This weeks preps check-in

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Got the diesel transfer tank installed on my truck yesterday. Its 60 gallons so it's enough to fill the generator fuel tank. Now I can start buying tax free diesel for the generator and tractor and save a bunch of $$$. Next year I'll setup a couple bulk tanks for gas and diesel and save even more. Got the water and sewer all connected in the bathroom. Only had one small leak. Of course I miscalculated and missed the cesspool by about 2 feet. I'll have to add a 45 to the drain pipe in order to hit the hole. Now I just need to connect the gas line to the water heater. It'll be nice having hot water to the shower. I'm starting to get a little tired of taking cold showers outside, or going in to town to the gas station for a hot shower. This may have something to do with why the wife won't come home....
Ordered the lumber for the new barn extension. I hope to start construction on it next week. It'll give me another 16×24 of much needed space.
 
Arcticdude said:
Got the diesel transfer tank installed on my truck yesterday. Its 60 gallons so it's enough to fill the generator fuel tank. Now I can start buying tax free diesel for the generator and tractor and save a bunch of $$$. Next year I'll setup a couple bulk tanks for gas and diesel and save even more. Got the water and sewer all connected in the bathroom. Only had one small leak. Of course I miscalculated and missed the cesspool by about 2 feet. I'll have to add a 45 to the drain pipe in order to hit the hole. Now I just need to connect the gas line to the water heater. It'll be nice having hot water to the shower. I'm starting to get a little tired of taking cold showers outside, or going in to town to the gas station for a hot shower. This may have something to do with why the wife won't come home....
Ordered the lumber for the new barn extension. I hope to start construction on it next week. It'll give me another 16×24 of much needed space.
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One step at a time! I started building this place close to twelve years ago and still have some loose ends to finish up!
 
Brent S said:
One step at a time! I started building this place close to twelve years ago and still have some loose ends to finish up!
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Thought I was done in 1988, in 2017 the house I built is not the house I live in today... kitchen enlarged, foyer gone, sun room added, Wife's den (reading room) off the master bedroom, recently the guest bathroom enlarged. Yes sir, 1988, I thought I was done :(

I won't even mention the stable *sigh
 
Brent S said:
One step at a time! I started building this place close to twelve years ago and still have some loose ends to finish up!
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Absolutely. But my goal is to be 100% done with all major construction projects by this time next year. After the barn extension is completed the only major projects I have left are the house and shop. I will always have projects to work on around here, but the house and shop are too big for me to build by myself.
 
Arcticdude said:
Absolutely. But my goal is to be 100% done with all major construction projects by this time next year. After the barn extension is completed the only major projects I have left are the house and shop. I will always have projects to work on around here, but the house and shop are too big for me to build by myself.
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That's what you say now. . . just wait till wife is living there full time. Even though she has a say now, I'm sure once she gets a feel for everything she will have the ' oh I should have put this in instead of' .. Or the 'wouldn't it be nice if'' . . . moments. Note Mav's post above ;). We're good at those types of things.
 
Arcticdude said:
Got the gas line connected to the water heater last night. Now have hot and cold running water inside the cabin. I put a T in the gas line so I can run another line to the BBQ on the deck.
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I installed the 500gal tank and ran a 3/4” black iron line down the back of the house to be able to connect it to things other than the generator down the road. The line ends next to the deck, right by the barbecue grill. For some reason I still haven’t hooked the grill to it. As a matter of fact I just put an empty gas cylinder in the truck to refill. One of these days I will get it together.
 
I just welded a broken lawn mower deck back together for a friend. Looked like he played chicken with a semi truck. Anyways, I wont let him pay me anything for it, firstly because I don’t need the money, and mostly because creating some good will in life is likely to help us all out one day! I consider that a form of prepping....
 
Just reading this thread and you guys have been working hard! I just bought 3 emergency candles that burn for 115 hours each. They were mentioned on this site. I thought they were a good idea.I put them in my weather kit. I have 3 tall religious candles and now these. I would like to get more of these and do away with the regular candles at some point. It gets hot here and the wax melts just a little and gets on other stuff in the box. The 115 hour burn candles come in a plastic jar, so I don't have to worry about breaking or melting.

