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:
This week I replaced a cedar fence post that had rotted out. I also had to repair the door to our sheep shed. Whether you own a house in the city or a farm or ranch in the country, entropy is relentless!
In addition to my regular writing and editing, I kept busy packing orders and listing some new arrivals at my Elk Creek Company. I plan to pick up several more antique guns in mid-April. Mark your calendar for April 14th, to see those newly-cataloged guns.
We took another fun family hike, on Tuesday. Lily will fill you in on the details on that in her part of our report…
Avalanche Lily Reports:
Dear Readers,
The weather started out so sunny and warmed up on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday the rains returned and will not let up until Monday or so.
This week I heard Pileated Woodpeckers calling all around the ranch. I saw a pair of wrens flitting about in the orchard.
On Friday, I saw a moose running through our meadow heading north. Our dominant horse S. alerted me to it. She is our guard sentry. I watched while it went down and disappeared into the Unnamed River and then reappeared on the other side and then disappeared into the forest. Beautiful Animal!
We drove to town to do errands on Thursday. On the way home we saw a herd of about a dozen Black tailed deer also known as Mule deer, and then a few minutes later a smallish herd of about eight, elk out in a large field.
I made turkey dumpling soup with the dumplings made with Einkorn flour dough. Yum!
I cleaned out the Henhouse and Jim helped me clean out the Sheep shed. I had not cleaned it out in over a month because of the birth of three lambs. I wanted them to have a nice deep bed to nestle into. Now we are back down to the clay with a loose covering of hay. This keeps the mold and dust down so they and I are healthier and I stay healthier when with them.
I’m fairly certain that we may be past hard frost season. Therefore I moved all seedlings out to the Greenhouse this week. If a hard frost does appear to be imminent, then I will move the really frost-sensitive plants back into the house, or I will start a fire in the wood stove in the Greenhouse.
In the Greenhouse, I transplanted twelve Container Cucumbers that I started from seed in the Bedroom green house a month ago, into a large old leaky water trough. I transplanted a large number of mixed peppers into a huge tote filled with soil and transplanted the left overs into three inch pots. Some of those I will give away to friends and family.
In the small woodshed garden, where I planted the garlic last fall, I planted this week some peas, carrots and beets, Pac choi, chard, spinach and lettuce. These will be ready for harvest a few weeks later than the ones planted in the green house a month ago. I will be planting more of each of these and so much more in the Main garden, soon. I am only just beginning.
Over the weekend, we went to the Spokane Valley to spend a night with oldest son, Daughter-in-law and our Grandsons. We attended services with them to visit their church. We had not visited their church before. We had a wonderful visit, with wonderful fellowship and yummy food.
Since we were off the Ranch for about twenty-four hours, we fed all of our beasties extra food and water before we left and fed them again as soon as we returned. I also put the loose cow back into the corral with her nine month old calf to keep her in milk since I couldn’t milk her for twenty-four hours. I had about three quarters of a gallon of milk in the refrigerator when we left. It lasted us until Thursday. So I ended up not milking her at all this week. I need to entice her out of the corral and away from her calf, again in order to milk her in the morning.
Speaking about how long foods last, I wanted to mention that we grew enough squashes to last us until the last week of March, except that I still have about five Spaghetti Squash left. I still have about twenty pounds of onions and about fifty pounds of potatoes from last summer’s growing season. We ate all of the frozen broccoli and Cauliflower that I had put up. The last was eaten about a week ago. I still have a small amount of frozen garlic scapes, frozen chunks of turnip, and about four gallons of chopped Zuchs. And there are still five gallons of frozen tomatoes and frozen raspberries from last year,and previous years. We have a lot of dehydrated foods from the gardens, too, that we hardly made a dent in. It is a real blessing.
This week, on Tuesday the warmest day this week, high sixties, with gorgeous bluebird skies and sunshine, we went for another hike up the Unnamed Mountain’s hiking trail. We hiked for almost four hours this time. We reached the four thousand-foot level. I took note of our surrounding topography and looked at a topographical map when we returned home to determine how high up we went. Along the way, there were tiny white flowers already blooming. I don’t know what variety they are. Also we could see the beginning sprouts of Glacier Lilies, Queen Cup flowers, Stone Crop and Oregon Grapes. I saw a set of Christmas ferns. There was a lot of Buck Brush, too. The trees we saw were Cedars, Spruce, Tamarack, Hemlock, Pines, and Grand firs.
Because of the rain and coldish temperatures at the end of the week, I spent quite a large amount of time studying topographical maps, both physical and digital, of our region looking for places to hike. I also read descriptions of hikes in a book I have of the area. I spent a lot of time reading up on our fishing regulations for the upcoming fishing season. I also spent time reading up and reviewing edible wild plants, since many are just beginning to sprout.
Look, ya, all, I’m thinking that at the Second Rabbinic Passover on April 23rd, 2024, we MAY have just completed the first three and half years of the Tribulation. From the time of the signing of the Abrahamic Accords to now is three and a half years. If this is true and is the Covenant signed with many spoken of in Daniel, the next three and a half years will be the Great Tribulation, also known as Jacob’s Trouble. This will be marked by the Continental Plates loosening up and great earthquakes and volcanic eruptions everywhere. The Ring of Fire is about to light up. I just heard Ben Davidson of Suspicious Observers mention that we should expect a wild hurricane season this summer with possibly a new category six being added to the Saffir-Simpson scale…Supercanes, anyone? He is also talking about the acceleration of the pole shift that will cause the weakening of our magnetosphere. See: Isaiah, 24. I personally think that it will drop like a rock in the next three years, not in the 2030s to 2050s like in his prediction. Look to see more pandemics and lockdowns, food shortages and more dictatorial controls put on small-farmer food production. Resist! It is a Basic Father Creator God-Given Human right to grow one’s own food and to own land and property. Look for more wars and intensifying of current conflicts. There will be more weather abnormalities, particularly out of season extremes: Summer conditions in winter and winter conditions in summer.
Jim had a dream a month or so ago that when Totality occurred during this coming April 8th eclipse in the darkness a CME projected dramatically from one side the sun.. Our magnetosphere is weakening. So this could be serious.
As a side note: About five years ago, I dreamt of New England getting a Magnitude 8 earthquake.
Keep prepping and keep praying, folks!
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.