Prep WINS - Post YOUR Prep related wins and saves!!!

[angelofwar]

I knew there was an EDC Win thread, but what about just those times when your preps and/or just your survival skills/mindset came in handy, or you were able to provide material support, that most people don't have, to absolve a situation??? Share you stories!!!

I'll start with mine from yesterday:

I decided to take the longer (not much) route home yesterday. As I near my turn, I see a Sherrifs' cruiser with his lights on, and a nice Benz roadster with it's back end in the ditch. I recognized the deputy, because he was a co-worker in the military (nice knowing a good friend is patrolling the streets!). I aksed if he needed a tow-strap, and he asked if I had one. I pulled over, and offered to pull the car from the ditch. The owner of the Benz asked if my vehicle could do it...I have a 1994 4wd 5.7L Suburban...I said "Yep". My bud blocked traffic, I drove into the road, back-up, hooked up the strap, 2 seconds later, his benz was back on the road. All in all, the operation lasted 2 minutes...pretty efficient!

The guy offered me a $20, I refused and told him to "Pay it forward", but he literally shoved the money in my hand and said take it. I said thanks, and went on my way! Car Emergency Kit for the WIN!

[Stercutus]

When I was in college in '94 an ice storm came through and took down the power and water grid in our town for seven days. Essentially the river froze and the town was heavily dependent upon the river for both power and water. All the downed trees took out tons of power lines complicating things. The roads were all closed due to several inches of ice so you could not even leave even if there was somewhere to go. Temperatures hovered around freezing.

I lived off campus but the school set up shelters (they had power) but I wasn't going to any shelter. I had just gotten into prepping after my first stint in the military and had about a month of food and water on hand. Plenty of cold weather gear and two extreme cold sleeping bags. A little cook stove, back up radio, etc, etc. The girlfriend camped out at my place till it all blew over. She never left. It has been twenty years and she still hangs out with me. That is about as much as one can ever have.

[slannesh]

Lots of little ones, we tend to get brief (several hours) power outages in the winter due to heavy snow and in the summer with thunderstorms. Most recent one started to stretch on a bit, after 6 hours or so we wanted to get some dinner going so I pulled out my white gas stove and was in the middle of setting it up when the power came back on. So didn't need my prep in the end, but was nice to know that the power being out was a very minor inconvenience instead of a major annoyance like it would have been without any other way to cook dinner.

[Dragon80]

This just happened Saturday night. Poorly made coolant elbow made of plastic rotted through allowing me to lose all of my coolant into the middle of the road about 5 miles from home. I got pulled off of the street, figured out what was up and started looking for a water source so as to not pay $100+ for a flatbed tow home. Realizing I was more than a mile from a store I remembered that I keep water in my car!! So, I grab my water from the back and from my GHB, pour it in and then head home. It took two additional stops and every bit of water but I made it home and fixed the car Sunday. Apparently they started making this part out of aluminum about a year ago, so I should never have to deal with this issue again but the water saved me a headache and a long walk. Granted, two miles isn't bad but it would've been carrying a few gallons of water the whole way back by hand.

[manacheck]

A simple prep from years ago was picking up a package of single-use superglues. Suddenly came in handy when I accidentally injured my hand (in both an awkward spot for bandaging and at bad angle) with a kitchen knife yesterday.

I'd stuck the whole package of itty bitty superglues right next to the bandaids, so I was able to find it easily after bandaging wasn't working satisfactorily.

2 thin coats of superglue's keeping the skin together really well and is excluding new bacteria an entrance there. If it's not healed up by the time the glue flakes off, I'll sterilize the area and apply another coat. It's not enough of an injury to require stitches, and honestly, even if it was, I'm not sure that even if I tried getting care for anything that isn't immediately life-threatening right now it'd be permitted, what with the COVID-19 orders in place significantly impacting what services our providers are allowed to see people for presently.

And since the "skin" of the superglue is also excluding air, it doesn't hurt much except when I accidentally touch the area.

[MPMalloy]

Thank you manacheck for bringing a morale-boosting thread.

[manacheck]

MPMalloy, thanks for that encouragement. I'm always a little uncertain with necroing threads (or, honestly, posting in general), but where else can I say things like how my superglue finally turned out to be very useful?

Well... I think right now, almost every day is a big prep win AND save for most of the people here.

Not just with supplies, but also with something else important: the prep of skills. And practice. And experience. Anyone who's stocked a pantry for a week, two weeks, before this crisis, has in-advance experience with planning for the bug-in situations many of us are seeing nationally now in real time.

