What did you do today to prep...

[Frugal Upstate]

Made a 5 gallon bucket of laundry soap, then made two batches of homemade bar soap. Lavendar tea tree and cocoa peppermint. These were my first two batches and I was scared to try for some reason. Now that I have I want to keep going. I need to find more molds.

I want to try soap making.  My old neighbor used toake soap, and she would just line cardboard boxes with plastic wrap to make big rectangular molds-then she'd cut it into bars at some point. I don't know if she had to coat/grease the plastic or at what point she cut them-but you can probably do some google work & find it--cardboard is cheap/free, so it's worth trying

[Griz]

Went to the LDS cannery today with a group.  Did not even know they had one in my city until today. 
Can't believe how cheap the prices were compared to other sources.

[romeojuliethotel]

Stocked up on pancake mix and syrup.
Got a notification the my metals are shipping from JM Bullion.

[Saint-TyR]

Great day of building hoop houses for the gardens and the best of all bought another Ruger LCP for DCAL to carry concealed in stead of the Ruger SR9C. Now on to the next to do item on the "Prep Package List".

Stay Safe!

[chezrad]

After reading posts on Hurricane Sandy I realized that my wife didn't know much about our little generator. So I fired it up while taking pictures for a checklist. This did a couple of things; got a checklist done, showed my wife how to operate the generator (checklist will now make sense), and since I had it running and it needed to run for a while, I blew leaves around! Made the wife happy on several levels (and me too)!

Then I went and got another gas can and filled it up. Now have four in rotation.

Bought some ammo for handguns.

Got my repeater finished, buttoned up and tested.

Great day of prepping!

[FrugalFannie]

Stored some water - approx 12 days worth for the family

DH is helping me can. Have the 921 and 930 running - 21 Quarts of chicken breast between the 2.


Met with attorney regarding buyout of a business contract. Hopefully revisions will be made and accepted and termination will be signed this week. This has been 6 months in negotiations. When it's all said and done time to move on to bigger and better things!

[cheryl1]

Tried to stock up on Twinkies, but a tornado had hit that aisle in the store. I did get the last 3 of my hubby's favorite cinnamon rolls. He's the only one that eats that stuff, but not for long.

[LibertyBelle]

A friend called to say they were butchering their pasture raised turkeys, and asked if I wanted one...oh, yeah! It's already home and in the fridge!    
I made 10 gallons of laundry detergent
I also made a batch of Fire Cider
And I made a batch of chicken stock from an organic pasture-raised chicken.
Our middle-middle son was hired to prime and seal a barn roof (tin roof, solid, but showing a nice coating of rust) - they even provide his transportation to/from the site.
And a friend is bringing his backhoe out to our country property and going to put in several hugelkultur beds for me, no charge!
Oh, and one of our goats came into heat and was (hopefully) bred...the buck made a good show of it anyway.

[Bradbn4]

Simple oil change, showed me that the last bulk order of oil filters that I made for my SUV was down to two.  Time to stock up on a few more of those for a rainy day. 

Working on getting my indoor winter herb garden started - mostly basil style plants.

[Frugal Upstate]

Hubs got a nice little button buck which will be going into the freezer once the butcher is done with it  

[nelson96]

Canned 20 pints of black beans tonight that Cedar gave me.  I'll do another 20 pints in the morning.

Thank you again Cedar, and good luck to Z on his elk hunt next week.

[GreekMan]

Looks awesome. If your crust is too thick, use less flour for kneading. Typically that is the issue.
If it is too heavy still, next time let it rise longer. One trick is to put a bowl over very hot water on the lowest rack in your oven, and on the top rack put your bread in its bowls or pans, oil and then cover. When you think it might be ready, stick 2 fingers into it and they will dent nicely and easily. Then pull them out and keep them warm, preheat the oven and then bake.

Thanks for these tips, i will try them next time.

Here are this weekend's preperations.

- Changed some things in my BOB and renewed some of the food
- Made 2 refill packs (bandaging supplies) for my main FAK and my secondary BOb bag
- I asssembled the bulk of my Supplemental BOB Bag. A bag with all the nice to have stuff one should not have in this BOB
- Circulated some stuff from my stored food preps (hence the bread making)
- I am working on "vaccum packing" without a vaccum sealer method. Seal the bag, make a hole, squeeze and suck the air out, seal hole. PIC
- I am working on a multibattery system of flashlights (they can take almost ANY battery chemistry). Ordered the last empty flashlight shells.
- I started figuring out a copy of this battery powered emergency light but with 18650 batteries
- Ordered extra Lithium batteries to run my considerable flashlight collection

[thewarriorhunter]

got some work done in the backyard. picked up a couple bails of hay to start spreading as mulch to kill off the grass.

got another compost pile going.

got a worm bin/tower/farm built. going to pick up the worms tuesday. i'm really curious to see how my kids react to the worms. it should be interesting... camera will be ready.

