What Did You Do Today To Prepare?

[teotwaki]

Slogged (pretended to run!) 10 miles in the hills before temps warmed up. Now trying out a new backpack with some weight in it for a first go at adjusting the straps. Later I'll build another grab and go roller-duffle. Previously I built a food and cooking module with a butane stove, utensils and a batch of Mountain House food. Today I'll make up one with other essentials such as lighting, water filter, small first aid and other items. Half-baked idea right now but will troll through ZS threads for ideas.

[flybynight]

elevator ?? pictures please

Every prepper has a secret underground lair with an elevator that requires retinal scans and voice recognition you know.

I have a slide. WAY more fun and faster than the elevator. Umm at least going down that is. [/quote]

[/quote]
NO NO NO I went top scale for my secret underground lair

[Barnabus]

Spent a little time in the old family hurricane shelter. We haven't had to use it since '05. My Uncle has been doing the upkeep on it. Last year he rewired and simplified a lot of the electrical, so I had to reorient myself with which switches to throw to turn on the power to the lights, fans, AC, appliances, elevator, etc.

elevator ?? pictures please

LOL. It's not as fancy as it sounds. My Grandfather, Dad, & Uncle built it behind the old dairy barn back in '84 - '85. The generator is in a little block room built onto the end of the dairy barn. Above ground it looks like a 6' x 6' shed. When you go inside there's the little elevator, and a hatch with a ladder.

The elevator (or ladder) takes you down about 10 feet into another 6' x 6' room. From there you go thru a door into the actual shelter. It's a 9' x 21' round steel tank. Just a couple of small refrigerators, a TV, AC, microwave, coffee maker, and a few other things. The little room at the far end has a toilet and sink. I think the most we've ever had in it was six people.

so cool !

[teotwaki]

Ran a slow 10.6 miles in the hills along the coast. Am going to review my notes from the Wilderness First Aid course I took, go through and update my get home bag and maybe build another module of evacuation gear in a roller duffle.

[redcabeca]

Did about 6 miles along a railway grade with my 15 lb get home bag. I haven't hiked in a while, so I'm starting small. Plan is to do a few hours every Saturday, upping the weight over time.

[absinthe beginner]

Read Psalms 24:3-6.

[w3rdtoyamama]

Paid my monthly hospital bill. Debt free is a way to prepare, yes?

[Sun Yeti]

Went bicycle foraging today. What's bicycle foraging you say? Basically regular foraging, but mostly on a bike trail through a park. So, I was able to cover like 10 miles of forest edge and woodland meadow and deep woods ecosystems where the edibles I was looking for are, in about for hours.

I found: Shiso leaf/seed (that's invasive, so pick as much as you want). Chickweed, oniongrass, wood sorrel, black walnut, some other type of nut I'm pretty sure is pecan but I'm going to check with a more experienced forager before eating, Pine needles (vitamin C rich tea), wild persimmons, black nightshade (don't confuse with deadly nightshade), smartweed, wild grape, burr cucumber, jewelweed, young dandelion leaves, and cattail rhisomes. The only thing I didn't get that I was looking for was chestnuts. It's a bit late in the season, and more problematically, I could not find the tree the more experienced forager showed me last weekend.

Now, I probably sweated out 1000 calories and brought home more like a couple hundred, but if I had been going for quantity rather than variety, I could have taken home as much black walnut and cattail rhisome as I could carry, so I'm pretty sure I could have made this a net calorie positive outing if I needed to.

[teotwaki]

Picked all of the apples off of one tree, lemons off of another.

Installed Magpul loops on the six magazines in the war belt.

[roOism]

Paid my monthly hospital bill. Debt free is a way to prepare, yes?

It's the best way.

OT: Busted out ye old dehydrator and dried out several pounds of fruit, as well as prepped 3 heads of cabbage for Sauerkraut

[teotwaki]

I have a bunch of 1980 through 1990's mil surplus plastic canteens and a large number of them were filled years ago with fltered water. They were all stored with other gear in the garage and no leaks from them. I grabbed a random few and drank the water today... and lived. No funny tastes or even plast-icky flavor.

