What have you done this week to prep?

[TaunTaun]

9 days away from closing on our own dirt out in the country. Nearby sources of water. Check. Nearby sources of food. Check. Nearby sources of wood fuel. Check. Far enough away from population center. Sorta-check, but such is life in the northern part of the state.

 

[vzdude]

Ran 2 campers on my generator over the holiday weekend. Calculated fuel economy and used up some dated fuel. All cords are made up and in working order. We both ran our air flawlessly! Talked to some friends about prepping and they never though of all of the "what ifs" ! They may be on board or at least thinking about it! Refilled the gas cans and added Stabil.

 

[Khazik]

Found a guy to trade my Winchester Model 70 boltie in 300 WSM for a FNAR so I have a semi-auto .308 multi purpose rifle; downside is I have to buy a new scope and ammo supplies to reload for a new caliber, with money I was going to allot for more rice, water, and other food/water preps . The upside, I have 2 gallons of honey coming in from local beekeepers, my tobacco plants have sprouted (growing them over winter). Also purchased a bag of fatwood, 2 bottles of propane for my camp stove, 3 5-gallon food grade buckets with Gamma Lids (ya, they're worth it), and a quart of naphtha all from Menards (man it's a nice prepper place if you know what you're lookin for).

 

[TaunTaun]

The wife and I were considering growing some tobacco this next spring. My family hasn't grown tobacco since just before WWI, so some of the family knowledge has been lost. You should document the process and keep us updated on things!

 

[teddy12b]

A nieghbor and I planted some tobacco this year just to try it out. I bought 600 tobacco seeds for $3 shipped to my house from ebay. I planted some starts on my property and they died shortly after. He planted some seed starts on his land in a garden that's had manure tilled in and now those plants are 4' high. It's pretty incredible to see the difference between the two. If you're going to try growing some tobacco, make sure you got your soil right first.

 

[TaunTaun]

The same could be said of any planting. You building a curing shed and putting in a process to make cigarettes as well?

 

[teddy12b]

The same could be said of any planting. You building a curing shed and putting in a process to make cigarettes as well?

Certainly the same could be said for any crop, and he and I had planted many similar things in our gardens, but the difference in the tobacco plants from one to another were fall more apparent. For me it was just a fun little experiment to try out and see how hard it'd be to grow some tobacco. I was just hoping to have a cigar at the end of summer from my own crop but that's not working out. I wasn't going to try and setup a tobacco production facility or anything like that.

 

[Jason R. Bruce]

Huge derailment here... but I gotta add something to this tangent about tobacco.

A nieghbor and I planted some tobacco this year just to try it out. I bought 600 tobacco seeds for $3 shipped to my house from ebay. I planted some starts on my property and they died shortly after. He planted some seed starts on his land in a garden that's had manure tilled in and now those plants are 4' high. It's pretty incredible to see the difference between the two. If you're going to try growing some tobacco, make sure you got your soil right first.

I'd be looking into those seeds. ???

Fresh seeds of a tobacco strain developed for the local climate should grow like weeds whether they produce a good quality product or not. Obviously soil conditioning will lead to bigger plants, fuller leaves and better yields... but I don't like the sounds of 4' tall tobacco in September. Much less yours dying shortly after germination. Especially in a growing season like we've had this year! Something is amiss. Good plants would be 6-7' tall.

There are some processes involved in tobacco that can make plants stronger and result in better yield. We raised a couple acres, I worked on other farms that did 3-5 acres. It's labor intensive at that scale when you're looking for high yields, shouldn't be too bad for a back-yard gardner scale though.

We grew starts from seed in hydropaunic trays, then when the starts were 3-5" tall we slid them under a lawnmower and knocked them back to about 3" in height. This developed strong "hearts" for transplanting in the field. Other farmers grew the seeds in garden beds, which were then thinned out for proper spacing and ultimately dug up for transplanting. Each plant was watered as it entered the row (by way of a 2-man tobacco setter) and there may have been an innoculant in some of that water to help with root development. We would spread fertelizer after a few weeks, I'm not sure of the ratio that fertelizer was mixed. Each farmer had their own way of doing the finicky things but it all usually resulted similar results after they were in the ground for 4-6 weeks.

At about knee high the crop was cultivated... the dirt swath *BETWEEN* plant rows was turned over by a rear-tine attachment on the tractor 4-6 rows at a time. After a couple good rains you soon had a weed problem *IN* your rows between plants... so it was time to hoe them out. This was done by hand, plant by plant, row by row. You get real good at running a hoe after a while. Once it got real hot & sunny your patch was growing so fast you could almost watch it getting taller but this also brought "Suckers" out of the base of the plant. At this point we grabbed "sucker knives" which are basically machettes and again went through the crop plant by plant knocking off suckers (2-4 per plant). Some farmers would let us use sharpened hoes if we were accurate enough to avoid damaging the plant, others mandated knives. Next came "topping" which is where pruners or sharp knives are used to knock the heads (bolting to seed) off and keep the plants power focused on leaf growth. After this step, the rows seem to grow shut... leaves shoot out and swallow up the open space between rows.

