So what did you put away this week?

Have you ever stuffed a sweet potato up a ducks _ _ _ and baked it? I hear its actually pretty good!

 

Colt .45 revolver for grandson, smith Wesson 686-3 .357 mag for me.

 

Sidesaddle shell holder came for my Mossberg 500 Cruiser 20 gauge, gotta get that mounted, & picked up once again all the slugs & buckshot Walmart had in 20 gauge. My current favorite pocket knife is a CRKT Drifter I paid $30 for. Walmart had them for $20 w/ a multitool piece of metal with them. Picked up two, got home & saw why they were $10 cheaper. They are unpolished sorta rough looking metal v/s my $30 one. Oh well I can fix that!

 

Got most of the holiday baking supplies, leftovers will go into food storage. Wanna get more chocolate chips as long as I can get them for $2 a pound. Also got 11 pairs of socks.

 

Wife forgot she ordered 1000 rounds of .45 ACP, so she order another 1000...and 1500 .22 lr. She managed to pick up 240 rnds of Hirtenberger .308 too.
Don't you just hate when that happens?
I have a sneaky suspicion something will follow me home from the hamfest tomorrow...

 

Moving the fruit trees into one location so I can fence them. I feel the Elk being around is a good prep but not t the cost of the fruit trees.

 

This time of year I go through all my canned vegetables and if they have been expired 1+ years I dehydrate them and vacuum pack in 1/2 gallon jars; mostly peas, beans, carrots, corn and mixed vegetables I bought on sale. No need to throw them out. Only occasionally do I find a can that has gone bad.

 

We are continuing to go thru our canned and boxed goods, tossing those that expired in 2015 or before. I'm not just cleaning things out willy-nilly, I cook and taste at least one of them before tossing. Canned beans have gotten pretty hard and tough, even after simmering for an hour. Hamburger helper and other side dishes are mostly rancid (can smell when opened, don't have to cook). Getting lots of shelf space freed up.

Kajun

 

Who's next in line after the politicians, progressives, and other forms of the left?

 

been buying this n that in the way of foods,to home canning,some...got a pair of half gallon jugs of lamp oil..and a few other items,since i last posted here..collected some recipes in which i can eat then n there or home can it then n there.

 

This weekend? Leaves. Old, dead, brown leaves, that were all over my back yard! For what? Well, admittedly, some went in the yard waste recycling bin, for pickup. But 6 good sized black plastic bags (about a bushel each, maybe?) got filled with crunched up leaves, which were then wetted down, tied up the tops, and put out where they can catch some sunlight, to heat them up. With a few holes punched in the bags (to admit air), it should help break them down, so I can either use them as mulch, or as composting ingredients.

A week ago? That was MBW (Mylar Bagging Weekend), where I (finally!) got around to putting up a bunch of my dried beans and rice, for long-term storage. With some trial and error, I found out that 1-gallon Mylar bags with Zip-Lok style closures can hold ~6 pounds of beans, while the non-zipper 1-gallon bags will hold ~7 pounds of rice.

I was able to put away:
four 7# bags of long-grain enriched rice
two 7# bags of split peas (they don't leave much room, with that 7th pound, but I got a good seal, and the O2 eater didn't have to work as hard!)
four 7# bags of Pinto beans
one 7# bag of Great Northern (white) beans
two 6# bags of Navy (white) beans
four 6# bags of black beans, and
three 6# bags of light red kidney beans

This next weekend, since I now have the process a bit more streamlined, I'll put away the remainder of my rice I currently have on hand (35 pounds), pinto beans (~20 pounds), black beans (18 pounds), plus 6 pounds each of peas, kidney & navy beans. The yearly sell-down of last year's bean production should be right around the corner, and I'll stock up then, to have more to bag.

Oh yeah, and I'm getting my gardening stuff together, for a hopefully successful spring/summer growing season, too!

 

220# brown rice in buckets and 10 radiation dosimeters and charger. Purchased an Outernet wifi kit.

 

Not much...just tilling for some melons, getting ready for some blueberry bushes and some raspberry vines.

 

New carb on the genny.

 

Ben watching some You tube on small engine issues, seems that a spare carb or rebuild kit is a thing to have and store for long term, Its the common failure point on store small equipment.

 

Try a sand blaster with baking soda.
I have found that recovered spark plugs seem to last longer in 2 stroke snow mobile motors.
I found a new plug would last about 24hrs of run time, with the recovered plugs it was up to 40hrs.
A completely unexpected result.

When you put the generator away for a while first only run ethanol free gas. Then when you shut it down flood the carburetor bowl with 2 stroke oil.
The easy way to do this is with the engine running turn the fuel off, pull the fuel line off then attach a measuring syringe of 2 stroke oil to the line (yes with the engine still running) and push 2 stroke oil into the carb until it stalls.
Then to restart drain the 2 stroke oil out, turn on the gas till it looks like gas mostly gas coming out the carb drain. Catch all the 2 stroke and gas and dump it into the gas tank with some fresh ethanol free gas.
Sounds like it takes too long?
It's a lot faster and cheaper than ordering and installing a new carb.

 

Oil pan has a point...sometimes even an ultrasonic cleaning won't help. Keep ethanol out of the picture if you can!