To be prepared for a crisis, every prepper must establish goals and make long-term and short-term plans. Steadily, we work on meeting our prepping goals. In this column, the SurvivalBlog editors share their planned prep activities for the coming week. These range from healthcare and gear purchases to gardening, property improvements, and food storage. This is something akin to our Retreat Owner Profiles, but written incrementally and in detail, throughout the year. We also welcome you to share your planned activities for increasing personal preparedness in the coming week. (Leave a Comment with your project details.) Let’s keep busy and be ready!
JWR
At the Rawles Ranch we are in full Summer Mode, which usually means lots of gardening, fencing, and construction projects. Since we live at a fairly northern latitude, the days are very long when we get close to the Summer Solstice. This gives us plenty of daylight–almost too much, since we sometimes work ourselves to the point of exhaustion.
Jim will be busy with his outbuilding construction projects. He will also be building deer caging to protect some new saplings. And–as time and weather permit–he will also be cutting and hauling more firewood.
This week is forecast to be coolish but sunny here at the Rawles Ranch. So our plans are to do plenty of outdoor activities.
In The Garden
We’ll continue to weed and mulch with straw and compost.
Children’s Gardens
We plan to get their gardens planted.
Orchard
I plan to finish Weed whacking. (But of course that job is never done.)
Livestock
Continue working the horses.
Outdoor Skills Acquisition
We’ll practice a few hiking and outdoor cooking skills.
May You be blessed this week in all that you do. – Avalanche Lily (Mrs. Rawles)
HJL
This week our focus is once again on gardening, food preservation, shop organization, security (video surveillance), poultry feed.
Gardening
We are continuing to weed, water, harvest, and replant. It is a chore taking up a significant amount of time most days. We are happy to begin to enjoy the early fruits of our labors. It is also exciting to watch the plants grows and bloom. Sadly, we are also beginning to see some of the garden pests. We are working harder to deal with these through our organic spray washes, sprays, deterrants, and “hunting”. Oh, those squash/vine boring bugs on Sarah’s zucchini and pumpkins upset her, but she hunts them down and gives those plants a blast of home-mixed Neem pepper spray to ward these predators off for a few days!
Food Preservation
I got the freeze dryer back in service, and Sarah is busy catching up on freeze drying eggs, herbs, and medicinal plants. This will be an ongoing project. We currently have eight dozen eggs in the freeze dryer at te time this was written.
Shop Organization
I hope to work more on organization the shop this week so we can more easily locate items and begin some larger projects.
Prepared With Security/Video Surveillance
I intend to install at least one more camera on the shop/garage building this week. We may also get another one elsewhere on the property. We have about a half dozen more we want to position around the homestead, beyond what we currently have, but they will have to go in over the next few weeks. The ones we already have came in handy recently, as we could not only see but also hear communications that aided in solving a mystery relating to package deliveries while we were gone. We want full coverage of our buildings and property access points and so need to add some cameras.
Poultry Feed
Currently, we are waiting for our cow peas and sunflower seeds to mature in the poultry garden. But wej’ve bought organic grains and ingredients to mix our own feed for our chickens. Some of it has arrived, and some was backordered. We need to do some research to locate alternative suppliers for a few more ingredients and then mix our chicken feed. They are in need of higher protein in their feed than what they get in the standard scratch or feed available at our local farm supply. They have been eating their feathers, but this is improving now that they have been given black oil sunflower seeds as a source of additional protein. Their feathers are beginning to grow back. We are hoping to mix their new feed and begin feeding it to them this week. We need to see how they respond and get them acclimated well, because we will be adding new chicks next month.
Has the Mrs. tried to wrap the base of her squash plants in foil? A quick Google search will show how this is done, and is supposed to be very effective. Good luck!
a quick chicken food I grow are white radishes. they eat the whole thing.
Try raising your own meal worms for your chickens. I just started that and it isn’t difficult. I also have a lot of red worms that I dig up and give to them.
Poultry feed–If you can find it, generally, turkey feed is higher in protein, My chickens love it and it helps with the issues you describe
made a routine visit to my doctor last week and decided to ask for a tetanus shot, havent had one in years. Now can check that off the list.
Have you considered raising black soldier fly larva for your chickens? Great protein and super easy to raise!
Giving vinegar to chickens also helps with feather growth.
As the weather is finally moderating here in the North East the garden is beginning to show signs of life and we will have minimal replanting to do. Plan to move a cloth covered garage and use as firewood and rabbit hay storage, a must move before next winters firewood is delivered. Hard to believe that I can buy firewood as cheaply as cutting it. Next will be refilling the woodshed with next winters wood. Hope everyone has a good summer.
Your summer activities remind me of this verse.
Proverbs 30:25 KJV
The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer;
I live in a white oak mix forest just West of the Redoubt. This Spring I had fence towers of oak leaves from last fall. When I took them apart they become tomatoe cages, but the leaf mold is full of young earwigs and roly polys. It’s not a poultry feed replacement, but a supplement the chickens appeared to really enjoy. I’m wanting to expand this operation this fall emphasizing the bugs over the compost.
I also planted a mulberry tree in the west chicken run. We’ll see how that goes, it will take me a couple years before I could meaningfully report back on that feed supplement experiment.
Plant radishes around your squash plants to repel the bugs!
HJL- You mention freeze drying. I’m looking at these units and want to know how much power they draw. I’m guessing it’s a good bit but hope you’ll share your experience on that. Many thanks.