What Did You Do Today To Prepare?

[w3rdtoyamama]

Bought bacon.

[Sun Yeti]

In the last couple of days, I took another foraging class, and learned to ID some new, late season wild edibles; most notably dead nettle and bittercress. At some point I also need to learn more ways to cook all of these plants I am learning, besides 'salad', and 'stir-fry'

I also packed up some long-term food in mylar bags. Bought the latest batch of food and the bags a couple of months ago, but only had the time now to actually sit down for an afternoon and pack it all up. Totally worth the money to get the ones you can zip-loc before heat sealing. Also, I sealed a few pounds of brown rice and whole wheat pasta, because I am curious whether the commonly accepted wisdom that those will go rancid is correct or not. I'll let you know in 20 years...

[jdavidboyd]

Got a rechargeable flashlight. An Olight M2R. Nice light.

[zombieapocalypsegame]

Finally got our 2nd emergency car charger operational again with a good size 12v 20Ah battery. This one is for my son's daily driver. He's living at home while going to school + working over 40 hours a week at his first post-HS job. He's got a 45+ minute commute. He had been waiting for his first paycheck where he didn't have bills to pay to pick it up. Car insurance, groceries, cell phone, gas & maintenance came out of his first one, this is the 2nd. The good news is his car bag + GHB are both well outfitted already and this completes the effort. He's way ahead of where I was at his age.

He also bought an APC UPS for his desktop. Exact same model I have for mine so we have some redundancy in the house. Plus we have four spare batteries for them - two each so we can cover both units since they take a pair.

[MPMalloy]

He also bought an APC UPS for his desktop. Exact same model I have for mine so we have some redundancy in the house. Plus we have four spare batteries for them - two each so we can cover both units since they take a pair.

That's what I have + the external battery backup. It gives me a lot of runtime.

[zombieapocalypsegame]

@MPMalloy
I don't get as much runtime as I'd like off the UPS units. Typically 20 minutes is what the unit says, but since my desktop is an older generation Alienware is eats electricity at a pretty good clip. I believe the power supply is at least 850W.

I've got a Kill-a-watt on the wall and the UPS plugged into it. It says I am consuming 206w right now, but I am not really running anything although I do have two monitors and a bigger speaker setup than typical. The UPS says I am running a 35% load. My run time goes WAY down when I have a 3D game going.

More importantly, it's the 5 events that the UPS logged that I care about. If I lose power while I am at the desktop, I can shut down and move to more efficient machines like my laptop. But I can't prevent every little brownout or spike that comes through. That's why I have them. My family has far too much in terms of electronics (specifically gaming desktops with horsepower) to not have them.

What I'd LIKE to have is a whole house battery bank + the solar panels to charge them and a changeover panel to manage when the battery takes over and which electric circuits are kept powered.

[teotwaki]

I have a CRKT M16-13Z folder that I disassembled, cleaned, lubed and reassembled, using Loctite on the screws and then honed the blade..

[MPMalloy]

What I'd LIKE to have is a whole house battery bank + the solar panels to charge them and a changeover panel to manage when the battery takes over and which electric circuits are kept powered.

That's what I am trying to do, in a way, with chaining my UPS's together. I rent so I can't do anything like solar or wind. The UPS's would just power a few things. I mainly got it for the weather radio, in case of an extended outage. The radio is all-hazards. I am ready to power down everything thing else to keep the radio going, if need be.

I also use surge protectors & I plug the UPS's into those. The UPS's cost more than the surge protectors, & are more vital. The surge protectors are probably old enough that they need to be replaced. I have everything (phone, modem, etc.) going thru them.

Props on the Alienware.

[zombieapocalypsegame]

Put BOV #2 up on jack stands for the first time. Been working on this F350 off and on for the year+ since we got it as my son's first vehicle. First time I've had it in the air, as it's really easy to work on when right there on the ground.

Learned:

• Lowest jack stand position is higher than 4-ton bottle jack can reach
• Two 2x10's flat under the jack are just barely enough to lift truck above the stands
• Using wide boards like that is good for stability, bad for placing the jack stands

I also drained the very new transmission fluid from the 5-speed manual in that truck. Ever since we bought it, the transmission had been LOUD with its groans & whines. And that was BEFORE I added any steering noises. hahahahah

I had put in a gallon of the proper high mileage ATF recommended in the manual. But it was still really loud, although it did run better than on the old fluid prior to my initial change. On advice from another forum, I was going to put 24 oz of Lucas Trans Oil in there, so I needed to dump the fluid to make room.

Got the stuff in and replaced the ATF I had just drained, minus 24oz of fluid of course. What a HUGE difference it made - the noise dropped at least 50% if not more. Very happy with that result. Kept the excess fluid in the truck just in case.

I also discovered the plastic coolant reservoir / washer fluid reservoir combo has a nice crack in the middle which had been letting coolant leak out. So I finally figured out where that damn slow leak was coming from. Now I just need to order the part.

