Apr202012
31 Comments
Survival Survey: What is your weekend prepping project?
Print 
PDF
image by Ed Yourdon
Sometimes my weekends fly by and in spite of good intentions, Monday arrives and the projects I had hoped to tackle remain untouched.
Not this weekend. I’ve been on a de-cluttering rampage over the past few weeks, donating boxes and boxes of our unwanted stuff to a local charity. I’m also going to be making a batch or two of fresh cream cheese, refining my fledgling cheese-making skills! And last on my list, putting on my plant-doctor’s cap and figuring out what the heck is wrong with a handful of new tomato plants that aren’t exactly thriving.
What are your prepper projects this weekend?
© 2012, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.
(31) Readers Comments
Leave a Reply
A Review of the Diva Cup: Not for the faint of heart. (Men, avert your eyes.)
Thanks for addressing this. I have very heavy periods and I wondered h
A Review of the Diva Cup: Not for the faint of heart. (Men, avert your eyes.)
I purchased my Diva Cup over a year ago but haven't been brave enough
A Review of the Diva Cup: Not for the faint of heart. (Men, avert your eyes.)
I love my DivaCup and will never go back to conventional methods! I a
Leeanne
We have been learning how to fish, different techniques, filleting etc. for our ultimate plan of bein able to feed ur family when shtf
Vickilynn
We’re getting our baby chickens today! Rhode Island Red hens! And we’re building a chicken tractor.
RightWingMom
Finish upgrading our Square Foot Gardens. We’re switching from wooden boards to cinder blocks. (Using the holes in the cinder blocks for additional plantings: strawberries, herbs, etc.)
Reorganizing MomMart, the nickname given to the shelving DH installed in my walk in closet. We’ve added a set of sturdy shelves to the corner of our master bed room. Now I have more shelving space to expand MomMart and better organize!!!
DSs have begun selling paracord wrist bands to their friends. We need to set aside time to fill the orders.
Mary
I have a CERT Communications Team meeting on Saturday morning. I will then be heading out to the Army Surplus store to stock up on the MRE packets (crackers, bread, tortillas, jam, peanut butter) that passed our taste testing experiment last weekend. And finally, I will be taking the dogs on a long hike in an effort to improve my endurance. Hubby will be out doing a Search & Rescue overnight training. We are on top of things this weekend!! However, the garden leaves a lot to be desired!!
Andrea Lynch
Planted the spring garden this morning….beets, onions, potatoes, cabbage, carrots, radishes and sugar snap peas. Gonna taste delish this winter!
Travis Humphreys
Tomorrow we are walking the local creek and identifying and cataloging edible and medicinal plants.
John and Esther Uit de Flesch
fill some water jugs and add a little bleach. Then set aside as reserve water. (Not drinking water).
Kelly
I did some planting in the garden today, which is perfect because it is supposed to rain all weekend. Our other mission is collecting unused items to donate to a local yard sale fundraiser. Clutter is a major downfall of mine.
Erin S
I’ve got several 2 liters to fill and I need to go through our BOBs. I’ve put that off for too long.
Becky J.
We have been hardening off our vegetables this week and hope to get them in the garden this weekend. My husband built a great grow light on an adjustable stand and we have about ninety plants that are thriving so far. My Timberland boots arrived today so I will start breaking them in tomorrow and I have several 2 liter bottles to wash and fill to add to our water supply. Currently we are both reading “At First Light” and discussing it daily is one of my favorite activities!
countrygirl
working on ham radio licensing, not terribly exciting but important, decluttering, finishing some quilts.
I’m jealous hearing about all the gardening, we are still cold with snow and ice and 20 degree weather in my parts of Alaska, soon, soon, I’ll be gardening.
Looking into how best to get chicks and some turkeys.
countrygirl
Update, had to withdraw from the ham radio class due to a time conflict, but got in some garage sales where we found some canning jars and books on the solar system and atmosphere.
