Category Archives: What I Did This Week To Prep

What We Did This Week To Prep 3/16/12

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Ryan, Chanse and I started building the greenhouse this week. This is the biggest construction project I’ve undertaken; I’ve never built anything that had to be framed before. I’m sort of a self-taught handyman, if something needs done I do it; if I haven’t done it before, I figure out how and then I do it (with varying degrees of success). I’ve acquired most of the needed tools, and that makes all the difference. Ryan is a great projects partner, he loves his woodshop class at school and they have taught him well. I found a good DIY greenhouse plan online, printed it out, and we’re following it step-by-step. So far we’ve got the base, side wall frames, and the top trusses built; they are all stacked neatly in the garage waiting for a (relatively) dry day to take them to the backyard and finish the assembly on-site. Once the structure is finished, we’ll cover it with some type of plastic; not sure exactly what yet, but we’ll probably use polycarb roofing panels (thanks for the suggestion Dave S.).

After my EDC post I realized it’d be nice if the kids could have some useful EDC items. Of course they can’t carry a knife, pepper spray, or a lighter – but they can carry a small flashlight and a whistle. I picked up a set for each of the kids, and asked them to carry it with them, along with their laminated phone contact card (also updated this week). I attached the girls’ set to a small carabiner so they could clip it onto their school backpacks; Ryan attached his to his set of keys. They won’t cover every conceivable disaster situation, but they could help: a flashlight in a dark room or a whistle when you can’t yell loud enough, are a start. Hopefully it’ll also begin to get them into a mind-frame of carrying items that will help them be prepared (to use in conjunction with the skills I’m trying to teach them). Ryan also carries a small roll of duct tape (we made them together one night watching TV) with his keys, band-aids and emergency cash in his wallet, and a pocket knife when he’s not at school.

One more, and hopefully the last, follow-up on Gerber EAB post. Finally, as everyone told me it would, the clip broke off. I had only carried it clipped to my pocket, every day, for about three months when it did. Fortunately, you say, I had extras on hand right? Sort of, they don’t go on well and two broke trying to get them on – before I gave up. Ironically, as I keep mine in the watch/change pocket of my jeans, it works just fine and actually now has a slimmer profile. If I ever buy a replacement one, I’ll just remove the clip. Final clip recommendation: Don’t plan on keeping it clipped to a pocket – the clip will break. The clip would work fine as a money clip (maybe that’s all the designers had in mind). But clip or not, it’s a handy, small, folding EDC utility knife that still has all of the benefits previously discussed. I love mine, carry it everyday, and would encourage anyone else to do the same.

What did you do? (Feel free to answer in the comments section.)

(Monday: A Walk In The Woods)

What We Did This Week To Prep 3/9/12

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This was one of those weeks I didn’t get as much done prepping wise. I was sick for a few days, with that upper respiratory crap that was going around, and consequently didn’t sleep well, which lowered my energy and motivation levels. Also, I had to drive an hour and a half each way, to pick up a replacement transmission for our Hyundai–on my day off–which took a big chunk out of my available time (and more money than we’d like). Excuses, excuses, we all have them – but hopefully we all also realize prepping isn’t our whole lives, just an important part of them.

I bought three new pairs of Carhartt jeans this week. Which made me think: we store all this stuff, “just in case”, but how much extra do we have of day-to-day type clothes (especially work clothes)? Most of us have our primary clothes that we wear regularly, but what about backups? Jeans? Work boots? Boots that will keep your feet warm and dry? Socks? Coats? Gloves (both work and warmth)? Stocking caps? Even things like sunglasses? Look around at the items you wear on a regular/semi-regular basis–that you would like to continue wearing if the SHTF*–and consider getting extras. Also think about possibly storing some in another location, in case of a home fire or another situation where you have to rapidly bug-out. I hadn’t thought about it much before, it just all kind of hit me when I was buying the jeans.

