What did you do today to prep...

[theBINKYhunter]

Got my workbench put back together and the cabinets set up in my garage. It'll be nice to have the space back and have it organized.

[Carl]

Got my workbench put back together and the cabinets set up in my garage. It'll be nice to have the space back and have it organized.

Karme...good work.

[archer]

Thanks. Yes the whites are falling everywhere. We do save the berries. We are always on the hunt for the berries. We have lots here at home, and have located lots in other places. We put the berries in a steamer and juice them, then turn them into jelly. Great stuff.

my wife makes elderflower wine for hot summer days..

[Knecht]

Brought home 125kg of blacksmith coal and some tool steel supply.

[Stwood]

my wife makes elderflower wine for hot summer days..

Hmmm now theres an idea. She doe wine, I don't drink.



Canned up 25 half pints of strawberry jam. Strawberries are from our berry patch. 
More tomorrow.

[backwoods_engineer]

Just got back from a 3-day business trip from Alabama to coastal central Florida (driving).  As always, I assume some SHTF event is going to happen (personal, local, state, regional, national, etc) that is going to prevent me from driving straight home, and I prepare for the trip accordingly.  Nothing happened, but I think I could have handled it if it did.

Every time I do one of these trips, I tear my bug-out bag and additional bags apart, take inventory, replace stuff, add stuff, etc.  I bring a lot of stuff on the assumption I would be able to stay with the truck. If that turns out not to be true, I can pare things down. 

I had enough MRE's, Mountain House, beef jerky, and snacks to last a week.  I had hundreds in cash.  I had clothes for a week, and lots of water on board.  I had a 5-gallon can of gasoline in addition to keeping the truck's 26-gallon gas tank at least 3/4 full at all times.  I had a military "woobie" with mosquito net, pillow, extra light blanket and ground pad for sleeping, and a tarp and rigging to make a shelter.  I had my usual bug-out bag, which has stuff for cooking, fire making, medical, water filtration and treatment, cordage, tools, and et ceteras.  I also had ham radio communications on board, including my TH-D74 do-all handheld and a shortwave receiver.

And of course, I was armed appropriately with my primary and backup pistols, and plenty of mags, and I had my usual complement of EDC.

Thankfully, I had to use none of this except my ham radio gear.  But I had it with me, just in case.

[Knecht]

my wife makes elderflower wine for hot summer days..

Yes, that's likely what I've mentioned couple posts before. We tend to call it lemonade though, but if it's left to ferment long enough, you can get a little alcohol from it.

Yesterday (and couple days before) I wasn't feeling well, most likely my blood pressure has been oscillating from low to high (not uncommon in our family) and finally at night I grabbed a flashlight, went out to nearest hawthorn bush, took couple twigs with leaves and green haws, broke and cut it all up and made tea from it. Haw is generally good for blood pressure and heart problems. It worked! I felt much better after drinking it and then took a nice sleep (which is another thing haw helps with) and woke up all good and fresh. Another wild medicine knowledge successfully tested on human!
Too late this year to pick hawthorn blossoms, but I'll definitely pick some berries in the Fall and dry them. Will see about some bark as well.

[Carl]

Yes, that's likely what I've mentioned couple posts before. We tend to call it lemonade though, but if it's left to ferment long enough, you can get a little alcohol from it.

Yesterday (and couple days before) I wasn't feeling well, most likely my blood pressure has been oscillating from low to high (not uncommon in our family) and finally at night I grabbed a flashlight, went out to nearest hawthorn bush, took couple twigs with leaves and green haws, broke and cut it all up and made tea from it. Haw is generally good for blood pressure and heart problems. It worked! I felt much better after drinking it and then took a nice sleep (which is another thing haw helps with) and woke up all good and fresh. Another wild medicine knowledge successfully tested on human!
Too late this year to pick hawthorn blossoms, but I'll definitely pick some berries in the Fall and dry them. Will see about some bark as well.

BEETS are also good for blood pressure and many other benefits.

[Chemsoldier]

PT!  Full body circuit work today, blasts the muscles and has aerobic & anaerobic effects.

Read my book on stoicism for a few minutes.  Even when life keeps you from getting after classic "prepper stuff," a few minutes to get your mind right is fantastic prepping.

[Stwood]

Ten more half pints of strawberry jam, then switched to wild plum jelly.
20 pints and 2 half pints.

Have 3 half gallon jars of juice still to process. 


And wild plum picking isn't near ready yet. This juice is from last year. We just canned it up.

