What did you do to prepare today?

Kevhog1988 · 22-09-2015 12:09pm

realdanbreen wrote: »

Why do you need to carry a knife?

Handy for my line of work. (Groundworks). Its not in a protection sort of way at all.

my3cents · 22-09-2015 12:34pm

realdanbreen wrote: »

Why do you need to carry a knife?

I don't carry what I consider to be a knife but always have some sort of small blade on me. Current one is a tiny leatherman style I've had for about a year. Its not got any pliers on it (its just the handle part). I've recently used it to, mark up wood for cutting (couldn't find pencil in a hurry), sharpen pencils, open sand and cement bags, open feed sacks, open coal bags, cut string in the garden, file my nails, cut my nails and tighten a couple of small screws.

So its sounds like I'm really organised, but believe me I'm not, without a knife handy I'd go wandering off looking for one get distracted and end up starting another job altogether.

Edit> Someone elses review of my EDC pocket carry http://forum.multitool.org/index.php?topic=25084.0 I agree with most of it but just don't like small SAK's.

my3cents · 22-09-2015 12:54pm

theemigrant wrote: »

Handy for my line of work. (Groundworks). Its not in a protection sort of way at all.

You'd have a good laugh at my caravan "foundations", many would say overkill but at least no one laughs at my block work until I tell them it took me nearly 3 weeks to lay the 300 blocks - about 20 a day

my3cents · 25-09-2015 3:57pm

On the last legs of the caravan subframe repairs. Today I got the whole thing jacked up so its level. That meant dropping the height of one corner by about an inch and raising the diagonally opposite corner (33ft away) by 5 inches.

The way I have supported it gives me 16 jacking points on the new base frame and I didn't want to damage anything by suddenly moving any one point by too much in one go. Phase one was to get it all within about 2 inches by supporting the caravan on its new base frame and then to jack each section about 3/4 of an inch at a time to its final height.

I can if necessary leave it at that stage for the winter as it won't get used that much but I want to get the toilet back up and running so still on the list is, finish adding all the cross braces, replace and rerun the waste pipes from the kitchen sink, shower and bathroom sink (toilet remained connected) replace the mains water cock, insulate the water pipes, reinforce the floor in a couple of places (mainly the bathroom) and turn the water back on. Nothing very difficult but crawling under what is now a much expanded crawl space is still a pain in the proverbial.

Forgot to mention one main S&SS reason for doing all this. If the local river floods then so can the house but the caravan is another 2 feet above the floor height of the house so can be a dry refuge in an emergency.

aaakev · 25-09-2015 7:04pm

Have you got a flood defense m3c? These look to be decent and if you have no vents at floor height they would be a good job to keep the water out

http://www.irishfloodbarriers.ie/main-page_1.html

my3cents · 25-09-2015 7:15pm

aaakev wrote: »

Have you got a flood defense m3c? These look to be decent and if you have no vents at floor height they would be a good job to keep the water out

http://www.irishfloodbarriers.ie/main-page_1.html

Wouldn't work. Cottage is 200 years old and has no foundation and originally an earth floor. If you try and keep it out the water just comes up through the floor.

aaakev · 25-09-2015 7:22pm

my3cents wrote: »

Wouldn't work. Cottage is 200 years old and has no foundation and originally an earth floor. If you try and keep it out the water just comes up through the floor.

Ah ****e..... Will drain away pretty quick then too of suppose?

my3cents · 25-09-2015 8:06pm

Drains away very quickly. There is a local story about a previous owner who cut a hole for the water to flow out at the lowest point (house is on a slight slope) but I don't actually believe that as the drainage is good.

I've done loads to stop help improve the situation, for a start heavy rain used to flood the drive and the water ran in through the back door. It had been doing that for years and all I did was change the camber on the drive and problem solved.

Some floods, a combination of high tide, storm, wrong wind direction and a lot of rain we can't escape but I've improved the flow of the river slightly, lowered the level of the land near the river so there is somewhere for the overflow when it floods out over and blocked and diverted the flow that used to come into the yard across the fields from the valley behind us. But as I said somewhere the house had been here 200 years or more so I doubt we are going to wash away.

aaakev · 25-09-2015 8:22pm

Sounds like a nice place ya got there, would love to see some pictures sometime of the area if that's possible

Is the river close to the house?

my3cents · 25-09-2015 9:27pm

aaakev wrote: »

Sounds like a nice place ya got there, would love to see some pictures sometime of the area if that's possible

Is the river close to the house?

