Category Archives: What I Did This Week To Prep

What We Did To Prep 11/23/12

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As winter arrives again we took the time to get the cars winterized: checking wiper fluids, anti-freeze levels, putting the sleeping bags and extra warm clothes back in the car, replacing wipers, and ensuring ice scrapers are available. Many times when we discuss the SHTF we think of major disasters or apocalyptic events, but–especially this time of year–it’s useful to consider what would happen if the shit your it YOUR fan (SHYF). It’s far more likely that your car slides off the the road into a ditch and you’re stranded for a few hours (or overnight), than the Yellowstone Volcano erupting and changing the North American landscape as we know it.

We added a couple of additional 5-gallon cans of gasoline to our stores. After the shortages of gasoline following Hurricane Sandy (or any major power outage event), we decided a little bit more couldn’t hurt. As always, we added Sta-Bil so it will reliably last for a year or longer (for a refresher on storing fuel see my post, The Hassles of Storing Gasoline). I also realized that the fuel in my generator will be a year old in January, and that’s more difficult to rotate. I’ve decided, when it comes time, I will syphon it out into an empty gasoline can and then add it to the car’s fuel tank and then refill the generator with fresh, stabilized gasoline. Speaking of generators and storing fuel, a great resource for additional information is Steve Harris’ (from solar1234.com) interviews on The Survival Podcast: Fuel and Fuel Storage for Preparedness, Generator Show Part 1 – How to Pick a Generator, and the followup Generator Show Part 2 – Powering You House and Natural Gas or Propane Fuel Options. I learned a lot during these interviews, and I was pleased I was doing most things basically right already. I determined that the generator we have–a Generac GP 5000–is fine for now, but when we get our own place I’ll upgrade to a tri-fuel higher quality one, likely a Honda or Yamaha 10k+ watt one. Also I need to look into the PRI-G fuel stabilizer; it’s suppose to stabilize fuel for years and actually improve old fuel, that has began to separate from age, making it usable again.

Finally, we recently bought a pressure cooker/canner (one recommended by Homestead Fritz). This weekend we’re cooking up an additional two turkeys with plans to can the meat, in mason jars, using the pressure cooker. We’ve never done this before, heck we’ve never used a pressure cooker before, so it should be interesting and educational. But we really like the advantage of being able to add quality meat to our food storage that doesn’t require a freezer. If this works then we’ll keep and eye on the meat sales and can additional meat as it comes available.

What did you do?

 

What We Did This Week To Prep 11/9/12

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Since we’ve added a Ford F350 truck to our household we needed to get a bug out bag (BOB) in it. We’ve got top-notch ones in each of our two primary, daily use, vehicles; then a pretty good one in the Jeep CJ-7. We took the one from the Jeep and put it in the truck. Now Ryan (my 18 y/o son), who is now the primary driver of the Jeep, is in the process of building his own BOB. He has a Maxpedition Vulture II pack and we’ve gathered some stuff for his kit; he’s got a decent start and has made a list of items to round it out. It’ll be good for him to build his own BOB so that when he goes off on his own he’ll have his kit that he knows and has confidence in.

It was interesting seeing all the views of my blog during and after Hurricane Sandy. It got double the hits in that week than I get in an average month. It’s ironic how being prepared all of a sudden becomes “common sense” when a disaster is on the way (or after it has already struck…). It’s also interesting to see which posts people are searching/reading. In the near future I’m going to add a new page that has a list of all of the top viewed posts that people seem to find the most valuable. By far the most popular post during this time was How To Wire Your Gas Furnace To A Generator by guest contributor Rick Brodersen; it received hundreds of views daily. Plus Rick has been a great resource, he has personally answered each of the comments in the section and has been directly responsible for several people being able to heat their homes when their power was out.

Last spring Momma Bear wrote a post entitled Home-Made Reusable Sanitary Napkins. It was a valuable topic that may, one day, be very relevant to almost half of our population. Recently “Kate” wrote in the comments section of that post about menstrual cups. Her knowledge and experience were quite extensive and she wrote a great summary. I contacted her and asked her if she’d be willing to write it as a blog post for us and she pleasantly agreed. So Monday (10/12) I’ll post the first of her two-part article on menstrual cups; first-hand knowledge is always invaluable.

