Weird Weather...at least for Arizona

So about a week ago it was 97 degrees. Today it was in the 50's and will supposedly drop to 34. What the heck is that? It's not even really supposed to get to the normal temps of 100 until the end of May. That is very unusual for AZ because normally we are making Easter brunch in shorts and tank top. This weather has been really conducive to me getting in some last minute seeds.

Mr. Man went to pick up 2 bags of compost about 10 minutes from here. We decided to try this guy out since we saw a big sign in front of his ranch looking property that said "We Sell Compost". Well it turns out that he only charges 3 bucks a bag and by my eyeballing technique it looks pretty close to 3 cubic feet. I woke up this morning and decided I was going to move the plants. I totally did not expect those seeds to germinate the way they did and then they grew crowded. So it is pretty now or never with the dang things. That's not based on anything scientific - I just know if they get any stronger I might manhandle them and break the roots. It pretty much took me 5+ hours - to mix the organic soil and compost, and then separate and re-pot all the little seedlings and while I was doing that I just did a single filter on the rain water to get the big stuff that came from the drain. Some of them look a bit tired. Some of them look surprisingly strong. Let's hope the combination of the compost and the overcast sky will let me have something to plant. Basically, now is the time to learn, since our food doesn't depend on it.

I even separated some of the seedlings into cups so I could give them to a couple friends to plant in their gardens. What will it hurt to encourage others to increase their gardens? I also peeked at the other seedlings the spinach decided to show up, the greenbeans are doing well, and the sweet peas are peeking through the soil. And I have one pot I completely forgot what it is. The amount of tomato and chard seedlings I have is ridiculous. I just hope they make it.

It's kind of good being OCD - at least this kind of OCD because it's productive.

Ghetto Garden Update - wk 2 April

Well...I guess my thumb isn't as black as I thought.

However, I do want to thank:

Praxxus55712 & Artnuwa11 from youtube: for kicking me off with the heirloom seeds, advice and encouragement. Keep doing what you guys do - you make such a big difference to gardeners both new and experienced!

Mushroom and Poison Ivie: for seeing me through the first set of seedlings I planted, drowned, and lodged. LOL. Thank you ladies - you are inexhaustible wealth of information and encouragement




Cherry Tomatoes - they came in full force just the other day I have no idea - I originally had 1 or 2 seedlings breakthrough the soil and then the other day i counted above 15. I may have gone a little overboard and put too many seeds in there.



The jubilee tomato (fat and yellow) had come up with 3 sprouts about 5 days ago and last night there were 4x that original amount.



The cucumber are doing ok - about 9 plants.



I was happy with the 4 or so seedlings that originally sprouted last Sunday and within the last few days there are about 15 and some slow ones coming through as well






Of all the seeds I planted I think the butternut squash was the most cooperative and even made it through a few days of 98F' but...





But I was most surprised to see them increasing in size and pushing out more leaves. Also there's some weird little rogue seed growing in there - I think it's Spinach - I'm just going to let it grow.



We definitely had some fatalities in those 2 super hot days. We had 8 pretty goodlooking yellow bean plants but we lost 5. Well maybe lost 5.



The leaves fried off but it looks like there are more leaves pushing through so I'm watering them as usual and giving them a chance to grow - it would never hurt to have more beans right?



I had written off the Chard as dead - but in an act of faith I kept watering the little guys and now I have 12 seedlings.



I threw these blue lake in there on Monday afternoon before Lit class and you can't really see it - but 2 of them have already turned and the white sprout is breaking the soil.



Same time that I threw in the Blue lake green beans (Monday) I threw these dwarf sugar peas into 2 pots. I picked them up at a little shop next to the thrift store and they said American Heirloom Seeds. I figured what the heck - it's 3 for $1. And three seeds are sprouting towards the sky already. Oh boy.



The sweet pepper was also fried by those very hot days and I still watered them just in case and now they are back - just 2 seedlings but hey you never know!



The greenpepper decided to join the party too. Who knows - maybe I will get sudden growth too.
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We are having a FREAK cool spell in the desert right now. Normally this time of year is in the 90s if not 100s. After checking the 30 day weather report and some coaxing from the APN ladies I decided it wouldn't hurt to throw in some more seeds and try to catch the growing season. I know people will say OH you plant them to shallow - well my thinking is this - I am forcing the roots to grow outward so they are a stronger plant that can make it in "shorter" soil. So far it's working - as soon as they grow an inch, I add more dirt and so forth. So far it's working.

