Easter Analogy

We took the kids to our church Easter Egg hunt yesterday, and I was thinking that all of the kids scrambling around to collect the eggs is very similar to what happens whenever the weatherman calls for any frozen precipitation. It's nice being a parent and standing back watching all the mayhem.

Happy Easter.

-The K family

Enjoying Life AND Prepping

I've tried to post on a regular basis but my motivation and busy schedule seem to get in the way. We are enjoying our home, and still preparing for the next power outage or job loss. Sweetheart and I have been trying to live in the moment more, which means enjoying life but still being responsible. We recently took a trip to Pigeon Forge in Tennessee with the boys (and extended family) for a mini vacation. Dollywood was expensive but the boys had a good time. Now the cousins, they had a blast and lasted the whole day! My boys were spent after lunch, and wanting to go home. I told Red Ant, our seven year old, that we needed to get our monies worth, so we needed to walk around the park three more times, and ride all the rides once more. "Really?!", was his response. We left a few hours later.

We are also planning a week long vacation to Destin, Florida. We try to take the kids somewhere every year to expand their horizons. I got to travel as an Air Force brat, and enjoyed the new locations growing up, but it sure is nice to grow some roots in one location. I guess the vacations cure the bouts of wanderlust.

I've decided to start or improve, I'm not sure which, on my carpentry skills. For example: On Father's Day I had an old cabinet that my Dad built while he was in High School. It was being used for storing school supplies that I picked up on sales over the years. Typically, the penny sales for pencils, paper, binders, and such...

I built a frame using 2x4's for the chest to sit into since, I didn't want to alter the original, but wanted the added functionality of being able to roll it around the garage.

I bought 4 swivel casters at Harbor Freight for $20 or so...

Made sure I had enough room so that the wheels wouldn't stick out so the 4" wheels were set back 2" from the inside of 2x4.

The cabinet fit snugly into the frame, and the bottom drawer has enough clearance to be pulled out. Honestly, it's something that I hadn't thought about, but it worked out very well. I'll know for any future designs to account for this.

I will replace the pulls in the future. I got to use a few screws from my Grandfather's collection, so I've got a tri-generational rolling tool cabinet.

Also the truck had a brake light out and the local oil and lube shop wanted $26 dollars to replace it. No thanks, I can fix it myself. $6.50 and 10 minutes, it's fixed and I have a spare bulb.

Keep on Right On Prepping - K
(and learning)

JUGM- I've got the cheese and going to be waxing them soon.
PP- I've been collecting information for a post you might like...

A New Prepper and Questions For My 5 Readers

I was over at Harry Flashman's blog and he introduced a new prepper blog to our community, and it got me to thinking. What would you have done differently, if you could go back in time with your current knowledge. This only applies to prepping, and not subjects like "I won't have married XXXXX, or I would have invested in Apple, Google, and Amazon" Before we get started, pop on over to The Popwell Homestead and say hello, a link has been provided.

I'll go first. Things I should have done....

• I would have gotten my water purification system/plan finished a lot sooner.
• Bought more rice than wheat.
• Bought more guns through second hand buyers, so that there is no paperwork.
• I bought too many freeze dried strawberries, and they didn't hold up very well as they contain a lot of strawberry dust. 
• Gone to a LSD cannery to make my own #10 canned goods.
• Bought some land instead of spending money on other items.
• Better OPSEC

Things I'm proud of doing....

• A deep pantry that is stocked with items that were on sale. (I reload when things go on sale.)
• My blog, to share and gather information. 
• The amount of ammo that I've gradually accumulated.
• Family involvement.
• Buying small amounts of silver coins when I can afford it.
• Going back to school, and entering the medical field.

Here's the question portion, you can answer here or hop on over to The Popwell Homestead and hijack her comments section there.

"When I was new to prepping, I was wish I had done this..."


Keep Right On Prepping - K

U-Verse Lessons

U-verse is currently reporting that 1% of their 47,000,000 customers are having connectivity issues. So 47,000 people, though I suspect that the total number is higher. Remember how BP initially lied about the flow rate of the oil from the Gulf spill? They want to gradually give you the truth in small increments. It makes it much more palatable. I digress...

One of my classmates is affected by the outage because he bundled his services through AT&T, which means no phone, no television, no internet. I suggested that he take his laptop to a hotspot and do his homework there. He doesn't have a laptop. While it's not a big issue, he has computers are that available on campus for schoolwork.

I did talk to a few IT guys today about the outage, and they assured me that it is NOT just a "server going down" like they are self reporting. They have redundant systems in place for just such scenarios. So what would cause spot outages? Cyber warfare, a demonstration perhaps? Their Wall Street earnings are being released this Thursday. I doubt it, but within the realms of possibility. The most likely cause is some new program that isn't "playing nice" with the other programs. Anyone heard of the Six Strikes? I've provided a link for the curious. I'm placing my bets on this reason.

