COVID 19 and your plans

[kickstand]

I tried, really, I did. A few years ago I tried raising chickens for meat and eggs. No matter what I did, it just didn't work out. For what I spent on supplies, I could have bought top-dollar Organic, Cage Free, golden eggs from chickens hand fed by the Dalai Lama. Unfortunately, my "Brown Thumb" gardening skills transferred directly to my livestock skills, and they had all crossed that Rainbow Bridge within 9 months after producing less than 4 dozen eggs in total.

I have finally found a local family farm about a mile from me that is willing to sell me "farm-fresh" eggs. I believe that it is just a small family that has some chickens, and have some extra eggs that they are willing to make a couple of bucks on. Yeah me! I hope to continue to buy from them even after the current crisis passes.

My question is: is there any washing / sanitizing procedure that I should enact for them? I got my first two dozen eggs on Friday. They all appear clean, I see no poop or other debris stuck on them.

[redman2006]

Eggs have gone through the roof here, if you can find them

We have a chicken plant here that just opened to individual sales. 40lbs of boneless skinless brest$40, low quarters, 40 lbs for $14. It is in a vacuum sealed bag and frozen.

Milk being dumped by the tanker load and can't be sold because it is not pasteurized.

Beef in not to be had in any form, but we do have a local small scale processing plant that is butchering, and we my buy from them, but our sheep, goats and pigs have us in meat for now.

Peanut butter and ramen are the things I hear people complain about with kids being at home.

Tp is Mia, but office supply stores have large cases online.

Paper towels for work are hard to find.

[W.Lynn]

Well they have talked our little corner of the world into panicking too, we have zero reported cases, no cases in any of the surrounding counties but the sheep have emptied the Walmart of every single roll of toilet paper.....toilet paper. Still plenty of water, food, even most OTC medicines but not a square of toilet paper, I'll never understand the sheeple mentality.

You do realize that for many people, a stay-home order means they're going to have to eat their own cooking. In many cases, for the first time EVER!

[kickstand]

Hole in my preps: Nitrile gloves. I usually have a decent supply on hand from Harbor Freight. Current supply = None. And that's not even the "one is none" kinda none. It's the none is none kind.

On the plus side, as I'm continuing to clear out the barn, I came across an unopened pack of 15 dust masks, a decent amount of various sized lead pills ready to be loaded, and a bottle of Honey Whiskey that the Mrs likes.

[RD]

In our part of the world, most people are parked at home. unfortunately I am one of those "essential" fellers who get to go out and play with the idiots. This area has started to see more infections most are from those who traveled out of the area. My route runs me from Topeka to Manhattan ks, Manhattan is up to like 10 at the moment. Yesterday my biggest shipping customer sent everyone home yesterday because there was a chance that an employee my be positive. That customer is bulk of shipments I pick up in manhattan and if they shutter, I may just get some stay at home time which would be bad. If all this continues for very long, I'm afraid my company won't survive. I will just cross that bridge if that time comes, until then I will keep doing. Today I will do errands for essentials fuel the truck for next work week, Liquor store, grocery store "G" usually does that chore but doesn't want to take any chances. I don't worry or can't about all of this, I do believe being watchful of ones surroundings and use of common sense goes along ways.

All take care

RD

[kickstand]

Congrats on 50 years! Please give my condolences to your misses.

Preps & holes: When we saw COVID really starting to spread, we went into self isolation on Feb 28 /29. We have left our property as little as possible since then. We have not even tried to go to Walmart or Sam's Club since then.

I took that bunch of bad canned food to the dump today, so I guess that I can call "food rotation" a major hole in my preps.

I'm torn about chickens. Half of me really wants to get set up and try raising them again. The other half tells me that it's just one more thing that's just another PITA. My last attempt was a major clusterfart. We're down to two dogs and one cat. Since this is the first year that we'll both be out of work, we can take those critters on vacation, weekend fishing trips in the mountains, etc. Adding chickens would really make that impossible again.

I am trying to find a local farm to source eggs from, but have had no joy yet. With COVID19, I guess that everyone else is too. I've put ads on Craigslist in both the Wanted and Farm/Garden sections, but have had no response to date. What I'm trying to set up is a relationship going forward, even after things get back to normal. Luckily, I've been able to buy eggs from the local Family Dollar store, so we haven't gone without. In fact, I went and got a dozen today. The store is asking that customers limit purchases of eggs to 1 dozen, as their stock is lower than usual. I can respect that. I still want to find a farmer.

I kind of feel the same way about a garden as I do about chickens. The last time that I tried growing anything other than weeds (yes, there IS an "S" on the end of that!) was in 2014. That was the year that we went to Wyoming in the summer. I had friends come over to take care of the dogs, and I asked them to water the garden, as I had chile and corn planted. They walked the hose right past the tilled and rowed garden and made sure that the bamboo growing on the property line was well watered, thinking it was my corn. It was 107°F out. The chile and corn didn't make it. But in all honesty, I can't say that it would have faired any better if I had tended it...my Brown Thumb is almost legendary.

So far, I think that the only thing that we've needed to go "to town" for was pet food. A 28 lb bag of dog food lasts us about 4 to 5 weeks. When we saw the writing on the wall at the end of February, we had just opened a bag, and had one in reserve. I went and bought another one, just in case. We still have 2 unopened bags.

