This weeks preps check-in

[Brent S]

I remember when I thought the water in Florida was cold at 72 degs. Then I moved to n ga and realized we have water in the 50's... I pretty much stick to a hot tub now.

 

[Brent S]

I'm waiting on the garbage men this morning. We pay a service to pu once a week, but there's a 1 can rule. I'm planning to tip the guys as I have two overflowing cans out there right now, and that's been the norm for a few weeks now. I've been doing some spring cleaning around here, since spring.... It's amazing how much crap you can accumulate.

 

[Gazrok]

Yeah, part of the outgrowth of the whole backyard project, spring cleaning. I can now get the table off the porch, and out there under the gazebo, and start transforming the porch into the ManCave project. Of course, during all this, the wife has been buckling down on the yard work, mowing, weed whacking, etc. (she enjoys it, so I'll let her do it, lol).

Couldn't even swim in it last night though, as it was storming all night...though you can see how beautiful it was outside during the day, from the pics (but I was at work). The kids will be swimming all day today, while I'm at work...%#&*@....

Each weekend has involved a lot of extra house cleaning, basically trying to get my daughter completely moved into her new room, and the shop transformed from a tack shop to a scrapbook crop room.

 

[Rob Painless]

Sweet. Nothing like a 15 or 20 minute swim in the middle of the afternoon to cool off & beat the heat. I love when I get to do that. Was 108 degrees a couple of days ago, and gone over 100 for the last 7 or 8+ days. A friend ( and fellow prepper in our 'group' ) has a pool, so naturally......

 

[Gazrok]

Yeah, our "feels like" temp has been over 100 degrees for most of the week (when it isn't raining). Has made the work outside even tougher than usual (and a real need to stay hydrated....)

 

[Brent S]

I rented a backhoe for a week to build a new shop on the back of the property. It's the absolute worst time of the year to do any building outside! I'm literally soaked after five minutes outside. Oh well, at least I'm able to get a lot of the projects I've had going on completed with the machine. I have a full size John deer backhoe to play with for a week, yeah! In Georgia we have clay, so you don't dig anything by hand here.

 

[Gazrok]

I feel you on that. Sand and clay here. Most of our digging is with post hole diggers, lol. Slow, but easier physically than shovels most of the time. Ended up with two of these diggers, so me and the boy can make short work of it, one right after the other.

 

[jimLE]

clay here as well.but some,if not most of it here.is good for drainage,when it comes to field lines..but between the clay and tree roots..killer situation

 

[Maverick]

Ordered a Champion 3k Inverter Generator, primarily to run the entertainment stuff for the grandkids in short term power outages. I don't have the sensitive stuff connected to the bigger generators.

 

[Silent Earth]

I'm looking into getting a CB rig in 4watt 27AM / 4watt 27FM / 12watt USB so I can try and dx with preppers over longer distances.

 

[jimLE]

got me a nice lil toy for $9.99 today.its a 14 LED flashlight,and it uses 3AAA batteries..it dont say squat about lumin thoe..

 

[Brent S]

got me a nice lil toy for $9.99 today.its a 14 LED flashlight,and it uses 3AAA batteries..it dont say squat about lumin thoe..

View attachment 5972

I got a bunch of regular canning lids at Walmart tonight. I try to pick up a few every time I go for groceries. The jars are good for many years over and over, but the lids are at best a couple uses. I'd like to get a few hundred saved up to ensure I can store food for many garden seasons to come.

 

[jimLE]

i went into the canning section of wal-mart the other day,for 1 case of regular mouth pint jars.and then i looked around some.and saw some white reusable lids.im thinking 4 or 5 to a package.and they sure do cost more then the other lids..

 

[Mountain trapper]

Ordered an American made 8 kW (10kw surge) generator to replace the made in China mistake I bought a couple months ago. This genset will be dedicated to run the well pump. It should be delivered next week and I'll wire it to pump. Got the walls up on the well house. Bought another truck load of fence posts to build the corral behind the barn. Got the area leveled for the new shop and filled the low areas where the house is going. We should start construction on the shop within a couple of weeks. And made arrangements to buy some cattle to be delivered next spring.

 

[jontte]

nothing big,a pair of new boots,trying to figure out my radio set,tomorrow some ammo for my mosin and 10/22.

 

[Brent S]

i went into the canning section of wal-mart the other day,for 1 case of regular mouth pint jars.and then i looked around some.and saw some white reusable lids.im thinking 4 or 5 to a package.and they sure do cost more then the other lids..

Those are just for after you open the can to store it in the fridge while you're eating the rest. They won't take the heat of canning, but are really nice to keep things fresh

 

[Mountain trapper]

This morning my dog got bit by a rattlesnake. The mutt was digging through a pile of scrap lumber looking for a chipmunk and came across the snake. This is the second rattler I killed this summer, so far.This reminded me of an important consideration; pet safety and pet prepping. The vet told me of a product for dogs, and horses, that is kind of like a pre anti-venom. This vaccine can be administrated yearly.

 

[jimLE]

hope the dog pulls through all right....you save the snake skin and meat?

 

[Mountain trapper]

hope the dog pulls through all right....you save the snake skin and meat?

It looks like the dog is going to be fine. He's going to be sleeping a lot for awhile. He got hit twice on the bridge of his nose. I didn't skin the snake, just cut his tail and head off. It was a 2 hour trip to the vet so I didn't want to take the time to skin it. Next one I will though.

