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 had a quite unproductive week, working around the ranch, because of an injury. I had an accident while working on insulating our workshop. I blame this on fatigue and lack of attention. I was doing this work while exhausted following a long morning of cutting firewood. Whilst cutting a piece of 2-inch thick blue styrofoam board along a steel straightedge with a box cutter, my left hand slipped and I cut the tips off of two of my fingers — just the tips of my fingers, forward of the fingernails. This left flat, disc-shaped wounds. The larger one of these was 3/8ths of an inch in diameter. This was not a serious injury, but painful. (And not likely one to be repeated. Experiences like this teach me to slow down and concentrate on my work.)
So my hand mobility will be limited for the next couple of weeks. Since I’m now limited to just minor chores, I will be concentrating on writing and editing for a while. The firewood project and the shop project will have to wait…
Now, over to Lily.
Avalanche Lily Reports:
Dear Readers,
Well, thankfully, this week the weather was a bit cooler in the eighties. This allowed me to focus on a whole lot more outdoor work throughout the day without having to go inside to cool down. Towards the end of the week, we had a group of thundershowers move through our area during a two-day time period. This rain broke the summer drought for us. Awesome!
I started the week with pruning the spent Black raspberry canes and 3/4ths of my spent red raspberries — the early and mid-summer bearers. My late-bearing raspberries, my favorites are still going strong. We have a lot of Raspberries that are marching west in the garden. I need to give a bunch of canes away….Or we need to replant them about the ranch as wild forage…
I harvested two rows of potatoes: Purple Vikings and Adirondack purples. I didn’t care for them so well with watering and they were not in an extra fertile ground with a lot of compost (Shmittah year rest) so I only got about thirty pounds. I will be keeping them as seed potatoes for next year’s crop. I still have three more rows to harvest.
I ordered four cases of potatoes from the food company for us to eat this winter. The order arrived on Friday. These potatoes, from this company, though they are organic did not grow at all in my garden when I used them as seed potatoes in the first three rows that I planted in April. I don’t know why… In past years, organic potatoes that I bought from this company, did grow as seed potatoes. I wonder if they were treated with something that inhibited their growth ability. It was strange.
In light of this, I will be saving my own homegrown potatoes that I grew this year for seed potatoes for this next growing season, next summer.
Additionally, I have some leftover Adirondack purple potatoes from last summer’s harvest that we haven’t eaten that have lots of roots growing out of them that I will plant in pots in the greenhouse this next week and I plan to prepare some of my garden space and plant the potatoes in October after Yom Kippur, to over-winter in the ground to get a jump start in the spring.
I harvested the garlic pips from the garlic flowers that I allowed to go to seed this summer. I plan to over-winter them then plant them next summer. It takes a few years to get garlic bulbs from the pips.
I pulled up the carrot flowers/seed heads that were planted last summer and allowed to go to flower this summer.
I took out the second 4- by 12-foot bed in the greenhouse, cleaned up the ground and laid down wood chips. I will be using that area for large pots. I have one more bed that I’m undecided as to what to do with it. Keep it, or take it out? Currently, it is growing sweet and Hungarian peppers. Actually, I decided at the end of the week to take it out when the peppers are spent.
These peppers were found to have a bit of an aphid infestation this week. I treated them two days in a row with a mixture of Dr. Bronner’s Castile liquid soap and water one tablespoon of soap to a quart of water. It seems to have had a great effect on the aphid population. I will most likely have to repeat the application next week.
I transplanted the last of my herbs and asparagus fronds that I started by seed in the greenhouse outside in the perennial garden.
I still have to move five Asparagus plants from the old bed to this new bed. I hope to do that next week.
I bleached, washed, and filled with composted manure several more large pots. I planted a few of them with left over from last year’s purple potatoes. We will be putting them under grow lights later this fall and in a more controlled environment.
I continue to weed the Asparagus bed.
I have been seriously seed saving from both my produce and from some organic store-bought produce: tomatoes, peppers, and Acorn Squash, thusfar…
The chicks are doing well. By next Thursday we ought to have another batch of chicks begin hatching out of the incubator…
I’ve been bike riding and swimming this past week. I’m trying to get my endurance up as I was back in my early twenties. I was a lifeguard and could tread water for two minutes holding the ten-pound rubber brick above my head. As of the end of this week, I can do so for about forty seconds…
Please continue to pray for Miss Eloise. Your prayers are doing wonders for her. Her new living situation is far more positive both in location and with whom she will be closely associated with. The influence bestowed will be far more positive for her future life’s goals. Thank you for praying.
I believe that we are living in the days just before a terrible storm comes onto the earth. The Supply Chain is breaking down, by the design of the Elite. Soon, I foresee that we will not be able to get things that we want and need. Now is the time to double down your prepping and food stocking, especially for gardening. Buy seeds, get your herbs, essential oils, First Aid, over-the-counter drugs, supplies for prepping projects — everything and anything that you think you will need in the future and will not be able to get.
Keep reading the Word of God and Keep praying!
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.