What have you done this week to prep?

[mikefraz]

-Paid off the last vehicle. No more car payments.
-Just bought 1,000 rounds of 9mm.
-Still saving for a house with some land.

 

[teddy12b]

Last night finished planting another 19 fruit bearing trees. In years past, I'd lose 2 or 3 trees a year to deer damage. This year it was around 12 trees, so I started putting tree tubes around them from native nurseries and we'll see how that goes. More plants going in, but only 19 were fruit bearing.

Hit a new personal best in the gym for deadlifting. I've never pushed my luck with this since I've had a slipped disk in my back before, but this time everything felt great. I wasn't even sore the next morning. It's weird to me, but I have to quit saying "I have a bad back". I don't have a bad back, I have a back that was conditioned to being lazy, and now I have a back that goes to crossfit a couple times a week and the difference it's made in my life has been amazing.

Went out on an overnight hike with a couple buddies. None of them had done anything remotely like this. Of the three buddies, one was a car camper the other two hadn't done anything like this. We hiked in 2 miles on a nice trail, and when we got to "Plan A" campsite and found several people there we went to "Plan B" site. We could follow a trail to the first place we were interested in, the plan B was off trail, through woods. I got to brush up on my compass skills which was really good for me, but luckily enough I still had a cell signal so I could pull up google maps and confirm exactly where we were at. Oddly enough "Plan B" was a pond that doesn't exist, and I confirmed that via google maps. Anyway, it was good for the guys to see how both a cell phone and an old school compass can work together. At camp, chugged all the water I brought with me, and boiled lake water in my stainless container to replace it. Ended up sleeping in a hammock using a usgi gortex bivy with a wool blanket inside it.

 

[Rocdenindy]

Did a 2 mile walk over uneven ground carrying a 30 pound backpack and realized that I am way out of shape and need more sturdy shoes. I had some generic hiking boots from walmart but that padding was not existent so I felt every rock I stepped on. But that being said, I did make it the 2 miles without being in pain or completely out of breath. Next step is a more hilly location and increase distance. A get home bag is useless if you can't use it carry it far enough to get home.

 

[spencer rifle]

Getting ready to ride the Hilly this weekend. Re-reading the Union Creek Journal. Tested out camping/BOB equipment on the annual family backpack trip on Lantau Island, Hong Kong. Hiked up 3000 feet in 5 miles with our packs. That was a challenge.

 

[churchmouse]

Water/Ammo/Mags/freeze dried soups and entrees/3 cases of MRE's
Spouse is putting in Hygiene supply's.

 

[Dave Doehrman]

Spent the afternoon bagging and storing 50 lbs of rice. I got a new Food Saver vacuum sealer and 100 quart sized bags from Amazon. I went to Menards and bought 7 of their "Food safe" 5 gallon buckets for $3.62 per bucket and the spent $6.29 apiece for the 2 piece Gamma Seal waterproof / air tight lids. I bagged about 1 1/2 pounds of rice per bag. I placed a 3 mil bag in each bucket, loaded the bagged rice and then installed the Gamma Seal lids. All the bagged rice fit into 3 of the pails. I also got (2) 1/2 gallon bottles of honey and a couple big containers of garlic salt and put them into another pail. Got the rice, honey and garlic salt at Costco.

I'm going to Gordon's Food Service tomorrow to try to find 50 pound bags of dried navy beans and pinto beans. I'll probably need a few more buckets and lids, but the cost at Menards isn't too bad especially for reusable and resealable pails.

 

[pudly]

I hope you included oxygen absorbers in the packing process. If not, you might want to consider re-packing.

 

[teddy12b]

I forgot to mention, but on all of my most recent hiking/overnight trips I've been making a list of every item that I've packed. Afterwards I've reviewed those lists marked anything that I carried and didn't use. At first, the exercise seemed more academic then practical, but now that there's 3 or 4 of them I definitely see a pattern in what I actually use, versus all the extra junk I take out with me that I don't need. I'm a hiking/overnight rookie, and I don't feel any shame in saying that so this little paper trail on my computer has been really helpful for me.

