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:
The weather deteriorated last week, so I had to do a lot more snowplowing. We had an unexpected water pipe leak, at a pipe union. There is nothing quite like digging a four-foot deep hole to repair a pipe when there is snow on the ground, and more snow falling. As my father used to say of such work: “It builds character.” (Well, it either builds character or it empties a wallet very quickly.)
I’ve occupied myself with my normal writing and editing. I’m also developing a book proposal. This one will be non-fiction, on investing. We’ll see if that flies, when my agent pitches it to a publisher that I have in mind.
There are always lots of projects around the ranch each year, as winter sets in. Stock tank heaters and snow plowing are usually at the top of the list. Once in a while, I will accidentally leave water in a hose out at a stock tank, and I’ll have to bring it into the house, to thaw out. That sort of work is bothersome, but just a trifle.
Lily and I did some more manure hauling. This time of year, we do so with our heavy-duty black plastic utility sleds. They are quite stable when loaded, and the effort required is less than hauling manure with a wheelbarrow.
This coming week I plan to do some more woodsplitting. Because of some extensive travel this past summer and fall, a bit of this year’s firewood is still in rounds. I do all of my woodsplitting by hand. I don’t plan to buy a hydraulic woodsplitter until I’m elderly. They are noisy, require fuel, and require maintenance. And with one surely I won’t get as much exercise. I just realized that by the time I’m in my late seventies, I’ll have grandsons that are in their late teens. Hmmmm… Maybe I’ll never have to buy a hydraulic woodsplitter.
Now, over to my lovely and industrious wife, Avalanche Lily…
Avalanche Lily Reports:
Dear Readers,
We, here at the Rawles Ranch, don’t celebrate Christmas. We will be attending our Bible study as we usually do on Saturdays. But to all of you that do celebrate Christmas, May you have a Blessed Christmas Day with your family and friends.
We had some rain and snow all week. I hate it when it rains on top of six inches of beautiful fluffy snow and then freezes the top inch…It really depressed me for a couple of days, one cannot ski on it well. It’s rather dangerous, in fact. Our parking lot and driveway was a sheet of incredibly bumpy ice which also kept me from even walking. I had a seriously complaining spirit for a few days, against the weather and snow conditions, that is… This is back and forth of above freezing temperatures with rain, below-freezing temperatures with ice and snow, back to rain, back to snow, back to rain is a serious drawback for snow lovers to live west of the Rockies… We had an inch of snowfall on top of it later in the week that gave me the ability to at least safely walk the driveway and parking lot. At the end of the week we got a three inch snowfall. Next week, Monday, a cold front will be pushing through which is predicted to plunge our temperatures — perhaps into double digit negatives territory. We are already planning on how to protect our animals from those temps. We also will probably have to bring into the house from the cold cellar closet all of my stored home-grown apples and potatoes, as well as the store-bought carrots, cabbage, and beets. Can we please have steady temps in the twenties, day and night, instead of these extremes?
One morning this week as I entered the female side of the sheep shed to feed them, with my first glance, something didn’t register as right. I was gazing right at the ram in the midst of the ewes. “Oh, No!” I quickly scanned the shed. A ewe was by herself on the ram’s side of the shed. The gate between the two sides was still latched. “Hmm, looks as though we had a rodeo of sorts during the night. “Mr. Raging Hormone” couldn’t take the temptation any longer and must’ve hopped the gate. That one ewe on his side of the shed, must’ve not liked him being on her side, and she hopped over the top of the gate to get away from him? Well, shucky durn, I had wanted to wait another two or three weeks before joining them together to have lambs in May… But I guess we’re getting them in April… I sure hope it’s warm this year…
I entered into the Ram’s side of the shed and opened the gate between the two sections so the lone ewe could join her flock. The ram made moves towards me, I yelled at him and did a small stomp and thrust movement towards him. He spooked and ran away from me. Good! Now each time I go in there I just give a quick yell, just to get him away from where I am working, do my job quick and get out… Now, I have to be more careful when feeding them and giving them water, since the ram is “free”. Interestingly, on the third day of feeding them all together, as soon as I entered the shed, the ram started quickly towards me, before I could react, he seemed to recognize that it was me, their shepherdess, and immediately returned to the ewes. Yeah, that is good! Maybe, we will be fine together in the future… Regardless, I will not let my guard down when in his presence.
This week Sandi Brock’s Youtube Channel showed up in my feed, “Sheepishly Me”. She is a sheep farmer in Ontario, Canada. I have been binge-watching her videos all week. Check her out!
I finally processed some pumpkins that we had harvested last fall. All of which had been volunteers in my garden and in the compost pile. I had about twenty of them. I chopped them in half, took out the seeds, saved a few seeds to grow next summer, and saved the rest of the seeds to dry roast, and baked them all together for a few hours at 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Then I scraped the meat from the shells, and put it into a large bowl, mashed them all together with a potato masher, then put two cups of mashed pumpkin into plastic bags, labeled them, and froze them. (I didn’t feel like bothering with the Silicone bags for mashed pumpkin.) It yielded enough for about fifteen pumpkin pies. Miss Eloise loves pumpkin pies, so there she goes. I’m also super glad to get the pumpkins out of my sight. They were taking up too much space in the pantry hallway.
At the end of the week, I was not happy with myself for being on the stupid computer so much. Therefore, in light of perhaps someday, soon, not having grid electrical power, I went and brought into the house our James Washer. We’ve had it for eight years but, I have only used it once, until recenty. I cleaned it up and washed a load of clothes in it. Those clothes went through the ringer and were hung up on the racks in front of our woodstove. At the same time as I was using the James Washer, I put a load of sheets in the regular washer. They also went into the dryer. I’m only hanging up our regular clothes on the racks at this time. I was able to wash the load of clothes in the James Washer faster than the sheets in electric washer and get an arm workout at the same time. As training to be able to live happily off-grid, I will more regularly use my James Washer in the coming weeks. I rather enjoyed using it. It is a better way to spend one’s time than supine on the bed looking at the screen. The James Washer is now residing in the laundry room.
This week, since I was not able to do too much skiing or walking. I lifted some weights, did a lot of sit-ups, and vacuuming, and floor washing. I also did pace/march around the kitchen island while listening to different YouTube channels. I did walk up and down the driveway for a half hour, after chores, one day. And on Friday, I was able to ski once again, because enough snow fell overnight to provide a deep enough snow base on top of the ice crust to be do-able again.
I listened again, to the books of John, Zechariah and Revelation. The scriptures that stood out to me this week had to do with Jesus’ return, the catching away of His people and the coming judgment.
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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.