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 the help of our visiting #2 Son, I installed some more light fixtures in our shop building.
I limbed and cut up a fir tree that fell in a recent windstorm. It was 22 inches at the butt, so it was an exhausting project. As we say here at the ranch: “Gooood Exercise!”
Now, Lily’s part of the report…
Avalanche Lily Reports:
Dear Readers,
The weather this week was very rainy and cold with temperatures in the low forties until the end of the week when temperatures reached a high of 59 degrees Fahrenheit, but still with many dark clouds. we received over two inches of rain this week.
On Thursday during a break in the rain, I went out and hand tilled a section of the Main garden to remove Canary grass roots and then dug four deep furrows and planted four rows of two year old Purple Adirondack sprouted potatoes that had been in our cold storage room. We shall see how they will grow. I have two year old sprouted Banana fingerling potatoes that I also wish to plant to see how they will fare. I have lots of last year’s seed potatoes that I will also plant in the coming weeks with more on order that should arrive in a few weeks.
The rest of the week was about the sheep. Baby “Gr” from the Meat and Fiber Flock is so cute. But he isn’t gaining weight as he should. I’m just out of frozen sheep milk, so I separated his mother and foster mother on Thursday with him and their other lambs. Now I hold both in turn to let him nurse them. So he is getting double the rations. His biological mother has calmed down some, in the last week. It is not such a rodeo as it was two weeks ago.
My Dairy Flock ewe,”N” is giving me a lot of grief with nursing her lamb that she birthed, and rejected. I’ve taken to hooking her collar to a short lead tied to the fence, holding her collar, leaning on her against the fence and holding up her back leg up to her side in order for her baby, “K” that she birthed, can nurse. “K” is doing okay.
This coming week, we need to set up the Meat and Fiber Flock girls to start milking them a bit. We need to transfer the milking stand back to the Meat and Fiber Flock shed so I can immoblize them to milk them. Though I may wait another week, to do this. Thursday night when I went into their shed to help “Gr” feed, the moms and babes in the other half of the shed were all laying down with their babies. It was so sweet and peaceful looking. Maybe I’ll give them another week of peace before separating them at night to milk the ewes.
I cleaned the Hen house.
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.