What did you do to prep today?

[squerly]

Bought (used) ANVIS-6 Gen3 Night Vision. What's left to say? They're AWESOME!

Here are a few pictures I took at 3:00am when the dogs decided they wanted to go outside. Picture 1 is looking across the field (from my deck) to the open eye. Picture 2,3 and 4 are taken from the same location but with me holding the ANVIS up to the camera.

The animals in picture 3 are my 2 GSD's, 1 is sniffing around and the blurry one is running toward the deck. You really can't appriciate how awesome these things are until you stand in the darkness and see nothing vs looking through the ANVIS and suddenly see everything!

 

[luvs]

wow, squerly- prime pix!

 

[muleman]

I would love to have one of those. Always critters of some sort running around at night up here. Tough to get the light on them and hold the binocs at the same time.

 

[muleman]

A quick look at what is going on in NYC and Jersey is a good reminder to stay prepped. Those folks don't even have enough food or fuel to make it for a few days. That would scare me to be that unprepared. I added another item to the stash that will last 1,000 years and still be good. Honey from our hives made 5 gallons+ some gift jars.

 

[EastTexFrank]

A quick look at what is going on in NYC and Jersey is a good reminder to stay prepped. Those folks don't even have enough food or fuel to make it for a few days. That would scare me to be that unprepared. I added another item to the stash that will last 1,000 years and still be good. Honey from our hives made 5 gallons+ some gift jars.

I came back from Colorado with 5 jars of honey. I hadn't eaten any honey in about 150 years (that's a long time). I couldn't believe how good it tasted. I've got 4 jars stuck away in the cupboard that I'll hang on to for emergencies.

Like you, I couldn't believe how unprepared some of those people were, then it dawned on me. Most of us live out in the sticks and we have room and space to store things like fuel%2

 

[Rusty Shackleford]

Finally grew our water supplies in preparation for Sandy. Didn't need any of it, but we needed more in the rotation anyway. Right now the trunk of the Taurus is temporary water storage for what I can't get in the kitchen.

 

[TiredRetired]

I bought another generator prior to Sandy as a backup. Yesterday I placed the order for the stainless steel Kelly Kettle. Invaluable for boiling water quick and easy.

I need to find a nice battery charging solar setup to keep batteries up to snuff for the pellet stove without running the genset for it.

 

[EastTexFrank]

Yesterday I placed the order for the stainless steel Kelly Kettle. Invaluable for boiling water quick and easy.

I need to find a nice battery charging solar setup to keep batteries up to snuff for the pellet stove without running the genset for it.

I wasn't familiar with the Kelly Kettle and had to Google it. That is an interesting piece of gear. I was all prepared to pick up a Biolite Stove before this winter but now I'm in a quandry .... which one will suit my needs best?

Thanks for the info.

 

[BigAl]

I took a shower

 

[Leni]

Since I live in earthquake country I always try to be prepared. My big problem as someone already pointed out is room for everything. I do have a lot of canned food and charcoal so that I can cook. When the Northridge earthquake happened I had enough food and water plus meds to keep us going. We did not have a looting problem in my part of the Valley. DH had an FFL license for 20 years so we have plently of amo and weapons. I finally convinced him to buy a generator. He'd be talking about buying one for years but never did it. Had to kick his ass with my pointed toe shoe.

 

[muleman]

You should run that generator once a month. I am going to start keeping mine in the basement now that cold weather is here. i just ran it the Friday before Sandy blew through. A little Stabil in the gas helps also.

 

[FrancSevin]

After visiting my Son's place in CT during Sndy,we realized how vuneratble he is to power outages.

While he did not lose power that night, he could quite esily with all the trees and such where he lives.

He has a well Oil furnace and Gas water heater. But with power out he has none of the above. So I will be rewireing my ranch genset as a backup power source and install it next Christmas. He will then be a proper preper.

I know he will need a licencsed electrician to do the final hook up but I can set the panel on the wall, pipe out the diesel exhaust and parisite a fuel line off his heating oil tank.
5500 watts should keep his furnace,water pump and kitchen appliances on line. The gen has an automatic start when the power shuts off. It also self diagnostics and runs a monthly test, all automaticaly.

Now, I have to find a new system for the ranch. I want bigger power ( 10,000 Watts) but I don't need the auto start. The solar systems maintain anything I need running when I'm gone.

 

[muleman]

Saw this and thought it might be handy for folks with apartments or small pantries.
http://amy-toby.blogspot.com/2012/03/canned-food-storage.html

 

[squerly]

Hey, thart's sweet!

 

[EastTexFrank]

Had to kick his ass with my pointed toe shoe.

Bet that brought a tear to his eye and a lump to his throat.

As someone said, you need to run it once a month for an hour or so with a load on it, a big load, make it work. I personally use 1500 watt electric heaters. There's no need to be fanatical about it but it really needs to be done.

Also, when you are done exercising it once a month let the fuel tank run dry or shut off the fuel supply and let the generator die from fuel starvation. You really don't want any old, stale gas sitting around in the carberator. Stab-il will help but remember when you put it in and make sure that gas is used up in a year or so from that date.

I'm sorry if you guys know all this but there's nothing worse and I do mean nothing worse than a generator that won't start. Just talking from personal experience.

 

[muleman]

Finally grew our water supplies in preparation for Sandy. Didn't need any of it, but we needed more in the rotation anyway. Right now the trunk of the Taurus is temporary water storage for what I can't get in the kitchen.

I would say by Tuesday you better find a home for the water in the trunk or it will be froze and leaking.

 

[muleman]

Frank, that is a good idea with the heater. i usually plug a drill or skilsaw in for a few minutes. I have a few electric heaters i could use.

 

[muleman]

Saw this today. Was not sure if it is being a prepper or just redneck, but it works.

 

[squerly]

Bought 20 rounds of #4 Buck Shot, 3", 12 guage.

 

[EastTexFrank]

Found this product today.

http://www.waterwise-distillers.com/waterwise-model-1600.htm

One of my problems has always been potable water. I have a swimming pool with about 30,000 gallons but, because of the chlorine in it, I can't really use it for filling toilet tanks and flushing toilets without putting the septic system at risk.

I thought that something like this would at least give me a couple of flushes a day and I could run it on the gas cooktop, the propane grill, a camping stove, the wood fired smoker or a wood camp fire. It's either this or a Berkey water filter.

Maybe I just need to get a portapotty and be done with it.