Well the time for having baby rabbits came and went. Apparently, despite some maternal indications, Clover was not pregnant. She did gain weight (though we fed her more thinking she was pregnant) and she did go through a nesting phase, but no babies. Apparently it’s not that easy to tell when a rabbit is pregnant, and determining it mostly comes down to experience and knowledge (neither which we have yet). So this weekend we’ll try breeding our other doe, Artemis. I’ve done some additional reading and feel more confident about how to maximize our chances of fertilization. Who ever thought breeding rabbits would be hard??

What did you do?

What We Did This Week To Prep 10/19/12

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We started off the week making salsa. After picking all the remaining tomatoes from our garden (red and green), digging up a couple of onions, and picking the last of the cucumbers (because they were there), we set to work cutting everything up. Last year was our first salsa making experience and though it came out pretty good, I wanted to try a new recipe this year. A couple of months ago I had seen a post on The Homestead Fritz – How To Make Great Salsa; there he mentioned that his coworkers described it as, “the best salsa they have ever eaten.” With that recommendation, I decided we’d give it a try. With all six of us cutting stuff up: tomatoes, onions, pepper, jalepenos, garlic, cilantro, and cucumbers (again because we had them, figured it’d make it more chunky) the process went fairly quickly. After everything was mixed together and cooked up, Sarah and I spooned the salsa into the canning jars (we didn’t have pint size so we used quart jars — but with the size of our family those will go quickly). Since Fritz didn’t mention it, we weren’t sure how much it’d make. We followed his recipe (our only addition was the extra cup of cucumbers) and we came out with three quarts of salsa, plus one 1/2 pint jar (that we gave as a gift to friends). Next year we’ll double it (or even triple, we like salsa), and use the pint size jars so we can share more with friends and neighbors.

My good friend, and fellow prepper, Mike recently gave us the book, So Easy To Preserve put out by the Cooperative Extension of The University of Georgia. Since we have very limited canning experience (blackberry jam and salsa last year) it came in handy reminding us of the steps involved in the water bath method. It’s a good reference book that thoroughly covers: canning, pickling, jellies, freezing, and drying.

Inadvertently, you could also call it busy or lazy, we had a small test of our store what your eat (SWYE) food storage. We normally shop every two weeks. Well life got busy, we missed a shopping trip, and we went a full month without grocery shopping. It’s interesting that with our food storage we really didn’t notice it all that much. Sure we were missing the items that have shorter shelf lives: fresh fruit, most fresh vegetables (though we were able to add some from our garden), and milk. Since we’re not big milk drinkers we’d just mix up some of the powdered stuff when we needed to add it to a recipe. Another item we would have been out of is eggs, but we have a local farm source that we get them from regularly so we didn’t go without. It was interesting how uninterrupted our daily food supply was; between our SWYE pantry and our deep freezer we had plenty. It’s nice to know that if we HAD to go that long it wouldn’t be an issue at all; that alone gives us a certain feeling of safety and confidence.

I’m happy to announce our fourth (and most likely final) regular blog contributor, Nick. Nick is a general contractor and a prepper who specializes in “Sustainable Improvements, Repairs, and Installations“. He will be posting the fourth Wednesday of each month (starting next week, October 24th), focusing on what we can do to make our homes more sustainable and keep them in good repair — from a prepper perspective. I’ve now completed one of my goals for my second year of blogging, to have a guest contributor for each week:

  • Week 1 – Rural Relations with Josh
  • Week 2 – Sarah’s View
  • Week 3 – Momma Bear
  • Week 4 – Nick

These four share really good, and varied, perspectives–different than I’m able to provide–that I believe will add value to both my blog and the prepper community. For more information about each of them, and a list of the posts they’ve written, there’s a link to Guest Contributors in the top right hand portion of the Home page.

Finally, I want to congratulate two of my closest prepper friends on additions to their families. From our prepper coffee group, both Mike and Rick had newborn sons this month! They’re both great dads who I know will raise their kids up to be “properly” educated, self-sufficient, and independent.

What did you do?

 

What We Did This Week To Prep 10/5/12

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Monday morning I bred our rabbits for the first time; it was relatively uneventful and went, essentially, as one would predict. We should have babies about November 1st, and then harvest them about February 1st. We’ll bred Mom #2 December 1st. This should establish a cycle where we bred one of our two mothers and butcher a litter, of approximately eight off-spring, ever eight weeks. If things go as planned, that will provide one rabbit to eat (approximately 2 1/2 pounds of meat) a week.

