I was going to add to my ammo stash, and cannot find one site that has any .22 ammo. (or at least any type you would want). I have plenty, but, Wow! It's gone!
What have you done?
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Walmart has had it in stock pretty well, and with a variety. That’s probably regional though.
Food is stocked. We have more clothes than we will every wear out. Started the reloading process for my 6.5 Creedmoor. I will purchase a chronograph this month and be able to start testing the new rounds. Next month (October) I will purchase the Ruger Precision Rimfire 22 LR. (already got ammo for it). December I will purchase the 12 ga. shotgun. Hope to catch an Xmas sale. April I will be joining a private rifle / shotgun range. In July I will purchase the MEC 600 shotgun reloading press. From there I will split my focus between firearms / reloading and garden growing. The shotgun or the shotgun reloading press could switch dates, depending on sales in December. Those are my scheduled preps for this year and the middle of next year. We will continue to build our normal supply stock and medical supplies. Being retired and on a fixed income, all major purchased have to be scheduled ahead. We do not buy anything on credit. Cash or not getting it.
I’ve always said if you can’t pay cash then you can’t afford it And If you can’t pay cash you can live without it. Its a good philosophy to live by.
I did order three pairs of sketcher sneakers today. They are the most comfortable to me and I was down to one decent pair and one work pair that was getting worn.
Careful on the ladder. Even short falls can be nasty. Looking forward to seeing it done.
Lol, yeah I’ve noticed it takes a lot longer to recover once you’re in your 50’s too! I finally got smart enough to give up motorcycles also. I still believe being in your car is the most dangerous thing you’ll ever do.
Well, if I ever run out of regular ammo, I have a .45 cal flintlock, powder, ball, etc. I'll load it with nails and run off everybody!
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Finally getting around to reloading the hundreds of 223 cases I've had in a bucket since Bush was president. When I was a member of the civilian range at Fort Benning the ground would be carpeted with 223 and 5.56 cases, and I started picking them up. During the Obama shortages I traded several hundred of them for ammo, but I still have hundreds left.
I get whatever the cheapest 55 grain soft point I can find and use Varget powder, which shoots well in my rifle. But I need to start using some of the "safe queen" powders I have like 4064, which I really have no other use for. I have more primers than I can ever use...not by design, but because I was trying different primers when working up a load for 6.5 Lapua, buying them by the thousand but only using a hundred or so. I think I have plenty of powder. My only limitation is bullets, but when I checked, I had more than I thought I had. So the only things lacking are motivation and elbow grease, LOL.
I get whatever the cheapest 55 grain soft point I can find and use Varget powder, which shoots well in my rifle. But I need to start using some of the "safe queen" powders I have like 4064, which I really have no other use for. I have more primers than I can ever use...not by design, but because I was trying different primers when working up a load for 6.5 Lapua, buying them by the thousand but only using a hundred or so. I think I have plenty of powder. My only limitation is bullets, but when I checked, I had more than I thought I had. So the only things lacking are motivation and elbow grease, LOL.
Been preparing for the past 4 days for an historical wind event hitting later this evening and going on for two days during a red flag warning. I've been strapping thing down and securing out-buildings, got the animal in the stable that generally go in the stables during winter, got the Cat and center pivot in position, generators on the ready, chainsaws ready, got the cattle in an open pasture. We will take turns on fire watch.
I wish you the best Mav during these fires. I don’t envy you right now but know you are more prepared than most for it.
This month we bought a second generator for our BOL cabin. We also added two more IBC water totes today for the cabin. These two are for non-potable water uses, like gardening, laundry, watering young landscape trees/shrubs and such. We already have one for potable water to supplement our well should the pump go out in a power outage (or we run out of fuel for the generator we bought to run the pump in an emergency). Last month I invested in a real sturdy laundry wringer (I do hand laundry at the cabin and line dry). Have to have the wringer as I've broken and had surgery on both wrists. They healed ages ago, but twisting/wringing action is irrevocably difficult for me now. The month before I bought a high quality grain grinder so I can grind corn, wheat, seeds, rice, or whatever. Haven't installed it on the kitchen table or actually used yet, but the sample the company sent that was ground at factory to test the machine before shipping was finer grind than any flour I've ever bought in a store.
