To be prepared for a crisis, every Prepper must establish goals and make both 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 the Odds ‘n Sods Column or in the Snippets column. Let’s keep busy and be ready!
Jim Reports:
Now that we’ve made some room in our propane freezer, we had the opportunity to butcher five excess roosters this past week. For this, we waited for a day with above-freezing temperatures. As usual, I did the beheading, pulled the innards, chopped off the lower legs and wings, and skinned them. (We don’t pluck. feathers.) That was all done outdoors. Lily did the final cleanup of the skinned birds, in our kitchen.
This time, we saved the hearts and livers to cook up and freeze, for dog and cat food supplementation. I should mention that we feed them just small amounts of liver each week, out of caution about overdosing on fat-soluble Vitamin D.
I’ve had to make some extra trips to town, to pick up order envelopes from folks who paid for their SurvivalBlog Archive USB sticks via check. We’ve ripped through the 1,700-stick inventory very quickly. At last count, we had just 152 sticks still on hand. I expect to run out of them before February 11th. There probably won’t be another production run of the archive USB sticks in 2023, so the clock is ticking.
I’ve had a lot of distractions, but this week I hope to make some progress on remodeling the interior of our ranch workshop.
Now, Lily’s report…
Avalanche Lily Reports:
Dear Readers,
We had some clear cold temperatures this week with a warm-up and cloud-up at the end of the week with a dusting of snow.
I cleaned the hen house. I put the chicken manure on two of the strawberry beds and one of the Black raspberry beds.
Partly using up some of our older storage food, I dry-mixed some chicken feed. This is what I included in this batch: split green peas, oatmeal, ground flax, barley, quinoa, wheat berries, some old Masa corn flour, garlic powder, kelp powder, food grade diatamacious earth, grit, and grond oyster shells. I put a splash of Apple Cider vinegar in their water each time I change it.
As Jim mentioned, we have begun to lessen our rooster load a few birds at a time. I want to try to lessen our reliance on the refrigerator and freezers and start to reduce their loads, so I want to keep as many animals on the “hoof” and butcher them as we need to. Therefore, except for some ground chicken that I order and these now three birds, the dogs and cats ate the boiled meat from a small bantam and we ate a big, rooster. So we now have just three birds in our freezers. I do have a few cases of homemade canned chicken…with that said, we have four nearly full freezers of veggies, fruits, and other meats. I am trying to get us to eat the meats and veggies that are a few years old to rotate things out faster… You fellow preppers really know how it is….;-) Trying to lessen our need for electric and propane power, yet have the stock of food that we might need for the future handy, a Catch-22.
The three of us went to Moyie Springs to collect the mail. On the way home, while Jim drove, I went through all of the envelopes and recorded all of the checks, money orders, cash, and stamps that we received for the USB Archive sticks, an Elk Creek Antique gun purchase, and the Ten Cent Challenge contributions. Again, we received some wonderful notes of encouragement from you all that I read aloud to Jim and Miss Violet as we drove. I love reading your notes! Miss Violet claimed a beautiful homemade bookmark that was sent. She is using it in the James Herriot “All Creatures Great and Small” book that she is currently reading.
Another few readers mentioned that they are increasing the sizes of their gardens and chicken flocks, while others have made the move to the Redoubt and are enjoying their first years of homesteading. We received some notes that were extra personal for them and us, so I won’t comment on those, publicly, only to say that we were touched or intrigued, or “Small World Department”. We all here at the Rawles Ranch thank you for ordering the Archive sticks and for your blog subscription support. We are pleased that you are enjoying reading the content of our blog and are gaining so much valuable and authentic information and skills through it, and are finding it to be a blessing to your daily lives. And let me remind you, that SurvivalBlog wouldn’t be the success that is, and it wouldn’t even be possible without all of the great experiences, knowledge, and skills that our readers share with us through the writing of your articles with your knowledge and experiences.
I’ve been working out, doing sit-ups, girly push-ups, working with the elastic bands, jump roping, lifting weights/barbells, and walking.
This week on a beautiful sunny day, Jim, Miss Violet, H., and I, went for a walk on the top of the crusty snow through the meadows up to check up on our neighbor’s property. Afterward, we crossed the road and walked home on a trail through the National Forest. As we were coming off the trail down a hill out into a clearing just parallel to a National Forest road very close to home, we saw the most huge animal tracks that I have ever, ever seen! They went down this hill in sets of fours, it was a four legged creature. The tracks were about fifteen inches long and eight inches wide. I assume that perhaps the front and back foot paw prints merged with each other, because the front/top of the print was slightly wider that the back which tapered slightly smaller almost like bear tracks…. but without the toe or claw marks that a bear would make. Bears are supposed to be denned-up in our area at this time.
Not Bigfoot, as they were in sets of fours, so…. In the middle of a clearing they appeared to just stop. I looked around and about twelve feet to the left, a big gap in my opinion, they resumed going back up the hill where it had come from. Holy cats!!! We assumed that it was from a HUGE MALE MOUNTAIN LION. I do not want to ever run into that kitty… Seriously, what size of beasts do we have in our forests? Slightly nerve-racking. Glad to know that we travel with Gaston Glock, when we hike.
Miss Eloise, our oldest daughter, asked me to read the fourth book of the ‘Hunger Games’ series, titled “A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” by Suzanne Collins. It took me three days to read it, about twelve hours. It is about President Snow’s upbringing and first direct experience with the Hunger Games. Demonic! Predictive Programming! The beginnings are happening right now in our country! Totally in line with Revelation 6. The Four Horseman riding. Though I hated the storyline, it was a great conversation piece to talk over with Miss Eloise to bring home how this spirit is opposed to Jesus’ spirit of love and compassion, selflessness, and Salvation. Also, to know that even though the evil elite are doing this to America, unlike in the Hunger Games, Jesus will return and save us and destroy those evil ones in a short time frame. They will not continue for thirty or more years. In fact, is suspect that Jesus most likely will return during this decade. Hallelujah to the Lamb!! God will not let them get too far down the road with their evil.
This week, I spent some time in the first three chapters of First Corinthians studying it in English, Hebrew, and some in Greek.
Stay Strong in the Lord Jesus!
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.