What did you do today to prep...

[Knecht]

There was a strong wind yesterday night, so today we picked a really nice bunch of walnuts under the tree. Dried some pears in the oven. Also harvested two boxes of apples. The second brew of plum jam came out nicely, much thicker and jelly-like, unlike the first one that ended up thin, more like a sauce. Will be great for dumplings though.
Yesterday's wind and rainstorm has brought us a short blackout, just several hours (not unusual in this rural area), so I utilized some candle stumps that I keep on top of my long term candle supply for these occassions. It's also good to practice working in candlelight now and then, though I generally have enough of that training in reenactment.
Received my new "tactical" pants. A new (to me) model by Helikon, which is one of my trusty and favorite brands. They were on discount, so I though I'll give them a try. Very pleased by the mods they did since my last purchase! Side pockets are much better equipped to hold large rifle magazines now (including inner elastic loops and a handy button in the middle that will divide the mags and prevent them clapping on each other), other pockets have also been upgraded. I've "settled" them for test wearing (belt, knives, holster, spare magazine, emergency capsule, Izraeli bandage in the calf pocket etc.) but I already think they will become my new favorite pants. Will likely get a pair or two extra, to keep for future, in case they changed the pattern to worse.

[Carl]

  I gave a new soldering gun ,LED lights,battery charger,and TWO 40 meal buckets of long term storage foods to a friend in need to 'jump start' his storm shelter and emergency supply.

[antsyaunt]

Wow, Carl, that was really nice of you.  Your friend must be thrilled. 
Last week  I canned pears.  I added a pinch of five-spice powder for flavor, and they turned out really well.  I tried to make the pear butter recipe that Redman posted, but somehow I over-salted it and ended up tossing it away.  I also made some salsa using Mrs. Wages’ mix.  It was a good week. 

[Carl]

Wow, Carl, that was really nice of you.  Your friend must be thrilled. 
Last week  I canned pears.  I added a pinch of five-spice powder for flavor, and they turned out really well.  I tried to make the pear butter recipe that Redman posted, but somehow I over-salted it and ended up tossing it away.  I also made some salsa using Mrs. Wages’ mix.  It was a good week.

Thank you but I always try to keep spares of important items on hand and DON is working hard to provide for his teen daughters and really is more likely to need some items in his.   storm shelter as they get some bad storms in his part of Oklahoma . I just yesterday gave one of my Big Stick Ham antennas to a 'born again' long time licensed ,just rediscovering radio  Ham and must say that is one good thing about the low cost Chinese radios as they are the start for many new Hams these days.

[Redman]

Wow, Carl, that was really nice of you.  Your friend must be thrilled. 
Last week  I canned pears.  I added a pinch of five-spice powder for flavor, and they turned out really well.  I tried to make the pear butter recipe that Redman posted, but somehow I over-salted it and ended up tossing it away.  I also made some salsa using Mrs. Wages’ mix.  It was a good week.

Five spice pears, mmmmmm. I love five spice powder. Sorry the pear butter didn't turn out. Maybe you mistakenly used 2 Tablespoons salt instead of 2 teaspoons. Still 2 tsp. may be too much. I made salsa with Mrs. Wages mix a couple weeks ago also. Used the medium, I like the stuff.

[Stwood]

Picked up another 4? bags of walnuts, probably more today. Have trees in the barn lot that are producing again.
Picked more peppers for seeds.

[Knecht]

Picked walnuts as well, thanks to another windstorm yesterday night they were everywhere. I believe squirrels have declared djihad on me by now. They certainly don't want to share. Just one walnut tree here and so much troubles already - now at the new place I'll have 4!

[Stwood]

Picked walnuts as well, thanks to another windstorm yesterday night they were everywhere. I believe squirrels have declared djihad on me by now. They certainly don't want to share. Just one walnut tree here and so much troubles already - now at the new place I'll have 4!

That will be nice to have more trees

[ChEng]

Not today, but yesterday: I have been reading through the old posts, trying to get caught up (and refresh myself on some stuff.) The post "Spurring you on to get your BOB together" (http://thesurvivalpodcast.com/forum/index.php?topic=47566.0) hit home, especially Cedar's response to PrepN's getting overwhelmed (http://thesurvivalpodcast.com/forum/index.php?topic=47566.msg534183#msg534183,) reminded me that I had the beginnings of a small BOB in my bedroom. I got some of my clothes and swiped a few of Mrs. ChEng's stuff and got three days worth of clothes put into that BOB. I added a bit of food (still need more) and then raided my emergency cash and found that I had enough for three days in a motel (our BOL, for now.)
Today, I found a winter cap for the Mrs., some twine, a couple of 20-oz bottles with tap water and a small toiletry kit (still need to add a small bottle of shampoo.) It's time to hunt down another small cheap backpack to hold the Mrs' stuff. Maybe I will take one of my frame packs, as I can carry more than she can. This should take care of our 60-second bug out needs.