When ptarmigin hunting yesterday and did well, realized how helpful it is to have the dog to reduce any loss or wounded birds. (we have one trained dog and one puppy, yesterday we hunted in pairs, and we didn’t have the dog with us, had to call it over at one point to find a lost bird) Trying to make jerky out of some, we’ll see how it turns out.
Made sourdough pancakes and have been reading about the starter, which we’ll have to keep going, we’ve failed to do this in the past.
Stealth Spaniel
The spaniels are over the moon now that mom is trying to get into shape! We walk at least 2x a day-and I mean l-o-n-g ones. They have been able to sandwich in 5 naps a day plus 2 extra snack bones to help get mom long & lean !!
I am picking up spoon rests from World Market-clearance sale for $1.98 each. They are very versatile; their oblong shape also means they can hold eggs/vegetables/spices for cooking, and if SHTF, they would do a great job of holding suturing thread, needles, etc. They are porcelain so they can be sterilized. A great resource!
Working on my fledgling garden plants.
Stephen Clay McGehee
Yesterday, we installed a Bison hand pump in tandem with our regular submersible electric pump, so we now have water – electricity or not. At the same time, we installed a completely rebuilt deep well hand pump in another well. This morning has been spent greasing the bearings and other minor “tweaking”.
It sure feels good to have two hand pump sources of good clean water!
CouponCook
Would you mind sharing your plans? Our pump was converted 10 years ago to city water. We thought about making it a hand pump and keeping the city water. We’ve thought about putting it back into service as an electric pump as well. Not too sure what we want to do. I’m awfully tired of paying for water when its free-ish (gotta pay for electricity) in the back yard.
Stephen Clay McGehee
CouponCook said:”Would you mind sharing your plans?”
Yes, I’d be glad to. I took a lot of photos during the installation and will be writing a short series of posts on my blog – one on the installation, a review of the Bison pump, and one on the conventional hand pump. I have already written the installation post, but I wanted to get the review post done before I publish the installation post. If Survival Mom wants, she is welcome to add it to this site (my blog is not as focused on preparedness as The Survival Mom is).
The beauty of the Bison Pump (when installed the way mine was) is that a single well contains both an electric pump AND a hand pump. There are other systems out there that accomplish the same thing, but after looking at the others, this system was the hands-down winner.
Half Acre Heaven
Today we’ll finish planting the first round of garden goodies, and start prepping the rest of the garden for the warmer weather crops. We’re trying Wall-O-Water season extenders for the first time this year and will put out some tomatos today! We will also be honing our foraging skills by looking for Morels this weekend. Our first meat birds and a few new layers are happy and growing well, now I just need to learn how to butcher a chicken. Scary but exciting.
Mandy
Decluttering & yard work. We’ve already been to the gym today and are at the library where we’ve been studying gardening, backyard farming and foraging for our area.
CouponCook
We’re working this weekend on building bird netting boxes to go over our blueberry bushes. And building A frame trellises for our squash and cucumbers to climb. I bought a bushel of snap peas at the farmers market today. so I’m going to be pressure caning until midnight probably. but while I wait on the canner, I can read the book I checked out at the library, herbal gardening. It seems that there aren’t enough weekend hours to get it all done. But then again on a homestead, no matter how small, is it ever done?
SallyD.
We put 10 pounds of rice and 5 pounds of beans into vacuum sealer bags, and got them stored last night. Today we went to a few thrift stores and found 2 sleeping bags ( brand new ) for $10, and a few more odds and ends for camping and bugging in or out depending on the situation. Next weekend we are going to work on the tiny tiny garden we hope to plant. My Mom is teaching me to can with her pressure canner over the summer, might need something to put in the jars.
