Our “Lights Out” Checklist

Posted on January 25, 2016 by Trace Adams

The lights go out. What do you do? Let’s assume you’ve already sat there for a few moments, possibly in the dark, and they haven’t come back on yet. Do you know what you need to do in a power outage? Do you know what you need to get? Do you know where everything is located? And, the biggest question, does everyone else in your family also know your plan?

This is our plan, specific to our home. I’m providing it as an example of the items you may want to cover in your own plan. (It’s easy to procrastinate, I’m just now writing down our plan after we’ve been living in this house for over two years.)

LIGHTS OUT CHECKLIST

Is the power really out?

Check the fuse box to be sure everything is turned on correctly, and none of the breakers are tripped.
Look around the neighborhood, is everyone’s power out?

Light

Get a flashlight and/or headlamp, located near the door in the mudroom.
Turn on the battery bank‘s inverter, if necessary reset the inverter (the manual is hanging on the side of the bar refrigerator).
If the battery bank doesn’t work, use the 800 amp inverter with the truck’s battery(s)(it’s located in the truck box) — connect it directly to the battery, and run extension cord into house.
Unroll the extension cord that’s already attached to the battery bank, it’s located on the wall beside the utility sink in the laundry room. This will be your central power outlet(s).
Get the lamp out of Sarah’s office, and the other lamp from the rec room, and put them in central locations.
Get the battery-powered lanterns out, located in the black box under the pool table, and put the batteries in them (stored with the lanterns). Put the small red one in the bathroom, keep the larger two available for use where needed.
Use caution when choosing to use fire for light. If candles or kerosene lanterns are used, place the fire extinguisher nearby. Long burning candles are in the cupboard in the workshop, kerosene lanterns are on the shelf in the bar.

Heat

Unplug the furnace from the wall and plug it into the battery bank extension cord (this will power the blower, the furnace runs on propane).
If the battery bank is depleted, the furnace can be plugged directly into the generator.
Get the Buddy Heater (and it’s batteries), and a small propane tank, from the barn. Put the batteries into the Buddy Heater (for the blower). Attach heater to tank and turn it on, once running turn on blower (follow directions).

Food

The microwave, plugged into the battery bank, can be used for short periods of time to heat food. The microwave can also be plugged into the generator as needed.
Propane grill, on the patio.
Propane stove, in the barn.
The Volcano Stove can be used with propane, or charcoal (outside, or in the garage/barn with door open).

Water

Remember once the power goes out the well no longer pumps, there is less than 25 gallons of water in the pressure tank.
Bring in the 5-gallon yellow Igloo jug from the barn, also bring in a 5-gallon water jug. Put the Igloo on the kitchen table and use for drinking and cooking.
Only flush when “needed”; refill toilet tank with 3 gallons of water from the rain barrels or the pond.
Use hand wipes/disinfecting wipes for cleaning as needed.
The well pump can be plugged directly into the generator; the plug is near the pressure tank (use 220 volt cord).

Entertainment

Board games.
The battery bank can run the TV and the DVD player.
Reading.
Electronic devices can be charged with the battery bank.

Other things to remember

Open the refrigerator and/or freezer as little as possible.
Keep outside doors closed to maintain heat.
There is additional drinking water in 2-liter bottles on the top garage shelf.
Keep cell phones charged.
The landline phone will work, but only the one in Sarah’s office.

Again, this is our list. We’ll test it next weekend when the girls are here; we’ve done this before, in suburbia, but it’s been a while and a lot of things have changed. Afterward, we’ll make changes as needed, print it up, and post it where it can be found.

Make your plan. As we know, power outages tend to come during the worst of times. You may have a plan in your head, but what if you’re not home? Creating a plan doesn’t cost you anything — just innumerate the things you already have.

(Note: The items highlighted in red are links to previous posts I’ve written on those topics)

And We’re Back…

Posted on January 19, 2016 by Trace Adams

After not writing, at all, for 15 months and only writing five times since we moved into our new house/property/homestead/”The Farm” over two years ago — I’ve decided it’s time to start writing again.

I stopped writing, in a large sense, because we were now “doing.” When we lived in suburbia, it was easy to wax eloquently about the virtues of prepping, while imagining what we’d do if we had a homestead and acreage. In suburbia, we were some of the most prepared people around.

