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:
To reduce our winter feed bills, on Monday and Wednesday of last week, I reduced the size of our chicken flock. I slaughtered and butchered 17 birds. This brought our flock’s headcount down to 33 — and 30 of those are hens.
For proper hygiene at our seldom-used outhouse, I readied a post to install a Lavabo Rukomoynik (“Рукомойник”) hand washer [2] with a bottom valve. This isa large cedar post just seven feet away from the outhouse. It might have been overkill, but I used some scrap plywood and roofing steel to make a steeply-angled 20″ by 35″ protective roof over the top of it. I left enough clearance beneath that roof for removing the Rukomoynik’s lid, for filling and cleaning.
Now, Lily’s part of the report…
Avalanche Lily Reports:
Dear Readers,
The weather is beginning to cool down. We had a high of seventy-eight and a low of forty-two degrees Fahrenheit. We had quite few rain showers and a lot of clouds this week.
I cleaned the hen house and the cow shed, the front part of the corral by the gate and the Meat and Fiber sheep flock’s pen, again. I need to clean their shed, again.
Jim took our large propane wand torch and burned the ground of the Dairy sheep pen, to sterilize it. We were going to spread lime but it appears to be very hazardous if one was to inhale it. I feel that if it’s hazardous for us to breathe in and can’t be good for the sheep either. So we will pass on it. Currently the dairy sheep are being housed in the small enclosed wood shed garden area. We still have to scrape some more the floor of their pallet shed, then we will burn it. Then I will return them to their pen. We then will do the same for the Meat and Fiber flocks shed and pen area.
I defrosted and cleaned out the refrigerator and scrubbed the microwave, and scrubbed another sliding shelf in the kitchen. I reorganized our steel shelving unit that holds all of our cast iron Dutch ovens, skillets, bakeware, and stainless steel baking trays. I cleaned bathrooms. I’m keeping up with keeping our stove top clean.
I sewed a replacement button onto one of Jim’s shirts.
We are still catching mice in the traps. The cats, too, regularly deposit mice on the porch, though it seems that we are having a slow down in the mice killing. Thus, we must have put a dent in their population.
Jim rototilled another part of the near-house meadows that I then seeded with Winter rye, Austrian peas and Mustard. We have more plots to do in the coming days.
We still need to butcher out perhaps ten more hens before I am satisfied with our hen reduction and numbers of birds to over-winter.
I “threshed” the dried parsnip seeds with Miss Violet’s help this week. I collected about two gallons worth. Wow!
Additionally, I threshed Broccolini seeds and Pac Choi seeds.
I harvested a bunch of heads of broccoli, blanched them and froze them. I also harvested zuchs. I chopped and froze those.
Jim and I had a discussion on how many potato varieties I had planted this past spring. I grabbed a piece of paper and began listing them. It turns out that I planted eleven varieties. They are: Purple Viking, Russian Banana Fingerlings, French red fingerlings, Red Chieftians, Adirondack blues, Adirondack reds, Huckleberry Golds, Yukon Golds, Kennebecs, German Butterball, and Caribou Russet. It’s quite a variety. My favorites at this time are the Russian Banana Fingerlings, Purple Vikings and the Adirondacks. We still have to harvest and try the Caribou Russet, Kennebecs, and German Butterball in the coming weeks. So my favorites might change. Update: Huckleberry Golds are too dry and mealy when baked. I usually bake potatoes. Only once in awhile, do I boil and mash them. So I probably won’t grow that variety again.
I have memorized Psalm 46. I’m still working on Isaiah 12. I’ve been reviewing Psalms 1, 2, 8 and 19.
I’m riding my Montague mountain bike very often and doing calisthenics regularly.
Keep prepping, since the days are growing ever darker. I feel that one day soon within the next two years, maybe only six months from now, most likely, SHTF will happen and what you have on hand is what you’ll have…
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.