I Scored Potatoes and Onions This Morning!

Onions and potatoes seem like odd things to get excited about, don't they?

Well, I'm the designated forager, so I hit the stores yesterday to pick up some milk, bread, and a few other things.  They were busy, but not absolutely jammed like they were on Friday.  Friday was hit by kind of a double whammy - not only were people stocking up for the coronavirus emergency, but the forecast for Saturday was for 3-4 inches of SNOW, piling one stressor on top of another.

I'd planned a St. Patrick's Day dinner for us - corned beef, potatoes, carrots, cabbage, and Irish soda bread, plus I wanted some rye bread and sliced Swiss cheese so I could make Reuben sandwiches with the leftovers.  Well, no potatoes, onions, cabbage, or rye bread most places.  Hardly any sliced cheese of any kind anywhere.  I did find one loaf of rye and a few onions.  I caught sight of some toilet paper, but it wasn't on my list.  Still no rice or dried beans - also not on my list.

I did get a little tickled walking down the boxed dinner aisles - no boxed macaroni and cheese, which I expected, but I also noticed that the shelves for Hamburger Helper were nearly empty!  I don't know exactly why I thought it was funny, but it just struck me that way.  Still plenty of ice cream and wine, though!

Anyway, I had a few potatoes at home, but they were starting to look poorly, so that was one thing I really wanted.  I was able to use those sad-ish potatoes with the corned beef because they would be boiled, but they wouldn't be good enough for roasting or baking or mashing.

Last evening the grocery ads arrived and looking through them, I saw POTATOES and ONIONS advertised!  So I planned to hit Kroger this morning.

I got to the store about an hour after they opened.  SCORE!

I was able to buy two five-pound bags of potatoes and a three-pound bag of onions, so we should be okay for those things for a couple of weeks.

The stores still have low stocks of many things, but the situation is improving - the supply chains are starting to catch up.  So be patient!  It's on the way!

The Heat is ON!

We recently experienced a typical home owner's emergency.

I intended to clean and fill the cats' drinking fountain and food bowls. What a mess they'd left! A puddle of water all around on the floor and under the mat that sits under the bowls and fountain. But no water ON the mat. Hmmmm... A mystery.

I got out a stack of old towels I keep for soaking up messes and threw some down. There! All gone! But wait. More water. What the heck?

It appeared to be coming from under the water heater. Just a little.

More towels. I texted That Man at work. I couldn't turn off the intake valve (I still have grip strength issues from the hand surgery), and The Boy had the flu and was completely useless.

That Man replied and asked whether I was sure it was the water heater. Well, there was MORE water on the floor, coming faster, and it was definitely WARM. I was using all the old towels I had in a crazy kind of relay - sopping up water with half of the towels, while running the other half through a spin cycle in the washing machine, then swapping them out. 

So he drove home to turn off the water and drain the heater, then returned to work.

I did some online research of a Big Box Hardware Store to get some idea of water heaters' costs, features, capacities, and exterior measurements. We had a 40-gallon heater, and the ones I saw online were the exact same dimensions as the one we had. No problem! Just call a plumber and have him install a new one. Should be an easy in and out, and take about an hour or two.

So I called, told them the size heater we needed, and they said he'd come out the next day.

The plumber arrived on time, removed the old water heater, said he'd have to braze some new copper pipe to get everything to connect, then came in and announced they had loaded "the wrong water heater" in his truck, so he had to send someone out to the distributor to get the right one.

Several hours later, here he comes in with a water heater on a hand truck. It was HUGE. Way taller than the old one.

"Wait, wait, wait!" I cried. "What is this? How big is this thing?"

Forty gallons.

"You're kidding me, right? This looks more like fifty!"

No, it's forty.

Then he explained that the shorter heater's diameter wouldn't allow it to fit in our allotted space.

I said I'd looked online and there were a whole slew of 40-gallon water heaters with the old one's exact dimensions.

Oh, those aren't as high quality as this one. It had more insulation, blah, blah, blah.

Then why have I never heard of that brand, and why does it only have a 6-year warranty? The old one had a 9-year warranty, and the ones online have 9- and 12-year warranties, and I've heard of those brands.

I just couldn't swallow that, said so, and didn't let him install it. I called That Man at work, and he talked to the plumber's supervisor, and aborted the process.  He's the BEST.

So I got back online, ordered a water heater from The Big Box Hardware Store, picked it up, and got it home before That Man arrived. After three more trips to TBBHS for assorted fittings, we had a water heater again, installed by us.

That extra copper pipe the plumber had added was too tall for the shorter forty-gallon heater, and just right for the monster he had brought in, which just happened to have the exact same exterior dimensions as the FIFTY-gallon heater I actually bought.

So we got a 12-year warranty instead of six, a 50-gallon capacity instead of forty, had hot water the next morning, and saved $600.00.

I think it was worth staying up until 2:00 in the morning to finish.

Emergency! Got Prepped?

