Neighbors and inventory update

Apartment Prepper asked if you could rely on your neighbors.  I responded with a no for most of them.  Today my neighbor did something that only reinforced my feelings about him.  As you know, out along our front fence I’m building a hedgerow of brush.  This spring I'm planting berries in front of the hedgerow.  I’m taking all our trimmings (after the sheep eat off the leaves) and stacking them up front.  It’s made a wonderful habitat for quail and other critters.  Well, an inspector was out roaming the neighborhood figuring out which trees needed to be trimmed beneath the power lines.  The neighbor went out and spoke with the inspector for a while.  After the neighbor left I did the same thing.  “What are you doing here?”

The inspector told me what he was doing.  I recognized the company name on the truck and know that they are hired by the utility company to conduct these inspections then trim trees in their right of way.  He asked about some of my trees since I have a row beneath the lines.  No, they’ve never been trimmed.  In about five years they will need to be and by all means, please come in and trim them.  I got an estimate from a tree company several years ago and they wanted to charge $150 per tree minimum.  I don’t have $2000 to spare.  Besides the trees don’t need to be trimmed in height until they reach just below the power line. 

Somehow the conversation turned to my brush pile.  He wanted to know if it was an irritant for the neighbor or a habitat for creatures.  Both.  He had a good chuckle.  He said it’s working as an irritant and he can imagine that it would work for the habitat.  You see, the neighbor, finding out that he was some sort of “official” inspector requested that the inspector order me to remove my brush pile.  The neighbor never once asked me why it was there.  He just went to authorities.  I wouldn’t trust this person with anything…ever.

My neighbors on the other side are great.  They are the daughter and son-in-law of the owner.  The owner, for his 90^th birthday, decided he wanted to live in town.  He still comes out every weekend to putter around in the yard.  They’ve doubled the size of their garden, they’ve planted more fruit trees, they share their extras, and they know how to repair their equipment.  They can their fruit and are trying to be self sufficient.  They also don’t mind when the grand kids are here.  Of course, I don’t mind when their grand kids are over at their place either. 

I spent some time today cleaning up the hall closet, which means going through the inventory of cleaning supplies.  Keeping everything in a written inventory is really important because if you don't you will over buy some items and under buy others.  You won't be able to keep it all straight in your head no matter how smart you are.  As I was inventorying what I had on a new inventory sheet, how much I previously had was going through my mind.  I could have sworn that I had four gallons of liquid hand/dish soap prior to Army daughter moving in and now I have two gallons.  But then I looked at my previous inventory sheet.  I started off with 1/2 gallon! 

Very little liquid soap is used as hand soap since we have lots of bars of soap.  To wash dishes I place all the dishes in the dishpan, put a few squirts of liquid soap, and fill the dishpan with enough hot water to cover the dishes.  They get washed with a rag without using any more water for the washing.  Then they are stacked in the other side of the sink where they quickly get rinsed.  More often than not I stick them in the dishwasher prior to getting rinsed and just run them through the rinse cycle in the dishwasher.  It uses very little water this way.  They drip dry and are put away in the morning by boy (girl on weekends).  Doing the dishes this way, I don't have the water running continuously.  Army daughter would fill the dishpan with soapy water and then use her sponge which she squirted with additional soap every few dishes.  She’d run the water continuously as she washed and rinsed. Then she'd put them in the dishwasher and run a full cycle.   

Anyway, I need to get more hand/dish soap.  Or at least I thought I needed more dish soap. Every time I'd go to Costco I'd pick up more dish soap.  Yes, we went through a lot while she was here but I still managed to raise my inventory considerably.  I don't need anyone telling me that I don't need soap in the inventory and I should just make my own.  I did that back in the 80s...it was the cool thing to do.  Now, I'll just buy it if I have the opportunity.  If I don't have the opportunity to buy it at least I know how to make soap the old fashioned way.  

 

My own computer won’t let me comment on my own site.  Great… Arsenius the Hermit, Thanks for offering the help of your friend.  If you can get me his contact information by posting it to the comments, I will NOT post the comment but will still be able to get the information.  Thanks!

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Nonfood Pantry list		before	/now
409  multipurpose	gal.	0.5	3
aluminum foil large heavy	feet	125	600
aluminum foil regular	feet	250	1000
ammonia	gal.	0.5	0.5
bags freezer gallon	pack	3	6
bags freezer quart	pack	7	7
bags sandwich	pack	1	13
bleach	gal.	3.5	3
bluing	bottle	1	1
candles	3-4 hour	50	432
canning lids small mouth	doz	8	didn't count
canning lids wide mouth	doz	7	didn't count
cleanser liquid	oz	48	6
cleanser powder	cans	7	12
coffee filters		750	750
diapers size 3			20
diapers size 4			6
diapers size 5-6			30
murphys oil soap	bottle	4	2
paper cups			didn't count
paper napkins		500	1000
paper plates heavy		25	275
paper plates regular		500	500
paper towels kitchen	pack	9	45
paper towels shop	pack	4	4
pinesol	gal.	2.5	3
plastic cups			didn't count
plastic silverware			didn't count
plastic wrap	feet	700	500
simple green	gal.	2	2
soap dish	gal.	0.5	0.5
soap dishwasher	box	4	4
soap laundry	bucket	3	4
sponges scotch brite		13	13
tissue kleenex	box	12	21
toilet paper	roll	45	93
trash bags 10 gal		400	400
trash bags 13 gal		5	200
trash bags 30-33 gal		90	175
voltive/tea candles			didn't count
wax paper	feet	75	100