Once the growing season winds down and the fields are golden, you come in and start cutting and "sticking". A tobacco stick (wooden lath) is driven in the ground, a small steel cone placed on top (spike up). Five plants are chopped off at the ground with a machete, each one is individually speared over the cone resulting in 5 plants empaled on the wooden lath with their stalks about 4-6" from one another. On drought years, you may get 8 plants on a stick because they're narrow, short & light. The stake is pulled and carried to a waggon and transported to the barn where it's carried into the rafters to dry.

Come Feb/Mar you find a nice damp day where the tobacco is "in case" with the proper moisture content and start "stripping" it. Leaves are pulled off, split into various grades, pressed into bails, and tied off (by hand). Take the stalks out and throw them in the garden for nitrogen and you're ready to go to the auction and get a paycheck.

Anyone that spent much time in the tobacco fields probably understands the meaning of some old sayings. "Long row to hoe" and "It all pays the same" come to mind.

If you weren't there for all the hoeing, suckering, topping, cutting or sticking... you better not show up to strip (very laid back work, cool weather, indoors with food/beer/radio) because all jobs paid the same rate and those gravy jobs like stripping and picking worms were EARNED before you came sniffing around.

 

[TaunTaun]

Great info. This is a lot more background than I found most places. It's like listening to my grandfather telling some of the stories from when he was little.

 

[teddy12b]

Something is amiss.

I think what's amiss is that we started these plants way too late in the year. I mean we were starting seeds when we should have been putting starters in the ground. The whole idea was last minute and half arsed at best. When I put my plants out they were 2 - 3 inches high and my neighbor cherry picked the starters he wanted and put them under a gallon milk jug in the ground for a week when they were 5" or better. We definately have a lot to learn about growing tobacco and your post is going to be copied, saved, and printed out for 2014 growing season. Thanks for all the info! Not to derail the prepping thread anymore, should we start a tobacco growing thread?

 

[teddy12b]

Mmmm, today's lunch is a can os split peas that expired in July of 2011. I have got to get better about rotating my food earlier, but it just goes to show how long food will last past it's exp date. Mmmm.

 

[Giddaltti]

This months focus is on cleaning supplies and feminine needs. I started taking inventory and realized a few items were missing. First was an inventory list I never got around putting one together. Second, with 5 girls TP are a must and each have their preferences. Lastly, a lock to keep me and the kids out of eating some of the goodies. Best of all my reloading skills are inching up!

 

[WETSU]

Monster workouts. Weights, running about 19 miles last week, heavy bag, bootcamp, mountain bike. Done.

2 Dryfire sessions: G19, AK and shotgun

1 range session: MISS meltdown, rolling thunder and two man bounding drills, G19, SW 65, AK, 870

Practiced fire building with steel and flint

Bought 50 rds of 12Ga 00 buck

Put up a bunch of blanched roma tomatoes.

 

[teddy12b]

I stumbled across a giant supply of spotted jewelweed tonight. I brought home some so I could transplant some of natures treatment for poison ivy. My wife and I started a new diet today. It was long overdue and we're off to a good start.

 

[Iroquois]

Had a running battle with a nest of ground dwelling yellow jackets....I ran, they won the battle. Little bastards rode me into the house under my shirt. when I took it off they flew around stinging me more and got the wife a couple times. She voiced her gratitude for my having shared the hornets with her. They had me barricaded in my bedroom, for a time, till I gathered the will to face them. In the end I won but suffered much longer than they did.
How is this a prep? This experience has caused me to consider strategies for when encountering an overwhelming enemy. Sometimes retreat is the only option, screaming and running and throwing the weedwacker are irrelevant. Sometimes a man has to do, what a man has to do...scream like a little girl .

 

[Khazik]

Ordered a Platypus 3L and Sawyer in-line water filter, along with a Camelback 3L bladder (the split design military one), and a 5.11 Covrt 18 backpack ($100 on Amazon guys!) I'm looking forward to using as an EDC bag, I need a new one as my backpack I been using is coming apart now after 5 years. Got some .308 Lee reloading dies. Put some small vacuum sealed packets of rice and chia seeds in my bug out bag (calories and nutrition/endurance food). Packed my BOB with some winter athletic wear, set of my MARPAT cammies from the corps, shelter system, and fire possibles bag... medkit is next!

Feelin pretty happy with my "MRE" packs of rice. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast...

 

[docapos]

Rotated some food stocks today and stumbled on a little ammo during my weekly run

 

[littletommy]

Loaded up on MORE canned fruit, beans, ravioli, and deviled ham at Meijer. Just what I got today is probably enough food to get us through a month or so, but now I have to find room to store it.

 

[WETSU]

Workouts were solid.

One Fight Night: focus mits, drills, heavy bag and sparring

One dryfire session

One range session, G19, AR and Barrett. Yes, thats right.

Spent some dirt time in the woods working field craft. Tracking, scouting, stalking, fire building. Learning.

 

[glockmeister]

Bought some more .25 cal pellets for my air rifle (quiet small game rifle). Did maintainence on my main battle rifles.