What did you do today to prep?

[Camelfilter]

Besides processing firewood, been ordering "cases" of shelf-stable food, on sale from Amazon - just soup/etc. - but it is food, a little cheaper than Winco, and delivered to my doorstep.

Speaking of which, a case of 9mm JHP ammo should be here Tuesday.

Picked up 12 pack canned sweet peas at Bi-Mart a bit ago (within 2 months). $5. Normal kitchen can size 15oz cans. Great for sides, ad ins & such.

A bit longer back we bought green beans there, same/similar decent price.

Kind of random, as we don't routinely shop Bi-Mart. Usually just for something specific every now & again these days.

Just mentioning, in case you have a BiMart along your regular shop route. May be worth a quick browse every now & then.

 

[The Heretic]

Picked up 12 pack canned sweet peas at Bi-Mart a bit ago (within 2 months). $5. Normal kitchen can size 15oz cans. Great for sides, ad ins & such.

A bit longer back we bought green beans there, same/similar decent price.

Kind of random, as we don't routinely shop Bi-Mart. Usually just for something specific every now & again these days.

Just mentioning, in case you have a BiMart along your regular shop route. May be worth a quick browse every now & then.

I get the BiMart flyer and do read it.

I prefer for canned veggies, the mixed veggies. I mix them in with soup/meat/etc. to make a stew.

Otherwise I use dried lentils and/or split peas in the slow cooker.

 

[The Heretic]

Today I am stacking some firewood rounds in the shop. I hope to get about two cords of rounds stacked there. I can split it inside the shop and then move that to the house as needed and as I make space using up what is on the porch

I can see I am going to run out of room in my covered porch that is attached to the house - I put the split wood there. There will be about two cords worth stored there. That will last until January - maybe - depends on the weather.

I also have some stored inside the house near the woodstove - about one week's worth. When I get down to about one cord I will probably stop or cut back on burning wood until it looks like the weather will start warming up. I want to have enough to last thru a power outage. This last winter we had some late snow off and on for about 10 days. I ran out of firewood before the weather turned nice and I had three cords to start.

 

[Howard1955]

Today I learned about escaping from a car when someone is trying to garrote me.

 

[The Heretic]

Ordered two cans:

[Amazon] Augason Farms Banana Chips - $8.98 (was $26.99)

Sep 17, 2023

www.preppingdeals.net

Cut and stacked - in the shop - about a quarter cord of rounds. Splitting and stacking some more on my porch.

Supposed to have a bit of rain next weekend, so I am hoping to be full up on firewood before then. Shouldn't be too hard if my back holds out.

 

[Member 84968]

Loaded another 1000 9mm's and 1000 45 acp's.
Vacuum Sealed them individually in boxes of 50 with moisture eliminators packets.
Loaded into ridged plastic container
Prepared it of burial.

 

[NobullSKS]

My wife keeps bringing up meat rabbits…. I feel I do a lot of the work with the animals we have now and they're just pets.

I didn't say no to meat rabbits but as kinda a joke I suggested a full on report on what it's gonna take to get started and maintain a buck and few doe. Top to bottom cost and responsibility plan.

She's taking it very seriously….. hahaha, I have to laugh.

Figured I'd post here and see if any of y'all are or have done meat rabbits. Looks high yield on the surface.

Kids seem intrigued by the processing videos we searched.

 

[Howard1955]

I picked up a post drill press to add to the farm's equipment.

Everything seems to be intact, and the parts move easily. I was told that it has been in use on a regular basis.



Here's a link to a youtube video about one of these.

And here's mine (not installed on a post yet, but soon).

 

[Angie]

I went to Costco last week to start rebuilding my canned and dry goods now that we have a house again. My gosh, things are expensive. Captain obvious, I know. I put a lot of stuff back. It will take a while to rebuild the stacks of veggies/beans/broth/etc. and the flour/pancake mix/rice that I had before we became gypsies. I got a few cases, but not as much as I would have liked to.