Rick of Rick’s DIY HVAC & Electrical Guide

I got together with my prepper friend, Rick, this week for a cup of coffee. Rick and I met though TSP forum community. While the internet allows us to make contacts and develop ‘friendships’ with people all over the world, there’s nothing quite like meeting with another like-minded person, shaking their hand, and talking face-to-face. As I’ve mentioned before, I live in Puyallup, WA (east of Tacoma) and work in Seattle. So open invitation**: If anyone lives nearby, or visits, let’s get together and have a cup of coffee or a beer (or beverage of your choice) and take that additional step to develop our prepper community locally. If things ever do go bad, no one can do it alone; friendships, family (real or adopted), especially ones that have taken steps to be prepared, will make the difference whether we survive or not.

What did you do?

(Monday: Teaching The Kids (& Learning More Myself))

**For my list of abbreviations and other information, open the above ‘Check Here…’ page tab.

**My contact information can be found on the About Trace page

What We Did This Week To Prep 3/2/12

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This week Ryan and Chanse built a T-bar trellis for the raspberries. Last year was the raspberries first year so, of course, there was a lot of growth–with shoots coming up all over–but very little fruit. This year we plan to trellis them, over wires connected to the T-bars, to keep them more organized and maximize the space. We’re going to allow them to spread out some more, but at their perimeters I had the boys bury pieces of plywood (vertically 15 inches deep) to keep them from getting out of their allotted space. Hopefully, this the raspberries second year, we’ll get a good harvest.

I borrowed a truck from a friend (can’t wait to get our own, it’ll make these jobs much easier) and returned to the Landfill Compost Factory. The first day Ryan and I got two cubic yards of fine compost (I describe it as ‘fluffy dirt’). The following day I went back, by myself (Ryan started track practice), and got another two cubic yards, this time of the coarse compost (it’s more like slightly composted mulch). Between the two days we added about five inches of new compost to the garden areas, both front and back; it’ll have about three months to ‘settle in’ before we plant into it in June. The soil in this area was initially just clay and rock with about an inch of topsoil, so hopefully the soil improvements we’ve made the last couple of years will pay off.

Sarah and I finally made time to get together and finalize our seed order. Sarah had mapped the garden area, labeling what would go where, to make efficient use of the space available. As mentioned, last year was our first real garden and we had deliberately kept it smaller (and only had limited success); this year we’ll be planting about twice as much space. After looking at her garden map and making a few additions to the list, we got our seeds ordered. Ryan and I will build the greenhouse in the next couple of weeks.

What did you do?

(Monday: What Bridges?)

 

What I Did This Week To Prep 2/24/12

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I work in Seattle, so most of the people I see at work live in the city. When I first started writing my blog and discussing prepping at work, there was a friendly support of my efforts, but not that much interest in the topic. As time has passed, that has started to change; people are asking more questions, awareness is increasing, and people are letting me know when their preparations (even very minor) are paying off.

Recently I was asked about prepping if you live in the city, by yourself, in a small apartment. The comment/slight complaint was that I always write about prepping for a family in a suburban home. I explained that I write about what I know; that the main purpose of my blog is a reflection of the preparations I’m learning about and making in my family’s life. My immediate thought was that any prepper who lived in the city should be actively looking for a way to move out! But then I realized that some people don’t have that option (work, family, finances, support systems) or just really like to live in the city.

I agreed that a discussion of urban prepping, on the blog, would be a worthwhile topic (it was briefly addressed in Location, Location, Location). And though I was willing to research more about city prepping, I decided it’d be better if it came from someone who actually lived that life. I approached a good friend, Shawn, who is somewhat prepper-minded and reads my blog (so he understands my baseline); he lives alone, in a one bedroom apartment on the fourth floor, near the city’s center. Shawn agreed to write the post (possibly a short series) about his insights, choices, and ideas about prepping in the big city (it will be posted the last week of March).

As mentioned above, our blog is starting to reach further. Both in people I know personally, and especially in the online community. As I look at the stats that show the number of visitors to TraceMyPreps.com I’m humbled at how many people are reading on a regular basis. It’s a validation that what I’m doing here has meaning and purpose (we all need that from time to time).

Not a whole lot else of actual prepping this week. We have some things planned for next week that hopefully will get done (finally ordering seeds, getting more compost, getting the garden ready).