I ended Monday by going to my friend Rob’s house (where I got the female rabbits from originally and where I helped butcher more last month) to again help him butcher the current litter and to continue developing my skills and knowledge. I brought my son, Ryan, and had Rob teach him the process. After watching Rob, Ryan did three of his own; since there were fewer in this litter I only did one. Ryan and I are feeling relatively confident in our skills, we’ll probably help Rob another time or two before we do our own.

That day had a “Circle of Life” type feel to it: breeding to create life in the morning and ending life to provide food that evening. It was interesting to view, and participate, in the cycle first-hand.

Several months ago Sarah, along with her cousin, set a goal of getting in better shape. To do so they decided to challenge themselves by signing up to run a half-marathon. Sarah has never been a runner, and though she works out on a regular basis, this was a new thing for her. This past Sunday she/they achieved the goal by successfully competing the Bellingham Half-Marathon. She trained regularly and was well prepared for it and did very well, including accomplishing it within the time-goal they had set. Afterward, and in the days following, she felt pretty good; we attribute that to good sleep, nutrition, and especially hydration leading up to the race. Is this a prepper topic? I believe it is. A lifestyle that includes healthy and consistent: exercise, nutrition, sleep, hydration, learning, and achieving goals is the key to success now and will be even more important in a collapse.

Property update: We got the septic inspection (passed, all looked good), well inspection (passed, also looked good), and the home inspection (there are several things that need done, but the house is structurally sound) done this week. We approached the Seller with some items that needed repaired so  the house would appraise, and we were told they didn’t have the money or time to get it done and were unwilling to do it. This essentially stopped the process and at that point we chose to walk away. Maybe time, and lack of success, will make them more willing to negotiate in the future. We still love the property, the location, and the pole barn, and believe the house is fine for now and has potential for the future. But we want to be smart about this decision and approach it logically and as unemotionally as possible.

What did you do?

Momma Bear’s September Preps

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September has arrived and we are seriously looking forward to cooler weather! We decided to shut down the garden a little early in expectation of heavy duty leaf raking. I filled my two compost barrels with the old plant foliage and with the dirt from my container gardens (except the one I am waiting to go to seed). We will be augmenting the barrels throughout the winter with egg shells, coffee grounds, etc. The plan is to use the two barrels of compost to refill the containers in the spring.

As mentioned, my ham radio came and, as I thought, it’s complicated! But I am signed up to take my licensing classes next month. I even discovered that my town has a ham radio store!

Last week Trace mentioned the website aGirlandherGun.org. I met “Girl” at a mutual friend’s house where we had gathered to watch a football game.  Having never met her before, we were talking and something set my antenna buzzing. I finally looked at her and said, “Are you a prepper?” She is the first local prepper I have met! We had a great evening with lots of discussion about guns and self-protection. If you have not yet had a chance to check out Girl’s website, please do. She is a firearms instructor, and is also taking EMT courses with her husband. You will see that prepping is relatively new to her also, and for a very serious reason. Interestingly, Girl is the second woman fire-arms instructor I know (the other being Pistol Packing Ladies, LLC). So along that train of thought…the husband and I will be taking our gun class next week at the Nation’s Gun Show outside of Washington, D.C. This will allow us to apply for our concealed carry permits. Though neither of us have decided yet if we will carry, we want to at least prepare and get permits.

Lastly, I have moved fish antibiotics (see Trace’s post Antibiotics In Your Preps?), and books on medications, to the top of our prepper purchase list. This last week the husband “humped” out of the field with a very deep blister in the ball of his foot (If you are not familiar with this phrase, it means Marine Corps camping in which you train and hike 20 or so miles with a 70-80 pound pack, carrying everything you need to eat, sleep, and shoot). He had done everything right: changed his socks regularly, removed his boots to sleep, powdered his feet, etc. But he still managed to get one really deep blister. As a long time Marine and marathoner, my husband teaches others on the importance of foot care. Initially it looked okay, and there were no visible breaks in the skin. Medical opted not to drain the blister because it was so deep, saying he was “good to go” (military slang for fine). But within 36 hours his foot was swollen, red and angry-looking, and he was running a fever. It looked like he had a Fred Flintstone foot that was about ready to split open. We both knew he had a raging case of cellulitis and needed antibiotic treatment. Cellulitis is a bacterial infection which, if left untreated, can lead to a more serious–even life-threatening–type of infections known as sepsis. It can also be resistant to antibiotics, and it is not uncommon to have to take IV antibiotic treatment. In any event, my husband was fine once he started his antibiotics. I personally am allergic to a number of antibiotics, including the one he was treated with, so it is imperative for us to carefully stock the right antibiotics. This was a good reminder of how something as common as a blister can quickly lead to a serious health risk; imagine how you would treat this in a post-collapse situation…

What’s next on your prepper training schedule?

