Monthly Prep Thread August '08
 

Hey all-

The weekly threads seem to be doing well, so I thought I'd try out a monthly prep thread.

So anyway, this week had me tying up tomato plants. A pretty good storm blew through here and I had been negligent in tomato upkeep. The storm bent about the top third of my tomatoes over and I wound up building my trellises higher to support the growth. I hope they don't get much taller, they're all between 8 and 11 feet tall now. Last year the tallest was 11.5 feet.

Spent about two and a half hours out there and now the tomatoes should be able to weather a cat IV hurricane.

Added:
three cases of canned veggies
20 lbs rice
10 lbs pintos
10 lbs large lima beans
5 lbs grits

How is it going with y'all?

Re: Monthly Prep Thread August '08
 

Added 10 lbs of dried beans, 20 lbs rice, have more canned butter and cheese from MREDepot on the way. Garden doing well, lots of string beans in the freezer. Our stupid Labrador decided today that our melons are dog toys. He carried in a promising-looking honeydew into the house :banghead:

Re: Monthly Prep Thread August '08
 

Canning
20 pints strawberry jam
10 pints tomato sauce
5 pints salsa
4 pints pickled cucumbers

Other
15 deodorant (no aluminum) 50 cents each
cotton tees $1.88 each

planted 14 strawberry runners in a new bed

Take care all.

prepping is stepping
stepping toward independence

Re: Monthly Prep Thread August '08
 

Ordered 100 lbs dehydrated veggies from harmonyhouse. Have used them before with good results. Kind of pricey but I have to keep the momentum. Picking up 10 gal olive oil Friday and rounds over the weekend. BTW, new to this site but have been reading for months. Thanks for all the advice and suggestions.

Question, where does one get non-aluminum deoderant for $0.50? I'm paying a lot more.

Re: Monthly Prep Thread August '08
 

Hello fellas. New guy here from Texas....


This months preperations:

308 in battlepacks from www.ammoman.com
1 pair of woodland camo BDUs
2 AK tanker mags
2 1911 mags
4 tyvek chemsuits
3 MREs from the army surplus store
1 box of 22LR
1 container of ennerfood
1 world Atlas for maps

also about to plant more seeds. It is hot in Texas, and this year I tried non-hybrid Heirloom seeds. I have had the most pethic attempt this year even though I've done everything to get my garden going properly... I guess to 110F days dont help....

will gets beans and more rice today!

Re: Monthly Prep Thread August '08
 

Unfortunately a small chain of stores closed up.
So I got the deodorant and tees cheap.
But barring that dollar stores usually have cheap non-aluminum stuff.

Re: Monthly Prep Thread August '08
 

canned green beans



http://flickr.com/photos/29234659@N04/2731191635/

Re: Monthly Prep Thread August '08
 

1000 .22lr,
200 9mm,
200 12 ga.
60 .308

50 lbs rolled/quick oats
72 lbs rice
100 lbs. assorted beans (dried)
12 lbs refried beans
36 cans tuna

20 mylar bags (5 gal liners) - ordered from SorbentSystems
assorted o2 absorbers - ordered from SorbentSystems

Picking up my XD-9 (5" tactical) today - WOOT! (California - 10 day wait :bear_angry:)

Re: Monthly Prep Thread August '08
 

Went to a neighborhood "happy hour" three doorss down where we met 6 new neighbors and really got to know others we already know. Will be hosting a national night out ice cream social tonight.

Re: Monthly Prep Thread August '08
 

Thanks 244546. Wasn't sure if I was missing out on a deal of some kind. :D

Re: Monthly Prep Thread August '08
 

A 3 season tent & smartwool/icebreaker clothes.

Re: Monthly Prep Thread August '08
 

20 bottles of propane
FRN 100 worth of canned veggies and macncheez
some more wh & yel metal
Berkey on order

Re: Monthly Prep Thread August '08
 

Inventoried and rotated canned goods and misc. nonperishables

added 2 doz Bar soap
50 lbs Sugar- and sealed in Mylar for moisture protection. came out to 8~1doz cup bags FWIW
added 100 rounds .223
Inventoried sorted and organized ammunition. - quantities purposely withheld. I REALLY dont have any:wink:

Honeyville order:
2 cases Instant Milk Substitute
2 cans bananna chips
2 cans apple chips
1 case steel cut oats

MREdepot order:
1/2 case - 12 cans Red Feather Canned Cheddar Cheese
1 case - Red Feather Canned butter
1 40 lb bag of Dehydrated Diced Potatoes

orders scheduled to arrive this week

:getdown:

I normally don't post on these kind of "prep threads" - but I had an exceptional weekend and I know from experience that it gives ideas and reminders to other folks to get their sh!t together!!!
That said-- I have got the wife thinking that I'm absolutely outta my mind.

