I'm Gearing Up to Return

Being on hiatus for almost a month, I've had time to get thing back into order. So over the next couple days I'm going to start posting posts. This weekend I'll be doing my pre-winter inventory along with some a list of corrections from my pre-fall inventory. Also a post of what I'll be doing for the next couple months. For now though, lets recap the Superstorm Sandy.

In my particular area, Sandy was a flop. It did not turn out to be what it was thought to be. Now, miles away my parents house got hammered, they had multiple trees come down close my and snap multiple lines, and some damage was done to near by cemetery. Hopefully everything can be fixed. I know most of the damage happened in one of the old parts. The flop is not really the main part of the conversation. The wife and I didn't seem immediate danger, we did some travelling and errand running Monday after the county I work in was declared state of emergency. We decided that it would be fun to go for a walk around walmart to find out what they did to it. I wish now that I would have taken pictures because it was comedically bare. Propane, water, flashlights, camp stoves, bread, and most batteries were wiped clean. Also, surprisingly, junk food. People were stocking up on comfort food. I didn't need anything but we did decide to pick up two cases of bottled water because they were available and the storm gave me a reason to buy it. The other reason was the line was all but empty. It was fun to be able to go into the place and not worry about trying to find anything or desperately search for scraps.

We took a run west to Chambersburg to Gander Mountain. I was looking for ammo prices and found that people had pillaged Gander for propane and camp stoves. So here is where it got fun, to prepare for a long duration indoors we made a trip into Comics World and got lots of entertainment and reading material.

Side Note: 
Comic Fans listen up! The following comics are awesome:
1. Before Watchmen: Comedian
2. Before Watchmen: Rorschach
3. Batman: Arkham Unhinged
4. Hit Girl (From Kick Ass)
5. Batman: The Dark Knight
 
It occurred to me that morale is terribly important in these situations. These goofy ill prepared people grabbed flashlights and water and went home to a tense family. While the power was on they were watching TV, playing video games, or messing with their phone. What happens when the power is gone? Suddenly no one has something to focus attention on. I'm all for families spending quality time together but if you're not used to it, they will eventually get irritable. Makes for a terrible bug-in situation. SO, Sandy taught me to never forget about morale.

So, when we got home we decided the wind was picking up and the rain was starting to fall we decided to button up the house. Cleaning out the bathtub and filling it, taking the dog out for a quick walk, pack up the porch, and purge all the garbage were priority. We were locked down in just less than 15 minutes. I was proud however, I think its time to decide protocol for lock down. After I originally posted that we had it locked down, Bohica said practice. I think that is a good idea so that in case we have a short notice problem, which are most problems are, we can get it together as fast.

That's it for now! Saturday I'll be doing my Pre-Winter Inventory. As a preview, I'm way happier with this inventory than the Pre-Fall Inventory.

Week in Review

You can look at this as very late or 3 days early.

If you're thinking its very late, its because it is. My apologies. I've been running full speed the past week. So here's the timeline!

Last week: Nothing, Nothing, Nothing, Nothing, Nothing

Saturday: Left nice and early in the morning and went to Baltimore for Comic con! This was the wife's first convention and she loved it. She decided that she wants to go back next year, but she wants to go in costume. SO, that gives me an exciting opportunity. I would like to dress up too and what I want to make allows me to get a few of the things I'd like for my kit. Now, I can piece it together over a long period of time because I have over a year to do it. Its not going to be one big lump sum all at once. The picture is the idea for my costume. With that costume I'll have to buy the gloves, knee pads, and elbow pads I've wanted. I'm also adding a thigh rig to it, and a few pouches since my pockets in the pants won't be able to be used I'll have to have something to put stuff into. Finally, I'll need to purchase proper boots and a set of black BDUs. But its all beside the point, it really has nothing to do with prepping. But its gonna be fun anyway.

Sunday: I spent some time at Barnes and Noble reading. I've been looking into alot of books about personal finances. The new system we came up with is working GREAT. We have majority of our bills paid off the FIRST paycheck of the month. I'm taking care of some debt when I get paid and we knocked down some extra on a one of the credit cards. But again, like Comic Con, it has nothing to do with prepping. Simply, we're working with our money and getting more out of it. Hopefully, this extra money we can expand our prepping.

Now we get to this week and its all headed down hill.
Monday: Nothing happens, Panzer is acting funny.

