This weeks preps check-in

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I am still cleaning out tossing stuff and reorganizing. I bought 3 milk crates today. They hold exactly 4 one gallon jugs of water. I have room for one more milk crate, so I will pick one up in the next week or so. That will give me a total of 16 gallons of water storage. I also ordered jumper cables for my car.
 
yeah.those milk creates do come in handy..

doesn't some place where you live,have good jumper cables worth buying?
Probably, but I don't really know what would be good or where to buy. These are approved by AAA. They come in a zipper bag so they don't lay all over my trunk. They were $20.00. Maybe that's too much? Not sure, but better to have them than not.
 
Ha ha don't count me out just yet :)
I know I have a lot to learn. One step at a time. Once I put my mind to something (prepping) I usually do okay. It's my goal to prep and not be dependent on others for anything unless I can absolutely help it.
Everyone has to start somewhere and you have a good attitude about it. You'll do fine. Little by little your preps will add up and you will learn to live everyday life with them.
 
Tomorrow morning the generator gets hard wired into the house and Friday the propane tank gets delivered and hooked up. We have another storm brewing in the Atlantic and yesterday heard it will probably come into the Gulf. Hoping we won't need it, but at least this would make life sooooo much easier if we do.
 
Tomorrow morning the generator gets hard wired into the house and Friday the propane tank gets delivered and hooked up. We have another storm brewing in the Atlantic and yesterday heard it will probably come into the Gulf. Hoping we won't need it, but at least this would make life sooooo much easier if we do.
I've never needed mine since I put it in, but am so glad I went through the effort. You will be so much better off with the propane than gasoline too. No bad gasoline after a year, no gummed up carboureator, and a lot of fuel stored in a 500 gal tank. Let's hope we never need to use them, but here's to knowing we can.
 
So I built a really nice pig pen. It's 16'×40' with a 6'×8' shelter, complete with a window. The water trough is up on a wood deck to keep the area mud free. I used livestock panels for the fencing with a 2×6 top and bottom rail.
The problem is I had forgotten just how small weaner pigs are. They can easily fit through the openings in the livestock panels. For now the pigs are in the barn stalls. Once they get a little bigger I'll move them in to the pen. I've started fencing in about 10 acres that will eventually become the pig pasture, when I get it finished anyway.
 
So I built a really nice pig pen. It's 16'×40' with a 6'×8' shelter, complete with a window. The water trough is up on a wood deck to keep the area mud free. I used livestock panels for the fencing with a 2×6 top and bottom rail.
The problem is I had forgotten just how small weaner pigs are. They can easily fit through the openings in the livestock panels. For now the pigs are in the barn stalls. Once they get a little bigger I'll move them in to the pen. I've started fencing in about 10 acres that will eventually become the pig pasture, when I get it finished anyway.
Had the same problem with baby goats slipping thru the cattle fencing. Most of them learned pretty quick, except one so far. She was natorious on getting out & then crying about it!!
 
The generator got wired into this house this morning but there is still about an hours job on it. The propane tank will not be here until tomorrow morning and after that the electrician will come back out to finish the job. I dont trust my sweet guy around the house electricity. . . I want to keep him around even though he has a nice life insurance policy. ;)

Took my BBQ cucumber chips out of the dehydrator and then added in some sliced tomatoes, eggplant, Tabasco & jalapeño peppers. Still need to do more spaghetti squash, but that will have to wait till tomorrow cause all my trays are full.

Also still working on raising empty beds out n the garden. This morning I added in a frontend load to all my empty rows. I am only about 1/2 way of getting those spread out before I till this evening. Little by little it is getting done. Tomorrow I'll start adding the mulch but at least it is light weight so shouldn't take half the day.

All the seeds we just bought have now been organized and ready this go. Hoping to get some butter beans in the ground by tomorrow. I have a ziplock bag that holds a certain category of seeds, like all lettuce, all herbs, etc. And in those ziplocks i have each individual package of seed. . . yes, I'm anal like that. Just easier to find what i am looking for instead of sifting threw all of them. I also keep them in two separate containers. One for beans and corn and another for all others. I used to keep spring/fall but to many things that are planted early spring can be planted early fall too here.

