Preparations Update

[Sourdough]

I have been ordering "Quality" patches, for identification of members of the group. Useful if they go out on patrol and return at or near dark. I just ordered (5) Five of these.

 

[Neb]

I have been ordering "Quality" patches, for identification of members of the group. Useful if they go out on patrol and return at or near dark. I just ordered (5) Five of these.

View attachment 54052

Akin to the Nazarene...nice

Ben

 

[Tank-Girl]

My roof bag and ratchet straps for the car were delivered today and they fit perfectly!

Now I can put money aside for my pup and the kayaks.
For the kayaks I'm looking at a double for myself and some gear and the doggo and a smaller single one to tow behind to carry more gear.
The smaller single I'll use once camp is set up for fishing, river bank hunting and checking the set lines.

 

[Sewingcreations15]

Good to hear that you got a smaller chainsaw @LadyLocust and they are handy for clearing the smaller shrubbery we find .

Good on you @Tank-Girl for getting your roof bag and ratchet straps . Did you end up getting roof racks for the car ? and the kayaks sound like a great idea too.

 

[Tank-Girl]

Good to hear that you got a smaller chainsaw @LadyLocust and they are handy for clearing the smaller shrubbery we find .

Good on you @Tank-Girl for getting your roof bag and ratchet straps . Did you end up getting roof racks for the car ? and the kayaks sound like a great idea too.

Yes! I had to get a Thule dealer a hours drive away to order the racks in from the Thule factory in Sweden.
It took 6 weeks for them to get to Australia.

I then brought a short roof basket to fit on the racks. The roof bag fits perfectly in the basket and the clips on the bag fit through the basket mesh so I can really get it cinched down tight so it doesn't flap.

 

[Sewingcreations15]

Fantastic to hear @Tank-Girl so happy for you .

 

[Tank-Girl]

Fantastic to hear @Tank-Girl so happy for you .

Thank you.

I increased the carrying capacity of my little buzz box by..........lots.

It's about time I had a win.

 

[Sewingcreations15]

Lately we have -

- Stocked up on 12 more tins of spam on near half price sale, tinned cat food for free using WW rewards $, and chocolate baking chips and to get us closer to our 12 months stock level on that.
- Not sure if I mentioned it but we got a full trailer ramp for the trailer to make it easier to get the ride on on and off too. Will also be good for just wheeling many things up on the trailer with too in a wheelbarrow.
- Bought a new backpack brush cutter to replace the one that disintegrated.

 

[Sewingcreations15]

Think we all need those occasional wins to pep us up @Tank-Girl as some years things seem to be so much harder . This year drought, floods, pandemic, more bush fires not far away, skin cancers removed from both of us, my hair falling out till they got my thyroid meds right and now DH's brain aneurysm surgery.

Seriously things have to get better .

 

[Spikedriver]

I've been quietly stocking up on little things:

Hand soap
Shower soap
Shampoo
TP (of course)
Dish soap
Toothpaste/toothbrushes
Paper towels

I've put up a year's worth of all of them. Not because I think there'll be shortages, but because I'm worried about economics and my job. These things are cheap, but they store well and if I put them away when I've got money, I won't have to buy them when I don't have money...

 

[SheepDog]

Spike,
My list is a little simpler:
Dish soap, for hands, shampoo, shower, and dishes
TP
tooth brush and paste
papertowels

 

[Spikedriver]

Spike,
My list is a little simpler:
Dish soap, for hands, shampoo, shower, and dishes
TP
tooth brush and paste
papertowels

I know I've got some overlap with some of these. But redundancy is not a bad thing, is it?

 

[MoBookworm1957]

Added some supplies.
Cat gut thread
Hemostat several sizes
Tweezers several sizes
Canned chicken breast meat
Canned tuna in various sizes
Dish soap
Polident cream in various sizes
Toothbrushes
Extra set of dentures- tops only
Saline syringes various sizes
Stilletto and sheath
Case of baby wipes
snack size baggies
Long johns
Bendizine

 

[SheepDog]

Mo, you have a sheath for you high heels?
In Washington a stilletto is not legal.

