What are you working on now for preps?

[1Admin]

What are you working on now for preps?

Currently I'm adding some other options to small battery charging in the field, working with various Anker battery setups and solar chargers for necessary AA and CR123 needs.

Just added 4 more L16s to the solar battery bank, so we are back up to 28 batteries and lots of capacity in the bank with 95% of the bank being new batteries this year. Since we usually get about 8 years off L16s, this should keep us in power for a while.

Lost all our chickens this last winter, replaced them this spring and should be starting to see eggs here soon. Got one rooster in the batch, he needs a little taming but a short section of 3/4 PVC normally does the trick and stops them from running at you again.

And rescued a 1-2 day old baby cat the other day I found by the side of the road. She's doing great so far.

[Templar]

Canning season is approaching, Dehydrator and freeze dryer are up... Brushing up on first aid/trauma skills and upgrading the kits...just picked up 4 used 335 watt solar panels, piecing a system together for the shack and freezers...Too darn hot to play outside too much, but a few caps get popped as needed...Waiting on fall to arrive so I can finish a few projects around the home...

[surviort_wwdnet]

Food, garden, canning, dehydrating...every single day and more to come as my second round of summer vegetable starters are sprouting and will be ready to transplant in the next 2-3 weeks. Next month, I'll start seeds for the winter garden. Target practice on aphids with an insecticide spray gun...

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

Working on my small solar system. Placed panels yesterday...some at 0900-1130hrs and the rest at 1800-2000hrs (both times sucked as it is blasted hot and humid here). My system has eleven 250w panels. This is not a whole house system, but will run my fridge and standup freezer as well as small window AC we use in bedroom at night, plus a few outlets for various items as needed. This is a 48v system. Also dehydrating, gardening, playing with grandson (17 months old) whenever we can, still stocking up on items as we see them, storing fuel. Have some more projects around the homestead to do. Trying to get to the range to sight in a new optic and confirm zero on others...plus trigger time. Working with neighbor and helping them get into the prep mode...they have chickens and homemade an incubator where they now have about 40 chickens...some for eggs and others for freezer. They also started a tilapia farm so we will have protein. I have a freezer full of a whole cow we had butchered in December, so wheres the beef...my freezer. We also have more items stored than they do as we have been doing it longer. We are in business together (we are financing and they do the hard work of raising and training) and have a dog breeding business and are breeding Belgian Malinois. Should do our first breeding in December, so we hope this goes well.

[surviort_wwdnet]

Still looking at batteries for my 100w solar panel setup; I want to add more panels but don't want more than what I need to run the basic systems in the motorhome, i.e. keep the house batteries charged. Any suggestions as to number of panels and batteries would be appreciated as I am solar challenged.

Stocking up on more 1 lb propane cylinders for the portable grill/Buddy heaters and white gas for the Coleman stoves. I have 13 propane cylinders and 15 gallons of white gas. Also going to buy a few 2.5 gallon gas cans that will be easier to handle for both of us.

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

Solar can be a challenge. You need to know what your solar charge controller can take, what you want to power...and for how long, and inverter you need to power 120v. Then you also need to find out how many panels you need to keep the charge on the battery. Have you looked into a solar generator? I also have one of those that I can use for my trailer. It will not power the AC but other than that it will give me light and ability to charge cell phones and such via a 120v outlet. It is fairly light weight and I can run it inside my trailer. There are many manufacturers. I have the Energy Flex 1500 with two batteries and four 100w panels. But there are others, Titan, Bluetti, Jackery, and others. Prices range depending on how "big" of a system you want.