What have you done this week to prep?

[dudley0]

We've been in this boat for a little over a year now. Loss of a job certainly qualifies as SHTF. I found another job about 3 months out, but it just doesn't provide enough income. It's tough going from 6 figures to 20,000......Thank god we are preppers or we'd be stuck on food stamps waiting for the gov to take care of us. I haven't been able to buy any guns in 17 months, it nearly makes me cry to think about.

We have rental properties that look like will become my main income. Been using the money from them for toys and investments. One vehicle paid off. The other not close. Wife basically has part time job but likes it.

Being off this long with no income and no unemployment is an eye opener. I decided that if they do take me back it's going to be more prepping for us. Don't really want to go back, but just not comfortable enough just yet.

 

[jeremy]

You can get a 70mpg ford focus in europe too. I'd like to get a hold of a VW TDI, but they aren't exactly a dime a dozen.....

The US version of the VW TDI is a bit disappointing...

2 things I have always found humorous, Americans demand noisy Diesels and the amount of stupid that is put up with and Demanded by the masses from the EPA/DOT...
OK, actually it is not really humorous...
Kinda sad actually...
Sigh...

 

[Hotdoger]

Went to town and filled up two 5gal gas and 2-5 gal K1.

This evening got the generator out . Drained the fuel and put fresh fuel in it. Drained the oil and put some fresh oil in it. 1 shot of starting fluid and it fired right off and picked the fresh fuel .

Got the Kerosene heater out, put it on the porch and filled with fuel and fired it off. It took it a while till it started burning good. Shut it down and put it in the corner of the living room.

Tomorrow get some lamp fuel and more groceries and gallon water.
Fire the propane camp stove off and top the vehicles tanks off.

Also transfered some food supplies from the barn to the house and garage. ( Don't want to slip on the ice going to the barn )


Looking for a heater that will burn used cooking oil.
Anybody with any ideas?

 

[Icarry2]

Bought canned soup on sale at Kroger
Bought water bottles on sale at Speedway Gas station
Bought more throw away propane cylinders
Put gas in the 4x4
Cleaned out my EDC/BOB/GHB and reorganized it
Loaded two new spare mags for my EDC 9mm
Checked furnace fuel oil level
Bought a cool universal hand pump, it will move fuel, water, oil, and blow up air mattresses and such

Hotdoger - have you looked into a fuel oil furnace? I think they will burn many different types of oil, I use regular no 2 ag diesel in mine..

 

[johncarbaugh]

Found 3 nice sets of shelving for $15 each. Now to organize some of the things I have sitting around in boxes. Got a little bit more ammo and food to rotate but I do that every time I go to the store.

 

[Hotdoger]

Bought canned soup on sale at Kroger
Bought water bottles on sale at Speedway Gas station
Bought more throw away propane cylinders
Put gas in the 4x4
Cleaned out my EDC/BOB/GHB and reorganized it
Loaded two new spare mags for my EDC 9mm
Checked furnace fuel oil level
Bought a cool universal hand pump, it will move fuel, water, oil, and blow up air mattresses and such

Hotdoger - have you looked into a fuel oil furnace? I think they will burn many different types of oil, I use regular no 2 ag diesel in mine..

Thanks for the reply!
Checked google.
Nothing I see as a manufactured heater.
I have in excess of 300 gal of used cooking oil.
If I could find an old oil furnace maybe I could mix the UCO with K1 or Diesel.
Rig up a preheat tank or something.

 

[ThrottleJockey]

Thanks for the reply!
Checked google.
Nothing I see as a manufactured heater.
I have in excess of 300 gal of used cooking oil.
If I could find an old oil furnace maybe I could mix the UCO with K1 or Diesel.
Rig up a preheat tank or something.

I'm not sure about here, but up north they used to use oil stoves to heat with. They are about the size of a wood stove, but use oil and work very well in hunting shacks/cabins. My pops has an old "Jungers" model. Perhaps that would suit your needs? Dad burns his old motor oil in it so I think it will burn just about anything.

 

[jeremy]

You can always take and MOD your wood burning stove to have an Oil Drip over where the flame is at...

That is actually what a lot of the old "oil burners" you see are...

 

[Regionnus Rattis]

Been rotating the beans, rice and peanut butter stock. Rotating .22lr stock (that's a constant though, because I'm shooting all the time)

 

[bigus_D]

Well, THIS week I haven't done much (since it is only monday afterall)... we WERE going to head out to Sam's to re-stock the larder on items we most commonly use. Instead, we just made it to the gas station to fill the tank. We were in the Prius and needed half a tank... $12 later we decided that with the storm heading in we were better off just going home.

