Life’s Lemons

                             

    I tell you what, life has been dealing Americans so many lemons recently and the last year. If you’re supposed to make lemonade out of lemons ..... well.... you better get your life preservers and boat oars out because we’re in for one heck of a dang lemonade flood!
What is the correct recipe for all these lemons?!
    America has been blessed for so many years and we have had so many good worry free (well for many people) years of no serious worries we haven’t a clue how to deal with these adversities.
    Texas has been the main news at the moment. Senseless dumb ways folks and even their pets and animals are dying because of not being able to think clearly to avoid death. Someone up north would be more prepared to stay warm or keep water from freezing. They are acclimated to those conditions.
    Southern people can deal with heat better usually. The individual people are at a disadvantage. The people in charge of the grid, water supply, and natural gas are paid to keep up with all possibilities no matter how remote of the adverse things that could happen.
    Those rose colored glasses on many I’m sure are flung aside. It’s proven once again you can’t count on the governmental structures running all things providing our comfort and safety.
    For those that survive learn from this and don’t ever let you and yours be caught with your pants down. See what went wrong for your family and plan as quickly as possible to not only correct it but never let this be repeated.
  If you have time to listen to a famous prepper he has a webcast he talks a little slow you can up the video speed one notch and it helps. For those that don't want to take that long he has it in print.
    I know it's a bit after the fact but this website has a list of 15 things this well known prepper person learned during his ordeal with the Texageddon event in central Texas.
https://www.afinalwarning.com/498260.html
 Chickens for some folks are just food. Other folks they are pets and even entertainment watching them be silly. All your animals need a better than what you think they need for temperatures in your area. You are protecting your food source folks!
   I wish I had another dependable heat and food prep source.
  We had entertainment with the snow. I wish I could get the video on the blog of a snow white 80 pound pit named Frosty running like a race horse in the snow! Man she's fast! She blended in so good you just saw a white streak moving until she got close. Hubby managed to slip and fall flat on his back getting into the house after a dentist outing. I missed the show. It sounded about like what you see in the cartoons. He was just sore the next day. Me... I was holding on to the side of the truck with both hands carefully getting out. I did what you might call the almost splits.. you know when you do the splits just enough to hurt the hips?LOL  Then another day I was going out to the truck and I was standing outside of the roof drip line so I wouldn't get wet.... Low and behold a great big load of snow slid off the metal roof along with a few icicles and landed full force on the back and shoulders. It was a pretty good thump but more surprise than anything. I started laughing and hubby was in the truck laughing also. I took my jacket off to shake off the snow and succeeded in having my snowed hair fall off under my collar making me do a dance to get that cold stuff off. I mean sometimes life can be a bugs bunny cartoon! We laughed off and on for 15 minutes every time we thought about it.  
    The weather is getting nice now staying into the 60's+ a little while during the day. We actually have some sunshine! I'm sitting out on the east side of my house in the mornings about 10 am soaking up some vitamin D and wonderful light rays my body needs to function properly.
    Today I cleaned out 2 big red plastic tubs as big as a half barrel the son in law used for mineral / protein cow licks. I am going to experiment with growing some potatoes in them. I tried a little last year and learned I have a critter that likes to climb in and dig them out so I am going to find some nice looking wire and protect the plants so that doesn't happen.
   I think I am going to find some rechargeable batteries to use so we don't have to worry about always purchasing more. I would like to find some solar lights also although the last few weeks have been so gloomy I can't imagine they would have worked. When the electric goes off something like that might come in handy. Interesting experiment in the house for sure. LOL
     I am putting together some information on just how much food a group of adults of 4, 25, or 50 or even 1000 would need to have to function for a year. We have too many things disrupting our food chain to not take a good hard look at what people need to do to be ready for crazy weather, upside down government baloney or even the supply chain disrupted from something as simple as a computer glitch from hackers.
    Something like Texas shouldn't happen anywhere. People can't count on the normal shopping habits and delivery supplies any longer. Even the darn government shutting down businesses ! So it is a plandemic this time what other things can they come up with I don't even want to imagine.
It's another Fooled Us Once shame on you!
Fooled Us Twice shame on me!

Ok I gabbed enough... I made a good flourless peanut butter cookie I will send in soon.