But now we have a problem, I honestly did not think they would grow like this - so we are going to have to add raised beds to our bucket planting. Who knows. Just another adventure i guess.

Stay tuned and cross your gardening gloves for me.

Last 2 Hauls - Prepping After the Walmart CEO tries to spook us.

Hello Everyone!

These are my last hauls from Monday and today. As most everyone knows the Walmart CEO came out over the weekend to advise that there will be substantial price raises at Walmart and all retailers and to expect severe inflation by this summer. Now mind you they've already been adding 1-2 bucks here and there the last 3 weeks. So I know those Waltons are going to put the hurt on us. Even if it may not cost them more they will still charge us more to make the cross board inflation even MORE profitable for themselves.

I read quite a few blogs, forums and watched some youtube vids of people giving accounts of how prices have gone up and walmart shelves emptied quickly over the weekend and I really had to stop myself from getting in that weekend fray and get something for our preps. I decided to take it as a challenge and see what would be left on Monday and how could i fill the gaps.

The APN chat was discussing salt. We have a lot of salt already - well what I consider a lot - we had about 5 containers of iodized, 2 containers of pickling salt, 20 containers of italian sea salt and some other gourmet good but useless salts. Well someone said, "traditionally salt has always been one of those trade items in a depression" Supposedly you are supposed to have a few grams per person per day. I always kept a little extra because I expected to salt meat and such - and more recently I added the pickling salt to go with my canning.

Since everyone went bonkers over the weekend buying sugar and flour and canned stuff - I decided I would pick up salt and chocolate type products.



Iodized salt was .39 cents for a standard canister of 1lb 10oz.
I picked up a case.



Baby corn was about .79 cents the vitamins and antibacterial wipes were about .95 cents. I also found something new - Campbells double noodle chicken soup - just add water. Each package has 2.5 servings. Those were a little over $1.



I found the stuff above at the 99cent only store. 3 pkgs black orange pekoe tea - 100 bags, we've tried the stuff and it is actually very good hot or cold. It used to be it had 120 teabags but those days are done. The nestle tollhouse mini toppers were .95 cents for some reason and I picked up another 5 of those to add to the preps. Lastly the Spanish wine vinegar was only 99 cents a liter and it IS made in Spain.




Lastly I picked up this wild alaskan salmon (exp 07/2016), at a buck a pop it's a bit spendy in my opinion. But I all it pre nuclear - which means it was canned prior to the Japanese radiation fallout after the earthquake and tsunami. The dove milk chocolate bars were 3 for 99 cents so i picked up a dozen. I know what you are saying, "Candy bars?" I often will purchase good quality plain chocolate bars because you can chop them up and put them into desserts. If you look at the collective weight of the chocolate bars versus a bag of morsels you get more bang out of your buck buying bars on sale.


Of course every chance I get I purchase a few bags of spinach so long as it is below $1 and I dehydrate it and add it to our stores since it is high nutrition and low weight. We could eat Spinach on just about anything so it's a no brainer for us. If you have a dehydrator I would definitely suggest drying bags of this stuff in between heavy dehydrating just to vary it up a bit.



Today is the crazy Wednesday Sale at a locally owned grocer - they normally put 4-6 items at a super low price to try and entice you to come in. They occasionally put limits but if you walk out and walk back in they don't care haha.

organic spinach 12 oz - $1
white onions - 3 lbs for $1
jalapenos 2lbs for $1
Green Bellpepper 5 pcs for $1
Zuchinni 2lbs for $1
Avocado's 5 for $1



Since we have a lot of folks in the house they've been eating up the corn - lol some of this is to replenish stock and the rest is for storage. It costs 20 cents more today but 60 cents a can is far better than the regular $1 a can. Just a month ago i was getting these for like .44 cents. Ridiculous. The oil was $1.50 each. The Betty Crocker things - which I rarely buy were .75 cents but for 8 portions that's ok. I also purchased 5 more canisters of salt for .39 cents each and finally the 3lb containers of bouillon (1 chicken and 1 chicken and tomato). yeah yeah I know it has additives - well that's not as crucial as flavor in a SHTF situation - well these bad boys are normally 7.99 each. Today with the sale price and a coupon I was able to purchase them at 2.99 each. Overall it was a good morning at Food City!