Though right now, I think most of us are still in the emergency phase of dealing with the sudden, if temporary, major changes to our lives stemming from disruptions from COVID19. So maybe it's harder to be thinking of it as a win or save.

[NT2C]

About 15 years ago, 3 years before I joined ZS with my first account (this is my third - don't ask), I was doing some work for a local dentist who wanted to clean out the empty apartment above his office that he'd been using for storage and get it fixed up so he could rent it out, essentially a complete gut and remodel. As for the things stored there, my instructions were to dispose of them. This included things like a full set of almost new Pirelli Scorpions mounted on the original wheels for his two-year-old Range Rover (sold to a local guy on CL), enough dental burrs to start my own dental supply house, and two cases of dental masks (those blue ones the dentist wears to avoid giving you his cold). One case did end up in the dumpster for lack of storage for it (I was renting a room in a rooming house at the time) but I did save one case for use as dust masks. I still had one pack of 50 left when this all hit. (I may have more in my garage somewhere)

Sometimes it pays to be a frugal packrat.

[EBuff75]

A few weeks ago I headed off to my parents' house to help them get ready for a move. Since they were planning to give me a pile of stuff while I was there (including a large saw), I cleared out most of the preps/gear from the back of my Suburban to make room (I came back with it completely full of stuff). I'm sort of doing a mental checklist while I pull things out ("might I need this, or not?"). When I got to the toolbag that I keep in the truck, I decided to bring it, just in case. When I got there, we started to take some things apart (like the saw my dad was giving me) only to find out that he'd packed up most of his tools and moved them to their storage unit. Out to the truck to bring in my tools for the win!

Incidentally, if you're ever helping someone move, bring a pack of TP. You wouldn't believe how many times you get to the new place to find out that there isn't any, and the person moving packed theirs in one of the boxes!

[taipan821]

currently myself and a housemate are moving into a new home, low and behold, the housemate has no cutlery to eat dinner with, no problem, preps include disposable cutlery. That's a prep save though my housemate is terrified of my hiking stoves...and now knows where my stash of chocolate is

with the recent pandemic going around family couldn't find masks for elderly members, handed over a box of N95 that I had for firefighting and no longer need (I use a full face respirator with multi-gas filters), save there

[CHUKGLEASON]

.......

Incidentally, if you're ever helping someone move, bring a pack of TP. You wouldn't believe how many times you get to the new place to find out that there isn't any, and the person moving packed theirs in one of the boxes!

Whenever you move, the last things to pack should be the bare minimum kitchen supplies (like flatware, plates, cups, etc, just like taipan821), and some bedding - pillows, sheets & blankets, and a bed/mattress, in that order. If you get there late in the day, you can camp out with minimal bed (even if you just put the matress on the floor), and a way to eat in the morning, even if you run out for fast food.

A selection of cleaning supplies - 409, paper towels or clean rags, liquid & bar soaps, a bucket, a broom & pan should also be part of the last items in the move, and first off. A box full of those things is also a welcome gift for someone else moving.

[tedbeau]

When they issued the stay at home order here because of covid19 I decided to go through my emergency supplies to see what I might need to pick up.
I haven't been really diligent in updating supplies as often as I should.
I pulled some of my AK mags out and loaded them up just in case.
I found a pack and a half of of toilet paper, two bottles of hand sanitizer, and 60 facemask, all really useful right now.

[Asymetryczna]

Worked with bow yesterday. Spring Turkey starts tomorrow.
Wind was ferocious so I gave it up, came inside, and looked for 12g turkey loads.
Found them.
Took 2 squirrel and 2 rabbit from the freezer.
Let them thaw. Searched for a quick recipe online.
Found one.
Recipe: https://guide.sportsmansguide.com/recip ... -squirrel/
Searched for barbecue Shake n Bake in cupboard.
Found it.
Prepped the entrée.
Went into basement; came back with 2 quart jars of green beans (2018).
Emptied 1 into a pot then thoroughly washed out the quart jar.
Filled it with water.
Used Sodastream to make it bubbly.
Added the innards of a cucumber that was finely diced. And ice. Set it in fridge.
Put protein entrée and green beans in oven.
Waited.
Filled plate with locally grown food, grabbed water, and sat down for 3 episodes of Alaskan State Trooper I had recorded.
(Would add photos but I cannot remember how to make it work)
Life is good and no matter the circumstances, Easter is the best holiday of the year.