What I/we/you did/bought/built this week/month to improve my/your survivability.

[Malus]

Ordered 3 cases (#10) of Mountain House, bought silver/gold and am currently having an RSF high efficiency wood burning fireplace installed (turn of hydro/baseboard heat). Gonna become a wood chopper........

[Rusty Shackelford]

Bought our first 20# bag of bulk rice. Wife though it was a little silly untill she put it up in air tight containers. Her comment was "wow, that might last us all month if we need it to". I think it was kinda of an "ah ha moment for her.

[mike88]

garden plot layout and digging in back yard. removing ivy vines to use area for food production. picked up lime, 16 16 16 fertilizer,saving the wood ash from burning vines to add to soil. have about 1 cu yard compost to add to soil. plot size approx 24x12. Ordered clothing @ sportsmans guide............5 pr new east european work pants, 5 new swiss work shirt,2pr alpenflage swiss pants new,wool socks, new surplus, 2 pr alpenflage shorts, swiss, new. Inventoried B.O, rucksacks, rotated canned food into kitchen, will replace with fresher stock from pantry. checked rope,firestarter,water containers B.O. bags also. Labeled and invertoried rifle/pistol ammo supply. ordered military folding shovel/pick tool for B.O. vehicle, pistol holster, two pocket mag pouch,30 round sks magazine. Function chek surplus 9mm mags for feg browning clone. Repaired tire on portable air compressor, aired up vehicle tires,inventory POL supplies, and spare ignition parts. Busy week, spread these chores out pretty good tho. little bit each day if possible.

[Maddie]

Later today I'm picking up seven of these shelf kits for $19.99 each--the finished shelves are 60 inches tall, 30 inches wide and 12 inches deep. I can fit an amazing amount of preps on the shelf space I'm acquiring. If you can picture seven of these shelves in a space measuring 42 inches by 88 inches (one flat against the back wall, two along the side wall and four at even intervals between the front and back wall), I'm getting massive storage space for the money. I'm still researching to see how I can get extra single shelves--haven't found anything yet on the company's website, but I'm still digging.

Are any of you familiar with this style of shelf? What I'm wondering is how many extra shelves I could add to one of these units so that I could have smaller vertical stacks on each individual shelf before the weight of the added shelf would become a problem with the frame itself. I probably wouldn't have more than 125 pounds on any single shelf, but if I add a shelf or two and had 125 pounds of stuff on each added shelf, when would that become a problem?

I've screwed a sheet of scrap plywood to the back of shelving like that to help brace it for heavy loads. Adding a strip of lumber to the backing to serve as a lip for the back of a shelf would help carry some of the load. Granted, this is probably too much of an investment if you don't have the scrap lumber lying around (I happened to, so it worked out fine, though I didn't add extra shelves to mine...just stabilized a rickety shelf).

[The Rooster]

Bought 3 hens
Cleared land for the coup
canned chix soup, beef stew, venison chili, strwberry jam
added a misting sprayer to gardens
nearing completion on solar water heaters
built firewood shed
have seedlings started

cant wait for Feb!!!

also bttled 30 - 1.5L bottles of wine (another 15 ready next week)
ordered materials for reflux still - just need the ss keg (partytime!!!)

[TylerDurden]

Bought a 12 gauge shotgun and picked up a case of #10 cans from Augason Farms.

[Nickelless]

I just picked up another four 6-gallon cases of bottled water at Sam's Club and another 18-oz. container of cayenne powder to add to my spice stash:

[GodspeedMetals]

though only a short-term solution... I purchased a xantrex 1500watt power supply a couple of days ago. I'm betting on power outages this spring and summer so I need to keep my refrigerators up and running when the lights go out. Next purchase will be a high wattage gas powered generator or a solar power generator.

[Milanion]

Bought 72 cans of black eyed peas for .39/each and 36 cans of cranberry sauce for .45/each, on sale at Aldi.
Reorganized the room in the basement we are stocking our food in, labeled the 30 buckets down there to make it easier for us to use.
Bought his and hers pocket knives
Started our plants for the spring
Turned the heat off and using the wood stove to warm up the house
Purchased 10 lbs alfalfa sprout seeds and 64 lbs of onion sets

[Lt Dan]

Bought 3 hens
Cleared land for the coup
canned chix soup, beef stew, venison chili, strwberry jam
added a misting sprayer to gardens
nearing completion on solar water heaters
built firewood shed
have seedlings started

cant wait for Feb!!!

also bttled 30 - 1.5L bottles of wine (another 15 ready next week)
ordered materials for reflux still - just need the ss keg (partytime!!!)