What We Did This Week To Prep 9/21/12

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Last weekend, Momma Bear went to a party at a friend’s house and met the woman who writes the aGirlandherGun.org blog. Neither knew the other was a prepper, until they started talking. This Tuesday aGirlandherGun wrote about the experience, on her blog, and mentioned that Momma Bear wrote for us here at TraceMyPreps.com. That day I got the second most hits ever on my site; then Wednesday topped Tuesday and became my ‘top hits day ever’ (previously my top day had been back in February when the blog was mentioned, and linked to, on The Survival Podcast). Since then I have been enjoying reading her blog. I’d specifically recommend her post, The Story which tells of her “conversion” to personal self defense and prepping. I have added aGirlandherGun.com to my blog roll and I’d encourage everyone, but especially my female readers, to check out her blog and see the passion she has about protecting herself and her family, and why.

Also, Sarah and I went to the Washington State Fair. We always enjoy seeing the livestock, but this year we especially enjoyed seeing the rabbits. Prior to getting ours (American Chinchilla Rabbits) we knew nothing about rabbits; the reason we got that kind is because we were given the name of a local breeder and that’s what he had. But as we looked at the ones at the fair, we were very happy with how ours compared in appearance, size, and temperament. We were also able to talk, somewhat intelligently, with a couple of the 4H breeders there. In addition to the rabbits we saw the momma pigs and their young piglets. We talked with the 4H girl who was with them and, after asking some questions, determined that in the future we will consider getting a couple of piglets in the spring and raising them to butcher the following winter.

(Because I don’t want to jinx us) I’m not going to say much about the house we made the offer on in Quilcene, except to say that an offer was accepted and everything is moving forward. Though there have been some rocky parts (and likely will be more) things are moving in the right direction.

Finally, we went to Costco. As we were unpacking I realized, that other than just back filling some things we had used in our store what you eat (SWYE) food storage, we didn’t get anything to add to our preps. This made me realize that, though we’re by no way done adding to our preps (is that possible?), we really have got most of the things we need and a lot of the things we want — at least that are available from that venue.

What did you do?

Momma Bear’s August Preps

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August has been madhouse crazy for us with plenty of work and personal commitments. We have not done as much prepping as I would like. BUT, when we are too busy for physical preps I can always use the time to learn new things. This month’s field of study focused on EMP’s. I found two sites to be particularly informative. The first, The Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse Attack, includes two reports that describe the recommendations for how we should prepare for an EMP strike. It is interesting to read,  because you quickly grasp that this report was essentially poo-poo’d by our government and we remain ridiculously unprepared for such an attack. The second is a website that talks about home-made faraday cages designed to protect small electronic devices. After reading this, my son and I built a small faraday cage out of an old microwave; then placed our small shortwave radio inside.

This month we also made a few purchases. Following Trace and Sarah’s lead, we ordered the Duracell 813-0807 800 Watt DC to AC Digital Power Inverter. For the time being, we have opted not to buy a generator and this will be our interim solution. With three vehicles, we can surely spare one to power some things here at home. My second purchase was a ham radio. We are absolute beginners with ham radios and are not really looking to broadcast (just to receive information from a distance in an emergency), so we opted for a small, inexpensive hand-held model. We ordered the BaoFeng UV-5R 136-174/400-480 MHz Dual-Band DTMF CTCSS DCS FM Ham Two Way Radio, for less than $60. There is a more basic model available, but after reading some reviews we felt this one was a better choice. All that said, even this basic model is a complex item that is going to take some research to understand. Thankfully, there is always the internet and YouTube to answer our questions. And, of course, once we get this thing mastered it will also be going into the faraday cage. Our goal is that eventually all the BOB’s will have either shortwave or ham radios in them as well. I will report back next month on how the ham radio learning is going!

