Rain Barrels so close to being done!

Thanks to the help of a good family friend I have almost completed my rain barrels. I have bought some new supplies and decided to take my design in a different direction than what I originally planned to do, but that is part of being ready, to just go with the flow! Here is a picture of what I have now.

I am hoping to get it done this weekend; however, due to some health problems I have to have help when I am working or nothing gets done, but no worries a surgery in the very near future will have me able to do things alone again in NO TIME!

As you can see there is not a lot left to do. I need to cut the drainage pipe and run it into the top, connect the two barrels at the top and the bottom and run my over flow pipe. I plan to be done this weekend. 

The worse part about not getting it cone this past weekend is that my county has been under a flood warning since yesterday due to the massive rain storms we have been getting. Lots of missed water! 

 I will give a full run down of all the steps and precautions once the system is fully complete. I also have many step by step pictures that I will share with you at that time. 

September Owl Creek Gazette

Check out the September Owl Creek Gazette and you will find this blog featured in it. You will also find a nice blueprint for a "Simple Pine Bookshelf". I plan on making one of these for my outdoor shed to hold my heavier gardening supplies in the Spring. 

Owl Creek Gazette

I have tried forever and I finally got one!

I do not know how many times I have sat at my front door during a lightning storm with my camera facing the open field just snapping pictures to catch a bolt. I have wasted tons of memory trying to catch it and was never able to, until last night that is!

This has nothing to do with my survival but it is just so dang cool I HAD to share it with you all!

Lots of new work and new progress

It has been close to a month since I have last posted. This is not because I grew tired of posting, it is because I wanted to make progress before I posted again! 

I have taken on a few different projects and have completed them as well as finding some new projects that I have started working towards that will take time to complete. I will begin to cover these projects and show pictures of things I have completed over the last couple weeks in the next couple days.

I have bought some new toys I will show off and decided to do somethings that will be beneficial to the cause but make people squirm at the same time. 

I'm looking forward to sharing the progress, but right now it is not a day I want to waste sitting inside on the computer. Hope you all are looking forward to seeing everything as much as I am looking forward to sharing it. 

World Wide Preparation

I have noticed on my stats page that I have a great number of blog viewers that are from outside of the US. First off, thank you to everyone that reads my blog! Secondly, since I have noticed this I thought it would be proper to clear up something.

I have made it clear that I live in the Midwest USA. My region is full of farm land and dairy farms for the most part. We have some inland bodies of water but nothing that is too large. We also have the Mississippi River which is about 50 miles from my location with some of its tributaries much closer to my home.

As I prepare for things to hit the fan here, do the same where you are! As I write about my climate, and terrain think about how they are similar or how you can adjust your own needs to fit in with the tips I am giving to you. 

When the SHTF in the US, there is a great possibility that the entire world will be impacted; this will be because we are at war or because of some sort of outbreak. 

My fellow readers from abroad you too need to be prepared for what might one day come to your part of the world! 

Surprise at the grocery store

If you read my blog you understand the message behind it, if not I will reiterate it to you. 

At any given time an unannounced event could take place that would end our dependence on the grocery store, for this reason my family will prepare to be self-reliant in many areas of our life. 

We are still preparing to be self reliant and are not yet fully capable. So last night I had to run to our local grocery store to grab a few things that we needed around the house. While I was there I noticed that for a Thursday night at 7:00 the store seemed kind of busy. Not thinking too much about it I went about my business and started placing the items off my list into my cart. 

While I was looking at the meat cuts and deciding which ones I wanted to use for our weekend meals I overheard two females talking about the storms that were headed to our area. These storms are the leftover rains from Hurricane Isaac, which struck the gulf coast earlier in the week. As I was eavesdropping I heard one of the women say that she came to get bread in milk in case the weather got bad.

As I was listening to this it dawned on me that I had not even considered this storm to be anything more than some rain. Then it dawned on me that due to my new outlook on the importance of prepping I have learned to ignore media induced fear and prepare for what the media will not see coming. 

I moved on through the store and as I approached the other end of the store where I was wrapping up my shopping experience I heard a man on his phone talking about the same thing! I was really troubled at this point. 

I took something from this trip to the store. If people in my area are running to the store to stock up on items because we are going to get some tropical rain for a few days, I do not even want to think of the chaos that will follow a real natural or manmade disaster! 

I also realized something that I have known for a while but last night it was thrown in my face! The news will always make something that is not that major seem much larger which will induce a great amount of fear into the viewer causing even more chaos. 

Disappointing Rain Barrels

Where I am located we have been in a drought all summer. This drought is about to get a nice kick in the butt with this rain that is left over from Hurricane Isaac which will hit my house any time now. It is projected by our newscasters that we will see anywhere from 3-5 inches of rain over the next few days. While I tend not to listen to the weather man, I am making an exception in this case only because it is clear on the radar that the storm is still rather big. 

The disappointing part is I do not yet have my rain barrels in place so all this wonderful rain will simply run off my gutters and run into the yard. 

Even with me missing this rain I have made it a point NOT to complain about one thing during this storm. If you live in the Midwest US you know exactly what I mean! How can I complain about us getting rain??

So even with the rain barrels not being completed yet I still want to say to you all HAPPY SHOWERS!