, just stuck them in frig...they won't stay long! MM really loved the "rough cut" applesauce that I prefer to make, we even had a small bowl for our lunch dessert!

 

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Thursday...still observing the devastation of the storm on the eastern coast. Long gas lines...MM and I discussed this just the other night. Abby had to do a "time out" in her crate this morning. Decided she wanted to try her luck at jumping into our bed with us! That's a no, no! We love her, but she's not allowed on any furniture and not our bed...guess she was just thinking how warm and soft it would be to lay there with her human mommy and daddy instead of on her fleece with her pillow on the floor on my side of the bed...LOL Oh well, her crate has another of "her" pillows in it. It's so funny to see her "hug" her pillows and lay her head on them. MM is still laying laminate floor in an apartment for a client...sure is a tough job for someone over 60! But even though he's got his knee pads on and wears his back brace, sometimes it's just an "Aleve" night. Fixed homemade tortilla's yesterday so we could have bean burrito's for lunch. MM says they're alot tastier than store bought...but, perhaps he's prejudiced? LOL

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