Originally Posted By: NorCalDennis
With much still to do,


* We have added to our bulk supplies - wheat, rice, olive and canola oils, plus many other sundries.
* Spend large amounts of time in the garden getting the spring seeds and plantings on their way.
* Ran the portable generator to keep the battery fresh & rotated fuel.
* Been grinding our own wheat & spelt flour for the past two months (created a sourdough starter and bake two loaves of bread each weekend - not to mention making some amazing pancakes)

Even with our garden being pretty extensive, I feel compelled to add a case or two of canned veggies - any thoughts here?

One question I would add here is: What are you doing to reduce your energy consumption/costs? and general cost of living expenses?

Of course we are trying to limit our trips to town - make one trip of multiple stops instead of two or three trips in a day.

We have started line drying our clothes - with atleast 6 loads a week, we figure the propane ($3.07 gal.) savings should start adding up pretty quickly, not to mention the electrical savings.

In another simple cost cutting move we just made was to cut our Dish Satelite package from $65.00 a month to $27.00 a month - that will save us almost $500 a year to not have a bunch of channels we weren't watching anyway.

We are trying not to use our Air Conditioner this year as well. When the compressor kicks on the change in Kw per hour on our meter jumps by about 4.25KPH - that adds up real quick.

Any other recommendations would be greatly appreciated.


Any tips for someone wanting to get a garden going up here?

We are using 1 window AC unit and it will use < 50/month if ran 24/7 but running only 12hrs a day or less makes it even cheaper smile Keeps it tolerable in here (the office) during the 100+ days when the house is sitting at 88 or 90. We too are starting to line dry some clothes we use *gasp* electric dryer frown [For Now]

We are trying to do the biggest prep this year, buy a house with at least 1 acre.
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