October 7, 2024 - What did you do this week to prepare?

[u/Anthropic--principle]

Please use this thread to discuss whatever preps you worked on this week. Let us know what big or little projects you have been working on, please don't hesitate to comment. Others might get inspired to work on their preps by reading about yours!

[u/ParyHotterRHOH]

I just want to use this thread to thank this community.  I became interested in prepping during 2020 and lurked a lot on here since then. Helene left us with no power for 10 days and we had everything we needed. I guess this week I lived off my preps and we came out of things so much better than so many others. Things we'll be restocking next week or soon: paper products, disposable cooking pans, propane, cash, batteries, tarps, water

[u/Ryan_e3p]

Harvested my peppers and made a kickass hot sauce for the first time. I didn't strain it, so it is a bit chunkier (almost like a salsa verde), but that's all good in my book. Super easy, the longest part was removing the membranes from the peppers. 10/10, would make again.

[u/staresinamerican]

Me and my wife had the innitial conversation that we both wanted to prepare in case we need it

[u/[deleted]]

I am set on long term food storage for now though I will be expanding it. Next step is to call Pecron about why my solar panel hasn’t been delivered and then I am getting a tote for “misc” stuff. Batteries, radio, charging cables, etc

[u/nairb1980]

Bought two additional 55 gal. barrels to add to my water catchment system. Topped off my gas. Caught 3 rats that were getting into my garden.

[u/adavis463]

I fell a couple of months ago and bruised both my lungs, so I had to hit pause on working out until they healed. I ran 3.5 miles this morning. I was much slower than I'd like, but I'm working my way back.

[u/Usernamenotdetermin]

Floridian here

Laughed

Just freaking laughed.

Stay calm everyone🖖

[u/RoboDurp → u/Usernamenotdetermin]

Best of luck!

[u/Queasy_Simple4637]

Organized preps into various bins/totes - water, cooking, PPE, etc. Focused a lot on water. Added another 55 gal barrel to storage, ordered some water data cards from Cana and more purification tabs.

[u/bastardmoth]

I bought an ice fishing shelter from the discount rack for 100 bucks.

[u/FuturePea2688]

Service equipment and fill up fuel cans from the last hurricane to get ready for the one in two days. Hill corn, fertilize, and weed the fall garden.

[u/RoguishPrince]

Made a shopping list on amazon. Will buy my gear next paycheck. Prepping aint cheap!

[u/Ridiculouslyrampant → u/[deleted]]

You may have this down to a science, in which case disregard, but what about freezing it into cubes and then keeping the cubes in the freezer? Or using a plastic bag and scoring? Then it’s easy to break off/grab pieces to use.

That’s a great idea in general though, I should look at it when I have greens about to turn.

[u/Sea_Librarian4666 → u/Ridiculouslyrampant]

Simple answer is that each bottle contains the amount I would regularly use. Also just easier to stick a funnel on a bottle, pour it in, stick bottle in freezer :) Ever make dashboard dried greens? Take a baking sheet, line with greens, dry on dashboard. When I originally heard about that I never thought it would work but it does!

[u/Ridiculouslyrampant → u/Sea_Librarian4666]

Makes sense! I haven’t, I will check that out too, thank you!

[u/Strong_Web_3404]

Harvested the last of our cantaloupes and melons.

We picked some more tomatoes and peppers. Not enough to can, but they are being used in our meals. We have a few more green ones we are letting ripen, but within the next week or so, we will put the whole garden to bed.

We've been talking with our family in Florida, to see how they are doing ahead of Milton.

[u/hestias-leftsandal]

I bought a pressure canner - used, but am excited to turn some garden tomatoes into marinara

Also cleaned off a shelf in my deep pantry, tossed some -very- expired stuff and organized the rest

[u/wheatabix75]

I try to practice with one piece of my emergency equipment the first week of every month. This week I practiced using a fire blanket I keep hanging in the garage.

[u/Prof-Bit-Wrangler]

• Just finished my mobile solar cart, which will eventually house two 220 watt solar panels (currently just one panel). When we have an outage, I'll wheel the cart out, plug it and our EV into our solar generator, and enjoy a few days of power, enough to keep the frig running along with the internet and a light or two.
  
• Cleaned out our pantry of old food
• Had a great conversation with my wife about what we've seen in the aftermath of Helene. She's now totally onboard with preparing for the next event.
• Reviewed with my wife what we've got available to us during the next major event.

[u/Harperslife]

Replaced my electric stove with a propane gas stove and bought a generator.