 

[MoBookworm1957]

Mo, you have a sheath for you high heels?
In Washington a stilletto is not legal.

Why of course.
Doesn't everybody?

 

[musketjim]

Picked up some ammo last week for BOL and the house. My puppy and I hiked into the BOL for 3 days. Ran in some food and ammo. Finished our Christmas shopping today with our local radio on air auction. Most items at 1/2 price. Picked up 1 ton of compressed pellet firelogs for ourselves. Can never have enough for the woodstove. Burns cleaner so might keep the smoke police off our @$$.

 

[Tank-Girl]

With all my preps under one roof and in one location it is exactly like keeping all my eggs in one basket.
I have a BOL in mind but nowhere to store half of my preps.
I need to set up a staging point.
So, I've chosen a small town 2 hours drive away that has self storage units and I'll be renting one of the unit to hold half my preps.
The small town has nothing about it that would attract an attack. No ports, major rail hubs, mines or water catchments or vital industries.
It's inland and butts onto HUGE parcels of state and federal land.

I'm not just worried about an attack from outsiders but rampant stupidity from my own government.
If I need to leave my current location it'll have to be in a hurry and I just don't have the capacity in that moment to shift tons and tons of vital food stuffs and equipment.

Wilderness caches in barrels can be found as evidenced in a huge number YT videos.

 

[Neb]

With all my preps under one roof and in one location it is exactly like keeping all my eggs in one basket.
I have a BOL in mind but nowhere to store half of my preps.
I need to set up a staging point.
So, I've chosen a small town 2 hours drive away that has self storage units and I'll be renting one of the unit to hold half my preps.
The small town has nothing about it that would attract an attack. No ports, major rail hubs, mines or water catchments or vital industries.
It's inland and butts onto HUGE parcels of state and federal land.

I'm not just worried about an attack from outsiders but rampant stupidity from my own government.
If I need to leave my current location it'll have to be in a hurry and I just don't have the capacity in that moment to shift tons and tons of vital food stuffs and equipment.

Wilderness caches in barrels can be found as evidenced in a huge number YT videos.

You are spot on.

We have ours split but we should to be able to use a third cache.

It takes a big breath for me to deploy preps out of my immediate attention. But I gotta do it.

Ben

 

[Caribou]

With all my preps under one roof and in one location it is exactly like keeping all my eggs in one basket.
I have a BOL in mind but nowhere to store half of my preps.
I need to set up a staging point.
So, I've chosen a small town 2 hours drive away that has self storage units and I'll be renting one of the unit to hold half my preps.
The small town has nothing about it that would attract an attack. No ports, major rail hubs, mines or water catchments or vital industries.
It's inland and butts onto HUGE parcels of state and federal land.

I'm not just worried about an attack from outsiders but rampant stupidity from my own government.
If I need to leave my current location it'll have to be in a hurry and I just don't have the capacity in that moment to shift tons and tons of vital food stuffs and equipment.

Wilderness caches in barrels can be found as evidenced in a huge number YT videos.

I always thought a box trailer, mostly loaded with built in shelving would be the way to go. A garage to park it in or a carport would be nice as would be a storage unit. Loading a ton of stores in a hurry, no thanks.

 

[Amish Heart]

Box trailers were stolen right and left where I used to live.

 

[Spikedriver]

Box trailers were stolen right and left where I used to live.

Anything gets stolen around me if it's left unsupervised long enough. Which is exactly what happens with caches and stashes. You check on them every so often and they're fine, and then one day they're gone, or wrecked...

 

[Sourdough]

Which is exactly what happens with caches and stashes. You check on them every so often and they're fine, and then one day they're gone, or wrecked...

