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:
A bit later than usual this year, I finished my anuual firewood gathering and storage, on Tuesday. In most years, I have that done by early August.
I caught up on a lot of projects around the ranch, including replacing a corral fence rail that our bull had destroyed. I replaced it with a Red Fir tree trunk that was 8′” in diameter. That shoud dissuade Mr. Bull.
Avalanche Lily Reports:
Dear Readers,
Not a lot was accomplished this week, due to recovering from the colds that we caught last week.
This week, though, I harvested and dehydrated a large amount of broccoli from the Annex Garden.
I harvested various Zuchinni squashes from the giant pots, diced them, and froze them.
I washed and bleached yet more pots. Now I just have the trays and small seedling pots to wash and we shall be done for the season.
We did some stock-up shopping at the end of the week, once we were feeling much better and past the contagious phase.
I have lived in the northern Redoubt region for over a dozen years. Each year I have wanted to see the Kokanee salmon run and to participate in snagging them but something always interfered with this activity such as weather, schooling, harvesting, preserving, etc., or when I checked certain streams creeks, or rivers, with the intent to snag them, nary of one was seen. Kokanee are a land-locked sub-species of the Sockeye salmon. They live in lakes and rivers of the northwest of North America. Every three to four years, they run up into local creeks and streams to spawn in the fall. These three to four year-old salmon will die after spawning, therefore the government allows for the snagging of them in the fall in certain streams and rivers. One is also allowed to conventionally fish for them in the lakes and rivers during the other seasons of the year. The snagging season is now open in the northern Redoubt States.
While shopping in town, mid-week, word was relayed to me that the Kokanee were running in Trestle Creek. So I took a special little side trip over there just to see if this was so. Yep sure enough, for the first time, ever, I saw those bright red males making their way up the creek to do their spawning. I found it very exciting to see God’s creation doing it’s thing. Trestle Creek is closed to fishing, so I just observed them.
The next day, Jim, Miss Violet, and I tried fishing for Kokanee in a large river. We saw some Kokanee and a lot of trout in the river, but were not able to catch anything. I think that they were not running strongly, yet in that river. There were some other folks around us, fishing, and they too weren’t catching anything. However, it was a beautiful spot and a beautiful afternoon to be outside.
We intend to try yet another local river early next week to try our luck at snagging.
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.