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:
The healing from my eye surgery has been slow, with some residual fuzzy vision. So, I decided to postpone the surgery on my left eye. I’ve been doing some light chores around the ranch. But it has been frustrating to be a bit incapacitated. Working with one eye has also slowed down my writing and editing. But, I did manage to complete the March issue of the S.O.S. Newsletter. My apologies for any typos that you might see in the next few weeks!
Now, Lily’s part of the report…
Avalanche Lily Reports:
Dear Readers,
This week, early in the week we had an atmospheric river come through the American Redoubt. We received heavy rain from Friday night through Wednesday morning, approaching 3.4 inches. After the rain passed, we had bright sunshine and an unusual warm up. Temperatures ranged from a low of 35 degrees Fahrenheit to a high of 54 degrees Fahrenheit. It has been feeling so much like spring. From the rain and sun, the snow is rapidly melting and is nearly off the garden. I heard Robins singing early one morning while doing chores. The Chickadees’ song has changed to their spring song. We have Canadian geese and Tundra Swans passing through and resting on the Unnamed River that runs through the back end of our ranch. I’ve been running around in shorts and a t-shirt and barefoot on the melted path in the garden outside collecting those sun rays for vitamin D. Earlier in the week, I chopped the ice off around our cement pads next to the house and the ice in front of the garden door steps.
It was warm and dry enough to hang wet laundry outside to mostly dry. I finished drying it in the house by the wood stove, later that night.
I’ve cleaned out the greenhouse and prepared eight bussing trays for early spring greens. I still need to plant the seeds.
In the greenhouse bedroom, broccoli, tomatoes, onions, cabbage, and cauliflower are sprouting. It seems that certain types of cauliflower and broccoli have poor germination rates. I’ll give them another few days and if they don’t sprout more, I will replant the ungerminated cells.
I have a sprinkler going in the garden to melt the last of the snow out of the north side bed, so I can plant my early root crops — hopefully sooner than usual.
Lambing season has arrived for our meat and fiber flock of sheep! Saturday night we had a set of twins, an ewe and a ram, followed by another set of twins, two ram lambs, on Monday night. So, so adorable! We have more to come in the coming weeks.
I spent part of Tuesday cleaning out the front stall of the sheep shed. I really wanted to do it earlier but the intense cold prevented it. Anyhow, just the front stall required about twelve wheelbarrow trips to the compost pile. It was a deep pack. Sometime soon, I will clean up the back stall, too, but currently, I have the two mamas and their lambs there along with the next most pregnant ewe and another ewe that snuck in during the sorting, together. Ideally, I’d like them all in the first stall that I cleaned out and the rams and other ewes in the back stall, but the sort didn’t work out that way. Oh well, later…
I spent time cleaning up the driveway and parking area of all the piles of horse and cow manure. This coming week, I will work on the cow stalls and the loafing area.
I cleaned out the hen house too, this week. I started another batch of eggs in the incubator.
I did a lot of organizing in some cupboards in the kitchen and in the laundry room. Plus the usual cleaning, laundry, cooking, and animal chores all week
I copied Deuteronomy 27-28:29.
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.