This weeks preps check-in

[Gazrok]

We have too many animals for carpet anywhere, in my opinion, lol.

It was EVERYWHERE....even bathrooms (yuck), when we got the place. We resolved that pretty soon, and put tile instead. Dining room is the next one though, I like the look of laminate, but haven't done it before, and it's a weird shaped room (like all of my rooms)....so may be tricky. May go with tile, just because I know it.

 

[Dani]

One of the first things we did was rip up all carpet in the house when we first bought it. With at that time 4 dogs running in and out along with two cats, plus a couple boys. . . .It would have been next to impossible to keep clean.

Gaz, that extra fridge will come in handy at holiday times too with all that extra cooking being done and if you ever start raising chickens, it makes for a nice dairy cooler when you have a high egg production.

 

[Dani]

Hunny brought home a trailor full of oak to be cut up for firewood yesterday while I was at work. It just needs to get split and stacked.I

Garden was weeded this morning. Finished cooking the crackling leftover from rendering. Some of those will be put in cornbread for dinner. Ended up vacuum sealing 11 packages of scrapple for the freezer. Taking 1 whole loaf and cooking it with scrambled eggs to make burritos for the freezer. It's a good grab, heat up and go kind of breakfast.

Have 10 gallons of curds draining off right now to finish making up some cream type cheese. Something that had to be taken out of the freezer for pork last week on tues. Put in a Yeti cooler and it still had some ice in them this morning. . . 8 days later. Still have 2 gallons to go but they had too much ice still and my colanders are not big enough for those two anyway.

Blackberries are slim picking this year around here. . All very low to the ground. Two of my once upon a time hunny holes are no longer there. Looks like the county came in and clear cut them, but not sure why. Did get enough for another pie though.

Mulberry trees are loaded with red berries, but the birds must be eating them as soon as they turn black, which is no suprise. They tend to be faster than me.
I've
need to go make my pie and cornbread, then figure out what I want to do with leftover smoked chicken.

 

[Brent S]

I trenched about 300 ft of waterline and got it laid and buried today. Even with a backhoe it was a lot of work. I’m about half way done getting ready to connect to the new well, which should go in in about two more weeks. Getting off the county water supply was a prepping plan for a long time now. Just glad to be moving forward.

 

[Gazrok]

That's awesome Brent!

One of the first things we did was rip up all carpet in the house when we first bought it. With at that time 4 dogs running in and out along with two cats, plus a couple boys. . . .It would have been next to impossible to keep clean.

Not next to...it IS impossible. So it has to go. Killed several vacuum/floor cleaners already too.

Gaz, that extra fridge will come in handy at holiday times too with all that extra cooking being done and if you ever start raising chickens, it makes for a nice dairy cooler when you have a high egg production.

We used to have an extra freezer, which was great when the kids were here, but now, with leftovers, we really needed more fridge space, vs. freezer. I still have chickens, just don't get a lot of eggs. I'm going to free range these, and then get a new crop of hens to lay. (wife isn't onboard to just butcher them). Fridge is also great when we have cakes for folks.

We have a lot of fridges now, actually. Two full size in the kitchen, one full size in the main tack room of the barn now. A mini-fridge in the garage (for drinks). Another mini in the boarder tack room. Yet another mini in our bedroom. (and I guess you could count the mini in the horse trailer cabin too).

I'm going to convert the now non-working standing freezer, to a huge cooler to be used as part of the backyard gazebo area I'm going to build. Since our last gazebo didn't survive Irma, we're going to build a wooden one instead....with kind of a rednecked outdoor kitchen.

 

[Maverick]

We cut a 40ft path around the fence line with the dozer (something done every year) to prep for fire season. Been also replacing some fencing and re-stretching the wire and some poles replacement (replacing wood with steel) it’s been a busy week so far.

 

[brandx]

Transplanted tomatoes, cut down a tree and hauled a few away from the pasture that had fallen into, cut them up too. Whew. I bought a vac sealer at a yard sale for 1 buck during lunch break today, says works. we'll see, but for one dollar will take the chance to have an extra. Need to vac seal some powdered milk in jars, it is all sitting out on the counter. Missed out on some free chickens( live ones), they went fast but was stuck at work.

 

[user 7704]

During the rain yesterday, I decided to do a little inventory on my home canned goods.

I have about 150 jars of tomatoes and over 200 jars of green beans. Plus various other jars of pickles, kraut, chicken, etc. I guess we will live on the same foods for a while if SHTF.

