Preps and Lessons for the week ….

It’s been an up and down week as I continued to spend time on the bathrooms and helping the wife with the spring cleaning.  However, all was not lost as I learned some new lessons this week, and was able to add to my prepping efforts. 

The wife and I did determine that we really had too much stored in the freezer section.  If the cooler hadn’t performed so well, we would have lost a serious amount of food (and dollars).  We had lost track of everything that we had, so we are committing to using it up and not purchasing anymore for a while.  We also talked about only buying enough frozen stuff to do us for three or four meals and focus on more canned goods and long term food storage.   We decided that it is better to invest the difference for the long term rather than risk losing so much food if the power goes out for an extended period. 

Ran across this little tidbit and I am really intrigued.  I am seriously considering doing this in lieu of bulk purchases for long term storage each week.  http://survivalblog.com/2012/05/alternate-food-storage-a-week-in-a-bucket-by-chemengineer.html

Other preps for the week:

• Purchased one of the huge Coleman coolers that is supposed to keep ice frozen for 5 days.  A cooler of this size is a great multi-use item and can be used for water collection, storage, etc.  I can definitely attest that it works for 3 as it took me that long to get the fridge really fixed.  As I store it away I plan to use it to hold extra toilet paper.   
• Picked up a sharpening stone and more honing oil. 
• Refreshed my stored water supplies.  I like to do this when the time changes, but I just didn’t get around to it. 
• Moved my compost container system to a sunnier location and built a keyhole garden spot around it.   This is being used very successfully in Africa to grow a lot of food in a very small space.  As most of my backyard is sunlight challenged, I thought I would give this concept a try.     

Preps and Lessons for the week…

I took myself at my word this past week and really focused on doing work around the house and the yard.  The wife is redoing both bathrooms in the house, and I relented and let her spend some serious money.  Where I would go in for just painting and chrome fixtures, she is looking at tile and something besides chrome.   I can’t argue too much with the updates as the house is 40 years old and things need to be addressed.  For example, wax rings for toilets only last so long.  Sooner or later, they deteriorate and need to be replaced; you just hope you do it in time before leaks cause major damage.  Anyway, we are doing the labor ourselves, so that is saving enough money to cover her higher end items.  Besides, it also gives me an opportunity to learn and refresh some skills.  It was all I could do to spend the money for the upgrades and not whine about how many canned goods the money would buy. However, the way I have it figured, this is emotional capitol investment, as the he wife will recognize that she really won’t have much to say when I come in with some prepping purchase. 

I also held to my promise of not spending my time reading so much on the internet.  (Working on the bathrooms and the yard kept me distracted.)   I found that by doing so, I quit worrying so much and could focus better on my immediate goals.  I’ll tweak my plan for new worries next week.  The way I see it, I can’t do everything at once, so I need to get some things completed before moving on to newer things, otherwise, nothing really gets done.      

I did get a few things accomplished this week:

• I cut down all the old out of control azaleas around the perimeter of our yard.  Aesthetically it looks much better, but from a security standpoint, it is a significant improvement.  I’ll replant with something that will continue to allow an unobstructed view of the back yard.      
• Picked up some more of the wound seal and all purpose gauze dressing that were on sale at Walgreens. 
• Put a razor edges on the new Condor knives I bought.  The Bushcraft came relatively sharp, but the neck knife needed some work. 

Lessons learned this week:

• I woke up this morning and our refrigerator seemed to be on the fritz.  The freezer door was not pushed all the way in, and after investigating, I determined the that one of the kids left it open overnight.  This had caused a buildup of frost in the freezer section that basically blocked all the airflow.  I told everyone not to open the fridge unless absolutely necessary until I could get the coolers and ice pulled together so I could get in and defrost it.  It has been interesting to watch the family’s reaction to not having the fridge readily available.  I can already tell that if we have an extended power outage, it is not going to be easy for them to adjust their new reality.   

Preps and Lessons for the week …..

After going through my organization project, I am somewhat amazed at how much I have been able to accomplish within a year and how much better off I am now versus then.  But I am nowhere closed to where I need to be.

I have, however, come to a serious realization:. 

