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:
It has taken many days but I’ve picked up nearly all of the rocks that I plowed up in the three plots of the close pastures. Most of them were about the size of walnuts but a few were fist-sized. Most of the rocks were hauled in buckets to down-trodden spots at the gates to east and southeast pastures. The rest of them were dumped in a low spot at the edge of our south woodlot. It seems that the work on a ranch is never finished. Fences and gates need the most attention. In a word: Entropy.
We put the finishing touches on our new “just in case” outhouse building project. Lily and I took turns staining the plywood interior. I put up a coat hook and two shelves to hold plastic-lidded steel coffee cans holding either rolls of toilet paper or loose sawdust, for sprinkling over waste. (We need to keep everything both dry and mouse-proof.) There is also now a 2-gallon plastic bucket with a spinner lid that is full of agricultural lime, for the same purpose, stowed on the outhouse floor.
I helped Lily harvest two potato beds. That yielded 80 pounds of gold fingerling potatoes. There are 3 more fingerling potato beds to harvest plus about eight other rows of mixed potatoes. I’m hoping for a total of 350 to 500 pounds.
We’ve had a serious field mouse invasion of our ranch house in recent weeks. I’ve been keeping eight Victor spring mouse traps set every night. For the past two weeks we’ve averaged catching two mice per night. Our buddy from our Bible study group say that is evidence that there is a hard winter, ahead.
With fall rains approaching, I’ve temporarily tarped some of our slash piles, to keep them dry. If the rains continue, I plan to burn those piles in early October.
Now, Lily’s part of the report…
Avalanche Lily Reports:
Dear Readers,
This week we had temperature highs of ninety-one and temperature lows of forty-eight degrees Fahrenheit. We had quite a few clouds with some brief rain on Sunday morning. I broke, by accident, the glass tube of our rain gauge with the weed whacker this week. I got too close and the vibration shattered the tube in less than a second. So was unable to get a measurement, but it was less than a tenth of an inch. We have another glass gauge tube on order. More rain is coming to the Redoubt on Wednesday. In fact the rains on August 30th in my opinion were the start of our Fall rainy season, since it looks as though we will have clouds and intermittent rain showers for the next two weeks according to the long range forecast. Summer is over?? 🙁 Where did summer go so swiftly, this year? I feel as though I blinked and it’s over.
This week I harvested, chopped and froze Zuchs.
We harvested and ate our first broccoli this week. Yum. More to come to preserve.
Jim and I harvested the Fingerling potatoes, as mentioned above.
Our Extension garden/the bull thistle garden, was not planted this year as I had intended. The thistles grew like crazy. The weedwhackers, two of them, had both broke down, so we had been unable to knock down the thistles in a timely manner. They flowered and were just beginning to disperse seeds. Therefore, Jim and I decided that it was time to cover them with black plastic. So Jim spread out four huge pieces of plastic over the tops of the thistles, they were four feet plus tall, then he and I stomped them down and placed rocks all over the plastic. Both of our weedwhackers broke down. One we hope to fix by cannibalizing from another one we might buy, and one was sent to the shop. It came home last week. So the area still not covered by black plastic was weed-whacked down by Jim in the Extension garden and a part of the orchard. Jim put a; of that in galvanized trash barrels with lids. Then, later in the day, I worked on weedwhacking more of the orchard, but as of this writing, there is still more to do to finish it.
The mice are so bad this year, that this week, I went through the cupboards and drawers yet again and washed them out. One set of drawers that hold our dishcloths and dish towels, had mouse poops on them. I took all of them out and washed them. I put most of the towels away into a large tote. Then took the most essential towels and washcloths and a few other cleaning materials and put them in a small tote with a lid and put them back into the drawer. I also put many kitchen cooking utensils in a plastic bag and put them away out into the pantry hallway, keeping only the most used utensils out in a drawer. We have two large sliding shelves under the counter that store our stainless steel cooking pots and our glass storage bowls and containers. I washed all of our pots and storage containers and their lids, because the lids and containers had been stored separate from each other. Once they were dry, I put lids on all containers and put them back on their now washed shelf. Now mice cannot walk in them, just over the tops of them. All fruit and foods are now in the fridge, or in the upper cupboards, or in glass jars. Counters are nearly bare and are washed each morning. The cats are doing their job, but are having a tough time keeping up.
