People Get Ready

Another oldie but a goodie. Now's a good time to get ready in all aspects of your life - " You need to get your mind right, Luke." 

I did a clean-up, paint-up on my little grill yesterday as a small part of my getting ready. It was looking pretty rough but it's almost ready to go back into service. The inside of the top has a nice coating of smoke and grease, and the outside coating of heat resistant paint needs some heat to cure. I'm going to load it up with some charcoal and bake the paint and melt some of the schmutz out of it. 

The students in the metal shop where I started my career used to make these. I liked the looks of them, so the instructor gave me the plan and I made myself one. It's light, durable and big enough to cook four big burgers at one time. I remember taking it to the bike races at Elkhart Lake one year. There was a couple of guys in their "ambivalance" parked next to us and they couldn't cook their breakfast due to a no open flame rule in effect. The little grill came to the rescue, we combined their grub and ours and we all ate like kings.  

One more bracket for steel storage in the big barn. This will be the last one for a while. I've got a bunch of small aluminum sheets and plates I need to get a home for as well. I've got a piece of aluminum diamond plate I'm going to put on a couple of blocks and then stack the pieces on the diamond plate either laying flat or leaning up against the wall.

I dug out my old Coleman camping stoves yesterday as well. I've got two of the two burners, and one single burner. The old two burners run on white gas or Coleman stove and lantern fuel. I've got a place in my teardrop trailer specifically for one of those, so I'll put one in there. The other two burner is going to go to my back-up location. I need to figure out if there's any issue with shelf life with the fuel, however. A tankful goes a long way. If I fill up the tank, that should be plenty for my 72 hour emergency plan as long as the fuel is stable. Since I've got at least two of most everything - whether I need it or not - I shouldn't have to buy anything besides some batteries and a mouse proof container. Since I'm off this week, it's a good time to get it done.