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:
We had some trouble with a cow and her heifer calf. We had been separating the Mom from the heifer on some nights, by putting the Mom inside one section of our milking parlor and the heifer on the other side, divided by a tube gate. This way, they would feel close to one another, and wouldn’t bellow all night. The purpose of this was to briefly keep the Mom separated from her calf, so that the calf wouldn’t hog all of the available milk, overnight. After Lily did her morning milking (several days each week), the two were reunited. This worked fine for a few months until those two Bovine Co-Conspirators figured out a clever positioning for the calf to be able to stick her head through the tube bars, and still get her fill of milk. So Lily asked me for a solution. I cut up part of an old frayed tarp and wrapped two thicknesses of it around the tube gate. I secured it with a dozen plastic zip-tie cable fasteners. We’ll see how that tarp holds up. If it proves to be too fragile, then I will replace it with some wire mesh or perhaps even plywood.
Now, Lily’s report…
Avalanche Lily Reports:
Dear Readers,
We had a beautiful sunny fall week with bluebird skies and afternoon temperatures in the sixties to low seventies. On a few nights we had frost.
This week I’m feeling like I am resettling into ranch life routine after our trip to New England.
I cleaned the hen house (twice), the sheep shed, and the cow stalls.
I chopped my green cabbage and made sauerkraut.
I had been in the process of fermenting apples for cider for the past month and a half. I strained those this week and collected a gallons worth of it. I am giving this to the animals in their water. I made cider last year. It looks really good now that it has sat for so long.
I planted some new greens in the greenhouse: Pac choi, spinach, Claytonia, and Watercress. I still have tomatoes, cucumbers, Basil, mint, Walking onions, and other herbs growing in there. I built a fire in the greenhouse woodstove on Friday morning to warm it up from the frost outside. The tomatoes seemed really cold so I also sprayed them with water.
Using our new wheeled cultivator which is similar to this only wooden one, and Duc’s hand plow, I turned over the soil in two different sections of two beds in the Main garden. While doing so, I pulled the weeds that had grown since harvesting the vegetables a few weeks ago. I really like the two “Plows”. They do a great job without the need of a machine/rototiller. They just take some extra muscle. They are faster to use in some sense than the rotottiller and they go deeper into the soil, thus reaching and disrupting the deep roots of the Canary grass. Our rototiller is aging and is giving us a lot of fits, so I really like these “old” methods better. It is better to use these than to rely on gas and machines that soon will not have the parts to be able to fix them because of supply chain disruptions.
I will be preparing a bed to plant the garlic, soon.
Jim weedwhacked the extension garden and the asparagus patch for me. I did not plant this section at all this summer. The plan is to break up its sod, clean out the canary grass roots, compost it, and get it ready to be the potato patch for next summer. Additionally, the north side of the garden was partially weedwhacked this week. It also lay fallow this past summer. I also intend to plow it up and work compost into it, to ready it for next summer. Both were not left fallow on purpose. I just never got to them in time for planting.
Well, our three closets that hold sheets, blankets, and other linen-type stuff, needed a clean out and “re-org”. I packed up two totes worth of extra linens that we sent out to the shop for storage, and kept just what we needed for immediate use. Someday other folks might need them. Our #2 Son precipitated this clean out, by coming home and asking for his blankets that he had left here during one of his trips abroad. He took that were his and some extras that we didn’t need. It was actually very timely.
Last Sunday, some friends invited us to the Pumpkin Patch in Ponderay, Idaho (near Sandpoint) just off Route 200. So we joined them for the Fall activity. It is a very cute little venture with hayrides, a kid’s bouncy castle, a farm animal petting area, cider donuts, barbecue-type lunch foods, and a super cute gift shop that sells pumpkins, a lot of quaint pioneer day craft projects and kids toys, jams, potpourris, etc. If you are in the area check them out they are open Fridays-Saturdays-Sundays.