Re: Monthly Prep Thread August '08
 

JJ-

If you haven't tried it already, that butter is OUTSTANDING!

You'll wish you ordered more.

Re: Monthly Prep Thread August '08
 

4 more bottles of russian vodka......

Re: Monthly Prep Thread August '08
 

You guys still think things are going to get bad?
Oil is down
Dollar is up
Gold and silver and most commodities ar down
Gas is down.
Bush is almost out of office so the war will be over.

I have to say that with all the preppin you guys are doing I am one of the ones that will go hungry for sure if things get as bad as you expect.

Re: Monthly Prep Thread August '08
 

"Prepping" is in part a state of mind thing. It's a statement of lack of faith in the system around you that delivers food, services (like LE), water, etc. This lack of faith is brought on in part by the fact that everyone you speak with outside of GIM is completely oblivious to the actual state of the economy.

Ammo keeps forever as long as it doesn't get hot. Bottled water has an expiration date but never really goes bad. Lots of folks simply buy extra of what they use anyway and rotate stock so nothing ever gets thrown away. I'm getting some FD'd stuff for long-term prepping (we live in a hurricane zone though not on the coast). Also buying extra cases of canned vegs, pancake mix, syrup and honey, baked beans, salt, SOAP, pasta...I can get #10 cans of spaghetti sauce at Costco for under 5 bucks.

I need to get some of the canned butter and these guys are freaking raving about it so I better get hot before it all winds up in someone else's basement.

I am also working on a "last minute" list for that last run to costco for if things really do start happening fast (like a US attack on Iran):

A few gallons of Bleach
Waterless hand sanitizer
Paper plates and plastic cutlery
Soap
Water
Canned soda
Lots of rice
Canned meat
Condensed milk
Trash bags

Re: Monthly Prep Thread August '08
 

Pink beans at the regular grocery store. We like the pinks best of the pinto, kidney, red family of beans and it is hard to find enough.

Then my 24 case of Red Feather butter and my 36 case of the Bega cheese came in. I really like that the butter has not been artificially made more yellow. Just butter and a little salt. We could probably use all our grits and rice with our beans, and no butter, but butter sure makes grain better unless it is oatmeal with dry fruit. Butter is one of those comfort foods.

The time I am most worried about for carrying our savings across the economic crash is when food is really inflated in price but fiat is not completely dead yet. Then, if I have built up enough years of food, we won't be stripped of our savings to stay alive.

That time was short in Weimar, but long, and still in progress, in Zimbabwe. But we mostly buy food we like anyway. Our Mt House is all I can think of that we would not otherwise eat.

Re: Monthly Prep Thread August '08
 

I have four 24 can cases and wished I ordered more!!
Not only is it great - but it will be needed for cooking and for rice, toast and such..........and if I have extras - great for bartering!

Re: Monthly Prep Thread August '08
 

Chickens! We got 8 half-grown chicks. Hopefully they're all hens. The kids are really excited (OK, I am too!). A bit nervous, as we are in suburbia, and I've never had chickens before. Wish me luck!

Re: Monthly Prep Thread August '08
 

I SO envy you - living where we do - we can not have chickens - tho I wish I could..........

The very best of luck to you!!!!!

Re: Monthly Prep Thread August '08
 

Oh I wish I could have.. but GOOD GRIEF! It was $110 a case!!

And- Shipping from MREDEPOT was 62BUCKS!!!:banghead::banghead::banghead:
And at that price, I'm not going to crack open the case to check it out-- I'll take your word for it!- although I could have picked up a few singles..
Had to choose my purchases wisely this round.