I've been caching for well over 65 years.......and never had a human problem with a single cache. I had until recently 37 caches, spread out over 35 plus miles of Alaska wilderness, with my cabin at the center of the 35 miles, and nearly all were above ground caches, "Never" a single loss or disturbance by a human. I recently pulled 48 firearms out of wilderness caches. Until recently I had enough cached to survive 18 to 24 months, with quadruple everything down to toenail clippers. Never a single loss from a human.

I have over 600 photographs of how to build caches, step by step. Over the last two years as I have been pulling 35 caches, I have photographed each step of recovery, including opening and examining the contents. Alaska is a fairly good size state, and over the last 50 plus years I have had hundreds of caches, large and small throughout most of the state, including 40 year of caching entire hunting guide-outfitter camps.

I keep hearing about how unsafe it is to have caches. At some points I likely had $90.000.00 up to $130,000.00 of supplies cached in the wilderness. In the early 70's I had a lot of 100 ounce bars of pure silver cached, with gold and cash. Never a single loss or disturbance from a human. I've had caches underwater and high up in trees, in cliffs, caves, mining shafts, flume, abandoned buildings, in culverts under roads, in junk vehicles, wood piles, etc.. But most were in 120mm ammo cans and 55 gallon steel drums that were "Not" buried, but well hidden. I've cached boats, outboard motors, chainsaws, construction tools, traps, and trapping gear, snowmachines, ladders, ATV vehicles, canoes, 100 pound propane tanks, airplanes and dozers in the wilderness.

Maybe people would pay good money for someone to teach them how to cache. I doubt it.

 

[Spikedriver]

@Sourdough I suppose it may be different in Alaska, I don't know how many people would come around your cache there. In Iowa, there's no remote places. Someone WILL come around your stuff if it's left alone. Which is why, I suppose, some people like places like alaska, or Montana, where you can get off the road. I'm not sure you can ever get more than a mile off the road in Iowa any more...

 

[MoBookworm1957]

Increased my small cast iron pans.
Picked up a "Whopper" about 10-20 pounds.
Steel toe jump boots
Picked up wire for snares.
Extra handcuffs

 

[kd4ulw]

I then brought a short roof basket to fit on the racks.

I started a similar project this past July, adding a roof rack and basket with surround lighting to my CRV.

 

[Tank-Girl]

I started a similar project this past July, adding a roof rack and basket with surround lighting to my CRV.
View attachment 54523

That looks fantastic.
I would recommend getting a roof bag as well if you can get them there in America.
They increase the utility of the roof system.
Also if you do get one remember to put the non-zip side to the front of the car and put the double zip opening to the back.
The force of the wind hitting the front of the bag can force the zips open even though there's a fair amount of overhang and it's velcroed down.
My zips have a hole in the tab so I can put a small padlock though them and lock it down to the mesh of the basket..
I know it won't stop someone from slashing the bag or someone with a pair of bolt cutters but it'll stop a "off the cuff" snatch and grab.
This is the one I brought.
It fits my basket perfectly.
https://www.4wdsupacentre.com.au/half-length-premium-waterproof-rooftop-bag.html

 

[Amish Heart]

Finished seed sorting. Glad that is done. Need to start thinking about land plotting. Where to put the range and a bigger greenhouse. Kids finished cleaning out barn #2 and open barn. We now have room to figure out what animals we'll have in the spring. Offering up room #2 of the milkhouse for a hamshack for husband, but I think he has his eye on our big building which isn't cleaned out yet. I do know where the garden is going. And the chickens are where they needed to be.

 

[Terri9630]

Alaska wilderness

That's the catch. Most people don't live in an open, mostly unpopulated place.

 

[Sourdough]

That's the catch. Most people don't live in an open, mostly unpopulated place.

It is one of the wonderful gifts of being American, we get to choose where we live. And magnificent quality of life from our preferred selection.

 

[Caribou]

It is one of the wonderful gifts of being American, we get to choose where we live. And magnificent quality of life from our preferred selection.

I expect that few people can appreciate the remote sites available in Alaska. Either they don't fully comprehend them and/or they wouldn't want them.