Then we moved to “The Farm,” and quickly realized, 1) there was a lot to be done, and we were no where near our preparation goals, and 2) we really don’t know shit about any of this.

I hardly felt qualified to tell people about prepping when everything I needed to do I had to Google first and/or watch, sometimes numerous, YouTube videos to figure out how to do it. Nothing in our past, other than a desire to do so, qualified us to be able to live this life. Both Sarah and I had grown up in middle-class suburbia, and since we don’t have any (physical) community or relatives to teach us, everything we learned had to be self-taught.

Fast forward two years: We’ve sorta figured some things out. Trial and error have become our constant companions. Our mantra has become, the best way to learn about something is to just do it. At this point I feel qualified to discuss our experiences and what we have learned.

In addition to writing new posts, I’m also going to revisit some of my old posts, adding commentary and updates now that we have “real life” experience.

As a side note, my web address is now tracemypreps.xyz (no longer .com). Our domain registration expired, and by time we went to renew it it had been bought by some overseas company (who were willing to sell it back to us at an outrageous cost).

P.S. Switching web addresses caused a lot of things not to work, especially pictures and some links. Also there are things that are just outdated and need to be redone. We appreciate your patience while we get everything back up to speed.

the kids, in front of the barn, with a sampling of the animals we now have

Backup Power You Can Carry With You – A Review

Posted on October 22, 2014 by Trace Adams

As a prepper, I like things that are rechargeable. It minimizes the gear I have to store and carry. I especially like rechargeable batteries, with very little pre-planning you could continue charging and using them for a long period of time — even during a collapse.

One of the primary rechargeable devices that I–and everyone else–carry is my phone. Most of the time keeping my iPhone 5S charged isn’t a big deal, I keep it plugged in if I’m in the car, at work, or in bed; in between those times it typically has plenty of battery life. But for the times I’m not around a standard outlet, I like to have a portable charger. Previously I used a New Trent i-Torch External Battery, but recently–after testing and evaluating–I’ve changed to Portable Power Solutions M110 External Battery.

External Battery compared to iPhone 5

The M110 External Battery is ruggedly built, it feels like I could drop it and it really wouldn’t care. It’s not much bigger than a deck of playing cards at 4″ x 2.8″ x 1″, weighing 10 ounces (a deck of cards is 3.5″ x 2.5″ x 5/8″). It nicely fits into a convenient pocket on my EDC bag (it even fits in my back pants pocket). It has enough power to completely recharge my iPhone, even if the phone’s dead, four times. The External Battery has an USB outlet so it’s easy to recharge; to completely recharge it takes about 10 hours.

Portable Power Solutions also has a 7W Foldable Solar Panel that pairs nicely with their External Battery. But the Solar Panel can also provide enough power to charge your cell phone, or even tablet, directly from the sun. It folds down to a convenient 7.5″ x 7.5″ x 1″ with a rugged cover that includes a pocket to store accessories. When in use, it folds out to 15 inches long and can easily be attached to your pack (it has eyelets for this purpose), or set down angled toward the sun.

Portable Power Solutions’s final product is a 10K Solar Charger. It has the same lithium battery storage capacity as the M110 External Battery, and is about the same size (5.2″ x 3″ 0.8″, weighing 6.2 ounces). It’s a highbred, meaning it can both store power and be recharged by the sun — but it doesn’t do either thing as well as the two individual ones above. It has a small solar charger so it takes a long time to charge (36 hours). And though they still try to make it rugged, it does have a solar panel on it and needs to be handled with much more care. But it can, and does, do both jobs to the best of it’s capability.

Portable Power Solutions is veteran owed, and they’ve “been there”. All of their products are built to be heavy duty, durable, and weather resistant — they’re designed primarily for military guys to take to the field (who are notoriously hard on gear). I like the products and the company, and it’s definitely earned a spot in my everyday carry (EDC) and my Get Home Bag.

A Smaller, Lighter MRE ?

Posted on October 6, 2014 by Trace Adams

A couple years ago, I reviewed Meal Kit Supply’s MREs. Meal Kit Supply offers quality, U.S. made MREs that contain 100% military MRE components. Our family stocks them for emergencies, and I recommend them to friends.

So when Meal Kit Supply came out with a new product, a 2-course meal (as opposed to their traditional 3-course meal), I was interested in seeing it.