Tuesday: Panzer continues to act funny. That evening, I bent down to pat Panzer for following his command perfectly, suddenly a pain shoots up from the base of my spine to the back of my neck. I ignored and powered through the pain thinking it will be better in the morning.

Wednesday: I wake up and can hardly move. My back is stiff and very sore. Again, like an idiot, I power through it. I make it through work until about lunch. My wife made my first ever Chiropractor appointment. The chiropractor could be my friend, I felt pretty good. However, basically my right side is way more tense then my left. This is connected to my ankle hurting. Also may be the reason my knee has been hurting.

Thursday: Woke up very sore. ...Very sore. Can't really move. Unfortunately, I had to call off. With my wife off for the day and me being down for the day we decided to take Panzer to the Vet. He has been acting funny for the past 2 weeks. He wasn't eating, scratching, and had some sores on his belly and tail. Turns out he has fleas and the eating problem is his being picky. So I spent the day tearing apart the house and cleaning top to bottom. I'm not interested in any kind of infestations. It gave me a great chance to clean from top to bottom. This evening we started out second round of obedience training classes.

The week has been a little rough. 

Tomorrow, I go back to the chiropractor to have him look. Also, going back to work with being off for a day is terrifying. I never know what I'm walking into. But I'm ready to take it all on.

The plan for this weekend is to go to DF and EF's future house, we're doing some repainting and I get to check out the next locations for a greenhouse.

Man, that's all for now. I'll update again on Sunday. Again, sorry for the delay.

Week in Review

This week has been very calm. Nothing of major note has happened.

While I wasn't actually going to post anything, it has become a weekly ritual. I don't like missing weeks.

There is one thing that came of this week. After all the numbers and looking at the money I've decided that for the next couple months I'm going to very low. I have some shows and movies I want to catch up on, some range time to put in, some planning to do, and some games I've been meaning to put some time in to. Most of all, money to save. So I'm putting all Field Trips on hiatus. There aren't many Field Trips left that I had planned, but the ones I did I'm putting on hold probably for a few months. However, I'm hoping for some more training exercise ideas. I think my next one will be a hands on time with my bug out bag. I wish I had more people around that would take part in a bug in/bug out weekend. I would love to set up a weekend. I'm working out the kinks. Even if no one else will participate I'll do it by myself. I'll begin planning this week, work out the kinks then have a full on scenario.

Anyway, I have to cut this short. I've lost track of time today. Sorry this wasn't more exciting.

Rest in peace - Dino Taylor

A month or so back I posted a fundraiser for a Baltimore City police officer. His name was Dino Taylor. He was in a nasty accident a while back that put him down for a bit. He past away last week. He was a friend and worked with my brother in law who past away a few months ago. It is a sad loss for Baltimore City. I still have friends there and I wish them the best of luck and hope that they stay out of danger.

My wife wrote:
Today we lost a great husband, father, police officer, and friend Dino Taylor. He was a great man, who was there for me when I lost my brother exactly 5 months ago. Dino you will never be forgotten. I'm sure Nick was there to greet you with that contagious smile of his. Love and miss you, my friend.

If any of you did donate, I thank you. I know we all don't agree with police and the media only shows us the cops that kick a woman in the face while she cuffed on the ground or whatever. The truth of it all is what we're shown is only the nasty power driven cops, who are only cops because they have a badge. The ones we often forget about are the good guys that do their job day after day, that go to work knowing they could be punched, shot, stabbed, spit on, or whatever. Those police aren't given enough credit. 

Rest in peace, Dino. You'll be missed.

It's not a hobby, it's a way of life.

For the record this is a junk post. Lots of thoughts but no organizations...Read at your own Risk.
 
So I'm crunching numbers budgeting my personal finances. I'm doing this because it needs done and usually my wife does it, but I feel like I've put all the pressure on her and its unfair. Also, we're looking at a new TV this evening. Our TV is about to go tits up I'm sure. It was bought in the early 90s, its a 27in CRT TV. The color is going, the picture gets cut off. It makes watching TV miserable. But anyway, I'm crunching numbers thinking about where my money goes each month and I gotta say that the little purchases just eat up ALL the money.

BUT where all this comes from is me thinking about how I plan for things. I plan for things that are unknown in the future, but I realized I stopped paying attention to the important things that NEED done. I've put alot of thought into it and I realized that by prioritizing and planning everything going on around me everything will come together like a puzzle. It made me think about what I've heard alot of you guys say: Its not a hobby, its a way of life. When it boils down, I was treating prepping like a hobby. I was doing that and not understanding why I felt like I wasn't making any progress.