[romeojuliethotel]

1) Received my Glock 17 .22LR conversion kit the other day, picking out ammo to take the wife shooting.
2) Since it is early on Sunday morning, I spend an hour or two working on our ever-changing emergency preparedness manual.  I try to get up early and do this on Sundays with the mandatory cup of coffee and both prepper dogs at my feet.
3) Configured Google Reader with 15-20 sites to serve as an RSS reader so I can track a bunch of different web pages, including all updates to TSP

[FromScratchWoman]

I'm always a day behind on this thread ha so yesterday I did general winter clean up getting stuff out that needs to be out and putting things back that need to go back, My son(9) and i hauled and stacked two split cords of wood, we went to the creek as a reward and landed enough trout for dinner as i was cooking them on my woodstove boom the power goes out..so I got to use my preps, within a few moments we had our lanterns lit cell phones plugged in to the inverter and shortly after sat down to eat.. then when i found out why the power went out (meth den across the way was trying to steal power) I kicked on the generator and shared the power with my back neighbor and happily said go to hell when the guy with sores all over his face asked to join in...

[Heavy G]

Met an interesting person.  Knowing this guy counts as a "prep."  Trust me.

Don't forget networks of people.  You can't do it all.  You need medical people, fix-it people, food people, gun people, and people people.

[Frugal Upstate]

Met an interesting person.  Knowing this guy counts as a "prep."  Trust me.

Don't forget networks of people.  You can't do it all.  You need medical people, fix-it people, food people, gun people, and people people.

This is so true.  These days it really is pretty much impossible for you to know how to do everything you would need to know to be completely self sufficient.  But it IS possible to know enough people with the skills to do just about everything you would need.  A good reminder to get out there and continue to cultivate those relationships!  Something I need to continue to work on.

[Louisiana Suvivor]

totally agree. i've always been told you gotta know a guy.

[FrugalFannie]

assembled 2 more shelves for my food storage

[nelson96]

Canned 20 more pints of black beans (thanks again Cedar for the beans).  Making soup tonight for dinner out of a few of the jars that bleed out the most water during canning.  They would have been fine of course, but couldn't stand it, had to try them out.

[ncjeeper]

Spent the day in the NC mountains looking for rural acerage. Didnt find "the one" but found a possible maybe. 10 acres with a creek and some good views.

[conservative01]

Ran out of windex and made a batch with white vinegar and water. The mix worked better than the commercial stuff. I also revamping my food storage the families taste have changed and I need to change with it.

[LibertyBelle]

Had a nice evening with friends (happen to also be a fellow prepper and his wife), discussing our goals for the up and coming year.   Prior to dinner, hung another deer (gotten earlier today) up to chill while the chickens and ducks all gathered around, anxiously waiting for me to toss them strips of fresh meat...the greedy little dinosaurs.   And while out and about, I checked the organic heirloom lima beans vines one last time and found a couple dozen pods or more that I had somehow missed in the tangle of vines and leaves.  I opened them up and found not only enough thoroughly mature and dried lima beans for me to plant this coming year but also enough to be able to share with our prepper friends for their garden as well.   

Middle-middle son worked on sealing the barn roof today, and a lady driving by stopped and asked what he would charge to do her barns...looks like he's going to be busy for the next couple of weeks, adding to his ammo fund. 
     

[TexDaddy]

4 hours OT today.

[nelson96]

Ran out of windex and made a batch with white vinegar and water. The mix worked better than the commercial stuff.

This is exclusively what we use to clean countertops and floors.

[SteveandTracyinKY]

Picked up 16.75 hours of OT over the last two days. At time and a half that is a little over 25 hours of paid leave on the books. Gotta get my time built up for the baby. Also its good to have available paid leave, especially with all my medical issues. Been trying to get the freezer filled with frozen water bottles to take up the extra space. Just had a leaking intake gasket fixed on the truck, and now its running better than ever, and ready for winter.

[rikkrack]

Got another 5 ricks of wood (10 total now) and stacked. Worked out deal with local guy, if I help cut and haul will get more wood stored up.

Made homemade French bread for the first time. Much better than store bought. Now time to make cream cheese spinach dip for Thanksgiving.

Taught another prepping class, may have gotten some more new listeners as a result.