	(new) 2-Course Meal	(traditional) 3-Course Meal
contains	entrée, dessert	entrée, cracker/bread w spread, dessert
weight	approx 11 oz (310 g)	approx 20 oz (560 g)
calories	approx 600	approx 1200
per case	6	12
cost	$44.95 (free shipping)	$129.95 (free shipping)

Both also contain: electrolyte drink mix, spoon, napkin, and flameless heater. The 3-Course Meal also includes instant coffee and condiments.

I’ve been asked: Why not just take a standard MRE and break it down, throwing away all the excess packing (weight and size), and then taping it up — like we did when we were in the military? My answer: That was fine if you knew you were going to eat the meal in the next day or two. But these meals are factory packaged: water proof, hermetically sealed (to keep out pests), with a five year shelf life!

I like them. They’re a smaller, lighter meal with all the quality you’ve come to expect from Meal Kit Supply, and military grade MREs in general. Adding one (or two) to your every day carry kit adds very little weight or bulk, but a lot of piece of mind.

Post Script (10/7/14):

People have asked about how they tasted. They have the same good flavor/texture/taste as the other Meal Kit Supply MREs we reviewed before. But our family (five of us, Ryan was living in Moab at the time) did eat, evaluate, recorded comments, and rated them on a scale of 1 to 5 (1=terrible, 3=not bad at all, 5=pretty darn good). So of the random three we ate, here’s our menus, comments and average scores:

Beef Ravioli in Meat Sauce, Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookie, Grape Electrolyte Beverage Powder (EBP): “really good” / “tastes like real ravioli” / “a little dry/chalky” — SCORE: entrée 4.0 / cookie 4.0
Vegetarian Ratatouille, Chocolate Chip Cookie, Lemon Lime EBP: “good texture” / “plenty of flavor” / “a little metallic taste” / “tastes like meat” / “mushy vegetables” — SCORE: entrée 3.8 / cookie 3.5
Spaghetti w Meat Sauce, Oatmeal Cookie, Orange EBP: “texture was like real spaghetti” / “noodles were soft” / “tastes like elementary school spaghetti” — SCORE: entrée 3.4 / cookie 4.0

On a side note, the kids are getting much more proficient using the heaters now that they’ve had some practice.

Hunger is a Powerful Motivator

Posted on June 13, 2014 by Trace Adams

I haven’t eaten for the past 60 hours, and I don’t plan on eating for 36 more.

No we didn’t have a disaster or anything. I’m doing a prolonged fast as a personal health experiment (see Post Script below).

During this time I can’t help reflecting on the discomfort, distraction, and concerns about going hungry. I’ve never gone this long without food, the longest I had before was less than 24 hours. It’s interesting to see the effects it has on my body, mind, and emotion.

Before I go on, let me define my fast: I’m only drinking water, water with 1/2 lemon in it (once a day), coffee, and I suck on sunflower seeds (but then spit the seed out with the shell). I’m not eating at all, essentially no caloric intake.

The first 24 hours were the hardest. When it was time to eat, I didn’t eat and my body didn’t like that or understand why. That evening I felt like crap and had a bad (hangover-type) headache. I was easily distracted and it was harder to concentrate.

The next morning I felt better, more normal – but I craved food. I literally salivated at the sight of it (and of course that was the day several friends at work brought me in treats). Fried food looked soooo good… By that evening the headache had returned, but not as bad, and I felt weak and achy. And all kinds of odd sounds were coming from my belly.

This morning there’s been a dull ache in my stomach, I continue to feel achy all over, and I feel like I have little motivation to want to move around very much.

And there’s still 36 hours to go.

Food is one of our top basic needs (along with water, shelter, security, energy, hygiene, and medical). Sure the human body can go several weeks without food, but…

If you haven’t eaten for a while, you can’t think of much else. I know when I’ll eat again, but what if I didn’t? I really struggle with imagining not knowing how or when I’d have my next meal.

When your body is starving you constantly yearn for food, think about how good something would taste, and you wonder when you’ll eat again. But you’d have to conserve your strength because you only have finite physical (and mental and emotional) resources to draw from. Eventually, I believe, you’d do just about anything to get food.