I've recently gotten interested in emergency preparedness.  I've always been interested in being self-sufficient - vegetable gardening, sewing, knitting - you know, doing things for yourself, and not relying totally on the supply infrastructure.  But I read a couple of books (The Prepper's Pocket Guide: 101 Easy Things You Can Do to Ready Your Home for a Disaster, and Prepper's Instruction Manual: 50 Steps to Prepare for Any Disaster), and they've made me think.

I think about tornados, and ice storms, and local flooding.  I remember being without power for a week in January.  But everybody thinks about natural disasters.  What if your income dries up?  Or there's a medical emergency?  Or your house burns?  Or grocery stores can't get deliveries?  So many "what ifs!"

Here’s an interesting note – one of the first things I read in the emergency preparedness book was to DECLUTTER YOUR HOUSE!  Because when your house is decluttered, you will be able to get to your emergency exits (fire, etc.) and your emergency supplies (first aid kit, food, candles, generator, batteries, flashlights, etc.).  One more excellent reason to get rid of the STUFF!

Anyway, I bought a NOAA weather radio (at the grocery store, of all places!) and set it up.  That was pretty fast!  The most time-consuming part was editing which alerts for it to actually announce.  I didn’t think hurricanes or tropical storms or avalanche watches/warnings would be of much interest here in Indiana.  

The bigger (and more long-term) project was making sure there is enough food in the house to feed us all for a month.  The first step is to KNOW what you DO have.  Oh dear. 

Because our house was originally built in the mid-1950s, the kitchen is a decent size, but there is a lot of wasted space, and really, not much cabinet space, so I had put a metal shelf unit and some rolling wire basket carts in our utility room, elegantly renaming this hellhole our “pantry!” 

The shelf unit sat perpendicular to the wall, alongside the furnace.  The carts were lined up along the wall.  That was so “everything would be accessible.”  Well, that was the original thinking, but it really WASN’T.  Stuff got shoved to the back of the shelf unit, and lost in the baskets.  And I never knew how much I had.  Another place we store food is in a corner carousel cabinet in the kitchen – a dark, scary place where things also get shoved farther and farther back until they languish and expire.  UGH.

So, I started Friday evening.  I rolled all the wire basket carts into the kitchen.  Two are small with fixed baskets.  One is a little larger, with pull-out drawer-type baskets.  One is much larger, with pull-out drawer-type baskets.  Most of them were less than half full!

I took everything off the metal shelves and piled it on the kitchen counters.  I dusted and washed the shelves.  I moved the unit out and cleaned the floor where everything had been sitting.  I put the unit back, but this time along the wall.  Amazing.  I can get at everything on the shelves without reaching way back and knocking things off behind!

I went through all the stuff from the shelf unit and threw out everything beyond its expiration date.  I threw out heaps of stuff, which left LOTS of empty space!  I filled up a couple of trash bags by the time I was done.  I took a marker, found the expiration date for everything and wrote it in an OBVIOUS location on each item.  I sorted the items by what they were, and then sorted them by the expiration dates.  I pulled all the canned goods out of the carousel cabinet and did the same to  them.

I’ve been collecting 12-pack soft drink can packages for this project.  I cut a hole on the top on the package at the back for loading them, and put a label on the front of each one.  Then I loaded the date-labeled canned goods into the packages, oldest first.  I lined them up on the shelves.  Now I have can dispensers!  I can see what’s supposed to be in that location, and how many there are.  A 12-pack holds six 15-oz cans of veggeis, etc.  It would probably hold 12 of condensed soup cans.  It won’t hold the larger soup cans (they’re too tall).  So I have a package of diced tomatoes, one of corn, one of cream style corn, one of stewed tomatoes, etc.   All very organized and neat.  I put all the unopened cereal boxes on the top shelf.  I put other boxed stuff on the second and third shelves.  All the canned stuff is on the bottom 3 shelves. 

I really didn’t get to the wire basket cart things.  (That Man and That Girl came home early from his drag race – he lost first round – RATS!)

But I was fixing dinner, and got something out of the one other (wall) cabinet in the kitchen where I keep some food.  I pulled another item out, looked at the expiration date, and pitched it.  Um, about ¾ of the stuff in that cabinet got the heave-ho.  It’s looking pretty empty!  That wasn’t even part of the plan yet – it just happened.

I didn’t get to the bottom shelf of the carousel cabinet, but oh my!  What an improvement!  The stuff I organized, I can SEE – ALL OF IT.  And it will all get used – first in, first out!  I’m going to put things in there that I only keep one or two of – syrup, cooking oil, olives, Tabasco – that kind of stuff.

The next step will be to empty those wire basket carts and either put them to use somewhere else, or GET RID OF THEM!  I’m going to keep the big one.  It fits along the wall next to the shelf unit perfectly, so nothing will be blocked.  Everything will be truly accessible. 

Then I will seriously tackle the CHEST FREEZER.  Oh my.  The Black Hole of Calcutta.  Not good.

Pray for me!