Had a rooster given to me and went and got him. He'll be in rooster heaven in with my hens. gonna set some eggs in the incubator later in the spring. Bought 400# of chicken feed before it goes up more. Fed the pig and watched her grow, (food for next winter). Making todo lists for garden and improvements around my farmette. Time to get fruit trees planted, if you plan to do it, I need to prune mine.

[Etheostoma]

though only a short-term solution... I purchased a xantrex 1500watt power supply a couple of days ago. I'm betting on power outages this spring and summer so I need to keep my refrigerators up and running when the lights go out. Next purchase will be a high wattage gas powered generator or a solar power generator.

You might also find this product interesting. http://www.amazon.com/Tripp-Lite-APS.../ref=pd_cp_e_1 I have two units like this. You can hook them up to multiple deep cycle batteries. They charge the batteries, if the power goes out they switch to battery power inverted to 110 volts automatically, and switch back to main power and battery maintenance when the power comes back on. Whatever is plugged into the unit can stay plugged in, and when the mains power is on, it routes the mains power straight through to whatever is plugged in. I have one from this company and one from Vanner. I use them for back up on my Tilapia tanks.

[Barrettone]

Bought a fully restored Massey 35 tractor, two-bottom plow, disc, brush hog, blade and two-row planter with a cultipacker. Also acquired a bobcat loader with forks and bucket. Put up 250 gallons of stabilized diesel and 100 gallons of stabilized gas. Reloaded 100,000 rounds of assorted ammo, and added a lot of food stuffs to the retreat (100 lbs rice, 50 lbs pasta, 12 cases of canned goods, 50 lbs flour and 50 lbs sugar). Picked up a lot of medical supplies and have acquired some more AU, AG, PT, and PD. Also picked up five quads and four sleds as tangibles for getting around if necessary. Added 3 coleman 5000 watt generators to the stash as well (2 running, one for parts). Topped off the month with a Big Berkey purchase plus some spare filters and elements. Been a busy month...

[goldie40]

A peening Jig for Scythe blades and 2 whet stones, one corse and one fine.

[newmisty]

WOW! Now THAT is some serious prepping! 5 quads, 4 sleds, restored tractor, 3 generators, 350 gallons of fuel and AU AG PT PD !?

The economy must be doing really well in your part of the country!!

Bought a fully restored Massey 35 tractor, two-bottom plow, disc, brush hog, blade and two-row planter with a cultipacker. Also acquired a bobcat loader with forks and bucket. Put up 250 gallons of stabilized diesel and 100 gallons of stabilized gas. Reloaded 100,000 rounds of assorted ammo, and added a lot of food stuffs to the retreat (100 lbs rice, 50 lbs pasta, 12 cases of canned goods, 50 lbs flour and 50 lbs sugar). Picked up a lot of medical supplies and have acquired some more AU, AG, PT, and PD. Also picked up five quads and four sleds as tangibles for getting around if necessary. Added 3 coleman 5000 watt generators to the stash as well (2 running, one for parts). Topped off the month with a Big Berkey purchase plus some spare filters and elements. Been a busy month...

[Dutch]

Went to Tractor Supply and found a poly stock tank (8 feet diameter X 24 inch sides) on a $50-off sale. Will use this as a brooder pen for my day-old turkey poults in May.

Have not been happy with my AA/AAA battery situation. So I bought an Ansmann Energy8Plus charger and a small stock of Sanyo "Eneloop" slow discharge NIMH cells. Hoping that this will greatly simplify my AA/AAA battery storage/charging concerns.

Worked-out a trade with my brother. He give me half-a-hog and he gets 3 or 4 cured and smoked turkeys from me.

Finally found a range feeder for my turkeys that is rain-proof and pigeon-proof. It's a 50-pound capacity range feeder from Kuhl Equipment. Nice.

Ordered some bulk seasonings from "The Sausage Maker" in Buffalo, New York. Good quality products at reasonable prices.

Added 300 "bird banger" aerial pyrotechic devices to my existing supply. Great for chasing the deer out of the turkey pens as well as long-distance signal devices should that ever be necessary.

Ordered 300 gallons of gasoline for my bulk tank. Plan on dosing it with a quart of "Pri-G" when it arrives. This would be my generator, chainsaw, ATV & Snowcat fuel supply.

