Haven’t checked in for awhile. I hope everyone who was going through health challenges is feeling a lot better now! Here’s what I’ve done for my preps since I last posted here: On my last road trip to the closest city, I tried again to get some used 55-gallon barrels from the apple products’ outlet store to use for water storage and learned, sadly, that the company is no longer purchasing their ingredients in that sort of barrel. So, unless I want to store water in an off-white barrel with a big screw-top lid instead of 2 bungs on top, it looks like I’ll have to find another source for reasonably priced, food-safe blue 55-gallon barrels <sigh>. I suppose I could use those off-white barrels outside but I’m concerned the light color would make it easier for algae to grow inside them even if chlorine is added to the water. I also worry that the large, screw-top lid wouldn’t be as air-tight as the bungs are on a “typical” 55-gallon barrel. I’ve started gradually acquiring yellow-gamma seal lids to use on the buckets of grains I plan to eventually purchase. I added some more bags of charcoal to my storage when Lowe’s had their good Memorial Day sale on Kingsford brand plain charcoal briquettes. My goal is to someday have about 300 lbs of briquettes in water-tight storage buckets so I can, if necessary, cook one hot meal a day for a year in a camp dutch oven or on a grill. I tried the Thrive Life freeze-dried Mango dices that I had ordered during their Spring sale. They were very tasty. I snacked on them right out of the can! I recently ordered a small can of their freeze-dried sausage crumbles to try but they haven’t arrived yet. When Goodwill had a sale in their online store a couple of weeks ago, I ordered used hard-copies of the books “Seed to Seed”, “It’s in the Bag”, and the fifth edition of “Putting Food By” for my preparedness library. I also got a couple of older model Goal Zero Flip 30 power banks during Emergency Essentials’ recent clearance sale to use to recharge my cellphone and other small electronic devices. A few days ago, I watched the online “Outdoor Cooking” mini-e-course taught by Wardee Harmon of the Traditional Cooking School. It was, IMHO, worth the modest cost, especially since the mini-course allows you to download the written instruction book that covers all the subjects included in the pricier, full course. Just wish I could afford to purchase the complete course so I could see all the instructional videos, but my budget won’t stretch that far right now, lol. To help pay for all these prepping purchases, I sorted through two boxes of my older clothes to see which ones I can alter to wear this summer and fall to avoid having to spend money on buying any new clothes this year. Last night I watched the last episode of HBO’s excellent mini-series “Chernobyl”. The acting is very good and, from what I have read, the story stuck closely to the facts that people have been able to piece together thus far (so much of what actually happened appears to have been covered up by the authorities who were in power back in 1986-1987). I’ve also watched several good YouTube videos on preparedness topics posted by Modern Refugee, Pennsylvania Prepper, and Obsessive Prepper AZ in the past several weeks. Well, that’s pretty much what I’ve been up to. I look forward to reading your updates <smile>.
