Stocked up on Sewing Machine Needles. The Dollar Store sells packets of 4, and they work just fine. Sure, if the grid goes down and there's no electricity, what's the point? Well, there are lots of scenarios that could happen: rolling blackouts, solar battery electricity, etc. and I'd hate to be stopped for want of a needle. (esp. now that I have all that thread) 😀

Plus, I'll be darned if I'm going through a total apocalypse without makeup, so stocked up eyeliner pencils and eyeshadow at the Dollar Store. too.

How old is your sewing machine? One thing to look at is can you convert it to manual power, and then blackouts of any sort won't cause problems. Treadle to power the flywheel, flywheel to power the mechanism. Might be something to look into. If you're not feeling like kludging together a fix for your current system, keep an eye out in garage sales for older sewing machines with the work done already. Garage Sales, flea markets etc.

Hi, Aphrael
Yeah, I guess if I was thinking long term I should look into getting a treadle machine. I haven't done a lot of sewing in the last few years, but recently my skills have become useful at work to get me extra cash and brownie points.

..............

I had such a busy and productive day! I bought an Excalibur dehydrator! Was on my way to the Canadian Tire and thought I'd pop into Triangle Healing Products across the street. Upon entering I was faced with a line-up of Excalibur dehydrators of all sizes, and the words 'on special' on the small 4-shelf one hit my eye. I'm so excited! It's humming away in my kitchen as I type this. Still have the old round one working, too.

This model is 220 watts. This is important to me because I am working on another project (experiment? 😕 ) involving a battery and a 400 watt inverter, a solar powered charging system. (don't ask me any questions about what I'm doing and how, 'cause I don't know yet. 😆 )

After I got my precioussss dehydrator home I went out again shopping for bargains. Pharmasave has a great deal on cinnamon flavoured Close-up, .49ea. (limit of 3) Dental floss is 1.49/125yds. Goes in my big shoe box of .99 toothbrushes from Shopper's, and 1.99 toothpaste for sensitive teeth.

Shopper's also has canned milk on again 4/5.00, sugar has gone up from 1.99 to 2.29 but still better than grocery stores. I don't use sugar generally, but I want to try making some home-made country wine, just one gallon at a time. Another experiment. 😉

I stopped by a thrift store and got a book for my preparedness library, it's a Reader's Digest Action Guide: What to do in an Emergency. It's an older book from 1988, but in perfect condition, 2 bucks! Also bought a casual jacket for my son, for 8 dollars. It's been a great day.

I picked up an older strong sewing machine so I can make small canvas projects, like curtains, tote bags and some of the smaller Yurt/Ger projects I need to get started on.

For batteries, you will find that if it is a Car type battery it will die fast if you keep using it with the charger/system. Car batteries are for quick starts and max charging and usage while being charged.

Look for used Golf Cart batteries, also those new Electric Bikes, have 12v deep cycle batteries. I just picked 2 of the little 12v deep cycle bike batteries, they are in the process of being re-charged for the first time with my Solar Panels, I will keep you posted on how they work.

I prepped a hobby. 😀

I've had most of the equipment for this hobby for a while now, but yesterday I went and bought 'supplies' of 2 hides of vegetable tanned leather, 1 of upholstery leather, various 'lining' leathers, and a moosehide. I picked up leatherworking as something to do because it looks neat, smells wonderful and provides me with somthing useful out of it. The moosehide will be turned into mukluks and moccasins (note, they don't have to be fancy and beaded... personally I prefer ones sewn on sailcloth/canvas uppers and with just a little bit of braid for trim) The upholstery leather becomes soft bags such as purses, satchels and carry alls. The veg tanned leather becomes belts, hats, protective cases, archery bracers, quivers, book boxes... the list goes on and on.

The side benefit of this as a hobby is I get nearly as much use out of the equipment (chisels, knives of a dizzying array of types, shavers, awls, needles, sinew, molds, rivet, snap and grommet setters, etc) doing repair work on existing leather goods. With a bit of practice, it's amazing what you can sew up, reshape or patch so it looks like thats the way it was meant to be.

The second side benefit is a minor one, but useful nonetheless. Because of the breadth of sharp things required to work with leather, it makes any project you take up far simpler if you keep your tools sharp enough to cut the north wind. I didn't know much about how to use a whetstone when I started this, but now I put an edge on my tools (and my kitchen knives) that just looking at should require stitches.

What about others on this site? What interests and hobbies do you have that if approached creatively can be used to a preppers advantage? And should we make this its own topic?

I think hobbies could be another post
Carving, Whitling similar it has merits that go beyond the craft into prepping and survivalism as well as nice sharp things.

This past week;
bought 800 watt genset, 5watt solar panel, two smaller deep cycle 12v batteries, some misc things to go along with that like a tester. Ate everything I bought for food, so no prepping there!

Canned 10 1l jars of tomatoes & picked up another dozen 1l jars for more canning projects.

Hobbies as a topic unto themselves is a great idea. I don't think I have one, but it's a great idea!

