What Preps are you doing this week? Part 4

[Le Mouse]

I'm looking at my finances this week. We had an 'incident' at work (don't worry, no-one died) and there's going to be an enquiry and while I'm fairly certain my job is OK, I wouldn't put it past Them Upstairs to see this as an opportunity for 'churn'. My spidey sense is tingling too much for me to ignore it. Last time I felt like this, in my old job, there were redundancies a year later. So there'll be much use of spreadsheets and working out where I can make savings. Not helped by recently having to replace my washing machine (that did die!) and yesterday I bought much needed new spectacles. Ho hum

[Jamesey1981]

Been busy this week, treated the shed with wood preserver, build a workbench and installed a Philips life light home solar lighting kit out there. Have to say I'm pretty impressed, it's surprisingly bright, I had to buy mine on ebay for considerably more than home bargains were selling them for, but I don't have one near me and it would have cost more than the difference in diesel to get to the nearest one, was still worth it even at a bit more money.

The USB output will be handy too, I already have a USB fan that would be very welcome, it gets hot out there, and apart from being able to charge my phone off it I also have an electric screwdriver that charges from USB and I think I've found a suitable adaptor to power my little DAB radio off it as well, the adaptor it came with supplies 5v at 1amp so as long as the barrel connector on the one I've ordered fits then it should work nicely.

[ChefSimon]

I've just got home from a week away in Norway. Spent a day hiking up to the Briksdal Glacier from Olden, that was really enjoyable. (Still feeling now though 4 days later!) Got some amazing pictures and had a really good laugh with some of the locals on my hike.

Turns out it's the law in Norway that you can walk anywhere so long as you try to avoid going within 150m of a property and don't walk across the middle of a crop field. (thought that was common sense). That was great as I was able to go almost as the crow flies and following some tips from the locals found some amazing waterfalls and views.

almost walked a total of 150km over 8 days. (just over 90 miles in old money)

Gave a lot of my kit a test out which was great. My sawyer filter got a good usage, although I was told the stream water is perfectly drinkable there due to the glaciers and snow run off.

[pseudonym]

Clutch gave out on me this morning, my emergency cash funds may take a hit tomorrow depending on the outcome.

[pseudonym]

Clutch gave out on me this morning, my emergency cash funds may take a hit tomorrow depending on the outcome.

Not as bad as I thought but still:

Plastic Clip to clutch pedal :75p

Labour: £74

VAT: £15

That feeling you should of taken Car mechanics at school: Priceless.....




Still could of been a £500 repair bill...

[Yorkshire Andy]

Not bad £74 to fit a 75p part


That said the fiat Grande Punto has a issue where a £15 tin plate that rust's through resulting in a wet drivers foot well.

Ok £15 plate but it's a full dashboard out job taking about 5-6 hours with a mechanic and apprentice..

Including disconnecting the air bag system to make safe and brake servo to fit it's a swine of a job bringing in about a £600 bill

[jennyjj01]

This weeks major prep investment: Cobra crossbow pistol, spare strings and a lot of bolts. I know it's 50:50 whether this is a toy or a small game hunting weapon, but for £60 it's a start. removed by mod we steer clear of weapons talk in terms of self defence due to the legal ramifications if a member butchers a assailant and eats them I Also bought a uSB data recording thermometer, which I've popped in my food store to see what temperature variations it will suffer.
I now have a few months staple foods basic stockpile and am starting to flesh it out a bit with luxuries. Supplies mostly rice, pasta, dried potatoes, baked beans, pasta sauces, tea, coffee and whiskey: A balanced diet if not a bit bland.
Next prep will be several wine and beer kits and more sugar. I figure that as long as I can get water, I can store these un-made and will have something to keep me amused and to make maybe a few hundred pints of nutritious morale boosting juice. Kits are small enough to store at ambient temperature.
No. Seriously. brew a few crates worth of beer and wine now and have kits for a years supply to replenish those bottles and keep me going till blackberry season.
Some of my stashed cheap foods are actually coming up to their BBE dates. I figure that even if I dump them at the local foodbank, they have already 'insured' me for 8 months.

[Plymtom]

I know it's 50:50 whether this is a toy or a small game hunting weapon, but for £60 it's a start. I figure that it could also have deterrent value against a looter. . .

It's a toy so enjoy it, dangerous yes, get an air rifle and join a club, if you're lucky they'll let you play with the crossbow there too if you get a target for it, these things are tremendous fun, and not much use for anything without plenty of practice ( more fun) as for a Machete, probably more of a deterrent than a pistol crossbow in some ways but as knife crime bears testament, sharp and pointy things often cause terrible injury to those who brought them to the fight in self defence, the more anyone looks at scenarios, the more there is an argument in being more pro active to reduce the likelihood of them happening, failing that, having the things is simply not enough. It's why we train soldiers not only to use but not to miss use, to just have is nowhere near enough

[Sonicuk]

Been busy this week, treated the shed with wood preserver, build a workbench and installed a Philips life light home solar lighting kit out there. Have to say I'm pretty impressed, it's surprisingly bright, I had to buy mine on ebay for considerably more than home bargains were selling them for, but I don't have one near me and it would have cost more than the difference in diesel to get to the nearest one, was still worth it even at a bit more money.

I agree. Having used them for a few weeks now (and swapped one of the mini handheld lantern for a working one in the 1st week), I've been really impressed.

The pendant ones in particular kick out plenty of usable light in my shed and will be ideal come winter

[Jamesey1981]

The pendant lights are handy, I have one right over my workbench so I can see to work and one in the middle for general lighting.
My little DAB radio is now happily being powered off it as well, got a USB to 4mm barrel cable from fleabay, did have to put a ferrite bead on it as I think the solar panel acts as an antenna and produces a rather noisy power supply that interferes with the reception, but with the ferrite bead on there to clean it up it now works, it's a bit picky about where I put it, it works everywhere on battery power but only in a certain spot on the solar, but that spot is pretty much where I leave the radio anyway.

As for planned preps, it was my birthday recently and my grandfather gave me a few quid, so I have ordered a blade blank for a TBS Boar bushcraft knife, I've wanted to make my own custom bushcraft knife for ages, but as I don't have a forge I can't harden the steel properly, so I'm doing the next best thing and buying the blade ready done and doing the handle myself.
I went for the stainless option on the blade steel, and I've got some beautiful curly birch on the way for the scales, I'll be using red liners which I like a lot on light wood, and I'm doing mosaic pins to hold the scales on. Should be a cracking looking knife when it's finished, I'll post some pictures up as long as my woodworking skills don't let me down.