What did you do today to prepare?

[SCBrian]

*Mod note - Couldn't find this thread here yet, maybe I'm just missing it... *

Rolled out the generator in preparation for Hurricane season.  Added some treated gas, and let her run for a solid 30 minutes to wake her up.   Closed her in the shed to hear how loud she was, inside, wasn't terrible,  Neighbors will hear if they are outside, but inside - probably not.  Will do it again next week, and walk the perimeter of the yard to get an idea of how far the noise will carry.  NEED to get my chainsaw up and running soon.

[NT2C]

*Mod note - Couldn't find this thread here yet, maybe I'm just missing it... *

*Admin note - Nope, it needed creating.  You did it so now you get to be in charge of it. 

[SCBrian]

[Crosscut]

   Thanks for this, always one of my favorite threads.

Rain delay on some other plans I had for yesterday so decided to tackle an indoor project I'd been dreading.



After some wiring brushing, stove polishing, and mopping (needs more):



This is the back half of the outhouse (a 12x16 repurposed pole barn) at the guest house, a sauna room my Father built back in the '90s that we hadn't used in 10 years or so and had become storage space.  Been putting in some much needed maintenance into the outhouse recently, including a new roof which had been leaking and the cause of the rust.  The wood stove is the backup heat for the outhouse, when opened for use it has running water so we have to heat it in the winter, but in a pinch the sauna could serve as an additional bedroom or the whole building as a standalone shelter for 1-2 people. 

[SCBrian]

Wait...  Your Dad turned the outhouse into a sauna?  And now you also want to bunk people in it?  What sort of evil person are you ?  though it may help to get rid of those in laws you dont want to deal with!    Or are you not using "Outhouse" in the traditional sense?   Also - you might want to make sure there is some shielding between the pine wood and the cast iron, to reduce the fire hazard.   But it looks nice,  I love seeing cast iron restored. 

[flybynight]

canned 6 pints of yellow squash relish. Froze 4 one gal. bags of zucchini.

[RoneKiln]

canned 6 pints of yellow squash relish. Froze 4 one gal. bags of zucchini.

I planted two young yellow squash plants this morning along with several peppers.

Not prepping related, but I also planted some lilies that were on clearance. I like my flowers.

[Crosscut]

Wait...  Your Dad turned the outhouse into a sauna?  And now you also want to bunk people in it?  What sort of evil person are you ?  though it may help to get rid of those in laws you dont want to deal with!    Or are you not using "Outhouse" in the traditional sense?   Also - you might want to make sure there is some shielding between the pine wood and the cast iron, to reduce the fire hazard.   But it looks nice,  I love seeing cast iron restored. 

My Niece named it the Rest Barn (restroom + pole barn), but yeah it's a bath at the end of a path.   



Toilet, stall shower, and laundry tub/sink in the front half and much less claustrophobia-inducing with the skylights. 

[Lettuce Pray]

This may not seem preparedness related, but I busted my butt for the last two days and moved ALMOST all of my mother's final stuff from the Wiregrass area up to Birmingham metro. We hope to be able to close the sell of that property in a couple weeks and free up money for a land purchase up here along with other prep-based home improvements.

[NT2C]

Signed and notarized the docs to refinance the house and get the money for a new roof and to move.

[NapalmMan67]

Canned 4 pints of Blueberry Jam yesterday after work.  We buy a couple pints of berries every week and what we don't eat during the week, I freeze until we collect enough to make jam.


Today I lifted weights (curls/bench press).

[NapalmMan67]

I made and canned 9 pints of Corn Relish.


.

[Tony D Tiger]

Living out of the trailer for the week.
Need to sort out some of the old stuff and ensure systems are operable. 

[Lettuce Pray]

Since my small gas sipping commuter vehicle bit the dust and was going to be expensive to have repaired, I (and the bank) bought a full-sized truck. It will be the default BOV since it is 4WD.

[boskone]

Since my small gas sipping commuter vehicle bit the dust and was going to be expensive to have repaired, I (and the bank) bought a full-sized truck. It will be the default BOV since it is 4WD.

As someone who recently stepped "up" to a less fuel-efficient vehicle, I offer my commiserations on your upcoming fuel bills.  Especially with fuel prices primed to climb.

Hopefully I can offload this beast in a couple years without being upside-down.