Thursday night we went outside to see if we would be able to see the auroras that were predicted from the three X Class solar flares that the earth received from the sun this week. Usually, we have cloud cover or they just don’t materialize for us because we live in a canyon between mountains. We don’t have a large horizon. So, I went out about 8:30 pm to close in the beasties. I looked up and behold we had a red glow to our east, and to our north. I saw white curtains dancing in the atmosphere. I ran into the house to tell Jim and Miss Violet, Then I ran back outside to close in the sheep and our cows and to close the chicken guillotine door. We then had the treat of sleeping out in our meadow, last Thursday night, to watch the Northern Lights. We watched them from 10 PM to 2 AM. They really danced, and had a range of colors from white to pink, red, yellow, and green. They were so amazingly beautiful!
A trio of moose have been grazing on and near our property, this past week causing our horses to be on high alert. Usually, the moose just pass though.
Our Bible study group believes that we are about to enter the Great Tribulation, either during these current Fall Appointed Times of the Father’s or at most next Year/Fall. The counting is from one Yom Kippur/ Day of Atonement to the next. Today Saturday, October 12th is Yom Kippur, 2024. From that point on there would be about three and a half years until Jesus’ return. The expected Passover is April 10th, 2028.
But, scripture teaches us that Jesus will return during the Fall Appointed Times/Moedim, so if our timeline is correct then something has to happen during Passover next spring, 2025, to start the three and half year countdown to bring us to the Fall Moedim of 2028. At the Sixth Seal, He will come in the air and catch up those who are alive and remain on Earth to protect them from His Wrath. His Wrath is the Seventh Seal. He will pour out His Wrath on all of Mankind who took the Mark of the Beast. Satan’s mark which we are thinking is a combination of Digital Currency with biometrics/Real ID with all of your medical information/Vaccine status. If you are a Christian you cannot take this Mark to join this Beast System. You will not be able to get on the Internet without the Real ID or access your bank account. You need to plan accordingly to be an outcast of society and to be persecuted for the Gospel’s sake, for Jesus’ sake, and for keeping the word and Testimony of Jesus Christ. Jesus will provide for you or take you home. We must not fear death. It is our graduation from this evil Earth and evil system of Satan’s, that is and has at this point taken over our world.
All is in place. Just the “Go word” needs to be given to begin the great lockdown. We are in the timeframe for it to happen. Time is rapidly running out. There are very few days left of “peace”. Continue to prepare for your spiritual home by reading the Words of the Father and praying. If we know God’s word, it is our sword to defeat the enemy. When Satan or His minions lie to us we can declare the Father’s word of truth and defeat him. Furthermore, the Father promises us provision and care. When we find ourselves in hungry, cold, or destitute situations in the future, knowing the Father’s word and declaring it in faith and trust will cause the Father to move on our behalf. When our food, water, and shelter run out or are taken from us, then He will provide for us if we declare His word with trust and confidence. We need to memorize as much of it as possible.
Furthermore, The Bride of Christ makes herself ready for her groom, Jesus. We can do so by repenting of all sins, reading His Word/the washing of the Word, praying, and fasting. Now is the time to learn to hear God’s voice clearly.
Recently, the Father has told me things in my heart and mind that I sorta “caught” but didn’t act upon which caused some painful losses in quick succession. So now my prayer is that the Father will speak louder in my heart and that I would become even more sensitive to hearing and heeding. If we hear the Lord God’s voice and obey, and we know Him, then He will use us to do great exploits for him to further His Kingdom and to thwart the evil one. At the end of this Age, JESUS WILL REIGN and EVERY knee will bow and confess that HE IS LORD! HALLELUJAH! CHOOSE THIS DAY WHO YOU WILL SERVE!
Just a reminder, the Avalanche Lily e-mail is still inaccessible to me. We are having technical difficulties in transferring it to the new computer. If you wish to contact me, please email Jim with the subject line, “For Lily”. I will see it since both of our computers are in sync. Thank you!
May You All Remain Safe, Blessed, and Hidden in Christ Jesus,
– Avalanche Lily, Rawles
o o o
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.