[teotwaki]

Finally had my official local 10 mile run that I use as the yearly motivator to keep up with regular exercise. Managed to hit the finish line at 1:44 so all of the hill running paid off. The clock now resets for next year......

[MPMalloy]

I cleaned my Glock.

[teotwaki]

I ran 14 miles

I worship at the altar of Doctor Stewart Adams and chemist John Nicholson, the inventors of Runners' Vitamin "I" (Ibuprofen)

[flybynight]

Used the string trimmer all around the yard to clean up all the rest of the weeds and tall grass where the mower doesn't reach. Now the property looks neat , clean and ready for the zombie apocalypse

[teotwaki]

Used the string trimmer all around the yard to clean up all the rest of the weeds and tall grass where the mower doesn't reach. Now the property looks neat , clean and ready for the zombie apocalypse

I agree. Having a clear field of fire is essential!

[Zembecowicz]

Today I stumbled across a local simplex 2 meter net. Although it isn't an emergency communications net per se, the net coordinator said that a lot of other people in the area monitor the frequency during extreme weather events and other such things. I also cut down a dead tree and converted the non-rotten part of it into firewood.

[MPMalloy]

I went to the range. I sucked. I need more practice.

[zombieapocalypsegame]

Past couple days I...

• Added bulkheads to two rain barrels but still need the spigots
• Swapped out a broken door handle on son's daily driver
• Fixed malfunctioning brake lights on the truck
• Enjoyed awesome Thanksgiving meal & assisted the wife hanging Christmas decorations (unit morale!)
• Added yard leaves to the potato bin for compost duty thru winter
• Cleared out terribly clogged A/C system in the truck
• Collected all household hazmats for delivery to local facility tomorrow
• Heard from the wife she wants to go shooting (!!!)
• Received replacement fire extinguisher from Kidde (1 of 2 affected) and prepped recalled unit for return shipping
• Ensured lighting decorations were not a fire hazard (more extensions and heavier duty cords using more outlets distributed around house)
• Checked tire pressure on wife's daily driver

[Zembecowicz]

Today I learned the hard way that my BOV/"oh shit there's 3 feet of snow truck" won't start due to the choke cable not opening the choke. I guess I know what I'm doing next weekend.

[teotwaki]

I ran 15 miles. The last three were the worst.

[Asymetryczna]

(+) Took a doe on Friday and another on Saturday.
(-) Took monthly PM sheet out to work through my generator checklist. Turned switches on and pulled cord, which promptly broke. Would rather drink blister water than have to replace that pull cord.

[Barnabus]

Past couple days I...

• Added bulkheads to two rain barrels but still need the spigots
• Swapped out a broken door handle on son's daily driver
• Fixed malfunctioning brake lights on the truck
• Enjoyed awesome Thanksgiving meal & assisted the wife hanging Christmas decorations (unit morale!)
• Added yard leaves to the potato bin for compost duty thru winter
• Cleared out terribly clogged A/C system in the truck
• Collected all household hazmats for delivery to local facility tomorrow
• Heard from the wife she wants to go shooting (!!!)
• Received replacement fire extinguisher from Kidde (1 of 2 affected) and prepped recalled unit for return shipping
• Ensured lighting decorations were not a fire hazard (more extensions and heavier duty cords using more outlets distributed around house)
• Checked tire pressure on wife's daily driver

you make me feel so lazy.

"Collected all household hazmats for delivery to local facility tomorrow"

what hazardous stuff you have to get rid of?

[zombieapocalypsegame]

you make me feel so lazy.

hahahah. Hardly. I was just bored on Thanksgiving weekend.

"Collected all household hazmats for delivery to local facility tomorrow"

what hazardous stuff you have to get rid of?

Mostly it's the old gasoline that was in the weed eater and the pressure washer when I got them off of CraigsList. Lots of varnish in both of them I had to clean out and I certainly don't want to run that junk through any motor I've got. If I lived in the country I'd just have a bonfire.

I also have an old 12v UPC battery that is trying to burst out of its case, plus the usual used motor oil, trans fluid, brake fluid & antifreeze. The local Walmart takes most of fluids - everything but the antifreeze, so I had already recycled a bunch from other vehicles but still had one car left to do. I figured just bring everything to one location.