I just had a pile of pictures ready to post and then decided against it as it is all too easy to work out where we are from them. We are right beside the river and very close to the sea. Annoyingly the river doesn't have much fall on it and in recent years almost dries up in the summer otherwise I would definitely have some form of hydroelectric system running.

my3cents · 28-09-2015 6:15pm

And if in doubt ....

.... get more wood.

Trailer was still out (not stored away at the back of the shed) and I needed some fittings for the caravan, mains water stop cock and the waste water fittings so took the trailer with me and got what will probably the last load of wood I'll get this winter.

Wood collection went well and got a full trailer load. Replacing the water stopcock went like a dream but discovered I need a new sink trap as the current one is an old standard so the new pipe doesn't fit.

iainBB · 28-09-2015 9:22pm

Today I was saving lettuce and quinoa seeds

wolfeye · 14-10-2015 5:08pm

Got a Fishing sleep suit in Aldi today reduced to 15.99 euro from 44 euro.

Olive coloured or Blue.Got the olive one.

Large size 190 cm. 3 season rating -5 c to +5 c.

250gsm hollow fibre.

I weighed the large size .It was 1.70kg in stuff sack.

Good value for 15.99 euro.

http://www.offerscheck.org/fishing-sleep-suit/aldi/2015/kw-31/260160

patspost · 14-10-2015 8:27pm

I must keep an eye out for the fishing suit, good value at that price!!
What part of the country did you pick it up in?

wolfeye · 14-10-2015 8:39pm

patspost wrote: »

I must keep an eye out for the fishing suit, good value at that price!!
What part of the country did you pick it up in?

Passing through Longford town ,got it in the Aldi store there.

my3cents · 22-10-2015 9:01pm

Just back from the UK but didn't have a chance to do much shopping but got a few items

200 Paracetamol (found a place that sells 5 packets at a time and went through several different tills). <£4
10 months supply of my hay fever tablets (certirizene dihydrochoride) £13
Plus a few other cheap med items, aspirin for heart attack prevention (just because I saw them on the shelf must do some research) <£1 for a months supply, germolene 99p a tube and some more antihistamine cream for bug bites £1.45 a tube.

Non meds, half a dozen glow sticks all green which afaik give out the most light and a cheap very light weight gas stove I'll do a review of just as soon as I have a gas cylinder for it.

thehippychippy · 25-10-2015 10:16pm

Got my anvil set up yesterday and hammered out a flint striker today. Chuffed, as it throws great sparks but my design needs work. Practice practice practice!

anvilfour · 26-10-2015 9:22am

thehippychippy wrote: »

Got my anvil set up yesterday and hammered out a flint striker today. Chuffed, as it throws great sparks but my design needs work. Practice practice practice!

I am always overwhelmed at the range of talent on here, very impressive the hippychippy, you'll be making fire long after all the matches are used up WTSHTF! :-D

my3cents · 28-10-2015 11:46pm

Bought more junk

What do they say about other peoples rubbish :rolleyes:

Once again bought stuff I don't really need but quality was so good that I couldn't leave it there. A two man lightweight tent and a Vango sleeping bag for €14, charity shop buy not a mark on either. Only had a quick look at the tent and even the underside of the ground sheet is clean. I can guess the age of the sleeping bag by the materials used, its filled with Du Ponts Micro-Loft so probably 15 years old but that doesn't stop it being a better sleeping bag than one I already have (also machine washable which is where its headed). I guess the tent is the same sort of age will try and get it up tomorrow and then decide which older/cheaper tent gets the push.

Tabnabs · 29-10-2015 4:15pm

Finally got round to buying a Mora hook knife. Bought it in Gough Tools in Dublin city centre (http://www.goughtools.com/wood/morakniv.html ). Haven't had a chance to try out the knife yet, but just wanted to recommend the shop and owner. An absolute gent who took his time to show me the full range. His shop is an aladdin's cave for anyone interested in self-sufficiency with all sorts of quality tools on sale.

Well worth a trip in.

Just to note, the location is actually beside Army Bargains and not where the google map on his website shows it.

davycc · 29-10-2015 8:35pm

Tabnabs wrote: »

Finally got round to buying a Mora hook knife. Bought it in Gough Tools in Dublin city centre (http://www.goughtools.com/wood/morakniv.html ). Haven't had a chance to try out the knife yet, but just wanted to recommend the shop and owner. An absolute gent who took his time to show me the full range. His shop is an aladdin's cave for anyone interested in self-sufficiency with all sorts of quality tools on sale.