I have frozen stuff too, but I thinking that there will be an electrical outage and most of it will ruin before I can save it.

I'm thinking EMP.

 

[Petoski]

I made a skills to learn list at the start of this year and one of the skills is to learn useful knots. I made a start today. I figured i would go with ones for putting up a simple shelter. It was a little tricky at first but now I'm getting the hang of it. What are peoples favourite/most useful knots?

 

[DrHenley]

What are peoples favourite/most useful knots?

By far the most useful knot to me is the bowline - the "King of Knots" as its called.

 

[Brent S]

I made a skills to learn list at the start of this year and one of the skills is to learn useful knots. I made a start today. I figured i would go with ones for putting up a simple shelter. It was a little tricky at first but now I'm getting the hang of it. What are peoples favourite/most useful knots?

Knowing knots is a skill that needs to be practiced or it’s forgotten too easily. I had a friend that owned a small tree business. I would work with him occasionally and he taught me all kinds of really cool knots. Now that I haven’t done it in years I couldn’t remember any of them! Speaking of, I have a few trees that are in need of coming down. Hopefully I can learn a few from a book quickly.

 

[brandx]

I made a skills to learn list at the start of this year and one of the skills is to learn useful knots. I made a start today. I figured i would go with ones for putting up a simple shelter. It was a little tricky at first but now I'm getting the hang of it. What are peoples favourite/most useful knots?

I've got a boy scout book on the shelf, think I may try some knots. Sounds like a good thing to do when your body is tired from working and you want to sit a spell. What kind of rope are you learning with. I would think cotton clothesline would be a good one.

 

[user 7704]

I've got a boy scout book on the shelf, think I may try some knots. Sounds like a good thing to do when your body is tired from working and you want to sit a spell. What kind of rope are you learning with. I would think cotton clothesline would be a good one.

Not Boy Scouts any more. It's sad. I think it is. There is Girl Scouts. If the want a non gender specific club, start their own. Don't mess with history.

 

[brandx]

Not Boy Scouts any more. It's sad. I think it is. There is Girl Scouts. If the want a non gender specific club, start their own. Don't mess with history.

I agree. I don't like the way this country is heading.

 

[Gazrok]

We have a lot of different knots we use around the ranch. Especially those that hold well, but can be undone with the right pull, for tying up horses, etc.

I have frozen stuff too, but I thinking that there will be an electrical outage and most of it will ruin before I can save it.

You'd be surprised. After Irma, we were out of power for almost 5 full days. We didn't lose any frozen items at all, and didn't have a generator (a mistake that will be remedied before THIS storm season gets going).... Trick is to really pack that freezer prior to the outage, and then only go into it a couple times each day. Period.

We also had another freezer that just had frozen water bottles, so when we opened the other....we'd stick in frozen bottles to take the items taken out's place.

 

[brandx]

Have you tried the powdered butter before? I’d be interested to hear how it tastes.

Ok, found you. The powdered butter has taken the taste test. It is just OK, it is better than no butter. A little bit blanched of flavor, not ill tasting, not very spreadable, not very melty on toast, bland by itself. Consistency is alright. Color is OK. Mixed up well. You can make it softer by adding more water, may try adding milk instead if using right away. If butter was a 10 then the powdered is a 7. I'm not against it, I will use it and not think much about it. It's just Ok which is better than YUCK! It came in a #10 can and the rest went into the freezer.

 

[brandx]

We have a lot of different knots we use around the ranch. Especially those that hold well, but can be undone with the right pull, for tying up horses, etc.



You'd be surprised. After Irma, we were out of power for almost 5 full days. We didn't lose any frozen items at all, and didn't have a generator (a mistake that will be remedied before THIS storm season gets going).... Trick is to really pack that freezer prior to the outage, and then only go into it a couple times each day. Period.

We also had another freezer that just had frozen water bottles, so when we opened the other....we'd stick in frozen bottles to take the items taken out's place.

You seem to be a pretty fart smeller, I mean smart feller.

 

[Gazrok]

You seem to be a pretty fart smeller, I mean smart feller.

Thanks. Just that this worked so well, I really want to share it, so people don't lose hundreds of dollars in groceries during a long term outage. Doing this, on day 3, I had to actually take chicken breasts out to THAW before grilling them for dinner that night!

Before the power outage (we knew we were right in the path, and would lose power at some point), we consolidated everything to one fridge/freezer (except the frozen water bottles in the other freezer). We also put all the drinks in good coolers (to prevent opening a fridge just for a drink).