Some follow-up. As mentioned in my posts Walk A Mile In Your Shoes Part 1 and Part 2, my workout regime now incorporates regular walks with Kate (our 6-month Border Collie). My new Danner boots (now nicely broken-in) work well hiking on the trails through the woods behind our neighborhood. I’m now carrying about 60-70 pounds in my pack (about 1/3 my body weight, which is kind of the recommended upper limit) for about an hour, several times a week. I’m enjoying my workouts (I had gotten very tired of just going to the gym, year after year), and–after a few weeks–I, again, feel much more comfortable and competent about walking greater distances.

FYI there is a gun show at the fairgrounds in Puyallup, WA this weekend, March 25-26. It’s put on by the Washington Arms Collectors and open to all. They, of course, have a wide selection of guns, ammo, and related equipment, but also a good variety of prepper items and books. Definitely worth checking out if you live nearby.

What did you do?

 

What I Did This Week To Prep 2/17/12

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We’ve realized that having our SWYE* preps established allows us to now only buy those items when they are on sale; that’s when we stock up  –  and that’s why we like Costco (initially, it seemed counter-intuitive that having food storage would help us save money on a regular basis). So we made our monthly trip to Costco. Not much on the coupon front this time, they’ve been disappointing lately. We got a 3-pack of good, leather, work gloves; protective equipment in a collapse will be very important – preventing injuries, even little ones, will be so much easier than treating them. We picked up another 3-pack LED small flashlight set; we have a flashlight in each car plus another one, and extra batteries, in the BOBs – but I thought it’d be helpful to have an extra flashlight clipped to the outside of the BOB to be able to find things inside the bag (Repetitive & Redundant). LED flashlights are great; because of the low-energy requirement of the LEDs themselves the batteries last a long time, and they put out a lot of light. Ibuprofen was on sale so we got extras; in a collapse, with all the sore muscles and orthopedic injuries, it’ll be good to have plenty stored – plus we use it and rotate it on a regular basis.

On our continued quest to find property near Sequim a new listing came online that looked good. We had our realtor look at it and he said it was a great value and highly recommended coming to see it soon. We scheduled an appointment for this last weekend, but before we could go it was already under contract – I guess it was a good deal. Unfortunately, even if we had seen it we weren’t ready to move that quickly. The quest continues…

Ryan, who is good at and enjoys small construction projects, built  a box to put underneath our pool table for extra storage. Even with our large suburban home and me trying to be ultra organized, we are still beginning to run out of space. I know most people don’t have a pool table and thus can’t use this suggestion, but I wanted to help you think of creative ways to use the space you do have.

While we were at the hardware store getting the wood for the under the pool table box, we also picked up wood to use to build a small greenhouse for the backyard (we had to borrow a friend’s truck, so we got everything we needed in one trip – can’t wait to get a truck of our own). We’re ordering our seeds this weekend and we’ll build the greenhouse in the next couple of weeks. And yes, of course, there will be a how-to blog post when we get it completed.

(Monday: Can You Hear Me Now? – Cell Phones and Power Outages)

*For my list of abbreviations and other information, open the above ‘Check Here…’ page tab.

 

What I Did This Week To Prep 2/10/12

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As I mentioned last week, we’re bringing on a new monthly contributor. Leah, who we’ll affectionately refer to as ‘Momma Bear’, will write for us the third Wednesday of each month. Her debut post, Momma Bear Is The Prepper, will be up next Wednesday. I’m excited to have her relatively unique perspective as the woman in the family being the ‘main‘ prepper. Prepping has traditionally been viewed as a male thing; men are the ones who ‘protect the cave’ (yes, I know I’m stereotyping). Since this is such a male-dominated community in general, and I’m a male, I am very happy to be able to present a female prepper’s point of view; not one who is just supporting her husband – but is motivating, guiding, and directing it.