Fortunately food is something that we can now easily acquire and store away. The abundance of well packaged, long shelf-life food products is amazing. Sure we can argue they may not be the best things for you to eat, but they are something to eat if nothing else is available.

Take the time to review you food storage. You can review my previous posts: Store What you Eat (Food Part 1), Long Term Storage (Food Part 2), ‘Course It’ll Always Be There, How Much Do You Need = Math, Momma Bear: Figuring Out How To Make Food Storage Work, and Product Review: Meal Kit Supply MREs.

Make a plan to be able to feed you and your family, before they get into a situation where you’d have to go hungry; because it sucks. Oh and did I mention constipation? Nothing in equals nothing out — another unpleasant effect of going hungry.

Post Script: Fasting For Health

I’m very new to the fasting for health bandwagon, and my personal jury is still out — this is my first time. I read an article the other day: Fasting is beneficial to the immune system: Study shows it triggers stem cell regeneration. I then went to the source study: Prolonged Fasting Reduces IGF-1/PKA to Promote Hematopoietic-Stem-Cell-Based Regeneration and Reverse Immunosuppression.

I figured I’d try it. It didn’t cost me anything, and I thought it’d be an interesting first hand experiment. The article suggested 48 to 96 hours, I decided if I was going to do it I’d go big and do 96. I’m hoping it’ll help with my seasonal allergies, strengthen my immune system (though it’s already good), and slowing “the damaging effects of aging” doesn’t sound too bad either.

If it “works” my plan is to fast for 48 – 96 hours every six months.

Broken Water Pipes

Posted on May 2, 2014 by Trace Adams

One day, early February, Sarah came home from work and saw ice near our back door. This was odd, she thought. Because even though it’s been well below freezing, there hasn’t been any precipitation for several days. She opened the back door and water poured out of the house.

repaired broken pipe

Two water pipes, in the attic, had broken; one above the kitchen and one above the laundry room. By our best estimate, hot water poured out for about six hours. The weather had been unseasonable cold here that week, with temperatures below 15 degrees. Brynn, my 17 y/o daughter, commented at 12 degrees that was the coldest she had ever seen. Yes, yes we know that really isn’t that cold, compared to temperatures in many other parts of the country, especially this winter. But for Western Washington–that is known for it’s temperate weather–that was cold (our normal winter temperatures are more like low: 41, high: 46). More significantly, because we don’t live somewhere that gets that cold, our home’s older building codes only required insulation standards down to about 25 degrees.

Our kitchen, dining room, Sarah’s office, laundry room, hallway, and rec room ceilings, floors, and walls were all soaked. She and Ryan began cleaning up, and when I got home I made several late night calls to our insurance company, plumber, and a restoration company.

When we bought our home last November, we had about four home improvement phases identified. We started Phase 1 as soon as we got the place, and finished (mostly) a couple of months later. We were pleased with the result, and ready to have all of the construction mess and tools cleaned up and put away. Apparently the universe/weather/old house had other plans for us. The pipes broke about a week after we had gotten most of the trim done,

our former kitchen

Over the last three months we’ve rebuilt/remodeled our home again. Since everything was torn apart anyway, we decided to change much of the floor plan. Especially the kitchen/dining room area. In the kitchen all the cupboards, cabinets, counters, appliances and drywall were removed (in addition to the ceilings and all the insulation in the attic) — we had a clean slate. We used the opportunity to swap the kitchen and dining room, build a mud room, and a new pantry. The biggest change made was removing the load bearing wall between the (original) kitchen and family room — opening it up to create a great room. We also framed in a new front door location, and built an entry area. Of our original four phases we completed phase 2, and much of 3.

Several people have called this experience a disaster. It wasn’t a disaster. I’ve been through disasters and this wasn’t it. What this was was a huge pain in the ass inconvenience (did I mention no kitchen for almost three months?). Others have called it a mixed blessing, and that we were actually lucky it happened. I don’t buy that either. It happened, we dealt with it, and in the process made things better.

People ask when will it be done? I’m not sure that when you own a 40 y/o house, with two additional buildings, on 5-acres that you are ever “done”. But, finally, we’re within a couple of weeks of living in a “normal” home again.