One of the things I put back was a bag of brown sugar. I knew I had some in my preps that needed to be rotated. I opened up a mylar bag dated from 2012. It was still soft. The smell was a little different, but it tasted fine. I would say it smelled more like molasses than brown sugar. It made some amazing zucchini/carrot bread. My daughter brought over an overgrown zucchini, and I shredded it. I got one cup to make the bread and 5 more quart bags with 3 cups each in them for the freezer.

We installed the security cameras that we purchased last week, and I got a wifi thermometer for the crawlspace along with a flood sensor. Our well pump is in the crawlspace. When we leave for AZ in two weeks, I want to know the temp below the floor. If it gets too low, I can send the kids over to turn up the heater.

I also scraped and sanded one of the back doors because the paint was peeling. Cheap exterior paint and Montana winters do not go well together. I plan to prime the door jam and trim this afternoon with a bonding primer and will paint it over the weekend. Also, the front door and trim need to be refinished along the bottom. It's a beautiful Knotty Alder door that the previous owners let go to hell. I don't have time to redo the whole thing at this time. I will lightly sand the affected area and put some heavy-duty lacquer on it. It should get us by for the winter and keep it from getting more damaged. Trim will likely need to be replaced next summer.




I'm headed over the Bitterroots this afternoon for a couple of days to help my parents button up their garden for the winter and anything else they need help with.

 

[The Heretic]

More wood cutting. Not sure how long my back will hold out.

Trying to guess which logs are good heavy wood and which ones suck (light, "corky" wood - not sure what it is, but it doesn't look/feel like decent firewood - breaks easy when I try to yard it out of the pile). Tomorrow I am going to try a different pile that has a couple of large diameter logs - shorter, but I am hoping they are maple or oak - I will probably need to split them on site to load them - like I did the big cedar log - but hopefully it will make good firewood.

The trouble with the heavy wood is the effect it has on my back loading it into the 4' high flatbed of my truck - I can get maybe 10-15 rounds loaded before I am done for the day.

Decided to fill up the available space in the shop - won't be able to get the pickup in there until I use up the wood - have to split it first. Rains start next weekend - or at least showers - so maybe I will spend that time reorganizing/cleaning the shop to make some more room.

Got my ammo from Bereli today - looks good - not premium (SXT/et. al.) just std JHP, but good enough.

 

[Camelfilter]

The trouble with the heavy wood is the effect it has on my back loading it into the 4' high flatbed of my truck - I can get maybe 10-15 rounds loaded before I am done for the day.

?ATV winch on an outrigger? Maybe?

-OR-

Probably simpler, ATV ramp? I use one for loading up wheels & tires for seasonal swap over on my truck (Les Schwab does the swap). 4' though...might be worth a look see at least.

 

[The Heretic]

?ATV winch on an outrigger? Maybe?

-OR-

Probably simpler, ATV ramp? I use one for loading up wheels & tires for seasonal swap over on my truck (Les Schwab does the swap). 4' though...might be worth a look see at least.

It finally occurred to me that I can take the sideboards off the flatbed so I don't have to lift the wood up and extra 2' (about 6'). As soon as it is light - in about an hour - I will be out back cutting/splitting some large rounds. The "atmospheric river" is advancing and will now be here Saturday. If it rains too much and doesn't dry out later, that will be the end of my wood cutting as I won't be able to get out of the back acreage; too muddy to get back up the hill out of there. So that leaves today and tomorrow.

 

[The Heretic]

Cut and stacked - in the shop - about a quarter cord of rounds. Splitting and stacking some more on my porch.

Supposed to have a bit of rain next weekend, so I am hoping to be full up on firewood before then. Shouldn't be too hard if my back holds out.

I think I got about two cords in the shop now

Starting a new stack on the near right. Tomorrow morning will be my last cut on the back acreage, as the rains will be coming next week and may leave the road too muddy to go back there, unless it dries out next weekend. The nice thing about being retired is it doesn't matter if it is a weekday or weekend, I can juggle my chores around the weather as I see fit.

