Ulog 106: Bonus Gift Card Helps Me Add To My Prepping Supplies

In my ever continuing endeavor to keep adding prepper items to my homestead, last week I was able to add some more better to be prepared than not components that I feel could be necessary in the event of loss of power and electricity on the homestead.

I am not by any means a conspiracy theorist, Debbie-Downer or thinking the worst of the world, but being prepared is something my parents instilled in me at a very young age.

But with the heat of the summer upon us here (and possible rolling brown-outs), transformers go down frequently here, severe winds and threats of thunderstorms and tornadoes things can happen. And let's not get started on the winter weather with heavy ice downing power lines, high winds and blizzard like conditions here. Having the loss of power, especially at night time can be frustrating to say the least.

The sun goes down much earlier in the winter months... so does that mean bedtime would be at 5PM because you can't see? No, it shouldn't.

So why am I speaking about losing power? Have no electricity? Because my latest homestead additions all have to do with not having power, but still being able to accomplish things that need to be done.

I had received a $50 Amazon gift card earlier this month in a raffle giveaway (held at my husband's work place) and I definitely put the free money to good use for items around the homestead.

So let's see what I got!

Why I Bought These

• Lamp Light Chamber Oil Lamp- For obvious reasons for when/if power goes down. Nothing worse than trying to find your way through a dark room and house. I've tripped WAY too many times in my life to not have a way to see better.

I know some of you are saying...

But what about all your flashlights?

And to that I respond with... Other people who use them never put them back where they belong; and where I think they will be. And secondly, all the flashlights seem to be on the lowest possible battery juice when I need to use them. Plus it's always good to have a Plan B.

The Next Two Are Pretty Obvious...

• 6- foot roll of Oil Lamp Wick- nothing lasts forever. So when the wick that comes with the lamp runs out, I have plenty to refill the lamp with.

• Paraffin Lamp Oil- Again, nothing lasts forever; plus the lamp didn't come with any oil.

Hard to believe, but I have not had a mandolin slicer... EVER!

Why I Bought This

With all the canning and preserving I have planned for this coming year, I thought this was a good investment; not only for evenly sliced cucumbers, potatoes and onions, but also for being a savior to my fingers. Yeah... we've all done that, right?

There were cheaper ones on Amazon, but I wanted one that was sturdy, would hold up to all the slicing over the next decade (or more) and I liked that it had the container to capture all the slices as I worked.

Plus, this can be used without any power. It's all manual labor. Gotta work those biceps somehow!

I still have just under $15 to use up on the gift card and I'm quite sure I'll be purchasing more beeswax pellets, as I can always use that around here.