To be prepared for a crisis, every Prepper must establish goals and make long-term and short-term plans. Steadily, we work on meeting our prepping goals. In this column, the SurvivalBlog editors review their week’s prep activities. They also often share their planned prep activities for the coming week. These range from healthcare and gear purchases to gardening, property improvements, 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 the Comments. Let’s keep busy and be ready!
JWR
Dear SurvivalBlog Readers:
This week we had a house guest. We toured him around and took hikes for several days. He is from a foreign country where their citizenry has only limited access to guns. (Only one gun per permit holder. His is a Glock 19.) So we did a lot of target shooting with a half dozen guns. That was also a good refresher for me and my wife. Our guest was thrilled to be able to shoot some guns that were unavailable to him at home. For instance, he had never shot an AK pattern rifle or a .45 ACP Glock. I sent him home with the gift of a Zacchaeus mini holster for his Glock.
I did a bit more firewood cutting and hauling. I also did some rototilling for Avalanche Lily.
Another minor project was replacing a GFI electrical outlet. Thankfully, I keep a few spares on hand. The weather forecast looks good for this coming week, so I’m hoping to accomplish a lot out in our woodlot.
Avalanche Lily Reports:
We were busy with our house guest for most of the week. We also took him hiking and canoeing. He was quite impressed with the beauty, quiet, and solitude of our ranch and the surrounding national forest. We were wonderfully blessed to be able to host him.
In the bed that Jim rototilled for me, he turned sand into the soil for me to give it more aeration, I planted some 48 Sweet Potato slips. I still need to lay down black cloth to help keep them warm and weed-free. We really enjoy eating sweet potatoes regularly, so I think it is important that we get self-sufficient in growing them. I hope they grow well here this summer.
Two nights before I planted the sweet potatoes, the weather threatened us with a frost, so at midnight, I was very happily visiting with our guest and could only attend to the garden late. I went out and covered my strawberries, tomatoes and squash plants in the main garden, and turned on the sprinklers in the Annex garden over the beans, corn, and other squashes. Thankfully when we woke up in the morning it was 37 degrees. Phew, we dodged that one.
I also did a bit of hoeing in the main garden.
Blessings, – Jim Rawles and Avalanche Lily, Rawles
HJL
The Latimers will be guarding the gardens this week from various pests. We plan to get defensive by spraying pyrethrin and neem oil on our corn, melons, squash, and tomatoes and also placing a border of Plantskydd around the perimeters. Of course, there is also the endless weeding, though the plastic mulch has helped reduce the effort within the garden itself. For property defense, we will begin clearing and leveling the ground to put in a chain link fence around the property that contains our home, out buildings, and gardens.
o o o
As always, please share your own successes and hard-earned wisdom in the Comments.
Mowed grass at BOL (done to keep the place “lived in” for security purposes). Cut some pine trees up in preperation for a new Pole barn being built this year. Gathered rock from where they were piled when finding them when digging holes for apple trees. They will be used for various projects around the BOL. Bought a Bee Hive “starter kit” will be a spring 2019 project. Burned brush piles in prep for pole barn build.
This summer is all about prepping for the building projects at the BOL so that we can move there in the Summer of 2019.
On chain saws, also keep an extra bar. Acts as a replacement if one gets damaged, but more likely use is that a bar gets irreversibly pinched. You then detach the motor from the pinched bar, attach the spare bar and chain, then cut your pinched bar free.
Planted a prickly pear cactus this week suitable for my climate. Rated to be hardy to -20 Fahrenheit. Remember, cactus also grows in high desert and many varieties can live through cold winters.
Preparing for the arrival of our first ‘RV’ a 34 ft bumper pull that will double as a guest house at our current house and hopefully it will end up being used as a ‘mobile home’ when we finally get to use our IRA ‘investment’ land. Additional culvert was needed to create a U drive and lots of gravel added. Also got the dead 3 ft diameter Cottonwood cut down and chopped up. A few young backs helped immensely. Someone with more knowledge than I have needs to do a write up on chainsaw maintenance and things to watch out for if it’s not done already. I would like to learn more about repairing damaged chains.
There are lots of good guides and video’s available on the internet for chain(saw) maintenance. Check with your saw’s manufacturer as well. A spare Scrench (screwdriver/wrench combo tool) and a set of files is really all you need. There isn’t much repair you can do to a damaged chain, they’re meant to be replaceable. Bar’s too for that matter.
Well,quite a busy spring. I’ve been spraying fruit trees according to USU Bulletin. We’ve had a real problem with codling moth, aphids and peach tree borer. Hate to use chemicals but down to my last resort. Renovated 2 raised garden spots and created a 3rd. I like using blended soils as they are readily available here. Also mulched entire garden and all flower beds – should have started doing this years ago – hardly any weeds at all. Mulch and compost also readily available in this area. Rasberry’s are on and picking the first zucchini. Also building a chicken coop. Wife’s not happy about chickens so it will be empty for a while. To Suburban Prepper about chainsaw maintenance: I keep a tool box with at least 5 sharp chains for each saw plus manuals, oil and plugs, gloves eye shields , etc. I have my chains sharpened on professionally by someone I trust on a machine and I check each link myself when I get them back. I don’t care to sharpen chains with a file out in the boonies- I think the machine does a better job.
Just my 2 cents worth.