Cat food, we buy it for 36 days at a time. I know that sounds odd, but 1 can does 3 days when mixed with dry food, and we buy 12 cans at a time. Although we had some, we got an extra 12 cans. I may have to get more before this is over.

We are almost out of paper plates. Certainly not the end of the world, since I was cutting down on using them before this madness. I bought an extra 6-pack of paper towels at the Family Dollar store a couple of weeks ago. We're just about to open it.

We are good on TP, for probably another 2 months. Luckily, we haven't needed to try to buy any since all this started, as I hear that it's still difficult to find. I probably should have checked the Family Dollar store today, but TP wasn't on my Mission Critical list for today, so I didn't even think about it. Yes, those Klondike bars WERE on the Mission Critical list, so hush!

I do wish that I had more hamburger and chicken in the deep freeze, as I'm about out of both. I guess that I'll have to survive on T-bones, NY Strips, beef roasts, various cuts of pork and racks of ribs that are still in good supply in that deep freeze.

Although still good on corn tortillas, I am currently out of flour tortillas. I should probably learn how to make them. Maybe...

Our Comrade Governor has asked that anyone out in public wear a mask. Not N95 masks, since Healthcare workers need those. Ok, I don't have any N95 masks. I, like everyone else in the world, will try to get some after a return to normal. I do have a few paper dust masks from Harbor Freight that I use when mowing, several Scott P100 screw-on type filters that I haven't found a respirator for yet, and one coveted 3M R95 mask. Hey, it's not N95, shut up! Oh yeah, I do have my Spy vs Spy style Israeli gas mask, but I'm not quite ready to wear that to the store yet. I wore one of the paper dust masks to the Family Dollar today: I was the only person in the store wearing any sort of mask. I think that I saw 5 people in the store, including the 2 cashiers.

[0utlaw]

Congrats Mr. and Mrs. fart, hopefully ya'll can have a make-up anniversary celebration after all this settles down.

As far as preps I would probably like to have had more hand sanitizer on hand but we have been improvising with a mild bleach solution. We have a limited supply of N95 but have not used any as of yet, we are in an area of very low infection currently (3 for our entire county) so we have just limited our outside contact and contact with high risk family members (we have a couple of nurses and a nurse practitioner) if things escalate we will get more aggressive in our prophylactic measures. Unfortunately we are both considered "essential" personnel so we have contact with coworkers each day and we don't know of or can we control their counter measures.

I'm still struggling with the whole "Essential Personnel" theory... the people who are non essential are sent home (with pay) and isolated from infection while people who are essential are exposed to infection every day. I guess the theory is when all us essential people are sick or dead those non essential folks will leave the safety of their isolation and give up those payments to stay home and do nothing to step up take the place of those they just seen get infected...or not.

[olfart]

We celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary at home with boiled shrimp, coleslaw, hushpuppies and cheesecake. Not quite what we had planned, but I guess it will have to do. I did give her a flower...
Jonquil.JPG

made from a piece of an old satellite dish.

[redman2006]

So how about it, has anyone found holes yet? Things they wish they would have done differently?

I would have laid in som n95 masks and hand sanitizer. Some spray lysol as well.

Finances are going to be an issue as wintry to keep my business solvent.

[redman2006]

Betty, good to hear from you. Several of the old crowd showing up. I can't remember what part of Montana you are in, but I am missing the highline about now. I have for a while, but this especially makes me wish I was back in the sweet grass hills.

[Betty Buckshot]

They shut Montana down as of tonight at midnight. 70ish cases in the whole state. WY has around 44 cases confirmed, but no tests available...so we have no idea. No shut down yet, but I keep hearing it's coming. Stores are out of a ton of stuff. Only 2 trucks / wk at our small grocery store, so you might find some things and not others. No big deal, unless you weren't prepared. I live alone and work alone in my office w/ only a few interruptions each day. It's really boring and lonely at home. Other than that, I'm doing fine. Wish I had internet at home so I could keep up w/ everyone better. Take Care.
Betty

[RD]

Always glad to hear that someone's preps are paying off. OORAH!
I have, once again, been deemed " essential personnel " so while I'm getting special duty pay I'm also in contact with A LOT of potential disease carriers everyday.

Outlaw welcome to the "essential club" although I not getting special duty pay bump.


RD

[0utlaw]

Always glad to hear that someone's preps are paying off. OORAH!
I have, once again, been deemed " essential personnel " so while I'm getting special duty pay I'm also in contact with A LOT of potential disease carriers everyday.

[kickstand]

Zef, it is good to hear from you, and that you're all ok. I'm glad that you are fairly well stocked. We're the same here. Other than going a bit stir-crazy, we are ready to ride it out for awhile.
Keep your eyes open, and be safe and well.

[redman2006]

Zeff, good to hear from you.

Locally, hand sanitizer, toilet paper, beans, hamburger, and rice are at 0 on the shelves.

I found out through a client what is happening to the to. They work at Walmart and walmart allows seniors an hour to shop before the general public. They are wiping out (pun intended) the tp stocks before anyone else has a chance.