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 had to handle some bothersome tax paperwork this week, and I did my annual desk clearing. There was at least a small sense of accomplishment there. By the way, I have found an accountant to handle my taxes. Hopefully, that will be a smooth transition.
Out in the shop, I’ve been making progress on the second-story flooring and partitions. It is gratifying to see that project coming along.
There has been very little snow in the past 10 days, so I haven’t had to plow. The piles of snow that I’ve pushed back has formed very stout walls. They obviously are now there for the rest of the winter. I’m glad that I allowed lots of room for that snow, since we are experiencing a more snowy winter, than usual. Even with temperatures in the mid-30s on most days, the snow in our parking area and on the lane out to the county road has been frustratingly slow, in melting. This has left a thin layer of ice that makes it treacherous to walk. As is our habit, this time of year we all wear YakTrax on our boots (pictured), and we move around with deliberate caution.
The 2005-2022 USB archive stick project is progressing well. This year, the archive will be on a 32 GB stick. With all of the new bonus books, there was no way to fit everything on a 16 GB stick. The waterproof archive sticks should be orderable by January 22nd. Thanks for your patience.
The only change to the livestock feeding and stock tank routine this week was hauling out a couple of new salt blocks. The sight of a fresh, crisp-cornered salt block always causes a brief burst of attention and the usual dominance assertion games among the cows and horses.
Now, over to Lily’s part of the report.
Avalanche Lily Reports:
Dear Readers,
This week I continued my cleaning trend.
I washed the wood kitchen cupboards with Murphy’s oil soap.
We have stone tile flooring throughout the main house. I have been deeply scrubbing it in sections during the past two weeks. Usually, I clean it by running a wet towel over it. A few times a year I deeply scrub it to get the dirt out of the small holes in it. It is shiny clean, now!
I cleaned the hen house.
I watched a couple of videos on growing flax, from sowing the seed, harvesting it, preparing it to spin to make linen. It has inspired me to plant a bed of flax this next summer.
I went shopping for groceries, mostly for greens, fruits, nuts, and veggies.
I bought a new regular 20 degree sleeping bag from LL Bean to replace my thirty-five year-old very ratty LL Bean twenty degree bag that has been my “comfort” blanket/bag for so many years. It’s traveled the world with me, literally. I’ve slept in it at Girl Scout Camp and other camps, hotels, hostels, airport floors, the shores of Galilee, Israel (Slept on the beach for a month with it out under the stars one summer, not in a tent. Also slept outside one night in the desert of Qumran.), overnight hiking trips, all over Spain, etc. The nylon covering is just ripping to shreds so easily now. 🙁 It’s still on our bed. I use it to cover up with quick when I need some warmth instead of wrecking the covers of our made bed that I often sit on to write, read or listen to videos. I also drag it out to the living room when I need to be out there and want to cover up. It’s just time to retire it. Thirty-five years is a good long run for a sleeping bag. It speaks of the quality of LL Bean Bags, lots of memories…
I did some weight lifting and walking.
I read Chapters 20-39 in Isaiah and did some Hebrew study.
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.