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:
Summer has started and it is now racing by. As usual, I’m juggling a whole raft of projects at the Rawles Ranch. Presently, these include: trench-digging, slash hauling, firewood cutting/stacking, and fire hazard reduction in our woods. The latter project is mostly just trimming up the bases of some cedar trees and dropping a few dead, sickly-looking, or malformed fir tree saplings. I hauled all of those cuttings and a lot of wind-downed limbs to the slash piles. Fohe sake of wildlife habitat, I don’t like the “Parked-Out” look for timber stands near the house, but I also don’t want a lot of fire hazard. My trimming efforts are sort of a compromise…
I installed a big Powder Mountain arch tube gate at one end of our main garden. Previously, we just had a chainlink mesh dog run gate protecting that end of the garden, but our persistent bull kept battering it, to get in. There is now no way that he will be getting through the new heavy-duty tube gate.
Yesterday morning, while I was just finishing up digging the waterline trench to our orchard, I saw a flash of black run up the “tunnel” of the trench like black lightning. It turned out to be our female “M” cat using the trench as her own personal runway. The trench was just a bit wider than her shoulders. She probably ran it for fun, all the way up from the orchard to the side of the ranch house, a distance of about three hundred feet. It was funny, seeing that!
Now, Lily’s part of the report…
Avalanche Lily Reports:
Dear Readers,
We had beautiful weather this week with an evening of heavy rain showers with thunder and lightning. It was very much welcomed and needed.
I did not have many days in which to work the ranch this week, because of traveling for two wonderful trips.
This past weekend was a whirlwind weekend of driving long distances to go camping with Miss Eloise for a two-night mother/daughter alone time together. It was a wonderful much needed and desired time together. We camped at Fale’s Flat. That is on the Nez Perce Road, on the Montana side of the 100-mile-long Magruder Corridor. This is a wilderness area that I have always wanted to explore. We spent a lot of time cooking over the campfire and eating healthy food. We talked about all kinds of things, especially good nutrition, and praying together. We explored the meadows, woods, and stream banks looking for and identifying wild edible plants. This extended time of being with my lovely daughter Miss Eloise and identifying wild plants without distraction was so exciting, fun, and deeply satisfying to me. I have to say it: I super-enjoyed this time together!
In the Fales Flat meadows there were so many edible wild plants/medicinal herbs that I found, and some non-edible ones, as well. Such diversity! The edibles: Sego Lily, Stone crop, wild onion, Brodeio, yarrow, strawberry, dandelion, shepherd’s purse, Sheep sorrel, Daisy, Beargrass, mullein, both plantains, puffballs, kinnikinnick, and Oregon grape. The non-edibles ones included: Prairie Smoke, Mountain Death Camas, Cinqfoil, Collomia, Larkspur, Purplish Monument plant (I think, I searched all of my books and the Internet for what I thought this plant might be and the closest thing is a smaller more purplish Monument plant), sedge, pussy toes, and what I believe must have been American Thoroghwax. This was another plant that I was struggling to identify correctly.
Some edible plants in the woods near the streams were: Dandelion, Twisted stalk, Colt’s foot, Gooseberry, Cleavers, Beargrass, Bull Thistle, Speedwell, Purple violet, yellow violet, and horsetail. The non-edibles — I don’t know if some of these are edible or have medicinal value — were: Meadow Rue, Mitrewort, Mountain bluebells, Sitka Valerian, False Starflower, Trillium, Marsh marigold, Buttercup, and Indian Paintbrush. And we hiked up a mountain very close to the campsite and on this slope we saw even more plant species: Yarrow, strawberry, and Arrow-leaved balsam root. And the non-edibles there were: Blue shrubby beard’s tongue pentstemons, and Knapweed. And there were a few other species that I still have not yet identified. Fun!