And finally going back to the original point of putting the truck on jack stands, tomorrow I'll get a look at the steering. The tie rod ends are likely shot, as the boots are blown apart and ancient. I have new boots, but I don't have the rods yet. Need to see if they are in fact done & gone. But those + a power steering fluid flush + adding some Lucas Steering Fluid is in the very near future. Learning from a mechanic friend I paid to teach me, we already swapped out a new PS pump for the old badly leaking one. So hopefully this will spell the end of the crazy level of groans the truck has been making. And it can come much closer to its nickname - Stealth.

[ais4122]

Stocked up on 2 cases of shotgun ammo, couple esstac shotgun cards and 2 buckets of Mountain House Just In Case emergency food supply.

[Sun Yeti]

Using a very loose definition of 'today' (i.e. since I've last posted), I've:

-practiced tying knots so I don't forget how to use some of the fancier ones
-purchased some really cheap/disposable pocket knives to give out in an emergency
-purchased a really nice, super lightweight packable raincoat (helium II) for my BOB. I EDC one already in my backpack and I love it.
-cut the stems of the (invasive) English Ivy that had nearly strangled a neighborhood fruit tree to death. Good foragers give back to the plants that help them
-researched hatchets to potentially buy for future English Ivy fighting and of course survival uses as well
-read about half of Sam Thayer's new foraging book (called Incredible Wild Edibles; it's as good as his first two which were excellent)
-applied for a couple of jobs (money isn't everything but it sure helps with preparedness and the rest of life too)
-went over and updated my emergency plans

[Barnabus]

For Christmas I gave my sister and brother-in-law each a 72 serving bucket of 25 year survival food.

[teotwaki]

Removed the Christmas tree ornaments and lights. Lopped off the limbs and sharpened the top of the tree for a giant Zombie impaling spike

[zombieapocalypsegame]

@teotwaki
Good idea for the tree! I had thought something similar and used mine as a fire trap on the front lawn. That thing is dry as paper at this point.
Hopefully it'll be like flies to a light except with a little flame going on.

[ZombieGranny]

I usually make mine into a Festivus Pole on New Year's Day.
It's still too fresh though, so I thought I'd wait a few days.

[Asymetryczna]

A note of warning: One of the things I brought up while we were "airing grievances" was that some people are not using aluminum for their Festivus poles.

Today, as preparation, I sat outside without a heavy coat, hat or gloves on, waiting for the 5 degree (F) temperature to totally invade. Keep in mind that this was about 2 hours before daybreak, and I was freshly showered and with clean clothes on so, being clean, it took a few minutes for my body to start determining that the conditions outside were dangerous. It took about 9 minutes before I was cold through and through. I actually shivered and felt my teeth start to chatter and used this as a reminder to rethink what is in the vehicles, what people are wearing when they go out, and any other preparations I needed for extreme cold. I feel fairly well prepared. It's a Festivus miracle.

I notice now, where I live, that there are a lot of people that wear simple clothing (teenagers in particular) because they think they have 10 steps (or so) to their heated car and then 50 steps (give or take) to the heated building and therefore can just sprint inside wearing thin pants and sometimes shower shoes despite the dangerous conditions outside. Maybe it is just me but I was raised to consider that the car won't always start and that I may have to walk home.

I'm including a picture of a fox that fell through the ice in Germany and could not get out. He became a cube. Show it to your family if your temperature is staying well below zero but your kids think they only need a windbreaker for their ride to school or work.

[tony d tiger]

Cooked Bacon.
Walked a couple miles in ~15* weather.

[eugene]

Completed week 1 of http://www.weightrainer.net/training/beginners.html
might not seem like much but I've been a cubicle worker for over a decade and it shows. Between walking at work a smallish workout routine its a start. I had a couple 20lb dumbells I use and for the donkey squat I pull some things from my backpack to get it to 20lbs and wear it. As I up the weights I'll just up the weight of the pack to match.

[Ellywick]

In the past week:

- Bought some decent bags to store stuff in that were on sale...including a much upgraded wallet/purse thingy with lots of compartments so I can easily have on hand at all times my pocket knife, multitool, snacks, simple first aid, my phone, chargers, frequently used electronics, etc. I pretty much want the best Mom bag ever
-Replaced some rice/dried bean/canned food staples for the house. Need to actually dig into my back stash, rotate items, and figure out what I need more or less of in the couple of bins I have.
-Bought a couple more items to re-stock my first aid kit that died a horrible, mildewy death under the sink when it decided to leak dirty water.
-Upped my stash of cash on hand at the house and cash on hand on my person by a little.

Not a bad week for me, since I routinely feel like I am running around like a chicken with my head cut off and can never get as much as I want to done.

[MPMalloy]

I am waking up.

Hi Elly!

[tony d tiger]

Walked a couple miles, made a couple new acquaintances

[Ellywick]

I am waking up.

Hi Elly!

Hi back MP! *wave* Waking up myself after the bleah winter. I tend to do minimum necessary, whether I want to or not, and get back into the swing of things come the end of February. Trying to be more active/participatory on the forums again after a few months of skim and logout

[eugene]

Loaded a couple hundred rounds of ammo for the next range trip.

Bought some heavier dumbbells and started week three of the routine I'm following. Started doing some core/cardio in between weight days,

[eugene]

Started week 4 of http://www.weightrainer.net/training/beginners.html

Doing weights M,W,F
Then Tuesday and Thursday I do core workout and dry firing

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/profile/eugenenine