 

[Brent S]

It looks like the dog is going to be fine. He's going to be sleeping a lot for awhile. He got hit twice on the bridge of his nose. I didn't skin the snake, just cut his tail and head off. It was a 2 hour trip to the vet so I didn't want to take the time to skin it. Next one I will though.

Glad to hear he will be ok. I have three dogs and they are truly part of the family. Sometimes I like them better than the kids!

 

[user 4617]

Today's prep was sighting in the AR15 with can at the local range. Tested a new Nord-Lok washer that returns index to same spot every time.

After sighting at 100, has a second round hit on the 434 gong with the ACOG TA01NSN. Even though I want a higher power scope, it always makes the hits!

Tried to check into the 80M Oregon Emergency Net using a random wire but got ran off the range (closed) before I could get it in the tree and setup the FT-817


- Jim

 

[Maverick]

Spent most of the day looking for good gas cans 5gal or so then getting pissed once home.

Initially gone out looking for a good old Blitz 5gal plastic gas can, no damn luck, ended up getting 4 6gal Briggs & Stratton cans (plastic) filled them up before bringing them home, once home filled one of the generators up to find out the spout sucks (drip drip drip) changed the spout from the other new can then that one had other problems (leaked) tried the third finally one that works so I tagged it as a good one then out of curiosity tried the 4th one it f_____ leaked, by this time I'm pissed, I head back into town to look for some good o'l spouts, I couldn't find the older spouts anywhere they all sold these new spouts! In the end I find out Blitz gone out of business and the older spouts were ban by the government.... what the g______ hell, so I gone one ebay to look for the older Blitz spouts... shxt, the damn things are selling for like 26.00 damn dollars for a used plastic spout. I go to Amazon no luck though Amazon did have a Blitz 5gal can for a ___________ $90 damn dollars, being in an already bad mood I start looking at the metal can oh shxt.. good grief $50 some odd dollars for a 5gal metal can not a chance in hell. So I tried my spouts from the older Briggs & Stratton cans (plastic) ... oh for christ sakes the threads are different on my new cans.

I got nothing accomplished today except anger!

 

[jontte]

now,Mav,sit down and do what my class mate does ; go to your special happy place with a cup of good hot coffee and imagine you shooting all s@¤t cans to oblivion

 

[Brent S]

Spent most of the day looking for good gas cans 5gal or so then getting pissed once home.

Initially gone out looking for a good old Blitz 5gal plastic gas can, no damn luck, ended up getting 4 6gal Briggs & Stratton cans (plastic) filled them up before bringing them home, once home filled one of the generators up to find out the spout sucks (drip drip drip) changed the spout from the other new can then that one had other problems (leaked) tried the third finally one that works so I tagged it as a good one then out of curiosity tried the 4th one it f_____ leaked, by this time I'm pissed, I head back into town to look for some good o'l spouts, I couldn't find the older spouts anywhere they all sold these new spouts! In the end I find out Blitz gone out of business and the older spouts were ban by the government.... what the g______ hell, so I gone one ebay to look for the older Blitz spouts... shxt, the damn things are selling for like 26.00 damn dollars for a used plastic spout. I go to Amazon no luck though Amazon did have a Blitz 5gal can for a ___________ $90 damn dollars, being in an already bad mood I start looking at the metal can oh shxt.. good grief $50 some odd dollars for a 5gal metal can not a chance in hell. So I tried my spouts from the older Briggs & Stratton cans (plastic) ... oh for christ sakes the threads are different on my new cans.

I got nothing accomplished today except anger!

Yeah I discovered the crap spouts a couple years ago. They don't last long either, with the spring getting buggars up. I went to replace my cans as well, just wish I had done it sooner before the new rules....

 

[Brent S]

A good glass of wine or beer might accomplish more here! Wait, guns and alcohol don't mix well, just stick to the alcohol...

 

[Maverick]

Yeah I discovered the crap spouts a couple years ago. They don't last long either, with the spring getting buggars up. I went to replace my cans as well, just wish I had done it sooner before the new rules....

I know now to cherish my older cans and guard them like a hawk, guess ill be looking for gas cans and/or spouts when out n about like garage sales.

 

[jimLE]

A good glass of wine or beer might accomplish more here! Wait, guns and alcohol don't mix well, just stick to the alcohol...

but beer and fishing do mix,when fishing from a good shore line..

 

[jontte]

got my new boots,ammo,with the latter I'm fast coming up to around 10 000 rounds in 12 ga,7,62 and .22 lr (that's the legal limit here), everything above it is a big no-no.
yes,I have them in separeate places here


...and I should be safe,as long as I play by the book and be a nice guy then gettin' more is okay in my books..

 

[NCHydrangea]

Meh! You can always use the excuse that you're bad at math!

I went to Costco and bought 4 cases of water. I did the math and it was cheaper to buy the bottles water, than it is to buy it by the gallon. I bought 4 cases of 40 (a little over 20 gallons total) for about $2.77 per case. The ground beef was $2.99 a pound, so I plan on going back Friday and buying more water and a couple of ground beef for canning.

 

[Brent S]

Well, today is the last day I have the rented backhoe. Thank god as my body can't take much more abuse! I got all kinds of projects done with it, the biggest being leveling a mountain (OK, a little exaggerated there) for the new shop. We're building a 20x36' shop in the back of the property. We got the site leveled and footers dug and formed. Hopefully we will pour concrete within a week. Having the slab done is the hardest part. We can take our time building after that. I like playing on large heavy equipment, but it is a young mans game. I'm truly beat.