Finally, I stopped at the Walmart before I had to run home. First of all it was only around 830am. Secondly I wanted to see if they were still cleaned out , they were NOT. Finally, I was feeling lucky after my last haul and my earlier purchase and wanted to see if I was really in luck. Well first of all this lady cut me off on the street in front of walmart - THEN she cut me off IN the walmart parking lot. I already knew this lady was going to do some panic shopping. So I found the first available spot - got out, hit the alarm and did a half jog into the store. I found 100lbs of sugar, 25 lbs of hard white wheat, 25 lbs of hard red wheat both organic. So there I was tickled with myself and I pushed 150lbs of preps down the aisle and just as I reached the end here came the lady who cut me off twice. Bwawahahahahah- I grinned and said "see you later."

That was awesome

So overall we're talking about 219lbs of food over 2 days and we spent about $150.09 bucks. Today's haul was about .48 cents a lb and Mondays was about .85 cents a lb. Not bad and not as bad as i expected.

I just feel an incredible pressure to continue on because inflation is definitely here and it's only going to balloon even further. I know lot of my friends will make it and not miss any meals or even their little treats. Unfortunately I also know this...there is much potential for people to grow hungry and people who do not understand hunger through experience or exposure are in for a RUDE awakening. As it is in many European countries eating less if you eat at all will be the norm and even the poorest most destitute American still has "standards of living". This type of arrogance is exactly the type of bullshit that will kill you.

The new 3rd world - it's everyday Americans

So my 2 moms and I have been going to Saver's for the last 8 years or so because we were originally buying clothes for various orphanages and poor folks in the Philippines who live in the deep country. I've always loved the thrift stores since I was 13 coz I like the concept of digging

More recently I've been buying up winter type clothes for a bugout situation in the forest and to save up for trade...since the jackets and sweaters are going for 99 cents. But only in the last couple months have I seen a line like this out the door.

You can her my godmother saying in Filipino - hey I saw that lady last week and her everyweek etc...hahahha. I'm not really tripping - just pointing it out. Being poor or thrifty doesn't seem to be so taboo anymore.

FATALITIES...of the plant variety.

Well, this week the temperature jumped to 90 degrees then 98 degrees. It fried some of our seedlings in their original location. I'm very sad. I'm also very glad that I am learning right now and our lives don't depend on the food we are growing.

So the kid across sold me this 12 unit thing for like 10 bucks - a bit overpriced - but times are tough and it's metal not plastic - so i didn't mind paying the price.

We decided to move the plants onto there in a shady spot but still bright through the coaxing of one of the chat ladies - PoisonIvie. I mean she does self sustain so her advice is not bad advice



Don't worry that weird looking bucket of water is just rainwater.
Our beans and cantelope and squash are hanging on - and since the temps will drop to 80 again next week - I went ahead and just put a triple amount of seeds in the pots to try and force some growth.



I hope it works - and hopefully the doggies don't show too much interest in the plants while they are still little. but apparently from the picture below - they could care less.

Ghetto Garden Update - wk 1 April

So this is just the weekly progress report on our Ghetto Garden (trademark - afroprepper and me Saucy Chef) - I said it before and we'll say it again: "we are new at this and this is our 2nd attempt- and we are just tickled about it." Someone told us "plant your plants deeper they will get bigger." Here's why we don't do it - we live in the desert - it's hot and windy. We plant them low so the roots go OUTWARD instead of downward which gives them more strength, then as they get taller we bury them to the neck to force MORE roots which give it more stability. It's a technique we saw and a technique we chose to employ. We appreciate your input - but the Wild Wild West gardening requires a different kind of love. Truth be told I trust people who have lived here and people who have been gardening a long time - because it's tried and tested. Our plants are also 'slower' because we water from the bottom since I have this urge to constantly water them and then that makes them lodge or drown.


This weekend we will be picking up some compost (ours is far too slow) and we will be putting the plants in their final locations (2.5 gal buckets). The cucumber is looking pretty promising...and if I just end up with 2 much then so be it.



The yellow longbeans are looking pretty good - they are flat in the morning then towards noon they reach up towards the sky.