Well worth a trip in.

Just to note, the location is actually beside Army Bargains and not where the google map on his website shows it.

another vote from me i used to work in Axa wolfe tone st and was delighted when payday came so i could get some more toys from Gough's :cool:

an alladins cave is right

thehippychippy · 29-10-2015 11:38pm

Tabnabs wrote: »

Finally got round to buying a Mora hook knife. Bought it in Gough Tools in Dublin city centre (http://www.goughtools.com/wood/morakniv.html ). Haven't had a chance to try out the knife yet, but just wanted to recommend the shop and owner. An absolute gent who took his time to show me the full range. His shop is an aladdin's cave for anyone interested in self-sufficiency with all sorts of quality tools on sale.

Well worth a trip in.

Just to note, the location is actually beside Army Bargains and not where the google map on his website shows it.

Me too. Love the shop

my3cents · 30-10-2015 3:40pm

An update on my €10 tent bargain. Good news and bad news, good news is its seems to be quite new, 2010-11 season, an OzTrail Outer Limits Eclipse 2 man. I got it up yesterday and the flysheet and inner are perfect but the bad news is I have to replace one of the tent pole sections as I guess someone fell into the tent and broke two of the ferrules on one pole section. I repaired it so I could put it up but wouldn't risk using with two critical ferrules cut down to half the size they should be. I'll fabricate a replacement from a cheap set of 8.5mm poles from ebay china a €20 repair which will leave me with lots of spares, but if that fails the manufacturers say they can supply the part required but it will be more expensive.

my3cents · 30-10-2015 3:42pm

thehippychippy wrote: »

Me too. Love the shop

Some pictures of this Aladdins cave someone please :cool: I'm sure the owners won't mind.

my3cents · 22-11-2015 1:56pm

Just over three months back I posted about preserving lemons in salt

Well last night I decided I better try one out. tbh I wasn't expecting the results I got. The salt (and there was loads of it) has all vanished into the lemons, the juice has also almost all gone and the lemon peel is soft almost sweet and deliciously edible. I did go a bit mad and had about half a lemon and while I didn't notice too much salt I did notice it had a desiccant effect on the inside of my mouth.

They aren't really for eating raw although I'm going rinse the contents of one jar cut them into individual segments then put them in a slightly larger jar filled with olive oil for just the purpose. Should also give a flavoured olive oil.

Next I need to find how I like them in cooking, I think they'll be great in curry's and will try them tonight by putting them in with roast lamb.

anvilfour · 22-11-2015 4:30pm

my3cents wrote: »

Just over three months back I posted about preserving lemons in salt

Well last night I decided I better try one out. tbh I wasn't expecting the results I got. The salt (and there was loads of it) has all vanished into the lemons, the juice has also almost all gone and the lemon peel is soft almost sweet and deliciously edible. I did go a bit mad and had about half a lemon and while I didn't notice too much salt I did notice it had a desiccant effect on the inside of my mouth.

They aren't really for eating raw although I'm going rinse the contents of one jar cut them into individual segments then put them in a slightly larger jar filled with olive oil for just the purpose. Should also give a flavoured olive oil.

Next I need to find how I like them in cooking, I think they'll be great in curry's and will try them tonight by putting them in with roast lamb.

Thanks for posting followup buddy, I had been wondering, would you let us know how well they go down with the lamb?

my3cents · 22-11-2015 6:53pm

anvilfour wrote: »

Thanks for posting followup buddy, I had been wondering, would you let us know how well they go down with the lamb?

No problem, I hate it when others don't followup so make a point of doing so even if sometimes it looks like I'm talking to myself

No more updates on this one tonight as plans have changed and the menu is now omelet and chips. The chips are from the freezer but at least the eggs are fresh out the chickens bum

my3cents · 23-11-2015 9:44pm

So got around to washing off half one of the smaller jars I cut the lemon into segments and rejared into a smaller jar and filled the jar up with olive oil. Will try and keep that for a month or so before I start eating it out the jar.

Finally got around to the lamb which ended up in some sort of risotto. The lemon went well with the rice and great with the lamb. I'd have used even more lemon but then I always over do things.