I bought some extra stock of stuff that was on sale. My best buy was at Kroger. I got a free 6 oz tube of Colgate and 8 razors (4 blades on each razor) for $3.23 including tax. I was able to repeat this sale 3 times. I also got laundry detergent for $1.50 and 3 bottles of Aveno lotion for $13.00
 
They delivered the lumber for the barn extension project today. The truck (6×6) barely made it up my road because of the snow and ice. This could be the last truck that can make it up here. I hired a couple hands to help with construction and they should be here on Wednesday. I need to get this extension done ASAP. Next week is forecasted to be around zero with more snow. My son will be here on Thursday and will help with installing the inverter and battery bank in the generator building. The pigs are scheduled to be butchered on Friday, but with the current road conditions the butcher won't be able to make it in with his truck/trailer rig. I guess I'll haul their carcass's down to the county road with my tractor and load them in his cooler trailer there. I hope this is the last major building project for this year. I really need to get out and do some hunting and get started on my trap line soon.
 
Today was the wake of a dear fallen angel. He worked on the SWAT team that hunny worked with. His mom was the receptionist for my dentist and my dentist was his uncle. We knew the family well, in fact an extention of ours. He was truely one of the good guys. . .

As for prepping, today was my big shopping trip of the year, so we are pretty well stocked. The only thing I could not get was my brown sugar and only got 25lbs of flour cause they only had one bag left. At check out the girl asked what all this stuff was for and I just told her it was my big shopping g trip of the year. She said "oh, your that lady". At least I'm known for something. ;) Now need to get it all put away on shelves.

Normally you can find turkey for 33-39 cents a lb, but this year the cheapest was 49 cent. Is everyone seeing that the price went up so much? Just curious.
 
Danil54grl said:
Today was the wake of a dear fallen angel. He worked on the SWAT team that hunny worked with. His mom was the receptionist for my dentist and my dentist was his uncle. We knew the family well, in fact an extention of ours. He was truely one of the good guys. . .

As for prepping, today was my big shopping trip of the year, so we are pretty well stocked. The only thing I could not get was my brown sugar and only got 25lbs of flour cause they only had one bag left. At check out the girl asked what all this stuff was for and I just told her it was my big shopping g trip of the year. She said "oh, your that lady". At least I'm known for something. ;) Now need to get it all put away on shelves.

Normally you can find turkey for 33-39 cents a lb, but this year the cheapest was 49 cent. Is everyone seeing that the price went up so much? Just curious.
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The best I’ve seen is 69cents this year. That’s probably good since both freezers are loaded to the gills! I have way too many bags of frozen muscadine grapes in there. I guess I should buy at least two more turkeys though and do some repacking in the chest freezer. It’s always good to rotate some of the stuff from the bottom anyways.
 
Danil54grl said:
Today was the wake of a dear fallen angel. He worked on the SWAT team that hunny worked with. His mom was the receptionist for my dentist and my dentist was his uncle. We knew the family well, in fact an extention of ours. He was truely one of the good guys. . .

As for prepping, today was my big shopping trip of the year, so we are pretty well stocked. The only thing I could not get was my brown sugar and only got 25lbs of flour cause they only had one bag left. At check out the girl asked what all this stuff was for and I just told her it was my big shopping g trip of the year. She said "oh, your that lady". At least I'm known for something. ;) Now need to get it all put away on shelves.

Normally you can find turkey for 33-39 cents a lb, but this year the cheapest was 49 cent. Is everyone seeing that the price went up so much? Just curious.
Click to expand...

.47 cents per pound for a turkey is the best I have seen so far. I have no idea why the price increase. I think it is great you are know for you once a year shopping :)
I found a good deal on toilet paper. I stocked up and bought 6 packs of 12 rolls. I already have some at home, so I should be good for a bit.. at least until there is another good sale.

Sorry to hear about your friend.
 
Went thru my USGS topographical maps and realized I am missing one of my adjoining boarder maps. If you do not know tactically you want the map that your located in, your Northern and Southern border maps. Your right side North, middle Eastern, South maps and then your left/West 3 maps. . So total you will have a total 9 maps including the map that your located in. This will be for command and control allowing you to make marks and notes on top of a clear plastic sheet with water based markers(whiteboard markers).

I checked with USGS and the topographic map is $8.00 plus $5.00. Before I ordered it I figured I would check with with the Federal Forest Service and with the Michigan DNR. The feds no longer carry topo maps for sale and the same with the DNR but the person I talked to asked me what maps I wanted and a couple other question. I almost said hey its none of your business but something (God) told me to keep my mouth shut. She said she could print me some smaller ones(free). I said cool how big? She could do...(I forget her actual response but I just measured the paper and its 11X17”). She called me the next day saying they were done.