Last for this month, I continue to harvest tomatoes as they ripen and can them as tomatoes, salsa or ketchup. We have finally gotten over the real HEAT of the summer here so the garden isn’t quite so “needy” any more. We currently have green onions, cilantro, and baby spinach coming up in containers. These are probably our most eaten/purchased vegetables so we are really enjoying the fruits of our labor at the moment!

How did your month go, and how’s your garden growing?

(Monday: September is National Preparedness Month)

What We Did This Week To Prep 8/24/12

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We are now truck owners! Sorta. We have a friend who attends the car dealer auctions in Colorado and we recently arranged with him to find us a truck. Yesterday he found one and bought it. Of course, we still need to pay him and pick up the truck from Colorado, but we’re much closer than we were. It’s a ’04 Ford F350 Diesel, 4×4, crew cab, long bed — exactly what we asked for. Originally we were going to Colorado to pick it up over Columbus Day weekend in October, but now we’re looking at going sooner (I try to be patient, but it’d be hard to wait that long). I’ve wanted a truck for years, but had never been able to really justify one. But since we’ve been so involved in our prepping, gardening, and building projects there have been more times we’ve needed one; I get tired of asking a friend to either use theirs or to help me out. It’s kind of a big deal too because we’ve been saving for it for over a year (so we could pay cash for it), it was also one of our goals for 2012. If we decide to go forward with the purchase of a 5th wheel travel trailer we now have the truck to pull it. And, if we ever have to bug-out, we have the space to bring a lot more stuff, and a vehicle that’ll have the best chance of getting us there safely.

In the garden, the cucumbers, squash, and tomatoes are finally producing and the other plants continue doing well. If the sun lasts a few more weeks I think we’ll be able to call it a successful gardening year. Either way, we’ve learned a lot and continue to improve.

Under the category of: There’s Not An App For That, this week we played a game of bocce ball with the kids and their friends. When I was young, playing outside was nothing worth mentioning–everyone did it–not so much now. We’re very informal with our bocce ball game, we don’t have a court, we just roll it through the grass. We played a mini-three way tournament; it was good to see the kids having fun with an activity that didn’t involve any electricity. If we ever do have a collapse–big or small–or even a power outage that lasts several days, lack of a normal routine and activities can cause additional anxiety. Plan ahead and incorporate board games, card games, and outdoor games into your daily life. This may sound trivial now, but in the future, creating a feeling of normalcy, unity, and just fun may be very important.

What did you do?

(Monday: What I Learned From Charlie In The Prepper Next Door)

What We Did This Week To Prep 8/17/12

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After I discovered the ease and convenience of recharging batteries, with our Goal Zero Nomad 7 Solar Panel and Guide 10 Power Pack, I decided we needed to expand out into the world of rechargeable batteries. This was a new thing for me, the rechargeable batteries that I was used to were the old fashioned kind that were expensive, didn’t last long, developed memories, and over-all not worth the hassle. The new kind can be charged over 1500 times and developing memory is no longer an issue.

I also recently learned about this topic on The Survival Podcast when Jack interviewed Steven Harris on Dealing with a Large Scale Blackout. Steven discussed how people could have been better prepared for the recent east coast power outage, and of course any future power outages, in some very simple ways with some very straight-forward products.

Steven Harris is a guru of all things ‘energy’. Yea he’s slightly goofy and tends to ramble a bit, but his knowledge and ability to easily explain the complex world of energy is incredible.

The products that he recommended–not his products, just ones he’s thoroughly tested and provided links to on his site: SOLAR1234.com–that we chose to order were:

  • Powerex Eight Cell Smart Charger (MH-C800S). An 8 AA or AAA battery charger that charges in one to two hours; it also has a large LCD screen showing the status of each battery. This will give us an easy, relatively low energy draw, way to have an almost infinite supply of battery power.
  • Sanyo 1500 eneloop 8 pack AA, and AAA, NiHM Precharged Rechargeable Batteries. (For use with the above charger.) We ordered one of each, Costco also carries these and we can get more there after we test them out. These can also be recharged with our Goal Zero Solar Panel and Power Pack.
  • Duracell 800 Watt DC to AC Digital Power Inverter (813-0807). It runs at 150 watts through your car’s cigarette lighter, or 800 watts when clamped directly to your car’s battery (comes with cables for each method). It has a display that shows: voltage in, voltage out, and watts (power) that you are currently drawing. With this your car becomes an improvised generator and power is stored in your car’s battery (800 watts is enough to power your refrigerator).