Also new this week – A Contest! We’re giving away a signed copy of The Doom and Bloom Survival Medicine Handbook! After the great response to my post reviewing The Doom and Bloom Survival Medicine Handbook, Dr. Bones and Nurse Amy contacted me and asked if I would like a copy of their book to give away to my readers. I immediately responded in the affirmative and requested an autographed one (which they humbly agreed to). So, since I’ve never done a give-away contest before, Sarah and I brainstormed how to do it. Here’s what we came up with: If you’d like to win the book, comment–on this post, or on the TraceMyPreps facebook page–and tell us what your biggest concern MEDICALLY is in a collapse.

You have until 8:00pm PST this Sunday (2/12/12) to respond. From the respondents we’ll randomly choose a name. The winner’s name (first name, or log-in name, only) will be posted on our facebook page at that time; I’ll then coordinate with the winner to get the book mailed. Hopefully this’ll all work… Since this is our first give away, and we have a relatively small audience, if you post something you’ll have a pretty good chance to win.

As Sarah mentioned in her post, I’ve located a source to get donkey manure to fertilize our garden. My boss’ landlord has donkeys and is happy to give away the manure. He bags it up in approximately 4-gallon heavy duty bags, and just asks that the bags be returned. Yesterday, after work, I picked up 11 bags and brought them home. It was interesting, in my little commuter car full of donkey manure, there was no odor – just a faint smell of dirt. I did a little bit of research and it appears that the basic consensus (here’s where WSU Extension discusses it) is that fresh manure is perfectly safe to be added directly to the garden soil. However, it should be added using the following guidelines: 120 days before root crops (food that comes into contacted with the soil) are harvested, or 90 days, if the food does not have direct contact with the soil. I hope to get many more bags and cover the entire garden area front and back.

What did you do this week to prep?

(Monday: Teaching The Kids: Chainsaws For Everyone)

What I Did This Week To Prep 2/3/12

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Reading, and writing my review of, The Doom and Bloom Survival Medicine Handbook this week took a lot of my time, so not as much other stuff got done.

Sarah and I did do a fair amount behind the scenes on the the blog site itself. Sarah does the technical side and I handle the personal networking aspects. Is this a prepper topic though? I believe it is – especially since our blog is about prepping. But any blog you write allows you to teach and learn; it also may have the potential to develop into a business and/or give you more personal independence. Sarah upgraded us from WordPress.COM to WordPress.ORG. WordPress.org is the WordPress software that must be self-hosted (we went with Host Gator for that) but allows for greater flexibility and expansion potential. I’ve been corresponding more with people in the online prepper community; strengthening relationships and starting new ones. We’re also bringing on a new monthly contributor to our blog (more on her next week). Along those same lines, we’re considering having a (different) guest blogger write a post for us each month. So if you–or anyone you know–are interested, send me an email or facebook message (my contact information can be found on the About Trace page).

Last month I wrote a post on the Gerber EAB Lite Utility Knife. There has been discussion on TSP Forum where several people complained about the clip easily breaking off the knife. I’ve carried mine, clipped to my pocket everyday, for several months now without any issues. But just to do some follow-up, I contacted Gerber’s Warranty Department (by email). I told them we have several EABs and expressed my concern about the clip weakness, and asked them for a couple extra clips to keep on hand. They, no questions or hassles, sent me three replacement clips – no charge for shipping or anything. In summary, it’s a good little knife, good customer service experience, and I haven’t had any issues with the clip.

Finally, after reading the Doom and Bloom book, I decided we need to continue actively working on our medical preps. Because of my background, knowledge, and willingness, I’m sure one of my primary roles in a collapse will be as the medic. I believe I need to do as much as I can now to prepare for that role. So, coincidentally, last week on the Doom and Bloom blog, Dr. Bones wrote, Over The Counter Drugs When You’re the Doctor, that included a thorough list of OTC drugs to stock up on. This week he wrote, Must Have Antibiotics, Antifungals, and Antivirals. So, we’ve earmarked some money for additional fish antibiotics (Antibiotics In Your Preps) and are going to stock up on more OTC meds when we go to Costco. How much is too much? Tough call. But they store for a long, long time (Expired, or Not Expired… That is the Question), they’re relatively cheap, they don’t take too much space to store and–in a collapse–they’re irreplaceable.

What did you do?