Working on getting in better physical condition. Lost 11 pounds since first of the year, hitting the treadmill daily as well as pushups, situps, etc..

[Barrettone]

WOW! Now THAT is some serious prepping! 5 quads, 4 sleds, restored tractor, 3 generators, 350 gallons of fuel and AU AG PT PD !?

The economy must be doing really well in your part of the country!!

I am VERY BLESSED right now. I am in Michigan, which is actually in the toilet. However, I am the purchasing agent for a HUGE scrap and demolition conglomerate (multiple yards), and all my implements and (at first unrestored) tractor were FREE, as were the generators and bobcat. People bring the darndest things into the yard (that work just FINE) . The generators, quads and sleds were repaired after coming into the yard (cost just $1500 to get them all running). As for the fuel, well, the yards have to drain all that fuel from the trucks and cars before crushing them...ever wonder where all that stuff goes??? We keep it from the newer vehicles, and it works just fine on the farm. As for my AU, AG, PT and PD purchases, they were not THAT impressive. I just spread around my FRN's to get a little of each. Ammo rolling comes easy for me...I am an action shooting competition shooter and have "rolled my own" for many years. I just assembled a ton (literally...nit figuratively) of components I was hoarding so I could put the reloaders up in the attic. Gotta love bein' one of the top dogs at a scrap operation though...you get first crack at all the goodies!!! As long as we are demolishing GM factories and doing strip-outs, I will be doing just fine. You can't even IMAGINE the free crap I get outta those jobs...In 3-5 years though, I could be in trouble when we run out of $hit to smash, so I PREP HARDCORE!!! I pray you are doing the same!!! May God also bless you on your journey to preparedness.

[Barrettone]

Well, it just got here...and it is IMPRESSIVE!!! I upgraded to the Crown Model, and I think it was the right thing to do...Ordered some extra filters/elements as well.

http://www.directive21.com/crown-berkey.html

[Treasure Searcher]

I stocked up on 30 weight oil and hydraulic fluid for the tractor. Also loaded up on grease gun cartridges. With the way oil prices are going, the prices are not going down. "Buy before the rise".

[Lt Dan]

Bought some ammo and stuff at a gun show, then made another stop at Harbor Freight for more DIY hand tools. Not the best quality, but might make that needed repair later on.

[Rusty Shackelford]

Paid off one more of those damn credit cards!!

Also starting to fine tune cooking with beans and rice. What good is stock piling these goods if you can't execute the plan with them. Took a couple of failed attempts, but now it is time to start experimenting with sprucing up SHTF dinner plans.

[Ruprick]

Ran 13 miles...getting my body ready for SHTF. 22 miles of running and 15 miles of walking this week. Even started lifting a few weights.

[Jimfrancisco]

Made a couple of grand on "Matched Betting" (look it up), then bought another Mossberg and another Merc 300 for my boat. Had them all serviced as well, 900hp now if I want it - smokey won't be near me on the lake!
Bought two goats to eat weeds, and made friends with the guy who I let keep cattle on the island - just asked him if he could fence them in a little better since they are ruining my land for fun use (turning it into a marsh), and he said "I'm puttin up a fence tomorrow. Gimme a week to gather them, after that any that escape are yours". I already have one!

[horseman1]

Posted my first question on here and put up 24 mason jars full of stuff I learned about on this forum . So little time left and so much to do.. Thank God the guns and ammo have been in order for years and the whole fam damily are all NRA sharpshooters

[ralleia]

Ordered a cherry tree and a peach tree. Continued research for orders of windbreak trees, blueberry bushes, and raspberry canes. Planted beets, spinach and radish in the hoophouse, tended the peas, kale, lettuce & onions, repotted all tomato seedlings, continued hardening the broccoli and turnip green seedlings. Worried over how far behind I am on the planting...

[Bushpilot]

Cut, split and stacked 7 cords of firewood for next year. Also tapped 25 of our maple trees to make maple syrup. Cant wait. Made 2 gallons of syrup with only 10 taps last year.

BP

[Sampson]

The last few weeks i have been learning and practicing baking simple breads and other simple dough recipes. I am planning on spending many weeks on end in the bush this summer and am using this time to learn and perfect my technique so i can have fresh bread regularly while working.

I am using a very simple recipe and technique and have been very happy with the results as well as how easy and versatile the whole process is.