-          I spend too much time on the net reading survival blogs and other related information.  I am making myself crazy, and to some extent, my family, worrying about all possible scenarios.  From earthquakes, hurricanes, civil unrest, economic collapse, nuclear war, solar flares, martial law, job loss, asteroid impact, etc. and all the stuff that goes along with it, I am forgetting about joy in my life.  I have resolved to limit myself to 2 hours per week reading online.  I won’t quit working my plan.  I have a good plan in place, and I will continue to work it at my steady pace.  I have had to recognize that I will not be fully prepared for every contingency, but I have a cushion in place to make a conscious, well informed decision in any event.  But, I will stop and smell the roses.  I will pursue making music like I used to, instead of spending time every evening reading blogs.  I will spend some money with the wife on something frivolous for just us.  The whole idea is to not forget to enjoy living.  Learn from the past, plan for the future, but live in the precious present, because, once it’s gone, you can’t get it back.    

That being said, this week I …..

• Worked some in the garden.  It seems to be coming along nicely.
• Saw this regarding a home-made Faraday cage with bucket on this site    http://saltnprepper.com/2012/04/27/faraday-cage/.     It just so happened that I had bought one of these buckets the last time I was at Lowes and I put it to use for this immediately.  I am not convinced it was all a coincidence. 
• Ran across and picked up another WoundSeal powder from Walgreens. (This particular one is a package of 4 single use applications.)  Even though I can get it at Walgreens, they very seldom have it in stock, so as soon as I see it, I snatch it up. 

I decided against spending the money for the Blackbird knife.  I decided to spend the allocation, and for less money, I was able to pick up:

• Marble’s Bolo Camp Jungle Machete.  I needed a new machete, as the one I had was inherited and was not of any type of quality. 
• Gerber Suspension Multi-Plier, for my wife’s bag.  The one I had in there was something I inherited and again, wasn’t the best in the world.  After using it in New Orleans, it became readily apparent that it was a piece of crap and wouldn’t be reliable in a pinch.   As we take my wife’s car a lot of places, I really wanted a good quality piece of equipment to rely on. 
• Condor Fidelis Neck Knife.  My little gift to me, as a backup to everything else when I am hiking. 
• Condor Bushcraft Basic Heavy Duty Work Knife – Large.  Same dimensions as the Blackbird with a wood handle vs. micarta, 1075 steel vs. 1095, and at 1/5^th the price.  I’ve been impressed with Condor knives and I am anxious to put it through its paces. 

Compromised …..

I wrote this a couple of days ago when I was upset.  After re-reading, I still thought the info has some merit so I decided to go ahead and post it.

I’m pissed!!!!  My operational security has been compromised.  Not so much the fact that others outside the family know of our preparation efforts, but the betrayal came at the hands of my youngest son.  My youngest is one of the generation that feels like he is entitled to everything and that is where we are constantly butting heads.  That, and he is also at the age where he thinks I’m stupid.  If I don’t let him have what he wants, he just calls papaw, and of course he can have it.  Needless to say,  it creates quite a bit of tension between my father and me.  Anyway, I didn’t witness this, as I wasn’t home, but my wife told me about it. 

She walked in from work, and my son was in the family room with his girlfriend, and there were two kids sitting at our kitchen table.  One she didn’t know, and the other is a smarky little punk that reminds me of Eddie Haskell without the respect he showed.  (My son is a jerk, but he is mostly dependent on us, and he knows his car is still in my name .)   He starts off a conversation with my wife about why we have so many canned goods.  (If you read any of my earlier posts, you will remember that I was concerned about that when she wanted to put some of the canned goods out in the open).  Anyway, she explained to him that we have an unemployed son with a baby on the way and we supply them with their groceries.  Not being good enough for this kid, he proceeded to our closet where we have the long term food storage and said, “what’s this?, this used to be a coat closet, are you preparing for the apocalypse?”.  Her reaction was what was he doing going through our closets?  And after a few more choice words, all the kids left. 

Needless to say, I am pissed.  I had always told her that I was concerned about our youngest, because he just brings people home that we don’t know, and they come in late at night when we are in bed.  She pooh pooh-ed the thought and told me I was just being paranoid.  Well guess who looked at me and apologized.  However, this is very little consolation, as the damage is done and I have to respond some way. 

First I am going to put a lock on all the closet doors where I have stuff stored, and me with the only readily accessible key.  I will put an extra key in the sealed emergency instructions for when shtf and I don’t make it home.  Then we are going to put everything out of sight.  We are also going to change the locks, because we don’t trust these kids.  After that, I am going to ban this kid from the house.  It’s going to be a battle, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

Preps and Lessons for the week

An unexpectedly busy week last week. 

