What did you do today to prepare?

[Lodewijk]

Stopped drinking a few ago. I feel like shit but it needed to happen.

I didn't have a "drinking problem" exactly but I was at 3-4 every weeknight dumping work stress and my wife finally said something.

I don't know if it's connected but I've also been shitting my brains out. So this has been pleasant.

[NapalmMan67]

Canned another 5 pints of Blueberry jam this weekend for the shelves.

[Mr. E. Monkey]

Canned another 5 pints of Blueberry jam this weekend for the shelves.

Nice!  We planted a couple of blueberry starts just the other day.  It'll be a while before I get to worry about making jam, of course, but hopefully, maybe someday.   

[NapalmMan67]

Canned another 5 pints of Blueberry jam this weekend for the shelves.

Nice!  We planted a couple of blueberry starts just the other day.  It'll be a while before I get to worry about making jam, of course, but hopefully, maybe someday.    

One of my friends put some a couple years ago, last summer they got 3 berries from 6 or 8 bushes.  I told him to get a few other varieties, since they like to cross pollinate with each other.

He does however, harvest several bushels of Raspberry's every season from along the side of their garage.  He can't keep up pruning and digging them out as they grow so fast and out of control.


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[Mr. E. Monkey]

Canned another 5 pints of Blueberry jam this weekend for the shelves.

Nice!  We planted a couple of blueberry starts just the other day.  It'll be a while before I get to worry about making jam, of course, but hopefully, maybe someday.    

One of my friends put some a couple years ago, last summer they got 3 berries from 6 or 8 bushes.  I told him to get a few other varieties, since they like to cross pollinate with each other.

He does however, harvest several bushels of Raspberry's every season from along the side of their garage.  He can't keep up pruning and digging them out as they grow so fast and out of control.


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More blueberry bushes.  I like that.  The monkey child would love having some raspberry bushes too, I'm sure.      
 
When I was a young'un out on the Oregon coast, my grandparents had some blackberry bushes that grew out of control like that.  I've seen a few blackberry plants out here, but they have a lot more competition, so I haven't seen any going wild like that. 


I like the idea of plants where you have to work harder to keep them from growing than you do to keep them alive.  Then again, part of that was probably just living in the desert. 

[Ever (Zombiepreparation)]

On the food side I added 20 lbs each of lentils & split peas plus 10 lbs of quinoa. A big shipment of Raman finally came in. Lots of 12 packs. I brought home three 12 packs. Two six packs of this tea I treat myself to once in a while.

Non-food was four rolls clear packing tape, another package of alcohol hand wipes, two rolls of scotch tape.

[NapalmMan67]

Found a sale on boneless/skinless chicken thighs- which we haven't seen on our AO for quite awhile and last time we saw them they were North of $3/lb.  $1.99 today.

22lbs in our freezer now.  Along with a coupe of Pork Tenderloins.


Also picked up a few single cans of that store's brand veggies to try, hopefully they're good and we can stock some of those-  They are half price of the name brand at other stores.

[Mister_Dark]

Just got 3 batteries for my (still under development) solar rig.    12volt, 200aHx3, Gel Cell.     Not gonna power the house with these, but they will keep a fridge running for a while.    Up next, panels.

[Crosscut]

Ordered a 5 pack of M<->M BNC connectors, when digging in the junk drawer recently I was looking for one (that I swore I had) but couldn't locate.
https://www.amazon.com/TLS-eagle-Coaxial-Coupler-Straight-Connector/dp/B083LZ39HM

A replacement tube of Shoo Goo, just used some to repair the sole on one of my boots and am running low.  This stuff works well, have used it on boots, shoes, and slippers.  They sell it in a kit with some different applicators but I just use a disposable plastic butter knife.
https://www.amazon.com/SHOE-Shoe-Repair-Adhesive-Clear/dp/B00KT3RE5C/

And 3 emergency food ration packs.  Never tried these before, will taste-test one pack with the wife and dogs and see how it goes over.  If we agree they're reasonably edible will put the others in the primary BOV, else give them to a friend that I know doesn't have much of anything for supplies in his daily driver.
www.amazon.com/Katadyn-NRG-5-Emergency-Food-Ration/dp/B099SD7LM3/

[Ghost]

Over last few days:
1. Continued to finish the sleep systems for the troop, with Klymit ground mats, work well and well like the feel
2. Bipod for the Mini 14 ( I live in a gun unfriendly state; only 6 years to go will we leave). Ordered other parts for it as well. Not looking to do tacti-cool but need a few more features. In all accuracy has been good as its a 2011 model not a 1970s one.
3. Upgraded the multi-tool for my BOB to a titanium three in one, eliminating the need for a separate hand saw. https://www.camillusknives.com/camillus-camtrax-3-in-1-hatchet.html Id descent and got it at Wally World of all places. So far functions well and fairly well put together.