Looks like a good chance of rain this next week with the storm moving in but at least no hurricane. Temps should be going in the upper 80s. . . that will be nice!!
 
The generator got wired into this house this morning but there is still about an hours job on it. The propane tank will not be here until tomorrow morning and after that the electrician will come back out to finish the job. I dont trust my sweet guy around the house electricity. . . I want to keep him around even though he has a nice life insurance policy. ;)

Took my BBQ cucumber chips out of the dehydrator and then added in some sliced tomatoes, eggplant, Tabasco & jalapeño peppers. Still need to do more spaghetti squash, but that will have to wait till tomorrow cause all my trays are full.

Also still working on raising empty beds out n the garden. This morning I added in a frontend load to all my empty rows. I am only about 1/2 way of getting those spread out before I till this evening. Little by little it is getting done. Tomorrow I'll start adding the mulch but at least it is light weight so shouldn't take half the day.

All the seeds we just bought have now been organized and ready this go. Hoping to get some butter beans in the ground by tomorrow. I have a ziplock bag that holds a certain category of seeds, like all lettuce, all herbs, etc. And in those ziplocks i have each individual package of seed. . . yes, I'm anal like that. Just easier to find what i am looking for instead of sifting threw all of them. I also keep them in two separate containers. One for beans and corn and another for all others. I used to keep spring/fall but to many things that are planted early spring can be planted early fall too here.

Looks like a good chance of rain this next week with the storm moving in but at least no hurricane. Temps should be going in the upper 80s. . . that will be nice!!
That's good that you're hard wiring the genset to the house and plumbing it to the propane tank. Are you going with an auto start switch gear? I'm hoping that my generator will be here in a couple of weeks. I'm going to start excavating the site for our "power plant" building tonight. This building will house the generator, battery bank and inverters. The solar panels will be a couple hundred feet away and up the hill. It'll be nice when I can quit running these gas generators every day. Right now I'm spending about $150 a week on gas for 3 generators. Once the solar is up I shouldn't need to run the diesel unit except for pumping water.
 
That's good that you're hard wiring the genset to the house and plumbing it to the propane tank. Are you going with an auto start switch gear? I'm hoping that my generator will be here in a couple of weeks. I'm going to start excavating the site for our "power plant" building tonight. This building will house the generator, battery bank and inverters. The solar panels will be a couple hundred feet away and up the hill. It'll be nice when I can quit running these gas generators every day. Right now I'm spending about $150 a week on gas for 3 generators. Once the solar is up I shouldn't need to run the diesel unit except for pumping water.
Ours is a 16 kW Generac system with the automatic switch box. . . so when lights go off, the generator takes over till the power gets back on. The switch box to mounted on the outside of the house by our breaker box and we poured a concert slab in front of that for the generator. If in city limits learned that it does need to be 5 foot away but we didn't need to worry since we are not in a city. I am hoping we can get solar one day, but I am pushing my hunny with baby steps. It would be so easy to attach to the backside of our roof. We don't have many trees in the back that would block the sunlight, actually one, but not for very long.
 
Ours is a 14kw generac. They tried their best to make me pay them $100 a year for 'maintenance' (also known as an oil and filter change). I do it for $25 or $30. More than annual if it does more than it's weekly test.

Works great. We got it after a really big tornado, and it didn't run much for a couple years. Then we got another round and we were the only lights in the area. Runs the entire house (AC included). Would definitely do it again.
 
I've got a 10kw Generac. It's a good unit but it won't start the well pump. My well pump is 5 hp and needs at least 30 amps to start. The Generac is only 30 amp so it just trips the breaker. I'll probably sell it once I get the new generator and solar on line.
 
I just had a lesson on how to use the new jumper cables I got. Red is positively dangerous (at least that is how I will remember it). Now I have jumper cables and I know how to use them. Consider me armed and dangerous :)
 
I just had a lesson on how to use the new jumper cables I got. Red is positively dangerous (at least that is how I will remember it). Now I have jumper cables and I know how to use them. Consider me armed and dangerous :)
Just remember to connect the negative clamp on the starting vehicle to some bare metal. Like the engine block or alternator bracket. This should avoid any sparking that could cause the battery gases to explode. It's rare, but not worth taking chances.
 