 

[jontte]

added these into my medkit..

 

[SheilaT.]

Thanks. Just that this worked so well, I really want to share it, so people don't lose hundreds of dollars in groceries during a long term outage. Doing this, on day 3, I had to actually take chicken breasts out to THAW before grilling them for dinner that night!

Before the power outage (we knew we were right in the path, and would lose power at some point), we consolidated everything to one fridge/freezer (except the frozen water bottles in the other freezer). We also put all the drinks in good coolers (to prevent opening a fridge just for a drink).

This is the sort of stuff I joined the forum for. Practical prepping advice from someone who's been through a catastophe. Thanks Gaz, info like this is invaluable.

 

[Silent Earth]

We have a lot of different knots we use around the ranch. Especially those that hold well, but can be undone with the right pull, for tying up horses, etc.



You'd be surprised. After Irma, we were out of power for almost 5 full days. We didn't lose any frozen items at all, and didn't have a generator (a mistake that will be remedied before THIS storm season gets going).... Trick is to really pack that freezer prior to the outage, and then only go into it a couple times each day. Period.

We also had another freezer that just had frozen water bottles, so when we opened the other....we'd stick in frozen bottles to take the items taken out's place.

On a similar vein we keep some precut sheets of 50mm foil covered insulation foam sheeting that we wrap our chest freezer with if their is a power cut thus doubling its insulation, and we also keep a few freezer pack blocks in the little freezer to add to the chest freezer to increase the ice mass.

 

[Maverick]

I made a skills to learn list at the start of this year and one of the skills is to learn useful knots. I made a start today. I figured i would go with ones for putting up a simple shelter. It was a little tricky at first but now I'm getting the hang of it. What are peoples favourite/most useful knots?

Some of the knots we use here

Farmers knot
Halter hitch
Bowline
Carrick bend
Timber hitch

Just to name a few

 

[Petoski]

Upgraded the water pump so it is powerful enough to pump the water up from the river and run a sprinkler over the vegetable plot and save me the bother of using the hose and watering cans.

The old petrol mower packed in so I took the opportunity to offset the extra energy used by the new water pump to buy a push reel mower. I thought it may be a gamble but it works a treat over about 2500m2 lawn area and is a hell of a load easier to manoeuvre. Only time will tell how it well it holds up.

 

[Squirtgunsquirter]

Upgraded the water pump so it is powerful enough to pump the water up from the river and run a sprinkler over the vegetable plot and save me the bother of using the hose and watering cans.

The old petrol mower packed in so I took the opportunity to offset the extra energy used by the new water pump to buy a push reel mower. I thought it may be a gamble but it works a treat over about 2500m2 lawn area and is a hell of a load easier to manoeuvre. Only time will tell how it well it holds up.

Karloshi, good stuff. If I ever have a lawn again, I will be using a reel mower for sure.

 

[Petoski]

Karloshi, good stuff. If I ever have a lawn again, I will be using a reel mower for sure.

Doubles as my weekly workout during the summer months

 

[jimLE]

Im now,officially up to 10 oil lamps.in which 2 are miniature lamps.and 2 of the regular size was given me this morning.

 

[Silent Earth]

Got the van fully serviced and overhauled, 4 new truck rated tyres, new fuel filter/ sediment filter/ water filter unit installed, fully synthetic oil etc, what a pig of a job finding the bloody pollen filter hidden in the footwell. Sorted out the water tank and rotated the foods and drink stuffs.

 

[Mountain trapper]

Been doing a lot of planting in the garden. Started with; peas, cucumbers, asparagus, peppers and lots of herbs. Still have a lot more to plant. I found some wild strawberry plants out in the woods and transplanted a bunch to the garden.
I'm just about done fencing in a 15+/- acre meadow, but ran into a 100' section of solid rock that's going to slow me down a bit. I'll have to build some rock cribs or get a rock drill. Once this fence is finished I can start repairs on the perimeter fence. The cows will be let out on range in a couple of weeks.
Today the builders started construction on the shop. The concrete guy will be up tomorrow afternoon. Once they start framing the shop, the foundation for the house will be excavated, plus the site for the solar panel pole mount will be dug.

 

[SheilaT.]

With the warmer weather finally arriving I am spending this week going through the medicines box and topping everything up, especially the antihistamines,

 

[jimLE]

that reminds e.that i need to go through my medical supplies.reorganize it better.to throwing away anything that needs throwing away..