How Have You Prepared Today? (Bug-in Location Edition)

[Anianna]

I made a grocery list to replace everything we just ate up making it through Irene and her aftermath.

[Prepared American]

I put the chain saw to good use and trimmed up some big maples over the house and cut out some dead branches that make good campfire wood. Refilled to propane tanks, and started looking into burrying an underground tank for rain water collection off of my roof.

[Pilsung]

http://hiveharvest.com/beeswax_candles.html

Ordered beewax candles. I love these things.

[Takaaco78]

Took a pig to the butcher today.

[Takaaco78]

got the pig back from the butcher today. 170lbs of goodness

[Kathy in FL]

Finished my beginning of the year inventory. Rotated into the everyday supplies the stuff that needed to come out of long term storage and tomorrow I hope to place an order with Honeyville for a few 50 lb bags of wheat and a case of peanut butter powder to get my baking supplies back up where they need to be.

[LtCmdLeia]

Better jump on that peanut butter powder order. I was making my list for my order from Walton Feed and I see they are out of peanut butter powder. I'm going to have to order from Honeyville instead. (unfortunately they sell it only in #10 cans, I prefer it in #2.5 cans) I'm guessing that's a product that will be in short supply after the bad harvest last year.

I added another 50lb of pasta to my storage the other day.

I'll be setting up our new weather station this week. I consider it a prep.

[kcor_77]

Better jump on that peanut butter powder order. I was making my list for my order from Walton Feed and I see they are out of peanut butter powder. I'm going to have to order from Honeyville instead. (unfortunately they sell it only in #10 cans, I prefer it in #2.5 cans) I'm guessing that's a product that will be in short supply after the bad harvest last year.

I added another 50lb of pasta to my storage the other day.

I'll be setting up our new weather station this week. I consider it a prep.

Emergency essentials has them in the smaller cans. Go under search and type my choice. I have a few of these and I loved the size.

[tojo]

- Bought my first machete ever
- Made contact with a guy who sells IBC's (rain harvesting, water storage)
- Planted some sweet corn

[duodecima]

Made 2 kinds of sourdough, succesfully fed to friends & family. Also, shelf-stable, no-cook spinach artichoke dip,( take 2) succesfully fed to same. ( take1 had not been tasty, problem fixed).

Tried out, cleaned, and found home in kitchen for new grain mill.

Contemplating a honeyville order but dang freeze dried cheese is expensive.

[Takaaco78]

Somebody just gave me 3 goats, only thing is i have to catch them. I know what im doing in the morning.

[duodecima]

Reorganized pantry to fit more things in neatly, partial inventory done.

[hutchb25]

We got the greenhouse up and going last week, planted heirloom seeds...cabbage, brocolli, spinach, tomatoes, a bunch of other stuff...potatoes coming soon. It's not huge, but this is my first genuine foray, so it's the starting point. I built the greenhouse last year for my parents. They don't get enough sun, so they gave it back I'll make sure they get something out of it though. It's a wood frame with framed ends and PVC for the roof hoops, and plastic draped, with a scavenged window on hinges for ventilation at one end...so far, so good, but next time I want to replace the PVC with EMT.

But here's the real gem: My girlfriend's parents have a family friend with massive amounts of strawberries and raspberries, and just this morning we got 30-50 raspberry starts and 50+ strawberry starts, some June bearing and some year round!! We're having to till a whole new area to plant them I'm going to need a food dehydrator...berries do really well around here. I'm hoping between these, some foraged huckleberries, and some crop share blueberries, we can dehydrate and take care of most of our winter fruit needs. We'll see.

[angelofwar]

Made some "primitive" bows for my sons today. They both work, and were relavtively easy. Saw them in my Army manual and then saw David Cantebury build one on DUal Survival, so I figured I'd give them a shot. The larger one I was able to shoot a tent pole about 30'. Great for small game/fish. Will get an article up in the "Bushcraft" section hopefully later today. My next feat will be making some home made arrows if I can find some wild bamboo.

[IceWing]

Okay, last few weeks.

Two weekends ago:
Got an entire trailer load of aged horse manure from a buddy of mine and topped off the raised beds (2 @ 8'x8', 2 @ 4'x8', 2@16'x8')
Used the majority of the rest of the manure to fertilize all the fruit (blackberry starts, blueberry bush, 2 apple tree saplings, 2 pear tree saplings)
Bought a peach tree at Big Lots
Chopped down several maple saplings

Last weekend:
Bought some heirloom plants for the garden (artichoke, collards, tomatoes, plus some more)
Planted said plants in the raised beds
Cursed on Monday morning as the deer had eaten the tomatoes and artichoke plants
kept the peach tree watered
Finished cleaning up the felled maple saplings

Last week:
Ordered new fruit trees from Gurney's (2 Apricots, nectarine, grape vine, 2 persimmon)
Ordered some more herb seeds for the herb beds
Ordered two LifeStraws for our BOBs (they're AT the BIL *grin*)
Tried to clean up the food storage shelves, make better use of the space
Made the decision to stop purchasing any more frozen stuff until we can use up EVERYTHING in the deep freeze, then implement a better rotation system
Picked up six 5"diameter round wood posts to put up a better perimeter fence around the garden
also picked up some 50# fishing line to try and deter the deer
Started an entire Excalibur Dehydrator load of organic banana chips ($3 for 3 LARGE bags of bananas at Jungle Jim's)
Vac sealed a LOT of stuff
Ordered new regular mouth vac attachment for Foodsaver and 100 oxygen absorbers
Ordered WAY too much stuff from Western Bee Supply
Got upset because the place we were GOING to get our swarm from sold out, found another place and sent payment off (and am getting a pre-assembled hive from them too!)