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OK, we got our 3 IBC totes trailered down to our BOL today. Got them onto the trailer from our rear driveway. Then off the trailer at location (that was sure fun for two old fogies like us), rinsed them out well, added our bleach per recipe and filled all 3. Takes about an hour to fill one of those things. Now...........we're both exhausted. LOL BTW, if anyone is interested, I did all the math for proper bleach treatment: using 8.25% bleach it takes 1/2 cup + 1 tsp. bleach for the 275 gal. totes; takes 1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp. bleach for the 300 gal. totes.
You have bought some great additions! What type of generator did you get? We are looking at picking up another one besides the whole house one we have, but haven’t decided on a brand and size yet. I too have a few manual grinders. Curious what type you got and if you’ve tried it out yet?
We bought this Champion through Lowes: 6250-Watt Open Frame Inverter - Champion Power Equipment. 6250 watt starting; 5000 watt running. It should run our well pump (which required 240v plug (whenever the electrician gets back out to finish that job). We hope it will also run the water heater. Pump house shares a wall with the storage/workshop outbuilding, so he could briefly disconnect the pump and use the 110 plugs for small electric shop tools occasionally, too. We had a well guy out couple years ago. When asked if he could install a hand pump, he said a hand pump on our well wasn't feasible because it is 400' deep. Said it would be extremely difficult to get water up that far with a hand pump. He said they usually don't put them on wells deeper than 100 feet. We assume he knows what he's talking about since he loses a potential install job saying that). We have a smaller generator (sorry, I don't remember the make/model on that one) we plan to use for our 7c.f. freezer and dinky apt. fridge at the cabin. We have tested neither yet, but we plan to as soon as the electrician does some re-wiring work for us. Not worried about lights as we have installed 6 wall-mount hurricane-style oil lamps in the lower story of the cabin for lighting if we lose power. The grinder I bought for grinding wheat, corn and other stuff is this one. Country Living Grain Mill Hand Crank Wheat Grinder Flour Mill. I didn't get many of the add-on items though, just the basic unit. The wheel is really big, about 10" diameter, so we haven't installed or used it yet, as my cabin kitchen table is valuable workspace. To put my cabin kitchen's lack of workspace into perspective, this is all the counter space and cabinets I have:
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Last month we installed a storm shelter. At 2am one day this past Spring during Covid quarantining there, there was an awful storm came through the area where the cabin is located. Scared the padookey out of me and this girlie is used to many hurricanes in Galveston. There's a small company in Jerrell, TX (which suffered a really bad tornado some years back) that installs them within their service area. They're 4" reinforced concrete with thick steel door, built-in steel staircase and two vents. The come in two halves and they hook/seal them together at installation. Took him just 7 hours to dig the hole, place it and backfill, working all by himself. Delivery and install is part of the list price of their units, too. Our surrounding soil hasn't grown any vegetation yet, but today when we drove down there is some "green stuff" beginning to root there now. We plan to build some shallow brick/board shelves 6" deep to store food canned by me along the interior walls. 
Just enough room for two folding chairs and a bucket potty in the stairway corner. Here's what it looks like above ground:
Just enough room for two folding chairs and a bucket potty in the stairway corner. Here's what it looks like above ground:Attachments
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Love the stove! My root cellar is 8” of concrete but I don’t believe I would use it for a storm shelter. Mostly I’m afraid of debris blocking the exit and trapping me inside. Makes a great temperature controlled wine cellar though!. Is your cabin your bug out place or do you live there too?Last month we installed a storm shelter. At 2am one day this past Spring during Covid quarantining there, there was an awful storm came through the area where the cabin is located. Scared the padookey out of me and this girlie is used to many hurricanes in Galveston. There's a small company in Jerrell, TX (which suffered a really bad tornado some years back) that installs them within their service area. They're 4" reinforced concrete with thick steel door, built-in steel staircase and two vents. The come in two halves and they hook/seal them together at installation. Took him just 7 hours to dig the hole, place it and backfill, working all by himself. Delivery and install is part of the list price of their units, too. Our surrounding soil hasn't grown any vegetation yet, but today when we drove down there is some "green stuff" beginning to root there now. We plan to build some shallow brick/board shelves 6" deep to store food canned by me along the interior walls.
