What have you done this week to prep?

[dusty88]

Every now and then, I like to add to my foraging skills.

I harvested some rose hips and wild mint from the field yesterday. I'm going to try making them into tea just for kicks. It wouldn't provide sustenance, but it would provide comfort if you had water, fire, and some time to spare.

And if I ever run out of coffee either due to a "bug in" or a bad economy.... I'm gonna need a substitute

 

[teddy12b]

Had a couple guys over to shoot/test/zero their rifles. One guy was having cycling issues with one rifle and wanted to zero another. Other guy had a 6920 that wasn't broken in yet and needed to zero his red dot. Good conversations on equipment, information on zeroing was gained by new guy, other guys got to confirm zero's and help things move along. Ran some drills with the new guy and we worked on weapons manipulation. Exposed him to all kinds of new drills. Shooting and moving, communicating, bounding etc. All good things and the guy did pretty well with them. After the range session we used a couple of bushcraft items and took the new gadgets he'd bought and showed him how they work. Good night of practicing existing skills and passing knowledge on to a new guy.

 

[Thor]

Got my 2 burner Coleman stove back from the factory. Mid '60's model that ran great up until last year. Sent it in and the factory engineer said it was a 1/1000 problem...just my luck. But works fine again now.

Ran over some contingency plans with a friend who's got 80 acres close to me, spare rooms and an artesian well and wood heat if the power goes out and the zombie apocalypse looms large.

 

[littletommy]

Stocked up on a lot more canned goods this week, some decent sales at Meijer and Kroger (found the Meijer brand mini ravioli and spaghetti and meatballs for $0.67 a can), and updated my GHB and emergency equipment in the truck with some winter gear.

 

[DurangoUSMC]

Not too much...
Replaced a large chunk of the roof that was leaking and rotting...
Training with the dogs.
New quality glass for a rifle about $250 off or so
Cheapy stainless .22 snubnosed revolver.
Later this week I should be getting a few trees planted and the strawberry plants prepped for winter.
Going to bring in a small schwarzbeere harvest.

Termites are hard to kill. If you remove the food source they may move to less advantageous digs. The best method I know of is the basic and switch method. You install baited traps till they start infiltrating them, then you remove the bait and replace it with a poison substitute, which they take back to the nest to feed the queen. This will kill the nest of damage it severely. Pouring poison on the nest rarely wipes it out. Good luck.

Thats the method I'm using. Decided not to go the poison filled trench barrier route due to being on a well and having dogs.

 

[Meister]

Actually used some of my stored food this week. I've had the flu and the wife is 8k miles away on business, so instead of infecting the masses and being very uncomfortable out shopping, I just went out to the storage area and grabbed a fast bucket and have been supplementing our regular food items with things from the bucket. Easy peasy.

Emergencies come in all shapes and sizes, and not all are of a critical nature. Prepare for the little ones as will as SHTF.

 

[Force10]

Finishing up building a 24x40 barn in my two weeks off with the new baby. Sure is looking nice!

 

[dusty88]

Finishing up building a 24x40 barn in my two weeks off with the new baby. Sure is looking nice!

That's awesome! We would like to do that but personally have no construction skills and haven't found the money in the budget yet to hire it out.


Edit: wait just a minute. How did you find time to work on a barn and watch a new baby? I could hardly sleep when I had a newborn. Well good on ya anyway!

 

[Force10]

It's not been real easy but not too difficult either. We have been blessed in that neither of our boys have made us lose too much sleep.

Building a pole barn isn't really that difficult, the hardest part is setting the posts square, plumb, and in a straight line. Having done all the work myself, I probably saved a bit of coin, but it didn't go up nearly as fast as if I'd hired it out. Oh well, it looks good and I can say "I built that barn!" (Well, me and what friends and family who were gullible enough to want to come over and "see the new baby... ")

 

[churchmouse]

It's not been real easy but not too difficult either. We have been blessed in that neither of our boys have made us lose too much sleep.

