Added to my survival larder:
5 gallons-worth powdered milk
6 small cans condensed milk
1 canned ham
4 jugs apple juice (not cider)
25 lbs. cane sugar

and my survival wardrobe:
2 pair Dickies olive drab jeans
4 pair heavy wool-blend boot socks, speckled olive drab of course

and my arsenal:
rifle bag for my Mini 14
Pyrodex pellets (for muzzleloaders but they might see other uses

and my garden:
8 half-gallons of ammonia for spraying on leaf compost pile as an experiment. I know it's not "organic" but I think it might be effective. Cellulose needs a nitrogen source in order to break down rapidly and ammonia provides plenty. I need to plant garlic now and I want to sow some winter wheat as well, maybe some oats too.

I finally acted on inspiration from other posters: I bought 43+ pounds of frozen tom turkey (2 birds) to cook and can in my never-before-used pressure canner. They were 49 cents per pound and the store had a limit of two. I don't know if this was a special post-Thanksgiving price but it seemed pretty good to me. Having de-boned yesterday's bird I can say that the bones don't weight much at all, plus I boiled them for 12 hours for soup stock, which dissolves and cleans them so they're even lighter.

I should get quite a few quarts of canned turkey. It will be good practice for hard times food preparation when I can't count on being able to freeze meat. I can see myself canning venison, bear, beaver, wild turkey, and if I make it to Ecuador, maybe something more exotic.

Well, I canned my first seven quarts of turkey today and will can the rest tomorrow. I just turned off the heat under the pressure canner and went to bed, waiting till tomorrow to open it up and see if the jars sealed. I used wide-mouth quart jars, figuring they'd be easier to shovel the hot turkey into.

This canned turkey will hardly win any beauty contests since most of the meat has separated into strands. But it is tasty, nutritious, ready to eat, and will be great for soups, casseroles, etc.

Id' like to get some ideas from others on this thread. Over half the posts here are mine. I can understand that some may have OPSEC issues but there must be some way of sharing here. My personal OPSEC requirements are not that high since I am not divulging my US bug-out-location and am in the process of lining up a non-US location:

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I'm going down next month to Ecuador to buy some property. I can get 28 acres of Andean mountain rain forest about 6,500 feet elevation and next to a nature reserve for $5,000 if I want but I'm going to look at other locales as well. I think a lower elevation might be more suitable to my needs.

While this could easily become my survival retreat, far-removed from warring superpowers, seasonal changes, and dangerous infrastructure dependencies, my primary focus is private biological research, specifically finding and recording insect species new to science in a region that has seen sparse field work. That has been my hobby for some years here in the US and I want to pursue it on a more full-time basis while living an off-grid lifestyle. Here is a link to my present work:
http://bugguide.net/user/view/1611

My extensive survival prepping will stand me in good stead whether I end up in Ecuador or am trapped here by political clampdowns, terror attacks, or major natural or economic disaster . I will have to generate my own electricity, take extreme precautions against theft, and be medically self-sufficient to some extent. I will also need to barter with locals for goods and services, live without refrigeration or air conditioning, trap, filter, and sterilize rain water from my roof, and be watchful for poisonous snakes, frogs, caymans, anacondas, jaguars, and an wide assortment of spiders, scorpions, and other arthropods that deliver toxins or diseases by sting or bite. (It's a jungle down there

The government of Ecuador is leftist but small, resulting in many cases in more freedom from meddling than we experience here in the US. There are checkpoints where you must show your papers and slip them some money if you want to move things along but there is no vast army of bureaucrats ready to slap you down if you violate one of the millions of state, local, and federal codes we have here.

I don't know when I will be able to make the final move but, if travel restrictions are put in place anytime soon, as some have warned, I figure my ownership of land in Ecuador will help me justify my trip to authorities, allowing me to flee the developing US police state and pursue my dream.

I can only speak for myself, but I haven't been able to spend too much time on my preps lately due to the arrival of my first child.

I do however, second your call out to the other board members to see what they have done recently to prepare. Let's hear it folks!

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If it's in your pack, but you don't know how to use it...it's useless. So, always test your skills as a form of preparation...Don't wait until your life depends on it. That's a lesson you don't want to learn the hard way.

Finally got a generator. I've been keeping my eyes open for one for nearly a year. DW found one on CL this morning while I was registering here. A horse farm near us is downsizing. It's a 5000w with a 8hp B&S. $300. When money allows, I'm going to replace the gas engine with an air cooled diesel.

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And To The Republic For Which It Used To Stand

Congratulations on the birth of your first child! I hope mother and child are doing well. Now, add diapers to your prep list!

The other night (and just before the first real snow of the season) I winterized my car. Flushed and put in de-icing windshield washer fluid, put the folding snow shovel and snow brushes in the back, added the two surplus wool blankets as well. I also made sure that my BOB which I keep in my car is up to date ( no expired first aid supplies, and a few sources of food like jerkey, etc).

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If it's in your pack, but you don't know how to use it...it's useless. So, always test your skills as a form of preparation...Don't wait until your life depends on it. That's a lesson you don't want to learn the hard way.

I haven't really posted much to this thread but I'm constantly reading and following it so I do appreciate McCLarinJ and the others for keeping it going. That said, I'll contribute a bit here:

In the fast few weeks, I have put the finishing touches on my first aid kit. I say kit but it's really more of a duffel bag filled with supplies. This is kind of a BOB for first aid rather than a smaller kit that I would include in my BOB. We all stock up on food in case we have to bug in, why not stock up on medical supplies? That's what this bag is. Plus if I had to bug out, I could easily toss it in my truck or carry it with me.

I've also applied for an FID card. It's something that I've always thought about doing but never did. Never really had a reason to as I don't hunt. But these days, I'd like to get my card and get in some training at a range. Don't think I'm ready to go out and buy a gun, but I'd like to ability to do so if I ever wanted to.

Finally, I've begun looking into solar panels and how to charge batteries with the panels. I guess I was intrigued or inspired by the show The Colony. I think it could be useful if the power grid gets attacked.

So that's what I've been up to as far as prepping. I'd hate to see this thread die so I'll try to be better about posting more here myself.

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Please don't take my avatar to seriously. I'm really not a bible thumping armageddon prophet.

I've learned that one of the 24-acre land plots I'm going to look at in Ecuador has that rarest of alternative energy potentials, a rushing stream for hydro-power. I'll measure flow rate and incline before making a buying decision. If I can get good head (that's a hydro-power term for height of water in pipe that powers hydro-turbine) plus flow volume, I can get all the electricity I would need for less than $5,000 investment assuming I provide all the labor myself. Micro-hydro-turbines run $2,500 - $3,500, then there's the piping, generator house, wiring, small battery bank, controller, and inverter, most of which I already have