Perhaps you could explain what a fire piston is?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_piston

Can you post what yours looks like? A bit curious...

this week - used my Christmas presents! did some dehydrating and canning!

Got 3- 1.1kg canisters of organic popcorn at Shoppers' fro $3.99 a piece ...sale on these ends tomorrow but even their regular price of $5.69 is cheaper than I can find per kg online and elsewhere brick and mortar stores local to me (iirc $5.69 was the price but definitely more than 5 dollars but still well under $6) may go back and get more tomorrow as it's a really good price. BB is 2014.
Got three gym bags at Value Village, two of them brand new. All three very sturdy, husband snagged one for his work clothes...daughter and I will use the other two as 72 hr BOBs.
Also at VV I got a beautiful brand new, hand thrown, pottery, crockery style canister with a wooden spoon. It has a holder attached on the side for the spoon and it's about a quart in size...I'm assuming it's meant for ground coffee but I'll use it for sourdough starter and just let it work/ferment on my counter. When I have starter it gets constant use/feeding.
Got two really nice Corningware casseroles too.
Last week stocked up on oatmeal at Wholesale club...Club packs were cheaper per kg than the huge 10kg bag of Robin Hood oats so I got 5- 2.25kg bags.

Just received my Excalibur dehydrator, so out on weekend looking for some bulk buy deals to begin this new skill. Hoping to begin on some strawberries and or other fruits.

As well, also received my GOALZERO® Escape 150 Adventure Kit, so will be charging up and doing a power down eve on Saturday to test out, along with the Kerosene heater that has made it's way home from the cabin and went through a top to bottom cleaning, and wick changeout last night...see some board and card games in our future Sat eve, even gonna do a little outdoor fire, with the son trying to collect proper material and using a firesteel to get it going.

Really looking forward to testing out the dehydrator on Sunday....hope my mylar bags and oxygen eaters arrive tomorrow, though I expect the first batch or two will be left in jars to be eaten.

Freshco has an awesome sale on this flyer....$1 sale

All these were $1 each...flyer started yesterday
12 pkgs of cat treats
13 900g pkgs of Ital Pasta assorted small pasta shapes (shells, Scoobi-Doo, elbows)
12 Keta salmon (may go back for more...I didn't want to shelf clear as our Freshco is notorious for having not enough stock of sale items)
3 3lb bags of onions
3 3lb bags of carrots
12 Minute Maid frozen orange juice

Shoppers' flyer that ends today....no more of the cheap organic popcorn in stock but they did have husband's body wash that was on for $3.99 (I think the regular price is $6.49, it was between $6 & $7) and I had coupons two $3 off of 2 , and two $1 of of 1 ...so we bought 6 body washes and saved a further $8 with the coupons...awesome deal!

Lot of stores have pork $ /lb .Just finish smoking 20 lbs of sausage and finishing couple big salamis made with red vine.Ones all smoked it will be dried for couple wks and hung in my cool room.
Henry

10x compressed cloths, 3 drawstring bags/totes, 2x small 1st aid pouch kits, 10X 20cm velcro ties, 2X leather braid bracelets, key ring magnifier/watch/torch, Maxpedition Rat wallet, 2X insect repellent bands, 1X 8 pouch fanny pack, 1X keyring multitool with pliers and led light

Send out ten lambs, one yearling beef and four hundred pds worth of large black pig to butcher, should be adding in between 1600 to 2000 pds of meat this week, plus extra like hides/bones etc..

I hope to pressure can at least several hundred pds at a min for the cellar and cure a number of lamb legs, make bacon, corned beef and several hundred pds of sausage of different kinds.

And what ya goona do after coffee break there Farmgal

She won't be having a coffe break. She forgot she has to render the lard from that thar hog too.

LOL, well to tell the truth, I am doing laundry, getting ready to make flat breads, have a oven full of roasting chicken breasts in veggies for supper, trimmed a sheeps foot, harnessed the horse and did a little log hauling (instead of snow removal) cuz I had a huge limb snap down and now that I can, you know I had to haul it out and over to where it will aged and cut up for garden use (Its willow) so no good for firewood but very good for hugelculture beds, darned a sock while waiting for the water to heat again, and I am working on a surprise knitted cowl for DH , so sneaking in a row here and there, hope to have it finished before the next big bout of cold weather really hits and I started afternoon/evening chores.. so you know, the never-ending things a farmer/wife does..

Love my new driving harness that I got for christmas, I will get a heavy horse with collar as well but its holding up surprisingly well to what I am asking it do so far.

The only lard rendering I have done so far this week has been rabbit leaf lard, the pork will have to wait till never week, the perk about this weather, you can freeze and do it later, but I do have plans to for a couple batches of soap making, enough for the rest of the year and for some gift giving away, the lamb fat is going to make more jar candles. Love how clean lamb tallow burns..

And what ya goona do after coffee break there Farmgal

yup - I was thinking the same thing!! 😮

my vacum sealer attachments for canning jars came! wooohoo, more dehydrating!