I did lose one of the green beans - it burned off somehow :(



I put a lot of chard seeds in there and all i have is ONE to show for it. i wonder if I could put more seeds in there ? The red sweetpeppers look ok



The butternut squash is growing more leaves.



You can't see it but the tobacco is starting.



This is an old cherry tomato one I started and literally last night i noticed 2 seedlings peeping out




So i checked the cantaloupe one - and you can see 3 big leaves but there are also 7 or 8 more breaking the surface. I guess we will eat a lot of cantaloupe




And still I find time to make the brownies...
I just wanted to test this blue silicon Wilton pan i got for 70cents at the thrift store.
It worked just fine.

Open Your Effin Eyes! and my April Preps - week 1

I'm dusted and disgusted.

I spent the better part of yesterday, studying,canning and dehydrating. Mom had to have a procedure done for her dialysis because the fistula in her arm is failing and I had to monitor her because she might have to run the ER. I still have a 4.0 but Math is starting to worry me because the scores on my last tests were 90,95,90. I need to really kick it up and get a couple of hundreds to really lock my A down. Having 2 moms around is a bit of a distraction but I'm pushing myself.

First things first...last night I made beef tacos (did i mention he requests these 3x a week) and he was sitting there eating them. I almost left to take a shower until I saw the word MOBBED flash on the tv. So Mr. Man and I look at each other and agree we should watch this train wreck. So the premise of the show is that they get a MOB (200-1000) people to learn a dance routine in a matter of a few hours so some JACKASS can propose to his GF, and pretend like some girl is seeing him and throws water in his face - Dumb Dumber Dumbest. Mind you they are all dancing to some corny Pop song that I don't even remember and Howie says he wants 600 people practicing on the 6th floor to get ready for a 6 o'clock proposal. Really Howie - you little devil. Anyway, what is tripping me out is that originally 600 people came out and then later 400 more came out dancing to "everlasting love" Then Howie insisted that it not just be a proposal but also an impromptu wedding and the knucklehead agreed. So let me get this straight...The Ivory Coast is jacked up, Syria is Jacked up, Our economy just took a great big SHIT on everyone, We're messing with Libya but won't admit it, gas is going to be 5 bucks a gallon soon and our school system is Effed up - BUT 1000 people can dance in the street. Are you kidding me! Disgusting.

2nd - We were plotting our preps and had the tv on some news channel and the Walmart CEO came out and said '...serious inflation coming in the next few months..." HELLO PEOPLE. Listen, if the Wally World CEO comes out and says they are going to inflate their prices and they are known for their bottom line pricing and "rollbacks" you better listen. Life is not the same as you know it any longer and to continue on is like playing the violin while the Titanic sinks. Pay Attention! or not. I mean if you've got it "LIKE THAT" then feel free to pay an exorbitant amount for whatever - me personally I rarely pay full price for anything. Even if you just buy staples it will supplement your food costs and allow you to buy better stuff later. But that's on you. Mr. Man has been really aggravated with people lately not "listening" or not "believing" and I told him you know you've been trying with them for months, just leave them behind like dead carcasses - coz basically these are people who have been warned by multiple sources, barely make it on what they've got now, and also have small children. They will not knock on our door because they know they should have listened. If they do knock on the door - I will feed their kid and tell them to come back in 15 minutes.

Life goes on - and it is APRIL already folks.

Here's a few things I picked up at a local tool shop and the 99cent only.

I picked up these 2.5 gallon buckets with handle for a little over a dollar to transfer my plants into since living in the Phoenix Metro area is more conducive to bucket planting than anything else.




I picked up this stuff at the 99cent only 4 planter for a buck and 4 bottoms for a buck and the long stick cotton buds to add to my fist aid kit. You can see our first aid toolbox sitting right under the buckets and activated charcoal



They also had these tarps. Mind you we have good quality tarps already but I figured a few more 4x6 with grommets would never hurt - at the very least we could duct tape them together and pitch a kifaru or cover stuff up north if it ices over.



Last but not least - I got home from Math class and the kid across the street was having a garage sale - he had these shelves for 12 bucks and mom2 wanted the metal lock box - I had exactly 11 bucks in my pocket - and the shelving is metal - so it was an OK price in my opinion and I was looking for shelving for the canned stuff anyway - and now I have it. Mom 1 said I paid too much - but you know what - it makes it all right for neighbor relations.