The windshield started freezing up on the way back home. A nice layer of ice on the driveway and truck when we got back. Sure am glad I'm not heading out to the store to find all the milk and bread missing from the shelves due to the last minute preppers.

Part of me is excited for the possible power outage. At least I know I'm ready for it. However, I did check the propane tank over the weekend and found it at 55%. Maybe I should have asked the gas company to come out and fill it up.

 

[swatdoc]

...However, I did check the propane tank over the weekend and found it at 55%. Maybe I should have asked the gas company to come out and fill it up.

Did the same thing! We were under 50%. Called the gas company this am and they said the phone wouldn't stop ringing there. She put us on the schedule, but didn't make any promises. The guy showed up around 5pm and we got filled. He said he usually fills about 10 tanks/day. Today he filled 60.

Just got back from a run to pick up chicken feed at the TSC in Franklin. They were swamped. Sold out of gen sets while we were there and were sold or selling out of anything that heated with propane, too. I've never seen it that busy in there. The other store parking lots we saw were full, too.

Good luck if you haven't already been to get your preps.

 

[ThrottleJockey]

Did the same thing! We were under 50%. Called the gas company this am and they said the phone wouldn't stop ringing there. She put us on the schedule, but didn't make any promises. The guy showed up around 5pm and we got filled. He said he usually fills about 10 tanks/day. Today he filled 60.

Just got back from a run to pick up chicken feed at the TSC in Franklin. They were swamped. Sold out of gen sets while we were there and were sold or selling out of anything that heated with propane, too. I've never seen it that busy in there. The other store parking lots we saw were full, too.

Good luck if you haven't already been to get your preps.

I went to harbor freight early this afternoon to watch the hoards. They were PACKED, out of gennies and just about out of inverters.

 

[Stschil]

I thought I'd be prudent and fill up an extra kerosene can as a back up to my back ups on the way home from work last night. No dice there. Every place I stopped was zip, zero, zilch, nada on K1. Glad I already had 5 gals at home.
It was both sad and a little funny at the same time seeing the harried fear in peoples' faces as they rushed to fill up fuel tanks and grab the last bag of over priced hot dog buns off the shelf at the last gas station/convenience store.
What in the world are these people going to do when there is an actual emergency? Geez, I fear for mankind....I really do.

 

[M67]

Since pretty much the whole state is in a blizzard warning, does making a beer run count as prepping?

 

[ThrottleJockey]

Since pretty much the whole state is in a blizzard warning, does making a beer run count as prepping?

Only if you did it BEFORE the storm. Otherwise it is just sustaining.

 

[jeremy]

Today...

My preps...
Started a new pot of Coffee...
Shoveled the ice of my house steps...
Chipped the Ice of the Vehicles...
Later I will get the Backhoe and make sure we can get in and out of the Fire Station...

Yup I think that about sums up everything I am going to do today...

 

[M67]

Only if you did it BEFORE the storm. Otherwise it is just sustaining.

Damn

 

[dudley0]

Kept the W2 for a while longer so this week I re-stocked some shelves and bought additional foods. Have decided to live a little more below our means and stock a little extra cash for the next W2 crash.

Biggest help we had was the fact that the mortgage and truck payments are months ahead. Sounds odd I know, but that was a SHTF prep that paid off instantly. Won't bore with the details, but we started a while back making weekly online payments for these two bills to get them paid off faster. As this happens we get more and more ahead on the payments. Have not had a reason to take advantage of that before now, but it sure helped.

This has been an eye opener for us in more ways than one. SHTF doesn't mean earthquakes, floods and zombies all the time. While we have been prepping for those cases we helped ourselves out when the other happened.

I am not thrilled about going back to the W2, but I decided to make the most of it. I am dropping back on the expenditures as if I was only making the unemployment money. The rest goes toward paying off bills and buying essentials.

 

[Icarry2]

Bought some nice DHTF Zombie killing bulk ammo, 115 Gr Remington JHPs, at Walmart for target ammo prices, $25 for 100 rounds..

Bought extra gas...

 

[WETSU]

Last week:

4 works outs: (3 weight sessions, 10 miles of running, 1 swim, 1 ruck march)
1 fight night/sparring
2 dryfire sessions
practiced my knots-underwater
Re-read "A Bear Went Over The Mountain"
Repaired my PVS-7Bs


Bought 10 "Chugo" AK mags
Bought 440 rds of 7.62x54R
Bought 1/2 pound of honey

Reconfigured plate carrier for slick front w/ OSOE AK/M4 chest rig over it.