This weekend:
'planted' the trees from Gurney's (bare root! we're not happy!) into the mulch pile to keep them alive
Cut down a 50 year old oak tree that was shading 4 of the raised beds way too much.
Chopped down a half dozen young maple trees that were shading where the new fruit trees are going (sucked because I'd JUST finished getting rid of the last set I cut down and now that clearing is all messy again)
Picked up 19 cans (24 oz. of Dinty Moore hearty meals for $1.49 a can. Normal price is over $6 per can)
Reset the compost bins in their new location, ready to start making compost again
Replaced one of the posts (and got REALLY lucky when the oak tree rolled down another one instead of snapping it off and falling across the raised bed) and put up the deer netting

This morning:
Took the chainsaws in for service (the oak actually STOPPED the Stihl Farm Boss)
Wife pointed out that the herb beds are actually already full and we need to build some more to plant the new seeds in.
Tried the banana chips (thumbs up!)

Upcoming couple of weeks:
Plant Peach tree, Apricot Trees, Nectarine, grape vine, persimmons
Order mushroom starts from the internet to grow shitake mushrooms in some of the oak
Build at least one more 4'x16' herb bed
wait for packages to arrive from Western Bee Supply
Drive 3 hours at 5 am, pick up bees and a hive, drive back, set it up, play hookey from work (not really, will use a vacation day)

[Caenus]

Wife learned how to extreme coupon...$122 grocery bill dropped to $48!!! Whoot!

Also "started" my wood pile:


Yup...that's mesquite for the smoker.

[Tobias05]

The wife and I finally purchased our first "bug in location" this past friday: A 2400 sq ft brick ranch, 20 minutes from town, with 5 and a half acres. Plenty of evergreens, two decent camping sites, and a small creek at the back of the property.

We have some work to do on the house, but the first item on the list for the outdoors is a shooting range.

[Tank Woman]

Congrats Tobias!
Its such a comforting feeling to know you have a safe place. And having access to wood and water is wonderful!

[hutchb25]

Did some rototilling today while my girlfriend set onions to soak and cut potatoes for planting. I did some trash pickup and weedeating to boot.

That tiller is a freakin' BEAST!

[hudd357mag]

Yesterday. Continued to buy lumber for projects like new gate and fence. Also started buying the White roofing material for reducing energy costs. This will save me money in the long run so I can buy supplies rather than donate to the electric company. I also just finished adding tinting to some of my windows at my house. The heat reduction was truly surprising. Seems like it cut it by 70 percent or more. I really recommend it. I just got mine at Lowes.

[lanzajr26]

Finally organized my storage area in the basement and put up shelving, started organizing my stuff from Costco raids into the room

Purchased a new pack of arrow shafts and started learning how to fletch my own. Also did my monthly run to stock up on ammo.

I'm a little late but I have finally finished the plan to landscape my unfinished back yard and will be ready to set up the garden in a few weeks. Can't wait to get it going!

[ITZombie]

Added another 100lbs of hard winter wheat, 5 cases of #10 cans of dried fruits, potato flakes and tomato powder (honeyville) and 3 5gal buckets of pasta's and 100lbs of pinto (costco) to our preps over the weekend. We're good family prep wise for a couple of years if left alone but I'm feeling nervous about how many non-immediate family we can help out without putting our own family at risk. Can't save'em all but would like to do what we can.

Oh and a couple of weeks ago, added 2+ courses each of various piscine antibiotics to the 'prep fridge'. The flavors that have extended shelf lives and don't turn toxic just less potent over time. That older history channel SHTF show where the guy dies from a simple cut because infection is another source of worry along with recurring dealing with children sicknesses like strep and the like in our daily lives.

[IceWing]

Drove 3 hours
Picked up our new hive and swarm
Drove to a goodwill we passed in the area
Picked up a book on self-sufficiency ($1)
Took the wife out to lunch
Drove 2 hours
Went to Costco and picked up some more grass seed to choke out the weeds (and some other odds and ends)
Drove home
Leveled out the site for the beehive
Set it up
Found out the XXL beesuit and XL gloves are just a bit too small for me (they work, but it's VERY uncomfortable and if I bend over, it'll rip)
Found the hive tool wasn't sent in the order
Got the swarm into the hive

Am leaning towards going back in two weeks and getting another swarm (nuc) to go in the OTHER beehive we have to put together

On the upside, this hive alone will make us self sufficient in regards to honey in about a year. Subsequent hives are trade goods\revenue.

Ice

[hudd357mag]

Today I cleaned out an area of the basement to organize some supplies. So far just sleeping bags and water jugs and water filtration supplies. But adding shelves soon to add more. Small steps.