Love
Ranchmama

Weather! Ground Report 2-18-21

 

Are we having fun yet? LOL
  My Mother In Law would hear about bad weather coming and for years be it thunderstorm or tornadoes or freezing weather she would make sure all her laundry and dishes were done. Have some extra water jugs filled and the batteries were good in the flashlight. She was born in 1921 rural Oklahoma. Things were way different then. She was the oldest of 8 and she became the second mother to the other 7 kids while mom was in the fields working. Needless to say she saw a lot of stuff and I am sure she learned her cautious ways due to those things. I too am becoming wiser and more cautious and learning from our current happenings.
    We thought we were in good shape around here. When we heard bad weather was coming we started up the generator to make sure everything was working and fuel filled up. Oklahoma had a class 3 emergency power thing happen and the people in charge of the power grid was doing rolling blackouts to conserve electric energy so a bunch more people wouldn't be without power. Well I guess they thought we are in a good spot to do that. We were without power for 2 hours. It was dang cold too! Hubby went out to start the generator and it wouldn't do it. We just bought a jump pack ( a portable battery jumper starter thing) and he hooked it up and still couldn't get it going. He pulled out a can of starter fluid and after a couple of times it got it going. This generator isn't brand new but it is in good shape and for sure not a piece of junk! It was all about how cold it was the reason it wasn't working.
          We turned off the central heat and pulled in some small electric heaters. We were comfortable but didn't want the house to lose any stored up heat. We had been leaving the sink doors open since they are next to a outside walls. The only real problem we had was I had washed a load of clothes to try and do it before things got bad.... Well they washed all right and drained right into the garage! That drain for some reason isn't going into the septic tank but somewhere else. It froze up where it drains and so it went the only place it could... in the garage!
   When we heard the electric was back on we unhooked everything and flipped the switch to the house to have electric again. The breaker wouldn't stay on! No matter what! dang! We thought the power fluctuation may have blown something. Son in law is also a electrician so he looked at it. Turned all the breakers off then turned the main breaker on it would stay on then. He flipped everything back on and it all worked great. The breaker was good but we decided to get another extra to have around for just in case. 
   Nikki's house is about 115 years old. It has been restored and preserved well. The only damage it has had is when the earthquakes were coming around here and messed it up royal. I think all that has been fixed. Still it has a underneath part exposed to air even though blocking all the holes. They left the faucets running the way your supposed to but still things froze up even with everything blocked off underneath. Her hubby had to get some kind of heater he used when working on the pipelines and blow the heat under there. Finally got all but one working I believe.
   Went to the local grocery store on Monday. A day before their normal delivery this is what the store looked like. They said it's people stocking up before the storm.

      

Veggies like potatoes and onions etc. were not there.
Eggs, butter and other like things were totally gone.
You can see how everyone liked sodas
the meat section.... if you look at it... nothing is stacked up. It is all single lined and spread out to look like more is there.
The bread isle wasn't much better.
I went back on Wednesday(after delivery day) things were filled up much better. Still some end caps at end of isles were totally empty. There were NO EGGS IN THE WHOLE TOWN for sale! I think I got the last medium sized eggs limit 1 dozen there. Milk was limit 1 also.
     Speaking of eggs. The people that have chickens have eggs that are cracked and frozen. So what does that say about what the chickens are enduring? Most people in the southern USA are not used to these temps. They don't have protected area's for their animals to be that are warm enough for these kinds of conditions. (Better get ready I think we are in for a lot more in the future)
  Soooo.... We are doing good. We could go to town on the roads with 4 wheel drive. Put extra warm stuff in truck for us and dog if things went sideways. I am going to order some powdered eggs and egg whites. I was going to do the egg whites for baking anyway. I never can remember to use the left over yolks when I make recipes just needing whites (what a waste). It is hard to have enough of everything around when things go sideways. I didn't have to pull out the kerosene lamps thank goodness but I have extra fuel and wicks if needed. I want to get some strong solar lights to use in the house if needed sometime. I would love to have a outdoor kitchen for fun and emergencies but look at this weather! You think I want to be out there cooking in -13* weather with a wind???!!! It would have to have some shelter or something with it. Garage propane tank will only last so long on the grill. It would probably be easier just to gin up the fireplace and cook on it. That's almost fun other than finding someone to haul the wood in.
    Everything else is doing good. Son in law is taking good care of the critters. Here is a funny. He was burning a brush pile since there was snow on the ground and look at what the cows did! Keeping warm by the fire! LOL

 

Love
Ranchmama
(Perfect baking weather! Make good food and keep the house warm also!)