Managed to get a few things done this week:
- Picked up a pair of Merrell hiking shoes. This is my second pair and as my first still has plenty of life left in them this pair will be put back until needed.
- Ordered a Griffin 12 watt power port car charger for my work phone. This thing is fantastic and charges either of my phones very quickly. I consider this a prep as it is part of communication. I also bought one for my wife.
- Bought a 32 foot SMA cable for a ham radio project. Found it on eBay for under $10. Hopefully not totally junk but we’ll see.
- Ordered 10 7-rd Springfield 1911 magazines and a leather holster for my 1911 Operator.
Posts this week may be on the slim side or may have a couple “blast from the past” published. Life is busy and writing time may be short.
That’s about it….
Your turn.
Rourke
Not a lot this week, was getting ready for stormy weather. Very thankful again. Couple of hours of clean up today, but no damage. Ditto on the mags. (4 Kimber 1911 & 3 Glock 43). Picked up 250 rds of 357 JHP. The old revolver has been around a long time and still functions well.
Made a haul for my birthday (65). Flashlights, Gerber multi tool, 50 lbs salt, Home Depot & Bass Pro gift cards and 100 rds .45 JHP. Think my kids know me?
Hope all stay safe in these trying times.
Thanks Gunner and Happy Birthday. Looks like you had a great week.
Picked up 5 gallons of Sterno lamp oil and a dozen holders. Picked up a bunch of hard candies, spearmint, peppermint, cinnamon and buttermint. Added gravy mixes, country gravy, beef gravy and au jus. Added some tuna, can chicken, can ham and can taco meat. Picked up 5.56, 12 and 20 gauge. Added some silver. That is all.
– Keep Looking UP
Biggest prep has been paying off debt. Rereading Dave Ramsey “The Total Money Makeover” and getting gazelle intense 🙂 Have been eating a lot of beans and rice which helps us save money and rotate thru our preps and restocking these items. Will be working OT this Labor Day but that is ok, money will go to paying off the last item on our debt snowball.
Transplanted one of two baby mango trees that I sprouted. I moved it out of my garden because in that location it would grow to eventually shade my solar arrays. I have another Mango sapling coming along in a pot. Along with that I have six moringa saplings that are doing great in the pots. My plan is to have a moringa forest so there will always be more food then I could ever need and the zombies will walk tight past them. Hey, those things are just trees right?
Thanks CaptTurbo. You’ve got me craving mango’s!
Got a couple of 55 gal metal cans to put my chicken feed in. Finding the mice will eat through almost anything. Metal is not one of them. Went to a farm feed store and got a “pet” rooster for free. Beautiful bird. He seems to like the 22 hens he now roosts with.
Harvested 22 full grown squash and zucchini vegetables from one of the swales we dug in the back yard. This one is fed from the washing machine and is 4 feet deep by 4 feet wide with chicken wire and pond liner on the sides and bottom. First crop planted and looks very promising.
Sounds awesome Johne. Hoping next year my garden will get back to producing normally.
Two more large jars of peanut butter, rice, more toilet paper, 5LB bag of baking soda, and some medical odds and ends. I am spending time cleaning out and organizing food storage areas and the medical closet. Yes, I said closet, no rinky dink first aid kit for me. I have crutches, canes, a wheel chair that needs some repairs, sutures, and a full dental kit. I have some medical experience and my closest neighbor is a nurse and on board with prepping.
Great job. Love that peanut butter. I have appox 13 jars stored in the freezer right now.
Picked up 800 seed packs for $10. Dollar General had discounted to $.01 per pack.
Funny note… DG only allows per item scans. My receipt was 16ft long.
Felt so bad for the cashier, I gave her a $10 tip.
Bought 3 S&W Bodyguard mags for $30.
WOW! Heck of a deal.
Doesn’t feel like I did much. Did some organizing, reorganizing and purging, worked in our community garden starting to close that down, bought a choate pistol grip buttstock for the 870 and replaced the barely visible tritium front sight post (had it put on in 1998), been saving up for night vision but decided to use that money to pay off a credit card instead, thinking if interest rates suddenly rise I’d be better off being less in debt. Bought a couple of the harbor freight plastic ‘ammo cans’ to turn into seed banks from the closeout seed packets racks. Bought a pair of HT antennas to replace ones I had somehow damaged. (BF8HP still TX/RX like crap), Researching getting a Rem 783, Savage Axis Ruger American, Mossberg Patriot – all in 308, but can’t decide. Just might do a scout scope/sight on a pretty accurate Mosin 44 as a 100y deer rifle. Guys in our loose ‘MAG’ all have precision $$$ Rem 700’s $$$ & think that’s the only way to go.
jh – that’s for sharing.
Good to work on getting out of debt. I am putting things together myself to decrease my debt, increase emergency funds, and improve credit.
Seed banks good idea and those plastic cans can store them just fine if the seeds are placed in mylar. Well – I have used seeds a few years old just sitting on a shelf but mylar is best and what I have done.
Regarding your bolt action question – get what you like. I think people get far too stressed and detailed over brand and model and to a certain extent caliber. I don’t know about you but every bolt action out there will shoot better than me. I bought the Ruger American in .308 Winchester and still need to mount a scope on it. My buddy Prepper Ralph has the AMerican on .30-06 and it is an absolute tack driver. I am buying my son a Mossberg Patriot in .243. They are all good rifles.
A trend these days is to subtily include plastic/fiberglass parts in rifles and pistols. Such parts are often sights and trigger guards/trigger assemblies. Many Ruger rifles including their Gunsite uses fiberglass trigger guards/magazine surrounds. The SIG .22 in a pseudo 1911 platform uses same in both sights and trigger. I would caution against this if buying for the long term. Brushed stainless followed by electro deposited finishes on steel are my order of preference.
PR
JH, let me know how you like that pistol grip. Did you retain a stock in your configuration. After some experience, I have concluded that the very best in an 870 is the police model augmented with better sights, magazine extension, and sling. The problem with semi-long weapons is always one of retention especially when going around corners. A shotgun with pistol grip alone doesn’t give much leverage if someone grabs and deflects the barrel. In fact that someone may have a better grip on the shotgun that its owner. For that reason and also for the accuracy if provides the factory stock seems well designed.
PR
PR, yes, it’s the Choate Mark 5 Pistol Grip Buttstock, Remington 870, Synthetic Black I had put on. Only problems I’m seeing with it is that it’s a little difficult to operate the safety without re-positioning your hand/wrist. I feel that I have far more control with this, the recoil pad is almost 2″ thick but I removed the two spacers to make it more compact. On it is a MagPul knock off two point sling, extended mag tube and has a old meprolight tritium front dot sight that’s getting replaced. Still works, but can barely see it vs when it was new.
A conversation with a trusted friend led to my prep this week. It seems many of the “prepper” websites are pushing each others opinions with little actual fact. Following these breadcrumbs in their endless loop has loccupied to much time and thought. A serious weeding of websites is underway along with some dedicated time each day to get better organized and work on skills. The keyboard will be getting a serious reduction of use.