[u/Firm-Impress]

Bought a generator.

Brainstormed how to better improvise faucet without electricity or running water.

[u/Mission-Elevator1253]

Make sure my rechargeable batteries are topped off. Sweep cobwebs around windows, door outside. Just found out there are wood rots on two exterior door frame near the bottom so I need to take care of them soon. It’s something all the time. 

[u/Salt_Ruby_9107]

Bought more Polar Tech R-bricks because they freeze and last a long time. I figure if the power goes out, they'll help keep the freezer cold.

Also looking at solar generators and thinking there's no way I can find something to do what we need.

Also stalking hurricane posts to see if there's anything I missed that I didn't think about.

Also planning to start dehydrating veggies this week.

[u/SansLucidity]

i bought 10 lbs of black beans at my local salvage grocery store for $4.99.

all mylared up & in bucket.

[u/AAAAHaSPIDER]

We didn't prepare this week, we used our preps.

I live north of Atlanta and there was a horrible fire at a chemical facility that released chlorine gas into the air. We don't trust our tap water so we've been drinking our preps.

I still have had a headache for over a week.

[u/Edhin_OShea]

We took in our 4 and 2 yr old great n/n. So I have added diapers, wipes, weather spirit clothes; easy to transport snacks, and the immediate future of learning their degrees of autism and how I can best respond so they are successful, confident, and capable children and adults with good manners who also know how to politely stand their ground.

Oh, and my dad gave me some of his old equipment and I think one might be a ham radio for the car. He said to send him a Pic so I still have to do that.

[u/DifferenceExtra3001]

Filled our cars, started scanning important documents, went thru freeze dried foo.

[u/VikingTeo]

Made good on my resolution to get a comprehensive health check up. I have multiple follow ups scheduled for screenings related to family history.

I accepted to go on blood pressure medication. I could go on without as it is only moderately high, but every year that BP is controlled leaves more cardivascular health 'in the bank'.

I have settled into a higher level of exercise, I actually quite like it.

I have changed my diet to include more greens. I did not eat horribly before, but it needed balancing.

So my prep's this week/month has been: Me.

[u/tacosowner]

Just wanted to says thanks to the sub, Helene hit us here in upstate SC, power out for six days. My little firman 3200 worked like a champ and even shared with the neighbor to keep their fridge going (luckily most the neighbors found a tractor supply truck load of generators the second day in). It tested all my preps, probably look to buy better/longer extension cords, more ryobi batteries (little fans worked great) top off my propane for the blackstone. Maybe get a little ecoflow power stations for small devices. Overall made it through. Prayers for the folks in WNC, such a wonderful area the wife and I visit frequently.

My main takeaway is surround yourself with great neighbors, we had a pretty strong crew that bonded together for meals, 4am gas runs and entertainment for the kids

[u/FireballTrainer]

We are in a CSA with a local farm and most of our preps this week were with surplus produce. Lots of pumpkins and squash, quite a few tomatoes. We canned jalapeños, froze some soups, muffins, cookies, and pumpkin curry. Lots of frozen Swiss chard too, which is awesome to throw into things when you’re cooking. This week we’ll start working on the apples from our trees. The cider we canned last year was awesome, I’m hoping for another good batch this year.

[u/buddyinjapan]

Rotated my prep boxes for the colder weather.

[u/fedffcg]

Buying a home in a small town with some land, pretty stoked about it!

[u/fresh_lemon_sugar]

Added a bag of peanuts to emergency supply crate.

Made the decision to always carry $20 on me (US) in small bills (don’t usually carry cash), after listening to the Laist podcast about the Big One. When I’m a bit wealthier, I might up it to $40.

[u/booksandrats]

I prepared 6 pepper plants for overwintering inside my apartment. Put in an order for seeds for the spring. Ordered a chain pig for my bike. Continued to save seeds from my veg container garden.

[u/Key-Window-5383]

We've had a houseful of sickies for the past week or so, and it was a good time to assess what preps to have when all the house's drivers and shoppers go down sick at the same time! Having a week's worth of clean clothes and a ton of extra clean socks for the kiddos was a blessing. Soups and stews that you can just dump into a bowl and heat -- priceless. We did not have enough TheraFlu for all of us, so I'm stocking up on that, along with tissues and my go-to, Vicks VapoRub. I dipped deeply into my case of caffeine-free teas and ordered more. I also bought a 2-gallon easy-open gas can so I can stop struggling with the bigger, heavier, impossible-to-use ones in my garage!