Eastern Ontario Get together - Aug 10th Larose Forest

Four more sleeps!!!! 😆 :geek:

General overview-outline - All plans are flexable to suit the day!

Time 10am till 3 to 4 pm

Potluck- 12 noon.

Now remember that you are preppers here , while each year folks have brought extra and always been kind enough to share and give a helping hand, ideally each person coming will be bring their own cups, plates, silverwere, napkins etc.. Drinks and snacks etc. It is a potluck in the terms of everyone bringing something to share but if you have food issues and or want to, please feel free to bring your own meal for yourself or your family without the need to be part of the potluck. If folks have allergies, please speak up at the event or plan to bring your own meals 🙂 Thanks..

Now, the first year, the morning was spent introducing themselves and where they are at in general, the second year, I took it to a more defined approach, I ask what was one thing each person or couple or family group wanted to learn or talk about, and then brought the rest of the group members into play asking them their thoughts on what was possible.

Both years had their pro's an con's, First year Pro's was that folks were able to figure out a feel of the folks and where they were at and where they were heading or hoping to get to.. con's it was a large gathering and it took the whole morning till potluck to do the meet and greets..

The second year, the Pro's was that it felt more of a joint talk because everyone was more active, Con was that we didn't get the overview that you did the year before 🙂

So this being the third year, I am hoping we can find a meet in the middle, I would like introduction to happen but I am going to try and push for a slightly tighter intro timing, aiming for five to ten min per person- couple or family unit. and then I am thinking of following in the footsteps of the speed dating LOL..

here is the idea, we ask the group as a whole to come up with three to five different topics that they think are really good ones, we write down the question or topic, and each one is given a table, and depending on where you are sitting, everyone has a visit on the subject on the table.. its a great ice breaker, gets us out of saying.. hi my name is.. and I will figure it out but each time we break and move to a different table, I figure we can try and split into different groups, so that by the end, everyone has had a chance to have much more close one on one face time with each member on a number of different subjects.

This will give way into the potluck and more visiting.. Ok at 1 the presentions starts..

At the moment, I have it as Denob first.. then Adagio and then myself.. if anyone else brought or wants to do something, I will shuffle my spot around to make sure that other folks that come get their time 🙂

Then we get to the barter.. afterwhich, I thought for those still there, a few min to relax, have a snack and a drink and then head on home..

We do have a covered shelter, we will have a good number of tables, if someone needs to have a bit of quiet time there are lovely forested walking trails, we have lots of parking and we do have the porta potties, but we don't have running water, and its summer and its bug season..

Please pack accordingly! bring different cloths, some lighter an some heavier, bring the bug spray etc.

balloons will be multicolored 🙂

anyone interested in a young summer rabbit pelt, just done to and salted down, don't want to bring for the barter table if there will be no interest, I will bring a finished pelt or two most likely..

The third year wrap up.. it was a smaller gathering in numbers but there was a good mix of old and new faces, there were a few missing, hope everything is ok, with those that said coming but didn't make it out..

The morning was some good visiting, and the afternoons presentaions went well, we went over in time, that always speaks well, when you end two and hours late and folks are still chatting on the way to the cars

The food as always was great, the barter was good, I think the new ax is one of the best trades we have made 🙂

A Huge Thank going out to Denob, I earned a great deal about ham radio, and hubby says, we need to look into it more, will watch for the links

Thank you Adagio for all your help today, and your chili was rockin!

Have a great day everyone and wishing everyone a safe drive home

Kudos and thanks to farmgal for organizing, and also to the presenters. It was wonderful to put a face to the online personas and see how much we have in common. 🙂

Ditto.

Had a blast today! I feel like it so could have been a whole weekend thing even with such a small group! I guess I was just so hapy to be out and talking openly about all of this face to face.

Thank you very much to the presenters! I thoroughly enjoyed each one and gained new knowledge which to me always kicks more butt than anything else! 🙂 I feel honoured to have met such friendly, knowlable peeps and look forward to meeting up again! Coffee anytime for this lady if any are interested. 🙂

P.S. Just so noone is confused, this is Multifarious. I will continue from here on out to post under Plain Jane. My computer decided to behave out of the blue and remembered the password for this old but very much loved handle 🙂

OK...here are all the links I promised...

You can get the Baofeng radios and accessories here...
http://stores.ebay.ca/baofengradio/
This is the radio I had at the meet...
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/NEW-BAOFENG-UV-5R-VHF-UHF-Dual-Band-Radio-136-174-400-520MHz-Free-Earpeice-/371085348721?pt=2_Way_Radios_FRS&hash=item5666690f71
I HIGHLY recommend programming cable. This will let you use a free software called CHIRP to program channels and asign them names like "local police". Without the cable, you cannot name the channels and will have to remember what channel number is what.
This seller also has packages of multiple radios as well as camo, yellow, red, etc.
The price you see is the price you pay! There are no duties, taxes, or extra fees. Shipping is free, and he will give you a tracking number from China Post.

I bought my batteries from here...
http://stores.ebay.ca/ebatteryoutlet/He has MANY packages with combinations of AA and AAA nimh batteries and USB chargers.
DO NOT ORDER LITHIUM ION BATTERIES FROM HERE AS CANADA POST WILL NO ACCEPT THEM.
Again, shipping is free, but this seller DOES NOT provide a tracking number. It took a few extra days to be delivered compared to the radio guy, but still came in pretty good time considering it's from China.
Keep your orders under $20.00 and you will not pay any duty or taxes.
I will be ordering more batteries and USB chargers to keep for bartering!

This is the solar battery pack I had called the WAKA WAKA POWER...
https://us.waka-waka.com/store/catalogue/wakawaka-power_17/
I do not know about duty or taxes on this as it was sent to me for a product review on my blog, which can be found here...
http://preparedcanadianproductreviews.blogspot.com/2014/03/product-review-waka-waka-power.html

Here is something I will be ordering soon...
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/161155121261?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649
These are adapter cases that will make your AAA batteries fit devices that require AA batteries.
I HAVE NOT DEALT WITH THIS EBAY SELLER YET, SO I CANNOT RECOMMEND HIM.
I will update you once I have some experience with them.

WOW, I almost forgot this one...
Some of you were asking about smaller packages of O2 absorbers.
It is World's End Warehouse that has them...50 PK or 10 PK.
Here is the link for the 10 pack...
http://www.worldsendwarehouse.com/Food_Storage-Oxygen_Absorbers_-_1000cc_-_10pk.html

Awesome! Thanks very much Denob! 🙂

WOW...I can't believe this has slipped my mind until now (gettin' oldur I guess).
Anyone who orders a Baofeng UV5R, should download this manual...
http://www.miklor.com/uv5r/pdf/uv-5r_v1.0-annotated_by_KC9HI.pdf
The one that comes with the radio is, well, craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap!
This manual will be the only one you will ever need, it's free, so download, save, and print it out!

Thanks again.

I did some checking online, around the Ottawa area, and the only place that sells the Waka Waka power product is Henry's which is a camera store (so you don't have to order it by mail)..it is around $100 but the reviews are much better than similar solar charger products.

Good to know. Thanks..

Very kewl Denob & HopeImReady! Thank you both 🙂