Today the closet where I store a bunch of my preps flooded (everything is waterproofed of course) but I had to pull everything out so I can dry out the closet. So I think I'll spend the rest of the week reviewing my preps and rotating out anything getting old.
I finally finished the rafters on the porch addition here! Will order the metal roofing tomorrow and the decking slats. Had three weeks of long hours of work and kind of put everything else on hold for a while. Wish I could find a helper around here but not many want to work it seems. This project will be an outdoor kitchen, shade for the house in the summers, a screened area for relaxing and the pool deck. The pool is fun when warm enough but the prepper in me sees it as a large water holding device. Lol. I hope to have all the projects done around here over the next year so I can retire and not have to worry with fixing too much stuff. Since I don’t sit still well I’m just likely to make new projects though....
Sorry, that sucks! Only the closet flooded?
It was coming under the wall from the apartment next door. So it was just the closet a small part of the kitchen.
Water isn’t as scary as fire damage but costs more by far each year. Invest in a couple fans to help move air and dry everything up.
I've got a big fan in there right now.
The stove is actually not a real wood stove. A company (now defunct) in Arkansas made these reproductions. They used real wood stove shells but it is fully wired electric. If we lose power, I have to cook on my propane stove on the porch, over our fire pit, or on the charcoal grill.
The property was acquired initially as a getaway, recreational place in the country, but we had some "prepper" wishlist items we were hoping we might also find in a place as we searched available parcels of land in a particular triangle of Texas. This place ticked all our boxes but "running body of water". We do have a large livestock tank, but no river/creeks/springs. Just our well and what other water we can rain harvest or collect/store in IBC totes from the well (before any possible power outage). We do worry about dropped limbs and debris falling on the door, as our cabin (and the cellar) have a bunch of mature hickory trees all around. But we plan to call our neighbors (also the former owners of the land) to let them know whenever we are going into our storm shelter so they can access the place after the storm via a back access lane shared on their fenceline, if there is ever a tornado.
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This is the blower I got made specifically for drying out water damage. It is much better quality than the other brands I have seen. You won't believe how quiet it is and how much directed air it moves.
https://www.lowes.com/pd/BlueDri-PRO-9-in-3-Speed-Outdoor-Air-Mover-Fan/1000793862
https://www.lowes.com/pd/BlueDri-PRO-9-in-3-Speed-Outdoor-Air-Mover-Fan/1000793862
I saw an above post about it being a bug out place after I asked the question. I saw the stove was electric but think its really cool. Propane would fit in with prepping better but even with electric it’s awesome. My house could be described as early American cracker barrel, so it would fit tight in here! Everything is antique or farm house style except for the modern kitchen with stainless appliances. Wish I had planned for something like that when I built the place.The stove is actually not a real wood stove. A company (now defunct) in Arkansas made these reproductions. They used real wood stove shells but it is fully wired electric. If we lose power, I have to cook on my propane stove on the porch, over our fire pit, or on the charcoal grill.
good idea on the notifying someone about the shelter. I would check if you can make a cell phone work in it as well as maybe getting some kind of hydraulic Jack that could pry the opening apart. A Jack with a 4x4 post could help persuade most things open.
One of the things I’ve been working on lately is weight loss. I’ve dropped ten lbs in the last three weeks. I take blood pressure meds, and doubt I will be able to stop them as I’ve been on them for years, but hoping to cut my reliance on them down maybe. Even without loosing the meds, I’ve wanted to loose 25lbs for a while now. Too much good eating over the last 5 yrs or so....
Really nice Buttoni! In my opinion you bought the best grinder out there! And I’m green over your beautiful stove! Really great storm/root cellar too!
We got several of them except home depot brand, they are worth the money and move a lot of air. We use them to dry out the stall floors before applying antibacterial powder to the floors.
the blowers they use for blow-up bounce houses come up used and usually fairly cheap - the outlet is around 4" and needs a diffuser to widen the air spread - also makes a good booster for a larger duct served system ...
also - squirrel cage blowers from whole house furnaces can be salvaged cheap ....
