Only a few more days for 2020 to be done, and its going out strong, came in with fires burning and its going out on the rising crest of horse pucks and then some..
Normally at this time of the year I would be breathing out a sigh, as this is my two month break time. the gardens are done and I am not starting new plants yet.. the livestock raising is done, the butcher is done, the freezers and jars are full, the extra that overwhelmed at a early point in the harvest has all been processed.
The ewe’s are getting fatter and maybe I might have one or two new lambs come early but most will not arrive till March.. so I even get a break on milking..
O yes on any normal year I would be saying hunker down, get ready for the winter rest.. Everyone certainly should and needs that rest..
Take the rests in small naps this winter.. that lovely winter walk.. enjoy each one of your bright spots, hold those small and maybe bigger joys tight and get every moment you can from them..
However keep in the back of the mind that 2021 is coming at us like a run away freight train, so I will say it..
Just keep moving..
- Order your seeds NOW
- Order your wood for any build projects NOW
- Need a new freezer? or parts? Order them NOW
- Need to repair a tool, a mower or anything else, get it in the shop, get the part now while you are seeing it start to wear.
- Get your summer boots NOW
- Got kiddo’s growing leeps and bounds.. GET THE NEXT sizes Now
- Need to get a dog fixed- Book it
- Need spring chicks- talk to your feed store, call the hatchery, find out the first order date and make it happen
- Need a butcher date.. locally they are requiring peaple to book a YEAR IN ADVANCE
- Need jars or lids : order them in now in bulk..
- Need another pressure canner? Put your self on te wait lists..
Wait.. hold.. the above only works if you still have income, if you have a steady paycheck, if you can afford to put money down and then wait weeks, months to get the yield or return..
If you either don’t have a steady job and or its touch and go.. back up.. start watching those kijji and market place ads.. Put the word out.. maybe you can trade your smaller apartment size freezer to someone who is downsizing and swap out their big one for your smaller one..
Maybe you can talk to your friends, share seed packages, only need to grow 4 plants and your friend does two on her deck and someone else does a half dozen.. split it up folks..
Think outside the box.. buy a organic local tomato and save the seeds, ask online if anyone has seeds to share, ask at your local church if anyone has extra’s.
If I had to put a motto on 2021.. its the year to ask..
Ask for advice
Ask for help
Ask to trade
Ask to barter
Ask to learn
If you have money and pay.. great.. keep that money as much as possable in your local area, your county, your province or state, your country.
But if you are riding the line, going paycheck to paycheck and you are selling off things to make ends meet, taking on small part time jobs, needing the help at the food banks etc. then I can’t say it loud enough ASK..
Ask if you have skills someone else might need?
Ask if you can trade your time for something you need?
Ask if you can trade part time farm work or yard work for a cut in rent on that extra bedroom someone has.. Better to ask and downsize, then struggle to keep your one bedroom and lose everything..
Ask now with those you trust about what if I lose my job? What if I lose my car? what if I lose my health? What if I lose my home?
Figure out what you need for the coming year, make the lists, make the plans and then work on how you are going to make that happen.. then take a hard look at the bottom line.
Stay flexable, think outside the box.. make it work.. and JUST KEEP MOVING..
Just another Day on the Farm 
In the spirit of ask: Where do you source jars and lids in bulk; any tips on suppliers?
I get them by the pallet out of a company from montreal with a friend who used her connections to do our own private shipping.. they came in cost wise the same as if we had ordered them at full price at canadian tire.. so when it comes to jars and saving money I have nothing.. if you can order them from home Hardware or Canadian tire, go for it.. the pallet cases mean putting out well over a thousand plus shipping plus tax in one bulk smack down.. and it would just get worse the further shipping was from montreal.
I have tried for years to find a more frugal way to get jars and honestly my best sales in before C-19 was the big walmart jar sales, they would often put them on a good sale price.. but I do not expect any sales this coming year.. we have a raw material glass shortage world wide and so the prices are going be going up, not down.. Look to see what you can dry instead of can is a good tip, look to make full meals in the jars, make sure you make more fruit butters then canned fruit so you can get more in per jar, the best cost saving tip I can give is use standard mouth jars as much as possable and use liter jars.. both are cheaper then small jar costs per your useage and wide mouth lids cost more then regular per unit cost. Sadly a few other places I know that have been around a good long time and used to sell sleeves of lids have all closed their stores and their online shops as well..
Thanks for the advice. I was hoping to find sleeves of lids, since I haven’t been able to find them at a cheap price. It is so true about the regarlar mouth jars!
You are so right, we just have to keep moving, one day at a time.
I think (I hope) that during this pandemic, many people will have become more acquainted with their neighbours and people in their neighbourhood. We have been very lucky here, being able to give and receive items, and also give and receive assistance. If there ever was a time to get to know your local community, now is that time. You never know how you might be able to help each other out.
Yes! Agreed! Thank you for notifying people.
Thank you 🙂
To this day there are no lids and jars to be found in Northern BC. Probably none anywhere also either. My daughter in Alberta has been keeping an eye out – last week found some lids (wide mouth and small) and grabbed me ten boxes of each. I can breathe now 🙄.
the raw glass material issue was one before covid but add in covid and the need to make 100 millions of vial jars and haha.. and for the lids, I know.. metal shortages combined with rubber sourcing issues and its going to be a issue for sure. So glad you daughter found you some! Are you thinking about considering a supply of tattlers just in case?
I’m undecided on tattlers – I hear so many mixed reviews. Do you have experience with them?
I have 300 of them.. they are my hail mary.. if there are no more single use lids, the tattlers are there for me to be able to pressure can meat into shelf table, we can dry many things, we can root cellar so much more.. we can ferment, cure and so on.. but meat.. without freezers.. meat is far far harder to process and hold safely so I have done my trail runs on them.. they worked.. but its very odd to not have the pop.. I only did a run of 48 jars and then just did reuse a few times with batches of 18 pints.. I perfer the others but there are in stock for a reason.
Good advice – people really need to start thinking way ahead. I ordered all my garden seeds in November…a few of my regular varieties were already sold out.
I’m going to take the time this year to round up all my old glass lids and zinc bands – not short on those jars. Somebody gave me a bunch of unused rubber rings. I see online in some places that rubber rings are still available. Not my favourite to can food with – but I’ll get over it I think.
I think there’s a six month waiting list for the All American pressure canners still….but I do see them come up on occasion on the local buy and sell pages. People are asking ‘new’ prices though. I don’t need any more canners – but some of your readers might be on the hunt and haven’t thought to look for used.
All good points and yes the rings are still seen around here as well. but only the old timers have the jars to go with them 🙂 for the second hand pressure canners, please make sure you get a pound weight gage and do not count that the second lid was not dropped at some point and unlike the states we do not have offices to check our gages yearly for us.. but very good point indeed! Thank you.
I’m fortunate to have my grandmothers old jars….and yes to the weight for the canner. My gauges are just ‘vague reference’ to me – the weight is gospel. Good point on checking the lids carefully when buying used canners. Especially the All American- which does not use a seal.
Best New Years ‘resolution’ list ever! 😀
Thanks.. sometimes we need to be clear in our intent if we want to make it happen..