Sep 2011 Monthly Personal Preps

[Watchman]

Use it or lose it. July and August saw no posts to this thread. September is "National Preparedness" month and this might be a good time to reaffirm your goals and get moving!

[fern]

Since this is year #2 without a garden, I went up to the Amish produce auction yesterday and filled my truck with yummy goodies. Today begins the canning, freezing, drying and lots of eating of all the fresh fruits and produce I bought. I cannot say it will be fun to deal with so much in such a short span of time but I am grateful to find such tasty food to prepare for our family all winter.

Also I purchased a course from Dr Cynthia Koelker's new book Armageddon Medicine that will be published later this year. The course is on what and how to manage thyroid issues when you can no longer obtain your current medicines. Based on this course, I am looking forward to her book being published as an important tool for everyone.

[side_job]

Well this is not your normal prep, but it is just about as important a prep as you can have. Fitness. Too much of 'the good life' and being Blessed with abundance has caused my 'girth' to grow. Ive known the lbs have packed on but it really didn't sink in until a couple weeks ago when we were on vacation. My son and I rented jet skis to ride in the ocean... during the rental we had to get fitted for life jackets. Well as usual, just give me the biggest one you have, I said... and he did... and it wasn't very big. But I managed with his help to get my girth squeezed into the jacket and away we went for an afternoon of fun. We did have a good time and when out time was almost up, the inevitable happened... we tipped over. Now you wouldn't think that would be bad, but when your a very large man bobbing in the ocean trying to haus your big butt back up on a jet ski, then it dawns on you. Time to do something.
SO, my prep that I have been working on, walking. We just got back from the park, where we walked our laps and then he got to play on the playground equipment (10 y/o). Little every day, better now, than later.

[side_job]

Well since I am really feeling behind the eight ball (so to speak) I am adding to my preps this week. Ordered some bulk buckets (6 gallon) with gamma seal lids, mylar, o2 absorbers and trying to jockey a couple 55 gal barrels for h2o. This weekend we will make a trip to sams and pack away rice, beans, flour etc. My wife refuses to purchase pre-packaged supplies as she puts it...'we don't eat that, and it probably taste yuk anyway'... so we pack away what we do eat. Will be working on a med bag this week, as we lack in this area as well. Lots to do, and less and less time to get it done.

[side_job]

Also, I was recommended a book by board member on another forum, so I picked one up from Amazon.
"Pole Shift: Predictions and Prophecies of the Ultimate Disaster"
John White; Mass Market Paperback; $3.88

Under 8 bucks with shipping, should be here tomorrow... now to find time to sit and read. I'll try to give a review, from what I told this guy knows his stuff, and should he be right we could be in for a time in the near future.

So, has anyone else added and books to their preps this month?

[acet7]

Bought some ammo 7.62x39 and .223. Also have almost completed my GHB's for both vehicles. I just ordered some more fire starter striker sticks and a couple of emergnecy ponchos as well.

[side_job]

moved my 'new to me' wood stove in today (while the wife was at work) so we will see if she lets me keep it in her living room... you may hear something shortly, dont be alarmed she'll be blowing off steam...
Obviously I plan to put it on a base, and probably some wall panels, Ill go though the wall and then vertical after that.
My first stove...

[Toepopper]

Did you get an owners manual and instalation directions with this stove? In order to work properly the stovepipe needs to run a minimum of 3 feet straight up before turning into and through the wall or the stove will smoke every time you open the door because its not getting enough draught. Thought you should know this before you start punching holes through that nice wall.

[side_job]

nope, no manual. It is second had from a buddy of mine. The brand is 'Bat Cave Stove company', and they have sold off a couple of times, no telling how old the heavy thing is. My plan is to put a 3 or 4 ft vertical then elbow and through a triple wall- wall thimble, then to a T, and up till it clears the roof line by 3 or 4 ft with a chimney cap on top.
bottom cap on the T and strap everything down. I plan to put a brick 'paver' style base underneath it, and some of the 4x4 wall insulator boards on each of the corner sides.

[Toepopper]

That should do it. This last summer I had to move my chimney pipe to a position higher up the wall so the stove has about six and a half feet of vertical pipe before turning through the wall. This should make it breath better and stop letting smoke in the house every time I go to put more wood in it.

[side_job]

This has been a busy month for me. I expect to take delivery of buckets and mylar tomorrow, then will begin to get all of the weekends purchases packaged for storage. I still need to work on shelving, but I think that will be another month.
I did place an order for a couple 55 gallon water storage barrels, a couple of car kits and e-food. Picked up some 100 hr paraffin candles too.

Edit:
Well it's Saturday, and we've been busy. Made a trip to the brick yard and purchased everything required to install the chimney on my 'new to me' wood stove. Trip to the feed supply store for stove pads for the floor, and both walls. Then back to fill buckets (mylar) with the preps from last weekend. My first experience with the iron and board method of sealing mylar. Seems to have worked well, we will see in a couple days if they pull down good. Got my barrels in from EE, filled and added preservative. Took a full load of cardboard to the recycle. Tomorrow I may start on shelves.

[side_job]

A couple pictures to illustrated my weekend...

and today's fun... 2 rank

[Toepopper]

Septembers preps are not really preps for me but rather just another get ready for winter type of chore routine. I have 5 full cords of hardwood stacked in the woodshed ready to burn, and have scrubbed the chimney flue to remove the creasote built up from last winters woodstove use. Our propane tank has been topped off at a whopping $4.79 per gallon (thats why we heat with wood) and today I am going to change the oil in the generator and make sure it runs and produces electricity in case we need it. My garden is winding down and we are picking the last of the cantelope and watermellon. Corn is not ready yet. Tomato's are coming on strong and my wife has canned them and made salsa. Today I will pick the last of the beans and tear out the plants and throw them on the compost pile. Large V formations of geese are heading south and the hardwood leaves are starting to turn color so winter is on its way.

[Toepopper]

I decided to drop 7 very large douglas fir trees to open up an area that was blocking out the sun from hitting my house during the winter months. This should help keep the house a little warmer and save on some firewood and also brighten up the inside of the house so we don't need to use the lights during the dark days of December. These trees were also blocking out the satellite reception for the TV. Don't want to miss any mainstream media news casts. As it turned out these trees have a real tight grain and close together growth rings so the milled wood is worth some money. A small private mill owner will be coming by to scale and take the trees over to his mill so I may even make a buck from this operation. Today I have to finish sawing up the larger branches into firewood sized pieces and stacking them up for next years firewood supply.