I think I have about two cords on the covered house porch, so that might give me enough to get thru the winter. Three cords was not enough last year - only got me thru to January. My plan is to split the wood in the shop and use that first. That way if/when it snows I have the wood on the porch already split and much easier to get to if I get snowed in as the shop is about 50 yards from the house. We usually don't get snow until late December at the earliest, usually Jan/Feb.

I am going to try to organize/cleanup the shop this winter, so while I am out there I can split wood to keep warm.

 

[GrayGoose]

Antique BLACK POWDER LOG SPLITTER, BLASTING WEDGE | #1856263347

Power WedgeHere's a great old logging tool! It's an antique black powder splitting wedge.You load this with black powder, drive it into a log and light the fuse and... BOOOM! the log is split.No maker

www.worthpoint.com

Might want to let the neighbors know what what you're doing first though.

"Fire in the hole!" is the only warning I give my neighbors...

 

[The Heretic]

Done.
Finished splitting the rounds I had by the house. About 2 cords stacked on the porch now.


I cut a few rounds this morning, but wore myself out and it is going to rain in an hour or so. Unless it dries out and I feel up to it, I am going to try to make it thru the winter with 4 cords this year.

 

[OrPackrat]

Another 500rds of 22lr, since I shot about 3-400 on the new 22lr rifle I got...

Love that Tippmann M4-22 Pro more than my 10/22, tooless takedown for cleaning as its just like an AR15.

40cal boresnake...

 

[The Heretic]

I went to Costco last week to start rebuilding my canned and dry goods now that we have a house again.

 

[Angie]

We had a cord and a half of rounds delivered over the weekend. I'm glad those are intended for next winter because they are totally fresh and wet. He had just cut them that morning. Including this load, we have about 5- 5.5 cords total. We only plan to be in Montana for about 4 weeks this winter, so it will be plenty despite the wet wood. I want to be prepared that if something happens and we have to be up here all winter, we have enough to get us through.

This morning, I pulled out the FoodSaver and put all of my frozen meats and berries in the sealed bags. I also went to Safeway and picked up a bunch of beef that was close to expiring. 50% off. So I sealed that all up and put it away also. Garage freezer is pretty full now.

 

[The Heretic]

We had a cord and a half of rounds delivered over the weekend. I'm glad those are intended for next winter because they are totally fresh and wet. He had just cut them that morning. Including this load, we have about 5- 5.5 cords total. We only plan to be in Montana for about 4 weeks this winter, so it will be plenty despite the wet wood. I want to be prepared that if something happens and we have to be up here all winter, we have enough to get us through.

It is raining ok now, and temps have dropped into the mid 50s. Inside it is low sixties and I rarely need the furnace to take the edge off. It should be about 60 outside later. So I think I will use the furnace until the temps get down to the 30s - to save the wood for later - that way I keep the electricity bill down to a reasonable level.

All the wood I've been cutting has been about 5 years old from when I had the back acreage clear cut. Some is too rotten to bother cutting/splitting. Still plenty of good wood though.

Neighbor had a tree fell because the arborist said it was dying (I didn't see it before they fell it, but the wood looked ok to me). He stacked it outside, split about half of it. If he doesn't use it he'll find it growing getting rotten more quickly now that it is cut into rounds and sitting out in the rain - I learned that the first couple of years I was here.

I have a few trees that don't look healthy but they still stand fine - I don't like to drop a tree like that - but the "widow makers" are an issue in the winter wind storms. Last winter I had a lot of fallen limbs and a few trees.

 

[Angie]

73° here today. It's been hovering around 70 for the past couple of weeks. It will drop quickly into the 50s on Wednesday when we start getting some rain- probably what you are getting now. I really wanted to re-stain the top of our deck posts before we left, but it will be too cold from here on out to do that. Needs to be above 50° for 48 hours. Next week, it will start dropping down into the 30s at night. Not too bad yet.