Our New Homestead

Posted on February 11, 2014 by Trace Adams

The first week of December we moved into our new homestead. It is located in a rural area near Eatonville, WA (south of Tacoma, west of Mt. Rainier). The property is 5-acres; flat, usable, fully fenced, about 1/3 moderately forested, and 2/3 overgrown meadow-ish. The house is 40 years old, structurally well built, with several additions/remodels, about 2400 square feet. There are two outbuildings: a large three-car detached garage (about 1200 square feet) right next to the house, and a one-story 1800 square foot barn, about 40 yards east of the house.

It was a long road getting here, as discussed in my previous posts Buying Our Homestead: The Saga (9/20/13), We’re Trying to Buy a Homestead! (5/2/13), and Goals For 2013. Long story summarized: We wrote a contract on a short sale house January 2013, it went back and forth and up and down between the bank (Bank of America) and lender and finally closed in November (after almost falling apart multiple times).

We immediately undertook a relatively large remodeling project involving the bedrooms and what was to become Sarah’s office (our ‘Phase 1’ remodel, we’ve defined four phases that will be done over the next few years). At that time we also bought another dog (for a total of three), four goats, and eleven young hens. We moved my 19 y/o son, Ryan, out to the property to provide security and care for the animals.

Sarah and I moved out here the first week of December. Since that time we’ve finished most of our Phase 1; recently completing painting, hard wood flooring, trim work, and replacing many of the lighting fixtures. We did most of the work ourselves, with the help of skilled friends (thank you!) — though we did contract drywall. Ryan has been invaluable, and the girls help every time they are out here (they live about 15 miles away with their mother).

In addition to the house we’ve worked a lot in the garage (two of three cars can now be parked inside), and some in the barn. We’ve completed a lot around the property: cleaning up, securing the fence, and clearing areas out. We’re beginning to get it ready for the summer gardening season. We also added six barn cats.

We’re very happy with our place! Sarah gave me a big hug, Christmas day, and said she knew this was hard — and at times would be a pain in the ass — but she was very glad we were doing it, and loved that we were creating our own home together.

Momma Bear: Government Shutdown

Posted on October 9, 2013 by Trace Adams

by Leah, Momma Bear -

For some Americans, the S**T hit their fan last week — in the form of a partial federal government shut down. As a military family, that means we are watching the news closely. During times like these military members are required to continue serving, but will be “paid later” in full, once budget issues are resolved. Fortunately, in this instance, Congress voted to continue paying the military during the shutdown, but that is not always the case. Many other federal workers are furloughed, and may not ever be paid back. And it’s all perfectly legal. In the 90’s when the government was previously shut down, Congress voted to pay those employees back. But due to the current financial state, they are warning people that they can’t count on that this time. The icing on this particular poop-cake is that the 27^th Amendment to the Constitution ensures that our Congressmen all continue to receive their pay, while the voters pay the consequences. In the military, when a leader fails to successfully lead they can be removed from their position under grounds of “loss of special trust and confidence” in their leadership. Think we can use that on our current politicians, straight across the board?

We sat down with our kids, ages 15 and 18, and talked to them about what this all means, and how it relates to our family. Telling your kids you might not be getting paid next payday can really put them into a panic. We live outside of Washington D.C., they know that from rent, to gas, to groceries, it is not cheap to live here. We explained that we are lucky because we are financially secure enough to be able to pay our bills for a short time without too much effort, BUT that we would be scrutinizing every penny spent for the duration.

This happens to be one of those times when preppers look like normal, forward thinking people who planned ahead for the day when the government fell into dysfunction. Yes, our family (and the military in general) is currently getting paid, but we’re still federal employees and don’t know what will happen. Many other federal employees are not currently working, or getting paid. So what is a prepper to do!??? It’s time to hit the food storage! At our house, we are still in limbo waiting to find out if we will be moving to a new duty station next summer (some of you may remember that my husband requested I STOP buying more food, so we can prepare for our next move without the surplus weight). Fall is also the time of year when I can fresh veggies, take stock of our long-term food storage, and rotate the goods. This will be the perfect opportunity to work towards cutting down on our food storage, rotating what we have, and saving money. We are looking forward to some interesting meals in the near future!

How is the government shutdown affecting you?

