I made the first wood cut today to turn the entire front of the house into a greenhouseSolar heat collector. Well, not the house. Its a lean to, off the house. The next few days, I will be filling truck tires with gravel as the base. Brutally sore muscles to follow. All recycled glass. Been collecting the materials for a while. I will add a solar water heater to it as well. This should take up a good chunk of my summer.

Found a new supplier for wood! Picked up a cord of hardwood for $50! About the cheapest Ive ever seen in SW Ontario. Plan on getting a couple more cords throughout the summer.

Found a new supplier for wood! Picked up a cord of hardwood for $50! About the cheapest Ive ever seen in SW Ontario. Plan on getting a couple more cords throughout the summer.

WOW...if the count is good and the quality is there, I would get as much as I could afford at that price!

So...back from garage sale weekend part 2...
picked up some extra gas can spouts as they seem to break from time to time...
got a 50' heavy duty extension cord great for the generator
a pair of 2 ton axle stands to help with oil and tire changes

Added 20 Gallons of ethanol-free gas to storage (+ one tank full for the generator) ahead of nasty-weather season here.

Tried something different with gardening (I'm all re-learning here) by buying 3 different each tomatoes and peppers to see what grows and how. All in pail planters.

Scored 32 nice size tomato plants at the church yard sale! I gave some to my son but planted the other 25.
Planted another half dozen raspberry plants in my patch - the older plants needed replacing. Planted the cherry tree and another blueberry plant I got for my birthday.
Canning rhubarb this week.

giving a spare 1st aid kit to a friend for their car (I picked up several premade kits on a ridiculous price) going to add a few extras like a Micra (better scissors than the kit), some burn gel, a small magnifying lens and torch. the friend is going through a nasty divorce, has teenagers and nothing in the vehicle.

Took an old case that was used for VCR rentals back in the day and made a Faraday cage. Basically it is a large aluminum briefcase lined with soft foam. I have a hand-crank radio in it now and maybe I'll keep an old laptop and a couple of Cobra walkie-talkies in it later. Never know when an EMP or a CME is going to strike.

Added a 30-lb propane tank to my small supply.

Bought two small Sawyer filters that can either be used with the included bag, screwed on top of any disposable plastic bottles, used as a straw or as in-line filter for hydration packs. One for my EDC bag and another that will be hidden in DW's car...

Added dried pasta and pasta sauces to the inventory.

Picked, cleaned, froze about 6-7 bushels of blueberries from the local u-pick.

Does anybody know how blueberries turn out in a dehydrater?

And to make C5 proud, I had a dinner date with the neighbours so as to get to know them a bit more. Not to say they are preppers, but he's a gun-fanatic paramedic hunter and she's a soldier, so they definitely have skills and resources to draw from if needs be!

Picked up a 24' camper trailer last weekend and have been spending the week cleaning it out and setting it up...will be keeping dishes, pots & pans, bedding, spare clothing, food...etc in it at all times in the summer. The food will come out for the winter, but be stored in easy to grab totes.
Pics to come!

Learned how to pickle cucumbers today... and had fun doing it with friends!

Been a while since I spent some money but there were some good deals on;

another 40 watt coleman solar panel at cdn tire for less than half price (makes me suspicious of their "regular" pricing")
Backup battery pack to leave in the gun safe for when those severe storms sweep through
http://www.amazon.com/Jackery-Portable-Battery-Charger-External/dp/B00AANQLRI
A set of security lights
http://www.amazon.com/Beams-MBN356-Networked-Technology-200-Lumens/dp/B00OYHSPR0/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1439610295&sr=1-3&keywords=mr+beams+motion+sensor+light
Ordered a lot of nails for our nailers... expected delivery next week
some new kit in multi-cam... that one was harder to get past the DW 😳

Wow, this thread got quiet... or was a new one started?

I found the shelves of Wholesale Sports in Calgary was actually well stocked with hunting rounds... lots of various calibers, manufacturers, and grains.

Been a while since I've seen that, so I stocked up on a few boxes of a couple of key rounds.

Cleaned up the 2 closets that serve us as "extra pantrys". Took everything off the shelves, looked at dates (just 2-3 thinks "too" expired to keep) then reorganized it all FtEFO-style. In turn, this allowed me to make a list of things we need to buy.

Cleaned up the garden by removing the old, no longer producing, tomato plants and worked the soil.

(Tried to) sight in new scope and rifle pair, but without success... Will have to troubleshoot the rail, rings and scope to see what is wrong.

Got back to riding my bike now that the little one is a little faster, Mrs HP now also wants a bike, so looks like we're going to all have some pedal-powered BOVs 😉

Major overhaul of the shop ( invasion of the furry kind!) left me feeling like we were prepping again, which I haven't done in the same vein since moving out here.
Our prepping has been more learning, experiencing than stockpiling and so for the last year and a half I have focussed on gardening and growing, nutrition and my latest pet peeve GMO's ( now force feeding Organic and verified non GMO to the entire family). DH and his buddies r going hunting tomorrow :). Got the Vac Sealer primed and ready for action and a new (to me) freezer begging for some lovely venison.
Our original two hives of Honey bees perished in the severe wet weather in Feb but our new colony looks really strong - lots of learning there!
Of Our original four quail, two still mock us from the surrounding area and the other two the Raccoon got. Haven't been able to try again on this score though. DH wants to try chickens!
Power outage this week showed a few holes - mainly in the hot meal department. I could have figured it out but it would have taken some time and I had an easy alternative to go to (lazy? Sure)