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 [1], 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 put studded snow tires on both of our primary vehicles — a full-size SUV and a pickup truck. Thankfully, the Les Schwab tire company still does seasonal tire swaps free of charge, if the tires are already on rims.
I did some other prepping for winter. I stowed our canoes and kayak in our shop. I finished the garden hose project. I also used our air compressor walk-around tank to purge all of the water from one of our seasonal irrigation pipes that has a stretch that is not buried below the frost line.
I cataloged a few more guns for my part-time biz. I have put Elk Creek Company on hiatus for a couple of years, while I restock our depleted inventory. The only orders that I’m currently taking are from blog readers who have earned purchase credits, as writing contest prizes. Otherwise, I am only buying and trading inventory. I did find that I’m over-stocked on Ruger Old Army percussion revolvers, if anyone out there has any antique (pre-1899) Colts, Winchesters, or S&Ws that they’d like to trade. I’m in particular need of .38 S&W top break revolvers. For those to be considered Federally antique, be advised of these serial number thresholds to ensure that they were made before 1899:
- S&W Double Action (DA) .32 top break revolvers with exposed hammer (serial # below 209,301)
- S&W DA .32 top break Safety Hammerless (“lemon squeezer”) revolvers (serial # below 91,400)
- S&W DA .38 top break revolvers with exposed hammer (serial # below 382,022)
- S&W DA .38 top break Safety Hammerless (“lemon squeezer”) revolvers (serial # below 119,900)
Now, Lily’s part of the report…
Avalanche Lily Reports:
Dear Readers,
This week we’ve had rain and sun, temperature highs about forty-five degrees Fahrenheit. The leaves on our deciduous trees are gorgeous and are still holding on, though half have dropped so far as of the 31st when I am writing this. It is very late this year for our trees to still be holding onto their leaves. Unusual. The Tamaracks have begun to turn golden.
This week Miss Violet and I spent a lot of time deseeding/threshing various dried crops: Sunflower heads, Beans, Einkorn, and Glass popcorn. I also bagged up many seeds that I was saving and drying: cucumber, Delicata Squash, Acorn Squash, tomatoes, peppers, pumpkin, Butternut squash, and kale seeds.
I cleaned up the greenhouse and reorganized it: pots, trays, tools. I threw out the dirt in a lot of pots. I pulled weeds and grass that grew up through the floor. I pulled the dead cucumbers. I still have tomatoes and peppers growing in there, as well as all those trays of greens, mint, and sage. We haven’t had a deep enough cold spell yet to kill them off in there. I threw stuff away that we were no longer using and were broken, etc. It’s nice to have it looking organized once again.
I pulled one whole row of carrots and we got a boatload. I still have another whole row and a half of a row to pull. We juiced (and combined) carrots, apples, and some of our raw celery several times this week. Yum!
We are still harvesting some broccoli heads from the garden, too, enough for one dinner side dish this week. But I pull the Batavia Broccoli, which didn’t look healthy anymore. The Di Cicco Broccoli is still growing flowerets nicely, but slowly.
I scooped up cow and horse manure in the parking area, the loafing area, and our horse arena area. The horse arena area is right next to the cow corral. Since I have the cow and her bull calf in there, and the bull and the heifer outside of the corral, the bull and the heifer want to be near the cow and the bull calf so they are hanging tight outside the corrals on the arena side and dropping their manure in that area. Also the we have some of the sheep pens near that area and they also like to hang out with the sheep. Our animals enjoy hanging out together. It’s nice to see.
I cleaned the Hen house.
I am cleaning out the cow stalls daily right after milking.
We have so many animals now that the chores: feeding, watering, and milking once a day in the morning, takes me about an hour and a half to complete. The evening feeding and watering takes about forty-five minutes. And once a week when I give the sheep their weekly Molly’s worming, that adds even more minutes to the chore time. This doesn’t include cleaning of their domiciles which can take hours in some cases. Currently, I’m allowing a hay pack to develop in the sheep pens for a bit. We have four sheep pens at the moment. I deep-cleaned one of them three weeks ago. But the other three, I need to deep clean before the snow flies. Then I will allow them to build up again for a bit.
I’m still milking the cow every morning. I’ve made Farmhouse Cheddar cheese again this week. She is so well-behaved this fall. I’m very pleased with her.
I made yogurt for the first time with my frozen sheep milk on Friday. It still had not coagulated well by bed time, so I left it to ripen overnight. We shall soon see if frozen milk makes good yogurt.
I washed the fleece that I fleshed and salted last week. I will keep it damp over Saturday and on Sunday, I will flesh it one more time, then put egg yolk and olive oil on it for a few days. Then I will dry it and stretch it and brush it. I’m still studying other people’s methods. It turns out that there are many ways to get the job done. So I will keep you posted on how I finish this one up. I’m looking forward to trying many other methods in the future.
I cleaned our Dadant honey frame spinner.
I did a lot of cleaning in the great room. I had a lot of books out. I got them put away.
Jim and I went hiking up in the National Forest once this week.
My Bible writing slowed down this week but I finished Matthew 25.
Quote from Hal Turner, “Those who depend on government to feed them are learning a valuable lesson: When you give government the power to feed you, you ALSO give them the power to starve you. This is why Communism and Socialism never work.”
May You All Remain Safe, Blessed, and Hidden in Christ Jesus,
– 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.