And the item we’re most excited about:

  • Trent iTorch IMP52D 52mAh External Battery Charger (for ANYTHING USB). It’s a portable rechargeable lithium battery that holds enough energy to completely charge a dead iPhone 3.5 times! We ordered one for both Sarah and I (and Sarah’s Dad, who happened to be here at the time). We’ve been searching for a product like this to add to our get-home bags (GHB) and this one comes very highly recommended. I plan on thoroughly testing, then reviewing the iTorch.

On another topic, we had to find a way to keep our rabbits cool this week. While I know we won’t get much sympathy from the rest of the country, it actually got hot here in Western Washington. We had temperatures in the mid-90s, which is really hot for us (keep in mind hardly anyone here has air-conditioned homes). To put that temperature in local perspective, I had a co-worker who would say, “Any time it gets above 80 degrees it’s god’s way of showing me what hell would be like.” Yes, the Pacific Northwest is temperate. Anyway with the “hot” temperatures we had to find a way to keep our (Western Washington, not used to the heat) rabbits cool. Sarah did some research and found one of the easiest ways is to put a frozen 2-liter water bottle into each of their hutches and they can lean against it if they get hot. It seemed to work well, the rabbits looked less agitated and seemed to be panting less.

What did you do?

 

What We Did This Week To Prep 8/10/12

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Prior to leaving on our vacation to Colorado last month, Ryan and I tried to get an automatic watering system for the rabbits in place. While I had never worked with PVC piping before it didn’t seem like it would be too difficult. The concept was easy enough but we didn’t take enough time to ensure everything was properly glued and that led to it leaking. We reverted back to the water bottles for a couple of weeks until we could get it fixed/redone. This week, with the benefit of our previous experience (isn’t everything easier the second time around?), we re-did the project using new PVC, better glue, and clamping the spouts in place while they dried; this time everything worked flawlessly. The project still isn’t done, I plan on putting “gutters” on top of the rabbitry roof to collect rain water, and eventually extend it to the lower level (when we add a second row of hutches). But the rabbits now have plenty of water and the 5-gallon bucket will only have to be refilled every week or so.

Ryan also made two more “pasturing hutches”. Essentially the same thing as the hutches they live in, but these were made without bottoms so the rabbits have access the grass, clover, and other assorted things growing in the back lawn. Previously we only had one so I’d get each rabbit out, one at a time for an hour each, to let them each graze. It was a bit of a hassle because I pastured them each day before I’d give them their store-bought feed (so they’d wake up hungry and maximize their opportunity to eat fresh greens), so I had to be around and move along each morning to get them all out and fed. Now I can just take all three of them out and let the eat at the same time. Much easier and smoother.

Per Momma Bear’s recommendation we ordered a new prepper book: Preserving Food without Freezing or Canning: Traditional Techniques Using Salt, Oil, Sugar, Alcohol, Vinegar, Drying, Cold Storage, and Lactic Fermentation.

Amazon describes it, in part, as:

Typical books about preserving garden produce nearly always assume that modern “kitchen gardeners” will boil or freeze their vegetables and fruits. Yet here is a book that goes back to the future—celebrating traditional but little-known French techniques for storing and preserving edibles in ways that maximize flavor and nutrition. . . this book deliberately ignores freezing and high-temperature canning in favor of methods that are superior because they are less costly and more energy-efficient. . . says in his foreword, “Food preservation techniques can be divided into two categories: the modern scientific methods that remove the life from food, and the natural ‘poetic’ methods that maintain or enhance the life in food. The poetic techniques produce… foods that have been celebrated for centuries and are considered gourmet delights today.” . . . offers more than 250 easy and enjoyable recipes featuring locally grown and minimally refined ingredients.

For those of you, okay mostly us, that were worried that we wouldn’t get tomatoes this year — we finally have a bunch of green tomatoes on our vines! We’re pretty excited about it and keep telling ourselves that our patience – in our temperate growing region – will pay off. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks we’ll be eating fresh tomatoes and maybe even canning the extras!

What did you do?