 

[churchmouse]

I forgot to mention, but on all of my most recent hiking/overnight trips I've been making a list of every item that I've packed. Afterwards I've reviewed those lists marked anything that I carried and didn't use. At first, the exercise seemed more academic then practical, but now that there's 3 or 4 of them I definitely see a pattern in what I actually use, versus all the extra junk I take out with me that I don't need. I'm a hiking/overnight rookie, and I don't feel any shame in saying that so this little paper trail on my computer has been really helpful for me.

Question......What if you find yourself in a situation and need one or more of those "Items" you listed.
Having been (in the past) a hiker/camper I found times that something you thought un-needed became essential.

 

[spencer rifle]

I forgot to mention, but on all of my most recent hiking/overnight trips I've been making a list of every item that I've packed. Afterwards I've reviewed those lists marked anything that I carried and didn't use. At first, the exercise seemed more academic then practical, but now that there's 3 or 4 of them I definitely see a pattern in what I actually use, versus all the extra junk I take out with me that I don't need. I'm a hiking/overnight rookie, and I don't feel any shame in saying that so this little paper trail on my computer has been really helpful for me.

My oldest son's backpacking rule: anything you don't use by the end of the trip you have to eat.

 

[teddy12b]

Question......What if you find yourself in a situation and need one or more of those "Items" you listed.
Having been (in the past) a hiker/camper I found times that something you thought un-needed became essential.

Personally, I think that's where judgment comes into play. For example, when I've gone in the past I've gotten very lucky with the weather at night and ended up not needing to run a tarp over my hammock. If I just looked at my records and without thought crossed off everything I didn't use then I'd be without a rain cover. Reality is, I'm never heading outdoors without some means to keep the rain & wind off of me if the need should arise. Fortunately, I've never had to dig into my little ziplock first aid kit of Band aids, Pepto, Ibuprofen, Bayer, Chapstick, 5hr energy, Water tablets, etc either, but for no more than that weighs I'll toss it in the bag every time.

Where doing this has been especially handy for me is that I've carried excess food out with me thinking after all that hiking I'd be hungry and reality is for some reason I'm less hungry. I always end up with too many flashlights since it's always easy to justify one more when packing up. I've justified my little baofeng radio in the past as well thinking I could listen to a weather report before bedtime, and also listen to the radio if I ever got bored. In reality, I always look at the clouds from the direction the wind is blowing from and then setup accordingly and I hardly use the FM radio on it, so that's easily a pound that's off the pack next time. Similar experiences when I've taken out an alcohol stove, pack axe, excess fire kits and so on.

I'm not saying this is something that'd work for everyone, but for me it's done a lot of good. I tend to be a gear junkie, and I'm really trying to break myself of that and get into a minimal lightweight type of setup. I still consider myself a rookie at this, but I want to get better.

 

[churchmouse]

Personally, I think that's where judgment comes into play. For example, when I've gone in the past I've gotten very lucky with the weather at night and ended up not needing to run a tarp over my hammock. If I just looked at my records and without thought crossed off everything I didn't use then I'd be without a rain cover. Reality is, I'm never heading outdoors without some means to keep the rain & wind off of me if the need should arise. Fortunately, I've never had to dig into my little ziplock first aid kit of Band aids, Pepto, Ibuprofen, Bayer, Chapstick, 5hr energy, Water tablets, etc either, but for no more than that weighs I'll toss it in the bag every time.

Where doing this has been especially handy for me is that I've carried excess food out with me thinking after all that hiking I'd be hungry and reality is for some reason I'm less hungry. I always end up with too many flashlights since it's always easy to justify one more when packing up. I've justified my little baofeng radio in the past as well thinking I could listen to a weather report before bedtime, and also listen to the radio if I ever got bored. In reality, I always look at the clouds from the direction the wind is blowing from and then setup accordingly and I hardly use the FM radio on it, so that's easily a pound that's off the pack next time. Similar experiences when I've taken out an alcohol stove, pack axe, excess fire kits and so on.

