Another trip to the LDS Cannery this past weekend

For those who don’t know, the LDS Cannery is the storage house of the Mormon Church. They have them all over the country. You don’t have to be Mormon to go and buy bulk food stuffs. The prices are unbelievably good, the folks are always really nice and its a fun shopping trip. We went this past weekend and added to our little supply of foodstuffs.

We got 75 lbs. of flour, 50 lbs of red wheat berries, 50 lbs of white wheat berries, 25 lbs of dry milk, 25 lbs of white beans, (we eat a lot of bean soups and such and below this I’ll tell you a funny story about beans. lol), 25 lbs of mashed potato flakes, 25 lbs of oatmeal, 12.5 lbs of hot cocoa (25 lb bag but I split it with a friend), 25 lbs of rice.

We’re doing what we can, when we can, and I’m not making myself hysterical over it. You do what you can and anything you do is better than doing nothing. I’m learning this as I go and trying to be a non-panic prepper. Honestly, some things you see on the internet are, I swear, meant to make you a freaked out, hysterical panicked person. bah!

Course, I’m still packaging. lol. They were out of mylar bags and oxygen absorbers, but I paid for them and when they come in I’ll get them. I’ve had good luck getting 5 gallon buckets from the Price Chopper bakery and a lot of the things are being put in to those with bigger oxygen bags. Then, just in case, I wrap a bit of duct tape around the lid in case it didn’t seal quite all the way.

I also found the pressure canner I wanted to get. I know a lot of you get the really big one, but I don’t do as much canning and wanted the smaller one. I bought the 16 quart presto pressure canner. It’s plenty big enough for my canning needs, and more than enough space for anything else I want to make in it, like roasts or stew. It does the 5, 10, or 15 lbs of pressure, so I’m very happy with it.

After looking at a lot of different models, I’ve also picked out the grain mill that I want. It’s the Wonder Junior Deluxe Grain Mill.  It does everything that I want a grain mill to do, or may ever want it to do and it’s in the price range that I’m able to handle. I’m really excited about it. I won’t be able to get it for a few weeks yet, but I keep watching the video of it and enjoying my choice vicariously. lol.

I also did some ordering from Augason Farms. They also sell bulk food items, but different kinds of stuff. I like that they also sell everyday sized cans of stuff so that you can try it before you invest in a #10 can. We found some soups called Bear Creek. They’re dried/freeze-dried soups, stews, etc that are good for camping, backpacking, or even bug-out bags. We found them on sale and decided to try a couple. I was shocked at how good they were, especially since the “meat” wasn’t really meat but that tvp stuff. Even my sweety liked them, which is really saying something. So… since we liked those we decided to try more of this vegetarian “meat” tvp stuff. So we bought, from Augason Farms, a small can of beef flavored, bacon bits and chicken flavored tvp. We also ordered some powdered cheese, a small seed vault (very small, but it’s a start),  5lbs of red kidney beans (they were on sale and I love them), butter powder, and something called honey powder that sounded just too yummy not to try. I’ll let you know how they all taste as I try them.

I bought some plants for my garden (yes, flowers <grins>) to replace the ones that I know will have to be sacrificed to un-grass my poor garden. Sad, but necessary. I bought most of my seeds and am planning a mostly vertical garden this year. I just have to finish buying all the stuff to make towers and teepees. I’ll keep you all posted on that. I’m not started with it all yet because we’re still getting freezing and below freezing weather here at night. We don’t generally plant up here till May anyway.

I’m going to start putting up recipes again since they seem to be so popular on my site. Hope you all enjoy them!

Walked around the yard today…part 6

Here is an update on what’s happening in my yard. I’m really enjoying doing this series, I must say. I think my photography is getting better and as you will see, I’ve been playing with some things.

