Will is busy cutting and hauling truckload after truckload of firewood to the woodshed just about every hour of daylight. Me? I’ve been rearranging my food storage after writing an article on that subject. I sorted, dusted, washed popcorn cans, and looked through my five-gallon storage buckets to see if any of them needed a little refill. After all, COVID is not going away any time soon and I want to be fully stocked with everything I can think of. I did find a pail that needed a few soup peas and one that could use some more brown sugar. Luckily, I had just bought both, so I just went upstairs and got a few bags and voila! The buckets are full again.

When checking my five-gallon gasketed buckets of dried foods I found a few, like these navy beans, that needed a little refilling.
I spent a few hours this morning, going through my food storage; here are my kitchen cans, which I use daily to prepare meals.

This afternoon Will and I took a ride on the four wheeler out through the Big Pines forty. We hadn’t been out there for a while, so it was nice to take a ride instead of working. But when we got back, he again hit the wood pile and I finished putting a gate up between the horse pasture and cow pasture. Today we moved the cows into the winter cow lot as hunting season starts on Saturday morning and we don’t want cows or horses shot … which has happened in the past. Not here, but we still are worried. Now the horses are in the horse pasture, which is quite a way from the nearest hunting and the cows are in the cozy cow lot with two new bales of hay.

We enjoyed a little time off by taking an ATV ride through our big pines.

Then I took time to mulch the daylily bed in the backyard with extra wood chips. I had planted some late German iris among the daylilies so wanted to make extra sure the roots are protected from the cold as they develop good strong roots. Two days left and it’s supposed to rain, turning to snow. — Jackie

21 COMMENTS

  1. Do the dried beans not get old and hard over time? Several years ago, I opened a bag of dried red kidney beans. No amount of soaking or cooking would make them edible. I’ve been afraid ever since to purchase more than one bag of beans at a time.

  2. We live in an area that is often humid, Northern Indiana. I find that my popcorn tins rust eventually, or the lids get dented. I am considering buying some 2 gallon square buckets to replace my tins as they wear out. I find that lugging 2 gallon buckets is handier than 5 gal, and the square shape fits nicer on my shelves. I wonder what your thoughts on that are. I don’t prefer plastic, but it does have some benefits.

    • I haven’t had trouble with lids getting dented but mine eventually rust. But then I always am given new ones so I just swap them out. Sure, two gallon square buckets would be handy. I don’t lug my 5 gallon ones. I just leave them in storage and open them to remove or add foods. I agree; I don’t like plastic but it is handy for some things.

  3. Please talk about oxygen absorbers. And where do you get them? Thank you so much for your information.

    • Simply, I’m not a fan. I don’t use them and consider them pretty much a waste of money. I do know a lot of folks buy them but my food stays nice without them so I put my cash in more valuable places.

  4. I started collecting pop corn buckets after reading how you use them. I also buy for .50 each ice cream buckets from the local ice cream parlor. I keep these in the house away from mice.

    • I’ve got a friend who must eat a lot of ice cream so I get free buckets from him! Aren’t they useful, thought?

    • Me too!!! Today I got the whole front porch cleaned off. No more frozen tomatoes and melons and the deer think they’re sure good.

  10. Beautiful weather here. Every time I turn around there is something more to do-tree on a fence and winter storage care of tillers and mower. Do you put oxygen absorbers in your storage pails? COVID is rampant here and we’re in isolation mode.

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