* bought some new hiking pants
* added 200 rds of .223 ammo
* bought a solar trickle charger (got a summer car in the garage that keeps losing charge)

Showed the kids that one can start a fire with dryer lint and a spark (practice for me),
Purchased a Solio Solar Charger, a Jetbeam AAA flashlite and Petzl e+LITE Emergency LED Headlamp

Have a swdish trangia stove enroute, just got my custom leather sheath for my Mora. Taking my nephew out all day friday to practice fire making & shelter building. Life is good, when you have 3 days off a week

I have a HeatSheet and a PSP kit on the way. Started generators for the monthly warmup and checkout.

1. Put together a small home/vehicle kit for in-laws.
2. Visited REI and picked up a small Heatsheet Bivvy.
3. Organized kits somewhat and rotate a few items. Added more lanyards to important items.
4. Got a Spyderco Sharpmaker for keeping blades sharp.
5. Tried Sharpmaker on kitchen knives.
6. Tried Sharpmaker on scissors.
7. Tried Sharpmaker on... etc.

Small?? Are there different sizes?

Since its been too cold to get out and do much I'm concentrated to indoor things.
I keep all important records in an electronic format because my laptop of backup media is a lot lighter and smaller than a filing cabinet should I need to evacuate/bug out. I signed up for online accounts at a couple more places and opted out of paper statements and added them to my maintenance spreadsheet so I know to go and download the electronic statements regularly. This also helps prevent identity theft by preventing those statements from sitting in my mailbox or my neighbors back yard where the mailperson seems to toss our mail more often all the time.
To help with preventing paper insecurity I also ran my credit report and signed up for the national opt out registry for unsolicited banking and insurance offers and close a couple old accounts I had not used in a long time. My goal there is to reduce the amount of blank balance transfer checks and pre qualified credit cards from coming in the mail where they can be easily taken.
I've also been taking advantage of some buy one get one free sales at Kroger and the spend $60 get $12 free coupons they have been sending us to up our food stocks a bit more. I'm at the point of running out of space again after remodeling my kitchen a couple years ago and doubling our storage space.
We have also managed to save up enough to finish off our 10 year home equity loan taken out in 2003, the transactions are in pending between the banks but next week we will go out for a nice dinner to celebrate paying off a large monthly bill. My savings and emergency funds are a bit low now so that will be next months major prep item, just throwing a good bit back into savings.

Been "working" too hard to play much, 'cept here as usual. We have been working with an arbor crew that went thru "our" state park, removing sick or leaning trees. My wife and I got to feed a mongo chipper (it will handle stuff up to 12" in diameter) for three days in a row (life ain't easy for us volunteer types). But, after helping drop a 110+ year old cedar, I saw a lot of "honey" oozing from the enter of the trunk. Soon as this rain stops I'm gonna get some and see if it burns like pine pitch does. If so, I will try making some of those PJ/pitch/cottonball/waxed paper firestarters...

"...No tool chain tighting is the way to go..."

Does Poulan's really work? I have a Craftsman with the no-tool thing, and the stupid thing will not stay tight, I have to re-tighten it all the time. It is not just this one either, I have used other Craftmen that did the same thing. Been working with a Stihl the last month or so, it requires tool, but doesn't have to be re-tightened very often...

picked up two more 4-packs of Energizer Lithium AAA batteries. those puppies are hard to find.