Buying Our Homestead: The Saga

Posted on September 20, 2013 by Trace Adams

January 21 we signed a contract to purchase a house (on a short sale), with property, in a rural area near Eatonville, WA (south of Tacoma, west of Mt. Rainier). The property is 5-acres; it is flat, usable, fully fenced, about 1/3 moderately forested, and 2/3 overgrown meadow-ish. The house is 40 years old, structurally well built, with several additions, about 2400 square feet. There are two outbuildings: a large three-car detached garage (about 1200 square feet) right next to the house, and a one-story 1800 square foot barn, 130 feet east of the house. Since the house is a short sale it was at a very good price, but we knew the process would take some time.

The house is a “fixer upper”, we understood it was going to take a lot of work once we purchased it. But it also needed work done prior to closing, in order to qualify for a VA loan. Long story short: the house had been empty for almost two years, had been broken into, trash had been dumped around the property, cottonwood trees had sprouted all over, electrical wiring had been stripped from the outbuildings, and the sellers hadn’t been the most tidy homeowners. The sellers made it clear that they would do very little: they would not spend any money, would not do any major repairs, and would not even do any cleaning. So we knew the VA appraiser would find deficiencies, and we knew it would be our responsibility–both labor and financially–to correct them, or it simply would not qualify for a loan.

The seller’s lien-holder, Bank of America (BoA), took almost 90 days to approve the sale, but finally mid-April it was approved to go forward. We began with the inspection (lots of cosmetic work, but structurally sound) and getting the VA loan process going. We were about a week and a half in when we found out we had less than three weeks to close (date set by BofA without informing us). Our lender told us to get an extension because a VA loan typically takes about 30 days. BofA said “No” — they said they needed to re-value the loan again and it would take four to six weeks (that was about mid-May).

While waiting for BofA’s second approval we decided to go ahead and get the VA appraisal. We wanted to be sure it’d appraise and, if so, what work would need to be done for final approval. We were pleasantly surprised that it appraised for more than we were paying. There were several deficiencies that we would have to resolve, but they were all doable:

Provide verification that the property has an approved septic system
Provide verification that the property has an approved water supply
Provide a permanently installed conventional heat system (it only had two pellet stoves)
Clean moss and other debris from roof of house and detached garage
Sink is missing in the powder room – provide sink
Provide hardware to make kitchen sink operational
Remove vegetation and earth to wood contact from around the dwelling – provide clear pest inspection
Remove garbage and debris from in and around the dwelling – present condition is unsanitary
Install gutters, downspouts and splash blocks where missing or rusted and no longer operable

BofA finally came back on September 6th (over 3 1/2 months later) saying the loan was once again approved; they also said we had 24 days to close (September 30th), and there would be no extensions given. So we hit the ground running to get everything done on the VA appraisers’ list of deficiencies.

By last Monday we were done with the list, we had:

The septic tank inspected, though older, it was in good condition and it was also pumped at this time (the seller was required to do this, and it was the only thing they did on this list).
The well inspected. During the inspection we found out that the three bottom sections of drop pipe were leaking, we had them replaced (spending much more than we planned on the well at this point). Now the 40-year old well works like a champ, efficiently pumping 15-gallons per minute, and the water tastes great!
The biggest project was installing a propane furnace. There were other options but my good friend Rick (also a prepper), an experienced HVAC journeyman, offered to do all the work for us — all we had to do was pay for materials. He got us a quality furnace, and last Sunday spent all day (and a little Monday morning) installing it. The original duct work was there, but had been boarded up and not used in more than 14 years. Including installing the furnace, and converting it to propane, we had to cut through two roof levels to install an exhaust chimney, and run gas piping through the crawl space. It was quite an endeavor, but with Rick’s expertise and time, we now have a furnace that runs great.
(Earlier in the week we had the duct system professionally cleaned. The system was a mess, years and years of trash, dirt, and animal fur had collected in the duct work. The cleaning guys said it was one of the worst they had ever seen. But they took great pride in being able to completely clean it out.)
We scrubbed the accumlated moss off the roofs, and then treated it with moss remover.
The “powder room”, where we were supposed to provide a sink, is the same room where the furnace went. So instead of installing a sink, we removed the toilet and transformed the powder room into a furnace room (for now anyway). We chose to do this because we didn’t want the VA appraiser to walk in and see a furnace in the bathroom. (We talked with the lender first and got his approval.)
Put in new kitchen faucet, and replaced the water lines. (There’s still a small leak from the hot water shut-off valve that’ll have to be addressed by a plumber after closing.)
Removed all the vegetation and dirt from around the house. Also got a pest inspection done.
With a lot of help we removed all the years of accumulated trash around the property. It completely filled up a 20-yard construction dumpster.
We cleaned out the gutters by hand, power washed them out, then had downspouts and one section of gutter professionally replaced.

