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:
We had three of our four grandsons here at the Rawles Ranch for a week-long visit. That was great fun. Hiking, a few rides on our ranch’s Zip line, helping with livestock chores, and doing their homeschool work with them, et cetera. They learned a lot, and really enjoyed themselves. They also did a lot of art projects. Even the youngest of them has now reached the age that they can handle longer hikes, and they have the patience and attention span to learn things like practical mechanics and birding. (Lily will have more to write about that.)
Yesterday, I drove over to visit the Hamilton, Montana gun show. The show opened at 2 PM. By pre-arrangement, one of my sons who lives in Montana met me there, to walk through it with me. I did some successful horse trading on a couple of pre-1899 antique guns, so it was worth the long drive.
Now, Lily’s part of the report…
Avalanche Lily Reports:
Dear Readers,
We had gorgeous sunny weather here at the ranch this week with Temperatures as high as forty-eight degrees and as low at night of Twenty-eight degrees Fahrenheit.
This week since last Friday we have had the three middle boys with us while our Son and Daughter-in-law prepare to move house. Their eldest stayed home to help watch their ten-month old baby sister while mom organized and packed household goods and Dad had to go work. Our oldset Grandson joined us though, yesterday and the four boys will stay with us for maybe another whole week.
While the boys were here, we continued to do their basic homeschooling, of math, Grammar, and memorizing their poems and we worked on memorizing all of Proverbs four which their Sunday School is memorizing. Additionally, I read to them the first fifteen chapters of Genesis and began reading “Adam and His Kin” to them. We also read the two chapters in “After the Flood” by Bill Cooper that give all the evidence of early man walking with the dinosaurs. He also looks at “Beowulf” as a literal account instead of a fairy tale. He lists all of the towns and regions around Great Britain, the Netherlands, and Denmark that have written accounts of folks having encounters with these creatures. Fascinating for me and for the boys!
And most exciting to me and for them, we decided to start them on their own “Bird Sighting Life Lists”. Every time they come to the ranch they spend literal hours pouring over our “Bird Song Bible”, viewing the birds and listening to their calls. They love pointing out the birds that they see on our ranch, and in the car driving along the numerous lakes, sloughs, swamps, marshes, and rivers of our region. So, I dated the first section of their lists from Birth until the beginning of the week and asked them to tell me every bird they had ever seen that they remembered. It was about twenty-five. Since they’ve been here we have been able to add ten more birds to their list, thusfar. We have gone out twice this week to drive around to view the birds at various rivers and lakes. Additionally, they are great freehand artists even at their very young ages. They love to look at the birds in my bird books and freehand draw them with a pencil and then color them in with my Prisma colored pencils. So cool.
We also set up bird lists for their older brother who joined us at the end of the week. And also for Miss Violet. I also sat down after they went to bed and made out my list from various ages and places where we lived, traveled, etc. I categorized them from “Birth” to age 12. At age 12, we moved from a small city to a smaller town after my mom remarried. My Step Grandpa LOVED birds and had many bird feeders around his house and his camp. Every time we visited him he would point out the birds on his feeders. He had several bird books that I would pour over. Our family also put up bird feeders at our new home and bought bird identification books. So I continued to learn them.
I am from New England so I learned many of them on the east coast. So that category was Junior High through Highschool. Then I categorized birds that I saw between Highschool to 1993. Then 1993-2010. Then 2010 until now. From Highschool until 1995 I visited Florida numerous times. After 1993, I lived in Virginia for a few years as an adult. I’ve traveled to Israel, Spain, and South Africa. And each place I eagerly kept an eye out for new birds and acquired local birding books to learn their names. Later, I married Jim and moved out here to the Inland Northwest and that opened up a whole bunch of new birds for me. I have been birding in California while visiting Jim’s family. Thusfar on my bird list I have over 250 birds and this does not include individual species of Warblers, Flycatchers, many of the Ducks, Sparrows, that I have not yet identified, etc. I hope to continually add to it.
This week, not much “Prepping” happened. The animals are just being fed and watered. I did manage to clean out the henhouse once, though. We are just maintaining what we have and barely so with the boys here and Homeschooling them. But it is so wonderful and fun to have them here. As I mentioned at Christmas, After their school break was over, I didn’t think we’d have an extended visit with them until Spring break, but here we are. I am so happy. They bring so much life to our home when they are here.
Also our new next-door neighbors (only a half-mile away) went back to their home state in the south to pick up items that relatives are storing for them and they won’t be back here for nearly a month. So I am caring for their cats and chickens.
The boys are joining in with Miss Violet and I with our stretching, sit-ups, push-ups, planks isometrics and Rebounder jumping. They also go outside and run the Driveway and along the cement apron of our shop with me to get some exercise, besides hiking all around the ranch.
So this week, I spent time memorizing Proverbs four with the boys and that is the extent on my own Bible study work, except for listening to Genesis and reading it aloud to them. They wake up earlier than I, and I’m an early riser.
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.