[Knecht]

Continued working on my reloading bench, that I started both to make a good place for reloading and to learn some timber carpentry in small scale (using 8x8cm beams for the frame). Today I've added two braces that will help supporting the desk. I have to say, even though I don't consider myself a novice in woodworking, these carpentry joints are quite a challenge for me. Yes, they are big and rough and seemingly just primitive...and yet they aren't. You still need to make them very accurately if you expect them to work well and look well. Lesson learned. Mine look terrible, but they seem to hold, at least. Hope to finish the frame tomorrow and perhaps even finish the basic bench. Then I'll have to come up with some cool way to organize all the reloading tools, components, die sets etc. Feel free to post pictures of yours, I'll be glad to get some inspiration.

[NWPilgrim]

PT!  Full body circuit work today, blasts the muscles and has aerobic & anaerobic effects.

Read my book on stoicism for a few minutes.  Even when life keeps you from getting after classic "prepper stuff," a few minutes to get your mind right is fantastic prepping.

I agree that fitness is a critical "prepping" activity!  I let myself go the last five years and got fat and not able to do prolonged manual work.  That scared me and I started making fitness a priority.  Going on nine months now and I feel strong, pliable and bouncy, with fewer and milder respiratory ills (colds/flu).  I now know from working 8-12 hour days that I can do sustained strenuous labor either for pay or at home or emergency.  I used to lay of exercising on days I worked, but now I feel so good I can do a 50 min. HIIT or other "burn" routine at noon and be ready for a shift of work in the evening.  I used to gas out after an hour of heavy yard work, now I can go 4-8 hours easy and still enjoy the rest of the day.

Wednesday I finished my first 4-week program of Fitness Blender (cardio/strength/flexibility using bodyweight, dumbbells, pilates).  I didn't lose any weight this go-round but lost another inch off my waist and feel fantastic all over (at 62).  So far I have lost 25 lbs, put on a lot more muscle, and lost 5 inches from the waist since Sept last year.  Much of it from doing manual labor temp jobs but also kettlebells, calisthenics, and recently the Fitness Blender videos.  I just started a new FB program called FB Sweat that has more strength emphasis.

[Chemsoldier]

I agree that fitness is a critical "prepping" activity!  I let myself go the last five years and got fat and not able to do prolonged manual work.  That scared me and I started making fitness a priority.  Going on nine months now and I feel strong, pliable and bouncy, with fewer and milder respiratory ills (colds/flu).  I now know from working 8-12 hour days that I can do sustained strenuous labor either for pay or at home or emergency.  I used to lay of exercising on days I worked, but now I feel so good I can do a 50 min. HIIT or other "burn" routine at noon and be ready for a shift of work in the evening.  I used to gas out after an hour of heavy yard work, now I can go 4-8 hours easy and still enjoy the rest of the day.

Wednesday I finished my first 4-week program of Fitness Blender (cardio/strength/flexibility using bodyweight, dumbbells, pilates).  I didn't lose any weight this go-round but lost another inch off my waist and feel fantastic all over (at 62).  So far I have lost 25 lbs, put on a lot more muscle, and lost 5 inches from the waist since Sept last year.  Much of it from doing manual labor temp jobs but also kettlebells, calisthenics, and recently the Fitness Blender videos.  I just started a new FB program called FB Sweat that has more strength emphasis.

*thumbs up*

Glad to hear it.

[Chemsoldier]

Again, another odd one that seems to be paying off.

I have been working my way through Hemingway's short stories.  Taking a break from the news, my normal non-fiction content and survival content has helped me feel more relaxed and thoughtful I think. Sometimes you can ve a more effecticve survivalist is to do non-survival things?

[Lostjagged]

Bought Ball's blue book and Mrs.wages home canning.

[Greekman]

I just redid an encrypted ZIP file with my personal info.... Then e-mailed it to me

[Stwood]

Had a great fathers day breakfast the wife whipped up. Almost everything was homegrown and homemade.



Going to finish up the plum jelling making today, or try to. Have 3 half gallons of juice to get done.
We are putting the plum in pint jars this year. Seems to go faster

[Carl]

  I woke up. Some days that is enough.
Not my son or any friends mentioned Fathers Day to me..My mother sent a card ,with a cash content that I used to order shoes that would fit her as she has foot problems and only buys $6 shoes for herself...she has not taken the new walking shoes off in 3 days now ,I am told. I bought 2 sizes larger and 3 x wider as all of the shoes she gets are always painful (and she always buys them too small) so I told her these were expensive and I could not send them back...she will just suffer through the humiliation of larger sized shoes that fit her properly.