I haven't done anything new, just more of the same. Adding more food. My dad brought over sugar and icing sugar that my mom had squirreled away. Looks good to me, put it in better containers and considered myself lucky. (Homemade wine and rose hip syrup on my to-do list.) Trying to see if the solar panel will keep the 12 volt battery, that my dad gave me to experiment with, charged up.

Mostly this week I've been sidetracked by visiting my friend that has moved back from Edmonton. As soon as she gets another job she will be S-O-O-O into prepping. She, like me, was into being prepared when her kids were small, but life throws a lot of curve balls, and prepping (we really didn't have a word for it back then) got put on the back burner.

I saved a couple more #2 plastic containers from the recycle bin at work. Got my Pot Barley and Alphabet Soup Mix safely stored now.

Right now I am dehydrating some broccoli slaw, (to add to soups), the first batch turned out fine in the old dehydrator, so doing a double batch in the *Excalibur* (ta-da)

Today, I bought all fresh veggies for a 7-layer dip and veggie tray, and sourdough bread and a spinach dip. As I did so, I felt especially fortunate that I could still do that, as I feel that soon, within the next couple years, that will be a real luxury.

If it sounds like I'm typing a little fast and loose it's because I'm sipping on grapefruit cider while waiting for my returned friend and my sister-in-law and my daughter to arrive.
Party at my house tonight!!

Well, it was a great get-together last night.

I was up and out early this morning. I finally quit dithering about and bought a little short-wave radio. It is the Traveler II Digital G8 from The Source, was on special for 49.99

I've already prepared a faraday container for it. Just a small one, just big enough for the radio and a sony e-reader.

Am also keeping the Excalibur dehydrator going.

Food prices are going up daily these days.

It's been a great day. I worked the Aug 1 Monday, so this is my day off because of.

I really like an apple a day so went to Safeway, my nearest grocery store. Also picked up 4 bags of broccoli slaw @ .99 ea. Already have 2 bags in the Excalibur now. I am really lazy, so I like that all I have to do is spread it out on the screen, spritz with lemon juice & ascorbic acid (vit. C crystals) and plug in. I still have a bag of frozen corn in the freezer to dehydrate, too. I will branch out into more creative dehydrating as soon as I am comfortable with my stock of easy veggies that can be added to soups or stews.

I've had a desire to have a hose, 'just in case'. I recently learned that regular garden hoses are not good for drinking from, on a regular basis, at least. So was on the look-out for a 'family friendly' one. It is by Grow Green, was on for half price at London Drugs, 50 ft. for 15.99 plus tax. I was so pleased because I was ready to get the same one from Home Hardware for 22.99 And our neighbours to the south will be happy to know that it is 'Made in the USA.'

Started cutting up the cedar branches today for kindling...hard to believe that it's time to start thinking about firewood for the winter.
The wife reorganized the pantry cupboard and we were able to identify some weaknesses as well as asses our standings. With a few exceptions, we would be stocked for about 3 months for the whole family of 6. We have several 2 gal. buckets with rice, oatmeal, etc. as well as several 80l totes filled with food. I really will have to build a pantry room next summer!

Well hello everyone!
I just moved from one province to the other in the past 2 weeks and am now couch surfing for 2 more weeks until I can get into my new apartment ... so needless to say most things are still in boxes... but I am sizing things up quick and making my lists.

Right before I moved however, I bought a bunch of those yellow and clear plastic rain ponchos, the kind you see retail for $1.99 - $2.99 ... they were marked down to 1.00 so I bought up the last 10 of them. Ditto for the clear plastic rain bonnets as well... marked down to 50 cents ... vanislemom is right, dollar stores are an amazing source for quick cheap supplies!

Vanisle mom and I go way back as friends and preppers... we were prepping in the 90's when many did not even give it a second thought ... but hey, we are sitting on more then a few fault lines here on the west coast... who wouldn't prep!! And she has made the first contribution to my kit-in-progress to my new kit here with a jumbo can of coffee! 😀

3 packs (36) snap lids for canning jars
5 boxes non-zipper freezer bags (work well with food saver)
20 lbs peaches for canning
10 lbs tomatoes for canning sauce
Printed a TON of info to replace my stolen prepper library.
Built an electric food Dehydrator
Started to build a solar oven
Cut up about a cord worth of kindling
Started turning the front lawn into garden space for next spring

Phew ! Feels good to get things done!

Since I am still in limbo awaiting my move into my apartment at the end of the month and still job-hunting post-move, I ordered the basic Shelf Cookbook online today ( found the title here in the 5 food storage/attitude thread ) and bought up some bulk spices, rice, tin goods, and a few extra tubes of toothpaste and shampoo... not much but a small start at least.

Denob,

"Printed a TON of info to replace my stolen prepper library."

OMG. who did that? and did you beat them to a pulp? 😮

sorry if that sounds extreme, my life is full of people doing stupid crap, and I'm sick of it. 🙁