Met another homesteader who is trading me duck eggs to incubate and bee hive tips in exchange for chicken eggs to incubate and aquaponics tips. So next year we will have bees and ducks.

Stocked up on groceries and LTS. Finally got tax rebate (FROM MARCH) and stocked up. Great deals on turkeys so we will have some stored up.

Ordered my pressure canner and 2 inverters recommended by Steve Harris. Completes our list of items we need for homestead completion.

[Adam B.]

Since the last time I posted in this thread…

Went grocery shopping with the coupon binder for the first time in several months, and while I didn't do very well overall, I did get the system down so this will be much quicker in subsequent weeks.

After clipping coupons yesterday I have a list of about $50 worth of food for about $20 using coupons to pick up at the store around the corner from me. This will definitely help me kick the habit of constantly going "out" for lunch from the office when I have quick, easy things to bring from home.

Came up with a better way of meal planning for the house, even though I live alone most of the time.

I am taking notebook sheets, one each for "entres, sides, snacks/deserts" and just listing anything I can think of that I have everything I need already in the house. This will stop me COLD whenever I am just wandering around the kitchen / pantry saying "Man… I don't have anything to make!!!" like I do all the time. I will not only know what to make for a fancy dinner, but sandwiches and snacks that take less time than ordering a pizza takes!

I am also putting my favorite recipes into a "cookbook" of sorts (just a Google Doc to share). I will probably make it a shared link from my docs account when I have a chance.

Cooked enough pulled pork to have leftovers for several weeks — need to portion them out and put in the freezer to make it last since I will get sick of eating nothing but THAT for the next 2 weeks.

Picked up a huge tenderloin on sale to cut up and freeze. I'll have enough porkchops from it for at least 4 or 5 meals, plus a large roast end for pulled pork when my new supply gets used up.

I've been thinking a lot about food and meal planning these days since I can see that is where most of the "waste" money I spend goes, AND I'm also getting sick of eating out as much as I have been. I need variety and the good healthy home cooked food in me right now. Being better with the food budget will offset the extra gas I will need for my new job.

Oh yeah, I think finding a new job counts as "prepping" since I am getting a pretty significant raise to go with it. I need to find my own health insurance, but I will have a better policy than the junk ones we can get through my employer, AND still have more money in my pocket.

Getting out of debt is a huge priority for me right now, and it has been a struggle this year. However, there are various scenarios I see playing out over the next year that will put me in a much better position financially and I can see myself getting debt wiped out or extremely under control in the next 2 years.

Took my 3 year old and a 2 year old friend of his out for a hike / biking / etc., last weekend. It is fun watching how much they love going on hikes. My 3 year old son is already going on 4-5 mile hikes without any problems or complaints. I am thinking that he will be ready to dabble in some backpacking this summer since he enjoys hiking and camping so much.

And now that I got a new job, and decided to get more organized with the food and meal planning — I am going to start getting my house the way I want it to be and sort out that area of my life more than it is.

I made a huge list on a separate sheet of paper (one for each area of the house) listing all of the things I want to accomplish in each. The basement is the only room left where I have major disorganization problems right now, so that is very high on the list. It is one of those lists I do not intend to accomplish everything on, it is a "pie in the sky" kind of thing, but semi-realistic.

It is the kind of thing to look at when I am sitting around wondering what I should be working on when I have a rainy weekend day, or the "stay"cation I am taking from my job next week.

I did get some more of the "junk" cleared out from my basement this past weekend and I did see the difference it made, but there is a long way to go. If I plan on living in this house for one more year, or even 6 more months — I want to make sure I am feeling GOOD when I am home instead of having a "panic attack" looking at the mess in certain places. Having the entire house project about 75% - 80% finished makes me feel good, but it is not where it should be yet. Getting to 100% will mean I am more organized, prepared to respond much much faster to any "event" that may or may not take place.

[LibertyBelle]

Hubby, his dad, and our two oldest went hunting on the farm this afternoon, and between the four of them, came home with two more nice sized deer for the freezer.  And I scored a box of 70 back issues of Countryside and Small Stock Journal magazines from an estate sale. These were from the earlier years and all but two were ones that I didn't already have. They were in individual protective wrappers and in mint condition, and I got them for less than $1 each.  Life is good.

[FromScratchWoman]

Hit some pre black Friday sales and scored some nice oil lamps for cheap cheap grabbed six, five more gallons of lamp oil, electric meat slicer(for when i get flat out tired of using the non electric), two savage pistol grip 10 gauge shotguns for $169 each at wallyworld(our Christmas gifts), picked up the last of the ranch panels we need for the new goat pasture, split and stacked another half cord of wood..spent less than $450 if we don't count gas