[Crosscut]

The better half took the dogs to the vet for their shots y-day, made copies of the new vacc certificates for the BOB and the safe and replaced the old ones.  We always get them the Bordetella/kennel cough too just in case we have to board or shelter them during a BO.

[Anianna]

My husband and I got us a pair of Orygen Dual Valve respiratory training devices.  It's resistance training for your pulmonary muscles.  There's a lot of research on the benefits of resistance respiratory training for a lot of things, even lowering high blood pressure as well as medication does.  Athletes and musicians use devices like these to improve their performance.

I was recommended one to improve my respiratory health since I have an immune deficiency and have had several bouts of pneumonia.  Hubby decided to join in to get his blood pressure down. 

I figure we'll be stronger breathers in the PAW. 


More info if you want it:

I picked this particular one because there was some research done comparing medically rated devices and this one met my criteria for having a price reasonable for the home user, ease of use, and it is dual valve meaning you exercise on both the inhale and the exhale while most devices are inhale only.  If you want to see that research, Google "A Review on Respiratory Training Devices" at hilarispublisher.com (it opens as a pdf to the study, there's a handy chart for comparison). 

I also tried The Breather which is dual valve, cheaper, and readily available on Amazon.  I'm not sure how to describe how they differ.  The Orygen is a medical device and The Breather is not.  The Orygen is bulkier and designed to be implemented by doctors or coaches, not really to be used by the general public, though they do have instructions on their website that make it easy to use without a doctor (make sure you're using your diaphragm to breathe - that's important - if you're not sure what that means, look up diaphragmatic breathing to learn how, there are easy-to-follow videos on YouTube).  The Breather comes with a user-friendly app that guides you through sets each day. 

The results of a breathing exercise with each feels different.  I thought The Breather was giving me a decent workout, but the Orygen felt a lot more like a workout.  The settings on The Breather are poorly defined while the settings on the Orygen are an actual measurement.  The Orygen is more expensive ($110), but I think it's worth the cost over The Breather (~$50), plus Orygen does run sales.  We got ours for $85 each on sale. 

ETA:  Also, for whatever reason, The Breather is unnecessarily noisy.  Not sure if that's by design, but I was surprise when the Orygen gave me a workout without the noise.

[Crosscut]

It wasn't today, but some months back I was tinkering with a 'free to me' Kaito Voyager radio.  It ran off either 3 disposable AAs or a little rechargable battery pack (the green one in the pic) when running off solar or crank power. The little battery pack didn't last very long with the radio turned up, so I rewired the charging connector to the 3 AA battery holder and installed 2300 mAh NiMHs so the solar/crank charges them instead.  Longer run time, but poor reception with the internal antenna (which doesn't allow turning left/right, just extends straight up/down) and there's no fine tuning knob for the frequency.  For those reasons I don't recommend this radio, although it does receive NOAA so might have some use as a backup if you can't find anything better.



Fast forward to last weekend, had guests visiting so pulled out the radio (no power at the guest house) and connected it to a 2m antenna already on the roof using an alligator clip, wire, and a couple adapters.  Much better reception, but found the upgraded batteries still only provided about 4 hours of listening time.  So plugged it into a jump starter battery pack (w/USB out) I had in the truck along with a spare USB to mini-USB cable, and that powered it the rest of the weekend including a couple late nights BS'ing around the campfire.



Nothing spectacular, but maybe just a reminder to check your radio and power connector junk drawers/boxes to ensure you have anything you might need in the way of adapters.  I had to steal an adapter from my scanner antenna to mate this together, so just ordered a replacement set that came with a few extras (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08Q39NKK4) I didn't have.

[NapalmMan67]

Chicken breast was on sale in my locale, so I added 12lbs to our freezer stores.

Also picked up 3lbs of stew meat that was on sale. Will use it to make beef/veggie soup in the next few weeks and can for storage.


.

[NT2C]

Bought one of these yesterday from the Amazon Treasure Truck for $75.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0843HYLK9/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

They had a limit of just one at that price.  Is it still hideously expensive per meal?  Yes.  But with a 30-year shelf life and a menu selection, we know that we enjoy it's an easy way to keep a few more days of food on hand, particularly food that could be quickly stuffed into a pack if we had to evac.