Lindyrb
I put together a composter, seasoned our new charcoal grill and will be spending most of tomorrow organizing my prepping storage room. Having just moved into our new (more rural) house a couple weeks ago, everything’s still pretty chaotic. Gotta get some organization!
joe
Mine is to inform people of a great site for learning for free and some of these courses can be very helpful. I am firefighter paramedic and we are required to take some of these, but I love free stuff; especially education so I have taken most of these over the past couple of years. I say try it; it can’t hurt. It is free FEMA courses.
http://training.fema.gov/IS/crslist.asp
traumamamma
Are ya an Incident Commander yet? I, too, am a medic that works in the ER and we, too, are required to have all the ICS stuff to swallow…but, as you said, it is free, and the general public can only benefit from learning the system, and to see how the system travels downhill. It only reinforces the need for citizens to prepare to potentially be on their own for quite a while. Thanks for mentioning the link.
Lisa
I watered my “bucket garden”, accidentally made a double batch of pound cake so canned half of that, had success(!) for the first time with homemade granola. Tomorrow I MUST clean up these piles and piles of papers that surround my desk, and in the process will be starting my Survial Mom and GNG binders
Tried to buy your book this morning, but our local Hastings ins’t carrying it 
Guess I’ll have to order online and wait for it!
Lisa in AZ
MC
I went to the local drugstore. They had 500 count packs of napkins 75% off. Bought two of them with coupons, paid nothing out of pocket. They also had a stack of the plastic organizers for two liter bottles that come on the drink trucks. I asked and they gave me twelve of them. Now I have a way to stack and store 96 two-liter bottles. I also refined my go bags a little bit more. My Steripen came in the mail today and I spent some time messing around with that and my fire starters before putting them on the shelf. Tomorrow I will clean jars in preparation for making strawberry syrup this week and will sort the ten pounds of pinto beans before sealing then in quart jars with an oxy pack. Then I’m going to lay on the sofa for a long long time.
Karen
Today we emptied the coat closet that we almost never used (we live in Florida) and put shelving in it to store non-food items. The few coats we have, and all the light bulbs, were taken out and the coats were put into bedroom closets. The light bulbs and other non-food items are in the closet now. I love it! Makes me appear so organized.
pool
Maybe not quite prepping but we went to a CITO event with a local geocaching group, planted sweet corn while doing other work in the garden, let my daughters and thier friends cook hot dogs and marshmallows over an open fire while cooking chops for wife and me on grill, and had a nice long talk with an elderly neighbor about “the old days”. Pretty nice day here in OK. Pool
terri
Spend Saturday shopping at local Thrift stores…Half price day today.. Got lucky I bought 2 sleeping bags for $2.00 each A few food storeage buckets which i paid $.99 each also a very large tarp with poles for $3.00. So I must say I am a Happy woman LOL..
Saintprepp
Did a Sam’s club run yesterday. Oven canned 12lb of pasta and 7lb of oatmeal. First time oven canning dry good. Found out vegitable pasta doesn’t work. I put it in the oven for 1hr @ 250 and as it cooled I had condensation in the jar. Good learning. I guess I am having pasta tonight:) Also reoranized my prepps and consolidated. Looking forward to the call this week about bug out bags. I need a lot of help in this area. Also started to evaluate off site locations to store cache in closer to a bugout location. Have a great week.
charley
Finished up getting the rest of my onion and green pepper seeds out. I have potatoes coming up. (Planted them in a potato bag that I made) I don’t plant enough to sustain myself, just enough to make sure I know how.
I’ve learned of 4 ‘weeds’ that grow in my yard that I am comfortable with. They are edible, very nutritious, and I can make tea. (gotta have my tea!)Also know the location of every willow and birch tree in the neighborhood.
I’ve harvested some of each and dried them and tried them for taste.
I’m a ‘list’ person
I make lists constantly.
It keeps me on track and gives me a good feeling when I can cross something off my list.
Casey
Made bannock bread in the sun oven. It only took an hour, so I had time for another batch, this time with shredded cheese added — yummy! Then pasteurized water with a WAPI (water pasteurization indicator).