Hi everyone:
I hope you are all having a great summer prepping and enjoying life, because I sure have! I have been traveling, carrying out various home improvement projects, and re-working some of my prepping goals -- basically just taking stock of where I am and what I want to do. Some of my activities include:
Home Maintenance. I made sure my furnace filters were clean and clear (my HVAC system uses a pair of permanent filters that must be cleaned every few months) and scheduled a yearly service on my HVAC system. I purchased a new pressure washer and pressure washed all the concrete patios, porches, walks, and driveways on my property. I still need to repaint the wood on my sun porch. More one why in a minute.
Personal Maintenance. Continued working out when I could to build strength. Personal achievements were making it 5K on a treadmill. I also had routine doctor's appointments to check blood work, etc. as diabetes runs in my family and I wanted to monitor that as I am approaching a certain age.
Skills Maintenance. Increased my practice with firearms and researched more on shooting fundamentals. I am happy to say that my work with rifle platforms and handgun platforms has improved markedly.
Supply Maintenance. Inventoried supplies I have accumulated and rotated out old stock. I had been a little lax in this department.
Spiritual Maintenance. My home state of West Virginia was subjected to massive flash flooding in late June, and as part of my church relief team I spent time in the town of Clendenin, West Virginia handing out relief supplies as part of the volunteer effort. There is still a massive amount of cleaning up to do. Some parts of the state received two months of rain in 24 hours.
The biggest challenge I faced this summer was a physical condition that hampered my mobility. I was diagnosed with psoas tendonitis of the left hip. This inflammation of the tendons of the hip is painful and takes up to three to four weeks to recover from. The psoas muscle, for the uninitiated, is used in virtually every movement of the hip. As soon as my hip was feeling better I came down with a pretty bad upper respiratory infection as well, so I was out of commission for four weeks or so. This slowed me down, but I am back up to full speed now.
I could have used my down time to review Fear The Walking Dead, but honestly, the second season has not grabbed me like the first season did. Much of the characterization that was developed during the first season was jettisoned and the show meandered through the first seven episodes. I may go back and do a "best of" preparedness lessons learned during the first part of the season, but at this point I simply don't feel like writing seven reviews on disappointing episodes.
Alternatively, I would recommend Containment, a limited series on the CW network that follows an inner city area of Atlanta after a disease outbreak forces it to be walled off in a cordon to stop the disease from spreading. It has some of the usual Hollywood tropes (people with guns are either gang bangers or racist rednecks, government conspiracies, etc.) but watching a quarantine area slowly devolve into chaos is an eye opener.
I hope you are all having a great summer prepping and enjoying life, because I sure have! I have been traveling, carrying out various home improvement projects, and re-working some of my prepping goals -- basically just taking stock of where I am and what I want to do. Some of my activities include:
Home Maintenance. I made sure my furnace filters were clean and clear (my HVAC system uses a pair of permanent filters that must be cleaned every few months) and scheduled a yearly service on my HVAC system. I purchased a new pressure washer and pressure washed all the concrete patios, porches, walks, and driveways on my property. I still need to repaint the wood on my sun porch. More one why in a minute.
Personal Maintenance. Continued working out when I could to build strength. Personal achievements were making it 5K on a treadmill. I also had routine doctor's appointments to check blood work, etc. as diabetes runs in my family and I wanted to monitor that as I am approaching a certain age.
Skills Maintenance. Increased my practice with firearms and researched more on shooting fundamentals. I am happy to say that my work with rifle platforms and handgun platforms has improved markedly.
Supply Maintenance. Inventoried supplies I have accumulated and rotated out old stock. I had been a little lax in this department.
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| This is a house on fire, floating down the river. |
Spiritual Maintenance. My home state of West Virginia was subjected to massive flash flooding in late June, and as part of my church relief team I spent time in the town of Clendenin, West Virginia handing out relief supplies as part of the volunteer effort. There is still a massive amount of cleaning up to do. Some parts of the state received two months of rain in 24 hours.
The biggest challenge I faced this summer was a physical condition that hampered my mobility. I was diagnosed with psoas tendonitis of the left hip. This inflammation of the tendons of the hip is painful and takes up to three to four weeks to recover from. The psoas muscle, for the uninitiated, is used in virtually every movement of the hip. As soon as my hip was feeling better I came down with a pretty bad upper respiratory infection as well, so I was out of commission for four weeks or so. This slowed me down, but I am back up to full speed now.
I could have used my down time to review Fear The Walking Dead, but honestly, the second season has not grabbed me like the first season did. Much of the characterization that was developed during the first season was jettisoned and the show meandered through the first seven episodes. I may go back and do a "best of" preparedness lessons learned during the first part of the season, but at this point I simply don't feel like writing seven reviews on disappointing episodes.
Alternatively, I would recommend Containment, a limited series on the CW network that follows an inner city area of Atlanta after a disease outbreak forces it to be walled off in a cordon to stop the disease from spreading. It has some of the usual Hollywood tropes (people with guns are either gang bangers or racist rednecks, government conspiracies, etc.) but watching a quarantine area slowly devolve into chaos is an eye opener.