We butchered nine hens this week thus far. We have about ten more to do later on this fall. I cut the back legs and breasts off and froze them for us. The rest of the carcases were boiled down, deboned, and frozen for the dog and cats.
I cleaned out the hen house and the old dairy sheep pen. Also, I raked all around the outside of the dairy sheep pen. I also raked out the grain storage stall of the open barn, the hay barn part of the barn’s floor, and a good portion of the loafing area.
All of the sheep were dosed this week with Albendazol. They look as though they are feeling better. I need to keep checking their temperatures, though, for the next few weeks to make sure they are fully recovered.
A cute little sheep story:
One evening I went to feed the the three Dairy sheep rams. I scooped up the large flake of hay from the ground, ran it out to their pen. As I threw it over their fence into their pen, my eyes caught sight of a black line in the air. I didn’t see it land on the ground. But, I realized it was a bungee cord that I had scooped up with the hay. I then scanned the ground of their pen looking for it, but, I couldn’t see it. I figured it was either under the hay or a sheep was standing over it blocking my view of it.
Jim had used the bungee cord to tie down the tarp that was covering the opening of the open barn to protect the hay from future blowing rain. It had been attached to one of the hay bale’s twine, that some days ago, I had unhooked from the bale but left hooked to the tarp and then knocked down the bale out of the stacked hay. The wind must have shook loose the bungee cord from the tarp and it had come off the tarp and landed in the hay below.
Anyway, as I scanned the ground looking for it, I know I saw it fly through the air with the rest of the hay. I saw the sheep’s salt/kelp/grain rubber containers and decided to refill them. I stepped into the pen to retrieve them. As I straightened up, my eyes caught sight of a line across our one black dairy ram lamb. There was the bungie cord on his back slightly embedded in his wool. It had flown threw the air and landed on his back and had blended in color-wise but had left a line that was not the usual contour of the sheep’s back. He was unfazed by it. I chuckled and lifted it off him and went out of their pen with the cord and containers.
This week we were able to pick up from the store mustard seeds that we had ordered. Jim and I broadcasted them over all the plowed up areas of the Near-House meadows. We still have another portikonof house meadow to till and plant. That ought to be completed this week before the rains come. We had done piecemeal plowing and planting up until now because we have a hose and sprinkler that we have to rotate between the sections. We didn’t want any seeds to dry out before the sprinker rotated back to them. Now that the rains are coming we can finish the meadow without worry that the seeds won’t get enough water
I went swimming once this week. I’ve been bike riding and still continue with my calisthenics.
I continue to memorize, Psalm 46 and Isaiah 12. I read a lot of Isaiah this week, up to Chapter 28.
We are currently in the month of Elul, the sixth month of the Biblical calendar. For these thirty days, until the next new moon, the seventh month, September 11-12th, the shofar is blown daily to alert the people that this is the preparation month for the upcoming fall holy convocations, Rosh Hashana/Trumpets/Day of the sounding, Yom Kippur/Day of Atonement, Sukkot/Tabernacles. The Trumpet is actually blown for forty days, through the Ten Days of Awe, up to Yom Kippur the Day of Atonement also known as the Day of Judgement. The Last Trump of the thirty day period is the Great Trump. The Day of Trumpets is the day in which Jesus will return. It is time to examine out hearts and prepare ourselves for the Holy convocations but also for Jesus’ return which will be on this day, most likely in the next two years from now in 2028 according to our calculations. Possibly? There is exactly three years between now and Yom Kippur 2029.
When Jesus returns, it will mark the end of the Age of Grace. All who are alive and remained in him will be raptured, the dead first, then those who remained alive. Then Jesus will pour out his Wrath on all who took the Mark of the Beast. If we are this close then look for the finalization of the Mark of the Beast in the next months. Look for having to make a choice between it and Jesus. Look for the persecution of all who believe in Him. Watch and pry that you would be able to escape all things. But be ready to give your testimony and your life for His sake. Prep so that you will have no need to take the Mark in order to eat. If you take that Mark you’ll have sold your soul to Satan and there is no remedy for taking it. Don’t sell your soul for a “bowl of lentils”. Read Revelation.
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.