[Stwood]

Sounds great.

[Knecht]

Forged a handy mid-sized knife that I made a s a prototype for my "Tactislav" set. Really like it, might become my new carry blade.
Harvested some apples and picked a bunch of walnuts, but those are just a few late ones, the main walnut harvest is complete.

[Knecht]

That will be nice to have more trees

Aside from walnut trees, I should also have some apples, cherries and hazelnuts. Not quite sure what else is on the property and how healthy the other trees are. Will need to check them out once we move there and over the winter plan some more planting in the Spring.

[mountainmoma]

Food preservation :  Just canning up more tomatoes right now. This will be 2 dozen pint jars altogether, day before yesterday and today.  I can them as dices, cut up with skin on, just like I would use them if I had them fresh. 

House repair/weatherproofing :  Have some hired help this week.  He ripped off drywall in the bathroom(s) to expose pipes, alot in the downstairs bath, like the entire wall behind the sink cabinet, and a large part of the ceiling.  Upstaris bath being directly overhead just got drywall at the back of the cabinet ripped off, and a board loosened behind toilet where its pipe is.  Seems there is absolutely no insulation in that wall.  Yes, this exposed more leaking pipes confirming the work needed.  But, outside, he put some new T111 back up on the south side of the house.  Just 2 sheets, trim.  Tomorrow we will rip the kitchen apart more, I have a vintage 1940's metal drainboard sink/cabinet that I would like inside before the rains start, and the  kitchen does have plumbing to be exposed in any case. 

education support : Helped my youngest move back to University on the weekend.  Senior year, it goes fast.

Firewood: we had done a bit more rounds split and moved to wood room in the morning before we did the move-back. 

Community:  Helping interview new member/applicant for the gun club;  Loaned a neighbor my hand splitting equipment, maul, wedge, sledge; Sharing garden produce with friends/neighbors, tomatoes and cucumbers and brocolli. 

[Stwood]

Continued walnut bagging. Up to about 25 bags now, and walnuts are still raining down. I wasn't going to harvest this year, but decided there would be enough to make a trip to the hullers.

Garden is almost complete on the cleanup. Just a few pepper plants we've left so they will ripen for seeds and chipolte.

[Redman]

Got 7 quarts jars of ham in the canning post just now.

[Stwood]

Got 7 quarts jars of ham in the canning post just now.

 

[Knecht]

Got my car back from the repair and since it had to go through mandatory technical exam anyway, I had a trailer ball added. Not only did I somewhat inherit an old small single-axle open trailer that will be handy for my upcoming moving. Could also serve well in case of emergency "run to the hills", though I don't believe in that very much.
Might have found a source of cheap (possibly free) firewood, as long as I'm willing to cut it down and haul it away. Will see how that ends.

[mountainmoma]

house repair/weatherproofing:  My middle child came over today and helped me put some primer on the raw plywood and trim wood.  When he left, I caulked one tube of caulks' worth.  I'm gonna need a case of caulk. 

One of the things I found out this week is a weak point for air leakage.  My house is open beam inside. SO, the way it is built there is regular wall construction with header boards, then these big, tall beams sitting on the header boards ( if that is the right words), and the roof decking on the top of the beams.  The underside of the roof decking is the inside ceiling of the house, there is no attic.  The roof decking/ceiling is tongue and groove 2" thick boards, likely fir.  This part I already knew.  So the walls at the top have this area more than 1 foot tall between the header boards and the roof decking.  On the outside, this area is filled with blocking between each beam, it is above the regular siding of the outside walls. On the inside, it looks like the rest of the wall, so I never thought about it.  One of the blocking boards had a gap, so when doing repairs we could see in.  There is no insulation in there, they didnt bother.  There is no air sealing, tar paper or caulking or anything, and the blocking is not that tight, although most not as bad as the end one I could see into. So, the worst gapping area I used canned spray foam, then looked for other wider areas to finish off the can.  Today I went out with my electric caulk gun and got the area around 2 blocking/under eaves done. The handyman had started this tube, and he cut it too fat for my taste, and there was wastage.  But, I'm gonna need alot more caulk. 

