This weeks preps check-in

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I hope you heal up quickly Mav. Glad it wasn't something more serious. The pain will suck for a while though. I've had broken nose, cracked ribs and broken collarbone, but not all at the same time...
 
Life has a way of making us slow down sometimes. Just glad it wasn’t worse, and hope you don’t hurt too much during this little vacation.....
 
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I'm sure in DrHenleys case it was someones fist that fell on his face rather than a hay stack. LMFAO!

I'm sorry I just couldn't resist. I'm kidding...ok not really.

Maverick as I said yesterday...i wish you a speedy and pain free recovery.
 
I was just checking into note that I bought some LED lights for the living room, and saw the post about the hay falling. I hope you are doing better Maverick.
 
This morning the wife and I took a couple of our vehicles down to get the studded tires put on. It's about a 150 mile round trip to the tire store. We got home about 9 pm to a cold cabin. The fire in the wood stove had gone out and it was 36 degs inside the cabin. I built a fire in the stove and thought everything was normal, but soon the stove pipe turned red hot and then the stove started glowing red. I shut the stove down and went outside to check the chimney. Flames were shooing out the top and sparks were pouring over the roof. Had to carry buckets of water up on the roof to put the fire out. It was 13 degs out and the water on the roof froze solid so of course I slid off the roof. No problem as the ground broke my fall. Went back in the cabin and the stove was still glowing red. Had to pour water over and inside the stove to put the fire out. Once everything cooled down enough I took the chimney apart and cleaned it out. Then cleaned out the inside of the stove. Had all the windows and door open to clear the smoke out. Got a new fire going and so far everything looks good. We've been burning in this stove 24/7 since October with only 1 cleaning. I think I'll be cleaning the chimney every couple of weeks from now on. A chimney fire is a pretty scary thing, I hope to never have another one.
 
This morning the wife and I took a couple of our vehicles down to get the studded tires put on. It's about a 150 mile round trip to the tire store. We got home about 9 pm to a cold cabin. The fire in the wood stove had gone out and it was 36 degs inside the cabin. I built a fire in the stove and thought everything was normal, but soon the stove pipe turned red hot and then the stove started glowing red. I shut the stove down and went outside to check the chimney. Flames were shooing out the top and sparks were pouring over the roof. Had to carry buckets of water up on the roof to put the fire out. It was 13 degs out and the water on the roof froze solid so of course I slid off the roof. No problem as the ground broke my fall. Went back in the cabin and the stove was still glowing red. Had to pour water over and inside the stove to put the fire out. Once everything cooled down enough I took the chimney apart and cleaned it out. Then cleaned out the inside of the stove. Had all the windows and door open to clear the smoke out. Got a new fire going and so far everything looks good. We've been burning in this stove 24/7 since October with only 1 cleaning. I think I'll be cleaning the chimney every couple of weeks from now on. A chimney fire is a pretty scary thing, I hope to never have another one.
I had a friend that built a log cabin mostly himself. He wasn’t done yet and was building it as he could afford, so he didn’t have insurance on it yet. Anyways, it was done enough to live in, so they moved out of their camper and into it. It was winter, so they used the wood stove as their primary source of heat. The flue on it went up about 6 ft and did a 90deg turn going thru a wall. Sometime during the night that 90deg fitting came apart and the heat and sparks went straight up to the wood ceiling above. They grabbed a hose to put it out, but being winter the hose was frozen and they watched as everything they had and had worked so hard on burned to the ground. The point of all this is to never take for granted the safety and maintenance of a wood stove. I’m sorry you had a rough night Arctic, but am glad you were able to contain the damage and kept both your cabin and yourselves safe. My friends eventually recovered and rebuilt, but it took years.
 
We have one of those 90 degree turns for our wood stove in the bedroom. It was lite at the time I noticed it had come loose. No smoke was coming out so I just let it burn out keeping an eye on it. When cooled down enough, put washer and bolted so it didn't slip again. Just happy that the 90 is on this side of ceiling and not in attic to go unnoticed. That could have been a bad deal. Thank you Arctic for pointing out having to clean it every so often.
 
Not just cleaning but inspecting the whole system periodically. I normally just cleaned the flues and inspected once a year sometime in spring, but may check mid cold season now.
 