Re: Monthly Prep Thread August '08
 

That pricing blew me away too so I shopped around and found nothing cheaper, all in incl shipping, than MREDepot. Spend better part of a day determined to find a local distributor or better deal to save on shipping with no luck. Told the wife it was gourmet butter that lasts forever and tastes great. Still in the $4ithouse for buying a case though. I'm sure she will thank me later, in a few years. :bull-buddy-icon:

Re: Monthly Prep Thread August '08
 

How long do you intend to prep for? A month without food, a year, 5 years? Butter freezes fine, and after my grandfather died we cleared out his freezer - a few 500g blocks of butter there that were perfect once defrosted, despite being nearly ten years old and only protected by their silvery paper wrapping.
More impressive were the 6-8 year old sirloin roasts that tasted better than the 21-day hung stuff I get from my butcher - they were vacuum packed by his butcher when he bought them.
My only real preps are petrol, because I like to have it there in case of shortages and because the price keeps going up, and ammunition becaause I just like to have it. An extra 10 gallons of petrol a week with Stabil added won't break the bank but the volume soon mounts up. I have 7 or 8 generators ranging from 600w super-quiet up to 20Kw noisy as hell, enough to run several houses (and I have 3 of them!). The bigger ones can run on my heating oil, the smallest ones run on petrol and barely sip the fuel - I'd bet I have enough petrol to run my freezer and a few lights etc. for at least 5 years.

Re: Monthly Prep Thread August '08
 

Good for you James....you must have a helluva lotta fuel, I keep 500gal each of diesel & gas , the diesel will run a 12Kw generator for 1500 hrs. on average, I would get much more run time on my appliances because of large battery bank and inverter ....if I can believe the energy rating on my fridge/freezer I should easily be able to run 5 yrs....but I have to factor in 15-20% loss for conversion from 48 volt dc inverter to 110 ac and storage battery inefficiency

Re: Monthly Prep Thread August '08
 

Well, I got sick and tired of canning tomato products and cucumbers (about eight dozen quarts pickles, same of salsa, 5 dozen stewed tomatoes, 2 doz tomato juice, 2 doz tomato sauce) so I stopped for the season.

Still had jars.

Lots of strawberries in the freezer.

Hmm.

Berries? Check.
Sugar? Check.
Jars? Check.
A kitchen waiting to be trashed? Check.

What the hell, thought I'd try my hand at making jam last night.

Long story short, it's not real hard to make great tasting jam and we now have 10 half pints of jam put up.

Yay, me.

Re: Monthly Prep Thread August '08
 

I just did 4 quarts of canned peaches....... just cracked a can (about a month old) and omg, best tasting peaches I've EVER had. Started canning based on some threads here. Thanks for the boost everyone!

Re: Monthly Prep Thread August '08
 

I made a big (2gal) pot of minestroni soup with my garden veggies a bottle of red wine and some left overs......that's preps isn't it, I'm gonna freeze some:wink:

I'm always amazed at the number of folks I meet that can't make soup, hell I could make soup from a boot......let's hope I never have to.

Re: Monthly Prep Thread August '08
 

Yep, I have a helluva lot of fuel - my BO place is an island, and anything less than about 1000 gallons costs more to get delivered than the fuel does. So I have 2 big underground tanks, one diesel and one petrol. I have them filled when they are near empty, which hurts my wallet but I like to have it there! Petrol is all trated with stabiliser, diesel sits by itself.
I borrow a cattle barge to bring the tanker over (always makes the tanker driver nervous!), and a family member's canal boat to drag it over. An hour across, half that on the way back. The tanker doesn't half make a mess of the lawn though!
I have an 80 tonne winch up there to pull it up if it starts to slip - and that really drinks the juice. Only had to use it twice in ten years, normally I just tell the driver that when the barge hits land, floor the fast pedal - he usually gets up far enough for his fill pipe to reach.

Re: Monthly Prep Thread August '08
 

It might be a little more labor-intensive on the front end, but I've got 12 Nesco American Harvester dehydrators that I've set up in an assembly line and I can dehydrated four cases of canned spinach (32 14.5 oz. cans), one case of diced tomatoes (12 29 oz. cans) and other spices and peppers I'm drying for flavor every 24 hours. I rotate which dehydrators I use so that any particular one only gets used every three days. I've been working on a kick-butt soup mix for daily consumption and especially for my bug-out pack that has the vegetables I've dehydrated myself, beans (along with a hand-operated grinder to help the beans cook faster) and rice for pretty much complete nutrition. I'll post my recipe-in-progress here soon.


Just curious, other than using instant rice, which I don't like to do in my daily cooking since it's more expensive, is there a faster way to cook rice in case power sources are limited? I live in the city and while I plan to head for the outback if TSHTF, I'd like to have a backup plan for quick-cooking items if necessary.


This is going to sound really weird to a lot of you, but regular Listerine (not the minty kind) kills the germs that cause body odor. I tried it one day when I was out of my Old Spice and it worked quite nicely.