Edit> Have noticed a build up of eggs from our hens so have some more pickling to do, they don't last long

my3cents · 24-11-2015 5:39pm

my3cents wrote: »

An update on my €10 tent bargain. Good news and bad news, good news is its seems to be quite new, 2010-11 season, an OzTrail Outer Limits Eclipse 2 man. I got it up yesterday and the flysheet and inner are perfect but the bad news is I have to replace one of the tent pole sections as I guess someone fell into the tent and broke two of the ferrules on one pole section. I repaired it so I could put it up but wouldn't risk using with two critical ferrules cut down to half the size they should be. I'll fabricate a replacement from a cheap set of 8.5mm poles from ebay china a €20 repair which will leave me with lots of spares, but if that fails the manufacturers say they can supply the part required but it will be more expensive.

A further update. The slow boat from china must have docked recently as my spare tent poles arrived today. I split the new tent poles up into individual sections (normally all shock corded together) and them cut the sections down to the right size and achieved a perfect erection

I can now see this is very cosy as a two man tent but as its very lightweight I suspect it might do duty as a spacious one man tent.

If anyone needs advice repairing broken aluminum tent poles the sort that are flexible and are bent around the tent then let me know. Even if you need to replace them all on a 2-3 man tent I can't see it costing more than say €30 to fabricate a new set. I only needed to replace 3 sections but it was still cheaper to buy a cheap set from HK (about 16 sections) and cut them to the required size than it was to get the manufacturer to supply the spares.

aaakev · 01-12-2015 11:13am

Filled my freezer! just ran out of the last bit of venison i had a few weeks ago so all topped up now

and got a nice hide i might do something with

_Tombstone_ · 01-12-2015 9:01pm

Poor auld deer

my3cents · 01-12-2015 9:03pm

_Tombstone_ wrote: »

Very tasty poor auld deer

fyp :pac:

aaakev · 01-12-2015 9:22pm

_Tombstone_ wrote: »

Poor auld deer

Haha you may be in the wrong forum

my3cents · 01-12-2015 9:29pm

I used to get 100% venison sausages from a guy I got permission to shoot over the land I worked on in the UK, nothing to beat them.

The strange part was that the guy was the head food health inspector for the county I lived in and we met when someone said he might be the person to contact to remove a road kill deer from the garden and yes he made sausages out of that one too

aaakev · 01-12-2015 9:53pm

Waiting on my new rifle licence to come through, hopefully before the end of the season so I can get out again. If I get more I'll be glad to share

m5ex9oqjawdg2i · 11-12-2015 4:51pm

I tried to convince my girlfriend to begin stocking up on food. I have always kept a good stock of non perishable goods, but the last couple of years have not been fantastic. She's not really interested in prepping or survivalism at all

my3cents · 11-12-2015 5:00pm

Kimberly Red Motorbike wrote: »

I tried to convince my girlfriend to begin stocking up on food. I have always kept a good stock of non perishable goods, but the last couple of years have not been fantastic. She's not really interested in prepping or survivalism at all

You need to negotiate a space thats yours and slowly build up your own supplies. It might not be long before you can save the day with something from your store and convince your girlfriend that stocking up is a good idea.

_Tombstone_ · 11-12-2015 7:46pm

What type of Foods would you stock up on?

I opened a 3 year out of Best Before Tin of Kidney Beans the other day, they were iffy, I've another one and I can tell it's iffy looking at the tin. It's swollen abit. And they're not ring pull tins either.

Now I've a 7 year out of Date box of Bran Flakes and they are fine, I've a few others in similar dates, ok as well. They kept getting pushed to the back of the press if favour of Crunchy Nut and the like.:p

So if stocking up, dried seems the way to go. Cereals are cheap enough.

What say ye?

Is their a point though? If When it comes a time to actually use them...by 2050 with Population Size, Climate (looking at the early draught of the climate talks in Paris, it's just a holiday to them, they've haven't agreed on anything important, Fines, enforecment of fines, what degree in temp to aim for, 1.5 is bullsh1t) Food Prices, Population Migration is gonna be big with sea leveling rising/countries drying up. Living condition standards are always slipping, poverty numbers are always growing. Employment, who knows where this is going with computers and robots. Everything just seems to be getting worse and worse.

my3cents · 11-12-2015 7:55pm

It takes a little bit of organisation but the idea is you rotate your store so you don't have any thats out of date.

Thats an ideal but if the majority of what you store is what you eat anyway then its easy enough.