Building a pole barn isn't really that difficult, the hardest part is setting the posts square, plumb, and in a straight line. Having done all the work myself, I probably saved a bit of coin, but it didn't go up nearly as fast as if I'd hired it out. Oh well, it looks good and I can say "I built that barn!" (Well, me and what friends and family who were gullible enough to want to come over and "see the new baby... ")

In my younger life I spent a summer on a pole barn crew. Some of the hardest work I have ever done. Especially when the tractor with the boom on it broke down and we set poles by hand. Holy mother of Jello that was hard work.

 

[Redacted]

If any of you live in the vicinity of BIgLots they have 1 gallon of crystal geyser spring water for a buck and liters of crystal geyser for $.50 cant remember what the 24 packs are going for. I think 2.50 but if we have a winter like we had last year you might want to stock up.

 

[Force10]

In my younger life I spent a summer on a pole barn crew. Some of the hardest work I have ever done. Especially when the tractor with the boom on it broke down and we set poles by hand. Holy mother of Jello that was hard work.

Ouch. I can only imagine. I had access to an auger, but I had to enlarge all of the holes for the precast concrete "footers". That was hard enough!

 

[Meister]

Spent all day shooting with an instructor. PT drills and hostage scenarios. Full kit with plates. It was a great time!

 

[ChooterMcGavin1973]

We had a power outage last night. Immediately went for a couple led's and candles. I took the nearly 2 hours as an opportunity to think about what I am and am not prepared for. It's funny the clarity you get when you don't have lights, tv, stove, and microwave to distract you. I also realized we too have a lot of 'stuff' we don't need or use. Some of it is of value and so as I do occasionally, I will be de-cluttering some this week and will use the funds for some food prep.

 

[CathyInBlue]

Bought a Kel-Tec Sub-2000 from Terre Haute Guns for $360.

 

[Vigilant]

A new SOF-T and CAT tourniquet, a few Israeli battle dressings, updated my water purification tabs, got a couple of Lifestraws, and new fire making stuff. Rotated newer MRE's into the stash, and added some Mainstay and Datrex bars to the go-bags.

 

[indyjohn]

Built more ammo. I am ashamed of what I have considering what others have. Saturday I went to look over the collection of Carl W. from southern Indiana that went up for auction today. He passed recently and his family put up all his firearms and ammo for the highest bidder. Carl was well known at Knob Creek and had amassed a collection to be jealous of. Firearms and ammo that we (the average people) haven't seen in years. I am acquainted with the auctioneer and he told me he gave the BATFE a conservative estimate of 1 million rounds of ammo. I didn't go to the auction today, so I have no idea what the going prices were.

 

[dusty88]

Took the Palladin class this weekend on "confrontations".

My husband bagged a buck over 200#. I can't take much credit, but I did a quick field dress which he was happy about as it was well after dark when he got the thing out of the woods, over the fence, etc.

 

[dusty88]

I had a long weekend so did a few more things today, but not as much as I had hoped.

Cleaned the deer heart and am marinating the strips for grilling.

Cleaned the chicken coop and duck house for winter and did some shopping for a solar-powered door and water heater for the critters.

Did some chop & drop in the garden and surveyed it to see what survived my neglect last week (I didn't get out there the day before the freeze). Tomatillos did badly (I had a sad over that. No more chili verde). The "cold weather plants" though like broccoli, kale, cabbage, and brussel sprouts still look good.

Checked the alignment on our deer guns.

Tried rose hip and mint tea. Summary: unless you get larger rose hips, cutting off each end is time-consuming to get to any volume. Mint is easy, as always. I wasn't that excited about the tea but if I were out of coffee and/or stuck in the woods on a cold night, something to quickly brew up with hot water might seem pretty good.

I identified and gathered ground cherries for the first time.

 

[churchmouse]

More water.
More canned goods by the case from Sams club.
More freeze dried soups etc.
9 Lbs. of Bacon for the deep freeze.
Everything goes better with Bacon.