To be prepared for a crisis, every Prepper must establish goals and make long-term and short-term plans. In this column, the SurvivalBlog editors review their week’s prep activities and planned prep activities for the coming week. These range from healthcare and gear purchases to gardening, ranch improvements, bug out bag fine-tuning, and food storage. This is something akin to our Retreat Owner Profiles, but written incrementally and in detail, throughout the year. We always welcome you to share your own successes and wisdom in your e-mailed letters. We post many of those –or excerpts thereof — in this column, in the Odds ‘n Sods Column, and in the Snippets column. Let’s keep busy and be ready!
Jim Reports:
I’m still traveling and don’t have much to report, for prepping progress. But I did but a few bargain military surplus items to add to our stockpile at the Rawles Ranch.
A Reminder: I presently have Elk Creek Company‘s shopping cart system shut down, for my travel during the month of March. I plan to reactivate it starting on March 31st, 2021. (Mark your calendar.) Worst case is that the Senate version of the dreaded H.R. 8 will pass. Yes, “Universal Background Checks” for post-1898 guns could become Federal Law — with the law taking effect in 180 days — sometime around October of 2021. I can foresee this as a Sea Change event. One long-tern unintended consequence of this law is that it could cause the value of pre-1899 guns to double or triple. That is because they will be the only cartridge guns that will still be available to be bought and sold without a background check and Federal paperwork.
Lily has some missives on life in Mud Season for you. But first… So that you can see what Mud Season looks like in our region, don’t miss the latest vlog from our friends with the Good Simple Living family: It All Starts With This First Step — Building Our DIY Debt-Free Home In The Mountains. (You can start at around the 2:26 mark, to see beaucoup mud.) We recommend subscribing to their YouTube channel. They’ve quickly rocketed to 220,000 subscribers!
Now, over to Lily…
Avalanche Lily Reports:
Dear Readers,
It is now Mud Season. Many dirt roads, driveways, and trails are becoming deep ruts from the melting of the ice within them. Early spring is in the air here at the ranch. The temperatures have been in the high thirties and forties this week. Though, because of the increased wind and dampness, it hasn’t felt so warm to me, lately. This week I have heard the first Robin and the Field Sparrows calling. The Chickadee has been belting out its spring song, now for about three weeks. We have quite a few flocks of different types of dabblers coming through: In our local waterways, I have seen canvasbacks, coots, mallards, mergansers, Tundra Swans, and of course, Canadian Geese. Additionally, this week, while driving home from town at twilight, we had a small herd of four elk, (there could have been a lot more, just didn’t see them) cross the road in front of our vehicle. That is always a sight to behold. They are returning to our valley, now, because they like to give birth to their young in here.
This week flew by so quickly. Jim and I are enjoying working together researching for and posting Reader’s Snippets on all topics. We really enjoy hearing from you, so please e-mail us your own experiences, and news links that you have come across on all topics survival, preparedness, self-sufficiency related. Thanks!
The girls and I managed only one very short hike up to Myrtle Falls outside of Bonner’s Ferry, Idaho. That hike only whets my appetite for more hiking, but it was windy, chilly, and cloudy and started to sprinkle so we decided to head home.
I spent more time studying another book of hikes in our three-state region to get ideas on places to hike to build up our stamina.
Concerning setting up the Luxe tent and small camp stove: I’ve decided to wait for a week or two for the snow to melt in an area that our incorrigible bull does not have access to… That boy cannot leave anything that is left out, alone…
Miss Eloise read aloud to me from the second book of the Hunger Games series, “Catching Fire”. This story is so well-written it grips me and once again after we were halfway through the book, I took it from her and spent an afternoon and half the night devouring it until it was finished. It has such a surprising/upsetting ending for me, that I laid awake for another two hours thinking about the story and ended up with only three hours of sleep that night. Ugh! I do not do well at all on that little amount of sleep. It affects me for the next few days, even, if I go to bed at my regular times. I have now also started the third book, “Mockingjay.”
I did a lot of cleaning, dusting and organizing. We went shopping to stock up the freezers and pantry, mostly buying meat and fresh veggies.
This week I also listened to the book of First Corinthians.
May you all have a very blessed and safe week.
– Avalanche Lily, Rawles
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As always, please share and send e-mails of your own successes and hard-earned wisdom and we will post them in the “Snippets” column this coming week. We want to hear from you.