My basic recipe is to start with two cups of barely warm water into which i dissolve almost a tablespoon of yeast. (i am also working on a good sourdough staarter to replace the yeast) After the yeast is dissolved i add two cups of whole wheat flower and two cups of plain white unbleached flour with a good tablespoon of salt. After mixing gently for about a minute i let it rise in the bowl on the counter for about an hour or so. This makes enough for about four nice little loaves.

After rising the whole thing can be covered loosely (to let gasses escape) and put into the fridge and kept like this for up to two weeks. For bread i wet my hands (so it doesn't stick) and grab out a baseball to softball sized piece of dough and fold it under a couple times to create a boule (ball - french) then place on tinfoil which has been sprinkled with cornmeal to prevent sticking. (can also use parchment paper, pizza peel etc.)

I let the boule set for about a half hour to 45 min and then preheat the oven to 450 (will use toaster oven in the bush to conserve solar power or dutch oven on fire if time allows) Just prior to putting in the oven i sprinkle with flour and cut a few slices into it to allow the bread to expand easily when starting to cook. It is reccomended to use a pizza stone or other heavy flat heatsink to help provide a nice crust and place about a cup of warm water in a metal dish in the oven to create a little steam which helps with the crust as well.

I have also used this dough base to make dumplings for chicken and dumpling stew. Just add a little milk, and some baking powder prior to dropping dough balls into the boiling stew. Real basic, low cost, and damned good tasting too.

Here are a few pics of my loaf from this morning and my roast beef sandwich lunch.

Dough in the bowl. Notice the popped bubbles from the gasses (co2) given off by the yeast.



Formed into a boule



Dust with flower and make some expansion cuts.



Fresh from the oven, notice the little "hat" from the way i make the expansion slices.



I shoulda let it cool a little more before cutting but i like it when it is still warm and the butter melts.



Lunch.




Sometimes it is the little things in life that can remind me just how blessed i am.


Sampson

[Lt Dan]

Collecting eggs for the incubator, hope rooster ain't shootin blanks. LOL. If he is, rooster stew. Plan to put eggs in tomorrow after I gather eggs.

[Anakin]

Nothing this week or month, but a couple months I go I finally got a firearms permit. I haven't bought anything yet but I've been looking at shotguns. A friend of mine is suggesting an over-under as best for the gun range. However, my top priority is home defense.

[Lt Dan]

Nothing this week or month, but a couple months I go I finally got a firearms permit. I haven't bought anything yet but I've been looking at shotguns. A friend of mine is suggesting an over-under as best for the gun range. However, my top priority is home defense.

Personal favorite is Remington 870 pump shotgun, but many also like the Mossberg 500 pump. Either are basic pump shotguns that can be tricked out for home defense. Not bad range guns either. I mostly use mine for deer hunting.

[REO 54]

We are building two gardens for starters.One for us,one for the deer.Keeps them close to the freezer.

[horseman1]

Anakin,

I very much agree with Lt. Dan. My choice is the Mossberg 500 pump because of the location of the safety. However, the Remmy is considered by many to be just a little bit better made. I suspect they might be right, but either one will work very, very well. Mine has never jammed or failed. I have shot the heck out of mine and I still train with it.

[Nickelless]

I went to Sam's Club today and bought another four cases (24 gallons) of water. I now have about five weeks worth of H2O for both me and the missus. My next step, hopefully in the next few weeks, will be a rainwater storage tank. Still trying to figure out where to put it that won't draw unwanted attention.

[horseman1]

I've made a rule that I do at least one thing (even if its really small) every day. The other day, I bought a roll of duct tape, the next day a roll of Al foil and some propane..The other day, I found a way to do something that was so easy it was almost like cheating. I decided it would be fun and easy to dehydrate a lb of extra lean deli ham. That worked really well and was dead simple. 1 lb fits in a pint jar with an O2 absorber, just like it was made for it. I found that the 1/16 inch slices were better than the really thin stuff from the prepackaged bags. Anyway, I just thought I would share my obsession about doing at least one thing every day. Some days, I do a lot more than others, but always something.

[Rusty Shackelford]

Sampson,
We are into bread making too (but alas it is with a bread maker). Been real happy with our progress.

Continue to refine rice and bean recipes. Getting pretty good at that. Got my young girls to the point of thinking rice is not too bad.

Switched by 209X50 barrel for my 12ga turkey barrel on my Encore. Three rounds of Winchester Extended No 6 3-in Mags later and I am confident any tom or jake within 40 yards will find a spot in my roaster.

