Prep Updates Mar. 6, 2011

What's In The Pantry?

We made a trip to the grocery store today, and found some sales on items that we stock in the pantry, so we added a few.  Two large bottles of Listerine, two large bottles of shampoo,  two each of saline solution and multi-purpose solution (contact lenses), four boxes of granola bars, six of my wife's deodorants, and 16 rolls of paper towels.  Fuji apples were on sale, so in addition to the five I'll eat with my lunches this week, we got another six or seven for the dehydrator.  I also picked up a tub of blueberries that were on sale and I'll use them to fill in the space among the apple slices and make bluebaisens (I just made that up, feel free to use it).


Lost Treasures

I mentioned earlier that I had lost my old Every Day Carry kit when it fell off my belt, and that I had found this Sony camera belt case that has a sewn belt loop so I won't lose it again.  I went out to the shop today to look for gear to put in it.  I'll do a full report with pictures this week.  But that's not all...

 I found some other cool gear that I had totally forgotten about.  A couple space blankets, some flashlights, and a pre-Y2K pouch of Mountain House Spaghetti.  This has been stored under very uncontrolled conditions for the past 10-12 years, so I will fix it up later this week and review it.  If it is still tasty and appealing, imagine what it would be like under temperature-stable conditions.

I also found some things that were financially rewarding.  I got 5 rolls of dimes, 2 rolls of nickels, 6 rolls of pennies, and a 1993 one ounce Silver Eagle.  All told, about $65 worth of coin.  The dimes and pennies go in the vacation fund.  The Eagle is in the safe with the other silver.  As for the nickels, I've recently started setting them aside and adding rolls to my emergency fund.  Jim Rawles at SurvivalBlog.com promotes putting up nickels in anticipation of a change in the metal composition, much like pre-65 silver coins.  Seems that a nickel currently has a metal melt value of 7.3 cents. If the coin is debased to a cheaper metal rather than the current copper and nickel, than the "real" coins will go up in value.  Right now, they don't take up much room, they spend if needed, and they'll never be worth less than what I'm paying for them.


Tomorrow's Post

Tomorrow will be my 100th blog post.  I want to do something a little special to celebrate.  Folks sometimes ask me why I prep.  An answer that I seldom give is that it is hereditary.  My great-grandfather had a fallout shelter in the early 60's.  Tomorrow I'll post some of his saved newspaper clippings, notes and inventories.  He was a college mathematics professor in the teens and twenties, and later became an accountant.  You'll be amazed at how thorough he was in his notes.  You'll also be surprised at how much his inventory might be similar to yours 50 years later.

Here's a preview:

How'd you like to get a 14 day kit for that price today?

Sponsor of the Week

It's Sunday, and time for a new Sponsor of the Week!  This week it is The Berkey Guy- check out his site for the awesome Berkey water filtration systems and Wise Food Storage.  Jeff is a good guy, and he truly believes in great customer service.  I was talking preps with a friend the other day, and he said that he didn't need a filter, because he was on a deep well, and he had a shallow well if the pump on the deep one went out.  After we spoke for a while, he realized that he probably ought to have a filter since the shallow well has not been used in a long time, and he also has a pond and stream fairly close.  He could hitch the trailer to the lawn tractor and take a big Rubbermaid bin to either source, then fill up the bin with a bucket.  He could then use that water through a filter to provide for his family.  I pointed him toward The Berkey Guy of course.


Weather Alert

We are currently under a Tornado Watch and Severe Thunderstorm Warning, so I'm logging off for now.  I'll be monitoring the Weather Alert Radio and I've got my flashlights handy.