Had some fun with sweet baby girl today and after her and parents left finished processing a deer. Ended up canning 6 quarts and 1 pint. Just cubed the meat up and tossed in jars. Makes its own juices. Processed for the normal 90 minutes.

I swear that little girl has no fears. . . She got to ride on the skid steer, walked right up to the milk cows to feed them greens along with the goats and even gave our bull Jr a swat on the backside while her Pops was holding her. She makes me proud. :)
 
Of all the survival gear and equipment one of the most important is the Kitchen pantry . Im going through Ours and adding more of our favorite everyday non perishables . When Im done We should be good for over a Year without relying on Our long term prepps .
The kitchen pantry is just about my favorite room in the house. Today I am adding in some canned comfort food. . . 19 pints and 3 quarts of meatloaf.
 
The taste is there for the meatloaf, but like all canned meats, its not like you bake it in the oven. When canning, you need to add more liquid or it turns out dry. I used 4 pints of undrained chopped tomatoes along with a bottle of steak sauce and instead of milk, I added in a bottle of ketchup. Still turned out a little drier than I like but its a quick meal when needed.
 
The taste is there for the meatloaf, but like all canned meats, its not like you bake it in the oven. When canning, you need to add more liquid or it turns out dry. I used 4 pints of undrained chopped tomatoes along with a bottle of steak sauce and instead of milk, I added in a bottle of ketchup. Still turned out a little drier than I like but its a quick meal when needed.
I’ve been learning what is good to can and what isn’t. Sure, some things don’t turn out as well, but in the long run if shtf does happen just having food is going to be a huge thing. Learning to preserve food safely is a really good skill.
 
Sportsman Guide has free shipping right now and some sales, FYI. A good way to get some preps cheap. I would still compare prices to eBay.

They have a good deal with canteens and molle covers and I bought these a while back. I just ordered a 2 pair pack of mittens, 2 pack sleeping bag bivy pack, 2 medical molle pouches, 10 pair pack of white mitten over covers.

When your cutting wood with your chain saw do you wear an IFAK or keep a medical kit near? If not the medical pouch mentioned($2.99) above is perfect for a tourniquet(your flavor) and a pressure bandage. If you cut your femoral artery your dead in minutes. I saw some videos of chainsaw accidents on YouTube and said F that, I now wear an IFAK. Just an FYI.

I bought the above bivy for the two MSS Patrol sleeping bags I posted earlier. By the way it was a great transaction. One Patrol bag was brand new with the tag and the other was very good/excellent.
 
Walmart has steel ammo cans for under 9 bucks. I got 7 of them. Great airtight containers and I got all the assorted boxes of ammo organized and protected, with the desiccant for moisture too. The wife did point out that I don’t target practice much anymore. Well, at least I’ll never have to buy anymore ammo.....
 
Walmart has steel ammo cans for under 9 bucks. I got 7 of them. Great airtight containers and I got all the assorted boxes of ammo organized and protected, with the desiccant for moisture too. The wife did point out that I don’t target practice much anymore. Well, at least I’ll never have to buy anymore ammo.....
Menards had the plastic ones on black Friday. I got several for cache purposes (less metal detector pick up).

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk
 
I had a front faucet on the house to repair. last spring , it kind of turned itself on to a slow trickle for a few months. We noticed the spike in the water bill. We thought someone had turned it on. We didn't notice the pooling of water because we rarely go out the front door.

It has turned itself on again and there is a nice little swamp between our house and the neighbors house.

So it isn't really a prep.. we just noticed it this time because we were prepping the faucets to be covered for winter.
 
I had a front faucet on the house to repair. last spring , it kind of turned itself on to a slow trickle for a few months. We noticed the spike in the water bill. We thought someone had turned it on. We didn't notice the pooling of water because we rarely go out the front door.

It has turned itself on again and there is a nice little swamp between our house and the neighbors house.

So it isn't really a prep.. we just noticed it this time because we were prepping the faucets to be covered for winter.
My little leak out by the road at the water meter cost me a $77 water bill. I only noticed as the water dept left a note on my gate! My average bill is about 50. I’m looking into a friggin well!
 
We have a well at our BOL. A leaking toilet valve ran ours dry, lol. I don’t know how long the friggin thing had been leaking, but it did it.

In town, we had a leak under the sidewalk. That bill was a ways over 100 bucks.
 

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