What Did You Prep This Week

We have some teen girls staying with us this week and last so I am making the most of the extra hands!

We spent more than 2 hours yesterday working on setting up a carport shelter - we are a long ways from finished but hopefully today we will have it errected in the proper spot. This is to provide a sheltered area outside the barn where we can work without getting soaked from an overflowing barn gutter that is 30 feet over my head. I'm too nervous to climb the ladder to try and fix it - that will get done next year when we have some other repairs done - and not by me cause I'm a chicken when it comes to heights!

Picked up a small solar panel at Canadian Tire this week and am 1 step closer to having a light in my tempo this winter. I now have a panel, charge controller, and plenty of handy wires to hook everything up. I am using an old alarm system battery right now, but I am not sure it is any more good. Even though the panel is only 1 watt, with the infrequent use of a 12v LED light, I should be able to make it work. The panel is on sale this week for 9.99...as opposed to 29.99. You may want to check it out. It is meant as a trickle charger for small batteries like a lawn tractor or motorcycle.

Hey, Denob and anitapreciouspearl,

Thanks for the heads up
re: catalytic tent heater (got a First Alert CO detector at Wal-Mart for $30 and I know about keeping a window open during use)
& preserves (don't worry, anita, I wasn't about to poison myself, it's all just theory with me... *lazy*...)

But I do have 2 dozen jars with lids and rings (brand new from my mom's stuff, it was mostly theory for her too. lol.) so maybe I can get paintergirl to show me how she makes strawberry jam. 😉 ooh, and bread, too. I remember making bread by hand from scratch before, it's a pain in the ***, but paintergirl says it's easy. I lost the bread making machine in the divorce, and have resisted getting another one, cuz "what if the grid goes down, what good will it do me?" 🙄 Excuses, I got a million of them....

Bought some more pinto beans, pot barley, ABC soup mix, t.p. and large garbage bags.

Maybe I am getting senile, brought home 2L of milk the other day, only to find out I had not only half a carton opened, but an unopened 2L in the fridge. So I stuck the new one in the freezer. Fortunately it hasn't split the carton. It's things like that that are the reason I keep my keys on a shoe string attached to my purse. I may have to start pinning my mittens to my cuffs. lol.

I may have to start pinning my mittens to my cuffs. lol.

Ha ha!!!

Denob - please see http://internationalpreppersnetwork.net/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=246 - I have a question for you but I don't want to get too OT.

Started to look at some small properties to buy...about 100' x 100' for dirt cheap repo'd by the city. Hopefully we can pick something up for less than what the firewood available on it would cost to buy.

I've been decluttering the house and getting rid of things that we don't need any longer and any projects that we had good intentions for but realistically will never get to. I've been cleaning up the vegetable & flower beds, mowed over all the fallen leaves and using it as mulch for the garden. I have some house maintenance planned, a bit of grouting & silicone in the bathroom that needs to be re-done and the games room to paint. I also have an appointment to look at two houses with acreage on Monday.

Foxglove

nice long photo heavy thread from a UK site on making small rocket stoves with cans or Ikea canisters. Made one today using the Blast Match ( well worth getting) and easily made a little fire outside and heated up cup of water to 190F in about 10 minutes.
http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=33879&page=11
Added vitamins and painkillers to stock.

One of my kids banged up their knee pretty good this week and it is very swollen. Limping heavily and given that I had a similar injury a few years ago I am going to pick up a set of crutches to keep in the garage. If there was a bad slip and fall this winter, and no way to get out, these would be very useful.

Ordered a Midland Base Camp Crank Radio today for Communications just in case the Grid goes down (Snow Storm, SHTF, or whatever)

I've been thinking about it for awhile and finally decided to take the plunge. I'll be happy if I never have to use it 🙂

Link to Base Camp Radio at C.Crane if anyone wants to take a look:
http://www.ccrane.com/more-categories/emergency-preparedness/midland-base-camp-radio.aspx

Communication wise, it's a start at least anyway.

billy..
what is a blast Match?
Thanks for posting the link taking a look now.

Watch for the crutches at garage sales, I see them all the time for $2 and up

Ordered a Midland Base Camp Crank Radio today for Communications just in case the Grid goes down (Snow Storm, SHTF, or whatever)

I've been thinking about it for awhile and finally decided to take the plunge. I'll be happy if I never have to use it 🙂

Link to Base Camp Radio at C.Crane if anyone wants to take a look:
http://www.ccrane.com/more-categories/emergency-preparedness/midland-base-camp-radio.aspx

Communication wise, it's a start at least anyway.

Wow...cool...
I didn't even know that existed. It would be a great addition for my FRS handsets

billy..
what is a blast Match?
Thanks for posting the link taking a look now.

Watch for the crutches at garage sales, I see them all the time for $2 and up

The Blast match is a fire starter, http://www.amazon.ca/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dsporting&field-keywords=blast+match&x=14&y=28 and can light some tinder easily. Super easy to use, sets tinder on fire in seconds, here is a video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYRKzdSXH34

I made a little rocket stove fire outside yesterday, set some dried leaves on fire on a shovel blade and dumped it into the stove ( aka Ikea utensil container) 😉 and it burnt well.

Ok, wow..
I am impressed with the Blast Match! Thanks for posting that, I will be ordering one soon.

There were reviews that did not like it, but once I figured it out it was very dramatic.
Lit leaves, dryer lint, small sticks, in a flash 🙂
Even my wife, who is good at making fires in all sort of weather conditions and does not like "gadgets", was impressed.

Sources of heat/cooking now are portable butane stove, buddy burner, candles or sticks inside the mini rocket stove ( made from a stainless steel Ikea Utensil Canister), an outdoor charcoal cooker ( that thing is great - once fired up it keeps cooking for hours, even in the winter, and would be a good way to get some food cooked, bread baked and water heated.

Even the top of the candle holder heats up water hot enough to make something warm to drink.

Interested to see what others are up to this week. Just read an article that as the agricultural season in Canada was mostly good we could expect to see a drop oi some food prices in early 2012, so keep your eyes open and stock up then.

Today's prep is St. John's Ambulance First Aider 2 course, of which I'm currently on lunch break 🙂

Billy and Aphreal,
both great preps, congratulations