What did you do today to prep?

[Sgt Nambu]

^^^^Right? If I had a division of erudne's, I could conquer Canada.........or somewhere!

 

[erudne]

Took Sunday off; Slept in till 8:30, big breakfast, cleaned house, set some stuff aside for charity, winter hats and coats, Christmass decorations etc. Cooked a stew, drank a Micro-brew, or two

 

[Sgt Nambu]

I hear you, erudne! I cooked a big mess of chili 'n beans and fry pan corn bread!
The prepper part of this? I don't have a kitchen! Had water damage and the the whole thing is being replaced.

 

[Caveman Jim]

That's pretty good for roughin it there Sgt. Specilly for tha cornbread!!!!!!!!

 

[erudne]

I hear you, erudne! I cooked a big mess of chili 'n beans and fry pan corn bread!
The prepper part of this? I don't have a kitchen! Had water damage and the the whole thing is being replaced.

That is quite a feat! last time I pan-fried corn bread I burned it bad, kudos!

I was rebuilding this place back in December '94 and had 18' of exterior wall removed, kitchen gutted, no roof on half the house, I had a mattress on the living-room floor and a microwave. Big winter storm hit, -24 degrees, lost power, pipes froze. lasted 2 weeks! I used a pick axe to dig a pit to poop in (no privacy fence).
No stove, no wood stove, just a propane heater, a Coleman camp stove and an old Coleman generator to run the microwave! I had to truck water in from 2 miles away just to wash-up, which is hard to do at -24! Personal hygiene is critical, you do not want to get dysentery at minus 24 degrees!
Believe me, even though I was 'young' back then, each day was a trial, just starting the PU was an effort, I would have to wait till 12-2 PM for the battery to warm-up!
I had a pair of artic rated boots but if I wore old socks I could tell the difference from new socks in about 5 minutes, I lost that much heat through my feet! all my lumber froze solid and with no power tools all I could do was run a tarp across the 18 feet of missing wall.
Today I have propane range, a wood stove, 2 winters worth of wood, battery powered lights as well as candles and lanterns and a super insulated house, all because of that winter!

PS you use corn meal, popcorn, as tinder to build a fire!

 

[Sgt Nambu]

Uhh.....yeah, erudne..........umm........tear your house open in the Spring/Summer! Ok then.

 

[CoastRange57]

Took advantage of the nice sun and dryer weather today to spray the winter annuals out of the garden plots. Wife cleaned the chicken house, and we stripped some dried corn off the husk for the chickens.

Then sat down and watched why I live here. Also had a coyote call, but the noise from the bazillion ducks and geese pretty much drowned it out.

 

[erudne]

Uhh.....yeah, erudne..........umm........tear your house open in the Spring/Summer! Ok then.

Honestly, it started as a " small job" in the summer; and it got bigger and bigger and bigger!
Never buy a home built in WW2 out of 100 YO recycled materials that has no eves or rain gutters and a broken foundation! I actually had ice 16" up the interior walls as well as across the windows!
The entire house had been Bubba'd

 

[olddanshooter]

Well, Erudne motivated me sufficiently to finish bucking some 3 foot sections of Doug Fir I picked up from a local arborist. 2016 wood is now all cut and stacked ready to be split this spring. Six cords a year, I like to keep the house warm!

Time to start bugging my arborist hookups for the 2017 wood.

 

[GFO270]

I made a candle out of bacon grease and a paper towel.

 

[jjackffrost]

Canned 32 pints of elk and bean chilli

 

[mjbskwim]

Canned 32 pints of elk bean chilli

Uhhh where did you find the 'elk beans'? And if they look like beans they are probably from deer
My dogs seem to like them frozen but I usually leave them alone.

 

[ikemay]

Bought an All American pressure canner, the 941 model. My wife has gotten into water bath canning over the last 2-3 years and wants to expand into pressure canning. We have a friend who also happens to be a farmer and for some reason people like to give us fruit and vegetables above and beyond what our farmer friend gives us. Maybe they like giving us all this because we always give them finished product .... yeah, that's probably the reason.

Anyhow, looks like we are officially into the canning gig in a big way.

Mike

 

[The Heretic]

Got a mag mount and wideband dual band (2M/70cm) antenna (Comet 2x4 something or other) for my rigs to work with Pofung HT.

Seems to RX okay. Got to program in the right freqs for the repeater to see if I can reach it from here.

I set the mount on the woodstove when I got home and it is noticeably better when it is sitting on something with substantial metal - like the car or the stove - better ground plane. Remove it and it pretty much goes quiet. Not surprising, but interesting. Not that much better than the rubber duck antenna - but I think the main difference with be in TX, not RX.

I had to build a fire, so I found a metal can to put it on and that did okay.

 

[Caveman Jim]

Took advantage of the nice sun and dryer weather today to spray the winter annuals out of the garden plots. Wife cleaned the chicken house, and we stripped some dried corn off the husk for the chickens.

Then sat down and watched why I live here. Also had a coyote call, but the noise from the bazillion ducks and geese pretty much drowned it out.

Dang fowl creatures, I'll be there when ever ya need em snuffed out so ya can listed to them song dogs.

 

[Caveman Jim]

I made a candle out of bacon grease and a paper towel.View attachment 118222

Good lawd man don't waste that bacon grease!!!!!!
I make my candles out of gasoline and a road flare....

 

[CoastRange57]

Got a mag mount and wideband dual band (2M/70cm) antenna (Comet 2x4 something or other) for my rigs to work with Pofung HT.

Seems to RX okay. Got to program in the right freqs for the repeater to see if I can reach it from here.

I set the mount on the woodstove when I got home and it is noticeably better when it is sitting on something with substantial metal - like the car or the stove - better ground plane. Remove it and it pretty much goes quiet. Not surprising, but interesting. Not that much better than the rubber duck antenna - but I think the main difference with be in TX, not RX.

I had to build a fire, so I found a metal can to put it on and that did okay.

I have a very similar antenna , 2 actually on the back floor of my Explorer. Stick it up on the roof when I go to the coast or pilot car. Works great.

I have the 14 inch antenna on the Baofeng. Tried this last summer when I was up at Hagg Lake, with a 1000 foot ridge between me and any repeater. I laid the antenna just right above the metal roof and found a spot towards the rear of the vehicle that bounced it to the repeaters. Got my home repeater on Pumpkin Ridge, and the 146.980 linked and the Mt Hood blow torch. That supports your TX status,and is how it usually works. I experiment pretty much every where I go with the portable antennas.

 

[CoastRange57]

Dang fowl creatures, I'll be there when ever ya need em snuffed out so ya can listed to them song dogs.

Better bring a foot locker of ammo. There was probably close to 5,000 out there that day. There was a bunch that laid in the day of that wind storm and moved on. I expect a pretty good influx of them tomorrow to ride out the rain storm.

 

[SHPD_Retired]

Got a Generlink installed to make it easy to run my house on the generator I got a couple of weeks ago. Also another gas can for fuel storage.

 

[CoastRange57]

Estate sale today - Army Sniper Training Manual 1994 - $ 1.00

Son and nephew came over with another friend and some assorted arms. I got about 20 rounds of .223 and about the same 9mm down range. Son did a pretty impressive .380 group at about 15 yards. He also had a box of cheap a@@ Russian .40 ammo rolling around in his pickup, loaded a mag of it and had a primer fire on the second round and plugged the barrel. Tried it in another gun and the first round did the same. I took the box of ammo and walked over and dumped it in the pond.