What Did You Prep This Week

Basic maintenance on some of my mini multi tools, zip knife, couple of folders. restocked and categorised my wallet kit and keychain kit. Cleared out 2 boxes of junk and now have my new bed giving me more storage space underneath.

My son cleaned the chimney of my cookstove. Now I have to finish the clean-up and patching the fire brick.

Made some charcloth and practiced firestarting with it and steel wool.
Canned up some fruit and jam.
Added some items to the camper.
Restocked sugar.
Suplimented my garden carrots with a 40lb bag from a local market for $4.50.
Boy the canner is gonna heat up tomorrow!

What did I prep this week? I'm taking a nice vacation to a tropical paradise! What has it got to do about prepping you ask? It makes me appreciate life, that if we ever get to live through a "lights out" event, that there is something beautiful worth living for, appreciating family and friends. This vacation also gives me time to recharge my energy level so I can get back to work and my prepping-hobby when I return home.

Finished up the fall canning from the Farmers market produce.
Picked up 2 cases 1 liter and 2 cases 1/2 liter canning jars to have more on hand so that I can take advantage of grocery specials.
Tried my hand at dehydrating hamburger nuggets...worked out great!
Made up some barter packs of nimh batteries, usb chargers and usb car adaptors.
Picked up a 4 port usb hub so that I can charge multiple devices at once from a battery pack.
Added more 2 liter soda bottles of water to storage...this is a constant thing for us to do.

Purchased a Duracell 600 power pack, as a starting point for a basic "solar generator".

Also acquired a new smart battery charger, rechargeable D cell batteries and a D cell lantern. I think I have emergency house lighting well covered now between this lantern, a solar one, a couple of smaller AA battery operated lanterns as well as a 7W LED light bulb I can use with the 600 power pack.

Now moving on to another prep project : more hand tools and gardening implements.

I was introduced to Kijiji a couple weeks ago...and items that would have otherwise been sent to the landfill site have been sold for a nice chunk of coin.

Also..for the first time ever I went through the "free items" on the site. A guy was giving away a tree he cut down in his back yard. He had cut it up into 12"-18" lengths, and about 1.5 chords....only down side it was green wood. He just wanted it gone...so I picked it up and have it stored ready for next year. Not a bad catch 1.5 chords for free.

One of the neat features with kijiji is that you can have alerts sent to your pc, every time a specific item or catch word appears in an ad. So if you wanted just free items, go to that section and insert an alert. Every morning to you will get a full list of all free items.

thecrownsown » Mon Oct 26, 2015 2:15 pm

I was introduced to Kijiji a couple weeks ago...

That will change your life...my favorite way to shop and one of the places I get free propane tanks from.
I just picked up a couple free 30 pounders, and one 20, rough looking I know but 5 minutes work on each and they look like new.(the one on the left was looking rougher than the one on the right before a little wire brushing and paint)

When I get them this good looking I may as well make them legal so I will pick up a letter and number punch set when I am in Edmonton.

When I get them this good looking I may as well make them legal so I will pick up a letter and number punch set when I am in Edmonton.

I was thinking of doing the same...these things are discarded all over the place!

I don't usually go to the trouble but these cleaned up so nice, I will pm you a pic when I stamp them...might have a punch set by the weekend, im taking my beercans in for tool money, and hauling scrap to the metal yard.
Now you can go even further....if you bought those high security bits I recommended you could remove the aluminium knob and throw it in the bead blaster and it will come out shinny and new. With the knob off you can use your princess auto media blaster to bead blast the brass valve assy (plug all holes first) and it too will look new!

We have a big (6500 watt running) Champion generator that has served us well over the last few years.
When the power goes out, we use it a few times a day for a couple hours at a time to get water from the well, cool down the 2 fridges and chest freezer, and charge up batteries and other stuff. It does this all at the same time and is very usefull.
However, it is loud and a waste of gas if we just want to run a few lights or a tv.
So....we walked into crappy tire last night, looking for a wardrobe they had on sale.
To our surprise, right inside the door, was a shelf full of refurbished Champion 1200 watt generators on sale for $189.
Since we had such good luck with Champion before, and wanted a smaller, quieter unit...this seemed like a no brainer.
This was not an advertised sale. Just goes to show that you should walk into your local CT, TS, and other stores from time to time...just to browse!
This find will be used as an excuse to my wife for me to go shopping at hardware stores for years to come!

edit - I just went out to try this out and saw that it shipped with oil!
I guess that makes sense as a refurb...it was obviously tested.
I had to put some gas on the air filter to get it going the first time, but it runs great!

In case anyone is interested...CT has them on sale brand new for $230.00 this week.
Check out this video..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glvGvhLCnTE

Just an update about Champion as a company...
I went out the other day to do my regular gennie run for maintenance and it wouldn't start...at all...pbbbbbbbb....dead.
So...today I figured I would have a look. If I poured a little gas on the air filter, it would start, then stall. This tells me its a fuel problem, not a spark problem.
After taking off the carburator and opening it up, I saw the bowl full of yellow.orange crystals...bad gas I'm guessing.
So a complete cleanout...bowl, float, needle valve, and fuel jet.
When I went to put it back together I noticed that I had torn a chunk of the gasket between the carb and the intake.Bummer!
I also noticed that my anti dieseling solenoid was looking rough...so into the house to order some parts from Champion.
The guy on the phone was great...I gave him my model number and he came up with the parts from my description.
To make it even better...they are sending the parts to me ON THE HOUSE!!!
This unit is about 4 years old and way past warranty.
Customer service over there is the best I've dealt with...ever...bar none.

I've started to collect old scythes, if only to break them down, oil 'em up and hold them for future generations. When asked on another network, what tools to collect for the SHTF, I replied, "A chainsaw for amateurs. A scythe for professionals", Im a big fan of the permaculture principal, "chop and drop".

To make it even better...they are sending the parts to me ON THE HOUSE!!!
This unit is about 4 years old and way past warranty.
Customer service over there is the best I've dealt with...ever...bar none.

Yep...I had to call them up when I was knocking one apart, She (yes she) gave me advice on how to pop the rotor off.
one other guy I know did not spin the oil fill cap on tight enough, it vibrated off and he lost it, he tells me when he called them up to order one they shipped one out no charge.
Check your tank for sludge as well the gas cap is open to the atmosphere and if you have left gas in it, you will start growing sea weed in the tank thanks to the stupid ethanol...
Those gennies now list at 389.00 out here.....I haven't seen a 199.00 sale since last December....I should have bought more

That is why I go through some efforts and pay extra for ethanol free gas for storage. Can you still find that in Canada?