I go through stocks every 6 months and bring into the kitchen anything thats near its BBD and then go any buy replacements. This time of year I stock up on Christmas stuff that lasts, Aldi and Lidl Christmas puddings for example. They have over a year on the BBD and get better with age.

aaakev · 11-12-2015 7:59pm

TheXmas pudding is a great one for a bag. i keep one in my get home bag in the car with some other bits, great energy in a small pack. Its been known to need replacing a couple of times though.....

_Tombstone_ · 11-12-2015 8:04pm

my3cents wrote: »

It takes a little bit of organisation but the idea is you rotate your store so you don't have any thats out of date.

Thats an ideal but if the majority of what you store is what you eat anyway then its easy enough.

I go through stocks every 6 months and bring into the kitchen anything thats near its BBD and then go any buy replacements. This time of year I stock up on Christmas stuff that lasts, Aldi and Lidl Christmas puddings for example. They have over a year on the BBD and get better with age.

How many months stock?

What do they stock in them doomsday bunkers in the US?

my3cents · 11-12-2015 8:07pm

aaakev wrote: »

TheXmas pudding is a great one for a bag. i keep one in my get home bag in the car with some other bits, great energy in a small pack. Its been known to need replacing a couple of times though.....

I tend to buy a load after Christmas when they reduce them. I find the single portion ones best.

my3cents · 11-12-2015 8:13pm

_Tombstone_ wrote: »

How many months stock?

What do they stock in them doomsday bunkers in the US?

If you want to spend a fortune then you can get meals that will last a very very long time. Check out Mountain House as a suppler/manufacturer. The trick is to keep the cost down. Some stuff that has a very low acidity like a lot of meat products have 4-5 year BBD's and will last 10-20 no problem. Corned Beef is an example, most of the cheap canned meats in Lidl/Aldi. I find we don't eat much of them so when they occasionally come in from the store we eat a few ourselves and I give the dogs a small amount with each meal.

Edit> I'm confident we'd be 100% OK for two weeks 99% confident we'd be OK for a month and we'd have a bases for lasting a lot longer.

my3cents · 11-12-2015 8:28pm

Mountain House 12 and 25 year shelf life http://www.mountainhouse.com/M/TASTE.html - if you can afford them.

my3cents · 14-12-2015 6:03pm

On the subject of Christmas puddings, I checked the store while looking for something else (I know I have a bag of refill First Aid Kit stuff somewhere) and found some out of date one person Christmas puds. One was out of date 06/14 so probably three and a half years old and 5 more were 06/15. Tried the 06/14 last night and it was grand couldn't tell the difference between it and the 06/15 one.

I should have rotated them earlier but perhaps I meant to keep one a bit longer than normal just to test out how well they keep. Anyway I've proved can add at least another 18 months onto the BBD of supermarket Christmas puddings. btw I store them in a cool spot inside airtight ziplock bags.

my3cents · 18-12-2015 4:39pm

Believe it or not I rarely eat Christmas pudding but here I go on about them again :rolleyes: I went to replace my used stocks and found Lidl had no small ones in the store I use so went over to Aldi and found a great deal. Aldi had 100g mini Christmas Puds for €1.29 but their 454g Christmas Puds were reduced from €2.99 to €1.99 so I bought 3 of them. BBD are middle of 2017 so they could easily be kept under good conditions till 2019.

SlowBlowin · 18-12-2015 7:57pm

Hi

Anyone else got a good stock of fishmox, and the other "treatments" ?

Mine takes up a whole shelf in the fridge..

SB

Fiskar · 18-12-2015 8:08pm

Cut some of the 2018 wood up, went to the recycling centre for the annual clear out, dumped scart sockets (HDMI has taken over), batteries, light bulbs (yes even CFLs fail) and waste oil. Chopped more kindling has arrived!!

my3cents · 18-12-2015 9:06pm

Fiskar wrote: »

Cut some of the 2018 wood up, went to the recycling centre for the annual clear out, dumped scart sockets (HDMI has taken over), batteries, light bulbs (yes even CFLs fail) and waste oil. Chopped more kindling has arrived!!

I wish I could still work like that, I used to have 3 years wood all cut ready and so much kindling you could have burnt it for a year without ever burning a log.

ShadowFox · 19-12-2015 4:48am

Over the last couple of weeks I've date checked everything and listed forgotten items in food and water storage. Yesterday we got a surprise delivery of logs as a gift ( note to self when recovering from a back injury just supervise don't help ). Picked up some hand tools at a flea market for a couple of Euro . Last weekend we shut off the power to the dismay of the kids but it was the best one yet just need to pick up more board games for a change and some other books

What did you do to prepare today?

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