So...how can all of this fit into prepping?  Communications. Do you have a laptop to find an active wi-fi hotspot? Various methods to gather information in a wider event? Radio, battery powered of course.

How would you gather information?

-Car radio, battery powered radio, newspaper,cell phones, and TV w/ antenna & digital converter are a few ways that we can do it at our household. Oh, and can't forget the rumor mill neighbors.

How would you send information to your spouse/children/retreat members?

Sadly, we have even fewer ways to send information. Cell phone and land line are the most common ways. We also have a preset gathering point for one of our retreat members with a communication system already discussed. A ham radio operator would be a big benefit to our group. CB radios in shorter distances would be another option, as well as handheld radios.

What are your ways to give/receive information? The comment board is open.

Keep Right On Prepping - K

Expiration Dates

Just a short post today, I was wondering about the storage life of teabags. I can live without coffee, although I might be banned from the house, but tea needs to be available for dinners and the caffeine.
Currently, tea is readily available and cheaper to stockpile than coffee, so this makes it our frugal choice for a quick caffeine fix.

Now to figure out how to make ice with no power!

Oh, 18 months without any changes to the packaging is the shelf life of unopened tea bags. We will be putting them in mylar bags with Oxygen absorbers, so I'm pretty sure the life can be extended to maybe 5 years. While this is only a guess, I'm not aware of any studies to check my information. I'll let you know in  5 years :-) 

The point of this article is to plug a website for food storage shelf life. Still Tasty:Your Ultimate Shelf Life Guide is today's link.

Keep Right On Prepping -K

Preparations Pay Off

We got home around 3:00pm after spending some time at my parents for Christmas dinner. The Christmas dinner included a roasted turkey, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, oyster stuffing, homemade bread, cranberries,and giblet gravy. I do love the holidays!

The weather had been raining most of the day and the temperature was near freezing, and the sun hadn't set yet. The forecast had called for snow, and we were well stocked with food, and all of the new entertainment that Santa brought. I was napping in my recliner when Sweetheart mentioned that the lights were flickering, and we might lose power. I nodded back off to sleep, and an hour later the lights went out.

No problem, we had a generator set up on the second story balcony, next to the living room. I had had an all weather outlet installed and directly wired into a new outlet inside the house. That way, I could run the generator and have power into the house without letting heat in or out. In theory, a good plan. In reality, I hadn't run the generator and tested the circuit. I added the oil into the generator, as this was the first time to use it. I pulled the gas cans from under the house, of which we have two 5 gallon all metal military Jerry cans and a 3 gallon Jerry can. I also had another 8 gallons in fuel set aside for lawn mowers and emergency car refills. They were filled last winter, this blend stores better, and I had planned on refilling the cars with them soon. The rotation of the backup gasoline was on my to-do list.

I got the generator started and plugged it into the outdoor outlet. Inside, I had a power strip with a 20-25 foot extension cord to power the entertainment system. The entertainment system power was "cleaned up" by using a backup battery power supply pack. This helps to massage,or smooth out the power spikes, and help protect my delicate electronics.

A problem quickly came up, when the lights inside the house didn't light up. I had let the generator run for a few minutes to get up to speed before putting a load on it. I rechecked the extension cords and the GFC on the outlet. Still no power to the house. I started from the generator and bypassed the outlet, running the extension cord in through the side door. The lights came on, so it was the outlet that was interrupting the circuit.

I threw the extension cord over the balcony and ran into the doggy door and up the stairway. The generator was louder than expected and slightly shook the living room. I had Sweetheart help me move the genny onto the carport next to the baclony, and was able to plug it into the extension cord that ran downstairs in through the doggy door. It only took about 20 minutes to get things situated, but I am still thankful that the sun was still shining.

Around 6:30pm, my next door neighbor had just gotten home and he asked about the how long the power had been out. I asked if he was able to keep his saltwater fish okay with the power being out, and he said that they were good for a few hours without power. I offered for him to bring an extension cord and power strip over and he could plug into the generator. He did.


We watched new DVDs from Santa, while Sweetheart and I read new books. A battery powered lantern was positioned in the bathroom, and flashlights were readily accessible if the generator ran out of fuel. We snacked for dinner, and made it a pleasant time for ourselves.

The power came back on around 10:00pm, and I let the generator run for another 15 minutes before shutting it down for the night.

I have added a few items onto my to-do list.

• Making a concrete platform under the balcony for the generator. The generator can be stored under the house, and hauled out when needed. It will be more secure from neighbors, and reduce the noise towards the street. The generator will need to be wrapped up to prevent dirt and dust from accumulating on it.
• We need to purchase a few more extension cords. The refrigerator needs to be plugged into a power strip where the cord is easily accessible for prolonged outages. It makes more sense to have it prepped for an extension cord than trying to move the refrigerator while the power is out.
• Another power strip to run the router would have been nice to find out information about weather or natural disaster. We don't have cable, and our main means of information is the internet.
• Rotate the fuel reserves. 

Keep Right On Prepping - K