I've crunched my total debt. Its way more than a person my age should have. I've crunched may monthly income vs. my monthly costs. We make more than we spend so that means we should be packing up some extra money.

SO drawing all of this together and a reason why I bothered to write any of this. Here is where my wife and I are at currently: Too much debt and no plan to fix it and no goal to accomplish it. We always talk about planning and setting goals to make progress with our skills, stockpiles, and supplies. Here I am with no goal and no plan and a huge lingering problem. I don't like feeling lost or unprepared, that is why I do what I do.



Conclusion: I don't know where I was going with it all and it was terribly written. I apologize to everyone for it. BUT no plan and no goal means no progress and integrate prepping into your day-to-day life or both will feel unfulfilled. Finally, I'm probably buying a TV.

Project Appleseed

There is a Project Appleseed weekend in Chambersburg Sept. 8 & 9.
Men: $70 for the weekend including $10 registration fee.
Women: FREE weekend with $10 registration fee.
Youth: FREE weekend with $5 registration fee.

Anyone ever attend Project Appleseed? I really want to go, but I want some feedback before I spend the money. I know ITRH podcast talks a lot about them and I think that they've both attended. But anyway, anyone else every attend? Chambersburg is just a hop away from me and I would like to take the wife.

Week In Review

Well, we're almost back to normal. Its been a pretty standard week. I've been taking a few medical problems I've been having and I'm going to start taking care of them. I recently listened to a podcast called In The Rabbit Hole (ITRH), which is a fantastic podcast. They're very tasteful, not overly paranoid, and they make tons of good points. But anyway, the episode was called "Survival CHI". At first glance I thought it was stupid but it played over my stereo at work and it was actually pretty enlightening. 

Community

Health

Intelligence

Yeah, not as stupid as it sounds, right? I'm working on my community. I'm getting a few locals on my Facebook and that's great. However, Health, not my strong point. I'm feeling good about myself, but I know there are some things I need to fix. I'm working on them but some I actually need to see a doctor to have it looked at. My ankle has been killing me for the past couple weeks, but its been hurting for several months. I am bullheaded enough to just go through with the pain. It is starting to effect my work and that's not good at all. So its time to start making the changes. I have insurance, so why not? 

This week Panzer graduated from his basic obedience training with flying colors. We're very proud of him. In September he'll move on to his next course. We have been looking into his bug out gear. That stuff is expensive. A pack for a dog is just as much as a backpack for a human. That's ridiculous. But what is more important is that its there. Port-a-bowls are also pretty nifty too. We may end up buying his gear soon. 

He doesn't like hats. 

Friday night we weeded out the garden because we really fear we’re not going to get a harvest from it. Though as we were weeding it out we found that our tomato plants actually are starting to bear fruit. So we narrowed out the whole garden and we’re down to four tomato plants and two green pepper plants. The gardens at the bug out locations produced HUGE amounts for harvest. The zucchini are averaging just shy of a foot long. We’re waiting on the cucumbers and some other things. We lost our green beans and lettuce in our garden, we lost the green beans because of a lack of light. We lost the lettuce because it seeded too quickly. The four lettuce plants were giant. But we waited to long to harvest. We lost two cilantro plants, but no matter what we lost, we made it grew something from seed to fruit. I’m still impressed we did it. Now with that in mind, since then I have been thinking about how I want to build my first green house and I’ve come up with the first plans that include the materials and even the cut list. It is unknown what we are going to grow but I know how I want to build a nice greenhouse. With the greenhouse I’m coming up with plans to build a rain catcher so we are going to have water right beside greenhouse. THAT made me think even more about it. I’ve decided that I want to incorporate the rain catcher and the greenhouse. …I’ll post a picture when the blueprints (…I guess) when they are completely done. VERY excited. 

Finally, I may be making a purchase I've been wanting to make soon. Hopefully, I'll be buying my thigh rig soon. I'm hoping to buy my thigh rig and a few pouches. Also, completely unrelated to prepping or ANY of this for that matter, the wife and I decided that for Christmas we decided to abandon the typical Christmas garbage we decided we're going to buy ourselves a nice TV. I'm very excited that we can finally get rid of failing 27 inch CRT TV sitting on the odd rolling thing its sitting on. The important part to all this is: I get to build a TV stand and I know exactly what I'm building. Again, this is completely unrelated but here is the picture!