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:
With a recent storm, we lost most of the golden leaves on our Water Birches, Balsam Poplars, and Quaking Aspens. Ditto for the few non-native Maples that we planted. But the Tamaracks (Western Larches) are still resplendent. We’ve had enough sunshine in recent days to really show off their color.
Other than one trip down to Lewiston, Idaho, to attend a gun show and a family gathering here at the ranch at Thanksgiving, November will be a quiet month for us. This will give me a chance to some projects and some organizing, out in our shop.
This week, I carved a hide scraper for Lily. I quickly made it out of a scrap piece of KD 1×4 fir, about 20 inches long. I narrowed and oblong-rounded seven inches at one end of the board for a handle, and then I used a jigsaw to make a palm-width grasping groove at about 2/3rds of its length, so that it could be used either one-handed or two-handed. This tool is not exactly symmetrical, but it is quite functional. It looks like it is from the “Crude, But Effective” school of tool-making.
Also this week, I boxed up a Swedish Mauser carbine to mail out in trade for several S&W .32 and .38 top break revolvers. I presently have Elk Creek Company on hiatus, while I’m restocking. Until mid-2026, I will only be buying or trading, but not selling. The only exception to the sales hiatus will be for any SurvivalBlog writing contest prize winners who wish to spend their purchase credits. Those orders are always welcome.
Now, Lily’s part of the report…
Avalanche Lily Reports:
Dear Readers,
Yep, last Saturday, November 1st, while at Bible Study, a wind came up and blew down all of the remaining leaves on our Aspen, Balsam Popular and planted Maple trees. Thus ends our summer season. This was a rainy week with one snow shower that dropped an inch of snow in our valley. It melted by the next day. Temperature highs in the mid forties and lows in the high thirties.
I saw a pair of moose this week eating vegetation from the bottom of a local pond in public land along our highway. I was not sure of when moose special permit season runs and ends in our area, (I did not look it up). But because we really have so few moose here, after observing them and enjoying their presence for a few moments, I scared them away back up into the forest by yelling and honking the car horn. We just didn’t want someone else to drive by, see them, and come back to take them. I have no issues with hunting deer and elk in our region, or bear or mountain lion, wolves, turkey, etc. But moose, they’re a much more rare critter in our neck of the woods, these days.
The Tundra Swans are back in our Unnamed River.
This week was very much quieter. At the beginning of the week, Miss Violet and I went to swim at a hot spring in the region. It was a wonderful time.
I scraped the wax cells from many of the honey bees’ frames that we spun out a couple of weeks ago. We are going to render the wax and make some candles with the grandsons when they come here for a few days before Thanksgiving. I’m planning all kinds of projects to do with them that week. Plus, they will help me with some of the cooking and baking for Thanksgiving dinner. Four of our five offspring will be joining us this year. I wish that all our kids would be able to come home…
I treated the ewe’s hide that I am in the process of tanning with a mixture of egg yolk, olive oil, and Castile natural liquid soap. It was put in the garage to dry on top of our chest freezer. With the current high humidity, it is taking many days to dry. Jim blotted off some oil/soap with paper towels, but it is still not quite dry. The good news is that the hide seems to be curing well, with no sign of putrification or mold. So we will give it more time before continuing with the next steps.
One of our young neighbors, pre-teen, really loves my Dairy sheep. She wants to start her own Dairy sheep farm. She would like to buy two of my next summer’s ewe lambs. She asked if she could work for me to earn them. So I talked with her mom, and we got the “green light” for her to work for me. For the past two weeks thus far she has been helping me out for two hours per week. Last week, she helped me clean out the Hen house. This week, she helped me clean out the cow stalls, replace some minerals in the mineral buffet of the Dairy sheep pen, and plant half the garlic for next summer’s crop. It is a real pleasure to work with a very motivated young lady who works very hard and is great at following directions and doing a good job with what she has been asked to do. I’m looking forward to more of her help and to mentoring her in the coming months.
I washed some of the shelled sunflower seeds from the harvested sunflowers, and then roasted them. They are yummy.
I bagged up more saved and dried squash seeds.
I milked the cow and made more Farmhouse Cheddar Cheese early in the week. On Friday morning, I went to milk the cow and either she didn’t let down (very unusual), or she is weaning her calf! He is seven months old, now. Last year, she weaned her heifer at eight months, in January. But I had seen him suckling the day before. Anyhow, I went from a full half-gallon the day before down to about a cup and a half. I did not stick around to see if the bull calf would nurse her, because he was way on the other side of the corral, and I had a great need to get back to the house. I will milk Saturday morning and see what happens. So, just in case the milk tap is going to be dry very soon, I took the three half-gallon jars of milk from the previous three days’ milkings, and divvied them up into quart-sized plastic bags and froze them to store for drinking milk, instead of making one last cheese.
UPDATE on Cow: She just had a glitch yesterday morning. This morning all was back to normal. She gave a full half gallon, which is all I need, and her calf was right at the gate of the crush stall when I released her to get his morning drink. However, yesterday’s glitch was a reminder to me that I also need to be freezing some of her milk each morning for future use, because her tap will run dry in a month or so. She is a small older breed of cow and does not produce as much or as long as a Holstein or Jersey, etc.
I made Zucchini bread and Sourdough bread this week.
Note: I am having laptop issues and currently only have intermittent access to the Avalanche Lily e-mail account for the foreseeable future. If you want to tell me something please e-mail me through Jim’s e-mail address. james@rawles.to. In the subject box write, “For Lily” and Jim will tell me that it is there for me. Thanks.
I finished writing out Chapters 26, 27, and 28 of the book of Matthew which completed the book. The notebook that I am writing in does not have enough room for the book of Isaiah which is what I wanted to do next. So, instead, for now, I will write out Hebrews and possibly Revelation, and then afterwards will start a new notebook for Isaiah. I am now in Chapter 2 of Hebrews.
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.