[aikorob]

new wheels and rubber for the truck..............will keep the old ones
replaced snacks and water in truck bag
new LED light bar for vehicle emergencies

[NapalmMan67]

Added a couple flats each of the aforementioned veggies to the stash.  Now looking for some extra pasta.

[majorhavoc]

Replenished a secondary cache of cash (cash-squared?) that I keep in my car.  I unwisely dipped into it a few weeks back and it's taken me this long to replacing the $60 I took out.  It's only $200, but it might help get me home (or the hell out of dodge) in an emergency.

[Ghost]

Added an Accustrut to my Mini-14.

Continuing work on sewing my ALICE pack to meet my needs for my BOB.

[Crosscut]

The NRG-5 Emergency Food Rations ordered last week are a bust as survival food on-the-go imo.  Very dry and bland, turns almost to a powder in your mouth so better have plenty of liquid to wash them down with.  Our dogs wouldn't touch them either, and the one is very non-fussy about eating most anything.  Instructions mention "crumble and mix into previously boiled drinking water to prepare a porridge suitable as infant food", so I tried that this morning adding boiling hot water and some brown sugar for taste.  It's more palatable this way, cream of wheat type texture, but still very 'blah' tasting.  Non-fussy dog still wouldn't even taste it after a quick sniff.  Suppose it might have some value if pulverized and used to thicken soups or stews, not for taste but just for the added nutrional value, but near useless for my intended BOV use. 

Fixed a minor plumbing problem, hot water valve to the clothes washer sprung a leak.  Only mention it because I previously was not much of a fan of the SharkBite brand plumbing fittings, quick to install sure, but expensive.  I'd only used them once before, and in an area where the plumbing was easily accessible, didn't see any advantage over sweating the copper the old fashioned way.  In this case however I had to cut the leaking valve out, inside an interior wall, so not much room to work and with a sweated "T" a few inches below the cut, and a plastic enclosure a few inches above that would have been difficult to remove.  Probably child's work for an experienced plumber, but I didn't have much confidence that I could sweat the new fitting in while not weakening the solder on the "T" below, or melting the plastic enclosure above.  Couldn't have went much smoother using the SharkBite though; cut pipe, 'push-until-it-clicks' the SharkBite on, screw new valve into other side of fitting, and tighten. Now I'm thinking about getting a few more of these fittings to throw into the plumbing supplies. 

Picked up a USB powered POWXS Universal Lithium 18650 Battery Charger for 3.7V Li-ion 18650 AA AAA C batteries, tried it for the first time last night and seems to work very well when powered from a power bank.  Auto-senses the battery type/voltage automatically so no worry about having to modify the settings manually for charging different battery types, or having to carry / read the manual each use since this'll end up in the BOV and likely not get used much.  Also starting to play with a USB step up/down regulator and charger I bought last year, with inspiration taken from Moab's BOB power thread.  First test might be if it'll trickle charge a car battery from a USB power bank.

[Ghost]

- Finished off the following on the ALICE ruck: ranger/count beads, water bladder hook up

- Restored primary axe (Hultafor on the horizon)

- Purchased new hiking boots. Did my research and thought I was going with higher end Columbia, went slightly cheaper with Sketcher brand with Goodyear treads. Much better.

[Crosscut]

Tested trickle charging a 12v battery using a USB power bank with that USB step up/down regulator/charger, it works:



Might be hard to see in the pic, but it's showing 13.67 volts out and 10.02 watts.  But can only adjust the current up to about 0.8 amps, or about 10 watts out instead of the 2A/15W max indicated in the specs.  Much more than 10 watts and something trips internally, it stops producing any output current and requires a reset after reducing the amperage to start operating again.  Could be me not having set it up correctly though, the manual on this thing is terrible.  Thankfully the trips/resets didn't appear to damage it with my repeated attempts to get it to 15W out.

The point of having this wasn't really for charging batteries but for powering small non-USB electronics from USB port power, I just decided to test it with a large-ish battery that wouldn't be harmed while I got over the learning curve of how the thing works.  I have a number of older devices that run on voltages ranging from 4.5V to ~12V automotive power so I wanted an adjustable adapter to power them from 5V USB power similar to the way this adapter works for powering them from a 12V system.   The item with the biggest power demand I might use this with only requires about 7 watts for short periods, so this USB up/down converter should work fine.

[NapalmMan67]

Added 8 more pounds of pasta to the shelf.

Also, built a new reloading room that will now secure everything and keep it out of the prying eyes of any service persons that we may have in our home.  Sold off some extra/unused supplies and hardware too, as sometimes that helps organize you more for being prepared.


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[Ghost]

2 new mags for my Mossberg 595 shotgun on the way.

Going back to it being my primary hunting shotgun. Later today picking up a picatinny rail for the scope. Basically swapped my better optic I had on my Remington Gamemaster 760 that I had installed in place of the original optics.

[Ghost]

Got said mags for the 595. Pricey but worth it. I was in a gun store and a guy (a customer) saw the 595 and offered me $500 on the spot. I politely declined.