(Monday: Book Review: Where There Is No Doctor)

What I Did This Week To Prep 1/27/12

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and Storm After Action Review

Anytime you use your preps–after you neatly put them away for the next time–it’s important to review how things went. What went well? What needs to be changed or improved? And what did you learn? We were pleased with how our preps worked during the storm, and because of them the power outage was only a minor inconvenience.

However, there were a couple of things I needed to follow-up on. I checked the generator to see why it had stopped running. As stated, I assumed it had stopped because it ran out of gasoline. I looked in the tank, it still had plenty of fuel left, and it started just fine. I let it run for about 20 minutes and there were no issues. I don’t know why it had stopped. My only concern was the age of the gasoline in it. When we bought it a year ago the tank was full and we still had that same fuel. The previous owner had added Sta-Bil, but I don’t know when. I decided to drain the tank and fill it with fresh gasoline. I siphoned as much as I could into the Jeep, then let the generator run until it was empty (it ran for over an hour before it stopped – an inadvertent but useful test). Then I added new gasoline and Sta-Bil, started it up to double-check, and put it away.

While working with the generator, Sarah, Ryan and I all practiced starting it.  It’s important that all adults (and as many of the kids as possible) in the home know how to run the critical prepper equipment. We had been concerned that Sarah wouldn’t have the ‘bulk’ to pull-start the generator, but she was able to do it without much trouble.

Next, when the battery bank was in use it had shut off earlier than I expected; I thought it was because of some kind of a surge. But my understanding may have been flawed. Fellow prepping blogger Homestead Fritz send me a link to The 12volt Side of Life; a 12-volt battery information site. I’m going to do some additional research on that topic. I’ve said before, I have a decent amount of knowledge about a variety of topics – but electricity is not one of them (though I’m learning).

Finally, I went by the hardware store and bought an 8-foot, 14-gauge extension cord that will be dedicated to use with the furnace. During the power outage I realized I was one cord short, so we had to shuffle cords around. The battery bank and the furnace are only about six feet apart so it seemed like a waste to use a 25-foot cord, but the smaller ones I own were only 2-prong household types and I needed a heavier duty 3-prong one.

Also this week, I found out my favorite collapse medicine experts, Doctor Bones and Nurse Amy of the Doom & Bloom Hour, had written a book. The Doom and Bloom Survival Medicine Handbook was published last week. I immediately ordered one and just received it in the mail. I’m very excited to have what I believe will be a fantastic medical reference. I’ll post a review on it soon.

I’ve started posting more to the TraceMyPreps Facebook page. I’d encourage you to “like” it and join our budding community; use that forum to comment, ask questions, and give advice. To make it easier I’ve added a ‘TraceMyPreps on Facebook’ like button on the top of the right side of my blog page. Also, right below that is a ‘Follow Blog Via Email’ box, if you sign up there each post I write will be automatically sent to you as soon as I publish it – this is an easy way to keep up on the posts as they come out.

What did you do?

What I Did This Week To Prep 1/13/12

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Taking my own advice, I bought some new heavy hiking boots. I needed to replace my old Danner boots that I have owned for over 14 years – since I was in the military. I knew they had finally given up the ghost when the Danner Refurbishing Department said they couldn’t rebuild my boots again (they had been rebuilt once and resoled three times – I loved those boots). So I went to a local shop and got them repaired and resoled as best as they could, and passed them down to Ryan. When Danner said they couldn’t rebuild my boots, they did send me a 25% off coupon for a new pair. For a late Christmas gift we ordered me a new pair of Danner Rain Forest Plain Toe Work Boots. They arrived in the mail this week. I was thrilled to have them, but not thrilled to have to break in a new pair of boots. It’s much easier to talk (or blog) the talk, then walk the walk (pun intended). Fortunately today’s genre of hiking boots is far better and easier to break in then they were a generation ago. But they sure felt stiff when Kate (our Border Collie) and I went out for the first three-mile walk. Now, I no longer have an excuse when it’s time to take her for a walk.