Picked the maps up and awesomeness. The paper could be trimmed some making a smaller footprint but the size is really good that its really readable and you can see the detail for patrol purposes. I love free ****. Especially when it is filling a void in your preps. I asked her how soon I could get more and she just kind of looked at me and said I would have to wait a while. No problem. I still have to get my missing full size map.

The full size maps are to be used in a command area stapled to the wall. The COMMO desk will be right there. I wanted some some smaller maps for my red binder for a section for retreating and going to a rally point. And then like I mentioned for patrol purposes.
 
MaterielGeneral said:
Went thru my USGS topographical maps and realized I am missing one of my adjoining boarder maps. If you do not know tactically you want the map that your located in, your Northern and Southern border maps. Your right side North, middle Eastern, South maps and then your left/West 3 maps. . So total you will have a total 9 maps including the map that your located in. This will be for command and control allowing you to make marks and notes on top of a clear plastic sheet with water based markers(whiteboard markers).

I checked with USGS and the topographic map is $8.00 plus $5.00. Before I ordered it I figured I would check with with the Federal Forest Service and with the Michigan DNR. The feds no longer carry topo maps for sale and the same with the DNR but the person I talked to asked me what maps I wanted and a couple other question. I almost said hey its none of your business but something (God) told me to keep my mouth shut. She said she could print me some smaller ones(free). I said cool how big? She could do...(I forget her actual response but I just measured the paper and its 11X17”). She called me the next day saying they were done.

Picked the maps up and awesomeness. The paper could be trimmed some making a smaller footprint but the size is really good that its really readable and you can see the detail for patrol purposes. I love free ****. Especially when it is filling a void in your preps. I asked her how soon I could get more and she just kind of looked at me and said I would have to wait a while. No problem. I still have to get my missing full size map.

The full size maps are to be used in a command area stapled to the wall. The COMMO desk will be right there. I wanted some some smaller maps for my red binder for a section for retreating and going to a rally point. And then like I mentioned for patrol purposes.
Click to expand...

I get all my maps from mytopo.com they have the current declination plus UTM lines/tics and water proof too, the USGS is dated and generally have the incorrect declination adjustments.
 
Got the pigs butchered yesterday. My son came over early Saturday morning and helped chain up the tractor. We also got the inverter, charger and combiner mounted on the wall and the batteries moved in to the generator building. I'll wire the 8, 6 volt batteries to make 48 volts.
Later in the day my daughter and grandkids and another friend came up and we cooked steaks over a fire and drank beer.
In a couple weeks a guy is coming out to connect the inverter and batteries to the generator. If the weather holds I might temperarlly set up a few solar panels to add to the system.
 
Got the roof rafters up on the barn extension yesterday. Today the roof sheeting and tar paper will go on. I don't think I have enough shingles to cover the whole roof. May have to order more. Going to lay out the deck for the cabin today. The ground might be too frozen to dig the holes for the support posts with the tractor so I'll probably end up digging them by hand. Once the deck is finished I can drag my smoker out of the barn and start using it again. The wife and I have both been pretty sick lately so we've been trying to take it easy.
 
Arcticdude said:
Got the roof rafters up on the barn extension yesterday. Today the roof sheeting and tar paper will go on. I don't think I have enough shingles to cover the whole roof. May have to order more. Going to lay out the deck for the cabin today. The ground might be too frozen to dig the holes for the support posts with the tractor so I'll probably end up digging them by hand. Once the deck is finished I can drag my smoker out of the barn and start using it again. The wife and I have both been pretty sick lately so we've been trying to take it easy.
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I wouldn't call that taking it easy. Hope you both feel better soon. And BTW, you don't have to share EVERYTHING with each other. Least that is what I tell my hunny when he comes home sick and passes it along to me. ;)
 
Danil54grl said:
I wouldn't call that taking it easy. Hope you both feel better soon. And BTW, you don't have to share EVERYTHING with each other. Least that is what I tell my hunny when he comes home sick and passes it along to me. ;)
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You know what life is like on the old homestead; The work ain't gonna do its self.
I think we caught the crud from the grandbabies over Thanksgiving.
 
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