[Stwood]

  I woke up. Some days that is enough.

That's the major ticket right there. 


Happy Fathers Day Carl

[Carl]

That's the major ticket right there. 


Happy Fathers Day Carl

Thank you.

[Stwood]

Still storing up sugar. 
12 more pints of wild plum jelly and 11 more 1/2 pints.
Totally out of 1/2 pint jelly jars now. Gotta make another road trip to the Amish store.

Blackberries are turning. Way to early, about a month. Wife brought in a handful yesterday after checking on the bees. Guess we'll be collecting chiggers and picking blackberry's next week.
New crop of wild plums are off a ways, thankfully.
Garden is starting to take off. Radishes and banana peppers are doing their thing.

[Knecht]

Finished my reloading bench, for now. Will see about some better board for it. For now I've used a piece of plywood, but I'm sure it won't last very long. Will test the bench to see if it works for me, then start upgrading it.

[NWPilgrim]

Finished my reloading bench, for now. Will see about some better board for it. For now I've used a piece of plywood, but I'm sure it won't last very long. Will test the bench to see if it works for me, then start upgrading it.

My first reloading bench I used masonite for smooth, hard top finish and painted it.  My current bench has a top layer of 3/4" birch plywood with thick coat of urethane.  There are so many hard and flat surface materials available these days.  Melonite is surprisingly durable and cheap to replace and does not need painting or coating.  Or go for an aluminum sheet surface?

[Knecht]

I'll see about that, for now I need to try if the bench suits me in other ways. The plywood I used is rather thin and cheap, even splitting apart at one corner. Recycled it from something else. I'll surely replace it at some point.

[Knecht]

Dug through a bunch of 9th century axes for my dissertation - great opportunity to study old forging techniques and see what sizes/weights of axes were used by full-time Slavic warriors for crashing skulls.

[Stwood]

Daily garden work. Mostly weeding here lately. If plants grew like weeds....
Can't really complain though, that's part of it.
More organizing in the storeroom, and our mason jars.

[Carl]

  I have also planted a seed...and hope it will grow.

[Knecht]

Did some forging (it now takes me about an hour from a rusty leaf spring to a knife blade that's ready for grinding; all done by hammer). Also used remaining time and heat to forge two small items that went straight to my trade stash (at events, I always like to have some cheap small stuff to offer, aside of my finer and more expensive items like knives and tomahawks). These small simple items are good for honing fine forging and your hammer aim as well.

Searched online couple hours for some tool/material organizers that I could use on my new reloading bench. I don't want to end up with a shelf full of various cans and boxes again, want something better. Looks like I found it in the end, but took me a while to dig through all the cheap chinese crap. I'll give it some thinking time yet, but guess I'll order these and set them up on my first dedicated reloading bench.

My experimental white corn keeps growing nicely.

[Stwood]

  I have also planted a seed...and hope it will grow.

 



More garden work.



About time for blackberry picking and chigger collecting. We could probably stay busy most of a day picking, they are ripening that fast in this warm weather. We've had plenty of rain

[mountainmoma]

Unbelieveble heat wave the past week, well, the garden has been watered at least.

Studio project : hired out and little redwood deck front porch is done, shed for washer/hot water heater walls done and painted. I dug out the lower part of the drainage trench for a very short while while it was shaded--tree roots is why he left it shallow, I now know.

House maintenance: had some siding ripped off, and where does one stop when going down that path ? I think one more sheet will come off tomorrow not just for the small amount of dry rot, but taking out the window there ( left over from previous remodeling, there was a window into the walk in closet) showed that there was a bad junction of panels. My handyman took off  the other section on garage when I was busy, and I have a few problematic places.  -- STWOOD -- you may know this : He ripped off ALL the felt paper in the garage section, meaning there is no felt paper sticking out to overlap with....he should have left some coming out from under this board running across the top of the wall, and this board cannot come off as that board is the roof edge, flat roof on the garage. It is non-ideal to rely on a bead of caulk. But if your underlayment has to butt up against something like this, how can it be terminated to make sure water doesnt get under it ? My house walls are like this : 2x4 studs with fiberglass batts inside, covered by tar paper, then sheathing, this sheathing is lap-edged plywood, maybe 3/8" thick, the original was redwood ply, but repaired places are dugfir ply. The older ply lasts longer.