These daisies are the ones I told you all about earlier. They are now blooming and spilling out of the garden and into the driveway. I won’t let the sweetie mow them, though. I’ll transplant some of the clusters after they are done blooming. The purple in the background are Garden Phlox. Those are the tall ones, not to be confused with Creeping Phlox, which I also have a lot of.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have these beauties all over my yard. They are so easy to replant anywhere you want a splash of color. They are really this brilliant a yellow, also. They make me smile when I see them blooming.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My favorite time of the summer is when my Hall’s Honeysuckle is in full bloom.  I have tons of these and the yard smells so beautiful you just take huge sniffs when you are out there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are both Garden Phlox blooms. I picked one and put it in a tiny little blue glass bottle. It’s sitting by my computer and it’s just so cute I had to share it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I forget what these are called, but I’ll find out. I have them in two colors. They’re doing great in containers. I think they’re annuals, which I don’t do a lot of, but for my containers they’re perfect. I love the soft pastels they come in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And right next to my masses of Hall’s Honeysuckle are my red raspberries. I don’t know the variety because they were a gift from a friend. They came out of her mom’s garden and are an heirloom variety. That’s all I know, other than that they are large and YUMMY! This is my third year with them and I’m already having to keep an eye out for escapees. I’m trying to keep them a LITTLE contained in an area. lol. I have two clumps of these and both are massive this year with literally thousands of about to ripen up berries. I can’t wait. It’s gonna be jam time this year! This is the first red one I’ve seen. It’s not ready yet, but it’s letting me know to get my berry bowl ready!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When we bought our house it had been terribly neglected. Virtually nothing had been done to the landscape to make it look pretty. It didn’t even have its shutters on. We couldn’t wait to see what came up in the summer though. Someone apparantly liked Daylilies because we have hundreds of them everywhere. They’re almost all these pretty orange Tigerlilies. There are a few in the back that I “think” are Asian lilies, but not sure. Anyway, they are just starting to bloom. These are one of my sweetie’s favorites in the yard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is another of my Peonies. The ones that are blooming now are almost pure white with just the barest hint of pink in the interior. I just had to take a shot of this one. It looked so pretty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This year is going to be a flowering year for my Yucca plant!  It seems to bloom every other year, or every two years. The flowers are so cool and pretty. I’ll be sure to put up pics of them. Funny thing about this plant…  a friend gave it to me in the beginning of summer. I put it in a bucket with lots of water. Honestly, it was a ragged looking thing and I forgot all about it. It sat in the bucket with all the rainwater and stagnant water and stank. But it still showed signs of life, barely, so I planted it finally in the fall. I really didn’t think it would survive the winter. For one thing it was pretty crapped out looking when I planted it finally. For another I thought yucca were a hot climate, deserty plant. It’s not gonna like winter up here.

Lo and behold, the next summer it was up. It’s been flourishing and in fact is getting HUGE. I may have to look into how to trim it back. But in the meantime, here it is, ready to blossom. yay!

So there you have it; what’s happening in my yard right now. Stay tuned for part 7!

Walked around the yard today….

and found these! Enjoy!

This is a Bleeding Heart bush. I put it in last year for just that spot. I hoped it would last through the winter in the barrel since it didn’t get put in till the end of the summer and it did! I always wanted one of these.

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This pretty blossom is from my little apple tree. I have big ones, too, but this is my little Winesap Apple Tree. So far I get 2-3 apples from it. I read an article on a blog somewhere about framing your topics and using the 2/3 rule. I’m trying it out on a couple of these. I love how this came out.

Remember those pots I painted on the tops of my fence poles earlier this spring? See “Have Pots will Paint” if you missed it. Well here they are with the Barberry Bushes filling out and growing. If anyone tells you Barberry grows quickly…don’t believe them. It took about 4 years before they started to really take and grow to any extent. Now they go like gang busters and I want to prune them for shaping this year, but I like how the pots sort of peep out the top. This will be even more so later on in the summer, but you can see what I was aiming for even now.

 

 

 

I wish the guy I talked to before I bought 25 of them had known they were deciduous. I wanted something evergreen to form a hedge as fencing on that side of my yard. I’m still looking for something I can put along my fences that will be evergreen other than boxwoods or junipers… neither of which I really care for. Perhaps willow hedges. They grow REALLY fast.

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Lastly, these are growing in the barrels with my Stella D’oro lilies. I know I planted them but for the life of me I cannot recall what they are and the little tag I usually leave with stuff is gone. Anyone have any ideas?

Think that’s it for now, but I’ll have more soon I’m sure.   Checking on my cakes!

 

Living Green on a String – March 19th, 2011

Image via Wikipedia

Homemade “Grow Juice”

This sounds pretty interesting. It makes sense that it would work and once you had all the ingredients, it would last a really long time. Think I’m going to try it this summer.

Let me know if you try it, too, and how it works out.

Living Green on a String – March 19th, 2011.

Beautiful Fall Display

Clematic Paniculata.

These are turning out to be stunning a stunning display of blooms. I planted them last year and they didn’t do much last fall, but this year, they are more than making up for it! BTW, all the piccies in my posts are thumbnails and can be clicked on to see a bigger version of it.