We visited Costco this week. (For the record, this month’s coupons sucked; nothing in the way of good prepper stuff.) We purchased a cross-cut paper shredder to be able to ‘create’ more browns for our compost pile (reference last week’s What I Did This Week To Prep). We also got a three-pack set of basic utilities knives for $10 to put in our BOBs*, they’re not as cool as the Gerber EAB, but at 1/3 of the cost they’ll work just fine and they–the utility knifes and the Gerber EAB–all use the same blades so we’ll only have to stock one type. Also, interesting to note, peanut butter (that went up in price in November, see What I Did This Week To Prep 10/21/11) is still $2 higher than it’s price last fall. We’re glad we had our SWYE all stocked up with plenty of PB and don’t need to buy it now at the higher price.

I also ordered the book, The Eagle Has Crashed by Ted Lacksonen. A novel about an economic meltdown and how society collapses in the aftermath. I heard him interviewed on The Survival Podcast (Episode 814) and was impressed with his insights and attitudes. I look forward to reading his book and plan to write a review of it.

What did you do?

(Monday: Adding New Page: My Reading List)

*For my list of abbreviations and other information, open the above ‘Check Here…’ page tab.

What I Did This Week To Prep 1/6/12

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We’re expanding our garden this week, not a whole bunch–our yard isn’t that big here in suburbia–but some. We’re making more room for the strawberries and to maximize the areas that get good sunlight. The cool thing about it is that this time we’re using compost that we made.

We’ve been composting for about a year now with very slow, unpredictable results – learning as we go. Our compost pile has had lots of ‘greens’ (high in nitrogen) coming from kitchen vegetable and fruit peelings, coffee grounds, and plant cuttings. It hasn’t had enough ‘browns’ (high in carbon) that can come from fallen leaves, hay and straw, or paper and cardboard. You need significantly more browns than greens to achieve the right ratio in your compost pile, and we’ve been short on browns. You wouldn’t think that here in Washington we’d have a shortage of fallen leaves, but the problem is (here in suburbia) all the trees were cleared when they developed our subdivision. We also can’t just pick up someone else’s bagged leaves because they’re all put in large yard waste bins for collection. So I sent Ryan out to an area with lots of leaves on the ground and he collected three big bags. We added one bag of leaves (unfortunately I didn’t shred them first – next time) to some coffee grounds from Starbucks and continued adding our normal kitchen wastes. A a week later our pile was actually ‘hot’, it had never been hot before! There are still good leaves to be had so we’re going to collect some more to have on hand (“One man’s trash…”). We’re also going to buy a cross cut paper shredder to produce more usable browns. (I found good composting tips at compost-info-guide.com)

We also took advantage of Sarah having a few extra days off over the holidays to make a day trip over to the Sequim area and look at potential homestead properties. We had plenty of time so we ambitiously visited all eleven listings we have been loosely following online. It was a long, but fun day. We brought Kate, our four month old Border Collie, and she had the time of her life tramping through the wooded areas as we walked around the different properties. We found one we liked, sure it has it’s issues – there’s a reason why it’s listed so cheap and is still on the market. But it was kind of cool. It feels remote, on a hill in a very forested area, while still being close to services in the nearby small town. When we got home Sarah looked up the plat information and found everything she could about it online, including that it is adjacent to state forest land. We asked our realtor to follow up on it for us and tentatively scheduled a date with him to go back and look at it closer. Is it “The One”? Probably not, but it has potential. We figure the more we look at, and the more we understand the process, the better prepared we’ll be to make that final decision.

As I mentioned in my What I Did This YEAR To Prep post, my wife Sarah is my “biggest prepper asset”. You’ve seen her hand in every post I write because she sits down with me, after I’ve finished writing, and helps me edit it before it’s published. She’s a good writer with very strong technical skills (she gets it from her dad, CJ Booth, he recently published his first book, Olive Park). She and I talked, on our Sequim property search road trip, about the blog and we discussed her writing a post as sort of “guest blogger” (possibly even on a monthly basis). The more we discussed it, the more we liked the idea. Next Wednesday, the 50th TraceMyPreps post, Sarah will answer the question every prepper’s wife gets, “So what do you think about all this?”

What did you do?

(Monday: Product Review: Gerber EAB Lite Utility Knife)