[Nickelless]

Rusty, care to share any tips on your rice and beans recipes? You might be interested in this:

http://hungrythirstystranger.blogspo...t-have-to.html



As for my preparedness activities this week, I bought two more 40-rolls cases of POM toilet paper at Sam's Club this week. Got just a tad under three cases of TP at the moment.

[Pyramid]

I made potato pancakes for the first time today. They weren't perfect, but a decent start nonetheless with plenty of room for improvement with cheap and readily available ingredients. The recipe was:
-4 russet potatoes, finely shredded/grated; then wrap in a towel and squeeze out as much water as possible
-1 small onion, also finely shredded/grated
-1/4 cup flour of your choice
-2 eggs
-salt & pepper to taste, other seasonings if desired
Mix all together and fire up a reasonably hot pan (I used a cast iron skillet). Put the mix in the pan in small clumps and lightly mash into small pancake-like blobs. My downfall seemed to be having the pan too hot and not re-oiling the pan often enough, as they cooked too fast and semi-burned quickly instead of turning a nice golden brown. I will do better next time...lesson learned. They were very edible, but not the delicacy as I had hoped. Good luck folks.

[Rusty Shackelford]

Rusty, care to share any tips on your rice and beans recipes?

Definitely!! I will post a couple of my favorites as well as a couple that my youngans seem to like. I figure that if I came up with something that a picky 7-yr old thinks is good then I am on to something. Given me a day or so. Here is one that everyone at the house seems to like:

Beef and Black Beans with Rice

2 TBS Veg Oil
1/2 ground beef
1 cup chopped onions
1 cup chopped bell pepper
2 cloves garlic
1 TBS lemon juice
1 TBS prepared mustard
1 tsp chili powder
2 TBS soy sauce
Dash of Cayenne (more if you like heat)
1 cup tomato sauce
2 cups cooked black beans
3 cups cooked rice

Heat oil in skillet and saute onions, peppers and garlic. Add ground beef (I brown before hand to remove any grease)

In small bowl combine lemon juice, mustard, chili powder soy sauce, cayenne and tomato sauce and blend thoroughly. Add to meat mixture . Add cooked beans and let beef/bean mixture simmer for 20 minutes.

Serve over hot rice.

[Merlin]

Rusty, that sounds good to me too. How many mouths does that recipe feed? If you were cooking for 2 average adults, how would you divide? By 2 or 3 or what? Oh, the heck with it. If there are left overs, that works too,

[Rusty Shackelford]

That feeds me and the wife as well as my two girls (age 7 and 11). There is usually enough left over for me and the wife to take for lunch the next day.

[Treasure Searcher]

I went on another buying binge for petroleum products. I bought two cases of 10W30 motor oil, another case of grease gun cartridges, two cases of synthetic motor oil and a case of lead substitute for my old gas tractor.

Around 15 years ago, I purchased cases of 5W30 and 10W30 in Pennzoil quart containers for .69 cents a quart on sale. Today, I looked at the sales ad for the same Penzoil quarts and the sale price is $3.00 per quart.

I have spent around $400.00 so far this year for oil, grease, etc.
Oil prices around $108.00 a barrel. When it goes to $150.00 a barrel, I am already set!

[Lt Dan]

Collecting eggs for the incubator, hope rooster ain't shootin blanks. LOL. If he is, rooster stew. Plan to put eggs in tomorrow after I gather eggs.

Day 21, most all the eggs I put in the incubator are now hatched, only a few left to go. Will get final count tomorrow, when I remove the chicks, but I had 26 eggs of my own and 10 of my daughter-in-law's. Only a few of hers are out, and mostly what I'm waiting on to open it up. Mine started hatching yesterday morning at around 5 AM, DIL's first didn't hatch until sometime between midnight and 3 AM. Lots of excitement around the house on a hatch day. Even my wife, that doesn't particularly like chickens, does enjoy the baby chicks. Who wouldn't?

[AceNZ]

Finally talked my wife into trying a dehydrator. We got an Excalibur, and have been having a blast dehydrating fruit from the garden; dried Fuji apples with cinnamon are a treat. She's a real convert now.

The dehydrator itself is a bit noisy, but we run it at night, so it's tolerable.

[Nickelless]

Ace, let me know if you guys need advice on food dehydration. I've done a little bit of it.

[AceNZ]

Sure, any pointers would be most appreciated.

Are there any foods that work particularly well in the dehydrator? I noticed you have a lot of carrots. Similarly, are there foods to avoid? Any tips or tricks for either the dehydration process, or the storage side?