I'm not saying this is something that'd work for everyone, but for me it's done a lot of good. I tend to be a gear junkie, and I'm really trying to break myself of that and get into a minimal lightweight type of setup. I still consider myself a rookie at this, but I want to get better.

Yeah I always carried a lot when we went out but at some point when things went sideways I always had what I needed and others were scrambling to make due with what they had.
The extra food I carried was more for if I got stuck somewhere over weather or injury concerns. Chance favors the prepared mind or something like that.
We went out in all conditions so maybe that played a part in my packing. Late November/early December jaunts were my favorites as to the challenges involved.
Early spring or late fall could be hard to plan for on a minimalist mind set as the weather is ify.
I guess I liked being warm and dry.

 

[teddy12b]

Early spring or late fall could be hard to plan for on a minimalist mind set as the weather is ify.
I guess I liked being warm and dry.

Exactly why I always pack too much. Had enough camp outs with my uncle Sam where I'd have wished for an additional piece of gear or two so I pack too much now. The part that spoiled me is that I was in a mechanized unit and we didn't hump everything in, we just put the pucks in vehicle and off we went.

 

[WETSU]

Lets see. This week:

4 workouts, weights, running, swimming heavy bag.
1 dry fire session- G19, AK, 870
Half day of bushcraft training in the rain and a ruck march. Built a shelter, made a fire. Challenging in the rain.
2 hours of solid team drills with the crew. Focus was on escaping unlawful custody, and shooting your way out of a tight spot. We did this individually and as a small team. Shooting in flexcuffs was not easy, but reloading was worse!!

 

[dusty88]

Does learning a stupid lesson count as prepping?

I normally carry a portable air compressor/charger in each car. Because I was having some kind of unpredictable starting problem in my SUV, I put 2 in there and forgot I did not have one in the Prius (first mistake). So I pull out of the driveway and see the low tire pressure light is on.

Me: "Meh, it's probably just the cooler temps. It is handling OK (or a Prius) so I'll check it at the first stop sign "(which in the rural area is about 5 mi). That was the second mistake.
Just about half-mile before that stop sign car is NOT handling well. I pull over and find a flat. This is when I realize I made the first mistake of not having the air compressor which may or may not have allowed me to inflate it, take it back home quickly, drive a different vehicle to work and deal with the flat at the more appropriate time.

Called AAA (this goes on the "good" list for preps IMO) but they would take an hour to arrive.

I know how to change a tire (normal to most of you but plenty of people don't, I'll put that on the "good" list of something my dad taught me as a teen). However, I've never upgraded any tools in the vehicle and we all know modern jacks and included tools are pretty poor. (Third mistake..... well maybe... but how much can you carry in a Prius?). I started trying to loosen the nuts with the included wrench and wondered if I would even get 1 loose before AAA truck arrived.

As it happened, a nice farmer came by, pulled out his Dewalt and had the tire off in 3 minutes. I will say the jack for the Prius was at least usable, which is better than I can say about some modern cars. And the spare tire was almost as big as the regular Prius tires LOL.

Final lesson (not mistake) was that the kindness of strangers can be as valuable as anything. I'm going to take him a pie or fresh eggs or something this weekend. And there perhaps is "what I did to prep": I've made acquaintance with a worthy neighbor I had not met before.

 

[2in1evtime]

rotating canned goods, adding other staples, more ammo and reloading supplies too. new generator and added 2 more solar panels also. checked all batteries in bank. rotated diesel and gas supply also. since i retired i have been looking for more projects to do. oh and also picked up more rims for my truck and added run flat tires to them for a just in case.

 

[Thor]

Picked up 40lbs of canned organic beef chunks. Now starts the willpower challenge of not eating it all...

 

[Scott357]

Bought 300 rounds of AK ammo, just because it was on sale, plus 4 30 round magazines at 10 bucks each.

 

[mikefraz]

-Bought 500 more rounds of rifle ammo.
-Got three different family members to buy their first rifle. (Election uncertainty helped)
-Trained with my brother on shooting under stress.
-Paid off more debt.

 

[MCgrease08]

Ordered another case of .223 and two AR lowers.