Just finishing off my 4th batch of strawberry & banana chips. One more batch to go into the dehydrator before starting back on tomatoes.

Low tech but... We bought a snow suit and boots for little Helicopilot Jr. I got to say that this is one difficult thing to prep for : having clothes for a growing young child. We usually buy clothes a few sizes bigger when there's a good deal, but it only works for 'season neutral' clothes. It's really hard to anticipate her growth and had I bought her a snow suit on sale last spring, I would have been grossly off with the size this winter.

I'm open to tips and suggestions on this.

Also this week, I've introduced the wife to sprouts, which it turns out she likes. Good thing since my easy Sprouter and seeds just arrived after ordering them without her knowledge hehe.

As usual, picked up some extra at the grocery store, taking advantage of sales. Then finally, after being away for work for a few days, I've returned to a nicely re-arranged pantry and food shelves, thanks to my dear wife!

Harvested beets and garlic from the garden. Prayed some more that the tomatoes and cucumbers may yet blossom after the terrible spring and summer weather. Cherry tomatoes are at least turning.

Picked up burlap for the potatoes and onions.

Bought 1/8 of a cow for the freezer, naturally raised, organic at that. Also ordered eight chickens, also organic and naturally raised. Going to be planting a fall drop of kale. Haven't been doing too much the last couple of months with moving and all, but getting back into it now. Planning on going to look at cross bows in the next couple of weeks.

Picked up a 2-meter handheld HAM radio complete with three different battery packs.
I also inherited two scythes and two wooden hay rakes. One snath is aluminum and one is wood. One bush blade and one grain/grass blade.
I was lucky to receive two crosscut saws and an ice saw. These originally belonged to my father's great uncle.

So... It's more a matter of what did I prep last month...

Participated in a fun .22 shoot, cleaned all the guns. Harvested my small garden and practiced with some canning (I'm new at it...). Added a few more food preps, got a new LED Maglite conversion kit. Bought a composter and started composting; something else I'm learning to do. Made a list of items to get at the Dollar Store to make caches along my often travelled routes. Fired up the generator to get the starter battery charged and move the gas a bit.

I was out of town for work so I had time to read in the evenings and on the plane. Finally read, "One Second After".

My lord. I knew what the general storyline was (and was going to be about) but I still found myself physically upset in the latter chapters as society goes through those final death spirals where it has to decide to pick itself up or to go to sleep. He was a very good author.

One annoying item though, which is common amongst most American authors I've found. They tend refer to Britain or China, etc but there is never a mention of Canada! For god's sake people, we'd be involved somehow in any apocalypse story that unfolds around American characters!

If you have friends who you need to 'educate' and who happen to enjoy reading 'sci-fi'. This could be your 'in'.

I really enjoyed that book too Dangphool. Yes the author forget about us, but it may be because an EMP impacting them would also affect us. Also, I prefer they don't mention us than seeing how JWR depicted Canadians in his novel "The Patriots". Yup, One Second After was a real eye opener for me.

So... What did I prep this week? Ordered a kerosene heater, visited Cabelas and Wholesales Outfitter (they had sales on ammo cases!) and bought supplies to build a couple of Get Home caches (see thread on this project).

I, too, enjoyed One Second After (once I got past the "would of" and "could of", etc. instead of would have and could have). The book really makes one realize how quickly things could go down hill.

This week I planted ginseng, bought a calf for next winter's beef and picked up a gold pan.

Pumpkin...several large cans...it's that time of year to stock up for the next year 😉

Ordered a kerosene heater for the house (back up plan to back up plan...), built a couple of cacheable kits, bought so e ammo on sale, extra gun cleaning supplies, canned food and some extra medicine.

Changed wipers on the vehicles and booked an appointment for the winter tires. Changed clothing in the GHB to reflect the changing weather (sadly).

Tried my Esbitt stove and cook set and found to love it. Placed it in my GHB.

Added 2X10L Spring water bottles, sorting through my preps and re-organizing them, bought a 12 inch battery fan and batteries for same.

4 cords of firewood (about half of what we use in a season) with 4 more on order.
1 dozen cans soup, 1 dozen liters fruit juice, 24 kg sugar, 2 kg honey.
canned 10 lbs carots, 2 head cauliflour and have applesauce and marinated eggplant left to do.
Dehydrated 6 bananas, my entire crop of mint (thanks again for those plants Farmgal!)
continuing to study for Amateur Radio certificate
and Oh Ya...a 9 tray Excalibur dehydrator (currently running with 8 bulbs of garlic.
I will also be learning to make and dehydrate my own pasta this week.
3 bulbs of garlic going into the ground today or tomorrow.

Been a while since I've been around the forum, so this might be closer to what did I prep this season...

The kitchen garden has been put to bed for the year, tomatoes have been canned, and peppers either pickled or dried (btw, ghost peppers are everything I'd DREAMED of... lots of bang for my buck in spiciness, so it wont take much to spice up my meals)

Unfortunately the yearly hunting didn't pan out so no moose meat this year. We bought half a cow instead. Most of it's in the freezer but we bottled about 2 dozen quarts.

I've got a dozen or so small batch recipes I'll be test canning over the winter to see how much we like and or use them, and that'll determine what I plant in the spring and what I pick up at the farmer's market next harvest season.

Inventoried and replenished all the first aid kits, both house and car, and rotated out the medicines for fresh use before dates. There's about six months left on ones I pulled so they go in the bathroom cupboard to see if they get used before they're done.

The husband had an accident at work in September and ended up spending a month convalescing (ladder went left, he didn't). Fortunately it was recoverable, and he's back to work now at least part time, and we're hoping he'll be up to full in the next week or two. What we did end up doing was some brainstorming, and picking up some medical things we previously hadn't considered. A couple of adjustable canes, a pair of crutches and splinting materials and support bandages have been added to the prep materials in the house. I offered to get a couple of hockey helmets for everyday wear while I was at it, but for some reason, he didn't find that funny. 😛

Picked up some yarn and a pair of knitting needles, and am determined to teach myself how to do it while making all the ugly scarves, mitts and hats my family can stand for a winter project. Also tucked two hides into the basement for leatherworking projects over the winter, I've got some vague plans for bicycle saddlebags and some luggage bits for spring birthday season.

Final season task is a bulk foods inventory to check for certain what was used up in the last year, and make up the shopping lists to top everything back up.

Sorry to hear about your husband, Aphrael. The checks and replenishing of the First Aid kits is smart.
FYI : most people don't know that a lot of medications are still quite effective well long after the "Expiry Date" lists; I was told this by two different doctors. I was told that some medications are good for up to three years past the Date stamp.

As for this week's preps for me, it has been mostly me organizing my offsite storage, resorting my two (2) Get Home Bags (GHBs) and larger Bug Out Bag (BOB) and sorting through my seed stock prior to winter indoor planting.