We're working on fruits and veggies from the garden at the moment, and our first batch of jerky is marinating tonight. We're planning on branching out into locally grown produce -- to stock up when it comes into season, and is cheap.

[Nickelless]

Sure, any pointers would be most appreciated.

Are there any foods that work particularly well in the dehydrator? I noticed you have a lot of carrots. Similarly, are there foods to avoid? Any tips or tricks for either the dehydration process, or the storage side?

We're working on fruits and veggies from the garden at the moment, and our first batch of jerky is marinating tonight. We're planning on branching out into locally grown produce -- to stock up when it comes into season, and is cheap.

I'm partial to spinach and carrots because they're high in Vitamin A. If you want to dehydrate high-sugar fruits or vegetables, you want something like the food-grade mesh sheets that Nesco sells if Excalibur also sells something like them, otherwise your high-sugar stuff will stick to the trays when it dries. It's been several months since I've dehydrated any chicken because I've had so little spare time for the prep work--mostly marinating and cooking--but as far as veggies go I typically buy bags of frozen spinach and carrots (getting ready to change things up with mixed vegetables as well), let them thaw out and then dehydrate them. For the year and a half that I've been doing serious food-storage work, I've been storing my dehydrated meats and veggies in mason jars, which as you noticed from the photo of carrots above I date and then rotate first-in, first out. However, I'm about to transfer most of my stuff in mason jars to mylar bags to help conserve storage space and so I can use the mason jars for other things such as spices, then I'lll put the mylar bags (which I get from Sorbent Systems, which is where I bought my Snorkel-Vac vacuum sealer--if you buy a Snorkel-Vac, I'd recommend not using bags thicker than 3.5mil and be sure to hold the sealer bar down firmly for at least 30 seconds) inside a bucket, snap the lid on to keep critters out and then rotate the bags accordingly.

Some dehydrated items (especially banana chips) are probably cheaper to order from sites such as BulkFoods.com, so you might want to do a cost comparison to see what's cheaper to do yourself and what's cheaper and/or easier to buy already dehydrated.

For what it's worth, I have a number of articles about food dehydration on SurvivalPrep.net, although I'm in the process of transferring all of the articles on the site to a new blog host so I don't have to pay for hosting (I've been using GoDaddy for the past year), so check out what I've got on SurvivalPrep.net, but note the links I'm adding to the new blog host.

If you have any specific questions about dehydration, feel free to PM me and I'll offer any advice I can.

[Nickelless]

Last night I picked up another 40 lbs. of pinto beans at Walmart, but instead of sealing these in mylar I put them in mason jars so I can try to sprout them and/or grow more beans later. I'm planning to pick up other varieties of beans as well to store for later planting.

[HoldingAg]

[QUOTE=Zilver;129611]I had 15 cords of logs delivered;
love the hickory and locust because they both burn long and hot, but the black locust really eats up the chainsaw chains! (about 2 tanks of gas, then it's time to resharpen)
you can actually see sparks sometimes while cutting the locust, the dryer it is, the tougher it is to cut

Zilver, the Sparks aren't from the Locust, they are from the chain being pushed into the Bar to hard. You ever get smoke when you cut? When that stuff starts happening get a new chain on there. I run a small landscaping and tree business.

HoldingAg

[Jimfrancisco]

Or too little chain oil flow - Had that on a cheap chinese saw before I started my vast Stihl 041 collection!

[HoldingAg]

Or too little chain oil flow - Had that on a cheap chinese saw before I started my vast Stihl 041 collection!

haha, you have CAD too huh? Chainsaw Addiction Disease. My favorite forums used to be http://www.arboristsite.com but now my favorite time waster and knowledge producer is GIM!

Quick earth friendly tip about bar oil... USE CANOLA cooking oil. Its dirt cheap, and as long as your not cutting in super cold temps it works great! The other thing is its biodegradable and ok for the enviroment. Most bar oils are just 10W30 with added Tackifiers to minimize chain sling. Don't buy the Bio- bar oil from a place like bailey's because its the same as Canola with some tackifiers but it costs like 20bucks a gall. I use regular canola for like 3 bucks a bottle.

HoldingAg

[Nickelless]

I just picked up my monthly refill of my migraine-preventive. I've now got a full three years worth of my medicine stockpiled. For those of you who want to follow a similar approach as I am with non-controlled prescription meds:

http://survivalprepdotnet.blogspot.c...ore-tshtf.html