Category: Maine

Have a question about woods toves that hopefully someone can provide some advice. We moved into the cabin back in February and neither MPG nor myself have ever had a wood burning stove. We had some minor instruction and away we went….filling the cabin with smoke. Through trial and and a lot of error things improved, however, there was still too much smoke every time we started the stove. I’m sharing some photos below of the stove and looking for any observations, comments, and advice. We are looking at a few different models locally to purchase new.

Here’s our current wood stove……

I’ve got some theories as to our issues, however, figured I’d throw it out there to the group.

Appreciate it!

Rourke

OK – I have heard from several of you especially women who come around here often. People want to know who Maine Prepper Girl is. They want a real name and want to see who this person is behind the facade.

Well…….she has finally agreed to come forward and share a bit of what she has kept very private.

First off – she goes by the name…….”Kass”.  So while I will continue to call her Maine Prepper Girl(cause that is what she is after all), Kass fits her well.

Second – I’m including a few pictures below of Kass along with my ugly mug while we have been on several adventures together over the past few years.

Here she is!!!!

Want to see and hear more from Kass – err….Maine Prepper Girl? Tell her!! I’ve been telling her that she should start a website for well over a year now. She has a unique past and background, tremendous medical expertise, and has won the heart of John Rourke!!!  She has a lot to share and I’d love to see it.

Thanks and take care everyone.

Oh…yes….I’m well aware I found someone well outside my league!!

Rourke

We’ve been in the cabin and on our retreat property now for a little over two months. It’s been great and a ton of work. Moving in the middle of a Maine winter with feet of snow on the ground and it still falling from the sky provided a lot of challenges. MPG had moved to Maine back in early December and my date to follow only was an estimate. She had brought some of our stuff as well as I when I traveled up there at Christmas. All the rest of our possessions were later stuffed into a 7′ x 16′ cargo trailer we purchased a couple of years prior which I pulled to Maine in early February. We are still emptying the cargo trailer and getting things organized.

One of my priorities has been to have a place where I can write articles, work on books, and make videos.  We haven’t been able to get this set up but getting close.

So – here are a few updates from our life in the cabin……

Internet was a major issue when we moved onto the property. Very weak cell phone signal and no local internet provider made doing anything on the ‘net difficult. Being that I have an online business as a secondary stream of income this was more than concerning. I signed up for Starlink and got put on the waitlist. After a few short weeks, my area received satellite coverage and the equipment arrived shortly after that. It has made a big difference!

The shudders on the cabin were far from attractive and largely falling apart. We removed all of them from the downstairs and the idea came up to repurpose them into raised beds for flowers or some other plants. We are on a tight budget with so much to do and keeping costs down allows us flexibility in completing projects. Using these shudders rather than buying lumber – WINNING!!

There were two grills that came with the cabin. Neither was in very good shape and both had a variety of varmints living in them. Out with the trash they went. We planned to spend $300 or under to get something decent along with a cover. Maine Prepper Girls’ son gave us their grill which was in great shape. Interestingly we are the third owners of the grill. Someone had given the grill to MPG’s son. We were beyond thrilled and avoided the spending.

Spring has arrived and the snow is gone. Grass is starting to pop up as well as lots of weeds. The cabin came with two lawnmowers – a push mower and the riding mower above. I worked on the push mover cleaning the air filter, adding new gas, checked the oil, and cleaned the air intake. A few pushes on the primer and vroom!!! It started right up. So far it has run like a dream, although the deck is rusted out pretty good. I’m looking at taking a couple of aluminum cans and some short self-tapping screws and repairing the rusted-out holes.

The riding mower above I’ve not had any luck. I’ve worked on it but have not gotten it to start. I have a few more things to do then to a shop I’ll take it. It’s definitely worth putting $100 or so into.

There are populations of deer, bear, and moose in the area as well as fishers, porcupines, skunks, and tons of turkey. I’ve seen one deer so far as well as heard turkey. I’m going to put out some bait to attract the deer and turkey and have started adding trail cameras on the property to see who stops by for a visit.  I would really like to do some turkey hunting this year(coming up VERY soon) but doubt I’m going to have time. Deer? Absolutely.

I plan to have plants and seeds in the ground for this season’s garden within the next 10 days. The growing season is shorter here than back in South Carolina and need to get on it. My garden area is approx 40 feet wide by 60 feet long. I need to measure it. One-half is going to be full of raised beds and containers. The other half will be an in-the-ground garden. MPG pointed out that where I will be tilling the soil there are already a couple of rows of onions coming up. Love it! I guess the previous owner(who sadly passed away) must have planted onions and never harvested them. I told her I’ll till around the onions – no problem!

I’ve started building the raised beds. I picked up some 10-foot boards, 12 inches wide for $7 each. Cheap!!! There are lots of sawmills in the area and I’ve been able to find some good deals. These boards are rough-cut which is exactly what I wanted. All the raised beds will be done and full of my soil mix by the end of this upcoming weekend.

Here are a few of the beds I made so far. I’ll add at least one narrow board across the middle to prevent the longer beds from bowing outward when filled with dirt.

The Gerber multi-tool above is at least 20 years old. I used it in its early days at my job and used it frequently. It’s ridden around in vehicles, toolboxes, and get-home bags ever since. I came across it when unpacking stuff in my garage and it brought back memories. It has been faithful and has worked well. I’m going to continue to use it.

That’s it for now. I’ve got so much planned for this website as well as other platforms such as Youtube to share the message of preparedness – and thoughts on life….and more. This will start soon after I get situated in the cabin.

Let the adventure begin!!!

Take care all –

Rourke

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Here’s our latest video where we are just beginning to start cleaning up the garage and getting it organized. The garage will be essential in maximizing storage and organization is critical to allow easy inventorying and finding needed items quickly.

Rourke

A short video discussing moving to Maine, buying our property, and “getting ready”.

Take care all –

Rourke

#prepper #preparedness #shtf #retreat #homesteading #economiccollapse #collapse #wrol #teotwawki #survival

Since moving into the cabin here in Maine it’s certainly been a learning experience. Everything happened pretty fast and Maine Prepper Girl was in Maine at the time of the property purchase and I was in Kentucky planning my move. I’ll be providing more of an update as to the move and what’s going on but for now I’ll mention that I discovered that the garage has no power. With no power, there is no heat. With the garage being a major source of storage space I’ve looked at ways of heating it while working in there.

I determined the best method, for now, was kerosene.

I’ll be getting a quote to get electricity run to the garage after the Spring thaw, but, for now, I need to warm the place up a bit while I’m out there organizing and getting things the way I want. I found one of the guys that work fr me at my new job is experienced at hanging drywall. I’m planning on talking to him about helping insulate and drywall the garage. We’ll see what he’ll charge.

I’ve been in Maine for about 1 month in total. So much has been done and sooooooo much is left to do. I’ll be documenting events here and on Youtube/Rumble as well as we go along.

Take care all.

Rourke