We did not rip the kitchen apart the other day.  We moved my drainboard sink and cabinet into the garage to protect it from the weather, it is 72" long, so takes alot of room ( double sink/double drainboard) although I personally like having a number of projects going, I am trying to be more moderate. It causes less worry for the young folks that way.

Firewood: I have moved quite a bit in the past few days, just an armload ( 5 pieces) at a time now and then has added up.  I put the worn tarp over the rest of the split pile as it is misty tonight.

[Redman]

Well carrots hit the sweet spot in pricing. Got 10 more pounds to peel, slice and can. Using the food processor to slice.

[Knecht]

With my wife's help I cut a bunch of firewood, finally getting rid of an old stash we had here for couple years. It all willow, so certainly not great firewood, but the top of the pile was already rotten so it was either cutting it now or having a pile of rotten wood for the future. I should get some spruce from dead standing trees that need to be removed as well, but the first woodcutting has awoken my old back injury and I need to give it a rest for couple days now.
Continue learning Spanish on Duolingo. Can't hurt to know more languages.
Reloaded some .40SW ammo for practice.

[Stwood]

Smoked more peppers yesterday for chipolata powder.
First batch turned out so good (a little dab'l do ya  ) I decided to make more.
It sure takes a lot of peppers for a small amount of powder

[Redman]

What wood are you smoking them things with?

[Stwood]

Normally apple or hickory. I'm out of hickory, need to step out back and cut more.
And I'm getting stingy with my apple. Only have 4 pieces left.

So today I just used some pine cutoffs that were very dry. Didn't seem to have any sap in them.

[Knecht]

Testing some techniques to make oak acorns edible.

[Stwood]

Testing some techniques to make oak acorns edible.

I've always wondered if they could be roasted. Course then I'd have to learn how to roast.
We have small oak acorns here. Our piggies sure liked them.

[Redman]

I've read of this in the book "Texas" by James A. Michener. Here is something I found on the internet.

http://www.askaprepper.com/make-acorn-flour/

[Knecht]

Well so far I found out that you can soak, roast and grind them to make sort of "poor man's chicory" - not bad, certainly now awesome (and I don't mind a good chicory at all). Maybe I need to roast them slower, but to darker color (I had some pieces already quite black, so I didn't want to overdo the whole thing...maybe I stopped roasting too early). I may use this ground roast to make "acorn chocolate"  - a recipe that I was told, originating from an old hunter. Will see about that tomorrow.
I also have some more of the acorns hulled and soaked, will try tofind time and pick some more, then I hope to make flour of them.
Direct eating experince so far: fresh - ugly, extra bitter, you can maybe eat a couple fo them, but won't likely do you any good and I doubt anyone is able to eat enough of them to feed himself. Soaked in boiled water for about 30 minutes - the high bitterness is gone, you can eat it, certainly can't enjoy it much. Needs more rounds of soaking/boiling. Wrapped in tinfoil and baked in the woodstove: about 20 mins - similar to the soaked ones, the taste itself is better, but the bitterness is higher than in the soaked ones. Baked for about 20 minutes more in hotter fire - too much, they got dark and very hard to chew. In the end added them to the coffee grinding batch.

[mountainmoma]

Testing some techniques to make oak acorns edible.

Let us know if you come up with something.  The times I tried it, the effort was too much.  There are different types of oaks, some have less tannins than others, I must have had high tannin ones.  The local tribes often used to have them in running water, and I dont have a stream, and wasting lots of water is not something we realy do here anymore.  I sometimes wonder though if things like tan oak acorns could more easily be made palatable enough for chickens.

[Alan Georges]

Apropos the Get your guns and ammo NOW thread, did a household ammo inventory and compiled a shopping list.  Better a month early than a day late.

[Knecht]

Some more data from the acorn project
- I gave the other batch 3 soaking sessions, heating the water near to a boil. The last soaking was left overnight. After that, the acorns were very soft and many were falling apart. I mashed them and then dried this mash on a dry pan. Not roasting them, just drying them on low heat. Then ran them through my trusty crank mill and made flour. Will see what to do with it. It usually needs some wheat flour added, to hold the dough together. I also found recipe for acorn biscuits, which I might try. But it uses butter and sugar, so I suppose it can't be too bad.
- after the third soaking, the acorns were qiute edible, with just a little bitterness left. But quite tasteless to tell the truth. Certainly not bad for a survival type food, but for any long term living, one should think of some ways to add more taste to them. Just a little bit of sugar or salt does the trick as I found out.
- I used the roasted "coffee" batch to make "acorn chocolate", following an old recipe. Mixing them with cocoa and honey, cutting the dough into thin slices and baking them in oven. Not bad. Still have plenty left to make another batch.