So we’re done with out part, everything that had to be done is handled. When the VA appraiser returns to re-inspect, hopefully he’ll be amazed at the improvements. Then, with any luck, it’ll close a week from Monday. Once it’s all ours, we’ll get back in there and do a bunch more work before we move in, hopefully for forever, November 1st.

Thank you very much to all those who helped us: Rick, Jay and Libby, Tad and Hilary (and Raice), Kelly, and Josh. If you missed out this time around, there will be plenty more opportunities in the future.

(I know this was long, but I guarantee this was the very summed up version of our last nine months!)

hole cut through to the duct work where the furnace would be placed

duct vacuuming truck, note the inflated collection bags on the top

vacuum hose connected to the duct opening, we were amazed how much stuff came out…

Kate was not a fan of the loud vacuum hose that was bigger than her

me power washing the gutters

Sarah pressure spraying the garage gutters

creating the new gutter section – it’s a pretty cool process

roof where we had to cut the furnace exhaust opening – included to show that we had to go through 2 layers of roof and to show the barn in the background

my hand reaching in from the depths of the crawlspace, the newly installed furnace on the right

me after coming out of the depths of the crawlspace (it was a little damp)

removal of the very full 20-yard dumpster

Update 9/26/13: We finally got the VA appraiser’s written re-inspection report today. He stated, “I certify that I have reinspected the subject property, the requirements or conditions set forth in the appraisal report have been met, and any required repairs or completion items have been done in a workmanlike manner.”

We’re scrambling for some last minute financial paperwork to get through underwriting (but it’ll be fine), and likely won’t close until the week of October 7 (we have an extension from both lien holders until October 9 — yes, they said there would be no extensions…).

Plenty of Water, For Now

Posted on September 6, 2013 by Trace Adams

I woke up the other day and shuffled over to the toilet. As I prepared to go, I noticed the water was off-color; not terrible discolored, but not clear. After I flushed, the water was still off-color. I lifted the lid off the tank and nothing seemed amiss there. I went and looked at the downstairs toilet, it was also discolored. I began to get concerned.

I know that the water that goes into the toilet comes from the same source as water that goes to the sink, and since the toilet water didn’t look right I became worried about our drinking water. As a list of possible problems, and back-up water solutions, went through my head I mentioned it to Sarah. She casually reminded me that there had been signs up around the neighborhood that they were going to be flushing the water lines, and it was probably related to that. I flushed the toilet a few times, ran the sink for a little while, and they both again ran clear. Crisis averted (more like never existed).

BUT, this made me reflect on one of our most important basic needs: clean drinking water. It was nice to know that our family is prepared for this type of emergency, we have:

over 50 gallons of water stored in the garage (most in repurposed 2-liter soda bottles, which can also be reused for solar disinfection).
two 50-gallon barrels of water in the backyard.
two 50-gallon rain barrels in the backyard. We use these regularly, but here in Western WA they stay filled pretty well.
a Berkey family size water filter
a small pond a block away (and 5-gallon water cans for collection/transport)
several unopened gallons of bleach
a 50-gallon water heater
extra fuel to boil water

Restating from one of my early posts, But Water Is Heavy!, “. . . you can only live three to four days without access to clean drinking water. The ‘average’ adult human body is composed of approximately 60% water, the brain 75%.

“Before a disaster strikes, water is an easy thing to acquire and store. It is cheap and available. To get your recommended three-day emergency supply, you can buy commercially bottled water for less than $1 a gallon. Do the math for what is needed for your family, spend the money and put it somewhere safe and you’re done. If you want to fill your own: use clean, food-grade, plastic containers. Two-liter soda bottles work very well, avoid using milk jugs (they’re not meant for longer storage). If the containers are clean and the water is clean there is no need to add bleach.”

The first thing you should do, when you begin to prepare–before you do anything else–is to store water.

TraceMyPreps

Optimistic, Moderate Prepping (not whack-job crazy)