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 [1], 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 made it safely home to the Rawles Ranch. Now, in addition to unpacking and catching up on some water system repairs, I’m now very busy boxing up orders for Elk Creek Company [2]. When I switched the pricing to Pre-1965 U.S. silver coinage it triggered a large rush of orders.
Avalanche Lily Reports:
Dear Readers,
I do not have as much to say this week, due to the hot hot weather and preparing for Jim’s arrival home and the arrival of our sons and their wives for a visit.
We survived the hot weather by getting up very early to do chores and all of our outdoor work, then some very minimal housework, rest, read, surf the internet in the house from around 11:30AM until 7:30 PM, then work until 10:30 or so.
I was able to mow the house meadow in the mornings and evenings which took up most of the available work time this week. The grass didn’t really grow well there this year, but it was inundated with daisies and some other tall grassy plant. Though they are very pretty and look like a lovely wild meadow, I don’t much like walking through tall grasses close to the house and more importantly when they dry out they’re a potential fire hazard. Therefore, I mowed them down. Additionally, if we dry out too much more, because of the fire hazard from sparks, the state will ban mowing, chainsaws, and other machine use in the national forests. I wanted to get that done before any ban went into effect.
I did weed one and a quarter row of the Main garden potato patch.
I harvested our first cucumbers (from the greenhouse) and strawberries, yum!
Our second bull calf of the year was born this week. I’m so glad the first one now has a buddy to play and grow up with. Even the first night, the two of them were becoming acquainted with each other. Now they are running “sixty” together around the corral! So cute!
We lost one of our older cats to a combination of the heat, and unknown to us, heart issues, that led to heart failure. He had to be put down. So sudden and so sad. It is really upsetting to me.
Our two usual hay sources are telling us that for various reasons the hay is not available for us this year. The main reason is that the drought has given a very poor hay crop and there most likely will not be a second cutting. Another reason given by one of our regular hay sources is that the land that they usually lease for hay has been sold. These people had quite a large herd of cattle and already have had to reduce their herd for this coming winter. A friend from the Couer d’Alene area said that there wasn’t any hay available in that region. We tend to also check in with our horsey friend on her hay gathering prospects each year. This year she is looking for hay in the Kalispell region. She has added some hay for us to her quest. We have often gone in together and helped each other with finding hay, picking up bales in the field, transporting, and stacking, through the years. We shall see what comes up.
We will probably be butchering our matriarch cow. We will probably also butcher the bull in early winter after we are confident that he has bred A. 🙁 Again, we shall see.
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.