We drove up to the Nez Pearce Pass that overlooks the Bitterroot-Selway and Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness areas. Looking into that gorgeous, mountainous, vast wilderness, I felt such a deep peace come over me. I just so wanted to “melt” into that wilderness. But alas we had time constraints and other obligations to keep in the coming days. Someday, Lord willing, we’ll have longer trips in that wilderness!
I returned home late Sunday night. Monday, I kinda crashed and rested to recover from the weekend. Also, we had issues with an elderly water pressure tank and thus had just sporadic running water for about four days coming into this week. This caused some lack of motivation and inability to do things around the ranch. It was a good excuse to rest for that day. But I used the time to study up on the plants that I was having trouble identifying from the trip with my other plant guides and to unpack and set up things to wash the next day when the water came back on.
In general, I find that after being away from the ranch for a day or two, it takes me a day or two to get back into my work routine once I return. I need to get excited again about the vision for the ranch. It’s so much work that sometimes I drag my feet on a return after being away for a time. Sometimes this even happens if I leave in the morning and return late afternoon. I’m out of the routine and don’t care to do anything, except feed and water the animals, until the next day or even two days later. The recent water situation certainly didn’t help my motivation issues, either. Thankfully, we got that leak fixed and the pressure gauge replaced on Monday afternoon.
Tuesday, I woke up raring to work. It was a good, crazy, and seriously productive day with renewed vision and enthusiasm. I caught up on laundry, house cleaning, watering in the gardens, and watering in the greenhouse.
In the greenhouse, I also emptied the spent trays of lettuces, beets, and other greens into the compost.
I planted some potted seedlings of watermelon in the compost pile and Honey Dew melon in a pot in the greenhouse. It should have done those things weeks ago, but I had run out of space in the gardens and greenhouse for a time. The compost pile is probably the best place for watermelons anyway…So much nutrition in there! I reorganized the greenhouse and am now prepared to start more seedlings and greens for our fall crops.
I washed the numerous pots and trays and some other bussing tubs that I hadn’t gotten to recently. I am keeping up with the pot and tray washing in a more timely manner this summer, at least with the three-inch pots and the bigger trays and tubs.
I forgot to mention last week, that I planted in the right side of the Annex gardens: More sunflower seeds, field peas, and lentils. We shall see what comes up, this late in the planting season… I checked on them Friday morning. I was pleased to see that seedlings are coming up from all three.
I harvested more garlic scapes from the volunteers and from one section of the garlic beds that I planted last fall. I also washed, chopped, and froze those. This next week I will begin harvesting Zucchini squash. I have already harvested cucumbers and a few orange cherry tomatoes from the greenhouse.
On two successive late afternoons, rain storms came in and watered the rest of our ranch. Just after the first round of showers, Miss Violet and I loaded the SUV and traveled west to take care of the grandsons for two days while their parents went to a homeschooling conference. The boys range in age from seventeen months to eight years old. Both Miss Violet and I love spending time with each and every one of them.
On Friday morning, the two naturally broody hens are hatching out chicks as I’m typing this. So far there are two under one hen and seven under the other. I took both mothers and babies out of the big plastic brooding pots and put their chicks and unhatched eggs under them on the floor of the hen house. They settled right into the new situation. I did this so that the chicks would have easy access to food and water when that need comes upon them. Otherwise, I would have to go out every two hours to offer them food and water. I don’t wish to do that anymore, this summer.
Mrs. Turkey returned to the ranch over the weekend while I was away, with seven chicks. We were very excited to have her back and are praying that her chicks survive to adulthood. The only drawback is that she discovered the strawberry patch in my garden and has been eating them. Grrr! 🙁
We dehorned the newest heifer last week and reunited her and her mother this week with the rest of the herd down in the meadows. Now only one cow is left in the corrals awaiting the birth of her calf.
At the end of the week, since we are now in a long spell of dry heat, I hauled out and washed our Great Room rug on our patio.
I am very thankful that I could spend these days with Miss Eloise, Miss Violet, and the Grandsons this week, and that Jim diligently took care of my animal chores during my absence.
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.