I made the decision to really get my stuff organized.  It all started with my storage shed, where my kids had been looking for something on several occasions and basically left it in shambles.  There is nothing more frustrating when doing a project and you can’t readily find any of the tools you need.  So once I got all my tools and stuff organized, the wife wanted me to move all my emergency supplies out there as well.  She is more on board with my prepping efforts, as long as it is out of the house.  Needless to say, there is more good in this than bad.  This was really a good project and it enabled me to really be aware of what kind of supplies I have on hand, both excesses and deficiencies.  One other advantage of being this organized is that I can get to what I need quickly, even in emergency situations.  However, there are always downsides and I am concerned that I have most of my stuff in one place that lacks the security of being in the house with me.  For right now, it is a manageable risk and that will be a project for another day. 

I did pick up a few more supplies this week, as I ran across a deal on canned chili, and picked up another gallon of vinegar.  I also picked up a cheap beach ball from the dollar store.  I plan to experiment with this as a pillow for emergency situations. 

And my lessons learned for the week:

I was at Lowes picking up some additional plants and herbs for my garden.  While the kid at the register as ringing up my items, I was chatting gardening with the manager.  Of course the checker heard our conversation and his question to me while I was paying… “So you mean you can put this stuff in the ground and you will get food off of it?”.  The manager and I just looked at each other in disbelief and I deferred to her to answer him.  There are a lot of conclusions you can draw from this and I will leave it to you to draw your own. 

I am having a fight with myself over priorities.  I have been coveting one of the new Ontario Blackbird SKS knives.  It looks like the perfect survival knife and the availability has been limited.  It is also quite pricey, over $150 on Amazon, and can be found on EBay for around $120.  Not that I need another knife, but I am obsessed.  Of course I could buy 2 K-Bars for that price, or I could buy some piece of gear that I really need, or I could buy some food for the emergency pantry, maybe add to my dehydrated/freeze dried stores, or I could buy some more water barrels, or I could buy a lot of ammo for that amount of money, etc.  Anyway, I think you get my point.  When prepping on a budget, it is all about priorities and you have to stay focused on the end goal.  In my case, I have plenty of other knives that can do the job and I have other needs to address, but the battle is raging.

Preps for the week ….

Made a little progress this week and was able to accomplish a few things. 

• With my son’s interest in the garden, we decided to expand and put in another 12X4 raised bed and plant some things we didn’t have room for in the original plots.  I think we are finally finished putting out the initial crops, although we are discussing another raised bed a little later to devote solely to fall crops .  We’ve not planted our blueberry bushes yet, as my son is still researching the perfect spot.    
• Picked up some freeze-dried soup mixes from Wal-Mart and Big Lots.  I consider these sort of a poor man’s alternative to the more traditional freeze-dried entries. 
• Took advantage of some bogo sales to add to the emergency pantry
• Picked up an additional dental repair kit
• Found some stainless steel water bottles on clearance, for $5 and picked up a couple.  These seem to be pretty good with no plastic on the bottle, and I can’t feel it give any when I squeeze it with my hands. 
• Ran across some cloth diapers and added them to my emergency stash.  With grand baby on the way (we are pretty sure it is a boy), we’ve started an emergency baby stash.  The wife is really gung-ho about this one. 

Preps for the week

Big week for prepping this week as I was able to get several things accomplished:

• Finished building out the raised bed gardens and got most of my veggies in the ground.  Still have some seedlings that are a little small, so it looks like from here on I will be busy in the garden for a little while.  One of my kids took an interest in what I was doing and is calling it our project and is very eager to learn what and how to do. 
• Found a couple rolls of gauze on clearance at Walgreen’s.  
• Picked up a non-electronic thermometer. 
• Picked up a small backpacking first aid kit so I could keep a dedicated one in my recreational backpack. 
• Picked up a box of tampons to use in my first aid kits for bandages, plus they are good to have around just in case. 
• Picked up another casualty blanket and a couple relatively cheap knives that come with a firesteel.  I figure these will be good just to keep at the office and anywhere else I might need something in a pinch.
• Picked up a good topographical atlas of Florida.  I had picked up one for Georgia earlier.  I now have really good maps of all the back roads of my immediate area.  You never know when you may have to travel them. 
• Picked up the paperback Wildwood Wisdom by Ellsworth Jaeger and  Lloyd Kahn.  This is going into my reading stack.