I've got a 10kw Generac. It's a good unit but it won't start the well pump. My well pump is 5 hp and needs at least 30 amps to start. The Generac is only 30 amp so it just trips the breaker. I'll probably sell it once I get the new generator and solar on line.
That's a massive well pump! My miller welder has a 10kw generator so that's what I set up for the house backup power.i like the fact that I can produce power and fix or fabricate things with it too. Mostly though since I already had the miller that's why I used it. It won't run everything at once with it only being 10k, but will run everything if you cycle things on as desired. One perk is it conserves some fuel. I did the math with running it minimally four times a day and figured close to a year on one tank of propane. That might keep the fridge and freezer going but I would like to have it a little more than that.
 
That's a massive well pump! My miller welder has a 10kw generator so that's what I set up for the house backup power.i like the fact that I can produce power and fix or fabricate things with it too. Mostly though since I already had the miller that's why I used it. It won't run everything at once with it only being 10k, but will run everything if you cycle things on as desired. One perk is it conserves some fuel. I did the math with running it minimally four times a day and figured close to a year on one tank of propane. That might keep the fridge and freezer going but I would like to have it a little more than that.
Yeah. The pump is over 600 feet down hole and I'm pumping through almost a half mile of buried pipeline. The pipeline also goes over a hill to reach the barn and house site.
I like the Miller engine driven welders. I've them before myself and bought hundreds in my last carrear for pipeline welding. I'm looking at getting a new 325 amp machine. I think it has a 10,000 watt generator too. I'll get the wire feed attachment for it also.
 
Yeah. The pump is over 600 feet down hole and I'm pumping through almost a half mile of buried pipeline. The pipeline also goes over a hill to reach the barn and house site.
I like the Miller engine driven welders. I've them before myself and bought hundreds in my last carrear for pipeline welding. I'm looking at getting a new 325 amp machine. I think it has a 10,000 watt generator too. I'll get the wire feed attachment for it also.
I actually liked the Lincoln welder that I had before this one better. It was about eleven years old yet would still fire up instantly without the choke most times. Great in ignition system on it. As far as welding I didn't notice any difference. The reason I went with miller on the newer machine was price. It was a third less, not to mention there are triple the number of places that sell and service them. I really do like having both power and welding ability together.
 
Yeah. The pump is over 600 feet down hole and I'm pumping through almost a half mile of buried pipeline. The pipeline also goes over a hill to reach the barn and house site.
I like the Miller engine driven welders. I've them before myself and bought hundreds in my last carrear for pipeline welding. I'm looking at getting a new 325 amp machine. I think it has a 10,000 watt generator too. I'll get the wire feed attachment for it also.
I'm not sure I even want to know how much it is to drill a well 600' down! I'm looking into having a well put in here on the property. I currently have county water, and two creeks on the property, but think a well would be a good addition for the whole prepping thing.
 
I'm not sure I even want to know how much it is to drill a well 600' down! I'm looking into having a well put in here on the property. I currently have county water, and two creeks on the property, but think a well would be a good addition for the whole prepping thing.
The pump is 600' down, the well is 650' deep total. To drill the well it ran about $20k, pump $15k and another $15k for the water pipe and trenching. Its the cleanest, purest best tasting water I've ever drank too. Right now I'm running the well pump off an 8 kw air cooled gas generator, I have to start it whenever the pressure tank runs low. I'm looking at replacing it with an 8kw liquid cooled Perkins diesel generator with auto start. The 12 kw I ordered for the house will be shipped on the 21st and the solar gear about a week after that.
To me, having your own source of water, and generating your own electric, is a great feeling of independence. And it makes good prepping sense.
 
Purchased two 40' conex shipping containers $1400 delivered. Both in good shape, some rust but no dents, no holes, no damage at all.

b682cf5d9b7eb3a24e0d5ab493e37eff.jpg
 
Purchased two 40' conex shipping containers $1400 delivered. Both in good shape, some rust but no dents, no holes, no damage at all.

b682cf5d9b7eb3a24e0d5ab493e37eff.jpg
You couldn't build a storage shed for that kind of money, especially not that solid and sturdy.
 

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